“A contract?” the Servant of Chaos paused.

  Even though he was on the verge of death the bewilderement in his expression said it all. But Amber wasn’t going to let this chance go to waste as she continued:

  “That’s right, I can make contracts with demons. Not Essence Pacts, but Contracts. So how about it? In exchange for giving me your power, you can continue living and help me screw over those pesky Demon Gods. Maybe you can help me deal with the Demon of Genesis too.”

  She gestured with her hand playfully.

  “What do you say, Mr. Servant of Chaos?”

  The Servant of Chaos eyed her for a moment before letting out a chuckle. “Do I even have a choice? You can just force a contract of subservience upon me, can’t you?”

  “Perhaps, but I’m not the kind of person to do that,” Amber mused. “If you refuse I’ll kill you, and maybe kill your corpse a couple more times out of anger. This battle was very expensive for me. You could say I’m trying to get as many rewards out of it as possible.”

  “Powering up that many times can’t come without a cost,” he said simply.

  Then with a groan, he extended his hand.

  “Very well, in exchange for you enacting my revenge, I’ll lend you my power.”

  And Amber shook her head and coldly met his gaze. Even now, he was trying to get the upper hand, which is why she had to make herself clear:

  “You will give me your power, your knowledge, your experience, and your guidance; everything that is you will belong to me. And only then will I help you enact your revenge.”

  Hearing her, the Servant of Chaos simply grinned and grabbed her hand, much to Amber’s surprise.

  “Very well.”

  Even though she was no longer bleeding, their blood still made contact, and with Essence, it was done.

  You’ve made a contract with the Weakened Demon of Chaos, turning them into your subordinate. To nurture them is your responsibility.

  Nurture? Huh. Truly an odd realization. Also, to think she’d actually step down this path. It was even a bit ridiculous to hear. But moments later, contrary to her expectations, the Demon of Chaos began to disintegrate into flakes as it spoke.

  “Then as per the contract, my everything will be yours.”

  After his words, a red Essence mist immediately flowed into her body as his body continued to decompose, and Amber felt herself change. Even if not externally, she felt her own Essence move around to accommodate a foreign one inside her very body, and along with it came visions of Skills she could use, or even some she couldn’t.

  Her eyes widened as she felt her own Divine Flame, quickly losing splendor until it… extinguished.

  Amber had a bad feeling. “This is…”

  And suddenly, it exploded with light. She felt her entire body crack as she groaned in pain, causing her to fall on the ground. Even her skin was rupturing with brilliant orange fire, but slowly it began to mend before it became as if nothing happened. Even though on the outside, it looked like nothing more changed on the inside, Amber’s Essence felt… upgraded.

  And that’s when she had a small revelation of what had just happened.

  She had reached the peak of the First Realm of Stars just like that. From taking in the Demon of Chaos that had happened. And that wasn’t all, because a moment later, she actually got something she didn’t expect.

  A kill notification.

  [You have defeated a [Servant of Chaos. Lvl. 411].]

  For defeating an enemy 185 levels above your own, you have received bonus experience!

  …

  And with it came level ups.

  [You have reached level 228. 0 stat points awarded.]

  +0 Vitality +0 Strength +0 Dexterity.]

  …

  [You have reached level 250. 0 stat points awarded.]

  +0 Vitality +0 Strength +0 Dexterity.]

  And it kept going.

  …

  [You have reached level 251. 15 stat points awarded.]

  +5 Vitality +5 Strength +5 Dexterity.]

  …

  Until finally, it stopped:

  [You have reached level 278. 15 stat points awarded.]

  +5 Vitality +5 Strength +5 Dexterity.]

  For a moment, she wished she hadn’t lost any levels, but in all honestly the likelihood of hitting Level 300 from it was low, so it wasn’t even a huge net negative. More importantly, she had gained a lot more from this than she had expected. And now, she could finally replace the lackluster Core Skill she had previously gotten with a most likely better one.

  “That said…” Amber tilted her head. “What about the Demon of Chaos’ knowledge?”

  She had gotten access to his power in an odd way, albeit she felt limited in how much of his Essence she could draw?— not like there was a lot right now. And she had also gotten his levels ?— she did say experience so maybe that part shouldn’t have been that surprising.

  Just as she was pondering she heard a familiar voice next to her that came with a chuckle.

  “I didn’t think you’d miss me so soon, Amber.”

  She frowned turning. “Wait, huh?”

  There, next to her was a… projection of the Demon of Chaos standing with his stupid grin. He met her gaze.

  “Surprised? This is what you meant by knowledge and guidance,” he said almost mockingly. “Perhaps if you had only asked for my strength and experience I wouldn’t have agreed; after all it would mean true death.”

  Amber nodded listening before pointing out something with a raised brow. “Isn’t this still a bad deal for you? You’re kind of stuck as my ghost companion thing… and I seem to be able to unsummon you whenever I feel like it.”

  In response, the demon shook his head with a slight mocking smile.

  “You did agree to help me enact my revenge, we never even specified what my revenge is considering what was said. I can very well say; I wish to be revived so I can enact my revenge when the time comes.”

  Amber nodded before tapping her chin in thought. “But we never specified time either, so doesn’t that mean I can just leave you hanging for eternity?”

  The Demon of Chaos shrugged: “You don’t seem that spiteful to me, and besides this is my investment into you. If you become a god, I stand more to gain from what I lose, remember that.”

  “Is that so?” Amber was slightly confused but left it at that. “So, anyway does that mean I can consult you about anything?”

  The demon frowned. “If you need help with trivial matters then perhaps I judged you wrong. But if you’re truly that pathetic, I suppose I’d have to help you.”

  Amber nodded, not minding his sleight of hand. In all honesty, she figured she’d have to give him some Essence and let him recover before summoning him in the future, but this seemed a whole lot more convenient, and considering she could just unsummon him whenever she felt like it, there were almost no downsides. After all, she could use some of his powers now if she so desired.

  “However, there’s something that makes me curious about you,” the Demon of Chaos suddenly said.

  Amber raised her brow. “What is it?”

  “Your lifespan, why was it so low before you even fought me?”

  Hearing him, Amber tilted her head. “I fought a hydra, and consumed it all in exchange for Essence, just like I did with you. What else could I have done with it?”

  The demon went silent before speaking. “You consumed lifespan for Essence in spite of having undergone Ascension?”

  She nodded with a confused expression. Where else was she supposed to get Essence? The Demon of Chaos was silent for a moment, before speaking.

  “How? Is that your unique Essence ability?”

  Amber frowned. “What do you mean, how? I just do it. My ability is to disrupt foreign Essences, not to drain my own life, that’d be stupid.”

  He almost seemed to roll his eyes. “Then you subconsciously got that ‘stupid ablity’ as well, otherwise it’s simply not possible to do something like that without a big cost.”

  She raised her brow. Was that how it worked? Considering how the feeling of the action still felt the same, she wanted to question that. But in the end, looking at the very displeased demon, she decided to drop the topic. Instead, as she looked at the sky, she couldn’t help but think about something else.

  “Say, were there any other noteworthy demons summoned alongside you?” she glanced at the demon.

  The Demon of Chaos scoffed. “Do demons like me look that common? Of course not! The Demon of Genesis and I were about equally matched in Ill’hine.”

  Hearing that, Amber couldn’t help but be surprised. “Wait, so I can kill him too?”

  “Considering how many resources Oracle pooled into him, I’d be surprised if you could kill him before that shiny trinket pendant of yours breaks into pieces for overuse.”

  Amber paused, and took out the pendant and saw?— fractures all around its surface. Wasn’t this what had been happening to Arkara’s Staff too? She took out the staff, but the condition seemed better than she remembered.

  So it will self-repair with enough time? She wasn’t entirely sure considering her Appraisal wasn’t strong enough.

  “Wait… can’t you Appraise this for me?” She showed the staff to the demon.

  “It would take time, after all I’m not properly connected to your lowly System,” he said simply.

  Amber stared at him with a deadpan expression. “Doesn’t this mean you’re kind of useless?”

  The demon’s expression twisted. “How dare you?—”

  And she unsummoned him. He disappeared from reality almost in an instant; going to… god knows where. Either way, she had truly spoken her true thoughts at the moment, but thinking about it a bit he could certainly serve as a mentor in some areas so perhaps she had been too harsh. After all, the Servant of Chaos turned to be a much bigger shot than she thought in all aspects.

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  Same status as the Demon of Genesis, huh.

  Amber stared at the sky for a moment before relaxing. Oddly enough, all the pain in her bones was gone now?— actually it disappeared as soon as her Essence truly changed. She didn’t know if it was a permanent thing or a temporary thing, but she figured she should be thankful for it.

  Taking a deep breath, she looked at the surroundings where she saw columns of smoke billowing from different spots in the distance. She saw multiple wide craters in her vicinity, including one that was as big as a town off in the distance.

  “We truly made a mess, but it worked out in the end.” A smile crept up on her face, before stretching and groaning. “Ahh, it’s finally over!”

  Usually she never felt relief like this, but this time, she genuinely felt great. God, it felt amazing to not only overcome this stressful time, but even come out on top in the end. Of course, things hadn’t been perfect, but they were good enough. Now, the most pressing crisis had been solved, and all that was left was dealing with the Demon of Genesis and killing Oracle.

  “Well, I also need to figure out what the Arcane Council is actually intending to do by helping the Demon of Genesis.” She frowned.

  That certainly looked like worrisome situation, especially if it involved Dargon. After all, he was the reason she had been separated from Ax’thra so soon after arriving to this world, and he was most certainly not a good person.

  A long sigh left her. “So in the end I still have to grow stronger.”

  In all honesty, she wasn’t sure if she could beat Dargon now, ignoring his level the fact that he could somewhat fight Ax’thra was what made her wary. At this point, her strength greatly exceeded her level, it was no understatement to say that shew as even severely underleveled for what she could do. But still, she probably couldn’t defeat neither the executive of the Arcane Council or the Demon of Genesis. Which is why she had to level up as soon as possible even now.

  “Well, might as well just start now.”

  And so, Amber took a look at the new Core Skill she had been offered for reaching Level 275.

  [New Core Skill! For reaching level 275 as a Fledgling Primordial Human you have been offered Primordial Heart.

  You’ve ascended past the limits of being a simple human, and now you can step a strata above that. Having attained a divine constitution that makes use of Divine Primordial Power, you can now access a part of the divine. By storing a part of you within the System, you can attain a single use Primordial Heart, achieving partial immortality. For a single death, you may resurrect, consuming your Primordial Heart. Lifespan, or attributes shall not change upon revival.

  The cooldown of this skill cannot be reset with Primordial Power.

  This skill shall disappear upon death.]

  Amber blinked, and then she blinked again.

  “What the fuck…” She was shocked, and confused. “Wait, so isn’t this just a second life skill?”

  Her mind reeled for a moment, re-reading it over and over again. She didn’t exactly, think it was too-too strong, but it was certainly an incredible safety net. After all, if she got beheaded again, she’d now just revive by herself without needing someone to attach her head. To her, it was an incredible Skill and a great upgrade to what she had before.

  And so, with a smile she accepted the Skill.

  [New Core Skill! You have learned ?Primordial Heart.

  … ]

  And now that left looking at the Legacy Branch Skill she had been given at Level 275. Truth be told, she wasn’t sure what to expect considering it had been a very long time since she had actually gotten a new Legacy Branch Skill, but she still had high hopes for it especially because of the notification she had received about their strength. After all, it was the first new proper Legacy Branch Skill belonging to her new Legacy Branch.

  Fledgling Divine Accursed Demonic Blood.

  And when she looked at the notification, she wasn’t disappointed.

  [New Legacy Branch Skill! For reaching level 275 while bearing the Fledgling Divine Accursed Demonic Blood you have learned Divine Demonic Avatar.

  You’ve acquired the Divine Primordial Power of an ancient demon via a subordinate contract. As an owner of a divine constitution that makes use of Divine Primordial Power, you can now manifest part of the demon’s own power as your own, changing part of your physiology to achieve that. At the cost of your lifespan, you will receive the demon’s own attributes on top of yours as well as the ability to use their Skills with your own Primordial Power.

  Current attribute boost: 340%

  For every hour of use a day of lifespan shall be consumed.]

  Amber momentarily paused, just like her current Core Skills, it didn’t need to level up, and more than anything, it wasn’t a bad skill at all. In fact, it was great. After all, as it stood, she needed to essentially use foreign the demon’s Essence to use a Skill such as Ripper that the Demon of Chaos loved. Even if she “owned” it, it was still technically a borrowed Skill, but with this Legacy Branch Skill she could simply just use it.

  Of course, she could always choose to fully assimilate the demon’s Essence and make it hers and afterwards the Legacy Branch Skill wouldn’t even be needed, but since she wasn’t knowledgeable on the subject she didn’t dare do that.

  However, the part that made her feel slightly troubled was the fact that, it used lifespan. Her lifespan was… it was in a really bad state.

  Amber sensed her inner-self and… frowned in confusion.

  If she hadn’t miscalculated she should’ve had a single year left to live after that entire ordeal, and with the level ups, maybe ten to twenty years on top of it. But instead, she had seventy years.

  That’s right, seventy years left of lifespan.

  If she compared it to herself before the hydra fight?— with probably a century or two left to live?— then it wasn’t that much, but for current her it was amazing. However, she still didn’t fully understand where the rest had come from.

  “Unless, I got it from the Demon of Chaos?” That seemed like the most logical conclusion.

  She had, after all, gotten his levels so getting his lifespan shouldn’t have been too surprising. Except, he didn’t seem to have that much considering he was supposed to be an ancient demon.

  Well he did sacrifice his entire being to try to kill me… she mulled it over. So that does make some sense actually.

  If not for the fact that the uniqueness of her Essence was essentially the disruption of others’ Essences, she would’ve most certainly died considering what the Demon of Chaos had tried to do.

  Now completely and fully understanding the situation, she nodded to herself. This contract had actually been a fantastic idea, and had even given her quite the great Legacy Branch Skill. As for the Legacy Skills she was supposed to receive before? She could only assume she had become so strong that the System had no offerings for her.

  And at the same time, this new Skill more than made up for it.

  “Why don’t I test it for now?” A smile crept up on her face.

  Now that her lifespan troubles had been handled ?— for the time being ?— losing at most a day of her life was truly a trivial thing. In fact, she was a whole lot more interested on what the Skill meant by physiology changes.

  She stretched for a moment before channeling the skill and whispering.

  “Avatar.”

  Almost instantly, a ripple of energy exploded all around her and Amber felt her Essence change and mix ever so slightly with the twisted and demonic Essence of the Demon of Chaos. Red energy began to emanate from her being as she felt her muscles grow stronger and?— a splitting headache.

  She gritted her teeth as she felt a sensation similar to her cranium splitting open. It lasted for a few moments, before it ended.

  And just like that, the Skill was now in usage.

  Amber looked at her skin color and found herself slightly confused, the tone was ever so slightly different, but not much. Just ever-so-slightly redder, as if she had scratched it or something. She didn’t seem to have hooves either, or a tail or any kind of furr. Not that she could feel at least.

  But after taking a better look, she did find she had a tail made out of red energy trailing behind her.

  Is that it? With a frown she touched her head and found? something hard connected to it.

  She blinked and felt the texture and shape of the new appendages, and quickly drew a conclusion.

  Horns? They felt quite big and if she wasn’t wrong, they probably resembled the ones that the Demon of Chaos had. Also she noted that her nails looked similar to claws now.

  Overall, the changes weren’t too drastic, which was good since she still wanted to wield her sword.

  Amber examined herself once more before pointing at a random boulder and channeling her Essence.

  “Ripper Sword.”

  Almost instantly a gigantic blade of various energies slashed the boulder, splitting it in half and leaving the cut with burns and slowly disintegrating.

  “Oh, it even uses my curses. Wait, isn’t it amazing then?” She felt suddenly giddy from the power-up she had just received. “Wow, if I had this, beating you up wouldn’t have been so difficult,” she commented, summoning the Demon of Chaos once more.

  The demon looked over at her and simply snorted. “You and your borrowed power. If you don’t want this to come haunt you, I’d suggest stop using it?—”

  And she unsummoned him. In the end, he was nothing more than a hater. After all, this power technically belonged to her now, as per the contract indicated, so his words were simply just hate.

  Shaking her head in disapproval, Amber dismissed the form as she felt another headache. It lasted a couple of seconds, but eventually the horns were gone. Overall, it was quite unpleasant, but if she compared it to the pain coming from the bone runes earlier, it was nothing.

  “And I still have to take a look at the Skill level up notifications.”

  She had ignored those for quite sometime after all.

  [Accursed Reignition has ranked up. Accursed Reignition is now 6th Rank level 1.]

  [Accursed Reignition has reached 6th Rank ?— level 1.]

  You’ve grown adept at inflicting curses upon your enemies. However, not every enemy bears their curses forever. Now, you can reignite said curses upon your target. This skill can be used every 2 hours. The higher the skill level the lower its cooldown.

  Not only had it’s cooldown been lowered from 3 to 2 hours. But also, it’s 6th Rank while simple essentially upgraded the skill in a massive way.

  6th Rank ?— Any use of Accursed Reignition is now twice as intense.]

  Amber couldn’t help but grin, and from the looks of it, that was only the beginning. Her possibly oldest Skill at this point, had also reached the 6th Rank.

  [Quick Dash has ranked up. Quick Dash is now 6th Rank level 1.]

  And it’s 6th Rank, was quite interesting but not bad by any means.

  6th Rank ?— At an immense mana cost and while out of combat you may teleport a great distance within your senses. ]

  It was essentially a proper mini-teleport spell, a great find. And other Skills had also reached 6th Rank, such as Inexorable Momentum, Inexorable Body?—

  “Wait, so many Skills hit 6th Rank at once.”

  Looking at the notifications, she suddenly felt overwhelmed.

  [Inexorable Momentum has ranked up. Inexorable Momentum is now 6th Rank level 1.]

  [?Inexorable Momentum has reached 6th Rank ?— level 1.

  You’ve taken momentum to the next level reaching the level of Inexorable. Now, you are always in momentum, curses that affect you are affected by this momentum. Increasing momentum no longer consumes stamina. This skill increases your stats by 300% (75% before Class bonus).

  6th Rank ?— Built up momentum can stay with you for up to 24 hours.]

  [Inexorable Body has ranked up. Inexorable Body is now 6th Rank level 1.]

  6th Rank ?— Your body has adapted and made vital spots 500% tougher, making you harder to kill.]

  Some even had changes amidst its ranks like Accursed Strength, essentially massively upgrading the skill as a whole.

  [Accursed Strength has ranked up. Accursed Strength is now 6th Rank level 1.]

  [Accursed Strength has reached 6th Rank — level 1.

  You’ve grown adept at using your curses, at consuming them and even grown somewhat used at having them be extinguished and out of your grasp. Now your curses affect your strength, starting at 50% bonus and scaling up or weakening depending on your status to them.

  You may use Primordial Power to ignore the cooldown of this skill once, this includes the ranks of the skill. You may use Primordial Power or Mana thereafter to trigger the skill.

  2nd Rank ?— You’ve gained an instinctual gauge to what your current strength bonus is.

  3rd Rank ?— Twice every six hours, you can flare extinguished curses, causing them to come back with four times the intensity.

  4th Rank ?— Twice a week this skill can enter overdrive doubling the base effect of the skill.

  5th Rank ?— Twice a month this skill can enter a frenzy and suppress the skills of opponents that fall under the same category and are one rank below it.

  6th Rank ?— When facing enemies of a higher level the base effect of the skill is increased by 50%.]

  [Accursed Recovery has ranked up. Accursed Recovery is now 6th Rank level 1.]

  6th Rank ?— You can now use this skill to heal others.]

  Upon reaching, Accursed Battery, Amber couldn’t help but laugh, because it was a custom Skill given to her by Ax’thra, and it’s 6th Rank was:

  [Accursed Battery has ranked up. Accursed Battery is now 6th Rank level 1.]

  6th Rank ?— When used on oneself the output of the curses will triple (please get help).

  Of course, it was a great 6th Rank, but it was funny nonetheless.

  Those had been all her Core Skill rank ups, aside from that Inexorable Manipulation had leveled up once. However, there were still quite a few notifications to go through much to Amber’s surprise.

  Crimson Fervor, now Demonic Fervor, had ranked up.

  [Demonic Fervor has ranked up. Demonic Fervor is now 4th Rank level 1.]

  4th Rank ?— The strength of the within your blood directly scale with the stat increase of this skill.]

  Considering her Legacy Branch had essentially turned her blood into concentrated curses, it was actually a rather interesting upgrade.

  Crimson Fuel, now Demonic Fuel had also ranked up and gotten an upgrade in line with the new Legacy Branch.

  [Demonic Fuel has ranked up. Demonic Fuel is now 4th Rank level 1.]

  4th Rank ?— You can control the curses within your own shed blood.

  Crimson Venom, now Demonic Venom had also ranked up for the first time in… since she got the skill, much to her surprise.

  [Demonic Venom has ranked up. Demonic Venom is now 2nd Rank level 1.]

  2nd Rank ?— The venomous qualities of your blood are now twice as strong.

  Crimson Destruction, now Demonic Destruction had also ranked up. The Skill was pretty passive, but it’s upgrade wasn’t bad.

  [Demonic Destruction has ranked up. Demonic Destruction is now 4th Rank level 1.]

  [Demonic Destruction ?has reached 4th Rank — level 1.]

  You’ve sensed, learned, and used your own blood to cause the demise of others. It is time you use their own to do so. To destroy them from the inside.

  This skill makes it 2 times as easy to break the blood vessels of the target, and making it 3 times as easy at max level.

  2nd Rank ?— Repeated damage will cause the opponent’s movements to slow down by up to 20%

  3rd Rank ?— Repeated damage will increase the chance of internal organ rupture.

  4th Rank ?— Damage done by this skill is 50% harder to heal.]

  This skill takes twice the time in comparison to normal skills to level.

  Aside from that, Crimson Break, now Demonic Break had leveled up thrice, and Demonic Frenzy had also leveled up the same amount. And lastly, there were her Resistances, which all of them hit 6th Rank from this fight.

  [Elemental Resistance has ranked up. Elemental Resistance is now 6th Rank level 1.]

  [Physical Resistance has ranked up. Physical Resistance is now 6th Rank level 1.]

  [Magical Resistance has ranked up. Magical Resistance is now 6th Rank level 1.]

  And just like many times before, their 6th Ranks were…

  6th Rank ?— As a Fledgling Primordial Human, magical attacks below level 200 are useless against you.]

  6th Rank ?— As a Fledgling Primordial Human, physical attacks below level 200 are useless against you.]

  6th Rank ?— As a Fledgling Primordial Human, elemental attacks below level 200 are useless against you.]

  Essentially the same. Although interestingly enough, Curse Resistance didn’t share the 6th Rank with them, with it’s 6th Rank being ?— Curses can be foreseen. Not like it mattered to Amber.

  Finally she moved to the next?—

  “Oh, that’s all…”

  She had gone through so many notifications that she expected it to be never-ending, but thankfully she was wrong. After all, going through so many rank ups in a row was slightly overwhelming to her. Good, but overwhelming. At least, she was quite certain she had grown in strength quite a lot between the start of the fight and now, which made her feel good.

  Stretching once more, she looked at the destroyed surroundings and couldn’t help but tilt her head.

  “Now what?”

  discord come join!