Chapter 99: Duran’s Sin (1/2)

According to the person himself, the occultist’s name was Duran Kefka, the legitimate son of an elder in some random mage clan; apparently, he was sent out as part of his training. However, beneath this prestigious upbringing was a veritable devil, a devil that was even more of a devil than the devil himself.

His nature could only be described as sadistic with cunning coming in at a close second. He loved to force himself onto young girls; to him, he was a superior breed of human and ordinary people were nothing more than cattle.

After taking in Ancarin as his apprentice, he was, for a time, a conscientious teacher. However, there was a sinister motive behind his uncharacteristic behavior. He wanted to summon a permanent devil servant. In order to do so, he needed the strength to suppress such a servant. If he didn’t have that, a sufficiently attractive sacrifice could also be used to lure the devil into a master-servant contract.

In other words, what he couldn’t solve with his fists, he could solve with money. Given the right price, even a king would kneel.

Naturally, devils weren’t interested in gold coins and such. Instead, they were most interested in souls; which functioned as a currency of sorts. Gold coins were able to get you everything from clothes, food, houses, slaves and even power…it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that gold was something you couldn’t live without in human society. Souls were the equivalent of gold coins for devils, in fact, they were even more important.

Notably, souls were also a source of sustenance and evolution for devils. Mankind was definitely not able to feed on gold or use it to evolve, at least not directly. Devils on the other hand, could so so with souls.

While Duran had a massive source of souls nearby, the neighboring human city, he wasn’t audacious enough to slaughter a hundred humans just for a summoning ritual. Such a conspicuous move could be easily traced by mages who specialized in soul magic. Therefore, he decided to substitute quantity for quality.

Then came the next question, how do you increase the quality of a soul? Increasing its inborn talent and power of course! And so, the occultist concocted a nefarious plan where he would groom a talented female into a mage and sacrifice her once she got stronger.

It was then that he stumbled upon the newly graduated doctor, Ancarin. He saw in her an astonishing level of talent, and an ambitious heart that wasn’t satisfied with just being average. Ambitious people tended to be hardworking people. Take for example, Liu Bei from the Three Kingdoms era.

He dreamt of being an Emperor since young and worked towards it ever since. Despite his abysmal battle results, he persevered, never backing down from battles until finally he recruited the brilliant strategist, Zhuge Liang from which point his ambitions took off.

Only allowed on Creativenovels.com

That is why what’s scary isn’t just ambition, but rather hardworking and ambitious people. Ancarin was just such a person, a girl who wanted to learn magic no matter what the price. Of course, this didn’t include her chastity.

Initially, he didn’t particularly feel any lust for her. After all, he had an entire basement full of beautiful slaves to choose from, a number of which had the talent for magic as well.

However, these girls didn’t have the drive that Ancarin did. Compared to magical knowledge, they were more interested in the young, handsome and wealthy mage. Duran naturally didn’t mind having a tumble with them but the problem was…there’s no point if they didn’t raise their power!

If their power didn’t increase, their souls would remain at the same low quality. Low quality means no devil and no devil meant that all this was for naught.

Prior to Ancarin, Duran had taken in a number of talented apprentices as well. However, they didn’t take too well to the tedium of daily meditation. Rather than the horrendously slow progression of mediation, buttering up Duran was clearly a quicker way to fulfill their dreams.

He didn’t mind their attention initially, however as time passed, he grew frustrated with this arrangement. Why? Because he suddenly remembered the original reason why he brought in these girls to begin with…

Before he knew it, his plan to groom these constantly bickering, needy and envious girls into suitable sacrifices ended up turning into a harem.

Reflecting back on his mistakes, he immediately demoted these girls into slaves and began to search for new prey. It was in this circumstance that he came upon the exceptional Ancarin.

Why was she exceptional? Because unlike the other girls, she didn’t waste time buttering him up but instead focused on her magical studies. Furthermore, her comprehension ability was high. In just under a year she managed to graduate from an acolyte to an apprentice mage.

(Apprentice mages were one-star mages. Most of the time, it took an acolyte one to two years to progress from zero-star into a one-star apprentice.)

During this entire year, Duran never once made a move on her as he didn’t want to risk destroying such an exceptional sprout. Everyday, he would conscientiously teach her and stay by her side, rarely leaving the villa. Only when he truly couldn’t take it did he visit the basement to relieve himself.

This lifestyle continued until one day, Ancarin stumbled upon the truth.

It all started with Ancarin asking for leave to visit her home. It had been an entire year since she came to his villa and she was getting homesick. Duran agreed to it readily as he knew that she would definitely come back to him. After all, this was the only place she could learn magic for free. After settling on a return time, Duran went on a trip as well.

A year of being cooped up in that villa had nearly driven him stir crazy. All his time had been spent on teaching Ancarin, leaving no time for him to hunt for fresh prey. Playing with those broken toys of his in the basement was no longer enough to satisfy him. Ancarin was an enchanting girl and had a chaste body, but now wasn’t the time to touch her…

Like a rampaging horse, he made sure to have his fill of women before heading home, with a girl in tow…