"By the way, what's the largest size you can transform into?"

Ogre moved swiftly through the forest, the night being the perfect time for his enhanced vision to shine.

"About the size of two average adult males," the shadow demon patiently replied.

Its soul crystal could only control that much of a body; any more would be impossible.

Unless it wanted to reproduce, it would store an excess of bodies, waiting in the immobile shells for the power of fear to gather and form another pure soul crystal.

"However, since my soul crystal is under your control, the range of bodies I can manipulate might be even smaller..." the shadow demon truthfully admitted.

Restoring a shadow demon's body could be both easy and difficult; as long as it wasn't completely destroyed, there was a chance for recovery—by dragging the life shell, whose soul had completely dissipated, into the shadow realm, the environment would mend their broken bodies.

The assimilated shadow bodies could also serve as temporary armor—if the shadow demon wasn't too eager to directly replace Ogre's body, it could still fight a few more rounds with him.

Of course, the shadow demon's armor (the host body) couldn't be too decayed, or it would lose its protective function.

Moreover, the shadow energy produced by decaying bodies would be pitifully little.

That's why the shadow demon demanded the body be intact—energy is conserved.

"How long will it take you to recover to your peak?" Ogre asked again, as this was quite important.

"Fully... it would take at least a human week, but to recover to a combat-ready state, just three days. The rest of the body can stay in the shadow realm to recover slowly."

The shadow demon tried its best to demonstrate its value, worried that it would be destroyed if it lost its usefulness.

"That's acceptable."

With Ogre's response, the shadow demon felt relieved.

'Truly a devil in a nun's habit...'

It never thought it would one day use the term 'devil' to describe a human.

"As long as I can serve my master, it is my greatest honor," the shadow demon flattered tirelessly.

Whether it could survive depended entirely on Ogre.

Without a master or a symbiotic partner, a shadow demon would find it hard to use the shadow realm for recovery, relying only on the power of fear and the body's self-recovery to slowly replenish.

This process would be very lengthy.

In a sense, having a master or a symbiotic partner was when a shadow demon could truly show its usefulness.

They weren't creatures of the real world, after all.

To survive in the real world, they had to rely on a living body.

'Sigh... things are like this now, what will I do in the future.' To be honest, if it had any self-sufficiency, it wouldn't think of seeking help from this disaster star.

"Can you accept animal bodies?"

Ogre wasn't really asking if the shadow demon could accept them, but whether it would increase recovery time.

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"The effect would be worse," the shadow demon answered truthfully.

"That's good." Ogre picked up a few stones from the ground.

He tossed them lightly in his hand.

After confirming the weight, Ogre gripped the stones tightly with three fingers.

Twisting his waist, he swung his arm!

Whoosh—!

"Squawk—!" The stone flew through the air, and a demon crow fell with a thud.

Ogre walked over and picked it up.

"This should work." Ogre remembered that crow-type demon beasts were much smarter than other birds and fish.

The smarter the creature, the better the effect should be, especially when freshly killed.

'Should've brought the werewolf corpse...' Ogre sighed inwardly.

He was tempted to just crush this shadow demon.

"It works! Thank you, Master!" The shadow demon turned into a wisp of black mist and entered the demon crow's body—making the recently deceased crow's eyes light up again.

In no time, it flapped its wings and took flight.

'Alright, it can actually fly, that's somewhat useful.' Ogre thought to himself.

"I remember those powerful shadow demons can live under the sun, can you?" Ogre suddenly asked.

Shadow demon: "..."

'If I were that strong, I'd have killed you already.'

The shadow demon silently cursed in its heart, then controlled the crow to land on Ogre's shoulder, respectfully saying, "Caw caw caw, Master, I'm just an ordinary little shadow demon. The kind of shadow demon you're talking about corresponds to the lord level, which is equivalent to a senior professional in human terms..."

Its words were already very tactful.

"I see, just try to stay in crow form from now on." Ogre didn't have high expectations for the shadow demon, just asked casually.

"By the way, let me try your Shared Vision ability." Ogre commanded.

What he valued most about the shadow demon was this ability.

"Caw... Master, I'm not fully recovered yet."

The shadow demon's Shared Vision was essentially a soul link extending its vision through the body.

The consumption wasn't much.

But given its current weakened state... it was still a bit risky.

After all, the crow was just its 'armor' for now, preventing further degradation, but to recover, it needed to return to the shadow realm.

The remaining power was needed to return to the shadow world.

Mainly because Ogre had electrocuted it so badly before, almost destroying its body.

"Still need recovery, alright." Ogre was always lenient with valuable things.

If his plan could include the shadow demon crow for reconnaissance, it would make things much easier.

In some aspects, the shadow demon was still quite important.

"From now on, you'll be called Night Crow." Ogre casually gave the shadow demon a utilitarian name.

"Thank you for the name, Master. As expected of Master, even the name you give is so..."

"Shut up."

Ogre rubbed his temples, interrupting Night Crow's flattery. It had been a long time since he was so annoyed by noise—he found it a bit irritating.

"In the future, say fewer unnecessary words."

Night Crow (shadow demon): "..."

...

"Can you control insects?" Ogre looked at an insect nest and asked—if it could control ants and insects, that would be interesting.

'If I could do that, why would I be a shadow demon...' Night Crow felt exhausted.

This master had too many ideas...

"I still can't control such fine body parts, the size of a crow is the limit for differentiated control."

Night Crow's answer left Ogre feeling a bit disappointed.

"That's really a shame..." Ogre let go of the insect nest.

These ants and insects were now worthless, not even suitable for the shadow demon to inhabit, let alone recover.

"Let's continue hunting demon crows." Ogre had already killed seven or eight demon crows.

He tied the demon crow corpses together with grass stems, waiting to be retrieved later—Night Crow's current capacity could only inhabit one demon crow at most.

"I'll help you hunt a few more."

Ogre hung the freshly killed demon crow on a branch.

The demon crows were poisonous, so few demon beasts would eat them, and Ogre wasn't worried about them being taken by some clueless creature.

The only trouble now was that the demon crows in this area were becoming scarce.

Demon crows were smart, at least compared to other demon beasts—they knew how to avoid danger.

Ogre's continuous sniping had already caused panic among the demon crows in this area.

It would be strange if they didn't fly away.

They liked carrion, but that didn't mean they wanted to become carrion themselves.

...

"What a pity..."

Ogre counted the demon crows he had hunted, finding only twenty-three in total.

"Goblins are easier to kill."

This hunting trip yielded less than Ogre had expected, but it was still enough.

"Master is truly a sharpshooter!"

Night Crow realized that Ogre wasn't against flattery, just against long-winded nonsense.

A few occasional compliments.

He could clearly feel his master's mood improving.

"You have a way with words."

Ogre thought it was a shame this guy was a shadow demon—its ability to instill fear was mediocre, but its flattery was top-notch.

Listening to it more, he actually felt his mood improving.

It wasn't as annoying anymore.

'No wonder some people with little ability can rise to power, the power of flattery is something even I can't resist...'

Ogre mused inwardly.

"Master's heart is as clear as a mirror, if everyone were as sincere as Master..."

"Alright, say less, if you keep going, I might think you're not worthy of me." Ogre joked as he took down the demon crows hanging from the branches, lightly threatening Night Crow.

"Uh..." This effectively silenced Night Crow for a moment: "Caw caw caw, I'm just speaking the truth."

"I hope you can use that nauseating charm on others." Ogre said as he took down the last demon crow.

Night Crow: "..."

It suddenly wasn't sure if this guy's mood had really improved.

Humans were hard to read.

"Alright, take these bird corpses to the shadow realm, in three days I want to see your usefulness, then I'll decide if I should help you fully recover."

Ogre piled the demon crow corpses together, signaling Night Crow to return.

"Yes, Master!" Night Crow flew down from Ogre's shoulder, landing on the pile of bird corpses, and used its last bit of power.

Tendrils of shadow extended from the tree's shadow, quickly covering the freshly dead bird corpses.

Moments later, the power of the shadow realm formed a descending passage through the shadows.

Under Ogre's watchful eye, Night Crow took the bird corpses and sank into the endless darkness.

"If it weren't for shadow erosion and shadow beasts, this could be used as a storage item..."

Ogre remembered that spatial items were originally created by truth wizards using the principle of mirror gaps.

By sending a space stone to a mirror gap or another dimension, and then using magic resonance, a fragile void passage could be opened—a Void Pocket.

Open as needed, very convenient.

But that was an outdated method of making spatial items, only some low-quality spatial items were made that way, with low cost-effectiveness.

"I wonder if the first truth wizards who discovered this phenomenon were studying shadow demons." Ogre walked to the river to wash his hands.

After stretching his back, 'she' left the forest.

"It's time to go back to sleep."