My sword gave off an ominous aura as I headed towards the Dark Willow closest to me. The speed that I traveled at was way quicker than before due to Othidas’ complete assimilation into my consciousness, and when I swung my sword it felt a thousand times easier as well.
Once I reached the 20 meter mark, the monster started swinging its poison tipped branches at me like a whip, attempting to entangle me in its grip. With ease, I evaded the attack and this time there were no faults as I zipped across the terrain getting ever closer. I didn’t even have to think when the Dark Willow launched another branch attack since my arms moved by themselves. Maneuvering my sword with expert control to clash against the thick branches of the monster.
CLANG!
The tree branches were harder than I thought since they took a bit of strength to completely chop off, so my sword rang against the tough material several dozens of times. I still moved forward relentlessly, blocking or dodging every attack that came my way. I felt a tinge of excitement which took me by surprise, it seems my emotions have come back after disappearing for some time but that was probably only due to Othidas.
“Be grateful, it’s not everyday two consiconsess and all their experiences get to merge together,” Othidas grunted. “Especially with someone as strong as me that has knowledge greater than one can imagine!”
“Ok! I get it, let’s just continue the fight,” I said as my heart skipped a beat. A branch almost landed a strike on me because I had lost focus for a second!
I examined the Dark Willow’s stats to see how strong it really was. It might not be as strong as one of the Generals of Bugat’s army, but they were still relatively strong. Even though I was suppressing the strength of my sword for training sake, the toughness of the monster was about equal. I was mystified, who knew the difference between individual strength of the Human Realm and Demon Realm was this large!
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{Dark Willow}
[Title] Monster
[Power Level] 367
[Threat] Tiny
* Can manipulate its branches that are coated in poison at will
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With a power level of 367, it posed little or no threat to me considering my power level was more than 10 times that at 3750. I could wipe out this little weakling in a few seconds but for the sake of connecting with Othidas more, I decided to continue suppressing my power and rely on pure technique alone, aquired through both my skills and Othidas’ knowledge.
Now, I was within a 10 meter range of the tree and I could literally smell the poison coated on the thick branches. I wasn’t that surprised when upon closer inspection, saw the sheer size of the Dark Willow, needing at least 10 people holding hands just to surround the trunk of the tree. Willow trees were naturally huge after all and a willow tree in the demon realm that mutated would definitely be bigger.
Suddenly, a few hundred branches appeared in front of me which blocked my path towards its trunk. They rushed one after another in an attempt to impale me and stop my approach, but using each other’s skills and knowledge to the maximum, we were going to make it out unscathed.
Instead of stopping to fight, my enhanced decision making skills showed its worth and I conjured a darkness barrier around my body instead and continued charging forward without being hit.
My darkness barrier was basically impenetrable by normal things such as branches, even if they were harder than normal. How could such a high level energy be possibly broken by a monster as weak as this one? But I was kind of disappointed I had to rely on darkness energy yet again, what if there was a skill in the future that binded darkness or chaos energy and I had no other ways to defend myself? Now that would truly be unfortunate and I would strongly regret not cultivating my other skills and strengths back when I could have.
I was 3 meters away from the base of the tree now. As a last attempt, the dark willow positioned every single one of its branches to block my unstoppable approach but alas it was all futile. I thrust forward with my sword, propelling forward while putting my whole body weight into the attack. I could almost feel the despair coming from the monster that was about to be impaled. Before the battle, Othidas had clearly told me of the spot to attack on the tree. It was an area dimly shrouded in red light on the trunk and striking that spot would one shot the creature. Finally, after breaking through the numerous branches that threw themselves in front of me, my attack that I had put my whole body weight into striked that vital point.
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With a hissing noise, the branches went still and all movements ceased. The tree monster was finally dead, with my darkness sword sticking of the trunk like an arrow hitting a bullseye.
“Phew, that took a bit of work,” I exclaimed, sitting down on the ground to rest myself. “My mind was really worked there, especially when there was a voice in your head clashing against you over your decisions.”
“It was only one or two times!” Othidas argued enthusiastically. “We could’ve won way quicker if you had listened to me!”
“I guess there will always be problems even if we are more connected now,” I sighed. When one problem was solved another one would appear, it was really annoying and starting to get on my nerves...if only I had a vacation where I could just relax and tour the realms. “Hey Othidas, would it be possible to change my appearance to visit the human realm?”
“Well, it certainly would be possible since the demon scent coming from me has completely disappeared and you give off no scent at all,” Othidas thought out loud. “But that would be very boring wouldn’t it? Conquering humans instead of living among them is more of my thing after all.”
After merging my mind with Othidas’, his hatred towards humans was quenched a bit and we were beginning to show signs of friendship and cooperation instead of aggression and indifference in order to insure our own survival. I think it wouldn’t be too far fetched to consider Othidas as my close partner from now on, we can basically read each other’s minds now.
“I think living among humans wouldn’t be so bad, I need a vacation after all,” I told Othidas. No one knew that I had reincarnated in a new world and I wasn’t about to reveal that information to anyone, but a piece of myself that really missed Earth and the lifestyle I had back there came back after my emotions were returned to me. That’s why I had this sudden urge to experience life in a city again, even if it wasn’t as modern as Earth.
“Even if I argued, you wouldn’t care since you control our body anyways,” Othidas huffed with signs of disappointment. After some time, Othidas finally gave in with a sigh. “Ok fine, we can go visit a kingdom in the human realm for a few days.”
“Thanks,” I said happily as I grinned. “You’re such a great friend!”
“Who said I was your fri-”
“Let’s train a little more before departing for the Southern Kingdom,” I interrupted. I felt revitalized due to the satisfying turn of events and was itching to kill a few more monsters before departing. “I see a few more Dark Willows in the distance, let’s go!”
“You sure are happy aren’t you kid,” Othidas said. “Also, I’m not your friend!”
“Whatever you say,” I joked.
Next, we proceeded to clear out all the Dark Willows in the surroundings to train our synchronization more for a few hours. I was sweating when we were done since there were thousands in that wasteland, so even if they were weak they still took energy to kill. Othidas informed me that I should probably explain to Bugat my vacation so he wouldn’t be worried about where I went off to, so that’s what I decided to do next. Remembering the way back to Bugat’s castle, I rushed back to report the news about Bugat’s grandfather and my vacation.
Walking through the familiar black and red gates, the monsters on guard addressed me politely and opened the doors before I could place my hand on the handle. Being respected sure feels great! I should get some human subordinates next time, not just monsters because they’re kind of bland. Hm, I think I’ll have time to do that during my vacation—if only I didn’t have to leave Chyian.
As I walked through the halls towards the throne room, I asked Othidas a question out of curiosity. “If I manage to bribe the upper echelon of the Southern Kingdom to hold a competition for me, would that take too much time out of my vacation?”
“What kind of competition?” Othidas asked.
“A competition to decide who can become my subordinate, but I won’t be showing my face till the end where a winner is chosen,” I specified eagerly.
“If it’s efficient, it’ll probably take a day or two at the most,” Othidas assured. “But you’ll need an incentive to get people to participate.”
“I’ll think of that later,” I said, tossing that matter to the side. “Let’s get this report over with so I can go on vacation!”
Walking leisurely down the halls, I made sure to conceal my power this time so the pressure wouldn’t be overwhelming or even noticeable to Bugat. I was going to tell Bugat about Othidas and me anyways, but I didn’t want any possible misunderstandings to occur before I explained the situation. That’s why when I walked up to a snoring Bugat, I appeared the same as when I had left the castle.
“Bugat you there?” I whispered in his ear.
For some reason, Bugat’s first reaction to that was a reflexive slap towards his assaulter. So basically, he tried to slap me for waking him up. Sadly, it landed and my face ended up with a red handprint imprinted on its skin.
“Oh sorry Dark Orchid!” Bugat apologized quickly. “I didn't know it was you…”
“You slap whoever wakes you up?” I questioned suspiciously. “That’s-”
“FORGET IT!” Bugat yelled, clearly embarrassed. “Just give me your report!”