Chapter 4: A new beginning [3]
"Gob!"
Now holding the wooden club that I had created for him, Gob seemed like he was a lot more confident than me as we were walking out of the large tower, having taken the hidden magic elevator down to the bottom floor which was more or less just a lounge-looking room with a big staircase.
I had already wasted so much time to make sure that I could regenerate enough DE to not only create a wooden club but also to make sure I had enough for myself when going out to fight, that I didn't want to stall anymore.
Therefore, despite how insanely out of place I felt, we ventured out to the dirt-ridden plains outside of the tower, enjoying the sun high up in the blue skies. Or at least we would have, if not for the fact that the entire sky was covered with dark clouds.
Taking a look around me, there was nothing but gloom and doom, and although there were some trees here and there, they were all pitch-black without a single leaf on them. Even the forest that I could see in the distance was purely made up of these black, dull-looking things that shouldn't be able to exist, considering the fact that there was no semblance of moisture in the ground at all.
More than ever, I felt the imposter syndrome that I had experienced so many times in the past find its place within my head, only this time it was more than warranted.
"Gob!"
Thankfully, I had the very motivated and passionate Gob at my side, looking at me with a smile that told me 'I've got this, master'. Sadly, the fact that the green creature half my size was confident didn't help my anxiety much.
I had been so determined as to not show Tatiana that I was completely clueless that I didn't dare to ask these kinds of things. In fact, I hadn't even asked her how to use my skills. Or, skill, I guess.
'[Demon Claws]'
Luckily for my, simply thinking about the ability was enough for me to feel a small drain of my energy, followed by the sight of seeing my nail elongating, and finally sharpening themselves into lethal weapons.
Just as much as it looked pretty disgusting, seeing my nails grow and turn into a dark, almost black color, it also looked extremely cool.
Then, out of nowhere, just as suddenly as if I had been walking through a patch of grass in the popular video game Pakomon, a monster showed up in front of us.
Even smaller than Gob, a liquidy blue blob had shown its... face? Whatever. Anyway, a blue slime had shown up, not doing much other than bobbling around the ground, not caring much about the two extremely dangerous predators that had now found it in their sights.
'I can do this...!'
With my claws still proudly sitting on the ends of my hands, I dashed forward, surprising myself a bit when feeling the improved specs of my body. Never in my life had I ever felt so light, and never had I ever been able to move so quickly as I did now.
Noticing my approach, the slime put his... eyes? He turned his gaze...? The slime noticed me dashing toward him, preparing itself for combat by... not doing much at all.
*Splat!*
An explosion of disgusting slime was detonated as my claws utterly and completely destroyed my enemy, covering my face and body with the repulsive blue substance. And despite that, I couldn't stop myself from celebrating, a celebration that Gob quickly joined in on as he raised his club to the dark sky.
I had done it. I had achieved victory. A victory that brought with it a very tangible sense of power, enough that it actually made me think that something had happened to my body. And that, it had.
===Status===
Name: Aldric the Demon King
Race: Imp
Level: 2
Strength: 4
Agility: 4
Stamina: 4
Intelligence: 3
Free stat points: 1
Demonic energy: 13/15
Traits: [Blood of the Patriarch]
Skills: [Demon Claws]
==========
'I already leveled up?! This quickly?!'
I wasn't sure if it was because I had only been level one, or if it had something to do with the fact that I was supposedly a demon king, but simply killing one slime had been enough for me to level up.
With that, I also got to see a new part of my status, below the numerical numbers for my stats.
'Free stat point? Does that mean I can put it wherever I want?'
This was the only reasonable explanation in my head, which was both cause for celebration, while at the same time being the cause of a major headache for me.
Because that meant that I would have to start thinking of how I was going to fight in the future. And I wasn't even sure what kind of demon I would become.
Then again, it wasn't as if I felt like I had the breathing room to just wait. Anyway I could get stronger as fast as possible was extremely desirable right now. Therefore, I once again pretended like I knew what I was doing and made my decision, hoping that my way of thinking was correct.
===Status===
Name: Aldric the Demon King
Race: Imp
Level: 2
Strength: 4
Agility: 4
Stamina: 4
Intelligence: 4
Free stat points: 0
Demonic energy: 13/20
Traits: [Blood of the Patriarch]
Skills: [Demon Claws]
==========
'Oh, thank god...'
It was quite fortunate that I was right about my little deduction that the intelligence stat had a direct correlation to how much DE I could store in my body, which in this case was a correlation of one to five. Simply put, for every point in intelligence, my DE would increase by five.
"Gob?"
Confused as to why I was suddenly releasing a huge breath in relief, Gob gently tapped my leg, wanting to know what was going on, looking up with a worried face at me.
"Ah, it's nothing, Gob. Everything is fine. Now, let's continue to hunt some monsters!"
"Gob!"
==========
Having now spent a few hours hunting monsters, which so far only consisted of slimes due to the fact that I didn't dare to venture too far away from my tower, I knew that I had no choice but to stop for the day.
To some degree due to the fact that I was getting quite exhausted, but mostly because of the fact that I was more or less out of DE. And looking at my status, I wasn't too surprised to see that my feeling had been right.
===Status===
Name: Aldric the Demon King
Race: Imp
Level: 3
Strength: 5
Agility: 5
Stamina: 5
Intelligence: 6
Free stat points: 0
Demonic energy: 1/30
Traits: [Blood of the Patriarch]
Skills: [Demon Claws]
==========
It was a bit unfortunate that even though killing the first slime had made me instantly level up, it had taken more than twenty of them to reach level 3. Not that I actually knew how long it normally took for someone to level up.
"Gob..."
Looking down at the very sad Gob at my side, who was incredibly disappointed that I hadn't allowed him to fight even once, I somehow had a feeling that if I concentrated enough that I could...
===Status===
Name: Gob
Race: Goblin
Level: 5
Strength: 12
Agility: 5
Stamina: 8
Intelligence: 2
Free stat points: 0
Mana: 0/0
Traits: [Gob]
Skills: [Club Attack]
==========
And there it was, Gob's own status panel, now clearly showing up in front of me, telling me the ins and outs of his stats.
'Wait... is Gob stronger than me?'
Now seeing Gob in an entirely new light, having found out that he was currently more suited to being the demon king than I was, I couldn't stop myself from taking a step back, making the sad goblin now also become quite confused.
"Gob?"
"Nothing..."
Not wanting him to find out that I was now looking at him as a higher creature than myself, I kept on walking, entering the huge, black tower that was my new home, trying to hide the tear in the corner of my eye.
It didn't take long until we had ridden the hidden, magic elevator to the top floor where my guide and attendant was waiting for us, simply sitting on one of the steps that led to the slight elevation on which the throne stood.
"You have returned, master. I take it as you having a had a good hunt."
"Gob..."
Her long white hair bobbed a bit as she stood up, and her face was just as expressionless as ever, though I felt like I could see her excitement through her aloofness, ignoring the sad goblin by my side.
"I did, but now I would just like to wash my body."
As I was still drenched in liquid goo from top to bottom, I wanted nothing more but to end the day of with a nice bath, followed by a hearty meal. Which was all well, except for the fact that we didn't have any food here as demons didn't need to eat.
The only food that was available was meant for the monsters to eat, which looked like some sort of disgusting meat porridge which the tower created automatically through a weird magical device on the fourth floor.
Thus, I had to settle for just a bath.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone