Before the Raven Spirit Envoy could even act, the blonde youth struck first.
He fired the [Elemental Blast] he had been charging for Joen directly at her instead.
The mana reacted violently, erupting in a powerful explosion that blew the Raven Spirit Envoy back.
While the damage was not severe, it was enough to delay her for a moment.
“Go, quickly! This is my fault, and I will take responsibility for it!” the blonde youth shouted in a low voice, shielding Liya.
“No, no, no, you really can’t,” Liya said.
Like a magician, Liya pulled out a pre-prepared contract and handed it over with a flowery smile.
“Sign here, dear. Security services, all glowing reviews, and honest prices for everyone — no cheating~”
“A mere demon! I can handle her alone. You go!”
The blonde youth held his head high, striking an arrogant pose.
“Stop trying to look cool and just sign it.”
Liya saw right through his bravado and handed him both the contract and a magical quill.
“Oh.”
The blonde youth’s head slumped instantly.
He obediently signed his name, his hand shaking as he took the pen.
It was clear he was not nearly as relaxed as he appeared on the surface.
In the payment column, he gnawed on the end of the pen for a long time before writing in small letters: “Mana Burst Potion Recipe.”
‘Whoa! A big client!’
Liya’s eyes immediately lit up with greed.
In this world, the technological Skill Tree for gunpowder had not been unlocked at all.
There was no simple black powder, let alone the alchemy used by ancient practitioners.
Instead, there was a more efficient Explosion Magic that relied on the caster’s personal ability.
This belonged to the Dominion Sequence, where the destructive power was closely tied to the caster’s capability.
The [Mana Burst Potion] was a bottled explosion spell that was partially independent of the caster’s limitations.
It was called “partially independent” because the caster still had to be involved in the entire production process, using methods similar to casting explosion magic to “sharpen” the mana materials.
However, for the Pupu Tribe, this did not seem to be a very big problem.
As long as… she could find a way to breed “Burst Pupus.”
The idea sounded a bit fantastical, but after all, weren’t all types of Pupus born from various random liquids?
Who was to say a [Mana Burst Potion] could not be considered a liquid?
This kind of practical potion recipe was a prized possession everywhere.
It was the type of heirloom that could be passed down for three generations — the kind a person would rather have rot with them in their coffin than ever show to anyone else.
Liya truly did not expect to meet the silly son of a wealthy landlord who would “buy” a service with one so easily!
“Don’t you worry, kid.”
Liya patted her chest twice and immediately promised, “For the sake of this recipe, no one can touch you tonight.
Not even if Pluto himself comes! I said so!”
“Is that so?” a cold female voice echoed in the air.
Liya leapt back almost by instinct.
Sure enough, a slender ghost hand reaching out from the shadows grabbed nothing but air.
‘Fight a Shadow Demon? This Demon King has far too much experience with that! The moment your shadow moves, I know exactly what you’re thinking! I know you better than your own mother!’
The ghost hand turned to grab the blonde youth.
Liya immediately shouted, “Joen… cough! Knight! Cut her down!”
The Raven Spirit Envoy, hidden in the shadows, showed her disdain.
She sneered, “A reptile’s strug — “
Before she could finish, she stopped abruptly.
A large hand covered in heavy armor reached straight into the shadows where she was hiding and grabbed at her.
She was scared out of her wits, using [Shadow Flicker] six or seven times in a row to flee into different layers of shadows.
Yet, in the end, she was still dragged out by that ruthless hand as easily as pulling a gold Kuron out of a pocket.
“Enough.”
Joen’s large hand gripped the Raven Spirit Envoy’s head, making her too terrified to move.
As a Shadow Demon, she should not have died even if her entire body was crushed; she could still transform into a shadow and survive.
At most, her consciousness would shatter, temporarily splitting her into 100 or 200 ordinary Shadow Monsters until she evolved consciousness again after decades.
But the scene just now was too abnormal, too inconceivable, and far too horrifying for a Shadow Demon…
She did not dare to gamble.
“Oh my~ a reptile’s struggle~ oh my~ why bother?~ oh my~~ hee hee hee hee~~~”
Liya’s small head popped out from behind Joen, mockingly mimicking the Raven Spirit Envoy’s words.
She looked down most on these “survival kings” who were afraid of death but loved to act cool.
The Second Demon Realm and the Death God’s Mausoleum were famous for an atmosphere of “endurance.”
Although Demonkind were already quite hardy, the demons of the Second Demon Realm were exceptionally so.
As the most cautious existences in the Demon Realm, they were skilled at avoiding death and forcibly extending their lives in all sorts of inconceivable ways.
[Living is everything; everything is for living.]
This famous saying was the perfect interpretation of the Second Demon Realm and its God of Demons.
“Impossible! Absolutely impossible! My [Shadow Flicker] can continuously change positions! My [Shadow Stealth] is immune to all physical attacks! How… how did you do it?!”
The Raven Spirit Envoy was so scared her soul nearly dissipated.
“I fought a battle against Shadow Demons before and killed a lot of them. I learned a few tricks,” Joen answered honestly.
But aside from Liya, probably no one else understood the sheer weight behind the words “a lot.”
Liya even suspected that the number of Shadow Demons Joen killed in that battle might be more than the total number of Shadow Demons who had died naturally in the Second Demon Realm over the last 1,000 years.
The blonde youth walked over, pretending to be cold, and intentionally showed Liya the right side of his face, which he thought was more handsome.
“So, is everything in this castle the work of Duchess Zyra?” he questioned the Raven Spirit Envoy.
At the mention of Duchess Zyra, the Raven Spirit Envoy’s fear vanished, replaced by the fanaticism of a believer defending a deity.
She ignored Joen’s threat, and her shadow-like body even flushed a deep red.
She laughed wildly, “Scheming? No! Being able to become a part of the Mistress! Having our Shadow Souls absorbed by her is your honor!”
That crazed voice sent chills down the spines of the surrounding nobles who had come to offer their birthday wishes.
“A Demon Ascension Ritual?” Liya guessed.
The people around them immediately thought of this as well and fell silent.
The [Demon Ascension Ritual] was the final test set by the God of Demons to select their favored ones.
The ascendant needed to sacrifice a large amount of life to the God of Demons and, in the process, complete a transformation of their own life level.
Contrary to stereotypes, the targets chosen for the ritual included not only demons favored by the God of Demons, but also other races who caught the god’s eye and were lured into corruption.
Among these, humans were the primary group.
A being that completed the [Demon Ascension Ritual] would transform into the highest tier of Demonkind: a Chosen Great Demon.
Once upon a time, Liya had also longed for the [Seven Gods’ Favor], becoming a Great Demon, or succeeding in the ritual.
But later, she discovered that these bastards of gods were discriminating against her!
Never mind catching their eye — when Liya tried to offer sacrifices, the gods did not even give her a response.
They only mooched off Liya!
But without ascending to a Great Demon, her power limit would be stuck, and she would be unable to continue exploring the limits of magic spells.
Those demigods and Great Demons had all sorts of useful and bizarre rule-based abilities that made Liya drool with envy.
Fortunately, after going through immense hardship, Liya finally found a substitute — [Ancient Elven Magic].
If magic was compared to programming, normal magic was like relying on the [Magic Web], an extremely useful development tool, using its many built-in programming languages to develop one beautiful and practical app after another.
However, [Ancient Elven Magic] did not require the [Magic Web] at all.
But its degree of obscurity was comparable to manually soldering electronic components and then using electric sparks to create a large language model.
It was truly difficult, and the pain was real, but Liya had no choice.
During the late nights when she sat with ancient magic Stone Slabs, struggling to comprehend Elven Magic, Liya felt her understanding of the wonderful existence known as “magic” rapidly improving.
She deeper understood the theory of the Goddess of Magic — the essence of magic is communication, not manifestation.
Casting magic did not create or destroy any matter out of thin air, nor did it generate energy from nothing.
She was simply inducing the release of energy that all matter already possessed through communication.
In this release process, because the matter lacked energy support, its microscopic structure would change, turning into another substance.
This led to another major branch of magic theory: Alchemy.