Chapter 88 – Welcome To Middle Management

Bean The Abyssal Delver — Rank 1

Kairon stared at the text, partially bewildered. Just like when Boney had evolved, a very plain and very short pact had been formed between himself and Bean.

He’d expected that.

What he hadn’t expected was the rank. “I thought maybe some sort of half rank or rank zero type of scenario, but rank one?” Then again, if what Sythara theorized was true, perhaps this was the only rank the plane could give an evolved imp from his domain, no matter if they were a weak or strong demon for the rank.

Glancing to his side, he noticed Nod frowning. “Master… What happen? Storm gone.”

“Yes. Our gambit worked… I think.” Checking with Sovereign Eye, he viewed the aftermath.

Before the storm, the battlefield had been—well, a battlefield. There were corpses littering the ground, debris still simmering from the ichor explosion, and a full-blown scavenging operation headed by Shiny.

Now? The storm had entirely cleared the area. Like some sort of massive demonic vacuum. The ground was left bare and cleaned of anything of value. Not even bones remained. Not a single one.

The only remnant was geological. Dozens of massive boulders were jutting from piles of dirt and hellscape in the ground. Clearly from where the vortex had shot them. Great rifts had been torn into the surface from the smaller tornadoes, reminding Kairon of the scars in the walls of the training grounds.

They led over to where Shiny had left the massive pile of gold. He’d already ordered the return of the brood to start hauling it homewards. Kairon wasn’t sure what the haul was, but he dearly hoped it would push them to the ten thousand required for the third ring.

Adding verifying that upon their return to his to-do list, he re-focused on the matter at hand. Or rather, the one below.

Now that the calling was gone, he could again partially make out the depths of the crater. Great columns of newly formed rock he knew weren’t there before reached from the bottom to high, high above. Pulsing orange and green gemstones stuck out of each.

It was hard to tell from here, but he felt like there was a faint aura from each of those.

“Nod,” he mumbled absently. “Do me a favor. Add the creation of a forge district to our to-do list.”

He didn’t wait to hear his reply.

The materials alone had to be quite valuable. What could a demonic forge district make out of them?

CRACK.

A claw erupted out of one of the nearest columns. Then another, and another. Soon, the crater became a full-blown hatchery.

The first imp—and Kairon did use that word lightly in this circumstance—to excavate themselves glinted in what sunlight reached the bottom of the crater. What appeared to be crystal similar to the mineral growths on the dozens of stone columns had sprouted along their spine and shoulders.

“Nod… We may need to consider some new policies here. I’ll get a better look once they climb up the crater, but—oh.”

“Oh?” asked Nod. “What mean oh? Explain!”

“They’re not coming up…” began Kairon.

Nod cocked his head. “They in crater?”

“Yes.”

“Crater deep. Far below?”

“Indeed.”

“Then where go?!” asked Nod.

“From the looks of it, the ground.”

Still watching from Sovereign Eye, Kairon only had partial auditory awareness of what was going on along the tops of walls. But he swore he heard the beginnings of one of Nod’s heart attacks coming on.

Something about rules and compliance not properly prepared for inhabitants of a subterranean domain. A good point, but one Kairon had no time for right now.

Currently, he was watching with keen interest as forty imps—including a particularly interesting one that he assumed was Bean—began to depart from the crater. There was a sound akin to drilling, a shower of debris, and then forty little forms pressing into what must be a newly formed tunnel.

As a test, he tried connecting with Bean mentally. However, just like Boney, he no longer could. Now that he had become a demon, his eye no longer considered him an imp. Thus, it was not his domain, but his pact, that dictated their relationship.

Instead, he tried pushing mental orders to the imps that he could no longer see, but could still feel crawling around within his domain. “Return to surface if you can! Oh. And congratulate Bean on his evolution. Actually, congratulate everyone, please! I’m very proud of you all!”

***

Despite his worries, he didn’t need to wait long. Not an hour later, the hellscape near the crater was broken. A hole the size of an arm was drilled clear with some sort of spinning appendage. Four, actually.

Out stepped what had to be Bean. He’d gone through quite the transformation.

Along his back, four spine-like growths bent and wrapped around, resting leisurely in front of his body. He still had his two normal impish claws that served as hands, but now he had four more on the ends of the spine growths.

They were some kind of drill arms. Even now, they were slowly winding down from their drilling. Bean had used them to make a tunnel. One large enough for an imp to stand in—though the passage did appear rather crude and thin. It had a width about two imps thick.

Behind Bean, the others surfaced. Their skin was now a mix of orangish red, with green and orange crystalline growths jutting from their shoulders and backs. Like some sort of geologically made spine. Each of them glowed. It was a soft glow, but unmistakable under Kairon’s source-powered sight.

Unlike Bean, the newly crafted brood imps no longer had their traditional claws. Instead, they had a single and far larger talon the shape of an axe on either arm.

“Huh. Those almost look like pickaxes.”

Bean spun until he faced Kairon and the city in the distance. Far enough that he knew the little monster could only make out a small blip on the horizon.

Just like Shiny did, Bean waved.

He wasn’t sure what the little imp was saying, but one thing was clear.

Bean had grown smarter. A lot smarter. Kairon could sense it.

“Oh my.”

***

“These,” explained Kairon, “are delve imps!”

“Master, they are still imps!” reminded Bean. His voice had grown a touch higher, but the intelligence in it was unmistakable.

“What mean?” asked Nod. He and the DR imps, along with the rest of the brood, were staring open-mouthed at their brethren. Just hours before, these had been brood imps same as them.

Now they were something entirely new, but also not.

“Look… Weird,” said one imp.

“No!” snapped Shiny. “They still brood.”

“Shiny’s right! The plane made them strong, but they are still brood!” Bean grinned, putting his claws on his hips. “We only grew this way by being one. Had my brothers not joined me in that crater, I don’t know if I’d ever have come out.”

“But did,” said one of the delve imps. Their voices had a slight gravelly feel now—like talking through a mouthful of dust.

Bean put his claw on that imp’s shoulder. “And I’m glad for it.” Then, turning to Kairon, he gave him a claws up.

Kairon returned the gesture, a matching grin on his own face. After seeing what Bean could do, his mind was already spinning. This entirely opened up excavation and new construction projects. One that he didn’t need to simply rely on the plane for.

“Oh! Oh, oh, oh!” moaned Sythara. A dark cloud billowed from the citadel. Without preamble, the demoness shot out and practically barreled into the new imps. “Child… This… Again! Oh. Forget what I said about these little creations… They’re wonderful!”

The city lord cocked his head. Along her skin, the demoness had far fewer shapes. He counted perhaps a dozen left. When she originally came to this world, she had more than fifty.

Which meant she was either much less upset about her drop in power than he assumed… Or she had faith in his promise to restore her power and then some.

Faith he wouldn’t betray. “Sythara, please be mindful. Our delve imps are likely tired from their transformation and will need to rest.” He studied the crystal growths on their spines. “Speaking of… You do sleep normally, right?”

Bean let out a childish giggle. “Oh master! Of course. They sleep just like usual. Though…” He looked around the city, studying the buildings with new eyes. One that was orange, and one that was now a deep green. “I think I felt a little better beneath the ground, you know. Could we do some digging soon? Please, oh please master!”

“Tell you what. You guys get some rest today. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about it. Deal?”

“Deal! Oh. Master! Where is Vorathrex and Boney! I was hoping to meet my wrathful brothers too!”

“Why?! You know how wrath be. They stupid,” muttered Shiny. He’d walked up to Bean, before shaking claws with the new demon. “Like new body, by way. Look good! Expect much dig!”

Bean gave him a little smirk. “Oh, you better believe it, boss.”

That surprised Kairon. Just a bit. There was no animosity or sarcasm in the way Bean said the word boss. Shiny caught that too. So too did the other imps.

For a moment, no one said a thing. Shiny just stood there, studying Bean.

“Bean… Did I ever tell? You star employee. Performance very good.”

Bean stuck his tongue out, appendages on his back spinning. “I try my best, boss!”

Bean really had become an eager little thing. Snorting, Kairon decided that while this meeting was going well, there was one more they might as well go ahead and get over with. “Okay everyone. I’m going to take Bean to meet the wrath. Nod. Shiny. Can you take the delve imps back to get some rest? Tomorrow will be a big day for them and I want them ready to go!”

“Yes master!”

“Understood!”

As the imps dispersed, Kairon patted Bean’s back.

“Master? Do you think they’ll be mad?”

“By they, do you mean Vorathrex or the wrath imps?”

“Both I guess.” As they walked, Bean looked down in embarrassment. Kairon swore he even saw the demon’s cheek flush. “Boney too.”

“Oh it’ll be fine. You’re a demon now. You know what that means, right?”

“That I’m more powerful?”

“Well yes, but something much more important. Bean. Congratulations, my friend. You’re officially a part of what I refer to as middle management!”

***

“How did that big fool take to another little one becoming a demon?” cooed Sythara. “I bet he nearly choked.”

“Actually—he took it better than expected. Boney especially. I think Bean and Boney are practically best friends.” He wasn’t lying. The two had nearly been in arms the moment they found a shared kinship in their evolutions. “It’s the rest of the wrath I’m worried about. They just witnessed a brood imp climb to a station unarguably beyond that of their own.”

“Huh. Interesting. Anyway, child! The readings from the delve subjects are beyond fascinating. The calling had an almost uniformly equal impact on them. I measured twenty of them. Twenty. And do you know what I found?”

“Wait. I wanted them to rest. Sythara.” Kairon glanced outside the citadel’s entryway. It was past dusk, the late hour evident. “If you’re only just now making it back here, does that mean you were running tests on them all day?!”

“Well—child, that isn’t important. They have all night to sleep. What matters is that the little ones have assimilated both a measure of forge and a measure of brood.”

Kairon just looked at her. “I mean. We did call both aspects. I find it interesting, but not exactly shocking…”

“Child! Do you not understand?! The plane doesn’t make mixed little ones. They only make little ones of one aspect. The imps do not get made this way. This… This… This is unprecedented.”

“Hmm. Tell me. If that’s the case, do we have anything to worry about?”

Sythara snorted. “No, no. Nothing like that. On the contrary, I’m very much looking forward to their growth and development.”

“Yes. I’d bet you are,” drawled Kairon. Though, he could admit that he was too. “How about this. I’ll give you permission to observe—and I want to emphasize the word observe here. Though, you have something more important I want you preparing for. So consider that a secondary priority.”

“What could possibly be more important than—”

Kairon held up one of the burned sigils from earlier. One of the few he’d drained for source energy. “Sythara. We have an issue. The… theory I had turned out to be wrong. None of the paladins’ sigils grew any brighter. And they were out there all day.”

“But you said you saw the imps recharging them!” argued Sythara. “Are you saying that is not true?”

“I did not say that. What I said was that I thought they must have been recharged from being on the imps all day. That was the only way I assumed any paladins could have perished in the ichor explosion. I assumed that a dead paladin meant a dead source sigil. However, I think that might have been presumptuous. What if some paladins simply died before they could enact their magic? Or even with it? And there was still some left?”

“I mean. That just means they are incompetent. I’ve felt that energy, child. If I had it…”

“Yes well. The fact remains you don’t, and for now that’s that. Anyway, as for getting more… I have a new theory.”

“Gah. And if that theory is wrong too?” asked Sythara.

“Then we make another one.”

“Hmm. How long will it take to test this one?”

“A few weeks perhaps. This one, unfortunately, is not one we can test.”

“What?!”

“Calm down. While we can’t test it, I think our newest neighbors can.”

“By neighbors, do you mean the humans you slaughtered?”

“By neighbors, I mean the clan’s people who just lost all their warriors to an unfortunate meeting with some overzealous paladins and a… misunderstanding in our domain.”

“Child. Did you not let the scouts go back to report? They will have seen the explosion, if not the battle. Do you not believe whatever remains of their clan will not be willing to talk to you, let alone test these theories of yours?”

“It’s precisely because of what they saw that I believe they’ll be eager to make peace with us. Besides, it isn’t like they have much of a choice. We’re in what I’d like to call a rather… monopolized market now.”

“Monopolized?”

“Another time. For now, there’s something I want you focusing on. We do have enough source energy to begin conducting a new hypothesis. This time, I want to go back to your pilot experiment. We have a few options, but suffice it to say, I’m after our first tier two brand. And I want it soon. There’s one last gambit I need my alteration for…” Kairon still had the sigil chewing away on the wrath spawning grounds, but he’d remove it right before their upcoming ritual. “But after we finish with that, it’ll be your turn.”

“Do you not have an audit coming?”

“Yes. And I’m aware of the changes a tier two brand brings to the R&D section of the demonic code. You let me worry about that. Anyway, let’s discuss the best way to go about this. Here’s what I was thinking… We can either put the sigil in front of the comprehension, or in the back. Which means a 100% increase, or something like a five to seven hundred percent increase.”

“Child! I can not—”

“Again. I know. We’re not doing the second option. That’s more than you and the void could ever handle anytime soon. But the first. I think you can.”

“Mmm. Maybe.”

From there, they got down to business. Planning what Kairon hoped would be their first tier two brand. One that his city was going to need in the upcoming weeks.