Reincarnated As A Lion In Another World

Back at the mountain, at the corner of the mountain where the six trees clearing existed.

N'bayé sat in the center of the clearing while she was bathed in fierce multicolored magic lights.

The runes on her body glowed brightly as each of them was overfilled with magic energy and pushed to their limits.

Suddenly, N'bayé's eyelids snapped open to reveal two eyes riddled with rune patterns that gave her a strange esoteric look.

For a second, she looked unfocused and confused before she blinked and the light of purpose returned to her eyes again.

With a thought, she caused all the magic strings coming from the tree to break off and the magic lights she was being bathed in disappeared like it never existed.

She looked down at herself to see that she had grown significantly. She stood on her four limbs and did a quick mental measurement.

She estimated that she would be around two meters in height now, or maybe more than that. This meant that she would be taller than Kael in his lion form.

N'bayé shook her head, realizing that she had subconsciously used Kael as a template to measure her own progress. It was embarrassing but it was the truth.

She could feel the magic energy inside her, her storage capacity had been multiplied exponentially. She felt like she could easily crush a tier 3 lion if she wanted.

Her paws moved and with them, a wave of magic energy. She looked around at her trees, observing the runes on the barks and noticing how she was now able to see the small errors she made when drawing the runes.

He set to work immediately, not only adjusting the runes on the trees but also the runes on her body. The runes etched on her flesh twisted like worms exposed to salt, adjusting themselves and becoming more precise.

While she was doing this, N'bayé focused on the thing that was on her mind, the thing that had woken her up.

A few moments ago, she had felt a tingling feeling, like a signal for something or someone. She knew the precise direction this signal was coming from and could go there if she wanted to, but she didn't move.

N'bayé was not one to make impulsive decisions.

"Oh," N'bayé paused the rune restructuring she was doing and stared at the little piece of the compact rune on one of the trees.

She brushed her magic energy against it and she was instantly able to recognize who it came from. Without facing any resistance, the information stored within poured into her mind, giving her a new understanding of the current situation.

"I see," N'bayé said lightly as she began to transform into her humanoid form. Her power was limited to one-third of its original power and the energy output was maintained to the same level.

Her fur shrank in to reveal her dark brown skin and her bones rearranged themselves, all the while making room for the child in her womb.

As she stood there, naked, absorbing the knowledge from the rune Kael left behind, her hand subconsciously went to her bulging belly to rub the surface.

It was a habit that was starting to annoy her the more she found herself doing it.

Most lionesses would have given birth after three months but because N'bayé was high-leveled, the pregnancy date fit extended as the child could benefit more from an extended pregnancy with a more powerful mother.

N'bayé could only hope that the child would be as useful to everyone as she hoped it would be. She didn't believe in the so-called motherly instincts, and even if it was real she doubted if she would become a slave to it.

An asset or a liability, she would have to wait until her child was born first.

N'bayé moved, she raised her feet into the air and the circular rune on her shaved forehead glowed brightly.

A massive amount of magic energy gathered around her and her body was lifted into the air.

She hovered, levitating out of the six tree clearing and heading toward the mountain.

With the awakening of N'bayé, multiple magic stones scattered around the forest glowed and became extra active.

All over the forest, different creatures noticed that there were suddenly glowing stones flying around like they were imbued with the spirit of madness.

Meanwhile, N'bayé wasn't the only one who had been alerted by the strange signal, all the lionesses had been perceptive to it.

Nalii had been tending to the mushrooms in her cave, focusing on the red-capped mushrooms as they would become very useful very soon.

Then she frowned, having just received the signal too. Her hands paused in the air, just a few inches away from the mushrooms.

She looked to her right, not far from her, Katari rested on her back with her eyes closed. The black-haired humanoid woman was unconscious and unable to take care of herself, so Nalii was her temporary caretaker.

Tiny vines wrapped around Katari's waist, supplying her with the nutrients to survive since she was currently incapable of eating.

The slit scar was still on her neck, visible from where Nalii stood. It served as a reminder of what a period of carelessness could cause.

As soon as the signal appeared, Katari frowned. Her eyes were closed but her head turned to the side, the same direction the signal was coming from.

Nalii looked at her expectantly, hoping for something miraculous to happen. Unfortunately, nothing more happened after that.

Katari's eyes remained closed and her breathing remained stable. Nalii sighed the hate she had for Isaiah had reached new peaks in her heart.

It had only been close to two days but she was already missing this psychopathic pride sister of hers.

Seeing that nothing else would happen, Nalii returned to caring for the red-capped mushrooms.

On the other side of the mountain, Priya, Olivia, Diane, and Zabita all looked in the same direction from wherever they were.

Each lioness knew that if they could sense it, so could Kael. They all had Kael on their minds at the same time.

Burdo looked in the same direction too, his eyes narrowing as he sat by the river bank. This river area was more or less now his private region and only Kael and the other lionesses could barge in without his permission.

He looked into the river to see his five water lionesses frolicking around in the river, splashing water amongst themselves.

One of these lionesses had a bulging belly, one that made her move a bit slower than the rest.

'Soon,' Burdo said to himself. He was eager for his child to be born, only then would he finally be allowed to get the resources to evolve to tier 3.

Kael's niece, his first daughter, the king's betrothed.

It would be best if she could be born as soon as possible. Burdo could already guess that this campaign would lead to a lot of resources being procured, especially with all the preparations they were making.

If he could use the opportunity from this campaign, it would truly be beneficial. Of course, this was all going to be possible only if his Lioness gave birth to a female.

####

"What is it?" Stella asked as she noticed the strange expression on Kael's face.

Kael did not answer her at first, he just kept looking into the horizon.

"So it's over there," He finally said with a sigh. Ruda and Eidel also looked a bit worried.

"We wouldn't be able to follow you, Kael," Eidel said. "Do you still want to go?" Ruda asked.

Kael nodded.

"What is it?" Stella asked, feeling left out and annoyed.

"Something is happening in the sea," Kael answered vaguely.

"You want to go and investigate?" Stella asked, secretly wondering why she couldn't sense what they were sensing.

"Yes, aren't you coming?" Kael asked as he looked straight into Stella's eyes.

Stella frowned and the runes on her shoulders glowed, Kael's gaze was just too provocative even if he wasn't intending for it to be so.

"No, I can't risk my life over something I don't know of," She said, giving a reasonable explanation.

"Oh," Kael nodded, "And what deal did you want to make before?"

Stella wasn't willing to go after the treasures herself, and that was partly because she didn't know what came with the heavenly beacon and partly because she was a smart person.

"I previously wanted to give you some boons and protection while you're here but I can see that you will be going after that thing any moment from now.

So there'll be a change, you and the other one are the only ones with wings, these two can't go over the water given the nature of their powers."

She was referring to Eidel and Ruda.

"Here's the deal, I'll watch over them while they are here. You can go and chase that treasure or whatever without any worry for their safety.

When you return, you will simply give me a percentage of whatever you get as gratitude for protecting them,"

As soon as Stella finished speaking, a hostile atmosphere of silence reigned among them.

Kael lowered his head and narrowed his eyes, "Are you…trying to use my lionesses as hostages?"