บท 19: Journey To The West

Since the Zerath appear to be more late than the expected, Yroa expressed his genuine care and adoration for his one and only familiar with even more 'loving' in all sorts of different spaces and positions.

Of course, just as when Zerath was noticeably arriving at the camp through his presence of ohr signature, everything that had unfurled in the camp had already furled back to its initial state.

"The dinner's ready, what took you so long?" Yroa said as most of the dishes were already on the dining table. With the clear sky and shiny moons, nothing should disturb this feast.

"Whichever it is, it is of no concern anymore."

Noticing something was quite off, Zerath's eyes glanced at the surroundings.

Azel was also already on the dining table, appearing like she was stress eating with a flustered, whimpery expression going on—all while stuffing anything that her hands could grab. She even dipped the perfect piece of medium rare steak into her mug of cold drink before chomping on it whole.

'She looked stressed, and glad, relieved? Just how many emotions can she display in just one expression,' Zerath thought to himself. 'And then there is Yroa, who appeared to be happier than usual, sparkling, even.'

On the corner of the camping area where the wood bench lies, there were numerous freshly carved canteens containing mysterious liquid that appeared to be imbued by some sort of preservation spell.

Those containers smell fishy and ominous, prompting Zerath to avoid going near it if it's possible.

And then behind all of that, was one of the fundamental discoveries that Yroa had ever perceived today.

Right after the secretly intense lovemaking was done, Azel began to lay down all of the stuff pertaining to the Demon of Debauchery, Soul Essence, and the Ascendant, ingraining the other reason as to why Azel loyally assaulted her own master in the first place.

And thanks to it, Yroa knew damn well that Azel accomplished a lot for the past hour they were mating like animals.

It would only be a matter of time until Azel fully extracted all of the Soul Essence that she received, along with some of the spilled one that Yroa gathered into the shady container at the edge of the camp, preserved by a spell that works by sharply lowering the temperature inside.

Both of them excitedly couldn't wait to see the effect of this phenomenon. Especially Azel herself, since it was her first time to even get her hands on the Ascendant's Soul Essence.

Let alone having an extra bulk of it weirdly preserved.

"Eat well, both of you." Yroa gestured her hands, smiling like a loving mother. "Don't be afraid to eat a lot, I can still make a lot of them."

There were also other important benefits to the brutal intercourse they did.

Since Azel acquiring the Soul Essence of an Ascendant was deemed to be a massively successful achievement in her part, it actually came with its own Essence of Actualization, increasing her Lvl, alongside her master per compensation of the clauses of the familiar contract, which then multiplied by ten!

And with the acquisition of the Lvls, Yroa also acquired his share of EXP points, together with their conjoined Mutual Ohr.

[EXP: -31,021.5]

[Name: Yroa Ingram]

[Lvl: 425 Malkuth]

[Domain: Physical]

[STR: 4.5]

[DEX: 7.5]

[CON: 11.8]

[INT: 62.4]

[WIS: 24.1]

[CHA: 49.9]

It was a huge leap, a whopping 100 Lvls that would probably worth twice if not thrice the amount of Essence of Actualization that both of them received from establishing the broken familiar contract.

And that's not all. Since Azel had already extracted some of the heavenly Soul Essence, she also had a great increase in her valued stats.

[Name: Azel Flegor]

[Lvl: 350 Malkuth]

[Domain: Physical]

[STR: 1.7]

[DEX: 2.3]

[CON: 2.6]

[INT: 6.7]

[WIS: 13.1]

[CHA: 9.3]

It might be not as much as the constant increase that was presence on Yroa's status screen, but it was really amazing for the average standard, and it would only exponentially increase from this moment onward!

While chopping up some ingredients for the second serving that Azel shamelessly ordered, a thought was presence on Yroa's mind, 'Still, for my stats to develop at such a rapid pace, is this even thanks to the effect of the Living Vessel {Dungeon Core}? Or is there something else that is influencing the growth of my strength?'

Thinking about strength, Yroa also noticed back then that the amount of increased Lvls appeared to be in the same gap between him and Azel's, even though that there was supposed to be a small bottleneck for every 100 Lvls.

Not to mention, the amount of Essence of Actualization needed to raise a Lvl was supposed to be increasing with every Lvl acquired, so why does the gap remain constant at 75 Lvls with one another?

Simultaneously, Yroa felt a very painful itch on his tongue and vocal box as of late. It had been intensifying since he signed the familiar contract.

Was his supposed 'transcendent organ' had any influence in all of these phenomenon?

'... The pain makes me crave for some spice.'

All Yroa could do about it was to wait and observe, while bearing the pain of having a searing sun placed directly on his throat.

"Which place are you actually heading, old man?" Yroa asked as he played around with his spellcasting to clean the dishes.

"Somewhere on the west," Zerath answered. His hand held the mug filled with what tasted like a bitter blend of coffee without the effect of it. "You said that you're heading to the Town of Ariah. Well, mine is somewhere inside the same region."

"Would it bother you if we tag along then?"

"I don't really mind."

Despite having the mental age of a thousand year old, Yroa still thought of himself as a youth compared to Zerath who went through his actual life living through reality and not some messed up gore fiesta.

Not only that, Yroa verily respects wisdom and intelligence like how he respects good food and a good hustle to get a certain thing done.

'Still, I can't believe that I have been easily manhandled for an hour straight just like that,' Azel thought as her pride was slowly stripped away from her, reminiscing of the hustle and tussle she had with her master. 'Uuuuu, I can't sleep now, my brain is still adapting from that event!'

As the local light-fliers mingle with the soft humming grass, the moonlight accompanied the three insomniacs throughout the night, alongside all of the night walkers who were having their own journey and their faith, intermingling each other's ways.

And when the darkness was furled, the dawn was unveiled, casting upon Yroa who held a spell-crafted wooden dagger, similar to the one that Zerath used.

It turned out that right after midnight, there was a wild four-legged beast charging into the camp. In that event, Yroa witnessed Zerath take a peculiar pose before taking down the unrelenting beast, effortlessly securing a resource for the next barbeque.

Reminded that Martial Arts existed as a fundamental concept in this world, Yroa probed and insisted Zerath to spill out what was that pose all about, which gradually resulted in the old man sharing his wisdom to the curious one.

'... Why did I even accept him as a disciple, again?' Zerath wondered if he was in some kind of influence back then. 'Then again, this Martial Art isn't mine, and I don't really plan on keeping it for myself, so might as well share it.'

This Martial Art was revealed to be called the Solemn Royal Guard.

Unlike a technique of movement like the one Yroa copied to deflect the disastrous projectiles of the Natural Calamity yesterday, the Solemn Royal Guard acted as a whole branch of ways of fighting with the sole purpose of escort and self-defense.

"If it's meant to be defensive, then how come the specialized weapon of the Martial Art is a dagger then?" Yroa jested as he practiced on manipulating his ohr into the wooden training replica of the actual dagger.

Azel could be seen watching as an audience, wearing her usual 'I'm not surprised' expression, observing her master rapidly learning the stance and techniques like inhaling a dust.

"That type of dagger you're holding is called a Valor Tongue," Zerath explained. "It's shaped like a splitting set of two blades to catch the opponent's strikes, both physical and magical. And just as you assumed, you're meant to deal a fatal pursuit of offense after the 'counter'."

There were two main battle stances within the Solemn Royal Guard.

The first one was a Judgment Stance where one placed the Valor Tongue in front of their chest with both forking blades pointing skyward, all while maintaining a straight back and loose muscles on both legs.

This starting stance is reaction-based. The user had a great range of explosive movements thanks to its simplistic nature and unrestrained starting footwork, allowing for many kinds of counters to be performed when the user is attacked.

Psychologically, it works both for the user and the enemy. Since this stance feels exactly like standing upright with a weapon drawn close to the chest, the user will be overwhelmingly exposed to the most minute of details happening in the fight.

At the same time, it will make the enemies wary of the visible guard, making them think twice of their action.

It was the stance Zerath used back then at midnight when there was a wild beast charging into the camp.

"Put one to the front and bend forward," Zerath instructed as he threw a basic fireball spell towards Yroa. "Then catch the conjured spell with the space between the blades."

The space in between the two blades made the dagger perform like a pseudo-tuning fork, which enhanced the two bases of the blades to resonate the ohr back and forth, allowing the foreign conjuration to be catched without needing to overtake the spellcaster's influence.

And it might as well be the sole reason why the Valor Tongue is U-shaped.

"This is amazing!" Yroa excitedly shouted as he began to get used to the amount of ohr frequency for the 'catching' to work. "There's so many things you can do with this technique!"

After catching the enemy's spell projectile, it could be suppressed, redirected, or even used to empower the Solemn Royal Guard's next attack.

And for someone who thinks that sword fantasy and magic to be really cool, Yroa was extremely thrilled. "I can do this all day!"

He didn't end up doing it all day since he needs to prepare breakfast.

And after the usual scrumptious feast, they finally start to head towards their next destination.

They walk towards the west like a group of feathers. At times, it can be eventful for them, like how they need to keep up with the forest that uproots themselves to walk and migrate because the land was migrating towards somewhere and the forest didn't want to follow it.

It turned out that there was a giant turtle-like creature behind the moving of the land, since they all were formerly on top of it.

And when the dusk reached its somber state, the three of them took another rest as Yroa explored and foraged the surroundings to prepare the feast for the party.

When midnight arrived, the training to master the Solemn Royal Guard continued.

Most of their days traveling went by like that. And in that period of time, there were so many new things to see, so many new things to learn as a reincarnated Earthling with every little shenanigans that nature displayed in their creativity.

Eventually, 20 days passed by without a severe problem as they traveled together.

"Azel, is this just me or have you been getting taller in the past few days?"

Standing side by side, Azel was no longer at the same height as Yroa who was only 160 cm in height at the time.

"Hehehe, what do you think?" Azel proudly said as she crossed her arms.

Right now, Azel is probably around 175 cm in height. Not only that, there were significant changes to her overall silhouette.

For one, her hair had gotten significantly longer, or supposedly, since she always cut her sheep-like curly whenever it reached beyond her neck. But because of that, the volume increased.

Her horns also got bigger, making her look more demonic. Combine that with the increase of height, she became rather menacing at first sight.

At the same time, there were also significant changes in volume on her 'mountains'. Back then, it was only sizable enough to be referred to as a mound, but now it was a full-blown mature and firm mountain!

And like Yroa's perception about how a sexy Demon of Debauchery should look like, Azel began to slowly rock that perfect hourglass figure with thin waist and wide hips, and significant bubble rear followed by a thicker set of head-crushing thighs.

Yroa even needed to knit another set of clothing for her because of it.

'Seems like she wasn't lying about how the Soul Essence of an Ascendant can significantly improve an essence-devouring demon,' Yroa grinned as he thought to himself. 'The growth is just staggering.'

In just 20 days, Azel went from a small kid to a full blown adult with a fashion dream-model appearance. And as if it weren't enough, her stats also followed the same trend.

[Name: Azel Flegor]

[Lvl: 420 Malkuth]

[Domain: Physical]

[STR: 9.7]

[DEX: 10.3]

[CON: 20.6]

[INT: 9.7]

[WIS: 17.1]

[CHA: 15.3]

Azel also gained a unique innate ability to completely be invisible without casting a singular spell. It could still be detected by Yroa to a great extent like always, but it might completely fool someone within the same domain of existence.

Not only that, she also possessed a rather extraordinary natural regeneration that resulted in her exploding CON stats. At one point, Yroa wanted to experiment by chopping her limbs up, but didn't really do it in the end after seeing how terrified and hysterical Azel reacted.

And all of this growth was only the result of the initial Soul Essence. In fact, Azel hasn't fully extracted the rest of the preserved seeds that she was able to store in a special storage for Soul Essence, an ability she acquired on the tenth day.

As for how she carried all of those Soul Essence-filled contained for the first ten days? Yroa made a hauling equipment for her to carry all of those containers, which probably be another reason why the numbers on her CON valued skyrocket.

"What are you kids, lounging around for?" Zerath said. "This mushroom forest will soon disperse another batch of spores. Inhale too much, and you'll become another breeding ground for it."

"Huwee!!"

'In the end, Azel still acts like Azel despite the physical and spiritual glow up' Yroa chuckled to himself. "We better get moving then."

Both of them haven't done the deed again after their initial session 20 days ago, since Zerath has been watching them closely with how brutal and unforgiving some of the natural biomes could be.

Regardless, Azel no longer needs to invade someone's dream with the amount of heaven-quality Soul Essence that was still residing inside her essence storage, which was quite the lucky blessing for her.

'I also have focused too much on practicing the Solemn Royal Guard as of late,' Yroa thought. 'I wonder if it will change after we arrive at the Town of Ariah.

[EXP: -25,490.5]

Of course, Yroa hasn't been slacking that much as a Living Dungeon Core. He also ensured that a steady stream of EXP points was acquired through most of his interaction with Azel and any hostile creatures that wanted to mess with this party.

At some point, he could be a little bit too brutal that he even got a slight EXP reaction from Zerath.

And like the usual, Yroa also had his own steady growth in terms of stats.

[Name: Yroa Ingram]

[Lvl: 495 Malkuth]

[Domain: Physical]

[STR: 8.5]

[DEX: 14.5]

[CON: 14.8]

[INT: 65.4]

[WIS: 30.1]

[CHA: 55.9]

Yroa still couldn't use his Basic Appraisal other than this, unfortunately. Maybe going to the church that devoted themselves to the Goddess of Value would fix this, he thought.

"Alright, tonight's dinner theme is the Forest of Mushrooms~!" Yroa said as he presented the feast filled with all sorts of mushroom dishes.

"Mmm, masterful as always," Zerath commented.

"To feed someone a mushroom after going through that biome…" Azel sheepishly muttered.

Regardless, Yroa still had a long road ahead of him. But with the current pace of EXP acquisition that was ongoing, it won't be long for him to finally acquire his dungeon like a proper Dungeon Core.