Chapter 158: Metamorphosis, Prelude to War
Just as Shiraori was wondering how Leest could have grown so rapidly—
*Vroom—*
A spatial teleportation gate abruptly manifested in the living room.
It was none other than Shirazawa returning with Sophia.
"You two..."
Feeling the energy fluctuations inside Sophia, Shiraori was slightly startled.
"Hehehe, I leveled up!"
"I'm at Lv2 now!"
Sophia was beaming with joy, looking utterly thrilled. She was finally no longer that Lv1 novice!
Though it was only a single level increase, Sophia possessed a massive stack of max-level stat-correction skills. Every time she leveled up, her attributes inflated by hundreds or thousands of times compared to an ordinary person.
Her stats, which had originally hovered around fifteen thousand, had now shot straight up to thirty thousand. And that was the boost from a single level; the sheer scale of it was terrifying. It was hard to imagine the kind of scene where a Lv10 Sophia would directly rival Ariel in raw power.
What did it mean to be a natural prodigy?
This was it.
Shiraori nodded silently. "Hmm, looks like our gifted education program back then was quite a success~"
Hearing those words instantly triggered Sophia's memories of her agonizing past experiences.
She wanted to cry but had no tears left. "Don't even talk about it. It's too painful to look back on..."
"Huh? Is that... Leest?"
Once her excitement cooled down, Sophia noticed that there was another familiar yet unfamiliar, black-haired mature woman in the living room.
"Sister Sophia..."
A sultry yet gentle voice came from Leest, creating a massive sense of cognitive dissonance.
Sophia: "..."
Great, now she was the only little girl left.
She felt a bit disheartened. Why was she the only one who couldn't grow up?
Sophia had been born at the sixth evolutionary tier—the same tier as a Spider Queen or an Arachne. As a Vampire Progenitor, her biological form had already reached its absolute peak and could not evolve any further. Consequently, she could only grow up naturally over time; even leveling up wouldn't help her age.
"Aze, what on earth did you feed them in such a short amount of time?!"
"The change is way too drastic!"
Shiraori pointed at Leest, her teeth practically aching with envy. She still remembered that the last time she saw Leest, the girl had been so small and cute. Now, she glanced at the girl's chest, and well, she felt completely outclassed.
"It was the energy from a divinity core that catalyzed their growth."
Shirazawa explained everything he had done that morning down to the last detail.
The energy within a divinity core was essentially a universal panacea; its purity allowed it to be converted into any form of energy. Leveling experience was just another form of energy, so he had attempted to let Leest absorb it.
As it turned out, before Leest could even start, the dark blade "Kuromaru" had bolted out of the spatial storage and swallowed one of the divinity cores right out of his hand in a single gulp.
Initially, he had worried that Leest's body might rupture from the overload, but with Kuromaru—an indestructible legendary weapon—acting as a buffer, Leest had shot up by over a hundred levels in one breath, ascending straight from her fourth form to her sixth form.
The absolute evolutionary pinnacle for a goblin: an Ogre, the exact same race as the Goblin King Wrath.
Perhaps because she had taken in a bit too much, when Leest took shape again, her top almost burst open from the expansion. Once she evolved into an Ogre, Kuromaru halted the transfer of experience points, sealing the remaining 70% of the divinity core's energy inside its blade.
Blindly raising one's level without taking the time to settle down and build a solid foundation was pointless, no matter how fast the progression. Thus, Leest was currently capped at Lv1, a situation very similar to how Sophia had been locked out of leveling earlier. She needed time to digest the skill points brought by the level-up, learn more skills, and grind her skill proficiencies. Only by doing that before leveling up again could she maximize her gains.
At this moment, Leest's stats had already reached forty thousand, which wasn't much lower than what Shirazawa and Shiraori had back in the day. What she lacked now was real combat experience. She needed to duel genuine powerhouses to hone her combat techniques and refine herself further.
As for Sophia, Shirazawa had spent a quarter of the divinity core's energy to max out the proficiencies of all her skills. Then, he used another quarter to convert into experience points for her. This girl was such a glutton for experience; after devouring a whole quarter, she had only gained a single level. She was practically an experience-eating beast. He had pocketed the remaining half of the divinity core, fearing the girl might choke herself to death if she ate too much in one go. After all, one doesn't become fat from a single bite; it required a gradual process.
"If that's the case, the divinity core energy we have on hand is going to run a bit short."
After listening to the explanation, Shiraori immediately thought of the humanoid spider army she had been manufacturing during this period. If the energy in the divinity cores could be directly converted into experience and combat power, she could accelerate the growth rate of the Tenth Army. While the "White-style training method" was effective, it was still a bit too slow for their current needs.
However, the Tenth Army had a large headcount—already numbering nearly a hundred, with potentially more in the future. Calculating it this way, the originally worthless divinity cores suddenly became precious.
It looked like she would have to fleece some wool off of Menka. In any case, she was filthy rich; she definitely wouldn't care about a few worthless divinity cores. The number of dimensions governed by the Underworld was astronomical, and the quantity of divinity cores accumulated over countless eras was bound to be beyond imagination. More importantly, Lower divinity cores were practically worthless in Hell and the Underworld. Even the janitorial staff cleaning the restrooms would shake their heads at them.
"Don't worry, we're only dealing with Potimas, there's no need to make such a massive fuss. I still have two on me, and plus the four in your hands, it's more than enough."
"When we wage war against the Pantheon in the future, there will be plenty of opportunities to harvest their divinity cores."
Shirazawa comforted her with a smile, but his words plunged Shiraori into deep thought.
If he hadn't mentioned it, she would have forgotten. Right, our current opponent is just Potimas, so it's fine. She had constantly been envisioning the war against the Pantheon, naturally treating them as the hypothetical enemy, which had inadvertently placed a fair amount of pressure on her shoulders. Only now did she realize that participating in a divine war was still a long way off; there was no need to rush.
"Alright, from now on, Leest won't be going to school anymore. She'll stay with us to prepare for the upcoming plans." "As for Sophia~ just go do whatever you usually do."
"I am NOT going to school!"
Sophia immediately protested.
"Why does Leest get to hang out with you guys? I'm older than her, yet I have to go to class!"
"That's not fair!"
She widened her eyes, looking as though she had suffered an immense injustice.
"Where exactly are you bigger than her?"
Shiraori glanced at her chest, delivering a merciless jab.
Sophia's face instantly flushed crimson with embarrassment.
"I... I... Humph, just you wait, don't regret this later!"
Leaving behind those harsh words, Sophia calmed down, fully prepared to show this bunch of detestable adults what she was made of. Forced to go to school? Fine, see if I don't tear the school apart!
"Don't look down on a young girl's potential, humph!"
With that, she turned on her heel and stormed off.
Shiraori: "..."
What should I do? Suddenly it feels like Sophia is genuinely angry. Did I do something wrong? Was I supposed to avoid making fun of her small chest just now? Well~ whatever~ it's the truth anyway~
No one paid much mind to the threat Sophia uttered before leaving. Even if the girl really ended up turning the world upside down, as long as she didn't leave this world, they could always clean up her mess. Children going through a rebellious phase were simply unmanageable. If she wanted to stir up trouble, let her stir it up.
With the people closest to him fully settled, Shirazawa could finally clear his mind and slack off in peace. All that was left was to wait two years, and then lead a pack of thugs with maxed-out combat stats to slaughter their way into the elves' territory.
In the blink of an eye, two years passed...
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