"French enough. We're going to have to introduce the rest when I power up a bit." He muttered while studying the trashing woman in front of him. "You just had to have a damn reunion so damn soon. Tsk, with three months on my belt I'd have this whole forest under my direct control." Not wanting to wait more, Aki caught her by the armpit and lifted her up.
[Congratulations! You have forced a low grade slave contract into the Greater driad Agash Tor'...]
"Arcenis. Select slave's new name as Arcenis." He did not read the whole system prompt and directly tried to change her name, getting a horrified look by the woman he held.
[Checking authority... Permission granted. The slave's name is now Arcenis.]
*****
In a very far away clearing, there stood a black woman of African descent, seemingly sleeping peacefully. Her living green hair stood splattered over the ground in all directions, hardly discernible from any greenary around her.
Suddenly, she slowly opened her green eyes with brown sclera, golden tears flowing down her eyes.
"I am sorry I couldn't protect you little one. It was, however, inevitable." Her voice was the sweetest and most calming. Through her saddened tone, any hearing it would feel her immense sadness. Were Aki her, he would feel the deepest guilt, one way beyond what he'd ever thought possible, over not having given his life and knowledge for this woman.
*****
"She thinks you're dead now. Congratulations, you can now say you're a bona-fide adult with a shity boss. Stand." Said Aki, receiving the driad's gaze of uter hatred without flinching. "Gather all the treasure and resources in your grove, put it all inside dimensional storages without causing damage, if not possible leave it together with said storage artifacts, before arranging them inside a treasury close to your heart tree and at trunk level. When you finish that, enter a dormant state and begin managing the forest in a way to keep to standards with its current state of affairs while waiting for further instructions." He told her without waiting anymore and quickly going away after giving out his orders.
*****
[Appraisal Lv 1: Able to glean information on things you wish to appraise.]
[Titanic constitution Lv 1: Your vitality is strenghtened.]
[Intrinsic perfection Lv 1: You become more perfect.]
"Truly THE trash tier skill! These descriptions are pure shit. If it didn't evolve into such a god-like ability, I would never pick it first. *Sigh* I mean, I was forced to begin the contract on it's lowest level, but now I know I should expect anything that represents the gods and ancient beings to also have the appraisal skill. Good thing I didn't get some of the more dangerous skills, though it seems it would be kind of hard not to acquire some of them with these evolutions." Aki muttered while trekking back to his cave.
Finally reaching the place, he found his pack completely unconscious and entangled in thorny vines, bleeding even.
Aki didn't really have any reaction to this though. He simply touched a vine and controlled it.
The driad tried to interfere using his own orders, but he literally had her heart in his hand, so it wasn't really that hard to make the vines lose their thorns than heal everyone. Their magic conductivity was quite good after all.
Once again, Aki woke Anna first. He didn't know if the bitch had given them a slow acting poison, so he emodialized her. Even if that's not an actual medical term, it is what it is.
Seeing her waking up, Aki decided to keep her unconscious instead and start the process on the others at the same time. His newly upgraded wisdom allowed for that and more.
[Congratulations! Your skills Mana manipulation, Reduced mana cost, Multi-casting and Quick casting have fused and become Magical exelency Lv 1]
Aki imediatly appraised said skill, even if just for XP on the skill.
[Magical excellency Lv 1: All magic is generally better.]
[Congratulations! Appraisal has reached level 2. Upgrade your companion bond to obtain the benefits.]
"And that again shows the benefits of a good base. A driad should have at least tens of great skills, yet the level one bond only gives me three shared skill slots. That bitch will have to grind skills in my place for years until I make up for this shity start." He grumbled.
The only good thing about it was that he now didn't have to mind someone peeking at his training. And the doubled VIT stat. Titanic constitution was very broken. Even if he could not actually level it up, it was a fucking doubling his stat! Even his class bonus wasn't that good. Aki was very tempted to get the intelligence version of the skill, but with his WIS and skills upgraded, it would be easier to train it instead. Plus, he didn't actually have a very good defense, and beasts that gave vitality were the most common, so the multiplyer would have the most effect on it.
While Aki was complaining, he also understood that turning a demigod into your contracted slave was a monumental task many would kill him for complaining about his success.
To him, it was as easy as just walking on the woods though. The driad was connected to all plants in her domain and vice versa, so he regularly walked around and turned the trees around him into 'undead' versions of themselves, which weren't actually that diferent from normal since trees hardly had any personality while growing up.
It took one bit of mana in the right place and they all started attacking the driad and herding her towards her avatar from inside their connection, allowing Aki to attack at her weakest.
Crazy thing, but also a very effective way to kill druids, necromancers, summoners and mechanics with hacking skills.
Depending of the target, it might also affect hivemind tipe beasts.
*****
"So you defeated and enslaved a driad and now you have access to her whole hoard? Which you want ME, to identify?" Asked a very bafled Ela, for the forth time.
"Yup." Aki suddenly took a sword out of thin air, apraised it, felt like throwing it away because the description simply said 'fancy sword' for the twentieth time, and stored it again. Checking another pouch, Aki actually raised an eyebrown at the content. Before she could ask yet again, Aki took a bottle of pills out and shoved it in her face. "Hey, do humans ussualy put medicine or special drugs in the format of pills?" He asked.
"Some, yes. You're problably holding an elixir though. Those are like, grossly expensive in case you actually know someone that can do one and not get killed for selling it. On a level that you could problably buy a small city with the bottle in your hand." She said, strangely not tempted by the great fortune in front of her.
"Let me guess, this strange simble is the crest of a sect or order?" Aki asked while pointing at a bloodied claw picture next to the bottle's neck.
"Very likely." She imediatly nodded.
Aki nodded, took one pill out and gulped it.
Burning pain imediatly radiated from his throath and digestive system. His expression didn't change with it though, since that was pain resistance actual use.
Looking at his HP, Aki saw it start to drop quite quickly, but he literally just touched the tree besides him and got topped up. Only taking his hand out of it when he saw the number not trying to change anymore, Aki was greatly dissapointed.
[Cleansing elixir has failed.]
"I really wish i had more info. Well, at least i can use to train vitality since it problably is something to do with getting rid of licantropy. Would explain where those hunters came from and why they had so little things even on the parts i didn't damage. Let me check the other bottles first." Aki said out loud as to explain to those present before quickly taking out more pills.
All of those on the sack ended up not being able to do more than damage him, but at least he got 12 VIT out of it.
There were more strange bottles, but some had obviosly poisonous liquids and there was one with only one pill, which actually had a diferent dessign.
This time, the reaction was different.
[You have consumed Elixir of clear mind. +15 WIS. Biomass processing is now level 3.]
"Well, there goes one more reason to destroy the place, these are amazing. If i can't find a beast that gives wisdom, than i can use elixirs! Even if i have to hunt down every single sect, this kind of shit would still be worth it. Say Ela, how often do these sects make public appearences?" Aki asked with a lot more vigor behind it.
"Not often. They normally just do their own thing and sometimes host tournaments for dick measuring and such, though i hear there is one sect that works around to help the poor in the archipelago." She explained, kind of bothered by the questions since it was obviously important, but she knew almost nothing about it.
Aki simply noded and kept looking for actual clothes. Again, the hunters from before weren't left with much on their bodies.
*****
'Master, I have detected a band of humans coming to the forest.' The monotone voice of the driad told him on the same night. This got Aki a bit pissed. Maybe the driad was right, he might be cursed. He'd just started snuggling with Anna damnit!
"Ela, we're up. Human band on the way." Aki stopped his noble act and kissed Anna on the cheek before going towards the exit.
Right now he was wearing a size adjusting white shirt and blue jacket some noble had died with plus a gray set of rough pants and black boots. With beard and hair trimed, it was more than easy to look like he was a young master on a secret escapade.
Which is exactly what the armored company of man thought they'd found when they saw the young man with a pissed off expression, great build and expensive clothes nobles might consider 'inconspicuous'.
"Good evening gentleman, it is a pleasent night for a walk in the forest, but i imagine such a company as yourselves have more pressing matters to attend to. Tell me if you need something from my person, this lawfull citizen will help, but otherwise, i will have to ask you to scram." Said Aki in an icy tone with his best noble expression while shielding Ela from the gazes of the men and women in the front.
"If you excuse me sir, a passing noble was reported to not have arrived in the next spot of their destination, lastly being seen in our town, so the guard was asked to perform some patroling in case the lord in question needs our help. I will have to ask sir and madan to state your business in this ungodly hour of the night while so far away from our walls." The captain of the detachment thought it strange an unkown man was there, but he was a cautious man and didn't want to offend some noble.
"We are here to find a werewolf tribe with elven ancestry that i heard about, but i aparently was lied to or given wrong information, since all i find are beast and more beasts. About the lord you speak of, he was probably killed together with his escorts, because there is a scene of great battle not far to the north, but even the most bored of beasts would not bother to get rid of a wagon, nevermind a whole noble convoy, and there isn't a sign of human pressence any further than that except for mine and my servant's trails. Either that or the lord went in a completely diferent direction than the forest. Don't mind my words though, waste your time here for the rest of the month for all i care. I will be looking for interesting slaves further away before returning to strangle the man who told me about this place." Aki turned to the side and walked away, followed closely by Ela, who hadn't spoken a word. The captain decided not to pursue them, whoever he sent would problably be killed, so instead he decided to look for this battle cite the misterious man talked about. The man was so carefull he could barely remenber the pieces of his face not always covered in shadows. Problably a magic trick.
*****
A bit after dawn, at the city gates.
As Aki strode towards the open gate with a face that said 'talk to me to be murdered', no merchant dared claim they were in front of him in the line for the whole night.
Ironically enough, his head was filled with finding somoeone to teach him how to actually cook so he could at least make something tasty for his lover after the first night they spent apart. Or just running back and rubing their faces together for half an hour.
The guard also gave him a look and asked the masked Ela for the entrance fee. It certainly wasn't the strangest thing he'd seen.
A bit later, they were both looking through the main market while Aki rolled a gold coin on his fingers and looked around for someone that would not be intimidated by his murder look. Again, it was something he was pretty good at even before he beefed up. Even the man who stood more than ten centimeters taller than him didn't look him in the eye. Instead, he'd attracted the attention of a redhead about the same size as him and with tits that might as well have been basket balls. Oh, she was definitly his tipe. Even had that kind of look that made you want to kiss her so she would stop embarassing herself. He didn't think much on it after reconizing the fact though.
She too, simply stared at him, waiting to kick his ass like she was a damn cartoon character.
Than sudenly he noticed something.
Quickly striding over, Aki stoped exuding pressure. That guy looked like he might just pass out if he didn't.
He focused his gase entirely at the scrawny boy besides the nubian princess.
"How much for the all the milk, chesse, bread and eggs in the stall?" Aki asked.