Leveling Up Alone

The demons were divided by the seven deadly sins they followed, such as pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust. However, just because they belonged to one category did not mean they only felt that certain emotion. They were capable of feeling every single emotion out there, and their categorized sin held only symbolic significance.

That was exactly what was happening right now as Lucifer. He was a demon of pride, yet he felt extreme lust toward Astaroth.

Astaroth was a demon possessing powers of seduction stronger than Lilith’s, and her body was equally as sexy and seductive as her abilities.

The hierarchy in the demon world was a bit complex. Lucifer was one of the Seven Great Demons while Astaroth was one of the Seventy-Two Demons of Solomon. Their hierarchy was not set in stone as depicted in books. The demon world was a living, breathing place, and their hierarchy was decided by the strength and influence they possessed, which could change at any given moment.

One of the demons who had explosive growth in recent times was none other than Astaroth. Her rank, even among the Seventy-Two Demons of Solomon, was not that high, and nothing noteworthy about her. However, things changed after she became stronger, and she was now one of the influential demons in the demon world. The fact that Lucifer could not hastily do anything against her right now was evidence of her immense growth in recent times.

“W-What?!” Lucifer exclaimed with absolute shock written all over his face.

Astaroth was indeed expensive, but Lucifer had no problems paying as long as he could enjoy her company, even if it cost him a lot.

The demon world was a very mundane and boring place where killing one another and waging war was the only form of entertainment they could enjoy. Still, there was another form of entertainment that was quite popular in the demon world, and this was none other than prostitution.

The demons under Astaroth and the succubi under Lilith were famous for providing such services, and the demon lords were powerful enough to enjoy the company of Astaroth or Lilith themselves.

Neither of them had to prostitute themselves to anyone else, but they simply did so due to the demon world being a very boring place, and they needed to entertain themselves.

So why did she suddenly stop?

“What nonsense is this?!” Lucifer raged. He had been buying her companionship for the last thirty years without much problem, and he could not understand why she suddenly chose to stop offering it.

Then, his gaze landed on Han-Yeol. “D-Don’t tell me—?!”

However, her expression told him that whatever he was imagining was more or less correct.

He was well aware of the rumors of Astaroth favoring some humans, which was why he kept an eye on Han-Yeol in the first place. Then, after observing him for a long time, he realized that the human was not that bad, and he sort of understood why Astaroth favored the said human.

However, he did not expect Astaroth to be this into a human.

Lucifer grabbed his forehead with his right hand and grumbled, “This is absurd…”

“Yes, I did.”

“I placed a Seal of Life on him.”

“S-Seal of Life?!”

To a demon lord, a Seal of Life was something as important as their life.

She looked extremely seductive that Lucifer’s anger was instantly quelled.

“Hmm?”

The sound of thunder reverberated throughout the hall as Lucifer burst into laughter.

He had been known as the Strongest Hunter Alive for quite a while, but now all of his powers were sealed, leaving him to be nothing more than a weakling. Surprisingly, his current situation did not discourage or scare him. Instead, it ended up inspiring him even more.

Meanwhile, the thunder subsided as Lucifer finished laughing.

“Are you really trying to pick a fight with me, Lucifer?” Astaroth growled as she gathered her mana.

Then, the hall started to shake wildly in reaction to her mana.

The old Astaroth would have lost against Lucifer in a heartbeat, but she was no longer the same demon thanks to her recent explosive growth. She had grown so explosively that even one of the Great Demons, Lucifer, could not look down on her.

Anyway, the one emotion Astaroth was closely acquainted with was triggered, which she was familiar with even when she used to be a goddess—jealousy.

He knew that Astaroth was dangerous even though he was a Great Demon. However, he did not bat an eyelash and simply stared at Astaroth after letting out a sigh as if he was in deep thought.

The power dynamics and relationship between the Great Demons were not that good, as expected from a place where the strong ate the weak. Lucifer might be the most powerful Great Demon, but he would definitely lose if three of the other Great Demons combined their strength against him.

But what would happen if he waged war against Astaroth? He was only doing the other demon lords a favor.

“Are you still going to go after Han-Yeol?” Astaroth asked.

Then, he rubbed his chin and added, “But that human is simply too good to pass up on… Don’t you agree?”

“What do you want?” Astaroth curtly asked.

She had no plans to use Han-Yeol as a bargaining chip. He was not simply just another human she wanted to add to her collection. She wanted to have ownership of his heart, body, and soul.

Therefore, she had no plans of risking him even in the slightest.

Her heart started thumping the moment she imagined Han-Yeol dying and falling into the pits of hell, into her embrace.

Lucifer stood up and suddenly appeared beside Han-Yeol while Astaroth was busy daydreaming.

He mustered all his courage and looked straight into Lucifer’s eyes.

Astaroth’s mana grew wilder once again after Lucifer’s joke.

“Alright, calm down. I’m going to give up on trying to possess that human’s body.”

“It sounds like you’re not completely giving up on him yet.”

“Damn it! Lucifer!”

Astaroth gritted her teeth, but there was no way she could stop Han-Yeol from entering a normal contract. There was nothing against the law for a demon to contract with a human, as entering into a contract was a right every single demon had.

In other words, there was nothing she could do about it, regardless of whether he signed the contract or not.

“So, human… do you want to enter into a contract with me?”

“Ah, t-that is… My Invoke is not that high to enter a contract with a demon like you, Lucifer-nim, so I think it will be a tad bit difficult,” Han-Yeol replied as courteously as possible. But, he was basically creating a distance between them by flatly refusing the demon’s offer.

He rejected the offer as courteously as possible because he was worried Lucifer would kill him out of anger if he flatly refused his offer and embarrassed him.

Han-Yeol instinctively knew that Astaroth would not do much if Lucifer killed him, and he greatly trusted his gut feeling.

In the end, he successfully deflected both the interest from Lucifer while keeping an eye on Astaroth, who was glaring at him in the most angry manner possible.

“Hmm? That won’t be a problem at all,” Lucifer said with a smirk.

He snapped his fingers.

[The leader of the Seven Great Demons has granted you a skill.]

[A new skill has been created – Demonic Aura (F)]

[You can now contract demons without worrying about your Invoke thanks to your new skill.]

[Invoke will now have a different effect.]

“W-What is this…? This was possible too…?” Han-Yeol was flabbergasted.

“Ah…” Han-Yeol felt like he had been hit in the back of his head.

He used his lack of Invoke as an excuse to reject the offer, but he ended up obtaining Demonic Aura as a gift. He knew that even though the gift had been given one-sidedly, he had to reciprocate with something of equivalent value, as this was the rule in the demon world.

Han-Yeol would have normally scoffed and argued that he never asked for the Demonic Aura skill, but that was only if his counterpart was an ordinary demon.

Unfortunately for him, the one offering the Demonic Aura skill and proposing a contract with him was the Great Demon, Lucifer.