Myles was intrigued. He turned towards the wall and asked, "Will I be able to use the skill there?"
[I'm unable to provide you an answer for that. However, you can test it yourself by touching and injecting your demonic energy into the wall with the intention of activating the skill.]
Myles nodded and walked towards the nearest wall. He touched it and poured his demonic energy inside.
However, something struck him, causing him to back out in pain.
He glanced at his right hand and it was trembling from the repercussion.
He asked, "So, that was runes?"
[Correct. Runes can prevent even innate demonic arts. Unless, the latter is stronger than the former.]
Myles nodded. He wanted to experiment with his new skills badly.
He restrained himself and waited for Nyxara to return with prisoners.
…
For the next hour, Myles continued to experiment with the crawlers one at a time. When he consumed the fifth demonic core, his demonic core mutated and ascended into Rank 5 Common Demon Rank.
The core color turned fiery red, becoming stable and pulsed with steady energy. It has also become slightly intelligent, communicating with Myles through the latter's intent, making it way easier for Myles to control the demonic energy.
The demonic energy channels inside his body, connecting from his demonic core to every part of his body, have strengthened and stabilized.
Myles felt his demonic core stored a lot more demonic energy and it was definitely concentrated.
He did not order Nyxara to collect another prisoner again, he asked the voice in his head first, "What is the condition to ascend to Rank 4 Common Demon?"
[You have to consume ten demonic cores of Common Demon at any rank. Or one Greater Demon at any rank.]
Myles turned towards Nyxara and asked, "How many Common Demon ranks are left?"
Nyxara wanted to lie to finally get some rest, but since she was a slave to Myles, the soul contract immediately forced her to tell the truth.
"There's still fifteen of them."
Myles pondered. This might take a lot of time to reach the Greater Demon rank.
He glanced at Nyxara and recalled she reached the Greater Demon rank. At the same time, her mother was also at the Greater Demon rank.
She asked, "You are at Rank 2 Greater Demon rank, right? How about your Mother?"
Nyxara nodded and said, "Yes. She's at the Rank 1 Greater Demon rank."
Myles frowned. He asked, "Aren't you two only 1 minor rank difference? Also, what's the average rank of demons in the Royal Academy?"
Nyxara was surprised. She sighed and said, "It's only a single minor rank difference, but the disparity is way huge. You know why? It's simply because she solidified her foundation, while I'm far from solidifying mine. She knows a lot of demonic arts, and has mastered her innate demonic martial arts. She also learned a lot about politics and many more after graduating from the Royal Academy.
That's why even if we only have a single minor rank difference, the status and prowess comparison are so vast. So much that even if I ascend into Rank 1 Greater Demon, it would be surprising I could even leave a scratch to her if we battle."
Myles frowned. "Aren't you exaggerating?"
Nyxara sighed again. "If only I am. Have you forgotten how fast she moved? There's no way I can do that. Not even half of that. She learned that from the Royal Academy. She was one among the best of their batch who graduated.
Just think of it this way, you have a gold stone and you have the ability to morph it into any object, but you don't know how to perfectly shape it into a sharp weapon."
Myles nodded. "I understand now. So, your demon rank doesn't matter if you lack abilities and a solid foundation."
Nyxara nodded. "Exactly. Also, you can't ascend into the Demon Lord rank if you haven't fully solidified your foundation when you're in the Greater Demon rank. That's why most of the nobles in the Royal Academy entered as Greater Demon rank and graduated as Rank 1 Greater Demon for six years in the Royal Academy."
"Six years?" Myles frowned. "Is it really difficult to ascend in every minor rank in the Greater Demon rank?"
Nyxara giggled. "It's so difficult, to be honest. I also don't know how to even ascend in the Demon Lord rank. But, my mother told me it would only be possible once she became the matriarch of the Succubus houses in this kingdom.
I speculated that the Demon King is restricting the amount of Demon Lord produced. Or perhaps, it's really just difficult and having resources as a matriarch might be the only way."
Myles nodded. "We'll know about it in the Royal Academy."
Nyxara smiled brightly. "Like, I always used to say."
"Alright. Go get me the remaining Common Demon rank prisoners one at a time. The twenty Common Demon rank should only refer to Crawlers, right?"
Nyxara was taken aback.
She realized that she might be unable to get some rest in being Myles' slave, causing her to growl in vexation.
Myles simply went silent and simply watched her grab the corpse of the crawler in front of him. Nyxara didn't even bother hiding her displeasure of being an errand of a tedious task.
He smiled and said, "If I'm done with this experiment, I will reward you."
Nyxara paused abruptly beside him and gazed at him with widened eyes.
Myles simply smiled and grabbed her nape, smacking her lips.
Nyxara was completely frozen, she did not expect Myles to suddenly kiss her on the lips.
She thought Myles would simply kiss her a bit, but Myles went rough, even attempting to open her mouth, sliding his tongue inside, twirling and cleaning her teeth—front and back.
Nyxara's heart raced and she remained frozen while Myles freely kissed her roughly.
When she was about to reciprocate after gathering a lot of courage, to twirl his tongue with hers, Myles pulled away and cleaned his mouth with his tongue.
He grinned.
"We will continue later after I'm done with the experiment."
Nyxara was startled awake and her face went full red.
She immediately lowered her face to hide her embarrassment and hastily left the door…
Filled with vigor.