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Chapter 679

“On the left, we have the Shiny Knight, Carmine. Her… um… armor…”

“Anyway, on the right, we have the silent killer, Dementon. His capacity to cause enemies to lose sight of him even while closely watching him is unparalleled. Keep your eyes open, or he may just slide a blade into your gut!”

Carmine was on stage, but the crowds weren’t cheering her. Rather, they didn’t know what to say. Carmine was the Shiny Knight. Every battle, she’d proudly stamp onto the stage in her expensive, beautiful armor. She would slam her shield down like an unstoppable wall, and then she would stand there unspeaking and unmoving. As much as her fights let people down, her motif was well established and people had certain expectations whenever she appeared.

However, today, she came walking up to the stage covered in blood and filth. Her once shiny armor had been cracked and torn to the point where most of her body was exposed. She hadn’t even bothered with her helmet, and there was a bone-tired look in her eye that was enough that it almost seemed to drag the entire gladiatorial competition down. Her shield was nowhere in sight, and she had a sword that looked like it had seen better days, full of nicks and dents.

She moved like a zombie, taking one step at a time until she reached the stage. Then she stopped and stared off vacantly, not even paying much attention to Dementon at all. As for the silent killer, a smile started to form on his black-painted lips. He had been very worried about fighting the Shiny Knight. After all, her powerful, pricy armor left no weaknesses, and her pure focus on defense made it impossible to breakthrough.

Dementon’s power was in breaking through a weak spot, but she didn’t normally possess a weak spot. He didn’t have the strength of the Slaughtering Berserker, so without a weak spot to exploit, it was a game of attrition, and she had shown herself very adept at winning those. Yet, that was the normal Shiny Knight. This Knight didn’t shine at all. Her armor was crippled and her strongest weapon, her shield, was completely absent. She was full of hundreds of holes to exploit, and Dementon looked on with glee as he saw an easy victory.

Bernard was present again, sitting front and center despite the fact he didn’t even have a match that day. His eyes were knitted as he watched Carmine as if her appearance caused him personal grief.

“Begin!”

“I’m sorry, your time has met an end!” Dementon cried out, disappearing with a flash.

“Screw off!” Carmine suddenly moved like a spring pulled taught. “X Slash!”

She was so high strung that she didn’t hold back a single bit. She immediately pulled out a move and attacked, slamming her sword down. Although an X Slash was supposed to be two rapid slices at a perpendicular angle, she only struck once, putting the entire power into one slash.

BOOM! The entire ground shook, and a wave of compressed air shot out from the end of the sword. She hadn’t been aiming at Dementon, but the attack filled the entire battle platform. Dementon, who had leaped into the air to perform a falling attack, had no means of taking the blow or blocking. He went flying right off the platform, slamming into the wall under the bleachers. When the smoke cleared, he was embedded in the wall.

Without a word, Carmine spun around and then walked off the stage. She was already halfway out of the arena when the announcer came to his senses and announced her as the winner. Mumblings went around in her wake, and she remained the point of discussion throughout the entirety of the next fight. Yeah… she could attack now, but her battles didn’t feel any more satisfying? If anything, her attack sort of reminded people of the undefeated champion.

Bernard gave me a look with narrowed eyes as Carmine walked away. What was his problem, seriously?

Chapter 680

After battling hard the entire afternoon, I’d like to say my progress with Carmine went pretty well.

{Name: Carmine

Class: Resistance

Job: Paladin (LVL 79), Knight (LVL 15)

Unlocked Jobs: Commoner (LVL 4)

Race: Human}

The fight was a bit anticlimactic, but it did show how much of a difference an extra job can make, especially when amplified by my skills. It was no wonder my other girls were able to keep up with Carmine despite being mostly 20-30 levels under her. Now, of course, her high Paladin job had made her my strongest teammate. Salicia couldn’t even compare to her sister at the moment, although she had gained two jobs from Bandit King, which was part of the reason for her strength.

{Name: Salicia

Class: Rogue

Job: Swashbuckler (LVL 40), Knight (LVL 5)

Unlocked Jobs: Bandit: (LVL 50), Commoner (LVL6), Thief (LVL 25), Pickpocket (LVL5), Shaman (LVL2), Bandit King (LVL 50)

Race: Human}

Unlike her sister, Salicia had unlocked many different jobs. Most of them were self-explanatory, but I was interested where Shaman and Swashbuckler came from. Of course, I didn’t equip Bandit King on her. I didn’t know if Bandit King would alter her temperament and behavior, and it was my way of neutering her abilities. Swashbuckler seemed the only other fighting class she had that wasn’t outlawed by the church, so I went with that.

As for Knight, I gave the third token to her after she bugged me about it nonstop. She was hoping to give herself the Knight job just like her sister. Apparently, after seeing her sister have something, she wanted it too so she could feel closer to her. She could never be a Paladin since the church would never give her their blessing, but the Knight job just required her wearing me down.

Actually, she stole the token before asking and only asked when she realized that it wouldn’t work unless I gave it to her. I wasn’t sure how the token knew, but unless a lord passed the token to a Knight with their consent, the token wouldn’t activate. That’s also the reason that I didn’t pick up the Knight job for myself. After all, I didn’t have any pure fighting jobs.

I depended on True Hero for all my weapon needs, but it was lacking in many areas involving speed and defense. It was a bit of a self-sacrificing job, often allowing the user to be damaged in the name of smiting a foe or helping an ally. This usually wasn’t a problem for me because I was a White Mage foremost, and I could heal any damage True Hero forced me to absorb. That didn’t mean I wasn’t interested in a better ability for close-combat fighting, and Knight would have been perfect.

Yet…

{You cannot use your Knight token.}

I suppose it made sense. I couldn’t become my lord. That would just be silly. That’s when a thought came to me. I pulled out the counterfeit tokens. I didn’t know exactly how similar to the original tokens they were. I knew that they had no limit in that they could give people jobs. Since they weren’t given to me by the King, and probably came from the Imperial Cloud Meadow, maybe I could use them unreservedly. I didn’t think Lord Reign personally handed the token out to every Knight he made, so these might function differently.

Thus, I picked a token and used it. I didn’t get an error, nor a white flash. It was more like a puff of miasmic darkness.

{You have resisted demonic entrapment.}

{You allowed yourself to be marked by demonic miasma. You have unlocked the job: Demonic Knight.}

“…”

Chapter 681

“It’s difficult to say, Master.” Shao sighed after examining me in our room. “I’m not exactly a real demon.”

Although Shao was technically a Demon, she was reincarnated into this world and only appeared a demon. The village she had appeared in was a border town, not unlike Chalm, where nonaggressive demons and humans seemed to live together. This village was burned to the ground by the Imperial Cloud Meadow, and Shao was turned into a slave until she ultimately ended up in Aberis.

She had never been in the demon lands, and she knew nothing regarding demons at all. It wasn’t like she had some kind of genetic memory on what it meant to be a demon. As for becoming a Demon Lord, that was something that had happened due to despair. Perhaps, it was the special job she was given. Mine was White Mage, which skipped a great deal of practice to instantly give me a third-tier job. Demon Lord might be similar, but where other jobs could be accessed all the time, the Demon Lord could only be accessed with special circumstances, which might be someone’s mental state.

“And Demon Lord is still greyed out.” I finished my thought out loud with a sigh.

Shao jerked for a second, and then looked up at me guiltily. “Master, I have something to confess.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“I can become a Demon Lord!”

“What?” I jerked up, feeling a bit alarmed.

She shook her hands. “It’s not bad! The other girls already know! I can access it similar to the way Lydia accesses her beast form. It’s kind of an emotional thing. When I feel despair and desperation, it unlocks. However, I didn’t lose my mind, so I believe with time, I can control the job.”

“I see…” I scratched my chin, still worrying a bit. “Well, as long as you think it’s safe.”

She was still my slave, so even if she did turn, I should be able to have some control over her. I wasn’t like her previous Slave Master. I was also a Harem Master! Ahem… and then there were my blessings which gave me an affinity for slaves. Overall, Shao shouldn’t become a problem. Instead, I put it aside and focused more on this Demonic Knight job. I hadn’t equipped it yet because I was worried.

“You have resisted demonic entrapment.”

“I think that was a one-time attack when you used the token, Master. Demonic Knight should just be something similar to Dark Knight.” Shao explained. “As for why it failed, that should be obvious. You’re immune to certain affects of the miasma.

“Certain affects?”

“Miasma can still damage your soul the same as anyone. If you fail to resist a powerful enough karmic infection, there can be some consequences.”

“I see…”

“Don’t feel too down. You’re still quite amazing. If you weren’t, it likely would have attacked your mind, and then taken control of you. The effects probably wouldn’t have been obvious at first. It’d probably be like a sleeper agent. Unless activated, you’d go on thinking nothing was wrong.”

“If that’s true… that means…” My eyes widened in horror.

Shao looked at me curiously, but then she started to realize the truth as well.

All of these Knights Lord Reign was creating, they were all infected with demonic entrapment. I didn’t know where he was getting these tokens from, but whether he knew it or not, he was creating a demonic army! With the snap of a finger, the right person could take control of all of those people, making them fight however he saw fit!

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