Lying on the ground, Lucy in her tiny form kept twitching as drool escaped her jaws.

Lucy:

(º﹃º )

​Night was the first to recover. He got up and looked at Lucy; seeing she was fine now, he checked on the others.

Death was flat on the ground, looking no different from an actual corpse but the happy feeling he got from their bond let him understand that she was simply stoned on leveling energy as well.

​Meanwhile Eve and Lilith were twitching like they were short-circuiting.

​It seemed he was the only one handling the massive energy rush with any grace.

​He saw Blade standing in front of the unborn Devil. Noticing his gaze, she turned back and pointed at the black mass. "Finish this one as well and then we can return."

​He quickly got up. Noticing the others trying to stand but failing miserably, he smiled and shook his head. It was just too shameful.

​He closed in on the unborn Devil and touched it with his right palm. Upon contact, the black mass started shivering intensely almost as if it remembered him.

​He reached out to the Nightmare Domain and a thick black fog appeared on his right palm, quickly spreading to completely cover the Devil. It happened so effortlessly after his level-ups.

​And then, it shrank.

​This time no screams were heard as if the sound couldn’t escape the Domain.

​In a minute, it shrank until only a peanut-sized black mass was left.

Suddenly Night felt his vision shift.

He saw an enormous figure with hundreds of arms that looked like they belonged to completely different creatures. The being’s face possessed hundreds of eyes, all in different shapes and forms. The place where its belly was supposed to be was a huge, gaping mouth filled with thousands of mismatched teeth. The mouth only had teeth with no tongue.

​With hundreds of eyes glaring at him, the mouth in its belly moved. "Puny Insectttt, you dareee to killlll my avatar! The next time we meetttt, I shall eat you aliveeee.And, I’ll make sure we meet soonnnn enough!"

​And then the terrifying vision ended as the very last bit of the Devil was devoured.

​[Ding!]

[You have slain a Lvl 20 Infant Devil | +2,100 EXP]

[Congratulations! You have reached Lvl. 16]

Level: 16 (EXP: 985/1700)

​Because he had already adapted during the previous episode, he didn’t fall over this time but the blissful feeling was still incredibly intense and it seemed to only increase as he leveled up.

​He had leveled up again.

Who would have thought leveling up would be so easy?

He wondered why he had ever been stupid enough to enter that dungeon in the first place when this method existed.

​The rush of the level-up also washed away the lingering chills he had gotten from that horrifying vision.

​Looking at him, Blade asked, "What did you see?"

​Night looked at her in surprise. "How did you know?"

​She pointed at the ground, which was a little wet.

​Shocked he frantically checked his pants feeling incredibly relieved to find that the scary Devil hadn’t actually made him piss himself.

​He woke up from his panicked thoughts at Blade’s voice as she spoke. "One second you were completely fine and the next second you started shivering, your eyeballs got teary, and it looked like you were going to start crying. Which can only mean one thing: you saw something terrifying."

​Night only just realized he was sweating buckets; so much so that it was dripping onto the ground. No wonder the floor was wet.

​Nodding, he told her what the being looked like and the exact words it had spoken, hoping she would know something about it. But she was as clueless as he was.

​"That being must be very strong for it to be able to create an Avatar and also forcefully project itself into your consciousness," Blade mused.

​"You should get stronger quickly or it will really come and eat you," she added, clearly trying to spook him.

​And it worked.

​Up until now, he was the one doing the eating or rather, the devouring and he really didn’t want to end up as food on someone else’s plate.

​He resolved to get as strong as physically possible.

​Then, he saw Death and Lucy recovering from the multiple level-ups. Lucy tried to stand but kept failing. Eve and Lilith showed no signs of waking up but at least they had stopped looking like they were short-circuiting.

​He then recalled all of them into the Nightmare Domain so they could rest safely. Unlike before he felt much more confident about his own strength.

​"You need the Devil’s corpse right? You can keep it," Blade said casually.

​Night looked at her gratefully. "How did you know I needed it?"

​"After you left earlier, I met with Sara again. She asked me if I happened to get my hands on any monster corpses, I should bring them to you."

​Blade continued, "After I put two and two together, I guessed you must possess a powerful devouring-type skill. Besides, you mentioned you received a skill earlier today and the only way to possess a skill before Level 11 for humans is to either be born with it or acquire it through rigorous practice."

​"Though you are not exactly human, you are not far off. So, I guessed you have a very powerful innate skill that allows you to devour targets and get their skills upon consumption."

​Night realized he had been careful, but clearly not careful enough with his secrets. He had mentioned some things simply because he lacked common knowledge about this world.

If he had slipped up like this in front of someone with bad intentions, he might not have even known how he died.

​Then he felt a warm feeling bloom in his chest, realizing that Sara had been so worried about him being low on energy that she had even asked Blade to help him out.

​Night: (っ´∀｀)っ

​Night looked at Blade and requested earnestly, "Please keep it to yourself. Humans or probably any beings, won’t react well if they know I can do that. Everyone who meets me will think my friends or I will eat them for their skills."

​Blade nodded perfectly understanding humans’ weird way of seeing things.

​If you posed no threat to them, they would bully you. And if you posed a threat to them, they would ostracize you or worse get rid of you.

​Night stored the massive Devil’s corpse into his Domain and finally felt at ease.

Night:

(^▽^)

Seeing the digestion speed was terribly slow but the energy regenerated was higher he was relieved, With huge energy reserves like this waiting to be digested, he could peacefully focus on his life in the Academy and not constantly worry about going out to hunt.

​Thinking about his reserves, his emotions bloomed brightly.

​Night: (★ω★)

​[Energy Value (EV): 21,108]

​Still, he quickly realized the total energy was about half of what it technically should be. Trying to find the cause, he closed his eyes to sense the energy within him and noticed it was now twice as pure as before.

​This meant he didn’t actually "lose" his energy; it had just condensed and become twice as effective!

​Blade then swiped the empty space in front of her, creating a measured, precise cut in the fabric of reality.

Night entered it and instantly found himself back in his home.

​Looking around his familiar bedroom, he finally felt safe and happily jumped onto the bed.

​While he had initially been mad at Blade for dragging them out at night and possibly making them targets for wild Devils, he wasn’t mad at her anymore.

Instead he was deeply grateful to her for bringing them along on her hunt.

​It had given him such a massive boost at a crucial time, right before his Academy life was supposed to start. He didn’t know if he could ever truly repay her.

​He decided he would start by being more friendly and open with her.

He could start by giving her his trust as the saying goes, trust is built by both sides.

​Maybe she would start trusting him, too.

​And maybe, just maybe, next time she might actually give him a choice before kidnapping him for a highly dangerous night stroll.

​As for the near-death experience during the fight, it couldn’t be completely avoided. Yes, it was risky and she had put him in a lot of danger, but the situation had seemed completely in her control except for that tiny ghost part.

​To be completely honest, that was his own doing.

Who asked him to charge like a mad bull at a Level 62 Devil?

The Devil targeting him at the very end was entirely his own fault. The worst part was that he had almost lost Lucy in the process.

​From next time on, he promised himself to be more careful and think things through thoroughly.

If he was going to take a risk, he would make sure to have a solid backup plan and not put his friends at such unnecessary risk.

​Just as he thought he might chill out and go through the system rewards he had received while waiting for his friends to recover in the Domain, he felt Blade appear in the room.

​Looking at her he had thought she’d left to do something else or spend more time on her night stroll.

​Instead, he watched her walk around the bed and push him a little to make space as she casually lay down to sleep right beside him.

​She turned to face him, their faces much too close for comfort.

​Blade: (≖ᴗ≖)

​He tried his absolute best not to look scared, frantically reminding himself that he had just decided a minute ago to be friends with her and treat her with trust.

​Night: (^_^;)

​However, as soon as she snuggled in, he felt Death in the Domain violently wanting to burst out and have a literal deathmatch with Blade for some reason.

​Maybe she is just worried for my safety, Night thought nervously.

​Night: (⇀_⇀)

​Meanwhile, inside the Domain, Death was trying her absolute best not to jump out and strangle Blade.

You Dare ...

​Death: (╬ Ò﹏Ó)