Níðhöggr

If there was no reason to worry about it, Ethan had a proper name for this monster. He knew it was a rather dangerous name to give, but he also knew that no matter how strong the monster would become, it couldn't rebel against his orders in any way.

'..Níðhöggr'

It was a name Ethan just read somewhere in his previous life. As the monster reminded him of a dragon, he decided to give it that name. What he didn't expect, however, was that at the very moment when those words came out of his mouth, a great deal of spiritual energy was instantaneously consumed, so much so in so little that he held his breath for a moment.

[The subordinate [Nameless] received the name [Níðhöggr]]

[Monster compatibility with the name [Níðhöggr] : 44%...]

He had no idea what was happening, but he could see how the monster was once again with its head down in a bow. He had no idea what 'compatibility with the name' meant, but he knew that the fact that it wasn't 100% could be a problem..

[To reach 100%, special requirements are to be met. The name [Níðhöggr] contains a lot of power behind it, so to carry out the evolution the spiritual energy of the host would be lower than the monster, this would result in a loss of control with a probability of 100%.]

He could only be amazed. The monster, which before looked like a skeleton but in reality was only the fruit of the skin present in so little quantity to make the monster look like a simple skeleton, had now become a black that Ethan had never seen before, and not only that, he could see how a tail had grown to the monster and its claws, if previously sharp, now looked like real blades, powerful enough to probably cut through adamantite with ease.

It's 44%.. and it was enough to drain Ethan's spiritual energy reserves in large quantities. Although the spiritual energy had a great rate of regeneration, especially for him, it was still not enough to cover the speed with which Níðhöggr absorbed the energy from him, It could only be one of the abilities that had been conferred upon him after his semi transformation, and Ethan understood why the probability of losing control over him was 100%. But before he could think further, Ethan saw the requirements to reach 100% appear in front of him.

---

[Níðhöggr, Evolution Process]

Current: 44%

To reach 100%: kill and devour 30,000 monsters (0/30,000), Devour 2 S-ranked objects with attribute holy, earth, wind and darkness(0/8)

---

It seemed simple, but Ethan was amazed at how much it would have to kill to take its 100% shape, as well as having to consume objects so rare that they were hardly found in the world he was currently in.

"..Níðhöggr, for now I would say that it is better to go. The problem is that I feel a strong darkness coming from you, and you would attract a lot of attention in this form."

While thinking of a remedy to bring his new subordinate home, the monster continued to have his head lowered before responding

"... Master. I am grateful to have received a name, and I want to inform you immediately of the skills I have at my disposal. With this great amount of spiritual energy, I can become a form that does not attract attention, I am also able to mask my attribute, making it neutral, but these are things that you can easily do using spiritual energy."

The theory dictated that as long as one had enough spiritual energy, it was even possible to do monstrous things like go back in time, but every single intention contained behind hundreds of different conditions, as if there was an invisible force that limited the use of spiritual energy as much as possible, but as long as it wasn't tried to carry out forbidden things just like going back in time, the limiting forces would not have acted. This meant that theoretically, even changing race with spiritual energy was possible, only that there were limits attached to it.

"Interesting. Let me see."

It was an order. Ethan's curiosity had been teased, and on his word, Níðhöggr changed its shape, looking very much like a little snake now, but the thing that most surprised him was that Níðhöggr's voice had slightly changed its deep tone...

'Master, Although you are still able to recognize my attribute, this is because you and I share a very deep connection, but any other person will only recognize me as a normal snake, I hope to have satisfied your curiosity.'

Níðhöggr's thoughts were directly related to Ethan's, which meant that telepathy was possible between them. But that wasn't all. He realized that Níðhöggr seemed to know a lot about spiritual energy, and at this information, a smile formed on his face. Thanks to him, Maple could learn the basics in the same way, so that she doesn't feel left out of the others and can become stronger, if she becomes strong enough, Ethan even had in mind to bring her right here, But maybe that idea was a little too ambitious, considering that the city they were in was literally the place she wanted to return to.

'... I'll find a way, but now that everything's all right, I think we should go home.'

"Climb up on me, Níðhöggr. We are going to get out of this world and back to the one from where I originate. Do not attack anyone unless you feel any hostility and I allow you to do so. You can speak freely, but refrain from talking about spiritual energy and any other sensitive information about this place."

It was another order, just in case it didn't get it right, Ethan temporarily released all of his spiritual energy using the [Aura] to make the monster understand not to try anything funny. Even though they were linked by a pact, Ethan still had no faith in this monster.

'Understood, Master'

The power show was meant to make Níðhöggr realize that Ethan was serious. Although in theory it was now much stronger than Ethan, the aura surrounding him would have made it impossible for Níðhöggr to take any action, also because in the spiritual contract, the one who held the position of superior was him, to do something behind the back of the person with whom one had a contract was comparable to insured death, no matter how strong someone was.

Seeing Níðhöggr climb over him until it reached his shoulder, Ethan sighed thinking he wanted to return to the real world and, by blinking, he found himself as expected in the room where he was previously, but no one was left.

'I guess I should inform Loki first.'

His thought led him directly out of Loki's room and after knocking, she opened the door. A mixture of surprise and amazement written on her face, but seeing his shirt bleeding and his cheek with an obvious cut, Loki refrained from scolding him for having disappeared for a couple of hours.

"What happened? You're bleeding!"

When asked, Ethan was surprised, too. Looking down, he could see that the wound hadn't yet healed after all the time they had spent together, and of course Ethan asked Níðhöggr why.

'My claws are a part of my body I can infuse spiritual energy into, since my attribute is closely related to darkness, I can manipulate the result of my cuts, making them difficult to heal and that do not heal with normal healing abilities, but since my master possesses an aura of the opposite attribute, it is easy enough for you to heal this wound, you just think you want to see it closed'

He had understood that Níðhöggr referred to the elements as 'attributes', but had told him that he possessed an inverse attribute to that of darkness, something that confused him for a second, but he decided to do as it said.

Observing Ethan's injuries closing immediately with white mist surrounding them for a second, Loki was even more surprised, but before she could start asking questions, Ethan replied that he would explain to everything that had happened, a look at the present time worried him a little, he didn't want Ais to end up hating him, so he chose this instead of letting Loki on her toes even longer.

---

"...And that's the reason for my disappearance. I had to enter the True Dungeon, otherwise Freya would have discovered my plans. There I found myself fighting a particular kind of monster. It continued to learn to defend itself from my attacks as I made them, and I came to fight against the result of those monsters, this serpent you see on my shoulder. Let's say that from there the monster prostrated itself to me, so I chose to make a deal with it because I needed more information about the energy that is used in that place, which is much more malleable than the mana itself."

To be more precise, his control over spiritual energy was much higher because of a number of factors, but at the end of the day the mana is in less quantity, but the power behind the spells is much stronger than the power performed with spiritual energy. The mana represents the quality, but the spiritual energy has more properties and is not stopped by particular spells to learn, if not the arts, which were able to circumvent the restrictions that were normally imposed. That means if someone could find a way to go back in time without restrictions, it would become one of the higher Arts, even the higher-level Arts would pale in comparison. Spiritual energy was a force that Ethan was much more afraid to deal with than mana, where people were accustomed to the conception of spells.

'I suspect that no special spells are needed even for the mana, but controlling the mana freely is definitely more complicated.'

Taking origin from legends is certainly more powerful than finding the road on your own, but Ethan believed the former was just borrowing the power of people who had already given their best to study magic, create a magic even more powerful than those existing in the past had to be the goal of magicians, not that of always borrowing the same power, magic would never evolve with this reasoning.

'..Yet it seems the falna itself is the reason for this reasoning, other than grimoires.'

"..You've become far more incredible than I thought, Ethan. I'd say the plan you've devised has a chance of success now."

Loki nodded to herself, as if to confirm to herself that now her family could really try to take control of Orario with the strategy that Ethan had devised, but this was something for the future, In fact, Ethan, saying that he would come in the next few days to discuss this topic, apologized because he had to go.

---

(I have a discord server. https://discord.gg/cpVr5X8. You may ask me: "Why should I enter the server?". Well, I'm replying to every interesting question you readers are asking in my chapters, so, you should absolutely enter if you want to read my answers. Ah, and you can find some image reference of items in the story such as Light..! (Soon even Qienta).. so it's recommended to join, I frequently post polls as well, regarding things that(most likely) will be present in the story. One last thing, I post chapter updates in my discord right after I posted on webnovel, so I guess you can join to be able to know when I post chapters faster.)

(Poll going on in the discord: Vote what you think is better. I only want to introduce one of these three, the ones with most votes when I feel like it wins. - Light being able to interact with the real world. - Qienta shows up before planned. - More power ups than planned for the girls and Ethan himself.)

(Do you enjoy reading my novel? If the answer is yes, then thanks. I'll leave my Patreon here. https://w ww.pat reon.com/watashiwavdesu)

(Alternate Titles: "Yes, I had something completely different in mind, but The_Oldest_King suggestion made me delete all I was writing just to change it.", "Loki was explained a lot, I didn't want to drag it long though", "Spiritual Energy > Mana change my mind")