Mind Demon's Path of Domination

From the distance, a young man appeared riding on a horse.

A Golden Savage!

Mark stared at the young man in surprise. The youth had wheat blond hair, yellow eyes, and a narrow face. Wearing higher quality clothing than any other savage he had seen, and with the poise by which he rode the horse, this youth seemed born in a higher position.

But that was not what surprised Mark.

He has no savage mask.

Pale-skinned, narrow face with an inhuman slit yellow eyes. Then, Mark noticed something in between the man's brows—another eye. It was a closed slit, but Mark knew it was a third eye.

So this was a Golden Savage.

They did seem much, much stronger than a Silver Savage.

Mark bowed without his heart in the act and the Golden Savage went past them with a yawn. Then descended his horse and rubbed his neck before looking at the 30 or so children with squinted eyes.

Status, Mark thought, gauging the man.

====

[Golden Savage]

[Tier 2]

[Physique: 1000 (Pinnacle)]

[Mind: 1000 (Pinnacle)]

[Savage Magic]

Glass Dome (Pinnacle).

Sword Generation (Pinnacle).

[Resistances]

None.

[Traits]

[Mask of the Savage]

[As long as their Masks are not broken, they can revive themselves even if they get beheaded.]

[All abilities are enhanced by a Minor Tier.]

====

Mark froze. The man had no mask, how was anyone supposed to break it?

Suddenly, he felt something sharp placed against his neck. At some point, the Golden Savage had generated a sword and placed it against his neck. It was so stupidly fast, Mark hadn't noticed it at all.

The man had taken out the sword, turned around, and placed its edge against his neck.

And he just noticed.

"I don't like people squinting at me, especially not a mere Silver. But I didn't feel any ill intentions in your gaze, just mere curiosity. Or else, your head would be rolling now. I am a kind man, but not everyone is—so beware."

Mark looked down at the ground and the man removed his sword. It vanished, just as it had appeared. From the cart full of children, Mark's puppet stared at the Gold with a face full of curiosity.

How was he so fast? And why didn't his status mention anything about his third eye? Where is his Mask of the Savage?

And again, why was he so fast?

Mark was not in his main body and was much slower than it in the Parasitic Host, but still, he should have at least seen it coming.

Weird. Something weird is going on.

The man walked up to the cart and looked at the children in it calmly. As Mark stared covertly, his third eye suddenly snapped open. The Silver Savages, including Mark who was using a Silver Savage body as his parasite-host, all felt the urge to worship.

Mark stayed ice cold, not letting his emotions waver his thoughts. His Puppet watched everything with squinted eyes. When the man's third eye opened, a sleek and barbaric mask appeared on his face, too.

It was form-fitting, and Mark felt a sense of danger from it. In the somewhat plain but mysterious mask, there were three eyes and all of them stared down.

Truly, a sense of savagery.

The man raised his arms, hand floating above the cart. "Oh children of the human race, drink the blood from my heart and be reborn anew as a savage."

A sword appeared in his other hand and he cut a slit into his palm. Golden blood dripped down and in the midst of its fall, the man precisely cut the blood using his sword. The drop split into tens of drops and accurately fell into the eyes of the children.

The man hadn't even bothered asking whether they wanted this.

Mark himself felt a hot drop of blood hit his puppet's squinted eyes and grimaced. He felt incredible pain and such things were a shared experience between his Puppet and himself. He was conscious in both bodies, after all.

Mark gritted his teeth inwardly and calmed himself.

The Golden Savage's stats had changed slightly when he opened his third eye. A new Trait.

[The Heart Blood Pool]

[A pool of blood that can be created using one's Mindpower. Using the drops of blood in the pool, you can transform other creatures into Savages and they can't feel any ill intent towards you from thereon.]

No matter how strong the Sacage that a Golden Savage created became, they can never generate any ill intention towards their creator. Yanchan could never feel any ill intention towards this particular Golden Savage either once he is turned into a savage.

Mark frowned inwardly.

The Puppet, on the other hand, writhed inside the caravan as its body began to morph and distort. Yanchan, a normal human boy a second ago, had a mask growing out of his face. He grew another heart aside from his normal one. His limbs grew taller, his bones thicker.

Exactly ten breaths later, all the kids in the cart were unconscious, and they were no longer human. The Golden Savage yawned, the mask on his face vanishing into a puff of smoke. He jumped into his horse and looked at the Silver Savages.

"It's good that no kid died this time. If there is any genius among these new Bronze kids, inform me immediately. I shall take them in myself and I will turn them into a Silver, too."

"It's the honor of these foolish children, Gold Lord P'oof." the Defender Savage bowed.

The Gold nodded and trod away on his horse.

Mark looked at his Puppet and frowned. The Golden Savage had taken its mask out of nowhere by opening its third eye.

Wasn't that too strong an ability? If they would only die if their masks were destroyed, and they could hide their mask, weren't they unkillable?

And that weird second trait, too.

====

[Bronze Savage]

[Tier 0]

[Physique: 3 (Low)]

[Mind: 3 (Low)]

[Savage Magic: None.]

[Resistances: None.]

[Traits]

[Mask of the Savage]

[As long as their Masks are not broken, they can revive themselves even if they get beheaded.]

[All abilities are enhanced by a Minor Tier.]

====

"We will put these kids among the other kids, they should teach each other everything in time. So, who's up for a restful night of booze after this?" The Defender asked.

Mark shook his head. "I am out. I want some good sleep."

"Ah, me too."

"You louts are so lazy."

After some minutes of chatting, they slowly parted ways. The children and the cart were taken by the Swordsman of Mark's temporary team into a huge mud-thatched mansion—a place with a lot of other savage children.

Mark himself didn't know anything about his own house in the area and the like, so he traveled around on his horse for a while longer before he found a huge tree in the middle of a rather empty street.

Everywhere, it was a mud-thatched house after others in sight.

He sat in the tree's shade while the horse laid on the ground, tired.

With a wave of his hand, a window popped up. Violet, shimmering, and crisp.

====

[The Dream Gamble—Yanchen]

[Dream: Find and meet his sister Yuuna.]

[Conditions]

1. Successfully complete the Dream.

[Warning]

Do not let the Puppet—Yanchen—die while the Dream Gamble is live, or the main body will also die.

[Success Reward: You can take any one thing from Yanchen as your own]

[Failure Price: Yanchen can take any one thing from you of his choice as his own.]

====

This mission wouldn't be too hard. At worst, he could just create a savage with Yanchen's sister's resemblance using Alchemic Shapeshifting. Then, Mark pondered at the profundity of this demonic trick that was Dream Gambler's Mortal Puppet.

He was now in control of two bodies at once. In fact, even though Yanchen had acted unconscious like all the others, Mark's Puppet was awake and ready for action at any time. If he had to, Mark could go to its aid, too.

But beyond all that, he and Yanchen were now sharing a destiny.

They were both experiencing the same path. And again, what was that Heart Blood that could turn a human into a savage? Can he use it himself? Can Yuri use it? Why did it do what it did?

Inside the mud-thatched mansion, Mark's puppet sat up.

He clenched his hand and felt the weakness. Then, he ran his hand through his ceramic-like mask. He had become a savage through and through. Then, he began trying to feel ill intentions towards the Gold Lord named P'oof.

It was no use, Mark felt his head blank out.

In the distance, Mark tried to think of the same thing using his real body and a sense of murderousness flickered through his eyes. He could feel ill intentions alright.

I need to understand the depths of these Golden Savages slowly. The Puppet would be able to do that while trying to become stronger by itself. At the same time, the main body can kill other savages one by one.

====

[Mission 1: Kill 100 Silver Savages.]

[Killed: 2/100]

[Rewards:

o. Entry back into the Demon World.]

[Mission 2: Kill 10 Golden Savages.]

[Killed: 0/10]

[Rewards:

o. Portal Key.]

[Mission 3: Kill 100 Golden Savages.]

[Killed: 0/100]

[Rewards:

o. Seal of Destiny.]

====