Chapter 7: That Girl is Poison & Meeting a Wyrm

A/N:

" " : Dialogue,

' ' : Thought,

[ ] : System, Raphael

"Italicized text" : Telepathy.

// // : W System announcement

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Location: Great Elroe Labyrinth, Upper Stratum.

Dante POV

While she evolved my thoughts went back to the novel and manga, specifically onto a resistance that she had that basically guaranteed her initial survival as a Zoa Ele, Rot Resistance. Basically being able to resist instantaneous material breakdown, decomposition and disintegration. For most people who don't understand how dangerous the corrosion attribute is, it might seem needless and too much trouble for what it's worth, but it is far more integral for survival in this world, not to mention, we would be able to use Rot Attack without needing having to be wary of disintegrating ourselves. It also brought up many other skills and resistances that reminded me of something from the W System, these skills actually caused changes in the body. So if I were to hypothetically meet someone like say, Mother or Ariel, I could gain all their resistance skills and skills such as Dragon Power, Dragon Barrier and Divine Dragon Scales by using Biokinesis to copy them.

I felt some vibrations coming from one of the webs we set up and knew it was another Elroe Frog. I let it be mainly because Shiraori would need it to attain the title Gross Feeder which while unpleasant and derogatory, would help her gain Rot Resistance which I can gain by copying and possibly help her improve to Nullification which led me down another train of thought that I felt I should immediately address.

"Raphael, from now on, when it comes to mine and Shiraori's statuses, only show the essentials, improvements and new skills. Seriously, I've got an eidetic memory and can process tons of information down to the yoctosecond, but having information you already know being repeated so many times gets annoying for anyone, at least anyone who isn't an unfeeling bastard." I tell Raphael. (A/N: Was getting tired of a repetitive status so this is how it's gonna be now.)

Not long after, Shiraori wakes up, and immediately checks up on her evolution to a Small Poison Taratect and it seems she's satisfied and honestly seeing how much her stats grew just from the single evolutionary step forward was satisfying to see even for me.

[Name: Shiraori

Level: 1

Gender: Female

Attribute: Darkness, Light, Earth, Air, Lightning, Life, Water, Fire, Ice.

Race: Small Poison Taratect (Transcendent) — Evolution possible.

Protection: Crest of Transcendence.

Soul Stage: Elevated — High

HP: 9,500/9,500

MP: 11,000/11,000

SP: 13,200/13,200

STR: 90

DEX: 198

VIT: 95

INT:98

WIS:92

LUK:51

Title(s): Kin Eater, Poison Technique User, Thread User, Monster Slayer.

Background: A young member of a Taratect species that specializes in using deadly poison that has achieved transcendence. It has a reincarnated soul and is subordinate to you.

Emotions: Satisfaction. Calmness. Gratitude.

[Skills]: [Poison Magic LV 1], [Thought Acceleration LV 3], [High-Speed Processing LV 8], [Poison Attack LV 10], [Petrification Nullification], [Faint Nullification], [Herculean Strength LV 4], [Sturdy LV 3].

Seeing her progress and improvement puts a smile on my face, especially since I have made her far stronger than her initial Zoa Ele self in the OG material. "Hah, seeing my little spider come so far is filling my chest with pride. Is this how parents feel when they see their kids doing well as a result of their efforts? This has to be it, right?" I transmit to her teasingly after she wakes up fully. Eh, when did a geezer get here? Don't tell me I slept for a few centuries." She retorts which causes us to chuckle for a bit. "Fine, fine, let's move past that already. There's an Elroe Frog stuck in one of your webs again, so if you're going to eat it, I suggest you do so quickly so we can get moving." I tell her as she grumbles about eating things as gross as that despite not being hurt, but I guess it's understandable. I tasted the meat of an Elroe Frog and it was as unpleasant as they come. I see her coming back and using Biokinesis to scan her body notice that her body has changed a bit. I use Analytical Appraisal just to be sure and now she's got the Foul Feeder title and Rot Resistance.

"Hey, Shiraori, wait a minute. There's something I want to test out." "Hmm, what are you trying to test now, you literally said we should get moving a few minutes ago" She says with a tiny bit of annoyance. I pat her head and using Biokinesis copy the property of her body that gives her Rot Resistance as well as Poison Attack and Synthesis. "Well, that confirms my theory that the W System causes biological changes even without evolution."  I say as I create this world's Weak Poison to which she gawks at in surprise before her eyes twinkle with understanding of what I said. "So, if I get skills from the W System, you can copy them and take them to the peak near instantly and also give those skills to me right?" She asks and I nod before pausing. "Then what the hell was all my suffering for?! You could have just given me the skills that I would have needed to survive and that would have been it, all I'd have to do would probably be to learn magic." She starts to go on a rant but I stop it before it has a chance to build even more. "Okay, stop it. If I had done that and not trained you, it's more likely that you would have ended up finding some way to kill yourself out there. Not to mention, with what I've done, you can now more easily face other monsters and humans head-on if the case ever calls for it. And also, why the hell do you think I'll actually just leave you when I've already named you?!" I say and she stutters for a bit but stays quiet.

"Alright, I'm sorry. I was overreacting a bit, but at least you could have helped me to get better skills, especially for those that need a lot of time and work to go into levelling them up." She says and sighs. "Fine, but I'm only doing it for skills that I know have stringent and extremely dangerous conditions to level up, but if it's in regards to your soul like Heresy Resistance, I can't help you without risking damage to your soul." (Author: He lied as naturally as he breathed.) "Anyway, let's get moving now, we used up enough time." I say and get up to go and she nods.

After walking for a while, we heard skittering some distance in front of us. When we got close enough to the source of the sound, we saw what looked like a centipede except it was multiple times larger. Shiraori immediately killed it using a surprise attack which if I remember correctly is meant to give her the title Assassin and Shadow Magic from that, aaaaand yep it does. Thinking of which, it's about time I got a stealth or concealment skill, better try that for the next enemy we come across. She breaks open one of its segments and bites into it and tosses it away before looking at me while somehow scrunching up her face and pouting at the same time. "It has paralysers in its system, help me." 'Ah, that's right. That was an Elroe Ferect, nasty bastards.' I think as I copy and enhance Paralysis Resistance to Paralysis Nullification and then something happens that puts a devilish grin on my face.

[Notice. The skills 'Petrification Nullification', 'Poison Immunity', 'Paralysis Nullification' and subskills 'Infinite Stamina' and 'Disease Immunity' have been synthesized to create skill 'Status Condition Nullification'.]

[Status Condition Nullification (Passive)]:

[No Status Conditions are capable of affecting you]

I use Biokinesis to copy the skill into Shiraori and watch as her face morphs into one of surprise, then shock, then amazement. "Okay, no need to drop your mandibles any further, now come I heard some more of them this way." I say pointing to a tunnel not far from us. We reach the tunnel and see that the Ferects are in a ditch and they're a lot more than she expected. I immediately try to slip into stealth using Anpō to move toward them while masking my smell with Biokinesis.

[Notice. A skill has been created through a special action.]

[Stealth (Passive&Active) LV MAX]:

[The ability to conceal all traces of one's presence in any environment.

At MAX level, user can conceal themselves from even Detection.]

'Huh, that makes shit easier.' I think right before holding Yasetsu in an iaijutsu stance then dashing off and slicing through 7 of them in a single stroke. "Use Poison Synthesis to crate the largest ball of poison you can and drop it." I told Shiraori and mere moments later her deadliest poison dropped on all of them and they all died within seconds of contact. I of course kept my TK field up so that I don't end up drenched and sheathed Yasetsu.

Jumping out of the ditch, I land beside Shiraori and say that she can have the next monster we face, so that I can see how far she'll push herself in a fight, which shouldn't be much seeing as she basically has a Nullification skill for anything we could face in the Upper Stratum, so I wasn't worried. We walked slowly for a while exchanging banter when she suddenly stiffened up and had a grin on her face. I used Analytical Appraisal and saw that she had finally gotten Heresy Super-Resistance to Heresy Nullification, which meant she could now comfortably use Detection and I can finally stop limiting mine. "Well, what are you waiting for? Activate it and see the world as I do, little spider." I tell her and she nods and her mouth opens in wonder. "When it hits max, shrink the range so that you can work better with it, leaving it at max range would still overload your brain with information." I advise her and we keep walking until she detects the next monster in our path. "Um, would it be offensive to you if I kill this one?" She asks, her voice laden with uncertainty. "Why would I be offended? It's just a random Baradrad, it's not Giruki. There's no need to bother with unimportant thoughts like that. Just go crazy and kill it." I tell her with a wink and a smile. She jumped at the Baradrad with a feral grin plastered on her face almost as if waiting for permission.

The fight didn't even last a minute, her Poison was so strong that it died after the first 2 attacks. It brought a prideful tear to my eye as I remember that this was where she would have chosen to evolve into a Small Taratect, but I've been able to push her to not only evolve a step beyond that, I've also made her stronger than she would have been a step beyond where she is now. I push that thought aside and give her a thumbs up. Using Telekinesis I strip the now dead Baradrad of its scales, skin and flesh and send them all into the inventory. As for the bones, they weren't all that useful so I just shaped them all into javelins.

We walked away from the spot where the bones were and kept moving for about look around to match where we are to her movements in the OG, and it hits me. This is where she would have come across an adventuring party of humans and run away, but due to our much more accelerated movement in comparison, we won't be seeing them unless we stay here for at least a whole day, same with the Baradrad and Randanels. I walk towards the hole where it splits into 3 tunnels and take the one that leads to the deep hole and she follows without asking. I notice that she has great trust in me which is why doing this would be a bit painful for her, but it has to be done so she never loses that drive to survive and get stronger.

We soon reach the hole at the end of the tunnel and I tell you, it's a long drop down, but not an issue for either of us. I levitate the both of us down towards the ground while we both fend off the Finjicotes. We continue this for a while until I feel it. More specifically, I feel him, the Earth Wyrm Araba, not far from us. Knowing how what I'm about to do may damage my image in her eyes, I use stealth on my energy and send a pulse of hostility towards Araba, to which he immediately responds by charging our way until he comes into view. Seriously, the illustrations didn't do this guy justice, he looks amazing and he's also huge, maybe not Mother huge but he is huge.

He looks down at the both of us and I see it in her eyes for the first time in a while, caution and drive, and I know that I've succeeded. I look back at Araba and decide to attempt intimidation which works for a little while, but he counters by emanating his own aura as well. I refrain from using my soul pressure, but this guy is stubborn, so I add in a bit of killing intent to drive him away, but it seems I underestimated the pride that dragon kind possesses. He stood in an attacking stance which started to rub me the wrong way, so I used a bit of soul pressure to add onto my killing intent and use Telepathy to show him an image of his corpse mangled and torn apart. Little by little, a wind picks up and I create tornadoes around him that spark every few seconds with lightning while increasing the pressure and gravity on him. A few notifications fly by but I ignore them and tell him in an authoritative voice that allowed no dispute. "Leave or perish."

After looking at me and Shiraori for a few seconds he turns and leaves. I cancel the tornadoes and look at Shiraori and I'm now certain that she's going to push herself at least a bit more than before, for one reason and one reason only, the look in her eyes. "Now, do you see what you're up against, most beings in this labyrinth outclass you so badly that with your Nullification skills, the only thing you could do is run away. Do you want to be stuck running away from a fight every time you try or do you want to be strong?" I ask her, never breaking eye contact. "Nai wa. I won't back down from a challenge damn it. Bring it on then, I'll take every monster in this place on and win if that's what it takes." She says with a ferocious smile on her face while I finally turn my eyes to the notifications I had ignored.

[Notice. A skill has been created through a special action.]

[Through the use of your aura to deter other beings, the skill 'Intimidation' has been created.]

[Notice. The skill 'Intimidation' has evolved into skill 'Killing Intent'.]

[Notice. A skill has been created through a special action.]

[Through the combined use of 'Telepathy', 'Killing Intent' and Soul Pressure, the skill 'Killing Intent Manifestation' has been created.]

[Notice. The skill 'Killing Intent' has evolved into skill 'Tyrant's Haki'.]

[Notice. The skill 'Tyrant's Haki' has evolved into the skill 'Emperor's Haki'.]

[Notice. The skills 'Killing Intent Manifestation' and 'Emperor's Haki' have been synthesized to create skill 'Emperor's Manifestation'.]

[Emperor's Haki (Passive&Active) LV MAX]:

[A culmination of the will and soul of an Emperor that causes all souls weaker than the user's soul to kneel and be pressured just in your presence.

Passive does not affect subordinates.

At MAX level, user can instantly Soul Crush enemies at the same Soul Stage.]

[Emperor's Manifestation (Passive&Active) LV MAX]:

[A manifestation of the Emperor forcing his will onto reality around him. This does not warp reality.

If used actively, as long as no changes are made in reality, what the Emperor envisions will come to pass.

Makes all attack and defense attempts have a 100% probability of succeeding if no drastic changes are made in reality.]

I see my new skills and whistle at the capabilities I now have with these. I then think to myself, that even I may have been lacking drive, but this just may have opened my eyes.

Chapter end.