Names

"Erm..." Doris fidgeted with her hands, looking everywhere but at the Kijin that had decided to follow her through the forest as she talked, "Can you please just follow me?"

"I am doing that though..." James answered and he looked so genuinely confused by her words that Doris momentarily forgot the happy go lucky monster decided to just wander off in a random direction more than once since the start of their 'journey', forcing her to follow along lest she risk incurring his wrath, "You don't mind me exploring your forest do you?"

Doris squirmed a bit before speaking gently, "N...Not at all. I only wish to quickly see your instructions through."

James mumbled to himself a bit before nodding, "Lead me out of this place... Dr...Do... What's your name again?"

"Doris."

"Ehhh, that sounds strange though."

"It was given to me quite some time ago..." Doris could only smile politely, not knowing how she was to respond, "I am sorry if it displeases you."

James walked with crossed arms, rubbing his chin in thought, "Doris... Doris... Triss sounds way better. I'll call you Tri-"

Doris instantly understood that the Kijin had no idea what he was about to do and raised both her hands disarmingly, worried that she might permanently injure or kill what may have been a newborn that had no idea how the world worked.

Though, that in itself was strange. 

Anyway! It didn't matter right now!

"W-Wait, mighty one!"

"-ss."

Suddenly, James felt as if someone had punched him in the gut and grabbed his stomach, letting out a small grunt. At the same time, a massive quantity of magicules, the building blocks of monsters such as themselves, left him and infused themselves with the Dryad.

Dense vegetation sprouted from underneath her, covering much of the forest floor in an instant, as her presence skyrocketed, releasing an aura that pushed, no, tossed James into the air and right into an exceptionally thick tree. Though the result was just him blowing through the tree like the many he'd hit before and once again, for the nth time, embedding himself into the soil.

Birds flew out of the trees in droves, terrified and the ground underneath them quaked under pressure, webs of cracks spreading throughout the area.

Doris, now named Triss, quickly reeled in her aura and while still disoriented, diverted her complete attention to the Kijin that had somehow managed to name a Dryad.

"You named me..." Disbelief flashed through the young Dryad's eyes, "Are you... alright?"

She slowly treaded over to where she felt James' presence and found the young Kijin coughing, but still trying to observe his surroundings. The sheer awe he felt was way greater than the pain in his being, "H-How?"

While Dori-... Triss was far younger and nowhere near as strong as her older sisters, Dryads still possessed enough to topple cities and given time, nations by themselves... E-Even if they never would.

Naming was something special to monsters, it gave them power far greater than they possessed, possibly evolving them! But it also took a massive amount of magicules from the namer! To name one such as her and receive a backlash that didn't even affect him much was strange! It was stranger still that he hadn't done it in an equal exchange.

Equal Naming was between individuals that recognised one another and didn't cost as much but that didn't make sense. She hadn't given him any name!

It also meant that he really didn't know things worked! Or he did and was looking for subordinates? The latter assumption also made sense, the Great Forest of Jura was home to all sorts of monsters, intelligent and feral.

"Erm... t-thank you." She thanked him nonetheless, had it worked because she thought she was below him? That must have been it... B-But now she couldn't just leave him to his own devices! It would be way too ungrateful! She just couldn't!

The poor Dryad managed to confuse herself into looking after her odd namer.

"No worries, I think?" James nodded back involuntarily, wondering about what the fuck had just happened? How did giving people different names end up with him on the ground?

[Naming a monster in this way forms a soul bond between the namer and the named. It enhances the power of the named being by taking from the one who gives it and makes room for evolution. At the same time, the named takes on aspects of the giver provided that the giver is strong enough.]

And how would Realist know that? It wasn't a damn encyclopaedia for fantasy worlds last he checked.

[It is what just occurred.]

"Are you fucking with me?"

"F-Fuking? W-What is that? I mean no disrespect!" Triss thought he was talking to her and was upset that she was so hesitant about receiving such a boon, "I... I will help you with whatever you desire. Do you feel alright? Are you certain that there is no backlash?" She worriedly bombarded the Kijin with questions.

"You make it sound like a big deal..." Should he have gotten injured by that?

"I apologise for underestimating the vastness of your power."

There was no way he didn't know about what he just did! She was just being too presumptuous... So Triss thought.

[The energy costs were mostly met by Unique Skill Destroyer's subskill, Ruin Generator.]

 A sub skill that efficiently generated magicules in quantities proportional to the amount of devastation caused within a fixed amount of time.

It was an absurd skill.

So absurd that someone who lived in a society that didn't have powers until a few hours ago had no way to accept completely... At least that's what James told himself. In truth, it was impossible to not accept his situation solely because of thought acceleration.

Wasn't it absurd that copious amounts of energy units could be generated just by wrecking shit when humanity had to go through thousands of years of development to actually find barely sustainable ways to meet energy needs?

[The newly named Dryad is naive. Optimal course is guilt tripping her into servitude. She seems to believe that to be the natural outcome of this encounter.]

As always, Realist was making weird suggestions.

It was like having a version of Dantes living inside his mostly empty head, making the most out of pocket suggestions and plans that oddly enough, seemed like they could work out with a certain mindset.

With no better ideas of his own, James decided to just test the waters, "Sooo, wanna accompany me on this journey of mine?"

"I..." Triss let out a sigh, "I do not mind."

She was totally only going because she was left with no other choice if she wanted to prevent destruction, definitely not because she wouldn't mind seeing places other than the one she had been in for as long as she could remember.

"But I must ask my sisters... And there is the matter of moving my body."

"Lead on then!"

Triss was pretty cute, her older sister might be the hot older sister type. Truth be told though, James didn't care much about that. It was just that he had quite literally nothing else to do at the moment other than follow his whims.

All his commitments were back in his old world, a world he frankly did not wish to return to for how restricting it was. A day in this world had made him see that. He wanted to carve out a good life for himself here.

And from what little Triss had told him before their little 'incident', this was a world where effort was proportionately rewarded more often than not.

"Very well." Triss could only sigh and relent to her namer's will, more so because she was worried he might do something extremely dangerous for the whole of Jura if left to his own devices.

S-Someone had to watch over him!

Ugh, she could feel her mind overloading.

First she responded to damage to the forest, then encountered a Kijin, said Kijin just wandered around and then proceeded to arbitrarily give her a subordinating name and it somehow worked! What was she supposed to think about all of this?

 Her mind couldn't even wander to the sheer boost the name had given her, or the fact that some strands of her hair had started taking on a darker colour.

Just why this disaster had chosen to wander into the Forest of Jura, Triss didn't know.

How could she know it was a product of him making a beeline for a random direction?

~~~

See y'all tomorrow.

I should probably tell you, this level of power isn't even absurd for people who arrive in Tensura by accident and not by a summoning ritual.

Oh and yeah, in terms of sheer raw magicule reserves, he's above Rimuru.