I'm a monster in Demon King's Castle

“Uncle Hyena, what happened to him?” The three little jackalweres stepped back, staring blankly as the noble's flesh turned inside out, a fingernail, an inch of skin, bit by bit turning into a strangely horrifying mass of flesh, knees on the ground like two slender fingers, supporting a huge, deformed monster.

“This, well, in the human world it's called ‘meltdown’. It's the accumulated demonic toxins in the body… that collectively erupt after the mind goes insane, finally growing into a monster.” Uncle Hyena circled the deformed monster, lecturing the three little jackalweres, “Once it gets to this state, it's no longer human, and there's no way to restore it…”

The three little jackalweres each took a step back—for demons, witnessing this kind of change firsthand was a bit beyond comprehension.

“Demonic toxins… does that mean that one day… we'll turn into something like that too?” The little jackalwere touched his ears, wiped the corners of his mouth where he had just eaten a finger, also afraid that something might start wriggling in his stomach.

“Hee hee… Humans melt down, but we demons don't.” Hyena laughed heartily, “Because we've never been under control anyway…”

The three little jackalweres grinned, their eyes lighting up.

Lee Read thought that this Hyena definitely hadn't seen a demon 'mutate'—Lee Read hadn't either, but Lee Read had heard Mentor say that some demons who failed to mutate would eventually only retain the original consciousness of a pile of flesh, which would be enough for them to eat.

Seemingly having become a complete deformed being, the mass of everted flesh rushed towards Hyena, who was facing away from it, carrying a gust of wind. Dust flew up from the grass. The only remaining arm had also swelled to three times its size, its long fingernails reaching for the back of Hyena's neck…

“And let me tell you, after humans mutate, their flavor also changes. Do you… want to try some?” Hyena vanished in an instant, and then the deformed creature's fingernails were bitten off by the jackalwere in one bite, followed by the entire arm.

【Analyzing… 76%…】

Lee Read had a new understanding of the jackalwere's fighting style—the speed of this jackalwere in front of him was slightly slower than that of the demon wolf prince Finley, but not by much. Moreover, his biting and tearing were very skilled and accurate, unlike the demon wolf warriors who mostly used their wolf claws to strike.

Lee Read had only managed to smash Finley's lower abdomen with a sneak attack. Looking back now, it seemed like quite a stroke of luck. If he were to really fight head-on with a 'sharp, bony beauty' against a demon wolf warrior or a jackalwere, taking down one would be the limit. Obviously, he wouldn't be able to wipe out the entire jackalwere family.

“If we demons devour this kind of flesh… is it easier for us to ‘mutate’?” Hyena took a bite of the thick arm, and then his whole body twitched briefly.

“Did the leader ‘mutate’ like this too?” “I want some too!” “Let me try!”

The three little jackalweres pounced, drooling, shouting loudly.

Lee Read noticed the information they revealed unintentionally—the jackalwere leader had 'mutated'? What special ability did he 'mutate' into? Thus contending with the demon wolf king Fentus?

Lee Read became more and more curious about the jackalwere leader's mutation. After all, he had only seen one 'mutated' Budibog before, who had mastered the ability to fuse corpses, which was not too far beyond Lee Read's comprehension.

【Analyzing… 86%…】

The following time was spent with Uncle Hyena leading the three little jackalweres in besieging the deformed creature. Soon, the three little jackalweres were twitching all over from eating, leaving only Hyena to enjoy the feast alone. Although Lee Read, Egg, and Shadow had concealed their scent, Hyena had still noticed a trace of it, so they took advantage of the deformed creature's madness to distance themselves slightly, waiting for the analysis to be completed before leaving.

When the analysis was completed, Lee Read found that Hyena had already begun to turn around intentionally or unintentionally, not forgetting to distinguish the origin of the scent while chewing. So without even looking at the information on the Demon Illustrated Handbook, he first transferred a large area with Shadow—Shadow put Egg into the Shadow Space, temporarily becoming Lee Read's shadow.

So the two groups of shadows traveled through the shade of the trees, and soon came near the cave where the jackalwere family was located.

“So devouring out-of-control humans helps with ‘mutation’. I'll try it someday…” Shadow had always been obsessed with becoming stronger, and seemed to have been inspired by Uncle Hyena.

“Those are jackalweres, it may not apply to you…” Lee Read reminded, “You can confirm with Mentor first, anyway, the closed training hasn't ended yet, Mentor hasn't returned to Chaos…”

“Then I can try it first, anyway, I want to eat all sorts of things.” Egg used a particle to hold up a leaf and put it in its mouth, feeling that it had no taste, “Are we really not going to eat a single jackalwere? Just observe and learn?”

“Friend, be patient now, you can eat a whole nest in the future.” Lee Read comforted Egg, “If we eat them into bankruptcy now, and there are no jackalweres participating in the fourth Slaughter Cup, that would be a greater loss…”

“Okay… It just gives them a few more days to breed…” Egg twisted its body, “After watching for so long, what have you learned?”

“Those three small ones and one big one. The small ones haven't reached maturity yet, so they probably won't participate in the Slaughter Cup. The big one is a ‘Jackalwere Hunter’, who is good at fighting among the jackalweres, and is also responsible for reconnaissance, hunting, and raids…” Lee Read looked at the introduction of the 122 Jackalwere Hunter in the Demon Illustrated Handbook, imagining the scene of them falling into the ‘Slaughter Sea Butterfly’ formation, believing that there would likely be many Jackalwere Hunters participating in the Slaughter Cup.

“Big ones are good, big ones are enough to eat.” Egg said.

“Not necessarily, small ones also have their advantages.” Shadow was thinking from a combat perspective, not thinking that jackalwere cubs were useless.

Shadow's words reminded Lee Read—the jackalwere family is not human, maybe the whole family are combatants, especially under the premise of believing that they will definitely win, they may not bring the cubs to participate in the battle…

We can't limit our thinking now, we should wait until we have collected all kinds of jackalweres before making inferences.

The weaknesses of the Jackalwere Hunter are the same as those of the Demon Wolf Warrior, both are in the lower abdomen. Lee Read felt that this could be applied to more demons that look similar to dogs.

“Tracking, torturing, interrogation, gourmet food… are all the strengths of the Jackalwere Hunter. They are also more bloodthirsty than the Demon Wolf Warrior, so they are not very obedient soldiers, and they don't have a place in the Demon Expeditionary Force.” Lee Read continued to talk about the characteristics of the Jackalwere, “As for speed and strength… it's like what we just saw, each has its own strengths compared to the Demon Wolf Warrior.”

As Lee Read spoke, he cut out a part of the action images in the Demon Illustrated Handbook and transmitted them to Shadow and Egg beside him.

“What do you think, if you were to face him, would there be any suspense?”

“Breaking his neck might be a little difficult, but killing him shouldn't be a problem.” Shadow had always been relatively objective, giving an evaluation after watching the Jackalwere Hunter's movements.

“Then let's continue to see… if the jackalwere family has any other surprises.” Lee Read thought similarly—the Jackalwere Hunter's abilities haven't exceeded expectations so far, and are still within the processing range of the ‘Slaughter Sea Butterfly’, so the outlook is optimistic.

As long as the combat instructions are classified and cut according to the characteristics of different jackalweres during the battle, and then transmitted to the Brain Spirit, Shadow, and Egg… the Library family can make perfect cooperation.

Lee Read couldn't help but use the name of the jackalwere family to compare with the Library, thinking that the Library, whether in terms of species diversity or combat power… is no longer a force to be underestimated.

Thinking, Lee Read began to observe the situation near the jackalwere family's cave, looking for the special jackalwere marked by the hexagram, but heard Egg display a line of words in a bad mood.

“Wait a minute, friend, you only watched for a little while just now, and you've already figured out so much?” When it came to target acquisition, Egg, who has a bowl-shaped radar, was not very convinced, “How did you do it?”

“Talent, Brain Spirit's talent.” Lee Read pointed to his book-bound head with a tentacle, “A powerful Brain Spirit can sense your thoughts, everything about you.”

【Then can you sense… my hunger…】

Egg's inner world is very simple.

“If you're really too hungry, just eat some shadows.” Shadow, who coexists with Egg, can also sense Egg's emotions to a certain extent, and tore off a piece of tree shadow for Egg to eat.

What is this? Drawing a shadow to satisfy hunger?

Lee Read suddenly felt absurd, and soon, the communication between the three demons was interrupted by a commotion at the jackalwere's cave entrance.

“Ready—run!”