Tamamo looked down on the two foxes and crouched down. She put the bell in the hand that was holding the fan and said. "Sorry, you two. You became like that just as I moved onto the treasury. I'll give you a tiny bit of my power."
Then she used her free hand to pat the white fox, and infused a bit of power inside her, making her turn back to her original form.
"Wawawa…" She quickly hid behind Tamamo's back, looking at Zeke with an hint of fear.
"Nanabi… It will take me a little longer to return you. Sorry, but I'll have to do it later. Kitsu, go to help your senior."
"Y-Yes…" Stealing glances to Zeke, she approached Nanabi and cupped her hands together over Nanabi, before doing her best to use healing magic on Nanabi.
Meanwhile, Tamamo turned towards Zeke and Alice. "Humm… So you're the one that Granberia was talking about? What's your name?"
"...Zeke… Zeke Conquest… Oh god, Alice, give me some of your energy…" He grasped Alice's hand and used Energy Drain, slowly filling up his Endurance and Stamina.
Tamamo's eyes widened a bit seeing what he was doing and asked. "You can also drain people's energy? No wonder Nanabi lost."
As he drained enough energy to not feel in the brink of unconsciousness, he shook his head. "No, Energy Drain also has a limit, it is all thanks to the factor of surprise, or we would never have this conversation."
He let go of Alice and stood on his feet. He fixed better his pants and held both Pumpkin and Angel Halo. He got ready for a serious conversation with Tamamo, before he found her sniffing his body.
After some seconds, she commented. "You're cute! You'd be a good mate!"
Zeke raised an eyebrow, and shook his head. "No way I'm going down on a little girl."
"Fufu, don't mind that, I'm much older than it seems! C'mon, I want to play with someone like you on my bed…"
"If someone told me: 'Hey, I'm a girl, but I'm trapped in the body of a boy, so don't mind the details!', I would have passed to violence. I'm not much of someone who likes more what is inside a person rather than looks, of course I would look at both inside and outside."
Tamamo giggled at him and said. "You sure about following that road? You won't find anyone better than me."
"Can we just change the subject?! I went all the way here to get that bell you are holding, not to give away my only source of fun." Zeke pointed to the bell on Tamamo's hands. She glanced down and her expression turned mischievous.
"So you also want Poseidon's Bell? Indeed, crossing over to Sentora is so annoying, but you're too late. Honestly, it doesn't really matter to me, but Alma Elma is so annoying…"
"..." Zeke remained silent, disappointing Tamamo, since she expected a bigger reaction at the mention of Alma Elma in the matter concerning the storm between Sentora and Ilias Continent.
"You already knew it, didn't you?" She pointed Zeke with her fan, and he nodded. "I'm not stupid, the only monsters that could cause such a big damage surpass the Queen-class monsters, and Alma Elma is the only one I know that could have caused it."
"...Fair enough. Anyway, if you want this bell, what are you going to do?"
"Are you fucking crazy? I'm not going to fight you, nada, nein, no. I had a hard time against Nanabi and I couldn't do anything to Granberia even with my strongest attack. I'm just going to wait for another opportunity."
Tamamo pouted and said. "You're no fun."
"I think the correct term is 'Smart'." Alice corrected Tamamo, knowing that his thoughts were correct.
Hearing Alice, Tamamo laughed. "Haha, that's surprising… That human caught your interest, Monster Lord?"
Being called with her title, Alice glanced at Zeke, who still looked unimpressed from anything. She frowned a bit and asked. "Nothing? Me being the Monster Lord doesn't do anything to you?"
"Once again, you think I'm a idiot? I knew that many days ago."
Alice's fists started to tremble in annoyance at the tone Zeke was using, but she calmed down by throwing out a long sigh. "You know what? Forget about it."
"Anyway, I'm going to take the bell…" Tamamo said, but trailed off when the white twin-tailed kitsune called Kitsu whispered something to her ears.
"Hmm… I see… So you saved her life, Zeke? Then, as the leader of the Kitsunes, I must thank you."
Tamamo walked up to Zeke and asked. "How do you want me to thank you? Delicious thin fried tofu? Or do you want to touch my special fluffy tail?"
"Is the Poseidon's Bell also an option? I don't want to wait weeks or months to get an opportunity to go to Sentora."
Tamamo smiled and commented his choices. "That's what I expected. Well then, here you go."
She handed over the bell, and the notification's number went up of 1, reaching 2 if you include the completed quest from Nanabi's defeat.
Zeke grasped the bell and raised it over his head. "Fucking finally!"
Tamamo giggled and placed both of her hands over the sealed Nanabi and the white kitsune, before vanishing, leaving Alice and Zeke alone.
Alice looked at Zeke and asked. "If you already knew about me, why you didn't do anything?"
"What should I have done?"
"Y-You…" No matter how much Alice thought, she couldn't come up with a reasonable answer. Usually humans are frightened from her, but not only Zeke didn't care at all, his house was also outside her reach, so, even if she was evil, she couldn't do anything to his family.
Zeke just patted her back, making her look at him, and Zeke said. "Just don't mind it, you being the Monster Lord doesn't change much, it is even better for me to achieve coexistence. You are the leader of the monsters so everything you say has a weight."
"You do know that even if I try a political approach, the humans will refuse anything I say, right?" Alice started to doubt Zeke's smartness and questioned his words.
Zeke smirked and just replied. "It will be alright after I concluded my plans, you just need to do what you want until then. Give me a bit of trust, won't you?"
"No."
Zeke immediately turned his gaze downcast and said. "That hurts my heart…"
Alice facepalmed and gave an exasperated sigh. However, inside, she was glad that things didn't change at all.
"Anyway, let's go outside, the other idiot is waiting for us." Alice said before slithering away. However, she noticed that Zeke wasn't moving from his spot. She turned around and seen him playing around with the quest screen.
Zeke glanced at her and said. "Can you wait a bit, there is still something I must do."
Alice went behind him and looked at what was he looking at.
[Survive(Hard): Self-explanatory. Reward: 15 Bonus Points.]
[DON'T touch Fluffy Tail: Get the Poseidon's Bell before Tamamo-no-mae takes it with her. Reward: 50 Bonus Points, 1 Super Spin.]
"Oh? You have a Super Spin?" Alice murmured with an hint of surprise, forgetting about Luka outside the Treasure Cove.
Zeke nodded and opened the spin screen, before pressing Super Spin with excitement. The first one gave him a Sun Authority, and he was curious about what he will get now.
B.
"Hmm…" Zeke looked at the B with a raised eyebrow, but it was better than D or C from the Daily Spin. And what is the reward…?
[You have received: Evil God's Immortal Blood]
"PFFFT!" Zeke choked on his own saliva, before he started to cough. Meanwhile a drop of of red blood condensed from the screen, and Alice placed one finger over it, making the drop of blood float over her finger.
She could feel a mysterious presence coming from it and asked. "This comes from an Evil God? I didn't think this would be B-ranked…"
Zeke recovered and explained. "It's… It's because that thing is in not completed yet. If everything was here, then it would be ranked as S, since it would make me immune to any elements except for light and can do great things later."
His eyes awkwardly shifted to the drop of blood, knowing its story already… Was he supposed to be Yun Che or what?
"...Just pass it on my mouth."
Alice shrugged and made the drop of blood float towards Zeke. He opened his mouth and gulped down the Evil God's Immortal Blood.
Zeke felt a stinging sensation on his tongue, before his body was suddenly covered in vein-like red markings.
Since he didn't have a pair of Profound Veins, the thing won't hurt him in the slightest and directly skip the process, creating the new Profound Veins.
Little by little, Zeke was feeling some sort of shift inside his body. The movements inside him made him feel strange, but it wasn't annoying or anything like that.
A minute later, the red markings vanished, and Zeke felt extremely light, as if he could breathe with his own body instead of just his nose.
In fact, he felt like he had 54 more nostrils all around his body.
Alice just watched him the entire time, and asked. "So… Now?"
Zeke looked at his hands, and tightened one of his fists. In the next moment, his muscles got slightly bulkier and his purple eyes turned red. He could feel his lifeforce increasing immensely, and opened his Profile.
[Name: Zeke Conquest
Age: 15 years old
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Title: Hero, Monster Hunter.
…
Strength: 100 (50 x 2)
Endurance: 10 (40 - 30)
Constitution: 84 (42 x 2)
Dexterity: 92 (46 x 2)
Magic: 2 (1 x 2)
Bonus Stats: 65
…
Skills: Sun Authority: Leo, Energy Drain(Minor), Monsterpedia, Evil God's Forbidden Arts.]
"So Evil Soul consumes 30 Endurance points…" Zeke felt his body slowly getting tired, which means that his base should be around the early Nascent Profound Realm in Against the Gods' terms.
He deactivated Evil Soul, one of the 7 stages of the Evil God's Forbidden Arts, and he turned back to normal.
"Alright, let's go back out, we have the bell and everything."
Alice nodded and followed after Zeke, who started to fix the stats on his profile.
[STATUS UPDATE]
Name: Zeke Conquest
Age: 15 years old
Sex: Male
Race: Human
Title: Hero, Monster Hunter.
…
Strength: 60 (Max: 240)
Endurance: 55 (Max: 110)
Constitution: 62 (Max: 248)
Dexterity: 66 (Max: 264)
Magic: 1 (Max: 4)
Bonus Stats: 0
…
Skills: Sun Authority: Leo, Energy Drain(Minor), Monsterpedia, Evil God's Forbidden Arts.