After returning to town, we had some food, which was fish of course. But it was super good, and the people were good with the spices and sauces they’d make. Especially for Kasumi, who really loves spicy flavors.

 Oh, and apparently the Giant had sent some kind of message, to give him a sacrifice, for his ascension. I didn’t understand this Ascension thingy, so I reached the Adventurer’s Guild Library. It took 4 hours for me to find the right book, and when I finally found it… I was even more confused.

 So? Let’s start the Ascension Information section!

 The Ascension Ritual is a ritual that allows other races to evolve. Basically, it gives you more potential, your Growth Rate receives a huge upgrade, and the most important thing, if the book is to be followed… It allows the user to reach godhood. Not that I really believe in the last one.

 But there was another gimmick. To reach ‘Godhood’, the user would need specific Titles. Unfortunately, the book didn’t have much detail on that one.

 The interesting part about ascension, is that Humans don’t have the capability to, only the other races. There are… historic books too.

 Some of them say about certain races that are extinct, or are very few. The Giants are one of those. They were all targeted because of their capabilities in battle. Basically, people didn’t have the power to defeat a single giant easily. So, they attacked them, every time alone, and killed them all. How did they accomplish that, anyway.

 The same can be said to Dragon-Kin. Basically, they were normal people, as in humans, with dragon blood within them. They still exist, but are far and few. They were targeted specifically because of their potential of evolution.

 They could maintain more of a human appearance, a reptilian one, or even transform themselves into full dragons. There are some registers of Dragon-men, people who could transform into dragons, and identical to a human appearance, even.

 The only difference is that they would have a slit on their eye, and pointed ears. Not like the elves, but pointed upwards. They also were immune to intermediary spells, making them more of a threat than an ally or friend.

 Other than Giants and Dragon-Kin, there was also Fox-Kin, Demon-Kin, and four other tribes, considered to be Demi-Humans.

 The Icyum Tribe, which, if I can put it in one word, reminds me are Yuki-Onna. They are not that by the way, but Icy Fairies. They lived in cold environments, and almost no one can find them in actual days.

 The next tribe is the Oni tribe. They were considered part of the Demon-Kin, but were categorized as different some time later. Each Oni had special abilities that varied from one to another. And what impressed most of Scholars, is that they can be reasoned with. Alas, their capabilities were considered a threat, and, what you know, the Empire, led by the previous Emperor, conducted a ‘Crusade’ against them.

 The Pure Vampires. They are very few, you can count them in one hand. By Pure Vampires, I mean Vampires that can give birth to new ones. Pure Vampires can convert other races to a Vampire, but they will never be exactly pure. There are only 1 female Pure Vampire, as the other 4 are all men.

 And lastly, the Psy Tribe. They were capable of using various kinds of mental/psychic attacks. Incidentally, they were mercenaries. Never staying in one place, always traveling, and were constantly hired in wars. Since they had psychic abilities, they were especially good with espionage. Alas, since they were too good, people started to kill them indiscriminately.

 “What did they all have in common? They had something the others didn’t.”

 All of those tribes were killed by humans, which isn’t surprising to say the least.

 The human continent is constantly filled with slaves all around. These days, they are mostly composed of Beast-Kin, Elves, and Demi-Humans. Also some Demon-Kin, but that’s all.

 Another point, Demon-Kin, and Demons, are very different.

 Demon-Kin have a mix of blood to them, while Demons are more monsters than humanoid. For example, Arachnes are considered Demons, but Lamias are considered Demon-Kin. Don’t ask me, the book doesn’t say much. And honestly? It doesn’t matter much to me.

 “Hmm… So, the Giant wants to ascend, and receive more power. But to do so, he needs sacrifices.”

 Knowing that wasn’t very helpful, but it was good enough for now. My curiosity was sated, so I call it a win.

 After resting for two days, and eating around the city(more fish), I proceeded towards the port once again. And of course, I wouldn’t accept no as an answer.

 By the way, I sold the parts of the two Griffins, and the Flying Chimera. One thing I’ve found out, that was a good find, is that the Flying Chimera’s core was SS- instead of S-rank. I sold the white Griffin’s core, and had in my storage the Brown Griffin’s one.

 I also stored the Chimera core, since it could be useful in the future. I had some interesting ideas, and my mind was crazy about making a certain thing.

 “Sup.”

 Upon seeing me, the leader rolled his eyes, but then, one of his, don’t know, -thugs?-, talked with him, and he widened his eyes, and glanced at me.

 “Tch! Ya’re here cause of the crab snakes, aight?”

 “Yeah. He just informed you about the Griffins and the Chimera, right?”

 “Yeah. Couldn’t believe ya would be good. C’mon then. Get up.”

 “Thanks.”

 With that, I climbed on the ship, which was the sail type. The ship wasn’t that big, around 9 meters long, with only one sail, but it was well protected. The hue was enchanted(yeah, didn’t know it could be done) against impacts, and it had a dark tinge to it. Maybe this is ebony?

 Within 1 and half hour of travel, we reached the area of the ocean, where fishermen usually fish. The water wasn’t crystal clear, but I could see some of the ocean flora and fauna around.

 “Don’t the nets get stuck on the corals?”

 “Not usually. We fish here, especially for medium sized fishes. But the corals don’t reach ‘em.”

 Looking closely, the smallest fish, was what? About 1 meter in length? It was really big, and the biggest one… was just grabbed by a worm?

 “Looks like ya found yer targets. Those are the Snakes.”

 I was agape. Why? Because the ‘Crab Snakes’ were actually Lamprey Eels! Don’t know what Lamprey Eels are? Well, they are scary. They have lots of teeth, and when they find some prey, which are usually big ones, they latch onto them, with their mouth, and don’t let go, until they are sated.

 The thing is… the thing right below me, has a much bigger size(imagine an anaconda), with a row of teeth. When the fish just passed above the hole where it was, it came out super quick, bit onto the fish, and dragged it down. [Author’s Note: I got the shivers imagining it.]

 “They sure are big.”

 “What ya have in mind to kill them?”

 As he asked that, I pulled 4 charges of Zerstörer, and tossed 1 right below the boat, and asked for them to take me to other places with holes between the corals.

 They sailed the ship a bit, and as we were moving, I dropped the charges on the water. With that, I also tossed 3 more charges a little ways away, and then asked for them to take some distance with the ship.

 “So? What now?”

 “We just watch.”

 The leader asked me, and I answered while taking the detonator in my hand. I always wanted to say this, since I finished this thing.

 “NOW!”

 Pressing the button, 7 explosions resounded on the places where I dropped the charges, and within them, 7 pillars of water also appeared. Some chunks of meat flew around, some even falling on the boat.

 Here’s the thing. The quest was to kill these Crab Snakes. BUT! That could be done, if anyone with lightning magic dealt with them, right? The problem is, these small ones are not S-Ranked monsters. And let’s be honest, someone already had taken care of the most Crab Snakes, so? Why did the quantity of crab snakes never fall?

 The reason is quite simple. Because of their mother, of course!

 “Well, looks like mama isn’t that happy that her children were killed, huh?”

 “Whaddya mean, mama?”

 “C’mon, think about it. I heard some adventurers had come here, and had dealt with the same Crab Snakes, didn’t they?”

 “Yeah. They did. But… Wait! Ya mean they had a mother?! Laying eggs here?!”

 “Yep. Look at it.”

 I pointed towards the water, and a much bigger Crab Snake appeared. Different from the others though, it didn’t have the appearance of the Lamprey Eels. No, it had two big tusks coming out from its mouth, with a much smaller jaw, with 2 teeth on the upper and lower jaw.

 Also, different from the pink scales on the Crab Snakes, this one had a white color, and had a light-blue tinge on the tips. Hm? This isn’t a normal Crab Snake, is it?

 “Hunh. Alpha Crab Snake?”

 ““ALPHA?!””

 All the fishermen asked, flabbergasted. To be honest, I wasn’t. And its description was easy to understand why the monster is S-Ranked.

 Simply put, the Alpha version is only dangerous, because it has the capability of spawning very small versions of the usual Crab Snakes. They attach themselves on the hue of the ships, and sink them with that.

 “Well. Let’s get this thing done.” Cracking my neck and fingers, I say that. “Amara, transform yourself into a size that won’t tip the ship, and protect the fishermen.”

 As she did so, the fishermen were startled. She got on a size to coil around the fishermen, and they were even more startled. Meh.

 “Well, everything will be over quickly. Amara! Put your vines as an X from my shoulders to my waist, and toss me towards that thing.”

 “WHAT?! WHY?!” 

 “Calm down. When you see me tossing Zerstörer, you will pull me back. It’s gonna hurt, but whatever. NOW!”

 She did as I told, and made her vines coil from my shoulders to my waist. With that done, she tossed me higher than I expected, and when I reached very close to the monster’s head, I tossed 3 charges of Zerstörer on the monster’s mouth. Or that is what I hoped for.

 Amara did her part, pulling me towards the ship. Unfortunately, I hit the ship’s floor with my back, and got up as fast as I could.

 “Well, once again. Like a certain character in a fighting game says… TASTY!”

 With the detonator in hands, I pressed the button, and soon, the head of the Alpha Crab Snake… exploded to bits. And my quest was finished with more explosions!

 “So. You and your men want to dismantle this thing?”

 Back at the ship, and going back to the port, the fishermen were quite eager to dismantle the Alpha Crab Snake. I would want to Dismantle it myself, but I don’t think I’m able to do so.

 “Yeah! If it ain’t fer ya, we wouldn’t be able ta work anymore. And da meat of that thing must be delicious! Can’t we?”

 “Why are you making a puppy face? And yes, you can. But I will want some of the meat, and of course, the Core. No matter what.”

 “YA BET ON IT! AIGHT BOYS! WE HAVE WORK TA DO! AND TODAY WE GONNA HAVE A FEAST!”

 And they started. It would take less than a 1 hour to return. The tides were in our favor, as well as the winds. And man, these guys didn’t lack on the job. There were around 12 men handling the dismantling of the monster.

 I used the MPD on the materials, finding out that the meat was of high quality, and the scales too. Awesome. Since we will be starting to travel more from now on, it’s better if I stock up on these. And the core was right at my hands.

 One little thing about the S-Rank cores. They’re big. The SS-Rank is the size of a chair, like those presidential chairs. As for the S-Rank, they’re a little bit bigger than a basketball. With that, we arrived at the city, and there was something really disturbing happening at one of the docks.

 At the dock, there was a woman, latched onto a pole. She was… alluring, to say the least. That was very disturbing, especially if you consider the white nightgown and the flower crown on her head.

 “What… is happening?” I asked, with a disturbed expression.

 “Oh, ya don’t know.” The leader of the fishermen says, with a stern expression. “Ya saved us from the fishing problem, but there’s this one other problem, ya know. The Giant.”

 Simply put, the Giant would request sacrifices from the townsfolk, and they would do so, since he was threatening to destroy the city.

 “And he requested only women?”

 “Yeah. The good thing is, the city has some slaves, and the Slave Trader in town has requested even more slaves for that.”

 He stopped talking then. The only thing that I could hear was the murmurs of the townsfolk, and the pleads of the woman.

 “PLEASE! NO! I DON’T WANT TO DIE! PLEASE! PLEAAAASE!”

 Looking to Kasumi and Amara, they were disturbed, but I couldn’t do much. As for me, I didn’t particularly mind, but it was disturbing nonetheless. Just as I got lost in my thoughts, the thing appeared.

 A Giant, towering more than 10 meters, with a… strange black tunic on his chest. Feeling something bad, I took the MPD, and scanned the Giant.

-STATUS-

Impossible to Scan

 I was confused. There were two types of numbers on his STATUS, and I didn’t know why. So he’s quite old, huh?

 “This one… now?”

 His voice was hoarse. His skin, a light-blue tinge. His eyes had an emerald green tinge to them. He had quite the big beard on him, and had quite the muscles on his body. What the he- WHAT?!

 When the townsfolk backed away and nodded, his tunic extended, like a goo towards the woman. It engulfed her, maintaining her in a pocket of air, and then… it entered through her eyes and mouth. She squirmed, and convulsed, trying to break free from the black goo.

 Soon, the woman’s body was nothing more than an empty husk. And even after all that, her body liquefied on the goo.

 “Hrmmm… this will do. For now. In 5 days… More.”

 As he turned around, a bolt came from the other side of the town, shot by a ballista. The bolt was deflected by the black goo with a flick of it.

 “YOU BASTARD! I WOULD BUY THAT WOMAN! SHE WAS TO BE MINE! BASTAAAAARD!”

 An adventurer(probably), was screaming in rage. The Giant looked towards the man, and the black goo extended once again. And the same happened to the man. It entered through his mouth and eyes, transforming the body into a husk, and liquefied right after. My chance.

 I tried to scan the black goo, but what appeared was the same as with the Vulture.

Impossible to Scan.

 “WHY?! FUCK! Huh?”

 Fortunately, I could see what that black goo really was.

 “But… Why can't I see its STATUS?”

 Once again the MPD answered me.

 Nonetheless, now I know a few things.

 First, the Giant has a friend to help him out. With the slime, he can become stronger, AND reach the heights he is planning to.

 Second, he will be back, and he won’t stop with the threats, as that is pretty much a given.

 And lastly, but the most important one… I finally found the Symbiotic Core I was searching for.

 “Hey… Boy.” The fisherman leader was looking at me unsettled. “Why ya’re grinning?”

 “Me? Nothing much. Hehe. Hahahaha~” I started to laugh quite heartily. Of course, just after the Giant was back to the ocean. “Rejoice! Your problems shall be solved! In 5 days, of course.”

 Kasumi and Amara were scared as well, but what can I say? I love technology, equipment, and of course, battles! Why would I run away from this one?

 With that done, we ate that night. The people of the town, even though they saw something disgusting right before, were in a thrill about the death of the Alpha Crab Snake.

 With the Alpha Crab Snake dead, the fishermen could now return to their normal activities, and have quite the normal life.

 It was all well and good, if it wasn’t by a shady man, wearing a blazer combo, with a monocle on his left eye, and a mustache.

 “Ohoho~ It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Kenji.” He even knows my name.

 “What can I help you with?”

 Since he had this strange atmosphere around him, I didn’t want to have any kind of relationship with him.

 “Ohoho~ Cutting directly to the chase, I see.” This laughing of his… “In any case, I see that you’re low in hands, and from what I heard about you from the fishermen, you’re quite formidable. So, I thought it would be good to establish a good relationship with you.”

 Oh, I see. Simply put, I'm an adventurer, who has dealt with a high ranked monster. Meaning, that I’m a walking advertisement. And that’s why I hate merchants.

 “Uhum. You’re the slave trader, right?”

 He pulled his mustache, and let a big grin appear on his face, while making another ‘Ohoho~’ laughing, and nodded to my words.

 “Fine. After I finish this then.”

 “Wouldn't it be better to do this tomorrow?”

 “As soon as I finish it, the better.”

 He nods once again, and points towards a certain man on the crown. Well, you can see who the man is, since he is wearing colored jester clothes. With that, he excuses himself.

 (Master.)

 “Yeah. I know that you didn’t like it, okay? But like it or not, we three lack one little thing.”

 “That being?”

 “Scouting abilities.”

 The two look towards me, and nod at my words. Not that I believe that guy’s gonna sell some good slaves. He wants to sell a sexual slave, I’m sure. With that, we finished our dinner, and I walked towards the man, and after to the slave trader’s shop.

 As a precaution, I asked for Both Kasumi and Amara to get into my shadow. I know very well that the Slave Trader also had info about those two. So, they did as I said.

 “Follow me. Dear Customer.”

 As soon as he was notified about my presence, he came himself, and started to guide me towards an underground section. He also had a disappointed expression on his face, probably because of either Kasumi and Amara not being with me.

 As we proceeded, we passed through Beasts(that surprised me), Demi-Humans(people with both human and beast-kin ears), Beast-Kin, Demon-Kin, Demons, Elves, Dwarfs, and Monsters as well.

 But that was the section he showed to his usual Clients, as he said. We proceeded even further, through a set of stairs underground, and finally reached the right floor.

 Most of the Slaves had angry, sad, and contemptuous expressions. And all of them, were of course, women. I’ll kill this guy.

 “Well, Dear Customer. I believe you’ll need a way to relieve stress and-”

 I put my hand up, and look at him with a stern expression.

 “I need reliable people. Not. Alluring ones.”

 He wore a blank expression, and the slaves around snorted at his reaction. He coughs awkwardly, and starts to look around. As he was looking at the slaves, probably with reliability AND alluring points, I glanced at a certain cell.

 “Hm?”

 With him still looking frantically around, I approach the cell. Inside, it has a girl, with black and gray, long hair. She was only skins and bones for what I could see, and her back, right at her shoulder blades, had… small bumps on them. What… is that?

 I glance around me, seeing if the Slave Trader is looking at me. He’s trying so hard. Pftt! He was looking fervently around. Using that small opportunity, I took my MPD, and Scanned this girl.

-STATUS-

 So many skills! But It worries me, at the same time as it impresses me. It was true though. Her resistance skills left me baffled. Some of them were on a very high level, too.

 Also, she had 2 Titles that left me intrigued. The Valkyrie and Acolyte ones. Since, one was unknown to me, while the other, I had the opposite. Also, what the hell is Weapon Magic? Kind of reminds me of a certain red haired bad*ss girl of an anime.

 What also left me shocked was her Status Condition. She was coughing quite strongly on the cell, and her breath was… ragged.

 “Hey.” I called the Slaver, while hiding my MPD.

 “Yes, Dear Customer?”

 “I’ll take her.”

 As soon as I said that, all the slaves glared daggers at me. As for the Slave Trader, he was… looking at me like I was an idiot for choosing this girl.

 “Dear Customer… are you serious?”

 “I’m following my intuition. So?”

 “We do not deal with refunds, Dear Customer.”

 “Do I look like I care?”

 He sighed, and walked towards a certain table close by. And one of the many Women Slaves, glared and talked to me.

 “If you do… anything to her…”

 “Oh, do shut up.” I interrupted her, with narrowed eyes. “Do you think I’m gonna force her to do something she’s not comfortable with? Do I look like a degenerate too?”

 She opened her mouth, closed. Opened again, and just sighed.

 “Take care of her.”

 “I will. You should care about yourselves for now.”

 “Dear Customer. Did you have a change of mind?”

 “Finish this thing already.”

 He sighed in exasperation, and opened the cell. He was about to kick the girl… when I held his shoulder, putting some strength, and he backed away, wiping some of the sweat on his forehead.

 Cracking my fingers, I grabbed the girl via princess carry, and brought her to a chair. There, the Slave Trader prepared a Collar. Might be useful to change it in the future.

 With a drop of blood I gave him, we finished quite quickly. The price of this girl was also very low… The average Slave was at least 1to 5 Gold Coins. Battle Slaves were a tad more, ranging from 50 Gold Coins to even 1 Platinum Coin. And point. Sexual Slaves… WERE MORE THAN 10 PLATINUM COINS! PLATINUM COINS!

 And with that, we proceeded back to the Inn. Since I had helped the fishermen, and the farmers against the monsters, the owner didn’t care about me carrying a slave in my arms. And the girl was still unconscious by the way. Her breath was still ragged, and she had a painful expression on her face.

 I put her on the bed, with her back towards the ceiling. Also, I asked for a room with 2 beds, and -thankfully!- it had one.

 “Now, we just need to wait for her to wake up.”

 I lay her down on the bed, and walked to mine. Kasumi and Amara came out of my shadow, and climbed on my chest. I wouldn’t sleep though. Since I would need to wait for the girl to wake up. Because, let’s be honest, the girl would be scared as hell if she woke up in here, right?

Thank YOU! For the reading~