Demons were rare creatures. They shared their borders with dragons, who kept their numbers in check.
Dragons were no allies of humanity, but unlike what the elders loved to preach, even they treated demons with caution.
That was why I had never considered becoming a demon hunter.
Until one kidnapped me.
Looking back, I couldn’t even call it a mistake. If anything, I was still breathing because of everything that encounter had forced me to learn.
I saw it.
The demon was wary of me.
It didn’t need to be. I was pathetically weak against his injured self. It could force me in a corner if I showed even the slightest of submission.
But that’s what I didn’t lack. Confidence.
"I can end this peacefully," I said, wiping the blood from beneath my nose. "Give me a piece of your tongue. That will be my reward."
"You fucking swine!" it roared.
Its fury was understandable. Low-born demons died the moment they lost their tongues.
A bizarre quirk of their biology.
Nothing more.
With a savage howl, it lunged, jaws spread wide enough to swallow my head.
I couldn’t match its speed.
So I fought dirty.
Using my special eyes, I inhaled a sharp breath. Everything slowed down, giving me enough time to drop low, and scoop up a handful of loose debris before flinging it to its face.
"Gah!"
The distraction lasted only a heartbeat.
It was enough...for now.
I sprang to the side, leaped into the air, and drove my knife into the thinnest stretch of its wing. My weight carried through the strike, ripping a long, ugly gash across the leathery membrane.
"GAAAAAH! You fucking cunt!"
BOOM!
The demon’s roar exploded with unnatural force, amplified by dark magic.
The shockwave hurled me backward.
For a moment, my senses went numb. A sharp whistle filled my ears as the world spun around me.
My back slammed into a jagged rock, sparing me from tumbling down the hillside.
By the time I looked up, the demon was already charging.
It had abandoned the skies.
Good.
I steadied my breathing and stayed on the ground, waiting.
"DIE, YOU MAGGOT!"
It raised both claws and brought them crashing down.
In doing so, it exposed the one place every male creature instinctively protected.
I drove my foot upward with everything I had and kicked the jewels.
"NGG... AAAAH!"
That scream was infinitely more satisfying.
The pain was unbearable even for a demon.
I grinned.
Before it could recover, I buried the fruit knife into the soft flesh beneath its throat.
The blade slipped in with horrifying ease.
That spot was so fragile I could probably have pierced it with my fingers.
Hot blood poured over my clothes.
Ignoring it, I twisted the knife deeper as I slowly pushed myself to my feet.
The demon thrashed wildly, its claws tearing into me again and again.
I never tried to avoid every strike.
I only protected the parts of my body I couldn’t afford to lose.
When I finally stood at my full height, the creature before me had become little more than a twitching corpse, drenched in its own blood as the light slowly vanished from its eyes.
"I got lucky," I muttered, letting out a long breath.
It had already been wounded before it found me.
Otherwise, in my current state...
I would have died long before landing that final blow.
[Host, the duration has ended. The effects of <Demon Slayer> are wearing off.]
The notification faded.
So did my courage.
The fearless calm that had filled my mind vanished as though someone had ripped it away.
I stumbled back.
A shiver crawled down my spine as I stared at the massive corpse lying before me.
I lowered my gaze to my hands.
They were still warm.
Not from my own blood.
From its.
"That feeling..."
I stared at my trembling fingers in disbelief.
I had killed.
Not in desperation or in blind panic.
I had hunted it with absolute conviction, as though slaying demons was the most ordinary thing in the world.
The job had changed the way I thought.
And that realization terrified me far more than the demon ever had.
[+2 Strength]
[+2 Endurance]
[+1 Intelligence]
[+1 Speed]
[+200 Lumina]
[+25 Credit Points]
[Host, your updated stats are:
Strength: 8/10
Speed: 6/10
Endurance: 10/10
Perception: 6/10
Lumina: 250/10
Fatigue: 8/10]
[Credit Points: 70]
[Congratulations on your first hunt. You have earned one Golden Token.]
[Golden Tokens: 2]
A cascade of notifications flashed before my eyes.
Only after reading through them did I truly grasp how much I had gained from my first real hunt.
A slow breath escaped my lips.
I lowered myself onto a nearby rock and stared at the demon’s lifeless corpse.
My first hunt in this world...
And after a mere mouse, the next thing I had killed was an actual demon.
"..."
For a moment, I simply sat there, letting the absurdity sink in.
"Pfft..."
A laugh slipped out before I could stop it.
"Ahahaha..."
The sound echoed through the quiet surroundings.
This was utterly ridiculous.