The surrounding forest was not too different from the woodlands of earth, with tall thin trees that seemed to reach the skies and a more or less level ground that spanned out into the distance.
The trees barely had any leaves on their branches, as most of them had fallen to the ground, creating a sort of orange carpet that completely hid the soil underneath.
Indeed it was much like walking in one of the woodlands of his numerous estates, however, the similarities ended there.
Where the sounds of birds chirping or the water from a stream flowing should've filled the air there was instead a constant agonized wail. It was a ghastly sound that gave the otherwise beautiful forest an eerie atmosphere.
It didn't help that the sky was overcast, with unnaturally dark clouds absorbing much of the light that should've fallen to the ground.
~A world of magic, huh?~ Edric thought to himself, trying to ignore the eerie nature of the forest.
It seemed to him that whatever area they had been in before was not directly connected to this forest, otherwise, Edrea would've been here with him.
~So I'm alone,~ he realized, inspecting his body for the first time.
Everything had happened so fast that he hadn't even noticed that most of his body was covered in magenta-coloured scales, much like a reptile. The only exceptions were his hands, feet, face and head.
~Am I a lizard?~ he wondered, before turning around quickly, half expecting to see a tail. However, to his delight, he found nothing.
~It wouldn't be too far-fetched for me to be a lizard creature, after all that girl seemed to be sort of cat hybrid. Perhaps this is what Greed considers to be the perfect vessel,~ Edric thought to himself, before crouching down to the ground.
~Let's see what kind of body I'm dealing with,~ he thought to himself, before clenching his leg muscles to their limits and launching off the ground.
The air whipped against his face as he scaled a height of 6 meters in mere seconds.
However, when he reached the peak of his ascent, he realized that he hadn't put much thought into the landing. And so he began plumitting the ground.
Falling from this height would've been enough to considerably injure a human and potentially kill them, so regardless of what his race was he was sure the impact was going to hurt.
However as his body slammed into the ground, and a gust of wind and dust was sent out all around him, he felt nothing. His legs had completely absorbed the fall, with not a single scratch or tendon tear.
~Hmm, so it seems I've surpassed what normal humans can endure... well what Earth humans can endure at least. I can't speak for the inhabitants of Merrum,~ he thought to himself, before clenching his fist.
~Then how powerful are one of my punches,~ he thought to himself, before ramming his fist into a nearby tree, full force.
The tree burst into splinters at impact, and though this particular tree was rather dry to begin with, it was still quite an impressive feat.
~And as for speed?~ he thought before starting a light jog. Once he was comfortable with that, he began to increase his speed, before eventually breaking out into a full-blown sprint.
The wind rushed against his body, and the trees all around him became nothing but quickly passing blurs. Even then, he felt like he could still go a little faster, however increasing his speed would put him at risk of running into one of the trees. And though his body seemed quite impervious, he didn't want to test those limits in such a foreign environment.
~Good, so along with this knife, I'll probably be able to defend myself to some degree,~ he thought to himself as he came to a halt, noticing that he didn't seem at all out of breath.
~Now time for the true test,~ he thought to himself, before taking a deep breath.
"Billow," he whispered, and with that, a cloud of glittering magenta-coloured smoke streamed out of his mouth. It felt like he was suffocating, as if all the air was being squeezed out of him.
"Wait, stop," he strained to say, feeling that he would soon pass out if the sensation didn't stop.
And just then, the smoke stopped streaming from his mouth. At this point, his entire body was surrounded by a sparkling magenta cloud.
~This is odd,~ he thought to himself, noticing what seemed like playing cards floating within the smoke.
They all seemed blurry at first but once he focused on a single one, it became more detailed.
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『Resource card』
[Employee slots: 1]
[Influence points: 1]
[System Currency: 1]
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~Resource card, huh? How nice of them to give me something to start with,~ he thought to himself sarcastically, before focusing on another card. With that, the resource card turned into a blurred smoke cloud once again.
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『Structure Card』
[Research Centre {lvl.1}]
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~Research Centre?~ With that thought, another card appeared alongside the structure card.
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『Research Centre {lvl.1}』
[Description: Promotes employees, allowing them to take on more complex tasks within their fields.]
[Cost: 15 System Currency
: Natural Resources quoted by 『Builder Employee』]
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~So this Conglomerate system literally allows me to create businesses, huh? Or at least that's how it looks. Perhaps this will be an easier task than I thought,~ he thought to himself, before focusing on yet another card.
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『Employee Card』
[Builder {lvl.1}]
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Instantly he focused on the Builder option, and as expected another card appeared alongside it.
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『Builder {lvl.1}』
[Description: A summoned employee that can create structures.]
[Cost: 1 Influence points
: System currency depending on intensity of labour]
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~Hmm, they've set it up so that I can summon this thing right now. The only problem is that I don't have enough System currency for it to build anything. I'd rather not waste my only influence point before I have everything I need,~ he thought to himself, before focusing on the last card in the cloud of smoke.
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『Business Aims』
[Convert at least 20 inhabitants to the deity of Greed and Wealth within the next month
Time remaining: {29:12:23}]
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~What? This was never part of the deal,~ Edric thought to himself as he watched the timer go down.