Rey made for the dungeon of the Gerhor plains. If his calculations were correct, that was where his friends would be headed soon, if they were following the path as last time. He hadn't changed things that much for them. So, he could continue at a leisurely pace and still meet them before they arrived at the dungeon.

  He had a lot to tell them.

  Whether he should tell them about meeting the boy with the puppets was something he hadn't decided yet. He shrugged; he figured there was enough time till he reached the dungeon. By his calculations, he still had half a day's trek to the dungeon, if he didn't run into any annoying demons along the way.

  This stretch of land was like any other that he had come across—just old, scorched, craggy land with dark soil. Going was a little slow as he ran in Gravity's Domain. It was only fifty percent gravity.

  He had made it a habit to run or walk in increased gravity, so that when he was fighting, he was much faster. His last fight was close as fuck. The tiger had nearly skinned him and used his hide as a cape. Yes, the tiger was two ranks above him, but given Rey's stats, he was comparable to a mid to high rank 7 combatant.

  [+1 Endurance]

  He sighed in relief and wiped the sweat off his brow as he gained an additional ten points in Stamina. Yes, those were empty points yet, but since his reserve had grown, it gave his body the relief of knowing there was more it could do, provided he gave it enough time to rest and recover.

  All these stat points grinding would pay off when he reached the D Tier. He chuckled to himself. Oh, how it would pay off. I must put the others through Rey's special training. It's ten percent luck, twenty percent skill. Fifteen percent concentrated power of will. Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain, and a hundred percent reason to remember the name.

  Hah, classic. Demon Rey said.

  Rey hummed the tune as he went his merry way. After all, how else are they supposed to compete with me?

  He was sure they could never truly compete with him, but it was his prerogative to help them, now that he knew how to save them.

  Change their canon events…

  He almost spoke the words out loud. He couldn't risk doing that here. Not when he was in Purgatory, where the eye of Zalathar was always on them. He could not reveal the fact about canon events to them, even in a dungeon, because they would no doubt like to talk about it when they were out of the dungeon.

  He rubbed his chin and wondered about this conundrum when he heard an ear-piercing scream. He covered his ears, and that hardly made a difference. Then, just as the screaming stopped, the demon attacked, and only Rey's high Dexterity saved him.

  He swayed to the side as the thing zipped past. It was flying so fast that its descent to the ground was much slower. But in the end, no one fights gravity. It crashed onto the ground just at the edge of Rey's Gravity Domain.

  It was a flying demon. It had bat-like wings with a face that its mother had smashed in with a rock—a pudgy piglike nose and razor sharp, needle-like teeth.

  [Biakel (Exiled) – E+6]

  Rey shrugged. "At least, you'll give me some experience."

  He walked to the struggling demon, who tried with all its might to get away from Rey. Its clawed feet were pushing dirt, and he would've made it out if not for Rey expanding Gravity's Domain.

  "Oh, you poor thing. I hate killing demons." Rey laughed. "Okay, I lied. I love killing demons, especially the kind that give me some experience."

  He brought his scythe down on the creature's head, ending it. Then he whistled and was about to move on when another quite literally dropped on his head. He jumped aside, just in time.

  [+1 Perception]

  Rey looked up and saw a practical swarm of them, just swirling overhead. They were fighting to stay aloft, but Rey's Gravity Domain was pulling them down. He quickly checked his Mana, which was steadily going down as his Gravity's Domain pulled the flying beasties.

  The thing was, the more things affected by Gravity's Domain, the faster his Mana plummeted. His little tiger-murder spree confirmed it. He didn't need to kill so many of them, but because of that, he was sitting on the cusp of Rank 7. He was sure of it.

  He blasted Identify as if he had more of it to go around, which he did. To his disappointment, the one he had killed must've been their boss, as the rest of them were Rank 5 at best. He could clear out the skies, but he wasn't in it for social service.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

  He shut off Gravity's Domain, and his Mana drain stopped immediately. He also felt lighter as the Gravity's effect on him stopped. He did a few light jumps and stretched his arms as he took off at a sprint.

  He was trailing dust as he cried out in excitement.

  ***

  In the end, he decided not to use Gravity's Domain and simply ran the whole way. Now, he may have gotten lost a little bit along the way, as he overshot and arrived at this rocky patch of land that they were supposed to explore after the dungeon was finished. These rocks left a bad taste in his mouth, not because he was licking them to see if they had any salt, but because this was the way to the capital of this demon-infested kingdom.

  So, he turned around and blasted away. Well, to anyone in the D-Tier or above, it would look like he was jogging at best. But to himself, who was as weak as baby shit, looked like he was the Flash.

  So, time stopped as he ran, and all the demons stood still, and he farted in their faces and ran away before they could even react.

  In truth, none of those things happened. He came across some demons, which he blasted away with Repulsion and kept going on his way. After another hour, he finally arrived at the dungeon. It didn't take him long to find the place. He followed the demon parade—all of them marching happily toward their scheduled slaughter like idiots at a free buffet.

  They jumped into the vortex, spinning in place as it warped reality around them. There weren't many, so Rey waited for them all to jump in before he made his move.

  Once they were all safe inside, he ran for the dungeon, whose vortex had shrunken quite a bit and was shrinking by the second. This could only mean one thing—the dungeon was almost full.

  He pounded the ground with all he had and ran at full speed. If he didn't make it, then he would miss his chance at the boss, and that demon was Rey's ticket to Rank 7. He made it to the vortex when it was more like a window than a door. He dived for the window and made it just in time as the dungeon shut behind him.

  Like with every dungeon, he was alone in a dark tunnel, and he would be alone until he reached the dungeon proper. It was the dimension warping properties of a dungeon that made it so that if two people didn't enter at the same time, then they would be alone and could emerge out of the tunnel at different parts of the dungeon. So, the demons that entered before him could be standing around, waiting to be slaughtered, or they could've moved on and earned themselves a few seconds of life.

  A few moments later, Rey emerged into a hedge maze. Well, it was as close to a hedge maze as could be expected in hell. The leaves were actually like the piranha plant from Mario. They bit at you if you got too close. So unsurprisingly, they were in the process of shredding a demon down to the bone. These plants didn't even leave the bones.

  The demon shrieked and tried to reach for Rey, but he left the demon to its demise and moved on. As long as he didn't make the mistake of getting close to the hedge, the piranha plants stayed sleeping, and as soon as he got even a foot close to the edge, they would come alive, biting and snarling. That was a design flaw if he ever saw one. If only whoever designed the maze had picked plants that waited until their prey was actually touching them, but no, these were demons; it wasn't like they were geniuses.

  So slow and steady was the name of the game. He checked around corners to make sure there was no one waiting for him. After about the tenth turn, he was pretty much convinced that there was no demon left alive in the dungeon.

  "Oh great, now the plants are stealing my kills. What's next, the rocks start teabagging the corpses?"

  He was so mad that he wished he had brought a lawnmower and trimmed these demonic hedges down to size. He sighed and dragged his feet along as he walked the empty corridors.

  He wondered if this was his punishment for mouthing off to Fate. This dungeon was not entirely the same as last time. The biggest difference was that there were fucking demons to kill in this dungeon. In this one, the plants had eaten them all, but there was one demon that these plants couldn't eat, and that was the boss.

  Since Fate couldn't kill mortals, it could change the circumstances so that the mortals met their end sooner or later. Rey wondered if that was what Fate was doing, trying to kill him by boredom.

  "No, I have diplomatic immunity until the brothers whose cunts needed proper ramming don't stick their blades in me." He paused. "Since my canon event hasn't happened, I wonder if I will die if I give that hedge a hug?"

  Yes, dumbass. Demon Rey snapped. Actually, you do that, so I can be unleashed to spread my magnificence to the world.

  Rey chuckled. He was bored, not suicidal. Besides, if he died in this dungeon, then his soul would perish when this dungeon eventually closed, and he would become a mindless demon. That was one way of changing his canon event.

  Since he had nothing else to do, he kept walking and found that the turns were coming faster and faster. The lengths of the corridors were shortening. He was finally getting close to the center of the maze that held the boss. It was an easy enough boss, given how powerful he was.

  He flexed a muscle, and though he couldn't see it under this furry disguise. He knew he was getting there to compete with the likes of Arnold and Cbum.

  He paused once more as he heard sounds of fighting. A grunt of exertion followed by a demon's unmistakable shrieking. He ran towards the sound at full speed. He ended up being so fast that he nearly barreled straight into the hedge.

  A couple of the piranhas even took a bite out of his arm, but they just got a mouthful of smelly fur that had only been washed with demon blood. So, it wasn't like it lacked any nutrients. Someone, most likely a demon from the sounds of its shrieking, crashed against the hedge. The fighting was coming from the next corridor over. He was almost there.

  Don't take all my experience. I'm not letting a photosynthesizing fly trap rob me of my kills!

  He turned a corner, and he was too late. The last of the demon burst apart with a silvery light. He picked up the pace and nearly crashed into the person who had gone on a murdering spree.

  He skidded to a stop at the turn and nearly rammed into the demon vanquisher. But she was quick on the draw. Too quick. Before he knew it, he was staring down the length of an arrow, glowing with silvery light.