10 Ready for the next Step
Two more months have gone by since Juniper acquired the [Draining Touch] and [Focus] skill through the system. After acquiring those, she also popped her haki awakening pill, effectively swallowing one and a half thousand souls in an instant.
The pill did its job and with a burst of heat that seared the insides of her body, the demon moth successfully awakened her haki and conquers haki.
Eager as always to try out her new toys, she left her cave and hunted down one of her poor neighbours who hadn't escaped yet.
She quickly drained him dry after burying him in the ground via drop kick.
Within moments the little bugger was nothing more than a drained husk under the effect of her [Draining touch], all the while Juniper's body, that had still been aching from her fight against the giant goat demon, quickly recovered until she did not even feel tired anymore.
After a quick fit of manic laughter at the wonderous feeling of someone else's life draining out of them and into herself, Juniper returned to the cave and pulled out her haki training manual and began reading through it for an hour, before starting over but this time under the effect of the [Focus] skill at max output, however little that currently was with her magic power attribute being barely at 9.
It wasn't enough to make a drastic difference, so Juniper decided. "I already blew most of my reserves on this, why not just go all out then." And converted over 400 souls to magic power growth potions that she quickly consumed.
This brought her magic power stat all the way up to 300 and her remaining souls down to 412.
As the refined soul power sank into her demonic heart, Juniper relished in the empowering sensation as the amount of magic power stored and produced in her heart drastically increases before quickly casting [Focus] again and diving into studying haki.
With the enormous increase of her magic power and having dumped everything into the skill, the results of the following 10 minutes exceeded everything she managed to achieve in the previous 10 under the skills effect and her first hour of studying combined.
Having proven its effectiveness, the moth settled on a routine that altered between training haki every time her magic power had fully recovered, so that she could cast her skill at max power, and hunting demons afterwards with the lantern of craving to refill her soul count.
The combination of [Draining Touch] and [Focus] had an unplanned but welcome side effect, between her physical strength being recovered every time she drained her victim's vitality and the mind calming effect she got when training haki, Juniper realized that she no longer had the need to sleep.
Fully intending to abuse this unexpected opportunity, she launched herself into a mad grind to increase her proficiency in utilizing all three main forms of haki and getting her reserves back up.
Under such an intense and efficient routine, the moth's progress was immense and after these two months, she has gained a firm grasp of haki and its forms.
Currently testing out her progress at observation haki, Juniper blindly dodges the angry swipes and lungs of two fellow demons who were well within the upper echelons of the low rank demons on the upper layer.
To her sixth sense that she awakened and developed with the help of her training manual, the intentions, and in turn the actions, of both demons currently attacking her were plain to see. This allows the moth to effortlessly weave around the sharp claws and bladed tails with a mocking smile on her lips that only served to infuriate her opponents even more.
'Aye, this amount of progress is absolutely addicting.' Sidestepping another attack that she predicted even before the attacker actually moved, Juniper opens her eyes that seem to glow eerily green.
'Not only my observation haki.' Tilting her head out of the way of a sharp tipped tail, the moth spins around and balls her chitin covered hand into a fist.
'But armament haki too.' The black chitin around her hand and lower forearm takes on a metallic sheen, right before she slams it into the surprised face of her second opponent.
*BAMM!*
The demons head exploded into a mass of gore upon impact.
Smile widening into a feral grin, she snaps her head around and locks her gaze onto the fiery orange one's of the remaining enemy.
Releasing her conquers haki in a concentrated burst, the invisible force slams into the poor demon's mind like a freight train through a wooden door, easily obliterating his feeble consciousness and knocking him out cold.
"Kekekeke I can't get enough of this feeling of crushing the very wills of my foes with naught but my own." Crackling in delight and relishing in her own power, the demon moth moves to finish off the unconscious demon before storing both body and soul in the system.
"It's been quite a while already. My storage of souls has recovered, and my strength reached a point where I am confident enough to take on a middle rank demon." Flexing her claws, Juniper takes a deep breath before soaring into the sky with a pulse of green light along her wings.
"I think it is time to accept my first summoning. Now is the best time as most summons on this layer of the abyss are either accidental or done by magical weak beings. Of course, there is the possibility of a skilled summoner intentionally summoning weaker demons, but for that case there are things like contingency plans." Pulling up a design she had made in the past two months, the moth spends twenty souls to make it in preparation of her trip.
It is a small white capsule that can easily be hidden within one's mouth and break by biting on it.
[Repulsion Capsule: If activated by crushing it, through any means, the repulsion force of the world will increase extremely and instantly cause you to be forced back into the abyss. (Only works in case of no contract being in effect.)]
This is a guarantee that would allow Juniper to escape back into the abyss in case she is summoned by a dangerous person, after all, she doesn't want to repeat the mistakes of her predecessor and get enslaved by a high-ranking demon.
With this the moth makes her way to one of the many altars spread throughout the upper layer of the abyss and camps near it for a while to gather some more information by watching different demons getting summoned and spat out again by the grey fog of the abyss gate.
While waiting, she also triggered her [Focus] skill once and used her enhanced comprehension ability to thoroughly engrave the structure of the magic circle on the altar into her mind.
Only once she fully recovered her magic power and was confident enough in estimating the summoners strength did Juniper move.
Scaring away any other demons with a wave of haki, she waited for another summoning.
She didn't have to wait for too long, but after counting to fifteen until the scent of blood and gore began to weaken, she decided to wait for another one.
Three other attempted summons later and she finally found one that was sufficiently short and only had the basic smell of blood and entrails.
This means that not only is the summoner magically inept, but he also has no real idea as to what he is doing as such bait would only attract the weakest kind of demon's and beasts.
"Perfect~" The demonic moth almost purred in excitement before placing the repulsion capsule in her mouth where she shifts it into position with her black tongue before stepping onto the altar.
Reaching the middle, grey fog starts to appear and wrap around Juniper's form until she could see nothing but darkness with a single white point in the distance.
Suddenly, an immense force took hold of her and hurled her off the ground, through the darkness of the void and directly towards the single point of light.
Juniper's world turned white for a moment before she once again felt solid ground underneath her feet and how a small part of the force that transported her across worlds attached itself onto her soul in the form of the ouroboros mark that would allow her to return to the abyss in case of her death... and later down the line, play a vital role in her ascension.
'Let's get this show rolling!'
