He killed three people that night, and the ward produced three Lv. 1 Mana Apple.
Coincidence? Deklan thought not.
From completing the sudden quest that night, Deklan gained three Basic Mana Candies, and now, these three Lv. 1 Mana Apples were added to his rewards. Just eating one Basic Mana Candy increased my rank. How much stronger will I become once I've consumed everything?
Deklan rubbed the Lv. 1 Mana Apples excitedly.
He was excited at the prospect of becoming stronger.
During the fight against Rock, he couldn't deny that there was luck involved.
The Red Pumpkin Head's fondness rested on 50%, and with the Fondness Fruit he obtained from the previous quest, he could increase—its fondness to 60%, thus unlocking Stage 1 of assimilation, giving him the ability to transform into a persona called Agna the Red Scarecrow.
It's a new sensation, alright.
Deklan never felt anything like it before.
Upon transforming, there was this heat that climbed from somewhere deep inside.
And then, his anatomy changed.
Deklan was still himself even when the transformation was complete—he was conscious of what was happening to him, but there was a foreign urge that was pushing him to act a certain way. In the case of Agna the Red Scarecrow, it was inclining him to dominate his enemy.
Since Deklan also wanted the same thing, he let loose, and as a result—Rock was defeated instantly.
Once he absorbed these fruits, he was sure that if he and Rock did a rematch, he'd win without the help of Agna the Red Scarecrow Persona. Deklan rubbed his nose at the thought, and he couldn't wait to use the fruits and candies.
Just then, however, he noticed something.
"How long was I asleep again?" He turned to Marsha.
"A bit over a day…?" Marsha answered, puzzled as to why he asked again. "Is there something wrong?"
"Are you sure this is all the fruit you found? You aren't hiding more from me, right?"
"W-What…?"
Marsha took a step back—a shiver ran down her spine as Deklan stared at her suspiciously.
She quickly shook her head hard.
"I swear, young master, I only took the pumpkins. I don't dare take more than I need!"
"Hmm… Is that so?"
Deklan rubbed his chin, noticing that he was one fruit short.
Considering that the three Lv. 1 Mana Apples came from the three people he killed, there should be one more from the Ward since one would be produced each day. But Marsha claimed that she wouldn't dare take more.
And Deklan believed her.
She could've taken all the fruits, but she kept them instead.
Naturally, Deklan's eyes landed on the tombstone.
A flicker of red aura seeped from the grave, almost as if it were mocking Deklan.
"Of course it's you, you damn pumpkin!!" Deklan exclaimed—and pointed at where the Red Pumpkin Head was buried. System, this is bullshit! Am I the only person who can summon it out? How in the fuck did it steal my fruit!
[Host, you're unconscious.... Naturally, the Red Pumpkin Head can summon itself without permission.]
Fuck kind of logic is that?! This is bullshit!
[Before you pass out, you should imprison the Red Pumpkin Head or else it can come out like this.]
Moments later.
Deklan was sitting on a small wooden stool—he was bare-chested, only wearing his modest underwear, a white braies. Beside him, Marsha was pouring water on him and wiping him clean from head to toe, but his mind was someplace else entirely.
He was still thinking about the imprisonment function.
In the Ward menu, he remembered that there was a Prison section.
Of course, as the system said, he should imprison the Red Pumpkin Head in order to prevent something like this from happening again. Losing one Lv. 1 Mana Apple sucks, but he wasn't that much worried about that, as it wasn't that much of a loss.
But what worries him is what this function means.
In hindsight, since the imprison function was there, there will be troublesome Ghosts in the future.
The Red Pumpkin Head is annoying, but it was rather neutral.
Other than pranking people, it has no bad inclination.
It has no innate desire to hurt people, but there will be Ghosts that would.
And at that realization, it all started to make sense now.
The imprison function, the fondness section, and also the assimilation function.
All three of those things are connected to one another.
Deklan has a lot of questions in his mind—like whether the Ghost Residents could come out of the hut's ground when the Ward reached level 5, or whether the fondness can go into the negatives, or even how long the Persona's cooldown was.
None of those questions was answered by the system.
Only the usual dots to piss him off.
Right now, Deklan was looking at the persona section.
…
[Persona: Agna the Red Scarecrow (Inactive)]
…
Since he wasn't using the persona right now, he understood why it was inactive, but the problem was the fact that the persona section was greyed out. Deklan tried transforming several times, but he couldn't, no matter how hard he tried.
As if the persona was a one-time thing, when it's not.
Just how do I activate the persona again? I might need it during the quest.
Regardless, he decided to put it at the back of his mind right now.
It was no use dwelling on things that he couldn't control or didn't know how to control.
Rather than lamenting on that, he should focus on what he could do—like increasing the Ward level as well as absorbing the candies and fruits. I have about 100 Spooky Dollars right now, and that should be more than enough to increase the Ward to level 5. But I'll do that when I'm ready.
Deklan's problem right now wasn't spooky dollars, but strength.
Once the Ward reached level 5, the barrier protecting him would collapse for good.
If that happened, there's no turning back, so he has to be ready.
"Marsha, after this, you can go and take a few more pumpkins to the others," Deklan said, glancing at her, who seemed to be pleasantly surprised by his decision. "I'm guessing there's a bad famine there for you to scavenge food like this, right? Go and take more."
"T-Thank you, young master!" Marsha went to her knees again—clutching her skirt tightly. "On behalf of Slosa Hamlet, I thanked you for your generosity, and hope the young master will always be blessed with health and strength."
"No need to thank me," Deklan waved his hand nonchalantly, but secretly felt good to be thanked like this. "Not many pumpkins were left, so it's no big deal."
"It's no problem, even the bad ones will do. I can restore them."
"You can what?"
Deklan sharply turned towards her, one brow raised questioningly.
He must've heard it wrong, but just in case, he asked Marsha to repeat what she said.
"Yes? I can restore them?"
"You can restore them? How?"
"I have a spell for that…"
"Spell?"
Just then, a holographic panel appeared beside Marsha—showcasing her stats.
…
[Marsha Grace Ladner]
Rank: 5-star Iron
Persona: Aurora the Grace of Nature (S)
Sanity: 90%
…
Deklan choked and coughed the moment he looked at Marsha's status window.
Seeing this, Marsha stood up and patted Deklan's back, "Did I get water into your mouth? I'm sorry."
"It's not that, don't worry," He pushed her away and stared at the status window again.
Specifically, he was staring at Marsha's persona, which surprisingly has an S-rank potential, way above the Red Pumpkin Head. Not to mention, she's also stronger than him, in terms of rank. But then again, considering that she was roaming the woods, it shouldn't surprise him.
I did sense mana in her, but I thought all things have mana in them.
To think she's actually an Exorcist with an S-rank potential persona. What the actual fuck?
Now, Deklan's view of Marsha completely changed.
He was drawn to her because of her sapphire eyes and cute face framed with two plaits with bangs, and he was planning to make her keep him company, but not anymore. Now, Deklan really wanted her fully.
No matter what, she's going to be mine.
Pivoting around, Deklan grabbed Marsha by her shoulders.
He stared at her deeply, forgetting that he was currently only wearing his wet underwear.
"Go bring the pumpkins to the others, but come back to me instantly, do you understand? Until you've been punished, you're going to stay with me, do you understand?"
"Y-Yes, young master. I'll gladly stay by you as long as you help the people."
Moments later.
Deklan was clothed and was now standing outside facing the woods.
He offered a faint smile to Marsha, who was waving at him cheerfully ahead, a sack of pumpkins slung in her other hand. Deklan hadn't expected much from someone so pliantly a peasant, but her potential had turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
Since his family was sending people to kill him, an ally is not a bad thing to have.
Like that night against Rock, if Marsha were around, he would've won smoothly.
And even if there were no more attacks in the future—having an ally will help him when the time comes for him to confront his own family. Personally, he didn't feel the need to confront his family, as the ones here aren't his real family.
Paul was his family.
But he could feel there was no avoiding it.
Deklan clutched his chest and looked to the front yard.
"Even though the previous Deklan is dead, this body still belonged to him." He sighed, feeling an ache in his heart now that he realized his family wanted him dead. "I want to absorb the candies and fruits, but before that, let's see if those corpses have anything on them."
Arriving at the front yard, Deklan found the corpses lying on his porch.
All three of them were placed there, back against the wall.
Now that Deklan truly looked at these corpses, he really settled the fact that he had killed people.
It would be a lie if he said that it doesn't affect him.
But it did.
An odd tingling sensation that made his hands tremble, but he didn't linger on the sensation.
Deklan crouched down and looted Rock's corpse, checking to see what kind of things he had on him.
First, he took the Spirit Talisman—it seemed essential for an Exorcist, as all of them have one.
He placed it into his inventory and then probed Rock's clothes.
It was then that his hand touched something hard, and the item he was touching emanated mana.
And that mana reacted to his own mana.
Deklan took out the item and realized that it was a handheld mirror.
"What's this…?"