Demonic Devourer's Development

'Where else would I go?' Pest's voice, much less annoying now with how bitter it was, appeared in my head once again.

'Doesn't matter where, I still own your nonexistent ass,' I grinned, then noticed Rosha staring at me in confusion, and forced my muscles into relaxing. ​​

"Let me think for a moment," I said to her, and focused on my internal dialogue. 'One of your hosts was the teammate of the adventurers who chased me in the forest, right? Do you know their levels?'

'Yes, and maybe.'

I clenched my teeth together. Well, I fully expected him to fight me on every turn. 'Try again. What were their levels?'

'The last I know, two were at fourth and one at fifth.'

I hummed. That gave me some comparison. 'So they weren't some nobodies… They were in silver rank, right?'

'Yes.'

I decided that was enough from Pest. I focused on Rosha again. "What ARE those levels, actually? Do you have them?"

I saw surprise in her eyes as she shook her head. "Me? No, I'm not an adventurer! Voren, you don't know anything at all about classes?"

"We don't have those in Hell," I pointed out sourly. "My ignorance isn't a point of shame. It's worthy of pride to know anything at all about this place! I could've been just an insect, like billions of others, but here I am, before you!" I spread my hands and wings and puffed my chest, showing off my might in form of muscle. Not much of it in this fresh body, sadly. But eventually…

"Right," Rosha's eyes snapped to my wings again before she wrenched them to my face. "Well, classes are gods' blessings on the world… Or so they say. Anyone who enlists into Adventurer's guild gets one. There are twelve, one for each god—"

"Yes, that I know. I know all the bastards…" I tsked. "I think I hate God of Paladins the most. Spineless coward. He probably goaded everyone on me in the first place."

"Uh… Well, if you have a class, you can gain EXP by killing monsters. No one knows what exactly EXP stands for… Most people think it's 'expertise' or 'experience'… I think expertise makes more sense. After you get enough EXP, you gain a level. Each time you do, you gain new abilities and your stats increase."

"Interesting," I muttered to myself. "EXP from killing… Just from killing, Rosha?"

She nodded. "Though, getting a class doesn't make you all-powerful. You have to learn to fight all by yourself." Rosha huffed. "Most people just pick up some easy class, like the wizard or the druid ones, and call it a day. Why spend hours learning to swing a sword when you can just wave your hand to throw fireballs at enemies?"

Classes, abilities… I wondered if I could evolve those, too. I never ate anyone with a class before… More powerful creatures gave me more EXP, so adventurers should give more than normal people, shouldn't they? I licked my lips, already wondering what abilities I might add to my evolution list after eating Teren, and made a bite of another biscuit.

"What class Teren is, Rosha?"

"Oh, right, I forgot to say! He is a warlock. It means he uses dark magic. Warlocks can even summon demons from Hell, though not ones like you…"

I narrowed my eyes. Magic user of sixth or seventh level, with what I knew about magic users, promised trouble. "Interesting. Alright… Let's assume I don't have much time to work with before Teren leaves the city, but it won't happen today."

A single glance at the tiny kitchen window was enough to tell. Twilight was falling on the city. Who would start a journey so late if they couldn't see in the dark?

Rosha gave me a long, hesitating look. After a few seconds, she took a deep breath and said, "You can sleep here, if you don't have anywhere to stay, Voren. I can make you a pallet on the floor."

I accessed my stamina. Slight discomforts were often hard to notice after you grew used to always running on your second and third breath. The real problems began when you started to burn EXP to keep moving. Right now, only a slightest cobweb of fatigue was on my muscles that didn't even walk much. My head was in a worse state, but my thoughts were still sharp.

"I won't be sleeping tonight, Rosha. I have a murder to plan." And execute, if everything went well. I finished my cookie. Two more left. "Though, if you feel helpful, you can cook me something. It's been a while since I ate anything freshly cooked…"

"Well," Rosha hesitated again. "I should be cooking lunch, anyway. I can make you a portion, just put on your cloak and don't even look wrong at my sister, understood?"

"What is a wrong way to look? Upside down?" I grinned at Rosha's angry face. "Fine, I won't touch your precious sister. I like you better anyway. Your eyes are especially stunning because you have that tough look in them."

Rosha's cheeks reddened. I didn't have to be a genius to say that she didn't appreciate anything I just said.

All the advice that told to 'just be yourself' was a lie… If I knew how to give girls compliments in a way that made them swoon and fall to my feet, I wouldn't need to pay them for sex… With money or murder. Though since in this case murder meant trying out a taste of an adventurer, it was a double win scenario.

"You better!" Rosha threw at me with a huff and stomped out.

Well, at least I had some cookies left. Now, to think about how I would kill that guy Teren…