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Just when it looked like the magical beast cores were about to fully expended, Ferti’nier’s summoning tool was finally finished.

As the fiery wisps of the Nether Flames dissipated, a silvery white necklace gently floated down. Ferti’nier reached out and grabbed it with my left hand then had it on full display on my palm. Both of us were inspecting this newly forged accessory, the difference was that while she was inspecting the attributes of the necklace itself, I was just admiring its beauty.

Mithril was a sturdy magical metal that also had a high tensile strength, making it one of the most highly-valued magical ingredients there was in this world. While it wasn’t at the level of a divine instrument, the vast majority of semi-divine tools were forged from mithril.

The necklace was fashioned like an ornate web. Within its webbings were four red gemstones, one large and three comparatively smaller ones. The three smaller stones were roughly the size of a pinky’s fingernail and were lined in a triangular formation. In the center of this triangle was the last stone, one that was the size of a thumb’s fingernail.

It was a stunning piece of work, to be sure, but I couldn’t help but find it a little strange. Normally, such adornments would be found on the chain yet Ferti’nier had instead filled up the inner circle of the necklace itself with these stones… Alzehemier’s perhaps? She is rather old…

“You’re the one that’s old, your whole family is old!” Ferti’nier immediately reacted to my comment though her voice did sound rather tired. At the same time as she said that, she returned control of my body to me.

Oh? She’s not going to take this opportunity to stir up some trouble? Now that’s just not like her at all.

This time, Ferti’nier chose not to respond to my jibes. Now that her work was done and the necklace was safely in my hands, she impatiently stated as such. “Alright, your big sis is about to take a nap now, she’s tired. Remember to grab some souls for her to snack on in the meantime, else it might be a time long before you see her again… Oh, right, little brother, you’re about to level up again… also, your big sis didn’t scam you this time, did she?”

‘What do you mean you didn’t? Those magical beast cores aren’t candies you just pop into my mouth like that! What if I get food poisoning?!’

“Food poisoning?” Ferti’nier paused for a second, clearly amused by the thought of that actually happening. “Don’t worry, you’re a Fallen Angel and one of the direct descendents of the great Lucifer himself. Let alone a few magical cores, you would be fine even if you swallowed down an entire zombie.”

‘What the heck, you’re thinking of feeding me zombies now? You’re just doing this because this isn’t your body!’

“Now why would I do that? Don’t you know how dirty zombies are? Your big sis would never think of even eating one.”

‘So you’re planning to do it when we are separated then?”

“Heheh…”

‘Don’t think you have me fooled with that smile of yours! I know exactly what you are planning in that black heart of yours… you she-devil! There’s nothing in this world that’s blacker than your heart, not even coal！‘

“Oh don’t be so angry, those magical beast cores are what caused your power to rise in the first place. I thought you desperately wanted to become stronger? Of course, those magical beast cores have to be of the right elemental nature as well. Also…” She paused for dramatic effect at that point. Finally, she continued, “There might be some side effects, but they aren’t that severe. They should be no problem at all for our little brother… Well then, your big sis is really tired now, so she’s off to get some beauty sleep… remember to grab some souls~”

Just like that, she was gone.

Ahhhhhh… that she-devil… she’s too much!

“Master?”

Jezsere timidly tried to call out to me while I was mentally screaming in my head. It was then that I realised how strange I must have been acting right now. In order not to frighten our resident timid girl any further, and also for the sake of my own image, I decided to stop the mental screaming for now and turn to face her with the most normal looking expression I could muster. “Jez? Your master’s fine, don’t worry.”

Having said that, I spread my arms wide open and hugged her. Had it been the past, Jezsere would have already come running into my arms, albeit shyly. Unfortunately, this time was a little different. She not only did not try to come close to me, she even backed away a little…

“Master… you just… ate those…”

There was no need for her to explain any further at that point. The moment I heard her say the word eat, my face froze up. I tried to explain myself, but the moment I did so, a surge of mana started gushing upwards from my abdominal region and immediately spread out towards my extremities… fishcakes… I knew those magical beast cores were going to give me food poisoning…

An unfamiliar ceiling… like heck I would say something that stupid.

But what am I doing on this bed? I thought I was just in Paliseth’s treasure room… did I faint? Blast, I should have emptied out that treasure room first… hold on, why do my limbs feel so limp?

I clearly have enough mana, or maybe too much of it… is this the side effect of eating of magical beast cores? I knew she would end up causing trouble! Also, why does my left hand feel a little weird?

I turned towards my left palm and found a strange bracelet tied around my wrist. On top of wrapping itself around my wrists, one end was coiled around my middle finger and ring finger as well. And on the back of my hand were the four red stones I had seen in that ‘necklace’ Ferti’nier crafted. The three smaller red stones were arranged in a triangle that took up the majority of my hand while the larger red stone took up the center point as before… isn’t that the summoning tool Ferti’nier forged?!

So it wasn’t a necklace, but a bracelet instead. No wonder it looked a little weird to begin with. I have to say though, it’s rather nice, just a little bit girly for me…

Yet just as I was considering whether or not to take off this clearly female bracelet, Jezsere came walking in to greet me.

“Master, you’re awake!” Seeing that I had awakened, our resident timid girl immediately ran up to the bed, having clearly forgotten about the magical beast cores at this point. Well, that saved me a whole load of trouble at least…

“How long have I been asleep?” My body felt a little weak, but my mind was clearer than it had ever been. I peered around and saw an unfamiliar room, just like that ceiling above me. The room itself was austerely decorated, but based on the faint fragrance lingering in this room, I could tell it was an inhabited room. And its inhabitant was definitely a girl.

Don’t tell me… is this Jezsere’s room? It kinda smells like her!

“Master, you’ve been asleep for an entire day.” Jezsere tilted her head as she peered in my direction. She seemed to have noticed that something was wrong with my body so she graciously came in closer to have a look.

“Master, how are you feeling now?”

I took in a deep breath and furrowed my brows in concentration a little. “For some reason, my body feels a lot weaker than before even though my mana has never been stronger. I think I’m even weaker than a human right now…”

“Perhaps… perhaps it’s those magical beast cores that master ate? Mother and I were really frightened by that…”

“Probably… no, it’s definitely because of that!”

Ahhhhhh! Ferti’nier, you she-devil, why did you stuff all those cores into my body, even though that ended up raising my power and ended up pushing me to the peak of Four-stars… actually, doesn’t that make her my benefactor then? Should I really be badmouthing her? She did spend a lot of energy forging that bracelet, and those cores were needed to finish the forging or everything would have been for naught. I guess she can be forgiven then.

With that in mind, my mood improved considerably. Yet I couldn’t help but feel that something was off here.

I gave my head a quick shake then turned back to address Jezsere. “I was busy forging a tool back then. The resulting mana expenditure was too high so I had to rely on those cores to replenish my mana… mhm, that’s basically it.”

“Oh, is that so.” Jezsere nodded her head obediently though she still seemed a little confused. “But Master, if you just needed to replenish your mana, the potions section has plenty of potions that can help with that, with no side effects too.”

Potions… that’s right… if it’s just replenishing my mana, potions would have been fine as well, why did she even force feed me those coses… curse you, Ferti’nier! I knew you were scamming me again! I’ll remember this! Once I get my body back, I’ll make sure to screw you over just as hard!

I just knew that she-devil was hiding something from me, and I even fell for her tricks again! I need to jot down her name in my little booklet…

While it was said that magical beasts who devoured the cores of a similar nature could raise their power, the fact was that I wasn’t a magical beast. Such an extreme method came with its fair share of risks because of that. In actuality, raising one’s level wasn’t just a simple matter of munching down on some cores. Such a brute force method often caused a host of problems like an unstable foundation, a lack of mana control, so on and so forth.

Appropriate consumption would definitely result in speedy levelling, but overly relying on those methods was a shortsighted move as well.

As I was busy cursing Ferti’nier, Jezsere had already come closer to me and was helping me sit up with a beet red face. Seems like our little skinship got her blushing again… sigh… why do girls like her just scream to get bullied?

Shameless Self-promotion

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If you liked my work translating Devil’s Evolution Catalog, feel free to check out Song of Adolescence. Also, every comment is appreciated even though I might not reply. I do read them.