Chapter 3 – 1. Floor of Hell

Azazel looked down towards the volcano's floor and thought about different ways how he could get down there. Unfortunately, he didn't find any way how to get safely down, so he tried the safest available option. As he was watching the other demons, he noticed that every time before magma spews out, the volcano rumbles a bit and every time it does, the demons use the cracks on the wall to hide in.

Azazel thought that, that was the only way he could really get down there, without dying. So he waited one more time until magma spewed out and as soon as it did, he immeadietly crawled down the wall. Thankfully he had a lot of agility, so he was quite faster then the other demons. Well except the flying ones.

*RUMBLE*

The volcano started to rumble, so Azazel quickly searched for cracks near him. He saw one and rushed towards it. Just as he reached inside the crack-

*BOOM*

The volcano spewed out a lot of magma. It was so close, that Azazel felt a lot of heat towards his feet. He was sure, that if he wasn't a devil, that he would already be cooked. Out of the crack, where Azazel was, dozens of small demons crawled out. Azazel was still a bit flustered, so he waited for the next time interval.

*RUMBLE*

*BOOM*

As soon as the magma once again spewed out, Azazel rushed down the wall, to get as far as possible in the 1 minute interval. However, this time he always watched out for any possible hiding spots, so that the magma wouldn't be so close again. In quick succesions, he swiftly crawled from crack to crack, being ready for the rumbling.

*RUMBLE*

The moment that Azazel heard that sound, he immeadietly crawled inside the nearest crack. Thankfully, since he deliberately stayed near cracks, he easily escaped inside one before magma spewed out. Inside the crack were many different kinds of demons but Azazel didn't pay much attention to them. He was more concerned about how he will reach the bottom of the volcano.

*BOOM*

Fortunately, due to his high agility stat, it looked like there wasn't much more to crawl. So, he crawled very fast down the wall and finally reached the bottom. On the bottom of the volcano, there was a massive underground floor, that extended so far, that he could not see the end of it. He quickly used observation on the ground.

[Observation!]

[1. Floor of Hell. The weakest floor of Hell, mostly inhabited by weaker demons.]

It looked like some kind of forest, that had many spots that were burned. It had multiple magma rivers flowing through it, all flowing in the same direction. Near the magma rivers were the black crystals again, that were showing the way, but these down here weren't glowing red. As Azazel was taking the scenery in, the rumbling was once again heard. he then remembered that a lot of demons will soon come down here and that he should probably get as far away from here, as soon as possible.

Normally Azazel would've stayed and leveled a bit more, however there were a few factors why he couldn't do that. First of all, he had almost no stamina left from all that fighting and now because of that crawling. Second of all, the bigger problem was, that he didn't know this place at all.

If he guessed right and this really is the home of demons, then there should be a lot more of them here and they should probably also be higher level. Right now he has no way of hiding, no levels to match theirs, no stamina left, is slightly injrued and doesn't know the area. So of course it would be a bad idea to stay and fight even more.

Therefore, he did the best thing in his opinion and stealthly went away, searching for a home. On the way he met many other demons, all of them higher level then him. Thankfully he was rather small and nimble, so they didn't see him. Aa he was just walking between some charred bushes, he suddenly heard a noise.

Now that noise could mean anything but if Azazel learned anything since he came down to this floor, it's that there aren't too many friendly things down here. He also didn't meet any demons that weren't massively stronger then him, so he did the smartest thing. He ran away.

*WUFF* *RUFF*

He heard multiple things barking behind him, so while he was still runinng away, he sneaked a glance back. He saw about 5 black dogs with curvy horns follwing him. He quickly used observe on them.

[Level: 15]

[Race: Demon]

[Evolution: Lesser Hellhound]

[Level: 14]

[Race: Demon]

[Evolution: Lesser Hellhound]

...

'LEVEL 15?!' Azazel mentally asked himself.

He just recently won against a level 2 frog and that with some difficulties. How is he supposed to win against 5 Hellhounds that are level 15? Even running away is basically impossible!

Azazel was running with all his power but even that barely made a difference. The Hellhounds were just too fast! They were quickly catching up to him, so he had to think of something or else he would be minced meat!

*RUFF*

While running, he saw something. A devilish chance! A bit farther away was a giant tree with a hole on it's foot, leading to something underground. Altough it's risky to go in random holes, he didn't have any other choice!

Azazel already saw himself saved, until he felt something hot passing beside him. It was a fireball! Looking back at the hellhounds, he saw them opening their snout. Inside their snout a bright orange began to build.

'They shooting fireball on me?!' Azazel wondered angrily.

It looks like they caught onto his idea and didn't want their prey to escape. That they didn't even take him seriously in the beginning angered Azazel, however he couldn't do anything other then grit his theeth and hope to reach the hole before they hit him.

*PFEW* *PFHEW* *PFEW* *PFHEW* *PFEW* *PFHEW*

Multiple close death moments later, Azazel almost reached the hole. He already had a smile on his face, having escaped such a great foe. In that moment of celebration, he got careless and immeadietly payed the price for that.

*boom*

A fireball hit him on his back and exploded there. He suffered great injuries and was on the brink of unconsciousness. Thankfully, the explosion kicked him towards the hole and he quickly jumped inside. When he reached the inside, he noticed that it was something aking to a very humid cave.

The hellhounds tried getting inside the hole but failed due to their size. They apperently however, really wanted that kill, so they shot fireballs inside the underground cave. Azazel, with his last bit of power, rushed deeper into the cave to avoid the fireballs. After a bit of running, he finally had no power left and fell unconcious on the ground.

~~~

'Ugh, everythings hurting.' Azazel complained, while groggily opening his eyes.

He saw a very dark cave, that felt very humid. Unfortunately he couldn't really concentrate on that, because of the huge amount of pain on his back. Trying to look at his back, Azazel sees some scorch marks but can't turn around completely. After a bit more of lying on the floor, Azazel finally decides to stand up and look around.

He could barely see anything at the start but his pupils slowly adapted to the dark. He didn't know if the hellhounds were still waiting outside, so he decided to walk deeper inside the cave. After a bit of walking, he stumbled upon a giant spider nest and many webs.

*screech* *screech* *screech*

Most of the nest was full of unhatched spider eggs but some of the baby spiders were already born and were screeching towards him. They tried to intimidate Azazel, while trying to protect the eggs behind them, but that didn't really work against him. The eggs were about as big as half his body and the baby spider were just a tad bigger. He decided that he shouldn't underestimate them and used observation on them.

[Observation!]

[Level: 1]

[Race: Demon]

[Evolution: Lesser Demonspider]

[Level: 2]

[Race: Demon]

[Evolution: Lesser Demonspider]

[Level: 1]

[Race: Demon]

[Evolution: Unborn Demonspider]

...

[Observation - 4 ==> Observation - 5]

After having used observation on them, he was a bit more careful. Sure, there were only a few baby spiders at level 2 but he was already injured and they had the numbers advantage. However, he really needed to level up now, so that he wouldn't be played around with by those hellhounds again. He also needed those statpoints for vitality, since altough he was healing, it was far too slow for him.

He slowly approached one of the level 2 spiders, until he was close enough and then...bam! Azazel attacked with all his agility and severely injured the spider. The other spiders didn't take kindly to that and pounced towards him, while screeching. Thankfully he had high agility, so that he could evade all those attacks, even while injured.

He once again sprinted towards the spiders and dodged all incoming attacks. As soon as he got close enough, he once again attacked the same spider he attacked before.

[Defeated Level 2 Lesser Demonspider!]

[Gained 2 Souls!]

After having defeated that spider, the remaining ones became more aggressive and most of them charged towards him. Now even with his high agility, he can't dodge all attack, if there is such a massive numbers advantage for them. Therefore, he attacked the level 1 baby spiders to dwindle their numbers, while simultaniously dodging the higher leveled spiders attacks.

[Defeated Level 1 Lesser Demonspider!]

[Gained 1 Soul!]

[Defeated Level 1 Lesser Demonspider!]

[Gained 1 Soul!]

[Defeated Level 1 Lesser Demonspider!]

[Gained 1 Soul!]

...

[Defeated Level 1 Lesser Demonspider!]

[You Leveled Up!]

[Level: 4 ==> Level: 5]

[Gained 5 Statpoints and 1 Skillpoint!]

[Gained 1 Souls!]

He got hit a few times from the weaker spider but mostly came out without extra injuries. He leveled up once and gained 11 souls. He quickly used those stats from the level, so that he could defeat the level 2 spiders more easily.

[Strenght: 8 ==> 10]

[Vitality: 7 ==> 10]

Afterwards, the level 2 spiders weren't a big problem anymore.

[Defeated Level 2 Lesser Demonspider!]

[Gained 2 Souls!]

[Defeated Level 2 Lesser Demonspider!]

[Gained 2 Souls!]

[Defeated Level 2 Lesser Demonspider!]

[Gained 2 Souls!]

[Defeated Level 2 Lesser Demonspider!]

[Gained 2 Souls!]

[Defeated Level 2 Lesser Demonspider!]

[You Leveled Up!]

[Level: 5 ==> Level: 6]

[Gained 5 Statpoints and 1 Skillpoint!]

[Gained 2 Souls!]

[Agility: 15 ==> 20]

~~~

All in all, escaping in to this cave might've been the best thing that could've happened to him. He was very happy at leveling up that easy, so decided to try something. He went to those unchated eggs and destroyed one.

[Defeated Level 1 Unborn Demonspider!]

'No soul?' Azazel wondered. After a bit of thinking, he came to the conclusion that destroying these eggs will not give him any souls but still give him levels. He thought about destroying all of those eggs right then and there, but then he thought about the souls.

'Which skill good?' Azazel thought for a while. He even sat down and really tried to come up with a good skill. Suddenly something popped into his mind, which could really help him.

5 hellhounds chasing him and then...'Fire! That's it!'

[Skill Create!]

[Specify the effect of your skill and give it a name!]

[Skill: Fire Manipulation

Effect: Gives you the ability to conjure and manipulate fire.]

[Cost: 25 Souls]

'25? I already have!' Azazel rejoiced, since he already had 26 souls and wanted to get it immeadietly but then he stopped and thought about it a bit more.

Conjuring and manipulating fire should be and impressive ability, so why does it cost less then flight? The answer was easy! Since flight was available to some demons purely through evolution and still cost more then fire manipulation, it would mean that fire manipulation is a basic skill for most demons.

Azazel wondered if he should really spent souls for an ability, that he will probably already gain through evolution. However, one thing that he still remembered was a specific sentence about evolution.

"Every 10 level you get multiple evolution choices, according to your race, stats and skills."

Especially the last part of it. If he got a fire skill before evolving, does that mean he will get evolution choices that specialize towards fire. He thought that because normally you should only gain such skills after atleast 1 evolution, it could mean that if he were to gain that skill before that, it would be possible that he will gain evolution choices that normally aren't available.

Sure, it was a risk but at worst he would lose 25 souls, that he could still gain back. Therefore he decided, that he will stay in this cave, wait for the spiders to hatch and then kill them, so that he would still gain the souls. This way, even if that investement doesn't pay off, he will still have some souls extra.

He sat down on the ground and waited for those spiders to be born, so he could spawnkill them.