Is That A Wisp?

"W-What the fuck just happened?" Raka screamed in rage as she pummelled the severed head of the Red Demon. Then again, her attacks barely had any strength left in them. 

It was a pyrrhic victory as they had ganged up on the Red Demon and barely managed to kill it. Had it been on the battlefield, she would have been capable of soloing a Red Demon and emerge victorious ten out of ten times. 

That was because there wasn't any miasma on the battlefield. But here, the situation was different. No matter how much damage she dealt to her opponent, the Red Demon constantly regenerated by absorbing the miasma. 

They had been in an important meeting, so by the time they received the news, it was already too late. Too much damage had been done as a swirling cloud of miasma had been generated. And with the density of miasma, the Red Demon was able to regenerate without worries as it played around, casually taking on ten powerhouses on its level. 

Raka kneeled before the rectangular-faced man in shame.. "Master, I have failed you. I didn't take enough precautions in the prison and allowed this jailbreak to occur. I'll take full responsibility."

The rectangular-faced man sighed as he gazed up, pausing for a couple of seconds before he gazed at his right arm that lay on the ground, severed. "Nothing can be done about that. We have to resolve this miasma issue before the damage spreads even further."

He stopped glancing at his severed arm, mentally firming himself that he would live with one arm from now on. "Capture some Demon Soldiers and send them into this miasma. Keep hacking away at their bodies while they're there. Make them absorb as much of the miasma as they could to regenerate. Once that's done, kill them. This way, the miasma problem could be solved."

"As you wish." Raka kneeled on the ground, got up and vanished, heading out to execute his orders immediately. 

Suddenly, the ground tremored as a figure landed on the ground, seemingly looking like a hulking giant even though he had a rather lean physique. Upon seeing the figure, the rectangular-faced man kneeled on the floor and exclaimed, "City Lord!"

…

Through his Sonic Radar, Krune realized that the farther he went from the prison, the density of the people continued to reduce. He noticed that he was currently in a sprawling metropolis where even the average human was as strong as an Emperor Monster.

With an average glance, he judged that out of every hundred people, at least 40 were stronger than him, and another 30 could fight him toe-to-toe. If he were to talk in terms of physique alone, more than 95 out of 100 people could defeat him. 

Of course, he didn't include children in that list, only adults. Still, it was something scary as he got accustomed to the notion of Layer 3. The feeling hit him more harshly than when he arrived at the God Realm and became the weakest of the weakest in the food chain. 

In the prior case, the energy used in cultivation itself changed. So, it just signified a higher lifeform. Thus, it was easier to digest the fact that he would be the weakest once he ascended to a higher plane. 

But here, there was no such thing as superior energy. The humans on Layer 2 and Layer 3 were the same. But, those in Layer 2 were simply stronger. That's all. With that, Krune felt waves of depression upon seeing that even the most normal people here were as strong as him. 

It made him wonder just why he had bothered to grow strong in Layer 3 and didn't just arrive at Layer 2 before. 'Then again, I would have simply died if that had been the case. If I had lacked even a single of my current abilities, I wouldn't have been able to escape the prison. So, all's well that ends well.'

'Besides, I'll be able to become stronger than them once I grow using their methods. After all, none of them seem to possess any passive or active abilities,' Krune thought, soon arriving atop a skyscraper that seemed to be a residential complex. The people of this place seemed to be the weakest of the lot that he had come across until now. 

Plus, the place was also positioned closer to the edge of the city. Based on his probing and what he heard while the Cloud Whale was slowly gliding through the air, the floating city was a massive landmass shaped into a circle with a radius of 300 kilometers. 

And, this entire stretch was a sprawling metropolis with skyscrapers as far as the eye could see. So, Krune was unable to even fathom the population density of the place. There were humans everywhere, in dense numbers. 

Krune scanned through the building, looking through the houses and rooms within each, picturing the layout in his head as he thought of a way to live. On the first floor of the skyscraper lived an aged couple, older than the rest of the residents. 

The reason the people in this apartment felt the weakest to Krune was because all of them were old people in their eighties and above. They had lived through life and were now simply relaxing and enjoying a peaceful life. 

This skyscraper was an old age home with barely any private spaces. As they just wanted a bustling place and hoped to take care of one another, there were barely any rooms. The only place that he could call a room was the bathrooms. 

Thankfully, there seemed to be a library on the first floor. It was a common library frequented by everyone from the old age home. Then again, there were a couple of houses on the first floor. The remaining space was entirely allocated to the library. 

The reason he had chosen the library was that it had an attic, a rather big one at that. It was where numerous old books were stored as their newer versions were placed on the bookshelves below. The Cloud Whale entered the attic and vanished. 

Krune grunted a little, positioning himself at one corner of the attic. This way, even if he made any sounds, it wouldn't be audible to the people beyond that. The Cloud Whale then exited the attic, moving towards one section on the second floor where extra berths had been placed. 

It swallowed one and returned to the attic, laying it down in the corner. Similarly, it traveled through the old age home, bringing in necessities one after another. Krune created a comfortable shelter for himself in the attic, finally relaxing a little, noticing that he had expended the energy from the fourth Blood Essence Crystal. 

While he was reeling from its side effects, the Cloud Whale headed into the kitchen and stole food for him. While healing himself using the half crimson ring remaining in his Ocean Heart, Krune ate the food, barely managing to do so. 

The Cloud Whale had to feed him bits and pieces, using its needle like a fork. Once he finished eating, he thought, looking at his appearance, 'My limbs are pretty much busted now. I only have one Blood Essence Crystal. In my Ocean Heart, there's only half a crimson ring's worth of energy. It's not enough to make a full recovery.'

He then sighed after that. 'I have time. Let's take it slow. If I leave some energy to condense the Cloud Whale and expend the rest, I'll be able to make a half recovery. If I focus, I'll first heal my hands. That would make things slightly more convenient for me. My legs are even worse off, so I'll have to heal them slowly.'

"I guess from now on, it's a slow life for me. No way in hell am I ever going to leak any hints of my survival," Krune muttered. "Thankfully, it's an open kitchen here. Plus, food is always cooked for everyone. So, it's in bulk. They won't notice if I steal some food."

"Though, I would probably eat equivalent to three or four times of such old people. So, it would be suspicious," Krune muttered, then smirking, "Right, I'll just steal bits and pieces of food from all the houses in this neighborhood. That way, no one would actually notice any food going missing."

He then thought of another thing, "Right, when everyone's sleeping in the night, I can use the bathrooms, take a bath whenever I feel like, and live comfortably. Plus, this library has a ton of information that I can access and learn more about this world."

Smiling, he shook his head. "To think I would plan like this. Anyway, the invisibility cloak using the Cloud Whale is impeccable. Even that Red Demon was unable to see me when I was sitting in my cell."

Krune then continued to eat his fill and heal himself using all the energy he obtained. He was more than 250 kilometers away from the place where he had caused the chaos, hiding in an old age home's inconspicuous attic.

…

In the miasma-filled region of the city, underneath the rubble formed by a collapsed sky scrapper, there was a certain gemstone. It was yellow in color.

Demon Core!

It was the essence of a demon, something that could be used by it to resurrect as long as there was enough miasma around. Suddenly, the miasma swirled around the yellow Demon Core as it began to sprout flesh, growing out a head, followed by the limbs.

Within a couple of minutes, an entire demon had formed. It was a Yellow Demon. But, it waved its hands, absorbing some of the miasma as its body began to turn red. It was actually the Red Demon that Krune had saved. 

It looked at its hand that began to grow scales, suddenly create a long tongue, form a row of jagged teeth, and so on before everything retreated into the hand. After staring at its hand for some time, the Red Demon wondered, 'Just what has been fed to me? I can feel that there are multiple powers within me. Rather, there are 70 of them in total, exactly the number of those crimson gems I ate.'

'What was that? And, just who was it that had helped me?' It frowned in thought. 'Whoever this being is, it's strong and mysterious. And now, it has bestowed upon me tremendous power.'

It clenched its hand into a fist as it continued to think, 'At present, these 70 powers feel like a messy array of sorts. Once I club them all into a single power, I'll surpass my current limit and become a legendary Black Demon. No, even they don't have such powers. I'll surpass all the Black Demons and become the strongest of them all.'

It quickly controlled itself, looking around before thinking of something, 'I have to first hide somewhere and collate my gains. Until then, I must ensure no human would ever be able to find me.'

It then awkwardly used its newfound powers to dig through the ground and filled it up while it retreated deep into it, hiding as it continued to evolve. Having devoured 70 passive abilities, it was unknown as to how it would evolve.