And the days passed like this; I treat Enkidu well, but he is still afraid. The Little Spirit also plays with him, and indeed, Enkidu seems saddened by it. Enkidu is truly strong, even challenging Basilisks. A good ally physically, but mentally troubled.
'Pathetic.'
Enkidu came to me, saying he was hungry. I brought him some raw meat, and he ate. I think Wyvern blood is somewhat dominant. I looked at my hands and now feel I am at the limit of gaining strength. It's not pleasant, but physically, further enhancement seems impossible.
It would be nice if I could find those ability stones, but it's probably difficult. The chance of finding them is very low... Did I check the corpse of the Naga King?
I got up and went to where the Naga King's body was. I planned to use it along with its spirit, but the plans changed a bit when I noticed someone had already destroyed the soul of that person. When I looked at that person, they avoided eye contact.
'Anyway.'
I turned my head back and examined the body. I felt something firm and a bit rough, pulled it out, and indeed found it! What were the odds? For God's sake.
I examined the stone but then threw it away, for God's sake. Who would want a tail like a human's? But it does provide a nice enhancement...
"Damn... It's really a tough decision," I muttered as the old Naga from earlier came. "My king, it seems you've finally decided to perform the King Seronomis."
I stared at him, not understanding. He explained, and I understood that the stone transfers to the next Naga King after the current one. So, the chances of obtaining it were certain...
"If you eat this, you will seriously strengthen. I know!! But I can't give up my humanity for strength... Wait a minute, I've been without humanity for a long time. Right, then I can eat it."
And without much thought, I ate it. I collapsed to the ground and writhed in pain. I looked at the old Naga, and shortly after, he left the room. My mind blurred and faded.
"When I woke up, this place was in ruins, and I lifted the debris on top of me. Naked and saw the Little Spirit sitting on me. "Can you tell me what happened?"
I asked, and it drew something on the ground, explaining the situation to me. I think a group of adventurers attacked and destroyed us while I was unconscious. The Little Spirit used my mushrooms to save some people's souls and gradually transferred them to me during this process.
"Hmm? Why is there only one angelic soul here?"
It shook its head as if it didn't know, and I didn't dwell on it too much. I looked at my hands and didn't feel much stronger. As I tried to stand, I felt a force pulling me down, and when I looked back, I saw a tail similar to a Naga's tail.
"Weird... And I see the surroundings even more clearly."
But why do I have a tail now? I mean, the tails of snakes are actually legs. Well, I guess it's not something to question too much. But my tail is pulling me back...
I try to feel my tail, and strangely, I have good control. The tail is about 80 cm and quite thick. I have a tail like dragons that transform into human form, although that usually happens in anime.
'Well, anyway.'
"Little Spirit, can you sense mana in me?" It shook its head, apparently, mana doesn't like me at all. Well, I can't say I like it either.
"So... Are there other souls?" I looked at the souls hidden in the mushroom: one angel, one half-naga half-wyvern, one Basilisk, and three Naga souls.
'Hmm... Hey, don't you have a soul?" I asked, and after tilting its head for a while, it eventually nodded, meaning yes.
"Should I merge these with you?" It looked at me in disbelief, retreated a bit, and quickly waved its hands left and right. I don't have the strength to resist. Maybe this kind of thing isn't so good for living beings. After all, I don't know the drawbacks of this situation yet.
"Btw, where are the corpses?" she lowered her head, and through thought transfer, I understood what a foolish question it was, meat for free. Which idiotic monster wouldn't take those meats? And one of them was angel meat...
But do I have any other options? Well, probably not. I'd sell my soul to get stronger, not sure how heavy it could be for an angelic soul... It could be bad if my soul becomes stronger.
I took about 1/1000th of the angel's soul and merged it with my own soul!
"...Huh?" My arm broke, and my joints cracked, snapped, and popped. I tried to endure, but I couldn't, so I bit a rock. Minutes later, it was over, and instead of getting stronger where I needed to, I became even weaker! My head hurts, and I hear some strange sounds.
"I guess this arm is unusable now..." Yes, my arm is now unusable. All the bones in my right arm intertwined, creating a distorted appearance.
"Burn my arm." The Little Spirit hesitated after hearing this and initially didn't want to do it. But minutes later, to burn me less, it reduced and cast a fire spell. A tiny, light-like thing pierced and severed my arm. Half of the Little Spirit's mana was depleted, and my pain almost immediately subsided.
"I guess it's a crappy way to get stronger."
I sighed and absorbed the life energy from my arm, then placed a mushroom on the burned part of my arm.
"How much life energy do you think it takes to heal this?"
After contemplating for a while, she answered, "300? Probably around 500. So, what should the loser do?" she grinned slyly and responded, "... You're a pervert, you know that, right?" she held her hands up as if to say, "What can I do~," and continued, "Externally, you appear female, but do you really want a naked girl photo?"
A lesbian Little Spirit, how delightful. "Hey, where are you thinking of finding those kinds of photos?" she looked at me for a moment and then slapped her face with her hand.
I don't know how much time has passed, nor do I know how much I've strengthened. But I've gotten used to it here; I occasionally use the mushrooms and merge some souls with myself. Even though I've become physically stronger, my mana level isn't increasing. I guess I should ask the devil next time, although questioning how much I can trust that guy is debatable.
"Little Spirit, I'm bored." she looked at me and sighed. she created a 3x3 grid with a small fire, and we started playing tic-tac-toe. After approximately 528 rounds, both of us got bored.
There isn't much to do here other than getting stronger and surviving. I wish I had some of those systems too. This useless book isn't the reason. But why does it even exist? Besides showing abilities, it doesn't seem to serve much purpose.
"I'm bored..." I climbed down from Drake and went outside to look around. There are a total of 5 drakes and 3 wyverns. Even if I wanted more.
'Well, willpower doesn't develop that easily.'
Considering that I'm human -partially-, this is probably my limit. Or maybe not, understanding is difficult already. So, it's better to let it be if it's empty. I have more important things to deal with right now.
Yes, as far as I've learned from the Little Spirit, it's been a really long time since I was summoned here. So, I don't have much time left, and predicting when the battle will happen is difficult. It will definitely be different from normal.
Let's consider the ways I strengthen. It can be said that there are two. Temporary and permanent. Temporarily, I capture creatures with strengthening mushrooms. Permanently, I develop myself and the Little Spirit. Although I currently consider myself good in terms of raw power, I can't use mana. But the Little Spirit can.
So, it makes sense to strengthen her. I'm already doing that!
"Did you learn dragon breath from the wyvern?" I asked, and she nodded. Even if she hasn't fully mastered it, he has learned to some extent. The Little Spirit's mana level is currently at the developmental limit... It's difficult to make a comparison, but probably... it's a quarter of a great wizard. Well, even if he has a lot of mana, we both don't know how to use it.
The Little Spirit occasionally takes magic lessons from drakes and wyverns. And it really works; the efficiency of using mana is increasing quite a bit.
"Hmm..." The reason I used to not use a sword was that my physical strength wasn't enough, so I learned martial arts. But I got stuck in that too; no matter what I do, I can't seem to progress. I guess I really don't have a bone structure similar to the humans in this world. Even our blood flow rates make a difference.
"So, I lack talent in martial arts."
Well, what if I learned to use a sword? It's possible, but it can't be said that it matches my current fighting style. Yes, using a sword would be difficult for me. But trying won't hurt, though there's no one who could teach me sword mastery.
"After learning from the celestial sword saint's soul, if I were to fight against the demonic sect... Heh, cultivation series are really always like this."
And about 7 hours later, I arrived at the place where the boss of a distant dungeon lived. This dungeon is actually a peculiar one, the Arachne dungeon. As the name suggests, they are a half-human, half-spider species. They are powerful, but since they are spiders, they hunt by setting traps.
And the reason I came here is not to hunt them. No, no, the reason I came here is to make a temporary deal with them. In other words, I'm going to do mercenary work. This dungeon is in a war with a sea creature dungeon. So, I'll stay on their side with money. And the thing passing as money here is monster cores!
Hmm... What was that name... Sahugin? No, no, it wasn't that. Well, it doesn't matter; I guess, in appearance, it was a creature with a lanternfish-headed human body... "Or something like that."
Although how these two different species are fighting each other is even more interesting. I mean, in the end, imagine, Arachnes set more traps. They don't actively hunt. Sahugins, on the other hand, are direct sea creatures! I wonder if something I don't know happened in the north of this place? Or is happening...?
Or... is it a kind of regional change? I mean, how should I put it? If a high-level hunter forces most creatures to change regions? But that can't be; both species can't live where the other's dungeon is. What if Arachnes want to enslave Sahugins? That could be. Lost in thought, I suddenly found myself covered in webs.
I must admit, they are really good at this trap thing. They could probably catch even an adult Wyvern. Two Arachnes came to me, and the Little Spirit melted the webs in my mouth.
"I've come to make a deal with your queen." At first, they didn't believe me and asked questions.
"What's the reason for talking?" Like a hunter who caught its prey, one of them brought her hand over me, and they took me to their nests.
"In the... What was the name... I will participate as a mercenary in the war against the Sahugin dungeon."
"It's pronounced Sahuagin. Then we'll present you to our queen; the journey might take a bit." While saying these, my body was still wrapped in webs. Although I don't really care; the only spider I can see here is about 2.30 meters tall female figures. Well, their lower bodies and hands, eyes, and mouths are spiders. But occasionally, I see spiders about 20 cm tall.
"What about those spiders over there?" I pointed with my eyes to the spiders, significantly smaller than those girls.
"Hmm? Them? Those are male Arachnes."
Ah, I see. So, normal. After all, in most spiders, the method is like this. But since their sizes are larger, they probably don't need to give birth to many offspring...
Let's not dwell on it too much; after all, I don't know much about live anatomy and similar things. And after about a 10-minute long journey. -The Arachnes' territory is indeed vast-
I stood before the Arachne Queen. Well, I must admit. The queen is quite erotic. 10 out of 10. But her claws are too sharp,
'Ighhh... A shiver went down my spine.'
The queen finally looked at me and didn't say much, after about 10 seconds of scanning me... She spoke, I must admit. There's such a bad voice behind that beautiful body.
'It's an Arachne, what do you expect.'
"You, human, are going to fight on my side as a mercenary. Is that right..? And why do you seem disappointed..." she asked these while her hands were on my chin. Fuck, I think I got an erection.
"Yes, my queen. But I'm not on the human side." She examined me a bit, tore my webs, and saw some changes in my body.
"Yes, your body is not very human-like... So, how many soldiers do you want, and what is your reward?" After gently bringing her hands to my crotch and withdrawing them, she turned back to her throne as if making a deal and waited for me to recover.
"Yes... a total of 4 drakes and 2 wyverns. As a reward, I request 8% of the mana cores taken from the enemies." It might be a bit risky, but it's worth trying. 4 drakes and 2 wyverns make for a formidable force.
"6%, no more. And I want to see this army of yours." Okay, fine...
"What are you waiting for?" she asked,
"Where is the mana contract?" This is really crucial; I need assurance that she won't betray me.
-The queen smiled slyly-
I tilted my head, 'Hah?'
"Mana contract? Is there anything more reliable than the words of a queen~" ... You bastard! Fucking son of a bitch... But I can't do anything, fuck. Betrayal is certain, and I'm powerless.
I'm the only one here, and I'm in the territory of an Arachne Queen. And I want to see the end of this round. Fuck, I have no choice but to accept. "... You're right, my queen, there's nothing more reliable than your word." I swear she read my thoughts. And since the agreement remained only verbal, nothing much happened, and then I saw the soldiers. Now, I'll wait for about a week and then go into battle.
A week passed quickly, and I quickly synergized with the Arachne soldiers and gathered information about the enemy, the location of the battle, and other relevant details.
'I'm going to come out profitable from this fucking war!'