Having some fun

The next day Eric was standing at the gates of the camp along with a few others. The 'mission' for today was to cut down some of the trees from the nearby forest. Although they were given axes they were rusted and blunt. Looking down at his hand that was holding the axe that looked like it was about to fall apart Eric just sighed. 'oh well, guess I'll be able to try out my new skill'.

The benefit of sub-minds was that even while the main mind was sleeping the sub-minds would continue to work. Last night soon before he woke up his research sub-mind finished the rough outline of a skill similar to 'sword aura' from those sword and magic light novels. All he did was put a layer of energy over whatever he chose to do. Despite calling it a sword aura it worked on anything be it something he was holding or his body itself.

Walking out into the forest axe in hand Eric began to look for a tree large enough to try his new skill. After about ten minutes he found a tree that was about 2 to 2.5 feet wide. "this should do" Lifting his axe and focusing, his energy began to flow along his arms to his hands and along the axes handle before finally constraining on the blade. He still hasn't gotten the hang of the skill so the energy around the blade was a bit unfocused, despise this it was much better than using the axe normally. The energy he choose to use was a 5:1 ratio of mana and demonic energy. This way it would have both the characteristics of mana and demonic energy while not being noticeable by the demons.

Raising his axe he swung it down on the trunk of the tree, if he used the axe normally it would barely leave a mark on the tree but with the 'aura' it easily cut deep into the trunk of the tree. Pulling the axe out it had cut about a fifth of the way through. "they said to bring a tree by the end of the night but at this rate, I'll be back at camp just in time to 'train' some people." as he said this he began the hear some rustling around him.

Looking up he saw what looked like a panther but bigger and with six legs and bright red fur. "as much as I would love to keep you as a pet I already have one at home and she gets jealous if I'm around other cats, also the food they serve at camp is really bad so might as well try some of... Whatever you are. Plus I don't really like the color red."

Saying this he jumped up and grabbed onto one of the low-hanging branches of the tree before pulling himself up and beginning the climb. The 'panther' on the other hand began to race down the tree toward what it thought would be an easy meal. Reaching the midway point of the tree the panther readied its front four legs to grapple Eric, while Eric readied his axe for a swing at the panters head. While this may seem like it took a while it only took a few moments for this to happen.

In a similarly small amount of time, the panther's legs grabbed onto erics shirt and tore it to shreds trying to do the same to his flesh while Eric's axe struck down in its neck slicing its head clean off. Climbing back down the tree Eric used what remained of his shirt to tie up the panther's body and head so he could bring it back to camp. "damn, really liked this shirt. Oh well, guess I'll just have to make one out of you. Just let me cut down this tree real quick."

A few minutes later Eric was walking back to camp with the tree on one shoulder and his soon-to-be new shirt on the other shoulder. Seeing this the guard at the gates ruled his eyes, for a moment he thought he saw one of the slaves carrying a full tree and a hell cat, one of the forest's apex predators. But that was impossible, they were just slaves. Opening his eyes again he was shocked to see the slave still walking closer to the camp. Seeing the guard Eric called out, "I'm not late for the training am I?"

Hearing the question the demon guard just looked at Eric and shook his head, still in a daze seeing what was happening. "cool, just let me drop off this stuff, and I'll be at the training grounds real quick." passing the still confused guard Eric walked over to his tent and laid down the hell cat's body 'learning to sew shouldn't be too hard, and if I fail I can just go hunt another one.' he then walked over to the stockpile and placed his tree down before running over to the training grounds for some fun, some of the guards where being a little rough with the other slaves recently and if they did that he wouldn't have anyone to 'harvest' later.

Reaching the training grounds he heard some of the guards talking to each other "Did you hear? One of the duke's sons is coming to this camp, apparently, it's so he can 'experience the outside world' and 'gain real-life skills'." hearing this Eric was intrigued so he walked over to the guards and asked them some questions "who's this duke and why is his son so important that you gloating about him coming to this camp?"

Normally if a slave talked to a guard like this he would get a beating. However, Eric had quite the reputation, only a few didn't know about the local battle maniac, someone who would fight anyone and everyone if given half a chance. The gate guard just so happened to be one of the sparse few people who didn't know that there was an entire rule made just for him.

If the battle maniac attempts to fight you, run to the nearest high-ranking officer, they will solve the problem, if there is no high ranking in the immediate vicinity, hope that he does not break more than a few bones.

Startled at Eric's appearance as they expected him to still be out cutting wood, they were startled for a second before answering his question. "there are a few different hell's in the underworld. Our hell is simply called hell and is a fairly recent addition to the underworld. It's ruled but Diablo, Lucifer, and Lilith, under them are the seven deadly sins and the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Under them are the 72 dukes of hell. Asies is the youngest son of veper, one of the dukes of hell, and is coming to this camp at the edge of our hell." as the guard finished saying this Eric looked over to see flaming horses pulling a carriage behind them coming towards the gate.