Those scorpions were a bad match-up against Ryan, given that the greatest strength of his weapon was the poison effect. Still, while they would cause some problems for him, it wasn't enough to make Ryan give up. His coins were pilling up nicely, and he was almost sure that he would be able to learn Katelyn's skill to upgrade weapons when he obtains twenty million coins. However, if by some chance he finds a way to get rid of the dragon inside him with those coins, he will have to delay his plans… that was really unnerving, but it couldn't be helped.

"Let's do this, Furball," Ryan said. "Watch the left side because I will focus only on hitting their eyes."

Furball barked in agreement. Since the ocean was on the right side and for some reason, the Giant Crabs weren't in that area, Ryan didn't have to worry about that direction. Regardless, Ryan began to fire his bolts, and even though he needed a few seconds to aim, he always hit the scorpions' eyes.

Several of the scorpions had fallen when some of them finally found Ryan. In the end, despite their high endurance, Ryan could easily cause critical damage when his foes were that close to him. Although his firing speed could increase a lot more if he uses Perfect Aim, Ryan couldn't use all that much mana frequently. There was no telling what might happen if he goes too far when a dragon was inside of him.

"I am not draining your mana right now, so you don't have to worry about me. If you die, I will disappear as well since I lost my original body."

Ryan confirmed that fact by watching his mana bar. Still, he decided to keep playing it safe. Most dragons were prideful creatures, but that one easily abandoned its body to survive. So, in Ryan's eyes, it was clear that the beast could try to trick him at any moment.

"You are indeed paranoid. You already know some humans that are working with dragons, so you already know that they can only work together if they agree by signing a contract. Right now, you are only a shelter for my spirit. While I can drain your mana to keep my conscious active, I can't do many other things. If you die, I won't even be able to fight back."

"Shut up, I didn't ask," Ryan said impatiently.

"Just threaten me as if I am your conscience. I am sure you will feel less bothered that way."

"If I wanted to listen to conscience, I wouldn't be here with Furball fighting against hordes of monsters," Ryan said.

"That is true, isn't it? Although you are the perfect host for me, you are a very troublesome human."

Ryan took a deep breath to calm down and resumed his job of slaying those scorpions. Fortunately, the annoyance in his body decided to shut up. However, the number of scorpions was too high, so they got close enough to fire their poison spells. Furball dashed toward them while dodging the projectiles and began to kick the monsters' left and right. Even though his strength wasn't higher than the monsters' endurance, his massive weight helped him with that.

Since those creatures' dungeon wasn't in the area, Ryan and Furball finished the fight rather quickly. Fortunately, some monsters even survived the fight, but they didn't have a happy ending. Ryan used them to create some magic items. Arrows could create a poisonous cloud when they hit the targets, but since they were basically useless while Ryan has the Pestilence Crossbow, Ryan created some magic items for Furball. Those were essentially spiked knee and elbows pads that increased his pet's Poison Resistance.

"You have a weak spot for animals, huh? What is the point of creating that when your ward can never truly die?"

"What is the point of you saying anything, given that I will never listen to it?" Ryan asked.

"You hold your stupidity in such high regards? I am impressed…"

"For a parasite, you sure can talk big and act smug," Ryan frowned.

That kind of conversation was getting tiring, and unfortunately, Ryan had no way of avoiding it. He didn't want to let a fucking dragon say whatever she wants inside his head. Ryan felt the need that he had to put the beast in her place, even though that was probably a massive waste of time.

"Let's just ignore this fucking bitch, right buddy?" Ryan said and then patted Furball's head. "Anyway, go and eat a little bit. Someday I want you to reach the strength that will grant you the chance to fight damned beasts like her."

Fortunately, the iron carapace of the monsters becomes quite weak once the monsters die. So, Furball didn't have a hard time eating the scorpions. As for the status they granted him, they increased his recovery. That was very nice, so Ryan decided to take his time while Furball eats.

Since Ryan didn't have anything better to do, he created several battle machines. Since they took so little space, Ryan was thinking of putting some of them inside the tier one dungeons he might find along the way. While that seemed good and all, the problem was opening the path toward the last part of those dungeons since most of them already broke three or four times. Another problem was that they were starting to take more space inside his rings than the iron ores… Ryan really had to put them to good use as fast as possible.

After a while, Ryan noticed that Furball's recovery wasn't increasing as fast as before… which was weird. Ryan tried to find an explanation for that, but he didn't find it. Maybe the monsters' level was an issue, just like the level of the dungeons they came from.

"You are correct, but the more he grows stronger, the harder it will be to increase his status by eating monsters."

Ryan sighed when he heard that… even when the dragon was useful, her voice didn't sound even a little bit less annoying.