Chapter 14: Level up
“…urg…” Saigo rubbed his head as he sat up.
“Wha…” At that moment, pain struck and he let out a small groan.
Within him, his magic stone darkened and cracked.
“AAAARRRRRRHHHHH!!!” Saigo roared out in pain.
His porcelain white skin darkened and shrivelled up.
“Ma…mana deficiency?!?!” Saigo spat out.
“SHIT!!!” He hurriedly looked around. “I just need something to eat…”
Right in front of him is the corpse of the metal gear tiger…
“Desperate times calls for drastic measures.” Without hesitation, Saigo struggled to his feet and limped towards the corpse.
He opened his mouth wide and chomped down on the corpse.
“This is…” when the meat of the metal gear tiger entered his mouth, it dissipated.
“Since it's made of mana, I can't eat it?!?!” Saigo cried out as his body continued to shrivel.
He hurriedly took another bite, and the result is the same.
“SHIT!!!” Saigo hurriedly looked around once more for other alternatives.
“There are no others…and the entrance is still quite a distance away…”
“FUCK THIS!!! Like hell I will die like this!!!” Saigo screamed.
“If I remember correctly, Lucas was able to transfer mana to Shiina using his blood… mana with a user, by itself, cannot be cannot be ingested or absorbed…I can only eat the flesh of the metal gear tiger by charging it into something edible…”
Saigo looked at his shrivelled and frail looking arm.
He plunged his arm into the flesh of the metal gear tiger.
After a moment, he took out his arm and to his surprise, although it was still shrivelled, the skin on his arm had regained a bit of its original colour.
After hesitating for a moment, he took a bite from his own arm.
Blood flowed like a river down his throat. Upon receiving the mana, his muscles cried in joy and absorbed without restraint, regaining a bit of their original colour while continuing to provide energy to his dry magic stone.
“This works!” Saigo exclaimed. He could feel that his body rate of drying up is getting slightly slower.
“But not fast enough!” He slowly got up on his feet.
“I don't know if there is any side effects but…” Without any further hesitation, he threw himself into the metal gear tiger's corpse.
His skin recovered at a fast rate and his weakened muscles slowly strengthened.
“Why… is my magic stone still breaking apart?!?!” Saigo exclaimed.
Although his body was healing, providing energy for his magic stone, his magic stone still continued to dim, albeit slowly.
“Can it be… my magic stone is still not receiving enough mana? To give it more maybe I should…” Saigo raised his hand and prepared to pierce his own chest.
“With my recover ability, I should be able to live through this one small stab… right?” Saigo hesitated.
“Wait… recovery?” Just then, an idea sprung to his mind.
Saigo grit his teeth and chanted. “Oh spirits of darkness. Heed my call, come and merge my body with the essence of darkness. Follow my orders for I am your lord. [ Darkness conversion].”
His skin slightly shrivelled and then turned black.
His muscles recovered great speed and within a few seconds, Saigo's body completely recovered. However, as a result of forcing a transformation, more cracks formed on his magic stone, forcing it on the verge of crumbling.
“Since my body is now technically mana…I should be able to direct the ‘raw’ mana straight to my mana stone…” Saigo hurriedly lowered himself into the metal gear tiger’s semi-transparent mana body and entered a meditative position.
“Fuu…” Saigo released a small breath and adjusted his breathing.
By forcefully entering a semi-sleep state, one is able to consciously absorb mana five times the natural pace. Using this method, Lucas had managed to keep up with most of the feeding. Although Lord Gamberdash knew of this method, as it doesn't help with recovery of mental strength, he neglected teaching this to Shiina so as to have him rest properly for the next lesson. Therefore, the mana recovery method Saigo is using is the one Lucas thought to Shiina.
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Streams of mana from the metal gear tiger flowed straight through Saigo's body and poured into his mana stone, slowly putting it back together.
[Lord’s EX-skill proficiency has reached a certain point. Darkness-attribute EX-skill {devour} is obtained. Lord’s assimilation with the world has increased from 5% to 15
%. Ability to control darkness increased.]
A voice rang out throughout Saigo's mind.
Saigo's translucent black skin darkened and revealed a more pure shade of black.
After obtaining EX-skill [devour], Saigo's speed of absorption increased by ten times and within a few seconds, Saigo's magic stone has completely recovered and shone with a deep black light.
“This is…” Saigo opened his eyes and looked at himself in shock.
He stood up and revealed a small grin.
“A new skill… let’s test it out!” Saigo aimed his hand and the remaining mana of the metal gear tiger.
“Swallow everything, [Devour]!” Following a incantation that appeared in his mind, Saigo chanted.
A small black mana tornado appeared on his left palm.
“…Hm?” Nothing happened.
“What?” Saigo gave his hand a small shake.
“It’s not working?” Confused, he lifted his left hand and touched it with his right…
His fingers started disintegrating and entered the black hole.
At the same time, his fingers started regenerating.
“SHIT!!!” Saigo hurriedly pulled his right hand away from the tornado.
“So… I need to be in contact for this skill to work…” Saigo calmly regenerated his fingers and placed his left hand on the metal gear tiger's corpse.
“Once more…Swallow everything,[devour]”
The metal gear tiger turned into purple light particles and entered Saigo's hand.
The purple light particles ‘struggled’ as they approached his magic stone, but to no avail. They turned black after approaching close to the magic stone and smoothly entered it.
“Ha….” Saigo released a small breath as he stood up.
He revealed a wide smile as he pumped his fist into the air.
“YYYYEEEESSSS!!! I FINALLY GOT A REAL CHEAT SKILL!!!” Saigo cheered.
“Screw [create dagger], [devour] is the real cheat skill! If I can devour all of my opponent’s mana, won't they just be a walking targets?” Saigo laughed as he released his Lord mode.
“After absorbing all of the metal gear tiger's mana, I should be able to stay here for a month without eating.” He faced the direction of the living quarters and grinned.
“Status.”
Status
Name: Saigo Masamune (Shiina Motoyu)
Race: Dark horned ogre
Level:8
Magic amplitude: Supreme dark magic talent
Middle elemental magic talent
Magic capacity: middle tier(normal)
Top tier(Lord of element mode)
Skills: Supreme tier Dark magic, Middle tier Water magic, Middle tier Fire magic, Middle tier Wind magic, Middle tier Earth magic, Unique skill: dagger creation, Darkness conversion:Ex-skill(s): devour
Title: The one who rules darkness, the possessed, hero
Lord’s assimilation with the world: 15%
Average physical Attack:180/(360)
Average magic Attack:200/(400)
Average physical resistance: 180/(Not applicable))
Average magic resistance: 200/(400)
“For now I need to get use to my new stats…” Saigo grinned as his body flickered, appearing in the living quarters 10 metres away.
“Training… part 2!”
… …
One month later.
Saigo took a deep breath as he took a step out of the cave.
“Ah~ the first sunlight i’ve seen since awakening in this world… so what should I do now?”
Saigo closed his eyes and entered a deep thought. After a while, he opened his eyes with a resolute look.
“I should focus on levelling up to around level 20 before leaving this forest. After that maybe I should try joining the demon emperor’s army…from there maybe I can become the hero of demon continent.” Saigo chuckled.
“As for the Gamberdash family…screw them. If I have the chance… I will kill them in the future. The sin for messing around with my body is huge…” killing intent welled up in his eyes.
“But for now, it's time to grind levels!”
Saigo snapped out of his trance and entered the forest.
After walking for 10 minutes, a unicorn-like demon beast appeared before Saigo.
“Oh? A drill-horned unicorn, a D-ranked demonic beast. The metal gear tiger was C-ranked and now this is D-ranked… can I win?”
The Demon beast ranking is G,F,E,D,C,B,A,S,SS,SSS with G as the weakest and SSS as the strongest. A mere G-ranked demon beast is one which requires at least 2 normal adults to work together to defeat. When the demon beast increase in rank, it will will require 2 people of the previous rank to barely kill it or 1 person of the same rank to kill it.
On the same subject, adventurers are ranked in the same way from G to SSS. Demon beast and adventures with rankings of SS or SSS, although few in numbers, are true blue monsters who are rarely seen.
“I’ve won against the metal gear tiger with luck…but maybe I can beat this one.” Saigo's blue-eyes glowed as he chanted.
“[darkness conversion]” Saigo's body turned translucent black.
After training for a month, although Saigo had made no progress with [create dagger], he had managed to learn how to use [darkness conversion] without chant. In the process, his percentage of assimilation with the world had increased from 15% to 20%.
“Here I go!!!” Saigo took a mighty step forward and released a punch.
The drill-horned unicorn covered itself with a layer of mana, strengthening it, and charged straight towards Saigo.
The two clashed head on.
A small shockwave spread throughout the area.
Both Saigo and the drill-horned unicorn were blown backwards.
“So… a D-rank’s strength is around 400…” Saigo muttered as he shook his numb hand.
“Thanks for the information…with that, die.” Saigo raised his hand, cladded it with darkness-attribute mana, and punched out.
“[devour]” Saigo chanted and 4 tiny black tornadoes formed on his knuckles.
At the same time, the drill-horned unicorn roared as it's horn started to spin. Around it, it's mana spun, turning into a giant drill.
The two clashed.
The two are blown apart.
The two clashed.
The two are blown apart.
With each exchange, the drill-horned unicorn’s mana drill got smaller and small while Saigo's attack got stronger and stronger.
Eventually, the drill-horned unicorn’s mana is blown apart and it spat out blood.
“This is the end.[create dagger]” Saigo created a dagger with darkness-attribute mana and drove it into the drill-horned unicorn’s neck.
[Reincarnator’s experience points has reached a certain point. Reincarnator’s level increases from LV 8 to LV 9. All stats increase.]
A voice appeared in Saigo's brain as he felt his body slowly strengthening.
“Thanks for the food.” Saigo said with a smile as he started to cut the drill-horned unicorn into pieces with his darkness dagger.
“I wonder what unicorns taste like~” Saigo laughed.
At that moment…
“Shiina? Is that you?”
“Hm?” Saigo lifted his head towards the direction of the sound.
In front of him, is an floating old man.
“Marcus?” Saigo unconsciously whispered.