Demonic Devourer's Development

I fluttered in the air, dodging spears, darts, stones and arrows, while Pest finished the dark cloud spell. When he did, the difference became immediate. Magical darkness blended with darkness natural, and even the magic stone\'s glow was consumed by it. My pursuers lost the sight of me, and I of them—but I heard no more projectiles swishing anywhere near me.

After that, getting out was simple. The hardest part was pushing the magic stone out of the embrasure I picked as my exit, but luckily for me, it fit, if barely. I flew under the cloak of darkness away from the fortress and into the winding caves, until the walls weren\'t in sight anymore, and ordered Pest to drop the spell.

Then I dropped the rock, too. It was too heavy to haul around like that without breaks, and my hands were tired from it under all the tingles they had. If I hauled it around, I would increase my STR a lot… But running from and after monsters would become complicated.

It was better to decide what to do with my treasure right now. And the rock certainly was a treasure. Even if I understood little about its powers, shiny magic stuff in my mind was a perfect example of a classical treasure. Rocks—jewels, mostly—weapons, armour, accessories… Gold. The shinier the better.

Besides, after the trouble I went to get it, I\'d better get something good from this stone.

It seemed to be that the glow and the tingles were a way the innate magic of the stone showed itself. That magic was spreading thing, too. It passed onto everything it touched, but dissolved with time. The improvements it gave to one\'s body looked permanent, though. Also, for some reason, water seemed to gather that magic energy better than most other substances. I touched the stone with my hands, but they weren\'t glowing. But my pants did.

Maybe it was because I was a living creature, or maybe because my hands were thicker than my pants? Then again, no one who regularly drank the rainbow water glowed, either.

If that energy improved one\'s body, it would be in my interests to get as much of it as I could. But when I drank too much water, I got a stomachache. Besides, something else got on my mind. I didn\'t know if it was related, but it felt like a sound warning. "I\'d gave you more, but then I think you\'d explode," the First Bastard told me in the Prophet\'s vision, talking about powers.

Could I explode from getting too much of the rainbow magic at once?

I decided to consult. \'Pest, do you know anything about stuff like that magic rock or anything like it?\'

\'Uhh, let me think…\'

\'Think fast.\'

\'I\'m thinking, thinking! I have centuries to think about. Yes, I think I know something. When it comes to weird stuff, there\'s plenty of it in the world, especially in remote places adventurers didn\'t yet got to. There\'s a legend, sort of, about it. Speculation. You know how monsters came from original chaos? Well, this stuff is the same. Chaos, after all, could be anything. It\'s in its definition.\'

\'So in other words, this rock can be anything and do whatever, and you have no idea what exactly?\'

\'Well, you saw it yourself! It gives power. But, ah, if you had a thought of eating it, then please, don\'t. If you have to kill yourself, do it by someone\'s claw or tooth, not like that. You don\'t want to doom me too, right? I\'ve been so helpful to you.\'

I huffed. \'Sometimes, a person has to take a calculated risk… also, Pest, remember who\'s the master here and who\'s the slave I keep in my head despite his grating voice.\'

\'How can one forget?\' Pest hissed and shut up.

I was back to the matter at hand. What to do with the magic rock? Eating it would be unwise, that was true, and hauling it around would be very inconvenient. But it would give me power just by proximity…

In the end, I started with making a temporary camp out of the cave I found by spinning webs at the entrance and making myself a hammock inside. Then, I used my claw to carefully scrap a nail-sized sliver from the dullest part of the stone.

Then, I thought again. If there was something to ensure further that I would be able to live through what I planned to do, I had to do it, and I had an idea about what there was to do. There was an ability I didn\'t take before, but maybe it won\'t be as useless as it seemed.

\'Eating Adaptability\' that I got from the shit jelly. It seemed useless since I already had \'Devourer\', but in case there was a chance it wouldn\'t, I took it now. It was cheap, after all—just 1 EXP for its base cost.

As soon as I bought the first level, a notification appeared in front of me.

[A possibility for merging had been detected. \'Eating Adaptability\' could merge with \'Devourer\'. Due to the difference in levels of the abilities, you are required to pay ERROR_CODE_NUMERICAL_VALUE_OVERFLOW EXP. Proceed?]

Huh?

Then, before I could agree or dismiss the notification, it changed before my eyes.

[Congratulations! A possibility for upgrade had been detected. \'Devourer\' will be upgraded to \'Absolute Devourer\'. All your current EXP will be used in the process. Start the upgrade immediately, or delay it for an hour?]

What was that? This was a first. Was the System messing with me? How… how \'Devourer\' could even merge with anything? Pest couldn\'t suck EXP out of it—he\'d do that long ago if he could. I couldn\'t put EXP into it—it was at the maximum level as long as I could remember.

\'Pest, do you see that, too?\'

\'See what?\'

I took it as a no.. There was a limit to Pest\'s ability to look at my character sheet, then. So what I would do now?