Kouske's POV

I just bought Beelzebub's bloodline.

Beelzebub Bloodline (B+): Enables the ability to command insect types and integrate and use their powers to their fullest extent possible - 45000 pts.

Yeah, it's not bad, but it's not all that groundbreaking either. My taming skill can do way better than this. After the integration, I didn't notice much of a difference, and I didn't get any magic circles of any type, probably because a pure-blooded heir is still alive and kicking.

I glance at my points, hovering around 650k. It might seem like a lot, but in reality, it isn't. I've been cautious, saving in case of urgent need or for anything Akatsuki might require, like buying sacred gears or similar items for its members. I'm also saving up for those conceptual powers, like Instant Death, Infinity, Life, Absolute Adaptation etc., at the Ex rank. They cost several million each, and even the lowest ones come with a hefty price tag. It was surprising to see such a spike in prices, but what can I do?

*sigh*

After testing out the ability, suddenly I had an idea. Issei had integrated objects into his sacred gear before, so couldn't I do the same with mine? I brought out Arondight. Could I integrate it?

"Be careful. It might cause some unknown side effects," Vritra warned.

[Kouske, it will cause some strain on your soul. But I think you will be fine with your immortality,] Clarice added solemnly.

"Hmm."

I anticipated it already. Let's just hope it doesn't hurt too much. I teleported to the slime dungeon. Now, there was a huge number of slimes resting in this place, all of which were my familiars. Additionally, more slimes also birthed here periodically by the dungeon. Their powers have significantly evolved after repeated grinding in the other dungeons. They already have some kind of corrosive/acidic powers. Now, if I could grant them the gigantification skill, they would be truly monstrous. Just imagining my enemies coming in unguarded and seeing huge slimes eating them up and disintegrating them into oblivion is terrifying.

As I pondered these thoughts, I started the process but felt a sudden pang of pain in my right hand, which was holding Arondight. My hand was getting fatally injured and healing rapidly in quick succession constantly, pouring blood all over the place. Unconsciously, I yelled out loud. The slimes gathered around me in concern, but I mentally ordered them to vacate this place quickly. They left, showing concern for my well-being.

"" Kyu""

I could also hear Clarice's yelling, while Vritra remained as calm as possible. I bore through the pain, and after who knows how much time, I felt the process completed. It wasn't a good feeling to attach something artificially to my soul myself when I didn't even have any soul-manipulating powers. I shouldn't bother doing this again before acquiring some good soul manipulation powers. I was drenched in sweat and pretty exhausted.

"[Kouske! Are you okay?]" Clarice asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied, looking at my status.

Kouske Miyamura
- Race: Human-Dragon Hybrid
- Age: 7 years
- Strength (Str): D-
- Endurance (End): D-
- Agility (Agi): D-
- Mana: D+
Skills:
- Summoning
- Taming
- Hypnosis (D)
- Body Transformation (D-)
- Teleportation (D)
- Memory Manipulation (D)
- Dark Curtain (D+)
- Senbonzakura
- Flash Step
- Cloud Steps
- Whirlwind Shield (E+)
- Skill Sharing (D+)
-Sense Sharing 
- Mutated Sabnock Bloodline (A+)
- Beelzebub Bloodline (B+)
- Metamorphic Mastery (B+)
- Ethereal Doppelgängers (B+)
- Demiplane (A+)
- Falna (C)
- Cognizance Nexus (D+)
-Time Magic (A)
-Gravity Manipulation (C)
-Search (D)
-Touki (C)
-Knife Throwing Technique (D-)
-Marionette Mastery (D-)
-Petrification (D-)
-Illusion Manipulation (D-)
-Vine Manipulation (D-)
-Foresight (D-)
-Plant Manipulation (E+)
-Frostfire Fusion (C-)
-Truthful Trace (C)
- Holy-demonic Light (B-)
Currently Shared Skills:
- Wind Manipulation (Hawks)
- Darkness Manipulation (Noctis)
- Ice Manipulation (Slime)
- Fire Manipulation (Slime)
- Water Manipulation (Slime)
- Earth Manipulation (Slime)
-Knife Throwing Technique (Sakuya)
-Marionette Mastery (Lavinia)
-Petrification (Mossveil Basilisk)
-Illusion Manipulation (Phantom Nymphs)
-Camouflage (Vorpal Viper Vines)
-Vine Manipulation (Briarback Entling)
-Foresight (Ballboon)
-Plant Manipulation (Foliage Wisp)
-Frosfire Fusion (Krystelle Emberfaust)
Items in Effect:
- Vritra's Sacred Gear (B+)
- Fountain of Youth (A)
- Telos Karma/God's Halo (A)
-Condicarment (Bracelet) (C)
Items in Possession:
Boosted Gear (A)
Sacred Gear Extractor (A)
Arondight (B-)
Resistance:
- Poison Resistance (D-)
Points: 665500
Overall Power: D-

There was a new skill in my status, Holy-demonic Light (B-), but Arondight (B-) was also in my possession list. I willed to bring out Arondight, and it came out like a sacred gear on my right hand. Then I tried manipulating the Holy-demonic Light, and it felt like any other skill. It was powerful, but I still had to get used to it to unlock its full potential and power.

But my status has been getting way out of control. So I bought a powerful synthesis-type skill.

Synthesis (B+): Enables one to synthesize and integrate almost anything - 45000 pts.

Just like that, another 45000 points were lost from my savings. But does that mean I can synthesize other things in the future without any consequences?

[A/N: Give me some good ideas about synthesizing Kouske's skills.]

I'll think about that later. After apparent exhaustion, I went to look for the slimes through our connection. I stayed with them for a while, playing with them. These slimes are extremely cute with their sizes. Now, I understand why the girls really like coming to this place. With them here, Sakuya doesn't even have to babysit the others. These slimes always stay beside them in case something unexpected happens.

*
*
*

Right now, I'm in the dungeon, with all my familiars spread out across the Forest Area. Soon, I'll have to leave this area and move to another. This time, I've ordered them not to kill any monsters, just capture them. I'll be taming en masse before leaving the area. It would also be good to get some insect-type monsters. After returning from the trip to Italy, I'll meet Sera and disclose my devil heritage to her.

Elle's identification forge has been completed, and all of us will be going on vacation, probably next week. I guess I'll have to inform the others about my leave. I've been meeting with Sona and the others a lot during this time, and my skills in chess have also improved a bit from playing so much with Sona, but it's still nowhere near that smug loli's level. But I'll definitely beat her on my own in the future.

While thinking about all these miscellaneous things, I start using my new powers. Holy-demonic Light is powerful. I can shape them however I want, like those angels and fallen angels. Thankfully, I can also use them separately, like only using holy light or only demonic light.

I willed the holy-demonic light to wrap around me and tried using it to augment my speed. The increase in speed was significant, not light speed, but still much faster than my normal speed, and with Flash Steps, my speed will become even higher.

At first, the sudden increase in speed made things difficult. I couldn't control it properly, leading to various destructive collisions with the surroundings or the monsters. Thankfully, I had already spread out Hawks, Noctis, or any other familiars, so none of them were hurt. After a while, I was able to somehow safely control it, but it will need a lot more practice.

I also tried out Telos Karma. Even direct point-blank attacks could be miraculously avoided as long as the power difference wasn't too large. I tried cutting off some of those strings of life and death. It was really scary when they suddenly lost their lives by some kind of accident, like getting suddenly attacked by other monsters.

The effect was instantaneous. It was a surefire way to kill someone. But I think the higher one's power is, the harder it is to manipulate their strings of fate. Thank goodness, I never tried this on Sakuya that one time. The chances were slim, but I still don't want anything to happen to my lovely maid.

[A/N: Should Sakuya be A/A+ ranked? Maybe atleast A ranked? What do you guys think?]

I also tried using Absorption Lines alongside Metamorphic Mastery, this time focusing on using them on the Absorption Lines instead of my body. In a short while, they started changing and taking shapes like various sharp weapons.

I could use them like my own limbs, and they still retained their original powers. So it will be a great addition to my arsenal of powers, as whenever I attack my enemies with these, I can also further weaken them by siphoning their powers alongside injuring them.

After spending a long time in this place, I decided to call back all my familiars. After a while, I could hear the earth rumble. When I checked, it was apparently caused by my familiars who were dragging multiple of their defeated foes. Then, hearing a loud thud behind me, I looked to find out that Hawks was throwing unconscious monsters from up in the sky, while Noctis brought his unconscious enemies into his Shadow Space that he created. It's a neat ability.

But what was unexpected was that Hawks and Noctis, along with some other familiars, had ganged up on some Ballboons too and beat the crap out of them. I appreciate their consideration, but I would rather not tame too many of them. Lavinia and the girls should never see these creatures. But thinking about how my enemies will react upon seeing them is amusing. They should also get beat up by their balls.

I started taming each of the monsters, and I had to hurry to go to places with my familiars as they couldn't bring all of their enemies, and they could come to consciousness soon if I don't hurry. Some of the wounded ones might die if I don't hurry. After taming all of them, I decided to return home and transported all my familiars to the Demiplane within a limited space where they can live and eat in peace, and some of the other slimes to the Slime Dungeon where they are the most comfortable to stay. Thankfully, most slimes do not attack each other unprovoked, and they also stay together, so the dungeon slimes cannot cause too much trouble for my tamed ones.

My tamed slimes have small marks of my blue Summoning Magic Circle that can be made to be visible or invisible by their or my wills, differentiating them from the dungeon slimes. It can be applied to all my familiars, and my slimes are obviously stronger than those normal dungeon slimes. Someday I might just unleash my slime army on my enemies. Maybe if I ever go to Tensura and meet Clayman, I should actually consider unleashing my slime army on him and his kingdom. Shouldn't he be fated to be defeated by slimes?

Getting out of my weird thoughts, I teleported home, and suddenly my phone rang up, notifying about an email. Even though I use a smartphone and some smart home appliances bought from the Shop, others cannot help but communicate using emails as it is still the last of 20th century. The smart home appliances are pretty handy, relieving Sakuya of some of her workloads. But she wasn't really happy seeing them as she likes to do her work herself manually.

When I checked my email, it was actually sent by Cleria. She wanted to meet up. Well, it's been a while since I met them last. I replied about meeting them sometime two weeks later. I will give the exact date later. Meeting Navirose and Hiroshi might help me with my swordsmanship. Sparring with Aunt Arene isn't all that helpful right now.

But I will have to think of a way for my phone to stay connected to the network even in the dungeon, seeing how I only got to see this now after coming out of the dungeon when in reality it was sent earlier. Maybe I should check Heaven's System and try to make something similar? Ha ha ha. That's a funny thought. It will take a lot of resources and hard work to do what Yehweh did!

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