Simon had over six decades of experience, but ever since his death, he had come to realize that no matter how long one lived, life would always teach one a lesson.
’Even some gods have been taught a lesson by me in the past, and they’ve definitely lived longer than me.’
The life he had as a hero could have been said to be an easy one in the sense that nearly every aspect of his life had been a straight road.
All he has to do was get stronger, kill demons, find resources, kill humans who were siding with demons and humans who were harming Earth, and several other tasks that were rather straightforward.
But on the day of his death and in the sixteen years he had lived in the demon realm, he could see that he had gone through so much more than his past life, both mentally and physically.
He had to learn.
He had to adapt.
He had to change his thoughts to survive and thrive.
He had to stop being a chess piece on the game board called life.
He had to become a player.
He had to understand the rules, use them, and manipulate them to get the result he wanted.
Although he had decades worth of experience in his mind, he knew that it would not be easy. He knew that he could fail, he could make mistakes, but from those failures and mistakes, he would learn and adapt.
Despite his decades of experience, he was not a reincarnator who had prior knowledge of what was going to happen, he had not even been reborn on Earth but in the demon realm, so he knew that he had to be careful.
But at the end of the day...
’No matter the disadvantages or unfairness that’s thrown at me like my current status as a slave, I should not rage or be trouble by it. Instead, I should find how I can use the tools in my hand to turn that situation around.’
’And in my current situation... I need to understand the rules of the clan, and also a lot more about the clan.’
Simon leaned into his chair, causing it to lean backward on its two back legs.
To ensure that the chair did not suddenly break, he used his demonic energy to strengthen the back legs of the chair and to also ensure that the chair remained attached to the ground.
He closed his eyes, then his demonic energy moved and touched the clan symbol.
He frowned slightly, then in the next moment, symbols appeared in the air above his palm.
The symbols were not Chaos Runes, and what formed in the air was not a screen—just black symbols that formed words in the demonic language.
’If not for my past life where I had no choice but to learn and understand the demonic language, I would not be able to read these words in front of me.’
The Duskfang Tribe and Simon’s mother were illiterates. They could not read and write, and Simon’s mother actually never knew that he could read.
If she did, it would have caused a lot of problems because none in the tribe could teach him.
’Oh well. That’s in the past.’
Simon decided to move away from such thoughts and chose to focus on what was in front of him.
’I see... The clan symbol can also be called a Grave Mark.’
’ And merits... Merits are the clan’s true currency. Unlike tribes, kingdoms, and other clans, they use merits instead instead of coins or crystals. Though, one can exchange their merits for coins and crystals, and vice versa.’
’Merit is basically money in the clan, and it can be used to buy weapons, armors, upgrade weapons and armors, gain access to unique training grounds, purchase techniques of the clan, hire private instructors, pay to get healed by the healers, gain access to the clan’s archives, promotion, to buy food, and a lot more I guess.’
’Well... Merits is basically money, and... I have twenty (20) merit points... Hmm.’
’There is no place that shows the exchange rate of points gotten in the trials to merits. I got way more points than any other person in the trial. Was I cheated?’
’Did they use the fact that because the Lumens orb never showed how many points I got, they gave me far lower points instead of my deserved points?’
’Because, even with the 80% reduction, I believe my merits should be higher than this, and my room should be better than this too.’
’Hmm... I see... This is blatant manipulation, and I would not have known if I didn’t check it out and just believed whatever they gave me.’
’I can call them out for it, but it won’t achieve anything since nobody, not even me, knows how many points I got. They can just tell me anything... Besides, it’s not worth it.’
’I’ll just gather more merits, gather more knowledge and power, understand their rules, use it against them, and become a force to be reckoned with in the clan despite being a slave.’
Simon continued going through the merit section of his Grave Mark.
’Hmm?... There are also merit penalties like breaking minor rules, failure to complete missions, killing another clan member, and if one betrays the clan, the Grave Mark turns red and the merits are frozen.’
’One can not only have zero merits from merit penalties, one can also have negative merits. And if the clan member does not gain enough merits to change it from negative merits to positive or at least zero merit in three months, they can either be imprisoned, crippled, killed, or given an extremely dangerous mission to complete... depending on how negative the clan member’s merits is and how severe his or her crime was.’
’Hmm... There’s still more.’
Simon went through ever rule there was regarding the merits system of the clan. He studied them, understood them, and made sure he memorized everything.
All so that he could be a player and not a chess piece.