Li had to admit he was surprised at what he had done.
Firstly, there was the matter of getting rid of the weaker bandits. Li snapped his fingers and the ground beside him broke apart. The head of a gargantuan ant emerged, almost as big as a fully-grown man on its own. It was a wonder to think how massive the rest of the ant's body was beneath the ground.
This was a Trapjaw Myrmeke, part of a race of giant ants called the Myrmeke and known for massive jaws that curled out from the sides of its head like hairy pincers. They clicked together rapidly, mimicking a purring sound. Li pet the myrmeke's head and its compound eyes closed in satisfaction.
This particular summon was based off the real-life antlion which consumed its prey by dragging them underground.
It was level 60 and not much use offensively but was incredibly useful for potentially rooting an enemy in place for a few valuable seconds. However, when set loose on bandits that were barely level fifteen, it became a vicious engine of destruction, instantly dragging down the helpless bandits at breakneck speeds before they even knew what had hit them.
This was the first time Li had summoned an actual creature. He knew when he summoned plants that after a certain time, they seemed to wither away into nothingness unless he cast a spell like [Wild Growth] on them. However, sentient creatures seemed to be a permanent existence.
Li patted the myrmeke's head one last time and said, "Go on now, be free. You did great."
The myrmeke clicked its jaws and looked down. And another interesting thing. This summons were no longer just artificial constructs. By virtue of being alive, they could express their thoughts and feelings that they communicated to Li through a special, telepathic summoning bond.
"You want to stay with me?" said Li.
The myrmeke nodded its massive head up and down.
"You'll draw way too much attention," said Li. "I can't have you around the farm either, as much as I would like it. You'd cause a city-wide panic."
The myrmeke shook its head from side to side.
"You promise you won't make a fuss?" Li thought about it for a bit. The ant was quite persistent. "Well, how about we make a compromise. You stay out here in the forest, okay? But every so often, I'll come visit you."
Pleased, the ant nodded before submerging underground.
And now there was the matter of how Li had dealt with the bandit leader. He looked across his handiwork.
Before him, the [Fist of Ymir] had carved a crater into the land. It really was as if a meteor had landed. The ground was scorched, crisscrossed with red hot patterns of molten rock. Embers sparked in the air and smoke smelling heavily of burned vegetation traveled with the wind.
The entire clearing – 40 meters across, give or take – and far more had been annihilated. Li knew that [Fist of Ymir], an A+ ranked spell requiring a druid at a minimum of level 80, was a highly destructive area of effect spell that dealt massive crushing damage in a 100-unit radius. What was most interesting was that in the game, what an unit meant was unclear. It was a video game unit of distance measurement, after all, but now it was clear that judging from the crater that the spell had made that one unit was roughly equal to one meter.
Li nodded as he saw water begin to well up from the base of the crater. The [Fist of Ymir], like many druidic spells, was both offensive and defensive. Any area affected by the crater would spawn a spring of healing waters, making it incredibly useful for dungeons where mass healing was a precious resource.
The water level rose rapidly, filling up the entire within a minute. Even in the dark, Li felt awestruck at the water. It sparkled under the moonlight in shades of sapphire and emerald. It looked more beautiful and precious than any gemstone that he had bought in his previous life.
The water's edge began to shimmer. A black mass emerged from the water, breaking the sheen of gemstone wonder with its ugly darkness. It collapsed on the forest floor.
Li walked up to it and got a good look at it. It was the demon that had been empowering the bandit. He knew that parasitic creatures and demons could survive their hosts being killed in the game at the cost of being weakened, and so it seemed the same had occurred here.
The demon had shrunk down to the size and shape of a large but normal dog. It panted in exhaustion as it cast a beady yellow eye to Li.
"To think that a mere human has brought me, Zagan, the devourer of souls, so low," muttered the demon. "But mark my words, mortal, this is the mere beginning. The Burning One has awoken and his demonic legions rise at his beckon. Your lives will be forfeit soon enough."
"Burning One, demons, mortals, legions, whatever," said Li. "Cut the dramatic crap, okay? I don't care about any of it. And you tell this 'Burning One' or whatever that he's welcome to do what he wants so long as he doesn't go anywhere near my farm."
"You talk as if you will spare me," said Zagan.
"You're the one that mentioned legions," said Li, shrugging. "There's more of you, so there's no point killing you if more of you are just going to show up anyway. So I'll give you a job in exchange for your life: tell all your burning friends that they are not welcome to make a mess of my farm."
Zagan weakly stood on his four legs. "You will come to regret this decision, human."
Li raised a finger. "And another thing. I don't know if this will convince you to do your job better or not, but I'm not human."
He turned off his shapeshifting and reverted back to his base form. His human began to melt off of him as he grew several heads taller. The skin sloughed off, revealing bark. Vines and leaves began growing, gathering particularly around his chest like a mantle of nature.
His bare skull was human in shape for a mere second before the bone warped its dimensions, the nose and jaw elongating into the skull of a deer. Branches sprouted from the skull's sides, twisting into great antlers wreathed with ethereal glowing dots reminiscent of fireflies.
Li realized that he had not entered back into this form in quite a while. But he could not lie that it felt far more natural. His human form was like wearing clothes that did not quite fit him. His true essence and nature were that of a primordial being of higher existence, higher even than that of gods and demons, of dominion over the cycle of life and death. The skulls of many creatures dangled at his neck, held up by thorns that acted like hooks.
They were the skulls of mighty beasts, of dragons and giants, all condensed down in size and worn as macabre ornaments like shrunken heads. There were also skulls of gods, their halos still twinkling above them, and of demons, their horns still intact. These were purely cosmetic decorations in Elden World that Li had paida pretty price for, but here, they seemed to radiate their own power.
The grasses around where he stood wilted and grew at random. Flowers bloomed and dried up. The very air became still. Life and death flowed at random around him.
Zagan shivered uncontrollably. The demon's tail tucked between his legs and he had trouble breathing, crushed by the raw power emanating from this being that stood beyond even gods and demons.
Li could see now that his mere existence could change the world around him. He extended an oaken arm towards the demon wolf, and the demon whimpered, its ears flattening in surrender.
"According to your lore," said Li. "Demons are highly hierarchical creatures, explaining why every so often, a particularly strong one takes a leadership role and calls himself demon king or, in your case, is a little more of a drama queen and calls himself 'Burning One.' Your kind respects power above all else. Is that true?"
"It is true," croaked out Zagan. Even speaking was difficult in the presence of such overwhelming power.
Li extended his branch-like arm out, pointing to the distance. "Then you should listen to me. Do your job and tell your friends that this area is off limits."
"I will," said Zagan. He lowered his head, snout touching the grass. "To believe that I was fool enough to mistake you for human. I beseech you to forgive me, oh Elder One, lord over the great Cycle. If you will only grant me mercy, I will devote myself to your strength. I will follow you to the ends of this world, through the fires of battle and the winds of change."
"Look, I only gave you one job," said Li as he scratched his skull-head. "Just go back and tell your guys that they can't come here."
"What you ask I shall do." Zagan whimpered. "But Elder One, I know it is much for a lowly demon such as myself to ask of you anything, but truly, I live to serve. Lead me into your dominion. You will not regret it."
"You're really stubborn, aren't you?" Li crossed his arms and reflected for a few seconds. "I can't be having anything draw attention to my farm. I already rejected a myrmeke because of that. But well-"
Li took a closer look at the demon. Right now, it wasn't that much distinguishable from a regular old dog. A little big and, well, demonic looking, but overall, not too suspicious. Far less suspicious than an ant the size of a house, in any case.
"Okay then. Every farm needs a good farm hound, so I guess that's what you'll be." Li pointed impatiently away. "Now shoo, let your buddies know what's going on."