Chapter 322 - Off To Hell's Core (Part 1)
The sudden scream attracted Daniel's attention, causing him to look at the approaching demon with interest. No power came from his body, which meant that he was not a cultivator of any sort. His worried eyes were pointed straight at the wolf cub that was currently munching on the mid level dark sphere, right above Daniel's legs.
"NO NO NO NO NO NO!" Shouted the old demon while approaching Daniel, and noticing the changes in the cub's body. Once in front of Daniel, he picked the cub up from the ground by his chest and belly, and lowered its head to a lower level than his rear end. "Spit it! Spit it out!" he said in worry while shaking the unfazed wolf cub up and down.. stopping only after noticing that it was already too late.
Clear anxiousness appeared on the demon's wrinkly face, as he let the wolf cub down.
The wolf cub ignored the old demon or the odd treatment, and instead jumped back on Daniel's lap, where he sat quietly. He then pointed his large red eyes at his confused expression. His bright colored tongue kept coming out of his little mouth, and brush the right side of his fluffy muzzle.
It was clear to Daniel what the wolf cub wanted, but instead of giving another dark essence sphere to him, he pet his head and turned to look at the old demon, who was now pacing back and forth while mumbling a few sentences.
"Not again.. Can't believe it happened again.. She won't forgive me this time.." Said the old demon while biting his nails nervously. After a few moments spent in this state, the old demon turned to look at Daniel.. The person who was just as much at fault as he was, and said with exasperation and anger "Do you always go around feeding essence spheres to random beasts!? ARE YOU AN IDIOT?!"
Daniel had already guessed what the demon was angered about. The changes in the cub's body were subtle, and yet they also did not appear to be temporary.
"You got this wrong. I was taking a nap here, next to my tent." Said Daniel before placing a finger on the middle of the cub's head, and adding without turning to look at it "This little one came to steal one of my buttons."
"ALRIGHT! But why did you give it a dark essence sphere?!" Asked the demon after noticing the buttons of Daniel's shirt, where the water spheres that allowed his clothes to protect him from the heath had been encrusted. "Do you know how expensive dark essence spheres are?! How is he supposed to cultivate from now on??"
After listening to the old demon's complains, Daniel turned to look down at the wolf cub, who was still looking at him with imploring eyes. He clearly wanted more dark essence spheres, and did not seem to be bothered by anything else that was happening next to him.
It was clear that Daniel was at fault here. He didn't know that this wolf cub had an owner, nor what the amount of damage feeding him would cause. So he tried to remedy by saying "If the making of the spheres is a problem, I can make as many as you want if you find the treasures. They are not as rare as one would think."
However, this proposal did not have the effect he was hoping for.
The old demon was distracted from his anxious state by Daniel's words, which caused him to once again turn to look at him in anger "DO YOU SEE ANY FUCKING TREASURE AROUND!?" he shouted to the top of his lungs.
These few words made Daniel notice something he hadn't paid attention to until now.
While generally rare in populated areas, low level essence treasures were not difficult to find. Plenty of fire treasures would appear in volcanic areas, or inside the pockets of magma underneath the planet's crust, and the same was for the other elements like water, earth, and so on. Nevertheless, despite how long he had been in hell, Daniel had yet to see a single low level treasure. Be it when he was cultivating, when he was fighting, or when he hid his powers to travel along with with the caravan of the Cruga family.
"There aren't any essence treasures in hell?" Asked Daniel with shock. The complete lack of essence treasure was extremely odd to him, as everything in hell was still made of, as well as emanated the correspondent type of essence.
The old demon did not bother to respond, and instead walked away. While leaving the area, he said with an audible amount of anger "Come on! I'm taking you back to your mother!"
Daniel looked at the leaving old man, wondering if he had meant for the cub to follow him back to its mother.. And the reason for that, was that the cub had ignored him completely, and was still pointing his big sorrowful eyes at him.
"I think he is talking to you." Said Daniel to the cub while brushing the patch of fur in between his eyes with his thumb. But instead of turning away and leaving, the cub looked upwards, and howled gently *awooo*
The sound attracted the attention of the old demon, which turned to look at the cub with eyes opened wide in shock. He then opened his mouth, and said with a tone that sent a shiver down Daniel's spine "Not him."
As soon as the tone of the old demon reached the wolf cub, his ears lowered, and almost as in fear of the old man, he tugged his tail in between his legs, and walked in his direction.
Daniel looked at the old demon with narrowed eyes, and before the two of them could leave, he took a high level dark essence sphere, and said "Little wolf, a parting gift." he then threw the sphere with a flick of his finger.
The cub immediately felt the sphere approach him, and caught it before it could even touch the ground. He then gave a last look at Daniel, and left along with the old demon without turning back.
"I wonder how wolfie is doing.." Daniel muttered before standing up, and walking into his tent.
-----
Two weeks later.
"Noble Demon Ro'ha, leader of the Oni Tribe. The delegation of the Demon Lord of the Beastmasters faction will depart for the core of hell in six hours. You are requested to join the rest of the families." Said a disembodied voice that came from outside of the tent.
While Daniel and Sewah had only met one of the families, the true number that were part of the faction was way beyond what he could imagine. When they reached the main road that the group would take in order to reach hell's core, they were able to see what the true numbers of a faction of hell could display.
The families which Daniel had taken a glimpse of when reaching for their reserved camp was just a fraction of the true number, of which the members numbered, between beasts and demons, not lower than thirty thousand heads.
The carriages were all extremely different, and marked by banners and crests which displayed to which family they belonged. Groups of young demons that walked around in an attempt to encounter and engage with their peers could be seen every other carriage.
Daniel was sitting at the coachman seat of the carriage that the Cruga family had lent them, while Sewah was sitting inside, trying not to interact with anybody else. One hour was left before the time of the departure, and Daniel was looking at a group of young demons which was standing at the back of the caravan, separated by the other young demons.
The peculiar types of horns of a few of these young demons, as well as the numerous skin tones, wings, and tails, showed the vast diversity of demonic races that this faction possessed.. And if that wasn't enough, each of these young demon appeared to possess a beast companion which, no matter if they took a single step or ten, would follow them like shadows.
The variety of beasts was even more vast than the demons, and each of these beasts not only appeared, but also felt as powerful as the companion they followed.
While not the only demons with companions, all of these young demons appeared to know each other. They were the members of the families of hell who had joined the Beastmaster faction, and that after learning their methods, had managed to bound themselves with demonic beasts that would never betray them, and from which they would never part for the rest of their lives.
As interesting to observe as this diverse group was, Daniel had absolutely no interest in them with exception made for a single couple. A young demoness whose every movement caught the attention of a big portion of the other demons who tried to talk to her, and attract her attention in embarrassing attempts.. And the beast that followed her.
Two details of this young demoness had caught Daniel's attention. The first one was the physiology of her body, which resembled the guard that they had encountered at the border of the city, as well as the old man.. and the second detail, was the wolf that sat right next to her.
While different from the wolf cub that Daniel had seen a couple of weeks earlier, there was no doubt that these two wolves were of the same race. Its eyes emanated a reddish glow which seemed to be able to melt metal, and resembled the dark glow of the cub's eyes.. its long tails was completely red, and its thick mane floated in the wind like a living flame.
Another visible difference was its size. While the demonic wolf cub had the size of a normal wolf's cub, the original size of the wolf that was now sitting quietly next to the demoness was of a hundred meters from tail to nose.. Size which the wolf had decreased the moment the two had reached the rest of the demons.
The rest of the beast, while mostly keeping to themselves, and avoiding the other demonic beasts, appeared to be fear the gaze of the wolf, which sat quietly in its place, and looked around with his clear and bright red eyes.
After taking a look at the odd characteristic of the rest of the demonic beasts, Daniel looked away, and lost himself in his thoughts. The questions regarding whether there was something special about that particular race of demonic wolves or not, or who that demoness was, were quickly put aside, and replaced by ideas on how to participate at the signing of the demonic pact, and make sure that he could rescue his friends before anything bad could happen to them.
He wasn't sure whether someone would recognize him at the event, after all, only two low level demons of the Church of Damnation, and a low level demoness of the Laws of Mimicry had seen his face. He also wasn't sure if the members of the Na'roga family would reveal his appearance to anybody else. After all, when Daniel had come to look for them after killing the oni leader, the entire family had already disappeared.
The minutes went by one by one, and in the end, Daniel decided that planning a rescue with how little he knew, was basically impossible. So he had chose to rely on something which he had decided to avoid as often as he could.. He decided to rely on one of the plans of his karmic system.
As always, a window appeared in Daniel's head, which he read carefully from top to bottom. While reading, his face grew incredibly uncomfortable, and when he reached the bottom of the window, he couldn't help but mutter "You have got to be kidding me.."
Clearly dissatisfied by the complexity of the method provided by the system, Daniel opened his eyes and went back into observing his surroundings. But when he looked at the right of his carriage, he noticed the downsized demonic wolf and the young demoness come in his direction.. And just as they seemed to be about to pass by his carriage, the wolf stopped, and turned to look at him.
The wolf's eyes seemed to be able to pierce the heart, and the heath which emanated was enough to be unbearable even when compared to hell's normal temperature.
"Nana, what's wrong?" Asked the young demoness after turning to look at her companion, who had stayed behind while leaving her her companion to walking ahead by herself.
Despite her question, the wolf did not turn around, and kept looking at Daniel.
This behaviour was extremely odd, and caused the young demoness to be curious of what had caught the attention of her loyal companion. But when she turned in the same direction to which her wolf's head was pointed at, she saw a simple human at the coachman seat of a carriage.