Mind Demon's Path of Domination

At first, Mark hadn’t been sure of using the Vine Centipede. Not all of its abilities were offensive, and his need was an offensive demonic trick. Was using the Vine Centipede the good choice?

But Yuri’s opinion made him tilt more towards it.

"If you gain the Vine Demon’s powers, you will gain its Resistances, too. Most of its abilities are rather good, in my opinion at least."

Vine Storage, Vine Manipulation, Parasite, Sap of Sleepiness, Barrier of Non-Escape—none of these were bad. Even Vine Storage would give him a storage ability. More than that, he would have a Resistance to Plant Poisons, too.

Whereas the Minotaur was not that good except for its ability to have a stronger body. And this was not the be-all-end-all scenario either. If it failed, Mark felt he could get a new ability someday anyway.

He already had a Seal of Destiny, and he could steal an ability with it. In fact, if he got Shiden’s ability, there wouldn’t be a better offensive power than that. If he could take over a nation, he could get another Seal of Destiny, too.

So, for now, poison would be a much better power than a physical buffing ability. Most demons had Physical Resistance anyway. Not many had Poison Resistance. That had sold him the Vine Demon in competition with the Minotaur.

The other Demonlings all had rather useless abilities, so they didn’t count at all.

***

World Wills don’t usually think much unless they have to. A collective consciousness of sorts. It just moved if something triggered it. Demon invasions were exactly a trigger like that.

Demons invading threatened the Hunter World’s existence. If the Dungeons expanded to cover the entirety of the world and the demons handed over the authority of the Dungeon to the Demon World Will, the Hunter World Will would have no place to exist and would be eaten up by the Demon World.

To protect itself, it stole from the demons and handed the power of the demons to its own native children—humans. When a demon enters a place unprotected by the Dungeons, the World Will can sense it incredibly clearly.

It was like an ant biting a human. Feeling the pain, it would slap. Then, it would share the blood of the ant with its own team of ants.

***

The centipede’s death was quick after falling into the open world, and Mark’s puppet felt around. Even though Mark’s consciousness was now inside this human, he didn’t face the wrath of the World Will. The human skin disguised him.

Suddenly, he felt that sensation. This had happened once when he was in the Demon World.

A sensation akin to standing on a giant’s palm.

Tiny. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Weak.

The Hunter World’s Will?

Mark felt his heart thump. It was looking at him. It was checking him with interest.

Then, he felt a sort of strangeness. It was as if something had pushed something into him. As if somebody had forced him to eat. But. It was faintly delicious.

"Is it over?" Yuri asked, her eyes bright.

"I don’t know..." the Puppet mumbled.

Mark looked at it with intrigued eyes. The stats of the Puppet had changed. Indeed, the Puppet was now a Hunter. And it had gained a Hunter Ability!

__________________

[Seo Ran Hun][Dream Gambler’s Mortal Puppet]

[Tier 0]

[Physique: 2.2 (Below Low)]

[Mind: 3.2 (Low)]

[Hunter Ability: Parasite (Low) (T0)]

[Resistance: Plant Poison Resistance (Medium) (T0)]

__________________

For now, the Puppet was just a C-Rank Hunter. Equivalent to Demonlings. But that was how Hunters worked. Slowly, the body would become stronger and stronger, and by the end of three months at most, it would have a body as strong as the Vine Centipede.

Of course, not any Physical or Mental Resistance of the Vine Demon, but its body would become strong. And it would become a powerful Hunter at the B-Rank.

Mark threw a black bottle at the Puppet, and it caught it. Then, it drowned the water. The green skin and similarly wrong issues began to clear up. The creature burped, and green gas floated out of its mouth.

Its skin cleared up, and soon enough, it looked human.

"So I am now a Hunter," the Puppet said calmly, but it was like a fuse had been cut.

Yuri smashed her fist against her hand and laughed. "Great shit!" Dona looked at them in interest. "So, what ability did you get?"

The Puppet raised its hand, and small vines crawled out from its fingertips. They waved in the wind. It was small.

"Parasite," Mark said.

[Parasite]

[The ability to absorb other people’s Mindpower by touching them.]

[The user of this ability can also enter the bodies of people with ’0’ Mindpower and use them as a ’second life.’ If the parasite’s host dies, the parasite does not die alongside.]

[When inside a Native as a Parasite, the World Wills will not notice the user.]

[The ability to absorb other people’s Mindpower doesn’t work if the Parasite has attached itself to a Host]

Mark felt his heart tremble.

It was an amazing ability. Not to mention, he could see hundreds of ways to use this. He could absorb other people’s Mindpower and they couldn’t resist it unless they have Poison Resistance. That was overpowered.

Then, he could also climb into other people’s bodies and use them as his Hosts. They would become his armor of sorts, and he could only be killed if his armor was killed first. It was not that good if used on simple human bodies but if he could get a body just as strong as his own as his armor, that would totally make him twice as hard to kill.

The centipede had to be so foolish to have been so easily handled. No, it wasn’t easy to handle.

I am a Boss with two forms. When you kill me once, my second form will unleash itself...

Mark was so happy he started to chuckle.

Now, he just had to ruin the reputation of the Trio Hunters, and the Dream Gamble would be won. After that, he could ask Seo Ran Hun for one thing, and he knew what to ask for.

Now, let’s ruin the trio’s heroic reputation.

"Now, my task is over," Yuri said, "And my ideas are now real, proven facts. I have to take notes on stuff, so... I will be a bit busy."

Mark stretched himself. "I am busy, too."

He had made Seo Ran Hun—his puppet—into a Hunter. The Parasite Ability was not his. It was Seo Ran Hun’s.

To get it as his own, he had to win the Dream Gamble. To win the Dream Gamble, he had to ruin the Trio Hunters’ reputation.