Harem God used up his complete spiritual energy in his core for the first time since he became aware of magic. He always had too much and the worry of lacking fuel never crossed his mind, or that of his temporary guardians. 

A depletion of mana was normally a common occurrence for freshly Awakened. Most novices would feel weak and dizzy, but regain their strength after resting from their fatigue. 

It was simple to recover, but Harem God was also under the effect of the mist, thus, he had not only the bear with nausea, but also his sense of balance that was entirely working against him. 

He couldn’t stand up, couldn’t see properly, and the plant beside him was smooching of the bit of spiritual energy that he regenerated. He couldn’t even kick things to vent. All he had was the ball of mana that was steadily glowing.  

Yaaaawn~ 

Now that he had a quiet moment for himself, the accumulated mental fatigue finally sipped in. He had been too absorbed to realize his own body condition and was now unable to do something. 

It was also getting darker. The sun was still up and wouldn’t go down anytime soon, but the trees were blocking the few sunrays that shone down.  

The forest was shadowy, but the mana ball gave off a warm, familiar feeling that he didn’t sense the chilliness around him at all. Rather, the mist had a refreshing feel on his skin and he didn’t feel averse to his surroundings at all. 

He listened to the rustling leaves...and fell asleep. 

His breath was steady and his awareness for danger was downright nonexistent. 

Ace who was rushing to them would freak out if he were to see him. 

Jiushi and Tommy who were desperately searching for him would probably take out a rope and hang him down a tree. 

… 

The demonic plant on the contrary was fully awake. Harem God only gave it enough energy to barely live on, but the mist not only had a disorientating effect; it also contained spiritual energy. 

Slowly, but surely. It absorbed the energy from the surroundings until it had enough strength to move. The cage was impossible to break, but it could move the squarish ice cage by pushing against the walls. 

Its aim was obviously the mana ball that gave off a similar vibe as the mist. 

Clack, clack… 

The cage slowly approached Harem God who was sleeping soundly. He wasn’t alarmed by the clattering at all. It didn’t take long for the demonic aberration to reach him either.  

Without mana circulating, not only his combat prowess was severely reduced, but also his alertness for danger also went down. This state was no different to an ordinary person. 

As such, not only the demonic plant had targeted him. There was another presence that was observing the group of three men since they left the protected camp. Its interest was captivated by Harem God the entire time. 

** 

The energy seeping out from this human wasn’t much and the human himself was weak compared to his companions.

There were much stronger blessed humans in the past, but we had ignored them all. Only the human in front was special. We couldn’t ignore the faint traces of the attribute that we were more than familiar with.  

We wanted to capture the human and look at him closer. Was he really similar to ourself? We wanted to find out and even separated him from his companions. Despite our efforts, a much lower creature dared to cross our path.

First, our own spiritual energy was sucked out and now the thing with the stench of demons was also endangering the human. 

Unforgivable! 

*** 

The mist was gathering unnaturally around the cage until the dense gas became solid. This newly formed body had a slinky shape and was milky white in color. It barely reached the calf of an adult in height. The appearance of it was rather peculiar. None of the four legs were touching the ground, instead, black mist at the end of each leg kept it hovering over everything. 

Wham! 

The cage with the plant was pressed into the ground. It only took a slap by the paw-like front leg of the mysterious creature to be sunken into the dirt. 

At first, there was some resistance from the parasite, but it took only a glare from the black, hollow eyes of the new arriver to silence it. It didn’t even dare to shiver and “dropped” dead like a normal plant.  

The new visitor immediately focused back on the sleeping beauty. It jumped effortlessly onto Harem God’s lap and stared at the luminous mana ball.  

It opened its mouth and let out black mist, similar to the mist coming out from the ends of its limbs. Soundless and fast. The mana ball that was on top of Harem God’s palm was gobbled up in one go.  

The feline-like magic beast tilted its head and scrutinized Harem God. There was a familiar taste, but it was too faint to be sure. The spiritual essence this human possessed also had a strange aftertaste.  

One, that a human with thunder attribute also had. There was also one of his companions that had this taste. But none of those had the same attribute as itself! 

So it wanted to wake the human and fight him! 

Every human was showing off their attribute when fighting. It saw it numerous times already. Humans see it and would attack, even when it was just trying to nap. 

That was the plan, but the human was sleeping deeply and wouldn’t budge from his place. 

Slap, slap, slap! 

It nudged his face lightly with its front paw, but the human simply scowled his brows and swatted it away like a fly.  

Fwump~ 

The magic beast that was several times the age of this human was pushed away, just like this!  

“Nyaaaaaang!” —Insolent! 

It wanted to lung at Harem God, scratch him, and make him feel his powerful bloodline as a member of the Penumbra race.  

It did so. 

And Harem God caught it. 

The latter loosely held onto the small magic beast. He was still sleeping and caught the mawkish little one out of habit.  

“Be quiet,” Harem God mumbled. The chicken he reared always had one or two mischievous ones that would want to play with him when it was still dark.  

“Grrrr…” 

The little one wanted to scratch him awake, but Harem God was petting it out of the blue and it stopped its attack in confusion. 

Harem God’s body was too sturdy and it was impossible for any of his pets, with exception of Sin, to wake him through physical means. But their noise wouldn’t let him sleep well either. Therefore, he would coax them like a tired parent with light pats on the back to get some more sleep.  

This action perplexed the magic beast greatly! 

The human could touch it and his palm was warm and soothing. His voice was also pleasant to listen to.  

It was sure now— the human had the shadow attribute too! 

The little one was in a good mood. Only beings with shadow affinity could touch the penumbra race and the human did! It was very rare to meet a human with the same affinity such as itself. Thus, it nudged into his chest and marked him as their human. 

It was then, when a bright magic circle flashed up from Harem God's heart region. The little one was pushed back and a translucent barrier formed around Harem God.  

The penumbra beast looked at the magic circle and scoffed. Its body liquified and turned into mist that could effortlessly avoid the barrier. The mist concentrated in front of Harem God’s eyes and turned black as it flew into the space between his eyebrows. 

A purple sigil appeared in place of the black mist for a few seconds and the penumbra beast, still in gas form, swayed in satisfaction. 

It saved their human from the annoying demon and also got rid of the restriction spell that was limiting their human’s spiritual core! 

Our human was strong after all! Our gift will surely be beneficial to our human. All humans like to be strong, it thought happily, not knowing what chain of events it would trigger. 

tiaf

There you go! A longer chapter since I didn't know when to shut up. :D
Quite anticlimactic, but it's all for the smut romantic development.