I Was Just a Cleaner... Until I Got the Demon Extraction System-Chapter 73: The First to Leave

They were trapped inside that room. At first glance, it seemed that way. It was a stone building with the only 'doors' being metal bars locking the way out. Everyone else was on the floor, asleep, while Damian was walking around the area trying to look for any clues.

"I'm being watched, surely," he thought.

A test like that required the examiners to constantly monitor the participants. During the other tests, hunters were always lurking in the shadows, watching everything without revealing their presence. All the tests followed the same path.

Anyway, Damian first tried to destroy the metal bars by using his strength. He grabbed the cold metal bars and shook them, using everything he had. It didn't work. The metal bars didn't move an inch.

And that was Damian, someone with a powerful body. Any other participant would have a much worse time. He was starting to believe that the doors would only open after everyone woke up. It was the most logical thing.

There were other things in that room for him to check. The place was like a stone dungeon, but it also had some furniture inside. Everything looked old, dusty, and covered with cobwebs. Damian opened all the drawers he could find, hoping to find something useful inside.

Nothing. Damian, feeling frustrated, controlled himself from hitting something to release his anger. That could wake up the others, and that wasn't something he wanted.

He gave a deep breath, moving his head up, and that's when he noticed something in the ceiling. It was a small hole, an area to climb that could lead somewhere.

The hunters who were looking at him through the camera said, "he found one of the way outs, but he doesn't have the skill to climb that."

They didn't believe Damian could go up there. It required skill, agility, and a powerful body capable of jumping high. It wasn't something most of those participants could do. That type of skill belonged to the more skilled hunters.

Well, they were wrong about Damian. If there was something he excelled at, it was his bodily power. Although he knew they were looking, he still jumped and went through that hole.

Hiding his skills from the other participants was nice, but hiding them from the examiners didn't make sense. Damian had to show he was someone capable, as that was the only way for him to get his hunter ID.

With ease, Damian jumped and grabbed the stones on the walls of that hole, using his strength to climb them. The first part was the hardest one because it went up, but then it changed to the right, so Damian didn't need to climb anymore; he only needed to crawl.

Then, the hole changed directions again; it went down. Damian stared down for a second before jumping. Once there, he looked around to see where he was, and sure enough, it was on the other side of those metal bars. He had left the room where the other participants were.

"Nice!"

Damian still had no idea what he had to do in that test to pass. Did he need to work with the other participants or go alone? Was it a good idea to go first without waiting for the rest to wake up?

He didn't care. He continued forward, leaving everyone behind.

The place he was in was like a corridor, similar to a medieval castle corridor.

It was surprising how they managed to build something that big underground, just for that test. Damian was impressed by the effort they were putting in to make sure the participants had a proper, high-quality challenge.

Anyway, as he walked, Damian kept his attention sharp for any strange movements. After all, based on the conversations he had overheard while pretending to be asleep, that place was dangerous.

There would be demons down there, placed by the hunters to test the participants. Additionally, the hunters themselves would be participating, dressed in those bizarre outfits.

"Too bad I won't be able to use my demonic abilities," Damian thought.

It wasn't a good idea to use those abilities, since he wanted to build his identity as a hunter who relied on water-element powers.

Not to mention, having demon-related abilities would draw too much attention, and people would start asking questions. Damian knew that would be disastrous.

So, he kept walking down the stone corridor, and it didn't take long before a demon came to attack him.

This demon radiated weak energy. It didn't seem like something that would be too difficult for Damian to kill in a fight. Maybe the other participants would struggle a bit more, but for him, that didn't seem to be the case.

The demon was some kind of spider—huge, but instead of regular spider legs, it had human arms. Even though he knew the creature was weak, Damian still felt a shiver run through him because of its appearance. It was the kind of demon that could inspire real fear.

But he didn't let it get to him! Damian quickly called upon his water abilities. To do so, he pulled out a small water bottle he kept tucked away in one of his pockets.

To use his powers, he needed water nearby. Damian still couldn't just create it out of thin air. But that wasn't too hard to work around. With just a small amount from the bottle, he was able to unleash several attacks.

Since it was an S-rank ability—and on top of that, he had a passive skill that boosted his water-element powers by 25%—the force behind each spell was devastating.

He formed a ball of water and hurled it directly at the spider. The creature managed to dodge, leaping backward. The moment it hit the ground, the small water orb crashed with enough force to carve out a crater, shattering some of the stone beneath it.

The examiners, watching everything through the cameras, were stunned.

"Who the hell is this guy?" one of them said.

"No idea, but his ability is insanely strong—not to mention his physical power. Could he be from some noble family?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The noble families—the ones with real money—could afford far better training, starting from a young age. To the examiners, that was the only explanation for Damian's overwhelming strength at such a young age, and not even being an official hunter yet.

Without wasting any time, Damian used his ability again, shaping another ball of water from the liquid now spread across the floor. He managed to do it in just seconds.

This time, the spider couldn't dodge. The water orb slammed into it, tearing off several of its arms.

It wasn't enough to kill the demon outright, but after that hit, there was nothing it could do to win the fight.

Realizing it was finished—and sensing the energy radiating from Damian's body—the demon tried to speak before dying.

"Please, don't kill me," it begged. "I don't know who you are, but please…"

Damian knew this was a very bad sign. Normally, demons didn't even try to say anything, so he needed to end the creature before the examiners realized something was seriously wrong.

Once more, he formed a ball of water and hurled it at the spider, obliterating what remained of its body. Dark blood splattered everywhere, mixed with the shattered pieces of the creature.

Fortunately, it was hard to tell when that spider was speaking or not—and since the examiners couldn't hear anything through the cameras, well, none of them noticed.

Damian decided not to absorb the creature. Since he was being watched, it just didn't seem smart. He wished he could get the free attributes and skills, but right now, getting the hunter ID mattered most.

He kept moving, staying alert so no demon could surprise him. After the first one, Damian thought more would appear, but now everything was quiet. Nothing else came after him.

"What's going on?" he thought.

He thought the test would be tougher, so he expected groups of demons to attack him every so often.

Also, because he was the only one who left the room at that point, he was alone against all the other demons down there. If everyone had left the room, then perhaps they could team up to fight the demons or something like that.

That was one of the reasons he believed the place would be packed with demons, and that was not the case in the end.

Then, someone showed up. It was a man dressed in a fur attire, and he had an animal head, too. The man was frightening.

Damian had seen the examiners dressed up like that before, but it was different now. Now he was underground, inside a dungeon, and the examiner was close to him, staring deep into his eyes, almost sucking his soul out.

Tension rose in the air. Damian didn't know if he would be fighting the examiner or just hiding, running, or doing anything that didn't involve combat.

But the examiner moved toward him, slowly walking. His footsteps echoed, making the moment even tenser.