Chapter 78: A Most Awkward and Unexpected Situation
The dark and dim Abyss, without the sun and the moon rising and falling, led to the demons’ perception of time becoming slow.
Without realizing it, Roy had been in the middle Abyss for a month, and he had gradually adapted to life here.
He felt that the greatest difference between the middle Abyss and the upper Abyss was that there were fewer demons!
They said that low-rank demons were cannon fodder. That’s right. But what was cannon fodder? Many! Full! When Roy was exploring the upper Abyss, he could almost see low-rank demons anywhere he went, and it felt super lively, but he had not seen such a scene in the middle Abyss, and it was much sparser.
This situation was, of course, normal. Only through the survival of the fittest could low-rank demons promote to middle-rank demons, and the number would definitely decrease. Judging from this, there would also definitely be fewer high-rank demons than middle-rank demons. Such a class pyramid seemed to be the same regardless of race.
Due to the decrease in numbers, middle-rank demons killing each other did not happen that frequently. Perhaps because of the bloodline awakening, it even went to the extent that some demons of the same type would avoid fighting each other as much as possible after meeting!
This reminded Roy of the high-rank demons Xeron and Ignatius. Although they fought and schemed against each other, they could also cooperate and formulate strategies for war.
The higher the rank, the fewer the demons, so they gradually began to treasure their own kind. It seemed like this bloodline view should have started from when they became middle-rank demons…
Killing between the same race reduced, but middle-rank demons also needed to devour souls to strengthen their magic power, so what should they do?
It had to be mentioned that many monsters were also living in the middle Abyss. While these monsters could still hunt low-rank demons in the upper Abyss and had the possibility of becoming a true demon, unfortunately, the strength of middle-rank demons and low-rank demons were not on the same level. After knowing how to use magic power, the combat strength of middle-rank demons increased greatly, and they were no longer targets that monsters could defeat easily!
Therefore, these monsters could only live in groups and rely on cohesion to win space for survival. As soon as these monster groups appeared, it meant that middle-rank demons had a fixed source for souls.
As a result, middle-rank demons also developed territorial awareness. They would choose to live in groups where monsters lived and then stay there for a long time to hunt these monsters and devour their souls.
In this way, the monsters began to become existences resembling livestock. The only difference was that the middle-rank demons did not tame them and simply let them breed…
Roy had seen quite a number of such situations during this time, so he felt it was strange to say that demons were chaotic and without order. These words did not seem right. Was this ecology not just like a primitive society and a type of order?
In fact, Roy was right. If every level of the Abyss were like the upper level, where low-rank demons killed each other, then it would be impossible for the demon race to multiply. Demons were also a race, and social forms would appear as long as they were a race. As the hierarchy progressed, there would always be order. Even beasts without intelligence would have certain habits, let alone intelligent life with language and inheritances like demons.
Therefore, although humans and other races view demons as a chaotic and evil group, it was actually caused by the other races not understanding demons in depth. Moreover, were chaos and evil not also a form of order…?
Although middle-rank demons could hunt monsters to obtain souls, the souls of monsters were not delicious to them. After all, the souls of monsters could only be regarded as the spirits of wild beasts. Those with low spiritual wisdom had far less negative emotions in their souls. Roy had tasted a soul before, so he naturally knew that the more negative emotions there were, the more alluring the souls were to demons. The souls of these monsters were only enough to satisfy the needs of middle-rank demons.
After consuming monster souls for a long time, middle-rank demons would generally become more and more temperamental. This was a unique ‘illness’ for demons because monster souls could not meet the growth requirements of their magic power. It could be seen as a ‘malnutrition disorder’. After these symptoms occurred, they would invade the territories of other demons and fight them. The winner would devour the other’s soul, thereby alleviating their malnutrition.
Fighting among the middle-rank demons mostly happened under these circumstances. However, the souls of demons could not alleviate their malnutrition most of the time. This was due to the nature of demons. Even if the intelligence of middle-rank demons had improved a lot, because of the living environment here, many of them were accustomed to killing, and their fear of death and injury was relatively low. Thus, the negative emotions were relatively low, and the nourishment of magic power was not much better.
Therefore, another solution for middle-rank demons was that they would actively seek to go to other worlds to hunt other intelligent creatures to obtain better souls.
When low-rank demons went to other worlds, they were lured by offerings most of the time, which could be regarded as passive behavior. But middle-rank demons took the initiative to head to other worlds.
What kind of situation did this lead to? Around the altars of the Gates of the Abyss built in the middle Abyss, there were often many middle-rank demons waiting there! This was a huge difference compared to the situation where there were low numbers of low-rank demons near the altars in the upper Abyss. Moreover, these middle-rank demons did not enter the Gates of the Abyss one by one. Sometimes, they would swarm into a Gate of the Abyss at the same time!
Why was it like this? There was only one explanation—a summoner with a lot of magic power opened a Gate of the Abyss to summon for war! Only a massive amount of magic power could accommodate so many demons at once!
As for summoners, needless to say, most of them were high-rank demons like Xeron or demon sorcerers, or maybe even the stronger demon lords.
Roy could understand why demons were so enthusiastic about waging wars in other worlds… Middle-rank demons had considerably more numbers compared to high-rank demons, and compared to low-rank demons, they had magic power and better combat power. So no matter how you looked at it, middle-rank demons were the core warriors of the demons.
Of course, some middle-rank demons might not be able to participate in battle and might even become the mounts of high-rank demons, for example, those nightmare horses. But no matter what, the summoned middle-rank demons could more or less obtain some souls. The quality and taste of the souls of the intelligent creatures in other worlds were worlds better!
Roy did not have such symptoms for now because Roy had Daddy System’s protection. He had long quit his Soul Devouring Addiction with the help of Magic Energy Growth Potions!
Even if he required three or four monster souls to extract some magic power, Roy could still improve his magic energy as long as there were enough, and he would not become crazy with desire like other demons.
He now occupied territory. There were still many monsters living here, and it was still enough to satisfy his needs.
However, as long as Roy wanted to evolve, sooner or later, he would have to participate in external wars like the other middle-rank demons because he could not possibly seize the territories of all the other middle-rank demons. If the territory was too big, he and Fat Tiger would not be able to take care of it. He was not a true demon lord and did not have the overwhelming strength to make other demons submit to him and manage it for him.
It was possible to create loyal subordinates through the system, but the premise was to have souls with the holy attribute or evil attribute…
During this month, although Roy had been paying attention to his execution mission, he had yet to find any other illusion demons. It seemed that illusion demons were also a rare race in the Abyss. Therefore, while he temporarily had no means to understand his opponent, Roy could only increase his magic energy attribute first. He even stopped feeding Fat Tiger souls, and all the souls he obtained were for strengthening his magic power.
During the process of continuously using his magic power, Roy discovered one thing: After the bloodline awakening, if he frequently used the magic power circuit in his body, he could actually continue to expand the nodes and even further purify his demon bloodline at the same time!
Roy’s current magic power circuit was built from about thirty-six nodes, and with his heart as the source, it extended throughout his entire chest. However, the number of these nodes was not fixed. Roy had been constantly familiarizing himself with the dark frost magic power this month, and now there was vaguely another node!
Roy felt that the more nodes there were, the faster the magic power would flow in the circuit, and the stronger the magic formed at the same time.
And because this magic power circuit was the magic power circuit unique to frost demons, the more magic power circuit nodes there were, the purer the frost demon bloodline!
Roy believed that this should be the real way for middle-rank demons to become high-rank demons. When their magic power grew to the point of purifying their bloodlines into pure-blooded demons, they could be called high-rank demons…
However, the repeated use of the magic power circuit needed Roy to have the support of the corresponding amount of magic power. So during this month, Roy had been increasing his magic energy attribute. The higher the magic energy attribute, the longer he could use the magic power circuit, and the faster the magic power would recover.
Of course, in consideration that as time passed, the chance of his mission target, César, being expelled back would increase, Roy intended to increase his magic energy attribute to five hundred and then store the souls he obtained in preparation for emergencies.
Just when Roy thought his repetitious hunting life would continue for a long time, an unexpected situation happened!
On the forty-second day of his arrival in the middle Abyss, the purple moon on the surface suddenly glowed again, indicating that a new round of the demon… mating season had come!
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