Locate the Alchemy Lab - Among the demons of the floating city of Dalritith, locate the abandoned lab ruins of the notorious Alchemist, Xan'Phane. Rewards: Unlock Potion Crafting. System Alchemy Recipe (Rare). Further quests offered in this line.

  And what did he know. Right in front of him was 'Medy' the 'Apothecary.'

  Who triggered the recruitment quest for Xan the moment he shook hands.

  What a coincidence. Surely there was no correlation whatsoever in all this. Especially not that he had the luck triggered show up right when this demoness slid into the clearing. Had that luck not been about the levels at all?

  "You wouldn't happen to know any Alchemists?" Wade asked as he let go of her hand.

  "Oh, of course." Medy said, waving a hand at him. "They're, uh, anti-social reclusive hermits or don't have time to peddle what they make. That's where people like me come in." She patted her chest with a proud smile, nose tilted straight up. "I can sell any drug or potion to anyone in under five minutes flat. And I can even hold eye contact the entire time! I'm extremely well adjusted. Socially I mean. I'm very smart."

  Bael snorted. "Sounds like you've spent one too many hours around alchemists."

  "What? What makes you say that?" She seemed upset.

  "Bragging about eye contact." Bael said, flatly.

  "…You don't do any alchemy yourself?" Wade asked, trying to probe for some hints.

  She froze for a single half second. "I… er, dabbled here and there."

  "How am I not surprised." Bael rolled his eyes. "Alchemists."

  "Hey!" She said, sounding miffed. "I can hold my own for a little bit, but I'm an Apothecary for a reason!"

  Wade didn't quite know what the subtext here was, but he was getting the idea Alchemists had some kind of reputation.

  "Do you happen to know an Alchemist by the name Xan?" Wade asked, continuing on his plans.

  Medy completely froze in place, looking like she was caught taking a cookie out of the jar.

  But Bael hadn't noticed. In fact, he was fully turned to Wade, rolling his eyes. "Who hasn't? Even people outside the business know her name."

  Medy gave a faint smile. "I wouldn't know her in person, I don't hang around many archdemons."

  "First wise thing I've heard out of your mouth yet." Bael said, cracking his neck and doing a typical snort.

  That confirmed it. She's in hiding. Just like Zin. Wade wasn't certain what she'd done, could have been a crime or could have been something else.

  The forgesmith demon had other plans besides sit here and talk. He grabbed the backpack, lifted it up and handed it off to Eri who grabbed it without issue. "You can ask more questions on the way. Plenty of hours ahead of us. We've waited for her like you wanted, now we need to get moving."

  Medy nodded at that, and Wade decided it was time for a tactical retreat from the conversation for now.

  While he bid his time and schemed up his schemes.

  Despite his limp starting to flare up again, he found it surprisingly easy to keep up with the hike.

  His stamina was now an internal gauge that went from completely depleted to completely full.

  And he just so happened to be wearing Wade-Enchanted Waterlogged Boots of +1 Water Mastery. So maybe that combined with the additional stamina point had him just above the right threshold to walk forever. Which meant he functionally had infinite stamina, thanks to video game mechanics that didn't account for reality.

  They were just the opposite of comfortable. But everything had a price.

  While the team walked down the trail, Wade continued to strategize how he'd get the most out of this round. Bael knew where he was going, at least, and Medy followed behind. Eri scouted ahead of them, happily stomping on bugs. To him, everything here was just as interesting as Earth.

  He'd never seen this many green plants, as far as Wade learned when he asked a few probing questions.

  Most things the old Nathir slave had seen were mushrooms.

  As for Wade, his list of quests had ballooned due to pure lucky rolls. Or possibly unlucky rolls. Luck seemed to create opportunities, but that didn't make all of them painless. Like the mimic.

  Especially the mimic.

  So far, there had been a pattern he noticed. The System seemed hell-bent on plowing him with quests to complete, and its sense of luck didn't seem to directly interfere but rather nudged events into place and let people stumble into the rest. The only direct action Wade had seen from the System was with System-related parts.

  Like his identify getting a slight upgrade, the challenge gauntlet now giving extra stat points and some of his attacks getting a critical hit.

  Or the mimic.

  Mostly the mimic. Had he mentioned the mimic yet in more detail?

  It's a good thing he didn't need to sleep anymore since he'd probably be seeing teeth trying to eat him for the next month straight in his dreams. There were probably spells or magic out there that could heal trauma; plenty of other things had tried to eat Wade or kill him in extremely gruesome ways so far, so figuring out a solution would be a good idea before his mania debuff wasn't enough to shield him from reality.

  But wow, did he have plenty of options now! It all revolved around him making it out of the mithril sea and surviving to the end of the day, where he'd get a trip back home to Earth, assuming he also managed to convince these two to come back with him.

  It'd be really complicated getting Bael to fit in with Earth, but the demoness seemed built for it. She still had her horns right now admittedly; although if Zin could hide them, Medy probably could too.

  Or was it Xan? Eh, best to think of her as Medy for now, or else he might accidentally slip the name out at some point.

  Point was - if he got those two back home, that'd be two coins.

  Wade debated for a moment whether he should keep Earth to himself or not.

  But then he realized he was going to make these two his employees, even if he had to go straight down to hell to do it. Which he already was, so he might as well get the most out of it.

  Still, at least he should run the idea by someone else before he committed to it. He could just picture Illy scolding him from on high.

  'Whit compelled your spaghetti-for-brains to just throw that kind of information on people ye barely know? Do ye also test the depth of puddles by swan diving in headfirst?!'

  Or it could just be something incomprehensible that butchered the english language.

  He couldn't ask Illy or Leon for advice right now, but there was one person he could ask: Play. And through Play, Zin.

  "Play, think I should recruit these two directly?" He asked in english, pulling his phone out.

  Hopefully she was online and watching, despite it having become a rather simple hike following an overgrown roadway down the valley.

  He was in luck. She was.

  Oh, you want my help now? Need me to encourage some bad decisions? (?????)

  "Wait, would it be a bad decision?"

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Naw. Earth's gonna Earth. Get enough people on this side and start a union.

  "Right." Wade rolled his eyes. "I'm serious Play, is it a bad choice in your opinion? If you want me to take your advice more often, you need to give me good advice in the first place."

  Bargain future advice-taking to leverage her to work with him right now. Wade was getting the hand of bargaining for things now.

  Fine, here's Play's word of the day: Snowballing. You're down here to level and rack up the gains. Who cares if two more demons are running around on Earth? You get two coins for them both. They're just the bonus if they stick with you or not.

  He debated. But internally, having a Smith and a master Alchemist both on his team felt like he'd gotten lucky twice over by the System itself. "How would I get them on my side?"

  Tell them Earth's too far away to get pulled back to hell when they die. Zinny says that's the best perk of the job here. (￢?￢ )

  "Wait, really?"

  Yeh. Write out a normal contract. Then bring them here. Might need to figure out how to keep a steady source of mana to feed your employees with though. Anything made of essence uses a bit of it to stay alive with. Remember, demons need more than just regular food to live~ They gotta make up for no longer eating souls ┐(￣ヮ￣)┌

  "But how do I actually tell them? Oh hey guys, I'm actually from a completely other world where it's only humans and we have tech instead of magic."

  Yeh, that'll do

  "I can't tell if you're being sarcastic back or not."

  Doesn't matter how you word it. You say it's separated from hell and they'll listen. After that, what's it matter how much they know? They'll be under contract to you, so set the right terms for what they do or say on earth~

  She was right. He wasn't thinking far enough ahead. Demons weren't just regular people. Even handshakes seemed important enough to Bael. To the point he didn't kill Wade when he had every chance to. And that was only a verbal contract.

  Getting them back to Earth would still be difficult - he'd need to survive the round, and at this rate, that meant getting the hell out of hell.

  He actually had a quest to do exactly that. If he could get above the mithril sea, he'd earn a free coin for it as well.

  So his total haul would be three coins from those three quests. Plus, he'd already earned two coins for completing two gambit quests: one for killing Bael and one for doing the same to Medy, in addition to two permanent stat points already collected.

  That would all add up to five coins, simply for doing what he was already planning! His minimum win condition was set!

  The other two quests were more weird and optional. Technically.

  Reunite - Travel to the Ring City of Zakka. Rewards: Possible allies. NPC refugee options.

  The Search for more Money - Mine a mana crystal in the Arcane Realm, then sell it on Earth. Rewards: 7 coins.

  That last one gave seven coins. Best of the best, and probably the most dangerous. He had no idea what the Arcane Realm was, but it sounded real dangerous.

  He'd get to that when he got to that.

  And of course, the wildcard quest:

  Bringing Magic to a gunfight - Give David Harrison a mana potion, along with basic instructions on mana usage and casting spells. Rewards: Connections with British Special Air Service. Improved relations with United Kingdoms. Improved relations with the Blackwood-Sinclairs. SAS operatives added into the lootbox draw pool.

  "How'd you end up on the top of the mountain behind us?" Wade asked, deciding to try and get more info from her about how luck worked. Because it was obvious to him the System had done something to get her here, and the faster he learned the better.

  "A lucky rift." Medy shrugged. "It actually just appeared a little ahead of me, and led above that mountain you were passing by. At the time, the Blackrot in my body picked a fight with a group of wolves and was running away from that, so it ran right into the rift without a second thought. Of course, the wolves followed. So my blackrot found itself trapped between the wolves and the edge of that cliff. One jumped on my chest, and we both got knocked down. Rest is history. So there you have it, great luck on my part that it was a horizontal rift instead of a vertical one."

  Wade nodded. Sheer luck that a rift opened up right near her as she was being chased.

  Right.

  He could outright see the meddling done by the System there. Put the opportunity in front of the events, and then let the events stumble into it. But he couldn't quite tell what the rules were.

  For one, they didn't seem surprised about an entire rift portal opening up right in front. "Do rifts like that often happen?"

  She gave him an odd look. "Uh, yes? How else would people travel around the circles?"

  "Mortals aren't going to know or care about how to travel in hell anymore." Bael reminded the girl. "And especially not old knowledge. Not much tourism under the first circle if you haven't noticed."

  She nodded. "Ah, right. Okay then, how much of Hell do you know Wade? Have you studied the history?"

  "Assume I've never heard a single thing about Hell at all. Just some basics about demons."

  Medy nodded. "Sure! Tell me if you heard any of this and I'll skip over the parts~ So, the old Hell has nine circles, and they're all interconnected by rifts."

  "The, uh, old hell? There's a new one?"

  Both Bael and Medy gave him confused glances. But Medy clarified first. "No, no. It's just in today's hell, none of the circles matter anymore except the first. Nobody's been past the second circle in, like, centuries? 'Old hell' is more like, a phrase? Huh, you know, now that I think of it, it doesn't really make any sense does it?"

  "It's old history. And no longer relevant." Bael said. "So: Old hell. What's not to get?"

  "I knew about the nine circles, but not the rifts." Wade said, trying to get them on track. "Can I get more details on those in specific?"

  "Oh, those appear and disappear at random." Medy nodded and hummed to herself. "Sometimes the rifts lead up and down, those are called vertical rifts. Other times they take you elsewhere within the circle, so they're called horizontal rifts. You can see the other side, usually that's got a few clues on if it's going up, down or sideways."

  "You forget the Stairwell." Bael said.

  "I'll get to that! See, there's a really large sorta permanent rift at the center of each circle, like a skewer going through all nine circles." She turned to Bael, as if coaxing him to continue for her. "You brought it up, take responsibility."

  He groaned, rolling his eyes. "That 'skewer' was named the Stairwell. Older demons fortified in every direction of course. So mortals making an attempt to get down to the ninth circle would be supremely stupid to try going through the stairwell."

  "Back when hell was actually supposed to be hell, mortals who were judged and sent to hell had one chance to get a do-over, and that was if they could run from the first circle all the way to the ninth circle without getting eaten by us." Medy said, picking up. "I sorta guess it wouldn't be very fair to them if the only way down was by one heavily populated and well known location. Rifts pop up completely at random, so that's how most mortals traveled around old hell. And now us demons are using them for the same thing, just, well, the opposite direction." She stopped, then hummed. "Actually, I think there's some predictability. Mainly depends on the atmosphere and nearby rock formations. You get a feeling for it over time."

  "So, it's not special to see a rift pop up right on top of you?"

  She shrugged. "Actually pop up? I've only seen a single one form into existence once, and that was while I was far above looking down with a spyglass and happened to be looking the right place. So it's a little rare to be there when they actually form, but not impossible either? They last about nine days in the same spot and then break down. When I saw that rift appear ahead, I saw there was still grass on the other side so I knew we weren't traveling down to the second circle at least. A lot more hot down there."

  The timing of the entire thing was beyond reasonably suspicious. The System was actively trying to help him get ahead. Was it doing that for all other players, or just himself?

  "Huh. Seems a bit like a twist of fate in a way?" Wade said after he thought about hell and the history here. "Now demons need to use the rifts to climb up, instead of people using it to run down?"

  "All while being chased by monsters trying to eat us everywhere, yes." Medy nodded. "You aren't the first to say demonkind deserves everything it's getting. I'm more surprised you seem so friendly with us."

  Bael laughed, but it was more of a dark chuckle. "Live by the sword, die by the sword. And speaking of, draw your weapons. We have company."

  Company ended up being rather light. A single boar, completely Blackrotten, sniffing through the dense foliage here, looking for something. They'd rounded the side of the mountain as the trail led further down, and it had been on the other end, further below into a clearing.

  The dim lighting of the world here had made it difficult to spot, up until a pillar of light passed through, briefly letting Wade see a bit more into the gloom.

  Eri didn't waste a single moment, already silently sprinting ahead.

  "Are you sure you want to command your skeleton that far off?" Medy asked, watching. "I'm not skilled with necromancy, but wouldn't that be out of range? You control spell will snap."

  "Uh, he'll be fine." Wade said, grabbing his Glock and making sure it had full ammunition. Just in case.

  Identify

  Level 42 Blackrotten Boar - 100%

  Technically, if he had understood how the System labeled levels, Eri should be able to beat this, given that the skeleton was a higher level.

  Still, at this distance, Wade wouldn't be able to get close enough to shoot with any accuracy. But with his boots and full stamina, he could probably sprint into range in half a minute and help out.

  The three of them watched as Eri stalked across the dark lands and then leaped out from the shadows like a hyena, the Nathir Greatsword slashing in a single arc, slicing off the hind legs of the boar.

  It squealed in pure rage so loudly that Wade was certain something else was going to show up. Or scare off anything nearby.

  Eri expertly jumped onto its back and chopped down at its fat neck. The strike didn't quite cut through completely, but it did allow the skeleton to leap off and slice off the front leg as the boar went into a rage.

  "Impressive control." Medy said, whistling. "I was wondering how you managed to both keep your skeleton moving like that while fighting off with Bael earlier, back when I was Blackrotten I mean. Most necromancers can't micromanage a minion that well even when they're completely focused."

  "It's not the control I worry about." Bael said. "It's the distance."

  "Yeah... you know now that I think about it, how hasn't it snapped back into being feral?" Medy looked between Wade and then back to Eri. "You really aren't worried you'll lose control? Isn't this technically past the limits?"

  "Not technically. It is past the theoretical limit." Bael snorted, eyes narrowing down.

  Wade wasn't quite certain what to say, mostly because something else had captured his attention.

  Eri hadn't stopped fighting while the two demons talked. He'd gone straight for the neck again, like a stubborn mosquito after a prize. And despite the blackrot regeneration, the legs remained stumps.

  This meant the boar was functionally unable to fight back and was hacked into over and over again. All it could do was snort and lash out in anger as Eri ran circles around it, stabbing, slashing, cutting, chopping, and generally harassing it without pause or mercy until that health bar finally hit 0% and the boar simply slumped down, dead.

  And Wade got one notification he'd been waiting quite a while for:

  Level up!

  Goddamn finally.