A month later

Damaskinos woke up trembling and doubling over, something that had become increasingly common these days. The elemental infusion had gone just fine, which meant that he now had Fire, Water, Light and Earth elemental contaminations wrecking havoc with his body. Something he did not know before hand but knew now is that when opposite elements met within the body they would somewhat explosively interact, creating mini explosions of vapor in his blood, bones, and flesh, his greater regeneration just barely keeping him alive sometimes before he could muster the focus to cast Regenerate and fix the damage. Carnachias was proud that his new Devil lineage could even survive being host to opposite elemental contaminations at all.

He had learned his lesson, and had put off adding Dark and Wind until he was very close to evolving. He supposed under normal circumstances he could have offloaded some of the infusions in his class upgrade however he lacked any access to job changing rooms, and could only wait until his evolution allowed his Goddess to grant him a class upgrade, still far away as his EXP gains had somewhat stagnated now that he was level 36 on his Sorcerer class and his Imp class was level 42. His priest levels were bugged as always, his status as the Mother of all Darkness favorite making it a malfunctioning anomaly. He was told Halicarnassus, Carnachias "little pog champ", also has a bugged out priest class that doesn't show up in any appraisal.

Another dark morning, another regenerate to fix the damage the rampaging Fire and Water contaminations had wrecked on his body, and a quick refresh to somewhat compensate the chronic lack of sleep and the Imp was off in the crack of dawn to search for extra prey in the cold and frozen mountain top, the imminent arrival of the ranchers for the summer grazing precluding visits down into the valley grasslands.

He flew low now, the cutting the air with his invisible frame as he knew he sometimes the rampaging elements met in his wings and the vapor explosion made a fall almost inevitable, and between getting visible for miles up in the air while he dispersed invisibility and cast regenerate, or making a quick if somewhat **** landing in the snow he rather not be spotted and have his fate dictated by chance. The light was not stupid and he currently held no defense against a scrying spell searching for his dark core in this mountain, and he did not fancy his chances against a veteran adventurer or church troops coming up to hunt him down. He could win a fight or 2, but he was still too weak to avoid being hunted down once scrying mages had locked in on him. He would be forever too weak to escape being hunted down until he managed to get the relevant skills to escape magical pursuit or be able to send the Saintesses packing. The Light would not suffer a demon rampaging its heartlands, no matter how remote this region was.

Such was life for Damaskinos, and every now and then he thought if he should have taken Melanoches offer to spawn him in the borderlands where he could flee to friendly territory seriously, alas he had a plan and he would stick to it. His quarry for the day was one of the last animals on the Super **** Animals wish list that could be found in the region, a rank not relevant Snow Snake. He felt his left arm ache from something that was not elemental contamination on the memory of his last encounter with a Snake Magical Beast, he rather not take on another Ancient class ambush predator. He rather be the one doing the ambushing.

He flew over the ice and snow covered mountainside, searching for the holes that might indicate a lair and carefully avoiding getting too close to any of them, until he saw something he had never seen before as the search neared the mid day mark. A tall, ruined pagoda half buried within the snow. He felt shills and quickly dove behind a rock outcrop, ending the casting of invisibility and activating commune.

"This deity senses your worry my champion, what disturbs you?"

"I would like to report to your Dark Excellency I have found what looks like to be an abandoned temple up in the mountains, and would like to question if it is something you are aware of or a newly spawned dungeon by our underground ally."

"Well, she have been focusing on expanding the number of Dungeons near the borderlands, but it could be an offshoot. hold on a second while this Dark Divinity contacts her."

Damaskinos cut off the connection, casting refresh and regenerate to bring himself back to peak condition, in case it was indeed an abandoned Light Temple. He lacked the skills to sense any leftover Divine Power that could alert the Light Gods to his existence in the temple, but the possibility of looting precious equipment and materials left behind was ever so tempting. The process of furnishing his cave lair with pelts and crafting tools from wood, bones and stone was a pleasant pastime but could not be compared to the fruits of actual civilization made by people with the actual job skills applying their effects on their creations. If he was lucky he might even find a proper system dagger to replace his arm on taking the recoil from a "diving" smite, one could not imbue a smite on an attack made using something not processed with a skill into a recognized item in the system. He tried with every stick, bone and crude weapon he could make, but his barbarian destiny was ever stronger than his dislike for having his arm explode.

Judging enough time had passed, he casted Commune once again.

"According to her database it is a conquered dungeon, leftover from when the Light invaded her world and killed her makers. She said it is a few floors deep, and would like for you to verify if the core is still accounted for, if it is still present and only damaged rather than destroyed she has a distinct desire to restore it and connect to it. Pathways to strike at the Borealis continent are rare, despite this wayward ruin being too distant from a ley line to be an effective means of invasion."

"I would rather not call attention to this place before I am ready to leave."

"There is no need for haste, my champion, she is much too preoccupied with creating and maintaining the dungeons around the frontline to care for such minor prospects at the moment. She also thanked you for helping her re add the lost cores to her database, much was lost when the Light Gods destroyed her ancient mainframe, and every single Magical Beast Core is filled with the love of her creators and the last legacies they left her in this world."

"Bury the Light, Win the War."

"Bury the Light, Win the War my champion."

Damaskinos groaned as the comforting presence of his Goddess left him, another elemental rampage rocking his body. He casted another round of Regenerate, follow by invisibility and flew towards the entrance of the temple.