32 Grinding with a spider
"Shh~ Look! What did we find? Here's a lonely Elroe frog, we can try to catch it. An Elroe can provide me with energy for several hours. They're rich in protein, but a monster like this is not easy to deal with. We can slowly approach it carefully from behind, without making any noise..." Shiraori lectured him with a confident voice.
It was as if she had lost the appearance of a shy weeb, and completely exposed her real side in front of Adam.
"... The lecture isn't needed." He said in a neutral tone, but those who know him well will definitely notice the slight disgust as he walked towards the Elroe frog monster.
With its thick tail swaying back and forth, it released a deafening roar, the monster jumping at him with incredible speed, attacking the silver-haired boy without any mercy.
"Although it is easy to use... It's disgusting..." He said with a prominent frown on his face as he closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, his glowing blue eyes were nowhere to be seen. Instead, they were now dyed red.
Accompanied by a cry, a crimson bird spread its wings out of his pupils, shooting towards the monster with a high speed that it couldn't process.
Although it's true that he was reluctant to use his Geass on intelligent life, the same couldn't be applied to monsters.
After all, as long as something has a spirit, the geass could be used. So Adam won't show mercy to his enemies.
The voice of the world and the will of the honkai were a different matter altogether. He benefited a lot from these two, even though they were too strong for the geass to wholly affect them.
As for these monsters, it was impossible for their shattered and weak souls to resist Adam's soul which was already a lot stronger than normal due to all that he had been through.
The frog monster who was about to attack him froze in the air after the red blur reached it. It then fell to the ground with a soft posture, rushing towards Adam with the love of a puppy looking at its owner evident in its pupils.
Just as it was about to get its tongue in order to get closer to him and lick him, it stopped in its place when it saw Adam put his hand in the air as if saying 'stop'.
"Haaah..." He sighed as he decided to put this monster out of its misery.
The temperature around Adam sharply dropped as ice started forming on his hand. He pointed his palm towards the Elroe frog.
"..." A sharp ice spear pierced through it and killed it in just a moment.
From start to finish, the frog monster didn't show any resistance. After being affected by his geass, it would do anything for Adam's happiness, it even happily sacrificed its own life should he become happy because of that.
[A certain amount of experience has been accumulated]
[Individual 'Asterios "Adam" Tempest' has leveled up from LV7 to LV8]
[Skill proficiency levels have been obtained]
[Magic Warfare has leveled up from LV5 to LV6]
[Magic Power Perception has leveled up from LV5 to LV6]
[Freeze magic has leveled up from LV4 to LV5]
[Flood magic has leveled up from LV3 to LV4]
[Fire magic has leveled up from LV3 to LV4]
[Poison magic has leveled up from LV4 to LV5]
[Cutting Thread has leveled up from LV4 to LV5]
[Thread Control has leveled up from LV4 to LV5]
[Skill points have been acquired]
"I have leveled up again!" Adam exclaimed happily, seeing his progress.
Although most skills were useless as they couldn't be used in other worlds, they were still very important for Adam to better understand his own skills and progress them further.
With the Alpha Stigma and [Analysis], he could see how those magic skills worked, and improve on the control of his own powers, especially the ice manipulation of the Kaslana family and the corruption powers which can be very useful for making deadly poison.
Of course he can also use [Gluttony] on the monsters to get more MA energy and get whatever Intrinsic(racial) skills they have.
He didn't devour too many monsters, he left some for the spider as devouring monsters with [Gluttony] can level him magnitude times faster, and he didn't want to attract the wrong kind of attention.
"No matter how many times I watch it... Your skills are a little overpowered" Shiraori commented to the side as she had watched the entire process several times.
But she still couldn't help but complain that the ability called Geass was really a cheat.
"Ahhhh, I also really want a cheat~" She lamented while hanging her head down in depression as her longing tone conveyed the spider's jealousy.
"Don't worry, don't worry! You'll also be overpowered in the future~" He comforted the spider in a soothing tone as he bent himself down to pat the spider's head.
Shiraori, feeling the comfort and softness, couldn't help but involuntarily stretch out her limp to poke Adam's hand.
Adam's hand reeled back from the spider's touch, holding his palm with the other hand
Of course, he was creeped out by the spider's touch and so from the other hand water emerged and cleaned the one that was touched by the spider.
Shiraori gave the silver haired boy an angry look "Adaaam, have you forgotten that I'm also a girl?" She said with a fake angry voice, but contrary to her tone, she turned her back to him so that he couldn't see, and moved her limbs to cover the redness that was (not) prominent on her face.
It's not that she was uncomfortable with Adam's touch, it was the opposite actually, this was the first time she had intimate contact with a man, so Shiraori was a little bashful.
Looking at the back of the spider, the smile on Adam's face froze as his eyes showed his bewilderment.
'If it was in her human form...' He lamented as he shook his head while sighing.
(E/D:... At this point… Just do it. We can deal with whatever later.)
After all, the current Shiraori can't even be considered a human, she was at most a cute spider. Although he wouldn't mind getting closer to her in her human form, her current form as a spider limits their relationship.
Even her soul can't be considered a "human. Her original soul was just an ordinary little spider that couldn't be considered anything special.
The only thing that loosely made her human was her memories of the life of "Wakaba Hiiro".
Adam tilted his head and put his hand under his chin as he was deep in thought.
'It doesn't really matter, I guess. If she thinks she is a girl, and her human form is a girl, then she can be regarded as a female.' he put those deep thoughts in the back of his head as he came up with this simple solution.
"Hmmm, don't you want to eat this frog monster's body, Shiraori-chan?" He pointed at the dead body of the Elroe frog with doubt.
Normally, if he himself doesn't devour these monsters, Shiraori instantly rushes up to them and eats them whole in a matter of seconds. So he wondered if this was the same spider as the one that he was leveling up with before.
However, as soon as his words fell, the spider froze in her place and stopped moving.
Instantly after that, a white blur passed by him and arrived in front of the monster.
"Oh well... If you aren't devouring it then don't mind If I do!" The spider said enthusiastically as she completely forgot her previous shyness.
Adam's eyebrows twitched as he saw the spider gulping down the monster with her back turned on him. Although he understood Shiraori considered herself a woman, he wondered if paying attention to her image now was really necessary?
Sighing inwardly, Adam also devoured some MA with a sub-skill of Gluttony, and because he was now a Herrscher, he could supplement all his meals with honkai energy, if combined with [Gluttony], he could eat any energy to fill himself up and even get stronger if the amount was large enough.
Only half a day has passed since the two teamed up with the goal of leveling up, and the human(?) and the one spider specially picked out the monsters who were alone.
Monsters whose levels are much higher than Adam's would be controlled by his Geass because they are too weak to resist. After all, their souls are too weak and shattered.
Only after reaching a certain level and evolving to a more advanced race, the system would purify the soul of the monster. The purified monster's intelligence would increase, until it becomes the same as a human being at some point.
As for those monsters that are in the same level as Adam, he used his ice and corruption powers to get more experienced, improved his own proficiency and got more data with [Great sage] and the Alpha Stigma.
He could also level up the respective skills of this system a lot easier if he could already do it without a skill, like freeze magic, poison magic or thread creation.
However, there were some elite monsters, and even more monsters that lived in groups. This was the time for him to go all out, or for Shiraori to make a move.
Shiraori had leveled up one more time and she would be able to evolve with just a little bit of experience points, while Adam also leveled up to LV8.
After Shiraori killed and ate the elite monster she should be able to evolve by killing another monster or two. The goal for the two of them today is to get enough experience for Shiraori to evolve, and when they go back, Adam will guard her body until she finishes evolving.
