Salvos (A Monster Evolution)

Chapter 18- Hazelbury

18. Hazelbury

"The sun's rising."

I turned back to Daniel. The Human man had halted right behind me and began fumbling with his cloak. I glanced over at the horizon, seeing an inkling of daylight seeping into the canvas above. I cocked my head.

"Is that unusual?"

"No— I..."

He sighed, rubbing at his temples.

"Here, just put this on. It'll be bright soon, and we don't want anyone to see you."

"Why not?"

I asked the question as he threw his cloak over me. I found myself wrapped in the dark cloth, its bottom edges folding into a wrinkle on the ground. I lifted an arm up, inspecting the strange material.

[Cloak of Shadows: Medium Grade Armor - A black cloak that obscures your face; it also has a resistance to cutting.]

Daniel hesitated as he pulled something out of his pocket. He muttered under his breath.

"Good thing I took a spare..."

He turned and handed a link of tiny metal rings interlocked to form a circle. It held on it a golden shell wrapped around a crimson crystalline object which seemed to shimmer even in the dark.

"If anyone sees you, they'll probably freak out and try to kill you just like I did. Demons are not...uh, liked here in this world. So you have to lay low."

The Human man unlinked the chain, before apprehensively proffering the necklace to me.

"W-wear this. Even with the cloak on, people can still use [Identification] to figure out you're a Demon. This is a Necklace of Lesser Obfuscation. You can use it to hide or change either your Class or your levels."

I quickly grabbed it off his hands and raised it up. I stared at it, then him.

"Is this why my [Identification] doesn't work on you?! I thought you were Level 60 or something!"

"No I'm not— I'm barely your level. The reason you can't see that's because of my Necklace of Greater Obfuscation. It can hide and change both my Class and my levels in the eyes of others. Although if I make myself appear as a Level 50, it won't do anything to actually make me stronger— it just dissuades low leveled bandits from attacking me."

I nodded along, listening to the man's explanation. That was why he was so weak! I was starting to think that I was actually stronger than even Level 60s and 70s here in the Mortal Realm— I was thinking of finding a monster of that level and fighting them! It was a good thing I knew better now.

"I see... what's a Class by the way?"

Daniel blinked.

"You don't know what a Class is? Wait— do you even have a Class?"

"Is it a kind of way to sort things by a common factor? Because if so, I don't think I've ever done that."

"No— not that kind of class. I mean a Class. The reason you can use Skills and stuff... you have one, right?"

I gave him a blank look.

"I don't."

"O-oh..."

"But I do have a Subspecies though, if you're talking about Skills. I got three when I evolved into an [Imp], and my intuition is telling me I couldn't have gotten my first two if I wasn't a [Demon Larva]."

The Human man frowned as I peered at him curiously. What's he confused about? Doesn't he have a Subspecies? But he shook his head.

"I thought only monsters had... nevermind. Just put on that necklace. Tap on it and channel mana into it until it turns blue. It will hide your Subspecies so no one can see that you're an [Imp]."