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The Great Ancient Wizard, Harvest ingredients (2)
Evan called it Imugi, but in fact, the monster wasn’t a snake, let alone a dragon. In the first place, it wasn’t a monster born in the Demon Realm. An ordinary animal drawn from another world. It had a natural talent; it ate soil and excreted fertilizer. The monster fell to the ground and ate the soil of the Demon Realm without any thoughts.
Perhaps it was at that moment that it received Dark Magic. The monster that couldn’t overcome the energy of the world and should have died quickly had miraculously evolved into a creature that gained Dark Magic by ingesting the soil, adapting to the Demon Realm.
Since then, what it did hadn’t changed. The soil in the Demon Realm was black and strong, but it ate it and excreted it. At first, he was just barely able to accept some of the Dark Magic and threw up what was left of it. However, by continuing to do the same thing repeatedly, it was able to calmly embrace and savor the soil of the Demon Realm. As it has done in another world, it tried to digest it somehow. Of course, it wasn’t an easy process. Still, due to countless trials and errors, the Imugi’s body transformed with Dark Magic and succeeded in filtering only the miscellaneous energy mixed in the soil.
Even though the Demon Realm wasn’t a good environment to live in, it changed the environment little by little. It ate the soil of the Demon Realm, which was close to chaos, and excreted soil containing pure Dark Magic. In the process, the energy absorbed remained in him and changed its body little by little. The energy that helped it was absorbed from the inside to grow its body. The energy that was dangerous to absorb was transferred out of the body. A slimy fluid was flowing on its body, but its skin had already swollen violently. Anyone who touched its coat would have had a pretty terrible experience.
It was from that point that the Devil noticed it.
[It’s interesting to see that you’re creating pure Dark Magic rather than filtering it out as-is.]
It was a creature that was changing the entire Demon Realm without even realizing it. It was surprising indeed.
[I will bless you.]
The attention of the Devil wasn’t usually very pleasant. However, he was a creature driven only by instinct. Whatever the Devil did to him, he only repeatedly absorbed the Dark Magic and filtered it out. Since then, the Devil had actively used him to change the Demon Realm. It was to release him in a place full of energy and leave him alone. He didn’t think of resisting the Devil, who took him to where the food was.
[Your ability is wonderful. But I don’t like the way you look.]
The head, which had nothing, became a little pointed and had eyes; the bulging outer skin was turned into a hard crust. The changed Imugi was finally able to think.
[So, what do you want to do?]
―Give me some more to eat.
That was exactly the answer that the Devil had hoped for. The Devil divided it into segments and scattered it throughout the Demon Realm until it devoured all the Dark Magic in the Demon Realm and threw it up again. And when it was over, he brought it back together. By then, it had become strong enough to destroy a single world on its own.
The Devil came to think that he could achieve what he had dreamed of. To build a tower, let in the Demons, filter them, and leave the last one behind. Put the bait and the appetizing gems in as a device inside to filter out the garbage. And this information slipped to the strong Demons, making it impossible for the unqualified to reach the end.
[Let’s do one in my own way and the other in your own way.]
―My way…?
[Yes, I’ll take you to the top of the tower from now on. If only one qualified person remains there…]
The Devil spoke to it in a voice that he couldn’t be determined as a man, a woman, an elderly person, or a child.
[Eat them and get rid of them.]
That’s what it did. Or it was going to.
“Oh, its teeth are pretty big.”
If the opponent hadn’t been a monster who could hold its mouth down with an unknown force, it would have succeeded.
“But how did your teeth come out everywhere? Like a Deathworm…a Deathworm?”
As soon as the Imugi opened its mouth and attacked the top of the tower, Evan immediately used his Annihilation power to stop it. It was a pity that its head was stretched out strangely and the whole column of the Hell Ruby was in its mouth, but Evan could just kill it and retrieve it. Rather, it couldn’t be called a failure because it would be strengthened if its blood were absorbed.
“There are teeth inside your entire body, right? And that move just now…?”
―Let me go…!
Rather than the Imugi attacking, the head stretched out as if an earthworm were moving.
“This is an actual worm…?”
―How, how did you know…!
The Imugi, or an earthworm, shouted in surprise. Its source in the Demon Realm was its weakness. Since the Imugi’s appearance changed with the Devil’s blessing, no one had found out what it really was!
“Your movements were nasty like an earthworm.”
―It, it can’t be!
The discovery of this Imugi had intensified, but its power was stronger than anything Evan had ever faced. He lost control of the Annihilation for a moment, and he missed it!
“Hmph.”
The worm’s tail swung wide once, crushing the tower. Evan used Annihilation to soar into the air.
“So, it’s hard for you to just stay still, huh?”
‘Should I unseal my boots? No, it’s still difficult to control the power because it was reinforced after entering this tower. I want to save it as a last resort in case of disaster.’
―Argggggggh!
“Okay, hmph.”
‘I have no choice but to use my own strength.’
Evan threw some Battle Beads into the air while remembering the worm jelly he used to eat from his previous life. The Imugi was slamming angrily into the tower. The Battle Bead was sucked into the black subspace, appeared on the head of the Imugi in a super-massive manner, and was thrown down at it.
―Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
There was a fairly large hole blown into its hard hide. The black rain that erupted into the air was really dirty. Evan thought he could still kill it as Heaven’s Throw continued to intimidate it, but this Imugi was hit by the fourth Heaven’s Throw and flew up into the sky!
―I’ll eat you up!
“I can’t believe you’re flying in the sky when you’re just a worm.”
If Serena were here, she would have loved this to death. Evan smirked and burst into space, recalling Serena’s innocent smile. At the same time, he pulled his fist back and swung it as hard as he could!
―BAAAAAAANG!
He gave it a punch, but it sounded like a bomb exploding. As soon as it got hit, its senses broke, and its body twisted in the air. Of course, that was a great thing. Usually, a creature hit directly by Evan’s fist would disappear without leaving a trace.
―Kihiiiiiiiiiii…eat you, I will…!
It was then that a change took place. Perhaps it was influenced by the Hell Ruby that it ate earlier. Red and black lines ran through its entire body, recovering the wound and restoring the hide. That’s it. The moment the boss in the game enters stage two, which Evan had never seen before because he had been killing all his enemies in one blow.
‘No, but I don’t think that is Dark Magic…’
Evan tilted his head, watching it change. Come to think of it, it was weird from the beginning.
‘I’m sure he’s a resident of the Demon Realm, but I couldn’t feel any strange Dark Magic in its energy.
On the contrary, I even felt as if it was completely excluding Dark Magic.’
It was because it only accepted other energy except for Dark Magic, and the Dark Magic was purified and excreted, but Evan had yet to figure this out.
‘It doesn’t matter. I’ll be able to check it out after I kill it.’
Evan would absorb the Hell Ruby and the blood crystal it had, so this was a little disappointing for him, but he would change his mind once he saw the results. He clenched his fists as he faced the Imugi that was flying back into the air.
―I’ll eat it up for you this time…!
“It was a lot of fun.”
It kicked in the air again. At that moment, Evan already appeared on its heinous head.
“I’m the one who eats you!”
―Boom!
Evan’s two fists struck its head like a hammer. At the same time, the unparalleled Annihilation power soared under its chin, putting pressure on it. How dare any creature survive this terrible pressure? At least this Imugi was strong enough to. While its head was bursting into pieces, Evan surrounded himself in a barrier with Annihilation, preventing any of the filth from landing on him.
“Whoo, this was fun after a long time.”
How long had it been since he captured his own meal himself? Evan felt refreshed as he gained strength. The body of Imugi had fallen to the ground, perfectly crunching the bottom of the tower. He descended slowly to identify the body. As expected, he couldn’t feel Dark Magic on the outside.
“Which part should I loot so that I can get praised?”
After a moment of deep agony, he concluded that it would be better to pull out the outer skin that seemed to have the strongest energy. The hardest and most intact part was found and extracted, and the jaw, which was the hardest part of the head that Evan smashed earlier, was taken out. Evan completed the looting, and the Imugi was oxidized into the air of the Demon Realm, only leaving two things. Two things?
“One is…the Hell Ruby.”
The gem, which completely converged the Dark Magic, appeared sacred at first sight, but it was different from the time it appeared at the top of the tower. Only then did Evan realize that it was the pure magic crystal.
“It leaves only the Dark Magic.”
Evan thought the Imugi was in this tower with its own will, but it wasn’t. That’s what the Devil ordered. If he hadn’t fed him the Hell Ruby from the beginning, Evan wouldn’t have been able to get a perfect Hell Ruby.
‘Anyway, it’s really done.’
“I can make it. I can make the legendary Potion, the Elixir!”
‘I don’t mean to make it right now.’
It was Evan’s pure desire to make it with Bernard if possible. Just by joining the process, Bernard would be able to get a lot of things.
“But the other one…well?”
Evan thought it looked like a brilliant black bead but realized that he was wrong shortly after seeing that it might be a treasure similar to the Hell Ruby. He could feel the energy of life in it.
A present for Serena was secured.