Volume 1, Chapter 7: Another one joins the party!

*****

"Are you ready?"

"Yep!"

"Alright"

Chanting inside my head, I shouted:

Ruler!

My skill immediately activated, surrounding us two with two spell circles beneath our feet and encapsulating us in a box themed with constellations, the same thing that happened when I did it with Tsuyosa and the Squirrels

"I, Aki Hikari, am bounding the rules to be strictly followed by this target: 

1. The target can freely do as she pleases. 

Do you agree to the rules set above?"

Arania was a bit shocked from the rules above, but smiled afterwards and nodded at me

"Alright...I don't think I need to give you a name since you already had one so-"

"No, give me a new name"

"Huh? Don't you like your name?"

"I do...but I want my name to be changed as a symbol of devoting myself to you, the new ruler"

That's...kinda bit lewd when taken out of context but that aside, can I even rewrite a name?

"You can, master"

"Didn't I told you to stop reading my mind?"

If Tsuyosa says so, then...

...

"...how about Araia?" 

"Araia...I love it! Thank you!"

Eh? Seriously? I just shortened your name you know!

The big box around us suddenly became smaller and smaller that eventually wrapped Araia right after she accepted her new name. Encapsulating her inside

"Oh boy, I wonder what kind of race she'll evolve into..."

If I recall correctly, she was a Shadow Weaver Arachne right? So what's next after that...?

...

Before I could even found it myself, the thing that was wrapped around Araia vanished and Araia, came out from it, having the same body proportions as Tsuyosa

"Tsuyosa."

"As you wish"

Tsuyosa quickly catch her after she got done from her evolution. I let Tsuyosa do it because I'm not quite comfortable with myself holding a woman, who knows what would've awaken in me if I were to catch her?

"Oh? She's even more human like now"

The Araia right now has the body of a normal girl, just with some dark purple fur to some parts of her body added

"...is it done?"

Araia woke up shortly after as if she had only woken from a long nap

"Why are you holding me?"

"I'm sorry, here"

Tsuyosa dropped her without hesitation, but Araia's reflexes were faster that she landed perfectly on the ground

"You could've atleast told me that you'll drop me!...wait...my body just moved on its own..."

"Eh? Really?"

"Yea...is this due to my evolution...?"

The UI quickly popped up infront of me, showing Araia's evolution information

"Let's see...Araia has evolved into a Twilight Arachne..."

"T-T-Twilight Arachne?!"

"Huh? Uh, yeah, Twilight Arachne"

"I actually evolved...into a Twilight Arachne...?"

? I wonder whats with the fuss about

"Twilight Arachne are extinct species master. They can rival the spirit species and even common dragons due to their powerful dark magic"

"Seriously? Is she strong as you are right now?"

"Not in a million years that would happen master"

She said that with a straight face and high confidence

"I reckon I can beat you right now!"

"And I'm telling you, you can't"

"Why you!-"

"Stop it, I don't tolerate fighting between you guys"

Besides...I wanna know what skills she got...

Integral Skills:

Eternal Vitality

Eternal Essence

Endless Regeneration

Shadow Manipulation

Illusion

Aside Shadow Manipulation and Illusion, I guess those three are never going to fade whenever I make a new contract with someone...

Gained Skills:

Conceal

Interweb

"Huh? Interweb?"

"Oh, about that Hikari sama, you can use me as an intel with my skill"

"Is that Interweb skill is for?"

"Yep! My role back then was also gathering intel, although I didn't had Interweb skill before, I took disguises to blend in and gather even the most confidential information"

I guess I should've expected that from someone who served the first ruler...

"Gathering various information from not only inside the forest but also outside the forest is good and necessary, but other than that..."

"Hm?"

"Can you also lay traps around the forests?"

"With my current abilities, I reckon I can do it within ten minutes or so, but what for?"

10 minutes?! Around the forest?! I know I shouldn't be surprised by now but I can't help it!

"Hikari sama?"

"Ah, right, Laying traps around the forest has two purposes actually"

"Two purposes?"

"The first purpose is that it'll give us some security to any potential creature that might be a threat"

"And the second is?"

"Food security. If your traps can also kill those creatures with edible meat, then-"

"It'll be killing two arachne with one stone!"

"Yeah...but there's something wrong with your analogy just now"

"My what?"

"Nothing, so did that answer your question?"

"Actually Hikari sama, its three purposes"

"Three?"

"Through my Interweb skill, I can also gather information and alarm you of anything that I might see or hear as a potential threat"

"That is convenient! So it's actually-"

"Killing three arachne with one stone!"

"Uh, yeah..."

Let's just pretend that we didn't heard that...

Araia quickly went around the forest to set up the webs. She did it while using her Illusion, Shadow Manipulation, and Interweb skill altogether. Making it possible for her to get it done in around 10 minutes

"She really knows her stuff..."

"I hope you aren't forgetting about me, master"

"What do you mean by that?"

"...nothing"

"Huh?"

"I'm done, Hikari sama!"

"Good work. By the way, I was planning to limit your power after you got done"

"Limit my power?"

"Yeah, it's to prevent causing too much damage in the forest"

"I wouldn't mind, Hikari sama"

"Alright, but first, can you show me your current power as of now?"

"Like this?"

Araia quickly devoured a part of the forest infront of us using her dark magic. A black void showed up, sucking the tree in it

"Ho! That's some dark magic you got there, right master?"

"HUH?! THAT THING LITERALLY ATE A WIDESPREAD OF TREES INFRONT OF US!"

"Yes, she's now powerful, I'll give her that"

"Of course it didn't even bothered you by one bit, *sigh*"

"Hikari sama?"

After that monstrosity, I toned down Araia's power to 50%. I figured that, that should be enough for her to not cause a chaos in the forest if ever Tsuyosa and Araia started training

"What do you say we go for a little sparring, Tsuyosa?"

"You really want to lose don't you?"

"Why are you assuming that you'll win already?!"

"Because I am"

"Prove it!"

"If you insist"

"Don't cause too much ruckus you two"

"We won't, Hikari sama!"

As much as I wanted to control infighting among them, I kinda want to see who'll win between them...will it be Tsuyosa, who trained herself alongside with the squirrels, or Araia, who got trained to the core by the other subordinates?

*****

Their little match started with a bang from Araia. She started to attack Tsuyosa, who was standing the whole time as if she was saying that she won't gonna make a move on Araia

As the dust started to clear up, the fist from Araia was singlehandedly stopped by Tsuyosa's finger

"See?"

"*Tsk* I'm not done yet-"

Araia tried to kick Tsuyosa's right side by her left leg, but as she did, Tsuyosa had already flipped herself upside-down, grabbing Araia's arm in the process then throwing her afterwards

But thanks to her fast reflexes, Araia was able to react fast and safely landed on the ground

"If I can't win in hand to hand combat, then I'll fight you with magic instead!"

A shadowy figure of hands showed up behind Tsuyosa, rendering her immobile afterwards

"Didn't saw that coming, huh?"

"Its not that I couldn't avoid it, rather I chose not to"

"Huh?"

Tsuyosa unbind herself by simply walking out of it, leaving Araia speechless

"N-no way...that thing was supposed to bind any creature-"

"Too bad, I'm not just any other creature"

"*Ack!*"

After quickly closing the gap, Tsuyosa went for the final blow

"Did you forgot that I'm an Illusionist?"

Tsuyosa got wrapped up in a dark matter, rendering her useless against any type of thing, still, she didn't showed any signs of panicking

"You'll wipe off that confidence real soon after this!"

Araia casted a dark ball that was targeted at Tsuyosa, with nothing she could do, Tsuyosa took the blow

...

"In the end, you lost! I finally got my revenge!"

"5/10, at least you know how to attack, but that wasn't enough"

"Huh?! What?!"

As the dust cleared up, Therein lies Tsuyosa, unscathed as if nothing had happened to her to begin with

"That's ridiculous! You took that much damage yet you're still fine?!"

"I told you, its not that I can't avoid it, rather I chose not to. Did you forget that I already saw your tricks earlier?"

"A...I-"

"Now it's my turn"

"Oh no! I messed up-"

Without even giving her some time to fight back, Tsuyosa knocked her down with a chop to her neck, ending the fight wherein Tsuyosa was the victor

"I told you I would win, Master"

"Huh? Uh...yea..."

"Did she told me that? I swear she only told that to Araia..."

"Anyway, what do you think of her skills in battle?"

"She's lacking in everything Master. Her attacks are oblivious, her movement is bad, she lacks awareness to her surroundings, her tactics are good however, it lacks execution. If she were fighting against 1000 demons, she would die instantly"

"Nobody can win against 1000 demons by themselves you know"

"I can Master"

"...right..."

I don't know if she was lying, or totally saying the truth...

After the battle ended between Tsuyosa and Araia, the squirrels, Tsuyosa, and I started cleaning up the place and started gathering up ingredients for today's dinner

*****

End of Volume 1, Chapter 7