The Damned Demon

"My Prince!! I am always late for important things, but I am here nonetheless!" A young man's excited and endearing voice echoed in the room as if he had finally reunited with someone he had missed for almost his entire life.

Asher was in his own training room to check out his new immortal grade grimoire when he heard this annoying voice of a certain someone who was calling out to him like a woman.

He was about to sit down when this idiot came barging in.

He turned around and saw a youngster with red skin running towards him with a wide, enthusiastic smile with his arms raised for a hug.

"My prince, your Kookus is back!" Kookus teared up as he jumped downwards to hug his legs, but Asher clicked his tongue as he kicked him to oblivion.

*Bash!*

"Ayoooo!!!" Kookus didn't know what happened, but the next moment he found himself spinning and flying toward the other end of the room before crashing to the floor.

Asher rubbed his feet against the floor as if he realized that thing didn't even deserve a kick from him. And what was with his obnoxious way of addressing him as 'My Prince?' Asher felt that this guy was getting weirder every time he saw him.

"What the fuck are you doing here? Next time you barge in like that, I will burn your balls and feed them to some wolves," Asher said, knowing what exactly Kookus considered most precious.

Kookus quickly recovered from his fall as expected of a werewolf and kowtowed, "Ayoo, this faithful servant was only trying to congratulate Your Highness for achieving the impossible. Please don't burn my balls….I swear not to do it again," Kookus felt shivers just thinking about it. As expected, Asher knew his greatest weakness. But based on the kick he just got now, it seemed like Asher's strength had increased leaps and bounds. Again as expected of him.

"Whatever, and stop calling me 'my prince'," Asher said with a stern look, making Kookus purse his lips and say, "I only addressed Your Highness like that because you earned the title of Hell Prince, right? This servant thought you would be fond of that title. It is the greatest honor any soul could get, especially when bestowed by a otherworldly being like Hell Maiden herself. I heard she kissed Your Highness…was it true? May this servant ask how the experience of kissing such a deadly and sexy all-mighty spirit was? Nobody is as fortunate and worthy as Your Highness to experience such a thing, though this servant wouldn't mind if you could teach me how to earn the favor of such spirits."

Asher felt like he might lose his patience if he kept talking to this guy.

Kookus felt as if Asher was itching to kick him again and quickly changed the topic, "But if Your Highness doesn't like the prince title, how about I address you as 'Boss'?" Kookus asked with glowing eyes.

"Fine. Now get out. I am busy," Asher said as he turned around and sat down on the floor.

"I will be waiting right out here, Boss. Don't worry. This servant will be very vigilant!" Kookus sucked in some air as he tip-toed towards the door, and after taking one small peek into the room, he closed the door. Now, he was hoping to see some noble ladies going in and out of their training rooms.

However, his expression froze upon seeing his mother coming in his direction and quickly scooted off before she saw him.

After finally getting some silence, Asher decided to first take a look at his stats which got a significant upgrade after the kiss from Hell Maiden.

Level : 8

Rating Points : 0 / 688

Life Crystals : 981

HP : 1165 / 1165

MP : 2585 / 2585

STR : 444

DEF : 233

INT : 517

DEX : 168

"Now that is good progress…" Asher mumbled to himself with a smile. Earlier, as a level 5, he had only around 1000 MP, but now at level 8, he had more than twice what he had earlier. Likewise, his HP was below 500 when he was at level 5, but at level 8, his HP had already crossed 1000.

However, he wasn't surprised by how huge the gap seemed between these levels. As someone who had already experienced leveling up, he knew the gap would only increase with each level.

This was why among hunters, the gap between F and E ranks can't be really compared to the gap between E and D rank Hunters.

This was also why B-rank Hunters wouldn't dare go against A-rank Hunters despite a single rank difference. The same mattered even more between A and S rank Hunters.

This was the reason Asher was satisfied he reached level 8 within a month or so. In his previous life, it took him a few years to get to this point.

And in his Hellbringer form, his INT would get a bonus of 150%, which would put his MP at 5870!

It was a staggering amount of MP for someone of his level, even though he knew it was only accessible in his Hellbringer form, which would continuously devour his MP.

However, one good thing he observed was that as his level increased, the longer he was able to stay in Hellbringer form, even if the increments in time were not that much. At least, this would mean at higher levels he could probably stay in Hellbringer form without being stingy about his MP.

But the next thing he was looking forward to checking out was the messages that popped up when we leveled up. He didn't check them before since he was still in the chamber, but now he smiled as he looked at them.

[ New Passive Ability Awakened ]

[ New Talent Awakened ]

[ New Skill Awakened ]

"A passive ability, a skill, and a talent?" Asher eagerly checked out what they were,

Passive Ability:

[ Summoner of the Damned - You can now summon damned creatures from the Dimension of Damned to the realm of the dead or living to do your bidding ]

Talent:

[ Cursed Summoner - You can summon only 1 damned creature, and it would manifest with 5% of its original stats (0 / 11) ]

Skill :

[ Shadow Roots - Summon roots from the shadows to entangle and immobilize your enemies. Lasts 5 seconds (Cost: 250 MP) (0 / 10) ]

…

He realized these were related to his bloodline and the ring, which gets unlocked based on how high his level was. This made him look forward to all abilities he might awaken as he goes into higher levels.

"Not bad…" He mumbled though he felt that the Talent 'Cursed Summoner' was kind of a bummer since it would mean he could only summon Hell Fiend, and that too with a measly 5% of its original stats.

Still, he knew this talent could be upgraded till who knows how much. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad at higher levels.

But one thing he was able to confirm for sure was that he possessed a Pure Magic pathway in his mana circuit…Dark Magic, to be specific.

Darkness and Light were considered Pure Magic, and in his previous life as a Hunter, he possessed Pure Magic, too, in the form of Light Magic pathway.

And now, in his Demon form possessed the Darkness pathway. He didn't know what to feel about this other than being glad he had a powerful pathway.

With an elemental and pure magic pathway, he was sure he could reach his old level again.

Talents :

[ Favored by the Night (2nd Stage) - When night falls, your HP and MP will increase by 7% (1/10) ]

[ Vengeful Lifestealer - (7/8) ]

[ Hell Master (2nd Stage) - You can enter the Dimension of the Damned twice in a day (2/20) ]

Skills :

[ Resentful Slash (2nd Stage) -  The cursed blade will try and cleave your foes on its own with a burst of flames. Upon successful attack, they will suffer bleeding effect of 3% of your HP for 8 seconds (2/16) (Cost: 200 MP) ]

..

He also took a look at the rest of his talents and skills, which he had evolved over the past month. Even though the talent 'Vengeful Lifestealer' was still at the 1st stage, he had evolved the rest to the 2nd stage, especially the Hell Master talent, allowing him to enter it twice a day.

Now that he was done with that part, he briefly closed his eyes, and the next moment a scarlet light shot out of his glabella and towards his palm.

The light transformed into a giant, flaming scarlet book made out of mana manifesting. On the front of this book was the engraving of Hell Maiden's figure. What could this be other than the immortal grade grimoire he received from her as a reward?

This was what he had been looking forward to the entire time.

Just by holding it, he could feel the immense power within and could only imagine how much his own power would increase once he mastered the spells inside this grimoire.

[ Grimoire Name : Fallen One, The Tome of Fallen Souls ]

"Written by a being who fell into Hell, this Tome contains the power of fallen souls that would either become a part of your power or consume you till your soul ends up in this tome…"

[ Grade: Immortal ]

"You gotta be kidding me…Devils really love making things hard for us demons…" Asher mumbled to himself upon seeing that mastering the spells in this tome was far from easy.

Still, as always, he was never one to shy away in the face of difficulties, and with an inner light in his eyes, he took a deep breath as he opened this mystical grimoire.