The Devouring Dragon

"Stay a little bit longer…" A female voice whined behind me, belonging to Shera.

"I have work to do," I said simply, leaving the whining woman lying on my bed, along with the other two sexy wolf-girls that Raya had brought me.

Apparently, dire wolves loved to mate. That was both awesome and unfortunate at the same time.

Awesome because I had three sexy women constantly trying to get into my pants. The women took their role very seriously, as when Raya had told them that 'their sole purpose is to mate' they had taken it to heart.

They rarely ever left my castle/mansion hybrid, especially now that I had worked with Chippy to improve the building.

While I would get access to more modern products once I could interact with the outside world, I was stuck with what was in the forest during the tutorial. While bathing in a river wasn't terrible, it wasn't the most comfortable thing either.

So, I had worked with Chippy and the Chipmunk Platoon to create a series of 'pipes' - which were just hallowed out logs that I had turned into metal - to run water from a waterfall on the side of the mountain into my home.

Then, I cut a series of small holes in the roof of a room, allowing the water to flow in like a constant shower. 

Now that they could bathe in the building, and that Raya had assigned a group of four-legged wolves to hunt and bring us food daily, the women were practically always in my room waiting for me to return so they could jump me.

"You can work later, Your Highness… we need to mate more!" Runa complained behind me, but I ignored her.

I shut the door behind me, quickly walking to the exit of the castle and heading back out into the forest.

I was in a bit of a downtime situation right now - Vargan was still finishing preparing his forces, as well as creating the final couple of hundred sets of armor for my army. We couldn't begin the war yet.

Though, with my new armor and weapon I felt like I could take on both the Dwarven Kingdom and the Succubus Queen by myself now. The newfound power I had while wearing it had igniting a fire within me, making me even hungrier - both for flesh and land.

But, alas, that wasn't the most efficient option. If I betrayed Vargan already, then I'd lose out on a lot.

I could probably get a bunch of creation-type skills from devouring dwarves and cyclops, thus allowing me to make armor and weapons myself, but why would I do that when they were already doing it for me?

It was better to let my army get fully armored up before I soured my relationship with the dwarves.

Meanwhile, Raya and Podo were doing most of the actual work in preparing my own territory. I had to give them directions at times, but they were doing most of the work in regards to preparing my own forces for war, as well as securing my territory for after the war.

So, I was left in a bit of a boring position. I couldn't attack the dwarves or the Meadow of Love yet, and I wasn't dumb enough to go challenge Tiamat just because I was bored. My own territory was being taken care of, and I could only have sex with Shera, Runa, and Layna so many times before I needed some new stimulation.

And so, I headed directly toward the outskirts of my territory. Once I reached it, I continued, heading deeper into the forest, but in the northern direction.

I had already seen most of the creatures in the neutral zone between my territory and the Succubus Queen's, having devoured or forced them into my army, but I hadn't personally made an effort to explore the rest of the neutral territory.

There were many more species of monsters within the forest, and it would be a waste not to take their skills, even if the low-level monsters wouldn't give me many stats.

As I walked deeper into the forest, I quickly spotted something I hadn't seen before. 

Up ahead, there was a troll, but it was what he was fighting that was unique. Four long, white snakes were surrounding the troll, their teeth raking into the stupid troll as it swung its fists at them dumbly.

[Frost Serpent] - Level 7

[Frost Serpent] - Level 5

[Frost Serpent] - Level 9

[Frost Serpent] - Level 9

A frost serpent? That's new.

Luckily, I was far stronger than I had been in the past when I went hunting, so it went much quicker than usual.

I blitzed forward, and before any of the creatures even knew I was there they were dead. Four heads rolled on the ground, and I shifted my bladed hand back to normal.

I reached down, grabbing the long body of the serpent and taking a bite out of it. It was strange to think that something like this would've been delicious before - now, it still tasted good, but it was a bit dull.

[Devour] has been used on [Frost Serpent] - Level 9.

You have gained:

+100HP (25,270/25,270)

+10 MAX HP (25,280/25,280)

+ 20 AGI

+10 STR

+20 XP

+ [Ice Resistance] Skill!

[Ice Resistance] - [Ice] attacks will do less damage to you!

Well, I didn't know how often I'd be going up against ice users, but it was still nice to have. 

I glanced into the forest ahead of me.

Considering I'd possibly have to fight a certain magical girl ice-user in the future, I should at least level up this skill a bit more.

I continued deeper into the forest, finding more frost serpents pretty easily. Once again, they died before they even knew what was happening. 

This time, I got a different skill for my efforts.

[Devour] has been used on [Frost Serpent] - Level 7.

You have gained:

+70HP (25,280/25,280)

+10 MAX HP (25,290/25,290)

+ 17 AGI

+7 STR

+15 XP

+ [Frostify] Skill!

[Frostify] - Apply the [Frozen] debuff to something!

I nodded approvingly at the new skill.

I didn't have any debuff skills yet, and I hadn't seen any debuff skills used in general, so this was a first.

I wasn't sure what [Frozen] would do, but I assumed it would have something to do with slowing someone down, or possibly countering a fire-user.

I spent the next couple of hours exploring that section, consuming more serpents, and ran into another type of monster as I did.

A small, leathery-skinned creature floated in the air. It had an ugly face, two thin wings, and brown skin covered in warts.

[Harpy] - Level 5

"A harpy?" I hummed, looking up at the small creature. It heard me as I spoke, spinning around and holding up a small pebble in its hand.

It threw the rock at me, and I didn't even react, letting the rock bounce off my head as it did nothing against my high endurance.

A moment later, my bladed hand cut clean through the harpy, and I was taking a bite out of it's flesh.

[Devour] has been used on [Harpy] - Level 7.

You have gained:

+70HP (25,455/25,455)

+5 MAX HP (25,460/25,460)

+ 30 AGI

+5 STR

+2 END

+15 XP

+ [Precision Aim] Skill!

[Precision Aim] - Increase your aiming ability, increasing your likelihood of hitting a long-range attack.

I was more of a close-combat fighter, but it didn't hurt to have. I might find myself with an overpowered bow or something in the future.

…

Was that foreshadowing? Can I even foreshadow myself?

I hope so.

I continued hunting in the forest, finding more harpies and getting the second common skill from them - [Rough Skin].

[Rough Skin] - Make your skin rough, causing damage to those who attack you physically.

The harpies turned out to have two good skills, as having this one essentially meant that even when I took a hit, my enemy would also take a bit of damage. 

No one could get a free hit off on me - they'd have to suffer a bit for every time they landed a blow.

As I ventured more to the north, I ended up in the exact middle of the forest - the small circle of neutral territory that all the lines of neutral land led into.

As I did, the amount of differing monsters around me skyrocketed. It seemed like this was the hub for weak creatures to live, as it wasn't inside any territory or in any hunting grounds.

First, I encountered Imps - small little creatures with pink fleshy skin, huge ears, and who overall looked more like a stereotypical demon.

They seemed to use more magic-type attacks, but obviously they were nothing but a snack to me. I consumed a couple as soon as I entered that part of the forest and got two more skills for my trouble.

[Mental Resistance] - [Mental] attacks will be less effective!

[Lie Detection] - Increase your chances of discerning a lie.

It seemed that the imps were less combat-focused, which was unfortunate for them considering they were in this ruthless forest, but great for me.

Being able to resist mental attacks would be good for taking on the Succubus Queen - I assumed that Succubus would probably mainly rely on that type of combat.

Being able to discern lies was also useful, and would only become more useful once I was outside of the tutorial. When I would be dealing with devils, I had no doubt that they'd try to trick me.

After the imps, the next type of creature I found was a bright red lizard - aptly called [Fire Salamander].

It was more combat-oriented than the imps, but still didn't even put up a fight against me.

Just like with the imps, I got the two common skills from the salamanders before I started focusing on other creatures.

[Fire Resistance] - [Fire] attacks will do less damage to you!

[Thermal Vision] - Enhance your eyes, allowing you to see heat signatures.

The fire resistance was all-around good, especially considering fire was utilized by one of the more powerful devil clans in the Phenex.

Thermal vision was also nice - my eyes were already supernaturally good, allowing me to see even in the pitch-black forest, but this could help me against any skills that tried to hide someone.

The next type of monster was more disappointing, being the stereotypical weak monster - goblins.

Obviously, I had killed them before they could even react, and the skills weren't too terrible. In fact, for such a weak type of monster, they were actually pretty good.

[Scavenging] - Increase your chances of making an item out of scraps.

[Fearful Rage] - Turn all your INT into STR. Only usable when below 5% of MAX HP.

I wasn't sure how much of a difference [Scavenging] made, but it could be combined with [Material Change] to help me with improving some of the bootleg stuff I had made - like the windows and shower in my house.

The second skill was useful, but also not useful. It could end up helping me in a niche situation, but I hoped I'd never find myself below 5% HP, and if I was about to die becoming a mindless steroid-powered beast probably wouldn't save me.

I hunted for the rest of day, focusing on leveling up all the new skills I had gotten as efficiently as I could, and then decided to call it a day. 

Ten new skills were enough to satisfy me, and I'd have more time to weed out the rest of the creatures that I hadn't devoured yet another time.

Finally, but the end of the day, my stats looked much different.

[Valon]

Level: 18 (27,975/100,000)

MP: 8,270

STR: 17,990

AGI: 15,250

END: 25,120

INT: 2,275

CHA: 7,900

LUK: 5,575

HREG: 550

MREG: 550

Skills: [Devour LVL19], [Reinforce LVL4], [Global Communication LVL9], [Quick Step LVL14], [Material Change LVL17], [Demonic Resistance LVL12], [Light Manipulation LVL7], [Fire Ball LVL10], [Intimidation LVL14], [Physical Resistance LVL13], [Physical Regeneration LVL17], [Physical Morph LVL17], [Sharpen LVL1], [Enhanced Smell LVL2], [Enhanced Vision LVL4], [Predator's Howl LVL2], [King's Aura LVL7], [King's Command LVL7], [Ice Resistance LVL8], [Frostify LVL8], [Precision Aim LVL7], [Rough Skin LVL7], [Mental Resistance LVL5], [Lie Detection LVL5], [Scavenging LVL12], [Fearful Rage LVL11]

With how much more powerful I was from constantly improving my stats, I was able to hunt much more efficiently than at the start of my life in this world.

As a result, I had managed to get most of my stats close to level 10 in just one day - something that had previously taken days, or even weeks.

As I headed back to my mansion to spend another night with three sexy wolf-girls, I felt like the day had been quite productive.

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AN: Thank you for reading! Decided to post a public chapter today along with adding another one on Patreon! 

So, up to chapter 29 is available on Patreon.com/Koyon for those interested! 

Also, the next bunch of chapters ended up being much longer than usual (a couple are about twice as long) so let me know if you prefer that or the usual length when they come out!

Going to be updating Nightmare Mode tomorrow, but I'll be back with another chapter the day after! Cya then!