NOVEL NEXT Chapter 148
"This is taking too long. I've already fed it so much food. Just where did they all go?" I complained at nobody since Oortez wasn't even paying attention to me.
I just hope this thing doesn't have a subspace to hold its food.
To make up for my loss, I sized down the slime, reducing it to merely a tenth of its original. Sadly, the conversion wasn't that great. I only managed to raise my level thrice, and that was including a few other low level demons I had recently consumed.
Going by my natural rate of energy generation from |singularity|, I could expect t to reach level 80 in five years. Past level 80, the progress would slow to a crawl. Perhaps I would need to live for centuries to reach level 90. Of course, that was assuming I had no other sources of energy intake and the energy generation rate was constant. Then, to reach level 99, I would need at least a thousand years.
Though, fortunately, going by the system, I didn't necessarily need to reach level 99 to become a god. However, by not reaching level 99 prior, there was the possibility of becoming a weak god. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be a weak god who'd get trampled over by powerful gods out there.
Actually, there was a fast way to level 99. Simple, I had to eat away at the planetary core. If I could easily find a bunch of level 90 demons to eat, I would have done so already. However, I doubted there were many ancient demons.
That got my thinking.
Seed of Life, huh. Something doesn't seem right.
To return... I don't like that idea. I don't want to confirm my memories.
What should I do? If I'm skilled in splitting my consciousness, I could probably do it. God should be omnipotent, right? I doubt having an item and some traits would grant me omnipotence.
I gave a command.
Display results.
Lo and behold, my memories were not tampered with. No actually, the tampering was minor and I was the cause of it but it was fixed promptly. Sure, quite a few chunk of my memories were missing but that was because my soul was fragmented on its way across the world.
I'm scared to absorb Ikebas's memories... I don't know... Should I do it?
I had already decided to inherit all of her traits and abilities wherever possible. Of course, I wasn't going to inherit the negative traits and specifically |devious| but everything else was up for grabs.
Since she was level 88, even though she wasn't ascended, she held quite a high level. After consolidating and integrating those levels into me and raising my stats, my level jumped up to 82.
What it all finally came down to was this, not including my secondary core's information:
[Level 82 Celestial;
Species: Veraine;
Physical: 844/844;
<Health: 844>
<Force: 813 (enhanced)>
<Speed: 801 (enhanced)>
<Agility: 789 (enhanced)>
<Sense: 852 (enhanced)>
<Resistance: 952 (enhanced)>
Spiritual: 277/921;
<Mana: 277>
<Mass: 915 (enhanced)>
<Mastery: 902 (enhanced)>
<Detection: 820 (enhanced)>
<Luck: 821 (enhanced)>
Traits: Bewitching, Cautious Tactician, Demon Slayer, Multiple Existences, Creator, Enhancements, Singularity, Limit Breaker;
Blessings: Enchanted Fate, Forced Destiny;
Description: A divine being.]
For some reason, I couldn't inherit the most important trait, |god slayer|. It might have to do with me refusing to inherit her memories.
Most of the useful traits and abilities from the fungi demon and Ikebas were transplanted onto myself. Also, there was this new |demon slayer| trait that was obtained after I absorbed most of Mitasan's body. Frankly, I found this trait to be completely useless on me since demons weren't a threat to me. Though if it was a demon god, that'd be a different story.
Over the past few months, I had gained more abilities and traits than I'd care to remember. Most of them had became obsolete or combined into generalized abilities and traits.
"... Hungry... Food..." A barely audible voice echoed the laboratory.
Noticing the warped and muddled face on that slime, I teleported over some leftovers scraps from the kitchen and dumped them into the tank.
Slurp.
Slurp...
Munch...
Crunch.
Seeing how fast it was eating, I threw in some more food. Before long, I ran out of edible food. I was going to throw in some plant fertilizers but decided against the idea.
"...More..."
"Mitasan, take a humanoid form or I won't feed you anymore."
"Fine..."
That blob of slime that was shapeless, in merely a minute, became... Me? Or rather, a degraded version of me since it seemed unable to perfectly copy my appearance.
"Now give food. I'm hungry."
Wow... She can talk properly! Oh right, she used to be a devil, same as a fey being.
The next second, she melted a hole in the container and walked out. When she was serious, her corrosive power rose to another level. These containers should be resistant which prevented her from escaping but to think she melted it that easily. It kind of caught me in a surprise.
She's a dangerous one. I'll leave her to Oortez!
"How are you always hungry? Just wait a moment, let me call over Oortez. You remember him, right?"
"Oortez, is it tasty?"
Oortez, good luck. She doesn't even remember you.
She was beginning to drool from the corners of her mouth.
"Like, can you not drool looking like me? Stay still."
"Okay. I wait."
I jumped over to the next room where Oortez was working.
"Your Mimi is live and hungry. Since my job here is done, I'm leaving her to you to properly train her."
"Very well, having an assistant will make research proceed much faster. Milady, where is the food storage?"
I sighed exhaustively, "What am I to do with you... You know what? I'll fix her up real quick."
I should have done this sooner. Who would have thought this thing could take up a form and communicate properly?
Before he could give a reply, I went back to the room Mimi was. Thank goodness she was good at following directions. I removed the |devious| trait and the |ravenous glutton| trait. For the latter, I kept a copy of it in the soul library. It was an extremely negative trait that forced the trait bearer to remain hungry in addition to various other drawbacks or something like that.
What was interesting was that |ravenous glutton| was coupled with |extreme vitality|. By removing the former, the latter would disappear. Knowing that, some abilities such as [division] and [synthesis] would probably weaken significantly.
Removing those traits was all fine and whatnot but the blessing remained. Instead of the trait being permanently removed, |ravenous glutton| was replaced with the |gourmet| trait. If Oortez could control how much she ate, it would likely prevent her from devolving into a starving mess.
Hence, after the changes, I explained to Oortez the situation.
"Ooh! How capable! As expected of milady." He nodded to himself. Then, he eyed me, "Now, about the food storage..."
"Fine... A loaf of bread is all she gets. If she does well, she can have some strawberries. They'll spawn twice a day."
In a corner of his laboratory, I created a little fridge with some basic food supplies stuffed in.
He was sulking quite a bit when I told him that teleportation was only permitted within my subspace. Since that was the case, I told him I'd let him go visit the ancient ruins in a bit. That seemed to have cheered him a bit.
"Don't make a mess here or else, okay?" I warned them with a loving smile.
With the leash now passed onto him, and all the matters settled in the subspace for the moment, I teleported above Zortek, the Imperial Capital.
The sun was descending and the moons lazily revealed themselves behind velvet clouds.
Just by knowing where Blueberry was, I knew where to go.
"Smoothieee! You're so adorable! I miss you!"
I wrapped my arms around her and embraced her tightly while inhaling deeply, taking in her sweet scent and feeling her soft skin all the same.
It was just so regrettable that when in this form, neither of us could physically feel bodily warmth.
As of now, I was in my human form dressed in my casuals, a shirt, a pair of pants, and some runners. I actually wanted a physical body but didn't want to delay our meeting any more.
"Mother..."
Seeing her troubled face, I kissed her lightly on the cheeks.
"Mother, please, not in public. What's wrong with you..."
Despite complaining a bit, she couldn't hide her blush.
"I worked so hard today, dealing with an annoying demon and his snob assistant. I don't know why but I need a recharge!"
Seeing how Kanoko was taken aback, I beckoned to her, "Hmm? Do you want to join in too?"
She chided, "Berry, at least be aware of the occasion."
I already knew before I teleported over with my main body.
Somehow and for some reason, the Highlander Emperor was giving a grand reception to us. A banquet was being held. Foods and drinks were provided as of a matter of course.
A seat was reserved for me next to Kanoko and Smoothie. Nearly everyone was seated, not in chairs but cushions. Those with higher authority sat on thicker and more elaborate cushions either. As if to match that, the tables' heights were elevated appropriated to status with the tallest one at the centre and shortest ones spread out to the sides like a fan.
"Ahaha..." I only laughed goofily. Perhaps, I just wanted to change things up to forget about everything that had happened.
A carefree life would be nice, I thought. Maybe settling down somewhere would be nice as well. Ahhh... If only all of this was just a nightmare and a beautiful life is waiting for me when I wake up.
I need to get a hold of myself.
"Sorry about that." I said as I released Smoothie.
"Are you feeling okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine."
Countless beastfolks, both winged and wingless, and fey beings had gathered today within the Imperial Palace. The halls and corridors were extravagantly decorated with ornaments and flowers befitting the Imperial Palace.
Vintelo and Mufy were pretending to be servants. But, since they were fey beings, they were treated not as servants who ate in a separate hall but in the main hall. Though, some distance still separated us.
Kanoko and Smoothie were actually seated not that far from the emperor's seat. Now, despite Blueberry technically a servant, she had a seat next to Kanoko on the farther end.
Because of the scene I had made, countless gazes were centred on me and the bustling activities came to a halt.
"Hi." I waved with a cheerful smile. "Don't mind me, I'm just enjoying the party."
Clank.
One person dropped his dining utensil.
I inched closer to Kanoko and whispered, "How did this happen? Weren't you all sightseeing incognito?"
"You see..."
Apparently, that fey being I spoke to a few days back, whoever he was, brought it up as a complaint to the emperor. Yet, the emperor took it seriously and immediately made the preparations for a grand banquet. It wasn't specifically to welcome me per se but officially as a celebratory feast for this fruitful harvest season and for the total victory against the human army at the city of Vera weeks ago.
He's a smart guy. Still, to host a banquet with only two days notice is quite an accomplishment.
While the four of them plus one were sightseeing, they just attracted a bit too much attention, especially Blueberry and Smoothie. No one had blue or green colored hair because hair dying wasn't something people done here. Anyway, I completely overlooked the basics of travelling incognito. Because of that and their arrival timing, the emperor caught wind of it and invited them in as esteemed guests.
Sadly, Blueberry couldn't gain new memories unless I was directly possessing it. I really didn't think clones needed their own dedicated memories. But after this incident, I decided to allocate some soul energies to my clones to record their lives. Now that I had gained the |multiple existences| trait, there shouldn't be any complications.
"Ahh... I guess it all worked out? I'm only a bit late to the party so all is good?" Saying that, I turned to meet eye to eye with the Highlander Emperor, Emperor Arknorl Grusia.