World's First Demon Lord 101 Game Plan

May 14, 6:30 pm BT – 4:30 pm UT, Somewhere In The Tian Shan Mountain Range, China

The smell meat wafted through the dining room. Aside from the sounds of eating and slurping, there wasn't much noise.

The dining room was small, but cozy. It was actually the first room of the house, and the only room that had a window. There was a small, circular dining table that could squeeze about five people around it, with a colorful etles patterned tablecloth over it. A small, but powerful, yellow lightbulb lit everything from above.

The gray walls were decorated with pictures of nature, and a large, woven tapestry of Uyghur people singing and dancing hung from the wall near the door. Irade sat on the seat facing the door, and she found herself repeatedly looking over to it.

She had taken the time to look around, and found there was a wall and a door leading to the kitchen, with a glassless window above so that whoever was in the kitchen could speak with those at the dining table. It reminded Irade a little of when she worked at the restaurant, actually.

Irade sat awkwardly, opposite of Käwsär's dad while Käwsär and his mother had prepared the food. Käwsär's dad didn't seem at all interested in initiating a conversation, but every now and then, Irade caught him glancing at her missing arm. She half-wished he would say something, just to get it over with, but he didn't. And there was no way Irade felt comfortable enough to say something. Not when she was a guest.

So she sat there in awkward silence, in a suffering partly of her own making.

She spent the time simply looking around, interested in pretty much everything. Not because it was anything that...interesting, but because the HUD was actually giving her a lot more information than usual.

Käwsär and his family's names were all in some Arabic script, so Irade couldn't read it. But everything else had some little description next to it. The tapestry had a little note stating that it was woven by a weaver from Hotan, the table had a little thing stating that it had been hand crafted by the owner of the house. Little things that Irade hadn't seen before were now popping up.

Was this the upgrade that the HUD had alluded to back when she got the [Left Arm Of The Djinn]?

However, once the food came, Irade forgot about her awkwardness and the HUD.

Käwsär's mom had made something called leghmen; a thin noodle topped with stir-fry. The smell from the kitchen already had Irade salivating, but as soon as it was placed in front of her, Irade found that she could not hold herself back anymore. She devoured the plate, making a bit of a mess with her chopsticks. To be fair, this had been the first time in weeks she had used chopsticks, and she had forgotten how...handy...it was to have another hand to hold the plate still white eating.

That said, she was too absorbed in how delicious the food was to care. By the time she finished, her face and front were dribbling with sauce. She looked up to find Käwsär had placed some napkins near her, and there was another plate of hot leghmen waiting for her.

"You seemed to be enjoying my food," said Käwsär's mom, smiling. Her Uyghur was slow and deliberate; very easy to understand.

"That made me very happy, so I thought you might enjoy some more."

Irade wiped her front and mouth, and bowed slightly to Käwsär's mom.

"Thank you," she replied in Uyghur. Still hungry, Irade started to eat the food in front of her, but more slowly and carefully this time.

"What is a pretty girl like you doing up here in the mountains anyway?" asked Käwsär's mom after a while. She wasn't eating; she simply sat at the table as the boys as Irade ate her food.

Irade gulped up a mouthful of noodles before answering.

"I'm going to Kashgar," she said.

Käwsär and his dad both looked up at that, surprised.

"I'm...looking for...people," Irade explained, before slurping up another bunch of noodles.

"There are easier ways to get to Kashgar than through the mountains," said Käwsär's dad casually. "Why did you come this way?"

Irade ate a little more as she tried to figure out the right words in Uyghur.

"Need to hide," she ended up saying.

"From what?" Käwsär's dad immediately asked.

Irade shook her head, and looked over at Käwsär. She didn't have the vocabulary to answer the question.

"Irade doesn't know Uyghur very well," Käwsär explained. "I've only been teaching her for the last couple of days."

"Irade?" asked Käwsär's mom, turning to the girl in question. "Is that your name?"

Irade nodded, slurping up more noodles.

Käwsär's dad leaned back in his seat, sighing.

"A girl names Irade, walking with a wolf?" he scoffed. "What is this, the epic of Oghuz Khan?"

"Memet..."

Käwsär's mom gave her husband a look, and he sighed in resignation. Irade raised an eyebrow, chewing on her food.

She got that the wolf thing was weird, but why did they mention her name?

Before she could ask though, a howl pierced through the silence.

Immediately, Irade stood up, followed closely by Käwsär and his dad.

"Something's coming," said Irade.

"Probably those things again," Käwsär's dad grunted. Irade looked over, surprised to find him grimacing. She noticed that he was standing a little weirdly.

His wife said something to him in rapid Uyghur that Irade couldn't understand, but he just waved it off.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he grumbled. "More that well enough to take care of a few dogs."

"They're not wolves," said Käwsär. "They're too…***** to be wolves."

"*****?" Irade asked.

Käwsär shook his head.

"They're not animals," he said. "They're something...different. You'll know when you see."

"No," said his dad. "I'm not letting a guest risk her life while they're at my house."

"I'm going," said Irade. "My friend is out there."

Käwsär's dad looked at Irade as if she were crazy. Then he sighed once more, and looked at his wife.

Somehow, she was now carrying three hunting rifles. Irade had noticed that she had slipped away when the howling started, but she hadn't noticed her come back. Käwsär's mum smiled sweetly as she handed the rifles out to the boys and Irade.

"Do you have like...a knife instead?" Irade asked when she was handed the gun. "I can't really..."

"Oh, of course," said Käwsär's mom. "How silly of me."

She went through the kitchen door once more. Irade turned and watched as Käwsär and his dad set up their rifles, pulling out ammo from under the table and other little nooks and crannies of the house. Along with the rifles, they also took two hunting bows, and quivers full of arrows. They seemed to be pretty used to this.

As she watched though, she noticed Käwsär and his dad exchange another looks, and every now and then, they glanced at her.

"You use knives to hunt?" Käwsär eventually asked her.

"And my hands," said Irade. "I don't know...anything else."

Käwsär's dad simply shook his head, while Käwsär looked like his dreams were coming true. It was a little creepy, these two starkly different reactions.

Käwsär's mother returned, this time holding a small dagger. Irade blinked when she saw it; it had a simple, red, cylindrical, wooden handle, and the blade shone silver. It looked sharper than any other knife Irade had seen before; sharper than ever the bear-man's knife she had lost back at the gorge.

"Will this do?" asked his mother, smiling sweetly.

Irade nodded slowly. Her HUD told her that this was a [Hereditary Dagger], and that it had [Sharpness: 100], and [Durability: 100]. Cool. She had never been able to see the stats of her weapons before.

She looked over at Käwsär's dad, asking permission. 

He looked stony faced at his wife, anger clearly radiating off him. She simply smiled back at him.

For a while, they simply stood there.

Then, something howled again.

Käwsär's dad shook his head and folded his arms.

"Fine," he spat, before pointing to his wife. "But when we come back, we're having words."

She simply smiled.

"Is that a promise?" she asked.

Käwsär's dad's eyes softened, just for a moment.

"Yes," he said. "Always."

"I'll put the tea on then," she said. "For when you come back."

She turned to her son.

"I'll take care of him, don't worry," he said before she could say anything. "I'm a man now."

"Yes you are," she said. "Well then, safe hunting!"

And with that, they set off.

***

Irade

May 14, 7:11 pm BT – 5:11 pm UT, Somewhere In The Tian Shan Mountain Range, China

The sun was still high up in the sky when they left the house. However, clouds were beginning to gather, and the smell of rain permeated the mountainside. The lush, sloping green of the mountains rustled in the wind as the trio slowly walked away from the house.

"You were the first to stand up back there," said Käwsär.

Irade simply nodded.

A beat passed.

"How?" Käwsär asked.

Irade said nothing. Not because she didn't want to, but because she wasn't sure how to explain how her [Agility] stat amplified her gamer reflexes in Uyghur.

"...Do you know what it is we're...'hunting?'" Käwsär asked, misunderstanding her silence.

"...Do you?" Irade asked, evading the question. 

"They're wolves, nothing more," Käwsär's dad interrupted from in front of them. "Wolves that have been tainted by all that nuclear stuff the government is testing in the desert."

Käwsär scoffed.

"We're ages away from the desert," he said, rolling his eyes. "How could something happening so far away affect us here in the mountains?"

"The government's hand reached much farther than you think," his dad countered. "They can reach us here, even if you think you're safe."

As Käwsär made his retort, Irade had a feeling that he and his dad had had this arguments many times before. She watched, a little amused as they bantered back and forth, walking further away from the house.

"But you didn't answer his question," Käwsär's dad ended up saying after a while. "Do you know what these are?"

He and Käwsär looked over to her, expecting. Slowly, Irade nodded.

She had checked with her [Monster Map] on instinct when she heard the howl back in the house. What she had seen was enough to send a chill up her spine.

A hoard of red, slowly coming closer to the house. They were coming from uphill, towards the peak of the mountain, but Irade had a feeling they weren't at the top. She would need to get closer to determine exactly where they were coming from. 

Of course, she had no idea how to explain this all to Käwsär and his dad.

"They're...not natural," she ended up saying. Käwsär's dad grinned in triumph, while Käwsär tried to argue that it didn't necessarily mean he was right.

Irade didn't have the energy, nor the vocabulary to correct either of them. Instead, she slowed down, and readied her dagger.

The two were quick to notice Irade's sudden change in mood, and also readied their weapons.

"Where are they coming from?" Käwsär asked.

Irade simply nodded upwards, indicating that they would be coming from the forest are uphill.

"They have the high ground," Käwsär's father muttered. "That puts us at a disadvantage."

Irade looked around to find that he was right. There wasn't much to hide behind here; they would be out in the open while they fired.

"I can go in and hit the first ones," said Irade. "You two hit the last ones."

Käwsär's father looked confused at what Irade was trying to say.

"I think she wants to go in and manage the fontline," said Käwsär, "while we handle the backline with our range."

Silence. Then:

"Are you crazy?" Käwsär's father bellowed. "Do you actually have a death wish?"

Irade ignored him, looking around. She soon found what she was looking for. She pointed up to a branch on a tree.

"Hit from there," she said, looking at Käwsär. For a moment, he looked confused.

"I can't get up there," he said.

Irade nodded, and immediately walked over to him. She grabbed him around the waist, the activated [Flight].

"Wh-whoa!!"

Käwsär managed not to scream too loudly while Irade carried him up to the tree branch. It was a good few meters above the ground; too high for any land-based monsters to come after him. It would also give him a height advantage.

"You fall, you scream 'Irade,' okay?" Irade explained the plan as best as she could as she placed him up on the branch. Käwsär gathered his wits pretty quickly once he was placed up on the branch. Once Irade made sure he was settled, she floated back down to Käwsär's dad.

He looked at her, open-mouthed.

"They're coming," she said, looking back up to forest uphill. "Soon."

Käwsär's dad quickly shut his mouth and shook his head.

"Government experiments," he grumbled. "What is the world coming to?"

He muttered as he readied his rifle, looking up at the forest.

All was quiet. The wind blew across the grass, the smell of the sweet mountain air trying to distract Irade from the danger that she knew was coming. The clouds above slowly covered the sun, dimming the colors of the mountain.

Then she saw it.

A four-legged, boar-headed monster, slowly walking out of the forest. She knew that as soon as she saw it, it saw her in return. For a split second, all was still.

Then, the monster opened its bat-like wings along with its mouth:

"SKKRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

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Chapter end