Demon's Virtue

Rumia looked back at Eiro, who was holding his dagger onto his throat, and then just slowly formed a wry smile, "So you're saying that you can really not make that choice yourself?" In response, Eiro just sighed.

"It's a yes or no question." The Demon pointed out, and Rumia had no choice but to agree right now. The whole town was watching, and even someone like him knew that this was an unfavorable situation for him, just considering the whole scale this grew to. If it was like this, to truly control the whole town like he was initially planning to was just an unrealistic fantasy that he couldn't hope to accomplish.

Ruling with an iron fist was alright, but even Rumia didn't want to force the villagers at the level of what could only be called enslavement. Enslaving people was a sin, after all.

"Fine… Have it your way. We will stay in this town and ensure its safety for the following year. And trust me, the only reason I'm letting you live right now is because you are the only way for us to achieve our goal." Rumia pointed out, so Eiro just nodded his head in satisfaction.

"Good enough for me." He replied, and then turned his head over toward the Village Head, "I'm sorry, but I think I should take my leave now. I will be back next week, if you want to speak to me then, I will gladly take the time to." Eiro explained, and then took a step backward while moving his hand to the side and letting go of the dagger that immediately disappeared into nothingness, making especially the mages wonder what this ability was, and Eiro just started walking away without another word, although Rumia quickly stopped him.

"Before you leave, there is one question I must ask." Rumia exclaimed, and Eiro slowly turned around again and looked at the tall, fully armored man. "How did you do it? Appraisal is a quite rare ability, and most appraisers capable of seeing even skills are quite weak when it comes to combat. However…" Rumia muttered as he looked around the group of men that was slowly starting to get up again, "That is obviously not the case with you."

With a grin on his face, although it was well-hidden by Eiro's mask, the Demon placed his finger onto the place where his eye usually would be, although his current mask hid even those from outsiders, "You're quite easy to see through, Rumia. Your eyes show what you're thinking about." The Demon explained, and then simply rushed off into the closest alleyway to get to the stables and pick Lugo up again, before Eiro rode him out of the Village again.

He was sure that at least for now, Rumia would be somewhat contained and wouldn't bother the villagers too much, but Eiro would just have to see. At the very least in 7 weeks, during the Winter Solstice, Rumia should see that he couldn't mess with the Ladies that easily.

And so, with a rather relaxed expression, the Demon slowly took off his mask and placed it into his treasury as he just heard Nelli laugh loudly right next to him, which immediately made his ears ring a little. Noticing this fact, the Spirit calmed down again and floated in front of Eiro.

"That face of his was just so amazing!" She said with a chuckle, and Eiro nodded his head with a light smile, "It was, wasn't it?" He replied, and Nelli then looked at him rather suspiciously.

"But you were rather confident in your ability to defeat him, weren't you? Otherwise you never would have gone for such a straight-forward attack at the end." Nelli pointed out, and Eiro just shrugged.

"Most of it was that he was just underestimating me, and he was pretty mad so the little ability to make judgements that he had shrunk considerably. And pulling out a dagger instantly out of nowhere isn't necessarily something you can expect either." Eiro replied, before Nelli just kept laughing.

"Haah… But actually, how did you manage to get his status information?" The spirit asked, and Eiro just smirked, "I looked into one of the soldiers' eyes while he was on the ground and noticed that I could read his health-loss notification. It seems like with my new sight, I can read even things like that."

"Wait, isn't that super amazing? I'm not sure I know about anyone or anything that can do that…" Nelli pointed out, and then looked at Eiro with a smirk. "So..? Then you used that little speech to get him to open his status and got his information?"

"Exactly that." Eiro replied, so Nelli curiously floated up next to him. "So, what was his status like?" She asked, so Eiro thought for a while and then just shrugged. "Pretty… regular, I'd say? Well, his resistance and constitution were well above one hundred, but everything else was below eighty. Nothing special, really. It seemed a little unbalanced, I guess." The Demon pointed out with a light grin, feeling like that Rumia guy was really too dumb for his own good. But Nelli thought differently.

"Ahh, tough luck… I feel a little bad for him, actually." The Naiad pointed out with a slight sigh, and Eiro raised his brows confused as he turned over toward her, "What do you mean, it's his own fault. If he had taken a few of the points from constitution or restistance and put them into agility, I wouldn't have been able to do all that, most likely." Eiro explained, but Nelli just looked at him with her brows raised and a wry smile.

"You know exactly that it's not as easy as that." She pointed out, "Influencing the distribution is really, really tough." Nelli explained, but Eiro stared at her confused.

"But it's not? It's really easy, isn't it?" Eiro said, and Nelli squinted her eyes suspiciously for a few moments, "Are you messing with me, or can you actually influence your stat distribution as easy as you say?" She asked, before Eiro stared at her with a frown. He was messing with her? She was messing with him! Eiro was just getting really confused right now, "Of course it's easy, you just need to put the points into the stats you want." He pointed out, and immediately, Nelli's expression became blank, as if she was just shutting down.

"You know that 'put points into stats' is just a figure of speech, right?" She sighed deeply, "You can't actually put points into your stats, I guess the way your stats increased just always fit into what you wanted. That's the case most of the time anyway, because that feels the most comfortable." Nelli pointed out, but Eiro was just getting even more confused.

"What are you even talking about? Of course you can 'put points into stats'. You level up, get stat points, and put them into whatever stat you want." Eiro said, even getting slightly agitated, and all of a sudden, Nelli looked at him confused.

"Huh?" She muttered quietly, and Eiro just kept looking at her questioningly, "What?" He asked, and Nelli was trying to process what she was just told.

"You can literally choose which stats to increase?" Nelli asked, and Eiro just nodded his head as if it was obvious and natural.

"What..?"

"What is it?"

"It's just…"

"It's just what? Nelli, can you stop messing with me?" Eiro asked the Spirit, and and Nelli just floated there deep in thought.

"I'm not messing with you, Eiro…" She muttered quietly, and then looked at the Demon with some thought, "Could you open your status for a moment and show me what happens when you level up?" Nelli asked him, so Eiro sighed deeply and made his status appear, just like he was asked to.

[Name – Eiro][Race – Ice Blue Collector Imp][Level – 9]

[Health – 24.250][Mana – 42.250]

[Strength – 50][Constitution - 50][Resistance – 20]

[Agility - 64][Evasion – 50][Dexterity - 53]

[Intelligence - 90][Wisdom – 85]

[Perception – 90][Willpower – 30][Charisma – 20]

[0 Stat Points Available]

"When I level up, with my current evolution I get 10 stat points and it shows down there. Then I think about which Stat I want to increase, and the stat increases by one and the available stat points decrease by one… Isn't that what normally happens?" Eiro asked, and Nelli shook her head with a wry smile.

"Normal? It's anything but normal, Eiro, it's… insane. You can't manually increase your stats like that, at least not normally… When normal people level up, your stats increase automatically depending on your general exposition, your class or race, and of course your general useage of your different abilities… That's the one thing that ties every being with a status together." Nelli explained, and Eiro just looked at her confusedly.

"What do you mean?" Eiro asked, and then for some reason that information just seemed to overwhelm his mind, because what he believed in in regards to stats had just been thrown into complete disarray, "Wait, but… What?" He asked, and then turned back toward his contracted Spirit, "You're not joking, are you?"

"I'm really not… I mean, you can take a look, my status doesn't have the 'Stat Points Available' thing. And did the status from that guy before have it?" Nelli asked, and Eiro quickly recalled Rumia's status and just shook his head.

"No, it didn't…" Eiro muttered quietly, and Nelli looked at him curiously, "Were you always able to do this?" She asked, and the Demon just slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, I was. Literally since my first level-up… Of course I couldn't read then yet, but now I know that it later kept suggesting I put it into my intelligence stat, and I ended up agreeing to it on coincedence… I had no idea what it was about, so…" Eiro pointed out, and for some reason, he seemed to have said something else that was unusual, at least judging from Nelli's expression, and the Demon sighed deeply.

"What is it this time..?" Eiro asked, and the Spirit slowly crossed her arms and smiled at her Contractor, "You're supposed to instinctively know what your status and notifications say when you look at it, even if you can only see specific things later on… But you always saw the notification in the Common Language?" Nelli asked, and the Demon just sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose as he rested his forehead on a part of Lugo's antlers that stuck out toward him.

"Really, can't I just go look for that Sun guy and ask him about what I am already?" He asked, and Nelli looked at him with a wry smile, "Sorry, you're barely strong enough to take on a very mediocre Knight and a crippled, heavily injured, angry Adventurer. I doubt you're a match for a Royal Monster."

"I know, I know, don't worry. As if I'd want to meet the guy that was originally given the task to retrieve Avalin. A bit too risky as far as I'm concerned." Eiro pointed out, and Nelli just slowly nodded her head in response.

"Fair enough…" She replied, and then slowly turned her eyes back toward Eiro, "Did we really just so easily accept that you have an ability that literally changes one of the most basic rules of existence?" She asked, and Eiro looked at her with a blank expression.

"Right, ask that the Imp with intelligence and language comprehension surpassing the average human, while on his way to his children, one of which is the one being on this planet that is supposed to be the ultimate weapon against Demons. Oh, by the way, do you want to take a look at my three god-tier items again, or do you want me to keep showing you the wooden arm that can move as if it's real?"

"…"

"…"

"…Have you always been such a sarcastic ass?"