23 The Prep for an Adventure (Part 1)

Wiping off the smell of alcohol, smoke, and training from my body the damp towel ended up against the ground. My body had changed a lot during the past month and I couldn't help but grin every time I saw myself in the mirror though my grin faltered when I saw my black and red inflamed arm. "You got to stop getting hurt Crowley, people are going to start thinking you enjoy it."

Taking out three mithril balls, I warp the metal around my arm making an armored sling. I couldn't afford to carry around bundles of cloth for my spells so metal was usually my go to medium even if it was uncomfortable.

Tomorrow after my discussion with Solomon I would be leaving the training facility to hunt monsters for the first time. I was mildly terrified of the notion, fighting a human and fighting a creature were two different things. The weak points of humans are numerous and I had been tried to fight against them several times in both lives.

Against a monster though, their body could be covered in armor and scales, their breath could be toxic, their bodies filled with explosive spit! Books filled my room with my preparations, but every new word made me more worried. Terror filled my mind as I read about the a frog that buried into the the skulls of their victims and ate their brains as they controlled the bodies.

"How can humans compare to these creatures?" Humans in my last world at least had guns, and tanks, this world still had cold weapons.

With a sigh, I placed down the book focusing on my battle doll. Magic I was hoping was the gap closer, allowing me to fight against these things that seemed infinitely more powerful than humans. Reading about them would only make me question my ability and make my spells less powerful, it was better to address things as they came.

Activating the pride aura, I established a connection to the demon king once more. As the connection started, I could feel frustration once more so I let my prideful disdain of him seep through the connection.

"What? Now you despise me? Think you're getting too big for your pants, and want to try on a new pair?" A voice yelled at me from the void and I smiled.

"Just know this is in your best wishes, but I want another demonic spell the current one is a bit too weak at only a single demon."

There was a long pause as he seemed to be thinking, "So you know of our ranking system. Crowley if you aren't a demon you must be a spy sent by the church."

"No, you might be the demon king, but I am king of hell." Picking up my glass of tea, I stared into the cup. "Now if you want the sigil, I need one defensive two demon spell, and one that can be used for utility in battle of the same rank. Ah, and you'll have to teach me how to send information over the link so I can send you the sigil."

"I also want at least six months of peace!" The demon seemed the most desperate for this to be added to the agreement, and I subconsciously nodded.

"Fine, six months of no interference or communication from either side shall be added to the agreement."

"Good, I agree to your terms." The demon seemed relieved now that it didn't have to hear that ringing while he was trying to sleep. "The demonic stomach for demonic feasts, and the demonic curse of a thousand demon pigs!"

'Gluttony and.. something to do with pigs?' I couldn't really figure out the second one just by its name, but that was a problem for later.

'Treaty established with Demon King Farkle, opinion of host is at -25'

"Farkle?"

"What? Wait… whhhhhaaaaatt??! How did you get my name?" The demon seemed to be panicking a bit now.

"Not important, send information the information, so I can send the sigil."

'Opinion of host is now 50, belief you have a powerful backer or are powerful yourself boosting this number. Caution is advised."

"Okay, okay!" Information flooded my mind including a way to send information. With the connection still established I sent him an outline of the sigil. "Thank you."

He seemed a lot more polite now, but I simply cut off the connection as soon as I sent the info. There were now two new spells I had to test before I left for my exploration.

Using the gluttony one was the safest option, so I activated that immediately. A feeling of deep hunger filled my body and I resisted it as my mind wandered to thoughts of food, imagining every delicacy that I had tasted in both lives but it was much easier to get my mind back on track.

'Resistance to temptation has advanced, upgrade against temptation acquired for free.'

'Demonic spell learned, lowering efficacy to get rid of negative side effects. Glutton's Defense added to spells!'

Nodding my head, I activated the other not sure what it's effects would be. I waited for the effects to hit me, and nothing seemed to happen. Maybe two demonic spells in a row didn't have any effects, I should hold off on this one until tomorrow or the next day.

'Heck I'm not even sure if I'm ready for my expedition, maybe I should wait another week or two.' I started looking over my lists and I seemed to always be missing something that might save my life if a situation came up.

'I'm not ready am I? I can put this off till I am ready, better to be a hundred percent ready instead of getting…' My eyes finally shined as I thought of something, 'Sloth! How dangerous, I almost fell for it.'

'Demonic spell learned, lowering efficiency to get rid of negative side effects. Sloth's Promise added to spells.'

Demonic spells sure are ridiculous, fueled by an emotion that you can fall into and be swallowed by, though being swallowed up by sloth doesn't seem dangerous for other people. No wonder you don't hear about very many demons of sloth doing much in their time in both worlds.

'Hey, why wasn't corpse golem named something to do with wrath?'

'Corpse golem doesn't require wrath to cast, the golem spell was just amplifying your spell. Demonic spells require much more emotion to create a true demonic spell. Without the effects of the sigils on your hands, and your previous experience with demonic spells you would have been swallowed completely by a two demon spell.'

'With demon spells are their the opposite?' I took a bite of a piece of steak after activating my gluttony spell.

'Yes, but humans are more known for their negative emotions rather than strong good ones.' I nodded agreeing with this negative viewpoint, humans were never the best creatures and their negative emotions helped them thrive.

'Cowhide is better than your current skin, increasing defense. Defense of skin raised 0.01%.'

This spell is a long term spell that I'll have to use from now on, the stronger the defenses of the enemy the more my body would adapt to their defenses. Sadly, it also increased my defenses more if I eat the part that is better than mine skin, muscles, bones, or organs. I'll be eating rather strange things in the future, I stared at the bones wondering if I should try eating that too but for now.. I'll resist.

Time to cover the other loose ends, I needed to be prepared as much as possible for the day after tomorrow. Using up all my energy in one go, thirty angels suddenly appeared in the room from the stones all around the room. Again with the switching array, when looked at their energy would go all to defense, when not looked at their offense and speed would be their focus. When no one was in the room they'd be in an idle state saving energy.

Finally the last part of my room's defenses which I would fill before I left in the morning, an array to supply power to my room pulling from the ambient energy. Sadly it couldn't be used to train as it pulls in the energy and can't be used to supply the body since it isn't considered pure anymore so the body rejects it. Luckily no matter the 'murkiness' of the mana, constructs can use it just fine. In fact this same array was used to protect many tombs of ancient cultivators and sorcerers.

The last part though, the last bit of preparation was one I was hesitant about, this would be where my upgrades and repairs would go. I wanted to go big this time, saving up until I had five hundred of each as these were the threshold to the next step. These upgrades and repairs seemed almost magical in quality. I had narrowed it down to three each, but narrowing it down further was painful.

Repair list:

Blessings of Nature

Wolf Bond

Murderous Aura

Upgrade list:

Breathing

Mental Potential

Muscle Density

The only three I had a clue about was murderous aura, which is described in many novels where your will to kill something manifests as something that could be felt. Wolf bond, apparently at the early stages of humanity wolves were friends of humans and nearly every human had a guardian wolf that followed. Finally muscle density, which wouldn't increase my strength but would make my muscles more dense, increasing my defense and flexibility.

Sighing, I knew I had to pick so I chose the two that instinctually I felt would help me the most during my travels….