He was an idiot!
This time, they were not as lucky as earlier, and none of the snakes moved out of their gang. Even after the afternoon had passed and the evening had arrived, they just moved around in their area. They just waited for them to walk out like idiots.
But only then did Mark receive his wake-up call.
Idiot. He was a fucking idiot!
Why was he so dense?
Immediately, he pulled Dona's hand and moved towards the nearest snake flower—the red flowers that were born out of the ability that the snakes had. Then, he threw a stone at it. Dona looked at him with a tilted head.
The snake flower started to release red, venomous pores, and nothing happened after that. Mark and Dona stayed away from it, and he brought her behind a tree, and they both hid themselves there.
She had also become immensely silent; he could see her waiting in anticipation from here. He was facing directly against her loin, but he held back his desire for now.
As they waited, a hissing sound arrived from the distance, and a 2-meter-long snake crawled out from the bushes. It hissed at its empty flower and looked around with its icy-cold eyes.
Mark smirked.
There was no reason to wait so passively as his dumb Dona did; he could just use his intelligence and act as bait himself.
Dona moved out of her hiding like a natural disaster, and she met the snake in battle with a roar. But this time, Mark was a bit worried as the snake was prepared and just kept watching from the side.
He needed an opportunity.
Hiss!
The snake hissed, and violet liquid splashed towards Dona from its mouth. She anticipated it, quickly jumped back, and distanced herself.
When the snake tried to follow behind her, she smirked.
The ground under it exploded into bits, and the snake was blasted off to the side.
Demonic Trick—Delayed Explosion!
Immediately, Dona ferociously sprang towards the snake. But the snake itself ignored the pain in its body and sprang at her.
Mark watched the fight with more and more worry, and suddenly, when the snake was in an advantageous position, he took a stone he had prepared earlier and threw it right at its head. His eyesight was good, and his aim wasn't bad either.
When it wanted to focus on him, Mark smirked. No, you don't.
After using the venom spit and releasing venom from its flower, the snake was already exhausted, and its mental power was not as high as even Mark's anymore.
As the snake met his eyes, Mark used all his mental power to use his own Demonic Trick—Dream Shock!
The snake hissed, and its eyes grew blurry. In its mind, delicious souls seemed to flash, and it was distracted.
That was enough for Dona to land a good fireball in its mouth, and it was thrashed down to the ground repeatedly. It still shook off the exhaustion quickly enough, and Mark could only grit his teeth.
Dona no longer had the energy to cast another fireball, and the snake could no longer spit venom either, but they both clung to each other, and it turned into a ferocious battle of physiques. Soon enough, he sighed.
With her physique being stronger, she slowly overwhelmed it, pressed its neck down on the ground, and began choking it to death. Its tail thrashed about, but her hold was like a vice, and the snake slowly began to lose its strength.
Mark couldn't help but feel admiration bud up inside him.
Before the snake could die, though, he moved beside it and, picking up the earlier rock, Mark began to smash the snake's head to bits. Dona just breathed heavily and looked at him with confusion.
It was already dying. He didn't need to do this.
But Mark continued until the snake stopped thrashing, and it died.
[𝙺𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚍 𝚊 𝚁𝚎𝚍 𝙵𝚕𝚘𝚠𝚎𝚛 𝙳𝚎𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚒𝚌 𝚂𝚗𝚊𝚔𝚎—𝚂𝚘𝚞𝚕 𝚂𝚙𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚊𝚋𝚜𝚘𝚛𝚋𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚝'𝚜 𝚂𝚘𝚞𝚕 𝚂𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚎.]
[+2]
[𝚃𝚘𝚝𝚊𝚕 𝙽𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚂𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚜: 2]
Breathing heavily himself, Mark looked at the snake's corpse and saw it becoming stiff and gray—the sight somehow comforted him.
Dona instinctively bit down on the snake to heal her tiredness, and green blood flowed down from where she bit, but then, she frowned.
She couldn't heal herself!
Of course, she couldn't. Mark had already collected all the soul and energy inside it.
"Sorry." He patted the woman's head, and she showed him a suspicious expression. But then, looked at her hard-earned trophy again with a pitiful face.
Why was her snake meat useless?
He laughed at her antiques but then shook his head.
His golden eyes gleamed.
"Don't worry, darling; I don't think we will have to worry for long about this kind of life—not that I mind living like this."
Waking up every day to Dona's call, going out to hunt, fighting in blood-boiling battles, and then returning to their tree tops was a good life, but he had better ideas.
Now he knew that using the Soul Devourer demonic trick was way too inefficient.
Dona tilted her head as she looked at him, her breath still heavy from the battle. She was still too exhausted now.
Mark closed his eyes and used the available soul shards to strengthen his Mind. The violet screen flickered within his mind and a cool aura buzzed inside his head. It was an extremely comfortable feeling.
His senses became crisp and clear. His mental faculties also seemed to have removed some kind of haze and made it a bit easier to formulate thoughts.
His Mind attributes blurred and changed.
He checked his current stat.
[Mind: 2.0/2.4]
Having used the Dream Shock demonic trick made him lose some energy but his overall limit had rose.
Mark excitedly opened his golden eyes and they shimmered as they met Dona's.
Strengthening his physique seemed like an idea, too, but that was not the best idea. He could use his mind-type demonic tricks on more enemies if his mind was stronger.
His body strength?
His enemies had it too.
His unique mind-type demonic tricks?
That was something they didn't have!
That was his advantage!
And indeed, his doubts were proven. Demons like Dona didn't have the ability to digest the complete soul of their targets, and most of it would start losing its effect—or something similar.
They were only enjoying partial souls. Even some of that was used to replenish their existing energies instead of increasing their limits.
No wonder Dona was only as strong as she was while being so experienced in hunting around this part of the forest. She was not gaining as much energy from one kill as he was.
But with his system, he could get the entire energy stock of everything he kills.
As far as he had seen, he would get as much energy in a soul shard as the enemy's Mind Stat. He might be wrong, but it had been true so far.
That alone made his chances much better to rise among the demons.
He looked at Dona and Dona at him. Smiling, his lips met Dona's confused lips.
She didn't know what was going on and just looked at him confusedly, without even opening her mouth.
Why was her mate nibbling on her lips?
If it were someone else, she would have already considered them an enemy and would have attacked. But she had already lost her wariness towards Mark.
He had already pierced that strong thing into the hole behind her back, what else was she to be wary of?
He didn't force his tongue in but gently bit her lips.
Dona had fangs that might cut off his tongue if she closed her mouth in her confusion.
Then, he parted.
Dona looked at him curiously with a hint of frustration. She had lost her food after all.
"What, girl?" She was squatted and he could thus reach her head, so he patted her horns. "Don't look at me like I stole your entire box of candy. I'll feed you later."
She still looked a bit pouty to him, but he took her hand and went back to where all the snakes were. But Dona grew anxious and pulled him back. She pointed up at the sky, and Mark realized what she meant.
The night was soon coming.
Why is she so worried about the night?
Mark nodded at her and patted her hand.
"Don't worry, it won't take much time. We will bring one more snake and go back."