Chapter 180: Kept you waiting, Huh?
After finding a secluded alleyway to do their work, Beans’ sat down across from Belladonna and let her do all of said work.
While she took out the pre-prepared meat covering and started to prepare a work area with a rag, Beans sat rather patiently. Sure his feet were tapping as he shifted between them eagerly, making small sounds like gentle rainfall as they constantly tapped into the puddle of drool he was creating, all whilst his tail swished behind him eagerly.
But really, after having to wait exactly one hour, fifteen minutes and thirty four seconds for his meal - a number that was truly an affront to all that was natural and holy! - he decided that he was being more than patient enough.
Ah, it was thirty five seconds now! Clearly she didn’t know how slow she was going, otherwise she would speed up! So to help educate her, Beans let out a few long, rumbling meows in hopes that the silly Maiden would learn her lesson soon.
"Yeah, Yeah. I know. I’m working on it. It’ll be worth the wait, I promise." Belladonna muttered in response.
She laid down the slab of Dragon meat onto her rag and pressed her hands against it. The juices squeezed out at the softest touch, trickling over her fingers and down the meat in a way that made Beans’ stomach rumble like a true demon.
Belladonna giggled softly at the sound before starting to concentrate. An inky blackness poured out from her chest like an oil spring, before it quickly spread across her pale, moon-kissed skin.
It travelled down her arms, covering her fingers and began to slowly creep its way into the juicy meat, as she steadily infused it with the element of Shadow.
The shadows of the dark alley responded to her infusion, darkening around her and seeming to come alive as they wriggled and danced like black flames. A few of them crept across the walls or the floor towards he, as if they too wanted a piece of the meat, but Beans was not in the mood to share.
He flickered his tail, cracking it like a slave drivers whip, and let out a low warning growl.
The advancing shadows immediately retreated, slinking back and holding themselves far away from the adorable Shadow Demon, as they seemed to shiver in fear of Beans’.
It took a few minutes for the meat slab to be completely infused, as while it was full of magical energy and eagerly receptive to elemental energy, it was already naturally infused with earth and fire elements.
So Belladonna had to force them out before replacing them with the Shadow element.
But once she had, the meat slab had taken on a darker tone as it radiated a strange, ancient power that rippled through the air. Those ripples spread further than Belladonna could sense, becoming so small and so spread out the further they travelled, that only the most powerful or the most attuned would be able to sense them.
However that wasn’t to say that nothing sensed those waves.
Unaware of the ripples she was making, Belladonna finished the infusion before uncorking the prepared solution and drizzling it all over the shadow infused Dragon meat.
"Alright you Demon of glutton, here you-"
Beans’ didn’t let her finish, as he immediately lunged at his meal and tore into it with fang and claw. It was absolute savagery, as he barely even chewed and instead just inhaled the chunks down as he tore them from the mass.
The entire hunk of meat was almost the same size as Beans himself, but that didn’t stop him from ravaging the entire thing in the span of a few seconds. It didn’t even bulge his belly. It just... disappeared inside of him, never to be seen again.
He even ate the bone.
Belladonna blinked softly, staring at the adorable little cat with a little shock, as he let out a soft burp and licked her lips, before looking at her as if he was expecting more. Honestly, if it wasn’t because he was restricted to one per day, Belladonna would have eagerly given him another just because of the massive bump that gave him when it came to his awakening.
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[Familiar Name: Beans
Status: Healthy
Awakening Progress: 60%]
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Just that slab of meat alone had shot him from 30% to 60% instead of taking the usual 5% steps. Which meant that, using a little basic maths, instead of taking another two weeks to advance Beans, she could do it in two days!
If she set aside another slab of the same size for another 30% bump, and then a smaller one for the last 10%, that left her with a dozen slabs of considerable size to spare. Naturally she wanted to see what all the fuss was, which meant that she was going to keep at least two for her own personal use. After all, it wasn’t just Beans that needed boosting.
This stuff was so full of mana that it would help her friends advance beyond just using sources, like they did when they first awakened in this world.
That left her with ten slabs of prime dragon meat, ready to sell. Maybe it was time to see if Midas had the right connections, and invest a little more in her favourite merchant. Who knows, maybe this would earn her a lifetime discount or something.
Sure she could have sold it through the Duke, but he was already indebted to her. This way she could get rich and get more favours that she could use for extorting... I mean, convincing people to help her more.
Cackling softly to herself as she thought of all the money she would earn, Belladonna rose to her feet and left the alley. Beans landed on her shoulder a second later, folding his wings - which had grown in size and looked more draconic than bat-like now - in against his back before they dissolved into black mist.