"Oh, there's a stray. Get there."
" "Yes, master." "
After I spoke, the two servants on palanquin duty moved me to the side of a dead gorging caterpillar. I normally waited for all of them to die before using Assimilation on them, but I also did it for the ones that weren't bunched together.
'To think these things can eat zombies whole. Good thing they don't leave too far from this forest or else I might have gotten eaten by them when I was still weak. I might have been able to handle one but they normally travel in groups so it would be worse than these humans.'
My past ignorant self would have only stretched out his hand and used the skill, but I had done much experiments so that I didn't waste their stats. Their stats only ranged from 3 to 30 but I wasn't well-off enough to overlook the scraps.
"Lower."
" "Yes, master." "
In response to my order, the palanquin was lowered so that I could lay my hand on the gorging caterpillar's corpse. I then injected my pure mana inside it. The amount of mana you had was also your magic limit, but just because I could use magic didn't mean I could manipulate mana. When casting magic with a skill the mana was automatically transformed to the spell being cast. However the memories and experiences I gained made this easy with just a bit of practice.
Once my mana filled the corpse, I used Assimilation. By doing this my skill could steal more from the target and even had a chance of taking everything.
[Assimilation successful.]
[Strength +18
Defence +2]
With the Magic Eyes of Perception, I could see a target's status as long as their magic limit was lower and they were less skillful than I was with magic. Therefore, I knew exactly how much I was able to steal from the corpse.
'I missed about 10 status points in total but that's not bad I guess.'
After that quick task I ordered magic girl and buff boy to raise my palanquin. While #1 made quick work of the gorging caterpillars, I was back to having nothing to do. I would occasionally take naps at this time but I felt like being productive, so I raised my hands and began practicing Curse Magic.
Though many types of magic were rare skills, they were classified by magic users based on the potential of the magic. In other words, how many levels the magic skill could have. Ten levels for advanced magic, five for standard and one for basic magic. Curse Magic was under standard rank so I could still level it up three more times, granting me two more abilities.
Since I knew that I would get a new ability once my Curse Magic levelled up I looked forward to getting it up quickly.
The explanations I had in my head were all very wordy but curses were just negative conditions that could be forced on a target. Since many curses only worked on living targets Curse Magic wasn't very effective against undead.
Curses were fueled by negative emotion and the next ability I would get was Boost Curse, but that was all I knew.
'Tch, if you're gonna learn how to curse someone at least finish what you started.'
I really wanted to just absorb someone to learn magic but that method had its own problems.
Since I was stuck, I tried using Boost Curse with my own efforts. Just as the name suggested, this ability would allow me to strengthen my curses.
The first thing I did was use Imbue Curse while setting the curse to decay. I didn't apply it to anything and only watched the murky black light surrounding my hand.
'Negative. Negative. Anger. Hate. Despair.'
I pulled dark emotions from out within me and used them to empower this curse along with my mana. The murky light showed spikes of intensity but that was all. Just like always.
"Damn it, what a shit day."
While watching my tent be built in familiar darkness, I grumbled to myself. By the time #1 finished killing the gorging caterpillars I still didn't see any hope of levelling up Curse Magic.
To make it even worse I also hit my limit with farming those stupid bugs too. Tch, and I only just broke 200 on all of my stats.
However, I had no intention of giving up on magic. When I first came to this world I was fine if I could just sleep all day but now I'm at least interested in passing the time.
The following moon I decided to head to the region where I could hunt glutton vultures with magic girl as the vanguard. When I used Revive Shadow the person would take the same amount of stats as they had before I killed them, but I parted with a little more for her since I didn't want her failing at her job.
While I was being escorted on my palanquin through the forest, I heard something coming from my left so I sharpened my sense of hearing and it was a good thing I did. What sounded like a beating drum was without a doubt something charging at us.
I hastily jumped off of my ride while trying to find out what was there with my eyes. However, despite its large size it managed to blend in with the forest so I only found it when it was one jump away from pouncing at us.
[Unnamed
Dyriadbeast
Strength: 379
Agility: 189
Dexterity: 76
Defence: 103
Skills: Forest's Blessing (Special) | Hunter's Perception (Rare)
Titles: Guardian of the Forest]
It's appearance was strange but easy to explain. It looked like a ten feet tall wolf but its flesh was replaced by plants and greenery.
'Ugh, a dyriadbeast. Why is it here? And why the hell do I have to face something like this?!'
The only thing it had above me was strength but it would still prove to be a troublesome opponent since it continually regenerated in the forest, making it almost immortal.
"This is nothing but trouble."
While I would prefer if I could just watch my servants battle this thing, none of them would be skilled enough to beat it on their own and this wasn't an opponent that their teamwork would be a match for. As the dyriadbeast was just a couple metres away, I quickly absorbed everyone but magic girl and shouted.
"Fire!"
The bolt of flame that shot from her palms were unlike any flames normally seen in nature. It was a spell that required focus so it could only be used after proper preparation, but the white flame that was created with the Boost Fire ability of Fire Magic was hot enough to melt iron in seconds.
Once the spell was released, the heat filled the air and I was glad I couldn't feel it, but I quickly covered myself with mana to reduce the effects. It would be no joke if I let my servant's spell accidentally kill me.
"Yeah! Burn it!"
"Kiiiiii!!!!!"
As the ball of fierce white hit the dyriadbeast, it released a strange screech while stumbling and rolling on the ground. It was a little surprising that not even this white blaze could burn the forest but that was only worth brief relief. As I watched the monster's screams die down, I hoped that its health was reaching the danger zone but I knew it wouldn't be this easy.
"Guruggg!!!"
The dyriadbeast eventually stopped rolling and shakily got back on its feet. The black spots that marked it like polka dots quickly disappeared as it regrew the parts that were lost.
'As I thought. Looks like a little more experimentation is needed.'
I picked up my sword and equally shared my magic limit between me and magic girl.
"Use Boost Fire: Barrage, to support me."
"Yes, master."
Well then, I guess I better get to work.