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[Day 22]

It is day 22 and this little rat monkey is still with me.

He's licking me…

Why?

Why are you being overly affectionate with this old and grumpy ice dragon?!

Don't I look menacing to you?

Seriously, I thought monsters would either try to eat me or run away from me, I never expected a middle ground where one would simply stick to me and… I don't know, grow attached to me after just a single day?

Maybe he's a weird one and perhaps he hit his head after falling from a tree.

I don't know, but he's lovely.

Fuck.

I mean, look at him.

He has a cute pet rat face, the ones I always saw videos of on youtube in my last life.

And he got a tiny monkey-like body covered in fluffy white hair…

Yeah maybe it might look like a freak of nature by Earth's standards, but in a fantasy world, it looks pretty tame from what I would expect that could appear.

Why are you licking my scales? Stop that!

He's still licking me rather adorably.

Maybe he's trying to put his scent into me?

Eh? What do you think I am, your property now?!

Then I will lick you back!

I move over it and lick its entire body with my tongue.

It ends up completely coated in my saliva, as it glares at me in shock.

Heh, now you are my property!

"Kyuu…"

However, it suddenly continues licking me.

Hmm, I guess he's a stubborn bastard.

Oh right, through the night, I decided to make a quick hole and rest there.

While "Resting" I continuously trained my Mana, and I am still doing it, actually…

Ding!

<Due to your continued use of Mana all around our body, you gained +15 Mana>

Oh, another one of those.

Over the night I only got one, but then I got a second of these.

I guess by doing this, I can slowly increase my max amount of mana, so I can easily spam my Spells! Heh.

Although it still takes its time, with such a method, I am confident that I can continuously grow stronger.

But then, I need to eat.

A big dragon-like me needs a lot of food.

And this little rat monkey is looking pretty tasty!

The little guy is suddenly paralyzed as it senses my bloodlust.

Of course, why did you think I brought you here? To eat you up!

Did you really think I would make friends? It was but a façade!

Now perish and become my food, you worthless ant!

I move my jaws over the rat as I am about to eat it.

And then I stop.

The rat had already given up and was resigning itself to be eaten.

…I was joking!

Okay, maybe I am bad at jokes?

The rat realizes that nothing was happening, as I licked it again.

Maybe it understands by licks?

It glares at me and suddenly gets angry…

The words "It was not funny" are spread all over its face.

Okay, sorry!

I quickly get up as I release a small groan.

Let's go hunt something, I might share a bit of the meat out of the gentleness of my heart!

The rat glares at me but quickly jumps into my back again.

Good boy.

Or girl? I don't have any idea what gender it is.

I quickly break out of the hole, as dirt and snow explode everywhere.

I begin to walk around once more, seeking some food.

As we walked for a few hours, the rat suddenly jumps over a tree and rushes to the top.

What are you doing now?

It begins scratching the branches above, and then something from above falls over my head.

Bump!

Ouch!

Well, it didn't really hurt.

I glance at the thing it threw at me, which fell over the ground.

It is…

A pear?

It looks like a pear, but it is blue.

Wait, these damn pine trees have hidden fruits atop their branches?!

Is this what the monkeys eat?

I glance up above as the rat-monkey begins to throw more fruits to the ground.

A few minutes after, there is over 20… I think it emptied the entire tree.

It quickly jumps over the snow while carrying to pears with its little hands.

Which it begins to eat rapidly, juice coming from them…

Hey, you are rather useful I guess.

I never thought I would ever find any type of fruits within such a cold place, but I guess it is a magic world for something, these pears might be magic too.

Alright, time to eat something else than bitter herbs and meat I guess.

A Fruit that grows over the top branches of the Pine Trees, it is sweet and juicy, but very hard to get.

Slightly recovers Health Points and Mana Points.

…

Oh?! Does it even double as a healing item?!

Unlike the rat-monkey, I have a giant jaw, so I devour the whole pear in a single bite.

Chomp, chomp, chomp.

So sweet…

Sweet!

And juicy…

Ugh.

This is so fucking good!

I had been eating trash this whole time!

Even tears begin to flow out of my eyes as I devour the pears in large quantities, at the end, I ate most of them but stopped myself before I was to leave my little friend without any.

Hey, don't look at me like that! I left you two more! You are small, so you don't need to eat that many anyway.

It glares at me with anger, but then it grabs all the fruits and jumps into my back again.

I guess it gave up.

Man, I feel stuffed now, and I didn't even need to actually hunt.

I think I didn't get as many calories as actual meat, but it was still something I would consider a full meal.

Good enough for now.

It was still not late yet, so I decided to hasten up the pace as we continued through the snowstorm, which was getting stronger.

Well, we are Ice-type Monsters, so we are unaffected by such things anyway, heh.

As the hours go by, I also practice my Mana Cultivation technique, which I have learned to do while walking, although while fighting it might not work yet.

Like that, I get another little bonus after many hours.

Ding!

<Due to your continued use of Mana all around our body, you gained +14 Mana, +10 Vitality, +5 Strength, +3 Dexterity, and +11 Magic>

Nice, what I like about this is that I don't necessarily have to kill any monsters, I can simply and gradually grow stronger as I become better at manipulating Mana around my body.

However, just as I was celebrating, I heard tremors.

An earthquake?

But the rat-monkey is beginning to get scared.

And a sudden roar resonates all around…

"GROOOOOAAARRR…!"

BOOM!

A sudden gigantic figure emerges, just a bit smaller than the ice bear.

It is… a giant white gorilla?! But it has the head of a rat…

Wait, is this your father?!

You traitor!

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