(Joat’s POV)

  “How do you know about Devil and Angel?” I ask him as I put my beginner shirt back on.

  “…I met them too” he quickly turns away from me pointed ears going red. No being hidden at all by his short cut black hair.

  “But…” that means they were AI…and aware of the system too?!

  There’s internet in hell?! That’s actually a thing! And oh my Aiag.

  …

  ..

  .

  I need a stick, ah ther’s one right there!

  Ok draw the shape, the symbols at each point and ahem…

  “Angel, Lord of all evil, I beg your permission to summon from the depths of Hell, the plane of punishment, a child of yours, to aid me in my purpose, so grant me the imp JerryTheMouse ADVOCABIT IMPDICITUR”

  *Dingdingdingdingdingding*

  …

  ..

  .

  “Yackakakckaka what mortal fool summons me” A tiny red stick-like goblin with two tiny stubs on tiny bony head with elven ears and a miniature tail, crawls out of the darkness that appeared in the centre of the pentagram. His voice is high like a child’s and strained, each word bitterly spoken.

  …I really just summoned an imp from Hell.

  I guess grinding identification is extremely important as you level.

  “JerryTheMouse, I am the one who has summoned you upon Angel’s request”

  “You?” He looks me once over with his pupilless, fiery salamander eyes “Whatdya want”

  “To make a contract with you”

  “No”

  …

  ..

  .

  Huuu lucky none of the women are here to see this.

  “AYGHAH” jumping onto the shriveled imp, I flatten him underneath me, cutting off his shout of surprise.

  He’s a lot stronger than he looks as he pushes me slightly off him, legs wrapped round my wasit and tries to roll us over.

  “Make a contract with me you little blighter” he rolls us so he’s now on top, arms interlocked in a grapple, heads butting.

  “No” Aiag dammit why?

  I get a hand free and flick him in the nose, making him stop temporarily, so of course I push him off and into the ground, causing him to roll away.

  Scarmbling up before him, I grab his ankle, dropping him to the floor and behing spinning round, dragging him into the air.

  “AAAAAAAA”

  “WHY WONT YOU MAKE A CONTRACT WITH ME?” Blimming imps, I just want to make a contract with him, I mean so many titles and skill possibilities with this.

  “URLBLLAAAAAAARRHGHGHGHGHHAH” And there’s a circle of vomit around me…has Jerry got motion sickness?

  “I CAN DO THIS FOREVER SO MAKE A CONTRACT WITH ME AND I’LL STOP”

  “YEGRLBBHHHRRRRRRGGHGH”

  “WHAT DID YOU SAY?”

  “YEEEEEEBGHGHRRGHEEEEEES”

  Satisfied, I slow down and let him stop on the ground gently.

  “So now that we’ve established that we’re making a contract what conditions do you want?”

  “…”his salamander eyes look up at me from the ground, a mixture of dizziness, confusion and hatred. Well i’ve never made a contact with a demon before, I don’t know what the terms and conditions are. And its your own fault you had me spin you around.

  “How about we start with the basics. Tell me when you are not free to be summoned”

  Jerry just cocks his little head confused, still half lying on the ground.

  “Ok, so what can you offer me?” Might as well learn what the imp can do.

  This time there’s a response: he gets up and rubs his palms together blowing on them in the meantime

  …

  ..

  .

  *fhwoo*

  Once Jerry grabs my stick with his hand, flames flicker out from between his fingers.

  Fire hands? That is something and ooh could I learn how to do that?

  “So our contract is I can summon you whenever, and you will help me in any way you can. If you disobey I will spin you around. If you try to harm or do something bad to an ally, spinning. If you lie to me, spinning and lots of it” I stare into his salamander eyes to which he looks down, asserting my dominance.

  Biting my thumb to let a little blood flow, I see he does the same. So we shake now?

  He just looks at me. Seriously you don’t know how to do it either?

  Placing my hand out, he unconfidently takes it

  *dingdingding*

  So many dings!

  “Alright, Jerry I will call you later, disappear for now” Can he just leave like that? Apparently he can as he creates a small hole of darkness and jumps into it.

  Wohoo, I’ve got an imp!

  Ok let’s see what the other dings were for, and the former ones too!

  “What just happened?” Oh completely forgot about you!

  Turning back to Nightbird, who is looking at me with a mixture of interest and confusion, I start towards him. I’m curious.

  “Angel told me how to summon an imp and apparently whatever that meeting I had with htme was, it was real in some sense”

  “Angel? Why would an angel tell you how to summon an imp?”

  “Angel’s the devil”

  Nightbird just cocks his head.

  “Did you not ask their names?”

  “……………I didn’t get that far”

  O…k? “What happened”

  He starts fiddling with the horn on his bow.

  “Come on tell me what happened, and I’ll tell you what happened in mine” The more information I can gather the better.

  He has a slight internal debate and with a shy sigh he makes his choice“I threw up on the angel”

  …..

  ....

  …

  ..

  .

  “HAAAHAHAHAHAHHAH CAnthahahah brehehehethhehehehe” Oh my Aiag, he threw up on THE angel! Ohhh I did not expect that. “So” hfffffffuuuaaah ahh ok got my breath back. “So what happened after that?”

  “He threw sweet smelling water on my face and I woke up here”

  Well that was certainly unexpected. But at least now i’m pretty sure I was only out for 3 in-game days since Nightbird must’ve woken up straight out.

  “Well I learnt a few historical and religious things about them, very interesting, and of course how to summon demons and I got some strange tomes…” Indeed, do I have these tomes?

  Opening up my inventory as Nightbird looks at me, huh I don’t have any tomes, strange.

  “give me a moment” Nightbird nods and begins twiddling his bow.

  Ok let’s go through notifications to see if something about the tomes comes up.

  So tipsy is -10% on agility and the few other similar stats.

  Drunk is -30%, but a 10% boost on strength and brutality, as well as some skills being disabled apparently.

  Hammered is -70% with many skills disabled and apparently my memory system shut down. So that explains why the last thing I remember was uhhh...me on stage with a bunch of hats and little clothing?

  At least I know a lot more about how the drinking system works, scary.

  Sweet! Though I didn’t get the alcoholic title…maybe because I don’t have a dependency on it? Also is my natural tolerance based on my character or me as a person. or both?

  I’ll try another time, no more alcohol for a long time after that mess

  From what I remember, I certainly was entertaining people

  Hahahaha that’s one way to gain xp. Though I seriously wonder what happened after I forgot…plus I don’t think I remember much before me and the hats on stage either. Though I swear at one point I was throwing coins into the barmaids cleavage for some reason…was it a bet?

  Any more notifications about that day in the tavern?

  WOAH woah woah there, looks like I can’t just skim through the severly large amount of notifications which are all really cool!

  So I finally got the taunt skill, which is apparently different from spitful taunt, probably because it’s verbal? And it’s affected by speech proficiency which means I can use the different styles to taunt?

  That is definitely something to try out in the near future.

  …

  ..

  .

  *Ding*

  I’ve now got bard as my semi-class which gave me +1 to charisma, communication and eloquency as well as the charming distraction spell. Although it does say I cannot learn bardic spells and abilities beyond beginner rank.

  And charming distraction apparently distracts a living being as long as I sustain it, though it’s taken up one of my daily spell slot. But it’s uses are unlimited, hmm maybe if I actually use the necessary stats it will increase my daily usage?

  Anyways, I can now learn those types of abilities and spells but I can’t raise them beyond beginner.

  But then again could I have learnt them before I gained the semi-class? Really should’ve thought things through. Oh well I’ll try it with the next semi-class I find!

  Ah wait, haven’t I got the merchant class? Hmm, damage reduction as a class penalty, chances of that being for the sub-class…rather not risk it.

  Back to flitting through notifications, seriously where is this blimming tome

  Ok so that was the end of the night, phew I got a lot out of that, so much beautiful xp and skills! Although apart from taunt (finally got it), the rest of them don’t seem much use in combat.

  Faith stat?

  A RARE STAT?! 40% XP!?! I’m probably not going to use that stat but that’s a fantastic amount of xp for it!! It does mention all diety related things…so if I had death related spells that’d count? Does that mean faith would count for like druidic dieties or a fire diety?? Ooh I might get the stat if I find that to be true.

  Another title! And character reduction lessening, sounds extremely useful even though I am not going to be going to any different planes anytime soon (hopefully). So being first for things improves my title status

  Well that immediately explains what happened to my tomes. Sweet mother of Aiag that’s a cool spell! Plus it suggests that if you’re not a common thief it’s possible to steal them, ooh and oh no. Also, 100 hp to cast it in a bit insane!! And what’s with the Void? Is that the type of magic??!

  Cool, so I can go grab those when I want to then.

  Let’s leave the rest of the notifications for the time being, I notice Nightbird’s twiddling has gotten rather agitated. Whoops got distracted by all my notifications again.

  Erm how do I cast it?

  *ding*

  Well that answered that question. System is being surprisingly helpful today. And it seems there’s 3 components to this spell, which is a lot different from detect magic…

  -1

  Ahem. “APERTA REPONO” shouting it out while drawing the square creates a small dark box which swallows up my casting hand.

  -100 ow spell, ow.

  And a window has popped up in front of my bloody finger like a mini inventory. Let’s take them both out.

  Clicking on both of them, they disappear off the mini inventory.

  When I take my hand out the box (without any resistance so that’s good), it disappears and I then look in my inventory and see the two tomes.

  Producing both to Nightbird, he simply stops twiddling with his bow.

  “What are they?”

  “Honestly don’t know, they both just gave me one”

  Let’s have a looksie shall I

  My tome is level 1…that’s a thing? How do I even level up my tome? By using up all the pages?

  Also there’s the demon language page, imp details and owner, might have to have a look at those.

  Does this mean the tome can belong to someone else but it’s bound to another? How would that even work?

  Huh it’s an alphabet and I understand it all. Have I already learnt it? Looking at my languages bit on my character sheet, ooh I’ve got Abyssal and Celestial!?

  Ooh indeed.

  That’s dark. Like seriously dark. I didn’t want to know that my imp was originally a child who was burnt to death.

  “So?” Oh jesus Nightbird, don’t lean over my shoulder so quietly!

  “It’s a manual on demons” The easiest way to put it

  He simply nods understandingly. Please move a little away, your ears are tickling mine.

  Onto the Angelic one!

  …

  ..

  .

  Erm why is Blood Sacrifice part of the Angelic tome. That doesn’t sound angelic at all

  Looking at my skills, aha it’s under passives. And opening it up the conversion is 10 to 1, yeah I better level that or I might die whenever I cast a spell.

  …

  ..

  .

  Woooow, talk about someone being full of themselves. Do I seriously have to say this every time I use heal? That will suck.

  But on the bright side: I CAN HEAL!! I’M A FREAKING PRIEST.

  Wait, do I have a priest class?!

  Wait even more, don’t I use health instead of mana…won’t I hurt myself?

  Sure enough, I use 100 health to heal 10 acorrding to the spell. Oh that definitely sucks. I guess that’s altruism/sacrifice for you?

  “is that book the same?” Gya stop staring over my shoulder so quietly Nightbird!

  “Yes though for celestial this time”

  He nods understandingly.

  *Grumble*

  He’s hungry and I am a little bit too.

  Do I have any food? Nope apparently not even a berry…did I like throw them away or something?

  “Have you found any food?” Actually I haven’t actually looked around the place yet due to being completely and utterly entranced and flabbergasted by the Devil and Angel situation.

  He points to the left.

  Actually looking round for the first time, I notice 2 things: One we’re on a beach (sort of noticed that so I’m not that bad) and there’s a jungle only a little bit in. The second thing is the line of shirtless people lying around the beach with their tops propped up with sticks to shade their face and most of their top half.

  Ah so that’s where Nightbird’s cloak is: on top of a Horse’s head! Is that Filly? I think I may have a memory of Nightbird telling me about her…no idea what he said though.

  “Why are they all around the place?”

  “They keep moving back” Ok? Well that at least concludes why they’re dotted around. And by the looks of it there are 8 of us total and I remember….uhh Trish…I think and SirStripy of course.

  And Curry, I remember Curry.

  “Alright, we’ll go into the jungle in a few minutes, just need to get myself situated first alright?”

  “Yes” He goes over and re-arranges the mini-shelter on the Orc….nope can’t remember.

  More notifications!

  Woah woah, titles incoming

  …

  ..

  .

  Ooh a priest class. I don’t really want to be a priest though, too squishy. I can turn it into a semi-class too! Perfect!

  AHHH my physical damage was reduced. But what’s with the insane stat growth on a Semi-class!?

  I was starting to believe racking up on semi-classes would be fantastic for all the bonuses and wide range of skill learning. But the accumulative penalties might get dangerous. And what would happen if I got a class that didn’t allow me to use magic? What would happen to this semi-class then?

  I should really take things with a bigger pinch of salt. But on the optimistic side of things, I learnt blessing!

  That is not going to be used for a loooong time. Light gives extra hp while darkness gives damage, which is decently useful in terms of situation…unless you’re me and you can actually use both on yourself. Ahahahh, just need to level it up now…someday.

  Ritual gave me 10% xp but it’s a one off, still sweet! Also ooh another title, just how many did I get from this one trip?

  One of the first 5? Who made a contract before me? And why is this title only normal? I really don’t understand this title system…

  At least that is finally the last notification. Halleluliagh! Gee that was so many notifications, but look at that xp increase! 315% that’s 3 levels, 3 LEVELS!!!

  That’s actually amazing and the amount of stats I got is literally insane. Titles really make a huge difference.

  But then again in the actual game I probably wouldn’t be getting first on so many things…Though a lot of these titles suggest that anybody will be able to get them…or have the ability to?

  I will look into that to see how I can get more exquisite and rare titles ooh.

  “Alright, we can get some food now” I see Nightbird standing up beside Filly, cloak swishing onto him and hiding his slightly elvish features away in the darkness of the hood.

  Another thing that’s come across but I’ve simply not had time to think about.

  Heading into the trees, the jungle quickly swallows us in the think ferns and tall trees.

  “So what are we looking for?” I whisper to a crouching Nightbird after about a minute of walking, longbow taught and arrow knocked.

  He stops suddenly after a few seconds of ignoring me, and with the bottom of his bow pricks the ground in front of me.

  “…”

  He does it again

  Oh you want me to go down and look?

  Dropping to my knees I look at where his bow is pricking, and I see a small brown almost pentagonal shape on the ground. It’s a nut!

  Picking it up, that’s something at least. Though I do wonder why we aren’t trying to climb the trees for the fruits that I have seen dangling up there

  …

  ..

  .

  “UAH AH AH AH AHHHH”

  Oh…that’s why