The flight was calm, even though the night was dark, Rey still saw the cloudy outlines of the forest, continuing to move strictly in a straight line.

“If the settlement is too small, I might miss it. Perhaps we should continue with the sunrise. This thought sounded right to him. Slowing down, Rei landed on one of the trees.

Having descended to the ground, he took the form of a snake already familiar to him. For all the time while watching the forest, and that is how he decided to call these people, Ray was very hungry. Nighttime was even better than daytime for hunting. Even though it was winter now and the light of the sun was weak, it was unpleasant for sensitive snake eyes, and besides, it was very distracting. Ray had yet to learn to see the light itself, not its warmth, and until then, night was the most comfortable time for hunting.

As he was about to take off, he remembered something. Now he had three extra hunter souls, which he somehow needed only to raise the level of the ability.

"They will support me."

Looking into the inner space, Rei thought for a second about what he had not paid attention to before.

“And why are there three of them, because they, too, should have been united into one.”

“Because of the growth in ability, they did not break up. But when exactly did the level rise?

“If you remember, before I attacked them, he was definitely still the second, which means he could grow after the first few souls. And if this is so, then the increase in level could stop not only their decay ... "

As he pondered this, Rei realized something. Not really worrying, he broke one soul of the forest. As the guy expected, the energy after its destruction did not immediately begin to spread through his body, but remained in place in the form of small clots.

“How interesting, I think I know what has changed…”

After trying to influence this energy, Rei realized that he could move it too. Directing energy to the strongest soul of the forest, he watched with a touch of satisfaction as it merged with her, making her color even lighter.

"And if so?"

Having broken one of the remaining two souls, he directed the energy from it to the soul of the snow snake, in the form of which he was now. He did not really hope for something, but to his own surprise he realized that the souls had merged.

At the same moment, Ray literally felt the changes that had taken place. His body became almost one and a half times longer, the same applied to thickness. Perception increased even more, and this was not only about vision. The guy had no doubt that even without that deadly poison became even stronger.

"Now that's really interesting."

If the snake could smile, there would certainly be a very evil smile on its face right now, probably the only one Rei could put on.

"Looks like I'll be able to commit revenge much sooner."

Without hesitation, Rey broke the last soul, again sending it to the snow snake, but, unfortunately, the image of the deadliest of snakes, the poison of which could kill anyone, created in the depths of the guy’s consciousness, broke at the same moment. Several beams of energy merged with the soul of the serpent, bringing the size of Rei's current body to a full two meters, but the rest of the energy remained circling around him.

“So the restrictions still remain ... It’s a little depressing.”

Rey dissipated the remaining energy into his own body, noting that it was about half as much as in one of the largest beasts he had encountered, whose body was so slow that the guy did not even leave it.

“But why did four of the same fit in the soul of the forest at once, and only one in the snake? The amount of energy was about the same."

The misunderstanding only grew stronger when, having turned into a representative of the forest people, Rei did not notice any drastic changes. He had hoped that the perception of this body would become even more acute, like last time, but now, being in this body, he did not notice much difference.

“It’s not strange, if my hearing got even better, I wouldn’t be able to perceive the world normally, but the physical parameters also didn’t change too much when compared to a snake.” Ray was genuinely perplexed, trying to find a seemingly obvious answer. “What is the matter then? If the cessation of the development of a snake is explained by the fact that its body simply cannot contain more energy, then where does it go in the forest?”

Continuing to ponder over this, the guy again took the form of a snake. Even though the night was coming to an end, he would still have time to hunt a little.

***

With the first rays of the sun, a small blue bird flew into the air. In the past hour, Ray managed to kill four animals, but he did not save all their souls for later. Unfortunately, now he could not properly enjoy their "taste", breaking and absorbing their energy, because they all went to strengthen.

After absorbing the last of the captured souls, the gsarh also stopped growing stronger. But the growth of this body was noticeable to the naked eye - the beast became larger by almost a third.

Thinking again about the soul of the forest, Ray looked at the human.

“How do I know if it’s worth spending souls to strengthen it?”

On reflection, he nevertheless came to the conclusion that energy cannot disappear into nowhere, which means that he simply has not yet found a way to determine what it is spent on.

“When you think about it, souls become lighter when they absorb energy, which means that the closer the color of the soul to white, the stronger it is. But my human form is definitely worse than, for example, the body of those hunters. Their reflexes, sense organs and even muscles are more developed than those of humans, but the color of the souls is still darker. And this means that either I was mistaken, or there is something else that I did not take into account.

Ray still continued to fly towards the rising sun, and thoughts did not let him go.

“My soul became like this after the experience. Maybe instead of bodily parameters, mental ones begin to grow. No, I’m sure that I definitely didn’t become smarter. ”

The guy did not have time to find a clear answer for himself when he noticed something strange far ahead.

Ten minutes later, Rei, already in the form of a tildas, was sitting on a branch, next to a tall wooden fence. It was built in the form of a thick wall, the upper part of which protruded from the outside almost a meter forward, making it difficult to penetrate from the outside. The guy was a little upset, because the size of the settlement was larger than he expected. If it was only a small camp, then he could do the same as before, gaining even more souls, and along with them, strength. But in the town in front of him, and because of its size it was quite possible to call it that, there should have been no less several thousand forest.

“Even if the city is quite large, it is hardly the main one for this people. From what I've seen so far, their weapons and tailoring are too advanced for the level of a single city. Or maybe there are a lot more of them than I thought.

Trees obstructed Ray's normal view of the settlement. If not for the wall, this city would be no different from an ordinary patch of forest.

“If they live in trees, then their number here may indeed be several times greater.”

The fact that the settlement turned out to be much more extensive than he had hoped only disappointed Ray at first, but after weighing all the pros and cons again, he nevertheless changed his mind.

“If I exterminated even a small village, it would inevitably attract attention. But this city offers a slightly different opportunity.”

Once again looking around the wall, Ray went to look for an entrance. And it didn't take long.

The gates were sheathed with material similar to that from which the swords were made. They looked pretty nice, but the guy didn't even pay attention to it. All his thoughts were now occupied with a plan that would allow him to get into the city. The main problem was that he did not know the language of this people. Because of this, he could not directly penetrate inside. Getting lost in a settlement of this size probably wouldn't be a problem, but if Rey couldn't understand those around him, it would be of little use, and he only wanted to get into the city because of the information he could get there. Even though the guy needed a lot of souls to better understand his abilities, it would be dangerous to kill too many hunters near a big city, because he himself could be prey.

"I need them to let me in."

Slowly, from one idea, others were born, which formed a completely full-fledged plan. It was impossible to implement it right now, because for him, Ray needed to know exactly when someone would be on the road to the city. Turning into a snake again, he went in search of new souls. He could watch those entering and leaving the city even at a distance from the gates, but he did not want to waste time in this way. It was necessary to see how the human soul would react to the amplification, maybe it would at least shed some light on the situation.

Ray did not count on finding many animals near the city, but he really liked hunting in the form of a snake and he was not going to deny himself this. In addition, for the plan he came up with, it was necessary to prepare too many things, and even better - to wait for a thunderstorm or at least a heavy snowfall.