1182: Devil Merchant

Devil Merchant

Date- 5 April 23211

Time- 04:13

Location- Southern Region, Blossom district, Sky Blossom City, Outskirts

I had the myriad devil body rune card to thank for my new partial immortality but it came with some restrictions. For example, in dungeons, if I am inside a dungeon all my connection to the outside world gets limited, and I cannot access the grimoire network or use Hive AI to contact calamity daughter gem outside. Meaning if I were to die in the dungeon I cannot move my mutated soul into a pseudo calamity soul gem located outside of the dungeon but it's another thing if I had pseudo calamity soul gems hidden in the dungeon. 

Pseudo Calamity Soul Gem? The calamity soul gem created using calamity daughter gem and myriad devil transformation are just shells of calamity soul gem without my mutated soul within them, so I thought it would be better to call the calamity soul gems without my mutated soul within them pseudo calamity soul gem. 

Anyway apart from my partial immortality being limited within the dungeons, it was also weak to curses. But my mutated Viltronian physique, Gigamite, seemed to have strong resistance to curses, Viltronian physique in general seems to have strong resistance to curses. But this resistance was only limited to the curses of the same realm, not curses of the higher realm that I have been facing these past few days. Making me grateful for the dummy ring given to me by Anna.

Speaking of Anna, apart from our conflicted interest regarding silver milk powder and her occasional non-consensual sexual behavior with me, she has been pretty good to me, so much so that these past few days I preferred having her around and had grown dependent on her. Which I saw as a sign of threat thinking what if someday the southern royal family were to turn on me, no, to be exact, what if someday Anna were to favor her family over me, then without her by my side I would be crippled. This was why I wanted to expand my connections as soon as possible. 

Fearing for the what if, I was conflicted and acted out but seeing the silly girl throw herself at death for me, I understood that instead of preparing for the unknown future I should fight hard to protect the present I prefer so that it can grow into a future that I dreamed of having. 

This was the enlightenment I got from Anna's willingness to sacrifice herself for me. 

So, when I saw the semi-demigod chick's non-stop sneak attacks use Anna like a baseball, instead of running away like it was not my problem, I decided to do what I can. That girl came to my rescue every single time I needed her in one way or another, and that was why I planned to do everything in my power to assist her. 

As a card soldier currently I could do nothing to help Anna, except for revealing my location to the semi-demigod to divert her attention from Anna to me, but knowing Anna, she would desperately try to stop the semi-demigod from reaching. In the end, the only thing I could think of to help Anna would instead end up being counter-productive. It's a sin to be weak. This helpless feeling never gets old. 

When I was out of ideas, I remembered the card given to me by Jill, she did give me the card saying it will be helpful in my time of need. 

[Card Name: Equal Exchange

 Card Type: Demonic Card 

 Card Rank: A-rank, Rare-Grade

 Card Rate: 8-Stars

 Card Effect: You can exchange anything you want in exchange for anything of equal value. 

 Note: Do not equip it.]

Like Jill said this card was indeed a demonic card that could help me but she undersold its helpfulness to me. I don't know if it was because she wasn't aware of it or she did not think it was necessary. 

I say so because this card was not what it said it was. Meaning the card info shown on the card was false, if not for my soul pupils even I would not have seen through the trickery of this card. Using the Hive AI along with my soul pupils I finally decoded the real card info, 

[ Card Name: Devil Merchant

 Card Type: Demonic Summons Card

 Card Rank: -/-

 Card Rate: -/-

 Card Effect: Using this card, the user can summon the Devil Merchant, Belphegor. The user can exchange or buy anything they want for a reasonable price from the devil merchant.

Additional Effect: Devil's Pact 

Caution: Once the card is equipped, the user cannot unequip it without summoning the devil once.

Note: The summoned devil merchant will follow the merchant code and not intervene with the summoner's world order.]

Devil's Pact: This pact serves as the proof of deal between the devil merchant and the customer. This pact also allows the user to borrow anything from the Devil Marchant for the promise of making the payment at a later date. 

Note: Devil's Pact is governed by Devil merchant code and it is advised that the parties involved sign it at their discretion.

Reading the true card info of the card given to me by Jill, I learned it was not just any demonic card but a demonic summons card that would summon a devil. It was not actually called Equal Exchange but Devil Merchant when used it would summon a devil named Belphegor, who would grant me anything in exchange for something of equal value, and if I don't plan to pay now I could pay for it later by entering a devil's pact with the devil merchant Belphegor. 

One would forsake any notion of equipping this card based on the caution stated by the card but considering my situation, I did not have many options, so forgive me if I was considering equipping it.

Equipping the Devil Merchant card aside, even if I were to go through with it, what do I ask for? and exchange it for what? The answer was simple but difficult at the same time, 'How far was I willing to go to help Anna.'

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