Deadmeat Saga

Chapter 57 – Development. Three me. (Edited)

Three days later-

In the deep forest-

A creature with the upper body of a lion with a red mane, the green-furred body of an elk, a living golden snake for a tail, having two heads, one a lion and one an elk, glared at a lone golden-haired beauty wielding a runic longsword.

It was a chimeric monster resulting from a deep mutation, becoming a higher-tier and stronger monster than its separate parts would have had. The upside of such a monster is its powerful magic and physique and multiple racial talents. Also, it had several egos inside its body that seamlessly cooperated, creating a more powerful whole.

This particular specimen is the strongest and oldest Hegemon of Elkington Forest's Deep Forest, ruling a territory for over a dozen years. It was minding its own business while taking a nap after snacking on a Green Griffen but got rudely awakened by this ant and now wanted to teach it a lesson. If it had any detection talents, such as Danger Perception, it would have run as far as it could, abandoning its territory.

Unfortunately, there were no ifs in this world.

"Roar!" The Chimera's lion head roared from its lion head, flames surging in its mouth as it shot a cone of fire.

The golden-haired woman lightly jumped, avoiding the flames and landing on one of the tall tree branches.

"What raw destructive power. Such a pity you are unskillful." The woman muttered with a hint of disappointment in her eyes.

The Chimera's elk head glared at her as its hind leg tapped the ground. As if sensing the danger, the woman jumped from the tree, which sprouted several wooden thorns threatening to impale her.

"Petty trickery." The woman thought mid-air.

As the Chimera looked at the woman in the air, a cunning glint was in its eyes as the golden snake tail roared with lightning.

"So it planned to make me jump so I can't avoid its lightning magic? Not bad. Unfortunately, you picked the worst opponent to use lightning against." The woman thought as silver lightning flashed in her eyes.

"Sss*" The snake hissed, releasing a ray of lightning and hitting the woman.

Buzz* Buzz*

A hint of excitement shined in the Chimera's six eyes, thinking it killed the pesky human. It used a similar tactic against two other powerful humans, managing to kill them. However, this time, things were different. It widened its eyes as it saw the human was standing in the air, lightning shielding her as she remained unscathed.

"Lightning Reinforcement- Lightning-element aura that creates a powerful defense, attack, and speed augmentation, granting immunity to lightning damage below a certain threshold and the ability to walk on air. It is a skill I developed these last three days while killing the other Hegemons. Perhaps a bit of an overkill against a brute unable to utilize its raw power." Havre said with an apathetic look, lightning flashing in her eyes.

"ROAR!!!" The Chimera roared furiously. Although it couldn't understand her words, it understood this puny human was mocking it.

"I grow bored of you. Die." Havre said, her sword buzzing with lightning as she suddenly vanished.

The Chimera widened its eyes, feeling something was amiss with its body. The next moment, its body was silently split in half, its eyes dimming, not understanding how it died.

Behind it, Havre waved her sword, not a hint of blood on it, and sheathed it. "Lightning Step, followed by Lightning Flash Cut. I hoped you could survive three hits like that tortoise, but I expected too much of you." She muttered.

Besides her base stats, Havre also developed an overwhelming affinity for lightning, reaching S-grade. She didn't know if all Sword Saints had an affinity to lightning, but the element of lightning greatly favored her. Coupled with her Sword Saint talent, it made comprehending lightning-type skills as easy as breathing.

She then felt her body aching and frowned, "It seems like my control is still too shallow. I should continue practicing it." She muttered and turned around before calling out, "It is dead! Come pick it up!"

"Yes, Golden Demon!" Slat ran over with Judeerd, another Goblin Commander, a dozen Hobgoblins, and a dozen wolves led by two Giant Wolves with two sleds.

They methodically picked up the two halves of the Chimera and tied them on the sleds before having the wolves drag them back to the tribe.

"Great work, Golden Demon! With all the Hegemons dead, we won't need to worry about being attacked for a year." Slat smiled.

Over the last three days, Havre killed all 12 of the other Hegemons. By slaying the Hegemons ruling the Deep Forest, it now had plenty of territory for the weaker Ancient Forest Hegemons to have uncontested. It prevented them from challenging their tribe.

"Nothing to it. Let us return to the village and receive the blessing." Havre said while walking back to the village.

At the mention of the blessing, the Goblin Commanders' eyes shined, having experienced that sweet taste of power. Even without receiving talent, the improvement in Base Stats was excellent. By now, they only needed to improve their levels to evolve into Goblin Lords. The Hobgoblins also greatly benefited from offering more inferior monsters, and many could evolve into Goblin Commanders. The regular goblins were even more exaggerated, some directly evolving into Hobgoblins.

With that, they returned to the tribe, where they were warmly welcomed by the Hobgoblins, used to the scene of seeing a Hegemon brought back.

Upon returning, Havre didn't bother asking where Gerhart was and directly walked to the Warchief tent. Upon opening the curtain, she saw Qold finished devouring her lord.

"Ah, hello, Havre. Gerhart just gave me lunch." Qold smiled while licking her lips.

Compared to several days ago, Qold was now even slimmer, having an hourglass body bereft of muscle uncharacteristic of Goblins. Her horns were even smaller but pearly, and her green skin was perfect. Her two floppy ears were now closer to that of an elf, her yellow eyes now half-tinged purple. She also had more extensive wings and a demonic tail, and her lower legs resembled a goat.

It was an effect of her bloodline reaching 90%. Having nothing better to do and needing to stay in the goblin tribe to receive the blessings, Gerhart decided to help her improve her bloodline and accelerate her demonification. Logically speaking, even if Gerhart shot two dozen shots a day, she would only reach 75% at most. However, receiving some talents from the Hegemons, especially a powerful troll-type with potent regeneration abilities, indirectly made Gerhart produce even more, doubling his output starting the second day. It was a shame that its regeneration was unable to counter instant death.

{Unique Talent - Font of Vitality: Majorly increases the regeneration and storage of vital energies, Majorly increases body regeneration. The endless font of Vitality.}

However, that still didn't spare Gerhart the fate of being repeatedly sucked dry by the ravenous she-demon.

"Qold, hide your demonic features and perform your duties," Havre said with an apathetic look.

"Of course." Qold lowered her head to show her respect to Havre.

Qold already understood that, among the Envoys, Havre was Gerhart's right-hand-woman and strongest Envoy without a doubt. Despite receiving many talents and raising her Base Stats, she was still not in Havre's league. She also knew of Gerhart's other Envoy called Hope. Although she didn't meet her, she knew Hope was Gerhart's first and favorite Envoy, partially due to her potential even eclipsing Havre's.

In contrast, the talent that Qold was proud of felt lackluster, which also fueled her desire to become stronger, making her milk Gerhart even more.

"Okay, let's take a break. Go and offer it." Gerhart said, feeling the need to replenish his energy.

"Hmhm. Yes, my lord." Qold chuckled and shapeshifted, hiding her demonic features and putting on her clothes before exiting the tent.

"My lord, are you fine with pushing yourself so much to elevate that woman?" Havre asked.

"Believe it or not, yes. Qold is crucial to our plans." Gerhart smiled while casting a cleaning spell on his crotch.

"Crucial? How so? She is just a succubus and demon cultist." Havre pointed out.

"Perhaps, but she also has a superb talent for mind magic. She can make converting others so much easier." Gerhart grinned.

"Can't we just use force, my lord?" Havre asked back.

"Sometimes, subtlety is essential to success. Although force can sometimes work, there is no guarantee it will always work and can perhaps crush more delicate things, making our activities more conspicuous." Gerhart said.

"As you say, my lord," Havre replied, not disagreeing with this opinion.

Moments later, Qold started offering the latest Hegemon to the statue, and Gerhart received a stream of energy, granting him a new talent. He felt a splitting headache, tearing his mind into three parts while not negatively affecting his mind. He also felt his magic swell, but that was less consequential.

{Unique Talent - Triple Soul: Triples soul strength and splits it into three equal parts, able to think separately, multitask, and seamlessly cooperate without hindering each other. They cannot truly rebel against one another as they are one whole.}

"Hah?" "Hah?" "Hah?"

Suddenly, Gerhart had three of him inside his head.

"Oh... Wow. So we are now three in one body?" One of the split parts said.

"Well, this seems like both a convenient and inconvenient power." A disgruntled voice echoed.

"Okay... It is weird. I'll merely call you Gerhart 2 and Gerhart 3 for now." Gerhart said.

"Yep, messed up. And it doesn't seem like there is an off switch, either. Oh, and call me Gerhart 2." Gerhart 2 said.

"Well, it is called a Chimera for a reason. Doesn't that mean all three of us would be stuck together? That's a mental illness!" Gerhart 3 lamented.

"Ugh... Yeah, I know. Okay, for now, I will control the body while the two of you control my Aura and Magic and become my think tanks. There has to be a solution to this." Gerhart 1 tried giving a solution.

"Hah... Fine. Let's go with that." Gerhart 2 gave a resigned sigh.

"Yeah, with all the monsters we absorb, there is bound to be a monster that can fuse souls or split bodies. Maybe some advanced slime or something." Gerhart 3 suggested.

"That could work. For now, stay dormant." Gerhart 1 said.

"Okay." "Okay."

"My lord, is everything alright?" Havre, who stood beside him, asked.

"Eh, nothing. I just got a weird talent that made my thoughts go weird." Gerhart shook his head and got up.

"Okay, my lord." Havre nodded.

They then left the tent.