Sovereign of the Karmic System

Daniel had always had a soft spot for canines.. He could remember being one of those little boys who would spent the majority of their time tormenting his parents, in order to obtain the permission to own a dog.. but before he could ever grow to an age where he could show his maturity to his parents, his father had been enrolled, and his mother had been forced to start working multiple jobs.

What had happened later had removed the idea of having a dog from Daniel’s mind, but now that he was a grown up man, even if he was in constant danger, this childish desire had resurfaced.

However, he had no intention of adopting this demonic wolf cub. While still young, and based on the fact that no other demonic beast dared to attack it despite him walking around alone, Daniel was able to guess that the demonic beast to which this small cub would grow into, was not a common wolf with a scarier appearance.

What he wanted to do was to take a few minutes of break from his chaotic life centered around cultivation, war, and plots..

Since the wolf cub did not appear to be interested in the piece of meat Daniel showed him, he put it aside and lied on the field of oddly colored grass.. then closed his eyes. His immortal essence was being absorbed by the abyss he had conjured into his body, making him not only look identical to a low level immortal cultivator, but also unable to perceive what was happening around him. All he had left to do that, was his touch, and his hearing.

Daniel breathed in and out over and over again.. Allowing his consciousness to relax from its constant stressed state, and before he could notice, he had fallen into a state of deep relaxation.

Ever since he had become a high human, Daniel had discovered that, for him, relaxing was not only useful to reduce stress, but also to cultivate. Just like a person’s muscle fibers required rest to be repaired, the same was for a person’s mental state. The bigger the strain on a person’s psyche, the more they would be able to develop their mind when resting, or meditating.

The warm breeze of air brushed gently against his skin after forcing the blades of grass to bend to its passage, and carrying the smell of the trees from far away. Time passed quietly, and in a matter of minutes, Daniel fell asleep.

Years had passed since the last time Daniel had purposely fallen asleep.

Faces he hadn’t seen for a long time and voices which he could barely remember began to merge together, and take the shape of images into his mind. Guided by his desires, these moments of joined together into forming moments of happiness which he could not truly enjoy, and that he would forget right after waking up.

Unfortunately, he did not have to wait for long for that to happen.

His sleep was interrupted a few minutes later by the sound of quick sniffing, which came from right next to his ear, as well as the tickly feeling of a few vibrissae which tickled his right cheek, and ear.

Now awake, it didn’t take long for Daniel to realize that the wolf cub had grown increasingly more comfortable with his presence, and had decided to approach him while he was sleeping.

Instead of moving and risking of scaring him, Daniel kept his eyes closed, and kept meditating.. However, not even a minute later, he felt something grab the button of his shirt, and tug on it with a fairly big amount of strength. If not for the resistance of the materials of which his clothes were made of, the button would have come off right away.

Daniel opened his eyes, and then he saw it. The wolf cub had bitten the button of his shirt, and was trying to pull it off with as much strength as it could muster.

The scene was quite ridiculous to witness, but also enough for Daniel to understand the reason why the wolf cub had come to his tent.. And that reason was, just like he had thought, related to the its diet.

While the bodies of enchanted items were the part on which the formations were drawn and installed on, the specific effects of these formations still required a power source to function. An example of this, were clothes. Clothes were used constantly, and during the time of their creation, numerous kinds of formations would usually be added to increase their functionality and value. Formations which could provide additional resistance to the fabric, which could stabilize the gravity to a level that the body of a common human could withstand, or even formations which allowed changes in temperature.

Daniel’s clothes were not an exception.

While Daniel’s body was extremely resistant and would resist ten times the temperature of hell, this temperature was still way past what a normal human would be able to bear.. that was why most clothes worn by humans slaves, came along with formations which would cool their bodies, and prevent them from melting due to the heat.

The button that the wolf cub was tugging on, was the essence sphere connected to the formations that kept a cool atmosphere around Daniel’s body.. A water sphere.

Before the demonic wolf cub could manage to rip the threads that kept the buttons in place, his senses warned him that he was being observed. So instead of keeping on doing what he was doing, he let go of the low level water sphere, and dashed away with impressive speed.

When it turned to look back at the human from whom he had just tried to steal from, Daniel had already sat in a lotus position, and was playing around with a few low level essence sphere he had just taken out of his spatial ring.

Despite hating it, juggling was one of Daniel’s skills. Entertaining the children of the nobles he swindled was always a good method to get closer to his targets. Most nobles hated the idea of having to care personally for their children, and to have someone that could keep them occupied even for five minutes, was already more than most tour guides could offer.

The four spheres that Daniel was currently juggling with, were all of different kinds. The two he was holding on his left hand were of the lightning and water essences, while the two he was holding in his right hand, were of the dark and time essence.

The fact that the cub had tried to grab the water sphere that was installed in his clothes did not mean that the he could only eat that type of sphere, and therefore, Daniel decided to test this theory by showing a few different ones. However, the moment he took out the spheres and started to play with them out in the open, the wolf cub looked at them with the same amount of interest, regardless of what kind of essence they emanated.

Unaware of the amount of intelligence that this demonic wolf possessed, Daniel kept sending these essence spheres up in the air one after the other, until finally, he purposely allowed one of the spheres he threw to hit the one that was still floating high up in the air.. causing it to be thrown in the distance.

When it landed, it was closer to the wolf cub than it was to him.

The wolf cub did not think twice about it, and dashed towards the essence sphere that Daniel had just dropped. He then grabbed it with its mouth, and dashed back towards his previous position. Once there, he lied down on his belly, and with the sphere in between its paws, he began to munch on it with fervor.

No longer than a minute later, the sphere had disappeared.

While the cub devoured the essence sphere, Daniel looked at the three spheres which were left in his hands. The first one emanated cool water essence, the second one let out an innocuous electric current which forced the hair of Daniel’s arm to rise, and the third and last one, emanated nothing at all. From outside, it did not look different than a common stone, just like any other time sphere would.

Once the demonic cub finished devouring the dark essence sphere, it turned to look back at Daniel with interest. Its ruby-red eyes had acquired a dark hue, an the tip of its tail had become pitch black. Despite those two minor changes, nothing was different in the wolf cub, which in Daniel’s eyes, still looked incredibly cute.

Once again Daniel played with the three essence spheres while pretending to ignore the wolf cub, but for some reason, it seemed that the wolf had lost any form of interest in the spheres that Daniel was juggling with.

Aware of this change, Daniel took another dark sphere out of his spatial ring.. And the moment this sphere appeared, the wolf cub instinctively dashed in his direction. However, still wary of him, he stopped right after coming closer of about two meters.

"You’ve taken a liking to these, eh? You have expensive tastes." Said Daniel with irony, as the wolf cub kept staring at the dark sphere. "Not that I have a need for them.." he then muttered before throwing the second dark sphere closer to the wolf cub, which immediately grabbed it from the tall grass, and devoured it where he stood.

As soon as the cub finished eating the second sphere, the black spot on the tip of the wolf’s tail expanded, and the dark hue on its eyes became a little stronger.

-----

About two hundred meters away from Daniel’s tent, stood an old demon dressed in simple clothes. Just like the guards of the city, this demon did not possess any particular characteristic which could show his belonging to one of the powerful families present in hell.

The expression of this demon was one of tiredness. He had just awaken from what one could call an evening nap underneath a three, as proven by the numerous dry leaves stuck in his hair. He was looking around with eyes partially closed, and yawning every couple of seconds.

After what felt like yawn number fifty, the eyes of this old demon opened as wide as his anatomy allowed him to. He had remembered something extremely important, and only now had it come back to him.

He looked at his feet, and after noticing that what he was looking for was currently missing, an expression of worry and fear made its appearance on his wrinkly face.

"No no no no no no.. I’m dead.. This time I am surely dead." he muttered while walking around in the woods in panic. His heart was threatening to burst out of his chest, and the images of what he believed to be waiting for him back home if he didn’t find what he had lost, were making things worse.

"DAMN IT!" he shouted after ten full minutes of pointless searching.. But then..

*Awoo*

This simple howling sound sent a burst of joy into the mind of the old demon, which immediately ran in the direction where it came from.

When he finally managed to reach the borders of the forest he was resting in, he immediately noticed Sewah’s and Daniel’s tent.. And at its base, the human who was sitting carelessly with one hand raised high up in the sky.

Resting on Daniel’s knee, were the two front paws of the wolf cub, which was looking fierce, while also staring at the dark sphere that Daniel was holding above his head. *ARF! ARF!* Its high pitched barks pierced the surrounding with their loud tone, which forced the smile on Daniel’s face to widen.

After the wolf cub barked twice, Daniel let go of the dark sphere he was holding, allowing it to fall straight into the cub’s mouth.

"NOOOOOOO!!" Shouted the old demon before running in their direction.