Richard is not as bad as I thought He is… well, He really helped me a lot. Looks like he also had few tough experiences, well, this is what I am thinking as he didn’t share those with me. Yet he truly was a great help. Every time I wanted to drink another cup he just talked about his adventures and people he met. He was so good in telling stories that many times I was listening without noticing that I am holding cup near my limps not drinking at all.

He also took me on more difficult missions, I didn’t rank up yet but it is not my main goal so I didn’t care… and then I discovered that it was what I needed. Those where not extremely hard, but you still had to look your back. If you are focused on so many task in same time as looking for enemy, checking what your position is in order to not get lost, and taking care to not walk into an ambush, then you have no time to think about stupid stuff like feeling sorry about yourself. We were hunting some aggressive wild goblins. Those usually are not that challenging unless they hide in some caves or forests, as they tend to know those places they can prepare some basic ambushes… few rookies were dying because of them every few months.

Yet from time to time I had those feeling that something is watching me, few times I saw some bird-like shadow on the verge of my vision… I have no idea why I felt so anxious… those may be just some normal birds… even if those are ravens… there is no point if worry for them to be connected with HIM… please tell me those are just some normal birds…

Pov change

I feel no pain at the moment… well if those small “tortures” could be even called as one. I was titles as Arch devil, the Knight of Gehenna, the…. Well it doesn’t matter… my point is, that as a devil I was more or less used to tortures. And by tortures I mean here all kinds of skinning, opening stomach and pulling out organs, braking limbs… sorry wrong word was used here… those limbs were disintegrated… slowly. And here this boy just pull of my feathers…

Don’t get me wrong! I am proud of him! Together with Walter we were… mocking him a bit. He just treat us to friendly! Same this dog! He is simply spoiling him! He have to understand that he is supposed to be a master, not a friend! I put his life in risk? Ha! Not on my watch! I still could forcibly break seal… it would get weird, but he would definitely not die… because of me… if he will get into trouble by himself I will not help him… he have to mature… in this life or next one. But still… I am glad. As he had limited tools he just improvised with punishing us. As I could say watching Walter, it supposed to be quite effective… maybe in the future I could show him some tricks…

What is this feeling!?… Hyla, you foolish angel… You want to lead to another war!? The war od gods?!… what did you do…

Pov change

I woke up, for the first time in many days from truly peaceful sleep. It was not one of those half sleep half vigil state where even louder breath of Kaito could wake me up. Ugh, I want to say a bit longer… somehow I feel like in future I will not be given such luxuries…

Groaning I raised up leaving in bed Aira with stupid smile on her face. How can you nor love her? Such a type of younger sister she is. Ruling whole forest, creating monster god like little sister. Jackpot.

Near the bed small Monster Core was laying in the ground. The Core of the Warg that I am not able to consume right now, but somehow I feel like meditating for whole day just to improve one of cores inside of me was a bit… inefficient way of using a day… I have to many skills that I want to improve in the same time. Huh? None of my summonings are here?

Your familiar [Walter] has slain [Green Forest Rat level 1]You have obtained 1 exp + 3exp

Your familiar [Kaito] has slain [Brown Horned Rabbit level 3]You have obtained 3 exp + 3exp

Boyz are working for some time huh? Yet… because of predatory I gain more exp from skill itself than from killing rat itself… actually it looks like that if I would summon shitload of ravens and let them hunt by they own I would get more exp than… ehh, this game is broken. Manager! I want to speak with manager!

No point in just staying here… I want to improve my hex bag creation so I can unlock the blessings from nature healing magic… but this core looks soo tempting… yet, how the progress of core improves my abilities it is still a mystery to me…

~ As you improve your core you can store more of theirs DNA, this is what you already know, but what you don’t know is that with your current core and DNA stored in it you are limited in your shifts. For now you will not be able to turn completely into wolf. There are following stages of core: Lesser, low, low-medium, medium, medium-high, high, and large.

Every time you gain bigger core you can use more traits n the same time. When you fought with the warg, you used DNA of deer and wolf, but you couldn’t turn completely in one… well you actually couldn’t create this form too, but as it was made by Greed, who has more knowledge about anatomy of those monster he could maintain form by changing only external body parts and muscle, while leaving all internal organs those of humans.

If you would use all of your DNA of wolf to add to your human form, you would looks like half-breed of beast-kin and human, at the next stage you would look like… some possessed wild beast-kin, then on next stage you would gain access to completely monster form, than to werewolf. On next level you would get some variation of those. As I change you for the first time, I used combination of two large Cores – Werewolf Variant[Walking Nightmare] and Hell Beast Variant [Soul Devourer]. Those are possibilities of combining two high beings. Both of those creature has ranking S++, and are marked as extremely deadly… why didn’t you killed Behemoth right on spot? Because you are moron unused to operate in such a body!

So, you have to chose by yourself, if in your free time you want to grow new core for other monster, or improve already existing. Both decisions are extremely important, for one allows you to gain more traits and be more adaptive to new environment while other will improve you pure power dramatically. Oh, and here is a small tip from me. Don’t consume this core right after you improve already possessed one, for warg is… a really big DNA source and have more than Low core can store. AAAH! I will give you in other way. To completely dill lesser core you have to eat about 10 wolfs, than as you improve it to low, you will need 25-30 do again completely fill it. Then 50, 100, 250… those are all approximate values for one wolf is not equal to others… and Warg as powerful evolution of wolf contains value of about 35 wolfs.. so you would waste about 1/3 of its total potentinal…

~ ummm, thanks?

~ Ha! You fool! You should fall on your knees, hit floor with your head, and pray to me like to the god for my greatness!

~ All I can give you is but a friendly “thanks” (someone remember similar scene from comment section? Somehow you inspired me Garro ^_^, for I didn’t intent to put it here …

~Guh! Meanie!

~ A..anyway, what your name? it kinda weird to address you as “book”

~ You will give me one soon. My name changes with every master I have. As You reach certain level of power you will simply “find” my name… and then you will get stronger… We both will. As you remember I am a book… You will get access to knowledge I hide.

~ So for now, you are only a “book”?

~ Add “chan” at the end, make me feel cute!

~ Creepy..

~ DID YOU MUMBLE SOMETHING?!

~ Not even a word… Book-chan..

So much annoying stuff to do to gain a power… guh. Boyz are leveling for me, so I should start meditating too… it is so inconvenient that I am both mage and chimera… I mean, if I would be a rogue then I would double my pure damage potential. The mage stuff also will broke my utility, but it will take some time.

Aira still sleeping? Really? Hey, do you even need a sleep?!

I sat with my legs crossed.

You have entered [Meditation State]Your mental attributes will riseYou are currently cultivating your [Lesser Mana Core]

Pov Change

I was sitting at the verge of the Forest of Dread. We are still waiting for a signal. I used remaining time sharpening daggers, checking if poisons are in the right place and all my charms prepared by priests are working. We are witch hunters. Job as good as any other. We are almost like private mercenaries. Just our job is a bit more risky… and we are waaay better paid. We are supposed to hunt “abomination” this time. I don’t really care how they call it. They used to name every mage as an abomination.

Do I like my job? Do I think that the world would get any better thanks to my job? Not at all. Every time I am about to capture someone or kill it, I asked them about forgiveness… oh, don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of maniacs that turn completely mad if you just mention about witches. And they wrongly interpret my asking for “forgiveness”. They think, that I see a good thing in every witch, and I gave them Honors by asking them those phrases. Even one of high-inquisitors while lecturing other mention me in his speech “always remember, that witches are but a humans, that took a wrong path, we are not supposed to hate them, but feel pity toward them, as we are making them atone for sins they have committed. There is one among you, young witch hunter, who truly knows how sad their life is. He tend to ask them for forgiveness every time he judge them! He is feeling sorry, for taking away their option to atone by themselves…”

Fools. They are not one who should be pitted, but you. Bunch of murderers, rapist, monsters. Wearing expensive cloths doesn’t make you human at any point!

Why do I do it? I was a criminal. Nothing serious, just some smuggling, stealing. From time to time kidnapping for ransom. We never hurt those who we deprive out of freedom, nor sell them to slavery. If someone couldn’t afford, then we were lowering prices, or even completely releasing.

But we were caught. All of my friends were dead. Only I was given a chose. To die or to take this job. I want to live. I want to survive. This life is pretty good… when we are not killing anyone… Hopefully I am not in charge of “questioning”. I simply can’t torture other beings.

As I was few time asked to “interrogate” other I “accidently” killed them in process… finishing their suffering. It was all I could do for those poor souls. I am working in this job for over 29 years. I am good, but because of “lack of ambitions” I was not promoted. Not even once. I didn’t care. One more week, and I will be done. I will be able to stop doing this horrible job, and leave a peaceful life as I will retire. This is my last mission.

Last job of Merciful Simon.

There was a signal. The thing we were waiting for. It took some time, but we will enter forest from few place at the same time. We have no idea where our target is located, so we sent a message to our other facilities in other countries. We were spies, priests… whatever our role allowed us.

But this is first time when so many of us were mobilized to a single job. To a single target. Normal witch could be taken by a single witch-hunter, the strong one needed a squad made of 4 witch-hunters and one inquisitor, or elder-hunter.

The forest was entered by 10 squads. 40 hunters, 4 inquisitors and 6 elder-hunters. There was not such a hunt in the history.

I pray to gods, that the number is decided only because we are entering a huge forest, so we can find him faster… and not because of its power. Please… gods of nature, order and chaos. Spirits of elements, devils and angels. I don’t care that those prayers are considered as blasphemy, just please. Let it be a normal witch…

Wait… the signal… was it the magic impulse? IDIOTS! YOU WANT TO TELL EVERY SINGLE WITCH IN VICINITY TO SAY THAT WE ARE HERE?!?! Who the hell is in charge of this missions!? Please.. gods and spirits, I change my prays, let it be extremely inexperienced witch!

I have so bad feeling about it!

Pov change (somehow I feel I am making too many povs, but all of them are really needed!... well, not this one, this one was made as semi cliff-hanger to make you more nervous and make a chapter bigger :D )

Professor Kleir was looking at his students like a wild, hungry and even more wild animal. He has obligatory lessons twice a week. 3 hours each. They took 6 hours per week from his precious time!

- What. Do. You. Want. To. Know. Today? – he said every words with about 5 seconds break. He was trying to scare them off, so he could say, that class was not cooperating and he couldn’t made a lesson. BUUUT, everything is more terrifying then old, short professor.

- Umm, professor? Even as every race is different of other… are there a race that has a great diversity within itself? I was thinking about be..

- Beast-kin? They are not so different. There is a race way more diversified then some beast-kin, that have only a bit different ears size. Undead. Huh, what wrong? Undeads are counted as completely different race! And here we can say, that to undead belongs: humans corpses, elves corpses, dwarfs corpses… dragon corpses… every single one corpse… that is moving. But it’s not why it is so different. They have many forms. You know skeletons? Just some moving bones. But they can grow in many ways, they can become both death knight and liches… on the other hand we have walking corpse… variant undead. Way stronger and more durable then skeletons, but pay with speed. Those can become ghuls… and ghuls can grow to other beings, but as this matter is connected with black magic and necromancer we shall not divagate further about corpses “evolution”… as if we could call it an evolution… and …

- Professor? – The old magician was looking as someone who really don’t want to continue his lectures…

- And spirit class… ghosts, phantoms, nighbanes, banshee… poltergeists… nightmares… I have seen nightmare once… and trust me… you can be afraid of behemoths, of werewolves, of vampires… fuck, I was supposed to not speak about those… AH! DAMN! How do you recognize a nightmare? As they would settle is some house… of course, it starts with bad dreams of everyone living inside. Then… you are slowly being suck into one… you have problems with saying what is dream and what is a real life… even as you are awake, but you were marked by this…this… this creature… you will have hallucinations… it feast upon your suffering, your pain and fear – professor was trembling while saying it – you will not be able to leave a house. It simply ticks you… showing door where there are none… and then the moment comes, when it completely sucks you inside. You are living inside a nightmare… in the last stage of this… parasite disease, you are slowly turning insane… and dying. There is only a one man that was said to survive the last stage of nightmare manifestation…

- Sir? Who is the man you are talking about?

- You are talking to him right now… - the class went silent.

As he was about to continue the lesson someone entered a classroom. In next moment he turned to the doors and wanted to scold the late student. But it was not a student who has entered.

- Hanna? Is that you? After so many years! So good to see you my dear friend!

- As strict as always? Hieroni… I came to you, for I was told that you are looking for a… creature.. that have appeared a bit more then week ago…

- Oh? A! the measurements of mana flow said, that it may be..

- Divine Chimera…

- How do you know it… the records were not published yet…

- Hieroni… I know him… it was my student… and we may have another problem… but lets speak about it in private, shall we?

- CLASS DISMISED!

As everyone left the room he looked with sparkling eyes at her waiting for her to say more

- Let’s start with this, that he is a really good boy, promise me, that if you would find him, you would not hurt him…

- I… don’t like this idea… but it’s not like I can refuse you… in the end, if not you, I would still be struck inside this nightmare… but you mentioned a problem… what is it?

- You know, that such transformation require a powerful being or environment as catalyst?

- YES! We already have so many speculation!? Blood of ancients? Tears of the fallen? Env…

- Codex Diabolicus.

- It… it is not a problem. If the council of archmages would know it… if he would have any connections with Darrion…

- He has white hairs… Hieroni…. And yes, those are not natural… he claim it was natural manifestation… and it took him 5 hours to became a mage…

- It’s not a problem Hanna… it’s beginning of the pure madness… I will drop lecturing now and I will FORCE you to help me. in a week we have to make a report. And in this report we have to make him look like the most fluffy-cuddly nice pet. I have no idea how we will make it, but… it would be also best if he could came to the council and say same things by himself. In other way they may say that he is hiding in order to launch a magical attack… Hanna?

- Yes?

- You know we and this boy, are now in really deep shit?

- I do, Hieroni, I do…