"Voice... I don't know how to read..." Yue murmured as she hugged the small booklet tightly. She felt cold inside, and whether that was from fear, anger, or betrayal, she didn't know.

"Host doesn't need to worry! The Association shall provide." The moment the voice in her head finished speaking, Yue got a splitting headache. However, compared to everything she'd been through, this was nothing.

She nonetheless let out a pained groan, feeling the knowledge literally being shoved into her brain. Suprisingly, it only took her five or so minutes to digest everything

Once she did, she had a sudden desire to ask why the knowledge in this booklet wasn't just directly given to her, but... She didn't want nor dare ask for anything more from the demonic voice.

Opening up the little booklet that she now knew was titled 'Grim Reaping for Dummies 101', she went through each page, slowly taking in the information.

It took her until the sun had gone down to finish the small yet suprisingly dense treasure cove of information. She'd never had the ability nor opportunity to read before, and now that she could, she easily found herself enjoying it.

In short, Grim Reapers were tasked with exterminating as much life as possible. The why's and how's still escaped her, but according to the booklet, it was all to keep the balance, which was a bunch of horseshit in Yue's honest opinion.

They were divided into ranks as well, just like the immortals that she now despised with a burning passion. Rank 0 reapers were basically those just inducted into the system without a single collected soul to their name, while rank 1 Reapers were those that had at least collected enough soul energy to advance.

Each rank was then divided into a further nine parts, such as rank 1.1, 1.2, 1.3... etc. Yue didn't quite understand why there was a need to have so many classifications, but she really wasn't in any position to question how things worked.

Letting out a breath, Yue stared up at the night sky. The stars twinkled happily up there, free from the cruelty of life. Her mind unconsciously went back to the day she would forever remember.

That monster had appeared out of nowhere, snatching her up with a wide, lecherous grin on his face. However, then, her imagination began to do its magic.

She imagined crushing every bone in his body, smashing his balls, ripping out his eyes, skinning him, roasting him alive, mutilating him, ripping out his entrails and giving him so much pain that he would beg for death, which she wouldn't grant until the last moment.

Then, she imagined doing the same to her so-called family and village. There was a sliver of her mind that begged for her not to think of them like this, but it was crushed underneath the ever-expanding rage, hate, and helplessness that was torturing her. 

She ripped her eyes away from the twinkling stars above, instead murmuring something only for the Voice to hear.

"I... It said every reaper has a soul weapon, but I don't..." She trailed off, shivering slightly, and it was not because of the cold.

"Don't worry, Host! Every Grim Reaper indeed has a soul-bound weapon to them, however, you must call it out from your inner self! Work hard, young lady!" Its voice was just as cheerful as before, as though it hadn't forced her into pain as intense as that monster's torture just a bunch of hours before.

Yue bit her lips. She had absolutely no idea what the Voice meant by looking into her inner self, but she had no other choice than to just try.

Closing her eyes, Yue tried to concentrate. After a few minutes of nothing happening, she began to unconsciously fidget until she opened her eyes, her pupils filled with frustration.

What did it mean!? What was she supposed to do? Rip open her belly and look inside? Was that her 'inner self'? Because she'd seen a lot of it already.

Helpless, she was once more forced to rely on the demonic Voice. "Um... What do I do? I don't know..."

"Worry not, young reaper! You lack any spiritual roots, which are what allows immortals to cultivate, thus, such a task will be hard for you. However, there is a shortcut. As long as you harvest a soul, any soul, you will instinctively understand. Work hard!"

Yue blinked. Well, that seemed easier than she'd thought it would be.

Looking around, she crawled her way next to the Pit, quickly finding a bunch of small insects scurrying about, likely gorging themselves on the flesh of the tortured victims thrown in there.

With little fanfare, she squished one of the tiny bugs. Immediately, she understood what the Voice was talking about.

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It wasn't an actual feeling, per se. Rather, she could feel an extremely, almost impossibly small trickle of... something, flow into her.

Then, just like with the booklet, information began to appear in her mind. However, there was a clear difference between the two. With the booklet, the information had been pressed into her mind, while with this, it was like she'd always known yet had forgotten.

Every living thing had a soul, but the purity and quality of each differed a lot. For example, the ant she just squashed was practically the lowest of the low, and even if she murdered a million of them, it wouldn't even be worth a tenth of a human soul. 

Reapers needed soul energy to advance, obviously. Unlike demons and devils, Yue wouldn't have to worry about the purity of a soul, only the quality, while said demons and devils were the opposite.

Looking down at her hands, Yue could feel a small sensation coursing through her body. It wasn't unpleasant at all, but it nonetheless felt very weird. Still, she could deal with weird.

Calling forth the sensation, a whisp of black aura emerged from her palm. It was akin to a new limb, suprisingly easy to control and intrinsically a part of her, but it was so small and weak that it might as well not have been there at all.

Yue stared at it in fascination for a full minute, watching the small flickers of black aura appear and disappear. She automatically understood the properties and some of its potential uses, and yet, she also knew that she didn't know everything about it.

However, Yue forced herself to concentrate back on the task at hand. She wouldn't be able to get her revenge if she allowed herself to act her age.

With another thought, she forced the small whisp of death aura, as it was called, to rush into her. It responded eagerly, shooting out from her palms and quickly burrowing into her chest.

She let out a pained gasp, shutting her eyes and gritting her teeth. Thankfully, after a few minutes, the pain disappeared, replaced with a new sensation in the back of her mind.

Calling upon it like her new knowledge suggested her to do, Yue held out her hands. A large, evil-looking scythe appeared out of nowhere, securely held within her grasp.

Most reapers used scythes, and while there were exceptions, it looked as though Yue wasn't one. She pursued her lips, clumsily testing the farming tool turned weapon by swinging it around a bit.

If the knowledge wasn't lying to her, then this scythe was even more durable than even the best object made by any mortal weaponsmith in existence. However, it couldn't compare to even the garbage of immortals, and that was a problem.

If the scythe was damage, Yue would receive damage. If it was broken, she would die, rather painfully at that. Thankfully, since it was a soul-bound tool, it would strengthen alongside her, constantly nourishing itself from the souls she would collect.

Letting out a grin, Yue began to jump around, swinging the deadly sharp scythe around. It could cut off branches like a knife through butter, although she struggled to use it precisely enough for that.

Satisfied, Yue stalked away from the Pit, stomping every insect she found on the way. After asking the Voice a few questions, she roughly understood how much she needed to kill before she could rank up.

She would only need to kill a single adult human to rank up, and she would if she could, but it would likely be easier for her if she hunted beasts. The smarter and stronger the animal, the higher the quality of its soul would be.

She wasn't tired despite it being night and not having slept, ate, or drank since the day she'd been captured. She thought about it for a few seconds before throwing it under the 'probably has to do with the Voice' folder.

She wasn't a hunter by any means, but she at least knew some basics. You kind of had to when your village was starving and food was worth its weight in gold.

Following her experience scavenging for nuts and anything that she could eat, she eventually found what she was looking for: A small tree squirrel.

It was running around the ground, collecting nuts and nibbling on them. Yue had been lucky enough in the past to catch a couple of the furry-tailed bastards, which was why she hadn't immediately been thrown away when the famine began. Still, after she'd failed to catch any more... Well.

She closed her eyes for a moment, calming her emotions. She suppressed the hate and fury in her heart, instead focusing on the task at hand.

After waiting a few more minutes for the perfect moment, Yue sprang forward, scythe already in motion.

The squirrel reacted quickly, as expected, but Yue was faster. After all, while she was still only rank 0, she wasn't technically a mortal.

The scythe hit its target, the large blade easily chopping the small animal in half at the lower hips. Yue watched with poorly hidden glee as the little thing quickly bled out, the light in its eyes quickly vanishing.

As she moved forward to collect her spoils, something thumped against her back, forcing her to the ground. She let out a surprised scream before struggling fiercely even as a sharp, strong set of teeth closed around her neck.

She swung her scythe backward, but instead of hitting the beast, she only succeeded in accidentally throwing her only weapon off. She gasped as her hands instinctively reached for her neck, whimpering in pain just like she did when she was being tortured by the monster.

She struggled to turn and at least see her aggressor, finding a large wolf looking at her, licking its bloodied lips. It didn't approach her, instead simply waiting for her to bleed out.

She'd gotten overconfident. She knew this was the time of the year that wolves prowled around, but with everything that had happened, she'd completely forgotten. Her consciousness turned blurry, and then everything went dark.

The wolf was quite disappointed when its prospective meal turned into disgusting and inedible dust.

Yue opened her eyes.

The familiar feeling of bones digging roughly into her skin greeted her, as well as the Voice.

"The Host has died. Searching for the cause of death... Cause of death has been determined to be stupidity as well as horrible judgment and lack of training. Worry not, Host. You only need a bit of m o t i v a t i o n to succeed! Work hard, young lady! Activating the Motivation Provider..."

Yue felt her eyes tear up right before she lurched forward, vomiting out her insides as horrible pain even worse than last time assaulted her.

Her screams went unheard by any except her and the Voice.