You'll Die Either Way

The sound of voices going in Arthur's direction surprised him. He walked quite the distance to find that cave, yet people were near him. Was he followed? Or did these people have something to do with the mysterious door Arthur just found?

One of them said something about killing the people of the village. Arthur would not let such an act happen, especially to Rauk, who rescued him from the deep sea.

But before doing anything, one needed information. The best thing for Arthur to do was lay low and observe these people who showed up inside the cave.

There weren't many places to hide inside the cave. It was mostly flat, with only a few rocks that weren't big enough to cover a human-sized body. So, without having many options, Arthur decided to jump and hide in the ceiling.

The cave was pitch-black, which meant that even if these people looked up, they wouldn't be able to see Arthur hanging on the ceiling.

With his strength, Arthur jumped, piercing his hands in the ceiling to stay there without falling.

"Is everyone inside the room already? Why are we always late?"

"We are late because of you, bastard!"

One man and one woman got closer to the mysterious door. Arthur watched everything clearly with his night vision. They inserted a magical key in the door and opened it.

"Huh. I can't listen to anything that is happening in there. Is it because of magic? It should be," thought Arthur.

There weren't meeting in that place to do good stuff. The two who passed through the door wore black-hooded cloaking and had masks covering their faces. Arthur saw them as necromancers, and they said something about attacking the village, so maybe there were evil necromancers.

As there wasn't much Arthur could do, he stayed in the ceiling, waiting for these people to come out.

After waiting at least an hour, people started to leave the place. At least fifteen masked people walked out of the door. Arthur gazed at them from the ceiling and noticed how each one of them had a number above their head.

"Oh, these numbers are presumably their levels? But how the system calculates these numbers is still a mystery to me. Hm. The strongest is level 15, which is weaker than me."

Only one of these people had the number fifteen above their head. The rest had an average level of 10, and the two people Arthur saw entering the room a while ago were the lowest, level 8.

Speaking of these two, they stayed behind, watching the cave as if they were guards. Arthur heard the person who supposedly was the chief of this group say it was their punishment for arriving late at the reunion.

"Ah, we will have to stay here until tomorrow. Damn it. It is all your fault."

"My fault? Don't tell me you weren't curious about the mysterious egg? I finally obtained a clue about it."

"Really? What is it? Tell me."

"I heard a family from the village brought it when they returned with the fish. I believe someone called Ior found the egg."

"Hm. I don't remember who it is by name, but we can surely find him."

Arthur was still in the same spot, so he listened to everything. He already planned to attack these two to get information, and now he was sure of it. Ior, Rauk, Kayara, they were a good family. Arthur would not let anything happen to them.

But why were they looking for him? Did they think it was an egg from a mysterious beast they wished to tame? It could be that, but it was a pity Arthur would end their lives.

After making sure the others left, Arthur jumped from the ceiling, aiming for the neck of these two.

"Who's there?"

Arthur dashed towards them at a frightening speed. They could only see a shadowy figure going straight at them. They tried to cast a spell, but Arthur's hands choked their necks with tremendous force.

"Ah."

The new skill which allowed Arthur to devour things showed its mighty. The mana inside the body of these two started to vanish at a rapid pace. Their mana core was weak, so they had a small amount of mana in the first place.

"Wh- Who are you?"

One of them tried to speak, but it was almost impossible with Arthur grabbing their necks.

With cold eyes, Arthur said, "I'm the one asking questions here. You'll speak when I allow you to, or you'll die miserably."

"Who are you? And what is it happening behind this door?"

They stood quiet and did not mutter a word.

"Answer me!" said Arthur.

"Hahaha! You can try as much as you want, but there is no way we will tell you anything. Our master will kill us if we do," the masked man said.

"You don't get it, do you?" Arthur waved his head sideways.

"What do you mean?"

"Let me explain to you, shall we? First, I'll not kill you quickly if that's what you think will happen,"

"I'll get the key you have right there in your pocket and enter inside the room,"

"Then, I'll rip off all of your nails, one by one. It will hurt, of course, but that's not even the fun part. The best part is when I can break each one of your 206 bones, and as you scream in agony, I'll rip off both of your friend's eyes and make you swallow them,"

"And you want to know something more fun? I'm good at healing, so we can have this routine for as long as we want. Isn't that lovely?"

The man tried to act tough before, but after hearing what Arthur said, a yellow liquid dripped from his pants.

Arthur did not know how to heal so he could torture them again, but it was not as if they knew it. He managed to say those things to them with a poker face.

"But I'll be honest with you two. You two are already dead. But if you tell me what I want to know, I promise to kill you quickly."

"A-- all right, all right. We are called The Doom Order, which is an order that focuses on bringing back the demons to this world. I don't know details,"

"I'm only a low-ranked member. But I can tell you this. The Doom Order is huge, and there are branches everywhere. On this island, for example, we are only but a small branch."

"What are you planning to do on this island?"

"We came here after discovering the trace of demonic energy. We plan on killing everyone in the village as a sacrifice to awaken a demon."

"But why would you do that in the first place?"

"Why wouldn't we? Humankind ruled for too long, and it is time for a change. Some high-ranked members inside our order summoned demons who turned them into demons too,"

"That's our goal. To become demons and end humankind."

"How often do you meet in this place? And when will the sacrifice happen?"

"We meet every week, same day, same hour. And I don't know when the sacrifice will happen."

"All right. Thank you."

Arthur got everything he could from these people, so he broke both of their necks. They died in an instant. But he couldn't be sure if everything they said was the truth. So, Arthur had the brilliant idea of stealing their clothes and participating in the next reunion. They all wore masks, so it should be easy to get inside.

He stole the clothing from the man, alongside the magical key to enter.

"Where should I hide these bodies? Hm, what if I devour them? Why am I thinking about this in the first place?"

Since Arthur got his bloodline, something changed inside of him. He was not scared anymore, and he could kill people without remorse. Now, Arthur had a feeling deep down in his soul begging for him to devour these two.

"Damn it, screw it. I'm a fucking dragon, so it is okay for me to devour things."

Arthur used his devouring skill. His mouth grew as if it belonged to a dragon. His teeth also, and just by looking at them, one could sense their sharpness. A suction force attracted both bodies, and Arthur ate them as if they were nothing. It was as if his stomach had another dimension and could store anything inside.

After that, a notification popped in front of his eyes.

[Level 8 Human Devoured]

[All stats +5 for three days]

[New Spell Learned, Conjure Skeleton]

[Level 8 Human Devoured]

[There's already a bonus added, it does not stack]

[New Spell Learned, Corrosive Shot]

"That's awesome. Bonus stats according to the enemy level and a random skill from them."

Arthur was delighted. He could learn any spell no matter what the element was. He was no longer bound to these things, as humans are.

"All right. Let's wait for the next reunion and kill these bastards."