At long, long last, we arrived somewhere with people.
The journey to get here had been endless.
It had been agonizing.
It had been unbearable.
I could finally catch my breath.
The road here had been truly treacherous.
We walked endlessly through a forest with no paths, pushed through a field of grass that towered above our heads, and just when I thought we'd finally reached a proper road, the pace accelerated dramatically.
I was seriously starting to think I might die of overexhaustion at my age.
If Shirahiro hadn't forced me to learn the Martial Combat Skill back in the forest, I never would have made it this far.
Martial Combat—a Skill that enhanced physical abilities by consuming MP.
Shirahiro had forcibly made me learn it.
That morning, she suddenly took my hand, and without permission, she manipulated my magic power and activated Martial Combat.
"Maintain it. Just like that."
When she let go, Martial Combat was about to deactivate immediately, so I panicked and struggled to keep it going just as she'd told me.
As a result, I was able to acquire the Martial Combat Skill.
Thanks to that, getting around on the road became a fair bit easier.
Well, Martial Combat consumed MP, so I couldn't keep it active nonstop. And while it was active, I could increase my pace—so it didn't really feel all that easier.
Still, manipulating someone else's magic power… just how high was her Magic Power Operation Skill level?
At the very least, I couldn't manipulate other people's magic, so her Skill level was definitely higher than mine.
No way her Skill level was maxed out, though, right?
Surely not.
In the grassland, tall grass grew everywhere, and I had to push through it with my hands to advance.
I kept wondering if there hadn't been a slightly more reasonable route, but then again, we'd been walking through pathless forest the whole time, so maybe she was deliberately choosing places no one would go.
Pushing through the grass took considerable strength, and before I knew it, I'd acquired the Strength Skill.
On top of that, because I'd been touching the tough grass with my bare hands, I kept getting cuts all over, and I'd heal them with HP Auto-Regeneration, over and over.
Thanks to that, I also obtained the Life and Durability Skills, and the Skill level of my HP Auto-Regeneration went up too.
And as always, the meals were poisoned.
Moreover, the potency of the poison increased day by day.
The only saving grace was that the ingredients themselves were normal, so while they were incredibly bitter, they weren't inedible.
After eating those poisoned meals a number of times, I received a Title called "Evil Eater."
Apparently, Titles were obtained by performing certain actions.
Since you got Skills for free on top of that, and many Titles themselves also had special effects, people said there was no downside to collecting them.
But Evil Eater… what an awful name.
The Skills I received from Evil Eater were Poison Resistance and Corrosion Resistance.
The Poison Resistance was integrated into the Status Abnormality Resistance I already had.
According to Shirahiro, what really mattered was the Corrosion Resistance.
She was always the quiet type, but at that point she launched into a remarkably lengthy explanation of how terrifying the Corrosion attribute was.
Apparently, it was the attribute that governed death. If you were hit by an attack imbued with that attribute, your body would crumble to dust and disintegrate.
What's more, it was so dangerous that even the attacker would suffer damage if they lacked the resistance.
Because its power was so overwhelming, it was nearly impossible to raise one's resistance to it, which meant the Evil Eater Title that granted that resistance was extremely valuable.
Incidentally, the effect of the Evil Eater Title itself was that you became less prone to stomach trouble.
Quietly useful, that.
As a matter of course, Melazophis—who had been eating the same meals as me—also received the Evil Eater Title.
Since Melazophis had been doing the same things I did, her Skills had apparently risen in the same way.
However, unlike me—a baby—Melazophis was an adult, so perhaps she had more leeway to spare, and her growth was apparently more gradual than mine.
Melazophis drank that red liquid Shirahiro handed her at every meal.
It was elf blood.
On the first day, Shirahiro had eaten it and spat it out—enough, I'm going to be sick.
Anyway, unlike me, Melazophis needed to consume blood at regular intervals.
Apparently any blood would do.
So when the elf blood ran out, Lady
But Melazophis still clearly felt resistance toward drinking blood, so she only ever sipped at it in tiny amounts, and it never ran out.
However, because she drank so little, Melazophis grew paler with each passing day.
When I asked her about it, she only ever said "I'm fine," but it was obvious she was getting weaker.
That said, I couldn't very well force her to drink blood.
Even though we were both vampires, I had no need to drink blood, and I had only ever drunk Melazophis's blood.
I had no desire to drink it.
There was no persuasiveness in someone like me telling her to drink.
If I'd endured the same suffering, maybe I'd have the right to say something—but that would mean I'd have to drink blood too.
I didn't have the resolve for that.
So the fact that we reached a town before Melazophis fully collapsed was a stroke of fortune.
Once we hit the highway, they made me run, too.
Only when no one was watching, of course.
I acquired the Dash Skill.
My Martial Combat Skill level went up as well, and from continuously using Martial Combat, my Magic Power Perception and Magic Power Operation Skill levels rose, and I newly acquired Magic Power, MP Cost Reduction, and MP Recovery Speed Skills.
At this point, even I could see what Shirahiro was after.
I think she was trying to increase the number of Skills I had.
I wasn't sure exactly why, but maybe it was to give me more means of self-defense?
If so, then I should be grateful.
And yet, I couldn't honestly say that, not when I thought back on the miserable journey to get here.
At any rate, now that I'd endured a trip through hell, I had one thing to say.
Let me rest today.