Golden Experience-Chapter 218: “Snake King’s Awakening”

It’s been a day since I captured Stanislav. Still no word from Blanc.

I had planned to report the results of the experiment when Blanc contacted me, but I won’t bother contacting her first. It’s Blanc we’re talking about. If I do, I bet she’ll come flying no matter what. Let her do her thing.

If there’s something else that needs to be done, it should be taken care of first.

So, I decided to check other things first.

First and foremost, I need to acquire new skills, including [Sky Drive]. In the past few days, I’ve done so many things that I can’t remember the trigger anymore, but now that it’s unlocked, I must obtain it.

[Sky Drive] is a must-have. Being able to brace oneself in midair is crucial. In aerial combat, speed tends to increase, and while it’s unclear if there will be opportunities for literal close-quarters combat in the air, having more options is always better.

In general, in aerial combat, speed and altitude determine the key to combat power. However, in a world where attack power fluctuates not just based on mass but also on ability values and skills, it’s not always that straightforward.

Also, the ability to take evasive action with just footwork while stationary in the air is valuable.

There was also an unlocked skill in the [This is a Blessing and a Curse] tree. This tree is a cursed skill tree where the activation keywords cannot be changed, but so far, it only consists of passive skills, so there’s no need to worry too much.

The unlocked skill was [Hunger Teaches Many Things]. (T/N: the furigana says “multa docet fames”)

Its effect is to “grant INT bonus based on the decrease in satiety gauge”. In other words, it’s a skill that makes you smarter when hungry, as the name suggests. Well, the original phrase probably doesn’t mean that, but the game skill effect is straightforward.

When satiated, the INT bonus becomes a negative percentage. So, essentially, being full makes you a bit dull. Since being in a completely satiated state is rare, except right after a meal, and keeping the stomach about 80% full during meals eliminates the drawbacks, it’s almost like a buff with no disadvantages.

Once acquired, this skill cannot be turned off, but overall, I judged the benefits to be greater.

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“Could it be that [Cooking] was the unlocking condition for this?”

If it’s a passive skill that benefits from being hungry, those who acquire it would likely try to stay hungry as much as possible. There’s a saying that hunger is the best seasoning, so you can always have delicious meals.

No, the effect diminishes after eating. It’s nice to have delicious meals, but you can’t eat them. Too bad.

I’m not sure if there’s synergy or not.

There was another skill unlocked in this tree called [The Wise Rule The Heart, The Foolish Are Enslaved]. (T/N: the furigana says “animo imperavit sapiens, stultus serviet”)

This one was surprisingly an active skill. To acquire it, you need a lot of experience points, and the cost of activation is very heavy. For its activation, both LP and MP are consumed, not at a fixed value but 40% each in proportion. This is not a game mechanic I’ve seen much at all so far. And for me, where these are effectively shared, it’s not a favorable feature.

Considering the risk of decreasing LP, it could be used once during a battle, at most.

Also, since the activation keyword cannot be changed, you need to pronounce all these words to use the skill. It could be quite troublesome.

But it has significant effects.

The effect is to “dominate all characters affected by the buffs or debuffs cast by oneself.” It feels a bit off or different from what I originally wanted to say, but that’s fine.

By combining it with area-of-effect buffs or debuffs, you can cast “domination” over a wide range at once.

Furthermore, no resistance check is made during the activation of this skill. If the characters are under the influence of buffs or debuffs, they can be dominated without question.

While debuffs may have some resistance, many won’t resist buffs.

However, suddenly casting buffs on opponents will naturally make them wary.

A situation where it can be effectively utilized is perhaps pretending to support someone during a temporary alliance, casting buffs, and then activating [The Wise Rule The Heart, The Foolish Are Enslaved] the moment it takes effect to betray them.

There could be cases where I’m officially hostile to Lyra or Blanc. In such cases, it might be possible to manipulate interference against a troublesome third party.

I’ll consider it as one of the possibilities.

It’s a bit expensive in terms of skill points, but since it’s not passive, there’s no danger in acquiring it. I also obtained this one.

“This um… Animo Imperavit Sapiens, Stultus Serviet… it seems? Can I even remember this? Well, the skills in this tree seem difficult to use or have significant risks. It’s more like throwing in someone who can’t decide whether they’re a blessing or a curse.”

Other than that, I didn’t acquire [Birthing].

I also obtained several skills other than the active skills in the [Swordsmanship] tree. Passive skills that provide bonuses when attacking with a sword, damage reduction when defending with a sword, and bonuses to success checks.

“[Thread] has its own tree too. There are sticky threads and stretchable threads. Vertical threads and horizontal threads, perhaps? Let’s get these too. Oh, there’s [Slashing Thread]! Maybe it’s because of the [Sword] trait.”

[Slashing Thread] was not possessed by the Tarantula and Queen Arachnea. Considering the difference between them and me, it’s probably related to their traits.

“Let’s see… [Release: Thread] and… It looks the same, but threads come out from the fingertips. Not from the wrist. Sugaru’s was from the palm, right? Well, anywhere is fine.”

Thin threads are secreted from the gaps between the claws.

The thickness of the threads cannot be changed, so if you want thicker threads, you have to overlap them.

When I borrowed Queen Arachnea’s body in the past, the threads seemed thicker. It seems that the specifications differ depending on the inner diameter of the thread emission duct.

So, if you turn on the giant body, you can also secrete thick threads.

“But the strength of the thread seems to be more affected by DEX values and the effects of other skills than thickness. It doesn’t matter if it remains thin. [Slashing Thread] and… Oops!”

When I lightly swung it, I accidentally cut through the armor of the nearby Mithril Golem Adamas Shroud, which was waiting.

His armor should be as strong as Adamas.

This [Slashing Thread] should have lower strength than Adamas when [Diamond Steel] is not activated.

“Is it the effect of the skill or the difference in ability values? It’s like the Portree knights damaging Ururu with low-ranked weapons. Probably.”

While sending [Recovery] to the Mithril Golem, I continued the verification.

The armor of the Mithril Golem is his characteristic, so if I recover LP, it will return to its original state.

If you cause damage to the extent of a limb being cut off or receive a part destruction judgment, you would need to use a regeneration potion or kill it once and respawn it. However, this level of damage is not a problem.

Manipulating threads requires practice, but it seems possible to use it as a basis for combat.

There might be cases where the wings interfere with movement, but for now, I can store them away.

After some combat training with Lyra’s Abigor in the clearing of Tore Forest for a while, I finally received a message from Blanc.

It seems she has captured the next city of Zastava.

That city is apparently of a similar size to Erntal, not as large as La Colinne but with periodic markets for crops from surrounding small towns and also serving as a storage facility for emergency supplies. As advised, she seems to have only captured the absolute minimum strategic points.

The name of the city, as revealed through questioning after turning its residents into vampires, is Kaniets.

<Anyway, I’m heading there now!>

It’s okay for her to come now, but Blanc can’t come directly here. She can either warp to Erntal and fly from there or warp to the city of Rifure and transfer to a safety area near Tore Forest from there.

Either way, it will take a little more time.

During this time, I decided to contact Lyra just in case. I don’t know if she’s interested in transforming into a hero, but she seems likely to show interest in monsters.

*

“Wow, so if I can acquire the trait of [Transformation], I can also pretend to be human. Is that the reason why Rare-chan doesn’t have wings anymore?”

“Well, yeah. Lyra also has slightly pointed ears like me, but it’s not that noticeable.”

“If I had known earlier, I might not have needed to find a substitute… No, it’s impossible. In any case, it would be too inconvenient for me as a player to [Subordinate] another, and it would be too troublesome for me to be visible anyway since I have the same face as Rare-chan.”

“So you found a substitute in the end?”

“Yeah, I did, to Subordinate the player Justiz. At first, I thought about kidnapping someone from the city, but I felt like it would be faster to promote a female knight who was already under my command. So I found a random dark-haired girl, reincarnated her into a noble, and renamed her.”

“You can rename them?”

“Rare-chan, you give names to your subordinates too, right? It’s the same thing. You can only name them once, but it seems like it doesn’t matter if there’s an existing name or not. So, when naming a species with some human culture, you often end up with a rename.”

“I see. I didn’t know because I never thought about it. You have have lots of human subordinates compared to me. They should be extensively researched.”

“By the way, players can partially rename themselves under certain conditions. I also got a message about choosing a surname when the Aural King appointed me as the Lord of Hugelcup. I didn’t bother with it, though.”

“Some players have surnames too. So, if that Monkey Dive Sasuke guy became the Lord of Hugelcup, would he become something like Monkey Dive Sasuke Hugelcup?”

“Well, that’s enough about the substitute. I also want the [Transformation] trait; how can I get it?”

“Well, first, you need a species with the [Transformation] trait. I used the Queen Arthropoda species. You know, the same as Sugaru over there. But Hideo-kun, the first transforming guy I found, apparently used a hundred dung beetles.”

“Dung beetles…! That’s some incredible dedication…”

“Indeed. If Lyra says she’ll do the same, I’ll be waiting for her to catch insects around here.”

“I won’t. What about me? How does Rare-chan look?”

“If I had to say, maybe spider-like? Though she doesn’t show it.”

“So, it looks like Arachnea? I see… Oh!”

“What? It sounds intriguing.”

“Just remembered a local specialty from my country. Is that material something that needs to be alive?”

“I wonder. Stanislav?”

“Yes. When using monsters, it seems they need to be alive, but it seems regular insects like dung beetles are fine even if they’re dead.”

“So, ordinary insects are treated like items, huh? Just being alive and moving around is enough.”

“Exactly. Well, whatever. Since I’m not going to eat it. So, do I just throw this in? Do you want it slimy?”

“That doesn’t matter much. Well, you might not know since it’s a rare fish in the real world, but eels and conger eels transform, you know? They’re called leptocephalus larvae when they’re small, flat, and transparent.”

“Really!”

“By the way, sea urchins also transform. I gave up on those because they’re not readily available in Aural, but they start with plankton, right? Called the Pluteus larva. As they grow and incorporate glycerolipids, a distinctive lipid group mainly found in plants, they transform into small sea urchins with eight arms.”

“Fascinating, but it’s not something I urgently need to know now. Summarize it in a message later. So, are you extracting [Transformation] from the eel?”

“Yeah, that’s right. [Transformation] comes from this eel. And then…”

*

After a while, Blanc finally arrived, and what she saw was a monster as massive as Ururu and Ubel.

“Whoa, what is this! A Snake monster!? A Giant Medusa!?”

“It’s me, Lyra.”

“Lyra-san!? What did you do to deserve such a punishment!?”

“I wished for it myself.”

“You transformed into this on your own!? If you had worries, you should have told us!”

“Isn’t this a bit much?”

If my fully transformed form had a giant Arachnea with wings as a base, Lyra might be more like a Lamia. However, not a proper Lamia.

The snake-like lower half was covered in scales, slimy and shiny, giving off an unsettling vibe when combined with the feminine silhouette of the upper half. Additionally, wings made of countless hand-like structures were woven from the back of the snake part. It was a collaboration of wings and ominous hands. Blanc might have mistakenly called it Medusa, thinking these were hair.

Furthermore, the humanoid upper half, just like my Arachnea, was clad in black armor, presumably the effect of [Armor] and [Adamant Steel].

And from the forehead of the humanoid upper half, Lyra’s original upper body sprouted.

It seems that the Demon King isn’t the only one with a strong influence.

Lyra absorbed a large amount of eels, Adamas armor, and a Gargouille.

Initially, she intended to use Abigor, but I, having witnessed the pitiful sight of him—or her, who knows—convinced Lyra to stop. I had some history of combat training with Abigor. The experience of fighting with a superior entity like myself could be a significant advantage that wasn’t possible to express in numbers. Lyra was persuaded with that reasoning.

So, Lyra, instead of Abigor, summoned a large number of Aural Skinks on the way and used them again as materials to create a Gargouille.

As a result, the eel-like slender shape and the scales of the Gargouille merged, adding a snake-like form to the lower half.

Activating the [Snake Path] trait revealed this eel-like shape. The swimming technique that wiggles like an eel is also called [Snake Path], and the trait’s effect is “Capable of walking or swimming even without legs or fins, and gains a speed bonus for non-limb-assisted movement”.

By activating Snake Path and Scales, the lower half became a huge snake-like shape, truly resembling a Lamia, similar to how I transform into an Arachnea with multiple legs and a carapace.

“Interesting! It feels like the Evil King and Snake King combined!”

“Yeah, come to think of it, it’s not bad.”

“Crap, I absorbed the spider without thinking…”

However, I couldn’t even come up with a suitable creature with the reading “ma”. (T/N: “ma” is from “maou” which translates to Demon Lord)

“Is Rare a spider?”

“Come on, show it to me! Show it to me too!”

“No way.”

Monsters are supposed to grow larger only when they’re in a predicament. Well, not that I’m a monster.

“Is Rare-chan big too? Are you two going in that direction? Then maybe I should have been a giant of light or ridden a giant robot instead of being a life-sized hero. No, I remember being like a Kamen Rider in another instance.”

“Anything is fine, but first, you need a race with the [Transformation] trait.”

“It’s okay! I caught some on the way! Look!”

In Blanc’s hand was something like a bug cage, filled with stag beetles. The unusually long time it took was apparently spent catching bugs.

“Why did you bring a bug cage…”

“They were selling them in the town of Rifure.”

“Originally, it’s probably meant for things like fruits or bread. By combining two of them, it’s being used as a bug cage.”

Azalea and the others also have such cages. If you add them all together, it should be enough for a hundred. For the same kind of thing, you don’t need to do it a hundred times even if you need a hundred.

“Okay, so first, um, [Transformation] and [Carapace], right? Do these guys not have multiple legs? Do you need more than eight legs?”

“Hurry, hurry.”

“Okay, okay. Stanislav.”

“At your service.”

Blanc enthusiastically faced the flask, and the bugs were thrown into the materials side without removing the cage.

As for whether the cage doesn’t need to be removed, Stanislav explained that it seems to be necessary to put a hundred at a time, just like bugs.

“Transformation!… Huh?”

“If you don’t change the activation key, it won’t activate like that.”

“Ah, I see! But I don’t know how to do it.”

“Well, just try anything for now.”

“Uhh… I guess I have no choice. So, um, [Transformation].”

“Why are you blushing now?”

“Just wait! Ah-“

Magenta tried to stop her, but it was too late. At that moment, Blanc’s clothes were torn from the inside, transforming into a figure that looked like a beetle forcibly remodeled into a humanoid shape.

As a whole silhouette, it closely resembled Hideo. Being a female body, it looked slim, and unrelated, but surprisingly, Blanc had longer legs than expected.

If there’s anything different from Hideo, it might be the lack of jagged edges on the arms and around the mouth, and the fact that there are well-shaped horns on the head.

Despite being female? I thought, but considering that the insect-type monsters apparently don’t have genders, it might not matter in the form of a creature with the traits of an insect. The form might not have a gender.

The fine design also had more of an adult-oriented or generally a biologically grotesque feel than Hideo’s. However, this is likely within the realm of individuality. It could be compared to designs like “Another-something” or “Alternative-something” within the same work.

And one more thing, the gloss on the surface of the armor is different.

Looking closely, Hideo’s armor was probably iron armor. Blanc’s armor, which wasn’t there anymore, was just the exoskeleton of a stag beetle. Considering it was originally just an insect, there might not be much of a bonus in terms of strength. Perhaps “Damage Nullification below the decimal point” is the only common effect of the exoskeleton.

“Wow? This is pretty cool, isn’t it?”

Blanc rejoiced nonchalantly, but Azalea and Magenta sighed.

“Anyway, let’s get something similar to Blanc’s clothes in the town of Rifure. Since Mare and Gustav aren’t here, um, I’ll ask Cervantes. It’s okay if it’s men’s clothes, right?”

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