Chapter 290: Some of the monsters out there

Seeing Eldrian's reluctance to accept this, Joren wanted to scold him. However, he knew it wasn't his place and instead decided to try and imprint why it was so important. Even if it meant slightly over exaggerating some of the threats.

Still, he couldn't start with the most dangerous ones, he had to work his way up. Else all those after would seem like nothing. 

"It is actually quite hard to pinpoint which monsters you should avoid. Most of these I am going to show you aren't too dangerous as long as they aren't Tier 7 or higher. I am not sure how much effort they would even place in killing you."

"From our observations, this has happened before, generally those who were targetted were also protected. Quickly taken into the inner sanctum of an empire to be nurtured. As a result, normally entire squads were sent to kill them. Most never making it to the target."

"You likely won't accept running away, so I do not know if they will still send squads, or rather just a single elite." With that Joren pulled up the first pictures, a total of three creatures shown in these.

"These ones are all are low risk, their magic is more in manipulating emotions and the mind itself. Rather than directly manipulating the soul, however, the line between the two is quite vague. Hence if you encounter any of these and they are over Tier 7, then it would be best to run."

Looking at them and the short description of each given below, Eldrian recognized that he had run into the Drem Demon before. Back when he had just logged in after learning of Sabrea's death.

The black shadow-like blob had tried to convince him to hurt himself, though that had not worked. It might have become a problem if Itireae hadn't killed it for him. This demon was hard to find, for most. However, once it was found it was easy to get rid of.

The other in the picture was a minotaur, catching Eldrian quite off guard. He had never imagined such a bulky-looking monster to be good at manipulating minds. However, upon reading he understood better.

It didn't directly manipulate people's minds, instead, it had an aura around it which would either blind a person with rage, or overwhelm them with fear. The first causing most brave men to discard playing it safe and slow, while the latter would cause all the cravens to abandon their friends.

The last was a simple snake, with a pitch-black underbelly and bright purple scales. It was called a Mavros, and it was the only one in this group who actually seemed dangerous to Eldrian.

Not only could it interfere with your thoughts through a type of telepathy; its venom also made you much much more susceptible to this manipulation.

It dulled your mind, instead of attacking your body directly. What made this so much more dangerous was, according to the description, this venom was extremely hard to cleanse. None of the normal spells would work, since this venom did not work in a similar way to others.

"Normally the snake would only be a problem if you travel into their nesting grounds. The nearest of which is almost four months travel on foot from you." Joren said, this quickly causing Eldrian to worry less.

"The problem is that some would train them as war pets. They are very intelligent, some reports even stating that they can communicate. So it is actually considerably likely that if you are attacked by a weaker group, then this snake will be part of that attack."

"How do you cure someone of its venom?" Eldrian asked, keenly noticing that while the other two had mentions on how to combat their effect, the snake did not have that.

"We do not know, in fact, no one knows. Our information not only comes from our observation, but also from our collaboration with most of the empires. Naturally, we have also gone through nearly all their books, at least those in the more easy-to-access libraries."

"Generally a person bitten by the snake either dies. Or they live. If they are lucky enough to have a healer at a Tier higher than the snake they might be saves. However, there is only a guarantee when the healer is two Tiers higher."

"Isn't there an antivenom?"

"No, while there are antivenoms developed in the world, this particular snake is too dangerous to develop it for. One mistake and the handler would die, not to mention the fact that the snake isn't weak. According to the categories, it is an Ancient creature."

Eldrian cursed upon hearing this, he hadn't encountered many Ancient creatures, but he remembered clearly how strong the Unicorns and Pegasuses were. He would certainly not stand a chance against it alone.

"Still the damage it is likely to do to you should be minimal. At worst the pain might traverse through and assault you in the real world. However that is highly unlikely, and even if it does happen, we are ready." Joren mostly said this to try and ease Eldrian's worries.

He was not too worried about these creatures hurting him. They were also currently making sure that they had countermeasures. So it wasn't a complete lie, they just had few hours of knowing about this danger so they were still trying to make sure the normal safety measures would hold.

"The next ones aren't easy to explain. Most of them do not have fixed forms, two of them are undead. Which I know you are actually already busy facing."

"As such, I'll start with liches and ghouls. The first is extremely adept at manipulating the soul, we do not know to what effect it can use this ability in offense. However, we do know that elder liches can use their soul to create a new avatar for themselves. Hence they are likely an extreme threat..."

"And ghouls corrupt your soul." Eldrian interrupted before Joren could explain, after quickly skimming the information on ghouls he figured out what had happened to Kydone.

"Yes, and they are extremely agile. Their bodies are like liquid, capable of changing almost at will. Only their vital organs can't be changed, hence they would always have a head, at the very least.'

"Worst still is all they need is a scratch. Luckily divine magic is extremely effective against this type of corruption. As such there is a well-known way to heal it, however, the question is if you will manage to make it to a healer."

"What if I can't? I mean I am still a player, so won't I just resurrect?" Eldrian questioned.

"That depends on how strong the corruption is. Weaker corruption will cause you to be resurrected but in a weakened state. This will increase until at one point your avatar's soul will be destroyed. We do not know what the effect will be if you are still in the game when this happens, but it is unlikely to be good."

"Naturally, you are likely more susceptible to this since your soul being hurt," Joren added.

"What about the other creatures similar in danger to these?" Eldrian asked after thinking about it for a while. Deciding that he needed to try and learn some divine magic for his protection, however, he doubted he had the time.

"They would be your average devils. You had actually encountered one..." Joren paused and mumbled as he tried to recall the name, after a while, he gave up. "It was when you also met the Alicorns."

"The thing with devils is that they all have some sort of bloodline ability. Some of them are weak and nearly useless, others are extremely strong. I can't tell you which to watch out for, because it depends on what ability the devil has."

"What even makes a devil, a devil?" Eldrian asked, this question had bothered him for a while. He also didn't quite get the difference between devils and demons.

"That... The simplest classification is that they use a magic forbidden by the empires. To sustain this magic they can't rely just on mana, but also need to use powerful emotions. We don't quite get how it works, however, we do know their basic methods. The easiest of which is to gather pain, terror, and other similar emotions."

"Due to this magic they are also changed, or rather they have over the years. Way back they were almost human, just slightly different. But now they resembled demons more than humans in their natural form."

"Then what are demons?" Eldrian asked, the description not helping him much.

"Creatures who live upon powerful emotions. You can say they are what devils become when they can no longer live without the energy from emotions. Though that isn't quite accurate since they didn't come from devils. However, devils can turn into them."

"Some of them are in fact not too bad, for example, succubi and incubi. They feed upon joy, pleasure, and arousal. They are actually one of the most dangerous for you, seeing as they have extreme control over souls. It is how they feed upon these emotions."

"Some devils also follow this path. Luckily you do not have to worry about these ones fighting you, they generally dislike war and do not wish to participate in the needless killing. However, they might agree to try and seduce you, seeing as this can be seen as a great honor."

Hearing this and looking at the pictures Eldrian failed to see how he would ever be seduced. As if reading his mind the pictures changed into a beautiful woman and man. Instead of the demonic appearances before.

Where their skin was bloodred, as if they had climbed out of a bath of blood. Bat-like wings folded behind them and goat-like horns growing from their forehead. Strangely their eyes were mesmerizing even through the picture.

"Why are they considered evil if they do not kill?"

"I never said they don't kill. In fact, they love killing their victim right at the point of orgasm. Reports say that it makes the final pleasure ten times more enjoyable for them, however, we naturally have no idea if that is true. If it is then it means they get ten times the amount of energy, which is certainly great for them."

"They just don't like senseless killing, they believe in it needing to be planned. That each life should be used to its fullest in death."