The Author's POV

[Teammate Park Jinho has died - Team points: 4]

"Trash"

"khhhkk...plea..se"

-Crack!

Swiping away the notification, Arnold clenched his hand and the sound of a neck-breaking spread across the surroundings.

-Thud!

"Useless garbage"

Throwing away the lifeless body, which soon turned into light particles, Arnold's mood couldn't be any gloomier.

"What happened?"

Sitting comfortably on top of a large rock a pale black-haired youth with yellow pupils spoke to Arnold with an amused smile.

"None of your business!"

Irritated by the youth's presence, Arnold grumbled and walked away.

"Hey don't be so mean! Just because we are on top of a mountain and Jin isn't here doesn't mean you can ignore me like that!"

Jumping off the rock, the black-haired youth happily followed Arnold, further irritating him.

If Ren was here he would've immediately been able to recognize the identity of the man following Arnold. There was only one man in the whole academy who had yellow pupils.

Rank 18 Troy Derekz

A borderline psychopathic student who in the middle stages of the novel becomes an infamous villain.

He like Arnold was one of the three lackeys that followed Jin, but unlike Arnold who voluntarily chose to be his lackey, he had no choice but to become one.

In reality, his father was a direct subordinate of Jin's father. Knowing that his son was approximately the same age as his boss's son, Troy's father—William Derekz, forced Troy to get along with Jin even though he absolutely despised the man.

Born with a golden spoon without needing to be forced to prostrate towards someone just because of their father's influence, or having a happy family that isn't on the verge of a breakdown because of an abusive father who only thinks about work. Jin had everything.

He had what Troy didn't. Money, influence, power, and most of all a loving family.

Consumed by his jealousy and hatred towards Jin, Troy got approached by Professor Thibaut and was tempted into forming a contract with a demon.

The Demon clans were split into 7 clans, each according to the 7 heavenly sins.

This may seem like some cliche story writing, but for Ren, who at the time was thinking of different ways to approach the concept of demons and villains, the 7 heavenly sins sounded like the most well-matched concept he could come up with. It was the perfect scenario that helped him portray the relationship between villains and demons.

A villain was someone who made a pact with a demon when their desire overcome their rationality.

For example, if you found yourself in despair towards a person who was far more talented than you, an emotion called 'Jelousy' would begin sprouting inside of you. Or when you see a really beautiful girl you want to make yours, what you experience is both 'greed and lust'.

Once you experience such emotion, it either subsides over a period of time or becomes stronger as the distance between you and the said 'target' increases.

And in this case, as your desire/negative emotion increases, the demon clan that is most compatible with you makes their appearance in the form of an agent and tempts you into making a deal with you in exchange for power.

Jealousy(Envy), hatred(Wrath), possessiveness(Greed), obsession(Lust), all negative emotions fall into the 7 heavenly sins.

Once a person experiences such emotions and lets it takes over their rationality, only then will the demon tribe with the respective compatibility step in and present you with a deal.

In Troy's case, who was in his own right incredibly talented, falls into an immense state of jealousy clouding all his judgments, resulting in the demon clan of 'envy' to personally make a move.

Because of Troy's immense talent, the 'envy' clan directly approached him instead of contacting him through a clan sub-branch.

A sub-branch, also known as a collection of minor tribes, was a collective of demons whose bloodline was more diluted compared to the main clans.

A demon's rank was determined by their bloodline purity—ranked from, King, Prince/Princess, Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and lastly Baron.

The higher the title, the stronger they were. with the Demon King being the strongest.

The consequence of having a more diluted bloodline resulted in the contractee being given a lower amount of power as compared to a cantractee who had made a pact with a pure-blooded demon.

Hence why Troy who signed a pact with a pure-blooded demon of the clan of 'envy' becomes an extremely tricky opponent to face in the middle of the story.

The reason why sub-branches existed was because a demon could only make one pact per human. Unless the human died or became stronger than the demon they made a pact with, the contract will never break.

Because of the limited number of pure-blooded demons, only a select amount of humans could make a pact with them. Only the best, and most talented humans could make a contract with them.

If the human was not very talented, then the sub-branch would step in and offer them a contract.

It has to be noted that a demon could never break a contract once it was made, as their soul was directly linked to the contract.

If they forcefully tried to break the contract, they may be at risk of having their soul pulverized.

In the end, only someone of Troy's level of talent could tempt one of the main clans to make a move.

"Stop following me"

come on! Why do you want to get rid of me so

"You know why!"

many times already, it's not my fault she likes

-Crack!

and the ground beneath his feet started cracking. Below his feet, countless

turned around and glared

you are ranked higher than me, doesn't mean I

chill out man! I

his hands in a sign of surrender, Troy took a couple

"Hmph!"

teeth, Arnold turned

fault I was born

"I'll Ki—khhh"

-Roar!

to his stupid remarks, a large shadow emerged from behind a couple of rocks and

Arnold barely managed to take the full grunt of the

"Guukhh!"

body, Arnold stared at the

mouth to the upper end of its arms,

D-ranked 'Metal-fanged Smilodon' to make its presence

Arnold raised his

"Huuuu!!!"

Smilodon similarly

-Roar!

-Klang!

be heard from the distance, as a flock of

appeared on Arnold's shield. However, if

"Gaaaah!"

-Bam!

Smilodon tried to assault Arnold once again, Arnold dipped

"Graah!"

the Metal-fanged Smilodon lost its previous momentum and felt its body

-Boom!

a punching motion, towards the beast's stomach

-Thud!

wailed in pain

"huu..huu.huuu"

the direction where he sent the

-Roar!

to rest, he saw the Metal-fanged smilodon appear from

-Klang!

felt a tremendous momentum being transmitted to

-Klang!

"Grruuu!"

a chance to catch his breath, the beast

"Basta..khh..rd help me d.ammit!"

standing, Arnold cursed as he kept on withstanding the continuous onslaught of attacks coming from

you can't hold it any

-Klang!

-Klang!

-Klang!

might ac..khaa..tually huff...huff..

"Say please?"

"QUICK!"

"Ah fine jeezzz"

hand forwards, a bow suddenly appeared in Troy's

translucent blue arrow suddenly

"Let's make this quick"

Troy closed his left

release the bowstring, suddenly a notification appeared in Arnold's view, completely stunning

in completing the hidden task (Lake trial), awarded

moment of time where Arnold was stunned was enough for the beast to

"Wha..khuu!"

"AAAGHHH!"

[You have died]

Arnold Kane has

saw before his

-Swooosh!

-Splat!

-Roooar!

died and his body turned into light particles, a blue arrow

-Swoosh!

-Swoosh!

-Thump!

recover, two more arrows quickly dug their way

"Fuuu.."

into light particles,

"Oops!"

...