The Demon's Message

*Bing!*

[Congratulation! Host have successfully broke through Zero to First Tier, Zen reserves has increased, basic physical abilities have been enhanced.]

[Due to successful break through, Host shall need proper time to recover lost stamina and Zen reserves]

[Due to successful break through, Affinity to curses has increased. Grudge energy had been established as main element that roots to the Demon's element category.]

[The Birth of the Demon Infant has been successful, please note that each time you grow stronger the Demon shall grow out its restraints and its influence will further increase the Host's future growth]

[Due to successful breakthrough using the Demon's Cultivation: "Way of the Caged Soul: Demon's Release", a portion of the Demon Infant's Soul has merged into Host's Soul via Cultivation, memories and knowledge had merged with Host.]

[Seal of the Demon has been placed, a recorded message has been placed, how to activate is within the memories of Demon]

[Warning! Due to absorbing Demon's soul, affinity to Dark and Curses increases, hostility may be drawn to any Heavenly Beast with affinity to Holy attribute.]

After reading the announcencements he just wanted to sleep it out, but can't because of a nagging problem entering his ears from outside.

"GET THE HELL OUT NOW! I AM A FOLLOWER OF THE NAGA CLAN SO GIVE THIS TENT UP, AND PAY TRIBUTE!"

The followers voice continued on and on about some nonsense that were completely ridiculous to Stigma, but were considered common sense to this world: like wandering cultivators should bow their head to the Naga Clan and serve them, pay huge tribute for wasting their precious times, another was that cultivators of smaller clans should subordinate themselves to the Naga's, etc. etc.

After experiencing hell for almost twenty four hours from a little Demon, the last thing Stigma needed to have on his mind was some moron spouting some gibberish. He had no relation to them but if he left it alone it will become more of a headaches in the future.

"You are but a small figure in front of the great Naga Clan, so step out now! If not, we will raze you!"

The more Stigma heard about the threats, the more he felt like the follower was spouting nonsense. He felt like that man was just all bark and no bite like the men before, and figure he was just some lackey with no actual background.

"What the f*ck, I just woke up and know I have to deal with another as*hole...now that I think about it, where the hells is Felix and the others?"

After noticing that there was no other voices, he sat up and looked around to find anything out of the ordinary, by his bedside he saw Hilda resting by the drawer, and Dusk was still standing like a guard dog.

He then remembered that he had the space ring on his hand wrapped in bandages to keep it hidden, but his worries were uncalled for. When he unwrapped the layers he check and saw the ring was still on his ring finger, to be sure he checked the contents in his head and nothing was taken or replaced.

Then he realized the sac he brought had Second Tier core and must have be taken instead, when he passed out it was the perfect time to steal it, so he panicked. Since Hilda had circumstance so it couldn't speak in public, while Kirin a Heavenly Beast was left outside, and Dusk was only ordered to attack when Stigma was harmed.

But that wasn't the case, his sac of Cores and goods were not taken, while his three knives were still strapped to his legs, even the jugs half filled with wine were not taken. So far, nothing was taken and his anxiety had lessen, but then noticed something - odd.

The room looked too clean, not like the time he first entered. He clearly remembered that when Felix and his party entered they were still skeptical about him and showed reservation, but after conversing with them they somehow open up to some extent and started drinking so the room should have been disordered.

He actually wondered if Felix's group cleaned up after themselves then left. But the strange thing he noticed was the small details that changed, like the bottles on the bar were arranged on the table were in the cabinet and pillows on the sofa that should have been left alone were arranged perfectly. Even the dirt on the rugs had been brushed off sloppily.

What was more bizarre was that he found a small pouch with an embroidery was left alone on the nightstand, inside contained nothing but Zero Tiers cores, recognizing the familiar pattern he confirmed that it belonged to one person - Felix.

When they first negotiated, he saw Felix take it out from the beginning and left it on the table, throughout the ordeal, so he can't be wrong from who it belonged to.

When he looked around he used his skill and noticed that everyone who was with Felix disappeared or more accurately moved out to a different tent, farther away from where Stigma was in, with all twenty of them.

The so called follower standing outside, numbered about five people, four were Zero Tier from the Mid or Late Stage, while the one leading them was a First Tier in the Mid Stage.

By comparison, they were far weaker than Felix's group full of Firsts and Second Tier. So why did they leave, and left such an important source of income for trade.

'What happened here?' While Stigma was breaking down what he found a familiar voice entered his ear, causing him to look back to the bedside.

"Master! I'm so glad you woke up! Are you okay? What happened to you....*Sob!* *Sob!*"

With the endless stream of remarks, questions and crying, Stigma had no chance in reacting and only came to the sword side and comforted it.

'She must really be worried....' While gently patting it the voice outside continued to rage on, about some more nonsense, so ignored it and focused on Hilda.

"I'm fine Hilda, just felt light headed nothing to worry about, so what happened here."

"Of Course! What had happened was...."

The story goes like this, Hilda noticed that Stigma's Zen energy was reacting strangely and he fainted, enraged by the sudden development she maximized her senses to the limits and searched the surrounding area to be find who was the culprit.

Yet, Hilda only found nothing out of the ordinary except Felix Group without ten yards of the tent.

After Stigma passed out, Felix and his group panicked and watched over him for over an hour even letting their medic do a check only to record a high fever, in the middle of their check up the doctor called Stigma a 'war child' due to him not remembering his past.

"War Child?"

"It means children born from villages who had experienced or went through war, those who went through the harsh time had treated the younger generation with little care and brought them nothing but difficulty, namely a victim."

She then continued on, around an hour and ten minutes of applying a cold rag, someone from their group had entered with a dark expression.

It turns out that they were avoiding contact with another group called the 'Naga clan', after they heard the news they started debating on what to do, and made assumption that Stigma had some relations with the Naga Clan - as bait.

With such an assumption only made them hesitate to leave Stigma alone, and wanted to leave the tent and grab all the belongings. So they started arguing about if they should kill him know or watch from the side lines.

Felix then stepped in and gave his orders, they then started clean up the entire tent and leave no trace of them, then decided to watch by the sidelines to see their reaction.

Before they realized it, some important articles were forgotten, such as the pouch filled with the cores, and their identities were known.

When their scout returned he warned them of their arrival, they left ahead of time and had no choice but to leave you and cores behind. After they left, Hilda sensed that a band of five started walking towards to the tent, and thus the situation.

...

"So they wanted to leave no trace behind, as if they wanted to make sure the never went here... but what was their relation with the Naga's that made them act this way..."

"It is as you say Master, but I do believe this is a clan's problem so it does not relate to use."

That was the cold harsh reality, Clan matters were Clan matters, and he had only meet Felix's group in one night. So he can't do much help to them if they are the one with a troublesome background, if he recalled the entire conversation they were averting the topic about their origins and only answered vaguely.

Before Stigma can respond the voice was starting to annoy him, from continuing on about some countdown. He really needed some sleep so the follower was starting to really annoy him. Hilda gave her suggestion but Stigma really believed that Hilda was the who got a Demon's soul.

"Should we kill him and get rid of the body, like what we did with Wade"

For some reason he was hearing a message of a demon beside him.

"...Lets see if this one is approachable the converse and reason with him, if not I'll break him then we can figure it tomorrow."

And then it hit him.

Converse? Chat? Message? Sign?

'Now that I think about it, I did gain a seal right, how does it work?' Ignoring the man outside he started to close his eyes and remained silent.

"Master?"

...

Due to absorbing a part of the little Demon's Soul, Stigma just needed to search through his memories and try to remember the minor of details. He found what he needed to do and started doing a hand signs, then...

"Release!"

Afterward he felt a little light headed and started hearing a voice inside his head, if people heard what he said he would sound crazy.

"...ts..ing....te.s....t..in..g, tes...ting,....testing, testing, ah testing, ah there we go...."

He heard a familiar voice and started to look around to find the Demons, yet he found no one. Even with his skill, no one except himself and the bodies of the followers on the floor.

"Master? Whats wrong?" Hilda's words didn't enter Stigma's ear, he only heard a low humming when Hilda spoke.

After a while, he heard an audio message.

"...Good evening Dear Sir, this is my present to you on your first victory so please listen well. Ah don't bother asking any questions as this is just a recording. So pay attention to the details."

Demon's are a species that are born with intelligence, so even if they were not taught they can learn on our own, so there's no need for the confusion upon it speaking after its birth. But that doesn't mean they can move on their own.

"You already have a part of my soul so you are aware of my vast intelligence. But the thing is we Demon's have desires to earn not just our name but also our keep in general be it power, subordinates, fame, knowledge or destruction, we feel proud if we earn them. My point is you and me are quite different but quite alike, you see I have something you have completely gave up on - ambition."

It was true, after going through a difficult time for six years, the thought of dreams and ambition sounded foreign to him. So his goal at the time was just to find a stable job, now he heard a little imp telling him to go back.

The Demons continued on with his hysterical laughter mixing in, making it feel like the message was just for laughs, but he still paid attention.

"You see, you are but a confused child, trying to survive on something you are not use to, so to be fair I was only giving some life lessons of difficulty, and earning my life force was your reward for all your hard work. But don't worry though, we Demons are born with the ability to regenerate lost life energy, unlike you humans, but don't worry about me because the next time we meet, there won't be a second chance in mercy, also..."

After a brief moment of silence, the message continued with a serious tone.

"...Here is my message or more accurately word of encouragement: you must take what you have learned and master your craft; since it will help you live in the world, take what you want; but feel no guilt, you do not need to feel guilty when you kill anyone; as it was your choice to make."

"You see Dear Sir, when you made your first kill, you realized that you had to get use to it after seeing the fresh corpses when you woke up. But when you killed Kirin's mother unintentionally, you finally realized why you felt guilty."

That was true when he killed Wade he didn't feel remorse, but when he killed Gus he still felt his hands go numb and when he killed Kirin's mother he felt like he was no different to them.

"It was but a simple reason that is quite common to humans, it was because they didn't fought back, when you fought against the wolf leader it was self defense, and when you killed then tortured those bats you only sought one thing dominance, and when you killed Wade you wanted revenge, you see all of them only proves my point. You are capable to go beyond what you think you can do."

Even if it was a recorded message he can't rebuke it, since the Demons was speaking it felt like it was conversing to him instead.

"You can only harm other when they harm you, you can only help others since they helped, so in your mentality you should give something in return, such as how you gave up a healing soul to the wolf as a sign of forgiveness. That is your principle and that is you lesson in life, so never forget you are what you are, and the choices you make are yours to decide. That is your mentality you learned from your hardship so no need to falter!!!"

When he heard those words he was shocked it was his life prayer that he always muttered before he slept at night. He only used it to remember the hardship he went through along with his mistakes, telling him that after going through it he can still survive anything else.

His heart beat echoed his ear but the next words called him back.

"You are only human, so it's fine to make mistakes...." Words of encouragement entered his ear but those simple words made him built up his courage.

As he took a deep breath the message was about to end.

"My point of all the matter is, don't try to just survive in the world, make a huge ambition difficulty is what makes human survive and evolve. After all, humans are driven by greed and desire, so please do live your life to the fullest like you ever wanted. After all you deserve to have dreams and ambitions, and if you grow no one can stop you"

Afterwards the message ended, yet the man's voice started to change from being confident to being enraged.

"GET OUT NOW! IF NOT, I WILL HAVE YOU IMPRISONED FOR GOING AGAINST THE CLANS PRIVILEGES!!!!!!"

'... Should I break his legs first or do I crush his throat then get my answers...'