Chapter 26: Journey

[You have leveled up to level 10]

[Choose an upgrade:

Poison Injection

Water Storage

Oxygen Storage]

Hiro leveled up after what happened yesterday with Cecile and Nana. Looking at the options, he chose Oxygen Storage. He considered Poison Injection, which could be helpful in combat, but he didn't want to risk contaminating animals which might be eaten by his group or sold later. So, He chose Oxygen Storage so his girls could survive in case of poison gas.

[Level up achieved!

STR: 30 -> 31

DEX: 28 -> 30

MAG: 0]

Skills:

Sense Sharing

Parasitism

Nutrient Efficiency Lvl 1

Aphrodisiac Injection

Enhanced Host Growth

Adrenaline Injection

Amphetamine Injection

Anesthesia Injection

Cell Storage 2 (80/500)

Oxygen Storage (100/100)

Cell Manipulation

Weakness to Flame

Weakness to Holy Magic

Mitosis

Nutrient Storage (100/100)

Flesh Mending

Metamorphic Tentacle (Bones, Wood)

Material Analysis

Autophagy

As usual, his stat gain from leveling up was minimal. However, any increase was good news. Once he finalized his upgrade, he noticed that the Oxygen Storage immediately filled up to 100. He figured that since he was in the open air, the oxygen naturally accumulated.

He wondered how to use the new ability. Extending a tentacle, he moved it into Cecile's mouth. Cecile instinctively opened her mouth to let him in. This happened while Cecile was working with the other girls, absorbing pangolin scales to produce iron ore.

Cecile felt aroused whenever Hiro did something, but he wasn't trying to do anything lewd today—he just wanted to test his new skill. He closed Cecile's nose, and she suddenly panicked, pushing against his tentacle.

Seeing his attempt fail, Hiro tilted his tentacle in confusion.

"Hiro… we're working right now. Don't play around," Cecile complained.

Hiro reviewed his skills again, wondering what went wrong. Did he need another ability to transfer the stored oxygen to his hosts?

After several tests during the night with Nana, Hiro figured out that he indeed needed another skill to expel the oxygen from his body. Even after Nana fainted due to oxygen deprivation, he couldn't use the oxygen storage effectively. The skill only seemed to work when he submerged his core and all of the attached tentacles, which he kept in Marissa's room for Luna, into water, leaving no tentacles above it. In that situation, the stored oxygen would slowly deplete over time.

It was a major disappointment that he needed an additional skill to make full use of the oxygen storage. He figured he just needed to work harder and level up again so he could acquire it.

"Luna, you seem to be friendly with Hiro. Will you take him now?" Marissa asked. However, Luna hesitated She didn't outright say no. But she didn't say yes either. She had grown attached to him lately—she loved poking him, and recently she was okay with Hiro nudging her ears. However, when Hiro tried to advance further, goosebumps spread across her body, and she ended up slapping Hiro away. She then hyperventilated as panic rose on her face before she settled down, knowing Hiro already pulled back.

"Hmm… not yet, I guess," Luna said. Hiro no longer viewed Luna as an object of his lustful desires. She reminded him of his younger sister years ago, back when she was still cute and adorable. After his sister found out that he was just a no-good NEET, she grew distant, and their relationship became estranged.

But Luna was a princess—she was bound to leave the village one day. Hiro wondered if she would carry him when she left. However, taking his core along would be dangerous, and his nutrient storage wouldn't work if they were too far apart, leading to the core's death.

Hiro sighed as he realized his relationship with Luna would never progress beyond friendship. If she left, Hiro wouldn't be able to follow her. Still, having a casual friend wasn't so bad. Sometimes, that was all he needed.

"Greetings! Marissa?" A week later, Seraphine returned. He had been tasked with guarding the iron ores. Of course, it was just an excuse—Seraphine was eager to travel to Marissa's village when he learned that a symbiote was targeting his sister. He was still dissatisfied that Jeremy had managed to escape him. Upon arriving at the village, Seraphine dropped off all the dragon scales he had brought and went into the forest without delay, seemingly searching for something.

"Brother!"

"Were any Latvin soldiers intruding on your village again? Any sign of that assassin?" Seraphine asked urgently.

"Why would they come here after what you did to their symbiote user…" one of the royal guards whispered aloud. Marissa could only smile wryly. In terms of damage, Seraphine, with his blazing powers, had caused more destruction to the village than Jeremy, but they couldn't say that out loud.

"Well, I'll stay the night. Don't slack off on your night watch."

"Yes, sir!" The royal guards saluted.

"Now, let's talk about production. The king was delighted with Marissa's village. You're producing about a hundred kilograms of iron ore this month—this is more than he had hoped for. Moreover, the orichalcum, though still limited, is a promising prospect. We have dungeons that spawn dragons and drakes. If we could turn those scales into ingots, their value would increase dramatically." Seraphine nodded approvingly.

Hiro felt elated by the praise. He began to understand why some people loved their work—recognition and appreciation made all the effort worthwhile. He presented an iron ingot to Seraphine as a token of his gratitude.

"Oh… are you bribing me? Ahahaha! How cute!" Seraphine laughed at Hiro's antics as he affectionately patted the tentacle.

"Rawr!!" A flaming tentacle with a mouth and sharp teeth emerged from Seraphine's neck, scaring Hiro away. Hiro was weak to fire, so even the heat emitted by the tentacle was painful. He quickly pulled himself away, returning to Marissa.

"Come on, Phoenix! He's your junior, be nice."

"What a chicken. I just raised my voice a little!" The flaming tentacle retracted and formed into another head beside Seraphine's. Unlike the calm and collected Seraphine with brown hair that Hiro knew, this one had a sour expression, red hair, and a fiercer demeanor.

"Sorry, he's muscle-brained and has a short fuse. He loves fights," Seraphine said. He then brought out the dragon scales he had previously dropped at Marissa's home. "To business then. I'd like you to turn all of these into orichalcum."

Hiro did as he was told, but the dragon scales were tough and much more challenging to process. It took him almost two hours to consume one scale. He would need to consume five of them to produce one nugget. It was far different from dealing with pangolin scales.

Marissa then spoke to Seraphine, "Brother, I must inform you that the production of these iron ores might come to a halt. The stampede season is almost over, and even with the royal guards scouring the area, they hardly find any pangolins left."

"I see. That's troubling."

"Lord Seraphine…" Rebecca raised her hand.

"Ah, just Seraphine will do. Using such titles is best left for formal occasions. What troubles you, Rebecca?"

"I was wondering if we can breed these pangolins? That way, we would have an unlimited supply of iron ore, right?"

"Nice idea! I see you have a good head on your shoulders, Rebecca. Let's capture some of these pests."

"But these pangolins are monsters, right? Can they even breed?" Marissa asked. Monsters were different from animals. They were thought to be created from mana and could spawn in places with a high concentration of chaotic mana. "Moreover, these pangolins have caused much suffering to our village…"

"Oh yeah, you're right." Rebecca nodded.

"Let's try it first!" Seraphine said, sounding excited. "I'll send some scholars I know your way. They should be able to study these pangolins."

The trainee royal guards were then tasked with capturing the pangolins. They complained, but Seraphine quickly shut them up.

"Listen, your task may sound trivial or beneath your pay grade, but this project is currently a state secret. You are the only ones trusted enough to handle this. If others learn of these projects, it could endanger Marissa and the symbiote producers. If these projects succeed, our national defense will no longer need to rely on imports!"

"Yes, sir."

They did as they were told. After gathering several pangolins, they put them all in a pen and fed them with food scraps. The pangolins were treated like pigs. Two weeks later, a scholar, as promised by Seraphine, arrived.

Hiro's eyes widened in surprise. The professor was smaller than he had expected—she looked like a little girl! Hiro mentally screamed with joy at seeing a real "legal loli." Rebecca and Nana, who had grown up in a human-supremacist country, were unsure whether the professor was human or not.

"I am Mortiana, a dwarf. Just so you know, I'm thirty-four years old," the professor said.

"Ah, I've read about them. I thought you would be… um… fatter; pardon my language," Rebecca commented.

"Well, I was malnourished when I was young. And people in Litmus don't like overweight women, so I've kept my diet in check."

"I see. Sorry about that," Nana said, embarrassed.

"Never mind. People ask that a lot," the dwarf replied, brushing it off.

"Let's get back to the topic, shall we?" Marissa interjected. She led Mortiana to the pen where the pangolins were being kept. Mortiana's eyes lit up with excitement.

"So, these are the iron pangolins you want to breed, huh? Times really have changed. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be tasked with breeding these pests instead of killing them. They've terrorized farms in Litmus, Latvin, and even other countries like Delana and Delanim."

"Well, our symbiote can extract iron ore from them, so now they're important to us," Marissa explained.

"I heard about that from Seraphine. What a fascinating creature you have. Over 80% of the symbiotes I've known are battle-oriented. This is the first symbiote I've heard of that focuses on producing resources. I've never tested this before, but monsters feed on mana. So, technically, you could breed them if you keep feeding them mana. I'll conduct the experiments and see if the same breeding techniques we used for Pteranodon riders can be applied here."

"Thank you, Professor Mortiana," Marissa said.

"You're welcome."

"Ah! Mortiana!" Luna exclaimed, running up to hug her. Even with petite Luna, Mortiana was still a head shorter. Her short brown hair resembled Cecile's.

A few weeks later, the pangolins did begin to breed. The secret was to inject them with mana daily. However, too much mana could be fatal, so it was a careful balance. Since Rebecca was a mage, she offered to be in charge of caring for the pangolins. Nana objected, reminding her that she was Marissa's knight.

"It's just temporary. Besides, without a mage staff, I can't properly fulfill my role as a mage anyway."

"Then let's buy one now! We have enough money!" Nana said, and Cecile nodded in agreement. Seeing the determined expressions on their faces, Rebecca relented. They all went to Marissa to ask permission to leave the village to find a staff or wand for Rebecca.

"Of course, you may. Have a nice adventure. Mortiana could handle the breeding for now; there is still much to test before we begin mass production. Will one month be enough?" Marissa said with a smile.

"Yes, Lady Marissa. Thank you for your kindness!" Cecile said.

And so, a new journey through the Kingdom of Litmus began. Hiro was excited to see new sights and wondered what kind of country Litmus would be.