As Ronin settled down the unconscious Cermin Drychspiel in a field of paddy at the borders of the Kingdom of Himmelgard to the Kingdome of Azurra…..

He heard a familiar DING! in his head.

[Congratulations, you have gained 75,000,000+ EXP and received a massive level upgrade.

Level 55 >>>>> Level 63 ]

Ronin merely focused on looking for any injuries in Cermin’s body. He checked his pulse as well to see if his heart beat was fine, as well as his breathing.

So far, so good. He just seemed exhausted.

[You’re not going to ask about your new skill?]

“I need to make sure Lovushka didn’t do any permanent damage to him.” Ronin said. “Especially if his Flame was still intact and not lessened.”

[He’s a creature of the light. He doesn’t gain power by feeding on Flames.] Kai told him.

“That’s good then. But that also means that other ‘creatures of the dark’ as you say will be able to feed on his Flame.”

Ronin was much worse to wear than Cermin was, especially with all the damages inflicted on him by Lovushka’s clause. Not to mention that he was not just physically strained the whole fight…..

He was mentally strained too. Both his body and mind was exhausted.

But because of his relentless obsession to keep anyone else from harming Cermin but him, he still kept awake and checked around the area until he was sure it was safe.

Only then this he collapsed on the grass beside Cermin, his bleeding and bruised body creating patches of dirt and blood on the fine grass.

He watched the gaping sky above. That rift that looked back at him. The pale sun as its bleeding red pupil, and the darkness surrounding it as its sclera.

[You are getting stronger, that’s true. But if you would keep on receiving the blows that’s meant for Cermin, he will not develop.]

“I know that. I let him fight Zeuxis without intervening, remember?” Ronin felt his body was so heavy and his eyes were nearly closing.

He was simply waiting for Zeuxis to come back and be their guard dog as they take a rest to recuperate. It will be nighttime soon.

“But this one, with a god as tricky as the God of Art himself, Musae… He couldn’t handle it. He doesn’t have the mental fortitude yet.”

Ronin turned to the sleeping Cermin beside him, who was scrunching his eyebrows since he slept. “Something from his life in the real world is restricting his capabilities.”

“Until now, he can never let go of it. He was lucky that the villains he encountered were purposefully nuked by Shimeifen. But it’s not the case here, and his opponents does have a brain this time.”

[The curse of transmigrating with your memory intact, I suppose. You’re lucky that you are only slowly gaining yours now. And you have the mental fortitude to ignore it.]

Ronin did not say anything, just staring at Cermin’s face. Because he was so used at seeing that face for so long…..

He almost can’t remember what Min Cheng truly looked like.

He had worn many different faces of heroes. And even during the breaks in the Hub, he still maintained the face he had from the former world.

So Ronin only saw his real face when he first joined the HTM.

And he was so tired of his task of babysitting impossibly childish and perverted men that he barely paid attention to his face.

He just said in a lazy voice. [Welcome to the Hero Transmigrating Machine. I am System #151044, what genre do you prefer to be transmigrated to?]

Min Cheng was also a different person from how he was back then to how he was now. So happy like a kid going to an amusement park, and that’s how most of them really viewed transmigration.

Just a fun and entertaining ride.

Min Cheng could not have possibly expected that this ride would take a hard turn halfway through, and he would experience ACTUAL hardships of heroes.

Ronin tried to place Min Cheng’s face from his memory to the face he had now, but couldn’t. It was a blur.

Eventually, he gave up and said. “What’s my new skill now? Since I reached past Level 60.”

Kai was also distracted by looking at them, especially on Ronin in particular.

[Why do you remind me of… ]

“Hm? Did you say something?” Ronin asked.

[Nothing.] Kai waved it off. [Anyway, I’ll be explaining your new skill now since I know you want to doze off soon.]

[ Daemon Hounds ]

Ronin immediately sat up at this, his heart suddenly feeling excited for some reason. His tiredness disappeared for a while.

“Hounds?”

He remembered that in one of the memory he glimpsed when Aurion occupied Cermin’s body for a while, he had seen Fausforus interacting with strange beasts.

They were dark creatures, very frightening with their red eyes bleeding lava. But with Fausforus around, they were grinning with their tongues out.

Like happy dogs greeting their master.

Ronin also had a small glimpse of another memory. Ou’s memory.

There were dirty stray dogs surrounding him. Most could not be discerned of what breed they were because of random breeding.

Some have large scars, some with balding patches, and some with ticks and flies.

But even so, they were happy around Ou, who seemed to be a middle schooler around this time.

“I will name you Billy, and you Sammy, and then Baphie….. And we’ll all have a large house of our own someday!”

Ronin had never really had a memory where Ou was so happy like this. It felt….. strange to watch, after seeing him miserable for so long.

Meanwhile, Kai continued to explain the skill as he pondered over all of this.

[You now unlock the ability to summon daemon familiars made of pure shadow and Dark Flame. They appear in exchange for your blood, and vary in size depending on your injury.]

Ronin was interested by this. “So it’s a skill that I can receive through self-mutilation?”

[Not just that, but even injuries inflicted by others that causes blood to spill.]

Kai continued:

[The more injuries you receive, the bigger and more powerful they are. They can also steal Flames on your behalf whenever they bring death to someone. ]

It really was a good skill in terms of power….

But Ronin could only focus on the idea of dogs.

All he needed was to prick his finger and then a dog would appear. And he can sense that both Ou and Fausforus were really hardcore dog lovers.

And perhaps he was too….. A little bit.

At least dogs were not hypocritical like humans. Trying to appear pure when they were filled with animalistic desires.

Dogs chase for what they want, stays loyal to their masters, openly humps each other for the whole world to see… Okay, maybe that one was not a good trait.

And they’re not noisy and want to have a conversation all the time like a certain someone. That’s an important trait too.

“What’s the limitations?” Ronin asked. “There’s always one for every skill after all, that expands with every level up.

[The limitations is that at Level 60, you can only summon 3 hounds at a time. Lasting at a maximum of 50 minutes each, though that depends on the gravity of your wound.]

“I see.” Ronin nodded, impatient to try it out. “And how do I activate this skill?”

[You simply need to draw a symbol of a ‘hound’ with your own blood on your palm, and they automatically appear for as long as the limitations of the wounds have.]

Ronin did not hesitate, and……

He soon draw the rune for ‘hound’ or ‘dog’ on his palm with some of his blood dripping from his body.

It was the shape of a sitting dog, somewhat. After drawing it, his blood glowed. Brighter and brighter…..

Until it burned.

It turned into flame, and the flame turned into eyes.

Soon, it flew off his palm. His blood lifted off from his wounds and scratches, coalescing…

Until there were three small daemon puppies sitting by his lap.

They stared at Ronin’s face for a while. Then—

They pounced on him, knocking him back to the grass again!

But Ronin was not alarmed at all. He just let the scary shadow puppies with large shark-like teeth sniff him.

After sniffing, they barked–

And licked him with their tongues made of black fire.

“It’s good to see you again too, my dearest.” He chuckled, patting their heads playing around with them as they jump around.

While he was playing with the doggos, Zeuxis had finally arrived. He was not injured at all, and whistled when he saw the dogs..

“No way in the Abyss….. You actually have hounds all this time!?” He rushed to play with the puppies too. “Why didn’t you tell me, prune!?

“I only learned of them now.” Ronin raised an eyebrow, but let his brother play with his pets. “You also like dogs?”

“You know I loved our father’s hounds more than anything in our wretched house!” Zeuxis cackled loudly. “Oh, but he can’t see this. He might cut their heads off with that sun sword of his.”

Ronin turned to the sleeping Cermin. “No. He can barely hurt you who was a humanoid daemon and felt so much guilt.”

“And I thought about it. I can’t hide my skills from him for too long, he will figure them out one way or another.”

Zeuxis did not expect this. “You would tell him the truth?”

Ronin sneered.

“Of course not. A version of the truth would suffice.”