Mind Demon's Path of Domination

By the time that Mark crossed the Dungeon Barrier of the Mega-Dungeon, Dona held against his chest, it was already night. Unlike ever before, Mark had some confidence in entering into this dangerous demonic territory.

After all, he was not a simple Demonling anymore. He was a Lower Demon. Even in the entire Hunter World, only the top of the top was better than him.

The A-Class Hunters and Tier 2 Demons were very few in this world, and Tier 1 was the bulk of the demons around. He was already one of the top-level fighters in Tier 1, even though Mark had just evolved.

He had increased his Mind Stat to (High) and his Physical Stat to (Low) for Tier 1. He also had his own assortment of demonic tricks and the intelligence to plot a battle that the other demons didn't have.

More than that, Mark had wings. If things were going downhill, he could retreat.

Flying somewhat past the periphery inside the Mega-Dungeon, Mark felt his heart start to thump harder. He was becoming somewhat nervous. Yet, he was far too excited after gaining all these powers, and honestly, he wanted to try to fight.

The Mega-Dungeon spanned an entire Country in size. It once used to be named the Country Q, after all. The part of the Dungeon he was in was a seaside city; the place was awash in a gloomy aura, and looking up, Mark could see the dark veil-like Dungeon Barrier.

"But this is actually way more comforting…" he said, "Now, I don't have to worry about moving out of a Dungeon."

Dona scratched her cheeks. He smiled and removed their handcuff while looking around.

There were ports around, colossal buildings still under construction, and abandoned ships. From his point of view, high up in the air, Mark could also see the hundreds of Demons around.

They stood in all sorts of shapes and features in every building and ship, and it was just a river of demons. If these barged out of the Mega-Dungeon, the world was as good as over.

But they were all strangely disciplined, and most of them didn't even fight—they must be waiting for Hunters to come in. Infighting inside Dungeons between Demons seemed like a rare phenomenon unless one offended the other.

They liked to hunt the natives of the World they were invading instead. In this world, they liked to eat the souls of humans instead of cannibalizing other demons.

In fact, he could see some Hunters around, too; they were fighting. Flashy abilities were being sparked, but they didn't catch his attention.

Silently, he jumped atop a certain building that must have once been a glass tower—now, most of the windows were broken, and it was a desolate sight.

With a quick glance down the roof, he began to check the stats of the Demons around, and he inwardly sighed in relief. None of them were Tier 2; the best he found was Tier 1, and most of them were impure demons.

Demons with no demonic tricks at all other than their Soul Devouring. Usually, Mark would have ignored them, but today, some of them caught his attention. Even though they were mere impure demons, having become Lower Demons, they were no longer so harmless.

They, too, had Soul Sense and Defensive Magic Skin.

That somehow irritated Mark.

"Urr…" Dona purred nervously, but Mark took hold of her hand and kept looking for some Demons. Finally, he saw one right on the building in front of them.

Inside it, there was an impure Demon, and it was alone, with nothing alive near it other than itself. It was a good choice to test his own mettle. Moreover, only if he killed the Lower Demons or B-Rank Hunters could he now accumulate Soul Spheres to max himself out.

Now, killing lower Tier Demons didn't give him usable Soul Spheres.

Mark let go of Dona's hand, and she tightened her fists unconsciously as Mark jumped down the building. His form blurred down the air like a lance but quickly did an arc through the air before he zipped toward the nearby building.

As he passed, the glass blocking his path was broken, and he met the demon inside the building with a cold gaze. The demon had an octopus head, a very small round torso, and extremely long limbs. Overall, it was around the same size as himself.

_

[Impure Demon]

[Tier 1—Lower Demon]

[Physique: 36 (Low)]

[Mind: 36 (Low)]

[Cultivated Powers: Soul Sense (36 meters), Defensive Magic Skin (Tier 1)]

[Resistances: Physical Resistance (Low), Mental Resistance (Low).]

[Demonic Tricks: Soul Devourer]

_

"Arggh!" the weirdly shaped creature roared softly in warning.

Mark's wings trembled, and the glass shards trapped within it exploded everywhere.

He didn't move at all, and the enemy hesitated to move for a while, too, until it suddenly seemed to have had enough and ran like an arrow, leaving its bow at him to plant its fist on his face firmly.

Mark's face just twisted to the side, and he looked at the demon with his cold golden eyes. He had taken the punch without dodging, and it didn't hurt.

A wave of wind blasted behind him, and multiple glass pieces broke.

The transparent field around his body, the Defensive Magic Skin, had also been broken. Indeed, even a simple attack of the Tier 1 level could break it. But his resistance was still strong, and he didn't suffer any injuries at all.

"Over for you," he said.

His fist blurred through the air and smashed the creature's round and ugly face into the ground. It had similar levels of physical resistance, so killing it using his physical prowess was impossible.

But its Defensive Magic Skin had also been broken. The sensation was easy to distinguish. It felt exactly like a bubble popping.

"Uuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!" it screamed.

Mark clutched it by the mouth and dragged it to the edge of the building. He hanged it downwards but didn't make it fall. He looked at it with his golden eyes.

Heart Input!

The Demon's Mental Resistance was merely (Low), and Mark's Mind Stat was (High). He entered the creature's mind easily. It had only a very few thoughts, unlike the humans he had been dealing with.

Survival, Eating Souls.

Mark stared coldly at it.

He sighed. He didn't have a true finishing attack.

He didn't have a definite killer move.

And evolving hadn't made his already existing abilities gain new evolutions of their own.

His Dream Shock could still only stun others into a brief dream, Heart Input could add a thought into a target's mind, and Dungeon Heart Seed was his Dungeon.

As for Dream Gamber's Mortal Puppet, that was only usable against mortals without any abilities and was far from a combat technique.

He had to gain something decisive.

The demon was too heavy, and he couldn't fly like he would have liked with it on top of him, so he could only feel pity.

Yes, his Mind Stat was higher than it, and he could perform Heart Input on it. But there was no use doing that. Its core philosophy itself was survival.

Too complicated to kill.

He let go of his hand, and the demon thrashed about in an attempt to catch on to the roof edge or something, but it couldn't. All the way from the top, it fell down on the ground.

It had a high Physical Resistance, so it seemed to be in pain for only some moments before it stood up and scooted away in fear.