Apotheosis of a Demon - A Monster Evolution Story

Chapter 22

Dealing with the stallkeeper was easier than I thought. The mental aspect of it, not the physical method.

I expected hesitation, even for me. They weren't NPCs in a game, they were real living people. In the end, I didn't really feel anything.

Had the past month twist me so much? Or had I fully adopt the mindset of a monster? At any rate, all life, to me, was separated into three neat boxes: allies, enemies, and the uninvolved. I could not see the world in any other way.

Well, it's too late for contemplation now. I'd already killed bandits and merchants, after all.

[Shedy] [Race: Mistral] [Lesser Demon (Low-Rank)]・The demon of bewitching mist that dances upon the northern seas. A canny spiritual lifeform.[Magic Points: 752/755] 5↑[Total Combat Power: 830/830] 5↑[Unique Skill: <Reroll> <Cyber-Manipulation> ] [Racial Skill: Fear][Simple Identification] [Humanoid Form (Adept)] [Expert Packer]

I had Blobsy dispose of the corpse before people could discover him and raise a fuss. I exited the thicket and went back to the road, looking as innocent as an angel.

If I took him to be the standard for non-combatant citizens, I was quite sure I could massacre a hundred of them without any problems. But there was no guarantee all humans were similarly terrible. And I didn't even have the spare time to be going around killing anyway.

Twenty-six days of borrowed time left.

I needed to find the two other magic stones and reach the World Tree by then.

So anyway, I didn't expect my ears to be exposed so easily.

It's true that I still hadn't gotten used to having a human body yet, but was I really that eye-catching? Back on Earth, I used to get curious looks all the time for being albinic. However, people in this world had more than just black, blond, or brown hair – there were silver, deep-blue, scarlet, and many other colors too. I didn't think I would stand out here.

The form I was currently taking was the image of myself that I had. Except I didn't look emaciated and full of bruises. I was looking completely healthy for my age, so there's even less of a reason for people to take notice.

I wondered why I was different from my memory of how I used to look like. Perhaps I had subconsciously 'optimized' myself?

And the results of the optimization included rabbit ears...? And I didn't just have the ears. I only realized when changing in the second-hand clothing store that I also had a rabbit's tail, around the size of a human fist, above my butt.

Why. Why were the ears and tail necessary???

Well, what's done is done. I'd just have to hide the ears with my coat's hood.

I still had around 10 silvers and a few small silvers taken from the bandits. I'd really prefer to have some more funds, though... that shopkeeper woman and the guards really put a dent to my wallet.

They'll get what's coming to them sooner or later.

It was getting late, but I had no intention to rent a room in a village that treated every outsiders as bags of coins. Even if the innkeeper looked like a nice person, if they saw my rabbit ears, they might still decide to barge into my room at midnight with a stick.

So I hid myself in one of the thickets dotting the village. Once night came, I stealthily moved towards the fields.

Here, unlike Earth's polluted night sky, the stars alone were plenty bright enough to light my way. Well, it wasn't like I actually needed the light to be able to see.