Chapter 422: Don't Stay As A Snake...
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We had gathered after the entire battle was over. There were not many spoils of war because the Shadow Beast didn't dropped a thing, which really disappointed me, but there were the corpses of the other Snakes, which each one gave a Rank 4 Mana Core, there were six snakes, one of them was tamed by me, Kuro, while the other five were slain, so I got five Rank 4 Mana Cores of darkness and shadows out of that.
Alongside this, there were approximately 12 members of the Dark Shadow Sect, some were just Rank 2 Peak Stage while others Rank 3 Peak Stage, so the Mana Cores there were rather varied.
I had brought with me all their souls for later interrogation, and Benladann had charmed them all. Meanwhile, there were the corpses of the giant snakes, which were worth their weight in money, the preciousness of their bodies was due to being descendants of the Jormungandr snake, they were part of this millenary family, so they were just as important as dragons in a way.
Catching a dragon and getting its corpse is big, of course, it brings a lot of money and opportunities to forge amazing weapon and armor out of it! Even more the Mana Core can greatly enhance someone else's Cultivation, the same was with these snakes, they were rather precious.
However, aside from Kuro, there was one of the Snakes that was acting pretty weirdly… it was moving and alive. I was pretty sure that I had not risen them into Undead, although it was very tempting to do now that I got Benladann to charm their souls, I could quite literally begin building an undead army, but I've limited myself to not do that because I can't fit them anywhere, not even my castle would have for all of them, and I got no way to teleport them whenever I need them, moving a massive army of Undead around is also kind of a pain, you see.
I also had my own army of sect members anyways, there was the ice elves, the beast-kin, the various other former slaves, and how not to forget the Ice and Snow Golems, who were willing souls that wanted to help and serve without being charmed by Benladann, they were enough for now, and these golems were technically undead… if I were to make more in large numbers, I guess I would make more Ice-based ones, as they seem to be stronger than normal Undead due to my natural enhancement given to them as their riser while being an ice dragon.
Maybe a Death Dragon or a Dracolich would make better Undead and stronger, but my ice-type beasts are obviously stronger…
Anyways, this one snake that showed up was no one else than Miranda!
"It's me dummy! Look my new body! Do you like it?" she asked teasingly.
"Y-You will stay as just a snake now?!" asked Benladann.
"Its dead, you'll begin to rot too." I said.
"Okay it's a joke, don't take it so seriously! Geez… You can't really take even a single joke, don't you? You're so boring." She sighed. She quickly separated herself from the gigantic corpse, as it fell over the floor motionlessly.
"However I think I've discovered my hidden talent! I am really good at it, in fact! I should had realized this sooner! But I seem to be pretty amazing at possessing corpses! Who would had known, really?" she asked while giggling.
"Oh! Makes sense, seeing how the Mold can possess corpses and make Mold Zombies…" said Benladann.
"And because you're completely made out of Mold, that must be your specialty…" I said.
Wait, that's it! Miranda has such low stats even while transforming herself because she needs a Host. Benladann is usually her host, but if she wants to fight by herself without fusing with Benladann, simply put, she needs another host.
"The Snake was pretty strong, and I was even able to parasitize the Mana Core and gain a lot of power out of it! Drake, can I keep this corpse and the Mana Core? I kind of liked using it, like nice clothes you like to use often." Said Miranda.
"Hmm… Sure thing, I will first regenerate the wounds and put some spells on it, so it doesn't rot away." I said.
"R-Really?!" asked Benladann.
"Yeah, why not? I had also realized it like her. Miranda has low combat power even by going all out this is because the nature of the mold is to not really attack by itself, they're stronger by parasitizing, mold by itself is a parasitic life form, so Miranda who is made out of pure mold needs a host… Usually, that host is you, but if she wants to fight by herself, she needs to prepare a strong host for herself, she said she was even stronger than before using it, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, yeah! I was super strong! I didn't even believed myself, actually… I was able to slay Shadow Beast easily, but against that Rank 3 Peak Stage guy and his Snake, I had a very hard time, he was splattering me over the floor all the time, and even with my sneak tentacle attack, he was still able to overpower me… if it wasn't for the Lunar Dragon's help, I would had ended running away." Sighed Miranda.
"I see… So that's your talent then! It seems that the corpse itself became several times stronger too?" asked Benladann.
"Yep, simply being taken over by me makes it all stronger too…" said Miranda cutely.
"And done. Your new host is ready to be used any time you want… Store it inside your Storage Pouch." I said.
"Alright!" Miranda opened her leather pouch and many sect members glanced at the scene dumbfounded as she stuffed the entire thing inside without problems. This was the power of my Inventory Skill Runes put hundreds of times into a leather pouch! The amazing storage inside is rather insane, to say the least.
With that said and done, we marched forward into the sect, where we were being called to. The people around were looking at us with surprise, as if we were heroes.
"Welcome."
Suddenly, we were welcomed by the sect master.
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