Devil's Rise 63 A Ghost Taming

The ghost taming art made things clearer to me regarding ghosts. A ghost was the spirit of a deceased person, that could not pa.s.s on to the next life, or whose rest had been disturbed. They were neither good nor evil, their behavior was based on the person they were in life and how they died.

Ghosts are also bound to an object or place, though this wouldn't be universal. Some powerful ghosts were entirely free. Ghosts often wear the clothes they die in. They bring things closely linked to them during their life into the afterlife.

Malevolent Ghosts were spirits that had done misdeeds in life. Either by killing, stealing, or s.e.xual misconduct. Their soul bound to their resentment taking form. Any of those habits could cause someone to become a malevolent ghost after death.

This prisoner Ghost was under the s.e.xual misconduct type. He was a pervert that liked boys. Resentment taking form? That must be a higher level of Soul Dao. A ghost was a soul fueled by resentment.

Ghosts would lose themselves over time, becoming more and more deranged. It was just a symptom of the state of ghosts. They were like wild animals, only moving on pure instinct. The stronger a ghost became, the more they could keep their sanity.

The most important thing when taming a ghost was gaining control over the object that bound them. With the prisoner ghost, it was his ball and chain. This ball and chain had followed him to the afterlife, so he was eternally connected to it.

By cursing his ball and chain, I had performed the simplest ghost taming ritual. I just needed to perfect it to ensure he never escaped my grasp.

Ghosts had many powers that came with their state. The Ghost Dao was a higher Dao with many abilities connected to it. Some of the most common ghost powers were invisibility, telekinesis, teleportation, astral perception, thermokinesis, and intangibility. Ghosts could have many other powers, but these were the most common.

I fortified my curse acting on the ghost's ball u0026 chain. This prisoner Jax shall now be my butler.

"Come here, Jax," I said.

"YES MASTER," said Jax.

"Good, you have realized your status now. Tell me everything you know about the wolpertingers," I said.

"PESTS PESTS PESTS," said Jax before he disappeared into his ball u0026 chain.

Why did I think I could get a coherent answer from a ghost? Dealing with the wolpertingers would take time. But now that I had subdued the spirit within the haunted farmhouse, I could live on these lands.

I'll give my apprentice the shop to manage and stay here. With Jax around, those pitiful halflings will never trespa.s.s on my land. My first step to clearing this place of the wolpertinger infestation had been completed. I had a base of operations.

The farmhouse was large with many rooms, however, it was neglected. Since the halflings avoid this place, it will be up to me to fix this place. I need to get a Curse Bound servant or skeleton in the Xertzul Abyss.

Doing everything myself is not the way of a young devil lord.

Bloodfang Hill became my new Estate. This place will serve this young lord well. I finally had a sizeable place to live! No longer will I live like some commoner in a small shop.

~~~

"Burn away!"

u003cFireballu003e

The wolpertinger shrugged off my fireball and scurried away.

These pests were unbelievably resilient. After a week I found the wolpertinger infestation was much worse than I had antic.i.p.ated. Right now nothing I did even harmed the Knight wolpertingers.

I was a dignified Devil Baron, but could not injure a Knight demon beast. No wonder this infestation had never been cleared. Their immunity to attack was at least 10 times stronger at the Knight level, I could not even imagine what it was at the Baron level.

They were quick, so they would escape before I could use a barrage of attacks to get through their defenses. I had yet to capture even one Knight wolpertinger. For now, I would shelve getting rid of the wolpertinger infestation.

The stronger wolpertingers lived in the depths of the mine, and all the weaker wolpertingers avoided the farmhouse fearful of Jax. At least I had dominion over this land after subduing Jax.

He was a perverted ghost, but I was retraining him. He was now my ghostly butler and attendant to the Bloodfang Estate. He could follow simple tasks I gave him. But when I attempted to make him do more complex things, he would just vanish.

The perverted prisoner had a strange personality. I wanted to make him a tuxedo with soul threads. My butler wearing a prison uniform would bring disgrace to this young lord.

I headed back to the city to see if I could find any soul materials to form some soul threads.

"He's back?"

"Didn't he head to Bloodfang Hill?"

"How could he still be walking?"

All the halflings were whispering as I made my way back to the city. They thought this young lord would fall to a trifling ghost. Halflings have such an imagination.

My first stop would be to see Osmin. He wanted to send this young devil lord to be disgraced. He would pay dearly for this!

"Osmin!" I said as I barged into his office.

"Soulless… What are you doing here?" said Osmin.

He was shocked to see me.

"Are you surprised I'm still alive u0026 well, halfling?" I said.

"How could such a young vigorous devil perish? I'm just surprised by you visiting me so soon after starting to clear Bloodfang Hill. Have you already given up?" said Osmin.

I released my u003cHollow Aurau003e.

"Stop beating around the bush halfling, you know what you did," I said.

"What compensation are you going to pay?"

"I have not the faintest idea what you mean, young devil. What are you accusing me of now?" said Osmin.

"That Bloodfang Hill is haunted, you conveniently left it out of the report you sent me on the wolpertingers," I said.

"Why it's common knowledge that that hill is haunted, it must have slipped my mind since everyone in town knows," said Osmin.

He'd never admit to playing tricks with this murderous devil!

"Since I made quite the profit subduing that ghost I'll let it slide this time Osmin, however, you still need to pay compensation. My dignity can not be sullied so easily," I said.

"Devil, we already gave you the entire Bloodfang Hill. What more do you want from us? Do you think I'm made of money?" said Osmin.

"My request is simple. I want workers to remodel my Bloodfang Estate. And a material I can use to form soul threads," I said.

Osmin relaxed, this request was not too overbearing. Perhaps the devil had injured himself fighting the ghost. Now he couldn't come and bully us. Osmin's arrogance exploded once he thought the devil was injured.

"That's far too much young devil! Do you want to bleed us dry? Bloodfang Hill is forbidden grounds to us halflings. Do you want me to send my people to their death?"

I brought out an ancient ball and chain.

"Jax, you're up," I said.

"I'M A WARRIOR!" said Jax as he appeared beside me.