Chapter 37: A New Material and Powerful New Skills

A/N - I'm going to start putting Material or Ore in front of their respective category. An example would be… [Ore - Nodril] or [Material - ()].

*****

"What's that,"

"... It's James. After you killed the phoenix he came up to the top of the canyon to try and kill you while you were unconscious," Kumo says.

"W-well thanks," I say in disbelief.

She could've just killed or knocked him out but instead trapped him in a giant cocoon. Is he still alive?

Unwrapping the cocoon I saw a thin and skinny James. His muscles from before had practically deflated. His eyes were like that of a dead fish. Even when a light shone on his face, his expression didn't change.

"So… why did you do this?" I ask.

"What! I thought you wanted to make an example out of James or something," she says.

"It's fine, I don't need it anymore. It might even make some fire harpies lose trust in me since I presume we won the battle? I mean come on, we were practically destroying them," I brag.

"Mm, we won. they tried to surrender but the harpies on our side were so full of adrenaline that they just killed them anyway. Our side had very minimal casualties and their comrades took care of their funerals. Well, it was more like them burning their bodies while chanting something… also what should we do with this guy," Kumo says while pointing at James.

"We'll just eat him later, anyway, where's the phoenix corpse I want to keep it,"

"I would've thought you'd eat it. Also, the corpse is on the top of the Canyon of Volcanoes right next to this village," Kumo says.

"We are going to eat part of it," I say.

Turning my head back to James it seems his eyes had lit up at the thought of being eaten. No matter how much he struggled the most he could do was make muffled sounds and dart his eyes around the room.

Reaching out my head his last expression was of pure fear.

SNAP

I twist his head backward instantly killing him. As I split his body with Kumo, we ate everything his body had to offer.

[Gained the following title]

[Blessed by the Phoenix Mountain Guardian]

I'm getting a lot of skills… is there a way to combine them? That would be useful since some just don't match up with my power right now. Also, it seems he was blessed by the phoenix as well. Besides, this confirms my suspicion that I can steal their title as well.

…

As Kumo finished describing the rest of the war I couldn't help but get impatient at seeing the phoenix corpse. Thankfully the description ended quickly allowing us to make our way to the top of the canyon where I saw its corpse.

Laying my eyes on the massive phoenix corpse I couldn't help but mutter to myself how beautiful it was. Even though it was my enemy yesterday it still looks awesome.

Its feathers were still glistening with rainbows. The tan beak on its head was much nobler than any bird I have seen in both of my lives. The eyes were beautiful even though they had lost all signs of life in them. Both eyes had white stars around their deep black pupils that seemed to pierce anything.

I was too high on adrenaline to notice its intimidating body and physique. If I paid attention and the sun was high maybe I would've been intimidated.

The more I looked at it the more I wanted to eat it. Not only the skills it would give but the taste would be exquisite.

Kumo saw me drooling and quickly snapped me out of my trance. Feeling her tap my shoulder and point at my mouth I wipe away the drool that was slowly forming. Soon I fixed my gaze on the phoenix again and asked Kumo to cut part of it without touching the feathers.

Even though Kumo was being careful and maneuvering around the feathers she still ended up touching them but…

SHH SHH

Her reinforced threads were unable to leave even a scratch on the phoenix feathers. Seeing this I plucked one using all my strength and inspected it.

[Material - Phoenix Feather]

[A mystical feather attached to all phoenixes. They are the softest material in [The Mountain of Twilight]. They are the second toughest material in [The Mountain of Twilight].]

"Hmmm, you don't have to worry about damaging the feathers. You probably need Raiu to damage or cut them," I say to Kumo.

Confirming that she can be a little rougher with cutting through she was able to bypass the feathers with ease. Using [Thread Manipulation] she cut pieces of meat out from the corpse surprisingly easily. The threads just shifted through it like butter making me begin to drool again.

While Kumo was cutting portions for me and her I was starting to try and chew through the feather. I thought that I would get a skill from it since it's material.

Giving up I activated [Fire of Deaths Sword: Raiu] and sliced it into bite-size pieces for me to swallow. It tasted very bitter and the texture was as if I ate a ball of wool but eventually I scarfed the entire feather down.

[Gained the following title]

[Blessed by the Overlord Spirit of Blessings]

[Gained the following skills]

[Ichimei]

[Body Modification: Blessed Wings]

[Guardians Presence]

[Phoenixes Dominating Presence]

[Fires Will]

…

That's way too many skills. Will, I even get any skills from eating the phoenix's actual body… probably… right? Anyways I should check these skills since I have no clue what some do.

[Ichimei]

[The final form of the [Fire of Life]. This fire heals and brings life to anything it wills. If the skill is given up for a mystical tree it allows the tree to turn into the [Yggdrasil]. If [Yggdrasil] already exists then it will decay and regrow where you give up Ichimei.]

[Fires Will]

[You are given the 5th highest decree of fire. You can manipulate any fire that is created by [Fire Magic] or control a fire that is already in possession by [Fire Control].]

…

To be honest I don't know much about [Amaterasu] so I should inspect it as well.

[Amaterasu]

[The final form of the [Fire of Death]. This fire decays and brings death to anything it wills. If the skill is given up for a mystical tree it allows the tree to turn into [Qliphoth]. If [Qliphoth] already exists then it will decay and regrow where you give up Amaterasu.]

…

After finishing assessing my skills, Kumo had finished cutting up parts of the phoenix to eat. She handed me a decent size of meat since we just ate breakfast minutes ago. Taking a bite out of the tender meat, delicious juices flowed into my mouth. It was like wagyu was turned into a chicken. Even though it had the texture of chicken it still melted in my mouth like wagyu.

I only had wagyu once in Japan and that was the best meat I ever had.

[Gained the following skill]

[Inspect]

[Body Modification: Bloodline of the Phoenix]

A small grin crept onto my face after looking at the notifications. The most important out of the 2 would be [Inspect]. The reason being I can finally look at the full status of other intelligent beings. To be honest it wasn't necessary but the path to obtaining it was tedious since it takes so long to acquire.

Next, I get to obtain the Phoenix bloodline. I have no idea what this might do but I'm pretty sure it will just boost my stats. Hard to say.

Devouring the rest of the phoenix I check status.

『Status』

[Name: Arpious]

[Race: Dark Siren]

[Status: Excited]

[Servants: 3]

[Subordinates: 6]

[Level: 32/50]

[HP: 100/100 MP: 80/80 SP: 30/30]

[Strength: 15]

[Defense: 10]

[Magic: 25]

[Speed: 15]

[Luck: 1]

[Charisma: 10]

[Skills: [******] [Thunderbolt (2/3)] [Boost (2/5)] [Scratch (3/10)] [Mind Magic] [Shadow Magic (2/10)] [Berserk] [Swipe (2/10)] [Poison Immunity] [Disease Immunity] [Virus] [Commanders Presence] [Army Control] [Forbidden Magic: Medusa] [Fire Immunity] [Lightning Resistance] [Water Control] [Flying Sense] [Enhanced Senses] [Enhanced Regeneration] [Horse Beetles Extreme Senses] [Liquid Fire Secretion] [Domain of the Night (Locked)] [Demonic Berserker] [Amaterasu] [Ichimei] [Body Modification: Blessed Wings] [Guardians Presence] [Phoenixes Dominating Presence] [Fires Will] [Inspect] [Body Modification: Bloodline of the Phoenix]

[Body Modification: [Fangs] [Cursed Eyes] [Aquatic Lungs] [Metal Bones] [Mark of a Berserker] [Boiling Veins]

[Mastered Weapons: [Scythe (Partial)]

[Soul Equipment: [Fire of Deaths Sword: Raiu] [Fire of Deaths Armour: Araes Dress]

[Titles: [Blessed by the ********* Spirit of *************] [Savage Assassin] [Heartless] [Blessed by a Star] [Chief of the Fire Harpies] [Blessed by the Overlord Spirit of Curses] [Blessed by the Phoenix Mountain Guardian] [Blessed by the Overlord Spirit of Blessings]

…

I can try out [Inspect] later when I find a fire harpy that isn't directly under me. The next thing that I would like to do is probably master using a scythe. But first I have to obtain a scythe that won't break instantly when we get back. Hopefully, Aiso is willing to make me a scythe since they are pretty different compared to other weapons.

"Arpious I would like to teach you some things on [Shadow Magic] since you keep using it as if you still have [Shadow Control]. Of course, we'll do it once we get back to the kingdom," Kumo says, interrupting my inner monologue.

"Eh- okay," I stutter not expecting Kumo to want to teach me something.

"Let's go back then,"