?


    Once the fee was paid, she put one foot ahead of the other and finally entered the vige with ease. She had no specific ce she was moving to or a n in mind, all she wanted to do was look around.


    "Do you need a tour guide?" Hawk asked her.


    Slowly, she moved her eyes back and forth and considered his question for a while. "I think so, but I am not paying for one." she added.


    There were still many uses for all of her energy crystals, In a space one week, Severus had used up ten thousand of them on the internal heat regting pills and ingredients.


    "Don''t worry, I won''t charge you a thing." he answered with a chuckle.


    "Why?" she was even more suspicious. The underworld was one of those ces where nothing came for free. It was also a ce where one had to second guess everything, she knew that more than the others.


    Gasping, she ced a hand over her chest and looked at him with wide eyes. "Don''t tell me that you are in love with me."


    Equally surprised, Hawk gasped at her outrageous statement, "Are you crazy why would I be in love with you?"


    "I am pretty, I am on the leaderboard, I am rich.." she counted off the easiest reasons she could think off on her fingers.


    "I like Ezrah." Hawk blurted, "No offense but you are in, there is no spunk with you."


    "Spunk." she said, wondering what he meant by that. Was spunk even a word?


    "Yes, you are the basic grim reaperin my eyes."


    "Basic!!" she said loudly.


    "You are Ezrah''s good friend, best friend she ims since you shared some of your resources with her and I want to be on good terms with you. I have been chasing her for one year now but the ice refuses to melt, do you have any good ideas to help me?" he said as he walked.


    She had no choice at the moment but to follow and listen to his woes of his unrequited love.


    "Doesn''t she have a human boyfriend?"


    "Human is the key word here and boyfriend is the other. It will notst, apparently she dates them for a few months and ends it before the guy gets too attached. But we are immortal, so I am patient, eventually I think she wille to see me as more than a friend. Put in a good word for me, asionally."


    While she sympathized with him, "I will try." She said, but she would make no promises. "Tell me about the vige, is it as peaceful as it looks?"


    Hawk gave her an ''are you bonkers look'' and said, "Peaceful! have you met grim reapers? Our society is built on power, we have high level reapers, low level reapers and above them you have the rare grim reapers who go beyond normal soul cultivation to be soul kings. Soul kings are on equal footing with the gate keepers, but to be a soul king, they say you must be a high level reaper that has killed a very rare type of soul eater. There is an imbnce that exists and will always exist.


    Look around you, some houses are small, though beautiful while others are big, beyond the gardens you can even find pces. Those belong to the strongest grim reapers with the best resources. Most of them have been to the small worlds crafted by deities ande out victorious.


    In this ce, you will find harmony, peace and love but you will also find resentment and challenges. Even the soul pets are like that, the strongest upy the biggest spaces and training areas.


    But not all grim reapers seek for power, some are simplyfortable doing the job and going to sleep, like myself." he smiled with content all over his face.


    What he did not say to her because she was one of those who were after power was that they were immortal, he was of the opinion that no reaper should be in a rush to climb the leaderboard or live in an extravagant house without necessity. He for example was also alone, without a partner. of what use was a big house to him?


    "Does the resentment ever turn into something deadly?"<novelsnext></novelsnext>


    "Not that I have ever heard about, most grim reapers are like me, calm and easy going. But there are like ten or fifteen percent of us that are that way. Of that percentage, warrior reapers make up thergest number."


    She nodded, and they continued walking, slowly, "This is a tea house, the owner is a guardian reaper like you. asionally they brew tea made from rejuvenation water and purifying water. Most of the tea they sell is made from spiritual herbs, fruits and energy crystals."


    It was fascinating that even in this world, small businesses like these thrived.


    "You have herb shops, pharmacies, music halls,bat halls, armor crafting shops, spirit pet shops, flying beast shops,_"


    "I don''t see any restaurants." shemented.


    "We don''t get hungry as grim reapers but if we want to eat, there are fruit shops." he pointed out a few. "We also have tourpanies."


    Now that got her head spinning. "Tourpanies?" she said as a question.


    "Mmm," he nodded, "There are parts of the underworld we hate, the cold areas with nasty creatures and there are warm areas, the deities gardens, their springs, other realms. You can visit such ces if you pay for a guide and spirit boat."


    "Wow," she eximed.


    "It''s not boring here, there are many things which we do for fun, you should consider buying a house, talk to the soul registrars when you are ready, they also handle the real estate of the underworld.


    The tour went on for another thirty minutes before Hawk left and she returned to the real world. It struck her when she opened her eyes that the dark rune vige reminded her of a cultivationic she had read on earth.


    Many of the buildings, the arrangements, the power structure, it was all too simr. Perhaps, that cultivation novel had been written by a grim reaper.


    "Enjoy the trip?" Severus who wasyingzily on her bed asked.


    "Yes." she replied. Then she noticed that sometime when she was sleeping, Justin hade into her room and crawled into her bed. It was too soon for them both to be sleeping but given the weather outside, many slept early so this was not a surprise.


    "Have you been seduced by the beauty of the dark rune vige?" he further asked.


    "Yes." she admitted.


    He sighed as if he had been expecting exactly that tiresome reply. "I guess my mother will have her way after all, she has been wanting you to see the vige so that you could move in since wee as a pair you and I."


    "I am not moving in right now." she told him.


    "Oh that''s a relief." Severus rxed. He was not ready to be within blinking distance of his mother.


    "Did anything happen while I was away?"


    "Nothing, your human husband still hasn''t called if that''s what you were hoping to hear. But I blinked and checked on him, he is breathing and uninjured."


    She sighed and looked at her terminal, and then sheid her head back down on her pillow. If he was fine, why wasn''t he calling?