CHAPTER 80: ASSIMILATION

Stelle didn’t know how to react to Charlotte’s words. She was conflicted.

On one hand, she was happy that her sister seemed to have some feelings for Max, but on the other hand, she had this strange feeling that made her upset...

’Am I jealous of my sister?’

As that thought entered her mind, it refused to leave because she knew it was true. Even if she didn’t want to admit it, she knew she was jealous of Charlotte in many areas.

She just never cared about it till now, but with them liking the same man, things would get different. And one thing she knew was that Charlotte was better than her in every category so Max would definitely love her more.

When she thought of that, she felt disgusted with herself but couldn’t shake the feeling off.

"Yo, did you two talk things out?"

Max entered the tent and asked with a smile on his face.

"Yes, we’re fine now so you don’t need to worry," Charlotte said, standing up. "I’ll prepare some food for us while you two can assimilate the mana shards."

"Oh yeah, I wanted to talk about it," Max said. "I actually can’t assimilate with Mana Shards of beings lower level than me. So Stelle can take all of them."

"Is that a drawback of your power?" Charlotte asked, surprised. "That is a very nasty drawback."

"Nothing is free," Max shrugged. "It is a problem for future though so I’ll just face it then."

The nerf wasn’t really a problem at lower ranks because he could hunt monsters of similar level and even higher level.

But the difference between every level and ranks would just continue to grow bigger and bigger, making it extremely hard and dangerous to hunt monsters higher level.

Majority of the hunters at higher ranks relied on lower level monsters to raise their level. It took more time, but it was better than risking dying against the powerful monsters.

But Max didn’t have that luxury so even at higher ranks, he would have to continue risking his life to level up.

Max wasn’t worried though because he never planned to use less risky methods to level up.

’Infernals would come soon anyways so I don’t have time to waste on slowly leveling up.’

[Maybe internals are the danger your mother was wary of?]

’I doubt! While they’re powerful and can drown the Starhaven continent, they aren’t powerful enough to destroy the world.’

[I see. You need to survive them first before facing that danger though.]

’Thats why I’m not focusing on it that much.’

He sighed and turned to look at Stelle, "What are you spacing out for? Quickly absorb the Mana before it leaks out."

Stelle woke up from her stupor and nodded, "I was just wondering if I’ll get any skills or Artefacts this time."

"I highly doubt it." Max said. "Maybe if you killed the Alpha but these were just it’s subordinates. They won’t give much aside from mana."

"That makes sense. Also, take this," Stelle reached with a glowing incandescent mana Shard in her hand.

"This..." Max muttered in astonishment.

"It’s from that vile monster. I don’t even want to touch it’s mana so you can take it," Stelle snorted. "Beside, it’s more powerful than you so you can probably absorb it too."

He stared at her hand for a moment before a smile broke out of his face, "My little Stelle is a big tsundere, isn’t she?"

"What do you mean?" Stelle glared at him, but still asked to clear her confusion.

"You’re just using excuses to help me get stronger, right? You don’t need to pretend because it makes me extremely happy that you’re worried about me," Max crouched near her, while grinning at her.

Stelle opened her mouth wide open, unable to say anything to his shameless proclamation.

"He’s right. You should be clear about your feelings, Stelle," Charlotte giggled softly and send a wink to her.

"Big Sis!!!" Stelle shouted, her face turning red. ’What the hell? Why is this backfiring on me?’

She gritted her teeth and shouted, "Leave me alone!"

"Haha, of course, of course," Charlotte giggled cutely before leaving the tent.

Max gave her a side glance and went to sit on the other bed. Closing his eyes, he said, "It seems like she can see your feelings. I’m honestly disappointed in your poker face."

A stone on her side turned to dust as Stelle retracted her hand and thought, ’Its fine! Focus on improving and then you can show this shameless fellow his true place. Hmph!’

Max chuckled seeing her cute nose turning even red as she pouted. She really was so cute so he couldn’t help but tease her.

’Ah! Time to see if this guy left anything good for me,’ Max thought and began the process of assimilation as he crushed the mana Shard in his hand.

As the gray mist enveloped his consciousness, he soon found himself standing in the familiar vast piece of grassland.

As the warm breeze caressed his cheeks, something covered the sky above him, shielding him from the bright sunlight.

Raising his head, Max found a giant humanoid monster with vast white hair floating all around it like an endless stream of milk river.

The monster was going to use it’s trick, but stopped when it Max looked at it, precisely it’s eyes.

"Keeeeeeee!"

The monster screeched in an inhumane voice, and covered itself with it’s long white hair. It even began to float away from Max.

This was the reason Max was confident in absorbing it’s mana no matter how strong the monster was, as it had a weakness where it wouldn’t attack you in any way as long as you were looking at it, especially it’s eyes.

The Forlorn Mimic could feel his gaze and as long as he was looking at it, the monster wouldn’t attack.

"You’re really annoying and probably one of the nastiest creation of mine," Max muttered, taking a step forward as he smiled.

Only now he understood why Stelle gave him the Mana Shard. It wasn’t to compensate for all the Mana Shard she got, but to give him a chance to kill this monster once again.

’Cute!’

[I doubt your words because no way this guy comparing to anything you wrote in the Foul Emperor of Mysteries!]

Max almost stumbled hearing her words, as he asked, "You actually read that?"

It was one of his early creation and unlike his other wishfullment novels, it was a horror and mystery novel. He had written a lot of things in it that even now made him shiver.

[Hehe, I actually took inspiration from it to create some monsters in other worlds.]

Max was speechless, but also felt sympathy for the people of those worlds. She seemed to be in mood to talk about it, but he ignored her and focused on the monsters drifting far from him.

But it was pointless.

This was his world and the monster couldn’t run away from him. With a step forward, he reached the monster with his Everform taking the shape of Phantom Daggers.

In two diagonal slashes, he cut the monster’s torso in many parts and watched it disintegrate in white radiance.

[You have slain a Middle-Stage Second Order Monster. Gained 64 EXP]

"Dayum!" Max exclaimed seeing such a high EXP. He quickly looked over his status or rather the EXP counter.

[EXP: 67/215]

He still had a long way to level up again, but with this alone he had almost filled up one third of the bar.

[Hehe, do you want more Forlorn Mimic?]

"Sure. They’re a good way to farm exp," Max smiled, as he was expelled from this strange world.

[Hahaha!]

Max returned to his body and looked to his side where Stelle was still busy in absorbing the Mana Shards.

There were almost fifty of Mana Shards, making Max wonder just how many Duskwither Wolves they had killed in such short time.

’Normally that would be more than enough for her to level up but mana has leaked out the mana shards. But it still should be enough to level up once, even if barely.’

Then he looked down at his empty hands and sighed.

’Why did I even expect anything?’

He had not gotten any Artefacts or even skills. While he had expected that he wouldn’t get any Artefacts as they were rarer, he thought he would get a skill related to illusions.

He would have directly learned it because illusion skills were always useful, especially if they were as potent as that of the Forlorn Mimic.

’Whatever. The adventure has just started so I’ll get more things,’ Max smiled, remembering a few details of the third floor.

While the Third Floor didn’t held anything powerful in particular, there were still a few things that would be very useful for him and his team.

And he would take them all at any cost.

Giving one last glance at Stelle, Max stood up and thought, ’Time to talk to our cute healer.’