The Damned Demon

Asher was still in his spirit form, and seeing an ordinary teddy bear in front of him, he shrugged inwardly and diverted his focus towards it, trying to form a link with it.

Just when Asher thought he felt a connection forming, he suddenly felt a jolt that made him feel like his mind was thrown into a whirlpool, "Aargh!" Asher felt a strange yet excruciating pain that made him feel like he had lost all senses for a moment.

But he felt everything returning back to normal after a few moments.

"Asher, are you alright?" Duncan asked with a worried look, wondering if he had pushed him too much but relaxed upon seeing him recover.

"I am fine…I am fine. I was just shocked, literally. Is this even an ordinary object, Master?" Asher asked, feeling confused.

"This is what I wanted to let you learn for yourself. This object is not ordinary in the sense it carries the energy of a Hunter, more powerful than you. That is why when you tried to form a connection with it, you experienced the rebound effect that caused small, temporary harm to your spirit," Duncan explained.

"My spirit? That sounds dangerous," Asher felt as if he had to be extra careful about this whole reaping thing. People have yet to understand the spirit or soul of a person. But one thing everyone knew was how important it was, especially not to let any harm come to it.

Duncan firmly nodded as he advised, "Yes, it is. This is why you should never try to possess an object which belongs to someone stronger than you. Since you only tried once, you didn't experience any serious harm. But the more you try, the more you risk causing irreparable damage to your spirit, which can manifest in many ways. Either you lose yourself and forget who you are or why you are even here, or you end up destroying yourself for eternity."

Asher was blinking his eyes rapidly upon hearing such terrifying things. He could only imagine the horror of something like that happening. He didn't want to forget whatever happened to him or forfeit his life for nothing.

"If reaping is so risky, are there any real benefits to this?" Asher couldn't help but ask. He felt that simply receiving slightly higher mana won't cut it.

Duncan stroked the ends of his beard as he briefly tilted his head and said, "Indeed there is. Its flexible in the sense you can take a break during a reaping session if time permits it and take up a Raiding quest simultaneously even if your Reaping quest is still in progress."

Asher subtly raised his brows as he felt that was a good thing, especially to level up faster.

"And you don't lose any refined mana if you give up on the quest. But if your vessel dies, then you will lose whatever power you gave to them."

"Oh…" Asher realized that this was better than losing strength for simply failing the quest, though he still would have to make sure his vessel didn't die before he reaped their soul and avoid getting caught too.

"That is why your seniors or those who have reached their peak never take up Raiding quests for the most part. They do not want to lose their strength while also making sure they won't cross the breaking point," Duncan added.

"Breaking point? What is that?" He curiously asked.

"The point beyond which you would be strong enough to trigger the unavoidable Raiding quest, infamously known as the Last Judgment or, to put in simple words, a quest which can only be completed by conquering Earth as humans call their world. It is the only quest with the greatest difficulty in our realm. That is why the difficulty is named 'Hell Awaits', which we consider as a quest with no chance of surviving," Duncan said with a grave look.

Asher inwardly had his brows raised as he realized this was probably the quest that the Demon King had accepted. The Demon King was considered to have been the strongest demon of his time, so it made sense. 

But why would an old fox like him reach the peak despite knowing how a highly impossible and dangerous quest was lying in wait for him? It just didn't make sense unless he had some sort of mysterious trump card, which was not the case considering how he died to him.

Asher realized there was no point delving into that since most of the demon king's actions didn't make sense. He felt that fucker died too easily after making his life hell. 

However, forgetting this, he realized another reason why the powerhouses in the demon realm managed to maintain their strength while doing their best to avoid the Last Judgment quest.

Thinking about it, the powerhouses on Earth were the opposite. They would try to reach the peak in hopes of getting favored by the Angels, though he had never seen anybody reach their peak in his life. 

All he heard were myths and legends about Hunters in the past being blessed by the Angels personally.

This was one of the reasons why he didn't hesitate to work hard and become the strongest. If Angels would really bless him with more power after reaching the peak, he wanted to help humanity win the war against the demons by using that power.

However, he never expected that even after defeating the demon king, no Angel come to favor him, nor did he get any benefits. All he got was a betrayal from everyone around him for everything he did.

​ Even if the rest of the people on Earth didn't know the truth, how could most of them blindly believe everything their governments said despite the number of times he had saved their lives? This just goes to show how ungrateful and fickle-minded they were.

"Asher, don't lose focus," Duncan's deep voice pulled Asher back to reality.

"I was talking about the most important benefit of doing a reaping quest…the amount of refined mana you can gain which is also related to weakening them as a whole," Duncan said with an inner glow in his eyes.

"I know, but I didn't gain any absurd amount of refined mana after I completed the trial," Asher shrugged.

"That was just a trial. But usually, it all depends on what you do with your vessel. It's not only about making the vessel act out their desires but making the vessel cause destruction and chaos in the human world that would benefit our realm in some way. The more destruction they cause before the timer runs out, the more refined mana you can gain. Rowena once gained enough refined mana from a single quest that let her directly enter the Soul Purger ranks when she was previously at the peak of Soul Reaper rank," Duncan stated an example that he thought would help Asher understand how beneficial Reaping quests can be.

"Ohh…" Asher mumbled as he realized how impressive that was. The Peak of Soul Reaper rank was Level 25, and he knew best how difficult it was to level up in those ranks. And for her to gain that much-refined mana from a single quest, she must have caused a lot of damage on Earth.

He could guess a number of disastrous events that happened on Earth when he was alive and wondered if it was Rowena's handiwork, especially one event that left behind only blood and ashes everywhere while further details were hidden.

It happened in a different country where he didn't have the right to intervene. Otherwise, with his mentality at that time, he definitely would have tried to do something.

"I believe we are done for today. But you can practice entering the human mind and 'whispering' to them. So that is why I want you to try a simple reaping quest tonight and see how it goes. Make sure it's at least a few days long since I want you to come back early tomorrow to let me teach you the rest," Duncan said as he requested the tower to put Asher's spirit back into his body.

Asher felt the warmth of his body, making him realize he was already back in his original body, and he got up.

Duncan's eyes narrowed as he stressed, "Remember one important thing. Don't get obsessed with demonizing your vessel or underestimating them, which is a common mistake even experienced reapers make. If they seem hard to crack, the first rule is to let them go. Some humans might be weak, but in rare cases, they can show a level of mental strength that surpasses our comprehension. So with your current abilities, if you get caught, you may never get back since some Hunters can hold you down in their own mind through sheer strength of their mind until they get to an Exorcist."

Asher's eyes became glazed for a moment as he remembered a memory that he had hidden deep in his heart. This memory was proof that Duncan's words were true, but a memory he never wanted to relive.

Asher pushed away these thoughts as he strongly nodded, "I won't forget your advice, master. Thank you for your guidance today," Asher said with a deep bow as Duncan hummed, "May the Devils guide you."

—

Asher didn't realize how fast time had passed during his training with Duncan. It was almost evening by the time he came to the first floor and felt Rebecca's cutting stare on his back.

But he didn't even look in her direction and instead walked towards one of the training rooms in the corridor, where he spotted a young lord anxiously looking at him from a distance.

Who could it be other than Jarius? And it seemed as if he had something to talk to him about.

Feeling that Jarius won't show himself without knowing something useful, Asher walked past him while dropping a note into his hands.

Jarius's hands were clammy as he caught the note with a nervous look. He hoped it was nothing bad and opened it and felt relieved upon seeing it was just the name of a place. He realized Asher wanted to meet him discreetly at this location.

Without wasting further time, he slipped out of the tower and headed for the location Asher gave him.

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