Before the chirping creature could even land on the ground, a large human hand grabbed onto its stubby black tail. Then it was whipped around and tossed a dozen meters away, smacking into a random boulder that was laying along the dirt path. With some loud cracking noises, the little animal coughed up blood and passed out onto the dirt.

Michael screamed, “God damn it! Shit, I really hope there ain’t no rabies in this world!” His face was bleeding pretty badly, but for the most part, it was just a normal injury. There was no obvious poison, burning or freezing effects, so he actually felt a little lucky.

When he made it over to the rock, it only took him a moment to realize what the little Demon actually was: “A fucking Honey Badger! No wonder those clucking noises sounded so sinister.”

To be more specific, it was the first ‘Metamorphosis’ of a Honey Badger, and considered to be a Baby Demon. Likely a level-1, with little to no combat ability. Although it’s called a Badger, Honey Badgers are actually more closely related to Weasels. This particular Demon has the Arcane Element, meaning that it doesn’t have any direct Elemental Weaknesses or Strengths. For their size, Honey Badgers are some of the most violent and dangerous Demons on the planet.

Michael reached down and picked up the tiny creature in his hands, murmuring: “Aww… It looks so much cuter than when it’s not trying to rip your face off…”

Compared to ‘real’ Honey Badgers, the ‘Demonic’ version was made to look much more innocent and appealing to children. The beady pitch-black eyes were larger, while the snout was less menacing and more adorable. Of course, it helped that the creature was only a baby. Most of its body was covered in thick black fur, strong enough to protect it from the bites of larger predators, while the head, all the way to the base of the tail had white fur.

“Hmmm, in the game, you couldn’t capture a Cachimon unless it was still conscious. And in the show, you generally needed to get the fucker’s permission, respect and friendship in order to form a contract. So uh, ugh… This ain’t a game though. If I just leave this little guy alone, it’ll probably get eaten by predators or die from its injuries eventually. Shit, if it wasn’t so cute, I definitely wouldn’t feel this guilty!”

He had nearly killed the Honey Badger out of reflex, but ultimately, he had never intentionally killed an animal before. As long as mosquitoes, flies and cockroaches were excluded. Thus, Michael continued along the winding trail, up and down some hills… For whatever reason, he didn’t run into any other Demons.

Finally, after nearly an hour of walking barefoot on the rocky dirt road, the naked boy arrived at the large sign-post that said: “Aurora Town”. But what he found was definitely not the quaint, picturesque hamlet from the game and Anime.

“What the actual fuck?” Michael raised his left eyebrow and hesitated a bit, before eventually taking a step into the ‘village’. It looked fine from the sky, but up close, most of the houses and buildings were totally destroyed. Some were burnt down to the foundation, while others were swallowed up by sinkholes. It was a dreary ruin… Or at least it would’ve been, if the sun wasn’t shining so brightly and illuminating the whole area.

Oddly enough, even though it looked like years had past since the town was destroyed, he couldn’t find any signs of ‘life’ retaking the crumbled structures. It was obviously unnatural, so he assumed: “Maybe this place is haunted? I remember it being pretty common for the Dark Demons to be in the form of undead and ghosts. Either way, ruins always have tons of loot just laying around. Should be able to find a healing potion or maybe even some Tamer Rings…”

Just like in the game, Aurora Town only had ten or twelve buildings. Five or six of them were now ruined houses or empty foundations. A few were holes in the ground. While the only intact structure was a small cottage on the edge of the village.

Instead of checking the haunted houses one by one, like he normally would in a game, Michael decided to take the seemingly safer route. After all, he couldn’t just punch and grapple with ghosts or other spectral monsters. For that matter, the former Starting Zone could have turned into an end-game area.

When he got closer, Michael noticed that the ground started to have grass and flowers growing normally again. Even the road was covered in weeds and a few large willow trees grew along the sides. Eventually, there was a short wooden fence, which only came up to his chest. And he wasn’t particularly tall. Using his free hand, Michael reached over and unlocked it, then walked inside and closed the gate behind him.

“Moo~!”

“Raaah~!”

“Meow~!”

As soon as he walked inside, Michael started hearing and seeing all kinds of Cachimon. Cows, goats, cats, dogs, even parrots and parakeets were fluttering around, singing or talking. There were no people though.

“Umm, hello? Anybody home?” The naked boy asked cautiously, afraid to get attacked by some of the more aggressive looking Demons if he headed further into the yard. The house in the distance was sitting on a hill, with trees all around it. Some of which, were actually walking around. A few windmills were set up on the sides, and solar panels lined the roof.

In Terra Demonica, their weapons technology was limited, but they were extremely advanced in other areas. Mostly due to the influence of Demons. Some things were just directly powered by Cachimon with electrical abilities.

The door of the house opened up and a middle-aged Asian man walked out. He was wearing a white and black flannel shirt, along with blue jeans and a brown cowboy hat. After staring at the naked boy in his yard with a quizzical expression, the man snickered and asked: “Do you need some help?”

Michael sighed and hobbled over towards the open door. Then he looked at the man for a few moments and easily recognized him as the main character of the Anime series, Dusty James. After being startled for a few seconds, Michael winced from the pain on his cheek and explained: “Sorry for bothering you like this, but well… As you can see, I’m pretty fucked up right now. And uh, this little bastard will probably croak if I don’t give it some medicine.”

Dusty sighed and then said, “Well it’s a good thing you found this place. We’ve got plenty of potions, herbs and healing Demons here. And I should have some clothes you’ll fit in… How did you end up like this anyway?”

As Michael dragged mud and dirt into the house, the ghostly figure of a generic ‘Japanese Maid’ appeared out of thin air. Michael jumped up and shouted, “Holy shit!” Then almost slipped and fell onto the hardwood floor.

The faceless woman giggled and materialized a mop in her right hand, before quickly cleaning up the mess. ‘Maid-san’ is a Darkness-Water dual Element Demon, more prone to household chores than battle.

“Hahahaha~!” Dusty laughed at the boy, “This is my Maid-san, Ashlie… Like a lot of spectral Demons, she never misses the chance to startle people.”

Michael nervously laughed, “Umm, nice to meet you? But we really should give this little brat some first aid, right?”

“Yeah, sorry.” Dusty sighed, then guided the boy through some hallways and then down into the basement. Which surprisingly, was a massive underground laboratory. There were all sorts of weird machines that Michael didn’t understand or care about for that matter. One thing looked very familiar though. It was a large glass table, with symbols of the Nine Elements in a magical formation.

At the center was Arcane, the neutral Element. Which was a triangular glass prism. To the north was a white star, the symbol of ‘Light’. While the south was a pitch-black sphere, the Darkness Element. The eastern symbol was a green tree, the Nature Element. While to the western direction on the Elemental Compass was a purple sphere with hundreds of tendrils sticking out of it… Appearing similar to a virus under a microscope. That was the symbol for Chaos. Finally, there were the four basic Elements of Fire, an orange flame, Water, a blue raindrop, Earth, a jagged brown stone and Wind, two white and fluffy dove wings.

The Elemental symbols made up three rings, with Arcane in the center of the bullseye. This was the Healing Circle, which was a staple for every Demon Hospital across the world. In the game, they could usually be easily accessed. The player hands over their rings to the human or Demon working at the clinic, the rings are placed onto the center of the device and after a few seconds, all Tamed Demons would be instantly recovered. Not just their health, but even their stamina would be maxed out.

 

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