Reincarnated as a betrayed prince

Chapter 16: A New Ally

Evan was walking around the outskirts of the city with his bag. He had been like 15 minutes killing monsters that attacked him like it was a walk in the park. But Evan was more of a pacifist and only attack those that were going to attack him or other people who were working for the merchants, and he learned a lot about the merchant hierarchy.

The biggest merchant company it was called Silver Eagle, due to their past actions done by one of their ancestors that laid the foundations for the company, and Evan learned that Amelia was the daughter of the president of Silver Eagle and the others usually respected anyone who worked with Silver Eagle.
Most of the workers that were attacking the monsters for getting their body parts were workers that worked for other merchant groups that sold out the extra monster parts that they couldn't use to Silver Eagle, which was a cunning strategy considering that probably the president paid less than the usual price for the extra monster parts while acquiring more profit.

Evan had obtained a lot of monster parts and a lot of experience, but literally he killed around 200 monsters to just reach to level 5, turned out that Noche was right about the requirements for leveling up having increased massively, and Noche was about to teach him how to put skills, but Evan had already guessed it.

"Now, to open the skill window and any window of status, skill, journal, and others-" Noche started explaining until Evan raised his hand to stop Noche, which made the book sound quite angry for a moment as he grumbled.

"You must think about them and concentrate. It's like in the stories. Weird, but logical. It was more intuitive in Dawn World at first." Evan said, guessing that it would be like in the games because otherwise he would have heard someone saying something to open any sort of window already at least twice considering how many people were hunting monsters.

"Okay..." Noche grumbled as he was surprised by the deductive skills that Evan had.

Evan concentrated, and a sort of interface window with a list of skills appeared. In that list, there were two different columns of skills, learned and unlearned. In learned appeared Magician (Master) with specialization of fire and dark magic and Necromancer (Master) only, in unlearned appeared all the affinities that he had, but Evan literally grabbed the 10 skill points he had already and used them in Monster Devourer. It was simple, as it was only a matter of dragging the unlearned skill to the learned and then input the rank in which he wanted the skill to be in.

"So... You learned that skill." Noche said, as he pondered the reason Evan had learned Monster Devourer.

"It will be good to have it since the start. Also, since I am resistant to poison, the skills are safe to use." Evan explained as he smiled widely.

"Good idea. But it's a growth type skill trees, quite powerful compared to other growth type skill trees like bodybuilder." Noche said.

"Also if I learn the skills of a slime... I can regrow any part of my body." Evan said as he smirked.

"Unless eyes. After all, slime do not have eyes." Noche warned, as he was secretly enjoying shooting down the hopes of Evan for having interrupted his explanation.

Evan started thinking and after 2 minutes, he started cursing with words that would easily make any normal man to stay away from the area. His own happiness was spoiled by a book, and that meant that he still had to handle with the lack of depth perception with made his balance worse, which clearly enraged him, since he almost stumbled upon a few totems made by goblins as he was hunting goblins.

"Goddammit, Noche! Why you spoil me the happiness with that!? That bastard of the assassin who attacked me and took my eye! I hope they choke in their own money! Shame upon them and their family up to the thirteenth ancestor of theirs!" Evan said as he scowled and stomped on the ground.

"You will have to find a humanoid monster to be able to regrow your eye, one that can regenerate their bodies. Like Dryads. But you would be charmed and killed, knowing how annoying the dryads are and their inherent hatred of humans, while they have their own meal preferences. I believe that your resistance to the curses and poison won't defend you from pheromones." Noche explained, which made Evan look at Noche with a serious gaze.

"Well, I will start thinking of buying a fake eye. But to deal with dwarven people can be hell. Because I recall some dryads back in Dawn World, and they were so annoying. Killing one will lead to an entire groove of them trying to kill me. Not worth the gamble. And I don't want to learn that eating a vampiric fiend or a vampire ends up making me a vampire, I have already enough issues to deal with." Evan said as he placed his palm upon his face, trying to cover his angry face.

"In your world, there are prosthetic eyes too!?" Noche asked with a surprised tone.

"No that I know of... Only the fake eye of crystal. But I heard that there were some attempts of doing prosthetic eyes. We are more into, well, making nukes and weapons that kill humans so effectively that I find them beastly." Evan said with a grimace upon his face.

"At least we surpass your world in something!" Noche exclaimed proudly.

"Tell me more about those prosthetic eyes. Because Grandine only said a bit about it. But, as usual, she forgot to mention where I could go to fetch one." Evan said as he pouted and crossed his arms.

"They are treasures that can connect with your optic nerves and give you vision. They are extremely hard to find and will cost at least one gold coin, which easily would pay the taxes of one hundred citizens in this country. The best ones have special abilities. I believe that lady Namika said that she planned to craft one someday. But she never told me if she truly did it or where she would hide it." Noche explained as he floated around Evan.

"Well, I need to make good use of the materials then. Noche, you have a storage space?" Evan said, as he had a fancy idea in his mind.

"Why do you need it? You have your own extra inventory." Noche said with a curious tone.

"To hide slime mucus, goblin blood and the rest of materials. At least 1 of each. If Amelia has thief skills, she could see my inventory and catch me red-handed. But in your case... Since you are not seen, she couldn't see your inventory." Evan nonchalantly said as he smirked.

"Who you think you are talking to!? I will not allow those dirty materials get in me! Also, the chances of having her catching a glimpse of your extra inventory are small. Probably she'll see the hellscape you have as normal inventory and wind up in the graveyard!" Noche exclaimed, disgusted by the idea.

"We have no better choice. What if I devour them here, and I get caught?" Evan retorted, as he feared that maybe his inventory was out of reach even by thieves. Usually that'd be good, but the disorganization that Evan had in that inventory was a natural (due to Evan's looter's instincts) defense towards thieves. They would take ages to even locate the item they would want to steal, if they managed to avoid losing their mind over the disorganized hellscape that said inventory was.

"It would be a mess. I see... You better give me something worthy of this... insult." Noche said, as he relented, knowing that Evan wouldn't take a no for an answer. So at least, he would happily acquire some sort of assistance.

"You really like to be well treated, no? I will make sure that your cover is in perfect condition! Totally clean!" Evan said as he smiled at Noche.

"It has been a long time since I got someone to clean my cover..." Noche pondered, and he had felt like the time without having a clean cover was making his spine feel worse. Or maybe it was just the age, after all... All the time that has passed was clearly a thing to take into account.

"Seems that it will be enough." Evan said.

"The thing is that you will be unable to touch me. When you try to touch me, you will end inside of me. And you better choose carefully who does it, no way I am letting a young kid to clean my cover nor a random person!" Noche warned.

"So the hiding goes both ways... Good to know, but crap. Then who can clean you?" Evan said as he pondered.

"Hmmm..." Noche said, as he started ruminating about who could clean his cover.

"I know. I will ask Lillian to clean you." Evan said as he had a stroke of genius, without caring about what Lillian would feel like having to clean Noche's cover.

Noche stood in front of Evan, it seemed like having a nun clean his cover was something of his liking. This alone made Evan sigh, but he understood that even sentient books followed certain Spanish idiom.

"Put the items close to me. I will store them. You truly have to get Lillian to clean my cover." Noche said with a serious tone.

"There was a Spanish idiom that left clear this situation." Evan said as he squinted his eyes. 'Two tits pull more than two carts. I recall that it first appeared around 1627 in its first form and then evolved into this one, that said it was always a sexist idiom. How I hate said idioms, but it's that sort of trivia knowledge that sticks with you.' Evan thought as he bit his lower lip, in annoyance.

"It is not like that! It is that I have a weakness for irony. A holy maiden cleaning the cover of the Dark Lord grimoire! Oh, Zerax will be biting his nails off." Noche said with a mischievous tone.

"So you and I have this in common? After all, ironical reasons are the best reasons. That's good, if it's true." Evan said with a smirk on his face.