The Devouring Dragon-Chapter 71: Cleaning Up

"So, I can just... pick one?" Latia asked me slightly doubtfully as we walked through a forest-esque area.

I was back in the former territory of Tiamat within my kingdom, which was still the only area of the Familiar Forest that was actually a forest. I'd brought Rias' peerage along with Ravel and Yubelluna here to find familiars a while ago, and I was back to finish clearing it out.

"Whichever one you feel drawn to," I shrugged, glancing over at the other woman with us, "You as well. I don't think there are many particularly powerful ones left, but whatever you want, I'll ensure you get."

"Got it," Adalina nodded at my words, being the other of the two women with me.

I had been meaning to come finish clearing out this small area of forest left for a while, but I'd been pretty distracted by my hostages. I had wanted to make the most of them being there, as I wasn't certain when Ajuka would make his move.

I had wanted my reputation with them to be as high as possible when that time came, but I wasn't as worried anymore.

Now that Rias and her peerage were living in my palace, and both Serafall and Ravel had come to visit twice already during the near week since the hostages' release, that was less of a concern. They were attached to me already, even if they actually could leave whenever they wanted.

So, I had brought Latia and Adalina to come get familiars while I finished clearing out the area. The Hydra had been the strongest creature here, aside from Tiamat of course, and there weren't any other particularly notable familiars besides Catelya and Akeno's Raiju.

But I'd still let the two women search for one that suited them, and I didn't mind having an excuse to spend time with them. After getting the Greed Island card, I was rather determined to spam more gacha pulls and try to get an item from Hunter x Hunter that would let me use Nen, which meant I needed to start farming reputation.

Luckily, the card was more of a backup plan than a major part in my actual plan, so the low odds of that happening weren't too daunting.

As we walked through the forest, I casually either killed or forced every monster we met to submit with [King's Aura] and [King's Command]. Most of them were just variations of monsters I'd already used [Devour] on, but I found my first new one pretty quickly.

[Sprite Dragon] - Level 9

The small floating blue dragon was rather cute, looking to be a baby instead of a full-grown dragon. From what I knew about Sprite Dragons they could utilize lightning, but I didn't know much else.

It didn't really matter anyway - I would take whatever skill I could get, so I'll satisfy my hunger and have a nice snack-

"It's so cute!"

My thoughts of using [Devour] on the baby dragon died as Latia ran forward, uncaring of any potential danger the Sprite Dragon posed. The woman was pretty close to Rias' level at the moment, so that danger was pretty low anyway.

"I want this one!" She decided, catching the poor dragon off guard as she abruptly wrapped her arms around it. She pulled the dragon into a hug, pressing the dragon's face into her massive breasts as the tiny beast tried to pull free.

"It is pretty cute..." Adalina agreed from beside me.

I never thought I'd be jealous of a Sprite Dragon, but I almost was as I watched the dragon try to escape from Latia's bouncing tits - a position countless men would kill to be in. That dragon didn't know how good he had it.

"You don't want to look more?" I raised an eyebrow at her as she picked the first monster we saw, "I said there weren't many powerful ones left, but you can at least find one stronger than that."

"He'll grow stronger with me!" Latia shook her head stubbornly, and I just shrugged in response.

She wouldn't need my help convincing the Sprite Dragon to make a contract with her considering how weak it was, and I was proven right when she made it her familiar pretty quickly.

Luckily, I actually ran into another Sprite Dragon not too long after - this one being fully grown - and cleverly distracted Latia so I could use [Devour] on it.

By 'cleverly distracted,' I mean that she was already distracted with pinching her new familiars cheeks as I appeared in front of the Sprite Dragon, took a bite out of his neck, and then appeared back beside her all in just a few seconds.

The only evidence that was left was a pile of dust and some blood on my lips, but after wiping it off she was none the wiser.

I found another one soon after, and with a bit of luck, from using [Devour] on the Sprite Dragons I managed to get two rather average skills: [Lightning Shot] and [Lightning Circulation].

[Lightning Shot] - Shoot out a beam of lightning.

[Lightning Circulation] - Circulate lightning within your body.

Both of the skills overlapped a bit with my other elemental-based skills, but I wasn't all that unhappy with them. [Lightning Shot] could nichely be used against certain opponents, and [Lightning Circulation] could be used to accelerate my movements and reactions if I felt like I wanted to be on Killua timing.

After that, we encountered a familiar for Adalina, which was a fair bit stronger than Latia's Sprite Dragon.

[Spritiza] [Sprite Queen] - Level 32

Despite sharing the word 'sprite' with Latia's familiar, the Sprite Queen looked nothing like a dragon. She reminded me a fair bit of Talia, the fairy who was the main coordinator for the fairy portion of my army since Tiffana was rather... unique, as she had long blue hair, a small body that was barely even a foot tall, and two wings sticking out of her back.

The only difference was that instead of porcelain soft skin, hers was blue and looked a bit scaly.

"Beast King, I've been awaiting your approach," I was lightly surprised as the small woman spoke out to me first.

Considering I had ruled the entire Familiar Forest for more than a few months at this point, and this 'Spritiza' woman was just lounging in a small open area that our trio walked into, I think she's been taking the 'waiting' approach a little too seriously. She could've approached me at any time.

"Someone as powerful as yourself could only be satisfied with a support as grand as I!" Spritiza said dramatically, floating up in front of my face with an elegant smile, "Take me, the Queen of all Sprite, as your familiar! Together, we shall form a kingdom that will last for-"

"You're hers," I cut her off bluntly, pointing at Adalina, "Sprites are known for healing, right? You guys will go well together."

"H-Her?" Spritiza sputtered as she glanced over at Adalina, but quickly composed herself, "I-I see! She must be your lover, Beast King, and you can only leave her safety in the hands of someone as grand as I!"

I looked at her blankly, glancing over at the blushing Adalina, and then back to Spritiza, "No. Not my wife."

"T-Then one of your strongest generals!" Spritiza tried again, nodding sagely to herself as she placed a hand on her chin, "Or perhaps your greatest strategist! Someone you value greatly, and must entrust the great Sprite Queen to support!'

I looked at her blankly again, not knowing if I had the heart to tell her that Adalina was closer to a nun I'd picked up off the street than a Great General. The only strategizing she did was finding a strategy to help the other nuns return to normal, and not in helping me wage war.

"...Something like that," I just shrugged, and Spritiza seemed happy with my answer.

"Then, companion of the Beast King, I will become your familiar! Together, we will extend the Beast King's glorious rule for eons to come!" Spritiza cheered, and Adalina just looked at me doubtfully.

I shrugged again, and she somewhat uncertainly made a familiar pact with the Sprite Queen.

After that encounter, I continued clearing out the rest of the monsters in the forest. For the most part, it was just monsters I'd already seen before, but by the time I mostly finished there was one more I had devoured.

That one was a Pixie, which looked like a small winged humanoid creature just like the Sprite Queen and a fairy. I got two skills after devouring a couple of them: [Floral Growth] and [Floral Explosion].

[Floral Growth] - Instantly grow flowers on a substance that can naturally grow flowers.

[Floral Explosion] - Explode a flower by looking at it.

I wasn't sure just what 'explode' meant in the skills description, but I hoped it was a decent-sized explosion at least.

The skills weren't all that great on their own - as why would I ever need to grow flowers, and when would I be around enough flowers to explode them on someone? - but together they paired together nicely.

If I were on a terrain that could naturally grow flowers, then I could literally grow flowers under my opponent's feet and blow them up. It was a pretty niche situation, but considering my territory was still largely comprised of dirt and grass, it even further increased the home-field advantage I got from being here.

After devouring so many creatures, and taking into account the huge stat gains I got from quests and utilizing the 'monster farms' in my territory, along with some regular body training I had done, my stat sheet now looked like this:

[Valon]

Level: 27 (172,550/450,000)

MP: 97,925

STR: 189,150

AGI: 207,290

END: 204,550

INT: 105,290

CHA: 99,250

LUK: 101,775

HREG: 77,190

MREG: 72,750

Skills: [Devour LVL 27], [Reinforce LVL 15], [Global Communication LVL 22], [Quick Step LVL 25], [Material Change LVL 29], [Demonic Resistance LVL 21], [Light Manipulation LVL 22], [Fire Ball LVL 25], [Intimidation LVL 34], [Physical Resistance LVL 31], [Physical Regeneration LVL 29], [Physical Morph LVL 25], [Sharpen LVL 17], [Enhanced Smell LVL 12], [Enhanced Vision LVL 15], [Predator's Howl LVL 15], [King's Aura LVL 41], [King's Command LVL 40], [Ice Resistance LVL 22], [Frostify LVL 23], [Precision Aim LVL 17], [Rough Skin LVL 22], [Mental Resistance LVL 29], [Lie Detection LVL 18], [Scavenging LVL 21], [Fearful Rage LVL 21], [Fire Resistance LVL 22], [Thermal Vision LVL 24], [Light Resistance LVL 31], [Light Heal LVL 32], [Alluring Aura LVL 31], [Charm LVL 31], [Phenex Immortality LVL 27], [Hellfire LVL 17], [Blizzard LVL 15], [Ice Beam LVL 14], [Ice Conjuring LVL 12], [Draconic Resistance LVL 11], [Smithing LVL 32], [Enchant LVL 32], [Weakness Sense LVL 34], [Runecraft LVL 37], [Demonic Power LVL 18], [Worthless LVL 14], [Holy Power LVL 14], [Translator LVL 12], [Scale Armor LVL 11], [Ash Cloud LVL 15], [Flame Inferno LVL 12], [Fire Beam LVL 12], [Iron Wall LVL 35], [Metallic Weaponary Mastery LVL 27], [Loyal Men LVL 29], [Ore Refinery LVL 25], [Gem Refinery LVL 25], [Intoxication Resistance LVL 29], [Underground Familiarity LVL 28], [Repair LVL 25], [Strength Boost LVL 32], [Crushing Blow LVL 30], [Trophy Collector LVL 27], [Volcanic Forging LVL 25], [Earthquaking Stomp LVL 28], [Iron Gut LVL 29], [Titanic Grip LVL 30], [Pheromone Manipulation LVL 28], [Appearance Disguise LVL 28], [MP Buff LVL 40], [AGI Buff LVL 40], [STR Buff LVL 40], [END Buff LVL 40], [CHA Buff LVL 40], [HREG Buff LVL 40], [MREG Buff LVL 40], [LUK Buff LVL 40], [INT Buff LVL 40], [Contract Making LVL 29], [Voice Manipulation LVL 27], [BadLUK Charm LVL 28], [GoodLUK Charm LVL 37], [Minor Weather Manipulation LVL 28], [Flash LVL 45], [Light Barrier LVL 29], [Light Weaponry LVL 27], [Demonic Teleportation LVL 17], [Demonic Hypnosis LVL 7], [Starsend Moment LVL 12], [Enhanced Flight LVL 12], [Demonic Regeneration LVL 7], [Powerful Blow LVL 7], [Sense Focus LVL 8], [Seismic Sense LVL 8], [Echo Location LVL 1], [Devour Morph LVL 22], [Elemental Control LVL 7], [Elemental Resistance LVL 10], [Almost Acid Production LVL 12], [Aphrodisiac Slime Production LVL 57], [Lightning Shot LVL 2], [Lightning Circulation LVL 2], [Floral Growth LVL 4], [Floral Explosion LVL 4]

I was pretty satisfied with the results. I already had a plan of how to take down Sirzechs, but having more skills and stats could never hurt.

I was starting to feel a bit bad for the man. He hadn't really done anything wrong, and it was purely because of Ajuka that I had to do what I was going to.

Sirzechs wouldn't know what hit him.

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AN: Thank you for reading! The next Chapter will be out tomorrow!

You can also read the next 7 Chapters right now on Patreon.com/Koyon !ƒrēenovelkiss.com