695 Auto-Cultivation

"Did you also want to spend time with Mary?" Pool snickered out loud as she sat on the edge of the seat while the movie continued to play. The theatre wasn't housefull but there were many couples and groups of friends present. Cindy looked slightly agitated as she continued to glance towards Nik before leaning towards him and whispering, "Meet me in women's restroom. 3 minutes!" She spoke hurriedly in a hushed tone and quickly stood from her seat before walking out.

"I should go with her," Mj began when Nik smiled wryly and motioned her to sit down, "What's going on Mj?" Nik inquired. He was entirely sure that Cindy's voice wasn't as soft as she wanted it to be and even the couple in front of them heard Cindy's call. Pool had a slightly flushed face and finally realized that the movie was extremely interesting.

"What do you mean?" Mary inquired with a narrowed gaze, "Can't I go to the washroom?"

"She's trying to cockblock you," Asmodeus snickered inside.

"She's hungry for some meat!" Lola's surprising cheer echoed, silencing everyone within Nik before a commotion arose within his spiritual world but Nik was hardly surprised that Lola had 'that' kind of side to her. Instead, he locked gazes with Mary before shaking his head with a smile, "Of course, you can. My bad."

"Yeah," Mj stood once again and left for the washroom but Nik's plan remained unchanged. Looking towards Pool who was trying her hardest to not get affected by the previous conversation, Nik mumbled softly, "The movie's interesting, right?"

"Yeah... I never knew it was so interesting."

"So, when I go out to have some snack... you will stay here?" Nik inquired.

"I can't eat food so... yeah, I'll probably remain here," Gwen smiled sadly.

"Sorry about that," Nik exhaled. It wasn't hard to realize that not being able to taste food or even interact with others and not having a prominent social life might have turned Pool's mood a bit sour.

"Eh, I'll have to get used to it. In fact, as a consciousness, I'll outlive you all and wait for the technology to have risen until I can gain a body for myself! That's when I'll start my own gang again!" Pool spread her arms out while Nik smiled, "Are you really betting on metal to gain your sense of taste once again?"

"Ahh! Quiet. This is the best I can hope... or, maybe you can feed me? You can touch me, you even... you did something to me in the class back then and it was awfully similar to Gwen's night rituals."

Nik raised his eyebrow, "Yeah, sure, I can try to feed you."

'Guh, he just omitted the part where he did something to me...' Pool pursed her lips before nodding, "We'll try it! Hurry, go buy some popcorn!"

"Alright, be back in... a few minutes," Nik stood up and left a distraught Pool who had forgotten the booty call and expected Nik to return with popcorns instantly.

Meanwhile, Nik walked out before shifting into the stall occupied by Cindy. Of course, Mj occupied the adjacent one but she remained clueless to the ongoing right next to her.

---

The moment Nik returned, he instantly retreated into the Dream Core and began preparing the items he received from Ray in the school. Ray's current needs were magical chains that could shackle a supernatural entity and present that being to the devil who Ray had made a contract with for his evolution. Of course, such contracts didn't bind Ray completely and only shackled his phantom physique but the truth remained that Ray had earned big time. After all, even Nik had only been able to evolve once due to the assistance of the Evolution spirit and the interjection from the three ancestors that wore the tribulations to nothing.

Sitting on the soft soil with pink dream clouds covering the sky, Nik gazed at the rather empty nurturing stables he had created for the spirit beasts. He only had captured 89 10000-year-old spirit beasts of various species and 4 100,000-year-old spirit beasts. The remaining ten-year-old, hundred-year-old, and thousand-year-old spirit beasts were released into the Savage Land.

Even the symbiotes within Mary and Anna needed time to recover before Nik took out another portion from them and start replicating more symbiotes to offer his partners. Nik had recently realized that the symbiotes are capable of copying almost everything from their host and this even applied to the generation of energy. Nik needed to test a few things but he was sure that Pickle was soon going to be his greatest support ever.

Gazing at the Nightmare Demon Pot, Nik carefully took out a rusty chain. It was barely a meter long but Nik could feel extremely ominous forces from within. Thinking for a moment, Nik appraised the item using the Transmigration Heart for his psychic aptitude had already allowed him to understand that use of the chain.

'This is called Deity Sealing... hmm, a B rank item. Ray wanted to fuse it with a pair of gauntlets so that he can control the movement of the chain using his wrist...'

When it came to Fusion, after countless experiments, Nik found that the Nightmare Demon Pot would follow the user's will. For instance, if two items were completely different, say— a whip and a gun. And if the host wanted an item that can shoot a whip from a gun, the Nightmare Demon Pot would follow such will and create an item but the practicality of the item would depend on the natural sense itself.

The whip could very well get stuck within the nozzle or the trigger could be jammed internally.

The second thing Nik realized was that the nature of the item would be similar to the strongest nature in individual items. If Nik fused a liter of Anna's blood with a single drop of his own, the component that would emerge would be a liter of Lust Apostle blood. This is also the reason why Nik wants only a single drop or a vial of Ray's blood. He would use it to fuse with ordinary blood and create bags of Ray's blood.

After all, Nightmare Demon Pot was incomplete yet an [S-] ranked item. It clearly had some overbearing features. Nik had also gotten Angela's blood in a similar manner and if he could get a chance, Nik also wanted to try and extract a drop of Brian's blood. After all, using Brian's blood for the next evolution would give Nik temporal abilities which he sorely lacked and this was an attribute so rare that even now, he had yet to come across someone with a natural affinity to it.

"Let's get this over with," Nik mumbled as he opened the lid of the pot and tossed the meter-long chain after taking out a single lock for himself since the item was clearly extraordinary and proceeded to place the pair of gauntlets he received from Ray.

Covering the lid, Nik channeled his spiritual energy while the draconic markings on the pot's surface glowed in a soft and warm white light. A soothing whirring sound emerged from the pot and the process continued for almost three hours but with not a single stream of time in the Dream Core, everything happened in an instant in the real world when Nik finally got out and looked at the gauntlets with chains wrapped around its surface.

After assessing the quality for a moment, Nik put the pair of gloves away and finally called for Pickle.

"Alright, I will slowly release the neutral energy within my body and you have to try and absorb it. Don't think too much, just try to feel. Even if you do absorb my blood by accident, it wouldn't be counterproductive," Nik stated as Pickle's face loomed in front of him as she nodded.

"I will try," She stated as Nik slowly released his energy with Pickle's real body slowly covering his veins and trying to locate what she was asked to absorb. "It's going through my abdomen," Nik guided as Pickle instantly changed the direction and she finally felt a familiar sensation whenever Nik would shift or teleport using her body covering him.

"Like this?" Pickle inquired as she slowly tried to suck in the sensation. This is the most primal instinct she had right after she was born. As a Lust Apostle, she understood lust and its properties but she couldn't feel any of it because she did not have the necessary body parts but right now, she finally felt something aside from her utmost loyalty to Nik and she latched onto the feeling akin a newborn latching to its mother's teats.

Nik's eyes instantly grew brighter as he could barely contain his excitement.

"Right, just like that. Now, slowly absorb it as much as you can and then release the energy back."

Pickle did as she was asked. Nik found that her reserves were quite lacking even when she was quite dreadful in her nature but it was alright.

Just in fifteen minutes, Pickle released the stored energy and the amount she returned was greater than she had absorbed.

"Auto cultivation!" Nik couldn't hold it anymore as he laughed gleefully.

"Making the best use of symbiote by expending energy to feed her and making her return the energy. Since both of them are combined, their energy signature is the same and they can continuously exchange their energy and cultivate their reserves to a greater height..." Sky instantly saw through Nik's action and found it refreshing.

It is never late to find more methods of growing strong. Even fabled rank 9 monsters would continuously research more methods and Sky felt a little relieved that Nik had the instinct to at least try this method out the moment he felt the possibility of gaining more strength.

"Pickle, from now on, I'll continuously release and absorb my energy at a fixed interval. Let's set it to 15 minutes for the moment and we will increase the duration after a few days. Whenever you are not busy, you will absorb and release the energy, too. Alright?"

"Yep," Pickle chirped while Nik lied back down. With Pickle and his body continuously exchanging energy, the reservoir of both the bodies would grow greater and greater. Nik wouldn't have to continuously feed on the flesh of spirit beasts and could allow them to grow again while Pickle's threat to the world would also increase and with shared physique, Pickle could become even more terrifying.

"Now, Ray's commission is done and auto-cultivation is a surprising success. I need to discuss the compensation with Ray while making plans to take down Kamar-Taj with Loki... I should also involve Ray on this one. Hmm, also need to visit Shuri with Cindy and..."

Nik thought carefully about his interaction with Pool. He was already planning to try and form a body for Lola.

"Let's think about that later. Now, I need to contact Loki..." Taking out his cellphone, Nik dialed a number and waited until a chipper voice picked up.

"You won't guess what I did!" Loki's voice instantly responded, "I used Angela to remove Thor from Midgard! He's in Asgard and probably waiting for his father to wake up. That's one big trouble out for a little while."

Hearing such a piece of news so suddenly, Nik was greatly surprised. He had been wondering if he would be facing Thor during the expedition to Savage Land but it seems like his worries had been for naught.

"Let's meet up tonight. I want to start learning from you and also start planning against Kamar-Taj."

"Sure."

***

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