I Have To Do What!?

The sound of crunching could be heard before a sudden shift in the soul force in the air began to funnel towards the mouth of a boy with blonde hair sitting on a large snake like demon beast with star patterns all across its body.

"This is taking too long… it's already been a couple hours but all I've found is some bronze beasts and this silver rank one… a single Demonic Star Python wont let me pass the test…"

Currently he had only 8 points after hunting for a couple hours. He was trying to think of his next move before a voice rang out through his head.

"You have to go deeper brat! What is the point sitting out here with all these low rank trash when you could be merging with me to take on gold rank beasts!"

"Why would I do that!? Did you forget what happened last time when you took control of my body! How could I ever trust you!"

Ryder stood up sending the pythons body into his ring before heading out towards the closest mountain.

What caught his interest was all the star force that had been gathered around the mountain especially at the top! This confused him however since the peak of the mountain looked to be completely flat from the base.

"You are still on about that? So what? It was just an insignificant bug. Do you feel bad every time you step on an ant? Especially once who insulted you!?"

"That "ant" you speak of was a living breathing human! Someone who had just as much right to live as you do! I can't trust the power you give me so I'll fight with my own strength!"

"Idiot! You could easily kill a normal gold rank with my power and yet you still choose to make things harder for yourself!? Why did I get stuck to such a idiotic boy!"

Ryder didn't say another word as he opened his mouth causing more of the soul force in the air to gather towards him before turning into a small orb in between his teeth before bitting down causing it to make a crunching sound.

The energy had entered through his teeth before being directly injected into his skeleton circulating around his body before being added to his soul realm gaining 100% of its energy unlike before.

"At least you are using your technique correctly now"

Cain could only sigh as Ryder sprinted across the mountains away from the snakes burrow, he was fully focused on diving deeper into the Star Light Mountains while avoiding bronze rank beasts as much as he could.

The mountains glow was slowly starting to dim in certain spots. Ryder tried to get a closer look but as he reached the base of the mountain the darker spots became clearer until he stood there shocked at what he was seeing.

In the dark spots were countless gold rank bugs climbing over each other as they raced towards the top of the mountain!

In other parts there was large apes, boars, and even wolves as well as smaller demon beasts lead by their clans leader!

Each had been silent but the tension was clear. It was suffocating to see 3 large demon beasts having a stand off with their clan raging behind them!

They had been towards the right side of the mountain covered by the rocky terrain until Ryder got closer. Each of the beasts seemed to be much stronger then a normal Gold rank making Ryder take a step back!

"What is going on… are those… Black Gold rank demon beasts!? What are they doing here!"

"Idiot, have you even tried sending the energy around you? No I don't mean just the immediate energy, try and feel the power coming from the top of the mountain!"

The boy sighed slightly annoyed that he was being told what to do by the wolf. However he knew if he wanted to get stronger faster he needed his help.

Instantly he closed his eyes trying to expand his sense to feel more of the energy with his mental power. He quickly came in contact with the energy, at first he didn't feel anything wrong about it but slowly the more he sensed it the more he understood.

"There is some kind of treasure or something like that drawing in the star force before transforming it into a very dense and powerful energy… however it feels different somehow? What is this?"

"Don't worry about it, you'll learn in time but now those beasts are fighting for who gets the treasure. From what I can tell they seem to have known this was going to happen… looks like this isn't a rare occurrence"

Ryder was about to go up the mountain to see what was up there while the beasts were busy however he was stopped by Cain the next moment.

Even though he could no longer exert too much control over Ryder he could still slow him down some.

"Did I say you should go right now? No? Then stay put! If you were to go up there right now you would die! Look at those insects a little more before you go rushing in!"

Ryder had no choice but to stop and take a second look at the bugs. To his horror he saw them one after another start reaching the edge just to get split in half by an unseen force!

'What kinda monster do you have to be to casually kill a gold rank like that…'

He took a couple steps back before quickly pulling out a plate he got from Caleb just to start funneling his mental power into it activating the runic plate!

Instantly a transparent barrier appeared around his body making it immediately vanish from sight. He didn't even make a single sound when he moved either as he hides in a rocky area close to the base of the mountain.

"Tell me Cain… is it worth it for me to get to the peak? Wouldn't I just die…?"

"If you tried to go up there without any protection runes or my power then you will definitely die…"

He paused for a moment hesitating as he thought some things over before continuing his sentence.

"It's not impossible, however if you want to get stronger then you'll need those bugs… each of them are at gold rank cultivation but their bodies are not made for combat. They might have a poisonous bite but as long as you do as I say then it shouldn't affect you… I'll just need you to trust me"

A moment passed without a sound, another quickly passed. He didn't respond for a full minute making Cain think he wasn't going to get an answer before Ryder replied.

"I'm only going to do this because the contract would have killed you if you tried to harm me… asking for me to trust you is something I can't do right now, but I will trust our contract"

He took a big breath as he got out of hiding before heading towards the constant stream of bugs pouring out of the mountain with his runic plate still covering him.

"You need to capture as many as you can… even if you are bitten or attacked you must capture them at all costs especially after being poisoned!"

It took 15 minutes to get to the closest river of bugs. Each of them were different, some looked like large beetles while others looked similar to cockroaches however on their heads they had black devil like horns.

'Demonic Blood Roach… Hell Fire Beetle… even an Acidic Thorn Mosquito!? Did ever beast from under the Star Light Mountains come here for this treasure!?'

"Now that you are here you'll need to eat them all!"

"…Eat? W-wait!? Are you telling me to eat all these extremely deadly creatures! Wouldn't I just die!"

"Hey! I thought you said you trusted the contract! Why would I do this to hurt you? Actually I was expecting these bugs to have only poisons but now that I see there are many different elemental bugs here then this is perfect! Eat them quickly!"

Ryder was hesitating as he watched the many different kinds of bugs fly, jump, or climb over their competitors as each of them funnel towards the peak only to be killed moments later.

'…Ew… do I really… No! I need to do this… he wouldn't say something that would be harmful to me due to the contract! Just close your eyes and eat!'

Every time he thought about it he wanted to throw up. He saw many of them wiggling around on the ground before an image of it going down his throat floated into his mind sending a shiver down his back before he began to gag a little.

In the end he quickly grabbed a handful of the small creatures. Instantly they began to bite and try to free themselves from the hand only to be thrown into the boys mouth quickly bitting down killing a majority of the bugs that couldn't survive without their head of body.

His eyes were shut tightly as he focused on bitting through their bodies as they attacked his mouth and tongue only to be cut to bits moments later.

A feeling of intense sickness filled his body even before he swallowed their corpses. He could feel the different elements clash in his mouth as the poison from many different bugs began to spread through his body before swallowing the lump of chewed meat.

Moments later the sickness passed as a wave of energy shot up from his stomach towards his soul realm infusing Cain with some of their elements.

Instantly Cain sent out a wave of energy into Ryder's body attacking the poison as it guides it and his blood to create antibodies for the different poisons and venoms he had ingested.

"What's… happening…"

He felt out of breath, his body was burning up only to immediately turn cold seconds later. Every portion of his body was going through changes to accommodate this energy that was forcibly changing him.

"Calm down Ryder, my technique is much more then just a way to eat soul force you know! Everyone who practices this technique must have my soul form and must be attribute less. Though I guess if you have my soul form then you'll be attribute less anyways. My technique allows us to steal the attributes of others, all we have to do is eat them!"

He allowed Ryder to relax for a second and soak in that information before continuing.

"Now with these bugs you won't be able to gain their attribute but you will gain resistance! The more you eat the stronger your resistance to that element will be until you are immune to their level of power… though this isn't really that big of a deal outside of legend rank but for now it will be very helpful"

As they were talking the energy went back towards his mouth healing his wounds before going back to his Soul Realm merging with Cain once more.

"…What an annoying technique…"

That is all Ryder said before getting another handful of bugs this time quickly eating them.

"If this is what I must do to get stronger then I'll do it!"