Mind Demon's Path of Domination

"That\'s it!"

Suddenly, the dark veil—the Dungeon Barrier— surrounding the walls of the mansion began to thin, and within just the minute that it took the Minotaur to reach the ground floor, the Dungeon vanished.

Mark felt his hair rise.

A still second passed and all the demons in the mansion suddenly transformed into flying ash.

The World Will burned them into ash.

There was not even a second\'s delay.

The Hunter World\'s Will had incinerated them. He had heard the World Will might descent like thunderclaps to destroy demons, but this level of a demon was nothing for it.

They would just turn to ash without any chance of resistance as long as they were found outside the Dungeon.

If I moved 5 meters away from Dona, it will happen to me too.

He clenched Dona\'s hand tight as she ate the rest of the demon below her with hunger.

5 Meters around her, there was no World Will, so the creature didn\'t vanish. When Dona finished with it, Mark took some blood samples from it and gave Dona some black Water to drink and wash her face.

He\'d rather have her not eat like this. It was unsightly. But there was no other way for her to strengthen herself.

When they moved away from the spider, its body was also turned into ash.

Such ash floated around them—Ash of the burned Demons. The Minotaur-turned-ash was a massive pile.

Mark looked at Dona.

She had grown stronger.

_

[Dona Marcus]

[Tier 0—Demonling]

[Physique: 5.2/5.2 (Low)]

[Mind: 5.2/5.2 (Low)]

[Resistances (Tier 0): Fire Resistance (Medium), Physical Resistance (Low), Mental Resistance (Low)].

[Bloodline: Flame Bloodline]

[Demonic Tricks: Soul Devourer. Fireball (Low), Fire Shield (Low), Delayed Explosion (Low).]

_

Since the spider was stronger than herself, it gave her a lot of energy. And since she was full before eating it—her Mind and Physique was full—she got much of its worth. She only lost some of its efficacy.

But only when she ate the whole thing did Mark suddenly have a realization. He had been too caught up with his own issues he had forgot some things. Dona didn\'t have to eat Demons in particular to grow stronger.

He had been tunnel-visioned.

He could have just fed her some normal animals from this world, and it would have worked, too—since they, too, had souls. But he had been missing out on that detail for some reason, and only now did he suddenly remember.

Mark had been too bent on the thought, \'Dona needed to defeat Demons to grow stronger.\'

Feeling dumb, he shook his head. Dona had always been drinking the Black Water, so she had never asked for meals either; no wonder her growth was slumped. She only wanted to survive, not grow stronger.

For her to reach the pinnacle of Tier 0 as a Demonling, he should find some simple domestic creatures for her to eat the souls of.

The mansion\'s door opened, and Yuri and Choi Sung entered with wary expressions.

Seeing the charred ash floating around, Choi Sung whistled.

"You really are strong, Brother Demon!"

Mark was frowning, though. He had not Evolved, and he didn\'t get to take the Minotaur\'s soul for himself, either.

Yuri came closer and looked at him. She seemed to understand and patted his back.

"Don\'t worry Mark, it\'s alright. Maybe the situation just wasn\'t \'intense\' enough."

He sighed. Looking at her, though, he could see how interested she was in the bleeding snake corpse around his waist.

Turning to the violet screen, he looked at his Soul Spheres with a dark face. He had so much, but he couldn\'t even use a single one.

[72 Soul Spheres]

But. Suddenly, seeing the sight of so many… struck Mark with a sudden realization.

He remembered the message that the system shared with him after every one of his kills.

[Killed a Dungeon Demon—Soul Sphere has been automatically absorbed into the Host\'s Soul Space.]

[Killed a Pig—Soul Sphere has been automatically absorbed into the Host\'s Soul Space.]

[Killed…]

"Soul Space…" Mark muttered.

The more he killed, the more he felt full, like he was getting closer to something.

"Is there any place near where I can kill things without any worry?" he asked.

Choi Sung was the one to answer, "There is a slaughterhouse a couple of blocks away. That\'s the place where I bought the pigs for you."

Mark sighed, "Come, let\'s kill some then. Arrange me a secret place to do it."

He couldn\'t help but be pissed.

Nothing good had happened due to the hunt today.

He had lost the hamster. It was part of his plans.

Mark didn\'t want to reveal to Choi Sung at least that he would die if he went 5 meters away from Dona. But if the snake corpse in his hand moved five meters away and Choi Sung noticed it burning, it was bound to click puzzles in him.

He didn\'t mind Yuri learning about his weakness that much, but he still liked to be warier, and he absolutely didn\'t want Choi Sung to know them. Feeling irritated, he used Heart Input and whispered some loyal thoughts into the C-Rank Hunter.

At least, that might come to use someday.

The more loyal and worshipful thoughts Choi Sung had, the more he would feel against betraying him.

"Mark, wouldn\'t this snake vanish?" Yuri asked curiously and poked the corpse with her fingers.

Mark shook his head. "As long as it is near me, it will not vanish. Just like Dona, she would also vanish if she moved too far from me, so I keep her near me at all costs."

Twisting the truth this way was better.

Dona was weaker than him, so hurting her would be of no use to Choi Sung. Since he was told to be the center of safety outside the Dungeons, they would not think otherwise. He was unique in their eyes, and they would only see him that way.

They wouldn\'t want to separate Dona from him for no reason. If they succeeded in getting her 5 meters away, Dona would be hurt, and Mark would, in turn, be furious at them—no reason to piss him off.

If they knew they could kill him by moving the weaker Dona away from him, though... That would be giving away a huge weakness of his.

At least, Choi Sung would secretly take note of it in his mind, and the invincible image that Mark was trying to build would crumble.

Just as he was sighing inwardly, though, a hamster walked near his leg and moaned painfully. He looked at it with wide eyes.

The creature was bloody and in pain, but it was… alive.

"Give it the black water!" he blurted out.

Damn, finally, some good news.

The hamster hadn\'t died; it had just gotten to the crossroads of the first attack and been bruised badly. It was not that huge of a deal to get healed, not when they had an amazing resource like the black water and a genius scientist to help them out.