adventurers in the sewers

As Louis exerted force, the centipede's body was completely crushed in two.

Louis's hand was covered in a foul-smelling, sticky, yellowish-green liquid.

Immediately, a crisp system notification sounded in Louis's ears.

[A pickable attribute has been detected. Pick it up?]

Louis first checked on the two team members and found that with the death of the centipede, the surrounding demonic energy quickly dissipated, and the two girls gradually recovered from their pain. They would be back to normal soon.

He breathed a sigh of relief and immediately chose to pick it up.

A progress bar appeared in front of Louis, indicating that it would take fifteen seconds to complete the pickup.

During this time, Louis quickly analyzed the changes that had just occurred.

A centipede with a human head, about the length of a person, crawled out of the demonized bear's body and could even speak human language.

From its words, we can learn that both the giant bear and Remy are "toys" manipulated by it, and it even tried to invade and control the bodies of him, Dina, and Nora.

Judging from its appearance and the demonic energy it exudes, this thing might be the legendary demon.

"I never imagined that the demons would have already reached the border fortresses of the human kingdoms."

Louis thought to himself:

"This so-called demonic energy seems to have the property of corroding everything. Ordinary people, even aspiring professionals, will suffer excruciating pain upon contact... Is this skill unique to the centipede-headed demon race, or is it a standard skill for all demon races?"

If it's the former, that's fine, but if it's the latter, the difficulty of dealing with the demons will increase exponentially.

However, this encounter with the demons made Louis realize once again the power of the Hero class.

As expected of a hero unit specifically designed to eliminate threats to humanity, it is completely immune to the demons' special attacks on humans.

"Although I haven't officially become a Hero yet, I have already achieved a certain level of integration with the Hero's Codex and possess certain characteristics of that class."

"Otherwise, I'm afraid I would have ended up like Dina and Nora, suffering a fatal blow from demonic energy."

The thought that their bodies had almost been taken over by a human-headed centipede, or even arbitrarily disassembled and pieced back together, sent a chill down Louis's spine.

Fortunately, they managed to turn the tables and win in the end.

Just as Louis had finished analyzing the situation, the progress bar finally ended.

A crisp notification sound rang in Louis's ears.

[You have picked up the corpse of a 'Level 1 Parasite Demon'. Attributes: Dexterity +1, new ability 'Demonic Transformation' unlocked, Demonic Transformation +5 (to be unlocked), grants the Demon skill 'Parasitism'.]

【Parasitism (Talent): Effect 1: Continuously consumes demonic energy to invade and control living creatures. Depending on the depth of the parasitism, it can read the creature's memories and use some of the creature's skills from its previous life.】

[Effect 2: Consumes a large amount of demonic energy, greatly enhancing the host's physical attributes (the duration of the effect is determined by the amount of demonic energy consumed)]

[Duration: Depends on the freshness of the host's body]

Louis: "???"

He could understand the +1 dexterity bonus, since controlling someone else's body definitely requires precise operation, and the parasitic demon's dexterity couldn't be low.

But what's with this newly unlocked ability?

So it turns out that the ability values ​​aren't the eight fixed attributes, but rather that humans only have eight?

After a brief moment of confusion, Louis reluctantly accepted the situation.

Indeed, whether it's demons or those demonized creatures, they all look bizarre, and it's reasonable that their basic stats are different from ordinary people.

But here's the question: what kind of changes would occur if a normal person unlocked the demonic attribute?

Will I be instantly transformed into a demon? Or will I be corrupted by demonic energy and turned into a mindless monster?

Even if the cheat system dared to acquire this attribute, he wouldn't dare to use it.

Fortunately, after Louis brought up his personal panel, he found a small question mark next to the "Demonization" section, which was marked as locked.

Clicking on the question mark revealed an introduction to the demonic attribute to Louis.

After reading the introduction, he understood that this demonic attribute could be freely turned on and off. Once turned on, his mana would be partially converted into demonic power, that is, demonic energy.

Approximately 1 point of demonic attribute can be converted into 1 point of demonic energy.

After being corrupted by demonic energy, Louis can use the skills of the demon race.

"Simply put, this demonic attribute means a dual-class system. When I activate it, I can switch to a demon class, and when I deactivate it, I will switch back to my normal class."

"Strictly speaking, it can't be considered a switch, since I can still use normal skills after being corrupted; it's just that the two classes share the same mana bar."

Louis stroked his chin, pondering the scenarios in which the demonic attribute could be used.

Faced with demons and mutated species, the human faction naturally has the right to kill them all.

However, it must be said that some of the Demon race's skills are definitely not available to humans, or that human skills are inferior in effect.

For example, Nora might be able to achieve some of the effects of this parasitic demon's innate skill through necromancy, but she is far inferior in terms of both mana consumption and the precision of controlling the corpse.

Not to mention that the parasitic demon can also enhance the host and read the host's memories.

Putting everything else aside, the ability to read memories alone is already an intelligence-related skill that can be described as heaven-defying.

Louis couldn't help but have a joking, little wishful thinking.

As his demonic attributes continue to increase, will he be able to transform himself into a demon king-level demon?

A dual role of hero and demon king? That's something that's probably never existed in this world.

Of course, Louis was just daydreaming and didn't really think he could reach that level.

Heroes are merely heroic units on the human side, and there can be many of them, but there is only one Demon King, who has always ruled the Demon Realm. The two sides are simply not on the same level.

Becoming a hero is already a stroke of luck, how could you possibly want to be a demon king?

This isn't how you cheat.

Suppressing his fantasies, Louis gritted his teeth, steeled his resolve, unlocked the demonic attribute, and then immediately switched it off.

He felt no discomfort whatsoever. Even the demonic skill "Parasitism" became unreadable, as if only his demonized mind could comprehend the knowledge contained within it.

After throwing down the headless worm, Louis quickly ran over and touched the headless corpses of the giant bear and Remy.

Neither of these guys had actually been dead for more than seven days, which was the perfect time to have some fun touching them.

There's no progress bar needed when touching Remy's corpse... and of course, you don't touch anything.

Yes, Louis couldn't get even a single useful attribute from Remy, not even a proficiency in any profession.

It seems... Remy's a bit of a good-for-nothing.

Fortunately, Louis managed to get what he wanted from the demonized bear.

[You have picked up the corpse of the "Demonized Brown Stone Bear". Attributes: Strength +2, Health +1]

The simple increase in his ability stats filled Louis with excitement.

Including the 1 point of dexterity gained from the parasitic demon, Louis's five stats—vitality, concentration, strength, dexterity, and intelligence—have all reached the limit below that of a professional, which is 10 points.

The three steps to becoming a Hero are: first, gaining the approval of the Hero's Codex, which he has already achieved.

Secondly, he has already achieved the requirement that at least five of his abilities reach 10 points.

The third step is to complete the great task of saving 1000 humans and achieve 100% fusion with the Hero's Codex.

After this battle, the progress of this step will reach more than 50%.

He was just half a step away from officially becoming a hero.

Just half a step away!