Waking up after two weeks of unconsciousness was a nightmare for Damon, whose body begged for food.
Gaining strength equivalent to warrior-class monsters—greater even than a super mage—it took some time for Damon to get accustomed to it.
The strength of his body was off the charts. To avoid breaking things with a simple grip, Damon had to spend weeks learning to passively control his strength.
With newfound power and regeneration unlike any known creature, Damon's confidence soared to another level.
Watching the news to catch up on what had transpired during his transformation, Damon saw a headline that surprised him:
**"Rising Star of Zhao Family Defeating Parasitic Demons!"**
The article praised Zhao Manyan, who, with his intermediate-level light magic, protected and destroyed the parasitic magical beasts that had infected the students of Pearl University.
It was a minor plot event—one that made Zhao Manyan and Mo Fan close friends.
Once Damon got used to his powers, the first thing he did was visit one of his contacts and suppliers of magical items.
This was to get his hands on advanced-level resources. Intermediate-level resources were rare, controlled, but still available through auction houses and similar markets. But advanced-level? Those didn't circulate publicly. The military and enforcer associations controlled them strictly.
Only members of clans, families, or organizations like the military or associations could get their hands on such items.
That rarity was a huge obstacle for Damon. After seeing the effects of other consumables, Damon thought, *Why not use advanced-level ones?* They might cost ten times more, but their effects were far superior—worth dozens of intermediate-rank resources combined.
With that thought, he contacted his supplier, only to be disappointed by the response. Still, he didn't give up.
Registering himself as a new hunter, Damon opened a private hunting agency named *Morningstar Private Agency.*
Through this agency, he made a deal with the supplier using his hunter identity and ordered advanced-grade resources.
Galaxy Veins, Burning Sand Ruby, Radiant Light Gems… he ordered them in bulk and placed the order.
Advanced resources are found in the most dangerous and elementally rich areas. To procure them, teams of advanced and super mages are required. The companies or families handling them then process and sell them to the market.
The powers capable of mobilizing super mages numbered fewer than a hundred worldwide—each holding control over these resources. Private deals, family contracts, associations, and military agreements dictated the flow of goods. One could imagine how long it would take for Damon's turn to arrive.
Knowing this, he ordered all items related to light and fire elements in advance.
The total cost exceeded ninety million dollars—enough to make even Damon's wallet cry. Watching the money burn away, Damon began thinking seriously about new ways to make money.
He drafted out ideas like Uber, Zomato, Netflix, DoorDash, UPI, and similar concepts. With his fame and connections as the creator of Instagram, it wasn't difficult to find the right talents. Instead of getting bogged down in company matters, he provided the ideas, funding, and connections to make those ventures bloom—and make him more money.
Investing further in magical lenses and other magic-based technology that showed promise, Damon made several long-term investments.
With his private hunting agency established, Damon also considered his lack of combat experience and decided to gain some.
Hiring a skilled hunter group composed of intermediate mages, Damon ventured into the wilderness with them.
With his immense physical strength, regenerative abilities, and high-quality equipment, he wasn't worried about his safety.
In fact, he was excited. His only prior encounter with magical beasts had been during the Bo City Calamity. Since then, he hadn't faced any living creature. Not being part of the Elite Class, Damon hadn't participated in the practical examinations where Mo Fan first fought magical beasts—so he was still a rookie.
For his first hunt, Damon chose minion-rank beasts to test himself. But that test didn't even happen. The moment he saw the beast, he froze, trembling uncontrollably.
It was humiliating for Damon as the other hunters took care of the creature. His mood only improved when they encouraged him, saying he'd done well—at least he hadn't cried or wet his pants like they all had during their first encounters.
In the second battle, he managed to move but was still useless in combat. In the third, he finally got the hang of himself and began contributing to the hunt.
For a month, they lived in the wilderness, hunting only minion-class monsters. This was followed by warrior-class hunts as Damon learned more about wilderness survival and combat.
Perhaps due to his growing combat experience, the speed of Damon's casting for primary and intermediate magic increased. His control over the fire element reached a level where he could invoke primary magic with a thought and deploy intermediate spells within seconds.
His light element also reached novice rank quickly, and soon after, Damon poured energy into leveling it up to intermediate rank—skipping the slow, useless phase of light magic altogether.
After months of team hunting, Damon finally left to hunt alone. Starting with minion-rank beasts, then ambushing warrior-class monsters, he honed his skills further.
His cultivation in the fire element rose to the third level, and he was able to fully control forty-nine stars of light element before leveling it up again.
Months of monster subjugation later, Damon returned to the city, taking on more urban freelance cases—investigating murders, kidnappings, and suspected monster sightings.
The latest case he worked on involved investigating a series of missing people suspected to have been kidnapped. Using his skills, Damon finally tracked down the culprit—only to encounter something entirely unexpected.
"...Dark Beasts!"
***
A/N:
First of all, sorry for the late chapter. Okay, our two-day journey—let's see: crossing 100+ collections, 20k+ views with 17 chapters! Thank you, guys!
Since I've already discussed Pride's Authority before, let me clarify things about *Envy's Hand.*
It originates from the grimoires of Envy. Its power in Beelzeebub allows it to see souls, merge them, and create soul essence—functioning much like Little Loach.
Envy also allows one to use any ability or action to its full potential. For example, in magic spells, it can manipulate the spell's form, power, and underlying mechanisms.
Even in physical activities, if Damon's body allows it and he intends to perform it, Envy enables him to accomplish the feat—even if he has never practiced it before.
Now, its most important function—a mixture of Gluttony's trait: from devoured targets, Envy can take the unique abilities of the person.
Anything unique to the target—soul seeds, elements, innate talents—Envy can acquire it. The only reason Damon can't obtain common elements from corpses is because they aren't unique; many people possess the same elements.
But mutant elements and unique talents, like innate seeds—those Damon can absorb.