Now that the war had officially ended and the Jura Forest Coalition had been established, there was no longer any reason for them to stay there.
Zaydas said, "Rimuru-san, I'm going to teleport back to the village. If you want, you can come along."
Sighing, he said, "I wish I could, but you know... I also want to give them names."
"In that case..." Zaydas said, "See you later."
Saying this, Zaydas no longer needed to touch those he wanted to teleport with him as long as they were close enough to him. Soon, however, Shion and Asia grabbed his arms with a smile.
Rurushi and the others said nothing. Maybe they were giving them a chance?
Well, it didn't really matter. Soon, Zaydas used teleportation with all of them.
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The first thing he did when he returned was go to the largest bathroom, which was basically a pool of hot water, almost like a hot spring with water gushing from the head of a red dragon.
However, he didn't enter alone; all the girls entered with him without the slightest hint of shame...
Even Shuna appeared at some point and joined them in the water.
Tia was among them too.
Zaydas wanted to say something but simply gave up and relaxed, "melting" into the hot water, letting out a sigh of satisfaction.
To make it even better, he made a wooden bucket float on the water, placed a bottle of golden wine on top, and took a transparent glass, pouring the liquid.
"Swallow~!"
Several sounds of saliva being swallowed were heard, and greedy eyes—this time, not because of his body—were fixed in his direction... Or more precisely, on his hand holding the glass of golden wine.
"Girls, don't you have the golden wine I gave you?" Zaydas couldn't help but ask.
Shion answered very seriously, "Zaydas-sama. This is this, that is that."
"Yes, yes!" The other girls of different races united against him...
Giving an ironic smile, Zaydas simply made a bottle of golden wine appear before each of them.
"Yay!!" Soon, they all cheered.
Seeing that they were looking at his bucket, Zaydas made more buckets from wood he had in his personal subspace and distributed them along with glass cups.
With towels on their heads, while some of them covered their bodies with towels—Shuna and Asia among them—they started drinking the golden wine.
"Nnh~"
The first to take a sip was Rurushi, who let out a sensual moan.
Even worse was that after her, several others moaned in satisfaction.
Although Zaydas had excellent self-control, even with various beauties of all kinds surrounding him while they were naked, he was able to restrain himself... But when they started moaning so sensually with sweet voices, it became difficult even for him.
Ria approached him, pressing close to his side, her shoulder touching his, and whispered, "Need some help, Zaydas?"
"I'm fine," he replied, shivering.
"Fufu. Leave it to me," she said, taking the wine glass and slowly drinking it, releasing a hot breath from her mouth in a sexy way.
The water was hot enough to create mist, making it difficult to see as they were submerged.
Ria's hand continued to move as she drank the wine.
On the other side of Zaydas, Shion found herself next to him.
"Zaydas-sama." Shion asked, "Who were you threatening while you were in that monstrous form?"
"Possible Demon Lords." Zaydas said this, and several of them almost choked on their wine.
"""""Demon Lords!!!"""""
"Calm down first." Zaydas said in a relaxed manner, "Although I say that, it's just a title given to those who have a certain degree of power and influence; their power is at most at Rank A+."
"Rank A+..."
For many of them, Rank A+ was considered very powerful. After all, even Shion, for example, who was Rank A, had not yet reached the level of Rank A+ and was still a bit far from attaining that rank.
The same applied to the others. Some weren't even Rank A.
"Fufun. As expected of Zaydas-sama, even the Demon Lords, who are feared, are nothing in his eyes." Shion said proudly as if she were talking about herself.
By the way, not that it's that important to mention right now, but while Zaydas was looking at the girls, he was able to use the appraisal ability just by looking at them. He didn't even need to use the Great Sage as a mediator to 'replicate' abilities and see their specifications.
Just like Shuna does.
'As expected of the 'Fenrir' ability. It's super effective.' He thought while seeing the complete information on each of them.
"By the way, Rurushi, Tia." When they responded with a "Yes" and looked at him, Zaydas said, "Come with me to the Dojo later. There's something I'd like to test."
"Alright." Rurushi agreed with a smile while her face had a slight blush.
After taking a sip of the wine, Tia also agreed, equally flushed.
"What is it, Zaydas-sama?" Curious, Shuna asked.
"Mm, I mentioned that I am capable of fusing two things into one, right?" Zaydas asked rhetorically. Seeing her nod, he continued, "So, I intend to use that skill on their common soldiers and try to make them evolve."
"Is that possible!?" Tia had a strong reaction.
"I have no idea, since I've never tried it before, but..." He smiled, "It's worth a try, right?"
"Of course, it is!" Tia agreed.
"Yes, if my soldiers evolve, my strength will increase tremendously~" Rurushi said cheerfully.
As they talked, Shuna, Shion, and even Asia looked at Tia and Rurushi with envy.
Ria, who had been silent until now, brought her hand to her lips and licked it. There was a golden and white color on her hand, as if she had spilled golden wine on it...
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Later, as promised, Zaydas went to meet Rurushi and Tia at the Dojo.
Since he was the first to arrive, he wanted to test some things beforehand. One of them was [Mimicry; Dragonewt].
When he used it, a pair of red dragon wings grew, and a pair of bright crimson horns sprouted just above his ears. However, instead of pointing forward, they were slightly tilted backward and slightly inclined upward.
Other than that, he didn't gain something like a tail or dragon scales, but... he then used the skill: [Diabolic Dragon].
Sounds resembling metal echoed as his body began to be surrounded by red scales.
It was as if they were part of his skin, similar to Natsu Dragneel from the anime Fairy Tail, which he had watched in his previous life. Even the color of the scales was similar, though his were more vibrant in red tone.
Additionally, because his feet took on a dragon-like appearance, he became slightly taller, reaching 2 meters in height.
'Not bad, I feel that in this form, my power has reached Special Rank S.'
Of course, this was simply his own estimate. There was no way he could confirm with absolute certainty that it was correct.
By the way, even after consuming more than 30,000 Orcs that were in the shadow stomach, Zaydas did not have a breakthrough; it simply increased the amount of Magicules.
'There are still 12,000 Orc corpses left. For now, I will store them in the "stomach" or something similar while they are there. It will be good to have a reserve source to replenish my power if necessary.'
With this, he could even rival an Awakened Demon Lord. Of course, that was only until his "supplements" lasted. The moment he consumed all the Orcs, he would obviously need to find another way to keep acquiring Magicules.
By the way, as 'Merlin,' he was able to create a source of energy and used it to generate Magicules. However, he was still an amateur at doing so, which meant the amount he could create was very small.
But he continued doing it anyway, even though the results were inferior to 'Fenrir' in terms of obtaining an energy source, since with 'Fenrir,' he only needed to swallow some monsters and absorb their Magicules.
'By the way, I still haven't tried using "Fenrir."' This thought made him a little anxious to test it, but he gave up on the idea for now when he sensed the approach of Tia and Rurushi.
It wasn't just them— the other girls also came, and even Benimaru, Souei, and Kurobee appeared. The only one who didn't show up was Hakurou.
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A few hours earlier…
Excluding Frey, the other three Demon Lords did not succumb to Zaydas' threat.
In fact, among them, there was one who found it very interesting.
"This is interesting, he actually threatened us!"
The one who said this was a beautiful girl. Shiny platinum-pink hair tied into twin ponytails, a black gothic dress covering her body, and blue eyes.
Her appearance was that of an adorable human girl. However, the air around her screamed the exact opposite…
"Milim, I presume you intend to get involved with those people?"
Looking at the man with short, spiky blond hair, Milim replied, "But of course! How can I stay out of it when something this fun is happening?"
"Hahaha. As expected of Milim." Clayman laughed loudly. He seemed very happy at that moment.
"Wahahahaha!" Milim, in turn, laughed loudly as well.
"If Milim is going to get involved, then I will too," said Carrion.
Clayman remained silent, but it was easy to predict that he wouldn't stay out of it either.
They might not have wanted to get involved with the one who had transformed into some kind of feathered serpent hundreds of meters long, but the story was completely different when thinking about the Onis who had demonstrated power above the standard, easily reaching Rank A.
For them, monsters with that level of strength were like a fat, juicy piece of meat they couldn't resist the temptation of wanting for themselves.
And it wasn't just the Onis. They had seen others, like the elf girl who was able to control Gelmudo. She must be at the top of Clayman's list, especially.
'Only someone like me deserves to have that power!' Clayman thought, his eyes curling wickedly.
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[Back to the Present Moment]
Rurushi did as Zaydas requested and summoned two ordinary blood soldiers. Each of them was Rank C+.
Their appearance resembled that of a wooden jointed doll, except made of blood.
"I'm going to start."
"Mm."
At Rurushi's sign of agreement, Zaydas extended his hand toward the two, and at the moment he was doing this, he ended up analyzing several things at once and had an idea that could be seen as crazy...
He used [Modeling] in the process. When he began fusing them and shaping them into a "jointed doll," he altered it into the form of a warrior with a spear.
[Notification. The "integration" of the two Rank C+ Blood Soldiers using the unique ability [Degenerate] has been completed. The creation of the Rank B- Blood Soldier has been completed!]
As soon as it left Zaydas' control, the Blood Soldier, which resembled a blood spear warrior, kneeled before Rurushi.
"It worked~" she said happily.
"Wow! It really worked." Several of them said something similar.
"Now it's my turn!" Tia said, summoning two Radiant Soldiers.
The moment she did this, she commanded them to stand before Zaydas.
"Okay, I'll start." Repeating the process, Zaydas used [Modeling] and tried to create a type of battle angel.
[Notification. The "integration" of the two Rank C+ Radiant Soldiers using the unique ability [Degenerate] has been completed. The creation of the Rank B Radiant Soldier has been completed!]
When he saw it leave his control, it had the generic appearance of a doll with a light sword but with angelic similarities, mainly due to the wings glowing white. He wondered if it would be able to fly, but then he saw it flying toward Tia, soon kneeling before her.
"I'm so happy~" Tia asked, "You modified this, right, Zaydas?"
"Yes, that's right," Zaydas confirmed, then looked at Rurushi. "Rurushi, if you have any requests for the appearance of your Blood Soldiers, I will shape them as you wish."
Rurushi did not respond immediately; she touched her chin as she pondered.
23 seconds later, she answered, "How about making them look like wolves?"
"Are you sure?" Zaydas wanted to confirm.
"Yes, I am!" She was firm.
"In that case..." Zaydas repeated the process when two Blood Soldiers stood before him.
[Notification. The "integration" of the two Rank C+ Blood Soldiers using the unique ability [Degenerate] has been completed. The creation of the Rank B Blood Soldier has been completed!]
In front of Zaydas stood a 2-meter-tall blood-red wolf. And when it left his control, it ran on all fours toward Rurushi.
With a thin smile, Rurushi said cheerfully, "Not bad~"
And for the next few hours, Zaydas continued transforming Rurushi and Tia's soldiers, following the same pattern: Rurushi: Wolves and Tia: Battle Angels.
Rurushi: 258 Blood Wolf Soldiers
Tia: 257 Radiant Angel Soldiers
Zaydas suggested continuing to fuse them, transforming them into higher-rank soldiers, but they were satisfied for now.
Well, it was undeniable that they were now "armed to the teeth."
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