Seeing the demon, who had been dragging his name in the mud, insulting him repeatedly, looking down on him like he was dirt, grinding his face in the dirt like so, felt sweet in Astaroth's mind.
"Master Astaroth, this lowly demon has wronged you! I swear on my name and rank that I will never again commit such a sin! Please forgive me and accept my eternal fealty to you!"
Solomon contained a burst of laughter, seeing this overly prideful demon react this way. It made total sense, given how he had just been eradicated in a single attack.
But it was a sight to behold, nonetheless.
Astaroth smirked. He wanted to step on his head so badly, just to make the demon feel powerless.
But that wasn't the type of person he was.
Kneeling down, he put his hand on the demon's shoulder.
"Stop grovelling. You're embarrassing yourself. Let's just call it water under the bridge and move on. Build a better relationship with me from now on."
The Duke of hell jumped to his feet, keeping his body bent at a ninety-degree angle.
"Yes, Master Astaroth! I will serve you faithfully and with respect for eternity!"
Astaroth clicked his tongue, annoyed. But Solomon waved his hand, making the demon disappear.
"Don't mind his total attitude change, young man," Solomon said, walking toward him.
"In hell, power is paramount. You just proved to him you had power on par with some Kings of hell. So it's a given his attitude is so different."
"But does he need to turn into such a boot licker?"
Solomon laughed loudly at the question. It wasn't common for a mortal to call a Duke of hell a bootlicker.
"In any case, my time here comes to an end. I am glad this issue could be fixed. It might not be the last time you have to put one of these troublemakers in their place, but I believe most of them should have learned their lesson."
Astaroth nodded in understanding. A moment later, Solomon disappeared like fog in the wind.
Left alone once again, Astaroth turned to Aberon, who was still looking to where Solomon had disappeared.
That was when he noticed a new notification, as well as the flashing message icon in his interface.
Tapping the notification first, he read it and smiled.
*Spell Learned*
*You have once again found a new application to the spell Stone Bullet, upgrading its mastery from level 2 to level 3. Spell created: Railgun. Congratulations, player Astaroth!*
Opening his spell list, he noticed the cooldown on Stone Bullet had gone down by one second again, reaching two seconds. At this pace, he would end up with no cooldown on the spell when he reached mastery level five.
But that wasn't what most impressed him. The new spell on his list was.
Mastery Spell 3; Railgun: Your knowledge of modern science has formed this spell. Overloading a magnetic bullet with Aether, you have augmented its magnetic capacities, making it the perfect lethal projectile. This one bullet must travel upon a preformed path to its target, and the target must be marked. Marking the target requires hitting it with at least one magnetic bullet beforehand. Channelling time: 3 seconds (Path must already be laid and target marked). Aether cost: 5 AP. Cooldown: 30 minutes. Damage: 5,000%
'Such a high damage percentage!'
Five thousand percent was the raw stat for the spell. Astaroth knew full well some spells could be boosted when charged with more Aether.
If this one could be as well, he might have just gained a killer move. Looking at it from a neutral standpoint, this was still just the Stone Bullet spell, but with superior power and application.
He wanted to send a message in the guild chat as soon as possible, to tell the others to experiment as much as possible with their basic spells. But he had a message to open first.
Opening up his messaging interface, he saw a message from Violette.
*Astaroth, could you come back to the base soon? There is a prince here that wants to see you. He goes by the name Nalafein.*
'Nalafein? Do I even know someone with that name?'
His mind flashed with the image of a young boy Ash Elf. But he shook his head in disbelief.
'It can't be him. What would he be doing so far away from his palace?'
But another message was flashing, this one from Phoenix.
*Call ASAP. No time to message.*
If it was urgent enough for her to ask him to call, it was not a simple matter. But he wanted to at least go say hi to all the villagers first, and he still had a few questions to answer from Aberon.
He responded to her message.
*Busy right now. Call you soon.*
After sending his message, he turned back toward Aberon.
"Alright, Aberon. Before I answer your questions, how about we go say hello to everyone? It's been a while since they've seen me."
Aberon snapped out of his thoughts and agreed.
But taking one step toward the makeshift settlement, he stopped and turned around again. His face seemed grave.
"I have to warn you, young man. Ten years is a long time, and many things have happened. You might not recognize everyone here."
"I expect as much," Astaroth said, waving his hand dismissively.
Aberon seemed unsure about his reaction. But he turned around and started walking again.
Reaching the outskirts of the village, Astaroth could already see a few of the warriors, swinging swords in the background. They seemed young at first, but he guessed it was the next generation of militia.
It had been ten years, after all.
Walking toward the fire in the center of the settlement, he recognized a form from behind. The silhouette was all too familiar to him, since he had fought by his side many times.
Stepping forward faster, Astaroth came up behind the man, slapping his back and yelling out.
"Korin! Long time no see, friend!"
But when he cleared the side of the crate, the man was seated on; he froze in terror.
"What in god's name happened to you?!"
"Astaroth. Is that you?"
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