Mixed Blessing System

In the capital of Leopoldine…

In the corner of that city, the Transcendent who had lost sight of Lothur was standing in front of that young man’s grandfather, having just told of his previous failure.

“You did what?” That old figure asked in disbelief. “Are you telling me that child managed to trick you? Do you have the nerve to tell me that, Erhard?”

“That… He had a teleportation formation, yu…” He was saying this while lowering his head in front of this man.

The man with silver hair and a beard looked at this kneeling individual and interrupted him. “Excuses!”

“How did it take you days to find that out? If he had such a thing with him, he was supposed to have used it ages ago! But no, only after days of being watched by you did he do this!” Lothur’s grandfather said in an irritated manner. “If you had tried to act decisively, as I commanded, nothing said would have happened, Erhard!”

“Why did you do that? I entrusted this mission to you! But now Lothur is in the hands of his diabolical father!”

That man clenched his fists and mustered the courage to speak in his defense. “Forgive me, but I had to watch Lothur. He is very stran… Cough! He is exceptional. I was trying to understand him and his abilities to pass this information on to…”

“You didn’t have to do any of that, Erhard. Your job was to bring him to me!” Lothur’s grandfather clenched his fists in frustration. “I could observe those abilities on my own. But now…”

“Tsk!”

“Go to the Elysium Estate. You will pay for your infractions in that place for one year.” He turned and started walking away, eager to meditate and calm his mind.

Erhard heard that and stood still for a moment, staring at the ground as his eyes fluttered and he felt cold sweat dripping down his back.

“Elysium…”

Gulp!

He remembered this was the most dangerous outpost of the organization he belonged to, near the border of this empire with one of its enemies, Utral, a state to the north.

…

The other day…

After hours of challenging the skeletal beings of earth, Lothur finally defeated the four creatures that had formed from fusions of the other beings in that dead end.

Because of this, he was pretty exhausted by the time he finished the fight and had some wounds on his body.

Those individuals had power similar to that of level 15 beasts, so together, they managed to bruise Lothur’s body a bit.

On the other hand, he had used laser vision twice more, so his exhaustion was even more intense than it would be after an ordinary fight.

In any case, while gasping for breath, Lothur smiled, satisfied that he could defeat these creatures and finally have the dark gem in his hands!

[Celestial Gem] [Rank: quasi-Gold]

[Characteristics: this item can contain the demonic aura released by demons and refine it into pure demonic energy, capable of being absorbed by beings with affinity.]

[Detail: this gem cannot be used to contain the demonic aura of a demon of a level higher than 18.]

[Reminder: pure demonic energy can negatively react if there is no affinity of its consumer with negative Natural Laws. It can cause ordinary beings to transform into demonic beings.]

‘Demonic beings?’ Lothur read that and looked in the direction of the demon, who was hatefully staring at him.

‘Damned human. You can keep the Celestial Gem for now, but eventually, it will be mine!’ This creature thought about it, already imagining being able to use the aura it naturally lost as a nutrient for its powers.

Lothur then asked this creature, who was aching to finish regenerating one of its legs. “What are demonic beings?”

“Don’t you know?” The demon laughs teasingly.

But seeing Lothur showing it some food, it felt that if it did not tell this silver-haired young man what that was, it would be forced to watch him eat without having the chance to do the same.

“Tsk!”

“Ignorant human. Demonic beings are beings that have lost part of their essence and have become ‘mixed’ demons. For example, if humans became demonic beings, they would still be human. Still, their soul would be altered so that they would start behaving like a demon.”

“One would lose control of part of one’s emotions from time to time, horns would grow all over their body, and their cultivation would slow down. But, on the other hand, their vitality would increase, and they would gain some of the regeneration of demons.”

It smiled. “Of course, they would still be humans, so they could still be killed without someone using demon hunter techniques.”

“They would just become more violent and difficult humans to kill.”

“Really? Is there a lot of that around?” Lothur handed some fruit to that creature while eating others.

“No, but they are more numerous than us, demons.” That blue being said as it received the fruits from Lothur. “Hmm, uh, usually most of them are low-level beasts with no talent.”

“Those beings have no affinity for demonic things and are less intelligent than most capable of cultivating. So they are the majority of demonic beings.”

“Is there anything else I need to know?”

“No, that’s all.” The creature said while smiling internally. ‘The main point of demonic beings is that they are accumulators of demonic energy.’

‘Once one of them appears, that being will slowly increase its demonic energy, and when it dies, unlike demons, they leave that energy behind.’

When this happened, these beings would leave valuable things for demons to absorb and get stronger, or they would help contaminate even more beings.

That created problems for humans and other races while creating opportunities for demons of all hierarchies.

Lothur did not know that and did not insist on asking this creature more.

‘When I arrive in Peters City, I will seek information on the post of the Seraphim Church regarding this and also demons.’ He made up his mind to do this as soon as possible so as not to be unprotected against beings like this in the future.

Lothur then improvised a necklace with that dark gem and threw it in the demon’s direction. “Wear this.”

After Lothur did that, that creature looked at the human with wide eyes, not believing what had just happened. ‘Is he really going to let me walk around with that? Is he crazy?’

But Lothur had something different in mind…

‘This creature can only use this gem if it’s around its body, so it can’t hide it anywhere.’ He pondered possible hiding places or spatial storages that being might have with it. 𝙗𝒆𝒅𝒏𝙤𝒗𝒆𝙡．𝙤𝒓𝙜

‘Eventually, I will ‘harvest’ the demonic energy this gem produces!’ He kept his expression unchanged as he thought about strengthening himself later.

Lothur had affinities to negative Natural Laws. So the chances of him turning into a demonic being were slim to none.

He was also quite confident in the system, so he was willing to allow that creature to walk around with such a gem.

So after Lothur and the demon finished eating and resting in the area, they soon made their way back to the end of the labyrinth!