My Reincarnation as a Chicken

229 I Befriended A Devil

Day 65

Ever been so bored out of your mind you would literally want to talk to a devil? Well, I have.

Not in my previous life, obviously. I wasn’t into the occult and stuff. All superstitious beliefs seemed so dumb to me. Like, why believe there were other almighty deities out there, simply watching you go about your normal business in life like creeps.

Well now I did believe in the existence of such beings.

My conversation with the devil, the one residing in [God’s Wisdom] went something like this.

‘Hey, devil-san. How are you in my skill [God’s Wisdom]?’

‘O-Oi! Tori I thought we agreed to not talk to it!’

‘What’s the big deal? With [Skill Alchemy] you should be able to move the devil out of the skill at any point. [God’s Wisdom] has virtually no access to our physical affairs and we are resistant to soul attacks. There’s no problem, right?’

‘But-’

‘Leave her, Akira. She’s right.’

‘Oi, don’t call me ‘her’.’

‘Sure thing, Tori.’

‘Tch. You. Devil. Answer me now.’

<<S-so you figured me out>>

‘Of course.’

<<From your conversation, it seems you knew for quite some time. How’d you figure me out?>>

‘If you think I wouldn’t notice if my own unique skill was acting wonky, you are dumber than I give you credit for.’

<<Uwa! Sorry>>

‘So, spill the beans. Why’d you enter my skill?’

<<I was on the verge of death. You were my only way out that the time>>

‘Eh? When was this?’

<<59 days ago>>

‘Jesus Christ! It’s been that long!?’

<<Ah~ You weren’t aware when it happened? So [Evolver] really was acting unconsciously>>

‘What do you mean?’

<<Nothing>>

‘Answer me or you get expelled.’

<<Uwaa! The unique skill [Evolver] didn’t allow me to possess your body! That was the right move at the time since you would have died>>

‘Do you mean if you possess someone they die?’

<<No, no! Back then I think my opponent used an attack that would kill me forever. I assumed that if I possessed you, I’d be safe, but when I fused with [God’s Voice] I learned that the skill used on me would have destroyed both of us like a cancer. [Evolver] gave me a chance by presenting something that existed out of the realm of physical and spiritual, a unique [Skill] that I could possess. Once I did, I was overloaded with all the information it possessed. It took me quite some time to absorb enough knowledge to think again. So, I evolved alongside [God’s Voice] and am now an actual part of it. [Evolver] took my true name and imparted it into you, making you part devil>>

‘Eh? Eh? I don’t understand anything!’

<<Hahaha! You’re dumber than I gave you credit for!>>

‘Don’t use my own words against me!’

<<I would never dream of it, Master>>

‘What even lead to that whole situation?’

<<Not sure. It had something to do with me being summoned a contract, but since I technically don’t have a physical body, I’m not bound by the rules of that contract anymore>>

‘That doesn’t explain how you ended up in that particular situation.’

<<Does that even matter? I thought a creature like yourself would just Wing It! Hahahaha!>>

‘Don’t you dare use bird puns on me! Like some sort of Cuckoo.’

<<Why? Because my puns are too im-peck-able?>>

‘No. Because it’s simply too much of a bird-en.’

<<Too chicken for a pun-off?>>

‘Shut up! Explain everything from the start properly!’

<<Uawaa~ I honestly don’t remember much. Imagine being fed all the information in the world at a go!>>

‘Tch. Whatever. I want to make sure you know what will happen if you try to mess with me.’

<<Oh? I thought you were going to expel me either way!>>

‘You prefer that?’

<<No, no! Thank you very much! I will try to be as helpful as possible!>>

‘Hmm, you sure this is a good idea, Tori?’

‘You, tell me. You’re the one who sees 12 different possibilities at a time.’

‘You know, it’s kinda annoying how you create new factors to stuff we’ve already set up. But this is looking really good. Better than before even. Things will proceed at a faster rate now.’

‘Seriously? Then that’s a good thing.’

‘Yep.’

And like that, I’d acquired the full cooperation of the demon residing in my head… skill… whatever. Morning came with a baggy eyed Tsuna.

She hadn’t gotten much sleep since coming back to life. For the second time, it seems. Apparently, she died when Krull invaded and was revived only to die a second time when Fafnir attacked. I couldn’t imagine dying twice. At least that affected her evolutionary path and made her into a Death wight.

She, much like me, only grew weaker in the sun. If she stayed out for too long, she’d die so I bought a [Daylight Ring] for her. After making sure she was physically alright, I inquired further.

Seems like she keeps having dreams of an ugly albino witch hob-goblin trying to suffocate her. My mind went to Minerva, but she said it wasn’t her. Someone else called Zana. I pictured my Zana as a hob-goblin. Still a cool beauty in my eyes, so this whole ugly business was beyond me.

I wasn’t sure how to help her, but the agent decided to prove its usefulness as soon as possible. It identified a second soul inside of Zana’s body. All of a sudden, her title [Cursed Vessel] made more sense to me.

There was a wicked witch named Zana. She used to terrorise most creatures in the west even though she led the weak race that is the goblins. Goliath had to personally end her, but he didn’t finish the job and only ended up killing the witch temporarily. She found a way to return to this world through reincarnation. Her vessel was Tsuna, so she was trying to take over.

Normally, she wasn’t in the wrong for trying to take what’s hers. Tsuna wasn’t hers for the taking though. I used [Dragon Eyes] to peer into Tsuna’s [Soul corridor]. There, I found that the witch was talking to herself like she was going insane.

I wouldn’t be able to physically interact with her soul though, so I gave a warning to the witch with [Terror]. With that, Tsuna could now go and sleep in peace.

After all that, she explains her actual problem to me. She wanted to know about Shitsuke and how I’d bring him back. I lied that it was a work in progress.

Can you blame me?

I can’t go into Hell now! Especially when I don’t have a way back here. We’d have to resume this discussion at a different date. Since the meeting was tomorrow, I had to make sure the meeting place was up and ready.

Diane hadn’t set up anything. This stupid dryad claimed to have not received any orders from the forest’s new master so she wasn’t aware that she had to do anything. I really, really, was on the verge of fighting her, but I gave up and ordered her like she wanted.

She took me into her tree where things had already been set up. The space was bigger than I remembered it being with a large rectangular desk set up. At the end, there was a throne of tree branches set up with flowers blossoming out of it. The table was big enough to have at least a dozen people sitting at its sides comfortably.

I asked her to get rid of the throne. She refused, so I ordered then she complied.

What was with her and orders?

I also asked her if it was alright to use some wood from the trees to build houses. The point of this question was that I wouldn’t be able to buy buildings all the time. The monsters need to learn to build such things if they did enjoy them. The condo for instance has only received praises from everyone sleeping in them so far. If possible, I’d prefer if we found some people with architectural skills. Maybe some more humans were needed.

The only issue was the fact that the monsters here didn’t like humans too much. Erwin was the exception and even then, no one went out of their way to interact with him. I kind of felt bad for him, but it was his choice to live with the monsters instead of going back to human civilisation.

Well, this was an issue for another day. Maybe Yokino and Unmei had some sort of idea.

Diane gave me the green light. As long as it wasn’t the trees of dryads in particular.

With that, I left off and was caught by Unmei. He wanted to talk to me about the wooden condo that popped up literally overnight. I asked him not to think too much about it, but he was adamant about it, saying it was too out of this world’s standards.

I guess erecting a condo in a forest in this kind of setting wasn’t the best idea. Precisely why I wanted these guys to make their own buildings so I see how best to adjust everything. I had no interest in improving the state of living for everyone in this world. Imagine I sped up things and caused them to learn how to develop nukes or something. That’d be too scary, for even me.

He wanted to ask if I was from another world just like him, but it would seem he too wanted to keep the fact that he came from another world his secret. Since we both weren’t 100% sure we could trust each other, I too would keep it under wraps.

Since he didn’t have anything else to report, I left to go see Reiman. According to him, the Orcs and Trolls were using the tunnels to come to the West. They were moving away from the East since they were scared of what Krull would do. To be honest, the West was starting to feel more crowded now with the new additions.

The North was still inhospitable, since it contained only the most dangerous monsters Larm had. The minimum rank living there was C+ which was scary to think about. The Tyrant of the North definitely was no pushover in that case.

Under normal circumstances, considering how it was, it would be safe to assume no humans would be stupid enough to go there. If they were, they would be met by cyclops, giants and the likes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t call humans rational beings.

As much as they claimed to be, when push came to shove, logic was thrown out the window. Emotions and simple instinct took over and hence, the only way humans truly evolve. Those violent bastards would definitely try going through the North if the West, South and East are completely unpassable.

I had to get the Tyrant of the North on my side by any means necessary before the war between demons and humans starts in earnest.

Reiman said he’d keep trying to make more progress, but for now his focus would be on invading human turf. That way, his shadow rats could get more information from humans. They didn’t really understand the human language, but they’d learnt bits of it. I could have [God’s Wisdom] translate for all of them easily, so I did.

My general was greatly pleased with this development and began singing praises to me. It felt nice to be praised so I didn’t stop him. When he was done, he left to continue the mission. Looks like the Tunnelers have a lot of work ahead of them.

I also decided to use the remainder of the day to speak to the people who I hadn’t spoken to since they joined us. The kobold I’d named Inu and the silver back pumas Kuro added to the fray before Fafnir happened.

Both were nervous about talking to me, something about my eyes looking scary. Though Inu was a bit bolder and loud since we’d talked once before when I gave him his name. He was excited to be receiving a mission from me personally.

I asked him and the Pumas to be receiving the kobolds and orcs that were marching to us.

The kobolds would be more at ease with a familiar face guiding them and should anything happen, the silver backs were there to fight. They should have been enough to protect the kobolds and tunnelers from the big orcs.

Due to the distance, they’d miss the meeting, so I offered to personally explain the details of the event to them. They were happy with that, and so I named the leader of the pumas, Concol. It didn’t take any relevant amount of mana, but it was enough to excite the puma.

When they left, I asked the tunnelers to keep an eye on Inu and Concol. Other than house duties, the kobolds were virtually useless. If he possessed diplomatic skills like I was hoping, he’d have some use and the pumas could be divided between forest protection alongside the wolves and bugs, and transport for any one leaving our territory under a mission.

Tomorrow was the actual meeting, so the dryads and sprites would welcome the leaders. If we ever had to hold something like this again, it'd be better prepared and held so everyone wouldn't be nearly as stressed out as they were now.

DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS

[10 goblins evolved into hob-goblins]

[5 timber wolves evolved into Faeri Hounds]

[3 timber wolves evolved into Triplet Hell Hounds]

[Consensus on house structure is still ongoing]

SKILLS

[[Novice Swordsmanship] became [Amateur Swordsmanship]]

STORE

[Akira bought the skills [Aura Domain] and [Skill Enhance] for 400 store points]

[30 store points remaining]

[Hyakkun sold [Golden Sigma Armour] for 1000 store points]

[1030 store points remaining]