The two monsters facing me, because they have noticed me before I was able to approach properly, are quite possibly the strangest monsters in the outer parts of the forest, but not just because of how they look, but because of their behavior and powers.

They both look identical, and they have a kind of round, shiny from wetness head on the top with two large eyes with frog’s pupils on the sides and large, round mouth with rows of sharp teeth inside. Their heads are supported by a chubby, similarly sticky and shiny body of over one meter in height, one and a half counting head in, and they have tentacles with suckers instead of normal limbs. Two one meter long where each arm would be and around ten, half the meter in length, in place of lower body. They are dirty green in color with bluish tinge to it.

I have no idea why they look this way, but I have heard they were a result of some sea monsters combining with humanoid ones due to magic. They are called Amphices.

As a side note, they live only with areas with water, mostly swamps and lakes, but there is one lake around ten kilometers from Bluesky, not to mention there is a river flowing through the capital, so it’s not strange to see one here.

With that said though, however bad they look, is overshadowed by the fact that they live in small communities, if you can the groups of ten to twenty monsters roaming around a community, and they share unusually tight bonds with others in their groups. Then, to top it off, they have strange ability to combine into larger organisms or divide into smaller without much change to their looks apart from size. And additionally they seem to get larger almost indefinitely.

One of these guys before me is of similar threat to a Forest Assassin being in E+ Rank, but if there are many of them and they get to extremely large size, like over ten meters in height as they were sometimes spotted, they can easily go higher than C+ Rank, which is the level where Gold Hunters are necessary and silver ones can only be of small support.

And according to what Natria told me before, these two before me should actually have one soul, similar in size to the Stone Aberration I have killed before. If they combine they should get around two meters tall instead of one and a half they are now and get to D- Rank.

‘Say, Natria, pulling soul out of one of them is not a feasible option, is it?’

{Probably not, but you can always try.} – She replies and adds her own. – {Though if you could make it split into five pieces or so, not that I know how to prompt it, it would be most likely possible unless all these bodies count as one.}

I nod my head.

It’s the first time I would be dealing with a monster of this type. I mean, with tentacles and in general boneless body. Discounting slimes of course, since they are too weak. If it’s ordinary weak slimes I could probably deal with hundreds of them at once with no trouble as long as I am careful not to get overwhelmed.

But this thing might not be particularly strong, but it is a very tricky opponent. It can not only move its tentacles freely, but also can grip you very tightly with its suckers and attack from blind spots by dividing itself. Not to mention it is a quite intelligent monster, if only judging by the fact they form groups. If you add the fact it is normally impossible to tell if it’s the only part of one monster that you have killed, it becomes a very annoying and deadly enemy for fresh hunters, usually advised to stay away from unless you have silver hunters with you. Since lower silver can kill D- with no problems.

I should be able to deal with that without much problems though.

‘Natria, is it possible to shape the stone I grow into a blade? It would be much more effective against this thing.’ – I ask, since I have no time to check just before the fight.

{Theoretically it is possible, but the result will depend on your concentration and a bit of luck.} – She answers quickly.

The left of the two bodies of the Amphice lets out a weird gurgle and whips its tentacles, then starts wriggling then, sliding to me on the ground. It is surprisingly fast, at least as much as a running child.

I step to the left to position the second enemy behind the one attacking and prepare for the monster coming at me.

Its two tentacles in place of right arm lash out and I duck down while concentrating on my left hand and trying to shape it into a blade, at the same time not forgetting about channeling mana inside my soul and releasing it bit by bit into my body. It is quite hard, but I need to get used to at least this much to be able to fight effectively.

I step back and further to the left not to let the monster get too close to me and watch stone on my hand grow into rough shape of a short stone blade, but with many irregularities and kinda spiky blade. Good enough though.

I slash at the tentacle whipping in my direction and, although with resistance, I manage to sever the ten centimeters of flesh into two. The part cut off flies away and withers, appearing to lose water.

The monster roars in pain and anger and finally makes use of the second body by backing off and merging the two into one significantly larger. I also notice that the tentacle I have cut off has regenerated completely, though likely by making the body slightly smaller.

Then the monster rushes at me even quicker than before while swinging its tentacles at me. I duck under the two tentacles flying higher, then barely cut off the one aiming at my lower body while jumping to the side and upwards as high as I can.

I harden my foot and try to make it into blade shape mostly successfully, then turn my upper body and swing my leg at the monsters neck, timing it the way it would receive the hit as it passes me.

The Amphice slows down and tries to evade the attack, but is slightly too slow and it cuts around five centimeters into the monster’s neck. Continuing the rotation I swing my other leg and almost cut off another tentacle aimed at my lower body, then reach out my arms and grab it.

I pull it, getting closer to the body, and kick its head with both legs, making it jolt in place and spray more blood around as I fly back and away from the monster.

The monster shakes its head and gurgles, looking at me, then suddenly splits into six copies of itself less than one meter in height. I am not sure what led to this decision, but I guess it’s not bad.

Three of these copies attack me from front, left and right while the rest approach slowly, so I quickly jump to the right and grab the body with my both hands, then look into the monster’s soul.

It is round and colored with various colors, but its spirit is kind of layered and distinctly composed of more than one part. The soul though seems to be in one piece. I quickly try to pull the soul and with astonishment notice the body in my hands going limp and withering slowly as the piercing shriek of remaining five bodies startles me. I try to pull the soul further and notice the monster writhing its tentacles and spasming, then after a few tries one of the bodies similarly does limp and withers.

I continue doing the same and the remaining four bodies wither one after another amidst piercing shrieks.

Ten seconds later I am standing among six small, dried up husks.

My mana in the Mana Core was slightly depleted die to constant release into my legs, but I was in very good condition overall.

I have noticed that the increased flow of mana in my body has no effect on my strength, but makes me much more energized and my senses sharper along with kind of slowed perception of time. It wasn’t exactly slower, but I could catch movement at higher speed and I was able to react much more quickly.

I will need to try making it flow very fast in my eyes or in my brain later.

‘Well, that was certainly something.’ – I comment, examining the bodies. - 'If a bit anticlimatic.'

{Yup. This monster is quite unique, by the way. Its body is still alive and its soul active.}

‘Huh? What do you mean?’ – I open my eyes wide and take a good look at the soul, but notice nothing special about it.

{If you touched the withered body and released the soul, it would flow back in and live unlike normally. And if you released it now you would directly create a spirit or ghost, though it might take a while to gain proper awareness. It means nothing for you though since I guess you are eating it.}

‘…Well.’ – I have no response to that and instead raise my arm and pop the soul into my mouth.

I shudder as my face flushes under the delightful taste, but it is noticeably milder effect than before since the soul is not yet two times mine.

I watch as my Mana Core grows, and I can’t see it exactly but I feel as it gets larger. The enlarging stops at some point and the dust from the Origin starts accumulating around my core.

Then I suddenly feel slight tightening in my soul and the Mana Core changes somewhat, and its green color gets slightly lighter and more vibrant as its size shrinks ever so slightly.

It eventually grows to almost thrice the previous size, which is just above half of my soul, and then stops.

‘Um, Natria…?’ – I prompt uncertainly.

{I haven’t told you about it, did I?} – She muses and then starts explaining seriously. – {Mana Core has certain thresholds, and when you reach them your abilities and your mana go through certain changes and Mana Core gets kind of compressed. Remember how I compared souls to a building growing upwards? The thing is that the soul’s foundation is getting strengthened gradually, but Mana Core gets kind of… rebuilt at certain levels of power. You have just passed the second threshold, because the first is to form Mana Core properly.}

‘Alright.’ – I nod. Understandable. – ‘Um, what does each level give?’

{It is in most cases simple boost to your mana control, mainly its range and a bit of precision, and an increase to your mana’s… strength let’s say, it’s just that your mana tends to be more persuasive and can overpower the mana of other’s on lower level. It also sometimes creates some unique abilities, but I advise not to bet on that.}

‘I see. Good to know.’ – I nod once again. – ‘Hm, did this thing’s Origin give me anything worthwhile?’

{Hmm… it did, it should be very good for you. You have barely tenth of its bloodline though, so you would need to get more of these guys.}

‘Um, may I know the details?’ – I ask.

{Hm, first is the fact your lost limbs would wither similarly to that and you would be able to recover them by just attaching them where they were. Dividing won’t work since it has to do with how the body is built. There is not much else, but I can get you some tentacles, but I doubt you would want them.}

‘Uh, some tentacles? You can, like, attach them not only in place of my limbs?’ – I ask.

{Yeah, in your mouth, between legs, on your skin, anywhere practically including the insides of your body and with a lot of flexibility in terms of size and length, possibly without suckers.} – She says without a change in her tone, prompting a few inappropriate images to pop out in my head and making my face pinker.

‘Oh no, thanks, let’s leave such fantasies for later.’ – I mumble and raise my head. – ‘What about other things, like, fur, tails or something like that?’

{It highly depends how the bloodline is made and how it defines the body parts. Technically I can do whatever you would like with enough work put into it, but it’s incomparably easier in some cases and very hard in others. A second tail for example would be hard, because I would need to adjust it so the spine would split in two, but the tentacles can just be placed where I want and their size is very easy to adjust.}

‘Okay.’ – I nod. – ‘What about breathing in water then?’ – I ask, remembering that the Amphices live near lakes and rivers and can breathe underwater.

{Eeeh~, it’s possible, but I’d rather not do that since the mechanism is faulty. You would better kill a serpent dragon for that.}

Okay, let’s leave serpent dragons aside for now, but I get that I would be better off finding something else.

We remain silent for a while as I check the dead bodies for mana stones and unsurprisingly find six of them, but not in their chests and instead without exception in their head in the back of skull.

‘Say, Natria, you mentioned before that you will be able to show yourself soon?’

{Yeah~! Though not during a fight since the mana barrier would use too much mana.} – She answers enthusiastically. – {Why do you ask? Wanna see me~?}

‘Yesh, I do, but it’s not that, this time at least. I wanted to ask how you look, because depending on how you look it might be easier to get to some places. I mean, they wouldn’t let a child like me to, say, black market or auction or the palace, but if you looked more mature or something many things would be easier. Not to mention people wouldn’t underestimate me again and again, and I am sure it will happen sooner or later.’

{Hm, I certainly don’t look mature right now, you know. I will be able to change that thanks to you, but it will take a lot of time, so I don’t think I will be doing that. Though if you are worried about your age, then I can tell you that your Origin also makes you grow much more quickly. I don’t know if you have noticed, but you are already two centimeters taller than you were at first.}

‘You mean…! I will look like a proper adult in a…’ – I quickly calculate in my head. – ‘…year or so!?’

{Much quicker. You forgot that your regeneration is getting faster.} – Natria quickly answered to my excitement. – {If I had to estimate, at your current rate of improvement it will be six months at most, likely around three, and you will look like a twenty years old lady, unless you want me to make you look different, because if it’s minor changes I can make them easily. Probably somewhere around this point you will reach your desired age and your appearance will stop changing apart from bloodline alterations.}

‘I see, I see.’ – I nod my head. – ‘Then this desired age…?’

{It’s a point in your growth where your appearance will stop changing. It’s a part of being an immortal being that you look the age you wish. In your case it will most likely be around twenty years in human standards, but it is only your subconscious wish that affects the matter so I can’t be sure.}

‘Okay, that’s good to know. I’m an immortal though?’

{Obviously~.} – Natria answers happily. – {Even ignoring that your Origin makes you live practically infinitely, I personally made sure of that!}

‘Eh…? Well…’ – I am suddenly hit with a wave of thoughts about the time lying ahead of me.

The time I will most likely spend fighting and collecting more and more bloodlines.

The time I will most likely spend with Natria, at least for quite a while at the beginning.

Why did she even make sure to make me immortal?

Why is she helping me?

What happened in her past?

Can that be…?

‘Well anyway.’ – I shake my head, focusing back on my current situation. – ‘Where are next monsters?’ – I ask.

{Hm, there is one around three hundred meters to your left, along the forest border. It’s a Stone Beast actually, similar in strength to the previous one, so it will be useful for you.}

‘Alright, let’s kill it.’ – I turn left and start walking in the direction she pointed.