Re-Awakening: I Became a Pay To Win Boss Monster

"So first you steal my skill, then you steal my body..." Beatrice muttered, a vein bulging on her forehead. "You're going to die here."

As her words fell, she suddenly swung her fist. However, it was neither as fast nor as powerful as before, so he simply sidestepped.

"Yikes... Did someone lose their power?"

Beatrice's brow twitched, and in the very next moment, he felt the ground beneath him part, revealing a massive sea serpent.

His eyes widened as he tried his best to dodge, but even so, the sea serpent rose up and swallowed Rael.

However, the sea serpent seemed translucent, yet he still felt as if some kind of damage had been done.

And it seemed like he was right.

<Mental Integrity: 100% → 89%>

What the... Rael's brows furrowed as he glanced at Beatrice, who now had a wide smile on her face.

"I see... so this is what it feels like when someone fights back against my control... how amusing," Beatrice remarked, and parted the ground again.

But instead of falling for the same trick twice, Rael attempted to use a skill.

And yet...

<Mind Realm: All skills are disabled!>

"Pfftt... hahaha." Beatrice burst out laughing, and just like before, a serpent shot up, swallowed him, and then vanished once again.

<Mental Integrity: 89% → 82%>

"Seems like you don't know how this works. A battle of the mind is not something a mere human your age can win, after all," Beatrice stated, her grin widening. "Surrender, Rael Sutekh. Give me your body."

"Pass." Rael flipped her off and decided to try something.

Since this was a mind realm, that meant he could do whatever she could.

Therefore, Rael imagined a giant nuke dropping on top of her. Sadly, instead of a nuke, a giant inflatable balloon dropped from the sky.

Beatrice caught it with a warm smile and then proceeded to dig her nails into it to pop it.

"That was a nice try, but just like how you can attack me, I can counterattack you," Beatrice said and pointed her finger upward.

The location where it was pointed just so happened to be where his Mental Integrity counter was.

And to his surprise, it went down by a lot.

<Mental Integrity: 82% → 69%>

Fuck... so taking damage reduces it, but overusing it also does the same? How am I supposed to win this? Rael pondered with a frown.

"For someone who whined about a single skill, you sure are confident," Rael remarked with a chuckle, maintaining his composure.

Yet that seemed to be the beginning of his surprises, as that one sentence caused another pop-up to appear.

<Beatrice, The Spider Monarch's Mental Integrity: 90% → 88%>

Words work too. Rael grinned, and since he didn't want to leave the offense, he tried something a little different.

Instead of focusing on Beatrice, he imagined all the flowers in the garden wilting. Despite her best efforts to counter it, the inner part of the garden wilted, and it just so happened to be the most beautiful.

<Mental Integrity: 69% → 60%>

<Beatrice, The Spider Monarch's Mental Integrity: 88% → 77%>

"This is not how you play the game, Rael Sutekh," Beatrice said coldly.

Rael scoffed. "I'm playing it how I want. On a side note, you're just angry you can't see my past, right? Not much to go off of if my mind is a blank slate."

<Beatrice, The Spider Monarch's Mental Integrity: 77% → 76%>

"I admit." Beatrice raised her hands. "I might be at a small disadvantage, but I have centuries of experience, and what do you have? Experience in small negotiations? Pfft... Don't make me laugh."

"Unlike you, I don't exactly give a shit about that," Rael replied with a shrug as he began walking toward the gazebo.

Beatrice frowned and summoned a horde of spiders, which began crawling up his leg.

However, without even batting an eye, Rael imagined a layer of spider-killing repellent surrounding him.

And surprisingly, he came out on top in this exchange.

<Mental Integrity: 60% → 58%>

<Beatrice, The Spider Monarch's Mental Integrity: 76% → 72%>

"You're using such ordinary methods. I'm really surprised you somehow manage to toy with prey when this is all you can do." Rael chuckled and finally reached the gazebo.

He gently slid the door open and sat down, then made a pot of boiling tea appear, which he swiftly poured into two cups.

<Mental Integrity: 58% → 53%>

"Take a seat, just imagine you're at home," Rael said with a warm smile.

Beatrice was speechless. Still, she proceeded into the gazebo, then closed the door behind her.

"Just what are you playing at?" Beatrice grumbled as she sat down and picked up a cup of tea before swiftly chugging it.

However, halfway through chugging, her eyes widened and she attempted to spit everything out.

But the damage was already done.

<Beatrice, The Spider Monarch's Mental Integrity: 72% → 62%>

"This is fun," Rael muttered as he took a single sip and stared straight into her gem-like blue eyes. "It's funny how you flaunt your experience when all you've done is feast on people who couldn't even defend themselves."

<Beatrice, The Spider Monarch's Mental Integrity: 62% → 61%>

"Do you seriously think that is all?" Beatrice shot back. "I've had losing battles before, but do you want to know how I won?"

"By being annoying?"

<Beatrice, The Spider Monarch's Mental Integrity: 61% → 60%>

"No." Beatrice glared at him. "By being patient. I'm not a human, so the passage of time feels different for me. And want to know something funny? Time in the mind realm works differently. A year inside is less than a second on the outside."

"So you want to drag this out until my mind collapses... how fun." Rael grumbled.

<Mental Integrity: 53% → 52%>

He wasn't keen on staying here for longer than a week, let alone years.

However, just as Rael leaned back, his hand caught onto something. There were letters etched on the bottom of the table.

Rael brushed his fingers through them, trying to figure out what words were carved out.

It seemed like Beatrice caught wind of that, as she flinched and suddenly dematerialized the table, causing their teacups to fall to the ground and shatter.

<Beatrice, The Spider Monarch's Mental Integrity: 60% → 57%>

However, Rael merely stared at his fingertips for a few moments and then looked straight into Beatrice's shaky eyes.

"Who's Evelyn?"

She froze, her breathing halting.

However, the pop-up that appeared made a wide grin appear on his face.

<Beatrice, The Spider Monarch's Mental Integrity: 57% → 37%>

Bingo.