The rabbit ran, stealthily hiding when elves got close.

It didn’t take long before it was out of sight and out into the forest surrounding the town.

“Do you know of anywhere with rivers?” the demon asked.

From memory, he remembered elves had a tendency to make rivers run through mana crystal deposits. Back then, he was outraged, thinking it was such a huge waste of precious mana. That was why he could remember it so vividly.

But now, it would be to his advantage.

“How would I know! I usually don’t go out so far!” Pipi said indignantly.

“Bah! You don’t even get to go out? Why do you care about your ‘owner’ so much anyway? You would be free without her!”

“No! She says I’m getting fat all the time and always tries to get me to go out! But I didn’t want to so she used slimming magic on me!”

The demon was stunned. How could a creature be so lazy? He resisted the urge to berate it.

“Fine, we’ll just keep looking then.”

The demon lord decided that if another animal ate the rabbit, he would just try to possess whatever ate it.

The odds weren’t looking good of him defeating a predator's soul though since he couldn’t even subdue a rabbit. Still, he decided he had to take the risk.

They wandered aimlessly for a bit. The rabbit suddenly seemed on the verge of tears.

“What is it?” he said, very annoyed.

“I’m so tired! And so hungry!”

The rabbit bent down and bit a mouthful of grass. To the demon’s horror, it was very bland and slightly bitter.

It spat out the grass and started crying.

“Waaaaa! It tastes so bad!”

It had gotten too used to high quality produce.

Curious about the fuss, a deer hopped by.

“What’s wrong, little rabbit? It asked.”

Unfortunately, the bunny did not understand. It had not been taught the language of the animals.

After hearing the rabbit’s pipping constantly, it realised the little creature did not know Rolgh.

“Urgh… he must be one of the pets the elves keep. I guess I should take him back.” it thought to itself. “But it’s such a long distance away, maybe I should just leave him be? No, don’t think of something so cruel! But then again, it’s so troublesome… maybe the elves will even give me a treat for this?”

It sat on the ground and pointed its head towards its back.

“Get on me, come on!” it grumbled.

After a bit of effort, the bunny finally got the message and climbed on.

“Hey! Why are you just getting on some random animal?” shouted the demon.

“Deer are nice! Maybe she’ll take me to food.” Pipi said, finally stopping his tears.

The demon could not understand the logic of the naive little bunny. He wanted to rip his hair out in frustration but he didn’t have hair to rip in soul form.

“Don’t blame me if it eats you,” he said.

“Stupid! Deer only eat vegetables! Only evil people like you will eat bunnies!”

“What? They don’t?”

He was appalled. Back in his world, herbivores were almost non-existent. Everywhere, fierce predators lurked. And now he met two in a row? This planet was just way too weak, he decided, ignoring how he was defeated by heroes countless times before getting sealed.

As the deer walked, the demon heard flowing water through the rabbit’s ears. Excitement welled within him.

“There’s a river nearby! We must go!”

The rabbit hopped off the deer and ran towards the river.

“Ah, he must have been thirsty!” she thought.

But all the rabbit did was splash the water all over himself, making her quite confused.

In the body of the rabbit, the demon was furiously trying to absorb mana from the water. The mana pores of the rabbit were complete garbage by his standards, but right now, any amount was precious.

Finally, he refined a tiny stripe of it. Without his expertise in magic, this would have been nearly impossible.

“Ahahaha! I’ve done it!” he laughed deliriously.

“What is that? Looks tasty!”

Before he could do anything, the soul of the bunny grabbed the mana, absorbing it.

“Aww… I wanted to taste it,” he mumbled.

“Y-you! That’s mine!” the demon screeched in anger.

“Okay, okay! You can keep your weird glowing lights. I-“

Suddenly, the bunny realised how much stronger its soul had become. Now, if it wanted to, it could absolutely decimate the demon in a fight!

“Ahh! You were tricking me so you could beat me up!” the rabbit shouted. “You are so evil! But I am smart, so I took it from you!”

“Smart? You just saw a glowing light and wanted to eat it!” The demon wanted to retort but refrained.

“No no, that wasn’t the plan! We were supposed to take them one by one! Give the next one to me, okay?”

“Really? Oh, sorry then.”

The demon smirked. How gullible.

After another splash, he started to refine a new stripe. But just as he was about to absorb it, he was slapped away by Pipi.

“You! What are you doing?”

“Hah! I am not stupid, so I don’t trust you! But you are stupid!”

The demon was fuming but tried to calm down.

“Okay, you still need to let me have some, okay? I won’t refine it if you act like this!”

After hearing the bunny agree, went back to work, only to have the bunny snatch it away again.

“BASTARD! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? DO YOU WANT TO DIE? I WILL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF AND-“

“Hah, stupid! I am very strong now! If you don’t make more, I will beat you up!”

And just like that, the demon was forced. At this point, the bunny could basically beat him in a single swat. Only after the bunny consumed several more did he get to absorb some.

As for the deer, all she saw was the rabbit constantly splashing water over itself.

“This bunny… did he eat some weird mushroom and go crazy?” she thought.