Soul eaters

That night, when she went to sleep, she was completely exhausted and still she traveled to the underworld to do her job as a reaper for the second time.

"Hey you are here." Someone was waving at her.

It was the female reaper she had met last night. She assumed that perhaps she would see her around but she never imagined the possibility of the reaper being so friendly to her. Most reapers ignored the newbies. Many of them walked past her as if she was invisible but Scarlet did not care anyway. All she wanted to do was hand in her souls, get her crystals and then leave.

"Hey," she waved to the reaper. "Were you waiting for me?"

"Yes, I wanted to see if you had taken my advice and caught more souls. And you are my only reaper friend."

As someone who had no friend on the blue star, a friend from the underworld was very welcome.

"I am Scarlet." She eagerly introduced herself.

"I am Ezrah." The female reaper answered. "Did you get more than one soul?"

Scarlet released her soul binding rope and then the four souls she had trapped. Three of them were dull and mindless but the third with red eyes was skittish and it kept tugging at the rope in an attempt to get away.

"Oh, you managed to capture a level one soul eater!!!!!" Ezrah screamed.

"Is it the guy with red eyes?" Scarlet asked her.

Ezrah nodded her head and she looked at Scarlet in wonder. "You are still in the infancy stage of soul cultivation, how did you capture a soul eater? I am at level one of the soul foundation stage and even I would struggle to capture a soul eater."

Scarlet shrugged because she had no idea how she managed to accomplish this feat. "I just screamed for my rope and opened my soul gourd and it was trapped."

It happened exactly as Scarlet described but Ezrah appeared to be doubtful. Even Scarlet was doubting herself now because if a foundation level soul cultivator would struggle to trap a level one soul eater then how had she done it?

She made it a point to go and read more about soul eaters later.

"I am really telling the truth Ezrah, that's all I did." Scarlet said truthfully. "I thought it was just a hostile soul, I had no idea it was a soul eater."

 Most of the lingo in the underworld was direct and she could easily understand it. Hostile souls were those ones which attacked reapers and humans for no reason other than hate and rage. Soul eaters were souls which ate other souls to grow their power.

There were levels to soul eaters because the more souls eaten, the stronger the soul eater and the higher the level.

Soul eaters were usually born from evil souls like those of murderers. Basically the more inhumane and evil you were in life, the higher your chance of becoming a soul eater if you were not found and sent to the underworld immediately.

"How do evil souls know that they can eat other souls?" she asked Ezrah.

"Evil always knows." Ezrah answered. "This one was only starting out, you are lucky that he did not harm you or drain you."

"What happens to the souls of those he has eaten?" Scarlet asked Ezrah.

"I heard that there is a way to separate them from the evil soul however even then, the innocent souls have already lost their energy. Most of them don't get a chance to be reborn so they turn into energy which later bears soul crystals."

"How pitiful." Scarlet said in a small voice. Something crossed her mind so she asked Ezrah, "What do we do with the crystals when we finishing absorbing the energy from them?"

"Use your power to dissolve it in water. That water will contain a small hint of spiritual power which is good for the skin and the body. Even plants and animals benefit greatly from water of dissolved crystals. It's similar to purifying water but on a small scale because purifying water is extremely potent."

Ezrah looked around wildly then she whispered to her, "Most reapers trade high quality energy crystals for purifying water because there is a rumor that it can bring a human back from the brink of death. I don't know how true that is."

Scarlet had so many questions but the ringing of a bell twice stopped her. This sound of the bell was hypnotizing like a choir of heavenly angels singing. Scarlet had never heard angels singing but she imagined that this was what they probably sounded like.

Ezrah suddenly shoved her and pointed her forward.

"What?" Scarlet asked.

"The ringing of the bells occurs when a soul eater is delivered. It informs others about the level of the soul eater and tells the guards and all reapers to be on alert in case the soul eater attempts to escape. Soul eaters are gluttons, no matter where they are, they will attempt to eat souls. This soul delivery area of the underworld is like a buffet to them. They are powerless here but it won't stop them from trying to escape and eating a soul. You should deliver your souls now."

"Okay." Scarlet nodded. In her mind she loud a booming voice say "Level one soul eater delivery."

Other reapers made way for her and she went forward.

 She followed the usual procedure and delivered her souls. This time round, the soul registrars were slightly more welcoming or so she imagined. Capturing a soul eater created a big difference in treatment it seemed.

She was given six medium quality energy crystals and twenty high quality energy crystals. As she was returning to where Ezrah was standing she noticed that a few reapers with scythes on their backs nodded at her respectfully.

"You have gained the respect of some warrior reapers. They are the ones who hunt for soul eaters and hostile souls. Ho...When will gain their respect?" Ezrah whined and rubbed her head against Scarlet like a cat. When she was done whining, she said, "I have to go Scarlet, I will see you tomorrow."

Scarlet had many other questions but she let Ezrah go. Now that she had some crystals, she wanted to buy a soul pet and some little purifying water to speed up her cultivation and the growth of the plants.

As she was preparing to leave, she heard the whining of a dog and felt something rubbing against her feet so she stopped.