[Carus – 16%]
I stared at the Assimilation slot, my tail giving a small flick.
"…Sixteen percent already?"
It hadn't even been a week since I got this template. Honestly, I didn't expect it to climb this fast.
Carus, a wyvern from the manhwa Murim Login. That was my second spin reward.
At the time, I was pretty satisfied. First of all, Carus was also a wyvern, so I didn't have to worry about some weird mutation messing me up. Everything lined up neatly.
Second, he could fly. A proper, full-fledged flying wyvern. Compared to my pathetic attempts at flapping, that was a huge upgrade.
And third, he knew magic.
That part was especially rare. In his world, wyverns weren't exactly known for casting spells. Carus figuring it out on his own made him a bit of an exception, maybe even a genius in his own way.
Of course, no matter how talented he was, he ended up as the enemy of the protagonist. And in stories like that, the ending is always the same. He was killed in the end.
If I remember right, he was around S-rank, or at least close to it. But ranks between worlds don't really line up. In his world, an S-rank was probably city-level at best, while here in the Cardinal World, even a normal S-rank can push into country-level feats.
Actually, even that might be underselling it. The scale of this world is on a different level altogether. This is the same place where True Dragons exist, beings strong enough to destroy nations just by existing, and yet the world itself doesn't collapse under them. That alone says a lot about how sturdy and dense the foundation of this world is.
Put simply, a D-rank monster here could very well be the equivalent of an SSS-rank somewhere else, just from raw physical stats alone. Kind of like Superman dropped into a low-tier world.
Of course, that doesn't mean the destruction level would last forever. Without magicules to fuel them, their strength would eventually fade. Depending on the species, once their reserves ran dry, they might even weaken drastically or outright die.
It makes me wonder… how would beings like Veldora, Diablo, Milim or other spiritual beings fare in places like DxD or even Marvel? Could they survive in a world with a completely different system of energy? Well, someone like Rimuru would probably manage just fine. His Predator skill makes him ridiculously adaptable, after all. But what about other beings?
Anyway, enough thinking in circles. Time to check the new cards. After getting Carus, I decided to hold off and save for two spins so I could draw them together, then focus on training in the meantime.
Chocolate Frogs (Harry Potter) ×100
Konoha ANBU Masks (Naruto) ×29
…Honestly, nothing particularly useful. With a sigh, I decided not to dwell on it and headed toward the cave's opening.
Activating Dragon Eyes, my vision stretched out across the landscape. Instantly, I could see much farther than before. Every monster within range lit up in my sight.
It wasn't exactly a marketplace down there; monsters weren't crowding together. Each had their own territory. For example, that stretch below was dominated by slimes. Yes, slimes.
Since they couldn't climb up here, this place was perfect. Almost like a deliberately chosen location for my birth.
Taking a deep breath, I leapt forward.
"Aaaaaaaa—!"
Wings flapping wildly, I wasn't exactly falling… but I wasn't really flying either. It felt more like controlled diving. Carus could fly, of course, and technically so could I, but at the moment I was only managing about twenty centimetres above the ground.
More inexperience than anything else.
Thud.
"Ouch…" I groaned, my voice echoing off the rocks. Right, still no Pain Resistance. I'd been going full masochist mode lately, but apparently, that wasn't enough to trigger the skill.
I glanced down at my left leg, pinned awkwardly under my own weight. The bones creaked, and tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. Yeah… this wasn't some small bruise. It hurt. A lot. The only good thing was that I had Self-Regeneration. As long as I didn't die outright, my body could patch itself back up.
Not that it kicked in immediately. I hadn't triggered it. For now, I gritted my teeth and activated Magic Sense instead.
At once, my field of perception widened. Every particle of magicule in the air, every faint ripple of movement across the land. A small presence flickered within range. A slime, slowly making its way toward me.
I quickly shut the skill off.
My head spun, vision blurring like I'd just been on the world's fastest rollercoaster. "Urgh…" I groaned again. I couldn't keep it running for long. Unlike Rimuru, I didn't have Great Sage to neatly filter the flood of information. For me, it was just raw sensory overload. Too much input, too fast.
Which meant dizziness, nausea, and a pounding headache.
Controlling myself, I forced my focus back and turned toward the slime slowly creeping in my direction. Most likely, it just wanted to absorb me and dissolve everything down to the bones. Well, too bad.
I drew in a breath and released my flame.
A torrent of fire burst from my mouth, washing over the blob. My magicules thinned with every second, but I kept the pressure steady until the ground below was scorched black.
When I finally stopped, all that remained was a wide burn mark seared into the earth. No trace of the slime anywhere.
…But I couldn't be sure.
Slimes weren't simple creatures. They were technically half-spiritual, half-physical beings. Even if their body was reduced to nothing, there was always the possibility that some tiny core or essence had slipped away.
So I stayed on guard, forcing myself to watch the charred patch of ground since I couldn't move just yet.
Still, I couldn't help but feel a little proud.
That was my first kill in this world. A small step, sure, but every step counted. And if legends were right, each life taken was one more step toward something greater. Closer to the path of a Demon Lord.
**********
Great Red, Sirzechs, Grayfia, Ddraig rank in tensura