Devil's Rise

Chubs trotted off in his slow fas.h.i.+on like I had discussed with him before. It didn"t take long for the lowly human to miraculously "catch up" with us.

"Wait Soulless!" yelled s.h.i.+ Da as he struggled to catch up with the slow-moving Chubs. He was having trouble adjusting to the gravity it seemed. This human was pathetic.

"What do you want human?" I said.

"I"ll check out this mine of yours," said s.h.i.+ Da.

"Fine, sign here," I said as I tossed him a devil contract.

It was a simple contract that stated he would have to help me excavate the mine and touch nothing within it. I would trade the ores he delivered at a four to one ratio for equivalent herbs. He would also have to a.s.sist me in attacking the Serpent Cedar tree. After reading up the devil contract, s.h.i.+ Da was furious!

"You want me to trade with you at a four to one ratio Soulless, you"re going too far!" said s.h.i.+ Da.

"This gracious young lord is allowing you the freedom to mine in a safe environment, avoiding the wind and the rain. In return you will get many herbs, making your path to Grape Alchemist easy," I said.

"I"ll let you know this young lord is already a Grape Alchemist. Following me is the path to salvation. If you are too foolish to accept my generous terms, I have nothing more to discuss with you," I said as I threw him a bottle of Tier-3 healing pills.

"You"re already a Grape Alchemist? How d"you even find the time to do alchemy here?" said s.h.i.+ Da as he looked upon the bottle of pills.

My last bit of information was too much for his feeble mind to handle. While he was struggling barely able to keep himself alive this young lord had even advanced in alchemy. He downed the pills and quickly signed the contract, tossing aside his worthless pride.

"Good Good. You will make an excellent miner, s.h.i.+ Da," I said.

I let s.h.i.+ Da climb on the back of Chubs, as we made our way swiftly to my cave.

Now that I had s.h.i.+ Da and the raptor to mine for me, I was all set. My two minions, one red-feathered raptor, and one arrogant human would work tirelessly excavating the mine. All these glorious ores would find their way into my capable hands.

s.h.i.+ Da got along well with the raptor I had subdued. He begged me to be able to use the raptor as a companion, and I accepted his proposal. With the raptor by his side, s.h.i.+ Da felt much safer in the Savage Land. After bringing s.h.i.+ Da to the cave, I got into a steady rhythm.

In the morning I would head out with Chubs to go find new herbs to fill my bag, in the afternoon I would practice my alchemy, and in the evening I became more familiar with my Daos. My mastery as a Grape Alchemist proceeded unimpeded. The quasi-Viscount flame essence I had made it very simple to form Dark Violet pill cores.

I decided I would stay in the Savage Land until I reached Indigo Alchemist. My greed couldn"t let go of so many precious resources. I swapped to veganism, refining plant-based meal supplement pills for s.h.i.+ Da and I so we wouldn"t grow hungry in our long stay. I also put Chubs on a diet of meal supplement pills so he wouldn"t go wandering off anymore destroying G.o.d"s precious resources. The only G.o.d around here was me, so that d.a.m.ned greedy turtle couldn"t keep eating my things.

s.h.i.+ Da was glad to accompany me on this extended excursion. He spent most of his day mining while practicing his alchemy at night. The amount of herbs he could get by trading in what he mined was way more than he could get by heading out and risking his life.

The ore mine was plentiful, with several mineral veins. After seeing how deep they were digging, I wondered if I was the one that got the short end of this deal. There was only a limited range in which I could go with Chubs to find herbs. I wouldn"t dare step one foot out of the Pterodactyl"s territory knowing that ancient ones were out there.

I now had a litany of Tier-2 and Tier-3 ores, when I headed back to the Zagell Empire I would be a member of the nouveau riche.

Lower worlds were much more plentiful in resources than pocket worlds. Just by camping at this one mine with two Barons, I was making way more than I could in the Earthen World or the Tutan World. These weren"t even precious resources here, considering the top existences of this world were Tier-6 ent.i.ties.

A year pa.s.sed in the blink of an eye.

I had filled my storage bag to the brim. I sliced out a gigantic room in the cave to store my gains, wondering how I would take them out of this Savage Land. I had gotten overstuffed from my greed and was thinking of a solution to my problem when luckily s.h.i.+ Da came with marvelous news. During his routine digging, he had spotted a Void Ore deposit!

Void Ore was a Tier-4 ore that could be used to create storage equipment. I told him to not disturb the Void Ore deposit for now, mainly cause I didn"t want to trade Tier-4 herbs for Tier-4 ores.

"That wasn"t a part of our deal," said s.h.i.+ Da.

"I have altered the deal, pray I don"t alter it any further," I said releasing my u003cHollow Aurau003e, now my u003cHollow Aurau003e had some tooth back in it. This young lord had killed quite a few Barons in his travels during the past year.

"This deals getting worse all the time!" said s.h.i.+ Da as he headed off upset.

I called the red-feathered raptor and searched his soul to find out more about the cave since he had once called this place home. From his memories, I found that the raptors avoided the area that the Void Ore was in. Surprisingly, the raptors used to be lead by a grown one, but he had lost his life when treading close to the Void Ore.

s.h.i.+ Da seemed to have been quite lucky to get away with his life after checking out that area. Something that could kill a Tier-4 ent.i.ty was not to be underestimated.