“Master, that hurt.”
Lamia rubbed her head, sticking out her tongue playfully.
Ryo raised an eyebrow, smiling at her.
“Oh?
Consider it a lesson, so you don’t get any more of those bright ideas next time.”
The girl let out an embarrassed laugh, then hopped in front of Ryo and spun around, planting her hands on her hips.
“So master, when are we going to rescue Auntie Leticia?”
“Later.
Right now, Leticia is in the hands of Thousand Eyes.
Taking her back won’t be easy — we’ll need to plan carefully.”
As he spoke, Ryo flicked his finger, sending the godhead stripped from Leticia’s body flying toward Lamia.
“Right, I almost forgot.
Absorb Leticia’s godhead.”
A godhead — the highest-ranked Gift that the gods and Buddhas of Little Garden could bestow.
It was also said to be a mark of recognition from the divine, granting status.
Even the lowest-grade godhead could raise a target’s power to the maximum of their race or equipment — roughly five-digit level.
And this particular one was a four-digit godhead that Leticia had deliberately carved off along with a large portion of her Spirit Rank and Authorities, all to lower her own value.
If Lamia absorbed it, she’d gain a significant boost from her current early four-digit level — advancing at least one sub-rank into the realm of four-digit elites.
Lamia blinked in surprise, looking at Ryo quizzically.
“Wouldn’t it be better to give this to Auntie and let her recover her own power?
Auntie used to be a senior executive of Arcadia, you know.
A legendary four-digit powerhouse.”
“But Lamia, don’t forget — right now, you are my Dragon Knight.”
A Dragon Knight — not in the sense of those knights in old tales who tamed dragons and made them their mounts.
No, this was something else.
A knight who had been granted a Gift by a Dragon, bound to serve that Dragon for eternity.
Lamia was his Dragon Knight, given a piece of his shadow.
Until Ryo himself had fully matured, she was his shield and his spear.
“Besides, Leticia might not even be willing to serve me.”
Ryo smiled and ruffled Lamia’s hair.
“Don’t forget — who destroyed Arcadia?
And where are the ones who incited the vampire clan’s rebellion in the first place?”
Lamia fell silent.
She knew the answers all too well.
Those culprits were in Ouroboros.
And right now, she was working alongside them.
That was a stain they couldn’t wash away.
“Who knows?
When the time comes, I might even need you to help hold Leticia down so I can properly discipline her.”
“Hold down Auntie Leticia…”
A conflicted expression crossed Lamia’s face.
That sounds so exciting.
“Master, please let me be the one to hold down Auntie Leticia!!”
“Huh!?”
Ryo was stunned.
What was this?
A niece volunteering to help discipline her own aunt?
He’d only been joking.
“Hehe~ So, master?
I’m a super proper, blonde-haired vampire beauty, you know?”
Lamia stepped closer, standing on her tiptoes and winking mischievously at Ryo.
“And once master resolves the curse on my mother, even if master asks me to help hold down Mother and Auntie together…
I’d be more than happy to~”
Ryo stared at Lamia, who had just finished speaking and even stuck her tongue out at him, and couldn’t help but mutter:
“Leticia and Lamia…
I really hit the jackpot having a descendant like you.”
Still, breaking the curse on Lamia’s mother wasn’t something the current Ryo could handle.
Lamia I had taken upon herself all the curses aimed at the vampire clan — alone — in order to protect her elder sister Leticia’s authority.
That immense curse had at one point granted her power rivaling billions of demon gods — power that touched upon the three-digit realm of omnipotence.
But the price had been terrible: she became a monster compelled to devour any child she bore.
If the upper echelons of Ouroboros hadn’t sealed Lamia I using the Omnipotence Paradox, Lamia would never have been born.
Against such a colossal curse, Ryo was powerless.
He could only look to other worlds for a way to break it — or earn enough merit within Ouroboros to petition the higher-ups to intervene.
Afterward, Ryo and Lamia returned to the hotel room they’d arranged in advance.
At last, Ryo had time to properly study the forum he’d just joined.
Toying with the remaining godhead in his hand, Ryo opened the forum.
Sure enough, on the forum’s profile page, a new “Trade” function had appeared next to the points display.
[Trade Sea God Godhead to the Forum?]
[If I trade the Sea God Godhead, how many points will I get?
What’s the principle behind the points?
And what are they used for?]
[The Sea God Godhead is worth 1,000,000 points.
Points can be used to traverse worlds, or to enhance the fundamental essence of one’s own life.]
[Points are energy harvested by the Forum through interfering with existing fate and capturing the resulting deviations in destiny.]
This golden finger seemed a bit too conventional.
After reading the forum’s response, Ryo couldn’t help but grumble to himself.
If he were a typical transmigrator, he’d probably already be scheming about how to use the forum to influence other members’ fates and interfere with their storylines.
These “points,” as far as he could tell, were just a reward for meddling with the original plot.
Unfortunately for him, he was in Little Garden.
To him, these points were just “feats” with a different name.
And in Little Garden, the meaning of “feats” was based on the conceptual currents created by an individual’s influence on the world.
These currents were extracted by the Little Garden Central Core and used as fuel for the growth of one’s Spirit Rank — those were feats.
In fact, the concept of “feats” was even broader than the forum’s “points.” As far as the Central Core was concerned, simply existing created an impact on the world and thus generated feats.
The forum, on the other hand, only counted it when an individual influenced their own fate.
No, more precisely — after joining the forum, any impact one made on the world would be harvested by the forum and converted into points.
Which explained why the Little Garden Central Core had even taken notice of this forum in the first place.
[How much can 1,000,000 points enhance me?]
Ryo asked again.
If the conversion rate was good enough, he wouldn’t mind selling the godhead to the forum — he had gotten it for free, after all.
[Based on calculations, it can enhance an individual into a planet-class lifeform.]
“Just early four-digit level?
Never mind, then.
That’s a rip-off.”
Ryo shook his head in exasperation.
Who knew how much the forum was skimming off the top?
The godhead in his hand could enhance an ordinary person to elite four-digit level.
On top of planet-busting power, they’d also gain dominion over the oceans and become a god.
And the best part?
This godhead was plug-and-play.
Hot-swappable, even more convenient than a Sharingan.
He’d have to be blind to trade it away for a measly 1,000,000 points.