Chapter 242: Comprehension

Nighttime.

The ranger's cabin.

Rod finished today's dinner.

Tally wore a look of wanting more.

Shaking her two plump mounds, she crawled over and draped herself on his chest, lightly teasing.

Rod still stuck to his one-meal-a-day rule for the succubus.

He paid her no mind.

Just now, Tally's accumulated spirituality had smoothly reached the upper stage of the sixth rank.

For a lazy succubus, this speed could be called divinely fast progress.

Their lifespan was far longer than humans', yet their efficiency at absorbing spirituality was far lower.

To reach the upper stage of the sixth rank in such a short time was entirely thanks to Rod's half-year of hard labor and all-night pill-pounding.

And that was with him deliberately controlling the frequency.

"Master, I'm almost at the seventh rank~"

"Big talker—you just hit the upper stage of the sixth rank."

"Hmph~ I mean, it's time to start preparing the development of 【Bliss Party】~"

On this point, Rod hadn't forgotten.

Tally's seventh-rank route planned to center on 【Bliss Party】—during each party, every happy little mini-game played would grant everyone present a permanent minor buff.

Before reaching seventh rank, she indeed needed to hold a few sessions to figure things out.

Originally, once Ammy woke up, a minimum of four people would be needed to successfully run 【Bliss Party】.

But now she'd caught the beastification disease, and heaven knew when the observation period would pass.

"Looks like we can only start with Pan Ni."

Rod thought to himself.

"She looks at me like she's seen a ghost," Tally complained.

"Don't worry, your thing takes priority—when the time comes, we'll just force it through."

Just as they were talking.

He suddenly remembered he hadn't checked the captured Dimensional Stone notebook.

Not wanting to get out of bed, he had Tally use her shadow ribbon to fetch the spell satchel from the sofa.

He took it out and began reading.

The Dimensional Stone notebook had a hard leather cover, and the pages inside were very dry and stiff, hard to flip.

Tally, without a care, pounced on him anyway.

Rod very much wanted to follow his self-imposed "one meal a day" rule, but his hands were occupied by the Dimensional Stone notebook, so he could only be pressed down by her as she frantically drained his essence.

"The most basic uses of Dimensional Stone are weapon crafting and equipment enhancement; it can also serve as a magic energy source, a potion ingredient, and... uh... it can also be used as currency among the Ratfolk."

Is this Wakanda's vibranium or something?

Ignoring Tally, who was shaking wildly behind the book.

Rod continued reading.

"Turn stone to gold? Cure terminal illness? Create something from nothing? Isn't that a bit much?"

The notebook's boasts about Dimensional Stone were wildly exaggerated.

Because the use of Dimensional Stone undoubtedly created a foundational element of worship within the Ratfolk.

But Rat Girl No. 13's fleshcrafting birth indeed couldn't do without Dimensional Stone's role.

"There's also the power of another dimension inside... if my people could master it, at the very least there'd be a qualitative leap in weaponry..."

Furthermore.

The 【Discussion and Speculation on the Land Naga Spiritual Art 'War Soul'】 had once mentioned that to grant a War Soul an anomalous ability, there was a clever but dangerous method—borrowing the power of another dimension's spiritual energy.

This might be a good way for Rod to quickly produce War Souls with anomalous abilities.

A voice came through the 【Far-Speech Chain】.

【Selina: The first batch of overload rings has been developed.】

"Reliable."

Rod couldn't help but smile.

These past days, the zombie Selina had practically gone without sleep, working through the night to debug the overload rings.

No worries.

She was a zombie anyway—an undying body at this point.

He had no intention of letting her rest; next up should be the research on Dimensional Stone.

Immediately after, another cold voice came through the 【Far-Speech Chain】.

【Lady Kali: Tell your succubus to keep it down! Little Orange heard it!】

Ah...

The cat fairy Little Orange had supposedly spent a full half-year in closed-door cultivation advancing to seventh rank; old friends who hadn't seen each other in ages always needed to stay a few days, so she'd be in the forest for a few days.

"Keep it down."

*Smack*—

Rod gave Tally's rabbit a slap.

"Ahhhnn~~~"

Too lazy to bother.

He took out an emerald-green dimensional stone from his spell pouch.

No spiritual essence, no magical power, and it didn't seem like psychic force either.

Instead, it felt like a mishmash of all sorts of things blended together.

Strange.

Rod didn't know how to describe it.

But without a doubt, he could feel a sensation like a shock, even a slight electric jolt.

The aura it gave off carried chaos, unease, even evil, along with a faint stench.

The high psychic resistance of 【Will of the Firmament】 kept reporting psychic impacts related to it.

Tally, who was on him, was even more so.

She couldn't control her shapeshifting and directly transformed into her succubus true form; her eyes gradually reddened, and her movements grew rougher.

Inside, she was squeezing wildly, as if wanting to snap Rod in half.

"Does it affect the mind? But I like this move."

The moment he finished speaking, something clicked in his heart.

It felt as if something had just connected.

【Grasped part of the authority of the 'Enchantment' domain】

【Enchantment Domain: Stirs the feelings within the target's heart; combined with psychic spells, it can produce stronger psychic influence】

【Grasped part of the authority of the 'Plague' domain】

【Plague Domain: A deeper understanding of regeneration and decay; obtained the skill 'Rot-Born Unity'.】

【Rot-Born Unity: One side regenerates, the other decays — all at the whim of a single thought.】

Oh!

Two domains at once!

The comprehension boost from the limitless Spirit Seed really wasn't just empty talk!

Still, Rod put it back into his spell pouch to seal it off.

Tally was still moving — he couldn't let it affect her.

The 【Far Whisper Chain】 beeped several more times.

【Pan Ni: Master, I bought a new nightgown. Coming over tonight?】

【Lady Kali: Keep! Your! Voice! Down!】

【Vivian: Rod, miss you.】

【Little Little Bangde: Rod Rod Rod! I found Miss Xiao Ke hiding in her room! Making mm-hmm heh-heh sounds, seems hurt! Oh, I caught a big bug, can I eat it?】

Rod replied to each one:

Not coming.

Okay.

I miss you too. Come to my place, wear the outfit from daytime.

Leave her alone. Can't eat it.

Rod rested his hands behind his head, watching the wanton, wild Tally on top of him.

He couldn't help sighing.

Another delightful night.

The next morning.

Rod and Vivian chatted as they picked up fallen twigs in the forest.

Heading toward Zombie Selina's laboratory.

As for Tally—

Once fed, she always hid in the shadows to slack off.

Today was a bit colder than yesterday; Rod planned to gather some wood for a fire.

Just using dead, fallen trees — there were plenty in this kind of forest.

On this point, Vivian, being a tree spirit, was fairly easygoing about it and didn't mind much.

After all, when a tree dies of old age there's nothing to be done, and the ashes after burning can serve as nutrients for other trees.

But some more extreme tree spirits wouldn't allow it — even trees that died of old age were off-limits.

You dare touch them, and they'll dare chop you down.

(End of chapter)