Mind Demon's Path of Domination

"The walkie-talkie can contact me anytime into this watch; I'll pick up the call." She showed him a simple, old-looking analog watch, and Mark's expression changed slightly.

He couldn't help but feel awkward.

All this time, he had been keeping an eye on her just in case she contacted some powerful Hunter or something similar. He had even kept her laptops and such in check, but he had never bothered with her analog watch.

He had been making a clown of himself by being so paranoid, and Yuri had totally outsmarted him. Her analog watch had been a smartwatch—she could have contacted Hunters at any time, but she had never done so.

Thankfully.

The Scientist smiled at his funny face. "Well, I don't blame you for being paranoid. Any other Scientist in my stead would have sure called an A-Rank Hunter to hunt you down—not that I didn't have the connections to do that. But I am a bit of an oddball."

Mark let Dona down from his back and silently took her back up in a princess carry. Only then could his wings flap.

"Well… you totally outsmarted me." He smiled awkwardly. "Anyway, I will be back in a day at most; head back to the lab or wait for me here; both are fine with me.

"What I plan to do will take some time."

If it succeeded, he would earn big—BIG—in this world. But for now, he was also eager to try his wings and fly.

Flap. Flap.

The black feathers ruffled behind him as he gently flapped his wings.

Yuri looked at the wings with intense eyes. "So, do you think you can actually fly?"

Mark tilted his head. "I do, and I think I don't even need any training. It feels instinctual. It'd be hilarious if I have the wings and can't fly…"

"Well, not everything with wings can fly," she said. Birds have hollow bones, and they are lightweight. Conditions like shape and such also affect whether you can fly or not. Unless it has some kind of anti-gravity mechanism kinda thing. Or maybe some magic."

Mark grew a bit worried. Can't he fly?

"Or maybe it's not only your outside that changed," Yuri scratched her cheeks. Her eyes were immensely curious. "Maybe, your bones, veins, everything is now different. Damn, why don't you come back with me for now, and I'll take some X-Rays?"

Mark shook his head.

He gave Choi Sung a final look and planted 3 Heart Inputs into him one after the other. These were thoughts that could fester into bigger veins of thoughts.

In Choi Sung's mind, these thoughts echoed.

"What if I have to be a Demon's slave? As long as I also get good benefits in the end, it's worth being a slave."

"Even if I am a slave, I am a slave to a strong Demon with great potential. Maybe this is a good thing."

"I should try to impress him. He doesn't have a good first impression of me."

Acknowledging that he was a slave would subconsciously turn Choi Sung's perception of himself to be the slave of the demon.

The more Choi Sung thought of himself as a slave, the more slavish he would be.

Choi Sung turned his gaze to Mark, and Mark smiled back. The Hunter might understand that Mark was using an ability due to his instincts, but he would never realize that the ability was being used on himself. And Mark was rather far away.

"Yuri, give Choi Sung a bottle of black water when you go back," he said.

Or the Hunter would find out his lack of Mindpower and would put the puzzles together. It was also better to keep Choi Sung at peak condition to act as Yuri's bodyguard.

Yuri nodded with a curious face.

Mark smiled. Unlike other negative effects, his Heart Input wouldn't be affected by the Black Water. After all, it was just a thought. How could one heal or remove a thought?

A thought could branch out into ideas, and ideas could branch out into beliefs. But belief wasn't something you could consider a negative effect that needs the black water as a medicine.

The thought of being the Demon's slave had been planted in Choi Sung so many times that it should already be becoming a rooted belief—the more Choi Sung acted on the belief, the more he would be poised not to go against it.

One day, Choi Sung would wholeheartedly consider himself as Mark's slave.

"Choi Sung, while I am not around, listen to whatever Yuri says—" Mark shouted.

The young man immediately sat up and nodded.

He could see it in how Choi Sung behaved toward his orders. It was working.

"—And also care for the hamster as if it is your kid."

With that, Mark looked beside him and rubbed Yuri's head. The Scientist squinted in apparent irritation. He ruffled her short black hair, and she blew at the locks that fell on her eyes.

"Don't carry the snake too far from the hamster. Keep it within a 5-meter radius, or my power will not work against the World's Will, and it will turn to ash."

Yuri nodded. "Don't forget to get me more samples. So, where are you headed? Any help needed?"

He shook his head. "Not now. I'll tell you when I am back."

Mark tried his wings around for a second, and understanding that his instincts were correct and that he didn't need any special training, he whizzed up into the skies. Floating around a meter above the truck, he looked down and smirked at Yuri.

She was starstruck and said in awe, "I want a lift!" she shouted.

"When I come back!" he shouted back.

Dona clung to him like a scared little squirrel and grew incredibly quiet. He could feel her heart thudding inside her—she was also flying for the first time. His own heart was trembling. The woods below seemed smaller the further up he went.

The sensation of his wings beating behind him with immense strength. The sensation of being high in the air. The feeling of the shade he felt when the wings blocked the sun.

Ah!

A second later, he became a figure far away in the distance.

His wings were quite, quite, fast.

Yuri leaned against a tree and noted something on a small notepad. She was full of excitement.

"I bet that's anti-gravity wings!"

Chuckling, she shook her head with a smile. Touching her analog watch, she said into the connection with the walkie-talkie in Mark's hand, "Mark, I will be going back to the laboratory for now. Maybe I'll shift, keep in touch."

Then, hiding the smile, she looked at Choi Sung and called out:

"Choi Sung, help me shift my Laboratory. The mega-dungeon had been expanding. So, I need a better spot—somewhere a bit less crazy, somewhere where conflicts don't happen much, but still close enough to the Mega-Dungeon that no tracking ability would work on me."

The Hunter nodded with a weird expression. "So we are heading back? The Demon, where has he gone?"

Yuri shrugged. "I have no idea. He must know what he is doing, though." She looked at the snake corpse with shining eyes.

"I'll do research inside; you don't have to mind me; just drive."

Choi Sung removed his broken sunglasses and looked at the demon's far-away figure. It was just a dot in the sky now, and soon enough, that also vanished amidst the clouds. How free it must feel to be a demon.

He just hoped he would end up gaining something from all these chores.

Sigh…

Master left all the trouble for me. I just hope I can grow stronger somehow.

And how the hell am I supposed to impress him?

Maybe he should show his worth by doing something that will make the Demon want to hire him, like one of the job interviews he took before he became a Hunter.

Yes, but what worth did he have to the Demon?

The Demon was already Tier 1 if he was correct.

Doesn't that make the Demon equal to a B-Rank Hunter?

No. Even better than a B-Rank Hunter since it is a Demon with multiple abilities and true intelligence. What use did a simple C-Rank Hunter have to such a Demon?

Oh no, if it goes like this, I will be useless to him…