Splish, splish.

  "This is for my use, not for you to eat."

  The strange creature extes tentacles, hopping eagerly to reach the suspended giant python essen mid-air.

  Meanwhile, Yverantheia deftly maniputed the blood spheres to evade its tentacles.

  Throughout the journey, she tinually trolled her magic to levitate the blood, signifitly enhang her mastery ical manipution.

  With practice, perhaps she could use her magic to deo a new hand, repg the one she had lost.

  However, such thoughts were for aime. Her immediate task was to utilize the blood she had extracted from the pytho a careless mome in her being ensnared by those tentacles.

  "Alchemy? No, I'm not skilled in that. Crafting magical tools? Even less so..."

  As materials for crafting tools, this blood currently held no utility for Yverantheia. Thus, there was only one answer.

  She would use her own body as a 'tool'.

  Previously, Yverantheia had oumbled upon a method from a distant nd. It involved iing the purest blood of other races into one's own body, allowing physical growth or acquiring special abilities.

  It erfect for what Yverantheia urgently rengthening herself.

  tally, her wounds from some time ago had not pletely healed, providing an ideal entry point for absorption.

  Yverantheia leapt into the blood sphere, letting it envelop her entire body.

  And then...!

  In an instant, excruciating pain surged through Yverantheia, even causihoughts to scatter.

  Puh...

  The pain forced her to gasp involuntarily. She was submerged in blood; even her head was immersed, breathing not air but blood. It intensified her disfort.

  ...So these people... ehis kind of pain?...

  Uhe pain from plummeting into this abyss and being pursued by monsters, this sensatio as if Yverantheia's entire body were being torn apart.

  So painful... so unbearable... I'm losing... sciousness...

  At that moment, she recalled the images before her fall into the abyss.

  No... what is this pain pared to that?

  It was merely physical pain; what she had endured iritual agony, inparably greater!

  Yverantheia opened her eyes, blood-red filling her vision.

  Pain only fuels my rage further... hardship only infmes my hatred...!

  This pain, I will repay tenfold, a thousandfold!!

  The surface of the blood sphere shattered, a hand emerging, followed by a young girl clothes stained red, riddled with holes.

  Her once radiant golden hair now tinged with strands of red, her eyes burning with icy ess yet boundless fury.

  She ched her fist, feeling the surge of her current strength.

  pared to before, her physical capabilities had signifitly improved, even her magical aal powers had asded.

  ...Puh...

  The small tentacle sensed Yverantheia's presend emitted a tiny sound as if it were afraid.

  Yverantheia g the small tentacle, then at the remaining blood on the ground.

  "I don't hese anymore. Here, take them."

  "Puh!"

  As if it had merely been ag moments ago, the tentacle extended eagerly to absorb the giant python essen the ground, feastiily.

  Exiting the cave, Yverantheia spotted a massive rod touched it lightly with her fiip.

  Bam!

  The rock shattered instantly upoheia's touch, even more tha time she had attempted such before heading off to battle the python.

  She pinched a fragment of the scattered debris betweewo fingers, and with a gentle squeeze, it crumbled into dust, dispersing in the wind.

  "I didn't expect such a signifit enha just from merging with the essence of a creature possessing dragon lineage."

  Though the factor of being stronger due to battles resent, Yverantheia hadn't anticipated reag this level.

  Despite the python's cim of having dragon li was incredibly faint, akin to a drop of blood in a vast ke.

  Yet even so, both the python and Yverantheia had bee signifitly stronger, illustrating the true power onkind, worthy of their title as the "world's naturally stro race."

  As for why the title included "naturally," it was because there were entities in the world that appeared ter and could single-handedly devastate entire dragon s.

  "Yeah, I'm almost ready to advance."

  Yverantheia, before falling into the abyss, had roughly been at the level of a high-tier third level. Now, after training, battling, and merging with essence, she had reached the peak of the third level. Breaking through this bottleneck would propel her into the fourth level.

  "First, I o get used to my current strength... and tinue practig trolling my magic..."

  Havi short-term goals, Yverantheia began her as.

  Since she hadn't yet identified her arget, she started by hunting in the viity, gathering intelligence along the way.

  Of course, during her hunts, she imposed limits on herself, such as using magic solely to trol bodily movements.

  And so, she spent the few days.

  "No, I haven't entered any powerful moely..."

  This situation typically arose when the viity was ruled by python s, deterring other monsters from approag.

  Yet not long ago, Yverantheia had been chased here by a certaiure, yet she hadn't spotted it since, suggesting it might not belong to this area.

  However, if that were the case, it would have intruded directly into the territories of other monsters, tradig the assumption of a lord.

  "In that case, I'll have to ask directly."

  Yverantheia stood up and headed towards where she had st seehon.

  Thanks to her increased physical abilities, she effortlessly and quickly reached her destination.

  Yet what she entered was an eerie sight.

  Previously, nearly half the trees in the area had falleo Yverantheia's battle with the python, but it hadn't looked burnt like it did now.

  "The tracks lead... this way."

  After a brief search, Yverantheia quickly found clues and headed in a specific dire.

  After running for a while, she caught a strong st—the smell of roasted flesh.

  Could it be...

  Yverantheia parted the bushes blog her view and saw a —a bur, filled with charred python bodies and broken eggs.

  And at its ter, a heavily scarred giant python roteg a dozen small snakes.

  "Let them go, or even at the cost of my life, I'll take you down with me!"

  It was the voice of the python, but Yverantheia could tell it was already speaking with all its might.

  Has its y entered a formidable enemy? Or is it aence even it, with its faint dragon lineage, ot oppose...

  Yverantheia adjusted her position slightly and looked across at the python, then froze in pce.

  She saw the figure that had haunted her milessly.