Getting out of the taxi, I headed towards a café.

This place was not far from the hotel that needed to be cleaned of demons.

<<It's not every day you go into a deadly battle, you should at least treat yourself before that.>>

While I sat in the café and enjoyed a light cappuccino, the face of Maria glaring at me with contempt came to the front of my mind.

[19% => 20%↑]

<<According to her, if it were not for me, Vanessa would be much stronger, but I did not feel much difference between her and Maria..

Could it be that the two of them are equal in strength? I couldn’t catch up to Maria’s speed either.

Or is it because of my weakness that I can't tell the difference?>>

[20% => 21%↑]

This indicator ticking up all the time annoyed me.

Trying to calm myself down again, I had to think about what to do next.

<<Night is coming…hopefully, it’ll be to my advantage, but who’s to say that demons can’t see in the dark?

Best way to do this would be silently; if I don’t alert the guards, then surviving would be a breeze.

I can easily take them out with just a dagger. Luckily, I still haven’t met any demons that could see me without their eyes.>>

Having finished my coffee, I took a deep breath before exiting the café.

Finding a side alley rather hidden away, I took out clothes from my inventory and changed.

Now I was dressed in all black and with a mask that covered the lower part of my face. For once, it wasn’t a skirt nor a dress; I had added some proper tights and long-sleeved shirts to Amber’s wardrobe, especially for outings like this.

I had to leave from the other side of the place where I was hiding.

Passing several alleys, a hotel familiar to me appeared before my eyes.

I hid around the corner of one of the buildings nearby and watched the hotel.

What was strange for me was that there were humans in the hotel today.

In addition to demons, there were also white dots–nearly 20 of them.

Although it was risky, I couldn’t be sure that there wouldn’t be people here if I came back later.

And now my main goal was to gain strength.

Bypassing several roads, I approached the building and soon found myself directly under it.

<<The main entrance won’t work. According to the radar there are many demons and people, so it’d be easy to get caught.>>

Looking around, I raised my head and spotted a way to get inside.

This could be done by jumping from the roof of a neighboring building onto the roof of the hotel.

With these thoughts, I entered that building.

It was a tall parking garage, not far from the hotel.

There was a guard there, but I could easily slip by him.

After I quickly went upstairs, I measured the distance to the hotel.

This building was a little taller than the hotel, and they were about 3 meters apart.

For me, this wasn’t too far of a jump, given my Strength and Dexterity.

Taking another deep breath, I focused and moved a few meters away from the edge of the building.

I began to run as quickly as possible towards the edge and finally leap down.

I barely made it to the roof, and at the same time my legs began to ache from shock.

It was the first time for me, so I didn't know how to land correctly.

I had to sit and recuperate a while.

After 5 minutes, I went to the roof door and tried the handle.

To my surprise, it opened easily.

<<They don't lock the doors?>>

After those thoughts, I took out the dagger from my inventory, holding it in my hand. I crouched down and carefully entered inside.

I cautiously descended the stairs, observing my radar.

Finally reaching a door, I stopped and listened carefully.

There seemed to be no sounds of movement on the other side.

When I opened the door, I had to adjust to the bright light shining through.

Carefully stepping inside, I examined my surroundings.

There was no one in sight. It was a neat, well-lit hallway, with doors to rooms lining the walls.

Decorations were very simple, without unnecessary luxury. 

I looked back at my radar.

I reviewed the locations of the nearest demons, and they ended up right behind some doors on this floor. 

Approaching where one demon was supposed to be, I first checked if the door was locked. 

But, as before, it wasn’t. 

Stepping inside carefully, I found the demon sitting on the bed holding a small black ball similar to the one in the basement of the mansion where I saw people tortured. 

He didn't notice me, so I was able to cautiously move closer. 

Replacing my dagger with a katana, I stood up and swung with a quick movement. 

The head flew up to the ceiling with wide-open eyes, and behind it, the whole bed and the wall were covered with blood. 

I watched as everything but the clothing disappeared into ashes, after which my eyes turned to the black ball.

Last time I saw something like it, I didn't have time to analyze that huge ball, but there seemed to be no difference between them except for the size. 

For a moment, I thought that this could be a dangerous undertaking, but I nevertheless took it into my hands. 

It felt like I was holding a glass ball, but as I wondered what that thing was, a window appeared before my eyes. 

[{Orb of Despair} (Artifact), Mid-grade 

Description: By accumulating the despair of the soul, the orb is able to absorb and store it. 

Advice: Do not hold in your hands for a long time. Because of the negative energies stored in it, the demons can feel this item. 

Features: Accelerates the growth of demons in all aspects.] 

After reading the contents, I shoved it into my inventory without thinking further.

<<It seems to be something special for demons. Kind of sad I didn’t take that huge ball, apparently it was of better quality. 

According to the ‘advice’, it looks like I can use it as bait.>> 

Quickly clearing my thoughts, I went to the next door. 

As before, the door was unlocked here, but this time, going inside, I found an erotic scene. 

There was no time to think. I bonked the man in the back of the head with the pommel of my dagger, and quickly swung at the woman. 

As before, she couldn’t react in time. My speed and efficiency at killing these low-level demons was pretty high.. 

After checking on the man and making sure that he was okay, I looked at my experience. 

[6085/10000] 

<<Looks like they were both at level three.>>

Glancing around, this time, I did not find another Orb, so I continued my work. 

After that, I went through the whole cycle over and over again. With the exception of two, all the other doors weren’t locked . 

The last two were also easy to take care of. I simply knocked on the door, then either immediately killed the demon when they opened it, or knocked out any humans within before stabbing the demon.

<<It seems that the fact that they can hide their appearance gives them strong confidence that no one can tell they’re demons, thus lowering their guard.>> 

In the end, I cleared two floors. Looking at my experience, I was already almost at 9000. There was only a little more to go before I hit level 6. 

Once again, I went down the stairs, but this time there was something strange–the radar showed that most of the demons were grouped up.

A similar occurrence had happened before when I was last here, but I hadn’t paid much attention to it. 

Finally I went downstairs and opened the door, and went through. 

After taking a few steps, I turned to walk down the corridor. 

But. 

A crowd appeared in front of me, which startled me for a moment. 

I thought they would still be down below on the 3 remaining floors. 

So far I have killed 17 demons, most of which were level 3. 

But now, many more demons than that appeared in front of me–not only that, but there were humans there too. 

In the center of the hallway, was a towering figure, directly surrounded by most of the mooks here.

[21% => 22%↑] 

When he saw me, he started talking. 

"Well, boys, looks like the rat finally decided to show up to the party. Deal with it. Be careful around its weapons; it seems the little rat knows how to bite back."

My eyes fell on several humans within the crowd. 

There were several young humans there–yes, humans, not demons. 

Maybe they didn’t know that there were demons next to them, since all the demons took the form of people. 

<<...looks like I fucked up.>> 

With this thought, I prepared for battle. For a moment I had the urge to take out the assault rifle and blast everyone here, but the thing was, there were still other people here. 

<<Even if that’d easily take care of the big guy, that might mean I’d hit the humans around him. 

Now that I think about it, these people might be cursed or bound by the demons…I have no way to tell. 

I don’t know what to do…maybe if I kill one, they’ll get scared and flee–unlike demons, they’re humans, and easily fall to fear.>>

After a moment of contemplation, I raised my katana in front of me and took up a stance. 

It seems they understood what I meant and began to approach me carefully. 

From the side it looked like a terrible situation; an entire crowd of goons, all slowly surrounding a lone man with nothing but a sword.

Finally, one of the demons, who was holding an iron club, attacked me with a loud cry. 

Raising the katana, I tried to block, but I didn't even feel any resistance. 

My eyes met those of the demon which quickly widened. 

The katana went through the club, and then completely cut the demon in half. 

There was no time to think about what had happened since another demon was already attacking me. 

The katana swiped through, and as before, one body was cleaved into two.

In betweens strikes, my eyes hovered on the radar, trying to distinguish between demon and human. 

[22% => 23%↑] 

I still didn't want to kill unnecessarily. 

I struck down three more demons, but five more quickly took their place. 

When I felled another demon, suddenly I felt my posture become a little different, and a blinking icon caught my eye. 

Most likely it was a skill level increase. 

Maybe {Sword Mastery} or {Fighting Instinct}. 

But the bottom line was that it became easier, my posture became relaxed, and my strength seemed to increase a little. 

It was a mistake to sit still and ruminate, and my instincts screamed at me to jump back. 

Where I was a second ago, landed a chair. 

I had to look at the radar again.

Everything happened very quickly and I could hardly react, and at the same time I was trying to not lose track of the humans. 

Fortunately, they looked like they were in the backline. 

<<It’s weird that they’re not running away…do they not see what’s going on because of the crowd? Or are they just not afraid?>> 

I turned my head to the side to dodge a flying bottle. 

I cut diagonally. 

There were more flashing signs, but the situation didn’t seem to improve. 

[23% => 24%↑] 

The indicator kept rising. Watching all these demons, the day when I was outright raped came to mind. 

I could not calm down…the more I realize how many demons there are, the more hatred I feel. 

I dodged another object, but cried out in pain when something slammed into my arm.

Although my stamina had improved, the strain of constant battle was causing it to deplete quickly. 

This was the first damage I took today, but I was able to stabilize myself and swing again. 

Dividing a demon in half and separating another’s hand with one fell strike, I jumped back again. 

It was because they had already begun to surround me, the only way out was to go back. 

My breathing got heavier, and my nerves were in complete disarray.

<<If I can catch a break, I can distribute my free stat points. I'm already at level 6…I just need to find the moment.>> 

As I went to strike a demon in front of me, I suddenly realized that it was not a demon, but a human. 

Two other humans were behind him. 

I had to stop and dodge away from his attack.

When a chair passed me, I kicked the man to the side and screamed at him. 

"What the hell are you doing?! Look, they’re demons! And you’re trying to attack me?!" 

In a sense, exhaustion and mental stress weighed on me, and I kind of instinctively wanted someone to help. 

Because of this, I yelled at them to wake up and see what was happening here. 

After killing another demon, I glanced back at this person. He seemed to come to his senses and looked at me. 

He had expressions of fear as I cut off the head of another. 

He finally shouted with a hysterical voice. 

“I…I see now! Yes, let’s defeat these demons together!”

With these words, he picked up a jagged wooden leg from a broken chair, and then hurried over to my side.

The other two humans next to him seemed to understand what I meant as well.

They, too, turned towards the side of the demons, and pointed their weapons at them. 

I felt some relief, watching them join me. 

Due to the actions of these people, the demons’ attack seemed to begin to weaken. 

I was looking ahead with three people by my side. 

I was breathing heavily and trying to figure out what to do now. It was a very critical situation. 

Finally, the attack of demons stopped. I don’t know how many I killed, but this pause gave me the opportunity to get a little respite. 

At this time, the big man stepped forward from the crowd of demons. He had the appearance of a typical gangster, with a brightly decorated tattoo on his forearms, but he also had a chain around his neck, but not a gold one, but rather an ordinary one, with the difference that on the chain hung a pentagram.

He looked at me and spoke.

“Lately, there has been quite the frequent case of demons being hunted. I was curious who could be so good at sussing out demons. But after looking at you today, I realize that you literally feel demons…am I right?

Just think, this is a talent that hasn’t appeared in almost 780 years, and yet the person who has it is foolheartedly reckless, instead of quietly and calmly garnering strength. How lucky I am that you delivered yourself right to my doorstep.”

I patiently listened to his monologue, trying to use the time to get as much rest as possible.

But I also gained some information–as I thought, my actions would sooner or later be discovered. 

But now that he spoke to me, I also wondered how they found me.

<<Does this demon have a sense of perception? If so, how far does it operate?>>

I decided to ask him a question to hopefully buy me more time to catch my breath.

"How did you know that I got in here? Do you have something for such perceptions?" 

When my question ended, he made a strange expression on his face that made me doubt myself.

"Are you... are you from ancient times? Although judging by your swordsmanship, I don't think I've heard of someone like you. 

Or were you sealed by magic? And just now released? 

Hmm…well, it's called a ‘camera’, like that one over there." 

Following his finger while understanding what he said, my face hardened. 

Surveillance cameras were visible at the top of the wall.

When I realized the situation, I felt great embarrassment. 

"Okay, let's end this. I've already lost a lot of demons because of you, so you’ll need to repay." 

From his words, I again began to focus my attention on him and speak. 

"We'll see who repays who, so don’t–" 

I didn't finish my words as I felt a sharp pain from my side. 

My gaze turned downwards on its own, as I saw a piece of wood sticking out of my side. 

Looking up, I saw a mocking expression grinning at me. 

It was the man who fought alongside me. 

When I opened my mouth to talk, I felt a strong danger coming from my front. 

My hands automatically made a block, after which a great force overwhelmed me.

Moments later, pain shot through my back. 

Breaking straight through the wall, I fell into a hotel room. 

I caught my breath as I tried to get up and grab the katana that lay on the side. 

Finally with a loud gasp, I was able to breathe. 

Raising my head, I saw demons gathered there, along with humans. 

They all smiled and showed mocking eyes. 

[23% => 24%↑] 

<<Damn it! It’s my fault…>> 

[24% => 25%↑] 

"Trust...haha–" 

[25% => 26%↑] 

[26% = >27%↑] 

I struggled to my feet holding on to the wall to keep from falling. 

[27% => 28%↑] 

An indicator also constantly appeared in front of my eyes. 

[28% => 29%↑] [Warning!]

[!!!Severe Emotional Fluctuation!!!]

[Warning!]

[!!!Severe Emotional Fluctuation!!!]

Looking ahead, I picked up the katana again. 

But at this moment. 

[29% => 30%↑] [Warning!]

[Warning!]

[Skill {Collapsing Consciousness} has reached 30% activation.] 

[Temporary Status Effect activated: {Cold Blooded}]] 

Ignoring anything else, I shoved my katana back into my inventory. Without letting the demons react, I sauntered directly towards their leader.

And pulled out an assault rifle.