The slide rack clicked and locked open now that the glock had gone through all its ammo. Wade felt his breathing slow back down, stamina already regenerating back to full.

He exhaled, "Jesus christ that was close."

Eri ended his breakneck sprint and slowed to a jog and then a stop next to Wade. A jaw clicked. He pointed the greatsword at the corpse, wiggling the tip with an implied question.

"Naw, he'd dead-dead." Wade said, nodding. "But feel free to go for a double tap just in case."

The skeleton happily did just that, walking forward then stabbing down with his greatsword.

Wade was slightly worried the demon would get right back up and enter a phase two, with boss music or something going on. As if getting stabbed with a greatsword had pissed it off. Eri stabbed twice, then walked backwards, nodding.

Dead-dead.

And as if the universe grudgingly agreed with the System, the body began to dissolve.

Flesh started melting into vapor, leaving only a broken sword falling onto the mud - and a surprised black mist that instantly started writhing around, desperate for anything nearby to latch onto, as if it hadn't expected its host to just vanish like that.

Without a body to hide in, the ball of blackrot was swept out by the wind, squirming, breaking apart in seconds.

Wade and Eri watched as the entire process unfolded from start to finish, and nothing was left behind besides that sword hilt.

"Uh, is that normal?"

Eri clicked his jaw a few times. Then realized there was a much more human expression for this and gleefully shrugged his shoulders, arms out, exaggerating the motion.

"All right, all right. Fair, I guess Zin's the only demon we met so far… Wait." Wade could say the demon's name in front of Eri. That was… interesting. He hadn't really noticed he'd been able to this whole time, he'd only noticed the moment his mouth stopped moving when he couldn't.

The contract was a soul-binding contract. And Eri was a soulbound minion. "Oh, that's a neat loophole."

Eri quirked his head. And Wade filled him in on everything he knew about Zin. He hadn't been able to earlier because Leon was around him at the time they met Zin, that caused the contract to trigger.

Nothing he was saying right now made any contract trigger, which meant Eri really was a loophole to all this.

"Don't think Zin's going to be happy about that, at all." He looked over to his MVP employee. "Though you can't really speak so his name's mostly safe."

Eri mimed taking something out of his pant pocket and tapping at it. Or at least what was left of the pant pockets. He really did look like he'd come from a horror murder movie.

"We should think about getting you some padding," He said as he unlocked the screen. "Maybe a football thing under your rochard coat when we're back home. Make your figure look more filled out you know? … Stop flexing you little menace."

He chuckled and shook his head, looking down at the screen. He did have messages. From another menace.

Three high level mob kills, one boss kill, and one coin already in the bank ayyyo

Round three off to a great start so far ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶

Wade patted the little handgun that could. All for the price of a two day subscription. Excellent efficiency here. Talking about that, he should reload it. This place was absolutely a good spot to keep it always prepared.

Now get out there and go hunt some more stuff to wear as a hat~

That got Eri's attention.

"No. Hats later after we're back on Earth." Wade said as he reloaded the magazine and primed the Glock again. "Can you ask Zin what's going on with the demon there?"

Oh that's what happens to all demons that die. Their body loses control and turns back to pure essence. Then that gets dragged back to hell no matter what realm they're at.

"Yeah, I know that part. What I don't know is how that works when we're already in hell." Wade said. "So… what happens?"

Fiiiine, I'll go ask him. brb

Wade walked over to where the demon had vanished, keeping his identify running. But only one thing popped up as a name tag.

Broken Longsword (Low Quality)

"Uh huh." He muttered, then scanned around the area here for anything more dangerous that could sneak up on them.

The Water Mastery boon came with a lot of interesting mini-buffs, one of them was Clearsight. Which gave him vision that made him feel more like a hawk when he stared at anything. A stark black and white difference compared to yesterday when he still had glasses.

That said, what he did find around him was… pretty expected.

Stone, mud, moss, more stone. Level 1 Blackrotten Beetle.

Ah. "I'm going to have to keep the identify going at all times." He said, thinking. "Stepping on a bug is going to get me instantly infected. It's like landmines down here."

It didn't matter if the bug actually bit him or not, just stepping on one and killing it would cause the black rock to explode out looking for stuff.

He wasn't certain boots or thick clothing would even protect him from the blackrot, it might just sink right through if it was desperate enough.

Hell… was very much dangerous, just in ways he hadn't thought about. Instead of this place being evil and filled with lakes of fire, it was more like the land was just accidentally dangerous as a byproduct of the blackrot invasion here.

His phone buzzed.

He'll pop back here in about an hour or so. Probably in the same exact place because there's not a lot of wind here.

"With blackrot too?"

Nope. Just right here without cloths or anything. It's like that wilderness show you mortals do on Earth. Used to be fine when there wasn't blackrot down there, but less fine now as you'd probably guess ♡(>ᴗ•)

"…should we wait? Is he going to be friendly?"

Stolen story; please report.

50/50, could be thankful or see you as a quick loot piñata.

I'd guess probably the former. Because there are two of you, and you're both dangerous.

Wade thought hard on it. Last round, Illy had tried to control a blackrotten weasel with her System boon. She said she could only influence the weasel inside, while the blackrot wasn't considered an animal at all. "So he was aware of what he was doing? Or the fight that just happened?"

Yep. That's why demons are so terrified of hell lol, they know what's waiting for them, because survivors gossip

Survivors. Wade and Eri shared a look. Both of them had no idea what life was like down here. "Do you know what life's like down here for Demons? Can you ask Zin for more info about how people survive down here?"

There was a pause.

One sec, he's got this funny notion that I need to pay him for information. And thanks to you we're getting first-hand video footage of exactly where he's going back too when I give him a vacation. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

That was another good loophole, as Wade realized. He could get anything out of Zin for free if Play was the one that demanded it. Payment was for chumps, like himself and everyone else on Earth.

Problem with this loophole was Play herself, if the divinity decided she couldn't be assed, he'd need to go back to haggling with Zin directly.

He says you should get a guide. He knows there's a lot of tricks and he's not up to date.

Wade realized exactly what Play meant in a flash of assumptions.

Demons all knew they had a chance of getting sent back down here. And what was waiting for them.

So they already knew they'd get a single chance to escape with nothing but their bare hands at minimum. And Blackrot creatures constantly fight one another, so there'd be more than just a single chance. Each time they might make a run for it.

Not a lot they could do to prepare for that gear-wise. But map knowledge? They could bring that with them.

Plus, Wade had that store-bought quest about finding a floating city, if there's anyone that would know where it is, that'd be a local from the area here. Demons did debts, maybe this one would owe him something?

Although, how would he hike up to a floating city? Or maybe the city was surrounded by a mountain, and the hike circled around that mountain?

Wade looked up at the mithril sea roiling far above. The fishing boat should be floating over there. The demons were tied up with rope, they knew there was a threat of being thrown overboard. They showed signs of being prepared.

And Wade couldn't quite know every possible way the demons here prepare. Not unless he had that local that could tell him.

And to add more to that, Illy and Leon were up there. Wade couldn't move somewhere else, rescue had to be done here. So even if he decided not to recruit the demon, he'd still be spending some time right here trying to escape. Which meant the demon was going to respawn right by them anyhow eventually.

"All right, I'll try to recruit him and see what we can all do together." Wade said, nodding.

New Regional Quest: Rescue Operation - Successfully free five Blackrotten Infernal Essences. Rewards: One Storefront Coin. Additional Follow-up Questline.

"Oh, neat."

Except there'd be four more he'd need to 'rescue' - which meant staying down here under the mithril sea. Dangerous idea.

Of course, Play was all over it.

AYYYOO, Perfect quest and farming ground two-in-one, plus more NPC recruits for your gang AND a chance at follow-up quests from here.

My plan just keeps on paying dividends.

Make sure you thank me profusely later mortal, a goddess deserves worship ( ˘▽˘)っ♨

Wade rolled his eyes. Eri clicked his jaws a few times.

"We'll see what the guide says about how hard it is to survive down here. If it sounds way too cutthroat, we're scaling the mountain up."

(;￣Д￣)

Wade gave a look around the clearing. Nothing showing up, it seemed killing that blackrotten apex predator basically scared everyone else off for now. They could stand to wait a little here.

He did have a backpack filled with clothing, so maybe something could fit the giant minotaur looking creature. Or at least get tied around the waist.

Fortunately blackrot obscured a lot of the body shape and size with the motes of mist flickering outwards, but Wade didn't want to spend the rest of this round accidentally seeing balls dangling or the attached carrot. Not his prefered cup of tea.

"Alright, well if we're going to be staying here for a little bit, might as well clear the area out, make sure nothing bites us by accident and ruins everything."

He turned to Eri, who clicked his jaw and wiggled a foot. Bug-stomping time?

Wade nodded. Bug stomping time. And he couldn't do the bug stomping. Only Eri could.

The pair roved the open clearing now, looking for anything dangerous. Wade acted as the spotter, using identify to catch things within 25 yards away, and then sent Eri to expel the pests out of their territory.

All of them were level one, and all had the minimum size of a finger. Smaller insects like ants or worms just didn't have the biomass needed for blackrot it appeared. But they were certainly eaten by the ecosystem here.

Fortunately, nothing here seemed to have wings. So he didn't have to worry about a demonic cockroach flying out of nowhere at him. It was an oddity he only noticed after he realized there weren't any flies or mosquitos here in hell.

Which seemed like there should be, given it was hell.

The only other item of interest Wade found while playing minesweeper with Eri was a bit nostalgic.

Prescription Glasses (Low Quality)

They'd landed on a mud pile, and had sunk into it deep. Almost covered. Wade reached down and picked them back up, wiping the mud off.

Last round he'd been certain those glasses were gone for good, falling through the mithril sea along with the rest of his clothing. Which, come to think of it, should probably be scattered around here somewhere. Maybe blown a bit, but should be nearby.

More gear is more gear, and there might be a reason to get more clothing here in case the crew and him decided to run a demon rescue operation.

But as he walked around clearing the area with Eri, he grew more and more worried about Illy and Leon.

He was pretty sure he knew what'd he'd do in their shoes - ask to get tied up to a very long rope, and then inched downwards until they peaked under the mithril sea. It probably wouldn't be that big of a drop, the cloud layer wasn't super thick.

They'd drop her down like an old diving suit, that way she could get a lay of the land under the ship and possibly spot Wade. It would've been a simple, quick solution to getting back in touch with each other. Zero chance the fishing boat didn't have rope. It looked like a rural fishing boat, With a small cabin as the only modern-looking item that he could think of, but the rest? All ropes and simple woodworking.

So they should have plenty of ropes for this.

Instead, there hadn't been any trace of them at all. Nothing.

In the time he'd waited for something to happen, they'd even found his old clothing - which was took a lot less time, Identify basically pointed out the needles in a haystack with a glowing arrow the moment he was nearby - and they'd gone and killed a few blackrotten rabbits sprinting away from them As they expanded their search radius.

They could run fast, they couldn't outrun an electrified bullet and a giant greatsword coming down on their prone bodies.

Interesting note, none of the animals dissolved into particles. He eventually asked Play.

They aren't demon-demons. Hell still has dirt and stuff, life's going to find a way, especially completely left to its own like this. Just actual demons in the primordial sense come back to life.

"You know… is it really hell if it feels like just another parallel world?" The lack of mosquitoes and burning heat felt odd. And supposedly, further away from mountains, it was a desert? Wade found it very wet around here, filled with moss. Ahead it was just a deep valley of green and shrubs as far as he could see, interwoven around a bunch of stone fortresses, ruins of different older cities.

No, it's called hell is because that's where all the demons are bound and where Death was supposed to ferry souls into.

A pause passed.

Actually, now that Death is kicking rocks somewhere and the demons aren't really doing old demon things, maybe you're kinda right?

"Is Death… like, dead?" Wade asked. "If he hasn't been seen in centuries or something, doesn't that mean he's gone?"

Naw, when Gods are killed they fragment into smaller shards and different domains. There aren't any gods that have any domains related to Death, so we know he's still alive. You'd think Pestilence, but that guy is a distant descendent of Life like I am. Plagues are alive y'know?

Ruin would be the closest to Death, but his domain isn't the end of something, just the decay of it. You might even run into him in the spirit realm where he floats around, weird dude, don't make eye contact. (>ᴗ•)

His chat with Play was interrupted, not by a sound but instead a distortion in the air. Eri spotted it first, quickly walking over to Wade to tap him on the shoulder.

It wasn't exactly where they'd killed the demon, but it was close enough. Then the haze and the air started to grow into something more present.

Level 0 Reconstituting Greater Infernal Essence - 100%

"Well, looks like he's coming back. " Wade said, getting the glock ready. Eri lifted the nathir sword and equally took point.

Wade watched as the haze turned into a ball of red darkness, growing into a massive hulking shape than was let go from the air all at once, landing hard against the muddy ground, hooves taking on the impact easily. The darkness receded almost as if absorbed back into a more stereotypical white goat hair. In fact, as Wade realized, it hadn't been a Minotaur. It was more of a Caprit. A satyr?

The demon loomed over them both, goat-like eyes opening wide for the first time, then looking down.

Right on Wade.

Rescue Operation: 1/5 Infernal Essences freed.

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