An unidentifiable light of greed had sparked in Eren’s eyes when he heard Dom’s name for the first time.
He immediately remembered renowned Dom Walker from his previous life. His name had become a legend after his lucky encounter in Osan woods.
Dom Walker was a normal E Rank hunter in his previous life. People considered him unfortunate at first because almost all of his party members had been wiped out in an accident one day. But that all changed when he went back to get his healer back from the forest.
Eren didn’t know Dom had visited aunt Nina back then. He must have stayed upstairs at the time of Dom’s visit. But he was made aware of the Osan woods incident later on. It’s just that he had gotten too occupied with the ‘talk’ that he forgot this incident would happen during this time.
Dom Walker’s lucky encounters were related to Osan wood’s incident. When Dom Walker went back inside the woods to get his party’s healer back, she was almost on the verge of dying.
He saved Elena by giving her the antidote. But he didn’t return immediately. He told her to wait outside the cave. And then he went back to retrieve the bodies of his dead party members where the tragedy had struck them.
Dom had returned to the cave and searched for the bodies. But he couldn’t find them at their previous places. He figured out they must have been dragged further inside the cave by an E Rank beast or above.
The snakes would not eat the dead bodies by dragging them after all. And no F Rank hunter or beast would survive in this poisonous environment.
If the bodies were dragged in and not eaten, then that meant there was a chance they would be still intact. Dom wasn’t stupid or irrational. He knew there was a risk of retrieving those bodies by going deeper into the cave.
And if the beast turns out to be something he can’t handle by himself, then Dom will be just increasing the number of bodies in the cave by one without retrieving any. Plus, he still had to escort Elena who was very weak at the time.
Dom decided that he will take a look. If it is something too much to be handled on his own, he will retreat immediately. He couldn’t just leave the bodies of his comrades without even trying to retrieve them. After spending so much time together, Dom wanted to at least give them a proper burial.
When Dom went deeper into the cave, he found his comrades’ bodies covered by slimy stuff. He could barely see in the cave. But the light coming from the luminous Yooperlite stones exuded a faint light that would get reflected by the slimy stuff.
‘Thump thump’
‘Thump thump’
Dom’s heart was pounding against his chest after witnessing the sight in front of him.
A D Rank demon slime was evolving there using the bodies of Dom’s dead comrades as fuel. It was the perpetrator behind the Osan wood’s disturbance.
A demon beast family was different from a typical magic beast family. A magic beast normally only improved their physique with its evolution, whereas a demon beast’s evolution would bless it with improvements in its physique ad well as conscience.
A demon beast could think and talk like humans and other humanoid species, if it learns that language that is. With each rank up, a demon beast grows stronger and sharper. A high-ranking demon beast has enough control over its magic and body to shapeshift.
Simply put, magic beasts were inferior variants of the demon beasts. A magic beast can turn into a demon beast after getting promoted to high enough rank and gaining sentience. But a demon beast would never regress to being a normal magic beast.
A D Rank magic beast wouldn’t be enough to cause such a ruckus in the woods. But a D Rank demon beast could. That was because every time a demon beast evolves, it releases strong mental pulses that attest to its evolution in both body and mind.
A demon beast can control a horde of the magical beast with its mind control over them. It could make them come together or run away from their usual habitat at its whim.
It looked like the demon slime wanted to go through evolution and hence had sent a distress signal to nearby animals. Therefore, They had changed their usual habitat and started attacking humanoids as soon as they saw them. They were just following the orders of a D Rank demon beast.
The evolution of a demon beast is also a little different. Magic beasts can eat another magic beast, or fight constantly among each other to increase their ranks. But a demon beast’s evolution required it to not only eat and fight other beasts but also consume a lot of humanoid preys during its evolution.
Only humanoid species would have the brain matter and humanoid magic laws etched onto their bodies. They were required for a demon beast to complete Its evolution.
Nature tries to bring balance between any two opposing forces naturally found in its all-inclusive food chain. Magic beast had a high reproductivity rate. They could rank up easily by following their daily routines. And their bodies were stronger than demon beasts.
A demon beast would have the same starting point as the magic beast except for its higher intelligence.
A demon beast also had to go through the same process of evolution to increase its rank. It also had a low reproduction rate. And it couldn’t rank up as easily a mana beast.
The demon beast would require the bodies of humanoids and humans that served as a final push for their evolution. And when it completes its evolution, the result would be far better than what a normal magic beast could ever hope to achieve. It could immediately lord over the other magic beasts of the same or lower ranks irrespective of their species.
With great risks came greater benefits.
But a demon beast’s problems didn’t just end at having to hunt and consume humans. Their evolution process also carried great risk. When the demon beast goes through an evolution, it would be at its most vulnerable.
If a human manages to pass through the mental pulses that the demon beast releases, and intercepts its evolution process, that human would have the chance to make the demon beast serve them for their entire life.
It had to do with humanoid magic laws that get consumed by the beast during the evolution. If the human presence during the crucial time of the demon beast’s evolution manages to taint the said laws that were being consumed with their fresh blood, the laws would carry the mark of the one who tainted it.
And since that person is alive, the beast wouldn’t be able to digest it during the evolution. A permanent, irremovable mark would be formed over the demon beast’s consciousness. The demons beast would be controlled through that mark.
There was no fear of the demon beast rebelling in his next evolution. The mark would never go away once placed. It can only get strengthened during each evolution. And the demon beast psyche would change forever with that mark. It would treat its new master as its kin and someone whose life was way more important than its own.
Dom had found himself to be a witness to one such crucial time when the demon slime was going through an evolution. He had immediately understood the opportunity that was contained in this situation.
Dom didn’t have to face the mental pulses. And he didn’t need to locate the demon beast’s evolution spot. Everything was ready for his interception. This was called being lucky. Although the demon slime was stronger than Dom, it wasn’t aware of his presence anymore due to the trance-like state it was in due to its evolution.
Dom wanted to drag the bodies of his comrades out before witnessing the demon evolution. But now he had realized that he had to be pragmatic in this case. Since the bodies were already half-digested and there was a chance for him to get a demon companion, he decided to change his plans.
Dom didn’t waste time dropping his fresh blood on one of the bodies that was getting digested by the demon slime. When the demon slime completed its evolution, Dom could feel a mental connection with the slime.
Dom had gained a demon slime as his companion through this ordeal. A demon beast was rare. Finding a demon beast at the time of its evolution was even rarer. That’s why people with demon beasts as their companions were treated as accomplished beings.
With demon slime as his companion, Dom’s ranking journey became a lot smoother. He left the Osan city and shifted to the kingdom’s capital with Matt and Elena in tow. He kept getting more famous and nobody could stop his rise to richness and fame.
It was assumed that Dom also had another lucky encounter in the forest apart from gaining a demon beast companion. But they were all assumptions and nobody could confirm it. When Dom started living in a distant kingdom’s capital, his legends only became more vague and unbelievable.
But that was all in Eren’s previous life. This time, Eren would snatch this lucky encounter from Dom and make it his own.