Chapter 12 - Reading

"That… thing… is supposed to be four times as smart as a regular Imp? Are you serious?" Thomas asked with a wry smile, and Avalin nodded her head smugly for some reason, while the Imp simply stood there next to her, pulling his finger out of his nose again.

And there it was, the most beautiful thing that he may over produce! Such form! Such Color! Such Size! It was perfect! Deep down, the Imp knew that he didn't want to see it go, but right now, he was on another mission.

He had seen it done before by one of the stronger monsters when the Imp was still part of that group, so all he had to do now was replicate that God-Like Technique! Slowly, he placed the treasure onto his thumb and pushed his middle finger onto the skin directly behind it, before pressing it down and forward, just waiting for his middle finger to be released with as much speed as possible!

But from watching Avalin shoot those sticks out with her bow, the Imp knew that speed wasn't the most important thing a projectile needed. He also needed proper aim!

Slowly, the Imp grasped the arm that was going to shoot the treasure out with his other one for more stability, closed one of his eyes, and lined his fingers up with the face of the most disgusting of the two things in front of him! James!

And then, it was time for it to say goodbye to the treasure born out of his nose. With thoughts of loss and regret pushing themselves up within the Imp's head, he simply stayed dedicated and did what he had to do.

"Erm… The hell's it-" James asked with a wry smile as he finally noticed this happen, but it was too late for him already.

With a speed that the Imp himself couldn't fathom, his middle finger pushed the treasure forward, and as if the world around him slowed down in order to allow him to watch his greatest work so far unfold, the Imp was able to see the treasure fly through the air in a straight line, and before anyone in the room knew it, the treasure flew into James' throat, the place that was supposed to give the Imp max points.

It was done, the Imp had to sacrifice everything, but it was worth it in the end. Especially so when the Imp was able to see James convulse and run over to a bucket in the corner to get rid of what he had eaten today.

"Khekekaghaaa ghaa!" The Imp laughed loudly, although it soon felt a pain in its stomach when he couldn't manage to stop laughing.

Was he poisoned? Was he cursed? What did these horrible things do to him?! But then, it seemed as if the three main conspirators appeared in front of the Imp as he dropped to the ground, staring down onto him to watch him suffer.

[You hit your target with Perfect Accuracy!]

[Dexterity +1][Perception +1]

"Gh-Ghee!" Trying to call for help, the Imp looked around, raising his hand in the air to at the very least do damage to his greatest enemies to take them down with him if he wasn't able to be saved from this horrid fate.

"…Yeah… Erm, let's check on that again, maybe?" Thomas asked with a wry smile as he looked at Avalin, who wasn't sure how to react herself, with embarrassment or enjoyment over what the Imp did. But at the very least, she held James back from hurting the Imp even more in his dying moments!

"Come on, just let me break one finger! If it's that weak, it shouldn't need them anyway!" James exclaimed angrily, but Avalin still held him back with as much strength as she could muster.

---

Back inside of the same room that Avalin and the Imp were in before, the red thing dropped down onto the bed again and went to sleep. She seemed to have prepared a smaller spot for the Imp to sleep at as well, but he somehow really didn't think that he actually should go to sleep, for whatever reason.

And while he was tired, he was still able to hold out a little bit, although he really didn't understand why that was. Maybe it was just an instinct to make sure that he wouldn't be able to be attacked by the notifications after their failed attempt at his life?

Either way, the Imp still felt a little bored, so he figured he should do something else to pass the time, and then ended up taking another one of the smaller books that Avalin had with her.

It was completely useless though! It already had a lot of words and letters inside of it, completely different to the book that he and Avalin always played with. He was just about to throw it to the side, when he noticed that he recognized some of the different words inside of it from the notifications.

If the notifications and this useless book were somehow related to each other, then he really had investigate what this wicked creature was! After all, if it was dangerous, he didn't want it to be anywhere near Avalin!

The Imp continuosly tried to properly figure out what those things were saying, but while he was able to somewhat figure out what the words were, he had no idea what they meant!

After all, what the hell was a 'Rock', and what was a 'Fish', and worst of all, what was 'Antidisestablishmentarianism'? All of these things made the Imp really, really angry! And annoyed… And tired… Although the last one was usually taken care of whenever new notifications appeared around him, because his dedication rose in the face of the enemy!

That, and he was scared shitless whenever they appeared out of nowhere…

[Beginner Common Language Comprehension Skill Leveled Up!]

"Stah!" The Imp yelled out angrily, and was now even more startled when Avalin began to groan behind him, but she seemed to properly fall asleep immediately afterward again.

So, instead of stopping so that this wouldn't happen again, the Imp quickly went back to reading. Or at least he stared at the pages and tried to read, but it didn't seem to work all that well…

And before he knew it, Avalin stood up from the bed even before it was bright out again, and she immediately jumped up when she saw that the Imp was holding the book in his hands.

"Ah! Careful with that! That's not something you should play around with!" Avalin exclaimed, but the Imp just tilted his head to the side confused and watched as Avalin quickly took the book from him and put it into her bag.

"Well, at least it doesn't seem to be ripped anywhere… Guess you weren't playing with it for that long, huh?" The red thing said with a relieved sigh, but for some reason that annoyed the Imp a little. He didn't fully understand what Avalin was saying, but he actually kind of got the gist of everything she said.

"…Not.. Playing…" The Imp complained, and Avalin raised her eyebrows in surprise as she looked at the Imp confused, and then took out the empty book again.

"Can you think about making this box appear again and say 'Status'?" Avalin asked, and with a disgusted expression, really not wanting to summon what seemed to be the boss of his enemies over to him.

"Greh… Status…" Annoyedly, the Imp muttered this out and the huge notification appeared again. Somehow, even if he could understand Avalin pretty well now, he still had no idea what any of this was saying, even if he did recognize some parts of it.

Slowly, Avalin held the page with the drawing of the box in front of the Imp again and tapped one of the fields at the bottom of it. "Compare." She told him, and the Imp tilted his head to the side confused.

He already did that a few times yesterday! He did have to change one or two things all of a sudden, but by now he should have gotten everything right!

At least that's what the Imp thought at first. But it seemed like one mistake still hid inside of the large notification, and annoyedly the Imp took the pencil Avalin was holding toward him and fixed the mistake by writing the right number next to the wrong one.

And before he knew it, Avalin pulled the book away again and then looked at the Imp surprised once more.

"Wait… Is this right?" She asked herself confused, and with a smug expression, the Imp just showed its crooked teeth and nodded.

"Yes!" He replied, and Avalin just looked at him with a confused expression. "How did you manage to go from 73 to 96 in one night..?" And in response to that question, the Imp just shrugged his shoulders and looked back at her.

"Hahh.." Avalin sighed deeply and began to frown, before taking the book back out of her bag and handing it to the Imp again, "If you somehow damage it, I'm taking it back again, got that?" The red thing told the Imp and he just nodded his head again and sat back down to try and read again, although once more he was just looking at the letters and words and tried to see where else he could see the same words.

And a little while later, Avalin tapped the Imp's shoulder, telling him that they're leaving now, so he quickly made sure he had everything.

Bag full of delicious meat, check! Wooden Dagger that can even slay the gods, check! Book that somehow has to be related to his worst enemies, check!

And so, the Imp puffed some air out of his nose while the meat-bag was slung over his back, the Dagger stuck into the strap running diagonally across his body, and he was holding the book with both his arms against his chest so that it couldn't run away.

"Leave!" The Imp then exclaimed, heading toward the door as he said so, and for some reason it seemed like Avalin was laughing now that she took a closer look at him, even if the Imp really didn't understand why.

Then, Avalin opened the door up and the two of them made their way down to the bottom floor of the building, waiting for Thomas and James to arrive outside. There were a lot of things similar to the three things the Imp was traveling with out here, but most of them were looking at the Imp angrily or annoyedly, although some even seemed to be scared of him even if he didn't do anything…

The Imp especially liked it when the last of those three things happened! That just showed that, despite looking so dumb, all of the things were at least smart enough to know how strong and scary the Imp was.

With a proud puff out of his nose, the Imp stood there straight, although Avalin seemed to drag him somehere else a little bit further to the side, and then ended up pulling the meat-bag to the Imp's side while placing some weird large piece of brown cloth over his back, bound some of it around his neck, and pulled some of it over his head! All of this felt kind of weird to the Imp and he wanted to rip it off of his body, but he hesitated for a moment when he saw Avalin's expression.

"Alright, as I thought, you look good with a cloak." She said with a bright smile, rubbing her palm over the Imp's head.