Chapter 181 Strengthening (1)
As they arrived when the sky is almost dark, they aren't asked to go outside as the villagers told Lyan and the others to rest, knowing how dangerous the time it currently is for them to travel to the north, thinking that they must be deadly tired.
When the night came, some villagers knocked and brought some food for Lyan and company. Well, it's considered a lot considering that they even counted Lyan's disguised skeletons as well, making the food on top of the table a little bit too much for their number.
Or so what Lyan thought at first.
"I-It's delicious!"
"Yummy~"
*Chomp!* *Chomp!*
Wilhelmina's slave friends that are now already awake are wolfing down their food like there is no tomorrow. The food on top of their plate vanished immediately, and they asked for a second serving. Luckily, there is the portion that the villagers made for his disguised skeletons, and they even made them a bigger portion as they must think that men ate much a lot.
"Chew on them slowly, guys..." Lyan uttered with a wry smile as he saw the sight before him. Lyan then ordered the disguised skeletons to give their portion to them, and the slaves ate them happily.
When they first woke up, they are shocked, and surprised, and other reactions appeared as a variation among them. But with an ease,
Wilhelmina calms them down and told them what happened from the beginning until the end.
Of course, because of her mana oath with Lyan, she could not tell them about Lyan's strength and abilities. Rather, she told them that he saved them together with some hunters of the north, and ended up victorious as they brought them to his wagon.
The story is actually a little bit forced, but because of her unique charisma, she managed to calm them down while telling them the story as if it's the truth.
(Well, I guess it means that the story of her having a great leadership is the truth) (Lyan)
"It's the truth, but..." Lyan shifted his gaze to Wilhelmina, only to see her wolfing down her food not that much different from the others.
"They're like people that didn't eat for a week... But well, at least that will make them regain their energy-" Lyan stopped his words when his gaze stopped at a certain little girl with a slightly pointy ears.
*Thud!*
"Ouch!" (Tesha)
"Oi, Tesha. Why are you eating like that? Eat properly," Lyan scolded her.
"Eh? But the rest of them are also eating like this? Why am I the only one who got hit?" (Tesha)
"Because unlike them, you're under my care. If you don't want to be abandoned, eat properly," Lyan's words actually meant only for Tesha, but-
Ahem!
Lyan shifted his gaze and realized that the others stopped their vigorous eating and started to eat carefully and bite their food carefully.
(I didn't mean it as sarcasm to them, though... And that cough, is that you, Wilhelmina?) (Lyan)
Lyan's gaze shifted to Wilhelmina that is eating elegantly which is the direct opposite of how she is eating before.
Ahem! Ahem!
She coughs. She must be choking on the food she is eating. It happens when she realized that Lyan is staring at her, and she remembers how she failed to realize and control herself from eating like a beast. Her pride as a former noble made her so ashamed that her face is beet red.
Lyan let out a small chuckle.
"You know which your room is, right? I'll be in the living room, so feel free to go to the room to sleep ahead if you're tired," Lyan uttered as he pats Tesha's head before leaving the dining room and going to the living room and sitting on the couch. he already ate his fill quickly yet elegantly, and his mind is still occupied with the things happening inside his grimoire's space.
"Now let's see..." With a single flick of his finger, the summoning grimoire appeared before him still with the same disguise as before.
As he opens the section and looks at the page that is showing what is happening inside the grimoire's space, a smile formed on his face.
The acid ant queen has already finished eating 1/4 of the frost giant's body together with her workers and her soldiers. The obvious change appeared in some of her soldiers and workers that have some blue armor-like exoskeleton on their bodies, and obviously, look stronger than before.
Despite not having any sign of ice mana on her body, the acid ant queen and the rest of her workers and soldiers got their size even bigger than before. They seem to get half-size bigger than before that made Lyan to notice their growth with just a single glance.
(Well, the frost giants are indeed a powerful opponent, after all. I need to somehow let Galia and the others to eat the corpse of the frost giants as well. But I don't know if their mothers would let them eat corpses, though...) (Lyan)
"But sure... This is very interesting..." Lyan uttered as he stared at the summoning grimoire.
The place inside the grimoire's space that the summoning grimoire is showing him is not something at the surface, it's a place underground. It is a huge ant colony that the acid ant queen's workers made for her. Of course, the frost giant that they are eating is also underground and inside their colony, but her workers had already cut them neatly into several pieces.
There are several food storages, and there are remains of corpses of other magical beasts and monsters that they got from their hunt outside the grimoire's space, which is when Lyan summoned them outside. There are also some remains of human corpses inside, like a hand or a foot. But currently, the frost giant's corpse pieces are filling the place up because of its size.
What excites Lyan the most is not only the acid ant queen's growth and her soldiers and workers, but it's the ice-blue eggs that the acid queen ant laid in the eggs chamber. It made him somehow excited to see what kinds of acid ant variants that would appear from those eggs.
After finishing and being satisfied with looking at the ant colony of the acid ant queen, Lyan changes his view to the undead skeletons. Grimclaw is still standing on top of a single frost giant and absorbing its mana into his with a great focus, while the other skeletons are starting to show some changes.
Just as Lyan thought, the great amount of mana the skeletons absorbed could grant them an additional mana element trait that could make them stronger, just like the frost undead that he fought at the deadly magical forest of the north before. The reason why a frost zombie wolf could appear is because of the wolf getting zombified while being exposed to a place with a great amount of ice mana around it.
(But the pace is slower than I thought...) (Lyan)
There is significant growth on the skeletons, but even though the frost undead corpses that are left are only half remaining, there are only 10 of them that had completely transformed into frost skeletons.
(Well, I guess having them getting stronger is already more than enough. I need to reward the winter wolves too later or they might sulk. For that damned horse, Shadow... Well, Mares are enough to satisfy him, I guess. He must be aiming for this village's mares right now so he should be fine) (Lyan)
Lyan then moves his focus to the ice golem and the earth golem. Just like the others, Lyan gave them a single frost giant corpse for them to absorb the mana, but it doesn't seem that absorbing mana gives considerable effect for golems.
Then Lyan commanded them with his telepathy for them to take the magic stone inside the frost giant and absorb it. Following his orders, the ice golem is the one that first change its right hand into a frost blade and dug into the frost giant's heart, harvesting the big magic stone inside it.
The ice golem that opened its mouth which normally could not be seen like he has a mouth, and with a crisp sound of ice getting bitten, a whirlpool of ice mana suddenly appeared from him. Its blue eyes shone even brighter, and its size became rather bigger than before.
Lyan could see its ice body is shining with more mana than before.
Without a doubt, the frost giant's magic stone must have given him a significant boost of strength.
Without wasting any time, Lyan ordered the rock golem to do the same thing, and let him eat another frost giant's magic stone. But unlike the ice golem, the rock golem only got bigger but the quality and amount of mana it possesses don't really improve that much.
(I guess the elemental affinity is a big factor in strengthening them, huh..) (Lyan)
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Name: Lyan Arkanium Evocatore
Occupation: Mythril-ranked Mercenary
Money: 3,797,710,950 Elnes / 3797 gold 71 big silver 9 big coppers 5 coppers
Weapon: Magic Glaive, 1 (Decent) One-handed Sword, 2 (Good-Quality) One-handed swords, 1 (Decent) bow
Equipment: Black leather cloak, Leather Armor, Breastplate, 2 Health Potions, 2 Poison Vials
Grimoire's Companions: 8 High Spirits, 3 Valkyrie, Shadow Goblin Lord (Lv. 5), Papilio Slime (Lv. 45), Galewing Butterfly (Lv. 45), Rock Golem (Lv. 50), Deadlight (Lv. 63), Moonlight Butterfly (Lv. 45), Ice Golem (Lv. 50), Acid Ant Queen (Lv. 9), Magma Bear (Lv. 1), Fey Mammoth (Lv. 1), Arcane Retriever (Lv. 1), Winter Wolf Alpha (Lv. 12)
Grimoire's Army: 6 Shadow Servants, 800 Skeleton Army