Chapter 1097: 1096: Devouring Two Daemon Corpses
The coral-jawed Daemon’s corpse began to shrink.
Simon kept his palm pressed against its chest as Devour pulled at everything inside it. The rain kept falling around him, but he no longer noticed it.
His attention was inside the corpse.
As always, he began with the physical attributes. They were the easiest thing to devour, and they flowed into him almost at once.
But this time, the feeling was different.
The coral-jawed Daemon had been a Minor Demon King, and his body had been built for the deep sea. His flesh was dense. His bones were thick and heavy, layered like coral, made to endure crushing pressure at the bottom of the ocean.
When those attributes entered Simon’s body, his own flesh grew denser. His bones grew heavier and harder. His muscles tightened around them like steel cables being pulled taut.
His constitution rose more than anything else.
His strength followed, though not by as much.
Simon flexed his fingers slowly and felt the difference immediately. His body felt sturdier, as though it had been packed tighter.
’Not bad.’
But it wasn’t enough to make his body comparable to that of a Superior Demon King. Not even close.
Still, he was stronger than he had been an hour ago.
Simon went deeper.
Beneath the physical attributes lay the deeper layers. The skills. The affinities. The things that moved and tried to hide the moment Devour touched them.
He found the coral-jawed Daemon’s skills first. There were several. Some were related to water pressure. One allowed him to harden his coral growths into armor.
Simon ignored all of them.
None of them were worth one of his remaining star slots.
He went deeper still and found what he was looking for.
Two affinities.
Earth and water.
The water affinity was the stronger of the two. Simon could feel its quality as soon as he touched it. It was cold, heavy and endlessly deep, like the sea itself.
’High A grade.’
No wonder the Daemon had been so confident out here.
It also made Simon to realize that he had been right with his decision to kill the Daemon first.
Simon looked at both affinities for a moment.
He couldn’t devour both. His proficiency with Devour wasn’t high enough to grasp two affinities from a single corpse. If he tried, he would most likely lose both, and the corpse would disintegrate before he could take anything else.
He had to choose.
His earth affinity was already High B. The coral-jawed Daemon’s earth affinity was weaker than his water, and it wouldn’t give him much.
But water was something he didn’t have.
He chose water.
The water affinity reacted the moment Devour closed around it. It tried to slip away, sinking deeper into the corpse like a fish diving to escape a net.
Simon followed it.
It was slippery and fast, far faster than the shadow affinity of the Alpha wolf he had devoured long ago. But his proficiency was also far higher now, and the Seven Stars Blessing guided him with every attempt.
He tried once.
Twice.
Five times.
On the sixth attempt, he caught it.
Something cool and fluid flowed into his body. It moved through his chaos pathways like a current, then settled quietly around his Chaos Flame.
Simon closed his eyes and examined it.
’Intermediate C grade.’
It was far weaker than the original. Taking an affinity from a corpse never gave him all of it. But it was his now.
When he also compared his water affinity grade to the shadow affinity grade he obtained from Thorgan’s corpse, it made him to know how much improvement he had made with Devour.
Simon opened his eyes and looked at the rain falling around him.
For the first time, he could feel it. Every drop. The sea beneath him. The moisture hanging in the storm. It was faint, like hearing a whisper from across a room, but it was there.
He had a water affinity.
’Combined with my ice affinity, this should be useful.’
Then he turned his attention to the last thing he wanted from the corpse.
His Seed of Gluttony stirred.
Together with Devour, it reached past the flesh and the affinities and into something else entirely. Something deeper and harder to see.
The Daemon’s sins.
Simon could sense them now. They clung to the corpse like stains that hadn’t been washed away.
The first was arrogance. It was thick and heavy, a deep purple stain spread throughout the Daemon’s remains. Simon could almost hear the echo of the Daemon’s mocking voice.
’That’s not courage. That’s foolishness.’
Pride.
The second was a hunger. It wasn’t for food. It was an endless craving to consume, to take, to swallow everything around him. Simon recalled the Daemon standing on the burning warehouse roof, watching the western district burn as though it were a feast laid out before him.
Gluttony.
Simon’s lips curled slightly.
’Perfect.’
He devoured them both.
The two sins flowed into his body, and they were both foreign and impure. To his surprise, when the sins passed through his Seven Stars Blessing, it purified them at once, stripping away the Daemon’s Will and memories until only the raw essence of each sin remained.
’Huh… This is surprising. So it can do this too.’
Simon then narrowed his eyes.
’But why didn’t it do this when I devoured Joren’s artificial seed of pride? Maybe because it was an artificial seed?’
Simon eventually shrugged and decided not to think about this matter too much for now. He would think about it later.
Then Simon fed the purified sins to his seeds.
His Seed of Pride swallowed the purple essence eagerly. The silver crown-like ridge along its surface brightened, and its deep purple color became richer and more solid.
His Seed of Gluttony drank the second. The deep seam running through its black surface widened slightly, and the light around it bent even more sharply toward it.
Simon felt both seeds grow.
It wasn’t a huge change. But it was real.
The coral-jawed Daemon’s corpse crumbled into dust beneath his palm, and the rain washed it away into the sea.
Simon exhaled slowly, then brought out the second corpse.
The ram-horned Daemon lay on the surface of the sea, the hole the Demi-God’s spear had left in his chest still blackened by divinity.
Simon placed his palm on him.
"Devour."
The ram-horned Daemon had been a Prime Demon King, and his body was built differently from the coral-jawed Daemon’s. It wasn’t dense like coral. It was raw, brutal power.
His physical attributes poured into Simon.
This time, his strength rose the most. His muscles thickened slightly and became more explosive. His constitution and endurance rose with it, though by less.
Simon clenched his fist, and the air around it trembled.
Then he went deeper.
Again, he ignored every skill.
He found the ram-horned Daemon’s affinities. Wind and earth.
The wind affinity was A grade. But compared to his own S-grade wind, it was nothing. Devouring it would only add a little impurity to an affinity that was already far stronger. It would give him no benefit at all.
Simon left it alone.
The earth affinity was different.
’Intermediate A grade.’
It was stronger than his own.
Simon reached for it.
Like the water affinity, it tried to escape. But earth was heavier and slower, and his own earth affinity seemed to pull at it like a magnet. Within three attempts, he caught it.
The earth affinity sank into him and merged with his own.
Simon felt his earth affinity thicken, become steadier and more solid.
He examined it.
’Peak B grade.’
His brows rose slightly. It had only increased by a single sub-grade.
But that made sense. The gap between his High B earth affinity and the ram-horned Daemon’s Intermediate A earth affinity wasn’t that wide. There was only so much a weaker gap could give him.
’Quality over quantity,’ he reminded himself. ’It’s always been that way.’
Then his Seed of Gluttony stirred again.
The ram-horned Daemon’s sins revealed themselves.
The first was a blazing, crimson rage. Simon recalled the Daemon’s face when he saw his companion’s corpse disappear into Simon’s spatial ring. The way he had roared and charged.
Wrath.
The second was a gold-tinted craving. It was a desire to take what belonged to others, to own and possess.
Greed.
Simon devoured them both.
The Seven Stars Blessing purified them, and he fed them to his seeds.
His Seed of Wrath drank the crimson essence. The red light pulsing through the fissures in its black shell grew brighter and hotter.
His Seed of Greed absorbed the golden essence. The ridges along its pale gold surface became slightly deeper, like fingers closing a little tighter.
All four of his seeds had grown.
The ram-horned Daemon’s corpse crumbled into dust and vanished into the rain.
Simon sat still for a long moment, letting the changes settle.
His body was denser and stronger. He had a new affinity. His earth affinity had risen. And all four of his Seeds of Sin had been nourished.
’Two Demon Kings.’
His gaze drifted toward his spatial ring.
There was still one corpse left.
Ilvara.
A Superior Demon King and a Shadow Walker.
He brought out her corpse and he could not help but wonder what benefits she would give him.
For some reason, he felt that devouring her corpse would be beneficial to him than the two combined.
’And maybe I’ll have enough demonic energy and be able to become a Superior Greater Demon after I devour her.’
Simon looked toward the horizon.
Vhal-Sar was still burning. The smoke rising from it had grown thicker.
He furrowed his brows slightly, then he looked at the corpse once again.
"Devour."