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Just a few seconds after that, Benladann's eyes flashed with crimson-red colors, as her left eye turned red. This was the effect of using this spell. It seems that she somehow takes into the characteristics of… Miranda.
I don't know how it works, or what happened, but it seems that the two are cooperating into using this spell. Miranda is controlling the parasitized and showing Benladann what she sees.
It's amazing. I am very proud that they've finally managed to get friendlier with each other, to the point of cooperating with a parasitizing spell of this caliber.
"It's ready… I think four is my limit for now… Phew, I spent a lot of mana," said Benladann. I checked her status and without me realizing she spent around 80% of her mana right away. This spell seems to be costly.
"Amazing. And well done. Now that we are done here, can you wake them up? I've checked the area, and no one watched us…" I said.
"Alright… Wake up!"
Benladann ordered the four men to wake up from their sleep with a domineering presence, one that she usually never shows, it made me a bit surprised.
The four men suddenly woke up confused, although the moment they glanced at Benladann, they felt some kind of jolt into their heads.
"Ungh…! Ahhh…"
"Gaahh…"
"Gueeggh…"
"Ooohh…"
They looked like zombies…
Well, only their way of acting, they were not rotting away, nor they had mold around their bodies, thankfully.
"Benladann, can you see what they see?" I asked.
"More or less… through this eye," said Benladann, pointing her crimson-red eye.
It is interesting how she can see this stuff like this, even if I were to get some kind of Parasite Skill I don't think I would be able to do the same awesome stuff she can do with this… Truly just outstanding.
"Now you four, act like you always do and go back to your boss hideout, tell him that Gaston left before you could catch him," said Benladann.
"Yes…"
The four suddenly changed their expressions, as if they came back to "normal" yet they didn't…
And apparently, this brainwashing is permanent, as long as the host continues to eat food, the mold inside their brain can live off their shared nutrients and mana.
However, if she wants to, Benladann can also kill the host by telling the mold to destroy their brain, or even make the mold crawl out of their brain.
So it's pretty convenient. I think that after some time she can even adjust their memories and more, so if she leaves a host without killing him, she can make it, so he never remembers anything regarding being parasitized.
The four thugs walked back to their hideout as we were done for now.
"We can go to their hideout after we find out where they live, and we can massacre them there. Perhaps they are connected with the slave-trading business, so we might even end up killing two birds with one stone, if we get lucky, that's it," I said.
"That's right, I had not thought about that!" said Benladann.
"For now, let's go back to town so we can buy stuff," I said.
Gaston and the rest were left speechless as they saw Benladann casually parasitize four thugs into loyal slaves. But don't get so scared! She just reached her limit so she can't do it again with another person without losing control over it unless she kills another parasitized person to open a slot or free him.
As we walked back to the town we reached the market right away, we had some materials we wanted to see if we could sell. First of all, we were going to sell a large bag filled with mana cores which I had decided to not eat but sell instead. Don't worry, I am not slowing down my cultivation or something by selling a few mana cores…
Additionally, I also made some weapons made of ice, accessories infused with magic, and shield and armor pieces with my scales. I was just going to sell them off and see if they could be of any value. All these weapons were actually my "failures" that came out when I got an unsatisfactory result while making the equipment of the kids, as they had not the stats I wanted and lacked traits and stuff while being of low grade. So I didn't felt any fault for selling them…
"There's a tinkerer shop that has a wealthy merchant, he often buys anything of value," said Gaston, as he led us to a building made of rock bricks instead of the usual wood, it had a large wooden table with the words "Buy & Sell", so we got inside.
We were greeted instantly by a large shop filled with all sorts of items and assortments, there was a lot of stuff I've never seen in my life.
There were golden items, maps of the entire world, books of all types, swords, daggers, shields, armor, potions, concoctions, and even colorful elixir that bubbled out the strange colorful mist.
The number of items were so many I was surprised that such a shop wasn't being robbed in this area of the city, however, when I sensed the power of the owner I quickly realized why that was the case.
"Welcome to my humble shop, is there anything you see here that is of your interest, customer?" asked an old man with a long white beard, blazing crimson-red eyes, and blue skin. His body was packed with muscles and covered in scars, from his chest there was the power of a Rank 2 Middle Stage Mana Core. He was strong.
He quickly noticed my presence as well, as he squinted his eyes and gasped.
"Rank 3!" he said.
"I thought I had concealed my power enough…" I sighed.
"Haha! You can't escape the eyes of this old man…" he laughed.
"I have come here to sell stuff, here," I said, as I put the two leather bags in front of him. He opened the smaller one filled with mana cores, as he nodded.
"A fine pile of mana cores… Now let's see- Eh?! By the Gods!"
As the man opened the leather bag containing the crafted items, he gasped in surprise.
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