HDXD: Omni Harem System
Chapter 157: Uncharted Territory

Chapter 157: Uncharted Territory

Adam was floating in the sky at the moment, since he couldn’t use his horns.

Nor could he use magic. All he had left to rely on were his lore abilities, natural skills, and his own physical prowess.

For that reason, he had no choice but to use Black Swarm to fly.

Originally a pair of black wings conjured by magic, they were now a natural part of his body, hovering behind him when they became a Lore Ability.

Minerva looked at him and said,

"We atta get workin on better control of both your Miasma Manipulation and Monster Energy Control. That aside though, what better place to do it than here aye?"

Minerva said as she looked down over the land. The clouds were thick, and the deep purple mist, a clear sign of nighttime in the Monster World rolled in heavy and low.

Above, the glowing neon green sky radiated an eerie light, casting a sickly glow over everything below.

From that twisted sky, black tentacles snaked down into the ocean, wrapping around a massive, whale-like creature.

It thrashed and whaled as it was dragged upward, its body a grotesque blend of crimson flesh, shark-like teeth, blade-shaped gills, and a single unicorn-like horn jutting from its forehead.

The beast itslef was the size of ten school buses, it’s cross shaped eyes looked at Adam, as he felt like something was trying to hold him down.

"Be careful, that is a Vathalen... nasty-ass fish type monsters, lemme tell ya. One look and you’re frozen like a statue, that’s how they hunt. Freaks of nature, they can teleport through damn near any body of water, big or small. That’s one quite old seeing it’s size."

Minerva stood there, unfazed by its gaze.

Adam felt it too, he definitely noticed it, but shaking it off wasn’t all that difficult.

Still, watching that massive, freakish fish monster get yanked into the sky like some kind of cosmic sacrifice? That was something he doubted he would ever get used to.

"Ahhh... reality eaters are a problem."

Adam muttered, eyes following the rising beast.

"Is that all they do? Just eat nonstop, all day, every day?"

Minerva gave a small grin, answering without looking at him.

"Pretty much, yeah, well as long as the barrier weaken during night that is. Some of em are just dumb, mindless gluttons. Others? Smart dangerously so. But only a rare few can drop an avatar down from Netherspace."

She paused, then added with that usual sharp tone in her voice.

"And to be real with you... that’s exactly why we are here."

That caught Adam off guard. He turned to Minerva, eyebrows furrowed.

"What do you mean?"

And that’s when it hit him.

He knew Minerva was gonna screw him over at some point during their three years of training.

Gravity training was bad enough... but this? This felt like something else entirely.

What she said next left him dead silent.

"This place? Its basically off the map, so yah it’s uncharted territory in the Monster World."

Minerva bluntly said, as she continued.

"I kinda stumbled on it by accident a while back ya se. Did a little cleanup, mapped it out a bit... But long story short, see that settlement down there?"

She pointed toward the cluster of glowing, ramshackle structures below.

"That’s a monster village, not as classy looking as Minerva or Ultima, but it’s still a village. It’s mixed with, halfbreeds, mix breeds, and pure bloods, everything in between. These days it’s mostly mixed blood everywhere, not many full-bloods left. And trust me, those types don’t get along."

"When monsters start actin civil like this, only two things could be behind it: either a high-class monster took leadership position... or a reality eater sent down an avatar."

"Parasites from those freaks can take over a monster’s body and bend em to their will. Avatars show up to speed things along for the eater, keep the offerings coming quicker since those bastards only eat at night. An avatar can set their table for them before hand."

She crossed her arms and looked at him, serious now.

"So here’s what you’re gonna do. I need yah to go down there, find out who is in charge, and kill em. Simple as that. Then, you take their place. You need to learn how to fend for yourself when the odds ain’t in your favor. Also this is a good time to increase your power set, and use dominator to take full control."

These terms were outrageous, just straight-up wild. And the fact that he might have to brawl his way through all those monsters? Yeah, that didn’t help either.

Adam could already feel some of their power.

Even at a glance, he could tell that the weakest ones down there were no less than C-Rank.

Not exactly a threat. By ranking alone, he was S-Rank, just for being a Shinso.

Still... he was a young Shinso.

He didn’t have the experience to back it up yet.

So in a way, this was the perfect chance to build that up.

First thing’s first, though. He wanted to test something out.

With this new evolved body of his, he could condition it however he wanted, and so, he will maybe learn how absorbed monsters if he train to do it.

But that aside, he had something else he needed to to make this training mission easy.

"First of all."

He muttered, flexing his arms.

"I need eyes everywhere if I am gonna move the way I want via memory point. Just like you, Big Sis... I’m gonna map this whole damn place out."

Minerva just smirked, arms crossed, watching him with amusement. As her form shimmered and began to vanish, as she spoke while disseapearing.

"Hahaha... Good luck, boy. I’ll be watchin. Oh, and heads up, I’m sensing a lotta B-Ranks down there. So don’t screw it up."

Her voice echoed faintly as she disappeared.

"Make me proud, alright? I basically dropped you in a goldmine where you could build a damn army of monsters. Don’t waste it."

Those were Minerva’s last words to Adam, her voice fading like a phantom’s whisper as she vanished into the thick violet haze of the world around here.

Falling back as nothing more but a close observer now, distant and unseen.

"Now then, where should I start."

Adam said he just stayed there’s floating silently in the sky.

And despite being mostly naked after returning back into his default state, the absence of armor, clothing, or shame did not bother him at all, his combat state had long abandoned such notions.

Like before back in Ultima, his body was adorned in nothing but the remnants of his own biology: dark, lacquered feathers growing from his back and shoulders like a grotesque cloak, it swirl around him, this time however creating a full body black gothic armor around his being.

"This should do.... And as for a name, I will call it Heavy Black Armor. The first version was way more lightweight when compare to this new version."

"But now that I am here, this place seem’s to be a very wet terrain, even the islands down there are just wet cave structures, not much places to hide if things go south, as everything is just in the open this time around."

Adam said to himself as he analyze everything from above, but there where also more islands, and monsters also occupied that island as well.

But it was the many caves present that made this place a good home for these various monster’s to casually inhabit like this.

"Well that is the first course of action I think I should take, I need further visuals to see what is happening, in those caves... The quicker I find this leader, the quicker I can dominated these lots."

With this goal in mind, Adam right hand began to twitched, and it wasn’t long before it under went a full blown mutation.

Like an increase swelling, his hand grew and swell to the point it look like giant ball of meat, and the flesh at his forearm began to shift, bubbling, splitting, and stretching with every passing second.

Reforming, or rather utter separating from his body completely as it began to reform into something else.

Bones bent and cracked into new shapes, sinew curled unnaturally as if puppeted by unseen threads, and from within the gnarled meat, a new creature took form.

A bird.

But not a normal one of course.

This was an imitation of life, forged into being from Adam’s own tissue.

Its core was scaffolded by sharpened bone, its wings constructed from dense, glossy black feathers layered like armor plating.

Its hollow sockets burned with the dim embers of consciousness, not its own, but Adam’s.

"Well you look at that, it really work hahaha... I am getting real good with this whole dismantle and rebuild thing I can do with my own body."

"But word of law, new things need new names as well, so I shall call this... Lesser Lifeform Creation."

He muttered softly, and a she work on the monsterous looking bird, it biological properties started to become more detail and complex.

At this point, it can’t just be call a golem made of flesh and blood. Rather it was closer to a homunculus in every biological sense, a crude marionette of flesh and thought, threaded with his own monster energy, miasma, and regenerative cells.

It was no more alive than a severed limb, yet he could feel every part of it, as if he had merely grown an extra limb that was not connected directly to his own phsycial body.

Through its vision, he saw.

Through its wings, he could move.

Everything he could do normally, like see, hear, taste, and smell, all of that was possible with this bird.

But not only that, this thing could also be use a conduit for his power as well.

"Hmm... I wonder if tapping into the Blessing of the King of Fire and Ice would count as magic. I mean, yeah, it burns through Astrum like any other spell, but blessings ain’t exactly spells, are they?"

His fingers twitched, heat simmering beneath them as he contemplate his next move.

But Adam inwardly already came to a quick answer.

"Minerva said no magic... but she did say lore abilities are fair game. Hehehe... Yeah this is not cheating at all, I am just making use of my powers."

Adam smirked, his eyes glinting with cruel amusement as he looked at the bird-like creature pulsing in his palm.

"Yeah... let’s make this little bastard busted as hell. Fire-based enhancements first, then defensive and multilayered ice base blessings right after."