Pupu had many flaws.
For example, being weak.
For another, being dumb.
And for yet another, having thin magic power.
But Pupu also had an advantage that the vast majority of demons completely lacked—obedience, with exceptional discipline.
If demons were mental trash, then Pupu was just trash in terms of ability.
Obviously, the latter was much cuter than the former.
During the process of unifying the seven great Demon Realms, Lya had lost count of how many times her heart had exploded with anger.
Yet, when commanding this group of Pupu, she even felt a satisfying sense of “our minds are as one.”
In the end.
Several handless Pupu completed what she wanted in just three quarters of an hour.
If it had been a group of demons with hands and feet, they could have embezzled ninety percent of the budget in three months!
Lya gazed up at the simple “Seesaw”-shaped machine before her, and for a moment, she was speechless, feeling a strange sense of “maybe being a Pupu isn’t so bad after all.”
After transmitting her orders, over a dozen Pupu jumped onto the Seesaw in sequence, then sequentially activated the “Hardening” skill according to frequency, their timing staggered left and right.
Just as Lya had envisioned, the Seesaw began to sway up and down regularly due to uneven weight distribution.
If I add a rotating shaft at the end and then a wheel…
Tsk, could I make a Pupu train to run away?
Kidding.
Lya had no confidence in escaping the Human Realm on such a piece of junk.
However, this experiment verified a hypothesis: after a rock-type Pupu used Hardening, its mass increased by 1~2 times out of nowhere.
—Mass increasing out of thin air, a conceptual-level skill.
This opens up a lot of possibilities for manipulation.
At the very least, if you launch a rock Pupu as a cannonball and activate Hardening just before impact, the instantaneous kinetic energy could multiply the power of the cannon several times over.
By using the difference in gravitational potential energy before and after Hardening, many interesting little devices could also be made.
But the biggest problem was… ordinary Pupu were too small, with limited magic power, so practical use was highly restricted.
And if you wanted a larger Pupu, you’d need a high-level energy source like a “magic crystal” to help Pupu evolve.
But if she had magic crystals, why wouldn’t she use them herself?
“……”
Lya fell into thought.
After all, being someone who could be a Demon King, Lya quickly came up with an idea.
So… here’s the question: Can the [Devour] skill of a Pupu devour its own kind?
Lya hesitated for a few seconds, then ordered one rock Pupu to devour another, while commanding the other to accept being devoured.
The two rock Pupu dumbly complied.
But unfortunately, the experimental effect was dismal.
The two Pupu tangled together, but there was little sign of the [Devour] effect—instead, it turned into a dramatic Pupu entanglement.
“If I use Hero’s magic to enhance a Pupu’s [Devour]?”
Lya had a flash of inspiration.
So she split off a trace of Hero’s magic and injected it into the larger rock Pupu.
Instantly, the larger Pupu seemed strengthened, glowing several degrees brighter, its color even more vivid.
The other Pupu, which had been “entangled unto death” with it, quickly melted, turning to mud in just over ten seconds and merging into the larger Pupu’s body.
The large Pupu grew even bigger, its height increasing from 19cm to 23cm, its volume nearly doubling.
Not only that, but the “Hardening” skill showed significant improvement—the increase in mass and the hardness after Hardening both rose by thirty percent compared to before.
Lya was in awe.
Good grief, no wonder this Hero’s power is a monster—it’s the steepest mountain and the most dangerous river on my road to dominance!
It actually allowed me to synthesize Pupu…
Wait, doesn’t that mean?
Lya had another flash of insight.
She split off another thread of Hero’s magic, merging it into herself.
This time, she chose to enhance her own “Devour.”
The cute pink “girl” suddenly dissolved, turning into a puddle of flowing pink liquid.
This liquid enveloped a “gurgling” rock Pupu, whose black exterior was gradually overtaken by pink.
The spherical form quickly collapsed, melting into a larger puddle of pink fluid.
Before long, the pink surged, and a “girl” whose figure had grown emerged gracefully, delicate as a lotus rising from water.
Lya felt her head spin, suddenly flooded with a few months of memories—belonging to a rock Pupu.
During a flood, “it” was born from mud and water, blinking in confusion, then dazedly drank water, played, drank, played, slept with passing pink Pupu, then drank and played again…
[Is this the memory of the ‘devoured’?]
[I devoured it, so I replaced it?]
Lya came to a realization.
Rather than “devour,” she felt this was more like a kind of “assimilation.” Water is the source of life; as a water-type monster, Pupu naturally has the potential to embrace all forms of life.
So Pupu wasn’t an absolute waste—there was actually a “divine skill” like this.
It was just that under normal circumstances, it was impossible to use.
After all, no normal creature would agree to be “devoured” by a Pupu for days on end.
—Except for certain special heroines in dark RPGs.
As her excitement calmed, Lya first tested her new skill, “Hardening.”
The pink suddenly deepened.
Lya immediately felt her whole body stiffen, unable to move, her body losing balance and falling backward to hit the bluestone slab with a “clang.”
Only then did Lya remember that a rock Pupu couldn’t move after Hardening…
Now she was a real beautiful-girl figurine.
But the good news was, the “Hardening” skill didn’t consume much magic.
If her current magic power was 20, Hardening for a minute would only use up 1.
By comparison, using “Pupu Fragrance” just once consumed a full 5 points of magic.
Lya deactivated Hardening.
Rubbing her aching head, she reluctantly set aside further experiments.
After using Hero’s power twice in a row, her internal reserves had dropped by more than half, making her feel anxious and unwilling to continue.
This Hero’s power was wonderful, but it could only be taken gradually.
If she absorbed too much, too actively, and was discovered by the Hero…
Lya suddenly shivered.
That “Supreme Holy Slash” with zero cooldown, hundreds of hits per second—she never wanted to experience it again in this lifetime!
—
Night was falling, and crimson clouds filled the sky.
After a busy day, Jon casually activated the “Eye of Detection” and immediately located his Pupu playing nearby.
“Eh? You made new friends so quickly?”
Seeing Lya mingling with several rock Pupu, Jon showed a strange expression, like a cat owner seeing his elegant ragdoll mixing with scruffy stray cats, grooming each other by the roadside.
He felt a little annoyed, as if his precious cabbage had been chewed by a ghostly yellow stray.
One of the rock Pupu was noticeably larger, still weak but already a giant among Pupu, perfectly matching the “yellow stray” archetype.
“It’s time to go, Lily.”
Jon called out the new pet name he had given the Pupu, gently picked up Lya, and prepared to tuck her into his pack.
But to his surprise, the little one clung tightly to the rock Pupu, refusing to let go, her face full of pleading and anxiety.
[Are you kidding! This is a two-star Pupu I wasted Hero’s power to synthesize! How can I just throw it away!]
Lya thought in distress.
But her heartbroken expression was misinterpreted by Jon as reluctance to leave her playmate.
Jon was helpless, but after a moment’s hesitation, he relented.
“Fine, raising one or two makes no difference. If you like it, bring it along.”
He picked up the rock Pupu and stuffed it into his military bag.
Lya was overjoyed.
She hugged the Hero’s thumb and gave it a big “mua,” only realizing after the kiss that she had lost her composure, her pink body growing even redder.
She looked up, cautiously observing the Hero’s expression.
But the Hero had already turned his head away.
The gentle glow of the setting sun bathed his tanned left cheek, casting a golden shimmer like sunset hues, or the warmth radiating from beneath the skin.
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