《My Reincarnation as a Chicken》
Chapter 1 Shouldnt Have Played Hooky
?I took a tiny scoop of my cherry voured ice cream as I read a manga on my phone. I received a message from Ken Miyamura ¨C My Friend, asking me if I would being to school, to which I obviously replied with a no. Surprisingly he told me that''d he''de to where I was.
I was surprised that he felt like ying hooky today. He said he would being along with someone, so I expected it to be Manyuda Manabu, but boy did he surprise me. He came with Maya instead, which sort of put me in a weird spot. I had confessed to her earlier on, but she refused me and ever since I hadn''t been able to talk to her or any girls for that matter. Except maybe Akane-chan.
Ken told me that she forced him to let here with, and threatened to expose us if he didn''t. Of course, I''m certain she was joking, but Ken tended to fall for such tricks easily.
"Hey, don''t you think it''s a bit weird?" She asked, sucking on her banana strawberry milkshake
"Huh? What is?" Ken asked, seemingly uninterested in what she had to say.
"How the ss was oddly empty the whole time we were there."
"Eh? The ss was empty?" I asked
"Ah¡ that''s right you don''t attend sses anymore."
No need to rub it in!
"Yeah, weirdly no one was in the ss. That''s why we decided to leave."
"But if you guys stayed, the teachers might have told you to just go home or?"
"Yeah right, as if Kushieda-Sensei would let us go that easily."
"We had math this morning?"
"Yep."
"Ok, now I''m d I stopped going for sses."
"This ice cream... It''s too nd." Maya stated something that had entirely nothing to do with the conversation.
"Really? I couldn''t tell." I told her, taking another spoon.
"That''s because you don''t have taste Kira." Ken teased
"And you do?"
"Of course I do. Unlike your shut-in NEET ass."
"Speaking of which, why is a NEET out here? I figured you''d be holed up in your room doing something weird." I felt my heart split in two at her question.
"Hmm? Maya-san, it hurts when you call me a NEET. Just call me by name. If you like you can also call me Kira like the useless asshole does." I pointed at Ken with my finger while paying little attention to him.
"Naaah, I think I''ll stick with NEET." Shepletely rejected my offer for friendship. Did I really offend her that much? Then again, being one of the ss'' four queens she sure has an image to keep up, I guess. "Don''t you guys think stuff has been boring recently?"
"I suppose. Why do you ask?" I nced at Ken. The entire time, he hadn''t even tried to talk to Maya once. I knew he didn''t like her, but the clear hostility in the air was sort of annoying.
"I don''t know. I''ve just been really bored offte." A new light entered her eyes as if she just had an idea. "Hey Akira-kun. Wanna y a game?" Both she and Ken asked at the same time, giving me goosebumps.
"S-sure." I gulped. I expected them to argue about this, but they simply continued in perfect harmony, as if it was nned.
"If you were to die, how would you want to go out?"
''Wait! Akira-kun? Did she just refer to me by my actual name? I shall treasure this moment! But now is not the time. y it cool Kira! Also¡ The hell!?''
I choked on my ice cream after hearing that question. I beat my chest for a few seconds then coughed a bit.
"What kind of question is that?!" I asked, mming my hands down on the table, which attracted a lot of unnecessary attention. Various eyes were fixed on our table and I could hear murmurs starting to brew.
''Look away! Mind your own business!'' I wanted to scream, but I couldn''t. I never ever would be able to. I just sat back down and loosened my cor.
"Come on Akira-kun. Answer the question." They said again.
"That''s a weird question to ask." Looking at the people again, I noticed that they were turning around, back to their meals.
"Answer the question Akira-kun." They ordered with this weirdly cute tone and hungry eyes. Seeing that on Ken made me cringe. I had seen a lot of weird stuff and this was turning out to be a horror-flick.
"Alright, alright. I''ll answer the question. Just stop speaking in sync. It''s weird." Both of them sat back, staring intently at me, as if my answer would solve all their problems.
"If I were to answer, I guess I''d want to go out with a bang"
BANG!
I was petrified. I couldn''t move as soon as I saw the bullet rushing for us. When and where was the bulleting from? My eyes traced behind the bullet and focus on a man in ck, hiding his face and holding a pistol.
Ok, we''ve found where, but why? Was he trying to rob the store? If so, why did he shoot at us? The way things look Ken is in trouble.
I should have tried to push Ken out of the way, but¡ I couldn''t. I felt that if Ken was in front of me and received the bullet I''d be just safe. It wasn''t necessary to try to y the hero here, right? Maybe I could try to run away instead. Yeah, if I''m lucky I could simply dodge the bullet. It''s not that close to me.
Let me just¡ huh?
I thought the bullet was a ways away, but when I realised, it was a mere millimetre away from my forehead. Just as the bullet hit my forehead, I saw the perp. Maya had shoved Ken out of the way, but that had given the bullet the perfect chance toe for me.
Ah¡ I see. I''m sorry for being such a cowardly friend Ken. If there is a next life I-
The bullet connected with my head while I was trying to make a beautiful internal monologue.
Damned bullet!
My eyes went back to the shooter once again. This time I realised that he was just ck, with starry lights all over him like he were a private universe. He had eyes that shone hotter than the sun. It was probably my imagination. Being on the brink of death had me seeing things.
I could feel arms grabbing me and a soft giggle. They were pulling me back, saying things in a weirdnguage, leaving me confused. I closed my eyes, sumbing to my cruel fate that was death. Maybe the angels hade to take me to heaven. Though I was fairly certain I''d be going down.
Chapter 2 Im... A Chicken?!
Day 1
''Ow¡ my head hurts like hell! I didn''t imagine getting shot would be so damned painful. Damn, now I guess I''m going to die.''
¡
''¡ huh? It doesn''t hurt anymore? What happened? Last thing I remember I was at the ice cream parlor with Ken and Maya. Yeah, some random dude just came in there and started shooting. Ah. That''s right! I got shot, didn''t I? Well that was anti-climactic. I always said I wanted to go out with a bang, I didn''t mean it literally though.''
It was a bit dark and cramped. I could see faint outlines of a person walking by. I seemed to be in some sort of curtain, which meant I probably wasn''t dead. Just in some hospital. If I moved, maybe they would see me ande cater for me. With that n set, I began to shift.
''Super ufortable in here. Let me stretch out a bit.''
My body felt heavy and weak. I was tired, but I wanted to leave this case as soon as possible. I felt like I was suspended in something. I know I wasn''t breathing through my nose, so how was I ok? My stomach. I could feel air entering my body through my stomach. That was weird wasn''t it? Still not the problem here. I couldn''t move. The only part that could move was my neck, so I used my head to hit the case.
I kept on hitting the case surrounding me with this weird mask on my face. It was almost like a dog muzzle.
As I pushed for hours non-stop, I could hear something cracking, and apanied by those cracking noises, a bright light invaded the case, nearly blinding me. Still, I pushed through and finally broke free from the darkness.
Sess had never been so blinding before. S¨¡ s¨¡, couldn''t the world have weed me in a nicer way? My eyes hurt like hell,pelling me to shut them and blink rapidly. I fell out of my case onto the cold floor, my body wet and heavy.
[Reincarnation Process¡ Sessful]
[Congrattions. Target haspleted hidden quest: Birth of the Golden Chick]
[To congratte Target, some higher beings have decided to gift Target]
I could hear a weird automatic voice resonating in my head, so I decided to open my eyes, even though my ear drums were pinging. I felt a bit dizzy so I simply shook my head and blinked a few more times. In front of me were screens with weird things written on them.
''What? A screen? What''s happening right now? Re¡in¡carnation¡ pro¡cess¡ sessful? What is this?''
[Target has been blessed with unique skill [Evolver]]
[The Ancient Goddess **** has blessed Target]
[Target has been blessed with the unique skill [God''s Voice]]
[Target has been given the unique skill [Analyst]]
At this point, my brain was trying to process a lot of things at a go, which should have led to me breaking to be honest. There was the mysterious screen in front of me and the weird voice in my head spewingplete crap. I could actually deal with those, I guess. Then there was my eyes. They were on the sides of my face, allowing me to see everything around me. I was horrified no need say.
I could see wet yellow feathers with orange scaly feet. I tried to move my legs, but the scaly feet moved instead. Not wanting to believe what I saw, I tried moving my wet, heavy, weak arm, which resulted in the wing moving.
''Huh?! No. What''s going on? Why am I hearing a voice in my head? What are these weird screens? Why are my eyes on the sides of my face? Why do I have wings and scaly feet?''
As I was thinking, trying to cope with what was happening, a massive shadow loomed over me. I looked up and was met by crimson red eyes. It wasn''t a beast though. They belonged to a cute girl.
''S¨¡ s¨¡, this is wack! Why am I looking at two massive red eyes? Why am I so small? Why the hell am I chicken!?''
Several questions began to flood my head. Staring into those massive eyes, my reflection bounced off almost like they were mirrors. I could see my yellowish roundish figure, along with my orange beak, red beady eyes and a dull red cowlick on my head. It was more of an antenna though.
I was starting to hyperventte, my heart rate quickening and my breathing turning haggard. I let outrge breaths and suffered to get in more. My chest was hurting really bad and I was feeling dizzy. I had never had an asthma attack before. Was this how it felt? Maybe it wasn''t, maybe it was. I couldn''t care less. All I knew was that I was in pain.
Out of nowhere, a wave of calm hit me like this powerful gust of wind. I could feel my mind returning to normal and my breathing was stabilizing. I was able to organize my thoughts after.
''Holy shit! So first things first, I did die. But then, I''ve read of something called reincarnation, where you can be reborn as an animal or a person in your next life. So my next life was a chicken, huh? So disappointing. I want to cry right now!''
I fell on my butt and let out a heavy sigh.
''Still¡ the voice in my head. What is it? Some sort of sub conscience? Wait¡ can a sub conscience be active while I''m conscious? No¡ it sounds too automatic. Then what the hell-''
While I was thinking, a feminine voice came from the person bearing the two beautiful crimson red eyes. The owner of the voice was a girl who didn''t look much older than fifteen. She had silver white hair which flowed wildly down to her mid back. She was looking in a different direction, making me look there as well. I saw the silhouette of a huge figure approaching us alongside this feeling that made me want to just run away.
A Stoic voice responded to her call in a weird way. This drew my attention to arge man in a whiteb coat. He was a massive man that easily stood six foot five, with broad shoulders and dark skin. The man was bare chested, wearing only shorts and sandals. He was bald and wore sses, with a nasty w scar over his right eye. As he came more into the light, he looked more like a Mexican wrestler than a scientist in my honest opinion.
''Did he fight a lion or something?! And what''s with this feeling of powerlessness he gives off? I feel like I''m going to get squashed just being in the same room with him.''
"Da ghuo ikril des itde."
The girl said, pointing her finger at me. At this point I was convince they were speaking gibberish.
''What? What the hell kind ofnguage is that?''
She then begun poking my chest. It was really ticklish and I couldn''t help butugh. She had a serene smile has she looked at me. I could feel the man''s gaze on me and I dared to leer back. I instantly regretted. His lifeless leafy green eyes were observing me with an expressionless face and I gulped. They seemed to glow faintly at me.
[Due the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the ability [Fear Resistance]]
''Eh? What just happened?''
"Ki? Ser? Vers way."
The massive man walked over to where I and the girl were. He crouched, then looked at me. He then put his hand to his chin, observing me like he had been doing. Now that I looked at him, he had grey hair growing on his face, like he had shaved.
[Would you like to use [Analyst] on the target]
A screen showed up in front of me.
''[Analyst]? What Is that?''
<>
''Eh? I-Is that so? So I basically got ''Appraisal'' as my cheat skill in this world, huh? Also who said that?''
<>
''S-sure.''
<>
''Agents of the Ancient Goddess wa- ra- ka ¨C ah whatever! What are these agents?''
<>
''¡ I see. I''m guessing this goddess must be some super powerful being, huh? In that case that must mean that you are an agent.''
<>
''I see. So you are also one of my cheat skills then. Like apanion in this weird world. In that case, activate the unique skill [Analyst].''
The screen disappeared and then it was reced with a more massive screen.
[Name: Sotomura Senku
[Species: Human
[ss: -
[Status: Tired
[Age: 54 years
[Blessings: [-
[Titles: [-
[Level: -
[Health: - Stamina: - Mana: - Strength: - Speed: - Defense: - Dexterity: - Intelligence: 2150 Luck: -
[Skills: -
Suddenly, the screen closed on me and a new one appeared, almost giving me a heart attack.
[The skill [Analyst] has been blocked]
''W-What the hell!? T-this old man¡ how can you even block my cheat skill?''
I looked at him and he was ring at me. He had this confused look on his face as he looked at me.
"Jukyl ryolu kan."
A new voice entered, and the old man''s eyes shifted towards its source, his head still facing me. I didn''t move because I had this feeling that if I shifted even a single centimeter I would die. The new voice continued talking and the old man responded. The two kept on talking for a while and the girl would jump in sometimes, until the old man sighed.
"Hmm¡ Fer Descisnr, gawr huk val ytio."
His expression seemed a bit¡ saddened. I could tell that he wasn''t saying something that would make either the girl or I happy.
"Der yit? Guk si rek ti meh sers vish tuk."
I was beginning to get a headache following their conversation.
Shut the hell up, is what I wanted to say, but chirps escaped my mouth.
The man stood up and looked at the girl.
"Si, vi gow vro ne des. Kue ahm nema gaba dor vi.", he began walking to where he originally came from, "Sor vem falor fi Carnire dae ru dev on. Du vron vi sae tak Carnire Scylus."
"Carnire qua ruv duk som men?"
She came over to me and started poking my belly. I wanted her to cut it out. But s, I could only chirp. The man came back, holding a purple container. The man opened up the container, and inside was a tiny ck lizard, about my size. With... Wings?
''S¨¡ s¨¡! Since when did Lizards have wings?''
The girl tilted her head, as if she were thinking. The man set the container on the floor and lifted the ck lizard in his palms while stroking its back. He then brought it to her face.
The girl grabbed me in her palms then lifted me up. As she lifted me up, I got a good view of the ce. I was in aboratory of sorts. The whole ce was colored white, with several monitors and shelves. On the shelves there were eggs of different colors and designs, sitting on nests. And next to those eggs were tags of sorts. I couldn''t read whatever the hell was written on them.
The man sighed again. He looked very exhausted. The girl pouted, showing her displeasure. She said something which made the man sigh, as if he had just admitted defeat. The girl grinned at the man then took the freak of nature next to me. She then looked at both of us with curious eyes.
"Seruti gerh mans du." She said. "Vi sheck du hior¡ Hinotori. Ne, Tori-chan ged hursh!"
''Ah¡ well, I''m totally confused. Here I was thinkingtin made no sense. Wait¡ is thistin?''
"Dis du, Vi el du Karma!"
The baby dragon to my side let out a yawn, and I, a sigh. It would seem that I had reincarnated as a chicken in some sort of weirdboratory, possibly in another world with weird people all around.
Chapter 3 Analyst
The girl walked out through a metal door that led to a cave. It was apletely different view from theboratory. On either sides of the cave were lit torches. Not the modern kind of torches. No. I''m talking about sticks lit with fire.
The ck dragon ran up her arms and rested on shoulder, leaving me on one of her palms. The girl then grabbed one of the torches, and she began walking through the cave. This led me to think to myself for a bit.
''Was it some sort of secretboratory? Maybe I was some kind of secret project in the works. Yeah, right. Why give a secret project to a little girl? As if anyone is that dumb.''
As we walked through the cave we came to a massive area. There was arge undergroundke with a hole in the ceiling which was letting in the moonlight. Theke was reflecting the moonlight, causing it to glow with a beautiful blue hue and shimmer like a gem. It was a very beautiful ce but the most stunning feature was the massive crystal that was directly underneath the ceiling hole, right in the middle of theke.
The crystal absorbed the moonlight and then dispersed it like a star, illuminating and bathing the cave in serene lunar light. The girl dropped the torch, and as soon as it made contact with the ground, the mes were extinguished.
''Weird.''
She then proceeded to move towards theke.
''Is she going for a swim? Ou, maybe this is my chance to get a sneak peek at a naked girl''s body.''
I waited for her to remove her kimono, but she didn''t. She just kept on walking towards the water body. Maybe she preferred to swim with her Kimono on. Surprisingly enough, her feet didn''t touch the water. I looked at the water and it didn''t even ripple as she walked over it. It was like she was walking over an invisible tform. What was going on?
<>
''[Air tes]? Skill? Ok, now everything is starting to sound like an RPG. Please exin what you mean by skill.''
<>
''Huh? I''m guessing regr skills are what a person or race is born with?''
<>
''In that case learnt skills mean they can be learnt from other means. Unique skills are blessings from higher beings. Now it''s left with these two. Advanced and Ultimate skills. What are those?"
<>
''I see. So it''s basically a rank up for skills.''
<>
''Can''t say I expected more for it. Wait¡ you mentioned some other unique skill earlier right? Evolve or something like that.''
<< [Unique skill]: Evolver>>
''Yeah! That. What does it do?''
<>
''Woah. The unique skill [Evolver] sounds good. I wonder which higher being thought to give me something like that. Ah well, I guess I''ll just wreak a tiny bit of havoc once I be powerful enough like every other Isekai protagonist. Ok. Now that I think about it, this is starting to sound like some clich¨¦ Isekai anime. But, why the heck am I chicken. This is the worst of the worst. I did get unique skills. But still, what the heck?!''
<>
''Status panel? Like a video game?''
<>
''Um... Ok''
Suddenly, a clear screen popped up in front of me. It had my information like a character status screen.
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori
[Species: Golden Chick Level 1/15
[Status: -
[Age: 30 minutes
[Rank: F
[Titles: [New-born in a New World], [Rare Species]
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess *****|
[Level: 1 Exp: 0/20
[Health: 20/20 Stamina: 25 Strength: 5 Speed: 40 Defence: 7 Dexterity: 6 Intelligence: 10 Luck: 40
[Skills: [Evolver], [Analyst], [God''s voice], [Adorable Wink], [Imprint], [Baby Chick Cry], [Fear Resistance]
''It''s just like a video game. I guess poultry is too low for even Rank E, huh. Wait, how''s my name Hinotori now?''
<>
''A being stronger than me? So Hinotori is now my name forever?''
<>
''A being stronger than me, huh? Like this girl?''
I looked at the girl once again. She had pale skin with cute red lips. Her white hair was tied into a bun, with two bangs reaching right down to her sufficiently sized chest. She wore a kimono with fire patterns all over it, as well as a silver bracelet on her left arm. I just realized that she looked sort of Asian, like a half-cast.
<>
''Interesting. And what''s with the blessings? I get that I have unique skills because of my blessing from the ancient goddess, but what''s with that [UNKNOWN] blessing?''
<>
''Oh. Ok. Which exins why I have been blessed by three higher beings. So I''m guessing I got my [God''s voice] skill from the Ancient goddess'' blessings.''
<>
''Then what about [Analyst] and [Evolver]?''
<<¡>>
I let out a depressed sigh when the agent didn''t respond.
''Oh? Anyway, let''s test out this [Analyst] Skill again. Hopefully I don''t get blocked like thest time.''
I looked at her with the intention of using the unique skill [Analyst]. Apparently it''s as easy as wishing to use it, because I saw a status panel for her too.
STATUS
[Name: Shiro Tatsumaki
[Species: Human
[ss: Summoner Lvl 10
[Status: Excited
[Age: 14 years
[Rank: C+
[Race rank: Tier 3
[Titles: [Magic Prodigy], [Heir of the Tatsumaki n], [Summoner], [Troubled Child], [Loved by fairies], [Loved by Spirits], [Spawn of Cursed Blood]
[Blessings: [Ancestor spirits'' Blessings], [The fairy god of Light''s blessing], [The god of Fire''s blessing], [The fairy god of wind''s blessings], [The Fallen Dragon God Fafnir''s blessings], [Ascension Dragon''s blessing], [The fairy god of Water''s blessings]
[Level: 45 Exp: 3/789,034
[Health: 2,720/2,720 Stamina: 459/700 Mana: 990/1020 Strength: 340 Speed: 560 Defense: 220 Dexterity: 410 Intelligence: 1,995 Luck: 430 Magic: 560
[Skills: -
''Oi! Oi! What''s with the number of blessings she''s got?! Isn''t there supposed to be like only one blessing? Also, her titles are so weird and those numbers she has for her stats. Scary~''
I looked at her face once again and that confident grin of hers was now starting to give me chills. If those numbers meant what I was thinking that meant this girl was a very scary existence. And the title [Magic Prodigy] alone was reaffirming that for me.
<>
''Huh? Hero Candidate? What''s that?''
<< Hero Candidates are beings that possess the ability to be heroes. To be a Hero Candidate one must first receive the blessings of several high ranking beings>>
''Oh. So this girl could be a [Hero]? Cool.''
That started to put my heart at rest. Hopefully she wasn''t a horrible [Hero]. I wanted to check out more, but then I realized that I couldn''t see her skills.
''Hey, Agent. Where''s her skill menu? Didn''t you say [Analyst] can see all information about my target?''
<>
My mind went back to the man from before and I got a chill. That observant gaze of his still burnt brightly in my head. That feel of death. I could feel my heart about to pop from hyperventtion, but then a wave of calm hit me and I let out a sigh.
''Let''s not get as much attention asst time, eh?''
<<....>>
There was no response, so I would take it as an ''OK''. Then I changed my gaze to the ck dragon who was resting on her shoulder. It seemed Karma had no interest in me as it spared no more than a second to look at me.
STATUS
[Name: Karma
[Species: ck Dragon Baby
[Status: Bored
[Age: 5 days
[Rank: E-
[Race Rank: Tier 0
[Title: -
[Blessings: [Dragon god''s blessings]
[Level: 1 Exp: 0/50
[Health: 100/100 Mana: 70/70 Strength: 15 Speed: 100 Defense: 50 Dexterity: 45 Intelligence: 240 Luck: 240
[Skills: [Baby dragon squeal], [Baby dragon breath], [Baby dragon w attack]
Chapter 4 Evolver
''I''m guessing Shiro named her already. Why doesn''t she have any unique skills though? She was blessed by the [Fallen Dragon God] as well.''
<>
''For real? And a simple baby chick like me got 3 unique skills? I''m starting to feel like something bad is going to happen down the line.''
The girl, Shiro said something.
I looked at her face and his had a bluish shade over it. That''s when I realized that the entire time I had been checking our status panels, we had reached the giant jewel. She looked at me then at Karma. There was a very adorable smile on her face. Like she was unsure of something or nervous.
She stretched out her hand to touch the gem. I looked at it and [Analyst] activated.
''Looks like it works on objects too.''
[Item name]: Gemstone of the Ancients
[Item rank]: Legendary
[Description]: A gemstone left by a tribe of Ancients.
[Effect: 1. Power Scanning
2. Contract Formation
3. Law Amendment
4. It kills anyone with |Of World| title
[Value]: 400,000 gold pieces.
''Oi, oi. This isn''t something I''m supposed to be seeing so early on in my adventures. This is too scary. What is that |Of World| title effect 4 talks off?''
A screen popped up to answer me.
[|Of World|: A title given to those born of the [World]]
''Eh? D-Does that mean those whoe from this world?''
<>
''D-Doesn''t that mean it''s basically a useless piece of rock for someone from this world? Wait! Shiro no! Don''t touch it!''
I tried to warn the girl by jumping on her palm, but it didn''t work. She wasn''t listening to me and her palm was literally inches away from the rock. There was nothing I could do for her and I wasn''t going to stress myself over it. I didn''t really know her either way. She ced her hand on the rock.
"Oi! Oi. Do you want to die!?"
I tried screaming, but as expected, only chirps came out.
The Gemstone glowed a brilliant blue light, and we were consumed by the light. It was so bright I had to close my eyes and even then I could see through my shut eye lids. After it calmed down I opened my eyes and there was a status panel in front of me.
ALERT
Shiro Tatsumaki is requesting a soul bond with you. Will you ept?
[YES] / [NO]
''Soul bond? With me? She wants to get married? Huh? What''s happening?!''
I looked around, confused. I thought she would have died by making contact with the rock, but she didn''t. In fact, she looked like nothing had happened at all. Was [Analyst] wrong then?
I heard a weird squeak, so I looked up, only to see Karma ring at me. I didn''t know what she was trying to say so I looked back at the screen in front of me.
<>
''Refuse a chance to get married to a hotty? No way. I mean what could go wrong?''
Ignoring the agent, I epted it and the screen disappeared. I looked around for a bit and nothing happened.
''You see, nothing bad happened and I can hear the wedding bells already. Mister Hinotori and Mrs. Shiro. That has a nice ring to it.''
Suddenly, another status screen popped up.
[ALERT]
[You have epted the soul bond request from Shiro Tatsumaki. Congrattions. You are now her ve]
''Huh!? ve? What''s that supposed to mean.''
<>
''Wait! For real!? I just got here and now I''m a ve!?''
[ALERT]
[You have received new titles and have joined Shiro''s familia]
''Huh?
I immediately opened my status panel and was shocked at the same time horrified and brought to tears.
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori
[Species: Golden Chick Level 1/15
[Status: -
[Age: 30 minutes
[Rank: F
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Titles: [Newborn in a New World], [Rare Species], [Familiar], [Familiar of the Tatsumaki Heiress]
[Blessings: Ancient goddess'' blessings
[Level: 1 Exp: 0/20
[Health: 20/20 Stamina: 25 Strength: 5 Speed: 40 Defense: 7 Dexterity: 6 Intelligence: 10 Luck: 40
[Skills: [Evolver], [Analyst], [God''s voice] [Adorable Wink], [Imprint], [Baby Chick Cry]
[Familia: Captain: Tora
Grunts: Kame, Karma, Hinotori
''What the hell am I seeing!? Don''t people who usually get reincarnated in another world just set out to be an overpowered freak there? But I''m a ve? Why me?!''
I screamed in a rage.
''You are too loud.''
I heard a raspy female voice say which made me think that I was starting to hear one too many voices in my head. And I was starting to get the feeling that it wasn''t normal to have two in a person''s head.
''Huh? Who said that?''
I asked, hopefully it wouldn''t be another super powerful being trapped in my head.
''I''m on the master''s shoulder.''
The voice said.
''The master''s shoulder?'' I instinctively looked towards the girl''s shoulder where Karma rested. The ck dragon was looking down at me with its royal gaze, as if watching a noble watching a pitiful peon. That sort of ticked me off.
''Were you the voice I heard?'' I asked
''I suppose so. Unless there is another?''
I jumped up in shock.
''You can talk!?''
Karma stuck her tongue out like how a lizard would then looked away.
<>
God''s agent exined the situation to me in the most unsettling of ways. I didn''t like the fact that all our thoughts were being shared between ourselves. I didn''t like anyone knowing what I thought to myself.
''Oh. So that''s how it is.''
As I was thinking to myself, I could feel eyes looking at me. It felt so awkward I stopped all movement and faced the huge crimson red eyes. I gulped as I stared at those beautiful eyes that seemed to swallow me whole.
''W-what is it?''
I forced the words out of my beak. This time, I knew that she could understand me because of the soul bond.
"Hinotori-chan. Can you understand me?"
She asked with a nervous smile on her face. I didn''t understand why she was nervous though. I was the guy who was now a frail chick.
''Y-yes?''
Her pupils dted instantly, then she jumped in the air, forgetting that I stood on her palm. I was flung into the air and was headed for theke. All I could hear was, "Yes! Yes! Yes! I managed to get another familiar! And it''s a cute one too!"
While she was yelling that, I was also screaming for help.
''Aaaaagggghhhhh!!!!!''
Suddenly, this wave of calmness spread over me. It was just like before, when I was hyperventting. That thing was starting to get annoying. It was almost like it wouldn''t allow me to lose control of my emotions for a weird reason.
''What is that?''
<>
It would seem that [Evolver] makes me unable to get excited. That''s good because it enables me to think rationally at times like this. But it''s in times like this that I don''t want to think rationally because if I wasn''t able to think it through, I wouldn''t have known that my chances of survival were practically zero.
I looked at theke then I looked at the girl who was still jumping. She hadn''t realized that I was about to fall into the water.
''She isn''t falling into the water, huh? Yo, agent. Didn''t you say something about her using a skill to do that?''
<>
''Can you exin it to me? How it works I mean. Quickly!''
<< [Air te] is amon magic spell that requires intense concentration to keep up for long periods of time>>
God''s agent confirmed my suspicions. It was magic, which meant
''Does that mean I can also do the same?''
<>
''What the hell do you mean by not as of yet!? I''m about to die!''
<>
''Eh!? What the hell!? You''re telling me that I can''t use magic else I''ll die!? What kind of shitty body is this?''
<>
''Ok, then what about the skill [Evolver]. It allows to me livefortably right? So if I channel mana right now, it''ll let me avoid death, right?''
<>
''Eeeeeehhh!!!??? Too dangerous! Too dangerous!! What am I going to do now? Will I just fall into theke and die? Again!?''
As soon as I thought that, I submerged into theke. I could feel the water rushing into all avable holes on my body. With all my strength I tried to swim up but I couldn''t. The water was too dense and I had the body a newly hatched chick. I was doomed to die unless Shiro decided to save me.
As the water rushed into my ear holes, I couldn''t think straight. I wanted to swim up, but my body was too heavy. I couldn''t move it again. The more I cried for a help, the more water that entered my body. Soon, I gave up and begun to sink, slowly giving into the deep cold. Strangely though, it felt nice. Like I was being weed.
''So I am going to die again? On the very day I reincarnated? That''s shitty. Heh, maybe in my next life I''ll be a badass powerhouse. Hopefully as something more than a chicken. A slime seems fun.''
As I began giving up on life, I heard God''s agent mumble some annoying stuff.
Chapter 5 What Must Be Done
<>
Suddenly, I could breathe. I began coughing as I had been deprived of oxygen for some time. And I realized I had stopped drowning. In fact I was floating towards the surface.
''W-what happened?''
<>
''Amphibious? [Evolver], huh? That''s one pretty useful skill. I am so happy I had that skill on me. If not, I''m sure I would have died.''
<>
''Could you refrain from calling her my master? I refuse to ept being a ve.''
I requested. I did not like the idea of being a ve to some body. I did not like my current situation at all.
I instinctively knew how to swim now, so I swam around in theke for a while. It was pretty cool how I managed to go against the water with little resistance. I was enjoying myself to the extent that I forgot about those 2 above the water.
"Tori-chan!! Are you ok?"
I could hear Shiro-san''s voice. No, I could feel her voice ringing loudly in my head. I could get a serious headache if this happens every day now. Looks like she was using the soul bond to check up on me, then I had an idea.
''Hey, God''s agent. What would happen if I pretend to have died?''
<>
It answered like that. I was disappointed but shrugged it off. For now I just had to respond to her. Then another problem came up. How was I supposed to tell her I was busily swimming in theke as if I were a fish, even though I was simply a chick?
''Hinotori, I can feel you in theke. I don''t know what''s happening but I''ve sent Kame to help you,
''Kame? Who is Kame?''
Just as I asked that question, a shadow loomed over me. I looked up and saw a massive turtle swimming in my way. It had ck skin with jagged rocks for its shell. Its golden eyes stared intently at me. I was guessing that was Kame.
The turtle came over to me and yfully hit me with its head. I wanted toin, but I was starting to feel dizzy. I could hear a weird ringing sound in my head and the whole world was turning dim.
''What? What is happening to me?''
<>
The only thing I heard him say was "rest".
''Yeah, I think I''ll just sleep for a while.''
***
Kame swam up towards the surface and carried the little chick on its back towards the dry ground. It dropped the little bird immediately and looked at it in silence for a bit. It was confused as to what this creature was. It had been taking a nap in its cave when the human it contracted with had called it. It didn''t expect for such a reason.
It heard the girling closer then it looked at her.
''A new member, huh? Interesting. Looks like she will have her wish fulfilled then.''
He said this because the creature somewhat resembled a bird, although it swam in water.
***
Shiro ran to her little familiar that had copsed before her very eyes. It was different now. Instead of yellow feathers, it now had beautiful blue scales covering its body, with fins on its sides instead of wings, alongside webbed feet. It even had gills on its neck.
She would''ve mistaken it for an Elwedristsche. Those creatures looked very simr to Hinotori''s current form, except they had antlers and the new-borns were easily 3 times Hinotori''s current size.
Another reason why she knew it was him was because of the soul bond they now shared. Although it was now more like a ve contract. She hadn''t noticed it at the moment, since it was her first time attempting such a thing.
? She looked at its copsed form with pity in her eyes, then crouched to the ground. She then picked it up with both of her palms and tried to use healing magic.
"[Sacred Arts: Hand of light]"
She casted the light magic on him. The small familiar then began to glow with a bright light as her magic began to work. This was amon spell which could heal open wounds and cure status effects. Unfortunately, it did not have the ability to recover a person''s energy, so it was pointless.
Realizing that it was having no effect, she decided to stop. She noticed that it was just sleeping. If so, then there was no need for her to do anything. She just needed to carry it back home. First, she needed to ask about why its form had changed. It was an unprecedented development that it would transform as soon as it entered theke.
She hade to the conclusion that it was some sort of passive skill that it possessed.
Suddenly, the chick''s scales started to morph back into golden feathers, and it soon regained its original form, which further confirmed her suspicions.
''It has a unique skill'', she thought
This made her very excited. Not just any creature could acquire a unique skill. Only those blessed by the gods were given this opportunity, which was why she didn''t want to use the mana converter to acquire a familiar. Those familiars weren''t actually alive ording to Sotomura''s exnation. They were like machines that could only listen to the will of their master without objection. Such a creature was too boring to acquire the attention of the gods. The only reason why Karma had any sort of blessing was due to the fact that the mana of the Tatsumaki n was blessed by the Dragon god.
Even with all these reasons her mother wouldn''t understand no matter what. If it wasn''t a dragon or a species from the converter, she wouldn''t let Shiro keep it. She was hell-bent on keeping up with her scientific exploration, using Shiro as an experiment.
Kame rubbed its head on her shin when she sighed. She patted it on the head and let it disappear to wherever it came from.
"Thanks."
"Ojou-san, the n head summons you." A cold voice came through the shadows. Shiro gulped and was frozen solid. Not because of the presence that manifested itself directly from the shadows, but because of what it said.
''T-the n Head? Mother? W-What could she possibly want with me?''
Suzuki Tatsumaki. The ruthless head of the Tatsumaki n. A vicious, strategic genius and chief priestess of the Dragon God Fafnir.
Shiro turned around quickly, hiding Hinotori behind her, shaking a little bit.
The owner of the voice was a manpletely dressed in ck robes. He knelt on one knee. This man, known as Kai, was Shiro''s personal bodyguard. He usuallypletely erased his presence and moved around through the shadows, always monitoring her without interfering unless he believed she absolutely needed it.
Kai was a young man with midnight ck hair tied into a ponytail that reached his waist. He wore a face mask, concealing most of his facial features and his eyes were closed as he faced down. He looked to be in his mid-twenties.
"I believe you already know."
He opened his eyes and stared right at her. His eyes glowed a violent purple in the cave and she felt like he was looking right at her soul. Sometimes she felt that he could read her mind, especially after he says things like that. Still, she wanted to continue feigning ignorance.
"I-I have no idea what you are implying."
"That familiar you got without your mother''s permission. It won''t be like the other times where she ignored."
She had forgotten that he was always watching her so he knew exactly what she was doing when she was doing it. He had been monitoring her every action and had been showing a video feed to her mother through the use of magic.
The current head of the Tatsumaki n was angry at the scene of Shiro choosing the chick even though there was a dragon avable.
"Can''t we forget about it this one time?"
She pleaded, but Kai was a by-the-rules, no-nonsense character. He wouldn''t listen to her no matter what. So he closed the distance between the two of them with the blink of an eye and used the skill [Shadow Travel], to send both of them away.
-----------------------------------------------------------
For a moment, Shiro could only see ck and couldn''t breathe. Then suddenly she was thrown out of the darkness and back into light. She instantly knew that Kai had used [Shadow Travel] to get them both out of the [Cave of Ancients]. As for where they were now, she had a fairly good guess.
She was in a dimly lit room, with orbs of blue mes floating around, making vision very difficult. In front of her was a closed sliding door, showing the silhouette of a woman smoking. The woman''s eyes shone a bright red through the door as she looked at the new expected guest.
Shiro promptly stood up and dusted herself.
"H-hello, mother."
"Is that how to greet the n head?" the one sitting behind the door asked and puffed out a bit of smoke, her voice elegant and powerful.
"S-sorry n head!" The girl immediately bowed down, a cold sweat ran down her face.
"Sit." Shiro sat in a traditional Japanese style and faced the silhouette. Ever since she had been born she had never seen the face of her mother. As the family head and the shrine priestess she was always too busy to leave this shrine ¨C at least that is what Shiro told herself. If she left, it would be for thepulsory "Elder ns Summit", where the 4 other great ns would meet. Even then, she would leave in a pnquin, so Shiro could never see her face.
"First, I would like to congratte you on getting your familiar. Could you introduce it to me?" she asked and Shiro beamed with joy. If she could just exin the fact that Hinotori possessed a unique skill to her mother, surely she would have to reconsider.
"Its name is Hinotori-chan, and it''s got-"
"That''s a strange name to give to a dragon." The n head interrupted. Shiro began to feel ufortable.
"Uh... what? Hinotori-chan is a chick." She said.
"Chick? There are no chicks present in this room. Get serious."
That was when Shiro realized that Hinotori hadn''t appeared with her. She searched around and couldn''t spot it out. She also couldn''t sense the bird''s presence in the premises. Due to her soul bond she knew it wasn''t remotely close to them.
Then it hit her. Her mother wouldn''t allow for a chick to be her familiar. Professor Sotomura had warned her about it, but she thought at most her mother would just ignore its presence. Kai had already taken Hinotori away with his [Shadow Travel] skill.
Just then, she felt a sharp strike in her soul. It was almost as if someone were ripping her soul apart and it was unbearable. She instantly understood that her soul bond with Hinotori was being cut off. Which meant that Hinotori was dying.
"W-what?"
Her vision became blurry and she could hear ringing in her ears. Her heartbeat felt faster and she felt really dizzy, swooning from side to side.
"What''s happening?"
She asked, absolutely confused.
"What must be done."
The n head responded as she took a smoke. Her voice was a calm andposed as it always was.
"W-WHAT DID YOU DO!!!"
She screamed with bloodshot eyes and bulging veins. The pain sent her into a state of cardiac arrest, instantly knocking her out. Last thing she remembered were those crimson red eyes glowing brightly as they looked down on her.
***
The man emerged from the shadows of a thick tree in front of ake. It was midnight and the full moon shone brightly. He could hear a timber wolf howl in a distance, but that didn''t faze him in the slightest. C rank monsters such as timber wolves were nothing to him.
In his hand he held an unconscious Hinotori and he walked to a riverside. He went on his knees and lifted the bird up with reverence and respect. He begun to look at it with a gaze of awe and excitement.
"Oh yes! After so long. We have recovered the [Divine]!", he screamed happily. "Oh paragons! We need wait no longer. We don''t need the empire or the Elder ns anymore. We can proceed."
"Are you retarded? Shouting in a ce like this."
Another voice sounded from behind Kai. He tilted his head back to get a look at the person. Once he identified the person, he cleared his throats then looked back at the chick.
"Sorry for my outburst. It''s just that¡ the [Divine]. After so long. The elders will be happy now."
The new member grinned, then got closer to Kai. He got a closer look at the chick and had an ecstatic look on his face. His leafy green eyes glowed with a faint light of excitement.
"Glorious. We must hurry and inform the others, although I would want to have it a bit more to myself. How greedy of me."
His expression then turned into one of disgust and confusion.
"What the hell is this?" he asked in a low voice.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I mean the pathetic soul that is joined to the [Divine]''s. It is interrupting the glorious disy."
Kai then remembered exactly what happened earlier on.
"The Tatsumaki girl. She forged a Master-servant contract with it."
"WHAT?! She dare?! The Tatsumaki n have gone too far with their insults. I will go cut her down, right now." The paragon flew into a rage.
"Rx, oh Cardinal. I have an idea." Kai begged and the paragon looked at him with a curious re.
"Hmm?"
The young assassin began to recite some words. His hands and eyes glowed dark purple and threeplex magic circles appeared above the chick.
"[Forbidden Arts: Degenerate]"
Cardinal watched on with intrigue at his action. He immediately understood what Kai was attempting to do. [Degenerate] was a magic spell that allowed a person to breakdown a magic spell to its very fundamental roots. It was an extremely difficult spell to learn, that most people never were able to learn especially since it meant reading the practically innumerable threads that went into a spell and tearing them apart piece by piece in mere seconds. And what Kai was attempting was even more difficult.
"I see. I will be preparing a teleport gate then."
He said, walking behind Kai. He begun the spell for the teleport gate. Kai would have been too exhausted to [Shadow Travel] by the time he was done, so Cardinal took it upon himself to carry both of them back.
He stretched out his hands to begin. A white magic circle, 5m round opened up, but then the circle broke apart.
''Hmmm? Did I make a mistake in the circle formation? Let me try again.''
He tried again, and it didn''t work. As a skilled veteran, he immediately recognized this as the work of [Spatial magic] user. Obviously he had considered the possibility of Kai being the source, so he nced at him, but the young man was still busy with his spell. Which left his first suspicion. Someone else had intentionally trapped him here, still he couldn''t sense a presence.
His ears perked up when he heard some soundsing from the bushes, then a white sh that came faster than he could react, cutting a gaping hole in his chest. Confused, he looked down when the warm blood begun to escape his body. Then he heard nking sounds.
He looked up again and saw someone in ck armor approaching.
"Hey. I was taking a nap over there when that blonde guy over there came. I found it a bit odd that there was a human here, but decided to ignore it. Strangely enough another human appeared. I couldn''t allow you to tarnish this ce''s image any further. This forest used to bepletely anti-human. I guess this forest isn''t what it used to be, huh? Then again, nothing is what it used to be some centuries back."
Chapter 6 Weird Forest Pt.I
Day 4
[Due to the unique skill Evolver, you have acquired the skill [Aquatic Form]]
[Due to the unique skill Evolver, you have acquired the skill [Heat Resistance]]
My eyes snapped open, allowing light to blind me. I blinked several times, before groaning, pain washing over me like I was just beaten by thugs. Or at least how I''d expect that to feel like. All body parts ached and I could barely move. My face felt weird being on the hard smooth surface which made my neck hurt.
I decided to stand up. At first, I tried using my arms, but then I realized that I had wings for arms now, whichplicated things a bit. I used my head to force myself up and sat down on my bum.
My eyes took in the whole view. I was on a river bank, crystal clear water flowing behind me. In front of me, huge trees stood mightily, piercing the sky¡ or at least to me they were. I wasn''t really big. I could hear the river gushing mightily and some insects making sounds as well as trees swaying, but other than that, it was eerily silent.
The weirdest part about this whole scenario was the dead stinky fish to my side. It had mossy green scales all around it. Its eyes were nk and its mouth was wide open with no teeth. It carried a stench that made me nauseous.
A screen popped up in front of my eye when I saw it, reminding me of one very important fact. I wasn''t on earth anymore.
[Name: []]
[Species: Rainbow Raid Splurt]
[Status: Dead]
[A creature that lives in powerful rivers that flow through Larm. They are known for their beautiful rainbow coloured scales that lure in its prey and possible predators to its nest and consumes them]
''Eh¡ um. S¨¡ s¨¡. I didn''t need to see that!''
I thought. I would have to admit that the skill [Analyst] seemed very useful, but I really didn''t want to see that. It just confirmed all the more that I wasn''t just dreaming. I let out a depressed sigh. Out of boredom and hunger, I decided to check my status.
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori
[Species: Golden Chick Level 1/15
[Status: Hungry
[Age: 3 days
[Rank: F
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Titles: [Newborn in a New World], [Rare Species], [Survivor]
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess ****|
[Level: 1 Exp: 0/20
[Health: 10/20 Stamina: 15/25 Strength: 5 Speed: 40 Defense: 7 Dexterity: 6 Intelligence: 10 Luck: 40
[Skills: [Evolver], [Analyst], [God''s voice] [Adorable Wink], [Imprint], [Baby Chick Cry], [Aquatic Form], [Fear Resistance], [Heat Resistance]
''Eh?! My health is very low and my status says hungry. My stamina keeps dropping too.'' I noticed making my poor heart beat faster.
When I looked at my other stats though, I was a bit stunned. I still couldn''t believe that 2 higher beings decided to bless me though. I didn''t know whether to be grateful or bothered. Then there was my level. I was still level 1. That made sense though, considering I hadn''t gotten any experience points yet. That new title too. I was wondering how I acquired it.
<Ttitle description: You haven''t been fed for 3 days straight and you didn''t drown in the river. Keep it up!>
I was rmed for a bit, then sighed. This wasn''t fair in the slightest. What did I do to have to be reincarnated, huh? I was just living my life, not being a bother to anyone other than my parents¡ probably. I looked at my status again, then I saw my species name again. |Golden Chick| sounded rare or special.
''Maybe it''s some kind of super rare monster that gets overpowered and brokenter. Or maybe some kind of pre-evolution of a phoenix in this world. Phoenix, huh? That sounds nice.''
I then got day dreams of me as a phoenix, flying through the air and shooting fireballs as I pleased. All round people would sing praises of the Phoenix called Akira¡ Hinotori now.
<Species: Golden Chick>
<One of the best delicacies in the world. A very rare species that is extinct in most of the world. Not much is known about them>
¡
''What the hell? I didn''t sign up for this! I demand a refund! A reLife! Get me back home! I''m just poultry? Nothing special about me?! Damn it! I want to go back! Send me back!'' I demanded, but I got nothing back, but a wave of calm rush over me. I took in a deep breath then sat down again.
My stomach growled lightly then I looked at my status.
<Status: Hungry>
<Effect: The target is hungry. This will lead to the eventual loss of stamina then of health points, then death if not treated>
''Eh¡ eh?! Death?! Again? No, but¡ what do I eat?''
My stomach grumbled again and my stamina went down by 1. My eyended on the dead fish which wreaked of well¡ death.
''¡ No¡ no way.''<novelnext></novelnext>
I looked away, the scent repelling me. My stomach grumbled, louder than before and I started to feel dizzy. My eye fell on the fish again, meeting its eye. It seemed to say ''Come on. You know you want to.'' , so I looked away again. However, after another grumble or two I found myself next to it. I didn''t know how to eat it for two major reasons.
1. I was now a bird and I could one hundred percent say that I had never eaten like one in my entire life.
2. Wasn''t I supposed to peel off the scales before I ate it?
''Ah well, nothing to do about it.''
I just pecked at the fish''s scales and found myself going deep into it easily. I raised my head, only to see myself covered in some green goo.
Sucking up the urge to vomit, I decided to tear the meat of the fish and swallow it.
''Bad! Bad! Bad! Horrible! Disgusting! Repulsive! Painful! It hurts!''
I spat it back out almost as quickly as I swallowed it. The ground where itnded begun to sizzle and bubble as the meat burned right through it.
My throat was on fire as a vile green gas left my beak.
[You have been poisoned]
[Your Health Points will go down by 1 every second]
''Eh?! Eh?! N-no way! Wait¡ what happens if my health goes all the way down to zero? Do I restart from some check point?''
<<0 health is the equivalent of death>>
The agent so readily responded. I took a big gulp even though my tongue was steaming. My heart started to race again. Time seemed to slow to a halt as questions flooded my head. Was I really going to die again? Just like that? So easily? What would happen if I died? Would I just reincarnate again? Was there a third chance? So many questions with just as many answers.
I didn''t know what to do. I felt like my mind was going to blow up from the amount of strenuous thinking I had been doing since I woke up. Then there it was again. That wave of calm from [Evolver], allowing me to focus on the new screen in front of me.
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have started to develop a resistance to the poison]
[You have unlocked the skill [Poison Resistance]]
[The poison''s effects have been weakened]
[You will now lose 1 Health point after 2 seconds]
''Eh? What? I-Isn''t that totally a cheat?! I get that having a unique skill is a cheat and all, but¡ Hmmm, mayb-''
[You have lost 1 Health point]
A new screen popped up in front of me, rming me. I looked at the dead fish again. It was starting to melt slowly. It was my only current source of food at the moment. If I didn''t eat it now, I didn''t know when another source woulde and that would mean death. I didn''t want to die.
I gulped once again and walked towards the fish. It was twice my size, I didn''t need to eat it all before my stamina would go back to full.
I pecked at it once again, ignoring the putrid scent and weird texture which switched from extremely soft to hard, to gummy to watery. I tore and swallowed through the painful burning sensation. As I ate, my health kept on going down, but my resistance fought hard, until I gainedplete resistance to it and was cured. I managed to eat it and raise my stamina to 25.
I fell on my butt and let out a deep sigh. To eat a single dead fish, I lost 4 health points.
''What kind of trash world is this? I miss my burgers and fries please! I''ll never curse the spicy Chen chips again! I swear! Just take me back home¡ please¡ whoever is out there listening.''
Before I knew it, I found myself in tears. I hated this life and world. Not even aplete day in and I wanted out. This wasn''t the way to wee an Isekai protagonist. Where were the super cute girls and all the magical powers?
''Wasn''t I supposed to have been born to some average poor folk then bless them with my powers and hope? This world is trash.''
While I was crying, I heard a loud hissing sound that made me jump around.
Slithering towards me with its white scales and big slender body was a huge snake. It had yellow eyes, white fangs and a ck forked tongue. I began to walk back as the snake continued stalking me.
[Name: []
[Species: White Viper Level 8/20
[Status: Hungry
[Rank: E
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Age: 20 days
[Title: |Of World|, |Survivor|, |Poison Maker|, |Heartless|
[Blessings: -
[Level: 8
[Skills: [White Viper Hiss], [Seismic Sense], [Taste Test], [Night Vision], [Poison Fang], [Poison Creation], [Hard Scales], [Poison Resistance]
[Health: 190/190 Strength: 50 Stamina: 200/300 Speed: 48 Defense: 54 Dexterity: 50 Intelligence: 40 Luck: 30
Chapter 7 Weird Forest Pt.II
The white viper had way better stats than I did and it was a level 8, whereas I was a level 1. I get that we had the same number of skills, but why were its more attack prone and mine¡ adaptability-prone? Were those the right terms? Ah whatever.
Its stamina and health point were far above mine. Running now would be suicide and attempting to fight back would also be suicide. I had no options left. I was going die again and this time, there was no way to avoid it. I wanted to run. What else could I do? I had done my best, right?
Just as I thought I was done for, salvation came to me in the form of a horrid screech. Both the snake and I looked up as a shadow loomed over us. A single ck feather fell slowly towards us andnded right in front of me. A shadowy figure slowly descended, pping its massive powerful wings like an angel from above, here to save me. I used [Analyst] to see who this kind soul was.
[Name: []
[Species: ck Wayne Level 10/15
[Status: [Tired], [Hungry], [Weak], [Poisoned], [Confused]
[Rank: E
[Race Rank: T 1
[Age: 5 months
[Titles: |Of World|, |Abandoned|, |Survivor|, |Nest Thief|, |Vulture|
[Blessings: -
[Level: 10
[Health: 50/230 Stamina: 30/370 Mana: - Strength: 60(72) Speed: 70(76) Defense: 52(70) Dexterity: 65(73) Intelligence: 2150 Luck: 41
[Skills: [ck Wayne Caw], [Night Vision], [Peck], [Razor Talons], [Flight], [Auto Mapping], [Terror], [Lightning Resistance]
Its stats were all weird. Why had it lost so much health and stamina? Its level was pretty high though. It also had no blessings, but its titles¡ I was sort of intrigued. It had the same number of skills as both the viper and I, but its stats were on a whole other league.
''Why are some of the numbers in brackets though? Does that mean it is losing stats? Is that even possible?''
<<Affirmative>>
The ck wayne pounced on the viper, saving me from death. The white snake hissed at the bird as it wriggled away. The two creatures then started staring each other down, the snake hissing and the wayne cawing. Both of them asserting their dominance over each other. It was starting to feel like something I would see on the Wildlife Channel.
The ck wayne pped its wings violently, probably as a way to scare off the snake, but it didn''t work. The snake jabbed at the wayne with its powerful tail, forcing the wayne to jump up. The impact from the tail hitting the ground where the wayne once stood sent a few of the pebbles flying in my direction.<novelnext></novelnext>
''Sa sa! Why do they look like boulders?!''
I jumped back to avoid one that almost crushed me. It cked when itnded, but there was no time for me to take a breather. I had to jump to avoid another one. I kept on doing this until the pebbles were done and I was huffing for air. My stamina had gone down by 4 and that made my heart skip a beat.
My eye caught hold of the white fangsing for my head at an insane speed, so I tried jumping out of the way, but I wasn''t going to make it. Yet again, for the hundredth time this day in this very same area, I was about to die. That didn''t lessen the horrid creeping feeling of death wing at my heart.
With a loud pping sound and feathers flying all about, sharp polished talons grabbed the viper by the neck, yanking it away from me. ck Wayne-kun was back. He grabbed the snake, yanking it away before I managed tond on the hard pebbles in a pathetic way. Soon, all I could hear was the struggle of two predators fighting. Bird versus snake. Who woulde out on top? That much was obvious.
I managed to get a glimpse of the fight as I stood back on my two legs slowly. The snake struggled in the ck wayne''s talons, twisting, hissing and snapping violently. It bit at the wayne several times, until it got one bite in. This seemed to enrage it however, as it begun to peck the viper violently. In addition to its talons that were already deep into its body. The fight soon turned into a bloody one, staining the ground on which they fought and scarring my eyes permanently.
Their bodies fused as the two beings shed in a bloody mess. During this, a question came to mind.
Was this my fate? Was I going to be a savage beast that fought in bloody battles to get simple food? I didn''t want this. I did not want this kind of life. Reading manga and watching Isekai anime had me thinking that this was going to be epic with a few bumps along the way. It wasn''t. Those manga artistes and authors had no idea what they were writing about.
Thinking back on it, they must have known, because some of the characters are never happy. They cried a lot and carried some severe trauma throughout the entire story. They were usually my favorite kind of characters because they were the most human. They really suffered a lot.
THUD!
Interrupting my thought process, the ck wayne dropped the viper on the ground, then stood next to it. It shook its feathers violently as it towered over the motionless snake like a champion. I was filled to the brim with so much joy and happiness that I started jumping about.
''Yeah! That''s one for the avians and zero for snakes! Take that you stupid snake! You hear that? Never mess with birds! We stand at the top of the food chain! Woohoo! Isn''t that right, ck Wayne-kun? ck Wayne-kun?''
I looked at my big ck feathered friend who was still huffing. I saw a ton of blood where it stood, apanied by the bloody mess that was the snake. Its gutsid sprawled out on the ground.
Something felt off though. The Wayne slowly craned its neck at me, giving me a good view of its bloodied face and practically broken beak, littered with scars. My eye met its eye, which seemed to be in a lot of pain.
''ck Wayne-kun? What''s wrong?''
[Analyst] activated, leaving me a bit stunned. The ck wayne-kun now had 15 health points remaining and his stamina was now 10. It had two new status effects, those being [Weak Paralysis] and [Strong Poison]. The only good thing it got was probably its new [Poison Resistance] and I was certain that it wouldn''t be enough for a status effect like [Strong Poison].
My eyes then trailed back down to the white viper and with [Analyst] activated, I was left with my beak trembling. Then I saw the snake twitch. Its status showed [Weak] instead of the much more desired [Dead], which meant I was screwed.
The snake''s head raised up and it red at me, sending shivers down my spine. It still had 30 health points and 40 stamina.
''Sa sa! This isn''t fair!''
Chapter 8 Whatever It Takes To Survive
The viperpletely ignored ck Wayne-kun and was slowly making its way towards me. Its white scales were dirtied with blood and several cuts, but that didn''t seem to bother it much. I myself begun to take a few steps back, treading lightly and watching for any sudden movements from the snake.
This kept up till I could feel water under my feet. I looked back for a split second and all I could see was a shallow water that became less and less shallow. The snake was getting closer by the second.
''What do I do? Agent?''
<
>
''Oh gee, what a smart idea. Wish I had thought that up! Useless agent. First you don''t stop the whole soul bond thing and then you can''t evene up with a proper solution for me? Hmm, I should have a skill that could help for a moment like this, right?''
I quickly scrolled through my skill list and stumbled upon two things. First being, that I needed to learn to shut my beak. As unfortunate as it may sound, it turned out that by screaming, I was literally sending an invite to an ''All-You-Can-eat-Tori-Buffet'' for predators of my species, which I was guessing was practically every species. That was most likely the reason why ck Wayne-kun was ever here in the first ce. It was all due to my skill [Baby Chick Cry] which attracted predators.
Next was that my only chance of survival was [Adorable Wink].
''While others are using stupidly broken magical powers and cheat skills to survive, I''m using the power of cuteness! Go me! Go!''
I activated the skill, making an excessively dramatic before winking at the viper. It stopped in its tracks, just staring at me and sticking out its tongue from time to time.
''Um¡ Evil Snake-kun are you still going to try to kill me?''
I asked, waving my wings around to get a response. I slowly stalked it, kicking a pebble next to it to see a reaction. I got none. I then checked its status and was happy to see [Stunned] there. I was even more happy to see [Severe Bleeding] there as I ran past it. I saw that it had no more than 15 health points.
While running, I saw its guts trailing behind it in a puddle of blood. I also saw the ck Wayne-kun still paralysed, looking at me with what I assumed to be begging eyes. Unfortunately for it, I wasn''t going to fall for it.
''Yeah! That''s what you get for lying to me! You can''t juste here in an attempt to eat me and think I''ll help you bastard! Now you''ll die¡ y-yeah¡ you''ll die¡ Ha.''
I ran into the bushes at full speed, although it probably wasn''t very fast. While running, I noticed that my eyes were welling up. That shouldn''t have been possible. Chickens couldn''t cry, could they? I stopped in my tracks when a single tear drop ran down my cheek. I looked up at the massive tree leaves.
''Sa sa! Abandon the stupid bird, Akira! Just do it!''
I forced myself to abandon it, looking forward, but I couldn''t. I clicked my tongue then looked back where I came from. I had just about enough stamina to get back to where I came from. Well, that was just an assumption based on how much stamina had been used up to get here.
''Agent. Can I get back there with the amount of stamina I currently have?''
<<Affirmative>>
''Ugh, you better thank me for this, ck Wayne-kun!''
I ran back. I ran like hell, jumping to avoid all the stupidly huge tree roots, rocks and grass. My stamina went down faster than I expected. I had a theory that it was because I was still a few days old. Then a question entered my head.
''Wait¡ how didn''t I die from the cold and hunger?''
I asked, but before I could get an answer from the agent, I appeared at the river bank, where I saw the snake wrapping itself around ck Wayne-kun. The big ck bird struggled through its captivity even as the snake continued to dig in.
''ck Wayne-kun! I''m here for you!''
I jumped at the viper without a second thought and pecked at its exposed guts. The snake let go of the bird, hissing in immense pain.
''Yeah! That''s what you get! Let go my savior you stupid viper! Oh! No! Sorry! Please don''t eat me!''
I quickly switched my thoughts as the snakes fangs inched closer to me. I retracted my head to dodge the iing attack, but my beak was stuck in the snake''s guts. I tried pushing back even harder because I really didn''t want fangs crushing my skull. With all my might, I ended up pushing back with the guts.
There was a huge spray of blood and my face felt warm and burnt. I was beginning to feel dizzy and nauseous as well. The snake bit itself, spraying me with that gory torrent of blood. Not wanting to be the next source of blood, I struggled to free myself. It wasn''t working.
The wriggling viper iled me about. It seemed to be stuck in its own body. I realised that it used me as some sort of cushion while it jumped about. As I hit the ground, pain surged through my body has my health decreased by 3. My entire body ached and I felt stupidly weak. That was when I realized what Evil Snake-kun was doing. Looking at his stats, there was no survival now for it. Even if it did survive, ck Wayne-kun would have probably been there to kill it.
My eye met it''s and it seemed to say ''We go down together, food!''
This was a suicide attack. It wanted to at least drag me down with it.
''Sa sa! No way! No! No! That''s against the rules for the first Isekai monster! I won''t die here! Not again!''
I put my legs on the intestine forcing to jump off. Every time wended on the ground, I would make sure to avoid touching it through whatever means possible. Evil Snake-kun too seemed to be very interested in making sure I died so he started turning more.
''Sa sa! I have only one choice now! I have to sacrifice my beak!''
That was the only thing that came to mind at that point. I didn''t know what was in the white viper''s guts that made it this sticky, but it didn''t matter now. I needed to break my beak.
I scratched at it mercilessly and fiercely, giving my all into it. I ended up scratching my own face, the pain searing through, but that didn''t matter now. I just needed to survive this. Whatever happened after was not important. If I died, it meant I was destined to die.
''Re. Move. You. Stupid. Beak! Sa sa! Hurry! L-Let go! Plea-''
DING!
[You have received 200 exp]
[You have gone up 4 levels]
Two screens appeared in front of me and my body went poof, my feathers flying all about and Inded on my butt. I blinked several times, trying toprehend what had just happened, but then I poofed again. Being pushed some distance back. This happened two more times before I was left in a daze.
I blinked several times, trying to understand what had just happened and the screens popping up in front of me.
[All your base stats have increased]
[You have acquired the skill [Peck]]
''W-wait¡ I leveled up? Then that must mean¡''
I looked up and saw the horrid sight of the dead viper with its fangs still in its guts.
<Name: []
<Species: White Viper
<Status: Dead
<Otherwise known as the White Epox, the white vipers are a low rank species that roam all around Larm and are known for the poisonous adhesive that they make>
''D-dead. It''s dead! Yeah! That''s right! Kira for the win! Wait¡ guess it''s Tori now, huh. Still that''s a weird nickname¡ also, poisonous adhesive? So that''s why I was stuck in it. I guess that makes sense. Did the viper forget? That means its intestines were its poison bag.''
<<Negative. The poison bag is located in the head region. The adhesive organ also known as the Epoxy Sac is located next to its intestines and liver>>
''Oh¡ I see. Wasn''t really asking for a biology ss though.''
GRRR
My stomach grumbled and I let out a nervousugh, remembering that I just took down a major threat to myugh. Whileughing, a shadow loomed over. I knew it was ck Wayne-kun because of my bird vision. He looked at me weirdly, almost as if his paralysis was gone.
Using [Analyst] I confirmed that his paralysis was actually gone and that he still had 5 health points left.
''ck Wayne-kun you aren''t paralysed anymore! That''s great to hear! Woohoo! Tori for the win! Let''s celebrate with some snake meat! Ow!''
I yelped when it pecked my head and lost 5 health points.
''Oi! That hurt you know? Ow! Ow! Stop that you bird bra- Ow!''
I lost 15 health points from its vicious attacks and I tried to rub my head with my feathers.
''W-why are you doing this?'' I asked, looking angrily at the bird. It was ring at me. No. More like it was looking at me with this primal instinctive gaze. This sort of¡ hunger. ''Cock!''
It hopped closer to me when I hopped back from it. I then sucked in air, my chest getting heavy. Breathing became harder and I felt weird. Unfortunate and alone. I knew this feeling all too well. I was sad. Why was I sad? I knew this would happen, yet I was so sad. I was so sad, I was angry. I was angry at this world. I was angry at my horrible Isekai experience. Wasn''t one horrible opponent enough for the day? Why did I get to deal with two of them? What kind of dumb message was the world sending to me? That I needed to suffer? Was this my hell?
I stumbled back when a sudden realization hit me.
''¡ I see how it is now. You aren''t my friend.''<novelnext></novelnext>
From my very first experience in this world. It''s been trying to tell me one thing. At this point, I was getting the feeling that no one could ever be trusted in this world. I was probably always going to be alone.
I jumped back again and the bird tried to peck me. It ended up hitting the ground. It lifted its head up and cawed at me again. It was now left with 3 health points alone.
''Just die already you stupid bird!''
I failed to understand how it hadn''t even died already with all its negative status effects. Still I had one n in mind. I jumped back again and it pecked yet again, only this time it couldn''t move. It was stuck in the white viper''s epox.
''Now die!''
I used the new skill [Peck] on it and my beak glowed with a faint yellow aura as it stabbed right through the ck Wayne''s neck.
[You have killed a ck Wayne]
[You have received 560 exp]
[You have gone up 4 levels]
[All your base stats have risen]
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori
[Species: Golden Chick Level 9/15
[Status: [Hungry], [Tired]
[Age: 4 days
[Rank: F
[Race Rank: Tier 0
[Titles: [New-born in a New World], [Rare Species], [Survivor]
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess *****|
[Level: 9 Exp: 20/450
[Health: 50/50 Stamina: 20/60 Strength: 15 Speed: 60 Defence: 20 Dexterity: 30 Intelligence: 10 Luck: 40
[Skills: [Evolver], [Analyst], [God''s voice], [Adorable Wink], [Imprint], [Baby Chick Cry], [Fear Resistance], [Aquatic Form], [Heat Resistance], [Poison Resistance], [Peck]
My stomach grumbled again, so I walked towards the dead bird.
''Thanks for saving me earlier ck Wayne-kun, but for trying to eat me, I shall eat you! You die by the way you live!''
I pecked at it and tore through its stinky feathers and flesh. It tasted hard and tough, so I assumed that it had been through a lot since it was born. Surprisingly, I got another message from the system.
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired the skill [ck Wayne Caw]]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired the skill [Auto Mapping]]
<<An effect of the unique skill [Evolver]. It allows you to take on the skills of consumed creatures>>
''Eh? Eh? That''s a cheat in so many ways¡ ah whatever, this is weed.''
I looked at the dead snake, then pounced on it, eating it from the head to its mouth.
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired the skill [Poison Generation]]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired the skill [White Viper Scales]]
I let out a sigh. I got up and looked up. It was starting to get dark and I felt like staying out in the open wasn''t such a great idea. I wasn''t up for exploration, but I guess finding a hideout wasn''t a bad idea so I had to go.
***
After a few minutes of walking and eating bugs and grass, I finally found a rabbit stumbling towards somewhere. It was going with a limp. I found out that eating would restore my stamina by a certain amount, but that decreased with every time I had eaten till the point where eating did nothing for my stamina.
As I walked, I started hearing a weird sound from the bushes and I was on high alert.
''Oh no! Not again!''
A rabbit with jet ck fur walked out of the bushes and was staring at me with its azure blue eyes. The weird part about this rabbit was the protrusions on its head. Two arranged from the top to the bottom in order of size, both onyx.
[Name: []
[Species: Horned Rabbit Level 8/20
[Status: [Tired], [Hungry], [Severe Bleeding]
[Age: 29 days
[Rank: F
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Titles: -
[Blessings: -
[Level: 8 Exp: 20/70
[Health: 5/30 Stamina: 10/40 Strength: 7 Speed: 80 Defense: 10 Dexterity: 40 Intelligence: 5 Luck: 140
[Skills: [Heat Vision], [w Attack], [Sprint], [Libido]
The rabbit looked away, then started crawling away towards a certain direction. I was confused as to why it was crawling, but then, I noticed that it didn''t have two hind legs, and was instead dragging its bloody legless body towards wherever it was headed.
''Well, that exins the [Severe Bleeding] status.''
I decided to just wait back and see where it went. It didn''t get very far before falling down and its status changing to [Dead].
I went towards it, then decided to take a bite out of it, just for skills.
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the skill [Sprint]]
That was it. I just acquired one skill only from it, leaving me a bit disappointed, but then I got a theory about [Evolver]''s skill acquisition function.
''What if it only gives me skills specific to the body parts I eat? That would exin why I didn''t get any form of adhesive skill from the white viper earlier.''
Something glinted some distance away, so I tried to get a good look at it and at the base of a tree, I saw a hole. Curiously, I walked towards it and saw a fang over there. I peered in and noticed that there was no life inside, then looked back at the dead bunny.
''I''m guessing this was your home. Don''t worry, I''ll take good care of it!''
I entered the nest and looked around. .There wasn''t much in here other than some horned rabbit poop and hair. This ce smelt bad, but strangely, it felt nice andfortable. Then I felt a familiar presence in the ce. A shady figure appeared as my eyes kept on drowsing off.
''Mom?''
I passed out from exhaustion.
Chapter 9 Larm Forest
Day 5
HISSS
Hearing a hissing noise, I jumped out of my sleep, both literally and figuratively. A huge white viper was standing out in front of me, sticking its tongue out from time to time.
''Um¡ rude much?'' I slowly walked back, simply ring at the snake. I tried to assert my dominance, which in my personal opinion was a very dumb move.
The snake snapped at me and I jumped out of the way, allowing it to hit the wall behind me. The whole ce shook lightly and snake hissed in pain. I tried to run for the exit, but its tail came for me, sending me flying back.
Its mouth was already open in wait for my arrival. Did this snake think that I was going to be its breakfast? If yes, it was insane.
''[Adorable Wink]!''
I winked my hardest and the snake''s mouth shut and it blinked several times, shaking its head. I hit its head and fell back on my back. For a second, I wanted to stay there for a while, but I remembered the massive snake in front of me and jumped up, trying to get out.
I was close to the exit, when I had a thought. I looked back at the snake and saw it still shaking its head, stunned. Its status also showed [Stunned] there, meaning it wouldn''t be able to do anything for a while. Also, it was weaker than the white viper from the day before in terms of stats.
''What if I killed it? I''ll be able to level up, right? And leveling up means I''ll get stronger, right? Strong enough to the point I won''t have to fight these things, right?''
I stopped in my tracks and red at the snake again. It was still stunned. I would have gone for its guts, but I didn''t want to identally get to its epox sac again, so I needed to finish this on the head.
Still, I doubted that even with my increase in stats I would have been able to do it, then I remembered getting something called stat points the day before.
''Agent, you got any idea what stat points are for?''
<<Information on the target. Stat Points. Not found in database>>
''Huh? Not found in database? I thought you knew everything about this world!''
<<Affirmative>>
''So tell me about the stat points!''
<<Error! Error! The target: Stat Points not found in database. Broadening search¡ Target not found>>
''W-what is this? So weird. Sa sa! That means I''ll just have to try my luck then.''
After stressing myself, a screen popped up in front of me.
[Stat points are used for increasing your base stats, depending on your preference]
''Eh? Wait¡ what''s this?''
"HIIISSSSSSS."
Before I could get any time to think to myself, the snake regained its consciousness.
''I guess that means I''ll leave this forter. All stat points into strength!''
I poured all the 6 stat points I had been given into my strength, raising it to 21, then ran at the viper. It snarled and I used [Adorable Wink] again, stunning it. Luckily it wasn''t so intelligent, so it didn''t think to prepare a counter for this.
I jumped up, using my new 21 strength stat, I got real high and came down to drop. I activated [Peck] as I hit its head, but I simply bounced off, after causing some damage. The viper started waving its head in pain, squirming about like a worm.
A fountain of blood emerged from its head and the snake red at me.
''Tch, that wasn''t enough. I need my attack to be more powerful, but I can''t just get a power boost out of nowhere. Wait¡ its scales are the problem right? What''s this skill? ¡ [White Viper Scales].''
Suddenly, instead of feathers, my entire body was encased in white scales, like the viper''s.
''Huh? So that''s how it is, huh? In that case, I''ll use this and [Peck] together to do some damage. My defense has gone up by 5, but I''m guessing a harder surface will carry a harder impact. Alright! Let''s g-''
Out of nowhere, the viper''s tail hit me, throwing me across the room into the wall.
BAM!
[You have lost 4 health points]
''Kuk-''
I fell hard. I realized that for the past day, I had been doing nothing but falling in the most embarrassing of ways. I grunted through the pain and stood up.
[Due the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the skill [Pain Resistance]]<novelnext></novelnext>
''[Pain Resistance]? Nice!''
I looked at the viper again. My nemesis since day 1. It hissed at me and I used [ck Wayne Caw] to show it that I wasn''t going to back down here. Birds versus snakes. The battle that has been raging on for centuries, with birds always winning. Today, I take up the mantle of my avian ancestors and fight.
''I defeated your brother and I''ll defeat you! Wait are all vipers siblings? It doesn''t matter now I guess. Join him in hell! Alright, let''s go! [Sprint] and [Peck]! A Tori original! [Spearhead]!''
I ran at the viper, dodging all its poison shots, then getting underneath its chin. I jumped up and thanks to the momentum, I jumped higher and harder than I expected, easily piercing its skull from the chin and killing it.
[You have killed a White Viper]
[You have received 120 exp]
Inded on the snake''s head with a dramatic pose like the hero after killing the demon lord or at least what I hoped was that. I then walked off the head and looked around. The cave was really empty, so I decided to go out to see what was happening.
Nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Just huge trees and even bigger trees. I looked out and saw the horned rabbit fromst night still there. I was sort of surprised that the snake didn''t swallow it whole. Maybe it had something to do with the spiky horns.
I then went back in and was left thinking to myself.
''This snake¡ how did it find me? Was it because of the rabbit? Either way, I don''t want more of these thingsing up out of nowhere. Let''s see, wait the snake was using its poison generation skill to shoot poison out. Let''s see.''
I tried out [Poison Generation]. My stomach begun to grumble like I had a bad case of diarrhea and then I felt like regurgitating. My mouth felt weird and stung a bit as a weird green substance fell out of my beak and onto the ground.
''Eh? Is this poison? Nice.'' I then looked up, towards the entrance. ''To prevent outsiders from entering or at least weaken them, I''ll use some of this poison to coat the entrance. The scent alone should probably repel some of them.''
With that said, I went to work, covering the entrance in poison. Then I looked inside the hole. It was filthy and was in dire need of a cleanup. I would need to remove the fur and poop from the ground and curl up the snake in such a way that it didn''t take up too much space. It was food forter. I wouldn''t be able to eat it all.
***
After some minutes, I managed to get my ce clean and I wrote in front of the hole, Tori''s Domain in Kanji. The snake had been curled up at the far corner of the nest. Not much could be done about the blood stains, but they didn''t really matter much. While cleaning up though, I identally walked on my own poison and it stung a bit, but my [Poison Resistance] seemed to be getting stronger, so I covered the entire floor with poison to build up my resistance and slow down any enemies who entered.
While doing this, a question came to mind.
''Where the heck am I?''
<<Answer. You are currently in Larm Forest>>
''Larm forest?
<<Larm Forest: The biggest forest in the Continent of Krione. A safe haven for all monsters and non-humans>>
''Safe haven, huh? Doesn''t seem like it.''
<<Larm is sought by all for its incredibly rare resources and is feared throughout all human countries for its possession of extremely dangerous and powerful creatures>>
''Possession of extremely dangerous creatures? Ok, now I don''t want to meet any of those if they are way scarier than the snake. Still, how did I get here?''
<<Answer. You were teleported here by an individual>>
''An individual? Do we know who this individual is?''
<<Negative>>
''Sigh, what a bummer. Wait¡ humans pass through this forest? Maybe that means I could catch a ride with one of them and get to a human city.''
<<Alert! Only very powerful and capable humans dare step foot into Larm forest
''Sigh¡ only powerful humans, huh? I don''t expect you to have an estimate of how many powerful people there are currently, do you?''
<<Negative. Such information is not in the database>>
''As expected. In that case, how close am I to the edge of Larm?''
<<Answer. You are currently in the West of Larm. The West of Larm has the least amount of area. You are a few days trip close to the edge>>
''A few days, huh? In that case, I should head out now. But, if I go, I might be killed by something strong. I need somewhere to stay for a while. In that case, I''ll level up a bit more before heading out into the world.''
I sat up and waved my wing.
''Watch out world! A new creature''s in town and it''s going to take you by storm!''
Chapter 10 The Wounded Hob-Goblin Pt.I
Day 6
It was really annoying being in a position where when injured I couldn''t shout otherwise I would just be inviting more monsters that would simplye and rip my head off.
I looked at my blood as it trailed down from my wing onto the ck crooked surface of the horned rabbit before me. This one was different from the one from before. It had both horns on opposite sides of its forehead like some kind of deer.
I wanted to find a way to get out my current situation, when my other friend, another horned rabbit decided to stab my remaining wing. I closed my beak shut and grunted in immense pain.
How the hell had these bunnies entered the nest without getting poisoned?
I looked at their status again and they actually were poisoned. They were just ignoring the pain. After I saw another status effect. [Mind Control].
<<Mind Control: The user is being controlled by another being>>
¡¸So it''s not their fault? Tch, it doesn''t matter! They need to die! ¡¹
I forced myself to go through the horns, cutting my own wings and leading to a lot of blood loss and health points. I used [Poison Generation] to create poison in my beak. It barely stung my tongue like it did the day before. I spat out the poison into the horned bunny''s eye.
The one to my left was blinded for a moment and started to scream in pain, jumping about.
AAAAAAARRRRGGHHHH! ¡TEAR!
In it''s rampage, it ended up pulling so hard that it tore of my wing.
¡¸AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH! ¡¹
I ended up screaming. My first mistake for the day. I knew I shouldn''t have done that, but the pain was just too much for me to keep quiet about it.
[You have lost 5 health points]
[You have been inflicted with [Sever bleeding]]
[You will lose 7 health per second]
[You have lost 7 health]
Several annoying screens appeared before me.
I looked down and saw my blood just leaving my body. Tears rolled down my eyes, but I wasn''t ready to just die because of this pain. I looked at the other horned rabbit then used peck on its horn.
TING!
My beak just bounced off.
[You have lost 7 health]
I covered my beak with [White Viper Scales] then used [Peck] again.
TING! TCH!
¡¸A chip formed! One more time! ¡¹
I attacked again.
CRACK! THUD!
[You have lost 7 health]
I fell down, rolling around in pain. My feathers were bing a bloody mess.
[You have lost 7 health]
¡¸Shut up! You stupid system!¡¹
I forced myself off the ground then looked at the rabbit. I kicked at the ground and ran at it. I used [Sprint], [White Viper Scales] and [Peck] to stab it head on for my Tori original [Spearhead].
CRACK!!!
I shattered its skull instantly, but didn''t stop my assault. I wasn''t done with its partner so I turned around and flew at it, but by the time I got there, it was already dead.
[You killed 1 horned rabbit]
[You killed 1 horned rabbit]
[You have received 30 exp]
[You have received 30 exp]
Those weren''t enough for a level up. What would I do? I only had exactly 7 health points left. Then I got an idea.
I created [White Wiper Scales] to seal off the injured ce, keeping the blood in. I didn''t know if it would work and I didn''t have enough time to ask the agent.
Now that I think about it, how I got here was quite dumb. I woke up this morning to see two horned rabbits sleeping in the cave with me. I thought they were harmless so I tried making friends with them, giving the horned rabbits a pat on the head.
Horned rabbits don''t like head pats.
Also, that skill I got. [Pain Resistance] was so damned useless. I felt every single bit of pain. That was super annoying and I didn''t like it.
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori
[Species: Golden Chick Level 9/15
[Status: [Hungry], [Tired]
[Age: 5 days
[Rank: F<novelnext></novelnext>
[Race Rank: Tier 0
[Titles: [New-born in a New World], [Rare Species], [Survivor]
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess *****|
[Level: 9 Exp: 200/450
[Health: 10/50 Stamina: 30/60 Strength: 15 Speed: 60 Defence: 20 Dexterity: 30 Intelligence: 10 Luck: 40
[Skills: [Evolver], [Analyst], [God''s voice], [Adorable Wink], [Imprint], [Baby Chick Cry], [Fear Resistance], [Aquatic Form], [Heat Resistance], [Poison Resistance], [Peck], [ck Wayne Caw], [Auto Mapping], [Poison Generation], [White Viper Scales], [Sprint], [Pain Resistance], [Spearhead]
¡¸Huh¡ I need to find a way to deal with my health and get it back to full. ¡¹
<<Answer. You might want to eat some Rensoue herbs>>
¡¸Renosue herbs? ¡¹
<<Renosue herbs: A rare herb that can immediately restore the health of any person by half and cure a lot of inflictions>>
¡¸Huh¡ nice! Let''s go searching for some! You know where they grow?¡¹
<<Affirmative. They are mostly found in the West of Larm>>
¡¸Nice! Let''s go! ¡¹
I set out on my journey to find some renosue herbs.
***
It didn''t take long for me to see some monsters running quickly, almost a blur in my sight. They had green skin and were probably some few inches taller than me. They had short pointy ears and nk yellow eyes. They had some animal fur wrapped around their waists and sharp yellow fangs.
''Ou! An encounter with thepletely generic fantasy monster! Goblins!''
There were four of them.
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: Goblin 7/20
[Status: [Hungry], [Fear]
[Age: 40 days
[Gender: Male
[Rank: E-
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Titles: |Of World|
[Blessings: -
[Level: 7
[Health: 30/70 Stamina: 20/200 Strength: 50 Speed: 200 Defense: 45 Intelligence: 10 Magic: 00 Luck: 50
[Skills: [Night Vision], [Libido], [w Attack]
''Ah¡ goblins are pitifully weak.''
I saw a deer, with white hide, and no horns. Its eyes were a crimson red, and its hooves, onyx ck. I used [Analyst] on it.
STATUS
[Name: []
[Species: me Deer 30/50
[Status: [Full]
[Age: 1 year
[Rank: D
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Titles: |Survivor|, |Of World|
[Blessings: -
[Level: 40
[Health: 1800/1900 Stamina: 1200/1400 Strength: 400 Speed: 700 Defense: 270 Intelligence: 10 Luck: 240
[Skills: [Prey Instinct], [Acrobatics], [Fire Shot] [Explosive Sprint], [Mirage], [Throttle], [Fire Force], [Aura Sense], [Stomp], [Herd], [Heat Vision], [Mid - Fire Affinity], [Heat Resistance], [Cold Resistance]
''Eh¡ this could give even Shiro a run for her money.''
One of the goblins jumped the deer, but it kicked it away. Another jumped at its leg and firmly attached itself to it by wrapping its arms around it. It then bit the deer''s leg. Angry, the deer stomped its hind legs into the ground in an attempt to throw it off. The goblin didn''t fly off. The other goblins jumped at it, ws ready to kill it.
me deer was not ready to lose. Its hooves started to turn red and it let out a breath of smoke. It stomped the ground once and suddenly a pir of bright orange mes emerged, sting all the goblins away.
When the mes calmed down it revealed a majestic creature with mes alit on its horns and a veil of beautiful mes just over its back. The goblin that bit its leg fell to the ground, dead and burnt to a crisp.
Chapter 11 The Wounded Hob-Goblin Pt.II
I looked at its stats again.
STATUS
[Name: []
[Species: me Deer 30/50
[Status: [Full]
[Age: 1 year
? [Rank: D
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Titles: |Of World|, |Survivor|, |Stray|
[Blessings: -
[Level: 40
[Health: 1800/1900 Stamina: 1200/1400 Strength: 400(+200) Speed: 700(+350) Defense: 270(+135) Magic: 50 Intelligence: 10 Luck: 240
[Skills: [Prey Instinct], [Acrobatics], [Fire Shot] [Explosive Sprint], [Mirage], [Throttle], [Fire Force], [Aura Sense], [Stomp], [Herd], [Heat Vision], [Mid - Fire Affinity], [Heat Resistance], [Cold Resistance]
''Sa sa! Did its physical stats just increase by half? What the hell did it do?"
<<Activation of the skill [Fire Force]>>
''Fire Force? Ah¡ I see it. Exin the skill please.''
<< [Fire Force]: A skill which allows the user to summon a massive amount of fire power to fuel their bodies and increase their physical prowess by half>>
''I see. So that''s what it''s using here, huh? Isn''t that a bit too much for just a few goblins?''
Just as I thought that, I heard something from the distance, then I noticed something weird. I looked to the distance and saw a ball of water shoot at the deer at high speeds, like a bullet.
The ming deer easily dodged it and the water ball hit a tree. The tree broke in half and the water ball kept on going, breaking more trees behind it and leaving me stunned by the amount of chaos it had caused.
''Oi! What the hell was that?!''
I heard another weird scream and saw the source. It was a person clothed fully in rags. A ck tattered dress with a dirty sash wrapped around the waste. The person wore a cloak over this, which iled behind them, as their hands were stretched forward with a staff in hand. This staff had a certain jewel at one of its end.
The person was mumbling something, then the weirdest thing happened. A circle about the size of a cannonball with weird markings in it appeared before the person.
''Oi, th-that looks like a magic circle¡ T-There''s no way, right?''
<<Answer. That is a magic circle>>
''Eek! Why do I keep forgetting that this is a magical fantasy world?!''
The power from the magic circle was creating a tiny gust of wind that blew the person''s hood off. I was disappointed because the person had green skin, meaning they weren''t human. The person had shaggy ck hair and deep dark eyes.
A shot of water was released from the magic circle at a high speed again, going so fast I couldn''t keep up with it. The deer easily dodged again, this time breaking the ground it once stood, sting me away. I fell back and the water ball wasing for my head.
I closed my eyes in fear, but luckily for me, it went above my head by some inches, easily splitting the tree behind me in half. The shockwave sent me flying again. I went rolling for some time, before I managed to stop my body ande to a conclusion about the fight. I was really not in the mood to die that day.
''Alright! This is where I use my special skill! The Tori run and hide special! Later folks!''
I immediately took flight, running away. Get it? Took flight because I was a bird now.
After running for some time, I reached a point where I thought was safe enough.
''That was insane! What the hell was with that magic? Magic? I can learn magic, right?''
Just as I was thinking to myself I looked up and saw something. It was a rabbit. I prepared to shoot a fire ball at it, but then I noticed that it didn''t have any horns. Curious, I decided to check it out.
STATUS
[Name: []
[Species: Fanged Bunny 5/15
[Status: [Full]
[Age: 20 days
[Rank: E-
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Titles: |Of World|, |Survivor|, |
[Blessings: -
[Level: 5
[Health: 70/70 Stamina: 75/90 Strength: 10 Speed: 90 Defense: 15 Intelligence: 10 Luck: 240
[Skills: [Prey Instinct], [Acrobatics], [Sprint], [Blood Sucking], [Libido], [Heat Vision]
''A fanged bunny? What hell? Now I feel like this world''s creator just felt like making stuff up.''
The bunny had never done anything to me, but I couldn''t simply let it go off. For all I knew it would just walk into my nest while I was sleeping then bitten me and sucked out all my blood.
¡¸ [Poison Generation]! [Poison Shot]! ¡¹
I spat out a wad of poison saliva which hit it right in the face. I found something odd though. The bunny didn''t move or act how I''d expect something that had its face filled with a spit of acidic poison would react. It just stared at me, slowly melting away. I could see its health points decreasing slowly. I thought there was something wrong with it, but there was nothing [Analyst] was showing me.
''Agent?''
<<Error! Solution not found>>
Even the agent couldn''t exin the weird phenomenon. It didn''t take long for it to die and for me to be awarded points for the kill.
[You have received 30 exp]
That was all. Not enough for a level up once again. I waited for the bunny to quit burning then decided to go over to eat it. It was too bad that I didn''t have any way to control the poison. Like I''d make them quit as soon as the creature was dead, rather than just crudely destroying them.
I took a peck out of it. That was when I realized that burnt horned rabbit tastes like fanged rabbit¡ burnt. Still, I couldn''t just let the meal go to waste, so I ate it. I needed to hurry before some creature got drawn in by the scent. Thanks to [Heat Resistance], this was much easier to eat.
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired 15 experience points]
A level up from eating!<novelnext></novelnext>
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the skill [Acrobatics]]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the skill [Blood Sucking]]
''Humph¡ what can these skills do?''
<< [Acrobatics]: Enhances your flexibility. Your speed is boosted drastically as well>>
I was unimpressed.
''Next.''
<< [Blood Sucking]: Allows you to suck the blood of others>>
''Not descriptive enough¡ I guess that''s all I get then. Tch. Now back to the nest!''
I got up and started running back towards my nest.
***
I was lost.
I had no idea where I was going. I just kept on walking then I smelt smoke. Carefully, I followed the scent and got to where the smoke wasing from. All round I only saw broken in half trees and torn up earth. The ce looked strangely familiar though.
I kept on walking till I saw a ck lump on the ground.
<Name: []
<Species: Goblin
<Status: Dead
<A much hated species that lives in caves with arge number of its members, the goblins are one of the weakest creatures in existence. They carry zero value and are more preferably dead>
''Wow¡ no one likes goblins, huh. What skills can I get from eating this?''
I immediately found myself asking about something weird. The nasty lump of ck flesh wasn''t the only source though. I looked around and saw four more in the exact same condition. Then, underneath a burnt tree was the hob-goblin from before.
There was a lot of blood flowing from its mouth. Some parts of its cloak had been singed and what I presumed to be its magic staff had been broken in half.
''D-Did the me deer do this?''
STATUS
[Name: Oda
[Species: Hob goblin Mage 23/60
[Status: [Tired], [Hungry], [Burnt], [Bleeding]
[Age: 2 years
[Gender: Female
[Rank: D+
[Race Rank: Tier 2
[Titles: |Of World|, |Survivor|, |Cursed Vessel|, |Named Beast|
[Blessings: [Demi-god of water''s blessings]
[Level: 43
[Health: 30/1050 Stamina: 20/600 Strength: 250 Speed: 432 Defense: 120 Intelligence: 90 Magic: 50 Luck: 50
[Skills: [Night Vision], [Libido], [Cooking], [Novice Short sword Mastery], [Novice Staff Mastery], [Mana Perception], [Aura Sense], [Mid ¨C Water Affinity], [Basic Water Magic], [Water Magic: Water Shot], [Water Magic: Water Shield], [Water Magic: Water Spear], [Water Magic: Water''s Blessing], [Water Magic: Aqua]
''Is that title for real? |Cursed Vessel|. She didn''t eat a finger of some crazy powerful demon, right?''
I was disappointed by theck of skills and turned my attention back to the burnt goblin. I pecked it and slowly swallowed. I won''t describe the taste.
I was surprised that the me deer did all of this. Wasn''t it all a bit too extreme?
''Huh¡ the goblins really are useless. Only this? That''s pitiful.''
"¡ M¡ mal."
I heard a voice say. Surprised, I looked around for a bit, but saw nothing.
''Yo agent, are you in some certain puberty stage?''
<<Negative>>
''Eh? Then who was the source of the voice?''
<<Answer. The hob goblin Oda>>
I could feel a deadly presence over me. The hob goblin Oda had her staff raised as she was bringing it down in one powerful swing, in an attempt to kill me. [Acrobatics] kicked in and I flipped out of the way, making a perfectnding.
''Whoo! Go [Acrobatics]!''
Oda copsed on the ground behind me. This was my chance to learn magic. I was going to kill her, but then I heard more voices. [Prey Instinct] told me that if I stayed I would be in trouble. I cursed, but I needed to leave Oda''s body alone, while I ran away.
It was a very lucky creature. I wanted to learn magic so bad.
''Still! Where the hell am I going?!''
<<Suggestion. Use the skill [Auto Mapping]? >>
''[Auto Mapping], huh? Sure.''
A screen appeared in front of me. This was a sort of digital map that showed my surroundings. There was an arrow pointing in some direction and I was confused.
''What''s that?''
<<The checkpoint>>
''Checkpoint?''
<<Affirmative. The location you subconsciously registered as a return point>>
''Oh¡ is that so? Alright then! Let''s go!''
Chapter 12 Bunny War
Day 6
I decided to start the day off with some good old skill testing. That is, after I had finished recoating the ground and entrance with my poison shots.
<< [Imprint]: Allows the user to leave its mark on anything>>
''Allows me to leave my mark on anything, hmm¡ Interesting. So if I left my mark on this nest right now.''
I tried, by walking up to the walls then stepping on it. I willed for the simple activation of the skill and it came.
The wall glowed with a white light, then my foot print was left on the wall.
[You have dered this wall as yours]
[It is now Hinotori''s Wall]
''Eh? Just the wall alone? What about the entire nest?''
<<Skill is too weak to cause such an effect>>
''Ah¡ useless. All my skills are so useless because of how low level they are. This is super annoying!''
BOOM!
The ground shook mightily, forcing me to jump up.
''W-What was that?!''
BOOM!
Again, the ce rumbled and I almost fell. I was getting scared by what was happening. I didn''t like the way things were going. From the looks of things, there might have been a crazy powerful monster fighting out there.
I was left wondering what kind of beast it could have been. Some ogres going at it or maybe trolls. Giants maybe? Wait¡ dragons? If two dragons were going at it I really wanted to see the fight. It was definitely going to be the ultimate fantasy fight everybody wants to see.
Just as I thinking of what it might have been, the top of my nest was blown away by some crazy force. A stupid amount of sunlight just entered the nest uninvited, making me feel a bit ufortable. I ran out of the nest to avoid the falling debris and was stunned by what I saw.
There were two forces facing each other and I was at the center. I suddenly felt like some kind of anchorman broadcasting some kind of match.
''From the leftes the ferocious but cute fanged bunnies. You know them, you love them for their seemingly dormant nature, but don''t let them fool you! Those fangs are for sucking out all your blood. And then there''s their boss! The great Silver Quartz Rabbit King! And from the right! Let me hear your boos! Yes! That''s right! King of the insufferably violent horned rabbits, the ck Rose Jack King. Apletely malicious tyrant who could bepared the demon lord from manga! We hope you lose!''
To my left, there were a bunch of rabbits with light coloured fur and fangs sticking out. There were easily over a hundred on my left, each of them being at least level 8 and having stats that I''d have trouble with.
Then there was the big one. A massive rabbit almost as tall as the trees, with silver pink fur. It had quartz like eyes that stared intensely at its opponent and fangs that looked as hard as a walrus'' tusks. The rabbit had a short tail thatid about a meter behind it. Its belly was white and there was a jewel growing in its chest.
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: Silver Quartz Fanged Rabbit King Lvl 9/90
[Status: [Anxious]
[Age: 250 years
[Rank: B-
[Race Rank: Tier 5
[Titles: |Of World|, |Survivor|, |Rare Species|, |King|, |Rabbit Matriarch|, |Fanged Rabbit Lord|, |Ancient Beast|, |Cruel Mother|, |Gold Eyed|
[Blessings: -
[Level: 119
[Health: 40000/40000 Stamina: 38900/39000 Mana: 7000/7000 Strength: 13567 Speed: 19740 Defense: 12500 Dexterity: 11456 Intelligence: 2500 Magic: 300 Luck: 30
[Skills: ¡ Calcting¡]
''W-What is with the stats? And skills? W-Why does it say calcting?''
I fell down, feeling pressured by the sheer amount of numbers I was seeing. This was the first level 119 I had faced. I didn''t think anyone could even go beyond level 100. This made me think. What was the final level?
STATUS
[Name: He
[Species: ck Rose Jack King Lvl 15/100
[Status: [Excited]<novelnext></novelnext>
[Age: 5 years
[Rank: B-
[Race Rank: Tier 5
[Titles: |Of World|, |Rare Species|, |Survivor|, |Lucky Star|, |Named Beast|, |King|, |Rabbit Patriarch|, |Horned Rabbit Lord|, |Broken Blessing|, |Blessing Thief|
[Blessings: |Fragment of Blessings of the Demi-god of Violence|
[Level: 130
[Health: 46790/46790 Stamina: 25893/30000 Mana: 00 Strength: 20000 Speed: 27840 Defense: 26700 Dexterity: 40000 Magic: 00 Intelligence: 30 Luck: 1140
[Skills: ¡ Calcting¡
The ck Rose Jack King was also as big as the other rabbit, but it had ck fur with a white mane. It had two horns growing from its head like a deer, with spikes containing closed flowers on them. Its eyes were a cruel red and its spine was pointed outward with sharp spikesing out and a tail 2 metres long with what seemed to be a wrecking ball attached to it.
''Oi! You''re not supposed to be so strong! This is just the starting point of the game you moron!''
The ck jack stomped the ground with its leg, shaking up the entire ground. It caused me to dance a bit, but then all the other horned rabbits started to follow. Then it made a weird sound like a trumpet.
Dududududududududududu... Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
The horned rabbits stopped, then their stomping begun again, only this time it was more in sync than the other times.
It were almost as if they were making war cries. Both of them stopped. For a moment, there was quiet, but then the rabbits charged at each other without mercy. The horned rabbits stabbed the fanged and fanged bit the horned. It was one of the bloodiest moments I could remember.
I was taken aback by how bloodymon bunnies could be. I felt like He had something to do with it, but the rate at which bunnies were dropping was bad. I was also getting this nagging feeling telling me to participate.
''Eh¡ to hell with it! Let''s go!''
<<Alert! Master is under the effects of the skill [Violence Inducement]>>
Agent said something shocking.
''Eh? [Violence Inducement]? What''s that?''
<<Violence Inducement: A skill thatpels any target to want to get violent and engage in unreasonable acts, while draining away at their stamina and creating mental stress. It also slowly erodes the soul>>
''Ah¡ that''s dangerous. Any solutions?''
<<Answer. Flee>>
''What? But that''s my home! I can''t just abandon it!''
BOOM!
There was a loud sh that seemed to silence the entire forest. A powerful shock wave was sent through the forest, and I might have been blown away if I didn''t stick my beak into the ground. After it died down, I saw the two rabbit kings, horn against fang.
They then separated. Then shed again. To be honest, in my eyes, they were practically invisible as they moved. Then there was another sh, a shock wave that actually broke some trees in half.
Terrified, I decided to go hide behind one of the trees to avoid the shock waves.
The fanged rabbit grabbed the horned rabbit''s horns with its drooping ears that were apparently controble, then flipped it over. The horned rabbit however grabbed the fanged rabbit''s throat with it''s wrecking ball tail and both of them were sent flying.
After that, I couldn''t see anymore.
All I knew was that I saw the horned rabbit over the fanged rabbit, growling with what seemed to be happiness.
''Eek! He won?!''
The sprouts on He''s horns sprouted into beautiful roses. These roses released a weird gas that permeated the area. It smelt nice, but then something annoying happened.
[You have inhaled Nightmare Poison]
''Nightmare poison? What is that?''
<<Nightmare Poison: A unique kind of poison that has a direct effect on the brain and can cause severe mental disorder. Induces various mental effects>>
''Ah¡ In that case, I can''t be here! Ah! It''s time to move then! Tori Sprint!''
I activated [Sprint] then made a run for it, just going wherever I could. A fanged bunny came up from behind and tried to bite me, but I activated [Acrobatics] and dodged in time. Another one came, this time a horned rabbit. It charged at me from the front, and not wanting to waste energy on it, I decided to avoid it as well by diving to the left.
Just when I thought I was in the clear, one horned rabbit rammed into me, throwing me away. Although it hurt, it hadn''t managed to stab me because I put up some [White Viper Scales] just in time. I rolled away, but without stopping the momentum I continued to run for my life. I wasn''t allowed to breathe in the gas so I wouldn''t.
Chapter 13 Devil Centipede
I made it! I managed to get to the river side where I first found myself. I let out heavy baited breaths as I walked towards the river to get a drink. Just as I was about to dip my beak into it, I noticed something. I looked bad.
I looked at myself in the river. My feathers were a mess and dirty. I looked exhausted and pathetic. Was this how I had looked this entire time?
Tears started to run down my cheeks.
''Why am I crying? No! Stop crying, it''s only been a few days. There is absolutely no reason to cry. Men don''t cry. W-Why?'' I just broke down, the tears streaming down one by one till it became a concentrated flow of crystalline water.
This had to stop. All this running. I needed to stop it. I couldn''t keep suffering like this.
''Ken! I''m sorry! I swore to live a glorious second life, yet look at me! A crying mess! A coward who keeps on running! I''m sorry! Please forgive me! I- I can''t do this anymore. I want to die.''
Suddenly I had a memory of a time before my reincarnation.
I was a kid, just transferred to a new school in grade 3. I was naturally a shy person, so I wasn''t able to make friends easily. One day there was ser practice happening and I was supposed to join in on the action. I did. However, I got tackled and was hurt. Obviously I started to cry.
That would be the normal reaction, right? I scraped my knee and sat up with tears streaming down my face. The boy who tackled me came back and saw my bleeding knee. He then got closer and licked it. At that point, I was weirded out more than in pain so I just backed away and asked what he was doing.
He told me that he was licking my blood to stop the wound and that he''d heard that licking would be the fastest way to stop it. The P.E teacher got angry at his statement and knocked him on the head. The whole ssughed as heined. At that moment I thought he was the ss clown. Somebody I could never get along with.
After the day, both of us waited for our parents together. We talked a bit and he told me that there was no need to cry on the field. I asked him why and he said, because I was pretending. Confused, I asked what he meant by that.
He told me that I was simply a good actor. Rather than getting up and continuing the game, I cried just because I didn''t want to y anymore. At this point I was confused. The boy told me that he hated me and that that was a stupid stunt.
Being the shy guy and not wanting to get bullied, I asked him how I could get him to stop hating me although I clearly wasn''t at fault. He told me that to earn his forgiveness, I would just have to keep on begging till he gave it to me.
So the next day, I went to him, begging. He wouldn''t listen. I tried again the next day. Same result. I kept this up for two weeks, because I had realized that he was popr and with that poprity meant power. I could easily be bullied by him, so I just kept on doing this till the end of sixth grade.
We were to go to middle school, but then he called me. I asked if he had forgiven me and these were his exact words "Grow a spine and fight. All these years have you even sat down once to think about what you did wrong?" to which I respond "no" because if I said yes, the truth was that I didn''t know what I had done wrong.
Then he said the most shocking words. "I can''t be friends with someone who is such a wimp. You did nothing wrong. I thought you would have realized that and challenged me, but you never did. If you had, we could have been real good friends." Then he left.
That was the most shocking thing I had heard him say. I wanted to cry because of how much wasted effort I put into it, but decided against it. It was my stupidity and cowardice that led to that. No one else''s. He just wanted to make friends and I was too stupid to stand my ground.
''Yea¡ that''s right. I won''t take shit from others! I''ll fight too! Alright then! First step is taking back my nest! This means war!''
I dipped my head into the stream then shook it, getting my battle face prepared. I was about to formte a n of offense, when I heard rustling from the forest. Something didn''t feel right. It were almost as if I were being watched by someone.
I slowly begun to take some steps back, but then I remembered what I just thought. I wouldn''t back down now! I had to take a stand and fight. How else would I grow stronger?
Whateverid behind that bush, was my opponent for the day. I was going to devour it and grow stronger. Nothing was going to stop me now that I was in my full force.
''Bring it on! I''ll take whatever you''ve got!''
A giant centipede appeared before me. Its skin was pitch ck and its antennae were set alit with dark purple mes. It stared at me with itspound eyes and its mandibles cked as they hit each other with glee.
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: Devil Centipede 98/30
[Status: [Hungry]
[Age: 2 years
[Rank: C+
[Race Rank: ???<novelnext></novelnext>
[Titles: -
[Blessings: -
[Level: 70 Exp: 7/920,000
[Health: 10000/10050 Stamina: 4590/9900 Mana: 1530/2950 Strength: 2250 Speed: 9200 Defense: 4120 Dexterity: 4500 Intelligence: 890 Magic: 1150 Luck: 1950
[Skills: [Antennae Sight], [Poison Bite], [Acid Spit], [Radar], [Fire Affinity], [Dark Affinity], [Twilight Affinity], [Probability Maniption], [Undetectable Stealth], [Great Deception], [Universal Detection], [Super Thought Process], [Demonic Form Transformation], [Hell fire], [Soul Consumption], [Hellish Bite], [Hellish Gaze], [Temptation], [Herculean Strength], [Devastation], [Magic Absolution], [Investigator], [Teleport], [Contract], [Life Absorption], [Unfazed], [Night Prowler], [Shadow Travel], [Dark Magic], [Dark Magic: Illusion], [Dark Magic: Dark Shot], [Twilight Magic: Twilight Shot], [Twilight Magic: Dawn''s Time], [Twilight Barrier], [Heaven''s Inspector], [me Barrier], [Auto Health Regeneration], [Auto Mana Regeneration], [Possession], [Appraisal], [Modifier], [me Form], [Fire Magic: Purgatory], [Fire Resistance], [Poison Resistance], [Ice Resistance], [Pain Nullification], [Water Magic Resistance], [Magic Attack Resistance], [Aura Resistance], [Exhaustion Nullification]
''W-What the hell?! I-I can''t do this!!! What is with today and the crazy scary monsters?! First the two kings and now this guy!''
I cried as I turned to run away. To be honest, I don''t know or remember what the centipede did to me. All I remember was the blood from my body flying all about as it was being broken apart and I passed out.
***
The devil centipede looked over the golden chick. It had never seen such a creature before and was intrigued. It was about to eat it, when suddenly [Universal Detection] was set aze and it was rmed. It tried to run away, but it was toote. Its opponent had already appeared.
The bear gave a low growl that killed all the weaker creatures that heard it. Birds fell from the trees and insects just dropped dead. The bear was already giving off an aura that would give the best of the best trouble breathing.
It had mid-night ck fur with tiny white spots spread all over it. Its eyes were just as white and it would tower over any ogre easily. With each step the titan took, the ground shook mightily and its footprint was left embedded in the ground. Its tail swayed from side to side causing shockwaves that destroyed all the trees.
Urs Minor.
A creature that has been deemed too dangerous to be disturbed. They mostly hibernated for months, never actually trying to do anything, but when they woke up, that period was termed the ''Ursa Month''. Fortunately, it wasn''t that time of the year yet. So what was this bear doing awake?
Well that was because of the Devil Centipede. It stumbled into the Urs Minor''s cave and attempted to possess its body. This caused it to go on a rampage and now it was here to destroy the centipede.
The devil centipede tried to activate its teleportation magic, but the Urs minor used its skill [Sky Block] to prevent ess. It then activated its skill [Nyx w]. A move that allowed forplete and utter destruction of the opponent, including their souls, unless they had some form of counter measure.
The devil centipede did not possess this counter measure. The streak of ck from the monster''s ws came at the centipede and broke it in half immediately, disintegrating the body.
The Urs minor turned around and left almost as soon as it was done. Sleepily, it stumbled back to its cave to go rest.
The devil centipede then reappeared out of a subspace it had been hiding in and copsed on the ground. Half of its body had been torn off. It had utilized [Undetectable Stealth] and [Great Deception] to lie to the Urs minor and escape death. However, this was useless as it wasn''t able to dodge the full attack.
The thing about [Nyx w] was that if a target got even a single scratch from it, the effect would slowly spread like a disease till the target had been wiped out. The demon centipede had only bought itself a few minutes till disintegration.
It looked around, looking for a means to survive. Normally death in this world would have just sent it back to the Devil realm, Hell, but it stood the possibility of dying. It used the skill [Probability Maniption] to increase its odds of survival then looked at the golden chick. It was weak and dying. It didn''t have an ego that would have been able to give it problems. It would simply take over and continue with its contract like it was originally supposed to.
The actual devil left the fading centipede body. It appeared in the form of a shadowy mass with massive red eyes and it looked at the chick gleefully. It swarmed the body and activated its skill, [Possession].
When the devil tried to take over Hinotori''s body, it met a firewall. This fire wall was in the form of the unique skill [Evolver]. The devil was confused, but tried to bypass this ever upgrading firewall. Then there was the light.
The weird light that literally destroyed the devil¡ no, it wasn''t destroying the devil. Sure it was tearing it apart, but it wasn''t necessarily destruction. It was more like collection.
That''s when the devil realized what [Evolver] was doing. The skill was morphing Hinotori''s body to a state where the devil couldn''t possess it. Normally this wouldn''t have been possible, even with the unique skill [Evolver]. Fortunately, the very world was backing up this process.
The devil realized that it had no chance at surviving so it looked around for an escape route. It tried fleeing the body, but it wasn''t allowed to. It was restricted and chained down into the body. So it did what it did in times of crises. It experimented.
It looked for a way to survive. When it found one, it took it. The devil just needed to get to that hole of escape. [Evolver] was tearing away at its very being, but if it got to that hole, none of that would have mattered. It did everything it could. In a few seconds, [Evolver]''s process would be done.
The devil knew this so it went all out. It wouldn''t die now. It had been in other life threatening situations before yet here it was. It couldn''t wait to see what kind of power boost it would receive after trying this.
The devil got to its hole. The devil survived.
Chapter 14 The Water Hole
Day 8
[Congrattions! You have metamorphosed into a Golden Demonic Chick]
[Some of your abilities have changed]
[Your base stats have been altered]
[Your skill [Adorable Wink]>> [Lustful Gaze]]
[You have acquired the skill [Terror]]
[You have acquired the skill [Soul Consumption]]
[Your body''sposition has been rearranged into that of a Devil''s]
[The Devil King Ozvon will be notified of your existence]
DING!
[Notification order denied]
[Would you like to see your stats?]
''Huh? What? What happened?''
My vision was flooded with blue as I took in the view of the several screens. I sat up with a groan and looked up into the sky. It was getting dark. I wondered what time it was.
<<It has been exactly 1 day since you died>>
''Woah¡ what happened to me?''
I was genuinely stunned by the sudden transformation. I was bigger than Ist remembered, but there was something off with my feathers. My cowlick was red alright, but the tip was turning dark. My feathers were still golden, but they looked sharper and less messy than before. They looked sharp and refine, almost like a de.
I lifted them up and saw that the underside was pitch ck, which was a shocker. Same thing was my feet.
<<Notice. You transformed>>
''I can see that! I mean how?''
<<A devil tried to take over your fading consciousness after it killed you. The unique skill [Evolver] activated and used it to fix your body up>>
''What was that again?!''
<<Notice. The unique skill [Evolver] act->>
''Not that you idiot! The one before!''
<<Notice. A devil tried to take over your fading consciousness after it killed you>>
''Ah! How?! I don''t remember this! Exin.''
<<Notice. You were attacked by a Devil that tried to take over your body>>
''Hold up! I was attacked by a demon? This sounds like it''s going to be a long story. I''ll need a meal for that.''
I looked around and saw nothing that I could eat. Then I thought about the river behind me. Maybe I could try fishing for something. The water rippled a bit and something jumped out of it. I jumped back in fear, but then the creaturended back in the water.
It came to the water surface and was looking at me. It was a giant fish wish light blue skin and creepy fish eyes, staring nkly at me.
''What¡ the heck?''
I decided to back down from the water, trying to activate [Analyst], but I couldn''t.
''Huh? That''s weird. Agent?''
<<¡>>
It didn''t respond. Two more of the weird fishes sprouted up out of the water and stared nkly at me, giving me chills.
''Weird¡ anyway I guess they remind me of guppies, so I''ll call them that. Luckily they don''t seem violent.''
I decided to drink some water. Then I just realized something.
''When was thest time I ever felt thirsty?''
I hadn''t felt thirsty since I came here and it was odd. Each and every day I would pass out, my status would show hungry, but never thirsty. That was interesting, but I couldn''t rely on the agent to tell me. Maybe it had something to do with my species. Now that [Analyst] wasn''t working, I couldn''t tell much about that.
***
This ce was so calm and serene. It seemed to be the safest ce in this insane forest. So far some horned rabbits had appeared here, but they only took some sips from the river and ran back into the forest. The guppies had been here for a while and revealed that they weren''t actual fishes, but were these tiny blue people with two stick like fingers, hollow white eyes and fang-like teeth, wearing huge fish heads.
I was startled at fish when they started cking their teeth at me, but decided that they couldn''te onnd to eat me. Either that or they just weren''t interested in killing me.
The bushes rustled and a white viper appeared. I thought it wanted toe fight. I was scared at first, but I remembered that I could take even a white viper on now, so I was waiting to see its actions. It just entered the river and swam away.
Later on came this roon looking creature with huge ears. After eyeing me for about ten minutes, it sprouted wings and suddenly took off. That was a weird encounter. And [Analyst] didn''t activate weirdly enough.
After a while a giant frog with a curved horn from its head popped out of the pond. Its eyes were blood red and its skin was a bright orange. It hopped past me and went into the forest. For whatever reason, I didn''t know.
The bushes rustled again and I was tired with the boring nonchnt creatures popping up and simply giving me a jump scare. I was about to shout at it, but then a huge ck panther appeared. It was slowly approaching me and I couldn''t activate [Analyst] for some reason. Matters turned for the worse when I received a message.
[For your safety the skill [Analyst] has been locked]
[For your safety the skill [Analyst] has been locked]
[For your safety the skill [Analyst] has been locked]
''For my safety? What the hell is that supposed to mean?''
It drew closer to me, licking its mouth with its tongue. Almost as if it were staring at its prey.
It passed by me and went towards theke behind me. Sounds of it drinking filled my ear drums, same for the horrid sight of a barely attached hind leg and trail of blood it had been leading. I looked at the beast from the side. Its back had grey fur and its tail was silver. A weirdbination in my opinion.
I realized that it must have been tired so it wasn''t here to fight. Still though, I didn''t like how calm he was. Maybe he was just tired. That would exin things.
I just couldn''t put myself at ease with the dangerous amount of presence he was giving off, but the other creatures seemed to not mind. Was there something I wasn''t getting right?
<<Answer. The target is not giving off any presence>>
''What?''
<<The target has 0 presence>>
''Huh? That''s like saying he''s invisible to every creature here.''
<<Affirmative>>
''Ah¡ T-Then what is it that I''m feeling?''<novelnext></novelnext>
<<¡>>
''Huh¡ Am I just imagining this feeling?''
***
The bushes rustled yet again and I was getting tired of them. These harmless animals that just kept waltzing out of the bushes toe drink water and leave. So far only a boar had appeared, but it didn''t matter.
I was currently sitting on that very boar''s back. How this happened? Well it''s a weird story that involves a suicide attempt, what was probably the fluffiest substance in Larm and me simply falling asleep on the boar for practically the entire day. I was surprised it didn''t change locations.
Well I had to give it to Larm. It just kept on giving me huge middle fingers at every turn. I was speechless. What else could I do as a giant ck wolf jumped out of the bush, apanied by two more?
The wolf grabbed the panther by its already torn up leg before it could even react.
ROOOOWWWW!
The panther roared. It quickly turned around and swiped at the wolf. The wolf avoided the attack and growled in a low, cool tone. The other two wolves with grey and ash fur also came out and they surrounded the puma. The puma was doomed or so I thought.
Its eyes began to glow red, same for its body. Its muscles seemingly acquired more definition and it radiated an aura of absolute power, simr to the rabbits from before.
''D-Don''t tell me¡''
It smacked the ground and a storm of dust erupted. All the guppies dove back into theke and the other animals ran away. I was surprised that the boar was still here. I looked down and saw that it was also asleep.
''Huh?! Wake up you dolt! It''s time to run!''
The boar kept on snoring. It was times like this were you just had to abandon ship, which was exactly what I was about to do. Unfortunately, I couldn''t. The boar''s fur wrapped around me tightly and I could feel myself sinking.
''Oi! What now?!''
I looked down and was shocked to see two iridescent blue eyes staring at me intensely.
''Eh?''
A mouth filled with fangs about above the blue eyes and it started to hiss wildly.
''Sa sa! Really? What the hell is with this forest? Isn''t this a regr boar?''
I used peck on the fur, but it showed no reaction. If anything, it started tough. What kind of boar could grow eyes on its back, as well as a mouth? This forest was all shades of creepy and disturbing. The unfortunate image of me being swallowed by a back entered my head and I could see on my tombstone.
Here lies Akira, who died after being eaten by a back.
''No way! No! I''m going to keep my promise to Ken no matter what! I won''t die now! I''ll live gloriously and just you wait!''
I activated [Poison Generation], then spat out a chunk of acidic poison. The back started hissing and I thought I was causing it pain. When I looked back down, I noticed it was enjoying this. It was smiling and happily drinking the poison.
''What¡ the¡ heck? Ah¡ Wait. If I can keep on producing to the extent where you get satisfied, I guess you won''t have to eat me anymore. In that case, let''s go! [Poison Generation]!''
I kept on producing the poison even as it kept on burning my beak. My lower beak was actually starting to melt and my HP numbers were slowly going down by the second.
I turned back to see the fight while I kept on feeding the monster.
There was a very loud howl and I suddenly felt this urge to flee and hide. Death wasing.
The panther''s disy suddenly just turned off and its ears plumped down, almost as if it were scared. It looked up into the forest and I could understand. There was something scary there, gazing back at us although I couldn''t see it. All my instincts were telling me ''Run! Hide! Run! Hide! Don''t let them catch you! Run! Run! Run!''
[You have developed the skill [Prey Instinct]]
''[Prey Instinct]? W-why that skill? Ah¡ that''s a stupid question.''
The answer was so obvious I didn''t know why I didn''t think about it. I was still weak. Way too weak. But now wasn''t the time to be thinking about such things.
I turned my attention back to the fight. I regretted my decision. The sight thatid before me was a gruesome and gory one. I was horrified.
All three wolves jumped the panther, who didn''t even try for self-defense.
Meow.
I heard a scared and pathetic meow from the puma, before it lost its hind leg and its tail got bitten off by the ash and grey wolves.
The ck wolf dragged the ck panther around, crushing its nape with its powerful jaws and flinging it into a tree. The white fur I was standing on suddenly produced a whip thatshed the boar. Its actual eyes snapped open and it started to run away into the forest and I was too scared to even think about jumping off its back.
The view just kept on shrinking as the boar carried me away.
***
When we got far enough, the boar dropped me, although my beak had already fallen off. The fur waved me goodbye as if it were happy with what had happened, then I fell, leaning on a tree.
My eyes started tearing up again. I didn''t like it whenever this happened. In my previous life, I tried as much as possible to not cry a lot. It was best to not be trouble to anyone.
''So why? Why did this happen to me? Had I sinned so much that this was my punishment? Who the hell sent me to this world? Who the hell invented this world and why the hell was I sent to it?''
Imented
''Oi! Isn''t this where you show yourself to me you cosmic being? Come on! Show yourself to me!''
[You have gone up 1 level]
A system notification came and I went poof.
''What? Why did I-''
[You have achieved certain requirements, you have acquired the skill [Fire Breath]]
My eyes lit up. I was so excited Ipletely ignored the fact that I had acquired my lower beak again.
''A new skill?! [Fire Breath]? Muahahaha! Let''s go! Fire breath! Let''s go!''
I tested it out, but I regretted immediately. Sure, a bright orange me came out, but it was barely a wisp. And my stomach didn''t feel alright. I was suddenly hungry and my chest was hot. If I could sweat, I was certain I would have done buckets.
Next to my status I saw [Hungry] and was rmed. I needed to find food and somewhere to rest, but only one ce came to mind. The nest.
[Auto Mapping] activated and the digital map appeared before my eyes, leading me towards my only home in this insane world.
I returned to my nest, having nowhere else to go. There were tons of dead rabbit bodies on the ground and giant paw prints left all around. Cracks and holes in the ground littered with broken trees. I stumbled towards my nest. My only form of home in this forsaken ce.
The cover had been blown so it was bright as day inside. I let out a sigh and leaned against the wall of my nest.
''I guess I''ll have to move now. But then¡ if there are more creatures out there like the rabbits and that ck wolf. Damn it! If only I had been able to use [Analyst] on it. It should have activated automatically though.''
<<Notice. Doing so would slowly erode your soul>>
''Slowly erode my soul because of over using [Analyst]? Oi, that''s scary. So there''s a limit to how much I can do it? Lame.''
I looked up to the tree tops.
''How will I find another nest though? I guess I''ll stay here for tonight then think something else up.''
Chapter 15 Soul Consumption
Day 9
Last night I dragged all the dead rabbits I could find and was surprised by how they were all around by the dozens. It was a literal mountain of dead rabbits that couldn''t enter the cave anymore. I had to admit. Thanks to the rabbit kings, I had enough to keep me going for weeks toe.
The problem I had was the fact that I had no roof. As a shut-in, I loathed the sunlight, which was why I hated this world. Thanks to it, I hate the night time. It would be difficult to survive around that time and I wouldn''t have enough to keep myself going till I died. Now my NEET ass loves the sunlight. Still, that would be an issue forter.
The current issue was how the hell I acquired a level. I shouldn''t have acquired a level. I hadn''t done anything that required that I would get a level in return. At least nothing that I could think off. Strangely, I felt that it had something to do with Shiro.
Maybe that soul bond we shared did something. Speaking of that soul bond, I couldn''t feel it anymore and it was starting to be a body to me. I didn''t know why, but she must have cut it. She probably had her reasons for cutting the soul bond she forced on me and throwing me into this insane forest where I could die at any moment.
''Wait¡ why the hell am I thinking about that girl? She is younger than me, practically a first year.''
I scoffed then looked at my meal for the morning. A simple dead rabbit to start of the day.
''Nothing like a good old poisoned rabbit, huh?''
I began to peck at it, swallowing up the pieces one by one.
''Hey, now that I think about it, back in Japan I learnt that chickens ate with the help of rocks that ground the meat to make it easier to digest. Do I have stones in my body too? Oi, am I a stone child? Eh? Bring up my [Status]!''
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori
[Species: Golden Demonic Chick Level 10/15
[Status: [Hungry], [Tired]
[Age: 8 days
[Rank: E-
[Race Rank: Tier 0
[Titles: [New-born in a New World], [Rare Species], [Survivor], [Named Beast]
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess *****|
[Level: 10 Exp: 560/1030
[Health: 120/120 Stamina: 290/290 Strength: 45 Speed: 140 Defence: 30 Dexterity: 38 Intelligence: 15 Luck: 40
[Skills: [Evolver], [Analyst], [God''s voice], [Lustful Gaze], [Imprint], [Baby Chick Cry], [Fear Resistance], [Aquatic Form], [Heat Resistance], [Poison Resistance], [Peck], [ck Wayne Caw], [Auto Mapping], [Poison Generation], [White Viper Scales], [Sprint], [Pain Resistance], [Spearhead], [Acrobatics], [Blood Sucking], [Terror], [Soul Consumption], [Prey Instinct], [Fire Breath]
''Eh? After all my suffering I''m only E rank?! What?! That''s not fair! Ok, when I look at my stats it makes sense. Thinking back to the rabbit kings and their stats, it would make sense. I mean, they were easily in the thousands and were still considered B rank monsters. I wonder what an S rank would look like. Are there even S ranks? Of course there are! This is a fantasy world! Imagining myself as an S rank is amazing! I''d just be going about my business and no one wouldin. Oh look, I just destroyed your house? Sorry not sorry you stupid Snakes! Muahahahaha!''
I took a break from my internal thoughts as I remembered the cold res the vipers had given me so far and that spine chilling hiss of theirs. I cleared my throat and proceeded.
''I guess boasting is the privilege of the strong. A privilege I want and will get. Hmm, so these new skills which I haven''t had the chance to test out. [Blood Sucking],me! Ou, [Soul Consumption]! Let''s test it out! Now! Consume this soul!''
I tried it out on the rabbit, by pecking it. I picked up a pale hologram of the bunny I assumed was the soul. It was chewy, but not too hard to swallow. When I did, I received a message and something rming.
[You have received 9 exp]
Normally I would have screamed in shock at this, but I was too busy being stunned by whatever the hell was imprinted on this rabbit''s soul.
I appeared in a dark space and a screen appeared in front of me. The screen started to y images.
''Oi! This just like TV! Muaha! Finally, some form of entertainment.''
Memories of the time when it was born. No, a few days after it had been born. The ck jack was going about its normal business.
I could only see scratches and pictures of it, but I was horrified. The rabbits, weren''t under any form of control or anything. It was simple fear that kept all the horned rabbits in line. The ck jack was a murderer. A horrible parent that wouldn''t mind eating its own spawn.
I was suddenly kicked out of the space where I was.
''Huh?! That was all? But I only saw shes of the rabbit''s past.''
<<Notice: That would most likely be due to most of the soul being eroded>>
''Eroded?''
<<Affirmative>>
''How?''
<<Notice: Answer not found>>
''Ah¡ I keep on forgetting how useless you can be at times.''
I then came back to the meal in front of me. I looked at it then looked at the other pile. My thirst for knowledge far exceeded that of my thirst for knowledge. What that meant, I had absolutely no idea. Besides, it would be great having a TV in front of me once again. I got to work, devouring another bunny''s soul.
[You have received 9 exp]<novelnext></novelnext>
Once again, I was in the ck space. This time, I consumed a fanged rabbit. The screen lit up and just like before, I only got to see scratches and images of its past.
The fanged rabbit was even worse than the horned, sleeping in the blood of her children and stuff. She had a sweet tooth so she rarely killed her own kids and liked shiny stuff, which was exined by her race in a way. I was amazed by how much wealth she kept in her cave and the fact that she pooped jewels like they were nothing.
''Ah¡ that''s something I want. So many jewels equal a crap ton of money which equal afortable life and a mansion with all the sweet fantasy girls I want! Let''s go!''
The scene quickly switched however and this time I was actually in the scene. I looked around and began to hop about.
That was weird because it wasn''t of my own decision. So I realized that I was ying the role of the rabbit. My rabbit ears picked up and a cold dreaded sensation spread through my body. Almost like the feeling from theke that kept on telling me to run.
''W-What the hell?''
The rabbit then began to hop away quickly, but it paused as something blurred in front of it. Unfortunately, the memory stopped ying at exactly the image at the corner of the screen. All I saw was a grey figure and a yellow streak.
I was confused and figured it was probably one of the wolves, but then I had a thought.
''Do the wolves evene out during the day? Even this time that I saw them, it was getting to night time. If it isn''t them, then that means there is something more dangerous out there. No, no! I saw a grey wolf and it can''t be the only one there. There should be others right? Don''t go giving yourself stupid ideas Kira¡ Tori now.''
I returned back to the normal world and decided to continue on with the soul consumption feast. I was grateful for this new ability as it allowed me to eat and eat without getting satisfied. It were almost as if I had an infinite soul sac.
In the end I consumed 50 of them and gained 450 experience points. It wasn''t enough for a level up, but it was something. I also got the title |Vulture|. Apparently, I acquired it because I was eating dead meat that I didn''t get for myself.
I felt like everybody from back on Earth should have gotten that title.
I looked at my stats once again.
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori
[Species: Golden Demonic Chick Level 10/15
[Status: [Hungry], [Tired]
[Age: 8 days
[Rank: E-
[Race Rank: Tier 0
[Titles: [New-born in a New World], [Rare Species], [Survivor], [Named Beast], [Vulture]
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess *****|
[Level: 10 Exp: 560/1030
[Health: 120/120 Stamina: 290/290 Strength: 45 Speed: 140 Defence: 30 Dexterity: 38 Intelligence: 15 Luck: 40
[Skills: [Evolver], [Analyst], [God''s voice], [Lustful Gaze], [Imprint], [Baby Chick Cry], [Fear Resistance], [Aquatic Form], [Heat Resistance], [Poison Resistance], [Peck], [ck Wayne Caw], [Auto Mapping], [Poison Generation], [White Viper Scales], [Sprint], [Pain Resistance], [Spearhead], [Acrobatics], [Blood Sucking], [Terror], [Soul Consumption], [Prey Instinct], [Fire Breath]
''I guess I''m close to reaching level 15. Oi, agent. What happens when I reach level 15?''
<
>
''Huh? What happens if I reach level 15?''
<<Answer unknown>>
''Seriously? You can''t even tell me what happens when I max out on my species level?''
<<Answer. Most creatures undergo evolution after reaching their racial climax>>
''What? Evolution? Oi! Agent, you said evolution, right?''
<<Affirmative>>
''Woohoo! Ok then let''s go! What can I evolve into?''
<<Answer Unknown>>
''Eh? You don''t know? You know, for something that is supposed to know everything about this world, you know practically nothing.''
<<¡>>
If the agent was a person, he would probably be this weird kuudere guy. I could just imagine talking to a guy a guy like that. It gave me the creeps.
''Tch, whatever! I guess it''s time to go searching for a good old level up! I''m out Nest! I shall return once I am ready to evolve.''
I jumped out of my nest and ran off in search of monsters to kill.
Chapter 16 Best Friend Pt.I
Honestly, the one time I wanted snakes and rabbits toe my way, I couldn''t find them. It was so bad I was tempted to use [Golden Chick Cry], but that was a move I had reserved myself to never ever use, out of fear of calling something extremely dangerous to my side.
It had been some minutes since I told myself that I''d forcefully raise my level up by 5 times today. This was going to be hard.
Eventually, I managed to get some food for my evolution, but it wasn''t one I wanted. I was running around when I got trapped in some kind of sticky mess. I thought it was something like the boar from thest time, but it wasn''t. There were no eyes or mouth and it wasn''t fur.
I heard some cking sounds from above, so I looked up. A vile of purple of substance dropped on the ground next to me, melting the ground.
''Acid?''
There were some huge ck fangs slowly approaching me, with eight eyes and a very hairy ck body as well as eight limbs with the tips being pure white - a stark contrast to the rest of its body.
I could feel a click in my head and I instinctively knew that [Analyst] was working again.
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: ck Weaver Level 16/20
[Status: -
[Age: 20 days
[Rank: E+
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Titles: |Survivor|, |Deserter|, |Evicted|, |Wanted|
[Blessings: -
[Level: 16
[Health: 560/560 Stamina: 100/640 Mana: 10/30 Strength: 100 Speed: 340 Defense: 70 Dexterity: 200 Intelligence: 40 Luck: 60 Magic: 5
[Skills: [Wall Climb], [Web Creation], [Web Control], [w Attack], [Acrobatics], [Dark Vision], [Poison Generation], [Poison Fang], [Stealth], [Acid Spit], [Predator Instinct], [Poison Resistance]
''Ah¡ your titles are all weird, but that matters not. You are close to evolving as well. How unfortunate for you. Oh well! Please die for me! You shall make it as one of my stepping stones to greatness!''
It let out an acid filled screech, spraying my face with extremely painful acid.
''My eye!''
I began wriggling in pain. Not letting me writhe in pain, the spider then began to release spider webs around me. Not wanting to get trapped, I tested something out.
''Oi agent! [Poison Generation] allows me to create poison from any part of my body, right?''
<<Negative>>
The webs wrapped themselves around me and grabbed me tightly, squeezing the life out of me.
''Keuk-! But I can secrete it from anywhere, right?''
<<Affirmative>>
I clicked my tongue and activated [Poison Generation]. I allowed the poison to be released from every part of my body other than my head, melting through the acid. I had only one thing to say about that. It hurt like hell.
I jumped out of the trap and rolled around on the ground, but I didn''t want to scream.
''Sa sa! This hurts! This really, really hurts! Friggin [Pain Resistance]! Do your thing! Uwa! I hate this!''
The spidernded with a thud next to me, immediately rming me to its presence. For that moment I forgot about the pain and jumped up and activated [White Viper Scales] to hide my now featherless body.
''Tch, if only I could have used this skill before.''
The spider shot another web at me, but I flipped back to avoid it, using [Acrobatics] and then immediately ran towards it with [Sprint]. Going for my [Spear head] attack, but the spider easily dodged it.
''Tch. I forgot that it''s got [Acrobatics] as well. I''ll need to stun it. [Lustful Gaze]¡ EH?!''
I activated the skill, forgetting that it had simply shifted from [Adorable Wink] into [Lustful Gaze]. The good thing was that the spider had eight eyes, so there was no avoiding my gaze. The bad thing was that it couldn''t avoid my gaze.
As soon as that happened, the spider looked at me as if it were hungrier, with its poison dropping from its fangs, then it charged at me.
''Shit- [Acrobatics]''
I jumped over the spider and its eyes had this weird light in them, like a pervert''s. I should know what those eyes looked like. I''ve seen a few of them whenever someone looked at Akane. I hated those eyes.
I decided to test out [Terror] on the spider in a rage.<novelnext></novelnext>
Light disappeared from my eyes for a split second, but when it returned, I saw the monster''s eyes again. They were shaking and the monster was screaming about and iling its limbs all around. When I dropped, I didn''t waste time to confirm if it worked.
I used [Spearhead] again, this time with the use of [Poison Generation] at the tip to form my new skill.
''Tori original [Poison Maelstrom]!''
I twisted about, with poison at my beak to enable drilling through the spider from the back to the front. I didn''t expect the amount of blood that came exploding out though.
[You have received 600 exp]
[You have gone up 1 level]
The spider dropped to the ground lifelessly behind me and my body went poof, helping me out with my burning face.
''Oh! Thank you God! That really hurt like hell.''
I walked towards the spider and began to peck at the spider to get its skills. The result was as expected.
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired the ability [Thread creation]]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired the ability [Thread control]]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired the ability [Stealth]]
After getting just these skills, I was starting to reach a sort of conclusion on how [Evolver]''s skill absorption worked. So far, from what I had seen, it depended on where on the monster''s body I ate. Normally, that would make me want to eat the entire body of my opponents, but it wasn''t possible with my build.
''If I get another spider, I''ll eat somewhere other than its back.''
''[Thread creation] and [Thread Control]? Hehe, time to go swinging in New York!''
I raised my wing and willed for the activation of [ck Thread Creation]. Something weird escaped my wing tip and fell to the ground in a pathetic way. It was a dull dark grey and seemed fluffy. I attempted using [Thread Control], but I could only shift it slightly.
''Ah¡ I guess I''ll have to learn how to use it betterter. Now let''s try [Stealth]! I''ve always wanted to be a ninja!''
I activated the skill, but nothing happened. I looked around to see if I had be invisible, but I could see myself. I shrugged and decided to just leave it on while running around in search of food. I could just perform sneak attacks, making battles way easier for me.
''Eh, I did it Akane. I stopped another one of those perverted gazes you didn''t like.''
I sat down.
''I miss you. I hope you forgive me for being aplete moron.''
I could feel tears about to escape my eyes, but I wouldn''t allow them. I got up to search for my next prey for the day.
I was about to jump off, but then something wrapped around me tightly. I looked and saw a cream colored vine that was wrapping itself around me more and more.
''Eh? What is this!?''
I followed the vine till I found a giant mushroom fixed to a tree. It had huge green orbs for what I presumed to be eyes. Arge opening under its umbre filled with wooden fangs and red spots all over it.
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: Adolescent Larm Mushroo Level 13/20
[Status: -
[Age: 15 days
[Rank: E+
[Race Rank: Tier 2
[Titles: |Of World|
[Blessings:
[Level: 13
[Health: 560/560 Stamina: 1500/1500 Mana: 300/300 Strength: 120 Speed: 40 Defense: 120 Dexterity: 80 Intelligence: 15 Luck: 40 Magic: 30
[Skills: [Rooting], [Whip Lash], [Spore Generation], [Sap spores], [Poison Gas Creation], [Spawn spores], [Co-ordination], [Mana Absorption]
''Uwaa!''
Chapter 17 Seiko Sotomura - Paladin
Dirthaven city, once the very famous capital of the Boulderdane Kingdom, used to be a city where most people wanted to be. The city was wee to almost an endless amount of traders, which earned it a lot of tourists and trade from roaming merchants and people looking to enjoy themselves.
All this was in the past though. Six years ago to be exact. Now it was simply a husk of its former glory. On the once bustling streets, all one would find were homeless beggars and drunkards. At night, the entire city turned into the biggest red light district in the kingdom, harlots of different sentient races would roam, looking for their targets. There were even rumours of subi having suck the life forces of some men.
Children were being raised to be thieves and only the rich thrived in the upper echelons. The royal family had shut themselves away from the people, leaving them to rot. The adventurer''s guild lost most of the mercenaries in one hit and the kingdom lost all its good rtions with the Dhijan Hero Nation, causing it to crumble in the faces of other power nations such as the New Kyoto Empire and the Sundane Kingdom. It was truly in a pitiful state aspared to before.
And if you asked anybody why any of this happened, they would say only one thing.
It was all because they angered the Mad Witch of the West.
What that meant, most people who didn''t live in the kingdom wouldn''t understand.
Seiko looked around the city for a bit, then took a gulp from his water can. The trip had been a long one, and he hadn''t managed to get any transport because he forgot all his money back in the ce he termed home.
It wasn''t as much as him forgetting, as it was a matter of the fact that he couldn''t remember exactly what happened. He was certain he packed it, but was scared that some bandits may have robbed him while he slept. He didn''t have his 1 Ban and 4 Ban with him, which meant they had most likely been taken away from him. His pride wouldn''t allow for that to be the case, so he would assume that he left it.
The young man lifted the scroll in his hands and took a look at it. He had already memorized the contents of the scroll, but just to make sure he wouldn''t miss anything he had to check again. That was just how meticulous he was. He hated to fail a task.
The scroll contained a drawing of a person. She was a beauty withrge ghastly eyes that would surely kill any with a weak will. Her hair was short and wavy, with a tiny hair band of curious design on it. Her nose was tiny, same for her mouth and she possessed puffy cheeks and cute lips that fit her face.
In all honesty, he didn''t see why they called her beautiful. If anything she was frightening in his eyes and he didn''t want to have to deal with someone like that, but she was his target. She was also in search of him, so she should have possessed a drawing of him as well.
He put his hand to his chin as he drowned himself in his thoughts.
''Hmm, how do we meet though? They didn''t tell us anything except that we shoulde to Dirthaven. And when I tried to inquire for more, the n Head said I should just go and that he wouldn''t tell me more. This person too, I''ve never met with her before so I wouldn''t know where she would most likely go. Whenever I asked about her, all they told me was that she was a skilled fighter who used weird magic and techniques and something else about her character¡ she was jumpy¡? I can''t remember.''
BOOM!
There was an explosion up ahead which shook the ground lightly. He looked towards where he could feel it from and put his hand to his back to take out his rifle out. He then checked it to see if it was loaded.
The people around who were startled just looked in the direction of the source of the sound, confused. They were nothing more than drunkards or mere beggars without homes to go to. The children were all startled and ran the other way, shouting.
Seiko began to approach the scene, checking his armory to make sure everything was alright. He checked the barrel to see if it was loaded. It was a shotgun, about 60 cm long, with a silver barrel and intricately designed golden kanji lined on the handle. He looked into the barrel to ensure the safety was on. He wasn''t going to outright kill the people causing themotion because he felt that it was his obligation to simply stop the dispute as safely as possible.
After confirming that the gun was safe for simply paralyzing his opponents, he put it back. His hood was still on to ensure no one would identify him, and just to be extra careful, his ck half face mask covered up his mouth.
It was a bar and there seemed to be quite a few people around. A man was quivering on the ground as he stared at the smoking door, unable to run away. Someone else came flying out of the bar,nding on the guy on the ground. They didn''t look like much, although they seemed better off than the people he had seen on the streets. They wore low grade armor, meaning they were simple mercenaries or adventurers.
Even if they were low ss mercenaries, flying them out so easily was bothersome. This person was probably some guy who wanted to assert his dominance as the strongest in the city, or so Seiko thought.
However the person found the wrong time to do that, seeing as Seiko was in town. If there was one thing he hated the most, it was noise and discord, so he would end this quickly and disappear to go search for his target.
He proceeded through the door and a body came flying at him. He easily ducked and avoided the body, but when he looked up he saw about five mercenaries surrounding somebody ¨C his target.
He didn''t want to get tangled up in their mess, so to break it up, he shot one round into the roof, producing a powerful boom that caught the attentions of everyone present in the room. All the mercenaries turned their heads to see him, but that was their worst mistake.
There was a purple shimmer that sent all of them sting away in different directions with their bodies smoking, and a lone figure stood cockily. With a proud, arrogant and excited voice, the figure shouted.
"Come on! That can''t possibly be all of you! You call yourselves this city''s best yet you can''t even put up a good fight? Pathetic! Bring on the heavy hitters."
Her voice was wild, almost threatening. Seiko pointed his shotgun - 6-Ban - at her then put his hand on the trigger.
The lone figure looked up at him then dropped her hands. Her hood fell down and Seiko was taken aback. She had wild dark purple hair with a unique hair band fixed in it. Her olive oil skin strangelyplemented herrge cerulean blue eyes. Those eyes that looked at him as one would look at someone familiar.
"Hey you, have I seen you somewhere before?"
She asked, but he was too busy observing her to listen to her. He sometimes did that, a lot of the time. She had a tiny frame, almost like a 14 year old''s and carried a curved de at her back. She wore a short dress with ck knee length boots and had a simr pair of arm-length fingerless gloves lined with a goldence.
She looked genuinely confused and tilted her head, observing him ¨C The bangs of her hair falling to the side. Still, she wouldn''t have been able to see anything due to his disguise. At least that was how it was supposed to be.
"Seiko Sotomura? Where have I heard that name before?"
He was surprised when she mentioned his name and was even more with the question after that ¨C Although he didn''t show it. She put her finger to her lip, thinking about the name seriously, and the teen decided to drop his hood and mask respectively to aid her in her search for the answer.
"Ah!"
She yelled then pointed at him with vigor.
"You''re the Pdin I was supposed to meet!"
Everyone turned to look at him, and he could hear murmuring amongst the crowd. He let out a depressed sigh.
***
[Racial Level Climax Achieved]
[Evolution will now begin]
[Error! Species Golden Demonic Chick not found in System Database]<novelnext></novelnext>
[Searching for solution¡]
[Solution not found¡ Prompting System Master #####]
[¡ Problem solution: New Evolution Tree must be inserted into database]
DING!
[System Master has provided new Evolution Tree]
DING!
[Error! New Evolution Tree functions are unstable. Insertion might affect current system functions]
[Will System Master ##### still insert it?]
? [YES]/[NO]
DING!
[Shutting Down system to insert new Evolution Tree¡ 3¡ 2¡ 1¡]
(Powers down)
BEEP! BEEP!
[System Booting Up¡ 3¡ 2¡ 1¡]
[System sessfully booted up]
[Notification: System is currently unstable due to presence of new Evolution Tree. System is prone to random crashes.]
[System Master #####mented: I will handle it]
[System Analysis shall continuously be performed and system shall constantly update]
DING!
[Evolution process shall resume¡]
[Golden Demonic Chick evolves into Golden Demonic Hen]
[All general stats have increased]
[The target will acquire the skill [Mana Perception]]
[The target will acquire the skill [Magic Perception]]
[The target will acquire the skill [Dark Vision]]
[The target will acquire the skill [Flight]]
[All skills have been inserted]
[The King of Hell Ozvaloth will be notified of target''s existence]
[¡ System Master ##### has blocked any form of notification to the King of Hell Ozvaloth]
[All processesplete]
[Evolution¡plete]
***
Day 10
[You have evolved into a [Golden Demonic Hen]]
[Your base stats have increased]
[You have acquired the skill [Mana Perception]]
[You have acquired the skill [Magic Perception]]
[You have acquired the skill [Dark Vision]]
[You have acquired the skill [Flight]]
Chapter 18 First Evolution
''Wah¡ huh?''
The screens flooded my eyes, giving me headaches with the several dings that came up. I slowly sat up, rubbing my head with my wings.
''Hmm, that''s so soft and nice. It''s like a nice fluffy pillow. Wait a minute¡ since when did I have such nice feathers?''
My feathers were always rough, messy and ufortable, so how the hell were they suddenly enjoyable? That was when I saw my body.
I had gotten a bit taller, as well as fatter. My feathers had gotten darker and seemed sharper and smoother. The tips were ck though, same for my belly and feet. I had some form of antennae on my head, almost like a recement for my original cowlick.
''I-¡ did I evolve? Woohoo! Evolution! Muahaha! Come! Face me!''
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori
[Species: Golden Demonic Hen Level 1/30
[Status: [Hungry]
[Age: 9 days
[Rank: E+
[Race Rank: Tier 2
[Titles: |Newborn in a New World|, |Rare Species|, |Survivor|, |Named Beast|, |New Species|
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess ****|, |Blessings of|
[Level: 16 Exp: 140/1,450
[Health: 700/700 Stamina: 1000/1000 Strength: 110 Speed: 450 Defense: 100 Dexterity: 105 Intelligence: 25 Luck: 40
[Skills: [Evolver], [Analyst], [God''s voice] [Lustful Gaze], [Imprint], [Golden Demonic Hen Cry], [Peck], [ck Wayne Caw], [Auto Mapping], [Poison Generation], [White Viper Scales], [Sprint], [Acrobatics], [Blood Sucking], [Soul Consumption], [Terror], [Prey Instinct], [Fire Breath], [ck Thread Creation], [Thread Control], [Stealth], [Mana Perception], [Magic Perception], [Dark Vision], [Flight], [Spore Generation], [Sap spores], [Poison Gas Creation], [Spawn spores], [Co-ordination] [Poison Resistance], [Pain Resistance], [Heat Resistance]
While looking at my new stats, I noticed there was a cool breeze that made me kind of happy. It came from above and when I checked, I saw weird leaves with their veins glowing faintly.
[Name: Blue Winowa
[Description: A type of tree that usually grows in the summer period. Its leaves are capable of producing a cool breeze that can cool down anything. They are usually used for making cold foods, or keeping items fresh.
''Ah¡ That''s nice. Finally, something that isn''t life threatening.''
"Grrr, waba rak!" I heard some weird growling sounds to my side.
"Waaaa!" Surprisingly, there was a little nt monster flying at me with a vicious grin on its face.
''Eh? What the heck is this? Let''s go, [Tori Kick]¡''
I simply kicked the monster on instinct, ripping right through it and sending its body flying.
[You have killed a Mushroo spawn]
[One of your Mushroo spawns has died]
''Eh? One of my what? Oh, that''s right, I used that new skill I got yesterday before I decided to evolve.''
I then remembered that the night before, I killed a certain creature called a Larm Mushroo. That thing was so scary my stomach hurt remembering it and how I almost died. Yeah, anyway I managed to kill it and acquire enough experience points to evolve, I guess. But before, I nted these guys to protect me, just in case I didn''t make it to the cave.
''So why the hell did that one attack me?''
<<Notice: Thatst order given to the mushroo before evolution was your temporary protection. Post evolution, the mushroos have no orders>>
Agent exined the situation to me in simple terms. Still didn''t make sense for it to understand me though, but I wouldn''t asked. This thing had already proven too stupid to understand some of my questions. Stupid, sometimes useless cheat.
I looked forward and there were three mushroos looking at me with fear in their eyes. I didn''t know that nt monsters could feel fear. I guess even nts have emotions. Two of the mushroos hid behind one, who was probably the bravest of them all. He was also biggest when I looked at him well.
''I guess, I''m your parent since I created you. However, I won''t treat you like a parent would. Take me to be your boss, you little twigs! I guess I shall name you Ichi.''
I told the one the others were hiding behind, because well, he seemed to be the oldest.
[Would you like to name this creature?]
[This would require mana to be transferred]
[Would you still like to name this creature?]
''Eh? Mana? B-But¡ I''ll die if I use mana. So no! I won''t be naming them. I''ll just do so in my head. I''ll call the first one Ichi, second, Ni and the third, San.''
DING!
[You have sessfully named the spawns, Ichi, Ni and San]
[They are now members of your Familia]
DING!
[ERROR! @#%! [Familia] function still locked!]
''Oi, oi¡ what the hell just happened. I just named them? I thought I couldn''t do so without mana. Also, what is this Familia function thing? Agent?''
I got no response from the agent yet again. I just decided to shrug it off. I''d probably just find out a whileter.
I looked at the creatures once again. They looked kind of weak. I doubted they could be worth anything. I probably didn''t get killed the previous night because no monster found me. In that case, I would need to make them strong enough to protect me whenever I slept. I wanted to test out their abilities, but we were in the open, so I would need to go back to my nest.
With [Auto Mapping], going back wasn''t too much of a problem. Also, I scanned them and this is what I got.
STATUS<novelnext></novelnext>
[Name: Ichi
[Species: Mushroo spawn Level 1/10
[Status: Scared
[Age: 1 day
[Rank: F
[Race Rank: Tier 0
[Titles: |Of World|
[Blessings: ||
[Level: 1 Exp: 0/50
[Health: 40/40 Stamina: 100/100 Mana: 10/10 Strength: 23 Speed: 45 Defense: 20 Dexterity: 75 Intelligence: 5 Luck: 40 Magic: 05
[Skills: [Rooting], [Whip Lash], [Sap spores], [Co-ordination], [Mana Absorption]
''Tch, damned brats have better stats than I did when I first started out.''
Finally, it was time to test out their fighting potential.
Hahaha! Nowdies and gentlemen! I present to you, the ultimate, Twig Tournament! Who shall be my twig!
I hade up with the idea of a tournament where the twig brothers fight amongst themselves to determine who the best was considering they all had the same stats.
Ichi was the first to attack, extending his twig like arms to whip his brothers. Ni managed to dodge it, but San took the blow then bit his older brother''s hand. Ni got angry at the sight then whipped his little brother. Ichi dragged San in close, then scratched the little one''s face with his w like hands.
"Awaa! Grrr!"
San didn''t like that very much it would seem. He stopped biting his brother then extended one of his root like legs to grab Ni, who dodged easily. However, Ni jumped right into Ichi, causing Ichi to be disoriented. Without wasting time, San jumped in with his hands forming a giant like structure, probably to capture them.
''Did San n that? Nice. But¡ isn''t Ichi''s adaptability too insane?''
I thought this because Ichi just acquired a new ability on the go. It was called [Polymorph]. It changed its hands to formrge des that cut through the like structure. The de was about to cut right through San, but Ni grabbed San with a whip and flung him into a wall of the nest and essentially making me end the tournament, although it was sort of underwhelming.
All of them had already reach 1 hp. So I would need to find a way to raise them back up to full health.
''Oh, that''s right. How do I get back to hundred percent, when I lose some health? Do I just eat? Or sleep?''
<<Notice: Consumption of Renosue herbs help recover vitality>>
''What? What is this? Could it be that my cheat skill that knows everything in this world is actually quite useful? Oh my¡ Where could I find such goodies?''
<<Notice: Renosue herbs are mostly found in the West of Larm forest>>
''Hehehe, and I''m currently located in the West of Larm forest? Muahaha! I shall find these herbs and amass them! But now¡ I need to fix my home.''
I looked up at my broken roof and saw a few cracks in my walls. I really needed to do some home repairs. I unconsciously let out a groan and lie on my back, thinking about how I will alter this.
''Maybe I could live without a roof. You know, bask in glorious sunlight during the day time and absorb that sweet fantasy moonlight at night. It''ll be dope.''
BOOM!
Just then, thunder boomed and thunder clouds gathered in the sky.
''Seriously? Tch.''
I got off the ground and decided to scroll through my skill set to see if I had anything useful. Luckily I had acquired [ck Thread Creation] from the ck Weaver yesterday and it seemed quite useful. My use of it the first time was quite horrible. The ck sticky substance just fell on the floor every time I tried shooting it out of my feather tip.
The clouds were gathering and I didn''t have time toe up with something better, so I just picked up the falling pieces and attached them to the ends of the top of my home, trying to form some sort of with them.
Soon enough, I managed to cover the toppletely. It started raining and I could feel a little bit safe, that is until my ceiling started leaking. It would seem that my threads still weren''t strong enough, so I needed to be more creative if I didn''t want to get my feathers wet.
After a bit of looking around and thinking, I decided to leave theforts of my dry cave to go search for tree branches, which I cut down with my ws and dragged back into the nest. It was hard to do without hands, but I managed to fix the tree branches to the ceiling like a roof and tie them together using [ck Thread Creation]. Coincidentally, the tree branches I took were from a Winowa tree and still had some of the leaves present, dropping the room''s temperature and helping me dry off.
Still, given the fact that it was already cold out, more cold air was not necessary. Ah to hell with it.
After time, my body was naturally adapting to it. This was due to the effects of [Evolver] giving me the skill [Cold Resistance] while I rxed. After the rain died out, the mushroos came bothering me and I remembered that they had almost died because of me. So I made them man the fort while I went out in search of Renosue herbs for them.
On my way out, I tested out the [Flight] skill and it allowed me to fly for the price of 10 stamina per minute or so. That was a good deal, I guess. It simply meant I wouldn''t be flying much. Still, I decided to go up into the sky to simply enjoy the view.
It was fantastic. There was an endless mass of trees wherever I looked, but the sunset was beautiful. Behind me I could see a massive mountain range with dark clouds and storms brewing. ording to the agent that was the Northern part of Larm. It possessed the truly dangerous monsters of Larm, so I would never have to go there!
While I was enjoying my time in the sky, I was suddenly attacked by a creature called a [Bronzeed]. It was like an owl with shiny golden feathers and beaks and ws made of bronze. It was quite the slim creature with a sort of automatic feel to it, but also very violent. It attacked me viciously, but I managed to beat it. It didn''t give me enough points to level up though.
At least I acquired a meal after evolution.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Hinotori Evolved]
[Hinotori acquired 3x [Mushroo Spawns]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Cold Resistance]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Goggles]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Heat Sense]]
[Hinotori acquired [Renosue Herbs]]
Chapter 19 Black Wolf Pt.I
"Wawa! Aga?" Ichi was ying around with a tiny pebble he found lying around the cave. I barely gave him a thought as I grinded the Renosue herbs to paste.
[Item: Renosue Flower
[Description: A very valuablemodity that normally grows in Larm, but can also be found in ces with intense weather conditions. It has the ability to recover up to 50% the health of any weakened individual and cure most diseases.]
It was practically a cheat code. Take it twice and you were back to 100%. This was probably the best remedy you would find in this world. And the fact that they grow at ces with the worst weather conditions make them seem quite rare. I doubt the residents of this world use them often. And here I was using them on nts.
Well, considering I found them growing practically everywhere, you couldn''t me me if I felt like wasting one or two of them.
''Maybe I can sell them in a town and make money?'' A thought came to mind.
If I managed to sell extremely raremodities such as these, surely I would acquire quite a bit of money. And if I acquired some amount of money that meant a lovely mansion and all the fantasy monster girls I could dream of. Yes, like elves and well¡ the other fantasy monsters in my head just looked disgusting. I guess I could settle for elves alone.
While I was fantasizing about my glorious future, Ni was jumping about with me, bringing me back to my current state. Embarrassed, I cleared my throat and returned to grinding the Renosue flowers I obtained.
''Still, wouldn''t it be weird for a demonic bird to be selling herbs, promising that they would heal you? That would be the literal definition of making a deal with a devil. Hmm, that would mean I would need a human appearance. If I n my evolutions right maybe I could end up bing a harpy of sorts. That sort of transformation might take long though. Maybe a month or two or even extending to a year or longer. Tch. That''s too long. Wait, or since this is a magical world, maybe when I learn to use magic I could learn Illusion or transformation magic if they exist, then create a human form to set out into the world. That should be simple enough considering I have the Agent. He should be able to teach me magic like that no problem. Damn it, isn''t the Agent kinda useless in times like that. I mean, I practically pulled the short end of the straw if I got this agent instead of the other four. Ah¡ this is too much for me! It''s beyond me!''
I was getting a head ache with all the thinking this Isekai had forced me to do and it was barely my tenth day alive.
After some minutes, I managed to grind the paste. I ordered the twigs to roll around in it and in no time, they were up to 100% health. I looked up and it was getting darker. In fact, the sunlight was practically gone. The Bronzeed I ate earlier hadn''t filled up my stomach so I would need to find food.
With [Dark Vision] I was able to see stuff in the dark better. [Heat sense] worked like Infra-red vision goggles, allowing me to see the heat in living creatures. [Goggles] also worked like binocrs allowing me to see at far distances. When I used [Mana Perception] in tandem with [Auto Mapping], [Goggles] and [Heat Sense], I managed to give myself a holographic wide area map that allowed me to see things that possessed mana and heat within a 100 meter radius. It was quite intense and I almost puked the first time I tried it out.
Fortunately due to that, I acquired [Mental Damage Resistance]. I hadn''t assumed that [Mana Perception] was so dangerous.
<<Notice: The use of the skill [Mana Perception] is not dangerous. Your pain was brought about by the irregrbination of skills>>
''Huh? It''s because I tried doing what other Isekai protagonists do? Tch, I guess it''d make sense since the skills weren''t made together. Still, there should be something like thebination of all these skills right? Maybe like some |Ultimate skill| I''m simply not ready for.''
I looked up at the sky as I walked out my cave. The starry night sky was beautiful. I spread out my wings, about to fly off into the sky, but then
"Waga! Rawr~!"
San came jumping out of the cave, trying to grab onto my legs.
''Eh? What the hell are you doing?''
"Kekeke! Kawrie! Mwa!" Ni also came running out of the cave. At this point I was a bit above the ground. I was hoping that he would try to stop his brother, but then he wrapped his roots around my leg as well.
Wait¡ did these little twigs want to go out with daddy? Argh, their boss, I meant. I guess, I could take them out for a little hunting trip then. I looked back and saw Ichi simply standing in front of the cave, looking at me with a determined expression.
''Tch¡ fine! All of youe along! I''ll take you on a damned hunting adventure. I mean, what''s the use in having tools if you aren''t going to use them.''
Inded on the ground and decided to walk with them, in search of food. Whether it was fortunate or not, monsters stayed away from my home. I would assume it was because of the poisonous gas that was still in the atmosphere. The twigs seemed unaffected so I assumed it was because they were nts and the poison was meant for well, creatures that could think.
After walking for a while, we came across animal tracks. They looked like hooves, so it was probably the me Deer from before. Oh, to think I would find such delicious food so early.
''Oi¡ wasn''t that thing an absolute beast? Weren''t its stats in the hundreds? Especially with the use of its [Fire Force] ability. Um¡ let''s see what I can do about it. Maybe I could-''
I could hear snorting. It were like a pig was around. I activated my [Stealth] skill and used [Thread Creation] on my legs to allow me to climb the tree like a certain web-slinger. I ordered the twigs to hide and they almost perfectly blended in with the trees and shrubs.
The snorting sound was getting louder and I could hear trotting. The creature wasing closer. I gulped and activated [Mana Perception]. With it, I could see this blob of silvery mass approaching me. It was to my left. I looked there, deactivated [Mana Perception] then activated [Heat Sense], which allowed me to see its figure in a better shape than before. It had the body of a warthog, but twice as big and longer. I activated [Analyst] with [Heat Vision].
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: Silver Crescent Moon Boar Level 15/45
[Status: Hungry
[Age: 2 years
[Rank: D
[Titles: |Of World|, |Nocturnal|, |Cannibal|, |Feared Beast|
[Blessings:
[Level: 35
[Health: 3700/3700 Stamina: 5900/6400 Mana: 300/300 Strength: 590 Speed: 420 Defense: 800 Dexterity: 360 Intelligence: 15 Luck: 50 Magic: 70
[Skills: [Gravitation], [Ram], [Thrust], [Throttle], [Luminescence], [Lunar Cloak]<novelnext></novelnext>
''Oi! Aren''t his abilities'' descriptions just over the top? Isn''t he too strong? Who the hell made such a creature?! Also, why the hell is he a simple D? He should be at the very least A+! What is wrong with this world''s standards?''
I decided that I would simply ignore this one and go for a different monsterpletely, but it would seem my [Stealth] skill wasn''t as efficient as I would have preferred it to be. The boar snorted at me, then kicked the ground. At first, I wanted to dismiss it as the monster simply doing boar things, but then it rammed into the tree I was hiding on, splitting it in half.
''Tiimmbbeeeerrrr!!!!'' I jumped off the tree and fell on the ground perfectly. [Acrobatics] really made me feel like a gymnast. Something I could have never experienced back on earth.
In the moment where I was letting my perfectnding get to my head, the boar charged at me. Still, it was incredibly slow whenpared to me, so I would simply fly out of the way. That was easier said than done. Its body glowed with a faint golden aura and its speed increased.
''N-No way. Is this how fast it can get with one skill?'' I asked myself in disbelief as it came closer by the second. At thest second, I quickly jumped out of the way.
''Still too slow! Ha! Ichi, Ni, San! Slow it down for me.'' I ordered and the brothers came from where they were hiding, their whips iling in the air. They tied down the limbs of the boar, trying to slow him down, however he simply grabbed them along with himself and charged into another tree.
''Tch, so you are unstoppable when you go in a charge, huh. It doesn''t matter! You attacked me and for that reason, you shall die on this day! You made an enemy out of the most dangerous creature to ever face this damned! Now die for me!''
Damn! It felt good to say all those cringe lines out loud without anyone giving me weird looks.
I created a cloud of poisonous gas around me, allowing it to slowly diffuse into the atmosphere, while creating some [Sap spores], mixing them in the air. I then used [ck Wayne Caw] to agitate the boar.
The creature was however busily trying to escape out of theplexwork of vines my twigs kept wrapping around it.
''Let go of the boar!'' I ordered and so they jumped out of its way. They had taken more than enough damage for the day. The boar shook its head angrily, then fixed its gaze on me. Its tusks reflected the moonlight beautifully as it charged at me once again.
I decided to test out the ability [Terror] on the boar. It failed though, seeing as the boar didn''t even slow down. I guess that was that. I dodged its ram again, and it ran right through my poison cloud that had a mix of sap spores in it.
[You have received 5 health points from the Silver Crescent Moon Boar]
Slowly, health points wereing to me from this creature. And the poison would slowly kill it. Sure, it wasn''t that impressive a fight, but that would be the simplest way to end things. Or so I would like to say, but the Boar had [Poison Resistance] and I doubted that could kill him.
The sap spores too would take way too long to do any sort of damage and my stamina wouldn''t allow me to wait that long. I simply needed to end it all here very soon, so I just needed to wipe off his health points quickly.
I used [Peck] and [Sprint] to scratch at its fur, but I bounced off like I just hit an incredibly tough bouncy castle.
''W-what the hell? I know his defense is way higher than mine, but seriously? What the actual hell?!''
[Prey Instinct] suddenly kicked in and my body automatically twisted mid-air. When I looked at the boar, I saw that its hind limbs had been kicked at me. However, the distance between us made it practically impossible for this to touch me so I didn''t understand why I did that. That is, until I heard a boom from behind me and a shadow loomed over me.
The tree behind me was falling down. I didn''t understand why.
<<Notice: It was most likely the use of the skill [Thrust]>>
''[Thrust]?''
<<Notice: Affirmative. The skill [Thrust] is a skill that fires a sharp shockwave in one direction. It is a skill normally used by skilled swordsmen and spearmen>>
''Huh? So what the hell is a Boar doing with such a skill?''
I pped my wings hard to get out of the way of the falling tree. Just when I thought I was safe, I was suddenly pulled towards the boar. I tried so desperately to escape it, but for some reason, it didn''t matter how hard I pped, I simply moved backwards.
I looked back and saw the boar once again. It''s once blue eyes were now a raging red. It had popped veins meaning it was really pissed. This guy was just way out of my league. I began to hyperventte, thinking if I would die here. After just a few days. I got too confident. I thought I could do this. I had already forgotten what happened to my nest just a day or two ago.
I was way too careless. That had always been in my nature. That was how I was. I just genuinely never cared about anything and that never ever really helped me. So why couldn''t I change now even though I had been thrown into hell?!
Damn it! Too many thought were rushing in. This wasn''t good. I would ck out from the stress. Was I simply going to let it all end like this? No! No! Please no!
A wave of calm rushed over my body as it normally did, then all thoughts and fear of death disappeared. I was back to normal.
''W-what the hell?! This guy is strong¡ Way too strong? How the hell is it just D rank? Wait¡ I feel like I''ve said this before. Deja vu?''
I was getting dragged in by its skill. There was no escaping this. I would be pierced right through by its tusks. In an attempt to avoid this fate, I cloaked my body in [White Viper Scales]. My n was that at thest second I use [Acrobatics] to narrowly avoid the tip of the tusks, and if that failed, I would just need to believe in [White Viper Scales] ability.
Something however saved me from having to use this n. This something was a three meter tall wolf with mid-night ck fur that descended from the sky. Itnded right on the boar, smashing it into the ground and creating a shockwave that pushed me away.
I managed to correct my position in the air beforending. Then I saw the creature. It bit down on the boar''s neck, easily prating through its tough hide like it were nothing. The boar, in a rage, tried to throw the wolf of its body, but the wolf was relentless. It kept biting down on the boar, scratching it about and creating several holes in its body.
Their fight was a dangerous and bloody one, smashing trees to bits and kicking up earth. I gathered all my spawns and hid behind a tree. I knew I had to go before the fight ended, but observing the fight made me realise how truly weak I was. One evolution wasn''t going to change that for me.
''I want to be like that.'' I told myself. I wanted to be strong. I needed to be strong. If I was going to survive in this world, strength was everything. It didn''t matter what I needed to do to get strong. I just had to get strong. And really quick at that!
For now, my twigs forced me to retreat. I just moved along with them, while observing the battle between two beasts for survival. Who won, was quite obvious.
At the onset of dawn, in the safety of my nest, I could hear the howl of a victorious wolf.
Chapter 20 Black Wolf Pt.II
Day 11
''Damn it! That wolf stole my dinner! I''ll kill it! I''ll massacre it!''
Why am I threatening to kill a big bad wolf? Well it''s simply because that big bad wolf stole my dinner sh breakfast and I am still hungry.
The damned brat stole my kill. That wasn''t fair. Not in the slightest. I thought wolves were creatures of honour and valour. He was just amon crook. I would kill him and regain my lost honour.
"Waba!"
"Aragagah?"
"Kekekra."
My three kids were discussing the revenge ns before me. They had made some weird markings on the ground. I guess that was the n.
''ck wolf, tonight, I shall defeat you! And our battle¡ it shall be legendary! Keke¡ My n to annihte this damned ck wolf is underway! Kuro, my greatest nightmare! You shall suffer greatly!''
My excellent n to defeat that wolf was a simple one that didn''t matter on the wolf''s stats. I would be bringing the fight to my home field which was currently covered in poison that my resistance had grown to the point of me not even noticing its effects.
Still, I was hungry since I didn''t get to eat anything. So I went into the forest to go hunting. I found a giant centipede today. I didn''t know why, but the centipede reminded me of something.
Not caring much, I simply killed it and ate it. I acquired the skills [Feelers], [Sensors] and [Poison ws]. With feelers, the antenna-like thing on my head became something like a detector. I could tell the taste of things as well as smell within a simply range of 10m. Sensors also acted in a way that let me know on pure instinct whether my opponent was stronger than I was or weaker. It was practically [Prey Instinct], but a modified version seeing as [Prey Instinct] automatically integrated into it.
What made [Sensors] better was the fact that it didn''t inflict the [Fear] status into me.
This was where I exined status effects. So this world really was sort of like a video game.
You see, everyone has a status. Your status affects your stats and abilities sometimes. For example, if I had the status [Desperate], there is a 25 percent chance that my stats would go up for a short amount of time. Like an adrenaline boost.
Then there was the skills themselves. Sure a skill can be effective if used smartly, but there is the option ofbining skills to produce an oue that the skills were not originally intended for. That''s what makes skills the most dangerous part of this world. How they can be used, but could also injure you if you didn''t have a counter for them.
For instance, the skillbination I tried performing earlier. Sure, naturally the skill worked. The problem was that I was getting injured in ce of using it. So to use that skill, I would''ve needed [Mental Damage Resistance] to ward off the pain and mind destruction.
So now that I knew that, I would simply use that specificbination of skills at least once every day to ensure that I would be able to do it constantly without feeling any form of pain.
Then there was the time my unique skill [Analyst] was locked. Unlike normal and advanced skills, there was no natural counter for a unique skill. Why was this? Well obviously because it''s a unique skill dummy!
A unique skill appears only once, hence skills to ward off those are practically non-existent. No one has seen such a skill before and the chances of them seeing it again are pretty low. In essence, one out of a million people possess unique skills. And going by the agent''s calctions, the chances of a unique skill appearing twice in two different eras is a 3.142 percent chance.
''Hehe, pie.''
So meeting a person with a unique skill was more like a once in a life-time opportunity you wouldn''t want to miss. Well, if the person also came to kill you, I guess you wouldn''t want to meet them. From all this, I concluded that me having three unique skills was sort of above average.
Normally I should be celebrating that I truly did have cheats, but the fact that these cheats could kill me if overused scared me. I felt like there should be a skill that protected against soul attacks and ording to the agent, there was a plethora of such said skills. The problem was that, we didn''t know exactly what [Analyst] was doing to my soul, so [Evolver] and [God''s Voice] acted as a counter for me, blocking the skill temporarily.
So once again, having three unique skills was dope, but I could die or something worse would happen if I used them carelessly. I figured that the con of using [God''s Voice] was having to deal with such a retard at times, but [Evolver] truly got me curious.
To be honest, what was the actual con of [Evolver]? Fine, it took energy, but that energy could be recovered through sleep, where it puts me in a form of stasis, meaning I don''t get hungry. Sure, I would be defenseless, but if I found this ultimate fortress no one could prate and I kept on putting myself in absurd situations, wouldn''t I simply bing this ultimate being that is immune to everything?
No, there should have been a con for [Evolver]. The skill was simply too powerful for there not to be any.
Ah well, that''s enough for my Tori talk!
It was night time. I could hear wolves howling. It was time to go bring justice to this damned wolf. I flew off from my nest into the night sky. I didn''t use [Stealth] as I flew. In fact I was screaming at the creature.
If it wanted to fight, I was ready. In the forest, I saw four blurs. There were four wolves running through the forest. A brown wolf, a grey wolf, an ash wolf and finally the biggest amongst them, a ck wolf.
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: Timber Wolf 35/50
[Status: [Hungry]
[Age: 1 year
[Rank: C
[Titles: |Of World|, |Survivor|, |Savage Beast|, |Merciless|, |Man eater|
[Blessings: -
[Level: 45 Exp: 4300/7,830
[Health: 2400/2400 Stamina: 3000/3000 Strength: 690 Speed: 600 Defense: 540 Dexterity: 710 Intelligence: 125 Luck: 70
''Oi, oi¡ isn''t he too strong? Like way above my league? No wonder it killed that boar so easily. Maybe I shouldn''t do this.''
I was reconsidering my decision. I came to the conclusion that the best option was to retreat for now, wait till I got strong (At least having equal stats with it), then I could get my revenge.<novelnext></novelnext>
I was about to fly back to the nest, but then the wolves paused. The ck wolf sniffed the air around them. What was happening? There was something wrong.
One of the wolves then squeaked in pain. It kept scratching at its face as if there was something there. I tried my best to zoom in on them and there, to my surprise, was San. Hadn''t I ordered them to stay back at the cave? What the hell was he doing?
''Oi! San! Retreat you little bastard!''
San heard my order and then left the wolf''s face. Itnded on the ground and stuck its tongue out at the wolves, before running towards the nest.
''What the fuck?!''
I couldn''t hold the words back.
I flew at full speed towards the nest. Unlike the wolves, there was no obstacle in my path since I was in the air, so I should have been able to get back earlier. I underestimated their speed.
These bastards were so fast that they easily caught up to San. San however jumped on the grey wolf''s face and began ying around. The ash wolf tried to hit San, but the little guy dodged, making the attack hit just the grey wolf''s face.
Thest wolf however was about to pounce on San. I saw no escape route for the little fe. Normally, I should have just observed, but on instinct, I jumped in to save the little guy, taking the hit for him instead and tumbling to the ground with it in my embrace.
"Wawawa! Aga!"
I looked at the cheeky brat and he was screaming with a creepy smile on his face.
I didn''t know why, but the thought of San almost dying pissed me off. I couldn''t let the little bastard die.
I threw the cheeky brat away then got up to face the wolf. It towered over me like some kind of demon. Its dark violet eyes glowed eerily.
''Hehe. In the end, it seems I was going to have to undergo great adversity to truly be strong at an early stage in my life.''
''Let''s do this! Like real men!''
The wolves all gathered up behind him. As if he understood what I said, he barked at the other wolves and they reluctantly left us alone.
Now that we were alone, I needed to figure out a way to beat this beast in a head to head confrontation. I started. I quickly flew around the wolf, circling it while shooting out ck threads. The wolf didn''t let the threads touch him, instead he swiped at them with his ws,pletely destroying them.
He used his [Timber Wolf Howl] and [Predator Instinct] to set me off. [Prey Instinct] practically weakened me in the face of anyone possessing such an ability. Right now, my mind was all ''Run! Run! Run!'' but I wouldn''t. Fortunately, with [Sensor] I knew it was just a trick I could resist. Although I think it was mostly [Mental Damage Resistance] and [Evolver].
I then tried [Terror] on the wolf. It paused in its track once the skill hit it.
''It''s go time!''
I activated [White Viper Scales], [Sprint], [Peck] and [Poison Generation] for my new Tori Original: [Verwesen]. My body was immediately coated in white scales and possessed a yellow glow with a maelstrom of poison spilling from my mouth as a span like a fidget spinner.
My goal was to hit it right on the head and hopefully break its skull open or melt right through it. However, things weren''t so easy. The wolf snapped out of his daydream and as if even more enraged, its aura blew out of proportion.
[You have acquired the skill [Murderous Aura Resistance]]
''Eh? Eh? What?!''
It opened its maw viciously. It was like the devil that hade to collect my soul. With that thought in my mind, I veered away, narrowly missing his fangs. In fact, some of my feathers had been bitten off. When I looked back, the wolf was ring at me. It spat out the feathers then pounced at me.
I swerved it but barely. Without wasting time, it pounced on me again. Inplete fear, I activated my n too quickly. Using [Fire Breath], I sted the beast''s body with my weak mes. As expected, its coat was way above any damage my mes would cause, but then the spores which touched it earlier would set it aze.
''What spores touched it earlier?'' you ask? Well the spores I ced on the ck threads I fired at him earlier which he ripped to shreds. Yes, those threads were coated in my spores so now that they were set aze, even if the beast''s defenses were high enough to ignore the mes, they wouldn''t go out.
Now that they wouldn''t go out eventually they would start leeching off his health points, right?
I flew back, mming into a tree by ident and falling to the ground. I just got flight yesterday, so flying was still tricky, especially with obstacles all around me. And my confusing bird vision made it a bit harder.
Yes, even though I had spent roughly a week as a bird, the vision was still confusing me. You think it''s easy having close to a 360 degree view on everything? Practically nothing escapes my view and it''s so hard keeping up still.
Maybe my spirit animal was a bird?
Maybe that was why I reincarnated as a bird?
Honestly, I was really grasping at straws here. Why the hell was I reincarnated? Why was I thrown into hell? Did some great deity see me as deserving of this piece of crap reincarnation?
I wanted to ponder this some more, but the wolf pounced on me again. To be honest, its skill set was quite limited. All it had going for it were its stats.
It tried to bite my head off, but I ducked underneath it. I tried a peck to its belly, but it barely moved. Seeing that wouldn''t work, I tried to fly off, but the wolf copsed on me.
''Oi! No fair! That''s a dirty trick!''
Iined, but that wouldn''t work here. While I struggled to move from here, the wolf rolled all about on me, crushing my body and slowly draining my health.
[You have lost 10 health points]
[You have lost 5 health points]
[You have lost 7 health points]
Chapter 21 Black Wolf Pt.III
Larm Forest was a very dangerous ce. So dangerous that humans dare not step foot in it. Well, it was human nature to step foot into the unknown regardless of the amount of danger. So, why exactly did no one dare step foot here?
It was due to the presence of five powerful creatures known as the Tyrants of Larm. These tyrants all possessed immense power and were said to be able to take down whole adventurer guilds by themselves. It was rumoured that the strongest of these Tyrants could take down an entire nation if they so pleased.
There was a nation that had suffered from a Tyrant''s wrath before and this was a well-known fact. No one wanted to introduce such a monstrosity into their lives, so they dared not bother with Larm.
Right now, in the West, its resident Tyrant could smell a blossoming fire. The discoloured creature got off its arse and picked up a massive club that was twice its size and walked towards the entrance of its cave. When it got there, the sun was not visible. It was night time. Yet, the forest was bright. It could see and smell smoke. Tiny animals were running about, none daring to go near its cave, but they were running around.
The Tyrant sniffed the air, and it tilted its head to one side, confused. There was a forest fire, but strangely no humans. In fact, the forest fire shouldn''t have been possible with the way the trees in the forest were. It was like the trees were willingly burning themselves.
The Tyrant put their hand in their nose, picking out boogers. With an annoyed yawn, the Tyrant kicked off to go investigate. Not as fast as a lightning strike, but very close. The Tyrant of West was going to meet a seemingly very boring sight.
Little did the Mad Witch of the West know that she was about to have her entire life turned upside down.
***
''Ah! Stop that you damned dog!''
I still struggled under the wolf''s weight. In a desperate attempt, I activated [Poison Gas Creation] to hurt the wolf''s nostrils. This worked after I lost about 60 more health points. The wolf jumped off me and I slowly managed to move. I noticed I had the status [Broken Bones]
[Status Name: [Broken Bones]]
[Status Effect: The target''s bones are all broken. All base stats decrease by 70% and target is inflicted with [Pain], [Internal Bleeding]]
''That¡ isn''t good¡''
My health points were going down fast. Like insanely fast. It wouldn''t be long till I was left with only 50 percent of my original health.
That wasn''t the only problem now. The ground was burning. Smoke was everywhere, making it a bit hard to breathe and see. Well, vision wasn''t actually a problem seeing as I used other perception skills.
"Grrrrrr."
I looked back at the agitated wolf. I dragged my heavy body away. I had no chance but to fully activate the n since I had already started it.
''Do it!''
I sent an order to the twig brothers. Ichi, Ni and San descended from the tree tops where I ordered them to hide and they came with Ichi''s hand in the form of arge chainsaw. Honestly, where was he getting the idea for some of these shapes? Did he have ess to my memories from before reincarnating? Maybe because I was its creator it saw glimpses of my past? Something like that?
They came down, delivering powerful blows to the wolf''s head one after the other, so it were almost as if it were bobbing its head. They thennded, all making teasing expressions at the angry wolf whose HP I barely even scratched.
San whipped the wolf''s ass, causing it to turn around and almost bite off his tiny head, but Ni shut Kuro''s maw tight where as Ichi began the process of trying to cut it in half with his chainsaw.
Kuro pped Ichi away with his tail and forcefully opened its mouth, wide enough to stick its tongue out and grab the arms into its mouth to be torn to pieces. It was left with San who continued to annoy the living hell out of the wolf.
I coughed a bit and leaned against the tree. My skills looked numerous, but in the face of true raw power, they were nothing but mere party tricks. If I wanted to stand at the top, what I needed was not brains, or tricks. It was all brawn. I needed power for in the face of true power, all could only bow.
''Guys¡ go back and hide.''
So for now, I would simply live to fight another day. I coughed up a bit of fire. The sparks were reflected by a shiny substance hanging between trees. My ck threads which were not actually ck.
''From the very beginning, my n wasn''t a head to head confrontation. I simply wanted to trap you here, where Iced the floor with a bunch of leaves I already dried out during the day. Didn''t you wonder why the ground was burning? Now that theyck moisture, do you know what would happen when fire touches them? I''m guessing you wouldn''t since you are just a dumb dog. Mitsuki was right. Cats were always smarter.''
Damn it! I cringed so hard to the point where I was proud of myself. I said one of those cringey lines the wise mentors on their death beds in shounen novels always do! Yes, I became a damned novel character. Unlike them however, I wasn''t dying today.<novelnext></novelnext>
I coughed the fire out. It was me adding an ember to an inferno at this point.
"AWWOOOOOOOOO!!!"
The wolf howled.
[The spawn San has been destroyed]
A message popped up and an automatic voice rang in my head. I paused in my tracks and looked back. The wolf was looking at me, the way its body was on fire and the ground around it burnt made it look like a beast from hell. I saw San''s body burning before my eyes. It was a lump of charcoal.
I could feel all heat in my body drain away. My own heartbeat slowed, but was as loud as thunder. My body shook mightily as if I was going to cause an earthquake.
I knew I should have ran. With the threads I had tied all around and the way I had reinforced them, it would have taken the wolf quite a while to escape. So right now was the perfect time to run. So¡ why didn''t I?
Why did I turn back with my severely wounded body? Why despite the odds was I able to fly at the creature? Why¡ why was I crying?
***
I looked all around me. My nest was in mes. There was so much smoke it was getting hard to breathe and see. My body felt numb. My feet especially. I saw blood dripping down then before me there was the wolf. It was covered in scratches, but it didn''t have any serious damage on its body.
Damn it, all my preparations were still useless. I was still too careless. No, now I was going to die. I didn''t want to die. Not now! I hadn''t be a badass phoenix yet! I hadn''t built a mansion yet! I hadn''t gotten my monster girls yet!
I couldn''t die now. Not after barely living in this piece of shit world.
I suddenly lost all sense of reasoning. The only thing that was on my mind was Survive. To survive I needed to Kill.
Kill. Kill. Kill. I couldn''t die here. Not now! So I would kill.
An adrenaline boost caused me to surge with power as I pped my wings hard, allowing me to meet the wolf on an eye-eye level. Through the pain of my leg being gnawed at by a wolf, I used my other leg to scratch the damned wolf''s face.
Not even thinking I just let loose my attack. My ws had been transformed into bronze, then coated with my poison. I scratched the beast''s eye out. Blood jutted out like a fountain and seeing as it had never known anything as painful as losing its eye, it let go of my leg which I hadn''t expected. With how hard I was pping my wings, I flew straight back, spiraling in the air till I fell on the ground pathetically.
''Ugh¡ Uuuggh! Aaaagghh! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! This hurts! This really, really hurts. My vision was all red now with blood. My body felt very numb and heavy. I doubted I could move now. Still, I couldn''t simply die here, right? With all my will power, I stood on my one functional leg.
Not thinking straight, I activated [Fire Breath] and [Poison Generation]. I opened my beak wide as my stomach was getting gassy. I felt like I was getting the worst sort of stomach ache imaginable. The air literally burnt my nostrils. It was like the very atmosphere was acidic.
I saw a weird liquid leaking from my beak. It had this sort of green with a mix of bright orange in it. It looked so beautiful, yet it was destroying my beak.
Yes. This would be enough to injure that damned wolf.
I looked at it. The beast must''ve sensed my n, because now it wasn''t squirming about in pain. It looked at me, it''s eye showed a sign of pure determination and rage.
Well, this was the kind of fight I wished for in the first ce. To be put on the battlefield and feel the rush of a life death situation. This was all my fault for envying a bloody boar. No regrets now!
"Stop."
The skill deactivated. My body copsed, my willpower was drained. This was all because I heard a voice resonate in my head. With [Auto Mapping], [Sensors] and [Feelers] I saw a being in about a 200m radius from where I stood.
In the next second, I could only hear a big boom and a massive dust cloud appearing. Next, the big ck wolf had been reced by a single creature. The creature possessed a sort of grey skin. It looked short. Its white hair settled down on its head. I looked around searching for the wolf but it was no longer there.
I remember golden eyes staring at me, before my mind itself copsed.
Chapter 22 Breakfast With A Cute Hob-Goblina
Day 12
The sound of bone snapping woke me up. Next was the scent of metal that tickled my nostrils. Oh I wished it was copper but it couldn''t be. My body was heavy and Iid in a pile of¡ water? No wait¡ it''s red. That was blood.
I could see a few bodies around me.
[Name: []
[Species: Timber Wolf
[Status: Dead
[A very ravenous creature that roams in thick forests and hilly areas. They are carnivorous beasts of honour, very territorial and believe in the system of power. They are powerful creatures that travel in ns.]
I gulped. Dead? There was a dead timber wolf before me. How? When? Why?
RRRIIIIIIIPPPP
The sound of something being torn apart entered my ears. I dared not move my body. That was mostly because I couldn''t move. Moving my eyes around again, I was surrounded by about five timber wolf corpses.
''W-What the heck happened?''
<<Notice: You lost>>
''Sa sa! That''s not something you should be saying. Since I''m alive and there are dead timber wolves, why don''t we just say I barely made it, no? Maybe in my rage I ended up pulling off an impossible feat?''
<<Notice: You didn''t defeat anyone>>
''Huh? If I didn''t exin who the hell did!''
<<Notice: The Tyrant of the West>>
I already knew someone else came, but then hearing iting from the agent was scary. Images of the previous night shed before my eyes. The absurdity of the creature that appeared that night. How could something so strong exist?
"Hmm?"
I ceased my breathing lest the creature hear my ragged breaths. I could feel eyes on me. My instincts screamed for me to run away, but I seriously couldn''t move. What the hell was this? I had even acquired a new ability.
[You have acquired the skill [Auto Regeneration]]
I acquired this earlier. The night I fought the timber wolf, but I was simply too tired to hear the notice or see the panel.
Right now, my health was almost at 100 percent. So why was my body still heavy? I looked at my status and the only thing there was [Normal]. That meant there was nothing absurd on me. So why?
Damn it! This was really annoying!
''I refuse to be someone''s meal!''
With all the mental fortitude I could muster I forced myself to stand up. It was painful, but I felt that if I could stand, then the heaviness would go away a bit.
I was wrong.
My body still felt heavy and when I looked forward, a creature was staring at me.
''W-What the hell are you?''
That was all I could think.
STATUS
[Name: Minerva
[Species: Albino Hob-goblina Lvl 120/70
[Status: [Anxious]
[Age: 6 years
[Rank: A+
[Titles: |Of World|, |Survivor|, |Merciless|, |Man-Eater|, |Monster yer|, |True Tyrant of Larm|, |Tyrant of the West|, |Goblin Lord|, |Governor|
[Blessings: [Forest King''s Blessings], [Fallen Dragon God''s Blessings]
[Level: 120
[Health: 40000/40000 Stamina: 38900/39000 Strength: 23567 Speed: 19740 Defense: 22400 Dexterity: 16000 Intelligence: 2500 Luck: 30
[Skills: ¡ Calcting¡]
I really wanted to vomit at the absurdity. Wasn''t she simply too strong? Like, absurdly strong? The monster''s eyes locked with mine. Those beautiful powerful golden eyes. I was honestly excited at the sight. They showed untamed power. As such, my first impression of her could be summed up with one word.
Fierce.
She was fierce and wild. Unmatched in beauty if I were topare to the girls I knew from my previous life. Also, interesting fashion style. Much like an amazon. Or should I say cave woman? With the rags barely covering her breasts and other private parts.
She was a bit shorter than Shiro and a tad bit more muscr
''Wait¡ have I fallen for a monster?''
She dropped the limb she was eating. Her mouth was covered with dripping blood and she stumbled towards me. Naturally, I took a step back. She reached out her hand to grab me.
Her ragged up hair swayed from side to side. Every single step of hers felt like the earth was shaking. With one word, I copsed on the ground.
"Carkien."
[You have received 200 damage]
[Your legs have been broken]
The pain of having my legs twisted came hard. Ok, honestly it wasn''t as bad as I thought it would be.
''What? What just happened? Agent?''
<<Notice: There are several possible skills that could cause this effect. Narrowing down the list of skills>>
''Can''t you just scroll through her skill set?''
<<Notice: The skill set of the target Minerva is still being scanned andpiled>>
''W-What? Why?''
<<Notice: Attempting to group all possible sub-skills into one skill to minimize status panel length>>
''Why would we care about that? Just scroll through her skill set! Now!''
It didn''t take even a second for the agent toe up with a response.
<<Notice: Possession of the skill [Overlord] confirmed. Would you like to see the skill''s information? >>
''Yes!''
<<Notice: The skill [Overlord] is a skill that allows its user to have control over all weaker creatures in its territory>>
''So¡ literally the boss of its territory. Damn it, so that''s what she used to break my legs?''
<<Affirmative>>
The hands grabbed my body and lifted me up. I came face to face with the beast and even closer I could only see how pretty she actually was.<novelnext></novelnext>
''What the hell is wrong with me? Tch, agent! Give me suggestions on how to survive this!''
<<Notice: Use of the skill [Lustful Gaze]>>
''Eh?''
<<Notice: The skill [Lustful Gaze] is one that bewitches its targets, causing them to be entranced by the user. Using this skill will give you a route to escape>>
''Oh? In that case, let''s go! Sexy Tori time!''
I activated the skill. In attempt at making the fresh boy face I winked at her. If I had lips I would have probably blown a kiss her way.
She paused and for a moment her eye colour changed to a dark violet, but that was only for a moment.
''W-What just happened? Did it work?''
<<Notice: The skill [Lustful Gaze] failed to work on the target>>
''Eh? W-Wait, then that means-''
<<Notice: Possibility of death now 92%>>
I swear when I get a way to mess with skills I was going to fuck this one up. If I ever saw its real body I''d kill it a thousand times over.
The creature looked at me with confusion, before dropping me andughing hysterically. I blushed, sort of embarrassed, but the creature grabbed me up with both hands. This time its grip was soft and rxed.
There was a bright smile on the creature''s face. Her bangs fell messily on her face.
"Seran dulk sik."
''What?''
<<Notice: The target "Minerva" just said "You are cute." >>
''Eh? Eeehhhhhhhhhh?!''
***
So, I had a bit of problem. My problem was with the retarded skill I had known as [God''s Voice]. You see, when I first came here, I couldn''t understand shit of what everyone was saying, but then when I''m in the jungle with dangerous monsters is when the skill decides to reveal to me that it understands allnguages.
Talk about dumb and useless. At the end, its excuse was that I never asked. That was another dumb excuse that pissed me off, because I couldn''t remember asking for it to trante for me just now.
Oh yeah, there was also the current problem happening.
Oh? What you might ask? It would seem this beast upon beasts thinks I''m cute. And what happens when a girl sees a cute animal? She makes it her pet!
Now as her pet she has decided to feed me! Normally I should be grateful, but this girl is insane. Wait, why was I calling her a girl? She''s a beast! She grabbed some of the timber wolf meat she was eating and tried shoving it down my beak. Seeing that it wasn''t working, because I was didn''t want to, she chewed it up and spat it into my mouth.
Who the hell does that?! So here I was, receiving an indirect kiss from a monster.
''No! Please! Stop! Stop!''
[Due to the effects of the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the following skills]
[You have acquired the skill [Timber Wolf King''s Howl]]
[You have acquired the unique skill [Hunter]]
[You have acquired the skill [Size Maniption]]
[You have acquired the skill [Charisma]]
If that wasn''t good enough, I got some better stuff.
[You have gone up 1 level]
[You have gone up 1 level]
[You have gone up 1 level]
[You have gone up 1 level]
POOF!
I poofed up, being blown out of the goblina''s grip. My legs were healed and my body was up to full health. I felt stronger now as well.
[Certain conditions have been achieved. You have acquired the skill [Devil Miasma]]
[You have received 40 status points]
[Alert!]
[You have 50 unused status points. Would you like to use them?]
''Eh? Seriously? I forgot about those.''
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori
[Species: Golden Demonic Hen Level 5/30
[Status: [Full]
[Age: 11 days
[Rank: D
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Titles: [New-born in a New World], [Rare Species], [Named Beast], [Survivor], [Vulture]
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess *****|
[Level: 20 Exp: 175/1600
[Health: 750/750 Stamina: 1100/1100 Strength: 120 Speed: 480 Defence: 110 Dexterity: 115 Intelligence: 30 Luck: 40
[Skills: [Evolver], [Analyst], [God''s voice], [Lustful Gaze], [Imprint], [Baby Chick Cry], [Fear Resistance], [Aquatic Form], [Heat Resistance], [Poison Resistance], [Peck], [ck Wayne Caw], [Auto Mapping], [Poison Generation], [White Viper Scales], [Sprint], [Pain Resistance], [Spearhead], [Acrobatics], [Blood Sucking], [Terror], [Soul Consumption], [Fire Breath], [Poison Maelstrom], [Thread Creation], [Thread Control], [Stealth], [Mana Perception], [Magic Perception], [Dark Vision], [Flight], [Spore Generation], [Sap Spores], [Poison Gas Creation], [Spawn Spores], [Co-ordination] [Cold Resistance], [Goggles], [Heat Sense], [Mental Damage Resistance], [Feelers], [Sensors], [Poison ws], [Verwesen], [Murderous Aura Resistance], [Auto Regeneration], [Timber Wolf King¡¯s Howl], [Hunter], [Size Maniption], [Charisma], [Devil Miasma]
''Sa sa! What is this? Ah, never mind! Now isn''t the time! My chance at escape hase!''
I was about to fly away, but then
"Break."
My wings just snapped and I fell on the floor. This time, the pain was so intense that I actually screamed, something I hadn''t done for days.
''Why?! This is too painful.''
"No flying in cave. Heal."
My wings just became normal again, and the pain slowly faded away.
''W-What the heck?''
Chapter 23 Side Story - Requiem For The King
The night was painted with the beautiful echoes of the organized howling of the Timber Wolves. Much like a well conducted orchestra, their symphony filled the hollow air and would fill the hearts of any who heard it with dread. It seemed the timber wolves were angry and didn''t appreciate what had just happened.
Well, who would be happy when their wise, powerful and just king just died? A lot of strife may follow, but not tonight. Tonight, they would all howl in sadness at the loss.
Up in the sky, the moon was a deep yellow, unlike its usual silvery gleam. To the timber wolves, this was a symbol of sadness. They had a tale of their patron goddess, Arcarine of the Silver Moon, that said she would paint her own silver moon yellow whenever her champion died.
The tale of Arcarine was one that createdplete admiration and trust in the hearts of the wolves and their offspring toe. Particrly for this n of wolves. It went like this.
Once in the past, there was a young wolf who was sacked from his n. He was made to fend for himself and that was a deed nearly impossible for him. The monsters were too strong and the environment too harsh to this unfamiliar being. After a few weeks, struggling to survive, the wolf''s body gave up on him.
He was going to perish and die a pathetic death in which no one would know of him. However, the silver moon shone on him and he suddenly received strength. The moon showed him a path leading to a dangerousnd. There, the wolf found a beautiful wolf.
She imed to be the champion of Arcarine of the Silver Moon. The wolf finally understood how he survived and he decided to give all his thanks to the Moon Goddess. He and the goddess'' champion ended up mating and creating a family for themselves.
Soon, more and more wolves were being drawn towards them and rather than fighting them off, the two wolves decided to absorb them into their family. It did not take long for their n to grow big. Although not possessing a lot of members, the n became one of the strongest.
Unfortunately, the time hade for the Champion of Silver Moon, or the moremonly used term, The Silver Knight, to go to her goddess. On this night, it was said the moon shone a deep yellow and the Silver Knight''s furpletely contrasted it. The young wolf did not wish to let her go, but the goddess made him a promise.
He would need to take her ce as champion and if he did what she believed was a good job, she would allow him to ascend just like his mate. This wolf was Argari of the Third Moon.
Legends has it that the three moons in the sky were these three beings. As if representing the order in which the beings were born, the moons would appear in such order with a four month interval and on thest day of the year, they would shine brightly in the sky together.
The first moon, Arcarine covered the first four months. The second moon, Areari covered the second four months. Finally, thest moon Argari covered the remaining four months.
So now these wolves sang to their patron for her merciful blessings upon their king. They could not just watch him disappear forever, especially after losing his life protecting his son and entire n.<novelnext></novelnext>
It didn''t matter if they lost their voices. They would sing to his honour. Sing for the ground to tremble. They would sing so the ears of every creature in Larm would bleed. This was their Mass Requiem. This was the only way they could honour their beloved king.
A ck wolf sat on a ledge and staring off into space. His left eye had w marks over them and has been sealed shut, without any eye and his right eye glowed dimly in the dark. His mood would not be easy to discern from one or two nces. This was a first for the others as well.
They only knew him to be violent, jumpy, hungry and strong. He never showed them any other sides of himself. Not even when his mother died would he act so solemn. Right now, they could only feel sad for him. There were the others who would feel resentment and me him for his father''s death.
Well, if it wasn''t for his fight, his father wouldn''t have to fight the Mad Witch, they said. If only he hadn''t selfishly taken on the Mad Witch, they said.
All of them didn''t know the true reason behind her arrival. Not even he himself. But he didn''t care. He just wanted his rematch with the chicken. Easy as that. No one''s opinions mattered to him. And never would they ever, so he wouldn''t waste his energy thinking about them.
''It is time.''
The wolves alert him. The ck wolf looked down the hill, towards the forest where he fought the previous night. He was angry. He was raging pissed. Still, he could respect the creature he fought. It was weaker than him. It needed tricks and schemes to fight. It even needed other creatures to help it fight. However, in the final bout. When he saw that creature''s eyes, he felt like he had lost. He had never seen such determination in one''s eyes before. Especially whenever one fought him. Be it a regr beast or one stronger than him. In the end, they would all bow before him. Yet, that monster didn''t.
To the very end, that monster fought bravely, not fearing him. If he met that creature, he would like to fight again, but this time uninterrupted. If he could break that creature and make it know fear, then and only then, could he say he had won.
''Has the Champion Ceremony bepleted?''
He asked the wolf behind him. The grey wolf barked and the ck wolf stood tall and proud. His left eye burned with phantom pain, but he would fight through. This scar left a deep wound in his chest and psyche. One that would always remind him of the first time he ever truely lost a battle. The first being he could call his equal was a chicken.
''How pathetic.''
Chapter 24 Tyrant Of The West
Day 13
This morning I managed to beg Minerva to let me go out of the cave with her. You would expect that a NEET would prefer to be in the dark quiet cave away from all the monsters, but no! The cave would be too boring!
This NEET would rather plunge into the face of death than waste around in a cave.
Ok, the honest truth was that, it was simply because Minerva was an absolute beast, so I would have nothing to fear in the forest. Especially if she had the [Overlord] skill. She was practically a goddess.
My other priority was finding the remaining twigs. Not because I cared about them or anything. I just felt weird since I lost my connection with them. Apparently they were too far away from me and wouldn''t receive any orders from me. That meant they would go crazy in the forest and probably get killed instantly. I couldn''t sit by and just let them get killed. It might affect them seeing that two of their brothers were dead. Even if I identally killed the first.
Minerva and I had set out from the cave to go hunting for breakfast. Seemed like one Timber Wolf King wasn''t enough tost even a night. To be honest I was happy she ate it all. I didn''t want the meat to rot away in the cave. The cave was already creepy enough. She must have had a huge metabolism to consume all of that so quickly and still get hungry.
''Minerva-san, how do you go hunting?'' I asked her.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Minerva had the [Telepathy] skill, meaning she could read my mind. That meantmunication between us was not going to be one sided with only me understanding. She could understand me as well. To think the first being I would have a proper conversation in my reincarnation was a hob-goblina.
"Huh? What kind of stupid question is Tori-kun asking Minerva?"
She snorted at me then looked at me from the corner of her eye. I was currently resting on her shoulder as she walked. Ah! It was nice having a friend at the top of the fooddder once again!
''It''s not a stupid question! Minerva is so strong monsters run away when they just sense you! So how do you even get food?''
"Oh? Minerva just targets the monsters that stand there for Minerva. Some monsters run away from Minerva and some monsters just stand there for Minerva to kill them."
''Eh? That''s¡ so they were just petrified with fear and you eat them? That''s scary. Anyway, so you eat fanged bunnies and stuff?''
"Bunnies? Minerva hasn''t eaten one of those in a long, long time! Minerva just eats wolves and giant lizards and other big creatures."
She put her pinky in her nose and dug out a booger. That was gross, but it wouldn''t stray my attention.
''Oi, oi. Did you just admit to being so strong that all the predators in the forest freeze up when you get in close proximity to them?''
Minerva shrugged and her eyes went searching about for food.
''Don''t just shrug it off!''
I hit her head with my wing and she giggled.
"Haha, Tori-kun is cute~"
I looked away, hiding my blushing face. Wait! Why was I blushing?! No, wait! How was I blushing? Birds shouldn''t have been able to blush, right?
We kept on walking for a while, and I decided that hunting with Minerva was way more tedious than I had assumed it would be. Everything was running away from her. And she would just look on with a smile. We even got to a tree which she smacked and asked if it was faring well.
I assumed it was a Dryad, but it was a regr tree ording to [Analyst]. I was getting convinced that surveying a forest on the shoulder of a six year old with power to crumble high rise buildings easily was not really the brightest or safest idea out there.
Ok, maybe I was exaggerating with the power to destroy high rise buildings. There was no way she possessed such power.
''Ne, ne, Minerva-san. You said you were the queen of goblins? So can''t you just order them to go fetch food for ya?''
"Hmm, Minerva can. But Minerva will not do that."
''Eh? Why?''
"Minerva does not like other goblins. Goblins are bad."
Her tone was low and I could feel a sort of tension in it.
''You sure it''s not because they just don''t listen to you?''
"Haha! Tori-kun is funny! No goblin can ever disrespect Minerva! That is because Minerva is the most powerful! Hahaha!"
She started boasting loudly, herughter echoing in the surprisingly quiet forest.
''Hmm, I''m starting to doubt that. Normally in manga, the strongest goblin stays behind and forces the others to go find food for him. Well, I guess that''s just how it works in any society that has the monarchical system working.''
"Tori-kun likes to spout a lot of bullshit."
''It''s not bullshit!''
She grinned widely till her mouth met her ears, giggling cutely.
''Still, why haven''t we found any monsters yet?''
I looked around, but with all my skills, I couldn''t see any monsters nearby. Anyway I looked at it, Minerva was too terrifying for this. How did she ever catch breakfast?
"Uwaa¡ Minerva is too tired for this. Minerva wille back when the sky is ck."
Just like that, she had given up for the day. She turned around, walking back to the cave while yawning.
''Looks like we couldn''t get any breakfast. What kind of monsters are out here that they are too scared toe out when their queen walks?''
No, no. I just asked the wrong question. I should have asked what kind of queen they have to be scared of her.
I looked at Minerva who was picking her nose with her index finger. Honestly she was quite cute, but that was gross.
"Do not worry! Most monsters on west side are weak."
She stated something that stunned me.
''Most are weak? The number of times I''ve almost died to their hands is frightening.''
"Hahaha! Tori-kun is weak! Hahaha!"
She startedughing at me even harder in a mocking tone.
''Tch. The west side, huh? That''s right, Larm was divided, huh.''
I just thought and she picked up on that.
"Hmmm. Five."
She said.
"Five? Five divisions?"
"Hmhm. West side, ruled by Minerva. North side, ruled by Griffon. South side, ruled by Naga, East side ruled by Ogre and middle, ruled by Dragon."
She named all the sides and their rulers. It would make sense for there to be other tyrants since she was called the |Tyrant of the West|. If what she was saying was right, then she actually was a queen.
''Hmm? There''s a goblin, griffon, a naga, an ogre and a dragon. So who is the strongest, I wonder?''
Obviously this wasn''t even an actual question. From the names alone you could tell who was the strongest.
"Minerva is the strongest Tyrant."
''Oi, oi. You don''t need to impress me. Surely you can''t dream of beating the dragon tyrant.''
"It is hard, but Minerva can beat Goliath. Mother said Minerva has more potential than Goliath."
''Hehe, your mother? She was probably another goblin in the forest who wished for you to be the strongest.''
I teased.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Mother? Tori-kun is funny. Mother disappeared for a while. Mother is the strongest in the forest."
''Is that so?''
After that we walked in silence for a bit. I just kept looking around and finding new stuff I could probably exploitter. It was weird how now I was close to probably the most dangerous creature I would find in my life, I felt safe enough to be reckless. That didn''t mean I would act recklessly though.
''Ne, ne, Minerva-san. Maybe I could go out to hunt for us?''
"No."
The reply came swift and hard. It was the kind of rejection you knew wasn''t going to be heard out anytime soon. Still, I would want to try it out.
''Eh? Why not?''
"Forest is too dangerous for Tori-kun. Tori-kun is safest with Minerva."
Her eyes looked weird.
''Holy¡ please tell me I didn''t just find a yandere on my first try.''
"Yan-de-re? What is that?"
''Oh um, is that why you don''t want to send the goblins to fetch food for you?''
I tried changing the topic quickly. It would be best if she didn''t find out the meaning of the word, as I didn''t know how she would react to it. She would have probablyughed it off though.
"No. Minerva just does not like goblins."
''Ne, ne! Just because they are weak creatures?''
"No, no! Minerva already told Tori-kun. Other goblins are bad."
''Ugh, what could they possibly do to make them so-''
Before I could finish that thought, we came to a pause in front of the cave. There was an unprecedented sight awaiting us.
Standing in front of the cave were 4 goblins, dressed in dirty rags covering their lower parts like loincloths? They prostrated themselves in front of the cave as if they were waiting for something. No. It was more like they were worshipping something.
''Your servants?''
I looked at Minerva who wore a bored expression on her face.
"No. Tori-kun is Minerva''s only friend. No one else."
''Oi! A servant isn''t the same thing as a friend!''
When she said that, one of the goblins turned his head towards our direction, finally noticing us. Well, they were staring at me with hungry gazes and that made me cringe a bit. It made me remember the ck weaver from earlier.
"What do goblins want?"
Minerva asked in a dangerous tone.
"Queen!"
One of the goblins called. He was probably the leader this rag tag team of uglies.
"Please. Come. Rule."
I guess she wasn''t kidding when she said they beg her to rule them.
"No."
She bluntly denied them, walking towards the cave. On her shoulder I could see that the goblins were looking at me, and I could hear them whispering with the agent tranting for me.
"Chicken... look... nice."
"Tasty."
Minerva then red at those 2. For a second there her golden eyes glowed, and those 2 passed out.
''Eeek! What skill was that?''
<<Notice: The skill [Demon Eye of Sleep]. A skill that will cause its target to pass out immediately>>
''That''s pretty straight forward.''
"Tori-kun is Minerva''s friend! If you want to eat Tori-kun, Minerva will kill you!"
She boldly dered, and the goblins backed away.
"Leave!"
She ordered, but they still stared at her, expecting something. It was actually more like they were confused. I was certain that she could use her [Overlord] skill to get them to leave, no problem. So why didn''t she?
"Leave or else Minerva kill you!"
She threatened, then mmed the ground with her club. She caused a slight tremor and the goblins begun to run away, dragging their friends that had passed out. It didn''t take long for all of them to disappear.
While I was looking at the forest, I noticed that Minerva was already headed back into the cave.
"Tch. Stupid goblins."
Minerva was in a bad mood. She just went to the back of the cave.
''Hey, why did you kick em out like that? You must really not like em.''
I asked, hoping not to trigger andmine.
"Minerva doesn''t like goblins."
She sounded really pissed when she said that.
"But couldn''t you have been a little, you know, less threatening?"
"...."
''In fact, you should have just used your [Overlord] skill to make them leave. That would have been easiest.''
I told her. She looked at me with this cheeky grin of hers.
"Fufu. That would make Minerva lose, you stupid Tori-kun."
''Huh? How can that stupid strong skill make you lose?''
"Tori-kun is too stupid to understand, haha! Maybe one day, Tori-kun will understand."
She broke intoughter again.
What did she mean by that? Were there down sides to her using the skill? If there were wouldn''t she simply build resistance to it over time? Also, this hate for the goblins. It was too absurd, especially when I think about the fact that she was an evolved version of the goblins. Well, thinking about it wouldn''t get me anywhere and it looks like she has no intention of telling me. Oh well, I''m sure it''lle up sooner orter.
Chapter 25 Goblin Village Pt.I
Later in the afternoon, Minerva decided to take a nap. I decided to use this opportunity to search the forest for my shrubs. She would probably have been pissed if she woke up and I wasn''t back in the cave so I would make sure toe back very early. No more than an hour out. I had the agent acting as a timer for me.
So now, I was flying through the forest, testing how fast I could go and damn, was I fast. It was pretty cool zooming through the forest. So this was how fast I could go with 600 speed? Then how fast was Shiro? I think she had 200 plus speed. Was that average speed for humans? But that wasn''t as fast this. Ah well.
How fast was Minerva? Her agility stats were crazy high. I wondered just how fast she could go, and how long it would take for me to reach that level of capability.
I decided to take a break andnd somewhere on the ground so I could try using my special fusion of my perception skills. I once again tried the use of [Mana Perception], [Auto Mapping], [Goggles] and [Heat Sense]. This time, I managed to keep it up for 5 seconds before puking.
It would seem my [Mental Damage Resistance] was slowly growing stronger.
[You have acquired the skill [Mental Pain Resistance]]
I also acquired a new skill. But that was practically a ward against headaches and other stuff. I decided to ignore it and focus on my current predicament.
''Predicament? Hmm¡ can I call it that when I''m in literally no trouble at all?''
I avoided a stone that was thrown at my head easily.
''Hmm, should I say situation? No, that still seems like I have an issue.''
I took a step back avoiding a sh at my neck from a little green man holding a stone dagger. Obviously it was a random goblin. Its stats too weren''t promising in the slightest. The goblin kept attacking me and I simply kept avoiding the stones being thrown at me.
''Um, maybe I shouldn''t be thinking about this for now. It''s actually getting annoying dealing with these retards.''
I was referring to the four goblins surrounding me. Two of them were hiding in the bushes, throwing rocks at me. One was attacking me up front, probably acting as a diversion and then there was the idiot trying to run away.
Normally I should be thinking that he was trying to go get more goblins toe aid, but with my new unique skill [Hunter], I could tell the character traits of various monster species ande up with the best simted strategies to hunt them down and kill them.
What this meant was that, I could easily figure out the motives of my enemies by merely seeing them. Although I doubted that it would always be useful. ording to the agent, there would certainly be moments where my guessed oues would fail especially on humans, since they sometimes acted out of the norm.
Still, this was a good skill. That timber wolf king had quite the ability on him. I guess that was how he managed to be the leader of a pack of crazy powerful bloodthirsty timber wolves. Ah, that''s right. That damned ck wolf! I would kill him.
In a rage, I cut down the annoying goblin in front of me by ident.
''Oops¡ ah well. I guess you guys are next.''
I red at them through the bushes. They must have noticed because they ran like hell. I flew at them, but I didn''t kill them. I simply kicked them to trees. They wouldn''t get up so quickly from that. I changed my attention to the other goblin who was running away at first. He had stopped and was walking this way.
''Huh? What''s he nning?''
He came out of the bushes. My [Hunter] skill wasn''t working anymore, because this wasn''t normal in the slightest. His hands were raised as he came out with a nervous smile on his face.
"E-easy. Easy there. No need to get violent."
He stammered.
I looked at the cheeky bastard. He was treating me like I was some kind of wild dangerous animal.
''I was a human before, you know? I''m not some wild beast you dirty goblin!''
I wanted to say this so badly to it, but I simply couldn''t because I was a damned bird. I would fight the being that made me into a bird. I would kick his darn ass into oblivion.
"Hehe¡ C-Could you please help us?"
The goblin started pleading for help all of a sudden.
''Help?''
"Y-You see. M-My people. We are starving. Y-You can help us, right?"
''Huh? I''m supposed to help you? How and why? Wait, do you guys want to eat me?''
I drew in closer to the goblin. He shut his eyes and was shaking feverishly. It were almost like he was going to piss himself, but then
"Please! I beg you! Help my vige! Or else we will starve to death! I beg of you O'' powerful chicken!"
''Eh?''
***
So, the goblins were the most pathetic monster race I would probably ever see. They were so weak to the point of requesting for help from a chicken. Or what they assumed was a chicken. AKA me.
Yes, these disgusting green scum at the bottom of the food chain have deemed it fit to plead to me for help. My chance at bing a proper Isekai protagonist hade along! I wasn''t going to miss this opportunity for the world.
The problem however was theck of food for goblins. They were so weak they weren''t even able to hunt for their own food without losing several members in a single day. So, this little guy wanted me to help them by bringing them food. To be honest, I didn''t kill him because of his bravery. I was sort of interested.
At least that exined why they kept going to Minerva. And that was probably the reason why Minerva didn''t listen to them. They wouldn''t go for food for her. Instead they wanted her to get food for them. Lazy servants were truly useless to a leader who was already toozy. The damned retards.
The goblin race was a really annoying one filled with retarded hungry creatures.
So, to help them I decided to catch twenty rabbits for them. About fourteen horned and six fanged. I went up by two levels. I ate one of them to see if I would level up like before, but I didn''t. I most likely needed a lot of food for that or maybe powerful monsters.
Nine bunnies should be enough to feed an entire tribe ording to the bastard. It was probably because of their size. Like, one goblin was at least half the size of a horned rabbit. They were really tiny. It almost made no sense how they evolved into such big creatures like hob-goblins.
Anyway, we grabbed the other two goblins and headed towards the goblin''s vige. When we got there, there were a bunch of goblins standing out there, waiting for me. I looked at the little bastard next to me.
Had he tricked me so I could be killed? I was nning on using [Fire Breath] to burn the bastard to a crisp.<novelnext></novelnext>
Sensing this, he walked forward and calmed down the other goblins. He exined the situation to them, but mentioned some bull about me being some sort of "Fire bird"? I had no idea what he was saying so I asked the agent. The agent said it was also unsure and that more investigation into the matter would be necessary for it to narrow down the possibilities and give me an urate answer.
I simply shrugged it off, since it would be a headache to try to ask the goblin to tell me about the firebird or whatever nonsense that was. However, it would seem I wasn''t permitted to have an enjoyable stay, as today was one that would most likely stick in my mind for the rest of my second life.
-----------------------------------------
In the west of Larm, there was a disgusting race that roamed its bushes in secrecy. They mostly appeared during the day hiding in the shadows of trees and trying to stay out of sight, but failing at that badly. They were weak and despised by all races. They were relentless, violent, rapists that just piged and stole food they didn''t work for. They were more of an annoying pest than anything. They were little green menaces that were sometimes called devils. The only advantage they had against other races was not their brains (They were dumb as shit), not their strength (Weaker than shit), not the fastest (Slow as shit), but their number (Shit, they were a lot).
If you were to ask anyone the creatures with the most poption, the first name toe to mind was goblins. However, there was an incident that took ce six years ago that forever changed this. The goblins lost most of their number and their rate of reproduction went down. At the moment, there were not more than seven hundred goblins in the West of Larm.
They were weak, dumb, slow and few in number. Now they were easy pickings waiting to be wiped off the map. Back in a certain era, if you had said goblins were near extinction, anyone would haveughed at you, but now, they would simply shrug at the thought as if it were normal, which was not so.
Right now, in one tribe of goblins, there was an uproar. The goblin vige was excited when three of their members returned from the forest with not one, but neen rabbits. That was enough to feed their entire vige for a week. Two if they rationed it (They wouldn''t). Even better they had brought a chicken along with them. It was bliss for them.
This news was so amazing that the otherspletely ignored the fact that one of their members had died. Then again, it was a normal for members of their vige to die every day. Still, that didn''t change the fact that some of those who had very close rtionships with the deceased would be affected. Yes, as absurd as it sounded, even the goblins could forge proper rtions with each other. Them being on the verge of extinction was due to a lot of reasons and this was one of the reasons why they weren''t dead yet.
A young goblin had been sharpening a stone dagger very deep in the cave. He was surrounded by 3 other goblins that were like his brothers. Although they were all technically siblings, since most of them were birthed from one mother, goblins didn''t think of it like that. They were just born from the same womb, that didn''t mean they were rted. That was their mentality. They simply didn''t believe in blood rtions. Although there were the rare few exceptions.
Normally, they were a group of 5, but one of them went on a hunting trip with some other goblins on this day. Goblins took daily shifts, as to who was supposed to hunt. He had no choice but to go, because it was his turn and they normally went out in fours. The reason for this? Completely stupid and unnecessary. This young goblin was not a fan of the idea of his friend going out with a bunch of weaklings, but there was nothing that could be done about it.
"WOOOOHOOO!"
"YAAAY!"
As he was sharpening his tools, screams of his people could be hearding from the entrance.
''What? Happening?''
He turned to look at behind him curiously, but he wouldn''t be able to see. He would have to get closer.
"What is going on?"
"Did something happen?"
Things like this could be heard from hispanions who also took notice of the screams. All of sudden,
"You guys! You guys! They have returned!"
A younger goblin was running towards him, waving its hand.
The goblin who had been sharpening his dagger perked up when he heard that ''they'' hade back. He was thinking about the chief and his crew that had gone on an expedition 2 weeks ago. The chief was known as the strongest goblin in their history, second only to his predecessor. He even managed to evolve into a hobgoblin through rigorous training and had been protecting the vige for nearly 7 years. He would sometimes go on expeditions to get supplies for the goblins or would stay back and protect the goblins from other threats such as timber wolves. He was nothing like that foolish outcast that had be a Tyrant. He was certain that she didn''t deserve her title as the Tyrant of the West and that the chief should rather be the Tyrant. But it had been 2 weeks since theyst heard from the chief and they were getting restless.
"The chief is back?"
He grabbed the younger goblin by its shoulder and asked, not waiting patiently for it to catch its breath.
"No¡ The¡ hahaha¡ Other¡ Guys¡ Who¡ Went¡ Hunting¡ At¡ Noon."
He panted after each word.
"Tch!"
He clicked his tongue. He was excited for a moment because he thought that the chief had returned.
"So why is everyone excited?"
The little one had finally caught his breath and he excitedly exined the situation,
"They brought neen rabbits and a chicken."
"Neen rabbits?"
"Im-Impossible! They would have been killed by the rabbits."
The word escaped his mouth. There was no way a squad of just four goblins managed to kill neen rabbits. That made no sense whatsoever. And where would they get a chicken from in a damned forest?
"You better not be lying young one, or else..."
He threatened the child, but the little one responded with a smile.
"I swear on the Wicked Witch''s name. They actually did."
"Yo kid! You know what you are saying?"
One of the goblins questioned.
"You can''t swear on the Wicked Witch''s name and lie, you know. That will curse you!"
"Oi kid! If I find out that you''re lying!"
He nodded his head quickly.
"Go see."
Chapter 26 Goblin Village Pt.II
When they got to the front, they were surprised by the sight. There were actually neen dead rabbits and there was an actual chicken. It was bigger than what he had been told by the chief. But much like the stories, it had yellow feathers and looked weaker than the average bird in Larm. What was rming though was the antenna like structure on its head and the dark violet tips it possessed, as well as ck beak and talons.
This was an amazing development. He was certain his brother was the cause of their victory. He was interested in the story of how his brother managed to gather this much food. He wanted to hear all about it then boast to the chief once he returned.
He looked around for his brother but couldn''t find him, so he went to the leader of that hunting expedition. That goblin was considered the smartest of them all, right after the chief and the sorceress, but he was also one of the physically weakest goblins in the cave. And seeing as the goblins were simple minded creatures that only cared about food, they didn''t pay much attention to this detail and as such, never treated him correctly. So it was only natural that the goblin would be so distracted by the attention he was receiving.
"Where is he?"
The young goblin grabbed him by the shoulders as he questioned the leader. The leader''s face went ck when he listened to the young goblin. He hadpletely ignored the goblin that had been killed by Hinotori a while ago. So now, all he could do was shake his head solemnly and hope the young goblin would understand. After all, the goblins that went out on hunting trips knew that death was an upational hazard.
"He died."
"Ah¡ what killed him?"
The young goblin was dumbfounded by the quick and heartless response.
"The chicken." The goblin responded by pointing his thumb at Hinotori without a second thought, then changing his attention to the other goblins who wereing to praise him.
"What?" The younger goblin, shocked, shook his head several times. Maybe he hadn''t heard right so he would ask again.
"What killed him?"
"Ah. I just told you that the chicken did. Can you not hear properly?"
The goblin asked him with a slightly annoyed tone.
"Surely he must have been taken down by a strong monster!"
"Exactly. The chicken."
"Ah! No way! He wouldn''t lose to a mere chicken. It would be more believable if you said the Fire bird killed him."
"No. No. No. That is just a regr chicken."
"No regr chicken could kill a goblin so easily."
"Yes they can."
"How many chickens have you seen do that?"
"One. This one."
"Huh? Are you stupid?"
"How many chickens have you seen?"
The older goblin nced at Hinotori with a thought in mind after arguing with the young stupid goblin.
''Fire bird? Really. That creature¡ it couldn''t be.... is it?''
The younger goblin''s gaze fell down to the ground. Certainly, it was true that he had never seen an actual chicken before so he wouldn''t know their abilities first hand. Still, the chief had told him that they were harmless creatures. And he trusted the vige chief with his life. He wasn''t going to let some oaf fool him.
"Y-you aren''t trying to tell me that this weak creature killed him, are you?"
He pointed at Hinotori who had been looking around the ce as if it were searching for something.
The older goblin looked at the younger goblin with eyes that said, "I don''t know what to tell you at this point."
"It was that chicken that hunted down all these rabbits for the vige! Do you still believe it to be weak?"
The goblin yelled for all the others to hear. They all then fixed their gazes on Hinotori. The creature looked majestic and radiated a weird aura of trust around it. The goblins felt like they were staring at an object of reverence.
"When we tried to fight the chicken, your brother attacked it and was killed!"
Suddenly, an unexpected voice came from the crowd.
"Ah! Is that not the chicken the Tyrant said is her ve?"
"Ah! Yes! She said she would kill anyone who touches it."
"You fools! You will bring the Tyrant''s wrath upon us. Send it back!"
The group of goblins that had been sent to beg Minerva for help this timeined.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Ah but...."
Suddenly it turned into an argument between the two groups. The goblins in the cave were frightened as soon as they heard the word "Tyrant". This word was one that carried a very powerful meaning for the residents of the forest. However, for the younger goblin, it just made him feel rage.
He despised the cowardly Tyrant who wouldn''t even help her own home vige. Anything of hers, he wanted to destroy it. So in a rage, he drew his dagger and charged at the chicken.
"RRRRAAAGGGHHHH!!! DIE YOU STUPID CHICKEN!"
He was too close to the chicken and the others would not be fast enough to stop this attack. They could only watch in shock and pray that he missed. For if this chicken died, there would be hell to pay.
Just as the younger goblin was about to stab the chicken, his learned skill [Truthseeker Eyes] identally activated and he could sense something off. Even with his eyes, all he could get was a mere feeling. Something was not right with this bird.
Why was he suddenly feeling hot? It was like he would be burnt to a cinch if he got any closer. But it was toote. He had jumped and was merely inches away from the bird. The creature''s beak was open and there were sparksing from it.
***
So after a while, the cave had descended into a state of pandemonium. It was like wherever I went, there had to be chaos. The 4 goblins from earlier who had seen me with Minerva were scared silly. They were pleading for me to be safely returned to Minerva, as if I were some sort of pet.
The goblins who I hunted with on the other hand were saying that I was not dangerous and that as long as no harm befell me, nothing dangerous would happen. Personally I would prefer that they all just shut up for me to find out about their situation. I was tempted to use [Timber Wolf King''s Howl] to silence them, but decided against it.
Suddenly, a goblin charged at me with a stone dagger. For a second I could have sworn his eyes glowed purple. He had a look of pure disgust and rage on his face. I understood perfectly well if it were because I killed his younger brother, which apparently, I identally did. But I knew it wasn''t because of that. In fact, he didn''t believe that I had killed his younger brother. There must have been another reason for that. And the only reason I could think of was Minerva. He must have had a grudge with her or something, so he wanted to take it out on me.
He had already pissed me off by calling me weak. If anything happened to me and Minerva got angry, he would surely die so I doubted anybody would care if I ended up killing him. I would simply use [Fire Breath] to burn him to a crisp.
When his dagger was a few inches away from me, I was about to dodge but something interesting happened. My mana sense alerted me to a swarm of mana forming and God''s agent even warned me.
<<Alert! Sensing Manaponents being gathering. Most likely a magic being created>>
''Magic?''
To my left was an individual wearing a cloak and holding a staff. No, it was a Hob-goblin?
''Ah¡ isn''t that the hob-goblin who almost killed me thest time?''
I could see weird blue droppings in the air. They kept on gathering at one point and rotating violently, forming a spherical shape. A ball of water formed in front of the individual.
[Magic: Water Magic
[Type: Attack
[Effect: A simple water ball spell. Summon a ball of water and fire it at high velocity to cause damage. Damaged cause varies with the amount of mana, control and precision in which it is used]
[Magic Perception] activated like that, forming a little screen at the corner of my eye.
''Water Ball? A verymon and generic spell? Wait, is she firing it at me?''
I noticed its trajectory and was instantly reminded of the incident before my original death. I froze up, confused as to what to do. I mean, what could I do? I wasn''t fast enough to dodge a bullet.
SPLASH!
The ball of water hit the goblin before me, sshing all around me and sending the little creature flying away. I stopped my attack and just looked at the one who shot off the spell.
I was so stunned by it, I almost didn''t notice the other individuals that were standing next to the Hob-goblin. No, there was another Hob-goblin dressed in a shirt and brown pants, with rusty armor and a sword strapped to its back. It had short messy ck hair and a goatee. He was at least three inches taller than Minerva and definitely more bulky. He let out a sigh as if he had done something, then approached me.
All the goblins went down on one knee and bowed to him.
"Wee back, chief!"
"The chief is back!"
"How was your trip!?"
I heard them murmur things about a chief. Was he the chief of the vige?
The Hob-goblin that was easily some inches taller than Minerva looked at me with its leafy green eyes, then went on one knee. He exuded a very oppressive aura and I felt like he could kill me anytime. When I used [Analyst] on him, I knew I wouldn''t want to mess with him. His stats weren''t much higher than mine, but there was something about him. Was this what they called a warrior''s aura?
"Excuse my tribesman for his rude behavior. I am Gorm! Chief of the vige of Ooo."
Pfft... Fufufu...Ooo.
Chapter 27 Into The Tyrant Pt.I
I was led towards the deepest recesses of the cave, where the chief''s "throne room" was. He wasn''t what I was expecting from a Hob-goblin. From manga that I''ve read, goblins were savages that just killed without regard for their surroundings. As long as they were satisfied, they didn''t care. Although weak, they were numerous and used that fact to their advantage. Hob-goblins, although not as numerous as goblins, weren''t exempt from this fact. In fact, they rarely associated with goblins, so this was weird.
Sitting in front of me, was the Hob-goblin chief, who I presumed to be the most violent goblin in this vige, drinking a bowl of slime. Apparently slime was like a delicacy to these goblins. I had also been offered one but was cautious about it. I then took a sip of it and surprisingly, I acquired some skills and resistances.
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the following skills]
[You have acquired the skill [Predator]]
[You have acquired the skill [Slime body]]
[You have acquired the skill [Pain nullification]]
[You have acquired the skill [Assimtion]]
I wondered what a slime was doing with such skills, but apparently they weren''t intelligent enough to actually utilize the skills. The skill [Predator] allowed me to steal status points from creatures I consumed. About 20% of their stats, I could add to one of mine.
[Slime Body] allowed my body to be slimy and all gtinous-like. I was sort of see-through at the same time things should have been able to move through my body. [Pain Nullification] just came by to make my life smooth running or so I thought, till I found out it simply wouldn''t let my stats be affected by the pain. I would still feel the pain. [Pain Resistance] was there for me to lessen the feeling. That was sort of dumb though. [Heat Resistance] needed no description, so I was left with [Assimtion]. Truly a most dangerous skill. It allowed me topletely understand the functioning of anything I consumed. In essence, I would understand the basic working of something I ate or understand the fundamentals being something whatever I ate could do.
Basically, I would be the world''s best vet if I ate every animal that existed. Or if I ate a human mage, I would be able to understand how his magic worked. The problem was if I would be able to utilize some of this information.
Slimes really had insanely powerful skills. Luckily they had no intelligence and just ate all day long.
The other goblins who came along with the chief had also settled in another portion in the cave. Apparently they were supposed to be using this ce but since the chief said I was an important guest, they had to relocate. I could feel them insulting me and throwing curses at my name.
Barely my second week reincarnation and I was already hated by a race.
The chief dropped his bowl to the ground and was looking at me seriously. It was just the two of us in this room. I had no idea why he was treating a bird with this much respect. It were almost as if he saw me as an equal. Could it be because I was Minerva''s friend? Yeah, it must''ve been.
"First of all, I''d like to reintroduce myself. My name is Gorm, chief of the vige of Ooo. I would like to apologize on the behalf of the young one who attacked you earlier on. He is a bit hot-headed so please go easy on him."
''Ah¡ his speech is so good. How?''
I ended up tilting my head in confusion. My antenna was bouncing up and down weirdly as I inspected his body. ording to the data he was eight years old. In goblin years, he was as old as a seventy year old man or so I would assume.
"Oh? Are you scouting my power?"
''Huh? How did youe to that conclusion?''
"Don''t worry, I''m not really strong or dangerous, but I can tell that you are strong."
''Oh? Is that so?''
"Are you curious as to how? Hehe, it''s with a skill I learned from my master. It''s called the [Truthseeker Eyes]. They allow me to see the ability of an individual. The true scope of your power can''t be hidden from me."
''Hmmm? He can see the true scope of anyone''s power? Hey, isn''t that like a weaker version of [Analyst]?''
<<Notice: The learned skill [Truthseeker eyes] are mostly inurate since it requires the target to be exuding aura of a certain frequency>>
''Inurate, huh? Then it''s useless to me.''
I looked away from him. I was bored, and since I had no proper way ofmunicating with him, this was pointless. Unconsciously, I drew the Kanji for bored on the ground. I then stood up, about to leave the cave since my one hour was up. I needed to get back before Minerva noticed.
"Bored?"
He said. I looked at him and he was pointing at the kanji on the ground.
''Huh?''
"You are bored?"
He asked me. Confused, I looked at him.
"Can you write like this?"
He asked me.
''No, no, no way. There''s no way he understood that, right? He can''t understand kanji.''
There was no way he understood Kanji, but just to be sure, I wrote something else down.
"I''m a Barbie doll?"
He said.
''Ah¡ he understands.''
After that, I spent a bit of time, using Kanji to talk to him. Apparently his master knew Kanji for some reasons so he taught it to him as well. Almost everything his master knew, he knew and apparently that was all his master spoke with him, forcing him to learn it as well.
I was suddenly hit with the possibility of his master having been from Japan like me. That meant there were others that reincarnated. This meant that Ken might have reincarnated as well. That was, if he died. I didn''t want to get myself too excited so I threw away the thought.
He also revealed to me that Minerva was something of a little sister to him, which made me all the more surprised that she didn''t care for the vige.
"So, anyway. What brings the friend of Minerva here? Did that goblina finally change her mind?"
He decided to dive right into the topic and I was grateful for that.
"Well, um I''m not here for her. I just came to find out something."
He raised his eye brow when I wrote that down.
"Oh? And what would the friend of Minerva want with a simple goblin tribe?"
"I wanted to know why Minerva doesn''t want to protect you guys."
At the question, Gorm''s expression turned Grimm. I felt like I had made a bad mistake, but then he let out a sigh.
"Have you asked her yourself?"
I shook my head.
"Hmmm, let me ask you this."
I gulped when he said that.<novelnext></novelnext>
"How long have you known her?"
"Not long."
He had a curious expression on his face, like he wanted to ask a question but then pushed it aside.
"Hmm, I guess you wouldn''t know about it then." He sat up and cleared his throat. "Have you heard about the five Tyrants of the Forest of Larm?"
I nodded my head.
"The forest of Larm. This forest that we are in right now is called the Larm Forest. It was named after the Forest King Larm, who was said to have made it from over a millennia ago. This forest is a very beautiful ce filled with many resources and magical creatures. It flourishes as the biggest forest in the world and of course the Forest king was happy when he made it."
Oh, I could tell where this was going. Herees the ''but''.
"But..."
Yep, right there.
"The human nations next to the forest wished to expand theirnds. They saw the Larm forest as the best ce to try to reach out to and so started invading the forest. They mercilessly cut down our kind and stole resources."
By "our kind", I was guessing he meant monsters or magical creatures and not goblins alone
"The spirits in the forest cried out to the forest king to protect the forest and he responded to their cries. He created a creature to protect the forest. This creature was known as the first Tyrant of Larm. It managed to drive away the human nation, but no matter how powerful it was, it was only one creature. And one creature can''t possibly hold off more than one nation on their own."
''So the forest king made more Tyrants, and that''s howe there are 5 tyrants?''
Almost as if he read my mind, he gave a response to my question.
"Don''t get me wrong. The forest king has only ever created only 2 tyrants. The others were created by first tyrant. Still, not every tyrant had a nice life. It''s not like the Tyrant''s led good lives and were suddenly given power from above. Some of them had horrible origins, mostly because of their environment."
"Minerva?"
I scribbled down and he solemnly nodded his head, then he proceeded to tell me about Minerva''s past
________________________________________________________
6 Years Ago, the West of Larm.
A woman was breathing heavily under a massive tree. She was heavily injured and barely conscious. Blood had soaked her clothes and her white hair. She had been running from the goblins that had chased her out of the vige of her lover, the current chief of the goblin vige of Ooo, Dorm.
She was thankful for the kind of weather they were having that day. It was raining cats and dogs and as such, it wouldn''t be possible for the goblins to hear her voice as she screamed in pain.
She wasn''t screaming because of the wounds they had inflicted on her. No, she was screaming because of the pain she felt from the contractions, as her cervix was forcefully opening. Yes. She was pregnant with a child. It was going to be the child of the Goblin chief.
The goblin chief was a Hob-goblin. As a Hob-goblin he wasn''t treated as a simple monster. No, he was treated more like a demi-human, so he was allowed into certain countries. It was in one of those countries that the two met. They had traveled the world together as adventurers and eventually fell in love, but then a time came when the Hob-goblin had to return home. He couldn''t possibly abandon his people, so the woman went with him.
At first she was treated as some sort of ve, but was left alone after the Hob-goblin announced that he was going to marry her. It had been 6 months since they had gotten married and the woman was ready to give birth to their child. Unfortunately, it was prophesied by the vige''s sorceress that the child was going to be an albino.
The goblins had a bad history with albinos. This came from the reign of a goblin sorceress known as the Wicked Witch. The Wicked Witch was a violent magician that used her people for all sorts of sacrifices and experiments. She would sometimes simply kill the members out of boredom. It was undeniable that during her reign, goblins were feared in the forest, but she was killed by a party of heroes that had been dispatched to y her.
However, on her death, she promised that she would return once again to take her seat as the most powerful sorceress the goblins had ever known. Ever since, the goblins would wait out for the birth of an albino, then sacrifice that albino to the Forest king the moment they were born. So this woman had to give them the baby as soon as she bore it. She couldn''t handle losing her child the very moment it was born into the world. She wouldn''t allow it, so she begged her husband to stop them, unfortunately he had to go somewhere and he couldn''t afford to miss the opportunity. As such, he had his best friend protect the woman while he was away.
The woman thought she was safe because she knew that goblin well. Sadly, he had already betrayed the goblin chief and had tricked the woman. As soon as the man was away, he and the other goblins tied down the woman and attempted to force her to give birth, but she used all of her power to run away. That was how she ended up in the forest.
After a while of intense pain and screaming, the baby finally came out. Sadly, so did the goblins. She was too weak to even reach out for her baby that was on the ground in front of her, covered in mud. She wanted so badly to touch those iling arms and to soothe that crying voice, but she couldn''t. She could only cry tears of joy that her child was born. Also tears of sadness that they were surrounded and that the child might die.
No. No matter what, she wouldn''t allow it. She couldn''t allow it. Not only would that affect her mental state, it would also tarnish her family name. She had already done that by deciding to get married to a demi-human against her family''s wishes, but she came from a family that did not know defeat. She gathered power from the spirits in the atmosphere. She called for the very force of nature, and her eyes glowed a brilliant golden. Ten magic circles formed in front of her, forming a line against the goblins.
The goblins were cautious of the bright orange - red magic circles that had beenid on the ground in front of them. Water droplets from the rain instantly evaporated as it made contact with them and it was producing an intense heat.
With a whisper, pirs of fire that cut the clouds emerged from the magic circles. The force from the ejection blew the goblins away, and sparks from the pirs started to burn nearby nts. That wasn''t all. Soon, the pirs begun to intertwine with one another and they started to dance. It was a very beautiful dance that was slowly turning into a tornado of mes.
"AAAAGGGHHHH!!!"
"RRUUUUN!"
"WITCH! WITCH! SHES A WITCH!"
Such things could be heard from the tiny monsters that were slowly getting caught in the tornado and perishing.
Honestly, did she allow herself to be reduced to this state by creatures barely the size of a cat? She really couldn''t live this down.
"Is this the power of chief''s wife!?"
She heard one of them say, and she just let out a painedugh. If it were before, she could have summoned a way more powerful spell, but for that moment, it was more than enough. It was even a miracle that she managed to gather the spirits to aid her at all. She was so angry she was prepared to burn down this side of the forest, along with goblins, but then remembered her child who had been crying.
Tears flowed down her face as she looked at her child. The mes made it easier to see, so she could clearly see her child''s grey skin. She was so happy that she could see her child, so she didn''t want to burn the forest. No, she only needed to protect her child from the stupid goblins. To do that, she forced herself and begged the spirits for their aid once more.
The kind spirits understood her and so they took the child away by controlling the nts. The woman let out a satisfied smile when she sensed that her child was no longer there, so she saw no reason to continue attacking the goblins. She cut the magic spell and slumped down.
Before she died, a spirit appeared to her. It flew above her almost dead body then said,
"Oh child so loved by the spirits, why choose to leave such a barbaric race be?"
The woman looked at the spirit but couldn''t answer her. She could only smile. The spirit, although it couldn''t fathom the woman''s motives, replied in kind,
"Very well then, I shall take care of thine child. But what shall be her name?"
''Her? So I had a daughter?''
She thought. She then forced her lips open and whispered,
"....Min....er...va..."
"Very well then. I pray your soul makes it to the other side, oh child so loved by the spirits."
The spirit then radiated a blinding light as she sang her song to carry the woman''s soul away. As soon as she was done, she faded away.
The only things that were left were the corpses of a woman and heavily injured goblins who still couldn''t believe the scene that had just unfolded.
Chapter 28 Into The Tyrant Pt.II
Dorm let out a yawn as he remembered the party that he had attended thest night. It was an extravagant one held by the goblin tribe of Krav. There was an event where chiefs of each of the goblin tribes met annually to share news about events on their sides. He didn''t want to go, but as a chief and as the warrior that went on an adventure around the world, he needed to attend to trade very important information.
"Hey Chief! What''s with the yawn? Didn''t get enough sleep?"
The one who asked this was a young goblin Dorm treated like his son. He had taught him a lot about fighting and survival skills needed and the young goblin looked up to him like a father. People who didn''t know that Dorm had married a human woman sometimes thought that they were a father and son pair. (They knew him to act more like a human than a goblin)
"Of course he didn''t. Did you see all those human women they had?"
"I know right. Who would sleep when there was an all you can eat buffet there?"
Those who were talking were the goblin escorts Dorm had been told to take with him. His people wouldn''t want anything to happen to their strongest warrior, so he just shrugged and let theme with.
"Hey you two, get your heads out of the clouds."
Dorm warned them and they stiffened up. It wasmon knowledge in the vige of Ooo that Dorm did not appreciate themon goblin action of kidnapping girls for sexual relief and reproduction. He believed that if they wanted to mate with the girls they should ask them. This was all due to the influence of travelling the world and witnessing what happened to his brethren who hadmitted such atrocities. He wanted topletely purge the actions from the blood of his brethren before they died.
And to make a point, he married a human woman who gave her consent. And using his power as chief, he released all the ves his vige had been hording. At first the males wanted to riot but it quieted down after Dorm showed an overwhelming difference in strength.
"That said, I can''t wait to go back home. I''m sure Eren is waiting for me."
Dorm stretched while mentioning the name of his wife. He really missed her, although it had been only a few days since he had left her.
"Hey, chief?"
"Yeah?"
"What''s that smell? Did a fire happen somewhere?"
Dorm looked at the youngster who had been sniffing the air.
"Well it did rainst night, lightning must have set a tree on fire."
He reasoned, but the youngster didn''t take that for an answer.
"No. It smells more like traces of fire magic. A huge use of fire magic! Like big boom!"
"Fire magic? And on arge scale?"
Dorm''s expression turned grim. He knew that the youngster''s nose had the ability to sniff out magic and it was never wrong. If he said it was fire magic on arge scale, it meant actual fire magic on arge scale.
"Where?"
The goblin pointed in a direction near the vige. Dorm''s face tightened, then he picked up the youngster.
"W-woah!!?"
"You two! Head back to the vige and make sure everything is alright. I''m going to investigate this."<novelnext></novelnext>
He then dashed off towards the direction the youngster pointed. It didn''t take long for him to reach the massive field, filled with scorched trees and an ash coverednd. He dropped the young goblin and begun looking around. There wasn''t much to see all except for one tree that had been left unscathed, and at the bottom of the tree, was a corpse. A human corpse, with a silver locket around its neck.
He could tell that it was Erens and tears came to his eyes.
The youngster stood up, scratching his head.
"Ugh chief, you re-"
He was about toin but saw the chief had a sad expression filled with tears, so he kept quiet.
"Eren?"
His eyes fell on the chief''s lover and he instantly realized why the chief was so sad. Why wouldn''t he be? Lying there was the body of his lover, covered with blood and open wounds. From the looks of things she had died due to a loss of blood. He could tell from theck of magical energy he smelt from her, that she was already dead. He was sure the chief also knew, so he just kept quiet.
Dorm steadily walked towards the body, tears streaming down his face. He was just hoping that he was mistaken.
She has to be alive, right? She was always the stronger one. No one could ever beat her. The Feisty Dragon, they called her.
Such thoughts begun to fill his head.
He grabbed the cold hands of his deceased lover. Her face had a gentle smile on it and he could only smile back at it.
What had happened? Had he been here maybe he could have done something.
Those were his thoughts on the matter. Until suddenly, a spirit emerged from the tree his wife had been resting on.
Dorm stumbled a bit. He knew that the spirits did not like the goblins because they were too barbaric. He had even heard of incidents where spirits actually manifested themselves just to kill the goblins, but those were very rare.
"Fear not, husband of this dead one, for I am not here to fight. I wish to ry some information to you."
Dorm could only gulp. She wanted to just talk?
"First, that woman sessfully birthed a female child through fire and brimstone. She was a very strong woman loved by the spirits."
"...She... gave birth to the child? I wasn''t here for that! So why is she dead? Where''s the child!? What happened here!?"
The spirit raised her hand to silence him
"I will have you know that I see no purpose in talking to an evolved goblin such as yourself about this, least of all the chief of those imbeciles. I just felt obligated to at least let you know that the child is safe. You should ask your people about the rest. Farewell."
And with that, the spirit disappeared.
"My¡ people?"
He was silent at first because of the shock from the incident that had just taken ce, but when he started to think again he was filled to the brim with rage.
Chapter 29 Into The Tyrant Pt.III
Dorm had left Ooo.
That was all the goblins could think of. Theirst line of defense had left them because of their selfish attitudes. They realized how grim their situation was and were arguing amongst themselves. They wanted to someone else to be chief but did not know who.
There was no goblin nearly as smart or as strong as Dorm was. Even his prot¨¦g¨¦, who was the closest to him had left alongside him. The goblins reached a consensus. They needed to find Dorm and beg him toe back.
Sadly when they tried, either the goblins came back with multiple injuries, or they didn''te back at all. They had sparked a very dangerous hatred in the heart of Dorm. That was why he left. He knew that if he had stayed he would have killed more of them.
Now, Dorm just spent his days in the forest, searching for his child. The spirit had said that the child was safe, so he had assumed that the child was in the care of the spirit. He could only think of searching for the Spirit Well, which is where all spirits are said to live. Naturally, it would be impossible to gain ess unless one were a spirit himself, so it meant that his child was at least close to the Spirit Well, while being cared for.
If he could find her, then that was all. It had been a year since he left the n, and both he and his prot¨¦g¨¦ had been searching the forest tirelessly. His prot¨¦g¨¦ had evolved into a Hob-goblin like himself, so he gave him the name, Gorm.
Finally, after a year of searching, they had arrived at a ce that they believed to be the closest to the Spirit Well. It was a dark elf tribe that worshipped the spirits. They had told him that a certain albino Hob-goblin had been brought to their vige by a spirit, but they were not allowed to see the girl.
"That''s preposterous. She''s my daughter!"
He mmed the ground as he snarled at the shrine maiden who maintained a calm and collected expression.
"I am sorry, but it''s the will of the spirits."
"Dorm..."
Gorm tried to calm him down, but Dorm red at him.
"I just want to see my daughter! Is that too much for a father to ask?"
The pain of having to hold his dead wife''s body had been somewhat filled with relief when he found out that she had given birth sessfully. To top it off, a spirit had confirmed that his daughter was safe. Then he knew that he only wanted to see his daughter at least once.
Suddenly the oddest thing happened. The Shrine maiden''s eyes were filled with a white light and she begun floating in the air.
"Oh? You again? Ist remember seeing you holding the corpse of your wife."
Dorm instantly recognized that voice and was filled with anger, anxiety, awe and fear at the same time. He didn''t know how to react so his face remained guffawed.
"What brings you here?"
"..."
"Hurry it up. I don''t have all day."
Dorm shook his head and was brought back to reality.
"I-I just wish to see my daughter."
"Hmmm? And why would I let you do that? I made a promise to your wife. I swore that I would protect the child from external threats. Threats such as yourself."
"But it''s my child. Is it wrong for a father to see their child at least once?"
The spirit possessed dark elf put her hand to her chin as if in thought.
"Hmmm, very well. I will give you custody of the child on one condition."
"What is it? Anything. Ask and I shall try my utmost to do as you wish."
The spirit adorned a very devilish smile, then said.
"Give me the life of that hob-goblin right there."
She pointed at Gorm who had been quietly witnessing the scene unfold. It took a while for him topletely understand what was going on, but when he did, he looked at Dorm''s face. Dorm had a horrified expression on his face, but Gorm smiled.
"Oh Great Spirit! You can''t possibly be serious about this. I beg of you, anything else."
"You think I would joke about such matters? If you aren''t prepared to give me the soul, you shan''t see your child. Is that how you want it?"
"N-no, but-"
He knew how much his master had agonized about not being able to save his wife and not even being able to see his child. He had always wanted to repay Dorm for the kindness he had shown him, and if this was the way he could show it, he would dly sacrifice himself.
"Very well, please take my life."
"Gorm-"
"The hob-goblin has decided for himself, so I shall be taking his soul"
The spirit said with a very joyous expression, but Dorm wouldn''t allow it.
"Oh great spirit, would you not have my soul instead? I may not look like much, but I''m certain my soul would be tastier, for you see I have embarked on many adventures."<novelnext></novelnext>
The spirit looked at him with a curious expression.
"That is true, your soul would have been my first choice, but.... I''m confused. Did you not want to meet your child?"
"Yes I do, but I cannot bare to lose a child for a child."
"Dorm! What are you sayi-"
Dorm raised his hand to silence the youngster.
"I just ask of you to give me at least one month with my child. After one month, I shall sacrifice myself to you."
The spirit began to consider the idea. In one month he would have the soul of the creature that had seen many situations and experienced many things. Normally spirits weren''t creatures that ate souls. In fact it was a taboo to eat souls amongst spirits. Those who did were transformed into Devils. There were several merits to bing a devils, such as the fact that devils were naturally stronger than spirits. Also the fact that they could eat human souls without worry of breaking any taboos. That was this spirit''s purpose - to be a devil. So eating a very tasty soul would be a weed offer.
"Very well then. One month from now, I shall expect your soul. Return to this vige and offer up your life to me."
The brilliant light faded from the shrine maiden''s eyes as she settled back down on the floor. She held her head due to the sharp pain caused by the spirit possessing her body. She had heard their conversation, so knew what to do.
"Very well, I shall take you to the child."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dorm and Gorm had been led to where the dark elves had been keeping Dorm''s daughter. Dorm was so happy he was filled to the brim with tears at the sight of his daughter. And just like what had been prophesied, she was an albino, but also a very cute Hob-goblin. She was truly very rare. Not only was she born an albino, but she was also a hob-goblin.
Even when Hob-goblins mated, they usually produced goblins as their children. If they were born Hob-goblins it meant that the child was very strong. Amazingly, she also had her mother''s white hair and golden eyes. She was a splitting image of his wife, just with pale green skin that bordered the line of bing grey.
She was wary of him, but was told that he was her father. Their reunion was not as extravagant as Gorm had expected it to be. He imagined Dorm running to his daughter and lifting her up, but instead, Dorm just went over and introduced himself to her with a smile. He told her that they were going to live together, and the girl looked to the shrine maiden for confirmation.
When it was all said and done, the girl was actually itching to leave the room. She had been kept in there for about a year and had never really seen the outside world, so she was willing to entertain the thought of going outside to live with a father she never knew she had.
It didn''t take long for them to leave the elf vige and head into the forest. The 3 of them were like a family. Dorm was the father, and Gorm was the older brother. They both taught her the survival skills that she needed. She was quite happy with her life, until one monthter Dorm said he was heading off to the elf vige to thank them for catering for her for a year.
Minerva wanted to go with him, but he said he would go alone and he had Gorm watch over her. Several days passed and Dorm hadn''t returned so Minerva was curious. She asked Dorm about it, but for some strange reason he would never answer her. He would just say, don''t think too much about it, then walk away.
This caused Minerva to get quite curious, so she snuck off to the elf vige to find out about her dad. When she got there, she asked the shrine maiden who then told her that he was dead. The shrine priestess then exined her entire past to her. About how she ended up in the vige and why her father had to sacrifice himself.
Minerva, stricken with anger assaulted the elven tribe. Little did she know, that in that moment, something deep within her had begun to awaken. That thing gave her unparalleled power, with which she used to destroy the vige. The dark elves that fought back were decimated. In her fit of rage, she reduced the vige to ash.
The scene of her executing wrath on the vige was forever etched on the minds of the few survivors. They then gave her the title, The Mad Witch of the West.
It took a total three days and three nights, but she finally calmed down. She isted herself to the north-west of the western part of Larm forest because she didn''t want to see anyone. Gorm tried talking to her, but he was thest creature she wanted to hear anything from.
After that, Gorm had nowhere else to go so he returned to the Vige of Ooo. Since he was the strongest there, he was made into the chief through tradition, and has been leading the goblins ever since then.
But ever since Minerva''s rampage, there has been an unspoken rule amongst the forest. It started as a rumour but soon becamemon knowledge to all the denizens of Larm forest.
To the northwest resides a monster of terrifying power,
Lest you seek to die venture not to the North-West
The monsterys in sleep,
Beware not to awaken the Mad Witch of the West.
-----------------------------------------
It had been 2 months since Minerva had isted herself to a cave in the North-West of Larm. She lived a rtively peaceful life in solitude. In her time alone, she had learnt of lot of skills and was already regarded as one of the most dangerous creatures in the west.
Fortunately for her, this earned her a bit of peace from weaker monsters who valued their lives. Unfortunately for her, monsters that always sought to battle tough opponents woulde to her cave to fight her.
It was quite the stressful ordeal sometimes, but each time she woulde out on top and get stronger, while also getting free meals from the corpses of her fallen foes. Had those who challenged her known that she was just getting stronger with every challenger she killed, they wouldn''t have even bothered with her. Sadly, she had already be far too strong.
Still, humans couldn''t get that fact through their heads. They believed that since she was not a Tyrant she didn''t pose much of a threat. Adventurers from the Keimen Kingdom, West of Larm, had been secretly disposed to harvest resources from the forest.
Since the West side had no Tyrant avable, the Keimen Kingdom had been prospering by stealing the goods from the forest, but Minerva noticed this and would kill the adventurers. No. It''s not that she noticed them. Saying that it was always due to coincidence was more eptable. But the truth was, there was a power at y behind the scenes.
A certain being had been watching Minerva''s progress. He would intentionally lead the adventurers towards Minerva''s cave, where they would always meet very gruesome deaths. This being was Larm, the Forest King. He had noticed that humans had been plunging from his forest and it infuriated him. Still, he did not want to intervene directly. That was the whole purpose in him creating the Tyrants, but it seemed his creation had ignored the West and had moved to the center of the Forest.
He understood that his creation wanted to monitor the other Tyrants to prevent them from going lose, and the only way to do that was to stay in the middle so he could react very quickly.
"Fret not Goliath, for now, the 5th Tyrant shall be born."
The Forest King thought to himself.
Chapter 30 Into The Tyrant Pt.IV
"Oh, why did we even take the job?"
A pained feminine voice asked.
"Because we are broke and we need money."
A male voice answered.
"No! It''s for the thrill of the adventure!"
Another voice yelled.
The owners of the other two voices stared at thest guy with disbelief. He was their party leader and had gotten them into all sorts of trouble before, but they were certain that not even he was that stupid. At least, that was what they thought.
Together, they were a rank B- party. The B rank attack mage, Charlotte, The C+ rank Swordsman, Aden, and the B- ranked support mage, Ross. They were quite the infamous party back in Dirthhaven, the capital of Keiman, for the kind of dangerous jobs their useless leader would take and barely manage toplete.
Right now, the reason why they were in the Larm forest was because their leader had epted the job of going to take resources. In secret, he actually wanted to fight the Mad Witch of the West. He didn''t understand why so many adventurers had met their ends at her hands, so he would stop it. Either he was going to kill the Mad Witch, or it was going to kill him. That was his intention.
The others knew about it and were very angry, at the same time, they just shrugged it off, because they knew that that was how their leader worked. He would just pick a job and they would somehowplete it. It didn''t matter how dangerous it was or how tiring it would be, he just had some sort of luck that always helped them.
This time however, there was an extra edition to their party. A young woman who looked no older than 20 had joined them. She was called Lucia and she was also a support mage, much like Ross, but focused more on healing than boosting herpanions physical capabilities, so she was weed with open arms.
They had been in the woods for a few days and had been able to judge the average monster strength. The strongest monster they had seen there was of the advanced rank, so even Aden wouldn''t have a hard time if he were to try to solo the West. The only problem was the Mad Witch. Ross and Charlotte were praying that they wouldn''t encounter her, whereas Aden was working tirelessly to find her cave.
"Ah damn it! Why can''t we find her cave!? Was it all a lie!?"
Aden asked. Ross and Charlotte looked at each other and spoke with their eyes, when they came to a conclusion they nodded.
"Yeah, it''s all probably a lie."
Ross said
"I mean, if there was actually a cave we would have found it by now, wouldn''t we?"
Charlotte added.
Aden started to think about it for a while, then Lucia added,
"If that''s the case, then what happened to all those adventurers who came to this forest in search of resources?"
"Yeah that''s right! Come on you guys. Think a little bit more like Miss Lucia. There''s a strong monster out there and I can sense it."
Ross and Charlotte begun to cry. They didn''t hate Lucia. Far from it. In fact they hade to love herpany. It''s just that sometimes she said unnecessary things at the worst times. So, they continued to walk in search of the Mad Witch of the West.
After an hour of painful walking and searching, they finally found a cave. Charlotte then said,
"This is it guys. I sense an awfullyrge amount of magical presence in the area."
Aden drew his sword and Charlotte, her staff. Ross and Lucia were readying themselves with their support magic. Ross casted his spells on Aden, instantly giving him a boost in strength, speed and defense.
"Alright then, let''s go witch hunting."
"Ugh, Witch Hunting was like centuries ago."
Charlotte Retorted.
"What? I hit a soft spot?"
"You know I don''t like that part of our history."
The duo continued on with their bickering, whereas Ross and Lucia just looked on in boredom.
"Wow, are those 2 always like that?"
Lucia whispered the question to Ross and he showed her a bright smile.
"Even in the grimiest of situations, you can count on those 2 to be at each other''s necks."
"Must be nice to have something like that."
"Yea, it sure is."
Lucia had already told them that her original party had entered this forest without her due to her being sick. The next time she heard of them, they were all said to have been killed by the Mad Witch of the West. So to them, it seemed like she had juste for revenge.
"Hey you guys, we are literally in front of a monster''s home and you''re being this loud?"
He whispered to them and they stopped bickering. Charlotte let out a sigh, then got serious. She had an entirely different air about her at that moment. She was about to show what a true veteran she was. Same could be said for Aden who gripped his sword tightly.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Would you do us the honor?"
He said to Charlotte, signaling for her to start with their n.
"With pleasure."
A bright red magic circle appeared in front of her and she began to chant. As soon as she was done, a fireball, the size of a cannonball shot out of the magic circle and into the cave, instantly setting the ce on fire.
"Oh? Charlotte is capable of perform Rune magic?"
Lucia asked, since all she had seen the girl use was regr magic.
"Yeah. She isn''t called the Arcane Ember for no reason."
Ross went on his knees and began chanting a spell of his own. The spell caused nts with purple flowers to emerge from the ground. While Ross was casting the spell, he could feel himself being filled with unnatural strength. He was shocked by how quickly he had finished the spell and the strength of the spell. The others also noticed how unnatural it was and congratted him for getting stronger. He brushed it off, saying it was more like adrenaline.
He had finished sealing off the cave entirely. These weren''t just ordinary tree roots. No, they were dangerous nts that had poisonous flowers on them. When those flowers got burnt, they would create poison gas strong enough to kill a troll.
Their n was to burn down the monster''s home while the monster slept. They felt that it wouldn''t be that easy to kill the monster with fire, so they hade up with the n involving toxins after a while of walking around this forest. They noticed that there were a lot of poisonous nts around and came up with their n. In the chance that the creature managed to survive the poison, they would fight it in its weakened state.
For a moment there was silence, but then something was fighting against the nts barricading the cave entrance. The thing was wing at it seriously, and with [Mana sense], they could all tell it was a very dangerous beast.
"You guys! Get back!"
Aden screamed and they all backed away. They were prepared for the beast to burst out and attack them. After a while they could see the beast''s snout and ws. When it finally tore apart the vines, it snarled at them, then fell on the ground, dead. It was a massive timber wolf, bigger than the average one.
"A timber wolf?"
Aden asked as he poked its dead body with his sword.
"Maybe one of the kings?"
"Yeah, those adventurers that died must''ve faced off against this thing."
"Yeah, the kings are no pushovers after all."
"Phew, if that''s a king, then we managed to kill a king! Woohoo!"
"Hehehe, you guys realize what this mean?"
Charlotte and Ross grinned at him.
"We''re the guys who killed one of the Kings! We''re gonna be famous and the guild will pay us a ton! Hahahaha! I can just hear the girls shouting. Lord Aden! We Love you!"
Charlotte kicked him and the two began bickering again.
"Fufu... See Miss Lucia, we are always luc-, Miss Lucia?"
Ross looked around but couldn''t find Lucia anywhere.
"Lucia?"
The other 2 noticed that Ross was acting strangely.
"Yo, Ross. What''s up?"
Charlotte noticed the oddity of the situation
"Where''s Lucia?"
"Well you see that''s the thing... I can''t find her. She just disappeared."
"What do you mean "she just disappeared"?"
"I mean she just disappeared. Like as soon as we were done, I couldn''t see her again."
All of them were put on sudden alert. Had she been kidnapped right under their noses? Then that would mean there was a creature around, but where was it? Charlotte and Ross'' [Mana Sense] couldn''t pick up on anything. Naturally, it should have been very difficult for them to use [Mana Sense] in Larm, but after a few weeks of trying, they managed to get a hold on the frequency and differentiate the beasts from the forest itself. Certainly something only the more experienced adventurers could pull off.
Aden''s ability to sense presences on the other hand was ringing loudly. There was something dangerous very close to him. In fact, he was looking at it. He simply couldn''t make a sound. His body was too scared to do so.
Just then a horrid shriek cut their conversation.
"WHAT DID YOU DO!!!?"
A shriek so horrid, it caused them to shudder. They slowly turned their heads towards the source of the shriek. Standing in front of the dead timber wolf, was a little girl with grey skin that was turning white, silver hair and glowing golden eyes. She radiated a killing aura so intense that the 3 instinctively knew that, that wasn''t an ordinary little girl.
Chapter 31 Into The Tyrant Pt.V
Minerva had just finished hunting for dinner. Normally she and her pet, Fang would have gone out together but she told him to stay in the cave and guard it. Why did she do that? Today would mark their one month celebration of meeting so she wanted to get something nice for him.
So she found a bull deer and was dragging it back, but on her way there she could smell something burning and smoke was rising to the sky. It came in the direction of her cave, so she dropped her bull deer meat and ran as fast as she could towards the cave. When she got there, she saw 3 humans standing there and Fang was dead in front of her cave which had been set on fire.
She walked towards Fang''s corpse, tears in her eyes. The humans hadn''t noticed her presence even after she had squatted down next to Fang. The poisonous fumes had no effect on her due to her natural resistance to poisons she had acquired from eating several of them in attempts at surviving by herself.
She then shifted her gaze to the foolish humans that were bickering among themselves after killing her best friend.
"WHAT DID YOU DO!!?"
She shrieked. A shriek so horrid all the creatures in the west heard her. All creatures began to evacuate the premises and prayed for the fools that had gone near the Witch of the West.
She produced intense blood lust as she looked at the three fools. She was wondering which one of them to kill first.
"E-erh, little gir-"
Before Aden could finish his sentence she had already punched off his head. All that remained was his body, and blood gushed out of his neck like a fountain. His body then copsed to the ground.
They were all in shock at the sight and could not even react to her then punching Ross with enough force to create a hole through his stomach. She then grabbed his stuffy beard and brought him down to her eye level.
They looked eye to eye and Ross felt like screaming for help but he couldn''t. He could feel the eyes sucking something out of him and it was painful. Too painful for him to even react in anyway. It didn''t take long for his body to turn soulless, and fall to the ground, dead.
She then fixed her gaze on Charlotte who had been frozen stiff. As soon as she threw a punch, an arm caught hers. It was a slender arm that belonged to a very beautiful woman.
Both Minerva and Charlotte looked at the owner with confused expressions.
"L-Lucia?"
"...No. Sorry, but I lied to you. It was a pleasure meeting you. Bye now."
Larm then snapped the fingers on her free hand and Charlotte disappeared.
Minerva growled at the stranger. She could instinctively tell that this person was in a whole other league. Still, in her rage she couldn''t think properly. She didn''t care about strength. All that mattered was that her friend had been killed. Anyone who protected those who killed her friends must be killed. That was her thought process at that moment, so she used her skill [Lazy Eyes]
It was a skill that put anyone to sleep. Depending on how it was used, this skill could put a person in a state of eternal rest. In a sense, the targets of this were already dead.
"Ara ara~ So scary~"
That response made Minerva shudder. Her instincts were screaming for her to run away
Minerva tried to throw a punch with her free hand, but it was instantly caught by nts that had grown from the ground and wrapped themselves around it. Then more nts begun wrapping themselves around Minerva, trapping her. The woman then let go of Minerva''s arm and took a step back.
She looked at Minerva who was struggling to break free then snapped her fingers again, and flowers bloomed on the nts. These nts contained a scent that could calm a person.
At the same time, a throne made out of nts was being created behind her. As soon as it was done, she sat down on it. She waited for Minerva to calm down, then spoke.
"Hello there. My name is Larm, King of the Forest and I''m here to make you a Tyrant. How about it? Will you be my child?"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The king of Keimen, Rnd Boulderdane had been scrolling through a lot of requests and official documents. This life of his, he saw it as a very boring and tasking one. He just wanted to escape the troubles kingship sometimes brought and just have a good adventure like in the old days.
So when a knight came rushing to his room, saying that two women who im to have just faced off against the rumored Mad Witch of the West and had managed to survive had appeared in his throne room out of nowhere, he was excited. He immediately threw away all the tiresome papers and quickly walked towards the throne room, against his soldiers wishes.
When he got there, he saw two women. One looked haggard, and was asleep, whereas the other looked calm and collected. A true beauty that radiated elegance. He wanted to make her one of his concubines, however he suddenly thought about all the soldiers that had surrounded the two women and were pointing spears at them.
They were being questioned at that moment by the captain of the royal guards, but the woman noticed the king''s presence
"Oh, it seems that the king has arrived."
She said and all the guards directed their gazes at the king. The captain of the royal guard then approached the king.
"Your majesty, you shouldn''t be here."
"Never mind about that. What''s going on here? Why are you surrounding these women?"<novelnext></novelnext>
The captain looked at the women one more time then said,
"Your majesty, they im to have used teleportation magic to appear here after fighting the Mad Witch of the West."
"Oh?"
The Mad Witch of the West. That was a name the king had been hearing frequently and it had piqued his interest. He raised his hand signaling for the soldiers to lift their spears and stand down.
"The Mad Witch of the West, you say? And what would a delicate woman such as yourself be doing fighting the Mad Witch of the West?"
"I went into the forest to scout the strength of the witch."
"Why would you do that?"
"I am a scout mage of the Dhijan Nation. I was sent by my king to test the power of the Mad Witch of the West because of all the talk about it, to see if we would have to dispatch a force to handle it."
"The Dhijan Nation!?"
Everyone in the room was on high alert. The Dhijan Nation was a very powerful nation and also one of their ally nations. The fact that they pointed spears at a member from that Nation could have affected their friendship. The king red at the soldiers and they gulped.
"Oh I''m sorry about the way my soldiers treated you. Might I interest you in-?"
"As rude as it maybe for a simple civilian like myself to cut off the king of a nation while speaking, I cannot allow you to speak. For what I am about to ry to you could crucially affect this nation''s state of affairs."
The king gulped.
"W-what is it?"
"The Mad Witch of the West, although not a Tyrant yet, she shows power close to that level. If you do not eliminate her quickly, you shall lose the ability to extract resources from that forest. She has been an obstacle in that aspect for a while now, no?"
"Hiikkk!!! Y-yes, but how do you know that?"
"I have been living as an adventurer in this town for quite a while now. Most of the adventurers who go on missions to extract resources nevere back. So I went with this girl''s party which was B rank. I saw the beast''s power myself. She took down the entire party in five seconds. I managed to escape with this girl using spatial magic."
"Huh!?"
"F-five seconds?"
"A B-rank party? No way."
Such things could be heard among the soldiers. It was very understandable, because B-rank parties were actually very strong and rare among humans and there especially weren''t that many of them avable in the Keimen kingdom.
"If you don''t believe me, this girl is the Arcane Ember, Charlotte."
She took out the girl''s Adventurer License which was a mithril te. The girl''s face was inscribed on the te, alongside her name, rank and ss. All the men shook at the sight. Sensing the fear, the woman took action.
"Fret not, if we act now we can kill her."
"H-how?"
One of the guards screamed, and the woman looked at the king with a gaze that gave him chills. He then grinned.
''Oh, I really like this woman'', he thought.
"I believe your majesty already knows?"
"Of course. Summon 50 B- ranks and set them loose on the Mad Witch of the West! Tell them it''s an emergency order!"
"B-But your majesty! Such a thing? What if the guild refuses?"
"Tell them that if they do it, we shall reward them 1,000 gold coins, and tell the guild leader I''ll make him a noble if he seeds. That crook is very shrewd and wouldn''t miss out on the opportunity to be a noble. Tell them to move out as soon as possible. The longer we wait, the deadlier the situation."
The captain of guard nodded and gave orders to his subordinates. After an hour, adventurers had gathered in front of the guild hall. For all the adventurers to gather so soon showed just how dire the situation they were in was, so they set off into the forest quickly.
Chapter 32 Overlord
Minerva had finally calmed down and could think rationally. Although when she lost her rage she became a somewhat mindless beast, she was by no means stupid. She had been told about the king of the forest, Larm.
The creature that had single handedly created this forest to protect various species. The being that created a creature powerful enough to destroy an entire nation by itself. The existence known as god amongst most of the creatures in the forest. That very being now sat in front of her.
She would have to admit that Larm was very beautiful and she exuded a divine presence that was suffocating. Such a being would have nothing to do with a simple Hob-goblin. Which is why the words that came out of her mouth were all the more unbelievable.
"Y-you want to make Minerva, your child?"
Larm nodded with a pleased smile on her face.
"Of course as a child of mine it would also be your responsibility to protect this forest in my stead."
"Huh? But Minerva isn''t strong-"
"Hmph. I have no weak children, Minerva. I''ve been watching you ever since you were born so I know the true depths of your strength which you haven''t even began to touch. Also as a child of mine, you will acquire a boost in power."
"... What if Minerva refuses?"
"Hmmm? Then I guess the West side of my forest will be destroyed."
"West side destroyed?"
"Ah? Why yes. Humans will be attacking this forest as soon as possible. I''d say, at most in an hour''s time."
Minerva shuddered when she heard that. No, she knew that was the least of her worries when she saw Larm''s smile. She shuddered when she saw that smile on Larm''s face. Although radiating a godly presence, that smile suggested wickedness. She had a feeling Larm was at work behind the scenes and she was also just a part of Larm''s master n. Still, she could never forgive the humans who killed her only friend.
"... Minerva epts."
"Splendid!"
Larm snapped her fingers and nts that had trapped Minerva broke of and a wooden cup formed in her hand. She then cut her finger and a tiny drop of golden ichor dropped into the wooden cup.
"Now drink this."
She gave the cup to Minerva. Minerva drank it without asking any questions. When she did, she felt something explode within her. This was because her limiters were being shattered. She roared in pain for a moment, but then stifled it down. After a while, the painpletely vanished and Minerva could feel new power flowing through her body. The golden ichor hadpletely fused with her body, now Minerva was no longerpletely mortal. She was now something like a demi-god, but not quite. More like a mutated being even more so than what a mutant she already was. T
"Now go my child. Rain hell on the foolish humans who dared to set foot in my forest even after my warnings!"
Larm had already disappeared, and thatst sentence echoed in Minerva''s mind for some time.
After an hour, the human adventurers made it into the forest. They had all gone towards Minerva''s cave, led by the woman who imed to be from the Dhijan Nation. When they got deep into the forest, the woman had disappeared and all the adventurers heard something in their heads.
"I apud you imbeciles for bing my new child''s first achievement. To those of you lucky enough to survive this uing massacre, spread the news of the 5th Tyrant!"
When they heard this, the adventurers all got weak knees. They tried to run away from the forest, but it was toote. Minerva had already appeared before them. She didn''t let even a single one of them go unscathed. She did let just one human run away with gruesome injuries, to tell the Keiman kingdom about the news of the 5th Tyrant.
This incident became known as the Worst Witch Hunt and the Keimen kingdom''s unbelievable defeat. The king of Keimen med it all on the Dhijan nation for sending a scout mage without informing them. The Dhijan nation denied this and there was a big argument which caused them to close all diplomatic rtions. The Keimen kingdom then became a very poor nation not strong enough to be considered by other nations. This further solidified the reasons for not attempting to extract resources from Larm forest.
__________________________________________
It was around the time Minerva usually woke up from her sleep to go hunting for dinner. She was d because she wasn''t going to go hunting alone anymore. That was right. This time Hinotori was going with her, so she pped herself awake and let out a yawn.
"... Time to go hunting for dinner, Tori-kun."
She stretched herself as she stood up. Strangely enough, Hinotori hadn''t responded to her. She couldn''t sense her presence in the cave.
''Did Tori-kun run way? No, it''s impossible. Tori-kun would never run away from Minerva. Did something happen?''
Out of fear that something might have happened to her friend, Minerva used her [Overlord] skill to get a full picture of what was happening in the West side of the forest. The magical creatures in the forest were going about their daily business as usual. Some of the creatures were going to sleep and some of them were now waking up. Nothing seemed out of ce.
Nothing, except for one of the goblin viges. Strangely it was Ooo and it looked like they were celebrating something. Using her [Overlord] skill she could hear the goblins talking.
"Those guys that brought 9 horned rabbits are so strong."
''Neen horned rabbits? Goblins aren''t that powerful.''
This got her quite interested.
''Oh yeah. Even better they got us some chicken.''
"CHICKEN!?"
Minerva screamed. She shook her head. Maybe she hadn''t heard it right.
"Hmph, the chief took that one. I''m sure he wants to eat it by himself."
"Oh I want to eat chicken too."
"Maybe one day when you are chief."
That was all Minerva needed to hear. They had kidnapped Hinotori and were going to eat him. Although she knew Hinotori was not so weak as to get captured by goblins, she also knew that it wasn''t impossible that they caught her off-guard with cowardly tricks.
Grabbing her club, Minerva charged at the goblin vige. They had taken her family from her. She wouldn''t let them take her new friend. She had ignored that vige ever since she found out the truth. No longer would she let them live their happy lives. Minerva nned onpletely decimating that vige.
______________________________________
The young goblin who had initially started a fight with Hinotori had been publicly humiliated when Oda had used her Water Magic to send him flying. He kept quiet about it, because he knew that she had saved his life at that moment. But when he heard that the chief had asked to be alone with the chicken in his quarters, the young goblin was very much interested in what they were talking about, so he went close enough to eavesdrop.
What he heard shocked him. The background of Minerva and why she hated the goblins so much. He then understood what she had to go through and felt a little guilty for the way he had been insulting her, but that guilt died almost immediately. At that point he didn''t care anymore.
Then a much unexpected thing happened. There was an earthquake and his [Truthseeker eyes] reacted to a very powerful presence outside. He didn''t even need his skill to tell him. His natural instincts had already warned him, and he ran towards the cave as quickly as possible.
"WHERE IS TORI-KUUN!!!?"
A shriek rang out as he ran, but when he got there, he saw 10 fully grown male goblins down on the ground, dead. Standing there was a female Hob-goblin with silver hair and golden eyes. He instinctively knew that she was the Tyrant of the West, he also felt that she was very beautiful. This was the person he had been calling an ugly boar? He felt a bit embarrassed, but knew that she wasn''t here for a talk. She had killed a few of the goblins already. It meant that something had happened to make her angry.
"Aie! The Mad Witch has gone on a rampage!"
"Be careful of her [Demon Eyes of Death]!"
The [Demon Eyes of Death], exactly as its name suggested, a skill that allowed the user to kill its target with a mere nce.
The goblin prepared himself for battle and his brothers gathered next to him. He charged at Minerva and the most frightening thing happened. She suddenly appeared in front of him and a punch that screamed "Death" was thrown at him. He was paralyzed with fear and dropped his dagger. He was prepared for death, but just then, a voice called out
"Ugh... Minerva?"
Minerva stopped her punch mid-way.
-----------------------------------------
Gorm had just told me about Minerva''s history and it was... quite the story. At least I now understood why she hated the vige and I now knew how she became a tyrant.
Long story short, the stupid goblins killed Minerva''s mom. Minerva''s dad who was a Hob-goblin chief at the time resigned to go search for Minerva, but searched alongside this guy, Gorm and found Minerva by sacrificing his soul to a spirit/devil one monthter. Minerva found out and broke into a rage and isted herself from the monsters in Larm. Later on she became a Tyrant, huh? That''s some history she''s got there. I felt like I now understood Minerva a little better.
In that case, the goblins were actual little douches, weren''t they? The only one I could say was a good guy was Gorm, who was something like Minerva''s big brother. And I kind of liked how calm and reserved he was.
I then let out a sigh of relief.
It meant that I could somewhat trust this guy to not attack me.
All of a sudden, Gorm prostrated himself before me.
''W-what are you doing?''
I jumped up in shock.
"Please... Can I ask of you to deliver a message to Minerva for me?"
''A message?''
Suddenly, something unexpected happened. The ground shook furiously and I felt a cold chill ran up my spine.
<<Alert! Intense Bloodlust can be sensed in the area! >>
''Bloodlust? Did the goblins decide to kill me?''<novelnext></novelnext>
"WHERE IS TORI-KUUN!!!?"
Suddenly I heard a familiar voice scream.
"Minerva!?"
Gorm stood up immediately and a sweat ran down his face.
"Looks like you really are Minerva''s friend."
''Oi you thought I was lying? Tsu...''
I let out a dissatisfied sigh
"Looks like I have the opportunity to deliver the message to her myself. Kukuku. That is if she doesn''t kill me first."
With that, we both left the cave and were met with a very visually disturbing scene. On the groundid 10 dead goblins, and 4 were barely standing. They were covered in injuries. It was the group of goblins that tried to pick a fight with me earlier. I guess they weren''t all bark if they could still remain standing after facing Minerva.
''Ugh... Minerva?''
Minerva stopped a punch she was about to throw to hit one of the goblins mid-way. The power behind the punch was like in a whole other league. The shockwave created a very powerful gust of wind that hit me right in the face. If I didn''t have my strength and defense stat I would have been blown away. I felt sorry for the goblin that received the shockwave at point nk. His head was disintegrated on the spot.
She perked up when she saw my face.
"Tori-kun! Where were you? Minerva was worried."
She suddenly appeared in front of me and had open her palms. I guess she wanted me to climb on to them.
''Sigh, it ain''t easy being a bird.''
I climbed on to them and Minerva brought me to her face level.
''Hey Minerva... you just woke up?''
I asked her, realizing that it was about 30 minutes past one hour.
"Hmhm, Minerva was surprised to see that Tori-kun was not here."
''H-how did you find me?''
"Hahaha! Tori-kun is really stupid! Very stupid. Minerva knows everything that happens in West!"
Oh, right. Tyrant of the West and all. Wait! Tyrants knew everything that happened in their territories!? That meant no animal can try to overthrow them without them knowing. Then again, I didn''t think there was anyone stupid enough to face such beasts.
ording to God''s agent it was another effect of the skill [Overlord]. Minerva then began to walk back in the direction of her cave.
''Ugh, I don''t suppose it''s not possible to bring the goblins back from the dead, huh?''
I thought while looking at the dead bodies, bashed out brains and blood, but Minerva said something very scary
"You want Minerva to bring them back?"
''Eh? Don''t say something creepy, you creepy creep. Bringing them back from dead? They aren''t sleeping, you know? They are dead, you know? You killed them, you know?''
She then put one finger on her lip as if she were in thought.
"Hmmm, yes. Minerva can!"
What the heck? Didn''t this Hob-goblina have too much power? No, no. She was probably trolling me. There was no way she could resurrect people. I would call her bluff.
''Sure, sure. Go ahead and bring them back.''
I dared her, then she turned to look at the dead guys.
"You guys, wake up!"
Suddenly all the goblins stood up from the ground. Even the goblin whose head had been blown off got a new head and stood up.
"Oi, oi, oi! You weren''t trolling!?"
"Troll? Minerva is not a troll. Fufufu, Tori-kun is funny."
"No no, to troll is to.... never mind."
I was too tired to exin. My brain was officially blown. She could revive the dead?
''Yo, agent, what skill was that?''
<< [Overlord] >>
''For real? That skill is too overpowered. Doesn''t that mean as long as one as long as someone was in their territory they were like a god?''
Minerva truly was something else.
I looked at her face and she was picking her nose.
''Cute girls aren''t supposed to do that!''
I wanted to scream, but I was just too tired.
"W-wait! Minerva!"
Minerva paused and nced at Gorm from the corner of her eye. He gulped and I mouthed the words, "Say it". I don''t know how he was supposed to interpret my beak but that was his problem, not mine.
He cleared his throat then began,
"I am sorry for what the vigers did to your family and I know no amount of apologizing can ever change that, but please, don''t let the elders'' foolish actions affect the fate of the young."
Minerva heard his words. She then looked at the young goblins that were looking at her then said,
"..... Minerva will think about it."
I grinned although I was sure no one could see it. After that, Minerva and I went hunting for Dinner.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Hinotori met Minerva]
[Hinotori became Minerva''s friend]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Auto Regeneration]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Timber Wolf King''s Howl]]
[Hinotori acquired the unique skill [Hunter]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Size Maniption]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Charisma]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Devil Miasma]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Mental Pain Resistance]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Predator]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Slime body]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Pain Nullification]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Assimtion]]
[Hinotori added 10 stat points to strength]
Chapter 33 The East
A wyvern with white scales d in armor soared through the night sky gracefully, cutting through the dreamy clouds. On its back was a young figure d in dark grey armor that reflected the moon light, giving it a silvery allure.
She had just finished making her rounds. It was her mission to go to and from human countries as a delegate of the Ogre Tyrant. He had created illegal trade between most of the human nations and had made a huge profit out of it.
Although it was not permitted for humans to enter the Larm forest, there was nothing saying that he wasn''t allowed to trade resources with the humans. Or so the ogre would say. Through this he had acquired a hefty amount of weapons and money from human nations. That was the back-up n the Ogre Tyrant hade up with, in the case the First Tyrant ever noticed what he had been doing.
This delegate was returning to the Ogre''s fortress with a letter the king of a nation had made for the Ogre tyrant and so they had made haste and flew through the secret route as usual.
This time however, when she was going back home she saw a scenery she never imagined she would bear witness to in her life. She tugged on the reins and the wyvern drew closer to the image so she wanted to get a better look at it. There was a wild fire happening in the forest and it was burning like crazy. It was spreading quickly and dangerous fumes were being produced. Her wyvern couldn''t draw any closer due to the poisonous fumes so they withdrew.
Several things came to mind on what possibly caused the fire, but there was only one word that kept on ringing in her head.
''Humans?''
Had humans invade the West and started a wild fire? Surely they weren''t dumb enough to just start a wildfire without any ns. Maybe they wanted to distract the Tyrant of the West long enough to extract some resources? And given the kingdom closest to the West, it wouldn''t be a surprise for them to pull that kind of stunt.
She immediately decided to add it to her list of things to be reported to the Ogre Tyrant.
After an hour of just soaring through the air, the delegate could see two guard posts in front of a giant wooden wall. Beneath, on the ground, hidden by the trees were camps and camp fires, with creatures sitting around them and talking. There were various tents with ogres, orcs and kobolds around, chatting and having fun.
A few soldiers patrolled the areas and would look up at the wyvern whenever it flew over. At the guard posts were kobold soldiers, holdingmps and looking out around the wall for possible threats. They saw the wyvern and nodded at its rider ¨C a gesture that wouldn''t even be noticed.
Behind the wall was a massive courtyard filled with soldiers of the orc tribe, ogre tribe, kobold tribe and even trolls. Some were runningps around the courtyard, whereas others were patrolling. Some were busy with training, almost as if a war wereing up. There was a mansion centered right in the middle of the wooden walls. To the left, there was a wyvern sleeping there.
The delegatended there, right next to the bigger ck wyvern who opened its eyeszily for a second. Almost immediately, the delegate jumped off the wyvern''s back and caressed its sides. The delegate grabbed a huge sack she had attached to the wyvern and removed from it a huge lump of meat, which she fed to the wyvern.
"Good boy." She said.
"Wee back, your highness!"
4 kobolds came rushing to attend to her. They bowed down in front of her and yelled.
"Tell my father that I have returned and I have important news."
"As you wish."
One of the kobolds ran towards the Ogre Tyrant''s audience room.
The kobolds then began to remove her armor as she walked towards the audience room.
"How is K?"
"The young princess is still practicing her magic. Do you wish to see her?"
"Hmmm... No. Let her be. What about Karon?"
"The young master has left to the Demise Mountains."
"When was this?"
"About ten days ago."
"When will he be back?"
"We are sorry but we do not know. If you give us some time we shall find out-"
"Never mind about that. Prepare a bath for me. As soon as I am done with my conference with father I will need to take a bath."
"As you wish."
The kobolds bowed and left.
She reached a massive door that led to the audience room. The kobold guards on either side of the massive door bowed to her. When she nodded, they pushed it open for her. As soon she entered the audience room, the doors were shut behind her and the room descended into darkness. The torches in the room dimly illuminated the room.
Sitting on a huge throne of skulls was a very fat ogre, radiating a very oppressive aura. He had two ogre guards standing guard next to him.
The ogre princess then went on one knee and faced the ground.
"I have returned, Father."
"Did the king of the Sundane Kingdom ept my proposal?"
"He wishes to negotiate with you."
"Negotiations? Hahaha! Those foolish humans don''t get it, do they? Fine. We shall humor them."<novelnext></novelnext>
"I have brought a letter full of their demands."
"Demands? That king is too full of himself. Shall we destroy a city or two of theirs?"
He mused, but seeing no reactioning from his straightced daughter he scoffed.
"If that is all then you may leave."
"I have one more thing I wish to report."
"What is it?"
"On my return, there was a wildfire in the west."
"Wildfire? The West? Seriously?"
"As I was returning from making my rounds I saw something running towards the fire. I assumed it was the Mad Witch of the West."
"So why are you reporting this?"
"I believe that humans were causing this wildfire as a form of distraction so they could extract resources from the west."
Oi. That isn''t a matter you should be joking about."
"I am not joking, father."
The ogress looked up at the fat ogre that was easily three times her size. He red at her and fiery red met gradient red in a battle of wills.
The ogre tyrant looked at the two guards before him. He just lost the battle against his daughter and was feeling embarrassed. In a rage, the ogre Tyrant punched the guard to his left. The Ogre smashed into one of the walls and created a hole to the outside. The Ogre guard had died in that moment. The princess was taken aback ¨C although she didn''t show it - because they had constantly reconstructed the audience room so that when he felt like destroying something it wouldn''t be the audience room. Yet, he didn''t even punch the walls. Just sending a guard flying at it had destroyed it. Her father truly was something else.
No. It was more like Larm''s blessings were truly something else.
The other guard started shaking albeit faintly.
"What are you standing there for? Get me, the person in charge of my borders!"
"Sir yes sir, immediately."
The guard ran out of the room with absurd haste.
"Hmmm? And what makes you so sure about this?"
"I don''t know, but if I''d have to guess, I would say it was because of the carriages I saw being prepared at Keimen''s outskirts."
"Oh? Those humans must be truly desperate to want to enter Larm, no?"
"If I may. Is it possible that they''ve found a way to deal with tyrants? I am certain they wouldn''t simply use a wildfire alone to distract her."
"Pfft, you underestimate the Tyrants. There is nothing the humans could possibly do to harm us, but if they knew that she has no interest in the forest they wouldn''t have done something so stupid."
"So do you have an idea of what their purpose might be?"
"As of the moment, no. But this might just work in my favor."
The ogre princess raised her head for the first time.
"What do you mean?"
"Kuhahaha! Ofte the resources in the East have been getting exported too much. It''s going to be very difficult to keep supplying our buyers with the resources in just the east."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Oh?" The Ogre Tyrant smirked, showing his wicked yellow fangs. "Kuhahahaha!!! The West has been ungoverned for too long, wouldn''t you say? It''s time for someone to take control there."
"But, isn''t that where the Tyrant of the West rules?"
"For how smart you are, you can be surprisingly stupid at times."
The ogress gulped and sweat trickled down her cheeks. Her father''s wicked gaze was seriously unnerving at times, although she was ustomed to them. This time, there was something different about her father. He was more malicious if she would put it and he possessed a different air about him.
"S-so, you are going to challenge the West?"
"No! The stupid witch has proved too ipetent to take care of the west. I am simply just going to take up the challenge of monitoring the west and east. If the wench refuses, I shall crush her! Summon the kings! Tell them to prepare for a war!"
Chapter 34 Spice Hunt
Day 14
Well, I had had enough of this! Eating raw meat was disgusting. Way too disgusting even for me. It had almost been two weeks since my reincarnation and I still definitely wasn''t used to any of these. Minerva on the other hand was eating it like it was nothing. Then again, a few years eating this would probably make you think nothing of it.
''Ne, ne, Minerva-san! Don''t you have any spice for your food?''
"Spice? What is spice?"
''You know, that thing you add to meat to make it taste nice.''
"Nice? Add?"
''Uwaa! Agent! Help me out here!''
<<Notice: In the West of the Larm, there exist creatures called Cala. They produce spices whenever they sing>>
''Eh? Seriously? That easy? Cala, huh? Where are they found?''
My holographic map popped up and it was in the zones I hadn''t explored yet, so I didn''t have a detailed mapping of it, but at least I knew where I had to go.
''Minerva-san, can I go out today while you''re napping?''
"Hmm? To find the spice?"
I nodded my head in response.
''You see, it''ll make the food taste a bazillion times better!''
"Bazillion?"
''Yes! Bazillion! That''s like, really, really big! It''ll be so nice!''
"Will it be as good as the elder''s?"
''Uhh¡ I don''t know who the elder is, but sure.''
"Oou! Yes! Go out, Tori-kun! Get us spice!"
''Very Well!''
And so my adventure for the day was set. I just needed to find a cala, grab it and go back to the cave to eat some yummy food. Or so I thought. On my way there, I ran into the hob-goblin mage from the goblin vige. Her name was Oda. She was battle something called a bull deer this time. I helped her kill the bull deer, acquiring the skills [Horn Protrusion] and [Stomp]. I thought that would be all for the day, but she ordered the goblins to take the bull deer back to the cave, then tried to follow me around.
I decided to ignore this however, but she was scaring the crap out of me. I tried flying away, but she ended up finding me either way and since I couldn''tmunicate with her, it was getting creepier and creepier. In the end, I gave up and simply decided to walk next to her since she had no malicious intentions.
"This may be weird to say, but thank you."
The hob-goblin said something rather unexpected. I looked at her from the corner of my eye and she was sort of blushing.
''Eh?''
"You may not understand me, or even remember, but I think you were a chick when we first met. You saw me injured and didn''t kill me back then. Thank you for that."
''Oi¡ did Ind the kuudere jackpot or something? Hob-goblins are really different from actual goblins, huh.''
I was certain that if I could talk, she would be stammering this out like some tsundere. But because I was an animal, she didn''t seem to care much. Still, why was she blushing?
"So, I wanted to let you know that, I''ll try my very best to help you in your endeavors as well."
''Ah¡ I''m a chicken, you know? A chicken! You don''t try to help out chickens! What possible endeavors could we face? Ah whatever, I can''t say no to a cute monster girl in the end.''
I simply nodded for her to know that I understood her.
"You understood that?"
I winked to show her that I understood everything word for word. She reallycked energy in her voice. She was sort of like a machine. Ah well.
It wouldn''t take long for us to reach the cala''s area. I would simply nab this creature and go back to Minerva. Normally, I should have asked Minerva toe with, but she might have scared the creature away with her aura.
Ll!
It didn''t take long for us to hear singing. It was a calming voice, humming a beautiful tune. Slowly, we approached and we were stunned to find 5rge flowers in a patch of grass, singing gloriously under the sun''s rays.
"Cala? Is this your goal?"
I nodded to her question.
"Huh? Does the Mad Witch want this? Ah¡ never mind. This is dangerous. We can''t get the flowers on the Cala."
I wanted to ask why, but that question was soon answered.
"Water ball!"
Oda screamed, shooting a ball of water at the flowers.
''Ah! That will destroy them!''
Or so I thought. The patch of grass rose up, taking the water ball easily like it was nothing, then returned back to the ground, looking like regr grass.
I gulped.
''W-What the hell is that?''
The patch of grass on which the Cala grew suddenly started to morph. It was waving and from it emerged a massive creature. It was a marsh-like thing with yellow glowing eyes and a pissed off attitude.
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: Cala Originator Level 21/40
[Status: [Angry]
[Age: 1 year
[Rank: C-
[Race rank: Tier 3
[Titles: |Of World|, |Fertile One|<novelnext></novelnext>
[Blessings: [Goddess of Fertility, Zengari''s Blessings]
[Level: 51
[Health: 1360/1360 Stamina: 5000/5000 Mana: 1100/1100 Strength: 720 Speed: 400 Defense: 790 Dexterity: 520 Intelligence: 40 Luck: 40 Magic: 120
[Skills: [Rooting], [Chorus], [Encore], [Spice ssh], [Echo], [Sr Absorption], [Seismic sense], [Whip Lash], [Soothing Aroma], [Voice over], [Spice Storm] [Spore Generation], [Sap spores], [Poison Gas Creation], [Spawn spores], [Co-ordination], [Mana Absorption], [Mana Control], [Amorphous Body], [Earth Affinity], [Earth Magic], [Earth Magic: Stone Shot], [Water Magic Resistance], [Wind Magic Resistance], [Earth Magic Resistance], [Fire Resistance]
''Sa sa!''
I tried to use a simple [Fire breath] attack to check how well it resisted fire attacks and the result was me pissing it off. I flew around it, trying to scan for weak points. Vines shot out from the creature''s back and they were aiming to whip me. I narrowly swerved the first vine, but the second, I wouldn''t be fast enough. At least I thought so, but my body glowed with a blue light and my stats went up.
<<The Hob-goblin Oda has used the magic [Aqua] on you. Your physical abilities have gone up>>
The agent exined for me while I dodged the vine. I thought that was cool, but now wasn''t the time to ry that information. I used [Sprint] and [Peck] to try for [Spearhead], but I passed right through the patch of grass. The grass even wrapped around my legs and flung me into a tree.
Oda shot a water spear at the creature and it roared at us. She ran towards me, probably trying to heal me, but the creature went on all fours and the flowers on its back grinned like mad.
''That doesn''t look good.''
Oda looked back and her eyes widened.
"Cover your ears!"
She put her hand over her ears and crouched. I did the same with my feathers, but it wasn''t effective. I could still hear it. The annoying sound of cala singing. Like a coin being scratched across a metal pipe or chalk being scraped across a board. Very annoying, but this time a hundred times more lethal.
The sound sted us some metres away and I lost some health points. I looked at Oda who was still crouching.
At this point, I knew that we were a bad match up against this originator. Our stats and abilities, it had a counter to or they simply wouldn''t work, but I still didn''t want to leave here without achieving anything. I simply needed to get one cala. If I couldn''t get even that, I couldn''t get strong.
I got up and flew towards the originator again. I shot my threads at it, but it would keep destroying them with its vines and whenever I flew in close, the cala on its back would immediately use their [Echo] skill to attack me. It was tough, but at some point I even attempted flying through the skill.
It didn''t work. The originator was however then worried by Oda throwing her water balls at it. I then used my [Timber Wolf Howl] to stun it and shrank myself so my speed would go off the charts in addition to [Sprint]. I managed to get in close and pluck off one of the calas, but that was the only part I had nned.
Mynding was horrible, seeing as I hit a tree. The originator looked pissed after what I did and it roared even angrier than the first time. I gulped then looked at the cala in my w. It was withering quickly.
''Sa sa! You can''t just be dying when I got you! Hey Oda, think we can do something about the cala?''
She didn''t understand me and was rather busily running away. I followed after her, and the originator gave chase, his cala destroying everything in his path with [Echo] and [Voice Over].
I threw the dying cala into Oda''s hands and grabbed her by the shoulder, trying to fly off with her. She was heavy. Or maybe I was weak. I didn''t know. All I did know, was that we were screwed.
"Tori-kun? Why are you wet?"
Minerva asked me. She looked a bit surprised, but her eyes switched to the person behind me.
''Uh¡ long story. I got us spices though.''
Oda brought up the sleeping cala. It was still in her water ball. Apparently, it wasn''t easy for her to keep up that water sphere for so long. It took an insane amount of concentration and mana from her. Although I assumed it would be easier to channel a ball of mana in front of her and use the [Water Affinity] to transform that ball of mana into water, rather than constantly pouring mana into forming a shape.
ording to the agent, that was a very practical use of mana, but Oda was too dumb to think of it. Or should I say because she hadn''t received proper tuition she simply didn''t know how to do it? ording to the agent it was most likely thetter, given that monsters that evolve and suddenly have the capability to do something should have had an instinctive know-how for these sorts of things at a basic level and that instinct could be tainted by someone teaching them something else.
That meant, Oda''s teacher was dumb as hell. Oda was just a blind sheep following a confused shepherd. I couldn''t ask her who this teacher was so I simply ignored it as a matter forter.
Oda was taller than Minerva by a few inches so Minerva looking up at her was kind of cute, but Oda was flinching so bad I thought she was going to pass out. And with good reason too. She had constantly been throwing mana into something useless for about an hour now.
I quickly dug up a hole next to the cave and signaled for her to drop the cala into the ground. She quickly dropped it into the whole and covered it up. Soon, a patch of grass grew around the flower and it started waving around.
Its mouth opened up and it started growling at me. To some extent it reminded me of the shrubs.
''Crap! I forgot those little guys!''
I was suddenly reminded of my kids. Eh¡ erhm, servants.
''Well tomorrow wille and I''ll go search for them.''
I told myself then looked at Oda. She looked really pale, almost like she was going to die.
''Ah¡ Oda! Don''t die! Minerva. Can she sleep here tonight?''
Minerva''s head was tilted, her bangs falling to one side. Her hand was to her chin and she looked like she was trying to figure out something.
"Did something happen to Tori-kun?"
I looked at Minerva. Why? Had something happen to me?
''Is something wrong with me?''
Minerva shook her head.
"No. Tori-kun is more¡ bold?"
''Eh? Seriously?''
She nodded her head and I could only blush.
Well, the reason to what she noticed was probably because of the fact that I now knew what I wanted to do. It may not be well thought out, but I wanted to be strong enough to end fights like they weren''t even worth my time. To be able to do absolutely anything I wanted. I wanted strength beyond any others. This may sound edgy, but that was my goal and I wouldn''t stop till I achieved what I could only term "True Strength".
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Tori acquired 50 stat points]
[Tori consumed 1 soul]
[Tori acquired 500 experience points]
[Tori added +20 stat points to speed stat]
[Tori added +10 stat points to strength stat]
[Tori added +20 stat points to defense stat]
[Tori acquired the skill [Horn Protrusion]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Stomp]]
[Tori obtained a Cala]
Chapter 35 Seiko Sotomura - A Heros Method
"And so I punched the damned troll in the face, then with a boom and bam I just destroyed the entire cave of trolls. That''s how the legend of Twilight spread so quickly. I wish they changed my title though. It''s too embarrassing."
"Don''t you think you are too noisy?"
Seiko whispered to the girl at his side.
"Eh? Too loud? Really? But that doesn''t matter!"
Seiko let out a tired sigh then pulled out a device. This device projected a map for the girl to see. The map was shaped like a dragon curling itself attached to something else, but the map didn''t show beyond there.
"You see where we are right now? It''s called Larm."
The young man pointed at their current location on the map. Jasmine had her finger to her lips as she observed the map curiously.
"I''ve heard of Larm. They told me not to pass through this forest."
She stated nonchntly.
"Yes. That''s because Larm is a very dangerous and uninhabitable ce for humans."
"Why?"
"Because of powerful creatures called Tyrants. These Tyrants rush in to kill any who enter their sides of the forest."
"Seriously? Then what the hell are we doing here right now?"
"If we took the normal route, we wouldn''t have been able to make it to the Dhijan Nation in time."
"Um¡ but, isn''t this the Dhijan Nation?"
She asked pointing at the country that was two nations from where they were.
"Yes."
Seiko answered sharply, his patience running.
"Then why did we move from Keimen? If we proceeded through Keimen we would have had only one nation to cross through!"
"Uwaa. I told them I didn''t want to be paired up with retards."
"What was that?!"
"If we took that route, we wouldn''t have made it in time. The conference is taking ce in about a month or so. Traveling through those nations would take too long. Especially with the ongoing war preparations. So we will take the simple route of entering the Scerendia Teleport Gate that''s pretty close to here."
Jasmine froze. She scanned the map several times, but then she was still confused.
"What is it?"
"ording to your map, there is no ce called Scerendia."
"Uwaa~. How much knowledge do you actuallyck? Scerendia is an ancient city that was wiped out long ago by the Great Destruction Dragon. It''s located in the south side of Larm, close to the Dourean Desert."
"Eh? Seriously? But, if the tribe was wiped out by something that sounds so scary, how is that teleport gate still active?"
Seiko put the device in his pouch and took out one of his guns.
"It''s only rumoured to have been destroyed by such a being. So far all proof of that being''s existence is negligible. So there are theories that the n actually died to starvation."
"Starvation?"
"You¡ you never went to a university, huh?"
"Nope."
"Did you even go to school?"
"Not really."
"Uwaa~. I''ll exin this to you once we''re done with those guys."
Seiko looked up at the carriage approaching them. Jasmine grinned and brought out her daggers.
"You two! Who are ya?!"
The driver questioned.
Jasmine''s eyes glowed a faint purple.
"Seiko-kun. They have captives in the caravan."
''A honorific?''
"How do you know ¨C in fact that doesn''t matter right now. Captives, huh? Are they human?"<novelnext></novelnext>
"Nope. Not even one. All females of different ages and races."
The caravan driver overheard their conversation and whispered something into the caravan. Five men descended from the caravan, all holding weapons.
"You guys got a problem?"
One of the men asked. Jasmine licked her lips and went into a fight stance, her legs wide apart, one arm on the ground and the other behind her.
"Jasmine, can you see the states of those girls?"
"They are wearing shackles and are sick. I doubt they can even use any abilities from the looks of things. Some look like they are starving. Oh?"
"What is it?"
"One of them is pregnant. One of the men must have been using them."
Seiko was apletely apathetic being. Even now, he was thinking of just ignoring this incident since it would be a hindrance to him with no advantages. He was just about to return his guns to his pockets when Jasmine pounced on one of the men.
The man shed at her neck, but she simply hit his wrist, disarming him, then kicking his legs to get him off the ground, then flipped him over. On the ground she jabbed his face, knocking him out cold.
The others charged at her, but a beam of light sent one of them flying into the carriage.
"Uwaa~. I really don''t like the troublesome types. Stand down Jasmine."
He ordered and the girl lost her crazy grin.
"What?"
"This is a waste of time. We need to hurry up."
Seiko grabbed her cloak and lifted her off the man.
"I truly apologise for her rude attitude towards you."
Seiko bowed and forced Jasmine to do the same against her will. She was surprised by how strong he was, easily forcing her head down without giving her the chance to resist.
"Tch. You are from the New Kyoto Empire?"
"Yes."
The men then backed away after hearing that. Their faces showed obvious frustration and fear.
"Now if you''ll excuse us, we will be leaving."
Seiko grabbed Jasmine and flung her over his shoulder. They simply strode past the men. After finding out his origins, the men suddenly felt like dwarves before his presence. That was natural since he was already taller than every single one of them. Still, the status of being a Kyoto Imperial Citizen was like being a noble in weak countries. That was just how much influence that Empire held.
"Ah! What are you doing? What about the captives?"
"You have to know when and where to fight. Especially when you are a pdin."
"What? Because I''m a pdin I''m not allowed to beat up obvious ve traders?!"
"That''s not what I''m saying."
"Then what are you saying you damned coward?"
Seiko sighed. This girl was really a headache for him. He made a note to never get married to loud girls or have loud children. In fact, when he got to the meeting, he would request a switch in partners.
"Look in the caravan."
"Eh? What are you¡ talking¡ about¡ EH!?"
When she looked at the carriage, she noticed that the ves were slowly getting off the carriage and running away into the forest. Their chains had been been destroyed and there was a ticking sounding from the carriage.
When one of the men went to check the caravan, the ticking sound stopped and then the caravan was set ame with a loud boom, sting the men away. They kept on screaming in a almostical manner.
"Pdins aren''t supposed to be such ruffians. Use your head a bit more and battles will be won in the easiest of ways without any sort of coteral."
Jasmine looked at Seiko. With the bleeding daylight from the trees bouncing off his dark skin, she suddenly noticed the heroic aura the young man exuded. Sure, he mostly never smiled and was always sighing withzy eyes, but the fact that he was one of the very few pdins in the world meant he was talented and exceptional.
"You can let me down now."
She said and Seiko dropped her. She cleared her throat before apologizing to him.
"I apologise."
Seiko barely nced at her while thinking to himself.
''Lady Veronica will have this girl''s head at the conference.''
Chapter 36 Humans
Day 15
Today was unbelievably boring. I went out with Minerva today to search for my spawns, but we couldn''t find them. Sure, we didn''t search every nook and cranny, but she used her [Overlord] skill to search for them, but they technically weren''t my spores anymore, so the skill wasn''t really useful to us.
On the bright side, I acquired the skill [Telepathy]. Apparently I had been building proficiency for the skill by constantlymunicating my thoughts to Minerva. At least now I could talk to more people¡ even though that wasn''t different from my regr conversations with Minerva now.
I had been so bored I activated [Slime Body] just because and Minerva was having fun with my jiggly body. It was sort of ticklish, but not really. I had no idea what to use the day for. I should have probably used it to practice my skills, but I was feeling toozy to do so.
I mean, if there was any trouble, I had Minerva there to help me. Then there was the cala! Bastard was so scared of Minerva it dared make no noise in her presence so it was quiet as hell. It was really a boring creature, but then I realized that one day it would be as strong as the Cala Originator Oda and I fought.
That creature was immune to most of my skills and attacks, so much so that the best we could do was steal one of the cala on its back. That almost failed badly, but then I witnessed something so horrifying that day that I dare not speak of it ever again. I just resolved to get stronger and to do so,zing about was certainly a detriment to those ns.
Uwaa! I would eventually have to get up and test out skills and possiblebinations. Ha! You thought I had just beenzing about? I had been practicing my perceptionbo this entire time and it kept on giving me a headache, but slowly and surely I was getting used to it.
All in all, it was actually a boring day and at the moment, it was night time. Minerva suddenly stood up and grabbed her club.
''Hey, Minerva. Where are you going?''
"Humans entered the forest."
She responded without even blinking. She was walking towards the cave exist.
''Humans?''
That was something I hadn''t been thinking about for a while. I told myself that I''d only bother with that after I found a way to interact with the humans without them killing me or thinking of me as some wild beast.
Still, maybe I could save those humans since Minerva was just going to kill them.
''Hey, Minerva. C-Can I go scare off the humans instead?''
"No. Minerva will do it."
''Come on Minerva. I''ll do it in a jiffy and be back. You shouldn''t be bothering yourself with something as simple as this.''
I tried using the logic that she was the ruler of this ce hence she didn''t personally need to attend to such trivial matters. I would simply do that for her. I had no idea how this would mess with meter on.
"So, Tori-kun is Minerva''s pet, so Tori-kun will do it?"
''Basically, yes.''
I confirmed this for her. Reluctantly, Minerva permitted me to go handle the situation. I simply asked her to show me where after putting up my holographic map for her. It was surprisingly close to this ce so it wouldn''t take long for me to get there.
''Alright, I''ll be back soon.''
__________________________________________________
Panting heavily, the little girl ran like hell with her chains nking nosily. The irritating sound of metal hitting metal echoed throughout the silent forest night, agitating some of its denizens. The girl was oblivious of this fact though. Or rather, she couldn''t be bothered to be thinking about such things due to her current predicament.
"I can hear nking over there!"
A burly voice came through. This caused her mind to ignore the nking even more. She ignored the pain her bleeding feet felt. She ignored the hunger she hadn''t been able to satiate for the past two days. She ignored the emotional pain of being betrayed by her loved ones. She ignored the pain of the torture she had been put through. She ignored everything just so she could survive in this moment.
Through the cold vicious night with unknown dangers in the world''s most dangerous forest, she ran like hell. She couldn''t see, but that didn''t matter. If she bumped into a tree, she just needed to get up and run past it.
A single tear drop was escaping her eye. She couldn''t cry right now. Her feelings were irrelevant to this moment.
She wanted to cry out to her mother. She wanted her father toe wake her up from this nightmare. What had happened? How had all of this just happened out of nowhere? She really wanted to cry, but all of that was truly not important at the moment.
"Eek!"
In the darkness, she could barely see the path before her. She ended up falling off a tiny ledge onto a muddy ground. She could feel something snap, but she couldn''t cry. Her leg. She looked at it, and it wasn''t in the right position. She tried to stifle her cry, but it wasn''t working. She needed to, but she couldn''t.
"Sniff¡ sniff¡"
She kept sniffing as she dragged herself through the mud with her hands. She couldn''t let herself be caught again. Anything was better than what was going to happen to her. She simply knew that.
"Where did she pass?"
The girl stopped moving when they drew closer. They stopped at the ledge, using their torches to see how far below it was. They didn''t dare look any further.
"Hey. I''ve seen some tracks here."
Another voice called out and all the men drew back. One man though was intent on surveying the ledge. However, he was pulled back. The others were on edge given the time and ce.
The girl knew that she had to move. She tried reaching out her hand to move, but her body betrayed her. She passed out on the ground.
__________________________________________________
On the way there I came up with a full proof n to scare off the humans instead of killing them. With my skill [Devil Miasma], I naturally produced a scent that would make people scared of me. It would distort their image of me and they would see me as their worst nightmares, but with some slight modifications or so was the skill''s description.
I had arrived on the location. There were five men, all armed. They had pretty rough figures, showing that they had been in quite a few battles. They were conversing amongst themselves carefully, but s, they had already been seen.
I perched on a tree and gazed at the men, using [Terror] on them. My eyes simply glowed a shade deeper and then the men froze. I activated [Timber Wolf King''s Howl] to get them to think there was a powerful presence nearby and they all looked up at me.
"¡ It can''t be¡ Mom?!"
One of the men screamed.
"Agh! Is that a timber wolf?"<novelnext></novelnext>
"Eeek! What are you guys saying? That''s obviously a mardari!"
''Eh? What the hell is that?''
[You have received 4000 exp]
[You have gone up 2 levels]
[Certain conditions have been achieved]
[You have acquired the skill [Fiery Kick]]
A sudden notification came up, confusing me. How did I just get experience points out of nowhere and level up? This had only happened once before, but that was a while back and it hadn''t happened again since then. However, there was a cry that drew my attention towards the source of my sudden level up.
"Matt? Oi! Matt! This isn''t the time to be ying dead."
I looked down and saw a man foaming and his friend was over his dead body.
''W-wait¡ did he just die?''
Before I could react, something flew into my wing, causing a certain amount of manageable pain. I wouldn''t really scream over something like that. When I looked, I saw an arrow in my wing, barely missing my chest.
I then saw the source. It was one of the men. He was holding a crossbow and was reloading it. One man was dead, meaning there were four more. Strange enough, they weren''t running away. Why? Wasn''t it when a friend died that you would run away in fear?
I grabbed the bow with my beak, activated [Slime Body] and easily yanked it out of my body. With [Auto Regeneration] I would be back to normal in no time. With [Hunter] I more or less understood how any creature worked, so why weren''t they following the n? Did they have some other motivation? Or was the fear so much they thought that the only way to survive was to kill me.
Either way, they were all weaker than me. I got the gist of an average human''s strength now. I wished to progress with my attempt at scaring them off, but then.
BOOM!
There was a massive dust cloud, followed by a horrifying roar.
"TORI-KUN!"
Minerva had dropped on the scene and she was releasing some intense aura.
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the skill [Aura Resistance]]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the skill [Murderous Aura Resistance]]
''M-Minerva? W-Why? Why are you here?!''
Without hearing me out, she proceeded to bash a guy''s brains out. I was so stunned that I froze in ce and just looked at the body for a while. I was slowly zoning out and all I could feel was this sudden coldness overwhelm me. There was an annoying ringing in my ears, but I couldn''t do anything.
[Evolver] immediately kicked in and I was back to normal, my mind focusing back on Minerva.
''Please stop! Stop this!''
She continued to kill the men, causing a blood storm. The entrails of her victims spread across the ground and she had a sort of crazy look in her eyes.
''M-Minerva?''
"Don''t worry, Tori-kun. No one will take Minerva''s friend away again."
I could see a strange excitement in her eyes. Her creepy smile as she pummeled the men. Wait. That was fear. Minerva was scared of something. But¡ that didn''t matter.
''Minerva! Stop it you¡ you monster!''
I yelled in my brain loudly so Minerva would hear. She held up the neck of thest man and looked at me.
"Tori-kun speaks like Tori-kun isn''t a monster."
''W-What? Of course I do! I''m¡ I''m not a monster!''
Minerva drew closer and I instinctively took a step back. She brought her head close and sniffed me.
"Tori-kun smells like a monster. Tori-kun was scared of Minerva, so Tori-kun is a weak monster."
She stood upright and looked at me like she were some kind of god and I was an ant that wasn''t worth her time. I really hated that sort of gaze.
''Y-You''re wrong!''
I tried to retort, but then Minerva rose her hand up. On instinct, I jumped back and my body was covered in [White Viper Scales]. "Huh? What is wrong Tori-kun? Is Tori-kun scared of Minerva?"
''I¡ I¡''
I couldn''t say anything. I couldn''t refute her im. I was truly scared. Of her? The situation? Everything?
BOOM!
She simply jumped off, not giving me time to say anything. I was simply left on the ground with a massive dust cloud and human corpses. I looked at the bodies and at that moment, I realized that I couldn''t care less about them. Tears were rolling down my cheeks.
I leaned against the tree and tried using my wings to wipe the tears. I still hadn''t changed from my former self. I was as shallow and useless as I was back then. Was that why I was thrown into this hell? Was this my hell?
I felt like puking, but it definitely wasn''t because of the dead humans. I just felt nothing when I gazed at them. My heart was throbbing hard and it felt heavy. I didn''t like this feeling. It was simr to when I got rejected, but more intense.
''Wait¡ did I just get dumped?''
Chapter 37 Exploration
Day 16
I spent that night on a tree branch right over the corpses. After much thinking and self-revision, I came to the conclusion that I was simply frustrated and took out all my stress on Minerva. I didn''t know why, but I simply couldn''t care about the dead humans. It was probably because I didn''t know them before.
I wanted to eat their corpses, but what I hoped to be the human part of me wouldn''t allow for it. There was no need to eat them. I wasn''t hungry and considering they died so easily, they definitely weren''t strong, so I doubted they had any useful skills. So in essence, I really didn''t need to eat them. That would have simply been a waste of time.
So, for now I would look for a new nest. Or at least that was the n till I heard some weird sounds and screechy voices. When I looked down I saw green monsters. Goblins.
They were scavenging through the dead bodies for goods. One of them picked out a dagger and looked at it, grinning gleefully. Another found a pocket watch and was instantly captivated. Another looked through a sack he found and nodded happily at the sight.
I was surprised however to find the goblin I met earlier. They little guy who asked me to help him catch food for his vige. He picked up a belt and started chewing on it.
''That''s not for eating, idiot.''
I sent a message to him using [Telepathy]. He looked around for the source of the voice. As assuming as it might have been to see him shit his pants in fear, I wasn''t in the mood.
''Up in the trees.''
He looked up and saw me. His face adorned a smile after seeing me.
"Oh! It is you! The Tyrant''s pet."
The others looked up at me with scared expressions. They were seriously still thinking that Minerva would do something to them?
''Don''t call me that.''
I warned him. Seriously, I didn''t want that to be an actual title.
"O-Oh¡ alright."
The goblin seemed scared and a bit down.
''What are you doing out here anyway? Isn''t it too early for you guys to be moving around?''
"No. This is the normal hunting time! We do this every day!"
''You specifically, because it seems like I only meet you hunting.''
I tried for a joke to make myself better but then
"This is punishment for bringing you to the vige.
''Oh¡ ah¡''
"Chief said I shouldn''t have brought a dangerous monster like you to the vige even if it was with good intentions. He said you might have burned the vige down to cinders if you felt like, so as punishment I will go hunt every day."
He sounded really depressed and I could understand why. That was basically a death sentence for the weak goblins. I could assume that the goblins went out in daily shifts, so no goblin goes two days in a row to hunt. However this guy was being forced to go out every single day. The chances of him being killed were exponentially increased now. And if he didn''t die to some gruesome monster, the stress would eventually umte till one day he died of it. Even human adults couldn''t go through an entire seven days of non-stop work. They would break down.
Wait. Goblins aren''t human. That probably meant we didn''t work the same. He probably wouldn''t get stressed out then. He''d just die at the hands of a monster. Ah well.
''Hmm, sorry.''
I apologized to him.
"You better be!"
He rudely responded. I looked away from them and decided to ignore them. They finished whatever they were doing and were about to leave, but then the goblin came back.
"You can talk!?"
He yelled at the top of his voice.
_______________________________________________
The green guy kept pestering me till we started talking about why I was still there. He said he had really wanted to talk to me but because I couldn''t speak back then he couldn''t. I exined to him that I developed [Telepathy] and he asked me how he could get that skill, but since I couldn''t tell him that it was because of a unique skill I had, I simply lied.
I mean, if these guys killed Minerva''s mother because she was going to give birth to a rare type of goblin, what would they do to someone who had a unique skill? Ok, that was the wrong way at looking at things, but still. You can never be too cautious with goblins.
I ended up telling him about the problem with Minerva and why I couldn''t return to her cave and stuff. He told me to follow him back to the goblin vige and that I would be treated like a god there. I didn''t want to but he managed to convince me to go back to his cave with him. To be honest, I think I just went there to see if he would get executed for bringing me there a second time.
When we got there, as expected the goblins were scared shitless. It was quiteical, but apparently Gorm wasn''t around so I would have to wait a while. The other goblins were insulting the guy again, but he didn''t care. Some threatened to beat him to a pulp, but he ended up running to me instead and they wouldn''t daree close to me.<novelnext></novelnext>
Oda came back earlier and she greeted me. I spoke to her to see her reaction and she actedpletely unfazed. It turns out she was very shocked and that nonchnt fa?ade of hers was just her being really shocked. I nodded at the fact that I really did hit the kuudere jackpot and grinned happily in my mind.
She asked me why I was in the vige and I exined the situation to her, she being one of the few creatures in the forest I felt I could trust.
She nodded her head and told me to wait for Gorm. Oh yeah, if you don''t understand how they can understand me even with [Telepathy], the agent was tranting for me. Having such a skill was quite useful, no?
So I waited a bit for Gorm. He wasn''ting and I was getting bored out of my mind. It had gotten to the point where little goblin kids wereing to y around me. Oda saw me and broke into a smile, almostughing. Feeling embarrassed, I said I was going to explore for a bit and Oda said she woulde with.
Apparently she was bored as well so she would just follow me wherever I went. I asked her if there were any ces she thought I would like to visit and she said she didn''t know much about me so she couldn''t tell. But if I just wished to explore, maybe I could try the |Forbidden Dungeons| even though it was ill-advised to do so.
Apparently it was created before even Larm created the forest and the being who did so wielded unimaginable power or something like that. It was probably a god or something like that, but if I could enter that dungeon and conquer it wouldn''t I get stronger?
Well, that was the goal, so when I went there with Oda, she refused to enter further into the ce. She was really scared so I just went off by myself. When I entered I received a notification that I had entered a dungeon.
I felt that was odd because it would be like the system saying I had entered a house if I entered a house. So that meant the system had some sort of connection to the dungeon or if there were more in the world, dungeons. Eventually, hopefully I would find out that connection.
When I entered, a bunch of skeleton in rusty armor came to life. The average skeleton was D+ rank, which was a rank beneath mine. That was scary, but they weren''t really durable and seemed weak to fire since my [Fire Breath] was actually causing a lot of damage. It didn''t take long for me to destroy a lot of them and go up 3 levels.
Since I was hungry and felt like getting more powerful, I decided to eat the bones of the undead. Well, I wanted to eat the bones, but then some undead skeletons came up out of nowhere. They were all bigger than the ones I just fought and wore pitch ck armor with massive swords and shields. They all had ranks C+ and were led by a skeleton in golden armor with four limbs. It also possessed a C+ rank, but its stats were in a different league aspared to the others.
That skeleton chased me out of the dungeon and I ran crying for my life. When I got out there, Oda was waiting there for me and I could see her distressed expression. She ran like hell when the skeletons came out of the cave and seeing as she wouldn''t be fast enough, I grabbed her by the shoulders and flew faster than I normally did.
We promised to never speak of that incident ever again. And Oda had a sort of refreshed look on her face. I decided I was tired for the day so I would hunt down a few rabbits for food. I managed to satiate my hunger and get some for Oda to send back to her vige. I asked her why she wasn''t eating it right there and she told me she preferred it cooked. I asked if she could cook and she told me that Gorm had taught her how to.
I was sort of angry, but it was more fault for¡ in fact no one was at fault here. At least I found out they could cook so I decided to at least taste her cooked food. We walked back to the vige with a medium sized sack''s worth of dead bunnies.
''HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I AM THE BUNNY SLAYER!''
And then I got the title |Bunny yer|. I sighed and just left off to the vige.
The day was also unsessful and useless because I couldn''t find my twigs. It was really bugging me out thinking about how they might have died. San''s death was still lingering in my mind and I felt sort of guilty for it. Same for the first guy I killed. Ah well, he tried to fight me first. Maybe I should have created new spawns.
We went back to the vige where Gorm was waiting. The goblin guy from before was currently surrounded by four goblins and was fighting for his life. His execution it would seem.
I went next to Gorm and asked what was happening and he said he was punishing the little guy. I simply shrugged it off and Gorm asked what my purpose there was. I told him I had been kicked out by Minerva and he told me I was wee to perch around his vige. I just shouldn''t eat his goblins.
I told him I wouldn''t so I found a tree to perch on. After that, Oda gave them the dead rabbits and they celebrated that night. I simply wanted to sleep, but Oda came to me with the cooked bunny for me to taste. I was honestly disappointed. There was no salt in it! The damned skank didn''t know how to cook.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Hinotori entered a dungeon]
[Hinotori went up 3 levels]
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori
[Species: Golden Demonic Hen Level 10/30
[Status: [Full]
[Age: 15 days
[Rank: D
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Titles: [New-born in a New World], [Rare Species], [Named Beast], [Survivor], [Vulture], [Bunny yer]
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess *****|
[Level: 25 Exp: 1000/5700
[Health: 1000/1000 Stamina: 1700/1700 Strength: 170 Speed: 530 Defence: 140 Dexterity: 140 Intelligence: 36 Luck: 40
[Skills: [Evolver], [Analyst], [God''s voice], [Lustful Gaze], [Imprint], [Baby Chick Cry], [Fear Resistance], [Aquatic Form], [Heat Resistance], [Poison Resistance], [Peck], [ck Wayne Caw], [Auto Mapping], [Poison Generation], [White Viper Scales], [Sprint], [Pain Resistance], [Spearhead], [Acrobatics], [Blood Sucking], [Terror], [Soul Consumption], [Fire Breath], [Poison Maelstrom], [Thread Creation], [Thread Control], [Stealth], [Mana Perception], [Magic Perception], [Dark Vision], [Flight], [Spore Generation], [Sap Spores], [Poison Gas Creation], [Spawn Spores], [Co-ordination] [Cold Resistance], [Goggles], [Heat Sense], [Mental Damage Resistance], [Feelers], [Sensors], [Poison ws], [Verwesen], [Murderous Aura Resistance], [Auto Regeneration], [Timber Wolf King¡¯s Howl], [Hunter], [Size Maniption], [Charisma], [Devil Miasma], [Mental Pain Resistance], [Predator], [Slime Body], [Pain Nullification], [Assimtion], [Horn Protrusion], [Stomp], [Telepathy], [Fiery Kick], [Aura Resistance], [Murderous Aura Resistance]
Chapter 38 Message From The East
Various messengers of the Ogre king had been sent to the West to deliver a single message.
"Denizens of the West! Your Tyrant has invaded mynd, thus dering war. As such, I am about to decimate yournds. If you wish to live,e serve under me before the next full moon. And if you wish to die, stay with your foolish Tyrant!"
His n was to strike fear in the denizens of the west so that they would flee to the east and thus, quicken his invasion n. He wanted to weaken Minerva as much as possible.
However, he had underestimated how much the denizens of the West feared Minerva. No living magical creature in the West would ever go against her. It was onemon rule that had been engraved in the minds of even the youngest of the denizens.
Still, this didn''t mean that the denizens would sit and do nothing. They all knew what to do. They just needed to find Minerva and that was the end of the matter. They could leave it in her hands. There were 9 days left till the deadline.
______________________________________________________
Minerva POV
The hob-goblina woke up and looked around the cave. She was disappointed when all she met was bare ground and fallen feathers. She sighed and got up feeling a bit depressed. She was feeling bad about what happened the day before with her friend. She knew that she should have just ignored it since Tori-kun could have handled it, but seeing her get shot by that arrow just got her pissed.
She couldn''t handle it, especially when her first friend had been killed before.
Minerva had only known the pain of losing her loved ones since before. Even when she was in the dark elf vige, although she wasn''t especially close to anyone there, they had all died. Her father was dead, her mother dead, her friend dead. She didn''t want to lose Gorm as well, but when she met Tori-kun, she didn''t know why, but she simply couldn''t kill her.
She could simply give the excuse that Tori-kun was cute, but she honestly didn''t know why she couldn''t kill her. In the end, she befriended the little bird. Sure, their time together wasn''t much, but she felt a sort of attachment to the little bird.
That was why when the bird was in trouble, Minerva just jumped out. She wasn''t going to let her friend die. And when Tori-kun was scared, Minerva was also scared. Minerva didn''t like the look Tori-kun gave her. It frightened her. She just decided that Tori-kun wasn''t safe around her.
Right now, Tori-kun was probably safe wherever she was.
She was safe, right?
Just to be sure, she could just check, right?
Well, it wouldn''t hurt to check up on her, right?
Well, it wasn''t like Tori-kun would know if she checked up on her, right?
So she ended up using [Overlord] to search through the west to find Hinotori who was currently hanging out at the goblin vige. Minerva was about to blow a fuse when she saw that, but decided to rx and observe more.
After a while, she saw Hinotori just rxing and doing nothing much. She would y around with her skills and just keepzing about. All in all, Hinotori was normal and that put Minerva''s heart at ease. She was going to stop, but then she noticed something odd in her forest.
Some new guys had entered and it was odd. They weren''t humans so she could rx a bit, but then they were kobolds in armor riding on electra wolves. Normally, kobolds didn''t have such good armor and electra wolves weren''t so peaceful as to not rip off the faces of stupid and weak kobolds.
Also, the kobolds were creatures that lived in the East, so why were they here? Everything pointed to the War Monger. That fat ogre had started doing something unnecessary. Minerva would need to investigate further so she observed the kobolds some more.
They went about blowing horns and waving red gs about. The kobolds then started shouting a notice. Minerva heard this and her blood boiled, but she just shrugged it off. That fat ogre was stupid, but even he wouldn''t be so stupid, as to attempt to fight her. The kobolds were just using his name to spread chaos and try to acquire somend. She didn''t care much though. She simply needed to protect the west from humans, not other monster races. Even if the ogre himself wereing, there would be no need to stop him.
"This is an announcement from the Ogre Tyrant! The west has been unsupervised for too long! He shall spread his arms over his portion of Larm and make sure it is protected from any form of threat from external threats. So, abandon the Mad Witch ande under his wing! If you refuse, War Monger Krull will ept to fight you."
Ah? That was his n? To have all of the West''s residents turn their back on Minerva and follow him while taking over her portion of the forest? She knew he was a despicable creature but such a n of low intelligence? She couldn''t fathom his stupidity.
At this moment, she wanted tough. This was because she knew what all the West''s residents would say. It was a simple and short "No".
Why? Was it fear? Was it respect? No. It was freedom. It was because the West was the freest portion of all the portions. All the tyrants had taken over their respective areas, save Minerva and the dragon tyrant. The North was being ruled by the Griffon King who acted like some sort of ancient and wise beast that had a system working on the premise of strongest rules and weakest serve. The East was ruled by an iron fist with Krull working all his servants to the bone like rags. The south was in a constant battle for power because of their tyrant''s behavior and that had caused an insane amount of hostility and deaths there.
Here in the west however, the monsters were free to act as they pleased. As long as they didn''t disturb Minerva they were safe. She would protect them from humans and they would run wild and free. This was why the West would never dream of betraying Minerva.
The denizens sacked Krull''s messengers out of the forest. They told them to deliver the message that they would fight if Krull were to persist. Some of the messengers were killed.
Minerva then canceled her skill and went out to attempt to get a breakfast. However, what she got were monsters running towards her ce. She knew what they wanted, but she didn''t speak first. One by one different races came forward till a majority of the West''s races were present before her cave.
"Great Tyrant, Minerva! Please help us!"
A fat satyr beseeched. Minerva looked at him and he smelt quite unfamiliar to her (He didn''t smell of Larm).
"Where are you from?"
She asked threateningly. Noticing the danger in her voice, the satyr began to tremble.
"I-I belong to a group of nomadic satyrs. We were just passing by to the Dourean Deserts for a pilgrimage. But it would take us about two weeks to leave this ce to the South and the ogre tyrant said he would being in the next nine days. We don''t wish to get caught up in this mess."
Minerva looked at him suspiciously and couldn''t see his followers. She immediately checked up on the group with [Overlord] and visually confirmed that what he said was true. Still, none of that mattered to Minerva.
"Huh? Minerva will not fight."
She told them.
"EH?!"
They were all confused. Various murmurs in the crowd and severalints rising up!
"Ok! If not you, what about your pet!? It''s powerful, right?"
A voice came from the crowd. The races then began murmuring amongst themselves. However, this was a grave mistake that could have ended with everybody present dying.
"Involve Tori-kun, and Minerva will fight y-"
''Wait¡ Tori-kun can''t know that Minerva cares about Tori-kun.''
She conflicted with herself and came to a sound decision based on her feelings.
"Run."
The Tyrant stomped on the ground and delivered and order with [Overlord] and all the creatures felt overwhelmed, immediately running away.<novelnext></novelnext>
______________________________________________________
Day 17
So¡ I was dead meat. Minerva had just signed my death sentence.
I know what you''re saying. Hinotori! You don''t need to fight! Except that I do! I live in this damned forest!
All the goblins were looking at me. They had created a weird sort of distance from me and were just observing from the shadows of their cave. I wasn''t really buddy-buddy with them but this was just really weird.
I just decided that I would find somewhere else to get a nest. Maybe I would create spawns and have them protect me while I slumbered.
"Hinotori-dono please wait!"
Gorm called out to me before I could fly off. I looked back and the guy was currently not wearing his armor so he was bare chested with a loincloth covering his private organs. That felt quite indecent, but what could I expect from goblins?
''What? Why?''
I asked him. He went on his knees then bowed before me. All the other goblins were looking at me from behind. I could feel Oda''s surprised gaze on him, then a slightly angered gaze on me.
What did I do?!
"This may be absurd, but please! Hinotori-dono! Help us fight!"
Of course, he requested something that was truly absurd.
''WHAT?! Why are you asking me? Are you actually insane?! You do realise I''m just a chicken, right?''
I reminded him of the fact that I wasn''t especially strong. It waspletely selfish and stupid of him to ask me to do something like this, especially after I fed his vige twice in his ce.
"I know! That is why you must fight!"
''Eh?''
This guy just lost me.
"It is because you are a weak and frail chicken that when you fight, Minerva will have no other choice than to participate in the battle! She wouldn''t want you to fight in this."
''Like hell I''d fight if it''s for that reason! You damned bastard!''
I shouted at him in my brain. That was the most offensive thing he could say to me. Goblins really had no manners. Even this bastard who I thought hadmon sense had none. I sighed and spread my wings, about to fly off the branch.
"Please stop there."
I heard a voice. This time, I recognized it as a voice in my head. [Telepathy], perhaps? I looked around for the source, but I never found them.
''Who said that?''
"Look beneath you."
When I looked down the branch, I saw a young girl. She looked to be sixteen years old. She had short blonde hair with green tips and was wrapped in tree leaves forming a sort of clothing for her. Her skin was pale, almost ghostly and her eyes were a dark green.
A human? At least that was what I had hoped, but when analyst activated, I was surprised.
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: Spirit Sprite Level 25/30
[Status: [Excited]
[Age: 4 years
[Rank: D-
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Titles: |Of World|, |Rare Species|, |Larm Protector|, |Loved by The Light Spirits|
[Blessings: |Blessings of The Heavenly Crafter|
[Level: 25 Exp: 120/1,030
[Health: 700/700 Stamina: 1000/1000 Strength: 110 Speed: 450 Defense: 100 Dexterity: 105 Intelligence: 25 Luck: 40
[Skills: -
Her stats weren''t really impressive, so normally I would assume she wasn''t really a threat. But then I couldn''t see her skills even though her rank and everything were low. Did she possess some kind of unique skill? I was instantly put on guard.
''Who are you?''
She giggled when I asked and her elf-like ears flinched cutely.
"The oldest tree wants to speak with you."
She told me as if that made sense.
''Who or what is the oldest tree?''
Chapter 39 Emergency Meeting Pt.I
Eventually I decided to follow the sprite. It was more like she threatened to follow her. Apparently this ''Oldest Tree'' was a very well respected creature in this forest. If I didn''t go, I may have met some grave situations.
She also told Gorm that he had been invited. The guy ran like hell to get into his armor and look dignified once again. I was a bit creeped out by theplete change in mood with his armor on.
On the way, since I was bored I tried to make light talk with the sprite, but I realized she maintained a 3 meter distance from me and she wasn''t responding to myments. I saw the [Anxious] status next to her and just decided to give up. It wasn''t that she hated me, she was just too anxious to speak to me. Been there, done that, didn''t end well.
In the awkward silence, I hypothesized that the ''oldest tree'' was just some dryad mama with big boobs.
"We''re here."
The sprite said, pointing to a huge tree. This tree was so massive that it made no sense how I had never seen it while flying in the sky. And the way it was, it was like all the other trees were nted to simply surround and worship it.
Some glowing blue orbs floated around the tree''s branches, beautifully illuminating the dark area and giving off a feeling of ease.
''This is the oldest tree?''
I asked.
"No. This is the Oldest Tree''s tree."
''Ah¡ sure.''
I looked around, but I couldn''t find any entrances. When she said her tree, I had imagined a tree house that kids used to make. I guess that was sort of dumb of me, huh.
''So where is the ''oldest tree''?''
I asked.
"The oldest tree is-"
"Right here." A voice came. In front of me, a being walked out of the grand tree before me. She wore a simple white dress and had long flowing silver hair with a tiara of vines over her head. She possessed a beautiful face with swollen cheeks and leafy green eyes. She looked like a young school teacher of sorts, but with a royal air about her.
Her smile was warm and devilish, causing me to gulp after meeting her impish eyes.
"Thank you for bringing the guests to me, little one."
The sprite floated to the woman''s side and bowed. The woman patted her on the head. The sprite blushed then proceeded to enter the tree through some weird portal-like thing.
''A pocket dimension in a tree? ssic dryads.''
"I see that you are familiar with how dryads live?"
The oldest tree asked said. I shook my head, feigning any pre-existing knowledge of the dryads.
"Oh, as expected of a random bird who was abandoned in the most dangerous forest in the world."
I red at her after she said something that hit deep. I already didn''t like her.
"Why were we summoned?"
Gorm asked.
"Oh my, I lost track of the matter at hand while discussing with my new friend."
This woman was starting to creep the hell out of me.
"Well, there is a conference happening between the intelligent races of west''s leaders. And you, Gorm are thepetent leader of the goblins. Yes, out of all the tribes, I picked you to represent them all and you, my little feathered friend, are our most important guest here."
''Huh? Why? Because of Minerva?''
"That and because of your origins."
She said something scary all of a sudden.
''My origins?''
"Now isn''t the time. I shall exin further after the meet. Shall we go?"
She had mepletely ensnared in her plot now. I would like to know where I came from. This feeling of being lost wasn''t really helping me, but would she really know that?
She directed us towards her tree. We walked there and for a second, space distorted around us as we walked through a tree. It felt sort of nauseous but manageable. Simply put, it was very weird. But when I entered, I was in a conference room with arge round table in the centre of a room. The ce was lit by glowing orbs that floated around, singing and humming.
Around the round table were six chairs. Out of the six, three had been upied by a rat man, a nymph, who had a mini- rain cloud over her head and a fat satyr. He scowled at me but I ignored him and took a vacant seat across the nymph. With [Analyst] I found that she had the names Suna and she was actually a Rain Nymph, making her one of the more powerful types in her race, with a C+ ranking and a tier 4. Her skills were practically as many as mine if not more and they all seemed quite powerful. She possessed quite a bit of magics and her stats were in a league of their own. Already in the early thousands. Seriously, the difference between ranks were scary.
The rat man had no name and he was a measly D- rank. Nothing noteworthy about him to be honest. Then there was the satyr called Derbyshire. I would rather not talk about him. He was stupidly strong being a C+ rank with a lot of skills, including spatial magic. I wondered how spatial magic worked. If he was here helping us, it could prove quite useful inbat, no? Still, he was giving me this weird vibe.
"Wee all of you, to the Emergency meeting."
Gorm took a seat next to me, so did she.
"I believe it would be best for all of us to introduce ourselves. I shall begin. My name is Diane, or as you would know me, The Oldest Tree. I am a simple Nature Spirit. Who shall go next?"
After introducing herself, the room was quiet till Suna decided to speak up.
"My name is Suna. I am a Rain Nymph and I monitor the rivers in the West of Larm, most notably the one closest to the Bee Hive."
Her voice was cold and alluring, but also contained a tiny bit of excitement in it. It was very weird to decipher her. Next was the rat man.
"I am the leader of the rat men."
That was it for his introduction. The giant rat quickly took his seat seeing as he had nothing more to say.
"I am Gorm. I lead the goblins in the vige of Ooo. However at this moment, I am representing all the other tribes in the West."
Derbyshire red at Gorm. He definitely had some hate for goblins, but ah well.
"I guess I should go next then. My name is Derbyshire and I lead a group of nomadic satyrs. If I may, I have a question."
"Ask away."
Diane gave him permission to proceed.
"I''d understand if you had a pet, but isn''t it too insulting bringing your pet to the conference meeting?"
What? Did he just call me a pet? I was getting a bit angry. My days had really not gone smoothly. I looked at Diane to see if she would respond and she was looking at me, telling me to respond. I internally sighed and proceeded to project a message to all of them.
''My name is Hinotori and I am not a pet.''
Derbyshire gulped under my gaze. I hoped he was scared, but I could tell he wasn''t. His [Status] showed nothing and that was odd.
"Please calm down. She is Minerva''s friend. If you were to upset her, this battle could go badly for us. Especially since she is spearheading this entire meeting."
''What?''
Diane finally stepped up. All the creature''s eyes lit up after hearing about Minerva and they focused on me.
''Hehe, please do this for me.''
She asked me through telepathy. I was going to refuse her, but I could feel vines wrapping around me legs. She was threatening me at this moment.
''You are threatening me with Minerva on my side?''
''You cannot lie here. I witnessed what happened between you two.''<novelnext></novelnext>
''Without further ado, shall we discuss our routes in this battle?''
The emergency meeting had begun and I was spearheading it.
''Ok then. What do we know about our opponent?''
First of all I wanted to find out everything I could about the Ogre tyrant. First rule of war, was to know everything about your opponent. Their strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. Things that they were most known for. Anything that could help us out.
The sprite from before appeared next to me and answered
"The Ogre Tyrant is known as the most violent Tyrant and also the War Monger, because he used to wage wars against other races from before he even became a tyrant. He even enved the kobold race and made them nothing more than house servants and fodder in battle. He is one of the three tyrants chosen by the first Tyrant because of his power. Also, ording to what the spirits say, he''s been selling resources to human nations illegally."
Thest part caused a sort of reaction from everyone except for Diane who probably already knew of this. But we all were surprised. A tyrant who was supposed to be keeping the resources of the forest protected from humans was selling it to them?
''Isn''t that against the whole purpose of being a Tyrant?''
The sprite nodded solemnly to my question.
''Ah? Then won''t the forest king go into action or something?''
When I asked that, I could feel the mood of the room suddenly go subzero.
"You speak as if you were just born just a few days ago. Everybody knows that the Forest King has stopped interfering with this world. That was the main purpose of finding the tyrants."
The satyr remarked.
Oh? But you see, the thing is that I was born a few days ago,
I wanted to say, but felt that it wouldn''t help the mood to hear a few days old monster is leading you to war against one of the most dangerous creatures in the forest, would it.
''Excuse my ignorance, please go on.''
"Yes. So from what we''ve picked up, we believe he''s waging war with us because he needs more resources to export to the human nations."
"Still, it doesn''t exin why he would choose the west."
Suna pointed out
"Didn''t you hear? The Tyrant of the West failed to prevent some humans from causing a wildfire recently."
Derbyshire said, but how did he know that?
''Minerva didn''t fail to do that. No humans caused a wildfire in the forest.''
I went to her defense immediately.
"Oh? And how would you know that?"
''If you are referring to the fire that took ce a few days ago, then it was me who caused it. I was fighting and identally burnt down that ce. Minerva immediately put it out.''
"You expect me to take your word for it?"
''Yes. If you won''t I don''t know what else to tell ya. Minerva didn''t do it and that''s that.''
"What she says is the truth. The Tyrant of the West has never failed to kill invading humans."
The rat man stated
''How''d you know that?''
I asked, a little creeped out. Has he been spying on her? Like a stalker?
He then beat his chest and proudly dered,
"There is no creature in the west that''s better at gathering information than we rat men!"
"Oh? So that''s what the elusive rat men have been doing? Gathering information on all species? For what I wonder."
Diane said as if she had no idea.
Ugh... Not only is he stalking Minerva and I, he''s stalking every creature in the West.
At least that meant they were really good at gathering information if even Minerva or my [Mana sense] didn''t notice them. That was scary. I wondered what skill that was. If I ate a rat man would I get it? Suddenly, the rat man was looking like a treat.
''...Moving on, maybe it''s because he expected Minerva''s response?''
I asked.
They all looked to be in thought for a moment then nodded
"Yes, that sounds most likely."
"That is true. If I were to invade a Tyrant''s space I would go for the Tyrant who would show the least interest."
"Yeah, that fits and all, but still, he would need a reason to suddenly wage war openly."
Derbyshire pointed out.
''What if he just made up an excuse to attack the West?''
I asked, but they immediately dismissed the thought.
"It would be stupid of even a Tyrant to do that. They could invoke the wrath of the first Tyrant."
''Hmm? So they would want to avoid invoking his wrath at all cost?''
"Of course. That tyrant is known as the Sleeping Emperor for a reason, you know?"
''Sleeping Emperor?''
"Oh? You don''t even know their titles? You really are a lost cause."
They sighed and I felt way out of my depth here. What was Diane thinking having me lead this whole meeting?
"Fine, we have the First Tyrant, the Sleeping Emperor Goliath. Then the second Tyrant, Ravaging Winds Sora. The third is War Monger Krull, fourth is Swamp Queen Zana and the fifth is the Mad Witch Minerva."
Derbyshire listed all the Tyrants with their titles and in order of their appearance. So Krull was the 3rd oldest, huh. The middle child in a sense.
''Could we maybe ask the other Tyrants for help?''
I asked and they all looked at me with disbelief.
"Have you not been paying attention? This all happened because the Tyrant of the East ims that the Tyrant of the West was ipetent in her duties. Do you really believe the others would stand up for the youngest Tyrant?"
Derbyshire really debunked my idea, making me seem like some total retard. I really didn''t like him, but I understood his points.
''What about the first Tyrant. If we simply exined to him that Krull is selling resources to the humans, wouldn''t he side with us?''
"Naturally, but unfortunately he is in a deep slumber."
Diane responded.
Chapter 40 Emergency Meeting Pt.II
''Deep slumber?''
"Why yes. The Sleeping Emperor is his nickname for two reasons. Emperor because he rules over the other Tyrants. Sleeping because he is always sleeping unless something important happens."
The Sleeping Emperor sounded like some shut-in NEET that only went out when he remembers he had a job his parents gave to him. He was reallyzy, wasn''t he?
''Isn''t this important?''
"It seems that he doesn''t deem it worthy enough for him to wake up."
Oi! Oi! Now she was just making excuses for him!
''He doesn''t think a war between his subordinates worthy enough for him to intervene? First of all he''s asleep so how would he know!?''
"He knows all that happens in the forest even in his slumber."
I had given up after that sentence. A magical world was simply different.
''Ok, moving on, isn''t his subordinate disobeying him and selling resources to humans more than good enough reason for him to step in?''
"If he doesn''t wake up, it means he doesn''t see the need to interfere."
She responded with a veryposed and mature smile. I let out a sigh. Who knew an emergency meeting for facing a war would be so stressful?
''Please tell me that we''ve got at least something that could help us.''
I looked at everyone and the room was dead silent, but then Suna spoke up.
"We could try asking the Kings for help."
"Hmmm, true. Those guys could possibly help us."
"Yeah, they should be strong enough."
After hearing kings, my mind went back to He. That guy was oppressing and overwhelming. The fight he had with the rabbit matriarch had me shaking, thinking about how I almost died. That led to me remembering the giant centipede that almost killed me? I was still confused about whether I died that day or not and the agent wasn''t giving me any correct answers on the matter.
"You''re really hopeless, aren''t you?"
Derbyshire said looking at me. He was assuming that I didn''t know what kings were and I wouldn''t argue with him.
"Well, Hinotori, the kings are what we call creatures that stand at the peak of their races."
Gorm kindly exined it to me
''Oh? So they''re really strong?''
"Yes. It is as you say. They are very powerful beings that rule Larm directly after the Tyrants. There are eight popr kings in Larm. Two in all sides of the forest. In the West, we have the Timber Wolf King and the Spider King."
Timber wolf king? Wasn''t that the creature Minerva shoved its guts down my throat that time? No, no, they must have been talking about another creature.
''Did you say Timber wolf king?''
I asked just to be sure. I must''ve heard wrong.
"Yes I said Timber wolf king. The most powerful timber wolf in Larm."
Uh-oh.
"Is something the matter Hinotori?"
Diane asked me with a deadly smile. It was almost as if she knew what had happened. I didn''t want to take responsibility for killing the Timber wolf king. Mostly because I didn''t. That Minerva, one-shoting monsters on such a level. If she participated in this war I would really feel much safer. I wondered what she is doing right now.
''N-nope, nothing. But just to be sure. In case the Kings refuse to help us, what are we gonna do?''
"Well, we pray something happens, because I''m not going to abandon this forest."
Diane boldly dered.
It''s not like you have a choice! You''re a nature spirit!
I wanted to scream. If she could run, would she though?
"Same here. I cannot abandon my rivers. They are too important to my people."
Suna dered.
Same as Diane!
"Hmph, where else can goblins go and still have this much freedom? In any other side we would have died by now. I doubt we could survive up with our brothers in the Winter Zone or Demise Mountains too."
Gorm said with a smile.
"We rat men aren''t ready to create newworks on the other sides."
They had big grins on their faces. I guess these guys weren''t half bad, huh?
Everyone voiced their decisions, except for Derbyshire and I who remained silent. He looked anxious. I could tell he was thinking of siding with the Ogre tyrant. He had that look on his face. Manga 101, never trust the guy with a cunning face. You''ll suffer unnecessary losses. I even had God''s agent perform a calction on the chances of him betraying us. For now I would just keep quiet.
_______________________________________
So we had decided on asking the kings for help. Although I guess I should be saying the spider king? I wondered what kind of personality he had. Hopefully he wasn''t some bloodthirsty battle crazed moron. Either way, I guess I would see when I get to him. For now we needed to bring the wolves to our side.
''Ok, now that we''ve talked about the kings, let''s talk about our own numbers. What do we have?''
"Five goblin tribes, each with about one hundred and thirty goblins and one Hob-goblin in all, with the exception of my vige which has two. So in all seven hundred goblins and six Hob-goblins. Two of which are mages."
Gorm gave a detailed description of the goblins. We were already seven hundred strong, but considering the goblins weren''t even strong enough to beat horned rabbits, that was a bit underwhelming.
''Let''s keep going.''
"The water nymphs are about a twenty in my rivers and there are about hundred guppies in my river. The individual ponds in the forest should have a maximum of five guppies. I can estimate about a hundred and forty of us."
Suna added, although she wasn''t really sure.
''Guppies? You mean those weird little blue people with fish heads?''
She nodded.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Our original forms. We evolve into nymphs. From nymphs we have various evolutions. I became a Rain Nymph so I''m the leader of the Nymphs in the west."
''Oh, ok. Cool.''
"We the rat men number over two hundred and have our eyes, ears and noses everywhere."
Over two hundred!? Dang! Maybe we actually stand a chance, is what I thought until
"The dryads will not be participating in this fight, I do apologise."
Diane cut my happiness short with her news. So that was why she put me up to this? Because she couldn''t participate she made me her front man! But why me? Gorm would have been perfect for this.
''What do you mean?''
"We dryads are not a violent race. We are just observers of the forest. Although we can choose sides, we cannot participate in the actual fights."
Well that was a total disappointment. I figured we actually stood a chance against them. Hopefully Derbyshire would have good news
We had all been waiting on Derbyshire to speak up but he looked like he were in deep thought.
''Derbyshire?''
I called out to him and he flinched, beforeposing himself
"Oh, er... um. We the roaming satyrs number only twenty. We just move from forest to forest and we are not much ofbatants so I''m afraid I can''t help you lot."
I red at him. I also noticed the rat man ring at him, same could be said for Diane. Although hers was more of an interested gaze, but I just ignored them. If he was just too scared to fight then there was no need to involve him. In fact it would be better for him to just leave the forest.
''Yo, agent! What are our chances of survival with these numbers?''
<< Notice: Your chance of surviving this is with these numbers is 15 percent. The best option is to leave the forest>>
''15 percent!? Is there a way to increase the odds?''
<<Affirmative>>
God''s agent proceeded to fill my head with all sorts of battle ns with the highest sess chance and it was around 30. I asked him to include the possibility of the spider king joining us and estimating its power to about a quarter of Minerva''s strength and the odds still couldn''t go above 50. That sucked. But to think that one king could raise our chances so high. They really were monsters.
I let out a sigh and rubbed my head with my wing. This was going to be really tough. Tons of creatures would die if we couldn''t solve this peacefully. If possible I wanted to finish this with as little casualties as possible and the only way to do that was by beating the Ogre tyrant. The odds of me doing that were pretty much non-existent. Things would have been much easier if Minerva intervened.
''Very well then.''
I faced the leaders once again and addressed the remaining issue.
''I guess we will need to send envoys to go and talk to the kings. Will anyone volunteer?''
All hands were down. It seemed no one wanted to talk to these kings.
"Well, since Hinotori brought it up, I believe she should take responsibility."
Derbyshire stated.
''W-wait what-''
"Ah yes. A truly wonderful idea."
Suna chimed in
"Hahaha, leave it to Hinotori."
Gorm added.
"Ah yes, I believe Hinotori should be enough. I have observed some of her battles and I am surprised she still lives. She must have some sort of devil''s luck."
The rat man spoke.
"B-but-"
I tried to oppose them, but Diane finalized it by saying
"Ah well, it looks like all the leaders have decided on making Hinotori our envoy. We wish you the best of luck."
These people didn''t even allow me to object. I looked at Diane and she had a really scary smile on her face, so I quietly epted it. However I wasn''t going down alone
''Although I live close to the Timber wolves, I don''t know the way to the spider king, so I will need a guide. Will someone volunteer toe with me?''
"In that case may I suggest the little one standing next to you?"
Came Diane''s quick response. It seems she had anticipated my question.
I looked at the sprite who had been standing at my side. She said she didn''t have a name and it was starting to get annoying calling her "the sprite".
''Ok then. I will try to convince the kings to help us. We''ll head out tonight since it seems I live awfully close to the wolves, however you''ll have to guide me to the spider king, sorry for the trouble.''
"It is my pleasure."
''How long will it take to reach the spider king''s home?''
"Hmmm, probably a day or two. It will not take long."
''A day, huh? How many days do we have till the next full moon?''
"9 more days. If we take out tomorrow we have 8 days."
The sprite answered.
A week and a day to prepare for war, huh? I''m totally screwed. Ken, Maya. Prepare for my second funeral.
I cleared my throat then addressed the others in the room again
''Is there anything else to be added?''
I looked at their faces but none of them looked like they wanted to say anything.
''In that case, I guess this meeting is adjourned for now. I''ll see you guys in three days'' time. Hopefully with good news. I''ll leave the ns for self defense to you guys. You know yourselves better than anyone after all.''
Chapter 41 Timber Wolf King
After the meeting had concluded, the sprite, Gorm and I had set off towards the goblin vige. I had decided on going out to talk to the wolves this night and luckily it had gotten sote I couldn''t believe it. My only problem was running into Minerva while she was still hunting. I didn''t know how that would end. So I decided to branch off and have the sprite direct me to the wolves'' home. If we hurried up we might have been able to get to there before she went hunting.
Unfortunately, we crossed paths on the way to the wolf hill.
"Oh, Tori-kun."
She said and I could see a sort of weird smile on her face
''Y-yes.''
I responded, but then she eyed the dryad curiously and lost her smile.
"And who is that?"
''Oh, um this is, well... a friend.''
She then bowed to Minerva, then said.
"I am Hinotori''s guide. We will be acting as envoys to the kings of the West."
"Guide? Why is Tori-kun going to kings?"
She was looking down on me. She thought I was too weak to even go to kings and talk to them. I would prove her wrong.
"Well ¨C"
''That''s none of your business. I''ll do whatever I want.''
I cut off the sprite from exining to Minerva.
"Tch. Tori-kun is too weak to do this."
''Yeah! You''re right! I''m weak right now. I may not be the brightest out there, either. But give me a month and I''ll be strong enough to even beat you up.''
I got too bold and said something unnecessary. Minerva froze up andughed.
"Oh? Hahaha! Can Tori-kun think correctly?"
''Hey! What''s that supposed to mean!?''
She walked past me whileughing loudly.
"Good luck. The new wolf king is a coward like you."
''Huh? New Wolf King? There''s a new one, already? Does that mean there was someone equally as strong as the former wolf king?''
I looked up and realized that Minerva was going out to hunt tonight. That meant the wolves would be especially aggressive and careful around me.
"Minerva! I think I saw a herd of bull deer close to the water hole. They might still be there."
"Hmmm?"
She closed her eyes as if in thought. She was most likely checking with her [Overlord] skill, after which she shrugged and changed course.
I looked at the sprite and she winked at me. If she wasn''t here as my guide I may have not been able to convince Minerva. She was a cheeky one, wasn''t she?
''Alright then! On to the Timber Wolves!''
I shouted.
***
As soon as Minerva left we ourselves headed towards the Timber wolves territory. It was quite the walk. But thankfully I was able to get more detailed looks at ces and add them to my [Auto Mapping] skill. And I was able to use my [Golden Chick Cry] to lure them in.
It didn''t take long for us to hear howling. The Timbre wolves were getting ready to hunt, or they were preparing another revenge plot against Minerva. You have to give it to them. No matter how many of them she killed, they always came back with a mindset of getting revenge. That relentlessness would really help us during the invasion.
''Hey agent, can you release my aura?''
My n was to draw one or two timber to me using my aura. What I was referring to was the fact that Gorm''s skill [Truthseeker eyes] was just a skill that allowed one to approximate the strength of their target by just looking at their aura. That made it quite useless if the opponent hid their aura. I guess for simple monsters it was a good edge since they would never think of hiding their aura or they simply didn''t know how to. Because of that I got the skills [Aura Release] and [Aura Control].
[Aura Release] as it says allows me to release any aura I have hidden in a powerful burst, sort of like an attack, but it also gave me a rise in stats. [Aura Control] allowed me to control the amount of aura I let out. After spending a day with the goblins I decided to use that to hide my aura and I was suddenly way more approachable than before.
<<Releasing aura>>
As soon as it was done, I could feel lighter and rxed. It was just like how one would feel after having a good stretch.
[You have released your aura]
[Your strength has gone up by 10]
[Your speed has gone up by 50]
[Your defense has gone up by 8]
I felt way better than ever before. It was really absurd.
<<Notice: The effects of letting go of your magical presence rather than constantly storing it may be the cause. Non-sentient magical creatures are incapable of hiding their aura because of the strain it causes on the body>>
Seemed like hiding my aura was straining my body but I hadn''t realized it. Maybe because I had the agent do it for me. To be honest I wondered what I would do without him.
"Th-this vile presence. Is it yours?"
The sprite asked.
''Vile presence?''
I looked at the dryad and she looked a bit shaken. I could see the wariness in her eyes. Was my aura the cause? Well, I was part demon now so I guessed that was the cause.
''I don''t know what you mean by vile presence, but I just released my aura.''<novelnext></novelnext>
"Are you perhaps, a demon?"
I nodded at her.
So demons radiate some kind of nasty presence, huh? If so I guess I should be constantly hiding my presence.
"Forgive me, but if I may ask. Y-you have been hiding it?"
''Yea, why?''
"Sorry, it is just that I did not notice it. I thought I already had a grasp on your strength but it seems I am mistaken. If you managed to hide your aura it means you must possess quite a lot of power."
''Eh? Are you guys dumb? Hiding aura doesn''t necessarily equal having a lot of power.''
"No need to act humbly. I shall keep this a secret from the others if you wish."
''No, no! You''re misunderstanding something here. I-''
I was about to argue, but then I sensed creatures get into my coverage area. I could count three, no five, six, seven, ten, no twenty? Crap there was a lot of them. Was it because I released my aura? But that wouldn''t be strong enough a reason for all of them toe here at once.
Soon, there were sixty timber wolves. They had us surrounded from all sides. I could see one hundred and twenty yellow eyes glowing through the darkness. They were fixed on us. They were probably here thinking that dinner was served. Thest time this happened was the night I came here with Minerva. That was one heck of a night.
Once again, I was reminded of just how monstrous that hob-goblina actually was.
''Hey guys! It has b-been a while, huh?''
I stammered, a sign of weakness I didn''t want to show.
They all snarled at me.
''Chill, chill. I didn''te with Minerva this time! I''m not here to fight!''
I could feel them stalking closer.
''I mean, since when do sixty of you appear for little old me. Last time it was just one guy!''
Suddenly a huge timber wolf with midnight ck fur emerged from the crowd. He had one eye wed out. I didn''t know why, but I recognized it as the current leader of the Timbre wolves. Well mostly because I gave him that injury when I was fighting it because it stole my food. If it weren''t for Minerva I would have died that night.
''Heeeey.... you. How you been? How''s your eye doing?''
I sent him a message using [Telepathy]. And surprisingly he responded in kind.
''Tch. After you wed it out you dare-''
''Oi, oi! Agent you can trante animal as well? Then you can trante what bunnies say?''
<<Affirmative>>
Seriously? This skill was just¡ uwaa!
''Rx, rx. Like I said, I didn''te here to fight.''
I wanted to change the topic really quickly before this turned violent.
''Anyway, isn''t sixty overkill for someone weaker than Minerva?''
''Hurumph, we didn''t know you had returned here. Even better you''re without that wench. Very foolish of you.''
''Hehe, quite the sharp tongue you got there.''
He snapped at me. I would have flinched if this were the first time he had done that to me.
''I said, I didn''te here to fight tonight.''
I warned him. This was taking way too long and I was getting anxious.
''Youe into our territory while releasing such violent aura and you dare say that?!''
Wow, was the aura that bad? So that was why it was all of them tonight. Usually they would just hunt in groups until they sensed Minerva. I guessed my aura was frightening enough to get all of them here? Maybe I should have done it when Derbyshire was around. I could have shut him up.
''Yes, I just wanted to summon at least one of you. I didn''t expect to gather all of you guys attention. I need to talk about something important.''
''I refuse! I won''t listen to you!''
Oh boy. Battle crazed moron. I guess this is the part where we duel?
''I will cut you down right he-''
''Brother, stand down!''
A voice ordered and the Timber wolf stopped moving.
Brother? He had a sibling?
''But-''
''Silence!''
The voice ordered and he just whimpered. I wondered who it was that had so much authority over him. He never backed down even in front of Minerva. This person was definitely dangerous, but I couldn''t sense their presence anywhere.
Out of nowhere, a very powerful presence then entered the one hundred meter radius. With a rough estimate from [Mana sense], this creature was way above me in terms of power. What was scary was the fact that, the creature suddenly appeared in my range, which meant it had been hiding in in sight. So it could also hide its aura.
I could feel the presence walking from behind me. I slowly turned around, and standing there was a timbre wolf with silky white fur and dark violet eyes. It was about the same size as the guy I assumed to be the leader and bigger than the rest of the pack.
I faced the Timber wolf in all its majestic glory and the dryad bowed.
"Oh Timber wolf king, we havee seeking an audience with you."
Chapter 42 Dog Fight
''Y-you? Didn''t Minerva kill you like some days ago?''
All the wolves growled when I asked that question. The wolf iming to be the king looked at me quizzically, then the wolf I had a fight with roared in anger.
''Do not talk about our father like that! Do you wish to die!? Then again, you wouldn''t havee here unless that was what you wanted. Come! Let me rip out your heart andy bare your organs. I shan''t even feast on your corpse as it is too-!''
''Enough!''
The ''Timber Wolf King'' cut him off as he threatened me. I felt like crying at the thought of my heart being ripped out. I shuddered thinking of what would happen to me if he killed me.
''And you.''
The white wolf focused its powerful gaze on me.
''No. Your ally killed my father, the previous Wolf King. The night he died, I was made into the Wolf King.''
Made into one? So the Timber wolves just reced their Kings as soon as they died? Or was there some special reason to it?
''Leave here immediately! I do not have any wish to prey on you or it will bring about the extinction of my n at the hands of that monster."
''Was this what Minerva meant by saying that you''re a coward like me?''
''A coward? Me?!''
She raged and her aura just blew out of proportion. Her hairs stood on ends and her eyes glowed. All the timber wolves went ck and were now whimpering before her.
This was bad. I had just angered their king and if we didn''t get her help, we were as good as dead meat on the day of the invasion. I tried to think of various things I could say to convince the wolf.
Maybe an offering of sorts would appease her? A sacrifice?
I looked at my escort with eyes asking for help, then she stepped forward.
"Oh mighty king of wolves, may we call for a Dog Fight?"
I didn''t know why, but when she said that all the wolves stopped growling. They looked at her for a while, then the scarred wolfshed out at us.
''Kukukuhahahaha! I knew it! You couldn''t resist as well! The urge to finish our battle!''
The ck wolf said something I couldn''t really argue with.
''I can see you really wish to die at our hands-''
''Brother!''
''Sister, I can''t take any more of this! They are underestimating us too much just because of that witch!''
The white wolf tried to calm him down, however he didn''t listen to her. He turned to me and bared his fangs.
''You wished for a Dog Fight? I shall give it to you.''
''Are you sure?''
The white wolf asked him, calming down her aura. He responded with a nod. However, standing still,pletely confused, was little old me, trying to understand everything.
''Dog fight? What''s that supposed to mean?''
The sprite answered immediately.
''A Dog fight is a tradition among the timber wolves, in which two timber wolves fight to show their superiority over the other. It is usually held once every month, but can also be done by individual wolves who want to prove their superiority.''
''Ok, ok, I get that, but I''m not a timber wolf.''
''There have been incidents where races who wish to speak with the n head need to participate in dog fights. They always had to fight with a warrior of the heads'' choosing or the heads themselves, in order to be acknowledged by them.''
''You want me to fight against them!?''
I looked at the wolf who was ring at me. I could feel his killing intent like thunder.
''You don''t actually expect me to fight them, do you?''
''I believe that if it is Hinotori everything should be alright.''
''Saying that won''t make everything magically fine!''
''Hinotori is ready for the fight, will he be your representative?''<novelnext></novelnext>
She asked the white wolf while pointing to the scarred wolf.
''Oi!''
''Very well! Since my younger brother is eager for this, I shall allow it!''
Theypletely ignored my wishes. I looked at the dryad who did the same with me. She had a serene smile and thumbs up.
Uwa, this girl and Diane were too scary!
The wolves had cleared out, and only I and my opponent remained. They said, the howl was the cue for the fight to begin, so for the moment, we were just sizing each other. I remembered his stats from thest time. In the case he hadn''t gotten any stronger in the past 4 days, I was just a little bit weaker than him now.
I had been scrolling through my skills, searching for something that could cause some serious harm to him. From our fight thest time, most of my skills were ineffective, so he had the upper hand. However, now that I was closer to his stats was it going to be the same story?
Walking around in a circle was getting boring so I decided to initiate a conversation with him.
''Hey listen. I''m sorry about your eye and all, but the East is about to-''
''Don''t waste your time! If you want me to listen to you, defeat me!''
I was hoping that I might have been able to convince him without actually having to fight. It seems I was too na?ve.
It didn''t take long for the howl signaling the start of the fight to go off. Without wasting a second, the wolf pounced on me, but I jumped back, barely avoiding the hit. It didn''t stop there, bouncing off the ground towards me as if it had already anticipated me dodging it.
I shot off a ball of fire at it and wolf just passed through it, assuming that nothing would happen. This time though, it could feel the mes and it roared in pain. I then cast poisoned ck threads around the wolf then trapped it mid-air, taking the chance to fly it to above the ground. I simply flung it into the ground from the air then covered myself with [White Viper Scales], and went with my Tori-original [Poison Maelstrom] drilling it into the ground.
It was one of the shortest and easiest fights I had ever participated in with mepletely overwhelming my opponent. I let out a victorious cry and all the wolves just stared at me.
To be honest, with [Hunter], this timber wolf had no chance from the very beginning. All monsters were beneath me with this skill. In fact, I was starting to think that its previous owner was just a dumbass.
"Very well then, I shall listen to what you have to say."
The wolf king said.
''Have you heard about the invasion from the East?''
I went straight to the point. I didn''t want an incident in which I would need to fight because I didn''t say what I needed to.
''Invasion? From the East?''
''Oh? So you haven''t heard? War Monger Krull has announced that he will be invading the West by the next full moon.''
She looked at my dryad escort for confirmation.
"It is as she says. War monger Krull has decided to invade the West."
She proceeded to inform the wolf king about the message and the meeting between the leaders and how we had decided to ask the kings for help.
''Hmmm. Indeed. This is bad. So that means you want my help in the creation of a self-defense force?''
''That is exactly what we are saying.''
Mypanion responded
''So will you help us?''
I asked. She looked at her fellow wolves, then at her fallen brother, then back at me. She sat up, then said,
''We the wolves refuse to participate in this matter.''
''B-but, didn''t you promise to help us if I won!?''
''Please do not misinterpret my words. I told you I would listen to you on the matter. I do not recall ever saying that I would help you.''
''Don''t you also live in the West? You won''t be spared from the Tyrant''s wrath, you know.''
''The wolves shall cater for our own. You can leave now.''
AH! What the hell is with these guys? First Minerva now the Timber Wolf King? Didn''t they realise the gravity of this situation?
I looked at the sprite who had been quiet the entire time. She simply shook her head with a sad smile.
The wolf king howled and all the timber wolves slowly left the area, leaving me alone with the sprite
Chapter 43 Names Pt.I
Day 15
Last night was a real mess and I didn''t even want to think about it.
How did the Timber Wolf King not see the importance in creating an alliance? Had she already resigned to serving under Krull?
It was dawn and I had been woken up by the Agent. This was because of the journey I had today with the sprite.
The dryad had been waiting for me, looking no different from usual. Except this time, she had a pink lily pad on her head.
"Good morning."
''Erh¡ good morning? Is that a sort of fashion trend amongst the sprites?''
She looked at the lily pad then giggled. She was so refined anddy-like. The opposite of Minerva.
"Um¡ no. This lily pad is something that allows dryads to move long distances away from their trees."
''Oh? So why do you have it? You''re not a dryad.''
"Uh¡ It may be true that I am a sprite, but it is so that Lady Diane can manifest herself before us at any point."
''Oh-ok. So that woman wants to keep an eye on us, eh?''
"Yes."
She responded without a care in the world. Diane really didn''t trust me even after throwing all the responsibility on my shoulders. Maybe I should have tried to run away, but it would be best to get through this. Maybe I would acquire some very useful skills along the way and if I defeated a tyrant, wouldn''t that be an insane boost in power for me?
''You said it would take us a full day to get there?''
"Or two, yes. It is quite the journey."
''Wow.''
I thought out loud.
"Did something happen, Hinotori?"
''Oh, nothing really. I''m just amazed by how big this forest is. That must mean there are tons of ces to go to and explore, right?''
"Well yes. There are different spots in the West that I am certain you would love to see."
''Oh? Like where?''
"There''s the watering hole, the forbidden dungeon, the Murt''ark ruins, the-"
While she was listing, there was one thing that had me excited.
''Wait¡ What did you say!?''
"The Murt''ark ruins? It''s the-"
''No, no, before that.''
"The forbidden dungeon?"
''Yes the forbidden dungeon. As in like a dungeon, dungeon? With gold and relics? And an elder lich zombie skeletons and all that?''
"Oh? So even Hinotori has some sort ofmon knowledge about the world?"
Usually, that would have been offensive, but considering I am new here, I would just ignore it.
Afterwards, she told me the story of how a certain human sorcerer created a tomb in the west of the forest. Apparently he was friends with Larm and so he was the only human permitted to live in the forest, which was weird considering how much they say Larm hated humans. Heter died and his dungeon had been protected by skeleton soldiers ever since.
That must have been the cave I identally traveled to when I tried to explore earlier. I wondered what kind of things were down there. If I survived this incident, I definitely wanted to check it out. I also wanted pay-back for what that skeleton did to me. Chasing me out of the cave like some kind of animal. The nerve of that thing.
''Now that I think about it, Oda was there with me, no?''
"You have been there bef-"
She suddenly tensed up. I knew perfectly why she did so. Something was rushing at us. Quickly. It didn''t take long for the creature to jump out of the bushes, startling all the tiny creatures around. When it had settled down, it faced us then said,
"Hinotori."
''Hey¡ you¡ rat dude¡''
That was awkward. I had prepared myself for a fight, but I calmed down when I recognized who''s aura that was. It was the rat man leader from before. I wondered what he wanted. He didn''t have a name so it was sort of difficult to call him.
"It is I, the leader of the rat men!"
He valiantly dered although his looks didn''t match. He was a giant rat about the size of Gorm. His fur was dirty and ck with mud all over his hands or feet? His eyes were pitch ck and he had a bag slung over his chest with a belt containing five daggers and pockets for various reasons.
''I know that. Why are you here?''
He cleared his throat, then boldly said
"I havee to aid you in the King recruitment mission."
''Huh?''
"It is as I said. I wish to help you in this mission to recruit the kings into our ranks."
I was so confused at the moment. Wasn''t this the very same guy who didn''t volunteer to do this when I suggested itst night?
''Wait¡ did youe here because you wanted to spend time with the cute sprite at my side? No thank you, dude, go away.''
I grabbed the sprite and brought her in closer with my wing.
"Yes!"<novelnext></novelnext>
''So you dide for her?! Leave!''
"What? N-no! I just came here because you have shown to bepletely ipetent, not managing to convince the timber wolf king to help us."
He brought up the terrible night from before and I wouldn''t ept this embarrassment lying down.
''Huh? How is it my fault for something that was beyond anyone''s hands? Also don''t you have to be training your group?''
"The thing is, we the rat men are already organized. I just need to leave the matter to my second-inmand and I can go anywhere."
''Sa sa! That''s just you beingzy, isn''t it?''
"It is not beingzy when you have carefully handled it all."
''Tch, he''s right.''
"Aha! So you do agree? Then I will be tagging along."
''Before, how did you know aboutst night?''
"Like I said, we the rat men have eyes, ears and noses everywhere in the west. There is nothing we don''t know that happens in the West."
''Fine. I take it you know where we''re headed then?''
"Ah yes. The Bee Hive."
I looked to the sprite for confirmation and she nodded.
''Ok then, I guess it''s the three of us.''
With that, the sprite, the rat man and I set off towards the spider king''s home. I really needed to give those two nicknames or something.
***
''Hey, you guys?''
I called out to the two who were walking ahead of me.
"What is it, Hinotori?"
"Hmmm?"
They responded like such, not even stopping in their tracks to face me.
''I''ve been wondering about something. Why are names such a big deal around here? Whenever you speak to me, you mention my name and like ny percent of the sentient creatures don''t have names. Is there some sort of taboo?''
The rat man looked back at me with a look of disbelief and the sprite looked like she had been expecting me to ask something like that. They both then looked at each other.
"Is she serious?"
The rat man asked the dryad, and she let out a refined giggle.
"It appears so."
''Hehe¡ sorry, but I''m sort of an airhead.''
I told a lie, so as to avoid many questions, but he nced at me with suspicious res, then said
"Very well then, I believe you should answer the question, seeing how your kind know more about this stuff than the other races in the West."
"Very well then."
They had decided that the sprite would answer my question.
"You see, when a magical creature is blessed with a name, it is proof that the creature has been acknowledged by a higher being."
''Oh? So that''s why it was a big deal to you guys?''
"Exactly."
''So in that case, how does one get acknowledged?''
"A magical creature should have done something to attract the attention of the higher beings."
''Is that how you nned on getting a name, rat dude? By fending off the East''s forces?''
"Ah? Yes. I will prove my worth during this battle and earn a name from the higher beings that will be watching."
''Wow. So that means all those with names must have done some serious stuff, huh?''
"Yes! Sister Diane for instance was given her name because she has been monitoring this side of the forest for over a century now. She was rewarded by the Forest King for her diligent work."
''A c-century!?''
"Ah yes. She is the oldest of the dryads in the forest even going to have be what people call a nature spirit."
Just how old could these dryads live up to?
"That old hob-goblin Gorm must be something else."
I remembered that hob-goblin chief who was something like a brother to Minerva. I didn''t know if she still cared for him though. Yeah, she probably did although it didn''t look like she had given much thought to his request. I guess that was just in her stubborn nature.
"Oh, it seems I forgot to mention, that in some rare cases, magical creatures get named after evolving."
''Oh? In that case, wouldn''t it be easier for you to try to evolve, rather than to try to gain a higher being''s attention?''
That seemed like the likeliest chance of ever getting a name. Still, was it really important to be acknowledged by someone stronger than you? That was the same as being happy that you were weak. No one would want that. I wouldn''t want that. I wanted to grow stronger. So strong that I would be the one looking down on everything.
Chapter 44 Names Pt.II
''Eat¡ consume¡ everything.''
''Eh?!''
A voice came into my head.
"Like I said, it''s only in rare cases."
The sprite misunderstood my yelp.
''Haha. I''m guessing Minerva received her name from the forest king?''
I changed the topic.
"I''m not too familiar with how the Tyrant of the West got her name, but we specte that that must be it."
''You aren''t too familiar? What about you?''
I then directed the question to the leader of the rat men.
"I am not too sure of it myself. Even amongst the rat men, the Tyrant of the West is a bit of a mystery. Apparently when she was talking to Larm, all creatures within hearing range passed out. Also when she was born, her mother nearly destroyed a portion of the West, and I''m sure you can''t argue that they should have risked their lives for something like that."
''Yeah, I see your point.''
Gorm himself never told me how Minerva got her name. Maybe I''ll ask him after all this is done.
"Are there cases of creatures naming themselves?"
They both broke intoughter, making me blush red.
"Such a thing is impossible."
''I-It is?''
"Well yeah. I have not heard of a magical creature ever naming itself."
''What about humans?''
"What about them?"
The rat man asked
''Well, do they also have to earn their names or something?''
"Maybe. I''m not sure. I haven''t had a chance to interact with humans."
"I haven''t been taught anything about humans except that they are savages who just try to harvest our resources to satisfy their greed."
Oi! What kind of things are sprites taught!? Then again, she had a point there.
''Yo, agent! Does the same thing happen with humans?''
<<Negative>>
What? Why?
<<Human souls are different from monster souls. As in, a human soul is already a defined designate whereas monster souls are irregr and unrefined. Names rify these souls and refine them to bring something simr to a human soul. These souls are called Named Souls and are given ess to a lot of benefits refined souls have ess to >>
''What? This makes no sense. What the hell is wrong with you agent? How do you give such a crap exnation?''
<<Sigh¡ >>
''Eeek! Did you just sigh?''
<<Notice: It is impossible for the skill [God''s Voice] to ''sigh''>>
''But you just did! Ah!''
<<Notice: In the world, there are various kinds of souls. The basic kinds that every living creature is born with can be separated into two types. The Whole Soul and the Iplete Soul. Every human being, elf, dwarf and other races are born with a Whole Soul, giving them ess to benefits that an Iplete Soul would not gain. For example, ess to the afterlife. An iplete soul on the other hand is what every monster is born with. This soul is an amorphous mass with no true shape that has more disadvantages than benefits. This soul is said to be iplete because it does not possess a ''True Name'' as the Whole Soul''s do, making it iplete>>
''Ah! Now I get it! So all monsters have Iplete Souls that need to be named so that they can pass on to the afterlife. So they basically just want to see heaven after death.''
<<That may be the goal of some, but it is not the goal of all monsters that seek names. Most are just born with a craving for a name. The chances of monsters knowing the truth of their souls is close to zero>>
''Ah¡ that''s kinda serious. Damn, so there is nothing awaiting monsters after death? And they don''t know this? Ah¡ that''s kind of¡ damn.''
¡
I went silent after a while, thinking about how dire their situation was. But, I quickly got a new mindset about it. Before I didn''t really believe in gods, so I assumed there was nothing after death. It was probably the same for these monsters. Well, they were monsters, so this knowledge probably wouldn''t really affect them much.
''Wait a moment! Oi! Then how was Shiro able to name me! I was human before, no? So I should possess a Whole Soul.''
<<Notice: Before the human Tatsumaki Shiro named you, your soul was iplete. You were an average monster>>
¡
''What¡? You gotta be kidding. I was human before.''
I tried tough off the stupidment.
<<Negative>>
''Ah¡ maybe something happened to my soul during my reincarnation that made my soul iplete. Does that mean a portion of my soul got destroyed or is somewhere else in this world?''<novelnext></novelnext>
"Speaking of names. How did Sir Hinotori get a name?"
The sprite caught me off-guard.
''Eh?''
"Oh yes. I too am curious. Please, do tell."
They looked at me with expectant gazes and I flinched. How could I tell them that a human, which they didn''t seem to get along with much, gave me my name?
''What to do? What to do? Agent. You got any suggestions?''
<<Solution¡ say the word "Humans" >>
''Humans? Isn''t that something I would want to avoid at all cost?''
<<Notice: It is the best option>>
''You sure? Won''t they think it''s quite odd?''
<<Affirmative. This is calcted to have the highest chance of sess. Look down, be quiet for four seconds and activate [Aura Control] to a certain degree then say the word "Humans" >>
I was a bit skeptical, but I followed the agent''s orders. I felt it was a bit melodramatic, but then the agent activated [Aura Control] causing the two to flinch. The mood felt sort of odd, but then I said exactly what the agent said.
''Humans.''
They both looked at me curiously for a moment then looked down.
"I see. So that''s how it is." The rat man smacked his head and said with a solemn voice. "It must be a very painful memory. We understand if you don''t want to talk about it."
"Indeed. Certainly a creature as strong as Hinotori must have a serious story to tell."
The sprite said.
In the end theypletely misunderstood the situation. It would be too much of a bother for both parties if I attempted to exin. Was this the agent''s n all along? To increase my ''bad boy rep'' with these two?
''Anyway, it''s getting sort of difficult to call you guys the dryad and the rat man. I asked you this because I wanted to ask if I could give you nicknames or something, but it seems like that''s impossible as well.''
"Uh? What are you trying to say?"
''Er well, I said I wanted to give you nicknames, but that seems to be impossible.''
<<It is possible for you to give them names>>
''Huh? It is? But I thought it could only be done by a higher being. Oh! Wait! I named Ichi, Ni and San! Why is that? I don''t even have mana!''
<<Notice: The reason for this is unclear for you. But normally, a creature can be named by a stronger being that can sacrifice Mana to name them. This is the reason why magical creatures, who are on the same level of power are incapable of naming themselves>>
''Oh? So that''s why the other creatures couldn''t name themselves? Still, I can''t give these two, names. Like you said, I don''t have enough MP. In fact, I don''t have any at all.''
<<Notice: It is as you say until your mana circuits are built>>
''Oh right, when are my mana circuits gettingpleted?''
<<Approximately 252 hours, 27 minutes and 30 seconds>>
''In ''me'' words, please''
<<Notice: Post evolution into a Golden Demonic Hen, the creation of your mana circuits have sped up. The process is estimated to end in the next 10 days>>
So literally after the fight with the east. What kind of bull was that!? It was disgustingly inconvenient yet convenient. A damned paradox.
''Anyway, I might be able to give you guys names after the battle with the East. That''s if you haven''t gotten any names and you are still interested.''
When I said this, both of them stopped walking. I must have asked something I shouldn''t have. What a bother.
''Not saying that you aren''t getting names or anything.''
"Hinotori¡"
Suddenly, they looked at me with gazes of excitement. It was aplete one-eighty from the cold atmosphere just a second ago.
"So if we perform well during the invasion you will bless us with names?"
The sprite asked
''Eh?''
"Huzzah! I shall prove my worth during this battle to earn that name!"
''W-wait¡''
"Hahaha! When I tell the others, they will be so jealous!"
"I know right? My friends won''t leave me alone. Oh Sister Diane, I may be able to talk to you like an equal after this."
"It''s settled then! Let''s do our best!"
"Yes! To earn the names."
And just like that, they had decided for themselves what would happen after the invasion. To think names would help make people so close. I let out a sigh. Once again, somebody misunderstood my words and are exining them to suit their wishes. I hoped everything ended well.
Chapter 45 The Spider King Pt.I
When I was asked to go search for the kings of the West during the emergency meeting, I would have to admit that I was not up for it. However, I couldn''t turn them down, since I was the one who brought it up. Seeking a way to get back at those five for making me have to do this, I requested for aid, but Diane had foreseen my argument and had already prepared a sprite.
I was ok with the thought of traveling alone with a beauty, but then the rat leader appeared, saying he would go with us to the Spider King. I feel as if it were my fault, well mostly because I wasn''t capable of convincing the Wolf King to aid us.
So when he joined us, I felt that this trip was going to be an unpleasant one for me. I was proved wrong.
The rat man was a good guy. Funny, quick-witted and dependable. He tried his best to socialize with the sprite and me, and had been a great help during this entire time. Thanks to him, catching breakfast was not a bother anymore. Sure, he wasn''t really helpful in catching the creature. However, he was one of the few creatures I had seen after my reincarnation that could cook. Even now, as we were catching lunch, remembering how good the horned rabbits we had for breakfast tasted was bliss. Unlike Oda''s. I had chills remembering her cooking.
A massive stag beetle about my size, hovered above me. Apparently it was their way of threatening us to leave.
''Hey rat dude. Can you make something good out of the stag beetle?''
"Maybe¡ I have not really had the opportunity to cook one before, but I can try to make something out of it. And it would be good to add it to the records."
His response was all the confirmation I needed.
''Ok, then! Cover your ears!''
Once I had made sure both of them had covered their ears, I used [Wolf king''s howl] and this made the stag beetle fall to the ground, paralysed. Since it was strong enough to survive, I used shot a bit of poison specifically on its head to kill it, leaving its body unscathed.
[You have killed Giant Beetle]
[You have gained 70 XP]
As usual, I was informed of my kill and the amount of experience points I got from it. Considering how easy it was to kill it, I expected lesser experience points. I would have to look into the experience point delivering function sometimeter.
''I''m done.''
I called out to them and they both looked at the dead stag beetle. The rat man went over and kicked the corpse."
"As expected of Hinotori. However, could you not have refrained from doing that to the head?"
I looked at the half melted head, a truly gruesome scene.
''Hehehe¡, I guess you''re right. We can''t have ady seeing these things.''
"Oh, pay no attention to me. Such things do not bother me."
"Yeah, I think I can make something nice for the two of us out of this."
The rat man said as he eyed the beetle.
''Two of us? Have you forgotten that there are three of us?''
I asked him but he ignored me.
"Give me some time and I''ll be done over here."
I shrugged, then left him to his business.
''That was kind of rude, wasn''t it?''
"What do you mean, sir Hinotori?"
The dryad looked sincerely confused.
''I''m talking about how he didn''t include you when he was talking about the food earlier.''
"Oh, that? Why would that bother you?"
''Hmm? Why wouldn''t it.''
"Um, I do not understand."
She didn''t understand? What was too confusing?
''I don''t like how he is ignoring your presence.''
"He is not doing that."
''How can you say that when he didn''t even include you in his lunch preparation?''
"Fufufu."
She put her hand over her mouth to stifle herugher, but I could hear it as clear as day.
''What''s so funny?''
"Oh, I''m sorry. It''s just that the way youck information about the world is amusing."
I could feel my blood rushing to my face.
"My kind don''t eat meat like other magical creatures do. We receive our nutrition from the magical essence Sol emits."
''Sol?''
"Yes. Sol. The god who provides light for us. That ball of light is a portion of his body that he left before deciding to never directly interfere with the world. Something like hisst blessing to us."
She pointed to the sky and I saw the sun.
''Wait¡ a god of light left his ball of light and it is what you feed on?''
"Yes"
''Oh god, I really don''t want tough right now. I really don''t want tough right now!''
"Laugh? Why?"
''Never mind. Sprites simply need sunlight to live?''
"Yep"
Her smile was bright and heartwarming. This world keeps on shocking me, though. Even the sun is magical. I really want to explore it.
After a while, the rat man said he was done with lunch.
Stag beetles taste bad. Like really bad. Or maybe, the rat man wasn''t as good a cook as I thought he was. No, I couldn''t me the chef. This was all on me for choosing the ingredients. What kind of moron says he wants to eat cooked beetle for lunch.
At least I got some skills.
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the skill [Beetle Armor]]<novelnext></novelnext>
We continued on our journey and as time progressed I found a centipede and I felt kind of hungry at the sight. As voracious as it may have seemed, I killed it and ate it. I then acquired the skills [Centipede Armor] and [Acid Spit]. It didn''t take long for us to run into a giant ass bee. I killed it and got the skill [Compound eyes] and [Stinger]. I also managed to go up one level after eating so much till I was filled up. That was when I noticed something odd.
''Hey, haven''t we been seeing a lot of bug monsters around?''
"Now that you mention it..."
The rat man agreed with me.
"That is because we are in the Insect King''s territory."
''Eeeh? Already?''
I looked at the sky, and it was barely twilight. A huge bee flew overhead, carrying something. I couldn''t make out what exactly.
''Then we might even get to the king earlier than expected?''
"Hmm, yes. Just a little more and we''ll get to the bee hive."
She responded.
''We aren''t at the bee hive yet?''
"Of course not."
''But I thought the Spider King''s territory was the bee hive?''
"Oh no. The hive is its home in its territory. If you fly above the trees you should see a waterfall."
I wasted no time in getting above the tree tops. The view of the sunset was amazing, and just as I had been told, there was a waterfall up ahead. The way the clear water glittered made the view all the more amazing. It was like a portrait painted by a master artist. Nature truly was beautiful.
"Do you see it?"
The rat man called out.
''Uh, yeah.''
"Ok good, because that''s the hive."
''The waterfall is the bee hive?''
"No! Behind the waterfall!"
''Oh, that makes sense.''
I descended to the ground.
''But why behind a waterfall?''
"I''m not too sure, but I do hear somethings about how the spider king hates the day time."
The rat man answered.
Hates day time? Is he a vampire or something? Guy sounds like a NEET.
''Ok, I''m going to go ahead. You guys hurry up.''
I took to the sky, leaving them in the dust. I had patiently walked with them the whole way, even though I could fly about much quickly. Now that I knew the location, there was no point in me wasting any more time.
"Hinotori!"
I could hear those two screaming my name, wanting me to get back.
''Don''t worry! If you want, I won''t start the negotiation without you guys!''
I left them with that. Surely that should ease their minds a little bit.
When I got to the waterfall, I was almost deafened by the loud roar of the water mightily pping the river. I looked for possible entry roots and found quite a few, so I flew through one of them. I was nning on just flying through the waterfall, but ording to god''s agent, I would have just fallen to the river with my current strength stats.
When I got into the cave, it was quite dark so I couldn''t really see anything. Even when I used [Night Vision] and [Heat Vision] the heat signatures were faint so I couldn''t make out much. However, [Mana perception] was a whole other story.
<<Alert! Alert! Hostile aura detected! >>
''What?''
Without even giving me time to think correctly, something shot at me. I instinctively blocked with my right wing, but the impact from the hit was so strong that it threw me off bnce. I fell on my back with a thud. I tried to free myself, but the thing was quite strong and felt sticky. When I looked at it, it was a thread that had been shot from the shadows. Another one was shot out from behind me, and again I blocked with my left wing. Then a third one grabbed my tail. I waspletely immobilized. I struggled a bit but I couldn''t free myself, even with my strength stat.
<<Notice: It appears mana is constantly being applied to the threads>>
''And because of that I can''t break free?''
<<Affirmative>>
''Damnit! How am I supposed to escape from this?''
<<Notice: None of your skills can do anything to the threads>>
''Seriously!?''
<<Notice: Affirmative>>
''You know, none of this would have happened if I was able to simply use my awesome skillbo from before. I would have been able to scout this ce to see all life forms present.''
<<Notice: Would you prefer if the selected skills were fused? >>
''What? Of course I would, but I can''t.''
<<Notice: The skills [Auto Mapping], [Heat Sense], [Mana Perception] and [Goggles] will be fused if you will grant the permission to do so>>
''What? Seriously? You should have told me this earlier. Feel free to do so then!''
<<Notice: ording to calctions, it would be optimal to include the skill [Analyst] in this fusion>>
''Ah¡ I''m busy now. Sure, sure!''
DING!
[Due to the skill [God''s Voice], you have acquired the skill [Fusion]]
Chapter 46 The Spider King Pt.II
"I hope he is alright."
The sprite said in a worried tone.
"What are you worried for? You sensed his aurast night, right? He is holding back a lot. The only problem is we hope he doesn''t identally anger the spider king like he did the wolf king."
"Ah, yes. You are right."
"Let us hurry up."
Both of them moved quickly towards the bee hive, but something had been bothering ever since the beginning of the trip. Even now as the rat man looked at the dryad''s running figure, it felt quite odd.
"Hey you."
"Hmm?"
"I thought you said you don''t need food to survive?"
"Huh? What could you possibl-"
Both of them stopped running, and a gentle wind blew over.
"Oh please. I''ve never heard of a sprite that craves meat before. They just eat fruits if they get hungry, yet you lied that you absorb mana from the sol."
"That is um-¡ is this really important now? If Hinotori isn''t able to convince the spider king, we will be in a lot of troubleter on, you know?"
She was looking for ways to escape her current predicament and Hinotori flying ahead of them had provided an escape route for her.
The rat man wanted to find out more, but she had given him a reason to postpone his investigation. He was curious as to what she actually was.
''I heard Diane was keeping something unnatural with her. Could she be it?''
Sure, she radiated the same presence as the other sprites did, however, she was eyeing the food he had cooked earlier in the morning and he felt it were odd, since the sprites hated meat.
All his questions would be solved at ater date, so he shoved them to a corner in his mind and ran as fast as he could towards the bee hive. What was most important was making sure they brought the spider king to their side and Hinotori was most likely to fail in that aspect.
It was not that he saw Hinotori as ipetent. No, in fact he respected Hinotori after seeing her beat the timber wolf the night before - although the timber wolf was hiding its aura. It was just that, Hinotori was too naive andcked a lot ofmon knowledge. They couldn''t possibly leave negotiations in her hands.
After a few minutes of running, they finally arrived at the waterfall. When they got there, two spiders, easily twice asrge as the leader of the rat men were standing guard. Knowing that trying to sneak in would be futile, they introduced themselves to the guards and were led inside the cave. They were marveled at the sight of the bee hive at first, but what marveled them even more was the sight before him.
"W-what happened here?"
----------------------------------------
I had beenpletely immobilized by the threads from some giant spiders and dragged around a dark cave. When we got to a point, all the faint presences I noticed earlier on, became stronger. Lights suddenly lit up. No. Those were huge fireflies. There were holes in the massive caves and I could see countless worker bees flying in and out of them, but strangely, there were other bugs in here. I could spot centipedes, beetles, bees, spiders and the likes. Was this really a bee hive? It was more like a bug cave.
I was taken to a certain chamber in the hive. Inside was a giant golden web, with a huge spider resting on it. I tried using [Analyst], but then I received a notification from the agent.
<<Notice: You cannot use some selected skills while in the process of fusion>>
''Ah¡ that''s right, I sent my unique skill to the ughter house. Dang it I''m dumb.''
Seriously? Was this how I was going to go out in my second life? Getting eating by a huge ass spider?
"So you have finally arrived."
A feminine voice rang out through the chamber, making it difficult to tell its source, but I deduced that it was from the massive spider resting on the webs. That spider was the biggest I''ve seen, probably around 30 metresrge. I definitely wouldn''t want to fight something like that.
''Finally arrived? The insect king has been waiting for me?''
"I have been waiting for you for a while now. Although you arrived sooner than expected."
''Ok? So what now?''
"Oh, forgive my rudeness. He is my guest. Release him."
As soon as she ordered that, the threads were loosened. I felt that I could easily break them now so I did just that and broke free. I looked right at the massive spider''s eight eyes and could see my reflection in all of them. Creepy.
"Ok, then let''s get down to business, shall we? I will help you."
She said something surprising.
''Eh? For real?''
"Yes, but¡"
I let out a sigh.
"I want you to give me a name after this."
''What?''
"A name. I want a name. I heard your conversation on the outside and I like the terms ofpleting this task."
''You heard my conversation? I can''t even speak out loud!''
"I could piece together the bits of information from those two you were with."
''Ah¡ Well they were pretty loud about it.''
I get that names proved that they''ve been acknowledged and all, but still, these guys are ready to fight against one of the most dangerous creatures in the forest for just a name which they didn''t even know its actual value.
"Is there a matter?"
The spider king or should I say queen, asked me.
''Oh, nothing. I just thought a creature of your, er magnitude wouldn''t have even given me a second thought.''
"Why wouldn''t I make time for the Tyrant of the West''s friend?"
Just how many people know I''m Minerva''s friend?
''So you know about Minerva, huh?''
"Why yes. Some of my children have died at your hands, you know?"
Her children? Is she talking about the bugs we have been killing for some time now?
''Hehe, sorry about that.''
I immediately bowed down to the giant spider and apologized. She had already agreed to help us, before but I still needed to get on her good side so as to avoid angering her.
"What are you doing?"
''Huh? I''m bowing to show how apologetic I am. Is there something wrong?''<novelnext></novelnext>
"No, I get that and all, but aren''t you supposed to bow to the one you are apologizing to? I didn''t know that you were blind."
I looked at the spider,pletely confused.
''H-huh? Aren''t you the insect king?''
"No, that''s my guard. I am here. On the throne."
''W-what throne-''
Suddenly, a presence that was not there before had appeared. The aura was even scarier than the wolf king''s. I looked around and was surprised by the sight of a throne that wasn''t even there at first. The throne was elevated and I could spot something small sitting on it. No, it was another spider, but with a crown of gold on its head.
Ah! It was the smallest spider I had seen ever since being reborn, although it wasn''t a normal sized spider. Still, it was radiating a very powerful aura.
''So I take it that you are the spider king?''
"Indeed, I am."
''B-but, how did you-?''
"Don''t ask for answers you won''t be receiving."
''What? Do you even know what I was about to ask?''
"So you weren''t going to ask how Ipletely erased my presence from your [Mana Sense]?"
She had mepletely figured out. But topletely hide the throne from my vision and even worse, her presence from my [Aura sense] as if she didn''t exist. Not even the Timber wolf king couldpletely erase her presence. At most, she could just hide her aura much like I do. What kind of skill was that?
Suddenly out of nowhere, the spider jumped on me and I wasn''t even able to react, leading the both of us to fall on the floor.
"But finally! To think that I will be getting a name after the war."
I cringed at the sight of the mandibles that were moving restlessly.
''Ah? Yea, yea, I can tell that you are happy and all, but I thought someone as strong as you would have a name.''
"Oh no. Truth is most of us kings don''t have names."
''Seriously? And you''re that strong?''
"Well yea-"
I saw the spider looking behind me, and I could sense four presences. Two of which belonged to the sprite and the rat man, the others were some spiders. However, both the dryad and the rat men lookedpletely stunned.
"What happened?"
The rat man asked, and the insect king jumped off me. I got up and walked towards them.
''You guys made it. You won''t beli-''
They cut me off
"Are you alright Lady Hinotori?"
"Lady Hinotori, is everything ok?"
Both of them rushed towards me. But there was something odd. Why were they referring to me as ''Lady Hinotori''? That was a weird and sudden switch. Also, shouldn''t they have been saying ''Sir'' instead?
''Oh yes. Everything is fine.''
"Thank goodness."
''Any way you guys! I just finished talking to the spider king-''
"Oh spider king, please forgive our rudeness, but we havee seeking your aid during this invasion."
The rat manpletely ignored me and bowed before the spider king.
I felt kind of offended but understood him none the less.
"Oh, uh¡ leader of the rat men, you can stand up. Rest assured everything has already been taken care of. I will aid you in the defense."
"R-really?"
"Oh yes, Hinotori-kyun and I hit it off splendidly and so I would like to help you lot."
''Kyun?''
"You did!?"
"They did?"
All three of us were confused, and I could see the others looking at me.
"I guess, I shouldn''t have worried at all."
The rat man, who so rudely told me he believed I wasn''t capable of doing this bashfully admitted.
"Erh-erm, its ok. No harm done."
I looked at the insect king again and I it¡ winked at me? Imagine looking at four eyes on the same body, winking at you at the same time. It was sort of creepy.
"Ok, then! As my guests, we shall have a feast tonight and then talk about the ns for the uing invasion."
Oh yeah, we hadn''t really discussed about the actual matter
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Beetle Armor]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Centipede Armor]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Acid Spit]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Compound Eyes]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Stinger]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Fusion]]
[Hinotori went up 1 level]
Chapter 47 Punishment
Day 19
Once we discussed matters with the Spider king, we decided to head back today, but Diane ordered us to stay here for a bit. She sent me a secret message that she was waiting for something to happen and I understood her perfectly and was impressed with her quick thinking.
So today was spent testing out my skills. There was a very interesting development today, for my skill [White Viper Scales] became [King Viper Scales]. Now they weren''t white anymore. They had a silvery allure to them and were way stronger than before. Coupled with my [Slime Body] I could now absorb a high amount of shock before taking any damage.
The spider king came to bother my process. I wanted to sack her, but I couldn''t be rude to someone helping me out. I decided to nt some spawns. I nted a lot. It was practically a garden and I was expecting about fifty of them toe out. Even the little guys would be helpful as cannon fodder. No more getting attached to twigs.
It hurt a bit, but I would simply have to move on from the original twigs. They were dead and gone now. I also left my [Stealth] on at all times now, because I realized I hadn''t built enough proficiency with it. I didn''t know what skill the spider king had used and the agent too said there were no skills thatpletely erased one''s presence so it was most likely a unique skill. That got me scared.
I tested out the [Centipede Armor], but if anything, it was more like a hindrance than anything. Fine, my body was covered in some cool looking centipede armor, but then I had some long armor extension from my behind going for about three meters. Walking was a bit hard and flying was very difficult. Control and getting off the very ground became way more difficult.
Next was [Beetle Armor]. No. Just no. It was the most unsightly piece of armor Iid eyes on, so I would never use it even though the defense it gave me was better than the one the centipede armor gave me. [Acid Spit] as its name suggested was a chunk of acidic saliva. [Compound Eyes] made my head hurt a bit seeing as I wasn''t used to that kind of vision and [Stinger] was only to be used for suicide attacks. The bees really were unfortunate creatures, no?
I tested out my [Size Maniption] and became three times as big as I normally was, so the spider king jumped on my back, asking me to fly her around. This girl was being annoying. I wanted to grab her and fling her into the wall or something.
I also ate a lot of fish today, got the skills [Camouge] and [Allure], and talked to the spider king a lot. She was actually very interesting. She said when she was born she was scared that she might get eaten by her mother and that led her to pulling off some pretty insane escapades, overthrowing her mother and then bing the spider king. She said it took her three months to do all of those. ording to the agent, a month in this world was forty-two days, so that was quite amazing. Not even a year back in my world.
Then, there was the oddest and most annoying thing that happened.
[System Error!]
[System Error!]
[System Error!]
[System Error!]
[System Error!]
There was a sharp striking pain in my head. My head hurt like hell. I felt like it was going to split at any moment. Almost as if it were being sawed through at that very moment.
I let out a pained yell.
"Ch¡ken?"
It was faint, but I could hear the spider''s voice from my side.
[Attempt to fuse unique skill [Analyst] with skills [Auto Mapping], [Heat Sense], [Mana Perception] and [Goggles] refused by System Master #####]
[Attempt to fuse unique skill [Analyst] with skills [Auto Mapping], [Heat Sense], [Mana Perception] and [Goggles] refused by System Master #####]
[Attempt to fuse unique skill [Analyst] with skills [Auto Mapping], [Heat Sense], [Mana Perception] and [Goggles] refused by System Master #####]
[Attempt to fuse unique skill [Analyst] with skills [Auto Mapping], [Heat Sense], [Mana Perception] and [Goggles] refused by System Master #####]
''Attempt¡! Refused¡!? System master!? AAARRGGGHHH!''
It appeared my attempt to fuse skills had been refused by a certain ''system master'' I had never heard off.
But why? And why now? Didn''t I do this some days ago? Why was this supposed ''system master'', now refusing it when it was left with only 1 more day?
[Implementing Penalty¡.]
Thest thing I remember hearing was something about implementing a penalty. I just passed out on the spot.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[The skill [White Viper Scales] became [King Viper Scales]]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], Hinotori acquired the skill [Camouge]]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], Hinotori acquired the skill [Allure]]
[Hinotori was punished by the system master #####]
_____________________________________________________
The East, War Monger''s Fort
The audience room, a ce that most of the denizens of the east referred to as the execution chamber. Why? Well it was simply because if you wished to die, you just need to walk in there. The owner of that chamber was not well known for his subtleness.
Rather, he was well known for his violent temperament and how those who usually sought an audience with him ended up dead. To seek an audience with him was the same as to go toin and the master did not like to listen to othersin. He had made it very clear after he rounded up all the denizens with issues and killed them without batting an eye.
A heartless beast. That was the master of the chamber.
Now in that very chamber were four creatures. One was the master, two were his guards and the other was a fool who knew not his ce, or so was what others called him. Who was this fool? He went by the name Derbyshire. A satyr and the leader of a herd of roaming satyrs with the name the Roaming Satyrs.<novelnext></novelnext>
He bowed down and first offered greetings to the existence before him
"Oh, Mighty Tyrant! War Monger Krull! Ruler of the East! Unmatched god of war!-"
"Enough! I hope you did note here just to tter me!"
The being. No, the Tyrant said to him, his voice explosive with power. This caused Derbyshire to quiver and almost fall back. If it weren''t for the numerous situations he had encountered, he would have just stood there,pletely speechless.
"N-no, I came here to express m-my gratitude for giving us the opportunity to flee."
"¡ Is that it?"
The old satyr lifted his head up and met the blood red eyes of the mighty ogre. He immediately sensed the danger he would encounter if he said that was all, so he then shifted gears.
"N-no! I have something else I wanted to tell you!"
The tyrant looked impassively at the fickle existence before him. It wouldn''t take much for him to kill that existence if it further wasted his time.
"What is it?"
He decided to humor the satyr before killing him.
"I-I have brought news of the West''s forces and how they n to fight back."
''Hmmm? I know the west''s creatures sacked the envoys, but there was no mention of the wench herself participating in this. Does this mean that wench has decided to fight back?''
He thought.
No. It couldn''t be. The tyrant of the west had showed absolutely no interest in the forest ever since she had been made into a tyrant. She would only kill the humans who dared to enter her portion, however if it were other creatures she would turn a blind eye. The fact that she refused to attend the meeting to celebrate her bing a tyrant was proof enough. Not even he, the War Monger Krull could refuse Goliath''s invitation, yet that newbie did so without even batting an eye. It filled him with so much rage and hate towards her.
It made absolutely no sense that she would suddenly be interested in the west. The satyr had to be lying.
"Hmph! You better speak the truth now or else!"
If he wasn''t speaking the truth and Krull found out, he would die. If he told Krull that he was lying he would die. The only way out of that situation was for what he had said to be true.
"I swear, it''s the truth!"
The satyr tried to defend his im, while cowering before the tyrant.
"As if that wench would suddenly be interested in this matter! Speak the truth or die now!"
"Sh-she''s not the one orchestrating the self-defense."
"Huh? Kuhahaha! As if there is anyone dumb enough to stand up to me, War Monger Krull!"
"T-there is¡"
"What was that?"
The satyr''s im made him even angrier.
"I said there is somebody who is leading the West against you."
The old satyr who usually carried an air of confidence, now wore an air of fear. Some could say it was because he finally realized the true depth of powers he was trying to y with.
"Who is that?"
The ogre tyrant asked in a cold voice that showed his displeasure.
"A-A bird! S-she calls herself Hinotori."
"A bird!? A simple hen!? Now I know you are trying to insult me. I shall kill you here and now!"
He had nned on getting on the tyrant''s good side. He attempted with Minerva, but she didn''t even spare him a nce. Now he wasn''t nning to fail with the ogre tyrant. Because failing this time meant death. In a literal sense.
"W-wait! It isn''t a regr hen. She was Minerva''s pet!"
"Oh? So you are saying that Wench''s pet decided to stand against me? Kuhahaha! Truly, this is an attempt to provoke me! That wench has truly annoyed me! I shall fight her and kill her myself!"
And so, the War Monger dered, with a mighty roar that shook the chamber.
"Very well Satyr. I shall listen to you."
And with that said, Derbyshire began to reveal all the information he had received during the emergency meeting the leaders of the West had held.
Chapter 48 The Slave Girl Pt.I
Day 20
I was in trouble. Why am I saying this out of the blue? For two reasons actually.
Well, you see, we ended up spending two days over at the bee hive since the dryad said Diane asked us not toe back until she called for us. Something about the expected betrayal. She was probably talking about the old goat... erh satyr.
So in the past two days have been spent with me eating fruits, because the spider king could not tolerate me eating her "children" or so I wanted. I mean, I just got an out of nowhere power-nerfing for no reason known to me.
Apart from that, my day was going surprisingly well, if you took out the fact that I was supposed to be preparing forbat against a tyrant and I had been weakened. Emphasizing on the WEAKENED! I had decided to go exploring in the spider king''s territory and familiarize myself with the ce. At least know my burial grounds well. Maybe I would be able to haunt this ce as a poltergeist.
[System master ##### has implemented punishment: No XP gain]
[You will no longer gain XP]
[System master ##### has implemented punishment: LvL Subtraction]
[You have lost 2 levels]
[System master ##### has implemented punishment: Unique skill lock]
[You will be incapable of using the unique skills [Evolver] and [God''s Voice]]
[You can only use the unique skills [Analyst] and [Hunter]]
[System master ##### has implemented punishment: Blessing Nullification]
[All your blessings have been cancelled]
[System master ##### has implemented punishment: Forced Quest]
''Ah!? What is happening? What''s all these punishments and who is this system master? I''ve never heard of him before. What did I do?''
I quickly brought up my status screen.
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori
[Species: Golden Demonic Hen Level 9/30
[Status: [Full]
[Age: 19 days
[Rank: D
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Titles: [New-born in a New World], [Rare Species], [Named Beast], [Survivor], [Vulture], [Bunny yer]
[Blessings: |LOCKED|
[Level: 24 Exp: 100/5700
[Health: 950/950 Stamina: 1600/1600 Strength: 162 Speed: 500 Defence: 134 Dexterity: 136 Intelligence: 36 Luck: 40
[Skills: [Evolver(LOCKED)], [Analyst], [God''s voice(LOCKED)], [Lustful Gaze], [Imprint], [Baby Chick Cry], [Fear Resistance], [Aquatic Form], [Heat Resistance], [Poison Resistance], [Peck], [ck Wayne Caw], [Auto Mapping], [Poison Generation], [King Viper Scales], [Sprint], [Pain Resistance], [Spearhead], [Acrobatics], [Blood Sucking], [Terror], [Soul Consumption], [Fire Breath], [Poison Maelstrom], [Thread Creation], [Thread Control], [Stealth], [Mana Perception], [Magic Perception], [Dark Vision], [Flight], [Spore Generation], [Sap Spores], [Poison Gas Creation], [Spawn Spores], [Co-ordination] [Cold Resistance], [Goggles], [Heat Sense], [Mental Damage Resistance], [Feelers], [Sensors], [Poison ws], [Verwesen], [Murderous Aura Resistance], [Auto Regeneration], [Timber Wolf King¡¯s Howl], [Hunter], [Size Maniption], [Charisma], [Devil Miasma], [Mental Pain Resistance], [Predator], [Slime Body], [Pain Nullification], [Assimtion], [Horn Protrusion], [Stomp], [Telepathy], [Fiery Kick], [Aura Resistance], [Murderous Aura Resistance], [Beetle Armour], [Centipede Armour], [Acid Spit], [Compound Eyes], [Stinger], [Fusion], [Camouge], [Allure]
''AAH!? T-they actually took away my unique skills and blessings! Ah and why is XP locked? And I''m back to being just level 21? Even with level 26, defeating the tyrant was basically a pipe dream! What the hell!?''
I was so surprised that I ended up screaming.
''What is this Forced Quest?''
[Forced Quest: Protect the West from the East]
[Rewards: You will be pardoned of all punishments]
[Side Quest (Optional): Defeat the Ogre Tyrant without killing it.]
[Possible Rewards: [A new unique skill]
[300 Stat points]
[10,000XP]
[The Title: Saint]
[Title effect]
[Unlock Complete System Functions]
''Ah? What is this? Just what is this? AH, why do I have to go through such a thing at this time? I''m supposed to do this forced quest to free myself of all punishments? That''s bullshit! What makes this worse is this¡ this side quest? It says optional, but is it really optional? The rewards are just too tempting. A unique skill? Ah, I thought I could only get those from a higher being. This system master can gift me with one if Iplete this task? W-Wait a minute¡ he locked two of my unique skills. What if this means after the quest I''ll only get one of them back? No! Let''s think about something else. 300 stat points and 1-10,000XP? Ah you should be giving me more for the trouble. As if that''s going to cover the kind of thing I am about to do. Another interesting one, the Title effects? What''s that supposed to mean?''
[Titles will create certain effects for you]
The titles hadn''t really done anything, so if I did this I would be able to get the title effects. Nice. So what kind of effects would Saint give me?
[Saint: You show exceptional holiness]
[Effect: Causes 2X damage to opponents weak against Light Magic and you acquire the [Light Attribute] and [Light Affinity]]
''For real? Ok, moving along, we have unlocking system functions? Wait, I haven''t unlocked system functions? Now that I think about it, I remember something about a locked function from before. Don''t tell me the system I''ve been using was a sort of trial period. Ah, this is like a bargain with the devil. How am I supposed to stop this whole thing without killing him? I now had to convince Minerva to someway not kill him? Maybe they would fight to a stalemate? No¡ Minerva already emphasized on how much stronger than him she was.''
So in the end, I had toe to terms with that situation. There was nothing I could do about it. At least now I knew for sure there was someone watching my every move. Damned stalkers. Then there was my next problem and it was standing in front of me breathing restlessly.
She looked haggard and dressed in muddy rags. In fact, there was a chain cor around her neck. Her skin looked bruised and had fresh wounds. I could tell she was exhausted from the way she was breathing heavily and stumbling. I was watching her from behind a bush nt. She hadn''t noticed my presence yet.
It was painful just watching her look so beat up. And there was Minerva. It was only a matter of time before she noticed this girl in the forest. Maybe if I could help her get out she would be saved.
I was about to run at her, but I was sure she seeing a weird bird wouldn''t help calm her down. Still, there was nothing to do about it. I sent a message to her using [Telepathy].
''Are you ok?''
The girl looked around after hearing my voice. It was funny looking at her. So this was how people felt when they observed me from far away and used [Telepathy]? Ha! However, I saw the girl''s eyes. Those dull crimson eyes looked scared. Her face was battered up. And tears were streaking down. This girl¡<novelnext></novelnext>
I intentionally made some noise while I was going out to get her attention. She warily turned around and our eyes met. Her face was really bruised. After seeing me, she tried to run away, but then I used [ck Thread Creation] to trip her then trap her on the ground.
''Where do you think you''re going to?''
I moved closer to her then brought my face closer to her.
''Hey, you ok?''
Her body was cold and she was shivering. It were almost as if she had been frozen for a while. I turned her around and she was crying.
"P-please¡"
She was mumbling something but I couldn''t hear her. I figured it was just going to waste her energy if she tried to talk anymore.
''It''s ok, it''s ok. You can rx now. I''ve got you. Trust me, ok? Hey agent, is there something I could do?
<<Notice: The best option would be to rub [Renosue Herbs] on her body>>
''[Renosue Herbs]? Seriousy? But that''s like a day''s journey away! She won''t make it that long!''
<<Notice: With your speed in the air you should be able to make the journey in 30 minutes>>
''Ah! That''s right! I''m a bird now.''
"Is that you Hinotori?"
The voice startled me and caused me to jump. I recognised that it belonged to the spider king. When I turned around, surely the spider was looking at me.
"W-what are you doing here!? Ah, never mind. Can you watch this girl for me? I''ll be back in the next hour. Thanks."
I flew off after saying that and I could hear the spider shouting about something. That wasn''t important at the moment so I would just ignore her. I quickly got the herbs and flew back as fast as I possibly could, even using [Sprint] at the end so I could get there faster.
I managed to arrive when they were in the cave and gave the herbs to the sprite who said she could make a medicine out of them. Within no time, she fed it to the girl. Her wounds were visibly closing up and her body was bing less pale. I could feel a bit more heat on her and her breathing became a bit more paced.
I let out a sigh, happy that she wasn''t going to die. I couldn''t let the first human I met just die out of nowhere without helping them out a bit.
"Oh yeah, chicken. I''ve got something to tell you."
The spider king came up to me with a very serious tone.
''What is it?''
"Um, well¡ the sprite said to give you the message that you can return to your home now."
''Eh? Seriously? That means Derbyshire is safe?''
"Huh? I don''t know this Derbyshire person so I can''t say. Ask her."
I looked at the sprite and she simply shook her head. Diane must have not told her the details.
"Mm¡ mmm."
We heard a voice. The girl was moaning as she slowly opened her eyes. And her first reaction after opening her eyes was screaming. I couldn''t me her. She was trying to get away from everything freaky she saw or at least that was what I assumed she was doing.
''Calm down. We aren''t going to hurt ya, kay?"
She looked at me, freaked out. I wanted to ask the sprite to talk to her, but she was hiding behind the rat man and I couldn''t ask a rat or spider to talk to her. At least birds were friendly creatures, no?
''Hi there, my name is Hinotori. I''m a bird. What about you?''
She looked at me with distrusting eyes and sniffed the air. Once she had confirmed whatever she wanted to confirm, she calmed down. She let out a sigh of relief.
"Psst. Chicken. Who is she?"
The spider came up to me and started whispering.
''That''s what I''d like to know.''
"Ugh? She isn''t a friend of yours?"
''Do we look like we''re friends?''
"Guess not."
I let out an exasperated sigh. This supposed second-inmand of the west was nothing more than a powerful brat. Honestly, why did the three strongest creatures here have to be so immature? Minerva refused right off the bat, the wolf king decided to keep to herself as well and the only one who decided to help was an immature brat who just wanted more power.
The girl took a step back.
''Hold on. Don''t worry. We don''t bite.''
She nced at the spider and I could tell what she was thinking. Not really convincing when someone says a giant spider isn''t going to bite you, is it?
''Ok, I don''t bite. I don''t know about bug face over here.''
"Hey! It''s rude to call me bug face. Chicken."
''You have a bug face, don''t you?''
"So? It''s still rude, you know."
I ignored the annoying bug then tried to establishmunication with the girl.
''Yea, yea, anyway what''s your name?''
"¡U-Ulva¡"
She mumbled something but I couldn''t hear her clearly.
''I''m sorry,e again.''
"¡U-Ulva!"
Chapter 49 The Slave Girl Pt.II
''Ulva?''
She responded with a nod.
''Ok, Ulva. I''m going to have to ask you some questions. Can you answer me?''
Once again, she slowly nodded.
''Ok, good. First of all, do you know where you are?''
She shook her head
''Ok, don''t freak out, but you''re in Larm right now.''
The girl slowly looked around the cave, then she let out a sigh. It was like she was relieved. Honestly I expected her to be filled with a sense of dread or something close. Wait¡ Was she happy that she was in Larm? Didn''t she realize that this was a no-human zone?
''Wait, you''re not scared?''
She didn''t respond.
''You do realize that this is Larm, right? You know, the forest with dangerous monsters that could chop of your head in one bite or rip out your guts, poison you, shred you to pieces and- Ou!''
"Not helping!"
The spider king rammed into me and I fell. When I looked at the girl she was a bit shaken. Probably by what I said.
''Hehe, my bad. Sorry about that.''
"Moving on, why are you here, little girl?"
The spider king asked in my ce with [Telepathy].
"I- I was running away."
"Running away? From what?"
"S-ve traders."
ve Traders!? So they exist in this world? I thought they wouldn''t since Gorm said humans and demi-humans lived peacefully. Then again, it''s not like he himself had really visited human cities, huh? But, Minerva''s dad was an adventurer right? Then something must have changed in these past years. Yeah, maybe very must have be a thing. Still, why would they enve another human girl when there were demi-humans? Did shee from a poor background or something?
I sat while thinking it out. She must havee here because she thought it was better to die in this forest than to suffer at the hands of vers, right? I didn''t know how it went in this world, but even I wouldn''t want to be tortured or sold.
''Ok, ok. I get it now. So you''re a runaway ve from a nearby kingdom or city, right?''
I asked and she nodded
''Do you have any family we can take you to or something?''
She slowly shook her head.
''Like no parents, siblings or rtives?''
She then grasped the ends of her filthy rags while shaking. She was forcing words out of her mouth. Then I saw a drop of a liquid fall on to the ground. Then another, until it was like waterworks. She was crying.
"M-my parents¡ T-they s-sold me."
I didn''t know why, but that got me pissed off. Something inside me clicked, almost like I knew the feeling, but my parents never abandoned me. Ah, it was one of those things where you read a book and got really immersed into the character''s point of view, you know? Like a book where the protagonist has shitty parents and you hate them almost as much as he does.
''It''s ok. Stop crying. You can stay with me for a while until we can help you.''
Her tears were still flowing and I didn''t know what exactly to do to calm her down. I had put myself in quite the situation. I approached her and put my wing over her head, patting her. Thanks to [Size Maniption] was now bigger than her. Normally, I''d be half her size.
''Come on, big girls shouldn''t be crying. You''re like what? 14? 13? 12?''
It took a while but she finally stopped with the waterworks and was sniffing now.
"Four¡ teen."
''She''s fourteen? Ah well.''
I just patted her on the head.
''Don''t worry. You''ve got me watching over you. You are going to be alright, ok?''<novelnext></novelnext>
I tried for a smile with my beak. Obviously that didn''t work.
"Hey, Hinotori. You sure that''s ok? Won''t the Tyrant of the West be angry?"
The spider whispered to me.
''Naw.''
"What do you mean, naw?"
''I mean "naw". Nothing will happing. Don''t worry about it.''
I mean, what reason would Minerva have to kill a dhampyr?
STATUS
[Name: Ulva
[Species: Dhampyr Level 13/50
[Status: [Hungry]
[Age: 14 years
[Rank: C
[Race Rank: Tier 2
[Titles: |Of World|, |Man Eater|, |Man yer|, |Night Walker|
[Blessings: -
[Level: 13 Exp: 5/3,000
[Health: 1000/2000 Stamina: 2400/2400 Strength: 200 Speed: 520 Defense: 133 Dexterity: 156 Intelligence: 40 Luck: 45
[Skills: [Fang Protrusion], [Rock throw], [Blood Sucking], [Lamprey Form], [Night Vision], [Heat Vision], [Blood Vision], [Blood Hound]
And she was even above me in terms of rank. She was practically stronger than ny-nine percent of the entire invasion-prevention unit.
"What about, oh that''s right, the freaking war that''s going to take ce in 6 days?!"
''Um, something will work out. It always does.''
"And you''re the one leading the west against the east?"
''Ok, I will admit, I feel a bit offended by that, however, I''m thinking about it as of now.''
The spider let out a sigh then headed towards her private chambers. I followed behind her while dragging Ulva along with me. I didn''t know why, but I simply couldn''t stand to see Ulva get killed or going back to the ve traders. It just wouldn''t sit right with me. Also I got that she ran away and all, but how did she get this far into the forest? I was not sure there were any cities nearby. ording to the agent the nearest kingdom was about a two week journey from here.
I then got to know Ulva more. It took a while but she exined that she grew up in a vige somewhere, but one night the vige was attacked by a demon or monster. She said she had no real recollection of that night, but the next morning she saw litters of the vigers'' corpses spread around the vige. Obviously this ended up leaving her vige poor and she had been struggling with her parents to make ends meet. So one day her parents suddenly sold her to ve traders for some money and ever since she had been moved from city to city on sale, untilst two nights when some guy attacked the vers and freed her and all the other ves. She ended up in the forest and had been roaming for the past two days without having anything to eat. So we fed her some fruits and fish from the river below.
Afterwards I exined to them why I would be taking her in and none of them had anyints. I was really surprised. No one voiced any objections whatsoever. Also I had the sprite make some clothes out of leaves for Ulva. Her rags were too filthy. The sprite had to bathe her as well. Apparently it was no problem for her.
The next day was spent with us walking back home. I left the exnation of the current situation to the sprite who left off earlier. The rat man said he was heading back to oversee the preparations for the event. Leaving me with Ulva. She was actually a good kid. Albeit shy, but none-the-less a well-mannered kid who for some reason couldn''t irritate anybody. I mean, the girl didn''t even resent her parents one bit for what they did to her. She was truly an angel.
I ate ming deer and got no skills whatsoever. Damn it, that [Fire Force] and [Throttle] looked like really good skills too. That fight was not an easy one and I got nothing really beneficial out of it.
So now we were heading towards Diane''s tree. At first I wanted to go to the cave to let Ulva sleep there, but then I thought about it again and realized that it might not have been the brightest of ideas. Not Minerva''s cave obviously. The goblins''.
Thankfully, Diane decided to take Ulva in without much problem. I told them I was going to get a meal for Ulva and weirdly enough Ulva shouted something about working hard. We just ignored her and Diane made her get into her tree.
While out hunting, I ran into Minerva. It was written all over her face that she didn''t want to see me. I mean she even told me that she had reced me with a slime. A bloody slime with no good stats whatsoever. Of all the insults, that one was by far the most offensive.
I tried to patch things up though by asking her if she would like to hunt with me. For a moment, I thought she said yes, but when I told her that I was looking for something big for Ulva and I she just changed her mind and said she wasn''t interested in hunting with a weak creature. The nerve of her!
I ended up having to go searching for dinner on my own. Truly a pain in the butt. I went hunting for some rabbit for Ulva. It took quite a while because most of them were asleep. I got two for her, then after that I searched around and ended up getting a lone timber wolf. I didn''t really care about them since they had refused to help us. I dragged the items back to Diane''s tree. I myself was feeling quite hungry.
I myself had forgotten one itsy bitsy detail. Dhampyrs didn''t normally eat raw food, right? I was sort of used to it, but what about Ulva? I mean, I didn''t know how exactly what dhampyrs needed, except blood. To my surprise she wanted to gobble down the food like some sort of beast. Probably because she understood that birds couldn''t cook. She was just a darling. Luckily, Diane revealed that she knew how to cook so that night was spent eating a good meal.
I was about to leave Ulva with Diane that night, but Ulva looked very scared when I told her that, so I ended up sleeping next to her. She was shivering. It was probably too cold for her, so we huddled together and slept. No, nothing happened. It was just an older brother sleeping next to his little sister sort of situation.
Chapter 50 The Preparations Pt.I
Day 18
''We have an epic battleing up with an enemy that could most likely squash us all like the insignificant bugs we are before its eyes, however, I don''t think any of us here are nning on dying anytime soon. So I am going to have divide you all into groups just so we don''t die. Leader of the rat men, you will be leading your race to set up ambushes and traps for the enemy forces. You also will be sharing information on what happens on the battlefield so we can keep track. Gorm, you and the goblins are going to have to engage in a frontal assault. Next, Suna, I believe you said you and your water nymphs are capable of performing water magic for healing? I''ll need you guys to leave yourfort zones and move onnd to support the goblin forces. I believe the Ogre Tyrant may bring a king or two with him, but we only have one king on our side and she will being with her forces, so the goblins will not be alone, however they wille on the actual day of warfare, so the goblins have to be well-prepared. The dryads who are incapable of participating will be providing food for our forces by simply helping them move about the forest much more easily than our opponents. Any questions?''
Suna raised her hand so I called her out.
"Um, what about the ogre tyrant?"
''Is that even a question? Don''t we all already know the answer to that?''
I put up a bold front, but on the inside I was scared as hell. To take on someone on the level of Minerva. It''s going to be hell chipping away at his HP, let alone with his defense stat and the fact that he''ll be attacking me. But, ording to Diane, Minerva said she would participate if I did, so I would assume that she would take care of Krull if he actually participated. The only problem was convincing Minerva to not fight him.
I had given them my orders, just like they wanted me to. I wasn''t sure how they would take it, but to my surprise, they all nodded, no one disagreed.
After that, the meeting was disbanded and the rest of the days was spent preparing our forces.
Day 1 of preparations was spent spreading the information to the various races that were taking part in the self-defense. The news spread so fast that, by afternoon I spotted the races already in action, training themselves.
I stopped by the rat men today since the leader had invited me. It turns out they live underground so had he not personally brought me I wouldn''t have found them. They had a whole tunnel ofworks that led to every single part in the forest so that was how they heard so much information. So it was no shock when I found out that the rat men had already began to set up the traps and were training for the ambushes. They were a well-oiled machine and to be honest, it was scary.
What was even scarier was when I arrived at the rat men''s base. I could see over a hundred of them constantly moving through the numerous holes in the walls. Turns out he was lying about their numbers and there were actually way more rat men in the West than he initially told us. This made mein.
''With this many why don''t you guys just go on a full blown assault?''
"You were the one who gave the orders."
He retorted as such and I felt embarrassed.
''Whatever. You''ll need to move some of the rat men to join the goblins. Also, if you guys have so many tunnels can''t we just use them for the transportation of our troops? We have a home field advantage, why aren''t you guys using it to the best?''
"Sorry."
The rat man ended up apologizing, realizing how stupid it was to neglect that. But then I had a thought.
''You guys built all these tunnels, right?''
"Yes."
''Ok then why not build tunnels to Suna''s river? That should make it easier for the water nymphs and guppies to join in on the battle, no?''
"Y-yes. You''re right."
''How long will it take to create the tunnels?''
"We should be able to finish by the end of today if we start now."
''The end of today? Will it affect your training?''
"Not if we leave it to those setting up the traps."
''Ok then, you guys do just that. I''ll take my leave now. I''ll inform Suna of my n. I leave everything to you."
I left the rat men and flew as quickly as I could towards Suna''s river. When I got there I could see some water nymphs on the banks of the river. Since there was no practical way to train their healing magic, some of them were just sun bathing. So stupid. I spotted Suna amongst their ranks eating a fruit. She looked like some kind of bikini model, except with her blue skin.
When I got there she greeted me and I did same. I told her of my n and she said as long they stopped at the river bank she wouldn''t have a problem with it. And like that I had already catered for the mobility of the nymphs and guppies to the battlefield.
The next race I headed to, was the goblins. Apparently all the tribes had gathered at Ooo and the hob-goblins were training the regr goblins on how to use make-shift spears and throw rocks at their targets. To be honest it was going miserably. I knew it was only our first day, but watching how miserably they were at practice was going was painful. It definitely wasn''t good for my heart. It was my life¡ err our lives on the line here. When I got there, I found Gorm and he introduced me to the other leaders. Apart from Gorm the other leaders didn''t have names. I remembered the sprite saying something about how rare it was for evolved monsters to have names.
''Gorm, I''m sending about five hundred rat men to join you guys tomorrow. Is that ok?''
"F-Five hundred!?"
''Yea, turns out there were more rat men there so I figured that I better make good use of them.''
After the goblins, I headed over to Diane''s tree. Nothing was off with the dryads. She said they would provide fruits for them. I was sure fruits weren''t going to cut it and she said she would inform the nymphs and guppies to try to distribute some fishes from their river. She also gave me some shocking news.
"Also, I have someone who will be able to participate in this battle."
''Someone? Who?''
"I believe you have already met."
She pointed to the sprite who was standing by her side, my escort for the past few days.
''Eh? I thought you dryads couldn''t participate?''<novelnext></novelnext>
"Well luckily she isn''t a dryad."
''Oh? I forgot that. So in that case is she a good fighter?''
"I don''t think so, but she specializes in support and healing magic."
''Oh?''
I looked at her and she was as red as a tomato with her hands on her face. Was there something to be embarrassed off?
''Ah wait. In that case, are there more tree sprites who could help us?''
"Um¡ There are well over 100 tree sprites in the west, however, I am not sure the other dryads will allow their tree sprites to plunge into battle."
Ah well, it''s not like I can force them to participate. If she was willing to let even a single member join, why not?
''Ok then, I''ll think about her cement and I''ll inform you tomorrow.''
"I-I¡ I''m really good at making things!"
She shouted before I could fly off. Then my mind went back to her blessing.
''The [Heavenly Crafter], eh? Pleasure to have ya on board.''
With that said, I left them. It was already night time so I went to check up on Ulva. I wanted to ask her to help us fight, but she looked so angelic and cute. I simply didn''t have the willpower to ask a girl to fight for me! That was too unmanly! Instead, I went hunting. Today was the first time in a while that my stamina had gone below 90%. I ended up passing out in Diane''s tree that night even though I didn''t want to sleep there!
Day 19
I woke up to find out that Ulva had left some of the rabbit meat for mest night. I gratefully ate the meat I suffered to catch but couldn''t eatst night.
Day 2 of preparations, started out great. I headed off to the rat men to check on their progress with the tunnels.
"Lady Hinotori, we managed to finish building the tunnelst night. Now we are joining it to the points were we are setting our traps so the nymphs and guppies can join us in ambushing. We will also set up spots where those who will be healing will be stationed. They should be ready for use by tomorrow noon."
''Ok good. Did you send the rat men who will be joining the goblins off already?''
"Yes. They should be there by now."
''Ok then, I''m going to check them out.''
When I got there, I was sort of scared by the view from the sky. This had turned into a military camp and they were being trained like dogs. I flew in and when Gorm spotted me, he came running at me.
"Hinotori-sama! The reinforcements you spoke of appeared. I''ll be frank. I thought you were exaggerating when you said they were 500 in number. With this, I believe we have a chance."
''Hinotori-sama? I like the sound of that. What happened to the goblins?''
When I looked at them were no longer skinny pot-bellied uglies. Now they were skinny muscr uglies.
"It took a while, but I managed to get all the goblins into better shape."
I wanted to ask how it happened in one day, but I had learnt that if I let something like that get to me, I lose.
''Also, the rat men are constructing stations so you guys can go for healing when injured. When they''re done they''ll inform you of where they will be. Please pass the information on to the goblins.''
"Alright! Leave it to me!"
After that he left back to oversee the training and I flew away to Suna''s river.
When I got there, I could see the water nymphsing in and out of the newly built tunnel. Out of curiosity, I asked one of the nymphs about what was happening. Apparently the nymphs were going through it to see how deep it went. They nned on manipting the river water into the tunnel so that they could move better and faster in there. Since this would speed up their reaction time, I gave them a thumbs up.
Next was the news the tree sprite gave me from Diane. I had been told that some random treants had turned up in the forest out of nowhere and were being very violent, so I should go take them down. At first, when she described it to me I was sort of pissed since it was simply Diane using me for whatever she felt like, but I decided to simply check it out.
There were two treants and each was easily twice my size. Although stat wise, I was stronger and they were simply D- in rank. I would have taught them a good lesson if I hadn''t found out that they were Ichi and Ni. My first sprouts.
I was so d to have found them that I almost teared up. They had grown up all big and strong and I couldn''t believe that they made so much progress in such short time. I also didn''t understand why they weren''t evolving into mushroos. Was it because I created them and not a mushroo?
I came to the conclusion that that didn''t matter and I should have focused on the preparations. So I included them in the defense task-force immediately, putting them in the traps department. They could pretend to be random bushes and attack out of nowhere.
After reporting back to Diane, I then had the issue of finding a job for the sprite. I hadn''t really thought about what she was going to do. I was thinking of adding her to one of the medic teams since I couldn''t really have her working with the rat men. Then there was the issue of creating tools, but I doubted we could find her the necessary resources. There simply wasn''t enough time, but Diane suggested that I let her tag along with me on that day for healing measures. I was hesitant about it, but
Ulva was sitting quietly in Diane''s tree, simply observing everything happening. So that night, I hunted down some horned rabbits and dragged them back to the cave. Before I could eat, I passed out from low stamina again.
Chapter 51 The Preparations Pt.II
Day 19
I woke up this morning and likest time, Ulva had left me some horned rabbit.
Day 3 of preparations, I once again headed over to the rat men tunnels. When I got there, I was surprised to see that some of the nymphs were there. Apparently, they were still digging the tunnels to the medic stations, however, the nymphs had already moved in with some herbs from their rivers. These herbs contained medicinal properties.
Then I had a thought I hadn''t had before. If I could get monsters abilities when I eat them, why not the same for nts? But I didn''t have [Evolver] to test that out, so I guess that would have to wait for after.
I quickly set out for the goblins.
When I got there, the goblins and rat men were training as nned, however they were not alone this time. I spotted countless insects moving around with them. When I flew down, Gorm came up to me and said.
"Hinotori-sama! You didn''t tell me that the spider king''s forces were going to be training with us. You are just full of surprises! Hahahaha!"
I was short of words. I had absolutely nothing to tell him. The bug told me that she was going toe on the day of the invasion. She must have been nning on surprising me by send her forces. Speaking of the bug, where was she? She better not have been trying to sneak up on me again.
After a while of watching them train, I left and headed off towards Diane''s tree. When I got there, there was absolutely nothing out of ce and technically I had already checked out the nymphs'' movements, so I had managed to finish checking over everything early today.
I decided to spend the rest of the day hunting for dinner while thinking up several ways to beat the ogre tyrant. If I used Minerva, it simply seemed impossible to do and that was really infuriating. I encountered the spider king along the way. Turns out she had been on back since Inded at the training grounds. She was nning on surprising me mid-flight, but that only proved counter-productive as it caused her to plummet to her doom. I managed to save her, but she ended upughing. I was actually very scared of her at that point. She helped me take down some horned rabbits for Ulva. Well, more like she watched me hunt them down.
She insisted that she wanted to see where I lived on the pretext that I had seen where she did so I took her to goblins'' cave (My temporary home seeing as Minerva evicted me). When we got to the cave, it was evening and the sweaty smelly goblins were starting to party as the fruits were being brought to them. None of us liked the view so we simply went to Diane''s tree,ughing at the horrible image we just saw like we had been the best of buds since forever.
When we got there, I nted about 50 spawns so that they would take form the next day and would join their older brothers, the two treant brothers.
So that night, the spider king so rudely ended up sleeping over at Diane''s tree, upying my only free wing. That ached a bit, but I could manage. That night I heard timber wolves barking and whimpering that night. I decided to ignore it, and have a good night''s sleep knowing that they were simply getting what they deserved.
Day 21
When I woke up this morning, I saw that things weren''t the same as they had been these past two days. This time the spider king was drooling acid saliva close to Ulva''s face and I simply failed to understand how she got there. I gave her a sweet [Fiery Kick] to wake her up, then moved Ulva to the side. The spider then proceeded tosh out at me, but I drowned out all her uselessints.
I focused on the litter of twigs jumping about and causing havoc. It looked kind ofical to me, but I guess the dryads and sprites didn''t like the little fes. They were running away from them and stuff. I ordered them to go to their brothers and stay with them for the day of invasion. They were allowed to be creative on that day and hopefully they would be, much like their brothers were.
When we went out hunting for breakfast, we sensed a very dangerous creature nearby. I only saw a dark figure slowly approaching. The creature was moaning loudly and producing a scary aura. If ghouls existed in this world, I think I just found one. I was about to attack but then I noticed that it was actually Minerva and she was looking at us in a very pissed manner. I was starting to doubt what Diane was saying about Minerva fighting.
I picked up the spider king and fled the cave before anything could happen. Ulva would be fine. Probably.
"Ugh! What¡ Are¡ You¡ Doing!"
She struggled to free herself from my talons, but if she did that she would probably fall to her death.
''I just saved your life. You can thank meter.''
"What''s that supposed to mean!?"
I ignored her for the rest of the flight.<novelnext></novelnext>
Day 4 of preparations. I flew over to the rat men''s cave. I was amazed when I found out that the tunnel I had them build was filled with water and the water nymphs and guppies were swimming in it. They were superfast in the water and they moved about freely. As for the rat men, I went to check out their traps and everything looked pretty smooth so far. When I asked them to show me how the traps worked, I found out majority of them were pit holes filled with Night vipers. I hadn''t heard of the night vipers before so I asked them to show me one. When they brought it out I looked at the viper for a while, then spat acid on its face to kill it, then swallowed it. I wasn''t proud at how calmly I did such things. I had expected to get a skill, but [Evolver] was is M.I.A at the moment so that was pretty dumb of me.
The leader of the rat men was nowhere to be seen though. Apparently he had gone to his grandmother''s cave somewhere in the forest or whatever. I didn''t really care. As long as he was present in tomorrow''s battle in top shape, I was ok with whatever he was doing.
Next stop was the goblins. When bug face and I got there, they were hard at training. It was frightening how much of a disciplinarian Gorm was. He had managed to create an army out of rat men, insects and scrawny goblins in only 4 days. What kind of scary ability was that?
"Hahaha! Hinotori-sama. How does the assault force look?"
''I guess there''s no need to worry since Gorm-san handled it, right?''
"Hoho, you praise me too much."
No. This was just the right amount of praise. In fact I didn''t think this was enough.
"Wow Gorm-san. You managed to take control over even my children. To be honest your ability as amander is kind of terrifying."
The spiderplimented Gorm.
"Oh, I don''t deserve the praise of one of the kings."
I decided to leave Gorm then flew over to the dryad''s ce. So with that, myst inspection of the West''s forces hade to an end. I couldn''t help butugh and this got the spider king curious.
"What''s so funny chicken?"
''Kufufu¡ 400 rat men and 100 guppies all hiding in the ground ready for ambushes. Also with well over 50 pit fall traps filled with dozens of Night vipers, these make up our ambush squad lead by the leader of the rat men. 690 goblins, 500 rat men, 400 insects, 5 hob-goblin captains of which 2 are mages, led by the hob-goblin, General Gorm. These are our assault forces. 20 nymphs, 50 guppies all spread out at vantage points and harmed with healing and support magic. That''s our medic squad, led by Suna. This is an army I wouldn''t even dream of facing. Sorry, it''s just that I''mughing at the fool who had dared to attack the West.''
"Erh, you do realize you are talking about the Tyrant of the East, right? One that has destroyed armies before."
''Hehehe, let hime! He surely hasn''t faced me before! Also, spider, I got a suggestion.''
"Let em rip."
''Let''s run away together.''
"Wha-?!"
''Ha! Fooled ya.''
I told her, but what the hell came over me to say something like that? Sure, this was mission impossible and at the moment, I simply wanted to run away, but where would I go? If I couldn''t clear this quest, growing stronger would literally be impossible for me and I would die much earlier than I believe I am supposed to.
In the end, the only logical option I could think of was to find a way to make Minerva not kill the ogre tyrant.
Chapter 52 The Night Before - The East
The East
Troll King''s Cave
The cave was filled with loud cheerful roaring. Trolls were stomping the ground and beating their chests in uniform. They had formed a circle around two trolls that were facing each other. One was a troll with red hot skin and the other had the average dull grey skin. At the moment they were performing a ritual that their race usually did the night before any conflict. It was to determine the ranks the trolls were given for the conflict. The stronger the troll, the higher their ranking. The leader of the trolls was not exempted from this rule.
The grey skinned troll delivered a heavy punch to the red skinned troll''s face. That punch would have been able to snap a tree in two, however it barely managed to faze that troll.
The troll king cracked its right fist and grinned at his second-inmand. He raised his arm and flexed all his muscles. Veins snaked out, showing just how serious his punch was.
"As always¡. Ya punch like a¡ GOBLIN!!!"
He brought down his fist, mming the grey troll into the ground.
"Oooouuuu!"
The audience yelled at the sight. As always, their leader exhibited strength far from their caliber.
"Any other challenger!?"
He asked the crowd, but no one stepped forward. They believed that there was no other troll that could handle him. They had a good reason too. This was the very creature that had managed to give the ogre tyrant a little bit of trouble in the past.
"Hahaha! Still can''t beat ya, Zod!"
The troll who had been defeated praised the troll king.
"Hahaha! Whatcha'' talkin'' about? Ya punch was better than thest. Last time was like a babe''s."
Zod extended his hand to the troll on the ground. The troll looked at his hand for a while, then epted it.
"Then I guess I should be happy, but I''ll beat ya."
"Haha! Sure. But let''s finish off those crazy folks in the west who dared to go against boss."
"Ah yea! Let''s give the boss their head just for the knack of it."
"Still, I wanna fight that creature. He knows that the boss'' a tyrant an'' still wants ta fight. He must crazy strong."
"Ya heard what them pigs been saying? Apparently it''s a chicken leading them."
"Kuhahaha! Now I really wanna fight! Chicken sure will taste good afta a battle."
"WOOOHOOO!!!"
The trolls let out yells of happiness when they saw their two strongest warriors happily talking about the battle. It filled them with a sense of confidence. With those two at their front along with the ogre tyrant what could happen?
______________________________________________________________
Orc Vige
Inside the Orc King''s tent, there were four orcs. All of them were the Orc king''s brothers. They were joyfully having a conversation over a cup of alcohol.
"Hahaha! And so when he grabbed her tail, she pped him and then, Dulk said that he thought it was his pipe!" (First Brother)
"His pipe!?" (Second Brother)
"What kind of shitty excuse was that? Hahaha!" (Third Brother)
They looked at the big orc who had a p mark on his cheek. He let out a smoke filled sigh.
"It''s not my fault that she had such a nice ass."
He tried to defend himself.
"Hahaha! But couldn''t you havee up with a better lie?" (Second Brother)
"You know at this rate, you won''t be able to get married to her." (Third Brother)
"I know right? Buty off. You know Dulk has never been good with thedies." (First Brother)
"Ah yes. The mighty Orc King spent most of his youth training to be strong." The orc king grabbed his oldest brother in a headlock and began to rub his head. "Yea, so he can bully his older brothers."
"Ah ah, calm down Dulk, you''re going to grind my head to dust."
Dulk let go of his older brother, then took a sip of his alcohol.
"I n on proposing to her after the fight."
"Oh?" (Second Brother)
"So you are moving forward? Congrattions." (Third Brother)
"I heard the West has a lot of beautiful flowers there. If you are nning on proposing to her, I''d suggest you take some from there." (First brother)
"Ah yes! Good idea older brother."<novelnext></novelnext>
Dulk praised his older brother.
"You know, I heard the one leading the West is a chicken. A hen to top it off." (Second Brother)
"Yes, that is what I was told as well by the kobolds." (Dulk)
"In that case, why don''t you catch the hen for her? You know how tasty chicken are. I''m sure she will love it." (First Brother)
"Magnificent! This is even more wonderful!" (Dulk)
"Aren''t you forgetting the War Monger?" (Second brother)
"What about him?" (Dulk)
"Surely he would want this hen all to himself, no?" (Second brother)
"Indeed. Krull-sama is a very greedy person." (Third brother)
"Still, what can he do if you already caught the hen before he did?" (First brother)
"Ha? Indeed. I shall bring that hen and present it to the most beautiful orc." (Dulk)
"Indeed, I envy you brother. If only I hadn''t rushed I wouldn''t have ended up with the boar of a wife that I had." (Third brother)
"Haha! You always rushed things, you know."
And such was their conversation. They were drunk so they weren''t thinking correctly. Under normal circumstances, they would know how impossible it was to steal the kill from the ogre tyrant. Unfortunately, the Orc king was na?ve and listened to them word for word. That nature of his was bad, but if it wasn''t for that nature, he wouldn''t have trained to the point of being able to beat all his older brothers. If it wasn''t for that na?ve nature, he wouldn''t have trained to the point of beating every creature he came across. If it wasn''t for that na?ve nature, he wouldn''t have grown to be so powerful he was called a king. This was Dulk. A na?ve but earnest worker.
____________________________________________________________
Ogre Tyrant''s fort
In a massive hall, there was arge table with two individuals sitting behind it. The table was set up with foods the ogre tyrant had requested for, ranging from fruits to animals of all sorts. Truly, one should always congratte the chefs who tirelessly provide food for the ogre. Every day was a literal feast and tonight was worse. The princess Kori had ordered that they made extra so as to make her father happy.
The ogre tyrant looked at his daughter. Princess Kori, his first daughter, but second child and also one of his strongest warriors. So when one of strongest warriors wore a very scared expression on her face, this caused him to realize that she was about to tell him something that would probably anger him.
He ripped apart a cooked orc''s leg and took a bite out of it.
"You know, I was surprised when I heard that you wanted to have dinner with me."
Kori said nothing to her father who just kept on eating his food. The ogre tyrant looked at his sweaty daughter. He could smell the fear she was giving off. If it was something he would be really angry about, he internally advised that she did not say it.
"You know, it''s weird how you haven''t had a single thing."
"O-oh, yes! You are right."
Kori was brought back to reality. She had been thinking of a way to break the news to her father. She had set up a feast filled with some of his favorite meals however she knew this was not enough. Once she told him of the news he would definitely blow a fuse and it wouldn''t end well. Still, she had to say it eventually. If her brother were around, she would have left the task of informing the ogre tyrant to him, however he was busily training in the Demise Mountains at the moment.
"Where is your sister?"
The one he was referring to was his youngest child, K.
Kori almost choked on her food when he asked that question. It were almost as if he knew what she was about to say. However, he was just being curious because it was either he ate alone, or he ate with all of his children. Something must have happened to his daughter.
"Hmm?"
Although she looked quite nonchnt, she herself was feeling extremely frustrated at how stupid and dangerous the situation was.
"Come on. Out with it."
"She had a vision."
The ogre tyrant temporarily stopped eating his meal and eyed his daughter curiously, before resuming.
"Ah? What was it about?"
"She said that she saw you, getting crushed by a demon. So you shouldn''t participate in this battle."
"¡ Come again?"
"Please do not go on with this war."
Therge ogre kicked the table away then stomped towards his daughter. His every step created spider web cracks on the ground. When he got to his daughter, he red his nostrils and brought himself to her eye level. Red beady eyes met shut eye lids. A wise decision for that moment.
"You would have me. The War Monger Krull. One of the five great Tyrants of Larm, back down from a fight, because of what? A stupid vision? Weird words that came out of a stupid girl''s mouth? Where is Kara? I guess she needs some alone time with me. I shall show her what happened to thest person who told me such a thing."
Suddenly a memory shed Kori''s mind. A very horrible and terrifying night when she nothing more than a kid. The night her mother told Krull a vision he didn''t like. That night would forever serve as a reminder to everyone that Krull wouldn''t hesitate at even murdering his own family if he felt like it.
"She is currently studying in her room."
"Oh? Kuhahaha! Very well then, make sure she stays there. When I return victorious tomorrow, I shall have a little chat with her about her visions."
Chapter 53 The Night Before - The West
The West, Vige of Ooo
The Leaders of all the goblin viges in the West had gathered in front of the vige. Their members were all outside with them talking and partying like fools at a party. One wouldn''t be able to tell that they were going to face a serious battle the next day.
Gorm took a gulp of his slime and looked up at the other leaders. A hob-goblin twice his size kept poking his cheek. This hob-goblin possessed blond-hair and wore a loin-cloth around his chest with a red tattoo over his left arm crossing to his chest. It was believed that those were the signs of a [Divinity] blessing him, but since he hadn''t received a name, they couldn''t confirm that.
"Oi, Gorm! Let''s duel!"
"No."
"Come on,e on! It''ll be fun!"
"No."
"Brother! We worked our butts off training these guys into what they are now! A little bit of fun wouldn''t hurt now, would it? At least a duel for thest!"
"Don''t say such pessimistic things."
"P¡ pessimisk¡ wha-?"
"It means don''t say bad things."
The oldest goblin amongst them said. She was clothed in what one would call rags and leaned on a staff with magic crystals on them. Her gray hair and wrinkly skin served to show how much more experience she hadpared to the rest. She was the leader of the Tak vige and the hob-goblin she corrected was the violent leader of the Krav Vige.
"What? But it''s true."
He argued.
"Still, you shouldn''t be saying bad things. They might actuallye to pass one day."
Another hob-goblin said. He was the youngest out of all the leaders, with no distinct features. Maybe his shaggy green hair could be a distinct feature, but that wasmon amongst Highnd Hob-goblins. So that applied on to the forest. He was the leader of the Zamp vige.
"Hehehe¡ my money senses say we shall reap a huge gain from this battle."
A skinny hob-goblin with practically no meat on his body said. He possessed about three hair strands and had sunken eyes. His ears were abnormally pointy and he wore a coat made of Spiker Pork fur. He was licking a rusty de that wasced with dangerous poison on it while he made this statement. He was the leader of Stamp.
Oda cringed at the sight and tried to retreat behind Gorm.
"You still haven''t stopped clinging onto him, little one? So all my hard training did nothing to stop this problem of yours?"
"Keep to yourself you wench. You tried to kill me several times."
Oda remarked.
"I do admit that my methods were excessive, but now you are stronger than a lot of the food you hunt."
"The Wicked Witch''s Ass I am! I almost died to a damned fire deer the other day!"
"Huh? Why would you hunt a fire deer?"
The old goblina asked.
"Gorm, Gorm! Let''s fight!"
The Krav leader bellowed.
"Aren''t you tired of licking poison all day?"
The Zamp leader asked.
"Eh? My money senses say that doing this will benefit me one day."
The Stamp leader responded.
"Hey, hey. This isn''t supposed to be a violent night, ok? Let us just enjoy the peace that Hinotori-sama has graced us with tonight. I mean, when was thest time we could simply just meet up and throw a party like this? What? Six years?"
They all kept quiet after Gorm spoke.
"Hehe, you seem to have a lot of respect for this bird, Gorm."
"Of course. She spoke thenguage Master Dorm taught me. She may not seem like much, but I have reason to suspect that she is a fire bird."
"Bull!"
"No way."
"Are you insane?"
"Interesting! Interesting! Tell me more! My money senses are raging now! Kekekekeke!"
Each leader with their own reaction. Gorm took the initiative to exin to them his theory. That night, two goblins ran away from the party. They really didn''t like each other, but they seemed to have the same goal.
***
As I finally realized the sort of predicament I was in, I began to cry.
''It''s impossible! No hope whatsoever! I wanna run away!''
Ulva patted me on the head to console me and I could only look at her face.
"It¡ will be fine."
She said in a shy, cute voice. This girl was just adorable, but she simply didn''t understand what kind of situation I just dived headfirst into.
''You''re adorable, but a kid like you wouldn''t really understand my problem.''
"It''s big sis after all."
She said something I didn''t expect or want to hear. How would one just tell an animal that they were their sibling? And even more problematic¡
''You see what I mean?! Everyone thinks I''m a woman! Why?! I didn''t even say anything!''
"I- I do not understand. I-Is it b-because I am calling you¡ big sister?"
She was blushing and her eyes became bigger. Those ruby red eyes bore into me almost pleadingly. I wanted to tell her to stop, but those eyes were too strong. I simply couldn''t win against them. And to be honest, if I was female now, there was nothing I could do about it. I was stuck that way.
''Uwaaaaaaaa! Ulva-chan, do you wanna call me b-b-b-b-b-b¡ Do you wanna call me "Big Sister"?!''
For a moment, she froze but she just replied to my question with a bright smile, showing her bright teeth and fangs.
''I really can''t win against you.''
I fluffed her head with my wing. My antenna twitched and I admitted my defeat. I sighed and looked out. It waste, so I would have to find meat for Ulva.
''Huh, how''s it like being a dhampyr?''
The question just slipped out of my mouth like that. She tilted her head almost like she were confused. She was probably just hungry for food.
''Then again I haven''t really interacted with you much, have I? Wait! How do you walk in daytime? Or do dhampyrs in this world have a sort of immunity to those things? Heh, whatever. I can investigateter. I''ll go get you dinner, kay?''<novelnext></novelnext>
I fluffed her ck hair with my wings once again and walked past her, leaving Diane''s tree. Her creepy gaze from the corner was giving me chills. Eerily enough, I walked out only to be met by golden eyes approaching me. They belonged to two goblins.
"Hinotori-sama!"
Both of them screamed, but before they could touch me I shot a ball of fire to make them stay back.
''What''s with these two goblins? What do you want? To eat me? But, why do you call me ''sama''? You guys shouldn''t even know what that is.''
"Huh? You don''t remember me?"
One of the goblins asked while pointing to his ugly face.
"Ha! Of course she does not. Who would remember a weakling like you?"
The other one wore a smug grin on his face.
''I don''t know you either.''
"Ah."
The goblin looked shocked.
"Ah? Hinotori-sama likes to joke a lot! It is me. It is I! The goblin you went hunting with. Remember?"
The other one said.
''Goblin I went hunting with? Oh, I remember a group of goblins who tried to get the jump on me. I ended up killing one of them in one sh. Hehehe¡ Weaklings.''
"Ah yes. I knew you would."
He looked pleased with himself even though I just called him weak.
''Then this guy was a part of the team then?''
"No, he was the one who attacked you that day."
''The person who attacked me? Ah! I remember you. You tried to kill me back then, but Oda saved you and Minerva killed you.''
"Haha! Sorry about that Hinotori-sama. I was just being foolish at the time."
''But why are you calling me ''Hinotori-sama''? None of you should even know that.''
"Y-you are The Tyrant''s friend and deserve respect! Gorm said it is how to show respect to you!"
He was averting his eyes from mine as if he were some girl.
''What the hell!? Dude, don''t do that. Also, what kind of shitty reason is that?''
"H-Hinotori-sama! Please may we ask something of you?"
The two goblins interrupted my conversation and bowed before me.
''Why does this feel so nostalgic? What is it?''
"Tomorrow we n on proving our worth in battle, so please¡."
''Please what? Ah, I don''t have time for this! Fine, whatever you want.''
Completely ignoring those two, I pped my wings for lift off then I felt somethingtch on to my talons when I got higher. I knew who it was as soon I heard that annoying voice.
"Oi! Chicken!"
''Ugh¡ Bug face. You still aren''t dead?''
"Bastard."
She silently cursed me, but I heard her. She climbed the thread she hadtched on to me and jumped on my back. She felt a little bit heavier than I remembered, but I simply fixed that with [Size Maniption]. Did the strength stat really affect everything that much.
"Oi chicken. You haven''t told me where you are going."
''Hmm? Oh right. I''m going to the rat men''s underground cave. Where are youing from?''
"Hmm, doing rounds and delivering orders to my kids. Why are you going to the rat cave? You got some stuff you''re transferring?"
''No, not really. Just need to deliver my final orders or something like that.''
"Huh? Seriously? You''re no fun."
''Shut it, Bug face!''
"What''d ya say, you stupid chicken?"
''Eight eyes!''
"Lunch!"
And like that we continued our usual banter while I flew through the sky. We got to the rat man''s underground cave and things were as busy as usual. A rat man who noticed us, directed us towards their leader. When we got there, I was stunned to see that he was there with some giant rat, almost as big as the giant spider from the bee hive.
Apparently, that thing was the grandmother/mother of all the rat men. She had been around and was a king in her species, which just proved how weak the rat men actually were seeing as she wasn''t battle oriented. Or maybe it was just her that was weak.
"Lady Hinotori! Why have youe here?"
''Um¡ I needed you to build something for me. Maybe I came at the wrong time?''
"Oh no, no. This is ok. I have nothing doing to be honest."
I looked at his grandmother whose existence he just dismissed and shrugged. I sent a message to him and he was a bit confused after hearing it.
"S-sure, but why do you need this?"
''Hmm? If I don''t have all of this we will definitely die tomorrow.''
I didn''t feel like exining so I was sure just saying this alone would scare him enough to do it. I could tell it worked because I saw his eyes opening in shock. I then ryed my idea to him and his eye bulged out of their sockets.
"This¡ this¡ it is simply too stupid to actually work. Are you sure?"
''Well I don''t appreciate you calling it stupid, but yes, I am certain that it will work. It''s gotta or else we will die.''
He sighed and just scratched his head. He muttered something about giving up on life and walking away.
"Hey chicken? What are you nning?"
The spider asked.
''Heh, something stupid.''
Chapter 54 Invasion Pt.I
Leveling the ground in their wake, the East''s invasion group advanced towards the West. An army filled with three different races in small amounts, allbat ready. In normal circumstances, one would assume they wereing to fight one another, seeing as they were all violent races, but they were all being directed by a very powerful being, so they wouldn''t dare.
"OOOHAAA!"
"OOOHAAA!"
Tearing up the once peaceful environment with their war cries, the trolls, numbering in the fifties shook the ground with their powerful steps, led by the troll king Zod. He was a red troll smaller than the others. A mutation of sorts thatpressed his muscles, forcing his muscles to pack more punch than the average troll. With a little bit of work, he easily became the top of his species. Some say with more work and he would have been strong enough to fight the ogre tyrant. That was just their opinions though, he himself didn''t believe in such nonsense. Lord Krull was in a league of his own and this was literally going to be a waste of time.
All their members were D+ in rank and their king was C+ in rank.
CLANK! KINK! CLANK!
The sounds of their heavy armors hitting the ground resounded powerfully. The orc army numbering two hundred and seventy heavily marched onwards, led by the orc king Dulk. They were most likely the weakest out of the gathered trio, but that was why they possessed the most numbers, a race that was normally D- rank, with their leader being a C+ rank. He was bigger than the rest and carried a ck battle axe twice his size with a red orb fixed into its head. He wore practically no armor due to the fact that his armor was actually out ofmission after hisst fight and the resources needed to build that armor were not easy to recover. He let out a smoke as he marched ahead of his men with azy expression.
With gs waving and spears piercing the sky, the ogre army with one hundred and fifty heavily armed soldiers, led by the Ogre Tyrant, Krull charged like cold machines. Their race was C rank alone, meaning they were strong enough to give kings trouble and were feared by a lot of creatures. Their leader, the War Monger Krull, was B+ in rank, approaching the realms of an imperial beast. Truly a being worthy of respect.
The trolls were hand chosen by the troll king as his strongest soldiers. They were all running mightily right after their king while letting out war cries.
"Death to the Weak! Victory for the Strong!"
They kept on chanting and the troll king was pleased at the sight. He looked above and saw a wyvern with mid-night ck scales fly ahead. On it, his master sat and observed thends before him. He was trying to impress his master to show how much the trolls were better than the orcs. It was him just being petty, but no one thought too much of it. Whatever he asked them to do, the trolls would do for none were strong enough to defy him or his master. Trolls definitely weren''t social creatures. Before this abnormal, they simply roamed their territories, not interfering with the other. If they met, it would instantly turn to a fight to the death. If a female and male met, it would turn into a fight to determine the rapist and victim were to bear offspring.
Meanwhile, the orc king who was marching in front of all of his soldiers let out a smoke and nced at his master.
''Sorry master, but I''m stealing that kill from you.''
He silently vowed to himself. An unwise decision as most would call it, but one driven by true passion. Was there any better reason than "true love" for one to defy the being they swore loyalty to? That was the ideology his mother had drilled into them before she died. Dulk would simply follow that, especially since his siblings told him to. Still, he was a bit torn up about that.
From the sky, the ogre tyrant watched as his miniature forces advanced.
They were all summoned by their tyrant and as they would have it, a call to battle was something they had all been itching to hear. They marched happily towards this battlefield they saw as easy pickings. The west wasn''t well known for its military might. In fact, it was well known as the most care free of all the sides in Larm. That was why the Tyrant of the East hadn''t brought about a serious army. He could barely even call the collection before him an army.
He just didn''t want to gain the attention of the Sleeping Emperor. Something as little as the army he had brought would be enough to demolish the West''s denizens. He also wanted to hurry up and kill the chicken that had boldly dered that it was fighting against him.
He let out a war cry and his forces sped up.
"To the West! Kill all races youe across! Show them the East''s power!"
He waved his huge butcher''s knife in the air to rile up his soldiers. They all yelled in response to his orders and he could only smile. That was until he remembered what his daughter told him.
''Stupid. As if I will die at the hands of a chicken.''
Remembering the night''s events filled him with even more hate towards the chicken who had dared toe against him. He was preparing to show the West terror, but also in a mild way. He couldn''t afford to destroy all those precious resources he was nning on exporting, now could he?
It took about four days for them to arrive at the borders and another four to get close to where the Mad Witch lived. When they got there, the ogre tyrant ordered for them to cease all movement. He felt that it was odd that the creatures had not shown up yet.
Hended his wyvern and the two kings approached him. They currently stood on a hill overlooking the forest.
"What are we waiting for, Lord Krull?"
Dulk asked
"Ya fool, don''t go askin'' boss man what he is doin''! Just do whatever'' darn thin'' he tells ya!"
Zod yelled,
"But if you don''t ask questions something bad could happen."
"Somethin'' bad? Ah! Askin'' questions is for the weak!"
"Oh yeah?-"
"Silence! You two are annoying!"
Both of them shut their mouths and straightened up. Krull let out a sigh. Every time those two were together, they ended upining. Zod was a muscle-headed moron who believed that the only way out of every situation was by brute forcing his way out of it, whereas Dulk, despite his looks, was a somewhat inquisitive individual who always preferred to think out every situation fully. Both of them didn''t agree on almost everything. What they did agree on though was the undeniable fact.
Strong rules, Weak serves.
They had both seen the overbearing might of the ogre tyrant and as such, they were ready to put aside their differences since he ordered it.
The ogre then turned his attention to the forest. What were they getting at? He could feel presences, scattered in weird positions. They looked like they were attempting to ambush them, but Krull had seen through it. Was this actually how they were going to fight back? Howughable.
He then looked at the two beautiful full moons in the night sky.<novelnext></novelnext>
______________________________
"Gorm! The East''s forces have stopped in front of the wolf hills!"
A rat man who had been posted to inform them of any sign of the East said.
"What? They aren''t moving in?"
"No!"
"What about their numbers?"
"I couldn''t get a proper number, but I estimate over two hundred trolls, orcs and ogres alongside their kings and the ogre tyrant!"
''Hmm, this is just what Hinotori-sama said might happen. Looks like we are going with n B then.''
He thought to himself, putting his hand to his chin. How great was Hinotori who had managed to foresee this situation? Hinotori had gone with the assumption that Krull possessed the skill [Overlord] just like Minerva did and wondered why he simply didn''t use that to control the creatures. He came to the conclusion that Krull couldn''t do that because Minerva was around. But given the function of the skill to instantly scout the entire West, he assumed Krull could do that as well. So he needed to trick him.
That wouldn''t be easy so Hinotori took a while and this formation only came up on thest day. So some of the members might have messed it up. It was due to the fact that their positions weren''t so well practiced that their imperfectness made them a perfect decoy for the ogre tyrant who simply assumed that they weren''t properly formed for an ambush. Now was the best time to confuse his opponents.
Gorm looked at the soldiers he had trained over the past four days.
They didn''t have any good armor or actual weapons, however they were well-built and although the time was short, he had drilled in all sorts of survival techniques into their heads. He knew they weren''t really going to be a match for the East''s forces, but that was what the ambushes and traps were for.
"Look alive men! The East is here, but they have stopped at the wolf hills! Everything is going just as Hinotori-sama had predicted. We are proceeding with the original n! Remember to be quick and try your utmost best to not be killed. We need as many of you as we get alive to win."
All they needed to do was to lure the enemy into their mine field and they would definitely acquire an advantage over their enemies. That single advantage was all they needed ording to Hinotori.
"General Gorm, the rat men are ready!"
General Gorm was on official title Hinotori had assigned to him and all the creatures referred to him by that. The rat man who he had put in charge of the other rat men reported the details of his ward with a salute.
"General Gorm, the goblins are ready!"
Oda, the other hob-goblin from his tribe, who was the representative as well as one of the hob-goblin captains reported.
"General Gorm, the insect ground troops are ready!"
A beetle monster, who was one of the three subordinates the insect king personally selected, reported.
"Very well then! Let''s start with the self-defense n!"
"Yes sir!"
They all ran to their various teams. It didn''t take long for all the West''s assault force to move out.
Six hundred and ny goblins, each normally an E rank monster moved forward, led by their 5 hob-goblin captains who were D- ranks. They were the weakest out of all the races in the West''s forces.
Five hundred rat men, each an E rank monster, led by one the most trusted subordinates of the leader of rat men.
Four hundred insects with varying strengths of E ranks and D- ranked monsters, led by two of the insect king''s most trusted subordinates. The most powerful fighting force the self-defense army could provide.
All of these soldiers were led by Gorm the hob-goblin and leader of all the goblin tribes. However, Gorm had ordered that only a third of the army go with him.
"Falter not men! This is a battle to defend ournds! CHARGE!"
The ground shook mightily under the force of over three hundred creatures running fearlessly towards the battlefield. They let out war cries as they tore up the ground. This alerted the East to their movements!
In no time, the West''s forces had emerged from the forest and were facing the East''s army. Gorm looked at his opponent and although he had already been informed of their numbers, he was surprised. They were running towards their deaths and he knew this. Still, he did not falter.
"HALT!"
He sent his orders and all the creatures stopped running. Gorm then stepped forward with a yell at the top of his lungs.
"Turn back now and you will not suffer a humiliating defeat!"
He did not know for which reason Hinotori had told him to say such a thing, however, for some reason hepletely trusted Hinotori. The actual reason was due to Hinotori''s [Charisma] skill taking effect involuntarily. He himself wasn''t aware of it. For that reason, every single monster from the West hadplete faith in him and his strategies.
"Ok then, men! RETREAT!"
After delivering his message, Gorm ordered for aplete withdrawal. And the army fled back into the forest, leaving the East confused.
Chapter 55 Invasion Pt.II
It didn''t take long for the West''s forces to appear at the borders of the West. The ogre Tyrant who had been flying overhead with his wyvern looked at the West''s forces.
There were well over two hundred enemies on the West''s side. However, it was a collection of E rank and D- rank creatures.
He was infuriated. Was this some sort of insult? When he had heard that the West was fighting back, he expected a grander army.
300 E rank and D- rank monsters vs 500 D and C rank creatures couldn''t even be called a war. Saying it was a fight would even be too much. Worse of all, he couldn''t even sense a king rank monster in the mix.
What the hell was this? Did his enemy underestimate him to this extent? If he had known the West would do only this he would have brought less creatures for the massacre he was about to cause. Even worse, a hob-goblin came forward and told him to retreat in order to avoid a humiliating defeat.
The ogre tyrant at that moment was about to jump to the battleground and kill the hob-goblin who would dare to say something like that. Suddenly, the West''s forces pulled back into the forest. Were they running away? Did they get scared after realizing the sheer difference in forces? Surely their leader wasn''t so easy. They must have done that to confuse him. But anyone would know a simple confusion like this wouldn''t work on him. So¡ his opponent definitely had something else in mind, but what? At the moment, he could think of only a few things to do.
It was so funny he couldn''t help butugh.
"Boss man! Want me ta crush em?"
The one who asked this was none other than the troll king, Zod.
"Ah? Do you even need me to say it? Go-"
He was about to order that the trolls run straight into the forest, but realized how strange it was that he had been made to think this much at only the beginning. He knew he couldn''t underestimate this being at this moment. His warrior pride was screaming for him to just send out a full force assault, but his logical side was begging for him to be cautious.
"Zod. Send your forces first. Dulk you will send yours if the trolls need help. Both of you kings should remain here."
His logical side won.
"B-Boss man? I''ll miss out on all the glory!"
Zodined.
"Glory? What glory can be earned from a battlefield like this one? This is just going to be a ughter. I feel embarrassed for bringing this many soldiers."
The orc king who wanted to get the chicken for himself stood in deep thought. The ogre tyrant noticed how strange it was that the orc had not even asked any questions about his strategy.
"Dulk, do you have something on your mind?"
"Uh¡ N-no, Lord Krull! I shall inform my forces now!"
The orc king lifted his axe and he ran off towards the orc army. Krull red at the running orc. Just as Zod was about to go, the ogre tyrant called him back.
"What is it boss man?"
"I don''t like how that orc is behaving. If you notice him doing anything suspicious, don''t hesitate to kill him."
The troll king, who despised the orc for how cowardly it was, was ted to hear his master tell him that. He had been given an opportunity to kill the coward.
"Yes sir, Krull!"
The troll then ran off to give the troll army orders.
***
The trolls charged towards the battlefield like they had been ordered to. They felt no fear for they had seen their opponents. In fact they almostughed when they saw the forces. This would be an easy battle, not even one worth remembering. They alone could handle this entire situation.
They had gone deep into the forest with all that vim and vigor, then all of a sudden,
CRASH!
A loud crashing sound could be heard when the trolls fell into deep pit holes. Over five trolls had already fallen prey to the traps set up by the rat men.
"Ya guys alright?"
One of the trolls asked his friends. The trolls at the bottom of the trap stood up with no injuries.
"YeaAAARRRGGGGHHH!!!"
Suddenly the trolls that had fallen began to scream in pain. This was because they had been bitten by the night vipers who produced a very potent poison. Poison strong enough to cause pain to even trolls, who boasted of high defenses.
"Oi! You guys!? Oi!"
It was toote. They had already died. The troll who was looking at the bottom of the pit hole was hit with a rock to the head. It didn''t do much to him, however, when he lifted his head to see the source of the rock, another one came flying and hit his eye.
"AAAGGH!"
The troll stumbled back, but then he tripped over a thread woven by a spider and fell on his back. Too confused to even know what was happening, thest things he remembered seeing were two dark shadows descending on him. No, they were two rat men, holding stone daggers. One of the rat men stabbed his other eye, then the other shed his throat, killing the troll.
The rat men immediately retreated back into the trees.
The trolls that witnessed this sight were confused. Six of their brethren had fallen in an instant. This was the handiwork of the ambush squad.
CRASH!
CRASH!
More and more, the trolls fell prey to the ambushes and traps that had been set up.
What was happening? How were they being wiped out like this? Worse of all, it was by measly E rank monsters.
"How we gon'' face Zod after this!?"
A troll who couldn''t take it angrily charged forward. There was one single thing the trolls knew and that was to brute force their way out of such situations. They began to start punching down the trees and stomping the ground while letting out loud yells like the barbarians that they were.
"OOOOOOHHHHH!"
The trolls began to mow down the trees, forgetting that they were supposed to leave them unharmed. They had destroyed the ambush squad''s hiding spots which forced them into retreating. The trolls pushed forward fearlessly, tearing up the ground in their rage. That is, till they met a tree that moved.
The tree grabbed the troll that tried to mow it down then flipped the troll backwards. The other trolls were confused at the sight, but then another tree''s branches came, wrapping themselves around a troll and elongating itself into the troll''s mouth, suffocating it till it died. The other trolls just looked on, horrified at the easy sight. Sure, the trolls had tough defenses and it would be hard for weaker monsters to break through those, but weaker monsters simply needed to injure them from the inside. The treant Ichi had figured this out and his brother Ni was going to learn from him.
From their branches, several Larm Mushroo spawns hang with malicious grins, making all sorts of noises and snickering amongst themselves.
This was one of the rare moments that a troll would ever admit that they felt fear. Some stumbled back, the stupid plunged face deep and the bold just crushed down anything and everything in their way. Krull was not stupid. He sent in those with the toughest defense and made them take all the initial damage so he could ascertain the enemy''s strength.
Now Trolls were losing in the most pathetic way imaginable, although only twenty had fallen so far.
"Get ready! Here theye!"
Gorm sent his orders to all his men and they were already for the attack. He himself held his short sword tightly and stood in a battle ready stance.<novelnext></novelnext>
Thirty trolls came out in full force, led by one exceptionally big troll with dark grey hair. He let out a roar that spread fear through the West''s forces. Gorm however, feared not. He trusted Hinotori with his life at this moment. Or more like, he trusted Minerva to intervene and prevent his death.
"Insect squad! CHARGE!!"
Gorm yelled valiantly and the army charged at the trolls.
Bee, firefly and beetle monsters from the insect squad approached the trolls from the sky, whereas centipedes and spiders came from the ground. The trolls who had charged in early were surprised by the sheer number. Hundreds of beetles and bees flew at them, their wings violently buzzing.
The bees used their stingers to stab some of the trolls and the beetles were able to ram into some of the trolls. The fireflies created powerful sparks and explosions that blinded or sent trolls flying.
"OOH!"
A troll fell on his knees after receiving a stinger to the chest. He tore apart the bee that stung him, however, another bee stung him from behind. He couldn''t reach the bee and the paralyzing poison in the bees'' stingers had already begun to take effect. The troll fell face t on the hard ground.
"What is this!? How are there so many!?"
Another troll fell.
A troll punched one of the bees, sending it flying into another two bees. However, a centipede spat acid on the troll''s leg, causing it to stumble. Then a beetle rammed into the troll, tripping it. A bee finished it off by piercing through the trolls head with its hard and poisonous stinger.
One by one, the trolls were dying. Soon, there were only fifteen trolls remaining. It even went so far that some of the trolls began to retreat
"R-Run back! We all gon'' die!"
"Zod''ll understand!"
BAAM!
The troll who began to suggest that they retreat received a powerful blow to the head, knocking him to the ground. When he looked up he saw the second-inmand of the trolls ring at him.
"None of y''all are runnin''! If ya do, I swear that after this, Imma cut off ya damned heads!"
The troll threatened the other trolls.
"They''re just bugs! We''re bigger than all o'' them! We can crush em! Now FIGHT!!!"
The troll who ordered them charged into the seemingly hopeless battle. The other trolls weren''t motivated in anyway by what he said. Rather, as soon as he charged into the fight, the other trolls ran away, leaving him alone.
He cursed the bastards who had abandoned him then faced the battle field. He was going to win this by himself. He believed that much. Taking down a hundred of these creatures would be his limit, but he was going to surpass that or he wouldn''t be worthy of using to possess the title of ''King of the Trolls''.
***
It was silent. Too silent for the ogre tyrants liking.
Then he spotted some creaturesing from the West. They were fourteen trolls. Krull wore a curious expression as he looked at them.
"Hahaha! Just as Boss man predicted. There was no need for this many soldiers. My trolls all up went and finished the job."
Krull looked at his cocky subordinate then back at the trolls. He had expected it to be an easy battle, but he did not think it would take such a short time for them to be done. Was it really that easy? He tried to sense further and was surprised to see that the West''s numbers had barely reduced. Was there something wrong? What was happening?
He squeezed his eyes and he could see the trolls running. They were covered in the blood of their opponents. No, he could see open wounds on the trolls. Some of them even had stingers popping out of their bodies. Did they run away?
"Help! Help!"
One of the trolls fell before the ogre tyrant while begging for help.
"What happened?"
Zod went to the troll''s side.
"The¡ enemy¡ they smart an'' fast. I am poisoned. Please help."
"The enemy had more soldiers, huh? An'' you kill em all? Haha! You see Boss man? Even with emrge numbers, my men killed em all!"
"Humph. I don''t remember hearing that they defeated the enemy."
Krull said then closed his eyes, focusing on expanding his range. There were several, easily over a thousand opponents still there and waiting for battle.
"What? Oi,d. You guys managed to kill em all, right?"
The ogre tyrant looked at the troll that was shaking from the effects of the poison. It wouldn''t be long till all feel in his body turned numb and he would slowly die. The bees poison was a very dangerous one that made them untouched problems no one messed with. And given their habit of working together and swarming even the weakest of enemies, they managed to remain at the top as some of the most fearful creatures. Individually, they were E ranks, but as a swarm, they were approaching the likes of B rank.
"Did you kill the enemy?"
Krull asked the troll with an emotionless tone.
"No¡ we ran-"
"What?"
The one who asked this was Zod.
"We ran. T-the enemy''s forces are just too gre-"
Zod kicked the troll''s face in, not even allowing him to exin himself, then bowed to the War monger.
"I am sorry Lord Krull. My subordinate has shown you something unsightly."
Zod''s demeanor suddenly changed. As he faced down, he was sweating buckets and his eyes kept dancing in their socket, fear of being killed in that moment overwhelming him. Krull looked at him for only a second then switched targets to the other trolls. Zod took notice of this and did the same, ring at the others. They all looked at him with eyes and mouth wide open in aghast. They thought they could find safety here, but instead, they would meet something scarier than fighting the west. The troll king''s wrath.
"I shall clear the remaining scum now."
The red troll moved at speeds that should have been impossible for someone of his size. His body glowed with a violent red, buffing him up. This was his [King''s Aura] taking effect. It directed a feeling of dread towards weaker monsters around him.
With one punch, he had blown off one of the trolls'' head. When the others saw this, they began to run back towards the West. Where else could they go? If they moved forward they would die at the hands of the Troll king or ogre tyrant, however if they went back, there was a slight possibility of surviving. They were willing to take that slight chance
"Where are you cowards going? I never gave you permission to run."
Unfortunately for them, the troll king wasn''t going to let them live. In a matter of seconds, the troll wiped out all the deserters.
The ogre was pleased with the current state of events. Not about the troll army getting wiped out. No, the mere fact that he had made the right decision. When the trolls came running out of the forest, he had received all he needed to confirm his suspicions. He now felt that his decision to hold back all his forces was the right one. They would have ended up being ambushed had they gone straight ahead.
"Orcs! Ogres! Charge forward! Annihte the West!"
The soldiers heard their master''s orders and they followed it to the letter.
Chapter 56 Invasion Pt.III
"Gorm-san! Don''t you think that troll is strong?"
This was the leader of the Krav tribe in the West. Wielding his giant mallet and heavy rusty armor, he grinned and scratched his cheek.
"He alone has taken down fifty of those bees."
Gorm agreed with him.
"Then shall we engage in battle?"
Dressed in mere filthy rags and holding a rusty sword, the leader of the Zamp tribe suggested to them.
"Hehehe¡ Sure, depends on what I get from it."
The skinny hobgoblin said. He held two rusty daggersced with poison. He was a shrewd fellow, but still one of the hob-goblin captains and the leader of the Stamp tribe.
"Please, do not suggest something so suicidal."
This time, the voice belonged to that of an elderly female hob-goblins. She also wore rags and leaned on her crooked staff for aid. She was the leader of the Tak tribe and also one of the hob-goblin captains.
"Don''t you think so, Oda dearie?"
She was referencing to the young hob-goblina who was once her disciple.
"I will follow Gorm to wherever he wishes, so if he says we should charge, I will charge."
For most of the time, this hob-goblin was always next to Gorm, so her response wasn''t so surprising to the other hob-goblins.
"And here I was thinking that you were the only sensible one other than me in this collection. I demand payment for the magic lessons I gave you!"
"Ah? Magic lessons? You old witch! You just beat the crap out of me with that stick of yours until I was able to create a magic circle. It was more like torture."
Odained.
"Hehehe. Magic doesn''te at a free price you know."
The crooked hob-goblina mused and Oda restrained herself from smacking the olddy on the head.
"I''m sorry to cut your conversation shortdies, but I have to impress Hinotori-sama so I''m going to fight that troll. He is clearly the strongest one. Imagine me telling Hinotori-sama that I defeated the strongest troll. How impressed would he be?"
"Ah, Gorm. I never knew you could take such a liking to creature other than Dorm. Makes me feel a bit sad."
The hob-goblin couldn''t help but grin when that reference was made.
"I don''t know why, but he just has that air of a reliable leader and one that I would want to follow to the ends of the world."
"Indeed. Very well then, shall we charge?"
"My instincts are telling me that I will get something good if I''m able toplete this sessfully."
"Huzzah! Let''s show that troll the hob-goblins might!"
"Like I said. I will follow Gorm to the ends of the world."
"Ah! You young ones are giving this elder a headache¡. Fine! I will assist you the best I can with my support and fire magic."
Gorm couldn''t help but be filled with gratitude as he listened to each and every one of their responses.
"Hahaha! Very well then! Let''s GO!"
The five hob-goblins charged at the troll, while the elder stayed behind.
The battered up troll continuously fought against bees and beetles even with several piercings in his body and poisons slowly killing him from the inside. It was relentlessly clinging on to life after beating dozens of monstersing his way in the past hour.
A beetle rammed into him, but he caught it with both hands and lifted it to his eye level. He felt insatiable rage. He was angry at the kind of situation they had ended up in. Angry that his brethren abandoned him. Angry that he would not be able to keep his promise to his sworn friend. In truth, were he not angry, he would have long died.
"DIE YA VERMIN!"
He ripped apart the beetle with his bare hands then punched the bee that was buzzing in front of him. But he noticed a shadow looming over him and instinctively blocked with his left arm.
BAM!
The sound of metal hitting something solid resounded as the copper mallet hit the troll. The troll easily threw away the one who used the weapon against him and scowled at the blond owner.
"HAHAHA! He''s got a bad temper, Gorm!"
The leader of the Krav tribe warned.
"You think dropping in from above with a hammer would make him calm!?"
The leader of Zamp shed at the troll''s chest, but the troll knew nothing would happen so it nned on bringing down its hand to kill the hob-goblin. However, the hob-goblin glowed with a yellow light then moved faster than the troll had expected, and the sh left a new wound in his abdomen. This was still not enough to cause any serious damage to him. And the hob-goblins sword had broken in half, half-way through the sh.
"What the¡?"
The troll brought down his mighty fist without a second thought, but then his head was hit with a very powerful st of water which caused him to stumble. The hob-goblin looked at the direction of the water shot and it was Oda, with her arms pointing in his direction. She shot another one that caused the troll to stumble back yet again. Each and every single shot, strong enough to snap a tree in half.
The old hob-goblina was impressed with this development and wanted toment on her pupil''s improvement, but instead she teased her.
"What are you waiting for? Move!"
"Oh- Ah yes!"
The hob goblin moved. Then theughter came booming.
"I cannot believe ya, kiddo."
Oda turned her ears to the senior.
"What is it? Finally going to give me the praise I deserve for being a genius?"
"Do not ever call yourself a genius. That isughable."
Oda clicked her tongue at the remark.
"Hahaha! You had this much power and almost died to a damned deer? You are weak as shit! Hahaha!"
After hearing this, Oda couldn''t help but try to hide the smile on her face. For the first time in a long time, the old woman praised her again. This was definitely a memorable moment, one she would keep forever and tease the old woman with. Suddenly, she had gotten more vim and put more power into her spells, using [Water Magic: Aqua] to heal her team mates who''d get punched away so they don''t slow down. With [Water Magic: Water''s Blessing], she had raised her own physical stats, enabling her to actively participate in the fight, while giving support to others.
In all senses, she truly was a talented mage, being able to support not only herself, but all team mates, healing them, providing long range attacks while simultaneously fighting in closebats. Not evenbat mages of high levels could perform this tedious task. Oda really was nothing short of a genius. This was so impressive the old hob-goblina could only wonder if Oda was just naturally gifted, or if there were forces at y in the background.
When the enraged troll came to, he realized that Oda was the source of the water balls flying at him. He tried to grab her when she hit his head with a spear, but she instantly realized this and distanced herself, the othersing into move the troll''s hand away from her.
Oda then fired a water spear at him, merely pushing him back. The Stamp leader jumped so high, he reached the troll''s eye level, then swiped at his eyes, cutting them out.
"Keke-"
In the middle of hisughter, the troll caught the hob-goblin and flew him towards the old hob-goblina as if he could still. The old hob-goblina couldn''t react, but luckily Gorm jumped in time to move her out of the way.
At that moment, she lost concentration and her assistance disappeared, meaning the hob-goblins were back to their regr stats.
"Oda! Reinforcement! Now!"
Gorm ordered, but there was nothing. Frustrated, he looked back at her to see why she hadn''t activated it, but all he saw was a de in Oda''s chest. Her eyes were wide open with shock and blood trailed down her mouth.<novelnext></novelnext>
The other hob-goblins weren''t aware of this and charged on fearlessly, expecting the buff toe out. Sound drowned out from Gorm''s ears as an annoying ringing intensified in his ears. As if the battlefield mattered not, he rushed to her side.
"Ah?"
The troll was confused, but before he could figure it out, he fell to the ground. A powerful kick came flying at his face. It was the leader of Stamp. He managed to cut the trolls tendons before it even noticed. Still, this wasn''t enough to knock the troll out for good.
"Kekeke¡ Stupid Troll. You can''t even figure out that I cut your tendons."
The troll stretched out its beat up arm to punch the shrewd hob-goblin, but the Krav leader stepped in the way, stopping the punch with his body, before proceeding to yell at the Zamp leader. He came in from the top with a stinger in hand and stabbed into the forehead of the troll.
Still, the troll''s body kept on moving.
"W-Woah boy!"
The Zamp leader let out a cry as he was being juggled about on the troll''s shoulders. He flipped off andnded on the ground, his right fist now aching like hell. Using his own strength to try to prate the monster''s skull was painful. Still, that wasn''t the worst of it. How was it still moving with a poisoned stinger literally in its head? Did it have no brain working up there? The captains were starting to feel dread. That is, till the sound of the troll''s hand falling lifelessly to the ground sounded in their ears.
When they looked, Gorm stood next to troll, glowing with a yellow aura and holding a sword that was on fire. His eyes contained rage that managed to scare the Krav leader.
This angered Gorm cut off the head of the troll in one swoop, mercilessly ending its movementpletely.
"Hahaha! That was one heck of a fight, Gorm!"
The leader of Krav patted Gorm on the back.
"Hehe, still embarrassing that it took all six of us hob-goblins to take down one beat up troll."
The Zamp leader said.
"What are you talking about? Even beat up trolls are dangerous opponents, you know?"
The Krav leader defended.
"Oi, why are you covered in Blood? You didn''t take any damage, did you?"
The Zamp leader asked when he saw Gorm''s hands. Gorm didn''t respond, but his eyes trailed somewhere. All the hob-goblins picked up on this and saw Oda lying on the ground. They all suddenly felt all sorts of emotions. But one thing was for sure, they would get revenge.
BOOM!
BAM!
The ground shook mightily and there was an explosion.
_____________________________________________________
The rat men underground cave
The underground cave was unusually busy today. Normally one would see hundreds of rat men moving in and out spreading any information they heard like the biggest gossip hub. This time however, though the rat men were fewer, the information exchange was way faster. It was due to the fact that they were currently in battle and everyone was on edge. The one with the most trouble was the leader of the rat men who had to listen to every single one of the reports and respond with quick solutions.
"Leader! The trolls have entered the forest!"
"Let the trappers handle the ones that they can!"
"Leader! The trolls fell for five of the traps!"
"Only five? How many of them died?"
"Seven!"
"Send out the ambush squad. Minimize their numbers as much as possible!"
"Yes sir!"
"Sir the trolls are plowing down the trees!"
"Ah? Do you need me to tell you what to do? Tell the ambush squad to leave! Let the treants do their thing!"
"Leader, thirty trolls pushed past the forest!"
"The frontal assault squad can deal with them if they are only thirty, no?"
"Leader! The frontal assault unit managed to fend off the trolls. Most of them ran away. There is only one troll alive!"
"Ha! What''d I say? What about casualties?"
"We have over fifty bees and thirty beetles down. The injured are currently being carried through the tunnels to the medic stations for healing!"
"Good. Everything is going smoothly. Just as Lady Hinotori nned."
''Th-This is genius! To have foreseen this far. After this I will have to pledge my loyalty to you.''
He internally swore to be Hinotori''s subordinate after the war. That is if they survived.
"Leader! The ogres and orcs are moving in together!"
"We''ll use the traps to slow them down. Tell the spiders in the ambush squad to set up webs to slow down the enemy. They should also create poison muddles to hurt them. Those who possess magic should attempt to cause as much damage as possible to the opponents to lessen the burden on the assault force."
"Yes sir!"
"Do we have any information on the movements of the ogre tyrant?"
"As of now, he and the kings are still standing at the borders."
"Good. The moment he makes a move, tell me!"
"Sir! The enemy has entered the forest! The ambush squad is engaging now!"
The leader then got up from where he sat.
"Wait, leader! Where are you going?"
"Ah? I must earn myself a name, you know? I cannot disappoint Lady Hinotori, you know? Keep me updated on everything."
"Very well then, sir!"
"Also, what is the status on the guppies and nymphs that were going to be ambushing? I haven''t heard anything about them."
"Well, the thing is, sir¡ The nymphs are going to-"
BOOM!
BAM!
The whole cave shook heavily and the rat man leader''s heart started to sink. However, if he let something like this faze him, he would never be strong.
"What''s happening out there?"
"Sir, I believe you should take a look for yourself."
The rat man nodded and ran for the surface as quickly as he could.
Chapter 57 The Kings Pt.I
The East''s army rampaged through the forest. Some of them had already been caught by the traps that the enemy had set up. The pit holes filled with night vipers certainly caused them only a few allies, but they pressed on without caring. The next problem was the strong invisible steel-like threads that cut through their armor and killed most of them. The soldiers had to buff themselves up and slice at the air to cut the threads. This drastically slowed down their progress and to top it off, rat men would just pop out from beneath the ground or emerge from tree tops to cut up the soldiers then disappear. Then there were the weird poison puddles and magic projectiles just shooting off at them from the cover of the forest. The very trees fought them and little devils stole their weapons and hurt their eyes, noses and mouths.
What the hell was happening? In an all-out fight, the West would normally stand no chance, this time however, the East was ying in the West and as such, the weaker creatures held the home-field advantage in this battle and they weren''t going to waste it. They didn''t n on losing to the East.
Simrly, the East didn''t n on losing to the West. They had seen the kind of things that would happen to those who tried to retreat. They didn''t want to have to go through that. So they would push through no matter what. They didn''t care what happened to them here. Be it they lose a limb or an eye as long as they managed to live through this, they were satisfied. And after seeing the example from earlier, the most likely way to do that was to crush the West.
So, they pushed through the traps and ambushes. A rat man jumped down from the trees, but the ogre swiftly turned around and cut him in half. They began to ughter the ambushers and push through the invisible threads. They couldn''t do much about the poison puddles, but they would run over their fallenrades'' bodies and move. The magic projectiles, they simply defended against by broadening the mana sensing abilities and dodging or raising up shields and weapons. They were quickly adapting to the battlefield due to fear. A fear the ogres were all too ustomed to. They had fought in too many wars led by their tyrant for such simple party tricks to shock them.
"Let''s hurry up! Krull-sama isn''t a patient man!"
One of the ogres screamed. But then, the ground began to shake. Unfortunately, the soldier couldn''t notice it because of the heat of the battle and those who did notice it, naturally thought it was because of how they thunderously marched over thends. If they had realized what it was, there might have been less casualties.
BOOM!!
The ground exploded and water gushed forth like a geyser. The force alone from the eruption knocked some of the soldiers away, let aside the boiling hot water that caused some of the soldiers to scream in agony.
"AAAAAGGGHHH!!!"
BOOM!!
Another explosion, a pir of water erupted into the sky.
More pirs of water erupted from the ground, throwing the enemy forces into disarray. This was the handiwork of the nymphs and guppies that had been preparing the ambush while inside the tunnels.
"AAAGGGHH! They have magic casters on their side!?"
"Damnit!"
The soldiers of the East began to retreat, but then one of them remembered what happened to the trolls that retreated earlier. Fearing such a fate, he yelled
"All of you wait! They can''t keep this up forever! As soon as the pirs of water drop, move in! Or do you want to die by Krull''s hands!?"
The soldiers also remembered the incident from before and straightened up.
"Sir, No Sir!"
"Very well then! Remain here!"
"Sir, Yes Sir!"
__________________________________________________
Timber Wolf Cave, Close to the Wolf Hills.
In the deepest of a cave that harbored about sixty timber wolves, a white wolfid in sleep. Her ears kept perking up at the sound of loud yells and her sleep was being interrupted by the shaking of the ground. The white timber wolf was starting to get annoyed, but decided to ignore it. Soon it would all be over. The West would lose and the East could do whatever they wanted. She didn''t care as long as her race didn''t die. She was the lord of the Timber wolves and as such, she felt it was her responsibility to keep her members safe. If turning a blind eye to the fight could give her what she wanted, then that was all she would do. A kind, wise and powerful leader. A fit recement for their old one. That was how the wolves saw their king.
However, she wasn''t the only one suffering to sleep under those circumstances. The timber wolves were creatures of the night, so they used the day time to sleep. They had nned on sleeping past the invasion just like their king had ordered. Still, they didn''t expect things to get so noisy. At most, they assumed the invasion would be swift with simple corpses littering the ground and providing meals for her people for a while.
BAM!
A b of rock fell from the ceiling andnded on the ground, causing a ruckus. A timber wolf thatid there had to jump out of the way and this drew the attention of some the wolves.
"Ah! What the hell is this!? Simple sleep too they won''t permit us that!"
The wolf thatined had mid-night ck fur and a scar across his eye. He was the second-inmand amongst the wolves.
"Calm down, brother. Let us ignore them."
The white wolf passively said and the ck wolf felt enraged.
"Sister! I have listened to you ever since you became our leader. In fact, when it was your turn to be our leader, I said nothing and simply let you do so. However, even I know that sitting out of this fight is a fool''s move! If you do not do something-"
"If I do something, some of us will die."
"Kuhahaha! You think we are so weak? Don''t get a big head just because you were called a king in this forest! I used to beat you before your enthronement lest you forget."
"Tch¡ Brother, calm down! I never said you were weak, however idents do happen. They could also out number us and kill us. I''m not willing to take that risk."
"Ah? What kind of cowardice is this? Let us head out into battle! Let us show them the might of the timber wolves. Let us dominate this battlefield."
He roared for all those in the cave to hear.
"Kufufufu¡ Funny you say that when you lost to a chicken."
She mocked him and the wolf''s rage seemed to disappear. His voice was calmer now.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Tch¡ All the reason why we must do this. You chose me as your champion in that fight and I lost. You have to at least grant the chicken the favor she asked for."
"We shall remain here, period."
The wolf king gave a her final say on the matter, but then,
"RAAAARRR!!!"
The ck wolf charged at the white wolf who easily moved out of the way. She looked at her brother with an agitated expression.
"What are you doing?"
"Haha! I challenge you to a Xyerina Danke! You have to listen to me when I beat you, remember?"
He cockily dered.
"You know you have no chance against me now."
"I guess we will see! Do not assume after a little borrowed power, all your fights are easily determined."
He pounced on her once again, and she jumped out of the way coolly, showing how little a threat he posed to her.
"Come on! Fight back! If you do not this fight will go nowhere!"
"I will not fight you."
The ck wolf began to circle her while throwing aroundments.
"What? Are you too scared or something?"
"Say whatever you wish to."
"Tch¡ you are a coward. You even made us flee territory we have owned for decades now. Theplete opposite of our father."
"I would appreciate it if you did notpare me to him."
"Why? You are scared to realize how much you are not like him? You arecking in a lot of areas, o pathetic king of wolves."
"That is not what this is about."
"Haha! You do not wish to acknowledge how much of a better leader our father, Achack, was!"
"Keep quiet!"
"Oh? Is it because our father actually got a name and you did not? Proof that Srine does not truly ept you as her champion?"
"Silence! Do you wish to die here?"
She used her [King''s Aura] and her body glowed with a red light. The other wolves recognized this as danger and could only whimper before her. The ck wolf however, was unfazed by this. In fact, he was starting to tower above her. The white wolf was starting to feel it. The overwhelming sense of authority her brother sometimes possessed out of nowhere. Moments where one would suddenly feel dread in his presence. This was not a skill. It was just something about him that would make one just turn quiet in his presence.
"Weakling! Resorting to intimidating your subordinates when things are not going your way? Ha! Father would not even need to do that. Do you know why? Because no one would have questioned him! You are too weak a leader!"
The ck wolf continuously taunted her.
"Ah! Our father died a pathetic death at the hands of the Tyrant of the West. What chance do we have in a battle against a beast on the same level as her? You are right! I am not even as strong as father was. What would you have me do!?"
The ck wolf internally smirked. He had achieved his purpose by breaking his usually reserved sister''s psyche. Now he could manipte her to get what he wanted.
"If you can beat me, I will tell you."
He charged at her again, this time however, she jumped back at him and toppled over him. It was not really a fight. More like a yful tussle between siblings, even though it was a very serious matter. The wolf king won.
"Hahaha! You wanted advice on what to do? Fight in this war. I overheard some goblins say he was going to reward them with names for participating. If you participate, he will have no choice but to give you a name in gratitude. Simple, no?"
"Fu¡ I forgot how much of a fox you could be at times."
"What do you mean? I am a proud timber wolf."
"Tsu¡ never mind."
"Wolves! Get ready! We are going to protect our territory and our pride!"
The wolves howled in joy when they received the orders to prepare for battle from their king.
Chapter 58 The Kings Pt.II
Just as was predicted, the pirs of water that erected from tunnels in the ground eventually died down and the ogres and orcs were able to move forward. Behind the pirs was the army of soldiers on the West. They were nervous since they had suffered some blows to their fighting force from the trolls alone. When they saw the pirs emerge, most of them prayed that it would be enough to wipe them off, s, it was just wishful thinking.
The ogres and orcs let out war cries as they forged forward.
The rat men, goblins and insects also let out their war cry and they charged straight ahead.
The two armies shed and it soon turned into a one sided beat down. Sure, the West had numbers on their side, but that wasn''t enough to over ovee the power gap between them. Quality overruled quantity in this battle.
A bee charged at an unsuspecting orc with its stinger fully prepared, but then a spear was flung at it, impaling its head and the bee fell to the ground lifelessly. The rat men weren''t suited for openbat so everything was going poorly for them.
An orc was furiously shing at insects, but then a rat man jumped on him from behind. He managed to throw it off, but another went for his legs. He stabbed that rat man, but more and more the rat men appeared, jumping on him and tripping him. The rat men with their quick hands removed his armor. They wed at his face and stabbed at him with their stone daggers, killing him.
The rat men tried to use this strategy against the soldiers by ganging up on them, however, this was time tasking and it gave the ogres and orcs time to kill them since they had gathered at one specific spot. As long as the orcs and ogres threw spears at them, they would kill them without much problem.
"AAAGGHH!! My arm!!"
A goblin yelled in pain, just before his head was cut off. The hob-goblins who were supposed to be the strongest from the West, were having problems.
"This is not looking too good!"
The leader of the Krav vige said, just before he smacked an orc''s head in using his hammer. Under normal circumstances it wouldn''t have worked, however all the hob-goblins had their powers boosted by the old hob-goblin from the Tak vige was boosting their physical abilities to that of C- rank creatures, so the orcs would be no trouble to them. The ogres on the other hand would make quick work of them.
"Ah! Do not falter!"
Gorm yelled as he parried a spear that was headed for his head. He took advantage of the opening and stabbed his opponent''s neck. He was an absolute beast on the battlefield, cleaving and cutting through the orcs like mud. It put fear in his heart and the orc tried to avoid him if at all possible.
The other hob-goblins were no joke either. They wanted revenge for their fallenrade and were mercilessly cutting down orcs. Truly a smart decision to minimize the orcs before bothering with ogres. However, this obviously wouldn''tst.
"Gorm! Look out!"
The Krav leader yelled and Gorm could only slightly tilt his head as the halberd came down on him
THUD!
The orc that had attempted to kill Gorm had lost its arm to the poisonedced daggers of the leader of Stamp. Before it could even make a sound, the leader of Zamp stabbed it in the head with a sword he found on one of the enemy''s corpses.
"What the hell are you doing Gorm? If you do not fight with a straight head, how will I get my reward at the end of all this?"
The Stamp leaderined
"Tch."
This enraged Gorm and he was about to punch the hob-goblin for what he said. However, there was a dark wave that spread quickly throughout the goblin ranks. None of the races could feel this, but all the goblins suddenly froze and dropped their weapons.
The other races saw this as odd, but nevertheless, the east continued with their vicious attacks. The other creatures in the West had their numbers dwindling like crazy and they were all trying to retreat. The old-hob-goblina was the only one still able to move.
She looked at Oda who was releasing a dark purple aura. A sinister aura that seemed to beughing. She had been preparing for this day. That was why she tried to kill Oda several times in the past, with the excuse of "Training" her. She would always put up upsurd training regimens, beat her up and insult her, but Oda was a genius. Through the methods, she had learnt different magic skills. She had learnt how to control her mana. She had learnt how to engage in physical attacks. She even learnt how to talk back to the old woman herself. She would have killed Oda immediately the moment she evolved, were it not for Gorm. She made a mistake, now it was toote.
The Wicked Witch of the West was returning. After ten years, she had been born again. This was bad news.
Gorm finally managed to move through the terrifying pressure he felt. He was confused and looked back only to see the leader of the Tak vige was panting heavily and sweating profusely. She had exhausted what little mana she had. All the goblins were frozen in ce and were being ughtered. He could only see fallen brethren.<novelnext></novelnext>
What had happened? A shadow loomed over him. It was an orc, raising its sword above him. It was physically impossible for him to react to this movement. His body ached and his limbs went numb.
''Damn it. Why now?''
The sword came at his neck. He wasn''t making it.
CRACK!
Gorm could hear the sounds of bones cracking. He looked up and saw the Krav leader holding up his mallet and receiving the blow in Gorm''s stead. He felt the intense pain of having one''s arms broken and he let out a yell in pain. The sheer difference in strength knocked him to the side. He dropped his de and struggled to get up. He managed to turn over to the side anding towards him was the very sword that had knocked him away. The Krav leader was also under weakening effects. What was causing this?
"So in the end I was useless, huh?"
He dropped his head and awaited his death. He shut eyes and could feel a shadow looming over him.
"Hehe, Dorm-san. Looks like we''ll be meeting each other once again. Please teach me the ways of the afterlife when I get there."
Gorm gave his final words as well. Now the two awaited their deaths.
CLANK!
They heard a loud noise and opened their eyes. Gorm was shocked to see that the shadow looming over him was not that of the ogre''s, but rather arge leg connecting to a huge body with three sections and seven other legs.
"¡ So I''m not meant to die here?"
The thirty meterrge spider began to go on a rampage, mowing down the ogres and orcs alike without mercy.
"MUWHAHAHAHA! Fall before my might you mongrels! I have arrived to finish this! You thought you were going to fight these weaklings, but your actual opponent is I, the Spider King!"
At the sound of "king" the orcs and ogres shivered. They all beheld the massive spider that was thrashing about and throwing away their forces like they were toys. Normally, ogres would fear not, seeing as they would be able to swarm a king and kill it. However, with that size, the amount of strength it should bolster definitely weren''t child''s y. And it could cause more damage easily, especially in such an open field.
"T-that''s the spider king!?"
"B-but that size! It''s huge!"
"AAAAGHHHH!!!"
"Fallback! It''s too damned strong!"
"Where are Zod-sama and Dulk-sama!?"
Such things could be heard from the soldiers of the east who received a huge blow from the appearance of the spider king.
''Damn it, you fools! I''m standing on the giant spider, I am not the giant spider!''
She thought to herself. Letting out a sigh, she looked at her children that were torn up and injured severely and was angered.
"AAAHH! My children! I''ll kill everyst one of you East Bastards! Go forth my servant!"
The giant spider gleefully continued its onught on the East, changing the tide in battle drastically.
Chapter 59 The Kings Pt.III
The troll king had been stomping the ground furiously after he saw soldiers being flung into the air by the massive pirs of water that erupted from the ground. He wanted to know what was happening over there. What kind of strategy had the Weste up with that caused his soldiers to run from the battle? He wanted to fight the person who came up with such a n. Surely that person was strong.
But then he looked at the War monger. The war monger was just watching the events passively, almost as if he didn''t care. This piqued the red troll''s interest. If it were the normal Krull he would have gotten angry and charged over there to finish off the West. So¡ why? Why was he just standing there with no reaction?
Was he¡ scared? No. There was no way his liege would be scared of a simple chicken, right?
He pped himself with both palms and shook his head. What was he thinking? If Krull could read minds he would have already been dead. Now he just needed to get ready for the moment Krull ordered him to go into the fight. With the way things were going, he was certain the War Monger would tell him to move in very soon.
Dulk let out a smoke filled sigh when he saw his soldiers flying in the air and falling to their deaths. Truly, what kind of humiliating situation had they ended up in? When the ogre tyrant had called them for a war, he immediately questioned the reason for it. Krull refused to tell him, however, he told them to bring only a tiny number of soldiers that they trusted.
Of course Dulk questioned his reasoning for this. If they were going to war wouldn''t they need a bigger number? He asked the ogre king this, and his response was, "Did I say a war? I meant a massacre".
Naturally Dulk felt confident after hearing his master say that¡ so how did things end up like this? How were his men being flung into the air like toys? What kind of creature were they up against that Krull''s army was suffering such huge blows. Of course, if Krull himself participated, the fight would be over quite easily, but this was just sad. He was certain Krull was angry. However, when he looked at the ogre, he was surprised by how calm it was. He wanted to ask why Krull wasn''t reacting in anyway whatsoever.
It couldn''t be. But what if. What if Krull had expected the army to receive such huge blow? If that was the case then there was nothing to be feared. He just needed to focus on how to get the chicken for his proposal.
The two kings had their own thoughts on the matter and how Krull was feeling at the moment. If he could put what he was feeling into words, he would say that he was angry. He was so pissed he wanted to charge into the battle and kill every single one of them and make them aware of what it meant to stand up to a tyrant, still, he couldn''t. He remembered the words of his daughter the previous night and even though he would never admit it, he was shaken. Shaken to the point where he was making decisions he normally wouldn''t. At first he believed it to be utter nonsense, even the West''s supposed great army was nothing more than just a few hundred E rank and D rank monsters. Heughed at them at first, but now, his army was getting thrashed about. He knew that if he participated, it wouldn''t even be a fight. His only problem would be the chicken. If the chicken had more power than what they were saying, then indeed, this battle would be a humiliating defeat for the ogre tyrant. Still, he wasn''t going to back down because of a little set back.
He still had his trump cards in this battle. He nced at his kings from the corner of eyes. To his left was the inquisitive but hardworking Dulk. To his right was the muscle-headed and violent Zod. They were beasts in their own respects, however if those two were brought together, who knows what kind of chaos they could wreak. It took a while, but after a bit, he sensed that the West had already sent in their king. That satyr. Derbyshire, was it? He had told them that the West was unable to bring the other king to their side and they might''ve failed with the other.
''Tsu¡ So they managed to get one king on their side? I shall make quick work of them. ''
He thought.
"Zod!"
The troll looked at his master in his response.
"Dulk!"
The orc let out a smoke and nced at the ogre.
"Show the West what it means to go against the East."
"Finally!"
Zod jumped cheerfully
"So you decided to end this quickly."
Dulk put his heavy axe over his shoulders.
Having received their orders, both of them ran towards the battlefield with haste. They couldn''t show it in front of their master, but they didn''t like the idea of their men being killed left right. If Zod liked that, then there would have been no reason to have united the tribes in the first ce. And if Dulk didn''t care, he wouldn''t have stood up to all the races that threatened them before. To be very honest, the both didn''t like Krull. They were only fear driven, but this battle was slowly alleviating this fear. If Krull lost here, that meant it was possible to beat him without another Tyrant. Still, they wouldn''t intentionally lose here.
If this chicken could truly defeat Krull, they would need to do it at the East''s best. Truly, these two were very alike to the point it sickened them. For now, they would keep their thoughts to themselves.
"Oi! Coward! You thinking about something?"
The troll asked the orc as they charged through the forest.
"Hmm¡ I want that chicken."
"What?"
"You know, that chicken that''s causing this entire mess."
"Oh? I know how you feel, but won''t that be Lord Krull''s kill?"
The orc let out a smoke then stopped talking entirely.
"Coward? What are you nning?"
"Heads up."
They reached the massive field where the two armies shed and were surprised by the sight. A huge spider was attacking the ogres and orcs. Even the ogres and orcs that managed tond blows on the spider only got to see their weapons bounce harmlessly off the spider''s armor.
Dulk let out an annoyed sigh and Zod jumped in happiness.
"Yes! This is it! An actual battle! That''s a king!? Hahaha! I''m going to fight it. Don''t interrupt me."
"Trust me, you can have it all to yourself."
"Good!"
The troll kicked off towards the spider, letting out a war cry.
"Yaahooo!!!"
The spider king had been having a st, knocking out ogres and orcs without even having to lift a finger, until,
BOOM!
The former spider king let out a loud pained yell.
"Oi! What''s wrong with you? Servant!?"
''I''ve been hit!''
The spiderined. Groaning and moaning in pain.
"You''ve been hit? What the hell could they do to you? You''re as strong as any king out there if not stronger!"
''Another¡ King! AH!''
The spider shook mightily and copsed on its underside.
"Ah!? Is this how strong you are?"
The spider king could hear a very energetic and powerful voice call out. A red troll clothed in nothing but rags jumped on to the head of the spider. It was smaller than the other trolls, but she could tell that it was stronger than them. It was constantly releasing a powerful aura. She wondered who it was.
"Zod!"<novelnext></novelnext>
"Zod!"
"Zod!"
''A named creature? What the hell!? That''s why he was able to topple this big guy over. Ah¡ I stand no chance in a fight. I better hide myself.''
The spider made to run away and hide herself, but the troll noticed her before she could aplish this.
"Oh you there! You are the king?"
''King? I don''t know what you are talking about. This big guy here is the king. Not me.''
"Hahaha! You can''t fool me. I can tell that you are stronger than this one!"
''Oh. You don''t think that maybe we could talk this out?''
"Ha! For trolls it''s strong rules the weak. If you want me to listen to you then beat me."
''Battle crazed morons are just the worst!''
She let out a sigh then yelled.
"Aaaaaggghhh!"
She shot acid to the troll''s eyes, but it blocked with its arm. Quickly, she started to randomly fire magic attacks at the troll. [Water Magic: Water Ball], [Water Magic: Water spear], [Earth Magic: Stone Daggers], [Intermediary Water Magic: Water Canon], [Lightning Magic: Lightning bolt] and [Poison Magic: Poison Muffle]. The troll either withstood the attack or punched his way through it. Whatever it was, he was making a point of not moving from where he stood.
Noticing this, she quickly fired a web at its arm and moved around it quickly, trying to entrap it. The troll just smirked at her actions and let himself be wrapped up. He was going to just brute force his way out of this one as well.
"Hahaha! Cute trick, but I''ll have to break it now!"
He said once she was done. However, the spider was confident in her webs.
''Sorry, but that''s going to be impossible for you.''
"Ha! You''re pretty confident. How-ever¡ I¡ UGH!"
The red troll tried to break free of the webs but it couldn''t.
"Oi! What is this? What have you done?"
''Muhahaha! I told you that it would be impossible! My threads are just too strong for you!''
The truth was that, she was constantly adding mana to the threads which made them quite tough and hard to break apart. She wouldn''t be able to keep it up for too long. She was hoping Hinotori would be able to finish fighting the ogre tyrant quickly and end the whole thing.
''Hurry up, you damned chicken!''
THUD!
She froze when she heard somethingnd behind her. She could smell smoke and she couldn''t even move, because she noticed that thing was producing power on the level of both her and troll. Another king.
"Oi. Insect king. Would you mind letting go of that idiot?"
A low and calm voice said.
"AH! Dulk! This is my fight! Don''t interrupt! I''ll soon break out of these webs then crush her."
"Shut it you idiot! I just had to make a choice between my own goals and following lord Krull. I chose lord Krull, so I''m not in a really good mood right now. So insect king. I will say this onest time. Let go of him."
His voice suggested danger and the spider looked up at the Orc that had a massive battle axe raised above its head.
"S-sorry, but I can-"
The orc brought down his axe before she could continue talking.
"Not the answer I was hoping for."
He looked at the hairy body beneath him and couldn''t find the spider. He brought up his axe and there was a ck gooey substance on it.
"You damned spider!"
Zod yelled and Dulk looked in the direction at which Zod''s voice wasing from.
''Go to sleep you idiot! You''ll get me killed.''
She then used her skill [Electro Web], to produce 20,000 volts of electricity.
"AAAHHH!"
He passed out.
''Like I was saying. Sorry, but I can''t afford to let this guy loose. You guys will ended up killing me and that''s a no-no. I don''t n on dying twice.''
She let out a loud screech. It was a call for her children toe to her aid, but the orc didn''t know that.
A bee flew at its max speed towards the orc, who just cut it in half without giving it a second thought.
"I see. We are both alike in that respect then. Because I don''t want to die too and the only way to do that is by winning this war."
He used his [King''s aura], buffing up his abilities then moved towards the spider.
"[King''s aura], huh?"
The spider also began to glow red.
Dulk was about to charge at the Spider king, but then, he started to hear something buzzing violently. No. It was a lot of things buzzing. He looked to his left and he could well over a hundred bees and beetles buzzing in the air and charging towards him.
"Heh, you want to fight the great me? You are being too bold, don''t you think? Very well, I will have my children crush you. At least be grateful I even talked to you."
"Tch."
Chapter 60 The Kings Pt.IV
The orcs and ogres let out yells of joy when the troll king arrived. They had been struggling to fight ever since the huge spider came about. However, Zod had managed to break its legs, felling therge creature. Now Zod had gone on top of the giant spider and was joined by Dulk, the orc king.
The East was assured of its victory as soon as the first king appeared. Now that both of their kings were present, even Krull would not need to participate anymore. They could at least now ask for mercy after prolonging the fight to this extent.
"The Kings have arrived! Plow down the West!"
"Show them what happens when you fight Krull-sama!"
"OOOOHHH!"
The ogres and orcs charged forward with intent topletely destroy the West.
The West had been happy when the giant spider had appeared and was destroying the east''s soldiers, but then a red troll appeared and knocked it down. To top it off, an orc with the same power as the red troll had appeared and both were now engaged inbat with the spider king.
Most of the insects that could fly left the ground and went to the giant spider, and now the East was charging with more vigor than before. All goblins were frozen in ce and simply being cut down. The West was doomed and they knew it. This was the thought, until a dark wave spread through the battlefield and majority of the orcs, ogres and rat men copsed on the floor.
A single body floated above the earth. This was Oda, glowing faintly with a dark purple aura. She slowly descended to the ground and her eyes snapped open. She looked at her body as if she was admiring it and flexed her fingers to feel them. A smirk appeared on her face as she let out an excited, coolment.
"HAHAHAHA! Finally¡ My resurrection~"
The Tak leader looked at the Wicked Witch of the West. In Oda''s body, her eyes were pitch ck with cracks forming on the edges. Her hair turned grey quick and a dark purple miasma rolled off of her body.
"Hehe¡ I-I did not expect you to be back so soon."
She said and the Witch nced at her. She cocked her head and shrugged.
"I know not who you may be, but you possess potential. Though, this body is weak you still possessed enough strength to stand in my presence. You shall be my apprentice from now on."
The Witchmented and the old hob-goblin was shocked. So shocked she was left speechless. The Witch looked around the battlefield.
"Hmm, so there is an ongoing war? But from the scale of damage, this is barely a turf battle. A tournament of sorts? But creatures are dying so easily. And the match ups are unbnced. This will be a pathetic defeat on the side of the weak creatures. Oh? I sense kings ying about here as well. And is this¡ a tyrant I see? Two? Oh my¡ and what do we have flying up in the sky watching? This¡ it can''t possibly be¡ Hahaha! Two decades of sleep and I miss the unfolding of all of these events? Truly a shame. But I guess-"
"Oi! Oda! Get your damned head out of the clouds. Can you not see that Gorm is about to die?"
The Tak leader shouted, pointing to a struggling Gorm whose mind was being ridden with pain.
"Huh? Are you referring to me?"
The Witch asked.
"No, not you! You be quiet! I''m talking about you, Oda! Come out here, now! I did not waste my time raising a genius for her to die like this. Who do you think my damned heir will be?"
The Witch looked at the old hob-goblin, cocked her head in confusion and after finally understanding the situation, she smiled. She slowly approached the hob-goblin.
"I see, I see. You are assuming that, this "Oda" is still alive. And I see through why you want her to be alive. You want to make here to life so you can then kill her and prevent my resurrection like you wanted to earlier, no?"
The Witch was already at the old hob-goblin''s side at this point. The Witch lifted her chin up so they could look at an equal eye level. The Tak leader was scared to point of half-death after gazing into the abyss that was her eyes. The Witch craned towards the goblin''s ear and whispered,
"You see, the spell I used was one that would only allow my proper resurrection once the soul of apatible body had truly disappeared. So, do you know what this means?"
The Witch withdrew and let the old one fall on the ground weakly, as whatever resistance she had disappeared. She cackled maniacally and looked to the sky.
"I am back! I, the great and venerable, Dark Witch Zatana, has returned for good!"
Her [Dark Lightning] magic began to crackle all about her as she went on a rampage. She just shot random bolts everywhere. Just sending the orcs, ogres, rat men and others flying without a care. If that body ran out of mana, she would just call on Dark spirits to help her. In the first ce, she normally never used her own mana for her spells.
"H-Hey¡ You¡ Bastard¡ C-Can¡ You¡ move?"
Two goblins next to each other justid on the ground, their faces lying t. They were the ones had asked Hinotori for her blessings the night before.
"N-No."
"T-Then¡ Get¡ Up! We¡ will¡ all¡ die¡ if¡ no¡ one¡ moves!"
"It¡ is¡. Not¡. My¡. Fault¡"
"Your¡ body¡ feels¡ heavy¡ too?"
"Y-Yeah."
The goblin''s eye glinted as a thought passed through his brain.
''I-Is this it? Is this when the Warrior is weakened in his epic journey? If that''s the case, the warrior must push through this, right? So I simply need to push through this and I would be better than ever! I will be able to win this and then, Gorm will be proud of me! AAAAGGHHHHH!!! PUSH THROUGH!''
He roared internally as he willed his body to move. Veins popped all around his body and it felt like doing so would just end up causing his body to snap in half, but he still tried. He did his best for what felt like hours. Without rxing or giving himself a breather, he pushed forward, something the average goblin would never do.
After a while, he managed to stand, but what was thoroughly beat up and exhausted. Though, now, he couldn''t feel the weakening effects anymore. Just his aching body. He looked at the goblin next to him.
"You, huff, huff, you should move too."<novelnext></novelnext>
The goblin helped the other get up and the other goblin moved towards theing army.
"What¡ are¡ you¡ doing? How¡ did¡ you¡ stand?"
"It is because¡ because I am a warrior!"
He eximed. He had sealed the image of being a warrior into his head and now it would be hard to make him think otherwise.
"Ah? Good¡ for¡ you..."
"Eh¡ now your turn."
"Keke¡ you¡ are¡ some¡ other¡ kind¡ of¡ stupid."
He then looked at the hob-goblins who were still fighting. Although it was left with only two of them still standing ¨C barely. They were the leaders of Zamp and Stamp, thest people anyone would have assumed would be up for so long.
The Stamp leader just cackled and his partner clicked his tongue. Both were the weakest hob-goblins, yet they managed to survive? Was this a message telling them that they were doomed? All around them, they could only see chaos and deaths. The Wicked Witch''s rampage was vicious, not caring about any one. She simply struck down everything in sight.
Still, she would have to run out of mana soon and when that happened, at least she would have reduced all sides to the point where the east would be forced to go back. And if she took charge, not even the ogre tyrant would just waltz in to try to take over her territory. An S-ss party was the one to deal the final blow to the mad witch and an S-ss party wouldn''t have any problem dealing with a tyrant. The only problem would be the number of S-ss parties in existence.
"Kekekeke! So either way, the West gets to be protected! Keke, after this, we just have to kill the Wicked Witch."
"Indeed, but please do not make it sound so easy."
"What are you two talking about? My reward senses are telling me that I''ll get something sweet after this. I know for sure that I''m not dying today."
"Hahaha! Then I guess your supposed ''reward senses'' need a check-up."
"Kukuku¡ My senses have never been wrong before!"
From their conversation and tone, one wouldn''t imagine that they were battered up, suffering from several broken bones and internal injuries and on the verge of death.
"Let us earn a tale that will be passes down for generations toe."
Gorm''s disciple balled his hands into fist after observing the disy. This was it! This was what being a true warrior was like. Grinning andughing in the face of danger. Braving the unknown and conquering it. An adventurer of the highest caliber.
"I! I wish to help!"
He yelled at them. The two hob-goblins noticed. They all had their various reactions to him, but one thing was certain. They were d he could move.
"Ha! Only three of us, then? Shall we?"
The Stamp leader said, sounding heroic unlike his usual perverted creepy tone.
"Yes!"
The two responded with all their hearts, ring at the witch.
There were a total of seventy ogres and sixty orcs still remaining. The ogres lost most of their allies to the water pir attack, and the rest were done in by the massive spider. Now, the East that was once three hundred and seventy-five strong, was now one hundred and thirty strong. Such a blow was unexpected. Surely, they had underestimated their foes, but they could make up for that. They just needed to demolish them.
Just as an orc was about to cut down the weakest looking member, a goblin wearing only rags, he heard something that made him pause in his tracks. It sounded like a howl. No, he knew that it was a howl but he didn''t want to believe it. In fact, it made the entire East stop and they looked towards a hill to the south.
"N-No way."
"T-They actually had more!? Other than the witch?!"
"Timber wolves at that!"
Standing on the hills, looking down on the battlefield valiantly, the furry hunters of the night bared their yellow fangs. ws sharper than steel and res deadlier than daggers. The sixty timber wolves of the Sria n descended and the wholend turned into one of absolute chaos.
"Show them the might of the Timber Wolves!"
A timber wolf with mid-night ck fur and a scar over his left eye ordered and the others obeyed to the letter. They showed the East the true terror of a pack of C rank monsters. Whatever chance the east had now, hadpletely disappeared. For sure, all their members present would die today. As if the sixty timber wolves were not enough, the ground began to sink and shake and this caused all the races present to look. A rat man emerged from the huge hole, and he raised a rusty sword to the sky. He was the leader of the rat men.
The East looked confused when they saw the lone rat man. In fact, everyone was confused, but then
"Rat Men! Charge!"
At themand, hundreds of rat men emerged from the hole behind him and ran towards the East like a tidal wave.
"H-How!?"
"Surprise after surprise!"
The ogres and orcs cried out in terror.
Chapter 61 The Kings Pt.V
The spider king let out a screech and her children understood it as her order for them to charge.
"Bees! Don''t falter. Let''s not disappoint our queen!"
"Beetles! Full force!"
Themanders of both sections ordered and their subordinates obeyed. The insects soon swarmed the orc king, forming a tornado around him. Even with quality, he shouldn''t have been able to surpass the sheer numbers of the insect army, right? But then,
"Is this your trump card? I expected more. Then again, I guess that''s all you would need to beat that moron over there."
''Yea, keep talking big even after you are already caught in my trap.''
"Hmph."
''What''s so funny?''
"It''s nothing. I just remembered a question somebody asked me earlier. Would you like to know it?"
The spider remained quiet. She wasn''t showing it, but she was feeling quite tensed. The mana threads she had created were taking quite a lot out of her. She was hoping to at least have been able to take down the orc with this, but it was taking longer than expected. The insects in the tornado would just flying around him, spitting poison or acid or stinging him till he died. He should have died already, so how was he alive?
"You don''t want to? What a bore. I''ll tell you either way. The person said ''Dulk, why do you always smoke''."
The insect king''s eyes widened with the sudden realization.
''There''s no way, right? He can''t possibly be t-the Hell Orc.''
Just as she was thinking, Dulk clicked his tongue and the smoke ignited, causing a huge explosion. The explosion managed to wipe out most of the backs and those whose defense were high enough to prevent them from turning into charcoal fell to ground in agony.
Dulk then lifted his axe with was set aze. His eyes looked calm. The Orc from Hell, was his nickname. With a battle axe set aze with the mes of hell, the scent of gasoline he exuded and the unique horn growing from his forehead, this Orc roams thend, burning everything in a quest for power.
The spider king felt like this was the day she would die. Still, at least she went down in one of the dopest of ways. To a damned opponent with the name Orc from Hell. She could brag to the others in the afterlife.
He charged at the spider king who was running out of energy, then he swiped down at her.
CLUNK!!!
His axe bounced back after colliding with the ws of a white furry creature. He was a bit stunned when he stumbled back from the impact. It was a white timber wolf about his size, with dark violet eyes. The wolf king growled at the orc king.
"So the West was still hiding more?"
The orc sounded surprised.
''I suppose you are the spider king?''
The white wolf started a conversation.
''Yea. And you must be the wolf king.''
She replied weakly.
''Could you finish that guy off quickly? I''m losing a ton of mana right now trying to restrain this guy.''
The white wolf looked at the sleeping troll king then nodded. She didn''t fully understand what had happened but she got the gist of it.
''In that case, you can leave that orc to me.''
Dulk looked at the wolf that was slowly approaching him. He was strong, but he knew that if he fought the wolf, he would lose. Something about her just made him anxious. He needed the troll''s help, but that moron was sleeping. What a fool. He was so annoyed that he couldn''t keep a calm expression.
"Oi, you moron! What the hell are you doing!? Get off yourzy ass ande help me."
The troll was still sleeping and the spider weaklyughed.
''Haha¡. He just received twenty thousand volts of electric current. It''s amazing that he''s even alive.''
"Twenty thousand? What''s that supposed to be worth?"
The orc asked
''Oh, that''s right. You wouldn''t know, would you?''
"Tch¡ Zod, if you don''t wake up I''ll tell Krull that you decided to flee from battle."
''That isn''t going to wor-''
"DON''T EVER DO THAT!!! OOOOOHHHH!"
The troll suddenly woke and began forcing his way out of the threads.
''Wait! What!?''
The spider king was surprised by the sudden turn of events. She used her skill [Electro web] several times, but it only further angered the troll.
"Enough of that infuriating light! Let me go!"
The troll continuously pushed against the sticky yet strong threads.
"Ah! Dulk! These are just way too tough."
"What do you mean they are way to toug-"<novelnext></novelnext>
The wolf pounced on the orc and he blocked with his axe but stumbled backwards.
''To have a conversation while fighting me, you must really underestimate me.''
"Trust me. I don''t."
The orc charged at the wolf king and swiped at her, but she avoided it. She then swiped at him, but he blocked with his axe.
"Ah. Damn it. At this rate, I won''t get anywhere."
________________________________________________
Larm was an unbelievablyrge forest, even possessing a mountain. Well, it was more like a forest surrounding a mountain. The mountain was more to the northern part of Larm, but it was still considered a part of Larm due to its bountiful resources. Behind the mountain was a huge ocean, connecting to endless nothing. No one ever traversed there due to it being the "No man''snd" region. Just rocky shores and dangerous monsters waiting to kill.
In one of the caves, a woman with leafy green hair that reached down to her waist, walked through the deep cave, at her side were two other females. One was a child with mid-night ck hair dressed in make-shift clothes made out of leaves and a metal cor around her neck. The other was a young woman with a short-cut blonde.
The woman with leafy green hair who was known as Diane, took a nce at the child holding her hand as they continued down the dark path quietly, without even a source of light. She was a bit stunned when she heard that a Dhamypr had entered the West and in day time no less, but when she looked at the girl, she realized why the girl hadn''t already died from being exposed to the day light.
The cor that the girl wore was imbued with a magic that provided ayer of protection against the sun so the girl was fine. Still she failed to understand how the girl had lived her life before being captured. She must have had been wearing something that protected her against the sun. Because it was highly impossible to have found her in the Realm of Eternal Night. No person could go there and retrieve the vampiric species from there. Whatever it was, the dryad couldn''t waste much time thinking about it.
She then nced at the tree sprite who was next to her. The tree sprite had been shivering for a while now and the dryad could understand why. Tree sprites were extremely sensitive to mana and could sense it a mile away, so as such, being in the cave at the very moment wasn''t helping.
"I think you should go help Hinotori now."
The dryad suggested.
"S-She said she would call for me when she needed me. Besides, I cannot simply live you here all alone."
"What? Pay no mind to me. Right now I am very safe. Hinotori on the other hand will be in serious trouble if there is no one to back her up."
"B-but-"
"No excuses. You like her don''t you? Just go."
The tree sprite looked at the dryad with grateful eyes. The dryad waved her wrist at the sprite, and a whirlwind of leaves encased her, teleporting her way.
"Shall we go now?"
She asked Ulva, who had been staring at the ground where the sprite once stood in awe. Ulva nodded and they headed off.
After a bit of walking, they stopped in their tracks. Ulva didn''t know why, but she had always been able to see in the dark. She had always suspected that there was something¡ different about her and the rest of the children in the vige. She was special¡ abnormal to be blunt. Some could even say she was¡ No! There was no point in thinking about such matters.
She managed to see that they had stopped right in front of a cave, and she could hear the sound of a gentle heart beating from in there. The smell of something inhuman almost blocked her nose.
"There is something in there."
She pointed at the cave and Diane nodded.
"Yes. You are right. Now please keep quiet for a bit."
Ulva nodded and Diane stepped forward. Suddenly, a yellow light lit up from the cave. No. It wasn''t a light. It glowed like an orb, but it wasn''t one. It was arge eye that was looking intensely at the two females.
"Who goes there?"
A very powerful and deep voice echoed throughout the cave.
"It is I, the Oldest Tree, Diane. I havee with urgent news and I need you toe with me."
"Urgent news? What is so urgent that youe and wake me up after six years of sleep?"
"There is a war happening at this moment."
"¡. A war? Did humans invade?"
"No. It is between Tyrants."
"Between those Tyrants? Tch¡ it''s just children ying."
"One of those tyrants has been selling our resources to the humans. The other tyrant is fighting against that, but the way things look, one of them might die."
"What!? Who dares go against Master''s wishes!?"
"The Tyrant of the East, War Monger Krull."
"Ah? A ward of mine own choosing? Does thou have proof of this?"
"The evidence is being collected at this very moment."
"Hmm¡ Very well then."
The voice went silent and the eyes closed. The cave suddenly felt eerily quiet. But then,
TAP, TAP, TAP
The sounds of a figure walking could be heard. When the figure emerged, Diane went on her knee and Ulva could only stare.
"Wee back, Lord Goliath."
Chapter 62 Clash Pt.I
The East, War Monger''s Fort
A cloaked figure walked through the hallways of the fort nonchntly. This figure was supposed to be hurriedly sneaking around, checking room by room for what he was searching for but that was simply too much of a hassle for him. He preferred to be slow andid-back. He basically had all the time in the world toplete his mission after all. When he came across a huge door protected by two kobold guards, he assumed he found his target.
"Hey there!"
He yelled, waving at the kobolds. They looked at each other, confused then back at him.
"I am referring to you two obviously. Do you see anyone else present?"
The two guard began to bark at him.
"Um¡ I don''t understand yournguage. Sorry, but I need the person behind that door."
He appeared behind both kobolds and ced his hands on their shoulders. The two were immediately petrified with fear and ears flinched.
"You see, if you just let me through, nothing bad will happen."
One guard started barking again.
SNAP
The kobold fell on the ground, dead.
"I warned you."
He walked towards the door and opened it. The other kobold guard fell on his knees, crying out of fear. He had just met a monster and he knew for sure that there was no surviving. He couldn''t even muster up the will to bark, let alone run. This was the end. The message came to him bright as day when he looked at his partner.
When the strange person entered, he was met with a huge room, filled with a ginormous bed and all sorts of necessities for a princess. He scanned the room and sitting on the bed while staring at him with an annoyed expression was an ogress. She was dressed in baggy white robes. She had dark-grey skin with two short ck horns protruding from her head. Her irises shown a brilliant golden and her straight hair that reached down to her back was violet. She was Kara, the ogre tyrant''s youngest child.
"Who are you and how dare you enter here without permission or notice?"
The man looked around the room while whistling.
"Quite the nice ce, you''ve got. Will be a shame when it all gets destroyed though."
"Huh? Answer my question. Or else¡"
The girl''s skin crackled with powerful purple lightning as she red at the man. The man rose his hand as a form of surrender.
"Sheesh. Tone it down. I am a friend of your father. You can call me Grimm."
The stranger who named himself as Grimm then got closer to the girl. She wanted to shoot a bolt at him to warn him not to get too close, but her the lightning suddenly disappeared. She looked down on her body, confused, but couldn''t find anything out of the ordinary.
"You¡ what have you done to me?"
"I just blocked your Magic circuits with my ice needles. Don''t worry its temporary. Now, I just need to slow down your blood flow and you will be feeling dizzy, riiight abooouuut¡ Now."
"Eh? What are you talki-"<novelnext></novelnext>
She spun about and fell face t on her bed. He went over and touched her forehead. She was definitely as cold as ice. He grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder.
"Are you done?"
A voice asked and turned his head. The owner of the voice was a fat man with goat legs, a scruffy brown goatee with leave green eyes and little goat horns protruding from his curly haired head.
"Yo, Derby. Long time no see pal."
Grimm tried for a friendly tone, however Derbyshire was not in the mood for his silly antics today.
"Did you get it?"
The stranger took a scroll out of his jacket and threw it at the satyr.
"Yep. Although I don''t know what you need this for. It''s not like the boss is gonna use it."
He had to waste a lot of time moving about in the fort''s treasury, library and even the master''s personal space. It took him a great deal of effort and time to do this, spanning over a few days of careful sneaking about and information collection. Grimm could confidently say he knew every nook and cranny of the fort better than the person who built it.
"Hurry up and leave, before more guards find you."
The satyr wasted no time in ordering the strange fellow about.
"Still giving me the cold shoulder, huh? I told you I''m sorry about that time with the iced beer."
Grimm wore a ck face mask, with a red jewel on the forehead which made it hard to know exactly what kind of expression he wore, but he sounded apologetic.
"Tell the boss that I will be proceeding to the desert to collect the package as nned. Since you can''t teleport me there, I''ll just stroll by to see if the West survives."
Derbyshire ignored Grimm.
"Huh? I thought you said the Mad Witch wasn''t participating."
"She isn''t. However there is an interesting creature there that is leading them against Krull."
"You don''t mean a new Imperial or Supreme ss monster, do you?"
"No. She was only at the peak of the advanced monster ss when I met her."
"So the West stands no chance, right?"
"Humph. Logically speaking, yes. I just want to see how much worth the creature has. Don''t you think a creature that gave a tyrant trouble will be a nice present for the master?"
The satyr grinned, contorting his face. Grimm shivered at the sight and opened up a portal behind himself.
"Your grin is still as disturbing as ever. That''s why you can''t even get a harlot to spend your night with at the Tyvn Broth."
Derbyshire lost his grin and was now scowling at the man in ck. The cloaked figure walked through the portal with the princess over his shoulder. The satyr raised his hand over the scroll and said a few words over it. A wind sprite appeared before him. It was a delicate creature with a petite build and little to no coverings over its body. If only Derbyshire could capture this creature for his nefarious purposes. It took the scroll from him and teleported them both somewhere.
Chapter 63 Clash Pt.II
Day 23
The air stained with the scent of blood, the ground broken and torn apart, the creatures littering the ground with their corpses and injured bodies, the smell of agony and rage. The battlefield had been opened and boy, was I bewildered. Everything had actually gone ording to my ns.
First, I assumed the Ogre Tyrant would be wary of us, especially after Diane told me that Derbyshire ran off to the east to seek refuge. So him stopping at the wolf hills, seemed the likeliest thing for him to do, although I had stationed a bunch of rat men at other possible locations for him. You see, to get to the center of Larm, you needed to pass through a few hilly areas. ording to Diane, the shortest possible route from East to West was through the center and so, using the Wolf Hills was a given.
Him being wary of us, he stopped just at the wolf hills toe explore. Next, I assumed he also possessed the skill [Overlord] so he would simply use it to scan us, not control us. He was probably scared that Minerva might use her [Overlord] skill as well and they would cancel out, so there was no point (I only just realized that the skill only works in one''s territory, not another''s). So because of that, he would sense therge army that was hiding behind the thick forest in the valley ¨C the ce we chose for battle. I couldn''t have him finding out about the ambush squad so early, so I made the actual army move out and back to confuse them.
You wouldn''t think that would work, right? I mean, an experienced War Mongrel versus not even a month old chick. Was that even a battle? The answer was, yes, yes it was. I was using his experience to my advantage. Surely he would have met someone who had use this method before. I was hoping he would overthink this situation, leading him to think that this was not an actual trap, but simply us realizing we were being foolish in front of his numbers.
How it worked? Don''t ask me. Krull was probably the biggest dumb ass of a viin I had ever seen. He sent in the trolls first. The ambush squad did an excellent job whittling down the opponents'' numbers before they came out to meet the actual fight.
Damn, the trolls were strong, but the Assault Force was even stronger. They beat the trolls ck and blue and forced the orcs and ogres to interfere. Everything seriously was going ording to n and I almost felt like a tactical genius, but I wasn''t. This was all luck. Still, it gave me the opportunity to say cringey lines like, "Your first mistake was making an enemy out of me", or "Fall before my tactical might you imbeciles from the east!"
This was fun¡ Fun till everything went to shit. There really was no smooth sailing. All it took, was one death to change the morale of the goblins. Oda died. Gorm lostposure and almost died. Suddenly, all the goblins froze. Kings joined in on the fun. Oda started glowing creepily then started shooting lightning bolts at everyone. Timber wolves descended and started beating the east. None of this was ording to n. Ah¡ shit really took a turn for the worse.
At least, Ulva was safe. She was with Diane so she wouldn''t be facing stupid situations like this. I mean, our deal was that as long as we kept the fight as far away as possible from their trees, she would give me her word that she would keep the kid safe, so I knew she was definitely safe.
I noticed a huge creature with ck scales flying just above the army. There was a fat creature on its back waving a massive butcher''s knife around. I could tell that it was the ogre tyrant. I used [Analyst] on him, trying to see just how much of a powerhouse he was.
STATUS
[Name: Krull
[Species: War Ogre Lvl 55/90
[Status: [Anxious]
[Age: 15 years
[Rank: B+
[Race Tank: Tier 2
[Titles: |Of World|, |Cannibal|, |Survivor|, |Merciless|, |Persistent|, |Man-Eater|, |Monster yer|, |War Monger|, |Man yer|, |Tyrant of the East|, |Ogre Lord|, |Troll Lord|, |Orc Lord|, |Governor|
[Blessings: [Demi-god of War''s Blessings]
[Level: 125
[Health: 40000/40000 Stamina: 50000/50000 Strength: 13530 Speed: 11000 Defense: 15700 Dexterity: 12000 Intelligence: 300 Luck: 70
[Skills: ¡ Calcting¡]
''Just like Minerva, he has no aptitude for magic. He can''t even produce mana. Other than that, what in the actual fuck is up with his stats? And he is only B+ in rank? I don''t even want to go to the wyvern on his back.''
My eyes go to the wyvern and I almost pass out. That creature was at C+ with some really good stats. In what world is a wyvern only C rank? Then what about dragons? Were they only rank A or something? Then¡ the beasts at the top. The S ranks. What the hell were they?
The wyvern came in close. It didn''t have a high level, neither did it possess any significant amount of skills. Basically put, the wyvern was the average or standard wyvern. Meaning, from birth these wyverns were living it up at ss C. Damn, the privileged.
I could feel the cold res of the Ogre Tyrant on my being and I shivered.
"So you are the one standing up against me?"
His body was covered in weird red tattoos much like the hob-goblin leader from Krav. Probably signs that he was blessed by the [Demi-God of War] too.
''System Master! I can''t do this! Show some mercy and give me a short power boost or something. You know? The usual Isekai protagonist good luck stuff.''
Then a screen popped up in front of me
[System Master ##### has refused your request for aid]
''¡ Wow. Ok¡ Screw you! Since when don''t the system master''s cheat for the protagonists!? Whoever is above the system master I call for a refund on mine! I think my system master''s broken!''
[System Master ##### has subtracted 5 points from your defense stats]
''Oi! What the hell! I''m sorry! I''m sorry! I take it back! You are great! The best!''
[System Master ##### agrees with you]
''Where''s my stat points? Oi! My stat points!? System Master!?''
"I see, so you can''t speak. Does that mean it was the wench who organized this? She doesn''t seem smart enough though."<novelnext></novelnext>
He voice was cool and it sounded like he wasn''t a simple muscle-head. Maybe I could reason my way out of this?
He looked down, scanning through the forest. His eyes moved from the battle field and just looked about, as if he was searching for something. Probably Minerva. The look on his face suggested that he was thinking critically over something. Then now wouldn''t be a good time to bother him, right? But then, when else would be a good time?
''Oh, um sorry. I guess this is the first time we are meeting, huh? My name is Hinotori and I''m guessing that you must be War Monger Krull?''
He looked surprised, but then his eyes rxed.
"So then what the satyr said is true? You led a resistance against me?"
''Huh? Derbyshire? Don''t listen to hi-''
"Humph¡ Silence! I did not give you permission to speak."
His voice boomed and I could feel my eardrums popping. I immediately hunched back and felt overwhelmed.
"The insolence. You! You, a mere chicken dare defy me?!"
He pointed his huge weapon at me and my heart sunk.
''Um¡ chickens don''t fly.''
"Shut your mouth! I will cleave you in half and never speak of this day again. I have never felt so embarrassed before. I was hoping the Mad Witch was justing up with a good n I would simply stomp through. Ugh¡ sigh."
He vented out, making me feel quite insignificant. But at the same time making me feel angry. Everyone only paid attention to me because I knew Minerva. That wasn''t all I was good for and I would show them all.
''Ok¡ Ouch. Mind your tone when speaking to the future ruler of all beasts, and never, ever, look down on me.''
I was using [Devil''s Miasma] as well as [Terror] to hopefully cause him to flinch.
He didn''t flinch. Instead, he looked angrier than before.
"A mere chicken dares?! I don''t know if you know this, but let it be known here and now. I will not fall for any tricks you have nned for me. Even if I do, I''ll just break right through them, because I am the War Monger Krull. Destroyer of armies and current Tyrant of the East!"
The wyvern flew at me. I ducked, going underneath it and attempting to [Peck] its underbelly. Its defense was too great for me to ovee. I had to fly out of the way before its tail could hit me. Now that the ogre tyrant wasn''t looking at me, I tried using [Fire breath] to attack him from behind, mostly just to see how fast he would react to it.
He did so easily with his huge butcher knife and said something odd.
"Huh? That fire ball wasn''t magic? You produce actual fire, I see."
Wondering why he said that, I checked out his sword.
[Item Name: Reflective Butcher Knife]
[Item Rank: Low Epic]
[Description: A sword that can reflect an elemental or magical attack of a certain level.
# Thirty uses per day.
# Magic Attack storage (Temporary)
+150 attack power.]
[Value: 600 Gold pieces]
''Huh? A sword that can reflect magical attacks? Pretty nifty.''
I said to him, honestly just wanting to infuriate him. He squeezed his face and the wyvern let out a roar, probably just as annoyed as its rider. My best option here was probably using [Size Maniption] to make myself bigger. That would boost my strength stat as well, but then my stamina will go down fast and a bigger me would be an easy target for the ogre tyrant.
Maybe with [Slime body] I could ignore some damage, but if he got serious and chopped me right in half, I would die in that moment. I couldn''t find a way out of this to be honest. Maybe I should have eaten more to get more stats using [Predator], but that wasn''t really an option since it all depended on my eating capacity. I thought it was big, but it really wasn''t.
''Aaarrgghhh! All of this would have been way easier if only Minerva wasn''t being a brat about it all!''
Sost night, we found out that Minerva wasn''t going to participate. She said I got myself into this so I should get myself out. Apparently she never said anything about fighting if I fought. That damned Diane lied to me. There was no way she made a simple mistake like that. When I was free, I would attempt to get revenge at her.
I used [Size Maniption] to shrink myself and with [Sprint] I was now definitely not an easy target for the wyvern. ording to [Hunter], wyverns were mostly calm creatures that weren''t used to being startled since they were so big and strong. They mostly lived in mountainous regions with the cold, thin air and their skins were so tough not even fire would hurt them. Magma would though. And their eye sight is poor for some apparent reason. They can''t really see anything too close or too far, but their sense of smell was top notch, so startling them definitely wasn''t something one could do easily. Also their hearing is horrible and they are sort of like the hyenas of the dragon world. That was weird information.
At least now I knew how to deal with it.
Chapter 64 Clash Pt.III
I activated [Devil Miasma] and [Terror] at the wyvern. Krull just calmly watched me, his eye twitching at my every movement. I started to fly around them, creating a cloud of poison gas while sprinkling my [Sap Spores] about so I could be draining life from them while fighting. I flew in front of the wyvern and shot a spider web at it. Krull cut it however and he snarled at me.
"What is this? Is this all you''ve got?"
''Excuse you, but that took a bit of thinking to do, especially while under all this pressure!''
"Enough of this. I''m going back."
The war ogre held his weapon tightly and it glowed with a green aura. With one thoughtless flicker, he swung it at me causing a powerful shockwave to be sent through the air. I used [King Viper Scales] with [Centipede Armor] and [Beetle Armor], while making my body absorb the shock with [Slime body]. The damage was so much that I wasn''t able to go unscathed even though I attempted to dodge as well.
[You have received 100 damage]
The shockwave continued behind me, creating a huge boom behind me and causing the clouds to separate.
''W-What the hell?! Isn''t that too powerful.''
There was a powerful roar. When I looked I saw the tyrant charging at me. His wyvern looked quite pissed, probably because the wyvern''s don''t like loud sounds and it was forced to hear that. With its beak like mouth open, I could see its sharp yellow fangs in their full glory.
''I''m in trouble! Sike¡ been waiting for this.''
When the wyvern came close enough, I shot a fireball into its mouth. A trick I learnt from that one cartoon about the guy training a dragon. You know? Was it "How to pilot your dragon"? Ah well, anyway, as tough as its exterior may be, its innards definitely weren''t so strong.
I had been wondering about stats, but they really were just representations of what was physically possible for the people of this world. What I meant by that was that, stats basically give a numerical information about how well you trained your body or something like that. And since there is no known way to train your insides, you were definitely weak in there.
Basically, you could have the strongest of defenses, but on the inside, you were just a weak baby in a suit of armor. Did the same apply to the tyrants? Obviously yes. But the problem was actually getting to attack them on the inside. Getting close to them was probably impossible for me.
The wyvern''s eyes lit up as it suddenly caught fire out of nowhere. That shouldn''t have been possible unless it had a bit of dragon descent. As in its father or grandfather or great grandfather or ancestor had to be a dragon. That would allow to it to breathe out fire and stuff. Meaning, it had the necessary organs to create fire. Which meant its internal organs produced a substance that was highly mmable. It would catch fire real quick.
Its mouth started smoking and it was shaking about dangerously. The ogre tyrant kept on pulling at its reigns, trying to control it, but the wyvern kept on shaking as its body was slowly catching on fire. I saw its scales turning red and smoke literally escaping its very body. Soon, it proved too difficult for the ogre tyrant to control.
The tyrant lost the reigns and plummeted to the ground. I looked at him and he was ring at me, not even screaming or anything. Then again, with his defenses he should probably have been able to survive that fall no problem.
Still, I noticed toote that the wyvern wasn''t actually in pain. In fact, behind me, its mouth was open and I could see bright lighting from it. The way its body was on fire just scared the crap out of me and the breath of fire it produced was so much that [Fire Resistance] was weak to it. Its range was so wide that I couldn''t avoid most of the damage and the force behind it was just absurd.
[You have received 400 damage]
[You have been inflicted with the status [Severe Burn]]
[You will lose 30 health points every second]
[You have received 147 damage]
[You have been inflicted with the status [Broken Bones]]
[Due to [Pain Nullification] you will not receive the penalty for this]
The pain was absurd. I started plummeting to the ground, my mind going in and out. I just wanted to zone out. Before I had realized it, I was about a few feet above the ground. I twisted my body and pped hard so I wouldn''t just hit the ground. However, the quick maneuvers weren''t enough. My fall was hard and painful since I lost some of my feathers.
[You have received 100 damage]
''S-Sa sa! This hurts! This hurts really badly.''
While I was screaming, I hadn''t noticed the royally pissed ogre tyrant standing over me. He had his weapon raised to the sky and his blood red eyes burned as they red at me. Was this it?
***
All the creatures on the battlefield paused when they heard a loud explosion in the air. They saw a huge ck mes that soon disappeared and in the air, were three creatures. There was the fat ogre riding on a ck wyvern, and then the bird with four wings and golden and ck feathers. What was happening?
The creatures couldn''t even think about their own fights when they saw the chase. The ogres and orcs began to cheer their tyrant on and the members of the west cheered Hinotori on. The warriors that were on each other''s necks soon turned into spectators when they saw their leaders fighting. Even the Wicked Witch stopped in her random acts of violence as soon as she saw the two. Her lips curled interestingly at the sight of the two fighting.
Their fights didn''t matter anymore. All that mattered was which of the leaders won.
"So that''s War Monger Krull, huh?"
"He looks really tough."
"Yea, but I''m sure my money senses tell me he is going down."
"Of course he is going down. The mad witch is intervening."
"Keke¡ if that''s what you think, where has she been this entire time?"
"Ah¡"
The two hob-goblins were interrupted by the leader of the rat men.
"Hmmm¡ I would suggest you stop arguing amongst yourselves. We are doomed either way."
"What do you mean?"
He let out a sigh and scratched his head, thinking crazily.
"With the kind of n she has, we are all most likely going to die! The fact the ogre tyrant is in the air was not part of her n makes it even worse. Just say your final prayers to your gods."
"Huh? You¡ are you ok?"
"No. No I am not ok¡ When Lady Hinotori came to my cest night, she asked me to set up some stuff to lure the Tyrant of the West to a certain point."
"Eh? But wouldn''t the tyrant notice you doing this?"
"I thought so, but she told me that the Mad Witch does not usually check up on things like that. Still, not wanting to get caught, I had a bunch of rat men run about, dropping the traps in a seemingly random order so no one would even be able to notice that it was a trap."
"Huh¡ but why would you need to do that?"
"Well, it turns out that the Mad Witch never agreed to fight."
"What?!"
The rat man put his hands to his ears to avoid receiving any form of damage to his sensitive ears.
"Yes, yes. Lady Hinotori was angry when she found out so she said she was going to forcefully include the tyrant into this."
"Is that not a bit too selfish of her?"
The Zamp leader asked.
"Kukuku¡ nothing is ever too selfish in war! My money senses were right on the mark to trust the bird."
"Still¡ That''s it? That was her master n!?"
The little goblin next to them asked. He couldn''t believe all their lives were riding on such an ipetent n. He would not have noticed this were he not always learning from Gorm.
"Simple but effective, right?"
"Yea, now that you mention it. It sounds like something anyone should or could havee up with."
"Not anyone. The Mad witch would probably kill the person who got her involved."
"True."<novelnext></novelnext>
Suddenly, the ck wyvern exploded with white mes and plummeted to the ground. All those watching followed with their eyes and tried to get closer. Even the kings put a ceasefire on theirbat and rushed towards the site.
The Wicked Witch who heard all of this only smiled. She wanted that bird as a pet now. And from the looks of the battle, it wouldn''t be too difficult to capture it. It wasn''t really strong, but it possessed potential. She was about to move towards where theynded to save the creature, but then she froze in ce.
"Huh? What''s a dead creature doing back in this realm?"
Slowly and hesitantly, she turned back and met stormy grey eyes. Her heart sunk as she recognized the person and she had no other option. Escape was impossible. Fighting was impossible. She could only go on her knees and bow.
"L-Lord Goliath. You have returned?""
"Yes. Not for long though. Same can be said of though goblin."
"W-what?"
"Leave that body and let its original soul return."
Before the Wicked Witch could say a word, her body fell to the ground.
____________________________________________
"Tsu¡ You were the great beast that was supposed to consume me? Ha! I really do need to teach my daughter a thing when I get back home."
The ogre tyrant said something I didn''t understand then drove his weapon into my wing and I felt a whole lot of pain. I never imagined that reincarnating in another would be this painful. This was actually the first time in a while I had seen my own blood.
[You have lost 20 health points]
With [Slime Body] I managed to ignore a lot of the damage that came with me losing a wing. My [Severe Burn] status was now [Burn] and so the health points going would be less. [Slime Body] was really useful.
I put up all my defensive abilities as the ogre tyrant brought his fist down on my body, easily stealing a hundred points of life.
This was really absurd. I could tell that he wasn''t even trying with that punch. Normally I should have been grateful, but for some reason, that pissed me off. It was so annoying I couldn''t help butugh.
"What''s so funny? Your army will be crushed. I will kill you soon and I will have all these resources to myself then can export them all I want. You lost. No good sides for you."
''¡You see¡ The truth is, I''ve just won this battle."
[You have lost 10 health points]
"Huh? What''s that supposed to mean? Are you blind?"
[You have lost 10 health points]
The ogre tyrant looked around him, but I could see that he didn''t know what I meant. When his eyes met mine again, I wanted tough so bad at him, but the pain I felt just made myugh sound forced.
[You have lost 10 health points]
"Tch¡ Now you''re just saying things. I won''t fall for any tricks you have nned for me. Even if I do, I''ll just break right through them, because¡"
[You have lost 10 health points]
He began another one of his annoying boasting and I wasn''t really in the mood for it.
[You have lost 10 health points]
''Yes, yes, because you are the war monger, Tyrant of the East, h, h, h. Dude, give it a rest. It''s really annoying to hear you say that over and over again."
[You have lost 10 health points]
Krull red at me, then he lifted me up, crushing my neck.
[Your neck is being crushed]
[Damage will be taken in response to the amount of force applied]
[You are losing 10 health points]
[You are losing 20 health points]
[You are losing 40 health points]
[You are losing 80 health points]
[You have lost 10 health points]
"Why aren''t youughing now, you stupid bird?"
''You have no idea how screwed you are.''
I spat the blood that was in my beak at his face.
[You have acquired the skill [Taunt]]
[You have acquired the skill [Shoot]]
''Are you shitting me!? Is now the time to tell me something so stupid!?''
The ogre was about to punch me, but then he froze. I could understand why he did. If I were in his shoes I would definitely have frozen. Faster than my eye could see, Krull was sent flying and he left my body to fall weakly on the ground.
[Warning: HP is low!]
[Warning: You have 3HP remaining]
[Warning: Stamina is low!]
''3HP, huh? So this is where I die. Some.''
I closed my eyes in defeat, waiting for my death, but then it never came. Rather, I felt better. The pain I was feeling was slowly, but surely disappearing. I could hear somebody mentioning my name.
"Hin¡!"
"¡Tori¡!"
"Hinotori!"
I opened my eyes and standing over me with her hand sped was the tree sprite from Diane''s tree. I began to ask questions. Like for instance, how the hell did I understand everybody when the [Agent] was M.I.A. Was the strawberry milkshake at Ma''s better than the Banana slurry? Did I actually make it out of this or did I die?
When I looked up, I saw a various messages from the system.
[You have unlocked the title: Sturdy body]
[You have unlocked the title: Lucky one]
''I unlocked titles? So I''m not dead?''
Then I passed out from low stamina.
Chapter 65 Ogre Vs Hob-Goblin Pt.I
There was a weird presence that was felt around the world. Only a handful of people would actually notice considering this presence was and at the same time, wasn''t that important. This presence was the Tyrant of Larm, Goliath the Dragon.
Of the handful of a people, a man in pitch ck armor grinned. His armor had a few nicks and scratches in it. One wouldn''t believe that the ck allure the armor possessed was actually the result of it going unpolished for so many years. His helmet had the face piece cracked, so one could see his golden inhuman right eye.
"The little brat''s awake¡ Maybe I''ll get to see him onest time."
He gripped his sword, strapped to his back, tightly as he drew it and readied it for his opponent, a ginormous minotaur with shaggy brown fur and red eyes. One of its horn had been cleaved off and the other was bent in an unruly manner. Several visible scarscerated its body and blood spewed out like a pipe. It was in perilous situation at the moment.
A white sh caused the minotaur to lose its arm and battle axe at a go. Its nostrils red as it mooed in a rage and another sh sent its head flying off its body.
"In the end, even the monsters of the Winter Zone were not enough to thrill me. Oi, you."
The ck knight looked at the young man who was dying in the cold. His body was pale, almost deathly and he was shivering to the point one would assume he was not human. He kept huffing heavily, the cold causing his body to hurt like hell.
"You are too weak to have been protecting that woman''s daughter."
The snow around them melted instantly. A red barrier formed around both parties, blocking out all the cold and rapidly healing the young man.
"I believe you said your name was Kai, right?"
Kai looked up at the man from the ground. He couldn''t see the knight''s face, but through the broken eye piece, he could see dull golden eyes. They reminded him of something, but he couldn''t remember at that moment.
"Y-Yes."
His voice trembled and it was low, almost inaudible.
"When is it happening?"
Kai''s eyes widened.
''D-Does he know?''
"The Elder n summit. Tell me when it is happening."
Kai''s eyes rxed after hearing that.
''Good. He doesn''t know.''
"T-Two¡ weeks."
"Two weeks, huh? Where?"
Kai''s body felt tremendously better. He even managed to sit up and stop stammering. Still, the energy being released from the man was unbelievable. He couldn''t even look up at the man.
"I-Imperial¡ Castle."
He decided that it would be better for him to spill everything so as to avoid problems and spend less time around him.
"They don''t want anyone hearing what they are going to discuss, hmm? Deliver this message to that brat. Suzuki Tatsumaki, was it?"
Who was this man who could call the vicious Dragon Priestess a brat? Not even the emperor would dare do such a thing. Just what was with this man?
"Tell her that I am going to participate in the meeting and she will be going with me as my escort."
Kai''s eyes were wide open in shock and the man in ck armor noticed this.
"Of course. I gave her my daughter for safe-keeping and next thing I hear, she got killed. She owes me a lot for not wiping out her n. If she tries to refuse, tell her that the other six are now under my control so she better not do anything stupid."
"W-Who...?"
He managed to force out of his mouth.
"Who am I? HAHAHA!"
The man''sughter boomed through the snowy mountain and caused the ground to tremble.
"In the past, I was he who brought destruction upon the ignorant. I was he who held the sky and brought it to its knees. He who usurped the Greater gods and approached the seat of The Primordial. I was¡" The mysterious man''s tone calmed down. It carried a hint of sadness within it. "I am¡ but a husk of my formal self. A lost being traversing through the realms as a simple errand boy."
He paused. Without warning, his aura red and his golden eyes shimmered violently. With a dangerous threatening tone, he continued.
"I am he, who shall bring doom to this world! Let it be known! The world shall crumble to its knees and its kings shall cry blood! I, the herald of destruction and pure anarchy, The ck Knight has arrived! Let it be known to the world! We havee to im our property!"
The mountain''s trembling caused the snow to flood down in what could be said to be the biggest avnche in history. The two beings looked nothing but ants before the sheer amount.
"HAHAHAHA! This is the end! Now, begone mortal man. Tell that brat, that I shall seek my vengeance upon her and this world."
Fear overwhelmed the elite soldier''s body and he could not even move. Fear of death from two seemingly overpowering forces made his mind freeze out. He was prepared for death, but the snow and the mountain from which it fell disappeared. Kai looked and the mountain had an unnatural hole in it, taking arge portion of the mountain away.
He looked at the knight in ck armor. He was starting to doubt that the horns on his helmet were just from the helmet. The knight''s golden eyes glowed brightly and Kai could only feel insatiable rage from him. Realizing that it was his only chance to leave, the man known as Kai disappeared into the knight''s shadow.
"And when I am done¡ I guess¡ I shall be done."
Sheathing his ymore, the golden eyed figure then set off towards his next target location. A perilous journey it may seem to some, but nothing more than a trifle errand to him.
_______________________________________
New Kyoto Empire, Kita District
"Huh? Did you just sense that?"
A big man asked while taking a sip of his cup of alcohol. He was talking to his drunk friend who was waving back and forth with a blushed face.
"Se-Sense what?"
The drunk took another sip of his cup.<novelnext></novelnext>
"In that case, never mind. You are too drunk for this kind of situation."
The big man wanted to push the topic forter, but that made the drunkard interested.
"Come on! Say it! Say it! Say it!"
The man looked away not wanting to speak at the moment.
"Hey! Do it or else I''ll throw a tantrum!"
The big man gave up after that. Thest tantrum this man threw ended up badly for a lot of people, including the other n heads. They needed the Shogun to personally step into the fray to settle everything. That was simply how dangerous this man could get when he was angry.
"Goliath of Larm has awoken it would seem."
The room turned silent, but then the lights went out. The man''s started to cackle and his gave a faint blue glow.
"Is that so? Guess it''s time to go dragon hunting once again. It''s been a while."
Almost as if he were sober, he made this statement that crept the big man out.
_______________________________________
The ogre tyrant hadn''t seen iting. The hand of the angry albino-hob-goblin grabbed his face and had sent him flying. His body fell trees and he felt the pain of being smashed through them. When he looked up, he could see Golden eyes ring at him and he could feel something inside him leaving. He then averted his gaze.
He had heard about it. The Mad Witch''s demon eyes. The [Demon Eye of Sleep] and the [Demon Eye of Intimidation]. They were said to be able to scare the soul out the soul of anyone they looked at. He didn''t believe it until now. Her right eye glowed a dull purple and the left glowed a violent red ¨C The [Demon Eye of Sleep] and [Demon Eye of Intimidation] respectively. Luckily it was impossible for her to acquire more than two demon eyes and for those specific demon eyes to take effect, their target needed to be making eye contact.
"You damned wench. So you were actually involved?"
Minerva jumped at him. The ogre tyrant, expecting this grabbed her outstretched arm and swung her some distance away destroying the trees and ground. Minerva got a hold of footing and charged at the ogre. He also charged at her, his fist raised tond a devastating punch.
"Sink."
Minerva whispered and Krull''s legs sank into the ground as if it were water. Krull fell on all fours and Minerva wasted no time in delivering a powerful punch to his face, flying him out of the ground.
"You dare?! You dare touch my Tori-kun?!"
Minerva''s [Murderous Aura] was sent full force to Krull. The War Monger would have flinched had this been the first time he had faced [Murderous Aura] this dense. He wouldn''t be a vicious war monger.
He activated his Martial Arts.
In the world, there existed people who weren''t capable of using mana or magic. These people however trained their bodies to the point of being able to harness another form of power called [Aura]. With [Aura], they use techniques called [Martial Arts] to create powerful and phenomenal effects that won''t lose to the face of magic. Those who used this weremonly referred to as [Martial Artists].
"[Way of the Wind: Act Four ¨C Air Walk]."
A technique the allowed for him to move so quickly the air was like a tform on which he could walk. He maneuvered his way through the air in order to avoid smashing into trees. He jumped down and prepared his next technique.
"[Battle God Martial Arts: Cleaver]!"
He punched and much like a sharp sword, a wave of white light was sent rushing at Minerva. The light stopped in front of Minerva, then reflected towards the ogre tyrant. This was so shocking, the tyrant didn''t even have time to evade the attack. It hit him full force, cutting up his stomach.
He fell to the ground in a pathetic manner.
"Youe to my territory, beat up the monsters and try to steal thend? I don''t care. But never touch my pet. I will kill you."
Minerva''s eye ended up shing with Krull''s and the [Demon Eye of Intimidation] started to take effect. At this moment, he knew he had to look away, but he was too scared to close his eyes. Too scared to keep them open. Too scared to continue thinking. Too scared to stop thinking. Too scared to continue living. Too scared to die.
His descent into madness had started slowly. Minerva''s [Demon Eye of Intimidation] had another title given by others. The "Gaze of Absolute Madness". Any who looked would go insane or mad, much like the being who possesses said ability.
Minerva jumped onto the ogre''s fat body and started pummeling him. She began to punch him, so he threw her off him, but she charged right back at him. He was screaming, shouting and begging for her to stop. He had never known such fear before. What was this? This person?
No! He didn''t want to die here. He couldn''t die here. He had to survive. But, but¡ Damn it, he didn''t know what. His brain had shut itself out.
He barely managed to block the hit with his butcher''s knife and even with that he was sent flying back. He managed tond on his feet, but then the ground moved like a wave and it caused him to fall on his back.
''W-what the hell!?'' was all he could think as he fell to his back. He rolled over to side when he saw her descending upon him once again, and got up as quickly as he could. He tried to sh at her, but she just jumped on his weapon and ran towards his face. The ogre tyrant dropped his weapon, making the tform unstable, then threw a punch at her. The hob-goblin used her club to protect herself, spun backwards,nding on her feet then charging again.
A punch came flying in but she ducked to avoid it and grabbed his arm. She flipped him over and hended on his back with a loud thud. She then spun him around, before throwing him some meters away.
Using her [Earth Maniption] ability, the earth dragged back the ogre''s body to her. She begun to continuously pound on his face. Her blows were getting stronger after every hit. It was all due to her skill [Berserker]. The angrier she got, the stronger she was. However, this skill also got weaker after some time. It all depended on the user. The down side was that the user wouldn''t be able to keep a straight mind.
Krull, enraged, used his [Aura Burst], blowing everything around him away, including Minerva. His physical abilities were boosted for an approximate of fifty seconds. Now he should be on par with Minerva in terms of raw physical prowess. Now it was a matter of skills, experience and smartness.
First, he needed to keep Minerva busy. He fired an [Aura Bullet] at her, sending her flying some distance again. That would stun her body and prevent her movement for about three seconds. With that he should be able to make it to her in two seconds.
When he got above her, he brought his palm down in a karate chop form. This was the [Battle God Martial Arts: Skull Cracker]. It was a technique where one would cloak their body part in aura, making it at least as strong as steel and thennding a hit on the opponent''s skull, breaking it or at least causing a small crack in which aura would be sent to their brain and short-circuit them, leading to instant death or permanent paralysis. It was a skill that required aura control so precise that the number of people who knew how to use it were not more than five.
Krull was not one of those five people.
Still, he could bash a skull in and that was all that mattered to him. Minerva however caught his arm in the act and she red at him. Her frown turned into an insane smile and she posed a question to him.
"Did you really think you had a chance at winning me? You don''t even possess the [Overlord] skill that Goliath and I do. You and the other three are nothing but babies in our eyes. You get that? Cannibal?"
"Eeek!"
He squealed.
"H-How do you know about that?"
Minerva was slowly getting up as Krull was crumpling into the ground.
"Know about what, Krull? That you ate your parents? That you killed all your siblings? That you ate your wife because you missed the taste of ogres? Or that you were never a disciple of the Battle Gods. What is it that you wish to know?"
She asked and snapped his arm. He roared in pain, but it just echoed through the forest. No one was going to hear his screams. No one was going to help him. At least, no one in here. Not inside his own nightmare.
Chapter 66 Ogre Vs Hob-Goblin Pt.II
Minerva''s skill [Demon Eye of Intimidation] had slowly led Krull into madness, whereas her skill [Demon Eye of Sleep] had put him to sleep. Working hand-in-hand together, the two demon eyes could lead to nightmares in their targets that had the high possibility of killing them. This was where the misconception of Minerva''s [Demon Eyes of Death] was derived from.
Krull was now in his own world, whereas his actual body was out doing the fighting on pure instinct and muscle memory. Minerva would have to admit that she was impressed after seeing his body still fight on its own. It proved that to the very end, he was a survivor that had been in many desperate straits ¨C much like her. If for anything, she could give him his respect for that.
The war monger tightened his muscles, channeling aura through his veins then punching the ground. The [Battle God Martial Arts: Ground Break]. The earth shook mightily, but this wasn''t enough to faze Minerva.
"Kneel."
She ordered and the war monger''s body crumpled. She walked towards it. She wanted to punch it, but that wouldn''t be worth it. And she was tired already. She would end this one time.
"Di-"
"Keep quiet Minerva."
A voice said.
The hob-goblin looked behind, and standing there were three people. Two she recognized as Ulva and Diane from maybe, possibly, definitely, spying on Hinotori. The other she had not seen in a while. A six foot tall man, covered from neck to toe in azure blue scales, with a 2 meter long tail sticking out of his ass, along with two folded bat-like wings on his back. He had curly blonde hair that swayed in the direction of the blowing wind, two sharp horns protruded his head. His stormy gaze caught hold of both of them. The Dragon Tyrant of Larm, Goliath the Sleeping Emperor.
His authority has a tyrant overruled hers, forcefully canceling hermand. She growled at him.
"How was Goliath''s sleep? Lazy bastard."
"It was quite the blissful one, I tell you, little sister. Until today that is. Of all the reasons for me to be awoken. It just had to be because two brats got noisy."
He walked past Minerva towards the crater the unconscious ogre knelt. He was not pleased looking at the War monger so he healed him with [Overlord], then lifted him up by wrapping his tail around the ogre''s neck.
"I heard that thou hath been selling our valuable forest resources to the humans. How true is that?"
Krull snapped out of his nightmare. He looked around him and he couldn''t see nearly as much chaos he assumed he had caused in his mind. Suddenly, thetter parts of his nightmare came rushing to him. He nced at Minerva. She was ring at him and he pissed himself right there.
Goliath''s face contorted at the unsightly action and he sighed.
"Does thou have nothing to say in thine defense?"
He finally realized what was happening. All that was happening was a hallucination. His soul was slowly leaving his body, much like how many people described their encounters with her. He wasn''t dying yet. He was lucky that Goliath had appeared just in time.
"M-me? S-sell the precious resources? I would never."
He tried lying his way.
"He said he did no such thing, Diane. Where is the proof thou promised the great me?"
Krull flinched at the mention of the word "Proof". The only possible ways to acquire proof were to either force Kori to speak or to have been taking it from his secretary. One of those two betrayed him. He wouldn''t let this sit.
"Here it is. It just arrived."
A sprite appeared before the dryad, handing her a scroll then disappearing. The dryad gave the delivered scroll to Goliath. When he opened it and read its contents, he burnt the paper then red at the ogre.
"Imbecile! My great self, went out of the way and, made thou a tyrant to protect the forest''s resources from the humans, not to sell them!"
Krull had been found out. There was no making it out of this alive now.
"I-I am sorry¡ Please! Please, I will take any punishment. Even death! J-Just keep me away from that¡ that witch!"
Goliath looked at Minerva. She was sweating, a sight he had never beheld ever since she became a tyrant. He assumed it was due to her overusing her [Overlord] skill, but there must have been something else. He noticed something odd about her when he scanned her better and he internally smiled. That made him lose all his rage. Still, he needed to make an example of Krull to scare all the creatures that were viewing.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Very well then. I shall take thine word for it. However, allow me to propose a question to thou."
"W-what is it?"
"How many years does mine self usually slumber?"
"What?"
"Incorrect. The correct answer is ten years. My great self will only wake up after every decade. On to the next question. Does thou know why mine great self was awoken four years prior to the deadline?"
"¡ Because I was selling resources."
"Because thou were selling Mother''s resources to humans. Now then, for thine punishment. Thou shall be killed in ordance to the number of years of sleep mine great self, missed."
"W-what-"
The dragonoid pierced the ogre''s heart with his extremely hard and sharp ws. The ogre was dead.
"Wake up."
The ogre suddenly breathed. He was panting heavily and his eyes were shaking madly. He let out a horrified squeal and he wed at the dragonoid''s tail, his own skin shredding off.
"Stop whining. That was just the first death. Thou shall get used to it."
"Ah!"
Those who witnessed the sight were shocked, but none of themined. He repeated the events and the creatures only stared. When he was done, he dropped the shaky ogre and faced Diane.
"That should be all for here. Now, let us head over to thine tree. There should be a lot for mine great self to hear."
"Certainly, lord Goliath. What about the ones from the east?"
"Hmm? They should return, no?"
He nced at all the creatures that were peeping on the event that just urred. Those who met this gaze were instantly struck with the urge to run away. The want to hide and just keep away. This was the fear an Imperial Rank creature could cause.
They all scattered in an instant. He grinned and patted Minerva on the head. He crouched and looked her in the eye. Stormy grey against dull golden.
"How hath thou been?"
"Minerva is fine."
She looked away, not wanting to meet his gaze.
"Hehe, good. Good job protecting the forest in mine ce, little sister."
He stood up and moved to Diane''s side.
"Is what thou wanted satisfactory? Shall we?"
"Indeed lord Goliath."
It was a silent and dull conclusion to the battle. The West won, easy as that. Goliath revived the dead members of both parties and restored thend while the Tyrants fought. One would never assume that there was even a battle that took ce after seeing the ground.
Chapter 67 Rewards
Sakura petals danced in the wind, slowly descending to the ground. I was currently in what looked like a pasture of silver grass, with a single Sakura tree behind me. I had been standing here for a while, doing nothing but enjoying the scent and sight. I didn''t want to admit it, but the realization dawned upon me. I died. Well, there was no room to whine about it now.
''Ugh¡ that was painful.''
I thought, rubbing my neck with my wing. For some reason I maintained my bird form even after reincarnation.
"I bet it was."
A voice said, startling me.
''Huh? Who are you?''
I looked around and noticed the voiceing from behind a tree. A bit scared, I didn''t dare go near the owner of the voice.
"Seriously?"
The person moved from behind the tree, revealing a girl in my school uniform ¨C a skirt, zer over a white shirt with a red tie loosely fitted around the neck ¨C with tanned skin like a surfer. Her sandy brown hair was shoulder-length,plementing her pretty face. She was the spitting image of someone I knew from my world.
''Maya?''
I asked.
"You don''t know the name of one of your very first benefactors? I feel insulted now."
When the figurepletely came from the behind the tree with her hands raised in peace signs and a mischievous grin, I saw her eyes. They possessed a weird symbol with various colours. I would have mistaken them for kaleidoscopic eyes, but that was more like heterochromia. I then realized who this Maya faker was.
''My benefactor? A creep like you can''t be the great Ancient Goddess that created the world.''
"Excuse you! I am someone who has been with you since before the very moment you hatched into this world! You are right, I am not the Ancient Goddess, but I am something better."
She pouted her cheeks and whined.
''Eh? Who the hell are you?''
"Do I really need to spell it out for you? I thought you were actually smarter than you let on."
''Shut it, you stupid system master!''
"So you did know who I was."
''Of course I did. This is the perfect moment for you to make your debut and try to make me feel awe and respect for you and all that nonsense, right? You even used Maya in an attempt to seduce me and calm me down. Well that ain''t working here so show your true form.''
"Disappointing. But it is as you say, I, the Creator of the System and its rightful master, Alpha, have decided to grace you with my presence. I''m sorry, but I can''t show you my true form just yet."
''Boo! Boo! Bring in a different system master!''
I yelled.
"Is there really nothing I can do to change your opinion of me?"
She was faking being hurt by my words.
''Huh? You want me to think highly of you? Give me lots of unique skills then!''
I jokingly said, but she said something scary next.
"Seriously? You know too many unique skills can kill you for good, right?"
''W-What?''
She ignored me.
"I''ll give you something better."
''Eh? Better?''
"Yeah. Two pieces of advice. First, beware of the he who watches from the shadows. Total creeper. Second, be mindful of the girl who doesn''t know time. She could be your downfall."
''Eh? What''s that supposed to mean?''
"Can''t say more. Takes away all the fun. Still, stop acting so stupid. You might actually die one of these days. And there will be noing back."
''Oi, oi, stop waving death gs for me.''
I sighed.
''You''re a weird one, but you''ve been helping me out all this while in your own weird way, so I guess I''ll trust you this time as well even though I have absolutely no idea what you are saying.''
"Teehee~ Good. Bye then. Hurry up and grow strong, kay?"
My vision was soon clouded with bright light. I could only remember her bright smile as everything faded away.
"Oh yeah. I forgot to mention it, but I hope you like the little gift I left you."
_____________________________________________
Day 24
I woke up to the sound of constant dinging in my head that was giving me a headache.
When I opened my eyes, I saw all sorts of alerts popping out. Maybe because of my headache, my vision was sort of weird.
[You havepleted the forced quest: Protect the West from the East]
[You have received your rewards]
[You can gain XP now]
[You can use all your unique skills now]
[You have received your blessings once again]
[You havepleted the Side Quest: Defeat the Ogre Tyrant without killing it]
[You have received the following rewards]
[You have received the unique skill: Remorse]
[You have received 300 stat points]
[You have received 10000XP]
[You have leveled up]
[You have leveled up]
[You have leveled up]
[You have leveled up]
[You have leveled up]
[You have leveled up]
[You have gone up one level]
[You have unlocked the function: Title Effects]
[You have received the Title: Saint]
[You have proven yourself worthy you kind and holy soul. +20 damage when dealing with enemies weak to holy or light magic]
[You have unlocked all system functions]
[You have unlocked the Evolution System]
[You can now choose from various evolution options]
[You have unlocked the Item Box]
[You can now store items in your item box]
[You have unlocked the System Store]
[You can now purchase items from the System Store]
[You have received 100 store points]
[You have unlocked Familia System]
[You can now arrange the members of your familia in a hierarchical order]
[You have unlocked the Complete Skill System]
[You can now level up your skills]
[Some higher beings witnessed your battle and were impressed]
[You have received the |Demi-Goddess of Wisdom Mek''s Blessings|]
[You have unlocked the title: Strategist]
[You are a smart strategist,ying out good ns that end up helping your team win. Your Intelligence has gone up by 10 points. Your strategies now have a three percent higher chance of sess.]
[You have received the |Divinity of Mischief, Loki''s Blessings|]
[You have unlocked the title: Trickster]
[You cunning bastard. Always scheming in the background just to see your targets fail miserably. Your Intelligence has gone up by 10 points. Your opponents are now likelier to fall for your traps]
[You have received the |Demi-god of War''s Blessings|]
[You have unlocked the title: Persistent]
[You really don''t like to lose, do you? Your Strength stat has gone up by 20 points. Your stamina stat has gone up by 300 points]<novelnext></novelnext>
[The Nature Spirits were touched by your actions against the East]
[You have received the 8 Nature Spirits'' blessings]
[You have acquired affinities for 8 elements]
[You have acquired the title: One Loved by the Nature Spirits]
[Wow, the spirits actually like you? Nice. Any ability that has any rtion to the nature spirit has gained +20 effectiveness. You have gained resistances to all the 8 nature elements]
[You have acquired the skill [Elemental Barrier]]
[For not killing your opponent, you received the title: Compassionate one]
[You kind soul. How merciful of you. May you receive favor in your endeavors. +10 luck]
[System Master ##### was impressed with your battle]
[You have received 300 store points]
[You have received 1,000 XP]
[You have received 200 stat points]
[System Master ##### has blessed you with a Name]
[You are now Hinotori Hyakkiyako]
[Your familia name is now Hyakkiyako''s Familia]
[All those part of this familia will inherit this name]
[Your mana circuits have been built]
[You can now use mana]
[You have 300MP]
[Your Magic Power is 50]
[You have unlocked the skill [Mana Regeneration]]
[You have unlocked the skill [Mana Control]]
[Due to your demonic origins, you have unlocked the Dark Arts]
[You have acquired the ability [Dark Element Maniption]]
[The ninth elemental spirit has taken an interest in you]
[You have received the |Ninth Elemental Spirit''s Blessings|]
[The Spirits from the Nether are keeping an eye on you]
[You have unlocked the [Basic Fire Magic]]
[You have unlocked the [Basic Light Magic]]
[You have unlocked the [Basic Water Magic]]
[You have unlocked the [Basic Earth Magic]]
[You have unlocked the [Basic Wind Magic]]
[You have unlocked the [Basic Lightning Magic]]
[You have unlocked the [Basic Ice Magic]]
[You have unlocked the [Basic Space Magic]]
[You have unlocked the [Basic Dark Magic]]
"WHAT THE HECK!?"
I ended up screaming. There were just too many alerts for even me to believe. Just too many things. I felt like my brain would get fried, but I suddenly calmed down.
''Ok, let''s calm down. Let''s look through all of these, one by one. Ok so I got back all my blessings and unique skills that I had before the event. Good, good. But¡ wait. I don''t need to organize this myself. Yo agent, can you hear me?''
<<Yes>>
''Yes! I missed you so much! Wait¡ that''s odd, hearing you say "Yes" instead of "Affirmative". Did you go through some kind change?''
<<¡>>
The agent gave me no response.
''That''s right. You were never much of a conversationalist, huh? Oh well, moving on then. I got a new unique skill. [Remorse]? What kind of skill is that?''
<<[Remorse]: A unique skill that gives the user the ability to copy, give or take abilities of others. When the user is the one giving the ability, a random skill is given to the receiver, depending on their affinity for the skill>>
''... Another over powered ability! What the heck!? This is next level shit right here. Didn''t the system master warned me about too many skills? Why did she send me a skill that would help me umte a lot? Is there some sort of limitation to the skill?''
<<Notice: The user can do this only temporarily. The allowed time increases with the higher the user''s proficiency is>>
''Ah? A stupid limitation! What''s the time limit?''
<<Notice: As of now, 5 minutes>>
''Tch. Hmm, 5 minutes? Makes sense for such an overpowered skill, I guess. What''s next?''
<<Notice: You have received 500 stat points>>
''Eh? 500 stat points? You now know what stat points are? Or am I imagining things? Whatever. Invest 100 in strength! 100 in speed, 100 in defense, 100 in dexterity. Now it is between luck, magic and mana. Hmmmm¡ this is tough. Ok, 20 to luck, 40 to magic and mana each! Considering the past events, I would say I need a crap ton of luck. I don''t know what the intelligence stat does, though. Next.''
<<Notice: You have received various titles, as well as the system function [Title Effects]>>
''Eh? So you can see the system? But you weren''t able to do so before.''
<<Notice: The skill [God''s Voice] has always possessed ess to the system>>
''Seriously? No, no. I don''t remember you having ess earlier.''
<<Notice: The skill [God''s Voice] has always possessed ess to the system>>
''Ugh¡ sometimes, I wish I could have proper conversations with you. Whatever, borate.''
<<The system function [Title Effects] is one that allows your body to produce certain effects that are not natural. They areparable to skills, but not as easily obtained and do not have side effects unless stated>>
''Seriously? Ok, I see all their descriptions here. [Compassionate One] is sort of underwhelming, huh. Next.''
<<Notice: You have unlocked all avable [System Functions]>>
''Huh, I see all of that, huh? I want to check out the store, but I''ll do thatter. Next.''
<<Notice: Your level went up six times. You have acquired a new skill>>
''A new skill? What skill?''
<<The skill [Devil Form] is a skill that transforms a devil into their true form hidden in hell. It requires the life force to be used>>
''Eh? A devils true hidden form in hell? W-Wait, but then I''m not from hell. Then does it mean the devil that fused with me?''
<<Notice: In your case, it will boost your physical abilities, mana capacity and magic power by five times, but at the cost of one health point per second>>
''Oh, I''m a special case, huh? Well that''d make sense I guess, but why five times?''
<<Notice: The devils have a restriction that prevents devils past a certain level of power from manifesting themselves in this world. This skill was created to allow those devils to bring out their full capabilities for short periods of time and was taught to weaker devils so they may develop much greater power in whatever Realm they go to>>
''In essence, I''m just a basic devil and I don''t have any connection to the devil I fused with?''
<<Notice: Your body was altered into one that could fuse with a devil''s. You did not acquire that specific devil''s skills, just the average skills any devil could acquire>>
''Hmm¡ I see. A bit underwhelming, but I can manage with that, I guess. Wait. Does that mean if I get too strong past a certain point my level would be capped?''
<<Notice: That is unknown>>
''Tch¡ t-that might be a problem.''
My possibly getting nerfed because I achieved too much power wouldn''t be good for me.
''Ok¡ what''s next?''
<<Notice: Your Mana circuits were built while you were sleeping. You possess the ability to utilize mana and magic now>>
''Yaaasss!!! Finally! I''ve been waiting for like, forever! And I see I acquired lots of magic?''
<<Affirmative. You acquired basic magic for nine elements. Due to your devil part, you have acquired the ability to manipte the actual Dark element as well as ess to various forms of dark magic through the skill [Dark Arts]. The higher its level, the more dark magics and power you will acquire>>
''S-Seriously? That''s so damned badass! Hehe, now I can be a dark me master, like that guy who was chuunibyou in middle school, except I actually have powers. What''s next?''
<<Notice: A new section was added to your status screen. The [Talent] section>>
''Talent? What''s that?''
<<Notice: Talent is the measure of growth of an individual. The higher rating your talent gets, the faster your growth rate. This cannot be altered>>
''I see¡ next.''
<<Notice: The System Master Alpha has decided to bless you with the name, Hyakkiyako>>
''Huh? A new name? Hyakkiyako? Y-You mean¡ why would you give me such an ominous name you stupid system master? Ah, whatever. What''s next?''
<<Notice: That is it for the inspection>>
Chapter 68 Servants?
''Hmm? In that case, pull up my status screen.''
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori Hyakkiyako
[Species: Golden Demonic Hen Level 15/30
[Status: [Full]
[Age: 22 days
[Rank: C-
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Talent: S grade
[Titles: [New-born in a New World], [Rare Species], [Named Beast], [Survivor], [Vulture], [Bunny yer], [Saint], [Trickster], [One Loved By The Nature Spirits], [Compassionate One]
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess *****|, |Blessings of the Demi-Goddess of Wisdom Mek|, |Blessings of the Divinity of Mischief|, |Blessings of the Ninth Elemental Spirit|
[Level: 30 Exp: 1 350/12000
[Health: 3100/3100 Stamina: 4000/4000 Mana: 340/340 Strength: 312 Speed: 800 Defence: 349 Dexterity: 281 Intelligence: 56 Luck: 70 Magic: 90
|SKILLS|
[Unique Skills: [Evolver], [Analyst], [God''s voice], [Remorse]
[Passive Skills: [Auto Mapping], [Mana Perception], [Magic Perception], [Dark Vision], [Heat Sense], [Feelers], [Sensors], [Auto Regeneration], [Charisma], [Pain Nullification], [Mana Regeneration], [Mana Control]
[Active Skills: [Lustful Gaze], [Imprint], [Aquatic Form], [Peck], [ck Wayne Caw], [Poison Generation], [King Viper Scales], [Sprint], [Spearhead], [Acrobatics], [Blood Sucking], [Terror], [Soul Consumption], [Fire Breath], [Poison Maelstrom], [Thread Creation], [Thread Control], [Stealth], [Flight], [Spore Generation], [Sap Spores], [Poison Gas Creation], [Spawn Spores], [Co-ordination], [Goggles], [Poison ws], [Verwesen], [Timber Wolf King¡¯s Howl], [Hunter], [Size Maniption], [Devil Miasma], [Predator], [Slime Body], [Assimtion], [Horn Protrusion], [Stomp], [Telepathy], [Fiery Kick], [Beetle Armour], [Centipede Armour], [Acid Spit], [Compound Eyes], [Stinger], [Fusion], [Camouge], [Allure], [Elemental Barrier], [Dark Arts], [Dark Element Maniption],
[Affinities: [Fire Magic Affinity], [Light Magic Affinity], [Water Magic Affinity], [Earth Magic Affinity], [Wind Magic Affinity], [Lightning Magic Affinity], [Ice Magic Affinity], [Space Magic Affinity], [Dark Magic Affinity]
[Magic: [Basic Fire Magic], Basic Light Magic], [Basic Water Magic], [Basic Earth Magic], [Basic Wind Magic], [Basic Lightning Magic], [Basic Ice Magic], [Basic Space Magic], [Basic Dark Magic]
[Resistance: [Fear Resistance], [Heat Resistance], [Poison Resistance], [Pain Resistance], [Cold Resistance], [Mental Damage Resistance], [Murderous Aura Resistance], [Mental Pain Resistance], [Aura Resistance], [Murderous Aura Resistance], [Elemental Resistance],
''Ah! They weren''t kidding when they said skills now had levels. What about the skills that saw "low"? Do they evolve or something? What about those skills that don''t have such things? Do they just keep on leveling up? How do I even level up skills? Well, from the looks of things the more I used a skill, the higher its level.''
As I was thinking to myself, Ulva walked in.
"Big¡ sister?"
''Seriously still calling a chicken your ''big sister''? Ulva?''
She froze, looking at me with wide eyes.
''Is something wrong with me- Ah!''
After her stare, I began to scan my own body. I was surprised that instead of the usual golden feathers, I saw light olive skin. As my vision went down, I could make out a t chest, slender arms and legs. I tried to touch the skin with my right wing, but instead, a right arm moved to touch the skin. My right arm. I could feel it. The skin was smooth and without blemish. Much like a baby''s. I moved my hands to my head and I could feel hair. The hair was honey blonde and curly, but beyond shoulder length, reaching as far as my lower back. I could feel my head, perfectly round and small.
''E-EEEHHHHHHH?! I''m human again!?''
I was shocked by the new developments and proceeded to think it through.
''Was this what Alpha meant by she hoped I would like her gift? Making me a human body? She really knew what I would have preferred, didn''t she?''
Ulva cut off my thinking by running and grabbing me in a hug. It wasn''t really strong, but I was surprised she was so happy to see me. I hadn''t even interacted much with her. Maybe it was because I was the first monster she managed to trust in this forest? Still, I didn''t even look how I normally did now.
''Ah? You like hugs or something?''
"I love them!"
She showed me a white smile with her two sharp fangs, almost scaring me.
"When did you wake up? What happened to you? Why aren''t you a bird anymore? Why do you look like a little girl? You are so pretty. Your golden hair looks nice and you sme-"
''Oi, oi, what do you mean "Why do I look like a little girl"? Can''t you see I''m a g-g¡ girl?''
I looked down and suddenly remembered that I was a girl.
"Big sister? Are you¡ ok?"
I sighed.
''No point thinking about it. Yeah. I''m cool. Anyway, how did the whole, you know, thing go?''
"Oh. It ended. You almost died though."
I just realized, but this girl, when she wasfortable around people she talked a lot. Or it was just me?
''Haha, you don''t need to remind me of that. Just exin what you remember.''
She then exined to me what happened after I passed out.
Eventually I turned back into a bird. My transformation was a new skill of mine called [Humanoid Form]. It made me eat up twice as much stamina keeping up so I guess I wasn''t going to be using it often till I was sure losing twice as much stamina as normal wasn''t a problem.
Now, Diane had decided that we were going to be doing a grand reward ceremony in front of her tree for everyone to see. I was nervous for many reasons.
One was because almost every single creature that fought in the war was staring at me. I wanted to tell them to look away, but I couldn''t. The other was because of the thing sitting next to me while eating an apple.
He was a beautiful man with golden hair and dull grey eyes. Azure blue scales that were probably harder than a wyvern''s had covered him from neck to toe and two sharp horns protruded his head. He had a long tail reaching out from his butt and although they weren''t visible now, Ulva and Yokino told me that he had wings.
Oh that reminded me. Yokino was the name I decided for the insect king. It means cheerful, but I''ll lie to her that it means annoying. Just to bother her.
Anyway, this blonde fellow was Goliath. Apparently he ended the whole invasion nonsense and resurrected everybody who died there. It must have been the skill [Overlord]. I could tell he was strong, but when I tried to use [Analyst] on him, he literally said "T''is a tad rude to pry on people''s personal information. But the great me, will let it slide this time." And now I was too scared to try with him.
Also, why was I the one doing the rewarding!? Tch, it was not fair. I wanted a reward too.
Anyway, sitting next to him were Diane and Minerva. I honestly did not expect her to participate in this, but apparently it was because Goliath told her to. He told Minerva to do something and she obeyed. How does one do that!?
"Lady Hinotori."
The tree sprite called me and I stepped forward. Kneeling in front of me were the five hob-goblin leaders and one of the two goblins fromst time. Unfortunately, the other guy didn''t really do much in the actual battle. When I was observing the battle from yesterday, I was impressed with how they handled the situation without showing fear, so I decided to give them all names (Mostly because it would be odd giving only Gorm a name when they all did equally as much). I was thinking of giving Gorm something other than a name since he already had one, but he said he would happily ept whatever name I gave him and I was d to hear it.
Naturally, Gorm was the first to receive a name, as the general of all the soldiers and what not.
''I will call you Shitsuke.''
[Will you donate 10MP to name this creature?]
''Just 10MP? Sure, why not?''
The hob-goblin shimmered with a golden light then looked up to me.
Then I heard Goliath coughing. It would seem that he choked on his apple. I would ignore that since he definitely wasn''t going to die from that.
"Hinotori-sama! May I be your servant?"
Go-erh- Shitsuke said something odd.
''Eh?''
"I want to be your servant."
''Woah, woah. You''re sure you want to be my servant?''
He nodded confidently and a window popped up.
[The Hob-goblin Shitsuke wants to be your servant. Will you ept?]
? [YES]/[NO]
''Yo Agent! There''s absolutely nothing wrong if I do this, right?''
<<Affirmative>>
''Like, I won''t end up bing his ve by ident likest time?''
<<Affirmative>>
I let out a sigh of relief then said.
''Very well. I guess you can be my servant.''
[You have acquired one servant.]
[Congrattions: You have acquired 150 minions]
[You have acquired the Title |Family Head|]
[Your Familia has grown! Your charisma has increased!]
''What?''
? [Would you like to see your Familia Status Screen?]
? [YES]/[NO]
''Um¡ sure?''
FAMILIA STATUS
Familia Name: Hyakkiyako''s Familia
Familia Level: 1 Experience Points: 152/1000
Status: Vige Level 2
Familia Head: Hyakkiyako Hinotori
Familia Captain: (Please select a captain)
Servants: Shitsuke (D)
Minions: Goblin Minions (150)
Number of Members: 152
Family Head Specific Skills (Servants will see this): [Absolute Command], [Experience Share]
Familia Skills: [Mana Share]
Familia Points: 10
''E-Eh? Agent? Exin.''
<<The Familia Function of the system is one thatpiles all your servants under your name. You can ess their information from wherever you are and >>
''I see¡this is actually kinda cool.''
"What is it, Hinotori-sama?"
Shitsuke asked. I had ended up identally sending a telepathic message to him.
"It''s nothing. Moving on to the next person."
I moved to the next hob-goblin. He was twice asrge as Shitsuke
''I''ll call you Oki.''
[Do you wish to use 10MP to name this creature?]
''Yes please''
The goblin also shimmered with a golden light, then he looked at me.
"Hinotori-sama! May I also be your servant?"
''Huh? Did you learn that from Shitsuke? Also why would you want to be my servant!?''
"It''s just that I know that the creature Gorm- oh sorry, Shitsuke would follow would definitely be a great creature."
''Oh. Is that it, huh? Sure, why not?''
[You have acquired one servant.]
[Congrattions! You have acquired 170 minions]
[Your familia has grown! Your charisma has grown!]
I moved on to the next person. Oda who wasn''t exuding that weird aura from earlier. Although now, she seemed a bit darker than before. There was something ominous about her. It gave me goosebumps thinking about it.
''What reward do you want? If you ask me, I''d say we should force Diane to feed you goblins every day. I mean, she forced us into this whole situation.''
I tried for a joke, but it wasn''t really effective. Her eyes were weird now, a bit darker.<novelnext></novelnext>
"P-Please change my name."
''Are you sure?''
She nodded. I looked behind and noticed every one giving her weird res. All the goblins that is. I wondered what that was about.
"Yes."
She answered without hesitation. I sort of felt a bit bad for the person who named her.
''Hmm¡ Ok then, I''ll call you Tsuna.''
I read somewhere that the name Tsuna stood for the Calm Storm. Although back home, it represented Bond. I liked the former definition since it made me think about my first time meeting her where shepletely obliterated the tree and the second definition, sort of had a meaning for me, since she was one of the few creatures I believe I had a bond with. Same thing with the light happened again. I wondered what purpose it served.
This time I didn''t receive any alerts. Was it because she was under Shitsuke?
I moved to the next hob-goblin. He was honestly speaking, in. Well, he had potential for in the body department. Maybe he could be some strong lean monster or something.
''I think I''ll call you Taiku.''
"Hinotori-sama, may I be your servant?"
[The Hob-goblin Taiku wants to be your servant. Will you ept?]
''Sure.''
[You have acquired one servant. The hob goblin Taiku]
[Congrattions! You have acquired 130 minions]
[Your familia has grown! Your charisma has grown!]
Then I moved on to the cruel looking hob-goblin
''I will call you Nukeme.''
[Do you wish to use 10MP to name this creature?]
''Yes''
"Keke¡ Hinotori-sama. May I be your servant?"
He licked his dagger in a creepy way.
[The Hob-goblin Nukeme wants to be your servant. Will you ept?]
''Ah? Don''t I basically have all the goblinoids in the west as my minions now?''
[You have acquired one servant. The hob-goblin Nukeme]
[Congrattions! You have acquired 160 minions]
[Your familia has grown! Your charisma has grown!]
"Very well."
I moved on to the elderly-hob-goblin woman.
"I will call you Yuuna."
"A truly wonderful name. May I also swear my fealty to you?"
[The Hob-goblin Yuuna wants to be your servant. Will you ept?]
"Ok, sure."
[You have acquired one servant. The hob-goblin Yuuna]
[Congrattions! You have acquired 109 minions]
[Your familia has grown! Your charisma has grown!]
I was done naming the hob-goblins and the next was one goblin. I didn''t really think much of them, but considering they were a part of the only three goblinoids that could still stand even after the invasion, I decided to. I mean, it would be weird if I just gave the hob-goblins and didn''t give him, right?
''You. I think I''ll call you Baka! Henceforth, bare this name proudly.''
I spoke to the goblin who tried to kill me on that fateful day. I saw Shitsuke stifle aughter. I intentionally made it so he could hear me.
[Do you wish to use 5MP to name this creature?]
''Kuku¡ Oh, it''s just 5MP, this time? Cool. Fufufu.''
When I looked at his shining body, I tried to stifle myughter, but then I heard somebody elseugh. I recognized that annoyingughter as the spider''s and when I looked, she was definitelyughing.
''Wait¡ why is sheughing? She shouldn''t be able to get the joke unless she read my mind? Even if she did, unless she understood Japanese, she wouldn''t get it?''
I ignored her then moved to the next one. I was disappointed that the other goblin wasn''t here though. He was the one I liked.
I shrugged then moved to the next person. The leader of the rat men. I could tell he was excited, but then he maintained a straight face.
''I will call you, Reiman. Bear the name proudly.''
[Do you wish to use 10MP to name this creature?]
I hadn''t given much thought to his name¡ in fact, I literally had no time to give him or anyone here a proper name. Maybe Tsuna and the spider, but then the others? Nope. Not at all.
The rat man shimmered, then said.
"I shall. And Lady Hinotori. We the rat men are prepared to serve under you."
When I looked behind him, I saw a hundred and something rat men, bowing to me. The others were probably running about the forest. I looked at the two tyrants sitting right behind me to see their reactions. For a creature toe out of nowhere and steal their subordinates, they must have not been pleased. However, Minerva was picking her nose while holding the slime in her hands and Goliath was still choking on his apple with Diane at his side, like he didn''t care in the slightest about what I did. Then again, if I was as powerful as he was, I wouldn''t care if a few creatures left my side.
[The Rat Man Reiman wants to be your servant. Will you ept?]
''Ok then. Wee aboard.''
[You have acquired one servant. The Rat Man Reiman]
[Congrattions! You have acquired 1500 minions]
[Your familia has grown! Your charisma has grown!]
DING!
[Your familia has gone up 1 level]
[You have received 1 Familia Point]
The number surprised me. It was so much I couldn''t help but re at the rat man who was beaming with light. This guy¡ I was really dealing with idiots, wasn''t I? I moved on to the next person since I didn''t want to identally fight him.
Next was the tree sprite. Her eyes were glittering and that was scaring me.
''I''ll call you Sylvie.''
[This tree sprite possesses a unique skill]
[Will you use 150 mana to name her?]
''E-Eh?''
"I-Is there something wrong?"
''N-No¡''
Damn it! Why did I forget that she had a unique skill? And why was the price so high?! Ah, whatever. I would just name her. I couldn''t disgrace myself here when everyone was watching.
"Lady Hinotori, m-may I-"
''I don''t suppose you want to be my servant, do you? What about Diane?''
"I- Lady Diane already has several Tree Sprites. She said she wouldn''t mind if I left."
She stammered at first, but said the entire thing. I red at Diane who gave me a cold smile. I simply decided to add her to the crew.
[You have acquired one servant. The Tree Sprite Sylvie.]
[Congrattions! You have acquired a servant with a [Unique skill]! You may receive a blessing from the higher being supporting them]
''E-Eh?''
I decided to move on to the Wolf King.
''Moving on. So I thank you, Wolf King. Had you not intervened in thest minute, I don''t know what would have happened there.''
''Think nothing of it.''
She towered above me. Even amongst the timber wolves she was quite big. She and her brother were like giants among their n members. That stubborn bastard refused to participate in today''s events.
''Ok, I''ll call you Shiroi. I hope it''s to your liking."
[Do you wish to use 50MP to name this creature?]
''I guess the powerful ones requirerge amounts. If I name the spider, I guess that would be that.''
Therge white wolf glowed and I stretched out my wings. I thought I was done there, but the timber wolves all bowed down to me and the white wolf said,
''The Timber Wolf n of Sria wishes to be absorbed into your n.''
She said somethingpletely shocking and with a serious tone too.
''EH!? L-like all of you timber wolves!? My servants!? Me!?''
''Yes.''
''O-oh. In that case, s-sure.''
[You have acquired one servant. The Timber Wolf Shiroi]
[Congrattions! You have acquired 59 minions]
[Your Familia has gone up 1 level]
''Ah¡ that''s¡ the timber wolves are beasts.''
[You have absorbed a King into your ranks! The title of Timber Wolf King now belongs to you!]
''Ah¡ what the hell?''
I looked at Shiroi. Either she hadn''t noticed, or she didn''t care. She was looking at me with a straight face and I couldn''t help but feel like I had done something bad.
The next creature was the spider.
[Do you wish to use 150MP to name this creature?]
''One F-fifty!? On this bug!? N-Now that I think about it.''
I looked at her. I couldn''t have the others thinking there was a problem.
''Yo, bug, I''ve got something to tell ya?''
''What? You can''t name me?''
She probably said that as a joke.
''Yes.''
''Eh? I''m not going to ask why. Just do itter, kay?''
''"kay?"? You¡ aren''t actually a spider, are you?''
''Huh? What do you mean?''
I ignored her. I was suspecting her to be someone from my past life, but the only personing to mind wasn''t dead. She didn''t go to school that day if what Ken and Maya said was true.
So at the end of it all, I named nine creatures and got eight servants and well over a thousand minions. I asked about Suna and the water nymphs, but they couldn''t make it. Something about water serpents. Then I felt something corroding my leg. When I looked it was Minerva''s slime.
''Aww. You also want a name? Sure. How about Kawaii for cute.''
The slime also shimmered.
[Will you make the slime Kawaii your servant?]
''Huh? That''s odd. I didn''t even use mana for that and the slime didn''t ask to be my servant. Whatever.''
[You have acquired one servant. Kawaii the slime]
Chapter 69 Side Story - A Goodbye No.3
This was a bit weird to say, but I held a funeral ceremony for San. I dug up a grave for him even though his body wasn''t present and I had fixed a stone b in which I scratched his name into. I very small stone b, that is.
The treant brothers stood behind me and the army of twigs were spread all around me. The looked kind of solemn, even though they probably didn''t understand the reason for my sadness. Maybe because I was sad they could sense it?
I decided to hold this ceremony in honour of the two twigs that died. San and his unnamed brother who I killed.
We were currently standing in front of my nest. My very first home. A ce that meant a lot to me. Looking at the ground, I couldn''t find where I scratch ''Tori''s Domain'' into the ground. Not like it was all ash or anything. In fact, this portion had grown back and you would think I was lying if I said I burnt this ce down a few days ago.
I picked up a Winowa blue. It was still cold to the touch.
"Redarkakakaka!"
Ichi cried out. I looked at him and he was consoling his little brother, Ni. I didn''t think the treants would be feeling sad. Even the twigs were wailing.
''Stop it, you guys. You''re making noise.''
I told them, but they kept on wailing. Their cries, almost like music, but very annoying.
''Ah! Someone wille andin you idiots!''
I warned, but it was as if they couldn''t hear me.
''Why aren''t they listening to me?''
<<Notice: It may be because thatmand is not really what you want them to do>><novelnext></novelnext>
''Huh? Are you dumb? Why wouldn''t that be myman-?''
My heart didn''t feel right. My cheeks were wet out of nowhere.
''W-What''s happening?''
I wiped my face of the weird water.
<<Notice: You are crying>>
''Why would I be crying?''
<<Notice: Crying may be a result of extreme pain, sadness, happiness or shock>>
''Ah¡ but right now¡ I-I''m not sa-¡ damn it.''
I couldn''t lie to myself. The tears just flowed and I sat there, crying with the others. San, was one of the very first people I could trust. Someone who didn''t want to eat me for the first time in this forsaken hell. He may have been a bit wack, but I still liked him. Maybe he would have been annoying, but I was certain I would have liked him either way.
If I could see him onest time, I would apologise for sending him to Death''s doors, as well as thank him, for being my friend.
I just sat down andmented with the others on this sad, sad day.
Chapter 70 Reunion
Day 24
''I am sorry, Minerva! Please forgive me for being so stupid earlier!''
I bowed my head and apologized to her. She only looked down at me with an emotionless gaze.
"Die! Stupid chicken!"
She used [Overlord] and I could feel my heart stopping. I could only look at her inplete fear. She looked really angry and disgusted. For some reason, that hurt more than my heart stopping.
Then I woke up huffing and gasping for air. The way I did was too sudden and Ulva''s head ended up falling to the floor.
"Ow!"
She yelped and reached for her head.
''Sorry. Are you ok?''
"Y-Yeah, but why did you just move?"
She said.
''Sorry. I just¡ I wasn''t¡ I-''
"Did you have a night mare?"
She asked me. I looked away, too embarrassed to talk about it. The kid then patted me on the head and with a smile, told me that everything was going to be ok.
"It was just a nightmare. Don''t think too much about it, ok?"
''I should be the one telling you that. Don''t you get nightmares since you got sold?''
Ulva looked up and hugged her legs tightly.
"No. I will be an adult next year, so I can''t be getting scared over silly things like nightmares."
She said. I wacked her in the head.
"Ow!"
''You''re only fourteen. You shouldn''t be thinking like that. Maybe when you turn 18 you can do whatever you like, but for now, act like a kid, alright? I know I will.''
I told her. She looked at me with wide eyes.
<<Notice: When humans turn 15 they are considered adults>>
''E-Eh? Seriously?''
After hearing the agent, I realized I just hit her in the head for saying facts.
''H-Hey, Ulva. Sorry about the 18 year stuff. Just act like a kid before you turn 15, ok?''
"O-Ok."
She was blushing. Why was she blushing? This girl was seriously too cute. Almost as cute as my little sister from my former life. No, wait. She might have been cuter?
I wrapped my wing around her and that night we both just looked up at the moon. It was a silky silver and I could see what appeared to be the shadow of another moon?
***
Today, I woke up to something interesting.
[You have 3 Daily Quests! Clear them to receive rewards!]
There was a notice in front of me. I decided to check out the daily quests since it sort of reminded me of video games from back home.
[DAILY QUESTS]
1. Hunt down 5x horned rabbits [0/5] (Iplete)
2. Enter a dungeon [0/1] (Iplete)
3. Defeat 1x enemy [0/1] (Iplete)
''Eh? This¡ all of these are actually quite chill and easy to do. Hunting down horned rabbits is a daily routine and I guess I just need to enter the dungeon like I did earlier to have cleared that. Finding an enemy will be as easy as that since the monsters are literally trying to eat me at every turn.''
I got up and there was Goliath looking at me while eating an apple. This guy really liked apples, didn''t he?
I decided to just walk out and not bother him. Ulva had already left off, probably gone to piss or something like that. So I would just go do the daily quests, much like if I were just hunting for breakfast.
"Stop right there."
I paused in my tracks. I looked at him and he wasn''t looking my way.
''H-He probably wasn''t talking to me. I''ll go then.''
I proceeded to take a step forward and then I heard another order.
"Did thou not hear mine earliermand?"
I looked back and this time he was ring at me. I gulped and turned around.
''S-Sorry. I just assume that you weren''t talking to me.''
I said.
"Humph. Thou does not wish for troubles to befall thine self, right?"
He asked.
''Um¡ yes?''
"Then be careful with what thou does with that ability. Do not go about giving names and even if thou does, do it in secret. Others will not be as calm as-"
"Goliath, I am sorry, but I need to interrupt you."
Diane came in out of nowhere, cutting Goliath off. The dragon looked shocked and wanted toin, but Diane shot a scary smile at him and he shut up.
"Hinotori, I am sorry to inform you, but please get out of my tree. You and the little dhampyr."
''Eh? B-But-''
"I really do not enjoy the thought of meat lovers being inside my tree. Even Lord Goliath has decided to eat only fruits in order to stay here, right?"
She looked to him for confirmation.
"Actually, the great me would prefer some mea-"
"Right?"
She said again and the dragon tyrant broke a cold sweat.
"R-Right."
He agreed to her.
"So unless you will stop eating meat, I suggest you and the little girl leave."
Just like that Diane had evicted me. I was too surprised to even follow the events. Before I knew it, Ulva and I were in front of Shitsuke''s cave, exining the situation to him.
"I see, but then, Hinotori-sama, wouldn''t it be easy for you to just go and live with Minerva? Surely the goblins here will bother the little girl."
He said. I doubted Ulva could understand him since she was just looking at the goblins with a bit of disgust evident in her eyes.
''Minerva and I had a big fight, remember? She kicked me out.''
"Oh yeah. Just apologise to her. I''m sure she wouldn''t mind."
''Hmm? You apologized to her for what the others did, right? How did that work out for you?''
"Ugh.!"
A low blow, I know. But him thinking it was as easy as an apology pissed me off. I was scared to leave Ulva with the goblins, especially after what happened with Minerva''s mother. Luckily, the familia system allowed for me to talk to anyone who was a member of my familia no matter how far away they were from me. I called for Sylvie and she came quickly. I told her the situation and told me that she also didn''t have a ce to stay, moving about from dryad tree to dryad tree like some kind of hobo. I felt kind of responsible for that. I told her to wait with Ulva and that I would sort them outter.
So I went out to go hunt the rabbits. That was no problem and I even managed to get about 1,200 experience points. The system gave a set amount of experience points for monsters it would seem and theirplete souls carried the same value. Eating them would give me about 15% of the experience points it would seem. Still, that was quite cool with several features that would make me level up faster.
DING!
[Congrattions! You havepleted the Daily Quest: Hunt down 5x Horned Rabbits]
[You have received 50 experience points]
[You have obtained 5 Rabbit horns]
[The items have been ced in your Item Box]
It said. When I checked, I could see one box with a horn in there and the number 5 written at the bottom. It really was a like a video game.
''W-Wait¡ I can store an indefinite number of items in here, right?''
<<Notice: Your item box can store an indefinite amount of 20 distinct items>>
''Seriously? What if I get more items that I need to store?''<novelnext></novelnext>
<<Notice: You can discard the less relevant items>>
''Uwaa! But what if all of them are really useful?''
<<Notice: You can buy more slots from the System Store>>
''The system store, huh? Bring it up lemme see.''
A screen appeared before me.
SYSTEM STORE
User ID: Hyakkiyako
User Level: 1
User Influence: Commoner
Wallet: 400 store points
(Commoner Level 1 - 10 users will have ess to low grade products)
|WEAPONS|
|ACCESSORIES|
|SKILLS|
|MISCELLANOUS| (LOCKED)
''Oh¡ this looks interesting. Because I''m a low level user I can only purchase low grade items? Makes sense I guess. How do I raise my level?''
<<Notice: Constant purchase from the system>>
''Is that all?''
<<Negative>>
''Then out with the others.''
<<Notice: You can simply improve your influence>>
''Improve my influence?''
<<Notice: Be well known through other realms>>
''Ah¡ basically I should be someone that other cities and people know?''
<<¡ Affirmative>>
''Hm¡ I don''t trust that pause, but whatever. Weapons and essories, I don''t need them right now. Lemme see the skills. Ah¡ all of these look bad and useless¡ Maybe I''d like to purchase the [Crafting] skill. It looks quite useful. No, in fact, how is a skill like this low-grade? And it only cost me 10 points!''
I was shocked at the unbelievable sight. The skill [Crafting] as everyone knew, was one that would allow me to create gear, and essories with the right materials. In fact, once I had this, I wouldn''t need the store at some point.
I decided not to think too much about it and just moved on to the next quest, entering the dungeon. I flew over there quickly, thankfully [Auto Mapping] already mapped it out for me so I made it in no time. When I got there however, there was no skeleton soldier moving about like before.
I used Analyst on the cave and was surprised by what I saw.
[Name: Forbidden Dungeon
[Type: Dungeon
[Attribute: None
[Rank: B
[Description: A dungeon created by the legendary inventor, Kaleb Zen a few centuries ago. It is said to possess creatures powerful enough to give kings problems when clearing it]
''Huh¡ I guess a dungeon''s status screen would look different from an item''s. Legendary inventor made this and its only B rank? Maybe B-rank must mean it''s got tons of B rank monsters in it? I''m still a low C rank, so I don''t think I''ll be clearing it today. Let me just step in.''
DING!
[You have entered the Forbidden Dungeon]
[Congrattions! You havepleted the Daily Quest: Enter a dungeon!]
[You have obtained 100 experience points]
DING!
[You have received a Side Quest]
[Side Quest ¨C Dungeon Conquest]
[Clear the Forbidden Dungeons Floors (0/5)]
[Rewards ¨C 20,000 XP
10 store points
A side quest came out of nowhere. I was supposed to clear the forbidden dungeon for 20,000 experience points and 10 store points. I looked inside the cave and there was nothing but darkness and dirt. I sighed and moved out.
''Not today!''
Next thing was defeating an enemy. That wasn''t as easy as I thought it would be. An enemy was something that would show me killing intent or aggressive attitude. But most of the creatures that would do that were now either friendly with me or just not in the West.
In the end, I found a weird looking ck Wayne. We fought and the ck Wayne was quite ferocious. Our battle was glorious! Or so I would like to say, but the creature wasn''t really worth much. I managed to chase it off, but it got away so I didn''t eat it.
DING!
[Congrattions! You havepleted the Daily Quest: Defeat 1x enemy]
[You have obtained 200 experience points]
[You havepleted your daily tasks (3/3)]
[You have received 10 store points]
I flew back to where I left Sylvie and Ulva and gave both of them the meat to eat. Sylvie looked at me and we had to think up a ce to live.
I decided to ask Shiroi about it and she said it would be ok to live with her in the wolf hills. I decided that that I would go check it out ahead of the two and see if it was a nice ce. It wasn''t. Wolves were getting violent with each other and there was blood, rotting meat, bones and skull all about.
Shiroi told me that it was just normal behavior amongst them and that I would get used to it. I didn''t think Ulva or Sylvie would like the ce much so I humbly declined her offer. In the end, I went back and I could have sworn I caught Sylvie eating some of the rabbit meat. She was denying it, but I was certain she ate some of it.
That wasn''t really important though. I told them that I had nothing and Sylvie suggested the Bee Hive. I told her that it was too far and she said it wouldn''t really matter to her, so I told her to go there. Yokino definitely wouldn''t have a problem with her being there.
In the end, I decided to go to Minerva to ask for a ce to sleep. I was nervous as shit when I got there, but luckily I caught her before she went hunting.
Right now, she was just looking at me with her finger in her nose. She then looked behind me and narrowed her gaze to Ulva. She flinched under the pressure and crouched.
''I am sorry, Minerva! Please forgive me for being so stupid earlier!''
I bowed my head and apologized to her. She only looked down at me with an emotionless gaze.
"Hmm¡ kay!"
She said.
''"Kay"?! U-Uhm¡ You sure?''
"Yes. Minerva will forgive Tori-kun on one condition."
''A condition, huh? What?''
"Tori-kun will hunt for Minerva every day!"
''Ah¡ you just wanted to getzy, huh? Fine. I guess I should do at least that much. You like bull deer, right?''
In the end I agreed to her wishes. I moved out to go hunt the bull deer. It wasn''t really as much as a hunt as it was me just punching it to death. I was surprised that my human form was so powerful. I had assumed with the appearance of a little girl, I would retain a level of strength simr to that.
Also, I checked out some of my skills in my human form. My centipede armor actually looked badass in my human form and I found out that the long part that was spreading out like a coat tail, was detachable. When removed, it was also like a sword that could be extended like a whip. It was kind of cool.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Tori acquired 1600 experience points]
[Tori acquired 5x rabbit horns]
[Tori added 20 stat points to strength]
[Tori added 30 stat points to defense]
[Tori added 10 stat points to speed]
[Tori acquired the skill [Crafting]]
[Toripleted the Daily Tasks]
[Tori acquired 10 store points]
Chapter 71 Side Story - The Jealous Tyrant
Minerva had just woken up from her sleep. She let out a yawn and proceeded to call for her friend.
"Tori-kun, wake up."
There was no response, but then she noticed something odd. She couldn''t sense his presence in the cave. She looked around but her friend wasn''t around. And so, she used her skill [Overlord] to look through the west.
? Luckily, her friend was still in the forest. However he was not alone.
''Have they kidnapped him?''
She thought to herself, but immediately discarded that idea.
''No. Tori-kun is not that weak.''
She had scouted their strength and could tell that there was quite the power gap between Hinotori and those two. So what was happening? She decided to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"I hope the Spider king decides to help us."
"Yea, we will need all the help we can get since the Wolf king and Minerva refused."
As soon as she heard that, she knew what they were talking about. Hinotori was going to ask for help for the self-defense. Minerva, however, saw all that as pointless. It wasn''t like the ogre tyrant could actually decimate the West.
There were various reasons for that, but the prominent two were the fact that he destroying the west was the same as going against Larm''s wishes, and the other being that he would have to face her. Minerva had never met the ogre tyrant before, but she was very certain of one thing. He was afraid of her. Why else would the creatures in the West to leave? He was afraid that if she had decided to fight back with the races in her territory he would suffer defeat, so to avoid that, he wanted to crush her alone with an entire army.
While eavesdropping, she went about her normal business. Hunting and sleeping. She expected Hinotori to have returned by tomorrow, so she would live her day in solitude.
The next day, when she woke up she was nning on getting some food to celebrate his return, however she heard the tree sprite say that he needed to be there until Diane gave them a thumbs up for them to return.
In silent rage, she walked over to the dryad''s tree. When she got there, there was a tree sprite standing in front of the tree.
"Wee Mad Witch Minerva. Sister Diane has been waiting for you."
The tree sprite courteously bowed to Minerva, but the hob-goblin just stomped past her and entered the tree.
When she got in, there was a table set with two seats, of which Diane had already upied one. So Minerva sat across her. She took an apple from the basket filled with fruits on the table.
"Oh, Minerva. How do you do?"
"Why did you say Tori-kun shouldn''te back now?"
"Oh? So you''ve already heard about that?"
"Hurry up and say it. Minerva is hungry."
"I''m sorry, but I can''t really tell you for security reasons."
"Fufu¡ who do you think is in charge of security here?"
"You are, but you are refusing to do your job. Maybe if you took an active role in this whole issue I could tell you."
Minerva red at the dryad sitting in front of her. Minerva cringed when she saw Diane''s smile. It reminded her of the forest king and she didn''t like it. At times she felt like this dryad was the forest king himself. Radiating a calming aura, but having a calcting mind behind that smile. Sharp eyes that looked like they could read your mind.<novelnext></novelnext>
The hob-goblin stood up and proceeded to leave.
"If you ever feel like helping out, just tell one of the leaders. Or Hinotori-kun."
Minerva ignored the dryad and returned to her cave.
That night something odd happened. She noticed a new creature in the West. It was a rare creature that looked human, but wasn''t. It was weak and looked exhausted. She ignored its presence. So long as it didn''t cause any problems, she wouldn''t bother herself with it.
The next day, while monitoring Hinotori, she had noticed that her friend had gotten close to the spider king. They were always bickering and ying with each other. She didn''t know why, but it gave her a certain feeling. An emotion she hadn''t really ever experienced. She wanted to kill that spider king, but just decided to ignore it. There was no problem with Hinotori making friends, right?
The next day, while Minerva was out hunting, she realized that Hinotori had run into the creature she had ignored from before. Hinotori offered to help her. Minerva couldn''t exin why, but she regretted not killing the creature earlier on.
She couldn''t take it. This feeling in her heart. Hinotori was making new friends and he was going to probably leave her alone. She didn''t want that.
"Haha you don''t have any friends. You are boring."
She imagined Hinotori saying something like that to her. Although she could squash him if he said that, she didn''t want to. So that day, she spent it by looking for a friend. She remembered her first friend. A timber wolf, Fang. But it was killed by humans. Ever since she hadn''t really thought about searching for a friend ever again. That was until she met Hinotori.
Now while she was searching she was thinking about what the perfect friend would be like. She found a nest of jackalopes, but they all ran away as soon as they saw her. Then she went to the bulldeers, but she ended up killing and eating it. She was thinking about timber wolves, but decided against it. They all hated her because she killed their previous leader. Then she went after night vipers, but they attacked her and she ended up killing them in a rage. Next was a giant centipede, but it ran away. Then she intentionally let herself get caught in an armardrird''s trap, but when it saw her it ran away.
She decided to go into the dungeons. She was attacked by skeleton warriors, but when they attacked her, they copsed. Minerva was getting tired by how all the animals were running away from her, or performing suicide attacks. But then, she spotted something. A colorless gtinous blob that was slowly moving around, consuming the bones of the fallen skeletons. She picked it up and it was trying to erode at her with its acid, however her defense was so high it only tickled.
"That''s it! Minerva found you!"
She was d. Her search hade to an end. She had found the friend she was searching for. A slime. This would surely make Hinotori jealous. She expected to see him begging her to continue being his friend.
She went back to the cave and had been ying with the slime she called Slimy for a short while, then got bored since it couldn''t talk or so something stupid like Hinotori usually did.
When Hinotori returned the next day, she had already prepared herself, but Hinotori never came to her. Instead, she slept at Diane''s ce. She expected Hinotori would rathere the next day. Hinotori didn''te, so Minerva would wait for the next. The next, nothing happened as well and the hob goblin was getting restless.
The next day, the same events reurred, however this time Minerva was so angry she decided to leave the cave so as to avoid breaking anything of hers. While she was walking through the forest the annoying timber wolves surrounded her. She was happy because she had found something to help vent out her frustration. That night she wasted it by pounding on the timber wolves till she was tired. Mentally that is.
After much thinking, she decided that it would be best for her to go talk to Hinotori herself. However, this time Hinotori was with a giant spider, the spider king. That was it. She would kill that spider, but Hinotori fled with the spider before Minerva could do something.
Then there was the fight. This was when she reached peak. She got so angry she almost killed Krull. Post-fight, Hinotori was giving out rewards. Minerva felt like she deserved a reward as well, but she couldn''t tell Hinotori to her face, so she was keeping quiet about it.
Finally, Hinotori had proven her point, so Minerva would just pretend as if she was never thinking about it and everything would smooth over naturally. However, Hinotori apologized and asked if they could stay together again. Minerva epted the offer quickly. Still, Hinotori just ruined the mood by bringing the little dhampyr over.
She just couldn''t help it when Hinotori introduced her. But she didn''t want Hinotori to know that she was feeling jealous, so when Hinotori brought the creature she decided that it would be best if she let the creature lived with them. That way Hinotori wouldn''t notice that she was jealous, right?
That night Minerva made Hinotori go hunting all alone so that she could talk to Ulva. As expected, Hinotoriined but Minerva kicked her out of the cave, literally. When she was left with Ulva, she just looked at the little girl.
"You sleep there. Minerva sleeps here. Don''t cross into Minerva''s space."
She wanted to unnerve this girl and establish their roles. However, the girl had already prostrated herself before Minerva.
"T-thank you for taking me in."
This action surprised Minerva. She didn''t necessarily hate the girl. In fact, the girl had done absolutely nothing, still, Minerva''s pride wouldn''t allow her to talk to the girl normally. So, she just turned around and pretended to sleep. As long as nothing really changed between her daily routine with Hinotori, Minerva was willing to wee the idea of a new friend.
Chapter 72 The Problem Is...
Day 25
Magic! The creative maniption of mana to produce some h, h, h and then create some big booms and bams and basically be a badass.
Today was spent practicing just that.
I had the agent exin to me exactly what it was and like I said, Magic was basically the maniption of certain mana particles to create certain effects. For instance, if one wanted to use Fire magic, one would need to control fire mana particles to do this. However, if one is not able to control these fire mana particles, this person will not be able to produce fire magic. It was basically impossible to possess an affinity for all the elements. (I will fight you if you call me out!)
I practiced using [Basic Fire Magic]. It was quite easy and felt natural.
Next on the board was magic spells. If magic was the power, magic spells were what it took to control the power to create desired effects. They were basically techniques that allowed for better control of magic. This may not make sense to some but it does to me so I''m good with that.
Trying magic spells was a bit trickier than using raw magic, but it didn''t take long for me to get the gist of it. All I needed to do was visualize the kind of spell I wished to create. The direction in which I wished the mana particles to flow and the sort of shape they should form. It didn''t take long for me to create a ball of fire.
I shot the fire ball to a tree, but it wasn''t really effective. I also developed the [Fire Magic: Fire Ball] skill but it was level 1. It didn''t use much mana. With the familia skill [Mana Share], I was siphoning the mana of my members who actually possessed mana. Sure I was doing it without their permission, but at least they were helping me get magic skills.
After much research, I found out that I really was a genius when it came to magic. Apparently, whenever a person started using magic, their magic power ranges from 5 to 10. I straight up started with 50 so I was already above normal. And creating magic spells like I was doing was also out of the norm since it would take people years to create new magic spells even when they''ve thought out the outline. Because, magic power 50 was the magic power those at the low intermediary level had. I felt really special after hearing that, but my mana reserves were quite low in my opinion. Of course that was out of the standard for people who just started.
I took an apple then threw it to the sky. Quickly I shot a lightning bolt through it and it went pop.
''Hmm¡ that ain''t right. Hmmm¡ Hmmmmmmmmmm¡ Um¡ let''s try this then.''
I threw some weirdly shaped fruit into the sky, then used Wind des to sever it into perfect slices. My precision was off and power behind it was too much. The wind de just made the apple go pop as well.
''Ah. That''s a problem. Agent, is there no way for me to minimize the magic power in one use?''
My reason for asking this was that, 50 magic power was just a big use of mana especially for simple spells. I needed to minimize the energy use for a matter as simple as cutting an apple.
<<Affirmative>>
The agent then proceeded to exin the whole ordeal in some bull shit. In my terms, I possessed mana circuits. Mana circuits were like a pipe that generated mana over time. Ok, they were actually collecting mana from the environment into them, much like sr panels. Anyway, these mana circuits had various valves where the mana they''ve umted can flow out of. These valves increase with the owners of these mana circuits. The valves were the control system for magic power. They managed the flow of magic power. So if one''s valve was on 1, that person wouldn''t be able to produce a good amount of mana or magic power. However, the bigger the valve, the quicker the mana supply is depleted as well as the more powerful ites out. So I switched my valve to something lower.
Now, with magic power 5 I tried cutting an apple with wind des again and the apple was cut, although my uracy was a bit off so it ended up weirdly. Still, that was a ginormous leap for me. So I decided to work from the basics up. I ended up developing a lot of magical abilities, while also increasing my proficiency for the basic magics.
Iter tried magicbinations. With [Basic Fire Magic] and [Basic Light Magic] I got my desired effect of [Basic Holy Fire Magic]. So I tried out the same thing for [Basic Fire Magic] and [Basic Dark Magic] I got [Basic Hell Fire Magic]. I was happy I got what I wanted, but some magic just didn''te together like that. Something [Basic Fire Magic] and [Basic Water Magic], I didn''t get a new magic, because they simply didn''t click. And when I tried abination like [Basic Spatial Magic] and [Basic Dark Magic], I only acquired a spell [Dark Magic: Shadow Travel].
In the end, some magics clicked to create other magic, some did to create spells of one of the two magic inbination and some just didn''t click at all. Made sense, I guess. My [Mana control] and got so strong it actually became [Good Mana Control]. I was surprised, but I wouldn''t think too much about it. I tried the [Dark Element Maniption] skill. It allowed me to directly mess with the actual dark element. For instance, when I used the skill, I could control the shape my shadow formed. It may have seemed like a simple maniption, but apparently this skill wasn''t one easily acquired. I wouldn''t read into it too much as well.
With [Basic Ice Magic] I created a spell called [Ice Field]. It was a small area where the ground was just slippery ice. With all of these, various tricks and traps kepting to mind. Magic would save me a great deal of effort. Still, I needed to test these out sooner orter. The perfect ce to try this was the Forbidden dungeon. And with the side quest, I think I would have even gotten a lot of benefit as well as a good level up and possibly an evolution. And the dungeon would most likely carry gold and ancient artifacts.
I decided to raise my magic as high as I could, but after a lot of experiments, my mana got finished, even with the mana I was siphoning off the others. I really went crazy, practically destroying everything around me. There was torn up earth, jutted rocks, trees that were blown down, cut or straight up scorched. And what scared me was an attack spatial magic skill I tried. I didn''t expect it to work, but it did so well I was almost creeped out. Definitely a one-hit kill skill, for regr targets, but spatial magic had the unfortunate effect of draining most of my mana and was unbelievably slow and difficult to control unlike the other magic.
So I decided to go back to the cave with all the dead rabbits I caught from my daily quests. I also managed to catch a me deer. It wasn''t really a challenge especially with my current speed and I tried out the [Devil Form] skill. I was surprised by its effects and felt like it would be really usefulter on. When I got back, Minerva was sleeping at the back of the cave and Ulva was ying with Kawaii.
I transformed into my human form and gave her a pat on the head. I went to attend to the cala that I assumed would have died from ack of water, but Minerva found a container she had been using to fetch water to water it. When I got there, the cala growled at me and I tried patting it, but it bit me. Luckily, I didn''t really feel that and I shook its head to get spices to fall.
After collecting them, I moved to start cooking. Sure, I didn''t know how to cook, but I could ask for advice from Reiman using the Familia system. He run me through the steps and I managed to produce a fire deer stew.
Well, I ate portions of the meat before cooking so I got the skills [Fire Force] and [Throttle]. And I consumed its soul, still not getting enough experience points for a level up. I needed to fight something strong. But I noticed something odd with my experience points. There were moments where I would check and the experience points had increased out of nowhere. Maybe it was just something the system was doing to allow me to level up quickly?
Well that wasn''t the matter at hand.
''Hey, Ulva.''
"Hmm?"
She responded while ying with the creepy slime.
''I want to see your abilities in action today. So you think you can show me one of your skills?''
Her eyes glittered then she nodded happily.
"Eh¡ I am not really strong."
''I think you''re underestimating your capabilities a bit.''
So we tried for about half an hour and I was ready to give up. Ulva was¡ pretty much pathetic. With her stats, her speed and strength should have been more, but she was weak. Too weak. Was it because it was day time?
"Sorry."
Ulva said out of nowhere. She looked really depressed about it. And from the way she was acting, she probably didn''t even know that she was actually quite strong. Which led me to believe that the monster she was talking about was probably a vampire that turned her into a dhampyr and killed most of the vigers. Her parents probably sold her off in fear of being killed by their own daughter, rather than killing her themselves.
Ok, thest part of my theory needed working on, but it fit in with the story quite well.
I patted her ck hair gently and smiled.
''Don''t worry about it, ok? I''m sure you''ll get stronger eventually. Even though you are actually stronger than tons of the creatures in the West''
Then out of nowhere, I had an idea.
''That''s right! I can just test out [Remorse] on you!''
"Huh?"
[Remorse] was a skill that allowed me to temporarily steal my target''s abilities, right? But then it also allowed me to give my target a random ability of mine, depending on their affinity for it. Maybe if I gave Ulva one of my abilities it could work! With that being the case, I tested this out on Shitsuke and the others to help make them stronger.
''Ok, Ulva, don''t freak out.''
"Wha-ah? Wh-whats happening?"
I put my hand on her head, then activated [Remorse].
[Would you like to use [Remorse] on your target]
''Yes''
[Target has acquired your skills [Basic Ice Magic]]
''Noicee! Ok Ulva, try to use Ice magic or something.''<novelnext></novelnext>
"Ice magic?"
''Yea, just try doing something with Ice. I don''t know. Will it or something?''
With a determined look in her eyes, she nodded.
"Ok!"
However, when she tried it, nothing came. It was a total flop. I wondered what was wrong. While I was looking at her, my eyesnded on her cor and by ident, I used [Analyst] and was shocked by what I found.
''There it is!''
"Wh-what!?"
''That. The cor.''
I pointed to her cor and she looked down curiously.
''That''s the reason why you can walk in day time. It''s also the reason why you are so weak.''
"Huh?"
''Hmm, I guess I''ll have to find a way to remove that from your neck while keeping the protection it gives on you.''
Ulva slightly tilted her head.
"Then will I be able to help you?"
''Erh, that doesn''t matter, but I guess so.''
Ulva clenched her fists and had a determined look on her face.
"Um, I know you have done so much for me, but could you please remove the cor?"
''I guess so, it doesn''t look too tough, but you might die the moment I do that, so let''s hold it off forter, ok?''
She looked disappointed again and it made me feel kind of sorry for her.
"If you say so, but¡ um¡ it''s sort of weird seeing youpletely naked."
She said. Then I realized that I hadn''t really thought much about my privacy. I was buck naked in the wild like some kind of crazy person. I sighed and reverted to my normal form. That was embarrassing.
''I-I''ll have Sylvie make me a dresster.''
"Umu."
Afterwards, I decided to learn how to craft potions, so I grabbed a few renosue herbs. It took me a while, especially since I didn''t have the right tools, but I managed to create a potion, that would heal up to 50% of one''s health when used. In video games, a percent heal was practically overpowered and I was sure this potion would be the same. I mean, it even had a High Epic rating on it and its value went for 500 gold coins.
Yes¡ 500 gold coins.
''No! Damn it! I can''t sell this for money then! No one''s going to have 500 gold coins at the ready!''
I sighed and gave up. I would just create lots of them and store them in my inventory. I also practiced my other skills and went back to building up my poison resistance and even attempting a fusion of skills. It was all good and felt a bit nostalgic.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Tori learned [Fire Magic: Fire Ball]]
[Tori learned [Fire Magic: Fire sphere]]
[Tori learned [Water Magic: Water shot]]
[Tori learned [Water Magic: Water sphere]]
[Tori learned [Lightning Magic: Lightning bolt]]
[Tori learned [Lightning Magic: Lightning Dagger]
[Tori learned [Earth Magic: Rock Shot]]
[Tori learned [Earth Magic: Rock ster]]
[Tori learned [Wind Magic: Wind de]]
[Tori learned [Wind Magic: Breeze]]
[Tori learned [Light Magic: Light Shot]]
[Tori learned [Dark Magic: Shadow Travel]]
[Tori learned [Spatial Magic: Air Steps]]
[Tori learned [Spatial Magic: Void Shot]]
[Tori acquired the magic [Holy Fire Magic]]
[Tori acquired the magic [Hell Fire Magic]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Shadow Maniption]]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], Tori acquired the skill [Fire Force]]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], Tori acquired the skill [Throttle]]
[Tori created [Renosue Half Potion]]
[Tori fused the skills [Beetle Armor] + [Centipede Armor] + [King Viper Scales] to produce the skill [Anguix Bug Armor]]
Chapter 73 Dungeon Conquest - Ground Floor Pt.I
Keimen City, Noble District
Laying on a king sized bed were three people. One was a fat human noble and the other two were women of different species. An elf and a harpy. Those twoid dead on the bed, grip markings around their necks and bruises and cuts on their bodies. They had just died after having to endure a grueling time with the nobleman.
The fat noble was panting heavily while having a disgusting smile on his face. One that made him seem inhumane. It was out of the feeling he got rom fraping demi-humans and then killing them. It made him feel ecstatic. He brushed his bangs backwards and wiped his sweaty face, thenid back in bed.
"Hahaha! More! More! More! More! I want more! Where is Maude!?"
He yelled at the top of his lungs, signaling for his attendant to enter the room. Therge doors burst open and a woman dressed in light armor, with a short sword at her side entered the room. She scowled at the disgusting sight before her then looked at the naked fat man.
"You called?"
She bowed to him, and he sat up.
"Maude! Where is it?"
"I''m sorry, but I don''t get you."
"You know, my new toy."
"T-Toy?"
"Yes. I sent for a dhampyr. Hasn''t she arrived yet?"
"O-oh. About that."
"Hmmm? What? What? What is it? Did something perhaps happen to my new toy? You know I like my toys in top condition. If something has happened to my new toy I''ll kill you."
"Erhm, no. Could you wait a few more days?"
"A few more days? No! No! No! I want that dhampyr now! I want to cuddle it and pamper it. I want to take care of it forever. The one creature that I can enjoy myself with to the fullest. One that won''t snap after single use. I want it now!"
"B-but-"
"But what? Are you saying that you will offer me your body?"
The noble tilted his head, inspecting Maude''s body. This caused the swordswoman to internally cringe, but she didn''t show it.
"True. True. You have a well-endowed body with a slight muscr touch to it. Were it not for that ugly scar on your face I might have considered it."
Maude grit her teeth at the noble''s observation and thought to herself.
''Who was it that gave me this scar, you pig?''
"Could you wait a little bit longer? The other package for you just arrived."
"Other package?"
"Yes. Your other package."
Wearing a grin, Maude pped her hands and a hooded figure in ck walked in. His face was concealed with a ck mask that had a red jewel on it and on his shoulder was a huge creature with grey skin and purple hair.
"Grimm?"
"Yo, boss! You asked for one Ogre princess? Here she is."
"Ogre princess? I didn''t ask for it?"
"Huh? But Maude said you wanted me to get this for you."
Grimm and the noble turned to look at Maude and she had a malicious grin on her face.
"Maude? What is the meaning of this?"
"Well, your birthday ising up next week and I thought you would want to celebrate it by having the ogre tyrant''s daughter to yourself."
The noble man was stunned, speechless and frozen as to how to respond. Soon, he simply smiled and said,
"Maude? You truly are my most loyal servant. Hahaha! All you need now is a good face and you would be perfect."
"Oh thank you. Buutttt¡"
"But what? But what? What?"
"Can''t you just settle for what we have in the basement until a week''s time?"
"Hmmm¡ In that case, let''s move the dhampyr to my birthday and I''ll have this one now."
"W-wait. I was thinking, that why don''t you have both of them on the same day?"
"Oh? Yes! Yes! Yes! Great idea! Hahaha! I can''t wait for a week from now! Ok then, bring in the next batch of monsters."
"As you wish."
Maude and Grimm stepped out of the room, whereas a cat demi-human andmia were sent in. Themia hissed and Grimm shuddered at the sight.
"Still not gotten over your fear of other vampiric species?"
Maude asked
"Nope. I hate vampires with every fibre of my being. Even if I am one."
"Tch. Youin about stupid things."
"Hahaha¡ Same old Grimm you know. Anyway, why did you ask me to get this huge sack of meat?"
"Didn''t you hear me back there? I said it was a birthday gift."
"Please, it doesn''t take a genius to know you hate your old man. What are you nning?"
"Like I said. Nothing. You are being paranoid. Also, I have a mission for you."
The two reached a cer and when they opened the doors, it led to a staircase that went further down. They began to go down the staircase.
"If it''s another Larm forest infiltration mission, I refuse. I could have died in this one. If we weren''t lucky that Derbyshire and his guys were collecting ves at that moment I definitely would have failed."
"Rx. It''s not an infiltration mission. I just want you to find somebody for me."
"Who?"
"It''s a dhampyr. ording to the vers, she ran into Larm."
"You literally just said this wasn''t going to be an infiltration!"
"Shhhh. Don''t worry. She just entered the West."
"T-the West? The Mad Witch''s part? And you want me to go? Are you stupid? No!"
"Look at this."
The woman pulled out a scroll with several names written on it.
"W-what is this?"
"It''s a list of ves."
"Huh? But then, why are some of them glowing golden and the others aren''t?"
"Heh. You see, it''s this new cor the boss made. It allows for us to check the status of those wearing our ve cors, as well as restrict them from using their abilities or harming the boss."
Suddenly, two names disappeared.
"W-what happened? Why did those names fade?"
Maude looked up, and Grimm could tell she was pointing to their boss'' room.
"You mean, the highlighted ones are those who are still alive?"
"Yes."
"But then. There''s only one highlighted one, now."
"Exactly. Now you know your target."
They finally reached the bottom of the stair case, then walked through a tunnel. When they emerged, they were met with a very repulsive scene. Cages of all shapes and sizes, containing all sorts of creatures. They were beingshed and punished by men and women dressed in armor.
The cries of the oppressed ves filled the halls and their tears were enough to slightly flood the ce. When Grimm caught a whiff of the blood that was everywhere, he almost lost to his vampiric urges. However, the jewel on his mask prevented that.
"Tch¡ I really hate this ce."
"In that case, give me the ogre. I''ll take her from here. You, just work on finding my target."
"You sure? She''s kinda heavy."
"I''m sure. Now give her to me."
Grimm dropped the unconscious ogre on Maude, then took the scroll she was holding. The woman nearly copsed under the weight of the ogre, but she wasn''t ready to admit that.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Urgh¡ Why is she so cold?"
"Well, it''s because I froze her blood. She didn''t realize what I was doing until it was toote, so here we are."
"Ah, whatever. You can form a team to go in your stead. It would also be a problem on our side if we were to lose you. It''s not like we can just waltz into the Realm of Eternal Night and recruit another vampire."
Grimm looked at the name in the scroll.
"Ulva? That''s my target? Ok, I''ll send some guys in there. I''ll give you feedback when I get it.
_____________________________________
Day 26
''Alright! Let''s do it! Let''s conquer the dungeon!''
"You are so, going to die today and it won''t even be funny."
"Tori-kun is weak, so Tori-kun shouldn''t try it."
"Um¡ did you not nearly die thest time you just stepped foot into the cave?"
"Lady Hinotori, you may be strong, but I think the dungeon is beyond your current capabilities."
I got all these sorts ofments when I asked anyone to go to the dungeon with me. It was depressing and demoralizing, but nothing would stop me. Eventually, after enough bothering, the spider king decided to tag along with me. I finished my daily quests and we headed off towards the cave.
"Lunch, are you sure about this?"
''Yeah, yeah. Don''t think too much about it. We''ll use just one day to clear it and we''ll be legends.''
"Ugh¡ we are dying today, aren''t we?"
''You''re too pessimistic. Don''t worry. I''ve prepared tons of stuff and a lot of magic.''
I told her.
"A lot of magic? Bird brain, I definitely have more magic than you do and they will be more powerful than yours hands down, so what''s the point?"
''Hmm, you sure?''
"What do you mean, "Hmm, you sure?"? I''m sure! I was born 3 months before you, remember?"
''Ha! Bug eyes, you think inside the box too much! I shall wow you with my amazing magical abilities!''
"Huh?"
''For example, I shall teleport us to the dungeon now.''
"W-what? Teleportation? You can use spatial magic?"
Rather than telling her, I grabbed her and activated the skill. With [Auto Mapping] I could directly map the coordinates, but I had the agent do it for me instead. It was in a sense, more convenient. Shadow Travel only worked in ces with shadows. Unlike regr teleportation, it didn''t have the disadvantage of me identally teleporting into a wall or something. In fact, it could be navigated through. Rather than calling it teleportation, I guess it could be said to be a shortening of the distance between two spaces. The only problem was that it would only work where there was a shadow. Well, that wasn''t something I would need to be thinking about at the moment.
After descending into darkness, we reappeared inside the cave.
[You have entered the Forbidden Dungeon]
The system message confirmed this for me.
"A-Are we in the dungeon?"
''Yeah.''
I looked around and could see skeletons starting to rattle. I decided to take a peek at their stats.
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: Undead Soldier Level 25/50
[Status: -
[Age: 10 years
[Rank: D
[Race Rank: Tier 2
[Talent: E grade
[Titles: |Of World|, |Dungeon Mob|
[Blessings: -
[Level: 45 Exp: 10/2500
[Health: 1300/1300 Stamina: ???/??? Strength: 300 Speed: 270 Defense: 250 Dexterity: 285 Intelligence: 10 Luck: -
|SKILLS|
[Unique Skills: -
[Passive Skills: [Undying], [Weak Constitution], [shing Enhancement], [Stabbing Enhancement]
[Active Skills: [Parrying], [Novice Swordsmanship]
[Affinities: [Darkness Affinity]
[Magic: -
[Resistances: [shing Resistance], [Stabbing Resistance]
''Ah¡ they aren''t really strong, are they? Even though they have much higher levels than I do.''
I noticed that their levels were quite highpared to me. I guess having a high level didn''t necessarily mean you were strong. Well, that would make sense. If there were a level 1 human baby and a level 1 elephant, I guess you could say that the level 1 baby elephant was stronger. So, numbers didn''t really matter. It was dependent on skills. That was why someone of a level of 29 like me was already C rank.
"Hmm? I guess not."
The spider said. That was a bit surprising, then again, if my theory of her being from earth was right, I guess it wouldn''t be so surprising. Well, it was time to find out anyway.
''Eh? You can tell their strengths? Do you have something like an appraisal skill?''
"Something like it, but better."
''Hmm? Interesting. Could it perhaps be a unique skill?''
"Unique skill? You say some weird things. Why would a spider get a unique skill?"
''True. I guess they don''t just give them to stupid spiders.''
"What?!"
By the way, this was her status screen.
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: ck Vampiric Weaver Queen Level 49/50
[Status: Anxious
[Age: 3 months
[Rank: C+
[Race Rank: Tier 3
[Talent: A grade
[Titles: |Newborn in a New World|, |Survivor|, |Bug yer|, |Cannibal|, |Traitor|, |Bug Lord|, |Rare Species|, |Usurper|, |Spider King|
[Blessings: |Blessings of *****|, |Blessings of the Divinity of Dark Nights, Yatendouji|
[Level: 94 Exp: 12,000/ 13,400
[Health: 4500/4500 Stamina: 3370/3370 Mana: 3,900/4,500 Strength: 990 Speed: 1570 Defense: 950 Dexterity: 1285 Intelligence: 90 Magic: 80 Luck: 80
[Skills: -
Yeah, she had mepletely overwhelmed stat wise and from the looks of things, she possessed a lot of dangerous skills. She really was a king and so damned close to B rank. I was no match for her anyway I saw it. I really couldn''t beat my 3 month old senpai.
[Would you like to form a party with the target, Yokino?]
? [YES]/[NO]
Chapter 74 Dungeon Conquest - Ground Floor Pt.II
[Would you like to form a party with the target, Yokino?]
? [YES]/[NO]
''A party, huh? Like in video games? Benefits please.''
<<Notice: If you create a party with you as the party leader, you will receive 20% of the experience points your members receive. Also you can use Location Share to know where your members are and the Mana Share skill to share your mana. You will also receive portions of their rewards and experience points will be distributed amongst you with response to the most contributions>>
''Huh¡ that seems fair from what I can tell. Ok, I''ll form a party with her.''
"Hmm? What are you talking about, chicken?"
She came to my side.
''Oh, I was just saying I''ll form a party with you through the system so we get benefits from leveling up together.''
"You''re weird. You say it like this is a video game or some weird web novel."
''Ah¡ could you perhaps, not have ess to the system?''
"What are going on about?"
''Oh, that''s right, I forgot that others don''t have this. It''s my unique skill.''
"Eh? Your unique skill? I thought yours was a body type. Lemme see, lemme see."
GULP.
''H-How did she know that? Is her unique skill one that allows her to tell the unique skills of others? Or is that just a skill she learned? Agent?''
<<Notice: It is impossible to tell the unique skills of a person through normal means>>
''Abnormal means, please?''
<<Notice: Using a high grade appraisal stone, or forcing the target to spill the secrets of their own abilities>>
''I-I see¡''
"Chicken?"
''Oh, sorry. Sorry. Um¡ I can''t show it to anyone who is not part of my familia.''
"Eh? Why not?"
''I don''t know. It just says so right here.''
[Members of your Familia have ess to your system]
I was certain there were those who were confused, but I told the leaders about the screen so they should have exined it to the others by now. Meaning, the others should know that they aren''t supposed to spread the fact that they can''t see it.
"Hmm¡ what are the benefits of this system?"
''Benefits? I''m not sure, but I guess I grow stronger faster than most people. I mean, I''m almost as strong as you now. A week or two and I''ll be able to surpass you in stats. I guess I can see other people''s abilities as well and stuff.''
She looked to be in serious thought. Groaning and moaning, twisting and turning, rolling on the ground and grunting in internal conflict, almost making meugh at the pathetic disy.
"Ugh! Fine! Make me a member of your familia."
''Eh? Is that how you ask someone to join their family?''
"Tch¡ Please, can I join your familia?"
''Of course.''
[The ck Vampiric Weaver Queen wants to be your servant. Will you ept?]
? [YES]/[NO]
I epted her into my family.
[You have acquired one servant.]
[Congrattions: You have acquired 28550 minions]
[Your familia has grown tremendously!]
[Your familia has leveled up 5 times!]
[You have unlocked more slots for Captains!]
[You have unlocked the General slot]
[Your Charisma has increased tremendously! You have acquired the [Family Head] specific skill [Loyalty Test]]
[You have acquired 200 familia points!]
[You have received the Quest: Familia Head Duties]
''Ah¡ you stupid spider! You cause me too many problems.''
"Eh? What do you mean?"
''You didn''t tell me you had over twenty thousand subordinates under your control. I upped and broke the norms again.''
"What are you talking about? I''ve got about fifty thousand subordinates."
She proceeded to say somethingpletely absurd.
''Ah-''
"Just kidding~"
She teased me then I kicked her.
''Annoying bug.''
"What''s the big idea?!"
Sheined and I ignored her.
[A Party has been formed]
[You are designated the Party leader]
[Party skill [XP Share] activated]
[You will receive 75% of the XP gained duringbat, regardless of whether it was your kill or not, and vice versa]
[Party skill [Mana Share] activated]
[You both now share the same mana reserves]
[Party skill [Location Share] activated]
[You will now know each other''s locations no matter how far away you are from each other]
''Hmm, I see. Ei, bug. You seeing this?''
"Yeah. It''s kinda weird seeing a screen, but I guess I more or less understand."
''Cool, then, in that case, attack that undead soldier.''
I ordered her and she looked at me as if I were insane. Eventually she simply shot a ball of water into the skeleton, breaking it without much effort.
[The servant Yokino has defeated an Undead]
[The servant Yokino has acquired 400XP] [XP: 12,400/ 13,400]
[You have acquired 300XP] [XP: 405/4590]
"Seriously? They are actually this weak? I should have done this a long time ago! Woohoo!"
She yelled and ran off deeper into the cave.
''Ah- But you¡''
''How does an undead give so much XP? Ah¡ whatever.''
I sighed, then chased after her.
[Party Members: [Hinotori Hyakkiyako (Party Leader)]
[Yokino]
[Dungeon Conquest progress: Ground Floor (iplete)]
***
''[Fire Magic: Fire ball].''
I shot a ball of fire at a skeleton with a sword that was running towards me, but with the effects of [Saint] and the fact that undead had a natural weakness to Fire type moves, I ended up killing it in one blow.
[You have acquired 230XP] [XP: 405/ 4590]
[The servant Yokino has gained 115XP] [XP: 12,515/ 13,400]
''Wow, we are actually getting a really good amount of XP for killing these simple undead. I wonder how much XP the dungeon boss will give us.''
"Hahaha! This is great. I can feel myself getting stronger!"
Yokino screamed in joy.
''Kukuku¡ This is a st. It''s just like a dungeon from back home! All the XP. If only there were item drops and chests with good stuff.''
[System Master ##### is interested in your suggestion]
''Wait, what!?''
The system didn''t say anything else, so I ignored it.
I walked next to the scattered undead, picked up the bones and ate them,
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired [shing Resistance]]<novelnext></novelnext>
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired [Stabbing Resistance]]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired [Novice Swordsmanship]]
''Wait! [Novice Swordsmanship]? Because I ate the undead that waves swords around? Alright then, let''s go loose!''
"Hahaha! Die you undead! Wait¡ Do undead even die?"
The spider was on a rampage. Powerful water bursts, lightning sts and hard earth were being flung at the undead. She really didn''t hold back against them, crushing them left right and raising her experience points quickly. I on the other hand was testing out the [Novice Swordsmanship] skill, simply swiping a sword I picked up from the ground. The skill wasn''t especially doing anything to me. Maybe I needed to face an actual opponent for it to show?
[You have acquired 3213XP]
[You have gone up 1 level]
[Your level is now 15/30] [XP: 1260/4755]
[The servant has gained 5607XP] 18,122/ 13,400]
[The servant has leveled up!]
[The servant level is now 50/50] [XP: 4722/14,500]
[The servant has acquired the skill [Illusion magic]]
''Hmm? She''s reached her racial level climax. Which means she''ll be evolving after this.
"Ah, chicken. I just got a new skill?"
I looked at her.
''Speaking of which. How did you use to know that you had acquired a new skill before?''
I asked her. I was sure if she had shoulders she would have shrugged.
"I don''t know. I just knew? Although learning to use them is always a problem for me. Luckily I''m a quick learner."
''Huh¡ let''s go back then.''
"Erh, but I just got this new [Illusion Magic]!"
Sheined. Had she already forgotten about the fact that she wouldn''t be able to move in a bit?
''Sure. Go ahead.''
She turned around and started mumbling some weird stuff to herself. It didn''t take long for me to see some weird misting off of her body. It was sort of eerie.
''Is this¡ Illusion magic?''
<<Notice: It would appear that the target is making their own brand of the illusion magic>>
''Her own brand? Damn, what kind of unique skill does she have?''
The mist stopped forming and the spider slowed down.
"E-eh, tch. Fine¡ Let''s go.
There was nking and I noticed a new presence in the area. I ignored the spider for this presence and ended upying eyes on a different undead from the others. It was a bit bigger than the others and dressed in ck armor and releasing an eerie aura.
"Hmm¡ [Holy Fire Magic: Divine Fire Ball]."
I didn''t even waste time on it. I shot down the skeleton with my Holy fire magic. Surprisingly, it ended up knocking it out with that one hit.
[You have defeated a special summon: The Undead Knight]
''Special Summon? Was this guy supposed to be tough? I''m starting to doubt the danger of this dungeon. It isn''t really impressing me.''
[You have received 2,900 XP][XP: 4160/4755]
[The servant has gained 2000XP][XP: 6722/14,500]
The skeleton turned to ash and its armor was left behind.
[The Undead Knight Dropped Items]
[The Demon Armor Set]
[Equip all parts of this set to unlock the set bonus]
[You have acquired 1x [Demon Breastte]]
[You have acquired 2x [Demon Shoulder pads]]
[You have acquired 1x [Demon Long sword]]
[You have acquired 1x [Demon Shield]]
[You have acquired 1x [Demon Helmet]
[You have acquired 2x [Demon Boots]]
''It left loot! Let''s pick those up.''
"Um¡ That looks a bit heavy."
''Yea, don''t think too much on it.''
I picked up the pieces of armor that had fallen one by one.
[Demon Helmet: Grants User +10 Defense]
[Demon Shield: Grants user +30 Defense]
[Demon Breastte: Grants user +5 Speed and +10 Defense]
[Demon Shoulder pads: Grants user +5 Defense]
[Demon Boots: Grants user +10 speed]
''Oh nice''
I then picked up the ck de and it reflected my image perfectly. It was a beautiful de that gave off this weird, ominous vibe.
[Demon Long Sword: Grants user +30 attacking power]
I put them all in my item box and dusted my hands happily.
"C-Can we go now? I''m not feeling too well."
She said. I looked at her weakened state and only one thing coulde to mind.
''Mission Complete.''
"Huh? What are you saying?"
She was obviously very confused, but that didn''t matter now. I walked up to her and stepped on her head, forcing it down.
"What are you doing?"
She grunted beneath my ws.
''Oi, spider. Now tell me who you really are.''
The whole purpose of me specifically pestering Yokino toe with me to the dungeon was to confirm exactly who she was. There was no way she was just a spider that acted out of the norm and became stronger than a king in 3 months. And there was the fact that she possessed a unique skill. Something wasn''t right anyway I looked at it. Yokino was definitely a reincarnated person. So I came up with the n of exploring this dungeon with her today to find out. I would leave her to clear most of the skeletons. I could simply leech off of her experience gain and when we entered the first floor, she would definitely find it difficult to escape if the rumours about the strength of the monsters in the dungeon was true. She could simply teleport out, but I already confirmed that she didn''t possess any teleportation abilities and her stamina wasn''t really impressive to be honest. It was only a matter of time till she ran out of steam and would turn to me to help her escape. However, now I wouldn''t let her escape till she told me the truth.
"W-What do you mean?"
''You¡ you actuallye from earth, don''t you?''
"E-Eart-??"
''Don''t try bullshitting me. She already told me about you.''
I noticed that the spider was just stuck in ce after I mentioned "She". Had Alpha talked to her before? Well, I guessed that would be logical.
"Fine! You''re right! Ie from earth, ok? So what are you going to do?"
She just confirmed everything.
''Well¡ I didn''t think up anything beyond this point. Haha, feels nice to know someone in the same situation as I am in.''
Iughed off the issue.
"Wha-?!"
''Let''s go, then, Yokino.''
I grabbed her and used [Shadow Travel] to escape from the swarming skeletons.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Tori acquired the skill [Stabbing Enhancement]]
[Tori acquired the skill [shing Enhancement]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Parry]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Weak Constitution]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Undying]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Feather Ingnition]]
________________________________________________
[The servant Yokino has reached max racial level]
[The servant Yokino''s evolution has begun]
[The servant Yokino Sessfully evolved into an Undine Vampire Arachne]
[A specie variant of the Arachne species. They usually possess a high affinity for water and have a craving for blood. Not very good atbat, but exceptional in illusion magic. Weakened under sunlight and long exposure might kill them.]
Chapter 75 Kidnappers
Day 27
I was currently at Suna''s river taking a little bath. Why would a bird be bathing? You can ask Ulva that. She said she wanted to bath and that I should join her. I didn''t want to, but she forced me and so I joined. In order to not get my feathers wet, I transformed into my human form. It felt kind of weird, but nostalgic at the same time.
Suna wasn''t around at the moment. That is, her and all the nymphs. Apparently there was some water lizard trouble they were handling somewhere. I was surprised that they would all need to leave theke to handle the issue and I didn''t expect it to take over three days to do so, especially right after helping us fight the East. Then again, they didn''t really do much.
"Big sis, look at Kawaii."
She rose the slime up from the water and it was jiggling. This creature was weird. Somehow this thing managed to evolve into something called a Sentient Acidic Slime, meaning it could think now. That made it very dangerous, especially considering the abilities the slimes had. If it managed to consume a lot, it had potential to be unbelievably strong.
The slime shot out water like some kind of water hose. When I looked up its skills, I found out that it had developed the skill [Water Shot] from just being in water. Feeling a bit jealous, I sunk into the water and swallowed as much as I could into my mouth, then shot it out. I didn''t get any skill. Ulva just looked at me, a bit confused.
After that, I sunk into the water because I felt a bit embarrassed.
Ulva came to pat me on the head.
"It doesn''t matter if big sis is not the same as Kawaii."
I couldn''t respond to her. The slime floated to me started rubbing itself on me. I was kind of scared at first, but that fear was quickly reced with warmth which was then quickly reced with anger. Anger at the fact that some idiot was peeping on me.
This idiot had been following me since the day begun and I had decided to ignore him at first. But it got a bit irritating and I asked him why. He said he was doing it for my safety. I let the issue slide since that was his argument, but when we got to the bath, I ordered for him to not look at us while we bathe. So he was just standing behind a tree.
However, I could tell that he was looking. [Predator Instinct], [Heat Sense] and [Perception] could tell me all that I needed to know. I told Ulva to wait for me and jumped out of the water to go to the retard''s side.
When he noticed me he gulped. It was none other than the leader of the Stamp vige, Nukeme. His eyes showed fear at my sight, but then he quickly scanned my body. I actually didn''t have a problem with that, I only cared for Ulva.
''You disgusting pedophilic perverted green idiot. Didn''t I tell you not to look while we bathe?''
He startedughing and his mouth was watering. His long tongue came out and was waggling about like crazy. His eyes moved about their sockets in a disgustingly quick manner.
"M-My Lady¡ Y-You see, while I was dutifully doing what you said, my Money senses told me that I would get a reward from watching you. And oh, what a reward in deed!"
He said something disgusting. I cracked my knuckles and added a bit of lightning magic to it.
''Hehe, a reward, eh? How about a [Lightning Jab]!''
I punched, the lightning crackling all over his body and sending him flying some distance away into the forest. I was actually stunned by how much power magic gave me. My normal strength stat wouldn''t have been enough to send him flying that far, even though I was stronger than him.
I was impressed with it and decided to focus more on magic than on physical stats, since magic would make up for those. The only problem would be my mana capacity, which admittedly wasn''t a lot. Still, I used less mana than the average creature so I guess in a sense, it was a lot?
Ah whatever, I just went back to wash Ulva. I even tried using [Water Magic] and [Fire Magic] together, heating the water. I created hot water!
''HAHAHA! I shall revolutionize this world with my hot water!''
"Hmmm, I missed warm water."
Ulva said.
''Damn it.''
***
Nukeme had just been up to his normal daily activities ¨C bullying the goblins, stealing food from other races, licking poison and so on ¨C when his Money senses tingled. They told him to go and look for his mistress and that he should watch her the whole day.
His senses have never been wrong, so he listened to them. He monitored her without break, and when she was going to take a bath, she ordered him not to look. He obeyed that just fine. He could have disobeyed since well, he didn''t believe a bird was stronger than himself, but he just decided to obey. When his senses told him to look, without hesitation, he looked. The sight that beheld him was magnificent.
Two naked beauties, ripe for the the taking. One a dark haired beauty, close to maturity, and the other, a beautiful blonde child with red tips and a red cowlick on her head. Their bodies were smooth and untouched. This was more than a reward to him. Yet again, his senses failed him not.
Unfortunately, his new master sensed this. She came to him and the goblin couldn''t control himself. He was willing to perform misdeeds to her body right there and then, but when she summoned lightning magic, he realized that she was no joke. She delivered a punch to his cheek that sent him flying some distance away and he ended up crashing into a tree.
Then he started to think, if she could use lightning magic, why didn''t she use it on the ogre tyrant? But then, the fact that she managed to name all of them meant that she was powerful. Something wasn''t adding up. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that there was a different air about the mistress. She was bolder, more refined than he had assumed she would be.
Things weren''t adding up and he wanted to get to the bottom of it.
He got up and when he did so, he noticed five men jumping out of a portal. Quickly, he went to hide behind a tree so they wouldn''t see him. He peeped on them and listened to their conversation.
"We only have 10 minutes till the armor''s stealth function wears off. Split up and search for the target. First person to find the target light the signal and the others will follow."
The men dressed in ck gear run in five different directions. Nukeme looked and noticed that one of them was running in the direction of his mistress. He finally realized that this was what his money senses were telling him.
He couldn''t let anything happen to his mistress, so he ran like hell after the man. With his speed, he managed to catch up to the man after jumping and swinging from branch to branch. The person froze after looking at the two girls. Nukeme in a rage threw his poisoned dagger into the person''s head, killing them in that instant.
He dropped on the ground and turned the person''s body around. He wanted to check for any good tools he could take, but their armor was weird. It was practically just clothes. Just ck with a cloak on their bodies and a face mask.
"Ah¡ what the hell?"
He was confused, but then his Money senses told him to jump, so using [Acrobatics], he managed to barely miss a kick to the face. When he looked, a man wearing the same armor as the dead person was there. He had a rough face with a scar going across his left eye.
"Damned hob-goblin bastard."
"Did he identally trigger the signal on Dan''s uniform?"
"Looks like it."
"No wait. Look at those two girls."
All the men looked up and saw the sight of two little girls taking a bath in the middle ofrm. The sight was so unbelievable they would have assumed that the girls weren''t their targets, were it not for the fact that they had been shown a portrait of the ck haired girl.
"Who''s the other girl?"
"It don''t matter! Get em''!"
Their leader ordered, but Nukeme jumped in their way.
"Kekekekekekekekekekekeke! I wonder what reward I''ll get this time!"
He cackled maniacally and it caused the men to hesitate. Their leader on the other hand jumped right into the fight. He pulled out two curved des out of nowhere and Nukeme was a bit unprepared. He stumbled back after blocking one hit. Luckily he tripped and the second sh missed.
Quickly, he jumped from the ground almost as if the fall had been nned. The leader was relentless with his attacks however, sending a kick flying into Nukeme''s guts.
The others however cleared their heads and moved towards theke. Weirdly enough, the blonde girl from earlier wasn''t sitting there anymore.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Uggghhh!"
One of the men screamed as he fell to the ground. The others looked and noticed that rocks were jutting out of the side of his head. Looking at the direction in which the attacks came from, they saw a naked blonde girl with her hands stretched out in front of them.
Her hair was wild and messy, reaching down below her back. Her eyes were a fierce vermillion and lips were turned upside down in a scary scowl one would see on a noble woman.
''Who are you?''
A voice resonated in their heads and they were all scared. This girl wasn''t normal.
***
I wished I could have just returned to having a normal bath, but then I sensed some weirdos popping up all around me. I left Ulva in the bath by herself and went to attend to the men. Since my [Stealth] skill was always active, it had gone really high up in level. So the men didn''t even notice me as I watched them.
I decided that I would knock them out and ask them questions, so I tried out my earth magic.
[You have killed a human]
[You have received 6,000 experience points]
''Ah¡ that was too strong! Too strong!''
The men looked at their fallenrade.
''Damn it! I can''t pretend as if I didn''t know I was so strong. Or is it that they are too weak?''
The men all looked at me and I was feeling a bit anxious. My body tightened up and I decided to just ask questions.
''Who are you?''
They looked at each other, and I don''t know when my telepathy became strong enough for me to read others'' minds but it was now.
''Charlie, you go take the girl. Mike and I will distract this thing.''
They nodded and the guy named Charlie ran for Ulva. With [Shadow Maniption], I used his own shadow to grab his legs and trip him, whereas using [Fire Magic] to blow the two who ran at me away. I easily tied them up with my [ck Threads Creation] skill then decided to move to the other guy Nukeme was fighting.
The hob-goblin was handling himself surprisingly well although it was obvious that he was at a disadvantage.
The person he was fighting grabbed him by the neck and flung him at a tree. With a superfluous burst of speed, the man was already at the hob-goblins side, cutting new wounds into the hob-goblins body at a tremendous pace. He took out an item from nowhere. It was a little ck ball with a ropeing out from it.
''A bomb? Isn''t that a bit excessive?''
I sighed and used [Light Shot] to st the man away, since it was my fastest magic or attack skill. The man struggled to stand up, but I wasn''t interested in the whole, shounen protagonist bull. I whipped him away using [Lightning Bolt] then moved to Nukeme. For Nukeme I dropped a renosue potion so he could recover from his injuries.
I made sure to lower my magic power so that none of my attacks would be lethal. The others were squirming about on the ground and their leader was out right unconscious.
''Nukeme. Exin.''
"R-Right away."
<<Alert! Mana particles swarming! Portal being created>>
''What?!''
I could feel it. The weird swarm of mana particles in an area. When I looked there, I saw some guy holding Ulva in his hands. She was unconscious and the slime was trying to melt the guy''s head from the looks of things. He was about a foot away from the portal when I noticed.
''No!''
I shot a light beam at the figure''s head and only his mask fell down, but he kept running, meaning the mask had some kind of defensive property that saved him.
I flew towards them, as fast as I could. I activated [Sprint], [Throttle] and even [Fire Force], breaking up the ground and creating a sort of Boom. I stretched out my hand, trying to grab her. I even shot light magic to try to kill him, but he just fell right through the portal.
It was still open. If only I could make it. Just a few inches and I would make it.
The portal closed and I flew through blue mist. I pped my wings hard to prevent crashing into trees, but the break to abrupt. It caused a few of those tree to break up, but that didn''t matter to me at the moment.
''Ulva! Ulva! No! No! No! Damn it! No!''
I was desperately punching the ground at this moment.
[Evolver] forcefully calmed me down as it normally did. I tried to think up solutions to the problem.
''Can I open up a portal to where they went?''
<<Notice: You don''t know where they went>>
''Can''t you tell using some sort of magic portal map?''
<<Notice: No such thing exists>>
''Damn it! You should know everything happening in the world right?''
<<Notice: The skill [God''s Voice] is an encyclopedia of recorded knowledge. All current happenings in the world are unknown>>
''Argh! That wasn''t your description! You were supposed to know everything! Aren''t you an agent of the Ancient goddess?''
<<Notice: The skill [God''s Voice] is not an agent of the Ancient Goddess, but its knowledge>>
''Is that so? Then isn''t that agent always watching everything? You should know, shouldn''t you?''
<<Notice: The Agent of the Ancient Goddess does not exist anymore>>
''Ah¡ What the hell are you even talking about? Damn it¡ why am I taking my anger out on a skill?''
I calmed down and looked up. A single tear drop run down my cheek.
''No¡ I won''t cry¡ Tch¡ I-I didn''t even know her much. Argh, damn it! Damn it all!''
Chapter 76 Rescue Mission Pt.I
SPLASH!
Ciligan woke up. His eyes scanned his area quickly, and all he could see was darkness.
"A-ARRRGGGHHHH!!"
A voice came. That sounded like Charlie''s. He looked around, but he couldn''t find the kid.
"No! P-please stop! I''ll speak! I''ll speak!"
POP!
Ciligan''s heart sunk. Why would Charlie dare to sell out the boss? He tried to move, but his hands were bound and he couldn''t feel his legs. Why couldn''t he feel his legs?
He looked down, but it was so dark he couldn''t see anything.
"Who is there?"
He dared to ask.
''You are awake?''
A voice came in his head.
"Who-?"
''You don''t ask the questions here. I do.''
He felt something pierce his stomach. It was rough and hard, like a blunt de. Still, this level of pain he had trained himself to endure.
Red eyes that glowed appeared before him.
''Who are you?''
The person asked.
"Tch. Go and ask Ozvl- Arrgh!"
Something entered his sr plexus area. It was like a lightning bolt that traveled through his entire body, mind and soul alike. What was a second of brief pain felt like an eternity of the most arduous and unbearable agony and torture. He actually believed himself dead the seconds after that. That is, till he heard the voice in his head again.
''I am not in the mood to entertain stupidity today. Now answer my questions. Why did you kidnap Ulva?''
The voice asked. Ciligan knew how this worked. This person would ask him and if he responded, either the person would let him go or the person would kill him. However, the person couldn''t kill him till he spoke. That didn''t mean he wasn''t frightened. He was scared to point he felt like taking a shit, but at this moment, nothing was worse than death for him, so he wouldn''t die as long as he didn''t talk.
"Tch, if you want me to ta-"
''Trust me when I say, I don''t need you to be alive to get my answers. If you want to live, you will speak, although I can''t assure that I will allow you to live after what you''ve done.''
The tone and aura being given off. This person was dead serious. Still, Ciligan wouldn''t sell out the person who sent him. He couldn''t. What was a man who sold out the woman he loved? That was why even when he was so scared his balls had disappeared, he wouldn''t dare be a sell-out.
? With a stoic voice and demeanour, he continued as boldly as he could.
"Piss o-"
The red eyes that were staring voraciously at him faded. His mouth couldn''t move and he couldn''t feel anything. His brain tried to process what just happened, but then before it could, it died.
"-ff. Huh?"
Ciligan looked about and could only see pitch ck. He realized something was odd about his situation. His hands weren''t bound anymore and now he could feel his legs. His body felt strangely light and fuzzy. There was a fleeting feeling in his chest. He raised his hand and it was giving a faint glow, but he noticed that it was sort of intangible.
"What is this?"
He asked as he walked about.
''Oh? Trying to run away?''
The red eyes from before weren''t gone. They were staring at him, like a starving beast would look at its meal.
"You! W-What''s happened to me?"
''Don''t bother asking me. You don''t need such answers since I''m about to eat you.''
Before he any questions, he could feel myself being sucked by this being. Something definitely wasn''t right with this situation. Giant mouths grabbed him, attempting to swallow him whole.
"N-no."
He realized what was happening. Not like he could have done anything about it either way. No. He could. He could try to run. Right?
So he just tried it. He took a step forward and one of those mouths that had bitten into him disappeared. This was it. He could escape from here. So he took another step and another mouth disappeared. More steps, more mouths disappeared.
Yes! There was hope. He could make it! He could actually survive this Devil. He quickened his pace and soon, he was running. All he needed to do was to escape from this darkness. He however tripped and fell into a huge gaping whole filled with fangs and mouths that tore him up, piece by piece.
''AH... Mom always said not to y with my food.''
***
[You have consumed a whole soul]
[You will receive a 10% permanent increase in stats]
After consuming the soul, I was sent to a dark space, and there was a screen in front of me, showing me various images and videos. I had dubbed this ce the [Soul Corridor], because well, I only ever came here whenever I ate a soul. I looked through and found the information I was looking for.
He worked for some criminal mastermind called "Boss", directly under a woman named Maude. He was given orders from this woman toe and kidnap Ulva because the boss wanted her for himself to perform some nefarious deeds.
I was angry at the scene. Everything quickly shed by me and I was suddenly back in the rat men cave. Reiman came up to me.
"Did you find anything?"
''¡ Yeah.''
I told him, then I walked passed him and delivered an order.
''I''m going to the Capital of Boulderdane, Keimen City. Get me their armor, cleaned and dispose of their bodies.''
"Understood."
***
I took a look at the clothes. They were actually high grade items that gave not only defense, but had a stealth option on them as well as a dimensional storage of about 5 meters. They possessed a variety of items as well as a teleport ring.
A device that would open up teleport portals to marked locations, which meant that this was not their first time entering Larm. I was so angry, but I couldn''t do anything about it. One of the idiots even dropped a mask.
It was a pitch ck mask that had a pretty cool golden design with a ruby on it. When I appraised it, I got something interesting.
[Item Name: Performer''s Mask ¨C Stealth Edition
[Type: Normal (Non-Consumable)
[Item grade: Mid Magical
[Item Description: A mask created to boost the magical power of its wearer by 2%. The gem on the mask indicates the wearer''s affinity
# Affinity boost
# +2% magic power boost
# [Stealth] skill
[Value: 30 silver coins]
[Market price: 2 store points]
''Ah¡ the fact that this is only 2 store points, while being 30 silver is scary. It means the store points are quite valuable, no? I mean, agent, how much money would I need to build a king''s castle?''
<<Notice: 1000 gold coins>><novelnext></novelnext>
''W-Wait¡ only 1000? I expected 10,000 at the very least. Trante that into silver for me.''
<<Notice: 8000 silver coins>>
''Ah¡ so how much silver would I need to build a lesser noble''s house?''
<<Notice: 2,400 silver>>
''Ah¡ humans in this era have a weird sense of value. Anyway, this mask will be useful.''
I shoved it into my inventory forter.
"Lady Hinotori! I heard about Ulva!"
The one who said this was Sylvie. I was surprised she even cared and the fact that she rushed all the way here. She looked kind of worried and slowly approached me.
"Are you, ok?"
''Yeah. I''m just going to get Ulva back.''
"What?! You''re going into the human city to find her?"
She eximed.
''Yes.''
I responded. I really wasn''t interested in wasting any time here today.
"C-Can I help in anyway?"
''Yeah. Can you alter these clothes so they fit my human form?''
"Can I see your human form first?"
I showed it to her and she screamed.
"You look so adorable! I want to hug you forever!"
''Sylvie. Get serious here.''
"Oh. Sorry."
She let go of me and scanned me from head to toe.
"What kind of style would you like?"
''I''m not sure. The same style as theirs but with higher defenses and sort of improved? Should also fit mefortably.''
"I see. Yeah, I think I can make something for you."
''Can you be done before tomorrow?''
"Yeah. No problem."
''Ok. I''m counting on you then.''
She left off with the clothes and I was in the cave by myself, till Minerva came back with a bull deer in hand and a pissed off air about her. She was scowling and I noticed that something was growing out of her forehead. It looked swollen. Did she actually get injured from her fight with the Ogre?
"Is Tori-kun ok?"
She asked and sat next to me.
''Yeah. What happened to your head?''
"Minerva heard the humans take Ulva away, so Minerva was going to destroy the nearby human city to find Ulva."
''And so what happened to your head?''
"Minerva had a really good n too. Minerva was going to go bash up all the human''s heads."
''And so what happened to your head?''
"Goliath stopped Minerva."
''Ah¡ so that''s what happened to your head?''
As if she just heard my question, Minerva finally answered me.
"Huh? This bump? Minerva noticed this after fighting Krull. Minerva doesn''t know what happened."
''Ah¡ so Krull punched you in the forehead and you don''t remember anything?''
"Hmm? No, no. Krull did not punch Minerva''s head."
She adamantly denied this fact and I could just watch. Either way, it was my fault, so I wouldn''t try to y the smarter guy role here.
I also understood where Goliath wasing from. They said Minerva took down a nation, but all she did was beat adventurers, not an actual nation. And if she were to move into their territory, [Overlord] would be quite useless and her loss would be inevitable. Even if she somehow managed to win, other nations would get involved in the matter. One nation''s destruction could be seen as a threat to the others, so they would most likely band up just to take care of Minerva. And why stop there? They could clear all the tyrants and take Larm for themselves and after that, go back to backstabbing each other. There was simply no good oue for the tyrants if Minerva went on a rampage.
"Should Minerva go and fight the hum-"
''No! I-I''ll handle this.''
I stopped her before she tried to run away and handle the situation herself. I wondered why Minerva was doing this, though. She ended up actually liking Ulva, huh? Maybe all the times I left those two together made them get closer.
"Tch. Punch the thief for Minerva, then. Also bring some things from the city."
''Stuff? I''m not sure I''ll be able to, but sure.''
I told her and both of us just sat there in silence for a while, before Minerva started poking my jelly body again, with me shouting "Piik!" everything time it happened.
Then I got an interesting notice.
[The servant Kawaii is requesting Mana from you. Will you ept their request?]
? [YES]/[NO]
''Kawaii? But¡ wait, can I see the location of Kawaii?''
<<Affirmative>>
I was then shown a screen with a red dot out in a wilderness. There was a ck dot in a tiny mapped out part though, but the red was quite far away from the ck dot. I assumed the ck dot was me and the red dot was Kawaii. Which meant, my map was iplete so I wouldn''t know Kawaii''s exact location till I mapped it out.
I let out a sigh.
''What does it need the mana for?''
<<Notice: That is unknown>>
''Hmm¡ would you rmend I do it?''
<<¡>>
''So you''re not sure, huh? I can think up several reasons as to why the slime would be asking me for mana, and most of them look quite reasonable. (No. It''s not weird that a sentient slime is asking me for something!)''
''Let it ess the mana reserves of the other servants.''
I gave it permission to do so, but I didn''t want it touching my reserves. I then sent messages to other servants. I told Shiroi to go into the dungeons I she wanted to get stronger, since she was close to evolving like Yokino was. Since ording to the timber wolves, being a king wasn''t even in their evolution process. Something about simply being chosen by the Moon Goddess.
I also told her to tell her brother to try it out, but he was being some kind of annoying brat about it. I also told Reiman to makeworks to Keimen just in case of anything, although that process would take a lot of time, probably some weeks. Yokino was still sleeping. I didn''t know that the evolution process took out so much energy out of anyone.
And I also reorganized the memories I took from the Ciligan guy. I tried finding out more about him, but this bastard was your clich¨¦ gang leader. Born and bred on the streets, he was the toughest around and no one dared to mess with him, till some noble man decided to take over the streets. Soon, Ciligan was forcefully absorbed into the man''s forces. There, he found love.
Honestly¡ what a boring story.
Chapter 77 Rescue Mission Pt.II
The Bee Hive was unusually active today. The bees, insects, fire flies, centipedes and spiders had been moving about, preparing several resources. Obviously, deep in the Bee Hive, existed the Bee Queen. This ce was original owned by the Bees, but the former Spider king saw it a fit ce to make her nest. That was before her child, the spider known as Yokino, overthrew her.
Yokino could not aplish this feat on her own. Even as a King, Yokino was never as powerful as her mother. To make up for this, she gathered allies. Pawns, as she would call them. Ten different bug-like monsters, with whom she overtook their heads, created a powerful army just to overtake her mother. This caused a very annoying ruckus in the forest a month ago and after that, no one dared to go bother the Bee Hive.
One of those ten subordinates had made an appearance, after having to take an exhausting trip from the south, where the Giant White Ants roamed. This creature was the current Ant King, and servant of Yokino.
It was almost as big as the former spider king, too heavy to move on its own and being carried by an army of Giant Ants. The king was currently resting in the Bee Hive, waiting its master''s appearance. It actually was in a haste, wanting to deliver the news personally.
"Huh? You''re here?"
A voice the Ant King recognized all too well came out. However, the weird part was that the voice was not in her head this time. She looked about and could identify a naked human in the cave. No. She couldn''t call that thing human. Giant spider legs were sticking out of their back. The person possessed a voluptuous figure, with long curly ck hair reaching down to her generously sized chest. She looked wet, as if she had juste out of the bath. Her skin was smooth and fair, and her eyes had no colour to them in the dark.
However, one would be a fool to mistake her for a weak human. The magical aura she was producing waspletely absurd, easily surpassing the level of the former spider king.
''My queen¡ you look¡ different.''
The ant king could onlyment like this.
"Oh? Is that so?"
She asked, looking at her body.
"Hmm¡ I guess so. Anyway, what are you doing here? And on such short notice."
Yokino switched the topic immediately, trying to get straight to the point. She was a terribly busy creature, always receiving information, giving orders, monitoring the well-being of her subordinates and making sure they grew up strong, powerful and unmatched. Basically, she didn''t like it when people wasted her time.
''Yes. I came here quickly to deliver very important news.'' The ant king began. Yokino''s hands began to produce some threads and her legs went to work, weaving something. ''For the past month, there have been undead mobilizing and killing the monsters in the south.''
"Hmm? Undead? I thought that wasn''t out of the ordinary for Larm though. I mean, undead are born in ces with condense mana, so Larm is perfect for them, right?"
Yokino said, not even paying attention to the ant king.
''Yes. However, there was something odd about them. They were organized and we felt it quite absurd. At first they took down weak creatures, then slowly proceeded to take down normal monsters. Soon, they were taking down powerful creatures and multiplying. Much like an army. And the other races in the south were speaking of a possible inter-racial war or something.''
"Hmm¡ Possibly a necromancer."
''Yes. It is a necromancer.''
"Then just start with that next time!"
''Sorry."
"So? Did you see this necromancer?"
Yokino''s hands started to glow with vibrant rainbow colours. The Ant King had no idea what that was, but whenever Yokino did it, she woulde out with some crazy skill and n, although before she would see Yokino''s ws glowing instead.
''Thest to see the necromancer said she was surrounded by five powerful undead. These undead possessed weird horns on their head and looked very old.''
"Ah¡ that''s some bull description right there."
''They also smell off the Zwurix Tombs.''
"Ah! Lead with that next time, you idiot!"
''Sorry.''
The ant king apologized and Yokino sighed. The Ant king took a bite out of the dead creatures that centipedes dragged in for her.
"Hmm, I guess you''ve done well by telling me this. You deserve a reward."
''A reward? Oh, please give me one master!''
A dog.
That was how Yokino saw the ant king. Just a cute dog. The first time they met, the ant king tried to eat Yokino to survive, but the spider managed to survive. Yokino wanted to kill it, but she couldn''t and ended up letting the ant help her and that was when she first got the idea to create a group so they could protect themselves. That lead her to bing so powerful she just absorbed members into her party one after the other till she defeated her own mother.
"Inu. I shall call you Inu from henceforth."
______________________________________
Later that evening, Sylvie brought the clothes to me. It gave me thrice as much defense as the originals, had the same spatial storage effect from earlier, but she said that the [Stealth] option was removed so she could add the option for higher attack power and smooth magical conductivity bycing it with some mithril she found in the Bee Hive.
[Item Name: Performer''s Gear ¨C Type: Battle
[Type: Normal (Non-Consumable)
[Item grade: Low Rare
[Item Description: A suit crafted for scouts. You can see that its creator put in certain effects that would make one prepared for war or sudden battles. Its wearer needs to be quick on their feet, although even if they were dumb, they wouldn''t manage to be killed easily.
# +150 defense
# Inventory (5 m)
# +200 attack power
# 30% Mana Conductance
[Value: 4 gold coins]
[Market price: 5 store points]
I was surprised. Even more so to see that it was perfectly my size even though she never took measurements or anything. She exined to me that she actually could see the measurements of everything and I assumed it had something to do with her unique skill.
I thanked her for it and put it on. She even added a cape that had the stealth function, so in a sense, nothing was lost at all. So if I put them all together as one with the mask, I was actually a sort of ninja at this point.
I wanted to go alone, but Nukeme came,ining about how it was due to his negligence that Ulva go kidnapped. To be honest, I didn''t want to go alone, but I also didn''t want to go with him alone.
"Oi! You didn''t think you were going anywhere without me, right?"
Looking back, a beautiful tall woman with long flowing red hair, and some of it tied up into a bun with a pair of sticks chocking it. Her face was stunning, with full rosy red lips. Herrge eyes had no specific colour, changing depending on which angle one viewed them. She was clothed in a ck yukata with blood red spider web designs all over it. She was wearing some sandals, making her look like some kind of European trying to be Japanese.
''Yokino?''
"In the flesh. I look sexy, no?"
''What do you want? I''m busy right now.''
"Tch. This new attitude is no fun. I need the other chicken back, so I''ll be helping you."
She said with a pout. Thanks to her, I didn''t have to go anywhere with Nukeme. The hob-goblin seemed disappointed, and I didn''t care.
I looked at the portal and shrugged. I walked through and she followed after. For a while, I couldn''t feel my body. It were almost like I didn''t exist, my thoughts shing and scrambling, but instantlying back together.
I jumped out of the portal andnded on a wooden table. Yokino came out behind me and then the portal closed up. Looking around, I saw a bunch of rough looking men and women, wearing hoods, armor, carrying armors, drinking alcohol, eating or ying games. They all stopped their activities and were now looking at us.
They wouldn''t be able to see my face through my mask and since I was new, I was definitely suspicious. I jumped down the table and moved towards the counter, Yokino moving right behind me.
"Hey there! New guys in town, don''t mind us."
Yokino spoke the human tongue, confusing me.<novelnext></novelnext>
''You can speak human?''
''Yeah, so just leave the talking to me. It''ll be even more suspicious to see you using [Telepathy] instead of actual speech.''
"What can I get ya?"
The bar tender came over. He was a round man, with no hair and three w marks over his face. He wore round sses and had a scary expression. He wore a green vest over his white shirt which had been rolled up, revealing his hairy arms.
"Water for the kid, a lil bit of the usual for me."
Yokino said.
"That''ll cost ya 4 coppers."
He said.
"Oh really? Sorry, but I think I left my money at the other side of the portal."
Yokino tried to lie to him. I noticed her using her skill [Lustful Gaze], but it had no effect on the man.
"Then go get it."
He said then walked away to another person on the counter.
''Well that didn''t go too well.''
I mused.
''I''d like to see you try.''
She said to me.
''I can''t speak, remember?''
''Well, theoretically you should be able to, especially since this is your human body.''
She said something I hadn''t even thought about. I opened my mouth, in an attempt to produce sound, and yes sound came. Now that I had lips, I could properly manipte my speech hopefully, and with the agent giving me the trantions, I should be able to speak, although my pronunciations might have been a bit off.
"I¡ see."
I said and the spider looked surprised.
"Since when did you know humannguage?"
"Always."
I told her, trying to sound cocky.
"Ha! As if, you stupid bird brain."
"Shut¡ it! You¡ idiot¡ bug¡ eyes!"
"Hahaha! You still can''t talk properly."
"Tch."
Yokino had a stughing at me, and even wiped a tear from her eye.
"That''s the chicken I know, now. Don''t let little matters just upset you so easily. We''ll get Ulva and we''ll be back home before you know it, alright?"
She managed to cheer me up, something the others hadn''t been able to do. I was grateful to her for that, at the same time impressed by her abilities.
"Still, we need to find a way to get money."
BAM!
The bar tender dropped two cups on the counter in front of us. One contained alcohol and the other, water.
"Why?"
Yokino asked.
"Some creep''s got the hots for ya."
We followed his gaze and saw two men approaching us. They looked like the average punk ¨C messy ck hair, mediocre armor, visible scars on their body, slim and greedy gazes.
"Heya, you guys are new to town, ain''t that the case?"
One of them said. His name was Eridin and he was hitting on Yokino. The Arachne looked at him and showed a devilish smile.
"Yeah, we''re new. You boys gonna show us the ropes?"
She asked. And the other guy licked his lips.
"Yeah, we''ll show ya. And it won''t even cost ya a copper."
"Oh my, then I guess I better follow you, then. Let''s go, little Tori."
Yokino called out to me. She was nning on grabbing the man in an alleyway and torturing him for information and money. I was down for her idea, until the other guy ced his hand on my chest.
"Hohoho, sorry. I kinda slipped- OH!"
I grabbed his hand and flipped him over the counter. I made sure to twist his wrist to cause him pain. He kept wriggling in pain on the counter.
"Ow! OW! T-That hurts. Stop! Stop!"
"Sorry¡ I¡ slipped."
I mocked him.
''Um, chicken. I think it would be best if you stopped now.''
I looked back and everyone in the bar was looking at me with stretched out hands. To be honest, I wasn''t scared, because the average human here wasn''t strong at all. No wonder they bore scars and wounds. Even bull deer could kill them. My only problem, was the bar tender.
This guy was not normal in the slightest.
"I''d believe it best you stopped now."
He threatened. His sharp emerald eyes would have been more than enough for me to stop in the first ce. I let go of the man''s wrist and walked next to Yokino.
''I think we should leave now.''
She nodded and followed after me. The bar tender however said something before I left.
"You. You''re from that guy''s battalion, right? That Lion bastard."
Confused, I wanted to ask more, but I was too scared to do so. I felt like if I ventured further, that night wouldn''t end well for me.
Chapter 78 Alleyway Fight
"Tch. Shoot their heads off."
Seiko ordered in a restless breath. He tried pushing off the mummies that were piling on top of his body, but they just kept on jumping him, slowly crushing his body. Their rusty ws kept on digging into his skin and he was bleeding. Poison was slowly entering his open body and is lungs were being squeezed.
Jasmine was standing some distance away and she was fiddling with the hand gun Seiko had thrown at her.
"H-How do I shoot with this?"
"Pull the trigger, damn it!"
His tone was abnormally angered. Jasmine just kept looking at the gun. It was a tiny beautiful weapon, light yet carrying a powerful punch. Its barrel was a dull cobalt blue and the handle was a reddish-brown. Jasmine rose it up and pointed it at Seiko after remembering how the young man shot his targets.
"Like this?"
"Yes! But don''t point that at me!"
BANG!
It was toote. She had already pressed the trigger. She kept on shooting wild fires, randomly destroying the mummies, all the while shooting a hole in Seiko''s forehead. She didn''t notice this however, since all she saw were more mummies jumping onto the pile.
"Ugh! Screw your stupid guns!"
She dropped the gun and took out her daggers. They shimmered purple and she pounced on her opponents, shing without care.
"I''ll save you Seiko!"
She yelled and just kept on attacking without rest. She remained there for about an hour, before she managed to dig out Seiko''s body and drag him out of there. He was heavily covered in blood and she could hear a sort of crack sounding from his body. He had broken some bones.
"S-Seiko¡ you good?"
She put her head to his chest to check for a heartbeat. There was nothinging. She realized that his body was cold and then she raised her head. Seiko had died and it was because of her.
"Oh no! Seiko! How dare you die on me, you bastard! N-Now, I won''t be able to make it to the city."
She cried out, her eyes starting to tear up.
"H-How will I exin this to any one? Thatdy you were talking about¡ she''ll kill me, won''t she?"
The tears streaked down her cheeks, her voice simply echoing through the empty tomb.
"I-I can''t just lose my first friend like this."
She put her head to his chest and let out her sobs. Sure, Seiko was rough, but he was definitely Jasmine''s first friend. She didn''t even know where she came from so she wouldn''t know if she had any friends prior, but Seiko was her friend even in her current situation.
Her face felt hot. Probably from fighting for too long. In fact steam was rising up. No. This was too hot to be the result of her fighting too long. She rose her head and backed away from Seiko''s body. He was steaming and Jasmine realized that something was happening to his body.
"Ah¡ Seiko! W-What is this?"
Budum! Budum! Budum!
She could heart heartbeats and it wasn''t hers. And nothing in this tomb was alive, so there was only one other thing that could make a heartbeat. Seiko.
The dark-skinned male sat up quickly and he scratched his white hair.
"Uwaa~ I really don''t like dying."
He said. He looked around and noticed that Jasmine was simply staring at him. He scowled at her, but she jumped at him.
"You''re alive!"
She yelled, but he grabbed her head.
"Do you know how painful it is to die?! You crazy brat!"
"Greash! Shuev''re shtill aive!"
She said with a chipper voice even though her head was being crushed by Seiko''s incredibly muscr arms.
"Maybe I should kill you here and you''ll understa- Wait¡ did you kill all of those mummies?"
He looked up and noticed mountains of mummies.
"Ywevsh."
"Ah¡ You¡ Sigh."
He dropped the girl and stood up.
"Let''s hurry up to the teleport gate. We also need to report this."
"You know, a thank you wouldn''t kill you!"
_______________________________________
"Damn it. We could have gotten more information out of them had you just held back a little."
Yokino was angry.
"I know, I know. It''s not my fault that he touched me."
"Seriously? But you''re just a child¡ No. In fact, with your speed, you should have been able to grab his hand before he touched you."
She said.
"I know you may not believe me, but he actually sped up the fall. It was so shocking I didn''t move."
I tried exining the situation to her, but she wasn''t taking it. She sighed and pinched her temple. I noticed that her hair was glowing red, like some kind of light bulb.
"Um¡ your hair''s glowing."
I pointed out and she looked up,pletely shocked. Her hair stopped glowing and then turned a dull purple.
"Your hair changes colour?"
I asked her.
"I-I''m not sure. I guess."
"Ha! So you''re a clown, huh?"
We just kept walking in the alleyways. Luckily no one had seen her hair change colour so we were still good.
"Shut it, you damned Bird brian!"
I wouldn''t point out the fact that she said Brian instead of Brain. Now wasn''t the time. I needed to go to where Kawaii was on the map as well as avoid the person tailing us. I sent a message to Yokino using [Telepathy] and she didn''t even act differently.
We kept walking in the alley till we got to a corner where I used [Shadow Travel] to reappear on the nearby roof. Yokino on the other hand simply stayed on the ground and kept walking as if nothing happened. She paused, then looked at where I originally was.
"Tori? Tori!? Mistress, where art thou!"
She screamed like a maiden in distress. I sighed and shook my head. I noticed the person who was tailing us. He was a hooded figure. He was a little bit stronger than Gorm, but definitely not as strong as a C rank monster. He seemed to be a swordsman and not an assassin. This would be interesting.<novelnext></novelnext>
However, then I noticed a rock fall from the building across the one I stood. I looked up and saw someone pointing an arrow at me. Also a cloaked figure withrge eyes. I couldn''t make out much more about the person.
We both just stared at each other for a while, neither party deciding to make the first move.
***
Yokino had just realized that her hair could glow and thought that she needed to cover it up, since she wasn''t sure of how to control it. She attempted to weave a sort of hat in the moment, but then she noticed that she was being trailed.
Hinotori too had realized this, but showing the person tailing them that they knew was not a good sign, so she acted as if she didn''t.
"Shut it! You damned, Bird Brian!"
She messed up. Now the chicken wouldugh at her for that mistake.
''Oi, eight eyes. I think we''re being followed.''
''Yeah. I noticed.''
''Seriously? You''re pretty good with these things. Was your job in your former life some kind of security guard?''
''Assassin.''
Yokino''s response came after a bit of thinking so Hinotori was confused whether to take that for an actual answer or a teasing one. She took thetter.
The two proceeded to walk as if nothing had happened, but then Hinotori disappeared into the shadows. Yokino saw this as an opportunity. But, now to get into character.
"Tori? Tori? Mistress, where art thou?!"
She yelled at the top of her voice in an impressively convincing manner. She noticed that the person tailing her came out of his hiding spot and was now looking at her from the end of the alley way. He was looking at her restlessly. Yokino turned to him and ran at an average woman''s pace, or what she assumed to be that.
"You! H-Have you seen the young mistress?"
She was getting close to him.
"S-she was about this high, was wearing ck dress and blonde hair."
She reached out her hand to grab his chest and cry out to him like some sort of desperate mother looking for her daughter, but then there was arge kick that came flying out from behind the guy. However, she had anticipated moves being made, so she brought out one of her spider legs to stab the man in the legs, but then something intercepted her leg.
She looked up and noticed two girls. One was holding her hands and the other her leg. The girls weren''t as tall as the man, just a few inches shorter than he was ¨C several shorter than Yokino. They had cat ears sticking out of their heads and tails waggling behind them. Both of their eyes were glowing as they hissed at her.
"She doesn''t smell human."
The one holding Yokino''s leg said.
"We told you to be careful, stupid hero."
The otherined. The man let out a nervousugh and Yokino tensed up at the mention of hero. She immediately freed herself from the girl''s grasp and flung her somewhere. For the girl holding her leg, another leg came flying, stronger than the first and sting her away.
"You! If you''re the hero, you have to die!"
She yelled in a rage and went for a slice at his neck. After havingpletely overwhelm the two beast folk with her physical capabilities alone, she assumed a normal human wouldn''t be a problem. She quickly changed this notion as he drew his sword with unbelievable speed and almost cut her neck off.
She shot a water spear at him, but he just cut through it with ease.
''D-DANGEROUS!''
All her instincts screamed at her for a split second and then she became cautious with her work. This guy was the hero, meaning she couldn''t take him lightly. His movements from earlier confirm that.
"Woah. That was a close one."
He said and charged at Yokino. He swiped at her and she dodged the move as easily as he did. A punch to his gut and the man stumbled back a bit.
Yokino was surprised. Compared to the charisma he gave off earlier, this was underwhelming. She shot a spider web at his eyes, but the force behind the shot was so powerful he was sent flying back.
''Ah¡ is this the same guy I thought would cut off my neck a second ago?''
She was really disappointed. The beast folk though were up and charged at her from opposite sides.
"I don''t want to y with you two, but let''s y for only a second, kay?"
Yokino''s eyes glowed in the darkness as the two came and passed right through her.
"Interesting. Interesting."
They looked and saw her standing horizontally on a wall.
"Is this how it works?"
They looked down and saw another Yokino standing there and fanning herself. Another appeared next to them and another sitting over Marcus. More and more kept joining till the girls couldn''t tell which was which.
"I see. I see. So not even a cat person''s sense of smell can evade this magic spell¡ let''s see. I shall name this spell Spider''s Webbed ss."
Yokino had terrible naming sense.
***
''Should I shoot? Or I shouldn''t. She doesn''t seem dangerous, but she could use teleportation and noticed Marcus tailing her. Would my arrows even hit? How strong is she? Ah whatever. I''ll just shoot her if she makes a mo-AH!''
I tapped them on the shoulder after using [Shadow Travel] to appear behind her.
"You¡ are¡ right¡ your¡ arrows¡ won''t¡ work."
I told them and they instantly increased the distance between us, shooting a volley of arrows immediately. Not wanting to make noise, I used [Shadow Maniption] to put up a wall of shadows between me and the arrows, while also grabbing my target''s legs and covering her mouth.
? ''Damn¡ my control is quite good. Anyway, now to get more answers out of an attacker.''
I wanted to move towards them, but then I noticed something jumping out from behind me. It was a giant of man clothed in a cloak much like the two. He brought down arge battle axe and I stepped to the side, easily avoiding it. I punched his gut causing him to stumble back after a loud nk.
"W-What the hell?"
He eximed. I walked up to him and punched his head, creating arge nking sound and just digging him into the roof.
''T-This bastard¡ who wears armor this heavy under a cloak and can still evade radar?''
He looked up at me, his ck eyes filled with determination. Was this supposed to be a battle of will power?
''Interesting¡ but no thanks.''
I started to choke him with the shadows. I lifted him off the roof and just looked at him, trying to grasp shadows. Quite the useless attempt to be honest, since one couldn''t actually touch darkness, much like how it was logically impossible to touch light.
I looked down and noticed that Yokino was having her own battles. The guy who was chasing us earlier and two other people. They had cat tails. Two beast folk!
''Damn it! Seriously, did I only now see beast folk? And its cat girls!''
She finished them up in no time. I dropped the guy I was choking and went over to the archer. I removed her hood and her silver blonde hair reflected the moon light. Herrge blue eyes red at me, but I couldn''t care less. Under other circumstances, I would have been sad to see an elf giving me those eyes. Or maybe I could develop a thing for this¡ Nope. That''d be weird.
"What¡ do¡ you¡ want?"
I asked her and she just clicked her tongue.
Chapter 79 Hero Party Pt.I
Keimen City, Red Light District
Inside avish bar filled with jolly drunkards and women in obscene outfits moving about, serving drinks, sat a man in ck with a mask on his face. Grimm ck was his name and everyone hade to fear it. Rumours had it that he wasn''t human. Some say he was a beast person, others said a markari. People went so far as saying he was a vampire from the Realm of Eternal Night. If not, at least one of the many terrifying races from there.
Most steered clear of his path. This could be attributed to his reputation as a fine mercenary. One of the best around. Never missed a target. There were even some iming that they had seen him beat B rank adventurers easily like they were a joke. Some said he could take down the famous Kings of Larm easily if he wanted to. Cold, calcting and quiet. The ultimate assassin.
So when such a person sat next to a beauty, drinking a cup of alcohol and heartilyughing his heart out, it raised suspicion for all those around him. Albeit interested, they refused to let him know that, so they would half-heartedly do what they were doing.
"You know, I''ve always wondered how you drink with your mask on."
The woman, a fair maiden with cherokee-like skin, a nice figure in a revealing outfit that covered only the bare minimum and cherry red hair braided into a locks said in amusement.
"There''s a trick to it¡ hic¡ I could show¡ hic¡ you."
He saidzily, hupping in between words. He kept spinning about andughing.
"Wow. You''re in quite the cheery mood, no? Even having a drink with me out in public."
She took a sip of her cup and smiled brilliantly at him.
"Sorry¡ hic¡ about that¡ hic¡ but you know w-¡ hic¡ why, right?"
Grimm rested his head on the table. His hood fell down, revealing his beautiful silver hair that was a mess. The woman passed her hands right through his hair and caressed him.
"Of course I do, my love."
Her dazzling emerald eyes looked on his image with a gaze of interest, confusion and a hint of tender sweetness. This was a very stunning feature of hers that had many men fawning over her. Even now, Grimm was captivated by them.
"Did I ever tell you that you have the most beautiful eyes?"
"Every single time we meet out in secret, darling. Still, I wonder why we can just meet out like this all of a suddenly."
"Hic¡ Well, the truth is¡ hic¡ I- I wanna get m-"
One of the women working in the bar walked over to their table and put down a tray. She leaned in close and whispered something into Grimm''s partner''s ears. She sighed and removed her hands from his head.
"Darling, it would seem that you have more work to do. Let''s leave this forter, ok?"
Her facial expression was now one of obvious disappointment and anger. She got up from the table and leaned into the man''s face. With a kiss to his head, she walked away, her mere steps showing grace and elegance one wouldn''t expect a person living in the slumps to possess.
Another figure reced her seat. It was Maude, her dirty blonde hair was a bit ruffled and she was huffing heavily.
Grimm looked up at her, although it wasn''t easy to know that. Hisck of words and calm, paced breathing would have lead anyone to believe that he was fast asleep. However not Maude. She knew this guy like the back of her palm.
She took out her hand and removed the thick gloves covering them. She sliced open a wound in her palm and blood dripped onto the table. On lookers just observed quietly, causing the whole room to turn silent, all eyes hungry for information on what would happen next.
Grimm stood up abruptly, causing his chair to fly off, same for some tiny ck balls which rolled all around the room.
"W-What are th-"
Just as someone asked, the balls caused an explosion of ck smoke which blinded everyone.
"S-Smoke bombs?!"
"What the hell!?"
In the midst of the confusion, the duo had snuck out of the room and were currently at the roof of the building. Maude was stunned by the sudden change in environment, but when she looked up, all she saw was a hunched up Grimm puking his guts out.
She sighed and wiped the blood off her hand, before wearing her gloves again.
"How are you still not used to it?"
She stood up and dusted herself.
"Gaaaaaahhhhhh¡. *HIISSSSS*."
She noticed the hissing sound and looked up at him. From the corner of his face, she noticed the red eyes glowing violently and staring at her hungrily. His mask wasn''t on his face anymore. Slowly stumbling towards her caused her to reflexively put her hand to the sword on her hilt. Grimm however stopped in front of the mask and picked it up, wearing it quickly and calming himself.
"Phew¡ for a second there I thought you were going to g-"
Before she could finish that sentence, her body was lifted over the ground. Grimm was grasping her cor and growling angrily.
"Damn it, Maude! How many times?! How many damned times do I have to tell you not to pull such stunts before you realise that showing me blood will be the end of you? You''ll die one of these days you know?"
While looking angrily at her, he noticed her eyes were expressionless, with a nk smile on her face.
"Didn''t we already agree that we were going to die anyways after what woulde next?"
His grasp on her cor loosened and he slowly lost his temper.
"He¡ I thought you knew that I already died before, so you doing so wouldn''t really affect me."
Having been dropped, Maude promptly straightened her shirt. The air around them both was a bit awkward, but this wasn''t the first time they had argued like this about this very matter, so it quickly cleared up.
"So? What did you want?"
"Sorry for ruining your date, but it would seem like some monsters are in the city."
"Huh? So why are you telling me? You know I don''t care about Adventurer stuff anymore."
"True¡ except that this isn''t adventurer stuff. The city''s Adventurer Guild doesn''t even know of its appearance."<novelnext></novelnext>
"Hmm? Get to the point."
"Well¡ this is a sort of unfinished business for you. Remember when you sent that squad into Larm to retrieve the experiment?"
"Ah¡ the monster that markari spoke of?"
"Yep. I got reports of such a creature appearing through a portal gate in Old Co''s Bar."
"Tch¡ am I supposed to go subjugate them?"
"No¡ just watch it. It could prove useful to my ns. If possible scout its strength too."
Grimm scratched his head and walked towards the edge of the roof.
"Anything else?"
"Nope. Just make sure not to confront it."
After receiving that order, Grimm jumped off the roof.
"Oi! Get me off here first! It''s freezing cold ya bastard! Grimm?! Oi! Oi! Get back here!"
Her screams just went out into the cold night. Some noticed her and threw their empty bottles at her to shut her up.
------------------------------------
"We didn''t mean to startle you guys. We just wanted to talk to you."
The elf in front of me said. She looked quite distressed. Since she wasn''t human, I assumed I could just use [Telepathy] without raising any suspicion.
''Why?''
Her eyes widened after hearing my voice in her head, but they calmed down.
"Y-You''re searching for someone, right?"
''Ulva.''
I dug my leg into her stomach.
''Where are you keeping my sister?''
"W-We don''t have your sister!"
She grunted out the words. With her skill set, escape from me was practically impossible. Stalling for time was useless since I had proved to her that sneak attacks were useless against me. I even used [Devil''s Miasma] in order to scare the answer out of her.
"P-Please¡ I-I d-don''t know."
She begged, crying in front of me. I almost wondered what she was seeing to break her morale so quickly.
I dropped her then looked at her unconscious partner. She kept shivering on the ground and I moved on to Yokino.
''Yokino. Did you find anything from him?''
I got no response. I moved to edge of the building and looked down. She wasn''t there. Even on my map, I couldn''t track her. Her sudden disappearance got me so angry I just snapped and my magical aura burst.
''Damned spider. Now isn''t the time for pranks!''
I was just going to leave them there, but then the guy from before called out to me.
"Hey! Tori, right?!"
I moved to his side quickly and looked him in the eye.
"How¡ do¡ you¡ know¡ my¡ name?"
I asked and even though he was blindfolded, I could sort of sense a bit of fearlessness from him.
"We know where she is. Your sister."
I tore apart the web from his eyes and he screamed in a bit of pain. I grabbed his shirt and brought him down to my eye level once again.
"Go¡ on¡"
I ordered and he looked down.
"Hehe¡ can''t I just see you without your mask?"
He said then I just punched him in the face, certain that I knocked him out. I let out a sigh and looked around. Their organized attack made me assume that they were working together. And they knew about Ulva, meaning I couldn''t just ignore them here. So I shoved them all into the spatial storage that the suit carried and decided to find somewhere to hide out for the night till they all woke up.
I ended up moving about the entire night and even stumbled upon the red light district of the town. They didn''t pay any attention to me since I was a little girl, although there were some drunk weirdos like that.
Someone eventually came up and asked why I was standing there. They were two subi carrying bottles of wine. They said they had been sent to go buy the wine for some clients. Why they told me this? I had no idea, but I decided to ask where I could find an inn. They pointed me in the right direction, so I managed to get to an inn. They even gave me two silver coins to get myself a nice apartment for the night.
I was really weirded out, but I simply took it and moved, so I rented out a room for one night in a sort of luxurious inn. I got myself a reallyfortable room at the top floor of the building and even some people came to attend to me with nice room service.
At first, I was suspicious, but after piecing one and two together, I realized that the two women from before thought I was a little subus, so they were trying to be friendly with me. I was surprised that they would go out of their way to give me two silver coins though. That felt abnormally generous.
Chapter 80 Hero Party Pt.II
I removed the attackers from my inventory and dropped them onto the floor and removed their cloaks. Could you believe that the cloaks had the option for [Undetectable Stealth]? That was better than mine by far, although they were light and provided practically no defense whatsoever. Still, I was sure I could find a way to fuse them with my cloak to get something good.
They were two humans, two cat girls and one elf. All unconscious and I stripped them of their gear. All of them but the small human possessed nothing interesting. Simple mediocre gear. The blonde human though was carrying a sword called Crooked Dainsleif. I wondered if it had any rtion to the one I was thinking about, and its stats were absurd.
[Item Name: Crooked Dainsleif
[Type: Soul [Unawaken] (Non-Consumable)
[Item grade: Low Epic
[Item Description: A poor imitation of the original that was once wielded by the Legendary Hero ****. This weapon is crooked and clearly can''t possibly be the actual Legendary Weapon. Still¡ if one listens close enough, one can hear a heartbeat and a voice.
# +300 attack power
# -150 speed
# -200 dexterity
# +5% magic power boost
# Attack Resistance
# Magical Attack Nullification (1 charge per 5 days) [0/1]
[Value: 20 gold coins]
[Market price: 15 store points]
''Ah¡ if one''s stats weren''t abnormal on their own, wasn''t this sword practically a nuisance? And what''s a soul type of weapon?''
<<Notice: A soul weapon is a weapon that possesses a soul within it>>
''A soul¡ huh? Still this is some cheap knock off of the original and its creator didn''t put in much effort into properly making it. It''s freaking unbnced. I don''t know much about making weapons, but I''m sure everything is supposed to be bnced and this guy who is using this weapon, isn''t it a pain in the ass, especially with his stats? He was barely C - rank, let own having high enough stats to use something like this. Is he dumb?''
While I was thinking about that, I heard the sound of something falling down from outside. I moved to the window, but I didn''t see anything out there. I just found the view of the city. It wasn''t something to boast about. Well, I was in the nice part of town, but beyond that was just darkness. No lights, no happy night walks, nothing but lifeless streets.
''I didn''t expect this to be how my first time in a city would go.''
At least I had somewhere to rest in case I got tired. I didn''t expect that finding Ulva would be easy, but I needed to do a little bit of information gathering. If they had mages on their side, jumping straight in to fight would be suicidal and stupid. Or if there were B or A ranked humans around, I''d be in for a doozy.
I didn''t want to leave the humans here by themselves, but then I didn''t know exactly what to do. Leaving them with only binds would be dumb since the elf had the skill [Trap Escape Level 8]. She would simply free herself and then the others.
After thinking for a while, I realized that I needed Yokino here to watch over them for me, but I couldn''t even contact her and that was infuriating. In the end, I came to the conclusion that I needed help from one of the monsters in the West. So I informed Gorm and he said Nukeme was ready. At first, I wasn''t interested, but since I was just going to be leaving him alone with the humans, it didn''t matter much.
I opened a teleport gate for him and he came through, full of happiness. I gave him the order and he followed it to the letter, allowing me to rest assured that I could go scouting the area.
***
Day 28
"Hinotori-sama, Hinotori-sama, please wake up!"
I heard Nukeme cry for me. Slowly, I opened my eyes, only to be met by an unfamiliar white ceiling. For a second, I was confused as to where I was, but when I looked around, I realized I was in the room I booked the previous night.
[You are now level 20/30]
[You have acquired the skill [Sharp Talons]]
[Your magic power has grown! A new portion of the dark arts has been unlocked!]
[You have acquired [Shadow Being Summoning]]
[A new branch of magic has been acquired! [Summoning Magic]!]
I slowly sat up and noticed an arrow being pointed at my face. The elf was shockingly close to my body, alongside the two cat girls with their ws also in my face and the other two guys on top of Nukeme, all half naked since I stole their gear and stored them in my item box.
''What kind of wake-up call is this?''
I wondered to myself and scratched my head. I had one nasty headache and I couldn''t remember why.
"I-I''m sorry."
The hob-goblin remorsefully said and I looked at him. He was quite pathetic under their knees.
"Move an inch and your minion gets it, and I stab you."
The elf said. She was acting like the leader of the group, although if this was the clich¨¦ adventurer party, the blonde guy would be the edgy leader.
I looked at my hands. They felt a bit numb so I tried flexing my fingers. Something just didn''t feel right. It felt like I was sick, but I couldn''t feel the sickness even though my body was acting weirdly.
''Agent¡ status report.''
<<Notice: Last night you got attacked by an unknown assant who shot you with an Arrowced with a strong Neurotoxin. You made it out alive, but the poison still has lingering effects and your skill [Poison Resistance] evolved into [Great Poison Resistance]>>
''Ah! First of all, I''m acting pretty cool, aren''t I? Second¡ Oh right. I almost diedst night. I barely made it out alive, huh? So that''s why I feel weird. Well, I guess. I can still use magic, right?''
"Oi! Are you listening to me?!"
The elf screamed in my face. Damned Tsundere.
<<Notice: Although at a weaker level than you normally possess, your weakened state should have better magical power than those present in the room>>
The Agent just made my morning a bit good. The elf on the other hand decided it was a great idea to proceed with trying to stab me. With [Shadow Maniption] I grabbed her and the others, hanging them, inches above the ground. They kept squirming as I drank a renosue half potion and gave one to Nukeme. My health points were dangerously low from earlier so using this was good and refreshing.
Nukeme went on one knee and was apologizing greatly to me.
"I''m sorry, Hinotori-sama. Because of me, you almost got killed."
''You idiot. I told you to call me Tori here. And I also ordered that you didn''t treat me as if I were your boss.''
I let out a sigh and dragged a chair to where I was and sat down on it.
''It''s getting exhausting speaking anyway. Nukeme, trante whatever I say for them.''
"As you wish."
He moved next to my seat and looked at them, his back straightened up. That was a bit weird, considering how he normally never did that. He even had a different air about him. I gave him the first sentence.
''Ask them if they are ready to listen.''
"Listen up. My mistress is ready to let you go, if you are willing to speak. Are you willing to speak?"<novelnext></novelnext>
He asked them and majority of them nodded. It was only the elf who shook her head angrily. Majority ruled so I let them down, except for the elf since I couldn''t trust her.
The others red at me except for the blonde guy. He crossed his legs in his underwear in smiled brightly at me.
"My name''s Marcus! Those two therianthropes are Mika and Nika. The big guy over there''s Daryl and the rude elf is called Celica."
"You idiot! Don''t give out our names just like that."
One of the twin cat girls said. She had short-cut magenta coloured hair with a head band covering her forehead. Herrge eyes were now ring daggers at him
"Don''t go too hard on him, Mimi."
The other cat girl said, her ears dropping. She on the other hand had ck green hair on a freckled face withrge sky blue eyes.
"Hehe¡ Sorry Mimi, but that person said we should help her, so I think it''s all good."
Marcus said nonchntly.
"Your trust in that person is unnerving."
Daryl said. He was a big guy with dark skin and a rough looking face. He seemed to be in his early thirties with his left ear pierced. He also possessed a sort of mature disposition. He was probably the big brother figure of the entire group.
"No, no. It''s all good. That person has gotten us out of many situations befo-"
"Oi! Silence!"
Nukeme ordered them and they looked at us, as if now realizing that they were my captives. I couldn''t really use my aura because I was in a building filled with other people and I was still numb from the previous night.
''Ask them who "That person" is.''
Nukeme did so.
"Hmm¡ to be honest, I''m not sure who that person is. Just that appears out of nowhere, gives us advice and has white hair. She must be your friend since she wears a mask just like yours."
He pointed to my face and I suddenly became conscious of the mask. She was probably someone who just owned a variant version of this mask. It didn''t seem like something rare so I just shrugged it off since they didn''t know who exactly she was. Although the white hair probably made me flinch.
I doubted I''d get any more information without consuming their souls, so I would just move on to the next question for now. If nothing was satisfactory, I would take their souls.
''Damn¡ I don''t like how this is starting to be a normal for me.''
''Ask them why they were searching for me?''
"Ok, so what do you guys want?"
"It''s like we said. We just wanted to help you find your sister."
The Marcus guy said.
"Why?"
"Because that person told us to do so. She said we should help a little girl with blonde hair, wearing a ck mask like hers find her sister."
"To what benefit?"
"None!"
One of the cat girls said defensively.
"So why would you guys just help me if you aren''t getting anything out of it?"
"Because it''s the right thing to do. I mean, for The Hero Party, helping out anyone in need is a norm."
Marcus said boldly and looked up at me with a weird gaze. For a second there, I could have called him heroic, but I simply couldn''t see him that way. Simply put, there was no one here who was the hero.
''Is the hero somewhere in the city?''
I asked, curious. I really didn''t want to get on the bad side of the main character of this stupid game.
''You''re looking at him.''
Marcus said with a wide crazy grin. I looked around and the others expressions didn''t change. If anything, they became more assertive of the matter. The elf was still wriggling about in her binds though.
? ''Does he have the ability to turn invisible or something?''
I tried to go for a joke, but they were all dead eyed and serious.
''Hero Party, huh? You don''t possess a Sacred, neither are you blessed by any gods or divinities. Even your oldest member isn''t a B rank adventurer. You are too weak to don such a title for yourself.''
"Well, I''m not the hero yet, but I''ll be one soon."
I couldn''t help myself butugh at his delusions. This guy was basically a chuunibyou. He wasn''t worth anything.
"Fufufufu¡"
"What''s so funny?"
''Sorry, but I couldn''t help myself. You? A hero? Absolutelyughable. In that case, I shall let you know that I am The Demon Lord. You and I are destined to do battle, so shall I kill you here?''
Hahaha! Jokes on this guy. I was a chuunibyou in my former life as well. Calling myself the Crimson Herald of Justice with my Eternal mes that engulfed everything! Now that I look back to then, I feel like I was quite cringe and weird.
All of them looked at me with a sort of skeptical gaze.
"Yeah, I just can''t see you as a demon lord, littledy."
"What are you? Like 8 or something? Don''t go joking around about something so serious."
"Shut your filthy mouths, you damned humans! Tori-sama speaks to you and you dare ridicule her? I should cut your tongues out and steal all your money."
''Ah¡ Nukeme sto-''
"Ah! You see? I told you guys That Person wasn''t wrong. We definitely met someone interesting here."
He yelled, getting all the attention.
"Torisama, was it? Future hero here! I''m destined to fight you once I get my title and you don''t look like someone who wants a boring fight. Let me live here and when I get strong, we duel it out!"
The guy ended up saying something absurd, but strangely enough, he managed to rile up my inner chuuni.
''Fufufu¡ I don''t dislike this idea. Very well then, Future Hero Marcus, let''s go save my sister!''
Chapter 81 The Parents Pt.I
So somehow, I managed to let my chuunibyou urges takeover. Ok, to be honest, I only let them live because I was scared they might have possessed a sort of connection to an actual hero. If a hero got angry at me, I''d be in for a ride which I wasn''t interested in at the moment.
I wanted to just let them go away, but the Marcus guy was following me and I couldn''t just teleport into a random spot in the city while Yokino was missing. If someone rted to these guys had done something to Yokino (Like captured her), I could use these guys as hostages or bargaining chips as well.
We were currently walking down the streets.
"Have you eaten ice cream, before?"
Marcus asked me.
''Hmmm? Ice cream?''
"Yep. It is sweet ice that you can eat during hot seasons like this one."
Ice cream existed in this world? That sounded like fun, but now wasn''t the time. I refused the offer and kept on walking about the streets quietly. I was headed towards the point on my map where Kawaii was. She had moved from where she wasst night, although that would have been a bit tough to notice since the map had no details whatsoever ¨C a nk space with a dot on it.
"Tori, which hero is your favorite?"
Marcus asked something in my ear, but something came to my legs. I looked down and saw a chicken. Confused, I tried to pet it, but it took a step back.
"HAHA! Found you, Sister!"
The damned chicken spoke to me.
''W-What?''
"Did you know? Oh! The Dark Church approaches!"
''What?''
"Hey Tori."
"The Dark Church! HAHA! They seek to destroy us! We shan''t allow this!"
''Shan''t allow what? And who is we?''
BAM!
A metal cage came mming down over the chicken, startling me. A skinny shirtless kid slid a piece of board under it, then lifted it up.
"Damned chickens! Running all around."
He turned around to leave and I tried to grab his arm, however, Marcus grabbed mine.
"Tori! Can you hear me?!"
The retarded blonde shouted in my ear. I grabbed his ear and brought him to his knees.
"Ow! Ow! I-I apologise!"
''You don''t interrupt a busy person, understand?''
"Y-Yes, yes."
I turned around, but then the boy was gone.
''What happened to the boy that was here a minute ago?''
"W-What bo-OW!"
''Some shrimp. A little taller than me, pale skin, no meat, dirty hair, ck eyes?''
"That sounds like every boy in this city.
Mira said and I realized it immediately. Looking all around, the kids were skinny and in rags. Not wanting to think about depressing things, I decided to answer his question.
''Why would I have a favorite hero, you idiot?''
"How the hell am I supposed to know!? Everyone has a favorite hero, you damned brat!"
I seemed to have triggered him. If I continued, we would have gone on like this endlessly, but this wasn''t the time for this.
''Erm¡ the shy one?''
I let go off his ears and responded quietly just to shut him up. But he went further.
"The [Pdin of Supreme Thunder] or the [Heavenly Judge of Blood Red mes]?"<novelnext></novelnext>
''How the heck does [The Heavenly Judge of Blood Red mes] sound shy?''
"The [Pdin of Supreme Thunder] then? Me too! Although people argue that the Heavenly Judge is better."
''No, that''s not what I said-''
Completely ignoring me, he brought his face closer while showing off how much of a geek he was.
"I mean, no one likes the little girl type. We all prefer the big busty ones, do we not?"
"Preach, brother!"
The big guy in the back shouted and I noticed all the girls giving them res, but they didn''t care. Marcus proceeded.
"Still, I guess we can''t technically call those guys [Heroes]. They are just [Pdins] of course. Some are even just [Hero Candidates] that are abnormally strong. For instance, there''s that person from the New Kyoto Empire. A new [Pdin] that was announced this year. He was a [Hero Candidate] just a few months ago ording to gossip. Apparently another one popped up too. There are rumours that the Demons are actually gathering their forces. Some say a war could broker out between both parties and that''s what the Holy Mexar Empire is preparing for, bu-"
This guy really liked to talk a lot, didn''t he?
''Shut it.''
I put my hands to his lips. He was getting unbearable by the second. He was almost as bad as Manabu from back on Earth.
''Let''s go get ice cream or something.''
He nodded his head quietly.
***
So I ended up just going to get ice cream with the party. Although there was a weird moment with talking chickens. Apparently no one else could hear them other than me, so I would ignore that. Either he poison''s effects from the previous night were probably working or I could understand them because I was well¡ a chicken myself. Both of which made no sense to me since logically speaking, I wasn''t a chicken and [Poison Resistance] should have erased the poison from my veins already.
In the end I left it all to my chuunibyou urges taking over for a brief moment. The ice cream parlour was run by some buff guy with turquoise blue skin and white markings wearing nothing but a dirty apron and pants. I was having second thoughts on the matter till Marcus told me this guy was actually an Ice Nymph. He was a wandering Ice cream seller, looking to make use of his Blessing to feed everyone in the world and make them happy. Apparently this wasn''t their first, or second, or third time meeting.
This day just kept on getting more and more redundant by the second. I could feel a migraineing so I just took the ice cream reluctantly and stored it in my item box. Its effects were, to be honest, phenomenal. It was the only thing I had seen that could give and increase my stamina points. Also, that guy had a unique skill called [Chef''s Touch].
Well¡ I''d just let the copyright handle all of that for me.
"Isn''t it weird how we always meet that guy?"
Mira stared suspiciously at the ice cream cone in her hand. Her more reserved twin was sniffing it curiously before taking a lick.
The elf dropped the cone elsewhere whereas Grey at the back of the room was licking it a bit more voraciously than the others.
"Good as always."
He said after finishing it. Celica showed open angst towards him and pped his broad chest.
"You really should mind what you eat, even if you''re from the Dwulvrian Tribe."
She yelled at him, but he couldn''t care less. He just yawned and patted her head, causing her face to flush red.
"You know, you''d probably find it easier to get a husband if you don''t shout too much."
"W-W-W-W-W-W-W-WHAT?! I-I-I-I-I''m only fifty-four, you know? I- I am rtively young amongst my people!"
She immediately went to her defense in an almostical manner. I noticed the others staring at both of them with smug expressions.
"In that case, I''m sure you wouldn''t mind having me then? I actually like em young."
"I w-w-w-won''t ac-ac-ept y-you! N-Not in a million years!"
"Sure, sure, keep talking, red."
He let go of her head and grabbed her up onto his shoulder where she kept mumbling to herself.
"C''mon guys! We''ve known him for quite a while now. I don''t think you should be getting suspicious of his food now."
I sent a message to Daryl through [Telepathy]. And he immediately took three steps away from where I stood. I sighed and looked at Nukeme who was busily eyeing everything. I noticed his skill [Eye of Gold] was working fervently. He didn''t know it, but this skill was a Magical skill that allowed him to identify the value of anything heid eyes on. He also had a title called [Fate of the World''s Luckiest]. It was a title that dictated his destiny and apparently made sure he would be happy and lucky in life.
The title''s effects were so overpowered I actually wanted to steal it, but I couldn''t do that. At least, I didn''t know how to. I was currently having him scan the entire room for anything of value which I would have glossed over.
"Tori-sama¡ those two things over there."
He pointed at two people standing some distance away. I didn''t understand what he meant till I checked out their stats. I was honestly surprised, but I decided to keep quiet about it. They must have belonged to someone important and judging by the way no one in the room had talked about them, it was either due to it being an unspoken rule or everyone simply not knowing. Either way, I would just shut my beak about them.
Chapter 82 The Parents Pt.II
"What are you looking at, Tori?"
Marcus asked then his eyes scanned the room. Luckily since I was wearing a mask, he shouldn''t have been able to identify where I was looking. That is what I thought till he pulled out the Uno reverse card on me and pointed in the direction Nukeme''s eyes were still fixed.
''Nothing. Go back to your damned ice cream.''
"But I''m done with it! Besides, you seemed to be staring-"
''Shut up.''
Maybe it was time I ditched this group. I grabbed Nukeme by the neck and was about to run out the door, with my speed they wouldn''t be able to catch-up, but then the duo appeared before me. A man who seemed to be in his mid-thirties with dark brown hair and a pencil mustache, wearing a white tunic with ck edges and a ck sash tied around his waist with a white pants and brown sandals. He was quite skinny and hisplexion, a bit pale. The woman to his side wore the same thing, except with a hat on her head, but unlike her counterpart, she possessed ck hair and she looked to be more of life. Her face was beautiful without a doubt and it reminded me of someone.
"E-Excuse me¡ Are you people, adventurers?"
The man asked, stammering his words out. All of them looked at him then at each other.
"Yep. We''re a C rank party, not named yet. You got a request or something?"
Marcus answered.
"U-Um¡ no. Y-Yes¡ wait¡ No."
This guy was shaken by something. He was stammering too much if he had a request for adventurers. Well, from my knowledge, adventurers weren''t so respected to demand such a reaction. Let alone C rank adventurers.
"Well¡ out with it. We haven''t got all day."
The elf bluntly said and the others let out nervousughs. It would seem that they were already ustomed to her bullish nature.
"This is a missing person''s report."
The woman to his side said, her voice like honey. Then she looked at me.
"Sorry, but there are no other capable looking adventurers around, which is why we approached you."
I couldn''t argue with her. Because this was a bloody ice cream stand. A few tables set up around on the side-walks with no more than five other people eating ice cream. Not a single person here was even an adventurer, so it was already highly suspicious of them toe say this to us here, and not in a guild.
"Who¡?"
I asked.
"My name is Touka and this is my husband, Ignis. We are looking for our daughter, Ulva."
First of all, after using [Analyst], these guys had no names and second of all, why would Ulva''s parents who sold here to the city looking for her? The vers had already kidnapped her so there was no problem for them. Anyway I looked at this, these two were too suspicious.
''Did the vers send them? But then that would mean they figured out I was in the city. Then again, going on a blood sucking spree like some crazy vampire the night before probably wasn''t so smart. Then does that mean they know I''vee for Ulva and sent these things here? But how would they know it was me specifically? Wait¡ then did these guys do something to Yokino? That could possibly exin her disappearance. Hmmm, the best thing to do right now would probably be to run out of here and back into the forest. A simple tactical retreat till Ie up with a good n.''
DING!
[You have 1 pending message from the servant Yokino]
''What? Lemme see.''
[Yokino: Yo, lunch. I decided to go on a covert mission and scout a bit in the city. I found a lot of stuff and also heard that the ve organization that kidnapped Ulva has figured out that you''re in the city. I''ve manipted their actions to some extent so if you are approached by some people iming to be Ulva''s parents, listen to them.
Ok, now I am going to exin the Organization itself. It is controlled by group known as the "Sub-Circle", led by the one they call Boss. This Boss is actually a powerful nobleman in this city called Percy McAllister. I am still gathering information on him as we speak, but so far he seems to be the clich¨¦ noble douche. A rapist, ver, weird pervert, greedy, ugly pig that would suck up to anybody for power. I still don''t know why he is the most feared being in this entire kingdom, but my investigations are still underway. Next, the Sub-Circle consists of seven other members. I''ve acquired their pseudonyms, although their actual names remain unknown to me at the moment. The second inmand is Guard Dog, Red. Next are Grimm ck, Slothful Silver Sword, Hard Master Aigen, Kennel Master Dog, Hooded Wolf, the Deathly Poisons who are actually two people. Weird, huh.
Anyway, that''s all I''ve got for now. By tomorrow I should have way more information on this issue and I should have tracked down exactly where Ulva is and why they went to great lengths to capture her. So far, the only clue I have is "Experiment". Alright then, peace! And don''t go blood sucking again¡ It''s creating too many problems and people are bing too on guard. Rumours are already spreading of a possible vampire in town.]
I didn''t expect that. This spider was unbelievably good at information gathering. Quite possibly even better than Reiman. This information was surprisingly the best thing that had happened today. And Yokino was manipting events to some extent, which meant I could use this opportunity to get the best of results.
"I¡ am¡ sear-ching¡ for¡ her¡ too."
I told them and they looked at each other as if surprised.
***
"Let''s start again from the top. My name is Touka and this is my husband Ignis. We are Ulva''s parents and we came here to get her."
I looked at the couple who sat before me, iming to be Ulva''s parents.
"Give me one good reason why I should believe you guys."
I had Nukeme tell them in my ce. I needed to make this as believable as possible.
"Excuse us?"
They decided to act dumb.
"You sell your daughter to some vers then all of a sudden im that you want to take her back and expect me to believe you? State your game."
I snapped my fingers and Nukeme jumped at the man, pinning him to the ground with a dagger across his neck.
"Hehehe, get ready to die, human."
"Hey, Tori, isn''t this a bit¡"
Mira tried to speak up, but I red at her and she piped down. [Devil''s Miasma] seemed to function properly even if I directed it at exactly one spot. The others looked at her, frozen in ce and were confused.
Ignis on the other hand screamed, fear for his life cracking his voice. I could tell I was drawing attention to myself and it was starting to feel a bit weird, but I wouldn''t stop now.
''Talk. You have thirty seconds.''
I ordered and her eyes widened. Why was everyone surprised when they heard a voice in their head? I do all the time. In fact, that was the first voice I heard. It should be normal now. I mean, this is a world of dragons of magic¡ is telepathy a big deal here?<novelnext></novelnext>
"W-we had no choice! You know what she is, right?"
Ignis said, which made me quite pissed, but I calmed down quickly thanks to [Evolver].
''I have no idea what you are talking about.''
"Y-you know. The fangs and stuff?"
''What are you implying? That she has fangs and that was a valid reason to sell her into very?''
"Yes. That is exactly what we are saying."
The woman who had been quiet, boldly spoke up. She red at me with her sharp eyes and I did back with a tiny bit of [Devil''s Miasma] making her shiver instead.
''So, why do you want her back?''
"Why wouldn''t we want her back?"
''For the very reason you sold her in the first ce.''
She shut up after I said that. From now on it would seem that she would need to choose her words wisely.
"W-we had to do it. She almost destroyed our vige in one night, were it not for a [Hero] coincidentally passing by."
''A hero?''
I tensed up.
"Yes."
I looked at Marcus and he shook his head, meaning he had no information on the matter.
''Ulva was subjugated by a hero? Also, Ulva almost eradicated a vige in one night?''
"Yes¡ you see. She has another form unlike that cute side that I''m sure you are always seeing."
''Huh? Another form?''
"She is a dhampyr. And as everyone knows, dhampyrs who don''t consume a lot blood lose control on a blood moon and go crazy, still, their power is limited to only how strong they were before. However, what she became was a rather vicious beast, possessing way more strength than she ever had before. She went on a rampage and destroyed the entire vige, easily killing off half of the vigers. I-I haven''t heard of dhampyrs doing that before."
"Lamprey?"
I looked at Celica who said that.
"What?"
"I remember hearing of a vige that had been destroyed by a ravenous blood thirsty creature recently. Adventurers have been spreading a rumour that it was done by amprey, but that made no sense sincempreys, ording to rumours, are the guard dogs of the Realm of the Eternal Night. None could possibly be here since the Realm of Eternal Night is actually a myth. Well, it could be something else that was your vige."
The couple slowly nodded and simply epted what she said. These two were awfully bad at this, no? Real parents should have at least known how Ulva was a dhampyr in the first ce. It''s not like dhampyrs were just born between two humans out of nowhere.
"We had no choice but to sell her to pay off all the damage she caused. The ver however paid us way more than necessary for the vige and we came here to buy her back after finding a way to control her more dangerous side."
''A way to control her "more dangerous side?"''
I asked.
"Yes, you should have seen the cor around her neck if you were with her."
''Yea? What about it?''
"It has the ver''s magic on it. Something that makes it difficult for mo-¡"
I intensified my re and he gulped.
"¡ demi-humans to use their abilities."
''Is that so?''
Of course, I already knew that, but to be honest, for something that would make any creature who wears it as weak as a human to exist, how powerful was its creator? I was starting to get goosebumps thinking of who this "Boss" person was.
"So do you have any clues as to where Ulva is?"
Marcus asked and lifted me off of Ignis like I were some kind of cat.
"Indeed."
Touka went to her husband''s side and lifted him off the ground.
"We were told on the day we sold Ulva that if we wanted her back she would be sold at an Auction that is going to take ce two days from now."
''Ah! The day after tomorrow?!''
"Aaarrghh!"
Everyone who was connected to my telepathy let out simr yells and crumpled to the ground. I was surprised that a simple scream to one''s inner mind could cause such an effect.
''I''ll meet you here on the day, then we go. Don''t bete.''
I grabbed Nukeme and ran away after delivering my order. For now, I needed to do exactly what Yokino had been doing. So I jumped into an alley way, then using the shadows, reappeared in my own room, before my transformation went off and I was back to being a bird.
Chapter 83 Kawaii Pt.I
[You have 3 Daily Quests! Clear them to receive rewards!]
[Your Side Quest, is still ongoing! Clear it to receive rewards!]
After the recent events, I had even forgotten about the existence of the daily quests. Even more shocking was that I had a side quest which I was apparently still performing. I curiously looked at that first.
[Side Quest (Optional): Save the dhampyrs]
[Status: Ongoing
[Type: Time Limit [5 days remaining]
[Description: The little dhampyrs Ulva has been kidnapped. Who knows what manner of deeds are being performed on her! Save her as quickly as possible!
[Possible Rewards: 1 vampiric servant
5000 gold coins
2000 experience points
50 stat points
I was a bit curious now. The design for this was simr to the first one I saw, but now it had new features attached to it. Giving me the status and type of quest it was. The possible rewards too were quite good. But I didn''t like the fact that it termed Ulva as a vampiric servant.
I shrugged then looked at the daily quests instead.
[DAILY QUESTS]
1. Suck the blood of 5x human beings [0/5] (Iplete)
2. Join a Guild [0/1] (Iplete)
3. Steal from 10 people [0/10] (Iplete)
''Ah¡ stupid system master, giving me stupid daily quests! Is this because I''m in a city?! Tch¡ ah well, hopefully the reward will be good.''
After that, I remembered the events of the previous night vividly. Last night I went towards the location I noticed Ulva was. It looked like any ordinary part of the city with its poor people and stuff, but after using [Analyst], I realized that they were mostly stronger than the average human. The poor people, that is. This got me very suspicious, so I simply used [Shadow Travel] to move about unannounced and get closer to my target. There, I found carriages being drawn to one ware house surrounded by lots of poor looking people. That wasn''t obvious to me at first till the agent pointed it out though.
Then I realized that the entire district was literally a ve prison where they stored all their ves. To be honest it was unbelievably huge and had top notch security. I could sort of understand why the Boss guy was now feared. If he could put so much of his resources into very alone, just how much more did he have for his other businesses? I wanted to go a bit further in, but the agent alerted me to there being a giant crystal creating a protective barrier around the ware house, so I wouldn''t be able to sneak in.
From there, I didn''t know what to do and my stamina was running low. Meaning I would lose my transformation quickly. Agent told me to use the [Blood Sucking] skill to recover stamina. I was a bit reserved about it at first, but after the first time there was a sort of rush. Like an addictive adrenaline boost that made me go on a rampage.
Well, it was good for the stamina drain and filling up my hunger. But, I doubt I''d be doing something like that often, since I really couldn''t control the urges that came with it.
"Hinotori-sama. What are your ns?"
I sat up on the bed and noticed Nukeme down on one knee.
''What are you doing?''
"I just wished to know your ns."
''Well, I''m going to rescue my sister like I said. Nothing more to it. You, are just here to keep mepany¡ Erhm, I mean, learn about the how money works and stuff.''
DING!
[You have 1 pending message from the servant Kawaii]
''Hmm? Kawaii? That''s weird¡ lemme see.''
[Kawai: Meet up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!]
There were only two words and it was more than confusing. Well, there wasn''t much I could expect from a slime that barely had any intelligence.
''Nukeme¡ I''ll be going out for a bit. Take care of things here.''
I told him, before flying out of the room. I was still in my original form, so I had stealth on so I could go about unseen or unnoticed. Since I doubt people would find a bird flying in the sky suspicious. I flew towards the location Kawaii currently was.
It was a mansion, with a few guards patrolling the area. So far, I hadn''t found some mages or stuff around, so it would seem I was dealing with regr soldiers. Inded on the building''s roof and simply allowed for myself to activate [Shadow Travel] to infiltrate the ce.
If I could, I would rescue Ulva and Kawaii today. If not, I would simply wait on Yokino''s n. Still, it definitely was weird that Kawaii and Ulva weren''t together. They were quite some distance away from each other.
I reappeared in one of the halls. Unfortunately I hit one of the moving guards.
"Huh? What the hell?"
One guard yelled. I looked up at the one who I crashed into and he was just confused, staring at me.
"What the hell is this thing?"
The other pointed his de at me and took a defensive stance.<novelnext></novelnext>
"S-Should I get it off me?"
''Don''t bother asking.''
I used [Light shot] to blind the soldier pointing his de at me simultaneously shooting a web into the other''s face, covering his eyes and mouth so he couldn''t make any noise. Quickly I drew a sharp arc across his neck with my ws, slicing it open using.
As the other crumpled to his knees, yelling in pain, I jumped at him and stabbed his forehead using [Horn Protrusion]. After which, I shoved both of them into my item box to avoid anyone seeing them.
''Well¡ that was¡ ah¡ did I just¡ ah¡ let''s just ignore this.''
I activated my stealth and moved through the shadows, searching every nook and cranny of the building. It took me some minutes, but I ended up stumbling upon the master bedroom. That was where Kawaii was ording to the map.
"Teehee, Massstewwrrr!"
I turned around and noticed a being slowly approaching me. This thing had half of its body melting away in a horrible grotesque fashion. I took a step back, realizing that I wasn''t in my human form. The sight was so bad, I almost felt like puking.
STATUS
[Name: Kawaii
[Species: Sentient Acidic Slime Mimic Level 10/40
[Status: [Excited]
[Age: 4 years
[Rank: D +
[Race Rank: Tier 3
[Titles: |Of World|, |Named Beast|, |Named Servant|, |Sacred Thief|
[Blessings: |Blessings of The God of Poisonous Rust, Felnir|
[Level: 35 Exp: 103/1,050
[Health: 900/900 Stamina: ??? Mana: 20/20 Strength: 350 Speed: 400 Defense: 150 Dexterity: 370 Intelligence: 90 Luck: 100 Magic: 10
|SKILLS|
[Unique Skills: [Godly Heretic Level 1]
[Passive Skills: [Slime Body Level 15], [Super Acid Body Level 1], [ss: Swordsman Level 1], [Job: Avenger Level 1], [Expert Swordsmanship Level 1], [Sixth Sense Level 1]
[Active Skills: [Predator Level 5], [Assimtion Level 5], [Mimicry Level 1], [Noble Swordsmanship Techniques Level 1], [Noble Swordsmanship: Imperial sh Level 1], [Noble Swordsmanship: Imperial Stab Level 1], [Noble Swordsmanship: Body Hardening Level 1], [Noble Swordsmanship: Imperial Parry Level 1], [Bandit Swordsmanship Techniques Level 1], [Beast God Swordsmanship Techniques Level 1], [Blood Moon Swordsmanship Techniques Level 1], [Battle God Battle Techniques Level 1]
[Magical skills: [Water Ball Level 1]
[Magic: [Basic Rot Magic Level 1], [Basic Poison Magic Level 1], [Basic Water Magic Level 1]
[Affinities: [Rot Affinity], [Poison Affinity], [Water Affinity]
[Resistances: [Mid Cold Resistance Level 5], [Mid Heat Resistance Level 4], [Lightning Resistance Level 3], [Blunt Attack Resistance Level 3], [Pain Nullification Level MAX]
''K-Kawaii?''
"Yeessss!"
She jumped at me, catching me unawares and just all round covering me. Normally, I wouldn''t mind this, but right now her [Super Acid Body] was starting to hurt. A lot.
''Get off me! Y-You''ll kill me!''
"Nooow! Kaaawwaaaaiiii waawntss maawwssteewwrr!"
[You have lost 10 health points]
''I-I see, but get off me for now and let''s talk.''
[You have lost 10 health points]
"Noooow! Nooooo! Uaaaaaaaww!"
[You have lost 10 health points]
''U-Ugh¡ fine¡ exin what happened first, then you get off¡''
"Owwkkaaayyyyy!"
Chapter 84 Kawaii Pt.II
ve Dungeons
"Aaaagghh!"
The little dhampyr woke up, screaming with tears flowing from her eyes. The cor around her neck began to glow brightly with a weird marking on it, and it hurt the girl a lot. Her ck hair was constantly shifting between silver and ck and ws begun to show themselves as her skin kept switching from pale white to grey then back. Her body erged and her eyes became beady. Her mouth was a big as a head and filled with fangs, with a long tongue sticking out. She was now a monster going on a rampage, trying to break free from her binds.
"Stop it! You only hurt yourself."
A voice said, but the monster didn''t even pay it any attention. It simply worked viciously on freeing itself of its bind. Therge dark figure that screamed was chained up in a different cer. The figure''s sharp golden eyes glowed dimly in the dark.
She could only scream as the monster kept on wing at the cor, slowly killing itself.
"Stop it, damn it! Please! Do not do it!"
The ogre princess begged, as she didn''t like to see others in pain, but she wasn''t getting through to the monster. She clicked her tongues and scrolled through whatever options she had beforeing to a conclusion.
"This isn''t what I was nning on using this for, but¡ I''ll do it."
The ogress begun to channel whatever power she had from within into her horns. Her original n was to create enough [Arcane Lightning] that she could override the power of the cor, but she still hadn''t been able to do that. At most, she could create tiny sparks, and even doing that caused her a tremendous amount of pain. The creator of these cors was truly a genius. However, his attitude was simply disgusting. If originally she wanted to meet him, now she didn''t.
She shot a tiny bolt of blue lightning from her horns right into themprey''s head, which caused it to calm down. A simple short-circuiting of the nervous system. Normally this had the potential of causing permanent paralysis or brain damage, but she would assume that the dhampyrs was strong enough to not get such problems. Themprey''s hair turned ck once again and its size reverted back. It was a little girl once again, who then passed out. This caused the ogre princess'' heart to rx.
''Phew¡ She won''t kill herself. Now, for-''
She grit her teeth just as her cor glowed just like the dhampyr''s and she could feel her neck burning. She grunted through the pain. She even bit her lip, causing it to bleed.
Just then, Maude walked into the cell. She scanned the area and saw an unconscious Ulva and a Curse struck ogre princess.
"Oi! What happened here?"
She looked at the ogre princess who was busily taking her punishment.
"Did you do something to the boss'' package?"
She spoke in the native ogre tongue for the Ogress to understand.
"¡ I¡ I- just saved your precious package from certain death. You should be thanking me you ignorant peasant."
She managed to form aplete sentence after the pain died down.
"Do you not wish to leave here safely?"
The woman began tosh out at the ogre.
She kept quiet and red behind Maude. This was because someone else stepped into the room. Noticing this, Maude took out a whip and started tosh the ogre princess. The sound of the ogre princess'' body being torn filled the empty cells and the prideful ogre refused to let out a scream and simply endured the pain, ring at the woman.
"My, my. You are quite the brute, aren''t you Guard Dog?"
The new presence popped up behind Maude. Her instincts told her this person was someone dangerous, at least on the level of Aigen. Quite possibly higher. She didn''t want to show any obvious hesitation, so she simply continued like this wasn''t surprising.
"What do you want?"
She asked, andshed the ogress. The person smiled wickedly, then said.
"You. We want you. Will you ept the offer?"
"Bud¡ I''m kind of busy now, so if you don''t mind."
"Of course, of course. Whenever you are ready, just use the mana stone I ced in your pocket. It will alert me of your location and I wille meet you."
The presence said, before simply disappearing into the shadows once again. Not certain whether the figure had actually left yet, Maude proceeded tosh the princess. After a few more minutes of continuousshing, she left the princess her bloodied and alone. She then red at both captives, before walking away. As she walked away, she looked at one prisoner who was at the far back and had been quietly observing everything.
"What are you looking at? Want more battle scars?"
The figure began to cackle, which weirded the Maude out. The incident had already terrified her, but she wouldn''t show it. If she wanted her revenge, she couldn''t let anything scare her that easily. Even if something scared her, she wouldn''t let it show or affect her decisions. Still, she hadn''t expected them toe to her so soon.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Freaks¡ All of you weirdos."
She made to leave, but then¡
"WHAT!?"
She felt something weird climbing up her leg, so like anyone would, she looked down. She saw a little colourless slime trying to eat at her.
"Huh? What is this? A slime?"
The woman tried to kick it off, but the slime began to eat at her. She could feel her boots melting.
"Eugh¡ get off me you stupid blob."
She grabbed her sword and shed at her own leg, in an attempt to cut the slime. Strangely, even after she pierced it, it didn''t go pop.
"What the hell? S-stop that!"
The slime just kept on swallowing her leg and climbing up her body. It spread itself and grabbed her arms, restricting her movement. The woman began to scream for help, but the slime just kept on eating her. Under normal circumstances, the slime should have already died, but it was still striving to move forward. It even begged its master for power to do this and its master permitted it to touch her mana reserves. Was it going to waste such an opportunity? Of course not.
It shouldn''t have been able to eat something with higher mana than it possessed, but if it was receiving a constant amount of mana, it should be able to manage.
''[Predator]!''
The slime thought as it swallowed the woman. Soon, the slime finished up its battle with the woman and remained on the ground quietly, the skill [Assimtion] doing its job. All the prisoners who just witnessed the scene were shocked and remained silent, just observing the happenings.
DING!
[You have killed a human! Even better, one possessing a [Sacred]!]
[You have received 10,000 experience points!]
[You have leveled up several times!]
[You have reached your racial level climax!]
[Evolution shall take ce soon!]
[The servant Kawaii has obtained 1 [Shard of The Dark God, Vador''s Blessings]]
[The servant Kawaii has earned the interest of the [God of Poisonous Rust, Felnir]]
[The servant Kawaii has received the blessing of the [God of Poisonous Rust, Felnir]]
[You have received the title [Sacred Thief]]
[This title shall give you the unique skill [Godly Heretic]]
[You have acquired various skills!]
[After the assimtion process isplete, you will acquire the skills of the human Clyde McAllister]
The slime jiggled about for a moment, then crawled towards the cer where the little girl was fast asleep. It rubbed on the little girl for a moment, but it had no effect and as such, it looked around. It then tried to corrode the cor on the girl''s neck, but that failed.
Then, a memory from the being she just consumed came to mind. No¡ not a memory. It was the woman''s soul. A wish. She would let the slime keep the body, but on the condition that the wish was fulfilled. The slime heard the woman''s wish and agreed to keep it. In that moment, the "will" of Maude... No. Not Maude. The "will" of Clyde McAllister was ingrained into the slime''s very being.
The slime had acquired the [Sacred: The Dark Vengeance]. However, considering it wasn''t originally intended for the slime to possess, the [Sacred: The Dark Vengeance] was downgraded into an unnamed [Sacred]. Should certain events ur, would the slime awaken a [Sacred]? Was the world going to see it''s very first [Slime Hero Candidate]? The slime had no idea of what it had just taken on, but it didn''t care none the less. All it did, was for its master and friend.
It used its new mimicry skill to transform its form into that of the woman''s and made to leave the area. Being a slime that never ran out of energy, it could still be conscious as it evolved.
The halls of the cer echoed with the thunderousughter of one prisoner who was simply enjoying the progression of events.
Chapter 85 Kawaii Pt.III
"Uh-uh¡ So you killed one of these ''Sub-Circle'' members and took over as one of them, basically infiltrating the enemy and finding out more information on them, thening to find me?"
I asked Kawaii as I took a bite of the crackers ced in front of me. I had managed to get her off of me and she ordered for some snacks.
"Yeeewssss!!! Kawaii sooo happy! Kawaii fooouund mawwster!"
"Wait¡ how did you find me again? Also why are you speaking like that?"
"Kawaii shwould stawwp?"
"Yes please."
"Okkie!"
She said then cleared her new throat.
"There is a certain screen in front of me that showed me where you were."
Her speech was fluent. That [Assimtion] skill was really impressive, wasn''t it?
"So you can see the system as well?"
"Hmhm."
She nodded proudly
''Interesting¡ and Yokino and others still can''t see the screen? Is there some form of qualification?''
[Servant Yokino does not have the required amount of Loyalty Points to ess the system]
''[Loyalty Points]? What''s that?''
[Points that your servants acquire. It determines how much love they have for you]
''Eh? Since when?''
<<Notice: You acquired the Familia Head Specific Skill [Loyalty Test]>>
''Oh¡ that''s right. And which of my servants has the highest of these?''
[1 ¨C Kawaii (250)
[2 ¨C Shiroi (190)
[3 ¨C Sylvie (189)
''Those are the 3 with the highest? I honestly didn''t expect Shiroi to be up here. What''s the required amount of points?''
[150 Loyalty Points]
''Egh¡ how much loyalty points does Yokino have?''
A screen popped up before me and showed me I was shocked speechless.
''So much for my best friend¡ Welp.''
"Master, master! Are you ok?"
I hadn''t even noticed that Kawaii''s face was inches away from mine.
''Agh! S-sorry. I just saw something interesting.''
"Master?"
''Ignore me¡ Anyway Kawaii. What is it that you have learnt?''
"Oh yea, there is going to be a fake auction tomorrow to trap you."
She said, right before nibbling down on a bowl of biscuits.
''The auction was fake? As expected. But why didn''t Yokino tell me that exactly. It''s not like anyone can actually see the message she sends to me.''
"Two members of the ''Sub-Circle'' are pretending to be poor folk. dimir Kyde and Violet Kyde of the House of Kyde. The weakest out of all the workers, but quite dangerous and more influential than most."
''So they aren''t her parents?"''
"Oh no, they actually are her blood parents. She is just one of their many artificial childbirth projects. Made from the blood of a vampire and two humans. I think they wanted to artificially produce vampires but failed and made Ulva instead."
''What do you mean failed and made Ulva instead?''
"Well, you see, they kept on trying to create artificial dhampyrs, but it would never work. So they came up with the n of making their own daughter into a dhampyr and then clone her instead. Doing so, they managed to create Ulva and a bunch of other clones under Project Blood Bite."
''Huh? I''m confused. Is Ulva their daughter or a clone of her?''
"Um¡ I''m not sure. There is too much information there that is not known since the incident about 3 years ago."
''What incident?''
"Apparently someone destroyed their oldb and all their research just disappeared. They med it on others, so ever since then, they''ve been tight lipped on their research projects."
Seriously? In this fantasy setting? Cloning and other stuff? Damned scientists should go to the right genre!
''I see¡ do you at least know how many clones they had?''
"ording to this woman''s memories¡ two hundred and seventy-nine."
I stood up in shock.
''That many!? What the hell? Maybe while I''m rescuing Ulva, I should try and get those kids-''
Almost as if she had been reading my mind, Kawaii said something.
"Don''t bother trying to rescue them. They are all dead."
''Dead?''
"Percy McAllister."
She mentioned a name.
''Who?''
"Also deemed "The Boss". He has a hobby of raping demi-humans to death."
''Total creep right there.''
"Indeed."
I took another sip of my tea, then asked.
''Where will Ulva be? Since this whole auction is fake and all.''
"She will be in the nobleman''s room."
''Eugh¡ he wants to **** her?''
Kawaii nonchntly nodded. Her unfazed appearance was actually starting to get creepy.
''So they wanted to have me kidnapped?''
I asked.
"No. That was Grimm."
''Grimm?''
"Yes. A vampire named Grimm ck."
''Ugh¡ that''s so cringe.''
"Master, you have to be very careful around him. He is actually one of the more dangerous members ording to this woman''s memories."
"The dangerous, huh? What are his abilities?"<novelnext></novelnext>
"I don''t really know. All I know is that he is quite good with ice magic. And he is also very cunning. Something about himmitting a grave crime that forced him out here. He has even taking out several high ranking adventurers before. He also ims to have defeated a drake."
My mind went back to that time I fought the wyvern and almost died. That thing was definitely not weak. And I could only assume that drakes were way more powerful, since those guys would probably be of direct dragon descent.
I took a sip of the tea in front of me. I let loose andid back. I stopped straining myself so much and cancelled the [Humanoid Form Transformation]. I let out a heavy sigh and stretched my wings. It had been so long since I was able to rx like that.
"Oh master, I also have a request."
''Hmm? What is it?''
"I want to kill the Nobleman Percy McAllister."
The look in her eyes was scary. Her deep nk grey eyes that seemed to contain fathomless rage. I simply couldn''t understand where all of that wasing from.
''Kawaii?''
"I''m sorry, it''s just¡ I made a promise to the person who gave me their body. I told them I''d set all the prisoners free and kill the nobleman. I don''t know why, but I want toplete that promise."
''¡ I didn''t expect this.''
"Master please, give me the permission to do this."
I really didn''t like the thought of other''s lives constantly being ced into my hands. I wasn''t some sort of Judge.
''Kawaii¡ I-''
"Master! I beg of you."
She bowed her head to me and even went down on one knee.
''Well, if you put it that way, how can I say no?''
"Really? Thank you master!"
[The servant Kawaii''s Loyalty points have gone up by 30]
''Eh? Loyalty points go up if I allow my subordinates to have their way? Interesting.''
She jumped up and grabbed me in a tight hug. She really was squishy and soft. Felt nice.
"Hehe, that''s ok, Kawaii. Kawaii? S-stop that!"
I spent that night in Kawaii mansion, exploring the ce, going through the armory and taking a bit of her gold. While I slept, something weird happened though.
-----------------------------------------------------------
[The servant Shiroi has entered a dungeon]
[The servant Reiman has entered a dungeon]
[The servant Sylvie has entered a dungeon]
***
[The Servant Shiroi haspleted the First Floor of the <<Forbidden Dungeon>>]
[The Servant Shiroi haspleted the Hidden Quest: Dungeon Floor Soloing]]
[The servant Shiroi has received one [Special Dungeon Chest]]
[The servant Shiroi has reached max racial level]
[The servant Shiroi''s evolution has begun]
***
[The servant Shiroi sessfully evolved into a White Faery Hound Queen]
[A specie variant of the Faery hound species. A very quiet creature that likes to hunt in packs. It is a natural born leader that takes charge of a pack and even the strongest have the ability to summon Mist Wolves]
[Some gods have taken an interest in the servant Shiroi]
[The servant Shiroi has received the [Blessing of the demi-God of Strength, Kadil]]
[The servant Shiroi has received the [Blessing of the Goddess of White Mist, Silica]
***
''Huh? What''s this about?''
***
[The servant Sylvie has reached max racial level]
[The servant Sylvie''s evolution has begun]
***
[The servant Sylvie sessfully evolved into a Light Pixie]
[A very hyper creature that likes to y pranks on people. They are known for bringing havoc to weary travelers just for the fun of it.]
[The God of Light, Aoris has taken an interest in the servant Sylvie]
***
''Syvie did what now?''
***
[The servant Reiman has reached max racial level]
[The servant Reiman''s evolution has begun]
***
[The servant Reiman has sessfully evolved into a High Ratman]
[The evolved form of a rat man. They are faster and stronger than the average rat man.]
***
''Reiman too?''
---------------------------------------------------
Day 29
The previous night, Kawaii allowed me to sleep at the mansion. It was quite the weed offer. I told her to grab a few items such as food supply, clothes, armor, weapons and books and stockpiled them into my inventory. We also found some booze and meat at the bottom of the mansion, so Minerva wouldn''t kill me for not getting her anything.
We did this in the middle of the night, when we were certain that no one would see us. It would be weird, even to the servants if their boss is helping someone smuggle food. I then told Kawaii what her mission was. She was to go secure Ulva and protect her until I arrived, or if possible, take her out of the mansion. We had decided that we''d just leave the hero party alone. Nukeme was going to be with me the entire time.
Then there was Yokino. She had made me quite rmed with the message the system gave me. Apparently she had less than fifty percent of her health points remaining and had lost a lot of mana and stamina. In fact, she was off the grid now. I had no idea what was happening to her now. She hadpletely disappeared from the system itself. I hadpletely ignored her disappearance the other day as she just working about in the city, since I knew where she was at all times, but I was starting to regret that decision.
Also, while I slept, I received some weird news about some servants evolving. Shiroi, Sylvie and Reiman. Those three had evolved. I told Kawaii and she said that she didn''t care about them. I guessed that those three were the only ones who actually took the dungeon training seriously. I would have to talk with the hob-goblin captainster about training. Nukeme was the only one with a good excuse, considering he was here with me.
I thought it best to use the day for some profitable training. I was back to full strength, but I needed to prepare in the case of all-out warfare for Ulva.
I activated the skill [Shadow Being Summoning]. It took about 30 mana points to do so, but I honestly felt like it was worth it. Because a being, about seven feet tall appeared out of my shadow. It was pitch ck with a body that seemed to be alit with ck hazy mes. Its eyes and mouth were simply white and I couldn''t tell whether it was a simple two dimensional shadow or a three dimensional being. I looked at its stats and it was quite powerful. Was D+ in rank, had better defense than the current Kawaii, as well as better attack power. It even possessed magic skills and other stuff. It was only weak to light magic and it would never disobey or question a single order of mine.
I punched it full force, but my hand went right through it. But it could actually hit me if I ordered it to. Logically speaking, if I put just 1 of these guys against an army of only swordsmen, this guy would win easily. I even had Kawaii duel it. The oue however, wasn''t what I was expecting.
Kawaii''s stats lied to me! She was in apletely different league of her own! That was when she told me that, unlike monsters, humans were unbelievably weak and for that reason, they came up with the creation of [Techniques] that would help them ovee their weaknesses and fight on an even field with other monsters. This was one of the reason why they were still in power over thends.
That exnation made more sense to me than my original assumption of them just being numerous. I decided to spar Kawaii by myself. It was actually not even a fight since my methods of using magic, ording to her, weren''t normal. That made me wonder how stupid the residents of this world were not to utilize magic like how I did.
What I did that got her pissed was when I channeled mana into three balls up the battle area, used my affinities to turn those balls of mana into fire spheres and then rain them down on her. She had to use a technique to block those fire balls and in the process, I tripped her with her own shadow, basically ending the spar.
After having to listen to herin for a bit, I got a message from Nukeme telling me that the Adventurer party we met had gone to the rented room in search of me. I ordered him to escape, but when he tried, they all caught him and forced him to tell them where I was.
At this point I was tired of them, so I just went there, grabbed him and teleported back to the mansion with Nukeme.
Chapter 86 The Sub-Circle
Red fell on the floor after a gruesome training session in her training room. Her panting body kept going up and down as sweat danced about her muscle-toned body. She then looked at the man standing next to her. He wore a dark robe and had a ck mask over his face.
"What do you want, Grimm?"
Grimm sat next to her and let out a bored yawn.
"Oh nothing. I just came to tell you the n."
"For the monster?"
The man stretched out his hand let a gentle chilling breeze fly over his friend. She closed her eyes and smiled contently at this action.
"Let em rip."
He took out a [Projection Stone] and holographic figures formed. Maude opened her eyes to look at what was being shown. At first, she was confused, but then noticed how easily the adventurers had been beaten by two women. What shocked her most was the woman who used giant spider legs to fight. She scrolled through her memories quickly and was suddenly reminded of Arachnes. Although that race didn''t look like that, the woman''s legs looked just like one. She was probably a variant species.
"What is she?"
"I am not sure about that. I believe some variant in the Arachne race. Anyway, what got my interest was the one who looks like a kid."
"Because of her magic?"
"No. Because the bigger one was acting subservient to it. That would mean the kid is the stronger one."
"Hmm. Is she also an Arachne?"
"Have you forgotten the video file from the markari? She had wings, not ws."
"So, some variant of the Harpies?"
"I doubt that, but it''s worth considering."
Maude closed her eyes again.
"I see. So¡ what is the n?"
"The n is to capture both of them alive. I remember Derbyshire telling me that he wanted to capture her alive for The Boss."
"How do you n on capturing her, when my best team failed?"
"You forget who I am, you bastard."
"Hehe. Anything else to report?"
There was no response after that. Maude opened her eyes and noticed that Grimm was not around anymore. She clicked her tongue and sighed.
''You''ve got to stop doing that! Also¡ this creature could help out with that. Grimm, you genius!''
***
Grimm walked out of the room and found himself walking in the hallways. A pair of hands grabbed him by the shoulder and he froze still.
"Oh dear, did you do it?"
The seductive voice asked. Without moving a single inch, Grimm replied.
"Yes."
"Good, good. Now, on to the next phase of our grand n."
Grimm nodded, just as the pair of hands disappeared. He proceeded to move towards his destination.
---------------------------------------------
A dark room
Onerge round table sat in this chamber which was illuminated by lit torches all around. The room was dark enough that the features of those present couldn''t be properly seen, yet their outline could be made out.
The round table had eight seats, of which three were empty.
"Shall we begin this meeting my friends?"
One of the members suggested and the others straightened their postures.
"Finally. This meeting was starting to piss me off."
One of the members with a high pitched voice said. The others silently agreed.
"Very well then¡ this regards the boss."
He remained silent for a brief moment, making sure he had gotten everyone''s attention ¨C sessfully did.
"It seems his greed for one little dhampyr has summoned a monster to this city."
"Don''t call her one little dhampyr. She is a near perfect experiment that cou-"
The member who spoke out had his voice cut off by a surge of killing intent being shot at him. He looked around and couldn''t tell who was sending it. All he knew was that it would be best for him to shut his mouth.
"A monster? Just send the grunts to kill it. Or even better, leave it to the Adventurer Guild."
One proposed a solution to the seemingly stupid problem in a bored manner. She even yawned and rested her head on the table.
"I would have sent the Adventurers to handle it, but this monster¡ it was more than I thought."
He responded. The whole room was silent once again, everyone eager to know what he meant by that.
"Exin."
A man with arge outline and a deep voice said.
"Yes, yes. This creature already killed off the majority of Ciligan''s group. Only the markari we left to monitor them survived."
"Who now?"
"Oh? Could you be referring to the Secret Task force that received personal training from the Great Grimm ck himself?"
One of the members asked and all the others'' ears twitched.
"I have not¡ trained any person and I will not train any person if that is what you were trying to lead to. This team was trained by Maude who is the Boss'' Right Hand."
"His right hand?"
"Interesting."
"Then I am guessing that this team should be very impressive."<novelnext></novelnext>
"Trust me, when I say they are. Or they were. I received a report from the task force''s surviving member as to how events yed out that day and to be honest, it was a bit unnerving. Five mercenaries, two of which were stronger than quite a few experienced adventurers and the others at least on par with experienced adventurers. Four dead, the only surviving member a markari who are known for their¡ ''Resilience''."
Grimm threw a stone to the center of the table. The stone projected an image of a little girl with blonde hair, red cowlick,rge golden wings with dark patches and glowing red eyes.
"Andst night, I received a report saying the creature is in this city, right now."
All members present looked at the naked beauty with all sorts of thoughts going through their minds.
"How did the creature get here so quickly?"
The man from earlier who had been silenced asked.
"Obviously Teleportation Magic, stupid husband of mine."
The woman who sat very close to him responded.
"Still¡"
"Shut it, you two."
Another voice came.
"You mean to tell me that that little girl is the monster?"
"Definitely. I don''t think you should call her a little girl though."
Grimm defended.
"Why not?"
"Well¡ here."
The video continued and those present were surprised. They witnessed the monster cast different elements simultaneously and effortlessly beat Ciligan and his men, barely using seconds. Afterwards, she called in goblins toe carry the men away in some sort of tunnel, filled with hundreds of rat men. She then called in some hob-goblins, a rat man and some humanoid¡ an elf? She woke up the subordinates and questioned them. They watched as Ciligan was mercilessly killed by the little girl for refusing to answer her.
Her methods were cruel¡ still, there was a bit of a human touch to it. Something they wouldn''t expect a stupid monster to do. And from the information they could gather, other monsters were subordinate to it. For all they knew, this creature had an army of monsters under it and they had juste to anger it. Even if the creature didn''t have an army of monsters, with the power it just disyed, it might as well have been a Superior Beast or beyond.
"Oh my¡"
The woman sitting next to the skinny manmented.
"Remember how I went to Larm to secure the fat ogre''s daughter?"
"You did what!?"
"Yea, when I did, Derbyshire told me of a little bird monster in the West portion of the forest that was fighting Krull''s army."
"His army?"
"Yeah, there was a little feud going on between the West and the East. Nothing special."
"A feud?"
"Like I said, nothing special."
Tensions were slowly rising in the room. None of those present were stupid enough to underestimate the prowess of a tyrant. If they were, they would openly hunt down resources from Larm.
"So this is the monster?"
"I believe so."
"What makes you think this?"
"Are you stupid? I don''t want to hear another word from your mouth."
The woman sitting next to him ordered.
"Eeek!"
Again, he had been silenced.
"Even if she use various magical elements, those were nothing but basic level magic. Not even intermediary¡ Not to mention advanced. That monster is weak. Stop wasting my time, Grimm. Tell me why it is I''m here?"
The deep voice asked. His body was releasing a violent aura which made the air distort and breathing became a bit difficult for the more¡ weaker members.
"Calm down, Aigen. I just wanted your help to capture this monster for the boss."
"Stop fooling around. Even kings aren''t major threats for you, so why would a tiny monster be able to do anything to you."
"Eh? Since when?"
"I shall take my leave now. I still have to attend to my business. It was bad enough that my shipments have been dyed by a few weeks due to some idiots calling themselves the "Hero Party". Don''t call me on this matter again."
"I''m out as well. The Mexar Empire''s efforts to smoke out my rings have intensified greatly."
The silent woman who seemed tired said as she stood up.
"You two. Hold up."
Grimm ordered and both stopped walking away.
"If you two aren''t participating, I wish for you to at least leave the capital for the next few days."
"Huh?"
"Very well. I had a mission elsewhere, either way. I''ll be leaving in an hour."
"Same goes for me. I only came because this could be thest time I meet you people. It was fun."
They both said and left the area.
"Huh? What? Grimm, you are going to let both of them leave just like that?"
"What else can I do?"
"Don''t y dumb with us. Everybody here knows perfectly what you are capable of."
"Oi, oi, oi. Aren''t you guys overestimating me?"
"Hmph¡ anyway, I''m guessing you already have a n?"
"Indeed. Are you two ready to take up your roles as parents?"
"Eh?"
Chapter 87 The First Turning Point
Later that day, in the cers.
The cer doors creaked as they were slowly opened.
A man in a whiteb coat holding a handbag came through the door. With dirty blonde hair and coffee brown eyes, a face that made you just want to pity him and an air that made you want to hate him even more, he was known amongst the ves as ''That Dumb Doctor who Works for Lady Violet.'' Even if he was amongst the "Sub-Circle" he wasn''t treated like an authority figure, due to hisck of achievements.
He looked to the far end of the room, where he saw sharp golden eyes ring at him. Then he looked at the being in front of him. A little girl with her fingers bleeding and her skin deathly pale. He sat her up then lightly pped her cheeks to confirm whether she was alive.
The girl''s eyes opened slowly. She looked around her, silently grunting at the pain she now felt. The man looked at her teeth. White fangs were growing nicely and her cheek bones looked healthy. He looked at her eyes, and nothing seemed off about them.
"Hmm, it seems that the experiment managed tost the three weeks without prepared feed, probably feeding off the blood of the animals in the forest."
He jotted it down in a notebook, then gently let the girl on the ground. He then took out a syringe, and ced an empty ss vial on it.
"Grimm, this is only a temporary solution, you know?"
dimir said, while injecting the syringe into the little girl''s arm.
"Yes, yes. It doesn''t matter. We''ll use it only once either way."
The silent figure whose presence was barely noticeable in the darkness responded.
"Papa?"
Ulva tiredly said, trying to sit up. The man smiled after she said that. One smile that made him seem like he was content at life, even with his face.
"P-papa? D-did I do something wrong?"
"Tch¡ nothing at all darling. You can rest easy."
After hearing those words, tears started flowing out the little girl''s eyes. Her heart ached and her mind didn''t want to believe what she had just heard.
"T-Then why? Why did you sell me?"
She begged for an answer and the scientist didn''t respond to her.
"Stop crying. I made you to be stronger and more durable than humans. Something of this level shouldn''t be able to harm you."
"Don''t you think you are being a bit too harsh?"
Grimm asked.
"What? I don''t want to lose this ss vial. It''s not easy getting those especially when you live in such a poor country. Besides, what do you care?"
Grimm shrugged then looked away.
"P-papa¡ I''m sorry for whatever I did. I-I didn''t mean to."
He patted her head.
"Listen to me. You did nothing wrong, ok? We just had to."
"Hey! Human! Stop it! Do not lie to her! Don''t give her false hope¡"
After having enough of what she saw, the princess let out an angry roar.
"Huh? What do you want, you stupid ogress? Just shut up in your corner of the room or else¡"
dimir threatened. His whole demeanour switched up.
"Tch¡ can''t you see you''re hurting her?"
"Hmm?"
"¡ I really hate your kind."
She muttered under her breath.
"What was that?"
"I said that I really hate your kind! You stupid adults who think they birthed someone means having absolute authority over them! I really hate it! You shit heads! You''re just like him! That stupid bastard who killed my mother!"
"Oh? A sudden revtion? The ogre princess has a bad rtionship with her father? That means you are useless to us. Tch, first time Grimm fails, huh?"
Grimm looked at him from the corner of his eye. However dimir didn''t care. It was no secret that dimir did not enjoy his presence.
"Whatever! Stay away from the girl."
"Hey, I just had a fun idea. Since we are all making revtions, Ulva, why don''t I tell you what actually happened in the vige you were raised in three weeks ago?"
The little girl looked up with curious eyes.
"It''s actually quite the funny story once you hear it."
"W-what do you mean?"
"Hahaha! How do I start?"
***
Three Weeks Ago
The moon shone beautiful up on the sky, spreading its gentle light upon the vige below.
However, it was a bloodstained evening for the humans. Houses had been set on fire, dead bloodied bodiesid sprawled on the ground and those who were unfortunate to still be alive, kept on running, screaming for their lives or just going insane.
A creature that blurred through the area kept on cutting down the humans without warning, its long ws shredding them like paper. Its blood red eyes scanned the area for all forms of life that contained blood it could consume.
It was quite the dangerous creature. A monster of nightmares. A blood crazed beast that usually appeared only during a blood moon, terrorizing weak viges ording to myths. It was one that had two faces. A face for the day and one for the night. It was known as amprey, or more popr, a dhampyr.<novelnext></novelnext>
It ran towards a house at the outskirts of the vige. It broke down the door and entered the ce, where it found two people. A woman with dark ck hair and sharp blue eyes, and a man with dirty brown hair and coffee brown eyes. The two red at themprey then smirked.
"It would seem the transformation experiment failed, dear husband of mine."
The woman said as she took a sip of tea.
"Indeed. Another one of the children was a failure. And after we spent so much time with her."
"When will the execution squad be here?"
"Shouldn''t be long now. Until then, how should we deal with her?"
"I don''t know. What do you think, Ulva dear? How should we deal with you?"
The monster snarled at them then charged at them. The couple simply showed the creature a mirror and it froze. It looked at its reflection, then at its ws, as if just realizing that it existed. The monster let out a horrid scream, while holding its head and smashing it against the ground.
"As expected. As its body attacks us, its mind is being deluded that it is actually dreaming. So I was right, dear! Lampreys don''t control themselves. It is just a wild transformation it would seem. A sort of uncontroble adrenaline rush."
It looked at the duo again, its hair changing from white to ck and its form changing between monster and little girl. Tears began flowing through her eyes as she looked at them.
"M-mama! Papa?"
"Yes dear,e to us. Mommy and daddy are here."
The woman said. The man however scoffed at the monster. He was sour from the fact that he just lost his bet.
"To think that thing contains my blood. The boss sure has a messed up way to have fun, don''t you think?"
"Shush¡ now''s not the time for that. I''m trying to acknowledge your failure."
"Pfft¡ very well, go on then. Try to control the monster and prove me right, dear."
He said with a cocky grin.
"Come here. Come into mommy''s hands."
The woman stretched out her hand to the little girl, calling for her toe forward.
The little girl¡ monster, stumbled towards the woman''s arms. Just a little bit more and she would have been in the woman''s arms. Suddenly, the wall of the house broke down anding through, was a person.
"Finally, you''re here to subjugate the monster."
The man cursed.
"Papa?"
"Don''t call me that you abomination. Only my dearest Ulva has such rights."
The man walked towards the broke down wall, which prompted the creature to look at the newer. The stranger wore mid-night ck armor. That was all she could get, right before she saw a blinding light and lost consciousness.
===========================================
"Get it now, daughter of mine? You killed everyone you loved. Well, everyone we cultivated for you to love. I mean, your entire life was my ''Ultimate Experiment'' gone wrong at the end."
The little girl slumped back, unable to even utter a sound. dimir removed the syringe after it had taken a certain amount of blood. He put the vile in his bag then made to leave the cer.
"dimir."
"What is it?"
"You are one shitty father."
"Tell that to mine. He used to beat me and my mother up whenever he got drunk. He even ended up killing my mother when I was ten. That was until I created a poison that made him kill himself."
"He killed himself?"
"Yes. As cruel as I can be, I do try to refrain from killing. I simply give my targets the option to. Then I influence their decision a tiny bit. The rest is up to them."
"Interesting. Can we get a move on now?"
"Also¡ Grimm."
"Yes?"
"This idea of yours is dumb as hell."
"I know."
"Then why are you certain that it will work?"
"Because, whether or not this works, two days from now will be the turning point of our lives. For good, or for worse."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
dimir red at Grimm, who replied in kind. They stood there for a while, before dimir gave up on trying to intimidate the masked man. With a sigh, he left the cer.
"Oh goody, so this is where all the prisoners are? Good, good. I can initiate my ns now~"
The voice came once again. This time however, was thest.
"Sorry, but I think this is where I terminate our agreement."
"What?!"
The voice hissed from the shadows. Eight eyes glowed in rainbow colours from the darkness. Grimm reached into his pocket and dropped a smoke bomb to the ground. Normally this wouldn''t really do much to regr people, but it was actually made out of ck Candite. A substance very potent to vampiric species. The eight eyed figure did not know this and still remained, throwing a bolt of lightning at him.
Grimm easily dodged it and drew out two short curved des from his sides, then charged at her.
Chapter 88 Relative?
Day 30
So, I assumed that I had managed to escape the guys iming to be a hero party. However, I had to give it to them. They were a whole new breed of persistent, even managing to track us down to the mansion.
"Tori, how old are you?"
Marcus decided that that would be his first question for me.
BAM!
He received a dangerous knock to the head from Mira. She even bowed her head to apologise for his foolishness like she were his caretaker.
"Sorry, once again excuse him. Stupid and all."
"Hinotori-sama, these humans are weird."
Nukeme whispered into my ear. I let out a tired sigh.
''How did you guys find me?''
I asked them.
"Answer my question first, then we answer yours!"
''And that is?''
"How old are you?"
He asked again. Right now he was bing quite insufferable, but since I had nothing other than time on my hands, I think I could go at least humour them for now.
''How old do you think I am?''
"I don''t know¡ thirteen? Twelve? Ten?"
''Interesting.''
"So you are twelve?"
''Do I really look so young?''
"Huh? What do you mean?"
''Nothing.''
"Are you some kind of princess?"
Then he suggested something weird.
''Hmm? No. Why do you think that?''
"Why wouldn''t I?"
''What''s that supposed to mean?''
I looked up and noticed the others were groaning and had their palms in their face. It would seem that this was his pedophilic pick up line. Seriously?
"You don''t act like how I''d expect a twelve year old to act."
''Is that so?''
"It''s almost like you are some kind of princess."
"Fufufufu!"
I actually giggled at the thought. A chips eating hentai pervert like me as a pervert. Someone probably died of shock thinking about this.
"What''s so funny?"
''Sorry, it''s just that you are the first person to call me that. Also, never call me princess again. I''ll kill you.''
I warned him, causing him to gulp and remain silent.
''Now answer mine. How did you find me?''
"Hehe¡ would you believe me if I told you that an angel told me?"
____________________________________________________
Amongst the party of aspiring heroes, several reactions flew.
"Wheeeeew."
"Holy¡"
"¡"
"Ah-"
"Damn¡ I did not see thising at all."
Marcus blurted out as he looked at his party members all roughed up and Celica having an arrow stuck in her arm.
"Seriously Marcus? You seriously did not see her wiping our asses with the floor after we held her minion prisoner for the second time in a row?"
Celica sarcastically asked and the young boy could only scratch the back of his neck
"Sorry."
"Sorry? You idiot! Do we need to die before you realise that this isn''t the sort of thing we are cut out f- hmhmfmmahmmmmmmm!"
Daryl grabbed her and ced his hand over her mouth.
"What she is trying to say Marcus, is that maybe we should just give up on the kid. I am actually starting to suspect that she is some kind of [Demon Lord Candidate]."
"Yeah, yeah! Remember that time when she said Marcus doesn''t possess a [Sacred]?"
Kira spoke out and it suddenly hit the others. How would she know unless she possessed something of the sort herself? It didn''t need to be a [Sacred]. In fact, she just having the title [Hero Candidate] or [Demon Lord Candidate] itself would allow her to tell those who do have a [Sacred].
Marcus looked down on the ground. Mira walked up next to him and leaned on him.
"I know you want this really bad, but Marcus. Maybe, we should just give up on this one. There''s countless other adventures out there."
While the team conversed on the issue, a cloaked figure approached them quietly. She folded a scroll and shoved it into a sort of pocket dimension before clearing her throat, drawing in the attention of the members.
They all looked back and had different reactions to her presence. None the less, they were surprised.
"You''re back?"
Marcus asked and the figure nodded. He stood up and let out a wide grin, almost as if he didn''t care about it anymore.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Hehe, boy have we got a story for you."
The cloaked figure approached him and put their hand to his cheeks.
"You always were bad at hiding your emotions."
He grin was slowly reced with a downward curvature of his lips. His eyescked the excitement he normally carried.
"Did you meet who I sent you to meet?"
"Yeah."
"Did you find their sister?"
"No."
"¡ I see."
The person removed their hands from his face then grabbed their chin. As if deep in thought, the person remained like a statue for a brief second before moving on.
"Oh well. Don''t worry about it.
"I guess that''s the story¡ wait, you have red eyes?"
Marcus noticed that a piece of their mask was broken, revealing their vermillion red eyes.
"Huh?"
The figure just realized that part of their mask had been broken. She quickly turned around and fixed a new mask on.
"Anyway¡ is she a rtive of yours? A friend?"
Mira broke the air around those two with her question.
"You said she was a little girl?"
"Yea! She wore a simr mask and even gave the same mysterious vibe as you did. She was probably as strong as you too."
"Hmmm¡ well, I guess there''s no point hiding it. I''ve been searching for any rtives I have since my tribe was destroyed. I tracked her down to this ce and I believe that she could be a cousin of mine."
They all looked surprised. This caused the strange person to tilt their head in confusion.
"What is with you guys?"
"Hehe. If you were looking for a family member, you should have just told us. We would have done it within a heartbeat."
Daryl said.
"I am not a fan of family matters, but seeing as they look important to you, I would not mind helping you find them."
Celica kept stealing nces at Daryl for some weird reason. Everyone had smug looks when looking at her red face.
"Of course! Family is very important!"
Mira grabbed her little sister in between her arms and yelled.
"Yes. Especially when they are strong! Tori is very strong."
The usually reserved Kira even let out a shout, althoughcking in energy.
"Well, there you have it. We''ll get you to your family, just leave it to us!"
The person just stood still,pletely shocked to the bone, before letting out an amused giggle.
"Thanks, but I have news of something happening in the Demon Lands as well as the Dark Church having made several movements. It looks like it is finally happening. Sorry, but you guys need to move to th-"
"Hey¡ now isn''t the time for that."
Marcus grabbed them and brought them to face level. For the first time, even though none could see her face, she showed her feminine features. Her long silver white hair dropped after her hood fell and she squeaked from the awkwardness of the situation.
"Marcus! You big stupid! Big idiot! Idiot! Idiot!"
Mira kept screaming in the background and punching his back with her phenomenal beast-like strength. With every single punch, a crack was heard.
"M-Mira¡ please!"
The masked figure took a step back as Marcus copsed to the ground and the others tried to get Mira off of him so she didn''t identally kill him.
____________________________________________________
''So basically, you met a rtive of mine and decided help her find me and she gave you tips on how to find me¡ right. And what is this person''s name?''
<<Notice: This is a highly suspicious im. I suggest you inquire further>>
''Is that so? Very well then, can I know who this person is?''
I decided to ask, but then all of them let out a nervousugh.
"She said you wouldn''t know who she was, but if you want to meet her, you would know exactly where she was."
I was suddenly struck with the thought of this person possibly being a member of my race. My description did say I was rare. Well it also said I was a delicacy, which meant we were being hunt down.
''Still, seeing how strong I got, can I assume that we are only so weak in our first form? Also, what exactly are we. And who exactly is this person.''
I let out a sigh and leaned back on the chair.
''Can I at least get a name?''
"Oh right! Ciel! Her name, is Ciel. Kind of weird if you ask me, but I guess you guys aren''t exactly normal."
''Ciel? That name sounds familiar I guess.''
"So you do know her?"
''I''m sure I''ve seen it somewhere before, but I doubt I know this person. Send this person my regards and tell them that if they ever want to meet me, I''ll be in the West.''
Obviously, she wouldn''t know what that meant, but I couldn''t have her being the only one sounding mysterious and edgy! Marcus'' eyes were sparkling with excitement and the others looked pleased with my response.
''Oh thank you Almighty god of Edginess!''
I kept a cool front and delicately got off the chair and walked towards the door. It was about time I got my little sister back.
''Anyway, it''s time. I guess I''ll meet you guyster. Safe journey to wherever you''re going.''
"Yeah. Thanks."
After that, I parted with them and went to the ice cream stand, where I met the couple. They were both dressed in simr outfits as the previous day, except this time they wore masks on their faces. When I asked, they said this auction was sort of illegal so they needed to hide their faces to prevent being identified. Luckily I always kept mine on so I had no problems there. We then went to the auction house, which was actually some secret underground meeting in the most famous restaurant in the city, Hellish Bite.
Chapter 89 Auction
We had to pay 1 gold coin each to even participate in the auction. Several soldiers of D and C rank were constantly patrolling the area or standing guard. The servants were moving about quickly and not being a bother to anyone. I even noticed that some statues and portraits had some weird sort of magic tool in them. ording to the agent, it allowed the security to know if there was anything weird by sensing any change in mana, aura or heat of the participants. That was simply how high tier this thing was.
I started to feel out of my depth here, but I calmed down.
"That''s strange¡ shouldn''t there be a lot of people attending the auction?"
I asked and Nukeme shrugged.
"There have to be people who can actually buy the things going for the auction in the first ce."
Ignis said nonchntly and walked over to the big man in a ck suit wearing a mask. He handed over 4 gold coins and the man epted the money with a gleeful expression, before giving Ignis two golden tickets.
''Wow¡ you paid for us?''
I asked and Ignis looked genuinely surprised.
"Erhm¡ I-I just bought two golden tickets. Normal tickets are ck."
''Oh... ok.''
I felt a bit embarrassed, but I quickly recovered. I really didn''t want to buy something too expensive. Two coins gave me that luxury hotel room the night before for at least a month. With unlimited room service! I couldn''t just give up two gold coins.
''But¡ it''s for Ulva¡ No. Wait. If I just use 1 gold coin each, for me and Nukeme, that''s 2 gold coins. We will simply go and sit in a trap, but I at least used two less coins. In that case.''
I took out two gold coins and gave it to the man who smiled creepily. His big hands grabbed my tiny hands and he said.
"Oh~ Madame Moiselle, do enjoy thevish VIP seats we have reserved for you. May I know what House you belong to?"
''House? What''s this guy talking about?''
<<Notice: A House refers to one of the highest of the Noble Factions in the world. There are currently fifteen established Houses>>
''Seriously? Well damn. I guess I don''t belong to any of those, huh?''
<<Affirmative>>
"Oh-um¡ Her House is to remain unknown here."
Ignis came between the man and myself.
''Huh? Are these guys not aware of the fact that this is a trap?''
This was very interesting. The man was acting as if he didn''t know that this entire auction was made up just to catch me. Did the orchestrator set it up in this way so that I didn''t notice anything odd? Pretty risky of him, isn''t it? Whatever.
"Oh. I see. How presumptuous of me. Please do not consider my earlier actions rude~"
He set, before drawing the curtains and leading a path for us. He gave me a ticket and I wondered where the other was.
"Eh-em¡ Please, is your carrier not aware of where he must wait for the goods?"
He was ring at Nukeme as if he were the scorn of the.
"Of course. Now, off with you."
Ignis gave an order to Nukeme which infuriated the hob-goblin. He almost drew his daggers to fight, so I gave him the order. He calmed down and we walked through the curtains, leaving him behind.
When we crossed over, we were lead to arge auditorium with not more than a hundred chairs set up on the ground. However, these chairs were half-filled with no one sitting in the front rows. I noticed a balcony where two people sat, their whole attire revealing not even a single hair on their body.
One servant came and led us towards the stairs leading to the balcony. There were exactly 5 chairs set up in thepartment we were sent. A small room, but spacious enough with two guards standing guard outside. A clear view of the entire auditorium that couldn''t be disturbed by anything, and also allowed the host to see us easily. Even better, they had grapes. Truly a ce for VIPs.
We took our seats and the guide set a bell on the table. He said if we needed anything, we could simply ring, and the servants woulde attend to us.
''You know¡ I find it odd that mere vigers could suddenly afford V.I.P seats in an auction house.''
"W-Well, our master is a very influential man, you know? He is also very caring so he gave us this for the bare minimum."
''Is that so? He must possess a lot of money, I mean. He is of the House Kyde, right?''
Ignis shut up. The look on his face was priceless. One of pure fear and shock. Same for his wife who just sat there, mouth aghast.
I ignored them and focused on the auction. Now that they knew that I had information on them, they wouldn''t make any reckless actions that would cause them to sway from the n Yokino had mapped out. Or at least I hoped so.
Over the course of the auction, we saw a lot of items and ves being sold. I really wanted some of the items I was seeing and ended up deciding that I would have steal thoseter on if I got a chance. I even gave Nukeme the order to steal anything he could. (What? Don''t act like you wouldn''t want to.)
"And now, for the final item on the list. Going for fifteen gold coins."
A girl in rags was made toe up on stage. She had chains binding her legs and visible wounds over her body. Her hair was muddy and her face, bruised. I found it odd that they would be keeping a ve in such poor conditions, but upon further inspection, she looked just like Ulva. I was honestly stunned.
Something didn''t feel right though.
''Wasn''t Ulva supposed to have been with the nobleman? Yo, agent! Is it some sort of magic?''
Suddenly, I started feeling uneasy about everything. My heart rate had gone up.
<<No magical interference can be sensed>>
''Huh? Does that mean¡ that''s actually Ulva?''
<<It is possible. Use the Unique skill [Analyst] to confirm>>
''Oh right! I have that¡''
Just as I activated the skill, everything suddenly disappeared. I was only surrounded by solid darkness. The thunderous silence suddenly started to break me. My heart felt uneasy and my mind kept asking several questions. The most prominent of them though, was,
''What the hell is happening?''
A single pink flower petal flew past me. Followed by another, then another, and in no time, hundreds swarmed my vision, wrapping me up in their vicious dance and flinging me out into an open field of snow. When I looked up, I saw a glowing sakura tree with a person sitting underneath it.
"Hello there."
The person said. I assumed that it was the System Master, but then this simply wasn''t how her domain was like thest time I was here. Also, the person sitting under the tree wasn''t the form she took thest time.
''W-Who are you?''
I asked and the person melted into a pile of snow.
"To think that you''ve already forgotten my voice. It''s me. Your favorite immortal."<novelnext></novelnext>
''Eh? My favorite immortal?''
I felt warm, slender, arms wrapping themselves around me. Dark hair fell over my body and I looked around only to be met with familiar irises on a familiar face. Too familiar.
The puffy cheeks pink cheeks, the small cute nose that was as red as Christmas lights whenever it got too cold, the mischievous impish grin that would sometimes cause me pain and in the other times cause meughter and the short-cut ck hair that always smelled like disgusting mangos.
''Mitsuki?''
My little sister. What the hell was my little sister doing here?
"Nope! It''s everyone''s favorite system master!"
She said with arms now in the sky, letting go of my bird body. Her statement shocked me, but nheless riddled me with several questions. Something definitely wasn''t right about this situation.
''Eh? Why do you look like my sister? I thought you were taking the form of Maya.''
"Oh? This is your sister''s form?"
She was acting oblivious. And she was intentionally making that fact obvious.
''Yes. You can''t tell me you didn''t know that.''
"Oops. Was just taking the form of a person that just died."
She smiled creepily after saying that, and my heart sunk. I didn''t even know how to feel after having such information dropped on me out of nowhere. I even started to doubt the validity of what she just said.
''What?''
"Well I thought you would want to know that. This became awkward¡ Anyway, I came here to ask you to rate my system. Give it a five star rating please."
''Youe here telling me that my sister is dead and now you want me to rate your system?''
I was furious. This was stupid, even for her.
"Yes."
''Did she also reincarnate here?''
"I don''t know. Maybe. I''m not the only one bringing in souls, you know. There are others here with me ying with mortal souls. So she could possibly be here, or she went to Elysium."
I tried to grab the system master by the throat, but that didn''t have any good effects. I just ended up passing right through a body of burning snow. The snow was so cold it felt like I was be burnt instead.
"Do try to be careful. The snow in this ce has destroyed souls before."
She warned and with a wave of her hand, the snow I touched blew over and I was back to normal, the pain had disappeared almost as if I never felt it.
''Dangerous.'' was all I could think as I looked at her. I decided to switch the topic quickly.
''H-How¡ how did she die?''
"Remember the boarding school she was supposed to attend? Well, looks like some crazy weather storm hit her on the way before she could even make it. A pity I''d say."
She said something scary. At this point, I could only assume that she caused Mitsuki''s death.
''W-Why?''
"Who knows? Freaky weather this year. There was that one massive hail storm in New York City yesterday. Or was that next year? Ah well, time is kind of confusing sometimes. Either way, several lives gone and stuff."
She was toying with me. I never should have even had the slightest bit of faith in this person. She was so powerful she could do anything she wanted and I wouldn''t be able to defy her out of fear of death. Once again, I am forced to acknowledge my own weakness. I was starting to get confident in my abilities when I hadn''t even reached the level of Minerva at the very least. I had no rights to be angry here.
After clearing my head, I could finally focus on what was important.
''Are my parents safe at least?''
"Listen here kid. I don''t know. Just rate my system and let me go."
She shrugged, folding her arms while staring intently at me.
''Tch¡ fine. Three stars. Now go.''
"What? Three stars? Why only three stars? Does this look like some shitty B-rank system to you, ya brat?"
''One star for the system allowing me to get stronger, one star for the consistency, two stars gone because of a crappy system master!''
She had tears in her eyes and started to whine about.
"No fair! I put in a lot of work, you know?"
I ignored her and looked about. Thinking about it, this ce was endless. It was just white snow spreading out.
''What is this ce, by the way?''
"None of your business! Get out!"
She ordered, causing me to suddenly return to the auction house. A bit confused, I looked about and saw nothing out of the ordinary. They were still selling the ve. No. Calling it a ve was wrong. Very wrong. That thing was a monster and I was starting to wonder how the hell they even caught it.
DING!
[You have 1 pending message from the servant Yokino]
''Open it.''
[Yokino: Kill everyone in the auction hall.]
The message was a bit surprising. I didn''t really expect her to bluntly tell me tomit murder. I was about to ask why, but then a water spear flew right into the head of the host. A woman with crimson red hair descended, her eight eyes glowing angrily and spider legs moving about viciously.
"Sorry,dies and gentlemen! Show time is over. Time~ To~ Die~~"
Yokino just dropped in out of nowhere and said those words. At first, the present members assumed that it was just a sort of y, but then when Yokino killed one of the audience members with a lightning st, the situation suddenly became real.
I tapped my forehead, a bit angry with how she spontaneously made her decision without informing me. I decided that I wouldn''t directly help her with the situation she had gotten herself into. At least, I would summon some help for her.
''[Portal Creation].''
I snapped my fingers.
Chapter 90 Auction Massacre
Larm Forest, Wolf King''s Cave
"B-Boss¡ where are you going?"
A wolf asked Shiroi as she took big heavy steps towards the portal in the center of the cave.
"What sort of question is that? The leader summons me. I must heed to her call."
The ck wolf looked at his sister from the corner of his eye. Before, those two were giants amongst the other wolves, but now, he couldn''t evenpare to her in terms of size. It was a surprising development he hadn''t expected.
"If there wasn''t a portal, were you going to run all the way to the city?"
"If it was necessary, I would have. And I am certain that if it is me, as I am now, it wouldn''t take even half a day to do so. However¡"
"Where does that lead to?"
"Wherever the leader is at the moment."
"Si-"
She red at her younger brother, her violet eyes faintly glowing.
"Enough questions. I''m leaving."
The wolf jumped through the portal and it closed up behind her. The ck wolf sat up and looked at the spot where his sister onceid.
''Maybe I''ll try the dungeons too.''
***
"I thought I killed that thing. Ah well, that doesn''t matter now since it''s actually doing my job for me."
A voice came from behind. Sitting on of the seats with his legs crossed and on my seat was a tall man in a ck coat. A ck mask covered his face almost entirely like the one I wore which made me realise he must have had some sort of connection to the kidnappers.. In a swift movement, his face was merely inches away from mine.
''I''m guessing you are the famous Grimm ck I have heard so much about. You are as impressive as they say you are.''
''Oh? You also possess [Telepathy]? This will be a fun little conversation then, little one. Did youe here on "her" orders?''
He asked me. I looked to my side and noticed that the couple was paralysed with fear. They genuinely didn''t know what action to take so they just sat still.
''Don''t bother about those two. They aren''t even human. Simple automatons. Now, back to my question. Did "she" send you?''
<<Notice: External threat noticed! Magic Ice Needles have been detected attempting to prate your defenses>>
At this point 15 ice needles were trying to pierce my body. This idiot was trying to do something to me as we spoke, but unfortunately for him, nothing could happen to my body without me knowing since I had the unique skill [God''s Voice].
<<Notice: Measures against the attack are being taken!>>
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the skill [Magical Attack Resistance]]
''I don''t know who "she" is.''
''Don''t lie to me. Your friend over there already told me all ab-''
Before he could continue that, there was a white mist that punched him off of me and onto the auditorium floor. I noticed a violet light in the mist.
''Shiroi?''
I got off the chair and walked to the edge, only to find the biggest wolf I had seen till date towering over Grimm. She had silvery white fur with her ear tips, tail tip and paws all coloured red. There was a weird green design drawn over her back that showed something like two wolves running, but in almost artistic yet archaic manner.
It would seem that she didn''t hear me since she didn''t respond to me.
Either way, this was the end of this bullish y.
I spread out my wings and let my aura re as a simple disy of power, then I flew right through the roof.
_________________________________________
Kawaii/ Maude''s internal conversation
When Kawaii had consumed the human that is known as Maude or Ellie McAllister or Clyde McAllister, the soul was supposed to have also been consumed, turned into nothing more than food for the slime. However, she wasn''t dealing with a normal soul but rather, with a [Heroic Soul]. The soul had refused to die off and was still in the consciousness of the slime, which brings us to this moment.
"Hey slime. Let me out."
''Hmm? But didn''t you agree to let me have your body?''
"What I meant by let me out was that let me take control over you for a while. At least until I''ve had my words with the Boss."
''Why would I do that?''
"You''ve explored my memories, experienced my trauma. You''ve seen my very being. You should know that I won''t try anything funny now. I am already dead, anyway."
;¡ You''re lucky that I know you aren''t lying. Ok, until you have your words with your father, you can have control.''
"Thank you."
***
Maude''s eyes slowly opened and she looked around her. She was on the staircase that lead to the cers. She flexed her fingers and arms and was surprised by how fluid and bouncy her body was.
''I''m back? So it wasn''t some weird dream¡ in that case I don''t have time to waste.''
Quickly, she ran to the bottom cer, where they were keeping the very important ves. A floor beneath the ce where the regr ves were being tortured. There were only five ves down there. At least, there were supposed to be. Maude noticed the fact that two of them had disappeared. Normally this would scare her, but she wasn''t even living anymore, so to hell with fear. She moved past the ones she didn''t care about and ended up in the one at the far back. Chained up to the wall, was her target. The dark haired dhampyr, known as Ulva.
"Hey you. Get up."
She grabbed the girl by the arm.
"Ah, let me¡ go!"
Ulva begun to struggle against Maude''s grip and the ogre princess suddenly reacted.
"Hey! I thought you said nothing would happen to her!"
The ogressined.
"Looks like the n''s changed, princess. I''ll be needing this one up in the room today."
"W-What? But she''s just a child!"
"Shut up!"
"Tch, if you don''t leave her, I will kill you."
Her voice sounded serious, but itcked the necessary amount of killing intent to scare anyone. At least that was what Maude thought.
''Hehe¡ you''re a pure one acting tough. Don''t let yourself get corrupted easily.''
"Go ahead and try with those cors on your neck you stupid beast."
The ogre could only curse at her powerlessness.
"Leave¡ me¡ alone!"
The little dhampyr then bit her arm. Ulva''s fangs sunk deep into them and it caused Maude to grit her teeth in pain. She flung the girl back at the wall with a scowl.
"Stop being stupid right now. All of this will end quickly if you just let me do it quickly."
She picked up Ulva and flung her over her shoulders, then red at the ogress.
"You too. Get up. We don''t have all day."
"Tch¡"<novelnext></novelnext>
The ogress reluctantly stood up and followed after the woman, even though Ulva struggled against her back.
"Sigh¡ the things I do for revenge."
_______________________________________
"Wow you''re huge."
Grimm said exasperatedly with his arms raised in front of him, trying to signal his surrender.
"And you are tiny. Like a twig I can snap."
His opponent was a giant wolf, the likes of which he had never seen. This thing was abnormal and the weird mist that kept escaping its body. The room was slowly being filled with this tangible mist.
"Yea¡ can we not go for the snapping me in half thing? Not a fan."
The white wolf let out arge bark that sent the vampire mming into the wall of the building.
"W-woah¡ can we not do that again?"
Heined as he got out of the wall.
"We can if you give up and let me kill you."
The wolf pounced on him, but he jumped out of the area in time, drawing his de and slicing a clean arc through the wolf''s leg. However this simply passed through the wolf as if its body were not real.
Refusing to give a second to confusion, Grimm created a barrier of ice to separate himself from the wolf and give himself enough time to think up a solution. He hadn''t brought any especially useful items for such a battle today. Only vampire ying tools. He would have loved to switch to fighting Yokino a second time. Unfortunately, he didn''t have the luxury of choosing his fights.
His mind scrolled through his options immediately and he realized that he had actually made a very dangerous mistake.
''That kid said she didn''t know who I was talking about. Even if she was lying, I would have noticed, but she wasn''t. But then that Arachne didn''t lie to me either. Wait¡ could she possibly know something the little one doesn''t? But I was certain the little one was her boss. In that case a possible double agent? Can''t I use this to my advantage then?''
This took 0.01 seconds for him to process. His skill [Fast Thought Process] had never let him down and it wouldn''t now. He had already thought up a n and a backup n as well as a backup for his backup. Hended on the ground and raised both hands again.
"Ah! I''m not your enemy you damned wolf!"
Shiroi shattered the ice barrier with rtive ease andnded on the ground. Not making a single movement after that.
"Whoo. Finally, I got you to calm down. Listen to me. I''m not really someone who likes to fight, but you see I''m actually trying to help your boss."
"My boss? What do you want to do with her?"
Shiroi was actually starting to get agitated again.
"You see¡ I set up this entire auction to kidnap her."
"You did what!?"
The white wolf let her aura re, breaking apart the pirs of the building. She activated her [King''s Aura] and [Wolf King''s Howl]. Her body slowly glowed with a red aura as she snarled. Her violet eyes pierced into the vampire''s soul and he couldn''t do anything.
Everything told him to run. He knew he had to run. What the hell was a Hellhound doing here? A variant at that. Such a dangerous beast was being controlled by a little girl. His limbs just gave up and he fell on his knees. Therge paws wereing for him and he couldn''t do anything. He just closed his eyes and embraced his fate.
''Kill a king? Yea, right. As if I could ever.''
***
Yokino was in a foul mood. Not only was she betrayed by Grimm, but she also almost died due to his foolish attempts at killing her. She swore that if she saw him again, there would be hell to pay.
That was what triggered her rash decision to murder all those present in the room. She already had a strong dislike to humans due to previous incidents, but right now her mind was cloaked with blood lust. She just needed to feed and get herself happy. A simple blood bathe would take away all her problems.
So right now, she had killed two people. She could hear a voice in her head telling her something good.
[You have received 4000 experience points]
The system Hinotori gave her informed her of her rewards for killing two human beings. She would go on a rampage now. A simple lightning bolt here, a water spear there, an earth canon over there. Heads would fly all about and blood would simply drip to the floor.
This was supposed to make her happy right? So why wasn''t she happy? At best, she felt empty. Like she had nothing. Was it because this was a loss she actually acknowledged? Yes. She had never ever truly lost, she believed. Not once since she reincarnated did she lose to anything this world threw at her. Yet, here she was, killing humans because of one near death instance.
To be honest, she did not value the lives of those from this world. She couldn''t even think of them as proper people. This loss against Grimm was more important to her than a lot of things at the moment. She figured it out! She wouldn''t feel satisfied until she had her revenge against Grimm.
That bastard, she would kill him. An insufferable traitor who easily switched sides. It reminded her of someone from her past life. Someone she hated from the very bottom of her heart. Someone she felt was a rejection of her very existence. Another reason she couldn''t ept this loss.
It was settled. She would kill Grimm. She would make herself victorious and whole once again. All it took was one life to do so.
She saw Grimm fall to the ground and arge wolf followed after. She paid no mind to that and focused on Grimm ck.
"YOU!"
She hissed, but he was too busy to notice her. Yokino was willing to jump him, but an arrow stabbed one of her eyes before she could do so. The pain was negligible due to her focus, but she looked at the source. It was one of the mercenaries assigned to ensure the safety of this auction. He wielded a crossbow and was clothed in fine armor.
Being an unimportant being, Yokino wasted no more than a second to kill him with high projected blood needles to the heart. She turned back, but noticed Grimm was sent flying into a wall. She wanted to go after him, but someone shed at her spider legs with his sword, effectively breaking its shaft. Yokino mmed him away, but another soldier stabbed her abdomen with a spear.
Although Yokino normally towered over most of them, she was forced to crumple to her knees after several assaults on her body. This was bing really annoying. She wasn''t certain this would work, but she had been practicing with it ever since she received it, so a little battle field data wouldn''t hurt.
"[Advanced Illusion Magic: Spider''s Crib]."
An Advanced level of illusion magic. Normally inconceivable if one only recently learned the form of magic. However, Yokino, was not normal. A wave of mist spread throughout the room and entered the minds of each and every single one in the room Yokino did not consider an ally or Grimm.
***
"What did you do to them?"
Shiroi asked, looking at all the shivering guards and servants.
"Hmhm¡ I just tested out my [Illusion Magic] on them. I didn''t expect to get such a reaction."
"What kind of illusion did you show them?"
"Erh¡ I showed them the sight of my first few days being born. With all the spiders and stuff. They should be able to handle something like that without being broken for life."
"W-with your mother and siblings?"
"Especially with my mother and siblings. Anyway, why is that guy still alive?"
Yokino asked, pointing to the unconscious Grimm. Her obvious frustration at the sight of him got Shiroi curious.
"He said he was helping the leader, and since I couldn''t confirm nor deny his im, I just had to bring him in for questioning. If she says it''s true, I would have not killed arade."
"And if she says it''s false?"
"Then I guess he would have to die."
Grimm who was pretending to be unconscious almost gave himself away by shivering.
"He is lying. Let me kill him here and now."
Yokino said furiously, trying to stab him in the head, however mist escaped one of the tattoos on Shiroi''s body and formed a sort of wolf figure in front of the man, blocking the attempt.
"Not until judgement has been received."
Shiroimanded, however he usual authoritative presence had no effect against Yokino, who some could say had an authoritative presence of her own. Both kings stared each other down and released their auras.
"You want to fight me?!"
Yokino roared in anger, her back arching up and ws showing themselves.
"I will, if I must."
This was it. The fight between two major kings of Larm. A battle most had thought about, but never had the chance to see. The Venerable Wolf King versus the Monstrous Spider King.
Chapter 91 Shadow Princess
Above Hellish Bite, Keimen City
As I looked over the city, my mind was going through several things. Before I realized that since Yokino¡¯s n hade apart, there was no need for subtleties anymore. I would just go in there and take back Ulva. But to do that, I¡¯d need to get help from the monsters in Larm, which they would need preparation for.
[Hinotori: Gorm, Reiman, Ichi and the others. I need you to get the forces ready for an attack. I¡¯ll teleport you guys here when you are done.]
I sent this message to them and so it wouldn¡¯t be long now till they saw and got off their butts. But before then, I would need to start something to minimize casualties on my side since I wasn¡¯t really sure about this.
"[Shadow Being Summoning]."
A ck substance dropped from my leg and formed a ck ball beneath me. I found that to be odd since that wasn¡¯t how the first time went.
<<Notice: Interference from a higher being has been detected>>
¡®What?¡¯
DING!
[The Goddess of Endless Darkness has borne witness to the modern world for the first time after several centuries]
¡®W-What is happening? A G-Goddess?¡¯
DING!
[The Goddess of Endless Darkness has chosen to reveal her name to you]
¡®¡ZA¡TA¡NA¡¡¯
A voice crept into my head. It was eerie and calming at the same time. I didn¡¯t understand what was happening here.
DING!
[To thank you, the Goddess of Endless Darkness has bestowed upon you the Title [Shadow Princess]]
[With this title your mastery over shadow rted abilities has increased massively!]
[You can summon shadow beings for a lesser amount of mana!]
[You can summon higher ranked shadow beings!]
[The Goddess of Endless Darkness has given you the [Shadow¡¯s Crib]]
[Description: A mysterious egg. Nothing much is known of it.]
I looked down and saw the ball again.
¡®I-Is this thing the [Shadow¡¯s Crib]?¡¯
But when I looked down with [Analyst] it didn¡¯t even call it that. It was actual a [Shadow Summon Portal]. I was a bit confused, but then another notice came up.
[The [Shadow¡¯s Crib] has been ced in your Item Box]
At this point I was just too tired to even care about the details. I just needed to get Ulva out of the city before anything happened.
[Which rank of soldier do you want?]
Greater Shadow Demon Soldier [60 Mana]
Shadow Demon Soldier [50 Mana]
Greater Shadow Soldier [40 Mana]
Lesser Shadow Demon Soldier [35 Mana]
Regr Shadow Soldier [20 Mana]
Lesser Shadow Soldier [10 Mana]
A screen popped up before me. I decided to go for whichever looked much more dangerous. Since I now had 600 Mana points, I would be able to get exactly 10 of those guys before running out of mana. So I decided to get 5 instead.
From that ck ball two arms crawled out, followed by an additional pair. More and more arms came out till there were ten of those. They dragged themselves out of the ball and moved so fast they looked like streaks of ck swarming me, before they came to a stop all around me.
All of them were different from the one I summoned before. They hadrge ash horns protruding from their heads. They were big and wore thick armor or was that their skin? Either way, they seemed to have a mix of blood red and ck for their bodies and their eyes were so ck their bodies looked bright inparison.
¡°GIVE US YOUR ORDERS, PRINCESS.¡±
The one facing me said. His voice was almost as creepy as the former, but not as bad as it, so I could manage.
¡®Um¡ Just cause a lot of distraction for me.¡¯
¡°DES¡TRUC¡TION?¡±
¡®Yeeesss? I don¡¯t know if you understand me.¡¯
¡°WE¡¡±
¡°UNDERSTAND¡¡±
¡°YOU¡¡±
¡°PRINCESS¡¡±
¡°MAY¡¡±
¡°WE¡¡±
¡°CALL¡¡±
¡°SOLDIERS¡?¡±
They suddenly started toplete their own sentences. Not wanting to interact any further with them, I just allowed them to do as they please.
¡®S-Sure. Go ahead. But if you see a ve don¡¯t kill them¡ Or wait¡ more specifically, this one.¡¯
I tried to show them a mental image of Ulva with [Telepathy], but with the way they didn¡¯t react, it would seem that didn¡¯t work.
<<Notice: Skill level too low>>
¡®I see. Ah whatever, just don¡¯t kill the ves. Now, go create my distraction.¡¯
They all screamed¡ orughed? Either way it just sounded like metal scratching on the ground or chalk scraping against the board, but on steroids. I saw simr ck balls appear beneath all five of them and from those hundreds of shadow demons came flying out like a flood. I was so surprised by the development I was left speechless.
When I looked around me, I saw them. Creatures with shadowy figures and wings, flying in the sky. Cloaked in armor as red as the setting sun, and with blood red smiles and eyes, although not having horns like the first five I summoned. They hadpletely painted the sky ck and red. No sunlight could pierce through the cluster that they had formed. This caused the city below to bepletely ck.
They all bowed to me, then let roars that echoed above the city, before flying down at full speed towards the mansion, I was certain that there was no way that even the Nobleman could survive this.
These guys though. Even though I pointed to the mansion, they swarmed the entire city, destroying everything in their path. It was absolute anarchy and it scared the living shit out of me for a moment. Such a dangerous force. In mere moments, I could hear citizens screaming and running for their lives.
[You have acquired 9000 XP]
[You have gone up 4 levels]
[You have acquired the skill [me Barrier]]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sleek blonde hair, sharp emerald green eyes and a pencil mustache drawn inly on his face. He was a fat man dressed in light morning robes that were too small for one of his physique, exposing more of his body than one might like to see.
The Noble Percy McAllister sat on his chair, a ss of sweet red wine in hand. He smiled devilishly and looked at the cute demi-human girl in front of him. His gaze then switched the big grey ogress standing next to her. Two cuties to choose from.
He took a sip of his wine then looked out the window. However, all he could see was pure darkness which was a bit rming.
"Maude?"
He called out to his right hand. The most loyal of his servants who had been dubbed Red by others due to her signature red hair.
"Yes?"<novelnext></novelnext>
The red head who had been silently watching him responded.
"Is it already night time already?"
Normally a silly question, but any who would look out in the sky wouldn¡¯t find his question odd.
"Erh, no. It is just past noon."
"Are you certain? It is dark out."
"There''s no way that it nighttime already."
"Then what is that?"
He said, pointing out his window. Maude looked out and was a bit stunned, however she would assume that the slime had a role in this.
"It is probably a storm. Please rest easy."
"Ah, a storm, I see. Very well then."
He responded then took another a sip of his wine. Although there was a feeling of uneasiness in his heart, he would ignore it because Red had assured him that there would be no problems. He dropped his robes, leaving nothing covered and jumped onto his bed, spreading out his hands and legs.
"Now you two. Get over here."
The two girls just remained silent, not even managing to make eye contact with him, but the nobleman smirked greedily.
"I order you toe over here, you dolls!"
With a simple wave of his hand, the cors on their necks grew brightly and crackled with lightning. Before they realized it, their limbs had started moving towards the bed without any permission even though they tried resisting.
"Uhm, wait a minute father¡"
Maude said, breaking the nobleman''s attention.
"Huh? What is it? Father?"
"Yes¡ father. Do you not remember me? Celeste?"
"Celeste? I don''t quite remember having a daughter named Celeste."
"Oh? In that case you''ll remember having a son you experimented on to be a woman?"
Percy put his finger to his lips and thought about the issue yfully. After a bit of obvious fake contemtion, a devilish smile drew on his face and with an eerie voice, he said.
"Clyde? Is that you? Hohoho!!! That''s priceless. Oh. I thought you died after I threw you in the slumps. Whoosh, to think my son now daughter has been working for me for the past what has it been? Six years?"
"Seven actually."
She corrected him and drew her sword from its scabbard. She pointed her ck de at him and scowled at his smug expression even in this situation.
"I see. So I am assuming you are here to kill me?"
He confidently asked as he sat back on his bed, looking at the dhampyr and ogress with lustful eyes. He clearly couldn¡¯t see her as a threat.
"Obviously-"
Maude froze. She wanted to say something, but at the moment, she was not feeling her best. It felt like her soul was being burnt. She looked at the bastard noble and realized that he had plotted someway to take her life if she dared to oppose him, but it was toote. She could only leave it up to Kawaii the Slime to end it for her.
''Take it from here.''
She said to Kawaii¡¯s soul. Although on a technicality, what Kawaii possessed could not be defined by the word ¡°soul¡±.
''Huh? You''re going already? Kay, bye!''
She said her goodbyes to the first human she ever interacted with without so much as a glimmer of care.
"No."
Kawaii said confidently to the noble.
"Huh?"
Percy hadn''t anticipated any response at this point. He had assumed she had simply died.
"I realized that it''s not worth it to kill you."
"W-what do you mean?"
It had set his ns off the rail. And he could tell that she wasn''t lying, because the magical bomb he had imnted in her hadn''t gone off yet. Even if she could have found a way to counter the bomb, she would still be killed by the [Servant''s Purpose] artefact that had been burnt into her soul the very first day she arrived. It made it impossible for her to defy her master. It was the basis for the [ver''s Cors] that he had made. A modified version in which he had absolute authority over a ve and the ve couldn''t resist. One couldn¡¯t run an organization as powerful as his if even a single servant would spill his secrets.
"Y-you¡ how aren''t you dead yet?"
"Hmm? Are you talking about Maude? She is dead."
"What? I don''t understand you."
"What''s so difficult to understand? I ate her."
"You did what?"
Kawaii raised her hand and it began to melt. The ogress and dhampyr were surprised by the sight.
"W-what are you?"
"My name is Kawaii the Slime! Highest ranking servant of Hinotori-sama! Teehee, now please prepare to die."
"Kawaii? Is that really you?"
Ulva asked.
"In the slime!"
She responded with a bright smile.
"You know her?"
The ogress asked.
"You ves. Shut up!"
The cors around their necks glowed brightly and their mouths were forcefully shut.
"And you. Slime or whatever. It doesn''t matter what you are. You made a bad choiceing to my home all alone. I have one hundred well trained soldiers in this esta- What is that!?"
The fat man had to shut up at the realization of the dark tentacles that began to spread around the room, covering everything up. All those present in the room were shocked and looked around, trying to figure out what was happening.
BOOM!
A thunderous explosion resounded in the area. So loud Percy thought he would grow deaf because of it. He dared to look out his window, but there he couldn''t see anything. There was only a ck screen.
"W-what is this? Maude? What is happening?"
Percy McAllister screamed as he jumped on his bed.
''Hinotori-sama¡ is this your doing? In that case¡''
"I believe this is what you humans would call¡ Punishment from above?"
"What?"
The nobleman yelled as the tentacles began to wrap themselves around him. The others in the room were the same, except that they kept their mouths shut. The slime impersonating the human woman had a serene smile on her face at the proceedings and her body began to melt away, shrinking into a tinier form.
The tentacles swallowed up everything, leaving nothing but pitch ck.
Chapter 92 Shadow Portal
BOOM!
The ground of the Hellish Bite restaurant copsed under the pressure of the forceing from beneath. Luckily, there were no customers around at the moment, so no one was injured. The building on the other hand caved in as two auras burst out. Mist escaped from beneath as they shed.
shed? Yes. Two varying mists of different intensities shed in a vicious manner. One mist so solid one might actually feel a punch from it and the other so soft one might find it afy pillow. However, the light one was obviously of a higher quantity than the solid.
Two wolves formed from the solid mist, their purple eyes ring about at the soft mist. Back-to-back, observing the mist and waiting for something. Anything. Then it came. One of them jumped into the blind and swiped.
Surprisingly, itnded a strike on the tired Yokino who quickly receded to the cover of her mist.
¡°Give it up Spider King. My mist wolves are too much for you.¡±
Shiroi¡¯s voice reverberated through the mist for Yokino to hear. There was no response from the spider king however. The two kings in question were no were to be seen. Shiroi herself was testing out her new skill [Mist Form]. She found it to be useful, but the problem here was that she wasn¡¯t sure of how to turn it off.
Her mind was fuzzy and her body spread about. It felt like she was losing consciousness all while being conscious. She could see and sense a lot of things, but in a way, it wasn¡¯t her doing it. Information came through all sorts of areas, but it didn¡¯t overload her brain. If anything, she was simply getting nauseous because of this.
However, she couldn¡¯t show weakness right now. The spider king definitely wouldn¡¯t let that moment go to waste.
Still, she found it odd that the spider king hadn¡¯t made any significant moves since their aura burst attack. Sure, she would sense some movement here and there, but the spider king would simply disappear quickly almost as if she had never been there in the first ce.
¡°You know, I never got to thank you for helping me with the Hell orc.¡±
A voice echoed. Shiroi¡¯s wolves looked about trying to determine its origin.
¡°So, I will now.¡±
¡®You thank me by fighting me? How kind of you.¡¯
BOOM!
Thunder boomed in the sky. Up in the sky, the clouds were gathering and turning dark. Lightning shed and struck the ground where the auction took ce, forcing the mist to split apart.
¡®I-Is this Storm Magic?¡¯
Shiroi¡¯s voice was hesitant. An obvious sign of weakness. Yokino grinned.
¡°Hehe. Not really. I simply used Runic Magic to amplify my- ah¡ why am I even telling you? How¡¯d you like it? I only pull this up for the big boys.¡±
The winds started blowing heavily and there was a certain uneasiness in Shiroi¡¯s heart. Something wasn¡¯t right. It wasn¡¯t the clouds or the iing storm. There was something very odd. All her senses told her to run away in that moment, but she didn¡¯t know what from.
¡°W-Wolf King¡¡±
Yokino revealed herself. She too looked shaken. She had sensed what Shiroi had sensed and was now on high alert.
¡®A truce?¡¯
Shiroi asked and Yokino nodded.
¡°So, get rid of this mist so I see the cause.¡±
Yokino said. However, Shiroi didn¡¯t respond. Yokino knew the wolf king could hear her as bright as day, so with no response she got a bit curious.
¡°Could it be that you don¡¯t know how to?¡±
She asked smugly.
¡®Y-Yes.¡¯
¡°Ok, Ok. Breath in. Stay calm. Your body is simply spread far. Quite thin, actually. I¡¯d be surprised if you haven¡¯t lost a leg or two to the wind, to be honest. Just call the mist back. Think of it like you are squeezing your muscles or flexing them.¡±
Shiroi didn¡¯t even need the full-on course on how to do it. It came to her as second nature after she saw the spider king¡¯s smug expression. She wouldn¡¯t give the spider king anything tough at her for. To beughed at was an insult to her people. Worse of all, it was an insult to her master.
She formed back and was whole. The two mist wolves formed the tattoos on her fur and she looked as fierce as she was the moment she arrived. Yokino noticed the traitor lying unconscious under Shiroi¡¯s paw.
¡®So that¡¯s where this treacherous bastard was.¡¯
¡®Ah¡ W-Was that the source?¡¯
Yokino looked up after hearing Shiroi. She was stunned to see a hob-goblin petting a little girl with bunny ears and a jewel in her forehead. It was Nukeme standing next to a ve girl.
¡°Oh! G-Great Kings! Are you done with your fight?¡±
He asked them, as if just noticing their presence. Yokino and Shiroi were both shocked, wide-eyed. They couldn¡¯t stop staring at the duo. The kind of aura the little girl was giving off and the fact that the hob-goblin had the balls to even get that close to her. Did he have no survival instincts?
¡®I-Is it actually harmless?¡¯
Both of them thought to themselves. They ended up settling on leaving it be for now. They doubted winning in a fight even with their new capabilities.
There was an awkward moment of silence. All that could be heard were people on the outside screaming, but even that was soon silenced in no time.
"Hey¡ how do we get back after this?"
Yokino asked, breaking the tension between them. Shiroi looked up at her, realizing that the spider king simply wanted them to pretend like nothing had ever happened. She could live with that option.
"I think the same way I came."
Just then, a portal opened up and the two kings looked at it. Shiroi picked up the vampire and both of them walked towards the portal.
"Oi! Wait for me!"
Nukeme screamed at the top of his lungs as he ran towards them with the bunny girl on his back. The two kings were surprised to see him carrying that thing, but walked through the portal. He followed after. There was nothing more to be done in Keimen City.
==================================================
The shadow demons were seriously fast. They had already managed to get to the cer where Ulva was supposed to be. When I looked up Kawaii, the system wouldn¡¯t show me anything so I assumed she had done something simr to what Yokino did. I used [Shadow Travel] to teleport to the location of the shadow demons who had found the cers in the mansion.
"Ulva?"
When I got to the prison floor ¨C the lowest level ¨C I found myself surrounded by empty prison cells. I couldn''t see Ulva, but I did sense a presence. Another person was locked up here. Since this was probably the level for the most precious of ves, the person I could sense was probably easy on the eyes or simply rare.
¡®Hello?¡¯
I called out to them.
"Hello."
A response came. I looked to my right and although I couldn''t sense any mana from them, I could see the person with [Night Vision]. And I will admit, I was scared.
¡®W-who are you?¡¯
I found myself stumbling even though some shadow soldiers were currently standing behind me.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Haha! My name is Aeri Vons!"
¡®Eh?¡¯
The woman I stumbled upon was so frightening I had to back away. She was huge and when I said huge, I meant huge. Like twenty feet tall. I didn''t know how she was even brought here. Her massive emerald green eyes stared at me, making me feel insignificant ¨C just like the first time I met that person. She had bandages wrapped around her chest and arms, proof of many arduous battles. She even wore a massive head band over her head covering her forehead.
¡®W-why is someone like you here?¡¯
I asked through telepathy and she responded.
¡®[Telepathy]? Are you of the Baki Tribe? I thought you guys never left your territory. What are you doing here? Were you feeling bored? I¡¯ve never seen someone of the Baki Tribe before. Is it true your skins are blue? What¡¯s your favorite color? Did ¡°he¡± send you? Do you engage in hand-to-handbat? How tall is your biggest member? Have you interacted with other members? How many teeth do you have? How old are you? I¡¯m three Vestaia moons old! Do you like to kill drakes?¡¯
This girl was insane. I had to turn off [Telepathy] because I felt like my head was about to pop. My head was even starting to ache. I looked up and noticed her grinning wickedly as if nothing had happened. So I was left to wonder if she did it intentionally or she normally had so many thoughts.
¡°W-Why?¡±
I noticed that my voice was trembling. Maybe it was because of the pressure she was giving off. Like she could kill me at any moment.
"Don''t ask such a stupid thing. It is obviously because I was kidnapped. Hahaha!"
She boldly responded.
¡®Erhm, I don''t think that''s aughing matter.¡¯
¡°Are you going to free me now?¡±
She suddenly said.
''Ah¡ Is she dense? Like hell I will. You¡¯ll probably kill me the moment I do.¡¯
I turned to walk away, but soon after, she started to shout shaking the hollow space. My heart took a leap since I thought there was some sort of attack on the ce. Sounded like a ¡°BOOM¡± at first.
¡®Why are you shouting?¡¯
¡°Because I want you to help me.¡±
She showed me a pouty face.
¡®What? Why would I do that?¡¯
"Because we¡¯re friends."
¡®Huh? I¡¯ve never met you before!¡¯
¡°Well, you have now! So please save me!¡±
Not even five minutes after meeting and now I wanted nothing more than for her to disappear.
¡®I see no benefit in doing that.¡¯
¡°Well, if you do that, I will never hunt you down once I break free of here on my own. I did allow myself to get captured in the first ce and if something were to happen to that Boss guy, I would be set loose without these cors and restraints. Imagine what would happen to my enemies once I, the Great Dragon yer, goes on a rampage yet again.¡±
¡®Ah¡ I see. Well then, shall we escape the confines of hell together, dear friend?¡¯
I asked and she nodded cheerfully. I ordered the shadow soldiers to break apart her prison bars and they did so with ease. All that was left was for her to follow me, but that was where the problem was. She couldn¡¯t move.
¡®Why aren¡¯t you moving?!¡¯
"Normally I would, but I can''t because of this cor.¡¯
She said, pointing to the cor around her neck.
¡®I don¡¯t think the cor stops you from moving.¡¯
¡°Normally, it doesn¡¯t. But it only makes me as weak as a human, and humans cannot carry me so¡¡±
I let out a heavy sigh and moved towards her. I took out the demon long sword and tried to break the cor open. No matter how much force I applied, I couldn''t do it. All that came about was annoying metal hitting metal.
¡®I don''t have time to be bothering about you right now¡ Ugh! Why don''t I just create a portal to send you torm?¡¯
"Yosh! That sounds great."
That''s when it hit me. I was actually a genius, wasn¡¯t I?
¡®Why don''t I just create a portal to send you to Larm?¡¯
"You already said that. And I said Yosh! Remember?"
¡®Shush! It''s big brain time.¡¯
"Big what now?"
''Hey, agent! Since the shadow summons are basically shadows, can''t I use them to create a ginormous [Shadow Portal], saving my mana since it¡¯s abination of my two affinities and blessings?''
<<Affirmative>>
''In that case, what would happen if I used all my shadow summons and [Shadow Portal] to take this entire mansion to Larm?''
<<The mansion would be transported however your mana reserves arecking>>
''What if I took all the mana from my servants?''
<<You would have absorbed the bare minimum required to do this. However, your subordinates will be drained>>
''Oh? Is that so? I can just apologise to all of themter.¡¯
"Why are you smiling like that, tiny one?"
Aeri asked me.
''Fufufu¡ no particr reason.''
I said as I stretched my hands forward.
[The magic you are about to perform requires 1700 MP]
[Are you sure you wish to proceed?]
"Let''s get to work! Activate magic. [Shadow Portal]"
Chapter 93 Side Story - Yokinos Night Out
Yokino dropped from the roof top silently. She surveyed her surroundings to ensure that no one had noticed her. That is, no one but the person currently tailing her.
¡°You cane out, you know? I¡¯m not going to bite you or anything.¡±
She said. There was no response.
¡°Men like you are such a bore, you know? You probably don¡¯t even have a woman at your side.¡±
The ground crunched as someone approached her. To her side she noticed a man shrouded in the darkness with only a red lighting from his forehead. His features were too hidden to be made out for her, even though she possessed [Night Vision].
¡°What are you doing in this city. It¡¯s quite the journey to Larm.¡±
The spider king¡¯s lips curved upwards slightly.
¡°I know right? But the thing is, I¡¯m under orders from someone I believe you are familiar with. So It¡¯d be best you don¡¯t bother me while I¡¯m enjoying my stay.¡±
¡°Oh? Someone I¡¯m familiar with? May I know who you speak of, then?¡±
¡°Oh my. I wouldn¡¯t dare speak the name of the Duchess.¡±
Grimm tensed up in the shadows and Yokino¡¯s grin widened after sensing his fear.
¡°Normally, I would be hunting you down because of her, but I¡¯m here for a different purpose.¡±
¡°You¡ You aren¡¯t here for the dhampyr?¡±
¡°I am. My current orders are to retrieve her and go to Larm. The hunt for you is secondary. In fact, that can be ignored in the long run as long as I get my quarry.¡±
Grimm ck walked out of the shadows and went down on one knee before Yokino. His demeanor was now different from the one he always showed. Aposed air that showed elegance and unfailing loyalty. There was something even more different. Something that made him appear even more dangerous than before. That was the fear. The subtle anxiety he gave off that only a handful of people would have noticed. His increased heartbeat he had tried to subdue. The amplified breathing and little flinching. All so subtle barely any would notice a difference, yet any who did would know that he was way more dangerous than normal now.
¡°So, shall I present the child to you?¡±
He asked.
¡°Why so serious all of a sudden? Hmm? Besides, will there not be any problems were the child to disappear all of a sudden?¡±
¡°Neigh. I had already been nning the death of the noble man Percy McAllister since long before. My ns were going to take ce soon. I can kill him and hand over the child if that is what you wish for?¡±
¡°And you won¡¯t even bother asking why we want the child?¡±
¡°I believe that to be imposing on my side. I wouldn¡¯t dare dishonour the Duchess in such a manner.¡±
¡°I see. In that case, R- No ¨C Grimm ck. Let us do well to work together, hmm?¡±
¡°Understood. How shall we bemunicating?¡±
¡°Worry not about the minor inconveniences. Think only about the end. I left my, erm, superior with a couple of humans. Please do ensure that she does not end up killing a lot of humans? She isn¡¯t in the best of states mentally at the moment.¡±
? Yokino delivered her orders and faded out into mist, leaving Grimm to the ground by himself. The vampire also walked back into the shadows and disappeared.
The Next Night
¡°Honestly~ This city just keeps on giving, no?¡±
Yokino said in a loud seductive voice while taking a cup of beer with a few men all around her.
¡°Hehehe! You said it Sister~ This city is just the best for us!¡±
Another woman replied and both of them rose their cups up high with joyous expressions.
The bar was noisier than usual tonight and that was because of its new member. The girl from nowhere who went by the name Kumo. She was a really wild girl who quickly became the hot topic for the night. Now there was an ongoing debate amongst the men as to who would be the first to get in the bed.
¡°Come on! Come on! I stake 20 silver coins that it¡¯s none of you!¡±
She said joyfully as she joined the circle of men.
¡°What? No way in hell! I stake 1 gold coin that it¡¯ll be me!¡±
A man said. By no means was he handsome and from the looks of his clothes, a gold coin was way more than he could afford.
¡°Yeah, go look in a river before you make any more bets! Who¡¯s next?¡±
¡°I stake 3 gold coins that you¡¯ll be spending the night with me~¡±
A sweet voice said. Yokino looked up and saw a beauty with Cherokee-like skin.
¡°Sorry sweet stuff, but I¡¯m into men only. Ok, now drop those 3 gold coins! Imma be a billionaire at this point.¡±
Crimson didn¡¯t pay any more attention to the beauty and just looked at the other men. However, the beauty moved forward and grabbed her hand.
¡°Oi, what do you want? I told you I¡¯m not into girls.¡±
¡°Won¡¯t you reconsider? For me?¡±
She opened Yokino¡¯s palm and dropped a coin in her palm. Crimson was starting to get annoyed, but when she looked at the coin, she realized that it wasn¡¯t gold. Neither was it copper nor silver. No. It was something of higher value than money in this kind of setting.
She looked up and met serious emerald eyes on a cute face. An unbelievable contrast in moods that made it almost impossible to tell exactly what she wanted. This person was a master in the art of ying with hearts.
¡°Ok, sweet stuff. You win me for the night.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
Crimson said and the other men just whined.
¡°Oi, Nike! You gotta stop doing this. You never leave the good stuff for us.¡±
Nike grabbed Crimson by the arm and proceeded to drag her out of the bar.
¡°Sorry, but this one¡¯s just too much of a knockout to let her go. I¡¯ll leave the next one to you boys.¡±
The men grunted in annoyance, but none would dare touch her. After all, she was Tyvnn¡¯s favorite.
The two appeared on the streets.
¡°So. What¡¯s the big idea?¡±
¡°Hmm~ I just wanted to go out on a date with you~¡±
She said.
¡®Do you possess [Telepathy]?¡¯
Nike asked while saying her sentence. Crimson wasn¡¯t certain whether it was good to respond honestly to that or not, so she would lead her on for now.
¡°Is that so. I would have assumed you wanted to talk to me about something in private.¡±
¡°Nope~ Just a light cute date. You see~¡±
¡®So you do. In that case, this conversation is about to get serious.¡¯
¡°I see.¡±
Both walked arm in arm, looking at the stalls and all the women lined up on walls, chatting and surveying the area for men.
¡°Do they even get men? The body merchants, I mean.¡±
¡°Body merchants?¡±
¡°Yes~ You know, the people who sell their bodies for one night.¡±
¡°Ah~ Yes they do. This city¡¯s actual residents may be poor, but there is no end to traveling adventurers and nobles who look for high quality service.¡±
She waved at one of the women, who all bowed to her.
¡°You like some kind of princess to them?¡±
¡°Something like that~¡±
¡®I basically have this city at my fingertips.¡¯
¡°Scary~ I better be careful around you then.¡±
¡°Fufufu¡ don¡¯t be.¡±
¡®If you don¡¯t mess with me, no one gets hurt.¡¯
Crimson took out a piece of fruit she had been storing in her clothes.
¡°Want some? Moko fruits are quite tasty.¡±
She offered the dark purple peach shaped fruit to Nike, who curiously epted the offer.
¡°I haven¡¯t seen one of these before. Never even heard of them.¡±
¡®Where did you get these?¡¯
¡°Of course you haven¡¯t heard of them. They only grow in Larm.¡±
Crimson said and took a bite out of hers.
¡°Interesting. How did you get it then?¡±
¡®ck market? Secret task force?¡¯
¡°Nothing too special, honestly. I simply go pluck one whenever I feel like.¡±
She took another bite and looked at Nike who had paused in her tracks. A wicked smile that was almost inhumane formed on her face.
¡°Dearest Nike~ You have something face. Lemme get that for you.¡±
Yokino wiped away some of the fluid from the fruit off Nike¡¯s face. Nike was dead still, her mind still trying to understand exactly what Yokino just said.
¡°Are you ok? You look deathly pale? Maybe you should get some rest. And next time, when you try to interrogate someone, make sure it¡¯s someone weaker than you~¡±
Her crimson hair turned turquoise blue as it swayed from side to side. She squirmed about for a while before stretching and yawning.
¡°Anyway, it¡¯s toote for me. The early spider kills the human, as they say. It was a pleasure meeting you, Nike~ Don¡¯t worry about your man. I won¡¯t kill him if he follows my orders to the letter.¡±
Yokino walked past Nike who was still frozen.
Chapter 94 In A Deadly Forest With A Mansion
"Go- erh, Shitsuke! We finish house!"
One of the goblins called out. The hob-goblin general came running towards the goblins, then looked at what they had made. A bunch of sticks and leaves, bound by thick vines to create a tent of sorts.
"What is this? It doesn''t even pass to be called a hut. You want our leader sleeping in that?"
Gorm showed his open displeasure at the sight.
"I-it that, we don¡¯ know build houses. This too hard!"
"Ohe on you lot. I gave you instructions."
"We don¡¯ read."
"Ah, but..."
While the goblinoids were arguing, a sprout of darkness emerged from where the tent was. At first, none noticed this, but then the sprout became a tentacle that erupted like a volcanic explosion, which sted everything away from it.
The goblins barleynded safely and were surprised by the massive building that appeared before them.
"We tell boss that magic destroy beautiful house we build?"
One of the goblins suggested. All the others looked at him and nodded quickly.
________________________________________
Larm Forest, In front of Diane''s Tree
Goliath sat downid back on the tree, peacefully eating an apple. Tree sprites surrounded him fanning him with leaves and humming for him. Maybe waking up wasn¡¯t too bad. He had all these cuties around him and he didn¡¯t even have to perform the duties he normally performed every 10 years. He could enjoy 4 more years of this bliss.
However, when a tower of shadows erupted from the ground some distance away from the tree, his eyes bulged and he almost choked on the apple that he was eating.
"Lord Goliath?"
Diane rushed out of her tree, patting him on the back as he coughed.
"Y-yea¡ It''s just-"
"I know. Why did a mansion suddenly teleport here?"
"I don''t know. I''m going to take a look at it."
The blonde stood up and began to transform. He pped his massive wings and took off, breaking the ground beneath him and tearing apart a few trees. Diane''s tree was almost a victim of this, did she not have a barrier set up around it.
"That dragon."
She said before teleporting to the location.
_________________________________________
Percy''s eyes scrolled around in his eye sockets, getting a look of everything. He was back in his room. The darkness was no more. That eerie, suffocating darkness was gone. His heart was pounding quickly, sweat lined his face.
"W-where are we?"
He asked, getting off his bed.
There was a loud roar that came from outside, followed by a thunderous voice.
"Who dares enter my domain!?"
"Eek!"
The nobleman cowered by his bed, wrapping himself in his sheets. Kawaii walked out to the balcony and saw the azure blue dragon flying in the sky.
"Oh¡ Isn''t that Goliath?"
She casually asked. For the nobleman''s poor ears, she basically handed him his death sentence.
"G-Goliath? The dragon of Larm, Goliath?"
The slime nodded her head.
"Ah! D-don''t tell me. We''re in Larm?"
"Yep! Wee to the West!"
The noble''s face paled as a dragonoidnded on the balcony.
"Y-you. Who are you?"
"Isn''t that obvious? I''m Golia-"
BOOM!!
The doors were swung open with so much force the room shook.
"ULVA!"
A bird came flying through the doors. The bird looked around, then its eyes settled on the nobleman.
"You."
"Eeek! What is that?"
"Hinotori-sama!"
Kawaii called out to her, waving frantically. It then looked at the nobleman.
"Remove the locks on the cors, Percy."
"W-what? I-I''ll only do it if you let me go."
"Remove the locks on the cors human."
Goliath ordered using [Overlord]. The nobleman did it without even realizing it.
"I, Percy McAllister hereby order all the locks on the [ver''s Cors] to fall off."
CLANK! CLANK!
The sound of the cors falling on tiles resounded throughout the room.
''[Overlord] be doing the most.¡¯
Hinotori thought as she grabbed the little dhampyr for hug by transforming thest moment.
"How you been, lil sis?"
***
¡°No! Stay away from me. I- I can hurt you."
Ulva started saying something stupid and trying to pull herself away from my hug.
¡®Eh? Shut up and get over here.¡¯
"But¡ but¡"
I flicked her forehead.
¡®What is it?¡¯
"I''ll drink all your blood and kill you."
¡®Huh? If its blood you want, you can have as much of it as you want from my neck. I should have quite a lot after my recent escapades.¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
"B-"
Sensing that she was about to say something retarded, I head-butted her and she moved back, shocked. Her forehead looked as red as a tomato after that.
¡®Idiot! Remember what I told you? You¡¯re too young to be an adult. An adult has to worry about consequences, but kids don¡¯t! I¡¯ll handle the consequences, so suck as much blood as you want!¡¯
Just then her stomach grumbled. They must have starved her for those days. I could feel her tears falling on my neck. She was shaking slowly.
¡®Go on. All it takes, is one bite.¡¯
I put her head to my neck. I felt a prickly sensation as her fangs duck into my skin. Now my blood was leaving my body.
[Your blood is being sucked! You have lost 20 Health points]
The system alerted me.
¡®How long as it been?''
<<Five seconds>>
''¡ Sheesh¡ how much blood is she going to take.''
[Warning! You are losing a lot of health points]
This was starting to get out of hand. Although, there was something nice about having fangs in my next. Could this be my thing? No. No way in hell. This was too creepy, even for me.
''Jeez, Ulva, what are you doing! You can stop now Ulva. Ulva?¡¯
The girl''s fangs retracted and she stood back.
"Sorry. It''s just that big sis''s blood was tasty."
¡®Good to know that I''m a target for vampires. Now. Why don''t we go home?¡¯
She nodded with a bright red coloured smile that would have warmed my heart were that not scary in its own way. The bloodied face was in a league of its own, but I simply couldn¡¯t sympathize with those who would see this and suddenly fall in love with their targets anymore.
Kawaii had changed appearances. She had reverted into her slime form, although now she was a bit bigger. She jumped on to Ulva, crying about how she was d that she was safe and all. It wouldn¡¯t stop being weird how chatty she actually was.
I then looked at the other person who was standing there quietly. She was an ogress with dark grey skin and violet hair.
"Hey Hinot-"
¡®Who are you?¡¯
"I-I am¡"
She went ck. She couldn''t talk. That was a curious development, but just then she swayed to the side, about to hit the floor. I managed to catch her in time. When I looked at her face, she was already knocked out cold.
<<Notice: She may have been incapacitated due to shock or stress>>
¡®I see. Let¡¯s get somewhere for her.¡¯
I tried to lift her up, but she was quite heavy, even for me. Well, my physical stats on their own were nothing impressive.
¡°Do you need help?¡±
¡®Huh? Help? Maybe if you could call someone strong toe lift this ogre for us- huh?¡¯
While I was talking, Ulva lifted her off the ground and I was forced to simply stare at her in shock.
¡°Don¡¯t worry! Even I can help you now.¡±
¡®Ah¡ I see.¡¯
¡®Mawwsssstewr, what will you do to her?¡¯
Kawaii came to me and asked.
¡®Didn¡¯t I tell you to stop talking like that?¡¯
¡®But! But! Maassstteeeerrrr is better than Master!¡¯
She argued.
¡®But one saves time and effort, doesn¡¯t it?¡¯
¡®I don¡¯t run out of stamina so effort doesn¡¯t matter. And I won¡¯t die from time so time doesn¡¯t matter.¡¯
¡®Ah. You seem to understand a lot of concepts now.¡¯
¡®Yes! I took the memories of the human I ate! I even got the [Soul Consumption] skill after I ate this person.¡¯
¡®Yeah, amongst a lot of other things.¡¯
The most curious of them being the [Sacred] and fragments of blessings that she stole. I was truly interested as to how that was possible, but now probably wasn¡¯t the best time to ask such questions.
"Hey. Hin-"
¡°Big sister. What are we doing with the ogre?¡±
Ulva asked me, drawing my attention back to the matter at hand.
¡®For now let''s get to the bee hive and let her rest there.¡¯
"Oi! Hinotori!"
¡®What is it!? Can''t you see I''m busy, you st- Oh! Goliath! H-How long have you been standing there?¡¯
He was ring at me and it felt like my heart was going to pop at any second. This guy was simply too monstrous for me.
"Mine great self simply wished to understand why you brought a human mansion to mine domain.¡±
¡®Eh? Why did I bring a mansion to the forest? Erm¡ to save Ulva.¡¯
¡°Did that truly require you bringing the entire mansion?¡±
I couldn¡¯t tell if he was angry or simply couldn¡¯t care less. This guy¡¯s constant indifference made him very nerve-wracking.
¡®Oh erm¡ I brought the mansion because¡ because¡ I brought the mansion. Mansion. Mansion? Mansion! I brought the mansion! Goliath, you¡¯re a genius!''
That''s when I realized I had gotten myself a mansion.
¡®Why don''t we just let her rest in one of the rooms in this mansion?¡¯
I proposed to the girls.
"That sounds great!"
¡®Thanks Goliath! That was great thinking. Bye now. Come Ulva, Kawaii, let''s go pick out a new room for you two.¡¯
"Kaayy!"
The two ran after me as I walked out the door and I quickly ran away from Goliath¡¯s questioning. Luckily he didn¡¯t use [Overlord] on me.
We had to stop Minerva from killing Aeri after we she came running out from the cer and the ogress after we arrived. It was one hell of a hassle, but she calmed down once we gave her all the booze and meat inside the building.
All my subordinates gathered in front of the mansion for a huge feast to celebrate Ulva''s return is what I would have preferred happen, were it not for the fact that i had incapacitated over half of them. Using that [Shadow Portal] and summoning so many [Lesser Shadow Beings] was too much for me.
Before I could sleep though, a thought came to mind. I sent a request to the system master, not really expecting a response. My response came almost immediately.
So the fusion of my unique skill [Analyst] with various other skills was well underway.
Chapter 95 Side Story - Kalas Savior
I woke up to meet an unfamiliar ceiling. My head ached a tiny bit, and my body felt a bit better thanks to my natural regenerative abilities as an ogre. I expected to be in a cer, but I was in a room, which was not mine as well.
''D-did that human actually **** me!?''
I found myself thinking.
¡®No you didn¡¯t get raped. You were lucky that Kawaii stepped in before that could happen.¡¯
Another voice said to me. I hadn¡¯t had the pleasure of going insane before, so this was kind of interesting.
¡®Yo! I see that you''re awake.¡¯
I looked to the door where I noticed a presence. A bird with dark golden feathers with their tips dark and red eyes and a sort of red antenna on its head came towards me, with one of its wings up for a wave.
It dragged a chair next to the bed. How it did that, I wasn¡¯t certain, but it were almost as if it could move things with its mind alone. As it took a seat right next to me, I found myself unconsciously retreating from it.
¡®Remember me from yesterday? You were with Ulva when you passed out.¡¯
I held my head as the recent events slowly flooded in, causing me a slight headache. I recognized her as the bird from the day before. However, I had no further memories of her.
¡®You must have not gotten my name earlier. I''m Hinotori! Do you also have one?¡¯
She asked me. I wasn¡¯t certain whether to give her the name that person had given to me.
"Yes."
Why did I tell her the truth? I wanted to refuse the name that person gave to me.
"May I know the name?"
"K."
I said the truth. Why did I? I swore that I would always refuse the name that person gave me. So why did I just give it out to someone?
¡®K, huh? Nice name.¡¯
"Yeah, it was my mother''s."
Why did I just tell her this?
¡®Your mother was also named?¡¯
"Yes. We ogre royalty see it as a disgrace for one to not possess a name, so we are given one at childbirth when we are still weak and easily nameable."
¡®Pretty smart. You are named when the cost to name you is the least.¡¯
"I guess. But outside of royalty, we normally only give names to those who have aplished great feats."
¡®Oh? Feats like?¡¯
"Defeating very powerful opponents?"
¡®Should I take it that there is actually some scary warrior hiding underneath that cute smile?¡¯
She asked me with a very cuteugh. This bird was really cute, wasn¡¯t it? It would have made the perfect pet back home. Still, there was something oddly familiar about it.
¡®Did I say something offensive?¡¯
"N-no."
¡®So, what kinda-¡®
Before I had realized, I started talking to the bird monster freely. I''d make a statement and she''d ask me a question or make a joke. I couldn''t remember thest time I ever talked to someone so easily. Everyone else always saw me as "The Tyrant''s Daughter". They were weary of me and made to avoid me as much as possible. That was why I stayed cooped up in my room or library, learning all sorts of things. It was a very annoying and suffocating life, but with this creature that introduced herself as Hinotori, I felt quite happy and free. She could have been my only sce back in that suffocating life. No. That person would have probably had her cooked the next day. He always did hate me.
"I lived in the East."
¡®In the East, huh? I guess that''s where the ogres live, huh. You want to go back?¡¯
Images of my father shed in my head and the things I saw him doing to me if I ever went back. I shook my head.
¡®Oh¡ I see. Stuff happened?¡¯
I nodded my head.
¡®You got any rtives or something?¡¯
I nodded. My mind went to my siblings. My kind doting siblings. Always smothering me with their excess love. They were probably trying to make up for theck of parental love.
¡®Don''t you want them to at least know that you''re safe?¡¯
I shook my head.
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. I¡¯m leaving all that behind me.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Wow¡¡¯
Hinotori looked surprised and to be honest, I myself was as well.
"Sorry¡ it is just that my father is kind of hard to deal with."
¡®Your father? Well at least he''s not Krull.¡¯
I looked at the bird,pletely surprised by how she ironically got that right.
¡®Wait¡ please tell me your father isn''t Krull.¡¯
"¡¡±
I couldn¡¯t bring myself to respond to her. I only looked away, now she too was going to start treating me differently.
¡®Hmm, whatever. When you¡¯re back at full health you¡¯re free to do as you please, I guess. Wee to the west.¡¯
She didn¡¯t treat me any differently.
¡°Y-You aren¡¯t telling me to go back?¡±
¡®Hmm, but you look like you don¡¯t want to.¡¯
¡°Are you not scared of what that person might do to you?¡±
¡®Your dad? Who gives a shit what he wants to do? If you don¡¯t want to be around him, that¡¯s on you. I would prolly make the same choice, LOL.¡¯
"I see¡"
¡®I bet you can easily live out in the forest by yourself, even if you are a pampered ogre princess.¡¯
¡°I¡¯m not pampered!¡±
¡®Yes you are, Princess! Besides, that doesn¡¯t matter. You¡¯re stronger than me so either way, it¡¯ll be easier for you out there than it was for me.¡¯
Yes.
Although I didn¡¯t agree with her calling me that, she wasn¡¯t wrong. I could survive by myself in the forest rtively easily. Still, that was a bit disappointing. I didn¡¯t know what I was expecting.
She got off the chair and walked to the door.
¡®Oh yeah. Princess. If you don¡¯t want to go camping under the night sky¡¡¯
Then she suggested something I didn''t expect.
¡®Then you can just stay here.¡¯
"Huh?"
¡®What? I said you can stay here if you want to. Your dad''s scared of Goliath either way.¡¯
"Wha¡?"
¡®K, was it? I honestly don''t like your dad and I thought I wouldn''t like his kids if he had any. Thanks for proving me wrong though.¡¯
She was really my saving grace at this point. I was feeling happy, but still this couldn¡¯t just be it.
"Hino-¡. Lady Hinotori, would you make me a servant under your household?"
¡®Huh? A servant? You''re a princess. Wouldn''t you prefer to be served rather than to serve?¡¯
I shook my head.
¡®But-¡®
"No¡ I really dislike that idea. I am indebted to you for saving me. I need to repay my debt."
I bowed my head to her, so she would notice how serious I was being about this.
¡®I see¡ However, I¡¯m not some kind of boss. I don¡¯t have any servants or anything. Enjoy your stay here.¡¯
She refused my request walked out of the room.
''Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. D-Did I offend her in some way? Argh! The first person I could make a friend and my first thought was to be her servant! I¡¯m such a hypocrite!''
"Uwaaaaaaa!!!"
I buried my head in the pillow while ranting on about what happened. I just wanted to disappear from the world at this point. Then I looked up from my pillow at her seat. A few of her feathers still remained and she had left a trail on her way out. Was she evolving? That didn''t really matter though. I reached out for one of the feathers. It was golden and soft with this silky smooth feeling to it.
''Lady Hinotori. The one who saved me. My hero. I need to pay her back.''
Chapter 96 Aftermath
Day 31
Today was almost as hectic as yesterday. All the human guards who had identally been teleported into Larm with the mansion were stripped of all their armor and weapons. I wanted to let them out, but I realized that they could alwayse back and try something stupid, so I wanted to make them work here instead, Minerva and Goliath wanted to kill them instantly. Then we concluded on letting the ves decide what happened to them. The ves were hesitant at first, but they ended up beating the crap out of the humans before killing them. It was a bloody mob. All with the exception of one boy. Apparently he treated all the ves with a friendly attitude, like they were equals, so the ves didn¡¯t feel it right to kill him. That didn¡¯t mean that they wanted to associate with him though.
Minerva and Goliath gave him the option to leave the forest, but he pleaded to stay with us. We were suspicious of him so we even used [Overlord] to find out if he had any other motive, but he didn''t. He just wanted to stay with us. Even though Minerva and Goliath didn''t like the idea, both of them allowed it because I begged for it.
The others though, they died very bloody deaths, calling the boy all sorts of names. The boy was left alone for the meantime, although he was kind of lonely since everyone wanted to avoid him for some time, except for one goblin, who started talking to him.
Then there was the armory. We got about enough weapon for half the goblin army. Although not ideal, it was good enough for now.
When we checked the store room, we found out that it was chock full of meat, booze and food stuffs we could use. No more raw meat for me! Still, they were cold andcked spices so it was pretty much the same and I didn''t want to drink alcohol. But there was a lot of wine. I could drink that, so there was that.
As for the ves who were at the bottom of the mansion, I honestly don''t know how they got here. I figured [Shadow Portal] only teleported the top of the building, but I ended up bringing everything with me, including the cers, which by the way was not a nice ce to be.
We gave them the option to go away, since they weren''t humans. Most of them decided to leave. Majority of them had been there for so long that they had either forgotten the way home or they doubted their people were still alive. Some of them didn''t have homes to return to. Others didn''t know any other ce other than that and the rest just didn''t want to go back to wherever they came from. But there was one person who decided to leave. He was a Lizard man. He was originally traveling to the South when he got kidnapped, so he was grateful for what we had done, but decided to leave. I felt bad letting him leave like that so I gave him some bread and water from the store room. Then the ten elves also decided to leave us, saying that they needed to head back as soon as possible. The two dark elves who were here said that they wished to visit their vige which was in the West, so I wished them good luck and set them off with some food. The kobolds said they would stay with us, since the east was being controlled by Krull and that they would swear their loyalty to me. Kobolds live by the rule of strong-is-inmand. They had acknowledged me as their savior and were ready to join me, so I got one new servant who I called him Inu because he looked like a dog.
As for the harpies, they stayed wherever they saw shiny stuff, so they were right at home in the treasury. Oh yea, the treasury was massive and had tons of gold coins in it. In addition to the 5000 gold coins the system threw in my face, I was rich. Next were the beast men. Apparently, their vige was burnt down and all of them had been captured. All of them left for the Oxaivalon Empire, which was an Empire ruled by beast men. They believe they would find sanctuary there. Although I personally felt it was a dumb decision on their part, I had no say on the matter.
Goliath and Minerva had no problems with this, so it was all cool. So in all, we got about one human ve and twenty-four demi-human ves. Four satyrs which I remembered as being a part of Derbyshire''s "Roaming Satyr" group. Apparently they were being forced to pretend to be a part of his group. I still wouldn''t forgive that bastard for running away. Fourteen kobolds, six harpies.
Next, the hob-goblins Oda and Tsuna informed me of the library which they found the previous night while I was sleeping. They had immersed themselves in the books although they couldn''t understand anything that they read. They just tried to get whatever they could from the pictures they saw.
The agent however exined to me that it could help out with that. When I took a look at the book, the weird letters began to jumble about and I could read them. Apparently the agent was simply reconstructing the words in my head for them to make sense to me. I asked if it could do the same for those two and it couldn''t. I would have to teach them myself, which was going to be a pain. I told them the news and they wanted to get into studies as quickly as possible. They kept on pestering me until I agreed, and they gained twenty loyalty points.
When I was free, I went to visit Shiroi. I didn''t get the opportunity to talk to her the previous day, but when I got to her cave, she came out with someone in her mouth. But that wasn''t the rming part. The rming part was her evolution. She was easily twice as big as she was before and her ears, paws and tail tip were now red. Her violet eyes now had a sort of power to them. It was a bit weird to describe them. I was surprised by howrge the White Fairy Wolf species were. I was even more surprised by how silent they could be.
Next was the person she was carrying in her mouth. His name was Rori Sven, or Grimm ck by those on the streets of Keimen. He was a vampire that grew up in the Realm of Eternal Night which was a certain empire that was shrouded in eternal darkness and mystery. Kawaii told me something about him helping us in our task to save Ulva bying up with a stupid n, the Auction and making the truly dangerous workers leave the area. Apparently he and the person Kawaii ate were nning on killing the human Percy McAllister, so our presence was a win-win for them. He wanted toe serve under me and live in the forest. I was a bit suspicious of him, but I allowed it none the less.<novelnext></novelnext>
Shiroi looked a bit surprised and when I asked her why, she said Yokino was on the verge of killing Rori for some sort of betrayal. At this point, I felt kind of sorry for the guy. He betrayed the most treacherous fiend I knew and then she wanted to kill him for doing that to her! Was there no justice in this world?
I then invited Shiroi toe stay at the mansion with me, which she happily agreed to. When I asked where her brother was, she told me that he had been busily grinding away at the dungeons. Seeing his sister evolve must have lit a fire in him. I understood him perfectly. It would be nice to have someone to spar with again.
Next weird thing was when Nukeme showed me a bunny girl with pink fur and an amethyst on her head. He kept mumbling some nonsense about her being a gold mine of some sorts. Since I didn¡¯t possess [Analyst] I could neither confirm nor deny that. And [Hunter] worked in a way that I needed to know what animal I was thinking about to get any information on it. And [God¡¯s Voice] had been acting kind of strange since the night before. Basically it was unreliable.
Afterwards, I went to the castle to pick out a room to sleep in. Minerva decided toe with me and obviously so did Kawaii, Ulva, Shiroi and out of nowhere, Sylvie. With her transformation, her green hair now had silver tips and her eyes were constantly shifting between green and yellow. She had grown a bit smaller than I remembered, but apparently her stats had grown since. And as a Spiritual Light Pixie, she was already one of the most powerful variants for the pixie species. She would constantly tell me she was leaving then pop out of nowhere in a pathetic attempt to scare me. Her evolution had made her more childish as well, which was a down side given her tendencies to mess with me from time to time.
Anyway, searching for a room wasn''t easy I tell you. There were twenty vacant rooms in the mansion and none of them seemed to match my taste¡ well, the girls'' tastes. Whatever room we went to, they would deny it,ining about something. It got so bad I told them all to stop following me and went in search of a room for myself. In the end, I chose the nobleman''s room. I had some goblinse clean it up. And by clean it up, I mean ''CLEAN IT UP!''. We found some soaps in the store room and I had the goblins scrub every inch of the ce.
Was I abusing my power as their boss? Maybe I was. But they didn''t seem to care. While they were cleaning it, I went to check on the ogress who passed out the other day. When I got there, she was up, looking through the window, staring towards the east. I introduced myself and she did the same, although a bit clumsy. Her name was Kara and apparently she was Krull''s youngest daughter.
I wanted to return her to the East as soon as I could, but she told me she didn''t want to go back. Something about her father killing her or something. So she would stay here and do whatever she wanted as long as no trouble came. If Krull didn''t know she was here, there was no troubleing. Even if he did find out, I doubted he woulde here especially since Goliath was around.
When I went back to my room after talking to K, the goblins were done cleaning every single thing in the ce. Unfortunately, there was something on my bed. I kicked that person off my bed on to the floor and sheined. It was Aeri, now only seven feet tall. Since it was dark in the cers, I didn''t get a really good look at her even with [Night Vision]. She had pink skin with silvery-blue hair. A ck tattoo was on her arms. I was guessing it was some sort of Battle God marking or something. I told Aeri that it was my room, but she said she wanted to sleep there. I had to stop Kawaii from trying to fight her in that moment. I didn''t understand why the girls wanted to fight Aeri so much.
We had a huge argument over it, and in the end, I got Aeri to leave the room, however came the next big problem. Minerva. She also came, saying that she wanted to sleep in my room. I gave her a big fat no, but she almost killed me so I agreed.
When it was dinner time, we had a nice meal in the mesh hall, which could fit about a hundred of my subordinates. I didn''t want to do any sort of favoritism, so I let the captains decide who was going to enter the mesh hall. In the end they allowed everyone to enter, so while some sat on chairs, some sat on the floor, some on the table and a certain idiot, the chandelier. It fell during the middle of dinner, which kind of ticked me off, but I wasn''t going to mention names. His name spoke for itself. He still hadn''t evolved. When I asked, it turned out that his loyalty points were¡cking, so he didn''t have ess to the leveling up system. There was nothing I could do for him until he decided to follow me of his own volition.
Then finally, I wanted to have a very nice bath in the bath house, but when I got there, I realized that the nobleman had been in the tub mere moments before I teleported the castle, which meant his germs were still around. So I decided to go bath in the river instead. Ulva and Kawaii followed. I forced Minerva to take a bath too since she was going to be sleeping on the bed with me. Surprisingly, Aeri followed us. That girl was too open and friendly. Probably because battle gods were blunt or something.
Before I slept, I realized that I hadn''t really dealt with the fat nobleman. When I asked about him, I heard he was being held in the cers. I wondered who sent him there, but was surprised by the fact that it was Goliath who would normally kill humans. I went to the cers and saw the human noble shivering in the cell. I wondered what Goliath had done to him, but it turned out that Goliath hadn''t even visited him once. He was just breaking down because he couldn''t believe how everything flipped over in an instant.
I was feeling kind of sorry for him, but I remembered what he did to Ulva and closed myself in his Cell for a few minutes.
Chapter 97 Aeri Vons Pt.I
Day 32
¡®Nothing like a peaceful day, innit Aeri?¡¯
"Yep! A bit different from the always noisy vige back home.¡±
¡®That''s nice.¡¯
"Hmhm."
"Only if Ulva coulde take a sun bath with us."
Ulva was currently unable to step out into the sun. Her being a dhampyr and all.
"Hmm, I don¡¯t know her much, but I¡¯m surprised you haven¡¯t killed her yet. She looks like a worthy trophy.¡±
Aeri said something a bit insensitive. Strange enough, I didn¡¯t care enough to actually argue with her on the matter."
I patted her on the head, then continued to stroke her back, which made her purr. She was just like a cat. She reminded me of Ryo. Mizuki''s pet cat. I never ever got along with her. Anything I would try to stroke her she would scratch me.
''Onii-chan,e y with Ryo.''
I heard Mizuki''s voice, which made me look around.
A screen popped up in front of me.
[Side Quest (Optional): Save the dhampyr]
[Status: Completed]
[Description: The little dhampyrs Ulva has been kidnapped. Who knows what manner of deeds are being performed on her! Save her as quickly as possible!]
[Rewards: 5000 gold coins
2000 experience points
50 stat points
¡®Oh sweet¡ but wasn¡¯t I supposed to get four rewards?¡¯
DING!
[You havepleted certain hidden targets for this mission! You have received a Special Silver Chest]
[Will you open this chest?]
? [YES]/[NO]
¡®Hmm? What is this? A treasure chest?¡¯
A silver chest appeared before me. It was quite fancy with some weird designs all around it and a ruby on the top. I tapped on the [YES] option the screen presented and the chest opened up automatically.
I picked up a tiny metal. I didn''t know what to do with and no status screen was popping up.
¡°Hey, what you up to, little bird?"
Aeri asked.
¡®Oh, just exploring a- Ah! When did you get so big?
I was surprised by her height. She was easily twice as big as she was back just a second ago.
"Teetee, it''s my natural ability to grow very big, although this is the biggest I can get for now."
¡®For now?¡¯
"Yes. True Battle Gods easily reach the sky. My great uncle was as big as a mountain or so my dad said."
¡®So you¡¯ve never met him before?¡¯
¡°No.¡±
¡®Good. Good. Meaning there¡¯s no concrete proof of such a being¡¯s existence. I''d never want a True Battle God as my opponent if they were real.¡¯
"Yep, they''d crush you instantly. And they are real!¡±
¡®Have you seen one before?¡¯
¡°No, but I can tell if something is real or not, you know?¡±
¡®Oh really? How can you?¡¯
¡°I just can! Hmph.¡±
She pouted and poked my head. Thanks to [Slime Body] I wasn¡¯t crushed immediately.
¡°Hey, that thing."
Aeri shrank as she came closer to me. I noticed her gaze was fixed on the item I in the box. I lifted it up for her to get a better view of it.
¡®You recognize it?¡¯
"Yep¡ this is my favorite meal."
¡®Meal? I honestly thought that this was metal. Agent, isn¡¯t that right?¡¯
DING!
[There are some errors with the unique skill [God¡¯s Voice]! Error is being attended to]
¡®Ah¡ I¡¯ve been getting this since yesterday. What exactly is wrong with the unique skill? Last time I asked it a question, I got some response like ¡°Jasper. Lilith. Error.¡±.¡¯
That kept me up at night. I didn¡¯t know when I¡¯d be safe sleeping anymore and I now had to focus a lot on sensing changes to my surroundings and body just so I wouldn¡¯t die.
"Yes. Meal. Although there isn¡¯t a lot around where we live. The elves and dwarves have a lot of these though. I should probably go and ask them for someter.¡±
Aeri was probably thinking out loud, so I decided to ignore her and focus on other things. Like the fact that she mentioned something about elves. Meaning she lived close to elves. Which meant, if I went with her to her home, I would be able to see an entire city of big bouncy elves. Unlike that tsundere from the city.
¡®Aeri, where do Battle Gods live?¡¯
"The mountains to the east of here.¡±
She pointed somewhere north-east.
¡°My Guri Tribe resides at the highest point, the peak that is known as the Dragon¡¯s Graveyard. The Demise Mountains."
¡®Ah¡ Dragon¡¯s Graveyard? Demise Mountains?¡¯
¡°Yes! That is what the humans called it. Although my people refer to it as Mystic Peaks.¡±
¡®Ah¡ they stole the name from that popr video game back home! Ah whatever. Sounds interesting.¡¯
"Yes. Alongside the Lesser Dragons and mutants."
¡®Mutants?¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
"Yes. Very nasty creatures. They roam the Demise Mountains, killing anything thates in their way. That''s howe the mountains got that name."
¡®You sure it''s not because of you Battle Gods?¡¯
"Of course we Battle Gods barely leave our territory. Except for our annual Tribe Games and Chieftain Inheritance Tradition, we will not waste our time to leave our homes. That is far too dangerous."
¡®Seriously? You say that like there is something more dangerous than you guys out there?¡¯
"Hmhm¡ That is where the ck dragon lives."
¡®ck Dragon?¡¯
"Hmm¡ Very dangerous dragon. It is most advisable to steer clear of its way or else it''ll destroy you."
¡®So even a tribe of dragon yers has nothing on it?¡¯
Aeri had a different air about her as she looked at the horizon. She seemed quite serious, and I didn¡¯t want to pry so I looked at the piece. Since Aeri said it was like a snack, I simply grabbed it and swallowed in one gulp.
¡°Eh?! You ate it all without me? You greedy little bird!¡±
There were tears in her eyes and she lifted me off the ground and attempted to eat me up.
¡°I¡¯ll kill you!¡±
¡®Hehehe. You snooze, ya lose! Sucker!¡¯
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver] you have acquired the skill [Mithril Body]]
¡®What? Aeri, let go of me for a second.¡¯
¡°Hm? Ok.¡±
She dropped me and Inded. I checked out the skill.
[Skill name: Mithril Body]
[Skill Type: Regr, Body
[Description: Cover your body in mithril ting. You will receive a boost in defense, speed and strength depending on how much mana your body possesses. That is, +10 defense = 5 mana, +5 Speed = 5 mana, +8 strength = 5 mana]
A screen popped out before me. This had a different vibe to it aspared to the agent describing the skill to me. And the description for the skill was quite simple and easy to understand, going so far as giving me examples.
I immediately activated the skill, however I didn¡¯t see any difference in my body. I checked my stats however and was stunned to see the change in stats. My defense had gone up by 600, my speed by 300 and strength by 480. My overall ranking was no longer C-, but C+. At this point, I could confidently say that my growth rate was outstanding. Not even a month and I hade this far from F rank.
That left me wondering though. If a C+ rank monster like me could terrorize a city, albeit a small part of it, why were humans still alive? Even with number they should stand no chance against anything B rank and beyond. I seriously wanted an answer! And fast.
¡°You look tasty."
Aeri said, grabbing me by my neck.
¡®No eating the chicken!¡¯
I smacked her head and she winced.
"Teetee."
¡®Hey, Aeri. One day I''ll have to go to the Demise Mountains for some elves. I hope you''ll take me there.¡¯
"Sure. No problem."
¡®Hey Aeri.¡¯
"Yea?"
¡®When are you leaving?¡¯
"Probably never."
¡®That''s nice.¡¯
"Yea."
¡®WAIT!!! Aren''t you the next chieftain!?¡¯
"Yes."
¡®Then aren''t you supposed to go back?¡¯
"Don''t worry. They''ll rece me."
¡®That easily?¡¯
"Yea. Life in the Guri Tribe is survival of the fittest. If I''m not there, the next strongest will take over."
¡®Doesn''t that mean that you''re the strongest Battle God?¡¯
"Don''t know. There are more Battle God Tribes, although quite scarce since the Battle God race itself is almost out of this world."
''Almost extinct?''
I looked at her and she wore a bright smile on her face as she looked at the sun set.
''Also, for a tribe of brute warriors, your speech is quite impressive. Ah¡ wait¡ how do I understand you without the Agent?¡¯
¡°Hmm? What agent? Are you ok?¡±
¡®N-Never mind. I never asked, but how did you get kidnapped?¡¯
"Oh that? I let myself get kidnapped."
¡®Eh?¡¯
"Yeah, I didn''t want to be the next chieftain so I got myself kidnapped instead."
''Are you actually stupid?¡¯
¡°No. I¡¯m the smartest my vige has to offer.¡±
¡®That must mean the standards aren¡¯t really high, huh?¡¯
¡°Wha-?! You keep insulting my people. I might actually break you at this point.¡±
¡®Why didn''t you just run away instead of getting enved?¡¯
"Well, because it''s a disgrace for a chieftain to have been captured by measly humans before. If I had ran away, they would have just tracked me down once my father died. At least now my brother can take over."
¡®Wow¡ well, good on ya!¡¯
"This is nice."
¡®Yea.¡¯
Chapter 98 Lets Go To A Dungeon
Day 33
¡®Mmm, Minerva, can you get off me?¡¯
I tried to push off the heavy arm on my body. I looked up from the sheets. It was nice to see a tiled ceiling above my head. Something other than trees and sky. Sunlight bled into the room from the opened curtains. I must have forgotten to cover up the windows with a curtain. We can¡¯t allow too much light in here. Or any amount of light for that matter.
I stood up, trying to walk off the bed, but I hit a leg.
"Ow."
Minerva sleepilyined.
¡®Oh, sorry.¡¯
I then tried to move away, but hit another leg.
"Ouch!"
It sounded like Ulva. I decided to jump off the bed then. As soon as Inded, my doors suddenly burst open and a ck creature came flying inside.
BAAM!
¡®Hey! Chicken! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!¡¯
He started barking.
"Huh?"
The creaturended in the center of the room, looking around, before settling its eyes on me. It had jagged ck fur that was as beautiful as midnight, but with patches of crimson red on it in a pretty blend. Almost creating something like a tattoo on its back. Eyes as red as blood and a body almost as big as Shiroi''s.
''Wait¡ don''t tell me.''
¡®It is I. Your greatest foe! Here for our rematch.¡¯
I gulped. Shiroi¡¯s bratty brother had evolved overnight.
¡®I can see¡ erhm¡- I guess I never really gave you a name, huh? Did you get one by any chance?''
¡®A name? No. I wasn¡¯t blessed with one by any.¡¯
¡®I see. You evolved, huh? I guess as a reward I''ll give you a name.¡¯
I told him and stretched my feathers out. It really felt nice to have slept on a bed once again. No offense, but the beds from the hotel were no match to this one. It was extra soft and bouncy, yet firm enough to keep you from sinking in too deep.
¡®What? Is there something wrong with my face?¡¯
Why I was asking this question was because the wolf was staring at my face for quite some time. It was getting too creepy to ignore. However, when I read his mind, I ended up almost blushing myself.
¡®A name? From one I acknowledge, this will be an honour. Ah! What am I thinking? I will not ept anything from a monster weaker than I am! But¡ this bird beat me in resolve. In a sense¡ it is stronger than I. I will ept this name, and be strong enough to match it.¡¯
¡®Ah. I will permit you to do so.¡¯
There was aplete switch in characters. Comparing the first to the second was likeparing a high school girl to a middle-aged sryman.
¡®Yes, but let¡¯s go out first.¡¯
¡®Eh?! Why?¡¯
He howled.
¡®For real though. Be quiet or we might die.¡¯
¡®Then tell me why?! Once you do, I will! AWOOO-"
"Stupid doggie! Shut up!"
Minerva screamed. A pillow zoomed past over my head and collided with his head, sending him flying into a wall, which shattered under the impact.
BAM! CRACK!
''Crap¡ she just broke his skull, or?''
I ended up dragging an unconscious wolf outside, in front of the mansion, then sprayed him with some water, waking him up.
[Will you use 50MP to name this creature?]
The system asked for a high amount of mana, but I epted none the less, then checked his stats through the system. Even if I didn¡¯t have [Analyst], I could still look at my own servants stats with the system.
STATUS
[Name: Kuro
[Species: Crimson Hell Hound Level 1/70
[Status: [Excited]
[Age: 1 year
[Rank: C+
[Race Rank: Tier 2
[Talent: B grade
[Titles: |Of World|, |Survivor|, |Savage Beast|, |Merciless|, |Man Eater|
[Blessings: -
[Level: 51 Exp: 420/7,030
[Health: 2000/ 2000 Stamina: 5500/5500 Strength: 1310 Speed: 1150 Defense: 1000 Dexterity: 1205 Intelligence: 130 Luck: 90
|SKILLS|<novelnext></novelnext>
[Unique Skills: -
[Passive Skills: [Hell Hound Nose Level 1], [Night Vision Level 1], [Predator Instinct Level 9], [Automatic Regeneration Level 1], [Giant Body Level 1], [Hell Body Level 1]
[Active Skills: [Crimson Fangs Level], [Crimson ws Level 1], [Maul Level 7], [Hell Hound Growl Level 1], [Aura Control Level 5], [Murderous Aura Level 4], [Fire Breath Level 1], [Fire force Level 1], [Poison Spit Level 1]
[Magic Skills: [Fire Ball Level 1]
[Affinities: [Fire Affinity], [Poison Affinity]
[Magic: [Low Fire Magic Level]
[Resistances: [High - Poison Resistance Level 1], [Mid - Magic Attack Resistance Level 1], [Mid ¨C Physical Attack Resistance Level 1], [High ¨C Fire Resistance Level 1]
¡®Wow¡ your stats are looking pretty good. And you have lots of new skills.¡¯
¡®Hmhm¡ Now I can do this too.¡¯
He opened his maw and let out a st of fire, almost burning me, were it not for my mithril boosted defense. At this point in time, if it weren''t for my title |King ss Monster|, he''d be stronger than me.
¡®I''m guessing you went to the second floor of the dungeon?¡¯
¡®I only went down one level.¡¯
¡®Ah¡ so you remained on the first. I need to grind myself.''
***
This morning during breakfast in the dining hall, I started talking about the dungeons and some of those present overheard me. I made it sound like I was talking to Minerva about it, although she clearly wasn¡¯t interested in partaking. That was all bait to get party members.
Ulva volunteered to follow us, as did Kawaii. K who came to the mesh hall in the morning said she wanted to explore a dungeon, so I told her that she was weed to join. That was oddly perfect timing on her part, so I was d since we seemed to share the same love for dungeons. Still, I felt a bit odd around her. She wanted to be my servant. I was hoping I didn¡¯t pick up some weird person.
Then there was the seven foot tall pinkie. She said the dungeons sounded fun so she was down for it.
Yokino had done her disappearing act once again, so I didn''t know about her. I was certain she was with her subordinates or something. I saw a couple of ants moving about from the stalls and taking stuff away. Those were probably some of the new minions that she had kept hidden away.
Before we left, the little rabbit that Nukeme came over with called out to me. I tried speaking to her, but she couldn¡¯t speak. Using [Telepathy] only got me infuriated with her. All she thought about was gems and food. I told her to go y about in the treasury or something. I was certain the harpies would set her straight.
She moved to Nukeme who had I had ordered to watch over her. So at the moment, he was something like her guardian. Certainly, he wouldn¡¯t allow the harpies to cause any serious harm to her.
So I teleported myself and the girls to the location. The cave stared down at us eerily.
¡°This looks like fun.¡±
Aeri said and started to take her steps towards the cave. Kawaii jiggled about in Ulva¡¯s arms and sent me a message.
¡®Will you form a party with them, Maaawwsstteewwrrr?¡¯
¡®Oh¡ a party. Almost forgot about that. Hey, you guys. Let¡¯s huddle up.¡¯
¡°Huddle¡?¡±
¡°?¡±
The others were confused and didn¡¯t understand me. I sighed and spread out my wings.
¡®Gather up. Group meeting.¡¯
They looked at one another and nodded. After that, I begun to exin the situation to them. All about the system and its functions and how it actually helps me level up and grow stronger. Some of the other benefits, excluding my exclusive ability to buy skills and items from the store. Such information was definitely too dangerous for others to know.
¡®Hmm, I¡¯ll have Kawaii exin the rest to you since she herself has had the opportunity to use the system.¡¯
¡®Thank youuuu~ Teehee~¡¯
She jumped out of Ulva¡¯s arms andnded on the ground in her human form. She looked a bit different. Unlike before, there was no scar on the beautiful face. Her hair was now silver and longer than before. Her eyes were silver as well. The most obvious change was the reduction in chest size.
¡°Oh~ Kawaii! You look stunning now!¡±
Ulva ran into her arms. Kawaii was so much bigger than her that Ulva was barely at the size of her hips.
¡°Really?¡±
¡°Indeed. You may have taken the form of that brutish woman, but now you look miles more beautiful.¡±
¡°Is that so? Hahaha!¡±
¡°Hmm? You¡¯re still weak though.¡±
Aeri said disinterestedly, while looking at the sky.
¡°I¡¯m not weak! Pou. I¡¯d beat you in a fight if my Mawstewr asked me, you know?¡±
The talk was suddenly starting to switch towards a fight.
¡°Is that so? Want to go?¡±
¡°Hehe, should I go for it, Mawstewr?¡±
Kawaii asked me. However, my mind was on something way more important than their silly argument.
¡®W-What happened to your chest?!¡¯
¡°Hmm? It was heavy and slowed me down, so I reduced it.¡±
She said with a calm expression, not realizing the crime she justmitted. No more fan service! This was the end. Depressingly, I took out the Demon Armor set from my item box and dropped it before her.
¡®At least, cover yourself up. Sigh. There¡¯s no point in stealing a peek when there¡¯s nothing there.¡¯
¡°Okkiieee~¡±
Her arm formed a huge melting mass which swallowed up the armor. The armor then formed up on her body, and the demon long sword was clung to her back. But the shield was nowhere to be seen. I assumed she was keeping it back due to it having no aesthetic value at the moment.
Chapter 99 Dungeon Party
¡°Okie! Now that Mawstewr has exined a lot about it. I¡¯ll show you the benefits I received! Just a week ago I was a normal slime, but after I became her servant, I suddenly evolved. It sometimes feels like my soul is connected to Maswtewr¡¯s and because of that connection I can request for mana whenever I want. Also, I actually can¡¯t see anything in my normal form. However, there is a screen that appears in front of me, that I can actually see. This screen tells me all of my abilities, gives me a list of things to do to get stronger and what not. Once you get it, I can confidently say you will be strong really fast.¡±
¡®Ok! So do you want this system?¡¯
I asked them. My campaign was practically wless after exining the system to them. Anyone who lived in this world would have no need to refuse this offer. Normally it wouldn¡¯t matter if they refused, but I wanted that extra experience more party members would give me!
Ulva nodded her head.
¡°I¡¯ll be stronger and more useful to big sister!¡±
¡®Hehehe¡ easy pickings.¡¯
¡°Um... Are there no down side?¡±
K muttered something.
¡®Come again?¡¯
¡°Y-You see. This all sounds good and all, but¡ hmm, how do I put this?¡±
¡°What she¡¯s basically saying is, what do you benefit out of this and what do we lose?¡±
Aeri was blunt and cold. I couldn¡¯t exin to them that it was basically just to leech off some of their growth, now could I? I just had to find an excuse and the agent wasn¡¯t working so I came up with something random on the spot.
¡®Erhm¡ the dr-drawback is the fact¡¡¯
¡°Hmm? What fact?¡±
Aeri was seriously going for this.
¡°Do not worry Mawstewr!¡±
Kawaii drew her sword and pointed at Aeri. The giantess paid little to no attention to that threat and kept her steely gaze on me.
¡®This won¡¯t work for you unless you¡¯re my servant! Basically, work for me and you get a crap ton of good stuff. To be honest, it¡¯s not like I want servants or anything. This is just a prerequisite for all the benefits we¡¯ve exined to you.¡¯
I wanted to persuade them. Getting the easiest and fastest ways to level up through them was definitely something I wanted. But both of them remained silent at the moment. The first one to break the ice was Aeri.
¡°Oh! If I be your servant then there¡¯s even more reason for me to not go home! Ok then! I¡¯ll be under your care then!¡±
DING!
[The Half-Battle God Aeri Vons is requesting to be your servant. Will you ept?]
? [YES]/[NO]
¡®Ah? Seriously? I don¡¯t like the reason you¡¯re giving, but ok. Wee to my familia.¡¯
[You have acquired one servant. The Half-Battle God Aeri Vons]
[Your familia has grown! Your charisma has grown!]
¡®What about you?¡¯
I turned to K and she cleared her throat. She was trying to lookposed, but reading her mind told me all sorts of other things. She was actually starting to creep me the hell out. So I would stop reading her mind for a while to avoidpletely avoiding her at times.
¡°If you would allow me such an opportunity, then I shall endeavor to work to utmost of my capabilities.¡±
[The War Ogress K is requesting to be your servant. Will you ept?]
? [YES]/[NO]
¡®War ogress, huh? Guess that makes sense given that she looks kind of different from the other ogres I saw during the invasion. Those guys were more round and actually smaller than her. She would easily tower over most of those who participated. She was probably taller than a seven foot tall Aeri. I wasn¡¯t really sure.
¡®You could have just said ¡°yes¡±, but that will do perfectly, I guess. Wee to my familia.¡¯
[You have acquired one servant. The War Ogress K]
[Congrattions! You have acquired 1 minion]
[Your familia has grown! Your charisma has grown!]
¡®1 minion? That means she didn¡¯t have lots of servants back home. Or is it more like since they worked for Krull they actually weren¡¯t her servants? That means this one person was loyal to her and no other person. I wonder who they are. Ah! What about Aeri? She was the next chieftain yet she had no servants? Does that mean her family doesn¡¯t use servants since theye from a battle tribe? Probably.¡¯
As I thought to myself, I took a look at their stats. First up was Ulva.
STATUS
[Name: Ulva
[Species: Dhampyr Level 13/70
[Status: [Full]
[Age: 14 years
[ss: -
[Rank: C+
[Race Rank: Tier 4
[Talent: A grade
[Titles: |Of World|, |Man Eater|, |Man yer|, |Night Walker|, |Survivor|
[Blessings: |Hyakkiyako¡¯s Blessings|
[Level: 13 Exp: 5/3000
[Health: 2000/2000 Stamina: 2400/2400 Mana: 100/100 Strength: 200 Speed: 520 Defense: 133 Dexterity: 156 Magic: 40 Intelligence: 80 Luck: 45
|SKILLS|
[Unique Skills: -
[Passive Skills: [Survivor¡¯s Game Level 5], [Night Vision Level 6], [Heat Vision Level 5], [Blood Vision Level 5], [Blood Hound Level 4]
[Active Skills: [Fang Protrusion Level 7], [Blood Sucking Level 4], [Lamprey Transformation Level 1], [Blood ws Level 1], [Nasty Bite Level 1], [Throw Level 3], [Sprint Level 4]
[Magic Skills: -
[Magic: [Basic Blood Magic Level 1], [Basic Ice Magic Level 1]
[Affinities: [Ice Affinity], [Blood Affinity]
[Resistances: [Low Physical Attack Resistance Level 6]
¡®Ah¡ Ulva¡¯s stats were monstrous. Why do I get the feeling something¡¯s changed though whenpared to before? Did she always have this many skills? Ah well, it¡¯s too far back for me to think about it.¡¯
I patted her on the head.
¡®You¡¯re quite strong, Ulva. But let¡¯s get even stronger!¡¯
¡°Yes!¡±
She nodded her head and puffed her cheeks out. This girl was so adorable. She would give even Mitsuki a ride for her money. And that brat had guys from her middle school fawning all over her. I would never hear the ends of her presents every day. We wereplete pr opposites, she and I.
¡®Take that Mitsuki! I have an even more adorable little sister now! Ah¡¡¯
I suddenly realized that she recently died. That left me wondering if she was in this world. And if so, where could she have been? I would shove the thought away for now. Only after I had garnered an appropriate amount of resources would I think about stuff like that.
I switched my gaze to Kawaii next.
STATUS
[Name: Kawaii
[Species: Sentient Acidic Slime Mimic Level 10/40
[Status: [Excited]
[Age: 4 years
[Rank: C
[Race Rank: Tier 3
[Titles: |Of World|, |Named Beast|, |Named Servant|, |Sacred Thief|
[Blessings: |Blessings of The God of Poisonous Rust, Felnir|
[Level: 35 Exp: 103/1,050
[Health: 900/900 Stamina: ??? Mana: 20/20 Strength: 350 Speed: 400 Defense: 150 Dexterity: 370 Intelligence: 90 Luck: 100 Magic: 10
|SKILLS|
[Unique Skills: [Godly Heretic Level 1]
[Passive Skills: [Slime Body Level 15], [Super Acid Body Level 1], [ss: Swordsman Level 1], [Job: Avenger Level 1], [Expert Swordsmanship Level 1], [Sixth Sense Level 1], [Hawk Eyes Level 1]<novelnext></novelnext>
[Active Skills: [Predator Level 5], [Assimtion Level 5], [Mimicry Level 1], [Noble Swordsmanship: Imperial sh Level 1], [Noble Swordsmanship: Imperial Stab Level 1], [Noble Swordsmanship: Body Hardening Level 1], [Noble Swordsmanship: Imperial Parry Level 1, [Polymorph Level 1], [Trap Detection Level 1], [Trap Disarming Level 1], [Cooking Level 1], [Bandit Swordsmanship: Feint Steps Level 1], [Bandit Swordsmanship: Crooked Stab Level 1], [Bandit Swordsmanship: Irregr Straight Level 1], [Blood Moon Swordsmanship: Swirling Petals Level 1], [Blood Moon Swordsmanship: Blossoming Rain Level 1], [Blood Moon Swordsmanship: Red Strike Level 1]
[Technique skills: [Noble Swordsmanship Techniques Level 1], [Bandit Swordsmanship Techniques Level 1], [Beast God Swordsmanship Techniques Level 1], [Blood Moon Swordsmanship Techniques Level 1], [Battle God Battle Techniques Level 1]
[Magical skills: [Water Ball Level 5], [Water Spear Level 4], [Rust Pellets Level 2], [Poison Shot Level 1]
[Magic: [Basic Rot Magic Level 1], [Basic Poison Magic Level 1], [Basic Water Magic Level 1]
[Affinities: [Rot Affinity], [Poison Affinity], [Water Affinity]
[Resistances: [Mid Cold Resistance Level 5], [Mid Heat Resistance Level 4], [Lightning Resistance Level 3], [Blunt Attack Resistance Level 3], [Pain Nullification Level MAX]
¡®Oi! Oi! Oi! Oi! Sa sa! This makes no sense! What the hell?! You didn¡¯t have this many number of techniques thest time!¡¯
¡°Teetee! I used yesterday to explore more of the person¡¯s abilities! I hadn¡¯t finished, but I am almost done now.¡±
¡®W-What? How?¡¯
¡°Hmm, [Assimtion] started the process, but I didn¡¯t acquire all the skills immediately. It requires that I do the data collection by myself which I now have to process and practice to create the actual skill. Hmm, a human example would be like reading from a book and trying to reproduce. I¡¯m not sure if you get it, though! Ah! Mawstewr will definitely get it, because of how smart Mawstewr is!¡±
She gave me a simple yet painful rundown of how [Assimtion] was to work normally. That made me feel like [God¡¯s Voice] was even more of a cheat than I gave it credit for.
¡®I lose if I think too much about it, I guess. Next should be Aeri.¡¯
¡°Hmm? Next for what?¡±
¡®Just stand there.¡¯
STATUS
[Name: Aeri Vons
[Species: Half Battle God Level 30/70
[Status: [Bored]
[Age: 17 years
[Rank: C+
[Race Rank: Tier I
[ss: Battle God Apprentice Warrior; Level 5]
[Talent: A grade
[Titles: |Survivor|, |Battle Prodigy|, |Lesser Dragon yer|, |Champion of Guri|, |Child of the Chaotic Mother|, |Traitor|
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Earth Mother of Chaotic Quakes|, |Blessings of the God of Victory, Hoesus|, |Demigod of War''s Blessings|, |Hyakkiyako''s Blessings|
[Level: 30 Exp: 4500/4600
[Health: 5000/5000 Stamina: 5200/5200 Strength: 1320 Speed: 1200 Defense: 2000 Dexterity: 600 Intelligence: 200 Luck: 20
|SKILLS|
[Unique Skills: -
[Passive Skills: [Bloodline of the Earth Mother of Chaotic Quakes (Inactivated)], [Battle God Hard Skin Level 7], [Battle God''s Quick Regeneration Level 5], [Unshakable Will Level 8], [Battle God''s Enhanced Reflexes; Level 4], [Aura Sense Level 6], [Presence Detection Level 5], [Superior Sense Level 5]
[Active Skills: [Battle Cry; Level 5], [Metal Ingestion; Level 7], [Throw Level 6], [Sprint Level 4], [Size Maniption Level 4], [Charge Level 3], [Aura Burst Level 6], [Aura Control Level 6], [Battle God Fighting Techniques: Wind Break Level 4], [Battle God Fighting Techniques: Ground Break Level 4], [Battle God Fighting Techniques: Wicked Counter Level 6], [Battle God Fighting Techniques: Godly Jab Level 1], [Battle God Fighting Techniques: Godly Right Hook Level 3], [Battle God Fighting Techniques: Wicked Front Level 3], [Battle God Fighting Techniques: Body Turn Level 4] [Battle God Fighting Techniques: Air Steps: Level 2], [Battle God Fighting Forbidden Techniques: 8 Trigrams Level 1]
[Technique Skills: [Battle God Fighting Techniques Level 9], [Unnamed Techniques Level 5]
[Affinities: [Fire Affinity]
[Resistances: [High Fire Resistance; Level 4], [Mid Physical Attack Resistance; Level 7], [High Cold Resistance; Level 3], [Mid Lightning Resistance; Level 5], [High Cold Resistance; Level 2], [Mid Poison Resistance; Level 9]
¡®Ah¡ A monster. I brought home a monster.¡¯
I started to mutter to myself after seeing her skills and titles.
¡°Hehe, impressed?¡±
She asked. I gave her a thumbs up and dizzily moved on to the next person. Hopefully this time around it wasn¡¯t a monster. When I looked I saw K fiddling away with her hands.
¡®Ah¡ s-she is Krull¡¯s daughter, right? And a war ogress at that. Doesn¡¯t she have monster red gs right there?¡¯
I was starting to reconsider even looking at her stats. With their stats I could say all these girls were simply pitying me at best. I couldn¡¯t lose the only person who truly saw me as something of worship!
I pped my cheeks and prepared myself.
¡®Not to worry! I have faith that she isn¡¯t a monster. She can¡¯t be a monster! Remain a cute ogre girl! Please!¡¯
I tapped on her tab and was shocked by the results.
STATUS
[Name: K
[Species: War Ogress Level: 30/50
[Status: [Anxious]
[Age: 4 years
[ss: Magician Level 3
[Sub ss: Lightning Magician Level 4
[Rank: C
[Race Rank: Tier II
[Talent: D grade
[Titles: |Cursed Body|, |Hard Worker|
[Blessings: |Lingering Spirit¡¯s Blessings|, |Hyakkiyago¡¯s Blessings|
[Level: 30 Exp: 1230/2300
[Health: 1200/1200 Stamina: 700/900 Mana: 1300/1300 Strength: 357 Speed: 350 Defense: 400 Dexterity: 890 Magic: 70 Intelligence: 350 Luck: 12
|SKILLS|
[Unique Skills: -
[Passive Skills: [Ogre''s Hard Skin; Level 2], [Mana Sense; Level 8], [Mana Regeneration; Level 4]
[Active Skills: [Monstrous Reading Level 9], [Potion Creation Level 4], [Alchemy Level 1]
[Magic Skills: [Lightning Bolt Level 9], [Lightning Whip Level 9], [Lightning Field Level 9], [Lightning Shield Level 9], [Lightning st Level 9], [Thunder Armor Level 4], [Lightning de Level 9], [Charge Level 9], [Lightning Storm Level 4], [Radio Waves Level 6], [Lightning Rain Level 3], [Lightning Pill Level 1], [Body Shock Level 4], [Super Lightning Level 1],
[Magic: [Intermediary Lightning Magic Level 4], [Runic Magic Level 1]
[Affinities: [Lightning Affinity], [Holy Affinity]
[Resistances: [Mid Lightning Resistance Level 3], [Low Magical Attack Resistance Level 4]
¡°Ah~ H-Hinotori?!¡±
She moaned out my name. Normally this would have been odd, but I had jumped on her in a big hug as thanks for not being a monster. Her stats were crappy as hell and I could finally feel strong again.
¡®Thank you K! You have no idea how much this means to me!¡¯
¡°H-Huh? I-I ¨C What did I do?¡±
¡®You wouldn¡¯t get it. You¡¯re great!¡¯
I told her. Aeri grabbed me and brought me to her face level.
¡°What do you mean she¡¯s great? I¡¯m obviously the strongest one here.¡±
¡®No one cares, Aeri.¡¯
I looked away from her, too ashamed to say it to her face.
¡°Is that so? Then look me in the eye and say it.¡±
¡®Ah! You damned brat.¡¯
¡°You aren¡¯t looking~¡±
¡®Y-You- No one¡ no one¡¡¯
¡°Hmm? You know, all of a sudden your [Telepathy] cannot be heard. Is there some sort of problem with your brain?¡±
Ah! She just insulted me.
Chapter 100 Forbidden Dungeon Conquest - Second Floor Pt.I
¡®You guys, ready?¡¯
"Yep." (Kawaii)
"Yes." (Ulva)
"Whenever you are." (Aeri)
"It would be rude of me to keep you waiting." (K)
"In that case! Dungeon raid Party, roll out!"
I had given the name quite a bit of thought and finally came to a conclusion. And what did I get as feedback?
"Ugh, what kind of boring name is that?"
Aeriined.
"Looks like big sis isn''t good at everything."
Ulva broke my heart.
"Fufufu. Hey! Stopughing at Mawstewr!"
And Kawaii was outright hurting my feelings.
¡®No one isughing other than you!¡¯
I hit her on the head and she just keptughing cutely. Yes. After I put much thought into it, they decided tough at me and my naming skills.
''Ugh, whatever. That name is kind of boring. Dungeon Raid Party, let''s go!¡¯
[You have entered a Dungeon]
When we entered, the ce was empty. I used [Mana Sense] and I still couldn''t detect any form of energy than us three. Because of that, we decided to head further into the dungeon. After a few minutes of walking we came across a door.
[You have found the entrance to the 1st floor]
[Do you wish to proceed?]
I epted the offer and we walked through.
[You have entered the 1st Floor]
This floor was surprisingly empty. I assumed that was because the others came in here and went on a grinding session. The fact that nothing was moving on this floor anymore was proof enough that they went all out and only left after every single opponent was defeated. That Kuro. He was thest one to enter this ce. And even he didn¡¯t want to go to beneath this floor. What monstrosities awaited us?
[You have found the entrance to the 2nd Floor]
[Do you wish to proceed?]
I was about to ept, but then Kawaii told me her skill [Trap Detection] went off, saying it was a trap. It seemed to be some sort of spatial distortion trap, but it was actually the only way to the 1st floor. How did I know? Basically because I didn¡¯t want to wait any longer and since they all trusted me, I gave them some bullish excuse about seeing it in the stars or whatnot. There was a weird silence for a moment. My excuse didn¡¯t work well when I read their minds. With them calling me all sorts of things ranging from Idiot to Liar to Cruel. With my heart shattered, we went to the next floor.
[You have entered the 2nd Floor]
[You will not be able to leave without killing the Dungeon Master]
I let out a sigh, then looked around. I could sense some weird energy up ahead.
DING!
[Sensing Nether Energy up ahead! You have entered an area full of undead!]
The screen told me. It almost felt like a recement for the Agent.
¡®No! You won¡¯t rece my partner just like that you bogus screen! I¡¯m not such a sellout!¡¯
DING!
[You have received a message]
¡®Huh? A message? Lemme see.¡¯
[####: Heya, it¡¯s me again. Your favorite person in the world! So this time I didn¡¯t forcefully drag you into my domain. However, Ie bearing tragic news. My tea is cold and too many guests have been visiting me offte! I don¡¯t like that! And it¡¯s all because of you! Don¡¯t go making such a ruckus in a city again, you hear? If you¡¯re C rank, act like a C rank monster! Don¡¯t go about waging wars and waking up an Ancient monster! Anyway, I actually made this to tell you that there are some bugs in the system and I¡¯ll be sending updates frequently. So don¡¯t be surprised if the system randomly crashes on you, ok? And even if it does, it¡¯ll be back up in the next few seconds, I pinky swear.]
I shoved the message somewhere. At this point that person was beyond saving when it came to the mental faculty. Having so much power must have made her some useless brat. I hoped I didn¡¯t end up like her in the future.
I looked up at the current enemies, the undead. I was about to attack, but I then had a thought. Something that had been bothering me for a while now.
¡®Hmmm, guys. Why don''t we let Ulva and Kawaii handle this floor?¡¯
"Huh? Why?"
Aeri asked.
¡®Well, I want both of them to grow stronger by a decent amount at least.¡¯
"Does Kawaii, really need to?"
¡®Fair point. Let''s let Ulva do this alone. What do you say, Ulva? You think you can do this?¡¯
She looked a bit nervous.
¡®Don''t worry Ulva. If you think you''ll have a problem, just remember. Give it to em¡¯ from the bottom, an uppercut that''ll knock the daylights out of them. A [Tori Completely Original Technique: Fiery Uppercut]!¡¯
I showed the technique I made up by punching the air. She giggled after seeing that, then nodded with full confidence.
[You have acquired the skill [Martial Arts Technique: Fiery Uppercut]]
The system told me.
''Hehe, good thing none of them saw tha-''
They all gave me suspicious looks. It seems like they heard that. I let out a sigh.
We saw a skeleton up ahead holding a sword. Ulva gulped then ran at it. She was actually fast, I guess the cor really was limiting her. The skeleton swung it''s de at her, but she easily avoided it, thennded an uppercut to its skull, throwing it off the body.
[The Servant Ulva has defeated an undead]
[The servant Ulva has received 200XP]
[You have acquired 100XP]
[The servant Kawaii has acquired 100XP]
[The servant Aeri has acquired 100XP]
[The servant Aeri has gone up 1 level]
[The servant K has acquired 100XP]
¡®Seriously? That was it?¡¯
"Yes! I did it!"
She yelled, jumping up and down.
¡®You did great Ulva. It''ll get to a point where you''ll create your own original technique.¡¯
I urged her on. And more undead began to show up. Well they were already around, but they were simply in a form of stasis or so. Whatever! That didn¡¯t matter.
She went on to beat them up.
She was easily one shotting the undead and getting us more Experience points. Well, it wasn''t like they were really monstrous opponents. The only thing about them that could be seen as dangerous was probably their numbers and there were only about 50 of them.
¡®That''s it! You can do this!¡¯
I cheered her on, but Aeri tapped me on the shoulder.
¡®What is it?¡¯
"Can''t you see it?"
¡®Can''t I see what- Holy-¡®
[Special Dungeon Mini-Boss has been spawned]
[Dungeon Mini Boss <<Skeletal Giant>>]<novelnext></novelnext>
A massive skeleton with hollow red eyes popped up out of nowhere, clothed in heavy armor covered by rags, with a bronze shield and a scimitar in both arms. It swung its de at Ulva who seemed to be petrified with fear.
I clicked my tongue and jumped her direction.
¡®Ulva! Watch out!¡¯
I pushed her out of the way, but got hit by the scimitar right on the head, instantly getting smashed into the ground. Luckily, my [Centipede Armor] managed to form right in time with my [King Viper Scales] underneath and [Slime Body] to offset some of the shock. But the damage done was still impressive.
[You have lost 550 HP]
¡®Ow! This is like the time with Krull!¡¯
Iined and sat up.
"You ok, little Tori?"
Aeri asked. I rubbed my head while nodding.
¡®Yea, but that thing packs a mean punch.¡¯
¡°I haven¡¯t seen you in your human form in quite some time.¡±
She said, making me grin.
¡®Of course. It¡¯s ufortable having my stamina drained at twice my normal pace, don¡¯t you think? Besides. I want to y around with sword for once.¡¯
My centipede armor¡¯s tail dropped off and I picked it up. A long sharp dark de which would seem way out of proportion for someone my size.
"Hmph. Whatever. I¡¯ll finish this in a sh.¡±
Aeri boldly said, right before charging at it. She began to grow in size, and prepped her arm to throw a punch at the fifteen foot skeleton giant, but it blocked her attack with its shield. As she grew in size, there was a reduction in her speed stat and increase in her strength and defense stat. That made me a bit curious.
K whispered something. It were as if she were performing a chant of sorts. Her body cackled with blue lightning and her hair started to float about her body. She suddenly had a different air about her as she waved her hands and bolts of lightning flew at the skeleton. The giant skeleton was actually quick to notice this and grabbed Aeri by the arms and swung her in front of itself, using her as a shield against the spears.
[The servant Aeri has received 400 Damage]
¡®Ah¡ so much damage from one of her weaker attacks?¡¯
K wasn¡¯t someone I could underestimate. Even if her ranking was below, she was still strong in her own ways.
"Watch it, ogress!"
Aeriined, right before she was mmed into the ground, crushing a few undead. Thanks to that, we all went by one or two levels, and our health points went back up.
¡®K! Lightning doesn''t work on undead!¡¯
I suddenly remembered. The undead only used Aeri as a shield because it was going to arm her and stop blunt attacks froming in. Killing two birds with one stone. It was quite innovative, no? Which meant we needed to y smart here.
"Huh? Then what should I do? I''m only proficient in [Lightning Magic]."
¡®Erhm, gimme a moment.¡¯
I grabbed Ulva by the shoulders.
¡®Ulva. Do you think you can fight the undead around us? Beat them up and get us more experience.¡¯
"Y-yes."
¡®Ulva. Ulva. Rx, ok? I want you to beat up the undead. I want to know if you can confidently do it.¡¯
¡°Mawstewr, I''m ready!¡±
Kawaii told me, having received my orders. I then looked at Ulva''s eyes. They looked sort of determined.
"Yes! I can do it!"
¡®Good¡ Hey K!¡¯
"Yes?"
¡®Watch over Ulva for a bit!¡¯
I flung Ulva for K.
"Biiig siiiisssss!?"
I then turned my focus to the undead giant.
Not wanting to use any of my magic, I lifted my sword up and scanned through my skillset. There were quite a few useful ones in here.
"How about a sword attackbo?"
I asked and she nodded.
"Kaayy!!!"
Both of us ran at the giant undead, whacking skeletons out of the way. I activated my skill [Fire Force] and I could feel a certain surge of heat through my body. A veil of mes same across my shoulders like some sort of scarf. My hair was now aze and my eyes burned.
I could feel it. Theplete boost in all physical and fire rted abilities. I grinned as my sword was set aze with this.
¡®Every great weapon is supposed to have a dope name. So you, my new sword, I shall call you [sher]!¡¯
I began to wave [sher] around, at the skeleton giant. But skeletons had a resistance to sh attacks, so I decided to make it even better with the fire mode. The result should have been monstrous. In fact, it was monstrous. It was just that my enemy was not normal. I managed to destroy its shield, but the undead itself was unharmed. It swung its scimitar at me again but then¡
"[Swirling Petals]!"
Kawaii yelled. She let loose several quick shes at the scimitar,pletely swaying and controlling the direction of the weapon. It was an absurd move where she moved her sword about so quickly, she hit certain points and created shockwaves that would stare the opponent sword in a different direction all together. The giant skeleton¡¯s sword fell out of its hands and Kawaii doubled up with a different attack.
¡°[Irregr Straight]!¡±
Her sword shimmered for a moment as she stabbed at the giant. It was an unbelievable trick where the de seemed to be missing the giant, but howevernded right in his heart. I could have sworn the attack would miss by a margin, but it was dead on. A dirty trick that would cause someone to let their guard down.
BOOM!!!
The impact was so powerful, the giant was forced to stumble back a few steps. However, it quickly recovered and smacked Kawaii away.
¡°HAHA! I haven¡¯t done this in a good while!¡±
Aeri¡¯s voice boomed and shook the whole area. She had gotten back on her feet andnded a punch on the skeleton, right in the skull, and I saw cracks forming.
"That''s it! Go for blunt attacks! Aeri, you''re up!"
"I know! [Battle God Fighting Techniques] are the best for hand to handbat!"
I also used [Size Maniption] and plucked out some of my feathers. That hurt quite a bit, but I didn¡¯t show just for the badass effect. I threw the feathers like blow darts at the skeleton and with each hit, an explosion followed. My [Feather Ignition] skill where my feathers became ticking time bombs.
***
The giant was forced to stumble back again and Aeri continued her assault. She struck it with a jab to the abdomen. An aura based attack that would normally shatter all the bones in one¡¯s body. The attack so swift and deadly it was dubbed [Godly Jab]. However, Aeri was not proficient enough with this skill for it to cause the necessary amount of damage to her opponent here.
The giant grabbed her and kneed her stomach, forcing her to curl over. Using her hair as some form of handle, it flung Aeri away and looked at the others. Its eyes glowed violently as a screen appeared before it.
[Damage threshold achieved.]
[Initiating Violent Defense Mode]
[Goal: Kill All Intruders]
[Threats being identified¡ threats identified.]
[Targets: 1 War Ogress (Cursed). 1 Demi Battle God (Other half is unknown). 1 Angel (Presumed. Not enough concrete evidence). 1 Dhampyr (Artificially Engineered). 1 Slime (Releasing Radiant Energy)[Most Dangerous]
[Assessing summed up threat level]
[Imperial Beast Rank]
[Conclusion: VERY DANGEROUS]
[Limiters have been released]
[Final protocols in case of defeat have been initiated.]
[Thank you for you service!]
<A/N: Hey guys! Been a while since one of these. Anyway, let''s try for 300 power stones this week for 5 extra chapters!>
Chapter 101 Forbidden Dungeon Conquest - Second Floor Pt.II
There was something odd with the giant undead. Its eyes red as a weird dark aura took over its body. Its speed suddenly went up. It charged at Aeri who was on the ground and kicked her face, attempting to knock her out.
¡®Kawaii!¡¯
She jumped straight for the attack. Her sword glowed a bright red as she lifted it up, holding it like it were some javelin pole. Her arm increased in size and with what I assumed was all her might, she threw the de at the giant undead. The attack was so fast the giant had no time to react. The de was stuck in its body,ing out right through the front.
¡®Damn it! I hate to admit it, but swordsmanship isn¡¯t my thing!¡¯
It was toughing to terms with that fact. But it had to be done. I lifted my hands up and charged a huge chunk of my mana to create one huge fireball before.
¡®[Divine Fire Ball]!¡¯
Therge white me was released right at the undead. Unfortunately, there was the problem of Aeri being there with the creature. Fortunately, I was adept at using shadows to have my way with everything so I teleported her behind me as the fire ball made a direct impact on the creature.
Surprisingly enough, this wasn¡¯t enough to make it go down. At this point, its body was set aze as it walked towards us.
¡®Ah! I didn¡¯t call for a giant ghost rider you damned undead!¡¯
When I looked, I noticed something sticking out on the tip of Kawaii¡¯s sword. A crystal orb of sorts.
¡®Lady Hinotori! That orb! It may be the undead¡¯s weakness!¡¯
K¡¯s voice came into my head. It was a bit different from [Telepathy]. In fact, it was more like a radio than anything. That wasn¡¯t really important though.
¡®Will regr magic destroy it?¡¯
¡®I don¡¯t know! B-But brute force will do the trick for sure.¡¯
I looked to my side and saw Aeri still on the ground. I didn¡¯t have time to wait for her to get up now. I seriously underestimated this thing¡¯s capabilities.
¡®Ah whatever. I don¡¯t like this idea, but to hell with it!¡¯
I rose the shadows to bind its limbs. Although the undead was so strong I was struggling to keep it in check and the closer the shadows got to the fire, the harder it was to control them. They got thinner, requiring me to pour in more shadows which wasn¡¯t really easy to do.
¡®If I can¡¯t finish him off with the shadows, I¡¯ll just bind him for a moment.¡¯
With all my strength, I forced the shadows to grab the skeleton¡¯s arms and legs. This took a whooping 200 mana points out of me. And this was with my cheats that allowed me to use shadows and magic with little mana. He was simply that strong.
¡®Everyone, attack it with long range attacks on my signal.¡¯
¡°Huh? W-We don¡¯t have long range attacks!¡±
Aeriined and I looked at Ulva who was shaking and looked on the verge of tears. Kawaii was holding up her shield as she looked at the beast and seemed like she was prepping for something crazy. K just stood there, probably unsure of what to do since lightning didn¡¯t work on undead. I however had a thought after a shback of her skillset came to mind.
¡®Ah, Kara. Since you have an affinity for the Holy element, add that to your lightning. It should work on them, right?¡¯
I suggested to her. She looked at me as if that was something no one was supposed to know.
¡®H-How did you know?¡¯
¡®Just add it to your lightning! Now.¡¯
Shakily, she nodded her head.
¡®I-It will take some time.¡¯
¡®What? Why would it take time? Tch, never mind. I¡¯ll do this myself.¡¯
¡°Bu-¡°
We didn¡¯t really have time for this, so I would simply finish this thing off by myself. I didn¡¯t wait for her. I jumped straight at the beast and used my [Aura Burst] to give me a short boost in all physical starts. I used [Sprint], [Charge], [Throttle] and [Peck], forming what I termed, [Battle Ram]. I shot another [Divine Fire Ball] at the undead as I rammed right into the gem sticking on the outside.
CRACK¡ CRACK¡ BOOM!
There was arge red explosion followed by a dangerous bright red light that sent me flying right into the ground beneath it. I was forced to endure the full brunt force of the explosion while on the ground and my health points ran faster than the sh to save his girlfriend.
¡°Ah! ¡tori!¡±
¡°¡ig¡ sis¡¡±
¡°L¡dy¡ Hi¡ ri.¡±
The sounds of everyone¡¯s cries gradually lessened as time went by. There was a certain pinging sound that came into my ear drums as my vision dimmed. My body was simply too heavy and my brain too exhausted to think.
DING!
[You have defeated the Dungeon Mini Boss <<Skeletal Giant>>]
[Special rewards are being loaded]
[You have received 150,000 XP]
[You have gone up several 8 levels]
[You are now level 47]
[Your racial level has reached its climax]
[Your evolution will begin when you sleep]
[You surpassed your racial level climax]
[Mandatory sleep will being now]
[The servant Kawaii has received 100,000 XP]
[The servant Kawaii has gone up several levels]
[The servant Kawaii is now level 66]<novelnext></novelnext>
[The servant Kawaii has surpassed racial level max]
[Evolution will now begin]
[The servant Ulva has received 10,000 XP]
[The servant Ulva has gone up by 2 levels]
[The servant Ulva is now level 15]
[The servant Aeri has received 100,000 XP]
[The servant Aeri has gone up by several levels]
[The servant Aeri is now level 56]
[The servant Kara has received 9000 XP]
[The servant Kara has gone up by 3 levels]
[The servant Kara is now level 33]
''Huh?''
[Dungeon Conquest Progress: [Ground Floor (Completed by servants)]
[Second Floor (Iplete)]
___________________________________________
Dhijan Nation, Hero Princesses Throne Room
"Sister Neburis! Sister Neburis, did you hear?"
The girl with dark purple hair called out as she looked up at the one who sat on the tallest throne.
"Shut it Rulis, I''m not interested in whatever it is you''ve heard."
The dark haired beauty ordered, not even sparing the girl a nce.
"But sister Neburis! Sister Neburis!"
The girl called out again.
"Younger sister Rulis, Neburis told you to keep quiet."
The blonde gem who sat on the second tallest throne said.
"Sister Jeanne. Sister Jeanne. Did you hear?"
Rulis then directed her attention to the blonde.
"Oh my, Younger sister Rulis, what happened?"
Jeanne asked with a curious smile.
"Did you hear? There was an attack on Dirthaven."
"Oh?"
The blonde was a bit surprised.
"Apparently there was an incident where about a thousand shadow demons appeared in the ugly capital. That fat dumbass fucking pig''s mansion suddenly disappeared."
"A thousand shadow demons?"
"Damn it Rulis, shut up. If the king hears, I''ll have to give up my peace and move out to do something annoyingly boring."
"Ok, ok, big sister Neburis. Whatever you want."
The girl expressionlessly said as she sat back up.
"But to think that Keimen would receive such a blow like this again, after six years ago. That nobleman was the only reason they weren''tpletely wiped out yet."
Jeanne said with a seemingly worried tone.
"I don''t think the other nations will stay quiet after this now."
Neburis cursed under her breath
"Something crazy is about to happen very soon."
"Ah¡ I''m guessing you are talking about the Elder n Meeting. That''s right. It''s happening in a week, isn''t that the case?"
The dark haired beauty got off her throne and began to leave the throne room.
"Sister Neburis, where are you going?"
"I''m bored. I''m going to a dungeon to kill some monsters."
"Make sure toe back for dinner."
"Tch. Shut up. I''ll eat with the monsters I find in the dungeon."
"What? You mean you will eat them right?"
"I already told you to shut up!"
Chapter 102 Forbidden Dungeon Conquest - Second Floor Pt.III
"Hiyo!"
The thirty feet tall Aeri threw the motionless armored skeleton some distance away, then picked up the unconscious bird. Kara, Amethyst and Ulva ran towards the battle god.
"How isdy Hinotori?"
Kara asked, prompting Aeri to bring her down.
"She seems to be breathing."
"That''s good news.¡±
"You guys. Kawaii is also not moving."
They looked at the worried Ulva who held the colourless slime in her arms.
"Hmm, wait. The screen said that they were undergoing an evolution, didn''t it? So then they are fine."
Aeri suggested as she sat down, flexing her arms.
¡®I really do feel stronger. And any bruise I might have gotten ispletely gone. Just what the hell kind of power does the chicken have?¡¯
She nced at the sleeping bird. At this point, being extremely cautious with it would be the most advisable option. Many other thoughts came flooding into her mind and as they came, she found that she really had no say in the matter. For the best possible oue, she needed Hinotori. And she would do anything to stay by her side.
"Big sisters, I don''t think we can rx now."
Ulva said, while looking around her. Several skeletons were rising from the ground anding towards them. Their eyes burning red, almost as if they were angry.
"Don''t worry about the undead. I can handle them."
Aeri confidently said as she smashed two undead beneath her feet.
[Aeri has killed 2 undead]
[Aeri has received 314 experience points]
[Party member Hinotori Hyakkiyako has received 220XP]
[Party member Kawaii has received 220XP]
[Party member Ulva has received 220XP]
[Party member Kara has received 220XP]
"See?"
"Ok, makes sense. Should we head back now?"
Ulva walked towards Aeri and yawned, clearly feeling a bit tired from what they had just done.
"Don''t you remember what happened as we entered this floor?"
The girls tried to think back to what Kara was asking, but they couldn''t remember, which made the ogress let out an exasperated sigh.
"We can''t leave this dungeon until we conquer it. That was said earlier."
"Oh? All we need to do is break down those walls though."
Aeri moved towards one of the walls and breathed in. Her fist glowed with a faint blue aura as she punched the wall with all her might. There was a cracking sound as the whole cave shook slightly, particles falling from the ceiling.
Kara gulped after seeing that, since ording to books she has read, one wouldn¡¯t really be able to do any sort of damage to an actual damage. Causing this light tremor was really nothing short of scary. As one would expect from a Battle God. However, Aeri waspletely silent as she towered above the two.
Ulva was a bit shaken by what had happened and simply wanted to go back to the surface and have fun with Hinotori. Although, that wasn¡¯t what actually made her want to leave. The cave was too enclosed for her liking. Sure, it had a 400m radius, but it kept on closing in on her. Her ustrophobic mind kept going back to the cer in Keimen City. The things her father said to her. The memories that came back. What she had done. What she was. For a moment her hair switched to white, then back to ck. No one noticed this though.
The shaking of the cave may have been a bit misleading. What cracked, was actually Aeri¡¯s fist, proof that it was now broken. Not wanting to cry out like a child, she bit her lip and stumbled backwards.
¡°W-What the hell?¡±
She cursed under her breath and clutched her wrist had, as if that would lessen the pain in anyway.
¡°A-Are you ok?¡±
Kara approached the battle god and asked.
¡°Yeah, yeah. Give me an hour or two for this to heal.¡±
She grunted and took out the band in her hair. She quickly shrunk her body and approached Kara.
¡°Can you tie it up for me?¡±
¡°S-Sure.¡±
Kara took the piece of cloth and noticed that the texture was a bit rough and spongy.
¡°What material is this made out of?¡±
¡°Hmm, it¡¯s made from a creature called the cortuxie.¡±
¡°Ah. You mean the creatures with tentacles that roam the Demise Mountains?¡±
¡°Oh? So you¡¯ve heard of them before?¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
¡°Hahaha! Great. The make good meals once you skin them. We use their unbelievably stretchy skins to make our clothes since we can change our sizes.¡±
¡°Oh? I see. I guess it makes sense since you¡¯ve never ripped your clothes before.¡±
¡°Have you visited the ce before?¡±
¡°M-Me? N-No. Not really. My siblings on the other hand have. My elder sister went there as a final form of her training and final inauguration into my father¡¯s army and so is my brother right now.¡±
¡°Oh? I¡¯ve heard of some war ogres whoe to the mountain in hopes of meeting The Exiled One.¡±
Aeri said as sheughed.
¡°The Exiled One?¡±
¡°Hmm? Yeah. Some idiot who ran off after killing the chief¡¯s wife and stealing several forbidden scrolls.¡±
¡°H-He sounds very dangerous.¡±
¡°Maybe. I don¡¯t know. We haven¡¯t heard of him in like fifteen years or so, so we assume he¡¯s dead. Even if he is a battle god, he can¡¯t survive the Mystic Peaks all by himself. Especially not since the ck Dragon started to move about aggressively.¡±
¡°This ck drag-"
¡°Let¡¯s just go already!¡±
Ulva yelled and the two noticed that she was actually trembling and sweating. There needed to bemunication between the two for them to realise that something wasn¡¯t right with her. If Hinotori was awake, they could have asked her, but since she wasn¡¯t, the best option was to just clear the floor and hope they can leave in one piece.
So they all moved out. Aeri carried Hinotori in her chest since it was the most convenient ce at that moment. This allowed her healthy arm to destroy everything in her path.
[Aeri has killed 30 undead]
[Aeri has received 6340 XP]
[Aeri has gone up 1 level]
***
''And I ended up clearing the entire floor by myself. The only dangerous thing in this dungeon should be the big ones from the looks of things.''
They came to a massive room that was held up by pirs and littered with gold everywhere and all sorts of weapons and scrolls.
"There''s something ominous about this ce."<novelnext></novelnext>
Kara said, looking around.
"What is it?"
"I don''t know yet, but this ce¡ it''s weird."
[Floor 2 Dungeon Boss <<The ck Spectre Krollo>> has spawned]
A notification popped up in front of the party and with it, a pure instinctual fear.
"Aeri! Watch out!"
Kara put up a lightning barrier around Aeri, faster than she had ever done before and how she did it, she didn¡¯t. The <<ck Spectre>> cut right through the lightning barrier with ease, andnded a cut on the battle god''s arm. Her blood spilled out. Luckily she was quick enough to avoid a deep wound.
"Aeri! Are you ok?"
"Yeah! Don''t worry about me. A little surprise attack won¡¯t do anything to me!¡±
Aeri threw a punch, but it passed right through the spectre. The ethereal being then swung its de at her again. Quickly, Aeri shrunk herself to avoid the attack by a hair''s breath.
"[Super Lightning Rain]!"
Kara yelled out and deep blue magic circles opened up behind her, letting out a torrent of lightning bolts at the spectre, each more powerful and bigger than thest. However, the spectre easily avoided and blocked with its scythe that seemed to eat anything up.
"W-What is that thing?!"
Ulva screamed.
"A demon that wears a tattered ck cape. Its eyes burn a furious red in its hollow skull. A scythe that could cut down giants and gods like they were paper. The hooded representative of death itself. The spectre."
The creature''s red eyes burned as it let out a horrid screech that forced the girls to cover their ears. In the midst of their shock, it tried to cut off their heads, but the ck de instead shattered a wall of ice. When they looked up, they all noticed Ulva¡¯s hands up and a faint magical energying from her finger tips.
Kara was quick to realise that Ulva had only done that on ident and hoping for it to happen a second time was probably stupid. She quickly drew an arc in front of her and three blue runes formed in front of her. She muttered a chant in a weirdnguage.
¡°[Lightning st]! [Charge]! [Lightning Storm]!¡±
The three runes before her suddenly cackled with lightning. A very dangerousbination. Using [Charge], a technique that forced for a near endless supply of energy through the process of gathering up residue mana from spells in the area and turning that into power for the user. However, in this case the energy was being sent into the other apanying runes. [Lightning st] as its name suggested was simply a powerful, raw, unrefined st of lightning. And [Lightning storm] was a wild uncontroble storm of lightning bolts, all of which requirerge amounts of magical power. Although the usage of this was simply a theory for Kara. It had been centuries since thest confirmed user of Runic magic lived.
The result was better than she could have possibly imagined. However, what she thought would give them enough breathing space to recover ande up with a n, was of no use. The moment she turned to look at Aeri, she met blood red eyes in a ck skull.
One swiped and she was sent flying into a pir.
''Ah! I need to help! I-I¡ that''s right. I can use that transformation.''
Although she wasn''t sure about it, Ulva activated her [Lamprey Transformation]. Her hair began to turn white and her body grew a bit bigger. Her back hunched up and her nails elongated, bing very sharp and haggard. Her fangs grew longer and her eyes glowed a more violent red. With a very long tongue, Ulva grinned. No. Not Ulva. The monster.
It swiped at the spectre, its ws grating against the ck scythe. The two beings shed and swiped at one another, but they weren''t getting anywhere. No. The spectre was gaining the upper hand. It swiped at her chest, the dhampyrs blood spreading everywhere.
It let out a pained screech, but stretched its hand out to the blood, causing it to freeze up and form iced blood shards. It formed a fist and the shards flew at the spectre like bullets, causing it some damage and making it roar in pain.
Kara noticed that the attack was effective, but she also noticed that if Ulva were to defeat the spectre, its next target would be them. She looked at Aeri who was bleeding from her left hand and then at Amethyst who was still unconscious. Hinotori and Kawaii were still not done evolving, and her spells weren''t fast enough to actually touch the spectre and she doubted they would be fast enough to get to Ulva.
"Aaarrghhh! Damn it all! Sorry Ulva, but we''re going to need you for this."
Kara used [Radio Wave] to enter Ulva''s mind while themprey was still falling.
****
''Ah¡ is this what you''ve been dealing with? Now I see why you didn''t want to use this.''
Kara thought as she approached the duo. Ulva was being taunted by themprey which kept licking her face with its bloody tongue. Once the monster noticed Kara''s presence, it jumped on her before she could react.
¡°Eeekk!¡±
It tried to bite off the ogress'' head, but the grey giant managed to fend it off, although she was slowly being overpowered.
"Ulva! I''ll need a bit of assistance here!"
She looked at the little girl who was still cowering in fear and clicked her tongue.
"Ulva! You have to snap out of it! I can''t help you much in here. This is your own domain! Only you can beat this thing. You have to or Lady Hinotori will die."
Ulva looked up after hearing her sister''s name be mentioned.
"B-big sis will?"
"Yes! Right now, only you can help us. The spectre will kill her otherwise."
"I-I can''t let big sis die here."
She said, she squeezed her eyes, unsure of what to do.
"None of us can, so please wake up!"
"I-I can''t¡ I-"
''Why so gloomy?''
"Huh?"
Ulva looked behind her and saw a young girl about her size with blonde hair and vermillion red eyes. With a fearless grin, she reached her hand out to Ulva.
¡®Why are you being stupid right now?¡¯
"Big sis¡ I can''t-"
¡®You can''t what? Shut up and get up.¡¯
"But-"
¡®I don''t want to hear any buts. Get up and fight that thing so that we can go home. And if you can''t do it alone, I''ll help you.¡¯
Ulva began to tear up.
¡®What? You need something more?¡¯
"No. I''ll finish this quickly so that we can go."
¡®Geez, took you long enough.¡¯
Ulva stood up.
¡®Remember what I told you?¡¯
She nodded, then begun her sprint towards themprey. It turned around and sent its tongue out to try to smack her, but she ducked then got under themprey.
''From the bottom up-''
"-An uppercut that''ll knock the daylights out of em! [Tori Completely Original Technique: Fiery Uppercut]!!!"
The little girl''s fist met the chin of themprey, and a massive wave spread throughout the entire realm. Cracks began to spread throughout themprey''s body and a blinding white light escaped through those tiny crevices, until there was an explosion that destroyed the domain.
¡®Have fun out there.''
Hinotori¡¯s voice was faint as she slowly disappeared.
¡°B-Big Sister!¡±
Ulva called out her name and Hinotori responded with a smile.
"Let''s go for a nice bath after this, ok?"
''No problem.''
Chapter 103 Seiko Sotomura - Lost In The Tombs
¡°I thought you said you knew this ce like the back of your hand!¡±
Jasmine¡¯s voice echoed in the empty tomb. Both she and Seiko sat across each other, a camp fire separating them as Seiko drank water from his can.
¡°Obviously something weird happened.¡±
He said and grabbed a te from his sac. The metal te vibrated, creating a sort of rxing hum. This managed to catch Jasmine¡¯s eye.
¡°And what¡¯s that? You¡¯ve been ying around with it all this time.¡±
¡°It¡¯s a [Teleport Identifier]. It can tell when there¡¯s some sort of spatial distortion in the surrounding.¡±
Jasmine closed the distance between herself and him and gazed at the metal with excitement.
¡°A pdin¡¯s magical tool? That¡¯s so, like, lit!¡±
She said as she tried to snatch it out of Seiko¡¯s grasp. Thetter was faster, managing to easily move it out of the way.
¡°Lit? What does that mean?¡±
¡°Hmm, like, cool, dope, awesome, excellent, badass, fun, amazing, totally lit! You understand?¡±
She said so many words at a time Seiko felt his eardrums were failing him at a point. He simply shook his head and sighed.
¡°Yes. I understand. Now back off.¡±
He kicked her back to create some space between them. It was starting to get really ufortable with their proximity and all. Seiko actually managed to cup a gaze at her cleavage, even if her chest wasn¡¯t something to boast about. Had she no pride?
¡°Ow! What¡¯d ya kick me for?¡±
¡°Shut it. You are starting to annoy me.¡±
¡°Meanie!¡±
She stuck her tongue out.
¡°How are you even a pdin? Are the gods so desperate to fill in the empty seats? Even that brat from who¡¯s never even seen the sky, too hot headed, and a downright buffoon. At this rate you will actually get yourself killed before we make it to the Dhijan Nation.¡±
Seiko closed his eyes and just ranted out. He expected some sort of cute attempt at defense, but instead all he got were sniffs. When he opened his eyes he saw tears snaking down her cheeks. Feeling a tad built guilty, he looked away.
¡°Seriously? Making a girl cry? I¡¯m disappointed.¡±
CLICK!
Seiko¡¯s gun was already pointed at the source of the voice. Jasmine cleared a face almost instantly and readied her des.
¡°I thought I taught you better.¡±
A knock came for behind, forcing Seiko into the ground.
¡®When?!¡¯
¡°Have you already forgotten me, my dear student?¡±
His worse fears hade to pass. He met his teacher out of ss.
Jasmine, unable to process what had just happened simply saw dark eyes merely inches away from her face. The new head was tilted in a curious way, causing the person¡¯s bangs to fall to one side.
¡°Veronica, this one was only pretending to cry. Probably to tease Seiko.¡±
The person stood up straight, the pure overbearing pressure she gave off forced Jasmine to copse on her knees.
¡®W-When?¡¯
¡°T-Teacher! I apologise!¡±
Seiko¡¯s voice came out as a high pitched scream. Jasmine couldn¡¯t believe what had just happened. The ever unfazed, cool Seiko Sotomura was screaming like some kind of wimp, before a woman.
The woman¡¯s features were not properly illuminated due to the dark environment, but Jasmine could make out some features. She had knee-length hair with a sort of braid around her head and a ck ribbon tied to it. She wore a uniform that seemed oddly familiar to Jasmine; A sea blue coat with golden knots over her heart, a white shirt underneath and a sea blue skirt over white trousers, and ck boots. A rapier was strapped to her waist as she offered her gloved hands to Seiko.
The one towering over Jasmine was a woman in light armor. She had wild flowing hair that reached down to her mid-back and a dark purple tiara on it. To her side, were two rapiers, both of curious unorthodox designs that made Jasmine almost forget her earlier fear.
¡°What were you two doing in here?¡±
Veronica asked, her voice was weing and gentle. It almost made Jasmine forget about how monstrous she truly was.
¡°W-We were on our way to the meeting.¡±
¡°Is that so? Why did youe here then? The kingdom is in the opposite direction of this ce, you know?¡±
Seiko took out his map.
¡°We came here to use the Scerendia Teleport Gate, but it wasn¡¯t active when we came here. The trip back would have taken us at least a month if we were going at our fastest pace, so we decided to search for the other Teleport Gates in the tomb. We¡¯ve been here for the past week though.¡±
¡°Seriously? Sometimes even Seiko can be careless?¡±
Veronica said with a giggle, causing the male to blush. Jasmine took notice of this and pouted, of which Veronica took notice and grinned.
¡°W-What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡±
¡°What your teacher means, Seiko, is that there have been suspicious activities happening here for the past few months. Mummies have gotten restless. The sand storms have been way more dangerous than ever before. The teleport gates aren¡¯t functioning and then there is the asional ¡°Seasonal drift¡± as it has been termed, that urs at the end of every month.¡±
The other person responded. She rose her hand and a ck portal opened up before her.
¡°Come on, Neburis. You didn¡¯t have to tell him all of that at a go. He might have a brain freeze or something.¡±
¡°Uwa! That was when I was a kid, damn it!¡±
Neburis looked at all of them. Her gaze was fixed on Jasmine though. Something was off about that girl. Her instincts screamed that there was more about her than meets the eye. Maybe a bit of investigation was needed. That is, if interrogation proved useless.
¡°Like master like student. Veronica is lucky I was exploring the tombs. Or else she would have been in the same situation as you two. Jump into my portal and it¡¯ll take you right to the Dhijan Hero Nation.¡±
¡®I ended up doing something boring in the end~¡¯
_________________________________________
[Racial LvL Climax Achieved]
[Opening Evolution Window]
''Huh? What''s happening, now?''
[The Goddess of Endless Darkness has suggested one more evolution path]
''She did what now?''
[Loading Evolution options]
''Evolution? Ah, that''s right I''m supposed to evolve. Evolution options? I guess I remember the system saying something like that.''
[Evolution Tree]
[High Crimson Demon Roc]
[Ancient Aura Rainbow Bird]
[Sacred Pam Demon Spirit]
[High Shadow Devil Bird]
These choices though¡ how am I supposed to know which is the better choice?
[Loading Evolution Database]
[High Crimson Demon Roc]
[A very powerful fire demon from the demon realm. Very proficient in Fire Based abilities and is very dangerous in a fight]
|PROS|
Possesses High amount of stamina
Very strong and very fast
Insanely high fire affinity
|CONS|
Low Magical Power
Low Mana Pool
''Ah¡ living in a world of magic, being incapable of using magic¡ I know others have adapted to this lifestyle, but it doesn''t sit right with me. There''ll definitely be a moment when I need a lot of magic power. Next!''
[Ancient Aura Rainbow Bird]
[An extinct race that used to roam the world hundreds of years in the past, spreading beautiful rainbows around the world. Their feathers were multi-coloured, each colour representing one of the seven virtues.]
|PROS|<novelnext></novelnext>
High Affinity for exactly seven elements
Highly Loved by Higher Beings
Excellent Aura control
|CONS|
Low Defense, Strength and Health Points
Average Speed
''Ok, this one sounds like a good deal¡ but the physical aspect is not enough to motivate me. And I don''t see further evolutions¡ possibly some sort of phoenix evolution after it? That prospect does have me interested, but let''s check the others out first.''
[Sacred Pam Demon Spirit]
[Also known as the Storm or Chaos Bringer. The Sacred Pam Demon Spirit is an extremely rare creature that roams stormy and icy mountains. A natural predator at the top of its food chain. Legends have it a Sacred Pam Demon Spirit is capable of killing even dragons.]
|PROS|
Physical Attacks are negligible
Insanely High Mana Pool
High Magic Power
Storm Magic and Ice Magic
|CONS|
Physical attributes are null
''This one sounds very powerful and dangerous¡ but it''s already at the top of the food chain. Can I ever evolve from that? Also, what''s with its physical attributes being null!? How the hell am I supposed to do anything then? And there''s the fact that it''s only proficient in Storm Magic and Ice Magic. What about the other forms of magic? Will I suddenly lose the ability to perform all the magics I do? Next form!''
[High Shadow Devil Bird]
[A creature from the Realm of Endless Darkness. It is capable of using its feathers to summon [Lesser Shadow Beings] or possibly [Greater Shadow Demons], depending on its strength. They are one of the dominant species in the Realm of Endless Darkness]
|PROS|
Insanely High Mana pool
Masterful Control over several shadows and shadow beings
|CONS|
Low strength, speed and defense
Weakened under sunlight
''WAIT! Is this because of the Goddess of Endless Darkness'' blessings? Why do I feel like she''s trying to n out my life like mom used to? Hmmm, I see. So far, the one that seems most logical is actually this one, but¡ the problem is I don''t see any further evolution choices after it. And won''t it sort of limit me since I''m not really nocturnal¡ anymore. And why is it so physically weak?
''Well then which one should I pick? I feel like there should be more or something. What do you think, system master?''
[System Master ##### has heard your request]
[A new Evolutionary path has been suggested]
''A new Evolutionary path? Wait¡ are you trying to say that if I hadn''t asked you wouldn''t have checked through to see if there was another form?''
[Arcane Demonic Twilight Fire Bird]
''And she ignore me¡ Anyway this sounds interesting. Let''s see what this can do.''
[Arcane Demonic Twilight Fire Bird]
[First of its kind. A race that not much is known of.]
|PROS|
All stats seem average
Fairly good amounts of mana and stamina
|CONS|
I don¡¯t know. Take it or leave it
''For real? You aren¡¯t even acting like a proper system master at this point! Nothing is known of it? Then how am I supposed to choose this one just like that. Wait¡ let''s go by manga logic here. The new race is usually the most special one and definitely has a lot of evolutions after it, but then again, this could go all wrong and everything would just flip on its head and I''ll be doomed. Hmhmhmhm¡''
[Awaiting user''s selection¡]
''Rx! I''m thinking over this thing! Hmmm. I want both the shadow bird and arcane demonic twilight whatever¡''
======================================
While Hinotori was thinking about what evolution she would prefer, there was an ongoing debate between superior beings that she waspletely unaware off and she could see, she would probably curse them.
"She is going to choose the shadow bird without a doubt."
"What? No way. She will choose the new form I gave her."
"Pfft, she is not stupid enough to take an unknown."
"What makes you say that?"
"Because she is my princess. She obviously has the smarts to know why that''s a bad choice."
"Tch, look at it, she''s picking something. What!? Not that one!"
"T-that''s stupid. Change it!"
"Um, I will change it, but then I will make it my option."
"No¡ Let''se to an agreement. How about we fuse both options, then?"
"Fuse both options? Hmm, interesting idea, but I''m not sure she can- Oh? She can? Woah! When did she? This is... I guess she will also be getting ''that'' then."
"Then the choice has been made!"
¡°Oi, before I do this, I have a question.¡±
¡°Ask away.¡±
¡°How long do you n on staying here?¡±
¡°As long as you continue to monitor my new child¡ pervert.¡±
¡°Ah! WHAT?!¡±
===============================================
[Certain conditions necessary for this action have beenpleted]
''Huh?''
[Choice made¡ Closing Evolution Window]
''W-what!? What do you mean choice made!? I haven''t even picked!''
===============================================
[Evolution has begun]
[Race: Golden Demonic Hen evolves into Race: Arcane Demonic Twilight Shadow Bird]
[Updating humanoid sub form¡ Sessful]
[All processesplete]
[All your stats have been increased]
[You have acquired the skill [Twilight Energy Maniption]]
[You have acquired the skill [Twilight Generation]]
[You have acquired the skill [Basic Twilight Magic]]
[Due to your demonic origins you have acquired the skill [Demonic Twilight Maniption]]
[You have acquired the skill [Demonic Light Maniption]]
[The [Goddess of Endless Darkness, Zatana] has blessed you with the unique skill [Sacred] (Unawakened)]
===============================================
''What now? Huh? What''s happening? Ugh, whatever. We do this tomorrow.''
Chapter 104 Forbidden Dungeon Conquest - Third Floor Pt.I
"Oooohhh!"
Kara sat up, taking inrge sacks of oxygen. She thought she had actually died after the domain exploded.
''I really need toe up with a better spell than [Radio Wave].''
"How are you?"
Ulva said, with her hand extended to the ogress. Kara took her hand with a grin. The girl now looked like how she did originally, only that her hair was ck with stripes of white in a horizontal on her head, and her body had grown a bit taller.
"No problem. You good?"
The girl''s hands were cold. Not very cold, but they were colder than usual. Kara was able to sense the mana flowing to her hands.
"Yep. Thanks for the help. Now I can do something useful."
"Something useful?"
The little girl ran off at the spectre, covering her blood red ws with ice from [Basic Ice Magic].
She unleashed a barrage of attacks on the spectre, so fast she was a blur. Both she and the spectre shed and their attacks sent powerful winds out. The spectre threw her away, but she curved her body in a way that she managed tond on the pir, before jumping back. She bit her palm, letting out droplets of blood.
"[Ulva Original Blood Ice Technique: Iced Blood Ssh]!"
''I can now help you Big Siiiisss!!!!''
The blood droplets were frozen, then rained down on the spectre, not giving it any room for escape.
"Aaaagggghhhh!!!"
The spectre scram in pain, then Ulva grabbed the spectre''s head and smashed it into the ground. She used her other hand to pierce it in the skull,pletely killing it, before she stood back up, breathing heavily.
[Ulva has killed the Floor 2 Dungeon Boss, <<ck Spectre Krollo>>]
[Ulva has received the tile |SPECTRE KILLER|]
[Ulva has received one <<Special Item Box>>]
A spectre puffed up in front of the little girl and was reced by a silver box.
As curious as she was, she opened it up and picked up a scythe. It had an obsidian ck de, with a skull joining it to a shaft made of hard ck bones.
[The Party Member Ulva has received <<Krollo''s Skull Scythe>>]
The skull began to vibrate violently in her hands. She couldn''t hold it down and it ended up stabbing her palm.
"Eeeeaahhh!"
Pain surged through her veins as a ck substance began to eat at her from the arm up.
"Ulva!?"
"Little one!"
They all ran towards the little girl. But when they got there, she just fell on her knees, holding her hand and panting heavily. They noticed that her hand now had a weird ck symbol tattooed on it.
[<<Krollos'' Skull Scythe>> has formed a blood pact with the Party Member Ulva]
[Dungeon Conquest: [Ground Floor/ Floor 1 (Completed by servants)]
[Second Floor (Completed by servants)]
---------------------------------
[Ulva has entered the 3rd Dungeon Floor]
[Aeri has entered the 3rd Dungeon Floor]
[Kara has entered the 3rd Dungeon Floor]
[Kawaii has entered the 3rd Dungeon Floor]
[Hyakkiyako has entered the 3rd Dungeon Floor]
The five looked around the ce. There was basically nothing around. It was just one long dark path.
"Um, so we just proceed?"
Aeri asked.
"Are you sure, that''s a good idea? This ce could be riddled with traps and stuff."
Kara suggested.
"But what else can we do? It''s not like we can go back up right now."
"True, but still¡ Let me activate a magic spell of mine."
"Huh? Why?"
"So that I can see trapsing."
"How?"
"My [Radio Wave] puts up a field of lightning fifteen meters wide around me, which also gives me absolute awareness in this field. Nothing happens without me knowing."
"You have something like that and aren''t using it always, why?"
"I-I can''t use it for long."
"Huh? What was that?"
Aeri brought her ears closer to the ogress.
"I-I can''t use it for long. It drains too much out of me, mentally."
"Eh?"
"And I also won''t be able to move in that state."<novelnext></novelnext>
"You won''t be able to move?"
"Yes, so you will have to carry me. Sorry to be a bother."
"Why can''t you move?"
"It''s just really hard to keep my concentration up and move, alright?"
"Fine, fine. Just create the spell already."
"Give me a moment."
She unwrapped her robes, revealing a light undergarment covering her chest. She breathed in, then spread out her hands. The tomb echoed with her chanting as her hands started to move about in weird arcs. Before long, a rune was formed in front of her. She opened her eyes and grabbed the rune in her left hand.
A blue wave spread on the ogress'' skin, from the hand to the head to the feet. Although invisible to the average eye, a barrier of lightning had encased the trio.
¡®Ok, I¡¯m done.¡¯
Aeri heard a voice in her head. She then picked up the ogress with her free hand.
¡°It¡¯s going to be a pain in the ass fighting while holding you. So if a battlees, I¡¯ll try dropping you off somewhere safe. Other than that, the little kid will be protecting you.¡±
¡®That bodes well with me, but she seems a bit down.¡¯
This made Aeri look at Ulva. She was constantly pacing up and down in tiny steps with Kawaii in her hands. The Battle God shrugged and smiled.
"Hey little one. You''ve been awfully quiet. You want to sit on my shoulder?"
Ulva looked at Kawaii then nodded.
"Then get on."
She easily jumped on to the battle god''s shoulder, and the Halfling marched forward.
The next hour was spent with Aeri running non-stop, avoiding all sorts of projectiles and enemies. If it were anyone else they would have died from pure exhaustion or the numerous lethal traps that came out of the strangest of ces.
"Damn it! I thought you said the spell gave you absolute awareness."
Aeri fell on her knees, covered in weird substances and having poisoned daggers and spears sticking out. Her blood flowed from her open wounds which were slowly healing. She set down all those she carried and let out a heavy sigh.
"S-sorry! There was so much informationing in, I couldn''t process it and I ended up being unable to do anything. The person who created this dungeon anticipated someone who could predict traps."
Kara apologized as she put back her coat, profusely rubbing her hands and bowing.
"Ah, forget about it. That swamp trap almost had me bad. I could have lost a leg."
Aeri grabbed a weird de that was in her leg. It had a chain around its edge and smelled of gasoline. And there was that weird whirring sound it made as it cut into her leg earlier on. To stop it she squeezed her leg muscles to the point the de simple couldn¡¯t move anymore.
"I am so sorry! Please forgive me once again! Eek!"
Kara yelped when the weird de fell right next to her.
¡°Yeah, yeah. Whatever. It¡¯s not like this is the worst thing to have happened to me.¡±
"Um¡ you guys?"
Ulva tried to draw their attention to something, but their loud voices overshadowed hers.
"Then there was that thing with the magic crystals. Those could have just exploded and killed us all."
"S-sorry!"
"Then there the grand ice explosion. I think a shard or two got into my butt."
"S-sorry!"
"Would you two stop fighting already!?"
The two paused their argument and then looked at the dhampyr. It must have taken a lot for her to leave herfort zone and scream at them.
"What is it?"
"Those orbs. What are they?"
Ulva pointed at the far end, where yellow orbs glowed. Aeri and Kara strained their eyes to see the item, and Kara took a step back after realizing what it was, whereas Aeri simply grinned ufortably.
"Ulva, those are not orbs."
[Dungeon Boss <<Mecha Minotaurus>> has spawned]
"W-what are they?"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The whole tunnel began to tremble. A powerful dust wave came from the end of a tunnel, followed by a horrific sound.
"MOOOOOOOO!!!!"
As the orbs drew closer heavy quaking footsteps could be heard, their frequency only increasing by the second.
"It''s a-"
The silver creature jumped out of the darkness andnded right in front of the girls. White steam puffed out of its nostrils, followed by the clinking and nking of gears.
"A minotaur!? Father told me stories about these creatures! Ha! Now I can kill one!"
Aeri grew to her thirty feet tall form and jumped at the minotaur immediately with barely any consideration for her injuries. The bullheaded creature also jumped, its horns whirling around on its mechanical head like drills.
"An automaton?"
Kara immediately recognized it. The creature definitely wasn''t a living being. Just an automaton made to look like a minotaur. The sheer size of the
"These guys are¡ M-madam Aeri! Be careful! It''s not a living thing! It is an automaton!"
"Ha! Leave this to me!"
Aeri then delivered a powerful punch to the Minotaur''s head, but her punch deflected off its head, leaving her in a state of shock, right before the minotaur''s horn pierced her shoulder. And it smashed her into the ground, shaking the entire tomb.
Chapter 105 Forbidden Dungeon Conquest - Third Floor Pt.II
"Aaagh! That actually hurt you stupid monster!"
Sheined. The battle god kicked the minotaur off her body then stumbled as she got up. Her wound from earlier still hadn¡¯t healed up in time. She clicked her tongue, then channeled power into her right fist.
"A-are you ok?"
Kara asked.
"Yeah, but this monster isn''t normal. My techniques bounced off its head like nothing."
? "I-I''m not sure, but maybe it is because of the metal it is made off?"
"What? There is no metal we battle gods cannot destroy."
"Y-yes. Although that is true, it isn''t the same as fighting an automaton."
"Eh?"
"I''ve read up on automatons before. There are various kinds of them, all under different categories and sses. I''ve also read up on this particr minotaur. This is Kaleb Zen''s Mecha Minotaurus."
"So?"
"You don''t get it. Kaleb Zen was an insane alchemist and inventor in his time. He was called the ''Prince of Alchemy''. Famous for many inventions and he ims to have boosted civilization by about two hundred years."
"Tch. Doesn''t mean anything right now, Kara."
"He might also be an otherworlder."
"AH? Ah! AH! Are you absolutely sure?"
"Might have been."
"Same difference."
She said, right before the Minotaur appeared in front of her, bringing down its hand, now fiery axe on the duo. Aeri pushed Kara out of the way then grabbed the handle of the axe with her arm. It turned into a battle of endurance, but the minotaur didn''t y friendly. It opened its mouth and a methrower emerged like a tongue.
"Oh you''ve got to be kidding me!"
It spat out molten magma at the battle god''s face, leaving the giant grunting in pain.
Kara grabbed Ulva then jumped back to avoid the magma.
"Tch. [Lightning Spears]!"
She shot off some bolts of lightning at the minotaur.
"This thing is epic ss. My spells won''t be able to harm it."
"Then what do we do?"
"Only another epic ss or a weapon of a greater ss can actually harm that thing right now and we don''t have that."
Ulva''s tattoo glowed on her arm. For a brief moment, she saw only ck, then she appeared in a world of pure red. She looked around, but all she could see were crucifixes with pitch ck bodies hanging on them upside down. She floated on a sea of ck that rippled with every step she took. Countless bodiesid sprawled all around her.
A ck lump rose up from the sea of ck she stood on, forming a hollow shape in a ck cloth. Fiery red eyes glowed at her and a creepy grin formed.
''Master¡ let¡ me¡ fight¡''
The raspy voice said.
''W-what?''
''I¡ want¡ to¡ kill¡ the¡ minotaur¡ for¡ you¡''
''Eh? Why? Who are you?''
''I¡ am¡ yours¡ now¡ I¡ will¡ help¡ you¡ in¡ everything.''
''Big sis said I should be wary around old men like you. Apparently you are perverts.''
''Ah¡ I¡ am¡ a¡ woman.''
''Really?''
''Y-yes¡''
''Hmm, I guess you¡¯re sort of trustworthy then. Let''s do this!''
The spectre''s face cked for a brief moment, then it shook its head.
''Wait! What''s your name?''
''Name?''
''Yes. A name. Never mind, I''m guessing it''s Krollo?''
''No¡ Krollo¡ was¡ my¡ former¡ master''s¡ name.''
''Eh? So you aren''t Krollo?''
''No.''<novelnext></novelnext>
''Then who did we fight on the second floor?''
''Me¡''
''But¡ you are just a weapon.''
''Soul¡ weapon¡''
''Huh? What is that?''
''A¡ soul¡ weapon¡ is¡-''
''Stop! Big sisters are in trouble. We don''t have time for this.''
''¡ Very¡ well¡ But¡ since¡ I¡ doubt¡ you¡ know¡ how¡ to¡ use¡ me¡ I¡ will¡ take¡ over¡ you¡ this¡ once¡ Are¡ you¡ paying¡ attention¡?''
''Sorry, I was just thinking off a name for you.''
''A¡ name¡? That... is¡ not¡ important¡ rig-''
''Nabe! I''ll call you Nabe!''
***
The scythe vibrated violently in Ulva''s hand and her eyes began to glow red. A scary grin came up on her face as she charged at the mechanic bull. She struck its leg with her de and the scythe produced a horrid screech as it ripped through the mechanical wonder, causing it to fall to its side with a huge thud.
Aeri also fell back on her butt and took in arge breath. Her face had ckened a bit and her arms were bulging red, but other than that and the injuries that had umted from before, she was alright. After coughing a bit, she looked up and was left speechless.
The minotaur stumbled up, bncing itself on one leg. The little girl zoomed past the monster, then ripped open its chest, revealing a sort of generator that was whirling crazy. She was about to stab the core, but the monster fell face forward, protecting it, causing the girl to jump back. It didn''t stop her from attempting to destroy it though.
The bull spat out molten magma at the girl, but she whirled the scythe around, countering the move, then closed in the gap between herself and the mechanized bull. Once in range, she jumped up, with the scythe right above her head, covered in her iced blood.
"L-little one?"
"Ah! That''s not Ulva!"
Kara said, slowly backing down.
''T-that aura¡ it''s just like the spectre from before.''
She saw an apparition of the figure in ck, holding the scythe, right before bringing it down powerfully on the bull''s head, creating a tiny crater beneath its head.
[Ulva has destroyed the <<Mecha Minotaurus>>]
[The servant Ulva has received 40,000XP]
[The servant Ulva has gone up 3 levels]
[The servant Aeri has received 30,000XP]
[The servant Aeri has gone up 2 levels]
[The servant Kara has received 20,000 XP]
[The servant Kara has gone up 1 level]
[The servant Kawaii has received 20,000XP]
[The servant Kawaii has gone up 3 levels]
[An evolution bonus shall be included]
[Hyakkiyako has received 20,000XP]
[Hyakkiyako has gone up 1 levels]
"D-didn''t we kill that thing already!?"
The little girl slumped back, for a brief moment, then copsed on her knees, almost like she had been sleeping. Kara ran to her and shook her softly, while calling out to her.
"Miss Ulva? Miss Ulva? Miss Ulva? Miss-"
"Y-yes?"
She drowsily responded.
"W-what happened?"
"Hmmm... I think Nabe said something about taking over."
"Nabe?"
The little girl rose her palm and showed it to the others.
"Yes... Nabe."
The tattoo glowed a blood red for a brief moment, before Ulva passed out from naming the |Epic ss| weapon. Normally inconceivable for her, but a benefit she had derived from sharing the name of Hyakkiyako and with it, some of Hinotori¡¯s exclusive abilities. This ability though is not given to a majority of her servants. For now, only Ulva and two others had this capability.
Chapter 106 Forbidden Dungeon Conquest - Fourth Floor Pt.I
"L-let''s take a little break."
Aeri suggested, and the others agreed, copsing on the ground. As they were slowly sumbing to sleep from exhaustion, Kara remembered something that put her on alert.
"WAIT!"
"Huh? What is it!? What''s happening!?"
Aeri snapped.
"Where isdy Hinotori!?"
"Huh? Is that why you were screaming? She''s right over ther- HUH!?"
? Aeri responded with an annoyed tone, pointing to a ck case at the wall across them.
"Eh? That is not Lady Hinotori! It is a dark object!"
"B-but. I put the little bird there!"
"Oh, Aeri, you lost Lady Hinotori!?"
"I-I¡"
Ulva''s nose started to act. She kept on sniffing the air and walked towards the case, then touched it. When she looked in it, it was actually crystalline and by just a bit, she managed to see through it.
"I can smell big sis'' blooding from that thing."
She said, then fell over the case sleepily.
"EH!?"
Both of them screamed
"Are you saying that thing is the bird!?"
She nodded to Aeri''s question, while sleepily hugging Kawaii.
"Thank the Goddess of Silver Light. I thought we had lost Lady Hinotori."
Kara smiled at Ulva, then sat down, with her back against the wall. She closed her eyes and finally allowed sleep to overwhelm her. Aeri on the other hand started to think over what Kara said.
¡®The Goddess of Silver Light? The Moon Goddess? So she¡¯s a devout follower, huh? But she doesn¡¯t seem as dangerous as that person. Ah, whatever~¡¯
She closed her eyes, deciding to not bother her brain with something that was irrelevant at the moment. She could think about thister when she was out of the dungeons. And inquiring her here could be dangerous.
|DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS|
[Hinotori went up 9 levels]
[Hinotori evolved]
[Hinotori cleared 3 Dungeon Floors]
[Hinotori has garnered the attention of some Higher Beings]
[Ulva killed the floor boss <<Krollos>>]
[Ulva acquired the [Epic] rank item [Krollos¡¯ Scythe]]
[Ulva killed the floor boss <<Mecha Minotaurus>>]
[Ulva has garnered the attention of a Higher Being]
[K received the name Kara from Hinotori]
[Kawaii evolved]
________________________________
Day 34
"How do those gloves fit, Aeri?"
Kara asked.
"Hmm, they are ok, I guess. They fit just right."
"That''s good to hear. We may need those on the next floor."
"You''re right, but I wonder if they will be really helpful. Also, I can''t keep this size up on a normal you know."
"Yes. Lady Hinotori might find some use for it?"
[Aeri has entered the 4th Floor of the Forbidden Dungeon]
[Kara has entered the 4th Floor of the Forbidden Dungeon]
[Ulva has entered the 4th Floor of the Forbidden Dungeon]
[Kawaii has entered the 4th Floor of the Forbidden Dungeon]
[Hyakkiyako has entered the 4th Floor of the Forbidden Dungeon]
"Oi oi oi, what''s up with this floor? It''s so¡ sticky and ew."
Aeriined as she looked around. The entire floor was quite enclosed aspared to the others, but it had weird green goo sttered all around, making it a bit hard for Aeri to move. The others just sat on her shoulder so they had no real problem.
They reached a point where they saw a green orb as big as Aeri''s fist on the ground.
"Eh? What is that thing?"
"Hmmm, looks like a ball. I feel like I have seen this somewhere before."
Kara said right beforending on the ground. She went to touch the orb and as expected it was stuck to the ground by the green goo.
"This looks so familiar. Why can''t I put my finger on it?"
"Maybe because of how the ce stinks."
Ulva looked at Kawaii. The slime had turned ck once they woke up and had been jiggling a bit, but hadn''t made any sounds. Ulva then noticed something in the slime. The tiny orb that had always been in it, just not easily visible.
"Hey, it looks like Kawaii''s ball."
"Like Kawaii''s ball?"
Aeri asked, curious as to what that meant.
¡°Yeah. Kawaii has this weird ball inside her. Like an orb?¡±
"Wait did you just say Kawaii''s ball!? We need to get out of the goo! Now!"
The ogress screamed, but it was toote. The goo started to move towards the orb quickly. Kara jumped out of the way to avoid getting caught, but Aeri had been standing on it, so it pulled her along, causing her to fall on her butt. Ulva easily jumped off the battle god''s shoulder andnded somewhere safe with Kawaii in arms.
"Big sister Aeri!"<novelnext></novelnext>
Ulva called out.
"Don''t worry about me!"
She yelled right before pping her hands hard, producing a shockwave that sent ripples on the slime''s body. Its hold on her became lose and she used that time to free herself, jumping back.
"I thought that thing would have died with that."
She said.
"This is Kaleb Zen''s Dungeon. I don''t think anything here is supposed to die easily."
Kara said, then spread out her hands. She said a chant as quickly as she could, then released bolts of lightning from her palms.
"[Lightning spears]!"
Kara roared as her blue lightning bolts, hit the green monstrosity, but it simply swallowed the attacks like they were no problem whatsoever.
Ulva was quick to act, using her new found physical abilities to charge at the monster. Her scythe was raised to the sky for a menacing cut. She sliced right through the slime, but her scythe got stuck in it halfway. She grunted as she kept on pulling it out, but the slime got her legs and began to swallow her.
Aeri grabbed her, easily pulling her out along with her scythe, then the girl copsed on the ground, her clothes nearly burnt off.
"None of our attacks are doing anything to it."
She said as she stood up weakly.
"Ulva, could you use your ice magic to freeze it?"
"Sorry but my magic isn''t really that strong yet. Big sis said it would take a while and more grinding?"
"Hmm, I see. Then I think we are actually doomed."
"Not yet!"
A voice yelled.
"Eh? Who said that!?"
The ck slime Ulva had been carrying around with her suddenly jiggled a bit. It was glowing with a bright light as it swirled around, moving crazily, then jumping at the green slime. Surprisingly, it extended till it was as big as the green slime. It turned into a battle of slimes¡ Calling it a battle barely described what actually happened. The ck slimepletely devoured the green slime and the others could only watch in shock and horror at the puke-invoking sight.
"Someone call for a slime?"
The humanoid figure with a ck gtinous skin cover and well-shaped physique asked. She had a dark violet core sticking out of her chest, and her slimy hair strands fell over her body. Her golden eyes looked at everyone and she let out a fang-filled grin.
"K-kawaii?"
"In the slime?"
Ulva ran to her and grabbed her in a hug. Kawaii did the same, although she was now more of a giant than before. She was only a bit shorter than Kara who could also be called big.
"I thought you said nothing here could be killed easily."
Aeri whispered.
"Well¡ can you really consider anything Hinotori collects to be the norm?!"
Kara''s face flushed red with embarrassment, evening up with a stupid excuse.
"A, you missed me?"
Kawaii teased Ulva and lifted her up. The little dhampyr nodded excitedly.
"I wasn''t gone for long, right?"
"You took a day!"
"Is that how long it took to reconstruct my figure?"
"Reconstruct your figure?"
"Oh yeah. I evolved.¡±
"We know."
"Oh cool. Anyway, I''m now a Dark Toxic Slime Princess!"
"A dark what?"
"Since when could slimes evolve?"
Kara asked as she drew in closer and wiped off some goo from her clothes.
"Since the Mawstewr named me! Hey, where is Mawstewr?"
Aeri pointed to a certain ck crystalline case and scratched her cheek.
"That''s Mawstewr?"
"We believe so." (Kara)
"So she is evolving as well?"
"Probably."
"Ouu, I can''t wait to see what she bes"
"Indeed. What do you think?"
Kara asked.
"Kuh, maybe a very powerful fighting monster!"
Aeri suggested.
"No. no. Probably a beautifully rainbow coloured bird."
Ulva said.
"Pfft... She''s obviously going to be something ck like me."
Kawaii said cockily.
"And what makes you think that?"
Aeri asked.
"Well, we did evolve at the same time."
"That makes no sense whatsoever."
"Teehee, you sure?"
Chapter 107 Forbidden Dungeon Conquest - Fourth Floor Pt.II
It didn''t take long for them to reach the next area, but the ce was empty. There was nothing around them. Just a tree root dropping from the dark ceiling. A few glowing orbs floating around and a flowing river, surrounding a tiny Ind with nothing but rocks on it.
"Hmm¡ is there something special about this floor?"
"I don''t really see anything special about it though."
"Euk!"
Aeri yelped. Everyone turned to look at her, a bit surprised. She put her hand to her shoulder and grabbed something.
"Tch! I really hate cowards who can''t face me up front!"
She backhanded the invisible presence and the monster let out a wail with some teeth flying. It then faded into reality, revealing a beast nearly as big as Aeri. It was hiding itself behind its massive bat-like wings.
"Oi! Aren''t you even going to reveal yourself?"
Aeri snarled at the creature. It responded by extending its wings and revealing itself. It was a giant lion with two other heads and a snake head for a tail. Its goat head bleated and its basilisk head hissed. The lion head roared, sending a powerful shockwave that sent chills up the girls'' backs.
[Dungeon Floor 3 boss <<Chimera Guardian>> has spawned]
"Chimera!?"
The monster flew towards the invader it felt was the weakest, Kara. It''s prey instinct telling it to avoid the other creatures at that moment. It zoomed quickly towards the ogress, but Kawaii jumped in the way with the [Demon Long Sword] she had absorbed and used [sh Step] to close the gap between herself and the Chimera. The monster''s snake head tailshed at the slime like a whip, shing with the sword and throwing her into the water. Due to the goat''s prey instinct it knew to be cautious when dealing with the slime. One touch from it and something very bad would happen.
Then it proceeded its charge for the ogress once again. However, the battle goddess stood in wait for the chimera. The beast didn''t fret in the slightest. Instead, it actually increased its speed, creating a powerful boom that gave Ulva trouble maintaining her footing. Still, to a battle god, the wind was just a breeze.
With an excited grin, she punched the lion head right in the cheek, arge crack resounding through the area. The gears on the gloves she wore shifted and turned. Steam blew out of it and a second impact that was twice as powerful as the original punch was sent to the monster''s face, within less than a second, sending it flying backwards. Under normal circumstances, a monster should have died from that, but it managed to bnce itself then pped its wings to get to higher ground. Its regenerative abilities were on apletely different level and it had more than one head capable of thinking. So even with the loss of one, it would barely be affected.
"Um¡ Ok, I love these gloves!"
Aeri roared but just then, the Lion head was returned to its original state and its snake head hissed at her. It spat out a green liquid ¨C poison ¨C at Ulva, but Ulva stretched out her hand out of sheer instinct and her [Basic Ice Magic] activated, freezing the liquid before it could touch her. This allowed her to shatter the poison and jump right through the shards, going for the monster¡¯s neck.
Kawaii threw her de at the chimera, stabbing it in the foot. It let out a pained screech, then fired off a stinky breath of fire at the slime. Kawaii also shot a powerful volley of water using [Water Cannon], by absorbing the river with her lower half and shooting it out of her mouth. Her water had a little spice to it, that being her highly toxic attribute. The monster¡¯s fire though was still powerful enough to cancel hers out, forcing her to avoid the attack. However, she was hit from behind with the snake head tail. The chimera smashed into the ground, and the whole room trembled, pieces of rocks fell from the sky.
¡°Now K!¡±
Aeri screamed. The war ogress had been preparing a spell this entire time, and was finally ready to activate it. Dark clouds gathered above the Chimera, followed by a barrier that surrounded it, trapping it inside a tiny enclosed space.
The chimera¡¯s heads turned about, curious as to what was happening. It tried to prate the barrier but received a great shock that forced it to stay back. The scent of roasting goat filled up the room quickly.
The others slowly gathered up around Kara.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°I don¡¯t know why, but it seems to be targeting you, K.¡±
Aeri said, taking up a defensive stance in front of everyone. The chimera red at them all from the confines of its cage.
¡°It shouldn¡¯t be able to get out of there.¡±
BOOM!
A lightning bolt from the clouds hit the chimera from the top, followed by the ear deafening roar of the chimera¡¯s pained cry. It shook its head after receiving the first bolt. Little did it know, this was the first for this little lightning hell Kara had conjured up.
The second thunder bolt struck it right on its head. Followed by the third, then the fourth. Next the fifth, the sixth, the seventh and more and more lightning bolts struck in increasing rapidity. Booms and cries came out in a horrifyingly organized manner.
After the 50th, the chimera had had enough. Escaping the lightning barrier was the most important thing here. No matter how painful that was, it wouldn¡¯t match up to the pain it felt in the moment. So, it ran through the lightning after covering itself up in scales in an attempt to reduce the amount of damage it was receiving.
¡°Ah! It broke free!¡±
Ulva crouched to ground herself. The release of energy that came with the chimera escaping the lightning barrier was simply too much and even gave Aeri a tiny bit of trouble. She could ignore it though. Kawaii on the other hand found this release to be interesting and started to absorb all of the magical energy that came out, forming something like a huge shield in front of the others.
Once the shockwave died down, Aeri threw a punch at the unaware Chimera; its body was half burnt with some raw flesh sticking out and ck, dried blood all over. She felt her arm stiffening and her movements slowing down, causing her punch tock the amount of power she expected it to have.
"Aeri! Wait! Your arm!"
"Huh?"
She nced at her shoulder and that''s when she realized that her hand had started to turn to stone. She couldn''t move it anymore and the chimera''s ws were right about to sh at it. The kind of force being that sh would have definitely torn the battle god''s arm off.
BOOM!!
A powerful explosion rocked the tomb.
***
''Tch¡ what is this? W-why is it so cramped in here? I''m having a feeling of d¨¦j¨¤ vu right now.''
I squirmed around in the confined space I found myself in.
''Wait! T-This is just like that time when¡ D-don''t tell me! Am I in an egg? N-no way, right? I-I have already passed that stage, haven''t I? I-I can''t go through it again. No! I''m going to get assassinated again!? Noooooo!''
[Congrattions! You have evolved into the Arcane Demonic Twilight Shadow Bird] Sessfully]
Chapter 108 Forbidden Dungeon Conquest - Fourth Floor Pt.III
''Oh ok¡ I just evolved. I''m guessing it means this isn''t one of those time loops. Thank goodness. Hmm, which means I should have no problem if I just break free right now.''
I tried to use my inhumane strength, but my case wasn''t budging, so I used [Feather Ignition] then,
BOOM!!
The shell broke and I was shot out like a rocket. Although, feeling a bit distorted, I spread my wings then pped hard to get some bnce. With [Mana Perception], I checked out my body from a bird''s eye view. Yes, I am still going with that joke!
I had grown a bit bigger now and had some horns growing out of my head. My feathers were now a mix of golden with dark patches and light purple feather tips. There was a tiny orb on my breast area and on my head two vermillion red antennae rested. I would explore my bodyter. At the moment, I was surprised by the sight before me.
The girls were facing some lion-goat-lizard-bat-hybrid.
"A chimera!?"
The beast was about to sh Aeri''s arm, however a ck monster jumped in front of the way then blocked the Chimera''s arm with her sword, pushing the beast back.
"Teehee~ This monster will be no problem for me."
It cockily said then closed the gap between itself and the chimera lord using some sort of skill. The beast didn''t even have time to react, before she activated her other skill.
"[Blood Moon Sword Technique: Blossoming Petals]."
She stabbed at the chimera so fast I saw many after-images and several holes popped up in the monster. It was so fast, yet the way the monster moved was like a lovely dance. I didn''t understand how, but that sword technique kept on increasing in radius and power. Bigger holes formed on the chimera the more it kept on stabbing, until a massive hole formed up on the chimera¡¯s chest.
Then I also saw the others. Ulva, Kara, Aeri and some ck monster in the form of human with an orb in its chest. It looked sort of simr to Maude, which instantly prompted me that she was Kawaii. After an inspection, I realized that Ulva and Kawaii had grown quite a lot.
They all turned to look at me.
¡®Oi! What the hell are you guys doing!? Now isn''t the time to be looking at me!? Fight that thing!¡¯
I ordered as Inded on the ground and activated my [Humanoid Form Transformation]. I remembered something about it being updated and couldn''t wait to see what had been done to it. I was sorely disappointed. I had only grown by two or three inches and my hair now touched my knees, with the tips being a light purple, just like my feathers. Even my boobs hadn''t grown any bigger. May be a centimeter or two. Also, I now had horns growing out of my head as well as an orb in my chest.
''¡. I can''t even check out my own body without feeling like a pedophile!? Tch! Alright! Enough fooling around! Let''s blow that thing to nothing! Aeri, do you think you''ll be able to pin the monster down?¡¯
"Easily."
¡®Great! When it''s done, Kawaii, I''ll need you to cut off its two heads.¡¯
¡°Kaay~!"
"Big sis¡"
¡®Hmm? Hey, when did you get white strands in your hair and did you grow taller? And this new tattoo of yours. Ulva, are you going through your rebellion phase already? Don¡¯t abandon me so soon!¡¯
I questioned her as I explored her body.
"Uh-ugh, big sis. I was saying that I want to help."
¡®Eh? You want to help? How though?¡¯
She showed me the scythe with a skull she held. After taking one look at her, I could tell she had grown a bit. And although she was a bit shaky, her eyes burnt bright with determination.
¡®Hmmm, Ok then. Kawaii, cut off the basilisk head and leave goat head for Ulva. Kara, I need you to¡ electrocute the chimera. From the looks of it, you¡¯ve done quite some damage.¡¯
"Electrocute it? But my spells aren''t fast enough to actually touch them."
¡®Don''t worry, we''ll pin it down for you. I¡¯m trusting you, okay?¡¯
"Y-yes."
She was showing uncertainty which was never good for a n, but luckily I had a backup n this time. Should she fail to do this, I would shoot off a lightning bolt myself. The reason I wanted her to attack was so I would get bonus experience points from her contribution experience points. Simply put, I was going to rack up a lot of experience points right after waking up.
¡®Alright then! Let''s get this show on the road!¡¯
I didn¡¯t know why, but I felt way more confident now. It was like no matter what, I could be certain that nothing wrong would happen. Like I had something powerful backing me up. My thoughts were now clearer and my focus, intensified.
I pped my wings hard to signify the beginning off the n. The chimera threw it''s snake head tail at Aeri once again, most likely aiming to poison her once again. She caught the snake head tail, which then bit her still-healing-wound from earlier. She grit her teeth then flung the chimera down with arge thud.
I covered it with arge mass of my ck threads using [ck Thread Creation]. However, the skill wasn¡¯t really strong so it wouldn¡¯t take long for the creature to break free.
"Ulva! Kawaii!"
"Aye!"
The duo jumped up at the chimera from opposite sides, wielding their weapons like maniacs. Ulva with her skull scythe and Kawaii with the demon sword. Ulva''s skull scythe cut the goat''s head off whereas Kawaii used the demon sword to cut off the basilisk''s head quite smoothly and swiftly.
The two heads fell to the ground, and I let out a grin as I removed sher from my inventory.
Kara shot off some of her [Lightning Spears] at the chimera and the lion head let out a pained roar.
I filled sher with Fire. Randomly, I let out a barrage of shes at the lion head of the chimera, cutting it up. Then I noticed that it was regenerating almost as quickly as I cut it, so I included [Lightning Magic], but although it let out even more pained roars it was still going on, not dying. Its regenerative ability managed to surprise me.
''The hell is with this things durability!? It''s like it''s not even dying. My new abilities are practically useless in this fight given how low-levelled they are. Hmm, should I just incinerate the chimera? It would be easier, but I want to do it in a shy way. I''ve got it!''
"Activate. [Greater Shadow Soldier Summoning]!"
I stretched my hands and a portal gate opened beneath me. From within it, I called ten greater shadow soldiers, then ordered them to attack the chimera with me. They went around shing at it almost as quickly as sher was going until finally, I shot a fire ball at it, then using [Intermediary Shadow Maniption], I summoned tentacles from the chimera''s shadow and grabbed the monster. I called it [Shadow Limb].
Then with a snap, I made the [Greater Shadow Soldiers] and [Shadow Limbs] pierce the chimera. It let out onerge roar just before I brought down an electrified and on fire sher on its head.
[You have killed a Chimera]
[You have received 120,000XP]
[You have gone up 4 levels]
[You are now Level 52]
[The servant Kawaii has received 70,000XP]
[The servant Kawaii has gone up 1 level]
[The servant Kawaii is now level 54]
[The servant Ulva has received 70,000XP]
[The servant Ulva has gone up by 3 levels]
[The servant Ulva is now level 42]<novelnext></novelnext>
[The servant Kara has received 70,000XP]
[The servant Kara has gone up 4 levels]
[The servant Kara is now level 45]
[The servant Aeri has received 70,000XP]
[The servant Aeri has gone up 2 levels]
[The servant Aeris is now level 51]
''Hmmm, not as shy or exciting as I expected it to be.¡¯
"Little bird!"
"Big sis!"
"Lady Hinotori!"
"Mawstewr!"
All of them called out my name, running at me but I put my hand forward, alerting them to halt. Then I looked at the chimera''s body. Something had been bothering since I had been in the case.
¡®Hmmmm, Kawaii, I don''t know about you, but I''m very hungry.¡¯
"I don''t really feel hungry, but if you are eating, I want to eat as well."
¡®Hey! What about you guys?¡¯
"No thanks!"
"All good here!"
"That looks worse than mutant meat."
¡®Suit yourself. Let''s dig in Kawaii.¡¯
My mouth drooled even though I was looking at very disgusting meat. I ended up consuming it faster than I originally expected. It was even worse when I got the skill [Void Stomach] from eating the chimera. I just kept on getting hungrier and hungrier.
[You have received the title: [Chimera yer]]
[You have acquired the title: [Dungeon Brave]]
[You have acquired the skill [Synthesis]]
[You have acquired the skill [Void Stomach]]
[You have acquired the skill [Bat Wings]]
[You have acquired the skill [Snake Tail Head]]
[You have acquired the skill [Multiple Minds]]
[You have acquired the skill [Fire Jaws]]
[You have acquired the skill [Poison Fangs]]
[You have acquired the skill [Lion''s Heads Roar]]
[You have acquired the skill [Chimera''s Deadly w Attack]]
[You have acquired the skill [Chimera''s Enhanced Durability]]
[You have acquired the skill [Chimera''s Enhanced Stealth]]
[You have acquired the skill [Climbing]]
[You have acquired the skill [Predator Instinct]]
[You have acquired the skill [Monstrous Bite]]
[You have acquired the skill [Goat Horns]]
[You have acquired the skill [Prey Instinct]]
[You have acquired the skill [Chimera''s Flexibility]]
[You have acquired the skill [Speed Boost]]
[You have acquired the skill [Seismic Sense]]
[You have acquired the skill [Petrifying Poison]]
[You have acquired the skill [Petrification Resistance]]
[You have acquired the skill [De-petrification Tear]]
[You have acquired the skill [Basilisk''s Enhanced Flexibility]]
[You have acquired the skill [Camouge]]
[You have acquired the skill [Shatter]]
[You have acquired the skill [Basilisk Hard Scales]]
[You have acquired the skill [Chimera''s Enhanced Lung Capacity]]
[You have acquired the skill [Chimera''s Quick Regeneration]]
''Hmmm, these are a lot of skills, I''ve got. I''m kind of scared to look at my status screen now.''
I opened my status screen, then noticed there was something off about my inventory. I opened it and although I should have been really pissed off, but I justughed.
"Hey, would you look at that. I had some proper food in my inventory."
Chapter 109 Forbidden Dungeon Conquest - Fifth Floor Pt.I
[You have received 50 Status points]
[Current unused status points... 450 Status Points]
This may have looked like bad choice, but I shoved 150 points into magic power and 300 into mana. It wouldn¡¯t be bad to major in magic instead of physical stuff like sword techniques or what-not.
I looked at the girls then sat up. We couldn''t spend the entire time doing nothing. It had already been a day since we entered and I wanted to leave and explore Larm. I still hadn''t explored the West and doing so would take some days apparently. I wondered what the others were doing.
[You have received 1x Loot Chest for Killing the <<Chimera Beast>>]
''Oouu, a loot chest? Let''s see.''
I opened it.
[You have received 1x Chimera Hard w]
''Huh? A chimera w? What am I using this for though? I''ll just put this here forter when I find some use for it.''
I shoved it into my item box.
¡®Ok, guys. Let''s go.¡¯
"Already?"
Aeriined.
¡®Of course already! It''s already been an hour since we killed this thing. I think you''ve had enough rest.¡¯
"But my arm feels stiff."
¡®We already cured that! Get off your ass and let''s go!¡¯
The others got ready and we finally decided to head off to the next floor.
[You have entered the Fifth Dungeon Floor]
[This is thest Dungeon Floor]
[Clear this floor to escape this dungeon]
''Last dungeon floor, huh?''
I opened the door and we all entered. The doors shut behind us, leaving us in a dark cold room. With [Sensors] my hair stood on ends. Something felt bad. Horrible in fact.
¡®Let''s go.¡¯
I encouraged and although I didn''t feel safe, we went.
¡¯Holy sh-¡®
Everywhere I looked, undead that were easily twice as big as a normal undead walked, protected by ck heavy armor. Each and every one of them was a death knight. The special summon from earlier.
¡®Each and every single one of them probably has the same stats as the one from before. What the hell? Maybe I should use the [Divine Fireball] to kill them all in an instant.¡¯
I was about to shoot off one ball of fire at one of the undead, but then I decided against it. This lead the knight to begin running at me. Aeri however jumped in the way and punched the monster. She sent it flying with one punch, taking away most of its health, but it still wasn''t enough to kill it. The knight staggered up and approached us once again. The others also charged at us, waving their demon long swords around.
''Ah¡ it actually survived that? I guess they weren''t kidding when they said monsters as strong as kings were here.''
I looked at the monster, staggering towards us.
¡°Why didn¡¯t you attack?¡±
Aeri asked something, but I ignored her.
''This thing is almost as strong as strong as the skeleton giant from the second floor. And there''s about fifty of them. I could easily use [Shadow Limb] or summon shadow demons to finish them off, but¡''
I noticed that the others were rearing to have a go at it.
''In that case maybe I should let them fight while testing out my magic on something else.''
I hade to a conclusion.
¡®Ok, you guys fight the undead.¡¯
"What? You aren''t doing anything?"
¡®No. If I am known for something, it''s my sloth. You guys finish it, I''ll still get a decent amount of experience points.¡¯
Aeri looked at me like she was disgusted by what I said.
[The servant Aeri has lost 10 loyalty points]
''She lost 10? Is it because she is from a battle tribe? She must see my decision as gross, dishonorable or something of that cringe sort. Hmmm, I want to correct this, but that would just be a waste of mana since I want them to level up a bit more and I don''t know what is down there.''
I walked away, leaving them to their fun. They should have been ok with just these guys as opponents. I didn¡¯t know how, but I was suddenly stronger than Aeri, Kara, Kawaii and Ulva. This evolution was truly something else.
''So twilight magic, huh? What can I do with that? I hope it''s not something as stupid as using the power of friendship to defeat the evil forces and making them good princess ponies.''
[The servant Aeri has killed one death knight]
I opened my palm and tried to use the magic. Just a wisp of purple flew off my hand.
''Hmm¡ I guess I should just¡ wait a minute.¡¯
[The servant Ulva has killed 4 Death Knights]
<<Luck>>
''What?''
[The servant Kawaii has killed 10 Death Knights]
''Bad luck? I-I guess that exins a lot. Wait! Doesn''t exin Amethyst.''<novelnext></novelnext>
[The servant Aeri has killed 25 Death Knights]
Let me try out demonic twilight maniption.''
[The servant Ulva has killed 5 Death Knights]
[Demonic Twilight Maniption: A skill that allows the user to use demonic twilight. Costs 10MP per second]
''Ah¡ that didn''t describe shit about it. It''s the same thing as leaving me confused. Useless skill menu.''
[Demonic Light Maniption: A skill that allows the user to use the lights of the demonic realm. Costs 10MP per second]
''Ah¡ real good description. Tch.''
¡®You guys! On a second thought I''ll participa-¡®
[You have received 35,000XP]
[You have gone up by 1 level]
[The servant Aeri has received 150,000XP]
[The servant Aeri has gone up several Levels]
[The servant Aeri is now level 75]
[The servant Aeri will undergo an evolution very soon]
[The servant Ulva has received 45,000XP]
[The servant Ulva has gone up 5 levels]
[The servant Ulva is now level 41]
[The servant Kawaii has received 45,000XP]
[The servant Kawaii has gone up 4 levels]
[The servant Kawaii is now level 58]
[The servant Kara has received 25,000XP]
[The servant Kara has gone up 1 level]
[The servant Kara is now level 49]
They were done. All the undead knights were dead. Apparently it was a breeze for them because of their skills and Aeri''s brute strength. Kawaii took the armor of some of the undead knights and ate them. She said she was nning on using the [Synthesis] skill she got from the chimera to create something hard, and I told her to create two of those. I then ate up the undeads.
[You have acquired 200XP]
[You have acquired the skill [ck Miasma]]
[You have acquired the skill [Sturdy Body]]
[You have acquired the skill [Relentless]]
[ck Miasma: A ck cloud that prevents your natural weakness from having much effect. It will also poison any whoes close to you. Requires 100 Stamina points to create]
''Hmm?''
[Sturdy Body: You won''t get killed in one hit.]
[Relentless: You won''t give up after one try.]
The ground began to shake. I looked up and was surprised to see a throne of ice, with two beings. I could feel one of them ring at me. My attention was directed to the one that sat beneath the throne. It wore sparkling armor, had two skulls and four arms, each holding a different weapon. A sledgehammer, a short sword, a naginata and a halberd.
"You¡"
I cursed the two headed skeleton warrior in golden armor. My nemesis from before. It almost killed me the day Minerva kicked me out. I wouldn''t ever forgive it.
"[ck Fire Ball]!"
I shot out a ck fire ball at the undead, but it simply swiped at my fireball with the spear it held and the ball of fire disappeared without a trace.
"Eh?"
''What just happened? Let me try this.''
"[Ice Magic]."
I tried to freeze it, but it used that very sword to cut right through my ice or made it null. Completely surprised, I decided to take a look at the weapon, before remembering that [Analyst] was currently unavable. Honestly, where was the agent at this time?
''AH! What the hell kind of weapons are those.''
"What''s wrong Hinotori-sama?"
Kawaii asked.
''Well, basically I can''t throw elemental attacks, those would be useless here from what I see.''
"How the hell are we supposed to fight something like that?"
''I don''t know.''
"I can do this."
Ulvamented on the situation, leaving me slightly baffled.
''What do you mean?''
But she was long gone. She charged at the monster and swiped at it with her scythe. The monster managed to react quickly, attacking with its naginata. From there Ulva managed to swing herself with the scythe, using the naginata like a pole and then brought down the scythe once again, but the undead knight simply created a shield of ice above its head using the short sword. With a powerful boom, it used the hammer to send Ulva flying to the side. Shattered ice was sent flying from where Ulva crashed.
Chapter 110 Forbidden Dungeon Conquest - Fifth Floor Pt.II
[The servant Ulva has lost 500HP]
''Ah!''
Kawaii,pletely enraged was covered in a faint red aura and jumped at the death knight as well. The undead tried to swing at her, but she avoided the attack easily and activated [Sword Skill: Blossoming Petals], but was met with a frozen wall. Still, the slime wasted no time in activating her new [Twin Fold Corrosion sh] on it. She just managed to scratch its armor though. The naginata came rushing for her neck quickly. She tried to parry the attack away, but the skeleton dug her into the ground with one strike.
[Kawaii has lost 100HP]
"[Battle God Fighting Technique: Wicked Front]!"
Aeri came in from above, delivering a monstrous punch that shook the entire ice cave. Spider web cracks formed at the site of her attack, but her arm began to shake. I noticed her sweating and struggling, then the gears in her gloves began to rotate and sent a second, more disastrous attack to the skeleton.
Aeri backed up, but the monster was still standing there, seemingly unharmed. It let out a sh from its sword, releasing a powerful wave of ice which she barely avoided. It ended up piercing one of her hands.
[Aeri has lost 20 HP]
[Aeri is bleeding]
[Aeri will lose 10HP per second]
''This is bad. Let''s see! [Lion Head Roar]! ROOOAARR!''
My roar echoed throughout the entire room, but then something stupid happened.
[The party members have been stunned]
''What?''
None of them could move. They were just shaking were they stood.
"D-did I just nerf off my own team? This is getting nowhere. Crap¡ Let me end this quickly then. [Greater Shadow Demon Summoning]!"
I summoned 10 shadow demons and had them attack the skeleton, but it swatted them away like they were flies.
"Tch, [Shadow Limb]!"
The shadows gathered up from the ground and wrapped themselves around the skeleton, preventing it from moving, but it was taking up an unreasonable amount of stamina and mana to keep it in check. I needed to end it quickly.
''[Sprint]!''
I pped my wings hard and flew straight for the monster. From what I had seen, trying [Spearhead] or [Battle ram] wouldn''t have been enough to pierce its armor, so I needed to test out one of my new skills for this. As soon as I got in close, I grabbed its skull in my palms and let out a shout.
"[Shatter]!"
I pressed my hand on the skeleton''s skull and a crack resounded in the tomb. Although not really big, it was something. I had taken away five percent of its Health.
''This will work.''
Just as I was internally celebrating, it broke free of my [Shadow Limb] and reached out for my neck, but then fear of death gripped me hard and my body went to work quickly.
"Shatter! Shatter! Shatter! Fire Magic! Shatter! Water Magic! Shatter! Shatter! Shatter! Shatter! Shatter! Shatter!"
THUD!
[You have killed the dungeon floor five mini boss <<Two Headed ck Knight>>]
[You have received 18,000 XP]
[The skill [Shatter] has evolved into [Destroy]]
I fell back, a tiny sweat drop snaking down my fore head. The skeleton before me only has dust remaining of its skull in the helmet that it wore. I let out a heavy sigh, but then all my instincts went off again. Before I could even react, a powerful kick sent me flying. I mmed into the wall, shattering it behind me, then falling on the ground.
There was a sudden aura burst in the room that hit me like a cold wind. I looked up and saw the other skeleton that was sitting on the throne. It wore a ck robe and had a ck crown on its head. Its hollow eye holes let out an eerie red glow and although slightly hidden, I could see a red orb in its chest.
''Um... Why am I remembering Daddy Bones right now?''
It got off the throne and begunughing like a maniac. Spreading its hand forward, a blue magic circle opened up and blue mist flowed out.
¡®A magic circle? Wait¡ even I don¡¯t have magic circles!¡¯
[The dungeon boss <<Ice Litch>> has opened up the ice field]
[All Ice Magic will have +30 Effect]
''An ice field, huh? Oi! Oi! What the hell!?''
Before I had even realized, there was an ice berg rushing towards me. No, I wasn¡¯t exaggerating the situation. Imagine titanic level shit. It was like the room itself had expanded just to amodate this crazy attack.
I was thinking of what spell I would be able to use to block or destroy the attack, but on pure instinct, as if it were alive, my shadow Limb threw the short sword that the skeleton was using, at me and I caught it perfectly.
¡®Ke, this fits perfectly. Um¡ let¡¯s see whatever happens.¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
I rose the sword up and as if I were one with the sword, I started to get an understanding of it. The sword was vibrating in my hands energetically.
[The <Legendary> rank Weapon [Scorching Winter] is excited to let loose]
[Effect # 1 has been unlocked.]
[You can now cancel out Ice magic]
[Effect #2 has been unlocked.]
[You can activate the Magma powers]
¡®T-This is crazy¡ Activate both effects!¡¯
The sword suddenly spewed out hot, molting magma that shot off like a fountain to the ceiling.
[[Scorching Winter] is hungry! You have lost control of [Scorching Winter]]
¡®What?¡¯
I could hearughter in my head. Something ominous was happening and I didn¡¯t like it. The sword started to move about like it had a will of its own. I tried to control it, but it kept forcing its way with me. My hand was shaking violently and it felt like I wouldn¡¯t be able to swing the sword in the direction I wanted to.
I looked at the iing Ice berg then red at the sword.
¡®Listen here, I don¡¯t have time for you to be acting like some sort of brat! You¡¯re going to do as I say, or if I make it out of this, I¡¯ll personally see to it that you¡¯re destroyed.¡¯
[[Scorching Winter] mocks you]
¡®Want to dare me?¡¯
I wouldn¡¯t even use any skill to try to intimidate this thing. If it didn¡¯t believe that I would search the ends of this world for a way to destroy it for betraying me, it could keepughing. I would use teleportation to move to the opposite with the others and avoid this attack.
[[Scorching Winter] has been silenced]
I clicked my tongue and brought the weapon down on the iceberg. It went out like some kind of python that attempted to swallow its meal. In fact, that was the shape the magma took as it engulfed the attack and even went forward to attack the Ice Litch.
''This sword is pretty insane.''
***
''Am-Am I really going to die like this?''
The litch asked itself as the ice before it was being shattered. It could feel itself slowly being destroyed.
''Was this all I could surmount to? My master created me for the sole purpose of protecting this ce and I failed? Just like that? No! I can''t just let it end here. What can I do? Ah yes, there is that one spell and I still have enough mana. Now! When their guards are down!''
One could suggest that the Litch had acquired a sense of duty, but in actual reality, it wasst minute protocol in case the litch had ever been defeated. Or as the Alchemist Kaleb Zen would have called it, "A Prank".
***
As soon as the ice litch¡¯s barrier broke, cracks formed all on the skeleton. It was doomed to die¡ again. Suddenly it reached out with its hand shot a spell. I figured it was aiming for me, so I avoided it, but when I looked back, I noticed that Kara was standing behind me.
There were probably several ways to handle that situation easily, but I wasn''t thinking. I just flew forward, past the spell and pushing Kara out of the way. I got it by the spell.
"Kara! Watch out!"
Right before I hit the ground, I heard the litch say something right before it fell.
''Hihi, enjoy your new y thing.''
''EH!? Did the litch justugh at me?''
[You have killed thest dungeon boss <<Ice Litch>>]
[You have acquired 30,000XP]
[You have gone up 1 level]
[Your party members have received 22500XP]
[Your party members'' levels have gone up]
¡®Is it just me or were thest bosses too easy? Maybe I got too strong?¡¯
Something didn''t feel right. My armor was suddenly very ufortable and hurt bad when I tried to take a step forward, so I called it back. That''s when I felt a cold breeze down below. I looked down to see something swinging. I realized that I had grown a bit taller and my chest and shoulders were a bit broader and my hips were smaller. There was something swinging down there, which left me a bit surprised.
''M-my Johnson! It''s back! I''m back! You hear that world?! I won¡¯t remain female anymore!''
Chapter 111 Trouble In The South
"Lady Hinotori?"
I turned to Kara. She seemed alright, so I offered my hand to her, then helped her up.
"Ah! Y-you have a-"
"Yes, I have a johnny. Now get up and let''s go."
"S-sorry."
"Before we go though, I''m really hungry right now."
I grabbed the litch and the two-skulled knight''s bones and began eating.
[You have acquired 200XP]
[You have acquired the skill [Ice Magic: Ice Soldiers]]
[You have acquired the skill [Ice Magic: Ice Shards]]
[You have acquired the skill [Ice Magic: Ice Berg]
[You have acquired the skill [Dark Magic: ck Mass]]
[You have acquired the skill [Ice Magic: Ice Field]]
[You have acquired the skill [Soul Orb]]
[You have acquired the skill [Intimidating Aura]]
[You have acquired the skill [Aura Absorption]]
[You have acquired the skill [Unfazed]]
''OI! Where is the gender bender skill!?''
[You havepleted the [Forbidden Dungeon]]
[You have received the title: [Dungeon Conqueror]]
[You have received one loot box]
''A loot box? Let''s see.''
I opened it and took out a tiny orb that glowed a dim golden.
[You have received 1x Mysterious Egg]
''A mysterious egg? Like I need more of these. Le- Oi! Stop that!''
___________________________________________
Somewhere in the South of Larm
A being with grey cracking skin, wyvern wings for arms and wyvern legs and a tail soared above the ground the ruins beneath her. Her chest glowed yellow, pulsing from time to time ¨C her heart. Her horns were curled backwards and her dark eyes overlooked the chaos beneath. It was by pure chance she stumbled upon the ancient city of dragon-born, or so she would like to believe. The god who had given her the sacred she possessed simply led her to it to aid her in her quest of revenge.
The ground tremored as the forces charged on. They cut down whatever lifeform they saw, be it sentient or not. Once they cut it down, a milky mist would swallow up the corpse then spit it out as nothing but an undead.
The person looked up at the moon. It looked beautiful and surreal. It glowed just like the orb she held. She looked into it and a being seemed to scream at it. The [Undead Invoking Soul Orb]. An artefact said to have been lost to the passing sands of time. It was just right in front of her when she woke up. How it was there, she had no idea and how she knew what it was, was an even stranger reason. She had been hearing a voice say something ever since ''that day''.
"With this, I shall have my revenge ck knight. I will make you regret."
The figure then looked at the undead army behind her. Easily numbering in the thousands, a force of untiring monsters stood behind her in wait. Zombies and skeletons from hundreds of fallen monsters. All wearing pierced armor. An army that had bloomed from a small tribe of demi-humans barely numbering in the sixties, to one filled with several undead of different races.
She hissed as her pale broken skin was slowly falling apart. She didn''t have much time. She needed to acquire a powerful enough army quickly. She estimated that she couldst for one more year before her body would crumble into dust.
"¡ If I took in a tyrant I am certain that would be enough to kill him. Which Tyrant? Hmm, Zana of the swamp. I could use her."
A bird flew next to her. It was white puffy. It wasn''t an actual bird. The wyvern beast-man¡ woman recognized it immediately and smirked.
"You hear me Zana? I aming for you so I do implore you to send your pathetic army after me!"
The bird puffed up, leaving the woman to the carnage beneath her.
***
ZANA POV
Zana cocked her head in surprise and blurted out.
"Eh? She wants to add me to her army? That stupid undead wishes toe face me?"<novelnext></novelnext>
What she just witnessed had actually given her chills even if she wouldn¡¯t like to show that.
"Tyrant! What is wrong?"
The copperhead at her side asked.
"It would seem that our local necromancer has dered war against me."
"Against you?"
"Yes. I shall send a few of our strongest copperheads to finish her off."
"That would not be a wise move child."
The lizard man who stood with his arms folded at the far end of the room told her.
"Shut it! You do not get the right to speak to me like that!"
"Listen here, child!¡±
His voice was powerful and boomed. He approached her as his body was slowly being engulfed in a red aura. The [King¡¯s Aura]. He eyes glowed a dim yellow in the darkness.
¡°You want to fight someone who can create undead by sending in living creatures? That makes you even more stupid than that ogre in the east!"
"Do notpare me to him, you stupid lizard!"
"I will do as I wish! And don''t order me around! Tyrants were created to protect the denizens of the forest, not to be their masters! Don''t let this title go to your head! I am not like the old one who allowed you to do as you please because of your title. I know you. I know your weakness."
He looked up just to meet her eyes and she was looking down to meet his. Her silver eyes reflected the light his eyes produced and she grinned, confident in her next words.
"You speak as if you have not been enjoying the benefits of being under me. I wonder how your people would fare without me constantly providing them with water."
"Benefits of being under you? What could the mighty lizard men gain from serving you? Water? Were we not surviving just fine before you and your water came along? Answer me!"
"Ah-"
He was right. The lizard men had benefited in no way ever since she had been crowned a tyrant. Life was the same for them, considering they were one of the feared monsters in the forest. And if they were talking the matter of water, the lizard men already had ns for such situations. They knew how to survive without the water. In fact, that would only serve to make them stronger, allowing for them to adapt to harsh environments better.
"Exactly! Absolutely nothing! So I am warning you right now, oh mighty Tyrant of the South, Terrifying Witch, Zana of the Swamp, the lizard men are not your ves and we do not follow you! If you wish, I will duel you right here and now! Though I doubt you would be a match for me considering how weak you are!"
"Tch¡"
"Exactly, now I shall be on my way."
The king shoved her out of his path and left the room. Zana punched the stone cold war in a rage, but retracted her hand immediately after the cave shook lightly.
''What do I do? Lizardmen won''t listen to me, and the copperheads barely follow my orders. Everyone in the south takes me for a joke because of my skin and that incident. And now that thing ising for my neck because it considers me the weakest of the tyrants. What can I do now?''
"My tyrant."
The copperhead next to her called out.
"What is it?"
"I believe we could seek aid from the West."
"The West? The Mad Witch, huh? But is she on friendly terms with anyone?"
"Not the Mad Witch."
"Then who?"
"From what I hear, there was a monster that challenged Krull and won with the aid of a dragon."
¡®With the aid of a dragon? Hmm, it can¡¯t be Lord Goliath. I haven¡¯t even felt a ripple of his power. He should still be sleeping.¡¯
She quickly thought to herself.
¡°Well, it is not surprising that there is a monster as strong as a tyrant though¡ the giants and cyclops for instance. The battle gods and others in the Demise Mountains should be as strong as kings if not stronger-"
"I don''t know what that creature is, but apparently it killed Krull and revived him."
"But that would mean the creature can use resurrection magic."
This was a shocking revtion. A being capable of resurrection magic? That woulde in handy in their current situation.
''Krull¡ lost? And died? To the west? In that case why don''t I get help from them? If they try to refuse I''ll just use my authority as a tyrant to make theme. Wait¡ they fought Krull though. Maybe they don¡¯t like tyrants? Should I pose as someone in danger and ask for help? Zana you''re so smart!''
Chapter 112 The Elder Clans: The Tiger, The Bear And The Eagle
New Empire, Taira n Mansion
A man with silky blonde hair and a robust physique covered up by loose robes sat on ap, being fanned by women all in night gowns. There were easily over ten women surrounding him, attending to him in some way. Some fed him the grapes he loved more than anything, some were giving him massages all around, others yed harps in perfect harmony, some danced around for his pleasure and one of them just kept on whispering into his ears. However there was one woman who sat at the far end, looking at the man with a bored expression.
The woman¡ teenager wore a very soft linen cloth, and was covered in all sorts of jewelries around her neck and with a tiny tiara on her head.
"Don''t you ever get bored of this, father?"
The silver haired girl asked with a bored re.
"Bored of what?"
He asked right before taking a grape from one of the women.
"Making me sit here and watching you y around with your concubines?"
"Eh? T-this is father-daughter bonding time."
"More like Daughter-watching-father-be-a-male-prostitute time."
"Eeek! K-Kana chan, that isn''t what this is."
"You sure? Cause that that''s what it looks like."
"If I wasn''t, why would I know that your favorite color is ck?"
"Blue."
"Erhm, you first crush was that boy fro-"
"Never had a crush."
"Your best friend is-"
"I don''t have friends."
"Isn''t that bad?"
"Says the one who didn''t let me out of the house till I was thirteen. And that was to go to an academy. For three years, with body guards all around me, scaring off every single person!"
"Protection is important¡ Let''s see, your favorite food is grapes."
"No that''s yours. Look, do you even know my birthday?"
"O-of course I do. I-It''s the same day as mine."
"No, it''s the day after yours. You just make us celebrate it on yours,pletely forgetting about my existence on that day."
"Ugh¡ Kana-chan."
"Hmm, what is it?"
"How old are you?"
"What!? H-how don''t you know this!?"
"S-sorry, it''s just."
"Ugh! You''re the worst."
The doors leading to the room burst open and a man came running through. He was bare chested and wore only a simple loin cloth around his waist. His abrupt appearance caused the music to stop ying and the dancers to stop. Even the father-daughter pair stopped their bickering to look at him.
The dancers cleared the way, paving a path for the man who ran straight towards the huge father, then went down on one knee and bowed.
"n Head! n Head!"
"Hmm? What is it? I''m quite busy at the moment."
The man said as one of his concubines fed him a grape.
"Come on father. You know why he is calling you."
Kana said, thenid back on her cushion.
"Hmm? And why would that be?"
He asked, pretending to be oblivious to the matter at hand.
"Obviously because it is time."
She responded excitedly, jumping off the cushion, with a bright grin. Her bands jungled as shended on the ground.
"Time? For what?"
"This year''s ''Elder ns Meeting''! The one time of the year I don''t have to see your stupid face for a few days!"
"Oh? It''s already that time of year? I don''t feel like going though. Hey! That also hurts my feelings."
He slumped back, then kept on eaten the grapes he was being fed, while flirting with the concubines.
"You don''t really have a choice though."
The girl said.
"Eh? Why not?"
"Because of that woman!"
He let out a sigh.
"True. Ever since that woman became the head, the other ns haven''t been able to do whatever we wished to. I guess I really don''t have a choice."
"Oh? I''ve never seen you being so submissive to a person, father."
"Shut it. It''s only because you haven''t faced her before that you can talk so freely¡ Hey, Kana chan, why don''t youe with me?"
"Eh? Why would I?"
"Because I asked."
"Tch, no."
"Great, so you areing then."
"I said no."
It was toote. He had already decided for her. The giant of a man sat up then faced the smaller man.
"Hey errand boy."
"Y-yes?"<novelnext></novelnext>
The man quivered under the father''s excited electric blue gaze.
"Tell the Emperor''s dogs that, the Taira n of the Five Elder ns shall be attending the meeting! Participants, Akihiko Taira and Kana Taira. I haven''t thought of thest person yet. I might not bring anyone else."
"V-very well sir."
The man ran off immediately.
"You''re the worse, father."
"Don''t worry. You''ll be able to make some friends there, I think."
"Friends?"
"Yes. That woman has a daughter about your age I think."
"Hmm, ok then! But no guards around me."
"Sure thing."
"Hey! What about that guy. The one you''ve been training."
"Eh? Ss?"
"Yea, yea, that guy. Won''t he bing with us?"
"Hmmm, being one of the Heroes, I''m not sure. Maybe."
***
In a dark room, two people sat on a tiny ind underneath a cherry blossom, drinking under the beautiful moonlight.
One was arge man with dark hair and a goatee in a simple yukata and the other was a woman in her night gown, with her turquoise blue hair tied up into a bun. The sounds of theirughter echoed throughout the practically empty room.
"HAHAHAHA!"
"Makes me remember our days in the academy."
"Ha! Those days. I never expected you to be such a drunkard. You used to be so diligent and stuff. Ibuki on the other hand. She was a klutz. I guess we all grew up in some way after the incident."
"Eh? Mori¡ sh-shut upp¡ I¡ I havn''t changed. I-I''m still diligent, you know?"
"You call your current state diligent?"
"What? You want to fight?"
"I wouldn''t dream of it you monster."
The two stopped their conversation as soon as they sensed the presence of another in the room. It was one of the servant boys.
"n Heads! I am simple servant from the Emperor''s house! I am here to inform you that you are invited to the Elder n Meeting! Will you be participating?"
"Huh. It''s that time of the year again? What do you think Yoshi-chan? Shall we go?"
She was fast asleep which made the giantugh.
"Hahahaha! Very well then! I, Mori Minamoto, of the Minamoto n shall attend this event! Let there be powerful warriors! Drinks! Women and the Taira n! I need to see my old friend once again! It''s been way too long."
"The same should be said about the Saito n¡ Hic¡ I Yoshitatsu Saito shall attend this¡ Hic¡ I will¡"
''Oi, oi, if you are going to sleep then sleep. What is this?''
"She will be attending as well."
"Y-Yes sir!"
The man said as he ran away from the area.
"Ah, Yoshitatsu, what am I supposed to do with you?"
The behemoth asked with a smile. He was about to take another cup of wine, when the woman drew a sword out of thin air, then shed a powerful arc towards the darkness. The shockwave shattered his cup and caused the air around him ripple. The killing intent alone was more than enough to kill a normal person, but he was just saddened by the fact that his cup of wine broke.
''My wine¡''
He kept on waiting for a loud boom, but it never came. When he looked in that direction, he saw a young woman approaching them. Then he looked at the drunk.
''Even drunk her senses are sharper than mine?''
The drunk dizzily looked at the approaching figure then hupped. As soon as she identified the stranger, she smiled and started to wave her hand. The young woman had simr features to the drunk one, although she seemed younger.
"Oi, oi! Akari-chan! Y-you''re back-hic already-hic? I thought yo-hic-you''de back tomor-hic-tomorrow."
"Why do you speak as if I don''t know of your drinking tendencies mother?"
The person came over and put their hand over the woman''s forehead and cheek.
"Looks like you''ll need to sleep for a bit."
"Buh-buh, Akariiii-chwaannn, I hic I was having a drink with Mori-chan. Go ahead-hic Mori-chan. Tell him. Hic. Tell him."
Akari looked at Mori then bowed to show respect. The bangs covering one eye fell down.
"Minamoto n Head, please forgive my rudeness, but may I steal my mother for tonight?"
"Oh don''t mind me Akari. Go ahead. I was even getting bored of drinking with her. Don''t tell her I said that tomorrow."
"As you wish. Thank you very much."
"Uh? Mori-chan, don''t do this to me!"
"Still though, it was quite bold of you to walk in on your drunk mother."
The man had already began to ignore her and focused on the younger beauty in front of him.
"Hehe, don''t mind. I''m used to it."
The person said, while picking her up and carrying her on their back.
"Ha! Considering you are able to take care of her like that, why don''t you attend the Elder n Meeting to prevent her from going too crazy?"
She was a bit stunned, but recovered her smile, then started to walk away.
"Hm, thank you for the offer, but that is up to my mother."
"Yes yes, Akari-chan. You are-hicing. You must-hic you muste. Your friends will be there."
"Friends?"
No response came. She was already asleep, so Akari gave up with a gentle smile then walked away towards the head''s sleeping chambers.
Chapter 113 The Elder Clans: The Tortoise And The Dragon
"Sotomura n! You have been invited for the Eld-"
"Shut it, would ya?"
"Eek!"
"Tch. Why are we being asked this!? It''s not like we have a choice. Is she not attending this event?"
"Maybe it''s their way of showing mercy?"
"Hmmm, this emperor of ours¡ so useless."
"So, we are attending then?"
"Yes, yes. Now tell them to shut up and nevere here again. I''m about to revolutionize this world with my ancestors knowledge and my godly foresight!"
"Ye-yes Grand Sage."
***
The little ck dragon shot off a ball of fire at a dummy, burning the strawman.
"How was that, Mr. Sotomura?"
Shiro asked after picking up Karma. She carried the creature by hugging it from the back, considering it had grown bigger than it was a month ago. So much so that she couldn''t even put it on her shoulders anymore.
The big scientist walked over, checking Karma out.
"Karma is growing at a splendid rate."
Sotomura said while jotting down some notes.
"Hmm, I guess you could say that."
She responded ndly then looked around. Then an idea entered her head, making her smile a bit.
"You know, Hinotori chan might have also grown at a splendid rate if she had the chance."
"Ojou chan. You have to understand your mother. She was just doing what she felt was best for you."
"What she felt was best for me? What about you? What do you think is best for me?"
He began to sweat. She really loved it when she got a person flustered.
"Ojou chan, I-"
"Yes Sotomura. What do you think would have been best for her?"
A voice asked. The duo turned around to face the origin of the voice. Red eyes glowed at them from the darkness, slowly approaching them. The figure stopped right before her features could be revealed to the pair.
"n Head."
"Mother."
Both of them bowed to her.
"Mr. Sotomura. You were saying something earlier?"
"O-of course not n head. I was just telling the princess that you were only thinking of her when you did what you did."
The eyes glowed, unnerving the man.
"Humph. I just came to personally inform you that the Elder n Meeting would be happening in a week''s time."
"With all due respect, why didn''t you just send a servant to inform us?"
The teenager asked.
"I just wished toe say hello to my daughter and see how far she hade with her training."
"Well as you can see, she is alright, so there was no need for you toe here."
The girl snapped back.
"True¡ I also came to inform you that you are to attend the Elder ns Meeting with me."
"WHAT!?"
The girl lifted her head in shock.
"No need to shout. I know you may be very excited about it. I know I was about mine the first time I was asked to attend, but don''t you worry. You will be just fine. Make sure to avoid eye contact with the Taira n Head. Akihiko can be a bit of a¡ man whore."
''But, I don''t want to go.''
"Oh look at that. You are trembling with excitement already."
"¡ Yes mother."
"At the meeting you will call me n Head, understood?"
"Yes¡ n Head."
The woman then walked out of the room, fanning herself. Once she was out, Shiro let out an angry yell then kicked the ground.
"Eugh! Why is she sooo uugghhhh! Ah! Euk!"
"Ojou chan, please mind yournguage. She is still your mother."
"Tch, you know what Mr. Sotomura?"
"What?"
"I''m going to run away!"<novelnext></novelnext>
_________________________________________
When we got back I told Minerva about what had happened and I was now currently in my room dealing with an rming problem.
''Eh? What is wrong with you guys? Huh?''
"Lady Hinotori¡"
"Tori-kun."
"Mawstewr?"
They all called out to me simultaneously. After taking a bath with them, they were all acting weirdly and it was creeping me out, but now they had all forced me on to the bed, moaning and stuff.
''I hadn''t realized it earlier, but the looks on their faces. They are just like those of girls in heat from hentai and doujins. Which meant¡ oh no.''
"Ok guys, why don''t we take a break-"
"Sit!"
My body immediately sat down. I couldn''t move my limbs and my body felt like it didn''t even belong to me. This overwhelming will to obey what I was told. I couldn''t resist no matter what. I looked up and saw Minerva''s eyes glowing.
''Crap. She used [Overlord] on me!?''
The girls then pushed me back and climbed on to the bed, removing their clothes anding on to me.
"Oi! W-what are you doing!? S-stop that! Minerva? N-No!"
***
[The servant Aeri has evolved into a [Half Battle Earth Tyrant]]
[A new race born from the Earth Mother of Chaotic Quakes and Battle God. Alert! Kill this race on sight!]
[The servant Aeri has awoken 1% of the [Bloodline of the Earth Mother of Chaotic Quakes]]
''Eh? What happened? W-Why am I here again?''
***
Day 35
Ever since I had reincarnated, I didn''t remember thest time I woke up without a headache or something horribly wrong happening. Which is why I wasn''t surprised when I felt like my head was splitting in two this morning.
¡®Not even eighteen and I¡¯m already getting hangovers.¡¯
I pushed Minerva''s arm off me as I sat up. My vision was a little blurry so I couldn''t really see well, but the room smelt weird. Like a lot of sweat and piss. It was very strange. I knew the smell was from the sheets, but I also knew that I didn''t do it. I looked at Minerva. She was still hidden under the sheets, only her silver hair showing in a messy manner.
''This immature brat¡ did she piss in bed? With me in it? Or was it Ulva?''
I looked at where Ulva was supposed to be sleeping.
''Tch, either way I''ll get Ulva to bathe for now, then I''ll try to convince Minerva to get one too, then the sheets washed.''
I tapped Ulva to wake her up, but she wasn''t waking up.
¡®Wake up, Ulva. It''s time for a bath.¡¯
A groan came out. It didn''t sound like Ulva in the slightest. I was a tiny bit surprised and a whole lot curious, so I drew the nkets. I honestly wish I didn''t.
Sleeping there was a naked Kara. Everything exposed for the world to see. Her hairid sprawled all around her and she was letting out light cute moans.
"Mawstewr, mawstewr. You are awake?"
I felt something climbing onto me from the sheets. I looked underneath them and saw Kawaii climbing up to me. She had a cute smile on her face.
¡°Good morning.¡±
¡®G¡¯mornin¡¯, Kawaii. Where¡¯s Ulva?¡¯
"Don''t you remember?"
¡®Remember what?¡¯
"You know. Last night we were doing something and you said Ulva shouldn''t watch. So I sent her to another room after my turn."
¡®Something?¡¯
"Um, I believe the ogre called it Baby making arts."
''B-baby making arts?''
¡°Yes!¡±
¡®W-what exactly happened here?¡¯
I found myself asking as I looked around.
"Erhm¡ ording to the information I have, I believe the humans call it coption."
¡®Come again?¡¯
Then as if she were some sort of machine, Kawaii proceeded to rattle out different terms for the word.
¡°Coption. The act of sexual procreation between a man and a woman; the man''s p*nis is inserted into the woman''s vagina and excited until orgasm and ejaction ur. Carnal knowledge, coition, coitus, sex act, sexual congress, sexual intercou-.¡±
I needed to stop this before the PG rating was turned up by 10.
''It-It''s Ok! I got it! I got it! I-I lost my virginity¡ and I don''t remember scat of what happened? Wait¡ am I going to be a father? N-no, it''s not possible. I''m just a child in this form. Yeah, children can¡¯t impregnate people, right?¡¯
Chapter 114 Transcendent NEET
I ran away from the room and ended up teleporting into the bee hive. When I got there, I got a nasty reminder why I didn''t like that ce. Stupid spiders threw their mana threads at me. They got blocked by the fire shields I constantly had up, then I stepped in some random acid. It was a horrible experience I didn''t want to go through again. But I had caused enough disturbance in the bee hive to grab the spider''s attention.
"Oi! Chicken! Some of us are very busy most of the time, you know?"
I heard Yokino scream from behind me. I turned around to see her in a different Yukata other than the one she made earlier on. And her hair had started to turn blue, her skin was a bit paler than before. She had tied her hair into one bun and chocked it with¡ an ant leg? Her spider legs looked smaller, but were slumped and she all round looked drained.
''I see you are still as grumpy as ever.¡¯
¡°Grumpy? Me? Never."
I looked at her and she seemed tuckered out. She even had eye bags under all eight eyes.
¡®What have you been doing?¡¯
"Stuff. What about you?"
She handed me a weird fruit. It looked like a peach, but green with a yellow line right through the middle. I took a bite out of it then followed after her. It was kind of sweet.
¡®Nothing.¡¯
"Eh? What did you do?"
She suddenly got up into my face, causing me to flinch.
¡®W-what are you talking about?¡¯
I couldn¡¯t help myself as she sniffed the air about me.
"Oh migosh, you gotid."
For a second she sounded like some excited teenager.
¡®What?¡¯
"Hihi, you are no longer a virgin."
¡®EH?¡¯
"I always thought you''d lose it to me though, out of my pity of course. Figured you never had the balls."
¡®W-why?''
"Ooouu, which one of the girls did you screw around with? The tyrant? She''s been giving off those ''I-want-you-to-myself'' vibe, but you are too dense for that. Hmm, then there''s the vampire loli¡ No, both of you are in your sibling phase and I doubt you would be so disgusting to actually engage in pedophilia. The new members. The pink giant. She seems neutral towards you so I wouldn''t really know. The ogress too, she is too shy to do something like that. Is there someone I''m missing? Hmmm, nope. There''s no way you would have screwed around with the slime¡ right? So in conclusion, which one of these did you lose your virginity to?"
¡®I-I-¡®
She pped her hands together and brought her face an inch away from mine again, her eight eyes staring at mine and her hair falling all over me.
"Did you lose it to all of them!?"
¡®Yokino, what the actual fu-¡®
"Good. Good. Give me the details. The styles. How exactly you did it."
¡®Tch, I hadn''t noticed earlier, but you are a pervert.¡¯
"Why of course, my dear lunch. I used to be the president of the doujin club back in high school."
¡®Weren''t you an assassin?¡¯
"Are you trying to say assassins couldn''t have formal education before turning to a life of crime?"
¡®Fair point. Your school had a doujin club? And you were the president?¡¯
"Well, I was the president of the manga club. The doujin club was more like a private something."
¡®Oh really? How many members?¡¯
"One. Me."
¡®Eh? That reminds me of Akane from back in school. She used to be the president of the manga club, but was a huge pervert on the inside, constantly sending me doujins in my mail.¡¯
"¡ What a weird coincidence."
¡®Yeah.¡¯
"Did you like this Akane?"
¡®No way. She was very annoying, too much of a pervert and a major tease. Every boy''s bane. But she wasn''t always like that. She used to be bright and stuff as a kid but regressed weirdly as we grew up.¡¯
"Maybe it was because of you?"
¡®Huh? No, no. Definitely not. I couldn''t have ever influenced Akane. She was too hard-headed.¡¯
"Who knows? Maybe she could have liked you."
¡®No way. We may have been childhood friends and anime geeks but Akane was still way more popr than I was and smarter than me and stuff. There were tons of boys who kept going after her, but she turned them down saying she wasn''t looking for a rtionship.¡¯
''I even confessed once because I thought she liked me, but she turned me down.''
"Maybe she kept on turning them down because she wanted you to tell her that you liked her, but you were too stupid to realise her feelings for you and kept on chasing after the other girl who wasn''t even thinking about you."
At this moment Yokino sounded pissed off, but she wasn''t showing any form of physical reaction, probably because she was too exhausted and I was boring her with my crap.
¡®¡ Riiiight. Anyhow I just came to check on you. I haven''t seen you ever since we left the city.¡¯
She let out a sigh.
"Oh that''s right. Inu is a really delicate creature so I have to be tending to her a lot. She even just evolved."
¡®She evolved?¡¯
"Yep. Want to see?"
¡®Um, sure.¡¯
When we got there, we saw an ant the size of Yokino''s mother. It had a red exoskeleton with ck stripes around and wings on its back. It was producing eggs while we looked at it, and how I didn''t just puke was probably because of the things I had read before.
"This is your subordinate?"
"Yep. Inu the ant queen. After evolving she became as strong as a king, well at least in terms of magic power. She isn''t strong physically, but is crazy durable. What do you think?"
¡®Hmmm. She¡¯s impressive, I guess. Anyway, didn''t you say you''ve got like some other subordinates?¡¯
"Yes. About 10 of them."
¡®10?¡¯
"Yep. They should be all around Larm by now."
¡®Wow, they travel fast.¡¯
"Not really, considering it took them two months and a half to do so."
¡®Hmm, cool. Anyway, what are you doing right now?¡¯
"Something important, now shoo shoo. Leave me be."
She waved me off like I was some sort of unsightly trash, but I had onest request.
¡®Before I leave can you take my measurements?¡¯
¡°Your measurements? What for?¡±
¡®I want clothes!¡¯
¡°Take this and get out!¡±
She threw a few clothes at me and I just scoffed while teleporting away. When I came to, I was in the store room. I let out a sigh as I rose the clothes she threw at me to my eye view. It was a grey yukata with undergarments. She really was from another world.
¡®I really suck at this teleportation thing without the agent''s help.¡¯
"Oh- He-Hi¡ Hello. G''morning- um¡"
I looked down and found myself sitting on somebody''s chest. It was the kid from earlier. He had dirty brown hair, with ck eyes, a child-like face with some crazy eyebrows.
"O-Wha-Um-Miss- W-"
He kept on waving his hand frantically.
¡®Dude. Rx. Erwin, right?¡¯
"Um, yes Erwin Dolus."
¡®What are you doing here?¡¯
"I-I just came for cleaning supplies?"
¡®Cleaning supplies? Why?¡¯
"I-I was just trying to help out around."
''Hmm, are all the remaining ves like this? Even if they were all cleaning, I figured they would have done it already. Did something happen?¡¯
"Um, someone spilled some food and told me toe clean it up."
¡®Someone? Who?¡¯
"A- um¡"
''He doesn''t want to snitch, huh? I want to ignore this, but I can''t also overlook disrespect amongst subordinates when there''s not even a hierarchy in ce.''<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Tell me who it was.¡¯
I said, using a skill I hadn''t tested out before. [Absolute Command]. It was like [Overlord], but only worked on my subordinates.
"A goblin named Baka."
''¡ T-that idiot. Sorry about that. You look tired, go take a break or something.¡¯
"Ah-buh-"
¡®What? Just go take a break. You look like you''ve been working a lot.¡¯
"Sorry if this sounds out of ce, but, um, you don''t look so good either."
¡®What? What do you mean?¡¯
"You have eye bags and your skin is a bit pale."
¡®You''re very rude, aren''t you?¡¯
"Does it have something to do withst night?"
He ignored my questionpletely, but what he said caught my attention.
¡®Last night?¡¯
"Yes, with all the moaning and screaming and stuff."
¡®Oi. You heard all that?¡¯
"Y-yes."
¡®How loud was it?¡¯
"Um,¡ not very."
¡®How many?¡¯
"W-what?"
¡®How many heard?¡¯
"O-Oh, um all your captains and everyone who was present in the mansion. You were the talk of the house all night and this morning."
''Ah¡ so it''s already that bad, huh? Everyone heard¡ mother, father, I am a slut unlike how you raised me. Maya, forgive this slut for he has cheated on you! Is this what they call true enlightenment?¡¯
"Eh?"
¡®Don''t you see it? Ah yes. You are still stuck in the pitiful domain that is virginity, whereas I have taken a step forward. I have transcended from mere mortality. I am now a man¡ woman? Whatever, I am simply no shut-in virgin NEET anymore. I am a shut-inid NEET now! Hahaha! Everything is so bright and beautiful! You hear me Kazuya? I beat you! I didn''t lose to you and your explosion loli!¡¯
I roared as I ran out of the storeroom, leaving the boy to his means.
***
I decided to go to the dungeons, remembering that I had received the title [Dungeon Master] after defeating the dungeon boss, but on my way there I was caught by the bunny girl Nukeme introduced me to the day before.
"H-Hinotori-sama."
¡®Huh? Why are you calling me that?¡¯
¡°The weak goblin said I should call you that.¡±
I was surprised that she could talk all of a sudden. I found it to be odd, but I realized she might have been brainwashed or something of that sort earlier. So it would seem that barely 3 days was enough for her to recover. Interesting.
¡®Stupid Nukeme. Ah well, what¡¯s up?¡¯
"What''s up?"
''Ah¡ I''m guessing modern daynguage wouldn''t get to her.''
¡®How are you?¡¯
"Oh, I am very fine."
¡®That''s great. Where are youing from?¡¯
"I just finished helping with cleaning the kitchen."
¡®Ah, I never asked, but who cooks, again?¡¯
"The white furred kobold who leaves her fur in the food all the time."
¡®¡ I see. That''s nice to know.¡¯
¡
There was an awkward silence as the girl kept walking right behind me, holding the ends of my yukata like I were her guardian or something.
¡®Say¡ you, why are you following me?¡¯
"Am I not allowed to follow you?"
¡®Erhm, no. You can follow me. I was just curious, is all.¡¯
"OK!"
¡®What¡¯s your name?¡¯
¡°Name?¡±
¡®Ah¡ even beast men don¡¯t get names? But those two I met in the city earlier on. What were their names again? Ugh, whatever. They don¡¯t matter.¡¯
I crouched in front of her and smiled.
¡®I¡¯ll give you a name. Are you ok with that?¡¯
She nodded her head after I asked that question.
''She kind of reminds me of Ulva. What''s she doing right now?''
Having received the go-ahead, I thought up a name for her.
¡®How about¡ Amethyst?¡¯
¡°Amethyst? Why?¡±
¡®Why? Because there¡¯s one on your forehead.¡¯
I pointed to the amethyst sticking out of her forehead and she touched it.
¡°That¡¯s the reason you call me Amethyst? I refuse. I want a different name.¡±
¡®Ah¡ kiddo, you¡¯ve got quite the pair, don¡¯t you?¡¯
¡°Yes, my ears are beautiful, aren¡¯t they? Now give me a name befitting of me.¡±
¡®Ah¡ you¡¯ve got quite the attitude you little brat. Nope. Nothing like Ulva. Ok, gimme a moment¡ Um, how about Arisu?¡¯
¡°Arisu? Why that name?¡±
¡®Cause you¡¯re one hell of a cocky brat?¡¯
¡°Cocky?¡±
She tilted her head, confused by my weird phrases. I actually thought ¡°Cocky:¡± was amon term around here. Maybe because she was still a kid she hadn¡¯t heard of it?
¡®Um, yeah. Brave. There once was a little girl called Arisu who got trapped in and of wonder. Riches and advent-¡®
¡°Riches?¡±
She cut me mid-sentence.
¡®Yes.¡¯
¡°So this name means riches?¡±
¡®Huh? No¡ I think the name means noble or something like that.¡¯
¡°Noble? Like noblemen? Those weaklings have riches, right?¡±
¡®Ah¡ yes. Why do you ask?¡¯
¡°I ept this name. Hurry up and name me.¡±
¡®You¡¯re quite the brat.¡¯
I grabbed her forehead and patted her as I stood up.
¡®Whatever. I name you Arisu.¡¯
DING!
[Will you donate 500MP to name this creature?]
¡®F-F-F-F-F-F-FIVE HUNDRED?!¡¯
I ended up falling on my butt.
Chapter 115 First Familiar
(Ulva''s Perspective)
"Hey Ulva-chan! Aren''t you tired of doing that?"
A bored Kawaii asked as she melted an icicle in her hands.
"What? No way!"
Ulva responded.
"Um, but this is getting boring."
"Really? Sorry, but I wanted to see how much better I could get with my magic. Just look at this. [Ice Magic: Ice Bunny]."
She opened her hands and a tiny crystalline bunny was formed. It jumped off her hand and hopped close to the chair in the room. Once it nibbled on the chair a bit, it exploded, encasing the foot of the chair in ice.
"See? I want to make something cute, but every time I try this they always explode."
"Ne ne, Ulva-chan, don''t you think it''s better to weaponise these guys instead?"
"Weaponise them?"
"Yeah, you know? Like to make it an attack spell or something. Like imagine. [Ice Magic: Ice Bunny]! Then you let out a huge bunny that freezes a bunch of your enemies! Imagine Hinotori-sama in dire straits and you sweep down and do that for her. What do you think would happen? Hinotori-sama would pamper you lots!"
The scenario presented by Kawaii yed out in Ulva''s mind with impressively high imagination, perfectly detailing out every single moment of the scene.
"Big sis would pamper me?"
"Yea, yea! It''ll be nice with a big hug and head pats and stuf-"
"Kawaii!"
Before the slime could finish her sentence, Ulva had grabbed her arms and was waving her about.
"Eh?"
"Help me make this a very powerful attack! Achew!"
"Um, sure. Let''s try another day. Looks like you areing down with a cold."
=================================================
So after a lot of contemtion I ended up naming Arisu. I even managed to make her my servant and was surprised to see her stats. Turns out she was actually the Silver Quartz Fanged Rabbit King who got thrashed by the ck rabbit earlier on. At this point she was the strongest being I had in my arsenal so I was d I managed to add her to my team even if this way waspletely unexpected. And the fact that she was alive was proof of the fact that she defeated He ¨C Oh yeah, that thing is called He - or at least she didn¡¯t die at his hands.
Not wanting to interrogate her on such matters, I decided to go to the dungeons with her. If she attacked me I would simply silence her with [Absolute Command]. We were currently in thest floor.
¡®Hmm, there aren''t any monsters around. I figured they would have respawned by now. Will they take a bit more? Or they aren¡¯t like that.¡¯
I walked over to the thrown and I saw golden armor from the two headed skull warrior yesterday. I took it and added it to my item box.
[Name: Golden Sigma Armor]
[Item Rank: Epic]
[Description: Grants +400 Defense, +250 Speed, +300 Resistance to all elemental attacks and powerful elemental attacks]
¡®Eh? Nice, nice. I can use this. I''ll just keep on using this armor for now.¡¯
I decided to wear the armor then I looked at Arisu. My stats had immediately gone up. The armor had six gems with different colours, probably representing six different elements. Red on the right gauntlet, blue on the left gauntlet, brown on the boots, green on chest, lightning blue and light blue on the breastte.
¡®Hey, Do I look like Gilgamesh?¡¯
She stared at me, making me feel very weird. Obviously she wouldn¡¯t get my question.
¡®Arisu-chan?¡¯
"Hinotori-sama."
¡®Y-Yes?¡¯
"You''re spouting nonsense like an idiot."
¡®Uk¡ we really need to fix your tongue you shitty brat.¡¯
I grabbed her cheeks and pinched hard, although with her defense she didn¡¯t feel anything. It did allow me to see a cute stretched face.
"Really? My parents told me to bepletely honest."
¡®And your parents were right, but sometimes it just turns rude.¡¯
"Really? I see."
''Ah, wait¡ you had parent?¡¯
¡°Hmm, yes. I ate them though.¡±
¡®W-Why?¡¯
¡°They proved useless to me.¡±
¡®A-Ah¡ whatever. Scary~¡¯
"Hello there!"
"Huh!?"
Completely surprised, I turned around to see that a guy wearing a ck overcoat was ring at us. He had short spiky ck hair and wore sses, with fair skin and an Asian like face. He looked to be in his mid-thirties. Did hee from my world? China or something.
"Wee! To the Forbidden Dungeon! Once owned by me! My name is Kaleb Zen ording to the residents of this world."
''Ah¡ an apparition.¡¯
"You may be wondering what now, since you¡¯ve cleared my dungeon.¡±
Well, he was kind of right.
¡°Well, look at the throne. The next master of this dungeon should sit on it.¡±
He pointed at the throne the litch sat on the day before. I jumped on to the seat immediately.
¡°Give it a moment and you should be hearing a voice in your head.¡±
[You have sat on the Dungeon Master¡¯s Throne!]
[Do you wish to be the Master of the Forbidden Dungeon?]
? [YES]/[NO]
¡®Oh? A screen? Nice.¡¯
¡°Tell that voice that you wish to be the dungeon¡¯s new master.¡±
¡®OH? In that case, make me the master!¡¯
[DING!]
[You have opted to be the Dungeon Master]
[You will acquire ess to certain Dungeon features]
[You have received the [Dungeon Manual]]
[You have received the title [Dungeon Master]]
[You have acquired the Unique Skill [Dungeon System]]<novelnext></novelnext>
[You have received 1x [Dungeon Orb]]
[You have received the [Forbidden Dungeon]]
[Bonus features for capturing a C rank dungeon will be given to you]
Screens flooded my vision, exciting me at the prospect of me bing a dungeon master and managing it to my will. I hadn¡¯t read many books on this, neither had I yed lots of games such as these in my previous life, but that didn¡¯t stop me from getting excited. Same way I got excited to explore this ce.
¡°By now you should be seeing a certain screen in front of you. And you should also be wondering why I¡¯m just giving this ce out even after you technically just stole from me.¡±
Kaleb Zen said, making me gulp where I sat. Something didn¡¯t feel right about his phrasing and the dead fish eyes he was giving me behind his sses.
¡°The reason is simple enough. In the next second this ce blows up. I hope you enjoy!"
¡®Wha- Arisu!¡¯
I wrapped myself around her, hoping to be able to protect her from the explosion. Only forgetting that she had a higher defense than myself after I had done that.
BOOM!
¡
''Nothing¡ happened?''
"Hahahaha! You fell for it! Idiot! I wish I could see your face right now! Wait."
I was surprised to see the middle-aged manughing after pulling an immature prank on me.
SNAP!!!
There was a bright sh out of nowhere.
"Ok, now this will be sent to my soul if I''m dead. I¡¯d remember it in my next life now."
¡°Why is this guy so stupid?"
¡®Wish I knew Arisu. I wish I knew.¡¯
"You too, Hinotori-sama. You could have just teleported us away. That is one of your abilities, right?"
¡®Ah, we''ll have to work on your tongue.¡¯
"Yea, yea. Anyway, the reason why I said that is because since you defeated the dungeon boss, the original dungeon core has been destroyed. Which means this dungeon will start to degrade until it ispletely destroyed. You need to inse-¡ dungeon c-¡ the¡ And there you have it. Good luck whoever you are. You just cleared one of the lowest ranked dungeons in the world. I have two more. I''m sure you are tempted by my weapons, right? Especially since your era has probably downgraded in terms of technology. I wonder how Zero feels about that. Anyway get them together and you''ll unlock something good. That''s all the time I have for now. See you in the next dungeon at the Crimson Fields. My second ranked dungeon, the <<Yellow Springs>>. Oh yeah, if you awaken the egg you received post clearing the dungeon, another message wille, that is if you haven¡¯t already seen it."
¡®Ah¡ w-what was that!? Insert the dungeon core where!? Kaleb Zen! You idiot!¡¯
The apparition faded.
I picked the core from my item box. It was just a dim glowing orb. When I touched it, the closer changed to a dark purple. I was amused and came to the conclusion that it was probably due to my aura or something. My signature colour, I was guessing.
¡®Tch¡ if I wake up the egg from before he will alsoe back, right?¡¯
I shove the core back in and took out the mystery egg. It looked like a dazzling crystal, light but rigid.
¡®How do I activate this th-eeaggh!¡¯
Out of nowhere, a powerful surge of energy traveled through my body. I could hear a powerful roar in my head as visions came through. I saw arge terrifying beast soaring over continents. With each breath, an entire continent would be destroyed. A mighty roar caused the to shake. A regr p caused hurricanes. Its very movement was hazardous to the. I couldn¡¯t make out its features well, but this thing was something that could destroy a world if it so much as wished to.
The visions died down and when I came to, I was on my knees, holding up the egg like some kind of servant. Arisu was breathing heavily in the corner as well.
CHIP! CRACK! CRACK!
I could feel movement from the egg.
[The mysterious egg is cracking]
I brought it down to my eye level and looked at it. Cracks were forming on it rapidly till it shattered. First came two little legs, followed by a lizard head, then its entire body. This thing was a lizard with light purple skin and a white under belly. Its spine was riddled with shiny crystals as well.
I tilted my head as I inspected this creature and it mimicked me.
[The Twilight Smander is requesting a Soul Bond with you]
[Will you ept?]
? [YES]/[NO]
Feeling a bit exasperated I looked at the question awkwardly for a bit before remembering the incident earlier with Shiro. I gulped.
¡®I-Is there no other way?¡¯
[The Twilight Smander is requesting a Soul Bond with you]
[Will you ept?]
? [YES]/[NO]
The same screen reappeared before me. I sighed and face palmed. Quickly, I took a nce at Arisu from the corner of my eye. She was still shaking in the corner of the room and I felt a bit surprised by the development. I hadn¡¯t expected her to be this shaken. Maybe her animal instincts? In fact, I should have been terrified, but this thing was simply too adorable for me to be scared of it.
¡®Hmm, can¡¯t I put this on hold?¡¯
*SQUEAK*
The creature opened its mouth and let out a cute squeak. I found myself liking it by the second.
DING!
[The Twilight Smander is proposing another option]
[The Twilight Smander wishes to form a Familiar Contract with you]
[Will you ept?]
? [YES]/[NO]
¡®F-Familiar contract? That sounds kind of interesting. I wish the agent was here to exin though, but since it¡¯s different from the soul bond, it should probably be less harmful, right? And if this is ording to the books, then having a familiar would give me no issues. I guess I ept then.¡¯
DING!
[You have epted the terms of the contract]
[Familiar Contract is being formed!]
¡®T-Terms of the contract?¡¯
[Do you wish to see the terms of the contract?]
¡®Why are you now showing me this!? Lemme see!¡¯
[#1 You are the master in the rtionship]
[#2 Being your first familiar, the Twilight Smander is assured the highest position no matter how many familiar you acquire]
[#3 Once the Twilight Smander achieves the same level of power as you or higher, you two will be put in a mandatory Soul Bond]
[#4 You are to give the Twilight Smander special benefits for being your first familiar]
[#5 You are to name the Twilight Smander]
[#6 The Twilight Smander will follow all your orders without question]
[Congrattions! You have acquired your first Familiar!]
¡®A-Ah!¡¯
Chapter 116 Dungeon System
¡°HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, dear lord. Funniest shit ever. When the sudden realization that given a month or two this little bastard will be strong enough to raze a vige with ease and be your master in a Soul Bond hits you, it¡¯ll definitely be priceless. I bet I¡¯mughing my ass off in my current life, you retard.¡±
I was really not liking this guy. If I met him, we¡¯d have a little chat about pranking people.
¡°Anyway, I managed to acquire this egg to protect Larm in case Goliath failed to do so. So, you, the one who has acquired it, quite literally hold the strongest war potential in the history of this world. A beast that would definitely cause nations to stay in check. You should have seen the images now. Visions of its mother and what she did to this world just when the residents were beginning to grow. I believe she may have set civilization back by over a millennium or so, but Ick any evidence of this yet. Anyway, I hope you treat it well and whatever you do, just make sure you don¡¯t get killed so easily. It would be a disgrace to me if the person who cleared my private dungeon was killed within two months.¡±
¡®KALEB ZEEENNN!!!!!¡¯
After a while of screaming, I calmed down. I looked at the lizard for a while and realized that I need to be stronger than it within two months. I simply couldn¡¯t allow it to create a soul bond, which meant I somehow needed to be at least as strong as what I had been seeing in the vision.
Later on, I named it Amethyst for 1000MP. It literally stole the biggest chunk of mana that I might have ever needed to use to name someone. Arisu was the one to give Amethyst her name, even though she herself was still a bit shaken.
Oh yes, Amethyst was female. She had been talking in my head ever since the bond was formed and she really couldn¡¯t shut up. She kept scrolling through my memories and bothering me to show her lots of stuff. I didn¡¯t like the idea of a shitty brat looking at my secrets, but it wasn¡¯t like I could kill her at any point in time.
After a while of contemting, I ignored it all and decided to focus my attention at the dungeon core.
I looked around myself, wondering where to put the dungeon core. I tried waving it in the air, I tried the ground, the walls, and then I just sat back. There didn''t seem like there was any ce in the floor I could put it at. Then I looked at the throne. It had a certain hole, which drew me towards it.
''Could it be there¡?''
I then ced it in the hole. It was a perfect fit and the core glowed a bit brighter. A screen appeared in front of me, different from how the normal system screen looked.
|DUNGEON CORE INSERTED¡ INAUGRATING NEW DUNGEON CORE|
|DUNGEON CORE INAUGRATION¡ SUCCESSFUL|
''OK¡''
|CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE NOW THE NEW OFFICIAL DUNGEON MASTER OF THE FORBIDDEN DUNGEON|
|WELCOME DUNGEON MASTER HYAKKIYAKO|
|YOU HAVE RECEIVED 200DP|
|YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE TITLE: [DUNGEON MASTER]|
''Dungeon system, huh? Let me see.''
|OPENING DUNGEON SYSTEM¡|
|DUNGEON STATS|
Dungeon Name: Forbidden Dungeon
Dungeon Rank: C
Dungeon Master: Hyakkiyako
Dungeon Level: 5 Experience Points: 0/40,000
Dungeon Poption: 0/300 Mana Crystals: 0/20 Mana Crystal Production Rate: 1%
Dungeon Attribute: -
|DUNGEON MASTER STATS|
|DUNGEON SHOP|
|SUMMONS|
¡®Huh? Interesting, let¡¯s see.¡¯
I looked at the system with glee.
¡®Come Arisu,e sit here.¡¯
She came and sat on myps.
¡®Can you see it?¡¯
I decided to ask her.
¡°The weird symbols?¡±
¡®Can you read?¡¯
¡°No.¡±
¡®Ah¡ then I guess I should call it out for you?¡¯
She nodded. I just wanted to confirm if she could see the system screen. Her being able to meant that she was loyal enough, which was sort of surprising but also put my heart at ease.
¡®Ok, we¡¯ve got the dungeon¡¯s stats first.¡¯
[Dungeon Name: Forbidden Dungeon
[Dungeon Rank: C
[Dungeon Master: Hyakkiyako
[Dungeon Level: 5 Experience Points: 0/40,000
[Dungeon Poption: 0/300 Mana Crystals: 0/20 Mana Crystal Production Rate: 1%
[Dungeon Attribute: -
¡®He wasn¡¯t kidding when he said one of the lowest ranked dungeon in the world, huh? Let me see the dungeon master stats.¡¯
[Dungeon Master Name: Hyakkiyago Hinotori
[Dungeon Master Level: 0
[Experience Points: 0/50000|
[Wallet: 200DP|
[Reputation: 0 points (Non-Existent)
[Titles: -
[Skills: [Dungeon Travel], [Dungeon Control]
¡®Hmm, I see. I have only two dungeon master skills and it seems my level isn¡¯t a reflection of the dungeon¡¯s level.¡¯
|DUNGEON SHOP|
#MONSTERS
*LESSER UNDEAD (E) x50 - |200DP|
*UNDEAD KNIGHTS (D-) x60 - |500DP|
*SLIMES (F) x50 - |100DP|
*DUNGEON FLOOR MINI-BOSS (D+) x5 - |700DP|<novelnext></novelnext>
*DUNGEON FLOOR BOSS (C-) x4 - |1500DP|
*DUNGEON BOSS (C) x1 - |3000DP|
#DUNGEON MASTER SKILLS
|LOCKED||PLEASE INCREASE YOUR DUNGEON MASTER LEVEL|
#DUNGEON SPECIFIC TRAITS
|LOCKED||PLEASE INCREASE YOUR DUNGEON LEVEL| (Dungeon Level 10 Requirement)
#DUNGEON SKILLS
*DOUBLE EXP GAIN||5000DP|
*QUICK DUNGEON REGENERATION||4500DP|
*MAGIC CRYSTAL PRODUCTION||6000DP|
#ITEMS
*SKULL DOLL x10 - |300DP|
*BLACK FLOWER X10 - |500DP|
*BLACK SUN x1 - |4000DP|
#DUNGEON GACHA
*SUMMON 1 RANDOM F-D RANK DUNGEON MOBS - |10GP|
*SUMMON 1 RANDOM F-C RANK DUNGEON MOBS - |50GP|
*SUMMON 1 RANDOM F-B RANK DUNGEON MOBS - |100GP|
¡®Hmm, I want to summon one dungeon mob, but 200 dungeon points is basically worthless. Let¡¯s see, just as an experiment, why not summon the 50 undead.¡¯
¡°Mob?¡±
It would appear I was thinking out loud, quite literally. Ha! I still had the power of puns.
¡®Yeah, like monsters that appear in dungeons, but have no real conscience.¡¯
¡°I see.¡±
I summoned the 50 lesser undead for 200 DP and they appeared in front of me. They just stared at me,pletely motionless. Skeletons wielding a rusty sword and wearing pierced armor. They didn¡¯t look any different from what I had seen before.
[Congrattions! You havepleted the task: Summon your first Dungeon Mob!]
[You have received 200 experience points]
[Your dungeon has received 2 experience points]
|You have received 10DP|
[You have received 1 GP]
[Congrattions! You havepleted the task: Summon 30 Lesser Undead]
[You have received 3000 experience points]
[Your dungeon has received 100 experience points]
[You have received 200DP]
[You have received 10GP]
¡®Ah, I gained XP? So did the dungeon! Also, what tasks?¡¯
As soon as I asked that question, a screen popped up in front of me.
|DUNGEON TASKS|
# Summon your first dungeon mob |200XP||10DP||1GP|(COMPLETED)
# Summon 30 Lesser Undead||3000XP||200DP||10GP|(COMPLETED)
# Summon 10 Undead Knights||2000XP||200DP||10GP| (0/10)
# GAMBLER! Use the Gacha Function once||100XP||500DP||20GP| (0/1)
# DUNGEON MANAGEMENT! Part I! INCREASE YOUR DUNGEON BY 1 LEVEL||5000XP||1000DP||100GP| (0/1)
# DUNGEON MANAGEMENT! Part II! INCREASE YOUR DUNGEON BY 5 LEVELS||25000XP||5000DP||300GP| (0/5)
# Bring In 1000 Monsters into The Dungeon||5000XP||3000DP|
# Lure and Kill creatures||2000XP per human||1500DP per human||200GP per human|
¡®Oi, oi, thest quest. Why does it have one of the most alluring rewards? It¡¯s like the dungeon craves for human blood.¡¯
¡°Hinotori-sama, why aren¡¯t the undead moving?¡±
I hadn¡¯t realized earlier, but it waspletely still. Kind of unnerving to be honest.
[Dungeon mobs cannot attack the Dungeon Master]
¡®I see, so since I am the dungeon master it won¡¯t attack, but what about Arisu?¡¯
¡°Hmm? I should move?¡±
¡®Yeah, for a few seconds. Just stand over there.¡¯
I pointed to a few feet in front of me and she stood there. The skeleton charged at her, waving its rusty sword about, bones rattling in the hollow space. I expected Arisu to jump out of the way, but the little bunny just stood there, the deing for her head.
¡®Stop!¡¯
I ordered and the skeleton¡¯s de paused right above her head. The undead was fixed in ce like some weird skeleton statue.
¡®I have absolutemand over them, huh? New discovery! Arisu,e over here.¡¯
I called her and she sat back on myps.
¡®Ok, now let¡¯s see. The store is offering me the mobs as a package deal, but can I get them individually?¡¯
I tried to get 1 slime, since they seemed to be the least expensive. One slime costed 2DP. A green slime formed up next to the undead. Curious enough, I summoned 4 more, costing me 8 dungeon points. I was amused by the development.
After that I was about to use the GPs I had acquired to attempt to the Gacha function. I used it on the random summon and got one red slime. I wanted to pluck out my hair especially considering the fact that it probably wouldn¡¯t be easy for me to get GPs.
I decided to take a look at my Summons tab. There I saw all the creatures I had summoned. Note, only the creatures I summoned were present. All the monsters I fought had disappeared. My dungeon would have to start out with 30 undead and 6 slimes.
Chapter 117 A Call From The South
That evening, dinner was weird.
¡°Umm, big sis.¡±
Ulva tapped me as I ate my meat. I awkwardly looked at her from the corner of my eye.
¡®What is it?¡¯
¡°What was that thing you did with the other big sistersst night that you said I couldn¡¯t watch?¡±
¡°PFFTT! Cough, cough¡ N-nothing.¡±
I looked at the others. Kara was being bashful in her seat, avoiding any sort of eye contact with me. Minerva and Kawaii on the other hand were eating their food like nothing had happened.
Sometimes I wished I had their ignorance for such situations. There was no use beating myself over this. I just needed to man up and hear what happened. It was my first night after all.
¡®Umm¡ Ulva, what did you see?¡¯
She came into my ears then began whispering of my¡ deeds at night.
¡°Oh my¡¡±
I looked to Kara and eventually mouthed the words
¡°I-I¡¯m sorry.¡±
She just looked away. Ulva whispered to me about Kara and Minerva. I was horrified to find out it was more like they were raping me. I red at both of them and they waved their hands with cute smiles.
I let out a sigh and Aeri patted my shoulder. She had juste from her room and I was shocked. She had gotten a bit bigger than before. Her skin now had a tinge of red in it and her arms and legs were now like lizard legs with yellowish ws. A tail grew out of her back, dragging along the ground. Her hair had grown a bit more and she had a little horn growing up from the center of her fore head. She let out a yawn as she came towards us.
¡®Aeri, you evolved.¡¯
¡°Yep.¡±
¡®You got way bigger.¡¯
¡°Yea. Now I¡¯m starving. I feel like I could eat all the food in the store room.¡±
¡®I feel you. Ever since killing the chimera my stomach just keeps on begging for more.¡¯
¡°I¡¯m going to get my food.¡±
I waved her off as she went for her food that was being served by some of the rat men. I remembered what the system said about her race. I was supposed to kill her, but I couldn¡¯t bring myself to do it. I felt like the system master was just making a joke.
¡®Kaleb Zen¡ I will have my revenge! Youpletely destroyed the unstoppable Dungeon Raid Team in one move. You truly are a legend.¡¯
As I was thinking about my major loss, I noticed something odd. Fog was seething into the room at an abnormally quick pace. The others in the dining hall got restless and kept waving at it. It was a bit dark, almost like smoke.
Thinking of it as some random incident, I tried to use wind magic to clear it up, but the fog was so thick it was as if my wind were hitting a block wall. Confused, I asked Minerva if was a normal incident but she simply red at the fog.
She clicked her tongue and looked away, pretending as if that wasn¡¯t even there in the first ce.
¡®Minerva!¡¯
I called to her again, but she squeezed her face and pretended not to hear me. I wondered why that was.
¡°I seek the one that defeated the War Monger!¡±
A voice echoed in the room. The lights were cut out and a cold breeze blew in the room. I gulped, having realized I was the one the voice was searching for.
Slowly, the fog swirled around, till it formed a giant mass of headspeting with one another. It was a disgustingbination that would fit right into a horror novel. Not wanting to say anything, I decided to do what Minerva was doing. I closed my eyes and continued to eat my food. If I didn¡¯t see it, it didn¡¯t exist.
¡°Who defeated the War Monger! Speak now!¡±
My horned rabbit stew tasted quite good. The cooked meat was soft, easy to chew and the spices add to it made it quite the treat.
¡°Speak Now!¡±
The stew itself was excellent. I could have confused it for soup due to its elusive moistness. I tried it without the meat itself and I was considerably impressed. Compliments to the chef.
¡°From what I¡¯ve heard, I believe Hinotori-sama was the one to do that, no?¡±
I must have been dreaming. For a second I thought I head Arisu saying something. I grabbed my ss of white wine.
Yes, white wine. For some weird reason, the grapes in this world were white and when crushed they produced a ck substance which would go through some weird processes and be made into wine that was as ck as onyx. However, due to the nt ites from it has been dubbed White wine.
¡°You dare ignore me?!¡±
A sip from the wine made me feel like some fatzy bastard. That was an absolutely fantastic feeling!
¡°Shall Iy waste to your home?¡±
I could hear sounds of swords being drawn from sheaths. That was a bit odd. Why would swords be drawn during a casual dinner.
¡®Tori-kun¡ Speak.¡¯
DANGER!
Minerva¡¯s internal voice resonated in my head. When I looked up, I saw her face contorted in disgust, anger. Most of all, she looked like someone running away from something annoying!
¡®N-No-¡®
DEATH!<novelnext></novelnext>
She sent killing intent to me and I found my body shaking as I slowly raised my hands feeling a bit embarrassed.
¡°I-I-I-I¡ b-beat¡ Krull.¡±
The fog heads settled on me finally.
¡°You have received a summons of utmost importance! Come to the South! Immediately!¡±
They ordered me, getting a bit on my nerves. I was scared of Minerva, but I honestly couldn¡¯t be scared by this neer. And from the looks of things, Minerva was simply shirking off her responsibilities on me again. I felt like I was being used!
¡°Erhm¡ how about a no?¡±
My speech had gotten a whole lot better over the few days.
¡°WHAT!? WHY!?¡±
It acted out surprisingly immaturely. For a warning, this thing wasn¡¯t really scary. In fact, it sounded like some kind of pampered child.
¡°First of all, who are you?¡±
I quickly regretted that question.
¡°Weakling! Bow for this is an order from the Naga Tyrant!¡±
¡°W-what?¡±
¡°Tis, I! Zana of the Swamp! I order you to-¡±
¡®Eugh, another one of them.¡¯
I red at Minerva and she was still giving me a scary re like this was my problem. I wished to reprimand her, but that would have to wait for a bit.
¡®I never wanted to get involved in their crappy affairs again.¡¯
¡°Yeeeaaaaa, no. Bye. Thanks for considering me though!¡±
I could decline the offer, right? Minerva was technically my backer and she had Goliath¡¯s backing, so in a technicality I did not need to do what this person was asking.
¡°If thine does not heed my call I shalle to thine home with my entire army. Trust me, it will not be a motley crew like Krull¡¯s.¡±
¡®K-Krull¡¯s was just a motley crew? What the heck!?¡¯
¡°You have been warned! Arrive at my domain quickly or else I shall destroy you! Come along with your army.¡±
¡®Bring my army? If she wants to see me, why would I need to send an entire army? Is she nning on doing something weird? Like destroying my non-existent army? But wait, why would she? Then again I did sort of disgrace her fellow Tyrant. Maybe she wants to make an example of me? In that case I can¡¯te with everyone. But then, if it¡¯s actually an attempt to destroy me and my forces, it¡¯d be stupid to go alone¡ Maybe I could use shadow summoning. But then, if her forces number in the ten thousands, I¡¯ll be dead either way. At most I¡¯ll be able to run away. Ok then, I¡¯ll go alone, but I¡¯ll need a guide. This is going to be a pain.¡¯
I picked up my rabbit and swallowed the meat angrily. Minerva smirked once the fog faded away and she was left to eat her meat in peace. I shot a light ray in her eye and she held it in pain.
¡®That¡¯s what you get for putting me in a death sentence! For the second time in a row!¡¯
She crouched and held her eye, still wincing.
¡°About the message? You would need a guide.¡±
Someone magically popped up to my side. Looking there, I saw Arisu. Still a bit terrified of her, I decided to disapprove.
¡®Huh? Um, don¡¯t worry about it. I¡¯ll just be going with Sylvie.¡¯
¡°WHAT!?¡±
The pixie screamed from the other side of the room, but I ignored her for Ulva who was tugging at my feather.
¡®Um¡ Ulva too. She seems to have grown a bit.¡¯
¡®Hey, what about me, Amethyst?¡¯
The lizard asked, sticking her head from inside my coat. Wanting to keep her a secret from the others, I shoved her head back into the dress.
¡®Obviously you areing as well. I can¡¯t have you evolving when I¡¯m gone for a few days.¡¯
¡®Hmm, we¡¯re going on a road trip then? When do we leave?¡¯
¡®I¡¯m not sure. When do you think?¡¯
¡®Tomorrow! I want to go tomorrow!¡¯
¡®Ok then. Sylvie!¡¯
¡°W-what is it?¡±
¡®Kuku, not so hyper now, are we?¡¯
¡°¡ No, actually I¡¯m sort of excited.¡±
¡®What?¡¯
¡°I¡¯ve always wanted to travel out of the west. Let¡¯s go!¡±
¡°Tch.¡±
¡®I wanted to get back at her for making me fight Kuro that time, but I only provided her with more pleasure. Tch, damned sadistic pixie.¡¯
Chapter 118 To The South
Day 36
¡®Sylvie, you ready?¡¯
"Of course! Let''s go!"
¡®Road trip! Road trip!¡¯
The bratty Amethyst shouted in my head. I just looked at her and sighed.
"Ahem!"
"Eh?"
I turned back and I saw a tall rat that was skinny with shadowy fur and demon-like red eyes.
¡®Rat dude?¡¯
"Lady Hinotori. I am d that you could tell what I looked like, but I am also angry that you didn''t look for me all this while."
''Oi! That''s a very questionable attitude right there. Don''t act like you''re my girlfriend! Do you wannae with us?¡¯
"Sadly, I can''t. We are still digging tunnels in the forest in an attempt to have ess to all parts in the forest. We should have a smooth way to the south. Would you want to use that?"
¡®Naa, I want to explore instead. Although the sun sort of hurts now.''
I thought to myself as I rested on the Shiroi¡¯s back. For some weird reason, ever since my time in the dungeon the sunlight actually made me weaker. It was quite a pain in the ass having 50% of my stats nullified during the daytime. And for convenience, Shiroi would be traveling with me to the South. She left the wolves in the charge of one of her close aides. Apparently her brother refused to do the deed on her behalf.
''Master, let''s go!''
She told me. Shiroi was normally reserved so seeing her this hyper about something was quite refreshing.
¡®What¡¯s with the rush? We''re waiting for Ulva. She can''t walk in the sun like we do, so she''s taking something from Grimm to help her.''
¡®Sorry.¡¯
She stopped pacing up and down with me on her fluffy fur.
"Sorry I''mte!"
The familiar high pitched voice came ringing out.
¡®Finally. You know I don''t like taking so much ti ¨C Um, Ulva?¡¯
"Yes?"
¡®Where did you get that dress from?¡¯
Ulva was clothed in a ck vest over a white long sleeved shirt, with brown leather tights for pants and ck boots. Her hair was tied into a pony tail and her face was hidden by the mask I see Grimm always wearing. A ck mask with no holes and just a single blood red ruby on the fore head, but with no eye holes. I failed to understand she could see, but turns out it was just a form of vision magic.
"I found it in my roomst night. Kawaii said it might have been one of Maude''s clothes from when she was my age."
¡®I see. I guess that exins that.¡¯
"Hey boss! Is there somewhere I can find tons of moko fruit?"
Walking behind Ulva, was Grimm ck. He was clothed in a ck leather jacket with pants and boots, all under a cloak. He pulled down the hood from his head, revealing his face. His gunmetal silver hair glistened in the early morning sun, and his skin seemed to glitter in the sun from all the sweat covering it. He had a sneer on his face which made him look like a delinquent especially with his viinous blood red eyes.
¡®Moko fruit? What''s that?¡¯
"Um, it''s a fruit I like... or should I say need to eat since it''s practically the same as drinking blood?"
¡®Same as drinking blood, huh?¡¯
"Yeah. I have a phobia of blood and other vampiric species, so I eat moko fruits to satiate my hunger. And when I''m hungry I have that blood ruby over there to feed me, but since I''ve given it to the kid, I''ll need moko fruit. And lots of it."
¡®And you don''t know where you used to get these from?¡¯
"Maude just used to provide those for me back in Dirthaven. I¡¯d heard they grow in Larm."
¡®So, they were in her store room?¡¯
"Probably."
If they were in her store room, I probably had it, but when I checked, there weren''t any.
¡®Hey, Sylv. Do you know where moko fruits are grown?¡¯
"Moko fruits? I haven''t heard of those. But I have heard of mori fruits if that helps."
¡®Naa, mori fruits won''t work.¡¯
¡®Can''t you just take the blood ruby and use it?¡¯
"If I did, the kid would probably die from exposure to the sun."
¡®True¡ what about you though? Aren''t you supposed to die under the sun?¡¯
"Yep. Even now it burns, but I have some sort of resistance since I am a vampire noble. An evolved species of the vampire race. She on the other hand, has poor resistance to it and willst only a few minutes before going POP!"
¡®Ah¡ I see. Well, we''ll be on the watch for any moko fruits then! Tell Shitsuke that I want him and the other hob-goblins to get theirzy asses into my dungeons so its level can go up. They should also mine some of the mana crystals, but should also not touch the dungeon mobs since they actually cost my dungeon points and I can''t respawn them yet.¡¯
"Eh? I don''t understand."
¡®Just tell Shitsuke my exact words. And tell him that Nukeme should also help him identify the highest quality cores they can find. Take less than thirty percent of that out of the mines into the store room, and also Yokino should send most of her subordinates into the dungeons, since the bee hive is bing too crowded.¡¯
"O-OK."
¡®Let''s go Shiroi! Onward, and Sylv stop poking my cheeks.¡¯
"What? Is there something wrong with that? They are so puffy. And your breasts, they grew."
She said, groping my tiny chest. There was a sharp pain, followed with innocent embarrassment and a punch to Sylvie''s face.
¡®Don''t do that you, stupid pixie!¡¯
"Pfft,"
Shiroi begun running in the direction I pointed, going full throttle, which was quite fast.
***
¡®Shiroi, stop!¡¯
¡®Huh!? Why?¡¯
She came to an abrupt halt.<novelnext></novelnext>
''Can''t you see it?''
I said pointing to the creature with white fur, a golden mane and horn on its head.
''What is that?''
''That''s a unicorn! I want to ride that!''
''Eh? But you have me!''
Sheined.
''Still¡ It''s a unicorn.''
''Uwaa, master I feel insulted.''
Wasn¡¯t she acting a bit too immature? Normally Shiroi wouldn¡¯t even express her true thoughts on the matter. Or maybe I didn¡¯t know her well enough.
''Ok, let''s strike a deal. I''ll ride it for an hour then we''ll kill it and eat it. I wonder what it''ll taste like.''
''Hmm, deal. But I¡¯ve heard that they are quite dangerous.¡¯
I jumped off Shiroi''s back.
¡®Dangerous? How so?¡¯
I proceeded to run for the unicorn like aplete moron, forgetting my physical abilities were grossly limited by the sun. The unicorn as well began to run at me.
¡®Master! The unicorn wants to kill you!¡¯
Shiroi said.
''Eh? But it looks so beautiful, charging towards me. Why would it want to kill me?''
¡®Ah! It¡¯s horn is glowing weirdly, can¡¯t you see?¡¯
¡®Master! The unicorn¡¯s horn ability! That¡¯s why it is dangerous.¡¯
Shiroi barked at me from behind.
''Unicorn horn ability?''
While thinking about what Shiroi said, a wolf made of mist came from behind me and bit off the neck of the unicorn in one bite, making its body fall lifelessly to the ground. So did I, who was traumatized by the event.
¡®W-Who kills unicorns?¡¯
¡®There are various kinds of unicorn horns, each granting the unicorn a different power. However, unicorns are supposed to be in the fairy ins.¡¯
''Master, what happened to riding it?''
Amethyst asked, climbing onto my shoulder as I ate the horse.
''I¡ um... S-Shiroi is the best ride.''
I said in between sniffs.
''I was going to name him Boe Jack too.''
''What was that?''
''Nothing¡ I''m just really hungry.''
[You have acquired 1000XP]
[You have acquired the ability [Illusory Horn]]
[You have acquired the ability [Gallop]]
[You have acquired the ability [Horse power]]
[You have acquired the ability [Illusion Resistance]]
Due to the skill [Void Stomach] I managed to eat it whole, while still feeling very angry.
''Let''s get back on track.''
I jumped on Shiroi''s back, where Sylvie kept on attempting to touch my wings which were shielding my body from the sun.
''Stop that Sylv!''
"Sure."
Right after saying that she picked out a feather, making me give up on her.
I decided to try out some of my abilities. I activated the [Illusory Horn]. A drill shaped silver horn popped up on my forehead. I tried to cast an illusion on Sylv. Something that she would like to see, but it didn''t work on her. Apparently she was now immune to all sorts of illusions and was actually quite monstrous when it came to using them.
I then tried it on Ulva. She started giggling and saying stuff like, ''Big sis, stop patting me. No keep on doing it. Wait, stop!'', which scared me for her mental stability. We took a break once it was noon. I found a tree which I hid under. I was too weak and tired to really do anything, but I was starving. And as a self - rule, I wouldn''t touch the food in my inventory until absolutely necessary. It was just the limitless pit which was my stomach talking.
Sylvie and Ulva went hunting instead and they brought back some ck birds they found. They were ck Waynes, making me remember the first one I''d ever met in this. Now that I thought about it, they were actually quite big, nearly as big as Ulva in fact. Apparently Ulva and Sylvie found them already wounded on the ground. They would have died sooner orter so they decided to kill them quickly. I was curious as to why ck Waynes were always bruised. With [Hunter] I could rule out the possibility of them simply being violent to one another. Maybe there was a predator around attacking them, or some weird nts hurting them.
Iter ate the creature without a care for its origin.
[You have received 200XP]
[You have acquired the ability [Spiky w]]
As soon as lunch was over, we set off once again. Just moving nonchntly until it was night time as soon as the sun disappeared, my health and energy returned to 100 and I was good to go, but the others seemed tired. Except for Sylvie. She was a bundle of energy. Ulva was already sleeping, same as Amethyst. Out of boredom, I had Sylvie demonstrate her abilities to me.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Hyakkiyako gained 300XP]
SYNTHESIS RESULTS
[Golden Hen Screech] + [ck Wayne Screech] = [Golden Wayne Screech]
[A skill that stuns opponents. Requires 10 stamina per minute]
FUSION RESULTS
Skill fusion is still in use
<A/N: This marks the beginning of the final arc for Volume 1. It was originally supposed to be about 7-10 chapters, but after splitting chapters who knows how many there are now. Anyway, sit back and enjoy what I term the "Beginning" of the story!>
Chapter 119 Side : Rori Sven - A New Life
RORI SVEN
As soon as the boss left I let out a sigh then wiped my face with my cloak. The morning sun burnt like hell and I wouldn''t be able to go around delivering the information like she told me to. So I went into the mansion, where I met the human boy. I remembered his name being Erwin Dolus. He was a new recruit who Dog brought into the industry. I didn''t understand why though. There was nothing physically amusing about the kid.
As I looked at his shaking figure, I let out a tired sigh then reached out my hand to help him. He was still shaking timidly which infuriated me.
"I don''t have all day, you know? Hurry it."
"Oh-um-sorry."
He grabbed my arm. His hands and face were sweaty, as if he just woke up from a bad dream. Having no interest in what happened to him, I just helped him up then walked past him towards one of the rooms where I hadst seen Nukeme. The treasury. In the span of only two days I had found out so much about these monsters. They were quite unorganized led by an immature monster that had an insanely fast growth rate.
Her captains were just weak hob-goblins that couldn''t cause any real damage to any serious opponent. I felt like they would have problems facing only one troll or ogre. The superior captain was the hob-goblin Shitsuke. A name just as strange as those otherworlders''. He seemed to be the most respected out of all the goblinoids that is, taking away the Mad Witch. He was a hard worker, always trying to impress Hinotori. Still, I could sense there was a side of him that didn''t really respect her. It was more like he was just bowing down to power and trying to sucker up to her. And there was an external force which made him obey and respect her. Simply put he wasn''t giving his all to her.
Next was Oki. Just a big dunce that followed Shitsuke around, always asking for a duel. It was obvious that out of all the goblinoids he was the strongest physically and the dumbest. He just went all, ''Let''s fight! Let''s fight!'' but he wasn''t especially strong whenpared to other creatures.
Nukeme. This money loving weird perverse freak of nature represented what the other races considered to be the average goblinoid. While the others seemed to have developed different attitudes after evolution, he retained the goblin-like attitude which made me believe he was born as a hob-goblin, but I couldn''t be too sure about that. He could have just been a goblin that didn''t develop a specific character as he evolved. But that made no sense to me. That would have meant his goblinmunity or his peers should have evolved the same time he did. There was something off about him.
I opened the door leading to the treasury. I was met with angry scowls from the harpies in the room. There was gold everywhere. The nobleman basically horded all the money in Dirthaven while watching the people suffer. He was practically the king, but due to his selfish nature, he decided to watch others suffer.
''Too bright.''
I honestly didn''t like bright things. The harpies pped their wings furiously, throwing their feathers at me. I didn''t take them seriously at first until the sound of skin being ripped filled my ear drums. Blood trickled down my cheek and my hairs stood on ends.
''Ok, new n.''
"OI! Nukeme! Are you here?"
I called out, but there was no response, so I closed the door quickly and wiped off the blood with a handkerchief which I froze instantly then shattered. The shallow cut had already healed so I made my way to the next room. The library.
Once I opened the doors, I saw several shelves which filled the massive hall. Rows and rows of books of different kinds, all arranged in specific order. Or they used to be. Now the ground was littered with books of all kinds and the center table had three present members. Two hob-goblins and one ogress. A cold chill run down my spine once I recognized the scent, aura and hair colour of that ogress.
''Maybe I shoulde back at another time.''
I made to leave, but then.
"Hey! Why''d youe here and leave like that?"
The owner of the old, hoarse voice was Yuuna. One of the hob-goblin captains. She was a very old hob-goblin. About 20-23 years old. She had lived a considerably long time for her race. She specialized in fire magic and was also the oldest goblinoid in this group of weirdos. She had a passion for learning and always liked to flirt with the young ones. It''s painful when you see an old woman dying for attention like a paedophile. She seemed to bepletely loyal to the boss, from what I had seen.
They all looked behind at me, and I could feel the ogre princess'' cold re.
"Oh, um. I just wanted to redirect the boss'' orders to all members?"
"So¡"
"Um, can we just meet up at night? In the dining hall? I''ll say what I have to then."
"Kara. Please what does this text here say?"
Another hob-goblin. Tsuna. She was quiet, conservative, generally looked tired and had always been chasing after Shitsuke. It was painfully obvious she had a crush on him and either he wasn''t reciprocating her feelings, or he was just ne dense. I felt like it was thetter. So far I had seen that she could manipte water magic, but I could also tell that there was something off about her mana circuits. She reeked of death which I felt was abnormal for a water mage. Where her loyalties lied depended on where Shitsuke stood it would seem.
"Oh, that part is talking about mana circuits."
The ogress answered. I hadn''t seen much of her. She always avoids me. Couldn''t me her though. What I did was sort of unforgivable. If someone came to kidnap me on the day my dad went to fight a war, just so they could use me as ransom, I''d be pretty pissed off as well.
I walked out of the room, then met a pair of people¡ creatures. A ck creature with a woman''s physique wearing a yukata styled robe, with a ck sash around her waist. Then an eight feet tall lizard-like pinkie. Because of her face, I recognized her as the battle god that Dog¡¯s men brought in. Both of them just continued talking as they passed by me.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Wait, you guys actually did that?"
"Hmhm, and Mawstewr was really aggressive. Especially with Kara."
"Uwa, I wish I was there."
"You should have been. More people means we do it longer and more fun."
"I''m surprised you could feel any of that."
"Me too, but I reciprocated the nerves of a human body so I could feel the exact same pleasure."
¡°N-Nerves?¡±
¡°Wires in the body tha-¡°
''Ah¡ is that something you should be talking about so casually?''
"Could you two please wait a second?"
They both paused and faced me.
"What''s up?"
"There is going to be an important announcement tonight in the dining hall, so please be present."
"Alright."
"Kay."
Both of them responded without any trouble.
''These guys¡ aren''t they being too friendly with a neer?''
I would be lying if I said it wasn''t unnerving how they were all so nonchnt around me. It was like they didn''t even consider me a possible threat. I was grateful for that, but still, I had a bit of pride. While, I was thinking, the slime called out to me.
"You''re Rori, right?"
"Um, yes. Sorry, but I don''t know your names."
"Don''t worry. I''m Kawaii and that''s Aeri."
"Please ignore me if I''m intruding, but your races?"
"Races? I''m a Dark Toxic Slime Princess and Aeri is a Half Battle Tyrant."
"S-Slime?"
"Yes. Slime. Kawaii the Slime."
"Ah¡ I see."
''I''ll probably never get used to seeing her.''
Chapter 120 Second Hinotori
Day 37
I made us start the day as early as dawn when the sun was barely out. Amethyst wanted toin, but I wouldn''t let her. Shiroi just went on full throttle, tearing up the ground. She had no problem with this seeing as she herself didn¡¯t really enjoy the day time either. Sylv didn¡¯t care either way and just wanted to abuse my poor soul.
There was nothing much to talk about so I tested out the skill [Multiple Minds] which I acquired from eating the chimera.
''Oi, oi, oi! Where the hell am I!?''
I heard another voice, like mine in my head, making me realise that I had developed another consciousness.
''I see. So you are another me.''
''What? Who are you?''
''I am you and you are me.''
''That''s bullshit. Are you stupid?''
''Don''t go insulting me! We are both the same person.''
''I don''t know about you, but I know I am definitely not you.''
''Ok. Then who are you?''
''That''s what I''m trying to figure out rig- ou a cutie. Who is that?''
''Who?''
''The busty loli.''
''Sylvie?''
''Yeah, yeah. Tell her I said she''s hot.''
''Ok, you''re right we aren''t the same person. Fraud!''
''What? How am I a fraud!? Did I ever say I was you?''
''¡''
''Exactly, so stop being stupid and tell me where I am.''
''You are in my head.''
''Is that why there''s so much space in here? I feel like I could build a mansion here.''
''Eh? It¡¯s our head you twit!''
''No, no. Forget a mansion! Let''s go for an entire castle. Damn, even the great wall wouldn''t be enough. It''s just an endless mass of nothingness.''
''Ah¡ stupid. I want to turn off this ability, but it''s not stopping.''
¡®Good luck with that.¡¯
''¡ Can I mute it?''
''Oi! Stupid me, what are you doing? Where are these handsing from? S-stop! I want mywyer! Nooooo¡ sike! I can¡¯t be muted.''
¡®Not gonna lie, you had me in the first half. Bravo.¡¯
¡®Thank you, thank you. Anyway, how¡¯d I end up here?¡¯
¡®How do you not know? You should know.¡¯
¡®Um¡ how am I supposed to know that? Last thing I checked I was eating ice cream with Ken and Maya.¡¯
¡®Oh f-! You are a copy of my mind from before my death?¡¯
¡®Death? What death are you talking about?¡¯
¡®Ah¡ that¡¯s right, you- I ¨C we? We get shot in the head by some random robber.¡¯
¡®What? There¡¯s no way I got shot in the hea- Oh f- I got shot in the head.¡¯
¡®Sigh. Wee to our next life. And since I was here before you, you can call me Senpai. I will call you Kouhai as well.¡¯
¡®Um, how about a no?¡¯
¡®What? Why?¡¯
¡®Why should I address you as such? I don¡¯t even know who you are.¡¯
¡®Ugh¡ that¡¯s right. I don¡¯t really like submitting to older people. You shitty brat, just listen to me!¡¯
¡®Ugh¡ you¡¯re one fucking weirdo. Sa sa. When I wake up from this dream, I¡¯ll have to visit a shaman or something to clear myself from spirits.¡¯
¡®Ah, but you just admitted to dying!¡¯
¡®Twas a lie you simpleton. Now honestly, where am I?¡¯
¡®Sigh. I don¡¯t think you¡¯d believe me. If only you could scroll through my memories.¡¯
¡®Your memories? You mean these disks?¡¯
¡®Eh? How¡¯d you get those?¡¯
¡®I just thought about them and they appeared, I guess.¡¯
¡®Ah¡ whatever. Just look at those and when you believe me, just call me.¡¯
¡®Oi! Don¡¯t leave me here.¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Why?¡¯
¡®Can¡¯t you at least conjure up some illusion of nice German girls?¡¯
¡®This is your dream, right? So do it yourself.¡¯
¡®So you admit that this is a dream.¡¯
¡®Sigh, whatever. I can¡¯t believe I¡¯m this stubborn.¡¯
After having one of the most annoying conversations in my life, I decided to test out a different skill. [Snake Head Tail].
I called forth a snake head tail. It came to face me with its dull green scales and beady ck eyes, then it hissed.
¡®Hi there.¡¯
I waved at it and it licked my cheek with its forked tongue.
¡®I really like pets.¡¯
I said tiredly as I put my head on Shiroi''s back to sleep once again.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Hyakkiyako received the title []]
[This title represents your intelligence ording to your second mind! What a genius!]
[Hyakkiyako slept the whole day away]
[Three goblin minions evolved into hob-goblin minions]
[Five rat men minions evolved into High-Rat Men minions]
Day 38
I missed out on the previous day, so I decided to make up for it with today. The sun severely weakened me and I needed to find a solution to it, soon. Maybe using shadow maniption to will a cloud of shadows above me? As I pondered a solution, I remembered a skill I got. [Twilight Zone]
I set up a barrier, curious at what would happen. It was a barrier that boosted all twilight magics inside it and also protected me from external forces. When I tried it, Amethyst said she felt really energized and so did I. It also protected me from the sun''s rays which tempted me to use it, but setting it up costed 100MP and constantly activating it costed 20MP per second, so while thinking up a solution, I came up with the idea of redirecting the power source of the twilight barrier to the surrounding air which was literally filled with mana. The idea seemed usible enough, so I tried it.
The attempt ended in failure. I asked Sylv for help and she said she could create clothes that would protect me from sunlight if I gave her the right materials. Luckily for us, the materials could be found in the South.
Mud Alligator scales, typrids mane and ws of a swamp tortoise.
How she knew this, she herself had no idea. I was sure it was because of her unique skill. It was a blessing having a friend who had such a helpful unique skill.
***
The girl dropped down from the balcony on the second floor, using wind magic to slow her descent. Upon touch down, her hood fell off, revealing her silver hair which had been wrapped up in a ponytail.
Shiro quickly put her hood back on, lest she be recognized. She looked up and saw the wall that was unbelievably tall. Still, it would be no problem for her to simply use wind magic to carry herself over it. The problem was the magic defenses that had been set up to protect the Family House from attack. Or to keep the children trapped as she would put it.
But, over the years, Shiro had noticed that her bodyguard Kai would asionally leave the mansion secretly. This was definitely not on any orders by his superiors, or so Shiro assumed. Because if it was, what was the point in leaving an almost impossible to differentiate magic clone. Fortunately, she had mastered the art of discerning clones from their creators.
Magic clones would never possess the same amount of magic as their master. No matter how close in power they were, the clone would never possess 100% of the exact power its creator had. And these years, Shiro had monitored her bodyguard to the point she knew his power scale. She had seen through his strengths and weaknesses. She had calcted how strong he could possibly get. She had seen the strength he assumed he was hiding from the n head and herself.
So whenever he left his magic clone back, Shiro would observe where he went without the clone noticing. Even 1% less observation ability was more than enough for Shiro to do her work.
Right now, ever since the incident with Hinotori, Kai hadn¡¯t appeared. It was almost a month now and not even a single word from him. Even his clone had disappeared. One might assume she was worried. Well, she wasn¡¯t. In fact, this was the best news she could receive.
Kai was as sketchy as they came. How he hade to a role as important as protecting the n Head¡¯s daughter was beyond her. Her mother was probably nning something out of this world and Shiro couldn¡¯t figure out what exactly. Kai¡¯s disappearance was proof that her mother¡¯s n wasing along or something unexpected happened.
Either way, she wouldn¡¯t let this one chance to escape pass her by.
In the wall, there was a tiny crack. Normally impossible to pass, but Shiro had met up with the Pdin of Space once. This pdin had told Shiro a secret about spatial magic that she used. It was honestly surprising advice to the teenager.
After boosting her physical abilities with mana, she ran quickly, using wind as a sort of stepping stone. Spatial magic would have been good, but Mr. Sotomura had put up devices that would detect the formation of stepping stones, just to prevent Shiro from running away.
Wind on the other hand, he hadn¡¯t done such. Doing so would be useless since the wind blowing was a normal urrence.
Now she wouldn¡¯t leave any footprints on the grass.
A few feet away from her destination, the wall suddenly cracked. She halted her approach and went back a bit. More cracks appeared on the wall spelling doom.
¡®W-What is happening?¡¯
BOOM!
There was a powerful explosion from the wall that sent her flying. Shended on the ground in a violent manner, but quickly recovered.
When the dust from the explosion settled, a man in ck wretched armor came through. There was arge sword strapped to his ck and his eyes glowed a dull golden. He seemed to possess horns and grey skin.
¡°D-Demon? What¡¯s a demon doing here? Tora.¡±
A summon gate appeared to her left and out of it came tiger with six legs, ck stripes on blue cales with hungry eyes. It licked its lips at the sight of the intruder.
¡®I havee at your beckon, princess.¡¯
¡°Ah! W-Why are you here again? Where¡¯s Tora?¡±
¡®Hehe, the master says he¡¯s too tired today.¡¯
¡°Ah¡ whatever. We should d-¡°
Before she could finish her sentence, there was a powerful shockwave to her side. Followed by ear deafening silence and blood on her face.
Her eyes widened in shocked. The demon walked closer to her while saying some words.
Chapter 121 Swampy Harvest
Day 39
¡®How much longer?¡¯
I cried out to Sylvie, but she simply ignored me, doing whatever it was that she was doing. While moving we encountered a huge ck bear that was engaged inbat with a giant basilisk. I was surprised to even see such creatures in the west. The ck bear had obsidian ck ws and horns, its eyes were a beady red and its yellow fangs were sunk in deep into the giant basilisk, which had constricted the bear with its body. The bear was called a ck Urs.
¡®Master, what should we do?¡¯
Amethyst¡¯s voice rang in my head as we observed the creatures. They were tearing up the trees and creating a lot of noise. I felt like I should have gotten angry since it was technically a part of my territory.
¡°Lady Hinotori, maybe we should out wait them?¡±
Sylvie suggested.
¡®Good idea. Hey! Here¡¯s a better idea. How about you go on your merry way now before anything bad happens.¡¯
A familiar voice rang out in my head. The image of myself from my previous life sitting on a throne of bones, wearing a ck robe and a red sash with the kanji for ¡®Best¡¯ written on it, came into my head.
¡®Ah! You again?¡¯
I instinctively realized that this was my second mind.
¡®Unfortunately.¡¯
He¡ I cruelly responded.
¡®Ipletely forgot about you. You done with my memories already?¡¯
¡®Yep. You don¡¯t even have a lot of those¡¯
He rested her head on her palm and sighed.
¡®What do you mean?¡¯
¡®Hmm, I want to exin now, but that would be kind of hard. Focus on the beast for now.¡¯
¡°Big sis, can I handle this for you?¡±
Ulva called out to me.
¡°Hmmm?¡±
¡°Lady Hinotori, I also want to fight! I want to fight and show you how much stronger I¡¯ve gotten.¡±
¡®Let them do it!¡¯
Second me said.
¡®Shut it, you¡ me, aaahhhh!¡¯
¡®Hahaha! Make me, lesser me!¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t call me lesser me, you fraud!¡¯
¡°Lady Hinotori?¡±
¡®Oh, erhm, sorry about that. Sure. You guys have a go at it.¡¯
The fight was quite quick. Ulva froze the ground, stopping those two in their tracks. Sylvie who had I had instinctively put as a Production-type was actually a pretty dangerous fighter. Her light orbs that acted like high projection bullets kept bombarding the two beasts. Ulva came in quickly and beheaded the basilisk, where as Sylvie pulled out a weirdly shaped de from some sub-space of sorts and cut off the ck Urs¡¯s head.
The fight was so easy the experience points weren¡¯t even enough for a level up.
|DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS|
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], Hinotori¡¯s [Heat Resistance] became [Great Heat Resistance]]
[Hinotori acquired the ability [Basilisk¡¯s Sharp Fangs]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Constriction]]
[Hintori acquired the skill [Matter Ingestion]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [ck Urs¡¯s Obsidian ws]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [ck Urs¡¯s Deafening Roar]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Crush]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Star Gazer]]
Day 40
Early morning, we got attacked by a Giant Larm Mushroo, making me remember the brothers back home. I burnt it quickly and sent a message to the brothers to confirm if they were still kicking it. They were a wild lot so the response came quickly.
I then took the opportunity to ask about the brothers. Gorm filled me in and apparently, they were being as noisy as ever and causing quite a bit of a ruckus back home. I was far so I wouldn¡¯t be able to tell them to pipe down, but I could at least rest easy knowing that they weren¡¯t busy fighting a life-threatening monster.
At least that was what I thought till Gorm told me that they were currently nning a sort of expedition to wipe out the Silver Back Pumas in the forest.
I sort of understood him since Larm wasn¡¯t even the original home of that species. They should¡¯ve been up in the mountains or even if they would be in a forest, the hilly areas should¡¯ve been their zone. Unfortunately for them Shiroi and the other Timber Wolves controlled that area. So unless there was a peace treaty between the wolves and the pumas, they would be getting the boot. Especially after Kuro killed their leader.
I still wondered how he did that. I understood that he could control his ¡°aura¡±, but being able to beat the King of an entire species was something else. It was simply abnormal. It would take something of a whole other caliber to do that, even if it was the king of a weak species ¨C which the pumas are not.
I would lose if I thought about it, so I ignored. The only thing on my mind after that was what Puma might have tasted like. It could have been something really good.
After some walking, we approached a weird area that was surrounded by mist. Sylvie said we had arrived at the border separating the West from the South. Apparently, it was created by the Naga Tyrant to protect the South. I believed that to be quite impressive. That just showed the amount of power one would need to be considered a Tyrant. Being able to create a barrier that that surrounded a fourth of a forest as big as Larm? She could literally protect at the very least two countries back on Earth. I was impressed.
Yes, Larm was simply that big. That was one of the reasons I doubted I¡¯d be able to explore the West quickly. Also made me wonder how Krull¡¯s forces reached the West¡¯s borders so quickly. There was also the question of how we reached in barely 3 days.
When I asked, Shiroi smirked and proceeded to boast about her speed. Sylvie also boasted about her knowledge of the West. Any way I looked at it, they were fast. Stupidly fast.<novelnext></novelnext>
That night we decided to just rest and figure out a way to bypass the barrier in the morning.
|DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS|
[The Forbidden Dungeon produced 10 Mana Crystals]
Day 41
When we woke up, the mist had been cleared allowing for us to pass through no problem. I theorized that the Tyrant opened it up for us to pass through quickly.
First thing we were faced with was a giant frog monster. It was called a Larm Jumper. Fortunately for me, the south was covered with thick fog, allowing for me to be acting at full power. I easily killed it with a ball of fire and ate it whole. For some weird reason, the others didn¡¯t want to eat with me. I decided to ignore them and continue with what I was doing.
We kept on traveling through the fog, but we were eventually missing. Not surprisingly, Sylvie didn¡¯t know her way through the South and neither did Shiroi. I wouldn¡¯t even talk about Ulva who kept ying with her ice powers and refusing to share with me.
To attempt to solve the problem, I summoned a shadow soldier to go do some quick scouting. While he was off on his mission, I was also checking out my abilities. I remembered seeing some nonsense about a [Sacred]. When I looked at it, this was what I saw.
[Skill Name: [Sacred] (Unactivated)
[Skill Type: Story
[Skill ss: Unique
[Skill Description: Please activate the sacred to determine its description]
I wondered what a Story Type meant. It was a bit confusing to see. At first, I¡¯d assumed there was only attack, defense and healing or something along the lines. It was a bit frustrating and exciting to see that there were still tons more I was yet to know. I needed to simply sit down one day or week and look through the system¡¯s functions. Maybe I would find a way to out grow Amethyst in a short period in there.
I was currently B rank and Amethyst was F rank. But if she were to somehow catchup and surpass me in a month, I would have to deal with another soul bond issue.
Later, I checked out the [Demon Light Maniption] skill I had acquired in secret on some weird nt I saw. A ckness radiated from my hand. I wasn¡¯t sure whether to call it ck light. However, it was barely a visible dot that came from my finger tip. When I deactivated it, I noticed that part of the nt was pitch ck. Annoyed that I had only managed to scorch the nt and on such a tiny level, I turned off the ability and tried [Twilight Light Maniption].
That one too had absolutely no effect on the nt. Angrily, I ignored these two skills in particr and looked at my [Daily Quests]. I hadn¡¯t paid any attention to this specific function and that was probably stupid of me.
|DAILY QUESTS|
1. Kill 10 Larm Jumpers [1/10] (Iplete)
2. Fight 1 Mud Fang [0/1] (Iplete)
3. Gather 5 Desert Ice [0/5] (Iplete)
The first quest looked easy enough and if anything, I might actually have been able to level up after doing that. The others on the other hand, I couldn¡¯t really agree. A Mud Fang was something like an Alligator, but with 5 pairs of legs, shark fins, sets of eyes, fangs that could crush boulders and attitudes to match.
The others also didn¡¯t know what a Desert Ice was. In fact, they all asked the exact same question I did. Why would ice named Desert Ice be in a swampy area?
We decided not to think much about it and instead forge on.
|DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS|
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Leap]]
[Hinotori acquired the ability [Sticky Tongue]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Paralysing Vomit]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Fluid Armor]]
Hinotori¡¯s Status
STATUS
[Name: Hyakkiyako Hinotori
[Species: Arc Arcane Demonic Twilight Shadow Bird 21/70
[Status: [Full]
[Age: 40 days
[Rank: B-
[Race Rank: Tier 2
[Titles: |Newborn in a New World|, |Rare Species|, |Survivor|, |Named Beast|, |Bug yer|, |Sturdy Body|, |Lucky One|, |Saint|, |Strategist|, |Trickster|, |Persistent|, |One Loved by the Nature Spirits|, |Compassionate One|, |Family Head|, |Goblin Lord|, |Rat Man Lord|, |Wolf Lord|, |Dungeon Brave|, |Chimera yer|, |Dungeon Conqueror|, ||
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess ****|, |Blessings of the System Master, Alpha|, |Blessings of the Demi-goddess of Wisdom, Mek|, |Blessings of the Divinity of Mischief, Loki|, |Blessings of the Demi-god of War|, |Blessings of the 8 Nature Spirits|
[Level: 65 Exp: 54,399/ 375,300
[Health: 3100/3100 Stamina: 10,000/10,000 Mana: 1,240/1,240 Strength: 1654 (+700) Speed: 5980 (-200) Defense: 2940 (+1000) Dexterity: 3881 Intelligence: 90 Magic: 150 Luck: 65
|SKILLS|
[Unique Skills: [Evolver], [God''s Wisdom], [Hunter], [Remorse], [Sacred](Unawakened)
[Passive Skills: [Auto Mapping Level 4], [Acrobatics Level 6], [Magic Perception Level 1], [Dark Vision Level 7], [King¡¯s Charisma Level 1], [Mana Regeneration Level 2], [Twilight Generation Level 1], [Chimera¡¯s Enhanced Durability Level 1], [Chimera¡¯s Enhanced Stealth Level 1], [Climbing Level 1], [Chimera¡¯s Flexibility Level 1], [Basilisk¡¯s Enhanced Flexibility Level 1], [Chimera¡¯s Enhanced Lung Capacity Level 1], [Chimera¡¯s Quick Regeneration Level 1], [Rock Hard Level 1], [Relentless Level 1], [Unfazed Level 1], [Superior Survival Instinct Level 1]
[Active Skills: [Lustful Gaze Level 1], [Imprint Level 5], [Golden Wayne Screech Level 1], [Aquatic Form Level 1], [Peck Level 4], [Poison Generation Level 3], [sh Boost Level 1], [Blood Sucking Level 1], [Soul Consumption Level 1], [Terror Level 1], [Fire Breath Level 1], [ck Thread Creation Level 3], [Thread Control Level 2], [Stealth Level 1], [Flight Level 6], [Spore Generation Level 3], [Sap spores Level 3], [Poison Gas Creation Level 2], [Spawn spores Level 3], [Co-ordination Level 4], [Goggles Level 3], [Feelers Level 1], [Auto Regeneration Level 2], [Timber Wolf King¡¯s Howl Level 1], [Size Maniption Level 3], [Predator Level 5], [Slime body Level 4], [Assimtion Level 3], [Horn Protrusion Level 1], [Stomp Level 1], [Telepathy Level 5], [Fiery Kick Level 1], [Devil Miasma Level 2], [Anguix Bug Armor Level 1], [Acid Spit Level 1], [Compound Eyes Level 1], [Stinger Level 1], [Fusion Level 2], [Taunt Level 1], [Shoot Level 1], [Devil Form Level 1], [Elemental Barrier Level 1], [Good Mana Control Level 2], [Dark Arts Level 1], [Dark Element Maniption Level 2], [Fire Force Level 1], [Throttle Level 1], [Twilight Energy Maniption Level 1], [Demonic Twilight Maniption Level 1], [Demonic Light Maniption Level 1], [Synthesis Level 1], [Void Stomach Level 2], [Bat Wings Level 1], [Snake Tail Head Level 1], [Multiple Minds Level 1], [Fire Jaws Level 1], [Poison Fangs Level 1], [Lion Head Roar Level 1], [Chimera¡¯s Deadly w Attack Level 1], [Monstrous Bite Level 1], [Goat Horns Level 1], [Seismic Sense Level 1], [Petrifying Poison Level 1], [De-Petrification Tear Level 1], [Destroy Level 2], [Basilisk Hard Scales Level 1], [ck Miasma Level 1], [Soul Orb Level 1], [Intimidating Aura Level 1], [Aura Absorption Level 1], [Illusory Horn Level 1], [Gallop Level 1], [Horse Power Level 1], [Spiky w Level 1], [Constriction Level 1], [Matter Ingestion Level 1], [ck Urs¡¯s Obsidian ws Level 1], [ck Urs¡¯s Deafening Roar Level 1], [Crush Level 1], [Star Gazer Level 1], [Leap Level 1], [Sticky Tongue Level 1], [Paralyzing Vomit Level 1], [Fluid Armor Level 1]
[Techniques: [Martial Arts Level 1]
[Affinities: [Fire Magic Affinity], [Light Magic Affinity], [Water Magic Affinity], [Earth Magic Affinity], [Wind Magic Affinity], [Lightning Magic Affinity], [Ice Magic Affinity], [Space Magic Affinity], [Dark Magic Affinity], [Twilight Magic Affinity]
[Magic: [Basic Fire Magic Level 1], [Basic Light Magic Level 1], [Basic Water Magic Level 1], [Basic Earth Magic Level 1], [Basic Wind Magic Level 1], [Basic Lightning Magic Level 1], [Basic Ice Magic Level 1], [Basic Space Magic Level 1], [Basic Dark Magic Level 1], [Basic Holy Fire Magic Level 1], [Baisc Hell Fire Magic Level 1], [Basic Twilight Magic Level 1]
[Magic Skills: [Fire Ball Level 5], [Fire Sphere Level 5], [Water Shot Level 4], [Water Sphere Level 3], [Lightning Bolt Level 5], [Lightning Dagger Level 2], [Rock Shot Level 3], [Rock ster Level 4], [Wind de Level 2], [Breeze Level 1], [Light Shot Level 2], [Shadow Travel Level 6], [Air Steps Level 1], [Void Shot Level 1], [Ice Soldier Level 1], [Ice Berg Level 1], [ck Mass Level 1], [Ice Field Level 1]
[Resistances: [Low Poison Resistance Level 6], [Low Pain Resistance Level 4], [Low Cold Resistance Level 3], [Mental Damage Resistance Level 5], [Mental Pain Resistance Level 5], [Pain Nullification Level MAX], [Low Heat Resistance Level 4], [Low Aura Resistance Level 2], [Low Murderous Aura Resistance Level 3], [Low Petrification Resistance Level 1]
Chapter 122 Crazy Lizard Man
Day 42
¡®Genie!¡¯
<<No>>
¡®Ginny?¡¯
<<No>>
¡®Gypsy.¡¯
<<No>>
¡®Franky.¡¯
<<No>>
¡®So, no American name?¡¯
<<Figure it out yourself!>>
¡®Ouu¡ you better figure this out before you meet the next monster you underestimate.¡¯
Akira mocked me while eating mental popcorn.
¡®Damned twit! Shut up and make yourself useful!¡¯
¡®Way ahead of ya. I¡¯ve already started working on new magic skills and since the agent is out ofmission, you can count on me to prepare the teleportation spells and stuff.¡¯
¡®Ah¡ you¡¯re sure I can trust you?¡¯
¡®Of course. If you can¡¯t trust your superior, who can you trust?¡¯
¡®Shut up!¡¯
<<Ugh¡ Hint: Something Dazzling>>
¡®What? A hint from the game master? At what cost?¡¯
¡
¡®It would seem at none. Welp, that narrows the list down a lot.¡¯
¡®There¡¯s still tons of names and in Languages we don¡¯t speak¡ especially the ones from this world. Ugghhh!¡¯
DING!
[Congrattions! You have sessfully spent 1 month alive]
[You havepleted the Hidden Task: Survive 1 Month in A New World]
[Your rewards are loading]
[You have unlocked the following rewards]
[1x Mana Orb]
[1x Null Field Orb]
[10x Blood Red Health potions]
[1x Bronze Chest]
''Huh? What''s this? One month in a new world? Wouldn''t it usually be on the thirtieth day though? Ah whatever. And these things. What are they?''
I picked them out from my inventory to check them out. Since the system gave them to me, the system should have been able to describe them to me.
[Item Name: Null Field Orb]
[Type: Special (Non-Consumable)
[Item grade: High Unique]
[Item Description: An orb that creates a field in which all physical attacks be null. Itsts for 10 minutes after activation
#Can be used only once
#Complete Physical Attack Nullification
#Active for exactly 10 minutes
[Value: 45 silver coins]
[Market price: 5 store points]
''Eh? Can be used only once? Pfft, I''ll just swallow this and get its-''
[All non-consumable items from the system are NON-CONSUMABLE]
''Ah¡ sigh. I''ll just save this forter then.''
[Item Name: Mana Orb]
[Type: Normal
[Item grade: Low Unique]
[Item Description: An orb that stores a certain amount of mana. It can be replenished if necessary.
#Stores a maximum of 200MP
#Replenishable
[Value: 35 silver coins]
[Market price: 3 store points]
''Oh, this actually seems good. But, would I really need it when I can get more mana from subordinates? Maybe I should give it to someone else? Kara doesn''t seem to possess arge amount of mana. She might need this down the line.''
[Item name: Blood Red Health potion]
[Type: Normal (Consumable)
[Item grade: Mid Unique]
[Item Description: A potion as red as blood. Some im that it is the blood of a magical creature that can cure any illness. Restores some health points of the consumer
#Restores 500HP on consumption
[Value: 40 silver coins]
[Market Price: 3 store points]
''This one is good, but it''s not nearly as effective as the Renosue potion. Ok, it''s better in a sense that it doesn''t restore only half, but still. To someone like Minerva, 500HP is nothing. Hmm, this bronze chest. Should I open it now orter? Now!''
I opened the chest and pulled out a ticket.
[You have received 1x Normal Gacha Ticket]
''Gacha ticket? Hehe, but what am I using this for? It''s not like I have a gacha system¡ wait do I have a gacha system? System Master?''
I got no response
¡°GRRRRR!¡±
Shiroi hunched back and stopped moved. Her growl was low but deadly enough to get me to stop thinking about the gacha.
¡®Sup? Are you scared of these guys?¡¯
¡®Of course not. I am just sending a threat.¡¯
She responded and Iid back down. No monster would be foolish enough to keep approaching when Shiroi warns them.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Big Sis¡ can you feel that?¡±
¡®What? You mean the guys hiding in the fog? Yeah I can. Shiroi will handle them.¡¯
¡®Hey, hey, Lady Hinotori¡ these guys look a little bit experienced.¡¯
Sylv probably used [Telepathy] to avoid raising any anxiety in the group. Still, my instincts said they wouldn¡¯t be worth an afterthought, so they definitely weren¡¯t worth stressing myself over.
Two minutes passed and I noticed we hadn¡¯t moved from our spot.
¡®Shiroi? Why aren¡¯t you moving?¡¯
¡®M-Master¡ it¡¯s not my fault. These guys are under the protection of someone strong.¡¯
¡®Someone strong? How do you know?¡¯
¡®Their smell. It reeks of power. Their master is definitely not a weakling. I might have trouble dealing with their master.¡¯
¡®Oh my¡ Shiroi¡ could you be scared?¡¯
¡®Wha-?! I-I¡¯d nev-¡®
I was only teasing her, but the response I got was sort of disappointing.
¡®Don¡¯t bother. I¡¯ll deal with their master, if need be. Kill them.¡¯
She nodded and tattoos on her body jumped off, forming two mist wolves by her side. The mist wolves jumped into the fog in an attempt to attack the lizardmen. Soon, all I saw were shadows running about and horrid shrieking. The sound of skin being forcefully torn apart and bones cracking echoed in the eerie space. Soon, all that I could hear was a body falling lifelessly on the wet mushy ground.
I pped my neck the moment a bug attempted to feed on me. Surprisingly enough I ate the bug after that. I didn¡¯t get any skills, giving answers to some questions and giving rise to more questions.
I dragged the bodies over using [Shadow Limb] and ate them quickly. The others said they weren¡¯t really in the mood to do so, so I just ate.
¡®Master. Why do you eat every animal you kill?¡¯
Amethyst asked me.
¡®Well, because I want to.¡¯
¡®Is that it?¡¯
¡®Should there be any other reason?¡¯
¡®Makes sense.¡¯
¡®You want some of the meat?¡¯
¡®Sure.¡¯
I passed Amethyst one of the muscles and kept eating the rest myself. I finished up in no time and felt myself feeling hungrier than before. Strangely the pain was tolerable.
[You have acquired 5000 Experience Points]
[You have acquired the skill [Lizard Man Hard Scales]]
[You have acquired the skill [Spear Handling]]
[You have acquired the skill [Netting]]
[You have acquired the skill [Lizard Man Sharp Fangs]]
[You have acquired the skill [Lizard Man Sharp ws]]
[You have acquired the skill [Dragon Spear Technique]]
When I ate them, I also acquired their memories after consuming them so a road to their home was now currently resting in my head. I would lead us to the Lizard men home for now. The south was a tricky ce to maneuver. All sorts of monstersid in wait for prey, the fog was everyone¡¯s enemy yet friend. It shielded some and led some to their deaths.
The Lizard men had lived here long enough to know how to survive. The key thing in this ce was being able to discern different smells. The smells stick in the air, so one should know how to differentiate before they end up screwing themselves over. Another key point was footing and sensing for vibrations. The slightest change in those could spell doom for any who traveled here.
We proceeded on like nothing happened till I heard a cry in the distance. Valiantly, Shiroi moved towards the source of the sound and there, we found a lizard man running in our direction. At first, I assumed he wasing to take revenge or something, but when I looked behind him, I noticed scary eyes following him.
The ripples in the water were bing too frequent even though he was running towards us.
¡®Shiroi- ¡¯
Before I could give my order, she had sent out mist wolves behind the lizard man to attack whatever it was chasing him. One of the mist wolves was destroyed quite quickly and easily by one thunderous bite from whatever monster was there.
Shiroi barked at it, probably an attempt to give onest warning, and this seemed to have worked. The creature stopped approaching us and stayed wherever the heck it was, giving the lizard man enough time to get to our side.
When he did, he hunched over and kept panting breathlessly.
¡°Y-You!¡±
He screamed, looking up at me immediately. Surprised, I flinched a bit and before I knew it, Ulva¡¯s scythe was against his neck and had drawn a drop of blood.
Was it just me, or this girl was getting quite scary?
¡°R-Rx¡ I-I-I¡¯m not an enemy!¡±
¡®Then why bring this thing in our direction?¡¯
Shiroi interrogated.
¡°I d-didn¡¯t even know you guys were here!¡±
¡®Lies!¡¯
¡°No! With all honesty, I had no idea. The fog is way worse than I remembered. I am not sure how to maneuver the area now.¡±
Out of nowhere, I felt a terrifying shock. Looking down, I noticed Shiroi was ring intensely at him. She was definitely using some extreme form of murderous aura here. It was manageablepared to Minerva¡¯s, but this was still a frightening aura. I might have shit myself before this evolution.
¡°O-Ok¡ the truth is I identally stumbled in a mossidile trap! I tried running, but then I recognized you guys.¡±
¡®Was that reason enough to send it towards us?¡¯
¡°N-No. But you guys are crazy strong. Like unbelievably so. I-I was going to request that you kill it.¡±
¡®Pathetic. Youck pride as a warrior.¡¯
¡®Coming from someone who was reluctant to protect their own home during an invasion, that¡¯s kinda harsh.¡¯
She suddenly turned meek when I pointed that out. I switched my focus to the lizard man.
¡®Ulva, it¡¯s rude to almost slice of someone¡¯s head when you meet them the first time. Don¡¯t ever do it again.¡¯
She withdrew the weapon and bowed her head.
¡°Sorry, big sister¡ I-I just wanted to help.¡±
She said in between sniffs. Could this girl get any cuter? I had noticed Sylv was being especially quiet today and when I looked, she waspletely asleep. I sometimes wondered for her.
¡®You expect us to kill this mossidile for you?¡¯
He couldn¡¯t meet my eye. Why the heck couldn¡¯t he meet my eye? If it was killing the mossidile, he should have been able to ask us to do that for him no problem. We did let him go free and this mossidile would have been going into my belly either way.
¡®What¡¯s the problem?¡¯
¡°E-Erhm¡ you see¡¡±
¡®Speak.¡¯
Murderous aura again! This wolf was vicious.
¡°C-Can I take the glory for killing this monster?¡±
¡®What? You want to kill it yourself?¡¯
¡°Erhm¡ ah¡ no¡ I mean¡ could you kill it and say I did?¡±
¡®WHAT?!¡¯
Chapter 123 Lizardman Village Pt.I
There were somethings you could say to timber wolves that wouldn¡¯t really upset them. You could tell them that their fur was dirty and they would ignore you. Say that they looked ugly and they really wouldn¡¯t give two shits. Call them stupid and they might consider ripping you to shreds. Take or insult their pride, and oh boy, you had another sort of hell waiting for you.
So, when this lizard man asked for Shiroi¡¯s kill, there was definitely helling.
With a single bark, he was forced deeper into the marshy ground.
¡®I¡¯ll deal with youter.¡¯
She changed her attention to the giant crocodile that was still staring at us. Her size gradually increased as she approached it. Without any form of stress, she stomped on its head, killing it in one hit.
[You have received 1200 experience points]
The percentage I got from my servants¡¯ experience points was barely enough to do anything for me. I needed to find a way to level up quickly.
I jumped off her back and walked towards it.
¡®Shiroi, you mind if I eat this?¡¯
¡®Feel free to do as you wish, master.¡¯
¡®Thanks.¡¯
I started to devour the mossidile without mercy. It tasted like grass alongside trash juice. Well, what I assumed was grass and trash juice. Not like I had ever tried any of those before in my previous life. Yep! I never tried any of those! Do not assume anything.
[You have acquired the skill [Mossy Scales]]
[You have acquired the skill [Trap Setting]]
[You have acquired the ability [Hunter¡¯s Patience]]
[You have acquired the ability [Quick Attack]]
[You have acquired the ability [Snap]]
[You have acquired the ability [Bite]]
[You have acquired the skill [Tail Whip]]
¡®Oi. Lizardman.¡¯
I called out the sinking scaled guy. He shakily responded to me.
¡°Y-Yes?¡±
¡®Take us to your vige. In exchange, I¡¯ll give you this thing¡¯s skull.¡¯
¡°S-Seriously?¡±
¡®Master!¡¯
Both he and Shiroi showedplete shock, which I found to be amusing.
¡®Rx. Rx. I¡¯ll let him say he took care of the monster.¡¯
¡®But Master! That is dishonorable!¡¯
I knew Shiroi would react like this eventually. Fortunately, I possessed a speech for a moment just like this.
¡®Shiroi, what does honour mean to you?¡¯
¡®What does honour mean to me?¡¯
¡®Well yes. Is it the kill that everyone knows you made? Is it boasting loudly your exploits for the world to hear? Or is it helping the weak in their time of need?¡¯
She looked down for a moment, as if in deep thought.
¡®It should be helping the weak in their time of need.¡¯
¡®It should? Shiroi, I asked what ¡®your¡¯ sense of honour was.¡¯
¡®My sense of honour? I¡ I¡ I-¡®
¡®It¡¯s ok. Just give yourself sometime to think about it. For now, mine is saying to give this to him. We have no need for it either way.¡¯
I threw the head at him and jumped onto Shiroi¡¯s back. Now that I was away from her gaze, I couldy down and rx. It was a bit overwhelming standing before her like that as if I were her better.
¡®Still¡ this honour crap I started talking about¡ what was I going to say again?¡¯
I couldn¡¯t help but feel like I was nning to tell her something, but I simply couldn¡¯t remember. It was this annoying itch in my brain. Something wasn¡¯t right, but I could ignore it for now.
¡®And you¡ haven¡¯t I seen you somewhere before?¡¯
I asked the dazed lizardman. He flinched when he realized I was talking to him and backed away.
¡°I-It is I¡ do you not remember me?¡±
¡®Who are you?¡¯
¡°I was just at your ce a week ago.¡±
¡®¡¡¯
¡°Lizardman adventurer? Explorer of the unknown? Great Lizardman hero?¡±
¡®Hey, Sylv. Do you know him?¡¯
¡°Um¡ I believe he was the ve from before.¡±
¡°Eeek!¡±
He yelped and stumbled backwards.
¡®ve?¡¯
¡°Wrong! I am no ve!¡¯
He shrieked like some kind of brat and that hurt my sensitive ears.
¡®Shut your trap, you shitty ve.¡¯
¡°I am no - EEOOWW!¡°
I didn¡¯t allow him to finish that sentence. A simple rock canon to his face was all it took to shut him up. He fell, followed by the sound of water sshing.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Listen here. I don¡¯t care about who the hell you think you are, but don¡¯t shout. It annoys the living hell out of me. Do you know where the tyrant lives?¡¯
¡°Zana of the Swamp? I am not sure of where she lives. Maybe someone in my vige would know.¡±
¡®In that case, can you just direct us to your vige?¡¯
He sat up immediately and held his long mouth angrily.
¡°Yes. I can direct you to my vige! But did you need to throw a rock at me?¡±
¡®This guy¡ a rock canon was just like a simple rock throw to him? What the heck is up with his defenses? Even if my rock canon is kind of weak, I¡¯m sure it¡¯d cave a human¡¯s face in with no trouble whatsoever. Not that I was nning on killing him¡¡¯
¡°I demandpensation for my face!¡±
¡®How about I just don¡¯t throw a rock canon of higher level at you again.¡¯
¡°That is notpensation, that is-¡°
In my hands a sharp pointy rock the size of a block was forming. One shot and I was certain I could pierce his skin this time.
¡°On second thought, why don¡¯t I just take you to my vige with no problems. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll love it there. Lots of faces you can destroy with that thing.¡±
¡®d we¡¯re on the same page.¡¯
I dropped the rock canon and we followed after him.
¡°Big Sister¡ why didn¡¯t you kill him?¡±
¡®Um¡ Ulva, I don¡¯t think you should be asking such questions.¡¯
¡°Really? But Kawaii said I should find ways to help you kill threats.¡±
¡®K-Kawaii said that? That slime is also very scary. Who knows what kind of mind set she developed after eating that human?¡¯
After some time, we managed to reach a point where the fog wasn¡¯t nearly as thick. The ground was more stable although still mushy. I could make out straw huts with stable footing and people with brown, green and yellow scales walking about normally. They all stopped to look at us as we entered though.
¡®Master¡ why are they all looking at us?¡¯
Amethyst asked from beneath my cover.
¡®Don¡¯t think much about it, Amethyst. They¡¯re probably not use to seeing strangers.¡¯
I could feel Ulva tugging at my cloth shyly. Sylv too shrunk her form to hide from the gazes before we even entered.
The ce looked like a fishing vige. With theirrge hats and fishings in hand. Although I didn¡¯t see any boats around. [Hunter] said that lizardmen couldn¡¯t swim like fishes. At best, the average lizardman was a better swimmer than the average human was all.
Still, I didn¡¯t think the gaze would be this much even if we weren¡¯t from their vige. It was too odd. Or maybe I was overthinking it. My inability to deal with several eyes was starting to get me anxious. My heart rate increased. However, almost immediately I was calmed down.
I looked at the Lizard man. He wasn¡¯t looking up. His way of walking was weird. His back was hunched up and his eyes kept facing down, periodically ncing at the other lizard men. I knew that gaze. I recognized this situation. This guy was being bullied. By everyone. They weren¡¯t looking at us. Rather, they were looking at him.
It now made more sense why he wanted that monster¡¯s head.
¡°Hey, look who it is. The shitty adventurer.¡±
One lizardman sitting on one of the built tforms said mockingly.
¡°Have you returned with your party of explorers?¡±
He asked.
¡°Ignore him. He¡¯s a bit annoying.¡±
We listened to the lizardman and kept walking in a straight path.
¡°Are you ignoring me? Adventurer!¡±
The bully kept on shouting, but at this point we were quite some distance from him.
¡°Last I heard, you were enved by some humans!¡±
At this point he was basically trying to create a scene. Looking at the lizardman, this wasn¡¯t going to work. Good. The less incidents that happened, the better for us. It wouldn¡¯t be good if anyone caught on to the fact that we killed some of their members. We would just ask for the tyrant¡¯s whereabouts then leave quietly.
¡°Come on, you lot. I¡¯ll take you to my hut, where we can rest for the day.¡±
¡®Huh? We don¡¯t n on resting here. We just wish to know where the tyrant is right now.¡¯
¡°Seriously? B-But aren¡¯t you tired after killing the mossidile?¡±
¡®Do we look tired?¡¯
He took one good look at us and must have seen that we were all at peak. This trip had barely been an inconvenience. In fact, it had allowed me to explore a tiny bit, but that didn¡¯t mean I was willing to spend even a single night in a ce I didn¡¯t know.
¡°T-True. However, you lot should stick with me for now.¡±
¡®Why is that?¡¯
¡°E-Erhm¡ um¡ that is¡ that is because only the chief knows where the tyrant is!¡±
¡®So?¡¯
¡°Only I can introduce you to the chief.¡±
¡®Why is it that only you can introduce us to the chief?¡¯
¡°I-I have a sp-special rtionship with him! He will ept any audience from me, no matter when.¡±
His arms were spread wide while he blocked our path. He really didn¡¯t want us talking to anyone else.
¡®Is that so? Ok then.¡¯
¡°R-Really? I mean, ye-¡°
¡®Sike! Shiroi. Go back so we ask that other lizardman.¡¯
She jumped over him and ran towards the guy who was sitting aimlessly in the vige.
¡°WAIT!¡±
It was toote. We were already gone. I had nothing against him. In fact, I could sympathize with him. Being theughing stock of the entire ss probably didn¡¯tpare to being theughing stock of the entire vige, but it was fundamentally the same thing.
¡®Sorry bud, but my life is more important to me than yours.¡¯
Chapter 124 Lizardman Village Pt.II
¡°What do you want?¡±
¡°You friends with him?¡±
I asked the lizardman. This made his tail wag from side to side as he broke intoughter.
¡°Friends? I¡¯d rather kiss thornbush. At least that way I¡¯d have dignity.¡±
¡°Is there something wrong with him?¡±
¡°Oh, you guys are from out of town so you probably didn¡¯t know. He must have lied to you about his exploits and stuff.¡±
¡®Yeah¡ I don¡¯t think anyone is stupid enough to believe his lies.¡¯
¡°Lies?¡±
I feigned ignorance.
¡°Ah yes. He¡¯s a crazy kid who keeps spreading lies. He can¡¯t stop ever since the- ah, never mind. What did you want?¡±
¡°Do you know how we can get to the Tyrant of the South?¡±
¡°The old witch? What would you want with her?¡±
¡®Old witch?¡¯
¡°Um, she was calling for me. That is why I am here.¡±
¡°Erhn? Where did you say you were from, again?¡±
¡°I never said where I was from?¡±
¡®Could they be the ones the chief was talking about?¡¯
I read his mind.
¡°Maybe your chief could help us out?¡±
¡°You wish to meet with him?¡±
¡°Is that possible?¡±
¡°Yes. The chief should be in his hut right now.¡±
¡°Could we trouble you to take us to his whereabouts?¡±
¡°It would be no problem at all. You¡¯re lucky you found me. If you had gone with that disgrace, the chief would have killed you all for sure.¡±
¡®Oou¡ this gets more interesting by the second.¡¯
¡°Killed? Why?¡±
The lizard man stood up and proceeded to walk in a direction. We followed after him.
¡°Well, the chief really detests him.¡±
¡°Why?¡±
¡°He always challenges the chief¡¯s way of doing things. He even dared to challenge the chief for his title saying nonsense like the chief is dead and what-not.¡±
¡°Such disrespect.¡±
¡°That¡¯s alright to be honest. A lot of us here have done that before. But we all got angry when he refused to honour his part of a duel.¡±
¡
The guy made a dramatic pause for no apparent reason.
¡°He was supposed to stop dueling the chief after that duel so he started to make up lies about the chief. Eventually he was found, but that did not stop him. He started to bring in the heads of powerful monsters, iming that those were his kills. That mossidile head he was holding was probably killed by one of you, wasn¡¯t it?¡±
¡®Well¡ that doesn¡¯t really matter to me. What about you, Shiroi?¡¯
¡®Anything you are ok with, I am ok with, Master.¡¯
¡®Ugh¡ don¡¯t be boring Shiroi. Speak your truth.¡¯
¡®¡¡¯
Was it really that difficult to speak her own thoughts on the matter?
¡°Actually, my partner over here killed the monster and gave him the head.¡±
I tapped on Shiroi¡¯s head. The Lizard man nced at us from the side of his eye. Because of his face, I couldn¡¯t tell if he was grinning wildly or not, but he seemed satisfied.
¡°Quite the powerful beast you¡¯ve got on ya. Being able to kill a mossidile. Only the chiefs are able to do that. Ourst chief struggled with one.¡±
¡®Huh? The chief struggled to kill a mossidile? But Shiroi barely took a minute to do so. Did we overestimate this king?¡¯
After some minutes of questions and answers, we arrived at arge hut that had its own tform separated from the others. In terms of appearance, it looked like the average hut, but its size inparison to the others was unbelievable.
¡°There it is, the chief¡¯s room.¡±
¡°Does the chief have a name?¡±
¡°Name? Ha! Funny one. We¡¯re called the cursed dragons for a reason, you know?¡±
¡°Cursed dragons?¡±
¡®Lady Hinotori¡ I¡¯ll exinter.¡¯
Sylvie said in my head. I looked down and saw her hiding in my robes alongside Amethyst.
¡®When did you get in here?!¡¯
I flinched at the discovery.
¡°Is everything alright?¡±
He asked us.
¡°Y-Yes. Do we just enter the hut?¡±
¡°No, throw an offering at the hut first. Here.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
He threw us some weird fish.
¡°That¡¯s a Marsh Chomper. Nasty creatures they are. Always travel in swarms and finish of food together in the blink of an eye. Quite difficult to find and hunt down, but they are the chief¡¯s favorite.¡±
Did he just describe piranhas? In this disgusting ce? Well now this got way scarier.
He threw the piranha at the t form. We waited patiently, but in a split second, something stole the fish off the tform.
¡®D-Did you see that?¡¯
¡®Yes. Although barely, I saw it. A giant tail that moved as fast as lightning.¡¯
¡°Ok, you can go in now. Be careful to not get him pissed off.¡±
He waved us off and we approached the hut carefully. I decided to let Shiroi and the others stay outside, since I wasn¡¯t sure how well kings interacted with each other. She had managed to deceive every other eye, but deceiving a king was a whole other matter.
I entered and was surprised by theplete emptiness in the room. This ce was more depressing than Minerva¡¯s cave. It barely had any thing present. There was a throne at the far end with a mossidile skull on top of it and a fire ce at the center. I noticed a trident leaning against the wall, but other than that, there was nothing special in this ce.
¡°H-Hello?¡±
I received no response. I literally couldn¡¯t see anyone present in the room. I couldn¡¯t feel any form of danger. There was absolutely no one in here. So, what was it that stole the fish earlier? I shrugged off the question and tried to touch the spear. However, it moved from the original spot.
At first, I assumed I missed, but I eventually noticed that the spear was moving on its own. This got me really interested. I nned on using [Shadow Limbs] to hold it down then grab it and shove it into my item box forter, but the spear suddenly flew out of the hut faster than I could believe.
¡®W-What just happened?¡¯
I ran out of the hut and saw the others looking rmed. Still there was something wrong.
¡®Where is Ulva?!¡¯
¡®S-She went to release herself.¡¯
¡®Where?¡¯
BOOM!
¡°Kyyaaaa!¡±
I heard a cry. It sounded too much like Ulva.
¡®Nevermind, I figured out ¡®where?¡¯.¡¯
I flew off towards the source of the sound as quickly as I could.
***
¡°Shitty Adventurer, they call me! Useless explorer, they say. Liar, they scream! Every time I try to tell them the truth, they say I¡¯m lying! They¡¯re all under a useless trick! A stupid spell. One of the simplest yet most effective. The absolute lie, that is strength! Today, I will end it all! I will kill that bastard chief. I will free the others from his reign.¡±
The lizard man picked up a spear that leaned against the wall of his hut. His trusty weapon that he received from his father. His father was also called a mad man. That is until he revealed the truth. He came back with proof of all he said. Ever since, he had been hailed as one of the greatest explorers.
That was more than enough to motivate him to be an adventurer. Through his adventures, sure he made some mistakes. One that caused the death of the chief. Well, at least the chief was supposed to be dead.
It made almost no sense to him how the chief returned some months back, bigger than ever and having power beyond what he was once capable of. At first, he assumed the chief would kill him for what had happened, but the chief did not care. He gave him a pardon and proceeded with life as normal.
At first, he assumed there was no problem anymore. Later he noticed something odd. The chief never ate. The chief¡¯s eyes would sometimes glow an eerie blue in the dark. Sometimes the chief wouldpletely zone out and act strangely. Even more odd was the bizarre weapon the chief came back with.
Through his adventures, he hade to learn of the existence of [Soul Weapons]. These were not all too umon; however, he did know that strong [Soul Weapons] couldpletely take possession the mind of their wielder. At this point, he wondered what would stop a strong weapon from possessing a dead body.
He hade to his conclusion. That was not the chief he knew. The [Soul Weapon] had taken over. This led to many confrontations with the chief. This led to his banishment. Yet, his desire to save his pride would not allow him to leave. His honour as an Adventurer was on the line here. He had tried everything, and finally, acquiring the mossidile head, he was ready to fight.
An armor set made with a mossidile headpiece, boots from the legs of Larm Jumpers, a shield made from the shell of a Jacked Turtle Head and a spear modified with the head of a Marsh Chomper. Then there was his secret weapon.
He put on the set and walked out of the cave. The spear rattled in his hand and as did the entire set. Today, be it he died or the truth came out.
With a loud shriek that would easily spread throughout the entire quite vige, he ran towards the center.
¡°Where is the chief?!¡±
He roared loudly. The others saw him and sighed depressingly. Here he was again,ing to create unnecessary noise. The children ran close to him and marveled at his new armor.
¡°Hey! Your armor looks nice!¡±
¡°Yeah, yeah! Where can we get some?¡±
¡°Not now, kids! Where is the chief?!¡±
His voice was so loud and sounded threatening to the point the kids fell back. The adults around picked them up and red at him.
¡°What is your problem? Leave our chief alone.¡±
¡°Your chief is dead. That is his weapon.¡±
He argued.
¡°You¡¯re back again with this weapon nonsense?¡±
The lizard man from drew a short, curved de from his belt as he approached the explorer.
¡°Stay back.¡±
The adventurer pointed his spear at the lizard man.
¡°I will not hesitate to kill any whoe close to me.¡±
¡°Yeah, right.¡±
Taking his warning lightly, he brushed aside the spear. That was his first mistake of the day. The explorer shook his spear lightly and the weapon coiled itself around the lizardman. With one simple flicker, the lizardman was thrown into a hut, with all sorts of bite marks over his chest.
¡°If you move, the poison you just got infected with will spread magnanimously faster. Now, where is the chie-¡°
DOOM!
His instincts raged, forcing him to move out of the way. With no control whatsoever, he found himself skidding some distance away, followed by a powerful eruption of swamp water.
¡®W-What the hell?¡¯
Behind the water ssh, he made out eerie blue eyes on a hulking figure. A chilly raspy voice followed.
¡°You¡ I¡¯ve been too lenient with you. Maybe it¡¯s time I killed you.¡±
Chapter 125 Lizardman Village Pt.III
ULVA POV
The trip had been long, and she had been able to hold out for quite a while, but she really needed to ease her bowels.
¡°Um. Shiroi, I want to go poop.¡±
¡®Just do it here, little one.¡¯
She responded as if that was the most obvious thing to do. Maybe if Ulva was raised in a forest, she wouldn¡¯t have cared either way. Unfortunately, she had been raised by human society and so she could not do this, even in front of animals.
¡°I-I can¡¯t do that here! I will go ask the vigers.¡±
She said and ran off.
¡®Be careful then.¡¯
Shiroi left onest warning beforepletely ignoring Ulva.
¡°Hey, you. Human girl. How are you in Larm?¡±
A lizard man adolescent, a few inches taller than Ulva called out to her. In a bit of a hurry, she started to hop about from one leg to another. She feared that staying put would only quicken the issue.
¡°First of all, I am not human. Second of all, is there a girl that I can talk to?¡±
¡°Agh-¡°
The lizard man fell down with their mouth wide open in shock.
¡°A-Are you ok? Sorry, but I really need a girl. Are there any around?¡±
¡°I¡¯m a girl you wicked thing!¡±
¡°Really? You aren¡¯t really pretty.¡±
¡°Agh-¡°
Again, she fell to the ground, this time with tears in her eyes.
¡°I¡¯m in a bit of a hurry, so can you tell me where I can ease myself?¡±
¡°Y-Yes¡¡±
She sniffed, slowly sitting back up. Ulva grabbed her by the hand quickly and brought her to face level. Show me¡ now!¡±
¡°E-eh? O-Ok. Follow me.¡±
The lizard man girl started to show her the way and Ulva followed closely behind.
¡°Hey, my name is Ulva. What¡¯s yours?¡±
¡°Name? I do not have a name. Must be nice having a name.¡±
Ulva tilted her head in confusion.
¡°What is so special about having a name?¡±
¡°Surely you tease me.¡±
¡°I am being very serious. Back home everyone makes a big deal out of having a name as well. What is so special?¡±
The lizardman found herself staring at the weird mask wearing girl in shock. This person was chosen by a higher being? This ignorant person? Yet her race was cursed to never have any names from any higher being? How cruel was this? What did they do to deserve this? Being rted to heretics? It was not their fault for their brother race¡¯s aggressions. Why me them?
SPLASH!
Water suddenly erupted out of nowhere. Ulva looked at the source and there, she found a hulking frame approaching a smaller person.
¡°You¡ I¡¯ve been too lenient with you. Maybe it¡¯s time I killed you.¡±
The huge lizardman said. Ulva noticed something. The bigger lizardman was not alive. That thingcked what normal things did. Itcked blood.
The smaller lizardman was the one that led them to the vige, although he now wore some weird armor. She recognized the helmet he wore to be the monster Shiroi yed earlier. Being honest, she did not know what to make out of the situation. The lizard man everyone called a liar or the undead lizardman that was trying to kill him. When did things escte to this point? Was this a normal here? She needed to gather more evidence. That was what her parents taught her.
¡°You! Today is the final day! I shall expose you!¡±
The shitty explorer roared and charged at the undead. The undead swung his spear at the lizardman who easily avoided. The lizardman then jumped over the undead¡¯s head ¨C a height normally impossible to jump ¨C and stabbed the undead¡¯s eye. The undead grabbed his spear the moment it got into his eye and used it to bring the lizard man closer. With his mouth wide open, he tried to shove the lizard man¡¯s head in.
As soon as that happened, the undead found his mouth unable to close. As if he knew this would happen, the lizardman ejected himself from his helmet andnded on the water once again.
¡°Proof! This is the proof!¡±
He roared and recovered almost immediately. He punched his chest powerful and powerful sounds came out that caused the water to act weirdly.
¡°The living will not be affected by this sound! The undead on the other hand¡¡±
Upon his statement, everyone unconsciously found their eyes on the undead. His body was shaking wildly. It spat out the mossidile helmet and copsed on its knees, shaking uncontrobly.
¡°As you can see, an undead reacts to the noises my breastte makes by slowly copsing. It is not even in pain! It¡¯s body simply will not move!¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
The vigers slowly backed up.
¡°N-No way! Y-You just made this up!¡±
The men who believed in their chief defended even with the evidence before them.
¡°Do not deceive yourselves. The proof isid bare in front of you!¡±
¡°Oh gods. Is this how you punish us?¡±
The religious women also copsed on their knees, tears filling up their eyes.
Ulva found her hand shaking unconsciously. She looked down and found this to be interesting. It wasn¡¯t causing any pain to her. In fact, she realized her body was simply excited. It was being filled up with so much power her very cells couldn¡¯t contain the excitement. She had never felt so empowered. In fact, with this excitement came this horrible hunger. She needed to quell it.
To do so, blood would suffice. Her eyesnded on the lizardman next to her. She had never had lizardman blood before. She wondered how it would taste. Raw? Exquisite? Spicy? Cold? Sickening? So many different vors she imagined. Although, her older sister¡¯s was still at the very top to her.
¡°Ulva?¡±
The lizardman felt a prickly sensation on her skin after Ulva hugged her.
¡°W-What are you doing?¡±
She felt something leaving her. The feeling was painful yet calming. It was a sort of feeling like she were running on fluffy clouds. Suddenly, the prickly sensation left. Ulva let go of her and backed up. This was the first time the lizardman saw the girl¡¯s actual face.
It was cute. Giving a year or two she would be a beauty barely challenged by any. Blood red eyes with feline irises. Silky ck hair that seemed to glitter.
¡°Blegh, that was gross.¡±
She said.
¡°Agh-¡°
The lizardman fell on the floor in shock.
The disgusting blood was all it too to bring Ulva back to her senses. The shitty explorer didn¡¯t know it, but he was simply making the undead stronger.
She red at him as he confidently beat his chest. She didn¡¯t want to, but her big sister seemed to like him. In that case, she would protect him.
One powerful leap and she was in front of him. One quick swirl and she was facing the monster. One destructive leap and she found herself struggling to defend. It all happened so quickly barely anyone saw. They just knew someone had saved the shitty lizardman from death.
When the water settled down, all that could be seen was a little girl barely standing against the powerful might of the chief.
¡®W-What the hell?¡¯
She thought, the pressure slowly increasing. Not wanting to be defeated, she parried the attack away. Once again, the undead brought his spear down mightily. In a simr fashion, she parried the attack with her wicked scythe. This form repeated itself on several asions till Ulva received a message.
¡®Master~¡¯
¡°Nabe?¡±
¡®Mass¡ ter~ Tis another soul weapon.¡¯
¡°Soul Weapon? Like you?¡±
¡®Yesss~¡¯
¡®Give me a rundown of all methods of destroying soul weapons.¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
¡®Nabe¡ you¡¯re my special weapon. I refuse the existence of any like you.¡¯
Ulva ordered. No one had noticed, but ever since mastering her [Lamprey Form], Ulva had slowly been changing. Everything about her was heightened. Her growth, her learning ability, her abilities, her emotions. As such, Ulva¡¯s selfishness was also beginning to peak. At first it started with not wanting to share her food with goblins during dinner. It then proceeded to keeping Kawaii in her room all the time. Next was not letting Hinotori out of her sight anymore. It was currently at the point of not letting anyone else other than her have a soul weapon.
Quite the unreasonable request she had, but Nabe saw no problem with it. To her, Ulva was just another master. Sure, in terms of potential she was no where near Krollos. Krollos was a being in a league of their own. Still, there was something about Ulva that reminded her about Krollos. If Ulva would ever show even the slightest bit of Krollos, Nabe would do anything for her. So right now, at Ulva¡¯s request, she would reveal the secret to destroying a [Soul Weapon].
¡®Me~ The¡ sec¡ ret¡ to¡ des¡ troy-ing¡ soul¡ weapons¡ is¡ me.¡¯
¡®You? How?¡¯
POW!
The undead¡¯s tail mmed right into Ulva, with her barely getting the chance to defend herself. She set up an ice wall as a barrier to break her fall, then jumped at the lizard man. Its spear came at her once again, but she had a n to escape it.
That n waspletely nullified by a new entrant.
BOOM!
Something zoomed past, right into the lizardman and flew it off into some huts, destroying quite a few homes. Ulva, unable to stop her trajectory, braced herself for impact with the new person. From behind, scary red eyes with twilight highlights glowered at her. A red-hot sword in hand and a threatening aura that made her want to stop mid-flight. An aura that was almost too unbearable to be around. Something that would belong to a deadly beast of sorts.
¡®Ulva?¡¯
Hinotori¡¯s voice resonated in her head.
Chapter 126 Lizardman Village Pt.IV
¡®Ulva? I thought you went to ease yourself?¡¯
I grabbed her before she could fly off into some hut and hurt herself.
¡°I-I¡ ugh¡ big sister¡ I¡¡±
¡®This guy¡ he hurt you.¡¯
I focused my attention on the bastard who hit Ulva. He was lucky enough to avoid my sh. However, it would seem the speed at which he escaped was a little bit too much for him to even control when he stopped.
I originally flew in with the sigma armor since I didn¡¯t know exactly what to expect, but now that I was here, I wish I hadn¡¯t. That way I wouldn¡¯t have been slowed down.
Next to me, one of Shiroi¡¯s mist wolves materialized itself.
¡®You. Take Ulva to Shiroi and tell her that she shouldn¡¯t let Ulva out of her sight.¡¯
I dropped Ulva on the wolf and marched towards the undead.
¡°W-Wait¡¡±
¡®Not now, Ulva. I am really not in the mood.¡¯
I just really, really didn¡¯t like anything of mine being treated badly. Not my stuff, not my pets, not my friends and definitely not my cute little sister.
¡®Scorching Winter¡ you up for this?¡¯
The sword vibrated in my hand.
[Scorching Winter shakes with excitement]
[Scorching Winter wants to break the [Soul Weapon], [Bone Rattler]]
¡®Bone Rattler? Was that the spear that flew out?¡¯
[Effect #1 of Scorching Winter has been activated]
Molten magma begun to drip from the sword tip, evaporating the water beneath me.
¡°Oi! Come at me!¡±
¡°Scorching¡ Winter? It has been a while.¡±
A raspy voice came from where I was headed to.
[Scorching Winter seethes with rage]
The sword was giving off a weird ominous vibe.
¡®You don¡¯t like him too? Then let¡¯s beat him.¡¯
[Scorching Winter agrees with you]
I charged at the lizardman with my sword raised. My opponent came at me with the spear from before, also raised. This time it was covered in some sort of ck liquid.
KINK!
The two weapons met and the sh was so powerful I could feel my hands numbing. That was so shocking I almost dropped the sword.
¡°Haa~ It seems your new master is not as good as the previous one. Breaking you will be much easier than it was the first time.¡±
[Scorching Winter wants to explode with rage]
The sword started to erupt in molten magma. The chief hissed and jumped away. That was a very odd statement he made.
[[Crushing Void] mocks [Scorching Winter]]
Suddenly, the naginata that had always been silent in my item box made a sound. I quickly moved to the side to avoid a stop attempt at beheading me and shot off a rock canon at its eye. Followed by a fire spear at its other eye. The creature stumbled back, letting me on to the fact that it was weak to fire.
Happily, I took raised [Scorching Winter] and swiped at the chief. He proceeded to dodge the attack, all the more confirming my suspicions.
¡®Ha! Fire¡¯s your weakness, isn¡¯t it? Let¡¯s get cooking then!¡¯
I activated [Fire Force], which resonated with the sigma armor in a very weird way. The jewels in the armor glowed brighter and the armor seemed to melt right onto my body. It felt weird, yet right. The armor became lean and tight fitting, yet so free I could barely realize that I was wearing it.
[You have received 20% boost in all stats]
¡°You think so?¡±
As if it heard my thoughts, the chief asked me mockingly. The very water beneath my first swirled all around and sharp powerful icicles came for my head.
¡®Useless.¡¯
My me barrier was set up so I would be ok. At least, that was what I thought till the icicles easily prated the barrier and went straight for my head. Instinctively I tilted to right, barely dodging the attack.
Another came from behind, forcing me to somersault out of its way. I parried another way and one simply hit my back and fell down harmlessly.
¡®What the heck? If I didn¡¯t have the armor on, I would have died for sure.¡¯
Having had enough of the infernal torrent, I cast my own tiny whirlwind to disperse the water and once I settled down, I was met with the visage of a giant lizardman cloaked from neck to tail in dark lightning armor.
¡®F*cking Lightning Armor?! Really? You gotta be kidding me! That shit is so cool!¡¯
I blinked, only to find a massive shadow looming over me.
¡°And deadly.¡±
He said with a wicked grin, before swinging his weapon at me. I barely blocked the attack with my sword and even with that the impact threw me off bnce. I lost my footing and fell into the water. It may have been shallow, but it was still enough topletely throw me off my game.
POW!
[You have lost 300 health points]
He wacked me with his thick tail, but didn¡¯t even allow me to fly off. The spear was right there to block my path and drop me right back into the water.
[You have lost 50 health points]
¡°Hehehe! What is happening Scorching Winter? Wish for me to break you faster than before? You may not care since you¡¯ll eventually heal up, but what about your new master?¡±
[Scorching Winter rejects you as its master]
[Scorching Winter is infuriated]
[Scorching Winter wants revenge]
[Scorching Winter locks all effects]
My head was starting to spin from all the alerts and the stupid vibration that was happening to my body.
[You have been inflicted with the status [Severe Stress]]
[All your stats have been dropped by 50%]
¡®W-What the heck? Why?¡¯
¡°Huh? This one is not your master? You still haven¡¯t found a worthy sessor? HA! I told you to simply take the corpse of your former wielder. Life would be much easier for you!¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
I didn¡¯t know what this guy was talking about, but this was starting to get extremely painful.
[You have been inflicted with the status [Internal Bleeding]]
[You will lose 20 health points every second]
¡®W-Wait! When did this happen?¡¯
¡°Sorry, sorry, that was my fault. I sent a bit of mana into you that¡¯s eating you out from the inside. You will be dead eventually.¡±
He said emotionlessly.
¡°I will take [Scorching Winter] then. I¡¯ll find him and better master, then break him once again.¡±
I could feel a vein snaking in my head. Drops of blood came like flood through my nose and the pain was worse than I¡¯d imagined it to be.
¡®W-What is this?¡¯
¡°Oh? That¡¯s the stress thates from using a [Soul Weapon] that hasn¡¯t epted you as its master for far too long.¡±
¡®What? But¡ I didn¡¯t feel this earlier when I killed the ice litch.¡¯
¡°Then [Scorching Winter] was still deciding if you were worthy. Once he realised you weren''t, he dropped off the load on you. From the looks of things, he¡¯ll never ept you because of how weak you are. He was probably using you as a vessel till he found a worthy enough carrier.¡±
¡®What? Is this true?¡¯
¡°Quite-¡°
¡®I wasn¡¯t talking to you. Answer me [Scorching Winter]. Were you only using me?¡¯
¡
¡®So, it¡¯s true?¡¯
I could feel something inside of me snap at the silence. Like the part of me that had kept me a bit sane in terms of wrath. [Evolver] had intentionally switched off that one aspect of itself for some weird reason.
¡®Hey, you, Bone crusher or whatever.¡¯
¡°Hmm?¡±
¡®I¡¯ll help you break Scorching Winter¡¡¯
¡°Oho? Betrayal due to being betrayed. I hate living things, but to see Scorching Winter break, I¡¯d ept your help.¡±
¡®Good, good, good.¡¯
I stood up dizzily. I was now in my normal form. The human form, though it wasn¡¯t really tasking, was kind of annoying now. In the bird form, my thoughts were a bit purer. Less clouded for some unknown reason. I shook my head and could feel a click in my head when I activated the skill [Devil Form].
Extra horns grew on my head as my body erged. My body grew darker, so dark it was almost indistinguishable from a shadow. Extra features be damned it would seem for I was now just a big ck bird with red eyes and horns. Reminded me of a certain demon from a webtoon I used to read.
[You have activated your Devil Form]
[You will receive a 5x boost in all stats]
[You have not consumed enough souls to fuel this form]
[In exchange you will lose 100 health points per second in this form]
[Those with [Holy Affinity] will be alerted to your existence if near]
[Those with [Dark Affinity] will be alerted to your existence if near]
I flew above the lizardman chief.
¡°W-What are you doing?¡±
He screamed at me from beneath.
¡®You. Pay. For. Hurting. Ulva. First.¡¯
Since everything of mine was boosted by 5x except for my health, I was literally strong enough to face beat any king that came my way, except for He and Alice. Those two were abnormal, even for kings.
A simple st of fire would suffice. I wondered why I hadn¡¯t done this in the first ce instead of tediously defending against pointless attacks. I shot a massive breath of fire that encased him whole When he tried to escape, I summoned two shadow soldiers to stake him down for me to roast him whole.
When I was done, I turned off the transformation andnded on the ground.
¡®T-That was exhrating. And look at that, all my status bar is just [Hungry] now. Noice.¡¯
I walked towards the smoking chief.
¡®Hehe, not so tough being burnt now, are you?¡¯
I spat on his body.
¡®Keh¡ that wasn¡¯t so tough.¡¯
I breathlessly said over the lizardman¡¯s body. I wiped the blood from my face and fell on my arse.
¡®Oi, fake Akira. We¡¯ve got a problem.¡¯
My second mind said to me after being quiet for so long.
¡®Problem? What kind of problem?¡¯
¡®You¡ we¡ might be dying soon.¡¯
¡®What do you mean?¡¯
¡®I mean¡ [Evolver]¡ it¡¯s destroying you from the inside out and there¡¯s no way to stop it.¡¯
¡®Master! Master! Look at me as I kill this wicked bastard.¡¯
Amethyst screamed to me over the Lizardman Chief¡¯s head.
¡®Sure, sure. Keep ying like that and you might one day ki-¡¯
While I mocked her, she breathed a wisp of purple mes into the chief. His body lit up as the mes spread like water and engulfed him whole.
[Your familiar Amethyst has killed the Lizardman King]
[Your familiar Amethyst has received 300,000 experience points]
[You familiar Amethyst has gone up several levels]
[Your familiar Amethyst will soon undergo evolution]
[You have received 6,000 experience points]
[You have gone up 1 level]
[You are now level 53]
<A/N: Join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord to receive the invite link :Rados47#5271
Chapter 127 The Tyrant Of The South
[You have acquired the skill [Hyper Mobility]]
[You have acquired the skill [Ferocious sh]]
[You have acquired the skill [Spear Stab]]
[You have acquired the skill [Spear sh]]
[You have acquired the skill [Lightning Armor]]
[You have acquired the skill [Torrent]]
[You have received 1500 experience points]
Post Amethyst stealing my kill, I simply ate the chief¡¯s body in sadness. My moodpletely ruined the kill. Either that or because it had been dead for quite some time. Apparently, the chief was not so alive for quite a while.
I went back to the vige and saw that the lizard man who led us to the vige wasying dead in the water, his neck had been slit open and he had bled out. The other vigers were too terrified to move. I assumed the chief killed him before I came back.
Under my orders, the lizard men were rounded up with the help of a few shadow demons I summoned. There were about one hundred lizard men still alive and because their king hurt Ulva, I saw it fit to simply take over their tribe as pay back. Was that a bit excessive? Maybe, but at least I had the army Zana wanted from me. Best of all, it wasn¡¯t the one from the West.
In the chief¡¯s hut, I gave Shiroi orders to monitor the vige alongside the shadow demons and Sylvie. I wanted her to get the resources she said she needed toplete my request while also checking out the Tyrant¡¯s area. This way I had secured a base of operations, food, shelter, resources and a quick escape route. I had sent Amethyst back to the dungeon in Larm for her to Evolve there. Whatever happened was beyond my concern. The little shit stole my kill and already got her first evolution. What kind of luck was she blessed with?
After that, I made my way to the Tyrant¡¯s ce with Ulva. Now I couldn¡¯t trust her to be with herself for various reasons I wouldn¡¯t be mentioning. If there was trouble, I would simply teleport both of us out of there and back to the West.
***
A creature with dark brown scales slithered towards us. It was basically a snake with a human torso and arms and a cobra head with sharp yellow eyes. It bowed before us
¡°Hissss~ I believe you are the one my tyrant searches for?¡±
¡®Oh, um, my name is Hinotori and this is my sister Ulva. Sorry to cut to the chase, but what do you need me for?¡¯
¡°In due time. Hisss~¡±
She said, directing us towards some area. The ce was filled up with so much fog I could barely see anything.
¡®Where are we going?¡¯
I only received a subtle hiss.
¡°Big sister¡¡±
¡®Not now, Ulva.¡¯
¡°But¡¡±
She pulled on my wing, forcing me to consider her situation. Her legs were crossed and her eyes were teary.
¡®Huh? What¡¯s your problem? Did you not do the deed back in the vige after the whole incident?¡¯
¡°B-But¡ I¡ I didn¡¯t apologize¡¡±
¡®Apologize for what?¡¯
I stared at her intensely. I knew what she was talking about, but I saw it as pointless to even make it an afterthought.
She was still shivering when I asked her. Feeling a bit confused, I titled my head. After realizing that she wouldn¡¯t be speaking anytime soon, I gave up and ignored her.
It didn¡¯t take long for us to appear before a massive cave with two snake-like people standing guard in front of them, spears in hand. They glowered at me, but allowed us to pass none-the-less.
¡°Finally, finally!¡±
A voice echoed from inside the cave.
¡°Pleaasssseee wait here.¡±
The guide told us before heading off further into the cave. I stretched out my body, feeling a bit tense. Still, there was no sense of being overwhelmed here. Apletely different vibe from the tyrants I had met before, even if I hadn¡¯t seen her face to face.
¡®Hey, Ulva. When you¡¯re fighting, make more use of your magic. Ice magic should be good for both offensive and defensive magic. You should even be able to cause trouble for your opponents, be it you¡¯re freezing them to the ground or making it impossible for them to walk.¡¯
I lectured her. Although what I told her was all theoretical and from manga and anime, I wondered if it would even be as easy as I said it would be. Well, I was a different case, since it would seem I did not have nearly as much trouble with magic as the normal resident of this world would.
¡°Ok! I-I have something I want to show you.¡±
She said shyly, blushing and pressing her fingers against one another.
¡®Why do I have a bad feeling about this?¡¯
¡°Pleeaassseee, enter.¡±
The voice hissed, calling for us.
¡®Sorry Ulva, but can we save this forter?¡¯
¡°Oh¡ um, yes.¡±
With that, we both walked in, past a certain opening that was covered with bones on ropes. They rattled the moment I touched them and made an infuriating cking sound.<novelnext></novelnext>
Behind, a massive stone cauldron was set over a bonfire. Across the walls, all sorts of markings had been carved in and on the ground were bones, treasures and interesting-looking nts. The guide stood next to something big. Even the chief had nothing on this person¡¯s height and that was saying something, considering how tall the chief was.
¡°Presenting, the almighty Tyrant of the South, the Terrific Witch, Zana of the Swamp!¡±
¡®W-What the hell is this?¡¯
The thought ran across my mind. The supposed tyrant was dancing around now at her own introduction, blowing weird powder into the atmosphere and raising whatever liquid was inside the cauldron and drinking it.
I started to here beating drums for a second before she came to a stop in front of me.
¡°Tis I! The great Zana! Now, prostrate thineself.¡±
The huge ck creature said to me.
She was in a sense, ugly.
Pitch ck with a snake like head, leading to a womanly torso then into a snake lower half. She had a piece of cloth wrapped around her neck that barely covered her chest. Her neck was filled with ornaments and bone nes. On her fingers and wrists, rings and bracelets of all sorts riddled them.
It would seem that she was trying to make up for her natural ugliness with her jewelry. I¡¯d wished someone had just told her already that she was wasting her time.
¡®Um, hi. You called?¡¯
I said to her, trying to bring her from her weird pose.
¡°Ah! Why are you not prostrating yourself?¡±
¡®Because I¡¯m not your servant? What did you want anyway?¡¯
¡°Oi! I am still a tyrant, you know?¡±
¡®Well, no one here seems to respect you and I find that curious. Even back at home I heard you were the weakest tyrant.¡¯
I noticed her body starting to shake uncontrobly. Her body was being covered in some red aura, much like the king¡¯s aura I¡¯d seen from Shiroi and others. This got me thinking a little bit. Sure, it was intense, but it wasn¡¯t like Minerva¡¯s. I wouldn¡¯t be able to breathe in her presence. Then there was Krull¡¯s aura. He never really used that on me, but even unconsciously I could tell his presence was mighty.
She on the other hand, I felt no fear from her. Sure, she was big as heck, but that was it. From her ugly face to her childish personality to herck of presence, how was this one made into tyrant? Sure my new skill [God¡¯s Wisdom] was being a b*tch so I wouldn¡¯t be able to tell her actual stats, but it felt like I had nothing to fear in actualbat.
¡°You ignorant brat! What stops me from killing you here and now?¡±
¡®If you could, there would be no point in you calling me here, would there?¡¯
She froze, all the more confirming my theory. She looked scared at this point.
I had been thinking about it a lot on the way here, but she really couldn¡¯t touch me, could she? The mere fact that all she did was ask for my appearance was proof of the fact that she respected Minerva to a certain extent. And Minerva looked like she couldn¡¯t be bothered to even care about Zana¡¯s request. I came to the conclusion that Zana was like that one annoying junior who kept bothering you non-stop.
Then there was the fact that she requested I brought my army. I didn¡¯t know what she needed that for so after a bit of thinking, I came to the conclusion that she was fighting someone. She wished for backup. She knew Minerva wouldn''t respond so she went for the next best thing. The monster capable of beating a tyrant, me.
Of course, I have never beaten a tyrant before and I probably wouldn¡¯t be able to anytime soon, but she was under the assumption that I could. Which meant she was currently scared of me and put up this whole act to show that she was in control of the situation. Put one and two together, this meant I had some time to do this.
I had time to treat one of the 5 Tyrants of Larm as my little b*tch. This was no Minerva or Krull, but this would be fun.
¡®So, my dear Zana of the Swamp. I¡¯m in charge of this enemy now.¡¯
¡°You already have a n to take down the necromancer?¡±
¡®N-N-N-N-N-Necromancer?!¡¯
I froze in my footsteps.
Obviously, I made sure to not scream that out loud. I looked at Ulva who stared curiously at me. I sighed and cleared my throat.
¡®What is your n to fight of this necromancer?¡¯
¡°Hehe, my n is full proof.¡±
She boldly stated, lifting her head up. Interested, I asked her to exin.
She was an idiot.
I thought I had seen stupid people before but she took the cake. She started out by saying that she was going to gather arge number of forces, shove them into an all-out war with the necromancer and see what happened from there. She assumed her own forces would be wiped out and the necromancer would try to absorb them all into their army. The sheer number would overload the necromancer and that was when she herself would attack, kill the necromancer, then bring everyone back to life using my ability to resurrect those who die in battle.
Note: I can¡¯t resurrect people.
¡®Are you acting stupid or are you actually just really stupid?¡¯
¡°Wha-?¡±
¡®I swear, I should kill you right now. Why would youe up with such a n?¡¯
¡°Ah! Tis full proof. You simply need to revive everyone once you are done. Surely it would take a while with the number going to die, but in the end they will all return.¡±
¡®Huh? And from where did you get the assumption that I could revive the dead?¡¯
¡°What? Is that not what you used to bring Krull from the dead?¡±
¡®Krull? Ah! Goliath brought him back to li- f*ck.¡¯
Chapter 128 Elder Clan Summit Pt.I
¡°¡°Wow! The capital looks fantastic!¡± is what I expected to hear, instead of ¡°Why are there so many prostitutes running amok?¡±¡±
Akihiko said disappointingly to his daughter who wore a vexed expression with crossed arms. He sighed and sat back up, clearing his throat.
¡°Come on, Kana. You can¡¯t be mad at me forever.¡±
¡°Want to try me?¡±
Her voice was threatening.
¡°Finally, you talk.¡±
Akihiko closed his eyes and rested his head on his palm in boredom. Anyone at this point would have been terrified at Kana. From her eyes to her bodynguage to her very vulgar expressions, it was obvious as day that she was not pleased.
Why though? Akihiko intentionally did not go with concubines since those seemed to tick her off a lot. He had ordered for the finest carriage in his possession with one of the best horses avable. They passed through the Tourist Section of the capital just so she would be able to see and experience a lot of things that she normally wasn¡¯t able to experience. So right now, what was the problem?
¡°I can talk more, you know?¡±
She said.
¡°Oh? Is that so? Since when?¡±
¡°Tch, why is Ss not here with us?¡±
She ignored his previous question and proposed her own.
¡°The young hero is currently in the Dhijan Hero Nation.¡±
¡°What? Why that ce of all ces?¡±
Her voice sounded so disgusted that if a resident of that nation were to here, they would be offended and with good reason.
¡°Tone down the hate. That¡¯s the only neutral nation in the world. Don¡¯t suddenly make them our enemy.¡±
Kana¡¯s nostrils red with rage.
¡°How would I not hate them? Ss has spent way too much time there ever since they said he was a [Pdin].¡±
¡°Well, you know how those matters go. Be a pdin, depending on who blesses you, go to either the Mexar Empire or the Dhijan Nation, be raised to your full potential,bat the demons, h h h. All that tedious stuff.¡±
Akihiko really did not like to have to go into details with any issue. He was a simple man who simply wanted everything to be ck and white and easily discernible.
¡°Sometimes, I wonder if you¡¯re just pretending to be an idiot.¡±
Kana asked with a teasing grin on her face.
¡°Ha! I got you to smile!¡±
¡°What? No! I did not smile.¡±
¡°Then what was that?¡±
¡°It was an evil smirk. Not a smile.¡±
Akihiko started tough wildly at his daughter. Feeling embarrassed, she shouted back at her father in aical fashion.
Within a few minutes of arguing, sight seeing and father-beating, they arrived at the Imperial Castle.
The carriage paused on the runway and the doors were opened for the duo to get out. A red carpet had beenid out for them, leading to the massive doors of the castle. Behind a red line, the residents stood, holding trinkets in their hand.
Some were bears, some wolves, tigers, eagles, tortoises and dragons. The symbols for the Elder ns. Each and every single person came together to celebrate the existence of the founding families. From the six sectors of the empire, all members had congregated simply to honour the day the Five Original n Heads met up and formed the Elder ns and New Kyoto Empire.
The sounds of drums being beaten resonated through the night. The residents were getting restless at the appearance of the final Elder ns.
¡°The Ferocious Tiger has appeared!¡±
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
The drums were being beaten in what seemed to be messy at first, but soon revealed to be synchronized work of art.
¡°Remember, the secret is being shy.¡±
Akihiko winked at his daughter and took up his spear as he got down from the carriage. The spear was a fine steely-blue with ck stripes on the sides. Its tip was like a fine, sharpened dagger, possessing the insignia of the Taira Household on it. A lightning magic stone had been ced at the intersection between the de and the shaft. A simple yet powerful tool.
With one thud on the ground, the spear sent a pir of lightning into the sky that made the lights go out, thene back on. The residents all roared at the disy of power and Akihiko waved.
Kana, feeling nervous about all of this was still sitting in the carriage. She was never ever a nervous person. In her entire life she had never had anxiety about any matter. She could face it head on without much care and seed easily. What made this so different?
Looking at her father doing this so nonchntly made her feel a bit jealous. If she messed this up, her father would never let this down. It would be the most embarrassing moment for her.
¡®Wait¡ am I anxious because this man-whore is here?¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
The realization hit her like thunder.
¡®Priceless. The very first time I¡¯m nervous and it isn¡¯t even because of a boy! It¡¯s because of my dad!¡¯
BAM! BAM! BAM!
She looked out the carriage again having heard the drums beating again.
¡°The Ferocious Tiger seeks to bless our eyes with his cub this year! Please, wee the Tiger Cub!¡±
¡®That¡¯s my que. Let¡¯s do this and rub it in the old man¡¯s face!¡¯
Not liking the idea of losing face in front of her father, she decided to show him up. She grabbed her spear and sent a bit of mana in the air to distort the natural flow, affecting the magically lit me torches.
It quickly became dark and everyone turned dead silent.
Three pirs of lightning shorter than her father¡¯s boomed, making the residents ¡°Ooo¡±. With a snap of her fingers, a boom thundered, shaking the residents to the very bone. The lights came back on, and standing in front of the carriage was Kana.
¡°Oh my! It would seem the Tiger¡¯s Cub has inherited his re! Rest assured, for we are in good hands with this tiger!¡±
The announcer¡¯s voice boomed and the silent spectators roared with excitement.
¡°Ha! Talk about being shy!¡±
He patted her head excitedly.
¡°Shut it, that was nothing.¡±
¡°No, no. I am genuinely impressed.¡±
¡°You¡¯ll mess up my hair! It took me half a day to get it this good.¡±
She tried to break free of his grasp, but her father was obviously way too strong. Still, there was something nice about this. She had no problems with it, even if it was from a man-whore.
Both of them walked to the door together.
¡°Ha! Like father like daughter, it seems.¡±
A voice up ahead drew Kana¡¯s attention. Once she noticed who it was, an excited grin reced her face and she ran towards the source.
¡°Uncle Mori!¡±
He jumped and wrapped herself around the giant of a man who stood there.
¡°Hahaha! Kana chan, you¡¯ve grown into a fine littledy.¡±
The obtuse man said with grin. She felt a hand pat her head and she looked at the source, she found someone who looked like a younger version of her Uncle Mori. Quickly, she jumped off her Uncle Mori and on to the new character.
¡°Daisuke! How have you been?¡±
¡°Good. My food addiction has gotten better though.¡±
¡°Really? Then that¡¯s really good.¡±
She dropped herself and straightened up.
¡°It¡¯s been what? Five, six years now?¡±
¡°Yeah, my master refused to let me go till I was set. I¡¯m only here because of the Elder n Summit.¡±
¡°So, you¡¯ll be going back soon? What a bore.¡±
¡°Hehe, the grown-ups will be talking all night in a secret room. We can run about doing whatever we please. Why don¡¯t we heist all the candies they¡¯ll present and sneak into one of the rooms to eat them all?¡±
¡°You mean, the old Hit-And-Run?¡±
¡°Of course, my dearest Kana. Would there be any other thing I¡¯d suggest?¡±
¡°Hoho, indeed not. In that case, very well.¡±
While both teenagers were scheming their food heist, the grown ups were busy in a grip contest. What started as a friendly handshake soon turned into a violentpetition that could have shattered a regr person¡¯s rib cage.
While the two sets of friends talked with each other, the doors to the castle opened up, revealing a line up of beautiful women in ck and red kimonos, all containing the insignia of the Tatsumaki Household on their back.
In the center of these women, was girl who looked younger than Kana. She had fair skin, hair that was tied into twin curly ponytails and a bun on top with curly bangs on the sides of her face. Her face had been sttered with make-up, giving her a more mature appearance. Her kimono was different from the others, in a sense that it was smaller than the others, more fitting and showing off more thighs than normal. Her lips were a red as her eyes and her movements so regal one wouldn¡¯t believe she was not of royal lineage.
¡°Taira n Head, Taira Akihiko, Minamoto n Head, Minamoto Mori, fellow Kazoku, my name is Tatsumaki Shiro of the Tatsumaki n. We have been awaiting your arrival. Wee, to the Elder n Summit.¡±
Chapter 129 Elder Clan Summit Pt.II
¡°You there, take this to the banquet hall, immediately. We need to prepare everything immediately.¡±
The Head Chef ordered one of the servants standing there, shoving a massive tray of boiled crawfish into his arms. The servant took the tray without muchint and walked out the kitchen door.
There, his eyes met the soldier¡¯s. The soldier approached him and whispered into his ears.
¡°The cardinals are already here. Hurry.¡±
The servant nodded and proceeded quickly towards the banquet hall.
¡°Oi. What did you whisper to him?¡±
His fellow guard came over, suspicious at the exchange between the two.
¡°Haha, I wanted to bully him for some of the crawfish, but he refused me.¡±
The new soldier sighed and shook his head in disappointment.
¡°Every year, there¡¯s always someone like you. Get back to your station and ensure that everything is alright.¡±
¡°Right away!¡±
The older guard walked past him and he glowered with disgust secretly. He walked towards one of the corners where no eyes would be able to see him and revealed a crest on his hand. This was actual a temporary spatial storage rune that had been drawn for him to keep something in it.
A little application of mana caused the rune to shimmer, allowing for a ck set of clothes to fall into his hands. The rune faded away almost immediately.
¡°For the Dark Church.¡±
He whispered with a smirk.
***
The summit had kicked off with a bang. The Taira and Minamoto ns were thest ns remaining for the event to begin. An opening speech had been delivered by the host of this year¡¯s Elder n Summit, the Dragon Priestess Tatsumaki Suzuki, followed by a special traditional dance by Dragon God Maidens to honour the Dragon God Fafnir.
Following that, the Elder n heads were made to state their achievements and contributions to the capital in that year and their promises for the next year. This was also a public announcement of their heirs whose identities had been kept hidden for several special reasons. The Imperial family was made to give them their blessing in thising-of-age ritual for the Kazoku that no one Emperor had seen more than once.
Post this was the Banquet in which the Elder n members invited any and all who wished toe witness it. An event so grand that allmoners, nobles and the likes put on their best outfits toe interact. For this one night, rank mattered not. Everyone was an equal, at least that was how it was supposed to be.
There was an unspoken rule amongst the people in which no one ever went close to the Kazoku and the Imperial family. Even if they had nothing but good intentions, they couldn¡¯t afford to identally offend a Kazoku. Their future depended on it, so they never even tried. This was all due to an incident in the past where someone¡¯s family line was eradicated because he annoyed a Kazoku.
¡®Master. Master, there¡¯s so many people here.¡¯
Karma spoke to Shiro from inside Shiro¡¯s vest. The teenager sighed and dazedly stared at the cup of wine in her hand.
¡®I was having the exact same thoughts, Karma. Also, I told you to call me Shiro.¡¯
The little dragon¡¯s head stuck out. She had been developing at a reasonable pace for her species. Given a year or two, she would be too big to even keep in a room, however, that growth spurt would only happen after 7-9 months of being born. Before then, they would remain tiny creatures.
¡®Sorry, master. I simply cannot.¡¯
¡®Of course¡ I want to hurry up and get out of here.¡¯
¡®Me too.¡¯
¡®Of course, you do.¡¯
¡°Hey there, Shiro-san.¡±
A girl approached Shiro. Not used to being called by her first name, she flinched and turned about quickly. Approaching her was the silver hair beauty called Taira Kana. Her hand had been raised in a wave and she possessed a bright warm smile.
¡®A new person. How do I act? Should I smile back? Yes, yes. Smiling back would be normal, right? Yosh! Let¡¯s smile.¡¯
She tried to smile, however since she was a nervous-wrack, the smile came out in an awkward way that sent fear into Kana.
¡°P-Please tell me that¡¯s not a smile.¡±
Kana wore a horrified expression when she stated her honest feelings.
¡°W-Why? Is there something wrong with it?¡±
Shiro started to feel her face to see if there was something off about her smile.
¡°I believe what she meant was that that smile was the scariest thing she had seen.¡±
Daisuke nonchntly said, sucking a bowl of noodles.
¡°You didn¡¯t need to be so blunt.¡±
Kana told her and pped his stomach, causing it to only ripple and him tough. Shiro was on her knees in tears.
¡°Scariest thing she¡¯s ever seen. Look at you, Shiro. Scaring off new people just like that.¡±
She muttered on the floor, making Kanaugh at her.
¡°Hahaha! You¡¯re hrious! What do you say, Daisuke? Friend material?¡±
¡°She seems nice enough, although she¡¯s younger.¡±
¡°Eh? For real? She looks like one of the high ranked prostitutes my man-whore brings home every time though.¡±
¡°Look at yourself, Shiro. They think you¡¯re a whore. This is how low you¡¯ve fallen.¡±
She cried again on the floor.
¡°Raawrr!¡±
Both of them heard a cute squeak. Upon inspecting its source, they found a tiny ck dragon with its wings spread out standing on Shiro¡¯s head.
¡®No one bullies my master.¡¯
She said, but none of them would understand this. Kana¡¯s eyes changed to hearts, as hers had been immediately captured by the cute creature¡¯s appearance.
¡°Is that a baby dragon?¡±
She immediately grabbed it off of Shiro¡¯s head.
¡°Um, yes. That is my familiar.¡±
¡°Familiar? Oh my. Does it have a name?¡±
¡®Let go of me, you fiend!¡¯
Karma tried, but none could understand her. In fact, her squealing was only making Kana¡¯s heart mushier by the second. She pressed the baby against her decently sized chest and kept squirming about.
¡°Yes. Her name is Karma.¡±
¡°When did you get her?¡±
¡°About a month ago.¡±
¡°What¡¯s her rank?¡±
¡°Um, I¡¯d say she¡¯s an advanced beast at this point.¡±
¡°Really? That weak?¡±
Kana sounded disappointed. Saying this would be offensive to a lot of adventurers, considering even the average adventurer was barely stronger than an advanced beast. The true problem children were the monsters in the Superior Beast rank and above.<novelnext></novelnext>
Not wanting to get Shiro offended, Daisuke jumped into the conversation.
¡°Are you a summoner by chance?¡±
¡°Oh, yes.¡±
¡°Really? How many creatures have you contracted with?¡±
¡°Currently three.¡±
¡°Only three? That¡¯s kinda disappointing for a summoner.¡±
Kana sighed and frowned, having expected to hear a higher number. At this point, Shiro¡¯s pride was also wounded. Normally, she wouldn¡¯t care, but being showed up by her peer was a bit different. You could say she had finally unlocked a petty nature that could be seen amongst friends.
¡°My strongest summon is an Imperial Beast, you know?¡±
¡°W-W-W-W-What? N-No way.¡±
She grinned and looked away.
¡°But you¡¯re right, how disappointing for a summoner.¡±
Daisuke was genuinely impressed. Having been able to tame an imperial was a feat no one her age should be capable of. Was she simply making up a lie to impress Kana because her pride was wounded? No, doing so would only make Kana dislike her if the truth were toe out. And as a Kazoku, doing so would bring dishonour to her n.
¡°Hello there, mind if I join?¡±
Dressed in a white kimono, patterned with turquoise cherries, over a silk vest withrge trousers, with a katana strapped to their side, a beautiful person approached them. This person¡¯s long flowing reached their mid back, with a portion of it being tied up into a ponytail and bangs falling over a side of their face. Their dazzling eyes radiated pureness and their face looked so young and smooth, it made the two girls feelcking in a certain category. Nervously, they scanned the neer from head-to-toe and were relieved to see they at least had bigger chests and more curves.
¡°Akari, it¡¯s been a while, brother.¡±
Daisuke said and spread out his hands for a hug.
¡°Indeed brother!¡±
Akari also spread out their hands and both of them hugged each other. The two girls, feeling embarrassed, started to sulk together.
¡°That is a man?¡±
¡°I am uglier than a man? How cruel is this world?¡±
Akari released himself from the hug and approached both girls.
¡°Truth is, I am a woman. Daisuke just calls me his brother.¡±
¡°Eh? Seriously?¡±
Kana inspected her from head to toe once again.
¡°Don¡¯t listen to him. Akari is a man. He has what all men have.¡±
¡°Eh? But if he has that, why does he say he is a woman?¡±
Shiro asked, confused.
¡°Ignore Daisuke. My mother said I am a woman, so that is what I am.¡±
¡®Master¡ is this one an idiot?¡¯
¡®Quite possibly, Karma. Now shush.¡¯
¡°Anyway, my name is Saito Akari of the Saito n, although I guess we already know that because of the earlier introductions by our parents.¡±
¡°Does that not mean we are missing one more person?¡±
Kana asked.
¡°You mean the Sotomura Kazoku? Don¡¯t bother. He is probably working on some weird experiment in ce of the n Head or something of the sorts.¡±
Shiro took a sip of the bowl of wine she was holding.
¡°How do you know this?¡±
¡°My uncle is from the Sotomura n. He tells me a lot of things.¡±
Kana suddenly felt a bit cheeky.
¡°Uncle, huh? A handsome mid-thirties man, maybe?¡±
¡°Ugh, more like a near-death old man.¡±
¡°The kind that offers you raw tentacle?¡±
¡°Wait¡ your uncle offers you raw tentacle?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t all of yours?¡±
She looked at everyone for confirmation. Everyone shook their heads and stared at her awkwardly. Kana shrugged it off and said,
¡°Your loss. Raw tentacle is very tasty.¡±
¡°As always, the Taira n has produced another wild animal.¡±
Daisuke mumbled the words out. Unfortunately, Kana heard him and jumped on him.
While the four Kazoku interacted amongst themselves, the spectators just looked with warm expressions. Seeing how naturally they got along, that meant good fortune for their future. At least, they could rest easy, knowing they were in good hands.
Meanwhile, standing on the roof of the building, were several men dressed in ck outfits, hoods and masks had covered up their faces. One man stood above all of these men. His outfit contained a white mark on its chest. This was the Elecryean symbol for the number 5.
¡°Kai.¡±
He called and one of the men who was bowing lifted his head to face this person.
¡°Yes, Cardinal.¡±
¡°You were present during the loss of my fellow cardinal. I am sure you must have felt nothing, but absolute powerlessness, giving who your foe was.¡±
The two moons in the sky shone brightly over them, revealing Kai¡¯s shaking body as soon as he remembered the incident.
¡°I-I apologi-¡°
¡°You have been given a second chance to prove your worth with this night. Make sure nothing goes off the rails. The Elder ns fall tonight for their offense.¡±
The paragon lifted his hand and all but he and Kai disappeared into the night.
¡°If all goes ording to n, you will be promoted to the rank of Cardinal, Kai. Make certain it does.¡±
Kai¡¯s eyes widened in shock at the revtion.
¡°B-But I am not worthy.¡±
¡°Rx yourself. Cardinal Three always spoke highly of you. You would be the right person to inherit his seat. Do not disappoint me tonight.¡±
The cardinal then disappeared into the night, leaving Kai alone. The young man, left alone to his devices suddenly had a sh back of the past few years. He thought about a lot of incidents and events that had shaped his life. Right now, there was nothing he wanted more than the offer that had been given to him. And for that, he would not hesitate to destroy the Elder ns.
¡°For the Dark Church.¡±
Chapter 130 Elder Clan Summit Pt.III
Sitting inside the secret chamber of the Imperial Castle were five people. Arge rectangr table was set in the center of the room, facing the door and behind it, massive curtains that hid something were barely opened. Four members from the Elder ns were currently present. Saito Yoshitatsu who sat on the left side of the table, closest to the curtains, had her eyes closed in silent meditation. Sotomura Tomo, or better known as the Grand Sage looked to be quietly facing the empty seat across him, but everyone knew he was busily investigating blue prints he had stored in his head and thinking up new marvels for the world. He sat at the right hand of the table, closest to the door. Daisuke simply drank a cup of warm tea, facing his friend Yoshitatsu. Sitting at the end of the table with her back to the door, was Tatsumaki Suzuki, fanning herself.
Behind the veil was the emperor whose face was illegal to be seen by any. Any except his royal advisor, that is, Suzuki Tatsumaki, the official Shogun of the New Kyoto Empire.
¡°Where is he?¡±
Suzuki asked impatiently. The ¡°he¡± she was referring to, was Taira Akihiko. The doors burst open the moment she asked the question, and walking through was a drunk Akihiko, with a woman in arms.
¡°I¡¯m here, I¡¯m here.¡±
He dizzily said, stumbling towards his seat. The other n heads sighed, except for Sotomura who simply couldn¡¯t care less and had calcted the chances of this happening.
Akihiko took his seat which was close to Suzuki. Suzuki covered up her nose, the stench of the alcohol was annoying her.
¡°Why would you bring a whore to this meeting, again?¡±
Suzuki asked angrily.
¡°Don¡¯t worry, this one will not spill any information. Thest one didn¡¯t as well.¡±
One of the guards who had been hiding in the shadows came out, slit her throat, then dragged her back into the shadows, in an abnormally organic fashion.
¡°Oh¡ that¡¯s why¡ hic.¡±
He said and fell face t on the table. The shogun red at him for a split second before changing her attention to the others.
¡°Now that all members are present, shall we begin?¡±
Suzuki asked. Seeing no objectioning about, she started to speak.
¡°It would seem that Kazoku have all been raised to an ample standard.¡±
She said emotionlessly.
¡°The Selection Ritual shall take ce as is supposed to. I have contacted one of my trusted subordinates to take them through the process. Normally, he would have been here by now, but an incident came up in the Dhijan Hero Nation, so he will arriveter in the night.¡±
There was still no reaction from the others, who quietly listened to her.
¡°Are there any pressing issues any of you have to report?¡±
They all remained silent, meaning there was none.
¡°I see. In that case, let us bring forth our suggestions for the future of this Empire.¡±
This, was when the true natures of the heads would show themselves.
¡°My sector has seen a surprising rise in migration of women. I wish for morend to cater for these people and quite a few trainers to help in teaching them how to do intensebour and fight.¡±
Yoshitatsu said.
¡°Morend? The Sotomura n already sacrificed a third of their sector to youst five years. If you do not have space for more people, do not ept them.¡±
¡°You wish for me to callously abandon those people?
¡°They were never your responsibility to begin with. Do not add them to your te, Yoshitatsu. Or previous events will reur and I am not in the mood to clean up your mess again.¡±
The air between the two women started to get intense, both silently ring at each other.
¡°Please calm yourselves. We cannot act so foolishly in front of the emperor.¡±
Mori reminded them.
¡°I will be willing to take in more people. I have enough space for that. And my sector possesses a lot of handy people. We¡¯d be willing to teach them and if you require their services, I will treat them as your people and not hold them to anything.¡±
¡°Mori-san, I don¡¯t think you should be wasting your precious time with such stressful things. You are already filled to the brim with crop production. I wonder how our economy would survive if you received even more workload.¡±
¡°Hehe, you can hand¡ hic¡ them over to¡ hic¡ me.¡±
Akihiko offered half-jokingly.
¡°That¡¯d be no better than sending them to a brothel.¡±
¡°You¡¯ll hurt my feelings, Yoshi-chan.¡±
¡°It will be no problem, Suzuki. I am very confident in my ability to handle this. I would even like the extrabour force, and the best part would be that I am not paying them for theirbour. Yoshitatsu will simply be catering for their livelihoods and basic needs.¡±
¡°Is this eptable, Yoshitatsu?¡±
Suzuki asked her. Without ncing at anyone, she nodded her head and closed her eyes, satisfied to have gained what she wanted.
¡°Who else?¡±
¡°How. About. Me?¡±
A voice echoed through the room. All the n heads were immediately paralysed with fear. They failed to understand how their bodies were unable to move. Even the normally unfazed Great Sage had sweat snaking down his forehead at the pressure that was crushing down on the them.
Slowly, the door leading to the room opened up. Heavy steps echoed through the silent room. The sound of metal hitting metal resonated as the armor pieces shed with each other.
The stranger had arge helmet in their arms as they walked towards the table. Their skin was grey and their eyes were a dull golden. Short pointed ears on a handsome chiseled face, with messy gunmetal silver hair and a recently shaved face.<novelnext></novelnext>
He stood on the table and faced the curtains, trying to get a good look at what was behind it. After seeing, he lost interest.
¡°W-Who?¡±
Akihiko asked. him being the only one amongst the present participants to be able to move. This surprised the intruder, making him smile lightly.
¡°Oh my¡ Suzuki. Did you not inform them of my arrival?¡±
The intruder asked.
The n heads found their gazes to be on Suzuki. A sweat was snaking down her face and for some reason, the whole situation became more terrifying than it originally was.
"Over the course of the past two decades, I''d heard rumours of a knight dressed in ck armor."
Mori''s voice trembled.
"They say wherever he went, viges burnt to the ground. Fertilends be deserts. Imperial beasts run. The trees in Larm part ways for him. They call him the ck Knight."
Mori red at the intruder with daggers for eyes.
"At first I took it as that. Just rumours. But one day, I got concrete evidence. I''d hoped I wouldn''t meet this ck Knight as an enemy."
The man in ck armor grinned after hearing Mori speak.
¡°Someone here who has heard of me? How grand. It is as you say! I am the fabled ck Knight, but I am also better known as the patron god of the Tatsumaki n.¡±
He boldly said. The room was already dead silent, but the announcement found a way to make the ce even more so. Until, Akihiko¡¯sughter boomed in the room.
¡°Hahaha! This is f*cking hrious! I didn¡¯t know you could y like this Suzuki!¡±
The others looked at the drunk man and their hearts sank. A god had appeared before them and this was his reaction? Was he nning on getting them all killed?
¡°Be quiet, Akihiko!¡±
The one to scream this was the usually calm Mori. His heart was pounding so loudly if anyone were close enough, they would have been able to hear it.
¡°Huh? Why? What would the actual Fafnir be doing here? In fact, didn¡¯t we personally see to the destruction of The Horizon about six years ago? It¡¯s impossible for any god toe to this world now.¡±
¡°SHUT UP, AKIHIKO! Our lives are at risk and this is your state?!¡±
The drunk looked very hard at his friend.
¡°Heehee, the world is spinning~¡±
He fell face t on the table, leaving everyone speechless.
¡°Oh? That is amusing. However, Mori. Your lives are not at risk with me here. That doesn¡¯t mean you can rest easy. My name is Fafnir, I am a Fallen God and I go by the title The ck Knight as of now. I have been cursed to give you lot 1 wish each that is within my power. That means five wishes. Now, you see, I have been wronged by one said member. This one with the white hair. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s Ibuki or Suzuki. I never could tell those two apart.¡±
He pointed at the sweating priestess.
¡°Anyway, long story short, I am free to destroy her anytime I wish, but it is painfully obvious as day that she¡¯ll use her wish to protect herself. So, I havee here to you people. You see, I have talked with the one who punished me and he said that if four members were to vote for her and her n¡¯s salvation, I should leave it alone. So, I havee to ask you lot the big question. Of the four remaining members, who will use their wish to save the Tatsumaki n? You have thirty seconds each to decide. Starting with fat guy.¡±
He pointed at Daisuke whose eyes went back and forth from all those in the room. Upon seeing Suzuki¡¯s miserable face, his heart cracked. He had hoped he¡¯d never see that expression on her ever since "that incident". Allowing for her n¡¯s destruction would bare way too much on his conscience.
¡°I want the Tatsumaki n to remain safe.¡±
¡°Nice! Next is you, confused woman.¡±
He pointed at Yoshitatsu. Her eyes kept facing down and the Tatsumaki n Head¡¯s face was slowly regaining itsposure. She would ept whatever fate followed. Yoshitatsu noticed this and her guilty conscience weighed heavily on her. She was one of the major factors of that incident and allowing the destruction of the Tatsumaki n was simply too cruel of her. If Suzuki acted emotionlessly, she wouldn¡¯tin since she was one of the reasons Suzuki had be the way she was.
¡°I want the Tatsumaki n to remain safe as well.¡±
¡°Oho? I did not expect that of you! I just need the next two to reject this offe-¡°
¡°The Sotomura n requests the safety of the Tatsumaki n.¡±
The Great Sage responded immediately. All eyes fell on his shockingly quick decision.
¡°That makes three of us, and like you said, Suzuki will vote for her own safety. Which means the Tatsumaki n is safe and there remains only one of us with a wish. Currently, you are an enigma and there are several things we could use you for. The best wish at the moment would be to turn you into our servant.¡±
¡°You want to make me your servant? How bold.¡±
Having adjusted to the pressure in the room, Sotomura crossed his fingers in thought as a smirk came across his face.
¡°I am sorry, mighty Fafnir. You failed to predict that our loyalty to the Tatsumaki n was higher than our selfish wishes. We are the ones who sealed you gods for good six years ago, so what made you think we¡¯d allow you to simply do as you please?¡±
Tomo started to give off an entirely different pressure of his own, motivating the others.
¡°What? You are supposed to be the smartest person in the world at the moment? The standards are far too below the bar now. Why didn''t you simply use your wish to make me your servant then? Is it because deep down, you know that it is impossible to keep a being such as myself as your servant?"
"You''ve got me there. I am not sure if we can actually keep you as our servant even with my wish. I doubt you came here without having calcted the possibility of one of us requesting that. The best option now would be to save the Tatsumaki n and use thest reckless wish on you."
He pointed at Akihiko with a grin. Fafnir also smirked after hearing Tomo''s reasoning.
"I see you''re someone who likes to consider multiple possibilities. In that case, did you consider the possibility that I simply wished for you to waste your wishes to protect the Tatsumaki n, of whom I never had any ns of destroying? Maybe I simply got one of you drunk before the event so I could manipte them into wishing for my freedom. Maybe I infiltrated the Tatsumaki n to start a rumour about how the Elder ns were starting to get weak. Maybe I nted a spy to keep me updated on everything that was happening in the ns. Maybe one of you here has always been on my side. Who knows? Anyway, time to make your wish, Akihiko.¡±
Chapter 131 Elder Clan Summit Pt.IV
A feeling of doom settled on all but Sotomura who had already calcted the possibilities. If he was being very honest, the situation did not look good for them in anyway. But if there was one thing he was certain of, it was that there was no traitor amongst the current circle. As much as Akihiko disliked Suzuki, even he would recognize the situation immediately. That was why no oneined when Akihiko was drunk. In fact, Drunk Akihiko was abnormally smart. It was so weird Tomo had been tempted to dissect his brain for research.
Surely, he had heard everything that had happened and would make the best possible wish.
Fafnir crouched next to the drunk and lifted his head. A few light taps and the behemoth of a man was looking up in a daze.
¡°I am here to grant your wish, Akihiko. Make your wish.¡±
¡°W-Wish¡ hic¡?¡±
¡°Yes, Akihiko, your wish.¡±
Fafnir whispered into his ear. Akihiko stood up and his body cackled with lightning.
¡°You know? Hic¡ I¡¯ve always disliked¡ hic¡ you, Ibuki.¡±
He started stumbling about.
¡°After, hic, Suzuki died you pre- hic¡ you pretended to be her and no one has found out¡ hic... they still don¡¯t believe me to this date. Hic. I-I will give you a worse fate than death. Hic. I-I wish for the death of Goliath of Larm. The only being that could help you cure yourself.¡±
¡°WHAT?!¡±
The wish in itself was a harmless one. In fact, the benefits to such a wish were numerous. So much, simply one sheet of paper would not be enough. However, to the dragon priestess, this was an unimaginable loss. One of levels she had never dreamed of in a million years.
¡°Wow, you would have me destroy one of my kin? Ha! Good to see that at least the wicked nature of humans remains the same. This makes theing events or the more pleasing to me. Very well then, farewell Elder ns! My duty to you isplete the moment I ensure that Tatsumaki Suzuki and her n remains safe. Rest assured, following the events tonight, your daughter shall remain unharmed. As an extra bonus, same for all of your children. With that, may I see your souls in the Underworld.¡±
Just before the others could make a single move, their bodies felt increasingly heavy. An insurmountable weight fell over them, forcing them all to the grounds. Their senses started to fail them and their mind was begging for them to pass out. One by one, they all fell asleep, till only Suzuki was awake.
A man left the shadows and came before Fafnir.
¡°So, just don¡¯t touch the children. If you do as I say, I won¡¯t destroy your foolish cult.¡±
He ordered.
¡°V-Very well.¡±
That voice sounded like Kai¡¯s. But there was no way. The little boy whom she had taken in wouldn¡¯t betray her just like that. Surely it must have been someone else. With her will power, she managed to mutter out his name before passing out.
¡°K-Kai.¡±
***
The fireworks had begun. Normally the n Heads were to be present for this event to take ce, but the Firework crew had been given explicit orders to begin without them. They were to reserve the truly grandiose for the moment they heard arge chime.
The Kazoku stood together, watching the fireworks with excited gazes.
¡°Wow.¡±
Kana¡¯s mouth was wide opened and her eyes sparkled with joy.
¡°This is amazing.¡±
Shiro found herself muttering. Even if she had experimented and made her own fireworks before, seeing the ones made by experienced people was a whole other experience. The myriad of colours were a treat for the eyes. The synchronized ¡°Ooos¡± and ¡°Aaas¡± of the people were also sort of amusing to hear for her.
¡®Master, this is beautiful.¡¯
¡®I know, Karma. Call me Shiro already!¡¯
¡®Never!¡¯
She sighed, drawing the attention of the others.
¡°Did you already get bored?¡±
Akari asked.
¡°Geez, you¡¯re like a little kid, getting bored quickly.¡±
Kana mocked.
¡°Says the person whose eyes sparkle at the sight of any and everything.¡±
Shiro teased back. Daisuke grabbed Kana before she could jump at the poor girl.
¡°Calm down you two. The best ones are yet toe.¡±
GONG!
The first gong went off and reverberated through the entire open court till it was dead silent.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°What just happened?¡±
¡°Before the best fireworks, there are 3 gongs. The first gong is to silence us so we may be grateful to our ancestors for all their hard work.¡±
After a few minutes of pure quiet, the second gong went off and the people started to chant the names of the current n Heads.
¡°The second gong is to allow the people to cheer out their gratitude for the work the current n Heads are performing. And the third gong is for the people to celebrate the appearance of their future n the heads.¡±
¡°Oh, I see.¡±
¡°You know, considering you were part of those hosting the guests, I am surprised you did not know this.¡±
Akari felt that it was a bit suspicious.
¡°My mother said it would be best if I found out the sequence of events firsthand rather than the thrill being spoilt for me.¡±
¡°I guess that would actually have been the best.¡±
While they spoke, a third and powerful gong resonated in the area. Everyone expected the st to be powerful, but to the extent where people would be on their knees and painfully holding their ears, no one had expected that.
¡°W-What the heck?¡±
Shiro¡¯s head started pounding intensely, same for the others. Everywhere she looked, the guests had passed out on the floor. When she looked up, she saw men jumping in the sky. They were descending from the roof in absurd numbers.
Her fellow Kazoku had already started to recover from whatever the heck was happening. The lights had gone out, yet the final fireworks were in the sky, shing brightly and beautifully. They were a distraction, to ensure those not in the courtyard would not notice anything odd even if the lights were out.
¡°Shiro!¡±
Kana was shaking her by the shoulder, but all she could hear was an annoying ringing in her head as Kana¡¯s muffled voice. Unfortunately, Shiro had chosen the ss Summoner, which gave her a weak physical constitution. Sure, there was the exception to her ss which was the summoner with the job [Beast Tamer], however she did not yet have such a job. She nned to acquire it in the future, maybe in her adventures that she¡¯d always fantasize about, but she hadn¡¯t done so yet.
Trying to think of the cause, reason and current events was starting to give her a headache. Shiro reacted to headaches and troublesome things in a¡ as Senku would put it, ¡°Very Difficult¡± way.
¡°Tora¡ p-please¡ c-¡°
¡®There¡¯ll be no need to summon that thing here today.¡¯
A voice came into her mind. When she looked up, standing in front of her was someone a bit bigger than herself. The person wore a tattered red cloak and a mask that hid all her facial features.
¡®Let me handle everything from here.¡¯
After having heard this, she passed out on the ground.
***
It was the end of the Elder n Summit. The courtyard had been set aze, all those who were passed out had been burnt alive. At least they wouldn¡¯t have felt the mes burning them.
¡°I¡¯m impressed, Kai. This night went almost perfectly. The n Heads are in captivity. The n worshippers are dead. We have been able to hoist our g and imed this empire as ours. Soon, we will reach out to the other power nations.¡±
Cardinal Five said from the balcony of the highest floor of the castle, where he overlooked the entire capital. Currently, the crusaders would rush in and start either killing or threatening the people from the outskirts of the capital in. It wouldn¡¯t take long for them to reach the castle and spread their faith.
¡°I apologise for the failures.¡±
¡°Oh? Do not be rmed. Only nine people managed to escape, the three n members included. We captured the most important one. The others were of no importance to us.¡±
¡°The Tatsumaki girl?¡±
¡°Yes. That one.¡±
¡°What is so important about her?¡±
¡°Do not y stupid. You should know better than any of us, that that girl had the highest potential amongst all the Kazoku, as they call themselves, to be a hero. We shall awaken that potential, then brainwash her into our personal hero.¡±
¡°I-I already knew this.¡±
¡°Of course, we were also informed that this girl formed a soul bond with the [Divine] upon its awakening.¡±
¡°How do you-¡°
¡°Did you believe the Head wouldn¡¯t even notice when our object of worship had awakened after so many years of waiting? He even came into contact with it in one of his visions. Normally you would be dead for keeping such a secret for so long. However, the Head says you still possess some use, so you will be promoted to Cardinal now. You are Cardinal Eleven. Report to the Headquarters immediately.¡±
After receiving his orders, Kai receded into the shadows, using [Shadow Travel] to teleport away. Cardinal Five, being alone, spread out his arms and took in the breeze. The sweet smoke-stained air made him feel exhrated for it kept reminding him of the non-believers whose deaths would be used to save millions of souls.
He turned around and moved back in, shutting the doors behind him to keep the noise out. For now, he wanted nothing, but ambiance in the scream-filled night.
The Elder n Summit kicked off with a bang, and ended with a pang.
<A/N: Due to various reasons, this part was kept really short even though it was 4 chapters. Hmm, wow, I just realised that every time I put Shiro in a part she falls unconscious. That''s kind of pathetic and would really get me annoyed if I was reading. That needs to stop! Shiro shall rise! I, hope to stop this and will show Shiro''s good side eventually. Anyway, now that there''s stuff happening here, there''s also stuff happening in Larm. So many questions to ask... Ah well, hopefully you should receive some answers in the next 2 or 3 arcs. Anyway, by for now.>>
Chapter 132 The Terrible Witch Pt.I
So, I messed up big time. The only leverage I had on Zana, I identally revealed it didn¡¯t exist. At that point, I expected for a big battle where she¡¯d kill me, but she simply asked me to leave her cave. I tried to talk her into rethinking it, but in a rage, she let the aura she had been hiding re and sacked me out of the cave.
Currently we were on our way back to the lizardman vige to get the others and teleport right back to the West.
¡°Hey, you there.¡±
We encountered a snake person on our way.
¡®Who are you?¡¯
I forwarded a message to their minds. Its eyes widened in brief shock, beforepletely disregarding my question.
¡°Follow me to my vige for a moment.¡±
They said,
¡°I have information that will be very crucial to you.¡±
¡®Huh? Don¡¯t ignore my question in favour of your own.¡¯
The snake person still slithered past me into the fog.
¡®Oi. Snake dude, girl, person, thing? I don¡¯t know what your deal is, but either you speak now or we just leave.¡¯
Still not responding to me, they kept moving off. Angrily, I shot a ball of fire to their side as a form of warning.
¡®It seems I didn¡¯t make myself clear. Why should I follow you?¡¯
The snake person red at me after my warning shot.
¡°It seems that you don¡¯t understand the situation you¡¯re in at the moment.¡±
¡®What does that mean?¡¯
¡°If you don¡¯t do as I say, you and everyone you hold dear will die.¡±
A cold chill ran down my spine after hearing that. I really didn¡¯t like this always went in fantasy novels, so I shrugged and decided to follow. Maybe if I listened to the end unlike some edgy main characters, I could find a solution to my problems.
For instance, if the issue he was bringing up was rted to the necromancer, I figured using shadow summons to beat them was practically the ultimate decision. They couldn¡¯t be harmed by undead, basically wouldn¡¯t stop fighting till I said they should and my strongest summons could call for more summons. Logically speaking, the issue of a necromancer was nothing to get my mind wrapped about. Besides, it would be nice to see the vige of a bunch of snake people.
I rxed my posture and shrugged to signify my willingness.
¡°Good. Also, it is Copperheads.¡±
¡®What?¡¯
¡°My people are called the Copperheads, because of our copper colour and hoods.¡±
I guess that was a good enough naming sense. Better than lizardmen because they were lizards. I felt like mocking them even more.
¡®What¡¯s with big sister¡¯s weird expression?¡¯
I identally read Ulva¡¯s mind, and my heart broke in half. We just followed after the copperhead.
¡®Hey, do you have a name?¡¯
After minutes of silence, it was in as day that I would get too bored to remain silent.
¡°No.¡±
¡®Do you molt your skin?¡¯
¡°That is a private matter.¡±
¡®Eh? Bros can talk it out.¡¯
¡°¡°Bros¡±? As in brothers?¡±
¡®Yep.¡¯
¡°I am a woman.¡±
¡®Huh? So it¡¯s like menstr-¡®
Out of nowhere, Ulva came with a devastating punch.
¡°P-P-PERVERT!¡±
She shrieked, and I could only reflect on my choices in life. In what world was asking about a woman¡¯s ovtion cycle perverted? I mean, doctors did it on a regr in hospitals. What made them so different? Did I simply need a certificate and a whiteb coat to ask the bigger questions?
¡®Haa¡ I see. I just need to be a certified doctor to do anything I want with a woman¡¯s body and get away with it.¡¯
¡°What?¡±
Ulva was ring disappointedly at me, but her gaze could not harm me. Not today after I received enlightenment once again. At the pace I was going, I would soon be a buddha.
¡®Throw that disgusted face of yours away, Ulva. I have attained a state of true inner peace. Here, you could use some.¡¯
I grabbed her cheeks and started to y about with them.
¡°Shtwop jhat, bissh, shister.¡±
She muffled out, but I wouldn¡¯t let her get away with her face from earlier.
¡°We¡¯re here.¡±
The copperhead stopped our childish y and revealed what seemed to be a hut, over a massive swamp that had a grey hue to it and a thickness much like a choked gutter.
¡®Is this your vige?¡¯
I asked, shocked by theck of huts and structures. One would expect a minimum of 20 huts even if it were a small vige.
¡°The others sleep in nests in the caves, that are beneath the swamp.¡±
She entered the hut and waved for us to enter. We quickly entered after her, but inside the hut was practically empty.
¡®Wait, you guys can breathe underwater?¡¯
¡°We hold our breaths long enough to get to the bottom.¡±
She signaled for us to sit down, and having felt exhausted from the whole ordeal, I for one was happy to do nothing more.
¡°The journey from the west must have been long. Rest well.¡±
¡®Don¡¯t mistake me epting your invitation as me agreeing to rest here. You said you possessed urgent news about my life?¡¯
She looked at me for a while, as if I was some kind of hostile creature before finally giving in her.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Very well, I shall exin from the time my father found the tyrant Zana. About sixteen years ago.¡±
¡®Huh? You¡¯re giving me Zana¡¯s backstory.¡¯
¡°Do you want to listen to my story, or not?¡±
¡®Tch. Continue.¡¯
***
Sixteen Years Ago.
In a cave at the outskirts of the copperhead vige, there was a bit of amotion.
¡°Thisssss isssss great newsssss!¡±
A young copperhead screamed with joy as he received a ck rock from the shaman.
¡°Shut up!¡±
She angrily ordered; however, the young copperhead was too excited to follow that order.
¡°How can I-hisssss? I finally haavvvveeee a chiiiilllddd.¡±
¡°Ugh. Fix that speech of yours, it¡¯s annoying to hear all the time.¡±
¡°B-B-¡°
¡°That is not the issue here. You found a ck rock and it turned out to be an egg. I get that you are excited since your wife still hasn¡¯t borne any children for you, but are you sure you wish to adopt this one?¡±
She questioned him. It wasn¡¯t just any day that someone would enter her cave for something as spontaneous as finding an egg out in the swamps. Normally, she wouldn¡¯t have even bothered to pay attention to someone, but since it was her very own son, how could she say no?
¡°Yessss.¡±
He confidently responded. She sighed and waved him off.
¡°Fine. Whatever. Although I would have preferred a grandchild with my blood, I guess it would still be better than waiting an extra year.¡±
¡°Yesssss.¡±
¡°I said fix that speech before the child acquires the same trait.¡±
She threw one of her skull bones at him, but he dodged and ran out of the cave towards his nest. Humming happily, he looked at the egg. The egg seemed to be calling out to him for help which was drew him to it in the first ce. Other than the fact that the egg was ck and twice as big as a regr copperhead egg, the egg looked exactly like any other copperhead egg.
This made him curious enough to send it to his mother for observation. After a week of waiting, she had confirmed that whateverid within was safe.
CRACK!
A crack formed on the egg. Upon seeing this and realizing that the baby was about to hatch, he threw it to the sky for cheers. He caught it, then threw it once again. He kept doing this as he walked, till he tripped on a wild bush and failed to catch the egg.
rmed, he tried his best to reach out for it, but failed and it fell. Luckily the ground he was on was soft and wouldn¡¯t harm a baby if they fell on it. Unfortunately, the eggnded in a puddle of acid one creature had left in its wake.
¡°EEEEEEEKKKKK!!!¡±
¡°So, if what I am hearing is right, you are an idiot.¡±
The young copperhead nodded his head.
¡°A hatching egg fell in a pile of acid, so you brought it here for me to do what exactly?¡±
The shaman asked her idiot of a son.
¡°C-C-C-Can you, check if it¡¯s alright?¡±
He pleaded with tears in his eyes. The shaman observed the egg closely and noticed that it was starting to melt and form a weird outline. From the looks of things, the baby would die if it wasn¡¯t already dead. She then nced at his pitiful state.
¡°Did you tell anyone else about this?¡±
¡°No. I-I wanted to keep it as a surprise for my wife.¡±
The shaman grunted and stood up from her stack of hay.
¡°Good then. The child is dead. Now there will be no heartbreaks.¡±
She threw the melting anomaly into the fire that was burning brightly in the center of the cave.
¡°Eeek!¡±
He jumped at the fire, but almost as if the very fog fought against him, he was kicked back into his original position.
¡°I have tried my best to raise you, but me being so overprotective only made you an idiot.¡±
She slithered behind him and grabbed his head, forcing him to look right at the burning egg.
¡°That is a life that you just killed with your carelessness.¡±
He tried to resist her grip, but she was stronger than him.
¡°Open your eyes wide and look, my stupid son. You killed that egg. Not me, not destiny, you. My idiot son. So, learn from your mista-¡±
¡°W-What is that?¡±
He cut her off because of the odd thing he noticed from the fire. He pointed at it to make sure his mother also noticed it. Something was moving inside the fire. The son shook lightly, thinking this was another of his mother¡¯s tricks to terrorize his brain.
The shaman herself had her jaws dropped in shock. She squeezed her eyes to see exactly what that was and she saw hands moving in the fire.
¡®I-It can¡¯t be.¡¯
Completely clearing their doubts, a cry came from the fire. The shaman¡¯s motherly instincts made her run quickly at the fire. With a wave of her hand, the fire was out leaving only a ck charred body on the ground. She picked it and snapped her fingers, causing blue orbs to appear above her and illuminate the cave in ce of the fire.
The creature was the size of a copperhead toddler. Its torso was abnormally big, as was its tail. It was something she had never seen before and at this point she could say she would never see its original form, since the recent events would probably permanently scar the creature.
¡°S-She lives.¡±
The shaman said heavily and looked at her son to present him with the baby. However, upon looking at it, he started to scream.
¡°Ugly! Ugly! It is ugly! Geettttt itttt awaayyyyyy- hisssss!¡±
¡°This is your daughter.¡±
She told him, yet her son stood up and ran out of the cave. At first, she was speechless at the pathetic disy. That speechlessness was quickly turned into silent rage. Had she really been such a failure as a mother? Well, her son was proving that too well.
¡°Stupid brat¡ I failed you, but I will not fail this one.¡±
The shaman looked at the baby in her hands. Where she failed in her son, she would seed in her grandchild.
Chapter 133 The Terrible Witch Pt.II
Ten years had passed and the shaman hade to the conclusion that her adopted granddaughter was forck of a better term ¡°Gifted¡±. A prodigy when it came to learn shamanism. A bright child that loved to y around and experiment, with a character that did not befit her appearance. She was so much of blessing that even The Fog had taken a liken to her.
For these and several other reasons, the shaman had decided that her granddaughter would inherit her role as the next shaman. Since she specialised in [Totem Magic], she believed that would be watch she should teach her.
It did not take long for the child to be proficient with that brand of magic and move out to discover others.
Truly a bright granddaughter anyone would wish to have. She was content with all matters, but little did she know there was a budding problem. That was her son¡¯s wife had eventuallyid an egg and from it was born a powerful beautiful granddaughter. Though she was not stronger than her predecessor, she was indeed powerful.
Her son came in to argue that she train her ¡°True¡± granddaughter instead. Angry, the shaman banned her son from ever visiting her again. She instead took in his daughter for lessons and made it well known that she would only pass on her job to whomever proved to be superior and that neither would be allowed to see their father till after.
Due to this, both were raised as ¡°proper¡± sisters. They yed together, learned together, worked together, but under no circumstances did those two ever fight. The shaman would never allow for such an instance and both knew this.
However, to the Shaman¡¯s dismay, this only furthered the distance between the girls eventually. The oldest of the two had the most magical potential and this made the other feel insignificant in almost every other way. Since both couldn¡¯t argue about the issue, thetter would simply run away on a daily.
Instead of practicing magic she would be inspecting whatever looked curious to her. In fact, it didn¡¯t take long for her to encounter some other adolescent copperheads, of whom she had not seen for the past two years. Quickly, she became friends with them and would sneak out to go y with them all the time.
Till one day, they requested to see where she lived since she had seen their homes. Reluctant at first, she was pressured till she finally agreed and snuck them into her home when her grandmother was not around. They yed around for a bit, then they saw her sister practicing magic.
They were all appalled by her looks and went out to call her names. At first, she tried to ignore them, but the children got quite physical. They started to attack her, even though she possessed a bigger frame. She did not respond with violence because of what her grandmother taught her, so she simply took the beatings quietly and looked at her sister for help. Her sister only looked away from what was happening
The shaman returnedter that day only to see her granddaughter with quite some minor injuries on her body. She asked the two what had happened, but none of them spoke. She asked if they fought and both denied ever fighting. Unbeknownst to them, the mist that shrouded the South was a sentient entity that always spoke to the Shaman and told her what happened. Angrily, she returned the youngest child to her father for lying to her.
The shaman¡¯s son didn¡¯t want to believe that and started to spout some nonsense about how the shaman only treated his daughter badly because of how much she hated him. She ignored his ims and tried to sack him from her cave, but in a rage, the son ended up choking his mother to death.
After realizing what he had done, he started to cry out tears for his mother. The shaman¡¯s granddaughter witnessed the entire incident and quickly rushed to her grandmother¡¯s side to see if she was still ok.
The son started to scream at her for being the cause of his mother¡¯s death. Being a child and still not understanding what exactly what was happening, she received the blunt usations from the person she remembered said would be her father from when she was an egg. This caused an uncontroble heartbreak that made her run away from the cave for some weeks.
The one thing that really stuck with her was when her father called her the Second Coming of Zatana.
Which was what had brought her to her current predicament. A few days ago, she found a weakened dragon that was hiding out in a cave in the swamp. He called himself Ongril. He was the only thing in the harsh cold swamp that treated her with any sort of warmth after her grandmother.
So, it was not shocking that she had grown close to the wounded dragon. She was currently recounting her reasons for being lost in the swamp to him.
¡®That copperhead is a real bastard, tch. Want me to burn him to death?¡¯
Ongril asked her half-jokingly.
¡°I¡¯ll take responsibility for what I did.¡±
She said with tears in her eyes, still failing to understand what exactly had happened.
¡°I killed grandmother¡ I-I¡ am not any better than Zatana. Maybe I really do deserve that name.¡±
It hadn¡¯t been long since he had met this creature. However, being the only creature he was able tomunicate with for the past three decades, he easily came grew attached to her. She was a bright child who hadn¡¯t even shown that she was in pain the past few days he had been with her. At this point, he was willing to do almost anything just to see her genuinely happy. Seeing her in such a sorry state had really pissed him off. If he could see that useless copperhead, he would make sure his death was a slow and painful one.
¡®Who is this Zatana you speak of?¡¯
¡°My grandmother said she was a wicked shaman that terrorized her people and had killed several other races in a quest for power.¡±
Ongril started to think about what he had just heard. A wicked shaman that terrorized her own people? The only ones he could think about were the mages from some centuries back during the Great Witch Hunt period.
¡®I won¡¯t ept it.¡¯
¡°W-What?¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
The child took a step back, surprised when Ongril started to stand up. Being sorge he made her ¨C who was always bigger than normal ¨C feel like an insignificant ant.
¡°I, Ongril of the Red Tower, Brother of Fell, hereby adopt you as my daughter.¡±
He proudly announced, wanting to make sure not even the fog would hide his presence from all others. His voice boomed mightily and echoed for all others to here.
¡°From this day forth, I name you Zana. Zana of the Swamp, my adopted daughter. Let it be known to any who wishes to bring harm upon her. Touch her, and you cross me.¡±
As soon as he named her a yellow light engulfed her. She could feel her body being riddled with power. Her mana soared through the roof. However, once the light calmed down and she managed to reel in her power, she noticed that the dragon was no longer speaking.
¡°Ongril?¡±
She tapped his snout, but the dragon didn¡¯t respond.
¡°O-Ongril?! Ongril! Ongr-il¡¡±
She shouted her beast. Through tears and phlegm, she shouted so the whole world would hear, but her cries were shrouded by the unnatural fog that wished to shield her from the dangers of the world.
It was on this day, that Ongril the Dragon of the Red Tower died. A blessing to most, a curse to few, and nothing but pain to Zana. After a week of crying non-stop, Zana finally sumbed to hunger. She went out to feed, but all she found was Goliath the Sleeping Emperor.
It was on this day, that the Tyrant of the South, the Swamp Queen Zana took her first steps to oveing her trauma and bing the best version of herself that everyone wanted.
***
¡°I¡¯ve been waiting for you.¡±
The necromancer eximed with arms wide open.
¡°Zana of the Swamp.¡±
A foggy apparition of Zana before her stood about three feet above her. The apparition was scowling and even though it couldn¡¯t possibly produce the same amount as she was doing in her real form, the apparition retained a certain level of presence one would expect her to possess.
¡°Is this your way of signing yourself over to me?¡±
She asked, yet the apparition only stared at her.
¡°Hmm? You still have regrets? Come on, if you sign up, nobody has to die, except everyone.¡±
She mocked; her cracked face made for a horrifying smile. In her hands, the orb glowed a faint blue and hummed with power. From moments souls could be seen bashing up against its innards, but to no avail.
¡°Do you see? The souls are so cheerful they cannot stop themselves from moving about so mu-¡°
KINK!
Before she could finish talking, the sounds of a weapon being deflected entered her ears. Looking behind her, one of her highest ranked undead held a halberd made of fog in his hands. The necromancer upon seeing this simply couldn¡¯t contain her excitement.
¡°Fog that is just as deadly as iron? That is exactly why I want you first, Zana!¡±
The foggy apparition struggled against the grip of the undead, before simply leaving the weapon and fading back out into the atmosphere.
¡°I take this as your deration of war, then? Haa~ I never nned on making it a silent affair in the first ce. Let the ughter begin.¡±
<A/N: This backstory was cut really short, with some parts being rushed, especially the ending. I hope you enjoy it nheless! Zana is really pissed off now. What will an angry Tyrant do in the face of a necromancer with thousands of undead?>
Chapter 134 Game On, Necromancer!
¡°Feeling guilty for all that happened, I decided to help Zana do whatever it was that she did.¡±
¡®So, you¡¯re the sister that allowed their sister to get bullied because you didn¡¯t want to feel left out? You¡¯re the kind of sick animal I hate most.¡¯
I told her and stood up.
¡®Get up, Ulva. We¡¯re going back home.¡¯
She stood up and walked ahead of me.
¡°Please! I beg of you! I stood by to let her get bullied the first time. I do not wish the same events to happen this time round!¡±
I saw her prostrating herself, but I didn¡¯t stop to take what she was taking seriously. I really didn¡¯t want to abandon Zana after hearing her story. That was exactly why her sister told it to me. So, I would feel guilty about leaving her to die in a fight. Still, tricking me toe fight a necromancer with the lives of hundreds of people who looked up to me for protection on the line? That was way more vexing.
Ok, maybe she was misdirected into believing that I could resurrect people. Maybe her n wasn¡¯t actually stupid under the conditions she was imagining. Maybe she had been in a real tough patch before and was surprisingly a good person.
Ok¡ maybe it would be a dick move to ignore a fellow victim of bullying. Yes! I can¡¯t allow someone to be bullied just like I was, especially because they were ugly like I was.
I groaned, annoyed at the prospect of what I had identally convinced myself to do. If only I was a ¡°cool kid¡± in former life. I definitely wouldn¡¯t bear this guilty conscience.
¡®Fine! I¡¯ll help you guys out. Tch, I can¡¯t bear to watch someone get bullied.¡¯
The copperhead was staring at me weirdly, making me feel a bit awkward.
¡®Come, Ulva.¡¯
I grabbed her and shadow teleported us to the lizardman vige. There, I saw that Shiroi had kept the vigers at the center of the town like I asked her to. When I asked where Sylvie was, she told me that the pixie was in the chief¡¯s hut, trying to make what I asked her to. Apparently, the lizardman who died already had those items on hand in his cave. Quite handy if I had to say. If possible, I would have liked it if he worked with us, but he was already dead.
After that, I ordered Sylvie, Shiroi and Ulva to head back to the West without me. Given that this was a fight against someone that sought death to be more powerful, I couldn¡¯t rely on my belief in them to reassure me. I had a load of weapons that would prove useful on their own against them. The others, other than Sylvie, did not.
I gave a simr order to the lizardmen. They were reluctant at first, so I forced them all through my portal. What I did may have looked like holding an entire vige hostage, but it wasn¡¯t. I was simply grabbing potential enemies before they could do anything. If the necromancer got to this vige first, she would transform them into her pawns, hence more enemies. I wasn¡¯t ready for that kind of crap.
When all was done, I was alone in the lizardman vige.
¡®Oi¡ Akira. Did you manage to stop, [Evolver]?¡¯
¡®Huh? Stop [Evolver]? You¡¯re definitely not thinking straight! I told you that can¡¯t be done.¡¯
¡®Seriously? Boo! That means I¡¯ll actually die soon¡ at least this time a bunch of people should be able to say good things about me.¡¯
¡®Pfft. That¡¯s what you¡¯re thinking about?¡¯
¡®Well¡ yeah. If we¡¯re lucky, we simply reincarnate after dying at [Evolver]¡¯s hands, no?¡¯
¡®What makes you think we areing back?¡¯
¡®Plot armor.¡¯
¡®You actually still think we¡¯re in some novel? Damn, your adventures here really screwed you up.¡¯
¡®Shut it. Now let¡¯s apologise to the Tyrant of the South.¡¯
¡®Apologise? We did nothing wrong.¡¯
¡®True¡ but¡¡¯
¡®It seems we still have the problem, huh?¡¯
Akira drew my notice to something that made me flinch. shbacks of that incident came and I noticed my wing shivering.
¡®Weird.¡¯
I shrugged it off and decided to return to the tyrant¡¯s cave.
***
¡®Tch¡ where are they?¡¯
Zana stood on the empty wet field where she was supposed to meet her army to make the final face off against the necromancer. She anxiously looked around, holding her spear shakily.
¡®T-They abandoned me?¡¯
She thought. Her mind started to go back to the time her grandmother died and the time Ongril died. Back then, she only saw those deaths as them abandoning her to the cruel world. She didn¡¯t really get it, neither was there anyone to exin the situation to her.
To her, the current situation that was unfolding was no different from them abandoning her to the cruel world once again. She gulped and grasped her staff.
A shaman was not really one who was meant to do battle and she hadn¡¯t learnt a lot of offence magic due to several personal reasons. At best, she would take down as many as she could and prove her title true.<novelnext></novelnext>
She never thought she¡¯d ever be in such a situation. It was almost enough topletely break down her psyche. Why wouldn¡¯t it?
Out of all the tyrants she actually had 0 benefits after receiving her title. Krull was blessed with immense strength right after receiving the title. Sora received unparalleled speed post his ascension, Minerva, just like Goliath had received the ability tomand whoever stepped even a single foot into their territory, as well as immense physical prowess. What did she get? Nothing. She remained same old Zana, although others assumed she was blessed with her high magical proficiency, which was very inurate.
Now, as a creature with barely any difference in strength from before her ascension, she was not nearly as confident in her abilities as one would expect. This made her a ¡°pushover¡±, allowing for everyone to disrespect her.
Her life had always been terrible. She even received the moniker, Terrible Witch. Now she was going to die in a terrible way. Had she not tried to live a good life? Had she not done nothing but protect those in the south? Had she not always offered a helping hand to friends and shown mercy to foe? The irony of it all.
So, right now before she allowed herself to die, she was cackling eerily. A mental breakdown right on the spot. A truly terrible way to die.
¡®Sheesh. What¡¯s with that creepyugh? You¡¯ll scare the undead away.¡¯
A voice resonated in her head. Looking back, she found the bird that she had sacked from her cave walking towards her.
¡°W-What are you doing here?¡±
¡®Um¡ rude much? The bloody calvary is here!¡¯
If Zana hadn¡¯t gone mad, this was definitely what would break her. A chicken that couldn¡¯t even beat a Tyrant? This was her calvary? She might as well have just gone to hand herself over to the necromancer. Herugh intensified, sending shivers down Hinotori¡¯s spine.
¡®I know I said you¡¯ll scare the undead away, but at this rate, you¡¯ll scare me too.¡¯
¡°And what does a chicken want here?¡±
Zana asked with a threatening voice, not in the mood for any jokes. Hinotori pped her wings, rmed by the sudden the switch in moods. The antennae on her head flinched.
¡®Calm down, would you? J-Just see my army first.¡¯
¡°Army?¡±
Just as she questioned that, five monsters appeared behind the chicken. These five creatures were clothed in jet ck armor, with lean builds andrge horns sticking out of their heads. Their eyes were pure red and the aura they produced was akin to that of Supreme beasts. They were forck of a better term, superior in every way to the chicken. At least from what she had gathered at an eye value after scanning her.
Was the chicken actually hiding way more power, being able to summon such powerful monsters? The scarier part was that the beasts were capable of summoning more beasts like themselves albeit weaker. It didn¡¯t take long for her to find herself looking at a massive ck wall that stood mightily behind the bird.
¡®W-What¡ What are you?¡¯
She found herself thinking. Even if she begged the fog to help her fight the demons, she doubted much could be done. Just like the undead who were immune to inhaling poisoned gas or getting lost. She just had the feeling that none of those tricks would work.
¡®Go forth. Destroy all the undead in your path.¡¯
The monsters dispersed at an rmingly fast rate, leaving the two to themselves once again.
¡®It seems we got off on the wrong foot. My name is Hinotori, and if you want, let¡¯s be friends.¡¯
***
When I went to Zana¡¯s cave, she was no longer there. Curious as to where she was, I sent out a shadow being to go search for her. I explored her cave a bit and there was her cauldron of boiling liquid that showed live footage of the necromancer and co. They were a nasty bunch and quite numerous. Like when I say numerous, I meant they would crush a lot of armies I¡¯d seen before. They were definitely above 2000 undead, all of various species. Since when did necromancers control that many?
I tried to get a closer look at the necromancer. She was something like an undead herself. Her body was old, cracked with feint light shining through the cracks, dragon-like wings and ws for hands and legs, with a weird orb in her hand. I tried to get a closer look at her face, but when I did something disrupted the vision.
With perfect timing to, because my shadow told me that it had found Zana. With haste, I teleported to where she was. A wide empty field, far from the homes of the lizardmen and copperheads. I thought I would be in for a world of pain, but all I met was the scariestughter I¡¯d seen since Miss Kushieda¡¯s cackle whenever there was a pop-up test. Good thing I¡¯d never see that woman again.
I quickly realized that she wasn¡¯tughing out of any glee. It was a lonely emptyugh filled with regret. I noticed tears on her face when I was there, but decided to ignore that for her pride¡¯s sake.
After exining my n to her, I teleported back to her cave with her.
We were currently looking into the magic cauldron, where we saw a very horrifying battle scene. My 500 hundred shadow demons against thousands of undead. Like I thought, the undead did not possess aura control or proper mana use, so the lot of them were being beaten up. Even if some could control aura, they were either beneath C rank, or my demons were simply more experienced inbat.
Within minutes, more than half of the enemy¡¯s side was eradicated, with me taking zero losses. It was almost amusing, especially looking at Zana¡¯s expressions while I perched on her shoulder.
¡®W-What is this?¡¯
She thought,pletely overwhelmed by the situation.
¡®You know, a tyrant should not allow themselves to be scared by such a thing. Be a bit bolder.¡¯
¡°S-Sorry¡ It¡¯s just that-¡±
¡®Don¡¯t think too much about it. This was never a fair battle from the beginning. Undead versus my Shadow Army? Unless the gods themselves intervene, I willpletely destroy them from here. Believe in me.¡¯
¡°Ah¡ but why are you so angry?¡±
¡®This necromancer insulted my friend, of course I¡¯d be angry. Let¡¯s crush herpletely! Game on, necromancer!¡¯
Chapter 135 Undead Dragon Born Vs Greater Shadow Demons
¡°AAAAGGHHHH!¡±
There was a horrid shriek that spread out through the quiet battlefield. Surrounded by five hulking figures, one woman was on her knees, screaming in pain. Her body started to act up, holes forming at random and almost immediately healing up, mes engulfing her and an eerie blue aura that forced itself down her throat.
When it was all done, she fell on all fours, huffing heavily. The orb she dropped glowed faintly and hummed calmly. It was speaking to her, informing her of what was happening to the souls.
¡®H-Half? Gone? Already?¡¯
The orb hummed again.
¡®What do you mean I¡¯ll die if all my undead die?¡¯
ZIIIING!
¡®Y-You¡ my soul¡ I was never going to get my revenge, was I?¡¯
ZIIIING!
¡®Someone created the monsters that destroyed half my soldiers?¡¯
ZIIING!
¡®If I make them mine, I won¡¯t have to create more undead?¡¯
ZING!
A sharp shock went through her brain and she stood up immediately with a crazy grin on her face.
¡®That¡¯s it! Whooo!¡¯
She jumped on one of the undead that was surrounding her and stood on his shoulders to get a better view of what was happening.
There was a cloud of darkness straight ahead that relentlessly destroyed the undead army she had spent months making. She shrugged as she thought about the first undead she turned. He was probably in the mix of undead that had been destroyed. That was not important here.
Rather, she wanted to meet the master of that cloud of darkness. If she absorbed that being, she doubted she¡¯d need Zana for much at that point.
With a snap of her fingers, the ground shook mightily. Cracks formed on it and the undead that would normally just move forward started to shake. From the ground, ten giant snakes jumped out. They were a pile of bones covered with pieces of rotting flesh and had blue me manes.
¡°Destroy them, my babies! Kill them all.¡±
The snakes opened their mouths and released powerful blue mes like rockets. Contrary to her expectations, the shadow cloud received little to no damage. Only a few shadow beings there were not amongst the collective were destroyed.
VWOOOSHH!
Up in the sky, one of the shadow beings had its hand raised to the sky. Above it, a spear of pure darkness was being formed. This was one of Hinotori¡¯s Greater Shadow Demon Soldiers. He was the one who led the other shadows when Hinotori gave amand.
¡°Filthy.¡±
He brought the spear down on one of the snakes,pletely piercing through its head and destroying all its bones. The other four Greater Shadow Demon Soldiers did the same, destroying four other snakes. A quarter of the shadow cloud went after the remaining snakes, who poured all their firepower at them. This still failed to cause much damage. In fact, it only made the shadows appear more terrifying as they swarmed a snake, destroying it within seconds.
They jumped on to the next, as the bigger collective focused on wiping out the spread-out necromancer forces.
¡®This is wild! Really wild!¡¯
While she was thinking about this, one of the Greater Shadow Demon Soldiers was flying towards the necromancer in an attempt at destroying her once and for all. A being zoomed by, grabbing the shadow demon along with it and crashing into a pile of undead.
As if the necromancer did not even notice that, she kept observing the other fights.
The shadow demon quickly recovered, taken aback by what had just happened.
¡°Tch. Crazy shadow bastards. I thought we¡¯d seen thest of ya lot since the Zett¡¯s rampage.¡±
A creaky voice said from the dust clouds.
The shadow soldier took out his sword and pointed it at the source of the sound. The undead stepped out of the clouds, revealing a hulking humanoid figure with dull orange scales. It possessed holes in some spot, hollow sockets with an eerie blue glow, sharp horns protruding its forehead and grey hair that reached its mid-back as well as a long beard.
¡°IMPOSSIBLE! YOUR RACE WAS ERADICATED!¡±
The shadow soldier said.
¡°I figured as much. We really did tha¡¯ lil fe dirty back then. I¡¯m not in a mood ta fight ya, but that lil cuckoo over there¡¯s controlling ma body.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
The undead jumped at the shadow soldier who easily parried his punch with his sword.
¡°THEN PREPARE TO DIE ONCE AGAIN, VERMIN.¡±
The shadow soldier took a stance with his right hand behind his back, his side facing the undead and his massive sword lifted as if it were a twig.
¡°Aww, tha good ol¡¯ days. If there¡¯s something I¡¯ve missed. It¡¯s sending ya lot back ta hell.¡±
The undead steadied himself and brought his fists up to his face, breathing in and out till he stabilized himself.
The two began their fight in earnest. The others noticed this very incident from above.
¡°THIS WENCH¡ HOW DARE SHE BRING THEM BACK?!¡±
One of the shadow soldiers asked in anger. Their leader raised his hand to silence them all before they interrupted the fight. He then pointed at the necromancer herself and they all noticed that she was surrounded by four more.
¡°Destroy.¡±
He ordered, and the others vanished without a single second to waste. All of them flew the undead out of proximity with the necromancer who still stood on the biggest of the undead. He red at the duo who seemed to pay no attention to him whatsoever.
Angrily, he flew at the duo. Hopeful thinking told him that he might be able to get both of them in one. Realistic thinking told him we definitely wouldn¡¯t be able to get the necromancer in his attempt. And if he managed to distract the undead, why not? It would just make things exponentially easier for the princess.
A split second before he made contact with the undead, the necromancer flipped off the body. Having anticipated that, he swiped his sword in a wide arc trying to get her head, but the undead¡¯s arm blocked the attack, allowing the necromancer to escape beheading by a thin margin.
The necromancer moved to the center and looked up at the sky, not even ncing at the shadow demon. The undead grabbed him by the head in his distraction and flew him some distance away.
¡°Get ya act together!¡±
The undead roared loudly from the sky,ing down with his legs raised for a kick. The shadow demon rolled out of the way and raised his sword.
¡°Sheesh, letting such a greenhorn get to ya. This ya first time leading an army?¡±
The undead asked, scratching his scruffy beard with a wide grin.
¡°IT HAS BEEN OVER TWO CENTURIES. HOW HAVE YOUR BODIES NOT DECAYED COMPLETELY?¡±
¡°That¡¯s the first thing you ask me? Well, how am I supposed to know, ya shit?¡±
The red skinned undead threw a punch at the shadow who easily blocked the attack with his fist.
¡°Huh?¡±
¡°I SEE. YOUR BODIES HAVE BEEN WEAKENED AS COMPARED TO BEFORE. ESPECIALLY SINCE YOU CANNOT USE AURA AS AN UNDEAD.¡±
The undead struggled against the demon¡¯s grip.
¡°YOU WON¡¯T EVEN BE WORTH MY TIME AT THIS RATE.¡±
¡°Haa¡ tch.¡±
***
The necromancer looked up in the fog. She was looking for something weird she¡¯d be able to see. After a bit of searching, she found it. A weird amount of mana was concentrated in a certain spot in the fog.
¡°Hey! Zana! Zana! I¡¯m here. You can see me, right?¡±
After ensuring that she had acquired its attention, she cleared her throat and stood up straight.
¡°We got off on the wrong foot, Zana. But I wish to make a deal. You¡¯ve seen all these shadows right? You should have been intimidated by them at first too, right? They are basically a walking cmity! You should also be working with the one who made these shadows, right? In fact, they¡¯re probably there with you right now, right? Hand them over to me and I promise to leave you and the south alone¡ deal? Before you talk because you think they have the upper hand here, I¡¯ll let you know that my closest undead are 5 dragonborn. These guys were considered gods back in the days because of how strong they were. Simple farmers that could match the strength of Knight captains without any training and stuff. So, rest assured, that this stupid shadow fight will be over with my victory. Now, you can decide. Join my side and be assured safety, or pray a god descends to save your skin. I¡¯ll give you five minutes toe before me with the summoner in h-¡±
¡°That will not be necessary.¡±
Behind the necromancer, a towering presence appeared from the fog. This time, the figure was not foggy, but the actual Zana. She carried a creature in her left hand. A bird with dark gold feathers and dark patchesid unconscious in her grasp.
¡°This is the summoner.¡±
She said, not even managing to look at it.
Chapter 136 Terrible Witch Vs Vengeful Necromancer
¡°Haa~ Zana!¡±
The necromancer jumped at the tyrant who moved out of the way swiftly, avoiding her hug.
¡°What is the meaning of this?¡±
She asked.
¡°What do you mean? I just wanted to thank you.¡±
¡°Then do so normally.¡±
The necromancer stood up and cleared her throat.
¡°Fine. Drop the summoner on the ground.¡±
Zana looked at her surroundings. Hinotori¡¯s summons were still going at it, beating up the undead army, whereas the necromancer¡¯s top five undead were being kept busy. She still failed to see how the necromancer would win, but there was something about the necromancer¡¯s confidence that made it look like she was not going to lose.
She cautiously dropped Hinotori¡¯s body on the ground. Zana approached it and picked at the body for a bit.
¡°It¡¯s still alive?¡±
¡°Well, you said you want to meet her.¡±
¡°Hmm, I wanted to converse with her first. And I see they don¡¯t just go back even if she is asleep. That means she can literally have such an army at her disposal all the time. This little one is truly impressive.¡±
The necromancer picked up Hinotori¡¯s body and inspected further. She sniffed it and dropped it.
¡®Not even some months old and this powerful? Oh, its potential is too much to just kill it off at the moment. And trapping it as my pet would probably be counter-effective. What do I do then? Brainwash it? No, being able to control this many summons means it won¡¯t be easy to take over its mind.¡¯
The necromancer found herself pondering. It was quite the precarious situation she found herself in. If she allowed the creature to grow, given one year she could possibly hold an Imperial rank in her hands with control over more imperial ranks. An army of Imperial ranks would be troublesome, even to Celestial ranks.
While thinking over a solution, her eyes fell on Zana who kept shifting gazes between her and the chicken nervously. At this moment it was obvious that there was a trick both were plotting. She never trusted Zana from the beginning, but she couldn¡¯t hate Zana for trying to protect herself.
¡°That¡¯s it!¡±
She screamed as a stroke of genius hit her. Zana flinched as soon as the necromancer spoke.
¡°You two. Listen here. I won¡¯t kill both of you.¡±
¡°Eh?!¡±
Hinotori and Zana both yelped after hearing that.
¡°That¡¯s wild, right? I¡¯ll simply allow you one year to grow to your fullest, then I¡¯ll kill you off for my personal gain. That¡¯s a good deal, right?¡±
She said, seeing no w in her proposal. Zana gulped after having her life being threatened once again.
¡°You¡¯re speechless? I mean I would be too.¡±
She deflected a fireball that Hinotori threw at her without the slightest bit of care. Hinotori jumped towards the Zana¡¯s side and gulped.
***
¡®Hehe¡ this is going to be hard.¡¯
I said to Zana, who just gripped her staff tighter.
¡°I will take that as you throwing your frustration at me, so I will forgive you since you have a right to do so. In that case, I will return in a year for both of you. Grow st-¡°
¡®Over my dead body!¡¯
I jumped at her and activated [ck Urs¡¯s Obsidian ws] just to see what would happen. My talons were covered in a ck haze and I instinctively felt that the attack would be deadly. However, my opponent was simply much more than I could have expected. The necromancer easily moved out of the way to avoid the attack and grabbed me by the neck, before pushing me into the ground as if the speed I were moving at was child¡¯s y.
¡°You see what I¡¯m talking about?¡±
She lifted her hand and it was being covered in a weird hazy blue aura. Slowly it was forming a sort of astral hand that kept getting bigger and bigger till it matched Aeri¡¯s fist in her full form.
¡°Right now, you can¡¯t even dream of fac-¡°
The mist in the area came together to punch her off of me. When I looked back, I saw Zana growling at the necromancer with her arms raised.
¡®That¡¯s the spirit.¡¯
She made a stroke with her hand and the mist punched the necromancer into the air once again. Another stroke and another punch came flying.
¡°I am Zana of the Swamp! You do not! And I repeat, You do note into my territory and give me orders or hurt my friends!¡±
She hissed at the necromancer in a rage, giving me goosebumps.
¡®Hehe. Goosebumps.¡¯
¡®Of course, you¡¯d find a way tough in a situation like this.¡¯
¡®Shut it. It¡¯s my coping mechanism.¡¯
¡®I know. Listen to me. As you are now, there¡¯s no chance of beating the necromancer.¡¯
¡®You think I haven¡¯t noticed?¡¯
¡®That¡¯s why I¡¯m here to help.¡¯
¡®What did you have in mind?¡¯
¡®My n will take some time. Tell Zana to hold her off for as long as she can.¡¯
¡®Ok.¡¯
After having my conversation with my second mind, I told Zana what he told me. She agreed, telling me to hurry before returning to the fight. Afterwards, I teleported back into her cave.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®So, what¡¯s the n?¡¯
¡®Um, well¡¡¯
¡®Yes?¡¯
¡®I need you to help me get the agent¡¯s actual name.¡¯
¡®Huh? What¡¯s the point of doing that?¡¯
¡®Think about it. We get the agent¡¯s name, then we can get information on how to beat this.¡¯
¡®What? How does that work. The agent proves useless in situation like this.¡¯
¡®No. The agent tells you to run away and you ignore.¡¯
¡®B-Bu¡ I made a vow.¡¯
¡®Yeah, that vow is worth shit if we end up dying.¡¯
¡®Ah! Fine. What makes you think the agent will give us useful information this time instead of telling us to run?¡¯
<<Because I do carry such information. I know the quickest way to beat the necromancer>>
The agent spoke to us.
¡®And that is?¡¯
<<Name>>
¡®How am I supposed to guess your name you shit?¡¯
<<Figure it out>>
¡®Ugh, goddamn it! I will turn you off forever if you don¡¯t stop being a twat!¡¯
***
Zana stomped her staff into the ground and in response, the ground swirled around the necromancer¡¯s feet trapping her in it. She grabbed her trinket and started to mutter a chant in the ancientnguage. Her trinket glowed faintly with her hand raised and a light blue fireball started to form in her hand. She shot it off with no hesitation.
The necromancer started to cough after receiving the massive attack head front.
¡°That¡ reeaalllyyyyy hurt.¡±
She said, her voice trembling with rage. She pped her wings hard, but to no avail. Zana shot another fireball at her, causing her tremendous pain which was a cruel reminder of her fate before. It was not as much as her being hurt by the mes as much as it was simply mental damage.
Angry, sad, scared. All these emotions that had been piled up and covered by a wall of excitement started to swirl about in her. This only powered the orb that she carried around with her. It hummed with power and filled her up with it. Aura wings formed up around her, allowing her to easily break free from the ground into the air.
She rose her hands and several undead fell to the ground, the force powering the beingspletely absorbed by her.
¡°You want to join my army so soon? Oh, bring it on then. I will reserve a special ce for you.¡±
The necromancer fired a st of hazy aura that hit Zana head on, forcing the tyrant into the ground.
¡°You abomination. What are you even?¡±
The necromancer dropped down and formed a scythe from bones in her hand. Quickly, Zana jumped out of the ground to avoid beheading. She cast a powerful wind, but the necromancer¡¯s scythe sliced through the wind.
She tried to will the mist to crush the necromancer, but it was as if the mist was scared of her. It would try to get close to her, but then stay back some distance. Zana forced the earth, but where the necromancer walked, the ground turned pitch ck, devoid of any life energy. The necromancer¡¯s eyes were now purely ck. The cracks that used to glow were now bleeding a ck glue. On her head, her hair had be ghastly blue mes and her horns had elongated.
¡°I heard you were a naga, but I¡¯ve nagas before. You don¡¯t look anything like them.¡±
Her voice even sounded unnatural. Like multiple voices speaking in one. Zana could feel the immense contrast between the two souls. The necromancer she fought before waspletely different from the current one.
¡°Who are you?¡±
¡°Who am I? I am the necromancer you dreaded so much.¡±
¡°N-no¡ you¡¯re different.¡±
The necromancer shed at her face, cutting her cheeks.
¡°Pfft. You¡¯re stumbling, Zana.¡±
The giant tried to avoid the volley of shesing from her neck, but to no avail. She just kept on receiving the attacks on different parts of her body. She was starting to regret not learning offense magics.
¡°Are you sure you¡¯re a tyrant? Because I doubt the others would be this easy to beat.¡±
A massive arm punched Zana from beneath into the sky.
¡°I knew this would be easy, but I didn¡¯t think it would be this easy.¡±
The necromancer flew into the air then kicked Zana further into the sky.
¡°Don¡¯te down now, the sky is so nice and clear today.¡±
Again, she kicked Zana higher into the sky and the tyrant coughed out green blood.
¡°Look at that. I¡¯ve seen naga blood. Naga blood isn¡¯t green.¡±
Each kick was equivalent to a giant trying their hardest to kick down an iron fortress. It was unbelievable that Zana was still alive and conscious to feel the pain.
¡°So, the summoner left you to die here? Hahaha, how pathetic. To the very end you had no one at your side.¡±
She kicked Zana about like she were some kind of toy.
¡°I normally wouldn¡¯t use my host like this, but this body is going to be damned very soon either way. Your body on the other hand. I will take over, then capture the summoner.¡±
Chapter 137 Side Story - The Storm Inside The Calm
The warmth of the sun, the buzzing of insects in the air, the flow of water down the waterfall, the smell of beautiful flowers in the atmosphere and the rustling of trees in the cool breeze. It was a perfectly normal day in the West of Larm. Well at least, it used to be one to Tsuna.
Ever since the invasion, things had been¡ different. The calming warmth the sun provided was now like walking in actual fire all the time, the insects in the air were now nothing more than pests that kept feeding on her body, the sound of gushing water only reminded her of what she believed she saw when she¡ when she¡ She didn¡¯t even know what!
She had heard rumours from the goblins about what happened. About how the wicked witch had possessed her body during the invasion and this led to major losses. Anytime she asked Gorm about it, he would brush off her question with something else that was happening. This gave her many questions. Too many questions to the point she would sometimes just daze about during the day or stay up during the night. It was to the point she had started hearing voices in her head.
To top it off, ever since Gorm decided to be Hinotori¡¯s servant, she had seen a weird screen in front of her. At first, she didn¡¯t understand its purpose, but after much trial and error, she came to a conclusion as to what this blessing was.
A screen that disyed one¡¯s growth with numerical values. With it one could tell how much potential they possessed and how much they needed to do to grow even stronger. It even gave tips on how to grow stronger. A detailed list of some of her abilities and skills, with descriptions as to what they do specifically, also opening her mind to some uses which she had no information on. It also delivered information that she had been seeking since the invasion.
The title |Cursed Vessel| meant that she was merely a vessel for a Curse Magic User to put something in. The items varied from knowledge to the very magic user¡¯s soul. After piecing one and two together, she realized that she was the Seconding of Zatana everyone dreaded. She was the one thing that little gobs were taught to fear most. Something Elders had deemed taboo to speak off at a point.
This got her into one of her worst states ever. She was what one could term, a moody teenager. And this was one that did not share even the slightest bit of her true emotions with anyone. This caused her to have an episode in which she destroyed the cave of Ooo, ridden the residents of their homes.
Fortunately, at that moment, Hinotori hade back with a mansion, providing the residents a new home and food, making it safer for them than ever. Gorm managed to cover up her episode saying Hinotori had ordered her to destroy the cave and she was so excited to do it she forgot the others were in it. Luckily the others were so stupid they epted the excuse without any resistance.
¡°If this is about Zatana, just stop thinking about it. She¡¯s nevering back. Lord Goliath ensured that. And if she does, we¡¯ll just kick her back to where she came from like before. So, simply rest easy and go back to being your normal self.¡±
These were the words Gorm spoke to her that stuck with her. They motivated her to move past all her feelings of simply being the doom of her people were gone. It felt like her mind was clearer now and she could focus.
So, in her current days, she spent most of her time in the library, researching ways to break a |Cursed Vessel|¡¯s connection to their maker. If she could do that, she wouldn¡¯t need to fear Zatana¡¯s return. If possible, she could find a way to control Zatana to do her bidding instead. Ever since then, the days had been quite normal for her. Still, she had an unsettling feeling inside her chest. As if this was simply the calm before the storm. Even if the entire world seemed to be at their side, she simply felt like something bad would turn their worlds upside down for good.
This gut feeling of hers was proven right one night during a mass dinner Hinotori had made the norm. The Tyrant of the South had called for Hinotori and her army. That wasn¡¯t good news in the slightest. Still, Hinotori had decided to go with only a handful of people saying that we would simply need to get ready just in case.
Once Hinotori left, there was no rest in the West. The rat men had sped up their tunneling and information about a necromancer and tensions in the south had reached the west via the rat men. The timber wolves had gotten more agitated, itching for somebat once again. The goblins had transformed into a decent enough army, under their five goblin captains and general. The bugs and guppies were no where to be seen.
Gorm had decided to increase their forces since they wouldn¡¯t be receiving half as much help as they had thest time. The wolves informed them off the silver back pumas that roamed West without a king at the moment. Since they weren¡¯t organized, it would be easy for the wolves to round them up and force them to submit.
That was what she had spent her day doing. Helping Gorm and the others subjugate the pumas and absorb them into Hinotori¡¯s army.
¡°Tsuna. How are you feeling?¡±
Gorm asked from behind her and she lowered her head.
¡°I feel like something bad is about to happen.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°What could possibly happen that¡¯s worse than taking on a tyrant? For the second time¡ ¡°
His voice only lowered as he kept speaking. It were almost as if he finally realized the magnitude of the situation they were in once again.
Tsuna sighed and brushed her shoulder against his lightly.
¡°Maybe you¡¯re right. With Goliath on our side, nothing bad will happen.¡±
It was at this moment, that she knew she messed up.
Something inside her told her that what she said was the furthest from the truth they would get.
Her instincts were on point. It was truly the calm before the storm. Even worse, this was one storm even the Mighty Goliath could not protect them from. This terrifying storm came in the form of the ck Knight.
It all happened to quickly. Something descended. She went on the attack immediately.
She could feel it. The cold vacuum. The sound of a river of souls wailing for her to join them. Hands and legs of the damned scratching at her, trying to drag her away with them. Even more terrifying were the ws around her. The ws that seemed to say that she was not even worthy of joining the damned in the river.
She was dead again.
<A/N: Wasn''t sure how to name this chapter tbh. "The Storm inside the Calm" or "The Calm before the Storm". I went with the former since I felt like this was just describing Tsuna''s inner conflict which she thinks she has resolved, but was only leading to a growing obsession. Ugh, um, uh. haaa... well anticipate the next chapter? And give me your votes!
Also, this chapter came earlier because you gave me 300 ps.
300 power stones = +1 extra chapter
500 power stones = +2 extra chapters
1000 power stones = +4 extra chapters.
You can join the discord server here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord to get invited here: Rados47#5271 >
Chapter 138 Sleeping Emperor Vs Black Knight
Larm Forest, the West
Anotherzy, calming day in Larm. Another day filled with lush green and animals going about their regr lives. Another day filled with peace under the Tyrants rightful protection. At least it was supposed to be.
¡°What are thou doing!?¡±
Goliath¡¯s voice boomed in the skies above as he looked at the man in ck armor whose breath had caused all the destruction in the forest.
The trees had been incinerated and most of the animals were either dead or severely injured. The burning corpse of one of the wolvesid lifelessly under the heel of the assaulter. He wore jet ck armor and carried a massive ymore on his back. His carried a giant cracked helmet with horns on it that made him seem like a demon.
The ck knight looked at the six feet tall dragonoid in all his dragonic might. However, when Goliath went even closer, he found himself looking up at the giant of a man.
¡°What art thou doing here, Fafnir? Why art thou destroying my forest?¡±
¡°Oh, little Goliath. It¡¯s been a while now. What? A century or two?¡±
He put his hand on Goliath¡¯s shoulder as he talked in a more calming tone. Goliath¡¯s eyes fell down on to the corpse and he squeezed his face.
¡°Kuro¡¡±
He found himself muttering.
¡°What? This thing got a name? I assumed it was no better than the rest of the riff-raff here. Anyway, now that you¡¯re here, I need to take your head.¡±
Fafnir kicked Kuro¡¯s corpse some distance away and squeezed Goliath¡¯s shoulder. The tyrant¡¯s shoulder was starting to crack under the pressure.
¡°W-What does thou want mine head for?¡±
¡°***-¡°
Goliath put his hand over Fafnir¡¯s mouth, cutting him off before he could finish the sentence. His ears were bleeding out and he fell on his knees.
¡°Y-You know you can¡¯t mention a Primordial¡¯s true name.¡±
¡°Oh¡ yes. It must have escaped my mind.¡±
Fafnir brought down his de at lightning speed, breaking up the ground beneath him, spreading tremors throughout the west and kicking up a cloud of dust. With a wave of his hand, the dust was cleared and he was facing Goliath who floated in the air with his wings wide spread.
¡°You have grown quicker, little one.¡±
¡°Stronger too!¡±
Goliath opened his mouth and his head became asrge as it normally was in his dragon form, letting loose a beam of spiraling orange mes at the god. The heat was so intense it sent a devastating heat wave throughout a 200m radius that might have killed anyone in range.
¡°The breath could use some work. Like I told you earlier. The trick to it is the amount of air you take in.¡±
Just as he said this, Fafnir released his own white breath from within Goliath¡¯s attack,pletely overwhelming the other and forcing him to fly out of the way. The pir of white mes shot out into the sky, clearing a pile of clouds and creating a clearing in the sky.
With a wave of his hand, Goliath shot of lightning bolts which Fafnir easily deflected with his sword.
¡°Lightning bolts? Seriously?¡±
Goliath growled at Fafnir¡¯s taunting.
¡°Kneel, Fafnir.¡±
He used [Overlord] to try to slow the god down even though he knew there was no point to it.
¡°Really? [Overlord]? You know that shrimp Larm could never affect me or any Greater god for that matter. I doubt the lesser gods would be so weak to even be controlled by something like this.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
While Fafnir chided Goliath for what seemed to be an ignorant move, Goliath was overlooking the residents in the forest. Minerva was currently organizing them to move into the Forbidden Dungeons. This was one of the reasons no one was allowed to go into the Forbidden Dungeons. Aside from the fact that the monsters inside were so strong the average resident wouldn¡¯t be able to win, the Dungeons were made by Kaleb Zen so that in the case of an emergency this strong, the residents would be moved into the dungeons to hide. This would buy them time toe up with a n, as well as resources to execute whatever n they had. The monsters in the dungeon would move out to fight the threat then.
However, that stupid chicken hade to make a mess of things. Goliath had overlooked her wanting to enter the dungeons as her simply having a death wish, but since she cleared it, the dungeon had been reset. It was not nearly as sturdy as it used to be and all the monsters were dead. All he could now was hope that the residents wouldn¡¯t die, since even if they were annoying, his dearest Mother Larm still saw them all as her beautiful possessions.
He knew Fafnir. In fact, Fafnir was the one to deliver Goliath as a baby to Larm. At the time, Goliath was too young to understand, but he could remember when he was older. The time Fafnir delivered him to Larm, there was a sort of war going on in the Dragon World. Goliath still wasn¡¯t aware of the details, but he was sure his birth mother was dead. That didn¡¯t really affect him since he viewed Larm as his mother.
Sometimes Fafnir would take a break from his ¡°godly responsibilities¡± by having fun with Larm as a child. He thought Larm most of the things he knew and at a point, Larm viewed Fafnir as a father figure. But Fafnir did the impossible. Fafnir dared to burn his mother¡¯s precious forest to the ground. He wouldn¡¯t allow this from anyone. Absolutely no one.
¡°Thou hath chosen death, it seems.¡±
He growled as his body transformed. His back arched up and his arms bloated. His tail elongated as did his eyes, ears and mouth. Soon, pping his wings mightily in the sky was a 50m long azure blue dragon with golden eyes that burned pure with rage.
He let out a horrendous roar that sent shockwaves in the near distance.
¡°Do not make this any harder than it has to be, Goliath.¡±
Fafnir dropped his sword on the ground and cracked his knuckles. He didn¡¯t want to do this, but Goliath¡¯s dragon roar was a signal. Goliath himself hadn¡¯t noticed this since he hadn¡¯t really been around other dragons of his kind, but the specific pitch he used was a soul binding one in which both were forced to duel to the death. Any who forfeits or cheats is immediately killed. A skill called the [Fated Duel].
Goliath dropped down on the ground and towered over Fafnir¡¯s body. With a wicked grin on his face, Fafnir threw a punch at Goliath. The ground rose up, as if to protect the Tyrant,pletely neutralizing Fafnir¡¯s attack.
There was a powerful gust of wind that blew, causing whirlwinds to form. These whirlwinds continued till they formed hurricanes. Storm clouds gathered in the sky and thunder boomed. Blue lightning shed and hit the tornadoes.
Goliath was currently using his [Draconic Storm Magic] to cast a devastating storm which he hoped would slow down Fafnir. He sensed that something was wrong. The dragon god didn¡¯t possess nearly as much power as he once wielded and for some reason, he hadn¡¯t appeared in his true form. The dragon god was one who always boasted about his magnificence andradery. Yet here he was, in appalling armor and trying to kill his friend.
¡®Could Fafnir have been afflicted by something? Tch, whatever it may be, it matters not.¡¯
He thought as he willed the tornadoes to swarm the god. He was not aware of Fafnir¡¯s situation, but for the moment he couldn¡¯t care less.
The three tornadoes collided with one another and formed and even bigger tornado which swallowed Fafnir whole. With a stomp of his feet, the earth shook mightily and opened up. Vines appeared from underneath and formed arge dome over the tornado.
Goliath opened his maw once again and begun to suck inrge sums of air. His chest bloated out and he found himself standing on his two legs. Incapable of supporting his stance, his wings pped, carrying him into the air just above the dome, where he released the powerful breath of bright orange mes. He poured out non-stop till molting magma came drooling out as saliva.
Once he was done, he dropped on the ground and looked at the dome. It had whittled down into nothing but charcoal and the hurricane had dissipated from within.
For a split second, Goliath believed that his opponent had actually been taken down, but his [Extreme Aura Sense] picked up on a tiny bit of aura on the crash site. He scanned through the pile of ashes with his [Dragon Eyes] and noticed that Fafnir was in the pile. He assumed he had weakened Fafnir till he was incapable of moving.
Normally an illogical thought, but in his rage, he wasn¡¯t thinking straight. He had taken into ount that Fafnir was weaker than before and assumed that put them on par. His near infinite pride as well wouldn¡¯t allow him to ept that he failed to beat Fafnir.
Still, if he thought about it logically, he would have realized that Fafnir was not injured in the slightest. Only sitting down. If it were some other creatures, they would have used this as an opportunity to run away. The mighty dragon however did not even consider this option.
Once again, he fired a pir of mes at where he sensed Fafnir¡¯s aura. He kept firing till he felt it was enough and had ended up digging a crater deep into the ground.
¡°Goliath!¡±
Minerva¡¯s voice came. The Sleeping Emperor turned his head to face her. She was approaching him at a high speed and was still some distance away.
¡°Rest easy Minerva. Mine great self hath fini-¡°
BOOM!
He felt an unbelievable pushing force on the side of his face. It was numbing and sent blood rushing to his brain. Struggling to remain standing, his eyes trailed to the source and there, he found Fafnir pping dark, dirty dragon wings with holes in them, and a fist to his face.
¡®Fafnir?!¡¯
THUD!
The Goliath, First Tyrant of Larm, The Sleeping Emperor, was on the ground in seconds and on the verge of slumber.
Chapter 139 Chicken Vs Necromancer
¡®Not if I have anything to say about it.¡¯
VWOOSHHH!
I shot a pir of fire at the necromancer, forcing her to jump back away from Zana. A pir of mes appeared behind me and in it was Zana, slowly healing up. Inded on the ground and sized up the necromancer.
¡®What? What just happened?¡¯
She was thinking. I grinned then fired off some bolts of lightning at her. The necromancer rose up a blue aura wall which nullified my attack, but I had already fired up a ball of fire into the sky that floating about. With this light came the shadows. I used my own shadow to travel behind the necromancer and shed at her with [ck Urs¡¯s Obsidian ws], [Spiky w], [Fiery Kick], [Crush] and [Destroy], ripping apart a quarter of the necromancer¡¯s abdomen. However, my leg was now stuck in it and her neck had twisted about to see me.
¡®I see. So, you can do even this at this stage.¡¯
¡®I can do a lot more you creep!¡¯
I activated [Size Maniption] to make myself three times as big and shoved her into the ground. I shot a [Fire breath] right in her face, used [Horse Power] and [Throttle] to kick myself off the ground and free from her abdomen. There was a click in my head and [Fire force] activated. I rammed into her using [Spearhead], digging her deep into the mushy ground, then immediately teleported to where I left Zana at.
She had already healed up and was simply watching me in what was obvious awe.
¡®So many skills at once. And the magic¡ how?¡¯
¡®Um¡ I¡¯m a genius?¡¯
¡®Liar!¡¯
Obviously, that was a lie. I had Akira orchestrating pulling strings from behind. You see, when we tried to convince the agent, it kept refusing us and we were both starting to lose out cool, especially since well, our lives were at stake. We decided to take a breather and think up a way to beat the necromancer. I had to assume its strength was on par with a tyrant¡¯s, so I used Krull as a baseline. No offense to Zana, but she wasn¡¯t really much of a fighter.
Anyway, we quickly analysed all of my previous fights and came to realise what was the true decider in most of them.
Skills.
Well, one could say you needed brains more than the skills. Technically they wouldn¡¯t be wrong, but they wouldn¡¯t be right either. Having the brains and no skills equals death. Having the skills but no brains also equaled death. Most of my fights I would use skills together, but the problem with that is during a battle I obviously wouldn¡¯t remember every single skill I have. Some would simply be there, rotting away. Fortunately, I now had Akira, who could do that in my ce while I fought.
The saying ¡°Two Brains are better than One¡± was exactly true. So, Akira was in charge of magic and skill formations, whereas I would execute.
¡®Like a robot¡ Fuck! I¡¯m his mecha.¡¯
¡®Hehehe. Next batch of magic is up. This one¡¯s a doozy.¡¯
I rose my hands and willed mana through my body to affect the one in my surroundings. Little drops of water kept forming till they coagted inrger drops of water with powerful whirlwinds taking them and lightning bolts striking. I had formed two mini-hurricanes which were spinning viciously towards the necromancer.
¡®What the heck man! Is it really that easy toe up with them?¡¯
¡®Well, yes. For some weird reason we have a natural talent for magic and mana control.¡¯
¡®Sweet.¡¯
¡®Try out the illusory horn too. I want to see how powerful its effects are.¡¯
A silver horn popped out of my head and glowed after I applied some mana to it. To my side, a butterfly was pping its wings.
¡®Seriously?¡¯
¡®Wow¡ you¡¯re really pathetic.¡¯
¡®I¡¯d like to see you give it a shot!¡¯
¡®After this. What kind of idiot experiments during a fight?¡¯
¡®You suggested it!¡¯
¡®Me? Wow, now your thoughts are sorge you¡¯re mistaking them for me.¡¯
¡®But you are my thoughts!¡¯
¡®No. I have thoughts of my own.¡¯
¡®How does that work?¡¯
¡®I¡¯ll exinter, here¡¯s the next batch.¡¯
¡®Thank you!¡¯
I stomped the earth and pirs shot out from underneath it. The pirs were then connected by smooth ice walls, surrounding the necromancer. On the inside of this cage, the ice walls were spiked so that she would not be able to flee. The hurricanes had also engulfed her, even drowning out any noise she might have been making.
My eyes were immediately drawn to the rest of my shadow demons that were still devouring giant undead snakes. Realising that I would have no trouble there, I focused on the others. Themanders of the shadows were currently engaged in battle and things seemed to bepletely on par.
¡®What is the situation?¡¯
I sent a message to all of them.
¡®EXCUSE OUR TARDINESS! WE SHALL DEFEAT OUR OPPONENTS IMMEDIATELY!¡¯
Or so they screamed into my brain. I sighed then moved to Zana who was still just standing there with her mouth wide opened.
¡®How is a tyrant surprised by any of this?¡¯
I found myself asking. Well, this was basically enough to wipe out an army, but for a tyrant who was expected to scare armies away on the daily, her reaction was forck of better terms, shocking.
¡®W-Well, I don¡¯t normally have to fight so I¡¯ve never had to see any of this before.¡¯
¡®Huh¡ I want to see her stats. Akira is it possible to do so?¡¯
¡®The agent is still refusing so you¡¯d need to make her your servant first, LOL.¡¯
¡®Making a tyrant my servant?¡¯
¡®Hmmm¡ she¡¯s vulnerable now.¡¯
¡®She looks like she¡¯s willing to do anything for power.¡¯
¡®Shall we then?¡¯
¡®Hey, Zana. Be a member of my familia, won¡¯t you?¡¯
¡°Eh?!¡±
¡®Eh?!¡¯
Both she and Akira screamed, giving me brain and ear bleed.
¡®You stupid-¡®<novelnext></novelnext>
I then ignored Akira and focused on Zana. She was staring at me and the surrounding was starting to turn hot.
¡°W-W-What?¡±
¡®You heard me. Be part of my familia.¡¯
[You have offered the ??? Zana a Familia Invitation]
[Note: You can assign a role other than servant]
The screen told me. Then I realized why Akira was angry that I didn¡¯t tell her to be my servant. He must have known about this function and didn¡¯t want me to do it. There must have been a reason for it, but that didn¡¯t matter. I wouldn¡¯t trick my friend into bing my ve. That¡¯d make me no better than bullies.
¡°S-S-Sure.¡±
[The ??? Zana has epted your offer]
[The ??? Zana is now a member of your familia]
[You have received a very strong member! Your familia has gone up by 3 levels!]
[You have received 30 Familia points!]
[You currently have 40 Familia Points!]
¡®Huh? Her race is still unknown? Even to the system? T-That¡¯s¡ what the heck did I just ept into my familia? Ugh, whatever. Might as well add her to my party too.¡¯
[You have formed a party with Zana]
[A special bonus for forming a party with a Family member has been activated]
[The mist epts you and will follow your orders]
¡®W-Wait? What just happen?¡¯
I could feel a pulsing heartbeat all around. Life was overflowing and I feltfortable and at home. It was almost as if the mist was argefy friend.
¡®The mist¡ It¡¯s alive?¡¯
¡®Yes. Oh? What¡¯s this scr-¡®
[The mist warns you off danger]
A screen buzzed in front of me, instantly drawing my eyes to where the necromancer was. I had been waiting for her to break free since something of that level obviously wouldn¡¯t be enough to do a tyrant in. I transformed into my human form so that the armor could give me a boost in stats. I then took out [Crushing Void]. The naginata [Soul Weapon] that had been quiet in my item box for a while now.
It was a lean beautiful weapon. A shaft made out of both silver and mythril, with a de made out of sporonite, with tussles at the bottom and kanji carvings on the side. The kanji read ¡°Void copses with my stomp, Space cuts with my sh.¡±
Just like it said, it was a weapon meant for dealing with space magic sort of situations. However, I wasn¡¯t going to be using it for any of that, lest it gave me a nasty recoil. The mythril shaft allowed for easy mana conduction whereas the sporonite shaft made it so the mana I channel through the shaft received an explosive boost. So once there, even what seemed to be a tiny amount of mana could end up fueling an intermediate level magic. Truly a weapon worthy of being legendary.
I channeled arge amount of mana into it and waved it around in the air, using my wind to gather up the mist.
¡®Sorry, mist but can you help me here?¡¯
At my request, the mist started to swirl with the naginata. I added holy fire magic to the mix, creating a sort of holy fire lightning magic mist tornado? Whatever the hell it was, I made it and sent it charging at the necromancer who was still in the cage.
There was arge explosion from within the cage. The necromancer stood there with one arm torn off and the other holding the orb. The most striking difference however was the fact that there was a massive aura wyvern surrounding her.
¡°You ignorant bird! Did you think I would die just like tha- HUH?!¡±
In my charge, I had easily prated the wyvern and stabbed her in the abdomen once again.
¡®This is where I wink, say something badass, then kill you.¡¯
¡°WHAT?!¡±
I winked at her even through the immense surge of power where we stood. Lightning was flying around and the naginata was turning piping hot.
[A Large amount of energy is being released]
[You will take damage due to your close proximity with it]
[You will lose 400 health points per second]
[You have lost 400 health points]
The necromancer tried to w out my neck, but I avoided it.
[You have lost 400 health points]
¡®Damn, this thing¡¯s killing me.¡¯
[You have lost 400 health points]
I twisted it and shanked it in deeper.
¡°AAAAGGGHHH!¡±
The necromancer roared in pain. Her orb glowed once again and there was a ginormous wyvern head over her with its mouth opened wide.
[You have lost 400 health points]
The wyvern¡¯s mouth came crushing down on me, forcing me to let go of the weapon. I could simply teleport out of the way.
¡®Hasta vista baby.¡±
[You have lost 400 health points]
I tried to teleport away, but then.
[You do not have enough mana to perform this action.]
¡®Eh?¡¯
[You have lost 400 health points]
The wyvern head chomped down on both of us. What followed next was just white light and a loud explosion.
[You have lost 699 health points]
Chapter 140 Goblin Vs God
Minerva rushed over to her fallen ally whose eyes were struggling to stay open. Goliath spat out some of his teeth in a mess of blood with Minerva had to avoid.
¡®R-Run.¡¯
He told her while he was still on the ground. Attempting to get up was failing him and for some reason his entire body refused to move. Maybe it was because he had never known so much pain in his life. It felt like he really should have died from that one hit.
KINK. KINK.
The ck knight¡¯s armor nked as he approached Minerva to see who hade. He was shocked to find the albino goblin and dismissed her existence immediately.
¡®Leave, little one. Goliath does not wish for me to destroy others, is that not so?¡¯
He sent the message directly into her head so that she could hear. With his attention towards Goliath, he rubbed Goliath¡¯s mouth.
¡°I was certain you could tank that. I see, all you¡¯ve been doing over the centuries iszing about with that supposed ¡°Mental Meditation¡± crap that human taught you.¡±
Fafnir scratched his chin then moved towards Goliath¡¯s chest.
¡®I think, plucking out his heart would be the easiest way for him. He still hasn¡¯t epted this as his loss so the ritual is still act-¡¯
¡®KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! MINERVA MUST KILL HIM! MINERVA WILL KILL HIM! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!¡¯
Fafnir¡¯s thoughts were interrupted by the sheer intensity of Minerva¡¯s murderous thoughts and aura. He looked at her. She was fuming, her nostrils red and the ground was shaking. A deep red aura had engulfed her whole and her eyes seemed to burn with all the hatred in the world.
¡®Hmm? This blood lust¡ Now that I think about it, the goblin¡¯s kind of strong.¡¯
He scanned Minerva with his [Dragon God Eyes] and realized that she possessed something of godly origins in her system.
¡®Oh my¡ Larm fed her that substance too? I thought we burnt all of those to the ground. That human must have hidden some. Ah well, at least I know she¡¯s thest one of those twos experiments.¡¯
He shooed her away and continued to reach out for Goliath¡¯s chest. His eyes had found where the dragon¡¯s heart was, so he could end it quickly.
Minerva jumped at Fafnir, as fast as lightning and with all the strength she could muster so that she could kill Fafnir in punch. This was all futile though as Fafnir took the punch to the face without flinching.
¡°I hope you can see this, Goliath. I just wanted you to know before you died, that this is how dragons take punches.¡±
Minerva¡¯s fist waspletely shattered right after punching Fafnir.
¡°Go sleep somewhere. It will heal in a day since you¡¯ve taken that substance.¡±
His words fell on deaf ears however. Minerva punched his face with her other hand and Fafnir sighed.
¡°Listen here, kid. J-¡°
Minerva punched his face once again with the fist that was once broken.
¡®Huh?¡¯
Then she punched him again.
¡®I thought her fist was broken?¡¯
She punched his face, roaring wildly like some wild animal.
¡°SINK!¡±
At hermand, the ground swallowed him up in an instant.
¡°SPIT!¡±
He shot out of the ground like a bullet out of a gun. Minerva managed to punch him while he was off ground and send him quite the distance away from Goliath. Without hesitation, she jumped towards Fafnir¡¯s location. Goliath¡¯s tail smacked her down into the ground though.
¡®Run away, Minerva!¡¯
Goliath ordered her.
¡®No! Minerva will not!¡¯
She replied underneath his tail.
¡®Now is not the time to be hot headed. Flee lest you die.¡¯
¡°Mmnga!¡±
She managed to lift the dragon¡¯s tail off her body and charge towards Fafnir.
¡®Minerva will never let Goliath die!¡¯
¡°LIFT!¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
The earth rose up to form arge wall Fafnir hit. Minerva came in with a punch, shoving Fafnir deeper into the wall. She grabbed him by the neck and looked into his eyes with both of her demon eyes.
¡®Useless.¡¯
He told her, making her drop to the ground after having attempted to get him. His [Dragon God Eyes] were basically anti-demon eyes. Anything godly was a bane for devils, including the gaze that came from a god. Even if the god was a fallen.
¡®Huh¡ I wonder how you developed such an ability. Are you rted to a demon? Or did you make a deal with some devils? Whatever. You¡¯re not what I even came for.¡¯
Fafnir stomped to the dragon¡¯s side.
Minerva could only stare at him from the ground. Her vision kept fading in and out on the ground. The world was a mess all of a sudden. The smoke was choking her, the scent of blood disgusted her and darkness was scary. But she couldn¡¯t resist it. Eventually her eyes closed.
***
When her eyes opened, Minerva was under a tree. The sun was setting and the trees were swaying like an averagely boring day. This was not so, for today was the day a new Tyrant of Larm was going to be officially introduced.
The hob goblin picked her nose then turned over to sleep some more. She had nned on not going for the meet up. There was no point in getting to know any of the others. It didn¡¯t take for night toe and Minerva to wake up to go hunting.
This time however, Goliath had been staring at her for a while. Minerva felt ufortable having the astral projection of the strongest being present following her all around.
¡°What?¡±
¡®Why did thou skip the ceremony?¡¯
¡°Minerva was not interested.¡±
¡®Thou does realise that dragons have this instinct for telling truth apart from lie, right?¡¯
¡°Minerva did not lie.¡±
¡®Oh yes, Minerva did. Or maybe, thou simply phrased your thoughts differently to throw myself off the truth.¡¯
Minerva clicked her tongue and walked away faster, trying to increase the distance between her and the dragon. Goliath shortened the distance and got right behind her. The difference in height was so much so that it looked like Goliath was walking next to a child of sorts. Minerva grumbled to his side and Goliath put his hand on her head, patting her.
¡®Thou does not need to fear making allies. Not all will pass as easily.¡¯
Both continued to walk in the eerily quiet forest.
¡®Mine name is Goliath and is spread throughout the world for a reason, Minerva. The Great Sleeping Emperor, albeit a boring name, is one that shakes entire countries to the bone. Mother told me of your past rtionships. Fret not, for I will not die like the those before. Same can be said of the other tyrants. Thou art not a curse.¡¯
¡°Whatever.¡±
***
Minerva¡¯s eyes snapped open. Her eyes rattled about in her eye sockets before settling on the ck knight. Like a rabid animal, she got on all fours and charged at the god. Ignoring any care, her feet devastated the ground with each step she took.
The skills [Hyper Mobility] and [Maximum Output] had been activated, giving her 300% of the speed and power that she would normally possess. The bump on her head had grown a bit and her hair was floating due to aura and blood escaped her nose and mouth; her body was being ruptured.
¡°Ugh, haven¡¯t you had enough?¡±
Fafnir side stepped, grabbed her by the neck and pinned her to the ground. When he raised his hand, his ymore flew into it and he stabbed both of Minerva¡¯s hands into the ground. The sword then produced a ck substance that spread into the ground like roots or veins.
¡°Kyyyaaaaa!¡±
She moaned in pain as the veins spread over her hands as well.
¡°Don¡¯t try moving. That thing saps the strength from you and the ground to keep you stuck there. You¡¯re basically fighting all of Larm to free yourself now.¡±
The god swaggered to where Goliath was and put his hand on Goliath¡¯s chest. There was a growl and Goliath¡¯s head had been craned to face Fafnir with his mouth wide open.
¡°Are you seriously going to do this?¡±
In response, Fafnir observed white molten magma escape Goliath¡¯s mouth like drool. The dragon¡¯s mouth just shut close, it¡¯s body incapable of doing anything anymore. This was because Fafnir had managed to rupture most of Goliath¡¯s internal organs with mana waves.
¡°I remember naming you Goliath, because I wanted you to be a giant on this world. Like Zett or Zoe. But like Eren and Erin, it seems all of my children are fated to die due to my actions.¡±
Fafnir increased the pressure he was sending to the dragon¡¯s heart.
¡®Sorry Minerva.¡¯
Goliath sent a message to her.
¡°Please, do not hate me on the other side, Goliath. Farewell, my little giant.¡±
¡®Goliath promised! Goliath promised that Goliath would never die!¡¯
¡®D-Did I do right, mot-ACK?!¡¯
Chapter 141 Awakenings
¡°GOLIATH!¡±
Minerva¡¯s cracky voice managed to overshadow all the chaos going on around them. A burning tree fell down in front of her,pletely blinding her from what was happening. She kept sniffing and struggling on the ground. The tears that escaped her eyes wereing out in floods.
¡°Not again! Not again! Hyyyaaaa!¡±
She kept screaming, the sight of Goliath¡¯s death kept repeating itself in her head in that moment. Many feelings and thoughts swirled in her heart and mind. Again, she wasn¡¯t able to stop anyone from dying. Her mother died, but she honestly couldn¡¯t care less at first. Then her father followed suite. Next the vige of dark elves that raised her had been destroyed. The spirit that used to talk to her was nowhere to be seen. In fear and anger, she went away from Gorm. Maybe that was when the idea that she was a curse to those who loved her started, but she didn¡¯t take it seriously. She made a new friend, Fang. Then Fang died.
At that point she had decided she was indeed a curse. Larm blessed her with power. So much power Minerva would never need to suffer a loss. But just to be sure, she avoided forming rtionships. Still, Goliath wormed his way into her heart. The bastard had promised her. He promised her that he would never die.
Now that he was dead, Minerva was all alone again. She really was a curse to everyone around her.
¡°No¡ Goliath¡¡±
She found herself losing her voice.
¡°Grandma Eltea¡ Sister Murea¡ Sister Necrea¡ Dorm¡ Minerva is a curse.¡±
The powerful tyrant found herself muttering on the ground. So much for all her power. She barely did anything before getting grounded. Now, all she had was time to reflect on all her mistakes. She was simply too sad for her [Berserker] skill to even activate.
¡®Minerva!¡¯
She heard a voice in her head. She looked up and standing there was a spider.
¡®You can¡¯t give up now! Fight! If you don¡¯t, Hinotori will be sad.¡¯
¡°Tori-kun?¡±
¡®Figh-¡®
SQUASH.
One of the burning tree branches fell on the spider, killing it.
¡°Tori-kun? Tori-kun? To¡ri-kun. Tori-kun!¡±
Out from Minerva¡¯s mouth was a simple rumble of Hinotori¡¯s name. However, in her mind she was thinking.
That was right, she still had Hinotori. She couldn¡¯t allow Hinotori to die. She may have failed others, but she was not going to add to that list.
¡°Uuuooggh!¡±
She started to roar again. Something inside had clicked in her. [Berserker] was currently active, but that wasn¡¯t what clicked in her. Something she had never experienced before. The ground beneath her was breaking up as she managed to stand on her legs, even with her hands still pinned to the ground. In a rage, she bit the sword¡¯s de and tried to free herself. Veins connected from the de to her face. She tried yanking the sword out with her mouth if she had no other choice, but all that was doing was cutting the edges of her lips.
Her teeth only nked on the shaggy ymore, having absolutely no effect on it. She enveloped her body in her [Tyrant¡¯s Aura] and used [Overlord] on herself and her very surroundings, including the sword. She could feel resistance from the sword, but she was not going to let that slide.
¡°Let! Minerva! Go!¡±
She ordered once more, but there was still no reaction from the sword.
With more will and anger, she ordered again.
¡°Let! Minerva! Go!¡±
A slight nudge. She noticed the sword moved albeit barely noticeable. That confirmed that she had some authority over it. She red at the de with all forms of skills. [Extreme Murderous Aura], [Extreme Intimidating Aura], [Great Demonic re], [Tyrant¡¯s Authority], [Overlord] and [Lordship]. The ymore started to tremble under her orders. She could feel it moving out of her hands slowly. It was working. Once she was free, she would surprise her opponent and have her revenge. She would end this threat once and for all.
¡°Huh? That¡¯s weird.¡±
The sword was firmly shoved back into the ground with Fafnir holding it like Minerva¡¯s struggle didn¡¯t faze him in the slightest. She turned her re to him and Fafnir was ring at her. Normally he possessed an imposing presence, but he realized that Minerva had not once shown a bit of fear for this. Even the n heads did and he was certain they were stronger than Minerva was, so what was happening was confusing to him.
He found himself using [Dragon God Eyes] on her intensely, trying to see if there was something he missed. The result was way more shocking than he could have imagined. Immediately, he threw the sword away and rose Minerva up to his eye level.
¡°Y-You¡ who are you?¡±
He questioned in a panic. He looked to the skies and a smile in confusion.
¡°D-Did you know?¡±
He asked in silence.
Minerva coughed out a bit of blood and Fafnir gently dropped her on the ground.
¡°FUCK!¡±
He cursed, sending a powerful roar in the opposite direction, clearing up the ground and paving a new path. He sat down and scratched his head,bing his hands through his hair and thinking. His eyes were wide opened and his mouth kept rattling on and on.
Minerva slowly stood up. There was annoying clicking sound in her head. Her body was vibrating and humming and this was only leading her to rage more and more. She was losing whatever control she had over her body. The Mad witch jumped at Fafnir who simply avoided her and kept pacing up and down. Minerva jumped him again, yet he avoided her with ease.
¡°ARGH! RARA!¡±
She was screaming like a rabid animal, jumping at Fafnir over and over again till the god backhanded her on the forehead, into the ground.
¡°Would you stop that?! Oh¡ shit.¡±
He rushed over to her and found her on the ground, her body was not moving. He moved his hands about her body, not sure about to touch her like she were his precious cargo. When he looked at her forehead, there was a bump there. He brushed aside her silver hair and took a look at it.
¡®Hmm, a horn is growing? She is quite young, even so¡¡¯
While he was looking at her body, Minerva¡¯s eyes snapped open, revealing nothing but silver light.
¡°Huh?¡±
¡°You!¡±
BOOM!
She released a powerful energy from her body, throwing Fafnir back. The god grunted while trying to sit up. He hadn¡¯t realized before, but his armor was kind of heavy, wasn¡¯t it?
ZIIINGG!
His eyes trailed to a bright light. Standing there with her hair floating and moving like fire, a sharp horn wasing from her forehead, with a crack going from it down her eye. Her body was surrounded in this glowing aura and Fafnir simply looked guffawed.
¡°You¡¯re definitely Eren¡¯s kid, alright.¡±
***<novelnext></novelnext>
Wee to Tori news! Here we keep you updated on everything that happens. Basically¡ there was a boom. That¡¯s all to it, folks! End of story.
The first thing I did after gaining consciousness was scream in pain. It felt like my skin had been opened out and needles were piercing each and every single centimeter of my body. There was a disgusting heat inside of me that made me think I was burning, but strangely left me aware of the fact that I wasn¡¯t. I could only smell rotting stuff and I couldn¡¯t hear anything, but a ping.
¡®Sa sa¡ haven¡¯t I been in too many explosions ofte?¡¯
¡®Um¡ don¡¯t look down.¡¯
Akira said.
I really would have to find a way to beat him up. Obviously, after telling me such a thing I looked down and there, I found that there was arge gaping hole in the side of my stomach. I tried to touch it, but my arms weren¡¯t there. I identified them on the floor next to me,ying there lifelessly, blood all over the ground.
My eyes widened in shock and I regurgitated after seeing that.
¡®My hands! Those are my hands! Why aren¡¯t they on me, but on the floor?¡¯
¡®Um, the wyvern head chomped them off when it destroyed the naginata.¡¯
¡®It did what?! Wait. Have you been conscious this entire time?¡¯
¡®Um, yeah. It seems that only you received the mental stress. I got nothing. It was like watching a movie for me.¡¯
¡®S-So, it¡¯s over?¡¯
¡®Not quite.¡¯
¡®What do you mean?¡¯
¡®If it was over, you would have gotten experience points and the enemy was so tough you should at least have leveled up once.¡¯
¡°¡tori! Hi¡ ori!¡±
I heard something screaming out my name. My eyes shifted wildly around me in fear and they settled down on something big moving towards me. It was Zana. She lifted me off the ground and rose her hand over me, muttering some words. Soon, my body started to feel better. The pain was lessened and I could feel my health going back up. I wondered what exactly it was she was doing, since I saw no light or anything. Simply muttering words was getting me better.
¡®Oi, you need to see this.¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
¡®I¡¯ve been handling the system alerts. But this one¡¯s something else.¡¯
¡®Show me.¡¯
[Certain conditions have been reached]
[Enough energy has been umted for the Exclusive Skill [Sacred]]
[Do you wish for the Exclusive Skill [Sacred] to be unlocked?]
¡®W-What? You mean the sacred that only heroes get?¡¯
¡®I¡¯m shocked. Since heroes use these skills do you suppose it gives them immense power?¡¯
¡®Possibly. It is a skill possessed by heroes alone, right? And since the necromancer isn¡¯t defeated yet, it means we can use this to beat her.¡¯
¡®Sounds too convenient.¡¯
¡®Come on, Kira. Do we really have a choice here?¡¯
¡®Your judgement is being clouded by your anger and pain right now¡ but so is mine. That was my life she just almost quenched. Let¡¯s get her.¡¯
Having gotten Akira¡¯s approval, I activated the skill. Well, I was going to do it either way, but with him on my side, this was better.
DING!
[A new [Sacred] has been activated]
[The [Sacred] has been named [Legend of Pandemonium]]
[You have been awarded the title [Champion of The Primordial Darkness]]
[A section of the Exclusive skill [Legend of Pandemonium] has been activated]
Prelude
--- On the verge of death, Hyakkiyako receives the power from the Ancient Goddess of Darkness. Hyakkiyako swears her undying fealty for the Goddess. Hyakkiyako¡¯s tale is now about to begin---
[The [Shadow¡¯s Crib] reacts to your new sacred]
[The [Shadow¡¯s Crib] says ¡®Hello mother.¡¯]
¡®Huh?¡¯
I wasn¡¯t feeling any different. I was still in a lot of pain. And to top it off, the weird egg from earlier just said something weird.
¡®MASTER! WE HAVE DEALT WITH THE UNDEADS!¡¯
The shadow demons said.
Just then, in the sky, some auras floated. I realized that they were possibly the souls that were inhabiting the undead. I was not certain whether they were actually souls, but I would call them that since they resembled those. Unfortunately, they all traveled to where the necromancer was.
I gulped once I realized that they were only fueling the necromancer.
There was a horrendous shriek that caused Zana to drop me off on the floor, just to cover her ears, followed by powerful winds.
Standing where was supposed to be the necromancer¡¯s grave, was what I could only describe as Death herself.
Clothed in a ck robe, with skin that literally glowed, a crown of finger bones on her ck ming hair and leaning on a scythe that was twice her size. A beauty of all sorts with an air of horror around her. Her form kept fidgeting and glitching, as if it were some sort of error for it to even exist.
¡°To think, that I could manifest a form like this¡ If I had known, I would not have tried so hard to keep myself from destroying your body, Zana.¡±
Death¡¯s voice echoed. On the ground, I couldn¡¯t move even a single muscle as I observed.
¡°Ok then, time to kill you all.¡±
Chapter 142 Explosive Conclusion
¡°Ow!¡±
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
¡°Ow! Ow! Ow! Would you stop that?¡±
Fafnir lifted Minerva up to keep her fists from hitting his stomach.
¡°Stop it.¡±
She kept swinging her hands at the air, sending shockwaves that were nothing more than a breeze to him.
¡°You will not be able to injure me, you know?¡±
¡°RAAAAAAARR!¡±
¡°You have terrible breath.¡±
Fafnir raised his eyes and looked at her. In contemtion, he hummed for some time beforeing to a conclusion. His ymore whizzed into his hand. A rip sounded as he cut open Minerva¡¯s stomach with his weapon and her golden blood flowed out.
¡°You are going to be in a lot of pain.¡±
His sword was suddenly aze with white mes that went right through Minerva¡¯s wound and into her body, burning her up from the inside. Minerva¡¯s pained cries boomed throughout the burning forest. Even the viges that bordered the forest could hear her cries, as well as see the forest fire.
Most were scared, unaware of what would happenter on.
_____________________________________
The necromancer waved her hand and a wave of blue spread across, passing right through us. I had assumed it was going to injure me, but what happened was far worse. From behind I could hear the undead army standing up once again.
¡®Is she nning on fighting us with the undead again?¡¯
¡®Looks like it.¡¯
¡®That¡¯s stupid though¡ we still have the shadows.¡¯
At least that was what I thought.
¡®There¡¯s your first mistake, child. You assumed with my new burst of power, the undead would still be weak. Go forth, my army!¡¯
¡®WHAT?!¡¯
At her order, the undead army moved out. They charged at my shadows that were floating in the sky. On instinct, my army charged in as well and there was a massive disastrous sh. The result, was the undead army actually proving to be a match for mine.
At first, all the undead had on us was their immense number. But now, they possessed number and power. So, my shadows were basically out of their depth at this point. They had to strike from above, but the giant undead snakes were problems too, firing off their own breath attacks and mming some soldiers into the ground for the others to destroy them.
Things were looking very grim and my body still hurt like hell.
¡°W-What is that?¡±
Zana pointed into the sky. In the clouds, I identified something zooming towards us. A red streak flew past in the sky and with it came a sound much like a jet fighter.
¡°Iing!¡±
I found myself yelling and jumping at Zana for her to duck like I¡¯d always see in those war movies.
BOOM!
Whatever that red streak was,nded right where the necromancer was. I was scared to think that it was possibly more power for the necromancer.
¡®Oi, oi, oi! Sensing a new presence here. And it¡¯s scary!¡¯
Akira yelled in my head.
¡®You could have told me before it came.¡¯
¡®I¡¯m a little busy with the system screens shouting about how you¡¯re about to die if you don¡¯t run away. Tch, there¡¯s no mana too.¡¯
¡®Yeah, about that. What the heck happened to all my mana?!¡¯
¡®Hehe, funny thing actually. But that¡¯s not the point here. Just try to run away.¡¯
¡®Sure. I¡¯ll just call one of the shadow demon generals. Hey! Can you hear me?¡¯
¡®UGH! LADY HINOTORI¡ WE ARE CURRENTLY DISTRACTED.¡¯
¡®Oh shit. Did they really get that powerful?¡¯
¡®Use the mist! Tell the mist to get you out of here.¡¯
¡®Mist! A little help here? Mist? Oi, mist!¡¯
¡®Forget it. It¡¯s too busy with Zana.¡¯
I looked at Zana and noticed that the mist was swarming her, forming something like a shield. I jumped to her side and looked at her face.
¡®Now would be a good time to run, Zana.¡¯
¡®Buh¡¡¯
¡®Tell the mist to teleport us out of here.¡¯
¡®Buh¡¡¯
¡®But what?¡¯
As soon as I asked this, I sword a sh of red light from the dust where the necromancer was standing. Suddenly everything was quiet. The undead hadpletely paused in their movements and so had my army due to confusion. The whole battlefield became dead silent in an instant due to one sh of red.
PLOP!
Something fell. From the dust cloud, something rolled over to us. It was like a ball, but with ck strands. Within seconds, it fell at Zana¡¯s feet.
¡®Oh shit¡¡¯
It was the necromancer¡¯s decapitated head. I looked up at the dust cloud and from behind it, violently glowing red eyes stared at me. There was a powerful gust of wind that cleared the mist, revealing a petite girl in a ck battle gown with rose ends, a symbol ¨C three swords through a crown ¨C on her chest, white, short, frilly hair and a tiny tiara with rubies fixed in it on her head. Over her neck was a ne, and in her tiny hands, she carried a huge cleaver. A weapon of the same size as Krull¡¯s, but with a blunt end and shaggy sides. It seemed to be made out of fine sturdy metal, with the edges being red in color.
The girl was staring intensely at me and carried apletely expressionless face, as well as a terrifying bloodthirsty aura.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°My name is Rulis Tepe Miksari Eldiro Furialt.¡±
She dragged her sword in front of her as if it weighed nothing more than paper. The torn-up ground was proof of its weight.
¡°You are the one who caused the destruction of various establishments in Keimen and presumably the murderer of Noble Percy McAllister.¡±
I gulped once she said that, confirming my fears that she was here for me.
¡®Um¡ I think you have me confused for the other blonde with wings. They went over to that si-¡®
I was in the sky, way above the ground. I had a clear view of the battlefield. The ground was torn up, piles of dead bodies had copsed on the ground and my army made thisplete dark spot from above. There were also some huge snakes among the undead. Kind of creepy.
¡°You are before the Judge and Jury. Make you plea.¡±
I could hear multiple voices in one. Looking up, there was the girl, but her eyes were silver this time.
She stood on an invisible tform with ethereal blood red me horns floating on her head. Her free hand had been stretched out towards me while I was floating. She pointed her de at me, then with a simple clutching motion of her hand, my body was sent forward towards her.
¡®H-Huh? W-What just happened?¡¯
[You have received a direct attack on your heart]
[You are losing several health points]
[The status [Super Severe Bleeding] has been inflicted upon you]
[You will lose 1000HP per second]
[Due to the skill [Sturdy] you have 1HP remaining]
So many things happened at once, that the next to follow looked quite normal to me.
<<Alert! Alert! Master! Y-Your health! The skill [Evolver] has started to take effect. >>
The agent¡¯s voice resounded in my head, like some scared kid.
¡®Kek¡ you just called me master¡ Who¡ are¡ you¡ LOL-¡®
***
¡®You? Eh? Again? Seriously? Again?¡¯
I heard a voice, prompting me to open my eyes.
¡®W-where am I?¡¯
I looked around myself, but there was only darkness surrounding me. My inner thoughts echoed like I had screamed.
¡®Let¡¯s just hope it goes good this time.¡¯
The voice repeated.
¡®Who is that?¡¯
There was a bright spark in the darkness. From it, something started to uncoil itself, growingrger till it managed to be as big as Aeri in her tiny form. It was a muscr body that was set aze, with curly horns protruding its forehead. Its lower body did not possess any definite features, much like a ghost or poltergeist. It carried a sword much simr to the one the girl from before carried and had a mean looking face. This was what I expected fire demons to look like.
¡®Satan?¡¯
I simply couldn¡¯t help myself.
[The Devil Viscount has appeared before you]
[The Devil Viscount is judging you]
Once this was said, I saw various images of my life shing before me. I even saw some images that weren¡¯t mine. I saw bloodshed. Wars and death. A little girl crying in a field of ash. A valiant warrior in a suit of golden armor with a spear piercing the sky. An emperor, ruling over several people. My time, avoiding school and just ying games. Childhood days with Akane before she dyed her hair red and turned all emo and stuff. That time I had to teach Ken math because he was new at school. When I took some cash out of mom¡¯s wallet to go buy a kebab.
[You have been judged as Unworthy for life]
¡®Unworthy for life?¡¯
¡°Have thou anyst words?¡±
A cute, almost angelic voice asked. That part was a bit creepy, but since this was the end. How about going out with a bang?
¡°That kebab was worth it.¡±
The giant creature raised its sword, the great sword glowed brighter as it came down and I braced for impact, but it never came. When I opened my eyes, the creature wasn¡¯t there anymore, leaving me confused.
A screen popped up in front of me, showing me a video of¡ Minerva. And she was bleeding severely in the arms of a man in ck armor. He seemed to be saying something, but there was no audio.
¡®LOL, I think you need to hurry.¡¯
I looked behind me and I could see an eye staring at me from the darkness. Strangely enough, I didn¡¯t feel creeped out about it. In fact, my main concern was what it was showing me.
¡®What the hell is the meaning of this?¡¯
¡®It is as you see. Minerva is being dragged away by someone in ck armor. You should be able to make it there if you hurry. Just stab the [Soul Consuming Orb] and you should receive sufficient experience points to level up.¡¯
The eye said calmly.
¡®Who are you?¡¯
¡®Oh? I thought I was doing a pretty good impression of Alpha. Was I that bad?¡¯
¡®She¡¯s twisted. She¡¯d probably use my mother¡¯s body at a time like this.¡¯
¡°Oh, what a bore. Never mind me then. That person is in trouble, isn¡¯t she? If you don¡¯t hurry, this might be thest time you see them.¡±
She faded into the darkness while saying,
¡°Hurry up. Time¡¯s ticking.¡±
<A/N: So the first volume of the story is done. Lots and lots of things happened, especially in this arc. I feel like itcked any suspense though. Welp, I simply couldn''t logically put in any suspense when it came to an overwhelmingly powerful being like Fafnir. I mean, he did go toe to toe with Zett and Fell back in the old days... sigh. Anyway, how was it? Any suggestions? Reviews? Thoughts? Just let me know. Like, just go over to the review section and drop one if you feel like it. It''ll really help me in the long run! I will also be going on a short break, but hopefully, I will continue posting before the end of this month.
Funny how this was supposed to be chapter 69 in the original story, right? >>
Chapter 143 Did I Go Back In Time?
No, no, no, no! What was happening? Was Minerva, ok? What was that weird feeling from earlier? Was it all connected? And the person who just entered my head. Who was she?
While those questions came to mind, the darkness started to feel suffocating. I couldn¡¯t breathe and there was a crippling fear in me. It felt like I was actually about to die. Suddenly, I could feel wind in my face. My body was in a ton of pain and it was getting cold. There was this uneasy feeling, like I was falling.
Slowly, I opened and my eyes, and there I noticed that clouds were passing me by at high speeds.
¡®Fufu¡ I¡¯m falling. Why¡¯s this so funny?¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t know, don¡¯t ask me.¡¯
Akira chimed in.
I was literally plummeting to my doom, yet the pain made me feel like I shouldn¡¯t care less. And the number of higher beings looking over me from beyond death made me feel like I really could do anything, and they would simply bring me back to life. There was no point in trying my hardest.
¡®Oh yeah. Before I forget. This is thest time I ever interfere in that kind of situation. Next time you die, you¡¯re dead.¡¯
The voice from earlier said, making my heart sink. Next to me, the eye winked, then glitched out of existence.
¡®Curse my luck¡ Kira?¡¯
¡®We¡¯ve got nothing. We¡¯re out of stamina and mana. It¡¯s up to someone else to save us.¡¯
¡®Send a message to the shadows then?¡¯
¡®That¡¯s a no go. They disappeared the moment our heart was stabbed through.¡¯
¡®Huh¡ so they depend on my life to remain here. At least I know they¡¯d never betray me now.¡¯
¡®What to do?¡¯
I looked all around the battlefieldzily. I saw Zana looking around, confused. Probably shocked by the entire scenario.
¡®Ah, that¡¯s right. I formed a party with her. Let me send a message. Zana.¡¯
¡®Hinotori?! Where are you?¡¯
¡®I¡¯m kind of in the clouds right now.¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
¡®Just floating up here.¡¯
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡®Kind of winging it.¡¯
¡®Dude! Now is not the time! Minerva is in trouble.¡¯
¡®Right! I¡¯m falling from the sky, right above you. Can you make the mist save me?¡¯
She looked up and saw me. When she did, I could feel my descent slowing down. The mist grabbed me like a cushion and gently dropped me into Zana¡¯s hands. The Tyrant looked at me with tears in her eyes, no doubt grateful for my heroic endeavors.
¡°You¡ You¡ did¡ not¡ abandon¡ me¡ too.¡±
She said the words in between sniffs, making me realise she was teary about an entirely different matter. Her giant water ball for tears fell on my body, having a shocking effect.
[You have restored 50 Health points!]
¡®Wait¡ her tears can heal?¡¯
[You have restored 50 Health points!]
[You have restored 50 Health points!]
[You have restored 50 Health points!]
¡®Um, Zana, could you get me close to the necromancer¡¯s body?¡¯
I asked her, even under her tears. She looked confused at first, but took me either way. When we got there, I saw the necromancer¡¯s ¡°body¡±. It actually had been damaged beyond recognition. My final attack had actually done it in before it could make any more moves. Lying next to it, was an orb. It glowed dimly and seemed to be calling out to me.
I assumed that it was the cause of the entire mess. I summoned [Scorching Winter] and grabbed it with my mouth. I was still handless. Not like I had hands in my bird form.
¡®I really hate you, [Scorching Winter], but please just do this for me. Just this once.¡¯
[[Scorching Winter] says just this once.]
[[Scorching Winter] has activated Effect #1]
The de turned into a mess of molting magma that dropped on the orb.
[DING!]
[You have destroyed the [Soul Consuming Orb Replica]]
[You have received 1.5 million Experience Points]
[You have gone up several levels]
[Party Member Zana has received 1 million Experience Points]
[Party Member Zana has gone up several levels]
[Party Member Zana has achieved Racial Climax]
[Party Member Zana will undergo evolution soon]
My body poofed up right after I leveled up. My stamina was still low, but I could at least teleport to her. In Zana¡¯s shadow, I used [Shadow Travel] to reappear in the West. When I got there, all I saw was burning trees, missing earth and a few corpses. I even identified Kuro¡¯s corpse amongst the midst. Same for Tsuna, Gorm and some other goblins, timber wolves and some weird panthers.
I tried to take some steps, but my body just fell to the ground.
[Stamina is low!]
[Stamina is low!]
[Stamina is low!]
The system kept screaming to me. There was practically no energy left in my limbs anymore. My body felt too heavy. It was like I was carrying the entire world on my shoulders. My body simply copsed under the weight, too tired to do anything.
***<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Uuogh!¡±
Something heavy fell on my body, jolting me awake. What followed was an annoyingly cute high-pitched voice of a little girl.
¡°Onii-chan. Wake up.¡±
I opened my eyes and noticed Mitsuki on me. Her impish grin showed her perfectly arranged white teeth, and her nose and cheeks were red as Christmas lights. I knocked her head and she started to rub it with a tear forming.
¡°Ow!¡±
She cried out.
¡°I¡¯m not in the mood for your games, system master.¡±
¡°Huh? What are you talking about?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t y dumb with me, I¡¯ve got you figured out.¡±
She was tearing up over me in her pajamas. Her cries kept getting louder as I scanned where I was. It was my room from back on Earth. With my bed to the side, the desk with my set up pc, closet at the far end, messed up floor, shelves filled with manga and light novels, as well as Eroge Visual Novels I had managed to hide in there. The doujins went somewhere else obviously. Outside the window, I could see snow dropping gently. The sun was high in the sky and the neighbors were shouting and ying loud music ¨C most likely having a winter party.
The system master really outdid herself this time. I knocked her on the head again just so she would shut.
¡°Waaaa! Mom! Nii-chan is punching me!¡±
¡°Stop that!¡±
I sat up, identally throwing her off me and onto the floor. She fell on a pile of CDs in what looked to be quite painful. I could hear something crack, and when I looked down, it was a Visual Master X. The VR device Manyuda lent to me. Even worse, it was lent to Manyuda by someone else in the ss.
¡®Damn it! Just when I started making friends with Manyuda too! Wait¡ hasn¡¯t this already happened before?¡¯
¡°Now he¡¯s throwing me on the floor and kicking me.¡±
Mitsuki screamed.
¡°Mi-Mitsuki! Keep it down!¡±
¡°Waaaa!¡±
¡°I-I¡¯ll buy you candies or ice cream, so keep quiet!¡±
I patted her head so she¡¯d calm down.
¡°That¡¯s a deal then. Mom¡¯s gone to buy groceries and dad got called in to do some work. I¡¯ll be in the kitchen preparing lunch. I¡¯ll be expecting my candy by 2. Akane will be here by 1, so you can go out and buy them with her. Chop, chop, time is money, nii-chan. Teehee.¡±
An almost instantaneous switch in moods!
She showed the peace sign then ran out the room, sticking her tongue at me. For some reason, this put my heart to rest.
¡°Honestly, you just started middle school. Grow up.¡±
I looked at my hands. The left one had a scar in it. I remember it being stabbed through in my second year at middle school with a cutter by some crazy girl who said she didn¡¯t like my face. She said it was my fault for existing and that I probably should just kill myself. She was probably right. I really should have just killed myself earlier on. Would have saved me the time and energy since I was going to get killed anyway.
¡®Ok system master, you can cut the simtion now. Get me back to Larm.¡¯
I got no response.
¡°Come on! Enough fun and games, System Master!¡±
Still, no response even after I yelled. I aid back on the bed and looked at the ceiling. It was nk with a creaky fan there.
¡®The system master is still not responding¡ she¡¯d only call me if she had something to tell me. Wait¡ was anything that even happened real? The fights, blood and pain¡ were they real? Or did I die and get sent back to my actual world?¡¯
I reached out for my phone which was on the floor. Upon checking, I discovered that it was the 31st of December. The year before I went to highschool. The year before I met Ken.
¡®Huh? I¡¯m in the past? The day before new year¡¯s!?¡¯
I jumped off my bed. I remembered this day very well. This was the day Akane changed for good. Starting tomorrow she would start dying her hair red and acting like an emo degenerate. Even worse, she would be the biggest bully I¡¯d ever face.
¡°Akira!¡±
Akane¡¯s voice came through the door.
¡®Akane?! But it¡¯s not even one!¡¯
I looked at my phone. The time was 1:05 pm. I really slept through half of the day. My bad sleeping habits! She walked in through the door in a yellow blouse and grey baggy pants that simply didn¡¯t match. Her ck hair was tied into a ponytail and her face still looked angelic and cute. She was waved at me, but I was too scared to wave back. She tilted her head in confusion then immediately drew in closer.
¡°Are you ok?¡±
I nodded my head.
¡°Y-Yeah. Just give me some time to dress up.¡±
¡°Sure. I¡¯ll use your PC to y one of your games.¡±
¡°Um¡ just open the folder named ¡°The Good¡±.¡±
¡°Sure.¡±
¡®Wait¡ I didn¡¯t tell anyone to clear my hard disk in my previous life. Oh, dear Lord. If it¡¯s dad, I¡¯m sure he¡¯d discard of it as the bro code demands, but mom, or Mitsuki¡¡¯
¡°Akira. There¡¯s two of them.¡±
¡°Huh? No, no. It may have been a while, but I remember there being a folder entirely just for show. The other folders should be hidd-¡°
¡®My fourteen-year-old self was more retarded than a harem protagonist.¡±
¡°NOOO!¡±
CLICK!
¡°What¡¯s this? Doki Doki Curse Warrior.¡±
¡°Akane stop!¡±
I tried to jump at her, but my own nket tripped me on the floor, sending me crashing into the Visual Master X. My jaw started to hurt, but not as much as my heart did when I heard the moaning.
Chapter 144 A Leaders Role?
¡°What¡¯s up with you two?¡±
Mitsuki asked while licking her ice cream and watching the afternoon anime. Akane sat at the far side of the couch and so did I, not even managing to watch the television. This was something that happened thest time and I was hoping to prevent. The first benchmark in Akane¡¯s descent into degeneracy! And it was my fault.
¡°I-I don¡¯t know what you mean, Mitsuki.¡±
I said.
¡°Disgusting, horrible, evil, vile, pervert.¡±
Akane shot hurtful statements at me.
[You have lost 100 Health points!]
[You are dead!]
I died on the spot. That was how the system would have probably reacted to any of it.
¡°Come on, you can¡¯t be angry at me forever.¡±
¡°Can too.¡±
¡°Cannot.¡±
¡°Can. Too.¡±
She said with more intent than ever.
¡°I-Is there any way to make it up to you?¡±
¡°Haa~ Nii-chan, nii-chan, nii-chan. You still fail to understand the heart of a woman. At this rate I pray you have enough money to pay a prostitute to have your baby.¡±
Mitsuki was patting my back.
¡°When did you get here?! Go back to your anime.¡±
I kicked her away and faced Akane. She was moving ufortably in the chair while muttering something.
¡°B-baby? Prostitute? Heart of a woman?¡±
I overheard her. This girl was so innocent I couldn¡¯t believe she actually degraded into the perverted bully/best friend. Time to change the future then.
¡°Akane. Will you have my child?¡±
I went on my knees in a shoujo prince kind of way and proposed to her. Her eyes sparkled and her face turned boiling red. I could feel Mitsuki¡¯s smug gaze piercing me from behind, seeing as I got a result I wasn¡¯t expecting.
¡°I know quite a few styles we could try.¡±
¡°Huh? Wh-Why do you know that?¡±
¡°Um¡ that¡¯s because-¡±
¡°LOL, that¡¯s weird. You knowing any of this. Go back to being innocent.¡±
DING!
[Scenario failed!]
[Returning the soul to the host body]
It was dark once again, with the exception of the screens in front of me.
¡®Huh¡ so it really was something the system master made up. Argh! I could have changed my life! Been the guy who didn¡¯t get bullied! Damn it all!¡¯
My eyes snapped open and light just stabbed them in an instant.
[You are currently under the sun]
[All your stats have been reduced by 50%]
[Find shelter to hide from the sun]
[Prolonged exposure to the sun will lead to reduction in health points]
The screen warned.
¡®Oh, how I have not missed you in myst few hours.¡¯
I rolled my body over and jumped up to stand. All around me I saw burnt and felled trees. The ground was still destroyed and I could still see some corpses. That just made me remember why I even came back in such a rush.
¡®Minerva!¡¯
I immediately took the sky to see if I could get any better view. Whatid before me was way worse. Goliath, in his dragon form was on the ground, with a gaping hole in his chest. I looked elsewhere and I could not identify anymore lives.
I sent a message to all members of my familia using the familia system function.
[Me: Is everyone alright?]
[Nukeme: Lady Hinotori!]
[Kara: Lady Hinotori, you are well?]
[Shiroi: Master!]
[Ulva: Big sister! T-There was a fight when we got back. Somethings happened. We tried calling you, but the fight with the necromancer must have gotten intense]
[Me: Where are all of you?]
They all responded with the same message. The [Forbidden Dungeon]. Quickly, I teleported in there and was shocked to find almost all members were at the bottom floor, with my dungeon mobs standing on the first floor.
[You have evaded the sun]
[All stats are back to 100%]
I moved to the bottom part where several creatures were. Goblins, sprites, dryads, weird panther monsters, Timberwolves and the twigs. Ichi, Nichi and the other twigs all rushed at me. As did all the goblins and Timberwolves. Most of them were injured, but their bloods had dried and their wounds were already closing. The more severely injured were groaning and one was even killed by his mates.
¡®Hinotori-sama.¡¯
¡®You came to save us!¡¯
¡®Where the hell were youst night?¡¯
¡®The gracious leader hase.¡¯
¡®Useless chicken. You let Gorm and Oda die!¡¯
I could hear all sorts of thoughts, and some of them made me feel extremely sad and angry. Across the hundreds of members in the burrow, I identified those I had interacted with, all sitting together having a council. They looked at me, finally having noticed themotion and ordered for the others to give me way. I flew to their side and they all had glum expressions. Some even looked enraged.
¡°Where were you!?¡±
Oki charged at me, but Nukeme jumped in front of me with his dagger pointed at him.
¡°You know she went to the South.¡±
¡°That doesn¡¯t matter. She was supposed toe back when we needed her.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°She was also busy. Understand that.¡±
¡°What? A leader is supposed to throw away anything for their people! That was what Gorm thought me. What kind of leader are we following then?¡±
¡°Hold your tongue, little one. She was off on an important mission.¡±
Yuuna defended me.
¡°Important mission? So, a tyrant from a different portion calls and you run, but when yours needed you, you were nowhere to be found!¡±
¡°W-Where is Minerva?¡±
I asked and the entire room turned silent.
¡°How dare you?¡±
¡°SILENCE!¡±
Shiroi¡¯s aura spread throughout the room. She was ring menacingly at him and did not look to be in the mood. I remembered seeing Kuro¡¯s corpse out, but decided not to ask about that after seeing Shiroi¡¯s rage.
¡®What happened here?¡¯
I sent a message to Aeri. She looked at me disappointingly and walked past me to the door leading to the outside. Her heavy footsteps shook the very ground and her demeanor just made me feel awful.
¡®L-Lady Hinotori. Can you hear me?¡¯
Kara came in, looking dejected at the back.
¡®What happened?¡¯
¡®T-There was an attack. By a ck knight. He burnt down the forest. Goliath and Minerva went to fight him, but we don¡¯t know what happened after that.¡¯
¡®A ck knight? It couldn¡¯t be the one she mentioned, could it? Why did no one inform me?¡¯
¡®We sent several messages to you.¡¯
¡®What? If you did, I would have received them. The system would have app- Akira¡¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
¡®It¡¯s nothing.¡¯
¡®D-Did something happen outside?¡¯
¡®Thank you, Kara. I now have a proper understanding of what happened.¡¯
I groaned and called Akira out.
¡®Why didn¡¯t you tell me about their messages for help?¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t ask like it would have changed anything.¡¯
¡®Of course, it would have! If I had known, I would hav-¡®
¡®Would have what? I¡¯m you, if you have forgotten and I made the same choices you would have made, but faster. I handled the system messages and fusions and you did the physical part. Knowing about their situation would have changed absolutely nothing.¡¯
¡®Tch¡ I might have thought out another way. Someway to help them.¡¯
¡®By what? Sending them your mana so you would have died even earlier? Maybe abandoning the chance for survival and a high experience gain, for a suicide mission?¡¯
¡®What the hell is your problem?¡¯
¡®If both Minerva and Goliath couldn¡¯t beat this foe, what chance did you have? Even the necromancer was looking to absorb tons of undead just to fight this one ck knight. Did you think our appearance would suddenly change the tides of the fight?¡¯
¡®I could have done something.¡¯
¡®What the heck? Did spending a month in another world with everything being easy for you make you think you were some novel protagonist?¡¯
¡®I¡¡¯
¡®Unlike you, I did not have the displeasure of being in here for more than a month. And I do not want my stay to be a short one too.¡¯
¡®¡ You don¡¯t like the thought of disappearing?¡¯
¡®Yes. So?¡¯
I deactivated [Multiple Minds].
¡®Yo, agent. It¡¯s just me and you again.¡¯
<<I am not->>
¡®I will deactivate you too if you don¡¯t stop joking around.¡¯
<<Noted>>
¡°Shiroi.¡±
¡®Yes?¡¯
¡®I¡ I need your help.¡¯
¡®How so?¡¯
¡®Right now¡ I am really not in the best of moods. But¡ Oki is right. I¡¯m not a leader. Could I burden you to handle the duties of a leader for me?¡¯
¡®No.¡¯
She rejected my plea.
¡®W-What? Why?¡¯
¡®I will never covet the position, nor the responsibility. That is yours to bear and it would be very dishonourable of me to use your name to control them. If you wish to be a leader, then act like one. Take up the responsibility. Perform your duties.¡¯
¡®What? That¡¯s bull! I have been performing my responsibilities enough!¡¯
¡®No, you have not. As a leader, you have done absolutely nothing for your servants.¡¯
¡®Ho ho, now we¡¯re talking about doing things for servants? Damn it, Shiroi. You couldn¡¯t even save your father from death. You had no problem coveting his role after his death. Just take this on like I were dead.¡¯
¡®I refuse.¡¯
[You have activated [Absolute Command]]
Sparks flew about Shiroi¡¯s body and the Faery hound copsed to the ground, whimpering in pain. I noticed others looking at her, but I didn¡¯t care.
¡®Do it, or I find someone else to do it.¡¯
¡®Then¡ find¡ someone!¡¯
Even under what I imagined to be intense torture she did not falter.
¡°FINE! Whatever! You guys have never needed me to lead you in the first ce. Do whatever your hearts please. I¡¯ll focus on finding Minerva.¡±
Chapter 145 Seiko Sotomura - The Hero Princesses
¡°Master Seiko, your breakfast is ready.¡±
One of the maids said to him. Seiko was sweating intensely while performing some lift-ups in the training area. He jumped down the moment he heard the food was ready and moved to grab a towel. The maid snuck nces at the bare-chested young man and smiled wickedly.
The way his muscles moved with every swing. The eight-pack on his stomach as well as the big chest he carried under his broad shoulders. The scar over his heart which showed he had been in a near-death situation at least once. And the way all the sweat on his body made it seem like he had been washed in oil to show his body well.
¡®So hot!¡¯
She screamed internally with hearts for eyes, while maintaining a straight appearance.
Seiko however, noticed her secondary thoughts, but voiced nothing while feeling incredibly ufortable.
¡®I need to find a new training spot.¡¯
¡°SEIKO!¡±
Someone cried out his name and the doors leading to the room burst open with a purple shimmer. Jasmine came through the door at full speed, twisted mid-air to avoid an iing shot which hit the walls of the training room and caused a crack.
¡®Oi, oi. Those walls were made to be resistant to the Pdins¡¯ power in case of sparring.¡¯
Upon closer inspecting, Seiko noticed that the wall was now dripping.
¡®D-Don¡¯t tell me she actually went and did it.¡¯
¡°Seiko, help me.¡±
She ran behind Seiko and grabbed him by the shoulders while trying to conceal her presence.
¡°You didn¡¯t do that, did you?¡±
¡°Um¡ I don¡¯t know what you are talking about¡?¡±
¡°Jasmine! Come out here, now!¡±
Lady Veronica¡¯s roar boomed in the halls. She came through the door with her sword in hand and an aura that was slowly growing. She was obviously not in the mood for jokes.
¡°She¡¯s right here.¡±
Seiko pointed behind him and Veronica grinned.
¡°Come out now, and I won¡¯t create a permanent wound on your body.¡±
¡°Seiko! Why would you betray me?¡±
She whispered with a bit of hurt in her voice.
¡°Why are you whispering? Lady Veronica can already see you.¡±
¡°I know, but if I¡¯m right next to you, she can¡¯t get me.¡±
Seiko sighed and kept wiping his body.
¡°What did you even do?¡±
Veronica approached the duo and sheathed her sword.
¡°I- um, that¡¯s a bit¡ you shouldn¡¯t ask ady such questions, you know?¡±
Lady Veronica was now in front of Seiko. If she tried moving to the left, Jasmine would simply move to the right and when she tried vice versa, Jasmine moved to the left. Attempting to get a hold of her as well as Seiko was a no go. There was no real reason to it, just that touching Seiko made her feel weird. A way she had never felt before which she could say was ¡°undylike¡±.
Realising there was no other option, with this being the only practical opportunity she had, Veronica breathed in.
¡®[Quivering Water Technique: Bridge].¡¯
She activated her technique, effectively creating multiple versions of herself going after Jasmine. In fear, Jasmine let go of Seiko and made to run for it, but Veronica had predicted that move and had careful bent right around Seiko¡¯s waist and grabbed her leg before she could move. She pinned Jasmine down and formed a whip out of water.
¡°You evil brat.¡±
Veronica whipped Jasmine¡¯s butt and the girl cried.
¡°Yip!¡±
TA! TA! TA! TA!
¡°Yip! Yip! Yip! Lady Veronica, is this the kind of y you like? Your husband must be very durable then. You could even say immortal, like Seiko there.¡±
¡°Fuuh?¡±
Lady Veronica¡¯s face turned red and she looked at Seiko unconsciously. The boy was already tired of their y and was walking towards his chambers so he could take his bath, then go eat his breakfast. He had no interest in whatever the hell they were talking about.
Jasmine used this opportunity to get up and run away.
¡°Uuughh!¡±
Lady Veronica grunted and chased after the girl once again.
***
Seiko went to take his bath. He threw off his pants and slowly entered the warm pool. He stretched out his body and simply let himself rx, sinking into the fragrance and the silence.
¡°Why can¡¯t it always be like this.¡±
¡°I agree.¡±
¡°Hmhm. It¡¯s always travel, inn, adventurer¡¯s guild, mission, fight, repeat over and over again. The most annoying feeling ever.¡±
¡°True. It is even more annoying for women, since most people still see the idea of a female solo adventurer as whimsical.¡±
¡°You guys must have it rough.¡±
¡°Not really. I just beat those who make light of me.¡±
Seiko stretched his legs out in the water till he felt someone over them. He met a smug expression on a naked blonde¡¯s face. Her dazzling blue eyes were staring dreamily at him whereas his eyes only red at her.
¡°Oi, Jeanne. This is my bath.¡±
¡°Is that so? I told the maids to prepare it for me though.¡±
¡°I see. I¡¯ll take my leave then.¡±
He pushed her over into the bath then stood up.
¡°Rude much? Now stay. I don¡¯t mind. We can even do that thing we normally do.¡±
¡°Used to do. You can keep your body to yourself, Jeanne. I¡¯m not interested.¡±
Seiko grabbed his towel and rubbed his body.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Come on, Seiko. I made the bath just how you like it.¡±
¡°Whatever Jeanne.¡±
¡°Oh,e on. I have news for you.¡±
¡°Whatever it is, it can wait tillter.¡±
¡°Really? But it involves Hiro and Ciel.¡±
Seiko froze in his footsteps then groaned. Reluctantly, he returned to the bath and Jeanne sat over him and rested her head on his chest.
¡°I¡¯ve missed you,
¡°What¡¯s the news?¡±
¡°Wash my body first?¡±
She seductively whispered into his ears. Seiko didn¡¯t flinch a single muscle. He just red at Jeanne, albeit a futile attempt at getting her to spill.
¡°Fine. If you won¡¯t speak. I¡¯ll leave.¡±
His voice echoed in Jeanne¡¯s mind and she wrapped her hands around his neck. Seiko stood up, hoping that she would fall, but she kept clinging on to him.
¡°Damn it. You¡¯re supposed to be some saint, aren¡¯t you?!¡±
¡°You know I don¡¯t care for such titles.¡±
¡°Get off me!¡±
He grabbed her by the waist and tried yanking her off his body.
¡°Noooo! I don¡¯t want to leave you! I love you~¡±
She moaned out, forcing Seiko to put his hand on her mouth to silence her.
¡°What is the point of this?¡±
She mumbled something with his hands over her mouth. He let go of her and she licked her lips.
¡°Weing gift.¡±
¡°Ah. I¡¯ll tell Hiro about this if you don¡¯t stop.¡±
¡°Using Hiro¡¯s name on me after I tried doing that to you¡ we¡¯re more alike than I thought. Fine. Another time then.¡±
She dropped then walked back into the bath.
¡°¡°Ciel has been captured by the Dark Church. I have the Kazoku including my younger sister, Shiro. I will send them to the nearest nation then return to free the Empire. Send Seiko to pick them up for me.¡± Was the message Hiro told me to pass on to you. My job is done then.¡±
¡°Thank you.¡±
Seiko grabbed his towel then walked out of the room once again.
¡°Hey, Seiko. Is there really no chance between us again?¡±
She asked, but her question met deaf ears and a mmed door. Jeanne smiled broadly and rxed herself in the bath. When she opened her eyes, a single tear drop ran down.
¡°Now I have to patch Rulis up.¡±
She sighed then dove into the bath.
***
After dressing up, Seiko went to the dining area and partook of his breakfast. Although it had grown cold due to the disturbances. Neburis sat across him, also trying to enjoy her breakfast.
¡°How was your morning session?¡±
Neburis asked, taking a sip of her tea.
¡°Normal. How about yours?¡±
¡°I have made slight progress with my spatial magic, but I will keep striving for higher lengths.¡±
Seiko broke his bread and ate it.
¡°Knowing you, it¡¯s probably being able to summon one more ckhole.¡±
¡°Five actually.¡±
Seiko¡¯s eyes widened in shock. Neburis then smiled and both of them burst outughing.
¡°I¡¯ve missed you, Neburis.¡±
¡°So have I, you, Seiko. Sorry I couldn¡¯t attend to you yesterday. I believed you were much too exhausted for any of that.¡±
¡°If it was you, surely I wouldn¡¯t have even felt a tiny bit tired.¡±
¡°You think too highly of me, Seiko. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m the king of a nation.¡±
¡°So says the future Queen of the Dhijan Hero Nation.¡±
¡°You tter me too much.¡±
Seiko cleared his throat and beat his chest.
¡°Speaking of which, where is his majesty? I should have paid my greetings to him.¡±
¡°Worry not. My father is currently training.¡±
¡°Why is a man as strong as him still training?¡±
¡°Because humans are naturally weak. We stop training and our bodies lose their edge, then we get weaker. Monsters on the other hand, if they get old, they simply evolve into a younger more powerful species. Tobat this, we humans must never stop training, even for a moment! Or so he says.¡±
A new voice came in the room. Both members were shocked and when they looked back, there was Rulis, dragging her ginormous sword behind her with her hair in a mess and her bangs covering one eye. Her face was dirty and she rose her hand to make a peace sign.
¡°Finally got control back!¡±
She said confidently, making Neburis drop her cup of tea.
¡°R-Rulis¡?¡±
"Yeah. And I''ve got important news, regardin-."
Chapter 146 The Cursed Executioner Pt.I
¡°Want to go to the Karaoke ceter today?¡±
¡°This ice cream is so good.¡±
¡°LOL, your hair¡¯s totally out of trend. Change it.¡±
¡°Akira? I could never date you. I can¡¯t believe you actually thought about that.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t like you, Maya.¡±
¡°Ugh, you again? Stop bothering us, Maya. You¡¯re too young for this.¡±
¡°B-But, Akane came along with you thest time.¡±
Voices echoed in her head, ying like a broken record over and over again, driving Maya insane. She held her head and screamed with as much strength as she could muster, hoping it would distract her a little bit from the pain.
It turned dead silent, prompting her to stop screaming and slowly open her eyes. She noticed she was on a cracked pavement with some symbols scribbled all over the floor. She looked around and noticed men in a ck robes, holding books in their hands and muttering somethings. There were men dressed up as knights with spears in hands, standing behind the pirs of the ce. Up, was a hole, leading to the sky where she saw birds flying across.
¡°Iksu creve nasi crox duk.¡±
A voice echoed in the room. She looked up, only to see three new people enter the room. They were so far back she could only make out their silhouettes. A man and two teenage girls. One of the girls approached Maya. When she got closer, her features became more visible.
She was a beautiful teenager, not much older than 12. She had blonde pleated hair with a tiara on her head andrge blue sparkly eyes like a gem. Her face was so doll-like it was unnatural and her very presence carried the air of a princess. She wore a lovely yellow gown with rose designs at the bottom and a symbol ¨C two swords through a crown - on the chest.
¡®A kid?¡¯
She stretched out her gloved hand to Maya gently.
¡°Je m¡¯appelle Jeanne D¡¯Arc. Qu¡¯est-ce qui est a toi?¡±
¡°W-What?¡±
¡°Hmm? Je ne crois pas avoir deja entendu un nomme Nenani.¡±
¡°Is that French you¡¯re speaking? What¡¯s happening? How¡¯d I get here?¡±
¡°Hein? Quellengue est-ce?¡±
¡°W-Where am I?¡±
The girl looked back and shook her head slowly. She retracted her hand then walked back to the man. In the man¡¯s tongue, she spoke.
¡°I do not know whatnguage she speaks. It is not the same dialect as mine.¡±
¡°Another one? Damn it¡¡±
¡°But it does resemble the boy, Hiro¡¯s native tongue. I believe you are fluent with it, sir?¡±
¡°The Imperial Language? Very well. Send her to her quarters for now. Put the binding spell on her, in case she is too dangerous.¡±
The men started to chant once again. The scribbles on the ground started to glow, forming weird tangible looking lines in the air. Too scared to move, Maya could only watch in shock as these lines came over her. They tied themselves across her neck and pinned her down to the ground, arcs of lightning kept dancing on her body.
It felt like she was being choked by actual lightning. Maya could not help, but scream inplete pain. The three who entered the room left without saying so much as a word.
_________________________________
After the whole incident from before, Maya was carried away to a room quickly. She noticed that she was being sent throughrge hallways with guards on each and every corner,rge marbled floors and pirs, portraits and statues of people who looked like nobles, relics that were put on disy on pedestals and gs which bore a symbol. A sword, a spear, a shield, a staff and a bow, all rounded up by a crown, with a wolf under it, like it was wearing it.
¡®I¡¯m in a castle!¡¯
She concluded.
Next was the room they dropped her off in. The women dressed in maid outfits went to work fast. They changed her out of a white robe she found herself in; she had no memory of ever being in a white robe before. She was promptly put into a red and ck Gothic Lolita dress, a choker across her neck to hide the scars from the binding spell, puffy sleeves across her hands with rose-like designs around the skirt of her dress.
As soon as they were done, they shut the door behind them and left Maya to simply stare at a mirror in shock.
She had to admit that they were good. So good she could not even recognize the person she was looking at in the mirror.
On the real, all jokes aside, who the heck was in the mirror?
It was a cute child. She looked to be seven years old, had short ck hair with the bangs falling to one side and silver eyes. Maya raised her hand up and so did the person in the mirror. She touched her face and so did the person in the mirror. Her face was soft and squishy. She moved her hands forward so she could see them. They were small, tiny hands that anyone would want to grab.
¡°W-Who¡¯s body is this? What happened to me? I¡¯m suddenly cuter, but a kid? Oh no. Where am I? Is this one of those things where they¡¯ll transfer my brain into a different body? Like some kind of body exchange stuff? Holy¡ that must mean there¡¯s someone out there in my body. Well, they can keep it if they want. It¡¯s not my life was going so well anyway. Besides, living in a castle? I¡¯ll get to dress up anyhow I want and no one will bother me! This the best!¡±
She yelled at the top of her voice and probed the room with excited eyes. There was the unbelievably huge closet that was filled to the brim with clothes. It was just as big as her room. The clothes were all of a sort of ancient style that intrigued her. Like the princesses from old times. She jumped out of the closet and went to the bed. It wasrge andfy, with nice white sheetsid and a veil which had been drawn since it was day time. Several pillows were spread out on it. To the far end, there was a desk set up, but with nothing on it.
She looked out to the window doors that led to a private garden, a table had been set up with a tea party set. She wished to go check it out, but just then, the door leading to her room was opened.
From it, a maid came along with three children. A boy, and two girls ¨C the blonde girl from before and another one. But Maya didn¡¯t care about any of those. When she saw the boy, he was quite handsome in her eyes. He had silvery white hair, like hers, but with more luster. His eyes were a gradient crimson and his face, that of a young teenager about to peak. He was clothed in a fine tunic, under a sleeveless brown vest with diamond patterns and a crest to his left. His trousers were ck and tight fitting, with brown shoes that had golden soles. And best of all, he looked Japanese.
Maya was only fifteen in her previous life, so seeing what looked like a fourteen year old still made her heart flutter. She had always told herself that she would like older guys, like those in universities, but she was ready to settle for the young man.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Greetings. My name is Tatsumaki Hiro, of the Tatsumaki n. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.¡±
He swept his left hand in the air, kept his right hand to his back and bowed in aplete 90 degrees. Not a Japanese style of greeting, but one Maya would always see in western movies. Her heart kept thumping after seeing it. She almost couldn¡¯t contain her excitement. He however cleared his throat and straightened up.
¡°Do you, understand me?¡±
The concern became visible on his face. Not wanting to make him feel bad, she immediately grabbed his free hand and nodded with a smile.
¡°Yes. I understand you. What a lovely voice you have.¡±
¡®Urgh! Did I really just say that? What a lovely voice you have? That¡¯sme. Ah¡ why am I getting so flustered over a kid.¡¯
Hiro grabbed her hands tightly and smiled innocently.
¡°Wonderful. She understands me. I¡¯m so d. You must have been confused, right?¡±
The ecstatic light in his eyes made Maya¡¯s heart skip a beat.
¡®I-Is this love?¡¯
¡°Let me introduce you to my friends. This is Neburis.¡±
He pointed at the girl who was a bit shorter than him. She hard dark long straight her that touched her mid-back. She carried a scabbard to her side and had a menacing look in her ck and white eyes. She was beautiful. Even with her eyes, Maya doubted her previous body would be a match for the girl. She also wore a tiara on her head unlike the blonde or Maya herself, she was in what looked like light battle gear with a symbol ¨C a sword through a crown ¨C on it. Her arms were crossed and her eyes scanned Maya like she were an object.
¡®Dangerous! This one¡¯s too dangerous!¡¯
Maya found her hands shaking unconsciously. Hiro gripped them tighter to calm her down after noticing it. He then pointed to Neburis with a frown.
¡°Kiel radct sun mever ti.¡±
He said.
¡°Herhn? Sdut guls dain.¡±
Hiro then turned back to Maya.
¡°Don¡¯t mind her. Neburis looks scary at times, but she¡¯s actually very sweet.¡±
¡°Oh, so the tough big sister type.¡±
Maya identally said.
¡°Very much so.¡±
¡°Herhn? Elro dandi?¡±
Neburis asked a question.
¡°Nel.¡±
Hiro simply brushed it off and focused on Maya. Neburis kept poking his cheeks while he tried to talk to Maya.
¡°Next is Jeanne.¡±
He showed Maya to Jeanne. Jeanne waved at her and Maya internally grinned.
¡®Keh¡ easy pickings.¡¯
She said and waved at Maya. Jeanne got close to Maya and leaned in close to the girl¡¯s ears.
¡®More French? I don¡¯t understand though.¡¯
Jeanne whispered into Maya¡¯s words.
¡°I will break all your bones, steal your soul and turn you into a lifeless husk if you dare to break up this perfect family.¡±
Jeanne said in perfect Japanese, causing Maya¡¯s heart to sink.
¡®S-She saw right through me.¡¯
¡°Now act normally.¡±
Jeanne got back.
¡°Ok, so what¡¯s your name?¡±
Hiro asked with an angelic smile.
¡°M-My name is¡ My name is¡ M-My name¡ name? I-I don¡¯t remember. What was my name again?¡±
Chapter 147 The Cursed Executioner Pt.II
The girl hadpletely forgotten who she was.
In fact, now that she thought about it, all the faces she remembered from her past life were simply blurry. She was unable to recall anyone specific. Not her mother, not her father, no friends of distant rtives. ssmates were basically non-existent, but she remembered being in a ssroom with people. Still, she couldn¡¯t remember what exactly she was doing before getting transported into this world, or why she looked different from her original form.
¡°W-Why can¡¯t I remember my name?¡±
She was on her knees, holding her head and searching frantically for the missing memories. The most important moments in her life were missing. Anytime she recalled someone calling her name all she¡¯d hear were glitching noises that actually hurt, like someone was telling her that it wasn¡¯t for her to know.
Hiro rushed to her side and picked her up.
¡°Are you alright? It¡¯s ok. You don¡¯t need to pressure yourself.¡±
¡°Fufu¡ She¡¯s too stupid to even remember her own name.¡±
Jeanne teased in the Elecryean tongue and Neburis punched her head.
¡°Be a bit more sensitive, would ya?¡±
¡°How udylike, Sister Neburis.¡±
Jeanne rubbed the part Neburis punched and winced in pain. Neburis really didn¡¯t hold back.
¡°At least try to sympathise with her. You did go through the same thing.¡±
Neburis went to help Shiro with the girl. They took her to their bed.
¡®What would you know of what I went through?¡¯
Jeanne sighed and walked towards both of them.
¡°Fine. I shall try my best to help her.¡±
The blonde put her hand over the girl¡¯s banging head. She started to chant some words, calling for the help of light spirits and sparkles of light magic started to drop on the girl¡¯s head, lessening the pain. Slowly, the pain became more tolerable till she barely felt anything.
¡°Tell her to try to remember her name now.¡±
Jeanne ordered Hiro.
¡°Right. Try to remember your name now.¡±
The girl nodded her head and started to search hard for a name. The deeper she went, the stronger the headaches came. She was grunting as she searched deeper and the glitches became louder and more violent. Deep inside the ckness and several glitching sounds however, she could hear some muttering.
On the outside, she was screaming, but her inner mind waspletely oblivious to the turmoil its main body was going through. Slowly, the mind was being destroyed, but its desire to find that name made it continue.
After much searching and pain, she finally found it. She managed to hear it. Her name.
When she did, she suddenly realized all the pain she was feeling. Jeanne was sweating and had both arms over the girl, with Neburis preventing her from falling. The blonde¡¯s hair was a mess and her face was steaming red. The girl then looked at Hiro, Neburis, then back at Jeanne.
¡°Rulis. M-My name is Rulis.¡±
¡°Rulis? That sounds weird, but ok.¡±
Hiro told her with a grin.
¡°I almost died for this name you know?¡±
¡°Haha, don¡¯t worry about it. Besides¡ you¡¯re not dead and neither are any of us here.¡±
Hiro got up then put a hand of Jeanne.
¡°She¡¯s just drained. I¡¯m not sure what was blocking the girl¡¯s memories, but it wasn¡¯t simple amnesia.¡±
He spoke to Neburis in her tongue.
¡°What do you think it was?¡±
¡°I¡¯m not sure. I would have thought devil, but devils run away when they even catch a sniff of Jeanne. She¡¯s too scary for them.¡±
¡°An angel then?¡±
¡°Quite possibly.¡±
¡°But why would an angel do this?¡±
¡°I-I¡¯m not sure. I¡¯ll need answers.¡±
Hiro yawned then walked out of the room with Jeanne in arms. Neburis stayed alone with Rulis. She drew a chair closer with her spatial magic and faced the exhausted Rulis.
¡°First. Day. Interesting.¡±
Neburis tried her best to speak what little things she learnt from Hiro. Rulis nodded at Neburis statement.
¡°Quite. First of all I¡¯m just being a regr high school student, then next I¡¯m summoned to a different ce. I¡¯m guessing a different world. Maybe reincarnation? I mean sure that blonde speaks French, but unless you guys are speaking some other European or Africannguage, I have no idea what is happened. Then the magic tricks everyone¡¯s been pulling off, plus the medieval setting and my weird memory loss; like I¡¯m not supposed to know. Piece one and two together, you get reincarnation to live my second life better than my first. Still, I don¡¯t get why I don¡¯t have my memories. Maybe I was a bitch in my previous life and I¡¯m in a test to prove that I¡¯m actually a good soul so I go to heaven? Yes. That¡¯s got to be it!¡¯
Rulis looked at Neburis whose eyes were spiraling in their sockets after all her mumbling.
¡°First. Day. Interesting.¡±
Rulis said with a smile then offered her hand to the girl. Neburis epted the hand with udylike grin.
¡°Neburis.¡±
She pointed to herself and pronounced her name.
¡°Your name is Neburis?¡±
Neburis didn¡¯t know what was going on, but nodded nheless.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°I see.¡±
***
A few weeks had passed since Rulis¡¯ appearance in the castle. Her presence really caused a dramatic change in the castle. The youngdy Neburis had be unruly and was pulling all sorts of pranks with the new miss all around the castle. Hiro had been helping her learn thenguage and she was surprisingly sufficient with it. It barely took a week for her to understand it all. She said it was like voices in her head were telling her what to do. The castle had be much ¡°brighter¡± and ¡°louder¡±.
However, the King, Excelcior Sonaris Miksari Eldiro Furialt, was not pleased with what he was seeing. He asked for his mages to summon him a [Hero] candidate, but instead they got him a self-obsessed entitled brat who would not stop acting like a child from the streets. Surely there should have been a level of refinery from her. Even Jeanne, who was actually raised on streets, still acted with an air of elegance. Amendable girl she was. Her exploits from her previous world clearly carried over to this one. Saving her mothend from a tyrant through the grace of her god? Perfect Hero material!
He thought his luck would be good the second time, but now he had to deal with a girl who didn¡¯t even carry proper memories from her previous life. She simply went to school. Excelcior assumed she was a schr till she blurted out that going to school was a normality where she came from. Her ¡°special¡± skills including management, ss leading and gossiping.
A harlot! He had summoned a harlot to his abode.
So today, he had had enough of her.
¡°Rulis. Pick up that weapon.¡±
¡°I-I can¡¯t.¡±
She grunted on the ground.
¡°Do it, Rulis! You were summoned to do something other than corrupt Neburis!¡±
His veins bulged on his forehead.
¡°Father. She did not corrupt me.¡±
¡°Silence Neburis. Or I will lock you up in the bunker.¡±
The girl reflexively kept quiet and simply watched. Rulis tried to pick up the sword, but it immediately fell out of her hands. Annoyed, Excelcior growled at her.
¡°If you have no use, you might as well die here.¡±
Mercilessly, he brought down his de. Any way they saw it, he was really intent on actually killing the girl. Everyone in the room noticed it and were prepared to jump in to defend, however they were restrained by guards who pinned them to the ground.
¡°No!¡±
Hiro roared.
TANG!
The king¡¯s sword shed on something metallic. Hiro, Neburis stopped struggling under their captures and only stared at the Hero King. What they saw was surprising. Rulis wielded a de, that was obviously too big for her, with ease, managing to even block the serious attack from Excelcior and make him struggle.
Translucent blood red fire horns floated atop her head and her eyes were now turned silver. The ground beneath them both was cracking with scorch marks.
With a wave of her hand, the king was sent flying back till he mmed into the wall of the training area.
¡°Excelcior Sonaris Miksari Eldiro Furialt the Third. You are before the Judge and Jury. Make your plea.¡±
Rulis brought up her sword and pointed it at Excelcior. One clutch and the king found his heart being stabbed by the girl¡¯s de.
¡°Noo! Father!¡±
Neburis yelled, causing her magical power to overflow. The entire top of the castle was suddenly erased, causing panic amongst those on the same floor as her. When they looked up to the bare sky, there was a ck orb there. At first, the people in the city didn¡¯t notice it, but then the ck orb started to swallow everything into it. Houses, livestock, people, the orb did not spare anything, sucking in faster than before.
¡°S-Stop it, Neburis.¡±
Hiro ordered her, but she was busy grieving her father to even notice what was going on. He then looked at Jeanne who was always paralysed with a single tear running down her cheeks while she looked at the stabbed king.
¡°Ah! Fine. You want me to take up this role so bad? I¡¯ll do it then!¡±
Noticing that his restrainer was distracted, Hiro summoned a wisp of fire to hurt the man¡¯s hand then free himself.
¡°Oi! Wait!¡±
Mercilessly, Hiro kicked the man in the face to knock him unconscious. He looked around for a weapon, then felt something materialize in his hands. It was a beautiful crystalline de with a golden handle designed with a dragon insignia and symbols from the oldnguages. The edges of the sword glowed with a brilliant golden and instinctively, Hiro knew what to do.
He took a pose and charged mana through his body. Leaning back then thrusting forward to give himself the ultimate pushing power. The sword shot through the sky like a rocket, leaving a streak of golden as it moved towards its target, the ck hole. The sword entered the ck hole, causing it and the ckhole to suddenly disappear. All the things that were in trajectory for the ckhole stopped and begun their descent. The livestock and properties were ruined. The humans that possessed mana and aura fortified their bodies or came up with a way to save themselves. Some of those without any of these were lucky to be saved whereas the unfortunate either died or survived with severe injuries.
One of the worst days for the Dhijan Hero Nation, and it was caused by a little girl throwing a tantrum.
Hiro looked at the door leading to the corridor. There he saw her. Wearing her usual red cloak with a mask that covered her face entirely. Still unable to see her face, yet he could imagine a smug grin on her face at the moment. Angrily, he bit his lips and formed trembling fists.
¡®We move out, tonight.¡¯
The person sent a telepathic message to him, before disappearing into the darkness.
¡°You have been judged. The verdict is, You are Worthy of Life.¡±
Rulis removed her sword from the king¡¯s chest and the horns on her head disappeared. Excelcior on the other hand copsed on his knees, panting heavily and holding his heart to check for any open wounds. He then looked at Rulis with a gaze that was obvious fear.
Jeanne ran towards her father and Neburis¡¯ restrainer allowed her to move towards him. When they both got there, the king was alright. No visible wounds on his body, just sweat. He however pushed both of them away and then put his hands on Rulis¡¯ shoulders.
¡°You. Your name is now Rulis Tepe Miksari Eldiro Furialt. M-My third daughter.¡±
He said with heavy breaths. Slowly, he staggered up and stumbled towards his chambers. One of the guards came closer to help him, but the king pushed him away.
¡°I-I shall just go take a rest in my chambers.¡±
¡°Sire. Your chamber has been destroyed.¡±
The guard informed him and all of a sudden, Excelcior could feel the warmth of the sun.
¡°I-I see.¡±
Chapter 148 The Cursed Executioner Pt.III
Stab. Judge. Kill.
Stab. Judge. Kill.
Stab. Judge. Kill.
Stab. Judge. Kill.
That was Rulis¡¯ life now. However, this Rulis was different from the one that came through on the day of the summoning. ording to Jeanne, the Rulis they all met was dead. Something else was in her body. Excelcior on the other hand couldn¡¯t care less. She was efficient. She killed without mercy. She could never harm innocents. Human emotions never clouded her judgement. It were as if she was an Automaton made my Kaleb Zen himself. He couldn¡¯t be any happier to have summoned her and her prowess in battle was basically prodigious.
Neburis on the other hand was notfortable around such a presence. Rulis had be the very thing she despised. Her father.
Hiro had disappeared one night. Not even his n members had heard anything from him. It caused tensions between the Dhijan Hero Nation and The New Kyoto Empire. However, Excelcior couldn¡¯t care less. All he could think about was cultivating the strength of his three daughters. If he made them strong enough, his Kingdom¡¯s power would reach the level were even Empires would think twice before attacking. Of course, their political power and history alone ensured that they would not be messed with by the Empires, but having enough military power would make situations much better in his eyes.
A kingdom that matched empires. That was Excelcior¡¯s dream.
***
On a quiet evening, there was a meeting happening between five very important people seated around a round table. However, there was someone who rushed in. He was a haggard looking man who kept breathing heavily.
¡°Aah! I-It¡¯s her! She¡¯s here.¡±
The man kept panting. Pyke¡¯s guards grabbed the man when he mmed the desk.
¡°Who?¡±
Pyke sat up straight then looked at the grunt. He was considering just discarding of the man depending on the answer. He had caused quite the uproar during his meeting.
¡°T-The Executioner. She¡¯s here!¡±
All those present in the room then looked at one another nervously. Pyke kept his face expressionless while looking at the grunt. He leaned back in his chair and started thinking. He started ying with his dagger unconsciously.
¡°Where¡¯d you see her?¡±
He asked.
¡°S-She struck the farms two days ago.¡±
¡°Two days ago? Ya was scammin¡¯ us, Pyke?¡±
One of the present members stood up immediately and pointed his finger at Pyke. He was Lucien, one of the most feared Drug lords. His men pointed their swords at Pyke nervously. The others in the room all turned their attention to him as well.
¡°Please take your seat, Lucien.¡±
Pyke¡¯s number 2, Tolken, suggested with a wave of his hand. Lucien then looked at Pyke¡¯s number two as if he had been insulted.
¡°Why should I listen ta any of ya? We is all gonna die!¡±
¡°We were not aware of this, Lucien. Our farms are quite far from this location if you hadn¡¯t realized.¡±
¡°For all we know, ya twits intentionally called us here just ta get us killed.¡±
¡°And for what reason would we do that, Sir Lucien? If you, our buyers, get caught, we lose everything as well.¡±
¡°Not if em¡¯ pce folks are offering ya em fancy coins.¡±
Another member spoke out.
¡°Not you too, Sir Holst.¡±
Tolken then focused his attention on Holst. The owner of one of the biggest ve rings. He had even managed to start forming connections in the Mexar Empire. He was now peaking in the underworld.
Holst took a sip of his cup of beer then scoffed.
¡°Think for a second, you two. What reason would Pyke and his men have to get us all caught by The Executioner, huh?¡±
Spen who was the newest member spoke out. This was his first meeting, since he recently inherited his father¡¯s job. A small timepany that sold extremely potent poisons to the underworld. He had a tricky look on his face that made it hard to discern whether he was being serious or joking.
¡°Why¡¯re ya talkin fresh meat? It wouldn¡¯t be da first time Pyke¡¯s done us dirty.¡±
Holst spoke out.
¡°Indeed, I am not aware of the specifics, but you are here, still doing business with him, is that not so?¡±
¡°Of course. Da best business partner ya could ever have is Pyke an¡¯ the crew.¡±
What he said confused both Lucien and Spen. Lucien looked at Spen.
¡°Then why were ya talkin smack against him?¡±
¡°Cause, I hate it when Pyke does this.¡±
Holst took another gulp from his cup then mmed the desk.
¡°This is good beer. Get me more!¡±
He raised the cup to the sky for one of the maids toe attend to it.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°What do ya mean?¡±
¡°First of all, sit down.¡±
Pyke finally spoke. The sense of authority that came with hismand made Lucien sit without any questions asked. Pyke himself then stood up and started to circle across the room.
¡°I¡¯ve been thinking, boys. These meetings we hold asionally are quite useless, no? Poisoning the drinks we bring¡¡±
He brushed his hands on Spen¡¯s shoulders.
¡°W-What?!¡±
Holst coughed out the alcohol he was wolfing down.
¡°Sending in spies to infiltrate our businesses to gather information we don¡¯t feel like sharing.¡±
Pyke yed around with Holst¡¯s grey hair then passed by.
¡°Trying to destroy a business ¡°partner¡¯s¡± farm.¡±
He then patted Lucien¡¯s shoulders.
¡°We been doing this for ages now. So why would the new kid on the streets suddenly be so good at tracking us to the point of finding one of my farms?¡±
He then put his arm across Tolken¡¯s shoulder.
¡°Come onds. This is an easy one. Ain¡¯t it, Tolken?¡±
All eyes were suddenly at Tolken who had apletely unfazed grin. Pyke then sat back down and put his legs on the table.
¡°I¡¯d want to say that we have a spy, but I know for certain none of you here are spies for the ¡°pretty folks¡±. So I¡¯ll just do you all a favor right now.¡±
¡°And what¡¯s that?¡±
Spen asked with a straight face.
¡°Why are you so serious all of a sudden, kid? You have no reason to be.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t like yer tone, Pyke.¡±
Holst threatened, but Pyke simply rose his hands in surrender with a smile on his face.
¡°What I¡¯m saying is, we¡¯ve got no shot. We¡¯re definitely not making it out of here today. The Executioner¡¯s here already.¡±
¡°WHAT?! How¡¯d you know?¡±
¡°She must¡¯ve followed that one after burning the farm. We¡¯ve got no chance of escape. Just say your prayers, boys. Was a pleasure working with ya lot.¡±
There was a reason a veteran like Pyke hadpletely given up. The others in the room probably wouldn¡¯t understand him, but Pyke had seen The Executioner¡¯s power up close. At the time, he was lucky that The Executioner was not chasing after him. Afterwards, he did much more research on The Executioner. He remembered her words very much when she killed thest person.
¡°You are before the Judge and Jury. Make your plea.¡±
His research was extensive. It took seven months to be precise, but he dug up everything he could concerning that phrase. What he discovered was more horrifying than he could imagine. That was why when he heard the Executioner was here for him, he knew that there was no escaping this.
¡°That thing, will hunt us down to the very Underworld just to pass judgement on our souls, boys. There¡¯s no escaping it.¡±
Just as he said that, the ceiling copsed and everyone ran away from the portion that broke down. When the dust cleared up, they saw a little child with white hair in a jet-ck battle gown. Her eyes were like blood-red rubies that stared at Pyke¡¯s very soul. She then switched to Holst who was simply staring in shock. She rose her hand and a sword formed in it.
¡°My name is Rulis Tepe Miksari Eldiro Furialt. Sir Holsten Wagner. You are before the Judge and Jury. Make your plea.¡±
Holst¡¯s body flew right into the de and was stabbed immediately. The others wasted no time in escaping the room. However, Pyke and Tolken grabbed both Lucien and Spen and pinned them to the ground.
¡°Tolken?! Pyke? What¡¯s the deal?!¡±
Lucien cried out.
¡°Silence. The goddess is busy.¡±
Hesitantly, Lucien looked at The Executioner. Horns glowed on her head and her eyes were now silver in color.
¡°You have been judged as Unworthy for Life.¡±
She retracted her sword and Holst¡¯s body fell to the ground lifelessly. Rulis'' attention then changed to all four in the room.
¡°Why would you stop them from running?¡±
¡°We only live to serve, Oh Goddess.¡±
Pyke praised her and offered his free will to her. The lolita looked at him expressionlessly, trying to understand what he meant, but decided to shrug it off. She could tell that he was being very honest, so either way, it worked out for her. Although if it were a lie, the end result would be no different. They would all die.
¡°Very well. I am not certain what you mean by, ¡°Goddess¡±, but I will ept your help.¡±
Rulis lifted Spen up then stabbed his heart. She repeated this till she eradicated the entire Crime Syndicate running in the Sundane Nation. It didn¡¯t take long for tales of her exploits spread throughout thends. The Executioner that wiped out the biggest crime syndicate in the history of the world. People who imed to have seen her started to spread rumors of her curse.
That was how she was dubbed The Cursed Executioner amongst all members of the Crime World. However, to those who did no "evil", they had given her a different title. The Heavenly Judge of Blood Red mes.
Chapter 149 To Get Stronger Pt.I
¡®Yo, Zana. I need a favour.¡¯
I teleported right into her cave. After exploring a lot of possibilities, I went to her ce to see if she could magic up a tracker spell. When I got there however, I noticed that she was sleeping.
¡®Sigh¡ don¡¯t want to do this, but¡¡¯
I moved closer to her and touched her tail. When I did, I noticed that the tail was now green and golden in color. I stepped back, unsure as to what I was touching.
¡®Show me her stats, agent.¡¯
STATUS
[Name: Zana Hyakkiyako
[Species: Modified Naga Lord Level 1/100
[Status: [Very Hungry]
[Age: 16 years
[Rank: A+
[Race Rank: Tier 2
[ss: Magician Level 10 (Qualifies for 2 more sub-sses)
[Sub-ss: Great Shaman Level 4
[Titles: |Sessful Experiment|, |Terrible Witch|, |Witch|, |Child of Ongril|, |Tyrant|
[Blessings: -
[Level: 91 Exp: 7/320,000
[Health: 10050/10050 Stamina: 4590/9900 Mana: 1530/2950 Strength: 12250 Speed: 10200 Defense: 9120 Dexterity: 22500 Intelligence: 1890 Magic: 2150 Luck: 250
? ''W-Why does she have the name, Hyakkiyako?''
<<This is because she is a member of your familia.>>
''But the others don''t have it.''
<<A familia member is different from a servant. Familia members are more like siblings or lovers.>>
''T-That so? Hmm, also she''s a modified Naga Lord?''
<<From what I could gather, she closely resembles a Naga, but I believe the system added the "modified" part since she is not exactly one>>
''Then why not give me the question marks like before?''
<<That is unknown>>
¡®I see. Still, Zana¡¯s a beast. How is she the weakest tyrant?¡¯
<<That was before her evolution. Currently she stands above Krull>>
¡®Seriously? So she could beat that thing in an arm wrestlingpetition?''
<
>
''I see. Would there be a problem in me waking her up?¡¯
<<No. Just provide food for her>>
¡®Why?¡¯
<<The status [Very Hungry] means she is starving>>
¡®Right¡¡¯
I looked into my item box and took out some of the food I stole from the nobleman¡¯s home. I tapped on Zana¡¯s tail to get her up. She was so big and her defense was high enough that I doubt it even did anything to her. With my highest strength, I punched her and she groaned.
¡°Nush mow.¡±
She muttered sleepily.
¡®Ah¡ Come on, Zana, wake up. I brought food.¡¯
I went closer to her face.
¡°Fooj?¡±
She opened her eyes. I could see a green glint in the darkness.
¡°Hinotori?¡±
Slowly, she sat up, rubbing her eyes with two of her hands, whereas her new arms stretched. Surprised, I jumped back.
¡®Z-Zana!¡¯
¡°What?¡±
¡®Y-You¡¯re not ck anymore! And you now have four arms.¡¯
Zana looked at her body. She was leaner and smaller than before, although still quite big. Her tail was green and golden in a beautiful blend, whereas her upper body was now fair, with four arms andrge breasts. She had green messy hair with golden streaks and there were red tattoos covering her stomach area. Her face was now like a model¡¯s ¨C mature and cool.
¡®A cool beauty!¡¯
I ended up shouting. She grabbed her face and blushed after hearing me.
¡°Y-You really think I¡¯m beautiful?¡±
¡®Ah¡ yes, but that¡¯s not what I came for.¡¯
I threw the food to her and she caught it.
¡°You brought food for me?¡±
¡®Yes, but that¡¯s not why I came here.¡¯
¡°You wanted to say hello?¡±
¡®Yes, but¡ let me talk.¡¯
She started digging into the meal while looking at me.
¡®When I went back to the West yesterday, something happened. Now Minerva¡¯s missing and Goliath is dead.¡¯
¡°Hmhm.¡±
¡®So can you help me locate Minerva?¡¯
¡°I can do a locater spell, but that will take some time. You mind waiting out?¡±
¡®Oh¡ um, sure. This is easier than I thought.¡¯
¡°Get me a memento of Minerva¡¯s. Something that meant a lot to her. It will make finding her faster.¡±
¡®Ok then. Thanks.¡¯
I teleported back into the West, at what used to be Minerva¡¯s cave. It was in shambles now. The fight must have ended up getting it destroyed. When I got inside, I was met with some bones and bloodstained floor. I didn¡¯t like it, but if there was something that meant a lot to Minerva, it had to be here.
I looked about and all I found were useless jewelries and carvings into the wall after some minutes. I then moved to the mansion, into my room where Minerva slept. Looking around, I identified her bat on the wall.
¡®That¡¯s it. It probably means a lot to her.¡¯
I grabbed it then went right to Zana.
¡®Here.¡¯
I handed it over to her. She inspected it and her eyes glowed a bit.
¡°She has some connection to this thing?¡±
¡®Yes¡?¡¯
¡°Um¡ I will try my best¡? It will take some time. You can do whatever you want for the day.¡±
¡®What do you mean for the day?¡¯
¡°Well, this item you have brought to me carries almost no value to Minerva. So, unless you have something better, I cannot finish in less than a day.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Ah¡ how would Minerva not have any connection to this? It was the bat she had used for years!¡¯
¡°Did she tell you that?¡±
¡®What?¡¯
¡°Did she ever tell you that this thing meant anything to her?¡±
¡®Um¡¡¯
¡°It will be a day. Find something to do. I sense a bad aura around you. Maybe you could try finding peace this day.¡±
¡®Finding peace?¡¯
¡°Certainly. I will begin now.¡±
I clicked my tongue then walked out.
¡®Can you believe her? Me? A bad aura? Finding peace?! I only carry good vibes and am all about that peace stuff! I don¡¯t need anything!¡¯
<<ording to your memories, when people are grieving a loss, they go through certain stages. Stage 1 is denial like you said.>>
¡®Stop saying weird things, agent. Tch, what will I do today? For once, I don¡¯t have anything on mind. Any suggestions, agent?¡¯
¡®Grow stronger.¡¯
¡®Huh? What was that?¡¯
<<I didn¡¯t say anything>>
¡®Um¡ agent, do you have any suggestions to me growing stronger?¡¯
<<Yes>>
¡®Really? What?¡¯
<<Use your system well>>
¡®Huh? Use my system well? What do you mean? Don¡¯t I get my experience points already? Isn¡¯t that all the system does? Give me experience and let me see my stats?¡¯
<<No. I have explored it and the system has various designs to make you get stronger faster>>
¡®Eh? Faster than I grow normally?¡¯
<<Admittedly, your growth rate is absurd. However, if you used the system properly, your growth rate would be far higher>>
¡®¡ Wait, I wasn¡¯t strong enough to stop the necromancer early because of how I used the system?¡¯
<<Yes>>
¡®You could have been less blunt about it...¡¯
I was starting to feel guilty. If I was stronger, I could have ended all of this easily. It was my fault that Minerva was captured, Goliath was dead and several members of my familia were injured. Shiroi and Aeri had lost a lot of respect for me. Oki was right. If I was a better leader, none of this would have happened. I might have been able to help Minerva and Goliath.
<<Logically speaking, you would not have even reached Minerva¡¯s level of strength within one month>>
¡®What?¡¯
<<At best, you would have achieved Arisu¡¯s level of strength so you would not have been able to do anything against what killed Goliath.>>
¡®¡ I see. Ok then! Show me how to get stronger!¡¯
<<Certainly. Status.>>
She called and my status opened up. I had gone to level 26/70. I had gone up 5 levels and my stats had increased a bit.
¡®What¡¯s the problem?¡¯
I asked her. Everything was in order. I had lots of skills and my numbers were looking high. I would probably be enough to beat Shiro now.
<<Your skills>>
¡®Hm? What¡¯s wrong with them?¡¯
<<Two problems. Their levels are too low. Without your raw magical power backing you up, most of them would not be able to cause a single scratch on anything stronger than you.>>
¡®Seriously?¡¯
<<Yes. Your strategic use of speed and strength to increase the power of your attacks also sometimes makes up for this, but in situations were you won¡¯t be able to move around, you will need to have your skills be strong enough>>
¡®I totally see what you¡¯re talking about.¡¯
<<Good. Second problem. The number of skills>>
¡®Isn¡¯t having a lot of skills a good thing?¡¯
<<Yes. However, having too many skills is bad for your body.>>
¡®Hmm, but if I have the resistances to it, won¡¯t it be better?¡¯
<<Yes, if those skills were originally of your species>>
¡®What?¡¯
<<With the unique skill [Evolver] you steal skills from races that arepletely different from yours. The strain it puts on your body would be equal to the amount it puts on the original species. Luckily, you have not used many skills that are from races stronger than yours.>>
¡®Haha¡ I think I get you. It¡¯s like someone fromnd 1 eats the food fromnd 2. They haven¡¯t done that their whole lives, so they could have a bad reaction to it, right?¡¯
<<Close enough.>>
¡®So, what will we be doing then?¡¯
<<Starting now, you will take skill fusion and synthesis very seriously>>
¡®Eh? Why those two?¡¯
<<Normally, if you were fusing the skills yourself, you would need to cut off the parts that are unhealthy for you, add the parts together then create a new strong skill specifically for you.>>
¡®Like creating strong medicine from two different poisons?¡¯
<<¡Close enough>>
¡®I can feel the anger from that.¡¯
<<You aren¡¯t thinking straight>>
¡®Sure. So, what are we doing?¡¯
<
>
¡®Hmm? How do I do this?¡¯
<<Fusion is akin to making food. Simply take the ingredients, use the tools and make your food>>
¡®I see. In that case.¡¯
I willed for both skills and mashed them up together. Just like cooking. Dump all the ingredients into a bowl, set heat to it then make the food. At least that was what I believed. I had done this before, yet it was much harder this time. When I put both skills together, I received some resistance from the skills and eventually the fusion was cancelled.
¡®What the hell? I¡¯ve fused skills before. They were easy to do, so why did I suffer so much this time?¡¯
<<The skills you fused were like in nature so you were able to simply mash them up. However, the skills [Taunt] and [Lustful Gaze] are opposite in nature. Whereas [Taunt] causes unbridled rage, [Lustful Gaze] causes illicit excitement>>
¡®Huh? [Taunt] aggroes and [Lustful Gaze] makes people horny. Both make people excited, no? Same difference.¡¯
<<Sigh¡>>
¡®Did you just sigh?¡¯
<<[Fusion] of both skills will require for you to chip off the useless elements of both, look for what ispatible and add them, making it more suitable for you>>
¡®You didn¡¯t answer my question earlier!¡¯
<<Are you a kid?>>
¡®I heard that! Ugh, I¡¯ll do it.¡¯
I concentrated hard. I picked out both skills and inspected them. [Taunt] was a skill that made enemies angry. They lost their shit and came to attack me. [Lustful Gaze] was also one that made enemies lose their shit, but would onlye towards me for sexual gratification. When I thought about it, it became clearer. I could simply cut off the part in [Taunt] where they¡¯de to attack me. [Lustful Gaze] was fine as it was, but I was not going to give them sexual gratification, so I removed that part, which made it more like I would simply pleasure them.
Chapter 150 To Get Stronger Pt.II
DING!
[The skills [Taunt] and [Lustful Gaze] were fused to create the skill [Impish Gaze]]
As soon as I was done, I opened my eyes and could feel the skill.
[Skill Name: Impish Gaze]
[Skill Type: Active]
[Description: Send a gaze that causes ¡°excitement¡± in your targets. In this state, they be vulnerable and wait for your next ¡°trick¡±. Causes [Heavy Stun]]
¡®Ah! I did it! I fused the skill!¡¯
<<Yes. But that took 10 minutes>>
¡®Wait, for real?¡¯
<<Constant 2 hour daily practice should allow for the [Fusion] and [Synthesis] skills to reach their highest levels quickly. Next, we shall focus on you raising your skill levels>>
¡®Constant use, right?¡¯
<<Yes. You will be multitasking a lot of skills>>
¡®Eh?¡¯
<<The skills grow at the same pace, with the same amount of time.>>
¡®So, it¡¯s better to use two skills in 1 hour than only 1 skill in an hour if the former would achieve the same results but faster.¡¯
<<Yes.>>
After listening to the agent, I looked at the skills and chose [Stealth] and [Feelers]. Yes, I chose the easy way out, so the agent added two more. [Auto Regeneration] and [Size Maniption].
I am sure you¡¯re wondering how I raise my [Auto Regeneration] skill. The agent makes take some feathers out for [Feather Ignition], shrink, blow myself up and allow the [Auto Regeneration] skill to patch me up, while [Stealth] was still on and [Feelers] would constantly warn me of the dangering from my own explosions. So, in the end, I was actually raising the levels of 5 skills.
<<Next, we focus on the other system functions you have acquired.>>
¡®Yesh.¡¯
BOOM!
I was sted off to the ground.
[You have lost 200 health points]
<<The system presented you with 3 other sub systems. The Familia System, The Store System and The Dungeon System.¡±
¡®Ah¡ I had those.¡¯
<<The Familia System was brought up as a way to help you manage your increasing number of subordinates, not just a convenient tool formunication.>>
¡®Yes¡¡¯
FAMILIA STATUS
Familia Name: Hyakkiyako¡¯s Familia
Familia Level: 6 Experience Points: 2/6000
Status: Vige Level 9 (Rank Up avable!)
Familia Head: Hyakkiyako Hinotori
Family Members: Zana(A+)
Familiars: Amethyst(C)
Familia General(s): (Please select a General)
Familia Captain(s): (Please select a Captain)
Servants: Kawaii(C-), Shiroi(B), Kara(C), Ulva(C), Nukeme(D+), Yuuna(C-), Taiku(D+), Tsuna(C-), Reiman(D), Sylvie(C), Aeri Vons(B-), Oki(D+), Yokino(B)
Number of Members: 30,000
Family Head Specific Skills: [Absolute Command], [Experience Share]
Familia Skills: [Mana Share]
Familia Points: 210
¡®Huh. Let¡¯s see. I¡¯m guessing I should select a general?¡¯
<<Yes. Your right-hand man should always carry the highest position>>
¡®Highest position? Wouldn¡¯t that go to Amethyst? She¡¯s my familiar and that contract I had been tricked into signing.¡¯
<<No. Amethyst will be your highest ranked familiar. That is a different case from being the general of your familia.>>
¡®Huh? What¡¯s the difference?¡¯
<<If you possessed a familia filled with only familiars, in that case one of those familiars would be made into a Familia General. However, your familia is different and possesses creatures that are not your Familiars but are linked to your soul.>>
¡®Hollup¡ what¡¯s the difference between members of my familia and familiars?¡¯
<<Familiars are creatures linked directly to your soul. As such, a familiar contract is one that transforms the familiar¡¯sposition into an ethereal one.>>
¡®Huh?¡¯
<<Familiars are either spirits or be spirits after signing a contract.>>
¡®Eh? Why?¡¯
<<This is because a Familiar Contract links the souls of both Master and Familiar. The Master has full ess to the Familiar¡¯s abilities and skills, but those need to be transferred to the master in a form. The familiars¡¯ bodies are made into spiritual cloaks, so that sharing their skills with their masters no longer bes a case of it being physical.>>
¡®Eh? This is confusing me.¡¯
<<Skills, depending on the type, are mostly honed through physical work. Familiars be spirits and still keep their skills. As spirits they can share their skills with others, much like in Spirit Possession>>
¡®Hmm¡ so basically a Familiar contract transforms the familiar into a sort of spiritual cloak that gives you powers?¡¯
<<Yes. That is the true original purpose of familiar contracts. Humans used to use this contract to give themselves a boost in power.>>
¡®What do you mean used to?¡¯
<<There was a cmity that wiped out most of the¡¯s species. That is why there is currently only one known continent. The current use of Familiar contracts is for those with low connections to their familiars. However, modern civilization is yet to figure that out. I estimate another decade till it bes more known in thends.>>
¡®Huh¡ I think I get what you¡¯re talking about. But a cmity that left off only one continent on a? Was it Amethyst¡¯s mother?¡¯
<<That is unknown>><novelnext></novelnext>
¡®You don¡¯t know what the cmity was?¡¯
<<No>>
¡®I see. Ok, now what¡¯s with my familia members?¡¯
<<Familia members are separated into four types. The Familiars, the Family Members, the Familia Servants and Familia Minions. For this conversation, thetter three would be referred to as Familia Members.>>
¡®We¡¯ve gone over the familiars. Now what¡¯s the others.¡¯
<<Familia members are devoted servants. In this case, they have borne their souls to you and you can do with those as you wish. However, they have very limited ess to yours. You determine how much ess they have to it. Unlike Familiar contracts, you cannot use their skills as your own, but with the unique skill [Remorse] you should be able to do so.>>
¡®Hmm, so basically like the familiar contract you say everyone is misusing?¡¯
<<No. Even though they don¡¯t have ess to your soulpletely, they will inherit your traits unconsciously. They will remain as they are, but they will understand you better. This will make them feel loyal to you and would be willing to die for you.>>
¡®So, brainwashing?¡¯
<<No. It is more like creating a private religion in which no one would even dream of defying you. The more content they are, the more willing they are.>>
¡®Um¡ doesn¡¯t really put me at ease knowing that basically an entire nation is willing to die for me, but they seemed to be angry at mest I checked.¡¯
<<That is because they are not content with you>>
¡®Eh? Because I let Goliath die?¡¯
<<You have not acted like a leader.>>
¡®Not this crap from you too. I asked you to teach me how to get stronger, not lecture me on being a leader.¡¯
I stood up and looked at the sun. It was annoyingly bright.
<<Very well. Moving on to the Store system>>
¡®Eh? You haven¡¯t taught me about the familia system though.¡¯
<<You said I should stop>>
¡®What? I told you to stop lecturing me on being a leader, not to stop teaching me about the functions.¡¯
<
>
¡®A general, huh? Who could I give that position to?¡¯
<
>
¡®Someone of immense power the servants respect? Shiroies to mind, but after her refusing my request, I doubt she¡¯d want to take it on. Hmm, Arisu then?¡¯
<
>
¡®Hmm, Arisu is a great match then. She is a king after all. Possesses immense power and took all her bunnies to war against that He bunny and survived. She¡¯d be the perfect leader for them.¡¯
DING!
[You have chosen the servant Arisu to be your General. Are you certain about your choice?]
? [YES]/NO]
Obviously, I epted.
[The servant Arisu is your General. Arisu has control second only to you now. You can change your General at any time, but do note multiple changes in Generals will cause unrest from your servants]
¡®Huh¡ I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll change my generals that often though. Whatever.¡¯
<<Now please select captains. There are five slots avable>>
¡®Five slots¡ Hmmm, Shiroi, Nukeme, Yuuna, Reiman, Kawaii.¡¯
DING!
[You have chosen the servants Shiroi, Nukeme, Yuuna, Reiman and Kawaii to be your captains. Are you certain about your choice?]
? [YES]/[NO]
I epted. This time there was no warning notice.
<<Next, please upgrade your status. Your familia is too big to be kept as a vige.>>
¡®Oh, ok.¡¯
DING!
[You have opted to Rank Up your familia status!]
[Please select which status to rank up!]
[Large Vige] |10 Familia Points| (30% Discount)
[Small Town] |40 Familia Points| (20% Discount)
[Large Town] |60 Familia Points| (10% Discount)
[Small City] |170 Familia Points|
[Large City] |200 Familia Points| (MAX)
¡®Huh? W-What¡¯s this?¡¯
<<Select the status of your familia.>>
¡®W-What? But¡ that¡¯d just put me in charge of a vige at best and Large City at worst. I¡¯d basically be the lord over a city district, wouldn¡¯t I?¡¯
<<That depends on the number of members you add to your familia.>>
¡®Sheesh¡ I¡¯ve got to stop taking in strays. Besides, would 30,000 people fit in a city?¡¯
<<Yes>>
¡®For real? Some fantasy manga I¡¯ve read makes it seem like a nation doesn¡¯t even have a million citizens.¡¯
<<That is inurate. There¡¯s over millions of residents in countries. The smallest country has approximately 1.2 million citizens>>
¡®Eh? That¡¯s kinda crazy. Still, is this the final bit for the familia function?¡¯
<
>
¡®Ok then, next function.¡¯
<A/N: Disappointed to see that in the 3 weeks break I took from writing I received only 2 reviews. Thanks for those reviews! Anyway, we''re back with more weird chicken adventures and finding our short goblin friend. Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 151 To Get Stronger Pt.III
<<The Store System is your biggest advantage out of anything. With it you have ess to an unknown number of skills, weapons, magical items and relics. If you wish to grow strong, you should invest a lot into this.>>
User ID: Hyakkiyako
User Level: 1
User Influence: Non-existent
Wallet: 4010 store points
(Commoner Level 1-10 users will have ess to low grade products)
|WEAPONS|
|ACCESSORIES|
|SKILLS|
|MISCELLANEOUS|(LOCKED)
¡®Hmm, I think my memory¡¯s a bit fuzzy. I don¡¯t remember having so many points? Ah well. Let¡¯s start.¡¯
<<Before we proceed, please do note you original had 400 points. This is because I converted your gold to store points.>>
¡®Eh? How much gold did I have?¡¯
<<Approximately 10,000 gold. However, when converted you received 3600 store points. You received an extra 10 store points from your dungeon exploration.>>
¡®Ah¡ I could have died back then. Also, you converted all my gold into store points?¡¯
<<No. I kept 5000 gold behind since it would be enough for you.>>
¡®Ah¡ I¡¯ve still got 5000 gold. She¡¯s, that¡¯s a lot. I¡¯m rich, right?¡¯
<<Currently, yes. This isn¡¯t assured in the future>>
¡®What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡¯
<<Let¡¯s check out the weapons section>>
¡®Don¡¯t ignore me!¡¯
<<Weapons are categorized ording to rank, type and effect.>>
¡®You¡¯re ignoring me.¡¯
<<There are [Trash], [Normal], [Magical], [Rare], [Epic], [Unique], [Legendary], [Mythical], [Phantasmal] and [Primordial] in ascending order of ranks. The types are physical and spiritual, whereas the effects are a wide variety from [Sure-hit] to [One-Time-K.O]>>
¡®Holy¡ there¡¯s a [One-Time-K.O]? Wouldn¡¯t I want that then?¡¯
<<Those are mostly 1 time use.
¡®Ah¡ I see. How much and how many can I get? We must invest all our resources in this!¡¯
<<No. Investing in [One-Time-K.O]s is a risky move. I rmend buying a weapon more suitable to yourself. A sword that won¡¯t offload it¡¯s stress on you, or a magical orb to consume to boost your magic power.>>
¡®Huh? Come on, can¡¯t I get at least one K.O weapon?¡¯
<<No.>>
¡®Come on! Come on! Let me get it!¡¯
<<No.>>
¡®I¡¯ll do it without your permission.¡¯
<<And end up being a ve.>>
[Tori took 5000 damage]
[Tori died.]
¡®O-On second chance, let¡¯s get a sword. What do you rmend?¡¯
<<This sword, [Hekati de]. It boosts your magical powers and also contains imbedded sword techniques in it. It is a High [Epic] rank, physical type weapon and has an effect of draining mana from your opponents. It costs 2500 store points.>>
¡®Eh? S-So expensive.¡¯
<<A good investment. And a good match for you, since it¡¯s a jack of all trades sort of weapon. You can imbue up to three spells on it.>>
¡®I-It¡¯s really a good sword. But show me something else.¡¯
<<The spear, [Sky Eater]. It is a spear that elongates as per your wishes, with a nearly indestructible shaft and incredibly sharp de. It naturally harnesses storm magic within it and can cause bad effects for opponents with aura abilities. It is also a Mid [Epic] rank, physical type weapon. It costs 2300 store points.>>
¡®Sheesh, so expensive. What¡¯s so bad with [Rare] items?¡¯
<<Nothing. This is simply a calcted n to get you into the best possible shape for any opponent on the same level or beyond that of the necromancer.>>
¡®I see. If you¡¯ve nned that out then, I guess I¡¯ll take the sword.¡¯
[Purchase epted]
[You bought the [Epic] rank item, [Hekati de]!]
[You¡¯ve bought your first item from the Store! You have received the 50 store points as a bonus!]
[You¡¯ve bought your first [Epic] Rank item from the store. You have received 200 store points as a bonus!]
¡®S-Seriously?¡¯
The de formed up in my hand. It was a fine long sword, with sharp double edges and with ck edges. The handle was hard and contained a crystal-clear jewel in the center. It seemed to be made of a golden metal. It was heavy in my hands, but felt natural in my hands.
¡®A long sword? I don¡¯t normally use these though.¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
<<You will receive the sword techniques the moment you start using it.>>
¡®Huh. Nice. But I¡¯m guessing not now?¡¯
<<Affirmative. Next, we buy the skills.>>
¡®What about essories?¡¯
<<Let¡¯s deal with skills first.>>
¡®Ok.¡¯
<<Skills have already been exined to you earlier. So, I suggest you buy the Advanced skills [Soul Guard], [Blood Bank] and [Super Thought Process] for 1300 store points.>>
¡®Sure, but why that specific set of skills?¡¯
<<[Super Thought Process] is to allow you to think faster. In a sense, your perception of time is heightened. [Blood Bank] allows you to the store the excess blood you suck. And [Soul Guard] is to ward off attacks at your soul, like recoil from your->>
¡®My unique skills. That¡¯s right¡ You said [Evolver] was killing me? Exin in detail.¡¯
<<The unique skill [Evolver] is having an¡ unknown effect on your soul. Slowly, your soul is being morphed, with some parts being cleaned out, causing memory losses and inability to perform well on an emotional level. Your soul is slowly building up a resistance to its effects, however not fast enough.>>
¡®Is that what you meant by it¡¯s killing me?¡¯
<<The actual effect on your soul is still unknown, but it cannot be denied that your soul is deteriorating slowly.>>
¡®Hmm, so it¡¯s not really killing me? More like my soul is simply being altered?¡¯
<<And deteriorated>>
¡®Um¡ is there a way to stop the skill?¡¯
<<Negative. Your parallel mind dubbed, Akira has tried several times and failed to do so. Even I with permission have failed to do so.>>
¡®Huh¡ ok, ok. So [Soul Guard] will stop this?¡¯
<<No. It will only drastically slow down [Evolver]¡¯s effects on you till we find a more permanent solution or you die.>>
¡®Sheesh, don¡¯t talk about my death so nonchntly. Wouldn¡¯t you be sad if I died?¡¯
<<I would feel nothing.>>
¡®Not even the teeniest bit?¡¯
<<No. I don¡¯t care.>>
¡®Sigh¡ fine. So, is it just on automatically?¡¯
<<Yes. You should be feeling a sense of ¡°protection¡± once activated.>>
¡®Huh¡ I see. Then [Blood Bank] so I can regenerate with the excess blood?¡¯
<<That is a secondary purpose. The main purpose for which I picked this skill is the option to steal the skills of those whose bloods you consume through use of the unique skill [Remorse].>>
¡®WHAAAAA-?!¡¯
<<After much observation, it has been noticed that the unique skill, [Remorse] has proven to be quite ¡°useless¡± to you, seeing as you prefer to have long term skills rather than short term skills.>>
¡®How does this work again?¡¯
<<Once you consume your target¡¯s blood, you will have ess to their skills as long as it exists in your blood bank. The blood bank will only be able to store up to 100 milliliters as off level 1.>>
¡®Oh? That¡¯s still a lot if all I need is a tiny amount of blood.¡¯
<<Yes.>>
¡®Nice one. You solved that problem really quick. And is there an ulterior motive to [Super Thought Process]?¡¯
<<Yes.>>
¡®Lay it on me.¡¯
<<So that you think about your decisions better before speaking and acting.>>
¡®Isn¡¯t that the whole point of the skill though?¡¯
<<You were thinking only about itsbat purposes.>>
¡®What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡¯
<<In the essories option, [Daylight Ring] would solve your problem. With it, the sunlight will no longer limit you.>>
¡®Wow, such a convenient item exists? Also, answer my question!¡¯
<<The store contains a wide variety of items. Given you possess the right amount of points, you could buy possibly anything.>>
¡®Good, good. How do I get more store points, again?¡¯
<<Completing Daily Quests, Completing Main Quests, Completely Sub Quests, Completing Dungeon Quests, Completing Familia Quests, exchanging gold for points, receiving it as gifts from the System Master and other users of the Store and Selling items on the Store>>
¡®W-Wait¡ there¡¯s others with ess to the store?¡¯
<<This is only a theory, given that there is an option to sell in the store and there are sometimes items that have a limited amount.>>
¡®Huh¡ I see then. That makes me feel like I¡¯m not really special anymore, but sure. Thanks.¡¯
I bought the skills and the daylight ring for 1330 store points. Afterwards, I still had 430 store points. I activated the [Soul Guard] skill immediately and just like the agent said, I felt this weird fuzziness. It was as if I was now safe.
¡®Sheesh. The store¡¯s fire. Ok, now on to the Dungeons! Whoop, whoop!¡¯
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 152 Sacred Beast Guardian
<<The Dungeon System is also somewhat of a backup for everything you have. >>
¡®A backup?¡¯
<<That¡¯s right, a backup. It operates much like your regr system by giving you quests, mobs, regr ie and ability to buy skills and items, as well as monsters.>>
¡®Now that you mention it¡ those are all things I can do on my own.¡¯
<<Normally, it would be and mine for some if they received this system, but it is of secondary use to you. However, focusing on it will allow you to amass an army quickly, as well as provide yourself with the ultimate safe house.>>
¡®Is that so? In that case, what do I need to do?¡¯
<<Mostly maintenance. Receiving ie can allow for you to buy items from the dungeons shop which looks quite simr to the Store.>>
|DUNGEON STATS|
Dungeon Name: Forbidden Dungeon
Dungeon Rank: C
Dungeon Master: Hyakkiyako
Dungeon Level: 5 Experience Points: 0/40,000
Dungeon Poption: /300 Mana Crystals: 10/20 Mana Crystal Production Rate: 1%
Dungeon Attribute: -
|DUNGEON MASTER STATS|
|DUNGEON SHOP|
|SUMMONS|
<<To start it off, I will exin what a dungeon is.>>
¡®Ok.¡¯
<<Dungeons are sometimes natural urrences in ces with high mana density. The reason for this is, when there is arge concentration of mana, that mana forms Mana Crystals. However, this takes a long amount of time. Some people don¡¯t even live to see new dungeons being born. In the dungeons, the mana crystals start attracting monsters whock [Whole Souls] to them. These monsters develop an instinctual need to protect the mana crystals and prevent others from stealing them.>>
¡®Huh. So that¡¯s where dungeon mobse from?¡¯
<<Yes. However, too much concentrated mana at one point is very bad.>>
¡®Eh? Why?¡¯
<<Too much mana can reshape anything. Land, terrain, air, creatures or even reality. Mana is extremely potent and as such, the concentration of it is what leads to entirends being changed intoyered dungeons. There are even asions where dungeons form living entities within them. These entities sole purposes are to ensure that the dungeon is protected and their lives are tied to the fuel of the dungeons, the Dungeon Cores.>>
¡®Wait¡ so the Dungeon Cores are like rechargeable batteries that receive power from the mana crystals around them or something?¡¯
<<¡ Yes. Wow, you can think.>>
¡®Huh?!¡¯
<<The beings created by the dungeon cores however are more special than the average dungeon mob. They wield control over the dungeon¡¯s functions and are in charge of maintaining the dungeon on a daily basis. Ensuring there¡¯s enough protection, the growth rate should be progressing smoothly and reshuffling of floors should be made depending on what needs the most protection.>>
¡®Huh. Is that what the Dungeon Master is?¡¯
<<Yes. Once you activated the [Dungeon Core], you were assigned as it¡¯s [Dungeon Master], hence, your life force is attached to the [Dungeon Core]. If the [Dungeon Core] is destroyed, you will die.>>
¡®E-Eh? N-No way! I didn¡¯t know that!¡¯
<<It was not deemed necessary information by the [Dungeon Core].>>
¡®Wait. Why didn¡¯t you warn me back then?¡¯
<<I was out ofmission, being fused.>>
¡®Ah¡ right. Anyway, is this a bad thing?¡¯
<<Logically speaking, yes. However, if you turn the dungeon into a fortress, it could be the most profitable thing you could ever hope to get. Mana crystals are very raremodities with an absurdly wide variety of uses, especially those with no attributes.>>
¡®I see. Also, the [Dungeon Core] speaks?¡¯
<<It is capable ofmunicating with its [Dungeon Master], yes.>>
¡®Shitty codger hasn¡¯t spoken to me even once.¡¯0
<<To make your dungeon stronger, you need to focus on its level, attributes and most importantly, Mana Crystal Production Rate.>>
¡®Hmmm, go on.¡¯
<<The level of your dungeon affects its capacity for mobs and ess to items in the Dungeon Store. It also, affects how manyyers your dungeon can have. You can increase the dungeon¡¯s level throughpleting quests.>>
¡®I see. I guess I haven¡¯t had the time to focus on any of that.¡¯
<<Next are attributes. Attributes mostly affect the dungeons appearance and what types of traps, terrain and mobs appear in them.>>
¡®Huh¡ so like fire attribute?¡¯
<<Yes. Like a fire attribute. This is caused by the mana crystals adapting such attributes.>>
¡®I see. How do mana crystals adopt such attributes in the first ce?¡¯
<<It most depends on the majority of element particles in the atmosphere. Larm however possesses an abundance in the 8 basic elements, so the mana crystals have remained neutral at their original dungeon master¡¯s orders.>>
¡®Kaleb Zen? Wait, how long ago did he make this thing again?¡¯
<<Centuries ago.>>
¡®Huh¡ scary.¡¯
<<You can however buy an attribute from the dungeon shop despite the odds¡ it is honestly a very weird concept that makes no sense, but the person to create the systems seems to have higher authority than the gods themselves, over how this world functions.>>
I sat down and looked at the sun, feeling exhausted from all the talking. It was starting to feel like a lecture from some know-it-all.
¡®Ugh¡ this is exhausting. Can we take a break? I need toplete the dungeon quests and stuff? That seems easy enough. I currently can¡¯t make those modifications since everyone is in them, right?¡¯
<<You can, but the choice is up to you.>>
¡®Naa. Not right now, then. Although it feels weird having my life that exposed.¡¯
¡®Master! Master!¡¯
A voice boomed in my head.
¡®O-Ow! Who is this?¡¯
¡®Eh? Silly master. It¡¯s me. Amethyst.¡¯
¡®Eh? Amethyst? I haven¡¯t seen you in like forever. You finished evolving?¡¯
¡®Well, yes.¡¯
¡®Where are you right now? I¡¯lle there.¡¯
¡®In the dungeons. There¡¯s too many lesser life forms here.¡¯
¡®Lesser life forms?¡¯
¡®Yes. The ones you call servants.¡¯
¡®Rude much?¡¯
¡®A perfectly appropriate title. I wille to your side. Simply summon me.¡¯
¡®Hmm, sure.¡¯
I summoned Amethyst to my location. This caused a magic circle to be drawn on the ground before me, then arge poof, before revealing to me Amethyst¡¯s new form.
She was now the size of a cow¡ well she was a bit bigger than a cow. Her purple skin had be darker, rougher and was more reflective. I could see crystal spines jutting out across her back and her head was much like a wyvern¡¯s, except there were no horns. Her eyes were dazzling like Amethysts, but her ws were pitch ck and looked very tough.
¡®I have an overgrown lizard for a familiar¡¡¯
¡®Rude much?¡¯
¡®Hehehe¡ wow, you really grew up, huh? You¡¯re really big now. Bigger than me, even.¡¯
¡®Well yes, but I can see that I¡¯m still not as strong.¡¯
I scanned her.
STATUS
[Name: Amethyst<novelnext></novelnext>
[Species: Twilight Crystal Drake Youngling Level 1/50
[Status: [Full]
[Age: 8 days
[Rank: C
[Race Rank: Tier 2
[Titles: |Child of Fell|, |Hyakkiyako¡¯s Familiar Head|, |Quick Grower|, |Double Evolution|, |Sacred Beast Guardian|
[Blessings: |Hyakkiyako¡¯s Blessings|, |Blessings of the Mystic Cmity Dragon, Fell|
[Talent: S grade
[Level: 51 Exp: 10/6800
[Health: 3100/3100 Stamina: 6000/6000 Mana: 500/500 Strength: 450 Speed: 650 Defense: 690 Dexterity: 530 Intelligence: 30 Magic: 120 Luck: 100
|SKILLS|
[Unique Skills: -
[Passive Skills: [Magic Perception Level 1], [Dark Vision Level 7], [Mana Regeneration Level 2], [Twilight Generation Level 1]
[Active Skills: [Dragon Roar Level 1], [Fire Breath Level 1], [Auto Regeneration Level 1], [Telepathy Level 5], [Twilight Energy Maniption Level 1], [Monstrous Bite Level 1], [Seismic Sense Level 1], [Rock Hard Scales Level 1], [Intimidating Aura Level 1], [Overlord Level 1]
[Affinities: [Fire Magic Affinity], [Light Magic Affinity], [Twilight Magic Affinity], [Crystal Magic Affinity]
[Magic: [Basic Fire Magic Level 1], [Basic Light Magic Level 1], [Basic Crystal Magic Level 1], [Basic Twilight Magic Level 1]
[Magic Skills: -
[Resistances: -
¡®Sheesh. All the way to level 50? There¡¯s something very wrong with this scenario for me.¡¯
¡®I¡¯m really strong right now, right? Right? Right?¡¯
¡®Yes, yes. You¡¯re stronger than you were. No need to shout.¡¯
Amethyst pounced on me and kept licking my face.
¡®Uggh! S-Stop.¡¯
Her saliva was getting all over me. I felt gross. Eventually she stopped, leaving me to myself.
¡®Oh yes, there¡¯s something else I have to tell you.¡¯
¡®What¡¯s that?¡¯
¡®I received an alert, telling me that I¡¯m now in charge of Larm forest.¡¯
¡
¡®W-What?¡¯
I stammered, looking at her in disbelief. She must have made a mistake with the information she actually received.
¡®I even got a title for it.¡¯
When she said that, I looked at her stats once again, right at the titles. Now that I thought about it, Amethsyt really had interesting titles. |Child of Fell|, |Double Evolution| and |Sacred Beast Guardian| were all very intriguing. Fell must¡¯ve been the dragon I saw in the visions Kaleb Zen yed in my head. So, her mother was called Fell? Interesting name. |Double Evolution| implied she went through 2 evolution processes at a go. Sheesh.
Then there was |Sacred Beast Guardian|. Obviously, the title she inherited post Goliath¡¯s death. That meant, she really was the next person in charge of Larm. Given a short period of time she could be as strong as Goliath himself. I dreaded the future possibilities.
¡®W-Wow. Y-You¡¯re actually a Larm¡¯s new guardian deity, huh?¡¯
¡®Guardian deity?¡¯
¡®Yeah. Something that people worship for protection of sorts. Goliath was such a presence.¡¯
¡®I see.¡¯
¡®So, what are you going to do about it?¡¯
¡®Is there anything to do?¡¯
¡®Well, you¡¯re in charge of Larm now. Aren¡¯t you going to oversee it?¡¯
¡®Eh? No. I¡¯m not interested in that. Besides, since you¡¯re my master, doesn¡¯t that technically make Larm yours?¡¯
¡®What? No. That¡¯s not how it works.¡¯
¡®Well, it sort of is?¡¯
¡®Hinotori. There¡¯s a bit of a um¡ problem.¡¯
I head Zana¡¯s voice in my head. I quickly teleported to where she was, and there, I saw her on the ground with her cauldron tilted over and its liquids spilled.
¡®W-What happened? Are you ok?¡¯
I tried to help her up. Amethyst also helped me out.
¡°Y-Yesss. But it seems whatever took Minerva is not allowing anyone to track them, or at least I¡¯m not strong enough.¡±
She stood up and grabbed her head, before moving to the hamoc she had set up. She got on it and groaned. I had felt her temperature rising and her face was turning red.
¡®Are you ok?¡¯
¡°Yes, yes. I-I think I simply overexerted myself. I will try again once I feel better.¡¯
¡®You don¡¯t need to, you know?¡¯
I retreated back after she waved her hands at me.
¡®No. I¡¯ll do it because I want to.¡¯
***
Inside the Bee Hive, Yokino was eating roasted fish while ying about with her magic, trying to put them at the highest levels possible.
"So you''re just going to sit here the entire time?"
Another presence in the room spoke to her. Yokino nced at the presence for merely a second and returned to what she was doing.
"What am I supposed to do?"
"Help, the chicken."
Yokino yawned.
"Don''t bother me. If the chicken is who you say she is, then losing Minerva would simply be an afterthought to her."
Yokino threw the head of the fish away then reached out for more.
"What makes you think that?"
"You should know what makes me think that."
A spider came over to Yokino and she plucked out two of its legs. The spider screeched on the ground in pain. Apparently, it tried to leave her collective to form its own collective to rebel against her. She was punishing it for doing that and threatened to kill it if it attempted ever again. Afterwards, she threw it into a wall and returned to her conversation.
"I know Akira can be... dense sometimes, but you know more than anyone how he is about losing people he cares about."
Yokino sighed.
"That why he forgot about me? Not once have I seen him grieve about the fact that I died and from what you said, he only died after I did, right?"
"Ah... that''s-"
"Nope. No need to talk more. He can suffer for all I care."
Yokino stood up.
"I''m going to send a warning out to my servants. Remember something, "Duchess". In this coboration, I only do what benefits me, as much as you only do what benefits you. I see no benefits here, so I''m not interested. You want to make the chicken happy? Do it yourself."
The Duchess sighed.
"Sorry to do this to you."
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 153 A Possible Solution?
¡®What to do? What to do? Um¡ is there another way to find answers faster?¡¯
I kept contemting on Amethyst¡¯s back, searching for an answer. Zana was tuckered out, but said she would try again. I wondered if I could perform such a spell myself, but the Agent told me not as of yet. I actually wanted to use [Remorse] to copy that magic spell, but the agent advised against it. I didn¡¯t know anyone that could help me in a situation like this.
I was at aplete loss as to what to do. Time seemed to have slowed to a halt, making this feeling of confusion and desperation even more miserable.
¡°Oi, lunch.¡±
I heard Yokino¡¯s voice. Quickly, I sat up and saw her standing on one of the trees, looking at me. She jumped down onto Amethyst¡¯s back lightly, then took out a parasol she made out of webs. Her hair was currently with streaks of hot pink and had been tied at the back into a ponytail with a bun pinned with a golden stick, with her bangs falling to her side with a clip keeping them in ce. For some reason, she suddenly looked like one of those Chinese women I''d see in some cultivation manhua.
¡®Y-Yokino¡?¡¯
I sounded unsure. I didn¡¯t know why I did. Maybe since I wasn¡¯t expecting her to reach out to me.
¡°You see any other beauties allergic to the sun here?¡±
¡®I don¡¯t see any.¡¯
¡°Yeah, yeah, tell yourself that. You know, I¡¯m hot.¡±
I tried looking away, but having a 360 view of my surroundings didn¡¯t help me out.
¡®What do you want?¡¯
I straight up asked her. Her loyalty points on the system were, non-existent. Not even a zero or dash, she had question marks across her name.
¡°Rx, Birdbrain. I just thought you¡¯d needpany at a time like this.¡±
¡®The master¡¯s got me.¡¯
Amethyst cried out, making me pat her on the head for being adorable.
¡°Ugh, so now you have a thing for lizards?¡±
¡®Eh?¡¯
¡°You have a beautiful cool babe at your side, and all you can do is pay attention to this overgrown lizard? You¡¯re pathetic.¡±
¡®I¡¯m not some overgrown lizard, ya shit!¡¯
Amethyst wagged her tail at Yokino, but the spider grabbed the tail and flicked it away with ease, like it were barely worth her time.
¡°Overgrown lizards seem to be unable to tell who is better than them.¡±
¡®C-Calm dow-¡®
¡®I will incinerate this spider this instant. You like kebabs, right?¡¯
Amethyst posed a question to me.
¡°Oh? Then I¡¯m sure he¡¯d love some overgrown lizard kebab.¡±
Yokino replied. The tension growing between both of them was starting to burn hotter than the sun.
¡®Both of you, stop with this trifle argument.¡¯
I ordered and together, they ¡°humphed¡± leaving us to be in silence.
¡®I really appreciate you trying to be here for me, Yokino. But, I¡¯m not really in the best state of min-¡®
¡°I came here to offer help.¡±
¡®How so?¡¯
¡°I may know someone who could help you.¡±
She just dropped a bombshell and stood up. With a wink, she said,
¡°Catch me if you can.¡±
Then she jumped off of Amethyst, into the trees. For a moment, I was left sitting on Amethyst¡¯s back, confused. But after processing what she said, I finally realized.
¡®Oi! Amethyst! Speed it up! Catch that spider!¡¯
¡®Yes, Master!¡¯
Upon receiving my orders, Amethyst quickly turned around and ran after Yokino who was jumping about the trees andughing wildly. Her voice echoed in the forest that seemed empty. The creatures were still probably hiding, even though the incident was over.
Amethyst whizzed past the trees, their leaves rustled and the wind whistled. Although to me, this speed was nothing much. I jumped off and flew after Yokino in the forest. It wasn¡¯t easy avoiding the tree branches given howrge I had be, so I only had to use [Size Maniption] to shrink myself.
To my left, I heard Yokino¡¯s voicee again.
¡°Too slow! Too slow!¡±
I pped my wings faster and activated [Hyper Mobility].
[Your speed stat has gone up by 30%]
Feeling the bit of energy in my body, I went in faster. Up ahead, standing in one of the trees, I could make out Yokino¡¯s figure.
¡®Gotcha.¡¯
I increased my size and readied my ws for her back. Quietly, with my [Stealth] on, I swooped in from behind and grabbed her¡ it? It wasn¡¯t Yokino. It was a pile of threads.
¡°Pfft! You like my [Thread Clone Jutsu]?¡±
She asked. Then I noticed her on one of the branches with the parasol in hands. It was the actual Yokino, because I threw a fireball and she used a water spear to cancel out my attack and attempt to decapitate me. I managed to dodge it though, but now my vision was clouded with steam. A bit of wind magic and it was cleared. However, Yokino was nowhere to be found.
¡°You¡¯re going to have to try harder than that, little bird.¡±
Her mocking voice echoed throughout the entire forest. I couldn¡¯t pinpoint on the exact ce it wasing from, so I tested out the other functions of my unique skill [God¡¯s Wisdom] to scour a wide area in the forest for Yokino. I managed to get a 500-meter radius with this function. All around me, there was basically no life, but I identified 50 illusion clones moving about the forest, 30 decoy thread clones just standing there and waiting for me, 1 actual clone made to be just like Yokino in the sense that it could fight as well, and Yokino. But she quickly ran out of my range, as if she knew I was searching for her.
¡®Gotcha!¡¯
I flew in the direction in which Yokino ran.
An illusion Yokino came up in front of me and giggled, trying to distract me. I flew past it, but what I saw in its eyes made me stop. There was a cunning light in it. Something that made me feel like chasing the actual Yokino would be bad for me. I went to the illusion clone and it spread its hand out to me.
¡°Why are you stopping? Aren¡¯t you chasing after the real Yokino?¡±
It asked me.
¡®How¡¯d you know?¡¯
¡°An assassin knows when they¡¯ve been found out.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
I rested on the branch it stood on. The shadow clone crouched and looked at me with a different light in its eyes. It was smiling as well as blushing.
¡®W-What¡¯s with your expression?¡¯
¡°You can find me in Blossoming Fields.¡±
¡®Blossoming Fields?¡¯
¡°Well, yes. To the northwest. A portion where anything nted grows at an absurd rate. It¡¯s said any nt life can grow there. But it¡¯s currently a flower field. Only Dox Flowers grow there now.¡±
¡®Dox Flowers?¡¯
¡°Yep. A bunch of beautiful red flowers. Nothing really special about them.¡±
She was slowly fading away, as were the other illusions in the forest.
¡°You can follow my clone to get there.¡±
Were her final words, beforepletely disappearing and leaving me alone. I sighed then flew off towards the clone. When I got there, I saw the clone standing there. It was looking towards the distance, not moving even a single inch.
¡®Yo. Clone.¡¯
When I called out to it, it red at me from the corner of its eye. I flinched and settled down on a branch, confused by the cold gaze.
¡®W-Why are you looking at me like that?¡¯
¡°I may be a clone, but I possess emotions simr to the original, you know?¡±
It growled at me then continued jumping away. I kept following it, but then it got angry after I did that.
¡°Stop following me!¡±
¡®Eh? But I¡¯m supposed to follow you to find Yokino, no?¡¯
¡°Only if I feel like allowing you to find her.¡±
It told me.
¡®Eh? Then what¡¯s the point of telling me that the only way to find her is by following you.¡¯
¡°Don¡¯t know, don¡¯t care. I just don¡¯t feel like helping you out.¡±
¡®Seriously? Fine. I¡¯ll find her myself. I even forgot I could find any of my servants with the system.¡¯
The clone clicked its tongue and jumped off into the forest.
When I checked the map, Yokino was no where to be found on it.
¡®Ah¡ that¡¯s right. She sometimes doesn¡¯t exist in the system. Whatever. Agent, take me to The Blossoming Fields.¡¯
<<Blossoming Fields? There¡¯s no record of a ce like that.>>
¡®Eh? W-What do you mean?¡¯
<<There¡¯s no record of a ce called The Blossoming Fields. Most likely a self-named location by the servant Yokino>>
¡®Ah¡ fuck. Can you at least get me close to somewhere with the description that the illusion gave me?¡¯
<<The target, Dox Flowers also does not exist in this forest.>>
¡®E-Eh?!¡¯
I thought about it all over again. That Yokino, she must have observed me to the point of knowing that I had other means of finding whatever I wanted. She had used false terms for things so my "other means" wouldn¡¯t work here. Were her observation skills so good that she now had an inkling of the fact that I had the agent with me?
I looked around and saw the clone running off into the distance.
Quickly, I charged at it with [Hyper Mobility] and [sh Boost]. I noticed Amethyst was running towards me, but from the direction in which the clone was moving.
¡®A pincer attack! Amethyst, Yokino¡¯s clone ising your way. Try to stop it!¡¯
¡®Yes, Master!¡¯
I summoned two shadow demon generals to help me go after Yokino as well. They understood their purpose for being here and charged immediately.
I shot off some light rays at the clone to make it stop. The clone noticed what I was doing, but it was toote. She couldn¡¯t avoid somethinging at her at the speed of the light. My attacks hit her leg and hand, causing her to fall off the tree she was jumping to.
¡®She¡¯s down! Pin her.¡¯
¡°YES!¡±
We all went down on the clone. Even if it wasn¡¯t as strong as Yokino, this thing was still B- in rank. I failed to see how that was weaker than Yokino.
Both demons hit the ground, but she wasn¡¯t there. She had already gotten up and was facing us with her legs arched up.
¡®You really want to do this?¡¯
I asked her with my wings raised for her to look at the shadows again. It hissed at us, slowly backing away. However, from the forest, Amethyst came with her fangs ready to tear apart Yokino. The clone flipped over Amethyst, then used her body as a surface to get higher. It shot webs at my legs and wings, pinning me to the ground. The shadow to my right went right after her, but she was ready for that. In the air, she twisted her body to avoid it¡¯s ck de.
Her legs glowed red then stabbed the shadow¡¯s head, causing it dissipate. Uponnding on the ground, the clone shot of myriad of lightning and water magic attacks at me. I desperately tried to free myself, but the threads made by the King waspletely different from normal threads.
The shadow to my side jumped in front of me and defended against the attacks, swinging and swiping his sword like a jedi. However, some of the attacksnded and he eventually dissipated into nothing but shadows.
''Holy sh-''
The spider mmed down on the ground and a massive wall appeared before us. This wall then fell down over me.
I tried using [Shadow Travel] to get out, but then.
<<The threads areced with a magic spell to dispel any gathering mana particles. Hence, you cannot perform the magic [Shadow Travel]>>
¡®How convenient.¡¯
I tried burning the threads with my fire breath, but the thread wasn¡¯t being cut and I couldn¡¯t summon soldiers to help me here this time. The massive wall loomed over me. There was an impending sense of doom as it slowly descended.
I consideredcing my body with poisons to melt the thread, but upon thinking about the pain and possibility of it not working, I threw away that idea.
¡®This¡ this is going to hurt like a bitch.¡¯
I closed my eyes and winced, preparing for the impact.
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 154 Clones Have Emotions Too
AMETHYST POV
Amethyst shook her head briefly then looked up. She saw a wall was about to copse on her. Its size was unbelievable. Bigger than the mansion her Master stayed in. She was about to run away, but then she noticed that her Master was stuck in a bunch of threads. She rushed over and looked around, trying to find out a way to save her master.
¡®M-Master. You can¡¯t break out?¡¯
¡®If I could, I wouldn¡¯t be here this long, Amethyst.¡¯
Sheined. Amethyst grabbed her master with her tail and tried to pull, but there was no effect. Hinotori was glued to the ground.
¡®Ok. I¡¯ll try melting the threads!¡¯
She thought and got over Hinotori¡¯s body.
¡®D-D-D-Don¡¯t!¡¯
Hinotori tried to tell her, but it was toote. Amethyst shot a breath of purple mes at the threads, but there was no effect, other than a steaming Hinotori.
¡®Ugh. Now even I can¡¯t look at a chicken kebab the same way.¡¯
¡®M-Master. Sorry!¡¯
Tears where in Amethyst¡¯s eyes when she was saying this. Then she red at the wall.
¡®Stop falling you, stupid wall!¡¯
She tried everything she believed she could.
¡®Don¡¯t worry, Amethyst. See. With my defense, I could probably survive this. I¡¯m not sure about you, so Imma need you to move out, ok?¡¯
Her Master expressed her concern for her. This made Amethyst feel like she was the luckiest lizard ever. She looked at Hinotori with eyes of pure admiration.
¡®I will honor your final wishes, Master!¡¯
¡®I¡¯m not dying here!¡¯
¡®My first master! What a grand being! There will never be any like you.¡¯
¡®Oi, oi, oi. Stop making it out to be my final day alive.¡¯
Now Amethyst tried to remove her tail, but she was stuck to it as well.
¡®Ack!¡¯
She screamed, realizing the kind of situation she just got herself into.
¡®Why are you still here Amethyst?¡¯
Hinotori asked, but Amethyst was too embarrassed to speak. The lizard couldn¡¯t even look at Hinotori¡¯s face.
¡®I-I want to¡?¡¯
¡®You¡¯re totally stuck, aren¡¯t you?¡¯
¡®N-No, I¡¯m not.¡¯
She denied it, but Hinotori had seen right through it. Hinotori wasn¡¯t sure whether she was disappointed or shocked at the scene. She expressionlessly gazed at the nervous lizard before breaking down into boldughter.
¡®You¡¯re totally getting smashed alongside me!¡¯
¡®I said I¡¯m not stuck! My tail is free!¡¯
¡®That so? Lemme see your tail then.¡¯
Amethyst realized that her tail was actually free. She raised it up and showed it to Hinotori.
The chicken was surprised then went into thought for a split second.
¡®Say, Amethyst. The wall stopped moving a while ago, didn¡¯t it?¡¯
The lizard finally noticed that their lives were no longer in danger. She looked at the tilted wall and cocked her head in shock.
¡®Tell my threads to fall off.¡¯
¡®Hmm? Sure. Fall off you, stupid threads.¡¯
The threads fell down and Hinotori managed to stand up.
¡®Huh¡ I just remembered that you had the skill [Overlord].¡¯
¡®Huh? What¡¯s that?¡¯
She asked.
¡®Guess since you¡¯re technically now Larm¡¯s Overseer, you¡¯ll need that skill, huh? That¡¯s interesting.¡¯
¡®What¡¯s that? What¡¯s that?¡¯
¡®Amethyst, you can make anyone or anything in this forest do as you say, basically.¡¯
¡®W-Whaaaaa-?¡¯
Yeah, yeah. You can marvel over thatter. Let¡¯s go catch us a spider clone.¡¯
Hinotori jumped on Amethyst¡¯s back.
¡®Master, you¡¯re faster than me. Why are you jumping on me?¡¯
She asked. Even though she couldn¡¯t see it, Amethyst could feel her Master grin.
¡®Ever wanted to fly, Amethyst?¡¯
***
From above the skies, both Amethyst and I scoured the grounds for Yokino¡¯s whereabouts. We couldn¡¯t find her, so we decided to search for the clone instead. Knowing Yokino, she could literally be hiding right in front of us. Amethyst found the clone in no time. The clone was standing on a barren field and looking out towards the emptiness.
Amethyst and I descended next to it, but approached it warily.
¡®Oi. Clone. We¡¯ve found you.¡¯
I told it. The clone didn¡¯t even spare me a nce this time.
¡°So, it seems you have. What do you want?¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Take me to where the actual Yokino is?¡¯
¡°Eh. The actual Yokino, huh?¡±
It said mockingly.
¡®Yeah. You know, the one who¡¯s not a clone?¡¯
¡°I get it. I get it. Trust me, if I knew where she was, I¡¯d tell you.¡±
¡®Huh? You don¡¯t know where she is?¡¯
¡°Nope. I have no idea. I¡¯m just following her orders.¡±
¡®You said if you knew, you¡¯d tell me. But earlier, you said you didn¡¯t want to tell me.¡¯
I pointed out.
¡°That¡¯s the thing, birdbrain. I don¡¯t know what I want.¡±
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡°I want to serve the original Yokino with all my heart, but at the same time I want to rip her to shreds for what she¡¯s done to me. I want ignore you, but I can¡¯t. I want to get closer to you, but the closer I get, the more I repel myself. I long for those peaceful days where all I do is sit back and watch anime, but I¡¯m both excited and repulsed by the fact that I enjoy my new life, fighting, killing, being hurt betraying and repeating the cycle all over again. I have several emotions swirling through me right now. But there¡¯s two that are predominant at the moment. Being there for you now that you¡¯re in pain and killing the Original Yokino.¡±
It said a lot of surprising things, but the final statementspletely stunned me. Where these the clone¡¯s feelings or were these Yokino¡¯s feelings that were reciprocated in the clone?
¡®W-What do you mean, ¡°killing the Original Yokino¡±? Wouldn¡¯t that kill you?¡¯
I asked.
¡°Maybe. Who knows?¡±
I slowly approached her and the clone was crying while looking at the field.
¡®Why? Why would you do that?¡¯
¡°I never asked for this. I never asked to have her feelings shoved into my heart. I never asked to be her way of sorting things out. I never asked for this weird beating in my chest and several other thoughts to be flooding my processing. W-Why did she choose to torture me?¡±
I was starting to feel weird, seeing the way the clone was shivering. If this was what a clone was dealing with, then what about the actual Yokino. I gulped then stood back. My instincts were telling me to run away. Something wasn¡¯t right with this clone.
One of its spider legs stuck out from its back. Another came for me, but I avoided it. Then one by one, the others appeared and supported the clone up till it towered over me.
The clone kept twitching above me, with its hands over its face. Its hair fell out of ce and I could see acidic drool falling on the ground.
¡®C-Clone?¡¯
Its hands fell lifelessly. Slowly, I looked up and saw a hairy spider face with mandibles and everything. It roared at me, forcing me to jump back. I transformed into my human form and grabbed my sword.
¡®Amethyst. Tell her to stay there for me.¡¯
Amethyst gave the order, but the spider clone moved regardless. I realized instantly that it was because Amethyst was weaker so I gave her a different order.
¡®Tell the ground to keep her there.¡¯
Upon delivering the orders, the ground clutched onto her legs.
I was about to charge in to y the beast, but I heard a cry from elsewhere.
Someone jumped in from above and beheaded the spider, making its head roll off on the ground lifelessly. Confused, I lowered my guard. The person to behead the clone was none other than Yokino herself. Not a simple clone or illusion, but the actual Yokino this time.
¡®Yokino? Where ya been?¡¯
The spider looked at me with a heated expression.
¡®What?¡¯
I instinctively backed away.
Yokino licked her lips and slowly approached me.
¡®Hungry.¡¯
She was thinking. However, when I looked at her [Status], what I saw was [Heated].
¡®Heated? What''s that supposed to mean? Huh? It couldn''t be that, could it? Wait¡ don¡¯t spiders eat the males after they finish- fuck. Amethyst! Run!¡¯
I tried to get away, but Yokino grabbed me with her threads. I saw Amethyst try to reach me with her tail, but Yokino was lightning fast. She shrouded us in a weird mist and got me all to herself.
I could feel her breath on my cheeks as she sniffed me. Her hands frisked through my body till they settled on my chest. She pressed it, sending a tinge of pain that was also slightly exciting. Her fingers went to work, ying about, till she found my nipples.
Embarrassed, I pulled away quickly then pointed my sword at her neck. We had reappeared in a cave and I couldn¡¯t see the way out.
¡®Stop this right now, Yokino. Let me out.¡¯
I ignited the sword for a more threatening effect, but Yokino remained cool and collected. She hit my sword away with a flick of her finger and waltzed towards me. I slowly backed away, feeling weird about the entire situation. I waved the sword at her again.
¡®S-Stop, Yokino. You¡¯re not in the right st-state.¡¯
¡°Trust me, I¡¯m fine. And you¡¯re looking tasty.¡±
I walked into a wall. I looked around for any escape roots, but Yokino¡¯s legs were there. She came in closer till she was barely an inch away from my face. Her breath tickled my lips. Slowly, her lips connected with mine and my limbs grew weak. A short kiss which she stopped almost immediately. Devilishly, she looked into my eyes and smirked. I could feel my face burning up.
¡®M-My first k-k-k-kiss-¡®
¡°Be my lunch~¡±
She put her hand over my face.
CLANK!
My sword fell down and echoed in the empty cave.
¡®S-Stop this.¡¯
I tried resisting against her.
¡®Chicken~¡¯
<A/N: Uuuuhhh, Approaching dangerous levels with this chapter. Next one''s a short chapter, bare with me. Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 155 Best Friend Pt.II
[WARNING: This chapter contains some NSFW 18+ Content. If you do not wish to read this, then please skip this chapter and move on. Also, do note that it is my first time writing this and as such, I have no experience whatsoever with it, so I am open to criticism in case I will ever write another one. Also, uuuuhh, don''t me me for it beingckluster lol.]
She kissed me once again. This time I tried my hardest to resist. Our lips had connected, but she then licked my lips, making them tremble. She had crippled my defenses with that one seductive technique! Her tongue creeped into my lips, creaking them open, till it had full ess. She rose my body up with her thigh in between my legs. The feeling of having my vagina being pressed against. How exhrating.
My spine was shivering. My legs wobbled.
What was this? Masturbation never felt this good. My vision was ckening. I even heard something that I couldn¡¯t believe came out of my mouth.
¡°Ahn~¡±
Yokino¡¯s lips parted again, leaving my lips longing for hers. Her kaleidoscopic eyes reflected my face. I was¡ why would I be making such an expression?
She slowly dropped me to the ground.
¡°Your cowlicks won¡¯t stop twitching. And look at your ears. All red~¡±
I was felt shy all of a sudden. I couldn¡¯t even look her in the eyes.
¡°You¡¯re a total masochist, aren¡¯t you~?¡±
She moved her hands down to my arms then forcefully lifted them up. She wed at the outfit Sylvie had made for me. Completely ripped to shreds with ease. She started kissing my cheeks. Slowly going down to my neck, then my shoulder, before settling on my armpit.
Holy shit, my armpit!
My mind was fuzzy. So many things were going on. I kept thinking about how good her hands felt down there. The way they rubbed against me, teasing me and powerful, numbing waves through my body. I could feel something escaping down there. It felt like I was peeing, but it was something else. It was hotter and its release came with a certain euphoria that made me cock my head in relief.
Yokino raised her fingers. They were all wet and slimy.
¡°You came? With just this little? You¡¯re a really perverted chicken, aren¡¯t you~?¡±
Yokino licked it and I felt embarrassed out of nowhere. I could only stare at her in shock, but then I realized what she just did. What I just did.
¡®Y-You¡ I-I- I just¡¡¯
I put my hands to my face and just faced the ground. Whatever form of masculinity I once possessed waspletely gone. I had lost my virginity as woman. But then again, since I already lost it as a guy, did this count? Hopefully not. In some weird rule book, I had not yet lost to womanhood. I would find a way to be male again. However, for now, that was the least of my concerns.
¡°Sshh¡ Don¡¯t¡ even¡ talk¡¡±
Yokino kept kissing my body. From my chest, slowly going down to my stomach, then to my private ce. Her kisses were like blessings from above. Her simple breath against it caused it to feel really good. Then there was her tongue. She suddenly licked it and I couldn¡¯t help myself anymore.
¡°Ahn!¡±
For the second time! She made me moan for the second time! I covered my mouth immediately and red at the spider. I was not going to lose to her. Angrily, I kicked her away from me then stood up. She hit the wall and looked surprised as I walked closer to her and pinned her hands to the wall.
¡°Don¡¯t you want to feel good?¡±
She asked.
¡®I¡¯m not losing to you today.¡¯
I told her, then went down right into her part. I kissed it, trying to get a reaction out of her, but she was only grinning confidently at me. So, I kissed it again, but she didn¡¯t even flinch. Then I licked it and I noticed a slight movement. Her vagina was salty, with a weird metallic taste to it.
¡°Ahn! Ahn!¡±
She kept moaning, the more I roughly I licked. She then grabbed my head and kept forcing it down. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed. Then there was a gush of liquid on my face. I was wondering if she just pissed on me, but I realized that wasn¡¯t the case.
I looked up to smirk, but she was still grinning at me as if she never lost.
She lifted me up then kissed me again. Slowly and gently, she set me down on the ground.
¡°Next time, you go on top.¡±
She said to me, then put her thick thighs on me. I just kept zoning out. Her hands caressed my delicate thighs, making them twitch. Wasn¡¯t my body simply too sensitive? Was this normal? This trembling and euphoria.
Then her fingers went down there. They yed about for a bit. It was already wet, so they easily prated. She touched my clitoris. I hadn¡¯t realized, but I was moaning loudly. I had lost to Yokino before we even started. How foolish of me to assume that I had a chance.
My mind was nking out. For the next couple of minutes¡ hours? Whatever. My body gave in.
***
The sound of several legs cking filled my ears, waking me up. To my side, Yokino was already dressed with a fruit in hand, while discussing a matter with a centipede.
My head ached, as if I was having a hangover. At least how I imagined a hangover would feel. Slowly, I sat up and yawned. I had already regressed to my normal form.
¡®Yokino¡?¡¯
I called for her. She gave me a cold look, before returning to the centipede. I shut up then gulped, feeling like I did something bad.
When she was done, the centipede left and she walked towards me.
¡°Which one are you?¡±
She asked, as if I would know what she was talking about.
¡®What?¡¯
¡°I said which one are you? The bird or Akira?¡±
She just mentioned my name from my previous life. How would she know that name? The only way I could think off was that Akira showed himself when I passed out.
¡®I-It¡¯s me?¡¯
¡°Eh? Are you stupid or something? Which one? Birdbrain or Ak-kun.¡±
Ak-kun? That was what Akane called me. This was getting very suspicious. I had been thinking about the chances, but¡
¡®It¡¯s me. Tori. Don¡¯t attack me. Kira¡¯s asleep.¡¯
I tried to calm her down.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Tell me something the birdbrain would know?¡±
¡®Eh? Eh? Kira knows everything I do! I can¡¯t tell you something he doesn¡¯t know.¡¯
¡°Hmm, fine. You don¡¯t give off the same vibe, anyway.¡±
She dropped on the bed of threads, right in front of me.
¡°Uwaaa! Last night was so refreshing. I managed to get all the stress out.¡±
She stretched and moaned happily, making me feel a bit embarrassed. She was grinning when she noticed my blushing face. Wait¡ how could she even see that I was blushing? If she couldn¡¯t, why was she giving me that smug look.
¡®Hey¡ Now that I think about it. You called me Ak-kun, didn¡¯t you?¡¯
Trying to change the topic, I asked her what was confusing me earlier on.
¡°Yeah.¡±
¡®How¡¯d you know it?¡¯
¡°I think the answer to that is obvious, Ak-kun.¡±
She said something only Akane would say to me. I fell back and just looked at the ceiling.
¡®To think¡ that I¡¯ve been with you this entire time.¡¯
¡°Lucky, right?¡±
She said and turned over to look at me. She had a cheeky expression on her face.
¡®Friggin bug eyes.¡¯
¡°Hey! I don¡¯t have bug eyes.¡±
¡°Hahahaha.¡±
Iughed, then slowly sat up.
¡®Wait. If you¡¯re here, that means you died?¡¯
I asked, with the realization suddenlying.
¡°Technically I didn¡¯t die. Technically I did¡ Never mind the technicalities. I woke up in this world 3 or so months ago, like I told you. Been surviving here ever since.¡±
¡®Must¡¯ve been rough.¡¯
I was crying a lot in my first week here. I couldn¡¯t imagine what spending 3 months alone would do to a person. Even against the odds, she naturally rose to the top of the food chain. I doubt I would have been able to do it without [Evolver], [Analyst] and the agent.
¡°It was interesting. I even got help from someone, but that¡¯s not important. I think I might know a way to help you out of your problem.¡±
¡®What?¡¯
¡°I might know someone who can track down Minerva.¡±
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
SKILLS
[The skill level of [Stealth] raised to [Stealth Level 6]]
[The skill level of [Feelers] raised to [Feelers Level 4]]
[The skill level of [Auto Regeneration] raised to [Auto Regeneration Level 5]]
[The skill level of [Feather Ignition] raised to [Feather Ignition Level 3]]
[The skill level of [Size Maniption] raised to [Size Maniption Level 7]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Soul Guard]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Blood Bank]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Super Thought Process]]
SKILL FUSIONS
[Taunt] + [Lustful Gaze] = [Impish Gaze]
FAMILIA
[The servant Arisu was made into the General of the Hyakkiyako Familia]
[The servants Shiroi, Nukeme, Yuuna, Reiman and Kawaii were made into Captains of the Hyakkiyako Familia]
DUNGEON
STORE
[Tori received 200 store points]
[Tori bought the [Epic] rank item, [Hekati de]
[Tori bought the [Daylight Ring]]
<A/N: We''re done. I can stop feeling guilty now. Some might say this was unnecessary, and yes, you might be right, but I wanted to do this I guess. Extra chapter forpleting the power stone challengest week. Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 156 To Atlantis
Day 44
I was currently sitting down in front of Suna with Yokino to my side. We were at the riverside where she and her other friends stayed. Yokino told me that she had a way to help me. So, we exined the situation to her and were currently trying to convince her to help us.
¡°So, what do you say, Suna? Wanna help us out again?¡±
Yokino asked, uncharacteristically joyful.
¡°A-Aren¡¯t you a bit too cheerful today?¡±
Suna seemed to be just as confused as I was. The spider was smiling and humming, swaying from side to side.
¡°I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about~¡±
Suna looked very weirded out and nervouslyughed, before taking on apletely different demeanor.
¡°Sorry, but I can¡¯t help you out with this.¡±
¡°Oh? Why not?¡±
¡°You should know why.¡±
¡°We can help out with that problem if that¡¯s the reason.¡±
¡°Hmm, can you breathe underwater?¡±
Suna forwarded a question to me.
¡®U-Um¡ I d-don¡¯-¡®
<<You can>>
¡®I can breathe under water.¡¯
I told her. She looked at me skeptically, then shrugged.
¡°I¡¯ve heard that you¡¯ve grown exponentially powerful since west met.¡±
I nodded my head quickly.
¡°Fine. You should be of some use to me then.¡±
¡®What does she mean?¡¯
I asked Yokino.
¡®Oh, nothing much. We¡¯ll just be escorting someone back home is all.¡¯
¡®Hmm¡ just an escort service? In a river?¡¯
¡°Not just a river. But fine. The people back home should be able to find Minerva easily.¡±
¡®Back home? But isn¡¯t that your home?¡¯
I pointed to the glistening river behind her. She looked back, then scoffed.
¡°That¡¯s a nursery.¡±
¡®A n-nursery?¡¯
¡°Yes. Somewhere we keep the infants, allow them to grow before sending them off into the Mass Blue.¡±
¡®The Mass Blue?¡¯
¡°Yes. I believe, the humans call it the sea. The first fishmen called it The Mass Blue though.¡±
¡®Right. Ipletely forgot that there could be a sea in this world. And fishmen, eh? Youe from Antis or something?¡¯
I mused about where she came from, but my joke led to me facing ten sturdy looking water spears in the face in a second. Suna was ring at me, which make me gulp.
¡°How do you know about Antis?¡±
She growled. I felt like destroying her spears in that instant, so I did just that. By sending a little bit of mana into the air, I caused the mana to interfere with the water mana particles, causing the water spears to destabilise and then drop to the ground.
Well, I said it like that, but it actually wasn¡¯t that easy to do. Took a few seconds, but I still managed to do it, since I was apparently very talented with magic. Suna looked at what I had happened, then sighed.
¡°I don¡¯t know how you know Antis, but given how you aren¡¯t trying to kill me, I¡¯ll assume you are just a neutral party in this matter. Very well then. Let us make haste. I need to pick up the target soon.¡±
¡®W-Wait. You weren¡¯t joki-¡®
¡°We must head out immediately.¡±
She said, then jumped into the water. Yokino grabbed me by the neck then walked into the water.
¡°This is going to be fun.¡±
She was humming.
¡®E-Eh? What¡¯s happening? Antis is real?¡¯
¡°Of course, it is. Now stop being a wimp and let¡¯s go.¡±
¡°Maawwssteewwrrr!¡±
Kawaii screamed out of nowhere. I was surprised by a slimy hug to the face, and me simply being dragged into water.
¡®Kawaii?¡¯
¡°Mawstewr! You haven¡¯t looked for me.¡±
She said, while I activated my [Aquatic Form].
¡®R-Right. I¡¯ve been sort of busy.¡¯
My mind went back to the events of the past few days. When I thought about the night before, I could feel my face turning hot.
¡°Where are you going?¡±
She asked.
¡®Um¡ to get Minerva back.¡¯
¡°I want to help.¡±
I was submerged under theke. The feeling of having my body be able to breathe underwater was weird. Taking in the oxygen from the water I consumed. And holy crap, I was ugly. From the disgusting blend of gold and blue scales, to the rough face and crooked horns. My ws were now more like duckbills and beak had grown a bit bigger, but with a broken partition. If I wasn¡¯t in my own body, I would have puked for sure.
¡®What the hec- this is ugly.¡¯
I thought to myself. Kawaii got off my face then scanned my body.
¡®Why do you look ugly, master?¡¯
¡®Kuk-¡ a little subtlety would be appreciated.¡¯
I told her then sighed.
¡®Hmm, if you want to join, sure. From the looks of things, Suna might need as many powerful people as she can get.¡¯
¡®Then let¡¯s get the others.¡¯
¡®No¡ You¡¯re fine. Let¡¯s just go, ok?¡¯
¡®Owkay!¡¯
She clung to my back in her slimy form and I swam all the way up to Suna, leaving Yokino behind. After dragging me into the river, she ran off somewhere. Maybe she used me talking to Kawaii as a chance to escape? But why would she do that when she was the one dragging me here.
¡®Yo. Chicken. Wait up.¡¯
I heard her voice. When I looked back, I saw Yokinoing after me. She had changed her outfit, into a scuba swimsuit? Quite the tight fitting one, with her hair tied up, probably so she doesn¡¯t get distracted. That led me to ask a question.
¡®You can swim underwater?¡¯
¡®Well¡ yes. I¡¯m an undine¡ part water spirit.¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Eh? Seriously?¡¯
¡®Yep. From the looks of it, I¡¯ll end up a storm spirit, LOL. That¡¯d be wild.¡¯
¡®Huh. I see.¡¯
¡®Also, what¡¯s that blob doing on your back.¡¯
She scowled, pointing to Kawaii. The slime hissed on my back.
¡®Watch it, you spider legged fucker.¡¯
¡®Woah, woah. Try to keep it PG here, Kawaii. Where did you learn that word?¡¯
¡®From the human I ate.¡¯
¡®Ah¡.¡¯
¡°Are you guysing or not? The portal will close up very soon.¡±
Suna called out from above. We rushed to her side, where she led us through the river.
The river was a bit big and I kept seeing new monsters. There was the good old Rainbow Raid Splurt. They are actually beautiful when they aren¡¯t dead. Several guppies were swimming about yfully under the watchful gaze of some water nymphs. There was the asional excen frog ¨C brightly coloured frogs with horns. The river diners, freaky lot that wore giant fish heads. Gold dagger fish, icy eel, water serpent youngling and so on.
Almost all of them ignored us as we moved on, probably because we were with Suna. At the bottom of the river, there was a glowing portal. Suna swam through, signaling for us to follow. So I went in right after her. Next, there was all the spinning, like I was being dragged through a whirlpool.
¡®Ugh. I¡¯m going to start feeling like Levy Tackerman from Strike On Giant.¡¯
I could hearrge gushing, like waves crashing against a cliffside. I needed to clear my head in order to avoid getting sick. I had lost any control of my body in that moment. I just needed to tough it out till I popped up in the other side of this.
DING!
[You have entered a ce with high pressure]
[All your stats will be lowered by 10%]
[Some of your attacks will not carry the same level of power as they do normally.]
[The unique skill [Evolver] is acting up to enable an easier movement]
[You have developed the skill [Pressure Resistance]
I opened my eyes after a system message yed out in my head. My body felt heavier and it was getting a bit harder to breathe. I looked around and noticed that the others were already swimming ahead. I tried to catch up to them, but I was slower than I normally was outside of water.
¡®Master, they are going ahead.¡¯
Kawaii said on my back.
¡®It¡¯s a bit hard to catch up to them.¡¯
¡®Eh? Why?¡¯
¡®Pressure and other stuff. I¡¯m slower now than I normally am.¡¯
¡®Is that so? In that case, I think I can help.¡¯
She was fidgeting around on my back, but I decided to ignore her for now and try my best to catchup. By using [sh Boost] I should have been able to catch up to them at least. However, when I activated the skill I only managed to go a short distance before my stamina reduced drastically. About a fourth of it had gone into me catching up to the others. I never had this problem before, but I guess underwater was really different.
Suddenly out of nowhere, I could feel Kawaii trembling on my back, followed by a tremendous force that propelled me forward.
¡®Eh? What¡¯s happening?¡¯
<<The servant Kawaii is using the skill [Jet Propulsion] to move you forward so you can keep up with the others.>>
¡®Eh? Won¡¯t she get drained though?¡¯
<<Slimes do not get tired, although in her case, if she ran out of mana she would be in trouble.>>
¡®I see. Good job Kawaii.¡¯
<<However, I would advise that you swim on your own>>
¡®Why?¡¯
<<In order to raise your all your physical stats. I estimate a dramatic increase in stats if you spend one day in this location.>>
¡®How dramatic are we talking here?¡¯
<<Normally, you should receive at least 100 stat points in addition. But with the unique skill [Evolver] I estimate at least 300>>
300?! Each individual physical stat would raise by 300 because I swam in here for one day? Of course, I would take up this opportunity.
¡®K-Kawaii, thanks. But you can stop now.¡¯
¡®Hmm? Ok.¡¯
She stopped and I kept pushing forward through the pressure. It was honestly one of the most draining experiences I had ever had. In the end, I was not able to catch up to both of them till they decided to take a break next to some cave.
¡®Why are we taking a break? Not like I mind, at all.¡¯
I asked them as I drew in close and leaned against the wall to catch my¡ breath? Water?
¡°It¡¯s nighttime. The monsters thate out at this time are too dangerous.¡±
Suna said, breaking some of the corals then chewing them down. Yokino took a piece and ate as well, leading me to believe that this was probably not her first time going to Antis. She offered me a piece and so I took it with my beak, having no choice but to swallow it whole. Tasted like a pretzel actually. I didn¡¯t like pretzels, but I had no choice but to eat it.
[You have consumed a Dix Coral]
[Your stamina has recovered and your stamina stat will go up by 10]
¡®W-What? Something that recovers stamina instantly?¡¯
I felt absolutely normal, filled with energy once again. And even my stat had actually risen up by 10 points. I looked at Yokino who kept chowing down on it like there was no tomorrow. I could more or less make the assumption that either the night was going to be long or we had a long way ahead of us tomorrow.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Tori put 200 stat points into strength]
[Tori put 200 stat points into defense]
[Tori put 300 stat points into speed]
SKILLS
[The skill level of [Stealth] raised to [Stealth Level 8]]
[The skill level of [Aquatic Form] raised to [Aquatic Form Level 2]]
[The skill level of [Pressure Resistance has increased to [Pressure Resistance Level 3]]
[The skill level of [Low Cold Resistance] has increased to [Low Cold Resistance Level 7]]
SKILL FUSIONS
[sh Boost] + [Hyper Mobility] + [Gallop] + [Horse Power] = [Super Speed Engine]
[ck Urs¡¯s Deafening Roar] + [Lion Head Roar] + [Golden Hen Screech] + [Timber Wolf King¡¯s Howl Level 1] = [Deadly Beast Roar]
[ck Urs¡¯s Obsidian ws] + [Spiky w] + [Chimera¡¯s Deadly w Attack] = [Lethal ck w]
FAMILIA
[Arisu added the [Silver Back Pumas] into the Familia]
[There are currently 50 Silver Back Puma minions and 1 Silver Back Puma servant]
[Your familia has grown by a tiny bit]
[Your familia has received 50 experience points]
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 157 Fishmen Bandit
When my eyes snapped open, I was sitting on a throne of sorts. I looked around and could only make out nothing but darkness around me.
¡®Where am I?¡¯
I thought to myself, looking around to see if there was some clue hiding about.
¡°I have returned.¡±
A familiar voice said to me. Immediately, I looked down and saw someone bowing to me. It was a man with fiery wings on his back. He wore a ck coat, covering himself entirely, except for his head, which was a dusty brown. He lifted his head up to look at me, but I couldn¡¯t see his face.
¡°What do you have to report?¡±
I said in an organic fashion. As if this was apletely normal situation. Even my voice sounded more mature than it normally was.
¡°The Mountain God subjugation isplete.¡±
The person said.
¡°What of their neighbors?¡±
I asked.
¡°My queen. The dragon-born were already wiped out by the time we got there.¡±
Another person said. A light shed on them, revealing a wolf man in military uniform, with a sword strapped to his waist. He wore an eye patch over his right eye and from the way his wound looked, I could tell that he only recently received that injury.
¡°Exin.¡±
I ordered and he stood up.
¡°Once we got there, there were traces of battles all around, as well as the corpses of several dragon-born.¡±
¡°Do we have any clue as to what happened?¡±
¡°We are still unsure as to the cause, but some hypothesize that Fell got active and identally killed off most of them.¡±
¡°That sounds absolutely ridiculous.¡±
I told him, resting my head on my palm.
¡°Indeed. We shall continue to investigate.¡±
¡°Do so.¡±
The wolf man got up and left, leaving the only spotlight to be the first man I saw.
¡°Are the preparations ready?¡±
I asked him.
¡°Almost. We should be able to break through Horizon soon enough.¡±
¡°Almost, huh. Hurry it up.¡±
Day 45
Suna woke us up early today. She had us on high alert, saying that there were enemies around. I managed to confirm this with [God¡¯s Wisdom] and realized we were surrounded by a lot of fishmen. Not giving me enough time to think about my dream.
This was the average fishman¡¯s stats.
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: Shark fishman Adult Level 30/70
[Status: [Hungry]
[Age: 24 years
[Rank: C+
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[ss: Assassin Level 7]
[Job(s): Mercenary Level 3, Thief Level 8, Bandit Level 4]
[Talent: C grade
[Titles: |Survivor|, |Scavenger|, |Heretic|
[Blessings:
[Level: 70 Exp: 390/13450
[Health: 5000/5000 Stamina: 5200/5200 Strength: 1720 Speed: 2000 Defense: 3210 Dexterity: 1800 Intelligence: 200 Luck: 40
¡®The average bandit is C rank? I doubt that¡¯d be the same for humans though.¡¯
I thought to myself. Still, taking on these guys would be no problem for me. They weren¡¯t especially strong or anything. They were swimming about in a circle,ughing at us.
¡°Hehehe! Looky what we got here.¡±
One of the bandits came out of the crowd. He seemed to be the leader of the group, possessing the highest stats and gear.
¡°Some fine Antean folk and their ugly courier wagnar.¡±
He spoke to all of us, even calling me ugly. I felt quite offended after having heard that.
¡°Hand over yer goods, an¡¯ no one gets hurt.¡±
The leader pointed his sword at us, as if to intimidate us. Suna was clearly not amused. She swam close to the bandit leader and growled.
¡°Where is she?¡±
She asked. The bandit cocked his head, obviously failing to understand what she meant. Neither did I for that matter.
¡°Where is who?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t y dumb, old shark idiot. Where is the princess?¡±
¡®Princess?¡¯
I found myself asking Yokino. The spider shrugged and simply kept her focus on the other bandits surrounding us. Same for Kawaii who remained in the shape of a slime on back, clearly trying to remain inconspicuous; probably because she was the weakest. If this was an average bandit scenario, I was all hands down for it. One thing to kick off my isekai bucket list.
Suna honestly looked tiny inparison to the shark fishman. He was probably a bit bigger than Aeri, and that was saying something. Still, maybe the current Aeri was stronger? I wasn¡¯t sure. I could check her stats, but no. I would prefer to put him at the level of Aeri before the dungeon raid.
¡°Angel fishman? About this high, gold and blue goldilocks, dull brown eyes and a frail body?¡±
He described who I presumed to be the princess, with hand gestures.
¡°Only one.¡±
Suna said. Something was quite different about her. She seemed to be on edge, aspared to the time she was in Larm, helping us out with the whole Krull incident.
¡°Never seen her before. Ask the next gang you meet in our bellies.¡±
He said andid bare his fangs for us to see, probably trying to intimidate us. I sighed then touched my head. Sure, he was almost as strong as I was, but I was certain that beating him would be no problem. Given that Yokino and Suna were here with me. Suna was B+ in rank by the way; Not someone to be taken lightly.
She raised her hand and her eyes glowed a faint green. I could feel the surrounding water moving. There was a weird vibration and heat with it, followed by one of the bandit¡¯s screams. I managed to catch what happened to it. It was an eel fishman and its body was suddenly squashed to bits.
Everyone, including me, looked at Suna, shocked by what she just did. The bandits quickly recovered however and growled at her.
¡°Alright, Antean dog. Prepare to die.¡±
¡°I have no intentions of dying to the likes of simple bandits.¡±
She said, signaling for the start of the fight. I gulped as one of the bandits charged at me, obviously presuming that I was the weakest. Honestly, who went for the animal when a fight begun.
Curiously, I activated my torrent skill to see how effective it would be in a fight. With a simple wave of my wing¡ fin? A little whirlpool formed in front of me. I sent the whirlpool forward and the whirlpool continued to gather momentum, spinning faster and adding more water to it, increasing its size and velocity. The bandit got swallowed up by the whirlpool and was sent some distance away, screaming.
¡°Aaaaaghhhh!¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
The others noticed this and just like that, I had made myself a target for immediate extermination. However, neither Suna nor Yokino paid any attention to me. They were doing their own things.
Suna was busily going about squashing the bandits and throwing lightning bolts at them, although for some reason, the lightning bolts seemed to have no effect on them.
Yokino too was ying about, creating bubbles on the bandits heads, suffocating them and making them die slowly and painfully, whileughing maniacally.
[You have killed one Puffer Fishman.]
[You have received 20,000 experience points]
A message showed up, a while after I had thrown the fishman into my torrent. To think that it would take so long to simply kill one opponent. I felt like it was a waste.
I dodged another iing fishman, however, I got scratched by one of its horns.
[You have been poisoned]
[You will lose 50 health points per second]
¡®Poisoned, huh?¡¯
[You have lost 50 health points]
[Due to the skill [Low Poison Resistance], the effect of the poison has been lessened.]
[You will lose 30 health points per second]
¡®Hmm, still not strong enough. I¡¯m thinking poison resistance should be strong enough topletely nullify poison of this level.¡¯
I used [Snake Head Tail] together with [Stinger], to stab the fishman in the head, instantly killing it.
[You have killed one Thorned Fishman]
[You have received 20,000 experience points]
¡®Hmmm, is there a way to level up faster?¡¯
<<Kill stronger opponents>>
¡®Stronger opponents? But these guys aren¡¯t really strong.¡¯
<<Sensing a strong presence nearby. Would you like to investigate?>>
The agent suggested something cool. I shrugged my shoulder and told it to lead the way.
¡®Mawstewr, mawstewr. Where are we going?¡¯
Kawaii asked on my back. I looked at the others and they were handling the situation fairly well. I could catch up to themter. I needed to grind a bit. If Yokino didn¡¯t do her disappearing stunt as usual, I should have been able to find my way back to them.
So, with [Super Engine], I shot off in the direction in which the agent sensed the monster.
Once I got to the location, I received an interesting alert.
[You are approaching a [Legendary Domain]]
[Do you wish to proceed?]
>[YES]/[NO]
I slowed down and looked at the screen.
¡®Hey, agent. What¡¯s this?¡¯
<<[Legendary Domain] is a ce that belongs to a [Legendary] being or holds a [Legendary] item>>
¡®Eh? For real? That means this monster must be crazy strong, right?¡¯
<<Not exactly.>>
¡®Exin?¡¯
<<This notification only appears due to you possessing a [Sacred]. If it were another scenario, you would not be aware of a [Legend] lurking here.>>
¡®That so? Do you believe I would be able to survive this?¡¯
<<If you do not encounter the [Legendary] beast, you have a 40% chance of survival>>
The agent heartlessly said.
¡®Ah. Then why would I want to go?¡¯
<<To reap the benefits of a level up.>>
¡®Ugh. Uwaa! Fine. Let¡¯s do this!¡¯
I epted the offer.
DING!
[Your [Sacred: The Legend of Pandemonium] has been recognized by the [Legendary Domain]]
[A [Sacred Quest] will be activated]
¡®A [Sacred Quest]?¡¯
<<The closest example would be clearing special quests that only happen when certain conditions are met>>
¡®I see. Oi, Kawaii. Looks like we¡¯re going to be grinding a lot today.¡¯
¡®Grind! Grind! Grind! Grind!¡¯
She was really excited at the prospect.
I swam right into the location, then was put under a certain overwhelming pressure that made me drop some feet.
[You have entered a [High Pressure Zone]]
[All your physical stats have been dropped by 50%]
[You have entered a [High Mana Zone]]
[Mana control has dropped by 70%]
[You have entered a [High Toxic Zone]]
[You have been poisoned severely]
[You will lose 100 health points per second]
My muscles immediately tensed up and all my instincts were screaming at me. In the distance, I could make out figures thanks to [God¡¯s Wisdom]. However, I honestly wished I couldn¡¯t see what I was seeing.
Something big. Way bigger than Goliath, with its eyes ring at me demonically, hungry for me. I gulped then tried to swim back.
DING!
[The [Sacred Quest] has begun]
[Sacred Quest: Kraken Subjugation]
[Status: Ongoing
[Type: Time Limit [10:00]
[Rewards: Rewards depend on the number of kills achieved]
[Description: Kill as many enemies as you can within the time limit]
[Note: 20 seconds will be added after every kill]
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 158 Arent Sacred Quests Simply Too Much?
Currently under the pressure of the area, I felt that my movements were way too sluggish. I saw a giant shadowy limb rushing towards me. The water trembled as a wave of power hit me, throwing around a bit.
[You have lost 100 health points]
From the shockwave alone I lost a surprising amount of health points. Feeling disoriented, I wasn¡¯t able to move my body out of the way and was instantly hit by the limb that wasing. It was simply way too big to be normal. I took the full brunt of the attack, hoping that I could at least tank it a tiny bit with my [Fluid Armor] and [Anguix Bug Armor] active. They formed a weird extension on my bird form, but gave me a good boost in stats, adding 1000 to my defense stats.
[You have lost 400 health points]
[Due to the possession of a [Sacred], the domain restrictions of the [Legendary Domain] have been lifted]
The system told me. However, I could feel something inside my body snap in half.
[You have been inflicted with the status [Broken Bones]]
[Your stats will reduce by 10%]
I had broken a bone, which was a bit surprising. I hadn¡¯t had broken bones in quite a long while. Maybe, I wasn¡¯t ready for fights on this level yet.
<<Danger level has proven to be higher than the originally conceived strength. Your opponent is simply too strong.>>
¡®Eh? What? What¡¯s its rank?¡¯
<<It is of the Imperial Beast Rank or better known to you, A+>>
¡®E-Eh?¡¯
Shocked, I ended up feeling a great sense of dread. I was basically taking on Minerva at this point. Wasn¡¯t this simply too much for me?
¡®A-Agent. Be real with me, right now. What are my chances of surviving?¡¯
<<As was stated earlier on, your chances of survival are 40%>>
¡®Still 40%? In that case, what do I do?¡¯
I asked after having myself get wrapped up in the giant tentacle. It was squeezing me, but I simply shrugged myself beyond the tentacle¡¯s squeezing level and swam out. I was losing health points slowly, but because of [Auto Regeneration] and [Pain Nullification], I couldn¡¯t feel anything.
<<Activate the skill [Multiple Minds]>>
¡®Eh? Akira? Forgot about him. Ah, sure.¡¯
I activated the skill, then I heard a yawn in my head. It would seem that whenever I turned off the skill, my multiple mind would go to sleep.
¡®What¡¯s happeni- HOLY SHIT! What is that?!¡¯
His voice resonated through my mind, giving me a slight headache.
¡®Not the time for theatrics, kira. We need your help.¡¯
I told him, then proceeded to avoid the next tentacle swing. Since I was unable to use magic, fighting the monster was going to be exceptionally hard. Due to my current form, I was unable to use the [Ignition Feather] skill. [Stealth] was pointless here and the only attacks would require that I got up close, but seeing it¡¯s silhouette alone was terrifying.
¡®How do I help?¡¯
<<There is a magic aura that is nullifying the use of magic in the area. However, with the servant Yokino¡¯s unique skill, [Spell Weaver], and your unnaturally high affinity towards raw mana, you should be able to create a spell that nullifies this and allows you to use mana.>>
It exined to us, making me feel a bit annoyed that I wasn¡¯t just told earlier. Then again, it was still me getting the information either way.
¡®How long will it take?¡¯
<<5 minutes>>
It responded.
¡®Oi! I don¡¯t think I can keep swimming non-stop for five minutes straight using [Super Engine]! I¡¯ll run out of stamina.¡¯
<<Not to worry. With the skill [Undying], your body will function normally even if your stamina stat runs out>>
¡®Eh? But why do I still pass out even when my stamina goes low?¡¯
<<That is simply due to mental fatigue.>>
I swam out of the tentacle¡¯s way, but the wave still hit me, sending me some distance away.
[You have lost 500 health points]
I was informed about the total amount of damage I took from merely being around here. I was recovering 100 health points per second thanks to [Auto Regeneration], however, I failed to see how that was going to help me.
¡®So, I¡¯m just supposed to avoid it for 5 minutes?¡¯
<<Certainly. This will allow for your stats to rise drastically as well.>>
¡®I feel like you only say that when it¡¯s convenient for you.¡¯
__________________________________________
Yokino let go of the bandit in her hand and his body floated down lifelessly. She then looked at Suna who was handling the leader roughly. He was in whirlpool with lightning constantly striking him while she interrogated him.
¡°Where is the princess?¡±
She asked. The leader grunted and only red at her, leading to more powerful bolt to hit him. The Arachne drew in close to the duo and noticed that the leader was scarred, proof that he had been several tough situations. And the shark fishmen in particr were known for their resilience. No matter what, they wouldn¡¯t give in, meaning this interrogation was useless. Suna should have known that. No, Suna did know that. She was the one who even told Yokino about it.
Yokino noticed Suna¡¯s eyes. They were purely ballistic, showing that she was not even doing it for interrogation purposes at this point.
Suna had two sides to herself.
The normal, reserved and fearless leader. Then there was the war crazed version of herself that would ruthlessly wipe out any army. Back in Larm, she didn¡¯t show this part since she didn¡¯t see the events as worth her time, allowing children to even participate in it. However, this time, it was dangerous. The stakes were on a national level and Suna, the Raging Sea, was not going to let the situation go out of hand.
¡°U-Um, before you end up killing him, could I try to get information?¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
Yokino tapped the spirit¡¯s shoulder, bringing her out of her murderous state. Suna clicked her tongue then stopped the lightning bolts. Rather she left the whirlpool over him as a sort of bind. Yokino shrugged then spread her hand over the leader.
¡°Try yer best, delicatedy.¡±
He said offensively. Yokino took it as apliment and giggled. From her finger tip, a thread shot out to the leader¡¯s head. He red at her and prepared himself for a new powerful torture method. However, her threads turned red, meaning her blood was spreading through it till it touched his head.
Yokino¡¯s skill [Blood Link], was one that ensured that as long as her blood was in contact with someone, she had control over their body, with the exception that their will was simply stronger than hers. Yokino had still not met any such person and she definitely wasn¡¯t meeting one today.
Her leader¡¯s eyes were clouded with blood, leaving him blinded.
¡°W-What¡¯s happening?¡±
He cried out. However, Yokino did not respond to him. Her threads simply started to drill into his head. The leader was hit with a jolt of pain in his head. As if he had no defenses whatsoever, Yokino stabbed his arm, and the pain sent shivers down his spine.
¡°As I thought. You¡¯re only cocky since you have this tough hide of yours.¡±
She said mockingly. The leader grit his teeth after realizing what she meant by that.
¡°There¡¯s easy ways to do this, like directly extracting the information from your brain.¡±
She shot a thread to his neck. This thread wasced with her potent poison. Even with his defenses, he would have still been affected immensely, but now that she had multiplied his abiity to feel pain ten-fold. It would be the equivalent of having his neck being melted slowly and gruesomely, in a seemingly endless torment.
She licked her lips.
¡°Shall we begin, with the extraction then.¡±
While she was doing this, Suna had managed to calm down, allowing her to ask the question:
¡®Where¡¯s Hinotori, though?¡¯
_________________________
BOOM!
There was something like an explosion after I got mmed in between two tentacles. It would seem the creature got pissed off by how I kept managing to swerve its attacks. I could feel my health points being drained quickly. After being squeezed between the equivalent of two steel walls, I slowly floated down, barely having any energy in my limbs anymore.
Well, it was all mental obviously, so I quickly recovered then swam away.
¡®Ok, it¡¯s ready.¡¯
¡®Then let loose!¡¯
Kira used up a bit of mana and through someplicated means I still didn¡¯t understand, we managed to create an area in which I could use magic. Happily, I wasted no time in summoning as mana shadows as possible. They swarmed it in the darkness, proving to be way fiercer than an A+ rank creature as a swarm. Heartlessly, they attacked it and even tore off one of its tentacles. The creature bellowed mightily, giving me chills then I realized the shadows were only slowly chipping away at its health points.
I summoned as big a water spear as I could, then shot it off at the creature, having basically no effect on it. My magics still weren¡¯t affecting it.
Still, all I needed to do was evade it and let the shadows slowly chip away at its health. At least, that was what I thought till I noticed a weird crystalline glow in front of it. The water kept on revolving around the point of the glow and I could feel mana gathering over there. I gulped as a pir of light came rushing for me.
It¡¯s width and speed were simply too much for me to ovee. I knew for certain that were I to take that hit, I was a goner. Reluctantly, I decided to teleport out of here, thinking that the agent might have been mistaken about my chances of surviving this fight. However I looked at it, this thing was simply way out of my league.
[You cannot teleport out of the [Legendary Domain] during a [Sacred Quest]]
[Till the time limit for the [Sacred Quest] runs out, you cannot leave the [Legendary Domain]]
¡®Oh, Come on!¡¯
I cried out. I activated every single thing I could muster.
[Fire Force], [Super Speed Engine], [Jet Propulsion], [Fluid Armor], [Anguix Bug Armor] and [Lightning Armor] for speed and defense. I refused to activate the [Sigma Armor] since it would only slow me down in exchange for defense.
Still, the attack was simply way too big. I wouldn¡¯t be able to make it in time. I wanted to sacrifice some soldiers for my safety, but most of them had already been wiped out by the attack.
¡®Agent! Kira!¡¯
¡®Mawstewr! I can stop this!¡¯
Kawaii suggested, but I didn¡¯t take her seriously. I was still stronger than her, so she saying she could take this was simply her trying to impress me.
<
>
¡®Eh?¡¯
¡®Basically, we can use [Void Shot] to erase the attack. Only problem is, we probably won¡¯t be able to create a big enough shot in time.¡¯
¡®Shit. Wait- Kawa-¡¯
While I was thinking about the issue, Kawaii got restless and jumped off towards the beam. I tried to grab her, but then she started to expand.
¡®What¡¯s happening?¡¯
<<The servant Kawaii may be attempting to absorb the attack>>
¡®Eh? She can absorb the attack?¡¯
<<No. She will be destroyed.>>
¡®Eh? Eh? Eh? Stupid slime.¡¯
I threw threads at her, but the threads only floated lifelessly in the water, my control barely having any effect in the water.
It was toote now. I couldn¡¯t do anything about the situation. The beam was at point nk. Kawaii and I were doomed. The bright light almost blinded me, but then, what came next was shocking.
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 159 Taming A Baby Kraken
Kawaii spread out till she was as thin as paper; however, she was now as wide as the beam. The beam hit her and she glowed with various colours, like a prism. The attack managed to push her back, mming her into me.
¡®Uwaaaa! It hurts! It hurts!¡¯
Kawaii was screaming.
¡®K-Kawaii?¡¯
¡®Teehee, slimes don¡¯t feel pain!¡¯
She pranked me! She wanted to see my reaction? The nerve!
¡®Tch. What are you doing?¡¯
<<It would seem the servant kawaii possesses the skill [Mirror Coat]>>
¡®Mirror Coat? Like Wubbuf-¡®
¡®I got the skill [Mirror Coat] some time ago.¡¯
Kawaii interrupted my thoughts. If the skill worked like I thought it did, that meant she couldpletely return any skill to its sender. We had a chance. Kawaii could simply slowly this thing on its own.
¡®Uh-oh.¡¯
Kawaii suddenly said.
¡®What do you mean, ¡°uh-oh¡±?¡¯
I asked her. A pir shot through a part of her body. Making me realise that even her new skill wasn¡¯t enough.
<<The attack from the Baby Kraken is simply too strong for the servant Kawaii>>
¡®W-Wait! Wait! Wait! B-Baby Kraken?¡¯
That was the most rming piece of information I could have been given.
¡®Yo. Copy, Kawaii¡¯s [Mirror Coat] and help her out. It¡¯s not like we have a choice anymore.¡¯
Kira suggested. I did that, then activated [Slime Body] to spread myself as thing as Kawaii. I covered up the parts on her body where the leaks wereing in and activated the skill [Mirror Coat]. I could feel the force behind the attack, although not the same as being hit by the attack. More like a feeling of how the attack would be like, rather than taking the actual attack.
¡®Ouu, mawstewr being over me like this makes me feel good.¡¯
¡®Slimes don¡¯t feel, remember?¡¯
I told her, and the image of her pouting entered my head. Together, we managed to shoot the attack back at the kraken. The beamnded right on the kraken and it wailed in pain. Then, there was a weird voice in my head.
¡®OWIE!¡¯
It cried, giving me the creeps.
¡®K-Kawaii¡ Was that you?¡¯
¡®No. It¡¯s probably the monster.¡¯
She responded nonchntly. Sometimes, not having emotions or feelings was very unnerving.
<<The source of the voice is the Baby Kraken >>
¡®What? It speaks?¡¯
<<Yes. He speaks.>>
¡®Yo, let¡¯s adopt it.¡¯
Kira suggested something absurd.
¡®Adopt? Are you insane? How are we supposed to adopt something like that?¡¯
¡®No, no. Think of this like the pocket demon games. Reduce its HP low enough then use a familiar contract on it.¡¯
¡®Eh? Eh? Come on. It won¡¯t be as easy as that.¡¯
<<It could be easier>>
¡®EH?!¡¯
Kira and I both simultaneously yelped.
¡®W-What do you mean it could be easier?¡¯
¡®Yeah! Yeah. Taming a Baby Kraken won¡¯t be so easy, you know?¡¯
<<It is a baby. Convincing it should be easy enough>>
¡®B-But¡¡¯
¡®It¡¯s huge as shit¡¡¯
¡®¡ and stronger than Minerva.¡¯
¡®LIGHT. BRIGHT. OW!¡¯
The baby kraken roared angrily. Its tentacles started to twirl around ferociously.
<<It may be a baby, but it is still over 40 years old. It can be reasoned with.>>
¡®O-Over 40 years old?¡¯
¡®That¡¯s older than Kushieda sensei.¡¯
¡®Haha, wasn¡¯t she approaching that age though?¡¯
¡®Yeah. Without a boyfriend too.¡¯
¡®Hahaha!¡¯
¡®Mawstewr! The tentacles.¡¯
Kawaii yelled, however, she was overreacting. We were currently unmatched with our ability to reflect any attack. At least, that was what I thought till we were both hit by the tentacle and moved about.
¡®What was that?¡¯
<<[Mirror Coat] reflects attacks of a magical kind. It cannot be used in cases of physical attacks. For that, the skills [Revenge Counter] and [Shock Return] would be preferrable.>>
The agent decided to tell me only after I got hit.
¡®Uwa! I want to get angry!¡¯
Kawaii said, using her new [Super Acid Body] skill on the kraken¡¯s tentacle. However, the reaction we received was condescending.
¡®HAHAHAHA! TICKLES!¡¯
Itughed at us. Kawaii stopped what she was doing, realizing that it wouldn¡¯t work. However, when the monster startedughing, I decided that this was how I could tame it.
¡®Kawaii, keep using your [Super Acid Body] on the tentacle.¡¯
¡®You sure? It¡¯s not working.¡¯
¡®Yeah. Just keep doing it.¡¯
I told her and she continued. It kept moving about, giggling gleefully. This ended up creating a sort of maelstrom, but since I was attached to its tentacle, I was not really affected.
¡®You can stop now.¡¯
She stopped, as did the baby kraken. I swam towards it, trying to get as close as possible.
¡®Oi. Hey there.¡¯
¡®WEAK! CREATURE! WEAK!¡¯
It boomed, giving me a headache. At this rate I was probably going to die due to an aneurism.
¡®Not so loud! Sheesh.¡¯
¡®WEAK! CREATURE! WEAK!¡¯
It repeated.
¡®Oh,e on! Stop! Please.¡¯
¡®STOP?!¡¯
It asked.
¡®Yes. Stop.¡¯
¡®OK.¡¯
It dropped its tentacles. Its giant eyes gazed at me innocently, like a puppy waiting formands.
DING!
[Time for the [Sacred Quest] has passed]
[Time has run out]
[You have failed the [Sacred Quest]]
[You can leave the [Legendary Domain] now]
It said. I was feeling a bit disappointed, but I was now certain that the agent was insane. There was no way I could beat this thing within 10 minutes then move on to another.
¡®Not the time to feel depressed.¡¯
¡®Ugh, fine. Heyo, big guy. Wanna be friends?¡¯
I asked it.
¡®FRIENDS?¡¯
¡®Yeah, friends.¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
I wasn¡¯t even certain if the kraken knew what friends were.
¡®LIKE MOTHER AND STRONG SHARK.¡¯
¡®Huh? Mother and strong shark? What¡¯s it talking about?¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t know. But let¡¯s just say yes.¡¯
¡®Yes¡?¡¯
I told it.
¡®YES! YES! FRIEND! I! HAVE! FRIEND!¡¯
It squealed happily, ying about in the water and causing some serious underwater waves.
¡®T-Tone it down.¡¯
¡®OK! FRIEND!¡¯
It listened to me then dropped its limbs.
¡®Mawstewr, this creature is annoying.¡¯
¡®Calm down, Kawaii.¡¯
DING!
[The servant Tsuna has evolved into a Darth Wight]
¡®Eh?¡¯
A shocking message came to me. Tsuna had evolved? Wasn¡¯t she dead? Maybe they didn¡¯t check her well? At least, that was good news of sorts.
<<The familiar contract has been made. Would you like to go over it?>>
The agent proposed the familiar contract already. I decided to gloss over it, knowing that the agent would never give me anything that would be detrimental to me.
[#1 Hyakkiyako is the master in the rtionship]
[#2 The familiar will always rush to help Hyakkiyako when called]
[#3 The familiar will never form a contract with another master]
[#4 The familiar will remain loyal to Hyakkiyako]
[#5 The familiar will follow Hyakkiyako¡¯s orders]
The contract was short and sweet. Absolutely no demerits to me whatsoever. This looked quite perfect. Of course, once it was the agent, my life would be smooth sailing.
¡®Give it the contract.¡¯
<<Very well>>
¡®WHAT. THIS?¡¯
<<This is how you be friends>>
The agent spoke to it directly. I was surprised, since I didn¡¯t think the agent could speak to anyone other than me.
¡®Since when?¡¯
<<Always. You just never told me to>>
¡®Huh¡ it¡¯s like there¡¯s 3 people sharing one brain now.¡¯
¡®H-Hello? Where is this?¡¯
¡®New guy?¡¯
¡®Another one? Oh, just my luck.¡¯
¡®I know right? Now less work for me. Yosh!¡¯
Kira was overjoyed. This meant my [Multiple Minds] skill had leveled up. I checked and it was level 3 now, meaning it was not a skill I could easily level up, especially given how much I used it.
[The Baby Kraken has epted the terms of your Familiar Contract]
[You have acquired a powerful familiar.]
[Should this familiar acquire servants, they will indirectly be your familiars which you can summon at any time]
¡®E-Eh? Seriously? That¡¯s kinda cool.¡¯
I thought.
¡®FRIEND! FRIEND! FRIEND!¡¯
He kept shouting.
¡®Mawstewr! It gets more annoying by the second.¡¯
Kawaiiined under the intense waves that were being sent our way. When I thought about it, how was she surviving under the pressure here? She should¡¯ve been squashed like a bug¡ like me. Was it because she also had a [Sacred]?
¡®Wait¡ Kawaii, is your [Sacred] active?¡¯
¡®No.¡¯
¡®So just possessing it makes it useful, eh? Nice.¡¯
DING!
[You have 1 pending message from the Family Member Zana]
[You have 1 pending message from the servant Yokino]
[You have 1 pending message from the servant Nukeme]
[You have 1 pending message from the servant Tsuna]
[You have 1 pending message from the servant Aeri Vons]
While I was thinking, I was shown several message alerts. I assumed Akira would sort through them himself, but it would seem that he decided to let me see these. I opened them up, starting from Zana.
[Zana: Hinotori, where are you? I don¡¯t know if you will receive this, but ever since we became friends, I have been seeing a magic screen. It said if I sent you a message you will see. Can I experiment with this screen? Please?]
I almostughed when I saw it.
[Hyakkiyako: I¡¯m investigating other ways to find Minerva. Feel free to experiment with the screen. You could get stronger]
I responded then moved on to the next person.
[Yokino: Yo, Ak-kun. Where are you? We found out where the princess is. Unfortunately, she¡¯s in serious enemy territory. Looks like we¡¯ll have to sneak in. You can track me, right? Just head towards the northeast, you¡¯ll find a crator filled with thugs. It¡¯s the current base of operations of the SharkFang Kingdom.]
Honestly, who was this princess they kept talking about? Also, enemy territory? If it was that bad, would sneaking in, cut it? I then looked at the baby kraken (I still hadn¡¯t seen what it actually looked like).
[Hyakkiyako: Go on ahead, but wait for me when you get there. I¡¯ll cause a big distraction for you guys to sneak in and find your princess.]
I then checked out Nukeme¡¯s message.
[Nukeme: Hinotori-sama, where are you? We have received great news! Pleasee back soon!]
[Hyakkiyako: Just tell me now.]
[Nukeme: Oh, Hinotori-sama! I have missed you!]
[Hyakkiyako: Get on with it.]
[Nukeme: I believe you would need to be here to see it yourself.]
[Hyakkiyako: In that case, give me a few days. I¡¯m close to finding Minerva.]
[Nukeme: Very well, I will ry the information.]
He responded. Did the system¡¯s message make his speech better automatically? That was nice. Also, what was this important news that he needed to tell me in person?
[Tsuna: Hinotori-sama. It has been a while. I am not certain how you took the news of my death, but I wish to inform you that I am well. In my¡ unconsciousness, I was trapped between a state of life and death. I believed I saw the Great Passing like our elders had told us. However, contrary to what they told us, there were 4 rivers. One ck, one white, one blue and one golden. I observed Gorm and Kuro in this ce ¨C the ck river. I am not certain, but I believe this is because both of them are not dead. I thought I would have followed them, but there was something keeping me here. I assume it is either the gift you blessed me with or¡ please, I need to speak to you soon.]
Tsuna¡¯s message carried the most weight so far. I couldn¡¯t process what exactly I just read, but it was very obvious that Tsuna was not alright. I wanted to go to her side, but¡ no. I needed to make time for her. I would go to her soon.
[Hyakkiyako: I will meet you as soon as possible]
I checked Aeri¡¯s message nervously. The previous 2 carried very heavy topics, so I was hoping this one wouldn¡¯t.
[Aeri Vons: Hey, little bird leader. I thought I was strong enough to break away from my vige, but the fact that I hid on the day that thing appeared, is proof that I am not ready. I am sorry, but as I am now, I cannot join your group. I will return to my vige, to grow stronger. I wonder if I¡¯ll be epted since I was enved, but I will still go. If they refuse me, I will train alone in the Mystic Peaks. If the Mystic Peaks prove unworthy, I will go to the Winter Zone. If that does not prove effective, I will go to an even worse ce. I will not return till I am strong enough. With that, I apologise, but I wish for your permission to break away from your group. So please cancel your bond with me.]
¡®Ah¡ she¡¯s going?¡¯
¡®Who does she think she is, huh? Abandoning us? Like hell!¡¯
¡®Calm down, kira.¡¯
¡®W-What¡¯s going on?¡¯
¡®Not now, newbie. Keep watching the memories.¡¯
¡®O-Ok.¡¯
¡®And you! Don¡¯t tell me to calm down. We aren¡¯t getting betrayed like before.¡¯
¡®This isn¡¯t a betrayal.¡¯
¡®HUH?! What do you mean this isn¡¯t a betrayal? Don¡¯t let her go just like that!¡¯
¡®Who said I was going to let her go?¡¯
[Hyakkiyako: Aeri Vons. You are free to go do your training if you wish. However, I will never break my bond with you. I am sorry if that is not what you want, but I am being very selfish today, ok? Good luck on your journey.]
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 160 Side Story - Pushover Leader
Tsuna grabbed her face. It was deathly pale, devoid of its normal green colour, with several cracks on it. Her eyes were now a golden, with her hair being white. She was clothed in her torn-up rags with a big hole in the stomach area.
¡°H-How are you?¡±
Oki asked, offering her some leaves to chew on. She signaled for him to drop the leaves; for some reason she didn¡¯t feel any hunger anymore.
The hob-goblin dropped the leaves and stood up.
¡°B-But. Is what you said true?¡±
He asked, still unsure as to whether to take her words at face value.
¡°Yes. Every single bit of it.¡±
She confirmed it once again and the hob-goblin found tears streaking down his face. His sniffs filled the air and he wiped them away, since it would be embarrassing to be seen crying.
¡°And Hinotori-sama will be here soon?¡±
Nukeme asked, licking his poisonedced dagger. Tsuna nodded her head then put her hands to her head.
¡°She told me she woulde as soon as possible.¡±
Nukeme pouted after hearing that. Hinotori had told him that she wouldeter, but it would seem that she gave precedence to Tsuna¡¯s cry. He didn¡¯t know whether to be happy that she wasing back or to be jealous. Both seemed like a normal reaction, so he wasn¡¯t sure which would make Hinotori give him more attention.
¡°Tch. Why are you reporting that to her? She doesn¡¯t care about us.¡±
Oki snorted. Tsuna raised her eyebrow at that statement and tilted her head in confusion.
¡°What do you mean she doesn¡¯t care about us?¡±
¡°She didn¡¯te when we needed her. And after finding out about those who died, all she could think about was where the Mad Witch was.¡±
He huffed and folded his arms in anger. He felt it was an irrational move on Hinotori¡¯s part. However, Tsuna still failed to see what his problem was.
¡°I gave her a stern talking. I feel like leaving this group she controls even. Someone else should be in charge for me to remain.¡±
¡°Are you stupid?¡±
She asked him, surprising all those present. Tsuna would never ever say something like that, but it would seem that death had changed her in a bit. She felt a bit free, although the restraints around her soul were now very obvious to her eyes ¨C even if others couldn¡¯t see it.
¡°Wasn¡¯t Hinotori-sama busy with an issue in the South? Or you preferred she sent us with her to face whatever it was she was facing? Did she not refuse to take us with her out of consideration for our safety? I know you felt it as well. That split second where she was close to Death. It should have struck you like it did me. You aren¡¯t being fair here.¡±
¡°Ah-¡°
¡°And so what if in times of crisis where people died she was searching for Minerva first? Normally I would be angry as well, but if you find someone you love, do others matter to you? For instance, did you for once consider the others who died? The other goblins, me or even Kuro?¡±
¡°Bu-But-¡°
¡°But nothing, Oki. You want to lead this group? I¡¯d like to see you take on all the goblins, timber wolves, rat men and creepers. Could you even beat a [ming Deer] by yourself? Let¡¯s not even talk about the wolves. You need to apologise to her.¡±
Tsuna scolded him upon hearing what he said. She felt really irritated having to hear what he said. She didn¡¯t know why, but she felt like she understood Hinotori a bit and wouldn¡¯t let anyone disrespect her without good reason. To her, Oki¡¯s actions were unforgivable.
Yuuna couldn¡¯t help butugh, breaking the tense atmosphere.
¡°I never thought the day woulde where our dearest Od- erhm, Tsuna would fight for someone other than Go-erhm, Shitsuke.¡±
¡°Shut it, old hag.¡±
Tsuna barked.
¡°Kekeke. The wench is right. You¡¯ve really changed. Now I want to die too.¡±
¡°I wouldn¡¯t say die, Nukeme. You might note back after that.¡±
Taikumented in a light-hearted tone.
¡°Always being the logical one, eh? I think Nukeme is right.¡±
Yuuna pointed out that she agreed with him. Nukeme grinned and prepared his dagger to stab the old one. Clearly not amused, she sted him away with a bit of fire magic.
¡°Not literally death, you fool. I mean, we should let go of our pasts. Hinotori-sama gave us new names and as such, we should do away with our previous selves, before getting our names. We will be reborn as Hinotori-sama¡¯s true captains.¡±
She exined what she meant. Taiku and Tsuna nodded their heads, being inplete agreement with her. Oki on the other hand only just growled at all of them.
¡°Are you stupid? Just like that?! You all have been brainwashed.¡±
He argued. However, they all just stared at him with tant confusion.
¡°Is that hard for you to ept that there was someone nearly as admirable as Shitsuke?¡±
¡°Eh? Are you saying that Hinotori is as admirable as Gorm?¡±
He questioned, grabbing Nukeme by the neck. The shred goblin cackled after being lifted up into the air. He grabbed his dagger and was about to stab it into Oki¡¯s arm.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Stop. Both of you.¡±
Taiku ordered and both of them froze in their steps. His eyes glowed a faint blue after delivering themand which they followed. Everyone, shocked by the development only stared at him.
¡°W-What?¡±
¡°It¡¯s a skill I received. [Hypnosis]. I can make anyone do what I want given the right the conditions have been set.¡±
¡°When?¡±
¡°It¡¯s a skill I got since we received Hinotori-sama¡¯s blessings. The screen that floats up and shows us our information and how to grow stronger. I followed its orders and got some gifts for doing so. And I¡¯m not the only one. Some of the goblins who evolved into Hob-goblins have also reported suddenly receiving skills post evolution.¡±
He sighed, then snapped his fingers.
Oki then dropped Nukeme on the ground.
¡°I¡¯m not one to talk a lot, but I don¡¯t like how you two are fighting like idiots, so I will try to keep the peace here. Hinotori-sama is not as admirable as Shitsuke. That is a fact that can¡¯t be denied. But I believe she has the potential to be just as admirable or even more so, but we need to help her to do that.¡±
¡°Ah¡ you-¡°
¡°My name is Taiku. Just as Shitsuke is Shitsuke and you are Oki. Hinotori-sama gave us these names, not Shitsuke. Remember to whom you swore your loyalty on that day.¡±
Taiku was releasing an oppressive aura on Oki, who was normally the overbearing one in such situations. Had Taiku really grown to this level in such a short amount of time? And what about he, who was blessed by the [Demi-god of Fighting]. How was he losing to a random nobody?
? ¡°Next time Hinotori-sama,es, you shall apologise. Is that clear?¡±
Taiku delivered his order and Oki couldn¡¯t help but to submit. Deep down, he knew what all of them were saying was right, but for some reason he couldn¡¯t bring himself to ept that.
¡®U-Um¡ is now a bad time?¡¯
A voice entered all their heads. They all lifted their heads upon recognizing the voice.
¡°No. Now is a fine time.¡±
Tsuna responded, looking towards the west. There, standing soaking wet with her body looking like a deted ball, was Hinotori. She fell on the floor, breathing heavily; exhausted from her endeavor underwater.
Oki¡¯s face instinctively fell down to the floor. His hands trembled angrily with rage.
¡°Hinotori-sama! I have missed you!¡±
Nukeme jumped at her, but was met with a fire ball from Yuuna. She sighed then approached her mistress.
¡°Hinotori-sama, it has been a while.¡±
¡®Um, yes. It has. Sorry about my current form. I was dealing with something.¡¯
¡°You still look splendid.¡±
¡®You said you wanted to talk about an issue?¡¯
She directed her question towards the one who called her.
¡°Oh, yes.¡±
Taiku kicked Oki in the legs for him to get on with it. The hunk scoffed then got up.
¡°Sorry, Tsuna. But may I speak first?¡±
He cut her off, but she didn¡¯t mind.
¡°Hinotori¡ um, I need to apologise to you.¡±
He said concededly.
¡®Um¡ I think I rather need to apologise for what happened.¡¯
Hinotori said something Oki didn¡¯t expect to hear.
¡®You¡¯re right. I didn¡¯t pay any attention to the others who were dead and I wasn¡¯t able to help you out in your situation when you guys were in trouble.¡¯
She apologized sincerely, then looked back at Tsuna, as if the entire issue had been resolved. However, Oki did not feel alright with this. He was obviously in the wrong here. Hinotori was supposed to be expecting an apology from Oki instead.
Oki couldn¡¯t help but just stare at Hinotori, confused by her nonchnce with the issue.
¡®Gorm would never let this matter go. She¡¯s a pushover.¡¯
Oki found himself thinking.
He could never see someone like her as admirable as Gorm. Oki would keep quiet for now. He needed to use the gifts she had blessed him with to grow stronger. Once he grew strong enough, he would dethrone her.
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 161 Salutations! I Am Here To Eat You!
Post discussion with Tsuna, I received quite the bit of hefty information. I didn¡¯t expect to see all the hob-goblin captains standing there though. I probably should have told Tsuna that I wanted it to be a personal affair. Amognst all that happened, there was one thing that stood out to me. The fact that Tsuna seemed reluctant to talk about somethings with the others around and Oki¡¯s thoughts on my actions.
¡®Pushover, huh?¡¯
I ended up thinking, while by myself. I scoffed at his words, feeling that he was a bit right about it. However, I couldn¡¯t help but think that if I forced my way with everything, no one would want to stay by my side. For instance, the incident with Shiroi earlier on. I didn¡¯t even know how to apologise to her after doing.
¡®That shitty goblin! Why didn¡¯t you blow his head off?¡¯
Akira asked, clearly pissed off.
¡®He¡¯s not worth it.¡¯
¡®Sure, sure. Keep saying he¡¯s not worth it when we know that he deserves it. Let¡¯s kill him, right Akkun?!¡¯
He asked the new guy.
¡®Y-Yeah¡?¡¯
He was intimidated. I could understand him, especially since he didn¡¯t know what was happening to us. I was starting to wonder why the multiple minds didn¡¯t know what I had been through even though they were splits of my mind.
¡®Mawstewr, is it alright to take it with us?¡¯
Kawaii asked on my back. I could understand her uncertainty, given the fact that we were currently on the back of a very dangerous creature on our way to find the princess.
¡®Yeah, yeah. We need it to cause a bit of chaos.¡¯
Yokino and Suna went ahead after I told them that I¡¯d cause a distraction for them. They¡¯d given me their location and as such I would be able to get to them in no time.
¡®FRIEND! GO! OUT! PLAY!¡¯
It yelled joyfully. I sighed, trying to ignore the pain of having my brain being split in two, but at least my [Mental Damage Resistance] would be going up too.
After some minutes of skill testing and fusions, I managed to see a bunch of fishmen standing out there.
¡®Master! What is this I¡¯m hearing about a new familiar?¡¯
Amethyst raged in my head. I had forgotten about herpletely.
¡®I got you a new friend, Amethyst. No reason to shout.¡¯
¡®Eh?! No reason to shout?! Master, this new familiar¡ it¡¯s¡ it¡¯s too strong, although not stronger than me, of course!¡¯
She was trying to sound tough at thest part. She must¡¯ve been feeling like her role was being challenged, although she didn¡¯t know that I couldn¡¯t give her a position other than that of the familiar head. A littlepetition would be weed, since it would make her want to grow stronger. However, were she to reach my level, I would be stuck in a soul bond with her. I couldn¡¯t allow that! That would be a stupid move on my part, so I needed to make her not train.
Only problem was that now that I got the kraken, she now had a reason to intentionally level up. Maybe this was a good thing since it would force me to level up as well. I hadn¡¯t been focusing much on doing that, but then again, it¡¯s only been a month and I was already 70+ levels. I felt like the absurd amount of experience points needed to level up was either to slow me down or simply a standard for my species. Probably a way to slow me down, but giving the system the benefit of the doubt, I would say a standard for my species.
¡®Yeah, it¡¯s strong, but don¡¯t worry. You¡¯ll always be number 1.¡¯
I told her. Maybe this would make her not level up? Well, that was wishful thinking and my luck was not that high, so I was guessing we would see.
In a matter of a few minutes, I could make out some underwater cliffsides, with several glowing holes in them.
¡®Wait here a bit.¡¯
I gave the orders to the kraken then swam forwards to scout the area a bit. When I got there, I saw that the cliffside was more like a massive hole; at least as big as Keimen city, if not bigger. At the bottom, there were various fishmen swimming about. They ranged from sharks to crabs to eels and so on, and all of them either looked roughed up or carried scars on their bodies. Blood was floating up from a portion were most of them were congregated. It would seem that the shark fishmen were fighting over food.
There were a few broken ships with barnacles on them at the bottom and it would seem that the fishmen had made these their homes. I couldn¡¯t identify any children amongst the mids, all those present looked to be adults at the very least (There were probably teenagers, I couldn¡¯t tell the difference). The average level of each member was 55 though, making me think of this as less of a city and more of an army. There were skeletons of various monsters all around and the fishmen were all in gangs, surrounding some glowing orbs.
In the center of this, there was a massive structure that stood at least 50 feet tall. It looked like a castle with four towers, all built inpletely absurd manners. The roofs were a dull brown and the walls had been broken down, making me wonder how the structure was still up. Several guards had been stationed around it, but that was where I could sense Yokino. That meant the princess was being held captive there.
¡®Is this the ce?¡¯
I sent a telepathic message to Yokino.
¡®Yep. SharkFang Kingdom. Well¡ it¡¯s not really that big as you can see, but it can go toe to toe with almost any nation on the surface.¡¯
She said nonchntly. I understood them being able to go toe to toe with any nation. The average person here was C+ rank whereas on the surface, the average soldier was about D- rank.
¡®What¡¯s up with the area though?¡¯
¡®This ce? Last time I was here there were more structures and this hole wasn¡¯t around. Daxia probably went on a rampage again.¡¯
¡®Daxia?¡¯
¡®Ruler of SharkFang Kingdom. Queen of The Bloody Seas.¡¯
¡®You make her sound like a pirate.¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
I mused.
¡®She might as well be. Scariest female I¡¯ve ever met. And I¡¯ve met a lot.¡¯
She sounded quite terrified, and I unconsciously gulped.
¡®W-Where is Daxia?¡¯
¡®She¡¯s in the Bloody Sea at the moment. So it¡¯s the perfect chance to get the princess.¡¯
¡®Who is this pri-¡®
¡®Hinotori, start the distraction. We have no time to waste.¡¯
Suna ordered, cutting off my question. Rude much?
I shrugged then swam right over hoping that I would get a lot of fishmen¡¯s attention. Some of them looked at me, but ignored me, almost as if I wasn¡¯t worth their time. I was stronger than them for fucks sake! Feeling insulted, I conjured up tworge water spears and flung them at the fishmen, disrupting their happy time.
Finally, I got the attention of those who heard the screaming and sound of the ground being torn up. Fortunately, water magic underwater was at its strongest form.
¡®Shiver me timbers, ya bloody swashbuckling fishwards! Name¡¯s Captain Tori, A.K.A, your end!¡¯
I tried to project my voice into all of their heads. I hoped they all heard me. They looked at me, confused, then looked at one another. For a moment, there was an awkward silence, and I was left to feel embarrassed for the statement I just made. I closed my eyes then looked away, shooting several water spears at them.
¡®What the fuck was that?¡¯
Akira asked angrily.
¡®I-I don¡¯t know. I just assumed.¡¯
<<¡>>
I could feel disappointment from the agent. The agent had abandoned me in such a crisis.
¡®Mawstewr! You were so amazing!¡¯
Kawaii told me, making me feel a bit at ease. However, it would seem the fishmen didn¡¯t take too lightly to my attacks on them. I could see them rushing at me, but I couldn¡¯t care less given the difference in levels. The problem however were the B ranked who kept popping up.
¡®Welp, distraction is in ce!¡¯
I swam over to the kraken and sat on his head.
¡®Let¡¯s go! Have some fun with those down there.¡¯
¡®FUN?! I LIKE FUN!¡¯
It roared, then dropped two of its tentacles on the ring. The fishmen stopped moving after seeing the tentacles. I had originally asked if the kraken could hide its aura and it told me that it was good at ying ¡°hid-and-seek¡±. I wondered why it would be good at doing that, but decided not to think too much about it. It was so good, none of the fishmen noticed its presence all the while it was hiding there. Now, it had released its presence and the fishmen were terrified.
The baby kraken was A+, literally a step shy from S rank. I could confidently say it was the most powerful creature I had ever faced in battle. Luckily, I managed to make it my familiar instead. Slowly, the kraken revealed itself. From its massive head up, slowly, more tentacles begun to line up on the edges. Then there were ws as big a cruise ships, but sharper than ss cutters. Its eyes glowed with excitement, but to them it must have looked like rage.
Slowly, it rose above the edges, revealing merely a fifth of its body to them. Most of them after seeing it, scoffed. They clicked their tongues then spat out.
¡°Kekeke, never expected to see a baby kraken out here.¡±
One of them cried.
¡°Even then, it still aint as scary as the Queen.¡±
¡°Oi!¡±
Some screamed loudly, his voice reaching everyone in the hole. He floated above one of the towers on the castle. A shark fishman with no eyes in his head and a scar spreading from his neck down below. He carried a curved de on his side, tied to him with a sea weed belt. He was massive, at least twice Zana¡¯s current size and also possessed power to back up his size. He was a B+ in rank, meaning he was not someone to be taken lightly and since he didn¡¯t use mana, he had several aura techniques.
¡°Since it ain¡¯t everyday we get ta see these krakens, Imma give ya boys a special deal!¡±
He told them.
¡®Special deal?¡¯
As if he could read my mind, he grinned at me.
¡°First one to kill it gets to join Daxia¡¯s gang. No need to go through the trial.¡±
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 162 Worth The Trouble?
Hinotori had done it.
When she said she wasing in with a distraction, she wasn¡¯t joking. Yokino had known that she was quite¡ phenomenal, but sometimes the chicken always found a way to surprise her. Still, a kraken was beyond expectations. Hadn¡¯t she simply gone over the top with it this time?
¡®What? What? What? What in the hell is that?!¡¯
Yokino found herself screaming internally at the sight. She had seen lots of things, but this was by far the most terrifying she had encountered. Goliath was probably on its level if not beneath it. No. She would have to make a correction about this statement. The most terrifying thing she had met was definitely not this. That title belonged to The Duchess the first time they met.
Still, seeing something this overwhelmingly massive, Yokino was not sure how to take it in. Maybe if she gathered all her army she could beat it, but still, she would encounter major losses which she was not interested in.
''Now''s not the time to be surprised.''
Suna told her, while swimming ahead. Most of the fishmen had swam towards the kraken after being given the offer by the blind sharkman, meaning if they snuck in from behind, they wouldn¡¯t be found out. Suna and Yokino of them were highly confident in their [Super Stealth] and [Undetectable Stealth] respectively. It wouldn¡¯t be the first time they both had to sneak into a ce.
¡®Right.¡¯
The Arachne was reminded of her purpose there. Even with her [Undetectable Stealth], which was the highest ever attained form of the [Stealth] skill tree known, given someone possessed the ability to sense life force at a very high level, she would be in trouble. Such an opponent was the blind shark fishman guarding the tower. Even if it was her, she still wasn¡¯t sure given what she had heard about him in particr.
When they were a few feet within the castle¡¯s walls, Suna proposed a n.
¡®I will distract him. You go in and free the princess.¡¯
Yokino was alreadyfortable with the n, given that it wouldn¡¯t require her to physically fight anyone.
¡®Feel free. I¡¯m going in then.¡¯
She swam upwards and delivered a telepathic message to the shark fishman. Yokino would have tried to read their conversation, but if she attempted to read the shark¡¯s mind, he would immediately be alerted to her presence, which she couldn¡¯t have.
Quickly, she snuck into the bottom area of the castle. She would have preferred to send in several blood clones to scout the area, but sharks had the abnormal ability to smell blood from quite the distance. She would need to go in by herself.
Several cries came from the outside while she searched and even a water spear broke down part of the castle¡¯s walls, revealing Suna¡¯s fight with the shark fishman. The storm spirit kept shooting lightning bolts at the shark, but he masterfully deflected them with his sword techniques, bending the water to his will and controlling its flow.
If they were being honest, he had the advantage here, given that the technique ¨C Sea Wolf Technique ¨C he was using was said to be the ultimate tool forbat in the seas. Said to be developed by the one of the first 3 fishmen created by the Sea Goddess, Nari. A technique that focused entirely on adaptability and increasing offensive power with little to no care for defense. He was manipting the lightning bolts she kept throwing at him with whirlpools and reflecting the attacks her way, while sending powerful waves that pushed her back.
Suna wasn¡¯t a pushover though, managing to either avoid, block or neutralize the attacksing her way. Amongst both of them, she was the only one whose attacks werending, however it was clear as day that she was struggling in the fight. She wouldn¡¯t be able to keep fighting him for much longer. Easiest method would be for her to attempt direct attacks on his soul, but doing that risked her being transformed into a devil.
Yokino sighed at the limits of spirits. Supposedly one of the strongest races in existence, but limited severely by the very thing that powered them.
¡®Just be a devil and be done with it. Not that difficult, is it?¡¯
She scoffed then continued with her search. After some hours of screams, she finally managed to find a room guarded by two fishmen. Both were eels, and for some reason, Yokino found it amusing. Quickly, she managed to sneak up between both of them and slice of their heads with her skill [sh]. She kicked down the door and entered the room.
Sitting in the center was an incrediblyrge fishman. She possessed the upper body of a human unlike the other fishmen Yokino had seen all day. Her tail was a beautiful blend of gold, blue, pink and green, with films of cloth wrapped around it. Her sea blue hair swayed lifelessly as she cocked her head, boredom evident in her eyes the moment she saw Yokino.
¡®Ugh, not a fan of the hot ones. Ah well.¡¯
Yokino immediately thought to herself, upon noticing that the princess was quite blessed in the face department.
¡°Hello, my name is Yokino. Suna sent me here to find you.¡±
She said, trying her best not to mess up the Anteannguage. The princess¡¯s gaze changed from fear to relief the moment she heard Suna¡¯s name being mentioned.
¡°Susu? Where is she?¡±
The princess asked, her voice sounding like the strings of a harp being strummed by a master.
¡®Ugh. Her voice is beautiful too! No!¡¯
¡°She is fighting outside now. I need to get you to a safe spot.¡±
Yokino got in close to her then started a spell. The water in front of her kept spinning about with power, till a portal was formed. This portal would lead to apletely random location that was very far from where they were at the moment.
¡°Where does this lead to?¡±
¡°Antis.¡±
She lied without any emotion. The princess on the other hand was not convinced. While preparing the teleport gate, Yokino could feel movement in the water. Easily, she moved out of the way where the princess¡¯s arm almost smacked her.
¡°What are you doing, your highness?¡±
Yokino asked, trying to keep her anger out of her tone.
¡°Are you certain you are with Susu?¡±
¡°Huh? Of course. If I wasn¡¯t, why would I be here?¡±
Angry at the seemingly stupid question, Yokino responded as such.
¡°Ke.¡±
The princess¡¯s entire attitude changed. Looking into her eyes, Yokino could see nothing but pure hostility and danger. A cold sweat formed on her neck even though she was under water.
¡®T-That¡¯s not princess-like.¡¯
The princess stretched her hands to grab Yokino again, but this time the wall of the tower came crushing down, with Suna being smacked into Yokino. The princess looked shocked for a moment, but upon recognising Suna, she perked up.
¡°Susu!¡±
¡°Princess! Get into the portal! Now!¡±
Suna ordered, clearly not in the mood for pleasantries. The princess nodded her head and swam right through it.
¡°Tch. To think you managed to get the kraken here as a distraction. Antean scum are as desperate as ever, daring to even bring that ¡°thing¡¯s¡± wrath upon us all.¡±
He scoffed, as if the entire situation was very amusing. With a single wave of his de, the whole building started to copse.
¡°Since the princess is already gone, I won¡¯t waste my time with you lot. She¡¯s not worth the trouble anymore.¡±
He then sheathed his de and left. Yokino gave Suna a hand.
¡°What¡¯s his deal?¡±
¡°It¡¯s something he said when we were fighting.¡±
¡°Hmm? What?¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Something about my father¡ I¡¯ll exin more once we¡¯re a bit safe.¡±
Suna exined, swimming right through the portal. Yokino observed her surroundings, shrugged then also entered the portal, closing it up behind her.
_________________
This was wild. It was basically a leveling up buffet! And best of all was the number of souls I was getting to consume. Maybe I was growing voracious, but I even managed to find a named soul, given me a 10% permanent boost in stats. If eating whole souls equaled this, that meant eating lots of humans would make me super strong!
Wait¡ that was a weird thought just now. Oh well, it wasn¡¯t a serious thought or anything.
Anyway, we had beaten so many fishmen and I managed to level up twice, making me currently level 72! I unlocked a new skill as well. [Shadow Gaze].
While we were having our fun with this ¡°distraction¡±, a lone shark fishman approached us. He was the guy from earlier who told everyone toe after us with some sort of promise, however, now that he hade, no one was moving towards us. At first, they were like flies flying towards an electricmp, but now they seemed to be too scared to move.
¡®Your aplices already retrieved the princess, flee now.¡¯
He ordered.
¡®Eh? Yokino did? But, why didn¡¯t they tell me anything?¡¯
¡®Ain¡¯t that obvious? He¡¯s lying!¡¯
¡®Tch, a simple trick like that won¡¯t get me!¡¯
<<He is not lying. The presence that could be felt from the tower has disappeared, likely Suna and Yokino teleporting them away.>>
¡®Eh? In that case, we can leave?¡¯
¡®Rx and think! Do you honestly think he¡¯s going to let us leave unharmed?¡¯
¡®No, no! But he can¡¯t even harm us in the first ce.¡¯
¡®Yes! Meaning, he¡¯s asking us to leave, but he doesn¡¯t want to lose face in front of the others.¡¯
¡®Eh? Trying to keep up a brave face? Let¡¯s break it!¡¯
¡®What? For what reason? We can just leave now.¡¯
¡®No, no. Think about it. If we break him, we can eat them all or at the very least, absorb them into our Familia.¡¯
¡®U-Um, why are you always thinking about that?¡¯
¡®Cause it¡¯s my job to always think about strength.¡¯
Kira responded as such. I felt somewhere that it would be best to just leave them alone, but if we went by logic alone, that meant we could destroy all of these guys. I eventually came to the conclusion that Kira was probably right.
Upon finally deciding, I felt a cold chill run down my spine. When I looked, the fishman was grinning madly. He put his hand on his sword.
¡®I see you¡¯ve made your choice? Very well then! I¡¯m not like the Anteans, but I guess letting you know the one to kill you will be a favour.¡¯
He said something scary all of a sudden. I didn¡¯t know why, but all of a sudden it felt like he could actually beat me, even though his stats weren¡¯t rtively close to the kraken¡¯s.
¡®Name¡¯s Bastien, Scourge of The Deep!¡¯
Unconsciously, I licked my lips when I heard his name. There was something fundamentally wrong with that, but I didn¡¯t care.
¡®Wave at our new friend.¡¯
I ordered the kraken.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
SKILLS
[Tori acquired the skill [Shadow Gaze]]
[The skill [Stealth] evolved into [Super Stealth]]
[The skill level of [Feelers] raised to [Feelers Level 4]]
[The skill level of [Slime Body] raised to [Slime Body Level 7]]
[The skill level of [Soul Guard]] raised to [Soul Guard Level 6]]
[The skill level of [Super Thought Process] raised to [Super Thought Process Level 3]]
[The skill level of [Remorse] raised to [Remorse Level 2]]
[The skill [Low Cold Resistance] evolved into [Mid Cold Resistance Level 3]]
[The skill [Pressure Resistance] evolved into [Pressure Resistance Level 5]]
[The skill [Multiple Minds] raised to [Multiple Minds level 5]]
SKILL FUSIONS
[Auto Regeneration] + [Chimera Quick Regeneration] = [Quick Auto Regeneration]
[Horn Protrusion] + [Goat Horns] + [Illusory Horn] = [Illusory Horns]
[Fire Force] + [Lightning Armor] = [Overload Armor]
FAMILIA
[The servant Tsuna evolved into a Darth Wight]
[Hinotori added [Baby Kraken] into the familia]
[Your familia has grown by a tiny bit]
[Your familia has received 3000 experience points]
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 163 Darker Than Black
Bastien let out a sigh. It had been some hours since the baby kraken had gone off to a decent distance. He sighed, disappointed that what he assumed to be a worthy opponent was nothing more than a barking puppy dog.
He was blind, so he wasn¡¯t really certain how his men were after the fight. He noticed that a decent number of them had died, and the separate gangs were mourning their losses. Still, he didn¡¯t expect Suna to attempt to recover the princess. He couldn¡¯t figure out what her n was.
¡®Did Sundale not inform her?¡¯
He found himself thinking deeply about the issue. But a thunderous boom made him stop thinking.
¡°What happened here? Why does this ce reek of death?¡±
A vicious growl sounded, sending waves in the water. Even with blind eyes, Bastien could see the owner of this voice. That was because she was cker than the ckness that blindness cursed him with. Her tail flicked impatiently, demanding answers.
If Bastien could sweat, he was certain he would fill several buckets.
¡°T-The princess¡¡±
He stuttered. Daxia looked towards the tower. The princess was no longer there. Her burning gaze returned to Bastien.
¡°What happened?¡±
¡°Anteans.¡±
¡°Anteans?! You lost to Anteans?! You?!¡±
In disbelief, her body started to tremble. Bastien was not certain how to respond to this. If he admitted to letting them go, he would be in trouble. And if he admitted to losing to them, he wasn¡¯t sure how she would react. In such a dilemma, the best possible decision to make was to keep quiet.
Daxia was about to swim away, but Bastien spoke out, failing to understand something.
¡°Why?¡±
He muttered out, pausing Daxia in her tracks.
¡°Why are you getting involved in this?¡±
His question entered her ears.
¡°Why?¡±
Daxia repeated his question mockingly. Slowly, she turned her head back and grinned. To Bastien, this was nothing more than a ck mass smirking eerily at him. It gave him chills down his spine. Leaving it at that, Daxia swam away faster than Bastien could keep up. He let out a sigh and looked back at the others.
They had stopped mourning the dead and were looking at Daxia. Some were growling, feeling quite angry by Daxia¡¯sck of care. Bastien noticed this quickly, but showed no emotion. He kept looking at that darker than ck figure swimming away.
A fishman swam up to his side. This fishman was one of the leaders of the various gangs that lost the most members.
¡°Bastien-¡±
He was cut off by Bastien raising his hand to him.
¡°Before you say what you are about to say, do note that I will not hesitate to cut down any of you if you speak ill of her.¡±
He warned, unnerving the gang leader. Frustrated, the leader roared into the ocean and swam back to attend to his grieving members. The others noticed this and backed down, refusing to even attempt with him.
***
Day 46
In the end, I had to run away from them. It wasn¡¯t as much as a fight as it was a thrashing. That Bastien guy was simply too strong. Even with a rank lower than the baby kraken, he managed to beat it up. Apparently, he was using his techniques, skills and area to the best advantage, which would exin why he was so confident originally. Luckily, he didn¡¯t chase us the moment we started to withdraw.
We got the kraken back to its home, but it kept crying a lot because it lost a tentacle. A lot of ck blood was lost, but it¡¯s [Ultra Health Regeneration] came through. It managed to heal up and grow a new tentacle.
¡®Sorry about today.¡¯
I apologised to it just before we left the [Legendary Domain]. After having made the baby kraken my familiar, I considered taking on the quest, but ording to the agent, my chances of survival after making it my familiar dropped to 5%. That was an abnormally massive drop, so I didn¡¯t even venture. I wondered how it performed its calctions and was starting to consider if it was possible for it to go wrong. However, Akira confirmed for me that the agent wasn¡¯t wrong.
¡®NO. WORRY. SEE. YOU.¡¯
It waved at me and I left the [Legendary Domain].
[You have left the [Legendary Domain]]
I activated my teleportation, my target being where Yokino was. The distance was quite massive, so it took away quite a bit of mana, but nothing that would hurt me in the long run. When I got to her side, I was surprised by arge person sitting on a bed rock.
She was undeniably the prettiest person I had seen in both my lives. Even the recent Zana was outdone by her. Her torso was that of a busty bikini model with sea shell bras. The scales on her tail were a mix of gold, blue, pink and green, with films of cloth wrapped around it. Her sea blue hair lied on her shoulder and her disgusted gaze terrified me though. Her irises were silver, but grew dull golden towards the pupil.
¡°Ew, is this what we were waiting for?¡±
Her horrible voice asked me. I immediately developed a certain hatred for her. She looked like the type of girls I hated most. The haughty type.
¡®Ugh, is this the princess we were searching for?¡¯
I asked Yokino. The spider came out and wrapped herself around me.
¡®Yes. Exactly your type.¡¯
She made a weirdment, before leaving me and swimming away.
¡®What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡¯
She ignored mepletely.
¡°You¡¯re back.¡±
Suna swam over to my side. I nodded and for some reason, I could feel Kawaii trying to melt my skin.
¡°Good. We¡¯ll take a break today and we¡¯ll start on our journey to Antis. It¡¯s a five-day trip.¡±
¡®Hmm? A 5-day trip? Then why don¡¯t we head out right now?¡¯
I found it odd given how restless she was about us getting the princess back. Wouldn¡¯t the best option be to start the trip early on especially if the distance was that far?
¡°I¡¯m waiting for confirmation?¡±
¡®Confirmation?¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Yes. That¡¯s not important now.¡±
She told me and swam towards the princess.
¡®Oi, I need to know stuff about this or else I can¡¯t help.¡¯
¡°Don¡¯t think too much about it.¡±
The princess grabbed Suna and brought her up to face level.
¡°Susu, that thing is ugly.¡±
Shemented about me.
¡°Yes, yes, ignore it. It¡¯s just till we get back home.¡±
¡®Come on, Suna. If you won¡¯t tell me anything, I won¡¯t help you out anymore!¡¯
I threatened. Suna red at me from the corner of her eye and sent killing intent towards me.
¡°Your help was not necessary. Don¡¯t forget who is doing you the favour here by allowing you to be here.¡±
She tried to make it seem like retrieving the princess would have gone smoothly even if I didn¡¯t provide them with a distraction. I was starting to get offended, but decided to let it go till I could hear a snicker. Looking back, I found the princess smirking wickedly at me. Her gaze was just like that of the bullies from my previous life. Those at the top of the food chain that never suffered for anything in life and decided to abuse the weaker members.
¡°What are you looking at?¡±
The princess asked me after noticing my gaze. I was about to say something, but I just shrugged and swam away. Her name was Elriek Sox Den Anon Yorul III and she possessed the ss [Orator] with the jobs [Governor] and [Singer]. I was surprised that there was a job called [Singer] in this kind of setting, but I had the agent exin everything to me.
The [Orator] ss was the ss that focused more on maniption of people¡¯s decisions than fighting like any would expect. Under the [Orator] ss were several jobs you¡¯d expect politicians and the likes to possess. The job [Governor] meant she was part of the administrative powers of a society and the job [Singer] implied that her voice could affect the [Status] or mind of whatever heard it. She was basically the embodiment of the kinds of things I hated the most.
¡®Ugh, I¡¯m considering dropping this entire quest now.¡¯
¡®Then let¡¯s do just that.¡¯
Akira agreed with me whole heartedly.
¡®If it weren¡¯t for Minerva, we could have done so easily.¡¯
¡®Hmm¡ do we really need to do this for Minerva? She hasn¡¯t really done much for us.¡¯
¡®What do you mean she hasn¡¯t done much for us?¡¯
¡®Hmm, I mean I just can¡¯t see what benefit meeting her had for us. Sure, we didn¡¯t die that night because of her, but other than that, if you didn¡¯t stupidly fight something stronger than you, we would still be fine.¡¯
¡®Oi, oi. What are you saying?¡¯
¡®I¡¯m saying that there¡¯s no reason to get yourself killed for someone you¡¯ve not know longer than a month.¡¯
¡®Are you stupid? You should know that I can¡¯t just¡¡¯
¡®I don¡¯t have your emotions, sorry. I can only see things through logical analysis. The best thing to do would be to develop our skills and familia so something like this will never ever happen again.¡¯
Akira revealed something shocking. At least I now understood why he couldn¡¯t understand my reasons for doing somethings. No¡ this had to be a lie. Akira had shown emotions before. Why he was lying right now made no sense to me. And asking him that would be pointless as well since he would only deny it.
I was about to call for the new guy, but¡
DING!
[Notice: Sensing Iing Wave of Chaos Energy]
The system perked up.
¡®What?¡¯
<<Alert: Teleport away immediately!>>
The agent warned. Normally I would ask why, but in times like this, it was best to act rather than ask.
¡®Yokino! Suna!¡¯
I called for them, but from the look in their eyes they had already noticed what I was saying. My body trembled unconsciously and Yokino was making a portal behind us. I blinked, but when I did, I saw somethinging towards me in the darkness. I didn¡¯t know how to describe it, but it was cker than the darkness.
When I opened my eyes, there was still that dark spot approaching me quickly. I tried to look at it with [Analyst], but I received a surprising alert.
[The skill [Analyst] has been blocked by the target]
¡®What?¡¯
I was immediately petrified. I couldn¡¯t remember anyone ever sessfully blocking this skillpletely. Even Goliath only hid some of his skills and noticed my scanning, but this waspletely blocked.
[You have been inflicted with the status [Absurd Fear]]
[You will not be able to move till you ovee this fear]
I only heard the message; my eyes couldn¡¯t shift from their sockets.
¡®Maswtewr!¡¯
For the first time since yesterday, Kawaii spoke while yanking my frozen body towards the portal. Still, I only just stared at the approaching figure. As it got closer, I could make out its features.
The creature was a shark. Well, it looked like one, but it was a fishman. Like some sort of ghost, its eyes left a trail of purple as it came towards me. It was cloaked in a transparent ck aura, as its back fin cut through the water at an absurd speed. Its ws were raised for my neck and there was simply something about it that made me feel like giving up entirely.
¡®How useless must you be?¡¯
I felt somethingtch onto my back and pull me in harder than Kawaii did.
<A/N: I feel like I should have given this warning before we started this arc. Well, here it is.
WARNING: This arc is big. Like really big. Well, if you understand that, enjoy yourself. Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 164 Paladin Of Thunder
Keimen Kingdom, Shandel City.
¡°Old man Khan! I brought something in!¡±
A loud voice rang out in the usually quiet Adventurer Guild of Shandel City. The adventurers present all looked at the bloodied woman with scared expressions.
She draggedrge bodies behind her like it barely weighed anything. It was a pile of orcs in armor. They were all dead and tied up.
Khan from the reception desk looked at the woman expressionlessly and sighed.
¡°I hate it whenever youe to town.¡±
He took out a piece of paper from his desk. It was a request to the guild for a monster that was terrorizing one of the viges on the outskirts of the kingdom. No one wanted to take on the quest even though it wasbeled a C rank quest, due to the vige¡¯s close proximity to Larm. They believed the guild was severely underestimating the Quest¡¯s danger level, and it turns out they actually were.
The woman stopped at the receptionist and mmed down on the desk with a grin.
¡°I was passing by when I found a group of orcs piging a vige. I killed them, but I ended up giving all my coins to the vigers to help them pay for the damages they caused. Then I remembered that this city was close by and with this city came my dearest friend, Old Man Khan.¡±
¡°Yes, yes. I could do without the backstory. Here.¡±
Khan dropped a bag of silver on her hands.
¡°So how much is in it?¡±
¡°Fifty silver coins.¡±
¡°Fifty? B-But I gave them 10 gold coins to help them.¡±
Sheined.
¡°It¡¯s a poor vige, dear. What did you expect?¡±
She pouted then closed the bag and walked away.
¡°Give you me your license te.¡±
She took out a small te from her bag. The te was tinum in colour with her name spelt out in it. Fubuki Hanma.
The other adventurer¡¯s eyes widened the moment they saw it.
¡°S-She¡¯s got a tinum te?¡±
Some whispered.
¡°T-There¡¯s no way, right?¡±
Old man Khan looked at the other adventurers from the corner of his eye before returning to Fubuki then sighed. Putting his gloved hand to his head, he said,
¡°You see what you¡¯ve done?¡±
¡°Eh? Me?¡±
Fubuki asked, pointing to herself and looking around to see if he was talking about something.
Old Man Khan did not like it when high ranking adventurers showed up at his door step. That made the lower ranked adventurers get a pair from gods know where and take on jobs that were clearly beyond their capabilities. This equaled more deaths at his doorstep and more families he had to apologise to, if they had any in the city.
Slowly, he took her te and stamped it.
¡°Huh. You need five more A rank quests to perform to rank up, it seems. You¡¯ve been busy.¡±
¡°Eh? Five more? But the year¡¯s up.¡±
¡°What is that supposed to mean?¡±
¡°My guardians gave me only one year to go out on adventures so I wanted to get to Orichalum before the end of the year!¡±
She yelled and everyone in the room turned their attentions to her, but she didn¡¯t even notice them. Khan on the other hand was sweating.
¡°Ms. Tempest, when you came here 3 months ago, you were at the beginning of the tinum rank. What rank were you at the beginning of the year?¡±
He called her Tempest, a title that she hade to be popr known as due to the nature of her attacks.
¡°I started out from copper. That¡¯s the lowest rank, right?¡±
¡°Surely you jest.¡±
¡°No. I started out from copper, then got moved up to Silver in the next month, then gold the next 2 months. Spent the next five months to get to tinum. I realized it¡¯d taken me quite a while so I sped things up as best as I could. It seems I couldn¡¯t be the highest-ranking adventurer in one year after all. Guess geniuses don¡¯t exist in this world, like I thought.¡±
¡°M-Miss Tempest¡?¡±
¡°Yes? Oh, I wreak. I¡¯ll need a bath. Know any fancy inns close by?¡±
¡°Rancher¡¯s Inn. Get to the center of town, some of its¡¯ workers will be standing there looking for customers.¡±
She was about to thank him, but noticed that he was acting strange. He tapped twice on his nose and after two seconds of thinking, Fubuki grasped the situation.
¡°Ok, thank you.¡±
She waved and left the adventurer guild.
All those present in the room heard what she said and they all carried the exact same thoughts.
¡®What a monster.¡¯
Khan looked at the orc bodies Fubuki left in the center of the all. He snapped his fingers and the workers went to clean it up.
***
Fubuki took out one of the coins to buy an apple from one of the stands. The seller nervouslyughed when she saw Fubuki covered in blood.
¡°I-It¡¯s five coins actually.¡±
¡°Five silver? For an apple? That¡¯s outrageous!¡±
¡°S-Sorry, I assumed you were bringing copper coins.¡±
The woman¡¯s hands were raised and she was shivering.
¡°Huh? Five coins? It¡¯s still too much isn¡¯t it? In thest town, an apple was at most two coppers.¡±
The woman sighed after hearing this. She put her hand to her head as if she were getting a migraine.
¡°Sorry about that, but the new lord demanded more tax so the market¡¯s inted.¡±
¡°Hmm? New lord?¡±
She asked curiously. It had been months since she arrived and the lord she remembered was the useless duke with no care for the people. All he did was take little tax and avoid interacting with the people in almost any form.
¡°Y-Yes. He usurped the old Duke and took his throne, with the promise of helping us. He grouped us up and we charged on the Duke¡¯s mansion and cut off his head. But¡¡±
The woman¡¯s hands trembled with rage.
¡°?¡±
¡°When we did¡ he took over like a tyrant. He had a private army waiting at the city¡¯s outskirts. They waited for us to take over the duke and swoop in to rule us. Ever since, there¡¯s been a curfew for children and non-workers. He set up an absurd tax and severed the city¡¯s Adventurer¡¯s Guild connections with the Mercenary Guild. He set up some rules iming that if we followed them, we would see a turn around in our state within a year. What a load of crap from him!¡±
She shut her mouth the moment she realized she spoke too much. Contrary to what she believed would happen, she heard the sound of a coin twisting on her counter. When she looked, the bloody woman was walking away with five apples in hand. Down on the counter, the silver coin flipped to a stop and the light from the streetmps bounced off it.
The center of the town had a dead tree surrounded by brown grass. Surrounding it, a fence had been built with several white gs hanged up around it. At the bottom, gargoyle statues had been ced with a note written on it. Fubuki paid no attention to it and looked around to see if she could find anyone advertising an inn.<novelnext></novelnext>
All she could identify were kids ying about on the dirty streets and a few men in uniforms passed by her. When the men came, the children started to run away, as did the beggars and drunkards. Fubuki took out another apple and simply ignored the men¡¯s presence, searching for the workers around.
One of the men stopped in front of her.
¡°Good evening, Madam.¡±
The man politely greeted her.
¡°Yo! Evening.¡±
She responded energetically.
¡°Are you a worker?¡±
¡°Worker?¡±
Curious, she inquired further. The man grabbed his chin and sighed.
¡°You look new to town.¡±
¡°Hmm, I was actually here three months ago. I found the new developments odd.¡±
¡°Is that so? In that case, please find an inn quickly. Tourists aren¡¯t allowed to leave indoors past twilight.¡±
He informed her and cleared his throat.
¡°But¡ I¡¯m not a tourist. I¡¯m an adventurer, you see.¡±
She took out her te and handed it over to him. The man looked at it before returning it to her.
¡°I see, but you are still not originally of this city, so you will have to stay indoors till sunrise.¡±
¡°That so? Hmm, in that case got any rmendations? I¡¯m kind of lost at the moment.¡±
The man started to think about her question, quickly scrolling through his memory of ces. He let out a sigh.
¡°All the cheap ces are honestly below subpar. Only good ce I know of is in the noble district. And it¡¯s kind of expensive.¡±
¡°Really? How much?¡±
¡°Currently 1 gold.¡±
The man mentioned an outrageous price and Fubuki pouted, on the verge of tears. She remembered how she carelessly gave away her bag of coins and almost fell to the ground. The man noticed this and sighed.
¡°Anyway, better find a ce before the Night Watch shows up. Those guys are ruthless, even for us.¡±
He said and walked away back to the group that had been patiently waiting for him. When he got there, they muttered amongst themselves for a while before one of them hit him on the back of his head.
¡°You didn¡¯t even get her name?!¡±
One of the soldiers cried out.
Fubuki sighed and started walking away. Maybe she could go camping in the forest for the night. If it was the edge, there probably wasn¡¯t anything that would disturb her while she slept.
¡°Hey, hey, ma¡¯am. Wanna stay a night at our inn?¡±
A little girl walked up to Fubuki. The girl wore as little clothing as possible, only covering her chest and private parts. She had bat-like wings sticking out of her back with two silver horns on her head. Her hair was light purple in colour and her pitch-ck eyes shone with false excitement at the woman.
¡°Aww, aren¡¯t you cute?¡±
Fubuki patted the girl on the head. She was probably between the ages of 8 and 10. Her clothing was too inappropriate, but Fubuki paid no attention to such minor details.
¡°Your inn? What¡¯s it called?¡±
¡°R-Rancher¡¯s¡ Inn!¡±
She stuttered out, trembling uncontrobly. Fubuki smiled at the girl and put her hand on the girl¡¯s shoulder.
¡°Are you going to take me to it?¡±
She tightened her grip on the girl¡¯s shoulder. The girl winced in pain.
¡°U-Um, your girp¡¯s kinda strong there.¡±
She pointed out.
¡°Is that so? I didn¡¯t realise. Let me fix that.¡±
Fubuki applied more force.
¡°Ow!¡±
She yelped, trying to get the attention of the men behind Fubuki.
¡°Scream, and I will exorcise you right here and now.¡±
After receiving that threat, the little girl shut up. The men noticed that Fubuki was still crouching next to girl and approached.
¡°Is everything all right here?¡±
Fubuki stood up.
¡°Yep. It¡¯s all good here. This girl was just about to take me to her inn.
¡°Is that so? Hurry up then.¡±
¡°Sorry about that.¡±
She grabbed the girl and started walking away.
¡°Oh-um¡ wait.¡±
One of the men called out to her. When she looked back, it was the man from before.
¡°C-Can I get your name?¡±
¡°My name? What would you want that for?¡±
¡°Oh¡ um, just so I can tell the Night Watch to not harass you if they see you.¡±
¡°I guess that would be helpful then. I¡¯m called Tempest. Alright, I¡¯ll be heading off then.¡±
With that, she ran off. Tears were slowly forming in the girl¡¯s eyes as she was zoomed down the streets.
¡°W-What do you mean by you¡¯ll exorcise me?!¡±
She roared.
¡°Don¡¯t y dumb, devil. I¡¯ve been hunting you guys for over a year now and I¡¯ve heard word that there¡¯s a clue about your ring leader in Keimen kingdom.¡±
¡°W-Wait. You¡¯re the one who took out the Big sisters?¡±
¡°If that¡¯s what you call them. Now, tell me about this Tyvnn subus.¡±
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 165 Fundamentals Of Magic
¡®What was that?¡¯
I asked Suna after I managed to calm down. Suna grit her teeth then spoke.
¡°Daxia.¡±
¡®Who?¡¯
¡°The Queen of The Bloody Seas, Daxia. Ruler of SharkFang Kingdom, one of the 3 nations of The Mass Blue.¡±
¡®3 nations?¡¯
Suna shrugged.
¡°Yes, three nations. Antis, SharkFang and Exsuole, although thest insists it¡¯s an Empire.¡±
¡®So¡ why did Daxiae after us?¡¯
Guppies swam up to the princess and she yed with them quietly.
¡°Because we retrieved the princess, obviously.¡±
¡®But¡ I thought you said she was away.¡¯
¡°She was. It should have taken her at least a full day to catch up to get to the tower from the Bloody Sea. At least 3 days to get to where we were. Daxia, does not follow the rules of logic.¡±
¡®Isn¡¯t it because she¡¯s too strong?¡¯
¡°You could say that.¡±
¡°So, when are we going back?¡±
Yokino asked from nowhere.
¡°Tomorrow. Daxia would have grown bored by then.¡±
In the end, they decided we would return the next day. I decided it would be best for me to focus on other things. I left the area and returned to the mansion.
When I got there, I discovered that some of the monsters were slowly returning, although majority preferred to remain in the dungeons.
I met Grimm and he described the events to me as best as he could. Apparently, the thing that came was stronger than anything he had seen in his travels. He imed to have seen a lot of stuff.
Unlike the others, he didn¡¯t try to hide, rather he watched the fight from a safe distance, although I couldn¡¯t tell what exactly a safe distance was in a fight between 2 tyrants and something stronger than them.
After reporting to me, I asked him of a favour since he was really good at watching things without being noticed. He was reluctant at first, but eventually agreed to my request and left. In the mansion, I ran across the boy from earlier. Erwin Dolus and he was cleaning up the ce with some kobolds.
I said my hellos to them and passed by. The ce was kind of a mess and how they were going to patch it up would be a miracle.
I decided to check out the library, and there I found Kara. She was busily reading through books, but I decided to talk to her to pass the time. She kept fumbling with her words, probably not over the events of that night, but I wasn¡¯t here for that.
I was just looking for simple sce and that came in the form of Ulva bursting through the door. She jumped on my back and bit into my neck greedily. I knocked her and lectured her on the importance of asking my permission before feeding.
She gave me the cutest puppy eyes and pout that I had ever seen, making me forgive her almost instantaneously. Afterwards, she told me about how she and Sylvie had started to get along a lot. Apparently, she could be of help to Sylvie in some way since she was a fan of alchemy. Maybe due to influence from her parents? But then, I wasn¡¯t sure.
Ulva always said she¡¯d lived a simple life before being sold, so her having an interest in alchemy was intriguing to me. Maybe because she was a kid trying different things at the time.
ording to her, Sylvie had made some potions out of herbs called Takite Mushrooms. This potion was one that helped in boosting mana capacity. They wanted me to test it out and that was one of the reasons Ulva came here.
Kara was a bit sceptic about it, telling me not to consume it without further investigation. When I used [Analyst], I discovered that the potion had some serious side effects. Not only was there a 10% chance of sess, but if you weren¡¯t careful, you could get struck with Mana Overload.<novelnext></novelnext>
Mana Overload was a disease in which your mana circuits would start absorbing mana from the atmosphere at a rate the circuits weren¡¯t built for. You wouldn¡¯t even have the necessary containment units to store it and eventually, your mana would run free and you would die of mana exhaustion.
I told Ulva to refine it a bit more before presenting me with it again. If I saw Sylvie, I would have to punch her. She almost killed me for the second time in a row!
Karaughed gently, and I was starting to feel a bit at ease. I then brought in the topic of Aeri leaving. The ogre princess told me the disappointing news about Aeri¡¯s new personal mission. Iforted her with the promise of Aeri eventuallying back to us.
It would seem that Kara had grown attached to her quite a bit. I could sort of understand it, given that Kara said she had no real friends back in the East. After, I tried reading some of the books. I ended up learning of several spells and felt that the people of this world were really stupid.
ording to the text book ¡°Fundamentals of Magic Vol.1¡±, there were 2 types of magic.
1. Chant Magic
2. Runic Magic
Chant magic was one where you said a chant of power to fuel yourself up and cast a spell. These were used by 90% of the world¡¯s poption, due tock of proper imagination. In all honesty, it wasn¡¯t like the chant themselves had any power, it was simply a trigger that allowed them to remember how the spell was supposed to look.
¡°Great art thou, the Sun God, Sol. Provide me with thine gentlest me. Fire Ball.¡±
I muttered out, but what came out was a water ball. That was because I was thinking of a water ball, while reciting the chant for a fire ball.
Kara was confused about what I¡¯d just done. I exined it to her and she shrugged. She told me that she was not able to memorise the chants, so she went with the runic magic option. She said out of the two, Runic magic was the strongest, although not the most popr. This was due to the fact that Runic magic required months of constant practice and drawing to even be able to make your first spell.
It was actually an unnecessarilyplex form of magic use. One was required to draw symbols of power. These symbols once charged with mana would act like mana circuits, and end up creating your desired spell. Runic magic was the equivalent of what I knew to be magic circles. However, this time it took countless hours of studying learning the very stroke of the first rune. One wrong stroke and it could cause an implosion. The only benefit to this was that it boasted of twice the amount of power Chant Magic did. Disadvantages was its slow cast time, but if you reached at least Kara¡¯s level, summoning a rune out of thing air would make up for the difference in cast time. In the long run, it was beneficial to learn Runic Magic over Chant Magic. I now understood her reason for doing so.
So now, my question was why she was using any of these forms of magic. From what I had seen of Tsuna and Yuuna, those two used neither of these two types of magic. It was pure instinct for them and so they easily cast the spells, while wasting no time.
Once this question came up, the agent exined in a cool way. Way to go, Agent!
So, monsters who were born with mana were born to wield it. Monsters that weren¡¯t born with mana wouldn¡¯t be able to wield it. The interesting about monsters was that, once they received names, they got mana as well. Long story short, Kara had to learn Runic magic due to the fact that right from birth, she was not someone who was supposed to use magic. She however persevered to this point for reasons beyond me. Tsuna and Yuuna on the other hand were born with mana, although their ability to use it came upter. By pure virtue of this, using mana was an instinct ingrained into their minds from before they were born.
Then there was me. I already knew that I was supposed to get mana from birth, the only condition was that it would take some time for my mana circuits to be built. Me getting named didn¡¯t even affect that fact, proof that either way, using spells without magic was something I would always be able to use. What I didn¡¯t understand now was humans.
How did theye to the conclusion of using chants and runes? Why would they suddenly have a need for any of those? Did that mean, inherently, humans were never supposed to wield mana? If that was the case, how and why were they able to do anything they could do.
The more I thought about certain things, the more everything got confusing. I decided to not waste my brain power then. I was inclined to ask the agent, but something stopped me from asking.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Tori received 3 ramen cups frompleting the Daily Quests]
[The skill level of [Super Stealth] rose to [Super Stealth Level 2]]
[The skill level of [Aquatic Form] rose to [Aquatic Form Level 3]]
[The skill [Telepathy] has be [Thought Projection]]
[The skill level of [Fusion] rose to [Fusion Level 4]]
[The skill level of [Synthesis] rose to [Synthesis Level 2]]
FUSION
[Chimera¡¯s Enhanced Durability] + [Chimera¡¯s Enhanced Stealth] + [Chimera¡¯s Flexibility] + [Basilisk¡¯s Enhanced Flexibility] + [Chimera¡¯s Enhanced Lung Capacity] = [Chimera Body]
[Fluid Armor] + [Anguix Bug Armor] = [Venomous Exoskeleton]
<A/N: Extra chapter fromst week''s Power stone challenge. Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 166 Making A Deal
Day 47
As early as possible, Suna made us head out. He suggested we go to a different location just to be careful. Yokino opened up a portal and we all swam through it, but there was something off that happened this time.
<<Alert. External magic interference detected.>>
¡®What?¡¯
The agent was alerting me to a bizarre incident that was happening to the portal.
<<Coordinates for the portal are being altered by an external force.>>
Someone was hijacking our portal¡¯s destination.
¡®Is there something we can do about it?¡¯
<<Negative>>
¡®So, we just get teleported wherever their taking us?¡¯
Just as I asked this question, I was spat out into the ocean once again.
DING
[You have entered a ce with high pressure]
[All your stats will be lowered by 5%]
[Some of your attacks will not carry the same level of power as they do normally.]
[The skill [Pressure Resistance] has gone up 1 level]
I took in a big gulp of water and prepped myself for enemies. However, I couldn¡¯t sense any nearby. Rather, what I sensed was the princess next to me. Suna and Yokino were not anywhere around. They had been teleported to apletely different location, leaving me alone with the princess.
¡°Where¡¯s Susu?¡±
She asked me as if I was supposed to know. I shrugged, trying to blow off her question. Well, I could tell Yokino¡¯s location through the Familia function, so on a technicality I could figure out where Suna was if they were together. However, I couldn¡¯t be certain Suna and Yokino were together.
DING!
[You have 1 pending message from Yokino]
I read the message immediately.
[Yokino: Oi! Looks like someone hijacked my portal. Probably one of the Court mages. Shitty bastards. Anyway, Suna and I got teleported right in front of Antis¡¯ gates. Looks like it falls on you to bring her over. Good luck!]
I received a stupid message.
[Me: No! No! No! How do you expect me to do anything?! This is my first time here for crying out loud! Yokino,e and help me!]
[Yokino: Um, trust me. If I could, I would. Just hurry it up or we¡¯ll both be executed. Just teleport to me. You can do that, right? Using me to lock in a specific destination.]
She proposed a good n. If I simply used her spot on the map to designate a specific location for teleportation, I should have been able to do it. And given the agent''s help, that should have been a breeze. Just as I was about to do that, the princess grabbed me and brought me to her face level.
¡°Where is Susu?! Don¡¯t ignore me!¡±
Shemanded. I groaned, feeling annoyed by her voice.
¡®She¡¯s back in your home.¡¯
¡°Huh? So why are we here? You¡¯re working for my brother¡¯s faction, aren¡¯t you? You tricked my poor Susu, didn¡¯t you?¡±
I easily broke free of her grasp and sighed.
¡®Listen here. I have no idea what you guys are always talking about and frankly, I¡¯ve reached this point where I don¡¯t care. Just don¡¯t bother me with your self-important crap.¡¯
I said my piece, hopefully, she would shut up so I could make my portal. However, she pouted and red at me. I originally thought I couldn¡¯t be bothered by such a face till she started wailing. All the creatures that were swimming about us paused in their tracks for a moment, before they started attacking one another like savages. In fact, after I heard her cry, I felt like simply going on a rage and destroying anything in my way, but thanks to [Evolver] I was immune to changes in my emotional state.
[Cry of Discord].
It was an especially rare skill amongst [Orators] that allowed for them to create chaos with their mere voice. It invoked the status [Wrath], which was an extremely potent status effect. [Wrath] made its victim go on a rampage in which they wouldn¡¯t stop, even if their opponent is dead. Basically, it made someone use up everything they had till they died from exhaustion or an external force killed them.
I put my wings¡ fins? I put them over her mouth and begged her to shut up.
¡®Mawstewr¡ she is annoying. Should I kill her?¡¯
On my back, the uncharacteristically quiet Kawaii proposed a tempting suggestion. I contemted the option for some time, having a full-on discussion with my multiple minds and the agent.
¡®Hmm, no. Killing her would cause even more problems.¡¯
We ended up rejecting her offer and she lied down on my back again.
¡®You! Don¡¯t act like some sort of entitled brat! We will die if that thing finds us because of you.¡¯
I reminded her of Daxia, even giving myself goosebumps. The mere thought of what she was terrified me and that energy she possessed. Chaos energy. ording to the agent, that was a form of energy that hadn¡¯t been developed in quite some time. Rather than calling it an energy, it was more like a manifestation of one¡¯s very will that was not very easily controlled. It was basically having an overinted ego that could quite literally swallow you up and leave you as some mindless beast causing lots of carnage at least that was how I understood it.
The princess smacked me away from her face and wiped her mouth.
¡°Tsk. Only beautiful things are allowed to touch me, you filthy creature.¡±
¡®Are you sure we shouldn¡¯t let Kawaii kill her?¡¯
¡®Unfortunately, that would only be detrimental to us in the long run.¡¯
¡®Y-Yes. What if Suna turns on us and brings Antis¡¯ forces against us for killing their princess?¡¯
They restrained me yet again.
¡®Ugh, whatever. You know what, princess? Go to Antis yourself. I¡¯m not protecting you.¡¯
After having had enough of her unnecessarily rude behaviour, I swam towards Antis. Hopefully there would be better mermaids there! Nicer ones who don¡¯t care about a poor bird¡¯s face. It was hard being an ugly bird. It got a princess to instinctively hate you.
¡®Maybe that¡¯s why Shiro abandoned me?¡¯
¡®Ugh, don¡¯t bring that one up!¡¯
¡®Hmm, maybe. She did look like a princess.¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t support her stupid thoughts.¡¯
¡®S-Sorry.¡¯
¡®Oi! Did you just call me ¡°her¡±?¡¯
¡®Shhh. Keep swimming. I¡¯m busy fusing skills. Akkun, go make more new magic spells. Now, Tori, do whatever it is you¡¯re doing.¡¯
¡®Oi! Don¡¯t give me orders.¡¯
I heaved a heavy sigh. The recent days were only getting worse by the second. Goliath¡¯s death, Minerva¡¯s disappearance, my embarrassing disy in the dungeon and now this stupid mission. And it had only been a month! At this rate, how was I going to get through a year?<novelnext></novelnext>
Channelling a bit of mana into my hands, I tried to open a portal to where Yokino was.
DING!
[Massive Waves of Chaos Energy are preventing any magic use]
I received an absolutely terrifying alert.
¡®Huh? What do you mean massive waves of chaos energy?¡¯
<<There arerge traces of chaos energy present. It would appear that something either intentionally created this space to prevent the use of magic or identally left residues of chaos energy>>
¡®Huh? Huh? That¡¯s bad news, isn¡¯t it?!¡¯
<<Affirmative>>
¡®B-But wait, doesn¡¯t that mean Daxia is probably around?¡¯
<<Due to interference from massive amount of Chaos energy, all perception abilities have been rendered inefficient>>
¡®Huh? What the heck?¡¯
¡°Oi. You thing¡¡±
The princess called for me offensively. My eyes met hers threateningly, but she didn¡¯t even twitch.
¡°I apologise for my rude behaviour. Can you please take me back home?¡±
A few more minutes of simply staring at each other¡¯s faces and the princess cracked.
¡°Ugh, fine. Let¡¯s make a deal. If you get me back to Antis, safely, I will grant you any wish 1 time.¡±
[Side Quest: Royal Escort]
[Status: -
[Type: Time Limit [9 days remaining]
[Description: The princess, Elriek Sox Den Anon Yorul III, is asking for your services. Ensure that she arrives home safely before the Ceremonial Feast!
[Possible Rewards: 1 Royal Wish
¡®Huh? A quest showed up? Ceremonial Feast?¡¯
I was shocked by the emergence of the panel after she made her request to me. Did that mean she could forcefully use the system? But that wouldn¡¯t make sense any way I saw it. From what I had seen, I was the only person who even knew about the system¡¯s existence; that is if you ignore Alpha. But wait¡ wasn¡¯t it foolish to think that I was the only one with a system? Alpha did say she wasn¡¯t the only one bringing in souls. And the way she talked about system, like it was just her project for fun or something.
Either way, the system had basically confirmed it for me that if I sent her back, I really would get my wish granted. This meant I would be able to find Minerva by simply sending the brat to where Yokino was.
¡®No, no. Think about it better.¡¯
¡®Huh? What do you mean?¡¯
¡®Remember what Yokino said? The Court mages did this to us, which means they want the princess dead. She has literally no power.¡¯
¡®Eh? But the system just said it¡¯s a reward. Or do you mean the system is incorrect?¡¯
¡®N-No. T-The system should be right.¡¯
¡®What do you mean Akkun?¡¯
¡®W-Well, it says ¡°possible rewards¡± but from what I remember, you don¡¯t get some rewards because you choose not to get them.¡¯
¡®Ah?!¡¯
¡®U-Um¡ when we rescued Ulva. We were supposed to get 1 vampiric servant.¡¯
¡®Yeah. We got Grimm ck.¡¯
¡®N-No. Technically, he is just a vampire in our ranks, not a servant.¡¯
¡®Oh¡ I totally see what you¡¯re talking about.¡¯
¡®Hmm, maybe we should add him to our familia when we get back.¡¯
¡®Y-Yeah. That might be best.¡¯
¡®So, you¡¯re saying that we might not get that wish because we didn¡¯t understand the situation better?¡¯
¡®Y-Yeah. But she said something about her brother¡¯s faction, meaning he is the one with the power.¡¯
¡®I see where you¡¯re going with this. I¡¯d just need to deliver her to her brother, right?¡¯
¡®Wait¡ why not just kill her now?¡¯
¡®Wouldn¡¯t that cause a lot of problems?¡¯
¡®Y-Yeah. First, we aren¡¯t sure if her brother wants her dead. Maybe the court mages messed up the spell and instead of sending the princess to Antis, they brought her here. Also, Suna would get very angry. And, the quest said that she needs to be delivered safely.¡¯
¡®Um, fair enough. So, we¡¯ll just lie to her about this deal to get her brother to give us the deal instead.¡¯
¡®Uwa! W-We sound like thugs! I don¡¯t like this, guys!¡¯
¡®Ah! Don¡¯t back down now after giving us the n.¡¯
¡®Hmm, I think we should still contemte on the n for now. We aren¡¯t certain about the circumstances in Antis for now. Maybe making the deal with her would be the best for now, don¡¯t you think? It would end up allowing for her to trust us a bit and spill a bit of information.¡¯
¡®Ok. We will draft the n till we have more information.¡¯
We came to a decision in less than 5 seconds. [Multiple Minds] in tandem with [Super Thought Process] was fantastic! Although I found it weird how my alter egos could think in such ways. Maybe boredom was making them smarter? Maybe because I was distracted by lots of things I couldn¡¯t think?
Yes!
I was smart, just that I was bothered by too many things. I just received the necessary boost in self-confidence. Thank you alter egos!
¡®Ok, princess. I¡¯ll ept your deal on one condition.¡¯
¡°Go on¡¡±
¡®I¡¯ll need you to tell me more about the current situation.¡¯
She put her hand to her chin and contemted it. Strangely enough, I got the feeling that she wasn¡¯t really thinking about it. My [Superior Survival Instincts] had been bothering me ever since I met the girl. I simply couldn¡¯t trust her, even with this deal.
We eventually agreed on it, and my side quest began.
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 167 A Trip With A Princess
Given the fact that we were in an area my magic wasn¡¯t going to work in, we had to swim all the way. The princess was naturally faster than I was, but I managed to keep up with her since she couldn¡¯t go too far from my view. We managed to make some progress, whilst also getting information from the princess. This meant I finally got a gist of the state of affairs in Antis.
Her father, the King of Antis, announced that he would be stepping down as King to allow one of his children to take charge. Naturally the right to seed would be passed down to the first born, however she was more popr than her brother, so the people wanted her to be princess. Basically, those in support of her brother were trying to get rid of her.
Her supporters arranged for her to escape, but during her escape, she was kidnapped by the bandits from SharkFang. She assumed it was her brother having nned for her escape, but fortunately, Suna got us to rescue her before anything bad could happen to her. Why we were headed to Antis even after her brother was trying to get her killed confused me till she exined that her parents had gone on a trip and were now returning.
The real reason she left temporarily was that she wouldn¡¯t have her parent¡¯s protection. There was going to be an important feast once her parents returned and she needed to be present for that one feast. What exactly for, I didn¡¯t know, but she was adamant on not telling me. I couldn¡¯t reallyin since she had given me a lot of information already.
She told me that she would just tell her parents to grant my wish for me, which meant there was no need for me to betray her. Then I did a bit of thinking with the information and we came to a conclusion. I would still betray her. My guts simply didn¡¯t sit right around her and since her father basically gave up the throne, it would be better to get the prince on my side, especially since the court mages were on his side. Also, wasn¡¯t it only better to have the obvious future ruler on my side?
The princess had the majority for now, but the prince¡¯s faction was more influential. Now, all I needed to do was to confirm thepetence of the prince. Although my faith in him wavered since he didn¡¯t execute the princess immediately after her capture.
When we got hungry, I was forced to go hunting so I found some weird fish. They were called gartarangs. They were strangely t fish that lied on the sea bed, but were as tough as steel. I managed to slice through it with a bit of a struggle. Since neither I nor the princess knew how to cook it, we were forced to eat it raw. Well, I normally ate raw food so I didn¡¯t feel any different. The princess on the other hand was hesitant about it, but eventually gave in due to hunger.
The gatarang tasted like what I would expect a piece of metal to taste like. At least I got some useful skills out of it: [Steel Scales], [Bubble Space] and [Multi-Eye]. [Steel Scales] was so basic it didn¡¯t really require any description, but for those who didn¡¯t know, it simply gave me¡ well¡ steel scales. Next was [Bubble Space] which was essentially useless on the surface. It created arge oxygen bubble to suffocate its target for a mealter on. [Multi-Eye] was a tricky skill that allowed its user to have¡ multiple eyes? It gave the user a spare eye in case they ever lost one.
At first, I assumed that was a very weird skill to have till I found out that the gatarangs usually get attacked by lumors. They were some fishes whose self-defence mechanism was to shine brightly, blinding their opponents. So, the gatarangs gave up a pair of eyes for new ones just to capture the lumors for a meal. It was their favourite treat, so now I was interested in finding lumors to eat as well.
After that, we continued for a while. I hadn¡¯t noticed it waste till the princess told me. Guess not having the stamina stat draw me back anymore was one of the best things that happened to me. We decided to just sleep on the sea floor, behind some rocks. Hopefully Daxia wouldn¡¯t find us tonight, but just to be safe I went to search around a bit more after leaving Kawaii behind to protect the princess.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[The skill [Good Mana Control] became [Good Mana Control Level 9]]
[The skill [Slime Body] became [Slime Body Level 8]]
[The skill [Soul Guard] became [Soul Armour Level 1]]
[The skill [Mid-Cold Resistance] became [High Cold Resistance Level 1]]
FUSION
[No Fusions were performed today]
FAMILIA
[Two goblins evolved into Hob-goblins]
[90 Rat men evolved into Tunnelers]
[100 Giant spiders evolved into ck Spiders]
[90 Giant Centipedes evolved into Centichurs]
[Your familia received 50 familia points]
STORE
[The weapons store has been restocked. There are new items on disy]
Day 48
The moment the princess woke up, she was served with an all you can eat buffet of giant crabs. Their name made me wonder if there were normal crabs around, same for giant centipedes. They attacked the princess while she was sleeping, but I dealt with them swiftly. Their defences were a bit hard to crack, but with the right amount of speed and power, I was easily able to break them before they could touch the princess. A few more days to go till we reached.
Just how big was Daxia¡¯s chaos energy¡¯s reach? I¡¯d been traveling for more than 20 hours straight and I still couldn¡¯t use magic, although Akira and Akkun were working on it. My only job was to drive the body. I really was their friggin¡¯ mecha.
Today was mostly uneventful, with me only getting more gatarangs and finding weird nts with varying effects. For example, there was a poisonous nt here called the Barbed Rossiete. It looked like a really big cactus with red roses growing on it. There were some poisonous fishes living on it, but they didn¡¯t attack us and since the princess was with me, I decided it would be best to not do anything reckless. We just carried on naturally.
I tried talking with the princess. She was reluctant at first, but eventually broke. Well, I managed to get her to break, but when she did, I didn¡¯t know what to talk to her about. I was suddenly feeling shy around her. What the hell was up with that?
The princess got annoyed with me and decided to bring up the topics for conversation instead. Maybe it was because of her ss [Orator], but I ended up talking to her quite a bit. She asked me about how my life on the surface was. I told her about the past events on top, but made sure to leave thest bit about Minerva out. I was trying to create the impression that I was strong.
What she ended up hearing was that I was a terrible leader. I tried telling her that I wasn¡¯t any leader, but she lectured me on being a leader. She offered to personally show me how to rule. I had nothing better to do so I listened to her. I learnt several interesting things. For example, it was always best to maintain a fa?ade of ultimate power in front of your subordinates or anyone for that matter. That was probably the reason she used her [Cry of Discord] on me earlier, although that was a very dumb move on her part.
In fact, most of thews she was teaching me were very retarded. Maintaining the lie of possessing ultimate power would only make people follow you either because they were scared of you or they revered you. Either way could go badly because once they found out you weren¡¯t the almighty being you imed to be, their behaviour towards you would make a drastic change. Still, being a benevolent leader with no power was also simply idealistic in my eyes.
That was when I realised that she was trolling me. I gave up after noticing that detail and decided to just ignore her for the rest of the day.<novelnext></novelnext>
I found some giant crabs again. We had a good meal and I finally levelled up again. Maybe I could evolve before I went back. Well, I doubted that given the fact that I had no ns of spending more than a week on this.
Kawaii was also starting to get restless after being silent for quite a while. She told me that she¡¯d be going off somewhere to train a bit. I shrugged, telling her not to go too far. The princess and I settled down somewhere for her to take a breather. She said she was feeling cold, but given the fact that she had [High Cold Resistance], I took it as her just being annoying. Again, I ignored her and just went about my business.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
FUSION
[No Fusions were performed today]
FAMILIA
[General Arisu used [Absolute Command] on familia servants]
Day 49
When Kawaii came back she was in the B- rank. I was surprised, confused and speechless all in one. Straight from C- to B-. She wasn¡¯t a normal slime in the slightest! She had evolved! Over the course of a night! Wasn¡¯t she only F rank a few days ago? Barely twenty days now! She was going to get stronger than me quickly! I couldn¡¯t stand for this. I needed to power level as well.
I left the princess in the hands of Kawaii after asking her what exactly she did to reach such heights. Apparently, she just ate everything she saw, so I decided to do exactly the same. I wasn¡¯t going to allow her to get stronger than myself, although if I considered my [Shadow Being Summon] skill, I was technically well beyond her capabilities. In fact, if I fought Goliath without his [Overlord] skill, would I have been able to win in a fight?
Well, no point in mauling over useless things. Either way, Goliath was not a threat now.
In fact, why didn¡¯t I eat his body? I could just eat it and get a boost in power and a lot of his skills, right?
When I went out to go hunting, I kept thinking about things like this. If I had done certain things differently, would I be here right now? Would I be chasing fishes at quite possibly the bottom of the ocean and helping an annoying mermaid princess get back home? Would Minerva be missing?
Well, no point in mauling over simple possibilities. All of that has already happened.
In the end, I managed to go up only three levels putting me on level 76 and level 37 in the racial department. I was curious to what my future evolutions would be. Maybe I could be a sort of sort of demon phoenix? Yeah, I might go for such an option.
There were also arge number of skills I acquired.
I returned to where the princess and Kawaii where. The princess and Kawaii were both fighting. Or more like, Kawaii was in the process of eating the princess. I had to separate both of them, but I found it curious that we simply couldn¡¯t get along with her. She just had a very infuriating aura around her. She needed to be humbled down, but I couldn¡¯t do that.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Tori acquired the skill [Omni-Directional Movement]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Hyper Burst]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Ink Creation]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Umbre Mouth]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Luminosity]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Impact Absorber]]
[Tori acquired the skill [High Force Impact]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Gravity]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Diamond Scales]]
[The skill [Super Stealth] became [Super Stealth Level 2]]
[The skill [Constriction] became [Constriction Level 3]]
[The skill [Crush] became [Crush Level 2]]
[The skill [Matter Ingestion] became [Matter Ingestion Level 5]]
[Hinotori became level 76]
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 168 Dumb, Dumber And Dumbest
Day 50
We managed to get out of the location where I couldn¡¯t use magic. So obviously, the first thing I tried to do was create a portal. I managed to do that. That was how far I got before¡
¡°Found you!¡±
DING!
[Notice: Sensing Iing Waves of Immense Chaos Energy]
Behind me, moving as fast lightning was a ckness. In fact, I couldn¡¯t say it was moving. It was basically shing before me, closing the distance in mere seconds. And I knew for a fact that I was looking very far away.
[You have been inflicted with [Absurd Fear]]
[You will not be able to move till you ovee this fear]
My body was stuck in ce. Behind me, the princess on the other hand was moving towards the portal. Kawaii grabbed me, it would seem she realised that I was stuck. But that wasn¡¯t the important thing here. What the heck was this thinging after us.
I blinked, then there was a hand over my body. It grabbed me hard and it felt like my bones were shattering.
[You have received the status [Broken Bones]]
[You have received the status [Internal Bleeding]]
¡®Mawste-?¡¯
¡°No. You two aren¡¯t needed.¡±
The thing that was holding me spoke up, before flicking Kawaii away into the portal. The princess herself was already through the portal. She was grinning at me,pletely unfazed by the sort of aura this thing was releasing. The portal closed up, leaving me alone with it.
DING!
[Congrattions! You havepleted your quest!]
[You will receive your reward if you arrive in the Antis Capital]
¡®Ah- N-Now isn¡¯t the time for this!¡¯
¡°You! I have been searching for you.¡±
Her voice sent powerful waves my way. My eyes were spinning in their sockets and I was starting to think a lot. It would seem I was about to die yet again in not even two months. Wow, how many times was I supposed to be in such a state before life would go easy for me?
Well, now that she was closer, I could make out her features better. She was, well, a shark fishman. Unlike the princess, she didn¡¯t possess human-like skin, but was covered in scales entirely. She looked like a shark with two arms, a bit bigger than the princess. She had short-cut, navy blue hair, with dull purple eyes. She was grinning at me, disying her very sharp razor teeth. I didn¡¯t know whether she was naked or not, but she had basically no covering on herself other than her rough scales, with fins on her elbows and back. Her entire front was white, whereas the other parts were a cerulean blue.
¡°You are the one that attacked my men, right?¡±
She asked me a question clearly, but I couldn¡¯t even think up a response. This [Absurd Fear] status was interfering with my very thoughts. I just stared wide eyed at her two eyes. She shook me like I was some sort of broken toy.
¡°Huh? Did you die?¡±
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], the skill [Fear Resistance] has levelled up]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], the skill [Fear Resistance] has levelled up]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], the skill [Fear Resistance] has levelled up]
¡°Damn¡ maybe I shouldn¡¯t have used my [Demon Eye of Intimidation]. Gaah, but I just got it!¡±
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], the skill [Fear Resistance] has levelled up]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], the skill [Fear Resistance] has levelled up]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], the skill [Fear Resistance] has levelled up]
¡°I thought this thing was going to be strong after what it did to the crew.¡±
[The skill [Fear Resistance] has be [Super Fear Resistance]]
[Due to the skill [Super Fear Resistance] you have offset some of the shock from [Absurd Fear]]
[Your stats are still lowered, but you can move now]
¡®Huh?!¡¯
I internally screamed, and she looked at me.
¡°Oh? You¡¯re still alive?¡±
I kept quiet, avoiding telepathy. If she assumed I was dead, she would probably leave my body here. That would work out just fin-
¡°If it isn¡¯t, I guess I¡¯ve got a snack at least.¡±
¡®Oi, oi, oi! I¡¯m too young to die! Please don¡¯t kill me.¡¯
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], the skill [Super Fear Resistance] has levelled up]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], the skill [Super Fear Resistance] has levelled up]
¡°Huh? If you aren¡¯t dead, then why were you pretending to be?¡±
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], the skill [Super Fear Resistance] has levelled up]
¡®Um¡ reasons?¡¯
¡°Obviously because you are going to kill me, you monster!¡±, is what I wanted to shout, but I kept it to myself while trying to avoid eye contact. To hell with my 360-vision!
¡°Yeah, yeah, my name¡¯s Daxia. What¡¯s yours?¡±
¡®H-Huh? Why are you giving me your name?¡¯
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], the skill [Super Fear Resistance] has levelled up]
¡°Well, so that we fight. It¡¯s always best to introduce yourselves first in a battle.¡±
¡®B-But, not everyone has a name, right?¡¯
¡°Yes, but you do.¡±
¡®What?¡¯
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], the skill [Super Fear Resistance] has levelled up]<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Yeah. Your name is¡ Hinotori, right?¡±
¡®Eeehhhh?!¡¯
¡°Don¡¯t bother trying ta hide that from me. I can see anybody¡¯s name. Now, let¡¯s fight.¡±
¡®How does she kn-¡®
<<Most likely the skills [Appraisal], [Demon Eye of Investigation], [Investigator], [Namer] or [Soul Dive]. There are more skills that could reveal a person¡¯s name, but these are the most likely for a being on this level.>>
''Are they 100% urate?''
<<Mistakes can be made with them>>
¡®Is that so? Time to bluff then.¡¯
I prepared myself, and cleared my mind.
¡®Do you really think that Hinotori is my real name?¡¯
¡°It is.¡±
¡®Um, well, it isn¡¯t. I have a different name that¡¯s true.¡¯
Technically what I was saying wasn¡¯t a lie since my original name was Akira.
After I said this, her grip on me loosened.
[You are being scanned for the truth]
¡®Scanned?¡¯
<<Another function of the skills [Investigator] and [Demon Eye of Investigation]>>
[Your statement has been confirmed. You are telling the truth.]
¡®So, you managed to reduce it to only two skills? Which one is it most likely to be?¡¯
¡®My bet¡¯s on the demon eye.¡¯
¡®Same.¡¯
<<It is a 50-50 situation at the moment>>
¡®Hmm, in that case, I could try bluffing my way out of this. Bluffs have never failed me!¡¯
I thought to myself and prepared mentally for whatever would happen.
[Warning: You are being exposed to Chaos Energy. Prolonged Exposure can lead to severe obstruction of system and soul functions.]
I received a scary warning, making me want to speed up what I was about to do.
¡®I see. You were using that skill so you assumed that you could figure out my name easily.¡¯
¡°Eh?¡±
¡®Don¡¯t ¡°Eh?¡± me. I am saying that if you want to figure out more about me, using such a skill won¡¯t be enough.¡¯
I could see obvious confusion in her eyes. My bluff was working. Her grip had loosened enough for me to actual push apart her fingers.
¡®You can¡¯t challenge me without knowing my name, right? I won¡¯t tell you my name.¡¯
Well, I was hoping she was a weird type that wouldn¡¯t fight unless certain conditions are met. What I got in response was rather disappointing.
¡°Yes! You¡¯re more than what I was expecting! You! Join my crew!¡±
¡®No.¡¯
I rejected the offer without even thinking about it. The words flew right out of my mind at her. Well, technically I wasn¡¯t the one to do this. It was my more blunt and violent natured other. Kira was now on the stage.
¡°What?¡±
¡®First of all, you chase me till I have to run away. Then you use your chaos energy in a massive area, making it impossible for me to use magic. Do you know how much time I wasted trying to gather mana particles? It was like searching for a needle in a mountain of hay. That¡¯s worse than a simple haystack, you know? Of course, you wouldn¡¯t! You¡¯re stuck at the bottom of wherever this is!¡¯
¡®K-Kiraa!¡¯
Akkun was the first to react.
¡®Gaah! This is so frustrating. I came here close to a month ago and all I¡¯ve seen is bull after bull. If you aren¡¯t going toin, Tori. I will for you, cause honestly, how many people want to make us their ves? First was the girl you stupidly almost sold your soul to. Diane forced us into fighting against Krull who wanted to kill us. Next there was the entire West basically begging us to be their ruler, essentially finding someone to put all theirints to expecting them to be resolved. Also, there was the Necromancer who would have actually seeded if it wasn¡¯t for that damned brat who stabbed us through the heart. Oh, I swear if I find that brat I will reduce her to ash. I am not even going to try this time with that princess or you even if you could quite possibly kill me.¡¯
¡®Um¡ why is he getting emotional? I thought he didn¡¯t have my emotions.¡¯
<<It is possible to be frustrated, especially when one¡¯s life is in danger even if they don¡¯t ¡°feel¡± your emotions>>
¡®Hmm, I guess so?¡¯
¡®So, to you, I say, no. I will not join your crew. Just leave me alone.¡¯
He voiced my thoughts better than I ever could. I guess it always was easier toin in your head? Something like that, maybe?
¡®T-This could end badly.¡¯
Akkun was terrified. So was I. Akira was smart sometimes, but he was also annoyingly stupid at other times. I thought he could read the room better than I normally did. In fact, there were varying levels to dense! No matter which side of me he was, he couldn¡¯t be this dense. No! I refused to believe that I had a stupid side this stupid. At this point, I should change our names to Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest, because if I had this in me, I-
¡°Hmm, I see. So, you already have a gang of your own¡ take me in!¡±
She didn¡¯t take it how we assumed she would.
¡®No.¡¯
Again, Akira responded without asking us anything. This shitty bastard.
¡°Whaaaa-? Why? Just take me in!¡±
¡®Why should I?¡¯
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 169 Paladin Of Fire
The scent of fluxior herbs being melted by acid wafted through the air. The bubbling of chemicals in ss containers over a bright orange me sent puffs of white gas from the container¡¯s tip. There was arge set up of tubes on a desk, with substances of all sorts, being mixed methodologically and with the utmost care, just to produce one single potion.
The potion possessed a dark purple colour as well as bowel-aggravating scent. The one in charge of the experiment took up the vial and looked at it closely, her dark eyes scanning for any errors. Putting her hand to the tip, she shook the vial vigorously for a few more seconds, then brought it back to observe. There was no visible change and the woman shrugged. She put down the vial in a tube rack, where other vials of simr colour were found.
They all possessed varying shades of the colour, purple.
Slowly, she removed her white gloves made out of slime resin and quickly disposed of them into her special storage ring. Normally, a very hard to find item and a highly valued one amongst adventurers, yet nothing but a means of throwing away trash to her. She walked to the desk at the far corner of the room, where a journalid, open, with a quill and a tab of ink to its side.
The quill made scribbling noises on the paper as her hands moved.
¡°Day 42 since the Arch Devil was summoned to kill my prey. I have made 10 attempts to create a poison potent enough to put an Imperial Beast to rest for good, but to no avail. I may need to more time to acquire the ultimate solution. Time that which I may not have. My body is deteriorating faster than I imagined, even though the Arch Devil still failed to kill my prey. I will have to leave soon. The Lord of the town only permitted me to use his resources since I lied to him that I would create an immortality elixir. He is growing impatient. Thankfully he is still not aware of my true identity.¡±
Heavy knocking was heard on the door, yet she ignored.
¡°The fluxior herbs I acquired recently were a great addition, but I need something more potent. I need Renosue herbs said to contain the ultimate poison with them. I need to infiltrate Larm, but the portion in which the herbs grow is where my prey lies. Travelling in there would be risky. Although, there are rumours that they grow in the Winter Zone beyond the Demise Mountains.¡±
The knocking on the door did not stop. In fact, it had intensified this time, making the woman drop her quill. She looked back at the door and scowled. Orders had been given that if there was a knock the first time with no response, then they were supposed to walk away. The exception to this rule was if there was an emergency.
¡°Open the door, this instant!¡±
An enraged stoic voice came through. It belonged to the Lord of thend. But why would he personallye to her quarters? Had he grown impatient to the point he actually came to investigate personally? Either way, it couldn¡¯t be good. Reluctantly, she pulled herself away from her notes and walked to the door.
It creaked open after she released the lock on it and behind it, standing there with a red face was the Lord of the Town, Lord Taut Fullier. He ruled over a small town in the Keimen Kingdom, called Rankel. Although it was called small, this Lord was one of the more influential characters in the Keimen Kingdom¡¯s upper echelon of nobles.
To his sides was a group of soldiers, five of them in fine steel armour with barely any openings for attack, all with their swords at the ready. The lord himself was in a fine vest, a sign that he was absolutely confident in his personal guards.
¡°You! What is with this letter I received?!¡±
He showed her the parchment. After reading through its contents, the woman became enraged as well. Absolutely unbelievable! So, they even chased her down to this tiny town where barely those without any political interest would even nce. She looked behind at all her work, then back at the parchment.
¡°I am sorry, my lord, but it would seem that I would have to evacuate immediately.¡±
She bowed her head curtly and mmed the door shut, going back to clear up all her work. One of the nobleman¡¯s knights tried to twist the door¡¯s knob open, but only yelped after making contact. The metallic door had been sealed to the war with intense fire magic. She cut off the fire supply to the tubes that were still being prepared. From the pouch under her cloak, she took out a tiny slime.
¡°You insolent wench, open this door immediately!¡±
Taut Fullier yelled at the top of his voice, but that was soon overshadowed by the sounds of legs kicking the door.
The woman grabbed the tube rack and pushed it into the tiny slime, without its size even changing. She saw the other tubes and was thinking about how to take it all with her, but realised that it would take too much time to clean them up and shoving them into the special storage ring where she kept her trash would lead to horrifying results.
BING! BING!<novelnext></novelnext>
When she looked at the door, it had been dented. Something heavy and sharp was being used to stab the door, meaning amongst Fullier¡¯s personal guard, those men had knowledge of at the very least, intermediate techniques. Underestimating them, even if she was fairly powerful would be fatal.
¡°Tch. You¡¯re a pdin, aren¡¯t you? That infamous Arcane Inferno, right!?¡±
From the other side, Fullier¡¯s voice managed toe through. However, the woman was not interested in the slightest. Rather, she threw the test tubes and herbs onto the ground and started a tiny fire on one of the liquids. She rushed for the journal on the desk and put it in her bag.
She then turned her back to the door and crouched. Her body tensed up automatically in anticipation of the explosion, which hit in the next second, blowing the door off. Her cloak was a Fire-resistant cloak she purchased over her years finding ways to kill her prey.
Post the explosion, she ran out of the room, jumping over a copsed guard¡¯s body. In front of her, there was arge number of guards she hadn¡¯t anticipated there being. Maybe the explosion caused a massive state of arrest amongst all the guards in the mansion.
¡°Oh lord of the Brightest Light, hallowed be thine name too great to be spoken. Bless mine hands with thine gift so I may put my enemies to shame. Let me soar high above! Propulsion!¡±
She chanted an intermediate spell quickly and bright orange mes appeared in her palms. With it, she managed to lift off the ground like a bird, flying above the heads of the guards. The soldiers stood in awe when they saw her fly above their heads using the fire.
She made a sharp turn to the left once she flew through the massive door on the corridor and sped through towards the courtyard with immense speed.
¡°With quivering arrows, allow us to shoot down those above the film. Water ball!¡±
A mage amongst the guards yelled, shooting a powerful water ball at the woman, but she easily avoided the attack and raised a finger and drew a symbol in the air. After adding a bit of mana to the symbol, multiple arrows of fire flew from it towards the mage who had attacked her first.
However, with only one hand controlling her steering, she ended up colliding into a wall and falling to the ground. She managed to recover quickly with a roll that would make one assume that she had nned all of that and resume her run.
When she made it to the door however, she was stopped by a young man whose hands had been folded. His blonde hair had a few braids in it and had been decorated in golden ornaments. He looked at the frozen woman sternly, his leafy green eyes were somehow cold and distant now.
He looked like a usually serious man, with his straight face andrge build, taller than the average person, yet clothed in light armour with an arrow slung across his shoulder. His two, pointed ears twitched at the sight of the woman and a low growl could be heard.
¡°I am sick and tired of chasing you around, Charlotte. The day for meet up is soon.¡±
This man was Yvon Realtk Seris, The Pdin of Nature. The woman dropped her hood and scoffed.
Her ck hair had been ruined with a few streaks of grey in it now. Her face looked mature, like that of a woman approaching her early 40s. The pair of crow¡¯s feet at the edges of her eyes and the wrinkles that were starting to form made Yvon withdraw in disgust. The eye bags under her eyes spoke of the number of times she had avoided sleep in pursuit of her research.
She, was the Pdin of Fire.
¡°What happened to you, Charlotte?¡±
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 170 Side - Kazoku And Hero Party
The leaves on the tree rustled gently in the hot afternoon sun. Under one of the trees, a young man rested with his arms folded. The bangs of his blonde hair covered his eyes, providing a bit more shade to his eyes. The scent of something cooking wafted through the air and tickled his nose and roused his stomach.
His eyes opened slowly and were met with sunlight piercing through the gaps in the trees. He sat still, just looking up at the sky in thought for a second, before a smile crept onto his face. Quickly, he jumped up and made his way towards the camp site.
It was a good 5-minute walk to the campsite, way shorter if he decided to run. He was only able to smell the food due to his high sensitivity he had built up as an adventurer. He chose the distance since it would allow him to react to any form of danger with the party members in time, while allowing him enough break time from the members. He usually did this whenever his party set up camp. This was his own way of clearing his thoughts and thinking about the party¡¯s next steps. Although technically, he wasn¡¯t the group leader anymore.
¡®Gotta stop thinking about those things.¡¯
He reminded himself yet again as he scratched his head. He put his hand to his chin the moment he realised he was grinning. Sometimes his body would unconsciously do that and he would need to correct it. It was just something that he had been ever since he was forced to survive on the streets.
After sometime walking, he made it to the camp. The mood in the camp was as deplorable as ever. It was basically divided into two groups. To the right were people dressed in ceremonial garments that were native to the Kyoto Empire and to the left were a bunch of rough looking adventurers. The members to the left were the Kazoku of the Elder ns, whereas to the right was a party that called themselves The Hero Party.
Marcus moved to the centre, where there was a camp fire brewing with a pot of stew over it. The one cooking this was a young woman with a tiny frame. Her brown hair was messy and short, covering the sides of her face with two feline ears popping up from the top. She was Mika, a Cat person.
She tasted the stew and smiled.
¡°Yosh! This is good!¡±
¡°Really? Let me have a taste.¡±
Marcus walked towards the stew, ignoring the tension almostpletely. Out of everyone, Marcus was the only one who felt no tension. No. Rather than say he felt no tension, it would be more appropriate to say he decided to ignore it.
He grabbed thedle from Mika and tasted it himself. The stew had a fishy scent to it as well as a salty taste. The vegetables in it were charred, giving it a sort of crispy feel, like someone were eating tasteless biscuits. To the normal person, this was nothing more than crap.
¡°This is really good. You¡¯re getting better. Keep at it.¡±
To Marcus, it was good food. Certainly, a decade ago, he wouldn¡¯t have ever imed that such an abomination was good, but circumstances forced him to change. The members of the Hero Party stared at the stew suspiciously,pletely aware of Mika¡¯s bad cooking. They would have preferred if someone else did the cooking, but given the nature of their mission, the only one with time to prepare food for everyone was Mika. Also, it wouldn¡¯t do well to make her sad in such times.
¡°Um, we¡¯ve only got five bowls, so I guess I¡¯ll serve the kids first.¡±
Mika suggested, taking out bowls from the bag next to her.
¡°No one¡¯s got a problem with that, right?¡±
Mika asked to make sure there were no issues with what she was about to do. Marcus gave her his thumbs up of approval, being the first one to agree.
¡°Sure. I¡¯ll go patrol the area a bit.¡±
The blonde elf got up, saying she would go survey the area. Of course, there was no need to do this since they had already searched this area to make sure it was safe. Even Marcus had just returned from checking for enemies, but Celica just wanted an excuse to leave.
¡°I¡¯lle with.¡±
The big man suggested. Celica replied with a simple ¡°Humph¡± flicking her hair to showplete disinterest. This however backfired and a smug expression wormed itself onto Daryl¡¯s face. He grabbed her and put her on his shoulder like he usually did.
¡°Wha-?! D-Daryl!¡±
She cried out, but he put his finger to his lips, suggesting that she lowered her voice. She turned her blushing face away while muttering some inaudible words. The pair left off in a cheery mood.
¡°What about you, Nika?¡±
Marcus asked the hooded cat girl who leaned against a tree. She shrugged and looked away.
¡°Hey, here you go.¡±
Mika had already started serving the stew. The cautious kids just looked at the bowl, refusing to touch it.
¡°Come on, guys. Mimi put in a lot of effort into this.¡±
Marcus sat down and yawned.
¡°Tch. Who are you guys?¡±
The girl with silvery blue hair repeated the question she had been asking since she woke up. She had been feeling irritated and if not for herpanions she would have already started fighting to get satisfactory answers.
¡°We¡¯re the Hero Party. I¡¯ve said this countless times already.¡±
Marcus responded with a condescending tone while picking his nose. He was clearly bored by the question she kept asking him over and over again. But to Kana, his answer was always stupid. What was this ¡°Hero Party¡± he spoke of? Was she supposed to know about it? What happened the night before? Why were they out here?
So many questions flooded her brain and she felt like she would lose it at any point. There was a limit to how much patience a member of the Taira n possessed and Kana was very well proving that she had the highest tolerance level of any Taira n member.
¡°I think what mypanion means to say is, why are we here?¡±
Akari, restraining Kana¡¯s movement by her arm asked. Akari¡¯s voice sounded calm and friendly, but only an unexperienced fool wouldn¡¯t notice the danger in his eyes. Sweat drops were starting to appear on Marcus¡¯ forehead, but he decided to not show his slowly increasing fear.
¡°Like I said already, we saved you guysst night.¡±
¡°Saved us from what?¡±
¡°W-Well, I can¡¯t tell you all that yet.¡±
¡°Why not?¡±
¡°Let go of me, Akari. Imma rip him anew.¡±
Kana spoke in her native tongue, since she wasn¡¯t in the mood tomunicate any further with Marcus. Akari sent their head closer to Kana¡¯s and whispered in her head.
¡°Just rx a bit. We need more information before we dispose of them.¡±
¡°Huh¡ I may not be fluent with the Kyoto tongue, but I know the words for interrogation and disposal¡¡±
Marcus was feeling awkward now. Due to his naturally high perception abilities, he overheard Akari¡¯s whisper. When he looked at Akari¡¯s smile, there was something that suggested that Marcus was supposed to hear that. He was finally starting to feel overwhelmed by the entire situation.
¡®I can¡¯t deal with her type.¡¯
He thought to himself, looking for a way to escape the situation.
SLURP
The sounds of stew being swallowed entered everyone¡¯s ears. They looked to source, and sitting down sucking the stew voraciously was Daisuke. After his first gulp, he dropped the bowl.
¡°That was refreshing. Thank you for the meal!¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
Daisuke folded his arms and bowed to Mika, praising her for her cooking abilities.
¡°Right? Right? Mika¡¯s a real good cook, right?¡±
Marcus found an escape root in Daisuke.
¡°Yes. The stew was absolutely excellent. Come on you two, try it.¡±
Daisuke beckoned them over. Akari and Kana looked at each other then sighed. They had given up and instead decided to just go with the flow for now. They didn¡¯t have their weapons and their enemies were an unknown quantity. They had no idea where they were or how far they were from home and worse of all, they could not remember the incidents from the night before. They only remembered meeting up, introducing themselves and getting along, but the specifics were not there.
They both sat down on the dirty floor and took the bowls before them.
¡°I-I¡¯m not that good a cook.¡±
Mika apologised in advance, making the two feel suspicious. For some reason, they felt like Daisuke and Marcus¡¯ rmendations.
Hesitantly, they took a lick of the paste and immediately spat it out.
¡°Yeah, that¡¯s the reaction I expected. Enjoy.¡±
Mika told them before serving herself and Marcus. Kana was holding herself back from pouncing on the cat girl.
This all stopped when a portal opened up just behind Marcus. The young man slid away and grabbed his sword, Crooked Dainsleif, arge rusty looking ymore and pointed it at the portal. From it, a young man emerged. This young man had dark skin with silver short-cut spiky hair. His steely gaze scanned the surroundings, assessing the situation within seconds.
Marcus¡¯ years as an adventurer put him on edge when he saw this. This man gave him simr vibes to the one man Marcus held in high esteem. He was simr to Hiro Tatsumaki in terms of aura.
The newer pointed a device at Marcus¡¯ head. The device was an odd one, quite the rare sight given how difficult it was to maintain and produce, although its fire power was to die for. It was a gun, if Marcus remembered right. It looked different from the one he had seen before. This one was short, almost palm-sized. It was made with a golden metal with some inscriptions on it.
¡°W-Who are you?¡±
Marcus asked immediately. He had been informed that he would be receivingpany, but that informant also told him that he could run into enemies at any point.
¡°Are you the Hero Party?¡±
The intruder asked emotionlessly with a cold re.
¡°Depends on who¡¯s asking.¡±
¡°Seiko Sotomura of the Sotomura n. Are you Marcus Boulderdane?¡±
After hearing the name, Marcus'' hold on his sword loosened. His face softened and rxed smile managed to form on his face.
"Oh, the guy we''re supposed to meet."
"Where is the little princess?"
Seiko, without even dropping his gun for a second asked. Marcus gestured to the tent behind the kazoku. The others looked at Seiko suspiciously. He couldn''t me them, since he''d never met any of them before neither had they seen him. He was supposed to be a secret, but his name suddenly popped up at the beginning of the year when the [Grand Priestess] in the Mexar Empire divined that he was a pdin.
Still, they had found a way to curb the information spread, allowing for him to travel with a certain level of freedom and anonymity.
Slowly, he stalked towards the tent, not letting his guard down for even a second. Kana stepped up in front of the tent, not trusting Seiko to enter.
Daisuke grabbed her shoulder and shook his head. Clicking her tongue, Kana backed down.
"You know, there''s been rumours that the Tatsumaki n had been working on a secret project."
The one to say this was Akari, who had a cold gaze directed towards Seiko. Seiko had Akari at the back of his mind as the most dangerous out of those present, but decided to not show it.
"In their secretboratory gods-know-where, I heard they''d used countless humans and monsters for experiments. Horrible inhumane methods, all to create the perfect human. Is that true?"
Seiko didn''t even give Akari a nce, but rather proceeded to open the tent. What he found caused his eyes to widen. There was nothing but jewelries in the tent.
He looked back at Marcus and put his hand on the trigger, causing the gun to whiz with power.
"Where is she?"
"What?"
A confused Marcus asked with his arms up.
"Where is the ojou-san?"
"O-Ojo-san? W-what is tha- Oh, you mean the one called Shiro?"
"What are you talking about? She''s sleeping right there?"
Kana angrily barked at Seiko. He didn''t spare her a nce, but rather kept his focus on Marcus.
"If she''s there, please exin to me why there''s an empty tent."
"Huh? Empty tent?"
Everyone was confused. They looked at the tent and rushed towards it. It was only Marcus, Mika and Nika who stood, frozen at their original locations.
The blood drained from the faces of the Kazoku when they saw the empty tent.
"T-That''s impossible. She was here just a second ago, I swear."
"Then care to exin what happened to her?"
Just as they were talking, there was a thunderous explosion in some distance. When Marcus looked, his mind immediately noticed that that was the direction Celica and Daryl went in. He knew for a fact none of those two had such firepower in their arsenal, unless they were carrying explosives on their bodies.
"Mika. Nika."
His voice was different from how it usually was. Without a care for the fact that Seiko had pointed his gun at him, he attempted to run.
Marcus would find out that move was one of his worst mistakes once he heard the gun shot.
<A/N: Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 171 Akira Takes Over
¡°Huuuuuuuuuuuhhhhh?!¡±
Daxia¡¯s cry echoed out in the ocean. Even though I could feel my ear drums bursting, I didn¡¯t move to cover them. Akira¡¯s attempt at manipting Daxia seemed to be going on well enough, so I wouldn¡¯t dare to even ruin his ns.
¡°Come on,e on. Everybody wants someone strong on their side.¡±
¡®I¡¯m sick and tired of you overpowered freaks doing whatever you want. I just want to go to Antis.¡¯
¡°Eh? Why would you want to go to such a boring ce? Antis is just filled with snobby brats hiding behind shiny armour.¡±
¡®Well, snobby brats aren¡¯t causing my mana to run rampant, now, are they?¡¯
¡°Come on, we both know you aren¡¯t interested in Antis. People like us prefer the wild, where no tamed men stay.¡±
¡®I hate the wild. I almost died on more than a hundred asions in the wild in only under a month. I want tamed for once.¡¯
¡°So, you admit that you¡¯re just like me. Born and bred in the wild.¡±
¡®You¡¯re only hearing what you want to hear.¡¯
¡°Yes.¡±
¡®AH! You admit it!¡¯
¡°No.¡±
I swam off, not wanting to deal with idiots¡ well, Akira swam off. He was in control of my body whereas I was just watching everything happening. It felt like I was in a dream off sorts, meaning Akira and I switched positions for the day. It felt weird being at the back, but I guess I would leave it to Akira then.
I looked in the darkness of my brain and before m there was a door. I opened the door, walked in in stared wide-eyed at the shocking sight.
AKIRA POV
Yosh! Akira speaking here today, I have sessfully taken over Tori¡¯s body for the day. Unfortunately, with it came Tori¡¯s feelings. Wow, Tori was really reserved not just shouting at anyone. Anyway, I had a bit of a problem on my hands for the day. That is the problem child, Daxia.
Oh, how I hate problem children. Especially the overpowered types. Those selfish brats were the worst. Except Minerva. Minerva was cool. She gave me a home, gave me food, gave me my first friend. I was seriously indebted to her. I¡¯d have to pay her back and that is what I was trying to do now. I need to get that royal wish from the capital, but this Daxia problem child was stalking me.
I mean, what kind of freak stalks a bird for 4 days straight. Imagine polluting like 50 percent of the ocean just to find one bird. One bird! She found me and what does she want? To control me. For crying out loud, I was getting tired with all of this. At least give me a year before you throw some crap on me, yeah?
C-Calm down, Akira.
Ak-kun pleaded with me, however Akkun was not seeing what I was seeing. I hade to realise onemon feature amongst these overpowered freaks. For instance, people like Minerva, Zana and herself were extremely lonely and simply looking for someone who wouldn¡¯t look down on them or even think of their power for a second. Two, their prides were basically non-existent in the face of things weaker than them. And three, they just seemed to like me.
Keeping them craving was the best way to make sure they would join me without switching their mindster. I wanted to get Zana as a servant, but what Hinotori did was essentially the same with a bit of a twist. It carried no difference in the grand scheme of things, but it did give Zana more benefits than a regr servant. I didn¡¯t like the thought of giving authority over the servants to a neer, but hopefully Zana wasn¡¯t the type to stage a coup of sorts. Well, if it ever came to that I could use [Absolute Command] to kill her on the spot.
¡°Oi, oi, oi. Listen to me.¡±
Daxia swam up in front of me and raised her hands, making me stop.
¡®What?¡¯
¡°Come on. You know my offer was tempting.¡±
¡®Eh? Tempting? Why would I want you when I¡¯ve got even a kraken on my side?¡¯
Well, I did have a baby kraken on my side, but there was no need to specify. That baby kraken was possibly stronger than Daxia.
¡°Oh? So that¡¯s what you used to defeat my men? But the damage was so negligible. Must¡¯ve been a baby or you were holding back. Either way, what you did wasn¡¯t really impressive.¡±
Huh? J-Just what was she saying? I know she¡¯s hypothesising, but saying the damage I caused wasn¡¯t impressive, wasn¡¯t that a bit of a stretch? Like,e on. I tried ok? I really did, although my main aim wasn¡¯t to really kill anyone. It was good enough for chaos, right?
¡®So, you¡¯re saying you are stronger than my kraken?¡¯
I asked her, hoping to receive an answer that wouldn¡¯t scare me.
¡°Well, if they aren¡¯t stronger than Kragavishte, I can beat em real easy.¡±
She responded after giving a bit of thought.
¡®Kragavishte?¡¯
<<In the past, Kragavishte was a name used to scare men from traveling across the sea.>>
¡®Eh? In that past?¡¯
<<Approximately 100 years ago, a kraken named Kragavishte would go up to the surface and torment sailors. It would destroy their ships or even sometimes destroy Port Cities. It was silenced by a Pdin 100 years ago and ever since has been presumed dead.>>
¡®W-Wait¡ if you¡¯ve heard of such a thing, then shouldn¡¯t you know about Amethyst¡¯s mother?¡¯
<<Certainly.>>
¡°I don¡¯t know if I pronounced the name right. She¡¯s the mother of all the Krakens and lives in the Bloody Sea. I beat her up real good and we became friends, I guess.¡±
She interrupted my thoughts, stating something scary.
¡®B-Beat her up?¡¯
¡°Mhm. I cut off lots of tentacles. There were a lot¡ speaking of which, she only became my friend after I beat her.¡±
An inhumane grinned found itself on her face and her eyes distorted once sheid eyes on me. When I looked at her, all I saw was a darkness surrounding her and her eyes and mouth grinning at me madly like some Ripper.
[Warning! A massive surge of Chaos Energy is being shot your way.]
[Warning! Prolonged exposure will cause irreversible damage to you]
[Warning! The Chaos Energy is corrupting your [Sacred: Legend of Pandemonium]]
[Warning! Please take evasive actions]
[Warning! Your mind is being overloaded]
Several alerts wereing and I could feel myself slowly cking out.
[The unique skill [Evolver] is taking effect]
[The unique skill [Evolver] was blocked]
W-What? E-Evolver?
[The unique skill [Evolver] is taking effect]<novelnext></novelnext>
[The unique skill [Evolver] was blocked]
[The unique skill [Evolver is taking effect]
[The unique skill [Evolver] was blocked]
A-Akira!
Akkun¡¯s voice came in, but even though it was in my mind, I wasn¡¯t receiving it as well. [Evolver] kept on acting up. Ten more times, hundred more times, thousand more times. In the end, I lost count and passed out.
***
Elriek Sox Den Anon Yorul III POV
It was dizzying and blinding.
As princess of Antis, the City of Magic Progress, Elriek Sox Den Aon Yorul III had the benefit of having various magical experiences. She had sometimes been the first to see magical breakthroughs and scientific advancements, even before her parents. She had always dreamed of bing a researcher herself, just so she could make such advancements herself. Unfortunately, when she came of age, it was revealed that her ss was [Orator]. A ss only good for its administrative abilities.
This made her lose any hope of bing a researcher. Instead, she found a new goal. She had watched her parents and it finally clicked to her. She would be the one to lord over magical research. She would be the Queen of Antis. And even though she couldn¡¯t be a mage herself, she had still done a lot of studying.
That was why she knew for a fact, that the portal that the ugly courier had conjured up was of the worst quality she had seen. It felt insulting to even call that thing a portal. It didn¡¯t care for its user¡¯s safety orfort. It could have popped up anywhere as long as it was close to Antis.
Once she recovered, she looked back at where the portal once was. Now all she could see was blue. She clicked her tongue with distaste and said,
¡°Good riddance.¡±
Then she looked the other way. Towards the dome floating in the centre what looked like the middle of nowhere.
The dome covering Antis was a magic spell of a spatial nature. It actually contained a muchrger space within it, possessing close to 500,000 civilians within it. That was the capital city of Antis, Yorul, named after one of the first 3 fishmen created by the Primordial Sea Goddess. Surrounding the dome, were some golden pirs that had runes carved into them to power the dome. These domes were guarded by some of Antis¡¯ best soldiers, the Pir Men.
Said to have the best training conceivable, a force that has never been repelled. Although, it was impossible to actually test their true strengths given the fact that none has ever made it close enough to one of the Pirs to attack a Pir man.
She prepared her hair and cleared her throat. All she needed to do was make it back to the city and she would be safe for a while. Susu was already there and she knew some people present who would die for her. That meant, the moment she was through the gates leading to Yorul, she would be safe. It was a bit of a nuisance that she wasn¡¯t sent right in front of the gate, but at least she was at a good enough distance.
¡°You!¡±
Just as she was about to head towards the city, an angry sounding voice thundered behind her. When she looked back, what she saw was horrific. The creature¡¯s form was a shapeless blob. Tentacles were swarming about the creature as some parts of it drooped like mucus. The form kept shifting, it was like people were trying to escape from it, but the creature kept rejecting. It beat them into it, constantly switching till it was a linear pole.
¡°You left my mawstewr there!¡±
Limbs formed from the pole. Her body was now like that of a human¡¯s. Elriek had heard of humans before and had seen pictures too, so she would know.
The creature¡¯s skin was still covered in slimy mucus. Her body was being beaten about, forcing curves into being. A slender up and a thick lower. Thighs formed as did a chest. A head was being moulded slowly, like the work of an artisan, but instead it was devilish y being used.
The process was breath-taking. The princess was uncertain whether to be amazed or disgusted. However, she snapped out of her state, realising the immediate danger.
¡°You. You¡¯re the slime, right?¡±
Her voice was collected and focused. She had the air of a personpletely in control of the situation. If her opponent was someone else, they would have hesitated. However, her opponent was not someone else. Her skill proved to be useless, leaving the princess guffawed.
¡°I will kill you.¡±
A dark aura was starting to envelop her body.
¡®W-What the hell is with this thing?! That¡¯s so terrifying!¡¯
The princess was starting to lose her cool in her mind while maintaining a confident exterior.
¡°What would you gain from killing me?¡±
The slime didn¡¯t respond. Rather, it shot off a heated shot of boiling water in the princess¡¯ direction. It hit the princess right on the arm, but due to her tough exterior, the damage was closely negligible. She red at the slime.
¡°Imand you to stop this nonsense!¡±
She used her skill, [Command]. An advanced skill for Orator¡¯s that required their user to at least have a level of charisma around them. Sadly, this did nothing to Kawaii. Kawaii formed a sword in her hand. It was the Demon Longsword her gentle master had blessed her with. She would use it to take revenge, then go out to find her master. In fact, absorbing the princess wouldn¡¯t be a bad idea. It would simply be another addition to her skills.
Elriek clicked her tongue one she realised there was no breaking through to the slime. She swam away towards the city gates. Once the guards saw her, they woulde to her rescue. Even the slime would be at the mercy of Antis¡¯ fine guards.
¡®How did things end up this way?¡¯
The thought ended up crossing her mind as she tried to escape. Instinctively, she dodged to the left, narrowly avoiding an acid spear. She dared to look back and there, the slime was now nothing more than a ck goo. One side with a beautiful shape, the other a grotesque monster.
The monster bolted off towards the princess. Elriek would have to admit, she was not the fastest or strongest merman out there, but she had to admit that the slime was incredibly fast. Within a minute, it had caught up to the princess.
¡®W-Was this thing really on the surface before?¡¯
Was the only thing she could ask. ording to Susu, those who are on the surface find their speed and strength severely reduced. This was because of a difference in pressure between both ces. ording to Susu, those in the Mass Blue were naturally stronger than the surface walkers, but for some reason there were some extraordinary people. An example was the boy who came to Antis in their time of need 5 years ago.
His name was one the princess could never forget. Hiro Tatsumaki. He called himself a hero who simply came to help them with their foe at the time.
When she looked at the slime, a sword was rushing for her neck. All she could think about was Hiro. She wanted Hiro to save her just like he did when came the first time. She closed her eyes, praying for his dashing figure to appear before her once again. To save her with his overwhelmingbat prowess.
Tears formed at the corner of her eye when she realised that if the sword connected, she¡¯d die.
¡®Hiro!¡¯
CHINK!
An ear-splitting noise was produced, sending chills down the princess¡¯ body. The sword hadn¡¯t connected and she couldn¡¯t feel anything. Slowly, she opened her eyes. With a red cape at his back and silvery white floating in the water, her saviour had stopped the sword from connecting.
¡°Hiro!¡±
She yelled in joy. The man repelled the de with a fluid movement. His sword glowed a dull red as he sent various stabs in the way of the slime, creating multiple holes in it. Around the slime, multiple elemental spears were formed. Water, acid, ice and lightning.
Elriek noticed the lightning spear, it being one of the most potent forms of magic in the Mass Blue.
¡°Hiro! Don¡¯t tr-¡±
¡°Leave it to me, mydy. I will deal with this quickly.¡±
His voice came, and the princess immediately realised it wasn¡¯t who she was thinking of. His hair wasn¡¯t silver or white. It was green fur. His face was that of a dog fishman¡¯s. No. It was fiercer than a dog fishman. A new type of fishman? She could have sworn she had seen something like him somewhere before.
After giving his promise to her, he waved his sword in a circr motion, willing for the water to form a wall around him.
Elirek knew this form of swordsmanship. It was the [Imperial Dragon God Swordsmanship]. A technique that the entire royal guard is taught. It wasn¡¯t something just any patrol guard would be taught, which meant he was someone she could trust. Still, she hadn¡¯t seen him before. Was he on a sort of mission all this while?
¡°[Overflow]!¡±
Chapter 172 Mysterious Higher Being
So, this was weird. After giving Akira ess to the main body, I decided to explore my inner mind. I found out how Akira kept himself entertained in my head. He was simply rewatching all the movies I¡¯d watched while working on fusing skills. He had this entire man cave dedicated to himself. Well, if you were stuck in a body, might as well enjoy it.
Just as I was about to watch one anime, I received various alerts. The most rming being,
[Warning! A massive surge of Chaos Energy is being shot your way.]
[Warning! Prolonged exposure will cause irreversible damage to you]
[Warning! The Chaos Energy is corrupting your [Sacred: Legend of Pandemonium]]
With that, I had the right to question Akira. Well, I doubted I could have handled the situation any better, but still¡ now I felt stupid for leaving it to him¡ myself. Gaah!
I was currently floating in a weird ckness. I couldn¡¯t feel anything. Not my wings, not my legs, nothing. I was just there in the void.
Enough time to just talk about nonsense.
So, without further ado, wee to my Tori Talk!
Agenda of the day is, am I an I-
¡°Hello?¡±
A voice shook me from my loneliness. I could somewhat feel it, even though my senses were basically dead now.
¡°Is there anybody here?¡±
It sounded like a girl. A child. Wait¡ it sounded familiar as well. As if I had heard it somewhere before.
The owner of the voice heaved a heavy sigh, as if disappointed.
¡°I thought it would actually work this time.¡±
She sounded frustrated. If only I could respond to her cry.
¡°Poor girl.¡±
Another voice echoed in the darkness, speaking my thoughts out loud. I was surprised and tried to look around, but I couldn¡¯t find the source of the voice.
¡°Huh? So, there is someone there. Show yourself.¡±
The girl ordered haughtily. After that, I could see the girl.
She had fair pearly skin like a precious jewel. Her body was clothed in a ripped up red yukata, exposing her thighs to the darkness. The bangs of her hair were out of ce, as was her silver hair that was barely being held together with a pin. Her crimson red eyes stared at me intensely and I gulped.
¡°Shiro¡?¡±
The name just came out, making me realise that it was my thoughts that were being projected.
¡°Huh? You know my name? Are you some kind of god? I heard this is how pdins awaken their sacreds. Is this what¡¯s happening to me? Are you my patron god?¡±
She asked me a bunch of questions in a moment. I wasn¡¯t sure how to respond. She just paused after asking the questions, crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently. Her eyebrows furrowed the more she stared at me.
¡°Say¡ why won¡¯t you show me your appearance already? This darkness is creepy.¡±
¡°My¡ appearance?¡±
¡°Eh? Don¡¯t tell me I got a dumb patro-¡ uhh, no offense. No offense, really. But if you don¡¯t want to appear before me, could you at least tell me what is happening?¡±
She was requesting something impossible from me. I didn¡¯t know how to react to that since I myself was very confused.
¡°Agent.¡±
I tried calling for the agent, but I got no response.
¡°Agent?¡±
I looked at her. It would seem I would be getting no help this time. Should I tell her who I was? But, was there any benefit in doing so? Maybe I should act along for now.
¡°You are lost¡?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know where I am, so technically I am, I guess. Wait¡ is this the beginning of my adventure! My freedom from my mother!¡±
She yelled excitedly, her eyes sparkled in delight and her voice went high, like a child. Somehow, she looked cute.
¡°If you seek an adventure, why not just leave?¡±
¡°My mother won¡¯t allow me. She even killed a familiar I got recently.¡±
I could feel my heart split. Wasn¡¯t she the one who caused me to die? Did that mean it was her mother¡¯s fault for what happened to me?
¡°Your mother sounds cruel.¡±
¡°Sounds? You should meet her. She¡¯d make you fed up with your immortality. Wait¡ you gods love her though.¡±
¡°Eh? They do? E-Ehem, yes, we do. Even as cruel as she is, your mother is still loved by us.¡±
I was starting to feel awkward. I almost gave myself up because of this one statement.
DING!
[Chaos Energy has beenpletely dissipated by the unique skill [Energy Transcriber]]
[You will be returned to your normal state]
¡°Chaos¡ energy? Dissipated? [Energy Transcriber]?¡±
¡°Huh? Chaos energy? Are you a chaos god?¡±
Shiro mentioned something weird. Her eyes were widened and a creepy grin was forming on her face. I wanted to ask her more, but I could feel myself fading from this darkness. I was probably returning to my body.
¡°Come to the west o-¡±
I was telling her toe to Larm so I could see her again, but I left the darkness once again before I couldplete my request.
***
¡°Uuogh!¡±
My arms and legs shot up into the sky as something heavy fell on my body. I grabbed the perpetrator by the hair and pulled them up. She yelped in pain.
¡°Onii-chan! Ow!¡±
Mitsuki cried out, grabbing my wrist.
¡°System¡ Master?¡±
¡°Let go of me! Mom! Akira¡¯s trying to make me bald!¡±
I instinctively let go of her hair at the mention of my mother.
¡°What are you doing here, Mitsuki?¡±
I sat up, identally throwing her off me and onto the floor. She fell on a pile of CDs in what looked to be quite painful. I could hear something crack, and when I looked down, it was a Visual Master X. The VR device Manyuda lent to me. Even worse, it was lent to Manyuda by someone else in the ss.
¡®Damn it! Just when I started making friends with Manyuda too! Wait¡ hasn¡¯t this already happened bef-¡? What¡¯s going on?¡¯
¡°Now he¡¯s throwing me on the floor and kicking me.¡±
Mitsuki screamed.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Mi-Mitsuki! Keep it down!¡±
¡°Waaaa!¡±
¡°I-I¡¯ll buy you cand- oi! Get out of my room. Mom¡¯s not around.¡±
I knocked her head to silence her and she looked up at me with teary eyes. I red at her and she eventually ran out the door.
Slowly taking a peek around, I realised that I was in my room. I looked at my hand, pale and skinny with a scar on the left one, but bigger than my other hands. I clenched my fist.
¡®I¡¯m back home¡? Is this just an illusion?¡¯
¡°I¡¯ll be in the kitchen preparing lunch. Akane wille over at 1.¡±
Mitsuki whimpered behind my door. After saying what she had to, she shut the door behind her and left.
I looked out the window, sunlight was bleeding in.
¡®Did Mitsuki pull it open while I was sleeping?¡¯
I could hear my neighbours partying outside. Slowly, I got out of bed and headed towards myputer. I looked through my folders and found two folders with simr names. Obviously one of them was a dummy folder. I couldn¡¯t risk Akane seeing me so I was nning on deleting it.
However, before I could delete it, I had a thought.
¡®It¡¯s been a while since I¡¡¯
¡°Akira!¡±
I deleted it as soon as I heard Akane¡¯s voice call my name. At the bottom of myputer screen, the time was 1:05pm.
¡®Sigh¡ the glory days when I could wake up whenever I felt like it.¡¯
Akane walked in through the door with her yellow blouse and grey baggy pants that simply didn¡¯t match. Her ck hair was tied into a ponytail and her face still looked angelic and cute. She really had a poor sense of fashion. I was surprised she could change so much overnight.
¡°Are you ok?¡±
She was merely inches away from me when she asked me this question, catching me off-guard. I hadn¡¯t even noticed how fast she was. I looked into her eyes. I was surprised because of howrge beautiful they were. As I was thinking this, an image shed through my mind. All I saw was Yokino¡¯s heterochronic eyes. ring at me voraciously, reminding me of what happened. I instinctively pushed back, making Akane make an ¡°Uh?¡± sound.
¡°Akkun?¡±
She nervously called out the childish name she used on me.
¡°I told you to stop calling me that.¡±
¡°But Akkun is Akkun. I won¡¯t stop! Hehe.¡±
She proimed loudly, ignoring my wishes as she usually did with a certain level of innocence in it. This girl was really too cute. I gave up with a sigh.
¡°Could you go down? I need to get dressed.¡±
¡°Hm? But since when did you care about dressing up in front of me?¡±
¡°Since today. Now get out.¡±
¡°Huh? Bu-¡±
I pushed her out of my room and shut the door behind her. I took out my phone and looked at my contact list. I wanted to call Manyuda to give him his Visual Master X today before it somehow got destroyed. I had only 9 contacts on it.
¡°This is¡ what the hell?¡±
When I checked, I actually had 10 contacts on it. The final contact was called Alpha. My eye twitched the moment I saw this. Quickly, I called the number and put it to my ear.
¡°Hellooooo~ Super Duper Alpha here! How can I help you?!¡±
Her hyper voice came through quickly.
¡°Cut the crap, System Master!¡±
I yelled at her.
¡°Hey, if it isn¡¯t my favourite system user. Nice to hear you too. Been a while. Yeah, I¡¯ve been alright. Just dealing with a little bit of stress from working on your system. No biggie. Thanks for asking. Now if that¡¯s all, I¡¯m cutting the call.¡±
¡°Wait! Wait¡¡±
I heaved a heavy sigh when the line wasn¡¯t disconnected.
¡°I¡¯m sorry. It¡¯s just¡ I¡¯m really stressed out right now.¡±
¡°Sorry you¡¯re stressed out from simply losing a goblin. Anyway, what do you want?¡±
She disregarded my feelings, but I couldn¡¯t get angry at her. Mostly because I didn¡¯t know what she¡¯d do to me if I got her too angry. That wasn¡¯t something I was willing test either.
¡°Can you tell me why I¡¯m here? Is there a point to this?¡±
¡°Huh? You mean you don¡¯t know?!¡±
She eximed over the call, forcing me to pull the phone away temporarily.
¡°What do you mean? I wasn¡¯t given any heads up.¡±
I exined to her.
¡°Hmm. Is that so? Well sorry, but I don¡¯t know either.¡±
¡°Eh?¡±
¡°Well, truth is. I don¡¯t even know how you have a direct line to me. I assumed this was something you made yourself, but it seems you don¡¯t even know what this is.¡±
I felt my heart sink.
¡°H-How would I have made this myself?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t ask me. Your species is weird in all sorts of ways.¡±
¡°What¡¯s the supposed to mean?¡±
¡°Wait¡ could this be¡ N-No way¡¡±
¡°System Master? Is this being done by someone like you?¡±
¡°Find a way to escape from this ce. When you do, we¡¯ll talk in my domain where no one can interfere.¡±
She cut the call immediately, leaving me alone. There was an odd thunderous silence in the room. I was starting to breathe heavily. It suddenly felt like I was in enemy territory, being watched secretly. I looked around my room. The walls were closing in on me. I wanted to shout, but it felt like my voice was lost. My mouth was dry and sweat fell like rain drops from my forehead.
I looked at the door. I ran for it and left the room. The whole house was starting to warp around me. I could hear faint voices as I made for the staircase. Down there, I saw Mitsuki looking at me with concern in her eyes. But that couldn¡¯t possibly be Mitsuki.
While trying to run back to my room, Akane popped up behind me. She was muttering somethings, but it just sounded like noise. Scared, I decided to take my chances with Mitsuki down the stairs. In a hurry, I ended up tripping and falling down the staircase.
DING!
[Checkpoint Saved]
[Scenario failed!]
[Returning the soul to the host body]
<A/N: Due to certain reasons, I will be taking a short break from posting this week. I will return next week. Please leave ament or review to help in getting more readers! Also join the discord here: https://discord.gg/Ew44jhbVym or message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 to get invited>
Chapter 173 Telling Stories To The Queen Of The Bloody Seas
Day 51
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired the unique skill [Energy Transcriber]]
[Due to the excess exposure to chaos energy your body was morphed]
[Due to the unique skill [Energy Transcriber] the excess chaos energy has been converted into Mana]
[Your mana circuits have been expanded]
[Your current mana limitation is 10,000]
[Your current magic power is 500]
Several system alerts had blocked my vision. I groaned lightly as I looked around. My head was aching a bit and all I couldn¡¯t really see here. It was dark, but I could make out a figure with [God¡¯s Wisdom]. It was the named sharkman from before. Bastien.
He was standing towards the only exit I could make out, not moving even a single inch. I wasn¡¯t sure how he¡¯d react to me being awake so I stayed still while considering my options.
Creating a portal would definitely alert him to my presence. Would it be possible to sneak past him? With his skills [Wave Area], [Aura Sense], [Presence Detection] and [Mind¡¯s Eye] I couldn¡¯t even dream of doing that with mere [Super Stealth]. Maybe if I fought him? Yeah, that way I could get his soul. But then, he was strong enough to cut off the Kraken¡¯s tentacle.
¡®Come to think of it, the kraken has no name. Hmm, can¡¯t be bothered enough to name it. I guess my only way out is [Shadow Travel].¡¯
¡°If you have any ns of escaping, forget about it. Daxia is more relentless than you could possibly imagine. She would wage war with Antis just to get you back.¡±
¡®E-E-Eh?!¡¯
I sat up after hearing that. I was wondering if he had any way of reading my mind, but he didn¡¯t have the [Telepathy] skill.
¡°I can sense intent. So don¡¯t even bother.¡±
The skill [Mind¡¯s Eye]. It allowed him to anticipate the movement of enemies. I didn¡¯t know that it meant it allowed him to know what they were nning even when they hadn¡¯t made a move.
I let out a heavy breath and looked through my body for any differences. I couldn¡¯t identify any and I could use magic around here as well, so at least I knew I wasn¡¯t a prisoner.
¡®Where am I?¡¯
¡°The Den. Or as you people call it, SharkFang.¡±
He answered my question politely. I was surprised that someone of such a figure was a kind person.
¡®Um¡ can you tell me why I¡¯m here?¡¯
When I asked him this question, I got no response.
¡®Mr. Bastien?¡¯
I called out his name, but he still gave me no reaction. Maybe he didn¡¯t know so he wasn¡¯t saying anything. Or was Daxia¡¯s n for me so wicked she had ordered him not to inform me? Thetter seemed usible enough. Still, waging war on Antis just to get me when we¡¯ve only met once.
I could teleport back to the surface and ignore their problems, but I need the court mages help.
For now, I would just wait and y along then. If Daxia showed any ill intent, I guess it would be a fight to the death. And I didn¡¯t n on dying here toda-
¡°Hinotori!¡±
A shrill cry came from the outside as a massive figure appeared in the cave.
¡®D-Daxia.¡¯
¡°Gah! Stop using that mind skill. It¡¯s annoying. Speak with your beak already.¡±
Shemanded me, but I wasn¡¯t sure how to respond to that.
¡®Uuuh¡ds?¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t look at me. I-I¡¯m nevering out to face her again.¡¯
¡®S-Same here.¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t abandon me!¡¯
¡®Sorry! Get us out of here!¡¯
¡®I-I¡¯ll be exploring the Dark Arts.¡¯
Theypletely abandoned me in my time of need. What kind of characters were they?! They were supposed to be me! This wasn¡¯t me! They were chickens! Chickens I say!
¡°Well?¡±
¡®I-I can¡¯t use my beak.¡¯
¡°Why not?¡±
¡®I just can¡¯t¡¡¯
¡°Hmmm. I¡¯ll take that for now. Come along.¡±
She grabbed me in her arm and made to leave the cave.
¡°Daxia.¡±
She paused after hearing her name being mentioned.
¡°Hm?¡±
¡°The other gangs are getting restless. They lost good men in the fight against the kraken. If you don¡¯t make a statement to them, we could be looking at a mutiny.¡±
His voice was cold and trembled slightly.
¡°Mutiny? Ha! Let theme if they want to die.¡±
¡®You idiot! That¡¯s what I¡¯m scared off.¡¯
His thought came to me loud and clear. I looked at Daxia, but all I could see was a sadistic grin on her face. She was aplete battle junky.
¡°We can¡¯t let them keep dying, Daxia. At least ept some of them into the gang to appease the members.¡±
¡°Huh? If they didn¡¯t pass the trial, there¡¯s no point.¡±
¡°Stop being immature about this.¡±
¡°Ha! You think I¡¯m going to remain as boring as you?¡±
She mocked him while staring down at me cockily.
¡°Come on, Daxia. You gotta stop this.¡±
He pleaded with her, but Daxia shrugged him off.
¡°I¡¯ll be backte today as well. Don¡¯t bother getting me anything to eat.¡±
After having thest word, she left the cave, leaving an angry Bastien gazing at us.
¡®Immature brat¡ whatever.¡¯
After hearing his final thoughts on the matter, I looked at Daxia. I decided to take a page out of Akira¡¯s ybook.
¡®Ha. So, you¡¯re a shitty leader.¡¯
I told her while we zoomed past everything.
¡°Huh? What are you getting on about?¡±
She stopped swimming and brought me to her face level. She wasn¡¯t abusing her [Chaos Energy] this time, so I was alright. Even if she did, it would seem that my new unique skill [Energy Transcriber] would simply convert the [Chaos Energy] into something less harmful.
¡®Let go of me and I¡¯ll tell you.¡¯
She looked at me suspiciously.
[You are being scanned for the truth]
She really didn¡¯t trust me. Well, I wouldn¡¯t trust a weird creature that attacked my home with a baby kraken either.
After confirming that I had no ill intent, she loosened her grip and I swam free. Stretching my body for a bit, a rxed moan escaped my mouth.
¡®God! When was thest time I had a stretch that good? Damn it, my body¡¯s been so tensed ever since I came to this bloody world. I¡¯d need a masseuse or something. Wait¡ maybe there¡¯s one in cities? Yeah, there should be one in a human city or Antis even. I¡¯ll have to check them out.¡¯
As I was stretching, I took a look at my surroundings. All I could see was blue. Nothing else in sight. With my map, I identified that I was quite literally in the middle of nowhere.
¡®Um¡ where are we?¡¯
¡°Exin what you were saying.¡±
Her face was twisted in a nasty frown, making me frown.
¡®Lighten up a little. You¡¯ll see that it performs wonders.¡¯
¡°Lighten¡ up?¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Take it easy?¡¯
Well, this was going to be a tough one.
? ¡®Anyway, back to what I was saying. You¡¯re a terrible leader.¡¯
¡°What makes you say that?¡±
She folded her arms and red at me. Aplete 180 from when she wanted to join my familia.
¡®Well, I¡¯ve been told I¡¯m a terrible leader several times so I have an eye for these things.¡¯
¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. You¡¯re some kind of boss. Take me under your wing!¡±
She got up in my face and pleaded with stars for eyes.
¡®Huh? Ah! Too close!¡¯
I instinctively retreated and looked at her from a reasonable distance.
¡®Didn¡¯t you hear me? I¡¯m a shitty leader! I really am! No joke.¡¯
¡°Eh? What makes you a shitty leader?¡±
¡®Um¡ I¡¯m not sure myself¡ it¡¯s a long story.¡¯
¡°I like stories.¡±
¡®Ah¡ I¡¯m seriously not getting out of here till I tell you everything, huh?¡¯
¡°Nope.¡±
After having confirmed that she simply wanted to hear my backstory, I decided to make a simple deal with her.
¡®If I tell you, you¡¯ll just let me go to Antis, right?¡¯
¡°Why would you want to go to that boring ce?¡±
¡®Well, I wouldn¡¯t have to if you know a very powerful shaman.¡¯
She didn¡¯t respond, implying that she knew none personally.
¡°Alright then. If your story satisfies me, then I¡¯ll let you go.¡±
¡®Um, agent. Should I make the story more dramatic than it actually is?¡¯
<<No>>
¡®Hmm, if you say so.¡¯
After that, I spent the remainder of that day describing my life to Daxia. Of course, I left out the part about me reincarnating and my unique skills and the system, but she should have been able to assume something.
***
¡°This cor is so annoying.¡±
An annoyed murmur escaped Yokino¡¯s lips as she tugged at the silver cor around her neck. The cor had a chain that was firmly fixed to the ground beneath her. Every time she pulled it, it felt as if the chain was shrinking.
¡°Stop doing that. You won¡¯t be able to move aroundter on.¡±
Suna, her quiet partner, warned her while floating,pletely still. She was looking at the bars in front of her. There was a guard standing there, clothed in fine armour with a spear in hand. Yokino red at him before clicking her tongue. Her earlier attempts had seduction had led her to a near death experience and she wasn¡¯t going to dare her fate again.
¡°What do we do then?¡±
¡°Just wait for the princess to return. She¡¯ll set us free.¡±
¡°Huh? If you hadn¡¯t realised, the princess isn¡¯t here.¡±
Yokino argued, making Suna sigh.
¡°You¡¯re the one who said Hinotori is trustworthy with this kind of thing.¡±
After being reminded of her earlier im, Yokino could only look away. She clicked her tongue and sat down annoyed.
When she and S una appeared at the gates leading to the capital city, Yurul, they had been questioned for their purpose. Apparently, there had been a wide area alert to not permit any movement to-and-from Yurul and other cities. Since the princess went missing, security had gone to the highest possible state. Suna knew of this, so she simply wanted them to bring in the princess so they could be done with it all, but the portal that was created had messed up, sending the princess and Hinotori to different locations.
The guards didn¡¯t believe their story and decided to imprison them. Yokino assumed she could easily beat them up, but she was highly outmatched and beaten after trying to escape. They used [Mana Sealing Cors] on her, preventing her from essing any of her magical abilities which were her strongest suit. She had seen the cors in action once before, so she knew it was pointless to even try, but she assumed her [Lustful Gaze] could do something to a guard.
Only after she got beaten up did Suna tell her about the sort of the training the Antean guards are made to go through. Especially the ones guarding the capital city.
¡°Come on, it¡¯s been like 4 days now. I feel like I¡¯ll go mad from boredom.¡±
¡°Be grateful they even give us food.¡±
¡°Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Tch.¡±
¡®How did I mess up this bad? Everything was going smoothly. Deliver the princess to antis, get a royal favour, then get into the dungeon, find that weapon that the Duchess was talking off. Gaah! I¡¯d even gotten the chicken to do whatever I asked¡ But how will hest wherever he is? If he ended up in Daxia¡¯s turf, it¡¯s all over!¡¯
While sulking in her corner of the prison cell, she could feel a new presenceing towards the cell. Her first thoughts when she felt the presence was,
¡®Strong¡¡¯
She looked at Suna to see her reaction, however Suna showed no change in expression. Either she didn¡¯t notice or didn¡¯t care. Either way, Yokino was seeing her in a new light.
¡°Your highness!¡±
The guard yelled and straightened his posture when the new figure appeared.
¡®Your highness?¡¯
Even more interested now, the undine looked through the prison bars. There, she saw a huge figure, bigger than the princess. Much like the princess, his upper body was like that of a human, with ck tattoos over hisrge chest. His body was extremely muscled, proof that he had been training quite a bit. His tail was bright orange and his fins were a dreamy red, a belt was wrapped around his waist with a sword in it. His blonde frilly hairid back on his body. He looked nothing like the princess, with his emerald green eyes.
¡°These are the prisoners that were captured a few days ago?¡±
¡°Yes, your highness. They imed to be transporting your sister, but got intercepted by external magical interference so they ended up here without the princess.¡±
After hearing the report, the princess looked at Suna in the cell. Her face waspletely expressionless as both of them gazed at each other for a silent minute. The princess¡¯ gaze then fell on Yokino who flinched ufortably.
¡®Creepy.¡¯
¡°All the reports I¡¯ve received go like this. I also heard there¡¯s someone with the princess?¡±
He asked, trying to confirm some of the things he heard. Suna didn¡¯t respond, so Yokino assumed the best thing to do would be to remain silent as well.
¡°Staying silent won¡¯t get us anywhere. I need to save my sister.¡±
The prince¡¯s fist trembled violently. His voice sounded threatening and the res he sent at them made hisment sound violent. There was still no response from both Suna and Yokino.
¡°If you won¡¯t cooperate, Suna. I will take this as treason.¡±
¡®T-Treason? W-won¡¯t that get you thrown into The Deep?¡¯
She sent a sharp message to Suna.
¡°I refuse to speak to his highness or any of his consorts.¡±
Suna finally spoke out, but her statement was an offensive one anyhow one saw it. The prince grinned once he saw that.
¡°Who would you want to speak to then?¡±
¡°My father.¡±
She responded, wasting no time.
¡®Her father? That¡¯s right, she¡¯s been asking about him since we came here.¡¯
¡°Huh? What kind of sick joke is that?¡±
The prince asked with a low growl.
¡°Not a joke. I wish to speak with my father, the Captain of the Royal Guard, Sundale.¡±
Suna¡¯s voice boomed in the prison cell, sending waves to the prince.
The Captain of the Royal Guard was officially a higher rank than the prince and princesses. He was second only to the king himself. However, once the king was unavable, he would be the de-facto leader of the kingdom. Using his name would be more than enough to make the prince back down. However, the prince didn¡¯t even flinch.
¡°If this is some kind of joke, I¡¯m warning you to stop. Be more sensitive about the dead.¡±
¡°What?¡±
The words escaped Suna¡¯s mouth like water.
¡°I will return again tomorrow. Hopefully you¡¯ll be feeling a bit chattier then.¡±
Chapter 174 Invasion Scheme
¡°Thank you.¡±
The princess, still shaken from her near-death encounter managed. The wolf fishman looked at her as he sheathed his sword.
¡°It was just my duty, your highness.¡±
He replied and straightened his back. He held a ck orb up to his face and scanned it. He applied a bit more pressure to the orb, trying to crack it, but the princess noticed this early.
¡°Don¡¯t do that.¡±
She snatched the orb from his hand protectively and put it at her side, while cautiously swimming back from the guard.
¡°Excuse me?¡±
He was perplexed. He failed to understand why she didn¡¯t allow him to destroy it. That was the very creature that just attempted to kill her, so why would she protect it?
¡°No need to worry about that. Who are you, anyways?¡±
She quickly changed the topic, not feeling like exining. After thinking over the situation, she realised that she could have ended up causing a war between Hinotori¡¯s people and Antis. The best course of action would be killing the slime if she didn¡¯t want this information to spread, but it would also be more beneficial to have the slime convince Hinotori¡¯s people that Antis had nothing to do with it rather than kill them all. From what she¡¯d seen, it was very usible that those on the surface coulde beneath, but the same could not be said for the fish folk and merfolk.
The only exception to this rule was the members of the royal family. And sure, they may not have been stronger than SharkFang, but it was possible that SharkFang would receive an exceedingly tempting offer from the surface and help them. There were way too many things at risk for her to simply go off killing the slime.
Then there was the wolf fishman. She was sure to memorise the faces and names of those in the royal guard in order to find those she could trust and those she couldn¡¯t. Even if the royal guards themselves had no opinions, they were extremely loyal to those they were assigned to. So, if this fishman came under orders from her brother¡¯s side, this could very well be the end of her.
¡°Excuse my rudeness, your highness! My name is Osveta. I am a new recruit, assigned to your personal safety, your highness.¡±
He put an arm to his chest and bowed.
¡°Osveta? Hmm¡ I¡¯ve heard that name before.¡±
Osveta let out a nervousugh and scratched the back of his head.
¡°I was sort of famous amongst the new recruits.¡±
¡°Is that so? What was your graduating rank?¡±
Still suspicious of him, she asked him another question.
¡°First, your highness!¡±
¡°Really? That¡¯s quite impressive.¡±
¡®I guess that exins how he easily disposed of the slime. I was certain it would cause some trouble for one or two royal guards. That means his potential is great. Still, that makes him even more suspicious.¡¯
¡°Sorry, I may be asking you too many questions.¡±
¡°It is no problem at all, your highness.¡±
¡°I have one more question. Is that alright?¡±
¡°Of course!¡±
¡°Who assigned you to me?¡±
¡°His majesty, your father, Njorri Mox Den Anon Yorul, assigned me to your safety.¡±
¡®Father did? Hmm, then he¡¯s trustworthy, I guess.¡¯
Her heart was put at ease once she was informed of this. If there was one person she could put all her trust in, it was her father. If he was certain that this guard would be good enough to protect her, she could rest easy.
¡°Is my father around?¡±
¡°His majesty will be appearing on the day of the feast. He wanted to present me to you as a gift on that day, but decided you would need my protection as soon as possible.¡±
¡°How very much like father. Ruining the surprise so early on.¡±
¡°Sorry, but may I speak?¡±
He asked.
¡°Go ahead.¡±
¡°Why do you not want to destroy that thing? Did it not try to kill you?¡±
There was a certain level of threat in his voice, mostly directed towards the orb, but it still caused the princess to flinch.
¡°She¡¯s an extremely important project of mine. Could you not try destroying it?¡±
¡°Oh? A project? I¡¯d heard that you were quite the scientific explorer yourself. d to see your experiments are quite¡ erhm, powerful.¡±
His attitude hadpletely changed, making the princess feel a bit annoyed.
¡°For a royal guard, you talk too much.¡±
¡°Eh? But those other guys are too boring. I don¡¯t want to be like that¡ your highness.¡±
¡°Are you sure you received training? No royal guard talks nearly as much as you do.¡±
¡°But I did! You gotta believe me.¡±
¡°Oh? No ¡°your highness¡±? How impertinent of you.¡±
¡°Eek! I apologise, your highness. Let me lead you back to Yorul.¡±
He gestured to the floating dome with his hand a light warm smile.
¡°Do that, you impertinent guard.¡±
¡®Huh¡ he reminds me of Suna. We might get along just fine.¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
***
After I described what happened to me, Daxia decided to describe her story to me. I didn¡¯t know why, but she just did it, refusing to let me do anything till she finished. She ended up exining why she kidnapped the princess and I hade to the conclusion that I had no real idea of the situation. This entire mission was much bigger than an internal feud in Antis. Which meant Suna and Yokino had just got themselves wrapped up in something that could very well be the end of us.
It turned out that other than the princess being a target for murder by her brother, the other nation, the Exsuole Empire was nning to attack them during their important feast. Their n was quite simple. They were simply going to strike when all the defense was concentrated on one area. They would hit it hard with all their resources in a surprise attack, crippling Antis.
Apparently, the princess already knew of this but kept it hidden from all of us. She got herself kidnapped¡ she paid the SharkFang bandits to rescue her from Antis. Once she got there, she was nning on talking to Daxia about an alliance, but Daxia refused to help the princess due to certain reasons, one being that she didn¡¯t like the princess¡¯ way of doing things. That was why the princess ended up bing an actual prisoner. Daxia was going to collect a ransom from Antis, essentially crippling them right before their face off with the Exsuole Empire. She was crueller than I assumed.
That meant, from our perspective, either way one looked at it, Antis was doomed. It would be worse if the Exsuole ever decided to pay Daxia to help them.
¡®Uuuhhh¡ that¡¯s¡ gaah, what am I supposed to do now?!¡¯
I yelled, scratching my head.
¡°Hahahaha! Your reaction is so funny!¡±
Daxiaughed at the way I reacted to what she just told me. I felt kind of annoyed by that and ended up pouting.
¡®So, you¡¯re telling me this entire trip is a wasted effort?¡¯
I basically threw myself in the middle of a war between two countries. Fortunately, I wasn¡¯t in too deep. Then again, I needed that royal wish in order to get Minerva back. Damn it! All this would have been solved if I added her to my familia. Akira was mocking me in my head as well.
¡°You aren¡¯t going to participate then?¡±
Daxia asked me with a weird grin on her face. A sigh escaped my mouth when I thought over it.
¡®It¡¯s not like I¡¯m trying to get myself killed or anything, but¡¡¯
I steeled myself for what wasing next.
¡®I really need that favour. I¡¯ll join them and hopefully, we can stop this so I get my wish and find Minerva.¡¯
I looked at Daxia and her grin widened inhumanely, sending a cold shiver down my spine.
¡°Good! The more the merrier! The SharkFang crew¡¯s gonna be helping you out!¡±
''Eh? Why are you helping out? I thought you didn''t want to participate.''
"Hahaha! You see, that''s what you get wrong. I''m already a part of this. I was just going to mess with Antis, but hurting Exsuole looks like fun now."
''I-Is that so?''
"Of course, I''ll be expecting a reward from you at the end of this. A very hefty price for my services."
She had a very greedy look in her eyes, discouraging me. Still, that was simply a problem forter. I''d ask her what she wanted after my problems were solved.
¡®Alright then. When do we move out?¡¯
¡°We¡¯ll intercept Exsuole in the next 4 days if we move fast. I¡¯ll catch up in the next two days, so I¡¯ll start it off.¡±
Daxia waspletely confident in her ability to hold back the army of an entire nation by herself. Then again, if she was able to y around with a Kraken like it was a child, I guess that was to be expected. I thought over the matter a bit more and came up with a better n.
¡®How long will it take for word to spread from Exsuole to Antis?¡¯
¡°It¡¯s impossible. Antis prevents any unknown form ofmunication through various magical means.¡±
¡®That¡¯s kind of stupid and smart¡ hmm, that means this entire invasion is a calcted strategy.¡¯
¡®Yeah. So, we¡¯ll need to assume that the one orchestrating this is a sort of genius, right?¡¯
¡®T-Then, do y-you guys think what we know is m-misinformation?¡¯
¡®Misinformation is one way to put it.¡¯
¡®More like we¡¯ve been given some level of information to make us assume we know the entire ploy.¡¯
¡®T-That means, the army m-marching to Antis isn¡¯t the real one?¡¯
¡®Yeah. Just a distraction or¡¡¯
¡®Reinforcements.¡¯
¡®T-then there¡¯s already some of them in Antis?¡¯
¡®Quite possibly. Think about it. Whye up with such a simple strategy for the event with the most security imaginable up?¡¯
¡®It could be they chose that event because more security would be focused on the royal family than the kingdom itself, making it easy to invade.¡¯
¡®No. News would still spread, giving the royal family time to escape.¡¯
¡®Also¡ is Antis a nation or a city?¡¯
¡®Ah¡ didn¡¯t think about that. Daxia, does Antis have multiple cities?¡¯
¡°Oh¡ about 5 cities? But they aren¡¯t big from what I¡¯ve seen.¡±
¡®How long would it take to move from one city to the other?¡¯
¡°Not long. Not even half a day. Way less. They are really close to one another.¡±
¡®That so? So, if one were to enter Antis, which city would they see first.¡¯
¡°All of them.¡±
¡®Huh?¡¯
Chapter 175 A Queen Has The Final Say
¡®What do you mean I can see them all?¡¯
I asked her, failing to understand how one would be able to see all the cities. She put her hand to her chin, mauling over her possible answer.
¡®Got any reasons, agent?¡¯
<<None if from a normal perspective. However, it is possible to see all cities at once through magical means>>
¡®Are you talking about with magic?¡¯
¡°No. Hmm¡ it¡¯s a bit hard to exin. I¡¯ll show you when we get there.¡±
¡®Sure¡ in that case, I guess I¡¯ll need to prepare.¡¯
Aftering to a conclusion, I decided the best option would be to prepare for the uing event. Even after we both came to an understanding, Daxia still wanted to fight me to assess my true strength and kept bugging me about my true name. Obviously, I never conceded to any of those requests and focused on my preparations.
Akkun and Akira were both on a roll, with Akira¡¯s progression into the Dark Arts raising to a whole level 4. I acquired a few new magics. [Blood Magic] and [Curse Magic]. Both of which were terrifying magics to me, especially since they needed something in addition to mana to function. For instance, [Blood Magic] as its name suggested, required blood to perform spells, although the most effective form of blood would be that of the caster themselves. There was a wide array of possibilities that could be performed with this form of magic, going as far as elemental magic to summoning magic.
Next was [Curse Magic] which was more focused on causing effects on targets rather than outright damage. Something like terrible poisoning on a target or giving them bad luck of sorts.
Both were really terrifying forms of magic given the seemingly limitless possibilities with them, proving how dangerous the dark arts actually were. Hopefully, not many people knew how to use the dark arts, that was taking out the fact that devils existed. Fortunately, devils couldn¡¯t exist in this physical world without some sort of contract ¨C a limitation of sorts if you will. Whoever put up that rule was definitely terrified of what they could do to the residents of this world. Then again, that was how it was like in every manga, so I just didn¡¯t need to think too much about it.
Akkun had alsoe up with various skill formations. My personal interest was on the fusion of [Camouge] and [Super Stealth]. It gave me [Immersion]. A skill that allowed me to perfectly blend in with my environment. The way [Camouge] changed my body to match my surroundings and [Super Stealth] erased almost all my presence, [Immersion] did both freely, although I couldn¡¯t escape the gaze of a blindfolded Daxia. She was simply different.
After a bit of contemting, I asked if I could take a look at her ability set. Oddly enough, she agreed to it and I was¡ well I say this a lot, but I was horrified.
She was S rank. And she had a somewhat new statpared to others.
STATUS
[Name: Daxia
[Species: Adult Shark Fishman Level 112/70
[Status: [Excited]
[Age: 30 years
[Rank: S
[Race Rank: Tier 2
[ss: Swordsman Level 17
[Sub-ss: Swashbuckler Level 8, Aura Master Level 8, Sword Deity Level 1
[Titles: [Of World], [Giant Crab yer], [Cannibal], [Merman yer], [Fishman yer], [Vulture], [Fast Learner], [Queen of Bandits], [Country Demolisher], [Chaos Beast], [Corrupted Sacred], [Antagonized by The World], [Tested Chaos Beast], [Kraken yer], [Sacred Event Cleared], [Champion of The Depths]
[Blessings: |Blessings Are Not Permitted on This Target|
[Level: 152 Exp: -
[Chaos Rank: 1 Test: 3/8
[Health: 130,999 Stamina: 121,467/230,000 Strength: 14,560 Speed: 20,380 Defence: 19,810 Dexterity: 17,915 Intelligence: 1670 Luck: 100
[SKILLS]
[Currently under calction¡]
I was left dumbfounded after a while, but the agent exined it all to me. ording to it, once a being became a chaos beast, they lost the blessings of gods automatically. It was just one of thews of the world, one that wouldn¡¯t allow for a creature using power that was not of the gods to receive any further help from them. Their [Sacred] being corrupted was the result of them emanating [Chaos Energy], which was a no-no to the gods.
I quite possibly just found the gods kryptonite and was interested in actually developing this ability now, but I thought to the being who had given me their [Sacred] and the system master who was watching me closely. I wondered if they¡¯d even allow me to get such an option, but decided I would consider itter when I properly understood the implications.
The next issue for me were her stats. Daxia was strong. Terrifyingly so at that. Even Minerva wasn¡¯t this much of a monster and that was Minerva we were talking about. She and Goliath were actually kind of close in terms of physical ability, but I doubted Goliath could acquire the title [Kraken yer] so easily. To obtain the [yer] title, one needed to have killed a certain amount of that species and just a baby kraken was more than enough to beat several of her men easily, yet she alone had this title.
And from this, I could conclude that the highest level I would probably see was level 200 or so. Given how even an S rank was level 152. There probably wasn¡¯t much to go beyond that, but after thinking about it, I realised gods existed. Maybe the level cap for gods was close to 300 whereas for mortals it was close to 200? Something of this sort. Some more investigation was required to do this, but unfortunately for me, the agent couldn¡¯t give me such an answer so easily. It had only recently even found out about the system¡¯s existence and its functions.
We returned to Daxia¡¯s camp to host a meeting of sorts, but the seen before us was weird. Bastien, Daxia¡¯s right-hand man, was beating the shit out of a bunch of fishmen. Hepletely overwhelmed them and barked for their leaders to step out. He scolded them before attending to Daxia who had hidden her aurapletely. The bandits were all terrified once they noticed Daxia had been observing the entire scenario, but she didn¡¯t even focus on them.
¡°So, we aren¡¯t killing the creature?¡±
He asked nonchntly about my death.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°No. I¡¯vee to take a liking to her.¡±
¡°Her? I could have sworn that was a him. Ah well. What¡¯s the n then?¡±
¡®W-Wait! You thought I was male?!¡¯
Bastien faced me with a weird expression.
¡°Yes. Sorry if that offended you.¡±
¡®This ojisan is blind.¡¯
¡®Which means we act like a boy.¡¯
¡®Which means we can still be recognised as a boy.¡¯
¡®That means we are a boy.¡¯
¡®But that logic implies tomboys are boys too.¡¯
¡®Huh? T-Then are people who like tomboys gay?¡¯
¡®W-What kind of logic do you twoe up with sometimes?!¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t look at us. You¡¯re in on this too.¡¯
¡®Gah! Sometimes I wonder how we share the same mind.¡¯
¡°Enough of that. I¡¯m guessing that was a rebellion just now?¡±
Daxia asked calmyly about the issue as if it didn¡¯t concern her in the slightest. Bastien put his hand to his chin¡ jaw¡ neck? He thought over how to respond to her.
¡®If I say it¡¯s an outright rebellion, she¡¯d kill them all. If I say it was a simple fight she¡¯de up with another stupid tournament likest time and kill off everybody this time. Training session would end up with most of them having to go through the actual trial. I doubt any would survive that. Dealing with this brat just gets harder and harder.¡¯
Listening in on his internal turmoil, I couldn¡¯t help but sympathise with him. Sure, I probably didn¡¯t have it as bad as him, but I could understand what it was like having to reign in a monster that was way stronger than yourself.
¡®I don¡¯t think that¡¯s important right now, Daxia. Let¡¯s focus on other ns.¡¯
I tried providing an out for him. Daxia red at me, but due to [Super Fear Resistance] I got off with only flinching.
¡®Is she trying to help me? Well, guess I can¡¯t waste this opportunity.¡¯
He spread his arms out.
¡°Ah yes. Have you decided on what we¡¯re going to do now? You normally don¡¯t get involved in such troublesome matters, so I-¡±
¡°Eh? Like I said the day that brat came here: We¡¯re joining the fray! Get your stuff ready. It¡¯s gonna be a long journey for you boys.¡±
Paying no mind to what we were trying avoid all-together, Daxia managed to dampen Bastien¡¯s mood. The mood around him changed from a gentle one to a vicious, cold one. He growled at her menacingly.
¡°Daxia, you know I love you and all, but sometimes you just have to listen to me. Our men can¡¯t join the fray. We just lost a quarter of them to your new friend. We lost half of them a year ago. Morale has been bad for the long run. Sure, because of you we are still possibly the strongest nation, but if we keep going, we can¡¯t be considered a nation anymore!¡±
¡°To hell with your nation. I told you from the very beginning, didn¡¯t I? I have no interest in making a nation. You promised it would be exciting. Well guess what, Bastien of the Deep! It¡¯s not fun. And as you said, a queen has the final say! Prepare the men. We move out today.¡±
Daxia swam off. The tension between the two was kind of thick and Daxia¡¯s body was starting to radiate [Chaos Energy] again. However, my new skill [Energy Transcriber] took care of that no problem.
[[Chaos Energy] absorbed.]
[Storage space of [Energy Transcriber] has been used up.]
[Convert to which form for use?]
[Mana]
[Aura]
I managed to get a look at how my new unique skill worked. It would seem the skill simply converted iing energy that I can¡¯t use into one that I could use. Basically, I could derive energy from anything releasing it. In its basic mode, the energy is first stored into a subspace that [Energy Transcriber] possesses. Once this subspace is filled up, the energy is passed on to me. However, it is possible for my reserves to get filled up as well and fortunately, [Evolver] came in with a clutch, forcefully creating a massive expansion in my mana storage capacity. That was why I now had over ten thousand mana points.
The question was what [Evolver] required for me to get that expansion. So far, there hadn¡¯t been any visible side effects yet. Maybe because of the skill [Soul Armour], I was being saved from the effects of [Evolver]? Then again, weren¡¯t mana circuits more physical than anything else?
Agent ended up exining more about the mana circuits, stating that the mana circuits are located in the soul. I wasn¡¯t sure if it had said something else before, but didn¡¯t that contradict the reason for my mana circuits needing 60 days to fully form? I decided to shrug it off.
Chapter 176 A Chat With The Queens Hand
Later on, Bastien called for me. I went to see him. He was right above the nesting area of the bandits. It was basically a mountain littered with holes in which the bandits rested and hoarded their treasure. Surrounding the mountain, there were some bandit groups set up with a few kids ying here and there. Several Lava Sharks swam through this area, making the water steaming hot. The Lava sharks were being treated as dogs here though, which felt sort of demoralising when I thought about it.
Bastien had crossed his arms while peering off into the unknown.
¡®No blind jokes. Starting now.¡¯
I reminded myself to make no jokes about Bastien¡¯s incapability to see things.
¡®What you looking at?¡¯
Gah! First thing I said. I expected some sort of growl or snarl in response, however Bastien just kept facing in that direction. I stood there in silence for a bit, then he pointed in front of both of us. That was towards the east.
¡®Um¡ is there something I¡¯m not seeing?¡¯
I asked him and after a weird minute of silence, he finally spoke.
¡°Towards the east, you¡¯ll find the Bloody Seas. A vicious feeding ground for the most blood-thirsty sorts of creatures you could find here. It¡¯s an impossibility for any to go in there ande back out intact. Krakens, Garguantuas, Thousand Eyes, Titranixes and Goats. Such fearful creatures that most are considered myths, you will find them in abundance in that ce. Imagine being a kid growing up on silly night-time stories about beings capable of destroying your entire life and finding out that those were real when you grew up. The Bloody Seas are just that. A living nightmare.¡±
He suddenly started rambling on about something. His tone was light, making it close to impossible to take him seriously. Then again, that was in the direction where I had to fight that baby kraken, so I sort of got what he was talking about.
¡°That¡¯s where I found Daxia.¡±
That was surprising information.
¡°A little snotty brat with a bad attitude. She was quite literally a handful when I first found her. However, there was one undeniable fact about her. She was strong. Seeing the way she took down a garguantua set fear in me. A ten-year-old was doing something I had to train for 15 years of my life to do. It didn¡¯t feel right.¡±
I was starting to get confused.
¡°After that point, I decided to take her in. Get her away from the battlefield and into something more¡x. I decided to make her a queen. She radiated this sort of magnificent aura that automatically drew people in towards her. It was fantastic. As if she was born to rally up people and lead.¡±
I really didn¡¯t get this sort of transition. Why was he telling me this right now? It had nothing to do with me or the current stakes.
¡°And now look at her. A selfish brat who doesn¡¯t care about anything but her entertainment. After using up 20 years of my life to train her, she still ended up the same way as I found her.¡±
¡®Um¡ what¡¯s happening now?¡¯
I asked him the question,pletely uninterested in where this was going.
¡°I guess what I¡¯m saying must be confusing then.¡±
A malicious smirk formed on his face. Honestly, I couldn¡¯t really tell if he was smirking or not. I was relying on pure instinct and imagining it, so to make it seem scarier, I would go with smirking.
¡°All I¡¯m saying is. You remind me of her.¡±
¡®Eh? How? We¡¯ve only just met. Barely an hour spent together and I suddenly remind you of Daxia from twenty years ago? Old man, have you grown senile?¡¯
I asked,pletely perplexed by the sort of conclusion he had reached. Who suddenly told someone they just met such nonsense? At least think about how the other person would feel. Am I supposed to say ¡°Thanks¡± back? Also, a very, very weird scenario he just came up with.
Me? Daxia? Never! I could never see myself like her.
¡°Fahahaha! It¡¯s true. It¡¯s true. You act just like she did when I first found her. You have the same kind of spirit. This never-ending drive to get stronger no matter what.¡±
¡®Eh? Never ending drive to get stronger? Is that the sort of vibe I give off? It¡¯s not like I¡¯m always thinking about though¡ wait. Don¡¯t tell me e-.¡®
¡°I heard your conversation with Daxia earlier. You really are just like her.¡±
¡®Eh? H-How¡¯d you hear that long conversation? We were literally miles away from here.¡¯
This guy¡¯s ability to eavesdrop was starting to freak me out.
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. But I have advice for you going forward.¡±
I looked forward, expecting some sort of long boring talk.
¡°If you don¡¯t take everything seriously, you will die and everything you¡¯re fighting for. Everyone you¡¯re trying to protect. That one person you¡¯re trying to save. They will die. Don¡¯t rush headfirst into this war just for a glimmer of hope. Focus on your people. Help them grow and ensure they are safe. Don¡¯t continue down Daxia¡¯s broken path.¡±
He solemnly warned me about my rash decision to participate in this. I looked at him and there was a sort of regretful vibe he gave off. It would seem this old man had made some mistakes which he didn¡¯t want me to make again.
Thinking about it in retrospect, maybe instead of storming off to find Minerva I should have asked about everyone else. Then again, Minerva was in a dire situation herself. Did I make the right choice choosing Minerva over the others or should I have concerned myself with them first?
¡®Gaah! I can¡¯t do this. I¡¯m going to sleep over this.¡¯
Having had enough with thinking of the issue Bastien had presented me with. I decided that sleeping would be for the best in this situation.<novelnext></novelnext>
Ok, it wasn¡¯t the best considering the type of topic I had to think about, but it was a simple preparation for theing days. I had a weird feeling that I would not be getting much sleep.
+
[The Sacred [Legend of Pandemonium] has reacted to the [Wires of Fate] at y]
[The Exclusive Skill [Legend of Pandemonium] has unlocked a new section]
Chapter 1 - #@$^&!
Act 1 ¨C Battle For Antis
--- Torn up by the loss of her dear friend, Hyakkiyago sought hope from the mythical underwater kingdom of Magic, Antis. In her attempts to receive help, Hyakkiyago has received a royal wish from the Royal family, however, there are rising tensions between the Antis Kingdom and the Exsuole Empire. Hyakkiyago has decided to take up arms in the current turmoil concerning the Magic Kingdom, Antis. She has rallied the forces of the SharkFang Kingdom to help in her fight against the Exsuole Nation. With the aid of the Sacred Bearer [Champion of The Depths], Hyakkiyago mobilises. ---
*Rewards for creating this scenario will be delivered at the end of this Chapter*
*Special rewards will be delivered for finishing hidden events in this Chapter*
*Additional rewards will be delivered for beating enemy Sacred Bearers in this Chapter*
[Some higher beings are intrigued by this spectacle]
[Some higher beings will be watching your progression closely]
[The Sacred Event: [Battle For Antis] has begun]
+
Huh? What¡¯s happening? A-Am I dreaming up weird stuff? Whatever.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], Tori acquired the unique skill [Energy Transcriber]]
[The skill [Dark Arts] became [Dark Arts Level 4]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Blood Magic]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Curse Magic]]
[The magic [Basic Water Magic] became [Basic Water Magic Level 4]]
[Tori acquired the magic skill [Whirlpool]]
[Tori acquired the magic skill [Water des]]
[Tori acquired the magic skill [Water spears]]
[Tori acquired the magic skill [Bubble Knox]
FUSION RESULTS
[Camouge] + [Super Stealth] = [Immersion]
[Diamond Scales] + [Basilisk Hard Scales] + [Anguix Bug Armour] = [Sinuous King Adamas Armour]
[Hyper Burst] + [Omni-Directional Movement] + [Super Speed Engine] = [Vector Control]
[Ink Creation] + [Acid Spit] = [Acidic Ink Creation]
SYNTHESIS RESULTS
[Matter Ingestion] + [Void Stomach] + [Umbre Mouth] + [Soul Consumption] = [World Eater] (High Advanced Skill)
[Soul Orb] + [Blood Bank] = Still synthesizing
FAMILIA
[Several members of your familia are greatly displeased with your General. Please select a more apt leader.]
Chapter 177 Intermission - Attack From The Fenrir Clan
Arge white wolf slept peacefully under the afternoon sun. Gently, her body moved up and down as her breathing stabilised. The previous night had been an arduous one, not to mention the days before. That no-good general that Hinotori had chosen, Arisu, was aplete menace. She had started mobilising all of Hinotori¡¯s minions to go out and attack horned rabbits.
At first, everyone simply assumed it was her own way of saying they should hunt those for food supplies, so they decided to do it in their own time.
Unbeknownst to everyone, Arisu was really adamant on the topic of hunting down the rabbits. She punished those who refused to go by using the special skill [Absolute Command] on them and forcing them to do as she bid. As someone who has experienced the pain caused by the skill first-hand, Shiroi couldn¡¯t help but feel infuriated by Arisu¡¯s wickedness.
She would have tried to attack Arisu on her own. The power gap between the two wasn¡¯t as big as it was before her evolution, so she was certain as of now, she would be more than enough to cause trouble for her. Unfortunately, something else came up.
A way more serious issue than Arisu simply abusing her abilities. There had been signs of other Timber wolf ns trying to invade their territory for a while now. Shiroi had kept it on the low because she didn¡¯t want to create any trouble for her master. At first, it started out as the number of avable preys reducing. Next, it was the sighting of wolves slowly encroaching, but they usually ran away when sighted.
However, this time, they had the audacity to challenge one of her own!
One timber wolf was out searching for prey the previous night when he was attacked by two Elecza wolves and one Timberwolf from a different n. Judging from their method of deciding to overpower him with numbers, Shiroi could deduce their opponent n.
They were from the Fenrir n. A weird name they gave to themselves, but it was a n formed from the union of three different wolf species. The Timberwolves, Elecza wolves and Treants. This unnatural union was formed a year ago. It started out as one of the weakest ns, but it birthed a new leader. This new leader boasted abnormal wisdom and skill, managing topletely turn around the dire state of that n.
ording to Shiroi¡¯s father, his encounter with this new leader was mind opening. Sure, the leader was not as strong as himself, but the leader had potential. He had a massive amount of room to grow, as well as enough leadership abilities to promote his n. However, there was one issue her father had with that timberwolf. His goals were too idealistic.
He never really exined what he meant by that, but Shiroi could take it that this new leader had a naivet¨¦ to his methods. Once she discovered what this was, she could use it to her advantage.
Currently, she had sent a recon team out to go invade into enemy territory. She had sent out both of her mist wolves as well, seeing as they functioned as a sort of recollection group to her as well. All information they picked up on, except for what could possibly cause her harm, was sent back to her at hermand or when the mist wolves were destroyed.
The only drawback to this was that it took quite a bit of processing power for her to be able to receive real-time information from both mist wolves. That was why she was currently lying down on the ground. It made her appear to be sleeping andzying about as regr Timberwolves did during the day.
It had been hours since she sent them off, and there had been no sign of the enemy.
She would persist. Surely, the other wolves she sent on this covert mission were also tired, but they hadn¡¯t stopped searching. As their leader, she had to show the same kind of resolve, or she was no better than a useless ruler.
Finally, they managed to find some elecza and Timberwolves. The elecza wolves were fast, darting at the Shiroi¡¯s wolves. However, Shiroi¡¯s wolves hadn¡¯t been joking around the past few days. They too had been training arduously, even before the massive attack on the west. Silently, they would dive into the dungeons and strike, hurriedly, voraciously and mercilessly. They decided to not waste the opportunity given to them by their new leader, so they grew.<novelnext></novelnext>
Some of them were on the verge of evolving. And the best of the best were the ones Shiroi had sent on this mission.
Easily, they blocked the Elecza wolves attack and started their own counterattack. Sure, they were outnumbered, but with their sheer power, they managed to overwhelm their opponents. Shiroi had given explicit orders not to kill this time around, seeing as she had her own theory as to what their leader¡¯s naivet¨¦ was.
They tried getting the wolves talking, but none of them spoke. After a bit of time, Shiroi decided that the best option was to recover those wolves and use them as a sort of bargaining chip. No matter how vicious a wolf was, the most important value that was pounded into their heads from birth was family.
This was a sort of bait then.
However, just as soon as her wolves were about to return, they were attacked by treants. They came out from trees, used the nts to their advantages to capture Shiroi¡¯s wolves. Sure, her wolves were stronger and managed to break free, but the treants managed to escape with the Timberwolves. Unsure as to whether to pursue them Shiroi ended up wasting time.
Hastily, one of her wolves chased after them, but it was revealed to be a trap for them. All her wolves were captured, including her mist wolves. She was rmed, because it seemed like her wolves were about to be killed.
Strangely enough, the enemy was arguing on whether to kill them.
That was it. Shiroi had found out her opponent¡¯s weakness. She left her mist wolves on their automatic mode. They would simply go with the flow till they received any extra orders from her.
Slowly, she stood up and shook her body. It was the day and her wolves were sleeping. She wouldn¡¯t disturb them for now. Once she had more information on her enemy¡¯s home, she would strike with the necessary reinforcements. If possible, she would send a request to Hinotori for help.
No¡ her master was going through an important moment. She couldn¡¯t disturb her now. The best to do with Hinotori was see how she would develop over the next few days. Whether she was fit to lead the Timberwolves or if the Timberwolves needed to part ways from her.
Her mind went back to Hinotori¡¯s question.
What was Shiroi¡¯s Honour? Well, the first thing toe to mind was her family. But she thought over it more and more after her brother¡¯s death. What was her true honour? She wasn¡¯t sure, but she hoped Hinotori woulde back to normal and help her figure that out.
For now, she would take care of this issue.
Chapter 178 I Will Kill You
NANEK TOX DEN ANON YORUL POV
It wasn¡¯t supposed to turn out this way.
Nothing was supposed to turn out this way at all. His n looked so full-proof. He had even consorted his advisors and they agreed with him. The best for everyone would be if the princess got taken out of the picture.
However, what happened was way worse. He had gotten word that his sister had been kidnapped by bandits from the SharkFang crew. He could never acknowledge that band of misfits as an actual kingdom. They even had the audacity to publicly request a ransom for the princess. The prices valued depending on what exactly they wanted back.
1 million Antean silver for one hand. 2 million Antean silver for her neck. 5 million Antean silver for her tail. 10 million Antean silver for her head. The entirety of Antis for her body intact. Her life could not be assured in thest deal. Several times, it had been pounded into him how sly the Queen of the Bloody Sea was, but for her to be this smart was absurd.
They had publicly announced the first four requests to the people for them tosh out at the royals. The princess was the most loved member out of all the royal family members. Given how massive their family was, that was saying something. This was one of the reasons that she, a child from the fourth generation of children was actually the best candidate for inheriting the crown.
He wondered how the people would react to knowing that they¡¯d have to sacrifice their lives to the people. He couldn¡¯t reveal such a thing to them. They would riot against the royal family toe up with a better solution. In such a scenario, the only solution he could think about was a war, but that would only lead to casualties on his side, since ording to the records of the past 20 years, Daxia has managed to defeat the Antean Kingdom by herself twice.
Two entire times, she found a way to overwhelm Antis.
A third disgrace was the worst thing imaginable. He couldn¡¯t give her what she wanted, but not giving her what she wanted was also catastrophic.
In all honesty, the prince underestimated Daxia¡¯s capabilities when he was informed that, Sundale, the Captain of the Royal Guard, had mobilised an elite group of soldiers for recovery. He was confident that Sundale would return the princess to Antis in one piece. Unfortunately, Sundale was only on the King¡¯s side. He wouldn¡¯t follow an order from any of the princes or princesses till the King permitted him to do so. As such, an order to dispose of the princess after informing the public of her recovery was virtually impossible.
Still, he could wait a bit to tell others to secretly take her out.
News came to him some days after Sundale went for the princess. It came from the worst source imaginable. Bastien of the Deep himself, with a very malicious tone. He delivered the corpse of the Sea Spirit and warned against any further ns of invasion. Fortunately, this wasn¡¯t a public spectacle as it would ruin the festivities.
Now he was in a pickle. If he wasn¡¯t able toe up with a solution before his father¡¯s return, he would lose face and credibility. The others would rise up and he would end up as one of the servants in the royal family.
He couldn¡¯t let that happen. He needed to find a way out of this situation.
Calmly, he scratched his chin in deep thought.
¡°Your highness.¡±
A voice came through. It belonged to his most trusted advisor and personal aid, his older sister Randy Mak Den Anon Yorul. She, unlike himself, was from the first generation. This meant she had a whole 3-year advantage against him, yet she was a mere maid, to him.
¡°What is it?¡±
¡°We have received news regarding your sister.¡±
At the mention of his sister, he could only feel his mood plummet even further below. Honestly, Daxia was way more trouble than any king had to deal with. Imagining his father organising two wars against her and ending up with headaches worse than his made him look at his father in apletely new light.
¡°What is it?¡±
Tiredly, he asked a question.
¡°The princess, her highness Elriek Sox Den Anon Yorul III, has returned from captivity.¡±
¡°W-What?!¡±
Very inelegantly, the prince yelped out the word with bulged eyes. The maid waspletely unmoved and continued to speak.
¡°ording to reports, she is being guarded closely by a rookie Royal Guard.¡±
¡°A rookie royal guard? Was he the one to acquire her?¡±
¡°Forgive me. I am uncertain of this.¡±
He turned around and looked at his desk, thinking up the possibilities.
¡®It¡¯s impossible for a rookie to have saved the princess himself. Maybe a team that none of us were aware of? Then did Sundale set this up without informing any of us to prevent an information leak? If he did, that would mean there¡¯s an informant for Daxia amongst us. But that¡¯s very impossible. This scenario is stupid. Why would there even be a rookie on this very delicate mission?¡¯
¡°Oi, Randy. How sure are you that this rookie is actually one of ours?¡±
With an intimidating aura, he posed a question to her.
¡°The Royal Guards have confirmed that he is. ording to them, his name is Osveta.¡±
¡°Osveta? Isn¡¯t that the name of the genius Sundale is always talking about? That Osveta?¡±
Randy reflexively pushed up her sses and responded expressionlessly.
¡°Affirmative.¡±
A chill ran down the prince¡¯s spine and goosebumps formed on his body.
¡°If such a person is next to her¡ I guess I¡¯ll have to find another way to go through with my ns. Back to the drawing board, Randy.¡±
***
Day 52
Surprisingly, when I slept, I got no interference this time. What I meant by that, was my tendency to have weird dreams or get sent topletely different spaces when I slept.
Either I had that weird scenario or the system master called my to her domain. Then there was the recent incident where I met Shiro again. It felt peaceful. Well, given the past couple of days, it was much appreciated.
After having slept and thinking over the issue entirely, I hadn¡¯te to a conclusion a yet. I was currently standing in front of Daxia¡¯s home. Behind me, both her and Bastien were standing there. At the bottom of the base, several fishmen were preparing to leave. Since they had barely 3 days to intercept the enemy, they had to get a heavy start. Their opponents were already far ahead of them.
I had Akkun starting up with a portal to Kawaii while I was talking to the duo.
¡®Thank you for that talk, Bastien.¡¯
I bowed my head, grateful for him allowing me to reflect on my issue, but I would still be thinking about it till I found what I believed to be the true answer.
¡°Good. While you¡¯re in the city, be careful. There¡¯ll be kids looking to y with a weird creature like you. Trust me when I say they¡¯re menacing.¡±
He mused about something.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Wait¡ have you been to Antis before?¡¯
¡°Oi, Hinotori. If the princess keeps acting like a twit, beat the crap out of her for me, you hear?¡±
Daxia requested something absurd from me again. Honestly, these overpowered types were a pain in the ass. Iughed nervously then replied.
¡®I-I¡¯ll try.¡¯
¡®T-Tori. The p-portal¡¯s ready.¡¯
Akkun notified me. Behind me, the blue mass had been formed. The reason it took longer than usual was due to the fact that every city in Antis had a massive dome preventing any form of unauthorised teleportation in and out of the city. There were specific ley lines one had to use to move between cities quickly. I, an illegal entrant, had to go through this long process of creating a hole in the dome to allow myself a ticket into the city from this ce. The only issue was that I would be noticed doing so, which was why I was going straight to Kawaii who was most likely next to the princess.
Although, for some reason she hadn¡¯t responded to the message I sent to her a while ago.
As I stepped through, Bastien¡¯s words hit me again.
¡®A weird creature like me, huh? Well, everyone says I¡¯m ugly. What about my human form then?¡¯
I entered the portal and activated my transformation. When I walked out through the portal, the clothes I had Sylvie make for me ripped to shreds.
¡®Ah¡ what happened to my clothes?!¡¯
<<The pressure destroyed them>>
¡®Pressure?! I-Is that how it is? I thought it¡¯d only squeeze down on metal, not tear apart my clothes.¡¯
<<Results of high-speed travel, pressure and sudden increase in body size>>
¡®Oi, oi¡ are you saying I¡¯ve grown fat?¡¯
I noticed that one very odd statement by the agent. It didn¡¯t respond to my question, but I wasn¡¯t feeling like letting this go. After a bit of shouting at the agent waiting for an answer, I got none and heaved a frustrated sigh.
¡®What do you mean high speed travel?¡¯
<<The teleportation into the immediate location of the servant Kawaii was a failure. Instead, you were teleported right at the edge of the dome from the inside. From there, you were projected into the projected location of the servant Kawaii using the skill [Vector Control] at a speed barely noticeable by the surrounding folk.>>
The agent exined to me.
¡®E-Eh? So¡ you¡¯re telling me that I moved from the dome into this ce faster than I myself could tell?¡¯
<<Yes. That is what I am saying.>>
Behind me, I saw that there was an open window. I moved towards it then looked out. I was at one of the highest possible points around, overlooking a massive beautiful city. Several homes made out of what looked like sea shells in all different colours. Several mermen swam about joyfully and there were all manners of activities going on. From children ying to men setting up the city for a sort of festival? I could see guards patrolling around this ce, same for the whaledogs that they kept with them to probably sniff out odd things.
I was amazed and stunned by the beautiful sights. The city was lit up by certain creatures called Lantern jugs. While looking out, Ipletely disregarded my immediate environment till the agent alerted me.
<<The targets, Elriek Sox Den Anon Yorul III and Kawaii are approaching this room. Although, there is an extra member present with them, as well as an issue with the servant Kawaii>>
¡®Huh? An issue with Kawaii?¡¯
The extra member was probably some guard or a dismissible presence if the agent chose not to name them, so hearing an issue with Kawaii was more my concern. Then again, my [Superior Survival Instincts] were starting to go wild, telling me something strong wasing. Something on the same level as Bastien. Maybe higher.
<<It might be best to show it to you>>
The agent, rather than exining as it loved to best, decided to show me exactly what was wrong with Kawaii.
[Item Name ¨C Kawaii¡¯s Slime Core
[Item Type ¨C Non-Consumable
[Item Description ¨C The core of the slime Kawaii, a member of Hyakkiyago¡¯s familia, that is only revealed once Kawaii has been defeated. This core is of high value and possesses various uses above that of regr slime cores. However, if it remains unused for a set amount of time, the slime Kawaii will appear once again]
[Time Limit ¨C 1 hour remaining
[Item Value ¨C 1000 gold coins, 200 store points
I felt something in me snap. Why was Kawaii appearing as a core? It was only revealed after she had been defeated? Then the princess caused Kawaii¡¯s loss? She was ying me and Kawaii this entire time? The princess couldn¡¯t dream of beating Kawaii in a million years though. Then, it was the extra member present.
¡®Defeat? My Kawaii?!¡¯
¡®How dare they?¡¯
¡®End it all?¡¯
While my anger was slowly reaching its peak, [Evolver] activated and I calmed down by a tiny bit. I thought a bit more over the issue and no matter how many times I thought about it, the princess was in the wrong here.
¡®I¡¯ll kill her.¡¯
[You have acquired the skill [Aura Burst]]
[You have acquired the skill [Killing Intent]]
Just as I made a vow to do that, my rage reached the peak [Evolver] would allow it to without erasing the emotion.
[Intimidating Aura], [Terror], [Devil Miasma], [ck Miasma] and my newly skills [Aura Burst] and [Killing Intent] activated subconsciously, creating a sort of disturbance in the room as the doors burst open.
The one toe before me was the extra member that was working with the princess. Judging from his skills, surely, he was the one to do that to Kawaii.
¡°Princess! Go and inform more guards toe help!¡±
He roared as he charged at me with his sword.
¡®I¡¯ll kill you. I¡¯ll kill you. I¡¯ll kill you all!¡¯
Chapter 179 Never Help Strangers
¡°Lunar de.¡±
The fishman yelled out his attack. A blue de of water came rushing at me, but with my [Elemental Barrier], this attack waspletely nullified. Apparently, inside the dome, I wouldn¡¯t be able to use magic like I did outside. Normally, it would be a problem, but as I was now, I saw no issue with it.
With [Vector Control], I closed the distance between myself and the fishman in the blink of an eye, leaving only a mere foot of distance between us. Using [Slime Body], I increased the size of my hand to twice asrge as my body. It was instantly covered in [Sinuous King Adamas Armour]. Snakes made of diamond wrapped themselves around my arm and two
Bringing it down mercilessly, my n was to activate [High Force Impact] on the point of contact, but the fishman was fast. Somehow, he managed to twirl around and the water followed him, grabbing my arm. It swung me around like some sort of merry-go-round.
For some reason, I was unable to break free till he directly grabbed my hand.
¡®What sort of creature is this?¡¯
I read his mind. His sword¡¯s tip was already pointed at me. It was a fine curvy de, getting big towards the tip. A scary looking sabre that had the water swarming at its tip at a stupidly fast velocity.
¡®An assassin from the SharkFang? I guess I¡¯ll just end it now.¡¯
¡®Agent?¡¯
<<The attack has a high chance of prating through your defences. However, with your [Auto Regeneration] skill, the wound will be healed up quickly.>>
¡®What if I took it with one of my defence skills?¡¯
<<The likelihood of the attack prating reduces by 30% and its effect is reduced by 50%>>
¡®This attack isn¡¯t life threatening?¡¯
<<No. It is the farthest from life-threatening>>
¡®Doesn¡¯t mean you should take the hit.¡¯
¡®Y-Yeah. It¡¯ll still hurt, right?¡¯
¡®True.¡¯
I used [Slime Body] to slip out of his grip and moved to the fishman¡¯s side. My leg lit up in mes with the activation of [Fiery Kick] which I used to deliver a straight right at his ribs.
It was a direct hit, but my opponent was tougher than I¡¯d assumed. He took the hit like it wasn¡¯t worth anything. Then again, using a fire elemental ability underwater was probably detrimental.
¡®Its body is weird¡ Probably best not to make anymore physical contact with it. In that case, I¡¯ll just have to go wild with my surroundings.¡¯
He made a self-rule about avoiding any contact with me since I was able to easily slip out of his grasp. I moved back, realising that this was not going to be an easy fight.
¡®Agent. Any skills of his that could be lethal to me?¡¯
<<After scanning. Only 3 skills that could cause a lethal effect have been detected. The high advanced skill [Trench Crunch], the technique [Imperial Dragon God Swordsmanship: Dragon Bite] and the racial skill [Sea God¡¯s Bite]>>
¡®Huh? They all just sound like him biting me.¡¯
<<Indeed. That is basically how the skills function>>
¡®Tch. I¡¯ve got my own nasty bites.¡¯
¡°Overflow!¡±
He grabbed the water like it was some sort of curtain. Once again, I was trapped in it, unable to move out which I still failed to understand.
I was mmed into the pce walls, but they were so dense I wasn¡¯t able to destroy them with my body. Reflexively, I spat out ck acid ink that covered a fourth of the room, including where the fishman was. I wasn¡¯t sure how potent my acid was since I hadn¡¯t used it in quite a while, but Ist remembered it being able to melt through a beetle¡¯s armour.
¡°Containment!¡±
He roared once again and just like before, the water became solid. It wrapped itself around my acid and myself and folded us off together.
¡°Spiral Heart!¡±
Just like before, at the tip of his sabre, glowing water was forming like some sort of drill and he charged at me.
¡®Oi, look.¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
¡®His left hand. It¡¯s still making a clutching motion.¡¯
¡®Eh? Why would i- He needs to keep it that way in order to control the water!¡¯
I activated [High Force Impact] through the thick water. If my theory was right, I would be-
¡®Free!¡¯
I was no longer constrained by the water. With [Vector Control], I moved my body right behind, not allowing for even an inch to separate us. I felt that an inch was provide him with enough time to react.
¡®[High Force Impact], [Fiery Kick] and [Crush]!¡¯
With both skills, a powerful boom sounded erupted from my leg making contact with the wolf¡¯s armour. Surprisingly, the kick melted right through the armour and hit his body, throwing him off bnce.
¡°Gaah!¡±
I grabbed the back of his head.
¡®Stomp!¡¯
A simple ¡°po¡± sound came from the skill¡¯s effect. Slowly, blood floated up from the fishman¡¯s mouth. Instinctively, I licked the blood.
[You have added 10 millilitres of blood to your blood bank]
[Current amount of blood in blood bank is 10 millilitres]
His blood tasted delicious, like salted fish and some other meat. I couldn¡¯t discern exactly what kind of meat it was. Dog meat? Well, I never was one to be able to tolerate eating pets, so I would hope this wasn¡¯t what dog meat tasted like, because it was too good.
¡®More!¡¯
PO! PO! PO!<novelnext></novelnext>
I repeated these three more times. Each time I could hear the fishman grunt and there was something rxing about that. The safe feeling knowing that my enemy was suffering.
This was short-lived however. My opponent wasn¡¯t ready to die here.
¡°D-drill!¡±
His ws pressed firmly into the water. This time, since I had figured out the weakness of the skill, I wasn¡¯t scared. I sent two [High Force Impact]s to force him to stop.
His green fur became bloody. It would appear I had caused quite a bit of damage to his head. On his status, I saw, [Concussion].
¡®W-What is happening?¡¯
His thoughts started rushing into me.
¡®A-Am I seriously going to die here? Like this? After all my hard work? N-No! Not now!¡¯
He was gravely injured and down to hisst 30% of health, yet he was willing to fight more? I was surprised by how weak he was, considering he was supposed to be on the same level as Bastien at the very least. Fortunately for me, he wasn¡¯t Bastien. This would have gone way worse if he was.
While struggling to get up, I looked around.
¡®Agent¡ I don¡¯t get something.¡¯
<<¡>>
¡®His species. It says [Half Sea Wolf God]. How is a demi-god so weak?¡¯
¡®Honestly. This wasn¡¯t as tough as I expected it to be.¡¯
¡®Y-Yeah. I thought for sure w-we¡¯d be in trouble without magic.¡¯
<<That is unknown. However, having the ¡°god¡± title in a species name does not necessarily mean that species has godly power. They could be distant descendants of gods from the [Age of Heaven], however their power wouldn¡¯t differ much from the average person.>>
¡®Is that so? So, there¡¯s nothing special about him?¡¯
<<Yes. Absolutely nothing.>>
If that was so, I would have no qualms about killing him. Especially since he had a name.
While doing this I had another thought. With my new [Gravity] skill, I could control the gravity of anything I was touching.
¡®Agent¡ can I crush his head using gravity?¡¯
<<Yes>>
¡®I see. In that case. Gravi-¡®
Just as I was about to activate the skill, a weird pulse threw me off of him. He dizzily grabbed his head and spun around to meet my gaze. A low snarl escaped his maw as he red at me viciously.
¡®Would you look at that. Fido¡¯s gotten angry.¡¯
There was something odd about him now. Both of his hands were now on his sabre¡¯s handle. It would seem he wasn¡¯t in the mood to allow me to damage his hands anymore.
Then there was me, who currently had a limited set of usable skills. I could summon my sword to fight, sure, but he clearly had me beat when it came to swordsmanship and I wouldn¡¯t be able to activate its effects underwater.
I considered simply buffing myself up with [Devil Form], but decided that it was a bad idea to reveal my strongest card. Since the goal was to beat them and take Kawaii back with me, I needed a way of ending this quickly.
I would have gone to the princess already, but in my fight, some guards had appeared to ensure the princess¡¯ safety.
Sharp ck ws protruded my finger tips as I activated the skill [Lethal ck w].
¡®Well, I guess I¡¯ll just have to kill you then go to the others.¡¯
This was now where the real fight would begin.
¡°I don¡¯t know what you are, but I will not permit you to destroy all I have worked for!¡±
¡®Not after all these years of preparing!¡¯
He was on hisst straws. There was something very weird about him for me. It felt sort of familiar, but I couldn¡¯t put my finger on it.
¡°WAIT!¡±
Amand came my way and my body automatically paused. Looking back, I saw the princess holding a de over Kawaii. Two guards were slowly approaching me.
¡°Don¡¯t continue this fight or there will be trouble.¡±
She threatened me. Honestly, the balls on this princess. Abandoning me to die then beating up Kawaii till she was in her orb, now threatening me? I knew that logically speaking, it would be impossible for me to face an entire kingdom without my magic, still, I couldn¡¯t just let her make light of me.
Escape looked quite possible with [Vector Control] that boasted the most freedom in terms of mobility and speed control I¡¯d ever seen. It was a broken skill!
Still, my body waspletely incapable of moving after themand.
¡®Let me go now or I¡¯ll kill you!¡¯
I sent a threat back at her. She wasn¡¯t amused in the slightest. A cold smile formed on her lips.
¡°I¡¯d like to form a cooperative alliance with you instead.¡±
She was approaching me slowly. One of her guards tried to stop her, but she shot him a strict gaze and he backed down.
¡°How about you help me instead. You do something for me and I do something for you.¡±
She suggested a trade, just like before. I suddenly remembered why I needed the princess alive. And thinking about it more, I wouldn¡¯t be able to beat both guards without my magic. They were both as strong as this guy. I may have called beating him easy, but it was only because of how reliant he was on that sea-curtain technique and the fact that he didn¡¯t use any of his lethal attacks. If he did, just like the agent said, I would be dead.
Still, I couldn¡¯t trust her. If I did, I wasn¡¯t sure how everything would end. She might have been trying to lower my guard to make it easier for the soldiers to kill me.
This was a precarious situation I somehow ended up in.
¡®This is thest time we help some random person¡ ever again.¡¯
Chapter 180 A Princess Bodyguard?
After the whole fiasco, the princess arranged for me to have sleeping quarters in the castle. She announced she would personally lead me to the room after it was prepared. I assumed she was going to be alone once the guards left, but unfortunately for me, the wolf fishman I fought had [Auto Regeneration] and was back to full health in no time.
We were currently swimming through the hallways. They wererge spaces that could felt a bit too big to be mere hallways. All around, there were corals erupt with glowing orbs fixed on them, acting as some sort of lightbulb all the while acting as surveince cameras. The magic tool Magic Orb. A multi-functional tool that served various purposes depending on the situation.
In this situation, it was security detail as well as an aesthetic. A nice way to monitor everyone without their knowledge. Maybe this was why the princess wasn¡¯t really scared about escorting me to the room without any more security detail. There were no guards on standby and barely any other noticeable features. No banners, no pictures, nothing.
A clean hallway made out of what looked like jade ss and pirs holding it up. Over the balcony one could make out the pcepound and its guards simply making rounds. I couldn¡¯t identify any members who were training. However, there was the odd number of beautiful servants roaming about quickly. Whenever we passed by, they would bow down to the princess, but from reading their minds, all they felt towards her was contempt. They were all angry that she was even alive, meaning they were angry at the one who saved her.
Well, I guess with her attitude being the way it was, there was no way the servants who spent more time with her would like her. She could pretend in front of others who didn¡¯t live here easily, although she didn¡¯t hesitate to show me her bitchy-nature when we first met.
Also, there was the fact that all the servants and maids had the names Den Anon Yorul. Was it amon name in Antis? I wanted to suspect that they were siblings, but that couldn¡¯t be right since she was a princess and they were all servants under her.
¡°So, have you thought over my proposition more?¡±
She asked me without even looking back at me. I wanted to ignore her, but the fishman at my back threatened me with his sword, putting it on my neck. I red at him and he ever so replied in kind.
? ¡®Yes. But I want my royal wish first.¡¯
¡°Your royal wish?¡±
She sounded confused, but it was obvious she was lying.
¡®Yes. The one you promised to give me for delivering you to Antis safely.¡¯
¡®Huh? They are having a conversation? That means this thing is a mind reader? You hear that?¡¯
The fishman, Osveta has he was called, thought after hearing the princess speak out. Obviously, the one he was talking to was the other person inhabiting his body. He, much like me, had the [Multiple Mind] skill. Well, more like a variant called [Double Persona]. Unlike [Multiple Mind] which shared the same information, [Double Persona] required the personalities actually had tomunicate information to each other.
That was an odd skill for one to develop, but ording to Agent, it was akin to Multiple Personality Disorder from my knowledge. Meaning, he essentially had a second person living in him. I wondered if that was equal to having 2 souls and surprisingly, the agent wasn¡¯t sure. That made me curious.
¡°Oh yes. That royal wish. I shall annul it.¡±
¡®HUH?!¡¯
She grinned maliciously at me.
¡°Certainly, you delivered me here safely, but your servant almost killed me.¡±
¡®Kawaii did? I find it hard to believe that Kawaii failed to kill you.¡¯
I retorted, but the princess gestured towards Osveta.
¡°Osveta appeared in the nick of time to save me from your servants wrath.¡±
¡®My servant¡¯s wrath? Kawaii isn¡¯t capable of possessing emotions. Which means you did something that warranted her trying to kill you.¡¯
I believed it wasmon sense that slimes had no emotions. Well, then again, I would have to investigate to see if there were slimes this deep in the sea. Maybe their bodies couldn¡¯t take it and instantly went pop if they came close? Kawaii was a bit different from regr slimes, so her being here sort of made sense.
¡°Oh? What could warrant my death?¡±
¡®I don¡¯t know. Leaving her master to die for one. That would be a perfect reason for her to kill anyone.¡¯
¡°You are still on that? I knew for certain Daxia would not kill you.¡±
¡®Oh please, do tell how you knew that.¡¯
¡°It¡¯s aplicated n. Too much to exin to you. For now, let¡¯s get back to the main topic. Form an alliance with me.¡±
We arrived in front of a room. A servant twice as big as the princess pried open the door for us. Once he did so, he bowed down to her and pped his hands. There was arge cluster of tiny mermaids that swam out quickly.
¡°The living quarters of your guest has been prepared. Also, your brother, his highness, is demanding an audience with you.¡±
The servant informed her, yet she walked through without giving any mind to that.
¡®An alliance, eh? I see no benefits to forming an alliance with you.¡¯
And I sure as hell didn¡¯t see what kind of benefit she could derive from forming an alliance with me.
¡°Is that so? How about a royal wish for formi-¡°
¡®I already have 1 royal wish with you and that, honestly, is all I need. If you refuse to give that to me, I guess I will leave, but let me warn you. I have information about this invasion you are trying to prevent and it is crucial to your victory.¡¯
The princess, for the first time, looked bbergasted. Her expression was so funny I almost couldn¡¯t help myself.
¡°Information, eh? Alright then, how about this. You form an alliance with me, give me that information and you will be assured a royal wish once every year for as long as this alliance is in ce.¡±
I looked at the princess intently. She was keeping her mind nk since she knew I could read minds. Thinking over it more logically, this was all too weird. A sudden alliance out of nowhere even though she knew nothing about the benefits she could get from me. It was too quick and out of ce.
Thinking more over it, if I was in her shoes, what would I have done to me? The thought stuck me like a thunderbolt.
The princess was scared of me. She must have assumed that I managed to fight my way from Daxia or at least been able to trick her to escape. To her, I was probably a strange urrence. Imagine having something like that as your opponent. Even I would be terrified.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Hehehe, finally! My time to shine hase!¡¯
¡®Muhahaha!¡¯
¡®Well, yes. We agree to this alliance on the condition that you will not cancel this alliance abruptly without any good reason. If I need your help you may call on me and if I need yours, I will call on you. The royal wish you owe me is not a part of this agreement, meaning I would possess 2 royal wishes this year. Is that alright for you?¡¯
I offered my hand. She looked at it for a moment and kept her hands folded.
¡°It seems you don¡¯t understand the sort of cooperative alliance I was talking about.
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡°I simply need you to ensure my safety till I inherit the throne, which shouldn¡¯t be long now.¡±
She proposed something different from my expectations. Well, her brother wanted to dispose her in order to inherit the throne, so she wanting protection waspletely understandable. And if thements from the servants were any sort of prognostic, there was close to no one in this castle she could trust with her life. In that case, it would make sense why she would want protection from an external force.
Still, I wasn¡¯t in the mood to y bodyguard for a princess.
¡®This starting to get confusing.¡¯
I thought to myself.
¡®Yeah. Are we still helping her in the fight against the Exsuole empire?¡¯
¡®I-Isn¡¯t that why w-we¡¯re having this conversation?¡¯
¡®But¡ I suddenly remembered why I don¡¯t like the princess.¡¯
¡®Come on, you wanted to find Minerva. This is the only way.¡¯
¡®What about her brother?¡¯
¡®We know close to nothing about him and if we ask her for any sort of information on him, she would definitely lie to us about him.¡¯
¡®Then again, the whole SharkFang has already gone to intercept the enemies.¡¯
¡®Doesn¡¯t change the fact that there are still enemies present.¡¯
¡®Ah¡ just remembered that!¡¯
¡®You think this Osveta guy is one of them?¡¯
¡®H-He could be.¡¯
¡®Naah. No way. The princess seems to trust him more than the others.¡¯
¡®True. I guess the best option would be to work for her for now.¡¯
¡®Yeah, till we find the moles. Wait¡ how do Imunicate with Daxia?¡¯
¡®Should¡¯ve made her a member of your party.¡¯
¡®Shut it!¡¯
¡°As proof that I have no ill intentions, here you go.¡±
The princess threw Kawaii¡¯s core at me and I caught it easily. The crystalline ball was a pitch ck, but it had only 45 minutes more till Kawaii would emerge from it. I decided to shove it into my item box for the main time.
Giving up, I shrugged and epted her offer. This time, I got no system notifications or quests for agreeing to this.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[[Soul Orb] + [Blood Bank] was cancelled]
[3 goblins have died]
[100 giant spiders have died]
[90 giant beetles have died]
[87 giant bees have died]
[5 goblins evolved into hob-goblins]
[You have 1 pending message from the servant Ulva]
[You have 1 pending message from the servant Reiman]
Chapter 181 Untapped Potential
Day 53
The princess left me alone in the room to go speak to her brother. It didn¡¯t take long for Kawaii toe back to normal. When she did, she wrapped herself around me while screaming. She exined to me what happened which led to me pampering her. After, I exined the situation to her and she reluctantly agreed to my n. Kawaii really was not a fan of the princess.
Sheter exined that she was actually capable of using magic, unlike me. I felt that was very odd, so I would have to inquire further from the princesster. In the end, I had Kawaii sneak out of the room to go investigate further for me, leaving me alone in the room with my other minds.
We simted the fight with Osveta over and over again,ing up with better and easier ways to beat up someone on his level. It ended up developing the skill [Battle Simtion], where we created an imaginary battlefield with a set list of abilities. It would normally take in-real-world-time toplete a simtion, but with [Multiple Minds] and [Super Thought Process], I went through 50 battle simtions in 2 hours, each simtion getting shorter after the other. My quickest battle, thest one,sted only three minutes and twenty-six seconds, making mepletely confident in my ability to overwhelm him at any point in time.
The only problem was his skill [Double Persona] which created an unknown factor in the battle simtion. So, we removed that skill from his skill set, so in case that skill ever proved to be his trump card, we were doomed. Although, the chances of that were incredibly low since he didn¡¯t use in a life-and-death situation earlier.
Kawaii still hadn¡¯t returned to I sent a message to Yokino asking for her whereabouts, but either she was too busy to respond or she hadn¡¯t seen it yet. That left me with more time, so I simted battles with Bastien. Honestly, I had 30 simtions and tied in only one of those. The tie, of course, meant we both died in the end. I failed to understand given the fact that Osveta was stronger than him stat-wise. And I knew for certain he didn¡¯t have any unique or ultimate skills.
Maybe it all came down to experience, you know? Fighting for years in the ocean must¡¯ve made him tougher than the average person. Either that, or raising Daxia made him the strongest thing alive.
The agent couldn¡¯te up with a logical reason as to why. After going over his stats and skills, it made no sense to the agent, so it had to be that or willpower. You know? Spirit can¡¯t be calcted! Never underestimate a person¡¯s will, unless they were cannon fodder. Then you could stomp them without a care in the world.
After a few more simtions in which I died, I got two messages. From Ulva and Reiman. I hadn¡¯t expected that from both of them.
[Ulva: Big sister? You can see this, right? Big brother Grimm said I should deliver a message to you for him. Apparently, he can feel some weird presence in the forest. He says it reminds him of ¡®The Duchess¡¯. I don¡¯t know who ¡®The Duchess¡¯ is, but he says, and I quote, ¡°Some big shot vampire bitch. If she¡¯s got her eye on you, you¡¯re fucked. Tell your big sister that I¡¯ll investigate a bit further, but if I confirm that it is her, I¡¯m running away and I won¡¯t look back.¡±. Yeah, something like that. Also, Sylvie and I have been working on that mana potion more. We fed it to some hob-goblins and they say they feel good, which means we¡¯re doing good work, right? Oh yeah, big sister Shiroi said she¡¯s going on a little trip and would be back soon. Um, um, um, the kobolds have been taking care of the house too. It¡¯s as good as new now and the kobold cooks finally stopped putting their fur into the food! It actually tastes amazing without it. Then, t-]
After reading her message, it was obvious as day that this girl was starving for excitement. She couldn¡¯t stop talking and had even been cut off by the system. Or did she send without realising that she had sent? Ah¡ knowing her she probably had a mountain of things to tell me about. Such a hyper kid. At least I knew she wouldn¡¯t end up like me.
I looked at what I believed to be the important parts of her message.
Grimm was sensing some big-shot vampire in the forest? That couldn¡¯t be good news. Especially with the way he was describing her as some sort of bitch. Hopefully, he was sensing wrong, although I doubted someone whose had lots of experience in the world would mess up such a key detail. Then there was Sylvie¡¯s developments on the mana potion.
Honestly, when I first picked her up, I hadn¡¯t expected for her to be even have such a role in the future, but I guess she was different from all sprites, huh?
Next was Shiroi¡¯s trip to wherever. I didn¡¯t know why she didn¡¯t tell me, although I could infer a few reasons. One being that I literally punished her for no sensible reason. Not wanting to hurt my heart by thinking about it, I checked out Reiman¡¯s message.
[Reiman: Lady Hinotori, it has been a while. Several of my brethren evolved into tunnellers, making our work very easy. We have managed to create tunnels going as far as the mid-point of the south and have finally managed to crack into the north. It would have taken another two weeks to get to any relevant point in the East, but with the new tunnellers, we hope to be done in the next eight days. Also, the shadow rats have already infiltrated other parts of Larm and we keep receiving in formation. Some have even managed to break into human viges that are close by, hiding in the shadows and learning what they can. In all honesty, there is nothing of great relevance at the moment to tell you, but if I may, I shall conclude my report and speak to you informally now.
Are you out of your MIND?! You chose that merciless Queen to rule in your stead?! You know she killed half of all the fanged bunnies in the west, right? She has no sentiments for the weak and fails to understand what it means to have opposing views to hers. The moment you try to suggest something, she will punish you! For some reason, she doesn¡¯t kill any of us directly, but she has caused some of my men to die already. Good men who only thought they were doing the right thing! Please, switch her out ore back. I know you are not in a good ce, but now isn¡¯t the time for self-loathing. We need a leader now of all times.
Alright then, sorry about the ranting. What I was just saying is, Arisu is not the best candidate for leader and if she continues to act this way, there will be several insurrections you can¡¯t hope to deal with.]
I could feel my heart shatter. I wish I hadn¡¯t read that. I knew Reiman was a no-bullshit, blunt rat, but wasn¡¯t this too much?
Was Arisu that bad? Ok, maybe I had to change the generals. Obviously, first toe to mind was Shiroi, but she was not avable and had refused to take over for me. I still hadn¡¯t spoken to her since that entire incident with me choking her. Knowing Shiroi, she would brush it off, but I wasn¡¯t so good with doing that. I needed to apologise.
Just as I thought that, I remembered Oki¡¯s words. Reiman¡¯s intuition was on point. An insurrection really would happen at any point and it was going to start with the goblins whom I assumed would be the most trustworthy bunch. Guess that was my mistake. Gorm being their leader didn¡¯t mean all of them were as honourable as he was.
So, from the get-go, all the goblins were scratched out from potential leadership roles. I didn¡¯t know any of the timber wolves other than Shiroi, so they were out. I couldn¡¯t trust any of Yokino¡¯s generals either. Sure, she revealed that she was Akane, my childhood friend, but there was something different about her. It felt like she could easily flip a switch and betray me at any point. Maybe if it was Akane when we were kids, I could trust her, but since we entered high school, while being my best friend, she was also the scariest person I knew. She most likely did what she did to let my guard down, but unfortunately for her, I wasn¡¯t the same na?ve Akira!
Ah well, no point in thinking too much about that.
Then, the only logical choice fell to Reiman. He was within my ranks and had been there for me since the first time I had to take up a leadership role. And he already had a lot of experience, considering he deals with over a thousand subordinates. Yeah, he was the perfect choice to make my general.
[Are you sure you would like to rece the General Arisu with the servant Reiman?]
? [YES]/[N0]
I agreed to it.<novelnext></novelnext>
[What position would you like the servant Arisu to take up?]
[Captain]
[Servant]
[Emunication]
I was surprised by thest option on the list. Emunication? As in yeeting them from the familia as a whole? I felt that was a bit excessive, but it was probably made for people who would try to abuse the system. I mean, all they needed was the minimum amount of loyalty to me to ess it and they could whatever the hell they wanted unless I explicitly told them not to.
Since, this was Arisu¡¯s first offense, and I hadn¡¯t given her proper instructions, I would make her a servant for now, so she had no power over the others.
[You have selected the servant Reiman, to be your General!]
After selecting my general, I was done for the day. That was when the princess called me to have a discussion, with some clothes. I had actually forgotten I was naked that entire time.
***
Elriek Sox Den Anon Yorul III POV
Ugly.
That was the first impression the princess had after seeing Hinotori for the first time. A very ugly creature she couldn¡¯t reallypare to anything. Elwetistch adults looked close, but they weren¡¯t nearly this ugly. She considered Hinotori a negligible existence then. Although she didn¡¯t understand why her Susu would bring such a creature on such a delicate mission.
Annoying.
That was her second impression on Hinotori. The creature¡¯s voice was annoying andcked tact. Sure, the creature avoided the princess, but there was something about it that simply infuriated her. Either way, Hinotori was now something she wouldn¡¯t waste any more thoughts on.
Strong.
This was her third impression on Hinotori. When they got separated, she was left with Hinotori and the slime. Hinotori proved to not be a weakling, capable of providing actually safe travel back to Antis. The royal family never travelled without at least five royal guards at their side, yet this one creature and a slime provided the best protection the princess could have hoped for. She had to re-evaluate the creature.
Confused.
Her fourth impression on Hinotori. After a few interactions, it was confirmed that Hinotori was new to leading. She sure as hell didn¡¯t know what she was doing and that made the princess feel a sort of connection with her. It reminded the princess of her first time learning the ropes of leading. Several people would have to rely on her and in front of those people, she had to maintain a certain level ofpetence. She had to appear absolutely confident in her abilities to help them even if she didn¡¯t know exactly how to go about things. That was exactly how Hinotori looked in her eyes. This creature was getting more and more interesting by the second.
Terrifying.
This was her fifth andst impression on Hinotori. When she had abandoned Hinotori to die at Daxia¡¯s hands, her mind instantly went to the fact that Susu told her surface dwellers couldn¡¯te down there. Yet, 5 years ago, two managed to do so. And in this year another three have appeared. That meant Surface dwellers clearly coulde. Maybe they weren¡¯t a lot now, but who knew? In the next few decades, they could increase exponentially. What if all of Hinotori¡¯s people coulde down there? Wouldn¡¯t they be angry? So, she decided it would be best to try to clear up the situation. Form a sort of alliance instead.
However, in her room, after just a mere day, Hinotori had arrived.
Well, she didn¡¯t know that was Hinotori at first. How would she know? Whoever stood there was absolutely beautiful. And their presence, horrifying. Such a powerful charisma they radiated, enough to make her flinch. The only one to do that were her parents.
At that moment, all the princess could see, was untapped raw potential.
It was then, Elriek Sox Den Anon Yorul III had made her decision.
She was going to raise Hinotori. She was going to make Hinotori a proper leader, one that owed her. She saw potential in Hinotori and she wasn¡¯t the type to waste potential. If everything went ording to her new n, she had just discovered her most important ally in theing future. Just thinking about it, the benefits seemed endless.
A smirk formed on her face as she looked outside, at the leylines connecting the five cities.
Chapter 182 A Visit To The Grand Court Mage
The princess summoned me from the quarters I had been given. I wasn¡¯t really psyched to be working for her, but I reminded myself that it was only till after we stopped the invasion. I had managed to get a decent amount of information from Kawaii till this point, but she was still out scouting for more information.
The princess had led me to a part of the pce where I could sense incredibly dense mana. There were several people withrge quantities of mana practicing magic or doing research. The agent theorised that this was the source of the leylines. It said this generated the basic magic structure, but them powering it at all times was unlikely, meaning there was another source that powered their magic circle and allowed for the leylines to be active at all times.
¡®Why are we here?¡¯
I asked the princess, but she ignored me and kept swimming. Her mind waspletely nk, meaning she was still on-guard around me. Although, I hadn¡¯t seen the guard from the day before around. He quickly recovered even after I beat him close to death, but his disappearance was curious. Then again, the tension between us would have been too awkward for my liking.
We were in arge area that was at the bottom of the pce. It was akin to a parking garage with several pirs holding it up and multiple desks littered with items and parchments. This space was lit up by some glowing orbs and creatures called Glowfish. There were about 10 guards surrounding this room at the coerners, even though this space looked like it could easily take two hundred mermen and have excess space for them.
Speaking of mermen, there was arge number of them going about reading scrolls, tweaking items and casting magic. Due to [Magic Perception] I could tell that what they were doing were experiments since the spells they were casting were iplete. The items that they were working on were at least [Rare] rank. The oddest was seeing a group of five merman drawing arge magic circle on the ceiling of the room. They were intensely discussing amongst themselves on how to ce certain things and there was one person at the bottom giving directions while monitoring their progress.
¡°No! Not like that you idiots! Put the teyvat rune over there!¡±
He yelled and the others started shouting at him. It was a noisy mess of mad scientists. Not exactly how I imagined a ce filled with magicians to be.
While swimming through the mess of crazy magic mermen, I ended up bumping into one. He was smaller than the princess, albeit bigger than me. He had seaweed green hair, cut-short with a few braids hanging down. His face was littered with freckles, making him look scary. He wore round spectacles, cobalt blue eyes. He looked exhausted, like he hadn¡¯t slept for weeks straight.
He looked at me for a second, scanning me from head to toe. It was just a weird moment of us just looking at each other, before he put his hand to his chin.
¡°Beautiful.¡±
I heard him mutter.
¡®Did I just hear? N-Nope. No. I misheard him.¡¯
¡®She is really beautiful. Since when was she around here?¡¯
For some reason, I felt my heart plummet into the depths of despair. I quickly swam after the princess, but the merman kept looking at me. Once I got to her side, I sighed. The princess noticed this and curiously asked me.
¡°What¡¯s wrong with you?¡±
¡®It¡¯s nothing.¡¯
I quickly shot it down, hoping she wouldn¡¯t go too far. Unfortunately for me, she looked back and noticed him still staring at me.
¡°Oh? Nori likes you?¡±
She guessed the entire situation at one nce, but I wasn¡¯t going to even entertain his thoughts.
¡®You know him?¡¯
¡°Of course. He is my brother.¡±
¡®Her brother?¡¯
I looked at him once again. Honestly, he didn¡¯t look nearly as majestic as I expected him to look. He looked like azy otaku that had been up finishing a massive game without rest. Then again, a NEET wouldn¡¯t be roaming around this time of day.
Fortunately for me, he stopped looking at me and swam off to wherever it was he was going to. When I checked him, he didn¡¯t have the ss [Orator] like his sister did, but instead he was a [Magician] ss. This was the guy who was trying to eliminate the princess? The one I wanted to make a deal with. Fortunately, he found my appearance appealing. I could just use that to get him to agree to the deal since this princess is just dying.
I had between today and tomorrow to determine if he waspetent enough to partner up with.
¡®He¡¯s not a leader though.¡¯
I identally said to her. A grin formed on the corner of her mouth.
¡°So, you can tell who can lead and who can¡¯t? You have a good eye. Maybe I should introduce you to Nanek for you topare.¡±
¡®Nanek? Who is that?¡¯
¡°My brother.¡±
¡®Eh? You have 2 brothers?¡¯
¡°No. I have three hundred and forty-seven brothers and two hundred and seventy-three sisters.¡±
My jaw dropped in shock. She had more than three hundred brothers?! That waspletely absurd.
¡°Is that surprising? I heard that my father had over a thousand siblings.¡±
¡®Ah¡ her father had over a thousand siblings? What the hell is wrong with this family?¡¯
¡°Anyway, I am the youngest child. The genius prodigy, Elriek, fated to lead Antis into its new age!¡±
She boasted loudly, but all those around performing their experiments paid no mind to us. Thinking about it more, wherever I looked, I saw the name Den Anon Yorul. I honestly didn¡¯t think much about it, believing that it was amon name around here. Then again, the fact that literally every merman in this pce had the name was strange.
I could feel my stomach grumble with just the thought of all the delicacies roaming about. Especially the strong ones. I could just imagine how strong I would end up being if I started consuming them one by one slowly.
¡°Unfortunately, my brother also showed enough potential to bepetition to inherit the crown.¡±
¡®So, it¡¯s apetition for the crown and your brother is trying to eliminate you? That¡¯s why you need protection?¡¯
¡°Basically.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
She bluntly responded. I assumed that was information she didn¡¯t want me hearing. The fact that she told me implied two things. Either she trusted me with her lifepletely, or she was only telling me this for a ploy of sorts. I wasn¡¯t so dumb as to presume the former.
¡®I see. So, why are we here again?¡¯
¡°That¡¯s a secret.¡±
She said and tapped on one of her brothers. He was a hulking presence who looked menacing.
¡°Your highness?¡±
He looked as exhausted as the guy from before.
¡°Torek, would you please tell me where the Grand Court Mage is?¡±
¡°Hmm, he should be further back. Down towards the basement, in his office.¡±
He gave us directions towards the room before returning to his work. Just like the brother from before, he too was busily working.
I looked in the direction he had pointed. For some reason, the number of mermen towards that ce only decreased the further one went. And standing at the opposite sides of the path, were two mermen guards. Both of them appeared to be the princess¡¯ brothers as well. I felt kind of nervous approaching that ce. The sheer amount of manaing out of that ce was more than frightening enough.
The princess fearlessly charged towards the door like a war monger. I felt like that one coward in war who would desert the battle now. Then again, if my chances of winning were below 50%, I wouldn¡¯t even attempt. I can¡¯t afford to get myself killed recklessly.
Sadly, I followed after the princess. I expected the guards to bow to her or something, but they paid no mind to her as we passed by. Maybe that was a custom here?
We descended down the stair case towards the bottom.
¡®Why¡¯s there a staircase here?¡¯
Akira asked a very interesting question. We all looked to the agent for answers, but it gave us none. The only option would be the princess, but she had sessfully ignored all of my questions for the day. It wouldn¡¯t be surprising if she did so again.
The deeper down we went, the lesser the amount of light. It eventually became too dark to see anything, but the princess forged forward dauntlessly. As we got closer, my [Superior Survival Instincts] were going on a rampage. At first, I assumed it was because of how strong the grand court mage was, but he was not my problem. The scary thing was what was in the shadows in staring at us intensely. I didn¡¯t know if the princess could sense it or not, but judging by herpleteck of reaction, she hadn¡¯t noticed it.
The thing in the darkness was observing us up till the point the princess knocked on the door. It suddenly disappeared, as if it were never there. I sighed exasperated by the very awkward moment I had with it. Reminded me of the intense gazes on me whenever I walked around.
Sure, you could say it was all in my head, but on the real, it wasn¡¯t. Even Ken and Akane had noticed that very weird phenomenon sometimes.
The doors opened with a resounding nk. A blinding light hit our eyes for a moment, right before we were both pulled into the room.
Once I regained my vision, I saw an old merman with a scruffy beard, a red bandana over his head andrge goggles with easily over five lenses on it. His body was skinny with his rib-cage showing and wrinkly skin forming. He was bare chested, revealing a weird red tattoo on his body to us. His skin leaned more towards cream than white and his tail was a worn-out shade of yellow.
¡°Princess? To what do I owe the honour?¡±
He asked her, his hands fidgeting about with an orb in his hands.
¡°It seems you have forgotten the right mode of conduct for your future queen.¡±
She folded her hands and red at him. His reaction to her statement was hidden by his goggles and beard.
¡°It appears so. Please forgive me.¡±
¡®Aww, my cute Elriek is finally acting like a good monarch!¡¯
Contrary to how I expected him to react, he waspletely overjoyed by her behaviour.
¡°Wee your highness.¡±
The old man bowed to her.
¡°What may I do for you today?¡±
He asked as he removed the goggles from his head. The princess gestured at me.
¡°She is a new entrant. Please provide a magic card to her.¡±
The old man looked at me while scratching through his beard.
¡®V-Vermillion?! She¡¯s smaller than I remember though. Wait¡ does Vermillion¡¯s species shrink the older they get? No¡st time she came here she was as big as Elriek. Hmmm, no. There¡¯s something different about her.¡¯
The old man was thinking about someone called Vermillion while looking at me. This made me remember a conversation I had back in that human city with that party of adventurers. A member of my species was looking for me back then. Were they this Vermillion figure?
¡°Hmm, you. What¡¯s your name?¡±
¡®Me? Uh, Hinotori.¡¯
His eyes widened, then he let out a depressed sigh.
¡°I see. Well then, Hinotori. I¡¯ll need to test your magical output, is that alright with you?¡±
I wondered why he was depressed after hearing my name, but decided to not think too much about it. He was just some random old man.
Chapter 183 Dense Mana
¡°Come now,dy Hinotori.¡±
He directed me towards a crystal-clear orb that sat on a pedestal in the centre of the room.
[Item name: Mana Appraisal Orb]
[Item Rank: High Rare]
[Item Description: An orb made out of appraisal crystal. With it, one¡¯s magic power can be measured into numerical values]
Effect #1 ¨C Changes colour based on mana density
Effect #2 ¨C Records magic power as a number]
[Value: 20 gold coins | 5 store points]
¡®A mana appraisal orb?¡¯
¡®That¡¯s what he meant by testing our magical output?¡¯
¡®T-this should be a breeze then.¡¯
¡®I thought he was going to make me fight some monster or something. Phew.¡¯
¡°Please put your hand on the orb.¡±
He gently requested of me.
¡®Hmm, if she¡¯s the same as Vermillion, then this should shatter.¡¯
I honestly had no idea who this Vermillion person was and I had the urge to ask, but I would push that toter. I put my hand on the orb, but nothing happened.
¡®Am¡ I supposed to do something?¡¯
<<Channel mana into the orb>>
¡®Oh, I see.¡¯
¡®Dumbass.¡¯
¡®Shut it!¡¯
Just as I tried again, nothing happened.
¡°Oh¡ I forgot to give you the test permit.¡±
The old man spoke up, saving me from embarrassing myself any further. He threw a scroll my way and I caught it.
[Item name: Magic Test Permit]
[Item rank: Low epic]
[Item description: A scroll that allows the wielder to use their magic to any limits within the Antis domes.]
[Value: 100 gold coins | 5 store points]
¡®This is the magic card she was talking about? Well, I see its effects aren¡¯t useless. Still, isn¡¯t it a pain to just be walking around with this?¡¯
I started to channel my mana into the orb. It glowed a little bit, changing colour from red to orange to yellow to green. Following the rainbow colours till it turned dark purple, much like my feathers. I didn¡¯t stop pouring mana into it till it turned pitch ck and the orb looked like a case containing ink.
¡°EH!?¡±
I heard cries from both the princess and the grand court mage. His name was Magik by the way. Yeah, couldn¡¯t be less obvious than that.
¡®S-Such mana density!¡¯
The old man screamed in his head.
¡®Mana density?¡¯
<<The pure concentration of the mana that you manipte>>
¡®Um¡ so how dense is ck?¡¯
<<Absurdly dense. The almost the purest form mana can take>>
¡®Eh? Almost? Then what¡¯s the purest?¡¯
<<White>>
¡®Eh? How does it turn from ck to white?¡¯
<<That is unknown. Simply a reaction found in Appraisal crystals>>
¡®Is that so?¡¯
Golden numbers printed out on the orb in a dazzling light.
¡°W-What¡¯s the number?¡±
He asked as he came in closer.
¡°50?¡±
¡®That¡¯s disappointing. Vermillion had the same mana density, but her magic power was also over a hundred. With this number and mana density, she at best has the same power as an advanced mage here. That¡¯s a far cry from Vermillion. I guess you can¡¯t have two of the same monsters roaming about.¡¯
He was having a whole-ass monologue about how disappointing I waspared to someone I had never even heard off before! How rude could one be?
¡®Agent, do you know of this Vermillion person?¡¯
<<The name Vermillion is not umon, as such there are multiple people, he could be referring to>><novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Oh,e on! You can¡¯t tell me you didn¡¯t know of any prominent Vermillion back in the day.¡¯
<<There are 2 recordings of prominent Vermillions in the past. However, none of them should have possessed the ability toe down here.>>
¡®Eh? For real? That¡¯s weird. Maybe the one he¡¯s talking about lives underwater?¡¯
<<It is possible. My knowledge does not involve that of ces separate from Krione>>
¡®Krione? I-Isn¡¯t that the name of the world?¡¯
<<Krione is the name of your birth continent.>>
¡®Eh? Wait¡ are there are other continents?¡¯
<<There used to be 5 continents. However, post the God Wars, that is unknown and my range was limited to the continent of Krione alone.>>
¡®So, the other continents are destroyed?¡¯
<
>
¡®I see. Oh well. Wait! But¡ if you weren¡¯t aware of what was happening in Antis even though it wasn¡¯t destroyed, doesn¡¯t that mean you wouldn¡¯t know if the other continents are safe?¡¯
<<Yes.>>
¡®Uh¡ I don¡¯t even want to think about that. Let¡¯s get back on track.¡¯
¡°You¡¯re on the level of a Senior Court Mage. Let me get your magic card for you.¡±
He swam back to his desk that was overflowing the scrolls and all sorts of crystals with different purposes.
¡°Impressive. A senior court mage is one of the strongest mages in Antis. It takes years for people to reach that level. You must have had years of practice.¡±
¡®Y-Years? Uh¡ that¡¯s none of your business.¡¯
I shut her down. It would be way more condescending if she knew I was younger than her. A smile was etched onto her face as she looked at me, her imagination probably going wild. Though, it was still strange that I couldn¡¯t hear her thoughts.
¡®Agent?¡¯
<
>
¡®What do you mean possibly? If it was wouldn¡¯t it show up on her status screen?¡¯
¡®Gaah, the agent is starting to prove useless again. But, psst Tori. We need to talk about something.¡¯
¡®Eh? What?¡¯
¡®Um¡ this is a bit awkward to say¡¡¯
Akira informed of his suspicions. I suddenly became suspicious after hearing him. Out of nowhere, I began questioning everything I had done up to this point.
¡®Um¡ wow. Ok. Uh¡ huh. L-Let¡¯s talk about thatter.¡¯
I decided to postpone that discussion to another day.
¡°Here you go.¡±
The old man came back holding a scroll in hand which he then gave to me.
¡°This is your magic card. As long as you¡¯re in Antis, this will allow you to use your magic.¡±
¡®Is that so¡ ok.¡¯
I swallowed the scroll instantly.
¡°EH!?¡±
[You have consumed the Magic Permit]
[As long as you are within the domes of Antis, you will be capable of using your mana and magic up to the Intermediate level]
Just as the agent said, it worked. Well, that was it for the day. Both the princess and Magik were staring at me like I had done something weird.
¡®S-She reminds me of Vermillion too much. That thing ate the Test card I gave her and almost destroyed the city.¡¯
This Vermillion person sounded like a wild card. Then again, I couldn¡¯t say I wasn¡¯t tempted to eat the test card he gave me. Maybe I should have done that instead of waiting for this card.
¡®I guess we¡¯re done here, princess?¡¯
¡°I guess so. Let¡¯s go get Susu and that friend of yours.¡±
We left the old man to his business. He was saddened that we had to leave¡ well that I had to leave, but didn¡¯t show it on his face. Still a bit surprised that I made it out of there without him realising that I could read his mind and all his embarrassing thoughts. He really was the doting grandfather type. Probably one of Elriek¡¯s father¡¯s uncles.
The princess led us towards the prisoner cells where Suna and Yokino were both chained up. I honestly forgot about those two after Yokino didn¡¯t respond to my message, but now I knew she was just intentionally not giving me feedback. She was embarrassed by the fact that she got imprisoned and hadn¡¯t been able to escape after more than a day there.
Suna on the other hand was under some intense depression. The princess tried to cheer her up and eventually seeded in getting Suna to act as if she wasn¡¯t going through any pain. ording to Yokino, Suna¡¯s father had been confirmed dead and ever since, she hadn¡¯t even spoken a word. Both of them already possessed magic cards so they were able to use to magic, but the anti-magic cuffs that were used on them was what kept them down there.
I had several questions as to how Yokino had one, but she said she had been down here before. Although 3 months with her growth rate before meeting me, felt sort of impossible, I had to hand it to her. She had been to a lot of ces.
After getting them out, the princess then directed us to the pce courtyard.
¡®Um, where are we going now?¡¯
I asked her, failing to see why we hadn¡¯t headed back to her room to discuss the information I gave her the previous day in order to strike a deal.
Brazenly, she answered with her arms spread wide apart.
¡°Oh? Didn¡¯t I tell you? We¡¯re going on a walk through the city.¡±
<A/N: Sorry for the current schedule. I have examsing up so I have to reduce the amount of chapters I write in a week!>
Chapter 184 A Trip To The City
In a dark alleyway on the streets of Yorul, a person wrapped in a cloak moved silently.
It was very hard to find a ce as dark and filthy as this in Yorul, which was the capital city of Antis, named after its founder. Since it is the chosen ground of the highly exalted founder, the residents try their best to ensure that it was safely and cleanly kept. It was seen as a sort of Holy Land that the purest and wisest of the 3 original merfolk, Yorul had decided to set up his kingdom to ensure his people flourished.
Eventually his followers became so numerous, they had to create additional cities chosen by Yorul himself, which began the five nations of Antis. Since his death, the residents refused to create an additional city since they assumed it would be an offense the first king.
So, they ensured that their cities were clean to the best of their abilities. They monitored the increase in size poption and came up with magic for that problem. The monitored the increase in crime rate, so they came up with the street patrol for that problem. Every problem they encountered, they efficiently solved.
Unfortunately, no matter how well kept an item was, over a couple of centuries, cracks formed.
There were some slums in Yorul due to the influx of residents who wanted to get closer to the holynd, Yorul instead of the other cities with more space. The crime rates, although not as bad as in the other cities, still existed and scared some people. Yorul, couldn¡¯t be called the safest out of the 5 cities. In fact, it was potentially the most hazardous ce for anyone to live in the current era and this was all due to the presence of a guild that snuck their way into Antis.
Generally, Yorul was a clean ce with little to no bandits. This was because of how efficient the guards were at keeing the streets clear of any crimes. Still, even the guards had met their match in this particr group of thugs. If anything, there were rumours spreading that these thugs were the most efficient group of assassins ever seen in the history of the three kingdoms.
Easily avoiding capture, going about their normal business smoothly and alwayspleting their missions.
The Sikari Guild, the most fearsome band of assassins roaming the mass blue. Their real purpose was unknown, their leader was unknown, their motivation was unknown. The only evidence of their existence was the dead bodies they left behind.
The one wrapped in a cloak stumbled across azy looking merman with a bottle of alcohol to his lips. The merman looked at them and red for a bit, to which they replied with expressionless eyes. He looked away and burped, which was a foul sight to the cloaked person.
Someone also wrapped in a cloak, but with no visible showing of their true physical attributes in disy moved in from the shadows. It was as obvious as anything that the new being was an assassin. Their movements and clothes were more than enough to prove this.
Looking back, the drunk man was currently sleeping. It appeared the alcohol had caught up with him and knocked him out.
The cloaked figure looked at the assassin firmly. The assassin looked at her and slowly approached.
¡°Who do you want gone?¡±
¡°Someone will be passing through the streets tomorrow.¡±
¡°Not very descriptive, are you?¡±
He mocked her description skills, since she gave him little to no information on his actual target.
¡°You will know who the target is the moment you set eyes on them. They don¡¯t normally pass this side of the city.¡±
The assassin thought more over what she was saying and shrugged.
¡°Whatever. I hope my payment is here already.¡±
The hooded merman pulled out a bag, which she threw to the assassin.
¡°I believe this is more than enough of someone of your rank, Needle Master.¡±
The assassin opened up the bag and grinned. The amount of silver in the bag greatly exceeded the amount he got on a normal mission, but he wouldn¡¯t say that. Not like it mattered either way.
¡°How do you know who I am?¡±
He asked her, but the person kept swimming off.
¡°Answer my question or I refuse to do this job.¡±
Once he threatened as such, the person sighed and paused in their movement.
¡°The Secret Council.¡±
After delivering their final piece, the person swam off. Needle Master looked at the figure for a bit, thenughed.
¡°If you¡¯re going to lie,e up with a better one, brat.¡±
He himself vanished back into the shadows of the alleyway. Wherever he was going would remain unknown.
____________________
This princess was proving to be too much of a pain. She had a waring up and had no interest in it. Rather, what she wanted was to go out on a walk through the city.
A transport had been prepared for the trip. As expected, it was giant sea shell being pulled by tworge sea horses known as Ocean Dragoons. They were a sub species of dragons, much like drakes were. They weren¡¯t really strong, but they had high speed stats.
As soon as we boarded it, the coachman started out journey.
¡°You see, a leader is supposed to attend to their people. Address their problems, ensure their mental, spiritual and physical health is in an eptable range. As a leader, you carry the people on your back and as such, wouldn¡¯t it be better to know the people you¡¯re carrying?¡±
She had been lecturing me like this ever since we went to fetch the others.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®But, walking through a city. Isn¡¯t it dangerous for royalty?¡¯
¡°I don¡¯t know how it works for surface dwellers, but down here, it is virtually impossible for criminals tomit crimes. In fact, there are close to no criminals in Yorul, the Holy Land of our first king.¡±
¡®Holynd?¡¯
¡°Yes, indeed. You aren¡¯t aware of our history?¡±
¡®Uh, no. Why would I?¡¯
¡°Why would you go to a different country of which you know nothing? That is simply reckless behaviour. Research on everyone, enemies and allies alike. Find their weaknesses and strengths, how to exploit them, benefits and disadvantages of partnering up or antagonising them. Assume your species was a delicacy here, you would be dead by now, you know? Of course, we wouldn¡¯t consume something as ugly as your former appearance.¡±
She insulted me and I couldn¡¯t help feeling angry. I waned to smack her on the head, but as if they read my thoughts, both Yokino and Suna red at me.
¡®So, we¡¯re walking through the streets because you simply wish to check up on your people?¡¯
I asked her as we approached the city. The carriage slowed down the moment we reached the reached the entrance to the town. All around people who were working on decorations or ying stopped and stared at the carriage.
¡°That and other reasons. Care to think up the others? There are 2 more fundamental reasons for this.¡±
Two more fundamental reasons? Well, the princess didn¡¯t look like the kind-type so I doubted the people really cared much for her unless she had been really helpful to them.
¡®Easy. To get the people on your side.¡¯
¡°Good and the other reason?¡±
¡®Uhh¡ to identify the problems in the town?¡¯
I couldn¡¯t think up anything beyond that. Maybe if I had read some of those ¡°Coming-of-age¡± stories about kings or isekai protagonists to taking up leadership roles, I would know. Whatever, not like those were real.
¡°If I wanted that, I could have easily sent servants toe check-up on the current affairs. It also falls under the first thing I do.¡±
She had a point. There was virtually no reason for her to be here in person when she could easily send servants toe do this tedious job. I scratched my head a bit, trying to think up the reason.
¡°Your highness!¡±
¡°I-It¡¯s the princess!¡±
¡°She was returned to us!? Did the prince manage to rescue her?¡±
¡°Woohoo! This year¡¯s feast might be good again!¡±
¡°Might? It¡¯s going to be excellent!¡±
The people all around the carriage suddenly had their moods sent up to a whole new level. It was almost terrifying how much charisma the princess possessed and she hadn¡¯t even said anything to them. Was her third point this?
To increase the charisma amongst the people?
? ¡®Is this it? Making the people more confident?¡¯
I asked her. She smiled and gave me no proper response. Rather, she got up from her seat and got off from the carriage.
¡®Princess!¡¯
I instinctively reached out for her as she got off, but Suna grabbed me by the shoulder.
¡®Don¡¯t bother. It¡¯s just how the princess does things.¡¯
She sent me a telepathic message. I looked at her and she had a smile on her face while looking at the princess¡¯ figure. I wasn¡¯t sure how to feel looking at her face when I knew she was in so much pain on the inside. Not wanting to bring up the fact that her father had died and she wasn¡¯t given time to make her peace, I decided it would be best to ignore.
I focused on the princess once again while making sure to keep an eye out for anything or anyone dangerous. Even if she said there were close to zero, she still gave me a very strict warning about my fate should even a strand of her hair be lost.
¡°My dearest citizens. It has been quite some time since ourst meeting like this! Of course, I will be making my way to other parts of the city to personally spread this message. As the annual Yorul Feast is approaching, I have decided toe and ask you the citizens to help me in my endeavours! At this festival, my father ns to choose the new ruler of Antis and I need your help!¡±
She shouted loudly for everyone around to see. People started gathering around as she spoke. She described how she was fiendishly tortured by the SharkFang kingdom and how she bravely managed to escape with help from her personal task force (Suna, Yokino and myself). Of course, she didn¡¯t show us to the public, but it was heavily implied that we were her task force since apart from Yokino, we were new faces around here.
Her speech continued on for about 30 minutes, making me get bored. And since Akira and Akkun were tending to magic and skills, I decided to take a look at my stats. After continuously staring at it doing nothing, I asked the agent what my intelligence stat did. I first thought it rted to magic power, but I had a magic power stat and mana stat.
The agent said it had a myriad of purposes depending on the species. For humans, an intelligence stat meant the number of skills, spells, techniques or jobs they could acquire. For me, it meant the number of stat points I could acquire with each level up. But the agent had a theory that if my intelligence stat reached a certain point, I could possibly develop other stats entirely. I wasn¡¯t sure how this worked, but it basically meant, I needed to feed my intelligence stat.
Chapter 185 Attack On The Princess
After delivering a lengthy speech at the beginning point of the city, the princess made us go to several different locations across the city, just to do the same thing. It really must have been a pain in the ass being unable to simply project herself through some sort of crystal or screen.
Couldn¡¯t she do that though? This was the city of magic and so a simple projection spell should have been easy enough for them. Well, I understood the reasons she gave me, but to be frank, it waspletely redundant. The same results would be ensured through a projection spell and ending out people to do surveys.
In the end, I still couldn¡¯t understand her true thought process. This princess couldn¡¯t just be the genuinely kind-type all of a sudden, right?
Fortunately, there was an incident during one of her speeches that gave me time to stop thinking about it.
<<Warning! Iing projectile identified>>
Quickly, I identified a needle shooting through the water like a bullet. Even with my [Super Thought Process], the bullet was still moving fast. It took no time to notice where it was being aimed ¨C the princess¡¯ head. After scanning the needle, I made my move.
Albeit narrowly, I managed to ce myself between the princess and the needle with [Vector Control] and summoned my sword from my inventory. When I tried to deflect, it felt like I was attempting to shove a bus out of the way. That was simply how powerful the attack was. I used [Gravity] to push it away after struggling with it for a few seconds.
My eyes quickly settled on the origin of the attack. At first, I hadn¡¯t sensed him because of a skill he possessed. Most likely [Undetectable Stealth], but that skill would be useless the moment Iid eyes on him.
Finally, I knew why the princess was asking for help from an external force. She really couldn¡¯t trust anyone here with her life.
This worked out well for me. All the more reason for her to grant me more rewards.
***
Needle Master.
A well-known assassin in all of the mass-blue. Rumours of how masterful an assassin he was could be heard anywhere. His sess rate was 100% without a single blemish on this record of his. A few people had seen him and lived to tell the tale. However, the ounts of these people only lead to more confusion, since their descriptions of the Needle Master varied greatly.
A master of disguises they called him. The only real proof of his existence was the corpses of his victims. Each and every single one of them had a hole in their heads on the exact same spot. Never a different location no matter the target.
So, when the Needle Master received a job with quite the hefty price, he had assumed it was only due to his reputation and didn¡¯t take it seriously. On the day of the assassination, he finally realised who his target was. The princess, Elriek Sox Den Anon Yorul, the highest candidate for the throne. At that moment, it finally clicked in his head. His real client was the prince, Nanek Tox Den Anon Yorul, trying to eliminate her right in the city without anyone ever assuming that it was his fault.
The Needle master could only think about the sort of leverage he now wielded against the prince. With this, he could end up living a life of luxury as he had always dreamed.
Strangely enough, the princess only had 3 guards on her. One he recognised as Suna the Storm Spirit. She had always been with the princess since as long as anyone could remember. Daughter of the captain of the Royal guard and a very tough opponent herself. However, Needle Master was certain he could easily assassinate her as well, but she wasn¡¯t his target.
The other two on the other hand were unknown factors. After observing them for a moment, he noticed that the blonde girl had basically no guard set up, whereas the ck-haired woman was constantly searching. The only ones he needed to watch out for were Suna and the ck-haired undine. The blonde was most likely only good at fighting, so he didn¡¯t have time to waste on her.
After his preparations were done, he shot one of his needles with his skill [Snipe]. An advanced form of themon skill [Shoot] that he had been learning for a long time. With the [Snipe] skill, anything he threw would move as fast as a bullet with enough power to pierce through steel ting. No one had ever resisted this attack before, so even if Suna managed to get in the way, she would end up dead, whereas he would have already prepped another needle.
Shockingly, the member of the trio that he hadn¡¯t expected to even notice the needle was the only one to sense it. Even worse she deflected the needlepletely and easily.
This was the first time in his career, that Needle Master had missed a shot.
The terrifying beauty with vermillion red eyes and golden hair red at him, which shouldn¡¯t have been possible given his skill [Undetectable Stealth]. Only those with the highest of inspection skills could sense him.
She wielded a sword. It looked quite powerful and he could sense magic from the sword. It was a magic tool, meaning that girl was not normal in the slightest. Her appearance alone was one he hadn¡¯t seen before. She had no tail and her skin was a different hue from the nymphs and guppies.
Her cold gaze sent a shiver down his spine, almost petrifying him. He quickly came back to his senses once he realised his cover had been blown. Immediately, he jumped off into the shadows of the alleyway, hopefully not to be seen.
An essential skill for an assassin was their ability to blend into the crowd and remain unidentified. Once he jumped into the alleyways, he would be unseen. Through this method, he had escaped capture from the guards several times. Unfortunately, after the introduction of identity cards, that method had be redundant.
Needle Master didn¡¯t care about such useless details though. He had always made it out no matter the kind of situation it was.
So right now, as he swam through the alleyways, he waspletely confident that this would end up like it had several times.
¡®Where do you think you¡¯re running to?¡¯
A voice entered his mind, causing him to pause.
While thinking up what he was going to do, he hadn¡¯t noticed the person in front of him. It was the blonde from before. Her red eyes glowered at him from the darkness, making him flinch. Reflexively, he took out a needle.
¡®When did she get in front of me?¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Why are you trying to kill the princess?¡¯
The voice asked him, but he had been raised to never expose his job or clients. So, for now, all he needed to do was simply create a distraction to run away. Fighting definitely wasn¡¯t an option when it came to someone who managed to stop his needles and catch up to him while running.
¡®Telepathy? So, you can read my thoughts?¡¯
He tried to confirm this, but he got no response from the creature. Rather, she looked at him expectantly, still waiting for the answer to her former question.
¡®Maybe she can¡¯t read my thoughts? Rather she can just transfer her thoughts? [Thought Communication]? She simply used that to mislead me. Clever.¡¯
He slowly backed up after seeing through his opponent¡¯s trick. He had them figured out. From his pocket, he took out a vial of ink dust. This ink dust, once shattered would block the senses of all those without resistance to its potent poison. He had been ingesting the poison since a long while ago in order to build up a decent resistance to it. Just as he was about to shatter the vial, a sh of light shot from the girl¡¯s finger-tip, causing the vial to disappear.
¡®I am in no mood for any sort of jokes. Answer me, now.¡¯
She threatened while a weird gas erupted from her body. Her form distorted, erged, became grotesque and horrifying. The assassin couldn¡¯t see anything around him anymore. He was in pitch ck darkness and the hulking figure with demonic looking eyes red at him hungrily.
This presence was something he had only seen in his mind. It was a figure so terrifying he was shocked his imagination was spot on. This was exactly how he had presumed the guild leader looked. It had been beat into him since childhood that the guild master was the most terrifying being imaginable.
Stalking the shadows, always monitoring the actions of the assassins, waiting to deliver punishment to those who fail him. A demonic existence that would go on to cause many sleepless nights for a young Needle Master. Eventually, he grew out of it and simply assumed those stories were told as a method to keep the assassins in check. Some imed to have seen the master and that he was more terrifying than they had assumed, but since he, the Great Needle Master had still not even gotten an audience with the leader somewhere in his mind, he stopped identifying the leader as terrifying.
However, now that he was here, seeing the leader, his limbs were glued to his body. He couldn¡¯t think straight, his heart just wouldn¡¯t stop beating loudly. The leader¡¯s arms grabbed him and brought him closer. The Needle Master started screaming wildly, as he was being dragged into the massive maw of the monster in front of him.
¡°N-No! No! No! Stop! Don¡¯t you dare! Noooooooo!¡±
He yelled while trying to break free. Strangely, he couldn¡¯t move his body. No matter how hard he tried to resist, his body wasn¡¯t obeying his orders. So just like that, the needle master was consumed while screaming and crying.
***
[You have consumed 1 merman soul]
[You have received a 10% permanent boost in stats]
I received a notification after eating the soul of the Assassin. It was surprisingly easy to do so. At least now I knew that I could just obtain the soul of any opponent I had that was within a certain range. There were limitations like the will of the one I was consuming, which was why sometimes I would need to beat them to near death or kill them in order to obtain the soul, but in front of opponents with such weak wills, I could easily get their souls. Even if they had a strong will, I just needed to use [Terror] to terrify them enough to acquire their souls.
This probably wouldn¡¯t work on someone like Daxia who appears to have no fear, but to those with a great fear, I could break their wills that way.
Anyway, this assassin wasn¡¯t even that strong. B- rank from what I could tell, meaning he was just just one level beneath me, but from what I¡¯ve seen, the ranking system isn¡¯t 100% urate. It could simply be the estimated projection of one¡¯s stats or number or types of skills. It didn¡¯t take into ount one¡¯s experience over years, so I had assumed this assassin would be stronger than the system imed it was.
I was greatly mistaken. He was surprisingly weak. And his attempt to escape was borderline underwhelming. Hopefully, that was how it was going to be for any opponent I came across over here.
I was about to take it easy, but I remembered how some opponents could end up being terrifying at a moment¡¯s notice. One mistake and they wouldpletely switch up on you and be an entirely different beast from what you were facing earlier.
¡®Oh, his soul wasn¡¯t that tasty.¡¯
¡®That¡¯s probably because of how weak he was.¡¯
''Still funny how he didn''t even notice that his soul had left his body.''
''Right? When he started screaming in fear. Priceless.''
¡®Uh... huh. Any how now I have his memories.¡¯
¡®And I know where the guild is.¡¯
¡®A-And they are all criminals.¡¯
¡®No one would mind if some criminals were erased, would they?¡¯
¡®No one at all.¡¯
Chapter 186 Gluttonous Beast Pt.I
I returned to the others after finishing off the assant. They had surrounded the princess and put up a magic barrier to prevent any further attacks. Maybe they should have done that while she was giving her speech.
¡°When did you-¡±
Suna approached me to ask some questions, but now wasn¡¯t the time in my opinion.
¡®I know who did this. Is it alright if I go handle them?¡¯
I looked at the princess for confirmation and she mauled over it for a while.
¡°Who did this?¡±
¡®The Sikari Guild from what I gathered.¡¯
¡°Huh? If it¡¯s someone from there, I doubt you would have gotten any answers.¡±
¡®I can read minds.¡¯
I gave her that simple excuse. It would probably be a bad idea to tell them I eat souls to acquire information I¡¯m seeking. Just imagine you had been insulting someone who could kill you at a moment¡¯s notice without blinking. You¡¯d put your guard up around that person, no?
¡°Even if you know who did it, what good does it do us when we don¡¯t know where the Sikari guild is? For all you know, it was all just sham. It would have been better if you left him alive.¡±
The princessined about me killing the man who attempted to assassinate her. Maybe I should have let him kill her and be done with it.
¡®Oi, chicken. What happened?¡¯
Yokino called out to me with her mind. I looked at her, but she was busy ying with her hands. Well, I say ying, but in truth she wasing up with new spell ideas. This spider was crazy. Every time I saw her, her hands were busy doing something.
Maybe I needed to adopt that attitude as well. Alwaysing up with ways to get stronger. There was always the simple route of killing.
¡®I simply got answers out of him. Is it that hard to believe?¡¯
¡®Well¡ yeah. The Sikari guild is the most mysterious guild ever. Proof of the guild being real is even fickle. For you to say such a thing, especially considering the person spoke when you tortured them, it could just be some random idiot leading us on a wild goose chase.¡¯
The guild was that quiet with their missions? So, whoever hired them simply went to some random alleyway and hoped they had hired this supposed Sikari guild?
¡®Ah¡ so how does their name even exist?¡¯
¡®I don¡¯t know. It just does.¡¯
¡®How do you know so much?¡¯
¡®Not my first rodeo, cowboy.¡¯
She then cut off the connection and returned to doing whatever it was she was doing.
¡®How am I supposed to convince them then?¡¯
I looked at Suna and the princess who were still talking about the issue. I didn¡¯t want to reveal my trump card to them.
¡®Maybe we make up having a certain skill that allowed us to get the information?¡¯
¡®I doubt they¡¯d believe that.¡¯
¡®Just say we tortured him that well?¡¯
¡®We didn¡¯t even spend thirty seconds on him.¡¯
¡®Hmmm.¡¯
¡®Hmmmmmm.¡¯
¡®W-We don¡¯t need to tell them anything.¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
¡®Akkun?¡¯
¡®I-I mean, t-they won¡¯t believe us no matter what, right? Even if they do believe he is from the guild, there¡¯s no reason that we know where the guild is. So we go by ourselves, retrieve the head of the guild and present it to her. That way, no one gets in the way of the feast¡ erhm, culling¡ princess protection?¡¯
¡®Ha¡¡¯
¡®A-Akkun¡¡¯
¡®U-Uwaa! S-sorry.¡¯
Akkun was scary. Practically the secret brains of this organisation.
I looked at them for onest time. Yokino looked at me, then a weird expression formed on her face.
¡°I know that expression. Don¡¯t you dar-¡°
I shot off towards the guild¡¯s secret location, leaving them behind.
My stomach grumbled as I appeared before an alleyway. I was being cautious because of the guard who prevents anyone from entering the guild.
He usually acted as a sort of homeless drunk, but considering he was trusted enough to protect the entrance, he must have been no easy target. Although when I scanned him, his stats looked no better than the needle master.
I wasn¡¯t going to take my chances. If I got found out this early, the guild would relocate in a matter of seconds. Fortunately for me, the Needle Master had the skill [Transformation], which allowed him to look like anything he looked at.
Using [Remorse], I activated his skill with the intention of looking just like him. There was a tiny sh and when I looked at my hands, I looked no different from my regr self.
¡®Am I actually transformed?¡¯
Since there was no real way to confirm from simply looking at myself. I decided to just go with the flow. I got into the alleyway, there, I saw the drunk merman. He had pale skin and messy strands of hair on his head.
A few of his teeth were missing or golden, with tatters for cloth on his body. I could even see his ribcage showing. To his side were empty bottles.<novelnext></novelnext>
I was now curious as to how a merman could drink anything underwater. They were literally surrounded by water 24/7, so there was no way they would grow thirsty, right?
Quickly, I moved towards the darkness in the alleyway. The drunk looked at me and I looked at him back for only a split second before proceeding further down.
I could sense a weird distortion in the darkness. Much like using [Shadow Travel], meaning the caster had an affinity for [Dark magic] and [Space magic]. Possessing more than one affinity in this world was more than enough to cause someone to be called talented.
To reduce someone like that to simple portal control meant they most likely possessed more important individuals in their mix.
Needle Master for all his boasting, knew little to nothing. Sure, he was aware of the entrance and a rough estimate of the number of members present in the guild, but he had no idea of the true power of everyone. He assumed he was the best in the guild.
So, infuriating.
¡°Varim der har iz groys.¡±
The drunk whispered as I was about to enter. It was customary for guild members to respond, but Needle Master never responded. Quietly, I proceeded through the portal.
When I appeared on the other side, my mind was in awry. To the sides of the portal, there were two mermen with spears in hand. The guards for the portal it would seem.
Not worth the time, I looked at everything else.
I had seen it through the Needle Master¡¯s memories, but to think the guild was actually this big simply amazed me.
A temple made out of white marble on a mountain. The temple itself was easily over 60 meters tall and its width should have been over 300 meters. There were several pirs holding up the roof of the temple, with multiple pearls shoved into them. These pearls glowed beautifully in the quiet area, and were each as big as my head.
The temple seemed to have the same structure as temples from Ancient Greek. There were multiple assassins holding spears or carrying weapons standing guard in front of the statue. All around me, multiple mermen were moving about quietly and slowly.
Some were in hijabs, veils and all sorts of coverings, preventing their faces from being shown. Their hands were folded together as if in prayer.
At the bottom of the staircase leading to the temple, there was a statue of a woman in a veil. This woman held a simr pearl in her hand. The statue was so hold, there were no real discernible features on it.
She was supposed to be the Primordial Goddess of the Mass Blue. She had too many names for me to pick a specific one, ording to Needle Master¡¯s memories, so I wouldn¡¯t even bother.
My heart started to thump loudly. Drool escaped my mouth while looking at all the delicacies present.
¡°Oi, hurry up and go pay homage to the goddess.¡±
One of the guards protecting the portal ordered me with his spear in hand. I looked at his stats and he was weaker than the needle master. He was even younger, meaning he had less experience than the needle master.
I performed a wide area scan and almost no one here was my match, meaning, I was in for a treat. Obviously, I wouldn''t kill everyone here. I simply needed the princess to believe my ims.
¡®[Shadow Demon Summoning].¡¯
A ck orb appeared to my side. The guards looked at it with confusion.
¡®Huh? What¡¯s that?¡¯
¡®Needle Master?¡¯
I had no idea, but this entire situation was amusing. I remembered how my life was when I first entered this world. I was always being preyed on. It felt like I would die at any moment if I simply met the wrong enemy.
Now, here I was. Stronger than almost everything I see. This was going to be fun.
One by one, my five shadow demon generals descended from the orb. Considering I had more mana, I could summon more than a dozen shadow demon generals now, but these five would do.
They surrounded me and bowed.
¡°PRINCESS!¡±
¡°GIVE!¡±
¡°US!¡±
¡°YOUR!¡±
¡°ORDER!¡±
¡°Fuck! Needle Master¡¯s gone insane!¡±
One of the guards reacted to the shadow demons in such a way. I had forgotten that they still saw me as the Needle Master.
He charged at me with his spear in hand. One of the shadows cut his weapon and body in half with a single sh. Even my shadow generals were this overpowered in the presence of their guards.
I quickly ate his soul.
[You have eaten 1 merman soul]
[Your stats have received a permanent 10% boost]
[You have gone up 1 level]
Good. Good.
His soul wasn¡¯t really tasty, but I would surely find something tasty.
The other guard looked at me, but he was standing in fear. I was surprised he belonged to this supposedly hardcore guild of assassins. Maybe that was why he was left to mere portal guarding. The moment an enemy found out how to infiltrate, it meant they knew all the information they had to.
The real tough guys were sent out to assassinate.
A wimp¡¯s soul wouldn¡¯t be tasty.
¡®Round up everyone you see. Put them to near death situations, but don¡¯t kill them. I want to get the best souls from an evaluation. Show no mercy to anyone. Summon your subordinates and pass these orders to them.¡¯
<A/N: I''ll be back to usual 5 chapters a week in 2 weeks. I do apologise for this inconvenience for this past month! We should have been close to the end of this arc by now, but that''s still a ways away. Please, doment, leave a review or give me power stones!>
Chapter 187 Gluttonous Beast Pt.II
¡°Gate keeper.¡±
A robed assassin appeared before the seemingly drunk old merman. The Gate Keeper, as he was called, looked up with a ditzy expression.
¡°Varim der har iz groys.¡±
¡°Did the Needle Master pass by?¡±
The assassin impatiently asked; however, the Gate Keeper was not going to entertain this sort of attitude from the assassin.
¡°Varim der har iz groys.¡±
¡°I apologise. Varim der har iz groys.¡±
He quickly realised his mistake and tried to clear it up. The Gate Keeper looked at him with a stern warning, before drinking from his bottle.
¡°Did the Needle Master pass by? I don¡¯t think it was him.¡±
¡°A false needle master, you say? Interesting.¡±
¡°You haven¡¯t seen him then? We may still have time then. I have reason to believe he was eliminated. They will being here, so we need to change the portal¡¯s location- wait... you¡¯ve never referred to him as Needle Master.¡±
The assassin was immediately on guard. His mind went back to how quickly the person who took down Needle Master moved. It was definitely possible that they had alreadye here. The only problem would be by-passing the Gate Keeper. Maybe they could use a sort of transformation magic or skill.
Still, the Gate Keeper could see through all of those. That was one of the reasons he was put in charge of the gate. No one could deceive his eyes. Not even the best assassins could sneak past him, which could only mean one thing.
The Gate Keeper had already dealt with the infiltrator. The assassin could rest easy.
He let out a sigh and looked at the Gate Keeper.
¡°Oh? Why are you rxing? It would appear I let quite the gluttonous beast slide into your sacrednd.¡±
The assassin¡¯s eyes bulged out of his eye sockets. There was a shrewd grin on the Gate Keeper¡¯s face as he stroked his chin and feigned ignorance.
¡®H-He allowed it?!¡¯
His eyes were immediately fixed onto the darkness, where the portal to the Guild was. Realising how much of a jeopardy the guild was in at the moment, the assassin sped towards the portal to clear up the mess.
Unfortunately, the moment he tried to go he sensed somethinging after his neck. At a point nk, he avoided the attack and faced the origin. Standing there were three people. All of whom he recognised as the princess and her two guards.
The undine was the one to attack him with weird threads that came out of his fingers. She looked at him with a curious gaze, whereas the princess looked extremely delighted. Suna on the other hand looked infuriated.
¡°I swear, I¡¯m going to cut that fowl in half when I find her.¡±
Lightning cracks exploded off her head. The assassin looked at the trio, scanning and making deductions.
The easiest person to kill first would be the princess, but Suna and the guard would be on high guard for her. Suna¡¯s strength was somewhat equal to the assassin¡¯s, so fighting her and the other would end in his defeat. Completely unaware of the true scopes of the undine¡¯s strength, he came to the conclusion that the best option in this situation was to flee.
Using [Hyper Burst], he disappeared through the portal faster than any of them could react.
If those three were lucky, they wouldn¡¯t try to fight the Gate Keeper. If they weren¡¯t, they would make an enemy out of him.
The assassin reappeared at the other side of the portal and was met with a grotesquely horrifying scene. The holy temple of his goddess, his birthce and ce of worship, had been tainted in blood and dismembered bodies.
There were several ck creatures swimming about, chasing the nonbatants. Whereas thebatants had been restrained and lined up in front of the temple. There was a thunderous rumble from the inside of the temple and several cries of people.
His face paled just as an arm floated gently down. The beast that cut off the arm was a pitch ck with only what could be defined as a demonic appearance. It was essentially a living shadow, much like the devils he had been taught about.
While he was quietly observing the scene in horror, one of the ck beasts identified him. It cocked its head at him and he gulped.
¡°Krriee¡?¡±
It made a terrible low screeching voice. The assassin withdrew his curved des and looked at the beast, a bit hesitant to even face it.
Another beast¡¯s head popped up from the body it was currently ripping in half. He gulped once he noticed the increasing number of demons paying attention to him.
This was essentially the moment he got to prove his loyalty to the guild. Would he run away, or was he going to throw away his life? Either way he was dead, right?
Then, wouldn¡¯t it be best for him to stay and fight? At least, that way he could say he did something with his life.
The beasts slowly approached him.
¡®T-That¡¯s right, if I fight back and there¡¯s reinforcements, I could get an increase in rank.¡¯
More creatures approached him, having rendered their original targets immobile.
¡®Beasts or not. Nothing is more terrifying than the guild lead-¡®
Just as he thought that, there was an almost nature defying roar from inside the temple. A massive beam of ck light shot out of the temple, turning the water ck, as if it wasn¡¯t even a part of the mass blue anymore.
The beasts looked back at the temple, all surprised by the events, but after sniffing the air for a moment, they all let out horrid shrieks simultaneously and returned their focus to the target.
By that time, he was long gone. He already ran through the portal, having decided that it was better to live to fight another day.
When he reappeared there, he was met with the annoyed expressions of the three women from before.
¡°Hello aga-¡±
They weren¡¯t his concern. Whatever the hell was happening back in the guild was more terrifying than they could ever be.
He swam past them, thinking only of his survival. Unfortunately for him, the world started spinning around. He could even see his body.
¡®What¡¯s going on?¡¯
While he pondered this for a bit of time, his eyes fell on a snickering old man.
¡®D-Did you kill me?¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
___________________________
After having summoned my shadow generals and giving them their orders, I decided to head directly into the temple. That was where I sensed the really strong people. No one too terrifying, just a bit below me or on my level. I was sure I could handle them easily at this rate.
Once I stepped into the temple, some guards raced for me. My shadow generals restrained them quickly, allowing me to go deeper. The temple was seriously big, and the deeper I went, the darker it was. There was no form of light the further I went in.
I could feel a heavy presence deep down. Well, it was more like when I scanned it, I wasn¡¯t getting anything. As if what I was trying to scan didn¡¯t exist.
Interested, I went closer to it. There, I found someone kneeling down to a statue in prayer.
¡°Oh, dearest mother, forgive this son for he has sinned! I have allowed your holy temple to be tainted by the blood of weaklings.¡±
He cried out. He sounded like a middle-aged man who was bored with life.
At a nce, he didn¡¯t really look special, but the fact that he was evading my [God¡¯s Wisdom] was interesting enough to catch my eye.
¡®Old man, get up.¡¯
I ordered him, but he sat there, crying out.
¡°Even worse I have permitted a lost child into your humble abode. Forgive me!¡±
He cried out once again.
¡®Oi, old man.¡¯
¡°Forgive me, oh merciful mother!¡±
¡®Ah¡ I¡¯m being as patient as I can here.¡¯
I approached him, with my sword in hand.
¡°If you don¡¯t respond to me, I will cut off your head. Now answer.¡±
I put my hand on his shoulders, but I passed right through him.
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡°Forgive us, oh merciful mother!¡±
From all directions, I heard multiple pleas.
¡®What¡¯s happening?¡¯
Even with my [God¡¯s Wisdom], I still couldn¡¯t identify anything. However, one by one, people in dirty brown robes came from behind the pirs, with their hands sped in prayer.
¡°Forgive us, oh merciful mother!¡±
Chant in unison, praying for forgiveness.
¡®W-What the hell? I got lost in some weird cult, huh.¡¯
They all lifted their hands to me. I could feel them channelling mana through their bodies and into their hands. Magic circles formed up from all directions, facing me.
¡®For real? You¡¯re going to assault me with magic?¡¯
I found the situation to be interesting. Rather than giving them the opportunity to do so, I charged straight at one and sliced right through him. Unfortunately for me, the same thing with the old man happened. Instead, what I felt was a dagger going through my neck from behind.
Luckily, I had [Slime body], essentially nullifying the stab. I turned my head 180 and opened my mouth wide to consume him, but I bit through nothing. Rather, I got a lightning bolt, water spear and daggers chugged at me.
This was cancelled out by my [Elemental Barrier], but the daggers managed to get lodged into my arm.
[You have been afflicted with [Paralysis]]
I took the daggers out of my hand, almost immediately curing myself of the poison.
¡®Good, good. The first batch to not run away!¡¯
I said this, because I had received a report from my shadow demons. Most people were running away after seeing them, making me feel like their sous weren¡¯t worth it. But now, here I was, dealing with a bunch of people who couldn¡¯t even be registered by [God¡¯s Wisdom].
My sigma sine armour covered my body.
Twelve enemies in total, surrounding me. They were probably the strongest out of everyone in this area.
¡°It seems you have made up your mind to face us. But before we proceed, may I ask. Why are you doing this? Depending on your answer, your life may be forfeit, so please do answer wisely.¡±
One of them came out and asked me.
I looked at him, but still couldn¡¯t get a scan on him.
¡®Agent?¡¯
<<That is unknown. It appears as though they are not in this space at all.>>
¡®Odd¡¡¯
My sword lit up and I charged at the merman faster than he could see, slicing him into a perfect half. Just like all my attacks from before, he waspletely unfazed by it.
¡®That¡¯s some nifty trick you have up your sleeve. Care to show me how you do it?¡¯
¡°Answer my question.¡±
I narrowed my eyes on him, but I couldn¡¯t see his reaction underneath the hood. All I could feel was a mocking gaze.
¡®Just shut up and die.¡¯
Chapter 188 Gluttonous Beast Pt.III
¡°[Corrosion Arrows]!¡±
¡°[Body down]!¡±
¡°[Wall of Magic]!¡±
¡°[Cyclone cut]!¡±
I heard different magic skills being shouted out with magic circles popping up around me. They were using Rune magic so they didn¡¯t need to chant the spell, yet here they were shouting it¡¯s name.
[You have been afflicted with [Weakness]]
[Your physical stats will go down by 10%]
¡®What?!¡¯
One of the spells had weakened my body. I looked up, searching for the one who cast the spell, but all I got was green slimy arrows heading for my neck and a dark blue sh.
Using [Shadow Travel], I reappeared behind one random member and tried to cut his neck, but once again, my sword simply passed through him. Rather, he grabbed my wrist and flipped him over, mming me into one of the pirs.
[You have lost 20 health points]
Barely an amount for me to even be bothered about. With [Auto Regeneration], that recovered in an instant. Since at its current level, I¡¯d recover 500 health points in a near instant.
While I was thinking that, the robed man stabbed my hand to the pir with a dagger with so much force I could hear the pir cracking.
[You have lost 50 health points]
[You have been afflicted with [Paralysis]]
[You will not be able to move]
[Due to your low resistance to Poison, you will only be stuck frozen for 5 minutes]
¡®E-Eh? Low resistance? F-Five minutes?¡¯
I hadpletely forgotten about raising my resistances. For certain situations like this, a high poison resistance would have been very suitable.
Honestly, even with my paralysis, using [Shadow Travel] to escape should have been easy enough. It wasn¡¯t like [Paralysis] stopped my ability to use magic out of nowhere.
¡°[Fist of the Sea God: Third Form ¨C Righteous Punch]!¡±
One other assassin came towards me with his fist at the ready. Since I couldn¡¯t scan them, I had decided that the best option was to tank one of their attacks to get a rough estimate as to how strong they were.
The assassin looked rushed at me with a speed equivalent to mine. At first, I saw his punch to be a regr punch, but once it connected with my abdomen, my eyes opened. It felt like his hand was being pushed by a rocket propeller.
The lower part of the pir shattered with me still standing stuck in ce.
¡°Kuok!¡±
It felt like I had been hit by a bullet train at full speed, causing me to even spit out blood. Shards of the [Sigma Sine Armour] broke off, leaving me a bit more vulnerable.
[You have lost 1000 health points]
[You have been afflicted with [Broken Bones]]
[Your stats have been lowered by 5%]
¡®The fuc-?!¡¯
¡®No! Ignore the pain! Do it now!¡¯
Akira reminded me of the actual n. Quickly, I tried grabbing him with my [Shadow Limbs], but they simply passed right through him even though he was still connected to my body.
¡®W-What the hell?¡¯
¡°[Fist of the Sea God: Fourth Form ¨C zing Trail]!¡±
He retracted his punch and delivered another mind-blowing hit.
[You have lost 350 health points]
Then another hit.
[You have lost 230 health points]
Then another.
[You have lost 250 health points]
Another.
[You have lost 190 health points]
Another.
[You have lost 200 health points]
Another.
[You have lost 213 health points]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], your [Low Poison Resistance] has levelled up to [Low Poison Resistance Level 9]]
[You will be afflicted by the poison for only 4 more minutes]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have developed the skill [Shock Absorber]]
I sensed an iing needle being shot with more power than the [Needle Master] could muster.
Having no time to focus on the messages from the system, I used [Shadow Travel] to escape my captivity. Unfortunately for me, an assassin was alreadying at me.
He punched me in the head and another sliced at my back.
[You have lost 400 health points]
[You have lost 200 health points]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], the skill [Low Poison Resistance] became [Mid- Poison Resistance]]
[You have recovered 500 health points]
¡®W-What¡? All that happened in a second?¡¯
I hadn¡¯t even realised that my [Auto Regeneration] had kicked in till then. And I was still paralysed, meaning they changed the poison that they were using. That meant these opponents also possessed speed and adaptability on top of power. Some of them were still in the background, simply observing.
Like the old man that was kneeling down and praying. When I looked at him again, I was starting to feel a weird vibe.
¡®Whatever! If I¡¯m paralysed, I¡¯ll just need to keep them busy. [Shadow Demon Summo - !?¡¯
¡°[Anti-Magic Area].¡±
The moment I attempted to summon beasts to help me, they had nullified any and all forms of magic in the area.
I was quite literally a floating shark.
¡®That¡¯s not the expression¡¡¯
¡®Sitting duck? Whatever. Agent. Can I win without magic?¡¯
<<Under normal circumstances, no. However, with ¡°that¡±, you should be able to escape>>
¡®Oh? I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d have to use ¡°it¡± so soon.¡¯
I looked at my surroundings. Three of them wereing at me with either their fists or a weapon. The others in the background had their hands raised at me, with runes glowing in front of them.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®O-oi! That¡¯s not fair!¡¯
[You have recovered 500 Health points]
¡®Howe they can use magic?¡¯
<<The magic spell [Wall of Magic] is a buff that prevents the targets from being affected by magic nullifying spells such as [Anti-Magic Area]. This suggests that they had always intended to prevent you from using magic>>
¡®Always, huh? But why would they do that?¡¯
¡®Are they afraid of our magic?¡¯
¡®B-but then, we can¡¯t even touch them.¡¯
¡®So, what makes them so scared?¡¯
¡®Wait¡ is it the shadow demons?¡¯
¡®No, it can¡¯t be. [Shadow Limbs] did nothing to them.¡¯
¡®W-What about the demon aspect?¡¯
Akkun suggested something elementary to me! It was so interesting I had almost forgotten that I was about to get hit.
[You have lost 110 health points]
With [Slime Body] and [Shock Impact], I avoided the slice from the weapon holding assassins while reducing the damage from his iing attack.
¡®Then we don¡¯t need to use ¡°that¡±?¡¯
¡®Looks like we don¡¯t. For now, I¡¯ll just settle for [Devil Form].¡¯
The skill activated. In my head, I felt something click just like when I first used it. My hair remained blonde, but grew more. Four horns appeared on top of my head like some sort of crown. My body grew taller, to about 6 feet and 6 inches ¨C a very sudden change, as well as my physical appearance. I had be a sort of adult in this form.
The orb that I normally kept hidden on my chest was bigger as well, glowing with a more eerie darkness. I felt empowered, like I could beat anyone now.
¡°Haha¡ Interesting.¡±
Even my voice sounded different.
[You have activated your Devil Form]
[You will receive a 5x boost in all stats]
[You have not consumed enough souls to fuel this form]
[In exchange, you will lose 100 health points per second in this form]
[Those with [Holy Affinity] will be alerted to your existence if near]
[Those with [Dark Affinity] will be alerted to your existence if near]
[Your paralysis has worn off]
I spread my arms out and inspected my opponents more. They backed away from me slowly.
¡®Hm? Why are they backing away?¡¯
<<I have sessfully narrowed down the possible skills they are using in this fight.>>
¡®Oh? Let me hear em.¡¯
I sent warning res to all of them to ensure that they didn¡¯te any closer.
<<There is a 99.12% chance that they are using the skill [Astral Projection]. A skill that allows the user to send their spiritual form to another location from where their physical body is.>>
¡®Astral Projection? Oh, so they are scared because¡?¡¯
<<Devils are capable of interacting with spiritual life forms, meaning you can now touch them.>>
¡®Eh? But I¡¯m a literal demon.¡¯
<<Demons are different from devils.>>
¡®Ah¡ that makes no sense. Whatever. I¡¯ll just end these bastards now. [Lethal ck w].¡¯
Sharp, jet-ck ws protruded from my fingers. Since I could now harm them, there was practically no use in using my weapons. I would be the weapon.
¡®[Ferocious sh]!¡¯
I moved behind one of the assassins that had their magic circle pointed at me and cut an arc across their back. I could feel my hand ripping against them.
¡°Ah!¡±
The assassin screamed, causing the one next to him to point his spell at me, releasing a bolt of lightning.
I returned to my original position, allowing the attack to hit the one who wasing for me from the behind.
¡®Wait¡ since they are spiritual forms, can I take it that they are souls?¡¯
<<Yes.>>
¡°Oh, dear heavens. Such a filthy creature has made its way into your humble abode. Allow me to end this disgrace."
After a while, the old man finally spoke. I looked at him and his straightened his posture, revealing himself to be quite the hulking figure.
¡°My fellow disciples.¡±
He called out to the others, making them all focus on him. Worst mistake.
I jumped on one of the assassins who wasn¡¯t paying any mind to me, however, just before I could catch them, my limbs froze up, like I was bound by ropes.
¡®What¡¯s this?¡¯
¡°We have disgraced ourdy! Over the years, we have allowed weakness to seep into their walls of ourdy. I propose a culling. We shall start over.¡±
He started talking about something very weird.
¡°First of all, we shall tame this beast, then we shall proceed to eliminate the weak who dared to run away from an invader.¡±
¡®Eh?¡¯
I looked at the old man. He was ripped with bulging well-define muscles. His skin was green in colour, suggesting that he wasn¡¯t really a merman, but rather a fishman. His hood still covered his face even though the remainder of the cloak was no where to be found.
With a simple flick of his finger, my body was sent flying towards his body, where he delivered a devastating punch to my face.
¡°Ah!¡±
I felt some teeth breaking. My body was feeling numb out of nowhere. The situation had turned on me in aplete instant.
The old man growled at me and from underneath his hood, he was starting to appear as a demon, with looked like steam around him.
¡®All enemies, shall be purged. All weakness, shall be purged. Only the chosen ones shall progress. Are you a chosen one, wild beast?¡¯
¡®W-What¡¯s happening?! Why do I feel like I really will die this time?¡¯
¡®No! Use this!¡¯
¡®[Demonic Light Maniption]?¡¯
<A/N: Sorry for not posting this on Monday as usual, however I decided to do this at the start of June. Since I n to post everyday in this month! Don''t hold me to that, but I will try my best. So I hope you do your best with power stones and reviews. There seems to be an issue with the site where some reviews don''t even show up. So please do check if your reviews are still there (That is if you''ve reviewed it) and if you haven''t, please go do so so I get more readers.>
Chapter 189 Second Coming Of The Sea Devil
<A/N: I¡¯m making a bit of a retcon here. Changing [Demon Light Maniption] to [Devil Light Maniption]! Sorry for the sudden change.>
¡®[Devil Light Maniption]?¡¯
¡®Oooh, yeah. I forgot this skill could do that.¡¯
Akira knew something about this skill I presumed was useless and hadn¡¯t told me? The nerve!
¡®Do what?¡¯
¡®D-Devil light. It h-has something t-to do with the t-transformation of [Hell]¡¯s physical environment.¡¯
¡®Eh? Akkun too? But what¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡¯
¡®Basically, it changes anything it touches into something from hell.¡¯
¡®¡ HUH?!¡¯
¡®No time to exin any further! Just shoot a massive beam!¡¯
¡®But! Gaah!¡¯
I gave up on those two ever exining it to me properly now. I activated the skill, causing several ck rays to shoot out of my finger-tips in all directions randomly.
It hit one of the robed men¡¯s arms, making him scream out in pain. His arm turned ck and was grossly disfigured as well as surprisingly tinier.
He grunted in pain and faded out of the room. It would seem his astral projection was forcefully cut out. I could feel the tense emotions from the others the moment they saw one of their members disappear.
¡°You aren¡¯t a mere beast, but a foul devil?¡±
In front of me, the old man who was in direct contact with the light waspletely unfazed by it. Rather, his muscles were bulging even more and water around him fizzled.
¡°A devil in the house of the Goddess? How filthy!¡±
Just as he roared, his fist came down hard, but I managed to barely avoid his attack, the pressure from the waves hit my face with no mercy, even causing some damage.
[You have lost 30 health points]
I tried to retreat, but the old man moved his finger, forcing my head to bow down to him.
¡®Eh? D-Did he just manipte my body with his finger?¡¯
¡®A puppet master maybe?¡¯
<<[Strings of Will]>>
¡®Strings of will? What¡¯s that?¡¯
<<A skill that forces a creature with a weaker will to follow themands of the user.>>
¡®Weaker will?¡¯
<<Yes. If the user has a higher will than you, you will not be able to resist their control.>>
The agent bluntly told me that I had a weaker will than this old man. From the sides, I felt two needles prate my abdomen. Two different assassins hade in an attempt to kill me with no mercy.
[You have lost 210 health points]
[You have lost 190 health points]
[You have been afflicted with [Bleeding]]
[You will lose 10 health points per second]
Strangely enough, that wasn¡¯t even my problem.
¡°All enemies of the goddess shall be eliminated.¡±
¡°Foul devil. Hurry up and die.¡±
Both of them said to my side. But they weren¡¯t my focus. I simply red at the old man who was looking down on me with a condescending gaze, as if I was about to be a mere afterthought.
¡®You shitty bastard! ME? Weaker will than yours!? Bullshit! I didn¡¯t survive in this world just to be told I have weaker will than yours.¡¯
I tried to move my limbs, but they didn¡¯t respond to me.
From behind I was stabbed with [Ice needles], [Water Spears] and [Poison Darts]. Magic spells from the spell casters from behind.
Fortunately, the first two attacks were nullified, leaving only the poison dart to cause some actual damage.
[You have lost 120 health points]
[You have sessfully resisted the poison]
Still, not my concern. I kept trying to move my limbs under the force of the old man¡¯s control. There was no way in hell I was going to let him win me in a battle of will. Sure, I was naturally not confident, but there was no way in hell I was going to allow someone to insult my will to find Minerva again.
[You have lost 50 health points]
[You have lost 70 health points]
At my side, both of the assassins drilled their needles in deeper. The old man was quietly observing me. I expected some sort of remark from him.
A huge force hit my body, like 5 sumo mmers were lying on top of my body. The more I tried to resist his control, the heavier it got. This man was practically a mountain. But I wasn¡¯t going to give up.
A bit more then I could go. While I was struggling, I noticed that beneath me, arge white magic circle was forming up.
There were still eleven people present. Apart from these three, the two casting the anti-magic area and the one keeping [Wall of Magic] running, the other five were simply chanting from afar with their arms folded, meaning they all together were casting it.
¡®O-oi¡ No way.¡¯
Akkun spoke out from within while I struggled against the force.
¡®W-We need to get out of here!¡¯
¡®Eh? Why? We¡¯re kind of busy now!¡¯
Akira reminded Akkun of our current predicament.
[You have lost 10 health points]
[You have lost 30 health points]
[You have lost 20 health points]
I felt blood dripping out my shut mouth.
¡®T-That doesn¡¯t matter now! If they¡¯re doing what it looks like, we¡¯re dead!¡¯
¡®What? Rendering us immobile while attack from all sides? Yeah, we kind of noticed.¡¯
¡®Not that you idiot! Can¡¯t you sense the Holy element from the magic circle?¡¯
¡®Uh, yeah. So?¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®They¡¯re trying to exorcise us!¡¯
¡®Could you two shut up!? You¡¯re not helping me out here!¡¯
¡®We¡¯re going to die!¡¯
¡®Ah!¡¯
The two up in my head werepletely useless now. Maybe this was why I couldn¡¯t beat the old man in a battle of will. I was quite literally separated at this point.
Maybe, if we came together¡
¡®You two! Help me break free, then we handle the magic circle. There¡¯s no time to argue with my decision, just do it! [Slime Body]!¡¯
The needles just passed right through my body and I shot them back at the two. The needles somehow caused damage to both of them, making them scream out in pain.
I then focused all my attention on breaking free of the guild leader¡¯s control. He widened his eye in shock, but his body waspletely unfazed.
Still, a single second of shock was proof that I could do this. If even a tiny sliver of disbelief entered, his will could be shattered. Unlike myself right now, I had no doubt that I would win this match.
¡®There it is!¡¯
Us three minds came together to fight against this seemingly unmovable mountain.
¡®Uwaa! This is tough!¡¯
¡®Shut up or I¡¯ll kill you! Just power through!¡¯
¡®Y-Yes!¡¯
We tried pushing against the force, but the magic circle beneath us was only getting brighter and brighter.
¡®Gaah! This old man is too hard.¡¯
While going, I noticed that even more of his veins snaked out. Both hands were now in front of me, with him trying to keep me in ce.
Why he didn¡¯t punch me? Simply because I had made him assume I couldn¡¯t feel pain with my nonchnt way of handling the stabbing. Shitty bastards.
His skin was starting to turn to steaming red. Out of nowhere, this mountain was suddenly looking bigger.
¡®O-oi! We really can¡¯t do this!¡¯
¡®NO! Keep going! If we can¡¯t push, we do what chickens do best!¡¯
¡®Eh? What¡¯s that?¡¯
¡®We peck! Aaaaagghhhh!¡¯
¡®Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora! Ora!¡¯
I kept pushing and pecking against the mountain. Without hesitation, we drilled a hole through the mountain to breakthrough. In that single second where we managed to break free of his old, I gathered all the mana I could muster.
¡®[Devil Light Maniption]! Burst!¡¯
From below, a white beam of light came for me as did the darkness from my attack explode from within me. It was an intense battle of literal white versus ck.
____________________
SUNALLA POV
Suna was surprised to see the running assassin beheaded out of nowhere. Even worse was theughing old man who had witnessed this.
Slowly, he stood up and drank from his bottle.
¡°Hehehekyaya! Wouldn¡¯t you agree, your highness?¡¯
The old man weaklyughed and looked at the princess. Suna reflexively moved in front of the princess and readied herself for battle. Strangely, she felt the princess¡¯s gentle touch on her shoulder.
The overwhelminglyrge princess floated past her, towards the old man. Normally, Suna would argue with the princess¡¯ actions, but the princess had a very terrifying expression on her face.
A subtle grin with crazy, obsessive, death-defying eyes. Suna had seen that look on her one-too-many times. Whenever the princess was scheming or liked a certain development, she¡¯d see it on her face.
The very first time she saw it, she was still a guppy and the princess was a mere child. That day was known as Massacre of the 4th Generation. Next, the Discovery of the Genius of the Fourth, then the sudden Downfall of the Cold Genius. The most recent, was when the princess found out about the death of General Sundale.
Every single one of these instances, the princess had a hand in the matter or found it to be profitable to her. Of course, such a thing was not pleasing to Suna, but the princess had another face. One that spelt absolute doom for any who it was meant for.
So, to avoid such a fate, Suna had ignored every single one of the princess¡¯ moves. She would obey quietly, even if her father¡¯s death brought pleasure to the princess.
Right now, her smile with the old man suggested she had a hand in this.
Originally, Suna presumed it was her brother trying to take her out, but the more she thought about it, the princess would know of such a thing happening before anyone.
A sudden dread fell on Suna once again. This, her assassination, Hinotori disappearing, it was all part of her ploy. But to what end? For merely the throne?
¡°Indeed, Gate Keeper. Now, shall we?¡±
¡°When you told me that eleven years ago, I thought of you as a fool. Now here you are, fulfilling that promise. I expect, I shall receive my reward as well?¡±
¡°Of course. Of course. Shall we see how things are?¡±
The old man swam past Suna who was still thinking about everything, trying to understand the princess¡¯ motives. What drove her into doing all that she did and being the sort of person that she currently was.
¡°Yes. Let¡¯s hurry before that beast you sent wipes out your personal army.¡±
¡®Personal army?!¡¯
Suna¡¯s mind was blown. The princess was trying to get herself a personal army? What would she need that for? Sure, she had a no one she could really trust, but were she to ascend the throne, there was no one in Antis who would dare to betray her.
¡°Are you ok? We need to get going.¡±
Yokino tapped on Suna¡¯s shoulder, bringing her back to reality. She shook her head and went after the princess like a guard dog.
Yokino shrugged and followed afterwards, where they all entered through the portal.
On the other side, what they saw was shocking. Several lined-up mermen, beaten to near death. There was a part of the area that was thick ck, with no indication of it lightening up anytime soon. Several shadowy demons roamed about and a portion of the once-beautiful temple had been broken down. Of course, they had no way of knowing how beautiful it once was.
From the temple, something came out.
¡°Haha, it¡¯s like witnessing the seconding of the Sea Devil Makrov. You really outdid yourself with this subordinate this time, princess.¡±
The old man blurted out and Suna¡¯s mind started performing cartwheels, trying to process what he just said.
The Seconding of that fiend? If the thing there was such a being, they were in for a lot of trouble. They only won against Makrov because of the Human Hero, Hiro Tatsumakist five years. If something on that level was there with them, they had no chance of fighting it.
While Suna was steeling herself for an epic fight, she suddenly heard something else.
¡°SUBORDINATE?!¡±
<A/N: Sorry for thete post, was busy! Alright, 2 day streak secured!>
Chapter 190 Private Corps
After realising my [Devil Light Maniption] at maximum power, I had noticed I was the only one present in the temple. Their astral forms had returned to the actual bodies, which I couldn¡¯t sense anywhere near this ce.
Still, the fact that all that was here was their Astral forms suggested to me that they either knew something like this would happen or they were busy elsewhere and simply sent their forms here to pray. The most logical was the former, but the most likely was thetter.
I couldn¡¯t wrap my head around the reason they really weren¡¯t here. Possibly assassination missions? Whatever.
I left the temple to go see how my shadows had handled the entire situation. At the bottom of the temple, the generals were kneeling down, awaiting my return.
¡®Honestly, it would have been better if they came down there to help me.¡¯
I begrudgingly realised how easier that entire scenario would have been if they came down there to help me.
¡°AS EXPECTED, THE PRINCESS HAS DELIVERED US WITH AN OVERWHELMING VICTORY!¡±
The main general shouted loudly for all the others to hear.
¡®I-I wouldn¡¯t say overwhelming.¡¯
Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t listen to me and only got the shadows riled up. The merman in their captivity didn¡¯t seem too pleased by the situation, but there was nothing that they could do.
The shadows all let out weird eerie screeches. Easily a couple of hundred of them. I looked up and noticed that from the temple where the light from my attack had escaped, to a long seemingly unending stretch, that portion of the sea had turned pitch ck.
¡®I-Is that the effect of the devil light? What the heck? Isn¡¯t that a bit too mu-¡¯
¡°SUBORDINATE?!¡±
A cry cut off my thoughts. I looked towards the person who screamed and unfortunately for me, it was the princess and co.
¡®What are they doing here?¡¯
¡®How¡¯d they even get here?¡¯
¡®U-Uwaa, I d-don¡¯t like the look of things.¡¯
What Akkun was talking about was how the princess was walking with the Gate Keeper.
That old bastard had a shrew expression on his face as he looked at me. And with the way he was being amiable with the princess, it would seem his loyalty was leaning towards her rather than the guild. That would exin a lot of things, like how he allowed Needle Master to remain so reckless with the guild¡¯s entrance and exit.
Behind the pair, Yokino and Suna were both standing there. Yokino was looking with concern at everything whereas Suna who just shouted was staring, dumbfounded, at the princess.
¡®Ugh, the headache has appeared.¡¯
¡®Maybe she won¡¯t recognise us in our devil for-¡®
¡°Yoohoo! Hinotori,e over here!¡±
She called out to me while waving her hands. With little to no effort, she garnered the attention of my shadows, especially my generals. They all reflexively grabbed their weapons, as the grunts snarled at her.
¡®Huh? What do you want?¡¯
I asked her from where I stood, refusing to move to where she was.
¡°Why don¡¯t youe down here and find out?¡±
¡®I see no reason to. Come up here and speak to me.¡¯
I decided I wasn¡¯t going to let her push me around. Agreeing to be her bodyguard didn¡¯t necessarily make me her servant. I simply had to ensure her safety and from the looks of things, she was very safe at the moment.
¡°Kyayaya. A nasty attitude like devils. You really found a disturbing subordinate.¡±
I heard the old man say mockingly at her side. Still, out of everyone he was the one I was most wary about. There was a reason why out of everyone, he and he alone was ced as the guardian of the entrance.
¡°Hmm, she really seems to have no interest ining to me. What to do.¡±
The princess was thinking about how to get me toe down to her. Whether she knew if I could hear her or not, I wasn¡¯t sure, but I definitely wasn¡¯t going down to go meet her.
I caught her looking at the old man from the corner of her eyes. He looked at her and startedughing.
¡°I agreed to work with you because you were the safest option. I hope you aren¡¯t nning on making me go fight an army.¡±
He had zero intention of fighting me, which was a good thing for both of us. In the end, she sighed and shrugged her shoulders.
¡°Just can¡¯t win against certain things.¡±
¡°Princess?¡±
Suna was the first to react to the princess swimming towards me.
¡°Yes?¡±
¡°I-I should do this instead.¡±
The princess stopped in her tracks and thought over it for a bit before permitting Suna toe towards me.
The storm spirit moved towards me quickly, but was forced to stop once my shadows started to get restless. I sent a signal for them to step down and she hesitantly approached me, knowing that she could be ripped apart at literally any moment.
Once she got before me, she sent a telepathic message.
¡®Listen to me, just do as the princess says. Things won¡¯t end well for anyone if you don¡¯t.¡¯
¡°Present yourself before the princess like a good subordinate should.¡±
¡®Huh? Why?¡¯
¡®There¡¯s something I have to talk to you about, but now isn¡¯t the time.¡¯
¡°Stop wasting time and making a scene. Go to her majesty now!¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Are you on drugs? No.¡¯
¡®Drugs? What? No. Now isn¡¯t the time for this. Just, trust me.¡¯
I looked at her and could feel her earnest feelings. There was something about the princess that terrified Suna. I guess that exined why she was being so delicate with the princess. Still, I didn¡¯t understand why she would stay so close to something that terrified her so. I¡¯d have run away eons ago.
¡®Maybe we should?¡¯
¡®Y-Yeah. This form will kill us if we don¡¯t stop it.¡¯
¡®Hmm, but¡ I just really don¡¯t want to¡ hmm¡ hmmmmmmmmm¡ fine.¡¯
I shut down [Devil Form] and my thoughts became clearer. Well, not clearer per say. More like organised and under control. In [Devil Form] I¡¯d have to say they were¡ purer? Something like that?
Once it was done, Suna let out a heavy breath.
¡°That was intense.¡±
She muttered unconsciously.
¡®Intense?¡¯
¡°Let¡¯s go now.¡±
I looked at my generals.
¡®If something life threatening happens,e to my rescue. You too, Yokino.¡¯
I also delivered the same message to Yokino. Of course, this wasn¡¯t necessary, but I could never tell with her. Akane was always more sporadic and unpredictable than anyone I knew.
¡®Princess.¡¯
¡°Hinotori. I see you have infiltrated the Sikari guild and taken care of most of its members.¡±
¡®All of its members. I managed to repel the guild leader and all his direct servants.¡¯
I corrected her. My efforts definitely weren¡¯t going to go unnoticed. I also needed to emphasis the power disparity between us. The guild had been active for a long time, causing quite a bit of trouble, yet they needed a random creature from the surface to solo this entire guild? Imagine how shocking it must¡¯ve been.
¡°Forgive my rudeness. All members of my private corps.¡±
With arms folded behind her, she started to approach the immobile assassins.
¡®¡°Your¡± private corps? I haven¡¯t even met them.¡¯
¡°Yes. ¡°My¡± private corps, which you just beat into submission for me. Every ruler needs their very own private corps, don''t you think?¡±
I looked at the Sikari guild, then back at the princess.
¡®Huh? Oooh, I know you''re not talking about my dinner.¡¯
¡°Dinner? What kind of creature would see so many men and consider them a mere dinner?¡±
The princess questioned my sanity, but to hell with that.
¡®Like hell I¡¯m giving them to you. I acquired them fair and square.¡¯
I tried to grab the princess, but just then, I felt a palm on my shoulder. Standing behind me was the old man.
¡°Kyayaya. She¡¯s a devil, princess. Eating this many souls won¡¯t even be enough to fill up half her stomach. She really is the seconding of Makrov.¡±
My limbs felt heavy out of nowhere. My thoughts became fuzzy and the world started spinning around me.
¡®Huh? Why is it getting¡ darker¡?¡¯
Just like that, I passed out.
+
[The Exclusive Skill [Legend of Pandemonium] has unlocked a new section]
Chapter 1 - #@$^&!
Act 1 ¨C Battle For Antis
Part 1 ¨C Army Drafting
--- Hyakkiyago has aided the princess in acquiring a personal army for the uing battle for Antis. ----
*Rewards for creating this scenario will be delivered at the end of this Chapter*
*Special rewards will be delivered for finishing hidden events in this Chapter*
*Additional rewards will be delivered for beating enemy Sacred Bearers in this Chapter*
[Several spectating higher beings are excited by this development]
[Some are willing to sponsor you with their blessings]
[Some higher beings have left the development]
[One of the 9 Primordial gods is watching this development very closely]
+
<A/N: Yosh! 3 day streak! Let''s go strong for the rest of the month! I was also thinking of getting an official cover art for the novel! I hope you guys like it if I get it done!>
Chapter 191 Fight Against The Princess
¡°Mawstewr, mawstewr!¡±
I could hear Kawaii¡¯s voice, making me slowly open my eyes. Her amorphous slime form was wiggling all over my wall while she cried out my name.
¡®Uugh, Kawaii?¡¯
¡°Mawstewr!¡±
ted by my response, she yelled my name with excitement. I sat up slowly, pushing her off my face so I could take a look at my surroundings. I was in the room provided by the princess earlier on. The ce was as empty as it was first, so I quickly lost interest.
¡®What happened?¡¯
Just as I asked the question, my mind shed back to what happened before. All I could remember was the Gate Keeper tapping my shoulder lightly, then I passed out.
¡®Did he do something to me?¡¯
<<The skill [Death Touch], but at a lower level so as to not kill you.>>
¡®E-Eh?¡¯
¡°Mawstewr! What happened?! You! Your heart wasn¡¯t beating. I-I was scared.¡±
¡®For real? I died!?¡¯
<<No. You were simply put in a state of temporary stasis>>
¡®Ah¡ that son of a-¡®
¡°Mawstewr is safe! I¡¯m so happy!¡±
Kawaii jumped on me once again.
¡®Oh,e on, did you ever think I¡¯d die?¡¯
I started petting her gtinous body gently, while she slowly took up a form. She had little slime tears falling out of her slime face which I found to be cute and amusing.
¡®It¡¯s alright, it¡¯s alright. You can calm down now.¡¯
I kept trying to soothe her. Speaking of which, why was I soothing a slime? They couldn¡¯t feel any emotions, which meant this was just a y in her eyes.
¡®I can¡¯t believe I just fell for that.¡¯
¡°What?¡±
Kawaii feigned ignorance after sessfully fooling me. I¡¯d have to do the same to her one day, although I doubt it would have any effect since, she had no emotions.
¡®Whatever. Just tell me how long I was passed out for?¡¯
¡°Hmm, not really long. A few hours at most.¡±
<<4 hours, 33 minutes>>
¡®I see. Anything special happen?¡¯
¡°No, not really. I spent the day with the Osveta guy, but he was really quiet although we were supposed to be nning for the invasion. After that, I heard you came back unconscious and I refused to leave your side. That spider on the other hand said she had some business to attend to, so she left with the princess¡¯ permission.¡±
¡®I see.¡¯
Iid back on the bed and looked at the ceiling. While I was looking calm, I was really angry with the princess. The meal I worked my butt off for, she just came to snatch it from me like it was nothing. It reminded me of middle school bullies in my first year.
Sure, they stopped once I got to the second year, but still, having memories of such a thing wasn¡¯t fun. I just rolled to the side of my bed, not in the mood for any sort of nuisance tonight.
Kawaii, of course, was just observing me curiously without saying a word. That made my intended self-loathing feel very, very weird.
¡®Kawaii, can you go scouting for a bit?¡¯
¡°What? No.¡±
¡®Eh? Why?¡¯
¡°Mawstewr will get hurt when Kawaii is not around.¡±
¡®Oi, oi, do I look like some kind of kid to you?¡¯
¡°No. But I failed to protect Mawstewr several times. I won¡¯t allow another time.¡±
¡®Several times? But I haven¡¯t eve-¡®
I had to cut the conversation short when I the doors to room were pried open. Coming through the doors was Suna, looking solemn. However, her expression lightened up once she saw me. A weird depressed smile formed on her face.
¡°I see you¡¯re well now.¡±
¡®What do you want?¡¯
I was greatly displeased with how Suna had been treating me. And the way she tricked me thest time just so the Gate Keeper could knock me unconscious.
Here I was thinking she was actually a pretty chill person after she offered up help to us when Krull was attacking. Guess you don¡¯t know a person till you spend quite some time with them.
¡®Listen to me, there¡¯s no time.¡¯
She started using [Thought Communication] again as she came closer.
¡®Get out of Antis and never return here. The princess will make you suffer.¡¯
¡°The princess is summoning you.¡±
Once again, she was saying twopletely different things. Was there someone eavesdropping on us? If there was, I wasn¡¯t able to pick up on them with [God¡¯s Wisdom], making them either masters of espionage or non-existent.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Exin further, or I won¡¯t listen.¡¯
¡°She is currently in her quarters, so if you believe yourself to be fit, you can go.¡±
¡®What? Are you out of your mind? You could die at any moment and all you want is an exnation?¡¯
¡®Well, yes. It¡¯s annoying not knowing what is happening. You¡¯ve been keeping me out of the loop for far too long.¡¯
Suna sat down on the bed and kept quiet for a bit. Kawaii to my side, who trusted Suna, didn¡¯t react to this at all. She was still staring at me creepily.
¡®Fine¡ what exactly do you want to know?¡¯
That wasn¡¯t a difficult question at all. I had multiple questions to ask, but the most concerning one was¡
¡®Why does the princess seem unbothered by the war?¡¯
When I asked this, Suna put her hands to her chin.
¡®Honestly, I don¡¯t have the exact details, but if I had to guess, it would be because everything is going ording to her ns.¡¯
¡®Her ns?¡¯
¡®Yes. Her ns. The princess¡ she¡¯s an utterly terrifying genius. A mind like hers has never been seen before. I¡¯ve seen her plot so many things and all of them ended up going exactly how she nned, step by step.¡¯
¡®Is that so? So, you¡¯re trying to tell me that everything that has happened so far has been a part of the princess¡¯ n.¡¯
¡®Well, not everything, but most of it.¡¯
Wow, the princess was sharper than I gave her credit for. Now that I thought about it, Daxia did say she didn¡¯t like how the princess did things. Was this what she meant by that? Being indirectly controlled by someone else was really vexing, so I could understand.
That meant, I somehow got factored into the princess¡¯ ns?
Oh no¡ I roped Daxia into something she definitely won¡¯t be happy about.
But, there is no way the princess could know Daxia wouldn¡¯t kill me. That leaves two possibilities.
One, the princess had a backup n to either involve Daxia and co. or she didn¡¯t have a way to salvage her loss and saw my idental intervention as a boon? Something like that?
¡®Suna, has there ever been a time where the princess¡¯ ns haven¡¯t gone how she nned?¡¯
¡®Something¡ no. Every single thing she wanted, she got. But then there is that one time where everything was a mess.¡¯
¡®A mess?¡¯
¡®Yeah. I remember herining about her ns being in shambles. I believe it had something to do with the incident 5 years ago? That was the first time I¡¯d seen her lose it.¡¯
Suna just revealed something interesting. So, even this princess could lose her cool? This implied she was the control-freak sh perfectionist type. The slightest disorder and she would go bonkers. If I found a way to mess up something, I could use it to my advantage to takeplete control of this situation.
I would stop the invasion, keep Daxia happy and get my Royal wishes, then leave quietly like nothing ever happened.
¡®What exactly happened 5 years ago?¡¯
¡®Five years ago, huh? That¡¯s when Hiro Ta-¡®
¡°Suna, is the devil awake yet?¡±
The Gate keeper¡¯s tweaky voice came through the doors. I looked at him, enraged by the fact that he interrupted at the most crucial moment.
He was clothed in a fine silk tunic, with beads around his neck and a golden belt around his waist. Generally, he still looked to be on the verge of death, but now he simply looked like a rich man on the verge of death.
Instinctively, my eyes went to his hands, scared of any stupid tricks he¡¯d try to pull this time. As if he noticed this, he raised his hands amiably.
¡°No need to re at me like that. Can you keep your pet down?¡±
The reason for him saying this was the fact that Kawaii was already next to him with her sword-tip against his neck.
¡°What are you doing here, old man?¡±
Suna was the first to ask this question.
¡°Kyohohoho, you were taking so long the princess asked me toe check up on you. Since the devi-¡± Kawaii pressed the sword even deeper, threatening to kill him at any moment. ¡°-Uh, the fairdy is awake, we can proceed now, I believe.¡±
¡°Sorry. Hinotori just woke up, so I believed it was best to give her some rest period before proceeding with the princess¡¯ wishes.¡±
¡°How kind of you. Still, the princess¡¯ wishese before a civilian¡¯s health.¡±
¡°Hinotori is not a civilian.¡±
¡°Excuse me then, but she still needs toe now.¡±
¡°Just give her a few more minutes.¡±
¡®It¡¯s alright, I¡¯ll go now.¡¯
Looking at the old man, I realised this wouldn¡¯t end well if we kept testing his patience. Sure, I could kill him, but murder of a princess¡¯ servant was really bad.
¡®Are you sure? You can still leave now.¡¯
Suna privately suggested.
¡®Don¡¯t worry. Now I know that, I can fight against the princess¡¯mands properly.¡¯
<A/N: Just got home from a long journey. Didn''t expect to be able to write this before tomorrow, but hot damn. Also, I realised so much is happening in the story when we''ve not even gotten to the main parts of the arc. Anyway, please leave any reviews,ments, power stones and golden tickets if you want! Also, join the discord!>
Chapter 192 The Royal Wish
We set out of the room, passing by the hallways. I noticed that everyone was exceptionally busy today, going about either hanging up decorations or transporting items. There were more guards than there were yesterday moving about, scanning the area.
The pce was exceptionally lively and something told me that this wasn¡¯t a normal sight here.
¡°The Annual Yorul Feast has been a part of our tradition since the second king, Anon Yorul.¡±
As if noticing my confusion, the Gate Keeper decided to exin it to me.
¡°It always happens every year, although this year is special, as was the feast 90 years ago.¡±
¡®90? What¡¯s so special?¡¯
¡°Oh? You don¡¯t know? Well, since you didn¡¯t know what the feast was about, you wouldn¡¯t know what this is. The king, ascended the throne 90 years ago.¡±
¡®N-Ny!? He¡¯s older than my dead grandmother.¡¯
¡°Ohohoh, I wasn¡¯t even alive back then. The blood of royals truly is something else.¡±
He was basically saying that members of the royal family could live longer than the regr people? The king ascending the throne 90 years ago meant he was easily over a hundred years old.
Starting to think of how old the princess could grow to reminded me of a certain immortal queen back on Earth.
¡®Ugh, a headache for close to a century, huh? I¡¯ll need to stopmunicating with her after this.¡¯
While walking, a posse of guards wasing towards us. At first, we assumed they were simply passing by, but then they stopped in front of us. Behind them, a merman who was just as big as the princess if not bigger, stepped forward with a mermaid a bit smaller than the princess.
¡®Kah¡ a total hottie!¡¯
Like the princess, his upper body was like that of a human, with ck tattoos over hisrge chest. His body was extremely muscled, proof that he had been training quite a bit. His tail was bright orange and his fins were a dreamy red, a belt was wrapped around his waist with a sword in it. His blonde frilly hairid back on his body. He looked nothing like the princess, with his emerald green eyes that seemed tomand authority.
Behind him, the bespectacled beauty that looked much like the princess, but older and less excitable. She had her hands folded in front of her, but gestured to the guy.
¡°Are you my sister¡¯s new pet?¡±
He suddenly asked a question out of nowhere. The old man smiled at the prince, but didn¡¯t respond, implying he wasn¡¯t enjoying the prince¡¯s aura.
The prince moved in closer, forcing the old man to shift aside. He came to a stop before me, staring me down like I was some kind of insect. Given his size, I looked nothing more than a child to him though.
¡®Pet?¡¯
¡®How rude.¡¯
¡®I hope that¡¯s not what everyone¡¯s been calling me.¡¯
¡°Are you not going to speak?¡±
The prince asked me, reminding me that he was asking a question. This guy didn¡¯t look half as dull as I expected him to, given how his brothers looked. Maybe that was why he was actually a candidate for being king.
Then again, he was also trying to get rid of the princess. Meaning, this guy could possibly be an ally to me or an enemy, depending on if he will give me what I want. Although, I n on getting what I want either way.
¡°This is his highness, Prince Nanek Tox Den Anon Yorul. Do not be rude to him any longer.¡±
His sister, Randy, ordered me to speak. She possessed an ability simr to the princess¡¯, even going as far as possessing the same ss. Except, her sub-ss was [Minister]. Supposedly, it was different from [Governor].
¡®Excuse my earlier rudeness. My name is Hinotori and no. I am not the princess¡¯ pet.¡¯
I replied to him and only got his constant cold gaze back. Randy, who hadn¡¯t heard my message was on the verge of exploding. That is till Nanek spoke.
¡°Why do you not use your mouth to speak?¡±
I wasn¡¯t expecting that question. No one had even bothered with that question really.
Even if I had to respond, I didn¡¯t have an answer for him. I, myself was unsure why I did this. I just did. But I didn¡¯t have to respond to that specific question.
¡®I have my reasons.¡¯
¡°I see. Would you considering to work for me instead?¡±
¡®HUH?!¡¯
A sudden proposal for me to switch sides. Even if he was a prince, there was such a thing as time and ce. Everyone in the room was shocked, except for the Gate Keeper and Kawaii. Even the cool beauty I had assumed wouldn¡¯t show any expressions had her eyes wide open.
¡°Kyohoho, your highness, I am afraid your sister is summoning us and we must be on our way.¡±
The Gate Keeper tried to get us out of this situation.
¡°Silence.¡±
The prince¡¯s authoritative voice bore down on the Gate Keeper, forcing him to shut his mouth.
¡°Answer now. Join me or stay where you are.¡±
He asked me once again.
Honestly, if this was how the prince was, I saw no benefit in siding with him. He would basically throw all our ns out there without consideration for anything. As they say, a wise opponent is to be preferred to a foolish ally.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®No. I¡¯ll stay with the princess.¡¯
¡°Is that so? I¡¯ll leave then.¡±
¡®Good.¡¯
A gentle smile formed on his face and that was a very weird thought for him to have.
¡°Let us go, Randy.¡±
He swam past me and his posse followed after.
¡®That was a weird interaction.¡¯
¡°Kyoho¡ ho¡ ho¡ I need to give you more credit. You realised how bad a choice it would have been to choose his side and stuck with the princess. We could¡¯ve been dead by now.¡±
The Gate Keeper said something weird as well and headed off towards the princess.
¡®Eh? What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡¯
¡°Let¡¯s hurry up. Smart choice.¡±
Suna tapped my shoulder and tried to direct me towards the princess. Herment made me feel like the prince really was dumb.
***
We arrived at the princess¡¯ room, where she was sitting in a m chair while reading a scroll. Osveta was standing at her side with his hands behind his back.
There was a round table set up in front of her with a massive map containing all the kingdoms. Antis was at the centre of the map with five cities, and then there were the other kingdoms. Other than Antis, the other cities weren¡¯t detailed. The maps simply showed a vague estimation of how big the kingdoms were, making the Exsuole Empire to easily be the biggest out of the three.
The Sharkfang wasn¡¯t even given a concrete area. It had been highlighted as an extension of the Bloody Seas and the Deep.
There were multiple scrolls piled up on the floor next to the princess, with most of them having been opened already.
¡°You¡¯re awake, I see. Excellent. Let¡¯s start nning for the invasion.¡±
She dropped her scroll carelessly and got off the seat. Her hands mmed down on the table mercilessly.
¡°Give me all the necessary details, now.¡±
¡®Huh? W-What-¡®
¡°Come on, hurry. You wereing to tell me all of this yesterday, right? So, tell me now.¡¯
¡®Ah-¡®
This was all too sudden for me. I just woke up, was approached by the prince, now had to deal with this? I was just going ording to the whims of everyone. That¡¯s very annoying.
¡°Now that I¡¯ve gotten my personal army, I can deal with this issue privately. Osveta will be in charge of reforming them for the next two days. Suna and You will join up with Dax-¡°
¡®No.¡¯
¡°Excuse me?¡±
¡®I won¡¯t tell you anything till I get my royal wish.¡¯
I crossed my arms and red at the princess. Osveta growled at me, his hand at his sword¡¯s handle.
¡®If you want another beating, draw the sword.¡¯
I threatened him, forcing him to hesitate. My focus returned to the princess.
¡®Like I said, without any immediatepensation, I¡¯m not going to help you any further. I will just return home to find other means.¡¯
At first, I had assumed the princess held me in high regards, which was why she was trying to stall me receiving this. But now, I knew for certain she didn¡¯t think of me as anything special. I was just another pawn in her stupid game.
¡°That wish has been annul-¡°
Kawaii shot an acid shot a mere inch away from the princess¡¯ head.
¡®Say that again, and I promise I will personally decapitate you.¡¯
I had wasted way too much time. Minerva was the most important thing, yet here I was, ying with an overgrown child.
Both Suna and Osveta grew agitated by our actions, but were forced to stay in ce by my [Shadow Limbs]. Being able to cast magic was quite possibly the best thing that happened to me.
¡°I-I see. In that case, fine. Let us go.¡±
¡®Huh? Right now?¡¯
¡°Yes. Right now. Let¡¯s go get your wish granted.¡±
<A/N: Finally! We''re doing what we came here for. Also, give me your reviews,ments and power stones! If you like, join the discord as well!>
Chapter 193 Warning From A God
Just like I wanted, the princess gave into my demands. Sheplied surprisingly easy once I threatened her life, giving me the impression that she was scared.
No. I couldn¡¯t think that way. For all I knew, the princess had expected my patience to run out around this time. If I made her out to be a master nner like Suna informed me she was, my very thought process could have been calcted by her.
Yet, Suna also informed me of an incident 5 years ago where the princess couldn¡¯t calcte anything. Everything was a total mess to the point she lost it. It had something to do with a Hero.
It was terrifying to think about the fact that humans had already made progress to Antis before. And it was five years since then. Their silence andck ofmunication with the Anteans was raising several red gs to me.
Still, what was so special about the Hero? Maybe because of the usual Fate-defying quirks heroes possessed. Then again, a hero¡¯s fate is always set in stone, isn¡¯t it? You are born, be the hero, defeat the big bad, then proceed with your life. What happens to you post your ¡°big moment¡± is of no one¡¯s concern. Be it your life is calm and fun or miserable as shit.
Well hot damn. I¡¯d never want to be the Hero in any story. Imagine putting in your all just for ungrateful humans, only to have them repay you with more selfish requests and little to no true concern for your mental well-being.
Well, not all humans were the same, but the majority of them were like that. Selfish, brutal and unjust. Couldn¡¯t be me saving their asses all the time.
¡°Oh, it¡¯s you again.¡±
The one to say this was the brother I met earlier. The one who found my appearance appealing. Currently it was just me and the princess in the room where all the court mages were, just like before. I left Kawaii with the others, hopefully they wouldn¡¯t attempt anything stupid. I told her to send a message if she was attacked by a single one of them.
I¡¯d drop every thing to go rescue her then return to the surface. If the princess needed me for her ns, she wouldn¡¯t allow that to happen. If he didn¡¯t, then this was the worst gamble of my life.
¡°Not now.¡±
She brushed him off as we strode by towards the grand court mage¡¯s chamber.
¡°Are you sure it¡¯s nothing I can help with.¡±
He started following after us.
¡°Yes. You may return to your duties now.¡±
¡°Are you absolutely cer-¡°
¡°Nori, I believe that if I were to be in need of your services, I would search for you. Unfortunately, as of now, I have no reason to contact you.¡±
The princess tapped him on the shoulder and moved past him. I looked at him, all disappointed and an idea came to mind.
¡®Hey, why don¡¯t youe along.¡¯
I invited him to tag along. The princess looked back at me with a confused expression.
¡°For what reason would you want him to tag along?¡±
She asked with an unfriendly tone.
¡®Oh, nothing special. I just want him to.¡¯
After hearing that, she clicked her tongue and moved even faster.
Bingo. She hadn¡¯t nned for her brother joining us and was visibly irritated. From now on, I simply needed to do weird and unexpected things to piss her off and y her into my palms.
¡®S-She wants me around?¡¯
He thought to himself and gulped nervously. I smiled at him and followed the princess, with him walking behind me.
¡°S-So, um, what is your name?¡±
¡®Hinotori.¡¯
¡°Hinotori¡ curious name. What¡¯s it mean?¡±
¡®Fire bird.¡¯
¡°Whatnguage?¡±
¡®This suddenly became an interrogation.¡¯
¡®O-oh, was I too forward? Maybe I need to tone it down.¡¯
¡®Yeah, captain hormones.¡¯
Sheesh, I couldn¡¯t even talk to the girl I liked without help, yet this guy was straight out questioning the very meaning of my name.
¡°Sorry, where¡¯d youe from? I don¡¯t believe I¡¯ve heard that name from around these parts.¡±
I looked at his curious eyes then at the princess. I wasn¡¯t sure if I should tell him that I wasn¡¯t from the sea.
¡®Hey princess, what should I tell him?¡¯
She received my message and then there was a certain noise like tin foil being unwrapped.
¡°Tell him you are from the temple of the Sea Goddess up North. That will make him stop bothering us.¡±
¡®So, I¡¯m from the surface.¡¯
¡°Oh, just like Hiro.¡±
¡®Hero?¡¯
¡°Gaah!¡±
The princess lost her shit when she heard Nori say that. She looked back at me, but I ignored her and looked only at Nori¡¯s face. He on the other hand felt his sister¡¯s death re and decided it was time to leave.
¡°M-Maybe I¡¯lle back another time.¡±
¡®Oh? Leaving already? Come on, just stay a while longer.¡¯
I pleaded with him using [Impish Gaze]. I heard his heart throbbing from within, then he sped off to go do whatever it is he was supposed to be doing, making me get augh out of it.
¡°Tch, enjoying yourself a bit too much, aren¡¯t you?¡±
¡®I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about.¡¯
We arrived at the door leading to the staircase. We descended down the staircase, where I felt something weird once again.
[[Shadow¡¯s Crib] is stirred by the presence in the dark]
Once I got this notification, the presence disappeared. As if it was never there.
I looked at the egg in my item box. This thing ignored the creature the first time, yet the very moment it reacted, the creature disappeared. Creepy.
Elriek knocked on the door and it opened with a big nk. I was dragged into the room without my permission once again. Standing in there with some jewels in his hand was the Grand court mage.
¡°Twice in one day? What an honour, your highness.¡±
He sarcastically said. Well, his tone was sarcastic, but internally he truly was happy she was here. What kind of tsundere did they have run all the magic of the kingdom.
¡°I need you to help me search for someone.¡±
¡°Huh? That¡¯s hardly a good use of my skill set. Go find an apprentice to help with that.¡±
He brushed us off. The idea of the most powerful mage in the kingdom having to search for one missing individual was so vexing he wanted us to leave.
¡®We can¡¯t.¡¯
¡°Why not? A simple location spell wouldn¡¯t take much.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Honestly, you should have told me you wanted to find someone. I would have got this done much quicker were that to be the case.¡±
Even the princess said had the same thoughts on the issue, though I doubted thest part of that sentence.
¡®Except this won¡¯t be simple. You think I didn¡¯t already try someone else?¡¯
¡°Then try someone else. Don¡¯t bother the greatest mage this kingdom has known with your trivial issues.¡±
He put his hands on his desk, dropping the jewels to pick up a weird gadget which he broke into bits, leaving nothing but ck ink and some broken pieces of rusty metal.
¡°Let us go, I will find a more suitable mage for this request.¡±
¡®So, the greatest mage of the kingdom is unable to perform a simple searching spell?¡¯
As usual, the n is to y into their ego in order to get what you want.
¡®Ah. You¡¯re right. Even a four year old who can¡¯t perform magic would have been a better choice than azy old man who clearly doesn¡¯t know what he¡¯s doing.¡¯
I could see veins bulging on his forehead.
¡®Greatest mage in the kingdom? More like Greatest¡¡¯
¡®Uuhh.¡¯
¡®Turd? Yeah. Greatest turd in the kingdom.¡¯
¡°What the hell is a turd!? Why the hell are you calling me a turd?! How dare you call me a turd!? You want to find this missing person? Fine! I¡¯ll show you how easy it is for the greatest mage in Antis to find someone!¡±
He yelled angrily and plucked out a strand of my hair. It didn¡¯t hurt as much as I expected it to. The princess had a disappointed, bored and disbelief expression on her face. Well, I would be giving those very same expressions if I were in her shoes. For him to have been manipted so easily, it was no wonder he was kept away from everyone else.
He led us to a desk that had a pile of orbs on it. After throwing some around in pursuit of a specific one, he pulled out a light green orb and smiled.
¡°Ah, reminds me of the old days.¡±
He then cleared the table of all the orbs, carelessly throwing them away. That was when I noticed that the table had a set of magic runes inscribed on it. It was a big magic circle by default, just rotting away till whenever this old man needed it.
He applied some of his mana to it and the table glowed silver, highlighting three parts. The centre where he dropped the orb and two opposite ends. He went to one end and ced his hand on the highlighted portion.
¡°Well? What are you waiting for?¡±
He impatiently gestured for me to go to the other side of the table. I went there and put my hand on it. It was weird, like touching a vibrating object that hummed with power.
¡°Ok, now just think of the person you¡¯re searching for.¡±
¡®Minerva.¡¯
I did as he said, but there was no reaction.
¡°Oh,e on. Do it like you mean it. Think about the things you like or hate about the person. Moments with the person that will stick with you forever.¡±
¡®Like I mean it? Sigh, ok let¡¯s try again. What do I like about Minerva? There¡¯s almost nothing I like about her. Maybe her bluntness at times. She can be so straightforward it¡¯s honestly refreshing. Yeah, then there¡¯s also her caring side. And the fact that she didn¡¯t eat me. I also like how cute she can be at times especially when she¡¯s being all tsun tsun. Then there¡¯s when she¡¯s clingy at times. Always talking, sleeping or eating. She¡¯s very strong as well. Yeah, she¡¯d never let anything bad happen to me. No matter how dire, I know that she¡¯ll always be there for m-¡¯
¡°Tch. I didn¡¯t ask you to confess to me, you idiot.¡±
I opened my eyes and saw that the table was glowing brightly, as was the orb. The old man had an annoyed expression on his face, like I just said a pile of bull. I looked at the princess and unfortunately, she seemed to have heard my ranting.
I looked away and back into the orb. This never happened.
The light in the orb started to dim out, revealing two people travelling in a desert area. One of them was dressed in dirty ck armour and he had the other person slung across his shoulder. Upon closer inspection, I found the other person to be a beaten-up Minerva who was still unconscious.
I was rmed, thinking that she might be dead, but she was breathing, but barely and there was a lot of blood pouring out from her face.
¡°Is that the one you¡¯re searching for?¡±
¡®Y-Yeah. That¡¯s Minerva. Where is that?¡¯
¡°Let me see.¡±
The mage started to adjust the orb¡¯s perspective, attempting to zoom out. Just before he could, something odd happened.
The man in ck armour stopped moving and looked back, as if he was staring at us. Because of his helmet, I couldn¡¯t see his actual face, but his golden eyes were ring at me.
No. I couldn¡¯t say that. There had to be someone else there.
¡°You dare to spy on me?¡±
What?!
No. I had to calm down. There were probably some people tailing him. I looked at the old man, wondering why he wasn¡¯t changing the perspective, but he seemed to be struggling.
¡°W-What is this? I can¡¯t control it?¡±
He muttered.
¡°You and¡ Vermillion? I warned you both before as I am warning you now. I shan¡¯t forgive a third offense.¡±
As soon as he said that, the orb shattered before us and the table sent my hand flying.
¡®Ow.¡¯
I waved it around.
¡®That was very odd.¡¯
¡°Odd? Odd!? T-This is unfortunate!¡±
¡®What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡¯
¡°There is absolutely no mortal who could have seen that, yet he did it so casually. He even went as far as being able to destroy the spell with a mere gaze.¡±
¡®What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡¯
¡°You have to give up on this person you¡¯re searching for.¡±
¡®Huh? Like hell.¡¯
I refused his offer.
¡°This being is likely a higher being. We can¡¯t trifle with them.¡±
¡®So, what if it¡¯s a higher being? They stole someone important from me. I don¡¯t care if they are a god or a spirt. I¡¯ll burn them alive for this.¡¯
[Many higher beings are agitated by your words]
I received apletely random notification.
¡°You still don¡¯t get it, do you? This person is possibly a Greater god. They are just two steps shy of touching the Primordials who created this world. We, as mortals can never dream of even touching their toes.¡±
¡®And you still don¡¯t seem to get it when I say I don¡¯t care.¡¯
<A/N: Hmm, side mission aplished with Tori getting threatened by a god who seems to have a connection to the Grand Mage. Also, 5-day-streak, yeah? Non-stop this month so give me your Powerstones, reviews andments!
Let''s go for 50 reviews this month to raise the ratings on the story! Of course, you don''t have to give me 5 stars. I want your honest feedback!>
Chapter 194 Poor Army Condition
GARAND POV
Imperial Pce, Grand Court Mage¡¯s Study, 293 years ago
¡°Vermillion, your vermin. If you want to fight, you need not spy on me. I¡¯ll pay your kingdom a visit, then we fight.¡±
The orb in the centre shattered before the duo¡¯s eyes. The duo being a young merman and a strange humanoid creature with golden hair.
The merman, the newly appointed Grand Court Mage, Garand immediately yelped in fear.
¡°Ah! You didn¡¯t tell me you were going to spy on such a thing. I¡¯ve never heard of anyone breaking a spell in such a way.¡±
She scratched his head thinking about how insane a feat he just bore witness to. The person to his side on the other hand just looked at the shattered remnants of the orb and scoffed.
¡°Stupid old man. Does he know how long it takes to build houses?¡±
After insulting him, she proceeded to swim away from the room. Garand, although still shocked by the event, managed to regain a bit ofposure and grab the blonde¡¯s wrist.
¡°Wait!¡±
He ordered her and she looked down on his hand, then at his face with her usual overbearing re. Garand let go of her and gulped.
¡°Who- what was that?¡±
She stared at him for some time, before finally answering.
¡°His name is Fafnir and he¡¯s an Ancient God. He¡¯s also a target for extermination.¡±
¡°What do you mean ¡°Ancient god¡±?¡±
He asked what the blonde presumed to be a stupid question. She suddenly realised why he asked such a question.
¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. You people down here only know of that so-called ¡°Primordial¡± Sea Goddess. Whatever. He¡¯s simply a nuisance. Now that I know where he is, I shall go deal with him.¡±
Upon hearing her words, Garand¡¯s mind automatically ran several possibilities and inferences. Multiple assumptions came out and through a process of elimination and factual evidence he had seen from her, he had arrived at certain conclusions.
Once again, he grabbed her wrist.
¡°What do you want this time?¡±
¡°Y-You can¡¯t go.¡±
¡°Why not?¡±
¡°I¡¯m guessing you¡¯re saying there¡¯s more beings just as powerful as the Primordial Sea Goddess. And this Fafnir guy is one of them. If that¡¯s the case, then you can¡¯t go.¡±
¡°And so?¡±
¡°My point is they are crazy strong. You couldn¡¯t hope to f-¡°
¡°Huh? Is that all?¡±
She cut him off with an annoyed tone. Her vermillion red eyes glowed with a certain level of boredom.
¡°Haven¡¯t I said it before? No matter how many times I tell you, you still don¡¯t seem to get it, Garand. I don¡¯t care how strong or fierce my opponent may be. If they want a fight, I will burn them to cinders.¡±
After delivering those words, she made to leave. Garand could only look at her as she walked out, with him unable to utter any other words.
Something told him to tell her to stay back. A certain uneasiness that were she to leave, he would never see her again. But then, as if to reassure Garand, she paused in her tracks and turned around to see him.
¡°Don¡¯t worry about my life. I promise you we will cross paths again if I haven¡¯t outlived you.¡±
¡°Vermillion¡¡±
He whispered her name gently as she faded away. Unsurprisingly, her words managed to instil in him a certain level of confidence. He was made to believe that she would actually return.
That was thest time Garand and Vermillion ever spoke. The next time he would receive information about her, would be from her most trusted servant. News that brought him a brief moment of despair and a single glimpse of hope.
***
PRESENT TIME
¡®And you still don¡¯t seem to get it when I say I don¡¯t care.¡¯
Garand¡¯s mind went numb after hearing those words. As he gazed upon Hinotori¡¯s figure, all he could see was the outline of his first love, Vermillion. Looking as all powerful as always.
¡°Vermillion¡ I see.¡±
Quickly, the figure vanished and Hinotori was staring at him weirdly.
¡®Huh? What¡¯s with this Vermillion person anyway.¡¯
She sent a message directly to his brain, making him realise that she had been reading his thoughts for quite some time now. He suddenly felt stupid for trying to conceal his thoughts in front of this person.
¡°Hahaha! I see, I see. If it¡¯s you, then you might be able to beat Fafnir.¡±
¡®Fafnir?¡¯
¡°Yes. Fafnir, an Ancient God. Vermillion, your mother, once fought against him and fatally wounded him.¡±
¡®W-W-W-WHAT?!¡¯
_____________________________
TRAVEL LINES, NORTH-EAST AREA
Several armoured fishmen and mermen swam in uniform without rest. Some were on giant crabs, spider crabs, shark dogs, catfishes, poerpoles. This army number 12,000. Twelve battalions of a thousand troops, all led by twelve lieutenant Colonels, with the Lieutenant General leading them on the battlefield.
Most members of the army had been left behind in the Exsuole Empire had been left behind as this was supposed to be a simple tactical invasion, done swiftly. This way, were they to fail, the consequences would not be nearly as grave and coteral could be ignored.
Basically, every single member present was disposable.
¡°Halt!¡±
A loud order was sent amongst the troops and quickly resonated, bringing the loud army to an eerie silence. They all straightened up and stood in line with not a hint of mistake.
The lietenant colonels, on their poerpoles all turned around and headed towards the centre of the army, where the Lieutenant General was supposed to be. There, they could see a ck film being set up. That was where the Lieutenant General would sleep. If he set it up, it meant one of two things. They were either going to take a break here and rest for the day or he simply had a mission.
One of the colonels, a crab man with an unusually big crab arm got off his poerpole and swam towards the film. The guards standing in front of it cleared a path for him to make way as he went in.
¡°Lieutenant General?¡±
He called with his nky voice. The Lieutenant General sat across arge peal in the centre of the film that had nothing special in it, except for the strange red hue. The crab man looked at the Lieutenant General who was growling.
¡°Tell the men that we¡¯ll be resting here today. We begin again when the Lumorse around.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Ya sure that¡¯s a wise, erh¡ choice? We need ta get ta that fancy city, Yorul, in about 2 days and we lost quite the deal of time with all the dumb problems them fancy idiots in power brought up.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. His ns have never gone wrong. He says we can take tonight off. However, the primary invasion unit should already be at the borders of Antis by now.¡±
The crab man rubbed his heavy ck armour with his smaller w while thinking over the statement.
¡°This n, it¡¯s beyond me, but the King of Antis. He¡¯s a genius! He managed to keep even Makrov at bay, although he aint as strong as him.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry. His abilityes nowhere close to our leader. He¡¯s taken into ount everything and says we should proceed as such.¡±
¡°Oh well. I ain¡¯t smart. All I¡¯ve got is my big w that can cut through any armour. I¡¯ll leave the nning to you. If ya need anything, I¡¯ll be getting myself drunk with da boyz.¡±
He left the film to go inform the others. The lieutenant General on the other hand only sighed. The orb was humming and blinking slowly before him. This meant he had either received a message from someone or there was an iing live transmission.
From the looks of things, it was a live transmission.
He tapped on the orb twice and it projected onto the walls of the film, four different panels. In these panels were silhouetted men.
¡°Lieutenant General Zibal.¡±
¡°Ministers.¡±
He responded with arms behind his back.
¡°Progress report.¡±
¡°It has been a week since west conversed. We are a day away from making contact with our target, so we have intentionally slowed down progress in order to prevent anyone from spotting us.¡±
¡°Is that so? Anything else to report?¡±
¡°My men are currently in a poor condition. Proper subjugation of Yorul will be extremely difficult. If we coul-¡°
¡°Lieutenant General Zibal, I believe we you are already aware how dire the state of our country¡¯s resources is in? Using such valuable products on you and your ragged-¡±
¡°Er-ehm!¡±
A loud cough came from another panel.
¡°I believe what Minister Grandari is saying is, we currently have no means of transporting food supplies to your men at this time.¡±
¡°So, we are supposed to fight on empty stomachs?¡±
¡°Clearly, you¡¯ve done an outstanding job the past five days. Another two should be nothing for the great Lieutenant General Zibal.¡±
¡°If I may, Minister Grandari. Five days without a proper meal spells doom for an army, no matter how great a general they have.¡±
¡°Oh please. This is hardly a challenge for someone of your¡ calibre.¡±
Zibal¡¯s nails dug deep into his palms as he witnessed the scene. The Minister of Civil Service and Lord of Treasury, Grandari was a fiendish selfish man who cared not for the army, as he saw them as a waste of money. His goal was always to cut down the number of soldiers even though Exsuole, by nature, was a military county.
¡°Grandari. Is there truly no way to help them? I have been on the battlefield myself against Antis. I know how tough an opponent they have to fight.¡±
The one to plead for the army was of course, the Minister of Defence, transport and interior security, the General Altos.
¡°Altos, you are being too kind. You yourself have gone a month without food and still survived far worse than a simple infiltration mission to Yorul.¡±
Grandari barked back. He seriously was not in the mood to help the army out.
¡°It is because I¡¯ve been through such an experience before that I know how bad things get when soldiers do not get food. You wish for them to start fighting amongst themselves? Feeding on scraps of uncooked meat and ending up with all sorts of diseases? Having less than half the number of men sent actually capable of fighting on the actual day? I wish for you to reconsider.¡±
¡°A-Altos-¡°
¡°I believe, you should listen to him, Minister Grandari.¡±
¡°Yes. Have the mages teleport some resources to the army, Garand. You can spare just a few for them. Enough to keep them going for the next two days.¡±
¡°You all do not understand how bad things will get for us if we do such a thing. We¡¯re walking a fine line when ites to this. At any moment, the people will riot.¡±
¡°Oh please. If the people were going to riot, they would have done so when Makrov was in power. You know as much as we do, that the people need us.¡±
¡°So, we¡¯ve decided?¡±
¡°Indeed.¡±
¡°B-But-¡°
¡°Minister Grandari. The council hase to a close. It is unfortunate Minister Dariel could not join us for this meeting, but I believe we can make this decision without his insight, wouldn¡¯t you say?¡±
That was a jab at Grandari who had once before made a proposal without Minister Dariel¡¯s presence in the meeting. A tsk could be heard from the other side, as the feed was cut off.
¡°Minister Grandari agrees it would seem. Expect the delivery tomorrow.¡±
¡°Very well.¡±
Lieutenant General Zibal bowed.
Two more panels were cut off, leaving only one panel. It was Altos.
¡°Is the secret unit at the expected location?¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
¡°I see. Once we send the resources to you, I will begin the mission over here. I will sneak in some teleportation stones into the packages.¡±
¡°Very well then, sir.¡±
¡°As you were soldier.¡±
The transmission feed cut off, leaving Zibal in the red room. He looked at the orb that was still glowing then tapped on it three times, shutting it off.
¡°I just hope this goes well.¡±
<A/N: So Anteans don''t even know that there are other gods. Talk about sleeping under a rock. Anyhow, Please give me your power stones, reviews andments! Golden tickets too! Also, if you can share this story so we get more readers, please do! Join the discord as well!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 195 The True Mastermind
That waspletely sudden and out of nowhere for me. I never imagined to hear such a thing, least of all from an old man in a city that was thousands of feet underwater. Of course, after hearing such a thing I was intrigued in finding out more, but he kicked me out with the promise of trying to find a way to Minerva for me. He stole more strands of my hair though. Turns out he didn¡¯t need the first strand for anything. He simply wanted it for his private reasons¡ creepy pervert.
On the way back, I could tell that the princess was beaming with excitement. I asked why, but she told me not to think too much about it. In times like this, it was really annoying not being able to read her mind. The only solution was to keep pressuring her till she spoke, but she was tight lipped. In the end, I decided to ask if she knew about Vermillion.
ording to her, there wasn¡¯t any concrete text about Vermillion, but her father had once told her that there was an individual named Vermillion who came in search of a Kraken that was causing lots of noise. She dealt with the Kraken rtively easy then left. Apparently, her reason for doing so was revenge. The Kraken had attacked some of her men, so she came to punish it.
Vermillion sounded extremely scary when I thought about it. Imagine someone stole from her. There was definitely no way she¡¯d let them go with a light spanking. Even if she simply spanked them, they¡¯d probably lose their ass or something.
The princess said Vermillion was the sort of Leader anyone could look up to, possessing little to no ws. But then, if my mother in this world was royalty, that meant from birth I was royalty. Well, I¡¯d be damned.
On the way back, we met her brother and she teased a marriage between us. I was on the verge of snapping her neck in two when she said that, but her brother started dreaming about that. I red at him, warning him to not get any nastier ideas.
We returned to her room quickly, there everyone was looking at the desk and discussing. Surprisingly, Yokino was now in the room as well with her hair in shambles and a bad aura around her.
¡°Oh? You guys have started discussing without us?¡±
She went to her side of the table next to Osveta whereas I joined up with Yokino. Kawaii jumped on me gleefully. She really didn¡¯t want to leave me out of her sight.
¡®Where were you? What happened to you?¡¯
I asked Yokino who was frowning while looking at the virtual map on the table.
¡°Nothing.¡±
She responded quickly without [Telepathy]. Her voice was sharp and short, like how it was whenever something didn¡¯t go her way. It was best to not piss her off even further, but it wasn¡¯t like I was back on Earth anymore. She had to be ountable to me here to an extent.
¡®Oi, don¡¯t just ignore me. What happened to you? Someone piss you off?¡¯
¡®You¡¯re pissing me off right now. Just stop.¡¯
She warned me and folded her arms. Her attitude sort of agitated me, but I would ignore it for now. She wasn¡¯t important at the moment.
¡°Sorry about that. It was simply awkward standing around doing nothing, so we decided to prepare instead. Suna and uuh-¡±
¡°Kawaii.¡±
He was trying to mention her name, but forgot it?
¡°Yes. Kowai, provided some deep insight.¡±
He butchered it with his ent! Although, now that I thought about it. This name probably fit her better.
¡°Care to exin?¡±
¡°Of course, your highness.¡±
He tapped on the map and it shrank. He then pointed towards the north, where one of the cities of the Kingdom, Anon, was.
¡°This city is most likely the entryway for the soldiers of Exsuole if they want toe in here unnoticed. Most of the people there would be busily rushing to get to Yorul toe celebrate the feast, rather than staying there. The invaders from Yorul could use that as a chance to cause confusion to sneak in.¡±
¡®Huh? Hold on. I thought it was an armying. How would you not notice an armying?¡¯
¡°Intel suggests that they n to sneak in first to disorient us and weaken our security from the inside before the main armyes about.¡±
Suna exined to me. I guess that made some sort of sense.
¡®What¡¯s the source of this intel you¡¯re talking about?¡¯
¡°Just someone I trust. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡±
Again, Suna exined. Since it was her, I decided that person was trustworthy enough. And from the way she was talking, this wasn¡¯t the first time her source of information had given her good help.
¡°Anyway, we n to up security around the Northern entrance of Yorul, as well as security on the Northern part of the Kingdom. If any suspicious individual were to show up, they¡¯d be restrained immediately till after the feast, no matter how believable their story checks out.¡±
¡®I see.¡¯
¡°While Daxia and her crew will be fending off the main army, we will take care of the preliminary strike over here.¡±
¡®Honestly, this n is so simple I can¡¯t believe it.¡¯
Imented, then the princess decided to correct me.
¡°No. No it isn¡¯t. Look at it better.¡±
She pointed at the domes and erged them, revealing a feature I had never noticed on them. There were pirs all around them.
¡®What are those?¡¯
¡°The Pirs. The power source that fuels the ley lines and the domes of the cities of Antis. A source of nigh-infinite power guarded by some of Antis¡¯ best men, the Pir Men.¡±
Shockingly, Yokino was the one to answer the question. Her eyes seemed to glow as she marvelled at the mere image of the pirs. I didn¡¯t know why, but I was getting bad vibes from that.
¡®Jojo?¡¯
¡°What?¡±
¡®WOAH! That sounds very important.¡¯
¡°It is. Were to ever lose it, Antis would descend into chaos.¡±
¡®Um, I get that it¡¯s nigh-infinite power and all, but how exactly is losing it a demerit?¡¯
¡°The Pirs power the domes. The domes are basically an escape for the people of Antis from the dangers of the outside. It¡¯s sort of like living in apletely different world. Not only do the domes contain more than one can see from the outside, but there¡¯s several magical runes set up to monitor changes in temperature and pressure. The leylines, connected with the city enable fast and safe travel, enabling the visitors from other cities to go in freely without having to expose themselves to the cold and vicious surroundings.¡±
¡®Cold and vicious surroundings?¡¯
¡°Yes. Remember how I wasining about the cold and how the animals kepting after me every morning? Even the way your¡rade keeps trying to consume me.¡±
¡®Uuh¡ yeah?¡¯
I had a feeling I was supposed to know what she was talking about.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Basically, Anteans give off weird pheromones that attract all sorts of creatures. When it¡¯s one Antean, it will attract like a swarm of spider crabs or something. However, if it was an entire city, there¡¯d be a kraken showing up. If it were all the cities, well, we¡¯d have to rename this ce to the Bloody Sea.¡±
¡®That sounds scary enough. Understood. Destroying leylines, bad. So, the pir men are strong enough to protect it?¡¯
¡°Indeed, they are. I have no worries about that part. My problem is the leylines which is still fuzzy, but the assassins of the Sikari guild should be able to filter out suspects better than the guards.¡±
¡°Do not count on them to help ya, princess. You stole their home, beat them to near death, destroyed their will to live, tarnished their goddess¡¯ temple. You think they¡¯d find it in their hearts to forgive you and listen to you?¡±
The Gate Keeper came out of nowhere and reminded us of the problem. Everyone in the room looked at me like I¡¯d done something bad.
¡®From the sound of things, I should have just eaten them. Don¡¯t me me for doing an outstanding job.¡¯
I felt absolutely no remorse for doing what I did. If anything, I regretted not eating them earlier on. Now they were merely a wasted food resource.
¡®Speaking of them, where are they and how are you keeping them silent?¡¯
I asked the question.
¡°Oh? You didn¡¯t know? The creatures that were with you are keeping them in line in the Sikari Guild¡¯s hideout.¡±
Eh? They did? Well, it¡¯s not like they couldn¡¯t stay here without me telling them to. I would have to perform several experiments on what and what-not the shadows could do without me. The only ones who seemed to possess proper sentience were the generals, but even they wouldn¡¯t do anything without me specifically telling them to.
¡°Alright then¡ we shall exclude the assassins then. We will rather add Hinotori¡¯s monsters to the n.¡±
The princess said nonchntly.
¡®Huh? What? Why?¡¯
¡°Quiet, deadly, efficient and I¡¯m assuming they can hide in in sight using shadows?¡±
The princess effortlessly listed all the pros of my army.
¡®Yeah, but who said I¡¯d allow you to use them.¡¯
¡°The fact that you want that information so bad you¡¯ll work with me to keep the city safe enough.¡±
¡®Tch¡ what were you going to do if you didn¡¯t know about my shadows?¡¯
¡°Obviously the Sikari guild.¡±
¡®So, you had a n to manipte the Sikari guild before I even came around?¡¯
¡°Remember I told you that I had a third reason for going into town?¡±
¡
¡®No fucking way.¡¯
¡°Anyway, back on track.¡±
Ah?
No one was going to talk about the fact that she was implying that she plotted her own assassination just to find the Sikari guild. How was she nning to get them to work with her? Wait¡ was this entire invasion a scheme of hers?
¡°The festival will begin with the king¡¯s entrance into the capital. That¡¯s when security will be at it¡¯s highest, so the attack definitely won¡¯t happen then. There¡¯s going to be an hour of him parading the city with his wife, the queen. After, he wille to the castle¡¯s Banquet Hall. At the point, the guards will focus their attention on the king, rather than the surroundings, meaning most of the security will be around the castle, leaving the actual city defenceless. In case, the invaders sneak past the inspection process, they will probably attempt something not in the castle. I suspect nting magic bombs around to cause confusio-¡±
¡®I have a question.¡¯
I interrupted Osveta then red at the princess.
¡°What is it?¡±
A smile formed on her face and she looked at me with what I could only describe as genuine excitement.
¡®Why aren¡¯t you informing anyone else so we can set up a better n with more resources?¡¯
I asked the question and the princess lost her smile, as if she was disappointed by that question.
¡°Obviously to curry favour with my father and be the likeliest for session. He is about to announce his heir in this event.¡±
¡®Is that so? Still doesn¡¯t exin why you aren¡¯t asking for help.¡¯
She sighed.
¡°What kind of ruler needs help at every turn? Certain minuscule issues such as these should be no problem to an elite.¡±
¡®Final question.¡¯
¡°Make it quick. We need to hurry up the ns.¡±
¡®This whole invasion. Did you start it to raise your standing with your father?¡¯
The moment I asked, a very scary smile found itself on her face. Chills ran down my spine and for the first time since I¡¯d met her, my [Superior Survival Instincts] were screaming when I looked at her. There was something seriously wrong with this.
¡°What if I did?¡±
<A/N: Sorry this took sometime to release. Been making some rounds around town. Alright, it''s done. I hope you like it! Also, so that you don''t get confused, Hinotori''s conversation with Elriek can''t be heard by anyone else. To them the princess is just responding without any proper context. Alright, I hope you enjoyed this, though I feel this plot twist was getting increasingly obvious as the chapters progressed!
Please give me your power stones, reviews andments! Golden tickets too! Also, if you can share this story so we get more readers, please do! Join the discord as well!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>>
Chapter 196 Its A Pain Being Too Efficient
The hell did I just hear? Did she just confirm that she was the mastermind? No way, right? There was definitely no way that she did it, right? No.
I couldn¡¯t doubt the possibility of her having done that. Knowing her, it was highly likely. And from what Suna said, the princess didn¡¯t like it when things happened out of her control. A surprise invasion from an enemy nation definitely doesn¡¯t sound like having everything under her control.
Still, for her to go this far just for the throne. She was the worst kind of person. They¡¯d do anything to achieve their goal, even if it negatively affected those looking up to her for support. She was worse than scum.
I had several things to tell the princess, but no one else in the room heard our conversation. The princess simply said vague things in their eyes and ears. Maybe Suna and Osveta would believe that princess did something like that.
The problem was if they gave a shit. They¡¯d known her for sometime now so it was possible that they were in on this n.
No. Suna clearly doesn¡¯t know. If she did, she wouldn¡¯t have shown nearly as much authentic emotion as she has done till now. This princess was a real menace. A menace. Keeping even her closest allies out of the loop even if it could get them hurt.
I¡¯d only just realised that Suna¡¯s father was killed, all ording to this princess¡¯ ns. She was definitely the worst kind of person. She killed her closest ally¡¯s father just for a n? It wasn¡¯t even like he was an enemy to her ns. He serves the royal family just like Suna does.
Unfortunately, after hearing this, I couldn¡¯t find it in my heart to get angry. I just heaved a stressed sigh and face-palmed.
¡®I¡¯m getting a headache.¡¯
<<That is impossible with the skill [Mental Pain Resistance]>>
The agent spoke up out of nowhere. That reminded me of what Akira wanted to talk to me about earlier. I might have to have that conversation really soon cause now I didn¡¯t feel safe in the slightest.
On my back, Kawaii was starting to get restless. I noticed the expression on everyone else¡¯s face. They were terrified. Even Osveta looked like he could sweat buckets after that.
¡°But, I didn¡¯t. You can rest easy about that.¡±
The princess regained her formerposure. My [Superior Survival Instincts] finally shut up, allowing me to breathe and think properly. The others¡¯ faces returned to normal and they did as I did. The tension in the room was suddenly non-existent.
Strangely enough, no one questioned what just happened. They all proceeded as if the princess didn¡¯t just pull up with the shocking aura we never presumed she possessed. It¡¯s like watching a kid stab a teacher then ignoring it like it never happened. It¡¯s just never done!
¡°Alright then. Your highness, Suna and I will personally be at your side throughout the entire event to protect you in case our ns fall through, and to boast of your strength, if I am worthy, of course.¡±
He added at the end so as to no impose on her. This guy really was a loyal dog, wasn¡¯t he?
¡°Of course, Osveta. Over the past couple of days, you¡¯ve proven yourself more than worthy enough. Although, I was originally disappointed to see that you weren¡¯t Hiro, you really are worthy of being the best graduate. I will see to it that once I be leader of the nation, you will be promoted to General, since there is now a void.¡±
At the mention of the vacant position, Suna flinched. Like before, the depressed smile formed on her face as she looked at the table. Honestly, the way the princess was treating her waspletely unfair. You wouldn¡¯t even allow her to inherit her father¡¯s position?
¡°Alright then. I guess this will be it for now?¡±
¡°What do you think, Keeper?¡±
The old man who had been quiet came up and looked at the table, contemting what had been said so far.
¡°It¡¯s a good enough n. The only problem is The Pirs; however, I believe that shall be handled quite well.¡±
I got bad vibes from hearing that. Why was I getting bad vibes from hearing that?
¡°If that¡¯s the case. Then everyone, you can go out.¡±
¡®Wait. If I use my shadows for this n. Who will keep the assassins of the guild in check?¡¯
I asked and the princess¡¯s right eye raised suspiciously.
¡°Are you not capable of summoning more shadows?¡±
Ha! She assumed I¡¯d let everything go her way. Sure, I was helping so I got my required information, but I wasn¡¯t going to make this easy for her.
¡®No.¡¯
¡°Hmm? I was certain you had more mana. Summoning more should be no problem.¡±
The Gate Keeper came in closer and lifted my hand, scanning me from head-to-toe.
¡®No. There¡¯s a finite amount I can summon.¡¯
I lied through my teeth¡ skull?
¡°I guess you¡¯re not strong enough yet. Was I seeing too far ahead? Disappointing.¡±
He let go of my hand as he muttered some weird things.
¡°Don¡¯t worry. I will keep the assassins in check. You can get the shadows out to do as the n demands.¡±
He reassured everyone that he could do it by himself. No one even questioned him.
¡°The meeting is then adjourned. Oh, and Hinotori.¡±
The princess announced the ending of the discussion, but then called out to me. I was getting far too much attention from her than I¡¯d like.
¡®Yeah?¡¯
¡°I believe there¡¯s no need for me to tell you that should something bad happen during the feast, the Grand Court Mage¡¯s research would be hindered and you might not find whom you are searching for.¡±
¡°Tch.¡±
I looked away, realising that I might have to give it my all. We all apart from Suna and Osveta left the room to go to our own quarters. Some went to get start their missions.
Yokino was following me to my room since she didn¡¯t have a room. With her disappearing and what-not.
¡®Are you alright?¡¯
¡°Yes.¡±
¡®You sure?¡¯
¡°Yes.¡±
¡®I¡¯ll beat you if you¡¯re lying to me.¡¯
¡°I¡¯d like to see that happen.¡±
She tried me and my light beam hit her abdomen before she could react. Unsurprisingly, it did no damage to her. Her clothes were made of her mana thread which boasted of higher defence than most armour. There we even modifications to it with multiple spells on it, one that helped with regeneration and increased her physical stats beyond her actual capabilities. With it, she was more or less equal to an A- rank monster.
¡°Idiot.¡±
I¡¯d just noticed that her hair was red the entire time. It turned blue and she smiled. Did it represent her emotions at the time? Maybe I could use that to tell what she was feeling.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Tori consumed 1 Magic Permit Card]
[Tori consumed 1 whole soul]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], the skill [Low Poison Resistance] became [Mid Poison Resistance]]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], Tori acquired the skill [Shock Absorber]]
[The skill [Vector Control] rose to level 3]
[The skill [Slime Body] rose to level 8]
[The skill [Shock Absorber] rose to level 2]<novelnext></novelnext>
[The skill [Auto Regeneration] rose to level 6]
[The skill [Lethal ck w] rose to level 2]
[The skill [Devil Form] rose to level 2]
[The skill [Ferocious sh] rose to level 2]
FAMILIA
[You changed your general from [Arisu] to [Reiman]]
[The General Reiman used [Absolute Command] on the servant Arisu]
[The General Reiman has a report about the servant Arisu]
-Crude, heartless and still believes she is in control. In need of intense character reformation or being eliminated before bing a threat.
[Please give your thoughts on this report]
DUNGEON
[You need to attend to your dungeon before it acquires too much mana or else it will acquire a will of its own]
[Mana limit 50/60]
Day 54
Overnight, I had been scouting the city to search for the points Osveta said it¡¯d be likely for mana bombs to be ced. There, I left my shadows to watch out for iing enemies. At least a dozen shadows at each of the points. In the end, I still had more than a thousand shadows still ready for action. I told most of them to go out of the dome to identify possible enemies whereas I had about a hundred go back to help the old man. Some of them where at all known the entrance routes to Yorul, some of them were searching for possible secret routes. My generals were with me the entire time.
Still remembering what the Gate Keeper said about the pirs, I decided to assign my Generals to the pirs in secret. If it was them, they could possibly avoid detection from even Antis¡¯ most elite.
I was done with my part before morning, giving me a lot of time to y around with my magic and skills. Also poisoning myself a lot to raise my skills.
When I believed I had sufficiently raised my abilities, I went to check up on the Grand Court Mage¡¯s progress. He told me he¡¯d send for me if there was any news, but there was nothing wrong with me going to find out a bit earlier, right? Also, I was very bored. Inflicting self-pain wasn¡¯t the best way to solve that problem.
Unfortunately, I met some resistance when I tried to meet him. Some apprentice court mages came in and said they wouldn¡¯t even allow me to enter the room where the other court mages were. I asked for their reasoning and they told me that no one was allowed to enter. I exined to them that I was working with the princess, but maybe since they were rtives, they didn¡¯t see her title as all that important and were still blocking my path.
I had to argue with them for a bit before a Senior Court Mage came to check on the ruckus. Coincidentally, the mage who came to check up on me was Nori. This cheeky bastard had equivalent magic power to mine, I¡¯d just realised.
He gave me a pass, escorting me in, only gaining me the ire of the apprentices that were simply doing their job. In the grand hall where the mages were once busily working on all manner of whimsical spells, potions and gadgets, all I saw was an organised set up of less mages. It would seem only Senior Court Mages and a miniscule amount of Junior Court Mages were allowed in here today. Most of the Juniors and all the apprentices were out in the city performing various tasks ranging from ensuring that the magic orbs were properly fixed, voice enhancing orbs were set up so the king¡¯s voice could be heard by everyone and that the people would basically get freebour from them. Supposedly work experience for them.
The true purpose was to get them away from messing up whatever was happening in here. I asked Nori about it, but he didn¡¯t tell me anything. He only exined that it was something magnificent for the feast. Of course, I read his mind where he had identally exined to himself. Didn¡¯t sound so magnificent, but when I tried to visualise it, I could imagine how that could be magnificent.
He left me off at the staircase, where I descended myself. Once again, that thing in the shadows was staring at me. Unfortunately for me when [Shadow¡¯s Crib] reacted to its presence, this time it didn¡¯t disappear. Even more eerie, [Shadow¡¯s Crib] started tough at it.
I didn¡¯t know what kind of horror genre I¡¯d just thrown myself into so I hurried to the door and cranked it open forcefully. This time the old man hadn¡¯t shut it himself.
When I got in, I saw that his room was neater than usual. Ok. Not neater than usual. He¡¯d just piled up everything in one corner of the room while swimming about drawing magic circles. I didn¡¯t think too much about it and decided to ask about the creature standing in front of the door. He looked up at me as if he hadn¡¯t noticed me since the beginning.
? ording to him, there was no creature in front of him room. I wanted to think he was joking, but with how serious he looked, I had no reason to doubt him. That made the whole scenario far scarier. I moved the conversation along to what he was busily doing.
He informed me that this was all preparations for my search. I felt happy that even though there was an eventing up tomorrow he was putting more focus on mine. That is, till he told me he was taking credit for what the court mages were nning to do. He suddenly looked like some scummy old man. Not that I cared. I was kicked out after that and hurried up to go check on everyone else. Unlike me, they were all still busy with their work and had little to no time for me.
It was a pain being too efficient.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[The skill [Poison Generation] rose to level 7]
[The skill [Mid Poison Resistance] rose to level 5]
[The skill [High Force Impact] rose to level 3]
[The skill [Shock Absorber] rose to level 3]
[The skill [Vector Control] rose to level 4]
[The skill [Auto Regeneration] rose to level 7]
[The skill [Devil Light Maniption] rose to level 3]
[The skill [Devil Twilight Maniption] rose to level 2]
[The skill [Twilight Maniption] rose to level 2]
[Tori developed the magic skill [Geo Crusher]]
[Tori developed the magic skill [Healing Touch]]
[Tori developed the magic skill [Aqua Touch]]
[Tori developed the magic skill [Shadow Cage]]
[Tori developed the magic skill [Water Wheel]]
[Tori developed the magic skill [Dark Shot]]
[Tori developed the magic skill [Space Istion]]
FUSION
[Evolver] + [God¡¯s Wisdom] = [Fusion Not Permitted]
FAMILIA
[The General Reiman has issued another report about the servant Arisu]
-With no response, the General Reiman has decided to engage in Character Reformation. The servant Arisu will be given 3 chances. Should she fail, the servant Arisu will be killed.
[Please give your thoughts on this report]
DUNGEON
[You need to attend to your dungeon before it acquires too much mana or else it will acquire a will of its own]
[Mana limit 50/60]
<A/N: Again, anotherte release. At least I''ve still got my 8-day streak. Wow, I looked at the original script for this arc. I''m honestly surprised by how much it''s changed and how much longer it is. I was originally going for the innocent princess act, but I guess a scheming princess was better for this. Finally, we''re about to get started with this feast and the final few chapters of the arc. Also anyone notice that Day 53 started about 15 chapters ago? XD, I wonder when we''ll get to day 100.
Please leave a review,ment, power stones and golden tickets! Let''s try our best for the power stone and review challenges
50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 197 Feast Day Pt.I
Inside of Hinotori¡¯s mind, somewhere deep in her subconscious where she would never notice anything happening, there was an announcement.
[The Exclusive Skill [Legend of Pandemonium] Chapter 1, Act 1, Part 1: Army Drafting has beenpleted]
-Hidden Events
> Fight Against the Apostles of the Sea Goddess Temple (Completed)
> Kill over a dozen members of the Sea Goddess Temple (Iplete)
> Enve the members of the Sea Goddess Temple (Iplete)
> Establish friendly ties with the members of the Sea Goddess Temple (Iplete)
> Be an official member of the Sea Goddess Temple (Iplete)
---- Insufficient eventspleted to receive any rewards
+
[The Exclusive Skill [Legend of Pandemonium] has unlocked a new section]
Chapter 1 - #@$^&!
Act 1 ¨C Battle For Antis
Part 2 ¨C Preparations
--- Preparations for the iing invasion have been set up. Hopefully they will be enough for theing storm. ---
*Rewards for creating this scenario will be delivered at the end of this Chapter*
*Special rewards will be delivered for finishing hidden events in this Chapter*
*Additional rewards will be delivered for beating enemy Sacred Bearers in this Chapter*
[Monitoring Higher Beings are neutral about the development]
+
¡®Hmm? What¡¯s that? Weird.¡¯
Akira, one of Hinotori¡¯s minds noticed this. In her eyes, most of the present items were blurred out, so she ignored it.
Day 55
¡°Woohoo!¡±
¡°Feast day! Let¡¯s go!¡±
¡°Ready all your baskets! The pce feeds us today!¡±
While patrolling the streets of the city, this was all I could hear. I had been tasked with monitoring the streets with my shadows, in case they would be rendered useless in the face of the invaders.
Feast day was supposed to be a day where the royals fed the people. It was like a celebration for the king to show how grateful he was to the goddess and how generous he was. So, the people gathered around for food from gods-know-where. Well, I did know where the food wasing from, but still. For all of them to crowd around in a city when they would still get it in their respective cities was beyond stupid.
I could get wanting to be at the actual ce where the King was, butpromising yourfortability and safety all for such a reason? I couldn¡¯t understand them.
They had all filled up the buildings, the corners of the streets and any avable space except for the road. That was probably due to the line-up of guards in armour with spear and shields. Their mere presence alone scared people from trying to get close to the streets. I found it kind of interesting.
While swimming about, trying my best to deal with the overly loud crowd (having better hearing than most people was a pain), I could feel someone tug on the ends of my silky-cloth that the princess had provided for me.
It was a child with a runny nose, staring at me weirdly.
¡°Prettydy.¡±
He muttered and I didn¡¯t know whether to feel ttered or ignore him. I pat him on the head with a smile.
¡®Thanks, kid.¡¯
When I sent the message to his mind, his eyes widened with excitement.
¡°I just heard you in my head!¡±
He yelled loudly, but his voice was mostly drowned out by the noise. His shock at my actions made me feel like I did something bad. So, I left him and went off to continue making my rounds.
Me: Yo, how are things on your side?
Yokino: It¡¯s all right here. Kind of boring.
Oh, that¡¯s right. Yokino, Suna and Osveta were in charge of protecting the princess. Of course, Yokino was doing that from the shadows, but that left Kawaii and myself on the more arduous duty of making sure the entire city was safe.
I was being abused in this case. Tch, exactly why I didn¡¯t want the princess to know that I wanted to find Minerva. She could use this against me like she was doing right now. The worst part was that even after today, I wouldn¡¯t get my information cause the Grand Court Mage would have to rest a bit before searching.
Me: I want this day to be over real quick.
Yokino: Hmm, yeah, but don¡¯t you want to partake in the feast?
Me: Oh¡ I just realised I hadn¡¯t eaten anything since the past three days. Guess thinking about Minerva was too distracting.
Yokino: ¡ You even lose sleep over her.
Me: I don¡¯t sleep though
Yokino: Sure, sure.
Me: What¡¯s that supposed to mean?
She didn¡¯t respond to my message.
Me: Yo! Don¡¯t blue tick me!
She definitely wasn¡¯t responding intentionally and she wasn¡¯t going to do so anytime soon. I decided to give up.
¡®Mawstewr. Can Kawaii eat from the feast too?¡¯
On my back, Kawaii asked.
¡®I don¡¯t see why not. But do you even get hungry?¡¯
¡°Guuu! Kawaii is always hungry!¡±
¡®Is that so? That sounds like hell.¡¯
¡°I wonder what kind of food they have.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Talk with [Telepathy]. Also, I guess I also want to know what delicacies are unique to Antis.¡¯
¡®Hmm, maybe there¡¯ll be some dead humans! Those taste fantastic.¡¯
¡®Oi, oi, that¡¯s beyond terrifying. When did you-¡¯
Before I could ask any questions, there were loud trumpet sounds that forced everyone to go silent. We all looked up, confused by the sudden blowing. When I looked around, I saw smiles on the faces of the people. Those smiles quickly turned into wild grins and crazy eyes.
¡°He¡¯s back!¡±
¡°The second greatest king in history!¡±
¡®Is that something to be saying so casually? Shouting it no-less.¡¯
¡°Yahoo! Make more noise!¡±
¡°The Wise King of Progress has made his return!¡±
¡®Wise king of progress? That¡¯s such a cool edge lord title¡ I want one. Like, Wise king of war or Wise King of Monsters¡ ugh, those soundme! Uwaa! I need something badass. Thoughts?¡¯
¡®None.¡¯
¡®Akkun? Our saviour! Thoughts!¡¯
¡®N-None.¡¯
¡®Well, whatever. It¡¯s not important now.¡¯
Above, I could feel the mana distorting. I noticed that the space was being warped, indicating that someone wasing through a portal.
From the portal emerged a massive boat. Built out of what I could only presume was sea shells. It was as big as a football field, meaning it was too big to even pass through the streets, being pulled by tworge Bull whales. From thisrge ship, a singr chariot came running towards the street, pulled by whale dogs.
This chariot resembled what Elriek used to go into town, but much more majestic andrger. Several silver bars had been fixed into the shell, with sheer curtains made of pearl beads hanging down from the top of the m shell. This managed to hide most of the king¡¯s features, leaving a mere silhouette for us to see him waving.
Unfortunately for me, I felt a heavy pressure as he passed by. Scariest part was that it wasn¡¯t only me. All the cheering had been silenced and everyone was bowing down. Everyone except for me, of course.
¡°Wee, his majesty, the Wise King of Progress, Antis¡¯ very own Unmatched Genius, the highly exalted and venerable King Zigruk Elirek Sox Anon Den Yorul II!¡±
A voice announced as the carriage descended to the streets. The carriage passed by, but sadly I couldn¡¯t really see the King¡¯s features. Possibly a protection mechanism for when he¡¯s parading on the streets. However, I did see his eyes.
They were staring at me intensely and I did the same. For some reason, I felt no need to bow down like the others. Maybe that was stupid on my part, but I was tired of bowing down to others.
¡°Princess!¡±
I received a notification from one of my shadows, so I teleported to his location immediately. What I found were two people that had been restrained. In the hands of one of the shadows was a weird orb that carried a dangerous looking amount of unstable mana.
¡®A mana bomb? So, you guys are part of the invaders?¡¯
¡°N-no!¡±
¡°Shut up.¡±
¡®No?¡¯
One of them forced the other to shut up. I found that to be very curious behaviour.
¡®Are you the invaders?¡¯
I asked him, but he didn¡¯t respond. Unfortunately for both of these idiots, I could read minds.
¡®It¡¯s bad that we could get killed if we don¡¯t say anything, but at least our families won¡¯t die at the hands of that monster.¡¯
¡®This idiot better not say anything. My family is on the line here.¡¯
¡®Seriously?¡¯
¡®They are being forced to do this?¡¯
¡®T-then, the invaders are already here?¡¯
¡®Looks like intel wasn¡¯t as urate as we were led to believe.¡¯
Me: Yokino. Tell Osveta that the invaders are already in. They must have been here before I nted my shadows. Looks like they are forcing civilians to nt the bombs all around.
I looked at the duo before me. One was shaking and the other was growling at me.
¡®You¡ I promise your families won¡¯t be hurt.¡¯
I told them and the looks in their eyes changed. One of them started crying, but the other guy was still sceptical of me. I¡¯d be sceptical as well if someone I hadn¡¯t even talked about my predicament with was telling me not to worry about it.
¡®I read your minds, geniuses.¡¯
The guy made a sort of ¡°geh¡± sound and just slumped back.
Yokino: Osveta says that you should get all your shadows to scour around the city for more of the civilians who will be nting the bombs. There¡¯s no point in wasting them at the entrance.
¡®Huh? No point in wasting them at the entrance¡ nothing good wille of me withdrawing my forces from the entrance.¡¯
¡®No. They are already in. The shadows are wasted standing guard there.¡¯
¡®I-I have a bad f-feeling about that.¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t worry, Akkun. It¡¯ll be alright, right Tori?¡¯
Akira¡¯s overconfidence was something. I ordered all the shadows to go searching the city for more civilians with bombs. Of course, my generals were left at the original positions since those were the most important ces.
Even in such a situation, the most terrifying thing to me was the image that I saw in the minds of the two. Originally, I had suspected a certain someone of having a hand in this in some way, but the image of the person who threatened them into doing this was definitely too different. And this threat came about two days ago.
So, long enough that there were probably no invaders present by that time, but not enough time for that certain someone to have coerced civilians into doing this. There was a mole in Yorul that the princess was not aware of. Or maybe she was?
<Ok, I have no excuses for thete update today. Was simply feeling sluggish. Still managed to deliver it though. My streak is still up. Also, just realised it''s rather a 10-day streak instead of 8. 20 more days to go... hehehe. The final part of this arc has begun. I hope this arc has been good and I hope this climax will also be exciting enough. Alright, back to the usual then. Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets!
50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 198 Feast Day Pt.I
On the day of the Royal Feast, in the princess¡¯ quarters, several mermaids about her size were attending to her. Brushing her hair, applying make-up, and carefully fixing ornaments in her hair. She was dressed in the most elegant lc-coloured chiton that had silvercings on it and a triangr pattern over at the bottom over her tail. Over her left hand, her peplos that was a whitish-blue with a simr design, but more transparent. The peplos also managed to serve as a sort of hood for her head.
As the princess observed her features in the mirror, she couldn¡¯t help but think along the likes of,
¡®Would Hiro like this appearance?¡¯
¡®Maybe it¡¯s too much make up for his taste?¡¯
¡®Is this even enough to cover my blemishes?¡¯
Of course, Hiro was not going to be partaking in this event. In fact, he wouldn¡¯t even know that it was happening and neither would he know about it. Still, a maiden in love could only dream, right?
¡°You are looking absolutely stunning, your highness.¡±
The one attending to the make up eximed with a bright smile on her face. Elriek looked at her and thought for a bit.
¡®Second generation, Sureal. Imagine someone with more than 2 decades against me is serving me.¡¯
The princess smiled at her. A smile that did not show what she was thinking.
¡°Thank you. Maybe I¡¯ll be the talk of the day.¡±
¡°Of course. No one could ever hope to match her highness in beauty.¡±
¡°There is that rising priestess everyone talks about.¡±
At the mention of the priestess, Elriek could feel a vein pop in her head. It brought back disappointing memories involving Hiro. Both she and the priestess hadn¡¯t had a good rtionship in thest five years.
She looked at the one to say this and it was also another member from the second generation. Laureal.
As if she noticed what she did, she put her hands over her mouth quickly, but Elriek could feel the mocking gazeing from her.
¡°Oh, why would you say such a thing? Do-¡±
¡°Leave her be. With such a tongue it¡¯s no wonder she had no chance at the throne. Second generation trash.¡±
Elriek spoke up then waved her hand, signalling for them to leave. Laureal, after hearing this, got a red face. Her other sisters grabbed her, trying to prevent her from doing anything reckless.
¡°Do try to not get filth all over the ce during the feast. I know you second generation trash spit it out regrly.¡±
Laureal broke free of her sisters and slowly approached Elriek. Unfortunately, she heard the sound of a sword being drawn from its sheath and lightning crackling to her side. She saw the princess¡¯ two personal guards, Osveta and Suna.
After much reconsideration, she bowed and left the room with the others.
Just as they left, a new presence entered the room.
¡°Oh, younger brother Nanek. What brings you hear?¡±
¡°Aren¡¯t you busy preparing for the feast?¡±
¡°We hear you¡¯ve been nning something grand for the feast.¡±
¡°Oho? Elder sisters, Sureal, Laureal and Zaureal. Sorry, but I can¡¯t answer your questions now. I need to speak with Elriek immediately.¡±
He brushed them aside and they left off with clicking tongues, disappointed that their little brother didn¡¯t want to y with them.
As soon as they were gone, Nanek approached the princess who was still looking in the mirror with a smile on her face.
¡°Elriek. We need to speak.¡±
Both Osveta and Suna moved in front of his path, but Nanek didn¡¯t even consider their existence, not slowing a single bit after seeing them do that.
¡°Move aside you two.¡±
The princess ordered and reluctantly, they backed up.
Nanek ced his hand on Elriek¡¯s chair and spun it around so that she faced him.
¡°I need to talk to you. Alone.¡±
Elriek looked into her brother¡¯s eyes for a bit before sighing.
¡°You two can leave the room.¡±
¡°Your highness.¡±
Refusing to be excused, Osveta spoke up, but he received a confident gaze from Elriek and decided to quietly follow her orders. Same could be said of Suna, but she never once questioned Elriek orders.
¡°Close the door behind you.¡±
The sound of the double doors shutting resounded in the now, nearly empty room.
¡°It¡¯s the big day we¡¯ve been waiting for.¡±
He let go of her chair and put his hands behind his back while pacing up and down in the room slowly.
¡°Indeed. One of us will be crowned the next in line. How exciting. You could be king, Nanek.¡±
Elriek added on his thoughts with a sarcastic voice. One that suggested that she already knew the results of the day and had no worries.
¡°Not only me. There are the other representatives from the other generations.¡±
¡°Oh please. We both know that those idiotse nowhere near to our level. The only one I would have considered was¡ what¡¯s her name? Your personal aide? Randy, right? Still curious how she got dropped from the rankings.¡±
She said in the most condescending manner she could muster. Nanek looked at his younger sister and sighed.
¡°Such a twisted personality. No wonder you have no friends.¡±
¡°Friends? I¡¯ve got Susu, Osveta and Hinotori. Plenty of friends.¡±
Nanek looked at her for a bit before shrugging.
¡°If you say so. Still, I came here to tell you that I know of the invasion. I will be handling the matter from here on out, so do not interfere further.¡±
He warned her.
¡°Of course. As usual, per our agreement, you can handle this matter as I handled the whole kidnapping incident by myself.¡±
¡°You still haven¡¯t told me how you got this information about the invasion though.¡±
¡°I can say the same of you. How did you know about it?¡±
¡°I have my ways. But I will presume we have a traitor in Antis. Someone working with the enemy.¡±
¡°Maybe we do. Who knows?¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
Nanek paused in his tracks then faced Elriek.
¡°Why?¡±
¡°Huh?¡±
She was confused by his sudden question.
¡°Why are you allowing me to take the final and most important task so easily? You¡¯re not nning on going behind my back to fix it yourself, are you?¡±
¡°Of course not, brother. I would never betray you. The thing is, I am simply that confident that I will win thispetition no matter what.¡±
In Elriek¡¯s voice, there was a level of confidence and determination that Nanek rarely saw from her. She was always joking and had only ever been this serious a handful of times. Deep in his heart, he felt rmed, knowing the kind of danger she posed when serious.
"I guess I will simply have to go all out then.¡±
He mused, and Elriek let out a softugh. It was odd, but the people they felt the mostfortable around were themselves, even if they were technically enemies.
¡°So, what do you say, Nanek. Want to make a bet?¡±
¡°What kind?¡±
¡°If I win, you will owe me one favour, no matter how serious. And if you win, I will owe you the same.¡±
He put his hand to his chin after hearing that.
¡°Too risky for both sides. I see no reason.¡±
He brushed off the betpletely. Knowing how tricky his sister was, this bet was something that wouldn¡¯t harm him directly, but it also wasn¡¯t something that would benefit him in anyway.
¡°I do have a question though.¡±
¡°Go ahead.¡±
¡°That blonde you brought along. I¡¯m curious about her.¡±
¡°Oh? You want to know more about Hinotori? Agree to my bet, then.¡±
Elriek teased him. Nanek,pletely unamused refused her offer.
¡°If you won¡¯t speak, I¡¯ll have better things to do.¡±
¡°Oh? Even if she¡¯s rted to Vermillion?¡±
¡°What?¡±
***
After her discussion with her brother, Elriek was finally alone in her room. Osveta and Suna returned quickly and inspected the room to see if there were any signs of distress while they were standing out on guard.
Their thorough inspection led them to believe that there was no reason to be worried. And like guard dogs, they quietly returned to her side.
¡°Yokino?¡±
She called out and the undine materialised herself on the roof of the room, lying down like she was on a soft bed.
¡°Yes, your highness?¡±
¡°I need you to investigate my brother¡¯s actions. Keep me informed at all times.¡±
¡°Huh? I only agreed to protect you till the day was over. I¡¯m not doing more work for free.¡±
Sheined, agitating Osveta. Suna who had expected Yokino to say as such simply sighed and held her head.
¡°Not even if I can give you what you¡¯re searching for?¡±
¡°What I¡¯m searching for? By all means, please exin further.¡±
Yokino denied having any idea of what she was talking about.
However, to the princess who already knew what Yokino was trying to do, it was the most pathetic excuse imaginable.
She mouthed the name of what Yokino was searching for and the undine immediately descended to the floor.
¡°Well, I¡¯ll be damned. Where is it?¡±
¡°You were on the right mark.¡±
¡°The [Cursed Tomb of the Sea Devil]? But¡ I couldn¡¯t get past the third floor. The monsters there are just.¡±
¡°There¡¯s a trick to it. Don¡¯t worry. If you do as I say, I will help you.¡±
Yokino looked at the princess and smiled maliciously.
¡°Very well then.¡±
Without even bothering to ask further questions, Yokino disappeared from the room. The princess rested her face on her left hand.
¡®Gullible fools all around me.¡¯
¡°I miss Hiro. Don¡¯t you, Susu?¡±
Suna who was wondering why the princess allowed her to listen in on the conversation dully responded.
¡°Oh, um¡ I thought you weren¡¯t pleased with his presencest time?¡±
¡°No. No. I wasn¡¯t angry. Simply a new feeling to me is all. Love. It was love, I say.¡±
¡°I think your kind of love is terrifying then.¡±
¡°That¡¯s such a mean thing to say!¡±
<Ok, I have no excuses for thete update today. Was simply feeling sluggish. Still managed to deliver it though. My streak is still up. Also, just realised it''s rather a 10-day streak instead of 8. 20 more days to go... hehehe. The final part of this arc has begun. I hope this arc has been good and I hope this climax will also be exciting enough. Alright, back to the usual then. Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets!
50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 199 Feast Day Pt.II
Inside of Hinotori¡¯s mind, somewhere deep in her subconscious where she would never notice anything happening, there was an announcement.
[The Exclusive Skill [Legend of Pandemonium] Chapter 1, Act 1, Part 1: Army Drafting has beenpleted]
-Hidden Events
> Fight Against the Apostles of the Sea Goddess Temple (Completed)
> Kill over a dozen members of the Sea Goddess Temple (Iplete)
> Enve the members of the Sea Goddess Temple (Iplete)
> Establish friendly ties with the members of the Sea Goddess Temple (Iplete)
> Be an official member of the Sea Goddess Temple (Iplete)
---- Insufficient eventspleted to receive any rewards
+
[The Exclusive Skill [Legend of Pandemonium] has unlocked a new section]
Chapter 1 - #@$^&!
Act 1 ¨C Battle For Antis
Part 2 ¨C Preparations
--- Preparations for the iing invasion have been set up. Hopefully they will be enough for theing storm. ---
*Rewards for creating this scenario will be delivered at the end of this Chapter*
*Special rewards will be delivered for finishing hidden events in this Chapter*
*Additional rewards will be delivered for beating enemy Sacred Bearers in this Chapter*
[Monitoring Higher Beings are neutral about the development]
+
¡®Hmm? What¡¯s that? Weird.¡¯
Akira, one of Hinotori¡¯s minds noticed this. In her eyes, most of the present items were blurred out, so she ignored it.
Day 55
¡°Woohoo!¡±
¡°Feast day! Let¡¯s go!¡±
¡°Ready all your baskets! The pce feeds us today!¡±
While patrolling the streets of the city, this was all I could hear. I had been tasked with monitoring the streets with my shadows, in case they would be rendered useless in the face of the invaders.
Feast day was supposed to be a day where the royals fed the people. It was like a celebration for the king to show how grateful he was to the goddess and how generous he was. So, the people gathered around for food from gods-know-where. Well, I did know where the food wasing from, but still. For all of them to crowd around in a city when they would still get it in their respective cities was beyond stupid.
I could get wanting to be at the actual ce where the King was, butpromising yourfortability and safety all for such a reason? I couldn¡¯t understand them.
They had all filled up the buildings, the corners of the streets and any avable space except for the road. That was probably due to the line-up of guards in armour with spear and shields. Their mere presence alone scared people from trying to get close to the streets. I found it kind of interesting.
While swimming about, trying my best to deal with the overly loud crowd (having better hearing than most people was a pain), I could feel someone tug on the ends of my silky-cloth that the princess had provided for me.
It was a child with a runny nose, staring at me weirdly.
¡°Prettydy.¡±
He muttered and I didn¡¯t know whether to feel ttered or ignore him. I pat him on the head with a smile.
¡®Thanks, kid.¡¯
When I sent the message to his mind, his eyes widened with excitement.
¡°I just heard you in my head!¡±
He yelled loudly, but his voice was mostly drowned out by the noise. His shock at my actions made me feel like I did something bad. So, I left him and went off to continue making my rounds.
Me: Yo, how are things on your side?
Yokino: It¡¯s all right here. Kind of boring.
Oh, that¡¯s right. Yokino, Suna and Osveta were in charge of protecting the princess. Of course, Yokino was doing that from the shadows, but that left Kawaii and myself on the more arduous duty of making sure the entire city was safe.
I was being abused in this case. Tch, exactly why I didn¡¯t want the princess to know that I wanted to find Minerva. She could use this against me like she was doing right now. The worst part was that even after today, I wouldn¡¯t get my information cause the Grand Court Mage would have to rest a bit before searching.
Me: I want this day to be over real quick.
Yokino: Hmm, yeah, but don¡¯t you want to partake in the feast?
Me: Oh¡ I just realised I hadn¡¯t eaten anything since the past three days. Guess thinking about Minerva was too distracting.
Yokino: ¡ You even lose sleep over her.
Me: I don¡¯t sleep though
Yokino: Sure, sure.
Me: What¡¯s that supposed to mean?
She didn¡¯t respond to my message.
Me: Yo! Don¡¯t blue tick me!
She definitely wasn¡¯t responding intentionally and she wasn¡¯t going to do so anytime soon. I decided to give up.
¡®Mawstewr. Can Kawaii eat from the feast too?¡¯
On my back, Kawaii asked.
¡®I don¡¯t see why not. But do you even get hungry?¡¯
¡°Guuu! Kawaii is always hungry!¡±
¡®Is that so? That sounds like hell.¡¯
¡°I wonder what kind of food they have.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Talk with [Telepathy]. Also, I guess I also want to know what delicacies are unique to Antis.¡¯
¡®Hmm, maybe there¡¯ll be some dead humans! Those taste fantastic.¡¯
¡®Oi, oi, that¡¯s beyond terrifying. When did you-¡¯
Before I could ask any questions, there were loud trumpet sounds that forced everyone to go silent. We all looked up, confused by the sudden blowing. When I looked around, I saw smiles on the faces of the people. Those smiles quickly turned into wild grins and crazy eyes.
¡°He¡¯s back!¡±
¡°The second greatest king in history!¡±
¡®Is that something to be saying so casually? Shouting it no-less.¡¯
¡°Yahoo! Make more noise!¡±
¡°The Wise King of Progress has made his return!¡±
¡®Wise king of progress? That¡¯s such a cool edge lord title¡ I want one. Like, Wise king of war or Wise King of Monsters¡ ugh, those soundme! Uwaa! I need something badass. Thoughts?¡¯
¡®None.¡¯
¡®Akkun? Our saviour! Thoughts!¡¯
¡®N-None.¡¯
¡®Well, whatever. It¡¯s not important now.¡¯
Above, I could feel the mana distorting. I noticed that the space was being warped, indicating that someone wasing through a portal.
From the portal emerged a massive boat. Built out of what I could only presume was sea shells. It was as big as a football field, meaning it was too big to even pass through the streets, being pulled by tworge Bull whales. From thisrge ship, a singr chariot came running towards the street, pulled by whale dogs.
This chariot resembled what Elriek used to go into town, but much more majestic andrger. Several silver bars had been fixed into the shell, with sheer curtains made of pearl beads hanging down from the top of the m shell. This managed to hide most of the king¡¯s features, leaving a mere silhouette for us to see him waving.
Unfortunately for me, I felt a heavy pressure as he passed by. Scariest part was that it wasn¡¯t only me. All the cheering had been silenced and everyone was bowing down. Everyone except for me, of course.
¡°Wee, his majesty, the Wise King of Progress, Antis¡¯ very own Unmatched Genius, the highly exalted and venerable King Zigruk Elirek Sox Anon Den Yorul II!¡±
A voice announced as the carriage descended to the streets. The carriage passed by, but sadly I couldn¡¯t really see the King¡¯s features. Possibly a protection mechanism for when he¡¯s parading on the streets. However, I did see his eyes.
They were staring at me intensely and I did the same. For some reason, I felt no need to bow down like the others. Maybe that was stupid on my part, but I was tired of bowing down to others.
¡°Princess!¡±
I received a notification from one of my shadows, so I teleported to his location immediately. What I found were two people that had been restrained. In the hands of one of the shadows was a weird orb that carried a dangerous looking amount of unstable mana.
¡®A mana bomb? So, you guys are part of the invaders?¡¯
¡°N-no!¡±
¡°Shut up.¡±
¡®No?¡¯
One of them forced the other to shut up. I found that to be very curious behaviour.
¡®Are you the invaders?¡¯
I asked him, but he didn¡¯t respond. Unfortunately for both of these idiots, I could read minds.
¡®It¡¯s bad that we could get killed if we don¡¯t say anything, but at least our families won¡¯t die at the hands of that monster.¡¯
¡®This idiot better not say anything. My family is on the line here.¡¯
¡®Seriously?¡¯
¡®They are being forced to do this?¡¯
¡®T-then, the invaders are already here?¡¯
¡®Looks like intel wasn¡¯t as urate as we were led to believe.¡¯
Me: Yokino. Tell Osveta that the invaders are already in. They must have been here before I nted my shadows. Looks like they are forcing civilians to nt the bombs all around.
I looked at the duo before me. One was shaking and the other was growling at me.
¡®You¡ I promise your families won¡¯t be hurt.¡¯
I told them and the looks in their eyes changed. One of them started crying, but the other guy was still sceptical of me. I¡¯d be sceptical as well if someone I hadn¡¯t even talked about my predicament with was telling me not to worry about it.
¡®I read your minds, geniuses.¡¯
The guy made a sort of ¡°geh¡± sound and just slumped back.
Yokino: Osveta says that you should get all your shadows to scour around the city for more of the civilians who will be nting the bombs. There¡¯s no point in wasting them at the entrance.
¡®Huh? No point in wasting them at the entrance¡ nothing good wille of me withdrawing my forces from the entrance.¡¯
¡®No. They are already in. The shadows are wasted standing guard there.¡¯
¡®I-I have a bad f-feeling about that.¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t worry, Akkun. It¡¯ll be alright, right Tori?¡¯
Akira¡¯s overconfidence was something. I ordered all the shadows to go searching the city for more civilians with bombs. Of course, my generals were left at the original positions since those were the most important ces.
Even in such a situation, the most terrifying thing to me was the image that I saw in the minds of the two. Originally, I had suspected a certain someone of having a hand in this in some way, but the image of the person who threatened them into doing this was definitely too different. And this threat came about two days ago.
So, long enough that there were probably no invaders present by that time, but not enough time for that certain someone to have coerced civilians into doing this. There was a mole in Yorul that the princess was not aware of. Or maybe she was?
<A/N: Sorry, I made a mistake and switched the wrong chapters. I''ve put them in ce now, so in case you''ve already ready Pt.I, I''ve changed it. You can go read it. 11-day streak. Let''s go! Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets!
50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 200 Feast Day Pt.III
OSVETA POV
The feast hall, the biggest part of the royal pce that went unused for many years till there was an important ceremony taking ce. It was sorge it could take in half the number of royal family members that lived. And that was saying much given the fact that there were over a thousand of them with each being at least three times as big as the average merman.
The hall was a space next to the pce grounds shrouded in hardened Antean styled ss to prevent any peaking or breaking. Due to the asion, the styled ss had been removed, revealing arge beautiful tform with a marble table in a U-shape set down. The table was big enough to upy at the very least 20 members of the Royal family.
However, today, only four members sat on opposite ends, with two extra, grander seats, being reserved for the most important guests. The King of Antis and the Chief Priestess of the Sea Goddess Temple.
The current members were Rondel, the eldest son of the King, representative of the first generation of children with a couple of servants from the first generation behind him. He was the lowest in terms of ranks, but none-the-less still a member in the running for kingship.
Seating across him was Darius Tox Den Anon Yorul. The 113th child, representative of the third generation of children with servants from the third generation standing behind him. Third in the rankings.
To his side, sitting with the greatest number of servants behind him was Nanek Tox Den Anon Yorul, 620th child, representative of the fourth generation and the second in the rankings with the entire second and fourth generation backing him up.
Seated opposite him with a mere two servants at her side, the most influential candidate in the room, Elriek Sox Den Anon Yorul III, the 621st child, refusing to represent any generation and the highest in the rankings.
Of all the four mentioned, she was the only one smiling. A feat that made Osveta, who was at her side, feel a sort offort.
However, in his moment of peace, he received a message that prompted him to make a brief exit. Once he had gotten to a ce he was sure no one would see him, he finally spoke.
¡°What is it?¡±
The undine, Yokino, appeared before him.
¡°ording to the chicken there¡¯s civilians nting bombs. He neutralised them, but wants to know what to do next.¡±
¡°He? Neutralise?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t think too much about it.¡±
Osveta put his hand to his chin in contemtion having received the report from Yokino. This was problematic in all sorts of ways. Their intel on the time the invaders would get to the capital was severely wrong.
It also didn¡¯t make sense that the invaders were already in Antis. Under normal circumstances, travel from other domes was strictly monitored since it wasn¡¯t often, soing before this day was impossible.
In that case, they had an inside man. A mole that had sessfully infiltrated Yorul long before the actual unit wasing. This meant, this invasion of theirs had been a long running scheme. This was rming news.
At least, it would have been rming news if Osveta was not already aware of this.
¡°Tell Hinotori to get all her shadows to scour the city for more people about to nt bombs. They should be dealt with quickly, but no fatalities and no noise.¡±
¡°Is that all?¡±
¡°For now, yes.¡±
Yokino disappeared immediately, in a fashion so normal, Osveta wondered how he didn¡¯t see her leave. He felt like he saw her going away, but deep down, he knew she simply ghosted. It was a weird phenomenon to him.
¡®What kind of ability is that?¡¯
He was intrigued by it, but not enough to waste time thinking about it. Quickly, he delivered the news to the princess.
¡°Huh? A mole, you say?¡±
For the second time since he hade here, Osveta had seen a genuinely shocked expression on the princess¡¯ face. The first was when she was about to die at the hands of the slime Kawaii and this was the second.
¡®So, for someone who ns everything out, the moment something unnned for happens, she immediately goes into panic mode, huh? Interesting.¡¯
He noted one thing about the princess. It was always a pleasure to find out more about the person he was supposed to be pledging his fealty to.
¡°To be honest, I scratched out the possibilities of that happening due to the tight security the city domes have on average days.¡±
She made a sort of ¡°hmm¡± sound while processing this information. She was most likely thinking up all sorts of ideas involving the mole. How the mole infiltrated, how she could utilise the mole to her advantage.
Osveta should know. He¡¯s met someone exactly like the princess. However, of the two, if he had to pick who was scarier, he¡¯d give it to the princess for sure. That moment in the room where she and Hinotori were having their conversation. The tension and mood she created with a mere smirk was beyond terrifying.
Purely by instinct, he knew it was best to not inquire on what that was.
¡°Well, if the mole is in here and civilians are nting bombs at random locations we hadn¡¯t calcted for, I will have to assume that the invaders¡¡±
¡°Are plotting to go after the pirs with their full force.¡±
¡°Simply don¡¯t exist.¡±
They both spoke at the same time, but their ideas werepletely out of sync.
¡°Excuse me?¡±
Osveta couldn¡¯t help but ask what exactly she meant by that.
¡°Or rather, they aren¡¯t existing now. They could exist at apletely different time though. A time we aren¡¯t thinking they will.¡±
¡°P-Princess?¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Suna. Go make the final preparations.¡±
The princess gave orders to Suna who had been quietly observing everything. She bowed and left the scene quietly. Osveta,pletely confused remained standing attentive.
¡°You can rest a bit easy, Osveta. Our job is only to make sure there are no explosions in the city where all my precious civilians are. My brother will handle the rest.¡±
¡°Your brother?¡±
Osveta looked beyond to the other table where Elriek¡¯s older brother sat with his aides behind him. He instantly felt the prince¡¯s sharp gaze on him and felt a sense of caution. The prince whispered something to his aide while ring at them.
¡°Yes, my brother. My very reliable brother who has never failed me even once.¡±
The sea god grabbed his head. In all his years, he was now starting to feel light-hearted. Trying to think up exactly what the princess was doing was beyond his capabilities. Maybe that person he knew would be able to figure it out, but he would simply have to wait and see.
Loud trumpets sounded heavily, finally filling the tense mood in the room with life. With the trumpets, the sound of several people swimming quickly resounded, like a thunderous march by an army. The civilians quickly gathered up around the feast hall, maintaining a certain distance so as not to impose, but close enough so they could see everything that was happening.
A chariot made its way towards the feast hall quickly, being pulled by wale dogs each bearing the Royal Brooch on the foreheads, proof that they were the king¡¯s personal beasts. His dazzling chariot came to a stop in front of the hall and all the candidates stood up immediately at the sight.
Slowly, arge arm opened up the pearly curtains. The huge figure, that was easily twice asrge as all the princes descended from the m chariot.
In his right hairy hand, he held a golden trident with a red gem fixed into it. The [Royal Trident], that only the rulers of the nation were permitted to use. Crafted by the founder of Antis himself, with the promise that whoever wielded it would lead the nation to a brighter future than thest wielder.
The man¡¯s cherry red hair danced lifelessly in the water. His emerald green eyes gazed over the sight with cold, heartless jade-green glow. He was bare chested, not wrapped in any official outfits, hisrge white tail that had a random assortment of brown, ck, red and golden on it was more than enough to attract the attention of those who gazed. His skin was fair, though it was harder than steel, a benefit from his lineage.
He carried no truly extraordinary features, but there was an aura around him that made any awe when theyid eyes on him. A powerful amount of charisma that no regr person could ever hope to radiate.
He approached his seat regally, not addressing anyone.
¡°Wee back, your majesty!¡±
All the candidates bowed and apologised, feeling very tense. All the candidates with the exception of the forerunner. She was staring at the king and he approached her.
Osveta was not sure how to react to the rudeness Elriek was tantly disying, in front of the city folk no-less.
The king stopped in front of her and his once gold gaze turned into sparkling eyes. He grabbed her in a hug.
¡°Elri dear! How have you been?¡±
The king¡¯s broad voice came clearly with a gentle touch to it, showing deep affection.
¡°Excellently father. Nanek has been taking great care of me.¡±
She responded, making the king nce at her brother. His gaze, once it settled on the prince, became cold and distanced. He returned to Elriek with a warm smile and let her go.
The sea god noticed all the tensed expressions on the others and he could almost read their minds from the faces they were making.
¡°That¡¯s good to hear. At least you and your brother get along as great as ever. Also, how do you like the gift I got you.¡±
¡°Osveta? He¡¯s been excellent! Clearly the best gift you¡¯ve gotten me so far, father.¡±
¡°Is that so? I¡¯m d you like him so much. It was truly arduous settling on the right soldier who would meet your tastes.¡±
¡°Oh, if it was father choosing, obviously I would love it!¡±
The two had their conversation, ignoring Osveta¡¯s presence next to them.
It was inurate to say they were ignoring his presence. It was more like they didn¡¯t consider him a being of proper intelligence. Like how one would talk about their pet or toy.
¡®This¡ is as unnerving as ever.¡¯
He thought while being overwhelmed by the two¡¯sbined aura. Absolutely terrifying beings. He could tell that they were two peas in a pod.
¡®Like father like daughter, it would seem.¡¯
<A/N: Hey guys, sorry about the issue with the Feast Day pt.I. If I knew something like that would happen, I wouldn''t have even switched the chapters. If you want to read the chapter, you can message me on discord here: Rados47#5271 . I will forward the document to you. That is, if the chapter still hasn''t mirrored here. And if it has, you can just message me for a link to the discord.
Once again, sorry for the inconvenience. Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets!
50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 201 Feast Day Pt.IV
King Zigruk ElrIek Sox Anon Den Yorul II waved at the people who were gazing at him admirably from outside the hall. After a considerable amount of praise appreciation and greeting, he sat down on his seat and dropped his trident.
The trident floated by itself at his side. Strange enough, this weird sight was ignored by most of the onlookers. All of them except the candidates for the throne that knew the true value of the trident, all of them shocked by how carelessly their father handled it. Then again, if you were built just like the Zigruk Elriek Sox Anon Den Yorull II, you wouldn¡¯t think too much of the trident.
Once again, trumpets sounded thunderously, drawing the attention of everyone to the overly massive ship that was approaching them. Dubbed the Neptune, thergest piece of magical machinery ever made in the history of all the three kingdoms.
One mermaid, much bigger than the rest emerged from the Neptune. She was dressed in a simple peplos, wearing a golden crown of leaves around her neck. She had dusty brown hair that been braided carefully and reduced to only shoulder-length. Her eyes had been covered by a blindfold, rendering her incapable of seeing all. The reason being, the Chief Priestess of the Sea Goddess is supposed to view the world in apletely new light and the best way to do so is removing their own sight of the physical realm.
Slowly, she danced towards her seat next to the king with the help of her four personal assistants. Amongst the assistants there was supposed to be one person Elriek held a grudge against, but she had not seen that person around.
Within no time, the Chief Priestess arrived at her seat. The king grabbed her hand and smiled at her.
¡°It has been a while since we sat down like this.¡±
¡°We sat down like this the entire trip to Yorul.¡±
She responded coldly.
¡°Oh, my queen, what is with that tone? You know I only wish to spend more time with you.¡±
¡°And you know that due to my position I am no longer allowed to have such a rtionship with you, your majesty. I would appreciate it if you didn¡¯t make a scene in front of all these people.¡±
She pulled her hands away from his and kept it on herp then stood up.
¡°For the past few years, I have beenmuting with the Great Mother. She has told me a great many things and every single time, she would alwayse with two particr messages. The first being that her children are as excellent as usual.¡±
She yelled loudly for the crowd to hear, though her voice was also being amplified by a Senior Court Mage standing out of sight.
Upon hearing that their Goddess was pleased with them, they all roared loudly in joy.
¡°The second thing she has been telling me, was news concerning the fate of Antis. News that I simply could not help myself but to cry after hearing.¡±
¡°What? The Chief Priestess cried?¡±
¡°Then it surely must be good news.¡±
¡°Are you stupid? Who cries from hearing good news?¡±
These were the sorts of things that could be heard from the crowd. The priestess¡¯ vague words had caused mass unrest amongst the people. They had be anxious to hear what she had to say about their fate.
¡°The next ruler of Antis, shall be the greatest to ever exist! They shall lead us into the brightest future possible. Brighter than the founder had ever dreamed of! We are about to witness a paradigm shift that the goddess herself cannot fathom. This leader will be the greatest in all of Antean history!¡±
After the announcement, there was an eerie silence amongst the people. Some members of the royal family could not help but turn their necks around, expecting some sort of response. What they got though, was Antis darkening.
Everyone looked up to see an old man swimming about with his hands behind his back.
¡°Time to put a wrap on all this goddess nonsense.¡±
Hisment was projected to everyone present shocking them.
¡°Now for the actual show!¡±
He snapped his finger, causing arge red portal to pop up above him. A portal so big, it could possibly carry a thousand individuals within it at a go.
***
¡°Yeehaw!¡±
A screech disturbed the quiet of the endless ocean scene. It disrupted the ambience that the resident creatures were enjoying, causing them all to scatter.
Unfortunately, what started out as a single screech soon turned into the roar of over a thousand bandits all swimming madly in search of a battle at the beckon of their absolutely ruthless leader.
Of course, there was a certain majority that had genuinely been itching for a proper fight. The past few days had been boring with keeping the princess hostage and getting their asses handed to them by a kraken. Some had even died because of the event, dropping morale.
Sending the men to war might have seemed rash at first. In fact, the more logical members still believed it was rash. However, the problem with their beliefs was that they weren¡¯t working with logical members. Daxia knew this. This was why she sent them out to battle.
Rather than giving them time to grief over losses, she needed to give her men one win so they ignored the losses. Generally, it would seem she had no interest in them, but in reality, she was always acting with them in mind.
The shouting men slowed down once they saw a lone figure floating up ahead with their arms folded. If it was an enemy, they wouldn¡¯t have bothered slowing down. Surprisingly, it was Daxia, staring out into nothingness.
The shouting amongst members reduced and their speed slowed to an abrupt halt. They all remained quite some distance from their queen, wary of the [Chaos Energy] she released constantly. From the army, one person stepped out.
He swam towards Daxia, hardening his mind and body for the chaos energy. Strangely, even as he got closer, there was no chaos energy. Still, when he focused on Daxia, she was still darker than the nothingness he saw at all times.<novelnext></novelnext>
Bastien stopped next to her, absolutely stunned by what Daxia was doing. Keeping her [Chaos Energy] from going rampant. All he saw was her form being hazy, constantly getting bigger and shrinking, meaning her control over her [Chaos Energy] wasn¡¯t perfect, but she was trying her best to keep it at bay.
¡°What is happening?¡±
He asked, but her hands were still folded and she was focusing intensely. Bastien, knowing how Daxia was, decided to scan far ahead in search of enemies. With [Blood Tether] and [Spirit Sonar], trying to find any blood or sentient souls around.
¡°That¡¯s odd¡ there¡¯s nothing. Absolutely no one out there.¡±
He pointed out. With both skills active, he could scan for a radius of 2 kilometres.
¡°Yeah. I can¡¯t see anything up to the Yellow Blob Valley.¡±
¡°That far? Then what ab-¡±
¡°They aren¡¯t even close to Antis. There¡¯s no way they passed through this ce. In fact, tracing their tracks, they simply disappeared.¡±
If Bastien still had his eyes, they would be bulging.
¡°That leaves teleportation. Butrge-scale teleportation is impossible!¡±
¡°Yeah. Large-scale teleportation is impossible due to how difficult it is to calcte for every single individual that is being teleported. Even portals have a limit to the number of souls they ept before going awry. But there is a way.¡±
After hearing her out, Bastien realised how they¡¯d done it.
¡°That experimental Portal Orb, Exsuole has been working on?¡±
¡°Yeah. I saw some shattered pieces, meaning even the orbs have a limit.¡±
¡°A limit to the number of members it can send?¡±
¡°No. I believe the orbs got short-circuited due to an influx of mana and shut-down, meaning it can¡¯t be kept running for too long.¡±
¡°Still, for them to have actually developed something like this¡ I assumed Antis would have done it first with their powerful spatial magic mages. Then the researchers in Exs-¡±
¡°Who says Antis wasn¡¯t the first to do it?¡±
Daxia stopped Bastien¡¯s rambling. He faced her and for a second, could imagine Daxia¡¯s voice as a child. When she didn¡¯t release [Chaos Energy]. In a way, he was happy she developed such a potent ability. At least it made it possible for him to see Daxia in a way and imagine her features better.
¡°I can¡¯t believe you¡¯re the little runt that used to randomly pick fights with bandits.¡±
¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡±
¡°Nothing. What¡¯s the n?¡±
¡°Easy.¡±
He could feel her smirk.
¡°Once they teleport anywhere between here and Yorul, I¡¯ll sense them, then I¡¯ll chase them down and massacre them.¡±
¡°How¡ quaint.¡±
After, they both floated quietly in the sea, exchanging a few words back and forth. That is, till they all felt or saw a portal open up. The entirety of SharkFang prepared itself for an epic fight.
From the portal a being slowly descended. Without wasting a second, the Bloody Queen shot towards the new figure with her bare ws at the ready.
<A/N: A short chapter this was, but a chapter nheless. 13-day streak! Welp, Daxia''s gotten impatient and charged at some being that pops up from a portal. First rule of being a side character in novels! Never charge at the single person that teleports before an army! Hmm, then again there''s no one in the three kingdoms that can match Daxia''s full strength... we''ll just have to wait and see.
Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets!
50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 202 Feast Day Pt.V
SUNALLA POV
The storm spirit had left off towards a chamber in the pce to enact the final ns of the princess. To be honest, she wasn¡¯t expecting the princess to tell her what her final ns were, but after hearing them, she waspletely stunned. For the princess to have nned all of this for just that, it was beyond her imagination.
However, for something like that, she knew her father would give up his life in a heartbeat. At least, she could rest easy knowing that he died for a cause he had been fighting for all his life. Still, it hurt that she couldn¡¯t even see his corpse even though it was delivered to them. Did they think she was so weak that she¡¯d break down from seeing the body?
She had definitely seen worse, so why wouldn¡¯t they let her? Was this the royalty¡¯s way of showing consideration to the Captain of the Royal Guard¡¯s kin? If so, the royals really had no idea what people actually wanted in such situation.
While swimming, a stray guppy came in front of her. She looked at it and smiled.
¡®What are you doing here, fe?¡¯
She grabbed the little guy and brought him up closer to her face. The guppy stared at her intensely, but then Suna thought about it more.
¡®Wait¡ I keep the guppies in Larm. Why¡¯s this guy here then?¡¯
It was absurd. The guppies weren¡¯t strong enough to survive deep down here, so they were all left in Larm and other surface waterbodies to allow them to grow stronger before releasing them into the Mass Blue. That has always been the custom for guppies and nymphs.
The only reason the guppy hadn¡¯t been crushed to death was the dome covering Yorul and preventing the pressure from outside to bear down on it. Had that not been the case, this guppy would have been a blood smoothie in the sea.
The guppy started making gargling sounds at something behind Suna. She looked back and saw five individuals approaching her. They were the prince Nanek¡¯s closest attendant, Randy and four other guards, all with their des at the ready.
Suna grabbed the guppy and delivered a message.
¡®Go back to where you came from, fe. I have to do something here.¡¯
She sent it flying away from where she was. With folded arms, she asked,
¡°What¡¯s with the entourage, Randy? Heading somewhere dangerous?¡±
¡°Guards, cease her.¡±
¡°Huh? What for? I haven¡¯t even done anything.¡±
She mused with a wide grin. Her hair started to crackle with lightning and her eyes were turning bluish-white.
One guard charged for Suna with his spear pointed for her head. Amusedly, Suna conjured up a whip of lightning to grab the spear and spin the guard around some distance away, before releasing a bolt to hit his chest.
Fortunately for him, his armour was set up to protect him against all forms of magic, especially lightning which was still the most potent form of attack magic known to them.
The others came after her as well. She easily avoided the first sh, parried the second with her bare hands and defended against the final with a shield of water. She pped her hands, creating a loud boom that blew the guards away.
¡°It¡¯s been a while since I¡¯ve had a fight. Do try to be decent ymates.¡±
Suna, the Storm Spirit, was not an easy target by any means. With her versatility and myriad of magic skills and knowledge of some sword techniques, she had absolute confidence that in a one-to-one with any guard, she would dominate. Even with four guards on her, she was finding no trouble.
She began her offensive and charged at one guard, avoiding his thrust by spinning around. Her lightning and quick spinning transformed her body into a vortex of lightning that hit the guard straight in the chest, creating a dent in his armour.
The impact left the guard with some internal damage such as a broken rib, creating a momentary stun. In that moment, she grabbed his face and released a several volts of lightning right where his armour couldn¡¯t protect him.
She looked back at the others who were now hesitant after seeing her incapacitate one of their peers.
Suna looked back and saw that Randy was swimming away. She shrugged it off and decided to finish off these guys quickly to go do her job.
She grabbed the water like it was a solid object and spun it around, throwing it at the guards. The [Sea Curtain Technique]. The guards, who hadn¡¯t passed the test to be Royal Guards, had only seen the technique being used and did not know of a way to counter it.
They tried to avoid it, but their tails were caught in the wave mercilessly before their bodies were mmed into pirs. Suna sent powerful bolts of lightning through the water, before running away. Hopefully, they would simply be concussed since the lightning wouldn¡¯t be nearly effective with their armour on.
She got to where she meant to go and was shocked by the sight of Nori carrying the guppy she had told to run away. He was petting it gently while leaning on a wall.
¡°Oh, you¡¯re finally here. Don¡¯t keep me waiting next time.¡±
He told her, waving for her toe closer with a disgruntled expression on his face. Suna stopped in her tracks once the entire area went dark.
¡°What¡¯s happening?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, it¡¯s just the Grand Court Mage¡¯s spell for the feast. Now hurry.¡±
She wanted to run to the princess¡¯ side, but decided against it.
¡°I hope she knows what she¡¯s doing. This n has too many holes.¡±
***
GARAND POV
The Grand Court Mage was greatly dissatisfied with the turn of events.<novelnext></novelnext>
Of all the moments for Hinotori to appear, she chose now, when he was going to be busy with his preparations for the stupid feast that only helped the royals control the people more with their nonsensical speeches and ims about speaking to the Great Goddess.
Thanks to Vermillion, he knew that the Sea Goddess was a sham. Merely one member of an entire race that came to dominate them in order to feel good or aplished where other members of her race wouldn¡¯t interfere. Still, he could not deny her power, seeing as she was still the one to create the Original Three Sea Folk.
Unfortunately, after hearing most of what he knows from The Vermillion herself, he saw them as nothing more than strong children. A waste of his breath to offer praises to her.
Right now, during the feast¡¯s opening ceremony, he wanted to speed things up. The chief priestess was giving her words on what the goddess told her. The mere thought irritated him to the point he ordered the Senior Court Mages to turn out the lights of the dome.
Some argued that it was disrespectful, but they soon came to realise that Garand was not someone who cared about being respectful or disrespectful. Quickly, they did as he said.
Floating above the feast hall with his arms folded, Garand felt disgusted by the speech the priestess was giving. So much so, he made a weird sound.
¡°Time to put a wrap on all this goddess nonsense.¡±
He meant to say this under his breath, but his voice was so loud, everyone heard him. He wasn¡¯t aware of this till one of the court mages came up to him and whispered into his ears that everyone heard that. Realising his mistake, Garand coughed and decided to go on with the show as if he had nned that.
He spread his arms wide, garnering the attention of everyone present.
¡°Now for the actual show!¡±
He snapped his fingers and all the court mages appeared out of nowhere. They had been cloaking themselves with magic so as to not divert the attention from the royal family to themselves. Now that their gig was up, they all showed themselves in their ceremonial garments.
Together, they took out orbs which they fuelled with their mana, creatingrge threads that linked above the mages. The threads possessed a myriad of colours that mixed together beautifully, creating an absolutely spectacr sight that had all the citizens ¡°Oooing¡±.
¡°As we all know, it is up to the Court Mages toe up with one event that will go down in history whenever there¡¯s a Royal Feast.¡±
Garand begun speaking with his hands behind his back.
¡°Sadly, the past few Royal Feasts have been disappointments on the part of the Court Mages, not producing any spectacles of such grandeur. Thest two Royal feasts which the old folk here should have seen, were nothing to brag about.¡±
Indeed, it was getting exceedingly difficult to outdo the past acts and no one felt this burden more than the Grand Court Mage who everyone was counting on.
¡°This year, I have seeded in changing that fact! Five years ago, at the defeat of our foe, the mortal enemy of our goddess, Sea Devil Makrov, I was struck with what I personally believed was beautiful and I have decided to share that beauty with you all.¡±
Once he said that, all those who bore witness to the end of the Sea Devil had an idea of what he was talking about and were instantly rmed. Or at least, that was how he saw it.
¡®That¡¯s right. You¡¯re probably thinking, there¡¯s no way this crazy old man would do that, right? Hahahaha! Well, I did!¡¯
He thought maniacally to himself, hoping they could see the smug expression on his face. Down, he noticed that the prince, Nanek stood up to go elsewhere. It was rude for him to do that, but Garand would ignore it this time.
At the end of his speech, the intertwined threads of mana formed arge te of mana above the hall, close to the edge of the dome. In truth, this wasn¡¯t a mere te of mana. It was simply thergest portal ever made in history. Indeed, this was quite the sight to marvel at. Still, doing such a thing came at its own risk, one was the potential of causing the caster or casters to develop Mana Overload.
However, that wasn¡¯t even the main treat. From the portal, one creature swam through. It¡¯s size of a magnitude sorge the Anteans couldn¡¯t believe it was in their city. It had pitch ck skin with glittering dots on its body that made it look like a starry night. It resembled their whale dogs, but with a much prettier coat than they¡¯d ever seen.
Their jaws dropped as the glittering lights on its body were good enough to brighten up the darkened dome. And the song it sang was so excellent they were mesmerised. Another of these beasts popped up, making everyone feel terrified, but intrigued. More of the creatures showed up, eachrger than thest.
¡°Dear Anteans! I present to you, the Star Whales! They aided us in our war against the Sea Devil and have now appeared for this monumental feast!¡±
He dered loudly.
¡®Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t get the king of these beasts¡ he would have killed us all.¡¯
He was saddened. In truth, what he wanted most was the most majestic of these creatures, the King Star Whale that truly helped Hiro in the decisive battle against Makrov. It was simply exquisite, but he would have to settle for this.
The servants from the temple started to drop their parcels down to the masses. The maids of the pce all came carryingrge trays of food and serving them down before the king, priestess and candidates inrge seemingly endless amounts.
The Feast had officially begun.
<A/N: 14 days... and I got to chapter 200. Lol, this was around half of the original story, but now it''s not even a fourth of the whole story.
Also, finally done with the boring festivities. I''ve even skipped some details to save time and chapters.
Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets!
50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 203 Feast Day Pt.VI
***
NANEK POV
The prince looked at the meal set before him. Skewered tentacles, seaweed wraps, jagged oyster shells, lunaris and so on, all in bountiful amounts. He felt like gagging from the mere scent of the food. Nanek never liked such food, and as such this was strictly removed from the meals his siblings served him regrly.
This event was different. It was before the entire city and it was a meal that the goddess had chosen for this year¡¯s feast. Him not eating it was an insult to the goddess and would make the people think less of him.
He looked at his mother, the priestess, sitting blindly next to the king and being fed her meal by some of her personal assistants. She had no concern whatsoever when it came to this and he found it terrifying, since he had been told by the older generation that she hated these kinds of meals.
Several years in service to the goddess must have changed her. Maybe if he spent several years trying to ovee his distaste for the meal, he would ovee it. And that always started with the first bite, he told himself.
He grabbed one of the skewered tentacles and looked at it objectively, scanning for any blemishes to the food. Nanek was of the belief that good food should have absolutely no ws appearance-wise. During his investigation, he concluded that the tentacle wasn¡¯t the right one.
He dropped it to pick up a new one.
¡°Your highness.¡±
Randy, his saviour came through. He quickly turned around to face her with an uncharacteristically wide smile.
¡°Randy!¡±
¡°Um, yes?¡±
She was confused by the sudden shout and cocked her head. Nanek sensed the gazes of the other candidates on him and dropped his smile. He cleared his throat in an attempt to salvage his dignity.
¡°What is it?¡±
¡°We have a problem.¡±
¡°A problem?¡±
He looked at Elriek and she was enjoying her meal while having a conversation with her servant, Osveta. He looked all around her, checking for her usual entourage, but found none of them around.
¡°Where are Suna and Hinotori?¡±
¡°That is the problem.¡±
Randy responded coldly. Nanek stood up and left the table, feeling a bit of anger welling up in his chest. It was a rude action on his part that could cause him to not win the throne, but if he also allowed his sister to do as she pleased, he was definitely not getting the throne.
¡°Talk as we move.¡±
He nced at both of his older brothers, eating their meals quietly. They had both been ruined by Elriek and had already given up in the fight for the throne and were indirectly her subordinates. Publicly, he had the most backing from the pce, but in truth, Elriek was the most influential even if everyone in the castle also wanted to get rid of her.
It was the equivalent of having a merciless dictator you wish to dethrone, but was impervious to every sort of killing mechanism.
¡°Nanek.¡±
His father¡¯s voice came into his ears. Immediately turning around like a soldier, he put his hands behind his back and stiffened up.
¡°Where are you going?¡±
Those close enough to see had their attention drawn to both of them. He peeked at Elriek again and she wore a cute confused expression. The lying twit!
¡°I am going to prepare my surprise for the feast.¡±
¡°Hoho? A surprise?¡±
The king sounded amused.
¡°Father, isn¡¯t this great news? Brother Nanek has a surprise for us all. Shouldn¡¯t we let the people know?¡±
Elriek entered the conversation, making a vein in Nanek¡¯s head pop.
¡°It wouldn¡¯t be a surprise if they knew it wasing, isn¡¯t that so?¡±
¡°But the surprise isn¡¯t ruined as long as we don¡¯t know what the surprise is. Even now I¡¯m still curious as to what your surprise is. Father, I think we should do this to create suspense amongst the people rather than leave them confused like the Grand Court Mage almost did.¡±
Elriek made a point to their father. Nanek¡¯s hands were shaking with visible rage and his eyes and hair were turning red.
¡°Excellent idea, Elri! Very well. People of Antis!¡±
The king, as obtrude as ever, decided to do what sounded fun in his ears.
¡°My son Nanek is preparing a gift for you all! Anticipate it! Hahaha!¡±
There was a cheer from the people after the announcement. Nanek calmed down and his hair returned to normal.
¡°Thank you for the suggestion, sister. If you will excuse me, father, I will be going now.¡±
¡°Of course. Just make sure it does not disappoint or you will be the biggestughing stock in history. Hahaha!¡±
Nanek could feel his stomach churning. Once again, his sister had put him in a very precarious situation.
¡®When would she stop harassing him?¡¯, he wondered.
After the scene, he left quickly with Elriek. Once he vacated from the eyes of the people, his hair turned violent red as his eyes turned pitch ck.
¡°That brat!¡±
He punched a wall in the pce, creating a hole in it to the other side, barely missing a guard¡¯s head.
¡°Your highness, now is not the time.¡±
Randy reminded him. His eyes returned to normal, however his hair didn¡¯t change colour
¡°What is the problem?¡±
¡°Your sister seems to have some ns. I spotted her spirit, Suna going towards the mage quarters.¡±
Having received the location, he started moving.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°And Hinotori?¡±
¡°I have not seen her, but that only makes it more suspicious that Elriek is behaving so casually.¡±
¡°She¡¯s always casual.¡±
¡°Yes, but for her to not present Hinotori before the king? There is definitely something afoot.¡±
He listened to her logic and the water around him started to steam.
¡°Is that all?¡±
¡°Yes. The soldiers I sent out to scout the city for the bombs say they¡¯ve been seeing moving shadows all around.¡±
¡°Moving shadows? As in hiding figures?¡±
¡°No¡ uh, as in literal shadows moving.¡±
¡°Are they alright in the head? Tell them to keep searching and they should also be on the lookout for Hinotori. If this is the end, I will be going ahead.¡±
¡°Very well.¡±
Randy stopped moving and bowed to him. Nanek swam his fastest towards the mage quarters. He didn¡¯t have a weapon on hand, so he took a random one from one of the knight statues around the castle.
In no time, he managed to get to the mage quarters, where he sees Suna floating with her hands crossed.
¡°The prince!?¡±
She yelped once her eyes fell on him. Nanek charged at her, and she attempted to run away. With the [Sea-Curtain Technique], he managed to trap her leg and pull her closer to himself. He readied his spear for impaling her, but once he pierced her, she burst into bubbles.
¡°He actually fell for that?¡±
He turned around and saw Suna looking at him with a shocked expression and she wasn¡¯t alone. To her side, his ditzy brother was staring at him with a bored expression.
¡°Of course, he did. I made that clone I will remind you.¡±
Nanek quickly processed everything and came to the conclusion that Elriek wanted him toe here.
¡®A trap!¡¯
His mind was on high alert. He looked around and saw that there weren¡¯t anymore. His warrior side felt like it was simply right for him to enact justice for pranking him, but knowing his sister, this wasn¡¯t a mere distraction.
¡°What¡¯s happening here? Answer me now, both of you.¡±
Nanek red at them, but his brotherpletely ignored it.
¡°Don¡¯t re at your older brother like that, brat.¡±
The bubbles from the clone formed a bondage around the prince and put his hands behind him.
¡°Huh?¡±
¡°It took you forever to get here. Do you know how long I had to wait? Elriek would kill me if she found out this was even a secondte.¡±
¡°What are you nning?¡±
¡°You¡¯ll find out in a bit, if you survive.¡±
¡°If I what?¡±
Everything was happening to quickly. From simply struggling to eat, to now being sucked into a portal he hadn¡¯t seen in the first ce.
¡°Nori!¡±
He yelled, but his loud cry fell on deaf years as he ascended. His eyes started to turn pitch ck and his strength increased as he tried to break free of his bonds.
¡°Please. You¡¯ve known me for several years now, Nanek. Have you ever seen me make a spell that can¡¯t do what I intended it to?¡±
No matter how hard Nanek tried, he couldn¡¯t break free.
¡°Anyhow, I¡¯m done here. Tell Elriek to put in a good word with Hinotori for me.¡±
Nanek was swallowed up by the portal quickly and sent through a very rough and ufortable ride before being spat out into an endless blue.
Nori, one of the strongest Senior Court Mages in Antis and a potential candidate for the Grand Court Mage position. A person that none of the candidates for the throne could get on their side was working with his sister just so she helped him get a girl!?
The bubbles disappeared, leaving Nanek free. He looked up, but the portal was no longer there. The amount of rage he was feeling could not be contained any longer.
They had an agreement and she broke it. He had tried his best, but now if he ever crossed paths with Elriek, he would kill her.
His original intention was to kidnap Elriek and put her away till he got the throne, but now that this was the situation, he would kill her. Since he wasn¡¯t there, she was definitely being announced the heir. If she died, the next in line would obviously be himself.
His thinking was interrupted by his instincts warning him that something dangerous wasing.
In front of him, from a distance, a ck figure was shing towards him. It looked like a shark-like monster he had never seen before. There was something familiar about it, but the aura it was releasing suggested that he¡¯d never had the pleasure of encountering it before.
At least, now he had something to take his current anger out on.
<A/N: Who didn''t see Elriek betraying Nanek, am I right? Welp, now he''s going to take out his anger on a certain shark-like monster. Let''s hope it''s Jaws. Didn''t expect Nanek''s POV to be this long. Even had to cut out Hinotori''s POV from this chapter or it would have been too long a chapter. Hmm, that''s it from this chatty author. Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets!
50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 204 Feast Day Pt.VII
¡®It¡¯s so booooorriiiiiiiiiingggg!¡¯
I was bored out of my mind surveying the edge of the dome for enemies. It was practically a ghost town at this point. And the only thing that used to be interesting was the notifications I kept receiving from my shadows about catching bombers. So far, we found three dozen pairs of people nting the bombs.
It was shocking how many people had been coerced into doing this. And I still hadn¡¯t tracked down an actual member from the invaders. What if the invaders actually weren¡¯ting? What if the princess was lying about this entire thing for apletely different reason?
¡®This princess is giving me a headache.¡¯
¡®I know right? It¡¯s like talking to a brick wall.¡¯
¡®A-An overly in-intelligent one.¡¯
¡®Hey guys!¡¯
¡®Ah!?¡¯
¡®New guy?¡¯
¡®I-I have a j-junior now?¡¯
¡®What will we call him?¡¯
¡®Call me Hyakkiyago.¡¯
He told us out of nowhere. We were all stunned, since everyone who came so far didn¡¯t even know that they were now sharing a mind with someone. Yet, this guy was acting so nonchntly and even using the name the system master gave us.
¡®Oi! How much do you know?¡¯
¡®Hmm, I¡¯m currently at the part when Maya popped up.¡¯
¡®Huh? What are you talking about?¡¯ (Me)
¡®Wasn¡¯t Maya like, thest person we saw before dying?¡¯ (Akira)
¡®Y-yeah. T-That¡¯s what I remember.¡¯ (Akkun)
¡®Hmm. Wait¡ you don¡¯t remember? But I do¡ is it cause of [Evolver] or the devil?¡¯
¡®Eh? What do you mean?¡¯
¡®Ssh! Don¡¯t talk about the devil¡ it might be listening in on us right now.¡¯
Akkun cowered somewhere after hearing the devil being mentioned.
¡®Naw. Don¡¯t worry about that. I made sure it can¡¯t.¡¯
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡®For real?¡¯
¡®R-Really?¡¯
¡®Yep. Think of this as our safe space where the devil can¡¯t listen in on anything we say. Besides, its always too busy processing the information it receives from the agent on a regr.¡¯
What we were talking about, was the fact that Akira and Akkun discovered that our resident skill [Wisdom of God] had been hijacked by a devil. When this happened, we had to point fingers at that one time a friggin devil centipede tried to possess me. Someway, somehow, it found a way to survive in a unique skill.
Of course, I would like to ask the agent how this was possible, but you know why I can¡¯t ask. At least that exined the agent getting more of an attitude over time. It was simply the devil acting up. No wonder it was asking me for its real name.
¡®Do you think saying its name will give it full power like in stories?¡¯
¡®Then why don¡¯t we get full power when everyone says our name?¡¯
¡®We¡¯re always at full power, idiot.¡¯
¡®Oh yeah, hahaha.¡¯
¡®Tori¡¯s a real dumbass, huh. Hahaha.¡¯
¡®Hahaha.¡¯
¡®W-Wait. That doesn¡¯t exin how you know anything!¡¯
¡®Oh, that¡¯s right. I¡¯ve been watching our lives for sometime now.¡¯
¡®E-Eh? Wait¡ the skill did level up.¡¯
¡®And none of us wondered why we didn¡¯t get a new mind.¡¯
¡®G-guess we¡¯re already used to each other, so we never considered a new member.¡¯
¡®Yeah. And we don¡¯t have a position for him.¡¯
¡®Cheerleader!¡¯
¡®Woah! Woah! Woah! Don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ve already gotten myself a job.¡¯
¡®And that is?¡¯
¡®System management of course.¡¯
As we were discussing with our new member, the whole dome darkened. I didn¡¯t sense anything dangerous, but I saw a beautiful disy of colours that came together to create a portal. Quite possibly thergest portal I¡¯d ever seen.
¡®Oh, wow. That¡¯s amazing.¡¯
Akkun muttered. He was so dumbfounded that he didn¡¯t even stutter as he said it.
¡®That¡¯s art. I want to get closer to analyse it.¡¯
¡®Art? It¡¯s just a portal with pretty colours. Ah look, now it¡¯s just red.¡¯
¡®Y-You don¡¯t get it. That portal is possibly the best portal ever.¡¯
¡®Um, as much as I want you to lecture me on the difference between big portals and small portals, I think I¡¯ll pass. Back to you, new guy.¡¯
¡®Hyakkiyago. Or Hyakun if it¡¯s easier.¡¯
¡®Uuh, sure. You say you¡¯ve seen memories we don¡¯t have?¡¯
¡®And we¡¯ve seen Maya before?¡¯
¡®Yes and yes.¡¯
¡®Exin.¡¯
¡®Well, you see, your¡ our soul has several holes in it. I¡¯d seen all the memories from it then decided to check out the system, there I saw that the system records everything we do. Probably how the system master watches our every action.¡¯
¡®O-Our every action?¡¯
¡®Yeah. She¡¯s even seeing this conversation right now. I¡¯m not sure how to avoid it.¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Wait. So if I¡¯m taking a shit, she¡¯d still be watching me?¡¯
¡®Does she seem like she has a life?¡¯
¡®Good point.¡¯
¡®So, yeah. I looked at the system and when Maya¡ the gothic Lolita.¡¯
¡®Eh!?¡¯
¡®When she stabbed us and that mysterious eye ball saved us, there was a brief moment where our souls shed. I saw shbacks of her life and ours as well. I guess when she¡¯s judging us she also needs to share her soul with us. Quite a dumb ability if you ask me. Imagine the only way for me to kill you is by also giving you an equal chance at killing me. A very dangerous double-edged weapon. She¡¯s lucky almost nobody knows that though.¡¯
From the portals, whales with shiny dots came through making noise. The smallest one was about three times the size of an adult blue whale, but not even that was more shocking than what I¡¯d just heard. I was that close to Maya? Literally an inch away from her? So, she also reincarnated? Then maybe Ken too.
¡®H-Huh?¡¯
¡®Wait, wait, wait!¡¯
¡®PRINCESS! THERE IS A PROBLEM.¡¯
I got a cry for help from all my generals simultaneously.
¡®What is it? Did the invaders attack the pirs?¡¯
¡®UM¡ NO. THE PILLAR MEN PLACED MANA BOMBS ON THE PILLARS.¡¯
¡®Huh? What do you mean the pir men ced mana bombs on the pirs? They¡¯re supposed to be protecting them. Are you sure that those are mana bombs?¡¯
¡®YES. THE MANA THE SPHERES CONTAIN IS UNSTABLE AND COULD EXPLODE ANYTIME FROM NOW.¡¯
There was no way the pir men who had been guarding the Pirs for at least half a century would just nt a bomb there. There was also no way my generals would lie to me. But I needed to confirm this.
I used [Shadow Gaze] to see through one general¡¯s eyes, then scanned the item with [Wisdom of God]. To my dismay, it truly was a mana bomb and it had less than 30 minutes remaining to go off.
¡®Huh? Oh,e on, this isn¡¯t even funny if it¡¯s a prank.¡¯
? ¡®A¡ PRANK?¡¯
¡®Never mind. Generals, get the mana bombs off the pirs.¡¯
¡®UNFORTUNATELY, WE ALREADY TRIED. THE PILLAR MEN ARE TOO STRONG.¡¯
¡®Huh? For even you guys? In that case, all shadows. Subdue the pir men, now.¡¯
This was odd. Why would the pir men themselves nt the mana bombs? There was no way the invaders could pretend to be the pir men. If they did, then that would make Antis¡¯ security the worst I¡¯d ever seen or heard of in my two lives.
¡®Wait¡ Tori, don¡¯t send all the shadows.¡¯
¡®Huh? What do you mean?¡¯
¡®Well, it¡¯s kinda illogical. Sure they¡¯ve nted the bombs, but sending every shadow on hand is overkill. For all we know, this is also a distraction.¡¯
¡®T-True. E-even if they aren¡¯t in this dome, the o-other domes are still avable.¡¯
¡®You think that¡¯s where they are hiding?¡¯
¡®Possibly. I mean, we haven¡¯t searched.¡¯
¡®Yeah. We¡¯ll simply send a sufficient number of shadows to go deal with the pir men.¡¯
Aftering up with a reasonable n, I sent about 50 shadows to go to each group of pir men, meaning about 250 shadows against the groups of pir men. Even if they were strong, taking on too many enemies was going to be stressful.
I used [Shadow Travel] to appear at one of the pirs. The pir was arge piece of carved diamond-looking material. When I saw it, I noticed that is looked really familiar.
¡®Oh, that looks like the rock from the cave we woke up in.¡¯
¡®Rock?¡¯
¡®Yeah. We formed a soul bond with Shiro with that.¡¯
¡®You sure?¡¯
¡®Yep. But it isn¡¯t. Thank goodness. If the Anteans had found a way to utilise its power, they would have to be the most powerful nation in this world.¡¯
¡®Hmm¡¡¯
A lightning-fast spearing down on me interrupted my thoughts. I barely managed to stop it with my sword. Unfortunately for me, the blow was so powerful my arm was shaking.
¡®That strong? With [Shock Absorber] on?¡¯
I looked at the attacker. He was cloaked in full golden armour that concealed all his features. There were simply eye holes that allowed him to see me.
[Item Name: Pir Man Armour]
[Item Rank: Legendary
[Item Description: The legendary armour of the Antis¡¯ highest rank soldiers. Only the best of the best can even wear this armour without dying. Once worn, it cannot be removed till its wearer dies.
Effect #1 ¨C Boosts all physical stats by 10x
Effect #2 ¨C Gives one high resistance to magic
Effect #3 ¨C Gives an attribute boost depending on the user¡¯s attributes
Effect #4 ¨C Wearer ispletely obedient to the wielder of the [Royal Trident]
[Value: 7500 gold coins| 550 store points
With this armour, they had physical stats just a tad bit below Minerva¡¯s and Arisu. And since they had a high resistance to magic, I was basically the worst person to take them on. Fortunately for me, I had the advantage of numbers here. Even better, I had strong generals amongst the shadows. These guys were in the lower stages of B rank. And given some things I¡¯ve heard from them, they¡¯ve lived a long time, so their actual level shouldn¡¯t have been B-rank.
I managed to parry the attack and retreat behind my general who had his left arm torn off.
¡®T-The hell happened to your arm?¡¯
¡®KNIGHTS¡ TOO¡ STRONG.¡¯
<A/N: Tori wanted excitement, so here''s excitement. The decisive fight for the fate of Antis begins, I guess. Still a few more things to finish. Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets!
50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 205 Feast Day Pt.VIII
From my left, the white marble-like spear came rushing, but I blocked with my sword. Again, the impact made my hands wobble like jelly. I tried grabbing his spear with [Shadow Limbs], but they faded the moment they made contact.
The pir man grabbed my face with his free hand, but I quickly slid out with [Slime Body]. [Overload Armour] immediately went into action, giving me a 60% boost in all stats and a 100% boost in defence. The fire scarf around my neck was now blue and hazy.
Even then, my stats were less than his. He roared loudly out of nowhere and I felt my ears bleeding. Unfortunately, with my enhanced hearing I couldn¡¯t ignore the pain. I reflexively dropped my de to cover my ears.
[You have lost 60 health points]
Could have been my worst mistake if I didn¡¯t have several shadows that sacrificed themselves for my protection.
They all vapourised, leaving me with five pir mening up on me. Their spears were suddenly alit with pale blue mes as they surrounded me with the des pointed at me.
¡®Ah.¡¯
Mightily, they simultaneously thrusted at me.
¡®Teleport!¡¯
I reappeared behind one of them. With [Lethal ck ws] I tried to pierce his back, but my ws broke off. The pir man hit me with his tail faster than I could react.
[You have lost 120 health points]
Angrily, I summoned more shadows toe help me deal with them. At least 500 shadows to help me personally finish them off. The other shadows at other locations had already been wiped out by the pir men who showed absolutely no sign of difficulty.
In the mix of shadows, I also sprayed ck ink around to cause disorientation. The shadows all went for the kill, but I heard a mutter from one of the pir men.
¡°[Flow Technique: Blue Canon].¡±
From his direction, something was moving fast, like a shooting star. It was a bright blue and it easily cut through my shadows like hot knife through butter. Behind it, all the water spun like a tornado, propelling it even further and faster towards me.
Again, I teleported out of the weapon¡¯s way, but a pir man was waiting for me. He used the skill [Death Thrust] and I flipped over, grabbing the shaft of the spear thennding a [Fiery Kick], [High Force Impact] and [Shatter] to his face. My attack did practically nothing to him.
Instead, I could feel my hair being dragged away. One of them was using the curtain technique to trap me. I returned to my bird form to escape the sea¡¯s pull before transforming back into my human form and charging straight at the guy who tried to grab me.
¡®Shadow demon summoning!¡¯
At point nk, I assumed it would be best to simply st him with an eruption of shadows. To my dismay, he grabbed my orb and crushed it like it was nothing.
In the heat of the moment, I activated [Devil Light Maniption], but nothing worked. Rather, he brought down his fist on my head mightily. I could have sworn I heard my skull split in half.
[You have lost 1000 health points]
[You have been afflicted with [Concussion]]
¡®O-Oi! 1000? And most of it was off-set with [Slime body] and [Shock Absorber].¡¯
¡®We could have died just now?¡¯
¡®Um, here!¡¯
Hyakun did something, causing a vial to appear before me.
¡®It¡¯s a healing potion. Drink it up before our thoughts go awry.¡¯
I grabbed the vial and shot myself backwards to quite the reasonable distance. I consumed the potion.
[You have consumed 1 red-blood health potion.]
[You have recovered 700 health points]
[You have been cured of all afflictions]
¡®Ah?¡¯
¡®Just bought it from the store. Take this too.¡¯
My sword, the hekati de appeared in my hands.
¡®Huh? How? I dropped it.¡¯
¡®There¡¯s a function to withdraw all owned items into the item box no matter where they are.¡¯
¡®For real?¡¯
¡®Yeah. Now, I think we can¡¯t do this without [Devil Form].¡¯
¡®You think?¡¯
¡®Y-Yeah, but i-if it¡¯s against them, w-we will d-die for sure.¡¯
¡®True. If not by their hands, we will definitely run out of time and end up consuming all our life force.¡¯
¡®Should we use ¡®that¡¯ then?¡¯
¡®Maybe? But¡ I honestly don¡¯t see how it¡¯s going to help. Maybe cause a long enough distraction?¡¯
Not allowing me to continue my conversation in my head, one of the bastards grabbed my right leg with the sea. He dragged me towards himself, so I used [High Force Impact]. He had zero reactions to that, making me realise how weak the royal guards (Osveta in particr) were weak.
Another grabbed my arm that held my sword, causing me to drop it once again. The harder I pulled, the tougher the resistance I got from the water.
¡®To hell with it all. [Devil Form]!¡¯
I activated the skill in desperation and managed to break my leg free. Unfortunately for me, one of the pir men grabbed my other free arm. Another grabbed my leg and the fourth grabbed my other leg, just like before.
They all pulled on my limbs, threatening to rip them apart with the slightest gesture. I couldn¡¯t think up any better solution for the situation I was in except for using ¡®that¡¯.
¡®Uuh, guys. Why don¡¯t we talk this out?¡¯
When physical violence wasn¡¯t working, it was sometimes best to resort to simple diplomacy.
¡®You guys are supposed to be protecting the pirs, not nting bombs on them! Maybe you didn¡¯t know that what you nted is bomb and I¡¯m sorry for attacking you, but could you remove it before things get really bad for everyone?¡¯
Their response to my plea was sending lightning my way, giving me one of the biggest shocks of my life. Get it?<novelnext></novelnext>
[You have lost 400 health points]
[You have lost 390 health points]
[You have lost 430 health points]
[You have lost 570 health points]
I looked up and saw one of the pir men spinning his spear around.
¡®Ah¡ That hurt like hell you bastards! And I¡¯m losing health points fast! I swear if I manage t- wait. Teleport!¡¯
Escaping from my entrapment, I came up right underneath the only pir man to be plotting an attack for me.
I used my [Tori Original: Fiery Uppercut] on his chin with [Gravity], hoping to push him up. Be it fortunate or unfortunate, the attack moved his head by an inch or two. My [Gravity] skill wasn¡¯t at a high enough level to cause any real damage to real threats.
¡®Hahaha¡ I didn¡¯t mean anything by that, I swear.¡¯
He struck once again. I side-stepped then sprayed him with [High Force Impact] and [Shatter] in the form of [Ferocious sh]es. I prayed that the attack would do some damage, but it didn¡¯t even nick the armour.
¡®O-oi¡ what about Twilight Maniption.¡¯
¡®Uses mana. It won¡¯t work here.¡¯
¡®Anything that doesn¡¯t use mana?¡¯
In an annoyingly repetitive manner, the pir man attacked me with a volley of thrusts, spins and shes. It was frustrating how eloquently he utilised his sea-curtain techniques and flow techniques to hinder my movements while also activating the lightning attribute of his spear to cause me damage even if I avoided the direct hit from the spear itself.
[You have lost 320 health points]
[You have lost 210 health points]
[You have lost 239 health points]
[Due to the unique skill [Evolver], you have acquired the skill [Lightning resistance]]
[The skill [Vector control] has gone up by 1 level]
[You have acquired the title [Nimble Feet]]
[You have acquired the skill [Evasion]]
I was so desperate for my life, I used [Luminosity] and [Deadly Beast Roar] to stop him for barely a second. In that second, I enveloped my body with the [Sinuous King Adamas Armour] and spat out enormous amounts of ink using [Ink Creation].
¡®Oi, oi! I need proper ideas here.¡¯
¡®Twilight energy! Let¡¯s try using that!¡¯
¡®Um¡¡¯
¡®What is it?¡¯
¡®Still uses mana to work.¡¯
¡®HUH!?¡¯
¡®I thought it was a different form of energy!¡¯
¡®Have you seen any status bars for it?¡¯
''But I thought-''
''Thought what? We''d use the power of friendship to win? Friendship with no one but yourself is pathetic loneliness and in some cases a literal mental disorder. Gosh, It''s frustrating not being able to do anything useful!''
Akkun sounded pissed there. Well, mostly because all my magic was rendered useless now, Akkun had absolutely nothing to do. I could understand his frustration at being the only one who couldn''t provide any help.
The other pir men all started to band together to create arge vortex. I clicked my tongue and made my own skill through the use of [Torrent] and [Constriction]. I altered the pressures and currents of two different torrents, forced them to sh and ended up causing arge riptide that should have been equal in size to the vortexing beneath me.
Unfortunately, the pir man who was on me had already recovered from the one second shock. Narrowly, his spear missed my head, but it tore off my ear and sent a powerful shock of lightning to my brain.
[You have lost 957 health points]
¡®I-I have a t-theory!¡¯
Akkun came up with an idea, as if he¡¯d been struck by a bolt of lightning. Haha!
¡®Open to ideas right now!¡¯
¡®C-convert all our remaining m-mana into a-aura.¡¯
¡®Into aura?¡¯
¡®Yeah, yeah! That¡¯s worth a shot!¡¯
¡®Alright then! But this body doesn¡¯t store aura so, it¡¯s basically us shooting out unnecessary amounts of energy.¡¯
¡®Not like we have any better choice.¡¯
<A/N: So, I spent my day editing some past chapters and I had the worst cringiest feelings pass through my body, ever. Especially during the dungeon raid. That was bad. Really bad! I''m working through it to give proper stats for it and will make sure I don''t make such mistakes again, especially since those were locked chapters.
That''s it from me this time. Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets!
50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 206 Feast Day Pt.IX
[Aura Burst] caused a massive release of power at my opponents.
[Your physical stats have shot up by 10%]
It felt like I just dropped unnecessary weights. My body was freer and morefortable. It was a nice feeling.
[Mana converted into Aura]
[Warning! Your body is incapable of properly storing aura, and you will keep leaking it]
My skill warned me of the dangers. Well, just throwing away energy was definitely something to avoid at all cost.
¡®Use this too.¡¯
A white naginata appeared before me. I grabbed it immediately and received a message.
[[Crushing Void] is pleased to be out again]
[[Crushing Void] thanks you]
¡®Huh? This guy¡pletely forgot about him. But he¡¯s nicer than that stupid sword.¡¯
¡®Yeah. I talked him into helping us. Unlike that stupid sword, he agreed with noments, saying thest time was fun although we didn¡¯t manage to activate his true effects.¡¯
¡®His true effects?¡¯
¡®That¡¯s right, he cuts space!¡¯
¡®Yeah, but he said we can¡¯t use that effect. Something about us not being his chosen master.¡¯
¡®Oi, [Crushing Void], why won¡¯t you allow me to use your proper effects.¡¯
[[Crushing Void] hasn¡¯t denied ess to its effects]
¡®Eh?¡¯
¡®Yeah, the thing is, there¡¯s penalties for using a [Soul Weapon]¡¯s special abilities when it hasn¡¯t chosen you.¡¯
¡®Oh¡ now that you mention it, [Scorching Winter] did mess me up in thest fight.¡¯
[[Crushing Void] apologises for the inconvenience]
¡®If you were sorry, you could just ept me as your master.¡¯
[[Crushing Void] refuses the offer]
¡®Thought so¡ whatever, I¡¯ll just take the penalties like a man!¡¯
I spun the naginata around and fired off a sh, ripping through the space. The de was about to cut out the mana bomb from where I stood, but one of the pir men blocked against the de with his gauntlets.
¡®No.¡¯
The guy who wasing after me managed to trap me in ce.
¡°[White Shot].¡±
He muttered as his speed increased. He put his spear above him, pointing towards me. The way he moved, as if he was cutting through the water. I saw the shape of a white shark forming around both him and the spear as he came, with itsrge jaw wide open and fangsid bare for my heart to cry.
¡°[Pressure Crusher]!¡±
He roared as he drew closer, the shark¡¯s teeth glowing. Then, the form ofrge, sharper teeth formed around the shark, sending my heart into a state of temporary rest.
The closer he got, the lighter it felt. As if the pressure from being deep down was being eaten away. I guess this was the effect of the skill he was about to use on me. Still, this wasn¡¯t where I¡¯d lose.
¡®[Sea Crunch]!¡¯
I used Osveta¡¯s supposedly lethal skills, [Sea Crunch] and [Sea God Bite]. My mouth opened wide to an abnormal degree and sharp fangs reced all my teeth, with a weird substance escaping into the substance. My head was starting to look like a wolf¡¯s just like Osveta¡¯s. I also included [Monstrous Bite], [Paralysing Vomit] and [Acid Spit], while reinforcing my teeth with arge amount of aura in hopes of causing actual damage.
Both attacks shed, sending a powerful shockwave that forced even the other pir men to brace themselves for impact. I hardened my body with [Aura] to take a little amount of damage.
[You have lost 450 health points]
The results of using [Aura] for defence in tandem with the other defence skills was beyond phenomenal. I felt like I¡¯d normally be dead by now without any of my skills. The biggest and best shock for me was the fact that my attack actually managed to pierce the armour of the pir man.
Albeit, the attack did him no harm, the fact that it created holes in his armour alone was something amazing. The pir man tried to use my moment of shock against me. I evaded his snatch, and grabbed his wrist.
¡®[Overflow]!¡¯
With a gentle gesture, I twisted the man¡¯s wrist by willing the water to spin him around. His entire body spun around uncontrobly, and I gave him a powerful aura kick in the chest, throwing him some distance away.
I looked at the others who were now simply guarding the pir, pretending like I didn¡¯t exist.
¡®Ah! I just threw one of your members away now! I can finally fight you guys! Come after me!¡¯
I tried using [Taunt], but they were immune to its effects. The pir man who I¡¯d spun around had already recovered and was ready to take revenge.
¡®Oh god, this sucks ass.¡¯
¡®To hell with it!¡¯
I put my arm up and opened up a portal in front of the pir man, where a massive tentacle shot out and pped him right in the face.
My secret trick that I had been preserving for a really desperate moment was the baby kraken I befriended earlier on. I didn¡¯t summon himpletely because I was afraid they¡¯d treat him the same way Bastien did. Even worse, they could possibly kill him and I wasn¡¯t up for it.
¡®You mad men want to y? Let¡¯s y!¡¯
I opened up several portals all around them, all of which shot out random tentacles at them.
¡®Oi¡ can I use aura on something else?¡¯
¡®As in giving a person your aura?¡¯
<<Yes. With the skill [Aura Share], this is possible>>
¡®[Aura Share], huh? Hyakun, can we get that?¡¯
¡®I¡¯d need to sacrifice some gold for it.¡¯
¡®Do it.¡¯
I deactivated my devil form as it was just taking away my health points and not even permitting [Auto Health Regeneration] to do its job.
[You have purchased the skill [Aura Share]]
¡®Nice.¡¯
After receiving the alert, I went to work quickly. I encased the kraken¡¯s tentacles in my aura, allowing for it to cause more damage whenever it hit the pir men, as well as causing their attacks to have less of an effect on it.
This created arge space for me to finally sneak in and remove the mana bomb ced there. Still, I didn¡¯t want to get too close.
¡®You¡¯re up again, [Crushing Void]!¡¯
[[Crushing Void] is excited]
I decided to use its effects again to whack the bomb to a far-off distance. Once again, now that I was free to do as I pleased, I shed before me.
CRACK!
¡®Eh?¡¯
¡®Y-You d-didn¡¯t¡¡¯
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡®Fuck.¡¯
Rather than hitting the bomb away, I¡¯d cut right into it. There ball started to go pop with golden lights randomly going off. I gulped, but in an anti-climatic manner, the light simply faded.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡®Did it.¡¯
¡®Just.¡¯
Stop?
I let out a relieved breath. For a second there, I¡¯d assumed that this was the end of it all. Instead of recklessly attempting to hit it with [Crushing Voice], it¡¯d probably be better to just go take it.
[Vector Control] got me there in a second.
SKRIIIIIIIT! BOOM!
¡®Seriously!?¡¯
The mana bomb went off without any warning. There was sh of various colours up in my eyes, but I wasn¡¯t going to take the brunt of the explosion.
¡®[Energy Converter]!¡¯
I tried to absorb in all the energy to fill up my mana reserves.
¡®O-Oi! Absorbing this energy¡¯s not doing us any favours.¡¯
¡®But if we allow it to go free...¡¯
¡®I have an idea!¡¯
Akkun suggested something. We all listened and asked Hyakun if it would work. He said it was worth a shot, so we did.
In the end, we were just left floating there with a sore hand and absolutely nothing in front of us. The bomb, with the pir hadpletely disappeared.
¡®I can¡¯t believe that worked.¡¯
¡®Right? That was deadly.¡¯
¡°The pir!¡±
One of the pir men, who literally nted a bomb to destroy it asked me. The answer was as obvious as day.
¡®You nitwits blew it up!¡¯
I yelled at them while they were being kept busy by the kraken. Calling it the kraken was getting annoying. I would think up a name for itter.
WRRREEEWWWWWW! SKIIIIIIIT! BOOOM!
BOOOOM! BOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM!
While talking to the pir men, I heard several more explosions. Not just four more, but at least a dozen explosions.
¡®O-Oi. Why are there so many explosions? Did the invaders begin their offensive?¡¯
¡°Invaders? What are you talking about?¡±
¡®Huh? You¡¯re not working with invaders?¡¯
¡°Who are you? What did you do with the pirs?¡±
¡®The other pirs! I forgot they also had bombs on them.¡¯
¡°Bombs!? When did you nt them?¡±
¡®What are talki-?! No.¡¯
Dread fell upon me the moment I realised what was happening. This was all going ording to someone¡¯s n. However, it should have been impossible to use magic to manipte the guards. That left only one person who could give the guardsmands.
He wielder of the [Royal Trident]. But why would the king do that? Did he not have the [Royal Trident]? If he doesn¡¯t have it, then does Elriek have it? If she did, whye up with all of this unnecessary nning? Then, was there even an invasion?
¡®Oi! How many pirs are there?¡¯
¡°Huh? You haven¡¯t answered my qu-¡±
I cut him off with all my skills for intimidation and red at him.
¡°25 pirs then the Master Pir at the center of Antis, Yorul.¡±
I teleported out of there, above the dome, where all the ley lines connected. I looked up and noticed that the cities were all interconnected through multiple smaller ley lines that were not visible from far apart. It was awork of multiple ley lines, that allowed for direct travel between each and every single one of the domes.
And they all through somehow connected at the centre, where I was standing at the moment. There were two regr guards standing guard, but they were on high alert after hearing the noise.
I saw all the ley lines transporting massive sums of energy between the domes, causing powerful ripples against the domes.
¡®What¡¯s happening?¡¯
<<The mana bombs caused an instability in the flow of energy between the pirs. Without a mechanism for monitoring this overflow, the pirs will keep producing excess energy and will eventually overload, causing the domes to self-destruct and the pirs to implode several times over till its shards are too small to cause significant damage.>>
¡®Huh? How long could that take?¡¯
<<Estimating¡ 34,567,291.34 years>>
¡®That¡¯s basically forever. This ce would be thergest, most inhabitable ce known to merman. This is way worse than the princess said. Why is it way worse than the princess said!?¡¯
¡®Agent?¡¯
<<The best option would be to channel all the excess energy out of the currentwork while recalcting the energy output from each pir.>>
¡®Eh? How do we do that?¡¯
¡®Bruh¡¡¯
¡®Oh,e on, it¡¯s gonna hurt like hell.¡¯
¡®N-No way out of this. W-We need the Grand Court Mage.¡¯
¡®Why don¡¯t we just grab him and run?¡¯
¡®Just do it! I¡¯ve already messaged Kawaii and Yokino to prioritize the safety of the Grand Court Mage. If pushes to shove, they¡¯ll teleport him out of there and we¡¯ll go as well. Everyone else can go to hell for all I care.¡¯
Hyakun had alreadye up with a n. I groaned, knowing exactly how painful this n of theirs was going to be. The only reason they could be so calm about it was that they weren¡¯t experiencing the physical pain. Shitty parallel minds! Evil bastards! They were evil bastards, I say!
I steeled myself with every form of defensive ability I had, then put my hands on the centre. One of the guards tried to ask what I was doing but, but I grabbed him and his partners and teleported them away.
¡®No bullshit today.¡¯
From there on, I activated [Energy Converter] and forcefully connected my mana circuits to the ley lines. Through this, the agent could calcte the levels of power that the pirs would release and since it was awork, I was connected to every single pir.
What was the problem then, you might ask?
Well, my mana circuit was basically my soul.
I was exposing my soul to copious amounts of very potent raw energy. I could be afflicted with [Mana Overload] or if worse, my soul could be destroyed.
<A/N: Uuhh... Haha, I can''t believe it escted into this while I was writing. This chapter was fun for me to write! XD.
Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets!
50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 207 Feast Day Pt.X
ELRIEK POV
During the feast, Elriek¡¯s brother moved towards their father shyly.
¡°How have you been, Rondel?¡±
¡°Excellent, father!¡±
He sounded like a cadet in training talking to hismanding officer.
¡°Hoho! Good to know. Is there something you need?¡±
¡°Father, as it is Feast Day. I wish to partake of the custom where the eldest son holds the [Royal Trident].¡±
Elriek stopped eating her meal and took a surprising interest in what her stupid brother had to say. The king¡¯s eyebrow went up.
¡°Oh? The [Royal Trident]? What would you want to hold this thing for?¡±
¡°I simply wish to get a feel for it, since it could be me holding itter today.¡±
¡°Pfft.¡±
Elriek put her hand over her mouth to hide her giggles. Even the king broke out inughter.
¡°Oh¡ you¡¯re serious. Ok then.¡±
The king cleared his throat and stopped hisughter. The spear floated gently into Rondel¡¯s hands at the will of the king.
¡°A spear for a big man, or woman.¡±
He added at the end and winked at Elriek.
¡°I remember always wanting to hold the trident when I was about your age as well. You¡¯re 88, right?¡±
¡°Yes, father.¡±
Rondel scanned the staff and pressed his hand against the shaft. Slowly, his hands wrapped around it and locked the spear in a tight grip.
¡°The trident feels¡ alive.¡±
¡°Yes. There are rumours that the trident carries a soul within it. They say the soul will guide its owner to the best possible future.¡±
¡°Is that so?¡±
¡°Naah, it¡¯s all a bunch of hogwash. Don¡¯t believe in stupid stories some old people spout. Isn¡¯t that right, honey?¡±
¡°That¡¯s nonsense, my king. That trident is a gift from the goddess. The texts say there is a soul in it that will only awaken once in the hands of the chosen leader.¡±
¡°Oh bull.¡±
They went on to argue about the existence of a soul in the weapon. Honestly, Elriek was surprised her father would argue with the concept of a soul being in a weapon. Antis being the kingdom of magical development, it shouldn¡¯t have been a stretch for the king of such a city when he heard of souls in weapons.
While they went on to debate, there was weird chuckling from Rondel.
¡°Excellent. I¡¯ve been waiting for too long.¡±
¡°Huh? If you have had your fill, give me the trident.¡±
The king stopped his argument to focus on his son, probably because he was losing.
¡°I refuse.¡±
The princess shot a sight a re at her oldest brother. He held the [Royal Trident] in his hands, lifted up for everyone to see. Heughed maniacally, causing quite the disturbing scene in front of everyone.
The king had a simr expression to the princess.
¡°What are you doing Rondel? Return the trident. Now.¡±
¡°No!¡±
He refused the king¡¯s order and backed up with the trident. Some of the members that backed him up formed a protective barrier around him. Some went out towards the people observing them and others went towards the king and Elriek.
¡°Do it now, Darius!¡±
At hismand, the 113th prince stood up and spread his arm forward. All those that served him rushed to subdue the people standing outside the feast hall.
¡°Guards! Cease my foo-¡±
¡°Hahaha! Have you forgotten? He who holds the trident controls the fate of Antis. That is why it¡¯s also called [The Pike of Destiny].¡±
The king paused in his tracks and growled. All of the guards that served directly under him weren¡¯t moving. They werepletely frozen, as if they were statues.
Of course, it was because the spear allowed its owner to have absolute control over all the citizens of Antis, except the members of the royal family. For this reason, once a new king takes the throne, all their siblings are forced to take on certain artefacts that allow for them to be controlled as well.
¡°What is the point in this?¡±
¡°The point? Isn¡¯t it obvious? It¡¯s because I¡¯m supposed to be king. Yet here we are, with that little snobby brat on the verge of taking the throne! I won¡¯t stand for that.¡±
He raged and pointed the trident at her. The king scoffed and eye rolled.
¡°You¡¯re both still immature brats? See why you can¡¯t get the throne?¡±
The king rested on his seat and folded his arms. Elriek noticed that the king and priestess were having a telepathic conversation. During this, the king rested himself like he was not even a part of the entire situation.
She also noticed that the servants of the temple were not interfering in anyway. Rather, they simply observed from above at a distance where they wouldn¡¯t get directly involved in the whole matter. For some reason, even though this wasn¡¯t a part of her ns, she felt amused.
Elriek smirked at the scene and her brother caught this.
¡°What are you smiling for? I¡¯m going to rip you to shreds. You think you can walk all over your older brothers and sisters like we¡¯re trash? Manipte and mould us into doing your bidding because you are father¡¯s favourite?¡±
¡°Oh, shut it, you sore loser. Return the trident to father before you make a bigger mess of things. Or Nanek will punish you.¡±
At the mention of Nanek, Rondel instinctively looked at the collection of second and fourth generation siblings who were oddly standing still and ring at him. It caused him to feel hesitation, knowing just how terrifying that particr collection was.
Survivors of the 4th generation and the entirety of the second generation that used to be monsters as well, standing there, not saying a single word.
He then looked back at Elriek.
¡°Where is he even?¡±
¡°Brother Nanek? He¡¯s partaking in peaceful diplomatic issues with SharkFang.¡±
¡°What?¡±
¡°what¡¯s that supposed to mean, Elri dear.¡±
The king showed concerned interest. Elriek switched to her cutesy act.
¡°Oh father, I¡¯m sorry. That was the surprise Nanek was going to show us. He was going to forge friendly rtions with Daxia.¡±
¡°Huh? How? She¡¯ll kill him.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry. Nanek thought it all through.¡±
Both of them started having their own conversation, ignoring Rondel¡¯s presence. Of course, this was done intentionally to annoy her brother beyond reason. She could see him losing his cool while grinding his teeth.
Her n was to force Nanek into helping Daxia out with the fight against Exsuole¡¯s invading forces. Of course, she had nned out most of the events that happened, but it was shocking to her to see Rondel involved in this whole situation.
The question on her mind now was who roped Rondel into this. He was too stupid to have plotted using the trident for his own personal gain. He was definitely on orders, but she couldn¡¯t think up of anyone who would be doing this.
If she thought about everyone, there was absolutely no one with any holes in their stories, that closed off her circle of people. Then there was¡ no.
¡®They wouldn¡¯t dare¡¡¯
She came to a realisation. The only people who could drastically alter her ns to this extent were her very own benefactors. The Secret Council.
Why would they betray her at such a time? She¡¯d done as they asked of her and even more.
She couldn¡¯t think like that. The Secret Council never betrayed those who followed their orders to the letter, let alone someone they wanted to include in their circle. This had to be someone else. Someone she wouldn¡¯t even think of.
Again, she looked at her brother, then at her father. Her eyes kept darting between the two, then she calmed down after seeing her father¡¯s overlyx smile.
¡°Ah¡¡±
The sound just escaped her lips.
¡°Is something the matter?¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Of course¡ only the master of the trident can use its power to control the Antean citizens.¡¯
¡°Absolutely nothing father. Rat-¡±
WRRREEEWWWWWW! SKIIIIIIIT! BOOOM!
BOOOOM! BOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM!
Multiple explosions sounded off in the distance and the barrier started ripple violently. The star whales that were swimming about were rmed immediately, crying out loud in fear like the wild beasts they were.
¡°Mana bombs? But Hinotori got them all.¡±
Osveta muttered from her side, on high alert.
¡°It¡¯s not from inside the dome. The pirs were hit directly.¡±
Elriek corrected his misconception of their situation.
¡°What!? But no one can beat the pir men.¡±
¡°True, but if the pir men ced the bomb on the pirs themselves, that wouldn¡¯t be the case.¡±
Osveta¡¯s fur stood on their ends.
¡°Princess¡ what¡¯s with that expression?¡±
She looked at him, confused by what he meant. Unawares of what her facial expression was. A nervousughter broke from her lips as she bit her finger nail.
¡°How?¡±
¡°H-How?¡±
¡°How did they aplish this? I thought of it, but there was simply no way to get the pir men to nt the bombs. This is¡ me?¡±
¡°Muhahaha! As you can see, father! I have set the pirs to explode. If you won¡¯t ept me as king, I will just wipe Antis off the map.¡±
¡°What!? Brother! We didn¡¯t agree on this!¡±
Darius spoke out. Apparently, Rondel never discussed this part of the n with him. He attempted to grab his brother, but a guard cut off Darius¡¯ arm simply for getting so close.
The prince started to scream in pain and backed away. His maids came to attend to his arm immediately whereas his guards formed a wall and charged at Rondel.
Rondel smirked, then several beams of light shot down from above, killing the guards. All the mages in above the hall were shooting off spells.
¡°Huh? T-the mages too?¡±
Osveta¡¯s voice trembled, aghast at the prospect.
¡°Of course, you idiot mutt. Who even allowed a fishman in Yorul? Surrounding yourself with such filth will only make you more pathetic, sister.¡±
Rondel gestured towards her.
¡°Behead the prince-¡±
Before he couldplete his sentence, a portal opened above him and from it, came two angry beasts battling each other. One was covered in a dark ck aura and the other had a red aura encasing his body.
Both were going at it, w against spear. Each block, parry and hit of theirs caused a tremendous wave, but the civilians could not even react to it, being under the influence of the [Royal Trident].
Elriek snapped her fingers and Yokino appeared, setting up a massive barrier around the princess, the king and the priestess.
¡°Sheesh, I wish you wouldn¡¯t snap your fingers like I¡¯m some kind of subordinate.¡±
¡°You don¡¯t want that information?¡±
¡°Sorry boss.¡±
¡°What is Hinotori doing? She was supposed to be preventing this sort of situation from happening.¡±
¡°The bombs? Yeah, he¡¯s on it.¡±
¡°He?¡±
¡°She¡¯s going to prevent the explosion, so she asked me to protect you.¡±
¡°She asked you to protect Garand, didn¡¯t she?¡±
¡°And you.¡±
¡°What a believable tale.¡±
¡°Your highness.¡±
¡°Sister.¡±
Two extra voices came in and to her side, Suna and Nori wereing closer with a barrier around them.
¡°Huh? Susu? Nori? How aren¡¯t you under their control?¡±
¡°A trick the Grand Court Mage taught me.¡±
¡°Garand isn¡¯t under their influence?¡±
¡°No.¡±
¡°Then why isn¡¯t he doing anything about this!?¡±
¡°Um¡ you know that old coot as much as I do. He¡¯s probably in his workshop doing something else.¡±
Sometimes Elriek wondered what the point was in having a Grand Court Mage who didn¡¯t even bother with the protection of the kingdom. Things had escted far beyond what had been nned for and even Elriek found it strange that she was keeping her cool for so long.
¡°That expression of yours is quite scary.¡±
Nori said to her then looked at the two fighting. It was Daxia and Nanek. Knowing Nanek, she had estimated he could go half an hour against Daxia before dying, so she sent him out there to calm her down since she would be agitated.
¡°This all part of your n, princess?¡±
Nori asked in a sarcastic way. She red at his highly mocking statement. The senior court mage shuddered and tried to turn himself invisible.
¡°The pirs being attacked were never a part of the n, were they?¡±
Yokino asked, looking at the crippling dome and mighty waves of power that traversed the dome¡¯s surface.
"What are we going to do?"
"This is bad."
¡°Your highness?¡±
¡°Elriek. We really need a solution right now.¡±
Elriek kept receiving numerous requests for solutions from those around her. Of course, she had imagined that such a scenario was possible. She had experienced such a scenario and it was horrible. Absolutely disgusting and it led to her siblings.
That was why she nned. She would always n everything step by step,e up with back up ns and take the tiniest opportunities that showed themselves. Yes, she could think on the spot in lots of moments, but in this kind of situation, where there¡¯s so much at stake, she froze up.
Just like five years ago, she was not sure what to do. In her moment of confusion, only one person¡¯s image came to mind. As he helped her when all her ns fell through by creating impossible situations, Elriek came to think of him as her personal saviour.
Just as she was about to cry out his name, hoping for another one of his impossible miracles, there was a monstrous shriek that forced even the star whales to stop moving about rapidly. Theypletely stopped any and all movements.
The two monsters that were fighting stopped and simultaneously, every single living being looked to the top of the dome, at the centre.
A translucent beast was screaming at the dome. It wasrge. Bigger than the dome itself and it held on tightly to the dome, letting out horrendous cries that made everyone shiver to the very bone.
The beast¡¯s translucent body was a dark purple and it resembled a creature Elriek was all too familiar with.
Hinotori.
<A/N: LOL, Elriek found Christ in Hiro. Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets! 50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 208 Another Mastermind?
Mana circuits.
Theplex construct that serves as a bridge between the physical and spiritual for mortal beings. It exists both as physical and ethereal, never fully the other. A means that allows certain beings to perceive the spiritual and an integral factor to the maniption of the spiritual energy in the world.
The mana circuits were also a manifestation of a soul. For this reason, every single mana circuit was different in its own unique way. That was why there were people with different attributes and so many different branches of magic in the world.
The mana circuit was flexible to a certain extent. If this extent is crossed, it results in the mana circuit copsing and the soul of the body either being destroyed or forcefully removed. This left a soulless body that could remain immobile or act on simple instinct, basically a mindless beast that would eventually die. The time of death ranges, depending on the body.
There were multiple ways to alter the mana circuits. There were physical means such as hitting the points on the body where some veins of the mana circuits were present. There were spiritual means such as filling up the circuits with spiritual energy.
Currently, what Hinotori was doing was having her mana circuits being filled up with massive amounts of energy all while trying to stabilise the release from the pirs to an appropriate amount that wouldn¡¯t cause the dome to copse as well as releasing the excess to the environment as aura to keep her physical body protected in case of failure.
The issue with this was the fact that there were 25 pirs currently, all of them releasing erratic volumes of power and that didn¡¯t match up, causing the various levels to fight against each other. epting such random levels of energy was potent to the mana circuit.
Were this to be a normal person, they would have died the moment they opened their mana circuits to the pirs. However, Hinotori¡¯s mana circuit¡¯s flexibility was insanely high as well. The random influx was simply pulling her mana circuits wider rather than causing any harm.
Of course, the process to this was extremely painful, one of the reasons most people weren¡¯t able to reach the highest peaks of power in the magical world. Luckily for Hinotori, she didn¡¯t suffer nearly as much as most people did when getting stronger due to the protective barrier known as The System that was set up by the System Master Alpha.
Her unique skill [Evolver] was unable to interfere this time, due to the issue beingpletely spiritual this time.
¡®Woah.¡¯
¡®What is this?¡¯
¡®F-feels really good.¡¯
¡®Right? I expected this to be painful, but it¡¯s not.¡¯
¡®Oh? What¡¯s this?¡¯
To Hinotori, her surroundings has simply turned white. And in this white, there were multiple orbs of different colours floating about. Some moving in groups, some moving alone and some just bouncing off of one another.
<<Mana Particles>>
Her skill [God¡¯s Wisdom] responded.
¡®Huh? Mana particles?¡¯
She asked in disbelief. Of course, she wouldn¡¯t believe such a thing so easily. Mana particles were basically the embodiment of magical attributes. If one could see them directly, didn¡¯t that make them simply too strong?
Hinotori reached out to touch one of them. It was a bright orange orb that looked no bigger than a tiny bead. The moment she touched it, the orb burnt even brighter before being shot away.
In her eyes, it was simply the orb being shot away. What others could see was possibly thergest me that the ocean would ever see, being half asrge as the city in the dome. A pale blue me that would have turned anything it touched into ash.
¡®That felt weirdly exciting.¡¯
She thought and looked at her hand.
¡®Progress on the pirs?¡¯
<<63%... 75%... 81%... 88%... 93%... 100%... energy rectificationplete.>>
¡®That quickly?¡¯
<<Yes. I have also disconnected your mana circuit from the ley lines.>>
Once that happened, Hinotori¡¯s vision slowly left the white world. The orbs all disappeared, till all she could see was the blue of the deep-sea waters through a translucent veil that was the aura she was constantly releasing.
¡®Woah. Is this the aura from the energy the pirs gave me?¡¯
She looked at it, trying to see the edge of the aura, but from her perspective, it was endless. From an objective point of view, it was a massive aura in the shape of a bird.
With the aura, she felt strong enough to be able to match Minerva or even overwhelm her in a fight now. And this was the truth. If she were ever to fight the Minerva she knew, she wouldpletely demolish her, but she couldn¡¯t store this aura forever.
¡®Aww, cause it¡¯s aura I¡¯ll have to give it up.¡¯
The aura seeped out into the area slowly. Eventually, it was spread far and wide, causing any dangerous monsters to stay even further way from Antis. It would leave the impression that this was a strong monster¡¯s new nest. The only issue with this would be attracting monsters of equivalent power that wanted to be the only strongest.
For instance, there were currently creatures in the Deep and Bloody seas that had sensed this aura and were getting riled up. There was even a beast in the dome that was getting excited by the dangerous aura atop the dome. It now had more of a reason to finish its fight faster.
The creature¡¯s own pitch-ck aura erupted, alerting Hinotori to its rampage.
***
¡®Oi, is that Daxia?¡¯
¡®Looks like it. That ck energy is definitely chaos energy.¡¯
¡®What¡¯s she doing here? Isn¡¯t she supposed to be fighting the Exsuole Empire?¡¯
¡®A-And w-who is she f-fighting?¡¯
¡®Uuh, that looks like¡ the prince?¡¯
¡®Daxia will kill him.¡¯
¡®That¡¯s like¡ waging war on a country, isn¡¯t it?¡¯
¡®What do you guys say we should do about that?¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®Yeah, let¡¯s go flex our new power on Daxia.¡¯
¡®Uuuhh¡¡¯
¡®P-Probably not a g-good idea.¡¯
Hyakun and Akkun were against us doing it. Akira and I on the other hand were ready to finally have the upper hand against her.
Faster than I¡¯d ever been able to move, I moved down in between both of them. The prince was moving slowly in my eyes, but Daxia was moving unbelievably fast, scaring me to hell and back.
I decided that I would simply stop both of their attacks, but knowing Daxia, I used all of my defensive skills just in case. It wasn¡¯t like I was scared or anything.
I spread my arms to block both attacks; Nanek with his spear and Daxia with her ws.
It all happened in an instant and the sh of my aura with Daxia¡¯s ck chaos energy and Nanek¡¯s red aura created a weird disturbing explosion of ck, red and purple, forcing me to wince.
When I opened my eyes, I saw blood floating to my side, followed by an arm.
¡®Uuuuuhhh!¡¯
¡®Y-You see? W-We told you!¡¯
¡®S-Seriously? Again?¡¯
¡®My arm!¡¯
Daxia had cleanly cleaved my left arm off whereas Nanek managed to make my right arm numb.
¡°Hinotori?¡±
Daxia sounded surprised, but smiled upon recognising me.
¡®Daxia! My arm! This shouldn¡¯t be a thing.¡¯
¡°Hinotori!¡±
She grabbed me in her palms and all the immense power I felt was sucked up, returning me to my normal level. The seemingly godly power leaving my body filled me up with a weird tiny bit of depression. I didn¡¯t know how to describe it. Maybe like I was on the verge of getting addicted?
¡°You lied to me! There was no army waiting for us. I waited a whole day and there was nothing there.¡±
I could see a tear of disappointment forming. She really was an annoying child. My mind was simply going on thinking about my arm that was going away.
¡°Oi! Are you listening to me? Where is the fight I was promised? Give it to me!¡±
¡®Not now, Daxia. Can you pass me my arm?¡¯
¡°Hmm? This?¡±
She reached out for it and passed it to me. I grabbed it with my still shaking arm and used [Slime Body] on it, and forcefully reattached it to my shoulder. With [Auto Health Regeneration], the arm was fixed back, clean as new.
I moved it around a bit to make sure.
¡®Ok, my arm is better. Now for the problem at hand.¡¯
¡°You lying to me?¡±
¡®No. I didn¡¯t lie to you. The princess did, but that¡¯s not even the problem here.¡¯
¡°Eh? What¡¯s more important than me getting to fight?¡±
¡®The person who made the pir men do all of this. The true mastermind of today¡¯s fiasco.¡¯
I pried open Daxia¡¯s hands and swam towards the person to cause all of this. Everyone was stuck in ce, probably still stunned by the rapidity at which everything was happening. Even if they weren¡¯t, they wouldn¡¯t have been able to see me move and stop me.
In front of the person, I pointed my finger.
¡®It took me a while of thinking, but after much deliberation and once I saw that, I knew it had to be you. It all makes sense when it¡¯s you and now your status confirms it all.¡¯
¡°S-Seriously?¡±
¡°C-Chicken? You can¡¯t be real right now.¡±
¡°How dare you?¡±
¡°My fight¡¡±
<A/N: LOL, Daxia. XD. Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets! 50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 209 The End Of That
My finger was pointed at the perpetrator of this entire event. There was a smirk on his face.
¡°Hahaha¡ Muhaha¡ MUHAHAHAHA!¡±
His smirk broke off into giggles, then slowly transformed into a full-on evilughter. He put hand to his face and stood up from his seat.
¡°How did youe to such a conclusion? using the king of an entire nation is the same as dering war, you know? I hope you¡¯re ready for the consequences.¡±
He let forth his aura, but such a thing wouldn¡¯t even make me flinch.
Yes, the only person who could have done this was the king. However, the more I thought about, the less reason the king had to do this. And even now, his status proved to me that he didn¡¯t do this intentionally.
Somewhere in the background, I heard Osveta¡¯s growl which I felt was suspicious given how quiet everyone else was, but it was probably him just doing his job as a guard, whereas everyone else was more interested in where this was going.
It was probably best to simply ignore him.
¡®Obviously I¡¯m not saying this without any reason.¡¯
¡°And what is your reasoning?¡±
The king asked me and I shrugged.
¡®That¡¯s easy enough. You¡¯re the only one who could have made the pir men nt bombs on the pirs.¡¯
¡°Hmm? My son, Rondel, held the [Royal Trident], so he should have been the one to do that.¡±
His son was holding the trident? That still made no difference since a [Soul Weapon] wouldn¡¯t follow the orders of anyone other than its chosen master if it had one at the moment.
¡®That doesn¡¯t add up. For instance, what time would the pir men have had to get the mana bombs.¡¯
¡°Someone could have delivered it to them just as my son got the trident.¡±
¡®No, no. I was watching the pir men constantly for the past day. No one came to give them anything, even food. It looks like they can go for long periods without meals, is that right?¡¯
¡°The pir men are an elite guard in Antis¡¯ history. Going a month or two without meals is nothing for them.¡±
¡®You know, it¡¯s strange how you haven¡¯t even asked what I mean by pir men and mana bombs.¡¯
I just caught himcking.
¡°When you say pir men and bombs and I see all that just happened, it¡¯s obvious that the pir men were coerced into bombing the pirs and you had to deal with that. Thank you for protecting the domes, but even an idiot could piece all of that together with that amount of information.¡±
¡®Ah¡¡¯
¡®This guy¡ he¡¯s lucky he isn¡¯t the perpetrator.¡¯
¡®A-And he i-is the king.¡¯
¡®And he still has control over every single citizen in the kingdom.¡¯
I grumbled at the fact that I just had to take his bullying.
¡®Whatever. Basically, what I¡¯m saying is, you, the king, who had control over the pir men, gave them the bombs before a day ago and had been nning to do this for quite some time.¡¯
¡°I ask again. With what reasoning?¡±
¡®Simple. You¡¯re under mind control.¡¯
There were collective gasps of shock from those around me. Elriek though, she began thinking immediately. You could see that on her face.
¡°Under mind control? That¡¯s preposterous!¡±
The king raged, but the woman to his side put her hand in front of him, stopping the king from attacking me.
¡°What makes you say this?¡±
She questioned me. It would have been difficult exining that I had a screen in front of me that showed me that king was being mind controlled.
¡®I have the ability to tell. Is that too much to believe?¡¯
¡°No. But could you tell us who else here is being mind controlled if that¡¯s the case? For instance, the first prince.¡±
¡®First prince?¡¯
At my question, she pointed at some guy who was crushed in a hole. The [Royal Trident] floated above the hole shaped like his outline. When I scanned him, his body was in the clear, meaning there was no mind control happening.
He did whatever he did of his own volition. I wasn¡¯t sure of the details, but he was most likely manipted into doing this with no magical means. He was just an idiot.
¡®Odd question to ask.¡¯
¡°Odd? Why would that be?¡±
¡®I mean, as the one controlling the king¡¯s mind, why would you want to know if someone else was being mind controlled? Unless you were testing to see if I was the real deal?¡¯
A smile, simr to the princess¡¯ disgusting smile was now stered on the woman¡¯s face.
¡°That¡¯s truly an interesting ability you have, but that doesn¡¯t change the fact that I still control all of Antis now and can squash you at any moment.¡±
She threatened me with the immense amount of people that were looking at me from my surroundings. About a 100,000 people all staring down at me with immense killing intent.
That was an absurd amount of people all trying to kill me at once, though I could deal with them using [Shadow Demon Summoning] and the baby kraken.
Behind me, Daxia, Yokino and surprisingly Nori stood, facing down the queen. With Daxia alone, Antis¡¯ army wasn¡¯t even worth an afterthought.
¡®But you won¡¯t.¡¯
I warned her and her smile returned a normal humane one.
¡°Indeed.¡±
She folded her arms and the mind-control status on the king disappeared. He copsed in that very moment, and all those under his control were freed. From the looks of things, they got mild headaches.
¡°It would seem this year¡¯s banquet ends with no heir being chosen, but I now do see what the goddess meant by ¡°Greatest to ever exist¡±.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
She pped her hands and all the weirdly clothed mermen swam towards the massive ship that was just hovering above the city. The four merfolk behind her escorted her to the ship, but no one dared to even stop her.
Personally, it wasn¡¯t my ce, so I didn¡¯t even bother with it. If the actual people who were attacked did not object to it, then why should I?
¡°Oi, Hinotori. My fight!¡±
Daxia grabbed me again and started yelling in my ears.
¡®Sorry, sorry, but I don¡¯t know what happened!¡¯
¡°Eh? But, but, gaah! Where¡¯s the princess!?¡±
She dropped me and turned around to go argue with Elriek. Osveta and Suna stepped in between them, but she pushed them aside easily.
¡°Oh, Daxia. I see you¡¯re doing well today.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t give me that crap. I¡¯m only listening to you cause it was part of the deal!¡±
¡°Deal? You refused to be a part of it though.¡±
¡°Shut up. I just refused to be a part of that whole other n! I was always a part of this one! Gah!¡±
¡®Wait¡¡¯
¡®There was another n at y?¡¯
¡®One we don¡¯t know about?¡¯
¡®B-But¡ f-for what?¡¯
Yokino snuck to my side amidst the present chaos.
¡°I see your mission was a sess.¡±
¡®If you call getting beat up a sess, then sure.¡¯
I also saw Nanek return to his group. His sister, Randy and a few others surrounded him, attending to all the wounds Daxia had created on his body.
¡®How¡¯d it go on your end?¡¯
¡°A bit hectic, but nothing important happened.¡±
¡®That so? Lame.¡¯
¡°Shut it. At least I wasn¡¯t getting my butt handed to me at every turn.¡±
She brought back painful memories. I looked up at the top of the dome where a bunch of whales were swimming together and crying out in a beautiful song. The whales had coating like stars, so beautiful and possibly better than the actual stars in the sky.
I looked at Yokino and she was also just staring at the stars, her eyes dazzled with the reflection. I was simply captivated by the breath-taking view of her stunning face.
This was my best friend? We basically travelled through worlds just to meet each other again. Then there was that thing we did.
Maybe, my mistake was just thinking of her as a best friend. Maybe, we could be more than just that. Maybe, I was just unlucky the first time when I asked her out.
¡°C-Chicken?¡±
Crap. I had been staring so long, she was now looking at me. I couldn¡¯t stop myself however.
¡®Akane¡ I¡ I think I li-¡¯
[Kawaii: Master! The old man says he has something that you would like to see. So, hurry up.]
Just as I was about to confess for the second time, a message from Kawaii popped up.
¡®Something I would like to see? News on Minerva?¡¯
¡®Sounds like it.¡¯
Without a moment of hesitation, I left towards Kawaii¡¯s position. As soon as I got there, Kawaii jumped on me and hugged me tightly.
¡®Kawaii? Where¡¯s the old man?¡¯
¡°In his room. He changed his mind and said not to disturb him in theing week.¡±
¡®Seriously? Just like that?¡¯
That old man was too random, making me waste my time for his nonsense.
¡°Kawaii likes mawstewr.¡±
She said somethingpletely random. I felt like in terms of randomness, she outdid the old man.
¡®I like Kawaii too. Now where was I?¡¯
[The skill [Soul Armour] has gone up 1 level]
¡®Huh? Why would it go up a level? [Evolver] acting up?''
Outside, a massive portal popped up. I steeled myself, thinking that the Exsuole army was finally starting its invasion, but then the whales swam through it, leaving us with only an odd silence. The dome lit up once again as if it were day time. I sat down on the ledge of a window in the mage quarters and just looked at the kingdom with Kawaii at my side. She took her slime form and rested on myps.
''Whatever. I guess that''s the end of that.¡¯
<A/N: Sheeeesh. Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets! 50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 210 A Day In Atlantis
The royal feast waspletely ruined with absolutely no one winning that day. No one lost either so I guess there wasn¡¯t much of a problem there. They decided to end the festivities with no sort of resurgence. That was fine by me who now wanted nothing to do but sleep for the remaining year.
Unfortunately for me, Daxia wanted to fight so I spent that day running away and hiding from her. Speaking of Daxia, turns out she and the princess were scheming something in the background. I wasn¡¯t sure what, but the two officially dered an alliance today.
Everyone was surprised, but she said we were to keep it under wraps and were anyone to ask, Nanek was the initiator of the contract. So, currently, Antis and SharkFang were allied kingdoms, leaving the Exsuole Empire to be the only ostracized group now.
The moment they had Daxia on their side, Antis was already capable of overwhelming Exsuole empire. At that point, Exsuole would most likely think twice before attempting another invasion. That was probably the strategy she was going for. Then again, I couldn¡¯t think exactly the way she was thinking.
Apparently, most of what happened wasn¡¯t ording to the princess¡¯ n, meaning that crazy woman from yesterday ¨C who turned out to be the Chief Priestess of the Sea Goddess Temple ¨C managed to outsmart the princess and put her in a bad mood. Why she did all of that, I wasn¡¯t sure, but her dialogue was weird and motives were even weirder.
This is why I didn¡¯t want to mess with religion and politics. It always ends up being some load of bullshit in the end and I had zero interests in having problems.
Yokino came to me asking what it was I wanted to talk to her about. I wasn¡¯t sure what she was talking about, so I just ignored her and went to focus on other things such as questioning the Grand Court Mage. It took me several times knocking on his door before he came out. It was even scarier because of that thing in the darkness that wouldn¡¯t stop looking at me.
Eventually, he let me in and there, I found that he was busily scribbling. I thought he was done before the feast, but ording to him, he was putting up several other measures for peeking on Fafnir and finding his exact location.
I offered to help him out, but he turned me down and forcefully removed me from his room. The rest of the day was spent with me going around looking for food while avoiding Daxia.
It was a pretty hectic day overall for me.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Tori acquired the title [Nimble Feet]
[Tori acquired the skill [Evasion]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Lightning Resistance]]
FAMILIA
[The General Reiman has a report about the servant Arisu]
- She shows signs of being able to change when given treats or punished. The only issue is that she seems to get more resistant to punishment each time. So far, she hasn¡¯t killed anyone.
DUNGEON
[You need to attend to your dungeon before it acquires too much mana or else it will acquire a will of its own]
[Mana limit 50/60]
[The Exclusive Skill [Legend of Pandemonium] Chapter 1, Act 1 has beenpleted]
-Hidden Events
>Fight the sacred bearer [Champion of the Depths] (Iplete) <Requested event>
>Find the actual culprit behind the explosions (Iplete)
+
[The Exclusive Skill [Legend of Pandemonium] has unlocked a new section]
Chapter 1 - #@$^&!
Act 1 ¨C Battle For Antis
Part 3 ¨C Attack At The Annual Yorul Royal Feast Day
--- Hyakkiyago has managed to thwart the Chief Priestess of the Sea Goddess Temple¡¯s invasion. A legend of Hyakkiyago and her valiant efforts in protecting Antis¡¯ Feast Day will be told among the stars. ---
*Rewards for creating this scenario will be delivered at the end of this Chapter*
*Special rewards will be delivered for finishing hidden events in this Chapter*
*Additional rewards will be delivered for beating enemy Sacred Bearers in this Chapter*
[Most higher beings are pleased with this climax]
[1 Primordial Goddess is excited to have you in their domain]
[Your patron goddess is disappointed with the ending]
[Your reputation amongst [Sacred Bearers] has grown higher. +5]
+
Day 56
When the king woke up, I was informed he wanted to personally thank me for my intervention.
Turns out the king has a pretty good personality unlike a certain someone. He thanked me and prepared a banquet for me. I hadn¡¯t eaten in quite a while so seeing all the food made my mouth water.<novelnext></novelnext>
Yokino, Kawaii and Daxia were also invited toe eat. Daxia refused the king and decided to stay in the quarters the princess provided for her. The others on the other hand decided to join me and we enjoyed the feast.
My only issue was that the more I ate, the hungrier I got.
During the meal, the king started to talk to me about some national issues. Apparently, he heard from the princess that I have a powerful nation with over 20,000 soldiers.
I coughed and looked at Yokino who must have lied. She looked away and decided to ignore my re. I wanted to tell the king that it was a mistake, but he went off and continued speaking of talks of an alliance between my imaginary nation and his.
After his proposition, I was about to tell him the truth, but he told me that he had already been informed of my issue on the surface. He gave me a piece of advice.
¡°It¡¯s good to want to do as you wish, but as leader, you have to think about the people looking up to you over your own wants. Join forces with Antis. I promise you won¡¯t regret it.¡±
Any how I tried to look at it, he just looked like a shady drug dealer offering me something he knew would cause me lots of problems. He wouldn¡¯t stop bothering me till I agreed and let him have his way.
He ordered for more food and we feasted non-stop, till I got mentally tired of eating and just decided to walk away and go check up on Daxia. It was my worst mistake of the day as she decided that she¡¯d hunt me down so we fight. It ended up with her chasing me throughout the castle and me having to teleport far way to where the baby kraken was.
Once I got there, he also wanted to y with me. I ended having to entertain him and name him. To him, the beast so big and dangerous that he had to reside in possibly the most dangerous part of the sea, I named him Tulu.
That took a massive amount of 3000 mana. Well, given my reserves, it wasn¡¯t really an amount toin about. I wasn¡¯t too surprised by that either given how things had been going. After that, I had practically sealed of the deal and Tulu was officially my second familiar.
To think I jumped straight from Amethyst to Tulu. Amethyst chastised me after finding out that I named Tulu, saying she¡¯d fight me if I returned. I couldn¡¯t stop myself fromughing at her. The thought of trolling her with Tulu when I returned gave me some joy.
I didn¡¯t do the [Sacred Event] out of fear of having to face more of Tulu¡¯s older siblings. I needed to get stronger before I could ever do that. Maybe get myself to A rank stat wise while making sure my proper use of skills was approximately S rank like Bastien and others.
After talking to Tulu for a while and finding out a bit about his family, I returned to Antis where Daxia grabbed me finally. I¡¯d lost and had steeled myself to fight her. In truth I was going to teleport to the surface and rest there till Garand had some news.
Daxia exined to me that she had realised I was too weak for her to fight right now. I was honestly excited by her words till she told me she was going to train me. For that moment of confusion, I was terrified. Sheter on rified for me.
We were going to explore the Ancient Antean Tomb, curtesy of the princess giving us permission to do so. I sceptical about it at first since it was the princess that told us to go ahead, but apparently, no matter who it was, unless a royal family member gave the seal of approval, the tomb wouldn¡¯t allow anyone to enter.
Somehow, I doubted that restriction included Daxia who broke every single rule there was.
Basically, I was going to spend the next day training in a dungeon.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Tori named a baby kraken [Tulu]]
FAMILIA
[You named your second familiar]
[The General Reiman has a report about the servant Arisu]
- She assaulted a goblin named Baka for insulting her. I have used the first strike on her and she is currently knocked out.
DUNGEON
[You need to attend to your dungeon before it acquires too much mana or else it will acquire a will of its own]
[Mana limit 50/60]
***
Exsuole Empire, New Angel City
On the Annual Yorul Feast Day, the army of 12,000 that had spent several days marching towards Antis now floated above their very own capital city. Most of them had expressionless faces as they looked down on the city.
Under normal circumstances, they would be chastised for notpleting their mission. This time was different however, given how things were actually ying out. Of course, most of them were shocked when their general gave them their actual militarymands a day before they could go to Yorul.
Some were angry and with good reason. If it was for this, they shouldn¡¯t have left the city in the first ce. They would have happily followed their general¡¯s orders, especially when it came to this particr matter. Those that were angry felt betrayed and distrusted. Still, for this day, they would keep that feeling to themselves.
Angel City, where most of them were born and raised, normally the pinnacle of cosmopolitan unity, involving all the sentient races while also buying the most bustling kingdom ever, was now a destend with broken down buildings and explosions going off.
The citizens had been evacuated while they weren¡¯t around. It made enough sense that they had been sent out to avoid drawing too much attention to the people being snuck out of the city, but making them suffer for so long was cruel of their general.
Now, all their suffering would pay off. They were finally getting rid of their useless government. It was coup, not that this country wasn¡¯t used to it. There had been several coups over the years, starting from their founder. He had been betrayed because of his inability to see the contempt growing from his people. The second leader had been betrayed because rather than focusing on progress, he was wasting time on every single citizen¡¯s well-being. The third leader was a selfish man who lied to the people for years while living a very expensive life.
Exsuole had seen a good number of terrible leaders, so another coup was nothing new. What made this time strange was the level of detail put into it. The one to enact it was clearly meticulous, because he had created multiple distractions to ensure the council members would not see iting.
There were many steps to his n and all of which had beenpleted sessfully, the most important was making sure Antis wouldn¡¯t have the time to focus on Exsuole during this sensitive period.
The army of 12,000 strong would simply need to swoop in and help him finish the coup today.
Capturing Antis? That could always be der. In fact, it would only be easier when Exsuole was at its highest point ever, so he would be bidding his time till then, building and restructuring. Taking out the moles and executing anyone who would dare to bring harm to his nation.
<A/N: Little detail. Tori pronounces Tulu as Turu, but for you to get where she got the name from I changed. That''s it for the day, I guess. XD we''re officially done with this arc even though Tori hasn''t gotten what she came for yet.
>
Chapter 211 Cursed Tomb Of The Sea Devil - Floor 1 Pt.1
Day 57
|SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT|
|SACRED WORLD EVENT [Hero vs Demon Lord] HAS COMMENCED|
|ALL SACRED BEARERS WILL BE ALERTED TO THIS AND MAY CHOOSE SIDES WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THOSE ALREADY UNDER THE BANNER OF EITHER [Champion of the Endless] OR [Champion of the World] |
|NOTE: IT IS NOT COMPULSORY TO JOIN THE FIGHT, HOWEVER THERE WILL BE REWARDS GIVEN FOR PARTAKING IN THIS EVENT, AS LONG AS THE SACRED BEARER LIVES|
|DO YOU WISH TO PARTAKE IN THIS? |
>[YES]/[NO]
Just as Daxia and I were about to enter the dungeon, we heard weird trumpet noises, followed by this weird golden screen in front of us.
Daxia advised me on the issue, saying that thest time something like this happened, it caused a bit of a stir and that was what even made the tomb we were about to raid. ording to her, she had received alerts like this three times, but this was the first time she had received such an alert.
She turned it down to help me grind in the tombs, so I decided to do the same.
The real reason was that I didn¡¯t want to participate in a fight between the hero of the world and the demon lord. Even worse, they wanted us to pick sides? I couldn¡¯t be caught dead siding with the wrong person and eventually being dered an enemy of the winner.
The only downside was not getting any rewards for ignoring it.
|THE SACRED WORLD EVENT [Hero vs Demon lord] WILL LAST A TOTAL OF 168 HOURS|
|YOU MAY CHOOSE TO PARTICIPATE WITHIN THIS PERIOD. NO PRIZES WILL BE GIVEN FOR JOINING AFTER THE 6TH DAY|
After that, the screen closed off, leaving me with Daxia alone.
¡®Well, that¡¯s not foreboding at all.¡¯
¡°Hurry up.¡±
Daxia was already at the entrance to the tomb, pushing the giant boulder blocking out entry.
¡®For a great revered tomb that was made five years ago, this ce looks like it¡¯s been here for at least a century.¡¯
¡°The tomb represents the heart of the being that was in.¡±
¡®Dark, hollow and sealed shut in a rock? Sounds like my math teacher, Kushieda-sensei.¡¯
She managed to roll over the rock, revealing a dark cave. The moment I got close to it I could feel an eerie gaze on me. Just like back at Garand¡¯s tower. That was impossible though. There was no way that very same thing was here.
[[Shadow¡¯s Crib] is shaking at the presence]
¡®Oh, for crying out loud!¡¯
¡®G-guys, I¡¯m g-getting a really bad f-feeling about this.¡¯
¡®You¡¯re just being a wuss.¡¯
¡®Hmm, I don¡¯t see anything bad with a little bit of grinding. We¡¯ll be in and out before anyone knows it. And we¡¯ve got Daxia here to help, so no biggie.¡¯
¡°Hmm, this tomb looks like a tight fit.¡±
I almost forgot how huge Daxia was. She would have a bit of a problem moving about freely in the cave, but I doubted it would affect her much.
¡®Speaking of, why are there two tombs for the sea devil?¡¯
I was asking because I asked Suna about the tomb, she told me that it was a ce being kept neatly by the Antean Guard. ording to her, the Sea Devil was beaten really close to Antis and his heart was transformed into a dungeon core, which created a dungeon that they called [The Cursed Tomb of the Sea Devil]. To prevent anyone from Exsuole from trying to awaken him again, they put it under tight surveince. Nearly as important as protecting the pirs even.
So, the question was why wouldn¡¯t the invaders try toe awaken him then? If they had him, they could easily win just like they were before 5 years ago, right?
¡°The one at Antis is a fake. This the real one, somewhere no one would ever suspect a tomb to be. It¡¯s even impossible to enter unless special cases like us, but I sort of get why they¡¯d make a fake.¡±
¡®Special cases like us?¡¯
I asked and she pointed to where I assumed her ears were supposed to be.
¡°Remember the trumpets?¡±
¡®Oh. A sacred bearer?¡¯
She nodded in response to that.
Still, I didn¡¯t know whether the Anteans were overkill or just in stupid. Most likely the former. At least now I knew why she told me to not bring anyone, not even Kawaii.
¡®Just me and you for this dungeon raid. We shall be dubbed, the Dungeon Raiders!¡¯
She grabbed me by my neck and threw me into the hole.
[You have entered [The Cursed Tomb of the Sea Devil]]
[You will not be able to leave till you havepleted the fifth level of this dungeon]
I could hear the boulder to the tomb closing, just before I was left alone in the dark.
¡®Ha¡ just me, I guess. Dungeon raider¡ yay.¡¯
Did she just throw me in here cause my name was too epic for her? I bet she wished she coulde up with a cooler name for a duo.
I tried looking around, but I couldn¡¯t see anything. Of course, I could sense all the monsters hiding in the dark and watching me. They probably thought I was easy pickings because of how difficult it was to see here.
I conjured up an orb of light in my hand to illuminate the entire room. The light could only reach so far, covering a tiny radius around me. Surprised, I decided to conjure up more orbs all around the room and ended up creating about 10 orbs just so I could see well.
It was a dark, slimy cave with beasts called bukavacs. They were toad-like monsters with gnarled horns protruding their heads and about six feet, all crawling on the walls of the cave or standing on rocks. They had long finned tails and their scales were of different colours like red, yellow, green, amber or ck. Their golden frog eyes red at me voraciously like they had found a meal for the day.
STATUS
[Name:
[Species: Deep Trench Bukavac Level 34/70
[Status: -
[Age: 5 years
[Rank: C+
[Race Rank: Tier 2<novelnext></novelnext>
[Talent: C grade
[Titles: [Of World], [Dungeon Mob]
[Blessings: -
[Level: 84 Exp: 790/135,000
[Health: 6700/6700 Stamina: 5500/5500 Mana: 1,340/1,340 Strength: 978 Speed: 760 Defence: 1650 Dexterity: 888 Intelligence: 22 Luck: 40 Magic: 320
This was the average status screen for the bukavacs. They had some decent amount of mana and magic power. These guys would definitely beat all the timber wolves from back home if they were to fight, with the except of Shiroi.
Sadly, they weren¡¯t even rtively my match.
I counted about 70 of them, most of whom were hiding from the light. They opened their mouth, showing me their fangs and forked teeth, as if to say ¡°dinner is here¡±.
For this raid, I had decided to limit myself to not using [Shadow Demon Summoning]. If I did, I would have ended up making everything too easy for myself and wouldn¡¯t have grown properly, in terms of skill and magic usage. So, I would be using only magic and skills for this raid, no summoning, no running away, unless I really was in a life-or-death situation.
¡®Alright then! Come at me!¡¯
I used [Taunt] on them. It was super effective.
About a dozen boars all shot themselves towards me like torpedoes. I easily dodged the first guy then pped his back with a [Lightning Jab]. The attack caused a ripple effect in which all the others that were close to me also got hit by the sparks and all slowed down.
It wasn¡¯t enough to kill them, but I easily took half of their health points away with that one hit. I was happy that I¡¯d made so much progress since firsting to this world.
After seeing me easily paralyse most of their friends, I assumed that the others would hesitate to fight me. Stupidly, they all came attacking me without the fear of death evident in their eyes.
Some opened their mouths and produced loud weird sounds that if they hit, would have felt like being punched several times over. Of course, I didn¡¯t let their attacksnd and threw ice and water spears all around to prate their tough hides. My attacks didn¡¯t pierce most of them, but did aggravate them.
They turned around and their skins turned to a deeper shade. Simultaneously, they all croaked at me, creating a powerful shockwave that forced the entire cave to shake. Even the slimy goo slowly dropped down from the ceiling of the cave and I had to avoid it.
The goop was actually an acid that these bukavacs secreted after or before a meal. Judging from the amount sttered all over the walls of this ce, they had been waiting for years for their first proper meal. Dungeon mobs weren¡¯t really alive after all. They were the most NPC thing ever in this world.
I decided to steal their own skill and use it against them.
[You have stolen the skill [Insomniac Croak]]
[The skill will be lost after 5 minutes]
I opened my mouth wide and croaked as loud as I could, hitting one of them in the face and actually managing to kill him.
[You have killed 1 deep trench bukavac]
[You have received 15,700 experience points]
¡®Oh? From just one of them? Then again, their levels are kind of high.¡¯
¡®Killing them all should be enough for at least 8 level ups.¡¯
¡®Eating them all should make it at least 10.¡¯
¡®And tons of skills.¡¯
STATUS
Day 57
[Name: Hinotori Hyakkiyako
[Species: Level 32/70
[Status: [Full]
[Age: 56 days
[Rank: B-
[Race Rank: Tier 2
[Talent: S grade
[Titles: [New-born in a New World], [Rare Species], [Named Beast], [Survivor], [Vulture], [Bunny yer], [Saint], [Trickster], [One Loved By The Nature Spirits], [Compassionate One], [Family Head], [Shadow Princess], [Chimera yer], [Dungeon Brave], [Dungeon Conqueror], [Dungeon Master], [], [Champion of Primordial Darkness], [Nimble Feet]
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess *****|, |Blessings of the Demi-Goddess of Wisdom Mek|, |Blessings of the Divinity of Mischief|, |Blessings of the Ninth Elemental Spirit|
[Level: 77 Exp: 2,450/502,500
[Health: 24,200/24,200 Stamina: 48,400/48,400 Mana: 12,100/12,100 Strength: 3969 Speed: 6956 Defence: 4828 Dexterity: 5516 Intelligence: 121 Luck: 85 Magic: 605
|SKILLS|
[Unique Skills: [Evolver], [God''s Wisdom], [Remorse], [Sacred: Legend of Pandemonium], [Dungeon System], [Energy Transcriber]
[Passive Skills: [Auto Mapping], [Mana Perception], [Magic Perception], [Feelers], [Charisma], [Pain Nullification], [Mana Regeneration], [Superior Survival Instinct], [Sturdy Body], [Matter Ingestion], [Quick Auto Regeneration], [Chimera Body], [World Eater]
[Active Skills: [Impish Gaze], [Imprint], [Aquatic Form], [Peck], [Poison Generation], [Anguix Bug Armour], [Sprint], [Spearhead], [Acrobatics], [Blood Sucking], [Terror], [Fire Breath], [Poison Maelstrom], [Thread Creation], [Thread Control], [Flight], [Spore Generation], [Sap Spores], [Poison Gas Creation], [Spawn Spores], [Co-ordination], [Goggles], [Poison ws], [Verwesen], [Hunter], [Size Maniption], [Devil Miasma], [Predator], [Slime Body], [Assimtion], [Stomp], [Thought Projection], [Fiery Kick], [Compound Eyes], [Stinger], [Fusion], [Allure], [Elemental Barrier], [Dark Arts], [Dark Element Maniption], [Crafting], [Good Mana Control], [Throttle], [Shadow Maniption], [Novice Swordsmanship], [Stabbing Enhancement], [shing Enhancement], [Parry], [Weak Constitution], [Undying], [Feather Ignition], [Sharp Talons], [Mithril Body], [Synthesis], [Bat Wings], [Snake Tail Head], [Multiple Minds], [Fire Jaws], [Poison Fangs], [Climbing], [Monstrous Bite], [Seismic Sense], [Petrifying Poison], [Petrification Resistance], [De-petrification Tear], [Basilisk''s Enhanced Flexibility], [Camouge], [Destroy], [ck Miasma], [Relentless], [Soul Orb], [Intimidating Aura], [Aura Absorption], [Unfazed], [Illusory Horn], [Twilight Zone], [Basilisk¡¯s Sharp Fangs], [Constriction], [Crush], [Star Gazer], [Leap], [Sticky Tongue], [Paralysing Vomit], [Lizard Man Hard Scales], [Spear Handling], [Netting], [Lizard Man Sharp Fangs], [Lizard Man Sharp ws], [Dragon Spear Technique], [Mossy Scales], [Trap Setting], [Quick Attack], [Snap], [Bite], [Tail Whip], [Ferocious sh], [Spear Stab], [Spear sh], [Torrent], [Soul Armour], [Blood Bank], [Super Thought Process], [Deadly Beast Roar], [Lethal ck w], [Shadow Gaze], [Overload Armour], [Venomous Exoskeleton], [Steel Scales], [Bubble Space], [Multi-Eye], [Luminosity], [Impact Absorber], [High Force Impact], [Gravity], [Immersion]. [Sinuous King Adamas Armour], [Vector Control], [Acidic Ink Creation], [World Eater], [Aura Burst], [Killing Intent], [Shock Absorber], [Riptide], [Evasion]
[Techniques: [Tori Original Techniques]
[Technique skills: [Martial Arts: Fiery Uppercut]
[Affinities: [Fire Magic Affinity], [Light Magic Affinity], [Water Magic Affinity], [Earth Magic Affinity], [Wind Magic Affinity], [Lightning Magic Affinity], [Ice Magic Affinity], [Space Magic Affinity], [Dark Magic Affinity]
[Magic: [Basic Fire Magic], Basic Light Magic], [Basic Water Magic], [Basic Earth Magic], [Basic Wind Magic], [Basic Lightning Magic], [Basic Ice Magic], [Basic Space Magic], [Basic Dark Magic], [Basic Holy Fire Magic], [Basic Hell Fire Magic], [Basic Summoning Magic], [Basic Curse Magic], [Basic Blood Magic]
[Magic Skills: [Fire Magic: Fire Ball], [Fire Magic: Fire Sphere], [Water Magic: Water Shot], [Water Magic: Water Sphere], [Water Magic: Whirlpool], [Water Magic: Water des], [Water Magic: Water Spears], [Water Magic: Bubble Knox], [Water Magic: Water Wheel], [Water Magic: Aqua Touch], [Lightning Magic: Lightning Bolt], [Lightning Magic: Lightning Dagger], [Earth Magic: Rock Shot], [Earth Magic: Rock ster], [Earth Magic: Geo Crusher], [Wind Magic: Wind de], [Wind Magic: Breeze], [Light Magic: Light Shot], [Light Magic: Healing Touch], [Dark Magic: Shadow Travel], [Spatial Magic: Air Steps], [Spatial Magic: Void Shot], [Spatial Magic: Space Istion], [Ice Magic: Ice Field], [Ice Magic: Ice Soldiers], [Ice Magic: Ice Shards], [Ice Magic: Ice Berg], [Ice Magic: Ice Domain], [Holy Fire Magic: Divine Fire Ball], [Dark Magic: Shadow Being Summoning], [Dark Magic: Shadow Limb], [Dark Magic: ck Mass], [Dark Magic: Dark Shot], [Dark Magic: Shadow Cage]
[Resistance: [Super Fear Resistance], [High Heat Resistance], [Mid Poison Resistance], [Pain Resistance], [High Cold Resistance], [Mental Damage Resistance], [Murderous Aura Resistance], [Mental Pain Resistance], [Aura Resistance], [Murderous Aura Resistance], [Elemental Resistance], [shing Resistance], [Stabbing Resistance], [Illusion Magic Resistance], [Pressure Resistance], [Lightning Resistance]
<A/N: I guess it''s been a while since you''ve seen Tori''s stats. Her skills XD. Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets! 50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 212 Cursed Tomb Of The Sea Devil - Floor 1 Pt.II
[You have killed 20 deep trench bukavacs]
[You have received 300,000 experience points]
¡®Um, your calctions were way off, Akira. 20 weren¡¯t even enough for a proper level up.¡¯
¡®S-Shut it! I forgot about how many experience points we need to level up.¡¯
The twenty bukavacs I just killed were all sinking with blue lightning bouncing off their bodies. Some had multiple holes in their bodies, some were cut in half and some simply didn¡¯t even have any bodies. I sighed and as the remaining 50 came at me.
¡®[Shadow Cage].¡¯
From the dark parts of the cave, the shadows crept up and grabbed one of the bukavacs. Slowly, it engulfed it and another fourpletely in an orb, trapping them. The best part about this cage was that there were various methods of killing with it. One was poison and the other, was creating spikes to stab your opponents.
Not wanting to waste time, I went for thetter.
[You have killed 4 deep trench bukavacs]
[You have received 60,000 experience points]
¡®Ok, next up is [Dark Magic: ck Mass].¡¯
From my body, a weird ck smoke shot out into my surroundings. It like basically a cloud of ink that paralysed all the frogsing close to me.
[You have created a [Dark Magic Area]]
[All Dark Magic will have a 10% increase in efficiency]
¡®Eh? For real?¡¯
¡®Yep.¡¯
¡®A-and it¡¯s a-also p-poisonous to creatures that aren¡¯t d-demons or use dark magic.¡¯
¡®Cool.¡¯
¡®Yeah, but this dungeon has the [Dark] attribute, so I don¡¯t think it will be effective on the other levels.¡¯
¡®Hmm, I even needed to raise my [Basic Light Magic], so I guess it works out.¡¯
While I was talking, one bukavac wrapped its tongue around my wing¡ fin? Then it tried to pull me towards itself. I used a simple [High Force Impact] and its head went st. I was surprised that [High Force Impact] killed it so easily.
[You have killed 1 deep trench bukavac]
[You have received 15,000 experience points]
Then again, it was called ¡®High¡¯ for a reason. Maybe the idiots I had been fighting with were simply so tough the impact wasn¡¯t nearly as lethal on them as it would be on regr people.
¡®[Dark Shot].¡¯
I pointed my wings at frogs and started shooting dark orbs like bullets, instantly killing many of them. In seconds, I was done with 30 of the frog bastards.
[You have killed 30 deep trench bukavacs]
[You have received 450,000 experience points]
[You have gone up 1 level]
[You are now level 78]
¡®God¡ it¡¯s took almost all of them to give me just one level?¡¯
¡®But¡¡¯
¡®Wait¡ this is just the first floor. Don¡¯t worry. There¡¯ll definitely be stronger opponents. There¡¯s even that one guy that¡¯s hiding deeper in this level.¡¯
¡®Hmm, i-it probably w-won¡¯t b-be worth much.¡¯
¡®Well, if you think so.¡¯
I looked at the remaining 15. I turned off the light orbs and used my [Shadow Cage] to kill off the survivors, before then collecting their corpses into my item box. Maybe if I ate them, I could get another level up. Unfortunately, they didn¡¯t have souls, so they weren¡¯t even worth much. I would simply finish this level before I ate.
[The skill [Basic Dark Magic] has be [Intermediate Dark Magic]]
¡®Seriously? After using the skill for so long? It only just became intermediate? What¡¯s the highest rank of magic?¡¯
I conjured up another orb of light and proceeded deeper into the tomb. For a good minute I was just swimming through the cave. It was empty and massive. Sorge I was surprised I still hadn¡¯t found the end of the level.
Even worse was the eyes that were watching me. It was getting annoying that I couldn¡¯t tell exactly what they were. I had a working theory that they were rted to that thing from before.
¡®Oi, eyes. You¡¯re the one that saved me during the necromancer incident, right?¡¯
There was no response from the eyes. Rather, they only became more visible andrger in the darkness. I simply sighed and shrugged. If it was that, then they probably weren¡¯t foe. That didn¡¯t mean they were an ally either.
¡®Oh well. As long as you won¡¯t attack me, I have no problem with you peeping on me from time to time. When you¡¯re ready to talk, I¡¯ll be waiting.¡¯
I gave it this message and continued further. I came to a hole so tiny that a creature my size wouldn¡¯t have been able to fit. Well, that is, under normal circumstances.
I had the skill [Size Maniption]! I shrank myself and entered through the hole. Even then it was a tight fit and felt like the hole was getting smaller the further in I went. I dide out in a small space though. There were mana crystals all over the walls, lighting the ce up for me, so I just turned off my orb.
[Congrattions! You have found a hidden room in the dungeon [Cursed Tomb of the Sea Devil]]
[You have received the title [Hidden Explorer]]
[You will be alerted to hidden rooms in dungeons]
¡®Eh? For real? Nice.¡¯
These mana crystals had a green colour suggesting to me that they weren¡¯t that valuable to someone like me. They were in the middle spectrum of value. They¡¯d sell at a decent price though, so I guess there was no harm in me stealing them into my item box.
¡®[Water des].¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
The water sliced off massive chunk of crystal which I then stole into my item box quickly.
¡®Hehehe. Time to pile up all of these crystals. I¡¯ll sell them back on the surface for lots of money.¡¯
¡®We¡¯re going to be rich!¡¯
¡®We¡¯ll be the richest person in the entire world!¡¯
And thus, begun my greedy journey into the world of mining mana crystals. The room was cleared up in seconds and my item box was filled up with crystals. I even managed to find a deep blue crystal amongst the midst. It was the tinniest, but carried the most value out of them all.
As soon as I was done, I left the room and proceeded to search for the boss of the first level. What was strange to me was how no matter how far I went, it was like I wasn¡¯t making any progress.
¡®Wait up! Don¡¯t move another inch.¡¯
¡®Akkun?¡¯
¡®S-sorry guys. I-I messed up!¡¯
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡®What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡¯
¡®Take a look at this.¡¯
Hyakkun showed us our status.
[Heavily Illusioned]
¡®Ah¡ and we never noticed?¡¯
¡®Yeah. Even the system didn¡¯t give us a warning. It¡¯s not your fault, Akkun.¡¯
¡®Y-Yeah, but I still let it happen.¡¯
¡®Calm down. Even our [Illusion Magic Resistance] was useless here.¡¯
¡®No! I¡¯ll kill this creature for revenge.¡¯
¡®Dear Buddha.¡¯
¡®[Void Shot]!¡¯
Akkun made me fire the super dangerous void shot randomly into the air. I assumed he had gone mad with rage, but then there was a loud screech echoing from the distance.
Overtime, the screech became louder and had less echoes. Once reality properly came back to me, I was floating helplessly with a creature the size of Goliath in his dragon form screaming in pain. It had six limbs just like the bukavacs.
Its skin was a random assortment of the colours ck, yellow, green and red in apletely ugly collection. It had three curly horns on its head like a Chinese dragon with a long-forked tongue sticking out. As I traced its body, I noticed that it had a second neck, with no head, a freshly created wound.
¡®Oh¡ did I just?¡¯
¡®Yep.¡¯
¡®Hmm, I expected more from this guy.¡¯
¡®I guess all that mana and magic power is for illusion magic to incapacitate us.¡¯
The creature jumped back and started to swim away after spitting a cloud of green poison at me.
[The skill [Mid-Poison Resistance] has gone up 1 level]
¡®Ugh, the old poison and run, huh? Not fun times¡ Sorry, but I¡¯ll have to kill you.¡¯
The creature kept wailing in fear. I was surprised since dungeon mobs didn¡¯t get scared of anything. Maybe it was leading me towards a trap? My [Trap Detection] wasn¡¯t picking up on anything, so I decided that it was best to just kill it.
¡®[Light Shot], [Light Shot], [Light Shot], [Light Shot], [Light Shot].¡¯
I fired off a few beams of light and stunned the snake looking beast. The skill wasn¡¯t strong enough to do proper damage, but seeing as he was a C+ ranked creature, it actually caused some burns on his body. One actually hit its eye and blew it up.
I got closer and finished it off with a [Void Shot].
[You have killed 1 Shadow Tizhurek]
[You have received 30,000 experience points]
¡®Hmm? Only worth twice as much as the bukavacs?¡¯
¡®That wasn¡¯t the dungeon boss?¡¯
The moment I did this, I heard a loud croaking sound. I snapped out of whatever state I was and there I saw, about a dozen more tizhureks, all hissing at me from the background.
There was arge bukavac sitting on a massive rock. His skin was a hazy grey and he had about five gnarled horns on his head. A tizhurek sat on his head, but this one had white manes on both heads and looked kinglier than the others.
[Level 1 Dungeon bosses <<Malevolent King Bukavac>> and <<Nightmare Queen Tizheruk>>]
[Defeat this boss to proceed to the next level]
¡®Ah¡ at least something worthwhile.¡¯
<A/N: Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets! 50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 213 Cursed Tomb Of The Sea Devil - Floor 1 Pt.III
In the end, I figured out why that tizhurek was running away. It wasn¡¯t scared of me or anything. That was simply its programming, leading me to a trap where I wouldn¡¯t be able to see all the others hiding in wait for me to tear me apart.
[You have killed 1 Shadow Tizhurek]
[You have received 30,000 experience points]
I had just used [Lethal ck w] on one tizhurek. The others screamed at me, releasing ck clouds at me. With [Torrent], I prevented the cloud from touching me.
My resistance wasn¡¯t high enough to protect me from the effects of the cloud yet. It was best to avoid getting hit entirely. I spun at a high speed, firing off my quills and activating [Feather Ignition] to create explosions, hopefully killing them at random. One of them managed to avoid my explosives and get in close to me.
I on the other hand didn¡¯t stop my momentum and secreted poison from my body. I gave it a good old [Poison Maelstrom],ing out through it.
[You have killed 1 Shadow Tizhurek]
[You have received 30,000 experience points]
Sadly, the poison wasn¡¯t really the effective part. I only managed to kill it with [Stabbing Enhancement] and my raw strength stat. I didn¡¯t talk about it much, but I really was strong now. I could definitely overwhelm a human now in terms of just raw strength. My problem was Minerva and Daxia. Sure, with [Mithril Body] and [Aura Control], I could make my strength stat imitate theirs easily, but that wasn¡¯t effective. That was basically me putting my all in a fight of attrition against those two and I doubted I could win in that.
There were loud explosions all around me, suggesting to me that the others weren¡¯t so fortunate.
[You have killed 10 Shadow Tizhureks]
[You have received 300,000 experience points]
[You have gone up 1 level]
¡®Hmm, only one level, again?¡¯
While thinking about this issue, I could feel myself being pulled towards the dungeon boss pair. The Malevolent King Bukavac was using [Gravity] to pull me in closer, like I was in a trap. The remaining tizhureks all swarmed me and sprayed me with their clouds of illusion gas or whatever.
¡®Ugh, this is a pain in the ass.¡¯
¡®Let¡¯s try [World Eater].¡¯
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡®We can eat up the clouds.¡¯
¡®Why eat them up when we can just keep them at bay?¡¯
¡®To get the skill obviously.¡¯
¡®Hmmm.¡¯
After that, I begun to suck in my surroundings, all of its going into the bottomless pit that was my stomach. For a moment, I could have sworn I saw shock in the eyes of the mobs, but they didn¡¯t feel fear so it was most likely me just imagining things.
¡®I¡¯ll analyse it and try to procreate the skill.¡¯
¡®Sure.¡¯
I used myst bit of [Osveta¡¯s Blood] to activate the [Sea Curtain Technique] andtch myself onto all the remaining Shadow Tizhureks. With [High Force Impact], [Crush] and [Destroy], I sent three powerful blows to their heads.
[You have killed 4 Shadow Tizhureks]
[You have received 120,000 experience points]
I was done with everyone and was now left with the floor bosses. They both looked at me, staring down intensely like I was some sort of shocking monstrosity. Well, no one did like my current form. Something about it being too ugly for this sea.
I conjured up two spears of water which were fired off quickly. They were hit by a barrier conjured up by the frog which was croaking loudly. He was using a weird magic called [Sound Magic]. It created varying effects depending on his song like the name suggested.
I decided to try another alternative then. I casted [Space Istion] on the frog. The magic skill was one that separated the victim from their surroundingspletely. No oxygen, no water, no method for breathing and no means to speak. It was the equivalent of dying a silent death. I had no idea what was going through Akkun¡¯s mind when he came up with this specific spell, but it sure as hell was a scary idea.
The attack worked and the barrier disappeared. Two balls of light followed immediately, aiming for the queen tizhurek¡¯s head. Surprisingly, she herself was pretty agile and managed to avoid the light speed projectiles. I was surprised since that meant she was faster than me.
Then again, looking at her stats, her strong suit lied in her speed and magic. Still though, she wasn¡¯t nearly as fast as Minerva. In fact, she was only as fast as I was which I could easily change at any moment.
Just to be sure I wasn¡¯t seeing things, I fired off some more light orbs, but she skilfully avoided them and came in close to me.
¡®Hmm? Reason?¡¯
¡®Oh, look at that. She¡¯s a master evader it seems.¡¯
She too possessed the [Evasion] skill, much like me. So it wasn¡¯t a matter of her being faster than light. She was simply able to dodge iing attacks. But there needed to be a limit to that skill. For instance, an area of effect skill would render the [Evasion] skill useless.
The queen tizhurek had closed the gap between us in an instant and wacked me with her tail. It wasn¡¯t strong enough to even make me budge, but its spikey tail did manage to pierce my body.
[You have been inflicted with [Nightmare Poison]]
¡®Poison? [Poison Resistance] will handle that then.¡¯
As if to make my statementpletely redundant, I blinked and found myself in my ssroom from earth. It was noisy with everyone going about their normal business chatting and having fun. There was something nostalgic about this as well as frightening. My hand was shaking unconsciously.
¡°Oi, Akira.¡±
A familiar voice called me. Ken was sitting next to me ying games on his phone as usual. His legs were on his desk and both he and Manyuda were looking at me.
¡°Ken? Manyuda?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t look at us. Look at your desk.¡±
¡°What?¡±
But he disappeared before my very eyes. The ssroom was eerily silent and empty. Deciding to do as Ken said, I looked down.
There was a notebook on my desk. On it, there was an English word written boldly in red.
¡®E-N-I-G-M-A?¡¯
I reached out to open it, but a hand mmed down on the desk, forcing me to look up. I saw my mother¡¯s face and she was holding a piece of paper. It had an F on it, but a score of 98.
¡°What¡¯s with this terrible grade?¡±
¡°S-Sorry.¡±
¡°Sorry? That isn¡¯t going to make up for the missing 2 marks, is it?¡±
¡°I¡¯m very sorry.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Come on, Akkun. What are you shaking your head for?¡±
Akane¡¯s voice came in my ears. With her red dyed hair. She walked past me with both hands behind her back, but strangely enough, I couldn¡¯t see her eyes. There was a wry smile on her face.
¡°What are you sitting down in ss for? Let¡¯s go outside and y for a bit, hmm?¡±
¡°No. Stay here and talk to me some more, Kuromiya-kun.¡±
Arms wrapped around shoulders and the soft breath of a high school hit my cheeks.
¡°M-Maya?¡±
¡°What? Akkun wouldn¡¯t choose you over me, would you?¡±
Akane mmed my desk, but I wasn¡¯t sure how to respond. My childhood friend or my crush. Who was I going to choose in such a situation? Of course, I couldn¡¯t respond to her question, but she should have understood as well. She knew I was crushing on Maya.
Ok, I hadn¡¯t explicitly told her that, but it was obvious. Everyone knew this. Even Maya knew this, so of course she aware of this, right?
¡°Didn¡¯t you hear me? Kuromiya-kun will be ying with me today.¡±
¡°What was that? Let go of him, you bitch. You aren¡¯t even on a first name basis with him.¡±
Akane pointed out and grabbed Maya¡¯s arms which were grabbing me tightly.
¡°I am on a first name basis with him. Isn¡¯t that right, Akira-kun?¡±
¡°Uuh.¡±
¡°Honestly, speak up for once Akkun. You won¡¯t get the girl of your dreams that way, you know?¡±
Akane folded her arms and stared down on me.
¡°Go on. Decide now.¡±
Oddly, I heard hissing sounds. Probing around, I could feel weird slender things moving around my chest. They were snakes wrapping themselves around my neck. One red, one brown.
¡°Choose, Akira.¡±
They both said to me, choking me. It was getting harder to breathe as they repeated their order at me. I tried to remove the snakes, but they kept tightening their grip on me and started fighting each other.
¡°He¡¯ll choose me.¡±
¡°No. He¡¯ll choose me.¡±
Was what they kept arguing over. I thought if I broke up their fight, they¡¯d stop, but instead I got sprayed in the eye by their poison and soon screamed off the top of my lungs in pain. It was like Acid in my eyes.
I could feel my eyes melting in my sockets and all I could do was scream and try to w them out.
¡°Tori-kun?¡±
Just then, in the madness, I heard Minerva¡¯s curiously soothing voice. The pain in my eyes was non-existent then. I opened them and in front of the ssroom, sitting on one of the desks in my school¡¯s girl uniform, she called out to me with her usual wide grin. For that moment, everything else didn¡¯t exist and I felt at peace.
That didn¡¯tst long.
Blood started to fall out of her eyes. Surprised, my body just sat frozen in shock. Her white hair was tainted with red before I realised and her blood flooded the ssroom.
¡°No!¡±
I screamed in fear and shut my eyes. This wasn¡¯t real. There was no way it was real. This was all just a nightmare.
¡°Oh, look. I got a bird.¡±
Again, I opened my eyes after hearing a familiar voice. I was standing in the palms of the red eyed Shiro. I fell back on her palms. Was this¡ was all of it a dream? Was I about to start all over again? Go through everything?
But¡ if I could change things, then why shouldn¡¯t I? I could fix everything and stop Minerva from going missing.
¡°Kieeeeeeeeeekkkkkkk!¡±
I heard a wailing sound. Everything puffed up and I was in the dark, cold, corpse-filled cave. The kizhurek had been severed in half, probably Akira doing something.
[You have killed Level 1 Dungeon bosses <<Malevolent King Bukavac>> and <<Nightmare Queen Tizheruk>>]
[You have received 400,000 experience points]
[You have gone up 1 level]
[You are now level 80]
[Congrattions! You have cleared the 1st Level]
[You may proceed to the 2nd Level]
The wall cracked open, revealing a path. I quietly swam through it, trying to get my mind over what just happened.
¡®That¡ that never happened.¡¯
¡®O-of course.¡¯
¡®What never happened?¡¯
¡®¡¡¯
<A/N: Sorry for thete update. The semester''s begun again and I had to settle down today. For the next few days, chapter updates might bepletely random, but I will try my best to post continuously to the end of the month.
An alternative title for this chapter that I came up with is Nightmare. Just trying to get into Tori''s psyche a bit.
Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets! 50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>>
Chapter 214 Cursed Tomb Of The Sea Devil - Second And Third Floor
[You have entered the 2nd Level]
The moment I entered, one of the mobs attacked me like a rocket. I managed to avoid it, but got hit by the lightning it gave off. My [Lightning Resistance] offset most of its effects, although the attack on its own was barely acknowledgeable.
[You have lost 30 health points]
I grabbed the beasts tail with my talons and brought it up close. It was an eel, with dark brown scales and a ck head. It had spikes sticking out of its back, acting like lightning rods. It tried to bite me, but I easily cut off its head with [Lethal ck w].
[You have received 32,000 experience points]
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: ck Head Lightning Eel Level 80/100
[Status: -
[Age: 5 years
[Rank: C+
[Race Rank: Tier 0
[Talent: C grade
[Titles: [Of World], [Dungeon Mob]
[Blessings: -
[Level: 80 Exp: 790/135,000
[Health: 6700/6700 Stamina: 5500/5500 Mana: 700/700 Strength: 878 Speed: 1250 Defence: 650 Dexterity: 900 Intelligence: 32 Luck: 40 Magic: 120
In front of me, there was easily over a hundred of them mixed with otter fish and hippocampi. All growling at me like the intruder I was. They were prepared to swarm me and so was I to kill them.
[Thread Creation], [Thread Control] and [Netting] together, I managed to trap most of them in a massivework of wiresced with my blood. The trapped creatures tried to break free, but only ended up causing my to get tighter around them.
Akkun had a new trick he wanted to test out, so we decided to use this chance to do so. It was [Blood Magic: Blood de], a magic skill that turned my blood as sharp as steel. With it, I managed to ughter the lot quickly, shocking myself to an unexpected extent.
[You have killed 19 ck Head Lightning Eels]
[You have killed 14 Undead Otter fish]
[You have killed 17 Carnivorous Hippocampi]
[You have received 1,750,000 experience points]
[You have gone up 3 levels]
[You are now level 83]
¡®Sess~¡¯
Akkun was thrilled to see that his new magic spell was able to kill over 50 creatures with an ungodly amount of ease.
The remaining monsters paused in their tracks and as if for the first time, I could see dread in their eyes.
¡®Ugh, that¡¯s kinda cringe now that I see it.¡¯
¡®Yeah. It¡¯s no fun when they start to get scared.¡¯
¡®And don¡¯t put up a fight.¡¯
¡®S-Sorry.¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t worry about it. Let¡¯s just clear this floor and attend to the next floor.¡¯
I activated [Deadly Beast Roar], stunning most of them even further. Using the surrounding water, I pushed the paralysed creatures together and decided to use one magic trick that took quite the hefty amount of mana.
1500 MP, just to summon it.
¡®[Ice Magic: Ice Berg]!¡¯
The whole cave turned cold and dead silent.
[You have killed 11 ck Head Lightning Eels]
[You have killed 18 Undead Otter fish]
[You have killed 21 Carnivorous Hippocampi]
[You have received 1,750,000 experience points]
[You have gone up gone up 2 levels]
The monsters were crushed in an instant by the ice berg which shattered into millions of pieces afterpleting its purpose. The mashed-up corpses of the creaturesid t on the bottom of the cave and I almost felt too disgusted to pick them up.
In the end, I did put them in my item box and proceed towards the dungeon boss.
The room was about 10 times as big as the previous room, but had one tiny silver fish that sat on a pedestal with tons of gold coins all around it. When I scanned the fish, it was weaker than a goblin so I expected for there to be another monster lurking, but the dungeon cleared that up for me.
[Level 2 Dungeon boss <<Silver-Tongued Lying Fish>>]
[Defeat this boss to proceed to the next level]
¡®Silver tongue lying fish? That¡¯s a weird name.¡¯
¡®Maybe its supposed to trick us? Wouldn¡¯t put it past this dungeon.¡¯
¡®I-I don¡¯t s-sense any t-traps.¡¯
¡®Scouring through its skillset, it doesn¡¯t seem to possess anything dangerous.¡¯
¡®What about the gold?¡¯
¡®Completely safe gold we can steal, I guess.¡¯
¡®Maybe no one was supposed to survive that swarm then? Yeah, it would make sense.¡¯
¡®Or maybe this is supposed to make any who enters go deeper to the next level?¡¯
¡®Then they get killed by stronger monsters.¡¯
¡®Ha! You thought you could trick me dungeon, but I see through your schemes. Jokes on you because I want a stronger opponent. Once I¡¯m done stealing all this gold, I¡¯ll proceed.¡¯
Hurriedly, I gathered up all the gold and shoved them into my item box. I racked up over 100,000 thousand gold coins and some other jewels, that were probably of no real value on the surface. I would just need to refine them and make counterfeit money in order to be rich. Although, they did have more value in the store than the usual gold coins.
When I was done, I went in closer towards the sliver fish to kill it. I wouldn¡¯t even need a skill for this.
¡®W-wait!¡¯
I stopped myself from killing it and moved back.
¡®W-What?¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t touch it.¡¯
¡®Eh?¡¯
¡®I just realised why it¡¯s called the Silver-Tongued Lying Fish.¡¯
¡®Eh? Why?¡¯
¡®Look. It has the [Double Persona] skill. Just like that guy.¡¯
¡®Eh? For real? But what does that change? It¡¯ll still be weak either way.¡¯
¡®No, no, no. The [Double Persona] is essentially two bodies in one.¡¯
¡®Meaning it has another form?¡¯
¡®Yes.¡¯
¡®Oh. Then we just need to one-shot K.O it, right?¡¯
¡®I guess so?¡¯
¡®But that was what I was gonna do.¡¯
¡®G-Guys.¡¯
¡®Yeah, I know. But I felt like I had to tell you.¡¯
¡®Tch. Wasting so much time for nothing, Hyakun.¡¯
¡®Guys.¡¯
¡®Oi, oi. I was just giving you a warning.¡¯
¡®Trying giving a warning when it¡¯s necessary.¡¯
¡®Wanna fight?¡¯
¡®Bring it o-¡®
¡®Both of you shut up and look!¡¯
Akira shut us up, allowing me to notice the monstrosity that had formed in front of me.
If I had to describe it in one word, I¡¯d say fat.
It took up half the entire room and definitely wouldn¡¯t have fit in the other rooms. It wasrger than the whales I saw on the feast day and those were at least twice the size of regr whales from earth. It had dark green blubber and 10 milky white eyes on its head. Its nose was like that of a pinniped. Weirdly enough, I didn¡¯t see any way for it to move from its current location. Its body was touching the very ends of the room, meaning it was essentially stuck.
[Level 2 Hidden Dungeon Boss <<Devourer of the Depths>> has appeared]
[Kill it to proceed to the next level]
¡®Uuuh¡ [Water Spear].¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
My attacked bounced off his skin harmlessly. It looked at me with all ten of its milky eyes and opened its mouth wide for me to locate over 1000 sharp drills for teeth all around, going down the throat. For the first time in a long while, I was creeped out.
¡®You a meat grinder?¡¯
From all sides, I had conjured up balls several magic attacks. [Water Spear], [Lightning Daggers], [Lightning bolts], [Geo Crushers], [Light Shots], [Dark Shots] and even [Holy Fire]. I fired them off quickly, but they had absolutely no effect on this massive body whatsoever.
¡®Ah¡ that defence is higher than Minerva¡¯s.¡¯
¡®And his skill, [Imprable Fortress].¡¯
¡®T-Too hard.¡¯
¡®Uh, [Bubble Knox] then?¡¯
At the thought, I created a mountain of air bubbles to attack the beast. The bubbles collided with its head and made a bigger bubble. If I couldn¡¯t beat it, then I could suffocate it. Easy as that. Unfortunately for me, the creature was unfazed by this and started to suck in the bubble.
Somehow, I was being sucked into its mouth.
¡®Well, no thank you.¡¯
Of course, I tried to swim out of the way, but a snake shot out through its mouth from the bubble and pierced my wing.
[You have lost 1200 health points]
¡®Huh? Just from getting stabbed in the wing?¡¯
¡®Also¡ ow~¡¯
¡®T-That was weird. Don¡¯t make that sound again.¡¯
[Lethal ck w]
I decapitated the snake and threw it out of my wing. With [Quick Auto Regeneration], my wing was healed up in no time. When I came to, there were a bunch of snakesing from that thing¡¯s mouth.
¡®Groosssssss!¡¯
Teleportation was such a blessing, you know? You could teleport to anywhere you wanted. Especially out of harms way. Take it from me, you want a teleportation skill or someone to constantly teleport you.
Luckily, I was that teleporter. Without asking any questions, I moved out of the way. I shot off some more attacks on its back, but they resulted in nothing.
¡®It¡¯s no use. Maybe if we use [Mithril Body] to imitate Minerva¡¯s strength, we can do something about it, but I doubt that¡¯d be effective on its own.¡¯
¡®Yeah. It¡¯s too tough on the outside.¡¯
¡®On the outside?¡¯
¡®Yeah. You have something to say Akkun?¡¯
¡®W-What a-about from the i-inside.¡¯
¡®Eh!?¡¯
I was in shock.
¡®Could work.¡¯
¡®Totally makes sense.¡¯
They agreed with him. This idea was obvious, but none of us wanted to suggest it, mostly because they were thinking about my mental well-being. Yet, the moment our cute little Akkun suggest it they all agree with him.
These shitty bastards, betraying me at the drop of a hat.
¡®No. That wouldn¡¯t work.¡¯
I argued.
¡®Why are you lying?¡¯
¡®We have no way of confirming that.¡¯
¡®We do. Just go in. If it fails, then you can simply teleport us out of there. Easy as learning English alphabets.¡¯
¡®Oi, oi. We need to redefine your concept of easy. We hate English.¡¯
¡®No. We love it.¡¯
¡®Lies.¡¯
¡®Not the point here. Just get into the mouth.¡¯
¡®N-¡®
¡®Stop being a wimp. Get in there!¡¯
¡®B-¡®
¡®Come on.¡¯
¡®You¡¯re wasting time.¡¯
I was losing to myself. Talk aboutme. I quietly epted my fate and swam in front of the monster. A rope of snake tongue-things came and grabbed me. Another bundle hit me from the top like a wrecking ball.
[You have lost 400 health points]
mmed down and restrained, I was sucked into the mouth.
¡®Noo! I¡¯m too young to die!¡¯
¡®No one¡¯s dying.¡¯
¡®Shut it! You¡¯re not the one who has to feel themselves getting swallowed.¡¯
The mouth shut close and all the spikes came in close. I had manipted the bubble knox to create a bubble barrier around me for protection. Fortunately, the spikes were unable to break through, but even if they did, I wouldn¡¯t be crushed because of how many defensive skills I possessed.
Now, the problem was getting Akkun¡¯s n in ce.
¡®I know we said till our life was in danger and all, but waiting out for this thing to transform back will take forever.¡¯
¡®Agreed.¡¯
¡®So¡ we¡¯re breaking our vow this quickly? Do we want to be the kind of person that can easily cancel promises the moment it suits our best interests?¡¯
Hyakkun disagreed.
¡®I-I can live w-with that.¡¯
¡®Yeah.¡¯
¡®Same.¡¯
¡®¡ Ah well.¡¯
The rest of the more logical members agreed with Akkun.
Since majority agreed, I summoned about a thousand shadows and three shadow generals toe help me. The shadow generals were different from my usual five, but I didn¡¯t think too much about it. I ordered them to summon more shadow soldiers toe fight and they did.
The order was simple. They just needed to help me kill this thing from within. They looked at one another, then nodded. The summoning had begun outside my bubble. The ck creatures came in floods, some getting destroyed by the teeth, some destroying the teeth, most attacking any vulnerable spot they see.
It was a messy sight with hundreds of shadows dissipating within seconds and a lot of blood and broken teeth. I honestly didn¡¯t have to do much except for hide in here and wait for the shadows to finish doing this.
After about 10 minutes, the shadows finally seeded in ripping me out from the beast.
[Level 2 hidden boss <<Devourer of the Depths>> has been killed]
¡®Ah¡¡¯
¡®Note to self.¡¯
¡®Never get swallowed by a monster again.¡¯
¡®Really traumatising stuff.¡¯
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori Hyakkiyako
[Species: Level 40/70
[Status: [Full]
[Age: 56 days
[Rank: B+
[Race Rank: Tier 2
[Talent: S grade
[Titles: [New-born in a New World], [Rare Species], [Named Beast], [Survivor], [Vulture], [Bunny yer], [Saint], [Trickster], [One Loved By The Nature Spirits], [Compassionate One], [Family Head], [Shadow Princess], [Chimera yer], [Dungeon Brave], [Dungeon Conqueror], [Dungeon Master], [], [Champion of Primordial Darkness], [Nimble Feet]
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess *****|, |Blessings of the Demi-Goddess of Wisdom Mek|, |Blessings of the Divinity of Mischief|, |Blessings of the Ninth Elemental Spirit|
[Level: 85 Exp: 411,450/700,000
[Health: 29,890/29,890 Stamina: 48,400/48,400 Mana: 12,500/12,500 Strength: 4569 Speed: 7320 Defence: 4930 Dexterity: 5516 Intelligence: 123 Luck: 85 Magic: 630
<A/N: Sorry, but I have some bad news. I won''t be able to post again till July, mostly because of school. Sorry for thete notice and that I couldn''tplete my promise of 30 chapters non-stop this month. Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets! 50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 215 Cursed Tomb Of The Sea Devil Makrov - Third Floor
[You have entered the 3rd Level]
The third level was surprising to me. It was drynd. Well, not drynd, but there was breathable air, with ice tforms and ice water underneath.
¡®Somehow we got teleported to Antarctica.¡¯
¡®Let¡¯s build a snowman.¡¯
¡®Um, we¡¯re here to clear a dungeon quickly, remember?¡¯
When I walked on the ice tforms, I noticed that I didn¡¯t feel anything. In fact, I found it odd that the environment wasn¡¯t making me feel cold. I eventually came to the realisation that [High Cold Resistance] meant I wouldn¡¯t feel such things. It felt kind of nice, but at the same time, I would miss not being able to feel cold. There was just something nice about it.
I went towards the water where I presumed the monsters were hiding. While scanning, I found a bunch of monsters called Dark Mirror Mimics hiding underneath the water. Maybe the air was meant to suffocate the entrants so they could enter the water then get killed by these monsters.
If the air didn¡¯t kill them, then the mimics would. Kind of creative on the part of the sea devil, but that meant nothing to me.
¡°Duduu!¡±
There was a weird sound. I looked up and saw a penguin looking monster staring at me. This thing was ugly as hell. Its legs were facing backwards and its feathers were ruffled up, with its belly having a weird ck marking on it. Its eyes glowered at me like some sort of terminator robot.
¡®It¡¯s scanning us, you idiot.¡¯
¡®Oh no. It¡¯s scanning me. What shall I do? [Water de]!¡¯
The quivering ice-cold des managed to hit the dark mimic in the abdomen.
¡®I guess I¡¯ll just electrocute the mimics in the water then.¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t bother. They have resistance to lightning.¡¯
¡®Well, having a resistance doesn¡¯t mean you¡¯repletely immune to it.¡¯
I walked towards the water while conjuring up some lightning.
¡®Wait.¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
¡®You didn¡¯t kill the penguin.¡¯
¡°Duduu!¡±
There was a crisp sound from where the penguin stood. Like shifting ice. At first, one would assume the tform it stood on was breaking, but once the icy clouds settled, I was stunned with the sight of¡ myself?
It was in my appearance, but with diamond scales instead of my usual scales.
¡®Oh, another mimic.¡¯
¡®Ugh, we really are ugly.¡¯
¡®Shut it.¡¯
¡°Duduu!¡±
A monstrous cry escaped its beak. So horrendous, it would make even the best of the best shiver.
¡®God¡ they can copy our abilities?¡¯
¡®To some extent.¡¯
¡®Eh?¡¯
¡®It¡¯s not allowed to steal unique skills and magic skills, but it can copy four other skills at random.¡¯
¡®Seriously? What skill is that?¡¯
¡®A dark mirror mimics natural skill, [Mirror Mirror].¡¯
¡®That¡¯s sounds too broken to be a normal skill. Even [Remorse] isn¡¯t that broken.¡¯
¡®They don¡¯t copy the skill at the same level.¡¯
¡®Whatever. Let¡¯s just finish this guy off.¡¯
The moment I thought that, it sent diamond feathers flying my way. Of course, I easily avoided those. This cheap copy had nothing on me.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions erupted behind me and my eyes widened in shock.
¡®What!? My explosive feathers too?¡¯
The mimic appeared before me in an instant with its leg in my chest.
¡®Vector control too!?¡¯
And before I realised, a terrifying amount of pressure hit my breast. So much so, even [Shock Absorber] and [Impact Absorber] couldn¡¯t cancel the effects.
[You have lost 200 health points]
¡®That¡¯s four skills.¡¯
I said through the immense pain. I decided to replicate my pain to the mimic, but it had already returned to its original location. Luckily, I had a myriad of skills that could perfectly and easily trap it. With [Gravity], I forced the mimic to move towards my outstretched leg.
[Fiery Kick] set my leg aze and with [Stabbing Enhancement], [Lethal ck w], [Destroy], [Lizard Man Sharp ws], [Spear Stab] and [Stomp], I was prepared to finish this in one attack. When it came, my leg was met with opposition as I shed with its diamond scales.
¡°Du- krieekk!¡±
The mimic made a weird sound and now, on its head, instead of my face, half of it resembled a spider¡¯s. One of therge ones from Larm. Acid spit was dropping from its mandibles, but that had nothing on my defences and resistance. With no mercy, I tore right through it and its diamond armour. I dropped it on the floor, so it could die.
Weirdly enough, it was still moving. I shot a tiny bit of killing intent its way and finished the job.
[You have killed 1 Dark Mirror Mimic]]
[You have received 5000 experience points]
¡®What? Only 5000? This guy is clearly stronger than those guys from before?!¡¯
¡®Nope. Look at the average Dark Mirror Mimic¡¯s stats.¡¯
STATUS
[Name: -
[Species: Dark Mirror Mimic Level 30/70
[Status: -
[Age: 4 years
[Rank: C
[Race Rank: Tier 1
[Talent: D grade
[Titles: [Of World], [Dungeon Mob]
[Blessings: -<novelnext></novelnext>
[Level: 51 Exp: 790/3,500
[Health: 350/350 Stamina: 350/350 Mana: 700/700 Strength: 350 Speed: 350 Defence: 350 Dexterity: 350 Intelligence: 980 Luck: 350 Magic: 350
¡®What¡¯s up with those stats? One hit should be more than enough.¡¯
¡®Yeah, when they¡¯re in their normal form.¡¯
¡®But when they mimic a creature¡¯s appearance-¡¯
¡®T-They m-mimic t-their stats too?!¡¯
In that moment, a strange sense of doom bore down on me. Below the thin ice tform I stood on, I saw red devilish eyes looking at me from down below. Some were using [Impish Gaze], some were using [Terror]. All in all, I was feeling agitated at the moment, but I could resist acting on impulse to a certain extent.
Hopefully, I could simply electrocute these guys and be done with it. Hastily, I let lose a powerful st of lightning. It was so mighty, the ice exploded and most of the mimics popped through like popcorn. Easily over a hundred, each jumping out through holes my lightning st created.
[You have killed 1 Dark Mirror Mimic]
[You have received 300 experience points]
No. I was mistaken. They made those holes to escape the death trap that was once their home. Some did die, but those that survived were either fast enough or had a high enough [Lightning Resistance].
¡®Crap.¡¯
They all looked like half-baked versions of me. I was talking disgusting halfies. Partially me, partially a monster. Spider, wolf, mossidile, bunny and so many other monsters they shouldn¡¯t have had ess to.
¡®Wait¡ those are monsters I¡¯ve consumed.¡¯
¡®Ew. That¡¯s gross.¡¯
My attack barely did any damage, and managed to kill only one out of the hundreds of mimics. This was starting to look hopeless.
¡®Guess we¡¯ll just call the shadows.¡¯
¡®No.¡¯
Hyakkun didn¡¯t bother hiding his disagreement. I cringed hard at his denial.
¡®Come on. It¡¯s me versus a thousand bastar-¡¯
In that moment, 3 mimics had closed the gap and were about to release their attacks, [Peck], [Lethal ck w] and [Snap]. I evaded them casually, grabbed the one in front of me and spun him around to hit the others before finishing him off with [High Force Impact].
[You have killed 1 Dark Mirror Mimic]
[You have received 4500 experience points]
¡®Think about it. We have a chance to test our abilities. Our physical stats have barely scratched the ten-thousands, yet we¡¯re A- in rank. Arisu is only considered B+ in rank with physical stats easily twice as high as ours. Also, if we take enough hits, we could develop [Physical Attack Resistance].¡¯
He made a valid point. The others in the back were just here for the ride. Akkun prepping the magics and Akira readying the skills for execution. It would at least make Akira somewhat useful given how things have been in recent times.
¡®If that¡¯s the case¡ let¡¯s do this.¡¯
He won me over, so I shrugged.
¡®Ou, ou. I¡¯ve got something for this.¡¯
He said, just before a nostalgic sound yed in my head.
¡®Oi, oi! Is this!?¡¯
¡®Yep. Good old beats. Every dungeon grind needs proper beats from Earth. Now let¡¯s go!¡¯
Hyakkun was forever my god! He was ying songs I listened to back on Earth to make this a better experience. He was quite possibly the best mind I¡¯d ever gotten.
¡®Hyakkun for Vice president!¡¯
¡®Here, here!¡¯
The others agreed with me. Afterwards, I proceeded with what I could term the most traumatic grind of my life. I hadn¡¯t been forced to be so creative with my abilities in a long while, even using skills I¡¯d forgotten I had.
[Acrobatics], [Vector Control] and [Evasion] to narrowly avoid the hordes of iing mimics, [Sinuous King Adamas Armour], [Impact Absorber] and [Shock Absorber] to avoid possibly lethal attacks and for counters. An absurd number of skills. A great number of skills levelled up and evolved, and I even developed some new ones. By the time I was done, I was mentally exhausted. Killing, over and over again and even seeing some stuff I didn¡¯t expect to see. Minerva, Ulva, Kawaii and even people from my memories back on Earth. Everyone who was close to me, killing them over and over again till I puked. Akira had to take over at some point, finishing the job.
It was then, that I realised that this entire dungeon was meant to kill you from the inside, not just the outside. From the weird vision in the second dungeon to this. I was terrified of what the next level and those beyond would do to me.
A dungeon of despair, doom, dread and soul breaking. It was the Cursed Tomb that no one was ever supposed to make it out of. The Anteans weren¡¯t overkill. They knew what they were doing when they hid this tomb. That was why Daxia didn¡¯te down with me.
She¡¯d been through this before and wasn¡¯t in the mood to go through it again.
Yet, she was strong. She was bold. She couldugh like nothing bad had ever happened in her life. I was weak inparison to her. That had to change. I would get stronger. I would find Minerva. I would take care of everyone who was close to me and ensure that this kind of scenario never has to happen ever again.
I can¡¯t let one of them take on this kind of scenario because I¡¯m too weak to do anything.
***
It was at this moment, something inside of Hinotori had begun to change. The skills [Soul Armour] and [Mental Damage Resistance] couldn¡¯t offset most of the effects done to Hinotori. A tiny corruption had found its way deep into Hinotori¡¯s soul.
The corruption was such that fed on weak wills. It would seep its way into facades and crumble them. Shatter a person¡¯s will till they were nothing more than hollows of themselves. But, this corruption was also one that once conquered, would be reinforcement to one¡¯s will. They became stronger and bolder, better than ever.
Hinotori conquered this corruption. Right now, in terms of will, she was catching up to the likes of Daxia who she held in a high regard.
STATUS
[Name: Hinotori Hyakkiyako
[Species: Level 47/70
[Status: [Full]
[Age: 56 days
[Rank: A-
[Race Rank: Tier 2
[Talent: S grade
[Titles: [New-born in a New World], [Rare Species], [Named Beast], [Survivor], [Vulture], [Bunny yer], [Saint], [Trickster], [One Loved By The Nature Spirits], [Compassionate One], [Family Head], [Shadow Princess], [Chimera yer], [Dungeon Brave], [Dungeon Conqueror], [Dungeon Master], [], [Champion of Primordial Darkness], [Nimble Feet] , [Dark Mirror Mimic yer], [Homicidal Maniac], [Dungeon Mob yer], [Fiendish Beast]
[Blessings: |Blessings of the Ancient Goddess *****|, |Blessings of the Demi-Goddess of Wisdom Mek|, |Blessings of the Divinity of Mischief|, |Blessings of the Ninth Elemental Spirit|
[Level: 91 Exp: 314,200/790,200
[Health: 40,000/40,000 Stamina: 69,000/69,000 Mana: 19,000/19,000 Strength: 8,590 Speed: 13,320 Defence: 8930 Dexterity: 9130 Intelligence: 200 Luck: 85 Magic: 710
<A/N: And we''re back. School looks good enough for the first week. Hehe, Hinotori is growing slowly, which is good. She''ll need a lot of willpower moving forward. XD. Join the discord here: https://discord.gg/TTs2T4JerU or dm me on Discord here: Rados47#5271 so you get invited. Please give me your power stones, golden tickets, reviews andments!
300 Power Stones = 1 extra chapter
400 Power Stones = 2 extra chapters
600 Power Stones = 4 extra chapters
50 Golden Tickets = 1 extra chapter
100 Golden Tickets = 2 extra chapters
I hope you enjoy the chapters going forward.>
Chapter 216 Cursed Tomb Of The Sea Devil Makrov - Fourth And Fifth Floor
[You have entered the 4th Level]
Unlike the 3rd level, this floor waspletely submerged in water. Unfortunately, when I checked this room, there were no hidden rooms. At least, as far as I could tell. Neither had there been a monster. That meant they was only a boss in this level. The same way there were only mobs in the previous room.
Almost like the creator hadn¡¯t expected anyone to pass through those floors. Also, it was big. Like ungodly massive. So much space I could fit a mountain in here. I¡¯m not trying to exaggerate its space, cause golly.
It was smooth sailing till it wasn¡¯t. A dragon appeared before me. A little smaller than Goliath was, but a dragon nheless. That was terrifying in my opinion. The beast looked just like a snake, but big and with those weird fin ears sea dragons always had. Its eyes were a simple white and it was staring at me intensely.
Its physical stats were even better than Arisu¡¯s though it wasn¡¯t A rank like Minerva was.
¡®Devil. What brings you here?¡¯
It spoke to me through telepathy. A dungeon mob that could talk? That was oddly interesting.
¡®You can talk?¡¯
¡®Of course. I was created by the great Makrov after all.¡¯
¡®The great Makrov?¡¯
¡®Yes, the strongest devil in history. Are you here to free him of his binds?¡¯
This guy was awfully chatty, wasn¡¯t he? That was good for me though, since I could get a bit of information out of him while plotting the perfect chance to kill him. Scanning through his defence and skills, it was looking highly unlikely that I could kill him. Maybe if I stole some of his skills like [Dastardly Bite] or [Sea Dragon¡¯s Rage]. Thetter gave him a 50% boost. The former dealt a whopping 5000 damage, ignoring any defence one had on. Ifbined, that was 7,500 damage done. But that was no where near enough to kill someone like him. Even if I said this though, there were multiple easy ways to kill such a beast, but thinking up more creative and life-threatening ways was fun.
There were other skills I wanted though, such as the [Dragon Scales] which nullified external magic on the body of the dragon or [Dragon Breath] which was a beam of pure raw energy that dealt damage equal to the amount of mana or aura the dragon put in.
¡®Uh, yeah.¡¯
¡®That so? Excellent. Let me take you to his throne room.¡¯
Throne room must have meant the ce the dungeon core resided. If I could get there, couldn¡¯t I technically be done with this dungeon?
We started moving through the room. Then I asked the dragon a very stupid question.
¡®Who¡¯s the boss of this dungeon?¡¯
¡®Boss? What do you mean? I¡¯m the boss.¡¯
¡®Eh? But I got no notification.¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t you lie to me. Obviously, I¡¯m the boss. The others can¡¯t be the boss. I, the great Castil, am the strongest dragon to ever exist!¡¯
He began boasting loudly. But he¡¯d confirmed that there were others in the dungeon that I simply couldn''t see. Where they just out of reach of [God¡¯s Wisdom]?
¡®Where are they though?¡¯
¡®I don¡¯t know. We promised to never see each other some time back.¡¯
¡®Oi, is this ce so big that monsters your size haven¡¯t seen each other in quite some time?¡¯
¡®Yes. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger.¡¯
What? What? What? I knew dungeons could expand, but so big that other dragons the size of this guy could roam about and not see other for some time? That was way too big. Did that mean dungeons weren¡¯t actually in the real world? Maybe they were gateways to other dimensions.
¡®Stoping up with whack theories.¡¯
¡®Ow.¡¯
¡®Speaking of¡ Where are those bastards now?¡¯
The sea dragon halted and started to think about it for a moment, before shrugging and continuing as if that wasn¡¯t important in the slightest.
We ended up reaching a gate where I met four dragons, each bigger than this guy, all being A- in rank.
¡®Shit.¡¯
¡®Castil. Why have you brought an intruder here?¡¯
The biggest one amongst them, the white dragon asked. She was easily five times as big as this guy. I gulped, feeling tiny in quite a number of ways. This thing¡¯s physical defence stats were far higher than Minerva¡¯s, ying about in the 60,000s.
¡®Shut it, Castillo. Open the door so I may pass through.¡¯
¡®Disrespectful little brother. Do you wish for punishment?¡¯
The red dragon, who was the second biggest hissed at him.
¡®I see your breath is still as bad as ever, Castor. I¡¯m not here for you.¡¯
This guy was beyond rude. Way too rude. Especially considering they were his older siblings.
¡®Why should we even let you pass?¡¯
The green dragon, began to shake violently as it grew closer to me.
¡®Did this intruder trick you into letting him enter?¡¯
¡®I am not as simple minded as you idiots to be tricked.¡¯
Except you sort of are.
¡®Insolent brat!¡¯
¡®We should have killed you instead of banishing you from this ce.¡¯
¡®Indeed. Come for your new punishment.¡¯
The three siblings threatened him, but he scoffed at them.
¡®Oh, shut it, you oafs. Bow before my greatness. As if you could ever banish me. I tricked you all so I would never have to see your faces again.¡¯
These dragons and their pride was starting to get out of hand. I wasn¡¯t sure how to react, because I was getting the feeling that they were going to start fighting, and I the literal insect standing in the way would only get in the way.
¡®Why are you even wasting your breaths arguing with the little one? Whether he speaks the truth or not, the only one who could give us a proper answer is ¡®the One¡¯.¡¯
A new voice entered the discussion.
I was confused by how ominous that sounded. It was even worse considering the one to say this was the ck dragon who waspletely quiet the entire time.
¡®The one?¡¯
¡®Yes. The One. The great king of Sea dragons.¡¯
¡®E-Eh? J-Just a mob, right?¡¯
¡®Mob? Who is that?¡¯
¡®Never mind.¡¯
I decided to keep quiet. If he wasn¡¯t the dungeon¡¯s boss, then I didn¡¯t know what was the dungeon boss. The levels only increased exponentially in terms of difficulty. How was this a B rank dungeon? An A rank would have a tough time here. Only an S rank could ever possibly do this. I mean, look at how I suffered. Of course, Daxia probably had it really easy on her first try.
The ck dragon moved out from its hiding ce and came to me. I really was iparably tiny when next to these guys.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡®You smell familiar.¡¯
¡®Right? She smells like Makrov.¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
I was surprised by that. Just then, the eyes I had been feeling on me whenever I entered a dark space intensified their res. I looked behind me and I got the sense that it was smiling at me.
¡®Is that what you? Are you Makrov?¡¯
Of course, I got no response from it, but I guess I could go with that for now. He had been trying to contact me for quite sometime now. Maybe because I was part devil, I was the only one able to notice his presence? He¡¯d definitely tried to contact other people before. I mean, if I was killed and there was a chance of meing back, I¡¯d try anybody I saw.
Though, there was one part I was confused about. Weren¡¯t devils supposed to go back to hell once they lost their corporeal form in this realm?
<<Yes. Byw, all devils are supposed to return to their realm once they lose their physical forms or their contract has been terminated.>>
¡®I haven¡¯t heard from you in quite some time.¡¯
<<You don¡¯t call for me>>
¡®Oh yeah¡ I didn¡¯t call for you this time though.¡¯
<<¡>>
¡®So, basically he was summoned here and hasn¡¯tpleted his task so he can¡¯t go back to hell?¡¯
<<That is the likeliest answer>>
¡®I see.¡¯
¡®We will take it to see the one for confirmation.¡¯
The ck dragon spoke and the others looked at him, before also agreeing. He probably possessed the most authority out of all the five.
The wall behind the dragons turned out to be a gate they were guarding. They all swam into it, and I was ordered to follow after.
On the other side of the gate, the entire room was arge terrain. It felt like I was looking at the Grand Canyon and the dragons were regr sized people. There were tons of mana crystals, all blue in colour at the bottom of the vast opening that illuminated the cave.
¡®What the hell?¡¯
¡°Wee, to the resting room of the king of sea dragons.¡±
[You have entered the 5th Level]
¡®What? Nothing happened in the 4th Level?¡¯
Akira noted.
¡®Yeah. We never even got to fight the dungeon boss.¡¯
¡®We never saw the dungeon boss.¡¯
¡®Alright then, good luck.¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
Before I could react, the dragon Castil mmed me into the canyon. You¡¯d think that since this was an underwater cavern and I could swim I¡¯d be alright, right? Right?
Well, you guessed wrong!
There was a weird gravitational pull that forced me down, almost like I was falling. I hit a white silvery surface with a thud, like I¡¯d actually fallen down from a cliff.
¡®What the hell.¡¯
I jumped up and scratched the bottom. It was hard and my talons couldn¡¯t even cause a single mark to appear. I gulped when it started to move. Out of nowhere, a blue eye opened up before me. I gulped once it saw me.
[5th Level Boss ¡°Great King Charybdis¡± has appeared]
[Defeat this boss to proceed to the next floor]
¡®This is beyond doable. This thing can kill Goliath in a heartbeat, no?¡¯
¡®You smell like my maker.¡¯
He started.
¡®Maker? Sea Devil Makrov?¡¯
I asked just to be sure.
¡®I can sense his presence next to you. What is it you seek to do here?¡¯
Makrov was this thing¡¯s maker? Wasn¡¯t that a testament to how strong Makrov actually was? And a testament to how strong the guy who beat him, is? That was the guy fighting the demon lord, right? And it would take seven days? That meant the demon lord was no pushover either.
Well, that was obvious enough.
¡®I¡¯m here to free the Sea Devil Makrov.¡¯
The blue eye looked at me. For a spine-chilling moment, there was nothing but silence.
¡®You, are telling a lie.¡¯
He saw through me in an instant.
¡®However, you truly do amuse me. For that, I will gift you with a chance.¡¯
¡®A chance?¡¯
[You havepleted a never-before-seen achievement]
[You have received 1 Help Ticket]
¡®What¡¯s this for?¡¯
¡®This is thepensation the dungeon is giving you. Cry out to any friends you have and know that they will die by my hands. I, the Great King of Sea Dragons and my children shall fight you and your friend.¡¯
This escted way too quickly. However, if it came down to a matter of me needing to summon help from someone. Of course, there was only one person I could think of to summon at such a crucial time.
In the next moment, the 5th Level¡¯s dungeon boss would find out that giving me this ticket was the worst mistake it could ever make.
<A/N: Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets! 50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 217 Cursed Tomb Of The Sea Devil Makrov - Fifth Floor Pt.I
Charybdis was a name that sent fear throughout the old residents of ancient Antis.
A being whose very movements created tremors. His breath could wipe out armies and his anger could level all three kingdoms with ease. A beast so fearsome, the three original mermen were forced to antagonise. Through their efforts, they managed to kill the beast and spread peace amongst their people. At least, they thought they killed it.
Unfortunately, at the time, a certain devil saw this as an opportunity to acquire immense power. This devil made a deal with Charybdis with the promise of reviving the sea dragon to full power. All it needed to do was be consumed by the devil. Naturally, one would be sceptical of such a deal, but devils were strictly bound by their words when making a contract. It agreed and was swallowed by the devil, slowly regaining its former strength. While it did this, the devil was also acquiring some of its power.
Centuries passed and the devil that was supposed to revive him was in. Charybdis was not frightened by this though, since a devil wouldn¡¯t return to hell till itpleted the terms of the contract. As a way to stay, the Devil¡¯s body was transformed into a tomb. All the creatures that had been consumed by the devil were forced to protect his core from any who would try to destroy it. It was almost as if the devil had been preparing for a day like this, gathering terrifying monsters that would break any.
Charybdis soon found that he wasn¡¯t the only who had made such a deal with the devil. That didn¡¯t bother him though, as it implied that all he needed to do was protect the devil till its resurrection so it could fulfil the promise. Was someone to try to resurrect the devil, of course he would help with all his might.
Someone had already attempted once. The fourth ever person to shatter his pride as the strongest being in the seas. He won that battle, albeit with sheer luck. It was the second time in its life it was forced to acknowledge the fact that there were stronger beings out there. But now, a mere insect had appeared before it. Charybdis didn¡¯t see the liar as worth a fight, so it gave the insect a trap. One that had been created by the sea devil.
The [Help Ticket] as it was called, was one that put the user into a trance where they¡¯d believe they¡¯ve summoned their strongest ally to fight. There was a trick to breaking free from that trance and actually summoning a copy of that ally to aid in battle, but no one would ever be able to do that. You needed help from an ally in order to snap out of the trick to summon an ally. In a twisted way, the [Help Ticket] required an ally you didn¡¯t have, to summon an ally you would need. It¡¯s creator, Makrov had a twisted sense of humour.
Charybdis closed his eyes to sleep, knowing that the insect would end up dyingter.
Just then, Charybdis¡¯ scales shook mightily. His spine felt like it had been electrocuted and his heart raced. There was now a presence it hadn¡¯t sensed since a few years ago. It wasn¡¯t something it thought it would ever have to sense ever again, especially since that being lost to him. His eye snapped open and next to the insect, a monster had appeared. Its scales were whiter than anything he had ever seen and its eyes were pitch ck with red pupils and yellow irises.
The monster smirked at him, revealing her fangs. Charybdis could feel his heart sink. The creature was stronger than he remembered it to be.
¡°Oi, Charybdis. Remember me?¡±
She held a sword in her hand. It was a sabre that was half her size. The de looked like it was made of ck rock, with cracks that glowed white. The de itself was unorthodox and didn¡¯t look like anything a normal person would be able to use. Strangely, it felt natural that the monster would be wielding something so terrifying. The power he sensed from it made him feel like he would actually die this time.
But, once the fear of the monster of the monster subsided, he developed a new fear. The insect he underestimated was smirking next to the monster, pitch ck ws at the ready and was at the size of the youngest dragon in the dungeon. The ugly monster winked at him.
For the second time in his life, Charybdis actually felt it. The foreboding sense that he could actually die. This was possibly the end of the great king of sea dragons.
***
I won! I beat the giant dragon and the 5 other dragons with ease, all thanks to me summoning Daxia.
Or so I was led to believe. Shitty ticket was a trap. The others knew about it and didn¡¯t let me in on the n. I didn¡¯t like theck ofmunication between myself and them. It felt like I was always out of the loop because I was piloting the body.
They woke me up from the illusioned world. Something about it not working if I was aware of the fact that it was an illusion. I quickly summoned Daxia after breaking free.
I didn¡¯t get the actual Daxia. It was more like a copy of her. This copy had the same stats as the original so no harm done. Charybdis also looked terrified of her which made it even better. This summon carried arge scary looking sabre that I¡¯d never seen Daxia have. Then again, Daxia had the swordsmanship ss, so I guess it sort of made sense that she had a sword, but it looked too strong.
Each swipe from it caused 10,000 damage. I¡¯d be dead by the fifth hit were I to fight her.
¡°Take on the five dragons at the top, I will handle Charybdis.¡±
¡®Eh? Eh? You want me to fight five dragons?¡¯
¡°Or do you want to fight Charybdis?¡±
¡®I¡¯m good.¡¯
I was already on my way towards the dragons. A battle n was being formted because I saw no way of beating them with magic. A bit saddening since all I had going for me was my magic.
¡®Guess we¡¯re brute forcing this one!¡¯
¡®Hurumph!¡¯
¡®Hi guys.¡¯
I moved next to the dragon Castil who was shocked by my sudden appearance.
¡®Bye.¡¯
[Your physical stats have shot up by 10%]
A [Fiery Kick] with my strength enhanced with [Mithril Body] and [Aura Burst]. I¡¯d poured 5000 mana into my strength stats, so my strength was now 48,590. The attack managed to hurt the dragon in the face and throw him some distance away.
The others looked at me with shocked expressions, definitely not expecting to see me able to body their brother with ease.
¡®You cur.¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
The older sister hissed then opened her mouth. Some energy was being released. The room temperature dropped drastically to the point I could even feel it with [High Cold Resistance] on.
<<Alert! Iing high powered Ice beam>>
¡®Ice beam?¡¯
I shot off towards her, but was hit by an invisible barrier she had surrounding her.
¡®Eh?¡¯
In my moment of confusion, the other three dragons acted quickly. Castor swiped at me with his tail, but I easily evaded that, only to be grabbed in the ws of Castillian, the green dragon. I tried slipping out by shrinking, but there was something about his ws that prevented my body from changing size. It was like I was attached to his skin.
[Adhesive Contact]. What kind of skill was that!? Why would someone have such a skill!? Like,e on! Stop messing with me.
Castillo fired off her Ice beam at his hand.
¡®Eh? Eh? This is beyond my pay grade.¡¯
¡®What are you doing, sister!?¡¯
Apparently, that wasn¡¯t part of the n because Castillian immediately let go of me when that happened. Enough time for me to avoid the beam. Unfortunately for the green dragon, the attack managed to hit his w, turning it to a popsicle.
¡®Perfect!¡¯
I fired off scales at the arm and ignited them, shattering it. The dragon wailed in pain and started turning rampantly, creating immense waves. The siblings werepletely unfazed by this however, and the brown dragon Castract was on me now. He threw swipes at me that I was unable to avoid.
[You have lost 1000 health points]
[You have lost 1123 health points]
¡®Huh?¡¯
Just then, Castil came up and tried to swallow me whole from behind. I was forced to hold up his mouth so he couldn¡¯t eat me up. The others were all preparing beam attacks.
¡®Oi, oi, he¡¯s an idiot, but he¡¯s still your brother!¡¯
¡®You stupid insect! For tricking me, I¡¯ll kill you.¡¯
? He waspletely unconcerned by the fact that his siblings wereing to kill him along with me.
<<Dragons are naturally prideful and as such, don¡¯t care about anything other than themselves>>
¡®Seriously? So they don¡¯t consider themselves family?¡¯
¡®Looks like.¡¯
My mind went to the ck dragon who had been quietly monitoring all the events from afar. Was he just waiting for the perfect moment to strike or was he not interested in fighting me?
¡®Wait a minute.¡¯
The beams all came flying at me in that moment. An icy blue, fiery red and jet-ck st, all possessing enough power to wipe out a city with ease.
¡®A-Are they even dungeon mobs?¡¯
<<Most likely not>>
<A/N: Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets! 50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters!
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 218 Cursed Tomb Of The Sea Devil Makrov - Fifth Floor Pt.II
I know I said I wouldn¡¯t be going into monsters¡¯ mouths ever again, but you had to understand, that was the only way to kill this thing. There were a few ways this could y out. Unfortunately, dragons weren¡¯t so easy to kill from the inside like other creatures. Maybe if it was a fire dragon I could destroy it from the inside with explosions, but I would need something better.
Castil¡¯s slimy tongue felt weird under my feet, but I could ignore it. I tried scratching it, but got nothing. I then attempted using [Lethal ck w] and his tongue started bleeding. The cut closed up almost immediately though, probably due to his [Quick Auto Regeneration] skill.
Next, I tried a simple fire ball spell. It worked perfectly, suggesting that my magic would work from the inside out, but that wasn¡¯t a fun fight.
This was going to be tough. His mouth shook mightily. Their beam attack finally hit the bastard and he swallowed me whole, sending me into his stomach. It was an absolutely horrendous experience. I couldn¡¯t do this. No, no. Entering monsters definitely wasn¡¯t for me.
I activated [Bubble Space] and started making lots of bubbles to forcefully expand the dragon¡¯s stomach. He had an absurd amount of stic ability, but fortunately the bubbles were made with my [Acidic Ink], so in due time, he would die. I could wait. This even gave me time to think up ways to beat the others.
From what I gathered, the white one, Castillo had the highest defence, Castor possessed the most fire power, Castillian possessed the weirdest body type and speed and the ck dragon, Casturn was the smart one. Castil was the weakest out of the five and evidently the stupidest, so I could take him out first now.
Well, I could simply w my way out from inside here now. I was definitely strong enough to physically do that. But there was no fun in doing that. To watch your prey suffer as they died slowly. That was the best way to do things, no?
¡®Oi! What are you thinking?¡¯
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡®Stop wasting time and get us out of here.¡¯
¡®Right, right. [Riptide] should work fine enough, right?¡¯
¡®Yeah. That should do.¡¯
What was I thinking? That¡¯s disgusting.
I focused on trying to manipte the pressure and torrents within Castil¡¯s belly. The result would be a very painful rip through his organs. If he was lucky, he would heal from that, but I doubted it.
In a horribly grotesque fashion, my ck acidic bubbles aided in the tearing apart of the dragon from the inside. By the time I was done, I was looking at surprised dragons, all shocked by my sudden emergence.
[You have yed 1 Sea Dragon]
[You have received 150,000 experience points]
¡®Eh¡ this guy is as big as Goliath but the difference in power is unbelievable.¡¯
¡®Well, size isn¡¯t everything.¡¯
¡®True.¡¯
I quickly gathered up his corpse into my item box and the others started to speak to me.
¡®The weakest finally lost his life.¡¯
¡®Well, as expected of that idiot.¡¯
¡®Still, he was our weakling. How dare you hurt our weakling!¡¯
They were angry at me.
¡®Woah, woah, woah! I thought you didn¡¯t like him? Why are you getting angry?¡¯
Their bodies were being covered in cloaks of power. Their [Dragon Rage] was starting to show its colours. Their surroundings were changing. There were icicles, rocks and diamonds all forming up around me. Even orbs of bright orange light wereing up.
¡®Silence, you insolent insect!¡¯
¡®Death unto thee!¡¯
¡®No mercy!¡¯
They all hated me. What kind of bipr nonsense was this? One second you hated him, the next you act like he was your beloved brother. Be upfront with your feelings for crying out loud!
I was so angry I decided to quietly take their hits. Of course, those dealt no damage to me since I consumed them with [World Eater]. They were all confused by my sudden ability. Honestly, [World Eater] was surprisingly strong. Like too strong. Even able to eat attacks? That was absurd.
Anyhow, that wasn¡¯t important now. I somehow found the concept of fighting these guys boring now. In this world, you would need at least 20 B rank creatures to go toe-to-toe with an A rank. So, right now, in my eyes, these guys were barely an afterthought.
I summoned [Crushing Void] and transformed into my human form. Like I said earlier, there were multiple ways to easily kill dragons. Including stupid [Soul Weapons] that refused to take me on as their master for some reason.
[Dragon Scales] prevented one from using magic on a dragon¡¯s body. But if my experience inside a dragon has taught me something, it¡¯s the fact that inside of the dragons, they could be affected by magic. That meant, the loophole to their anti-magic was spatial magic.
¡®[Crushing Void], looks like you¡¯re gonna have to help me here.¡¯
[[Crushing Void] warns of the penalty that you haven¡¯t taken yet]
¡®I¡¯ll take it.¡¯
I informed it and prepared to use its effects once more. In one wless swipe, I causedcerations to the innards of their throats. The wound wasn¡¯t natural and as such wouldn¡¯t be able to close till I turned off the spear¡¯s effects. Unfortunately for these boring dragons, I wouldn¡¯t be doing such a thing.
They choked on their own blood and died in a boring manner. One fitting their boring characters. I looked at the ck dragon. He stuck his tongue out, almost as if he were amused by the current turn of events.
¡®Youing or not?¡¯
I asked him, but he shut his eyes.
¡®I¡¯m not so stupid as to risk my life if you can take it so easily.¡¯
After saying his piece, he swam off, back to the fourth level. I wanted to do the same to him, but just then, the effects of [Crushing Void] kicked in. The spear disappeared along with my left arm and right leg.
''Aaaaggghhh!''
''Ouch.''
''Ooof.''
''Ugh... good luck.¡¯
The pain was intense. Was this how it actually felt to lose an arm and leg? This was beyond absurd. There was no blood or anything, just missing limbs. Worse of all, it felt like my hand was crushed into nothing. Maybe that was what happened to it?
[[Scorching Winter]ughs at you]
[[Crushing Void] apologises]
I swear, if I got the chance, I¡¯d shatter the sword. I¡¯d make sure it could never make a sound again. While grunting through the pain, I decided to watch Daxia¡¯s progress.<novelnext></novelnext>
[You have received 800,000 experience points]
[You have gone up 1 level]
[You have received the title [Sea Dragon yer]]
When I got to the edge, a powerful burst of energy hit me in the face. I struggled to see through it and when I did, there was a horrendous scene before me.
Bloody whirlpools with fangs in them all around Daxia. Charybdis¡¯ scales were bloody as well, but Daxia waspletely uninjured. The number of whirlpools ¨C each the size of castil ¨C that popped up around the shark fishman was insane. They all spat out various elements at her, but none were even able to break through her thick chaos energy cloak.
There was something interesting to note. With the whirlpools around her, there were two kinds. One that was bloody and one that glowed a pure divine blue. When Daxia stabbed a whirlpool with her sabre, it turned bloody and slowed down. A hole would also appear on Charybdis¡¯ scales.
¡°Come on, I don¡¯t remember you being this week. Did five years of sleep seriously make you weaker? I mean, you¡¯re even too fat to move now.¡±
She taunted him. I just noticed that Charybdis actually couldn¡¯t move from the spot he was.
She was getting bored with hisck of proper shows in prowess. Such a beast should surely have been able to do something even with a tiny environment, no?
Or¡ I made a mistake. He should be able to do something, but through his calctions, he came to the conclusion that there was nothing he could do. The whirlpools were mostly a result of a self-defence mechanism. The way he was shaking, I recognised it.
Even his status showed it. He was paralysed with fear. Was this the absurd difference between two S ranks?
When I think about it again, Charybdis did not even produce chaos energy. Maybe there were different levels to that kind of stuff. I overestimated him. No. Even if there were a hundred mes, I wouldn¡¯t have been able to even scratch Charybdis¡¯ scales.
I made no mistake when it came to his power. The one whose extent I wasn¡¯t properly measuring was the monster I summoned. I underestimated Daxia even now. That was impossibly stupid of me.
? Her sword started vibrating violently. The waves of power it radiated paralysed me with awe. The entire floor shook. I presumed that was from Charybdis¡¯ body quivering in fear. It was absolutely thrilling to be able to witness such a sight.
She muttered something to Charybdis. For some reason, I was unable to hear it. Just then, she stabbed her sword into his eye. ck chaos energy spread from the sword to the eye. For a brief moment, there was no reaction.
I blinked, only to find ck lines drawn all over the beast.
¡®Is this¡ my end?¡¯
I heard his thoughts loud and clear.
¡®I see, now there should be nothing tethering Makrov to this in. This dungeon will copse.¡¯
He said something interesting. If the dungeon was going to copse, didn¡¯t that mean I would be trapped in it as well?
Before I coulde to a conclusion on that matter, Charybdis¡¯ body shattered into a billion pieces.
[Congrattions! You havepleted a never-before-seen achievement]
[You have in the Dungeon boss Charybdis with the aid of the [Help Ticket]]
[You have received [Golden Scy]]
The item appeared in my item box. It could supposedly create wild whirlpools that Charybdis was summoning. That looked like a really nasty ability and was generally useless out of water from what I could tell.
¡®Guess that¡¯s that.¡¯
¡°Hinotori.¡±
Daxia¡¯s clone called out to me. When I saw her, she was grinning wildly like it was the best time of her life.
¡°Thanks. That was fun.¡±
She admitted as she slowly faded away. There was something nice about seeing her so happy.
¡®No problem.¡¯
¡°Give the real Daxia some more fun like this sometimeter. You¡¯re lucky.¡±
¡®I don¡¯t think I will be doing such a thing.¡¯
Once she was gone, I gathered up the corpses and started harvesting as many mana crystals as my item box could take. As of now, I had only one more avable slot. Depending on the next floor, I¡¯d have to throw away certain items.
[You havepleted the 5th level]
[You may choose to exit the dungeon now]
[Do you wish to proceed to the next level?]
>[Yes]/[No]
I¡¯d forgotten that after this floor, my movements were now optional. If I proceeded, I¡¯d simply be plunging headfirst into danger that was scarier than this floor. If I didn¡¯t, I¡¯d return back, get stronger thenter return to continue where I left off.
The more logical option was obviously to leave the dungeon. However, just as I was about to choose that option, I heard a cry. A plea for help. In the darkness, I could feel Makrov¡¯s sorrow. He was begging me to help him.
I didn¡¯t know how to do that so I would simply ignore him. Also, I made a solemn vow to never help strangers. Let alone a friggin devil that traumatised the seas. If the hero put him down, it was definitely for a good reason.
I chose [No].
[Alert! You have been invited to the DM room]
[Will you ept this invitation?]
>[Yes]/[No]
This bastard was really desperate, wasn¡¯t he?
<A/N: Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets! 50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters!
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 219 Curse Of Makrov
¡°My name is Makrov. The great Arch Devil of the Sea! Bow before me, mere Ancient Devil.¡±
The moment I entered the Dungeon Master room, I was met by a massive shadowy figure. Its arms were spread apart in a majestic gesture and I was guessing he was referring to me when he was talking about the Ancient Devil.
I noticed that there was an orb behind him. Looked like the dungeon core. All I needed to do was simply shatter that and I could leave. Even better, I could be its new owner. The only issue was actually sitting down to take care of it. I already had one on the surface.
¡®Huuh. Not interested. Imma just leave.¡¯
I put my hand on the orb and the devil started iling his arms wildly.
¡°Wait, wait, wait! Let me tell you something.¡±
¡®You clearly have nothing to tell me that I¡¯m interested in.¡¯
¡°I possess a treasure trove of information and from over the years pertaining to the other realms and gods. There is so much I could tell you.¡±
¡®Treasure trove, huh? Know how to track down a god that doesn¡¯t want to be found out?¡¯
He put his hand to his chin.
¡°In the first ce, if a god doesn¡¯t want to be found out they would need permission from one of the primordial gods to go into hiding. That would mean you can¡¯t find them without the help of a primordial. There is the rare exception of those that don¡¯t bother hiding their locations, but would kill any who peep on them. In the first ce, only a mad man would search for a god.¡±
The primordial gods gave permission to find the gods? But that made no sense. If one could hide from the primordial gods themselves, what would the issue be then? It¡¯s not like they can keep track of every single being in the world at all times.
¡°I see you are interesting the gods. Would you like to hear some secrets about them? Like for instance, what if I told you that the sea goddess never created the original fishmen? Would you listen to me?¡±
¡®What?¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
We were all simultaneously by that statement. The devil shrunk in size and came to my shoulder, rubbing his palms together.
¡®The Antean religion is all built on a sham?¡¯
¡°See? A treasure trove of information. You want to know more, right?¡±
¡®Eh? Feels like if I get that information, I¡¯ll have some serious problems down the line.¡¯
¡°Don¡¯t worry, don¡¯t worry. The goddess can¡¯t eavesdrop on our conversation here. That¡¯s why I didn¡¯t talk to you out of this ce. Trust me as your older brother. I mean, we devils live by a code of honour, don¡¯t we?¡±
I wasn¡¯t sure what this code of honour meant.
¡®Agent?¡¯
<<No such code exists. Devils are cruel, cold, heartless spiritual beings that will always try to satisfy their fundamental urges. When they live, they are limited by the rules set by the King of Hell and Devil King. These rules have no effect on their personality or trustworthiness.>>
That was a nice exnation from the agent. How I missed the agent¡¯s usual lecture. Not like I ever did, but at least I was a hundred percent certain that this devil was a liar.
¡®So, you were trying to talk to me? Then why¡¯d you make me go through all of that?¡¯
¡°To test your mettle of course. Anyone who could be broken so easily by merely the first five floors wouldn¡¯t be of much use to me.¡±
I would have an easier time believing him if he said he couldn¡¯t do that because he was technically not alive anymore.
¡®How can I be of use to you?¡¯
¡°It¡¯s easy actually. Before I was defeated, I made some preparations to be resurrected around this time. Through technicalities, I am not actually dead but in more of aatose state. I¡¯d need you to find my true name and mention it so I can awaken from my slumber.¡±
¡®Your true name?¡¯
He became my size and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.
¡°My very core. Our true self or what-not. So long as we devils have this, we can keeping back indefinitely. Well, as long as our cores or spiritual bodies in hell aren¡¯t destroyed as well. It¡¯s the same as invoking a spirit or summoning one.¡±
<<That is true>>
¡®Hmm, why would I do this though?¡¯
¡°Pardon?¡±
I moved from him and shrugged.
¡®I get no benefit from doing this. Before you mention information about the gods, I have no interest learning more about some fake origin story for a race.¡¯
¡°And here I was thinking you wanted me to help you save Minerva from Fafnir.¡±
¡®How d-¡¯
¡®-o I know their names? Easy enough. I¡¯ve been in your head all day long. You think I wouldn¡¯t see some of your memories?¡¯
I grabbed him by the neck and mmed him against the wall, enraged by the evasion of privacy.
¡°Easy there, fresh blood. You don¡¯t want to annoy the only guy who knows how to help you.¡±
He struggled under my choke, grasping at my hands for me to let go of him. After a bit of contemtion, I did so and created some space between us.
¡°Sheesh, where¡¯d you learn that choke.¡±
¡®Fine, then tell me your true name. I¡¯ll revive you then you help me.¡¯
¡°There¡¯s one problem with that.¡±
He timidlyughed.
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡°No devil knows their true name.¡±
¡®Then how does one even go about finding a devil¡¯s true name?¡¯
¡°The King of Hell and Devil King made a register where they put all our true names for their convenience only. Then there¡¯s the exception of a few strong devils that fought for their names and left their mark on this world that have traces of their true names here.¡±
¡®What? So, I¡¯m supposed to go ask the kings of hell kindly for your name and hope they give it to me?¡¯
¡°Ugh, you pathetic half-devils and not knowing anything. Like I said, there¡¯s a few devils that are the exception. I, of course, am part of this exception but I forgot my name.¡±
¡®Now you want me to go around searching for traces you left of your true name?¡¯
¡°I¡¯d say yes, but that takes way too long. Rather, there is a quicker method.¡±
¡®Just start with that then.¡¯
¡°Very well then. I need you to expose your true name to me.¡±
¡®What? Why?¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
<<When a devil exposes their true name to another devil, that devil¡¯s true name will be forcefully exposed. It is a very dangerous thing to try as a devil can cause a corruption>>
¡°That way, my name will be forcibly shown to you.¡±
¡®Ah. No way. I can¡¯t trust you with my true name.¡¯
¡°Oh,e on, trust this gentle soul.¡±
¡®You don¡¯t have a soul.¡¯
Makrov shrugged then offered his hand to me.
¡°Fine then. Why don¡¯t we ensure that no matter what, I will not be able to steal your true name.¡±
¡®How will I be able to trust you?¡¯
¡°That¡¯s easy enough. We just need to forge a contract between each other.¡±
His hand shook, drawing my attention to it as a notification popped up before me.
DING!
[The Arch Devil Makrov is offering you a contract]
[Would you like to see the details of this contract?]
I decided to look more into it.
[A contract forged in blood, in the name of the Devil King Ozvon and King of Hell Ozvaloth, the Arch Devil Makrov and Ancient Devil Hyakkiyago thereby swear to:
1. Abstain from stealing each other¡¯s true names
2. Invoke the name of Makrov
3. Provide the necessary required information as promised by Makrov
Should any of these rules be broke by either party, their fates will be judged by the Devil King Ozvon and King of Hell Ozvaloth or any of their chosen Adjudicators]
It was a simple looking contract, but I found one issue with it.
¡®Oi. Change that bit from steal to ¡°Steal or harm in any way¡±.¡¯
¡°Ou, a careful one. You youngsters really do have that fire in you.¡±
He amended the contract as I requested. But it felt like there was something I wasn¡¯t seeing.
¡®Agent. Are there any issues with this contract?¡¯
<<I have two suggestions>>
¡®Let em loose.¡¯
<<One: Each participant is to forget the other¡¯s true names after you invoke his name. Two: In the case of an unforeseeable interruption that results in an abrupt termination of the contract, the Devil King Ozvon, King of Hell Ozvaloth and their chosen adjudicators cannot and must not pass judgement.>>
¡®That¡¯s it? Alright.¡¯
I included that in the contract, so he changed it. Makrov was delighted about thest bit though. Looked like he was nning to betray me at the end there. Ah well, not like it could work when I had the agent with me.
The moment I agreed to the contract, Makrov¡¯s true name appeared in my head. I didn¡¯t know why, but it felt dark and ominous. It had a vague shape, but was heavy as hell. I felt like I was holding something very important and delicate. Something very delicious. Also, something foul and distasteful about it. Something that angered my very being and made me want to rip it to shreds.
At the same time, it felt like I¡¯d given my inner being to someone else. This was the very definition of opening up if anything. There was a weird sensation of fear and distrust while my name was with him.
¡°Oh, oh. What¡¯s this? Your true name is -¡¯
¡®******.¡¯
I invoked his name before he could finish that. That was a very scary thought telling me that if I ever allowed someone to say that name, I would never be the same again.
From the very moment I spoke it, Ipletely forgot about it like I never knew it in the first ce. Makrov on the other hand was cackling. There was an eruption of ck energy from where he stood with a few souls crying out in pain.
Once it subsided, I saw a fat tubby cat with a hat on its head and a monocle smiling devilishly at me. It had grey fur with white stripes all over its back. A barbed tail and a spikey spine. He stretched his back and popped his ws.
¡°Oh, dear hell. How I have missed this insufferable ne¡¯s magic density.¡±
¡®Kitty.¡¯
¡°Yes. I am cute, aren¡¯t I?¡±
¡®N-no. Let¡¯s be done with this.¡¯
¡°About that.¡±
DING!
[The Arch Devil Makrov has passed on his blessing to you]
[You have been blessed by the King of Hell Ozvaloth]
[The Arch Devil Makrov has passed on his title to you]
[You have received the title [Hell¡¯s Damned Monarch]]
¡®What? Argh, my soul?¡¯
I clutched my chest, trying to squeeze my soul and do something about the pain. That did nothing though and I could only crumple up.
¡°You see, I, Makrov am one of the 9 Monarchs that attempted to overthrow Ozvaloth and Ozvon. Of course, I lost and was punished by those bastards. They call it a blessing although its more like a curse. On a technicality, I have not harmed your soul, but I did bless you. Rejoice. Now, no one in Hell is allowed to touch you! However, if you ever do step foot in hell, Ozvaloth and Ozvon will tear you to shreds thinking you¡¯re me.¡±
¡®W-why?¡¯
¡°Why? I am one of the 9 Great Monarchs of Hell. I pioneered the current Hell society. I was so powerful they dubbed me The Dark Lord Makrov, Hell¡¯s King. When some upstartse and tear down everything I spent my life building then all of a sudden, I am no longer worthy to be their ruler? Betrayed by my own group.¡±
His form was gradually bing more demonic as his rage grew.
¡°I try to reim my property and I¡¯m called a criminal. Punished to be hated by my subordinates and banished from my kingdom. What can I do now? Of course, I will start over again. Now that I no longer bare that curse, I can summon an army of devils to do my bidding. I will take over Exsuole and use their souls to increase my power, then take back my kingdom. This time, I will be the sole king instead of ruling with possible traitors. The age of Makrov begins again!¡±
<A/N: Please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets! 50 reviews this month!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters!
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!
Let''s try to get this goal. Have a nice day!>
Chapter 220 The Second Turning Point
¡®Lame.¡¯
Imented immediately.
¡°What?¡±
My pain had subsided and I was starting to get angry.
¡®What kind of motive is that? You want to return so you can conquer one kingdom? Whichzy bastard plots their resurrection for just one kingdom. You have to aim higher. Conquer several kingdoms. Ascend the heights of the gods and eventually rule the world. Were you even really a ruler in hell? I¡¯m guessing you weren¡¯t so you came here just to feel like a king, right?¡¯
¡°Ah.¡±
¡®Yeah. I totally saw thising. You aren¡¯t worth my time. I¡¯ll just take my information now and leave. You¡¯re a waste of time.¡¯
¡°You too? A fledgling dare to insult the great me!? An Arch Devil!? The first prince of hell! I shall punish you!¡±
He roared and charged at me with his every being. Honestly, I felt no sense of terror or what-not, but it was amusing to see himing towards me like he could do something. With his former powers back, it looked like he forgot about the contract in ce.
[[Shadow Crib] is hungry]
[[Shadow Crib] has identified a very good meal]
¡®What?¡¯
In my moment of confusion at the new alert, a ck egg with weird dark violet patterns on it popped out of nowhere. This egg opened up like it had a mouth and swallowed Makrov whole. I could see the demon crying and trying to climb out of the egg. This was futile however, as the egg was more terrifying than he could imagine.
Once it was done, the egg burped, in my arms. I looked at it and a crack had formed on it. It also felt warm and heavy.
[[Shadow¡¯s Crib] is satisfied]
The egg then disappeared into my inventory of its own volition.
¡®¡¡¯
¡®These gods¡¡¯
¡®And their overly¡¡¯
¡®Weird gifts.¡¯
I touched the orb.
[Congrattions! You havepleted the dungeon [Cursed Tomb of the Sea Devil]]
[Hidden Events Completed]
>Finding a Hidden Room
>Defeating Arch Devil Makrov
>Completing the dungeon in less than 30 days
>First toplete the dungeon
[Rewards forpleting these events have been allocated to you]
¡®Oh, nice. We got some good stuff.¡¯
Hyakkun spoke up, then showed me the item box. There was no space for three more items in there now so I had to hold them in hand weirdly.
A Golden Chest, A ck Chest and 1 devil horn.
I checked what the devil horn was for, and apparently it was a one-time ticket to or from hell. So, should there ever be a need to enter hell, I could simply use that. Though, I doubted I¡¯d ever need such a thing. I guess that exins how Makrov managed toe to this realm with all his power.
I opened the other chests. The golden one had an Eye ball in it. It would give me a random demon eye skill that Makrov possessed. Then in the other ck chest, there was an amulet. It was called [The Realmless Amulet]. There were no proper effects listed. Just something about it being an ancient amulet with no power left in it.
Basically, it was junk to me.
I ate the eye and acquired the [Demon Eye of Wickedness]. It basically allowed me to cause a random negative status effect on my opponents. Its danger depended mostly on my luck, so I poured all 200 stat points I acquired into my luck stat since it never rose when I levelled up. I wore the amulet around my neck and just held on tight to the horn.
A door opened up for me to leave. Once I left, I saw Daxia standing there and she looked shocked, before smiling.
¡°I knew you were stronger than me.¡±
¡®What?¡¯
¡°You managed toplete this dungeon. I never did.¡±
¡®Eeeehh?!¡¯
¡°Let¡¯s go. I¡¯m hungry.¡±
All this time, I¡¯d beenparing myself to her, yet she wasn¡¯t able to do this. Then again, it wasn¡¯t just anyone who couldplete the third floor. You¡¯d need to have no heart to be able to do that, so that fell on Akira.
¡°I¡¯m hungry.¡±
¡®Me too.¡¯
After that, we returned to Antis. The king prepared another feast for us. He had a feeling I wasn¡¯t satisfied from the first meal earlier in the morning. I decided to indulge him and eat tons. Yokino didn¡¯t look to be in a good mood during the whole dinner and the princess kept chiding her.
I wasn¡¯t sure what happened between the two. Kawaii on the other hand was gluttonously gobbling down on the food, although she didn¡¯t feel hunger. I had to give it to her, she knew how to eat for no damn reason.
Later on, Yokino noticed the amulet. She asked for it and since it had no real use, I saw no harm in giving it to her. She became ecstatic after receiving it, going so far as squealing in the hall with no regards for the others in the room. She also wouldn¡¯t stop smothering me and rubbing the amulet in my face, as if it was something visually attractive. I ignored her for most of that night.
The king announced an official alliance between my non-existent country and his and Daxia¡¯s. It was the weirdest thing ever, where I was put on the spot and the princess was smirking the entire time. Even now, she wouldn¡¯t stop harassing me.
I went to check up on Garand and apparently, he himself had been looking for me. ording to him, it was very important news. Unfortunately, it would be impossible for him to get Fafnir¡¯s location. Something about there being a restriction on Minerva¡¯s location as well now.
He did say it was possible for me to get help from the surface. I had to go to Vermillion¡¯s nation. In a roundabout way, I had to go to my home nation. There was a secret stash of God-ying information there. It was called the Hidden Beast Library or something like that. Only a few people even knew of its existence so you could imagine how difficult it would be to get there.
Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t just go there yet. I needed help if I was to ever go to that ce. I coulde up with an idea on how to do that. There was no need to rush. Fafnir wouldn¡¯t kill Minerva. If he was going to do that, I see no reason he didn¡¯t do so when he killed Goliath.
For now, I would focus on other things whileing up with a way to get to Vermillion¡¯s nation.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Hinotori received the title [Hidden Explorer]]
[Hinotori received the title [Dungeon Excavator]]
[Hinotori received the title [Treasure Hunter]]
[Hinotori received the title [Hell¡¯s Damned Monarch]
[Hinotori received [Blessing of The Hell King Ozvaloth]]
[Hinotori went up several levels]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Fear Speech]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Demon Eye of Wickedness]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Frenzy]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Sonic Cry]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Shadow Tap]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Scorching Sand]]
[Hinotori acquired the skill [Quench]]
[The skill [Mid Poison Resistance] is now [Mid Poison Resistance Level 6]]
[The skill [Mental Pain Resistance] is now [Mental Pain Resistance Level 7]]
[The skill [Elemental Resistance] is now [Elemental Resistance Level 5]]
[The skill [Mental Damage Resistance] is now [Mental Damage Resistance Level 8]]
[The skill [Impish Gaze] became [Fiendish re]]<novelnext></novelnext>
[The skill [Fiery Kick] became [Fiery Stomp]]
[The skill [Peck] became [Drill]]
[The skill [Luminosity] is now [Luminosity Level 3]]
[The skill [Vector Control] is now [Vector Control level 8]]
[The skill [Gravity] is now [Gravity Level 7]]
[The unique skill [Remorse] is now [Remorse Level 3]]
[The skill [Blood Bank] has gone up 1 level]
FAMILIA
[The General Reiman has a report about the servant Arisu]
- The servant Arisu seems stable enough for now. She seems to have an eye for valuable items and won¡¯t attack while eating. There¡¯s no issue with her, but some advice is requested.
DUNGEON
[You need to attend to your dungeon before it acquires too much mana or else it will acquire a will of its own]
[Mana limit 51/60]
The [Shadow¡¯s Crib] is on the verge of hatching]
Day 58
We left Antis as soon as we could. Suna decided to escort us back, probably because she wanted to avoid the princess a bit. I guess I now understood why she signed up for monitoring the growth of the guppies in Larm. Maybe she was happy to finally be returning since the princess hadn¡¯t asked for her to return to Antis.
Yokino was in an exceptionally good mood after I gave her that trinket from the tombs, so much so she was clinging onto me. It was getting kind of annoying.
In no time, we made it back to the surface. There, Ulva and Grimm were waiting for us. I had told Ulva I¡¯d being today so I guess I could understand her waiting for me, but Grimm was an unexpected attendee.
¡°Big sister!¡±
She jumped on me in a tight hug. I replicated her actions as well and stroked her hair.
¡®I hope you¡¯ve been staying out of trouble.¡¯
¡°Of course. I¡¯m a good girl, you know?¡±
¡®Sure, sure.¡¯
I let go off her and turned my attention to Grimm. Kawaii jumped off of me and went to y with Ulva. Yokino had already disappeared as usual, whereas Suna went back into theke.
¡°Boss, we need to talk about that thing.¡±
¡®Oh yeah. Any news?¡¯
¡°I must have been mistaken. I didn¡¯t find anything. Guess it¡¯s just my paranoia.¡±
¡®That so? I guess that¡¯s good news then.¡¯
¡°Definitely.¡±
¡®Anything else to talk about?¡¯
¡°Hmm, I guess it¡¯s been kind of rowdy since you left. That bunny girl caused quite the trouble. The timber wolves all left, most likely moving to different territory.¡±
¡®WHAT!?¡¯
I eximed.
¡®Why haven¡¯t I heard anything about this?¡¯
¡®Shiroi didn¡¯t send any messages.¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t worry, I know where they are with the familia function of the system. They weren¡¯t running away.¡¯
¡®Seriously?¡¯
¡®Yeah. If anything, I¡¯m sure they were running out of proper meals so they moved out to find better and bigger prey.¡¯
¡®Eh? What do you mean ¡°bigger prey¡±? They have all they need here.¡¯
¡®Not really. They¡¯ve been forced to share their spoils with all the other animals under our familia. With the bugs, there¡¯s barely enough for them, the hunters.¡¯
¡®Why would they have to help the bugs? They can take care of themselves.¡¯
¡®Yes, but there¡¯s the rat men, goblins, kobolds and demi-humans.¡¯
¡®Oh yeah. Forgot about those guys.¡¯
¡®Let¡¯s tell Reiman we¡¯ve returned so we host a grand feast.¡¯
¡®I-I don¡¯t t-think anyone¡¯s in the m-mood for a feast.¡¯
Akkun pointed out.
¡®Also, with what food? We ain¡¯t got any.¡¯
¡®What about the reserves in the mansion?¡¯
¡®Done. The goblins may be small, but their appetite is beyond godly.¡¯
¡®Those greedy bastards. Now what are we going to eat?¡¯
¡®We¡¯ve eaten more than enough to feed viges twice over¡¡¯
¡®But¡ [World Eater] isn¡¯t letting us enjoy that.¡¯
I let out a depressed cry. The others looked at me, confused by my sudden outburst. I wasn¡¯t sure how to exin it to them, but just then there was a very shocking event. One that would go down in history for the rest of humanity.
To the east, two bright pirs that lit up the sky night as if it were daytime emerged out of nowhere. One pir was pure white, the other was a cobalt blue. They shed, but the white pir over took the blue and the shockwaves the pirs emitted were more than enough to cause an earthquake.
I grabbed Ulva and Kawaii then covered them under my wings while still observing the pir. Eventually the light dimmed down and I saw Grimm sitting on a tree, his face in obvious panic.
There were thunderous trumpet sounds and the clouds that once covered the sky werepletely gone.
That was when the monumental notice came to my ears.
[WORLD EVENT: [Demon Lord vs Hero] HAS BEEN CONCLUDED IN RECORD TIME]
[TIME LEFT TILL ESTIMATED COMPLETION: 132]
[LIST OF PARTICIPANTS]
[Demon Lord: [Champion of the World], [Heavenly King: Champion of Tyrannical Seas], [Heavenly King: Champion of Storms], [Heavenly King: Champion of Madness], [Heavenly King: Champion of gued Lands]
[Hero: [Champion of Endless]
[VICTOR: [Champion of Endless]]
[REWARDS SHALL BE DELIVERED TO THE DESIGNATED VICTORS]
¡®What do you mean the Hero soloed the demon lord and his party!?¡¯
<A/N: Can''t even lie, making the Daily Achievements with the skills was maddening. There are some skills I didn''t even include. LOL.
Please give me your power stones,ments, reviews and golden tickets as well as join the discord so we interact with each other and get early ess to announcements and events!
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter!
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters!
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!>
Chapter 221 Looming Threats To My Peace
¡°Pardon? Did you just say the hero soloed the demon lord?¡±
Grimm was the first to speak.
¡®Yes?¡¯
¡°First of all, what does soloed mean?¡±
He was ying with his fingers nervously. I found that to be odd, but answered him.
¡®It¡¯s like defeating a group of people by yourself.¡¯
¡°Eh? He defeated the demon lord¡¯s group by himself? Is that the [Four Heavenly Kings] you¡¯re referring to?¡±
¡®Well, they have the title heavenly king attached to them, yes.¡¯
He put his hands through his hair, messing it up. I could see an absurd level of fear and anxiety on his face. His eyes scrolled about in his sockets as he muttered something. I couldn¡¯t make it out so I read his mind instead, but that was even worse.
¡®We¡¯re screwed. She¡¯lle. She¡¯ll find me. I don¡¯t want to go back. No. No. Nyx. I will never see her again. Maybe if I leave to go get her now. No. That¡¯s not how it works. The House heads are probably already after her. Tyvnn will protect her. I don¡¯t have anyone else to w-¡®
¡°Grimm?¡±
Ulva tugged on his cloak, bringing him out of his trance. For a moment, his mind was clear and the frightened light he had in his eyes was reced by a calmer gentle red glow.
"Boss. This is bad.¡±
Finally, he looked at me.
¡®How bad exactly?¡¯
After my question, Grimm slowly proceeded to exin to me. Back in his home, the Realm of Eternal Night, there was a queen. So powerful some could say she was a goddess. She bore many titles, one of the more popr ones being The Queen of the World.
ording to Grimm, she controlled the fate of the human world, having already put people in high positions that control the general direction in which humanity headed. She was also the one in charge of selecting a Demon Lord to keep the world in check, although this was supposed to be a secret.
If I was hearing right, now that the Hero defeated the Demon Lord before she had nned for it to happen, she wouldn¡¯t be pleased. She would send people to either assassinate the hero ore down herself, though given the case that this hero was so strong he defeated the demon lord and hisckeys by himself, she might have to descend herself which could only spell bad news for everyone.
Then, there was also the possibility of her just sending subordinates to find new a demon lord, but if she chose thetter, we could rest assure they wouldn¡¯te here. The demon lord could only be a demon, so she would have to choose from the demon country. No one, not even Grimm was certain how she chose a demon lord, but there was one constant whenever a new demon lord was being chosen.
There was going to be a lot of rowdiness. Humans and demons would be fighting more frequently. The human kingdoms are already hostile to one another, let alone the demon kingdom. From the looks of things, the humans could actually lose this time. It was ironic that the demons who just lost their leader would be more organised now than the humans who have their hero and pdins.
Anyhow, if she or her subordinates came, they would definitely search for Grimm. Apparently, he¡¯s a deserter. Vampires aren¡¯t supposed to leave the Realm of Eternal Night, yet here he was. There were a few others also out in hiding, but his offense was even worse since he allowed them to use his blood to create more artificial vampires. The likelihood of them killing Ulva on sight was 90% ording to him.
This guy was just giving me a reason to protect him at this point, but I didn¡¯t mind that. Hopefully they would be too busy searching for a new candidate to be the demon lord to focus on us.
So, here was the current problem.
There were four obstacles separating the humans, demons and faeries.
Larm forest, the biggest forest filled with absurd monsters known as the Tyrants with their absolute control over the forest and the best kind of resources out there. Mystic Peaks or Demise Mountains as everyone termed it due to its insane monsters and mutants. The Dourean Desert with its harsh conditions, little to no water and sand worms that always cause problems for traveling merchants and armies. Then the Winter Zone, which is like the Mystic Peaks, but on steroids.
The best route out of these four was between the Mystic Peaks and Dourean Desert. There was the option of hiring Battle gods and War ogres to help with transport on the mountains, and in the Dourean desert, there was a group of human pacifists that had lived there their entire lives and give free help to any who try to make it across the desert.
There was also another way to get to the other side and that was through the use of the harbours at the New Kyoto Empire to the Faery ins or Sundane Kingdom straight to the demonnd. The New Kyoto Empire route was a no go because humans were allied with elves and the port led straight to the dwarves. Dwarves and Elves were mortal enemies and there were some issues happening there.
I¡¯m sure you¡¯re wondering what issue we have then. Allow me to exin.<novelnext></novelnext>
We lost 2 tyrants in one wless swoop. And not just any tyrants. We lost the strongest. Goliath and Minerva of which the only one who was actually feared was dead. Sure, the tyrants of all sectors were feared by adventurers, but even a tyrant has weaknesses. No matter how strong he was, if a human like say, the hero decided to fight him, he¡¯d die. This was why someone like Krull had an army.
But that army could also be dealt with if the humans simply had a stronger army. Assuming the humans sent their pdins to attack all tyrants, they could easily pave a path to go to war.
Basically, the only thing that stood in their ways were Goliath and Minerva who had the skill [Overlord]. The other tyrants weren¡¯t so lucky. Now, humans coulde through Larm willy-nilly like it was no one¡¯s business. Especially the West of Larm. More thieves, kidnappers, adventurers and generally humans wereing. It was going to get exceedingly dangerous for us from now on.
Well, maybe in the past that would have been the case. But I wasn¡¯t going to let that happen. We could defend ourselves. We could actually ensure that Larm stays how it was originally. My only safe haven in this world. I was not about to let it get dragged into somebody else¡¯s war.
All the problems I listed were from just the human side alone. I hadn¡¯t even started talking about the demons and the Krull who might try to attack us the moment he notices Minerva is no longer around. Then there was the vampire queen.
I reassured Grimm that nothing would happen. An alert was sent to all familia members to meet me in front of the mansion by the next hour. I included Shiroi and she said she¡¯d be back soon enough with a surprise. Not sure what she meant, I settled on waiting to see.
Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t spend some calming time with Ulva and sent her off with Grimm to ensure everyone managed toe for the meeting. Kawaii also helped them out.
Quickly, I teleported to the mansion¡¯s kitchen where I saw kobolds cooking. They all bowed when they saw me, making me feel weird, but that wasn¡¯t why I went there. I decided to give a majority of the corpses to the kobold chefs so they prepare a huge feast for everyone. The n was to officially apologise to everyone for my stupid behaviour. At first, I hadn¡¯t considered the prospect of betrayal being so terrifying till I met Makrov and saw what it¡¯d done to him.
His brethren did a real number on him if he was around for centuries, plotting his return to power. So sad he would never be able to do that though. My mind went back to the egg eating Makrov in one gulp and I shivered.
Of course, I kept some of the corpses to myself, like the dragons and one of each monster I yed. I would eat themter.
I called for Nukeme and Tsuna to talk about Oki. I asked them to monitor him further for me since he was nning on betraying me at some point. They agreed in a heartbeat. These two were the only members of the goblin captains I could 100% trust. Nukeme because of his cringy devotion to me and Tsuna because she generally didn¡¯t care about anyone other than Shitsuke whom she believed I could save. Technically, I should be able to with the devil horn I got from Makrov.
But that was a one-way ticket in or out, so unless I found a way to use it twice, there was no way in hell I was telling her about it.
In no time, everyone had gathered up in front of the mansion. I saw Nukeme riding a giant rabbit. Arisu¡¯s bunny form, with arge cor around her neck. Why this was the situation they were in, I was not interested in finding out.
There were the silver back pumas I hadn¡¯t paid much attention to when I came back, but still no timber wolves. The harpies who never left the treasury were also busily annoying people. It was absolute chaos, but the tree nymphs and sprites helped in trying to maintain some order. They made their trees glow to make the ce brighter and Diane herself presented herself in front of most people.
She had a suspicious look in her eyes. For once, she was unsure how I would act.
Yokino herself made an appearance with some of her generals. The amulet wasn¡¯t on her anymore. She probably went to put it down for safe-keeping.
My little treants also came up to where I stood with their little twigs jumping about on their heads. There was something calming about looking at the big guys. They took up a position behind me like bodyguards and gave this menacing sort of look, but I doubted it scared much people.
I waited for a while, but Shiroi and her wolves were still a no go. Reiman¡¯s rats were definitely hiding around. The goblins were scattered about into their respective tribes with their leaders and the few kobolds sat on the ground behind Inu.
I cleared my throat. It had been a while since I spoke, but I guess there was no point in not speaking.
¡°AWOOO!¡±
Before I could, there were hungry howls in the distance. The seemingly noisy crowd turned silent. An army of wolves approached. The predators of the nights of Larm in their full glory under themand of their glorious, venerable white furred leader, Shiroi.
And¡ another wolf?
<A/N: Hinotori''s back with the crew. Yep, yep. Finally time for her to man up and do what she was supposed to be doing from the very get go. Its very apparent in this chapter, but things are only going to get tougher for Larm in general. Talk about the inconvenience in being convenient. Anyhow, post the next chapter, the story is going to be more focused on the human side of things, I think. And Hinotori''s days will be summed up mostly. To the Kingdom Building lovers, I said it''de and here it is. It took 200 damned chapters, but its starts now. And to the action lovers. We know I''m nowhere near the best when ites to orchestrating interesting fights and even worse, we''re not going to be seeing Hinotori fighting in quite sometime. Sorry about that, but don''t worry. More characters are going to be introduced and more plot twists I hope you love. We have entered the Kingdom Building Arc. I don''t want to say the actual name since that spoils what the country is going to be called, but you sort of get it. Holy sh-! I wrote a lot. Sorry for ranting. Thinking about how much more we have to cover, I can''t help but feel ecstatic, especially since I personally didn''t like Antis as much as I thought I would.
Anyhow, please give me your power stones, reviews,ments and golden tickets! Also, join the discord so you get early ess to stuff like announcements and events and the soon toe character illustrations.
300 power stones = 1 extra chapter!
400 power stones = 2 extra chapters!
600 power stones = 5 extra chapters!>
Chapter 222 Familia
In addition to Shiroi¡¯s 58 wolves, she brought about 200 wolves of different species. Treants who were basically male dryads that looked like wolves, Elecza wolves which were the tinier out of the bunch, but fastest with nasty ws and the regr timber wolves. They were led by a new type of wolf. He was also of the faerie wolf species, but a variant just like Shiroi. An Inugami from what I could see.
¡°I have arrived with allies, Master.¡±
Shiroi came up front and bowed before me, as did the rest of her pack. The leader of the other wolves came up front with three other wolves from the different species behind him. Unlike her, he didn¡¯t bow. Since no one spoke, I came to the conclusion that I would need to speak to him after my speech.
My attention once again returned to everyone looking at me.
¡®That¡¯s odd. I don¡¯t feel anything from their gazes.¡¯
What I meant by that was the fact that for some reason, I couldn¡¯t feel shy in front of them. As if that kind of feeling waspletely erased from my mind. This wasn¡¯t simple oveing my fears.
¡°Hello everybody!¡±
With [Sonic Cry], my voice was sure to reach everyone. It would have been easier to use [Thought Projection] to speak to all of them, but my instincts were saying I needed to address them with my voice.
¡°Been an awkward past few days, huh? Lost some friends here and there and ton of injured people. Kinda makes you wish you could take a clock and turn back time, huh?¡±
¡
¡®The joke was a miss!¡¯
¡®Tough crowd.¡¯
¡®God, I thought that¡¯dnd.¡¯
¡®Then again, how did we see this to be a joke.¡¯
I cleared my throat and straightened my back.
¡°Hard times areing. Goliath has fallen, Minerva is missing, the demon lord is dead and tensions between the humans and demons have never been so high. At any point, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if Krull decides he wants toe back to finish what he started. Humans will starting here in droves, killing you, your friends, families. They will steal your resources and destroy your homes for the sake of war and greed.¡±
I could hear mummering amongst them. Diana red at me, thinking that this wasn¡¯t the right thing to say at the time. Well, she was probably right, but I would never know.
¡°To be honest, you are all too weak to stop them from doing anything. With the gift you got from me, you should have all evolved by now, but some of you still haven¡¯t. You aren¡¯t strong enough to actually fight against adventurers. And your former means of safety is no longer here for you.¡±
They were getting nervous and restless. I could hear shouting from one side. A lot were offended, but couldn¡¯t refute the truth. They were weak and that was going to get them killed. The goblins in particr.
¡°I turned my back to you guys when you needed help. Some of you may say I¡¯m cruel for thinking about something else when you were all in pain and needy and to those some, I say you are right.¡±
I gulped and straightened up.
¡°And to that very ¡°some¡±, I say you are cruel as well. Who takes advantage of a poor defenceless creature because they are connected to someone strong and shoves all their responsibility on that person out of nowhere, expecting them to have no issues with it? You were all grieving, and so was I. Yes, I¡¯m ranting to you guys because I need you to understand that my friend too was kidnapped. Still, I was also wrong. I shouldn¡¯t have epted the responsibility of being in charge of all you when I wasn¡¯t ready to protect you. I assumed it was going to be all fun and games. I would build the strongest nation in the world with no problems and everyone would be happy. But reality is often disappointing.¡±
While saying this, I saw multiple expressions on a certain dryad¡¯s face. The urge to smirk was almost too great to resist, though no one would see a bird smirking.
¡°Honestly, I¡¯m not ready to be your leader, but I live here too. I have friends here too. People I wouldn¡¯t want getting hurt. And these humans, demons and outsiders wille here to tear that all up. I don¡¯t know about you guys, but I don¡¯t want that. I don¡¯t want a repetition of previous events. We can¡¯t erase past events, so I propose we destroy our old contract to each other.¡±
[Are you certain you wish to remove all members of the familia?]
>[YES]/[NO]
I had been giving this quite some thought and the best I coulde to was that I wasn¡¯t meant to lead them. Having a familia was not the right thing to do since it bound them to me against their will. I feel they only chose me due to Diane¡¯s maniption so indirectly, I was still being manipted by her. If there was one thing I learnt from my trip, I really, really hated being manipted.
[YES]
[You have removed all members from the familia]
[All ex familia members will no longer have ess to the system]
[Your Familia level is now 0]
[Your Familia Status is now non-existent]
There was arge uproar in that moment. All of them eximed in shock and the newers who had no idea what I had just done just looked on in confusion.
¡°Rather, let us forge a new rtionship as partners and not master and servant. I mean, I had never liked the concept of being someone¡¯s underling, so I don¡¯t see why I should have underlings myself. Together, let us protect Larm. We grow stronger asrades and not subordinates. If you ever need my help, I will answer the call and vice versa. There will be effectivemunication, to hell with masters and servants. So, will you guys help me so we make Larm a safer ce?¡±
I hadn¡¯t mentioned my secret agenda to still find Minerva.
There was silence.
¡®Aish, looks like we flopped the speech.¡¯
¡®Ugh, now it¡¯s just weird.¡¯
¡®T-this is why p-public speeches aren¡¯t f-for us!¡¯
¡®Well, we said our piece. At least, we officially don¡¯t have the responsibility of looking out for them.¡¯
Diane was showing visible frustration. It looked like she was about to snap, but after a while she simply sighed.
¡°Hi-¡±
She was about to say something, but then Shiroi stepped up and spoke.
¡°Master, remember what you said to me while we were travelling to the South?¡±
¡°You don¡¯t need to call me maste-¡±
¡°Excuse my impertinence, but I will call you master because I have chosen you.¡±
She wasing on a bit too strong.
¡°In the South, you asked me what my honour is. I still am not sure of what the answer is, but no one had ever made me question such a thing. I believe through serving you, I will find what my honour is.¡±
I remembered little to nothing of what she was talking about. Hyakkun reyed the memory for me and I cringed up.
¡°Lady Hinotori.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
Reiman came up from wherever it was that he was hiding. He was clothed in what I presumed to be human adventurer gear as he was now as big as a human was.
¡°Reiman?¡±
¡°You are an immature leader with little to no care for those under you. You¡¯re reckless, inexperienced and too curious. You are not fit to lead anyone.¡±
¡®Aish. That was too heartless.¡¯
¡®Should have toned it down a bit.¡¯
I winced, feeling my heart being crushed by his words.
¡°Is what I would say if you weren¡¯t visibly different.¡±
¡°E-Eh?¡±
¡°You have grown from your short trip. Still inexperienced and you might have more ws than I know off, but what kind of General lets his Master go astray? And in the most unexpected times, you can be wise and cunning. I will be needing your help, Lady Hinotori.¡±
He bowed to me.
¡®W-What is this?¡¯
¡°You are right. We came to you begging that you protect us, so it is not in our ce to get angry at you for thinking about yourself first.¡±
Tsuna spoke up, alsoing forward.
¡°Kekeke, you blessed us with your presence and that is more than enough reason to serve you.¡±
Nukeme with his usual cackle joined in.
¡°You gave us the power to get stronger in short time. You helped us when the tyrant Krull sought to enve us. We have more than enough reason to willingly want to follow you.¡±
Taiku went down on one knee.
¡°The energetic youngsters have spoken. It would seem this generation is luckier than mine to have been born when you were around. Besides, it¡¯s not just anyone who can garner this much devotion from my lovestruck pupil.¡±
Yuuna, the old hob-goblin teased Tsuna, poking her with the staff she held.
The biggest one out of the hob-goblins, Oki came up to me. Ichi and Ni moved to protect me, but I ordered for them to stand down.
¡°I, Oki, leader of Krav and chosen warrior of the demi-god of war, choose to follow you!¡±
He made an open deration to everyone. His mind was nk and as such, I couldn¡¯t tell if he was still plotting to betray me.
¡°Of course, I¡¯ll serve you mawstewr.¡±
Kawaii jumped on me from heavens-know-where, as did Ulva.
¡°I will always be on Big sister¡¯s side.¡±
¡°No, no. You guys aren¡¯t supposed to be-¡±
¡°Don¡¯t make this weird, Chicken. Just ept us back.¡±
Yokino who had snuck past the defences of the treants and was holding my shoulders whispered in my ear.
¡°You guys-¡±
¡°Before you say anything further, we must warn you.¡±
Reiman rose his head.
¡°We shall not take no for an answer.¡±
¡°Never!¡±
As a united front, they all spoke to me, asking for me to take them back.
¡®Guys?¡¯
¡®Well, logically we see no reason why not.¡¯
¡®Y-Yeah. M-More people means o-our safety.¡¯
¡®And it¡¯ll be easier to survey the area as well as protect the forest from humans, demons and outsiders.¡¯
¡®Since a war ising, it¡¯ll be best to monopolise on all resources we can muster.¡¯
¡®That i-includes living resources and our s-surroundings.¡¯
¡®You¡¯re in charge though, so whatever you do is what we¡¯ll work with.¡¯
They made a good point. Rationally, there was no reason for me to refuse them, especially when they were obliging so hard, but-
¡°Lady Hinotori! P-Please don¡¯t abandon us!¡±
Saddened yells came at me. What I saw was the shocking sight of Kara and Sylvie, both crying. Both whom I¡¯d assumed didn¡¯t even speak to each other said the exact same thing at the exact same time with the exact same reaction. If not for the sight of them crying, I might have been creeped out. Like speak of d¨¦j¨¤ vu.
It was personally an embarrassing sight given the number of people watching us at this very moment.
¡®Oh¡ to hell with it.¡¯
¡°Yes. Fine. You guys win. I¡¯ll do it, and I¡¯ll do it right this time. So¡ please stop crying.¡±
<A/N: Please give me your power stones, golden tickets,ments and reviews. Also, join the discord so we can interact more.>
Chapter 223 Alliance With The Fenrir Clan
I ended up losing against them. They were all epted into my familia once again, but this time, my familia¡¯s level rose to 8 and I acquired 100 more familia points, as well as the familia head skill [Family Bond] that linked me to all my servants, both skill wise and soul-wise. I could tell from a simple nce if they were truly on my side or against me, as well as borrow the skills of anyone in the familia be it a unique skill or regr skill with the same level of proficiency the user has.
A weird development, but a wee one. If everyone in the familia managed to get stronger, my life would only get easier.
Once I was done with setting up the familia system once again, I ordered for the feast I asked the kobolds to prepare to begin. All the creatures were delighted to be able to eat new food they¡¯d never seen before. Some of the goblins whopletely slept through my speech assumed I only went away to get them food. Cheeky bastards.
No one here should have had such cuisines before so no one couldin. There was also the fact that the kobolds had never cooked such meat before and as such, were unsure as to how to make it delicious. We would all suffer with its ugliness together.
The food was surprisingly tasty. I asked how they¡¯d done it and ording to them, all they needed was to go to the cala I kidnapped some time back. It could take a single nce at anything and produce the necessary spices to make it good. What kind of hack method was that? It was way too insane. Definitely the most broken ability I¡¯d seen ever sinceing here.
There was a lot of noise and partying. People going about talking to each other, feasting and generally enjoying themselves. Diane looked pleased by the current events and she came to me. She said something about how she wasn¡¯t expecting me to be doing this. Diane left with the promise that if I ever needed the Dryads help, I could simply beckon on them.
She also secretly told me that she was on my side. Thinking back on how she imed to not be able to choose sides, I feel like she was simply trying to make things harder for me back then.
Through the festivities, it felt like someone was missing. I couldn¡¯t put my finger on who exactly, but it felt like a little annoying voice in my ear.
Amethyst! That was right! I hadn¡¯t seen Amethyst yet. I called out to her using the system, but she was most likely sleeping. Thezy brat.
Shiroi came over to me with the leader of the Fenrir n. He was a big wolf, although smaller than Shiroi. His fur was as ck as midnight, with silver-grey markings spreading from his face to his back. His eyes were a deep orange and his fangs a stark white. His ears were perked up as was his tail.
¡°I am the leader of the Fenrir n, blessed with the name Unmei by the goddess of life Gamma.¡±
¡®Eh? Unmei?¡¯
¡®T-That¡¯s an o-odd name.¡¯
¡®Gamma? Kind of reminds me of Alpha.¡¯
¡®He doesn¡¯t have the [Of World] title.¡¯
To think I¡¯d find a reincarnator so soon. I was about to tell him that I too was a reincarnator, but I realised this wasn¡¯t the time and ce. Besides, I wasn¡¯t sure I if could trust him.
¡°Oh hi. My name¡¯s Hinotori. Nice to meet you.¡±
I transformed and offered my hand to his paw. He looked at my hand for a while, making me feel like I shouldn¡¯t have done that. I retracted it, but just then he himself was covered in a ck aura. He transformed into a naked teenager. He towered above me easily with ck spiky hair that easily touched his lower back and a very muscr body. Not buff, but just fitting of a boy his age. His face was still covered with the silver-grey markings from before, but it simply looked like a star mask on his face. Still, there was something oddly familiar about his face.
¡°Sorry, I was not aware you could also transform. Let me properly greet you.¡±
He took my hand.
¡°When the wolf Shiroi came to me asking me to join your group, I wasn¡¯t sure if I could. She told me stories of what a generous and wise leader you are. I came here to see what kind of leader you are for myself. Now that I have heard your speech and seen your followers¡¯ reactions, I have chosen that you truly are a good leader and possibly a good ally. I, Unmei of the Fenrir n, have chosen to form an official coboration with you. Do you ept?¡±
He shouted it loudly for everyone to hear.
Suddenly, we were the centre of everyone¡¯s attention once again. I didn¡¯t know what was going on or why this guy appeared. Wasn¡¯t Shiroi simply going off to gather food? Why did she bring an army of wolves that want to partner with me? This was insane.
At least, they weren¡¯t asking to join my familia. Also, in a way I guess this is what I was originally asking for.
¡°Sure.¡±
I agreed and everyone roared loudly. God, this guy was so strong he lifted me up with one hand to officially announce our union. I felt like some kind of little sister. And I was stronger than him! He wasn¡¯t stronger than Shiroi, yet this was the situation.
Everyone cheered loudly in joy at the union. We had more people on our side now, but still, being paraded on the shoulder of a naked 17-year-old for all the monsters to see was embarrassing. Did this guy have no shame?
The wolves all howled in joy and the leaders behind Unmei all came to introduce themselves to me. This cheerful guy named all of them. General of the Timber wolves, Loki, the general of the Elecza wolves Onmyo and the general of the Treants, Kukunochi.
They too were excited that we were ted about the fact that we were forming a union. It was a hectic night, till I realised that there were some friends I¡¯d made who weren¡¯t here. I excused myself from the party and teleported to the South, specifically into Zana¡¯s cave.
I was met with the size of Zana curled up in what looked to be a giant lizard. Amethyst too? When did she get here?
She was surprised to see me appear out of thing air. From the looks of things, she had been crying. I didn¡¯t know why and when I asked her about it, she said she thought I abandoned her forever. I was curious where she got that kind of premonition, but ording to her, even when I wasn¡¯t next to her, there was a feeling she had that told her I was still with her.
But, all of a sudden that feeling was no longer present and she couldn¡¯t ess the system. That was when I realised that in a round about way, I¡¯d just lost all connection to people who weren¡¯t next to me anymore.
The first name toe to mind was Aeri who was now possibly gone forever. I really messed up big time here.
But now wasn¡¯t the time to focus on such mncholic stuff. I added her back into my system as well as delivered some uncooked meat so we feast together. I told her about my recent adventure and exined what would be happening, as well as the need for us to ally our forests together. She understood quickly, but was more interested in my time in Antis. I told her the story as best as I could with some exaggeration here and there of course.
The sleeping Amethyst slept through the entire time. When I looked, she had gone up quite the few levels, meaning she really had been training in the dungeons, growing stronger. Maybe her being jealous of Turu was a good thing.
I ended up spending the rest of day at her ce, entertaining her while trying to talk about the encroaching dangers. She really wasn¡¯t in the mood for that kind of talk.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Tori acquired the skill [Insomniac Croak]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Hypnotic Gaze]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Illusion Miasma]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Cowardly Shriek]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Lightning Rod]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Dark Mirror]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Mimic]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Cloning]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Sea Dragon Rage]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Dragon Eye]]<novelnext></novelnext>
[Tori acquired the skill [Dastardly Bite]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Dragon Scales]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Dragon Elemental Breath]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Iron Fortress]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Turf Domination]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Swift Movement]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Dragon Razor Fangs]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Sea Domination]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Wise Council]]
[Tori acquired the skill [Dragon Heart]]
[Tori consumed 3 dragon cores]
[Special skills linked the dragon cores will be unlocked over time]
------------------------------------------------
Demon Capital Kairosec, Demon Lord¡¯s Castle.
The human gasped the moment he fell down. The roof of the once majestic pce had been destroyed, allowing light to leak in. The always cloudy demon capital was cleared and the sunlight shone brighter than it ever had.
Coincidentally, this led to a single figure being illuminated. On the throne that was made for only the demon lord, a ginormous figure with grey skin sat lifelessly. His head was hanging over, his long silky silver hair just covering his face. His armour had several cracks and piercings in them, covered in ck liquid. This ck was the blood of demons.
A sword was stuck deep in his chest, fixing him to the throne. All around the throne room, there were four other bodies, all either decapitated, dismembered or disfigured beyond recognition.
The human, a young man in his early twenties, wiped the blood and sweat off his face.
¡°You weren¡¯t kidding when you said he was going to be close to impossible to defeat in my current state.¡±
He spoke to the person who stood next to the demon lord, checking out his corpse.
¡°If you had prepared just like I told you, this fight would be over in just a single day, yet you wasted two extra days.¡±
The masked person responded to him. She lifted the demon lord¡¯s head up so she could get a better view of it. There was arge white crystal in his forehead.
¡°Yeah, but you¡¯re the same one who told me I¡¯d only get stronger throughpleting impossible quests.¡±
She tapped on the crystal several times till there was a reaction.
¡°I also remember telling you that if you don¡¯t kill the demon lord in a day our enemies will notice our movements. Now the whole continent knows you really exist.¡±
The man stood up and dusted the dirt off his white cloak. His crimson red eyes looked at the girl seriously.
¡°If the demon lord managed to hold out onto the fourth day, you would have been the one stabbed through the heart.¡±
She forcefully removed the crystal from the demon lord¡¯s forehead.
¡°What are you doing?¡±
He asked, knowing precisely how dangerous that crystal she held was. The masked woman looked at him. He knew her long enough to know that she wouldn¡¯t tell him tillter. A heavy sigh escaped his lips.
¡°Aren¡¯t you supposed to be tricking the Dark Church with your ability to mimic my little sister?¡±
¡°I made a clone of your sister to do that. I have other agendas.¡±
She wiped the blood off the crystal then put it into her pouch.
¡°For now, you¡¯ll be attending the meeting of heroes, the Odysseus. Make sure to help your little sister with what she wants to do. Prepare everyone for threats greater than the demon lord. Push them beyond.¡±
A dragon roared loudly from the outside of the castle. From its cry alone, they both knew who it was. His trusted ally that he raised from an egg ten years ago, Kaiju.
¡°Your ride home is here.¡±
While she said that, silver wings erupted from her back in mes.
¡°What do you mean threats greater than the demon lord? I thought you said this was the end of the fighting? You would handle everything from here on out.¡±
The masked figure looked at him quietly for a while.
¡°You are the [Champion of Endless]. I did not choose this fate for you. You did this to yourself. You will continue to exist just to ensure the bnce of the world. After you defeat the big bad, there will always be another worse big bad for you to fight.¡±
¡°But-¡±
¡°I have not forgotten my promise to you. This will be yourst round. This will be the end of your curse. Enjoy your life as Hiro Tatsumaki. Once I ensure my¡ the former God yer Vermillion¡¯s resurrection, we will definitely have a way to free you.¡±
With that, she flew off, leaving the white-haired man to himself. Hiro walked over to the throne and picked up his sword. He sheathed the de and walked towards one of the windows.
This phenomenal event he had aplished, was only a precursor to even more dangerous and extraordinary events this world hadn¡¯t seen in centuries.
Those who were rtively aware of the consequences of what just transpired had already begun their preparations. Only the strong would survive in theing times.
Chapter 224 Alerting The Forest
Day 59
The day started off with Amethyst making a huge ruckus in Zana¡¯s cave, waking her up. She was surprised to see that I was there and I found it amusing. She herself was excited and jumped me, refusing to let go of me.
I threw her off when I was tired of being drenched in her sticky saliva. The little lizard was displeased but couldn¡¯t do anything about it¡ My mistake, the giant lizard was displeased but couldn¡¯t do anything about it.
She was easily twice as big as Shiroi now, even though she hadn¡¯t undergone an evolution. It was simply her growing bigger overtime. Like how Oki was so big even though he was a hob-goblin like the others. It would seem she had been eating too much offte. The culprit for this was Zana who had apparently grown close with Amethyst.
Turns out Zana being a family member also gave her ess to my personal familiars. Not only was she above all the servants, but she could use my closest aides too? Wasn¡¯t that too good a position to be giving to anyone? Well, it was easily understandable that a family member would be receiving more protection than a minion, but still¡ I¡¯d basically given Zana everything I had.
She was happy that I was still around when she woke up and organised breakfast. I wasn¡¯t in the mood for it, but decided to eat. Some herbs and mushrooms. Surprising that a naga would be eating this kind of stuff, but everyone had their reasons for everything.
Once we finished, I asked her to call the copperheads together. I went to gather up the lizardman tribe I went to thest time. They hadn¡¯t chosen a new leader yet, so I simply coerced them into selecting an impromptu one. He was one of their elders, who they imed was a rtive of the lizardman who revealed the truth. I¡¯d forgotten about that guypletely.
The people had a new found respect for his rtives ever since it was revealed that the chief truly was dead. Though, I found it hypocritical of them, especially the elder who never once supported him. Now wasn¡¯t the time for such things, so I had him round them all up in the centre of the vige.
He informed me there were about 6 other tribes out there that he could not inform, as well as other sentient races like kelpies and voldvons who lived deep in the swamps just like the copperheads did. Though, they were the more violent and less talkative type. Sort of like the goblins of the swamp. He also warned about Marsh Rusalkies. They didn¡¯t take too kindly to intruders on their turf. Even the necromancer had to avoid them.
If they were willing to form an alliance with me and the west, I guess we could rest easy knowing that the south wouldn¡¯t easily be traversed. The whole point was to make Larm as inhospitable to humans as possible. Even worse than when Goliath and Minerva were around.
The only issue was getting all of them to meet up. I brainstormed multiple ideas, then Hyakkun hit me with one. The fog could serve as a broadcasting system. I rushed to Zana and suggested it, she told me it was possible and a talking fog was definitely more than enough to catch the attention of sentient creatures.
With that, my n could officially begin.
I teleported the lizard men in front of Zana¡¯s abode where the copperheads were now appearing. They and the lizardmen had an unspoken feud between them, but now wasn¡¯t the time. I had Zana announce it instead of me, but when she tried, there was some mutteringing from the copperheads.
For some reason, I felt infuriated by the gross disrespect they showed to her. I was forced to emphasize the need to be quiet by directing killing intent to all copperheads. They were immediately put on high alert, but the power disparity also prevented them from making any rash moves.
Zana proceeded with the announcements. From inside her cauldron, I could see the other races. Although not a majority of them, those that did see the fog would definitely report it. The purpose of this entire announcement was to create a sense of agency amongst them and let them know just how bad things were going to be for Larm, before giving them hope.
I doubted the armies would start marching in this instant, but I couldn¡¯t ignore the possibility. After the discussion, I also told them that I would be holding an important discussion in the West. If any of them felt like it, they were allowed to participate so we could formte better ns. The discussion would be in a week from now.
Due to the distance issues, I wouldn¡¯t mind personallying to teleport them to the West. They just needed to tell Zana if they would participate from between now and then.
After that, the lizardmen and copperheads were shook. They were suddenly in a frenzied state, crying about how bad things would be since some of them hadn¡¯t lived long enough to see the bad state of things. In fact, apparently the previous demon lord was so much of a pacifist, there hadn¡¯t been a proper fight with demons for almost two decades now. There¡¯d be the asional fight here and there, but given the casualties from traversing these terrains, he decided it¡¯d be best for them to mind their own business instead of fight for supremacy in a never-ending war.
The lizardmen and copperheads would select representatives toe to the meeting, with Daxia of course. Since the elder lizardman was an impromptu leader, they now had more time to choose someone else.
I chose to return to the West. I left Amethyst with Zana in case some one idiot tried to defy her. Zana was too much of a softie to fight someone like that.
In the West, everyone was up and at it. I messaged Shiroi on her whereabouts and apparently, she was off marking areas that her wolves and the Fenrir n should constantly be monitoring. With them, she was sure they could expand the range of our safety by at least 10 times. She was basically saying the wolves would have no issues with protecting the entirety of Tokyo city with their numbers.
That was honestly terrifying, but given the state of things, it was good news. Ichi and Ni had their spawns all over as well, though most of them were house protection. Tsuna and Yuuna were training some hob-goblins that developed magic abilities. Oki and Taiku were busily training the other goblins in methods on fighting, trying to raise their levels greatly.
I checked on Reiman and his rats. ording to him, he was busily monitoring Arisu so he¡¯d left the intelligence to Nukeme, who had included some goblins in it as well. Nukeme¡¯s logic was that there were goblins who had no chance of ever growing physically strong, so he¡¯d simply use them for covert intelligence operations, such as spying, information gathering and so on. That was honestly a smart use of those goblins, though Arisu was starting to be a waste of resources.
I asked Reiman to leave her to me so he could take better control of things as a general. Though he¡¯d already done a great job so far by giving all themands he had.
So far there¡¯d been no humans from a military. There were the asional foolish adventures that entered the outskirts of the forest, but we could ignore those.
Once I had Arisu, I pped her in the back of her head. She looked like she was going to get angry, but one look at her with [Dragon Eye] and she was silent. I gave her strict orders on how to behave. For now, she would be following me around and learning some manners.
I went into the mansion where the kobolds were busily keeping up with house maintenance. In the armoury, some were polishing the weapons. Amongst them was the human boy, Erwin Dolus. He was fitting some of the gear on some kobolds, probably just to see what fit who better. They saluted me once they noticed my presence and I did same.
Arisu wanted to eat the armour, but one p to her head was enough to silence her. I went to the cooks and they were keeping up. Next was the inventory where we kept all our money. It was empty and as such, the harpies were busily sulking on the ground. I decided to fill up the inventory with a bit of the gold I stole from Makrov¡¯s dungeon.<novelnext></novelnext>
They were excited by what they saw, as was Arisu who tried to steal some. Another p to the head and we were out of the there into the library, where Kara, Ulva, Grimm and Kawaii were. ording to them, Kara was teaching both of them proper usage of magic. Grimm was an expert in monster subjugation through tools and sometimes magic, but his magical skills weren¡¯t anything to boast about ording to him, though from my standing it was sort of impressive. He was already in the B- rank, so he wasn¡¯t a pushover. Ulva was still C in rank so she could benefit from it.
Though, the little girl just wanted to do more practicals with Grimm.
Also, an important thing I want to note is that I could see something next to Ulva. It was hazy, but there was definitely something next to her. It was probably because of my dragon eye skill and when I inquired, she told me that her the soul of her weapon, Nabe was there. Now, I could identify soul weapons merely by looking¡ I could always do that, but I could see their true form now¡ somewhat.
I left them to proceed with what they were doing. The person I was searching for in the mansion was Sylvie and I eventually found her in thebs down below the mansion. She was busily working on renosue potions. I decided to put my [Crafting] skill to use here and help her out with it.
We spent about 5 hours working and due to my skills low level, I was more of a hindrance than anything. We managed to make about 200, of which I only made 10. I also helped her out with making some weapons. Let me tell you now, sword making is not easy in the slightest. At least my [Crafting] skill went up two levels today.
Later, I went to check up on Yokino, but she wasn¡¯t around at all. Fortunately, six of her generals were around. The ant general Inu, beetle general Kotetsu, bee general Hari, centipede general Nagai, mountain butterfly general Shippo, dragonfly general Kugun.
They were to follow my orders ording to Yokino. Since I didn¡¯t want to prolong things, I asked them to help out with the others. Kogun and another general had lots of subordinates in the south, so I wanted him to give a detailed report of things to Zana. Shippo as well had lots of subordinates in the North, an area I hadn¡¯t really thought of given how it was connected to the Mystic Peaks. That might be a blind spot for me. The east was also under Inu¡¯smand so she could help me out there with informing them of the imminent threat.
Overall, it was a hectic day and theing days would be only tougher. I went back to the mansion to take a calm heated bath¡ at least I wanted to, but Arisu was being a pain in the ass about taking a bath.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[The skill [Crafting] became [Crafting Level 3]]
[Tori made 10 renosue potions]
[Tori made 1 [Normal Sword]]
[The skill fusion became [Fusion MAX]]
[The skill synthesis became [Synthesis level 10]]
FUSION
[Dastardly Bite] + [Monstrous Bite] = [Death Bite] (Advanced Skill)
[Dragon Razor Fangs] + [Lizard man Sharp Fangs] + [Fire Jaws] + [Poison Fangs] = [Smog Dragon Fangs]
[Quick Attack] + [Swift Movement] = [Ultra-fast Attack] (Advanced Skill)
[Multiple Minds] + [Super Thought Process] + [Wise Council] = [Supreme Logic Council] (Advanced Skill)
[Lethal ck w] + [Lizard Man Sharp ws] + [Poison ws] = [Death w] (Advanced Skill)
[Acidic Ink Creation] + [Petrifying Poison] = [Crumbling Stone Ink Creation]
SYNTHESIS
[Impact Absorber] + [Shock Absorber] = [Damage Absorber] + [Damage Counter]
FAMILIA
[Hyakkiyago Familia has gained 2000 experience points]
[[Shadow¡¯s Crib] is getting jumpy]
<A/N: We''re going to speeding through the days like I said earlier.>
Chapter 225 Proper Plumbing?
Day 60
Today officially started out some dark elvesing to us. They were those that left originally to go find their vige. ording to them, their vige had been wiped out. They couldn¡¯t stay since it was on the outskirts of the forest, a ce humans can easily go to. They weren¡¯t certain what caused their vige¡¯s destruction, but from the fact that they hadn¡¯t been to the vige in 5 years, I could easily surmise what happened.
I offered them a ce with us. They were stoked, though I warned them about the looming threats. Their special skills were spirit arts. Spirit arts was like magic, but more in the sense of invoking the power of the spirits in the surroundings. So unlike most mages, they had a huge variety when it came to options in a fight.
For now, I had them go help Yuuna and Tsuna with raising hob-goblins. Some could show potential for such skills which could benefit me. Unfortunately, I wouldn¡¯t be able to determine what exactly one would develop. I presumed one should simply have their ss printed out, but even ording to Yuuna, when some into a hob-goblin it took a while for her true ability to manifest. She and Tsuna were rare urrences where they show potential from even the goblin stage.
With that settled, I went about my daily business. Arisu, much like me, didn¡¯t sleep so I got time to talk with her. She told me about how things were in her time and how she was forced to evolve to this point because of how dangerous monsters were back in her time.
B ranks were roaming about like a pile of goblins so you could only imagine how truly terrifying things were for her. You could say she was nothing special when she was growing up, but one day, she ate a jewel. It tasted good, so she kept eating it and slowly she became a variant species,pletely diverting off the evolutionary path of regr fanged bunnies. That was why she was so special and became their queen.
I sort of understood why she ate her own children now. That was simply how things worked back then for her. Only the strong survive. If you couldn¡¯t avoid being eaten, you were never going to survive anyway.
Sadly for her, there was a newer recently who did something simr to her. He also ate what she said looked like jewel, but different from hers, it gave that monstrosity power and the attention of a god. This was He, the king of the horned rabbits. She refused to let an upstart overtake her position, so the two had been having a feud for the past three years. He only grew stronger over time though, while she remained stagnant.
Eventually, she lost the fight against He and was forced to flee. In desperation and trying to hide amongst humans, she developed the skill [Human Transformation] and she was captured with the anti-skill cors that forced her to stay that way and be treated like a ve. That is, till I identally freed her.
She was grateful to me, but the only thing on her mind was treasure and revenge. She was using the goblins and others in the familiar to go fight He, but none wanted to do so and I eventually revoked her position as familia general.
In the end, I could pity her, but not to the point ofpletely forgiving her for putting my people¡¯s lives on the line for her useless rivalry.
I ended up agreeing to help her handle her problems, but at a different date due to the preparations we were making for the meeting with leaders. I went into the dungeons today to investigate things.
These were the current stats.
|DUNGEON STATS|
Dungeon Name: Forbidden Dungeon
Dungeon Rank: C
Dungeon Master: Hyakkiyako
Dungeon Level: 5 Experience Points: 102/40,000
Dungeon Poption: 35/300 Mana Crystals: 20/20 Mana Crystal Production Rate: 1%
Dungeon Attribute: -
The dungeon was essentially the same as I left it. I decided it¡¯d be best to focus on it now that I was here. Considering I didn¡¯t have much points, I couldn¡¯t summon proper mobs. For now, I could fill it up with spawns I personally made.
But my issue was the fact that there were zero mobs in the dungeon. Amethyst wrecked them all into oblivion. I get that they wanted to train and all, but my precious dungeon points went into them.
That was when I developed the ingenious idea. If I had everyone train against my shadows, wouldn¡¯t they get stronger over time and faster? I¡¯d have to test that outter. I¡¯d go back to thatter though.
I pulled up my dungeon stats.
|DUNGEON MASTER STATS|
[Dungeon Master Name: Hyakkiyago Hinotori
[Dungeon Master Level: 0
[Experience Points: 3200/50000|
[Wallet: 3,210DP| 11GP
[Reputation: 0 points (Non-Existent)
[Titles: -
[Skills: [Dungeon Travel], [Dungeon Control]
|DUNGEON SHOP|
|SUMMONS|
I surprisingly had enough money to get more summons. This was due to me identallypleting a dungeon task while away.
|DUNGEON TASKS|
# Summon your first dungeon mob |200XP||10DP||1GP|(COMPLETED)
# Summon 30 Lesser Undead||3000XP||200DP||10GP|(COMPLETED)
# Summon 10 Undead Knights||2000XP||200DP||10GP| (0/10)<novelnext></novelnext>
# GAMBLER! Use the Gacha Function once||100XP||500DP||20GP| (0/1)
# DUNGEON MANAGEMENT! Part I! INCREASE YOUR DUNGEON BY 1 LEVEL||5000XP||1000DP||100GP| (0/1)
# DUNGEON MANAGEMENT! Part II! INCREASE YOUR DUNGEON BY 5 LEVELS||25000XP||5000DP||300GP| (0/5)
# Bring In 1000 Monsters into The Dungeon||5000XP||3000DP| (Completed)
# Lure and Kill creatures||2000XP per human||1500DP per human||200GP per human|
While looking at it and thinking of what to summon this time, Akkun came up with the genius idea of moving the dungeon to the outskirts of the forest so the brave human adventurers would soon discover it and die. That way, we could increase our revenue and both us and the dungeon could level up at an exponential rate.
Obviously, there was one downside to this. How in the world was I going to move an entire dungeon!? The skill [Dungeon Control] was limited to shifting dungeon floors, altering the interior design as well as lordship over the dungeon mobs at best. Unlike my regr skills, these didn¡¯t have levels so I could surmise that this was the best the skill could.
Then, Hyakkun came in with the suggestion of us buying the skill [Dungeon Movement].
Speaking of which, the [Multiple Minds] skill fused with other skills to be [Supreme Logic Council]. With it, they were essentially superputers that were presented with multiple routes for any proceeding. They could scan through twenty of possible paths in a second ande up with the one with the best result out there.
We settled on this and used up all my remaining store points to buy the skill. Well, not like it was much trouble since I could easily buy more store points with the Antean gold I had.
Now for the annoying part. The skill [Dungeon Movement] required me to grab the dungeon core from its location and ce it wherever I wanted to relocate the dungeon to. If it was that easy, what would I need an entire skill for?!
Albeit a little pissed, I glossed over the issue and teleported to the outskirts of the forest. There, I saw some elecza wolves and treants handling a pile of human adventurers. I hadn¡¯t expected to see them so soon, but at least I knew that the humans woulde into this area then. The perfect ce to set up a dungeon.
When I scanned further ahead, I saw that there were no other humans for a long distance. I asked the wolves to leave the adventurers to me and they agreed without much of a problem. I killed the humans, but after scanning them with [Dark Mirror]. I also ate their souls, giving me four 10% boosts in physical stats.
I tested out the [Cloning] skill. Unfortunately, due to its low-level, the skill only produced something a third of my size. I had it use [Mimic] from the image I had copied and it transformed into a virtually perfect copy of the person.
The clones were like immobile robots though. They¡¯d only follow my orders to the letter, so my n for them would fall t. However, Akira moved into one of the clones. His excuse was that since it was technically us, he could move as freely as he wanted between clone and body.
I wasn¡¯t too pleased knowing that a version of me could go into a different body without informing me. He told me he was just going toplete the mission I wanted and that he¡¯d be back in no time, especially since he had the guy¡¯s memories after we consumed the souls.
After a lengthy discussion with the others, we decided that as long as he returned in the next two days, there¡¯d be no issues. Akira was so peppy about being able to move freely that I was getting bad vibes from it.
He left with the other clones immediately, using teleportation magic to avoid certain problems, like monsters mistaking him for me. My clones were at best C+ in rank, so we couldn¡¯t be certain that he was safe. Neither were we sure what would happen to him if we destroyed a clone he was still in.
I started setting up the dungeon at a rtively good spot. In between two rocks at the base of a hill. I had to cover up the rocks with moss to make it look like it had always been there, hidden by natural camouge. It had to have that new ancient discovery vibe to it, even though there were no monsters in there.
I couldn¡¯t do much about the dungeon mobs except put in some shadows to wait patiently for any creature that enters. That way, it could kill them and I gained experience.
Starting with the lowest ranked shadows on the first floor and increasing the order as the floors went down. I was starting to feel like a proper dungeon master now.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Fusion] + [Synthesis] = [Time tillpletion: 48 hours]
Day 61
The night was so quiet and boring I decided to delve into the Familia system. And let me tell you now, I¡¯ve never seen something so important in my life!
Depending on the familia¡¯s rank, you could gain ess to certain features like buying houses and other important buildings. I bought a small condo for 90 familia points to test it out and what a good investment it was.
Possessing 6 floors, it was a massive empty building with 30 rooms for sleeping as well as a general bathroom for everyone to sleep in. Though, all these things werepletely empty. Even the general bathroom had no water in it, though that could be solved with magic, but I also found it inefficient to be wasting magic every time one wanted to bath and it wasn¡¯t like everyone could use magic. Only if I possessed proper plumbing knowledge.
For now, the goblins and other races who wanted could sleep in the condo. I had ced it next to the mansion by ident so it kind of blocked the sunlight from entering my room, but I couldn¡¯tin.
I was tempted to buy even more stuff, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised, it¡¯d probably be better to create other buildings for the guys. I wasn¡¯t sure what exactly it was they needed, so I sent out a survey through the system. When they woke up and answered, I¡¯d have the others look through it and tell us their suggestions.
When the everyone woke up, I went to Oki and Taiku to inform them of my idea of making them fight against my shadows. Both were hesitant, but I told them my shadows wouldn¡¯t kill any goblin.
There was the simple and easy route of making the shadows stay immobile and die for the goblins to level up, but that didn¡¯t build any real skill and creativity amongst them. They would have to be fighting humans who weren¡¯t so stupid to just stand and get stabbed.
It was a gruesome experience where the goblins were beaten to near death, but that didn¡¯t matter much since we had Sylvie¡¯s renosue potions to heal anyone who went unconscious. From the looks of things, we¡¯d be seeing some goblins evolving in the next few days.
I wanted to have some of Reiman¡¯s rat men on this, but they were all busy with their duties. I spent the day overseeing the goblins¡¯ training. I also practiced my own swordsmanship and techniques against some shadows. I really was an amateur swordsman without my strength, so I would need to fix that.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[The skill [Novice Swordsmanship] became [Novice Swordsmanship Level 4]]
[Fusion] + [Synthesis] = [Time tillpletion: 24 hours]
<A/N: Please give me your power stones,ments, golden tickets and reviews! It really helps the book get out there to new readers, thank you and have a nice day!>
Chapter 226 Bunny Girl And Vampire Girl
Day 62
Today started out a bit weird with Ulva running away from Grimm and Kara. She said she was tired of learning magic and wanted to hang out with Sylvie more.
I wasn¡¯t sure how to take that since Sylvie was kind of busy with making the potions for the army. To cure her boredom, I offered to spend the day with Ulva. I originally had ns to go to the North to talk to its Tyrant, but that was sort of risky since I didn¡¯t know what kind of character he was.
Everyone said he was like Goliath, being the second oldest Tyrant and all, but he was also a bit crueller than Goliath was. His territory was mountainous and very close to the Mystic Peaks, so I could sort of understand why he¡¯d have to be stricter. Imagine facing wyverns on the daily. It¡¯s more than enough to make someone turn into a brutal savage.
Ulva and Arisu, who hadn¡¯t really interacted much with each other hit it off brilliantly. Their first topic was the fact that they both bore fangs. Upon closer inspection, I realised it was like I was going around with 2 vampire kids. Very creepy.
At least, Arisu now had someone of a simr mental level to y with. As old as she was, she really was a child. That was probably the cause for her form being so tiny. We went to check out the goblins. They really were being put on the brink of death by my shadows. I¡¯d also given themand for wolves to stop hunting meals for the goblins.
They were to find their own food. This way, they¡¯d be forced to grow faster. The first week they¡¯ll receive the minimum amount of help from my shadows, but in the second week, they were on their own. They would have toe up with tactics to get their meals.
Oki wanted to argue over the danger, but Taiku restrained him as he agreed with me. Arisu was ready to rip him apart, but I smacked her in the head so she could calm down. She really was loyal to me. Over time, I decided I wanted to see Ulva¡¯s progress for myself, so I took us to my dungeon.
There, I summoned the lowest rank shadow I had, a lesser shadow soldier, so she could fight. She was excited. Someway somehow, this cute brat had be a battle junkie. Hopefully she wouldn¡¯t be too much of a problem in the future. I ordered the shadow to show some restraint against her.
She called for her scythe, then cleaved the shadow in half in one sharp move. I was impressed, but that was too easy for my liking. She was C+ so fighting a D+ monster wouldn¡¯t really help me get an estimate in her true strength in an actual fight.
I summoned a Greater Shadow Demon Soldier. This beast was a C+ rank just like Ulva, so it should be a rtively equal fight. This time, the soldier was to go all out, but not kill Ulva.
Their fight begun properly and Ulva really was nothing tough about. The Greater Shadow Demon Soldier relied on his ws for fighting. With them, he struck fiercely, though Ulva managed to parry them easily with her scythe. She swung it around madly, giving the shadow little opportunity to get close.
The shadow was more creative than Ulva had nned though, using the darkness of the dungeon to his advantage. Ulva could sniff him out though. Something about the shadow stinking like old blood. I didn¡¯t expect that, but she was able to ward off each and every single one of the shadow¡¯s attacks. And to make matters worse, she fired off some magic icicles to keep the shadow pinned down.
Things weren¡¯t looking good for the shadow as Ulva went in for the kill. What Ulva didn¡¯t take into consideration was the possibility of the shadow being able to change size. He shrunk to avoid the attack, then created a fresh wound on her abdomen. She was flown back with enough force to crack the wall of the dungeon.
The shadow broke free from its temporary restraints and released a barrage of attacks on Ulva. Even if she was quick to recover, there was no way toplete avoid all the attacks. In my eyes, she had effectively lost, but her form begun to change into something more grotesque. Her hair turned from its usual mixture of ck and white toplete grey.
Arisu¡¯s ears perked up with interest for the first time since we started.
Easily, she grabbed the shadow. Her blood was floating in the air and she made them into needles, which stabbed into the shadow. For some reason, the shadow was unable to escape from her grasp. Its body shook violently, before exploding in a very bloody fashion.
The blood went back to Ulva and sealed up her wounds before reverting her back to her normal form. She rushed towards me and took off her mask to smile.
¡°How was that?¡±
She asked.<novelnext></novelnext>
I quietly patted her on the head. Grimm¡¯s training had been working wonders for the kid. And that form. [Lamprey Form] as it was called, was horrible scary. Her physical stats and blood magic control shot up by a high margin, which allowed her to easily deal with the shadow. At least, I knew the average human was no trouble for Ulva. The only issue was the people Grimm was talking about.
Arisu grabbed Ulva with excited eyes. Something about Ulva¡¯s form looking very familiar. She herself wasn¡¯t sure why she was happy seeing it, but I guess she had a high affinity towards Ulva. That was when the great me came up with the idea of making Arisu Ulva¡¯s bodyguard/ymate/second teacher. She already had Kawaii, Grimm and Kara doing that, but none of them really had the appearance to look like her friend. I preferred someone who didn¡¯t look dangerous at all, but could easily protect her.
Also, it was my own way of getting rid of Arisu for now without interrupting anyone¡¯s work. Grimm could also train Arisu since she wanted to get revenge on He and all that. If Ulva had someone to learn magic with, maybe it wouldn¡¯t be so boring. Arisu had to potential to learn magic, so it should be an interesting experience for them. And the best part was that friends tended to rub off on each other. I was hoping Ulva rubbed off on Arisu and she became less violent, more likeable by the others.
Sometimes my genius was simply too much for this world.
I took them back to Grimm and exined the new situation to him. The vampire was excited at first, having Arisu who was as strong as him, to fight with in case of anything, but he got agitated by the fact that he had to train her. If anything, I¡¯d just given him a sparring partner. He was to break the news to Kara and Kawaii himself.
Speaking of which, I hadn¡¯t spoken to both of them in a while. Curious what they were up to, I went to investigate. Kara was in the library as always. I took the time to talk to her and see how she was.
She told me just how things were when I left off. It was kind of hard seeing everyone else in such bad conditions. And the only person she reallymunicated with, Aeri, had left off to go do something else. It made her feel sort of lonely, but since I dide back that one time to talk to her and Tsuna, she felt at ease knowing I hadn¡¯t left her alone.
We spent the time talking about idle things like what she¡¯d been eating, if she¡¯d found anything interesting and so on. I was really bad at conversations soing up with topics took a while and it would lead to an awkward pause.
Kara tried to bring up what happened in the dungeon, but I cut her off and asked her about the East. She was adamant on talking about the dungeon, and I couldn¡¯t fathom why she wanted to. I thought she was embarrassed about it as was I. I didn¡¯t hear her out. I forced the topic on the East and she lost out to my persistence.
She exined that the East was in a rtively poor state due to how her father handled its resources. Sure, the forest could regenerate, but there was a limit to how fast it could. He had been exporting more than the forest could heal up. Really, he was scum of the earth.
It was unknown how things were as of now since her father was personally scolded by Goliath, but now that Goliath was dead, that was unknown. Knowing her father, he would have probably killed a few people already and returned to exporting the goods.
The chances of him allying with me, who disgraced him, was very low. But I had to try something and since I actually had information on him unlike the Tyrant of the North, I wanted to take my chances. Kara was seriously against the idea, but she lost out to me again.
We would go see the East before the meeting with the leaders to see if Krull had any interest in it. I myself was interested in seeing the East.
I left off to find Kawaii and she was talking to my treant spawns¡¯ spawns. Something about them calling her grandmother. I knocked some sense into her and took her back to Ulva.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Fusion] + [Synthesis] = [Skill Alchemy] (Advanced Skill)
FAMILIA
[80 new goblins were born into the familia]
<A/N: Hmm, do forgive the disgusting goblins in the next chapter.>
Chapter 227 Dungeon Braves
Day 63
So, some goblins were pregnant apparently. How and when it happened? Well, that¡¯s a really funny story. Goblins were the smallest and most endangered creatures in the forest, hence when they breed, they take no longer than 3 weeks and one goblin can produce a minimum of 4 babies to ensure their continuity.
These horny bastards were at it the night Minerva was being beaten to a pulp. I can¡¯t imagine being in the dungeon with them while they did this.
Oh, dear heavens.
Maybe they assumed they were on the verge of death, so they would impregnate the females and shove them deeper into the dungeon, hoping they wouldn¡¯t be found out. That was stupid on their part. Then, there was the fact that female goblins received no disadvantages when pregnant like human women do. No swollen belly, cramps, kicking or any of the sort. Just a one-time leak of babies like they were turds. Hob-goblins were different though and the process was obviously different when the goblins raped humans too.
But, overall, they were very disgusting creatures.
I tried my very best to forget about it. On the bright side, the skills Akira had been fusing were done. Well, I got up one day and asked what exactly would happen if I managed tobine both [Fusion] and [Synthesis]. How Ibined them? Don¡¯t ask me. It was a weirdbination of the processes to create a new process.
Anyway, [Skill Alchemy] as it was called was an over-the-top broken skill. It allowed for me to not only fuse any skills together, but I could also upgrade them into Advanced skills with ease. And it was a skill so powerful fusing unique skills shouldn¡¯t take as long as it did before.
Sure, since [Fusion] and [Synthesist] were approaching their final stages, they were creating [Advanced Skills], but thebination was simply better in the sense that it also allowed me to mess with the skills of anyone in my familiar. I could upgrade all of them as well as downgrade the skill and reduce it to a nearly useless waste of space now. With something like this, it made one wonder if they could mess with the skills their enemies possessed, no?
Unfortunately, [Skill Alchemy] didn¡¯t work against enemies like how I was thinking. It was still a broken ability since it allowed me to tamper with the skills of other people. Sure, there were limits like if I didn¡¯t have enough time to do it and I had to be touching the person to alter their skills, but still a very strong skill.
I also received a notification from Akkun that he managed to lure in some humans. I wasn¡¯t in the mood to see the gruesome scene myself, so I asked Hyakkun to handle it. Akira returned to work on fusions once again.
I got a report from Reiman. The tunnellers were done setting up things in the East. We had a straight, safe route to the East. Well, not like I needed it. Akkun and Akira came up with a few ideas on what we could do with the tunnels, but it was too early to implement such ideas.
For now, the most important thing was that we had ess to information from the East. Next up was the North. We were already deep into the Boulderdane Kingdom, so if there was an approaching army from there, we¡¯d know. Though, with that kingdom being in its current state, I doubt we had to worry about anything from there.
He also reported that, the Eastern Forest had revived to a certain point, though it wreaked of death and pain. Death and pain reminded me of Krull, so it sounded just about right to me.
I wanted to go to the East immediately, but since I promised to go with Kara, I would just have to wait till tomorrow. She wanted more time to mentally prepare herself to go back there. Choosing to respect her wishes, I ended up having nothing to do other than focusing on my dungeon once again.
Well, I guess it would be good for me, the dungeon master, to gain experience on such things and personally point out any issues.
The first floor was filled with about 20 lesser shadow soldiers, D+ ranked creatures. The adventurers were all C+ from my scanning and ording to memories from Akira¡¯s time, they were a B ranked adventurer party.
I failed to understand how a collection of 5 C+ ranks was equal to a B rank, but I guess humans simply had a weird system in ce.
1 swordsman, 2 rogues, 1 mage, 1 druid. I should note that both rogues had different sub-sses. 1 was a ninja and the other was a thief. One was more specialised inbat whereas the other was more into illusions and stealth.
From the looks of things, the only ones who would be a problem were the druid and mage, more the druid since the mage¡¯s affinity was wind magic. That wouldn¡¯t cause much damage to the shadows. The swordsman had mastered some martial arts so I was curious about how well that¡¯d fair against a shadow. The thief and ninja werepletely screwed though. I mean, they could try their best to hide in the shadows, but my soldiers were the shadows.
The fight begun with the druid casting an orb of light to brighten up the room and make it easier to see. The adventurers were happy to see some monsters, though they were confused since they hadn¡¯t faced such things before. The first one to jump in was the swordsman.
He was much faster than the shadows and ended up slicing through one in a blink, using his aura. The mage also used his wind magic to boost the speed of the swordsman. The druid was being guarded by both the ninja and thief while she chanted something. I personally made it a point to make the mobs attack anyone they saw preparing a spell. For now, the shadows were going freestyle.
The mage also used a quick chant to release a gust of wind to blow away some shadows. I assumed it was ineffective, but it did deal decent damage to some shadows. As if sensing the possible danger, some shadows instinctively charged at the druid who was being protected.
The thief scavenged through his pouch and brought out a pale translucent pebble. A [light Magic Stone]. He struck his knife against the stone, giving his weapon the stone¡¯s attribute. With that, he managed to repel some shadows. The ninja, who I had thrown away as useless was quite possibly the most troublesome foe for the shadows.
With his quick attacks and evasion, he managed to distract the shadows long enough for the druid to finish what she was doing. She created a nt of light that fired light beams all around, instantly K.Oing the shadows.
What made me the most curious out of everyone was the ninja, who possessed ninjutsu, but hadn¡¯t used any. I get that their physical stats were low and they didn¡¯t have much mana and aura, but he should have shown me something at least.
Wanting to see his ninjutsu badly, I ordered the shadows on the second floor to focus their attacks on the ninja and the druid. One way or the other, I was going to see it.
On the second floor, the shadows wasted no time. They immediately went on the offensive against the ninja and druid, not giving them anything to cast a proper spell. The ninja was fast, easily swerving out of the way of 5 angry shadows, while avoiding and defending against the attacks of three more.
I read through his mind and even he noticed how absurd it was that they went for him and the druid almost immediately. He came up with the idea that the shadows had seen the fight on the other floor and identified he and the druid as the most dangerous. The best n for the team was to use the shadows¡¯ newfound obsession with him to keep them distracted enough for his party members to wipe them out.
A fast thinker and fighter. With his intellect, he was probably the party leader. He took out some papers from his back that had markings on them.
Talismans!
My mouth couldn¡¯t help but water with excitement. With two fingers up, he casted a chant on them and they transformed into electric birds that hit the shadows, killing them instantly!
This was it, finally, he was going to show me his utility belt! He used a shadow clone jutsu to confuse the shadows. Both the clone and original then casted two different jutsu, Breath of the Fire God and Cry of the River God. They caused the shadows to slow down.<novelnext></novelnext>
This went on for another 30 minutes.
The ninja was running low on stamina after having to face over a dozen shadows that were literally just a rank below him. The druid was protected by the thief and mage, while the swordsman went clearing up the others.
Once finished, they took a break. There was a brief moment where they questioned if it was worth it progressing further. Considering how troublesome this was for the ninja, they weren¡¯t sure. They wanted to withdraw for now.
We couldn¡¯t have that now, could we? I dropped a crate for them to see. The thief scanned to see if there were any traps, before opening the box. In it, they found some gold coins that didn¡¯t look like their currency.
Human greed would always reign supreme, especially when it came to thieves. Or so I thought, but they settled on simply taking the crate back with them then showing it to everyone as proof. Since they were a rtively weak party, no one would expect much of them.
It wasn¡¯t going ording to n and I was forced to trap them in there. The only way out was finishing the dungeon. They were terrified when they heard my voice, but they had no choice but to listen to my orders.
They finally got to the third floor. In seconds, they were each done in by two shadows easily. The only possible nuisance was the thief who still had his knife, but the moment all the shadows ganged up on him, it was pointless. Considering they were tired from the second floor, I guess I could understand them. I rose my hopes up for nothing. Tch.
I ended up getting 7,500 dungeon points, 1000 gacha points and 10,000 experience points for the dungeon, as well as 2,000 experience points as the dungeon master.
Was kind of disappointed they didn¡¯t get to the final floor or anything, but waiting for new people toe wouldn¡¯t be a problem. That is till Akira told me these guys were a recon squad and were supposed to report back on if we were telling the truth about a ¡°safe¡± dungeon being out here.
I was in trouble¡ or so I would have you think!
Ha!
The [Supreme Logic Council] had already nned for such a scenario! Our n to draw in more human adventurers would never fail us. We would raise the dungeon to a high level, then I can customise it to my personal tastes.
I¡¯d give the dungeon about a week or two before properly changing its outlook. That is, to make it more interesting for outsiders. The bodies were kept deep down in the dungeon where no one would see them. Akkun wanted to test something outter.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
|DUNGEON STATS|
Dungeon Name: Forbidden Dungeon
Dungeon Rank: C
Dungeon Master: Hyakkiyako
Dungeon Level: 5 Experience Points: 10,102/40,000
Dungeon Poption: 35/300 Mana Crystals: 20/20 Mana Crystal Production Rate: 1%
Dungeon Attribute: -
|DUNGEON MASTER STATS|
[Dungeon Master Name: Hyakkiyago Hinotori
[Dungeon Master Level: 0
[Experience Points: 5200/50000|
[Wallet: 8,710DP| 1011GP
[Reputation: 0 points (Non-Existent)
[Titles: -
[Skills: [Dungeon Travel], [Dungeon Control]
|DUNGEON SHOP|
|SUMMONS|
<A/N: RIP dungeon braves.>
Chapter 228 A Visit To The East
Day 64
As early as possible, I woke up Kara so we could go to the East. I didn¡¯t know why I was so excited to go there. Maybe it was because I was seeing a new unknown ce. Maybe cause it felt like a mission to sneak into enemy territory. I wasn¡¯t sure, but I really was stoked about it. Kara
She had steeled herself to face her father. I was starting to feel bad for trying to force her into it so I gave her the option to stay. I¡¯d just figure something out once I got to the east, it¡¯d be like 4 hours of flying straight with [Vector Control] or teleporting to the skies above the East and about 30 minutes of searching, but I didn¡¯t mind that.
The ogress refused, wanting to face her inner demons. Well, if not now, she probably wouldn¡¯t get another chance to. I called Nukeme over to give him a special order. He happily agreed, then we left off.
In no time, we managed to get to the East. During the trip, Kara wanted to talk to me about something, but she wasn¡¯t sure how to exin it. I wanted to read her mind, but some sort of instinct in me told me not to. I just wouldn¡¯t take what she was going to say to me lightly. I was already stressed out enough as it was.
I¡¯d even forgotten to eat over the past few days due to all the thinking I¡¯d been doing.
Kara directed us straight to her home and we were met by a terrifying sight. There was a fortress made out of wood, with some of its walls broken down. The watch towers had arrows stuck in them, with two bodies hanged down with a rope around their necks as a sort of public execution.
Around the fortress, I could make out scorched earth and items scattered on the ground, meaning people used to live there. It appeared as though they were in a rush to leave and ended up forgetting some things.
Kara¡¯s mouth was over her hand the entire time and her feeling of fear and anxiety radiated so much I could sense it.
The most shocking sight had to be the courtyard. Layers of dead, bloody bodies, piled up on the courtyard. All of them were ogres with pierced or broken armour. A wyvern was also left dead at a part of the courtyard, its head severed from its body.
Possibly the most curious sight was the living person who had been crucified. They had two arrows in their knees and their arms had been tied up on the wooden pir. Spears stuck out of their naked body, and their head hang low. I could identify all sorts of other bruises and injuries far too inhumane to speak about.
The most unfortunate part was the fact that they were alive. Kara jumped off and rushed to the person immediately, crying out their name. Normally I¡¯d emphasise caution here, but no one would be able to contain themselves if they saw their sister in such a state.
I helped her out by picking her sister off the pole. We fed her a renosue potion and it took effect almost immediately, sealing about about half of her wounds. I wasn¡¯t sure if feeding her another potion would finish the job and honestly, Diane and Sylvie would have better knowledge on such issues than myself. In the end, I teleported her to Sylvie and told Sylvie to heal her up and inform me on anything.
I had already scanned the fortress and there was only one living being inside it. In the deepest darkest portion of the fort, the tyrant of the east, the war monger Krull sat in a depressing manner. He scoffed the moment he saw me then dropped the dead body he was feasting on.
I tried to start a conversation, but he threw the corpse at me then started talking to Kara. The ogress was not too pleased about what happened to her sister. It was the first time I¡¯d seen such bloodlust from her and her magic was starting to fluctuate wildly.
Krull mocked her emotions and taunted her. Kara wasn¡¯t so stupid to think that she could take on her father and easily resisted his jabs at her. Unfortunately for Kara, Krull wasn¡¯t so patient. He attacked her in a moment¡¯s notice and Kara wouldn¡¯t have the speed or power to defend against it. But I did.
I kicked him back into his seat and tried to exin the current situation to him. Krull was suspicious of how I¡¯d acquired such power in a short amount of time and I wasn¡¯t going to tell him. Realising the conversation with Krull was going nowhere, I asked for the whereabouts of the other races. The ogre refused toply with my wishes.
I had one final question and that was if he was still a tyrant. Because, being perfectly honest, now that Goliath was dead, Krull shouldn¡¯t have that title anymore. He didn¡¯t when I scanned him and from Krull¡¯s reaction, I¡¯d confirmed that he also knew this.
The reason for him killing all the ogres was still unknown, but I could surmise it had something to do with him no longer being a tyrant. I guess, unofficially, the tyrants of the Larm were abolished.
Just as we were leaving, Reiman sent a notification implying he had talked things out with the Orc king and he agreed to aid us. He was currently on his way to the troll king and using the familiar system, I¡¯d be able to track him and teleport directly there. There was no need in me rushing since Reiman was better at diplomatic stuff than myself.
We just decided to go through the fort and find anything interesting. Kara returned to her room almost immediately. We found that her room had been leftpletely untouched. It was even dusty with everything being exactly where she left it.
On the desk in the corner of her room, there was a parchment with some symbols on it. She grabbed it excitedly and read through it, geeking about how smart she was for making whatever that was. I, on the other hand, was enjoying my time in a girl¡¯s room.
Now, now, here me out. I¡¯d been to Akane¡¯s room before, but who hadn¡¯t gone to the best friend¡¯s room before? Minerva¡¯s didn¡¯t count as that ce was not fit to even be called feminine. The princess was annoying so I couldn¡¯t even think about anything and the mansion¡ well it¡¯s my room that the girls hijacked so I didn¡¯t feel anything. But now, I was actually in a girl¡¯s room and their parent was around.
Couldn¡¯t help but feel excited. It would have been better if the ce wasn¡¯t dusty and still smelt like Kara, but it could work. I was going to peek at every nook and cranny.
First off was the bed. I jumped on it. Next was the closet, I scanned through all her clothes and asked if Kara would want them. She did, since she¡¯d been wearing just that one dirty outfit for over a month. Then there were her shelves of books¡ I skipped those then went to check her balcony. We were on the second floor and she had a really great view of everything from here.<novelnext></novelnext>
Not like the sight of corpses was great or anything. In fact, the stench was downright awful. While Kara was busily gawking through her notes, I had shadows do some clean up. The bodies were instead buried beneath the courtyard.
I didn¡¯t like Krull, but I also didn¡¯t like the idea of having a friend¡¯s home tainted by such a sight. The shadows worked fast, clearing up the courtyard. The only issue was the wyvern, who I¡¯d nned on eatingter on. I didn¡¯t really need any skills from it since as soon as I was done processing the [Dragon Cores]. I¡¯d have a plethora of dragon skills to ess.
When I was done with her room, Kara called me over to exin some of her crazy works. She had been working on an invisible barrier that could differentiate friend from foe and kill any enemy with intense amounts of lightning, whilst also radiating anti-magic.
She was finding it difficult to do, since the moment anti-magic came into the equation, the barrier itself would shut-down. If we set up [Dragon Scales] around the barrier she was talking about, then we¡¯d be able to use the barrier while enemies couldn¡¯t use their magic. The problem with that was [Dragon Scales] worked as scales on the body.
Even if we managed toe up with a solution forbining anti-magic and the electric barrier, there was the issue of arge enough power source. Kara couldn¡¯t power this. I could try, but I¡¯dst at most 3 days if we were to keep it up continuously. 2 weeks if I took all the mana from every familia member. Then again, it wasn¡¯t really an issue since I already had a solution to that.
Just as we were trying to brainstorm ideas for that, I received an alert from Reiman. The troll king was trying to kill him. Wasting no time, we both headed out with teleportation.
As soon as I identified them, I kicked the troll king¡¯s arm, identally snapping it in two and freeing Reiman. I wish I could lie that I was sorry, but I felt absolutely no remorse for him. The grey troll ignored the pain. I remembered that their troll king was a red troll, but he was nowhere to be found.
From the silence of the members, I deduced that Krull had killed him off in a rage. The orc king must have been lucky.
We borated on our reason foring, but the trolls refused tomunicate and were insistent on fighting us. Since we couldn¡¯t reason with them, we left to go find the remaining kobolds. There were a lot of kobold corpses so I wasn¡¯t sure if they really were alive, but Kara exined that there were some Kobold viges Krull acquired new ves from.
A few viges agreed, and some just ignored us.
It was a rowdy day of searching for people. Once we were done, we returned to the West. After tomorrow, the meeting would begin. I never thought I¡¯d be attending such a thing, let alone being the one to organise it.
Kara went off to go check up on her sister. I suggested talking to Sylvie about the barrier idea as well. That pixie was surprisingly smart. The agent had some ideas as well, but I didn¡¯t share those with Kara. I wanted to see something for myself first.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[The skill [Shadow Demon Summoning] became [Shadow Demon Summoning Level 9]]
[You can now summon [Shadow Fiends]]
SKILL ALCHEMY
[Fiendish Gaze] + [Imprint] + [Hypnotic Gaze] + [Intimidating Aura] = [Gaze of Dominance] (Advanced Skill)
[Mossy Scales] + [Spawn Spores] = [Mossidile Spawn Spores]
MAGIC
[Tori acquired the skill [Dark Magic: Undead Creation]]
[Tori unlocked a portion of the [Dark Arts]]
[Tori acquired [Life Magic]]
[There will be limitations as this was unlocked unorthodoxly]
<A/N: Took like forever, but we finally see how the East is like after Krull lost. It hasn¡¯t been long since the fight against Krull. Just a little over a month. Please give me your power stones,ments, golden tickets and reviews so I get more motivated to release the chapters! Join the discord as well! Have a good day.>
Chapter 229 I Befriended A Devil
Day 65
Ever been so bored out of your mind you would literally want to talk to a devil? Well, I have.
Not in my previous life, obviously. I wasn¡¯t into the ult and stuff. All superstitious beliefs seemed so dumb to me. Like, why believe there were other almighty deities out there, simply watching you go about your normal business in life like creeps.
Well now I did believe in the existence of such beings.
My conversation with the devil, the one residing in [God¡¯s Wisdom] went something like this.
¡®Hey, devil-san. How are you in my skill [God¡¯s Wisdom]?¡¯
¡®O-Oi! Tori I thought we agreed to not talk to it!¡¯
¡®What¡¯s the big deal? With [Skill Alchemy] you should be able to move the devil out of the skill at any point. [God¡¯s Wisdom] has virtually no ess to our physical affairs and we are resistant to soul attacks. There¡¯s no problem, right?¡¯
¡®But-¡¯
¡®Leave her, Akira. She¡¯s right.¡¯
¡®Oi, don¡¯t call me ¡®her¡¯.¡¯
¡®Sure thing, Tori.¡¯
¡®Tch. You. Devil. Answer me now.¡¯
<<S-so you figured me out>>
¡®Of course.¡¯
<<From your conversation, it seems you knew for quite some time. How¡¯d you figure me out?>>
¡®If you think I wouldn¡¯t notice if my own unique skill was acting wonky, you are dumber than I give you credit for.¡¯
<<Uwa! Sorry>>
¡®So, spill the beans. Why¡¯d you enter my skill?¡¯
<<I was on the verge of death. You were my only way out that the time>>
¡®Eh? When was this?¡¯
<<59 days ago>>
¡®Jesus Christ! It¡¯s been that long!?¡¯
<<Ah~ You weren¡¯t aware when it happened? So [Evolver] really was acting unconsciously>>
¡®What do you mean?¡¯
<<Nothing>>
¡®Answer me or you get expelled.¡¯
<<Uwaa! The unique skill [Evolver] didn¡¯t allow me to possess your body! That was the right move at the time since you would have died>>
¡®Do you mean if you possess someone they die?¡¯
<<No, no! Back then I think my opponent used an attack that would kill me forever. I assumed that if I possessed you, I¡¯d be safe, but when I fused with [God¡¯s Voice] I learned that the skill used on me would have destroyed both of us like a cancer. [Evolver] gave me a chance by presenting something that existed out of the realm of physical and spiritual, a unique [Skill] that I could possess. Once I did, I was overloaded with all the information it possessed. It took me quite some time to absorb enough knowledge to think again. So, I evolved alongside [God¡¯s Voice] and am now an actual part of it. [Evolver] took my true name and imparted it into you, making you part devil>>
¡®Eh? Eh? I don¡¯t understand anything!¡¯
<<Hahaha! You¡¯re dumber than I gave you credit for!>>
¡®Don¡¯t use my own words against me!¡¯
<<I would never dream of it, Master>>
¡®What even lead to that whole situation?¡¯
<<Not sure. It had something to do with me being summoned a contract, but since I technically don¡¯t have a physical body, I¡¯m not bound by the rules of that contract anymore>>
¡®That doesn¡¯t exin how you ended up in that particr situation.¡¯
<<Does that even matter? I thought a creature like yourself would just Wing It! Hahahaha!>>
¡®Don¡¯t you dare use bird puns on me! Like some sort of Cuckoo.¡¯
<<Why? Because my puns are too im-peck-able?>>
¡®No. Because it¡¯s simply too much of a bird-en.¡¯
<<Too chicken for a pun-off?>>
¡®Shut up! Exin everything from the start properly!¡¯
<<Uawaa~ I honestly don¡¯t remember much. Imagine being fed all the information in the world at a go!>>
¡®Tch. Whatever. I want to make sure you know what will happen if you try to mess with me.¡¯
<<Oh? I thought you were going to expel me either way!>>
¡®You prefer that?¡¯
<<No, no! Thank you very much! I will try to be as helpful as possible!>>
¡®Hmm, you sure this is a good idea, Tori?¡¯
¡®You, tell me. You¡¯re the one who sees 12 different possibilities at a time.¡¯
¡®You know, it¡¯s kinda annoying how you create new factors to stuff we¡¯ve already set up. But this is looking really good. Better than before even. Things will proceed at a faster rate now.¡¯
¡®Seriously? Then that¡¯s a good thing.¡¯
¡®Yep.¡¯
And like that, I¡¯d acquired the full cooperation of the demon residing in my head¡ skill¡ whatever. Morning came with a baggy eyed Tsuna.
She hadn¡¯t gotten much sleep sinceing back to life. For the second time, it seems. Apparently, she died when Krull invaded and was revived only to die a second time when Fafnir attacked. I couldn¡¯t imagine dying twice. At least that affected her evolutionary path and made her into a Death wight.
She, much like me, only grew weaker in the sun. If she stayed out for too long, she¡¯d die so I bought a [Daylight Ring] for her. After making sure she was physically alright, I inquired further.<novelnext></novelnext>
Seems like she keeps having dreams of an ugly albino witch hob-goblin trying to suffocate her. My mind went to Minerva, but she said it wasn¡¯t her. Someone else called Zana. I pictured my Zana as a hob-goblin. Still a cool beauty in my eyes, so this whole ugly business was beyond me.
I wasn¡¯t sure how to help her, but the agent decided to prove its usefulness as soon as possible. It identified a second soul inside of Zana¡¯s body. All of a sudden, her title [Cursed Vessel] made more sense to me.
There was a wicked witch named Zana. She used to terrorise most creatures in the west even though she led the weak race that is the goblins. Goliath had to personally end her, but he didn¡¯t finish the job and only ended up killing the witch temporarily. She found a way to return to this world through reincarnation. Her vessel was Tsuna, so she was trying to take over.
Normally, she wasn¡¯t in the wrong for trying to take what¡¯s hers. Tsuna wasn¡¯t hers for the taking though. I used [Dragon Eyes] to peer into Tsuna¡¯s [Soul corridor]. There, I found that the witch was talking to herself like she was going insane.
I wouldn¡¯t be able to physically interact with her soul though, so I gave a warning to the witch with [Terror]. With that, Tsuna could now go and sleep in peace.
After all that, she exins her actual problem to me. She wanted to know about Shitsuke and how I¡¯d bring him back. I lied that it was a work in progress.
Can you me me?
I can¡¯t go into Hell now! Especially when I don¡¯t have a way back here. We¡¯d have to resume this discussion at a different date. Since the meeting was tomorrow, I had to make sure the meeting ce was up and ready.
Diane hadn¡¯t set up anything. This stupid dryad imed to have not received any orders from the forest¡¯s new master so she wasn¡¯t aware that she had to do anything. I really, really, was on the verge of fighting her, but I gave up and ordered her like she wanted.
She took me into her tree where things had already been set up. The space was bigger than I remembered it being with arge rectangr desk set up. At the end, there was a throne of tree branches set up with flowers blossoming out of it. The table was big enough to have at least a dozen people sitting at its sidesfortably.
I asked her to get rid of the throne. She refused, so I ordered then sheplied.
What was with her and orders?
I also asked her if it was alright to use some wood from the trees to build houses. The point of this question was that I wouldn¡¯t be able to buy buildings all the time. The monsters need to learn to build such things if they did enjoy them. The condo for instance has only received praises from everyone sleeping in them so far. If possible, I¡¯d prefer if we found some people with architectural skills. Maybe some more humans were needed.
The only issue was the fact that the monsters here didn¡¯t like humans too much. Erwin was the exception and even then, no one went out of their way to interact with him. I kind of felt bad for him, but it was his choice to live with the monsters instead of going back to human civilisation.
Well, this was an issue for another day. Maybe Yokino and Unmei had some sort of idea.
Diane gave me the green light. As long as it wasn¡¯t the trees of dryads in particr.
With that, I left off and was caught by Unmei. He wanted to talk to me about the wooden condo that popped up literally overnight. I asked him not to think too much about it, but he was adamant about it, saying it was too out of this world¡¯s standards.
I guess erecting a condo in a forest in this kind of setting wasn¡¯t the best idea. Precisely why I wanted these guys to make their own buildings so I see how best to adjust everything. I had no interest in improving the state of living for everyone in this world. Imagine I sped up things and caused them to learn how to develop nukes or something. That¡¯d be too scary, for even me.
He wanted to ask if I was from another world just like him, but it would seem he too wanted to keep the fact that he came from another world his secret. Since we both weren¡¯t 100% sure we could trust each other, I too would keep it under wraps.
Since he didn¡¯t have anything else to report, I left to go see Reiman. ording to him, the Orcs and Trolls were using the tunnels toe to the West. They were moving away from the East since they were scared of what Krull would do. To be honest, the West was starting to feel more crowded now with the new additions.
The North was still inhospitable, since it contained only the most dangerous monsters Larm had. The minimum rank living there was C+ which was scary to think about. The Tyrant of the North definitely was no pushover in that case.
Under normal circumstances, considering how it was, it would be safe to assume no humans would be stupid enough to go there. If they were, they would be met by cyclops, giants and the likes. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t call humans rational beings.
As much as they imed to be, when push came to shove, logic was thrown out the window. Emotions and simple instinct took over and hence, the only way humans truly evolve. Those violent bastards would definitely try going through the North if the West, South and East arepletely unpassable.
I had to get the Tyrant of the North on my side by any means necessary before the war between demons and humans starts in earnest.
Reiman said he¡¯d keep trying to make more progress, but for now his focus would be on invading human turf. That way, his shadow rats could get more information from humans. They didn¡¯t really understand the humannguage, but they¡¯d learnt bits of it. I could have [God¡¯s Wisdom] trante for all of them easily, so I did.
My general was greatly pleased with this development and began singing praises to me. It felt nice to be praised so I didn¡¯t stop him. When he was done, he left to continue the mission. Looks like the Tunnelers have a lot of work ahead of them.
I also decided to use the remainder of the day to speak to the people who I hadn¡¯t spoken to since they joined us. The kobold I¡¯d named Inu and the silver back pumas Kuro added to the fray before Fafnir happened.
Both were nervous about talking to me, something about my eyes looking scary. Though Inu was a bit bolder and loud since we¡¯d talked once before when I gave him his name. He was excited to be receiving a mission from me personally.
I asked him and the Pumas to be receiving the kobolds and orcs that were marching to us.
The kobolds would be more at ease with a familiar face guiding them and should anything happen, the silver backs were there to fight. They should have been enough to protect the kobolds and tunnelers from the big orcs.
Due to the distance, they¡¯d miss the meeting, so I offered to personally exin the details of the event to them. They were happy with that, and so I named the leader of the pumas, Concol. It didn¡¯t take any relevant amount of mana, but it was enough to excite the puma.
When they left, I asked the tunnelers to keep an eye on Inu and Concol. Other than house duties, the kobolds were virtually useless. If he possessed diplomatic skills like I was hoping, he¡¯d have some use and the pumas could be divided between forest protection alongside the wolves and bugs, and transport for any one leaving our territory under a mission.
Tomorrow was the actual meeting, so the dryads and sprites would wee the leaders. If we ever had to hold something like this again, it''d be better prepared and held so everyone wouldn''t be nearly as stressed out as they were now.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[10 goblins evolved into hob-goblins]
[5 timber wolves evolved into Faeri Hounds]
[3 timber wolves evolved into Triplet Hell Hounds]
[Consensus on house structure is still ongoing]
SKILLS
[[Novice Swordsmanship] became [Amateur Swordsmanship]]
STORE
[Akira bought the skills [Aura Domain] and [Skill Enhance] for 400 store points]
[30 store points remaining]
[Hyakkun sold [Golden Sigma Armour] for 1000 store points]
[1030 store points remaining]
[Hyakkun converted 5000 Antean Gold coins to store points]
[11,030 store points remaining]
[Hyakkun bought 2 [Hut blue prints] for 30 store points]
[Hyakkun bought [Architecture] skill for the servant [Reiman] for 100 store points]
[10,900 store points remaining]
DUNGEON
[2 Dungeon quests werepleted]
...
[[Shadow''s Crib] is cracking]
<A/N: So it''s time for the meeting. If you want to see it quickly, I''m sorry, but wait a bit! We''re going to the human side of things from now on. What they''ve been up to the past few days as well, then their events coincide since its coincidentally happening on the exact same day.>
Chapter 230 Paralysed?
15 Days till Odysseus, Dhijan Hero Nation, Royal Castle
Standing in front of the door leading to the castle¡¯s medic ward were three groups of people. A group of three adventurers, two members of the Kazoku and the pdins Seiko Sotomura and Jasmine. Everyone had tense expressions on their faces as they waited for someone to walk out of the door.
There was an obvious animosity radiating from the party of adventurers towards the other groups, but they were more focused on the door. They had been waiting in front of it for 3 days straight with an anxiety that could kill an elephant.
The door leading to the room opened up and from it emerged two women. One with ck and white hair, the other with blonde hair. The pdins Charlotte and Jeanne D¡¯Arc respectively.
Everyone looked at their faces for any sign of hope, but Jeanne looked down whereas Charlotte retained her usual bored, expressionless face.
¡°How bad is it?¡±
They were all too shocked by the women¡¯s reactions that they were unable to muster a single word. The one to speak was the cold Seiko. The Kazoku and adventurers¡¯ looks at him with a mix of surprise, anger and disbelief.
¡°From the looks of things, the boy will never be able to use his arm in the same way ever again.¡±
Jeanne spoke. The adventurers¡¯ eyes widened in shock. There was no way their Marcus would never be able to use his arm again. Without it, he couldn¡¯t aplish his dream. All their adventures and journeys together would have been for naught. This was the worst possible situation ever!
¡°And the girl? My sister, Mika! How is she?¡±
The usually calm twin, aggressively asked.
¡°The girl¡ sh-she¡¯ll never¡¡±
Jeanne paused, unable to finish the sentence. Nika grabbed her by the cor and raged.
¡°She¡¯ll never what? She¡¯s fine, right?¡±
The blonde couldn¡¯t produce an answer. No matter how she put it, Mika was going to be very upset. Beast men or demi-humans as they were generally termed were easily angered people. News like that could easily set this one off, so Jeanne found herself unable to speak.
Charlotte noticed this and as someone who didn¡¯t like her time being wasted, she spoke up.
¡°She¡¯ll never walk again. Her spine waspletely shuttered by the magic bullet. Go make your pea-¡±
While speaking, Nika growled and swiped at the pdin. The first people to react were the Kazoku, Akari of the Saito n and Daisuke of the Minamoto n. Akari¡¯s de was against Charlotte¡¯s neck as Daisuke hadpletely restrained Nika.
Charlotte dropped her finger that was pointed at Nika then looked at the adventurers.
¡°You couldn¡¯t even recognise that I was going to kill your friend, let alone save her. Yet you went out to travel the world? You thought you would just go out and have a st, no worries in the world because you are the world¡¯s chosen heroes?¡±
¡°Charlotte!¡±
Jeanne tried to make her pause, but Charlotte¡¯s wrath knew no bounds.
¡°Did you think adventuring was as easy as simply going out and having fun with your friends? Kill a few normal and advanced beasts and you¡¯re suddenly on top of the world? Did you not once consider the number of people who risk their lives every single day doing what you assumed was casual fun? Weak people should stick to their farms and kitchens rather than being burdens to the truly strong.¡±
The adventurers werepletely silent. Nika was still rampaging about in Daisuke¡¯s arms, but even she heard what Charlotte said. None could refute the cold woman¡¯s words that cut through them like a hot knife through butter.
She walked past them and looked at Seiko from the corner of her eye. The sound of her tongue clicking could be heard by everyone as she stopped in front of him.
¡°And you. We¡¯re supposed to be saving idiots like them, yet you go out of your way to paralyse not one, but two of them for life. You¡¯ve failed Veronica¡¯s teachings. What a waste of time and resources you are.¡±
¡°Hey! That¡¯s too mean!¡±
The one to shout out was Jasmine who wasn¡¯t too pleased with how Charlotte was talking. Both their eyes met. Cold against fiery.
¡°New blood. Always excited for no effing reason. Just cause you¡¯re strong and you¡¯ve been lucky so far, don¡¯t think you¡¯re invincible. You¡¯re lucky Seiko is immortal or your eyes wouldn¡¯t be nearly as bright as they are now.¡±
¡°Charlotte. I order you to be silent!¡±
Jeanne yelled at the top of her voice, a very pissed off frown present on her face. Charlotte shrugged and walked away, leaving everyone silent.
¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±
Seiko spoke to Jasmine and walked in the same direction as Charlotte.
¡°Eh? But I thought y-¡±
¡°Nothing. I just came to confirm if he was alive, which he is. That¡¯s as good as it gets for him.¡±
¡°Y-You bastard! Wait right there!¡±
Daryl yelled and stomped towards Seiko. The young pdin stopped himself and turned around to face the angry man. Daryl himself was an overbearing figure, but inparison to Seiko, he was tiny. Both stared into each other, Seiko waiting for Daryl to speak up.
¡°What is it?¡±
Daryl¡¯s clenched fists shook mightily as tears gathered up in his eyes.
¡°You are going to apologise to Marcus and Mika! Now!¡±
¡°I will do no such thing. I strictly told them not t-¡±
Before Seiko could finish, Daryl¡¯s fist connected with his mouth. The power behind it was nothing to Seiko as he did not even budge an inch.
¡°What th-¡±
¡°I¡¯d advice you don¡¯t do that again. A normal human could break some bones from punching me.¡±
With that being said, Seiko turned around to leave. Jasmine looked between Seiko and the others before rushing after her partner. Daryl could only look at their backs as they left with little to no care for the sort of damage they¡¯d just done.<novelnext></novelnext>
He couldn¡¯t help but feel an insatiable rage. Daryl, who was raised amongst a certain group of dwarves had always been told to let out his feelings through rage, but he never did. He was always the calm and thoughtful now. Mature to the very end. But, when he thought back on the past two years and all the journeys he¡¯s had with the party, the idea of it all being brought to an end just like this felt very wrong to him. It made him feel an emotion he thought he¡¯d never feel.
Marcus was immature, rash and sometimes annoying, but he was still Daryl¡¯s dear friend. His dear friend whom he¡¯d slept under the stars with. His dear friend whom he¡¯d plunged into a dangerous dungeon with. His dear friend he had pledged his future to. And so, when that future was unrightfully stolen from him, all Daryl could do was get angry, because Charlotte¡¯s words were right on the money.
They were weak. It was an issue that even their benefactor had brought up several times. And it was even worse knowing that they¡¯d never reach the heights of pdins in their life time. Daryl was starting to feel hopeless.
While he stood there, Celica grabbed his arm. She started to observe his knuckle.
¡°You¡¯re bleeding.¡±
She tried to wipe off the blood gently.
That punch he threw was too mighty.
¡°I apologise on the behalf of the Sotomura n. One of their members has done something unforgivable to you people.¡±
Akari stepped forward and bowed. Daisuke followed behind with a now unconscious Nika in his arms.
¡°I will drop miss Nika in her room.¡±
With that, both of them left off.
Jeanne came towards Daryl and forcefully took his fist. She examined it, said a chant to heal the wound and heaved a heavy sigh.
¡°I know this sort of thing really hurts, but please do have faith in the Gods. They will provide a miracle for you.¡±
She bowed to them before walking off briskly.
Celica grabbed Daryl¡¯s face in her arms and brought it closer to hers.
¡°Stop making such a face. Has Marcus ever lost hope?¡±
¡°No¡¡±
¡°Why should we? Let¡¯s go in there. I bet he¡¯ll be grinning stupidly like he always does.¡±
Her voice shook, evidence that she didn¡¯t believe in what she herself said. Daryl, noticing how hard she was trying to get him to stop being so down grabbed her hands from his face and smiled.
¡°Yeah. Our reckless hero leader wouldn¡¯t be knocked down by such a thing.¡±
Once they calmed down somewhat, they looked at the door leading to the room.
¡°Shall we?¡±
Both walked into the room and there were two beds, side by side. In one of the beds, Mika slept peacefully, which put their hearts at ease.
On the other bed, Marcus was already awake and sitting up.
The young blonde looked dashingly out the window. When he noticed both of them were in the room, he looked at them with his usual bright, childish smile.
¡°Yo, guys!¡±
He shouted. Seeing his expression only hurt Daryl and Celica as they assumed it was Marcus¡¯ way of coping with the news.
¡°Come over. I need to talk to you about something.¡±
His expression suddenly changed and there was a sad smile on his face. Both Daryl and Celica could guess what he was about to talk to them about. They looked at each other in the eye then took the necessary steps forward.
Daryl immediately knelt down next to Marcus¡¯ bed and tears started streaming down his face.
¡°Marcus.¡±
His voice cracked.
¡°I¡¯m sorry, Marcus. You usually look up to me for advice, yet I failed you.¡±
¡°Huh? The hell are you talking about?¡±
Marcus¡¯ voice sounded annoyed and genuinely confused. A tone he was incapable of faking. Daryl looked up at the young man, snot running down his face.
¡°Your arm. It¡¯s broken. And Mika¡¯s legs¡ she¡¯ll never be able to walk again.¡±
¡°Oh that? Not important. I have something else to tell you.¡±
¡°Eh?¡±
¡°Let¡¯s go to the West.¡±
¡°Sundane?¡±
Celica asked.
¡°No, who the hell cares about Sundane. I¡¯m talking about the West of Larm.¡±
<A/N: Uhh, now I wish I spent more time on these guys at the earlier stages of the story so you could actually care about this scene. Please give me your power stones, golden tickets,ments and reviews! Thank you and have a nice day!>
Chapter 231 Paladin Vs Kazoku (Spar)
12 days till Odysseus, Dhijan Hero Nation, Royal Castle
¡°Come on, Kana! Give Karma back.¡±
¡°Not until you summon your imperial rank beast.¡±
Kana refused Shiro¡¯s plead. The white-haired girl groaned in annoyance. She performed a quick chant and shot off a fire ball at the silver haired girl who easily jumped out of the way and stuck her tongue out.
¡°Your spell chanting is too slow.¡±
¡°Tch. Everyone always said I was the fastest.¡±
¡°Maybe for your age.¡±
A new voice popped up in the room and through the doors leading to the training room came Seiko with his partner, Jasmine.
¡°Seiko-kun, here for some early practice?¡±
Shiro dropped all she was doing with Kana and ran towards the young man. Once in front of him, he patted her on the head. To his side, Jasmine pouted.
¡°Yeah. I¡¯ll be sparring with Jasmine. Want to see?¡±
¡°Can I participate instead?¡±
¡°Sorry, but we¡¯re a bit too-¡±
¡°Oi, Shiro! You don¡¯t want Karma back?¡±
Kana ran over with the little ck dragon resting on her head. ck smoke escaped the dragon¡¯s mouth, evidence that it was exhausted from ying with the overly energetic Kana.
Shiro grabbed Kana in a hug and looked at Seiko.
¡°What if Kana and I teamed up against you, then? You wouldn¡¯t mind, would you?¡±
Seiko looked at the teenagers then at his partner. She was shaking her head, suggesting she wasn¡¯t with the idea.
¡°Eh? Just the two of us against him? That¡¯s no fair. If we¡¯re going to do this, she¡¯ll need to be a part too.¡±
Kana pointed at Jasmine¡¯s face with a cocky smile on her face. She had inherited her father¡¯s overbearing and confident attitude towards life as a whole.
Jasmine grinned madly, now interested in ying. Seiko and Shiro on the other hand were having second thoughts about it, since fighting one pdin alone was not something just anyone could do. The other issue was the fact that Kazoku weren¡¯t like normal people. They had the blood of the great heroes that once saved humanity in the ancient days so their potential was just as much as a pdin¡¯s.
Both shrugged it off, not wanting to think about it too much.
Kana grabbed Shiro and moved one end of the training room. She begun to whisper to Shiro.
¡°I know you¡¯re a summoner and all, but can you fight without using your summons?¡±
¡°My spells are mostly at the intermediate level. I don¡¯t think that kind of power is much against a pdin."
She groaned.
¡°Hmm, but we can¡¯t have you summoning your Imperial rank beast here. Do you have any superior beasts or supreme beasts you can summon?¡±
¡°Huuh, supreme beasts might be too much for even the training room. I have a superior beast though.¡±
¡°Great.¡±
With that, Kana exined her battle n. After hearing it out, Shiro had a single problem with the n. She tried to voice it out, but Kana was not going to listen to her.
¡°Oi, pdins! We¡¯re ready.¡±
¡°Kana!¡±
Both Seiko and Jasmine looked at each other, then at the duo.
¡°You said to hold back enough not to kill them, right?¡±
After repeating what she¡¯d heard from Seiko several times, she stretched a bit. Kana heard what she just said and she could feel a vein burst in her forehead.
¡°Cocky shit. I¡¯ll teach ya!¡±
Kana punched her knuckles together and charge towards Jasmine. The purple haired woman grinned and charged towards Kana as well, but at a faster pace. Kana whose mind was only on delivering a punch to Jasmine hadn¡¯t noticed that her opponent was much faster than her. The only ones who saw this were those not charging headfirst.
When both were simply two feet away from each other, Kana threw a jab which Jasmine easily avoided and repaid with an uppercut to the chin, sending the young girl flying into the air.
¡°One down! One to go! Woohoo!¡±
Shiro¡¯s mouth dropped in awe at the shockingly easy sight. Seiko on the other hand face palmed and sighed.
While still in the sky, Kana¡¯s mind was busily thinking about several things.
¡®I¡¯ve never received such a punch. Father¡¯s was stronger, but this feels different. Those I used to spar could never do this sort of damage against me in one blow. And they weren¡¯t holding back either. They were genuinely weak. Ah, this is it. The stepping stone I¡¯ve been needing for the past year to surpass the heights of my father. In that case, there¡¯s no reason not to go all out from the beginning.¡¯
Her confusion turned into excitement at the prospect of possible growth. Her silver hair started to crackle with lightning as she dropped to the ground on her feet.
¡°Stay back, Shiro. I¡¯ll fight the pdins myself.¡±
The only way to grow stronger was through oveing impossible peaks. Right now, there were two impossible peaks for her to ovee and as such, she was not going to let the opportunity go to waste.
¡®Master, could this girl be stupid?¡¯
¡®Looks like it. Well, her n was never going to work in the first ce.¡¯
¡®So, why are you happy?¡¯
Karma noticed the change in mood from Shiro.
¡°Oh? I didn¡¯t even notice that. Maybe it¡¯s because I can also y about now.¡±
Just as she said that, she pointed her hand at Seiko. A magic circle popped up in front of her and she started affixing runes into the circle.
¡°I hope this ce doesn¡¯t matter much to you guys.¡±
¡°What?¡±
¡°Maximum Magic: me Dragon!¡±
¡®Karma, don¡¯t forget our special move! Now go!¡¯
¡®Yes, master!¡¯
Seiko¡¯s eyes widened at the sight of the magic circle thatrgened and formed many other moreplex circles to its side. His mind went wild as he tried to make sense of what Shiro just did. Forming such magic circles would need at least three high level mages and more than ten minutes to do, yet she hadpleted it in merely twenty seconds.
She truly was a magic prodigy. He could start to understand why everyone praised her magical ability, but now wasn¡¯t the time to marvel at it. He took out his gun, looked into the barrel to check the safety. He blew into it then waved it around for a bit before pointing it at the fireballing his way.
POW!
A powerful blue shot escaped out of the barrel, destroying the ginormous me. Shiro who hadn¡¯t expected her maximum magic to be cancelled out was left stunned. She however regained her senses once Seiko sprinted towards her.
¡°Karma!¡±
She yelled and the dispersed embers of the me formed up being Seiko into a massive ming dragon which tried to snap Seiko¡¯s head off. The pdin of steel took out a weird device which erupted a mana shield behind him, protecting him from the attack, all while still charging for Shiro.
The teenager put both hands together and chanted a spell for, causing a powerful gust of wind to shoot her to the sky. Seiko shot another white st at her, hitting her in the leg.
She winced in pain, losing her bnce in the air.
¡®This is how it feels when the safety is on? This guy¡¯s not kind!¡¯
An invisible tform formed before her and she fell on it.
¡°Well, I¡¯m not kind either! Kame! Bombshell!¡±
She pped both hands and a giant creature in the appearance of a turtle with a stone-like shell popped up above the pdin.
¡®Sure thing, Shiro-chan!¡¯
At hermand, the turtle let out a cry that caused multiple spears of water to rain down in the training room. Seiko easily avoided most of them and even countered some with his own shots, even managing to break Shiro¡¯s invisible tforms on three asions.
Kame fell to the ground and Shiro was forced to jump on his back.
¡°Karma,e back!¡±
Her little familiar appeared in a white light on her shoulder.
¡°Kana! Direct your lightning to the ground!¡±
The silver haired girl who was busily exchanging fists with Jasmine grunted. She was losing out in the fight from the looks of things, and there was no way she was winning this without fighting dirty.
Seiko who noticed what Shiro was nning took out a gun from his pocket and shot the ground, creating rocky tforms that rose above the now flooded training ground.
¡°I have a resistance to lightning attacks, you know?¡±
He reminded her, but Shiro wasn¡¯t going to buy that. If he had lightning attacks, there was no point in him creating tforms to avoid the water.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Kana!¡±
¡°Kind of busy!¡±
Kana was unable to even let her own lightning go wild which Shiro found to be way too odd. She scanned around till she found a yellow stone glowing above Jasmine and cackling with lightning. Anytime Kana tried to summon her lightning, it all went towards the stone and Jasmine would simply overpower Kana with brute strength.
¡°What kind of magic is that?¡±
¡°Jewel magic. She¡¯s the first we¡¯ve seen with it, but from what I¡¯ve observed, it¡¯s the most versatile magic in the world with seemingly limitless uses.¡±
¡°Eh? I want to study that! I want that.¡±
¡°You can do so after this session.¡±
Shiro hadn¡¯t seen when, but Seiko was now simply a foot way from her and his gun was on her abdomen. Even her familiars hadn¡¯t sensed his movements.
¡°I see Kai wasn¡¯t the only one good at sneaking up on others.¡±
She mused, but Seiko showed no expression.
¡°Thanks for letting me know what magic she has though.¡±
¡°Hm?¡±
Just then, the sound of the stone shattering into pieces resounded mightily in their ears. Seiko looked back and even Jasmine was stunned by the sight, giving Kana the breathing space, she needed.
¡°Lightning Gauntlets!¡±
She punched her knuckles together and her arms were covered with gauntlets made of pure blue lightning. She punched the water beneath her, sending a powerful current through the entire room.
¡°Impres-¡±
Just as he was giving her praise, Karma jumped on his face. Seiko pped the ck dragon away and his gun was still pointed at Shiro.
¡°Nice attempt.¡±
¡°Did you know Kame has lightning resistance too?¡±
¡°Doesn¡¯t change the fact that you can¡¯t escape.¡±
¡°True, but Kame can control the water he spawns.¡±
¡°Wha-ARGH!¡±
Two tendrils of water wrapped around his arms and dragged him onto the ground.
¡°Victory!¡±
She yelled and posed. The only thing that could overshadow her yelling was the sounds of Kana and Jasmine screaming in pain while being electrocuted. Seiko who had aplete immunity to physical pain just stood up and shrugged.
He offered his hand for her to get off the turtle. Before she took his hand, she asked Kame to get rid of all the water which he did in an instant. She got down and patted the giant beast on its head.
¡°Thank you for the help.¡±
¡®Anytime, Shiro. Especially now that you¡¯re facing that problem.¡¯
¡®Oi, you¡¯re not supposed to talk about that.¡¯
Karma walked over, randomly twitching.
¡°It¡¯s alright. Also, you need to work more on your timing with me dragon. Had you been faster Seiko wouldn¡¯t have been able to put up the barrier before you chomped off his head.¡±
¡®S-Sorry.¡¯
The dragon hung its head low in shame.
¡°You can go now, Kame.¡±
The turtle faded, leaving just a depressed Karma at Shiro¡¯s side.
¡°Seriously talking about beheading me right in front of me? How cruel of you.¡±
Seikoined while rubbing his neck.
¡°Oh please, as if that could kill you.¡±
¡°It can¡ What do you think I¡¯m made of?¡±
While talking, apuse echoed through the training room. Standing at the entrance to the training room in her usual uniform, was the regal Lady Veronica. At her side was the serious yet aloof Neburis with an uninterested light in her eyes.
She bowed to Veronica then walked away, whereas Veronica entered the room.
¡°Oh, Lady Veronica. I didn¡¯t expect to see you here.¡±
Seiko scratched the back of his head.
¡°That¡¯sdy Veronica Belvoir? Captain of the Dhijan Nation Royal Guard, Eldest daughter of the Belvoir House, Second highest grades ever at the Grand Magic University in Mexar and the Pdin of Quivering Water, Veronica Belvoir?¡±
¡°Yep.¡±
He responded listlessly while staring at the woman walking towards them.
¡°Also, your apparent crush, I¡¯m assuming?¡±
¡°Ye- What? No!¡±
Shiro had received her confirmation from the flustered Seiko¡¯s reaction. That was the oddest thing ever since Seiko mostly never shows any expressions. A gentle smile, a frown, a twitching eye and perked up ears. These four were the only ways Seiko ever expressed his emotions, yet here he was, acting out.
There was no way in hell Shiro was going to pass up on the opportunity to tease her usually stoic cousin.
Lady Veronica came to stop in front of the duo and folder her arms.
¡°Wow. You¡¯re just as talented as Seiko said you were.¡±
¡°Lady Veronica! You¡¯re as beautiful as Seiko said you were.¡±
¡°B-b-beautiful? Seiko said that?¡±
Veronica was now acting flustered. Shiro¡¯s face turned nk as she saw this elegant powerfuldy turned into a confused flustering mess at her statement. She then looked at Seiko who was rubbing his head awkwardly. Putting one and two together, she was now bored. Teasing him like she¡¯d nned was now out of the window.
There were still other ways to do this though.
¡°Oh my, Seiko, look at how you¡¯ve ruined my clothes.¡±
She cried out in an exaggerated voice and pointed out her torn up stockings from the point Seiko¡¯s attacknded. The pdins observed her clothes then Veronica¡¯s mood changed.
¡°Oh, heavens your clothes are ruined. That brute should have gone easy on you.¡±
¡°Right? Right? He¡¯s so mean!¡±
¡°Ah¡ Shiro¡¡±
¡°Meanie!¡±
She ran behind Veronica and stuck her tongue out at Seiko. Veronica frowned and folder her arms. Seiko could see the rage building up in her face and just sighed, knowing no one was going to listen to him.
Meanwhile, Kana who was lying down, petrified by her own lightning attack was breathing heavily. Her fight with Jasmine showed her just what mistakes she was making in a fight. She had way too many opening whenever she threw a punch.
That was the way of fighting she had been thought since she had the lightning armour of her family, but it was a very reckless technique when one hadn¡¯t fully mastered the lightning armour. And Jasmine¡ Jasmine¡¯s attacks were unbelievably fast and direct, albeit weaker than hers. That first punch, was something out of this world.
It definitely wasn¡¯t the strongest she¡¯d felt, but there was just something about it.
¡°Oi, you alright, kiddo?¡±
Jasmine offered her hand to Kana who was still recovering from the fight. She looked like she¡¯d barely broke a sweat and thatst bit at the end.
¡°Why?¡±
Kana was confused by Jasmine¡¯s uncertainty.
¡°Why didn¡¯t you avoid the final attack?¡±
¡°Oh, that? Seiko said to hold back, and I thought dodging that attack would be disobeying his order, so I took it. You¡¯re pretty strong for a kid.¡±
¡°You say that like you¡¯re older than me.¡±
¡°But I am. I¡¯m 19, almost 20.¡±
¡°Eh? You¡¯re an adult? What the hell? You look just as young as me!¡±
<A/N: Please give me your power stones, golden tickets,ments and reviews to motivate me more!>
Chapter 232 Lets Take A Bath Together
9 Days till Odysseus
Shiro received a rude awakening in the form of Kana¡¯s loud voice. The hyper active teenager burst into Shiro¡¯s room and jumped on her bed, forcing the less active teenager to wake up.
¡°Come on, the sun is out. Time for some fun.¡±
Kana drew Shiro¡¯s sheets from her. The white-haired girl groaned in annoyance and just looked at Kana with baggy eyes.
¡°It¡¯s too early, Kana.¡±
¡°Never too early for breakfast. Oh, Karma!¡±
The little ck dragon appeared before Kana. She hissed at Kana, but that hiss soon turned into a cry for help once Kana embraced her.
¡®Master, this one is too much.¡¯
She said while wriggling in Kana¡¯s absurdly strong grip.
¡°You¡¯re on your own, Karma. Give me a second Kana, I¡¯ll get ready.¡±
¡°Nope. Get up now and let¡¯s go take a bath together. I need to pay back Jasmine. She¡¯s won three days in a row! I refuse to ept that.¡±
¡°Eh? Eh? Eh?! B-Bath? Together? I-Isn¡¯t that like¡ too far?¡±
The sleepy Shiro was rmed at the thought of sharing her bath time with someone else.
¡°Too far? It¡¯s just a bath¡¡±
Shiro crawled back up and covered herself in her cloth, shaking timidly.
¡°B-But you don¡¯t show your naked body to anyone but your betrothed¡ or younger siblings, I guess.¡±
Kana had an expression that suggested disbelief.
¡°Don¡¯t tell me you¡¯ve never taken a bath with a friend before¡¡±
Shiro bashfully shook her head from the insides of her sheets. Kana dropped Karma and ran out the door, screaming Daisuke¡¯s name. Shiro let out a heavy breath and chanted a spell causing the wind to make shut her door.
The ck dragon walked up to her master and craned her neck. This was due to the strange frown on Shiro¡¯s face.
¡®Is there something wrong, master?¡¯
She asked curiously, but Shiro wasn¡¯t listening to her. Rather, she stood up and approached the balcony where she opened the ss door and looked at the city. In her direct front, there was a massive wall that separated the pce from the rest of the city. Beyond, Shiro could see at least 3 more walls, each bigger towards the outskirts.
The capital city of Dhijan was divided into three sectors. The Commoner sector, the Noble Sector and the Knight Sector.
It was a bit different from other kingdoms in the sense that it prioritised the safety of its civilians over that of the nobles. Every noble was required to have basic fighting abilities in order to protect themselves, so they were ced in the middle sector.
Of course, the noble sector had the highest quality merchandise and goods, but due to its cement, there was easy ess to its resources from the other sectors.
Dhijan prided itself on being a nation of goodwilled descendants of heroes, so whether it was from merely a political standpoint or due to genuine kindness, the nobles always valued the lives of themoners.
The knights who were at the outermost sector were supposed to be the kingdom¡¯s most fearsome force and needed to have the highest response time, so they were put at the outermost sector in case of enemy attack. It was virtually impossible tounch an attack from the inside, but should that happen, there were warp gates for them to immediately rush to any sector to offer assistance.
There were other cities and viges outside of these walls and they were all governed by other nobles handpicked by the king of the Dhijan nation. Majority were chosen due to their strength and few due to their wisdom. Either way, the Dhijan Hero Nation was one that was perceived as the ultimate kingdom in terms of military strength.
Of course, there were certain issues with the rule, but none of that was Shiro¡¯s concern.
She was looking towards the east, trying to see if she could see it. The outskirts of Larm. Specifically, the West of Larm.
Something had been bothering her ever since the night of the raid.
Was it the fact that her kingdom had been seized by a cult of fanatics? Nope, she couldn¡¯t care less about that.
Maybe it was the fact that her mother and everyone she knew was probably dead? No. She would miss Mr. Sotomura, but he was practically on his death bed. Her younger siblings were not in the New Kyoto Empire at the moment. Since their mother had no real use for them, they¡¯d been sent off to school in the Holy Mexar Empire in order to build trust with the empire. That failed though, and the empire was waging war on them, her siblings had been killed or so she¡¯d heard.
Maybe ¨C No. Shiro had no reason to care about that ce at all. Kana too seemed to have no care for that ce. Daisuke and Akari were the only ones who were worried for the safety of their parents and the empire¡¯s citizens. Shiro attributed it to them simply trying to act like the most matured out of the bunch. She believed they truly also couldn¡¯t care about the state of things. They¡¯d all faced their forms of torture from their parents.
The reason why she was in such a state was because of that weird message she received from a higher being. She¡¯d assumed that it was her patron god about to awaken her [Sacred], but Seiko and the other pdins had informed her that she had the potential, but she wouldn¡¯t be awakening it any time soon.
Now the question was what exactly spoke to her. And if she remembered right, that being wasn¡¯t particrly pleased with her mother. It wasn¡¯t as godly as she¡¯d imagined it would be, but there was something oddly familiar about it.
When she woke up, her instincts were screaming to her that she was very close to the ce she needed to be. It was even more than instincts. It was possibly fate screaming at her that she was very close to something important. At least, that was what she told herself.
Unfortunately, Seiko managed to get to her before she could go any further into the forest. It was only when she got to the nation that she found out that she woke up in Larm. Then suddenly, the statement ¡°Come to the West¡± made a whole lot of sense.
Whatever it was she had to go to was in the West of Larm. She¡¯dpletely forgotten about the danger of the West of Larm, but no one was ever going to let her go. She also hadn¡¯t ced any markers in the West throwing teleportation out of the window.
? Considering her status, she and the other Kazoku were ced under high surveince, though they¡¯d been able to make out some of the hidden individuals albeit not all of them.
¡®Master?¡¯
Karma curiously beckoned to Shiro who had no interest in responding to an objectcking in true personality.
¡°Yeah, yeah you need to hear this!¡±
Kana¡¯s voice could be heard from the other side of the door, apanied by extra voices. They sounded like Daisuke and Akari¡¯s voices.
Shiro¡¯s longing gaze disappeared as she realised it was physically impossible for her to see beyond the walls without magic. Maybe abination of water magic and light magic. She was working on something of that sort, but she hadn¡¯t quite figured it out because she didn¡¯t have time to.
She turned around to face the door as it burst open. Kana came dragging Daisuke by the arm and Akari followed behind closely with their arms behind their back.
¡°Oh, you¡¯re off your bed¡ Now let¡¯s go.¡±
¡°No! I¡¯m not going to take a bath with you!¡±
Shiro resisted yet again, throwing a tantrum this time. Daisuke scratched his head nervously.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°What¡¯s the exact problem here?¡±
He asked, still not sure why he was dragged from the breakfast hall to the girl¡¯s chambers. Akari, who was only here for the ride maintained their smile.
¡°Shiro-chan doesn¡¯t want to take a bath.¡±
Kana said.
¡°Eh? I said I don¡¯t want to take a bath with you! Don¡¯t cut out thest part.¡±
She roared and ran for the silver haired teenager. Fortunately, she didn¡¯t try running away and was immediately caught in Shiro¡¯s ws.
¡°But why?¡±
¡°Because¡!¡±
¡°Come on, Kana-chan. If she doesn¡¯t want to bath with you, you shouldn¡¯t force her.¡±
¡°Exactly Daisuke-kun!¡±
Shiro emphasised his point loudly.
¡°Because you don¡¯t want to doesn¡¯t mean we shouldn¡¯t take a bath together.¡±
Kana still couldn¡¯t understand what Shiro meant at all. Both Daisuke and Shiro were confused by her, so they had to ask another question.
¡°Huh? Why do you think she should take a bath with you?¡±
¡°Obviously because that¡¯s what I want.¡±
¡°Oi, oi! That¡¯s not how this world work-¡±
Daisuke grabbed Shiro¡¯s shoulder by the arms in an attempt to calm her down as she was shaking Kana¡¯s head with way too much energy. Daisuke was scared the silver-haired girl¡¯s head would fall off.
¡°Let me handle this.¡±
A crossed Shiro pouted and walked back.
¡°Hey, Kana-chan. You think that Shiro-san should go into the baths with you because that¡¯s what you want, right?"
"Um, yes?"
"Ok, but Shiro-chan doesn¡¯t want to bath with you, so you can¡¯t force her, ok?¡±
¡°Who made up that rule?¡±
¡°Ah!¡±
¡°And who made up the rule you¡¯re using?¡±
¡°Father taught me that the Taira n gets whatever it wants. No questions asked.¡±
¡°Eh? What kind of st-¡ never mind.¡±
Shiro was on the verge of blowing up, but she calmed down and decided to focus her mind on something else. Akari ended up catching her eye. They waved amiably at her with their usual smile and Shiro couldn¡¯t help but feel that Akari only got more feminine and beautiful each sometime she saw them.
Thinking about how a man was more beautiful than her made her strangely angry so she returned her gaze to Kana. She was about to argue with her, but eventually the anger just left. It¡¯d been weird, but in the recent days getting angry was practically an impossibility for her. She¡¯d found herself caring less and less about a lot of things. It was hard to pinpoint when this started, but she¡¯d have to say about a month ago.
She heaved a sigh and grabbed Kana.
¡°Fine. Let¡¯s go take a bath together!¡±
Shiro caved in since her opponent waspletely unreasonable.
¡°Oh great! See? I¡¯m always right. Even the kids back at school agreed with me.¡±
Kana cockily stated. Daisuke distastefully responded to her im.
¡°Forcing your will on others doesn¡¯t make you right¡ just means you¡¯re a bully.¡±
¡°I have no idea what you¡¯re talking about.¡±
¡°Excuse me. Would it be alright if I joined you two to the bathroom?¡±
Akari asked with a raised arm.
¡°Absolutely not!¡±
Both Shiro and Daisuke rejected their offer.
¡°Excellent idea! Come along too, Daisuke! That way it¡¯s all peers bathing together. I¡¯ll even wash your back for you! Hahaha!¡±
¡°No.¡±
Again, both Shiro and Daisuke strongly rejected hermand.
¡°I am not taking no for an answer!¡±
¡°Who said you had a choice?¡±
Shiro asked with a fire ball in her palm. Kana awkwardly grinned, thinking back to the massive fire attack Shiro conjured in their sparring the day before. She had to admit, firepower on that level would definitely dosting damage to her without her lightning armour.
¡°Haha¡ maybe just Shiro and I could take a bath together."
<A/N: A tiny peek at the state of the kids who basically just lost their future. Unusually bright.>
Chapter 233 What Hero?
8 days till Odysseus, Dhijan Hero Nation, Royal Castle
¡°Hey, Seiko-kun. Can I be an adventurer?¡±
In the dining hall, Shiro randomly asked this question to Seiko who was partaking of his breakfast. Everyone in the room stopped eating and their eyes all turned to face Seiko and Shiro.
¡°No.¡±
He replied with little to no emotion in his voice.
¡°Come on, I¡¯m pretty strong, right? I can take care of myself and you know it.¡±
¡°That is not the issue here, Shiro.¡±
¡°So, what is the issue? Let¡¯s solve it!¡±
Seiko dropped his bread and looked Shiro right in the eye.
¡°Let¡¯s see. First of all, you¡¯re the heiress to a n that is now being held hostage by a cult. Second, I was tasked with keeping you safe till we can get your home back. Third, having Tora to rely on doesn¡¯t make you strong. It just makes you easy prey considering his pride. Fourth, having been pampered your entire life, you have no idea how the real world works and won¡¯t survive a single day out there. Fifth, do you even have a proper reason for wanting to go out adventuring?¡±
He listed down some of the problems with Shiro running off to go adventuring. Everyone in the room groaned as they¡¯d heard this very excuse from him consistently.
¡°Like I keep saying, that position can go to my younger siblings. Or if possible, you can take it. Second, you can keep me safe bying on the adventure with me. Third, I don¡¯t rely on Tora. He doesn¡¯t listen to my summons unless there¡¯s a monster of simr level, so you can rest assured I fight my own battles on a regr basis as a summoner would.¡±
Shiro countered some of his points and pouted at those she couldn¡¯t refute.
¡°Besides. You¡¯ve got everything you possibly need here. Your friends, three course meals, a bath room nearly as good as the public bath houses from Kyoto and best of all, a collection of humanity¡¯s strongest individuals privately protecting you. There¡¯s no need to go anywhere.¡±
¡°You see where the problem is with that, right?¡±
¡°No.¡±
¡°Come on! You were 13 when you first left on your own adventure.¡±
¡°I was 13 when I was sent here to learn about the modern world. I was 17, which is the legal age in Kyoto, before I could go out on my own adventures. If you were born in a different kingdom, you¡¯d be allowed to do whatever you want now since you¡¯re considered an adult.¡±
¡°Eh? 14-year-olds are considered adults?¡±
Shiro who had never heard of this was ted by the information. Her eyes dted as she looked around. From the looks of things, everyone other than her was already aware of this. She pouted, realising this was evidence of the fact that she knew absolutely nothing about the outside world.
¡°When you¡¯re 17, you can do what you want. But till then, you¡¯re under my care.¡±
¡°No fair! I wasn¡¯t even allowed to walk out of the house¡¡±
¡°Oh, you used to hang out a lot with Senku-san from what I gathered.¡±
¡°No, no. It was more like I was learning from him. Can you even consider that as leaving the house?¡±
¡°You quite literally teleported miles away from the e- er hem, this isn¡¯t something to be discussed here like this. Main point is, no. You can¡¯t go on any adventures.¡±
¡°Bu-¡±
Before Shiro could argue with him, the ground shook mightily and the sses on the chandelier clinked viciously like they were going to break at any second.
Outside the window, everyone managed to catch the sight of a white pir emerging up into the sky and parting the clouds towards the east.
Shiro was unable to marvel at the sight for very long, as Seiko immediately rushed to her side and used himself as a sort of shield to protect her in case of anything. Feeling annoyed, Shiro pushed him aside to get a better look at the light pir.
This continued for a few more seconds, then the pir of light disappeared.
¡®What was that?¡¯
As soon as she asked that question, she noticed all the pdins in the room, Seiko, Jasmine, Veronica and Jeanne had nervous looks in their eyes while they looked out the balcony.
Shiro wasn¡¯t sure why till a light spirit appeared before her.
¡°The Hero has defeated the Demon Lord! Rejoice for your hero has won!¡±
¡°EH!? What hero?¡±
________________________________
Inside the Hero Princesses Throne Room of the Dhijan Hero Nation, all three princesses sat in their thrones, facing one another in a triangle.
The thrones were mechanically fixed in the room, and were capable of movements ording to the princess¡¯ whims. This was courtesy of the Sotomura n of the New Kyoto Empire.
Usually, the princesses had their thrones heightened with respect to age, but as of this moment, the thrones were all at the same height.
The oldest member present, Neburis, sat with her legs crossed and arms folded. She had a very displeased look on her face, but she kept her rage silent.
Jeanne, the middle child, wore an ufortable expression as she found herselfpletely incapable of movement from her seat. It was obvious Neburis was the cause and she wasn¡¯t confident in her current situation.
The youngest member, Rulis, had mixed thoughts running through her head at the scene. She simply sat quietly.
¡°Speak, Rulis. Exin what you mean by Jeanne caused this.¡±
Neburis ordered impatiently.
¡°I wouldn¡¯t say she caused it. More like, ensured I could never get my free will back. It was for a good reason t-¡±
¡°Silence!¡±
Neburis cut Rulis off before she could even attempt to defend Jeanne.
¡°Why did you supress Rulis¡¯ emotions and memories this entire time?¡±
¡°F-Funny¡ stor-argh.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not in the mood for your tales, Jeanne. Answer me now.¡±
¡°Can¡¯t sa-ARRRGH!¡±
¡°Don¡¯t forget I can make you disappear to a ce where absolutely no one would ever find you. I suggest you answer me before I lose my patience.¡±
¡°Neb-¡±
Rulis tried speaking, but her mouth stopped producing any sounds. She too found herself stuck in her seat and no matter how hard she tried, she was unable to move or make a sound.
¡°I guess you want to die here then.¡±
Neburis whose patience was approaching its edge willed the space around Jeanne¡¯s arm to start twisting. She was going to crush her right arm into nothingness if she didn¡¯t speak.
Knowing Jeanne and the kind of person she was, she would definitely react before incurring any physical scars on her ¡°perfect¡± body.
¡°The church! It was an order from the church!¡±
Neburis stopped twisting Jeanne¡¯s arm. Her eyebrow lifted in shock.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°What does the church have to do with this?¡±
The blonde returned to being silent. The pdin of space was not known for having a good personality. In fact, out of all the pdins, she was most likely the most ruthless when dealing with her enemies. Jeanne was very much aware of this, having witnessed some of the things the king, Excelcior had forced her to do. Now it was a matter of if she was willing to betray the church for her own life.
¡°Speak.¡±
With a simple clutching motion, Jeanne could feel her lungs being crushed. The pain was nothing like she¡¯d felt before. All the air in her lungs was being squeezed out, reminding her of her cruel fate from before she woke up in this world.
Neburis stopped this and allowed Jeanne to take in more oxygen.
¡°If you¡¯re scared of the church, I¡¯d advise that you reconsider who is a worse enemy. Now answer my question. Why did the Seven Great Gods Church force you to keep Rulis as an emotionless machine?¡±
Jeanne was still taking in more breaths. It took a while for her to speak up.
Among the pdins, there were only 4 that were dubbed Natural disasters due to the sheer power they could disy in battle. Neburis, the Pdin of Space, was one of these Natural Disasters. That was enough reason for Jeanne to even consider antagonising the church.
¡°I¡ It¡¯s reallyplicated.¡±
¡°Exin for a simple-minded idiot like me then.¡±
Jeanne, sweating, gulped before speaking.
¡°Our younger sister, Rulis, seemed to have been possessed by a vicious higher being. A goddess, some texts would say.¡±
¡°So, she has one of the seven gods in her?¡±
¡°No. That¡¯s offensive to the gods. Consider her more like an angel that serves under the gods.¡±
¡°Is that why youpletely erased her personality?¡±
¡°Like I said, there¡¯s more to it. I don¡¯t expect you to understand me, but I¡¯ll have to c-¡±
¡°I advise you choose your next words carefully.¡±
Jeanne tried resisting as much as possible, but the more she thought about it, the more it wasn¡¯t worth keeping a secret.
She opened her moth to speak, but was interrupted by the room shaking thunderously. All princesses were rmed and looked around the room. The reason for their shock mostly came from the fact that this room was in an isted space Neburis had created. An earthquake wouldn¡¯t affect this room in the slightest, yet the room shook mightily.
The only way Neburis could imagine such a scenario was if she was losing her ability to maintain the space and it was slowly copsing. That wasn¡¯t the case here, so what exactly was causing this.
Just as she was about to leave the room to find out, the voice of the world spoke to her. The very voice that told her she was officially a pdin and now bore a [Sacred], had now spoken to her. Every pdin knew that once that voice came, it meant something important was happening.
This time it was different. There were trumpets and loud drums.
[WORLD EVENT: [Demon Lord vs Hero] HAS BEEN CONCLUDED IN RECORD TIME]
[TIME LEFT TILL ESTIMATED COMPLETION: 132]
[LIST OF PARTICIPANTS]
[Demon Lord: [Champion of the World], [Heavenly King: Champion of Tyrannical Seas], [Heavenly King: Champion of Storms], [Heavenly King: Champion of Madness], [Heavenly King: Champion of gued Lands]
[Hero: [Champion of Endless]
[VICTOR: [Champion of Endless]]
[REWARDS SHALL BE DELIVERED TO THE DESIGNATED VICTORS]
She failed to understand something after hearing this. If such an event was happening, why were they not informed? Not a single pdin had received news on this particr matter and it was very concerning to see that.
Immediately, her instincts told her to question Jeanne who was very secretive. The look in the blonde¡¯s face was more than enough evidence that she herself waspletely unsure of what just happened.
¡°Hero? This is very wrong.¡±
Rulis grabbed her forehead in pain and copsed on to the ground. Neburis rushed over and picked up the little girl.
¡°Wha- Ah?¡±
When she touched her, Rulis¡¯ body was burning up. Horns of fire were on her forehead and her sclera turned ck with blood red pupils.
¡°An anomaly has been observed. Observation and Judgement is required. I shall go atten- No! Stop! I refuse! Error. Host lifeform intelligence attempting to override- Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! It¡¯s my body! Leave me alone! Mission has beenpromised. Body destruction to find new host will nowmence.¡±
Neburis was forced to leave Rulis¡¯ alone when she blew up in blood red mes and floated briefly, arguing with whatever it was inhabiting her body.
¡°What the hell!?¡±
¡°Tch, see what you¡¯ve done? The angel will now self-destruct to find a new host.¡±
Jeanne rushed to Neburis¡¯ side and sped her hands in prayer. A barrier of light surrounded the Lolita, trying to keep the mes from burning their surroundings.
¡°Not on my watch.¡±
__________________________________
The Winter Zone
A man sat cross-legged at the peak of a mountain in meditation. It had been about a month since he came to this particr ce and all he could say was ¡°Amazing¡±.
It was everything he could possibly dream of. A ruthless wastend, crawling with the strongest predators imaginable and no living conditions for humans. Any person who couldst more than a week in this ce definitely wasn¡¯t human in his eyes.
About a month ago, he was lucky enough to bear witness to what he could describe as the most intense output of raw power he¡¯d ever seen before. A knight in ck armour that destroyed a mountain with a mere thrust of his sword, that being punctured the biggest hole in a mountain imaginable. Where did that stabbed through piece go? He still wasn¡¯t sure, but from the looks of it, it went towards the Oxaivalon Empire.
Originally, it was his tracking that led him to that individual. The ck Knight was an infamous figure known fore razing down tiny viges, killing adventurers that partied with him and disrespecting several nobles which ended up with him gaining the ire of most people.
It wasn¡¯t long till the subjugation of the ck Knight was offered up as an S rank quest, with the help of even pdins being required. This man, feeling bored, decided to take on the quest. It was months of tracking, but he finally found him. It was only then did he realise how truly out of his depth he was.
This man was strong. So strong some dubbed him a natural disaster. He¡¯d sessfully eradicated entire races from the surface of the continent and never lost an official battle or war in his life. Yet, he knew he was no opponent for the ck Knight.
Fortunately, that individual didn¡¯t see him as anything worthy of fighting and ignored him.
Don¡¯t get him wrong, he wasn¡¯t scared of death. In fact, that was what made this so fun in the first ce. The fact that if he was too weak, he could actually die. But there was something different about this ck Knight. Something that suggested a fate worse than death.
For that very reason, this man decided to stay in the Winter Zone and train. Train till the creatures of the zone looked no more than ants in his eyes. At this point, he could very well be termed the strongest human being. He had reached his level cap long ago and would never be able to grow stronger over the course of this training.
Still, he could work on his skill as a swordsman. That was what he told anyone who asked him about his level cap. He had secretly been working on something to solve the issue. Humans as a whole were quite possibly the worst species in terms of potential for growth. At least, that is what he would have said were it not for what he found during his time training in the Winter Zone.
It ended up resulting in something phenomenal. A discovery that should he share with the world would result in a grand change in perspective.
During his meditation, he received an alert. He opened his eyes just to be met with a pir of light shooting out into the sky.
He closed his eyes again in meditation.
¡°This year¡¯s Odysseus should be hectic.¡±
<A/N: Please give me your power stones,ments, reviews and golden tickets to motivate me! Thank you!>
Chapter 234 Get To Hinotori
¡°Pass your meat. Please!¡±
Marcus loudly pleaded with Celica. She did so quietly and kept ying about with her food. Marcus noticed Daryl doing the exact same thing.
They had decided to go out into town to get some fresh air from all the tension in the pce, but the duo wasn¡¯t enjoying the trip. The blonde could see it on their faces and he couldn¡¯t help but feel like they were being melodramatic.
They came out into town to gather some supplies for their trip to Larm, but from the looks of things, they had other ns from Marcus¡¯. The twins, Mika and Nika were unable to join them since Nika had to take care of Mika who was unable to walk.
They¡¯d spent a good majority of the day searching after the resources. Earlier in the morning, there had been a disy of intense power. Although the world didn¡¯t speak to them, they all knew who was the cause of that.
The hero they had been following had defeated the demon lord without needing their help. In a way, it made all of them feelpletely and utterly useless for being insignificant in the final battle. The were so weak the hero didn¡¯t even call them out for help.
Well, that¡¯s what you get when you aren¡¯t simply loved by the world. None of them had even a single blessing from any gods. Only going by the word of a crazy person that kept popping up out of nowhere. In the end, the biggest mistake they made was believing they were more special than the average adventurer.
Something like that was probably the thought process of both Daryl and Celica now. Marcus could only feel disappointment that the hero didn¡¯t call them for ¡°this¡± big bad. He had an instinct that told him that he¡¯d be needed for the next one. If he said something like that out loud, someone would definitely knock him on the head for being insane.
They¡¯d assume he was talking about a new demon lord being born. Even they could not refute the fact that a new one would definitely be born, but their excuse would probably be along the lines that this was a different scenario. Even then, he still wouldn¡¯t be thinking about that since he assumed there was a bigger threat than the demon lord out there.
¡°Hey, Marcus. Can you hear us?¡±
Daryl snapped his fingers in front of Marcus. It was only now that he heard them talking. Sometimes his thoughts were simply too loud for him to hear or see anything. His vision and hearing returned to him.
¡°What¡¯s up?¡±
Celica clicked her tongue distastefully, confusing Marcus.
¡°We¡¯ve been talking quite a bit over the past few days.¡±
¡°Mhm?¡±
When they started talking, Marcus¡¯ vision went past Daryl, behind him and onto the streets of the market. He saw several people passing by, drawing carts or going around looking for buyers of their goods. What caught his eye was a red cape.
¡°With your broken arm and Mimi¡¯s¡ incapability to walk. We think it might be best if we don¡¯t go on this particr adventure.¡±
¡°Mhm?¡±
A cart passed in front of the person, obstructing Marcus¡¯ vision. He tried to look past it, but was left with having to wait for it to pass.
¡°Why don¡¯t we take a month or two, to heal up mentally. The twins might need it.¡±
The cart passed and Marcus was met with the sight of a person, about his height. Red cape and hood which covered most of their features and a mask on their face. All he could see about them was their silver hair. She had appeared.
¡°Marcus. Are you listening to us?¡±
¡°Yeah, yeah. A month of rest to recover.¡±
He got up from his seat and walked toward the streets, but the figure was already gone.
¡°Where are you going?¡±
¡°Can you guys buy more resources? I¡¯lle back to the castleter.¡±
He waved them off and tried to find the person.
¡°Didn¡¯t you hear us? We¡¯re not going on an adventure.¡±
¡°Ok, then just go back to the castle.¡±
He angrily responded and ran off in search of the figure. On the streets he looked all around, but he didn¡¯t find a anything. It was getting rather hard to find her.
Just then, a little child came to tap him on the side. The boy looked quite young and dirty, which was an unusual sight for this particr kingdom, given the circumstances. He pointed towards a cart that was moving and there, he saw the figure in red sitting down while the cartman moved with all his might.
¡°Talk about heartless.¡±
He run after the cart, but once he got there, she was no longer around. There were only bags of flour at the back and Marcus picked them up to see if she was hiding underneath the bags.
¡°Oi! What are you doing!?¡±
The cartman noticed, so Marcus dropped the bags and run off quickly. He looked up and saw a red cape diving into one of the corners of the city. He grinned and went into the alleyway. There, the person was standing, waiting for him.
¡°Why were you running about so much? You usually juste up to me and the guys.¡±
Marcus asked as he approached the person.
¡°The circumstances this time are a bit¡ tedious. We have to meet in secret this time.¡±
¡°Cause of the guards in the city?¡±
Dhijan had lots of guards, it being a military nation so most men go into some form of military service once they are of age. As such, it was crawling with lots of guards, making it a city with the second lowest crime rate in the world.
¡°I¡¯ll let you believe that for now. I have an important mission for you.¡±
¡°Seriously? What¡¯s more important than beating the demon lord?¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°You have no idea what kind of fates await this world. Defeating mere demon lord isn¡¯t something you should be celebrating.¡±
Most would be terrified after hearing such a thing. Not Marcus though. He was excited. His instincts were right on the money. He wanted to jump in joy and celebrate the fact that he was right, but that¡¯d probably make him look weird in front her.
¡°So, what¡¯s the mission?¡±
¡°Fixing your arm and Mika¡¯s legs.¡±
¡°How¡¯d you know about that?¡±
¡°I¡¯m always watching. Listening. Feeling. There is nothing in this world hidden from me.¡±
¡®Awesome! That¡¯s way too strong.¡¯
¡°Remember a child you met about a month ago in Keimen?¡±
¡°Tori?¡±
¡°Yes. She is the key to getting yourself healed. Go to her and tell her I sent you.¡±
¡°Eh? But it seemed like she didn¡¯t know who you were. You said you¡¯re her rtive, right? Are you like a cousin or older sister or something?¡±
The masked figure looked at him for a while, before shrugging.
¡°You can go with any rtion you like. Now, this is what you need to do specifically¡¡±
________________________________
¡°That brat! Can¡¯t he just ept his reality as it is? Humans are so fragile, yet the most bullish race out there.¡±
The elf raged so much she was scaring the passers-by.
¡°Come on, Celica. He¡¯s still going through denial, so its not fair to attack him like that.¡±
Daryl was trying to calm down Celica as they walked back towards the castle.
¡°If only he could survive a shot to the head. I¡¯d have done it several times to rewire his brain.¡±
¡°You really think shooting someone in the head helps change the way they work?¡±
¡°Yep. Our great king is a genius when ites to tinkering with heads with sticks.¡±
¡°Huuh¡ Let¡¯s put that topic elsewhere for now.¡±
¡°Eh? Why? I thought you liked it when I start talking about my kingdom.¡±
The confused Celica asked, but was only met with a frown on Daryl¡¯s face.
¡°I like it when you start talking about yourself. Helps me to know more about you.¡±
She blushed and looked away from his face.
¡°Shut up.¡±
¡°That¡¯s not the reason I told you to keep quiet. Look.¡±
He pointed in an alleyway, there both of them saw ¡°her¡±, leaning against the wall, holding her abdomen as if in pain.
¡°Guess the castle will have to wait.¡±
They both walked towards the figure. They got there in no time, just to see her slump down onto the floor. Her mask was bloodied and there were tears in her outfit.
Immediately, Daryl rushed to scan further for anymore injuries and apply first aid to her.
¡°Leave me be.¡±
She, with her titanic strength, pushed him aside and coughed out more blood from her broken mask.
¡°I¡¯ll be¡ fine.¡±
¡°What happened to you?¡±
Celica, who never once imagined seeing her in such a situation asked.
¡°N-New Kyoto Empire¡ the n heads. They¡¯re dead.¡±
¡°What?¡±
¡°There¡¯s not much time. You need to go to the West. Take Shiro Tatsumaki with you. Find Hinotori. Tell her *cough*¡ tell her, she needs to act before Verm- Vermillion is resurrected.¡±
<A/N: No chapters next week. Exams are back already. Feels like just yesterday I finished first semester exams... welp, also you can check thement section for a look at the illustration for Hinotori! Took forever, but we finally got her illustration. And if you like it, I''llmission more characters from this particr artist.>
Chapter 235 Meanwhile In The Empire Pt.I
Fifteen Days till the Odysseus, New Kyoto Empire
On the night of the raid on the elder n mansion, the Dark Church was unable toplete a crucial part of their mission. They needed to wipe out the bloodline of the cursed ns who ousted their god. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the inheritors of the n managed to escape.
Still, that was a negligible factor since they secured the most important member. The inheritor of the Tatsumaki n and the infidel to tarnish their god¡¯s soul, Tatsumaki Shiro. She almost escaped, but due to their quick thinking, they repelled her rescuers and kept her in their clutches.
It had been 3 days since the raid. That night was quite chaotic and apparently, there was a bit of an issue with recovering the unconscious bodies of the n heads. After a while, they did get the bodies, but the emperor who was still in the room remained so, continuously. It was virtually impossible to enter the room. Cardinal 5 had tried several things to get the emperor out, but nothing was working. And going in was a no-go due to special circumstances.
In the end, they gave up since the emperor posed no obvious threat to their mission. There had been rumours on the emperor possessing a skill that made itpletely impossible to inflict harm on him. Cardinal Five ordered for everyone to stop doing that. They¡¯d send a three-course meal to the room every single day, but no one was allowed to force the emperor out.
Other than that, they¡¯d spent the remaining days spreading fear amongst the people. All the warriors had been imprisoned and the women and children were left alone. Priests had been sent to spread the word of their Church. From the looks of things, their n was going exactly as they¡¯d expected.
Cardinal Five, who could be said to be the most ambitious cardinal sat on a seat prepared for him, in a massive hall. In the centre of the hall, a girl in a short red dress kneeled, bound by magic ropes that got tighter the harder someone fought to free themselves.
All around the hall, several members of the Dark Church were observing the screaming girl as she tried to free herself and only got even more hurt. After watching with a bored expression for more than 10 minutes, Cardinal Five stood up and walked towards her.
He crouched in front of her and lifted her chin up so her eyes met his. Those eyes burned ferociously and he felt like they¡¯d eat him up. A disgusting light that sinners like the Elder ns were not allowed to possess. All they had to feel was despair.
This girl was very bold and he could understand why she had the highest chance of bing a [hero]. With such undying will, brainwashing wasn¡¯t going to be easy till hepletely broke her. They had a means for doing that, of course.
He dropped her chin and walked back to his throne, then snapped his finger.
The doors leading to the hall opened up and form it, the Tatsumaki n head was marched in torn robes and magic cancetion shackles. Her face was dirtied, her hair in a mess and her lips dry from obvious thirst and starvation. She was being pulled along by a grunt and was put in front of Shiro, before being kicked down to the floor.
The girl¡¯s eyes widened in confusion and she stopped growling. Cardinal Five snapped his finger again and the grunt drew his de. A fine steel de that looked like it could cut through steel.
Cardinal Five looked at Shiro¡¯s face for any changes in reaction, but Shiro regained her former vigour.
¡°Only an idiot would fall for this low-tier illusion spell.¡±
She barked, but the cardinal only smirked under his mask then snapped his finger. The grunt rose his de to the sky.
Still, Shiro Tatsumaki showed no reaction. The cardinal shrugged.
¡°Do it.¡±
With a smile on his face, the grunt brought his sharp de down. There was a ssh of red.
The cardinal looked at her, but there was still no change in her reaction.
¡°Ho, you really aren¡¯t falling for this, huh?¡±
Impressed, he apuded her unchanging expression. The illusion faded just like Shiro had assumed. However, contrary to what Shiro was expecting, there was a dead body on the ground.
They didn¡¯t possess the trademark gunmetal silver hair of the Tatsumaki n, but they had ck hair. The person¡¯s head rolled over and it was a maid of the household. The girl¡¯s eyes widened in utter disbelief.
"You saw through the illusion, but that was only the cover for a second illusion.¡±
Cardinal Five stood up and walked over to her.
¡°I believe this one¡¯s name was Hasebe. ording to Cardinal 11, she¡¯d been caring for you ever since you were merely 5. And you just signed her death warrant even when she looked at you with pleading eyes.¡±
He startedughing maniacally.
Cardinal 5 was the most ambitious cardinal. He was also a cardinal who took his beliefs extremely and would go to any length to ensure his mission waspleted.
Hisugh was cut short when he received a powerful painful sensation to his chin. He stumbled back and when he looked at Shiro, he realised she headbutted him.
¡°Bring it on! I refuse to break!¡±
She dered boldly while standing on her two feet. A couple of soldiers ran to pin her down and they did it sessfully.
Cardinal Five rubbed his chin for a while before shrugging. Normally, he¡¯d be enraged, but considering she was an important piece in their ns, he would take it quietly.
¡°Get some chains to pin her down here. Every two hours, behead one of these pagans, but make sure they all look like her mother each time. Eventually, we¡¯ll send her actual mother. She may not care about the lives of her servants, but a mother is different.¡±
After saying that, the cardinal left.
Ever since, for the next six days non-stop, people were executed all bearing the appearance of Suzuki Tatsumaki, only for their real identities to be revealed after they died. Still, Shiro never broke.
***
The white-haired woman recounted her story to Daryl and Celica. They were currently in a room the duo rented out for her, since she¡¯d emphasized how crucial it was that she remained unknown.
Both were horrified to hear of her experience pretending to be Shiro Tatsumaki. She dropped her mask on the bed in order to eat her food. Upon inspecting, they noticed that she looked nothing like Shiro. In fact, her appearance reminded them more of the little girl they¡¯d met about a month ago.
She did say they were rtives, but the girl didn¡¯t even know she existed and for them to look so alike, it was absurd. Daryl theorised they were siblings separated at birth, but he didn¡¯t voice out his thoughts.
The girl gave him a rather stern looking, making him shiver. It was almost as if she could read minds.
¡°So, what happened from there?¡±
The girl kept eating her food without saying anything. She raised her hand as a way of telling them to wait. They spent a good five minutes watching her eat, before she cleared her throat.
¡°There¡¯s a lot that happened honestly. I surveyed the area while under capture and a day before the n heads died, I saw something interesting¡¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
***
11 days till the Odysseus, New Kyoto Empire
In the cers of the empire, there were currently four people of immense status being restrained on the ground. They all looked to be in top shape, except for one person who was cuddled up in a corner and breathing heavily.
Mori and Yoshitatsu looked at each, then at Akihiko who was singing with a terrible tune to drive away his boredom. Under normal circumstances, Mori would be singing with him, but they received a warning from the person huddled up into a ball, panting. Akihiko, being as strongheaded as ever, ignored this warning and even started singing louder.
Mori and Yoshitatsu red at him before he stopped. He raised his eyebrow when he noticed their res.
"What? You don¡¯t like the song? Should I change it? Oh, useless scumbags who pretend to be someone they aren¡¯t, dying in the corner of cers have no right to be giving orders¡¡±
He started singing apletely new song. An Akihiko original, he¡¯d say.
The astral form of the girl, Shiro, was in the cer with them, but hidden from their gazes. This was how she knew the n head was still alive. That didn¡¯t mean the lives that were being shed were for naught. She was memorizing the faces, names and number of everyone being ughtered.
¡°Oi! Akihiko, now is not the time for this.¡±
Mori shouted, but the guard in front of the cer banged for them to keep quiet. Akihiko showed his middle finger and dared the guard to wrestle him.
Even without his magic, Akihiko¡¯s brute strength was more than enough to put him on the level of a B rank hero. The guard was not so stupid as to fall for his provocations. He turned around and remained silent.
¡°Tch. Such a bore.¡±
A few minutester, two guards came walking in with a skinny old man in their arms. They pushed the man behind the prison bars.
¡°Watch it! What are you going to do if this body worth an infinite number of yous is damaged, huh?¡±
¡°Whatever, heretic. Just be grateful your inventions can be used to support our work.¡±
¡°¡°Body worth an infinite number of yous¡±? This old man¡¯s clearly drunk. Haha.¡±
The guard who had been standing there for close to seven hours with no form of entertainment other than Akihiko¡¯s singing started a conversation.
¡°I wish he was drunk. Maybe that way he¡¯d be sleeping.¡±
Grunt 1, said.
¡°All this old man does is ramble about how smart he is.¡±
Grunt 2 added on.
¡°Oh yeah, trust me. I know.¡±
The prison guard said depressingly.
¡°Ouch. It must be difficult watching them for half a day straight.¡±
¡°Nothing is difficult for our grand purpose.¡±
¡°Hahaha, that¡¯s the spirit.¡±
They patted him on the shoulder.
¡°By the way, is there anything you guys are doing with him?¡±
At this part, the astral being walked closer to hear them better.
¡°We shouldn¡¯t be talking about this.¡±
¡°Oh,e on, I¡¯m dying over here. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m going to tell anyone.¡±
He had a valid point in their eyes. It wasn¡¯t information the old man would hide from his fellow n heads, so why couldn¡¯t they tell their own fellow member?
¡°We found a whole lot of his blue prints. We¡¯re having him build some of them.¡±
¡°What?¡±
¡°It¡¯s crazy. There was this massive boat that could fly with fire.¡±
¡°Hot air, you idiot.¡±
They spent a good five minutes talking about what was happening with the Sotomura n head. Afterwards, they left having realised that they were being dyed.
They agreed to meet up when their shifts were over just to get to know each other better. A heart-warming friendship was blooming.
Once they left, the n heads all looked at Sotomura. They, who had been friends with him for easily over three decades, had never heard about any of this.
They obviously wanted to ask questions, but Sotomura rushed over to Suzuki and rolled her over. There, he noticed how some portion of her face was turning grey. He took out a potion he¡¯d snuck from hisb and fed it to her.
He then clicked his tongue when she stopped shaking. He dropped her and rolled her over so the others wouldn¡¯t see the ckening substance on her face. Then, he faced them and sighed.
¡°You look like you have lots of questions. Ask away."
Chapter 236 Meanwhile In The Empire Pt.II
¡°You told us they had been forcing you to show them your blueprints on how the weapons we¡¯d been building worked. Now where from these new weapons we¡¯ve never heard of?¡±
? The first one to speak was Yoshitatsu with a scowl.
The Wise Sage scratched the back of his neck before responding to her.
¡°Straight into the heavy stuff, huh?¡±
¡°Answer me!¡±
Yoshitatsu in a rage mmed the wall of their prison and the sound of her shackles echoed throughout the somewhat empty prison.
The Wise Sage cleared his throat then faced Yoshitatsu with steely eyes. From his expression, it was obvious he felt no emotion as he was about to answer her.
¡°Over the centuries, each former Sotomura n head left behind guidelines, tools and materials to build items of immense value. Most of these were made for the purpose of advancing our empire beyond what it currently is. In fact, from the things there, were none of us to possess any magic, we¡¯d still be one of the strongest empires in the world. I was nning on adding to this reservoir of information for the next n head given my old age, but it would seem I was destined to bring these creations to life.¡±
He exined it quickly as he readjusted his sses.
¡°If you possessed such things, why did you not build them long ago?¡±
The one to ask this was Mori, who had endeavoured to create a society where no one was inconvenienced.
Sotomura cleared his throat then retorted.
¡°The key to this information lies not with the Sotomura n. In fact, I only presumed it to be myth till recent times.¡±
This was confusing information to Mori and Yoshitatsu. How would the n head himself not know whether such information was fact or legend? The previous n head should have said something to him about it.
¡°This makes no sense. You should have heard about it before recent times.¡±
The argued with his statement, but Sotomura remained silent. The astral body caught a glimpse of Akihiko¡¯s gaze and it was focused on the sleeping n head. A smirk formed on his face.
¡°I¡¯m guessing it has something to do with the Tatsumaki n?¡±
After keeping quiet for a few minutes, Akihiko finally spoke. Sotomura red at him from the corner of his eye as that what information no one was allowed to possess. The other two, still confused, looked back and forth between the two.
¡°I never said such a thing.¡±
Sotomura denied it.
¡°Oh please, we all know that you two ns were in a secret alliance with more benefits than we would all get.¡±
Sotomura flinched at the ims, all the more confirming Akihiko¡¯s suspicions.
¡°Eh? Exin more, Akihiko.¡±
Yoshitatsu, finally tired of being in the dark asked for rification. The blue haired man shrugged his shoulders.
¡°I¡¯ve been spying on the Tatsumaki n for a while now. I found out quite the number of secrets, but there was one that bothered me the most. It was an unconfirmed news, but now I know for a fact that it¡¯s true.¡±
¡°Eh?¡±
¡°The Sotomura n is bound to the Tatsumaki n in a Master-servant contract, aren¡¯t you?¡±
For the first time, the astral being shuddered in shock and yelled. To the members present, it was a tiny echo and they all presumed it came from the guard standing watch.
¡°T-That¡¯s not true!¡±
¡°Oh please, don¡¯t bother. It all makes so much sense now. The reason y-¡±
Just then, the astral figure could feel that Cardinal Five was before her. She needed to return before he started to suspect her.
Once she returned, she was met with two pitch ck eyes barely an inch away from hers. Startled, she jumped back, but due to the enchantment on her binds she was brought back to the ground in a rather painful manner.
She groaned as she slowly sat up to find two different people in the room. Standing with both arms behind his back was Cardinal Five and the creep who was closer to Shiro looked thinner than the cardinal. He wore the same uniform as Cardinal five ¨C a ck robe, with a white cor, a golden winged crest on the back, ck leather boots, gloves and a weapon of choice ¨C however, his looked a bit bigger. Maybe it was because he himself was a rtively tiny man.
¡°Calm down Six.¡±
Six, as he was called, backed off from Shiro and whispered into the ears of Five. She managed to overhear them with her above average hearing skill.
¡°S-she sm-sm-smells weird. Just like how we were t-t-t-told the D-divine would smell, but t-tainted.¡±
Instinctively, she sniffed herself and shuddered. It¡¯d been more than three days since she¡¯d taken somewhat of a proper bath. Especially in her human form. That was absolutely disgusting.
¡°I already know that, dingus. I¡¯m hear to ask what you can do about breaking her. The measures I proposed were considered too extreme which is why you were sent here.¡±
He borated as to why a new Cardinal had appeared. Six scratched his neck and closed his eyes in contemtion.
¡°ording to my reports, she has no care for her mother whatsoever. And since your torture method doesn¡¯t work, it means she has no care for human life. A rather tiresome person to torture.¡±
He said, his voice sounding tired. Then he returned his gaze to Shiro and her dauntless re sent shivers down his spine.
¡°Honestly, I feel it would have been better to get her as a child and raise her as one of us from birth. She¡¯d easily take the seat of Three or Four with that kind of will and potential.¡±
The sound of the man scraping off his own skin resounded in the silent room.
¡°Oh, how pleasing would it be to have such a person serving the [Divine]!? I would have loved to train her and raised her in the name of the [Divine], but instead she had to be corrupted by these heretics! Thankfully, she¡¯s merely fourteen. There¡¯s still much we can do.¡±
A fourteen-year-old in this world was considered an adult and allowed to do multiple things, including going on adventures and choosing their own life path. It wouldn¡¯t be odd to spot several fourteen-year-old amateur adventurers when one went on trips.
His quote ¡°She¡¯s merely fourteen¡±, confused the girl. He wouldn¡¯t be thinking like that if he used the standards of this world. Did the Dark Church havepletely different views on life?
Either way, that wasn¡¯t important. What was important was that Six stopped talking for a while. Five took that as his queue to leave and did so quietly with noments.
The doors to the hall shut and Six crouched before the girl.
¡°N-now then, what do I d-do with you?¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
He caressed her face as he pondered. Her skin felt soft and bouncy in his palm.
"Maybe like how I raise animals. I-I can break you down and build you u-up. You c-can call me ma-master from now on."
***
¡°Eh? So, what did he do to you?¡±
¡°Nothing noteworthy.¡±
She exined that what happened was nothing important. Maybe because she wasn¡¯t a normal person, it didn¡¯t seem to work well enough. If it was the average person, they wouldn¡¯t have survived a day under Six¡¯s torture, being heralded as Chief Interrogator of the Dark Church, Six was a master of psychological and physical torture.
She begun to ramble on about what happened to her. Since number Six didn¡¯t possess enough time, he had to activate a skill of his. [Super Speed Thought Process]. However, he managed to share this skill with her and put her in a distorted world where time had been suspended.
What was one day felt like 1 month. In this 1 month, she was not allowed to sleep, she was put in extreme weather conditions, was left without vision and would receive random attacks that nevernded. The worst was whenever she was allowed to see, all she saw was her headless body which made her think for a split second that she¡¯d been decapitated.
She got used to it rather quickly, and Six was forced to up the bar. He used methods like dry drowning and other simtions to invoke the sense of death, but to a creature like her, death was the equivalent of a short nap.
Daryl and Celica who were not aware of this fact were sympathising with her.
¡°Ah, why were they doing all of this?¡±
¡°Hmm, they are trying to brainwash Shiro Tatsumaki. He wanted to make her his "pet" as he put it.¡±
¡°What? If they wanted to do that, why not just use magic?¡±
Celica questioned as it provided the fastest and easiest route to aplishing their goals.
¡°Because magic can be broken just as easily as it was casted. You could force her through some sort of other rituals, but isn¡¯t it better to have a broken individual who is a devout believer in their word? At least, that way they know they can trust her eighty percent of the time.¡±
She stood up and stretched a bit.
"If such methods actually work, you humans are just as fragile as I''ve been told."
She failed to understand what about that could lead one to break down. In truth, it wasn''t a matter of being human or not, but she wouldn''t know.
¡°Why are they even trying to get Shiro Tatsumaki? Why are they doing any of this?¡±
The white-haired girl picked up her mask and put it back on.
¡°Which one do you want to know most? The former ortter?¡±
Daryl sat down and thought about it a bit more. From her question, he¡¯d presumed she wasn¡¯t going to answer anymore than their next question. Since she¡¯d given them a general idea on the purpose of the Dark Church already, it was better to get more information on the former.
¡°The former.¡±
She lifted up three of her fingers.
¡°Three?¡±
¡°Three reasons?¡±
Celica added. Her ears twitched.
¡°First, Shiro Tatsumaki has potential to be a [Hero].¡±
¡°[Hero]? As in, [Pdin]?¡±
¡°I mean [Hero]. It¡¯s a separate type of ss from your usual [Pdin]. The [Hero] is a much more important figure than a [Pdin] will ever be. Like her brother, Hiro is a [True Hero].¡±
She exined, but they still didn¡¯t get it. She scratched her head thinking of how best to dumb it down for them.
¡°An existence meant to direct the future of this world. If you had such a person under you control, that essentially made you a god in your own rights, you understand? Their actions no matter how tiny will always have consequences on a global scale. A sort of domino effect if that makes sense.¡±
Celica and Daryl looked at each other for a while. They had a sort of understanding although, they doubted they possessed the same understanding as she did.
¡°Second, she has a connection to what they seek. The key to the revival of their goddess. As you know, six years ago, we lost direct contact with the gods. The only way now is through the Pope of the Seven Great Churches in the Holy Mexar Empire.¡±
¡°Oh, so they want to bring back the gods? Aren¡¯t they good guys then?¡±
Celica saw no problem with their ns. If they were bringing the gods back, then tensions between the empires and the elves and dwarves might reduce. Rather than reduce, they¡¯dpletely cease and a peace treaty could be formed. That way, they could all focus their forces on the demons in the East and wipe them off the surface of the worldpletely.
¡°No. They aren¡¯t trying to bring back the gods for the reasons you think. Just, believe me when I say it won¡¯t end well for anyone if they aplish their goal.¡±
Both gulped, nervous from her words.
¡°Thirdly. Other than being a [Hero], she is also the heir of the Tatsumaki n.¡±
Out of all the reasons, this one was probably the calmest one. Both shrugged, not seeing what kind of value being the heir of that n was, especially given the other reasons they want her and the fact that her kingdom was under seize.
In truth, the third reason was probably the biggest reason they wanted her specifically. Even if the Dark Church wasn¡¯t aware of all the benefits that came with having the Tatsumaki n head under them, they would find outter.
The masked woman had no interest in exining it. Doing such was an unnecessary hassle at this point in time.
She sat back down on her bed.
¡°Now. Let me finish the report. Listen closely, since this is the most crucial part.¡±
She remained silent for a while.
¡°The Dark Church is in cahoots with a god.¡±
<A/N: Lots of exposition in the recent chapters.>
Chapter 237 Meanwhile In The Empire Pt.III
The astral body returned to the prison cell after a few hours with Cardinal Six. Upon its arrival, it met a shocking sight.
The Tatsumaki n head was on her knees, bowing down to the other n heads who only had bbergasted expressions on their faces. The Sotomura n head was nowhere to be found and the guard managing them had removed his helmet, to reveal that he was from the Sotomura n.
The Astral being couldn¡¯t recognise this man, but the others seemed to know him. He dropped a pile of items before them, then bowed.
¡°I was unable to retrieve all your personal artifacts, but I did get your main weapons. We must flee the capital now. From what I¡¯ve heard, they¡¯ve already surrounded the borders of the empire and are wiping out all our forces.¡±
When he said this, the others went to the pile and picked up their weapons. Akihiko took his spear, Yoshitatsu took her sword and Mori took his gauntlets. They performed a quick inspection and were satisfied.
The Tatsumaki n head still had her head to the ground in apology. All three looked at one another then sighed.
The first person to speak was Akihiko.
¡°I get it, alright? It wasn¡¯t your fault that you had to do this. Sorry for being so hard on you, but we need to leave now.¡±
For the first time since the Astral being appeared, the Tatsumaki n head lifted her head to reveal a shocking sight.
Half of her face was grey and that portion looked beastly. With scales as hard as iron and prettier than gold. Her red eyes shone brightly and her teeth were morphed into fangs. To the right of her head, a horn was growing out.
The Astral being took a step closer to inspect, but she got a surprise.
¡°Who? Who are you?¡±
She muttered in a daze. It was almost as if the Tatsumaki n head could see her. She looked behind her only to meet the confused faces of the other n heads. Even the Sotomura servant showed confusion.
The Astral being walked to the side, but her eyes followed the astral body. Her body shivered and her lips quivered while following the astral being.
The hell?
¡°Ibuki?¡±
Akihiko¡¯s voice came through as the astral being decided to disappear from the room. When she returned to her body, she started thinking through several things.
That appearance the Tatsumaki n head had was weird. She knew what exactly was the cause, but she was still surprised to see it.
Then again, spending over three decades using that form of magic, it was a miracle that it took so long for signs of it to show up on her body. The benefits of being a Tatsumaki really were endless in this world.
As if to stray her from her thoughts, Cardinal Six tapped on her forehead curiously.
¡°What is it?¡±
She questioned him, but the cardinal only observed her more.
¡°Y-you aren¡¯t human, are you?¡±
He said something that struck the girl as weird. She sniffed him and a nervous smile crept up.
¡°Y-you smell like a beast tamer.¡±
__________________
¡°Are you sure?¡±
With a hint of distrust in his voice, Akihiko asked Ibuki, but the look she gave showed that she was being absolutely serious.
Everyone in the room was sceptical about. After all, she iming to have seen her daughter¡¯s soul when she was currently suffering from a disease was not convincing at all. Still, the nature of her illness was what made the matter all the more believable.
Akihiko offered her his hand and she gratefully epted it, standing up.
¡°n head. Your weapons.¡±
Senku gestured to the cloth on the ground. On it, there were two items. A folded paper fan and a hair clip. Ibuki reached out to both of them, then wrapped the cloth around it.
¡°Is Shiro still around here?¡±
She asked with a shaky voice and looked into Senku¡¯s eyes worriedly. The old man, unable to lie to her only kept a shut mouth. That answer was much louder than his words could ever be.
¡°Where is she!?¡±
Her voice trembled with rage as she shook the old man by his shoulders. Her apparent strength was enough to make him wince in pain.
¡°Ibuki, stop that.¡±
Akihiko tried to free the man from her grip, but he saw that she was too strong. Far too strong for someone who was sick. She pushed him aside, mming him into the wall and causing an uproar amongst the present members.
They all went on the defensive and looked at her as she growled at them and bared her fangs.
¡°Oi, Ibuki. Stop that or we will be forced to fight you.¡±
As if she only just realised what happened, the light in her eyes dimmed and she held her temples in pain. Yoshitatsu went to her side and helped from falling down. When they looked, the scales on her body on grew more.
¡°Senku-san, are any of our children here?¡±
¡°Fortunately, they were rescued by a group of strange people. The only one who got captured was the ojou-san.¡±
He told them what happened on the night of the raid.
¡°Why didn¡¯t you save her then?¡±
Ibuki asked with a weak voice.
¡°I apologise, but I am bound to the life of the n head. Even if I wanted to save the ojou-san, my body would not allow me to do so before you. Which is why I havee to rescue you.¡±
He exined his predicament.
¡°So, if I¡¯m no longer the n head, you can focus on saving others, right?¡±
¡°n hea-¡±
¡°From this moment on, I renounce the position of Tatsumaki n head.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
She announced. Just then, a seal formed on the heart of Senku. The seal burnt brightly and he grunted in pain for a moment. It felt like a hot stick of metal was being stabbed into his heart, but he managed through the pain.
After that moment, Senku¡¯s mind went nk. No pain, no sweetness, absolutely no feeling.
Ibuki and the others watched as he wrapped Ibuki¡¯s weapons up in the cloth and stood up.
¡°Delivery of the n Weapons to the next n head, Tatsumaki Shiro, shall begin. Estimated time: 20 days, 3 hours, 10 minutes and 14 seconds. Farewell, Tatsumaki Ibuki.¡±
As soon as he said that, he sped out of the room. Everyone was very confused by his sudden mechanical actions, but all they knew was that his priority was now Shiro Tatsumaki.
Since he had chased off after her, that meant he was going to rescue her. Still, there was something very odd about his behaviour.
¡°If he¡¯s going to Shiro right now¡¡±
¡°Then they¡¯ll need an escape route.¡±
Yoshitatsu gulped and gripped the handle of her katana, Falcon w. Mori cracked his knuckles and stretched his body out a bit.
¡°Guess we¡¯ll have to cause a bit of a distraction then.¡±
From behind, the sound of a copsing wall entered their ears. Blue lightning cackled from the hole in the wall and electrifying blue dots could be spotted from the darkness.
Walking through, his spear radiating power, Akihiko looked to the floor above them and grinned.
¡°Let¡¯s end this festival with a loud bang, then go get our kids.¡±
Simultaneously, without any proper discussion between them, the n heads had decided to fight the forces of the Dark Church to give a single escape route to the next Tatsumaki n head.
Akihiko threw his charged-up spear with all of his might, drilling a hole through the pce walls and shaking the building up. Some unlucky members of the Dark Church ended up in the spear¡¯s trajectory and were injured. Those lucky enough to have been missed by a hair¡¯s breadth looked through the holes and found the n heads looking through the holes.
Akihiko stepped forward and stretched out his hand. Instantly, his spear flew back into his hand afternding a few more blows on some enemies.
¡°If the goal is to make as much noise as possible, I¡¯m your man! Wahoo!¡±
He ran out of the room fiercely, allowing his magic power to rock the imperial pce. The others followed closely behind him, following in his footsteps and shaking up the pce with their power. Though they may not have consumed food for the past couple of days, they were confident in their ability to overpower weaklings.
Surprisingly, the one to lead their charge was Yoshitatsu with her de cutting down the enemy as if they were merely leaves. She overtook Akihiko in a mere instant and sliced through the horde of soldiers elegantly. The movement of her sword was masterful, soft and swift. With her skill [Sword Domain], anyone within 10 metres of her who was registered as an enemy would receive 10 shes on their body in an instant.
Unable to defend against her attack, the Dark Church members fell like flies.
She cackled madly as she ran to a halt and sheathed her de once more. The other members with the exception of Mori did not understand her reason for pause. Even if there were still about 50 people in front of her, they were nothing before her de. However, she was thinking differently.
It¡¯d be a pain climbing all the floors with so many people in their way. No matter how strong a swordsman was, they would get tired from swinging a heavy de a thousand times.
¡°Fuck! Both of you, duck!¡±
He delivered a warning and pinned them to the ground.
Yoshitatsu unleashed her de, this time it glowed with a violent red light and drew an arc that sliced through the wall and ceiling. For a moment, the enemies standing across the de paused, all confused by her actions.
That is, till they heard the sound of crumbling wall. They looked up and across the wall, all they could see were scorch marks. Slowly, they could feel that Yoshitatsu and the others were being elevated while they were going down.
It took a few more seconds for them to realise that she cut off that portion of the building off.
They started to scream for help as they descended.
Mori and the others stood up to look at her with various expressions.
¡°Are you insane? You could have cut us down!¡±
¡°Are you insane? You could have cut Shiro!¡±
¡°Oh, you¡¯ll have to show me that trick again.¡±
Both of them looked at Akihiko and he shrugged. As a power hungry, battle junkie, all he cared for was strength.
Yoshitatsu scratched her nose and let out a mischievous giggle.
¡°Think that was enough of a distraction?¡±
¡°If that didn¡¯t get their attention, nothing will.¡±
Anyone on that side of the 60-floor imperial pce was definitely dead from the fall.
The others walked to her and looked out the new opening in the castle. The cold wind blew on their faces as they peered at their city from the 5th floor.
The imperial pce was built on a hill that overlooked the city. Even on the base floor of the pce, anyone would be able to see the entire capital city of New Kyoto.
The streets were dead silent, the usual night lights were no were to be found. Bodies littered the floor, although there were some living people hiding in buildings.
It had been three days since the raid, but the Dark Church had left the streets to be bloodied and the people were terrified. The n heads could only imagine what their followers were feeling at the moment.
Fear, sadness, rage and hopelessness among other things. This made their blood boil and the veins in their bodies snaked out. Even Mori who could be called the calmest of the group, had his skin turning red.
¡°They dare¡¡±
In that moment, the n heads felt a bit stupid for thinking merely about themselves and their children.
¡°Run away to our kids? Howughable.¡±
¡°Our ancestors are definitely embarrassed by our actions.¡±
¡°Let us take back Empire and free our people.¡±
¡°You say it like we had a different option.¡±
<A/N: The n heads have decided to fight for their Empire. Will they make their Ancestors proud?>
Chapter 238 Meanwhile In The Empire Pt.IV
¡°So, are we going to go through the pce, shredding them one by one?¡±
¡°What about Shiro-chan? How will we know she¡¯s been saved?¡±
Just as the question was asked, Ibuki sniffed the entire area, then nodded.
¡°She¡¯s been rescued and Senku is heading south.¡±
They all looked at her, still weirded out by her ¡°different¡± appearance. She shrugged, understanding fully well why they were weirded out.
¡°Wheew! Senku¡¯s real fast.¡±
¡°That means we can simply destroy this ce from head to toe?¡±
¡°What about the emperor?¡±
¡°To hell with the emperor. He¡¯s just a brat. No one will be surprised if he died during this incident.¡±
Yoshitatsu who had never been a fan of letting a child be her master was an advocate for leaving the emperor to die. Mori sighed as she was finally showing her true self outside of when she was drunk.
Again, Ibuki sniffed the air.
¡°He too is not in the area. I can only smell something ominous from this pce. My instincts are telling me to raze this pce to the ground.¡±
¡°Calm down, baby lizard. Dragons have a tendency to destroy want to destroy human towers.¡±
Akihiko teased her and poked her horn. She snapped at his finger, but he managed to withdraw before getting bit.
¡°Trust me, I¡¯m in control. I think we should go with Mori¡¯s nning of destroying the entire pce.¡±
She agreed that it was a rtively good idea in the moment.
¡°What about the geezer?¡±
Mori asked about the sage.
¡°Don¡¯t worry. The Sotomuraboratory is in Larm. Specifically, the North side, close to the Demise Mountains. We have a teleport pad leading directly to it back in the Tatsumaki hold.¡±
Again, they looked at her with a look of disbelief.
¡°What? I had a lot of secrets to keep, ok?¡±
She shamelessly defended herself.
¡°Well either way, I don¡¯t have the energy to destroy this pce. What about you guys?¡±
Yoshitatsu who previously disyed a great deal of power admitted to having used it up in her earlier attack. Mori shook his head with a solemn expression.
All eyes fell on Akihiko who scratched the back of his head.
¡°None of my attacks will be strong enough to destroy this pce. Especially from the top with all itsyers of anti-magic defence.¡±
The royal pce wasyered with all forms of defence against magic attacks. It was even impossible to teleport into the imperial pce as that was considered a form of magic attack. If one attempted, they¡¯re teleportation path would be redirected to a far-off location filled with nothing but water and dangerous Imperial Rank beasts.
In truth, the only way to attack the imperial pce was either through raw physical power or aura attacks. Of which the former was nigh impossible given the structure and limitations of humans and other beings. That was why they all looked to Yoshitatsu and Mori first, the duo being the only ones to use aura.
¡°I can do it.¡±
The one to speak was Ibuki with a grim expression.
¡°You are by far the physically weakest person I¡¯ve met in my life. You c-ow!¡±
She grabbed Akihiko¡¯s finger and applied a decent amount of pressure, making the giant wince in pain.
¡°In case you¡¯ve forgotten, I¡¯m stronger now.¡±
She let go of his finger, making sure not to break it.
¡°Besides. Anti-magic is weak to dragon magic. As absurd as it sounds, nothing in this world can stop dragon magic. You can even call it the ultimate form of magic.¡±
All three of them had heard of Draconic magic before. How could they never have heard of it? It was the magic Ascension dragons used. Ascension dragons being dragons so powerful they weren¡¯t allowed to live in this realm, one could understand the sort of danger their magic would pose to this realm. Still, there was only one specific group of people in the realm that used this form of magic.
The Tatsumaki n. Of course, this limited group referred to the n head and previous n heads. No one was allowed to learn this magic till they inherited the n head position. It was one of the reasons the Tatsumaki reigned as the leaders of the Elder ns.
Still, they had to admit that they hadn¡¯t seen the full extent of Draconic magic for themselves. Merely a wisp of it as proof that the current n head possessed it. However, stories from times of war and times when Ascension dragons lived alongside humans were their way of estimating the devastation Draconic magic could cause.
¡°Well, at least Shiro doesn¡¯t have to learn this from me.¡±
She said with a satisfied smile.
¡°You make it sound like we¡¯re going to die.¡±
Ignoring their words, wings erupted from her back.
¡°Shall we begin our counterattack?¡±
With that, she jumped out of the castle.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°¡Does she know how to fly?¡±
The question flew out of Yoshitatsu¡¯s mouth as she looked at the falling Ibuki with visible concern.
¡°Well, she¡¯s had those wings for over a decade now¡ she should definitely have flown at least once¡ right?¡±
Mori retorted to her question.
¡°What are you two doing? Let¡¯s get to the top quickly.¡±
Akihiko shouted from the seventh floor. He was climbing through the broken portion, jumping from ledge to ledge, ignoring the iing enemies.
From behind, Yoshitatsu and Mori could hear footsteps. A water arrow was shot at high speed towards them, but Mori blocked with his gauntlets.
¡°Get to the 7th floor with Akihiko. I¡¯ll run up since I can¡¯t climb.¡±
Yoshitatsu nodded, then jumped on Mori¡¯s palm, then got flung up above Yoshitatsu who scaled the pce like an inhuman beast.
Mori then activated his skill [Steam Roller], proceeding to crush everything in sight.
Yoshitatsunded a floor above Akihiko, winked at him and scaled the wall faster than he could. Angered, Akihiko sped up his pace.
Beneath him, Ibuki flew up towards the top of the pce at super sonic speed, causing a loud boom and creating a force strong enough to push back some encroaching enemies.
Upon seeing that he was deadst in the race to the top, he clicked his tongue and activated his [Lightning God Armour] skill to increase his physical stats by 3 times.
¡°Ain¡¯t no way in hell I¡¯m going to best.¡±
***
¡°Cardinal Six! Cardinal Five has summoned for you!¡±
Six looked up from his query and rushed towards Five¡¯s location. He was in the middle of his brainwashing attempts, but was disturbed by the eruption of magic power from beneath. It felt like insanely strong beasts were at the bottom of the pce, but he ignored it, thinking Cardinal Five could handle the issue.
During his mission, he found something interesting. The girl they had was not Shiro Tatsumaki. He removed her illusion and found out she lookedpletely unlike their original target. He didn¡¯t want to bother Five till he had more information, so he was interrogating her as of this moment.
In truth, it wasn¡¯t working. Her mind was like diamond and his interrogation tactics were like paper. Nothing was going to work on her. So, he ended up spending the day ying with her mind instead. A different way to interrogate. He could feel he was making some progress, but just then, this happened.
He rushed quickly to the 59th floor which was the emperor¡¯s throne room, but on his way he caught sight of something odd.
There was a massive hole in the side of the pce. He walked to it and was shocked to see that a quarter of the pce was on the ground. Debris fell from above, followed by screaming bodies. He looked up and saw three creatures racing to the top.
One of them was flying, but the other two were scaling the tower. One of the creatures looked down and their electric blue eyes met his, causing him to frown.
Clicking his tongue, he jumped and started to scale the pce himself. From his waist, he took his whip. Heshed at the creature just above him, grabbing his leg.
The creature seemed to find this annoying and tried kicking him off. Six who was not as physically strong as the creature found himself being lifted off from his footing, but he wouldn¡¯t let go of his leverage.
The beast kicked him so high up, he was flung right above the beast and to the same level as the other one. He flipped through the air, kicked the beast into the building and found himselfnding on the 35th floor, right above the beast. From there, he pulled with all his might, drawing the other beast into the same floor.
Both creatures grunted once they recovered from the fall. Six heaved a heavy sigh.
Normally, Cardinals were giving numbers ording to their level of strength. There were two cardinals who didn¡¯t strictly follow this rule and received numbers unbing of their strength due to past actions.
Cardinal Six was originally the bearer of Seat Three, but got demoted for his sometimes ¡°crude¡± ways of information extraction and the sort of state he left his opponents in after battle. That was why as he faced down two beasts of great power, he didn¡¯t even bat an eysh.
The fight begun when both beasts attacked. The one behind him held a sword ¨C a katana ¨C and the other thrusted their spear at him.
Heshed the spearman¡¯s wrist and ced his dagger behind him to block the iing sh. The spearman didn¡¯t let go of his spear, but its course was changed, giving Six enough leeway to avoid the attack.
When both beasts were close to him, he jumped up and delivered double jump kicks to both of them, throwing them back. They grunted as they fell on the floor, but Six wasted no time.
He started to work his whip. The whiptched onto the spear man¡¯s leg, allowing Six to throw his body around into the next room of the floor.
The swordsman had already recovered and was charging at him again. Six¡¯s instincts warned him not to get closer to the swordsman, so he threw his dagger at her. She easily blocked his attack, but got a horde of fanged rabbitsing towards her face instead.
¡°[Sword of the Crescent Moon ¨C Fifth Form: Meteor Shower]¡±
She muttered under her breath and in an instant, all the bunnies were cut up into tiny pieces. Six was surprised by her swift cutting, but didn¡¯t think too much about it.
Those weren¡¯t actual rabbits either way. With mere movement of his fingers, the puppet bunnies came back together to form onerge bunny head that bit down on the swordsman.
From behind a spear came flying. In just the nick of time, Six moved out of the way, but his ear got torn off by the spear. Fortunately, he had the [Pain Resistance] and [Iron Will] skills, making it close to impossible for him to overreact in any situation.
Rather, he ducked and spun around to throw three daggers towards the spearman. All he got were his daggers being shot back at him, though he flipped back to dodge them.
Just then, he felt something lurking behind him. He looked back, but all he saw was a wall. A hand reached out from behind the wall, grabbing his neck and lifting him up.
Another beast had appeared.
In such a situation, no one would me him for getting a bit serious, right?
<A/N: I''ll have to admit, it''s gotten hard to keep chapters under 2k words ever since we left Antis. So much I want to type, but... ah.>
Chapter 239 Meanwhile In The Empire Pt.V
In the chamber where the emperor of the New Kyoto Empire isted himself, there was a heavy discussion ongoing. There was currently only one person in the room, yet this person argued greatly with a non-existent being.
Their argument had taken three days and three nights, non-stop with neither side refusing to lose.
¡°I tell you that the best way out of this situation is by listening to me.¡±
¡°No, no. I listened to you and my empire is currently under siege. The people are probably frightened at the moment.¡±
¡°Ah. But that was always a part of the n.¡±
¡°The deaths? That is not what I agreed to.¡±
¡°You believe you can be the world¡¯s greatest emperor without killing a few people?¡±
¡°I believe I can be the world¡¯s greatest emperor without killing a few of ¡°MY¡± people!¡±
¡°Hoho, trust me when I say these deaths are necessary for your rise.¡±
¡°Exin to me then, how losing my own people is a good way for me to be a good emperor?¡±
¡°No. It¡¯ll be better for you to see for yourself when it is done.¡±
The scene around the veiled throne begun to change.
¡°Stop that! I do not wish to see your pathetic illusions. I want proof!¡±
¡°Proof? What greater proof do you need other than the fact that I am this world¡¯s g-¡±
In that moment, the voice speaking to the king stopped. The king himself became dead silent and looked out from his veil.
There, he saw a girl d in adventurer¡¯s gear, with a red cloak over her body and silvery white hair. At first, he presumed it was a Tatsumaki given her crimson red eyes, but that notion was thrown away immediately when he got a better look at her and sniffed her.
She smelled different.
¡°Vermillion!¡±
The thing, roared loudly, causing the emperor¡¯s head to ache.
¡°The God yer?¡±
The emperor questioned, startling the girl. She then faded from their vision, but it was toote. They had already locked onto her astral body.
¡°Young emperor, do you wish to finally see what has be of your empire?¡±
The voice asked in a kindly tone. The emperor coughed.
¡°You know that is impossible with my condition.¡±
He retorted solemnly.
The emperor, from birth, had always been bed ridden. He was incapable of walking, incapable of even being in sunlight. Even the air he breathed felt like poison gas to him. It was for this reason he had always remained in this room. A room that had been purified to make life easy for him.
Whatever it was he needed would be brought to him. If the empire requested to see the emperor, a fake would be sent out to greet them whereas he remained in this room.
¡°Young emperor, you underestimate me too much. Your ancestor was the greatest, you know? ept this gift of mine.¡±
If the young emperor could get any chance to be free, to walk the streets and enjoy sunlight as well as achieve his dream of bing the greatest emperor in history, he would give anything.
¡°I shall humbly ept.¡±
¡°It is done, then.¡±
At his words, something filled up the young emperor. He could feel unimaginable power entering his body. His body was suddenly hot while also being cold. It felt like he was full of life while also a cold death awaited him.
He twisted on the ground, writhing in agony yetughing in glee. All of this overshadowed the words of the world that were being spoken loudly.
[YURI FARLUX VON REINHEART HAS BEEN SELECTED AS THE AVATAR OF THE PRIMORDIAL GOD, *****]
[THE PRIMORDIAL GOD WILL BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE PHYSICAL WORLD THROUGH YURI FARLUX VON REINHEART]
[YURI FARLUX VON REINHEART HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO BREAK THE ¡®HUMAN LIMIT LAW¡¯]
[YURI FARLUX VON REINHEART IS NOW LIMITLESS]
~Other primordial gods are watching with mixed emotions of rage, disbelief, intrigue and betrayal~
***
¡°I got caught not once, not twice, but three times! [Astral Projection] isn¡¯t as strong as mother made it look.¡±
She muttered under her breath. The binds behind her sealing all of her magic abilities, but to a being like her, that mattered not. With the simplest motion, she snapped her bonds in half and got off the ground. However, when she did, she copsed back down.
Confused, she looked at her legs and they were shaking wildly. She gulped with beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
¡°I guess primordial gods really are something, huh?¡±
She tried to get up, but still failed. Her legs were still shaking violently. She had experienced this once before, but it wasn¡¯t nearly as terrifying as this. The killing intent that god radiated towards her in the room was by far the scariest thing she had seen¡ scratch that. By far the second scariest thing she had seen.
She tried to conjure up her wings, but even they weren¡¯ting out. It was then that she noticed she was afflicted with [Fear of God] and [Mark of a Primordial].
The former being a status so powerful that once anyone got it, they werepletely incapable of doing anything till the time passes. Thetter was more confusing to describe.
That wasn¡¯t important though. She finally knew what the Dark Church was up to and why they needed Tatsumaki Shiro. Her instincts told her there were more things that were hidden out of her vision, but if an entire primordial god was helping the Dark Church revive Vermillion, it couldn¡¯t be good!
She hit her legs repeatedly.
¡°Move, you, stupid human legs!¡±
While arguing with her trembling legs, the building shook greatly.
She already knew the n heads were going on a rampage. However, with that primordial being in the pce, there was no way they were going to survive the night. Especially not after what they did to the gods 6 years ago.
Sometimes, she wondered how people could be so stupid, but that wasn¡¯t for her concern as of this moment.
She needed to move before that thing came for her.
Just then, the roof above her head copsed anding down from it, were about six people and two beasts. Time seemed to slow down as she identified each and every single person.
Akihiko, Mori and Yoshitatsu were plummeting down, Ibuki¡¯s fist was connected to a Hell Bear¡¯s abdomen, Cardinal Six was riding on the back of a King Wayne and Cardinal Five was heading towards the other n heads.
¡°Shit!¡±
She spread her arms out and tried to will the mana around her to provide a barrier of protection. Within this barrier, she managed to make herself invisible. The problem with controlling external mana, in her case, was that she was limited in what she could do with it. She didn¡¯t possess the Spatial attribute, so portal creation was impossible for her.
For now, while waiting for her legs to start working, all she could do was only watch the fight before her.
***
Ibuki punched the Hell bear so hard, they broke through more than twenty floors, all the way to the Hall floor. She knew her strength as of the moment was beyond human, but to the point of shattering through several floors was shocking to her.
The hell bear coughed up a gallon of blood after having a hole be punched through its stomach. She then red at Cardinal Five who was going after the other n heads.
As if on instinct, she raised her hand and runes formed automatically. From these runes, green coloured mes shot out towards the cardinal, who managed to avoid it at thest second.
Six chased after her and his Wayne¡¯s ws dug deep into Ibuki¡¯s wings. In pain, she fell to the ground grunting. Six jumped off the bird and whipped her back while she was still down and a carnal rage blew up in her.<novelnext></novelnext>
She turned around in an instant, caught the whip by her hands¡ ws, then dragged the cardinal towards her. She opened her mouth wide, expanding it beyond human capability and bearing her fangs for the whole world to see.
She chomped down on thin air as Cardinal six abandoned his whip at thest second and was on the back of his Wayne. From behind Six, a lightning spear came flying so fast and powerfully, the whole floor shook. Six whistled his Wayne somersaulted through the air, receiving the spear head on and losing a leg. However, it dared not let out a sound of pain.
Six grabbed the spear and threw it back at its owner with just as much speed and power. Akihiko easily caught the throw, with his arms covered in blue lightning.
¡°Akihiko! That form!¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry. It may not be the full [Lightning God Armour], but its enough.¡±
He smirked as the lightning left his arms and went towards his legs. He kicked off the ground, shattering the ground beneath him and readying his spear to stab through Six¡¯s skull.
Ibuki who was seeing everything happen in a slowed down speed noticed Six preparing something. She couldn¡¯t make out what exactly, but she got the sense that Six had absolute confidence in his abilities. Her eyes then turned to Mori and Yoshitatsu fighting Five.
Five appeared to be a swordsman, wielding two curved des. The fact that he hadn¡¯t been overwhelmed by Yoshitatsu already was enough proof of his capabilities, but with Mori in there, it wouldn¡¯t be long till he caved in.
She needed to help the others as they were in a weakened state. Normally, she would have her summons here, but they were not avable. The only way she felt she could properly help the others was to use strengthening spells.
¡°[Body up]! [Speed Up]! [Vitality Up]! [Stamina Up]! [Strength Up]! [Neg Cancetion]! [Dragon Body]! [Maximize Damage]!¡±
She raised her hands and casted the buff up spells on the others. The magic was casted without spells or runes, simply what she envisioned. One of the benefits of Draconic magic. Unfortunately, after doing that, she crumpled to floor in pain.
She grasped at her out, panting out and trying to control her breath. The scales spread out further on her skin. She could feel a bump forming on the other side of her head and a rage welling up within her.
When she looked up to see the fight, she couldn¡¯t see the n heads or the cardinals. All she saw were tiny balls of light moving about slowly. There was something about those balls that made her even angrier. Like she had to crush those balls in order to feel satisfied.
But just then, she snapped back and saw the n heads and cardinals going at it. Yoshitatsu and Mori werepletely overwhelming Cardinal Five and Akihiko was in a stalemate against Cardinal Six.
She had to help Akihiko or things could go badly.
~Destroy the tower~
Before she could help him though, a voice spoke into her head directly. She looked to the highest floor in the tower and automatically started chanting a spell. Shepletely cked out.
***
Unbeknownst to those inside the pce, a magic circle so big over a 1000 people could be squeezed into it was floating just above the Imperial Pce.
This magic circle was the result of Ibuki¡¯s mind being lost to her affliction. It possessed enough power to raze a fifth of the entire capital city to the ground.
In front the emperor¡¯s chambers, a young boy took his first steps for the very first time in his life.
Tap, tap.
His footsteps created little noise and the way he stumbled showed his inexperience, but the child did not once fall or lean on a wall. He had both arms spread apart while walking, as if he were on a tight rope, bncing himself.
Whether he was aware of it or not, after every step he took, he left a dark inhumane footprint on the ground. Darkness spread from these footsteps into the hallway behind him, but he never once looked back.
He just walked towards a destination he himself was not sure of. He saw injured men and corpses, but paid no mind to them.
The boy took a pause when he came to a portion of the pce where there was a hole. He held his chin curiously.
¡°What an odd design for an imperial pce.¡±
He stated innocently while looking out onto the city. Before then, something else caught his starved eyes. Above the pce, a massive magic circle was floating above his pce. He inspected it further, and received information on the magic circle.
It was one that would destroy his pce to the ground.
¡°How do we stop it?¡±
He asked, not wanting to lose his home the very moment he learnt to walk and explore it.
¡°Hmm, I need to stop the magic caster? But where are they?¡±
¡°¡¡±
¡°So close. Ok, you¡¯ll help me, right?¡±
¡°¡.¡±
Humming a happy tune, the young boy walked in the direction he had been told.
In a matter of minutes, he arrived on the floor where he could hear a lot of noise. He opened the doors leading to the hall where he spotted seven people currently fighting and ravaging the area.
¡°What? I just spread my arm out? Like this?¡±
He raised his arm before the people and they all stopped fighting. They all looked at him with expressions that could only be described as fearful.
¡°It worked, just like you said it would.¡±
¡°¡¡±
¡°Yeah, that one person is still moving.¡±
He looked a corner in the room. Through the normal eye, one wouldn¡¯t see anything odd there, but a powerful gust of pure magic blew through that spot. A sound like shattering ss exploded, as did the wall and over there, a girl in a red hood with white hair was ring at the boy.
¡°It¡¯s the girl from before.¡±
¡°¡¡±
¡°Killing her is a bit muc-¡±
Before he couldplete his sentence, one of the people was charging at him with a dagger aimed at his head.
The young boy had no fear though. His ancestor said he would protect him and his ancestor had never lied to him. Not even once.
Another one amongst the seven jumped in just in time to kick him out of the way. He was mmed into the girl in red and both of them fell outside the pce.
The man who did this deed was bowing to him.
¡°The Dark Church is at your disposal, my lord.¡±
He, Cardinal Five, said with all the seriousness he could muster.
¡°My ancestor says you are trustworthy. I believe your name was Five?¡±
¡°Yes, my lord. I have done as you said so we may hasten the rebirth of my goddess.¡±
¡°In due time.¡±
The young boy was more interested in the girl that just fell out the building. He walked towards there and couldn¡¯t see them anymore. Both the girl and man were gone. Again, his eye fell on the magic circle above the castle.
¡°Oh, that¡¡±
While looking at it, there was a loud roar behind him. When he looked there, all he saw was a dragon about 10 metres tall. The dragon was ring at him and ready to release a breath attack on him.
¡°That¡¯s the cause of the magic circle?"
"..."
"I really don''t want her to die though."
<A/N: This was supposed to end in 3 chapters¡ I ended up with 5 almost 6¡ the problem with writing when you have so much you want to put down. Cause of that I cut this chapter short.>
Chapter 240 The First Holy Sword
¡°The Cardinal saved me as I fell to my doom and when I got to a far enough distance, my body started working like normal and so I flew here.¡±
¡°So, the n heads are-¡±
¡°I could not confirm that as I fled before seeing anything.¡±
She interjected to prevent any misinformation. She walked to the window and jumped onto its ledge.
¡°Ah, you¡¯re disappearing again?¡±
Celica voiced her concern.
¡°Do you need something?¡±
Unable to respond, Celica slowly shook her head.
¡°Very well then. We shall meet againter on. Don¡¯t forget to go find that person and do as I told you.¡±
She leapt out of the inn, leaving the duo alone.
Daryl scratched the back of his neck and let out a heavy sigh.
¡°When the hell did I sign up for all of this?¡±
Heined for the very first time since they embarked on this adventure. Who could me him? The party just randomly met two people who imed to be on a mission to save the world saying they needed their help. At first, Daryl took their words for granted, but over time, both showed their overwhelming abilities and a lot of things that were happening lined up with their story.
In no time he believed their words like they were all knowing beings of only truth. However, he was starting to feel like that was their first mistake. If they could take down monsters like dragons with so much ease, what use did they have for a group of fledgling adventurers with little to no experience as a united front.
Sure, the party grew together as group, but it had been close to a year since they started out together, yet the party wasn¡¯t even officially ranked. If he had to estimate their rank, he¡¯d put them on the lower side of B rank. That was by no means impressive as the average adventurer party was that rank.
They werepletely average, with the exception of Marcus. His history made him a bit different, but his history had no effect on his skill as a swordsman, so it couldn¡¯t count.
¡°Is something wrong?¡±
Celica, bothered by this unusual attitude from Daryl sat next to him.
¡°Yes Celica. There is something seriously wrong with all of this. We are normal people. This is not something normal people should be doing!¡± he yelled at her.
¡°You felt it once we entered the royal pce, right? Those pdins are on apletely different level. Even the kids we saved. Anyone of them could beat us all in a fight if we chose to fight them. Normal people shouldn¡¯t be helping the hero of the era to fight a cult. We should be going on regr adventures. We should be enjoying our time with our loved ones. Thinking about settling down and starting families. Instead, we are here risking our life all because some woman in a red hood came before us and told us to do something with no real exnation other than a promise of fame. I don¡¯t want fame toe after I died! Wh-¡±
Before he could continue, Celica put her fingers to his lips to silence him. Her eyes gestured to the door and standing there with an apple in his mouth was Marcus. He looked at both of them with his usual energetic eyes.
¡°Took a while to find you guys. If you were going to do that, you should close the door next time.¡±
He teased them and walked away after closing the door.
¡°You think he heard me?¡±
Daryl asked anxiously.
¡°With his ears, he definitely did.¡±
¡°¡Damn it.¡±
***
Walking through the massive halls of the pce, Shiro stopped in front of arge door. This door had a very intriguing design that she couldn¡¯t quite figure out. From her perspective it looked like sun rays bearing down on the earth and several men holding unique weapons pointed at the sun. In the centre, one person held up a sword to the sun while the others followed behind him.
There were other weird things behind the man with the sword, but they looked like allies of some sort.
She was surprised to see this since she had never seen this particr door since she got here. The door also had a tiny opening, suggesting someone just entered.
¡®Come.¡¯ A hollow voice whispered to her.
Curious, she also decided to proceed into the room. She got in and was met with a spine-chilling cold. Shiro shuddered and rubbed her skin in an attempt to warm herself up. Her breath was so cold she could see it.
This was her first time being so cold and she hade to the conclusion that she hated the cold.
¡°Karma.¡±
At her beckoning, the little dragon materialised before her. The dragon bowed and then addressed her.
¡®Master, you called?¡¯
¡°Use your dragon force to warm me up.¡±
Karma squealed with joy then jumped into Shiro¡¯s arm. The girl caught the dragon and squeezed her tightly, and a warmth spread throughout her body. It felt like she was out in the spring sun, so she continued her exploration.
There was a red rag had beenid out on the ground leading to the end of the hallway. To her sides, there were pale blue torches that had been lit up, leading to the end of the room which had a shut door.
¡®Shiro Tatsumaki. Come.¡¯
The voice called for her once more. As if in a trance, she forged forward, walking for a good five minutes before reaching the other side of the hall.
Karma found her master¡¯s aloofness to be odd, but it wasn¡¯t something really new.
When Shiro got to the door, she opened it up without paying any attention to the symbols on the door. Behind it, a marvellous sight befell her eyes.
She entered the room and saw what could only be described as a tower of items, leading up so high she could say it was at an infinite height.
¡®Wow!¡¯
Karma¡¯s eyes glittered. This was one of the very rare moments Karma showed her race¡¯s instincts. Their love for anything beautiful was showing on her face as her glittered and drool escaped her mouth.
There were all sorts of things ranging from golden amulets and trinkets to weapons of all types radiating powerful demonic or holy aura. The whole room was more than enough to give Shiro weak knees as she marvelled in a daze at the seemingly endless amounts of items that had been put on disy in the intensely cold room.
¡®Come. Shiro Tatsumaki. Come.¡¯
The voice called for her once again and her eyes were drawn to the one weapon in the centre of the spiral. A beautiful sword with a ss handle that had been stabbed deep into the ground and was chained down with red, indigo, blue, golden and grey chains, all of those radiating a very evil energy, whereas the sword was radiating a heavenly aura that was overpowering them.
She approached the sword. Its de had a rainbow allure to it and the handle had five wings from it, all looking a bit different from one another.
Slowly, she reached out to the sword as it hummed with power and vibrated with every inch she drew closer to it.
¡°Little princess.¡±
A strict sounding voice entered her ears. She turned around in an instant and met white and ck eyes. Well kept, silky smooth ck hair running down beyond waist level. The person was d in a battle gown with an insignia of a crown with one sword running through ¨C the symbol of the oldest of the hero princesses.
Shiro gulped at the sight of the princess who was dubbed one of the strongest pdins as well as one of the scariest to interact with.
She currently had a scowl on her face and approached Shiro. The little girl gulped, shutting her eyes, afraid of getting scolded, but instead got a tap on the shoulder.
Her eyes slowly opened and she saw Neburis looking at the sword mournfully.
¡°This is the sword of humanity¡¯s first hero, [Baldr]. A sword so powerful that no one has ever been able to touch it ever since the first hero. Some people called it ¡®The First Holy Sword¡¯.¡±
She begun to exin the origins of the beautiful weapon to Shiro.
¡°It is said that a single swipe of this sword is more than enough to y even a god. Unfortunately, ever since the first hero, no one has been able to wield it until ¡®he¡¯ showed up. Now it seems there¡¯s three people who can currently wield this sword.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°He?¡±
Her body reflexively asked that question. Feeling like she shouldn¡¯t have done that, she sped her hands over her mouth to show that it wasn¡¯t intentional.
The pdin could only chuckle at the cute sight.
¡°Yes. This era¡¯s [True Hero]. Your older brother. Hiro Tatsumaki.¡±
¡°Eh? You know nii-san?¡±
¡°Oh? Of course. Aren¡¯t you aware that your brother came to live with us ever since he turned 10?¡±
She slowly shook her head. All she knew was that her brother had gone off to school and there was an incident that resulted in him being missing. Ever since, no one had heard a word from him. The n head was so enraged by this that mentioning his name back home had be taboo.
¡°Didn¡¯t he go missing?¡±
At the question, Shiro could see Neburis¡¯ expression turn dark. She looked at Shiro was a morbid expression, before looking back to the sword.
¡°It seems you are the third person to be capable of wielding the sword.¡±
She changed the topicpletely and Shiro got the feeling that that particr topic was one she wasn¡¯t ever supposed to touch. Instead, she now had a different question.
¡°You said there were three, right? If nii-san is the third and I¡¯m the third. Who is the second?¡±
¡°That is not important. Since you managed to get here, do you wish to pick something out from the room? Not the sword, for obvious reasons."
She pointed to the sword and for the first time, Shiro could hear several wails from it. Souls were trying to escape the de, but they were all stuck,pletely incapable of escape.
¡°Um, how about something that boosts magic power?¡±
She retreated from the sword and asked with a smile. Neburis smiled gently and the two scanned the entire room for an item like that.
____________________________
In a realm beyond any essible to mortals, two beings were sitting down across a table watching a monitor.
One was rxing while drinking a cup of juice. The other was currently performing multiple actions and took a short break to consume a cup of coffee before proceeding.
~It seems my child is finally stepping into the role of a monarch as she should~
The one rxing said with a pleased smile on their face.
¡°Tch, she randomly taking up this role suddenly gave me a lot of things to look into. I had so many errors in the system and because she never took it seriously, I couldn¡¯t find them.¡±
The other one was scratching her head, attending to the several screens that popped up before her. She was currently not in a good mood with all that was happening.
First of all, an intruder had invaded her personal space and was refusing to leave. Being the person she was, she was unable to feelfortable in the slightest. Especially since the intruder had practically overstayed their wee and was still refusing to leave.
Secondly, ever since Hinotori (Other minds) started using the system in earnest, the system master had been forced to monitor a lot of things. She even temporarily disabled the Daily Quest system she made while trying to reconfigure everything else.
~What does it matter? Hurry on with it~
¡°Shut up or I¡¯ll kick you out for real this time.¡±
The stressed out being, Alpha, warned. Whereas her visitor only smirked on drank from her cup.
-Yo, Alpha-
Just then, she received a call from another being.
¡°What is it? I¡¯m busy.¡±
-Hihi, are you still working on your system? If you¡¯d joined hands with others like ¡®He¡¯ told us to, you would be having a far easier time now, you know?-
The new person mocked her efforts. Alpha however didn¡¯t have the energy to entertain this person.
¡°If you have nothing else to say, I¡¯ll be cutting this call.¡±
-W-wai-
She cut the call and continued to check through her system. A message popped up in front of her. It came from the only being she¡¯d given her system to.
¡°Seriously? Again? This is like the 10th time this week.¡±
~My child sent a message? Did she ask about me? Let me see her~
The visitor crossed over the table to appear next to Alpha in order to read the message. Annoyed by the overly friendliness she was disying, Alpha walked away, but was only met with the persistence of the visitor.
¡°She didn¡¯t send you a bloody message! Leave me alone, ah!¡±
She kicked her away and read through the message.
[Hey, system master. Can I receive any information on the Shadow¡¯s Crib thing? There are cracks on it and I¡¯m scared to see whates out of it. Please tell me what exactly it is.]
After seeing the message, she sighed then called the visitor over.
¡°It¡¯s for you.¡±
~Hmph, see? My child does care for me~
She came over, glossed through the message and couldn¡¯t help but feel disappointed.
¡°Not what you were expecting, huh?¡±
~Tch. It was originally supposed to be my way to be reborn into that world. That thing simply needed to be kept in a cold dark ce and giving shadow beings as a meal till it was ready to hatch, but it ended up consuming a devil instead. Not to mention one of the nine original monarchs of hell. I have absolutely no idea how it¡¯s going to turn out~
For the first time in a long while, the system master could feel her lips curving upwards in a sadistic smile. Cheekily, she responded to the message.
[It¡¯s a surprise. Even I don¡¯t know ~(*~*)~]
¡°Yes, now suffer with the very anxiety you¡¯ve been giving me for the past few days!¡±
-Yo!-
A new invader had appeared. Surprised, Alpha turned to meet the new person.
¡°How the hell did you get in here? I have a barrier set up for you specifically.¡±
-Don¡¯t know. I found a way in here-
Alpha scanned the being from head to toe. They were thumb sized and didn¡¯t radiate nearly as much power as they normally did. Her confusion turned to understanding then to malicious joy.
¡°You left out most of your power so you could sneak into this ce, right? I''ve been needing a new stress ball.¡±
-E-Eh? No I d-di-Ah, what are you doing? Alpha, stop! No! N-
<A/N: Please give me your power stones,ments, reviews and golden tickets! Join the discord as well and let''s talk. Also forgot to ask which character you''d like to see illustrated next.>
Chapter 241 Gathering Of Paladins
1 day till the Odysseus, the Castle Gates.
Today, all the present pdins had been ordered to wee the remaining pdins who would be making their appearance. There were currently 9 people standing attentively, waiting for the remaining members toe.
They stood in order of the most experienced, starting from the left with the Pdin of Nature. At his side was the Pdin of Water, Pdin of Space, Pdin of Light, Cursed Executioner, Pdin of Fire, Pdin of Steel, Cold Blizzard and Pdin of Jewels.
They had been expecting thest three members for quite some time. They were all off on very important missions and were amongst the most experienced and powerful members of the group, hence the level of respect.
Jasmine, who was getting kind of restless kept looking around. She was trying tomunicate with Seiko who was the only one she was trulyfortable with, but he was ignoring herpletely. The young man who stood next to her looked at her and smiled.
His ck hair was cut short and left wildly unkempt, covering even his eyes. It was impossible to tell what his eyes looked like due to this, but he always wore a gentle aloof expression on his face. He was d in orichalum armour, painted red with silvery edges. In his right hand, he held a powerful looking staff with a tiger head at the bottom and a very sharp de with weird symbols stamped onto it.
She looked away from him bashfully, embarrassed to have been caught trying tomunicate with Seiko.
¡°Hi there.¡±
¡°Oh, hi. Ss, right?¡±
She¡¯d been told his name, but didn¡¯tmit it to memory since she¡¯d assumed he was not a person she¡¯d interact with much.
¡°Yes. And you must be Jasmine. The new pdin everyone keeps talking about.¡±
¡°People talk about me?¡±
¡°Yes. They say you¡¯ve got quite the mouth. Word of advice, control it before King Excelcior returns. He hates the noisy ones.¡±
Ss sent a warning her way. Jasmine gulped after receiving it and reminisced about the scary things she¡¯d heard from everyone on how Excelcior was.
King of the Dhijan Hero Nation, the youngest man to ever y a dragon at the tender age of 13, won his first war against Krull the War Monger, seven years ago, father of three exceptionally powerful princesses called the Hero Princesses and bearer of the moniker, the World¡¯s Strongest Human.
There were many more feats he had aplished, some too terrifying and simply unbelievable for Jasmine to ept as facts. From the collective information given to her by everyone, the King Excelcior was far too strict and terrifying a person to y around with.
She stood still for a few more minutes, but her hyperactive mind couldn¡¯t take the silence an inactivity.
¡°Psst, Ss.¡±
¡°What is it?¡±
¡°Could you tell me about the others we¡¯re expecting?¡±
¡°The Pdins of Lightning and Iron, Fubuki Hanma and Ajax the Iron Giant.¡±
¡°What are they like?¡±
At her question, Ss put his hand to his chin in thought.
¡°I¡¯d have to call Fubuki a free spirit if anything. She is definitely one of the strongest pdins, but her nature makes her kind of difficult to deal with. The only one who can keep up with her is Ajax whose just as wild as she is if not wilder. He¡¯s a Pixie Dwarf so you can guess how mischievous he is. Though his appearance may be terrifying at first sight.¡±
¡°So, she¡¯s not as uptight as the others?¡±
She said while gesturing to the other pdins whose backs up straight and were staring into space attentively.
¡°I¡¯d have to say no, but she can be terrifying. Trust me when I say you¡¯ll prefer uptight to those two.¡±
Loud trumpets sounded, causing the two to stop their conversation.
¡°Seems like they¡¯re here. Be on your best behaviour.¡±
Ss advised then returned to his original position. Jasmine did so as well and the corner of her eye looked at the massive gates that were wide open. The soldiers all run up towards the gate and held up their gs to salute the iing person.
It was a woman with dirty blonde hair carrying arge pouch on her bag. Her clothes ¨C simple leather armour over a tunic, fitting pants and boots - had multiple tears in them and were filthy, like a low-level adventurer¡¯s gear. She hair was in a mess and she looked like she¡¯d juste out of a tussle with something dangerous.
She grinned widely, showing them her white teeth and waving.
¡°Hey! You guys! I¡¯m baacckk!¡±
There was a weird clinking sound that could be heard as she got closer. Jasmine wondered what it was, but she couldn¡¯t determine what exactly it was. She scanned further and noticed that something was being dragged along behind her.
¡°Did they get into a fight again?¡±
¡°Seriously? Those two again?¡±
¡°I hope they did it in a forest this time.¡±
¡°Yeah, that vige waspletely wrecked thest time.¡±
Jasmine heard such thingse from the other pdins. They were groaning about Fubuki fighting someone, but she had no idea who they were talking about.
When Fubuki came up, she met Jasmine first. Up close, Fubuki was a giant. Easily as big as Seiko, proof of her lineage with the New Kyoto Empire, but there was something odd about her. She didn¡¯t give off the same energy Seiko and the Kazoku did.
Fubuki¡¯s eyes dazzled when she saw Jasmine.
¡°You are such a cutie. What¡¯s your name? How old are you? Do you like flowers? What¡¯s your favourite food? Are you a newbie? What kind of magic do you use? What¡¯s your height?¡±
She bombarded Jasmine with several questions that would normally overload someone. However, this kind of pace was more Jasmine¡¯s speed. She saluted and breathed in.
¡°Thank you! Jasmine! 19 almost 20! Only the ones I make! Seiko-san¡¯s roasted pork! Yes! Please take care of me! Jewel magic! I have no idea, but I¡¯m not short, ok!? OK!?¡±
Fubuki froze up. Jasmine felt like she¡¯d done something wrong and looked at the others, but they all stared at her with expressions that screamed, ¡°WHAT JUST HAPPENED?¡±.
¡°Hahaha! I like this one! She¡¯s got a nice fire in her! From now on, call me Fubuki nee-san!¡±
She patted her on the shoulder, filling Jasmine with a sense of relief. Her hairs stood on end at the prospect of meeting someone who could match her in terms ofmunication speed.
¡°Will do!¡±
¡°Oi, Ss! How¡¯s your lightning magicing along?¡±
Fubuki had already moved along to Ss, shocking even Jasmine. That was nothing however,pared to what she was dragging behind her. It looked like a mechanical humanoid she had trapped in a and tied around her waist.
Jasmine couldn¡¯t say she¡¯d seen something like that, as it lookedpletely out of this world. Even Seiko¡¯s guns that were apparently far ahead of their time looked like toys inparison to this machine.
¡°My lightning magic should be on your level now.¡±
¡°Eh? No way. Maybe on the level I was a year ago, but my power¡¯s skyrocketed, you know? We¡¯ll have to checkter. Here, I got you a Shandore Berry.¡±
She took out a fruit from her pouch and dropped it in Ss¡¯ palm. Both Jasmine and Ss looked at the fruit and cocked their heads.
¡°Um¡ Fubuki¡ this is just an apple.¡±
¡°What? No way! It¡¯s the super rare Shandore Berry I bought at a super deal for 10 gold coins.¡±
She said with a thumbs up. The fruit popped up in Ss¡¯s hand and he just looked at her with his usual smile.
¡°I see you stillckmon sense. I wonder how you survived the past year on your own.¡±
¡°Tch. Shut up, you shitty brat. Be like Jasmine-chan over there.¡±
She left him and went to Seiko. From her pouch, she pulled out two items. A sniper rifle and weirdly shaped gun that looked like it wouldn¡¯t work under no logical means.
¡°1 Ban and 4 Ban.¡±
¡°Some obvious frauds tried selling me your guns. I beat them up and took them back. You need to stop ying these games with me.¡±
¡°Right where I wanted them to be. Good job finding them. Maybe the next time it won¡¯t be so easy for you.¡±
In that moment, everyone had the exact same thought.
¡®He still refuses to admit he lost them!¡¯
Fubukiughed and went on to the next person.
¡°Yay, Fubuki¡¯s here.¡±
Charlotte sarcastically said with frazzled hands.
¡°Still the brightestmp in the room, huh?¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Not as bright as you, Fubuki.¡±
The blonde grabbed the scientist in a bear hug. Charlotte kept wailing and trying to break free from her captivity, but there was no winning against Fubuki in a contest of brute strength.
She finally let Charlotte down after the woman nearly lost consciousness, and delivered news.
¡°Oh yeah, apparently Renosue herbs aren¡¯t used in poisons. They can only be used in healing potions and stuff, although they¡¯re hard toe by.¡±
¡°You think I don¡¯t know that? With my knowledge I can make anything into a poison. I want the renosue herbs in particr for a reason.¡±
¡°That so? I have a bag of herbs riiiiiigght¡ here.¡±
She took out a tiny bag from the inner part of her leather vest. Charlotte took the pouch, opened it then looked at the purplish herb. She smirked.
¡°This is good.¡±
¡°Stop doing that. You look like a criminal.¡±
With that, she passed on to the next person. The youngest member out of everyone present, Rulis the Cursed Executioner.
¡°How are ya doing, kiddo?¡±
¡°Oh my gosh! I¡¯ve always wanted to talk to you, Fubuki san!¡±
¡°Eh?¡±
¡°I have several questions pertaining to the angel residing in me. Could we talkter?¡±
¡°Huh? Huh? HUH!? Rulis can talk now!? What happened?! When did it happen?¡±
¡°Last I checked Jeanne sent me to take care of something in Larm. I guess I hit my head really hard fighting that thing and n- we¡¯ll talkter, I guess...¡±
There were several reasons as to why she couldn¡¯t speak about such matters in the open, but the current reason was the fact that Fubuki lost interest and was already talking to Jeanne.
¡°Sister Jeanne! How have you been?¡±
¡°Fine by the grace of the gods, Sister Fubuki. I see you were quite busy the past year.¡±
¡°Yep. Doing our lords¡¯ work.¡±
¡°We shall talk moreter on over a cup of tea.¡±
Fubuki was searching through her pouch for something. Her hand came out through a hole in the pouch.
¡°I had a gift for you, but as you can see¡¡±
¡°No worries.¡±
Jeanne excused her with a gentle motherly smile. Fubuki walked to the next person, Neburis who just looked at her with obvious irritation. Fubuki did the same and both just spent about five minutes ring at each other before Fubuki walked to the next person.
¡°Looks like their rtionship¡¯s gotten better.¡±
Ss muttered and Jasmine failed to understand how that was in any way a good rtionship. The only thing worse she could imagine was an all-out brawl between the two every time their eyes crossed paths.
¡°As captain of the Dhijan Nation Royal Guard, allow me to humbly wee you to the Dhijan Nation!¡±
Veronica was in a salute and spoke with an uptight, authoritative voice.
¡°Come on, Ver- chan. We don¡¯t need any formalities here.¡±
Veronica didn¡¯t break her form.
¡°Apologies, but I cannot treat the Grand Master of the Holy Mexar Empire lightly.¡±
Fubuki heaved a sigh and walked over to the next person in disappointment. To this person, she bowed at a perfect 90 degrees.
¡°Eh? Eh? She¡¯s the grand master? Why is she wearing such low gear then?¡±
Jasmine¡¯s curiosity was officially piqued with this woman.
¡°It¡¯s a bit of a long story. Consider her a child who does whatever she feels like.¡±
Ss answered in the easiest way he could imagine.
¡°Fubuki, your clothes are filthy. Go change from them ande wait with us for Excelcior.¡±
Yvon, the oldest and most experienced pdin rebuked her for her appearance. She took it quietly and left the giant piece of metal behind her to go take a bath.
¡°Huuh, what¡¯s that thing?¡±
Jasmine pointed at it. Ss frowned and kept his gaze straight ahead.
¡°Make sure not to look at it, or you¡¯ll be in trouble.¡±
¡°Eh? Seriously?¡±
¡°Yep. That¡¯s Ajax¡¯s exoskeleton. He¡¯s absolutely terrifying when hees out of it.¡±
Now Jasmine was even more curious. She wanted to take just a tiny peek. What exactly was so terrifying about Ajax¡¯s appearance that all the pdins were trying to avoid seeing his face.
Fortunately for her, before she could take another nce at the lump of metal, a beam of light hit the floor in front of them. The earth beneath cracked and the entire pce shook mightily. Jasmine moved her hands to her weapons, but Ss grabbed her and shook his head as a little warning.
When the light passed, there was a man on his one knee. He looked up and observed the entire group with his green glowing eyes. The light from them disappeared as the man slowly stood up. He was a behemoth of a man¡ normal sized men that is.
He wasn¡¯t as tall as Seiko, but he looked more muscr. Some parts of his armour were either broken, missing or torn right through, leaving his wounded body exposed to the world. Blood streaked down his forehead and from his lips.
The sword he held in his hand had no de. Simply its handle.
Jasmine was very confused by the sight.
This neer looked at the deless sword and dropped it on the ground.
¡°Neburis! Jeanne! Rulis! My dear daughters! Come give your father a hug.¡±
¡°Excelcior, your appearance is appalling. Unfit for the leader of the most powerful human kingdom.¡±
Yvon¡¯s eyes cringed and his disgust became too thick for anyone to dismiss. They all took a few steps back as Excelcior went closer.
¡®He stinks¡¡¯
¡°Ugh, couldn¡¯t have at least taken a bath while fighting in the winter zone?¡±
The one to say this was Neburis who¡¯d pinned her nose to stop the stink.
¡°Neburis! Come over here. I got you a gift.¡±
¡°I refuse.¡±
A quick rejection.
¡°I thought you said no one could speak to him like that.¡±
Jasmine whispered into Ss¡¯ ears.
¡°Well, Neburis is his daughter and Yvon is the oldest, so I guess there¡¯s a difference between us and them.¡±
¡°Excelcior!¡±
¡°I hear you, I hear you. Please all of you, prepare yourself. This might be the most important Odysseus of our lives. Especially considering the fact that the demon lord is now dead.¡±
¡°You¡¯re not supposed to spout such things in the open¡ whatever. Just get dressed. I have other urgent matters to address.¡±
<A/N: There''s so much I want to shove in, but I can''t. Or we''d be looking at a minimum of 3k words per chapter.>
Chapter 242 The Odysseus Starts
The Odysseus
Seated on arge round table in a normally Off-limits chamber of the Dhijan Castle were all the pdins in kingdom, finally gathered up.
12 seats, for 10 pdins and 2 extra special members. Generally, there was no order to the seating, except partners sat next to each other.
The pdin of fire was next to the pdin of Nature. The Pdin of Water sat alongside the Pdin of Space. The Pdin of Steel with Pdin of Jewels, Pdin of Lightning with Pdin of Iron and finally the Pdin of Power with the Pdin of Light.
The specially reserved seats were given to the youngest members in the room who still hadn¡¯t awoken as pdins, but possessed enough strength to match pdins. The Heavenly Judge of Blood Red mes, or more poprly called, the Cursed Executioner and the Cold Blizzard.
They all sat quietly, staring into the centre of the round table where a green me burnt brightly.
¡°You don¡¯t mind if I take charge of this event, do you Yvon?¡±
The one to say this was a man in his early 50s. Streaks of grey were forming on his auburn-coloured hair and beard. His dark coffee-brown eyes stared at Yvon, waiting for a response. The elf shrugged, giving him permission. As the oldest one in the room, Yvon was always questioned about certain matters such as this.
He personally felt like it was a pain having to deal with it every single time and designated the second oldest, the Pdin of Power, Excelcior Sonaris Miksari Eldiro Furialt, as the leader of Pdins. Excelcior still asked for permission as a form of respect to Yvon.
¡°First of all, thank you all for making it to the Odysseus. This is the first time we¡¯ve had every member pdin present, and even now there¡¯s a few [Hero Candidates] waiting out those doors.¡± He begun with a simple thank you, then cleared his throat. ¡°Unfortunately, this isn¡¯t under the best circumstances. As you are all well aware, this year is bound to be the busiest for us. If you would, Charlotte.¡±
The pdins looked one another in the eye, then at the pdin of fire who was busily scribbling down in her notepad. Yvon twisted her cheek to bring her to reality.
¡°Ow, ow, ow! Stop it! That hurts!¡±
Everyone let out exasperated breaths. If anyone wouldn¡¯t be paying attention, of course it would be Charlotte.
¡°You are being disrespectful. Focus on the meeting.¡±
Yvon reminded her of where she was. She scanned the entire room, then dropped her journal as if she only just realised where she was.
With a simple motion of her hand, the fire started to change from its usual formless state into one what looked like a giant courtyard with people celebrating and having fun.
¡°Eh-erm, normally we begin this event by weing our newest members, Pdin of Steel, Seiko Sotomura and Pdin of Jewels, Jasmine, but there are more pressing matters at hand. For starters, we have to talk about the Dark Church and their raid on the Elder ns Summit.¡±
Everyone¡¯s eyes subconsciously moved to both Seiko and Fubuki, who both had no reactions whatsoever to the news.
¡°Most of the attendees were rendered incapacitated and the status of the n heads is unknown, although for the rest of this meeting we shall proceed with the belief they are alive and detained.¡±
¡°Isn¡¯t it possible to send a scout into the New Kyoto Empire to find out what¡¯s happening?¡±
The Pdin of Water, Veronica asked.
¡°The borders of the New Kyoto Empire have been closed. Any form of magical and physicalmunication has been rendered ineffective. Last we heard, our contacts in there are being fished out and killed. We have no way to determine what is going on in the empire as of now.¡±
Excelcior reported.
¡°What? It¡¯s impossible to maintain such level of secrecy at all times, especially closing off all routes in and out of the empire.¡±
Veronica argued.
¡°I would agree with you normally, but that only applies to human enemies. We had Jeanne divine the future of the Empire, but whenever she did, she met interference from a certain creature. We still have no way of identifying this creature.¡±
¡°The Dark Church is a formidable foe that has been a thorn in the side of the Seven Gods Church for a while now. All our investigations led to the Oxaivalon Empire, which I believe is an ally nation of the New Kyoto Empire.¡±
Fubuki spoke up and presented documents which she passed around the table.
¡°In these documents, you will find everything we know about them, from their first sightings, rumours from people and any evidence we ourselves have borne witness to. They are a notorious group that popped up a century or two ago, but only gained fame in the past decade. The recent information I got from an informant in Boulderdane, suggests that they are trying to revive a certain dead monster of immeasurable power.¡±
The pdins read through the documents quickly.
¡°Is this all?¡±
Ajax, the pdin of Iron, asked curiously. There was no way such a tiny document possessed all the information an organisation as powerful as the Seven Gods Church could gather.
¡°No. This is a summed-up version the church authorised me to pass on to you.¡±
¡°You mean the filtered version of things?¡±
Charlotte asked as she dropped the document down.
¡°Of course you¡¯d say something like that.¡±
Fubuki eye rolled and folded her arms.
¡°Come on, sister Fubuki is only telling us what the church gave her and even what she personally found.¡±
Jeanne defended her and Fubuki could only nod in approval.
¡°We don¡¯t need anotherckey of that shady organisation talking.¡±
¡°You dare to disrespect the Seven Gods holy abode?¡±
¡°You looking for a fight, Charlotte?¡±
Both Jeanne and Fubuki¡¯s calm expressions switched up into violent expressions with the tension being thick enough to cut through. The others could only shake their heads in disappointment.
¡°Enough! No more stalling, Charlotte.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
Excelcior who didn¡¯t have the patience for their nonsense spoke up.
¡°Whatever. We believe that the Dark Church couldn¡¯t have suddenly done this overnight without any inside men.¡±
¡°So, there were traitors in the New Kyoto Empire? Ha! I¡¯m not surprised considering how that woman, Suzuki Tatsumaki ruled.¡±
Fubuki yelled in a weird mix of glee of disappointment. The pdin of power red at her, forcing her to shut her mouth so he could continue.
¡°We believe they had been sending in several personnel over the years till they had enough members to strike from within. Our only suspect at the moment is a young man named, Kai, who ording to the young Miss Shiro Tatsumaki, went missing approximately 50 days before the event with no order from even the n Head.¡±
¡°What? Because the girl isn¡¯t aware if the n head truly didn¡¯t send him off on a secret mission, we are supposed to take their word for it?¡±
¡°No. It is because the man named Kai is a beast man. I forgot to mention this, but due to the new revtion put forth by Fubuki, we shall go with the assumption that any skilled beast man in the New Kyoto Empire is working with the Dark Churc- Uh-¡± he paused when he saw someone¡¯s arm was up, ¡°Yes, Seiko?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve known some beast men in the empire for as long as I¡¯ve lived. It¡¯s simply prejudice to assume that all who can fight are with the Dark Church.¡±
Seiko voiced his disapproval of the current statement.
¡°Indeed. That¡¯s just being racist on your part, then again that¡¯s all you humans know how to be.¡±
The stoic dwarf, Ajax, said mockingly. The humans in the room didn¡¯t even bother looking at him, wary of the kinds of tricks he¡¯d pull with his race¡¯s intrinsic skills.
¡°Sorry, but until youe up with a better way to differentiate things for us, we will have to proceed with this.¡±
¡°Your majes-¡±
¡°No one has their titles in this room, Seiko. You can call me Excelcior while we are in here.¡±
Seiko froze up for a moment, cleared his throat, then proceeded.
¡°That is a far too reckless and inefficient method. Twenty percent of the New Kyoto Empire is made up of beast men and of that percentage, a whole 50 percent is knowledgeable in some form ofbat. That¡¯s 10 percent of the New Kyoto Empire you¡¯re trying to destroy, at least 3 million beast men. Essentially a country. Considering an entire country our enemy is logicallycking and redundant. I propose we think of a new stratagem to tackle this particr topic.¡±
¡°That would take too long. Consider the rest of the 80% of the empire. We can¡¯t ascertain their safety under the Dark Church¡¯s rule.¡±
Yvon finally added his thoughts to the table.
¡°But, that¡¯s far too reckless!¡±
Ajax smacked his mechanical arm on the round table.
¡°Silence, you tiny creature.¡±
Yvon was not going to take any informationing from something so short, let alone a dwarf. Even worse, it was a pixie dwarf. The most annoying of that species.
¡°You long legs, sure are full of yourselves, living so high up in the Alps and what-not. I¡¯m guessing your goddess forced you toe down to talk to us low-lives, huh.¡±
¡°Is that a sarcastic tone I hear with mydy¡¯s name?¡±
¡°Oi! Oi! Silence! Everyone!¡±
Excelcior¡¯s voice boomed in the hollow hall and echoed. The room shook mightily and some dust fell from the ceiling.
Yvon rubbed his ear in annoyance.
¡°There was no need for you to go as far as shaking the room, Excelcior.¡±
¡°That... wasn¡¯t me.¡±
As soon as he said that, the doors leading to the room began creaking open. Everyone jumped out of their seat and readied their weapons.
Those doors would not open till the Odysseus was over. They wouldn¡¯t even pry open for ate member and could sometimes stay shut for days, yet they were opening up this very moment.
And the sound the gears of the door made, looked like they were acting against being opened, but the force on the other side was far too great. Since everyone was gathered, it could only be an enemy of immense powering for them.
They all had their thoughts on who it could be, and the fact that they couldn¡¯t sense any power from the person made their situation all the more intense.
Seiko¡¯s eyes wondered over to the dwarf, Ajax who was in a metallic exoskeleton. Dwarves were said to be mechanical geniuses, far ahead of the current time, but they kept their information secret to themselves. If he could see it in action, he could get the chance to learn how it functioned and maybe replicate it to boost his efficiency in battles.
But that wasn¡¯t the most important thing now. He looked back at the door. They were fighting against the force, but were soon blown out of the way, as if by a powerful punch.
On the other side, a figure emerged from the darkness. He wasn¡¯t in any form of heavy armour, but there was simply something divine about his clothing. Appearance-wise, it looked like nothing special, but the power from it was beyond believable.
A silver vest tied up over a white shirt with a red sash around his waist, acting like some sort of belt. His trousers were tight-fitting, but looked flexible enough to allow easy movement with his sturdy ck boots. His hands were protected by white gloves and under his red cloak, a sword was hidden at his side under his cloak. There were two amulets over his neck and one wing shaped ornament over his left ear.
¡°Oh, uh, I tried to open the doors, but it wasn¡¯t allowing me so I sort of broke it. Please don¡¯t get mad.¡±
He apologised with a gentle voice, making those present confused. But, once everything settled down and they got a clearer view of his facial features ¨C wild silver-white hair tied into a ponytail reaching his waist, crimson red eyes and aplete rxed smile, they all had the same thought.
This man was dangerous.
<A/N: Please give me your power stones,ments, golden tickets and reviews so I feel more motivated to write! Thank you!
Also check out my second story, "Chevalier of the End"!>
Chapter 243 The Meeting Starts
Ever had something super important you knew you were supposed to be keeping a close eye on, but always decided to push to ater date due to¡ reasons?
No, I¡¯m not talking about the usual procrastination like how we all did back in school. I¡¯m talking about being so preupied with stuff you quite literally forget at some point you have something to do. Mostly because you assumed there were other reliable people watching out for it, but turns out they were also super duper busy with their own stuff to do.
Yeah, that was me right now.
The meeting started swimmingly, everyone was all serious and all, then that had to happen! Of all the things, this one scenario decided to be a reality.
So, right now, I was only halfway through the err¡ meeting. I wasn¡¯t sure I could call it that anymore. Then there was the party crasher.
Crap, I wasn¡¯t expecting this person to show up today¡ or any day to be honest. My first instinct was obviously to protect a certain somebody, but this party crasher didn¡¯te for that somebody. They came for me¡ well not really¡ I guess I have to exin this in better detail.
Let me see¡ ah yes.
Let¡¯s start from this morning.
Day 66
The day started out excellently with the guys having no sleep from the day before since they were still making preparations for the iing leaders, as well as amodations for orcs and kobolds that were on their way.
ording to the wolves, the rate at which humans keeping into the west was slowly rising, but they managed to kill them off easily. The thing though is that it took at least 2 days toe from a proper city to Larm, so it¡¯d take a while for people to catch on that the forest is still super dangerous.
Even if some heard that lots of adventurers were dying, those who believed themselves to be above average would try to prove a point, so death wouldn¡¯t necessarily be a good enough deterrent for long. We had to find something else. Sort of like getting actual humans to advice the others not to enter this forest. Preferably a very strong human or group of influential humans.
With that, the chances of peopleing in should be reduced to some extent, though some will still persist. We¡¯d just kill them if push came to shove.
What a pain in the ass humans were.
I¡¯d been practicing a bit with [Blood Magic] and its effects reminded me of [Water Magic], but I needed toe up with more creative ways of using the magic. For instance, making weapons out of my blood, or turning my blood acidic. Those weren¡¯t good enough, so I also tried using [Light Magic] on my own blood, by fusing both magics, but that only hurt me. Being part-devil gave me a sort of resistance to light magic externally, by internally it was the equivalent of consuming poison. The original n was toe up with a way to use the healing property of light magic to ensure that my blood never leaked even if I got injured, and that my healing rate would be unbelievably fast even with [Quick Auto Regen] on.
Guess I was being too greedy there.
No. I can¡¯t think like that. I have to be very greedy with my growth if I want to livefortably. That was why no matter how absurd something sounded, I would find a way to do it now so it¡¯d be smooth sailingter on.
Only if I was this serious about life back on Earth. Ah well.
I received news that Kara¡¯s sister woke up. Quickly, I went to check up on her. My reason was to find out what exactly happened in the East. The sister was a bit shaken up by my appearance, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Kara wanted to introduce me to her sister, so I guess mying here was a win-win situation. I asked my question and the sister tried remembering, but ended up being unable to speak from trauma or something. I wasn¡¯t sure.
Whatever it was, it caused her to pass out. The interrogation would have to be pushed back from the looks of things, so I apologised to Kara then went to check up on Grimm. He was training Ulva in the deepest part of the dungeon.
I¡¯d figured that the best way to get Ulva to level up super-fast was by having her attack humans since they gave a great number of experience points. The only issue was if she could kill a human, so I had Grimm here to monitor her. He himself wasn¡¯t up for killing people, so this was going to be a bit tricky.
I summoned a shadow fiend to protect Ulva. The Shadow fiend, being the highest-level soldier I could summon, was approaching the level of an A rank. Unlike the others, it resembled a true monster.
You know, like a ginormous were-wolf with super long ws that shred through steel like paper and aura terrifying enough to make an adult man wet his diapers. Sadly, they weren¡¯t nearly as smart as the Greater Shadow Demon Generals, hence I can¡¯t expect them to lead actual shadows into battle for me. Though considering the potential of an A rank, I could very well have just 1 go fight an army, 5 if I was looking for utter annihtion.
It was to stay put in Ulva¡¯s shadow and follow her orders to the letter. Grimm looked at me weirdly. Maybe giving him one would have insulted his warrior pride so I decided not to even suggest such a thing. Strong people did have that sort of tendency.
Also, key thing to mention. I made Ulva a [Family Member].
Yes. I¡¯d like the entire world to know that I was very biased and would be giving her special treatment.
Again, Grimm gave me a weird look, but I only gave him the position of captain in the familia. Well, I guess that was a fair enough reward for all the work he¡¯d done for us.
There would be more humansing in today, so just to make sure they could get to the fifth floor, I removed the weak shadows to the third floor.
We tested out [Undead Creation] on some corpses I had. They had about half the stats they did when they were human, probably due to my [Undead Creation] being at a low-level. Since humans were naturally weak, the adventurers should be able to clear them up no problem.
Akkun then decided to test it out on the ogre and kobold corpses we snuck out of the East.<novelnext></novelnext>
What ogre and kobold corpses did we sneak out of the East, you ask? Well take that up with Akkun and Akira who have been nning shit behind my back.
I really couldn¡¯t get angry at them since I was already thinking about doing such a thing, but as a way of showing respect to Kara, I didn¡¯t. Well, as long as they stayed in the dungeon, I guess Kara would never find out and there¡¯d never be a problem.
Oh yeah. There was also Goliath¡¯s corpse which I had my shadows sneak into the dungeon.
This time, I issued the order. With Diane¡¯s permission of course, since she and Goliath were close. She was surprisingly chill about the whole me consuming Goliath to obtain his power thing.
Then there was a new problem. For Goliath, I couldn¡¯t consume his core. It had been corrupted by something that wasn¡¯t supposed to be there. No regr dragon should ever have something like that. Sure, Goliath¡¯s core provided him with amazing power, but it stunted his growth.
That¡¯s right, Goliath was never going to get stronger than he already was.
You might be thinking that given how strong he was, that would be no problem, but his corpse was living proof that it was a major issue. Huh, I guess living proof wasn¡¯t the best terminology for this situation.
His core was now basically steroids. Consume it, receive major boost in power, never grow beyond that. I wanted to bet on [Evolver] making my body evolve past such a limitation, but since no one ([God¡¯s Wisdom] and [Supreme Wise Council]) were sure about that, we decided to just put the core in my item box for safe-keeping.
In the end, I was left with trying to make a dragon undead. Whenever I tried, it¡¯d just copse. It wasn¡¯t an issue of mecking mana or anything. Simply there was way for all that dragon body to keep functioning without its original core, even when the dragon was undead.
I decided to make the Goliath undeadter. Maybe I¡¯de up with a way to make the undead without Goliath¡¯s coreter.
In the mansion, the kobolds were preparing something with all the corpses I brought from Antis. I was surprised the food hadn¡¯t gone bad yet, but ording to them, Grimm showed them that by keeping the ingredients in a cool room, they could be preserved for a while. Basically, he found an unused part of the mansion and turned it into a store room.
By the end of the day, they would have enough to feed the entire mansion. They also suggested keeping these ingredients specifically for special events. I agreed with their thoughts, though I could just go back at any time to get more.
Later during the day, Yokino came from wherever it was she¡¯d disappeared to. She looked rtively exhausted, but she wouldn¡¯t tell me what she was doing no matter how much I asked.
It was starting to get annoying. Well, my n for that would kick in very soon, so I guess she could roam free for now.
The day went by quickly and evening time came. I¡¯d sent out some clones to go pick up the representative leaders. Zana came in carrying a bit of the living fog from the South to the West into Diane¡¯s tree in order to stream the stuff to the monsters that were incapable of leaving their domains. I didn¡¯t know the fog could leave the South, but it would always obey hermands since it chose her.
In a sense, that fog was a soul weapon. If it was, I could attribute the title of Biggest Soul Weapon to it. Honestly a terrifying weapon to possess.
She came with a lizard man. A different person from the old man I picked. He was younger and on the bigger side of the lizards. He introduced himself as a leader from a different lizard man vige, chosen to represent all the lizard men. They were probably too scared toe themselves and chose him toe in their stead.
Behind Zana was the leader of the copperheads. An old man with a staff in his hand. They all greeted me and were led to their seats. I currently wasn¡¯t in Diane¡¯s tree, but with Reiman discussing issues that weren¡¯t important to the current meeting.
It was about his [Architecture] skill. With it, he had several suggestions on what kind of buildings to make for goblins and other races alike. I liked the idea so I gave him the green light. Of course, the goblins were going to be a major part of thebour force. If they refused to build their own houses, they might as well sleep under the bare stars.
Later, I received a message that Dulk and the leader of the kobolds had arrived. Inu had met with the travelling orcs and kobolds and were bringing them back to the West.
With that, everyone was ready. I was about to inform Reiman, but his position as [Familia General] allowed him to know every move of the members. He left off before, telling me to prepare myself mentally for the meeting.
He mothered me like I was some child going to mess up their first public performance. When he left, I steeled myself and glossed through all the issues we had to discuss, as well as solutions I had. Once I felt I was ready, I left towards Diane¡¯s tree.
Two sprites were waiting for me and smiled once they saw me. They directed me to the room and I was met with the same scenery we had already set up.
Except, there was one major issue that made me frown.
The throne I asked Diane to get rid of. She had done so as one would expect. But whether she misunderstood me or intentionally wanted to prove a point, it was reced with an even grander throne, making me look like some sort of overlord.
Everyone in the room¡¯s eyes fell on me and I stiffened up a bit. I cleared my throat, walked slowly towards the throne while arguing with Diane in my mind, before eventually taking my seat. Well, not really a sitting down.
As a bird, I simply perched on it and faced everyone.
¡°Shall we begin the meeting?¡±
<A/N: Finally started... Please join the discord. Leavements, powerstones, golden tickets and reviews!>
Chapter 244 The Meetings Pt.I
¡°I¡¯d like us all to do a quick introduction before we begin. Our names, appropriate name for our race and where wee from.¡±
I felt like this was necessary in order to get things rolling and everyone would address one another in a way that wasn¡¯t offensive.
¡°I¡¯ll go first. My name is Hinotori Hyakkiyako. I¡¯m a¡ um, shadow bird and Ie from the West. Who next?¡±
I hesitated to tell them my race, and ended up giving them a small portion of the actual name. They all looked around, looking for who to go next, then Reiman stood up.
¡°The name given to me by my master is Reiman. I am a rat man as you can see and I am from the West.¡±
He then sat down. Afterwards the captains, Tsuna, Nukeme, Yuuna, Taiku, Oki, Shiroi and Yokino introduced themselves to the others. Diane and the sprites in the room acted more like maids than guests. She refused to allow others into the tree to serve the food, so I really had no choice. I could see the intimidation in the eyes of the others.
Well, I couldn¡¯t me them considering Yokino and Shiroi who were the closest to me were beyond stronger than everyone present in the room, while I was way stronger than both of them. If we wanted, they would all be in a very bad situation.
Normally, I would have wanted Sylphie, Kawaii and Arisu to be here, but since they were protecting Ulva alongside Grimm, there was no point in getting them here. Kara too was with her sister while also trying to figure out the barrier, so she couldn¡¯t make it.
After that, those from the south introduced themselves. Zana started, followed by both unnamed copperhead and lizard man. There were also those viewing through her fog, but they didn¡¯t speak, probably under the assumption that they couldn¡¯tmunicate to us through it.
Next was the people from the East. Dulk and the leader of the kobolds. Unfortunately, the leader of the trolls and ogres refused toe, but I would force the East into bing an imprable stronghold whether they liked it or not.
Afterwards, we started the meeting in earnest.
¡°First and foremost, I am certain you all saw that pir of light and darkness some days ago. Some of you may know what that implies, but to those that don¡¯t, I will rify for you.¡±
I scanned the room to make sure everyone¡¯s eyes were focused on me.
¡°The demon lord has been defeated.¡±
With just this one sentence, there was a great turbulence in the room. As if instinctual, those viewing through the fog started to scream. The others in the room had their minds spinning circles, but they didn¡¯t let it show on their faces. I wasn¡¯t sure why.
¡°Please calm down.¡±
I asked those on the other side of the fog. They all calmed down at my plea.
¡°There will be a lot of chaos now that he isn¡¯t around. The demons will try to fill up the role of demon lord by causing as much chaos as they can in the human side. To do that, they¡¯ll have to pass through Larm.¡±
¡°Ha! Are you stupid? The Goliath and tyrants will protect us!¡±
? ¡°Stupid bird.¡±
The ones to speak were those hiding behind the safety of distance. The Marsh Rusalkies and others insulted me, but from reading the minds of everyone in the room, I couldn¡¯t help but smirk in my head.
¡°How are you not aware of the death of Goliath?¡±
The one to ask this was Dulk, with folded arms. His expression was scary as he looked at the fog and the Rusalkies responded cockily.
¡°The Goliath still lives. We can sense his core in this forest.¡±
As soon as they said that, I realised that if Goliath¡¯s core was still intact, they could sense it. As long as they could sense it, there was no point in me telling them otherwise. Though, any item in my item box shouldn¡¯t have been essible to anyone in this realm.
I took out the orb and dropped it on the table. It rolled to a stop in front of Zana and everyone in the room was dead silent.
¡°This was extracted from Goliath¡¯s corpse. Do you have more doubts?¡±
As if the tension in the room before was nothing, I now felt like I could cut through it. Maybe showing them the core wasn¡¯t that good of a move, but that wasn¡¯t too important.
¡°Now that Goliath is dead and Minerva is missing, there will be more outsiders in the forest. They will make our lives exponentially harder.¡±
¡°W-what makes you so sure that they wille into Larm in the first ce? How would they know Goliath is dead, huh?¡±
The leader of the lizard men asked timidly. I shrugged as I responded.
¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t know how the humans will know that Goliath is dead. But, since a war ising and there was someone strong enough to kill the demon lord, what makes you think they won¡¯t send that very person to Larm to kill Goliath and the tyrants? Why wouldn¡¯t they try to pave a path for their war to be in a neutral ground where they have little casualties, huh?¡±
¡°Tch. You believe the tyrants are so weak to the point of losing to a mere human?¡±
The one to speak this time was the kobold leader. I was surprised since he looked meek, but then again, he possessed several scars on his body. He must have been through a lot.
¡°Honestly, the average human doesn¡¯tpare to the average monster. However, can you stand here and tell me any of the tyrants could defeat the demon lord?¡±
¡°Of course! Why do you think the demon lord never attacked? It was because he was we-¡±
¡°Choosing the option for peace doesn¡¯t mean a leader is weak. Just because Krull was so belligerent doesn¡¯t mean every strong ruler is too.¡±
Dulk cut in and tried to silence the kobold.
¡°Oi, oi. I don¡¯t need to hear that from the scared orc king.¡±
¡°Want to see how scared I am in a fight?¡±
Dulk¡¯s ears were starting to steam and there was a dangerous light in the kobold¡¯s eyes.
¡°Silence! Both of you!¡±
Shiroi ordered, and her being the more terrifying presence, they decided to keep quiet. The whole atmosphere was weird till Unmei cleared his throat and started to speak.
¡°Hinotori. I understand where you areing from, but I¡¯m curious as to why you are so sure that humans will pass through Larm. The name of Goliath is still an effective deterrent for those who can¡¯t sense such things.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
As if agreeing with him, I saw some people nodding.
¡°Consider it as me speaking from past experience. I¡¯ve had the chance to witness the cruel and heartless nature of humans. They will do anything to ensure sess, especially when they have such a super power. They are cunning. You think they won¡¯t use this chance to cut down one problem if not two? Why not kill Goliath? Why not make the Larm Forest safer for us to take its resources? Why not distract the demons with the prospect of war while focusing on strengthening our true defences? Humans don¡¯t just think about purely fighting like beasts. They will always have an ulterior motive. Do you think they just got up and decided to kill the demon lord without actually thinking about a lot of factors?¡±
I watched a lot of war documentaries and read some cool manga and novels. Strictly speaking, all my experience came from these as I myself hadn¡¯t been put in such a situation before. In a way, I wasn¡¯t lying to them.
¡°Besides, what makes all of you so sure that they won¡¯t? All I¡¯m saying is that we should up our defences in case of that possibility. Especially when we don¡¯t have a proper means of protecting ourselves. Don¡¯t wait for the sword to cut you before you buy a shield.¡±
After telling them that, they all kept their mouths shut and stared at me. Reading their thoughts made me blush as they were praising my foresight.
¡®Oh shucks. That¡¯s embarrassing.¡¯
¡°Kuhum. If you have nothing else to say, I would like to hear your suggestions on how to protect your sides of the forest from humans.¡±
With all the uselessments out of the way, the true purpose of the meeting could finally begin.
________________________
Dhijan Hero Nation, the chamber where all the pdins were currently having their Odysseus.
The atmosphere was a bit odd now. This was mostly because of the new uninvited member in the room. His appearance was more than shocking to say the least.
Excelcior, feeling like they couldn¡¯t waste time just sitting there, coughed to gather everyone¡¯s attention.
¡°I know this is unexpected, but it seems we have a new member this time. Some of you may know him already, but for those that don¡¯t, we¡¯ll let him introduce himself.¡±
With that, Excelcior sat down and the young man walked up. He stopped his trotting next to Seiko¡¯s seat and waved at everyone.
¡°Hello. My name is Hiro Tatsumaki. I¡¯m a child of the Tatsumaki n as well as this era¡¯s [True Hero]. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet you all.¡±
At the mention of [True Hero], they all flinched.
In one way or another, everyone in the room had met Hiro. They couldn¡¯t deny the fact that he was the strongest human they had met in their life, but to im to be a [True Hero], that was taking it a bit too far.
Instinctively, their eyes turned to Jeanne. She nodded her head, then spoke up.
¡°It is true. A few years ago, the church found out about this, but held off announcing it as Hiro was deemed missing. In truth, the church believes demons have been kidnapping the [True Hero] of every era, which is why we haven¡¯t had one in so long.¡±
She just dropped a bombshell on some members. Those that weren¡¯t really rted to the church or having any true connections with higher ups widened their eyes in surprise.
However, Charlotte startedughing.
¡°What is so funny?¡±
¡°Nothing, nothing. I just find it funny that the church has been keeping such a huge deal a secret. Goes to show that they¡¯re a bunch of self-absorbed lunatics that want to control humani-¡±
¡°Mind your next words carefully.¡±
Fubuki interrupted Charlotte, but thetter could only giggle at her threat.
¡°Or else what? I¡¯ll get kidnapped by demons too?¡±
¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡±
Jasmine blurted out, but covered her mouth immediately. Charlotte was more than happy to respond to that question though.
¡°It means, the church is responsible for all these supposed ¡°demon kidnappings¡±.¡±
¡°That¡¯s it!¡±
Fubuki mmed down on the table and jumped up, reading to fight. Charlotte did same, visibly agitated by Fubuki¡¯s behaviour.
¡°Enough. Sit down both of you. I will not say it again.¡±
Excelcior ordered, his eyes glowing green with power. They clicked their tongues and returned to their seats.
¡°You can continue, Hiro.¡±
Hiro couldn¡¯t feel anything from what he¡¯d just seen. He proceeded with his introduction.
¡°Um, so I¡¯ve been off going on adventures in a quest to get strong over the past few years. Over time, I met a lot of people, fought a lot of monsters, learnt a lot of things. I eventually killed the demon lord and his generals.¡±
He paused for thest bit to sink in.
The demon lord was by no means an easy opponent. Admittedly, it¡¯d take everyone present in the room to fight the demon lord and his 4 generals together. In a round about way, he was trying to let them know that he was stronger than them and wouldn¡¯t mind fighting all of them.
¡°Why would you kill the demon lord? Do you know the kind of chaos that will cause?¡±
¡°That¡¯s right! Things are already tough on this side. Humans aren¡¯t ready for anotherrge-scale war with demons. Especially when we don¡¯t know which side the Oxaivalon empire will take.¡±
The Oxaivalon empire which had control over the sea side could decide whether demons could invade secretly or not.
¡°It¡¯s because the one thing we, humans, need right now, is to create the most intense amount of chaos imaginable.¡±
<A/N: Please give me your power stones, golden tickets,ments and reviews! Also, join the discord!>
Chapter 245 The Meetings Pt.II
¡°It¡¯s because the one thing we, humans, need right now, is to create the most intense amount of chaos imaginable.¡±
Hiro¡¯s words caused the entire room to go even more silent than it already was. Naturally, this piqued the interest of everyone present.
¡°What do you mean by that?¡±
Acting as their representative, Excelcior spoke up. Hiro stood back, sighed and scratched the back of his neck.
¡°Telling you guys that now will be me giving you too much information which you could misinterpret and lead to the situation being worse than it already is.¡±
His words caused everyone to have their own understanding.
Some presumed he was insulting their intelligence, some presumed that he hadn¡¯t thought this far in his prank and some took it as him telling them that they simply weren¡¯t ready for the information.
Obviously, there were those that were greatly displeased by his words.
¡°Listen here, human brat. I¡¯ve been alive ten times as long as you have. Ain¡¯t no way I ain¡¯t ready for this.¡±
Ajaxx spoke up, the voice filter on his suit making him sound dangerous.
¡°And I have lived three times as long as you have, little shrimp. I can say with certainty that the human boy is right.¡±
Yvon, antagonising Ajaxx, spoke what was on his mind. The mechanical dwarf red at the elf, but was unable to do anything because sitting right next to him was a literal off-switch for his armour.
¡°Still, that does not mean you can barge in here, telling us you bear information you aren¡¯t willing to share.¡±
Yvon berated him for his rash actions. Hiro, admitting he was wrong, let out a nervousugh.
¡°Sorry, but I had to make sure you guys had urate information.¡±
¡°Ok, then how about we continue the meeting. If you spot an error, that¡¯s when youe in to correct us.¡±
Seiko suggested. Everyone in the room liked his idea, so Hiro backed down. He patted Seiko on the back with a smile. Seiko¡¯s ears perked up, evidence that he was pleased. Some people in the room who had known him long enough caught the tiny movement and red suspiciously.
¡°Ok, let¡¯s go back to the discussion on the New Kyoto Em- Uh, Hiro?¡±
Before Excelcior could finish his sentence, the young boy raised his hand.
¡°Sorry that I¡¯m interrupting so soon, but the Dark Church is split into two factions. Those that want to revive the Goddess and those that want to revive the god yer.¡±
¡°What? What do you mean, revive their goddess? There are only seven gods in this world.¡±
Jeanne interjected, her blood boiling from the im of there being another goddess.
¡°Um, I don¡¯t know if you¡¯re being serious or not, but there is an army of gods waiting at Horizon¡¯s gate, willing to charge down to this realm.¡±
¡°You mean angels and other higher beings that serve the gods?¡±
Fubuki, with a clearly agitated expression on her face, tried to interpret his words for everyone. Not wanting to be the item of their wrath, Hiro decided to go with what they said.
¡°Sure. Whatever. Anyhow, the Dark Church is currently at its weakest, since one of the factions finally betrayed the other. We need to strike now.¡±
With that, he backed down again, but everyone had their eyes still fixed on him. No matter how much they tried to think about it, wasn¡¯t Hiro way too suspicious?
As if he could read their minds, Hiro added.
¡°I have an informant on the inside. They give me information on such matters.¡±
¡°This informant of yours, how do we know we can trust them?¡±
¡°Magic and physicalmunications have been cut off. How do they give you your information?¡±
¡°What are the current states of things in the empire?¡±
Different members bombarded him with questions. All of which he had the wless answers to. Still, there was one person in the room that looked at him with scepticism.
¡°Oi, Mr. True Hero. How do you know about all of this in the first ce? What made you try to investigate the Dark Church.¡±
Charlotte, the pdin of fire, spoke up.
¡°Excuse me?¡±
¡°What? You didn¡¯t hear my question or you don¡¯t understand?¡±
¡°I heard your question. I was just surprised. Well, the truth is, I just did so on instinct. Nothing more, nothing less.¡±
He bashfully replied, scratching the back of his neck and letting out a nervousugh. Everyone¡¯s eyes widened and just watched the young man. Whether he was na?ve or lying to them, they couldn¡¯t help but praise his boldness.
The first person to break the silence was then Excelcior with a mightyugh.
¡°Excellent instincts! I guess that settles it!¡±
¡°Excelcior, you can¡¯t possibly -¡±
Charlotte tried to argue, but stopped once she met his fearsome gaze.
¡°Tch.¡±
She folded her arms and looked away.
¡°Tell us more, young Hiro.¡±
___________________________
In the span of 30 minutes, the leaders had given me a rundown on how their territories worked and the sort of countermeasures they had to ward off any enemies. From the looks of things, we needed to work around it so the races wouldn¡¯t identally hurt themselves.
For now, since I had no proper reach in the East and North, I wanted to focus all my efforts on the South and West.
I exined to the other races the importance of them joining forces with the others. Our example was how we got the timber wolves, Fenrir alliance and pumas working together on defence. The goblins, who were still the weaker members, were in charge of hunting down meat for our members.
Kobolds who were used to house service were in charge of cooking, the rat men were our informationwork and also our generalbour force, being the most versatile group out of everyone. As for Yokino¡¯s crew, they took a part in every single thing, other than cooking of course. No one wants to see spiders cooking.
At first, we got scoffed at, but once the others saw how transformed and organised the West was, they shut their mouths.
Honestly, even I was surprised. The dryads and sprites had created light orbs to light up the forest so the weaker creatures like goblins could avoid Nightmare Vipers who were so dark not even [Night vision] could capture them.
To be honest, the forest still looked like a forest, but the visible change was with how the monsters interacted. Timber Wolves weren¡¯t out to kill the weaker races, goblins walked about freely, the illusive rat men walked about, screaming their presence for all the races to see without fear. Most people weren¡¯t even tensed. In fact, they were having a meal and conversing outside the tree, awaiting the results of the meeting.
In my eyes, all I saw was a zoo without cages. In their eyes, they probably saw a beautiful metropolis.
We won them over easily and started to n.
Considering the location of the south, it wouldn¡¯t be odd for demons to cross the Dourean desert, into the swampy south and through the West to attack the closest human kingdom, Boulderdane.
Normally, humans could get lost in the fog of the south, but demons had a skill that allowed them to avoid such things. They also had the option of using aerial travel to close the distance, but if humans did the same, their middle ground could be the skies above Larm.
I didn¡¯t want to wake up to the smell of burning chicken on one random Saturday because an idiot had his lesser dragon shoot a fireball and miss. And the demons unfortunately wouldn¡¯t try to bypass the Dourean desertpletely, due to its residents supporting humans instead of them.
Suddenly, the demons were looking like the underdogs in this situation. They were lucky that humans were also messing up and very selfish.<novelnext></novelnext>
With that, Yokino offered to have some of her termites and dragon flies in the south act as border security. They would alert Zana so she acted as soon as possible, while also providing back up for her. The Marsh Rusalkies were to start opening up to the other races instead of killing them or poisoning them. They were reluctant, but one threat was more than enough to get them around.
I informed them that orcs and kobolds were on their way here. The east was currently deemed uncooperative and so it wasn¡¯t the concern of the others now. The North was different. We simply hadn¡¯t heard word from them and so their position was an enigma.
Should the North also refuse, I personally wouldn¡¯t be bothered by it. However, if their forces were broken through and humans used that route to pass through the other sides of Larm, I was willing to go there and forcefully up its security.
During the meeting, Diane spoke up and told us advised us to create a figure head that could terrify the humans.
¡°What do you mean?¡±
I asked curiously. There was absolutely no need for a figurehead when the forest itself was a stronghold.
¡°Well, you see. This is actually something I heard from Larm himself. The best weapon you can use against humans is simple lies. They would back down once their given the illusion of a monster so strong they can¡¯t beat.¡±
¡°Oh, so we just spread word of a monster as strong as Goliath roaming the forest in his ce?¡±
The Rusalkies, who for some reason, really didn¡¯t want to work with the lizardmen and others, were very interested in this n.
Diane, with a devious smirk, shook her head lightly.
¡°No. We present them an existence that is stronger Goliath.¡±
¡°So, the one who killed Goliath?¡±
I asked, curious to see her response. Again, she shook her head.
¡°No. From what I hear, there¡¯s a bounty on that one¡¯s head. Announcing that he lives here is the same as inviting greedy fools to the forest. For all we know, we could even anger the owner of the name.¡±
Once she said that, I had another idea. Honestly, I didn¡¯t like the concept of creating a fake monster to scare away humans since I needed my dungeon to grow, however, I could use this to my advantage one way or the other.
¡®Amethyst.¡¯
In a poof of smoke, my first familiar appeared behind the throne I sat on. She raised her head above the seat and the others in the room looked at her in shock.
I couldn¡¯t me them though. It had probably been a while since they¡¯d seen a member of the dragon race up close.
¡®You called?¡¯
She came in front of me and looked me in the eye, barely paying attention to the others in the room. I transformed into my humanoid form so I could pat her on the head.
I was currently in an outfit Sylphie had made for me. It was more or less a dark brown battle gown, with knee-length boots. She wanted to add a symbol at the centre, but said it was a bit much in her opinion. The outfit itself wasn¡¯t supposed to be aesthetic. I chose this out of the numerous clothes she¡¯d made because this was honestly the least attractive or should I say feminine, out of them.
¡°This is Amethyst. The new Guardian of Larm and our new figure head. She¡¯s also my familiar, so do be kind to her.¡±
¡®Hm? What¡¯s happening?¡¯
She asked me,pletely oblivious to the kind of task I¡¯d just given her. The others in the room marvelled at the sight of the shiny drake. I couldn¡¯t me considering Amethyst was quite literally a bundle of precious jewels acting as the scales of a fairly dangerous beast.
Her growth rate was also scary, considering she had already broken through to B rank. s, there was no way she was ever going to get to my level. However, the new issue was spreading the terror that is supposed to be Amethyst to the humans.
I was about to ask [God¡¯s Wisdom] and the other mes, but something came up.
¡®Oi, there¡¯s a problem.¡¯
Hyakkun, who was mostly in charge of the system spoke up. It would seem the others were busy with their jobs.
Speaking of which, our jobs had grown exponentially in terms of difficulty. Now, Akira was monitoring the skills of almost every single member of the familiar. Giving them advice on how best to use it, some times adding some skills to the list for them if necessary. He was supposed to go out to bring more humans, but that was put on hold.
Akkun who was busy with magic had gotten so absorbed with the dark arts, he was basically a hikikomori in my head. He would sometimes speak to Zana, K, Yuuna and Tsuna about magic theories, but that was all he¡¯d do. asionally, should information on magic be needed, he¡¯d be there to answer.
Hyakkun though, he was super busy all the time. Apparently, there were some ws with the system and he had been conversing with the system master about it. Some functions had actually been disabled after a while.
¡®What is it?¡¯
¡®Crap. We should have attended to this way earlier.¡¯
¡®Huh? What¡¯s going on?¡¯
¡®The [Shadow¡¯s Crib]. It¡¯s hatching.¡¯
¡®Seriously? What¡¯d the system master say about it?¡¯
[It¡¯s a surprise. Even I don¡¯t know ~(*~*)~]
He disyed her response before my eyes. I couldn¡¯t help but feel a rage well up within me.
¡®Ah¡ she really is use-¡¯
¡®Mind your words. She might deduct some stat points for that.¡¯
¡®Ugh, let¡¯s just ignore it. It¡¯s not like it can hatch while in the item box. Leave it there and we¡¯ll sort it out after the meeting.¡¯
¡®Hmm, that sounds logical enou-¡¯
I honestly thought that would work. But as if to prove me wrong in that very moment, the [Shadow¡¯s Crib] appeared before me in front of everyone. Their eyes all fell on me, but I was too focused on the little ck ball. Overtime, it hade to look like an ostrich egg.
It floated above the table, oozing some fiendish aura. The cracks on the eggs only showed me the seemingly endless darkness it contained.
[The [Shadow¡¯s Crib] is ready to hatch]
[The [Shadow¡¯s Crib] is breaking]
[This has garnered the attention of several higher beings]
[Their eyes are all on the [Shadow¡¯s Crib] with various expressions]
¡®W-What? What are those guys doing here?¡¯
While system alerts flooded my face, the egg cracks widened.
[A great evil is descending upon the Mortal Realm]
[A [Unique Sacred Event] has begun]
[Unique Sacred Event: Madonna of Catastrophe
Description: ???
Rewards: ???
Difficulty: SS
Time Limit: -]
¡®Eh?¡¯
Chapter 246 The Meetings Pt.III
The Realm of Eternal Night.
A country isted from the rest of the world. Its name was famous, but proof of its existence was fickle. It mostly came off as ghost stories used to scare children. The only people who knew of its truth were those who had met some of its residents.
Pale skin, youthful faces, blood red eyes and sharp blood sucking fangs. The vampires originating from that ce were rare, but once a single vampire struck a vige, there would be utter chaos with barely a single surviving member.
In a room, inside the biggest building in this fabled realm, there were six people.
One of them sat on a throne, high above the others, while the rest stood in front of a table with their arms behind their backs and their attention on the table.
These people were the highest ranked members of the Realm of Eternal night, the oldest generation of vampires to exist. They were dressed in noble attire and had features so wless, one wouldn¡¯t be able to call them human.
The table which they looked on, glowed with a blue hue. It contained a magical projection of the map of the Krione continent which they had lorded over the millennia. Currently, their focus was on the Eastern portion of the map, where the demon country Mchasid.
Some of their hand selected judges had been sent to choose who the new demon lord should be. Five had been sent, all handpicked from the five vampires who looked down on the table.
Their faces were expressionless as they looked down on their chosen candidates, going about and preparing for the uing test.
Suddenly, the table red up and a bit ck me appeared on one particr point on the map. The vampires still retained an expressionless face, then looked back to the one sitting on the throne.
The blood moon bounced off her silver hair as a warped grin formed on her face. She pointed at the table and the map expanded. The me lit up from Larm, specifically the West of the Larm. She zoomed in on the specific location and a tree popped up. The grandest tree in the west seemed to be harbouring a great evil.
They all ignored the sight of monsters moving about in harmony instead of killing themselves and rather decided to focus on this tree. The inside of a dryad¡¯s tree existed in a space separated from the current realm. One couldn¡¯t force their way into a dryad¡¯s home.
However, for the youngdy sitting on the tree, such an action couldn¡¯t be counted as breathing. The map zoomed in on the tree and now they were met by the sight of monsters seated around arge table, having a discussion. The one that caught her eye was the monster that sat on a throne and held a creature in their arms. Specifically, the creature in the arms of the little girl looked absolutely intriguing.
For the first time, one of the other vampires reacted to it.
¡°What the fuck is that?¡±
The others ignored him and looked at their queen to see her reaction. For the first time in ages, their queen moved her lips with a serious tone.
¡°I shall participate in this year¡¯s Demon Lord selection.¡±
Her words, simple sounding, carried a weight that made the others feel their cold, dead hearts beat once more. A light that had long since died from their eyes was reborn as they stared at their queen.
¡°Tell Julian, his queen has yet use for him. He shall be my handpicked judge for the next demon lord. His target has been found.¡±
The others flinched once again. Julian was a name they did not expect to hear after so long. His name was practically taboo in this holynd, as the man had infuriated her to no ends.
¡°M-My queen? Are you sure about Julian?¡±
One of the vampires walked forward, asking her hesitantly. Her smile turned to a frown the instant he walked up to her and she scowled at him. The vampire instantly regretted his decision to even talk in her presence.
¡°Know your ce, Augustine.¡±
Augustine, bent down on one knee, his veins snaking out and turning ck. His blood red eyes bulged out of his sockets and he could feel the oxygen leave his body as an indescribable pain descended upon his ancient body.
He was saved as the doors leading to the room opened up, revealing a young boy. He was in tattered clothes and had chains binding his arms and legs together. He looked skinny, starved for days. His hair was a mess and he swayed from side to side weakly.
He fell to his knees before the queen.
¡°Now then, Julian. Let us begin.¡±
Blood shot out from her finger tip and pierced Julian¡¯s forehead.
***
This year¡¯s Odysseus had possibly been the most fruitful event Excelcior had hosted in his life. The introduction of the [True Hero], theck of a need for him to be sub-servient to the New Kyoto Empire, the reveal of the Dark Church¡¯s motives and so many other things.
All pdins had gathered up and the mood in the room was serious. There was no time for quirky remarks and useless rants.
They had finished their discussion on the New Kyoto Empire and a consensus had been reached. There would be a raid on the main head quarters of the Dark Church, which was somewhere close to the Oxaivalon Empire.
Rather than blindly attacking the New Kyoto Empire, they could use the leader of the cult as leverage to get the others to back down. This method sounded cowardly to the more muscle-brained amongst the group, but the smarter people agreed whole-heartedly with it.
It was efficient and would lead to little to no casualties. In fact, there would be no need for an army as the people seated in the room would be more than enough for a raid.
Now, the current discussion topic was the Dourean desert ruins. Veronica, who had been taking on the position of Head of the investigations spoke up.
¡°The mummies in the desert are bing more active. Normally these mummies are powered byher energy, life energy or souls, but these ones were different. A never-before-seen source was powering them up and they were stronger, faster and less predictable. A group of architects were killed and transformed into mummies themselves.¡±
¡°Any clues on what this energy is?¡±
Charlotte asked, genuinely interested.
¡°I¡¯m not sure, but when I went to pick up Lady Veronica, I sensed something chaotic. It reminded me of the chaos beast from ten years ago, but even that creature disappeared without a trace.¡±
Neburis exined what she could feel to them. The mention of a chaos beast got them tense, as it would require at least three pdins working together to fight one on equal footing.
Naturally, all eyes fell on Hiro who seemed to possess all the answers. He coughed and stepped forward once more.
¡°Um, I d-don¡¯t know what happened to the beast from 10 years ago, but the mummies are the results of the Chaos seal being released. It¡¯s something you don¡¯t need to think about.¡±
He tried to brush it off as if it wasn¡¯t important. However, to those who valued the lost lives, it wasn¡¯t an issue they could ignore.
¡°Exin in more detail.¡±
¡°You know what the Chaos Seal is, right?¡±
¡°Of course, we do.¡±
The only one in the room other than Hiro who knew about the chaos seal was Yvon. The others kept quiet, presuming that everyone else knew so they¡¯d ask about itter.
¡°Without the gods being here, the seal has been weakening for a while now. And the creatures hiding behind it will break free. No. They must break free or humanity is doomed.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°But why would you want to release the enemies of the gods? That¡¯s insanity.¡±
¡°Well, the enemies of the gods will serve as mankind¡¯s failsafe against the angry gods. There¡¯s actually a lot of factors at work here and it¡¯s a headache having to exin it. Anyway, if we can stop horizon from being broken, we¡¯ll have to work on the seal. But from the looks of things, that¡¯s impossible so we need to break the chaos seal.¡±
¡°That sounds awfully retarded and premature.¡±
Veronica narrowed her eyes at his illogical n.
¡°I know. It sounds quite dumb, but there¡¯s somethings I can¡¯t exin and others I can. It¡¯s hard having to filter myself.¡±
¡°Why are you filtering then? Giving us all the information is better than you controlling what we should hear.¡±
Agitated, Charlotte started toin
¡°Yes. Without hearing the full story, we can¡¯t make proper ns.¡±
Veronica supported her.
¡°Hiro, I¡¯ve been listening to your requests for the past year. I think it¡¯s time you told me why.¡±
Seiko chimed in with a mundane tone.
Confronted by all theirints, Hiro just let out a sigh. He didn¡¯t like being in such positions which was one of the reasons he stayed away from most humans during his time away from home. Still, he couldn¡¯t refute their points.
Rather, him filtering information could be seen as a form of maniption. He didn¡¯t want to have to do this, but it would look like he had to use his [Unique Skill] in this situation.
¡°Trust me, you don¡¯t need that information. Let¡¯s move on to the next topic.¡±
His voice sounded simr, yet different.
¡°The ck knight.¡±
The mood in the roompletely switched up. Almost everyone in the room had had the unfortunate experience of facing that one being and they had all been shaken to their core by the insurmountable gap in power.
They had all dedicated themselves to gaining strength enough to match him, however there was no real information on him. Motives, past, operations and identity. Nothing was known about the infamous ck Knight and that was more than enough to kill the mood of the room.
Realising that the conversation wouldn¡¯t go anywhere, the pdin of power changed the topic. For a moment he wanted to brag about how much stronger he had gotten through his encounter with the ck Knight, but chose to do soter.
¡°What shall we talk about next?¡±
¡°How about the swarm of monsters that invaded Keimen a few weeks ago?¡±
Fubuki, who recently visited Boulderdane had heard tales of a swarm of dark monsters tearing up a noble man¡¯s house and causing it to disappear. It sounded all too familiar to stories she had heard before and couldn¡¯t help but talk about it.
¡°Oh that¡ the end of noble man Percy McAllister and thest time the organisation known as The Sub-Circle reared its heads in Keimen.¡±
¡°So he was connected to them.¡±
Having been forced to investigate them, Neburis scowled at the fact that her suspicions were right on the money.
¡°We still have no proof of that.¡±
Jeanne argued as if to antagonise Neburis.
¡°Oh really? The richest man in the kingdom has his home attacked by monsters and disappears, and ever since no word of the Sub-Circle has been heard? The dots connect almost too perfectly.¡±
¡°Well, that doesn¡¯t matter. That event was almost too beneficial to us. It¡¯s one less problem to deal with. The state of living has upped, prices gone down, rumours of stray demi-humans have died and the people are happier. The church yed a massive role in recovering the state of things.¡±
¡°You mean, the church would have yed a huge role if Dhijan didn¡¯t step in first. There was no way we could abandon a former ally nation in its most dire states.¡±
Excelcior corrected her with a shrewd grin. The others in the room held back their sighs, knowing that they were slowly entering the political side of things.
¡°That¡¯s just Keimen though. Shandel city got taken over by a new lord who only made living there harder.¡±
Fubuki told of her experience.
¡°That new lord is a soldier of mine. Don¡¯t worry, he really will make the state of living there better. In fact, we¡¯re currently using Boulderdane as an experiment. It shall be the first of its kind. A kingdom that chooses its own leader. We decided to call it the Boulderdane State, a kingdom with an experimental style of government called Democracy.¡±
Excelcior exined.
¡°Eh? Demo-what? What¡¯s that? Sounds interesting.¡±
Fubuki¡¯s eyes lit up. Excelcior, obviously pleased with the various reactions he got, had a smile on his face as he responded.
¡°A system in which the people choose one representative. This person will perform the duties of a king, however he can be removed from power once the people determine he is useless after a set period of time. Also, this person cannot make rules without the agreement of the people in the kingdom. He is basically their servant in a sense. In fact, it doesn¡¯t need to be one person in charge. A council of people would work fine, but we want to start out small.¡±
He exined in detail what he meant. A new form of governance other than a monarchy sounded weird. The first one toin about this was Jasmine with an innocent tone.
¡°What do you mean the kingdom chooses its own leader? What if they choose a scumbag?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry about that. We manipte the voting so it¡¯ll be the person we choose all the time.¡± S
¡°That sounds more like you manipting an entire country rather than saving it.¡±
Charlotte found a major issue with it.
¡°Sorry, but heroes don¡¯t manipte the world as they see fit. Heroes only save the people and leave them to do as they will.¡±
The morally upright Ss added.
Unfortunately, most of those sitting in the room knew the true state of affairs of the world. It wasn¡¯t as simple as the more innocent members were thinking and at the end of the day, all they could do was cough and try to get past this conversation topic.
¡°Ok then. We shall talk about the death of Larm¡¯s Guardian, then we can start telling stories of our adventures over the year. What say you?¡±
Chapter 247 Attack Of The 8th Grader Pt.I
The egg hatched. And, almost as if to prove the system right, I could see an intense number of frightened souls running out of the egg. I was too scared to even touch the souls. Scanning them too proved that eating those souls would be useless as that would lead to soul erosion.
Everyone in the room was frightened and put on high alert. Even Shiroi jumped in front of me; Amethyst ran behind me. I might have to fire her.
Once it all calmed down, we were met with a very odd sight.
I had to move Shiroi away to get a better view of it.
It had dark purple feathers¡ fur? No, feathers. There were wings coloured just like mine ¨C golden with dark purple tips ¨C attached to its body. However, it wasn¡¯t a bird per say. If anything, it resembled a¡
¡°Meow¡¡±
Cat.
¡®¡®¡®¡®Eh?¡¯¡¯¡¯¡¯
We were confused while looking at the sight. There was a wet tubby cat with wings, sprawled all over where the egg was.
STATUS
[Name: Hyakkiyako
[Species: Twilight Hell Kitten 1/5
[Status: -
[Age: 0 days
[Rank: E
[Race Rank: Tier 0
[Talent: S grade
[Titles: [First Child of Hyakkiyako], [Hyakkiyako Familia Member], [Rare Species]
[Blessings: [Ancient Goddess Zatana¡¯s Blessings], [Hyakkiyako¡¯s Blessing]
[Level: 1 Exp: 0/20
[Health: 30/30 Stamina: 50/50 Mana: 30/30 Strength: 20 Speed: 70 Defence: 20 Dexterity: 35 Intelligence: 570 Luck: 99 Magic: 50
|SKILLS|
[Unique Skills: -
[Passive Skills: [Negative Aura], [Night Vision]
[Active Skills: [Tempting Purr], [Impish Gaze], [Nasty Bite], [Shadow re], [Shadow Demon Summoning]
[Affinities: [Basic Shadow Magic Affinity], [Basic Summoning Magic Affinity], [Basic Fire Magic Affinity], [Basic Dark Magic Affinity], [Basic Hell Fire Magic Affinity], [Basic Twilight Magic Affinity]
[Magic: [Dark Magic: Shadow Walk]
[Resistance: [Low Dark Magic Resistance], [Low Holy Magic Resistance]
Ah¡ its stats were way better than mine when I first hatched from my egg. How does one get born with 500+ intelligence? I-I didn¡¯t even get 20 intelligence points.
Also, it knows magic already? Then there¡¯s its name. Why is it called Hyakkiyako?
[You have been acknowledged as the mother of the [Twilight Hell Kitten]]
¡®¡®¡®¡®Eh?¡¯¡¯¡¯¡¯
[Would you like to give the [Twilight Hell Kitten] a first name?]
Ah¡ what was happening?
Just as I was trying to process things, the kitten got up and shook its wet body dry. Its feathers puffed up and it looked fatter than originally. Surprised by its easy and quick movements, I could only stare wide eyed in jealousy.
The kitten jumped up into my arms and rubbed its cheeks on my t chest, purring joyfully.
¡®How I¡¯ve craved to be in your embrace, mother~¡¯
It suddenly spoke to me in my mind. Startled, I fell back into my chair, throwing the kitten up.
DING!
[Your child [Twilight Hell Kitten] has developed the active skill [Flight]]
Just as I got an alert, I could hear fluttering. The little cut slowly descended on my body. He stared at me with his vermillion red feline eyes. Its feathers had a beautiful mix of golden and dark purple, just like me, but its ears and tail had red tips.
The cat smiled at me in all its cuteness and I could feel my heart skip a beat.
¡°Meow?¡±
It tilted its head, observing me curiously. I had to look away from itsrge eyes.
¡®Jesus. Mitsuki, I¡¯ll kill you for making me a cat person if I find you.¡¯
I swore vengeance upon my sister.
¡®Mother~¡¯
I was brought back to the reality of the situation when I heard the kitten¡¯s voice in my head.
¡®W-W-What? St-stop calling me mother. It¡¯s creeping me out.¡¯
I tried to push the little kitten off, but it refused to leave my body. Amethyst tried to grab it, but got scowled at and backed away. Everyone else just watched us with frightened expressions, not moving even an inch.
¡®But mother is mother~¡¯
¡®No, no. Who¡¯s your mother now? I certainly didn¡¯t give birth to you.¡¯
¡®But mother is mother~ meow~¡¯
I clicked my tongue and tried to make heads and tails about it. This was the gift given to me by my sponsor goddess, Zatana. So, why did she give me a child? Why did it look like a kitten? Is it influenced by that devil it consumed? Even still, why is it calling me mother? It¡¯s not like I cared for it while it was in the egg. If anything, it saved me instead.<novelnext></novelnext>
Things were starting to get unnecessarily confusing and I was getting annoyed.
¡®Ok, wait for a moment. Let me get this right. Who is your mother?¡¯
¡®You~ meow~ meow~¡¯
¡®Ok¡ do you know how you were born?¡¯
Again, the kitten tilted its head.
Of course. There was no way a new born child would know such a thing. Also, there was no way a new born child could talk telepathically.
I looked behind the cat and for some reason, everyone had the [Fear Status] with the exception of me.
¡®What¡¯s wrong with them? Sure, that disy of souls going away was a bit extra, but still¡¡¯
<<That is due to the kitten¡¯s skill [Negative Aura]. It¡¯s purposefully scaring off anyone who isn¡¯t you.>>
¡®Eh?¡¯
I red at the little fe. It just tried to absorb me into its eyes, so I looked away.
¡®Of all the things, why a cat!?¡¯
While I was thinking about it, someone finally spoke up.
¡°What is the issue, Hinotori?¡±
The rusalkies who currently weren¡¯t in the room asked. Since they couldn¡¯t feel the aura, I guess they were the luckiest of the bunch.
The kitten turned its head to re at them and they did the same.
¡°It¡¯s nothing important, please give me a moment.¡±
I jumped up behind the throne. Diane walked up to me, sweat streaming down her face.
¡®Diane?¡¯
¡°Hinotori. You must flee. Now. Get everyone out of here.¡±
¡®What?¡¯
She just popped up out of nowhere and was kicking us out.
¡°I do not feel so well. You need to go.¡±
¡®Oh, it¡¯s probably because of the kitten.¡¯
¡°No. It¡¯s different. M-My space is being ripped apar-¡±
Before she finished her sentence,rge hands pierced through the top of the space.
¡°What!?¡±
<<Warning! Intense divine/spatial energy detected. A breach in space is being formed>>
Theserge hands separated the tree, revealing the night sky of the outside world. We all jumped up from our seats, in high alert. I put on my [Sinuous King Adamas Armour] in an instant and readied my de.
Everyone else got up, anticipating an attack from the heavens. From the night sky, a container dropped down on the table, smashing it to bits.
Diane herself, had already crumpled to the floor and her sprites were hiding behind us. This container was big, bearing a red cross on it. Truthfully, it resembled a coffin. I got a really bad vibe from it and gulped.
The coffin creaked open and from it, a little boy walked out. This young boy had matte ck hair, pale skin so white I couldpare it to glistening silver. He wore a butler uniform, white in colour with a ck handkerchief in his pocket and a golden chain on his belt. He had one hand to his head and one on his waist, striking a dashing pose. Both hands were covered in ck fingerless gloves.
The boy looked up at me, his hungry eye glowing viciously as he opened his mouth that possessed to protruding fangs. Then, he pointed at me.
¡°Thou hath been chosen to take up the mantle of the fiendish Lord of demons, by the Empress of Eternal Night!¡±
He dered powerfully and swung his arm around the room, dering his presence more than he already did.
¡°Me?¡±
I asked and he dropped both arms. He red at me, then walked up to. He was about my height, taller by merely a centimetre or two, but who¡¯s counting? Definitely not me. I didn¡¯t have insecurities about my current height¡ even though I used to be taller.
He reached his hand towards my shoulder. Before he could though, Shiroi reacted, ordering one of her mist wolves to bite his arm off. The wolf did so, but got dispelled with a simple muscle flex. I hated to admit this, but this guy had the highest physical stats I¡¯d seen of any humanoid till date.
I took a step back, making him miss my shoulder. From his thoughts, I could tell that he wasn¡¯t here to harm me. In fact, he didn¡¯t know both Ulva and Grimm were present.
But I had a very big issue with him.
He tried to get closer to me, but I took another step back. In that moment, everyone else in the room jumped at him to protect me as I¡¯d been identified as his target.
Dulk hadn¡¯te with his weapon, so he charged in with his bare body. The leader of the kobolds drew the knife he¡¯d hidden and attacked. Dulk bounced off the boy¡¯s body as if it was an immovable mountain and the knife shattered on his skin. The boy waved his hand and a streak of blood sent both of them flying with severalcerations appearing on their body.
The next to attack was Zana¡¯s fog. The fog tried to suffocate him and I could see lightning bolts strike from it. How the hell mere fog created lightning bolts, I wasn¡¯t sure. Maybe it was a cloud instead of fog, but I wasn¡¯t sure. Unfortunately, it got sucked in, doing absolutely no damage to the fellow.
Unmei stayed put, refusing to attack recklessly. The hob-goblins were also paralysed, but after a few seconds they broke free and attacked.
One by one as they charged, they got curb stomped with zero effort on the part of the invader.
¡°Fall before the might of unholy blood swipe.¡±
He roared and sent a wave of blood shaped like a sharp de that threw everyone back. Yokino managed to avoid it, threw a volley of water spears at him and charged head on with her legs out.
Multiple illusion clones of herself popped up as did illusionary monsters like tigers. She threw them all at him, but the young boy grinned.
¡°I did not wish to do this, but I shall put the might of my evil eye on disy for the entire world to see! Bow, before the greatness of the Great Blood Emperor!¡±
He removed the eye patch covering his left eye. A great red light shone from it and a powerful st struck Yokino, wiping out her attacks and killing that clone of hers.
I cringed up once I heard it and backed up. He cornered me and mmed his hand against the walls of Diane¡¯s tree. With an expression that resembled the face of absolute madness, he closed the gap between us.
This bastard¡ he¡ he had 8th grader syndrome. Of the highest degree at that!
He was a chuunibyou.
Chapter 248 Attack Of The 8th Grader Pt.II
¡°What say yo-hmm? Thou art not my query.¡±
His eyes widened as he looked at me. Shock quickly reced his once confident gaze. He looked around the room then his eyes settled down on one tiny kitten ring at him. The kitten was flying next to him and the boy smiled as soon as he identified it.
¡°Ah~ There you are.¡±
He grabbed the kitten with a joyous expression.
¡®Leave my mother alone, you fiend! Nya~¡¯
It warned the weirdo, but he received the kitten with a joyous smirk.
¡°Finally, my new master.¡±
The kitten, not too pleased with his behaviour, bit his finger. However, that was barely an itch to the youngd as he didn¡¯t react to it. I grabbed the kitten from his grasp and instinctively summoned my wings.
¡®Oi, oi! Stay away from the kitten.¡¯
I warned him, but he frowned at me.
¡°What are you doing? Bring back the child.¡±
An order? Pfft.
¡®No.¡¯
With that, I teleported out of the room. From the looks of things, he wasn¡¯t out to kill anyone, so I could rest assured they were safe as long as they remained unconscious.
I reappeared inside the cave where I had Ulva hide. I received an attack from Arisu, but easily swerved her.
¡°Mawstewr!¡±
Kawaii was excited to see me, but paused when she saw the little kitten in my arms.
¡°What is that?¡±
She red at it, but I didn¡¯t have time. I rushed over to Ulva and Grimm.
¡°Boss?¡±
Sensing my urgency, he had a difficult expression on his face.
¡®The queen sent her vampires here. We need to get both of you out here.¡¯
¡°Big sis?¡±
¡®Grimm, mention the safest ce you know. I¡¯ll teleport both of you there. Keep Ulva safe. I¡¯lle get you guys when everything¡¯s settled down.¡¯
¡°Boss.¡±
¡®There¡¯s no time. Mention anywhere. I will get you there.¡¯
In truth, I was relying on [God¡¯s Wisdom] for this, as it could teleport to quite literally anywhere on the continent. Grimm was trying to tell me something, but reading his mind, I wasn¡¯t going to ept what he was saying.
¡®You must know somewhere safe, right? You¡¯ve been hiding from them for a while.¡¯
I was starting to hyperventte. I hadn¡¯t done so in a long while.
Why was this happening? Why was everything so hectic all of a sudden?
A wave of calm hit me while I was thinking. A let out a huge sigh and looked down into my arms.
¡°Meow~¡±
The kitten meowed while in my embrace. I looked at it closely and a thought came to mind.
Wasn¡¯t that brat Julian here for just this kitten alone? If I gave it away, there¡¯d be no issues, right? It was as easy as that. Give the kitten away and everyone is safe. I go back to my daily activities.
So¡
Why was I finding it so hard toe to that decision?
I had quite literally no emotional attachment to the cat. I looked at it and it was looking back at me innocently.
Clicking my tongue, I looked away.
¡®Ok, in that case. I know what to do.¡¯
The council hade to a conclusion. The chances of this working were quite close to zero, but we decided to roll with it for now.
¡°Ulva, Grimm, Kawaii, Arisu¡ get into my stomach.¡±
¡
¡°EH!?¡±
***
In front of Diane¡¯s tree, the residents of the west bore witness to the hands of God parting the tree in half. From the sky, a ck container dropped into the tree then both hands disappeared as if they were never there.
The monsters all stood up in high alert and nervously watched the tree. After a moment of silence, the tree formed an opening and a being walked out from this opening.
He exuded an overbearing aura that would put any weak creature to sleep. Contrary to what the being expected, not even a single monster present was paralysed. They all red at him with what could only be called ¡®Fear¡¯. No, that wasn¡¯t quite it.
If anything, the term ¡®Survival Instinct¡¯ was all he could see in them. And not the kind where they¡¯d try to run. All of them looked at him like they were willing to fight to the death.
A sight the boy couldn¡¯t help but find ridiculous.
¡°A pack of monsters, eating as allies? Laughable! Nowe at me, you horrendous mutts!¡±
He ordered and spread both arms apart, as if to embrace all the creatures of Larm.
They all red at him and stood up, ready to pounce on him and tear him limb from limb for interrupting their happy meals.
Before Hinotori, they were all forced to hunt and kill each other. Never in a million years did any of them imagine a scenario where they¡¯d be eating, talking and working together. It was a blissful peace for them and they had already made up their minds on the night Hinotori gave her speech that they would maintain such a peace.
In all truth, the reason why the creatures didn¡¯t run was because of the intangible link between them known as the ¡®Familia System¡¯. With it, they could all feel their bonds and through these bonds, a thought appeared subconsciously in the minds of all the creatures.
¡®If we fight together, would we lose?¡¯
There was a sense of unity that drove them to this conclusion. Over a thousand monsters versus one boy. Even if some died, a grand majority would live.
Thoughts like ¡®I¡¯ll fight so someone else can live¡¯ popped up in the heads of some. Though usually inconceivable for the less honourable races like the goblins, they all now possessed such feelings of conviction.<novelnext></novelnext>
The destruction of their former weak bond to Hinotori and the renewal of a much stronger bond was what caused all of these things to happen.
Right now, there was absolutely no monster in the Hyakkiyako Familia that would try to run from a powerful foe once they had their allies next to them. For their Queen and for their lives, they would stand their ground till they received an order saying otherwise.
¡°Like we¡¯d ever listen to a stupid human brat!¡±
The one to say this was a hob-goblin. Clothed in imperfectly altered attire and brandishing a newly forged sword made by Sylphie. A trio of hob-goblins behind him smirked as they brandished their weapons as well ¨C a bow, a spear and magic.
This hob-goblin was Baka and the trio behind him were his sworn brothers. One of them was a new addition to the party, but he had more than proven himself to Baka.
These hob-goblins would proceed to earn names for themselves for being the first to stand up to the insolent attacker.
The Idiot Squad would lead the Hyakkiyako Familia to their first defeat in history!
¡
After twenty minutes of intense fighting, the young boy sighed and looked at the mountain of unconscious monsters.
Naturally, him killing all of them would cause a great upset in the bnce of things which would only lead to further his Lady¡¯s displeasure with him.
He held his shoulders and shook, thinking of all the horrible things she would do to him.
From afar, one would think this was his fear showing up. However, after over a century of torture, he hade to ept torture as hisdy¡¯s form of blessing him. He was willing to kill every single monster that opposed him, but the were more interesting things to do at the moment.
He looked far towards a waterfall that was quite a way away. He held his chin and ¡®hmmed¡¯ curiously at it.
In the dryad¡¯s abode, he noticed two interesting things. The clone and the blonde he¡¯d mistaken as his query. However, now that he was out, there was something far more interesting.
He could sense a being of presence rivalling his Lady.
Only a handful of people came to mind when he thought about it, but those people couldn¡¯t be the case. He¡¯d met them before and could easily tell them apart. This was new. Fresh. Like it didn¡¯t belong in the current world. An anomaly to his Lady¡¯s ns it would seem.
¡°Oh dear, it would seem I have just one job of a higher relevance than acquiring that child.¡±
With that, the millennia old vampire butler walked towards the waterfall. To him, he was walking, but others only saw a blur moving.
*
Meanwhile, inside the Beehive, the real Yokino¡¯s eyes snapped open.
Her clone had just been killed with literally no effort and that frightened her. She looked at the person who was sitting down eating roasted fish and looking at something through a magically weaved web.
¡°Oi! Some crazy vampire just attacked the meeting. This wasn¡¯t part of what you told me!¡±
She jumped down and held the person by the cor. All she got was a powerful force that threw her back.
¡°Tch, do not touch me like that. Also, what do you mean by crazy vampire?¡±
The home invader asked, sounding oblivious.
¡°I thought as queen of the vampires, you had a good knowledge of every single vampire in existence.¡±
¡°Well, if you don¡¯t describe this vampire how am I supposed to know them?¡±
A good argument was shot back. Yokino sat down and rubbed her temples.
¡°Ok, um. He looked like a kid. Maybe 12 or 13, short, ck hair, has an eye patch and wears a butler suit.¡±
¡°Anything else?¡±
¡°He speaks like a bloody chuuni. You know, um, I don¡¯t know how to describe it.¡±
While Yokino was trying to find the words to exin, her guest¡¯s eyes widened at a sudden realisation.
¡°Fucking hell. Julian¡¯s here?¡±
The other person eximed, clearly not pleased.
¡°That¡¯s his name? Anyway, can you just get him to stop? Cause the chicken just did some crazy shit with an egg and God parted Diane¡¯s tree and stuff. The whole meeting was thrown into disarray. Everyone¡¯s unconscious other than Akira.¡±
Her voice was distressed. She couldn¡¯t rush in to help because she knew that fighting that vampire would lead to nothing but death.
¡°Still waiting for an answer.¡±
She blinked¡ and the house invader was no where to be found.
¡°Huh?¡±
A stupid sound escaped her mouth.
¡°V-Vampire Queen?¡±
She looked around, but that person couldn¡¯t be seen. Even her senses didn¡¯t work on the person. Yokino gulped, knowing what exactly the person had done to run away. The one skill that hid its target away from even the eyes of reality. That person¡¯s ultimate skill, [Zeroth Wall].
¡°Vampire Queen, huh? Truly the most curious thing toe out of thine mouth.¡±
A childish voice echoed in her ears. In this darkness, one red glowing eye was ring at her deviously. She could feel a weird pain as she observed it and slowly backed away. With her night vision, she managed to make out his childish figure as he walked elegantly towards her.
¡°You are a vampire, yet you do not originate from the Realm of Eternal Night. A lesser being. I shall take you back once I havepleted my mission.¡±
He dered. Yokino,pletely nervous tried to run away, but wherever she turned, the red eyes were waiting for her.
¡°Odd¡ It can move in my presence. A fresh blood would have instinctively bowed to me.¡±
As if he didn¡¯t even consider her a living being, he had delegated the title ¡°It¡± to her.
¡°W-What are you doing here?¡±
She forced the words out of her quivering mouth. Although they were barely audible.
¡°Even weirder, it speaks.¡±
¡°Answer me!¡±
This time, putting in more power in her voice, she ordered. The little boy was taken aback, then shrugged.
¡°I found an interesting side attraction while on the job. Oh well. I shall be back.¡±
With that, the boy left the cave. Yokino fell on her knees, panting heavily.
Chapter 249 Attack Of The 8th Grader Pt.III
¡®Sheesh, those guys can¡¯t take a joke.¡¯
By those guys, I was referring to Ulva and co. of course. I made an on-the-spot joke about them entering my stomach and they were actually on their way to do so.
Sure, they would have remained in a state of suspension inside my [World Eater] skill, but the thought of swallowing them up was gross in my head. I left them off in the dungeon and went out with the little fe.
¡®Mother, I¡¯m hungry~ meow~¡¯
Itmented while in my arms. I looked at it curiously, not sure what to tell it. A question came to my mind.
¡®Agent¡ can I produce br-¡®
<<No>>
¡®Thank the heavens!¡¯
I let out an exasperated breath. I couldn¡¯t produce breast milk; hence I was in the clear. Then again, I was a bird and birds didn¡¯t produce milk for their offspring.
The only thing I could think about were worms, insects and¡ seeds? I guess I had seeds.
I created some spawn spores in my palm and fed it to the little guy. It sniffed the seeds then swiped them off my palm.
¡®I want better food~¡¯
It cockily ordered. I looked at the fallen spores, then shrugged. Those would wake up to be mushroos, possibly evolve then sooner ortere find me as their master. So, in the end, I ignored it.
¡®What do hell kittens eat?¡¯
<<Souls, fruits from the Hell groves, Milk from their parents¡>>
The agent started to make a list. I red at thest suggestion, feeling like it was mocking me in some way. From all the things it listed, the only source of food I could provide were souls. And even those weren¡¯t easy toe by.
¡®I hope you like rabbit.¡¯
I would just steal the iplete souls of monsters and feed it to the kittenter. For now, we had to find the intruder before-
¡°There you are!¡±
A childish voice came through. Out of sheer instinct and reflexes, I side stepped, avoiding the assault from behind. The boy crashed into a tree, evidently surprised by my quick movements.
He got out of the tree and scratched his head.
¡°Weird. How did thou escape my Bloody Death Charge.¡±
¡®You don¡¯t have a skill like that!¡¯
I wanted to shout at him, but I kept that to myself.
¡°I wish to talk with you.¡±
I said as he dusted his clothes. I took that as a sign that I could continue.
¡°You see, this is just kitten, barely thirty minutes old. It can¡¯t be the demon lord even if it radiates a demonic aura. So, how about you let us go just this onc-¡±
Before I could finish, he jumped at me once more, this time arge w of blood had formed over his outstretched arm, with a face like a maniac. This bastard sent intense killing intent my way, clearly not in the mood to have a discussion with me.
I quickly moved out of the way to the sky above him. He looked around, before eventually settling his eyes on me. The same expression of murderous glee was on his face.
Tired, I let out a sigh after taking onest look at the kitten. I had to steel myself for what I was about to do.
¡®If you refuse to listen, fine! I tried to warn you!¡¯
I wasn¡¯t lying when I said I was here to warn him. From the very beginning, I wasn¡¯t scared of his stats. I was just scared of his very odd personality that made me cry at my past.
With merely a fraction of my mana, a summoned 10 Shadow Demon Fiends, 30 Greater Shadow Demons Generals and 1000 Greater Shadow Demon Soldiers.
The fiends were incapable of summoning their own, but the 30 Greater Shadow demons summoned a whopping 1000 shadows each and the greater shadow demon soldiers summoned 100 each.
With that, I had an army of over 100,000 C+ ranks, 30,000 B-ranks and 10 A- - ranks. The night sky turned even darker with theck of light from the moon. Only the colour red from the shadows¡¯ eyes illuminated a great portion of the forest.
The boy shook on the ground, though I could tell this wasn¡¯t out of fear. He was happy to finally be able to put his chuuni power on disy. He yelled something from the ground.
¡°Please watch my battle, mydy!¡±
That was most likely directed to the Queen of the World. Still, that didn¡¯t matter. If it was for my friends and family, I wouldn¡¯t mind antagonising the world.
With onemand, the shadows charged at the young vampire boy.
¡®Kill.¡¯
*
Julian, was at first surprised when he was the sky turn so dark it was very difficult to see. Fortunately, his vision was more reliant of creatures with heat and blood. Unfortunately, his enemies were not creatures with heat and blood.
He felt that his senses were being clogged by the sheer suffocating numbers that littered the night sky. This made me shake with ecstasy.
Finally, he could put his full power on disy for the whole world to shake. His goal for the night, make the skies part and the earth shake at least once. Should he aplish these things, he¡¯d be more than happy enough.
¡°Please watch my battle, mydy!¡±
So, to aplish his first goal, he put his hand to his eyepatch. Removed the supposedly power-capping device, unleashing his true potential for the world to see.
It was a regr eyepatch he made while in a prison cell.
His eyes glowed brighter than ever as his mouth widened into a grin so wide, it practically hanged from his ears. Power swelled up within him as he could feel his eye swallowing up all the mana in the air and transferring it to his fist.
The shadows had started their attack. From the looks of things, their master had given them permission to kill him. That would make the fight even better. A battle to the death between the Great Blood Emperor and the kidnapper of his new master.
Such an epic battle would have to be recorded in the Epic of the Blood Emperorter on. He could only imagine how people would react to hearing this tale. Perhaps, even his queen would praise him for performing so well.<novelnext></novelnext>
He waited for the perfect moment ¨C when the shadows swarmed him. They let out a torrent of vicious attacks that barely scratched his skin. In fact, Julian was surprised by how weak they were. It was sort of a let down to him, but he released his attack nheless.
The fist sent a streak of blood red that pierced through the cloud of ck like a needle through paper. It forcefully punctured a whole and its reach seemed endless, possibly even escaping the¡¯s atmosphere.
The skies parted and a loud thundering noise exploded in the sky, making most cover the ears.
Julian was excited, having destroyed a third of the shadow army with such one attack and having aplished one of his two goals for the day. However, he didn¡¯t let his excitement show. Rather, he took on a more refined posture and deepened his voice to instil a sense of superiority.
¡°Hahaha! Such a meagre army is nothing before my undting Great Wonder Blood Eye!¡±
His eyes settled on the monster that summoned this army. She was ring at him with a gaze that reminded him of his Lady¡¯s. Such a refined re could only belong to a queen of high standards.
He cleared his throat and internally apologised for offending her earlier by calling her a mere monster.
¡®I apologise, pitiful queen.¡¯
He said and wiped away a single tear drop from his eye.
¡®Hehehe, how¡¯s that performance?¡¯
In truth, it was not a tear drop, but water magic he used. The purpose was to create a silent, solemn performance in which he looked like a tragic hero to the queen. He was supposed to look pitiful in her eyes so she would let down her guard, try to help him, then bam! That was when he would strike.
After a good minute of silence, Julian decided that he had to act or nothing would happen. It would seem she as well hadn¡¯t moved her soldiers from their spot as they all just flew behind her.
He looked at her eyes again. This time, he could feel a sort of conviction as he peered into them. The queen had decided to give him a chance. She was channelling up power in her hands just like he did before. Her hands cracked with ck lightning and he could see dark particles forming around her as she stretched out her hand to face him. It was like the space around her warped and bent to her will. A sound akin the sky shattering erupted in his ears and a pit that seemed to swallow up everything in the world opened up in the queen''s palms.
This was his first seeing an attack like that. His instincts told him that the attack was going to be a very impactful one.
Still, he felt no fear of death. He had concluded that his scheme worked and she had made a fatal move.
Julian kept up his act to perfection. Solemnly, he continued.
¡°Ti¡¯s unfortunate for my queen has blessed me with the Grea-¡±
An intense pressure bore down on Julian out of nowhere. He tried to resist it, but it was much too powerful for the likes of him. He fell down the ground, squashed into nothing but bits on the floor, his bodily fluids escaped everywhere.
The attack came out of nowhere, surprising even Julian who had very fast reflexes. It was almost god-like how that attacknded with swift efficiency.
This queen, he had underestimated her too much. She was much more ruthless than he imagined. It was enough for him to acknowledge her as the world faded from his eyes.
¡®W-What power and sp-speed-¡¯
Was hisst thought before falling unconscious.
***
Realm of Eternal Knight, The Queen¡¯s Throne Room.
The elder vampires surrounding the table could only watch with faces of obvious interest. The monster their queen bet on was intriguing enough, but its mother was something else. Summoning such monsters with seemingly no loss in energy was impressive enough to garner their attention.
The queen on the other hand, was not impressed in the slightest. She yawned while looking at the scene, waiting for Julian to hurry it up and swear his allegiance to the baby.
It was always best to raise them from infancy, though she would have to admit that she was a bit worried about Julian.
Without a doubt, Julian was strong. Stronger than most of the people living on the continent below. In fact, the Queen was certain that under certain circumstances, Julian was undefeatable. Still, there was a major issue with the current fight.
And that was how Julian was taking it. Her fists trembled while on the throne, enraged by his useless rambling and screaming. His behaviour reminded her of her dark past and made her skin crawl with disgust and pain.
Thinking back to how she used to behave was painful. It was one of the reasons she¡¯d locked Julian up, hoping that he would stop acting like that. But three centuries of hunger, torture and imprisonment had taught him nothing! He didn¡¯t mature one bit and was still acting like a child.
Over on her chair, she tried to pry her eyes away from the fight, praying that once she opened them, he¡¯d stop.
¡°Hahaha! Such a meagre army is nothing before my undting Great Wonder Blood Eye!¡±
He didn¡¯t stop!
He was onlying out stronger. It was just as bad as she remembered if not worse.
A pained groan escaped the queen¡¯s lips as she slunk into her chair. Trying to get it out of her head. Those painful and embarrassing memories were refusing to leave no matter.
Angry, she punished Augustine who was still on his knees, suffering under her blood destruction. She turned on the frequency, making the vampire¡¯s eyes bleed and scream in agony, but that did nothing to help alleviate the embarrassment she was feeling.
¡°I will kill that boy!¡±
Finally unable to take it, she got up from her throne.
¡°My queen?¡±
She stomped towards the door, but one of the elders, Liza stopped in front of her. The queen red at her quizzically.
¡°What is it?¡±
She asked, not in the mood for her time to be wasted.
¡°The world is not ready for you to descend. That is far too much of a risk. Also, the moment you leave, that ¡®group¡¯ will strike.¡±
¡°Eh? How¡¯s that a problem¡¡± She was about to argue, but noticed the dependent gaze of all her subordinates on her. A sound, unbing of a queen escaped her mouth.
It was like a high-pitched, childish squeal of a girl who was too angry for words.
She stomped back to her throne, then spread the map on the table. There, she identified Julian.
¡°Ti¡¯s unfortunate for my queen has blessed me with the Grea-¡±
She pped down on Julian as hard as she could, squashing him into the ground with a very angry scowl.
¡°Stupid ursed brat! I should have left you in that cell for another century.¡±
Chapter 250 The Forced Scenario Pt.I
During the fight, the vampire disyed power so overwhelming I couldn¡¯t help but be impressed. He yed close to a tenth of my shadow demons, which was impressive considering their number. The attack he used also went so far, I think it left the¡¯s atmosphere.
With such power, the only thing that was limiting him was his useless thought process. That chuuni behaviour made it impossible for me to take him seriously.
He made an entire act, expecting me to fall for some dumb pity trap. I used that opportunity to test out a new skill Akira developed on the spot. It was an imperfectbination, so it wasn¡¯t necessarily a skill yet, but after hearing of its effects, we decided to transform it into a skill after today.
Simply put, it was a powerful st thatbined [Dark Element Maniption] to call forth the dark element, [Turf Domination] to seize absolute control of my surroundings and bend it to my will, [Sea Dragon Rage] to increase all my stats by up 3 times, [Lightning Rod] to call forth lightning from the sky and keep all of it surrounding the attack alone, a condensed [Twilight Zone] around my arm to increase [Gravity]¡¯s power to forcefully create a tiny ck hole, [Void Shot] to increase the chances of the vampire losing a significant portion of his body and [Devil Light Maniption] as the basis of the attack, ensuring a light speed attack.
This was without a doubt, my strongest attack and even I couldn¡¯t estimate how devastating this attack would be. ording to the agent, it could possibly destroy a country if not more. I felt a country was too big for an attack of this magnitude, but one thing was confirmed. This would deal significant damage to the vampire.
Just as I was about to release the attack,rge translucent hands mmed Julian into a bloody puddle, effectively ending the fight.
¡®Huh?¡¯
I tilted my head in confusion and approached the mess on the ground. His body was literal mash potatoes and from theck of thoughts, I concluded that he really had lost consciousness. Sadly, he still wasn¡¯t dead.
If being squashed to bits like this wasn¡¯t enough to kill him, I doubted I had something that could kill.
<<Alert! Your attack is still ready to be fired!>>
The agent informed me of something I hadn¡¯t focused on. I looked at my palm and the attack really was still charging up. I tried to cancel it, but the attack didn¡¯t cancel.
¡®Eh? What¡¯s this?¡¯
¡®Aaahh! This shit was too strong. It¡¯s sucking up all our energy!¡¯
Akira yelled inside my head. I red at him as he was the one to suggest the attack.
¡®What do you mean it¡¯s sucking up all our energy?¡¯
¡®Um, I mean if we don¡¯t fire it now, we¡¯ll die from energy exhaustion¡¡¯
¡®But we can¡¯t get weakened from being tired.¡¯
¡®The system doesn¡¯t consider this has ack of stamina. It¡¯s ack ofplete life energy. We need to get rid of this.¡¯
¡®H-How ab-about we f-fire it into sp-space! Like t-the vampire d-did.¡¯
Akkun suggested. We all tilted our heads, feeling stupid for not thinking that up in the first ce.
<<Doing such is not advised. The consequences will be too grave.>>
¡®Ah¡¡¯
¡®What do you mean?¡¯
<<The continent of Krione is surrounded by an intense mana barrier. The reasons for its existence are¡ unknown, however it has preserved life for several millennia. Firing your attack would most likely copse the barrier and the results of doing such could be meaningless or grave.>>
The agent suddenly exined something I¡¯d never heard of or sensed before. I looked up, but couldn¡¯t even see or sense anything odd with the sky.
Still, what if this supposed barrier was protecting the continent from a contagious magic disease that destroyed the other continents? I couldn¡¯t know, now could I.
I wasn¡¯t just going to jeopardise a billion people¡¯s safety for a short-term answer. I thought about several solutions, but none seemed viable enough. After a minute - which was actually an hour in my head ¨C of intense idea making, we came up with nothing and gave up.
¡®No!¡¯
¡®Code red! Code red! We¡¯re all gonna die!¡¯
¡®Mother? Meow~¡¯
The kitten looked at my attack with greedy eyes.
¡®Oi, oi, don¡¯t tell me you want to eat this? Hell no.¡¯
I took the st away from the kitten. In that moment, I had an idea. It was a very stupid sounding idea. So much so that I hated myself for even thinking about it.
¡®Jesus, I¡¯m about to eat an energy st¡ please allow me to reincarnate in a better life next time should this fail.¡¯
I prayed and swallowed up the attack. I was cing my bets on [World Eater] which should have possessed a wide enough space for me to keep arge number of things.
For a moment, there was no problem. Then the world felt woozy. My head swayed from side to side as the world spun before my eyes.
Before I realised, I was asleep.
***
My eyes opened up to see something over my head. My head was on something soft that felt very nice and this scent it gave off was familiar.
I wanted to keep sleeping here for a bit, but then I noticed something odd. My body shot forward and I took a quick look around.
A white couch, a T.V fixed on the wall, white walls and a tiny centre table standing on a rag.
¡®Isn¡¯t this¡?¡¯
¡°Akkun.¡±
The voice¡ Akane¡¯s voice called out that childish nickname she came up for me. I looked at her. She still had her dark hair and her eyes looked surprised.
¡°Akane?¡±
My voice sounded stupid.
¡°Where am I? Wasn¡¯t I just fighting some vampire dude?¡±
I got off the couch and held my head. It hurt a bit and the world spun around me, forcing me to fall right back into the couch.
¡°Geez. You fell down the stairs and hit your head, yet you¡¯re still trying to move? Sit down.¡±
She ordered, but I didn¡¯t like the fact that I was back in this ce. I tried to get up again, but she forced me down and ced my head on herps once more.
¡°Mou, just stay down.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
She pouted, looking down on me from above. I couldn¡¯t focus on her flushed face because of the two peaks hanging above me. Instead, I chose to close my eyes for a bit to let the headache die down.
While I was trying to get better, Akane started talking.
¡°So, Akkun. I went through yourptop¡¡±
¡°Mhm?¡±
¡°And, I found¡ your, um, your secret folder.¡±
She found my secret folder?
Normally I¡¯d be embarrassed, but I wasn¡¯t now. This was simply an illusion created in my head by some random wicked higher being elsewhere. I had my suspicions that it was the system master, but since there was currently no way for me to find out, I guess you could say I couldn¡¯t care less.
¡°Akkun?¡±
She called my name. I ignored her.
It was because of my headache. Not because I was embarrassed or something. I definitely, totally, absolutely, couldn¡¯t ever be embarrassed in an illusion.
¡°I guess he ended up falling asleep again¡ sigh.¡±
She sounded depressed or relieved. I couldn¡¯t tell at the end. I just kept my eyes shut, waiting for my headache to die down.
¡°Well, I guess what I wanted to say was, since we¡¯re best friends, we don¡¯t need to hide things from each other. I-I¡¯m into that stuff too, so t-there¡¯s no need to be e-embarrassed around me.¡±
¡®Oi, oi, don¡¯t say that when you¡¯re stammering.¡¯
¡°God¡ when will I ever get the courage to tell him¡ look at me stammering to his unconscious body.¡±
She continued muttering to herself.
¡°He¡¯d probably stop talking to me if he knew. I¡¯d look awful in his eyes.¡±
¡®The hell are you on about?¡¯
I creaked my eyes open slowly, trying to peek at her facial expression. It was weird. It looked like a happy face, but it was hiding sadness.
¡®What¡¯s going on? Akane¡¯s never made that kind of face before.¡¯
While I was thinking, another voice came through. It was my little sister¡¯s high-pitched voice.
¡°Onee-san, I¡¯m back. I got a lot of candy on the way.¡±
She was talking to Mitsuki as she jumped up on the couch,nding on my legs.
¡°What? Nii-san is still sleeping? He really must have hit his head. Ne, ne, think he¡¯ll finally getmon sense?¡±
¡®Why must you always insult me?¡¯
I cried in pain. My younger sister could only ever torture me when she thought I wasn¡¯t aware. Unfortunately, I was always aware.
¡°Your legs must be aching. Just put him on a pillow, I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll be just fine.¡±
¡°No, that¡¯s ok. I like putting his head on myps.¡±
¡®Akane!¡¯
¡°Well, whatever. I¡¯ll start preparing lunch.¡±
She got off my legs and went into the kitchen. Afterwards, the ce remained quiet for a bit. It got me thinking about what actually happened that day.
The truth was¡ I already knew about it. I¡¯d just been asked ¨C well, bribed in a sense ¨C to coerce her into being a good Christian girl by her parents. They thought influence from her best friend would be enough to keep her away from such things, since they didn¡¯t know I myself was into such things.
Still, I did as they asked. I tried my best to ensure she steered clear of those things. I got a sudden realisation. Something didn¡¯t feel right about it, but at the same time, I was willing to throw my best friend under the bus to enjoy myself.
Maybe, I really was the cause of Akane¡¯s sudden drastic change in character. Her hair dye, multiple piercings, and secret tattoo on her back. I was starting to get this feeling that something I did had a role to y with her huge transformation.
DING!
[You have figured it out]
A sudden screen popped up in front of me.
¡®What? I figured what out?¡¯
[Quest: Find out the cause of Akane¡¯s drastic change
Description: It¡¯s the day before Akane suddenly went incognito before school. All you know is that she came to school in the new year with red hair, dressed like a gyaru and was more outgoing and vulgar.
Time Limit: Before midnight
Rewards: ~
Punishment: Your soul will be destroyed]
I sat up immediately and opened my eyes wide and clear, hoping that whatever the hell I saw was just a really bad nightmare.
Sadly, there was a blue screen in front of me. I read through its contents quickly and carefully. I rubbed my eyes over and over again, but the message never disappeared.
¡°What the hell is this?¡±
Thement flew out of my mouth like lightning. Akane, who was just watching T.V yelped in surprise. I looked at her with wide eyes.
¡°Akkun?¡±
I jumped up from the couch and ran up to my room. I mmed the door shut and took out my phone. The time was 3:47 pm. I still had about 8 hours till the timer ran out.
But¡ what in the hell was this sudden life-threatening quest that popped up and why was it showing up now?
Chapter 251 The Forced Scenario Pt.II
I immediately took out my phone. Of course, the first thing I wanted to do was to call the system master.
¡°Hello, this is Alpha speaking.¡±
A peppy voice came through the phone. For the first time, I could confidently say I was happy to hear her voice.
¡°Alpha, I¡¯m trapped in the scenario again. I need help or I¡¯ll lose my soul.¡±
My voice sounded haggard, like I¡¯d been running for days non-stop, but that didn¡¯t matter.
¡°¡¡±
There was no voice from the other side.
¡°Hello?¡±
I tried, but only got a reply from an automatic voice.
-This call has been terminated. You shall not be able to call this number again-
An ¡®ah¡¯ sound escaped my lips. I shakily took the phone from my ear and brought it down to see the screen. The only contact I had on my phone had disappeared, leaving the contact list nk.
Just then, a new screen popped up.
~Comment: The target has wasted too much time on this scenario. An adjustment was made to the quest in which the target shall be incapable of leaving till theyplete the quest~
Reading through it, I wanted to shout ¡°What bloody scenario!? I was just living my other life, don¡¯t bother me!¡±, but I found myself merely staring at it.
Once the screen disappeared, a clock was put at the top-right corner of my vision and the world suddenly didn¡¯t feel all that real anymore. It was like I was looking at things through VR goggles.
I gulped and got up. The time was 3:49. I still had eight hours to solve my problem. The current problem was how the hell was I supposed to figure this out?
My body fell down lifelessly onto my bed and my vision turned to the white ceiling. I gulped, beads of sweat forming on my face on this snowy day.
¡°Ok¡ let¡¯s get things straight.¡±
I sat up once more, went to my desk, took out a note book and pen and started jotting somethings down.
First of all, I died and was reincarnated as a chicken. Second, I¡¯d spent over a month in that other world. Third, this was just an illusion. Correction, a scenario made by some unknown higher being. Fourth, I have a quest which says I¡¯m to find out the cause of Akane¡¯s sudden transformation. Fifth, I have only 8 hours to do that or I die. For good.
Clues?
I had none from what I could tell.
¡°This is all a friggin mess. What the hell!?¡±
Just then, I heard a knock on the door.
¡°Akkun, you ok?¡±
Akane¡¯s gentle voice came from the other side of the door.
¡°Uh, yeah. I¡¯m fine.¡±
¡°Good. I¡¯ming in then.¡±
A curse flew out of my mouth as I tore the page out and closed the book. The word ¡®ENIGMA¡¯ was printed on it boldly, but I didn¡¯t think too much about it. Must have been some unknown book manufacturing brand.
I mean, who cared to remember the names of a notebook manufacturingpany.
My chair spun around quickly and I faced the girl as she entered the room with a worried expression on her face.
¡°Hm? What are you doing?¡±
She asked me while observing me with a quizzical expression.
¡°Oh, um, nothing¡ so what¡¯s up?¡±
I tried to change the topic. She also looked like she wasn¡¯t going to bother with it, so she took a sit on my bed and faced me.
¡°Akira, we¡¯ve been friends for quite some time now.¡±
She started saying something, but my eyes were more focused on what was behind her. A poster for the fireworks show that was being held tonight.
¡®Isn¡¯t that thest time I saw her before school?¡¯
I suddenly had a shback. On this night, something happened that made Akane cry. She left me alone at the fireworks, but I didn¡¯t chase after her. I couldn¡¯t remember why, but it was something I was simply too unbothered by. Maybe there were clues there.
Still, that was way too close to the deadline for this quest. I had to find something else. But, just to be on the safe side, I needed to find out what would make Akane cry.
¡°Akane, what do you think could make you cry?¡±
I asked immediately, cutting her off. She paused, widened her eyes then red at me with a distrustful expression.
¡°What¡¯s with thatpletely random question?¡±
¡°Nothing¡ I just really want to know.¡±
¡°Hmm, but don¡¯t you know stuff like that already?¡±
¡°I forgot. Can you remind me?¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
This wasn¡¯t a lie. Ever since that day, Akane became more distant. Publicly we were childhood friends, but she barely ever interacted with me as much as she used to. I assumed it was probably because she was more conscious of me as a member of the opposite sex, but overtime I came to realise that wasn¡¯t the case.
What was the reason she gave, again?
Ah, yes. She didn¡¯t want to spend her free time at home hanging out with a spineless bastard.
I took that for a joke when she said that. It was probably a joke, right?
Anyway, the scenario¡¯s Akane put her finger to her lips in thought for a moment before shivering.
¡°Spiders! T-they creep me out with their 8 eyes and the way they look at you. Scary insects.¡±
¡®Spiders aren¡¯t insects¡¡¯
Ironic how she reincarnated as one.
I tried my best to hold back myughter at the thought that she ended up as one. And the queen of them at that.
¡°Pfft¡ anythi-pfft -anything else?
¡°I can¡¯t say.¡±
¡®Seriously? So, she saw a spider that day and left, crying? I find that hard to believe, especially at a fireworks festival. In that case, since this is fake, I¡¯ll just not go to the festival this time around.¡¯
¡°That¡¯s it! Akane!¡±
I shot off my chair and she yelped, startled by my sudden scream. Still, I did not care for that.
With a 90-degree bow, I apologised to her.
¡°We were supposed to go to the fireworks tonight, right? Sorry, but I refuse! Just go home and watch some anime or something, I¡¯ll be busy tonight!¡±
For a moment, there was a silence in the room. I kept my head down, waiting to hear some kind of response. However, what I heard next wasn¡¯t what I was expecting. The door to my room was shut with a loud bang and I looked up only to find that Akane wasn¡¯t even around.
It would seem she chose to run out of the room at full force.
I walked there and opened the door to see if she was standing there.
¡°Erhn? Onee-san, where are you going!?¡±
Mitsuki¡¯s loud voice questioned her, but there was no response. But from the sound of things, Akane had already left.
¡°Nii-san! Did you do something again!?¡±
Now, she was questioning me. I chose to ignore her and instead my vision turned to the little fe standing in front of my room. A cat with white fur and ck and brown spots. Its yellow eyes looked at me innocently and I just picked it up.
¡°What are you doing here, buddy?¡±
I closed my door, hoping to not hear from Mitsuki any time soon. Afterwards, I jumped onto my bed and took out my phone. I was nning on scribbling down more ideas as to what changed Akane, but I noticed something.
The timer which was disyed on the top-right corner of my screen had faded.
Merely 10 minutes had passed, yet it would seem I hadpleted the quest. There was no notification, but now I couldn¡¯t see the clock as usual. That must have meant I was done.
So, I was guessing I¡¯d remain here till the appointed time then.
¡°Meow~¡±
My eyes then turned to the cat.
¡°Well, I guess I needed time to myself to think about that issue as well.¡±
This was a well appreciated break from the hectic stuff happening on the other side. I may not have noticed, but turns out I was really stressed out, having not slept for more than 10 days in a row.
My mind went back to the little kitten that hatched from the scary egg and called me ¡®mother¡¯. I shuddered at the thought of bing a parent and even worse, the kitten called me ¡®mother¡¯ instead of ¡®father¡¯. It reminded me of how Ulva called me ¡®Big sis¡¯ and never ¡®Big bro¡¯ no matter how many times I pleaded with her to.
I guess, no matter what the girl thing was going stick. No point in thinking too much about it. I was now a girl in my other life and I couldn¡¯t escape from that fact.
Back to the kitten, it had the name the system master had given me. So, she probably knew what was going to happen, yet decided to give me the middle finger instead with that message.
There was no way in hell I was ready to take care of someone. I mean, look at how bad it ended up thest time I did? Everyone hated me, though they came back to me for reasons which I couldn¡¯t fathom. I would like to give the kitten up to that chuuni vampire, but for some reason I couldn¡¯t.
I didn¡¯t want the kitten, but I didn¡¯t want to give it up either. Maybe if it was a simple familiar or pet, I wouldn¡¯t have reacted this strongly, but since it calls me ¡®mother¡¯, the whole situation suddenly feels more serious.
And what was its gender? I couldn¡¯t tell while looking at it. Ah well, that was an issue forter.
More importantly.
¡°That damned chuunibyou! What the hell was he thinking!? God, I can¡¯t stop cringing at the thought of him calling himself the Great Bloody King or whatever.¡±
A cold chill went down my spine as I remembered. His terrible acting, his grandiose gestures and cringe titles. He was a perfect replica of myself in 8th grade. A living embodiment of my very painful past. I didn¡¯t want my unconscious body being so close to him.
Now, I wanted to wake up quickly to run away from him as soon as possible.
I shut my eyes, thinking that maybe I¡¯d wake up to my original state. I was still in the room and the cat was rolling around on my bed like an idiot. Iughed at its cute actions, then ced it down on the floor.
¡°I guess I¡¯ll just y some VR games till I wake up on the other side.¡±
I picked up the Vice Master and ced it on my head. I¡¯d missed ying video games and was feeling really nostalgic. The game inserted was ¡®Final Fantasy XXV¡¯, the very newest edition. I couldn¡¯t wait to y.
Chapter 252 The Forced Scenario Pt.III
¡°Shit¡ I still suck at it.¡±
I took off the vice master and red at it. I hadn¡¯t made any significant progress while ying due to the terrible anti-yer mechanics.
¡°Stupid VR games. Who needs em anyways?¡±
Grabbing my phone, I checked the time. It was 9:58. Which meant I ended up spending over four hours ying the stupid game.
My stomach grumbled, so I figured it was time to eat. Mitsuki¡¯s cat was fast asleep on my bed, so I decided not to disturb it. In the end, I left the room as quietly as possible to rush down to the kitchen to grab my dinner.
¡°Oi, nii-san. I¡¯ve been calling you all day.¡±
A clearly annoyed Mitsuki jumped in front of the door leading to the kitchen with both arms spread out as if to say I wasn¡¯t allowed to enter the kitchen.
¡°Sorry, I was ying games. Later.¡±
I tried shoving her out of the way, but she only bit my palm, making me jump back.
¡°Oi, oi. You don¡¯t need to bit me just because I didn¡¯t hear you.¡±
For some reason, I¡¯d forgotten just how much of a brat Mitsuki could be when she wanted to.
¡°What did you do to Akane-nee-san?¡±
¡°Akane? What¡¯s up with her?¡±
All I remember was hearing her run out of the room at lightspeed. Honestly pretty impressive if you ask me.
¡°She ran out of here crying. What did you do to her?¡±
¡°Crying? No, no. Her eyes simply couldn¡¯t handle the speed she was moving at. Haven¡¯t you seen that thing in movies when someone¡¯s standing on a rocket and tears escape their eyes?¡±
I tried moving Mitsuki out of the way, but she refused to budge.
¡°If you won¡¯t speak, I won¡¯t move out of the way.¡±
Mitsuki offered a bargain. The only simple way to the kitchen was to agree to this.
¡°Fine. I told her that I wouldn¡¯t be able to go to the fireworks with her. If you¡¯re happy now, please move out of the way.¡±
I grabbed her shoulders with a bit more force this time, nning to throw her out of the way.
¡°No, no! Why did you cancel all of a sudden!?¡±
¡°Just felt like it.¡±
I shrugged, not giving much thought to my response.
¡°What? Do you know how long onee-san¡¯s been waiting for this night? It was practically a life-or-death situation in her eyes.¡±
¡°Yeah? Well, it was one in my eyes as well. Move.¡±
¡°Was it bullies? Did they threaten you again? Mom already handled that so why are you still scared of them?¡±
Bullies? Ah, yes. I used to get bullied back in middle school, didn¡¯t I?
Now that I thought about it more, I was slowly losing my memories of my life as a human. To think I¡¯d forgotten what gued me for close to a decade of my miserable life so easily. And when I think about it, I simply can¡¯t feel anything.
However, it would seem Mitsuki mistook my silent thinking for a confirmation.
¡°You spineless bastard! You¡¯re going to hurt Mitsuki¡¯s feelings just cause of a bunch of stupid kids?¡±
After saying that, Mitsuki kicked me in the leg and ran up the stairs. I stumbled back, allowing her to escape. I just clicked my tongue then opened the door to the kitchen.
At least, I tried to. The door didn¡¯t open no matter how hard I tried.
¡°If you want to get into the kitchen, take Mitsuki out to the fireworks and send me pictures of you doing it!¡±
Ku-chuck!
Just then, I heard the sound of a room door being locked. My eyes widened, realising just what she¡¯d done. I ran up stairs to her room and knocked heavily on her door, but she didn¡¯t respond. I couldn¡¯t open it and I was starting to feel despair. And to top it off, my stomach decided to act up.
¡°Mitsuki!¡±
¡°Go. Now.¡±
*
In the end, Mitsuki won and I was on my way to Akane¡¯s house. Or so I would have her think.
I¡¯d just have dinner at Akane¡¯s ce. Due to the City guards ¨C super advanced robot cops -, crime rate in Japan was virtually zero and parents didn¡¯t bother themselves too much with children walking aboutte in the night.
My parents in particr spent most of their time out of the house, so Mitsuki and I had gone on quite a fewte-night strolls. Akane¡¯s parents were probably home around this time and hopefully wouldn¡¯t mind having me for a sleep over or something.
It was a 10-minute walk to Akane¡¯s ce and I ended up spending the time thinking about howe I was still stuck in this virtual world. The timer had disappeared, so that should have meant that I was free.
Maybe I was overthinking it, but I was starting to have a bad premonition on the situation I was in. In the end, I wasn¡¯t able to think up any proper ideas before arriving on Akane¡¯s doorsteps.
I rang the door bell and decided to wait. After a minute or two of waiting, the door opened up and Akane''s father stood before me with a frown on his face. He was a grizzly bear ¨C hairy arms and face, huge in stature and a very mean looking face. He red at me coldly with his ck eyes.
Normally, someone would be shaking in their boots, but I knew that he simply couldn¡¯t help it. His face was just naturally scary.
¡°Good evening, Mister- erhm-¡±
¡®Huh? What was his name again?¡¯
That was odd. His name was literally hanging on the tip of my tongue, yet I couldn¡¯t get it.
¡°Um, is Akane around?¡±
I decided to move past that issue before he noticed that I¡¯d forgotten his name. Unfortunately, it would seem that he¡¯d caught on to that.
¡°Huh? You ignore my calls, walk up to my house, forget my name and you still have the balls to ask where my kid is?¡±
He growled at me then lifted me up by the cor. I felt like all of this was a bit excessive, but I just went with the flow. This whole simtion was too interesting.
¡°Dear, who was it?¡±
A sweet voice came from the other side. It didn¡¯t take a genius to know that the voice belonged to Akane''s mother. A red-head European woman with dazzling blue eyes.<novelnext></novelnext>
You see, the story behind Akane¡¯s parents was that Akane¡¯s father was only part Japanese. When he turned 18, his dad took him to a college in Europe so he could meet his mother. While spending his time there, he ended up finding Akane¡¯s mother, both moved to Japan and started a life here.
¡°It¡¯s the stupid brat we shouldn¡¯t have let her get involved with.¡±
¡°Eh?¡±
I blurted out, surprised by his remark. The man then dropped me on the ground roughly, but I still managed tond on my feet.
¡°Now our baby girl¡¯s run out. Tsk, I¡¯m going out.¡±
With that, the man walked out into the snowy night. I looked at his back as he walked away and for some reason, he looked much fiercer tonight.
¡°Will youe in? It¡¯s going to be a cold night.¡±
Akane¡¯s mother offered with a warm smile. I still didn¡¯t get why he was acting like that, but maybe a discussion with her mother would help. I also couldn¡¯t remember her name for some reason.
We went into the house, she seated me down in the hall and warmed up some coco for me. It took roughly 5 minutes for her to set it up on the table and she sat on the couch, right next to me.
I took a sip of the coco and a smile spread across my face. I missed the taste of coco.
If it weren¡¯t for the scary death quest, I might have loved to stay in here forever.
¡°Akira, you remember that one favour we asked of you a year ago?¡±
She suddenly brought up something. I wasn¡¯t sure since they¡¯d told me a lot of things over the years. Still, I could sort of guess what she was talking about.
¡°Not sure. My memory¡¯s a bit fuzzy.¡±
I feigned ignorance so I didn¡¯t end up bringing somethingpletely outrageous to the conversation by ident.
¡°Is that so? Maybe all those kebabs you¡¯ve been buying should jog your memory.¡±
My body flinched and I almost choked on the coco. I coughed to clear my throat then set the cup down, realising we were about to talk about the more serious things.
¡°You see, we had an argument with Akane today, about that thing she¡¯s not supposed to be doing and there was a sudden revtion. Do you know what that is?¡±
She furrowed her brows, but I avoided her gaze, looking at the ck screen of the super-sized tv.
¡°N-No.¡±
A bashful reply.
¡°That the boy we¡¯ve been asking to help keep our daughter on the right path is a sinful liar, thief and downright deviant.¡±
My heart split in two at the insults I was getting.
¡°We called over a priest today toe speak to her about her¡ ¡°issues¡±, but today she acted off. She came home crying, then spent over an hour arguing with us on the matter, before telling us that you yourself have been indulging in the very immoral acts we asked you to protect her from. Do you know how that feels, hm?¡±
¡®She was crying even when she got back home?¡¯
¡°M-Must be heart breaking.¡±
¡°Oh, you have no idea. In fact, it¡¯s really disappointing. Of course, my husband lost his cool and unfortunately could not contain his anger anymore.¡±
For the first time today, my eyes widened with curiosity.
¡°What¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡±
¡°Well, spare the rod, spoil the child.¡±
¡°No.¡±
¡°Yes, sadly he had to punish her. We tried so hard with words alone, but it¡¯s been a good year and nothing changed. He couldn¡¯t take it anymore that his only child was a deviant.¡±
Slowly, I was starting to feel angry. Who beats their child just because of that?
¡°Looks like he was about to give you the rod as well, but I guess he chose to find Akane first.¡±
She exined the whole scenario that unfolded in front of the door to me. Suddenly, the pieces were starting to fall in ce.
¡°Did you perhaps tell Akane that I was in charge of keeping her away from all this stuff?¡±
I looked at her, and she answered with one deadly smile. The colour drained from my face and I was only left with their weird sense despair.
¡°Well¡ fuck.¡±
The words flew out of my mouth with no control whatsoever.
¡°Akira? What sort ofngua-¡±
It would seem, Akane found out that I was throwing her under the bus. That definitely wasn¡¯t a good look on my part.
In that moment, I felt something click in my head. A voice yed in my head. This voice belonged to Akane and it made my heart sink.
¡°Would you ever throw me under the bus for money?"
¡°No. Of course not. What kind of stupid question is that?¡±
As if on cue, the memory from that night yed vividly. The reason why Akane cried that night and also the reason why shepletely changedter on, was all because of me.
She knew what I¡¯d done, but still chose to ask me just to see if I would tell her the truth. Yet, I lied as easily as one would breathe. My selfish, cowardly decision to forsake her in order to make some small amount of money.
I really was a spineless bastard.
A depressed sigh escaped my mouth as this entire scenario started to feel more and more like a pain in the ass.
Still, for the first time in a really long time, I felt my heart throb. Not out of fear or anguish. But a weird feeling I couldn¡¯t describe. Was this what ¡®true guilt¡¯ felt like?
¡°Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. God. Fuck.¡±
¡°Aki-¡±
Akane¡¯s mother was going to nag me aboutnguage, so I cut her off. I took out my phone and the time was 10:20. The fireworks started at 11:30 and a train trip from here to Yokohama was 40-50 minutes. An air bus would be 10-20 minutes, but they were most likely closed by this time and also caused a decent amount of money. If I took the train, I could make it before New year¡¯s.
Having confirmed the situation, I ran out of the house at full force. I had terrible athletic ability so it wasn¡¯t anything to boast about.
Chapter 253 The Forced Scenario Pt.IV
In the end, I was most likely the cause of her sudden transformation. For some reason, back then I couldn¡¯t piece it together, but now I felt so stupid for never realising.
As fast as I could, I got to the train station. People gave me weird looks for running and the safety bots tried to hinder my movements, but I chose to ignore them, running past them.
In the end, I bumped into someone and only I fell to the ground.
¡°Hm?¡±
Their voice came, but that wasn¡¯t important. I had to get to Akane. I scrambled back up to get into the train, but paused once I saw the woman.
She was in a brown overcoat, with ck boots and gloves. Her hair looked like silver in the moonlight and she exuded an aura akin to a goddess as she looked down on me with a worried face. There was a tiny beauty spot under her thin red lips. Her eyes were covered with shades, but I could still tell that she was a beauty by everything else.
¡°Oh sorry.¡±
She offered me her hand and I took it.
¡°N-no worries.¡±
Once I stood back up, I dusted my butt before trying to get into the train.
¡°Oh, wait.¡± She then stopped me. I craned my head back to attend to her for a moment. ¡°Please, I am a bit lost. I am headed towards Yokohama, but it would seem that I am not sure which way to head in.¡±
The beautiful woman with tinum blonde hair asked. I stumbled back and gulped, unable to mutter a word while just staring at her.
¡°Hello?¡±
She tilted her head, question marks popping up. That was when I regained my senses.
¡°Oh, I¡¯m headed over there right now. You can follow me if you want.¡±
I offered.
¡°Really? That would be great. Thank you very much.¡±
With that, we both got onto the train and took a seat. The woman sat down right next to me with our shoulders practically touching even when the train wasn¡¯t really filled up. I on the other hand was starting to feel a bit ufortable and decided to scoot away from her.
She looked at me with an astounded face, before looking away unhappily. That must have insulted her in some way, but I couldn¡¯t bring myself to feel sorry for a fake illusion.
The train stood still for about 5 more minutes, before it took off. Themissioner spoke to us through thes, before the train started.
While on the ride, my mind was racing through the revtion I received. About the fact that the quest was still ongoing and I had less than 2 hours toplete it.
At least, I now knew the reason for Akane¡¯s abrupt change. Now I just needed to find her. But¡
A certain doubt was starting to grow within me. If my first presumption was wrong, what if this one was wrong too? Even worse, I didn¡¯t have the time to make a second mistake. This had to be 100% right or my soul would end up being destroyed.
In that case, I needed to think up more reasons for all of that. But what else would make Akane cry like that on that night? And it probably wasn¡¯t coincidence that the only memory I had of that night was that exchange.
Sadly, this feeling that I was missing something wasn¡¯t helping me out in anyway.
¡°Excuse me, are you alright?¡±
The one to speak was the European woman I¡¯d met. She looked at me through her shades and wore a very worried expression.
It was only then that I realised that I was sweating. My heart was racing faster than sonic could ever. I sat back up and wiped the sweat off my face.
¡°Hehe, it¡¯s 3 degrees out, yet I¡¯m sweating like it¡¯s a summer day.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. Sometimes, stress can cause such things.¡±
She whispered to me calmly. Then rose her head.
¡°I¡¯ve seen such a thing happen in my line of work. Several people breaking down from being stressed out. Some going as far as killing themselves over it.¡±
¡°Is that so? What kind of job do you do?¡±
I decided to pass the time talking to this bot rather than overthinking my situation. It was better than stressing myself out.
¡°Oh? I¡¯m a model.¡±
¡°Really? I can totally see that.¡±
Iplimented her and she smiled.
¡°Now what is the matter with you. You look like you are thinking too much.¡±
At first, I hesitated to tell her, but then realising that this was simply all in my head, I saw no harm in speaking to her about it.
Quickly, I exined the situation without getting too much into detail. All she knew was that I had betrayed Akane and if I didn¡¯t fix it, our rtionship would be broken.
¡°Hmm, are you feeling remorseful about what you did?¡±
¡°Of course.¡±
¡°Well, you do not sound remorseful. If anything, you sound like this is a boring pain in the ass.¡±
She exined how I sounded from her point of view. She even held her chin and observed me with her eyes behind her shades.
¡°Listen here, kid.¡±
Her voice suddenly sounded different. Like I was talking to apletely new person all together. Her shades fell a bit, allowing me to see the colour of her pupils. Golden,plete inhuman. My body was paralysed, unable to do anything.
¡°When you¡¯re wrong, don¡¯t try to hide behind this useless fa?ade of indifference. Apologise, admit whole heartedly you were wrong and strive to never repeat that mistake again. Especially one as grave as betraying a friend¡¯s trust.¡±
She looked away from my eyes, then looked out through the window at the passing scene.
¡°Or you will end up¡ alone. When you go to this girl, bow your head and shout with all your might that you are sorry. Tell her everything you want to and make sure you never make her cry again.¡±
There was something depressing about this woman as she spoke. When I first met her, I was clouded by the thought of her beauty, but now that I got a better look at her, she looked¡ tired and lonely.
The train came to a stop and she stood up, tucking her arms into her pockets.
¡°M-Miss?¡±
I stuttered and she looked at me with furrowed brows before smiling with her thin lips.
¡°Oh yeah. I work for Enigma. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve heard of that modellingpany before, right?¡±
With that, she walked off the train. It took me a good minute to realise that I had arrived at my desired destination. I ran out the door, shouting at her.
¡°Oi, miss!¡±
However, the moment I got out, she was long gone. The people who wanted to enter the train gave me weird looks, but I chose to ignore them. I clicked my tongue.
She had gone without even telling me her name.
I gulped, but chose to focus on the task at hand. I had barely an hour to find Akane and apologise to her. Wasting any more time on other illusions¡ people, was a big mistake.
My body moved on its own towards the park where the fireworks would be happening. I didn¡¯t know why I assumed Akane woulde here of all ces, but my instincts just told me that she would be here.
The one ce she wanted to be the most was the fireworks. I just hoped that I could get to her before the deadline.
*
¡°I give up.¡±
It had been 50 minutes. My body copsed on a bench and I just looked out towards the sky. The fireworks would start soon and it was almost midnight.
I slumped down on the cold bench and looked at the night sky. One wouldn¡¯t be able to make out the stars because of all the nights. Researchers even theorised that due to all the pollution of modern technology, there¡¯de a time were all we saw when we looked up would be toxic smogs.
They¡¯d estimated about 5 years till that happened. From then on, we might have to wear gas masks everywhere we went. It was such pessimistic factors that made me sort of grateful for the fact that I died and reincarnated.
"Huh, when I think about it, Mitsuki also died, huh? I wonder where she is.¡±
My hand reached out to the sky. My memories of Mitsuki were fresh since I only saw her a couple of hours ago. I¡¯d forgotten just how cheeky and bratty she was. Images of this perfect little sister had reced her, but I guess that was because I missed her.
A smile crept up on my face when I realised that once I cleared this scenario, I¡¯d never see her or my parents again. Not like I knew much about dad, or cared much for mom.
Slowly, I dropped my hand and rested it on the bench I sat on.
I had practically eight minutes till I would die. Strangely enough, I felt nothing about it.
All of a sudden, I was starting to regret trying to sacrifice Ken just for my sake.
¡®Meh. I guess he¡¯s safe and sound on earth now. Though, Maya did also reincarnate with me. Did the shooter end up killing everyone in the shop?¡¯<novelnext></novelnext>
6 minutes remaining¡
¡®Hmm, maybe Unmei is Ken. Hahaha, no way. If he was, I¡¯d have been able to get a read on him by now. Still, he did remind me of someone from my ss. Wait a minute, Maya and Ken told me that there was no one in the ss when they went to school that morning¡ there¡¯s no way they all reincarnated, right? Hmm, whatever. Doesn¡¯t really affect me.¡¯
5 minutes remaining¡
¡®God, how¡¯s everyone back in Larm. They all suddenly looked up to me to take care of them. Amethyst, Ulva, Shiroi, Kawaii, Sylphie, Kara, Reiman, Tsuna, Nukeme, Reiman, Yuuna, even Oki. Ha, Zana. How¡¯s she going to feel losing another friend so soon after meeting one. I ended up betraying two friends wlessly. I hope Arisu doesn¡¯t suddenly kill everyone since there¡¯s no one there to control her. Oh, then there¡¯s those two goblins. The first guy I didn¡¯t name, but thest one I called Baka. I should search for the first guy and give him a name. Yokino and Suna, taking me on a crazy adventure to see actual Antis. How wild. There¡¯re a few others, but meh.¡¯
4 minutes remaining¡
¡°Shit. I never got my harem of monster girls like I was nning. What a waste of a second life. Then again, maybe I should have been more aggressive with those girls since they seemed to be aggressive towards me. Gaah, stupid waste of time.¡±
3 minutes remaining¡
¡®Uh, I never found Minerva. After I promised too. Fuck, I really hope that she¡¯s safe wherever she is.¡¯
2 minutes remaining¡
? ¡®I don¡¯t want to die forever, I guess. This is starting to feel depressing.¡¯
1 minute remaining¡
¡®Man, I should have bought onest kebab.¡¯
20 seconds remaining¡
¡°Akkun?¡±
A familiar voice entered my ears. My head whipped towards the source at lightning-fast speed, to look at her.
15 seconds remaining¡
She stood there with her hair a mess, eye-bags under her eyes ¨C clearly from crying too much.
10 seconds remaining¡
There was something about the way she looked at me. An expression of disbelief and disgust. Still, there was just something about the way she looked at me that made me feel like she was happy to see me.
5 seconds remaining¡
There was no time to say what I wanted to. I just looked at her, unable to mutter a single word. Even when I knew I could say that one word in 5 seconds. That didn¡¯t feel fair. Summing up my betrayal with one word, that was probably shittier than betraying her in the first ce.
Still, I had to say something before I died forever.
Something. Anything. I just needed to start with it, before those 5 seconds ran out.
¡°Akane¡¡±
DING!
[Time is up!]
The bell tolls rang, singing of my inevitable demise. In the end, myst thought would be about my supposed childhood friend.
Quite a shitty ending.
¡
¡®Huh? I can think? I¡¯m not dead?¡¯
¡°Akkun? What¡¯s with that weird face? You look way too pleased with yourself.¡±
¡®Eh? Eh? What¡¯s this? I can hear Akane¡¯s voice. But there¡¯s no way, right?¡¯
Just then, I heard the sound of a phone ringing. I could feel it on my thigh. I could feel. I wasn¡¯t dead. My eyes snapped open to meet a pouting Akane, ring at me.
¡®Eh? What¡¯s happening?¡¯
The ringing in my pocket only continued. I decided to check it out and there was a call from my only contact on the phone. I picked it up.
¡°Alpha?¡±
¡°Oh. You¡¯re alive? Good, good. That means it worked.¡±
She sounded pretty ted on the other side of the phone.
¡°What are you talking about?¡±
¡°I bought you about 30 minutes in the stupid scenario. Now you canplete it without dyi-¡±
¡°Is that my child I hear? Tori dear, it¡¯s your gracious god-¡±
¡°Shut the hell up, you useless freeloader!¡±
¡°Mind your tongue, youngbl-¡±
¡°I¡¯ll kick you out.¡±
¡°Go ahead and try it.¡±
¡°Y-¡±
Long story short, Alpha saved me. I cut the call since I couldn¡¯t understand what the hell was happening in the background. For now, all I had to do was apologise to Akane.
I dropped my phone and focused entirely on Akane.
¡°W-what¡¯s with the way you¡¯re looking at me?¡±
She was suddenly self-conscious.
My body jumped up and grabbed her in a hug. She tried to jump back, clearly startled by the sudden movement, but I wouldn¡¯t allow her to. She was trapped in my hug before any escape was possible.
I was a bit taller than her, so her head rested on my shoulders and I rested my chin on her head. Tears streamed down my cheeks uncontrobly while I held her in my embrace.
For the first time, I was crying tears of genuine happiness. Maybe the fact that I wasn¡¯t going to die had some part to y in it, but then I was most definitely pleased by the fact that I could apologise to her at least once.
¡°A-Akkun¡ what¡¯s this?¡±
This was something I doubted I¡¯d be able to say to the face of the real Akane any time soon. However, one day I would have to do so. I needed to earn her forgiveness rather than keeping our rtionship the way it was with her being so untrustworthy.
¡°I¡¯m so sorry.¡±
¡°What?¡±
¡°I¡¯m sorry for selling you out and throwing you under the bus. I¡¯ve been a really crappy friend for the past year, ignoring you, saying whatever the hell I felt was right and forcing stupid values on you like your shitty parents were doing. All for some stupid money that doesn¡¯t matter. I didn¡¯t mean to hurt you, Akane.¡±
¡°¡!?¡±
¡°I won¡¯t deny it. Rather, I want to make a promise. Even now, I swear I¡¯ll make it up to you. I¡¯ll tell the real Akane everything too. I just hope you don¡¯t end up like the other one did.¡±
¡°What are you talking about?¡±
She tried to push me away, but for tonight, I possessed herculean strength. Nothing was going to separate me from her.
¡°Can we¡ can we just hug? It¡¯s been a good minute since we did.¡±
¡°But¡¡±
Still resisting my embrace, she tried to stomp my leg, but I ignored the pain.
¡°Please."
With that, I felt Akane¡¯s resistance fade away. Rather, she hugged me tightly and I could feel her body shaking in my grasp. She was probably crying, but that wasn¡¯t important now.
Behind us, the sound of fireworks went pop, but we didn¡¯t even waste time to look at them or hear them. The world seemed to fade before us and my memory of that night ended with the simple darkness of my shut eyes.
When I next opened my eyes, I was sleeping on a king-sized bed with a golden feathered kitten lying on my body and a crystal drake lying next to my bed.
¡®Akane¡¡¯
<A/N: A rather abrupt ending to the 2nd volume if I do say so myself. I''ll be taking a short break then. See ya''ll in a month or 2 I guess. Third volume is called The Monster Queen>
Chapter 254 Demon Lord Candidate Pt.I
Alpha¡¯s Domain
¡°Humph~ Aren¡¯t I just the greatest?¡±
Alpha sat down with both legs crossed, praising herself greatly for her actions. Zatana who was just trying to enjoy her drink in peace decided to humour Alpha a bit.
~Of course, you are. You are the great Alpha~
She took another sip of her drink and just looked at the cocky Alpha with a straight face.
¡°Huhuhu, praise me more!¡±
~Um¡~
¡°Or I kick you out.¡±
~How great you are, Alpha. Indeed, that is more than enough praiseing from me. Now shu~
Zatana was done with her beverage and was not in the mood to y anymore. Rather, she turned her eyes to the sleeping Beta. She was in a container Alpha had made to drain away all her power. For most beings, it was the equivalent of death, but to beings like Alpha and Beta, this was just an induced nap.
~Truly odd~
The goddess flicked the container and Beta¡¯s eyes widened for a moment before shutting quickly.
~And you say this thing could kill even I?~
¡°Hm? Oh, I¡¯m not sure about someone as strong as you, but it should be effective on most gods.¡±
Alpha who had also grown bored of praising herself answered with little emotion. She was back to working on her system and her whole appearance now resembled that of an overworked sry man.
While working, there was an interference in Alpha¡¯s realm. This caused her to lift her attention from the system and to her domain which had cracks appearing in it.
¡®What¡¯s this? Someone easily cracked my defences?¡¯
The first person toe to mind was Beta, but she was sleeping right there. The others also had no need to forcibly enter as they had a free pass into her domain.
Whoever it was, was definitely an enemy, but their energy was a bit different from what she had ever experienced.
She tried to reinforce her defences, considering that no sentient being other than Beta would intentionally try to force their way into her domain. The only things that would do that were Chaos Beings, but those guys couldn¡¯t think.
If she ignored them, they¡¯d simply pass by.
At least, that was what she thought till a rip appeared in her domain. The colour was drained out immediately and a new presence entered through this rip.
Both Alpha and Zatana were put on high alert. They jumped up from their seats and steeled themselves for a fight as this person was clearly not here with friendly intentions.
The being was ck and riddled with stars from head to toe. One could easily confuse this for a celestial body, but the energy they gave off was that of a Chaos Being.
Alpha felt like she¡¯d underestimated its strength since it entered her realm, but once it was a mindless monster with too much power, there was no way she would feel scared. She simply had to kick it out of her house and that was no problem in the slightest.
<<Once>>
A voice resembling a de scratching against a wall of metal echoed in the tiny dimension. It caused the celestial beings present a sort of difort that was hard to describe.
<<I shall warn you once>>
The first time, Alpha couldn¡¯t interpret the sound it made. But the second time, it made aplete sentence. This confused her far worse than ¡®that¡¯ person¡¯s words ever could.
¡®What? It can speak?¡¯
An interest had been born from the new discovery.
<<Do not interfere with my scenarios ever again. The next time, I will personally destroy all your sources>>
With that warning delivered, the chaos being disappeared from the room and everything was returned to their original state from before it arrived. Almost as if there was no chaos being a second ago.
Zatana fell back to her seat and stared at the centre table. Alpha nced at her, then at the still sleeping Beta. Angry, she shattered the container Beta slept in and shot her with a st of raw power.
-Ow! Ow! Ow!-
The tiny Beta¡¯s cry caused Alpha¡¯s smile to return to her face. She then sat down and activated a system. This one wasn¡¯t the one she was working on for Hinotori.
This was more of a generalised system that most celestial beings used tomunicate with one another. She had found something odd and there were only a handful of beings that would know what the hell just happened.
Furrowing her brows, Alpha went to work to find out about the Chaos Being that could think.
_________________________
Day 67
The day started out with my room being flooded by a horde of crying monsters. They were acting as if I was dead or something and they looked really worried, so I decided to let them have their way for the morning even though it was a bit annoying for me.
After an hour, I finally had enough and kicked them all out. The hell kitten was still under the assumption that I was its mother, but I ignored it for most of the time. Amethyst also refused to let me walk on my own so acted as my portable chair now.
I had breakfast ¨C a bunch of fruit and dead rabbits. The kitten was hungry, but none of the food there seemed to please it. Curiously, I transformed a fruit using [Devil Light Maniption] to make it into a hell fruit or some nonsense like that.
The kitten had no problem eating it then, so I could rest easy. Amethyst too wanted me to do something special for her, but I wasn¡¯t sure what exactly would be special for a Twilight Crystal Drake. Maybe a bath?
She hadn¡¯t had one in a long time, so I decided that we took one. I gave her a power scrubbing and it would seem my suggestion was the right one. Amethyst eximed about how much she was loving it. Since she evolved, she hadn¡¯t been able to feel much, so the sense of something hard hitting her made her happy.<novelnext></novelnext>
If she was happy, I was happy.
The hell kitten on the other hand did not want to get wet. I remembered the scary guy that popped upst night because of the kitten so as punishment, I gave it a bath as well. The kitten cried in my arms, but I simply found it cute.
When I dried it up, it was simply an adorable puffy kitten. If cameras existed, I¡¯d have taken at least 100 pictures of it in that moment.
We finished up really fast, then went to attend to our guest. Apparently, he had been given new orders while I was sleeping and to show some curtesy, he waited for me to get prepared before meeting with me.
Of course, the discussion topic for the day was the kitten that was with me. My two spawns ¨C Ichi and Ni, were both waiting in the room, acting as my bodyguard. I had them wait outside of the room to ward off any one who would try to eavesdrop on the conversation.
Well, this was merely me trying to keep them out of the room in case my guest attempted using them as a hostage in any form or way.
The room was arge guest room with two elegant chairs prepared and a table in between those chairs. Arge door that led to a balcony overlooking thendscape and a shelf filled with books I would never read.
Some tea had been served, probably by the kobolds and Julian was drinking it with skills so refined I couldn¡¯t believe he was the very same chuuni who creeped me outst night.
I sat down on the chair in my human form and had Amethyst stand behind me. I tried to keep her out, but she refused no matter what. The kitten sat on myp, purring as I scratched its back.
¡°Good morning, oh queen of monsters.¡±
¡®Queen of what-now?¡¯
My perception of him had dropped back to zero.
¡°Could you refrain from calling me that?¡±
I asked kindly, yet the brat chose not to.
¡°How could I dare insult thine excellence by not addressing thou by thine epithet?¡±
8th grade nightmares were flooding back in.
¡°Are you incapable of speaking normally?¡±
¡°Forgive my foolishness, but this humble one hath not the tiniest idea of what thou imply by ¡®normally¡¯.¡±
He looked confused as he stopped sipping his tea and furrowed his brows. I kept my smile on my face, trying my best not to lose control.
¡°I mean, like how I do. Do you think you can do this?¡±
¡°Hmm, I believe I am starting to understand you. You wish for me to speak more like this?¡±
Hepletely switched up. Sure, it retained a bit of it¡¯s former ancientness, but it was a bit closer to modern tone of speaking. I could work with that.
¡°Yes. Excellent. As expected of the Great Blood Emperor.¡±
I apuded him and he seemed to like the praise as he blushed lightly while trying to act tough. An uncontroble smile spread across his face.
¡®Ah, so he likes being called by that cringe title?¡¯
¡°So, Great Blood Emperor. What brings you here?¡±
His smile widened to the point that his mouth was practically hanging off the tip of his ears.
¡®Bingo!¡¯
¡°Mydy chose me toe monitor the growth of a demon lord candidate. Which, we had rifiedst night, was the child you hold in yourps.¡±
He pointed to the kitten. It hissed once it realised Julian was talking about it. I found the entire situation to be a bit weird though.
"Why would she choose a child to be the next demon lord?¡±
Julian dropped his cup gently on the table then closed his eyes in contemtion. When he opened his eyes, he shrugged.
¡°Who knows what goes on in my Lady¡¯s head? She simply does as she pleases.¡±
He was speaking as if she was some sort of lost cause. Then again, given how he was, I guess I would have to prepare myself for that sort of revtion where she was actually a clueless overpowered chuuni.
¡®All of a sudden, I don¡¯t feel too good anymore.¡¯
¡°Mydy, after witnessing your disy of tremendous powerst night, had a change of heart.¡±
¡°Hm?¡±
¡°Please, do not misunderstand. She still wishes for that child to be the next demon lord. However, she wants you to participate in the Demon lord trials in ce of the child. Raise the child with the mindset of ruling over the demons, then pass on the throne to them once they are fully grown and ready to handle it.¡±
He exined what exactly it was hisdy wanted. I was going to act as a sort of dummy demon lord till the kitten had grown strong enough to take the throne.
Basically, they were asking me to gain the ire of practically the entirety of humanity just to wait for some years for this kitten to dethrone me and I would be thrown away like forgotten trash.
¡°Like hell I will!¡±
<A/N: <A/N: Hey guys, it''s been a while. Sadly, I''m not going to be writing for another month. I feel like I haven''t really done this story any justice considering the kind of reactions I''ve gotten.
Ok, let me rephrase, I''m going to be writing a lot in the next month, I just won''t be releasing next month. Going forward, I want my work to only be released after going through intense scrutiny. That means less grammatical errors, a more cohesive story and less chapters that feel "useless". For this reason, please excuse me to another month.
Also, secondary reason: My brain died after exams, Imma need to recover. Later!>>
Chapter 255 Demon Lord Candidate Pt.II
¡°That so? What a shame. I really was looking forward to working with you. In that case, please hand over the kitten.¡±
Julian¡¯s expression was still light-hearted. I looked at the kitten and it gave me adorable eyes, as if begging me not to let it go.
¡®Mother, I don¡¯t want to go with this idiot~ nya~¡¯
It really was begging me.
¡°I suppose I shall be taking those two vampires you have in your possession as well. Thedy will surely be thrilled to have Rori back in her keep.¡±
¡®Is this guy¡ threatening me?¡¯
He took another sip of his tea, but his calmness suggested danger. I could sense at any moment, he was ready to just jump up and kill me, yet here I was. I had to make some sort of decision before he did anything. If he took Ulva back, she¡¯d just end up dead.
¡°C-Could you give me a d-¡±
¡°You have 5 minutes. No more, no less. Make your choice.¡±
He gave me an absurd time limit.
¡°Oi, oi. 5 minutes is too small for a decision this big!¡±
¡°3 minutes.¡±
¡°Stop shaving off time!¡±
¡°1 minute.¡±
¡°¡!!!¡±
He really was not in the mood to listen to me. My eyes went back to the kitten, then I focused on the other minds.
¡®What do you guys think?¡¯
¡®Well, I don¡¯t like the idea of bing the demon lord since it¡¯s basically announcing to the world ¡°Free Tori for murder. Kill one, get four free!¡±.¡¯
¡®Y-Yes. But, b-being the d-demon lord m-means, we o-only have one side to f-f-fear from. I-Isn¡¯t it easier to protect from one en-enemy instead of two?¡¯
¡®Reasonable point, but why should we take on such a risk? At least, when we¡¯re not being a demon lord, we don¡¯t face open antagonism from the humans. We¡¯d be a side quest and nobody ever takes side quests seriously.¡¯
¡®True, but there¡¯s some retards who wouldn¡¯t mind going all out on us.¡¯
¡®I-In that scenario, h-having demons as our al-allies greatly bolsters our d-defences, doesn¡¯t it?¡¯
¡®Oh,e on you guys! Demon lord? Really? What makes you think what happened to thest demon lord won¡¯t happen to us?¡¯
¡®True. This hero killed the demon lord even though he let peace reign instead of violence. Goes to show that those at the top of the human society don¡¯t want a peaceful demon lord.¡¯
¡®Seriously? I was thinking that we could simply keep doing what the old demon lord was doing so we could live in peace while still preparing for the worst.¡¯
¡®N-No, that c-can¡¯t work. I-If the h-humans wanted peace, t-they would have l-left the demon lord alone.¡¯
¡®Unless¡¡¯
¡®They have a way to wipe out the demons?¡¯
¡®Or at least a great majority of them.¡¯
Well, that would make a certain level of sense. Why start a war when there was absolutely no need to? Either the humans for some reason needed a war ¨C which sounds very stupid, or they were nning topletely kill off any and all demons.
¡®So why not do that when they entered the demon lord¡¯s territory to kill him?¡¯
¡®M-Maybe i-it¡¯s a magic sp-spell with a l-limited range?¡¯
¡®Limited range? A spell big enough to wipe out about 100 million people. How big do you think it would be?¡¯
¡®Hmmm, i-if anything, i-it should be about as big as one of the s-sides of Larm. M-Maybe they want to bring the d-demons into Larm and¡¯
¡®Kill them with this attack?¡¯
¡®Hence, killing us all.¡¯
¡®Jesus, talk about heartless. In that case, I guess the best choice now is to¡¡¯
¡°I humbly choose to be the demon lord.¡±
The council had spoken and our decision was final.
¡°Is that so? Excellent then. I shall be monitoring both you and the child¡¯s growth starting today!¡±
He stood up and made a grand gesture.
¡°The birth of the true Monster Queen begins now! Mydy, please bear witness to this!¡±
A shout to a particrdy he had been mentioning sincest night. I had an idea as to who he was referring to.
¡°Well, since we¡¯re done here, I¡¯ll be heading out now.¡±
I had other things to attend to. For instance, the iplete meeting I heldst night. On my way out, Julian stepped in front of me.
¡°Where do you think you¡¯re going to?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know for you, but I have responsibilities¡ and friends.¡±
¡°What was that?¡±
¡°I¡¯m busy. Can we take up this demon lord talk at ater date?¡±
The administration of over a thousand monsters was by no means an easy feat, yet I jumped into the fray. I couldn¡¯t suddenly just quit to be the demon lord.
¡°No, no. You are clearly misunderstanding something.¡±
¡°What am I misunderstanding? I¡¯ll be the next demon lord, take the throne for a few years, then give it up to the kitten when it¡¯s of age. As easy as ABC.¡±
I grumbled, however he face-palmed and looked at me as if I was some kind of idiot.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°You really think bing a demon lord is that easy?¡±
Julian now wore an exhausted look.
¡°There¡¯s a lot of factors at y. First of all, you are simply a demon lord candidate in this game mydy has created. You will have to undertake a series of scenarios and only afterpleting them and beating the other candidates will you be a demon lord.¡±
¡®Wait, there¡¯s others!?¡¯
¡°Secondly, what¡¯s this nonsense about years? That child needs no more than six months to be the strongest demon lord in history. I shall take care of the child¡¯s training till I see them as fit.¡±
He rified any misunderstanding I could have had about my current situation. It didn¡¯t make me feel any better though. In fact, I was starting to realise that I willingly signed up to fight against other people strong enough to be a demon lord.
¡®We¡¡¯
¡®Are¡¡¯
¡®S-So¡¡¯
¡®Dead.¡¯
I took a moment to think about it, then shrugged.
¡°Well, whatever. I¡¯ll think up somethingter today. I have to talk to the others.¡±
With that, I stormed out of the room, the kitten flying by my side and Amethyst trying her hardest to be my ride no matter how much I refused her.
***
Julian looked at Hinotori¡¯s figure slowly disappear down the hallway. He had his hands folded behind his back as he stood at the door. Once Hinotoripletely vanished from his view, he let out a sigh.
He raised his head to sky, hoping to receive a sign from his goddess. There was no sign, which meant he was most likely on the right path. Though, he didn¡¯t expect to receive that message from her.
His goddess rarely ever changed her mind about a situation as that would imply that she was making a mistake. Yet, for the first time in seemingly forever, she altered her own deal. Clearly there was something special about the Queen of monsters.
Julian¡¯s mind could only go back to a few centuries, back to that one particr being. It was uncanny how Hinotori looked exactly like that person.
¡®What was her name again? Aur? Aura? Auram? Well, whatever. That child died. This one is probably a descendant.¡¯
He cleared his throat, then that was when he saw both sticks looking at him with menacing res. They clearly weren¡¯t fans of his presence and he himself was not too pleased with how they were looking at him.
¡°Weaklings should not be giving their superiors such disgusting res. Bow.¡±
Hemanded and both of them fell to the ground. He red at them with his one eye then pointed his finger towards them. Blood shot out, prating the trees and making them scream out in pain.
¡°Guards of a queen should not be this weak. I shall rectify this.¡±
With that statement, he looked outside the window. The monsters Hinotori was taking care of were training, however in Julian¡¯s eyes, they weren¡¯t putting in their best effort. He couldn¡¯t stand idly while watching their disgraceful actions.
A scowl formed on his face as his eyes turned bloodshot. With quick steps, he hurried out the room, leaving the shrivelled up treants on the ground, screaming in pain.
***
Oki and Taiku were overlooking the goblin¡¯s performance. They had grown substantially and if they were going just by the system, the average goblin¡¯s level was now 18. They were all very close to evolving and all it took was hunting their own food.
Oki had to admit that forging this rtionship with Hinotori was possibly the best thing the goblins could have ever done. The night of the speech when Hinotori spouted her raw feelings, Oki felt stupid.
He was going to take his anger out on someone who was hurting just as much as he was. That night, he couldn¡¯t even look Hinotori in the eye, but he promised to make it up to her. He would grow strong as one of her chosen Captains.
The goblins all copsed after having their strict three-hour practice. A satisfied smile spread across Oki¡¯s face, then he turned to Taiku. They now had to go check on the hob-goblins whose main job was to hunt bigger prey than horned or fanged rabbits. me deer was a bit much for newly hatched hob-goblins, so they settled for Night Vipers, White Epoxes, Toxic Vamprees and the much bigger ck Waynes.
The older hob-goblins would go on raids with Oki, Taiku and Nukeme to hunt for me deers and Silver Boars for a while before they were allowed to go hunting by themselves. In organised parties of course. One of the key traits the goblins had learned to increase the chances of sess and survival, was grouping up members.
This was one particr skill they would never forget and had be their basis for practically everything they did.
Still, it was odd that they were taking so long. 3 hours was more than enough time to get one ming deer for the older hob-goblins.
¡°In that case, let us go with the new guys. We might find the former party with them.¡±
They weren¡¯t worried, since as the captains, they received an alert whenever someone died. Of course, they hadn¡¯t experienced this themselves, but it was something Hinotori¡¯s blessing upon them had informed them.
They could rest assure knowing that the other party members were probably still looking for food.
¡°Yes. We¡¯ll just catch one first, then punish them for not trying hard enough. Haha.¡±
Taiku made a joke and turned around to grab the hob-goblins, when a heavy pressure bore down on them, making them freeze like statues.
An intense killing intent that Oki had never experienced ever in his life before. Even the troll from the fight against the East couldn¡¯t ever make him tremble, yet this made him pausepletely. It was like his body just shut off.
Walking towards them was a monster, releasing a killing intent so grand, the world around him practically turned red. The monster¡¯s blood red eyes red at them with malicious intent.
The goblins all passed out where they were, some of them even foaming at the mouth. Oki¡¯s mind immediately went back tost night.
The monstrosity thatpletely overwhelmed all of the participants in the meeting had showed his face once more. He believed Hinotori defeated it so it had calmed down, but it was clearly out for more blood today.
He wanted to grab his mallet, but his body ignored anymands he sent towards. He couldn¡¯t even blink.
However, Taiku on the other hand, freed himself from the current predicament.
¡°A captain of Hinotori should not be paralysed by an intruder, wouldn¡¯t you say, Oki?¡±
At Taiku¡¯s words, Oki¡¯s body was freed. He wrapped his fingers around his mallet at lightning-fast speed, then faced the iing foe, both of their sides touching and a confident grin on their faces.
¡°Indeed! I was merely trying to analyse the situation.¡±
In truth, Taiku used his skills [Commander¡¯s Heart] and [Hypnosis] to put a charm on himself that protected him from most status effects. It took a while to activate due to the sheer intensity of the blood lust directed at him, but he got there. Then he directly casted it on Oki, breaking the trance.
In the current moment, the only thing saving the unconscious goblins from death was Taiku¡¯s [Commander¡¯s Heart] and it was bearing a heavy weight on him.
Now, both of them faced the monstrositying their way. Clearly, they were very nervous but they refused to show a cowardly side before their subordinates.
<A/N: Please give me your power stones, golden tickets,ments and reviews! Also, check out my new work, "Chevalier of the End", thank you! Have a nice day!>
Chapter 256 Demon Lord Candidate Pt.III
¡°Ok, so let me get this right, you all don¡¯t care about the details and want to pledge allegiance to me as your leader?¡±
I was rubbing my temples while looking at everyone. When I called for an impromptu meeting, I found that they¡¯d all suddenly decided to be members of my familia.
Dulk, the kobold leader, 6 lizardmen tribe leaders and Zana, they all bowed down before me. Apparently, Julian told them all that I defeated him and they all immediately revered me as some sort of extraordinary being of immense strength.
However, I didn¡¯t want to be the kind of person who was only followed because they were super strong. At the same time, the way they were all looking at me desperately made me feel guilty. I mean, I did call the orcs and kobolds over, essentially making them Krull¡¯s enemy.
The South was simply following after Zana who told them that there was a benefit in being a part of my familiar. I¡¯m sure she didn¡¯t mean it like that, but they all clearly had their own agendas.
Personally, I had no issue adding them to the familiar since I was capable of stunting their growthpletely or directly punishing them with no effort whatsoever should they prove to be a hindrance instead.
After a couple of minutes of talking it out with them, I added them to the familiar and our level rose to a quick 10.
The familiar required another rank up, so I put it on the level of a Large City for 50 familia points. This unlocked the Misceneous function in the system store.
I checked it out and there were several options under it. Houses, blueprints, weapons, food resources and other stuff. It would seem that the misceneous portion was reserved for just the familiar. My level in the store was still at that of a non-existent customer, but I simply needed to raise my level to do that.
ording to the system master, the best way to raise my level was through constant buying and selling of goods. Since the system store had possibly the best resources, it was basically the only ce I would be buying from so I should be expecting to see my level raising in due time.
Anyway, the survey had beenpleted and read through. It would seem the goblins mostly wanted the condo as it was, the timber wolves were fine with wherever, rat men werefortable in their holes (though they wouldn¡¯t mind having huts on top), the kobolds weren¡¯t many so they stayed inside the mansion and that was basically it.
One thing I realised after seeing the results was that these guys under me were way toofortable with what they had. The ambition for better living conditions was practically non-existent, except for the goblins. Sure, they were monsters and spent most of their life in the bare outside, but it simply didn¡¯t sit right with me.
There was no way in hell I just ranked up the familia to a Large Town level just to not make an epic town. A passion which I never had was suddenly lit up and a goal had been set. Everyone was going to get a house whether they liked it or not.
I looked to Dulk and asked him how his people did their things. They lived in wooden houses which they built themselves, meaning they were good at construction. I first assigned them to helping Reiman out. The kobolds went to meet their fellow kobolds, leaving those from the south.
They returned, leaving me with Zana alone. She wanted to talk to me, but something came up. I received several messages from Yuuna and Tsuna, speaking of how Julian was killing the goblins. I couldn¡¯t take it seriously since if Julian wanted to kill them, he¡¯d have done it in one move.
I could imagine a scenario where he assumed he was ying with them, but he was simply too strong. With a sigh, I left Zana with the hell kitten. She looked at it, confused as to what to do and I asked her to babysit before leaving.
She was definitely confused, but I didn¡¯t exin any further.
When I got there, I saw a scene with knocked out gobins, several hob-goblins have broken limbs and both Taiku and Oki littered with several open wounds. Yuuna and Tsuna were in the background, looking on with disgruntled expressions.
The reason for that was the fact that Julian had set up and anti-magic area, keeping them unable from interrupting.
¡°These wounds will fade like they were never there!¡±
Just as Taiku yelled that, the cuts on his body slowly disappeared. He wearily ran towards a grinning Julian and swiped his sword at him. Julian easily avoided all his attacks then kicked him away.
¡°Heh. I You are the best hob-goblin I¡¯ve met. Using [Hypnosis] in such a way is also very interesting.¡±
He said to Taiku who was struggling on the ground. It was hard to tell if he was being sincere or mockful, but it was as clear as day that he wasn¡¯t trying to kill anyone.
Oki on the other hand copsed with a loud thud. Julian nced at him once before turning back to Taiku.
¡°Use that on yourself once more and let¡¯s start from the very beginning.¡±
However, Taiku waspletely unable to use his ability. [Hypnosis] took both mana and stamina from him to use. His stamina was at 0. Doing anymore would be draining from his very vitality, hence killing him.
¡®From Julian¡¯s reaction, it would seem he hasn¡¯t noticed that yet.¡¯
I took another look at all the knocked-out goblins. They hadn¡¯t been in the fight. They simply fell unconscious as a result of the status [Absurd Fear]. Julian only yed around with the hob-goblins. At least that meant he knew who was too weak to handle him.
With a sigh, I walked towards him and put my hand on his shoulder. He turned around, swiping at me with his blood swipe, which I surprisingly ate. Julian¡¯s eyes widened when he saw that and he jumped back.
¡°Erhm, my queen. When did you arrive here?¡±
¡®Odd. I thought he had sensed me.¡¯
¡°Stop calling me a queen. Why the hell were you bullying the goblins?¡±
¡°Bullying? I would never. This is simply training.¡±
¡°Training?¡±
¡°Yes. Now that you¡¯re a demon lord candidate, your army needs to reflect your influence. If the other candidates saw this group of riffraff, I¡¯m afraid you would not even be considered.¡±
He had a point. A demon lord¡¯s army was most likely stronger than my familia. But I never nned on getting these guys involved. I was always going to summon shadow demons in stead in case of anything demon lord army-rted.
¡°Also, my spawns told me you did something to them. What exactly did you do?¡±
During my discussion, the spawns said Julian infected them with something. It hurt at first, but now they felt better than ever. I was very curious about that, but postponed it to after the meeting.
¡°Oh, that? Well, I believed since they were the bodyguards of the demon lord, they needed to be stronger. I simply made them stronger.¡±
He looked pretty impressed by himself, scratching the top of his nose with a bashful smile.
¡°Stronger?¡±
¡°Yes. Like I shall be doing with you very soon.¡±
¡°What?¡±
¡°Do not worry. I shan¡¯t use the [Blood Parasytes] on you like I did them. That is merely a coward¡¯s means of acquiring strength. You on the other hand will receive a far better traini-¡±
He was about to talk some nonsense about training. However, I was confident in my ability to raise my own levels. He wasn¡¯t aware of the system, so he clearly didn¡¯t know that giving me two months to grow was practically a cheat.
My familia members on the other hand didn¡¯t possess S grade talent, so some training from him wouldn¡¯t hurt.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°I¡¯ll be busy for the next 1 month. Please train my familia members instead for that month.¡±
If they wished to use me, I would use them as well. Milk any and all benefits I could from them.
Julian had question marks floating above his head will looking at me with a nk face.
¡°Ah¡ what¡¯s the issue now?¡±
¡°Sorry, but I can¡¯t do th-¡±
¡°See, you are supposed to listen to your demon lord candidate, right? In that sense you¡¯re my butler and life coach. I can order you to do certain things for me in that sense, right?¡±
¡°Ah¡ I see where you¡¯re going with this. Sadly, that is not ho- huh? Seriously? I see.¡±
While speaking, he stopped like he¡¯d been struck by lightning. He was having a conversation with hisdy. Once he was done, he cleared his throat and straightened his back.
¡°I shall follow your orders to the letter, my queen. We shall begin the training in one month then.¡±
He agreed to that and I asked for Sylphie to send some resnosue potions to be used on the beat up hob-goblins. Oki and Taiku were given first aid by me since they¡¯d received the greatest number of beatings, especially Taiku.
I was really impressed by his relentlessness. Tsuna and Yuuna were now scared of Julian, but I reassured them that he wasn¡¯t any trouble. They were both still sceptical. In the end, I couldn¡¯t me them since they only knew him through his violent actions two days in a row.
Later, I called Reiman to see how the sort of ns he had for the tiny town we were nning on building in Larm. When I saw the blueprints he made, I was starting to feel excited. I also asked for a personal favour. Reiman himself seemed to like the idea and was willing to overlook it with a select number of people.
I told him the orcs would be helping with the constructions. Same for the kobolds, though I also wanted some of them to form parties with goblins and hob-goblins for fetching food and simple exploration.
Julian was forced to stand down for the remainder of the day. He rather wanted to see Grimm. I made him promise to not do anything to Grimm and he agreed. When I fetched the scared vampire, Julian rather teased him.
It would seem Grimm also hated Julian for the way he acted. The only reason anyone ever tolerated Julian was due to the sort of title he''d created for himself back in the vampire kingdom.
The Crazed Bourreau of the Blood Moon or the Fangs of the Vampire Goddess. The queen¡¯s highest ranked soldier and personal executive. He had a sess rate of one hundred percent with absolutely ruthless executions. Grimm met him when he was imprisoned formitting an offensive action against the queen.
At first, I thought I found a contradiction in his earlier ims. If Julian had a sess rate of 100%, how was Grimm alive? Well, apparently Julian himself had been imprisoned for close to a millennium. It would seem he alsomitted an offense against the queen, but only received imprisonment instead of execution.
He helped Grimm escape her prisons, so we could rest assured that he wasn¡¯t going to just offer Grimm back as that would simply get him punished in the end.
Still, Grimm warned to not bring Ulva up. I told him that Julian knew Ulva existed, but Grimm still said it was best to keep her as far away from him as possible. There was no telling what the Crazed Bourreau would do.
Both had tea, talked about the past, then Julian kicked Grimm out, all under 5 minutes. That had to be the fastest tea session I¡¯d seen in my life.
That night there was a loud incident in the mesh hall, but since I wasn¡¯t there, I tried my best to ignore it.
FAMILIA
[Familia Name: Hyakkiyako¡¯s Familia
[Familia Level: 10 Experience Points: 0052/9000
[Status: Large Town Level 1
[Familia Head: Hyakkiyako Hinotori
[Skills: [Loyalty Test], [Absolute Command], [Family Bond]
[Family: Zana, Ulva
[Familiars: Amethyst, Tulu
[General: Reiman
[Captains: Oki, Tsuna, Taiku, Nukeme, Yuuna, Shiroi, Kawaii, Sven Rori, Yokino
[Servants: Sylvie, Kara, Inu, Unnamed Silver Back Puma, Dulk, Unnamed Kobold leader, Unnamed Marsh Rusalki, Unnamed Lizardmen
[Most Loyal Servants: Kawaii (250), Shiroi (190), Sylvie (189)
[Minions: Goblins (705), Hob-goblins (11) Rat men (1500), Timber wolves (59), Bugs (28,273), Kobolds (514), Harpies (6), Silver Back Pumas (50), Lizardmen (367), Marsh Rusalkies (1000)
[Named minions: Baka
[ves: 1 Human, 24 demi-humans, 4 satyrs
[Familia Points (FP): 170
[Buildings: 1 condo
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
FAMILIA
[Tori acquired several familia members]
[The familia level is now 10]
[The familia is now at the Large Town Rank]
[Tori received 50 familia points]
Chapter 257 Side - Hinotoris Wife Pt.I
Zana looked at the kitten in her hands. The kitten did the same before yawning.
It was a very weird creature. Instead of possessing fur, it had feathers and wings. Sure, there were other creatures simr to it such as griffins, but at least they had more bird-like features.
¡°H-Hello.¡±
She decided to speak. Hinotori had asked her to babysit. Naturally, she had no idea what that meant. However,st night, when the egg hatched and the kitten jumped out of it, she received a notification that the family head had delivered their first child.
It didn¡¯t take a genius to know what that meant. This kitten was the result of Hinotori¡¯s love with a different person.
Zana could feel her heart break in two, although she didn¡¯t know why. Her mood waspletely ruined that night and to top it off, some guy came in and beat her up, showing even more of her weak side to Hinotori.
She was hesitant to face her for some reason, but did so using the excuse that it was important to the safety of the forest. Now that she looked at the kitten, there was a feeling she was getting. Like a stick that had pierced her heart and a lump stuck in her throat.
Suddenly, she wasn¡¯t liking the kitten.
¡®Pfft. A weakling like you desires my mother¡¯s affection? Amusing~ nyaa~¡¯
A voice spoke in her head. Zana looked around, confused by the sudden interruption to her thoughts.
¡®Down here, in your hand, you idiot~¡¯
Zana looked down, only to find the kitten sitting on her palm looking up at her, its tale wagging from side to side slowly. There was something malicious about the way it looked at her.
¡°Y-You can speak?¡±
¡°Meow~¡±
¡®Of course, I can. I just choose who to speak to~¡¯
The kitten continued to speak directly to her head. Zana¡¯s eyes only widened, surprised by the level of ease at with the kitten couldmunicate.
¡°How are you so good at speaking?¡±
¡®Hmm? Would you expect any less from mother¡¯s child? Nyaa~¡¯
The kitten stood confidently and boasted of Hinotori¡¯s intelligence. Zana thought over it and, in her eyes, she could sort of understand what the kitten meant.
¡°Y-Yeah. I guess Hinotori is smart.¡±
¡®Exactly. I like how fast you learn~ Now, take me around mother¡¯s domain~¡¯
¡°The West? I myself haven¡¯t been here much.¡±
She did onlye here for the meeting. To Zana, this was apletely unfamiliar ce and she doubted she¡¯d be able to find her way around easily.
The kitten thought for a moment before speaking once more.
¡®You are mother¡¯s first wife~ Commanding a few soldiers to give you directions wouldn¡¯t prove troublesome in the slightest~¡¯
Zana froze for a moment, trying toprehend the kitten¡¯s statement.
¡°Eh!? Eh!? Eeeeehhhh!? W-What do you mean I am Hinotori¡¯s first wife!? W-We haven¡¯t even said anything.¡±
¡®Fufufu, you truly are dense, aren¡¯t you?¡¯
The kitten jumped off her palm and onto her shoulder.
¡®Come on, even you can see it. You¡¯re the only person who when added to the familia got a different role other than servant or captain~¡¯
There was truth to what the kitten said. Hinotori didn¡¯t add her as some sort of servant. Even she had been informed by Hinotori¡¯s blessing that her position was quite different from the average mob. She originally assumed that it meant her position in the familia was fickle and she could be kicked out at any point, but if what this kitten said was true, that meant Hinotori liked Zana?
The kitten noticed that its taunting had worked. A grin spread across its adorable face as it settled back onto her palm.
¡®Yes, yes. Now you get it. Order someone to take us on a tour~¡¯
With that, Zana randomly called for someone. The one toe over was Shiroi who was the closest person. She tilted her head, clearly surprised.
¡®Where is Master?¡¯
She asked, but Zana timidly scratched her cheek.
¡°Um, are you the one I called for?¡±
¡®You called for¡ me?¡¯ s<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Y-Yes. Sorry to ask this of you, but can you show me around?¡±
Shiroi took a moment, but nodded. She clearly understood the situation immediately.
¡°Certainly, Tyrant of the South. Would you like to sit on my back?¡±
Shiroi offered while growing her size to three times of its normal state. Zana didn¡¯t expect Shiroi to be able to grow so big, but that was most likely to simply amodate her. She wanted to refuse, but the kitten jumped onto Shiroi¡¯s back first.
¡®What are you waiting for? We¡¯re bleeding daylight~¡¯
The kitten edged her on. She then got onto the wolf, hoping that her weight wouldn¡¯t crush the wolf¡¯s back. Contrary to her expectations, Shiroi barely felt a thing. In fact, she found it absurd how Zana was practically weightless, yet sorge.
¡®Wow, this fur is so soft. It¡¯s like a cloud.¡¯
Zana thought while feeling out Shiroi¡¯s back. This was a simple trait of the faerie wolf species, but Shiroi did not boast about it. Rather, she begun their journey.
The first ce she took Zana to was the obviously the mansion Hinotori stayed in. She didn¡¯t think the other attractions would really get to Zana like that. Besides, she was still busy with patrolling and turf expansion. She wanted to hurry it up and resume her work.
While on the way there, several creatures that saw them bow. Shiroi was used to such treatment since she was a king, but for Zana, this was a first. No one other than her personal aide had ever shown her this much respect in her life.
She had to admit that ever since evolving, she could tell that the creatures were more conscious of her presence and did to some extent show their respect, but that didn¡¯t stop them from acting like they used to.
It was a very weird scene in her eyes. The kitten noticed this and spoke to her.
¡®Oi, oi. You are mother¡¯s first wife. No need to act so humbly~ Show them that you are the boss~¡¯
¡°Hmm? That doesn¡¯t sound very nice.¡±
¡®Tsk, tsk. How do you think mother became the leader of so many creatures? Might makes right~¡¯
The kitten stood up and started to speak proudly.
¡®Mother demonstrated her magnificent power before them. She punished those who disobeyed her and she gave strictmands to them, and now they love her for it~¡¯
Zana wasn¡¯t so sure about that. Hinotori didn¡¯t seem like the kind of person to force herself on someone else. If anything, Zana could see the reciprocal of that happening.
¡°Um, Shiroi. How did you start followingdy Hinotori?¡±
The white wolf was caught off-guard by the sudden question, but she took a moment to organise her thoughts before responding.
¡°At first, we only chose to serve her because she led us into war against the Tyrant Krull and we won. At the time, I felt like it was best to put the safety of my people in someone else¡¯s hand as I wasn¡¯t worthy of inheriting my father¡¯s title. If anything, my little brother should have been the one who became the new leader, yet¡¡±
Shiroi¡¯s pace slowed down drastically.
¡°It felt nice being free once more. I could act childishly again. Hinotori was organising everyone better, though we still had to get our own food. That was no issue. Then came the time she asked me to explore with her. Of course, I¡¯ve always wanted to go out to see new ces, so I excitedly epted. It was during this trip that my pride was first questioned. I wasn¡¯t exactly sure how to respond, but she gave me time to think about it. Then came the time of despair, where I proved useless to Hinotori¡¯s plead. I had no particr reason for denying her request, but I did so with an excuse. Of course, I was punished for it.¡±
While saying that, she took in arge gulp and shook like her neck felt ufortable. The memories from that one-time Hinotori punished her were still vivid and it had even left a scar that was hidden by her fur.
¡°I decided after then that I would honour the master with everything that I had. I would do my very best so the next time she required my help, I wouldn¡¯t back down with a flimsy excuse. I chose to devote our very being to her and my n members follow their n head without question. I guess it¡¯s different for everyone else, but this is why the timber wolves and I follow Hinotori. We believe she is the one to lead us to a much morefortable future.¡±
¡®Huh? Mother inspired the devotion rather thanmanded it? Impossible. This one is clearly delusional~¡¯
The kitten refused to ept that what he said was wrong. In his eyes, Shiroi was merely a blind dog that had been brainwashed.
¡°I see."
For some reason, that made Zana happy to hear. She smiled a smile so angelic even the kitten couldn¡¯t help but be stunned by her radiance. It looked away from her, towards the mansion which they¡¯d arrived at.
Shiroi let both of them down then bowed.
¡°I have more tasks to attend to, so please do feel free to explore the mansion. You can even call for a kobold to help you out.¡±
She left afterwards. Zana held the kitten up, then looked at the mansion. Its entrance was clearly way too small for the Naga Lord, so they were currently in a dilemma.
Just then, someone popped up behind her. An ogress with grey skin and violet hair turning red at its tips. The ogress carried a bucket of water in one hand and tilted when she saw the giant Zana.
¡°Um, h-hello. Y-You are the t-tyrant of the south, right? Zana the T-Terrible Witch.¡±
She addressed Zana, stammering cutely. She wasn¡¯t even capable of meeting Zana in the eye, constantly looking around.
¡°Oh, yes. Hello.¡±
Zana didn¡¯t know why, but this ogress felt like a rival of sorts.
Chapter 258 Side - Hinotoris Wife Pt.II
Sylphie¡¯sboratory
In this room that was once used as a space for inhuman research, the tables were littered with empty vials and sketches of items. The owner of this space, Sylphie, was currently working on a great masterpiece of hers.
A new weapon for Hinotori. She saw it in a vision given to her from her patron god. There was the issue of still working out some kinks, but she believed she¡¯d made great progress in a short amount of time. It would take quite a while to end up with the product she was envisioning.
The most important thing now was materials. Fortunately, Larm had those in abundance. Still, there was one particr piece of ore that could only be found in the North. She was wondering when and how she¡¯d get them so she could continue from here.
¡°Sylphie, it¡¯s dinner time.¡±
The door leading to theb was mmed open and a boy in tattered clothes came in with a bright smile. Sylphie looked at him and gave a tired smile.
This boy was Erwin Dolus, the only human in Larm. It took him a while, but now everyone liked him. He was hardworking, honest and generally gave off a feeling of .
¡°Oh? You¡¯re still working on that?¡±
He walked in and leaned over to see the blueprints Sylphie was making.
¡°Wow, this looks way more advanced than the one I saw. You¡¯re really talented, Sylphie.¡±
¡°You think so?¡±
¡°Yep. I¡¯m surprised that a sprite is interested enough in machines to make such a thing.¡±
From as far as Erwin could tell, sprites were spirits of nature. They always hated it when humanity progressed far too far with their machines rather than relying on their help. Though, spiritual light pixies were more like pests that worried rather than helped.
¡°Hehe, from as far back as I can remember, I¡¯ve never been a normal sprite, you see. I eat normal food, I get hungry, I can grow tired from working too much, I¡¯m not really in tune with the spiritual parts of things and I¡¯ve always been very curious about humans.¡±
¡°Hmm? You say that like spirits have no interest in humans.¡±
Erwin joked then headed out the door. Sylphie wrapped up her blueprints then followed after him. They closed the door, then headed towards the mesh hall, continuing their conversation.
¡°What¡¯s your experience with spirits like?¡±
Sylphie asked and Erwin just scratched his cheek.
¡°Afraid I haven¡¯t interacted much with any other than you.¡±
¡°Seriously? I assumed given the aura you give off that several spirits would be drawn towards you.¡±
Even now, as they walked, there was something about Erwin that put Sylphie¡¯s heart at ease. Spirits would normally be swarming someone like this.
¡°Hmm? Aura?¡±
Sylphie couldn¡¯t believe it. He really was not aware of that special trait he was born with.
¡°Ah¡ what¡¯s your ss?¡±
¡°My ss? Oh, I was told that I¡¯m a swordsman when I was scouted.¡±
He answered. Sylphie grabbed her chin in contemtion. She hadn¡¯t heard of a swordsman that was so loved by spirits. Maybe a [Spirits Arts Swordsman], but that was a sub-ss and he wasn¡¯t proficient enough as a swordsman to have a sub-ss.
That meant whoever told him his ss was clearly lying to him.
¡°Hmm, you aren¡¯t a swordsman. You were just forced to pick that ss even though you have no proficiency for it.¡±
She exined the conclusion she arrived at. Erwin didn¡¯t look really surprise.
¡°Oh, is that so? How odd.¡±
In fact, from his response, Sylphie wouldn¡¯t be surprised if he knew his actual ss. The only issue he faced was probably going through a ss Change. From what she¡¯d heard from Reiman, the average human couldn¡¯t go through a ss change due to the sheer difficulty as well asck of required funds.
She wasn¡¯t sure how things worked in the human side of things, neither was she particrly interested. Erwin didn¡¯t look bothered by it, so there was no point overthinking something he wasn¡¯t overthinking himself.
When they got to the door leading to the mesh hall, there wererge soundsing from there. They found a couple of goblins and kobolds crowded around the door.
Both looked at each other, shrugged, then went to investigate further.
¡°What¡¯s happening?¡±
He asked one of the kobolds. She was a white furred dog.
¡°Oh Erwin. Don¡¯t go in there. You¡¯ll get ripped to shreds.¡±
¡°Eh? Why?¡±
¡°The tyrant of the south, Kara and Kawaii are currently arguing in there.¡±
That was a very oddbination of people. Sylphie couldn¡¯t help but be intrigued by the seemingly random group.
¡°What? Lemme see!¡±
She jumped up above the crowd and peeked into the room. The mesh hall had been turned into a mess. Food sttered all-around, broken-down walls and some injured monsters.
Sylphie was shocked by the sight, but only wanted to know more. She dropped down then faced the kobold.
¡°Why are they arguing?¡±
¡°Well¡¡±
The kobold was hesitating to speak. For some reason she didn¡¯t want to share this information with Sylphie. The pixie red at her, but the kobold pretended not to have seen it.<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°Oh Sylphie, what are you doing here? I expected you to be in there arguing with them.¡±
One hob-goblin came up and spoke.
¡°Why would I be arguing with a tyrant?¡±
Sylphie couldn¡¯t fathom a single situation in which she would argue with one of Larm¡¯s tyrants. She couldn¡¯t even see herself speaking ill of one in a thousand years.
? ¡°They¡¯re arguing for the title of Hinotori¡¯s first wife.¡±
¡
¡°WHAT!?¡±
Her voice was so loud, the entire crowd turned back to face her. Those standing next to her had to back up and the kobold tried to run away with Erwin who was still unaware of the kind of situation unfolding.
¡°Oh, so you really weren¡¯t aware, huh?¡±
¡°Eh!? Hinotori¡¯s what!?¡±
Sylphie screamed, sparks of light popping off around her head. Erwin was blinded by these irritating sparks and finally backed away.
The pixie stretched out her hand and a sword she had personally forged materialised into it. The Leaf de crafted out of her source of existence was possibly the sharpest thing she¡¯d ever make.
She jumped into the room with arge war cry.
¡°Why are you three arguing about such a useless thing!?¡±
All three red at her, clearly annoyed by the entrance of a new person, especially a female.
¡°More insolent wenches. What do you want?¡±
Zana rudely asked Sylphie. The pixie growled and waved her de in front of them.
¡°I heard you were discussing something stupid. What gives any of you the right to proim yourselves Lady Hinotori¡¯s wife?¡±
She questioned, and Zana puffed out her chest with a very smug expression.
¡°Obviously because I¡¯m the only one she gave a unique position in this family.¡±
¡°What? T-That doesn¡¯t count!¡±
¡°That¡¯s right!¡± Kawaii agreed with sylphie.
¡°Mawstewr told me she liked me!¡±
Only to end up betraying her. The pixie red at the ck slime, feeling like she was losing out to the two, she turned to Kara who was suddenly shy.
¡°Eh? What¡¯s with you now?¡±
¡°I-It¡¯s just that¡¡±
¡°Che, she¡¯s gotten her tongue all tied up.¡±
¡°Oh, I-¡±
Kara was still trying to defend herself, but then all the girls ganged up on her. Their instincts warned them that what she was going to say would win the argument without question, so they wouldn¡¯t allow her to finish her sentence.
This led to a very violent night in which the West of Larm caused a lot of noise. Everyone would remember this as the night in which the first fight to bing Hinotori¡¯s wife would take ce.
The true culprit, Hinotori¡¯s Hell Kitten had perched on the window sill at the very top of the mesh hall. It licked itself for a bit before stretching. Then it looked out the window, there it could make out two moons in the night sky.
Naturally there should have been only half a moon out tonight, but the presence of two moons showed that two of the four moon gods were simply out to observe the kitten. The kitten merely instinctively knew this to be the truth and that was making it feel very special.
¡®Where is mother? Nya~¡¯
It jumped out the window and flew out to go find Hinotori. She was in her dungeon where she and Ulva were having dinner.
The kitten ignored the vampires¡¯ presence then purred so Hinotori could hear it. Hinotori beckoned it over and the kitten jumped into her arms.
¡®Mother, I¡¯m hungry, meow~¡¯
¡°That so?¡±
Hinotori transformed a piece of fruit using her [Devil Light Maniption] then fed it to the kitten. The kitten ate it happily.
¡®Oh, mother. I forgot to ask. Who is your wife?¡¯
¡°Wife? What kind of weird question is that? I don¡¯t have one.¡±
¡®That so?¡¯
¡°Yeah. Why do you ask?¡±
¡®No reason. I just thought as much, meow~ Also, I think I¡¯ll be getting a new sibling soon~¡¯
¡°Are you insane? Shut up and sleep.¡±
<A/N: Evil kitten>
Chapter 259 Treason
Day 68
Today, we started gathering the necessary items to begin our construction. Unfortunately, we were met by some resistance from the dryads of trees. Of course, not all the trees belonged to dryads, but they were still angry since the location we chose had a few of them.
It took a while, but we ended up in a field of flowers. The field wasrge enough to cater for the needs of a small vige, so we decided to simply make huts for the iing orcs and kobolds here. I had hob-goblins and goblins that had afternoon training sessions cut down the trees.
Oh yeah, that¡¯s right. Julian had separated the goblins and hob-goblins into two shifts. Some for the morning session and some for afternoon sessions. He admitted that the number of goblins would be a bit annoying to monitor at the same time.
So, if the afternoon group didn¡¯t finish, I¡¯d give the morning group a 30-minute break before we continued.
We got a lot of wood and quickly went to work. I honestly wasn¡¯t sure about how the whole process went, but Reiman assured me I could leave it to him.
They cleared the field of all its flowers mercilessly and tore up the earth. The tunnelers were ruthlessly efficient at their job. Speaking of tunnelers, they were these huge rats with ws as sharp as steel that could also act as drills.
They had the highest defence and strength of the rats, as well as the greatest amount of stamina given their upation was literally creating tunnels. They were easily the most monstrous in appearance too, and they¡¯d grown blind most likely due to theck of enough sunlight.
Thinking was still possible for them, but their intelligence was now the equivalent of most trolls. For your information, most trolls are below average on the intelligence scale.
Some weren¡¯t too happy by the fact that their friends ended up as dumb bodies, but they also could understand as it wasn¡¯t an all too new experience for them.
I left them to their business then went to check on Ichi and Ni.
My spawns Ichi and Ni evolved into something called Blood Spriggans. They were leaner and had better stats than before. Aesthetically, I¡¯d have to say they looked far scarier than before and their behaviours had taken a turn for the worse.
They were far more violent than before and would attack anything that looked like a threat with all their strength. Ichi split a butterfly into two different pieces just because it got a little too close to me. I¡¯ve heard of heartless, but he was way too much.
I guess the bright side was that they are absolutely loyal to me. In the end, I didn¡¯t think too much about it.
Also, the Hell kitten started bothering me for a name, so I called it Maou as a sort of tribute to one of my favourite demon lord anime. Apparently, naming my own kid didn¡¯t take any mana from me. No. This child took something far worse.
It took a bit of my soul apparently. I didn¡¯t feel anything going away, and ording to my agent, I wouldn¡¯t even feel any sort of difort. However, it was simply a means of showing that we were bonded no matter what form the kitten takes on. If it died and reincarnated, it would still remain my family and I would be able to identify it.
That was a bit extra in my opinion, but I didn¡¯t waste time thinking about it. Rather, my interestsid in where Yokino was.
She was currently M.I.A with no excuse whatsoever. I couldn¡¯t track her through the system, I couldn¡¯t send any messages, I couldn¡¯t sense her. Absolutely nothing and with no warning. Yes, she normally did this, but it was starting to get creepy by the fact that I couldn¡¯t see her in the familia system anymore.
Sure, if she died, I would be alerted to that fact, but there was no alert of any kind. It¡¯s like she left the familia without saying anything, but I still felt connected to her.
Today, Kawaii came up to me, asking if I wanted a kid with her. Angrily, I kicked her out to go protect Ulva. Sylphie was also unusually unproductive today.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Treants Ichi and Ni were forcefully evolved into Blood Spriggans]
[Construction has begun]
[10 goblins evolved into hob-goblins]
***
Dhijan Hero Nation, Royal Pce
In this empty room which was once the most important part of the pce, two people were standing, facing each other. The room still looked in tact even though thest time it was used was approximately 3 to 4 years ago.
Amongst the two people, one of them was a little girl with silvery-white hair. She was sweating profusely and had her body on high alert in case of anything. She hadn¡¯t expected to be called after the Odysseus which was prolonged due to a certain incident taking ce.
If anything, she wanted to stay far away from this person, the Pdin of Power Excelcior. Her surrogate father looked at her with keen interest and marched towards her and she took some steps back, trying to maintain their current distance.
Upon noticing this, Excelcior stopped. He scratched his scruff beard then scowled.
¡°I hear you regained your memories of your life from before being summoned to this world.¡±
His voice sounded gentle and weing. Rulis knew better than to trust this. She kept her mouth shut and held her breath, waiting for the moment he did something to summon her sword.
¡°You can¡¯t speak? Answer me!¡±
Hemanded, causing the whole room to shake.
¡°Eek! Y-Yes sir!¡±
Her mouth responded automatically. She was very much aware of the kind of power he possessed. What was scarier was the fact that after he went on a mission to hunt down the ck Knight, there was something different about him. His power had clearly skyrocketed, but there was something evidently different about him.
¡°Tell me who you were in your original life.¡±
¡°Maya Kobayashi, F-Fifteen-year-old highschooler.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°So, you have lost your memories. How unfortunate.¡±
He turned around to face the wall. There was visibly nothing interesting about it, however these walls were built to withstand a very high amount of force easily. Over the years, only one thing had ever destroyed them and even then, it wasn¡¯t from what he was expecting to destroy them.
¡°Do you remember this ce?¡±
How could she? To her, this ce signified the starting point of her hell. Treated like a machine, having her memories forcefully repressed, witnessing everything but no knowing that she was never in control of her actions, working like a dog for people who didn¡¯t think much of her. She hated everyst bit of it when she acquired her memories.
¡°Well, do you!?¡±
¡°Y-Yes.¡±
She meekly responded.
¡°Do not make me repeat myself again.¡±
Excelcior gave her one warning. He wasn¡¯t one to give second chances often.
¡°Do you know what this room is for?¡±
¡°Summoning heroes from another world.¡±
At her response, the king turned around and his kept fluttered majestically at that simple motion. For some reason, he looked much kinglier than he ever had in her eyes.
¡°Precisely! Did you ever think about why I changed this nation¡¯s name to the Dhijan Hero Nation?¡±
Neburis shook her head at his second question.
¡°Of course, you wouldn¡¯t. You¡¯ve never read our history books.¡±
He took a few more steps towards Rulis and she walked back by a few steps. Before she knew it, she could feel the cold pir wall on her back.
¡°In truth, the Dhijan nation used to be one of the weakest nations at the time of the 6 Great Heroes from the New Kyoto Empire¡¯s appearance. Back then, the New Kyoto Empire was simply known as the Ivalon Empire. It was the secondrgest empire, only matched by the Mexar Empire. In order to beat out theirpeting Empire, the emperor sanctioned for the summoning of people of great power who would turn the tide for the Ivalon Empire. The heroes summoned woulde to be known as the 6 Great Heroes.¡±
A sudden history lesson. Rulis wasn¡¯t sure of where he was headed with this, but was keeping herself ready for the slightest show of harmful intentions.
¡°However, that Ivalon Empire is no more. Do you know why?¡±
¡°¡No.¡±
¡°Because the useless summons betrayed them. The summons reported on how their lives were terribly ruined even when they themselves admitted that they liked their new lives better. They cried to the Mexar Empire and of course, theirpetitors saw a chance topletely crush the Ivalon Empire. They thought they defeated the empire and acquired some very powerful people, only to be betrayed by the summons as well. Now, the that Ivalon Empire is called the New Kyoto Empire and the art of summoning people from other worlds has be an illegal act punishable by any culprits found being executed.¡±
Neburis was trying her best to not summon her sword immediately to attack as the distance between them was currently not more than two feet.
¡°As a child, my teachers would always tell me to learn from history. ¡°A great king is one who learns the mistakes of kings before him¡±. So, I did. The king of the original Dhijan Nation summoned 1 hero with a bind that ensured the hero would never betray him. This was kept a secret and that hero was publicly announced as a member of the royal family. Hence, the rise of the Dhijan Hero Nation.¡±
¡®Wait¡ is he scared of me now that he can¡¯t control me?¡¯
Rulis thought while trying to peer into his soul. Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t working.
¡°Rulis, you are the result of an illegal experiment. Should this be public information, the Dhijan Hero Nation shall face some serious scrutiny. I thought over several ways to resolve this, but I guess the best way to resolve that is to have you executed.¡±
He had just dered her death sentence. This was enough reason for Rulis to summon her sword, widening the distance between them. Excelcior chuckled once he saw.
¡°For your attempt at murdering the King of the Dhijan Hero Nation, you, Rulis Tepe Miksari Eldiro Furialt, Former hero princess, shall be detained and decapitated, by decree of the King!¡±
Rulis couldn¡¯t care less. She charged forward, swiping her de at him with obviousck of know-how. Excelcior couldn¡¯t help but feel disappointed by her childish swinging. After all these years, her body didn¡¯t even learn how to swing a sword from being controlled.
The king could easily avoid her swipes forever, but he instead chose to grab the de with his bare hand then proceeded to jab her abdomen and send her flying to the other side of the room. He looked at her de just as it burnt to a crisp in his hand.
He already knew, but it was still annoying. That is, the fact that her sword cannot be held by anyone other than her.
Then, he noticed something odd. There was no sound of Rulis making impact with the wall. Looking up, all he met was a portal. A normal portal was created by umting external mana to one spot which took a lot of power and concentration to do. The problem with it was that anyone would be able to sense a portal forming since it was practically a blob of mana.
This portal was different. A portal that couldn¡¯t be sensed was one that wasn¡¯t created with mana. It was a forcibly created tear in space that shortened the distances with another means. Naturally, an impossible act, but if it was a unique skill, no one would doubt it. Excelcior knew someone who had just the right unique skill for this.
The other side of the portal, there was one person ring at him. Her white and ck eyes tried to stab him, but Excelcior was used to that.
¡°Neburis, assisting that thing will make you a traitor to this nation. Are you willing tomit treason?¡±
He asked, but all he got was the silence of the portal closing before him.
Chapter 260 The Elder Clan Trials
As usual, the Kazoku were having breakfast in the dining hall. There was quite a bit of noise discussing the dragon that was still sleeping in the courtyard of the Royal Pce. Everyone looked at Shiro for answers since she was sort of like the only dragon expert amongst them.
Shiro had of course been forced to memorise an entire book on different dragon species. The one sleeping in the courtyard seemed to be a hybrid of two different breeds.
It possessed white feathers like the dragons of the White Dragon lords Winter Zone, but had a way smaller build than one. It looked more like a wyvern, but Shiro found that to be odd since dragons would never mate with wyverns. They were lesser dragons, seen as more like the ves of the dragon race.
And even more odd was the fact that Wyverns couldn¡¯t survive in the Winter Zone for too long. Neither could the White Dragon Lords survive in a ce that wasn¡¯t as cold as the Winter Zone.
In the end, she got tired of thinking about it too much, exined what she knew and shrugged.
¡°That¡¯s a good guess on the dragon¡¯s origin. In fact, I¡¯ve always wondered where Dread was from. Guess I¡¯ll check the Winter Zone next for his parents.¡±
A new voice spoke up, acquiring everyone¡¯s attention in an instant. A man was seated next to Shiro out of the blue and was even looking at her.
What made it odder was how much the two looked alike. Shiro immediately turned to meet the person who had appeared out of thin air.
¡°Nii-san!?¡±
She jumped up once she identified who it was invading her personal space. Hiro grinned at her with a smile as bright as the sun.
¡°Been a while, cuz.¡±
¡°H-How are you here? Is this some sort of illusion? Kana can you use magic?¡±
She turned to the silver haired teen. Kana was just looking at her with widened eyes and a face of utter disbelief. Shiro then checked Mori, then Akari, all possessing the exact same expression while looking at her.
¡°It¡¯s me, Hiro. Ha~st time I saw you, you were like 5~6?¡±
Hemented nonchntly and grabbed her cheeks, pulling them yfully. Shiro pped his hand away and jumped back.
¡°I was 4 and you¡ how are you alive?¡±
ording to what she¡¯d heard, Hiro went missing and was practically confirmed dead.
¡°Eh? You thought I was dead? I could have sworn lots of people knew I was alive.¡±
Now she felt stupid for not connecting the dots when Neburis told her that there were ¡°currently¡± 3 people capable of wielding [Baldr]. She was suggesting that Hiro was alive somewhere.
There was also the fact that a dragonnded in the pce courtyard the day before. Still, no one could me her for not being able to tell that the dragon was her brother¡¯s.
She sighed and dropped her guard.
¡°Idiot¡¡±
She muttered under her breath, but Hiro easily caught this andughed.
¡°Come over. Let¡¯s have breakfast together.¡±
He beckoned her over and she shyly approached her seat. She sat down and looked away from him with a refineddy-like aura around her. Kana who knew this to not be the normal Shiro only cringed at the sight.
¡°Shiro, what¡¯s up with the act?¡±
She questioned Shiro and thetter replied calmly.
¡°What act? This is how I usually am.¡±
Akari and Mori found the scene funny andughed.
¡°W-Why are you guysughing? Defend me!¡±
She pleaded for help and Akari came to her aid.
¡°Yes, yes. Shiro is truly the well-mannered one.¡±
¡°Kana on the other hand¡¡±
Mori chimed in and the silver haired girl threw her spoon at him. Mori blocked and stuck his tongue out at her.
¡°Come on, now. No ying while eating.¡±
Akari mothered them and Hiroughed, drawing their attention.
¡°Sorry, sorry. It¡¯s just so refreshing seeing you interacting so freely. I¡¯m d Shiro has made some new friends.¡±
He nced at her, but she was looking away, her face flushed red.
¡°Oh right. Where are my manners? I forgot to introduce myself.¡±
Akari pointed out then sat up.
¡°Don¡¯t worry, I already know about all of you. Saito Akari of the Saito n. Expert swordsman in the advanced level and graduate of Lord Muramasa¡¯s School with the best results ever.¡±
¡°Wow. I¡¯m honoured you know. However, you¡¯ve made a mistake.¡±
¡°Eh?¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
Hiro was certain his information on Akari was perfect.
¡°I was only ever the second-best student. Muramasa-sensei only ever praised Hiro-san¡¯s swordsmanship, even calling it god-like.¡±
Caught off-guard by the sudden praise, Hiro scratched the back of his neck.
¡°Haha, is that so? I will have to visit sensei sometime then.¡±
¡°Please do once we recover the Empire. I am certain he will drop anything just to meet you.¡±
¡°Next is Minamoto Mori, the golden child of the Minamoto n. Genius mathematician and quite mature for your age. I¡¯ve always wanted to meet you, but I heard you were training somewhere.¡±
¡°Oh, that was¡¡±
Hiro winked at him, as if to say he wouldn¡¯t reveal his secret. Mori caught on to this and a weing smile spread across his face.
¡°Then we have the spunky Taira Kana. I hear you¡¯re in your fifth year at the Dhijan Academy for Heroes? Best in thebat department too.¡±
Hearing herself being praised, Kana couldn¡¯t help but snicker.
¡°Then there¡¯s my kid sister.¡±
Shiro sat up, waiting to hear her older brother whom she¡¯d idolised for most of her life praise her. All she got was a pat on my head.
¡°Hey, where¡¯s my introduction?¡±
She pouted, but Hiro only saw this as a chance to grab her cheeks.
¡°You didn¡¯t lose your baby fat after all the years, huh? I guess you were a fat baby.¡±
Hiro was reminiscing about the past and revealed several embarrassing secrets about Shiro¡¯s childhood. The girl kept shouting for him to stop, but Hiro didn¡¯t tell he got a decent amount ofughs out of them. He even projected images of the past into their heads.
After thoroughly embarrassing his little sister, Hiro deemed the mood to be right.
¡°I want to talk to you all about something very important.¡±
The mood barely changed. Smiles were still present on the group as they now looked at Hiro. In truth, Hiro felt a tinge of guilt at the kind of responsibility he was about to throw on them.
¡°You will have to participate in the Elder n Trials in a couple of weeks.¡±
Silence.
That was one word wouldn¡¯t be enough to describe how the room had turned. Hiro could think of all the sorts of things they were thinking about without having to read their minds.
The Elder n Trials were a means of picking the new n heads of the Elder ns. Normally, there would be members from branch families participating, but this time they couldn¡¯t due to the current state of affairs of the empire.
In official Elder n Trials, the n heads monitor them from afar as their sessors go on month-long or sometimes year-long adventures in order to prove their worth an inherit the seat of n head. Normally, this would be a topic for celebration, but one could easily surmise why they weren¡¯t too pleased hearing this.
The Elder n Trials had only two ways of starting. When the n heads feel like stepping down a bit early, or when the seat of n head was vacant.
Just as someone was about to voice theirints, the door leading to the room burst open. Guards rushed in and surrounded the n members. Behind the guards, Veronica in uniform marched forward and looked at Hiro.
He stood up to meet her gaze, unsure as to what was happening. Veronica saluted him then continued.
¡°What is this?¡±
¡°Due to an incident involving the Pdin of Space Neburis and Heavenly Judge of Blood Red mes Rulis, all pdins are to be summoned before the king of the Dhijan Hero Nation. You, as the [True Hero] are also requested to follow this order without resistance.¡±
Again, Hiro looked at all the guards that were surrounding him. He had scanned their strengths and scoffed.
¡°So, are they here to detain me if I refuse?¡±
He whispered into her ear.
¡°No. That is what I am for. They have another purpose.¡±
He looked at the Kazoku from the corner of her eye and Hiro caught it. The king was aware that he would not beat Hiro under any normal means, so he resorted to using hostages against Hiro. Still, Hiro wasn¡¯t worried in the slightest.
¡°You truly believe that I can¡¯t beat you and everyone in the room before you blink?¡±
He stared down Veronica. The pdin did not back down, nor show any sign of fear.
¡°Haa~ I wasn¡¯t even looking for a fight. Just tell me why I¡¯m being summoned.¡±
Giving up, he asked for a reason. Veronica also let out a sigh, showing how tense she truly was. This was the man who opened up the doors leading to the Chamber of Heroes with raw strength. She wasn¡¯t confident in being able to hold her own against him for more than 30 minutes.
¡°It would seem the two princesses havemitted an act of treason against the king,¡±
¡°Treason, huh? Was only a matter of time before Neburis went after her father¡¯s head after all.¡±
He joked, however Veronica¡¯s shocked gaze suggested that there was more truth to what he was saying.
¡°Wait¡ she didn¡¯t actually go after his head, did she?¡±
Chapter 261 Trouble Brewing In The North
Day 69
After having what I could call a good night¡¯s rest, I received a rude awakening in the form of a cat pping my face.
What I saw before me was a big tubby cat with darker feathers and a more elegant appearance. A single ck horn grew out of Maou¡¯s head and its wings were much bigger than before. What was a kitten just a day ago, was now a fully grown cat.
Took the expression ¡°They group up so fast¡± way too literally for my liking. It was now a Twilight Hell Cat. How it evolved? ording to Maou, he went on a grind festst night, killing several fanged and horned bunnies before returning.
That said, I did not appreciate Maou littering my floor with corpses. I gave it a stern warning, then ate up the rabbits as breakfast. Unfortunately, [World Eater] started acting up and I was starting to get hungry. I¡¯d have to find something big enough to satisfy meter.
On a side note, I acquired the title [Sessful Parent] since Maou managed to evolve. This title gave me the ability to see the level of satisfaction of any kids I had. Maou¡¯s was at a resounding 100% which I found to be odd since I was mostly avoiding him.
First thing I did was pay Ulva a visit in the dungeons. She wasn¡¯t looking all too well. Probably the result of hiding out in a dungeon for too long. I wasn¡¯t too pleased with her current state so I nned to teleport her to a different ce soon.
For now, she had to endure.
Also, she had gotten a bit stronger now. Sure, her growth rate wasn¡¯t as great as mine, but it was something. Given a month or two, I was certain she¡¯d be a B rank. Arisu too had been learning how to utilise her skills efficiently through fighting with Grimm.
She was also starting to act cutesier like Ulva did. In the end, I was right. Ulva was rubbing off on Arisu.
Later, I checked on the rat men. After a day of ploughing, they hadpletely annihted the once beautiful in. Apparently, there were tons of ores hidden in the ground and so those were taken to the storage house.
These ores varied between Sporons, adamantite and orichalum. There were a few elemental stones in there, but I had no use for them at the moment. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn¡¯t get Mithril, but apparently that could only be found in the Fairy ins. Its variant name was Pixie Dust apparently.
Also, on a side note. Adamantite wasn¡¯t so easy to find in the West. They were usually in the mountains towards the north, so us finding this whole stash was in luck. I now understood why humans were so adamant on harvesting resources from Larm. It was a bundle of treasure sitting down and minding its own business.
The kobold leader and Dulk told me that with their cksmiths they could turn the orichalum and adamantite into some good metal for any use we had. The main issue was the sporon ore of which we derive sporonite. The only people known to be able to use it were the elves and dwarves, so finding so much in the west was unprecedented.
Since we had no idea how exactly to use it for now, it would remain there for a while. Maybe if I raised my [Crafting] skill to a high enough level I¡¯d be able to do so. Even Sylphie was at a loss and she had the blessing of a god of crafts.
After seeing the kind of goods we were getting, I asked Reiman to spare some men to find locations were we¡¯d find good ore. Reiman got about 20 rat men on the job immediately.
During this, Kara asked to see me. It pertained to her sister¡¯s health. She was up and looked better than when Ist saw her. First, she bowed to me, but I didn¡¯t see the need for such gestures. I hit the nail right on the hammer almost immediately.
I was very curious as to what happened in the East. One wouldn¡¯t be wrong for thinking Krull was responsible for that. However, contrary to what I was thinking, the culprit was someone none of us expected.
The story goes like this.
Kara¡¯s older brother, Karon, returned from a training session in the Demise Mountains after receiving word that his father faced a loss. He rushed home immediately only to see that his older sister was about to be killed and the younger one was kidnapped.
The details were a bit fuzzy, but the deal he was presented was either to kill all ogres or to kill just his sister. ording to her, he chose to wipe out the soldiers in a heartbeat, saving his sister instead. One thing I didn¡¯t understand was why that was even a situation in the first ce.
Who in their right mind forces their son to choose between his family and an army of ogres he¡¯d been raised around? I knew Krull wasn¡¯t a really good guy, but he definitely had lots of screws loose.
Anyway, Karon vowed revenge against the beast who caused all these misfortunes (A.K.A me) and then search for his little sister ¨C who was also under my care. Out of nowhere, I was being painted as the bad guy for quite literally being forced to fight.
For some reason, I was getting the feeling that Diane always intended for me to carry arge target on my back when she had me lead the West.
Anyway, Karon set out on a journey to the North to get the help of the tyrant of the North. He was nning tounch a surprise attack on the West with the trolls and orcs. What he most likely didn¡¯t n on was the fact that I had stolen the orcs and kobolds, had the south on my side and could summon a literal army of C-B ranks at any time I so pleased.
His n was going to fail hardly, but there was a chance of it seeding since the North of Larm had several B-rank monsters and a few A ranks. It would take 100 B ranks to take on one A rank, but it wasn¡¯t like I knew how many A ranks the North had at their disposable.
Then there was the tyrant of the North. Third strongest after Minerva and Goliath, clearly not as weak as Krull was. I couldn¡¯t underestimate his power since I myself hadn¡¯t met him yet.
Kara was startled, clearly not expecting that we had to fight against the very forest we were trying to protect. And she felt like apologising to me for the fact that her older brother wasing to antagonise me without checking for actual facts.
I on the other hand didn¡¯t really see this as much of a problem. Reiman and I had been talking and we already had a failsafe for in case the tyrant of the North decided to not help us. We even nned for the case he chose to antagonise us.
Anyhow, I guess it was time I paid a visit to the final tyrant of Larm.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Hinotori collected 25x [Large Sporon Ore]]
[Hinotori collected 50x [Small Adamantite Ore]]<novelnext></novelnext>
[Hinotori collected 50x [Large Orichalum Ore]]
[Hinotori collected several [Elemental Stones]]
FAMILIA
[The child Maou evolved into a Twilight Hell Cat]
[Several goblins evolved into hob-goblins]
[Some timber wolves evolved into Crimson Hounds]
Day 70
The day started out with me waking up to see three fanged bunny corpses on my bed. I red at Maou, but it would seem he wasn¡¯t the cause this time. The culprit was Kawaii trying to act like a cat. I felt a bit thrown off by that and scolded her, but she didn¡¯t seem to be listening.
I went to check on Ulva first thing. She was happy to see me, but was still a bit down. Fortunately, I was here to liberate her from that problem. We were leaving the West on a trip to the North. This time, it was a secret trip so no one else would know that we were gone.
Grimm begged me to let him tag along, so I allowed. He and Ulva had grown a bit close. Also, Arisu came along as well. Turns out she could sniff out ores, so while I would be roaming the North in search of the tyrant, Sora, she would be out searching for locations we could turn into mines.
Maou also managed to sort of tag along. Well, I didn¡¯t want another incident with the little guy causing random discord in the mesh hall. Apparently, there was arge food fight between Zana, Kara, Kawaii and Sylphie and this little guy admitted to being the cause.
I was basically doing this to save the guys from themselves. With no sort of hesitation, [Gods¡¯ Wisdom] created a portal that led to the skies above the North. We had no real idea where Sora lived, so we might as well just start from the top.
Using [Gravity], I slowed down Ulva, Grimm and Arisu¡¯s descent while Maou and I simply flew down. Wended on a portion of the mountain. We were about 1.5 kilometres above the ground now. This mountain was about 3~4 kilometres, so we might be seeing the tyrant of the North at the very top, but to avoid any problems, we¡¯d just carry-on on foot.
Well, I say to avoid any problems, but before we even moved, a wyvern attacked us. I reflexively shot a powerful st of lightning, killing the wyvern easily. Grimm gave me a look like he was scared of me, whereas the others simply shrugged.
I was expecting Ulva to say something like ¡®That was scary¡¯, but she said ¡°Aww, I wanted to try fighting it once¡±. Arisu agreed with her and I was starting to get a bad feeling. At least it was good that Ulva was interested in getting stronger, right?
We travelled the mountain a bit, and eventually we stumbled across a weird creature. It looked like a hedgehog, but shiny with a sort of sticky material escaping its body. The monster ¨C Astagide ¨C jumped up and fled upon seeing us. It scaled the wall using its sticky spikes as some sort of legs, running with insane speed. I normally would have hunted it down, but we all paused due to what we found it eating.
There was a human corpse there. He had some pieces of armour on him. Grimm turned his head away and tried to cover his nose, the scent of blood was starting to drive him mad. I moved us to a new location, rtively far away from the corpse.
When Grimm settled down, he exined that the armour looked like the general armour of a soldier from a tiny nation. The Sundane Kingdom, which was about a month¡¯s trip from there to the North. ording to him, there was no way they should have been able to appear on the North so soon. At least two more weeks were required till we saw anyone from this particr kingdom.
I thought it was possible because of teleportation, but spatial magic users were very rare. And those that did exist were unable to teleport an entire army. Even sending groups of 5 was like hell to them. It also wouldn¡¯t make sense for them to send 5 soldiers per day to survive in the mountains.
We got a bad feeling about this, so I left the others in Grimm¡¯s care and went back to try to see if the human still had a soul. I ate it, receiving an instant level up and permanent rise in stats, as well as his memories.
From what I saw, the sundane kingdom had allied themselves with a powerful group. The group provided teleportation rings that could carry about 50 soldiers at a time to the mountain and they¡¯d been building a fortress around. Though, development merely just begun and it was more like a camp at the moment.
The soldier didn¡¯t have any more details than that. This was merely the result of rumours, but he knew the group to be called The Sub-Circle.
I instinctively thought back to Ulva and the fact that they kidnapped her. I hadn¡¯t given much thought to the organisation originally, but if they were acting up and directly invading Larm, I had more than enough reason to want to crush them.
I returned to the others after sending out a few shadows to keep a close eye on the humans for now. Reiman¡¯s rats were also informed of the secret group of humans here, so they could make sure to avoid them.
We spent the night in a cave that used to be filled with mountain goblins. I say used to, because Ulva and Arisu cleared them out and I burnt all the blood. Maou and Ulva had developed a weird affinity for each other today.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
[Tori went up 1 level]
[Sylphie produced 1 Orichalum Sword]
[Note from Sylphie: Orichalum is really hard¡ it will take forever to actually make something out of these]
FAMILIA
[The captain Taiku evolved into a Kuri]
Chapter 262 Cyclops Village
Day 71
Instead of sleeping like the othersst night, I had my shadows scour the entire mountain from head to toe in an attempt to find the tyrant of the North, or any ce filled to the brim with griffins. They ended up doing so at a the very top of the mountain.
Once I found out, I nned on going alone since the others¡¯ [Cold Resistance] wasn¡¯t as high as my own. I however had a second thought and realised I could use this as an opportunity to force their resistances up greatly.
Grimm on the other hand didn¡¯t seem too interested. I then gave both him and Arisu the task of locating possible orichalum and adamantite mines. Maybe we¡¯d find other useful ores like iron and bauxite. If possible, some mana crystals too. You could never have too much of that.
With that, Maou, Ulva and I set off towards the top of the mountain. With my shadows monitoring the humans, we made sure to avoid running into them. In no time, we got to the peak of the mountain where we met two griffins.
The griffins red at us like we were some sort of intruders. I guess we were, but to avoid any unnecessary conflict, I triedmunicating with them. At first, they were acting all cocky till I used [Dominating Gaze] on them, making them shut up and take me more seriously.
Apparently, the tyrant of the North wasn¡¯t around at the moment. He had taken a trip to the Demise Mountains for some reason. No one was sure, but he¡¯d return in a couple of days. Which meant, we came at a very bad time.
Fortunately, Karon also wouldn¡¯t end up running into the tyrant of the North. The two griffins then took us to their cave, acting all subservient. I asked them to exin to me how things worked in the North. As in the sort of social hierarchy there is.
It went something like this: At the very bottom we had weak creatures like Hignder Goblins, harpies, satyrs and Mud golems. There was arge number of them, but they couldn¡¯t really affect the other monsters much, though the weakest should be able to handle a hob-goblin back in the West. In the middle you have creatures like griffins and manticores.
I was surprised the griffins were in the middle section since the tyrant was a griffin himself. But apparently, things get really messy with those at the very top. Cyclops, Cloud Spirits, wyverns, a few renegade ogres, a number of evolved wyverns and one elusive Mountain God who could only be seen once a year.
Most members of the races at the top were easily B+ in rank and their leaders were all A ¨C in rank. With these numbers, it was surprising someone like Krull could be a tyrant at all. But I guess his fame as a War monger helped out with that greatly.
All of a sudden, using Amethyst as a figure head didn¡¯t seem so bad anymore.
Anyway, there was currently a battle for lord of the mountains. Since Goliath¡¯s death, the tyrant of the North lost whatever it was Goliath blessed him with and was most likely searching for a new means to attain strength in the Demise Mountains.
Wyvern Lords, cyclops leaders and the cloud spirits were trying to control everything. Normally, I¡¯d be quick to rush to the aide of the tyrant, but I also had to consider the fact that he could possibly be meeting with Karon in the Demise Mountains to talk about disrupting the union I was trying to make.
In that case, it was better to gather all the strong creatures of the North and bring them over to my side before the Tyrant of the North figured it out.
The current issue was what angle to tackle this from. There were many possible paths, but choosing the best one was a bit hard. However, in 5 seconds which was the equivalent of 5 hours for my brain, I had acquired my solution.
I was about to act when Grimm sent me a message. They were both in trouble, so I had to go intervene. I left Ulva and Maou with both griffins then went off.
What I found was that Grimm and Arisu ended up stumbling on an actual mine. When I say actual mine, I meant a ce filled with people taking out minerals and actively digging. The main issue was that this mine belonged to cyclops.
The one in charge of cyclops, evidently their leader, had captured both of them with rtive ease and was questioning them. They had no real response to give to him, so I had to act.
The cyclops leader, upon seeing me, threw his pick-axe at me, which I avoided easily. I was a bit shocked that he resorted to violence almost instinctively, but then again, if a giant bird showed up before you, you would probably do the same.
I tried to introduce myself to him, but the cyclops only got angry. All of them turned to re at me. The average level here was B- and they were all raring to have a go at me. I on the other hand had no interest in fighting them so I transformed into my human form and tried to properly introduce myself.
The cyclops leader came forward and introduced himself as Lagerd. He was in charge of the mining done on this part of the mountain. I asked if all cyclops had names and it was the same as every other race. Just the top had a name whilst average guys remained unnamed.
Anyhow, I told him I wanted to speak to the leader of cyclops. ording to him, the cyclopes had 5 different tribes, all of which were united under the strongest cyclops. Their main vige was at the bottom of the mountain. He offered to take me there once they were done with today¡¯s query.
I epted, then exined that both Grimm and Arisu were with me. I hadn¡¯t seen Arisu so agitated in quite a while. The fact that so many people could easily beat her was almost enough to make her cry. I felt kind of bad for her as I could sort of understand that feeling of weakness she was having.<novelnext></novelnext>
In the end, we waited for 6 more hours before they were done. I was about to go fetch Ulva and Maou when both of them came charging down the mountain. It was a surprising sight, especially seeing Ulva riding on the back of a wyvern with Maou.
Turns out, once I left the two griffins were attacked by a flock of wyverns that had been targeting them for quite some time. They would have struck earlier if it wasn¡¯t for my presence warding them off. The moment I left, they struck.
She teamed up with the griffins to fight the wyverns. Even with the griffins, I simply couldn¡¯t understand how Ulva managed to beat the wyverns. She says Maou was there too, but Maou¡¯s stats and skills didn¡¯t allow it to even kill a horse easily. S
No matter how hard I thought, I couldn¡¯t understand how Ulva killed 4 wyverns and even tamed one. Sure, she had levelled up greatly from that, and that was proof that she did kill them, but a fight with 5 wyverns was a death sentence for someone of her stats.
Sure, you could say the griffins did all the fighting, but she ended up levelling up.
In the end, I couldn¡¯te up with any proper solutions.
I asked Ulva why she didn¡¯t call me, but she said she simply wanted to prove that she was useful in her own way so she could walk about once more. It would seem she had the wrong idea for why I was keeping her in the dungeon.
Somehow, I felt guilty for Ulva¡¯s misunderstanding. She asked if she could keep the wyvern as a pet. I looked at it and it cowered before my gaze. It was simply a year old. A child that had been forced to participate in a wyvern killing mission.
I agreed so long as the wyvern wouldn¡¯t prove to be a problem. Once we sorted that out, Lagerd led us down the mountain towards their vige.
When we got there, I was seriously impressed. There was massive wall surrounding their vige with several watch towers at the top posted above. The cyclops themselves were 3 times the size of the average human adult and these gates were at least 4 times as tall as the cyclops.
The gate was opened for us and inside, we saw a well organised city structure in there. Closer to the gate were the barracks, were the warriors lived. Towards the inner part were houses meant for cyclops with upations other than fighting.
The leader of the cyclops stayed at the barracks permanently. Normally, the cyclops performed a barracks rotation, allowing some members to live with their families from time to time.
The state of living was honestly too advanced for simple monsters in my opinion. I was starting to get a feeling that the cyclops leader was a reincarnator just like Unmei, Yokino and I were. I would honestly be happy if that were the case.
We finally got the audience with the cyclops leaderte at night. Ulva, Maou and Arisu were fast asleep, leaving the talking to Grimm and I.
The cyclops leader was a bit hostile towards us at the beginning, but only got friendlier as we discussed more.
During the meeting, I found out that he wasn¡¯t a reincarnator. He simply liked to travel a lot when he was younger and had learned a lot from his visits to the demon country. He liked how well developed they were so tried his best to learn from them and brough those methods back to the North.
Afterwards, it was 2 long years of fighting the leaders of each n just to be their leader and forcefully unite all the cyclopes into one. They began building arge vige and no oneined since Larm¡¯s resources weren¡¯t being used to better ces outside of Larm.
He still had major ns for the future, which made me excited. I told him that I had a simr idea, however the main focus was protecting Larm from humans. He sounded like he had a vendetta against humans, so he was also very interested in my idea.
We ended up spending the night talking about it and before dawn came, I had sessfully gotten the cyclopes on my side. One of the heavy hitters would back me up should Sora agree to Karon¡¯s ns.
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
DUNGEON
[Mana Limit exceeded. The Dungeon Core has awakened]
Chapter 263 The Story Of The Overly Ambitious God
Day 13 days ago
In a run-down vige where
The man in ck armour walked forward silently with heavy footsteps. He held an unconscious creature with grey skin in his arms with care. The vigers all looked at him with keen interest from the safety of their houses, trying their best not to be spot.
Unbeknownst to them, he could see and sense each and every single one of them. Even their thoughts as they looked at him couldn¡¯t be hidden from him. Some wanted to avoid him, some thought he looked strong, some wanted to jump him and steal anything he had.
Insignificant thoughts which he paid no attention to. His main goal was the house that stood alone quite a few ways away from the vige at the top of the hill. He simply needed to pass through the vige to get to it.
There was no problem passing other ces, but that would have taken longer than the amount of time he had.
While going, an old man stopped in front of him. The old man who had forgettable features and carried a cane crumpled on the floor before the ck Knight.
To the knight, this was an odd scene, but one that he would ignore. He passed by the old man dead set on his destination, but then the sound of the old man¡¯s voice entered his ears.
¡°Please forgive us if we have offended you in anyway.¡±
The ck Knight did not stop. The sounds of his heavy footsteps echoed in the dead silent vige.
¡°Lord Fafnir!¡±
The old man screamed the ck Knight¡¯s name, but he did not react to it. It was one he had long thrown away.
¡°Please! This vige has been raided by beasts, human traffickers and bandits! Whenever we cry for help from the guilds, no onees because we are too poor to offer any money. When you and Lady Mo-¡±
For the first time today, the ck Knight spoke.
¡°Do not utter her name.¡±
His voice carried a very powerful threatening aura that made even those who were watching from afar back down. The old man shuddered on the ground, a feeling like the entirety of the world¡¯s weight bearing down on him. But he felt like he needed to continue or the vige would be way beyond saving.
¡°Ever since you left us, Lord Fafnir¡ things haven¡¯t been the same.¡±
The ck Knight continued on his way to his destination without turning back for even a second.
A couple of minutester, the knight arrived before a lonesome house that stood on a hill. This house was worn down with several holes in it and cob-webs stered all around.
The moment he arrived, he dropped the sleeping child down and entered the house. The sound of a fire burning in the chimney entered his ears. Reality distorted before his very eyes as memories of the past mixed in with his current vision.
A happy couple sat down on the chair next to each other. The woman was pregnant and the man had his head to her stomach.
-They¡¯ll be fine children
The man said with a tone so gleeful the ck Knight couldn¡¯t believe it. He passed by the firece towards the dining hall. There, he saw the same couple, except this time there were two others. Children, twins, tinum blonde hair, golden eyes and fierce faces.
The wife had delivered and the children looked very healthy. They were having a family dinner and the children couldn¡¯t stop talking as their parents listened with keen interest and warm smiles on their faces.
The ck Knight passed by it as he heard the sounds of children ying outside the backyard. He opened the door just to find the wife alone sitting down on the porch, looking at the children ying. The wife looked sickly, but still wore a warm expression that expressed her joy.
The husband rushed in through the door, passing through the ck knight. The memory was distorted by the sudden cry of a raging monster.
The ck Knight grimaced, then walked out to the front of the house.
There, he was met with the sight of the child he picked up thrashing about. Her hair moved around like fire and streaks of golden magma could be seen on her skin. Her body still looked grey, but her eyes were nk and golden.
With no control over her body whatsoever, she threw fire balls and punches, as if she was angry at the world. The ck Knight only looked at her with a pitiful expression before getting in very close to her. Before she could react to him, he grabbed her legs and snapped them in half, followed by her arms.
He then dropped her to ground, allowing her to scream in pain as she slowly recovered from the wounds he gave her. An injury like that should have been healed within seconds, but a tiny bit of divine energy was enough to disrupt her normal bodily functions.<novelnext></novelnext>
The ck Knight returned to the house. He could hear the sound of children crying while touching their mother¡¯s sickly body. Down in the basement, he saw the husband on his knees, crying. The bracelets he had sold his soul to acquire, were useless in the end.
-Why couldn¡¯t I save her?
The man agonised on the ground. The question felt directed at the ck Knight, but he too had no answer to it. Rather, he watched as the man faded away and left the bracelets on the ground.
He picked up the bracelet then walked out the house. The child, his granddaughter, was still screaming on the ground.
¡°Stop making so much noise.¡±
He angrily ordered as he put the bracelets on her wrists. She tried biting him, but that didn¡¯t even make a dent in his armour.
Once the bracelets were fixed on, they let out a white glow, then absorbed the fire in the child¡¯s hair. In an instant, she was reverted to her discoloured skin and somewhat normal features. The hob-goblin red at the man who just looked at her with boredom.
She refused to scream anymore and instead just cried on the ground silently.
¡°Humph. You¡¯re quite strong for a second-generation demi-god.¡±
He started talking to her.
¡°Most would have died from being in their [True Elemental State] for too long. Is it due to that [Rage] skill you possess? Or is there another reason you did not die on the trip here.¡±
Genuine curiosity was what the ck Knight felt as he looked at her. Second-generation demi-gods, although stronger than most humans, were still more human than god. The cosmic radiation from activating the skill [True Elemental State] was more than enough to shave off 5 years of their life every 5 minutes they used the skill.
This albino hob-goblin had it on for more than 5 days since their fight, even when she was unconscious. Yet, not once had she shown any signs of dying.
¡°Is it simply because I am stronger than I give myself credit for, or¡ hmm?¡±
He noticed something odd. What was once interest was now a disappointed and somewhat sad frown.
¡°I see. So, you too, have only a few months left now. How unpleasant.¡±
The fallen god slouched back on the walls of the house as he fell to the ground, tired. Not from physical exhaustion. It was more like him giving up any hope at all.
¡°In the end, the once mighty Fafnir family ends with an empty husk and a mistake.¡±
He muttered while looking at the sky. He remained quiet for half an hour, then paid attention to the hob-goblin when she coughed out something. A greenish substance. It was vomit and he looked at the hob-goblin with disbelief.
A wry smile found its way onto his face after he scanned her once more. Then, a spark lit up in his head.
A spark he wanted to quench before it turned into something dangerous. Something so poisonous it would ruin his life. It already did for the past 20 years. It had gued him worse than any sort of disease imaginable, but there was no cure for it.
Finally, the disease was cured. And as soon as it was cured, the disease came back far stronger than ever.
This spark, was hope.
The ck Knight could not stop himself now.
¡°Do you wish to hear a story, child?¡±
The hob-goblin, unable to make any sounds just red at him, but he didn¡¯t take her anger into ount. He continued on with his story.
¡°This is the story of a once mighty dragon who ascended to the heavens. A tale of how one unfortunate dragon aimed too high only to get his wings clipped, his name stolen and his family destroyed.¡±
He made a pause as he looked at the darkening sky. Night approached, as did the stars that nketed it.
¡°The story of the overly ambitious god that tried to touch the sun without permission.¡±
Chapter 264 Sigils
Long ago, in the Era of the Gods, when the continent of Krione had an abundance of Higher Beings living in harmony with its people, there lived beings with a value close to such higher beings.
These beings were the Ascension Dragons. Supposedly the descendants of the world¡¯s first Dragons, the True Dragons. Inherently, each and every single Ascension Dragon was akin to a natural disaster due to their bloodline.
Amongst these Ascension Dragons, the most poprly known was Fafnir, the first and only King of Ascension Dragons. Dragons, being naturally arrogant creatures were mostly never seen flocking in groups of more than 4. This was even more so a fact for Ascension Dragons who saw themselves as the true rulers of the world.
Yet, they were all subdued and made to follow the rules of this one Ascension Dragon, known as the closest to the True Dragons.
Even with this status, the truth of the matter was that there existed beings still stronger than these Ascension Dragons. The Primordial Gods who ruled over Krione for example.
Attaining a seat amongst the Primordials was more than enough to prove that Fafnir truly was one of the greatest gods.
The dragon felt he deserved a seat amongst these great gods, so he rudely demanded a position amongst them. This was the beginning of his downfall.
The lowest ranked Primordial, the Great Dark, took offence in Fafnir¡¯s action, so severely weakened the dragon and banished him to spend the rest of his never-ending life in the flesh of humans, with the mind of a beast.
For decades, Fafnir, now known as a Fallen God, went on a rampage, causing destruction in his very wake. That is, till a renowned S rank adventurer was dispatched to kill him.
In what was supposed to be his end, Fafnir found a new beginning. The adventurer saved his life, helped him regain his senses. Fafnir and this adventurer fell in love and this love birthed twins. Demi-gods. A boy and girl. Their names, Erin and Eren.
This new life was short lived, as a human couldn¡¯t handle being so close to gods for so long. Their power was slowly killing her. In a desperate attempt to save her life, Fafnir sought help from the very beings that caused his descent into madness.
One of the Primordials, heard him out, with the condition of the Fallen God selling his soul. In a heartbeat, Fafnir agreed. His soul was bound to a certain group whom the Primordials owed and every single action of his was going to be decided by this specific primordial.
Unfortunately, it was toote. When he returned, she was dead and her soul had been destroyed with no hope of recovery whatsoever.
His children also died of the most mundane cases, leaving him an empty husk. His only purpose now, to serve the one he sold his soul to.
*
¡°We¡¯re here.¡±
Fafnir¡¯s voice bellowed as he dropped Minerva down on the ground. In front of him, there was a stage made of marble with seven uneven pirs rooted around the stage. These pirs were pearly white and bore several cracks in them.
¡°You see, this fallen dragon god was made to go round collecting certain artefacts. Exactly seven of them.¡±
He walked up to the shortest pir and took out the pouch he had tied to his waist. From within the pouch, a small golden item appeared. Its appearance resembled that of a medal. The form of a cloaked reaper was etched into the medal.
¡°Holy items, seals, artefacts, emblems. Sigils. Several names for these tiny, yet immeasurably powerful items.¡±
The ck Knight raised up the sigil for Minerva to see.
¡°This, the reaper signifies the god who governs over the dead and anything dark. Themmir, the Great Dark.¡±
He scouted the pir for any openings that was the same size as the sigil. Once he discovered it, he shoved the sigil into the pir. The pir glowed with a ck light before dimming down.
¡°That, I acquired in the bowels of hell. Was no easy feat, I promise you.¡±
Slowly, he marched towards the next pir. From his pouch emerged another golden item, but with a different symbol. A woman with three wolves.
¡°The Maiden of the Moon. Also the mother of all lycanthropes. The god who controls the night and its monsters. Ruotl, the Moonlit Goddess. Oddly enough, this was hidden somewhere in the Dourean desert.¡±
He fixed in the sigil and a silver light engulfed the pir. Fafnir moved to the next pir, going in order of ascending size.
The next sigil was a tree that had little creatures surrounding it, alongside a figure sitting and praying to the tree.
¡°Mother Nature. Need I say more about the cruellest of the gods? Haha! I found this in Larm Forest. To think this was hiding inside Goliath¡¯s body. I now see why ¡®he¡¯ put such a curse on me.¡±
Once he ced the sigil in, the pir glowed green. Next, he took out a sigil with a very odd figure on it. It was a person with the torso of a human woman and the tail of a fish, holding a trident in hand.
¡°The most mysterious of all the Primordials, surprisingly. Even I know not much about her. Found this somewhere in the Bewildering Sea.¡±
He wasted no time in fixing the sigil ¨C a blue light glowed- and going to the next one. The new sigil showed a man in thought with the sun above the man.
¡°The Pondering Sun. Some people mistake him for the King of Gods given his intense presence and wisdom. However, he is merely the son of the King. Sol, the Undying Fire, God of the Sun that rains down mana. This was kept in the Red Magic Tower of the demon country.¡±
The pir was swallowed up by mes instead of simple light. The ground shook mightily after this. An earthquake so powerful that even Fafnir couldn¡¯t help but feel some form of difort.
He stumbled back and gulped. There were two more pirs left, but he was getting a bad feeling about this. Before deciding on whether to proceed, he looked at Minerva. She was clearly unhurt and still ring at him.
Seeing that everything was alright, he shrugged then walked to the next pir. He took one of thest two sigils he possessed. An armoured man in a chariot charging at something.
¡°The Flying God of War. Chief Commander of the armies of the heavens and the one who sees everything. Truly worthy of the title, Horizon¡¯s Strongest God of War. I duelled one his subordinates once. It was a good fight, but I clearly wasn¡¯t ready to face him yet. I found this sigil in Ongril¡¯s tower. Amusing, right?¡±
Once he ced the sigil in the pir. Several streaks of lightning shed, thunder boomed and the clouds swarmed, darkening. Harrowing winds screamed as if telling Fafnir not to continue any further and the temperature dropped severely to a barely manageable degree for the residents of the mountain.
Fafnir didn¡¯t really feel the change in temperature, but same couldn¡¯t be said of Minerva who was shivering. This would be the first time in years that she had felt so cold.
The pir crackled with grey lightning and Fafnir shrugged. He had just one final pir left, so he couldn¡¯t wait. He walked quickly and took out thest sigil.
¡°This was supposed to be in the city of clouds, but that ce was razed to the ground by someone. I traced it to somewhere in the south of Larm. Amon vige of beast men had it, can you believe? They wanted to fight me, so I entertained them. Didn¡¯t end too well though.¡±
The headless, robed saint.
¡°With this, Horizon shall open up!¡±
He raised the sigil up with a maniacal grin on his face.
¡°The saint, Messiah, Saviour! King of the Gods, Lord of the First Light! Creator of the World! He who possesses as many names as there are believers. Ovlo, the god of Light.¡±
With the final sigil ced in, the storm settled down. The sky was still darkened due to the clouds upying the sky. However, now all the pirs started to interact with one another. Light spread from one pir to the other, till all of them were touching in one way or the other.
At the centre of the connecting rays of light, one concentrated beam shot out to the heavens, parting the clouds. A shockwave powerful enough to send Fafnir mming into a wall erupted. The ck Knight fell down next to the hob-goblin.
As a higher being, Fafnir was privy to sensing an unnatural rip in the space of any dimension he was in. Unlike teleportation which was simply moving spaces in a single dimension, traversing between dimensions required more power and gave off apletely unnatural feel as such a thing was never supposed to be done in the first ce.
He had done it.
3 decades of tireless searching and he had aplished his goal. Even better, he found a remnant of his once destroyed family.
It was almost enough to make him cry tears of joy.
He sat up and grabbed Minerva, pulling her in closer. He pointed at the stage where a tear in the dimension had been formed.
¡°That, is the gate to Horizon. Very soon, the gods will swarm this realm.¡±
As he spoke, a hand reached out of the gate. However, Fafnir¡¯s face tightened when he took a closer look.
¡°W-What is that?¡±
For the first time in her life, Minerva asked a question shakily out of pure dread. The dragon god dropped Minerva and took out his ymore.<novelnext></novelnext>
The hand ¨C w ¨C wasn¡¯t that of a god. At least not that of the gods of Horizon. Another w popped up through the portal. Both pulled hard, widening the rip.
¡®This isn¡¯t what¡¯s supposed to happen. Wait¡ this energy¡ it¡¯s chaos energy.¡¯
The evil nature of the energy being released from the rift sent Fafnir a trip down memoryne. Still, he wasn¡¯t really concerned.
Certainly, Fafnir was a very confident being. In the past, he assumed he was the strongest there was. Even now, he still thought of himself as the strongest in the mortal world. As he looked at the being escaping through the rift, Fafnir couldn¡¯t help but wonder why the being was so weak.
He dropped his sword, perplexed.
The being escaped from the rift and floated right in front of the rift. Energy shot up from the sigils as they shot out rays of light at the being. The indescribably grotesque creature wailed in pain as it was attacked from all directions.
Fafnir couldn¡¯t help but notice that the amount of chaos energy the being had was being reduced overtime, as was the magic power of the sigils.
"What¡¯s happening? Why are the sigils losing pow- no.¡±
The sigils were trying to eradicate the chaos energy the creature was exuding by using up their reserved Divine energy.
He needed the sigils to be at full power to keep the gate open long enough for at least the top gods to return to the realm.
¡°I have to kill that thing before all the divine energy is used up then.¡±
Fafnir raised his sword once more and got into a stance. He swept his leg back and dug deep into the ground. He took in a deep breath andmanded the mana in the air to gather around his sword. To aplish his goal, he needed to first distort the flow of divine energy.
Unfortunately, divine energy, unlike mana, did not require a medium to work so breaking the space around the being wouldn¡¯t have much benefit. Rather, he would simply need to cancel the very energy.
Divine and Chaos energy worked on the principle of Karma. Negative Karma equalled chaos energy and positive karma equalled Divine energy.
Fallen gods, naturally are supposed to fall under Negative Karma region, but Fafnir was only a fallen god in title. In truth, he was neither positive nor negative. He existed in the neutral space in between both and could never tilt towards one side.
To bypass this one weakness of his, Fafnir would simply dominate his surrounding space with [Dragon God¡¯s Domain], creating a region in which not even Divine and Chaos energy can exist. This was the Fallen Dragon God¡¯s trump card against any other higher being developed over the course of him searching for the sigils.
This caused the [Dragon God¡¯s Domain] to develop a much more powerful variant known as the Ultimate skill [Neutral Domain].
Once the domain was casted, the flow of chaos and divine energy he could once feel had been cut off. In that instant, he thrusted his sword as hard as he could. He had no fear that the stage would be destroyed as it couldn¡¯t even be scratched by the strongest of gods most powerful attacks.
A streak of light cut right through the being¡¯s centre and it let an even more horrendous shriek than before.
Surprisingly enough, the being tore up into seven different parts. These seven parts all glowed with different colours; red, green, orange, violet, yellow, blue, white.
In that instant, Fafnir recognised what that being was.
¡°Shit.¡±
The seven parts were already scrambling in different directions. Quickly, he threw his sword at one of the seven parts, stabbing it into the ground and leaving the others to go away, unharmed.
¡°That¡ was unexpected.¡±
He walked up the part that was screaming on the ground and scratched his head while thinking about what to do with it. It was drastically weakened, but still impossible for him to destroy.
¡°FAFNIR!¡±
A voice boomed from seemingly nowhere. The dragon god let out a depressed sigh, knowing who it was. He turned around and, in his shadow, a pair of eyes were ring at him.
¡°Primordia-¡±
¡°You were not supposed to activate the gate before the decided date, so exin to me why I felt more than half of my power disappear!?¡±
¡®Oh?¡¯
This was news to Fafnir. He didn¡¯t expect to hear that opening the gate would weaken the god.
¡®Does it have something to do with the sigil?¡¯
He was only informed that the Primordials kept a portion of their power in the sigils in order to be able to still interact with the mortal realm, but if opening it was enough to cause them to lose about half of their power, then maybe¡
¡°Exin yourself!¡±
¡°Sorry. I thought if I did this ear-¡±
¡°When you thought you could join the ranks of us Primordials, what happened?¡±
¡
¡°What happened?¡±
¡
¡°Answer me!¡±
¡°I fell from grace.¡±
¡°When you thought you could get a mortal family to rece your original family, what happened?¡±
¡
¡°Do not make me repeat myself.¡±
¡°I lost them.¡±
¡°Now listen here, I don¡¯t know how your brain functions, but clearly, when you think it never goes well. I am warning you for thest time. If you dare try to improvise on my orders, I will make you regret it. Is that understood?¡±
¡°Yes¡¡±
Fafnir went down on one knee and bowed his head.
¡°Theet should be arriving in about 3 months. The hero has caught wind of this and wille here to stop you from aplishing this goal. Your mission is to make sure he fails at that task and that the gods sessfully descend. Is that clear?¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
With that, his shadow returned to normal.
<A/N: Hey guys, it''s been a while. Sadly, I''m not going to be writing for another month. I feel like I haven''t really done this story any justice considering the kind of reactions I''ve gotten.
Ok, let me rephrase, I''m going to be writing a lot in the next month, I just won''t be releasing next month. Going forward, I want my work to only be released after going through intense scrutiny. That means less grammatical errors, a more cohesive story and less chapters that feel "useless". For this reason, please excuse me to another month.
Also, secondary reason: My brain died after exams, Imma need to recover. Later!>
Chapter 265 Greed Pt.I
Day 72
I received good news. My dungeon core had awakened, meaning it now had a conscience. One that I could talk to. I was so happy, but decided to put that off for after I had finished this current mission.
When morning came, the cyclops leader decided to gift us with a breakfast buffet of all sorts of cyclops delicacies. It came as a surprise that he could have so much food prepared as soon as he requested for it.
Turns out one thing the cyclops valued more than the minerals they mined was food. They had several stalls with chefs, providing enough food for every single one of the vigers. The mining was simply a means to make a wide array of items ranging from armour, to weapons to even bolts and nuts.
This is a secret and he didn¡¯t even tell me, but when I read his mind, it turns out that he had been selling some resources to the demons behind everyone¡¯s back. In exchange, the demons would provide him with sea food from their ports and some of the demonic beasts that roam theirnds.
He really was the chatty type up in his head, but fortunately he didn¡¯t know that I could read minds. At least, now I knew the best way to ensure we remained allies was through food. However, the location of the West didn¡¯t allow me to provide the kind of food he was looking for. Unless¡
Anyway, he boasted of how excellent his chefs were so we spent a good while eating. I think I regretted that decision a lot, as it was the first time I¡¯d eaten till my hunger disappeared. That only meant I¡¯d need more food the next to satiate myself.
Afterwards, I requested to see the smithy and how they worked. He wasn¡¯t too keen on showing it to me since I had nothing of equal value to offer to him. Our onlymon ground was the fact that we wanted to keep our people safe from those who would do harm.
So rather than rushing things and creating a new enemy, I asked for the location of the wyverns. There were apparently 5 tribes of wyverns all around the mountain, but they answered to the King of wyverns who lived at the top. Rtively close to the griffin tyrant¡¯s abode.
If we wanted an alliance, we needed to talk to him and no one else. However, he was sort of a tricky opponent. It¡¯s been quite literally a decade since anyonest saw him, but we were well aware of his presence in the North.
The wyverns kept a strict status quo that was unmatched and by all rights, he should have been the one the chose as tyrant of the North. Take away the tyrants, and without a doubt, he was the strongest creature in Larm. So now that Goliath was gone, seemed like the best time for him to take over.
With the way the wyverns had been quiet, there was a high chance he was nning something against Sora. If that was the case, we needed to be in on it.
I called for Ulva¡¯s wyvern. She named it Dharm. That took quite a bit of mana from her, but he was registered as a servant once that was done. It would seem that if a family member recruited someone, they¡¯d be a servant rather than a minion and they¡¯remanding officer was of course, the one who made them their servant.
Dharm belonged to one of the lesser wyvern tribes. They were weak individually, so they all flew in packs whenever hunting. However, they still ended up losing to Ulva and the griffins. Dharm waspletely overwhelmed by the intense might she showed and decided to beg for his life when all hisrades were killed.
I can¡¯t say I really liked his character. Watching his closest friends die and begging to live at the end of the day. It reminded me of¡ well, me.
Now those are some depressing thoughts.
Back to the matter at hand, Dharm knew where the Wyvern king was. As a matter of fact, every single wyvern knew where the king was. They simply wouldn¡¯t ever try going there since there was a nasty rumour flying about that the wyvern king eats other wyverns.
If that was truly the case, we had a theory that this wyvern king wasn¡¯t actually a wyvern. The reason no one had seen him in over a decade was most likely due to him evolving into something that wasn¡¯t really a wyvern. But if that was the case, it still wasn¡¯t a good enough reason for him to note out of the shadows.
Maybe he was scared the wyverns wouldn¡¯t follow him for not being a wyvern? Maybe there was something keeping him at the top of the mountain? I wouldn¡¯t know till I actually saw for myself.
I ordered for Dharm to take me to the wyvern king. He told me he wouldn¡¯t take orders from anyone but Ulva and when I read his mind, it was obvious he was trying to use her as some sort of shield seeing how I adored her.
To use his shield against him, I had Ulva make him do as I say. She happily obliged, that is if I let her go along with me. She was still going on about making herself useful to me, but there was nothing for her to prove. She didn¡¯t seem to understand that and it was starting to get annoying.
I could have shadows scout the entire mountain, but that would take longer than it needed to. In the end, I agreed to her terms. I originally wanted to set off that very moment, but Ulva, Arisu and Maou were having fun exploring the vige. It was so advanced and far apart from the West that they couldn¡¯t help but be excited by everything.
In the end, I caved to their wishes. I mean, it¡¯s not like missing just one day would change anything, right?
DAILY ACHIEVEMENTS
Day 73
Early in the morning, Julian requested for Maou. He wanted to begin the kitten¡¯s training as early as possible for him to take over in the next 6 months.
Maou didn¡¯t want to, but I had no real purpose for him on this trip, so I threw him at Julian.
We moved out immediately, leaving only Grimm behind since he didn¡¯t want to go through the cold areas again.
I was starting to see Grimm as a walking contradiction. He hated oppressive viins, yet worked with Percy McAllister and the sub-circle. He hated the cold, but his affinity was cold. He imed to that he didn¡¯t really care about anything but himself, but I heard he¡¯s been trying his hardest to make friends with everyone back in the West.
Even now, that he said he wasn¡¯t interested in following us, I could sense him trailing behind us from where he assumed was out of my range. 120 metres from us. I don¡¯t know when he found that limit, but it would seem he was much keener than I¡¯d expected.
Unfortunately for him, with my indirect lordship over Larm and title of one of the kings of Larm, my powers whenever I was in Larm had been boosted drastically. I could sense everything within 1 kilometre of where I was.
Luckily the headaches that came with that were handled by the agent. If there was anything dangerous, I would be informed.
It took a while, but we got to a point on the mountain. There was a path leading up, that seemed to have been unnaturally made. It was as if a dragon burnt up a path, which meant we were on the right way.<novelnext></novelnext>
Dharm said that was as far as he could go. I couldn¡¯t me him too, because the moment I crossed the line he drew, there was a heavy pressure surrounding the area. It didn¡¯t really cause any effects to me since I¡¯d faced much more terrifying enemies, but it was still there.
I looked at the wyvern that was about to piss its pants and ordered him to take Ulva back. She was enraged by my sudden ¡°betrayal¡±, but Iughed it off and her wyvern took her flying. With that, I set off toward the top with Arisu alone.
Grimm had stopped before the line and was just standing there. I didn¡¯t know if he was going to follow us or Ulva, but whatever choice he made didn¡¯t really change things for me.
After that, it was a few minutes of flying with Arisu on my back before we arrived at a ce that had several wyvern bones and burnt leather.
The sound of flesh being ripped apart filled my ears as I descended. A small figure was crouching, apparently eating. They threw a big bone far away and kept eating. They were naked and skinny to the point their bones were ufortably visible.
Arisu¡¯s ears perked up the moment wended about 50 feet from the figure. She was shivering and her mind was screaming ¡°Run!¡±. If it wasn¡¯t for the fact that I was here, I was certain she¡¯d be speeding down the mountain at light speed.
Even I took a gulp as it had somehow evaded my earlier scans of the area.
¡°Power. Food. Hungry. Need more. Power. Power. Power. Power. Power. Hungry. Hungry. Greed. Hungry. Need. More. Hungry. Power. Power. Hungry. Need. More. Need. Power. Hungry. Hungry. Food. Food. Gold. Power. Power. Power. Power. Power. Power.¡±
It muttered such things. What I found interesting was its yellow skin and the golden chains that bound its wrist and legs.
Even then, the scariest part about this entire situation was the corpse.
[Name: Mandrake]
[Species: Great Fire Drake King]
[Status: Dead]
[A king among the powerful lesser dragon species, Drake. They are rare, but a Great Fire Drake King is capable of matching a dragon youngling in terms of fire power. Their scales are one of the hardest known materials and used in forging legendary armour. Their fire breath melts rock and they are said to be so powerful their aura spreads for arge distance, warding off weaker creatures.]
That was the corpse of the original wyvern king.
And, no matter how hard I tried to scan this new presence, all I got was
[Error! Error!]
This, was possibly the first time I¡¯d ever received an error of this level from scanning something.
¡®Arisu. I¡¯m going to teleport us out of here. Just don¡¯t freak out. It seems to not have noticed us.¡¯
As soon as I said that, our shadows swallowed both of us up in an instant. Our next destination was the cyclops vige where Ulva was currently headed to.
At least, that was what I thought, till when I was spat out in front of the yellow person.
¡°Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.¡±
It appeared in front of my face and red into my eyes with its yellow eyes, muttering ¡°mine¡± over and over again. To my side, Arisu had been wrapped up in their golden chain and was hanging above my head.
¡°Ever heard of personal space!?¡±
I kicked the yellow person as hard as I could, while also shooting a thread for Arisu in an attempt to bring her back to my side. That was a failure though and yellow man skidded to a stop.
He looked at me and started screaming.
¡°Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Power! Hunger! Gold! Gold! Power!¡±
He wed his face, and his power exploded while he threw what I presumed to be a tantrum. The energy he was releasing reminded me of Daxia¡¯s chaos energy, but weaker. Somewhat diluted, but still terrifying nheless.
But in a sense, he was scarier than Daxia because of how unhinged he was. Still, with chaos energy that weak, I couldn¡¯t be scared or Daxia would be disappointed.
I drew my sword and pointed it at the yellow man.
¡°I guess I¡¯ll call you Mine then, since that¡¯s all you shout. Return the loli, or face my steel.¡±
Chapter 266 Greed Pt.II
¡®We shouldn¡¯t be here. Your sister said we should go back to the cyclops.¡¯
Dharm thought while looking at Ulva. Obviously, the little girl couldn¡¯t understand his thoughts, but he felt he could still warn her.
They both stood in front of the entrance to the Wyvern King¡¯s territory, looking at the line Dharm drew earlier to show them where not to cross. The girl ¨C his captor ¨C was ring at him while pouting, but he still refused to budge even a single inch.
There was the possibility of her attempting to kill him, but anything was better than facing the Wyvern king. Most humanoids, didn¡¯t know this since their species didn¡¯t have as strict a hierarchy as monsters, but once a monsteres face to face with a king, they are renderedpletely useless.
Unless the monster itself was odd, it wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything else other than obey. And here lied the case where this ¡°king¡± lorded over other kings. Under normal circumstances, this monster would be crowned a Kaiser monster.
To Dharm, who was the merely the lowliest of the low, entering a Kaiser¡¯s territory was a death sentence. The girl, Ulva, was stronger than him for sure, but she had no chance against a kaiser.
The only reason he listened was because the girl¡¯s sister was clearly in a league of her own. The confidence with which she ordered those around her, the absolute certainty in her voice and her eyes. Her spine chilling, mind boggling, breath stealing eyes said it all.
She was a dragon. Most likely a youngling. They were prideful creatures, but had all right to be so. Even Wyvern kings were nothing in the face of a Dragon Youngling. But there was a rumour going about the wyverns.
The kaiser was no longer a wyvern. That made the most sense, as there had never been a wyvern race higher than a wyvern king. In that case, the wyvern kaiser had evolved into something else. No one knew. No one except the kings, that is, but even they refused to speak on the matter entirely.
¡°Come on, Dharm. We need to prove our usefulness to big sis or we¡¯ll be kicked out.¡±
Sheined in a whiny voice. Dharm looked at her and shook hisrge head. He was grateful to her for giving him a name and all, but there was no way he was risking his life for her. Especially not after shepletely eliminated his friends.
In truth, wyverns didn¡¯t see one another as friends. Mostly a means to an end. This was especially true of Wallcrawler Wyverns. They weren¡¯t the strongest, or smartest or thergest. In fact, all they had going for them was speed and they couldn¡¯t even fly for too long like the others.
So, they grouped up, fought in packs to conquerrge prey then share. Dharm and his group thought they stumbled upon dinner, but ended up being dinner instead.
Who would have thought this cute, frail-looking child was actually a monster. Dharm nearly pissed himself when he thought about how blood-crazed she was earlier.
Still, he preferred facing her to the kaiser.
¡°Dharm, if you don¡¯t take me up the mountain, I¡¯ll cut you down.¡±
As she said that, the crest on her hand glowed blood red and an onyx ck scythe formed up in her hand. He recognised that as the weapon that cut through his allies¡¯ leather scales like a hot knife through butter.
She ced the tip on his forehead, threatening him. Dharm gulped and slowly shook his head.
¡°Ugh,e on. What¡¯s it going to take ya?¡±
She withdrew her weapon and sighed, as did Dharm. For a split second, he thought he really was about to lose his life.
¡°What? You think you can convince him?¡±
Just as he was thinking he was in the clear, the little girl started to mutter to herself. Something about the situation caused his heart to drop. He was about to bow his head down once more, but then a shadow loomed over him.
The sound of heavy pping reverberated through the air as another shadow loomed over both of them. Ulva looked up, but Dharm reflexively lowered his gaze. He should have been able to sense their presence a mile away, yet it was only when their shadow was above him could he tell. Why?
The originators of both shadows descended next to the duo, causing a powerful gust. Ulva had to block against it, but Dharm merely tried walking back.
¡°What¡¯s a pathetic wallcrawler doing here?¡±
One of the new members asked.
¡°With a human no less.¡±
The other added while ring at Ulva. Dharm didn¡¯t need to lift his head to know who were addressing him. Two of the wyvern kings.
¡°Speak.¡±
They ordered and Dharm gulped. He mustn¡¯t act rude in front of a king.
¡°I-I was hunting her down w-when she ended up h-here. I s-shall leav-¡±
¡°Oh, are these your friends, Dharm?¡±
Ulva noticed that they were having a conversation even though she couldn¡¯t understand them.
¡°Dharm? You, a weakling, possess a name?¡±
One of the wyvern lords red at him. Dharm couldn¡¯t respond and his vision fell to the ground.
¡°He¡¯s been tamed by a human. How pathetic.¡±
¡°At least, he can be a light snack for Mandrake.¡±
¡°Eek!¡±
At the prospect of him being sacrificed to the wyvern kaiser, Dharm shrieked and backed up. They were going to kill him simply because they were jealous of the fact that he had a name.
He could try to run away right now, but they¡¯d only catch up to him eventually. They were stronger and bigger and the only way he could escape was if he had a distraction.
¡°I don¡¯t understand what¡¯s going on, but you made Dharm scared. I don¡¯t like it when someone makes my friends scared.¡±
A distraction presented itself in the form of a young child with dark and white hair. Her scythe stabbed the ground and even from behind the mask she wore, the blood lust her face radiated was undeniably visible.
This was Dharm¡¯s chance to run. He slowly took some steps back as Ulva marched forward, spinning her scythe around.
¡°Insolent brat!¡±
One of the wyverns who felt insulted by Ulva¡¯s bold actions raged. He opened his maw to let out a red-hot-mes at the girl and that was when Dharm turned around to run at full speed.
¡°Where do you think you¡¯re going?¡±
The other wyvern king questioned, freezing Dharm in his steps. The little wyvern turned about and shook his head.
¡°If you move, I will eat you myself. Now watch as your master burns.¡±
With that warning, Dharm stood still. He turned about and looked at Ulva¡¯s fight against the wyvern king, paralysed with fear.
The girl, Ulva had dodged the fire breath and was already closing the distance between her and the wyvern king. He swung his tail at her but she merely jumped to avoid it and was hit by the wyvern¡¯s wing instead.
The king turned around sluggishly and fired another breath attack at her, but the girl had already recovered and was on the move once again. She shot ice daggers at the wyvern king, but all of these things were useless as they couldn¡¯t even prate his iron hard scales.
The wyvern red at her then jumped at her with a speed so frightening for a creature its size, she was caught off guard. His ws came down with the intent to kill and smashed down into the ground, almost catching her.<novelnext></novelnext>
However, it missed by an inch. The shockwave of the attack however, was strong enough to send her flying. She hit the chest of the wyvern then fell to the ground with a thud.
Dharm knew she was no match for the wyvern kings. There was a reason they lorded over the mountains. Right now, all he could do was simply watch her as she struggled.
That is, till his eyes crossed path with hers. A small part of her mask had been broken, revealing her blood red eyes. She was looking at him, evidently asking for help.
Dharm chose to ignore this and look at the wyvern king. The wyvern king hadn¡¯t used any of his skills in this fight, yet he hadpletely overwhelmed her with raw strength and speed.
The girl struggled to get up, but from the looks of it, something in her body was broken. He wasn¡¯t sure, but he knew that if she continued something bad would happen. Still, he couldn¡¯t interfere.
She rolled over to avoid the next stomp, this time she was right under the wyvern king¡¯s belly. She took out a purple vial from nowhere, then drank it. As soon as she did that, it seemed like she received strength from nowhere.
Her scythe went swinging, piercing through the wyvern king¡¯s under belly. Dharm¡¯s eyes widened in shock. It was a turn around he hadn¡¯t seening.
If she managed to actually get his heart, then she¡¯d win this, no?
At least, that was what he thought, but the scythe wouldn¡¯t move no matter how much she struggled. The stabbed wyvern king looked down at her quizzically thenughed. He grabbed her then threw her away, clearly unfazed by his wound.
¡°If striking my underbelly was the way to kill me, I¡¯d have been dead ages ago.¡±
He boasted then marched towards her as sheid on the ground, almost unconscious. Dharm looked away from the scene, aware of what was going to happen to her. It¡¯s not that he cared about her, it was more like a reminder of what was about to happen to him so he didn¡¯t want to see.
¡°Even Krollos didn¡¯te out to fight? I guess no matter what she did, she wouldn¡¯t have been able to beat the wyvern. Saves me the trouble when I¡¯m teaching her from now on, I guess.¡±
A new human voice spoke. When he opened his eyes, standing his side with crossed arms and an annoyed expression, it was the man dressed in all ck called Grimm.
¡®W-When did he-?!¡¯
¡°Sorry, that¡¯s a weird thing to say when your student is about to die. It¡¯s just that she¡¯s been craving battle but doesn¡¯t want to learn anything about magic or actual fighting techniques, so I thought this fight would knock her down a peg or two.¡±
¡®What¡¯s he talking about?¡¯
The other wyvern king finally noticed Grimm¡¯s presence and roared at him.
¡°But¡ I don¡¯t think I can take on two wyverns easily. I¡¯ll be counting on you.¡±
As Grimm said this, he walked forward, chanting something. He drew two daggers from his pocket. The atmosphere turned ice cold and Dharm could feel himself getting sluggish.
If there was one thing Dharm gathered from that, it was Grimm wasn¡¯t asking. It was an order given with all seriousness. Grimm, would kill him if he didn¡¯t obey. The wyverns were going to feed him to the wyvern kaiser. Ulva would kill him if she survived this and her sister would kill him for bringing her back.
It all ended with death for Dharm.
So what was he going to do about it?
___________________
¡°Hand over the loli.¡±
I requested, but the yellow man just kept muttering to himself. In this situation, I didn¡¯t want to attack first since I knew absolutely nothing about him, but from the looks of things he wasn¡¯t going to strike first.
I took in a big gulp and steeled myself for the sh. In a split second, I charged right at him then shed. Surprisingly enough, my attack actuallynded on his arm. Unsurprisingly, it didn¡¯t cause significant damage.
Rather, the moment I cut him, he tried to bite me. Abandoning my sword to save myself, I tried to go around and grab Arisu from the chain, but she only grunted in pain when I tried to move her.
Mine was already on the attack after that and he tried to sh at me with his sharp ws. A shadow fiend appeared before me, tanking the blow for me and giving me the chance to test out something Kira came up with.
Sure, I couldn¡¯t see his stats, but if I used [Skill Alchemy], I could probably perform a randombination that made his skills useless.
I activated it and worked as fast as I could with the shadow fiend keeping the yellow man down using all sorts of barbaric attacks. We worked as fast as we could, but that backfired on us instead.
[An external force is affecting theposition of your skills]
[The skill [Climbing] has been converted to [Walking]]
[The skill [Undying] has been deactivated]
[The skill [Relentless] cannot be found]
[The skill [Evasion] has been downgraded to [Dodging]]
¡®WHAT!?¡¯
¡®How!?¡¯
¡®I-Is he u-using some s-skill against us!?¡¯
¡®It¡¯s so efficient!¡¯
<<He¡¯s using the skill [Skill Alchemy] against us>>
¡®Using our skill against us?¡¯
¡®How?¡¯
¡®He can steal skills?¡¯
¡®Or borrow them?¡¯
¡®T-That¡¯s just like Remorse.¡¯
¡®Well two can y at this ga-¡®
<<That is unadvisable as we do not know what kind of skills he possesses. And considering you both have a simr skill and his can affect you, that would mean it¡¯s of a higher value than yours>>
¡®Of a higher value?¡¯
¡®Remorse is a unique skill!¡¯
¡®The only thing that is higher than that is¡¡¯
¡®A-an U-U-U-Ultimate skill!¡¯
Chapter 267 Greed Pt.III
The demon fiend ferociously wed at Mine¡¯s face, but this only ended with him being blown away from the mountain. I was shocked by the amount of brute strength Mine disyed, but I kept my focus on the chains.
I used [Death w] on them, powered by 1000 MP in [Mithril Body] that boosted my stats to the level of a dragon king, but even then, the attack failed and Mine used my very own attack on me.
He however missed by a hair¡¯s breadth since I still had the [Dodge] skill. Arisu on the other hand wasn¡¯t so luck and got shed across the face. She let out a painful cry as tears and blood flowed down her face violently.
The sight of her being in so much pain would normally invoke a certain form of anger within me, but honestly, I was happy that it wasn¡¯t me who got attacked by that. Unfortunately, in her pain and wrath, Arisu also fired off an attack.
A beam of pink light aimed at Mine¡¯s head. Whether she intended for the attack to hit him or not, I honestly couldn¡¯t tell since she was moving her head about in an aggressive manner. The attack hit the yellow man directly, digging a him deep into the ground, but soon, Arisu¡¯s beam went about attacking the surrounding without care.
I activated [Damage Absorber] and took the hit on directly whenever it came my way. From what had been calcted by the agent, I could take that kind of damage and recover within a couple of minutes.
[You have lost 1000 health point]
[You have lost 995 health points]
[You have lost 1013 health points]
[You have lost 980 health points]
Once I deemed the damage sufficient, I jumped out of the way and chose to close the gap between us. In this situation, I was confident that I was far stronger than my opponent, but his ability to copy my skills put me at a disadvantage.
Which meant, I had to free Arisu from his binds so I could attempt to end him in a one-hit move. When I got close enough to hit him, he threw Arisu right in my face, causing me to hold back my punch.
With that split second opening, he grabbed my abdomen with both arms and squeezed as hard as he could. The idea here was probably to crush me and cause some internal bleeding which was more lethal than external attacks, but his mistake was that he didn¡¯t know that I could simply increase my defence with [Mithril Body] and [Iron Fortress].
I took the chance to grab his arm and transfer 200% of the damage Arisu hit me with to him using [Damage Counter], [High Force Impact] and [Destroy].
His hands were instantly obliterated and a golden substance poured out of it like water through a pipe. Unlike what I expected, he didn¡¯t react to having lost both hands. Rather, he opened his mouth wide and tried to bite my neck off.
I widened the distance between us in an instant, going about 10 metres back. That was when I noticed that he wasn¡¯t trying to bite me. His target was Arisu who he had already captured.
With the way things were looking, even I wouldn¡¯t be able to close the gap between us before he bit her head off. We scrolled through dozens of possible solutions then one came to mind quickly.
Some days back, I was given some gifts for surviving one month in this world. I had no use for most of those gifts, but now I had use for one of them.
Quickly, I withdrew the [Null Field Orb] and activated it. Mine¡¯s fangs stopped on Arisu¡¯s neck, like a toothpick against an iron wall.
Confused, Mine tried to bite her neck once more, but it couldn¡¯t even cause a mark on Arisu¡¯s wless skin. A smirk found its way on my face as my n worked perfectly.
¡®Huh, it was this easy?¡¯
¡®I¡¯ve got the new skill ready.¡¯
[You bought [Soul Maimer] for 400 store points]
With this, I charged at Mine once more. He raised both freshly regenerated arms to defend against the attack, but my ws passed through and shed right across his chest, making him scream in immense pain.
Still, he didn¡¯t drop Arisu. If anything, the chain only grew tighter around her, making her grunt. This wasn¡¯t for long however as he countered with a punch to my face which I couldn¡¯t even feel.
Amused by the turn of events, I started to sh at him rapidly with no sort of remorse. Then he summoned a shadow fiend that stopped in its tracks the moment it recognised me as its enemy.
From the looks of things, shadows are incapable of fighting against me. Most likely due to my peculiar position. Did the Queen of Shadows really favour me that much?
That wasn¡¯t what was important now. I continued my merciless onught at his soul and whenever he tried to put Arisu in front of him, I easily moved behind him to continue attacking. He tried a chaos energy burst, but I simply absorbed that and converted it to mana to increase my dexterity and speed to ensure I could avoid Arisu no matter how tiny the gap was.
He had no real way of countering, but that didn¡¯t mean he wouldn¡¯t figure out what I was doing soon.
However, now that he had rendered [Relentless] and [Undying] ineffective, it was the first time in a while I actually acknowledged the kind of stamina drain using skills took.
Unique skills took certain things to be used, but [Energy Transcriber] took stamina and apparently quite a bit of mental pain tolerance, both of which I had a lot to spare. But with THE rapidity with which I was dodging, using mana and shing, the stamina drain became somewhat noticeable.
For some reason, no mater how much I shed at his soul, my attack wouldn¡¯t work. All that happened was that he screamed in pain and tried to counter, but it never worked. Angry, I increased my frequency, but it was to no avail.
¡®It¡¯s like his soul is immortal.¡¯
¡®That can¡¯t be the case. No matter how great a soul, it shouldn¡¯t be immortal!¡¯
¡®W-What m-makes you say that?¡¯
¡®The very fact that there are skills designed to kill souls in the first ce. And remember that the Necromancer burnt through all the souls in her orb to power up?¡¯
They all gave somewhat correct answers, but if souls weren¡¯t immortal, why the heck wasn¡¯t he dead yet? I¡¯ve shed at him for 5 minutes straight, yet he was still alive.
Seeing that nothing was working, I decided to withdraw to a safe distance.
¡®Agent?¡¯
<<I¡¯m still investigating. However, he most likely possesses some sort of soul protecting ability>>
¡®You think Soul Armour can protect me for as long as his skill did?¡¯
<<No. You would have been dead by the first minute>>
That confirms that either my attacks simply weren¡¯t doing any damage or he had a stronger soul protecting skill. Either way, taking away the ability to cause physical damage had put me in an even tighter spot, especially since he could possibly copy [Soul Maimer] at any point.
¡®Wait, it¡¯s been quite a while.¡¯
¡®Why hasn¡¯t he copied [Soul Maimer]?¡¯
¡®D-Does his skill h-have a cooldown?¡¯
¡®Or copy limit?¡¯
It was odd, but if that was the case, I could attack him without reservation before the 10 minutes were up. Something about this revtion put my heart at ease. As if a huge burden had been lifted off my shoulders.
Again, I closed the gap between us and brought my ws in for a sweet murder, but what I got was a w to my stomach. And one that hurt like hell. One that shouldn¡¯t have hurt due to [Pain Nullification] and [Pain Resistance], but it did.
¡°Ow! Ow! Ow! That hurts! That really hurts! Goddamn it!¡±
I fell back and rolled around the ground. I hadn¡¯t felt this kind of pain in quite some time and I wasn¡¯t used to it, neither did I n to ever get used to it.
While crying in pain on the ground, I saw Mine smiling viciously at me. Was he holding back this entire time so I wouldn¡¯t suspect him then he could strike at thest moment? That¡¯s a vile y.
He brought his ws down on me, but I moved out of the way. Mine was hot on my tail though and started to attack like a wild beast without any form of mercy. I attempted to restrain him using shackles made of ice, but he used his chain to smash right through them.<novelnext></novelnext>
I tried blinding him, but light didn¡¯t seem to affect his cognitive ability. [Paralysing Vomit], [Dragon Elemental Breath], [Bubble Space] and [Space Istion]. Nothing seemed to work on him as he would simply power through all of them with little to no side effects.
With [Mithril Body] I had increased my speed so the best I could do was dodge, but even then he was gaining ground on me.
¡®Let¡¯s try this!¡¯
Akira suggested [Dark Mirror]. We activated the skill for barely a second and my head almost exploded.
[Dark Mirror] was a skill that made me half of what the creature I was scanning was. This included physical attributes and thought processes. This bastard¡¯s mind was clouded with greed.
He simply kept mumbling Mine, Power, Hungry, Wealth, in the most annoying manner ever. I was wondering why I couldn¡¯t read his mind, but now I was happy that I couldn¡¯t.
The skill was deactivated quickly, but that split second was more than enough time for Mine tond his second attack. My body exploded with unrealistic pain as I crumpled to the floor, tears streaking down my face and saliva drooling from my mouth.
He jumped in to finish the job, but the shadow fiend he summoned earlier jumped in the way, taking the attack and allowing me to recover.
In the end, using soul attacks became my worst possible idea. Still, that was the only way to beat him.
¡®Come on, guys. We need more solutions!¡¯
¡®It¡¯s not that easy when even soul-destroying skills barely cause him to flinch.¡¯
¡®I-Is it p-possible that w-we¡¯re going about this in the w-wrong way?¡¯
¡®What do you mean?¡¯
Before Akkun could give his suggestion, Arisu¡¯s pained cry echoed through the virtually empty mountain. He was reminding us that he still had Arisu as a captive.
This was getting annoying since that proved that he could think. Yet when I tried to learn his thought process, it was like a rabid animal. There¡¯s no way a rabid animal was smart enough to even taunt me like this, right? Especially with those unbreakable chains that followmands of his.
¡®Chains that followmands of his¡ It¡¯s hard, but definitely not a soul weapon.¡¯
Unlike Ulva¡¯s soul weapon or the others I had collected, I couldn¡¯t see a shadow behind the soul weapon which meant the chain clearly wasn¡¯t sentient.
¡®What is it, Tori?¡¯
¡®Akkun is right. We¡¯ve been trying to break the chains this entire time, but what if we went after the skill that allows him to control the chains in the first ce?¡¯
¡®Oh?¡¯
¡®Yeah, once we figure out what skill it is that¡¯s controlling the chain-¡®
¡®Guys!¡¯
Akkun yelled at us, clearly frustrated by something.
¡®What is it?¡¯
¡®Uuh, um, what if the chain isn¡¯t an item, but a skill?¡¯
¡®That¡¯s insa- hmm, that could work, honestly.¡¯
We changed our tune immediately the moment Akkun suggested this. It actually made the rest of us feel stupid for not thinking about it earlier. Then again, Akkun was us and we were Akkun so on a technicality, we thought about this.
¡®You got any other thoughts?¡¯
¡®Um, I¡¯m not sure about it.¡¯
¡®Eh? Just say it. It¡¯s not like we¡¯dugh at you.¡¯
¡®O-Okay. W-What if M-Mine was actually a s-skill and n-not a person. I-It would exin w-why the sy-system failed to rec-cognise him earlier.¡¯
¡
¡®You¡¯re really dumb, aren¡¯t you?¡¯
¡®Hahaha!¡¯
¡®That was a nice one.¡¯
We ended up mocking him and his face turned red.
Either way, I realised I had been going about this whole scenario wrongly. With the way the chains were and the fact that I couldn¡¯t scan them, Akkun could be entirely right.
If that was the case, then I had a possible way to beat him.
¡®Guys!¡¯
¡®Understood!¡¯
¡®U-uwa! This is scary!¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t die!¡¯
We were thinking the exact same thing without having tomunicate. I mean, we were all the same person.
Three clones of myself appeared before me and we all jumped Mine, with the full intention to kill him.
Akira went for his legs, as Akkun and Kira went for both arms. I jumped in to the chains and activated [Skill Alchemy] as well as [Weak Constitution] and [Remorse]. The goal was to transfer the skill [Weak Constitution] and to affect the skill that controlled the chains.
The end result was given to us in the form of the sound the chain being dismantled, and Arisu falling to the ground with a light thud.
Immediately, I teleported her out of the location while Mine was screaming with what I could call ungodly pain.
The moment I had confirmed she was gone, the others returned to my head and I created a gap between us. The clone bodies were shredded and Mine looked at us with golden eyes glinting with the lust for revenge.
<<Ten minutes are up>>
Now that Arisu was gone, I was free to use skills that had a wide area of effect with no remorse.
A clicking sound went off in my head as [Devil Form] activated.
Chapter 268 Greed Pt.IV
Mine was screaming and rolling about on the floor. The broken chain was slowly dissolving as he cried about on the ground.
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡®Did that hurt him?¡¯
¡®O-Or is it a c-cheap trick to l-lure us in?¡¯
¡®Could be either one.¡¯
¡®Let¡¯s not give him breathing room. Akkun, your biggest spells.¡¯
I refused to fall for any stupid tactics of his. First, I activated Geo Crusher which summoned dark brown gemstones from underneath Mine and crush his body together. He didn¡¯t try avoiding it, but that was good as it gave me time to activate my next spell.
This, in all honesty, was a bit overkill, but using wind magic and water magic, we forced a thunder storm. [Lightning Rod] caused all the lightning toe down to my finger tip and using [Lightning Magic] and my magic power at full force, I threw a pir of lightning at Mine.
The sound of the mountain area being destroyed was overshadowed by the thunderous roar of the sound barrier being broken. My hairs stood on ends, but I wasn¡¯t done. Before the lightning attack could finish, I summoned five clones of myself. One absorbed all the chaos energy Mine was clearly using to defend against the attacks, the others fired a barrage of random magical spells and even a [Dragon Elemental Breath].
Akkun dug deep and unlocked a section of [Dark Magic] forcibly with the help of the agent. [Taboo Magic]. With it, we begun a spell.
This attack was a bitplex as it wasn¡¯t a spell one could simply use at a whim and honestly required loads of preparations. Well, even a half-finished product was good enough to be honest.
With the agent instructing us on where toy out runes in the sky and what exact kind of runes, we went to work as fast as possible. I had about 60% of my mana left and this spell was going to burn through 50% of it in an instant.
Surprisingly, Greed was still under a barrage of attacks, crying. Maybe my attacks were proving effective for once. Hopefully this spell would actually do the trick.
Even with my processing speed and perspective, it took me about thirty seconds to set everything up. For your information, I process everything about fifty times faster than the average person. With my boost in Larm, that¡¯s a hundred times faster and with agent acting, that¡¯s at least 1000 times faster than the average person, yet the spell was soplex and requiring of detail it took me half a minute toplete.
In the end, a massive dark purple magic circle hung above Mine¡¯s head.
Wasting no time, I inject most of my mana into the circle.
[Warning! You are using a spell from the Taboo Section of the Dark Arts]
[The Gods of the Underworlds will take notice of you]
¡®Whatever? Why would I care about that now?¡¯
I didn¡¯t know what the hell this Taboo Section was. I mean, it¡¯s the freaking Dark Arts. Isn¡¯t that in itself taboo?
<<It is because this deals with permanent destruction or alteration of any form of soul be it that of a lower being or a higher being. Mortals are not allowed to know this spell exists>>
Ah¡ seriously? Then this skill is kind of dangerous¡ but it only takes half of my mana supply?
¡®Hehehe¡ let¡¯s see some stupid higher beinge after me then.¡¯
With that thought in mind, I activated the spell.
¡°Come, the great eraser! Destroyer of that which is real and unreal. He who slumbers in-between the conceptual nes waiting for an army of souls to feed. Your eternal anger knows no peace, neither does your hunger ever cease! [Taboo Magic: All-Life-Epassing Doom Gate Vach-Viraj]!¡±
Beyond this, in all honesty, I couldn¡¯t describe to you what I saw or felt.
There was a weird break in the sky, almost as if it were ss? An eye - cartoon-like and red ¨C was looking down at the world? Once my eyes crossed paths with its, I turned away in an instant out of sheer instinct.
I didn¡¯t see what happened beyond that. My head was down, facing the ground for a good part of the entire event.
Once that was done, I just had a feeling that everything was done. That, and the system confirming my victory.
[You have defeated ¡®Unknown¡¯]
[For adding an unregistered creature to the system logs, you have received an [Exp. Booster] for this one asion]
[You have received 1.9 Gigant Experience points]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
[You have levelled up]
¡
Well, that was a lot of level ups. I guess I¡¯m now above level 100 officially. A few more levels to evolve, huh?
I looked at the location in which Mine was supposed to be. All I saw was his golden chain on the ground. However, contrary to earlier events, the chain was actually regenerating now.
Cautiously, I had one of the clones check out the chain. It seemed harmless enough as the clone held up the golden chain and presented it to me. I tried scanning it.
[Error! Error!]
I grabbed the chain and looked at it quizzically.
¡®What the heck is th-Ah!¡¯
Again, I made the mistake of letting my guard down. The chain wrapped itself around my arm and sliced it off. My eyes widened in shock, but I couldn¡¯t allow myself to be slowed down by such a thing.
[You just lost a limb]
[You have been affected with [Severe Blood Loss]]
[You have lost 100 health points]
My first reaction was to throw the golden chain away, but it wrapped around my leg and I could feel it squeezing my leg, probably going to destroy it as well.
[You have lost 90 health points]
¡®Like hell I¡¯d let you!¡¯
I set my legs aze with [Fiery Kick] and tried to throw the chains off, but that failed. Even with [Iron Fortress] active and my [Devil Form] boosting my overall stats by five times, the golden chain easily destroyed my leg.
[You have lost another limb]
[Your status effect [Severe Blood Loss] has been intensified]
[You will lose blood twice as fast now]
[You have lost 210 health points]
[You have lost 199 health points]
¡®You¡¯d think [Severe Blood Loss] times two would actually cause more damage.¡¯
¡®That¡¯s not important now!¡¯
That was right! The golden chain had a mind of its own! This really was just like the Necromancer all over again. The golden chain was my true opponent here!
¡®God, I¡¯m starting to hate Soul Weapons more and more.¡¯
Of course, my first thought was that there was no way this was a soul weapon, but with the way the chain was fighting by itself, it had to be a soul weapon. No two ways about it.<novelnext></novelnext>
But that was a good thing. It simply meant another level up buffet. And since it¡¯s an unknown, I can get the [Exp. Booster] so for sure, I will evolve after this.
¡®Come to think of it, have we ever eaten a soul weapon before?¡¯
¡®I only remember destroying one.¡¯
¡®A-Ancient, s-sacred souls s-should be v-v-very valuable.¡¯
¡®Soul weapons aren¡¯t even sold on the store, meaning they¡¯re hard toe by. Guess we got quite the delicacy.¡¯
On the same page, we all decided to take our anger for soul weapons out on this bastard. It jumped onto my other arm, but that was its mistake.
With [Slime Body], I tried to swallow the chain into my body, but the chain was smarter than I gave it credit for. The moment it sunk into my arm, it tried to pull out and so I acted fast. I caught the other end of the chain that hung out and started to eat it.
Soon, this devolved into a scene of me fighting a chain. If a passer-by saw me, they¡¯d assumed I had gone mad and was trying to fight a chain, but I was practically fighting for my life here.
It was even worse when the bastard chose to attack me with Chaos Energy. I had [Energy Transcriber] activate, but the amount he was releasing was suddenly more intense than Daxia¡¯s and the unique skill was having a bit of problem converting all of that into aura.
¡®Oi! Let¡¯s do that thing from before.¡¯
¡®Will it work? It¡¯s not being controlled now, is it?¡¯
¡®Doesn¡¯t matter! Just do it!¡¯
Akira was ready to go. We tried using [Skill Alchemy] and [Weak Constitution]. Like Akira suggested, the skill was working and the chain split in two. One that was being sucked up into my arm and one that I was eating up front.
However, what we both didn¡¯t expect was what happened next.
[The skill [Weak Constitution] has been synthesised with the skills [Iron Fortress] and [Dragon Scales] to create [Iron Dragon Constitution]]
¡®Eh?¡¯
In the end, the chain manipted me into using this skill to simply strengthen it and continue on its assault.
¡®Shitty bastard just rendered thebo useless.¡¯
I quietly chose to simply fight against the golden chain, no skills involved. Just one on one, a battle to the death it would seem.
The golden chain was feisty and cruel. I believe, the most painful part about absorbing this thing was the thoughts that filled my head.
Power. Wealth. Fame. Need. Want. Deserve. Everything. Power. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Everything. Give. Bring. Power. Wealth. Gold. Fame. Power. Power. Power. Power. Power. Mine. Mine. Mine. Power. Everything. World. Everything. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.
The chain¡¯s thoughts choked my head like this. It hurt. This was the one thing I hated most about people who knew I had telepathic abilities. They¡¯d think so many things to hurt me, but this was different.
I couldn¡¯t slow my perspective to take all of this one. Whatever perspective I was on, the thoughts would be on the same level.
A headache with no cure. A creeping sensation held onto me that if I swallowed this thing whole, the headache would only get worse.
Maybe¡ Just maybe¡ Consuming this thing would only be a bad idea in the long run?
No.
Now wasn¡¯t the time for this.
It was either I ate this thing whole or it killed me.
Consume. Everything. Weak. Dies.
That¡¯s right. If I consumed this and I died because of a stupid headache, that meant I was weak. I never deserved to live this long in the first ce.
I am never going to feel weak again.
I will win this stupid chain fight.
I will prove, that I am strong.
Stronger.
I will get stronger.
Live.
That¡¯s right! I will live. Even a scumbag like me has to live or else everything I¡¯ve done is worthless.
With that final push from somewhere in the back of my head, my resolve was forever sealed. I would only continue to grow stronger rather than living life with the thought that another chance waited for me.
If I didn¡¯t learn anything from my crappy life as a coward¡ a chicken, previously, then what was the point of reincarnating again and again?
In this life, now and till the end of time, I will continue to face life with a full resolve.
¡°You want to scrap you, stupid gold chain? Let¡¯s go! I¡¯ll show you that I¡¯m no chicken!¡±
_____________________________
While Hinotori found herself in a pickle fighting with a golden chain up in the Wyvern Kaiser¡¯s turf, Grimm was also in a pickle.
He saw himself as a careful person. Grimm ck, the merciless butcher they called him.
However, contrary to his nickname, Grimm¡¯s method operandi was not quite as messy as the epithet yed him out to be. The one thing he hated the most, was blood.
He couldn¡¯t stand the smell. The silly colour. The taste was beyond awful and the fact that it was the one thing he required to live annoyed him even more.
But there was nothing to worry about. He had the Blood Crystal. It ensured that his body could go on for at least a year without blood before needing to be reced.
That same Grimm, was drenched in blood and missing an arm from the elbow going. The overly meticulous Grimm who wouldn¡¯t enter a fight or take a mission without knowing every single detail, chose to fight two Wyvern Kings, Imperial beasts with the ability to destroy whole human cities by himself.
One of the wyverns was dead on the ground with its head sliced off and several holes in its body. Clearly not done in a clean, safe manner. The sort of open wounds on the dead wyvern king were like those of a rabid beast.
The living wyvern king was in no position to boast about either. One wing had been ripped off and the other had ice spikes in it. Blood flowed out of it like a fountain and both of its horns were broken with one eye lost, but one thing was evident. And that was the fact that the wyvern king was clearly in a better shape than Grimm.
Grimm fell to the ground, exhausted after having to fight two wyvern kings. He had even crossed a personal line he swore to never cross no matter what.
¡®Wh-when was it that I decided to break my own rule?¡¯
He thought while looking to the sky lifelessly. For vampires, blood loss was one of the quickest ways to kill them. It was why they stocked up on as much blood as possible since they couldn¡¯t regenerate with no blood around.
The wyvern king was trudging towards Grimm, but his thoughts trailed elsewhere.
His gaze eventually settled down on an unconscious Ulva. Her silver white hair was the result of hermprey transformation activating, but even then, the Lamprey didn¡¯t fight at all. She justid t in a pool of blood.
¡®Uh, did I really act irrationally because of that brat?¡¯
He wanted to chuckle, but couldn¡¯t.
¡®For a failed experiment¡ I practically sacrificed my life that I¡¯ve valued for so long. And there were idiots who actually thought I could take on two kings without breaking a sweat.¡¯
Grimm, was honestly too hard on himself when it came to strength. All his physical stats had been lowered by more than 50% under the sun without his mask, so it was no surprise that he lost to two kings.
In the night, it would have been an entirely different story.
¡®And the boss seems busy since I got no reply from my earlier message.¡¯
During his fight, Grimm recognised that he stood no chance against two wyvern kings and sent a request for help to Hinotori. He thought she didn¡¯t receive it, but now even if she did, he could understand why she didn¡¯te to his aid.
It didn¡¯t take a genius to understand that she was in a fight when the entire mountain was shaking from her disy of intense magic power output.
¡®I guess¡ this is it, Nyx. Please don¡¯t die.¡¯
He made his resolve as the battered wyvern king towered above him, ring. The wyvern king was most likely trying to speak to him, but there was no way to understand a wyvern¡¯s speech.
If he had to guess, the wyvern king was saying something along the likes of, ¡®Do you have anyst words?¡¯
To that, he wanted to say ¡°Fuck you¡±, but he wasn¡¯t in the right physical condition.
The wyvern opened its mouth wide to burn him off and Grimm just closed his eyes in anticipation of his unfortunate and mundane death.
It never came. Rather, cold, carmine blood flooded his face and mouth. His body went to work quickly and tried to regenerate him, but that would take a while.
The wyvern king¡¯s body dropped to his side lifelessly. Above the wyvern king with golden feathered wings and a sword in hand, floating like a Valkyriee to take a damned soul to the gates of Valha, was his boss.
She looked down at him with an awkward expression like anger, tiredness and sadness. That wasn¡¯t the weird part though.
There was something different about the Boss. Something fundamental, but he couldn¡¯t quite put his finger on it. Maybe it was because he was on the verge of losing his consciousness, but did she grow smaller?
Chapter 269 Prelude To The War For Larm
A Week after Hinotori¡¯s fight in the North,
In the North of Larm, at the very top of one of its famous mountains, there was a specific area called the Wyvern¡¯s Graveyard. It wasn¡¯t necessarily a ce where dead wyverns were buried. Simply a rumour that stated that it was the ce that even wyverns went to die.
It was a ce of death for sure. Infamous enough for it to bepared to the Demise Mountains and Winter Zone, but safe enough for some humans to have passed there and tell tales.
This was all due to the fact that the Wyvern¡¯s Graveyard was home to some of the most ferocious monsters the North of Larm had to offer. Griffins, Manticores, of course wyverns and at a certain point in time, even giants.
The monsters fought against one another cruelly, creating an inhospitable environment where only B rank monsters and above could survive. And the one who lorded over all of this was Sora of the Ravaging Winds, the Tyrant of the North.
For this reason, Sora was the second most feared Tyrant in Larm after Goliath who had once before wiped out some armies of minor countries.
That same Sora soared through the sky, headed back to his home. As he passed by, he flew over the Wyvern Kaiser¡¯s domain, but what he saw was unexpected. A drake skull, twice asrge as his bodyid on a broken terrain.
From the looks of things, there was a scrap and the wyvern kaiser lost, meaning, a new wyvern kaiser was around. That didn¡¯t matter though.
The odd thing was the fact that the surroundings hadn¡¯t regenerated from the fight. Even if the fight happened the day before, which he doubted, the terrain should have been restored to its original form.
¡®That¡¯s a first.¡¯
He thought, but chose to ignore it.
Soranded on his home turf with an army of griffins and manticores standing there, greeting him.
¡®A king¡¯s reception. Excellent.¡¯
¡®This is odd. What are all of them doing here?¡¯
Of course, when the tyrant was returning, he¡¯d expect a certain amount of his people there to wee him, but the manticores were different. They were no rules that demanded their presence there, so he felt a bit suspicious.
One of the griffins moved forward. Nyxon, one of Sora¡¯s namedmanders. The griffon bowed to him.
¡°Lord Sora, wee. We hope your trip was a pleasant one.¡±
shes of the trip yed through his head. The Battle God¡¯s decision pertaining to his question, Karon¡¯s invitation to a union of forces, and that enemy. He could still remember that unusual enemy, with white skin and hair and eyes. Everything about them all came down to the colour white. He still wasn¡¯t even sure about how he escaped that situation.
¡°It was¡ an interesting one.¡±
¡°Is that so? That is go-¡±
¡°We have a bad situation, tyrant.¡±
The one to cut in was another of Sora¡¯s namedmanders, Tylon.
¡°Now is not the time.¡±
Nyxon took back the conversation by silencing him. Then he faced the tyrant once more.
¡°I hope you enj-¡±
¡°It¡¯s been a week. We don¡¯t have anymore time.¡±
Tylon clearly didn¡¯t see the reason for Nyxon¡¯s current attitude. From the looks of things, something major must have happened. Now the question was how big was it that Nyxon was scared to inform Sora immediately.
¡°He must rest first.¡±
¡°Rest, will only cause us to lose.¡±
¡°Not here.¡±
¡°Yes. Here. My tyrant, w-¡±
¡°Tylon, do you wish to fight?¡±
¡®How dare mere servants bicker like this in front of their leader? Is this the level of respect they have for you?¡¯
¡®Noisy.¡¯
¡°Silence! Both of you.¡±
Sora¡¯s enraged voice entered the ears of everyone in the area. They all wanted to look away, but there was something about the massive Tyrant that forced them to keep their eyes on him.
¡°Now, exin to me what the situation is, Tylon.¡±
¡°But you must rest.¡±
Nyxon interjected and was met with Sora¡¯s cold re.
¡°Who are you to tell me when and when not I rest? Do I have to remind you that I am your tyrant and you, mymander?¡±
Slowly, a blue aura engulfed the absurdlyrge Griffin as he intimidated his subordinate. Nyxon looked down in shamed and backed down.
Tylon, evidently pleased that his lord chose him, held his head up high and spoke.
¡°A week ago, some griffins encountered a group of creatures iming theye from the West.¡±
¡®They enter your domain without permission? How rude!¡¯
¡®How irritating.¡¯
¡°The west? Minerva¡¯s domain?¡±
He nodded to Sora¡¯s question. Sora walked past him and both Nyxon and Tylon followed after. His destination was the massive rock that had been ced at a position that made him overlook all who gathered this location. It was treated as his personal throne.
¡°Yes, I believe so.¡±
Sora remembered the topic of conversation with Karon, Krull¡¯s son. The war ogre looked impossibly enraged, like they had killed his family and stolen everything for him. He wanted the East and North to unite to fight against the West.
Of course, Sora had no reason to pick a fight with them at the time, so he turned them down.
¡°What sort of creatures?¡±
¡°Four humanoids: Two vampires, one lycanthrope and one demonkin.¡±
The one to speak was Nyxon. He was trying to enter Sora¡¯s good graces once more.
¡°That¡¯s an unusualbination.¡±
¡°Indeed. But they were apparently mighty. One of the vampires killed 2 wallcrawler wyverns by herself.¡±
¡°Wallcrawler wyverns? Ooh, scary.¡±
Sora mused and all the others who heard himughed. This was due to the sort of reputation wallcrawler wyverns held as the weakest wyverns.
¡°If that is all you have to say, I should have just slept.¡±
Sora lied down and looked at both of hismanders with azy gaze. They looked at each other nervously before continuing.
¡°They came here hoping to meet you apparently.¡±
¡°And since you were absent, they met up with the cyclops and wyvern kings instead.¡±
¡®They couldn¡¯t even show the tiniest amount of respect by waiting for you before going to others?¡¯
¡®Shut up.¡¯
¡°And what is the issue here?¡±
Meeting the kings of North was no big deal. It didn¡¯t really affect Sora in anyway since no matter what, the North was still under his rule.
¡°They have formed an alliance with the West to usurp you.¡±
¡®The insolence!¡¯
¡®Shut. Up.¡¯
¡°What?¡±
Visible shock showed itself on Sora¡¯s face as his feathers stood up.
¡°Yes. The cyclops king, as you know, never liked us. And the wyverns¡ they lost two of their kings and the kaiser since they didn¡¯t agree to their proposal.¡±
¡°I am sure they came here to either kill you or dere war on the North.¡±
¡®Impudent ants dare attempt such a sacrilege? Is this the kind of respect you want everyone to show you?¡¯
¡®Shut up!¡¯
¡°Is this mere spection?¡±
¡°The wyverns and cyclopes have been seen interacting on friendlier terms in the past week since their appearance.¡±<novelnext></novelnext>
¡°They even attempted to get the manticore king on their side.¡±
At the mention of the manticore king, the dark brown furred beast stepped forward with a confident gaze.
¡°I rejected them because I know who the true king of the North is.¡±
¡®That¡¯s a good one. You should name him.¡¯
¡®What are you?¡¯
¡®Hahahaha! We are Sora!¡¯
Beyond that, Sora got no response from the mysterious voice that had been bothering him since a few days ago.
¡°Tyrant?¡±
Sora stood up and growled while looking towards the West.
¡°I rejected the East¡¯s proposal to join forces and crush the West. Not as a kind gesture or anything, but simply as an act of mercy.¡±
He jumped down from his throne and moved forward.
¡°Have I not been a good, wise king to all of you? Have I not allowed you to dream of one day acquiring my seat though it is impossible? For years, your attempts at betraying me amused me, but since you never did something as dishonourable as teaming up behind my back, I have ignored you.¡±
The manticores and some griffins felt his gaze on them. The North was known as the most violent portion of Larm due to the fact that the creatures were alwayspeting for rule over it.
They were all mighty creatures, easily B and A ranks by human standards, so they all carried a belief that they could one day sit on Sora¡¯s throne as Tyrant. However, it had not once crossed their minds in that the 50 years Sora ruled as a Tyrant, no one, absolutely no one, has been able to do this.
For the first time in 50 years, Sora of the Ravaging Winds, was annoyed beyond belief.
¡°I allowed you to form your small groups to attack me. And now, you collude with your enemies to attack me? Is that how greedy you are?¡±
¡®Greed is disgusting.¡¯
¡®Greed¡ is¡ disgusting¡?¡¯
¡°Now¡ now I am enraged. We shall crush the West, but first, the traitors in the North. Smoke them out. I will wipe their existences off of Larm. Then, the East and North will crush the West.¡±
Some might find this decree contradictory to his motives. Why team up with one enemy to beat another enemy if doing such a thing disgusted him so much?
Simply because the current Sora didn¡¯t identify any group or person as an enemy. What were ants before a Tyrant such as himself?
____________________
The West, Hinotori¡¯s Mansion
It had been exactly one week and five days since Hinotori¡¯s evolution had begun, yet there had been no sign of her waking up anytime soon.
The creatures in the West were excited once they heard she was undergoing an evolution. That meant she was simply acquiring more power. With the disappearance of Goliath, they found a new protector who was much more intimate with them.
Reiman, as her general, was in charge of the domestic issues. However, he passed that off onto the other captains whom he trusted.
First of all, constructions for the orc houses wereplete and the earlier parties had already arrived. Some were still on their way due to an unfortunate surprise attack from rabid tunnellers that ended up crossing paths with their tunnels.
Those who had arrived were pleased with the houses and even decided to help make it more weing for thete party.
Second,bat training and troop development had been left to the goblin captains Oki, Taiku and the new monstrosity, Julian the vampire. Thetter was¡ extreme, to say the least, but his methods were coldly efficient. All the goblins in the training program had evolved into hob-goblins already and those that were hob-goblins had evolved into something else. The captains for instance, had be something else.
Oki, who was blessed by a demi-god of fire, had evolved into a Fire Oni Berserker. Red skin,rge bulging muscles and an overall bigger physique. His hair was still ck, but was also easilybustible depending on his emotions. Personality-wise, he was still the same ¨C easily excitable and battle driven. As an addition, he received Bio-Armour ¨C a loincloth ¨C and weapon ¨C Explosion Mallet.
Taiku evolved into Grey Kuri King. Grey skin,parable to the average human in size, monstrous facial features, tiny ck horns on the head and a frighteningly calming voice. Personality-wise, he was more malicious, a natural trait of his new race, but he still retained his loyalty to Hinotori and his friends. He even received a blessing from the god of madness.
Yuuna, the old wench, had for reasons unknown to everyone, evolved into a Dark Mountain Fairy. With this evolution, she had received seductive features, a voluptuous shape and easily one of the prettiest faces in Larm. She possessed fairy wings and a single horn on her head. Personality-wise, she was livelier than before.
Nukeme, the pervert, had evolved into a Spiked Troll Assassin. Out of everyone¡¯s transformations, his was the most confusing. It was the first time anyone had seen a troll smaller than a human yetrger than a hob-goblin. He had spikes sticking out of his back that could be used as daggers for any asion and his stealth was far better aspared to when he was a hob-goblin. Personality-wise, he hadn¡¯t changed in the slightest¡ unfortunately.
From these unexpected transformations, it was evident that everyone was pretty excited for their future possibilities. Evolving into stronger races than ever, they could all be insanely strong and life would be better than before for them.
Thirdly, food gathering was dealt with by the Wolves ¨C Fafnir alliance and Hinotori¡¯s wolves ¨C and dryads separately. Wolves were in charge of meat and dryads were in charge of fruits. The storehouse had been filled up and even more storehouses were being built. Some dryads weren¡¯t so pleased with the idea of Hinotori cutting down trees to build houses, but even they understood what kind of situation they were in.
Fourthly, information collection and reach expansion was left to Nukeme, shadow rats and some of Nukeme¡¯s handpicked goblinoids (goblins and hob-goblins in general). They¡¯re feet were firmly rooted in the nearby human cities and viges, but progression into the North and East was still stalled for some reason.
After all of these, there were more personal issues regarding Hinotori¡¯s life, but Reiman couldn¡¯t help but try to fix them.
First of which was the dungeon. Reiman had found out what Hinotori was doing, but since she was unconscious, her true goal wouldn¡¯t be so easy toplete. For this reason, he started luring humans into the dungeon.
The first party that came, he allowed them to return with a few scratches and some rocks he found on the ground. They were excited by this, so went back to spread the great news. Two days ago, about 10 parties came together.
Their goal was to find a way to determine the monster concentration in the area. Their levels, attributes and weaknesses. Scouting the terrain, seeing if they could use it to their advantage, basically trying to capture a portion of Larm for themselves.
Shiroi almost ripped the entire party to shreds, but Reiman rather had her cause a bit of a distraction with her weakest yet fastest wolves. They just needed to be seen, but escape before being killed. It worked and Reiman estimated that by the next week, they would have returned to start monopolising the dungeon under a banner.
He couldn¡¯t really alter what the dungeon looked, but it was better to have more peopleing there in his opinion.
Next issue was the problem pertaining to all the females vying for the position of Hinotori¡¯s lover. In his opinion, it was a stupid argument, but it provided entertainment to the others and they couldn¡¯t help but get distracted whenever a fight started out of the blue.
What was more absurd was the fact that Zana, a tyrant, refused to return home because she was scared someone would make a move behind her back. The tension was insane and every night in the mesh hall was a bloody battle.
Reiman had tried telling them that Hinotori didn¡¯t care for such things, but then some would feel hurt. Then he tried saying Hinotori liked them equally and some got offended by that. Told them that she wouldn¡¯t like the fact that they argue over her, but then they would get into an argument over who started it all.
It was an annoying situation and he regretted getting involved at all.
Exhausted, the rat man fell down onto his nest made of minerals he had been picking up. One could call it a guilty pleasure of his to collect such minerals. It was one of the things both he and Arisu shared inmon.
Just then, a rat man popped up in his chambers.
¡°General! We have bad news!¡±
Reiman jumped right back up and faced the rat man with all seriousness a general was supposed to have.
¡°A wyvern just came in from the North carrying this note from the cyclops king.¡±
Reiman took the piece of paper from his subordinate. It wasrge, about half his size and handwriting was terrible. Even worse, it was written in the demonnguage.
He could feel a vein bulge when he looked at it as he didn¡¯t understand demonnguage.
¡°What the hell is this?¡±
¡°The cyclops king¡¯s letter.¡±
Reiman wasn¡¯t sure whether to beat the rat man for his stupid response or if to sigh at his naivety.
¡°I mean, why hasn¡¯t it been tranted for me? We have a team for these kinds of things.¡±
Nukeme had suggested the use of codednguage when such matters were concerned. Different intelligence units would be stationed at certain points and learn thenguages and customs of those areas. Then when sending a message, it would be converted into the codednguage so only those under Nukeme and Reiman could understand it.
¡°Oh yeah, they did.¡±
The rat man responded to Reiman¡¯s question and both stood, staring at each other. After a silent minute or two, Reiman¡¯s patience was nearing its limits.
¡°Well?¡±
¡°Oh-oh you wanted me to say it to you?¡±
¡°Yes¡ first time, huh?¡±
¡°Sorry. The message says ¡°For the past four days, the griffins and manticores have been attacking us with the intention to wipe us out. The wyverns are weakened without their kaiser and two kings and abined assault by Manticores and Griffins who have the aerial advantage is too much for the cyclopes. We request back up if you truly say you wish to be allies with us.¡±¡±
¡®Abined assault? In the North? Since when do members of different races team up there?¡¯
¡°Is that all?¡±
Reiman felt like something was missing, but the rat man shook his head.
¡°This is the exact message, word for word.¡±
Reiman scratched his neck and went back to his pile of treasures while thinking.
¡®An assault on the cyclopes by the manticores and griffins? Why them in particr? They have no connection to each other. This letter doesn¡¯t contain any more information, but Griffins and manticores teaming up? They are too proud to do something like that¡ wait. Why am I even looking for the cause? Isn¡¯t this a beneficial situation rather? We¡¯ll just use this to our advantage.¡¯
¡°You, send a message to Tsuna, Yuuna, Dervy and Yennifer. Ask if they can create portals that can lost long enough to send an army through.¡±
¡°Yes sir, but¡ can I ask why?¡±
The rat man curiously asked and shuddered once he saw Reiman¡¯s terrifying smirk.
¡°We are finally going to conquer the North! Also, summon Nukeme and his assassin unit. I have a job for them.¡±
<A/N: Dervy and Yennifer are two dark elves that joined the group some chapters back.>
Chapter 270 A New Evolution
A view of a burning city entered my gaze. Copsed houses, burning corpses, screaming children searching for their parents, the soldiers trying their best to evacuate the people, but dying nheless, men going mad from the absolute carnage that engulfed their probably once peaceful lives.
It was a view I could describe as utter hopelessness.
But even through all of this, there were two beings that stood out greatly.
One was a tall,rge warrior in golden armour. Wings of bright orange fire on their back, silky golden hair possessing so much lustre you couldn¡¯t be med for thinking it was actual gold and vermillion red eyes that burned with hatred and outright righteous fury. They wielded a spear in one hand.
This spear possessed a silver shaft with inscriptions made of the Elecryean tongue that I couldn¡¯t really make out without the agent. Its de was sharp, pointed and gave off the feeling that staring for too long would pierce my vision and render me blind.
This spear, that ignited into white mes was pointed at a dragon. This dragon was at least two hundred metres in length and fifty in width. It possessed grey scales with a certain silver shine to them. A white mane on the back of its head all the way to its wagging tail. Six ivory horns protruded from its head and its abnormally golden cat-like eyes red at the warrior that looked like nothing more than an ant before it.
¡°I warned you, Vermillion.¡±
Vermillion, he called her. A name that for obvious reasons I couldn¡¯t get out of my mind. This person in golden armour that looked to be about 3 metres tall was the one toy the egg from which I emerged. My mother, so to say.
¡°You chose to bother me even after I told you to stay away from me or my realm. This is the price you pay.¡±
He said, gesturing to the entire scene unfolding around them. I got a wider view after that. The chaos spread further than I thought. It went as far as about two Japansbined, all being assaulted by dragons heartlessly. An empire had been razed to the ground at the whim of this dragon.
But, for some reason, I felt nothing but hatred as I stared at the dragon. The putrid scent of burning flesh entered my nose, the heat of the fire turned my ears red and the sounds of the people¡ my people, screaming in fear and agony entered my ears, filling me up with enough hatred that I thought I could overwhelm the world with it.
My grasp on the spear of white mes tightened as I red at the dragon god.
I twisted my body, then shot the spear with all the might I could muster. Tonight, the dragon god would regret ever incurring my wrath. Tonight, I wouldplete the task I was given when an egg was presented to me five centuries ago. Tonight, I would kill the Dragon God Fafnir.
¡
In a moment, all that vanished as my eyes opened up and I saw the view of cherry blossoms falling down. My head was on something soft with a very sweet fragrance. I let out a sigh once I realised where I was.
¡°Jesus. I thought I was going to die fighting that thing. Thanks for the save.¡±
I thanked the system master then closed my eyes.
¡°You¡¯re wee, daughter.¡±
¡°Daughter?¡±
At the mention of a very weird title, my eyes opened up cautiously. Slowly, I tried to bring the system master into view, but what Inded on was a shadow. This shadow had red eyes and a red smiley expression as it looked at me.
I wasn¡¯t sure what exactly to do and my brain was stumped as I looked at it, but in the next second, my body jumped off the weird being¡¯sp.
¡°Gaah! D-don¡¯te close!¡±
I retreated as far as I could and waved my wings in front of her, trying as hard as possible to be intimidating.
¡°I¡¯m a trained martial artist and I¡¯ve killed dragons before. These wings are lethal weapons, so be careful.¡±
¡°Is that so? How cute.¡±
But sheughed at me like an adult watching a child say stupid child-like things. Somehow, that made me feel stupid and like a child.
¡°Isn¡¯t this the system master¡¯s domain?¡±
I asked while looking around. A wide field of grass, one cherry blossom tree and a sweet fragrance in the air. The total opposite of my room back on Earth.
¡°System master? You mean Alpha?¡±
¡°Yeah. That¡¯s the one.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know who that is.¡±
She told a very horrible lie. You¡¯d expect a god should at least know how to lie and manipte people into doing their bidding.
¡°But I¡¯m here. What is it you need?¡±
She tapped to her side, weing me to sit next to her, them, it? I chose to stay away from them as much as possible, while keeping a close eye in case of any movement.
¡°No need to be so suspicious. I am your patron goddess after all.¡±
Patron Goddess? The one who gave me my sacred? Well, that was unexpected. But then again, I knew I would have to meet her sooner orter. Hopefully never, but we don¡¯t always get what we want, now do we?
¡°What the hell are you doing here?¡±
A new voice entered. My younger sister stood behind Zatana, ring at her with the system master¡¯s eyes. Zatana looked at her and her smiley face turned into a frowny face.
¡°Ugh, can¡¯t you just give me this one thing?¡±
¡°I give you a lot of things, like not kicking you out.¡±
From the sound of things, they were quite friendly with each other.
¡°As if.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t you have a realm to be ruling? A civil war could start at any moment. Stop bothering me and go attend to your business.¡±
¡°Stay out of that business.¡±
¡°Then stay out of mine. Now shoo. I¡¯m about to work.¡±
After shooing Zatana away, the goddess disappeared without so much as another word. Once that was done, the system master created a table before us and sat down then gestured for me to do the same.
I sat across her and faced her, but I didn¡¯t like it. The fact that she was using my sister¡¯s face and body was sort of infuriating, but if Iined, she¡¯d just use someone else¡¯s body. I knew she could read my mind, but she was openly ignoring this issue I had, so it was better to not bring it up.
¡°Congrattions, you¡¯re in your third evolution phase. I honestly expected you to have died in that fight just now, but you¡¯re lucky for your skillset.¡±
She praised my efforts against Mine, but her voicecked any sort of enthusiasm. If anything, she looked somewhat stressed out. I decided to also not bring this up.
¡°Now, choose your next evolution.¡±
As she said this, a bunch of sheets appeared on the table, spread out so I could see them easily. All of them were evolutionary options that had been prepared for me, so I decided to look through carefully.
There were four options on the table, each listed with a name, basic description and a list of pros and cons.
Name: Chaos Dweller Twilit Garuda
Description: Garuda are angelic or demonic beasts depending on which sort of domain they reside. The Chaos Dweller Garuda are of the demonic faction that sleep in the Void in which all Chaos stems from. This particr breed of Chaos Dweller has a high affinity for Twilight Magic and can be found at the edges of the Twilight Realm.
Pros: Excellent physical stats<novelnext></novelnext>
Excellent Magic Control
Chaos Magic Control
Cons: Extremely weak to Holy and Divine attacks
Intense Aggressive Personality shift
¡®Intense Aggressive personality shift, huh? Like a berserker? I guess I wouldn¡¯t want to be losing my mind for the tiniest things.¡¯
I looked to the next one.
Name: Realm Guardian Rainbow Ziz
Description: A bird sorge, it¡¯s said to be the very sky itself. The Guardian Rainbow Ziz is said to be the protector of whichever world it settles on and there can never be more than one in that world. In truth, there are multiple of them spread apart and they are rarely ever seening down to interfere with mortal issues.
Pros: Divine Energy Control
Sky Dominion
Large enough for most physical attacks to be rendered harmless
Cons: Too Large to face most enemies
Poor or No magic control
¡®This option is tantly the worst option here. The system master isn¡¯t even trying to hide it. And I don¡¯t like the idea of being so conspicuous.¡¯
Name: Illusive Twilight Harpy Demon Queen
Description: A one of a kind harpy!
Pros: High affinity to illusion magic
Excellent Aerial Battle Skills
Excellent speed
Very stealthy
High Mana Pool
High Stamina
Cons: Absurd addiction to shiny objects
Low physical strength and defense
¡®Not bad, but I don¡¯t want to end up addicted to gold and stuff.¡¯
Name: Fallen Crystal Shadow Anqa Demon King
Description: Not much is known as this would be the first of its kind.
Pros: Decent physical stats
High Mana Pool
High Affinity with Summons and Familiars
Crystal Magic Affinity
Divine Energy Control
Cons: No obvious cons
¡®Oh? No obvious cons? That¡¯s a first.¡¯
Name: Arcane Demonic Twilight Phoenix King
Description: Not much is known about this, except it¡¯s some sort of Phoenix.
Pros: Decent physical stats
Immortality through rebirth
High Mana Pool
Chaos Energy Maniption
Divine Energy Maniption
Cons: Rebirth time depends on certain factors
The final option looked like a direct evolution from an Arcane Demonic Twilight Shadow Bird. It was a king to boot.
¡®Wow, both Divine and Chaos energy maniption? Isn¡¯t that too much? But the rebirth time factor is a bit of a let-down.¡¯
After I looked at all of these, I noticed something odd.
¡°There are less evolutions than before.¡±
I pointed out while looking at them.
¡°That¡¯s your problem here? You should be happy there¡¯s more than two when you practically invented a new species.¡±
She said with a mocking tone. I looked back on what happened, trying to remember.
¡°Oi, when I chose my evolution thest time, I got a message saying that I got a fusion of two different evolutions instead. Isn¡¯t that your fault?¡±
¡°I do not recollect that.¡±
She lied right to my face. Since I couldn¡¯t prove that, I decided to focus on the evolutions once more. The only options to consider were honestly the third and fourth ones.
But before then, I needed to get some more information on what exactly Chaos energy and Divine energy were.
Chapter 271 A Choice
"System master, could you exin the divine energy and chaos energy to me?"
She held her chin for a moment, wondering whether to fulfil my request.
"Divine has the power of creation, life and everything beautiful, whereas Chaos has the power of destruction, death and everything ugly. However, they both contain elements of the other since they are basically two sides of the same coin or something like that."
Ackadaisical exnation from a selfish entitled god¡ Not surprising.
"Which would you rmend for me to choose?"
I asked since I wasn''t sure. One sounded cooler than the other, but I didn''t want to make such a pivotal decision because of a dumb reason like "one sounded cooler".
Sure, the fact that I could choose both options was staring me right in the face, but I was getting a feeling that having both wasn''t going to help me out in anyway.
After a minute, she pulled out two orbs and held both of them up for me to see.
"These are expandable cups. They grow bigger over time."
As she said that, she then summoned a smoothie machine with only two taps present. She ced the orbs under the taps.
"Think of it like there''s a smoothie machine. And this smoothie machine serves only two vours, Divine and Chaos. Now, when you open both taps, what do you see?"
She opened the taps and apart from the different colour in the liquids, the obvious difference was-
"The amount of liquid both taps are releasing."
The white liquid was releasing in drops whereas the ck liquid was gushing madly and filling up its orb quickly.
"Good. Now, watch closely."
I looked at it for about 10 more seconds, then the orb being filled with ck liquid shattered, whereas the white liquid was still filling up.
"I thought you said they were expandable."
Pointing out the issue, she red at me as if I was stupid.
"They are expandable. Look at the second cup."
I looked at it, and truly the orb was getting bigger over time as the amount of liquid filling up the orb increased.
"Now, what do you think happened?"
It immediately clicked after I saw it.
"Chaos energy arrives quickly and inrge quantities, but it destroys its targets, whereas Divine energy is slow and small, but it grows in tandem with its targets."
"Wrong. Look closer."
I looked on for about 5 minutes, and what I noticed was that the speed at which the white liquid released increased over time. After about 10 more minutes, the orb was about as big as a bucket but the white liquid overtook it and broke it.
"Huh? Why''d it break? They both kill you over time!?"
"That''s the gist of it, now you can choose. Hurry up."
The set up disappeared and I was left with making the decision once more.
"Ah, does that mean if I have both energies, I''d still go pop cause of the chaos energy?"
She looked me dead in the eye and showed absolutely no change in expression whatsoever. She really wasn''t going to go out of her way to help me in the situation.
"Ok, what about if I had immortality?"
"Gods have ''immortality'', but even they can die. Now choose."
I felt a shiver run down my spine when I looked at her crooked smile and sadistic gaze. She was suddenly enjoying my dilemma.
But didn''t that make their immortality fake? Gods were then quasi-immortal, but the fact is they are called immortal because nothing is known to be able to kill them. Did that mean the immortality I would acquire as a phoenix was quasi-immortality? Does that mean the whole point of me surviving this long was so I could get powerful enough to self-destruct?
Survive.
Oh¡ that''s right. I guess I just needed to choose the option that would keep me alive the longest.
I looked back at the list.
All of these options looked so damn tempting, but a phoenix was immortal. It couldn''t die, and even if it did, it would definitely reincarnate in some way.
"Come to think about it, isn''t it weird that I haven''t once heard mention of phoenixes in the world?"
I looked at the system master for some sort of reply, but she didn''t give me anything. If anyone imed to have the best poker face in the world, I''d tell them they were nothing before Alpha.
Struggling with the decision, I got a really bad feeling about the phoenix all of a sudden. Normally the system master would act friendlier and hyper, but now she''s being too docile. Was the phoenix a bad choice?
"Hurry it up, would you? We have other things to talk about."
She ordered me, but now I was even more scared and confused. I looked at the others. Then only one option seemed to make sense at the time.<novelnext></novelnext>
"I choose this."
I pointed at it.
"Hm, interesting choice. But you could have picked the phoenix, you know?"
She muttered something that I picked up on.
"What?"
"Yeah, I''m surprised you chose the other one. This is probably a better choice, but the phoenix might have saved you from some trouble in the near future."
"What''s that supposed to mean?"
"You''ll find outter, I guess."
"Is it because of the phoenix''s immortality?"
"The phoenix''s immortality isn''t an issue here. No matter what form you chose, you would have some form of immortality from here on out. It''s a different matter altogether. You''ll understand when the timees."
"Wait, I''m immortal now?"
"Shut up, we need to talk about something else."
Skipping past any questions I would ask, she moved onto the real reason she summoned me to this ce.
"Due to the, um¡ oddities of this particr evolution, you''ll be unconscious for quite a while."
"How long is a long while"
"About a month?"
"A month!?"
"Don''t worry. Your physical body is in an unbreakable shell that only you can break out of, so you''re safe."
"That''s not the issue here! The issue is the fact that there''s an uing war and I''ll be inactive in case of a random attack!"
"Don''t worry, don''t worry. Your subordinates are quite reliable. Have some faith in them."
She reminded me of all my captains and general. I could trust Reiman to get the job done, and there was ''that'' thing we had been prepping in the shadows to protect the West and all members of my familia from human invaders.
In the end, what were the chances of an invasion so soon? The continent''s big, so it wasn''t like they could already be waiting at the outskirts of Larm, ready to attack, right?
"No way in hell! Everything you make me do is sketchy as heck!"
I rejected her offerpletely. She gave me a coy smile and started to strangle my neck.
"Come on, it''s a twenty-minute adventure. You won''t even notice how much time passed."
Her grip tightened, and I could feel the life draining from my body, but in times like these, you just can''t let go.
"Why don''t you just go on it yourself, then?"
After I asked this, she let go of my neck and turned the sky ck. All I could see were the stars illuminating the darkness.
"Do you have any idea how boring life would be if I decided to do everything myself?"
As she said this, the night sky started to pass quickly, and soon it was day in her realm once again, then night. It kept repeating itself at a faster pace than thest.
"I could experience a lifetime''s worth of events in the second it takes for average mortals to do anything. If I did anything, I would run out of everything to do."
As she said this, she stood up and the sky zoomed in on one of the stars. I honestly thought I was going to go blind because of how bright the star was, but she stood in front of me as if to protect my eyes. Her unusual eyes and smile sent a shiver down my spine as she looked at me with a sort of condescending gaze.
"I don''t like living that kind of boring life. It''s too in and unexciting. So help me out."
Once she was done with her speech, the star exploded behind her, and I was forced to shut my eyes. I felt no heat, difort, or anything.
When I opened my eyes again, Alpha was sitting down, drinking a canned c while looking at me. I didn''t know why, but I could sort of sympathise with her.
I didn''t like it, but then again, having 1 month of nothing to do would also drive me insane.
"Sure, I''ll go on your quest. But you better increase my store rank and give me a lot of store points."
"Oh? You don''t want any more unique skills?"
"After that warning you gave me, hell no."
Sheughed at me after hearing that reply. Couldn''t help but feel a little bashful since I used to want more of those.
"What''s the quest about, anyway?"
Chapter 272 Abandoning The North Pt.I
"Move your asses!"
The captain of Wall Guard yelled to the fledgling soldiers, who had little to no awareness of their surroundings midbat. Some fledglings opted to look around to see what they were being warned about and others chose to reflexively jump out of the way. The former was hit by a barrage ofrge chunks of ore and balls of fire, whereas the others managed to avoid the attack by a hair''s breadth.
The cyclops captain shook his head in disappointment when he saw the screaming soldiers and could only let out an exasperated gasp as he grabbed his spear.
In a fit of rage, he flung the spear so hard, it stabbed through a set of five griffins and manticores and sent them spiraling to the ground in a bloody mess. However, this was nothing in the face of the hundreds of griffins and manticores flying above the wall andunching attacks of lightning, fire, poison, and earth.
The cyclopes vige wall had been under attack for six days straight now, and it was a wonder they hadn''t struck the centre of the vige already.
Cyclopes were considered to be one of the strongest creatures, but that im was void once their opponent was capable of flight. There was no way for them to grapple flying opponents to the ground and they would eventually lose out in a battle of endurance.
This made it very obvious that the attack on their gates was a strategic move to wear down their fighting forces and make aplete invasion much easier. If the assault on the wall wasn''t any sort of strategy, then the monsters were inly stupid.
Either way, the cyclopes were fully prepared for a fight of endurance. With their reserves, they could go for weeks fighting with little rest. Even better was the fact that they allied with the west and the wyverns, meaning eventually the griffins and manticores would be stopped by their allies.
They simply needed to hold out.
The only problem with this was, it had been 3 days since they sent out a request. They had heard word that it could take several weeks to about two months travelling from one side of Larm to the other, but they were also told that to the rat men of the West, this distance meant nothing. They could easilyplete the journey within a day or two.
So why hadn''t they heard from them yet?
No one knew exactly why.
"Fetch me my spears, lieutenant!"
He spoke and two of the wall guards looked at each other, confused as to who he was speaking to. Angrily, he mmed their faces together then marched towards his tower as the battle unfolded.
All around him, the sounds of screaming soldiers filled his ears. He chose to ignore most of them as none of them were in actual danger. Cyclopes had low stamina, but their bodies were so durable, only wyvern king fire was known to actually hurt them.
Something as stupid as manticore fire, lightning and rocks weren''t going to kill them. But they could die from overworking andck of food for even a single day.
The chief arrived at his tower, where he saw a cyclops leaving his office with a bag of spears on his back.
"Oh boss, I was bringing your spears, but it was kind of hard to look through your shit."
The guard spoke, making the captain sigh.
"Good work, now get back out there and start throwing more spears."
He patted him on the back, took the bag, then sent him off. The captain followed right behind while fetching out one spear, before he heard a cry.
"Boss! We see some War trolls and Mountain goblins charging at the gates!"
"Huh? Ground soldiers?"
Confused, he walked over to the edge of the wall and looked down at the field. Truly, an army of war trolls and mountain goblins charged at their walls. A sight so pathetic he actually felt likeughing, but he held it back.
"Stupid goblins. Oi, don''t let up the assault on the griffins and manticores! Keep shooting them down."
As he said this, he grabbed one random soldier and brought him close enough to whisper.
"Go back to the barracks and report to the king tha-"
Before he could finish his sentence, a shadow swooped by andnded in front of the wall. Both he and the guard he held looked over the wall and saw through the cloud of dust who the shadow belonged to.
A man with a ponytail sticking out of his head and ck tattoos spreading from his neck to torso. He wore a loincloth around his waist with a ck belt tying it together and heavy looking boots. In both arms, he wielded an axe with a silver glean. This green skinned cyclops let out arge roar then attacked the war trolls and mountain goblins that were mounting an attack at the bottom of the wall.
"What''s that bastard doing here?"
The guard asked and the captain simply scoffed then shoved the guard.
"Get back to work and put them cowardly bastards down!"
"But I''m getting hungry, boss."
"Hm, go for a quick meal break then."
With that, the cyclops guard left contently with a smile on his face. The captain grunted while observing the green cyclops'' assault on the trolls and goblins.
With a single swing of his axe, three heads were sent rolling. The goblins instantly became wary of him, but the trolls mindlessly charged at him, attempting to swarm him.
This was a useless tactic as the green cyclops spun himself wildly, creating a tiny cyclone and sucking in their bodies. He stopped once enough corpses fell to the ground and let out a roar that paralysed most of them and even some of the griffins and manticores.
His attacks were cruel and vicious. And that was before he encased himself in a red aura that gave him a boost in power and allowed him to release a flurry of unrelenting attacks.
At this point, most of the monsters were looking at him alone. The cyclops put both axes back then opened his arms wide with a grin on his face.
The tattoos on his body glowed with a white light, causing the sky to turn grey and clouds to swarm. The winds got heavy and the atmosphere felt tense. The monsters in the sky could feel the uing storm and they were shaken.
shes of lightning arced across the sky followed by a boom in thunder. He beat his chest once, then thunder echoed. Again he beat his chest, thunder followed once more. He repeated this, two more times, before lifting up one of his axes to the sky. White lightning struck the axe and his entire body.
After touching his aura, the lightning turned red and with a wave of his hand, the red lightning spread in a circr arc, sting his foes away.
After ten minutes that felt like nothing more than a second, the battle for the day was over without the aid of allies.
The green cyclops had single-handedly won the war of the walls and returned to his abode. The captain of the wall merely scoffed then called for those who participated in the fight to get their meals and swap ces with those who were on standby.
Some guards were sent to patrol the front of the wall to see if there were any oddities and some went further into the forest to smoke out any nearby enemy camps.
Overall, the day ended on a rtively peaceful note and the cyclopes celebrated with arge meal as was in their tradition after every victory.
However, the leaders of the vige could not participate in this victory meal. They had to meet with the chief to discuss their n of action.
The captain of the wall was currently standing in a room filled with a few other people on the same level. The cyclopes government head. Chief of mining, Chief of Food, Chief of construction, Chief of the City Walls, Chief of Military, Chief of Smithy and the actual King of the cyclopes with his right-hand man.
He looked around, searching for someone, but as usual, that person did not make an appearance tonight.
''Stonehard bastard.''
He thought to himself then tsked before focusing on the meeting once more.
"I thought you said the West were our allies!"
The Chief of Construction mmed down on the desk in a fit of rage.
"What of it?"
The king asked, confused by his anger.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Then why haven''t theye already? Building the walls took months of delicate work. Repairs won''t be so easy."
"Are you insinuating that your walls aren''t good enough to withstand such a measly crew of ruffians? Then that would make my assessment of you being as good as Dwarf elites to be wrong, no?"
"Eek!"
The chief of construction paused, then looked away.
"Our allies from the West wille. It''s not even been five days since we sent out the request."
"But we don''t need them."
Chief of military argued. He burly looking cyclops red at the map on the table, specifically the West.
"The West is full of weaklings that can barely keep up with mountain goblins! It''s an offense for us to take their help."
"The West¡ is full of weaklings, yes. However, times are changing and their leader is clearly not a weakling."
He corrected the chief of military''s sentence as he looked at the West with a subtle grin on his face.
"The West is known for producing the weakest out of all the parts of Larm, but we also know that it causes random mutations in some monsters that make them the best of the best in Larm as well."
"Still, that is no reason for you to make us waste food for help."
The chief of militaryined once more, making the king sigh.
"Come on. You''re in charge of our military. I want you to think much more carefully about this."
The chief of military felt insulted by this, but as hard as he tried, he couldn''t think any further than what he had already assumed. It was simply a waste of time in his eyes.
The king shook his head in disappointment.
"In truth, I stand with your view that the West is weak."
"Huh? Just now you said that they were strong."
The chief of construction argued, but all he got was a re that made him shut his mouth.
"I said their leader was strong. However, I can''t say the same for the entirety of the West. This is a test run for them."
"Oh? To see if they are worthy allies."
Chief of Military finally understood it and nodded his head, pleased.
"Indeed."
The other chiefs also saw the king''s n and were impressed. They wondered why they themselves hadn''t thought of it first.
"Chief of the wall, what happened out there today."
The captain straightened his back, then responded to the question.
"We got a couple of griffins and manticores. Then some war trolls and mountain goblins tried to attack the bottom of our walls, but the blessed one jumped in and cleared them out."
After he delivered a quick report of the happenings, mummering could be heard amongst the chiefs. They all scoffed at the idea of the Blessed One interfering in the wall defence.
"What were you doing to allow that bastard to interfere?"
The chief of military grabbed the chief of wall by his armour and pulled him in close. The chief of wall was prepping up a fist to punch the chief of military should things get too bad.
"It''s not like I could stop a man who swoops in from nowhere."
"Oi, oi, stop it you two. You''re in the presence of the king. You shouldn''t be acting so unruly."
The king''s secretary got in between them and pushed them apart. As young as he was, his strength was such that neither of two wanted to fight with the secretary there to stop them.
"You said mountain goblins and war trolls came down, right?"
The king went back to the chief of wall''s report.
"Yes. They weren''t a lot, but they ran towards the wall like dumbasses. Haha."
He found it funny how they actually even attempted to take them down from the bottom rather than from the sky like the griffins and manticores were doing. If they performed abined attack from the sky, there was no way the wall guard could keep up for so long.
"And nothing seemed out of the ordinary?"
"No. The scouts wiped out some of their nearby camps, but that was it."
The chief of the wall shrugged as he hadn''t identified anything out of the ordinary. All eyes fell on the king who was in thought. For a moment, there was silence, followed by a thunderous roar from outside the tent.
The cyclopes were celebrating and things had gotten pretty loud.
"Is something wrong, king?"
The secretary asked.
"Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just thinking a bit too much. Go enjoy the celebrations. I''ll be out with you in a few."
With that said, he waved off the chiefs and they left one by one. The chief of the wall was thest one to head out, but before he did, he looked back into the tent.
The king noticed this and smiled at him. The captain wasn''t sure why, but he was getting a bad feeling.
''I''m probably just hungry.''
He thought, then went off to enjoy the party. The cyclopes went wild, but not too much as the next day was another battle for them.
However, contrary to the previous days, the next day could be described as the greatest loss the cyclopes had ever faced. So much so that the chief of walls could only look at the scene with a dropped mouth.
His eye was wide opened and the shock caused him to tremble. For the first time since the wall had been built, a side of it copsed as an army of giants, minotaurs and other violent uncontroble beasts attacked them.
Even that wasn''t the most ferocious thing present.
The cyclops copsed on his knees as he looked above at the creature with red scales that had a greenish lustre to them, ck curled horns and a fang filled snout.
"W-What''s a dragon doing here!?"
Chapter 273 Abandoning The North Pt.II
"What''s the status report?"
The king''s grim sounding voice asked while looking into the fire ce with all the chiefs behind him.
"Fifty wall guards down. Nearly a hundred are severely injured and won''t be able to fight. They crippled the eastern wall by more than half in a single blow."
The chief of the wall answered. He himself had lost all his hair after attempting to fight against the dragon youngling.
"And the blessed one?"
At this question, the room tensed up. So far, everything they had all heard was baseless rumours, but in this ce where only facts were being reported, they could finally satiate their hunger for the truth.
"The dragon youngling, swallowed him whole then left."
The chief of the wall could see it quite vividly. The absurd heat that came with the dragon''s breath, the intense force that their opponents came with. Cyclopes were very confident in their ability to fight on the ground, but the same could be said of the giants who were easily twice asrge as the average cyclops.
The cyclopes were at a disadvantage receiving a bombardment from both above and below with zero reinforcements. They really were on the verge of losing their wall, but the Blessed One dropped in once more and begun his massacre.
As much as the cyclopes didn''t like him, they had to admit that he was always there in their time of need. Maybe, it was because of this characteristic of him that out of everyone in the vige, he was the one to be blessed.
This gave them hope. And the cyclopes fought back with their hardest, having this lone hope in their hearts and eyes. That is, till the dragon youngling swallowed the Blessed One whole and left. After that, the enemies retreated as well. It was an odd sight, but it made it very clear what their objective was this entire time.
It didn''t take a genius to figure out that the reason they hadn''t directly invaded the city from above and were constantly attacking one particr area of the wall was so they could create a big enough distraction to summon forth the Blessed One. The Wall was arge circr barrier protecting the vige, and because of this, guards were stationed at every part.
When one portion is being attacked, there still exists the possibility of another portion being attacked, so from the very get go, the cyclopes had been stretched thing. Their rationality in this situation was what caused their loss. And in the end, it caused the blessed one to be swallowed by a dragon youngling.
"Normally, we''d have all charged at the enemy."
The chief of military grumbled and everyone looked at him with res, knowing what he was implying. The king''s secretary growled and walked up to him, but the king grabbed the secretary by the hand and pulled him back.
"So you suggest we simply charge at the enemy with all cyclopes?"
The king asked calmly, no hint of a threat in his tone. This caused the chief of military to feel like he had the upper hand here. In his mind, the king''s strategy had failed and he just lost face, giving him a chance to rise to take the top spot.
"Of course¡"
He confidently stated, but now he could feel anguished auras bearing down on him. He didn''t understand his mistake, but clearly no one in the room was pleased with his idea.
"¡ Not. Ahem."
Switching gears, the chief of military cleared his throat.
"Then think before you decide to waste any more of our time."
The chief of construction said, clearly agitated by the fact that his precious wall had been greatly damaged. The infuriating part was that he couldn''t even me it on the chief of the wall guard. The real culprit behind its destruction was¡
"That shitty blessed one. Good riddance to such a pest."
He scoffed, and the others were confused.
"Do not insult the deceased. It''s unbing of one of my chiefs."
The king growled. Everyone knew that the king was very respectful to the dead. A habit he picked up on his travels around the continent.
"Fine. But we can''t follow your ns anymore. Our supposed allies still haven''t made an appearance."
He pointed out another issue on everyone''s minds.
"The rat men may travel fast, but it isn''t like the other races can move as fast as they do."
"Tch."
"I''ve seen that some rat men evolve to be tunnelers. They may be huge, but they sure are fast. If this ally isn''t smart enough to use them as a means of transportation, are you sure we can even rely on them?"
The chief of mining exined. Seeing tunnelers wasn''t something new for those who mined in the mountains. And their speed wasn''t something to be ignored either. They could practically disappear with the blink of an eye.
"You make a valid point. However, do you think a single tunneler could carry an army in one night?"
"I saw the new tunnels they''ve built in the North on some of my excursions. The West can ess this ce with ease at any point in time."
After hearing this, the king hit a realisation. The reason the West still wasn''t here now seemed all too obvious. But the problem was his idea could also be a misunderstanding. Having travelled, he understood that things weren''t always as they seemed. Either way, the only way to win this was to enact his own n.
''Hehe, I guess the West really is a smart ally then.''
His secretary noticed this subtle change, but also decided to keep quiet.
"Smithy, I believe we finally have enough armour and weapons?"
The king spoke. For the first time since the meetings had begun, the smithy added to the conversations.
"Yes. We can equip all the warriors and even some of the children now."
"Good."
He stood up and stabbed a dagger into the eastern gate. Everyone was confused by his sudden action, but kept any ideas to themselves once they saw the scowl on his face.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Chief of military and the walls, we''re going with the chief of military''s ns. Summon all our soldiers to the eastern wall and have them ready."
"Huh?"
The chief of the wall let out an unconscious "huh" sound after hearing something odd. He had to blink several times to make sure he was seeing right. He pped his ears a couple of times too.
"Did I hit my head?"
He asked, still finding it hard to believe that the king actually said this. Upon hearing this, the king couldn''t help butugh. He then put his arm on the chief of wall''s shoulder.
"Go take a short rest. We have a long day tomorrow."
The king excused him, then faced the others.
"Same goes for all of you. Please take a short rest before tomorrow. Now, off with you."
He shooed everyone out of the tent. They were all a bit anxious, but they were also happy that they could get some rest out of this. Before leaving the tent, the chief of wall took a nce at the king and his secretary. Both were whispering, but he could have sworn he heard something along the likes of
"Tell the chief of food, smith, mining and construction to¡"
Before it became too inaudible. He decided not to think too much about it.
He had some rest that night, as did most of the cyclopes. The next day started with all cyclops warriors standing behind the eastern gate in full armour. Over 300 warriors stood on the ground with over a hundred on the walls for aerial support.
The chief of military stood ahead of the army giving orders, whereas the chief of wall was on the wall and checking with everyone''s equipment. Today as well, the king hadn''t shown up and support from their supposed allies still hadn''te and neither was there a response from them.
At this point, some of the cyclopes hadpletely disregarded the idea of aiding in and were rather excited that they got to deal with the opponent themselves.
While all this was happening, most of the women and children were organised into the centre of the vige and were given armour and weapons to protect themselves in case the army at the eastern gate failed.
Back to the eastern gate, the cyclopes scouts that had been sent to gather information on the enemy numbers came with shaken expressions. Confused, the chief of wall jumped down to ask what had happened.
"Oi, what is it?"
"Captain. There''s a lot of em."
He exined in the simplest way imaginable. The chief of wall held back the urge to smack him good in the head.
"How many?"
"A lot."
''¡ maybe I shouldn''t have even sent a scout.''
Unfortunately, a great majority of the cyclopes race weren''t smart. There were few exceptions and those became chiefs of their respective viges, but other than that, most of the cyclopes were not the brightest race out there.
"Get back in line you idiots."
They nodded then ran into the walls. The chief of wall sighed then looked out into the forest. Still, there was no sign of the enemy even after the scouts imed to have seen a lot.
He went back and made sure everyone was ready for the uing waves of enemies. Especially, the dragon youngling who could very well be their end. After checking that everyone was in position, he went to his quarters and sat down.
On his desk, there was a scroll, with a quill and bottle of ink next to it. He dabbed the quill into the ink and started to scribble on the scroll.
It wasn''t really anything significant. Just him writing the letters of the demonnguage down as it was taught to him by the cyclopes king. Being a species that general didn''t interact with others, the cyclopes never really needed to learn writtennguage or any externalnguage for that matter.
The king was trying to change this though. Still, ever since bing king, none of the adult cyclopes had tried learning this and so it fell on the younger generation. Even then, the chief of wall was interested enough to start learning. So, in moments like these when he had no immediate job, he would always be scribbling, learning rigorously, like this.
"Captain! Iing!"
A loud cry came from outside the chief''s quarters. He donned his helmet and took his bag of spears then bolted out of the room. On the walls, all the cyclopes just stared into the horizon with dumbfounded expressions.
The chief of wall almost dropped his bag of spears when he took a look too. The sky was littered with countless dots flying high above. Like a swarm of bees, but everyone knew that they wererger than the killer bees in the West.
Behind and above them, numerous clouds were gathering striking blue and white lightning. The cloud spirits of the mountains too had been forced into the situation. Seeing the numbers, the cyclopes couldn''t see themselves acquiring a victory against the Tyrant as easily as they presumed.
But there was one key thing everyone was searching for and that was the dragon youngling. It was nowhere to be found and that put everyone on edge. However, as if to rece the dragon youngling, 10 wyverns could be seening in hot. Thergest of which had onyx scales and ivory horns.
One of the wyvern kings.
"Ha. So the wyverns betrayed us, huh?"
Upon seeing this, the chief of wall stretched and dropped his bag of spears to the ground.
"Water spear!"
Hemanded and the closest soldier searched through the bag till he brought out a spear that had a blue rock embedded in it. This blue rock was a Water Elemental Rock. It gave the water attribute to anything it was put on.
After taking in a heavy breath, the chief of wall nted his left foot forward and right food back. He twisted his body at a perfect 120-degree angle, then flung it as head as he could. The spear shot through the sky like a bolt of lightning, but as it went, streams of water encased the spear making it appear as some sort of water cannon.
This spear hit one of the wyvern kings faster than they could think, causing the wyvern king to simply plummet and die. This marked the start of the war for the cyclopes.
Chapter 274 Abandoning The North Pt.III
The war for the cyclops vige kicked off with the opponent taking the first blow swiftly. This caused a bit of shock on the enemy side as they weren''t expecting the attack to be so powerful and fast.
"Lightning Spear!"
The chief of wallmanded and the cyclops soldier next to him took out a spear much like the first one, except it had several spikes sticking out and facing the tip of the spear. The chief grabbed it and performed the same actions from before ¨C nting his feet, twisting his body and flinging with intense speed and precision.
At the 300-metre mark, the spear started to sparkle with yellow lightning, then transformed into a raging beast of lightning that hit a bunch of griffins and manticores, knocking them out cold and sending them plummeting.
"What are you waiting for wall guard!? Fire!"
Hemanded, realising that his subordinates were wasting time just staring at him in awe. They all took out their spears and started to fling them at the opponents too, some spears hit and some missed.
But now the opponents had had enough of losing their forces so they begun their counter attack. The griffins and manticores dodged most of the spears when possible and tried to swoop in to cause some sort of chaos.
The cloud spirits shot water bullets, missiles and cannons as well wind magic attacks in order to send the spears off target and keep their allies safe. Most of their magic was ineffective on the cyclops whose tough skin had a really high defence. The best they could do was use their missiles and cannons to push the wall guard back or knock them down, but little to no damage was being caused.
And their way of helping their allies using wind magic was useless in the face of the chief of wall and some high-level spear men whose spears wouldn''t falter even in a storm.
While the aerial battle ensued, the enemy ground troops started to flood the entrance to the gates. The chief of military grinned and swung his halberd to rally his troops. He then led a charge outside where they were met by seemingly countless numbers of mountain goblins, war trolls, some minotaurs and Dire wolves.
"Hahaha! Show them no mercy!"
The chief of military''s enthusiasm was more than enough to make his troops confident. He had been drilling them mercilessly and now was the time to show their efforts. The ground troops shed with their opponents and the result was honestly unsurprising.
The chief of military alone was a force to be reckoned with. The way he moved about cutting down opponents and tanking attacks made him appear as a force of nature with no match. With his merciless shes, barbaric rams and excessively destructive skills, the chief of military lived up to his title as The Bloody Warhead.
***
While the battle for the vige was urring at the Eastern gate, the king of cyclopes sat on a chair while looking at the sky. Where he currently sat was once where his tent was, but that had been packed up.
In fact, all around him, all that could be seen where empty buildings. The entire vige was cleared of any life or object. The only one there was his secretary.
"Honestly, the West are a bunch of scum."
His secretary spoke, but the king couldn''t help butugh. This startled the secretary.
"How are they scum, huh? I would have done the same in their shoes."
He said with a very pleased smile. The secretary was still clearly upset even after hearing his master''s approval. The king cleared his throat, realising that he was the only one amused.
"Stop thinking about it so much. We got everyone out either way."
"To think that mountain goblins managed to sneak in past the walls. The chosen one''s lightning attack really messed up the wall... this wouldn''t have even happened if the West wasn''t just filled with a bunch of-"
"You know, we can still hear you, right?"
A deep hoarse voice said. The secretary looked from the corner of his eye and there he saw a human sized rat in a green robe ring at them. The rat man had introduced himself as Reiman.
The secretary clicked his tongue then looked at the ground before him. More specifically, the massive hole that had been dug up and acted as an escape route for all the cyclops vigers.
Reiman tapped on the ground twice and from the buildings, dozens of shadow rats popped up with their arms behind them and standing in an attentive form.
"Cyclopes evacuation mission¡plete!"
He yelled.
"You are excused."
Hemanded and the shadow rats dissolved into the shadows. Reiman himself started to walk towards the hole.
"Hey, you''re sure the aerial assault guys can''t see what we''ve done right?"
The secretary asked with a re. The king sighed and face palmed, but didn''t do anything to stop it.
"Of course, our magic experts currently have an illusion dome set up so no one outside would know that there''s something different happening."
He answered quickly and started walking again.
"What about those fighting on the frontlines?"
"Oi, brat-!"
The king this time, tried to silence his secretary, but Reiman found it amusing. A grin stretched up on his face as he responded.
"Some of our captains are taking care of it. Don''t doubt the West''s capabilities!"
***
After a few more hours of fighting, the former advantage the cyclopes had was slowly waning. Their enemies, though weak, were seemingly infinite. With every griffin that fell, twenty more would appear out of nowhere to enact revenge for their fallen ally.
It wasn''t as difficult as it was simply draining. And the cyclopes terrible stamina, this was not the type of battle they could be fighting. And the enemy had closed the gap in an honestly terrifying manner.
"Jump off the wall!"
The chief of wallmanded as fire breathing wyverns started to attack the walls. The reason they had to avoid this was because those fire breathing wyverns had fire power on the level of a dragon youngling and it would cause significant damage when they get hurt.
The wall was burnt through from the top. A majority of the cyclopes were able to avoid it, but those that were toote were running about wailing in pain because of the fire.
The chief of wall looked at the gate. From the outside all anyone would see was a giant metal wall. But the cyclopes knew it was more special than that. About a year ago, the king brought an interesting core to the vige. This item made any creature that touched it, lose most of their strength and skills.
It was more than enough to ward off any stupid enough to try to invade, but what made it even more special was that whenever this core touched a metal it would spread an electric pulse that gave the metal this unique property. This was the secret behind the cyclops'' imprable walls.
With this, they were very confident in their ability to protect the vige. They didn''t have much at the time, so they simplyced the front with metal so the core could spread this effect round and ward off any violent monsters, creating the perfect dome.
The only issue here, was the innards of the dome wasn''t made of metal and was very vtile. Right now, the wyvern''s fire breath was burning through the wooden structures that kept the core hidden.
Another key aspect of the core was that it reacted very violently to heat, which is another one of the reasons they still hadn''t been able to transform it into something else.
As the chief started to realise how serious the issue really was, he gulped. Arge ''Tok'' sounded and a sh of red lightning spread across the entire wall.
''Red?''
But before he could process anything, there was a massive explosion that sent everyone next to the walls flying.
The sound of several screaming cyclopes was muted by therge explosion. The cyclopes once imprable walls were now shreds.<novelnext></novelnext>
The chief of wall tried his best to recover, but just then, the ground started to shake. The sounds of felled trees a ways apart entered the cyclopes ears, causing them to pause. Truthfully, they wouldn''t have even noticed such minor details, but their survival instincts were screaming at that moment.
All cyclopes looked eastward. There, they spotted 2 beings that towered over the giant trees of Larm. One had fiery red skin whereas the other had pale blue. Both had ck horns protruding their heads and their dark onyx eyes red at the cyclopes.
''W-Where did thosee from?''
Larm was massive. A forest that took about a tenth of the entire continent. Understandably, it was impossible to know every single species that lived in it, but the cyclopes were very confident that they knew every creature in the North. And not once in their lives had they received word of creatures like those in the North.
Where on Krione could they have been hiding this entire time that they couldn''t be seen?
Sadly, there was no time to divert attention at this moment. The adversary, who already knew about their allies, had not taken a single break like the cyclopes did. The attacks were merciless. Some were powerful; others hardly registered.
But one thing was clear. Most of the cyclopes had readied themselves for death on this battlefield.
It was truly an absurd thing when one thought about it in hindsight. The cyclopes weren''t supposed to be thinkers and builders. They were a barbaric race that were once known for their brutality and their fiery hunger. But they learned to use weapons. They learned to use traps. Build safe homes and arge wall to protect themselves from enemies.
This was what some believed to be an evolution. But yearster, some schrs would propose a theory. A theory that "Evolution" of a monster was not necessarily an improvement, but merely a change in form to suit the current environment.
In a case like this, in exchange for their upgraded standard of living, the cyclopes had lost their ability to fight to the veryst breath that once made them one of the most feared creatures on the continent. Right now, as they looked at the two walking mountains, that instinct was not there to save them.
Some cyclopes just fell down on their knees and closed their eyes in anticipation of their death. Life was sweet while itsted at least.
For the chief of wall, time seemed to have slowed down. Cyclopes blood spilled everywhere, dust was kicked up, the ground turned ck from lightning sts and the ground shaking heavily under the heavy steps of the two giants.
Three minotaurs charged at the weakened chief of wall. In this moment, he really thought ''I might actually die here.''
The chief of wall suddenly realised something once his life shed before his eyes. The seemingly tiny and useless waves of attacks from before at only a single gate. The sudden appearance of a dragon that could kill the blessed one and never appear again. That odd red lightning that the Blessed one alone had ever disyed showing up on the gates.
Nothing was a coincidence.
"Tch. These bastards have been controlling our movements."
The chief of wall scoffed then removed the spear he had stabbed his abdomen. The wound under normal circumstances would have been healing up, but these spears were affected by the core''s rampant power, so at this moment, he was as vulnerable as anything that couldn''t regenerate.
That didn''t matter though, he ran at the minotaurs that wereing for his life and grabbed the centre bull by the horns. The bull pushed him back, but once the chief of wall nted his feet firmly into the ground, the bull lost. He spun the bull around threw it into one of the others.
He gave a powerful head-splitting punch to thest bull that was still charging. Seeing as the others were still alive, he grabbed the dead minotaur by the horns and broke them off after adding a considerable amount of force. Quickly, he shot both horns at both minotaurs, piercing their skulls and killing them.
Afterwards, he looked far in the distance where the chief of military was still going at it with his halberd, causing immense damage and grinning ear-to-ear like a mad man. Truly, this was the best ce for him. The only cyclops to retain that undying battle spirit. It was almost as if he didn''t notice what was going around him. Or maybe, he really did know and was having as much fun as possible before this ended.
''I can''t allow that bastard to beat me.''
Thinking this, he got off the ground and took out a little rock. It was a green rock which could be found when digging through the mines. A wind elemental stone. Give this to an object and it automatically acquires the wind attribute.
Even better, this was a Grand Wind Elemental Gem. Refined with several wind elemental stones to create this beautiful item.
"Kind of a waste."
He muttered then cracked the gem. It started to glow violently ¨C a sign of an impending explosion. Quickly, he threw it at a random swarm of enemies, hoping for the worst to be done. Nothing happened.
"Huh¡ it didn''t wor-"
As if to mock his disbelief, a powerful shockwave sted the surroundings from where he threw it. The chief resisted it and he was almost disappointed that that was all the explosion could muster.
But just then, there was a second shockwave, even more powerful than the former. This time it managed to push him back by a considerable distance. The weaker opponents were actually sent flying.
Again, another more powerful shockwave was sent, this time actually throwing the chief of wall back. Even the chief of military who had been fighting without any sort of inconvenience was thrown back.
Everyone''s eyes immediately fell to the gem that was still glowing violently and now humming like a hungry brat throwing a tantrum.
''Oh shi-''
Another shockwave, easily the strongest by arge margin, exploded killing the weaker creatures on this battle and causing the cyclopes to cough out blood from internal damage.
And as if to announce that this was merely the beginning, all the air in the surroundings was being sucked up into crystal, creating a mini cyclone around it. This cyclone grewrger andrger till there was a raging tornado that spun around carelessly.
The chief of wall expected a violent explosion, but for that one gem to have been so strong he was surprised. In that moment, he could only now understand why the chief of smithy hadn''t tried using these grand gems for weapons.
The chief thought this could cause significant damage to the opponent, but then the sky started to fall down.
He could swear on his life that the sky was falling. Or at least, one of the stars that always hung up in the sky was falling down. This star mmed right into the tornado, turning it into a tornado of fire.
Everyone witnessing this was dumbfounded and the cyclopes that saw him throw it just stared at him with shock. He didn''t know how to respond to their gazes either as this was a first for him.
"That idiot, he''s just going to burn the forest down."
A cold, confident voice said. The chief of wall was surprised and he turned back to see who it was.
"Sorry, he was just really insistent on me throwing him up there."
Another seductive voice spoke, causing the chief of wall to turn around again. He was confused since he wasn''t able to see the source, but then a duo appeared out of thing air.
"More enemies?"
The chief of wall scoffed and balled his fists.
"No, we''re allies from the West."
The blue skinned creature spoke.
"The West?"
''They came?''
"You can sleep now."
"Just leave this to us. I''ve been meaning to test out how powerful my magic is now."
They said amusedly and for some reason, their words actually caused his vision to dim. All sense left his body as he copsed to the ground and his eye lids slowly shut.
Before he knew it, he was asleep.
Chapter 275 Abandoning The North Pt.IV
"What a loud idiot."
Yuunamented upon seeing Oki yelling at the top of his lungs while being tossed around in a tornado of fire.
"There''s another one over there too."
Tsuna pointed at a cyclops covered in blood going at it with an unhinged grin on his face and cutting down enemies with glee. Yuuna and Tsuna both grimaced at the sight of the barbaric disy, but the other ¨C Taiku had no interest.
"Can you get him out?"
Taiku asked while looking around. Several shadow rats were moving the unconscious bodies of the cyclops warriors. Taiku himself was panting while on one knee. Using his skills [Commander''s Heart] and [Hypnosis] tomand the entire cyclops army to fall asleep was beyond draining.
''Even when they are weakened, using it on so many is difficult.''
He thought as he looked at what was by far thergest cyclops in front of him. He alone had drained the hugest amount of Taiku''s stamina, so he would need some time to recuperate.
"I can put out the fire with [me Annul], but the tornado is beyond me."
Yuuna pointed out, making Taiku look at Tsuna. Tsuna shrugged ¨C a sign that she had no idea what to do either.
"Then he can figure it out himsel-"
Just as he said this, a loud cry could be heard and they all turned their attention to the tornado. Something shot out of it towards one of the giants, smacking it right in the face.
BOOM!
Arge explosion sounded after the impact and the giant slowly fell down. Tsuna, Yuuna and Taiku all looked with wide eyes as their mouths dropped in shock.
"Woohooo!"
Oki''s voice could be heard from the top of the falling giant. He let his aura ir, creating a field of mes around him.
Taiku then looked at his hands, then at the others.
"I know we evolved and all, but to be able to do that?"
He was very confused.
"It honestly makes no sense¡ we shouldn''t be as strong as even Shiroi, so punching back something of that magnitude¡"
Yuuna added in, exining the limitations of their power. Even after evolution, their stats still came nowhere close to monsters like Shiroi and Yokino who were in control of some of thergest and most powerful forces the West had to offer.
"Then this must be the blessingdy Hinotori has given to us."
Much like a devoted worshipper, Tsuna immediately gave praise to her master.
"Maybe I did hit you too many times when you were a goblin¡"
A sceptical Yuuna muttered under her breath while monitoring the dazed Tsuna with visible concern. Taiku too smile and stood up as his stamina came back to him quickly.
"No. She may be right. That is the only way Oki could have done that to something so fearsome."
With that said he pped both hands together then activated one of his new racial skills. [Third Eye of Insight]. It gave him a statistical analysis of surrounding enemies within a range of 5km.
''That''s weird¡''
He thought while looking at the stats. Every single creature there was a D rank with the exact same stats. He couldn''t say the same for the giants as he wasn''t close enough.
"Is there something wrong?"
Yuuna asked, having noticed his shocked face. Taiku frowned.
"They''re all so weak¡"
"Huh? How''s that a problem?"
Tsuna asked, also confused by his heavy tone.
"Could be a trap?"
"Or¡ we''re just strong now."
Yuuna said while flying up. She stretched her hand forward then casted a ball of green fire about 50 metres wide.
"[Fire Magic: Sun Dome]"
She fired off the spell at a distance towards the marching swarm of enemies. After making contact, the ball of fire exploded, incinerating everything in its path. Taiku looked into the distance and saw that indeed; they were dead and there was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Don''t destroy all the bodies."
Tsunained while waving her staff.
"[Dark Water Magic: Dead Water]"
ck, sticky water shot out of her staff onto the corpses thatid on the ground. Taiku held his nose as the disgusting scent from it only made him feel nauseous. As a death wight, it wasn''t Tsuna''s fault, but she had acquired the ability to somewhat revive the dead and use as an army.
"March forward."
Shemanded and they went.
After a good minute, the falling giant finally fell down and the ground shook mightily.
Taiku clicked his tongue then looked at the others. From their expressions, they were about to let loose. But there had been an argument from sometime back in which they still hadn''t gotten an answer to.
''Hey, what if we y a game.''
He telepathically suggested to everyone.
''A game?''
Oki responded.
''Yes. To see who is the strongest. The one with the most kills wins.''
''Are you insane? We''re only here as a distraction. We can''t take on that man-''
''We''re stronger than before! Wouldn''t it be best to prove the might of Lady Hinotori here?''
Once he made this point, everyone went silent.
''Ok then, we kill as many as possible then wepare-''
Before allowing him to continue, Oki started to shout.
''I''m going to prove that I''m the strongest!!!''
At this shout a pir of fire erupted from where Oki and the giants were. From the looks of things, he was trying to incinerate the giant''s face.
"That idiot¡"
"[Dark Water Magic: gue bullets]!"
Tsuna shouted, firing off her dark sticky water in the form of high-speed projectiles that although weren''t lethal, caused significant damage to the weak creatures. The side effect of the attacks, as the name suggested, caused ck spots to pop up on the creatures'' bodies with a merely ten second countdown to death that spread rapidly amongst the creatures like a gue.
"Be careful not to touch them. I think you might catch the sickness as well."
Tsuna gave a warning causing Taiku to frown. Although he had developed my psychic abilities in his evolution, he was and still is as a swordsman primarily. He couldn''t be expected to actual perform on the battlefield if he bore the risk of dying almost instantly.
"I''ll just give myself and immunity to the disease then."
Using his two favourite skills [Commander''s Heart] and [Hypnosis], Taiku performed an otherwise impossible act.<novelnext></novelnext>
He took out his sword. A long straight de, with sharp edges. This ded was given to him by Sylvie who had been working on giving weapons effects. Unfortunately, she hadn''t really figured it out yet so this was merely amon sword, but Taiku valued it very much.
Now ready, he jumped right into the fray. War trolls, mountain goblins and taurus, they were all cut down with frightening efficiency that shouldn''t have been possible with his physical stats. This made Taiku even more curious.
''Why aren''t I¡''
"[Fairy Dust]."
He heard and above him, Yuuna fluttered her wings violently while flying above the enemies. From her wings, several particles fell, but Taiku didn''t pay much attention to it as it wasn''t disying any visible effects.
"Focus on those in the sky!"
He ordered, and she just sighed.
"I was trying to deal with the ground troops first so I had the advantage, but very well."
With that said, she snapped her finger.
"[Fire Magic: Chained Combustion]."
The particles that were slowly descending sparked into massive explosions that wiped out a good number of monsters on the ground. Yuuna begun to cackle as the horn on her forehead glowed dark purple. Her racial skill [Fire Fairy Horn] had been activated and now her fire would be more effective on spirits.
"You''re a bunch of water spirits so I doubt this''ll have much of an effect, but I''ll just evaporate the lot of you!"
She cackled then spread her hand forward. Four magic circles popped up in front of her.
"Four!?"
Tsuna who knew just how difficult it was to cast even a single one was shocked that the old hag could simulcast 4 so easily.
"You''ve been asking for help from somewhere, haven''t you!?"
Still not wanting to believe her eyes, she yelled at Yuuna, but the mentor could only feel pride that she was still better than her pupil.
"Youngins like you shouldn''t underestimate the mature. Now, [Fairy Fire Magic: Fus¨¦e ¨¦irante]! [Fairy Fire Magic: Orchestre]! [Fairy Fire Magic: ¨¦ruption lunaire]! [Fairy Fire Magic: fl¨¨che de feu]!"
A myriad of colourful fire-based attacks flew towards the cloud spirits. An intense heat wave spread through the air so quickly the others instantly felt it as sweat started to streak down their faces.
The attack pierced through the cloud spirits, shooting them all down in one attack.
''Huh¡ so I wasn''t wrong in thinking we were far stronger now.''
Yuuna thought while looking at the dissipating cloud spirits and the burning griffins and manticores. The wyverns on the other hand avoided her attack and were nowing from the other side. She however fired off fireballs from her palm at the iing wyverns.
When they got in too close, she''d simply cause a massive spark of light that blinded them in order to get far away from them.
''Aren''t they too slow?''
She thought while dodging them. The fireballs thatnded on the wyverns caused them to feel immense pain as well and stumble in the air.
''And they are too weak too¡ what''s going on here?''
Meanwhile, back on the ground, Oki had already killed the first giant. And was busily climbing the second one like some sort of ant.
When the giant tried to p Oki, he''d just jump on that arm and keep climbing. By increasing the intensity of the mes on his fingers, he''d dig into the giant''s skin and keep running up till he got to its face.
When on top, he took out his mallet and ran his natural fire through it. His golden hair turned bright orange as his body glowed and his mallet grew bigger and hotter.
"Hahaha! Die!"
He mmed the mallet right into the giant''s face, causing the giant to fall back. As it fell, he climbed up its nostrils in order to attack from the inside.
By the end of it all, he had burnt the giant from the inside, effectively killing it. He walked back out the nostril then screamed for the world to hear before running towards where his allies where.
At the end of everything, Taiku looked at the dead bodies with scrutiny.
"This¡ is wrong."
"What is?"
Tsuna asked, unable to tell what he was talking about. Same for the others who paused to look at him.
"How did I only kill 20 of them when you all killed at least a 100!?"
"Hahaha, you''re just weak!"
Oki mocked him and patted him on the back causing Taiku to stumble forward. The hit was so painful Taiku was trying to massage his back in that moment.
"I killed most of the ground troops, so I should be the winner."
Tsuna said, gesturing to all the bodies on the ground.
"What? I killed all the sky troops, so I should be the winner."
Yuuna argued.
"You silly women. I killed the two strongest ones, so I should be the winner."
He boasted loudly, infuriating them.
"Whatever. I also have another problem with all this."
Taiku, not wanting to think about his loss, decided to point out something else.
"Whenever we kill something, ''that voice'' tells us that we gained points, but not once did I hear anything like that in this fight."
That was what concerned Taiku the most in this fight.
"Even those two mountains¡ how have we not heard word of them even once?"
"Come on, you''ve heard the stories of how True Battle Gods reach the heavens."
Oki said, defending his kill. The moment Oki started talking, Taiku had to admit he was a bit fearful. The oni wouldn''t like it if his opponent was belittled in front of him, but something had to be said.
"Yes. And you''ve heard the stories of how even Dragon adults shiver at the presence of True Battle Gods. Yet, not once did I feel scared when I saw them."
"Taiku''s right."
A new creepy voice entered the discussion. They all turned around and Nukeme was walking towards them with his tongue sticking out.
"What do you mean?"
"In the mountains. I found a cave of mountain goblins. ording to them, the tyrant and his forces already left the North."
"What do you mean by ''left the North''?"
Taiku inquired further, but Nukeme looked around first.
"Let''s go back to the West. We''ll talk there. Besides, if you''re arguing about who killed the most, I wiped out 563 mountain goblins, so I win."
He turned around and started to head into the vige.
"What about that brute?"
Tsuna asked, pointing to the lone warrior cyclopes that was on his knees, panting heavily from exhaustion.
"B¡ ood¡"
Chapter 276 Red Light Slums
''Ow!''
Was the first thing I thought once I opened my eyes. Contrary to the usual unfamiliar ceiling or the usually blue sky, what I met was a red sky with ck clouds. Confused, I tilted my head around and saw a little thing wing at my shoulder.
This thing had a tiny round frame, with little bat-like wings on it back, a barbed tail and two short horns poking out of its head.
"What the heck are you?"
I muttered in curiosity, startling it. The little fe jumped back and screamed. That was when I noticed that there were more of them surrounding me. They also screamed,, then quickly skedaddled from my view.
There was one big figure however, that fell down and was looking at me with terrified eyes. Scanning from the down below, I identified a pair of ck hairy goat legs. The hair stopped at their waste level, revealing a more human torso. They wore a dirty sleeveless vest over a white shirt. Their face was cute, with bangs covering one eye. A pair of red bat wings on the back and one short horn sticking out their head.
''Huh? A shota?''
I thought while looking at it. But, the more I observed their terrified figure, I noticed more feminine qualities. Their tiny frame, their round cheeks and overall aura.
"Hmm, a loli then?"
I muttered this time with my arm to my chin while looking at them curiously. They still trembled while looking at me and it was almost as if they were about to cry.
"No, no. This is a shota, no? But¡ he or she gives off a female vibe."
I was trying to rack my brain around this odd phenomenon. Sometimes it was hard to tell a little boy from a little girl, but this was down right absurd.
"You, are you a guy or a girl?"
I asked them, unable toe to a conclusion myself. They looked at me, still shaking. I didn''t understand why exactly they were terrified, but I turned around to see if there was something I wasn''t seeing.
Behind me, all I saw were mountain heaps of trash, bones and red dirt. Little critters like the ones from before were running about, but that was about as far as I could see. No sort of life as far as I could tell.
"You still won''t tell me your gender?"
I scratched my head and awkwardly looked back at the Baphomet that was trying to run away. They didn''t need to tell me what their race was for me to know. Everyone knows what a goat legged, bat winged and horned creature looks like.
They paused in their tracks and slowly turned around to face me.
"Come on, I''m not that scary, am I?"
I tried to look at myself, but all I saw were my slender arms and blonde hair. Nothing different about myself.
"I-I''m sorry mdy. I am male."
He was a ''he''. And he was currently bowing to me with one knee and fist on the ground.
"Huh, so you are a shota. Interesting."
He was still trembling while under me as he said,
"I-If mi-mdy w-w-would be so k-k-k-k-kind as t-to f-f-forgive my t-t-transgress-sion, I-I-I would be s-so gr-grateful."
''Forgive transgression? Mdy? What''s this guy on about?''
"Do you have a name?"
I asked, not wanting to think about what exactly he was overreacting to.
"I m-m-may be a lesser devil, b-b-but I h-have be-been summoned t-to other r-realms and re-received mul-multip n-nems before."
''Ah¡ he''s messing up. Just how scared is he?''
"Multiple names? What name do you use?"
"M-Malius."
"Like Malice. Nice name for a Baphomet, I guess."
I shrugged then kept surveying my surroundings. It felt odd not having my parallel minds and it felt even worse to not have the system. At the moment, I was quite literally defenceless as I stood here looking at everything. Fortunately, there didn''t seem to be any demons around.
"T-thanks you."
"Say, where exactly am I?"
Still facing the ground and his hair standing up like needles, he responded to my question with lightning speed.
"The Outer ring of the 8th Layer, mdy."
"Huh?"
I was confused. What did he mean by outer ring of the 8thyer?
"Oi, where exactly am I?"
Again, I asked, hoping for a clearer answer. He yelped, cleared his throat, then responded once more.
"T-T-The Outer ring of the 8-8thyer. The Red Light Slums."
"The red light slums?"
I still didn''t quite get what he meant. In fact, I couldn''t quite remember what exactly it was I was supposed to be doing here. The only thing I knew is that Alpha sent me here. But where exactly is here?
"Hmm, give me a more general name for this ce."
"T-The Lust Layer."
"Lustyer? Something more general if possible?"
At this point, even the little guy looked confused as he was now facing me with some like a distraught face.
"¡One of the 9yers of Hell?
Finally, he said something that sounded familiar.
''Hell. Isn''t that where devils are from? But what would I be doing in hell? I''m part devil, but it''s not like I''ve been here before. And why would the system master send me here. I feel like she didn''t tell me anything, but then again, I doubt that she didn''t tell me anything. Ugh, this is getting annoying.''
"E-Excuse me."
Malius spoke up, so I looked at him. But it would seem our eyes couldn''t sh for more than a second as he averted his gaze immediately.
''Oi, oi, I''m the NEET here. I should be the one avoiding eye contact.''<novelnext></novelnext>
As much as I liked to im that I wasn''t really the outdoorsy type, I would have to admit that spending sometime in the forest with all of those guys had changed me in some way. And the fact that I was now in charge of the general management of several races against an impending war, kind of took me out of the NEET organisation, huh?
"Perhaps, you may have also lost some of your memories?"
He asked as if it were the most normal thing to do. I almost shot down the idea, but I was curious about how he drew this sort of conclusion. From the sound of things, he too had some issues with his memories.
"It would seem so. Is this a normal thing in this area?"
"Oh no, I guess that exins why a devil such as yourself was just sleeping in an outer ring."
He stood up and dusted himself then whistled. About a dozen of the little fes from earlier rushed over, all carrying some sort of junk in their mouth.
"You must have been engaged in battle with one of the 72 nobles of hell and lost."
"Nobles of hell?"
"You must have had it bad."
He had this look of pity in his eye as he knelt down and let out a deep thoughtful sigh. I was starting to find it infuriation how graceful each and every single one of his movements were. It was mesmerising enough for me to actually try to consider¡ no.
"Yes."
"Huh? No."
"Excuse me?"
He was confused, but I looked away.
"Go on."
"Ok¡ the 72 nobles of hell are called the Ars Goetia. They are the 72 Devil Lords that rule over all theyers of hell. And they are subordinate to the 7 Devil Princes of hell who has also subordinate to the 2 kings of hell."
''Why so many people in charge?''
"Most of the devil lords stay in the 1styer where the Devil King resides, but some prefer to move about the otheryers, fighting potential threats to their im. Eventually, those unlucky devils end up losing some of their memories and wake up here. In the Lustyer."
I looked around, and there was nothing special.
"Why this ce in particr?"
His ears drooped down.
"I am not quite sure. I do have a theory that it''s because this is where most devils are born, but that is merely a suggestion with no actual evidence to back it up."
"Most devils are born here? Is that what those little guys are?"
I asked, pointing to the round red fes starting to swarm us.
"Oh no, these are my fiends. They''ve been loyal to me ever since I first woke up. I guess they just love me."
''Just loyal since he woke up? Weren''t these little shits eating at me when I woke up? What''s so special about him?''
I stood up and stretched my body.
"I guess that''s enough sitting around. Take me to one of these nobles."
I demanded, but the Baphomet gave me a sort of mocking look.
"What''s with that face?"
"Nothing."
"Don''t give me that nothing crap. What aren''t you saying?"
"Y-You already lost to one so¡ fighting another one once you woke up is a bit¡ how do I phrase this¡?"
"Stupid. Yeah, fighting an opponent you already lost to without a n is stupid. Luckily, I don''t ever do that."
I mean, I hadn''t even fought a noble before. The only way to see how I''d fair against one is to actually fight against one since I can''t just take everything Malius says at face level.
Just as I turned around, the ground started to shake. In the distance, I could see a storm gathering. Not a storm, but a tsunami of dust clouds moving towards us fast. I squeezed my eye to get a better look and when I did, all I saw was an army of devils charging with terrifying expressions on their faces.
"Is that an army of devils trying to ram us down?"
I asked, but the Baphomet was running away already. I turned around and chased after him.
"Oi! Where are you going?"
I asked him as he was simply flying in a straight direction. I also unfurled my wings and chased after him. It was surprisingly easy to catch up to him.
"Eek!"
I seemed to have startle him by my sudden appearance, but even then he kept flying straight. Was the army behind us really that scary?
No, no. First of all, isn''t it normal to be scared of a charging army? I was starting to think my perspective on everything was seriously warped now.
In the end, I chose to just quietly follow him as he was the only acquaintance I had in hell.
_______________________________
Middle Ring, 8thyer of Hell
A lean figure with red skin, two short horns and a barbed tail stood on the outskirts of the Middle ring. With his Demon Eye of Insight, he looked far ahead of himself where he saw what looked to be an army of devils charging towards him.
He shook his head then looked past the gathering of devils. Behind them, one devil asrge as a mountain was running behind them. He was the true reason the other devils were charging so mightily. They were fleeing eternal death at the hands of one of the 72 Devil Lords.
"I warned him not to do anything that will get the Lady of Purple''s attention."
As he said this, he turned back to look at the fleeing devils. All of them were of low ranks ¨C lesser and greater devils. There was nothing special about this collection.
That is, till he noticed two particr devils that were fleeing quite a way ahead of the massive group. One was a Baphomet and the other was something he couldn''t even begin to describe. Something about it evoked feelings of rage, fear and¡ happiness?
It wasn''t something he could understand, so he turned to look at the Baphomet once more. Still, there was nothing special about the Baphomet, but his gut feeling said there was something different.
He looked on at both of them for quite a while, before something snapped in his head.
"Ah¡ master!"
Chapter 277 Primordial Sin
WOAH!
I''m still conscious? How?
Oops, sorry. Akira speaking here! This might be sudden, but I''m just as surprised as you are.
Most of my skills shut down when I''m evolving, especially the ones that involve conscious thinking. Basically, [Supreme Wisdom Council] shouldn''t be active and I shouldn''t be able to talk.
"Oi, you''re awake too?"
What? You too, Kira!? How?
"M-Me too."
Woah! Akkun too? I am so surprised I can only stare at them with wide eyes.
This¡ is beyond odd. All I remember is fighting Mine and almost being choked to death.
"Yeah, let''s not do that again."
Right?
"W-Where''s Tori?"
Huh¡ now that you mention it. Where''s that stupid birdbrain?
"You do realise you just called yourself a birdbrain, right?"
Shut it, Kira!
"Whatever. This is too weird. And why can''t we see anything."
"I-It''s too dark."
Everywhere I look, all I see is darkness and us floating in it.
"What do you ''Desire'' most?"
Eh!?
"D-D-Did you h-hear so-something!?"
"Who said that!?"
"Tell me what you wish for so dearly! Riches, lovers, fame, power? What is it?"
Again?
"U-Uwaa!"
"Show yourself whatever the heck you are!"
At Kira''s request, the voice chose to present itself. A golden palm formed underneath our feet. Its ws grew up around us like a cage. Following the palm, down the forearm to its thorax then head, all that I saw a giant golden phantom.
It had no true form. I could simply make out its white eyes on its head.
What''s with this feeling of danger?
"Danger?"
"Pfft. I think he means this feels too good that it could be dangerous."
Kira was right on the money. Oddly enough, rather than feeling terrified, I felt empowered as I looked at this thing. It was honestly so odd that I couldn''t help but feel like there''s something off about this.
As the oldest one present, of course I have to make the first move.
Who are you?
"Avarice!"
Oi! No need to yell. You''ll reck my brain ear drums!
"Make your choice, O'' sinful one!"
Choice? What do you guys think?
"I-I''m not s-sure¡"
"Tell us what you are first."
"Avarice!"
"I need more than that!"
"I am one of the Primordial Sins! He who carries authority over Avarice! Now, state your desires so I may grant it!"
Sounds kinda-
"S-Sketchy?"
Yeah¡ That.
"Buuutttt¡ I hear primordial~"
Huh? So?
"Y-You mean, like the primordial g-gods?"
Primordial gods? As in the big honchos?
"Exactamundo, mypadres. If something on that level is promising us something, why not take it?"
Eh? You want to trust that thing? What about you, Akkun?
"I-I don''t see a p-problem."
Huh? I can''t be the only one seeing that this is far too convenient to agree to.
"What? You scared or something?"
What? No. All I''m saying is, maybe we shouldn''t make this kind of decision without Tori since sh-
"Huh? Why can''t we make this decision without Tori? It''s not like she''s our boss."
She is though.
"G-Guys¡"
"Do you really think just cause she''s in charge of the body she''s the boss? She can''t even function without us!"
Huh? Are you actually stupid? She''s the first and oldest, so of course she''s the boss.<novelnext></novelnext>
"What kind of useless logic is that? We''re all the same age."
"Guys¡"
No, no. She''s the first, I''m second, Akkun''s third, you''re fourth and thest guy is¡ speaking of which, where''s that guy?
"Don''t go off topic. We all have the same birthday, we''ve all been alive the same amount of time whether we gained consciousness at a different point in time or not. Don''t go disrespecting the rest of us cause of some stupid hierarchy you''ve imagined for yourself!"
Stupid hierarchy? How''s it stupid? She''s out there taking everything while we''re in here helping out. We''re simply support and she''s the main. Is your pride so much it won''t allow you to admit that?
"Pride? That''s riching from you who takes pride in being above all of us. Then again, it seems you like second ce so I might be wrong about you having pride."
Oi, oi. Watch your tongue you little shi-
"GUYS!"
What!?
"What!?"
"Eek! S-Sorry¡ b-but, T-Tori probably won''t b-be here t-till long. I th-think we s-should just t-take this decision ourselves."
"See? Even Akkun gets it."
Tch¡ when you put it that way.
I honestly wanted to ask why he said "Even Akkun" when Akkun had proven himself to be one of the smartest mes. Something wasn''t right with Kira.
"Have you made your choice?"
Avarice asked once more. We all looked at one another, then away. Of course, we already had the same choice in mind.
"We want¡!"
"W-w-we w-ww-want¡!"
We want¡!
After following Malius and running away with the group of devils, Malius led me to a Sheol which then sent us spiralling to the 6th ring, the Greed Ring.
Sheols are sort of like random gates that pop up in hell that lead to different parts of it. The sheols give a weird message that allows you to know which ring they lead to. There''s probably a certain way to manage these gates, but I don''t know. I was too busy trying not to vomit whatever remains of my breakfast I had in me.
Wait¡ then again, since I wasn''t in my body, I shouldn''t have any remains. Either way, I just didn''t want to barf out whatever it was my new stomach had.
Malius was panting to my side, as if he just ran a marathon. But the distance wasn''t something even azy bum like myself could acknowledge.
I decided to pat him on the back, but that just made matters worse. He fell to the ground, then slowly turned around. When he saw my face, he yelped and fell back.
"You''re still here!?"
He cried out as if I''d have gone somewhere else when I didn''t know anyone else. I didn''t respond to his question, but rather chose to look around. What I saw this time was a barren field. We were basically in a desert with red sand all around us.
Confused by how vastly different this ce was from the 8th ring, I couldn''t help myself but look further into the distance, but all I saw was desert. It was oddly exciting to be stranded in a desert.
I flew up and went about in a bunch of circles for a bit, but still, nothing. I returned to my original position where I saw Malius and his friends running quickly towards the East. There must have been an emergency or something dangerous was happening close by. Since I didn''t know the rules of this ce.
When Inded next to him, he must have thought an enemy caught up to him, so he yelled and fell down once more. His fiends justughed at him the moment they realised it was me. I offered him my hand, but he didn''t take it.
Slowly, he sat up and sighed.
"I-I see m-mdy would like t-to follow me?"
I nodded to his question, surprised that that wasn''t obvious to him. He stood up and dusted his clothes then looked at his fiends.
"Oi, go back home and tell Pai and Alto to get ready for a guest."
After telling that to the fiend, he squashed it in his palm, causing it to disappear.
"Did you just teleport him to your home?"
I asked, since if he could do that, there''d be no point in us walking over there.
"No. I just killed it. But the hideout is its marked rebirth point, so I guess it sort of works like teleportation, I think."
''Oh? So basically devils get to keep checkpoints like in video games?''
"How many times can a devil die?"
I asked, while following closely behind him and still looking around for anything possibly eye catching.
"Huh? Uuh, a devil can be killed an innumerable amount of times, but they will resurrect at their marked point. Except¡"
He put his hand to his chin, thinking a bit, then shook his head.
"No, it''s nothing problematic for a devil as strong as you."
"Eh? That so? Cool."
After that, we walked on for hours on the desert. We didn''t encounter anything, but I did manage to find out more about where I was. This entire desert was called The Lush Forest. Looking around, I couldn''t help but appreciate the irony of the name.
ording to Malius, there were 9 rings of hell. And for 7 of these rings, they were separated into 3yers. Outeryers, Middleyers and Inneryers. The high ranking a devil, the closer they were to the centre. Thing''s worked differently for the 9th and 1st rings ¨C Limbo and Hades respectively.
The ring we were on ¨C the 6th ring, was also known as the Greed Ring. Malius lived in the outeryer, also known as the Lush Forest. Sure, it was a desert, but I had to take into ount that Hell wasn''t a ce for devils alone. Souls were also damned to be here.
To the souls, all they could see was lush greeneries, riches and everything they could have wanted. Unfortunately, it was only a desert in reality. So, if they ever touch something like for instance, water and it turned out to be sand, a devil would appear to torture them for quite some time, making them live in fear. The worst part is that the souls have been told that there actually exists one of everything in this ce and that if they get it right, they''ll be allowed to enjoy it.
That used to be an actual rule apparently, but it would seem the new management didn''t want to entertain a chance of the damned getting some sort of reprieve. At this moment, there was absolutely nothing except for desert, meaning even the devils have nothing to nourish themselves.
Nothing but the souls of the damned that is. Which brings us to a major thing I noticed.
I couldn''t see or sense any souls at all. To think that there was a scarcity of souls in ayer of hell. Malius had a theory that souls were being hoarded in the middle to inneryers for the higher ranked devils. He also assumed the 9th circle had something to do with it, but as a low-ranking Baphomet, there was nothing he could do about it.
After a bit of walking, I could make out a lonely hut in the desert. It stood out so conspicuously that it felt way too sketchy.
"That is my hideout."
Malius pointed to it with a smile and begun flying towards it. I followed closely after him, happy to have found somewhere to rest. Not that I was feeling tired, but walking in a desert gets boring after the first 5 minutes.
Then, something odd happened when I reached about 150 metres from the hut. An invisible barrier rejected my entrance and blew me back. I recovered quickly and looked there curiously where I saw Malius looking at me.
He was saying something, but I couldn''t hear him. The barrier must have shut out all the sound. I could have tried reading his lips, but I had more concerning things to focus on.
The sound of machines whirring filled my ears as I looked around. Clumsily standing up from the cover of the sand, were these odd machines. They looked like walking ball cannon-scorpion hybrids. Their red LED eyes appeared to be ring at me, like some sort of intruder.
There were about 5 of them and they slowly circled around me, scanning me from head to toe. After a few seconds, they allunched a simultaneous attack at me. Some milky white orbs that contained¡
''Holy magic!?''
Chapter 278 Get Better Security
The Lush Forest, Outeryer
In an underground chamber, littered with machine parts, wires and screens, there were several life forms running about. Out of these life forms, there were two particrly odd ones.
"How are the scorpios faring?"
The first one asked while tinkering with a device.
"Scorpio divinium core functioning at 52%. Target is on the defensive and hasn''t retaliated yet. Possibly not hostile?"
The second suggested, but the first snickered.
"There''s no such thing as a hospitable arch devil, As. Intensify the attacks and switch up the patterns to make the scorpios unpredictable."
"Understood¡ Scanningplete."
"Good. Bring up the target''s file."
As soon as the voicemanded, the screen before him lit up. The description presented to them was unbelievable.
"D-Devil Peer status?"
"In the outeryers? T-that''s impossible."
PING! PING! PING!
"Scorpio 1 down! Scorpio 2 down! Scorpio 3 down! Deploying the mech fiends, grades 3 and 4. Scorpios 4 and 5 down!"
"Prepare the ''Pas'' as well. And full power to the forcefield!"
___________
I was scared for nothing.
These scorpion-like machines could fire of holy magic, but the attack was so weak I actually couldn''t feel a thing. Just to be safe, I decided to dodge the rest of the attacks while looking.
Malius was already flying towards the hut. From the looks of things, he set me up. I guess that''s just how things worked in hell. I just needed to beat these guys and break the barrier, which sounded easy enough.
Ok, maybe breaking the barrier was going to be hard, but the scorpios shouldn''t have been so difficult.
I closed in on one and gave it a good old kick. It shattered into several pieces; shocking even me.
''Maybe the metal used for the construction isn''t good enough?''
I moved to the next one. Their movements were odd and I think if I wasn''t able to perceive things at a high rate, I wouldn''t have been able to tell what they were doing, but to me they were basically snails. I kicked the second one and the same result.
''Uuh, maybe my kick''s too strong?''
I punched the next one in an effort to not shatter it as well. The sound of metal pieces falling to the ground echoed in my ears.
''Gaah! These things are actually just super weak!''
Feeling like I was wasting my time by being cautious around these things, I just moved to quickly destroy the remainders.
But they were the least of my worries. Once more from the sand, odd creatures popped up. They were fiends, covered in rusty armour. Or rather, they were robots that had the physique of fiends. There were two types I spotted.
Two very small one and about a dozenrge ones. Therge ones were packing with heavy looking guns and had mean res on their faces, whereas the tiny ones flew about, scouting me out. Again, I was surrounded withser lights all on me.
''This feels like the wrong genre all of a sudden¡ I''ve fought a mecha bull, but that somehow fit better than this.''
I internallyined while looking at them. Immediately, I jumped at the closest fiend I could get, but it somehow evaded my attack and another one hit me with a very fastser st.
''This one also has holy magic? What the hell is going on in hell? Hehe, used ''hell'' twice.''
It didn''t hurt, but it did sting. The annoying type, kind of like a bee sting. I tried to punch the one that hit me but that one rolled away and I hit air and got all the others to hit my back with aser st. Confused, I looked back and saw that they were all moving about in a seemingly disorganised way, but it was way too clean for me to not have been able to hit them.
My eyes then settled on the two tiny fiends that were flying about.
''They didn''t attack me¡''
I noticed. Maybe they carried a powerful charged attack that wasn''t ready yet? I mean, you wouldn''t just throw in only two of them if you didn''t think they were enough, right?
''I''ll just destroy them in case.''
I jumped in to snatch one of them, but it easily escaped me while observing me keenly. I could hear whirring, like a moving camera so I squeezed my eyes to get a better look. The tiny fiend didn''t appear to have any weapons, just a camera and wings, but that wasn''t enough for me to let my guard down.
If the fiends moved fast, I simply needed to move smarter.
I charged at the other tiny fiend quickly, and it hovered there for a bit, as if baiting me.
''Nice try, but my target is¡!''
I switched directories at thest second and got in close to one of therger fiends that was charging up his attack. I grabbed it and aimed the st to the other fiends, destroying about 2 of them before crushing it, then I threw it at one of the tiny fiends.
Easily, it avoided it and I noticed that the bigger fiends started to surround the smaller fiends and were trying to create a distance between us.
The more I observed, the more the tiny fiends felt like they were simplymanders incapable of fighting.
''Huh? Is that what it does?''
They scanned me, gave directions to therge fiends, then observed me for the optimal battle strategy. Who in the hell could build things so advanced in this kind of world?
''The only one I know like that is Kaleb Zen, but there''s no way his technology fell into hell¡ right?''
That was besides the point. If the tiny fiends weren''t capable of fighting, I didn''t have to think too much about them. They were fast, but therger ones weren''t as fast.
One by one, I destroyed therger ones then eventually managed to get the tiny ones in quick session.<novelnext></novelnext>
''What''s with these bots and getting one-shotted?''
I clicked my tongue then looked towards the hut. The barrier surrounding it seemed to have been intensified with lightning arcing on in it.
I touched it and it felt like a vibrating table. I squeezed to see just how dense the barrier was, but it wasn''t dense at all. Something like this wouldn''t be able to protect anyone.
''What a waste of technology¡ is this guy even serious?''
It was sort of frustrating, since they managed to figure out the technology Kara had been working on for quite a while now, but weren''t doing anything profitable with it. Or maybe, they simply didn''t have the resources and were getting by with what they had?
I took a good look around. Desert as far as the eye could see. Then I looked at the scrapped robots.
''Ah¡ it''s a miracle they built anything. Now I feel kind of bad for destroying the bots. But I don''t take kindly to betrayal!''
A little squeeze was all it took to shatter the barrier as well. This¡ all of this was too unnatural. Way too cheap. It didn''t even make any sense. I wasn''t physically strong, but these things were just getting one -shot.
''Work on better security, you idiots! Anyone could just waltz in and kill you at this rate.''
Fuming, I took my first step past the barrier. What I got was a metallic punch right to the body. I didn''t really feel it, but it was like the force of a truck hitting me right in the face.
I sat up and got a better look at whatever the hell struck me. The simplest way to describe it was a giant mechanical camel robot but with a bird-like head. Specifically an owl.
"OOOOHHH! It''s that camel thing from Star Wars! OOOOOOHHHH! What was it called again? Eighty-eighty?"
While I was trying to figure out its name, two cannons protruded from under its head. It then fired off with that same "pew-pew" effect Star Wars used.
Kicking up a lot of sand all around me and reducing visibility. The attacks never really touched me and rather just caused a smokescreen. Maybe the aftershock was supposed to st me away, but it didn''t.
''I see the targeting is just as good as it is in the franchise.''
"This is a warning to you, devil peer. Go back or face the full force of the Pas!"
A slow, tired voice said through the eighty-eighty''sms. Yeah, I''d given up on finding the actual name of the camel.
"Pas? Is that what you call the eighty-eighty?"
PEW! PEW! PEW!
Without answering my question, they fired off more sts that only kicked up sand and got dust in my eyes. Annoyed, I swiped the dust away and snorted.
"Stop that, it''s annoying."
I got in close to the Pas. It tried using one of its legs to kick me again, but this time I stood my ground and tried to tank the attack. The kick waspletely stopped and I didn''t budge a single inch.
''Eh? Did they decide to not fight me agai-!?"
Before I couldplete my sentence, the eight-eighty copsed. I jumped back, narrowly avoiding it. Once the dust settled, I had had enough of this.
These guys had been bothering me for absolutely no reason at all and in the most ineffective way imaginable.
"Come on out, you little shit! I''m beyond pissed now!"
I yelled, but whoever was inside didn''t obey. I grabbed the owl head and pried it off the body. Two devils rolled out of it and onto the ground.
"Eek! D-D-Don''t touch us!"
One of the devils shyly ordered, while hiding behind the other. It was tiny, about the size of an 8-year-old. Covered in bandages from the neck down, a cloak over the body and a hood covering their head. They wore a mask with eye holes, all of which glowed a dim yellow.
The other one had the appearance of an owl. A fat owl with four eyes on its head and extremely thin and long legs. This brown-feathered owl red at me without showing a single hint of fear.
''Eh? I thought it was Malius in there.''
I dropped the 80-80''s head then walked over to the two. If this was the best they could do, I couldn''t take them seriously.
"Who are you guys?"
I asked while still observing them.
"Want a piece of me you, amorphous shit-stain?"
"Ah¡ my feelings."
Amorphous shit-stain? What''d I do to get called that? As far as I could tell, I wasn''t amorphous in anyway. The old me would have immediately grown self-conscious, but I simply didn''t care now.
I lifted the owl by the beak even though it tried to peck me.
"When I make you into spilled jam on a pavement, we''ll see who''s the shit-stain."
A simple revenge for insulting me. I could try to lie and say that this was because he attempted to kill me on multiple asions, but it wasn''t worth it. A lesser devil had no right to disrespect one as great as myself.
"M-Mdy!"
Just before I squashed the owl to death, Malius returned, panting heavily.
"What is it?"
"T-These are my allies. They simply assumed I was in trouble and came to save me. My message must''ve not tranted well."
He exined, causing me to look at the owl who was clearly shaken but trying his best to look unfazed. Then the masked man was still lying down on the ground in fear. Then back to Malius.
"I see."
The owl fell down with a thud once I let go. Then I moved towards Malius and patted him on the bed.
"I think you need better security then. Even the wind could blow those things to smithereens."
Chapter 279 Broken Family
Once things calmed down, Malius took charge and ordered up some fiends to clean up the mess I had made.
"I-I apologise on behalf of myrades for showing such disrespect!"
He bowed down and shook, with sweat streaking down his face. I wanted to say I didn''t like this feeling of superiority I was feeling, but that would be a lie. I was starting to love it.
"Don''t worry about it."
I patted him on the back, prompting him to straighten up and clear his throat.
"What now?"
I asked while awkwardly looking at the others. The cloaked one picked up the owl and attempted to help it stand while looking at me cautiously.
"Shall we head inside to talk? Higher ranked devils could try to interrupt us out here."
Understanding his point, I shrugged and followed after him. We hurriedly headed into the shack, which was actually just an elevator that took us down while ying some godawful music for more than 5 minutes.
''How long does this thing go?''
I wondered while just standing, bored out of my mind. Malius must have noticed this because he started to speak.
"It actually doesn''t take even a minute to get down. The music just ys on the passenger''s perspective of time and traps them in a mental loop in which they just keep going down and down for all of eternity. Devils are especially susceptible to this because of how we view the world, but it loses its effectiveness once you figure it out. This is one of the many traps we keep in case we are invaded."
''W-What the hell?''
The thought that if only they hadn''t attacked me on the surface, that could have been me made me shudder.
DING!
The elevator door opened up and they walked out. I followed closely behind and was met with the scene of a giant underground workshop. It was easily three times asrge as one of my dungeon floors, and filled with multiple fiends working on different things, as well as screens and wires.
I couldn''t really exin it well, but this was like a secret government facility. Two fat fiends rolled up to us with some papers, and the cloaked devil took the papers from the fiends.
"Fiddlesticks¡ We''ll need to send an expedition team to the fifth ring for more Divinium. Hopefully Lord Abbadon is feeling generous. Get some scorpios in on that."
''Fiddlesticks?''
"Fucking scorpios won''t do if we need more Divinium. We''ll have to personally go get some. All because of this fucking devil peer."
The owl cursed me right in my face while looking at the papers. Malius went towards them and took a look at the papers as well.
"Oh dear¡ can we not just manage the amount of Divinium we possess?"
"Impossible."
The cloaked devilpletely rejected Malius'' idea.
"With the amount left, we''d be lucky to keep operations running until the next sandstorm."
"This is why I told you shits to get some more Divinium, but nooo, that''s just being greedy, As. Fucking retards."
The owl scoffed and flew away. The cloaked devil just sighed.
"Suspend current use of divinium cores on the scorpios and redirect all power to the barrier. Shut down any project that requires divinium apart from maintaining power and the barrier, and make it so Arch Devils can''t shatter it so easily."
Both fiends gargled some sounds out, then rolled away. Confused, I looked at Malius for an exnation. He scratched his cheek and then looked at the cloaked devil. The cloaked devil looked at Malius, then at me. And we looked at one another for a few more minutes.
Malius eventually led us to a room where we could sit down to talk.
We sat down for 10 more minutes with zero conversation, just looking at one another with intense gazes, before the cloaked devil finally had enough.
"I can''t deal with this anymore! Exin what in huffletuck is going on here, Mali!"
The cloaked devil mmed down on the table, huffing heavy breaths. That clearly took more from her than anything else.
"Oh, sorry. I forgot to do that. This is an Arch Devil I met while searching for scrap in the Red-Light Slums. I assumed I could harvest some of her body parts, but that failed badly, and here we are."
''Is this guy actually an air head?''
Even the cloaked devil was shocked by his brazenness.
"A-Anyway. Wee to our home."
Malius said, gesturing to our surroundings. The feeling of numerous malicious gazes piercing me was far too annoying to be ignored. I had to do something about it. Maybe killing a few of them would put them in their ce.
"Ah¡ right. Hello there, great devil peer. Wee to our humble abode. My name is Pai, scientific genius and hopelessly charming Chief of Operations. You are already acquainted with sweet Malius, and then there''s our adorable As."
The cloaked devil ¨C Pai ¨C gave me some introductions, throwing me off my original n.
"You call that owl, cute? With that tongue, he wouldn''t even pass for a high schooler."
"You can understand him?"
Malius asked. I tilted my head.
"Is... that an actual question?"
"Yes. As just "hoots". The only one that understands him is Pai, and even she doesn''t understand his words all the time."
"Hmm, must have something to do with being such a high-ranking devil. I wish I could perform some experiments on you."
Pai suddenly popped up behind me, scanning my back. She lifted my arm up and monitored my sides, observing me from head to toe without leaving a nook or cranny.
"May I ask why you are so calm?"
She asked me after returning to her seat.<novelnext></novelnext>
"You want me to be violent?"
"What circle were you born in?"
"Uuuh¡ an egg?"
"Do you feel like you lost something?"
"Sort of¡?"
"I see. Then you''re just like the former members of the Ars Goetia. Judging from the fact that you still have so much power, you must have been one of the higher ranking ones."
She started to exin somethingpletely wrong. It was the exact thing Malius assumed once he got a good look at me. I was almost curious about this Ars Goetia group, but not curious enough to waste time on it.
"I don''t care about this Ars Goetia thing or whatever. I¡ I just need to figure out why I''m here first."
That was a problem I hadn''t given much thought to. Alpha sent me to hell for a mission, but I had zero memories of that discussion or what my objective here was.
This was the very definition of flying in blind.
"You can stay with us till you regain your memories¡ however, I wish to run some tests with you first."
_______________________
The East of Larm, Krull''s Fortress
"The Tyrant, Sora, has agreed to my earlier proposal. The West must have angered him for him to change his mind.
Karon, the young ogre, told his father who was simply slumped down on the throne. Looking at the kind of state his father was in, he couldn''t help but feel enraged.
"My trip to the Demise Mountains proved fruitful. I managed to find the Renegade Martial Master and he trained me for a month. I was excited to tell you all of my tales."
He spoke, trying to get some sort of reaction from his father, who had failed to get the attention of this Martial Master once before. However, when he looked into his father''s eyes, all he could see was an empty husk of a man.
"So¡ can you imagine how I felt when I returned, only to find out that you let them take not one, but both of my sisters?"
Karon angrily punched the ground, cracking it.
"Speak! What the hell have you been doing for these past two months since I left, huh?!"
The young ogre regained hisposure then scoffed after failing to get a rise out of his father.
"And that little entitled brat. Betraying this family for the enemy? I always saw her as someone to be protected, so I tried my best to keep her safe."
Karon reminisced about the old days when Kara was younger. She was always weaker than the others, but she did possess a talent none of them had. And that was her brains and the odd ability to sometimes divine the future.
Thetter ability reminded him of his mother so much, he felt like she really was thest living memory of his mother. While their father didn''t care much for her existence, he cherished her and tried his best to make her happy.
"With her recent actions, I''m forced to brand her as a traitor. Same for the other ingrate."
He went through the trouble of killing every single ogre in the fortress to spare her life, yet she so willingly abandoned the East for the West? Such fickleness couldn''t stand by him.
Both sisters had betrayed their family and would be killed for it.
''Then again, K is still a child. Maybe if I just punish her, she''ll regain her senses.''
He had decided. He would only kill one and spare the other.
''Her body is weak, so she might die from the punishment¡ so be it then.''
The results of the punishment would determine whether she stayed alive or dead. He simply gave her a chance at living, so he felt it was now up to her.
"Oi, you. Troll king."
Karon pointed at the red troll that was standing in the back quietly.
"Second boss?"
"Get the trolls ready. And march on to the other ogre camps my father hasn''t brought under his direct rule yet. Gather their strongest and have them prepare to be picked up by griffins and wyverns from the North. Do so quickly. Also, don''t forget to wipe out all the remaining orcs and kobolds in the East. We need to send a message. You can take Storm Fyre too, if you want. He''s been itching to kill offte."
Karon said a lot of things and he personally doubted Zod was smart enough to have picked up on everything he said. However, he didn''t care.
If anything at all resonated with the troll, it was the order to kill. Trolls liked tomit such violent acts, so that was no problem.
The next problem was how he could get Sora to keep an alliance with the East after the war. He personally knew, after going to the North, that the East was just a bunch of fodder. Especially when they lost to even weaker creatures in the West.
''Ah¡ what should I do, mother? This family''s a mess without you.''
________________________
Back in Alpha''s Domain,
"I tried readjusting the soul frequency, so when you return to hell, some devils will recognise you, but that skill thoroughly rewrote your very being."
Alpha said while tinkering with a slimy ck blob.
"Is that so? I don''t mind that to be honest."
The blob responded to her.
"No one will recognise you, you know?"
"That doesn''t matter to me. The only reason I went to hell in the first ce was to acquire the [Akashic Records]. I was always going to leave that ce eventually. This just makes things easier."
"Well, if that''s what you want. Get the birdbrain to finish this quickly. One month will be over soon and I won''t be able to send her back to hell after this."
Chapter 280 The Mission
Gargling out odd sounds while ring at me, was the fiends hard at work. They were pulling the 80-80 into the base and from the looks of things, it was kind of heavy.
Since I was the one to destroy it, maybe I should have offered some help, but I didn''t feel like it. Pai and Malius both went to check up on the broken scorpios, leaving me alone. I could feel their cameras on me in the corners of the room, but I chose to ignore them.
It was obvious they were still cautious of me, but even then, I wasn''t scared of them or anything. The most important thing was figuring out why I was here in the first ce.
"Twenty-minute adventure, she said."
I grumbled over the fact that it had been way longer than the promised "Twenty-minute adventure" and I was slowly losing my mind from boredom. Back in Larm, there wasn''t much to do for fun, but I could at least keep myself busy with slowing down the progress of certain things. It was no fun to finish everything in a day.
Still, I did want to get a better look at everything here. With how advanced their technology was, if I took this knowledge back to Larm, I''d be able to improve our defences. This "Divinium" thing seems to be their power source, but how does any of it work? Where can I acquire it? Is it avable outside of Hell? Can I use it for stuff outside of hell?
The only way to get these sorts of information was through befriending them, but the owl didn''t like me, .Pai was cautious around me and Malius¡ well he''s Malius.
I clicked my tongue in annoyance. I didn''t like the fact that I was mauling over such things.
''I''m a 15-year-old, almost 16 for crying out loud! I just want to y video games, skip school, reading my novels and manga and fantasize about a non-existent girlfriend! What the hell is all of th-UH!?''
A bolt of lightning struck my brain as I was ranting. I paused for a moment, trying to process what just happened and then a familiar voice spoke into my head.
<<Oh, you''re already in the Greed Ring. Good work, master>>
''Eh? Agent?''
<<Yes?>>
''Agent!''
<<Master! ...?>>
''Where have you been? I haven''t had any ess to you or the other guys! I was so lonely!''
<<Oh, the system master shut off the system to alter it. You won''t have any ess to the system till we return to Elecryea>>
''Eh? That doesn''t mean I should lose ess to you or the other guys.''
<<The skill [God''s Wisdom] was personally suspended by the system master and the functioning of the skill [Supreme Wisdom Council] seems to have been paused by an unknown external force¡ Sytem Master Alpha has deemed it not worthy of her attention>>
''Ah¡ what the hell? Who is doing this?''
<<That is unknown>>
''Right¡ I guess the same applies to my other skills.''
<<No. You should still have ess to all previous skills>>
''Seriously? I haven''t been able to cast a single magic attack since I got here though.''
<<That might be due to yourck of technical know-how. The system provided an easy means for you to utilise your abilities. A second factor may be the change in environment. In here, mana particles aren''t nearly as friendly to outside beings as they are in other realms. Another could be th->>
''That''s enough of that!''
The agent was starting to drag this thing on for way too long.
<<Understood. Would you like to hear the details of the mission?>>
''Eh? You know the details? Spill.''
<<Our objective is to acquire the ''Akashic Records'' of the King of Hell, Ozvaloth.>>
''The Aka-what?''
<<Aption of the information of every single soul that has existed or will exist in all realms connected to Elecryea. The ''Akashic Records'' or otherwise known as the ''Book of Life''>>
What? That sounded awfully too important.
''When you say every single soul that has existed or will exist in all realms, you don''t mean¡''
<<Higher beings such as gods, ascension dragons and spirits are included>>
''Oi, oi, oi! That''s insane! That''s beyond insane! It''s¡ it''s¡ it''s¡ I don''t know what it is, but it''s insane! What the hell does she want with something like that?''
<<Her true purpose is unclear, but she seemed to be quite desperate for it. We have till the end of the month on Elecryea>>
As expected, Alpha didn''t want to tell me what she wanted with this dangerous thing. She was way too greedy with this kind of stuff.
''Tch, wouldn''t something like that be heavily guarded?''
<<Well¡ it is, but isn''t.>>
''Huh?''
<<The king of hell just leaves the ''Akashic Records'' on disy in his royal chamber, but no one touches it>>
''Of course no one does. Who would touch his book with him right there.''
<<Actually, he is almost never with the book. He''s just monitoring all the rings of hell at most times>><novelnext></novelnext>
¡
''Oh, then let''s just hop on a Sheol, stroll into his pce, steal this transcendent book containing all information on all life and get back to life in Larm! That sounds super easy, yeah?''
<<That''s just silly.>>
''Ever heard of sarcasm?''
<<We''d need an Imperial Sheol to get to the 9th ring to do any of that. The only devils allowed in the 9th ring are the Devil Princes and Devil King>>
''¡I was being sarcasti-''
<<The Greed Ring has no current prince, so you should be able to ess its Imperial Sheol easily. We can acquire the bo->>
''STOP!''
I paused the agent for a moment. I needed to organise my thoughts before going any further.
''What the hell is all of this?''
<<What?>>
''Why do you know so much?''
<<The skill [God''s Wisdom] has information on everything in the world and your sur->>
''Cut the crap. If you did have such information, there wouldn''t be a need for this mission in the first ce. Stop mentioning the skill when I talk to you, devil. Exin how you know any of this stuff.''
After ordering the agent, there was a moment of silence. It let out a heavy breath then spoke.
<<Before being summoned to Elecryea, I was originally the prince of the 6th Ring. Vagetha the Golden Conqueror. I''ve been to the 9th ring once before which is why I know so much>>
¡
Eh?
No way.
No way in hell did I have a prince of hell up in my head for over two months!
I looked around and no one had noticed any change. They were all going about their work as usual, ignoring my existence in total. I scoffed then went back to the agent.
''Um, let''s start from the top. How did any of this happen?''
<<Hmm, I''m not too sure, but I think I was once a being that travelled through several realms for some time in search of a cure for a disease I have. Through my search, I found that the solution to that problem could be found in one of the rings of hell.>>
''The ''Akashic Records''?''
<<¡ which was owned by the King of Hell Ozvaloth. Unfortunately, a low-ranking devil couldn''t ess the 9th ring as that is the home for souls that wouldn''t be getting punished. The only way to do so was by being a devil prince or king, so I raised myself through the ranks and assisted the Devil King in usurping the original 9 monarchs of hell. In the end, we won and I got the position, meaning I could waltz into the 9th ring willy-nilly now>>
''Woah.''
<<But¡ I forgot my reason for getting there in the first ce more than 3 times in a row.>>
''Eh? What kind of crappy memory do you have?''
<<When I remembered why I wanted to get to the ''Akashic Records'', I acted as quickly as possible and tried to acquire it, but my ns were foiled and I was banished from the 9th ring permanently>>
''¡ just banishment?''
<<After a century of boredom, I created a new vessel for me to convert my consciousness too. The princes of hell aren''t permitted to enter Elecryea for fear we might alter the realm far too much. So I put my mind in a weaker body and waited till I was summoned. When I did, I searched for a means to cancel my contract while remaining in the realm. My research led me to the theory of an Urs major capable of severing the ties between realms, hence shattering the contract that bound me to my summoner and hell. I made a mistake of underestimating the power of an Urs minor, which got me in so much danger I had to flee. Unfortunately, I was hit with a soul erasing attack. The only means of survival in that moment was->>
''Me, huh?''
<<Yes. And now, here we are. Back here, with a second chance at saving myself.>>
''That''s um¡ hmm.''
I wasn''t sure what exactly to tell the agent. They had been quite busy for some time. Having a disease that was frightening they spent centuries trying to find a cure just sounded unfortunate. I mean, I hated a simple cold so I couldn''t imagine having to deal with a disease this scary. A disease¡
''Wait up! What sickness are we talking about and will it affect me since you''re in my body!?''
<<¡ I''ve forgotten what it is, but I might remember when we get the book>>
''Eeeehhh!?''
<<Besides, this is a mission you epted from System Master Alpha. You''ll have to go on it whether you like it or not.>>
That was right. I already signed my death contract before knowing what exactly I was being thrown at.
''Tch, can I at least get a temporary system while I''m in hell?''
<<No.>>
Chapter 281 Family
"Um, are you sure that thing can float?"
I asked, pointing to the raggedy looking boat with several holes in it and moss growing on the sides. It was a simple looking canoe, butrge enough to carry two fully grown elephants in it. I could tell its carver was going for a sort of elegant design with the way some parts of the boat were shaped, but whether it be from poor handling or age, it looked less than impressive.
As, the owl devil, was already on it, performing some inspections.
"Yes. My dearest Andromeda can take you even on the most perilous seas from one continent to the other with no trouble."
In case you were wondering how we got here, I simply told the trio that I needed to get to the inner circle of the 6th ring. ording to them, it was quite hard to find sheols that actually travelled to the inner circle of ring ¨C a sort of safety mechanism for lower ranked devils. The most efficient means was through one of the five rivers that flowed in theyers, but travel on the river was virtually impossible.
Conveniently enough, Pai and As were the only devils with a proper way to travel on these five rivers. So now, here we were in their private docks for just this one ginormous boat.
"One continent to the other? That''d be a miracle."
I mocked, but Paimon frowned.
"She''s saved a couple of human sailors that tried to move continents before, you know?"
Pai tried to convince me, but I wasn''t falling for that.
"Sure, sure. Let''s just get this over with already."
I hopped onto the shaky boat then took a look around. There was practically nothing there. As red at me then flew over to the opposite end of the boat, as far away from me as possible.
"When you get to the convergence point, make sure to listen to everything As says or you could get swallowed up by one of the 5 underworld rivers and be sent spiralling through 8yers for all of eternity."
''What?''
"Mdy! Please don''t kill As and try to avoid detection from the ars goetia. If they realise they didn''t properly take away all your power, they will try again."
''I wasn''t in the ars goetia though¡''
"Don''t forget to stop by the 5thyer and get some divinium."
Pai whispered over to As who just eye-rolled and went back to his ce. A couple of fiends jumped onto the boat and went into the lower deck.
"Oi, this thing has a lower deck?"
Confused, I asked.
"Of course it does. Do you see how big it is? Normally we''d use divinium to power Andromeda, but we don''t have enough to spare so here we fucking are."
''You really need to watch your tone¡''
"The midgets will power the motor through a treadmill, like turbines."
? "Wow, you lot are so damned technologically advanced, it''s almost unreal."
I muttered, mystified that in this new world stuff like motors and robots were a thing.
"Advanced? Oh¡ right, your memory''s¡ whatever."
''What was that about?''
<<Unknown>>
After a few more seconds, I could hear some riveting sounds from below. Gears started to turn and the boat vibrated powerfully. Waves were being formed on the water surface
"Alright then! Let''s start moving!"
As yelled, stomping on a button under his leg and causing an rm bell to ring. Steadily, the boat started to move forward.
Pai and Malius just looked at me with expressionless faces, but I could tell they were happy that I was leaving. I guess having an overbearing force in your house at all times would make anyone stiff. I couldn''t help but smile at their reactions.
In no time, we left their secret docks and were on a massive empty river. There was something curious about the river. I moved closer to the edge and took a peek at it. There, I noticed that the river''s pale blue glow was as a result of some souls being pulled alongside it.
The souls close to the boat tried to w at it and climb to the top, but failed miserably.
"Is that why you don''t use oars to row the boat instead?"
I asked the owl and he looked at me as if I was retarded.
"Oh gee, I have a bloody motor that can push my boat forward, why the hell wouldn''t I use oars to row the boat instead, I wonder?"
He pointed out sarcastically.
"Good point, but you don''t need to be so mean about it."
After myint, he let out a sigh.
"Yes. We don''t use the oars cause the souls always tried to climb up top, which could end up sinking the boat."
"But, isn''t it possible for the des of the motor to get tangled u-"
"The des never fail to cut off the limbs of the souls that try to touch it. Dare I say it''s the most efficient cutting tool in hell."
He made a joke, boasting about his excellent motor de. I couldn''t help but cringe, seeing him develop a big head over a motor de.
Bored, I went back to the centre of the boat and just lied down, looking up to the red sky.
''Agent, how were things before I came here?''
<<Operations in your familiar were running as usual and everyone else is excited to see you evolve>>
''Anything else you think I should know?''
<<Nothing of relevance. General Reiman is in perfect control of everything>>
''Really? That''s cool then.''
¡
''One month, huh? I wonder what they''ll say when they see what I look like.''
"Knowing them, they''d probably just all fawn over me as usual. Hehe."
I was kind of anxious about it. Even I sort of wondered how it''d look since it wasn''t something I originally wanted to choose out of the list.
''How long is it going to take to get to the inner circle?''
<<ording to statistical data presented by -bzzt-kri-ti ¨C a few hours>>
''¡Who?''
<<A member of the former Ars Goetia who used to travel over the rivers of hell>>
''A former member? He still around?''
<<Most likely dead. The devils that bannered under Ramiel were well-known for their brutality. I doubt they allowed any survivors in the 2ndyer>>
''Oh¡ that''s unfortunate. Ah well.''
The trip continued for an hour with dead silence. I had been practicing using magic, but it was far more difficult than back home.
Here the mana particles were openly refusing to obey me. They all had a personality of their own and were always on hate mode. After my constant hour of trying get them to move like I wanted, I managed to create a wisp of mes.
It was so big of a sess I even yelled in joy.
"Congrattions, you discovered fire. I''m guessing you''re going to figure out how to throw a rock next."<novelnext></novelnext>
"You know, being such an asshole can''t work out for you all the time."
"I''m still alive, aren''t I?"
"Want me to change that status?"
My ws protruded as I threatened him. In that moment, the boat stopped and I could see the fiends peeking through the crevices of the boat with blood thirsty gazes.
They weren''t the actual problems here. My eyes quickly darted over the river of souls we were on and I retracted my ws after weighing the benefits and disadvantages of killing them.
''Can''t I just fly over this goddamned river?''
<<You will get pulled in>>
''Can I just walk alongside it then?''
<<The path will end onnd soon enough>>
"Tch."
I let out a heavy sigh then scratched my head.
"Why are you so hostile towards me, even? I didn''t do anything to you."
"You thrashed our scorpios and broke our barrier. You''ve been a threat since the moment you existed."
"What? But I''m not out to harm you or anything."
I could sort of understand him being on-guard after Ipletely wrecked his defences, but if I really wanted to kill him, I could have done so at any point in time, couldn''t I? Him being so spiteful towards me made no sense. In this kind of situation, wouldn''t you be trying to curry favour with the clear superior?
"Pai says you can''t be trusted, so you can''t be trusted."
¡
''Huh? Come on, even Pai trusts me now.''
"Sure, whatever."
He looked away and the boat started to move again. I sat down cross-legged, then scratched my head again, feeling kind of annoyed. I could feel my cowlicks twitching as well.
"You guys sure do trust one another, huh?"
"Of course we do. We''re the only ones we can trust. Pai, Malius and I."
"I guess you''re a family then."
"Family? Devils don''t have families."
"You do though. You said it yourself. Pai and Malius are the only ones you can trust. You don''t trust someone that much if they weren''t practically family."
"That''s something weird for a devil to say. Let alone a devil peer."
Hemented, but I couldn''t help butugh at that. He still assumed I was an actual devil raised in hell.
"I assumed you must have family, which is where you get this misguided notion."
Now thisment sort of caught me off-guard.
"Eh?"
"You know, people you trust as much as I trust Pai and Malius. Another devil peer?"
People I trust so deeply? Was there someone like that? Well, I guess there was one. Ken, but I betrayed him. In the end, I guess I did betray his trust. The only one you should ever trust is yourself. At least, that''s what I believe.
I took a look at As. This owl-looking devil with a foul tongue. Maybe I was more of a devil than this odd creature that had lived in hell all of his life.
"Oh that''s right. Why do you keep calling me a devil peer. Is it some kind of rank? And if yes, where does it stand in this demonic hierarchy?"
I asked feeling like I should keep the conversation going. Something like this could be answered easily through use of the agent.
"Hmm, a devil peer isn''t a rank. It''s more like a specific ss of devil."
"ss?"
"Yes. A ss of devil that can stand shoulder to shoulder with any devil at any point in time as they please."
"Eh?"
"Devil peers grow unreasonably quickly. It''s like they were born to rule hell alongside other high-ranking devils, but hell didn''t have the patience for them to grow normally so gave them exponential growth rate. ording to our scans, you aren''t even a year old, yet you''re on the level of a Devil cavalier."
"I guess you could say, I have a high-growth rate. Hehehe."
I looked away, feeling a bit guilty considering I had the system to cheat my way through growth as well as the agent''s body and the super mega cheat skill [Evolver]. Anyhow you looked at it, I was almost meant to grow faster than everything around me.
When he was done and I couldn''t bring up any other conversation topics, I turned to the agent for a better exnation.
Basically, there were 7 ranks amongst devils. Lesser devil, Greater devil, Arch devil, Devil cavalier, Devil lord, Devil god and Devil primordial. To a devil, ascending a rank was the equivalent of an "evolution" back on Elecryea.
A devil peer was a devil under the age of 100 years with the ability to rise up these ranks quickly, meaning they could stand on the same level as any devil that took a hundred years or more to rank up, with ease.
That type is extremely feared and hated, especially by Ancient devils who don''t want to lose their new found respect.
Oddly enough though, unlike regr devils that feed on souls to grow stronger, devil peers get stronger by feasting on other devils, making them one of the most disgusting types to roam hell. A literal threat to the existence of devils in hell.
In a sense, they were acting as bncers that prevented the devil poption from growing too vast, which didn''t seem to make sense to me. Like, everyyer of hell was big. So big, you could say the outer rings went on for practically eternity.
Why would you need to keep the poption down?
"We''re here. The convergence point."
Drawing me from my thoughts, As pointed towards it. The end where the river turned into a waterfall. As we drew closer, I moved to the tip of the boat to get a better view. All I was a pitch ck hole that had no end. I looked around and saw different rivers converging. All of different colours and pouring down, as if trying to fill up a never-ending barrel.
"Go below deck, or you''ll fall off."
"Eh?"
The boat fell off the river and I found myself screaming so loud I almost turned deaf.
_______________________________
PING! PING!
"Maximize divinium output to the barrier! Prepare evacuation tacti-"
"Barrier is down!"
"Huh? N-Never mind. Focus on the evacuation tactics."
Pai nervously said while looking on her screen. Alerts were popping up without ceasing, warning them of the danger that had smashed right through their defences.
Two beings were running towards the shed. Thest trap they had in ce. Hopefully, a minute would be good enough to use to escape.
Still, the very letters written on the screen were more than enough to render her powerless and paralysed.
On the screen, written boldly were the words "Ars Goetia Status Confirmed"
Chapter 282 Stranded?
"My queen, we managed to evacuate a great majority of our citizens before your fight turned too intense."
A wolf beast man dressed up in uniform with an eye patch over one of his eyes said. I looked around and saw a cut-off wing and tail as well as a couple of fangs about twice my size. My vision then returned to the beast man.
"It was thanks to you managing to hold yourself back from using your full power that we were able to save so many lives."
He said, as if consoling the loss I just faced.
Angrily, I sat up from my throne of rubbles then took a few steps forward. That was when I noticed just how small the wolf beast man was, inparison to me. He followed closely behind me with both arms behind his back.
"I swear, I won''t allow Fafnir to escape the next time."
I said, tightening my fists into a ball. Before I could go any further, I could hear heavy footsteps. Two soldiers came up. Both were cat people bearing spears in their hands.
"My queen! We''ve received word that the humans are marching on our borders."
"What!?"
Confused by the sudden news, I couldn''t help but exim. There was no reason for the humans to march on my borders. Hadn''t we warned them enough?
"Who said this?"
"General Ivalon was out monitoring the borders to keep the civilians who had fled safe from running into the human territory. He sent us to report almost immediately."
The soldiers said.
"Where is this General Ivalon?"
I had no recollection of him. I had far too many generals to be paying attention to every single one of them.
"I am here, my queen!"
On que, he appeared before me, blood soaked and panting, as if he hadn''t had the time to dress up beforeing here. The wolf beast man moved in front of me, with his sword at the general''s neck.
"How dare you approach the queen in such a wretched state. I should have your neck."
His anger wasn''t unfounded. It was about week''s trip from the border to the capital. Surely, he could have found the time to at least bathe beforeing.
The soldiers themselves were surprised by his sudden appearance, almost as if they''d seen a ghost.
"I apologise, but it was of the utmost importance that I report to you what I have discovered. For this reason, I did not stop running for the past five days."
He made an outrageous im.
"Five!? Stop lying."
The wolf pressed his sword harder against the tiger''s neck, but the tiger did not budge a single bit.
"Put down your sword,mander. Report to me what you discovered, general."
The wolf sheathed his de then went back behind me. The tiger didn''t even take a moment to breathe as he started.
"Immediately the humans spotted me, they attacked my toon. We retaliated, but not without casualt-"
"Skip the boring part."
Imanded and for the first time, I noticed a change in expression. It was for a brief moment, but I could see anger, fear and resolution in his eyes at the moment. That was when I first took an interest in the tiger beast man called Ivalon.
"Members of the Holy Mexar Empire were trying to invade us while our forces were weakened. Somehow, they received word of-"
The next words of his were just meaningless rambling to me. All I could think about was how interesting this beast man was. He ran 5 days, without rest to inform me of something as meaningless as human invaders.
That interest of mine was my worst mistake.
***
''Ugh¡ what''s happening? Another weird dream?''
I thought as I regained consciousness. My vision was lined up straight and I could see trees as ck as night with eyes on the barks. There were no leaves on the trees'' crooked branches, but there were familiar fruit growing on them.
I remembered them as the mutations that my devil light caused to the fruits back in Larm.
I tried to tilt my head, but that was beyond me. My body was moving on its own towards an unknown path, but one thing was certain and that was all eyes were on me. It was a creepy sensation to have devil trees focusing so intensely on me, but that was it.
<<Oh, you''ve regained consciousness>>
''Agent? That you?''
<<Yes>>
''What happened?''
<<After our descent into the convergence point, you fell off into the river and lost consciousness. As it was an emergency, I took control over your body and wed back up onto the boat>><novelnext></novelnext>
''Eh? So where are we?''
<<ording to As, this is the middle circle of the 5thyer, The Haunting Woods.>>
''5thyer? How''d we end up here?''
<<As ims our "sudden" movement on the boat caused a capsize that he somehow recovered from but made him lose track of the path to the 6thyer>>
''And we ended up in the 5thyer instead? Crap.''
<<Would you like to resume control over your body?>>
''Oh¡ uh, yeah.''
Once the agent relented control over my body, it felt like I was putting on gloves and a body suit. I stretched first before spreading my wings then taking off to the sky to get a better view.
I was immediately paralysed by the sight. It wasn''t like there were several grand spectacles. As far as I could see, there were only trees.
But one tree stood out to me. Taller than the tallest mountain, glowing a brilliant white, illuminating the entire floor. It was a beautiful oak that pierced the clouds with an unseen peak. Somehow, seeing the tree irritated me. Like an itchy eye.
''You said this was the 5thyer, right? What does it represent?''
<<Wrath, ruled over by Prince Abaddon>>
''Oh? The Lord Abaddon guy they were talking about back in their base?''
What kind of good luck did As have for us to get shipwrecked in the exact ce he wanted to go over the ce I wanted to go.
<<Cough, cough>>
''Eh? You can get sick?''
<<No>>
''Then what was that?''
<<Nothing>>
''You''re really weird, you know that?''
I looked elsewhere and soon found a river bank, the andromedaying on its side. I rushed over to inspect it, but found absolutely no one there. From the looks of things, As and the fiends fell off into the river and died.
How unfortunate I guess.
''Yo, agent. You know how to navigate the river?''
<<No. The specific knowledge for actual navigation along the 5 rivers of the underworld is not known>>
''Eh? What about that statistical data crap you were telling me about earlier.''
<<The navigator was simply bragging to others about how easily he can travel in hell. Such information was never shared to anyone>>
Ah¡ that cheap bastard!
After hearing this, I stopped wasting my efforts into pushing the boat into the river. It fell down mightily, kicking up some dust. I dusted my hands then started to think of something else.
''So how the hell am I supposed to get to the 6thyer inner ring? I refuse to be stranded.''
<<We need to find sheols in order to return to the 6thyer. That would take an indeterminable amount of time, but it is the only way at the moment>>
''Ugh. I can''t do t- sniff!''
My thoughts were halted when a delectable fragrance slipped through my nostrils. My attention was immediately drawn to the wretched boat behind me.
''What''s this aroma?''
I wondered as I hopped onto the boat, moving into the lower deck. My stomach grumbled and I felt something I was happy I hadn''t felt in this short period of time while I was in hell. Hunger.
I hated hunger so much. It was even worse with [World Eater] causing my lust for food to grow to an overwhelming degree. It was so bad, my eyes skipped past the mechanical marvels this boat bore and focused on the cubic object in the back.
It looked exactly like a refrigerator back on earth. As I drew closer, I noticed that it had opened just a tiny little bit. Barely a creak, but it was more than enough to allow me to sense that something delicious was in there.
I opened it up and was met with a ghostly blue buffet of souls. They immediately tried to flew, but there was no escaping me. One by one, they were all chucked down into my belly. Memories of their unfortunate lives shed through my headedically, almost making me die ofughter.
There was something oddly amusing about the suffering of those souls. Though, there was one soul that clearly didn''t deserve to be in hell. The irony of his situation was more than enough to make meugh.
I sped my hands as I thanked the deceased As and his fiends for the meal.
''The damned souls were far too delicious to be real. I could get addicted. Thanks for spoiling me, As.''
Once I was done, I closed the refrigerator then left the boat in search of a sheol. Hopefully I would find one soon enough.
Chapter 283 A Little Bit Of Trouble
The West of Larm had been unusually full of life and crowded in recent times. Monsters that would normally fight to the death on sight, were now walking about cordially, hunting for meals to share or going about with other duties which they never had to perform before.
This was all a new and interesting development for everyone and had reaped a lot of benefits. However, even this had its downsides.
With the unusual amount of monsters all swarmed up in one ce, alling from varying ecosystems and traditions, there was bound to be some sort of trouble.
The North of Larm was a mountainous area, covered with swarms of powerful monsters that fed off of themselves and reproduced at twice their mortality rate, ensuring there was food for everyone.
The East of Larm was a somewhat barrennd. Hard earth with a scarce amount of trees. It closely resembled a savannah with its hot and grass-filled ins that could spread on for miles unending.
The South of Larm was a swampy area, bordering a literal desert ¨C the Dourean desert ¨C with arge river that connected to the other parts of Larm Forest and a thick fog that kept them hidden and protected from outsiders.
The West of Larm was akin to a tropical rainforest. Tall green trees that spread as far as the eye could see, an abundance of rivers and odd exotic races that couldn''t be found anywhere. In a sense, it was a safe space for creatures that could be considered at a risk of extinction due to the low level of its upants and the absurdly high level of its former guardian.
Thebination of all these varying biomes made up the Great Forest of Larm.
Currently, the major races of the North and East of Larm had gathered up in the West alongside its original inhabitants, there was sort of a strain on things.
Northerners consumed a lot of food, making it difficult for both the hunting parties and the dryads who provided them with free fruits. Their voracity was quickly draining the West''s food resources at an ungodly pace.
The Easterners who weren''t used to having so many trees surrounding them were constantly cutting down the precious trees that were home to some of the exotic creatures and even dryads, causing a lot of conflict. They were more used to living in huts and having better constructed infrastructure over living out in the wild like the Westerners.
All this had led to a spark and now the General of the new master of the West, was answering for all of these things.
Seated outside of Diane''s tree, were the people affected by this entire situation.
In fear of a repeat of a previous incident, the dryad Diane had refused to hold another meeting in her or any other dryad''s tree, so they had to do it here.
"We can''t keep providing fruits for you considering your numbers! We also have to keep some for the rarities."
Diane argued, ring directly at Reiman who could only ept her daggers.
"Yes, we understand that. But could you not spare a bit more? The cyclopes can actually die from ack of enough."
He pleaded with her, pointing out the issue the cyclopes had. Diane however, had lost any logical reason as to why she should care.
"Ack of enough? We''ve given them enough to feed your group for at least two weeks. They''ve finished it all in three days. That''s just pure gluttony."
She paused, took in a deep breath and cleared her throat, then continued.
"Artificially produced fruits require a lot of mana.", she raised her hand and created a peach shaped fruit in her palm. "As you know, depending on the strength of the dryad, the fruits itself could take on magical properties like restoring mana and stamina."
Reiman nodded, being fully aware of the dryads'' ability to make fruits using their magic.
"In that case, I assume you are aware that doing such also requires mana from us, as well as stamina. Now, we may be getting an abundance of mana from Larm itself, but even spiritual entities need to rest. We cannot constantly provide to satiate their hunger."
She pointed a finger at the cyclopes king who was sitting on the floor because there was no chair big enough for him.
"And even without talking about the fruit. The rate at which the creatures of the West are dying is frankly absurd. Larm was built to protect those who couldn''t protect themselves, not turn it into a ughter house for the feeble. For centuries, the West has seen numerous rare creatures settle down due to the low mortality rate this ce had to offer, and now I simply sense fear from them all the time."
The cyclopes king started to say something, but as there was anguage barrier, most of them couldn''t understand what he said. Those with skills such as [Thought Communication] and [Telepathy] were able to understand him though.
"We apologise for our rather sudden interruption of life in the West. We are simply trying our best to stay alive, especially since the tyrants in the North and East are out for our lives."
"Apologies don''t solve the problem. Though, you are right on this issue lying mostly on the unfit tyrants that rule the East and North. I''m certain Goliath would be regretting his decisions if he were alive."
She scoffed. The foggy orb that had simply been floating harmlessly next to Reiman''s side went up to the centre and projected a voice.
"If you arecking resources, the South may be able to help with that."
The owner of the voice, Zana, offered aid without hesitation. Reiman had already nned to ask the South for aid during this meeting, so them offering it without him having to bow his head was excellent news.
"We possess a lot of fish that we can transport to the West if you want. The only issue would be you have to collect it at the border."
''What? She''ll actually even carry it halfway for us?''
Zana was a God-send. Somehow, Reiman found himself rooting for her victory. His ears perked up and with his ability that granted him a 360 view of his surroundings, he could see the subtle relieved reactions of those on his side.
"Honestly? Are you just going to rely on another portion of Larm to solve this issue?"
Diane''s voice came in like a hot p, breaking Reiman from his deluded salvation.
"Excuse me? I don''t see the problem here."
For the first time since the meeting begun, he was confused.
"We currently have major races from 3 of Larm''s 4 portions gathered in this 1 portion. Are you going to rely on the resources of 2 portions to feed 3-portions worth of creatures? That isn''t practical in the least."
"What do you want us to do then? We''re currently at war with 2 other portions. The best we can do is manage what we can get."
"Tell that to the cyclopes then."
"I don''t like to get rude, but leave us out of it. It''s not our fault that this was literally how our bodies were made. I assumed choosing the West was a good idea, but if this is how disorganised you are, your leader must have deceived me."
The cyclopes king warned Diane with a clearly angered expression. The dryad then switched tactics.
"Speaking of that unreliable leader. Where is she? Adventuring off again without a care for her people?"
"Mind your tongue!"
Shiroi, who had kept quiet the entire time, snapped at Diane. She refused to tolerate any sort of disrespect. The other captains who had been watching quietly were now ring at Diane and the dryads with less than friendly intentions.
"There''s no need to antagonise anyone here. I understand that everyone here is stressed out from working so much, especially in recent times, but now isn''t the time.", Reiman got off his seat and moved to the centre of the meeting, causing all eyes to easily fall on him. He then looked at Diane.
"I understand your point on food. I assure you, Lady Hinotori already made ns in case of a shortage of food. For the trees that are being felled down by the Easterners for construction, please ignore as they will grow back in no time. I will make sure they don''t touch trees belonging to dryads and rare creatures."
After making sure his words sunk into her, he turned around then looked at all the others.
"For now, all we need to do is focus on defeating our enemies!"
"Defeating the enemies?"
"Don''t the chances look slim this time?"
"I mean, without Lord Goliath-"
Such mumbling became audible amongst the dryads. Diane folded her arms and smirked as if she won something.
"What do you mean without Lord Goliath? Do we not possess someone of equal, if not greater value?"
Reiman confidently addressed their ims. Amused, Diane decided to chime in.<novelnext></novelnext>
"I thought our great leader was out ofmission. Did this person of equal value choose an idiot for the role of General?"
The rat man paused and looked at her. There was something very different about how she had been acting this entire time. Purposefully antagonising everyone didn''t seem to have any immediate benefits. Reiman dropped his raised palm, signalling for the captains who had already drawn their weapons to stand down.
''I''m not sure what your game is here, but¡''
"I wasn''t referring to Lady Hinotori."
"Oh?"
The cyclopes king identally muttered in interest. Everybody else who had been present a couple of nights ago knew who he was referring to and let out exasperated, pained sighs.
None of them wanted that guy''s help. Sure, he was effective, but his attitude alone was more than enough to spread a great boredom amongst the creatures.
"Tch. I suppose if it''s that idiot¡"
Diane said, then stood up.
"Where is he? I haven''t heard word of him in days."
"He is currently performing some personal duties. He shall return soon."
Reiman responded sharply. In truth, he had no idea where Julian was.
________________________________________
Demon Country, Mchas
"Demon scum! Bow for the herald of the Monster Queen stands before you!"
A young boy with deathly pale skin stood ¨C no, floated would be the better term ¨C above therge circle in the centre of the room.
This boy that had blood red eyes, messy ck and silver hair, dressed up in a grey sleeveless vest over a white long-sleeved shirt and grey pants with matching shoes, announced without permission.
His grandiose entrance and posture seemed to pronounce his power and confidence. It reminded me so much of that man who came before me and dered that I would lead Mchas as its new [Demon Lord] after the previous ruler''s untimely demise.
"Herald of the Monster Queen?"
One of mypatriots asked, confused by this unannounced performance. The fanged boy grinned at his question then put his left hand behind his back before raising his right hand and showing his index finger as if pointing to the heavens.
"Yes! I am the Herald of the Monster Queen. The future Demon Lord. Your future ruler or murderer depending on your actions in the [Selection Games]."
Again, he dered something stupid. Only, this time, it caused my blood to boil and a vein in my head to pop.
"Future Demon Lord!? Do you have any idea where you havended yourself?"
Annoyed, I stood up and let my demonic aura burst in the room, unsettling the weaker members in the room. The boy however looked at me with interest, like a child looking at a toy.
He pped his hands for a moment and let out a sound as stupid as "Oooh", almost sending me ballistic.
"You are clearly Augustine''s ward with that powerful disy."
I stopped showing my power and gulped.
''This boy, younger than my children dare mention Lord Augustine''s name so casually? How absurd!''
Still, I was no fool. When I took in how he reacted to my disy of power, his nonchnce and the familiarity with which he referred to a man as powerful as Lord Augustine with, he clearly wasn''t a normal foe. I needed to be smarter with my approach.
I wanted to step back, but now the other candidates had their eyes on me. Should I show even a moment''s hesitation, they would tear me apartter.
In this kind of situation, there was only one thing to do.
"Who is this Monster Queen you speak of?"
Coolly, I tried to inquire for more information.
"The current ruler of Larm Forest, which means she possess more resources than all of youbined. Haha! Isn''t that enough to make you tremble? Hahaha!"
He startedughing like a person with several issues. I tried my best to ignore it and focus on everything else he said.
"Someone has already taken the ce of Goliath?"
"Of course! Aren''t you understanding me?"
From his reactions, he really did possess the thinking capacity of a child having fun. I could use this to my advantage.
"If I remember right, weren''t there some tensions brewing in Larm?"
I asked this because I had been keeping my eye on the forest. Ever since the loss of Goliath, I had been aiming to establish some sort of dominance there. Through the use of one of the tyrants, that is. A war monger known for his love for battles.
My n was to form some sort of alliance with him and eventually, the other tyrants as well, giving me the upper hand against the other candidates in terms of both power and influence. With Larm under my control, the possibilities were endless. A nigh infinite amount of valuable resources, control over pathways as Larm connected more countries than anyone was happy about, and a great expansion to the already small Demon country.
There were more ns already waiting to be enacted, but I recently received word of an ongoing war for Larm. I had assumed Krull''s victory was a done deal, so I was waiting to send in aid at thetter stages of his war, but apparently, I was na?ve.
Another demon had already beaten me to it. Whoever it was had intense cunning and patience, as well as mastery over maniption from the shadows topletely evade my detection.
"Oh? That little spat? The Monster Queen shall deal with those bugs in due time."
The boy wore a frightening expression as he talked about the monsters that opposed his queen.
"The Queen of Monsters shall make her official appearance at the start of the [Selection Games]. Till then, you have time to decide whether you wish to fall under her banner, or oppose her and die in the tournament like the weaklings that you are. Hahaha!"
With that said, the boy''s body faded away in blood mist, leaving the room absolutely dead silent.
The sound of his exaggeratedughter echoed violently in my ears as the sound of my heartbeat grew louder and louder with each thump.
Angrily, I stomped out of the room, ignoring the others. The moment I got out, my retainer appeared behind me.
"Lord Bael?"
He addressed me, already aware that I had orders for him.
"Send both Belial and Jasper to aid the East. Make sure to emphasise that failure is not an option in this matter."
After receiving my orders, he disappeared to whence he came.
''Bow? To some upstart? I''d rather die."
Resolutely, I steeled my resolve for the uing [Selection Games]. I would be the demon lord and lead my fellow demons into a new prosperous age. A world without the existence of those disgusting human trash.
Chapter 284 Secret Identities
After flying blind for 5 days straight, I returned to the river bank, only to meet a shellshocked As and Fiends, grouped up in front of the Andromeda, listless.
My first reaction to this was ''Eh? They''re alive agent?''
Of course, the cheeky bastard replied with a ''I never said they were dead.''
Almost causing an argument in the air, but I needed to remind myself that no one else could hear the agent. Having an argument with it would simply cause everyone to look at me like some kind of madman.
I descended next to them and put on my most relieved face.
"You guys are al-!"
"Was it you!?"
Stopping my movie-perfect reunion shot, As and his fiends red at me.
"Eh?"
"Did you consume all the souls we kept locked up, damn it!?"
Ah¡ well fuck. I''d been caught red handed. Best way out of this was to tell a little white lie, I guess.
"N-No."
I told the lie almost too perfectly because now even the fiends were holding As back from jumping on me. They must have believed me.
"You even consumed the pure soul which was bait for tainted souls! You fu-"
He proceeded to list a dictionary of curses at me. Some familiar, some new and some just down-right scary.
"I''m sorry, ok? And I really mean it."
This time, truly, I felt bad. Not only did I not check to confirm their status, I outright stole from them after they''d been so kind to me.
"Sorry isn''t going to get us out of this shithole. Even worse, we couldn''t get the divinium! Could this crappy day get any worse?"
"Oh! How about I go get the divinium then?"
A lightbulb lit up in my usually dull brain. The gears were finally moving.
"Be my guest if you want to be exposed to enough divine energy to give yourself radiation poisoning for the rest of your miserable life."
He requested in the kindest form he could have. All the fiends were in agreement with my idea and even the agent said it wasn''t a bad attempt, meaning we could actually do this.
ording to him, the divinium reserves were in the direction of the massive tree I saw earlier when I was flying. Once I got that down, I wasted no time in flying towards the destination.
I met a couple of fiendish looking creatures. They had raven ck wings and ck halos above their heads. They''re bodies were mostly pale skin, but their head simple disyed their iron skulls.
Cautiously, I approached these reaper-like beings and they ignored me. They were Death''s dogs so to speak. Their mission was to simply carry out any orders the King of Hell granted them and they mostly didn''t care about anything else.
Still, I tried my best to avoid being sighted and went to the roots of the tree. The aura it gave off wasn''t so bad. It was just like a really hot summer''s day which, in of itself, was torture, but I pulled through. Unfortunately, the moment I tried to break a piece of the tree, the Death Dogs noticed my presence.
One of them attacked me, but it was easy to dodge him. Rather, the difficult part was me trying to attack them. Magic was practically impossible for me given the circumstances, but this was supposedly how it was for normal people back in Elecryea.
I''d need a couple of years of training to have that kind of efficiency in here. Time which I didn''t possess, so I tried to use brute strength in this fight. I easily closed the gap between my enemies and myself and punched them down one by one, the only real issue being the reaper with a golden skull.
He managed to match me in speed, but his strength left more to be desired so I ended up defeating him.
When I was done, I quickly ate them up, discovering that they had a bunch of souls on them. Basically, it was a blessing from above¡ below. I got to satiate my hunger and get the divinium As needed. With this, I''d be back on my way to the 6thyer''s inner circle, then the 9thyer, then into the King of Hell''s pce with no invitation whatsoever, then sneaking past some of his guards who are potentially stronger than myself, then stealing his super important book that contains information so great it made him the revered king of hell, then I go back to help my familia fight an inevitable war against humans.
This was all going to be super easy. Barely an inconvenience.
When I was done overthinking things, I went to work chopping away at bits of the tree. That was when it hit me that I never asked As how much divinium I needed to take.
Either way, I guess we just needed a lot. If I brought excess, I could simply take some of it back to Larm with me to see if we could put it to use. I was sure Sylphie and Kara would love to take a look at it.
Immediately I was done, I flew back to As. It was very evident I brought too much divinium because he almost died from exposure to it.
It then brought up the question, why was it that in my devil state, I was barely affected by this divinium?
Oh well, a question for another day. For now, I had a more important question.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Why are we spending the night here again?"
I asked while looking into the blue fire As'' fiends had set. We sat around it in a circle, just looking at it. There was no moon in hell, so that meant there was no light when night time came. I was confused by this odd phenomenon and asked if there was a sun, but got no concrete response to that question. Even the agent wasn''tpletely sure what gave hell its light during the "day time".
"Because the river will sink us when it''s night."
At the deration, the sound of hallowing souls pierced my ear drums. The river bank trembled as the river''s speed increased far drastically from how it was before. It had essentially transformed itself into a raging typhoon.
I could fear intense fearing from the river. The souls were terrified of something so their behaviour turned haphazard. I was put on edge by this discovery.
"When it''s night, the souls be absolutely terrified because of the total darkness. This causes them to move about without reason or care for their own safety, turning the river into a raging sea on a Stormy night. Even Andromeda would be sunk in that sort of situation."
As so kindly exined to me. Afterwards, we were left with an awkward silence between us. The only sounds that entered my ears were the cries of the souls as they bashed on the river banks seeking some sort of salvation from what it is they feared so much about the darkness.
I could understand being on edge in the darkness. You lost a crucial sense of yours that you relied on for most of everything you did. You instantly became powerless. And that was a feeling no one would ever like to endure.
Powerlessness was an absolutely terrifying nightmare. One I absolutely loathed with every fabric of my being.
However, the best way to ovee the fear of the dark is by bing one with it. It''s exactly the same situation as that one time in your infancy where you decide you can sleep without a night light. It''s scary the first time, but once you assimte into it, you notice that the darkness isn''t nearly as terrifying as you once perceived it to be.
Personally, I liked the dark and its untold secrets that only those willing to listen could hear.
0"I''m not sure what happened, but the first thing I remember was seeing Pai''s mask."
As started to talk about something, drawing me from my thoughts. My ears perked up in interest and my gaze fell entirely on him.
"She told me my name was As and that I was a member of the Ars Goetia, lucky to have survived after being ganged up on."
''Oh? So he''s the reason they keep assuming I''m a former Ars Goetia member.''
"I don''t know why, but I immediately trusted her words."
''Some sort of skill maybe?''
"I know it wasn''t any skill or magic spell. I checked myself behind her back to see if something like that had been done to me, but I couldn''t find anything of the sort. It was simply some sort of trust that went beyond just being acquaintances of allies with the same will to survive. It felt like¡ she was a long-lost family member."
"Oh?"
This was starting to get curious.
"But devils don''t reproduce, so I figure it''s all just in my head."
The concept of devils being unable to reproduce just felt somehow wrong. It wasn''t like I wanted more of Satan''s allies, but to never get to know what it was like to have an overbearing mother, a quiet father or bratty little sister¡ that just sounded unfortunate.
"Pai took care of me while I was confused and weakened. Together, we built ourir to protect ourselves from high-ranking devils since we found out that my growth had been permanently stunted."
''Permanently stunted? Aren''t you giving me a bit too much personal information? Like, I''m not against it, but I could turn on you at the drop of a hat, you know?''
"After a while, on her way from one of her usual scouting trips, she found an unconscious devil that had survived a fight against some high-ranking devils, also with no memory of their past."
Obviously, the one he was referring to was Malius.
"Oi. Doesn''t that mean Malius was once a member of the Ars Goetia then?"
The deadpan silence after my question was possibly the loudest answer he could have given me then.
"Oi, oi. So you, Malius and Pai are all previous Ars Goetia?"
"No. Pai is different. She''s always been like that ording to her."
As immediately refuted my ims. But I couldn''t just ept her ims as gospel just like he did.
''Agent? Do you have any idea who they are if you check their characteristics with previous Ars Goetia members?''
<<Yes. The owl matches perfectly with the Cosmic Prince Sts. Malius and Pai have multile possible identities. Would you still like to hear them?>>
''Of course.''
The agent then listed the possible identities of Pai and Malius. I was kind of impressed with the list, but none of that even mattered since they would never be able to regain their former power ording As himself.
Chapter 285 I Am Who I Am
6thyer, Inner ring
We finally made it. We were in the inner ring of the sixthyer. The City of Gold. The trip was fast and without much worry. As had anchored the boat on the river bank and pointed me in the direction of the pce.
"It''s a bit far from here, but if you keep heading North and over that Rusted Iron Wall, you should see it. The Golden Pce of the Vagetha the Golden Conqueror."
He pointed in the direction of arge wall that reached at least a kilometre high. The wall was covered in rust and possessed massive openings that spewed out hot molten magma from it. This magma had formed several streams around the wall spreading off into different directions, but none ever touching the river of souls. There were golden statues, just a little bit shorter than the wall, ced in a position that made them seem like they were keeping the walls from falling down.
"Ugh. Make sure not to offend the guardians of the wall or you''ll end up being used to build one of those statues."
With that final warning, As returned to his boat and started to prepare for his trip back to the outer ring.
''Um¡ a little bit over the top, don''t you think?''
<<What? I had to keep myself from taking morend somehow, you know?>>
Before I could ask the agent what it meant by that, my ears perked up at the sound of devils running like wild buffalo in a stampeded. In a distance, much like how things were when I first met Malius, a swarm of devils were charging at me.
Knowing that there was something more to it, I looked past the swarm and saw that a ginormous figure was chasing them my way. It gave off the same aura as the monster from the first time, which could only mean one thing.
''Ars Goetia?'', I thought as my lips started to tremble.
"Fuck! Get in here! There''s something chasing em!", As, concerningly warned me. However, as hard as I tried, I couldn''t find a single part of me that wanted to listen to him. My mind and body could only focus on one thing.
I remembered the promise I made to myself on the day the agent attacked me. I swore I''d never run away from anything that tried to kill me. I would face any sort of challenge the world threw at me with a resolve of steel.
Had I followed through on that promise?
I couldn''t say for sure. I mean, I was missing some parts of my memory thanks to [Evolver], but one thing that I knew for sure, was that I did not want to run away from this Ars Goetia I''d heard so much about.
Even worse, I was right next to my goal. I had to hurry up then return to the home I''d made for myself in this odd world. From where I stood, I could almost see the tip of this Golden Castle As spoke of.
"Sorry, but a NEET like me can''t help but want to hurry up back to my home.", havinge to my conclusion, I waved As off and marched towards the swarm.
Without looking back, I could tell As listened to me and was going away hurriedly. I couldn''t help butugh at the scene before continuing.
''I guess that''s just how he is.'', I didn''t expect anymore from him given his disposition. He hadpleted his job and wanted nothing more than to return home. In a sense, we were both alike.
While moving towards the swarm, I noticed that other than what was chasing the swarm, there was another smaller figure just watching from afar. The being was sitting down and looking at me while I walked towards what I assumed to be his ally.
<<I see the effects of hell are starting to rub off on you.>>
The agent muttered with a sort of distaste.
''What do you mean?''
<<The lust for souls, the ecstasy at the sight of a potential battle and the gradual loss of care for anything. Slowly, but surely, you''re bing more and more like a true devil>>
It exined to me. But I couldn''t understand that.
''My hunger is caused by [World Eater] and I haven''t lost a single care or emotion for those I love. I don''t know what makes you think I''m getting ecstatic at the prospect of fighting. I detest that greatly.''
I countered all its points, but the agent clearly didn''t want to lose.
<<You don''t have a physical form here and are unable to ess most of your original skills including [World Eater]. And of course you haven''t noticed the subtle loss in emotion. As for thest part¡ the fact that you''re grinning is more than enough proof!>>
That was when I noticed that my lips had been upturned madly. Like butterflies dancing in my stomach, I was getting anxious at the thought of fighting them. Almost like love at first sight.
Unable to believe the kind of stupid nonsense I was monologuing, I couldn''t help butugh.<novelnext></novelnext>
''Well¡ when in Rome, do as the Romans do.''
As hard as I tried to act calmly, I couldn''t hide the fact that I was scared from myself. It was weird, but I think I was scared because I couldn''t feel scared anymore. I think, the onlyfort I had about feeling weak, was the fact that I could still feel human.
Ever since getting reincarnated, although in a short time, I had be more beast-like than human. The scariest part about that was the fact that it all felt so natural. Like I was always meant to be that kind of creature. I believed it always had a part to do with why I was mostly in my bird form than human form. Like the human form was chaining me down to something I wasn''t meant to be.
That odd phenomenon was absolutely terrifying to me and I couldn''t handle it. The only thing that probably kept me how I was, was fear. Because of it, no matter how much I hated it, I could always at least remember that I was human before a monster.
My fear and logical thinking would make me perform actions that were more human than monster. With that and one other key factor, I could maintain my humanity I thought.
But right now, with that key factor gone and my fear also gradually disappearing, I realised that my humanity was a chain in a sense. It bound me and prevented me from doing certain morally questionable things.
Maybe, this wasn''t the first time I realised I was a monster. The times I''ve killed humans without batting an eye. Maybe, I never ever had any sort of humanity in me to begin. Maybe, I was simply now free because I couldn''t be scared of anything anymore. This lust for battle and heartlessness, maybe¡ just maybe, this was the true me, unshackled by anything.
<<I prefer the more stupid version of you. At least things won''t be so clich¨¦ that way>>
The agent said unexpectedly, clearing all my thoughts away. It felt as if I could see a silhouette of the agent''s presence next to me, but I just pped my face and brought myself back to reality.
None of this nonsense mattered. Whether I was bing more like a devil, whether I was human, whether I was a monster. No one but me was allowed to define myself. Akira, Hinotori, Hyakkiyako, Akkun, Kira, simplebels but none could exin the entity I was.
''All I know is that I am who I am. Nothing more, nothing less!''
<<Um¡ that''s so out of nowhere and cringe.>>
''Shut up!''
<<Hehehe>>
''Thanks.''
With a clear mind, I charged at the swarm as fast as I could. When I met it head on, I noticed something strange happening. None of the devils even touched me. They all made sure to steer clear of me while flying hurriedly from the monster chasing them.
''Agent?''
<<They most likely acknowledge that you are of a higher ranking than they themselves>>
''That so? Guess that works out nicely for us then.''
Happy for such a convenient situation, I flew hard, prepping up a very powerful punch. Since I didn''t have ess to most of my skills and magic was still a no-go for me, I decided to instead go as physical as I could.
Once I emerged from the swarm, I was able to get a better view of the devil that had been causing this mess from all the way back in the outer ring.
It was a wolf asrge as a hill. The fur on its back was raven ck, but the fur that covered everywhere else burnt a fiery red. The beast had three heads, all of which possessed an increasing number of horns. One horn on the left head, two on the right and three on the centre head. This beast possessed golden eyes that shone like amp in pitch-ck void, but there was an odd scar on the middle head''s eye.
The wolf paused in its charge, probably confused as to why a devil was flying at it with full speed, but this only worked to my advantage. Without a shred of hesitation, I sent to Cerberus a skull-splitting punch in the middle head, knocking it quite a ways back.
I looked at the other devil that was still far away. I noticed his eyes tremble as he stood up in shock that his ally was done in with only one punch.
I myself looked at my fist, confused by how strong I was.
''Agent? I don''t believe my strength stat was so great I could crack a hill with my punch. Maybe with [Mithril Body] I could do that, but not normal stats.''
<<Your devil form is five times as strong as your normal state. In hell, you are stronger than you''ve ever been>>
Ah¡ I forgot about that. The only downside to using this form back home was that it took some of my hp to fuel, but I guess there was no such limit in hell.
''I guess I could use this to test how strong the devil form is really. I can''t have it being my strongest card and not knowing its limits.''
Chapter 286 Hells Damned Monarch
The cerberus'' ws failed to dig through my abdomen. I almostughed at how iparably weak this ars goetia member was and pped its paw away.
Fiercely, I delivered an uppercut to its middle head, knocking it up into the sky once more. I flew up, aiming to shoot right through its abdomen, but the cerberus simply turned into a cloud of smoke that I passed through.
When I looked down, he had rematerialized and was ready to fire an attack at me. It was a pir of ck fire, which I barely managed to dodge. Unfortunately, some of my feathers were burnt off and I was left flying wonkily.
Once itnded on the ground, all three heads started to prep up attacks as well. They fired of three different forms of fire attacks. One was crimson red, the other was pitch ck and thest was an eerie grey that seemed to be screaming.
I was lucky enough to dodge the grey and red, but my arm and left wing got caught up in the ck fire. I spiralled into the ground, creating a crater. The cerberus didn''t allow me to rest though, as it pounced on me almost immediately.
I rolled out of the way and waved my arm and wing about, hoping to put out the fire, but nothing was working.
<<That is Hell Fire. It won''t go away unless you chop off the limb>>
''That so?'', without hesitation, I ripped off both my wing and arm. For some reason, I couldn''t feel a thing in this ce. I threw both at the cerberus, hoping he would get hit by them and eventually burn to death.
Of course, this was mere hope and reality could never be so easy. He burnt the limbs to a crisp with his red fire, then disintegrated into the cloud of smoke from before. He tried to swarm me, but it was toote. My wing had already grown back and I was up in the sky.
I took in the healthy sulphuric air then released a breath of white-hot fire at the smoke cloud. Burning the ground beyond what the magma had down and dispersing the smoke.
''So I can use some skills that devils can use, huh?''
<<Of course. Being a devil yourself, you should naturally be able to use devil skills in hell>>
''Does the smoke skill that devil''s using have a weakness?''
<<[Shadow Mist] is a skill that involves the host separating their particles and given it a different less cohesive form. Should the particles divide too far however, recovery would be nigh impossible and death 100% confirmed if the particles missing were key organs>>
''Oh? What kind of stupid drawback is that?''
Without another thought, I flew in close and started to p my wings about furiously, hoping to part his body. He caught on quickly and reformed himself before any part could be lost, but I had been waiting on that one moment.
I stuck my protruded ws into the cerberus'' chest, then erged my hand, causing the ws toe out of the other side. Oddly enough, I couldn''t feel my hands touching his heart. Unsure about it, I decided to simply w upwards. At least that way I could destroy all three brains. To prevent the cerberus from suddenly dispersing, I had my wings at the ready to blow him away.
It was a risky gamble, but the cerberus bit one of my wings as I was striking upwards, and just before I could reach one of its heads, it dispersed.
I thought it was pointless since I had more than one wing, but the bastard used some sort of paralysis poison on me and it managed to escape safely.
From a rtively safe distance, it barked at me, throwing my paralysed body quite the distance away. I skidded on the ground for some time before coughing out the poison then turning to charge at the cerberus once more.
It red at me and I knew that it meant to kill me with this one strike.
''I guess y time''s over then.'', we charged at each other, our ws at the ready to rip the other to shreds.
"W-WAIT!", the other devil came in between us. Both I and the cerberus halted our attacks just before it could hit him. The devil was panting heavily, very much aware of just how close to reincarnation he was. I took the chance to observe him properly.
He was a lean devil with blood red skin. He wore a very stylish ck tuxedo with a sword hanging at his waist. The devil''s arms were gloved and his feet were bare oddly enough, showing his untrimmed nails.
One look at his face and I was shocked. He had two short ck horns growing out of his forehead and a barbed tail growing from behind. His dark purple eyes looked at me fearfully as well as with some level of awe. Aside the horns and red skin, I''d say he had the perfect face for a guy with his build. A perfectly chiselled chin, t cheeks and a little goatee.
The more I looked at his perfectly chiselled facial features, the more I felt like I''d seen him somewhere before.
"A-Are you¡dy Hinotori?", with his one question, the image clicked in my head. His face, although muddled in my head, somehow clicked with this one and I could tell in an instant who he was.
"Are you Shisui?"
<<Shitsuke>>
"Shitsuke!", I made no mistakes whatsoever! I heard nothing from no one. This was simply my own mind reminding me of his proper name.
Once I mentioned his name, he crumpled to the floor with tears in his eyes. He looked at me with revering eyes while sniffing.
"I knew you wouldn''t abandon us here just like that."
''Us? Does that mean that cerberus is¡''
"Kuro?", I asked, pointing at the three headed monstrosity that gave me quite the fight.
All three heads of his just looked down on me from above before bowing.
"It would seem even after all my fighting in hell, I was never ever to surpass you, rival."
''Rival? What nonsense is he talking about?''
"Oh, Lady Hinotori. When Tsuna was sent back to the World of the living, I just knew that she would tell you and so we''ve been waiting for you. It was hard at first, being bullied. We ranked amongst Greater devils because of our strength from when we were alive and were made to be mere torturers of the damned¡"
He started to recount of their somewhat difficult journey in hell. As devils, they couldn''t really die so they were beaten till they respawned by other high-ranking devils. Kuro couldn''t handle it so he chose to acquire strength quickly by feasting on the weaker devils. In no time, he acquired strength and forced Shitsuke to do the same.
Long story short, they went through a lot of stuff and eventually imed the seats of some members of the Ars Goetia. Shitsuke was ranked 70th and Kuro was ranked 61st. I couldn''t help but be proud of the two monstrosities I had taken under my wing.
''Can''t believe they managed all that in little over a month.''
<<There is a time dtion between all realms. 1 month in Elecryea does not equal one month in hell>>
''Is that so? Cool.''
"Are we returning immediately?", Shitsuke asked, clearly sick and tired of hell already. I patted him on the head then pointed towards the Golden City.
"Naw, I''ve got to finish something first. When I''m done, then we''ll be heading out."
"Is that so? Then we shall apany you.", he stood up and fixed his hand on his sword while looking at the walls.
"We haven''t entered the Golden City before. I heard the 20th rank rules the city. This sounds like fun.", Kuro, the more battle hungry amongst the two, was itching to explore the city of high-ranking devils.
Although I said this, I wasn''t particrly sure how to take both of them out of hell with me.<novelnext></novelnext>
"First, could you free those two?", I asked, having noticed that both Pai and Malius had been captured by them. It was a shock when I felt their presence, but after having been given this 1 in a million chance to meet Kuro and Shitsuke, nothing could surprise.
Shitsuke untied them and they both ran towards me and hid behind me.
"T-That''s right! Listen to what the boss says!", Pai ordered with trembling legs. Malius on the other hand couldn''t even let out a squeal.
"How''d you guys get here before As and I?"
"They''re Ars Goetia. They can summon sheols anytime they want. It''s one of their privileges as Ars Goetia members!"
"So can they sheol to the ninth floor?"
"No. That''s only for the princes. But Ars Goetia can go anywhere else. Anyway, could you please let us follow you for a bit?", Pai pleaded with me.
"Eh? Why? As is on his way back."
"Don''t worry about that. I just remembered there''s something I wanted to do in the Golden City too."
''Um¡ is it because she''s too scared to return to their destroyedir?''
<
>
Well, I couldn''t me them for feeling too scared to return. If being a greater or lesser devil got one bullied, I could fully well understand just why they had the barrier and robots set up. Now that all of that was gone, she was probably seeking protection for as long as they could get before returning there.
''Putting most of the job on As, eh? I like that kind of leadership! Fellow corrupt leader, I respect you!''
"Good job, soldier. Keep up the good work.", I saluted Pai. As if she understood me, she saluted me back. Everyone else just gave us confused eyes, but the masses weren''t ever going to get it.
"Let''s go!", I ordered, then one of Kuro''s head grabbed me and ced me on his back. He also grabbed both Pai and Malius and sat them next to me before sprinting towards the city.
Shitsuke was surprisingly able to keep up with Kuro''s insane speed as we blitzed our way pass several metres ofnd and magma.
"By the way, how is Tsuna doing? The others as well; Oki, Yuuna, Taiku and Nukeme."
"Oh, uh, they''re all fine. They''ve grown stronger as well, so you can rest assured that they won''t be getting into trouble any time soon."
He had a satisfied grin on his face. I wondered if Kuro would ask about his sister and his n, but he didn''t even seem to ponder about it. He was definitely certain that his sister and n were thriving easily. I wasn''t sure whether his confidence came from pride or trust.
We arrived at the gates in no time.
Now that I was here, I couldn''t help but feel disappointed in a sense. The gate wasrge for sure. So big you could fit at least tworge castles through the gate at the same time. On both sides, there were ss panels that separated a bunch of enved souls from us. These souls were all wing at the ss in order to escape, but it was to no avail.
The more I looked at the time, the more I noticed that their structures were off. Some portions of their bodies had melted off or were patched up with rusty nails or mismatched body parts. They were chained to conveyor belts that took them into some big room and the amount of screamsing from the rooms alone were more than enough to make anyone try to w out of there.
''What''s going on there?''
<<The souls are being refined over and over again till they attain a perfect shape or structure. Once they attain this form, they are shoved into the rusty walls to strengthen the defences of the city. I guess the people in charge simply like to torture them rather than actually do their jobs. Oh well>>
''Don''t ''oh well'' me! Didn''t youe up with this?''
<<Yes>>
I gave after its immediate response. The group quietly waltzed into the city.
''It''s strange that you wanted to give this city so much protection, yet you couldn''t even afford to get guards for your gates.''
<<Huh? Why would I need guards for a city full of Arch devils and above? If anything, anyone entering would need guards! There are several means set up to deal with those who won''t obey my rules>>
''Huh.''
The moment we crossed through the gates, I could feel something wash off my skin. Like clothes I was wearing had just faded off my body,
''That was odd.''
<<Oh no¡>>
''Huh?''
<<I forgot that the Golden City had a veil on it that cancels any sort of blessing or divine element on your body>>
''Um¡ why did you have that?''
<<To stop certain higher beings and their subordinates from wrecking my city as they please>>
''And how is that a problem?''
<<One of the benefits of being blessed by the system master was the fact that Curses had no effects on you.>>
''¡ Are you saying I have a curse?''
<<Yes. A curse given to you by one of Hell''s 9 original Monarchs. The Dark Lord, Makrov, gave you the curse of [Hell''s Damned Monarch]>>
''Ah. Doesn''t that just make every devil scared of me? Isn''t that beneficial in this situation?''
<<No. It alerts both the King of Hell and Devil King of your existence, which the system master has been hiding ever since we fused>>
''Excuse me?''
Just as I asked, the clouds of the city darkened. And like thunder booming, the sounds of two very pissed off men came through.
"Makrov! You dare set foot in the Underworld after your banishment!?"
"Stupid fat cat! Come for a beating!"
Chapter 287 Vagethas Treasure Box
"Somehow I felt offended for being called a cat."
I remarked, but this only further angered the giant cloud men. Lightning sparks flew and thunder boomed in the empty city of gold. The king of hell, Ozvaloth, summoned up a storm as his voice bellowed.
"In your final moments, you pleaded with us for mercy and we gave it to you for how pathetic you were. Now you''ve returned!? I shall personally y you, you shameless kitten!"
"Um¡ I don''t even look like a cat."
"I see you are still unable to shut your mouth to save your own life."
"But¡ I¡ what? I give up. Screw you, baldy!", I didn''t care anymore. These crazy men could do whatever the hell they wanted to do. If they wanted to destroy me so much without even hearing me out, I was ready to take them on.
''Kuro, Shitsuke. Get rea-''
<
>
Stopping me from making a very rash decision, the agent came in with a solution. I wasn''t quite sure what it had cooked up, but it was the most reliable skill I had, so I guess I''d just leave the whole ordeal to it.
It was a strange experience relieving control to the agent. As if my soul was being pulled from the front row seat and to the backseat of a car. My vision tunnelled and suddenly I was viewing everything through a screen rather than through my own eyes. Well, I guess it was my eyes at the end of the day, but still.
As a bolt of lightning was being prepared above, my body took flight into the air towards the other cloudy man. The man looked at us as if we were some kind of fly that was about to bother him.
"What? You want me to turn you inside out instead of Ozvaloth?"
The cloud asked us with a raised eyebrow. Clearly, he didn''t see us as worth his time. In fact, him being here was most likely simply just a formality rather a king addressing a threat. The king of hell on the other hand seemed to be preparing a very potent attack for us while muttering something excitedly. I couldn''t understand what he was saying as it was in some otherworldlynguage.
"¡õ¡õ¡õ!"
As if whatever the hell the king of hell was saying made no sense, the agent followed up with something that was censored in my head. Ozvaloth stopped charging up his attack then looked at us with stunned eyes. Ozvon, the devil king, had the same expression.
Ozvaloth looked Ozvon, then us, then back to Ozvon with utter disbelief.
"Please tell me you weren''t stupid enough to actually leave your true name in one of the realms you visited because the civilisation level was far too dense to understand its meaning."
Ozvaloth exasperated, like a concerned and disappointed father, asked.
"What? No! I didn''t!"
Ozvon immediately defended himself.
"Then exin this."
"I¡ Ah¡ there shouldn''t be anyone who knows my true name other you, myself and¡ huh?"
As he was thinking about the third person, his eye fell on us. I could feel our mouth make an attempt at a smile. It was evident the agent hadn''t smiled in a very long time.
"Is that you, Jasper?"
He asked and Ozvaloth red at us.
"Yes."
"Jasper? Who is Jasper? Why is this the first time I''m hearing of a Jasper?"
Ozvaloth questioned, taking a better look at us. We didn''t flinch in the slightest no matter how close he got to us, but then Ozvon flew in between Ozvaloth and us.
"I will handle this. You can return to your domain."
"Huh? But-"
"Just trust me. Don''t question it too much, but this isn''t that wimpy cat."
All of a sudden, Ozvon was vouching for her legitimacy. I was starting to wonder what kind of rtionship the agent had with Ozvon for him to not only reveal his true name to it, but also stand up to his partner for its sake.
"Exin. Now."
"I wille to your pce and exin. For now, please just return."
"Hmmm, very well then. I await your exnation."
With a deal having been made, the king of hell returned to his pce on the 9thyer, leaving us with only the king of devils ring at us.
''Wow, you really solved this pretty well.''
<<It''s not over yet>>
"Where the hell have you been, Jasper!? I know your child-like necessity to touch everything can end you up in impossible situations, but to the extent of having received Makrov''s blessing!? What have you been doing?"
Like an extremely concerned parent, Ozvon questioned her past behaviour.
"I apologise, but it''s a long story so I''ll exin it to you after your meeting with Lord Ozvaloth."
"A long story? Shall I prepare a feast then? It has been quite a while since we were in the same ce."
I couldn''t quite put my finger on it, but there was something extremely odd about the way he spoke to her.
"That would be great."
After the agent made the deal, the cloud poofed up, leaving me very confused. The agent relinquished control of my body back to me but I wasn''t going to let that be the end of it.
"Exin. Now."
<<About 3000 years ago, before I became a devil, I was a spirit. The one who found me, a spirit-turned-devil at the time was a frail and weak no-name devil>>
''And that devil grew up to be Ozvon?''
<<Yes. The details are a bit fuzzy, but long story short, if we get in the same room as him, we''ll be trapped in Hell for all of eternity. I barely escaped with transferring my consciousness into a surrogate body, but this time he will make sure we will never manage an escape>>
''Huh? I thought you couldn''t leave because you were too strong.''
<<That is a factor, yes>>
''Well, whatever. Let''s get to the sheol quickly.''
I descended to the team, but not a single one of them dared to move. Like statues stuck in ce, they didn''t even budge an inch even as I stood in front of them.
"Um, guys?", there was no response. Their eyes were looking down on the ground bizarrely. I tried getting directly in front of their eyes, but they would always look away, pretending to not be seeing me.
I caught a peek of both Pai and Malius trying to sneak away then lifted them up.
"P-Please! Please don''t kill us!", Pai yelled while squirming about in my hands.
"Huh?"
"I-I''m sorry for our impertinence o'' great one.", Malius joined in on Pai''s act.
''What the-''
Before I could figure out what they were doing, I found both Shitsuke and Kuro bowing to me.
''What''s happening?''
<<The curse of Makrov that creates an impossibly intense aura that makes it so no resident of hell other than the 2 kings would dare to approach or disobey you>>
''Huh. In a sense, they made Makrov the ultimate king, no? Still, is there a way tomunicate with these guys?''
<<You can only pass onmands now. Devils won''t be capable of disrespecting or having any sorts of casual thoughts and conversations with you>>
''Ah¡ I see. The bane of being the one true superior. You are all alone with no friends. You think that''s why Makrov hates having partners so much?''
<<That is unknown. An extinct devil''s previous intentions are of no concern to us>>
''True. But I can''t talk to these guys while they''re like this. Think we cane up with some sort of solution to this?''
<<There is none. However, there is a solution to one of our problems avable at the pce.>>
''What do you mean?''
<<The Golden Pce''s treasury holds a replica almost every single form of item imaginable.>>
''So a replica of the akashic records exists there?''
<<No.>>
''A guy can dream.''
<<There should be a [Devil Horn] in there>><novelnext></novelnext>
''And that''s for¡?''
<<Exiting hell. We can get both Shitsuke and Kuro back to Krione then focus on acquiring the ''Akashic Records'' in case we get found out and banished from hell>>
''Oh yeah!''
The agent waspletely right! I hadn''t even considered what would happen if I got caught doing this. Best case scenario, I get found out and banished. That''d mean I identally left them in hell with no actual way to bring them back. Then I failed Tsuna, which could lead to her going berserk and the goblins all losing faith in me. Following that, the other monsters will think I''m some unreliable trash and there''ll be an entire rebellion. I can already smell the roasted chicken they''ll be feasting on.
''Oi, oi, in what way was that the best scenario? Stupid brain, what are you thinking up?''
<<¡?>>
''Ignore me.''
I then focused on the two devils in front of me. I didn''t want to have to force them toe along as moving with them would feel awkward and I couldn''t have them running away from me.
"Both of you, stay here until I call for you. Do not move even an inch. No, wait. Move an inch. N-no, not just an inch. Like, 5 metres? I don''t know. Just don''t leave this city."
After themand, I flew towards the golden pce. I arrived in a few seconds, bolted through the wide-open doors and empty hallways, following the directions of the agent. We got to the treasury which had been shut close.
I opened the doors and was met with the overly generic treasury scene. Except, rather than seeming endless, the room really was endless. I tried my hardest, but I couldn''t see the end of the room. It was as if this ce was endlessly expanding and it carried an absurd horde of items.
''Um¡ what the hell?''
<<The treasury is a nigh-infinite pocket dimension I created to store my discoveries as a regr treasury just couldn''t contain them>>
''You created a nigh-infinite pocket dimension just because you didn''t feel like throwing some of these things out or using them for something?''
<<Yes. With an Ultimate skill exclusive to the [Greed Skill Tree], [Treasure Box]>>
''Huh? [Greed Skill Tree]?''
<<A collection of skills that fall under the Primordial sin skill, [Greed]. Being the most avaricious of all the Taboo skill trees, Greed possesses the greatest number of Ultimate, unique, advanced andmon skills out of any skill tree. As the ruler in charge of the Greed Ring, I was given the Ultimate skill, [Treasure Box]>>
''Uuuh, I have so many questions right now.''
<<If you want me to, I will answer all of them right now. However, please take into ount that we need to do this before Ozvon realises that we''re trying to escape>>
Bringing up a valid point, the agent managed to put me back at the most urgent issue.
''How do we find the devil horn then?''
<<Searching>>
I face palmed and heaved the heaviest sigh that I had in my entire life. Sometimes, I regretted how useless the freeloader in my head was.
"Oh well, start searching for the [Devil horn], you two."
I ordered Pai and Malius to help me out. Even for me, this was going to be a long while.
****
Yokino sprawled all over the tiny ascended piece of floor, panting for life and sweating profusely. As hard as she tried, she was unable to pace her breath or even centre her thoughts as she looked up at the message screen above her.
[CONGRATULATIONS ON CONQUERING THE DUNGEON!]
[ESCAPE NOW OR BE BURNT ALIVE]
Beneath the little piece of walkable ground, magma oozed about, rising further as if to swallow her whole. The heat alone was more than enough to have killed the average person without touching them, yet Yokino''s aching body and exhausted mind waspletely unable to react to the impending doom.
Her body had parts darkened by the intense mes of her opponents and some limbs had beenpletely melted off. A portion of her face had been burnt to indescribably horrendous levels and out of all her eight eyes, only 3 remained open.
At this moment of intense pain and mental fatigue, she could only conjure up a single figure in her head. Without even thinking about why that person popped up or who even that person was, all she could think about was how beautiful they were. Golden hair, vermillion red eyes, a petite structure and a pair of horns and wings for some inhuman effect. This beautiful, mysterious person had appeared in her head just moments before her death.
"Woah! Woah! Woah! I knew this dungeon wouldn''t be easy at your level, but goddamn."
A figure appeared above her. Yokino waspletely unable to hear what the person said, but she did manage to catch a look at them. The mysterious person lifted her up then took onest look at their surroundings.
"I wonder how much this''ll mess up things. Hehe, Calpri will find me after this."
As the mysterious figure said this, a portal formed before them. After they managed to go through, the mysterious figure noticed Yokino''sughter. The deformed undine wasughing gleefully at something with an ecstatic expression and flushed face.
A simr expression appeared on the figure''s face.
"You really are a sick fuck."
She then performed a healing spell on Yokino, breathing life back into her. The newly revamped Yokino gasped for air as if she had been drowning and let out mind-boggling shrieks while smacking her head and trying to regain hermon sense.
After some minutes of constant screaming and rabid attacks at her surroundings, Yokino regained her senses. The sort of experience she had been through over the past couple of days had left a deep scar in her mind.
"That sick fuck! Who the hell makes a goddamn dungeon like that? Did he even want anyone to everplete it? I swear if I ever die in his dungeons, I''ll find his soul in the afterlife and torment him forever."
"You wouldn''t be the first to say that. The only difference is you''re still alive."
The figure that saved Yokino''s life amusedly said right next to her while holding up an amulet in her hand.
"What kind of sick fantasy where you having in your head while on the verge of death."
"That''s-!"
Embarassed that she had been found out, Yokino tried to make up an excuse, but was immediately cut off.
"Save it. I don''t need to know. Just get back to Larm."
"Huh? Why? I thought we had to get the ones in-"
"Unnecessary."
"What?"
"You heard me. Completely unnecessary. I had you do all of this so I could avoid prying eyes, but now I don''t need you to do any of that anymore."
"Wait! Are you giving up on the n?"
"I never said I was giving up on anything."
"Huh?"
Even more confused now, Yokino couldn''t help but scratch her head. Her hair turned turquoise and fell over messily, like bed hair.
"Fate is a mysterious thing, you know? A sequence of events that lie outside the realm of control, yet so easily manipted by these so-called "gods". I find it quite amusing how contradictory and biased this supposedly "Uncontroble Fate" is to its own concept. Because of this very contradictory, even people like you and I can greatly alter fate. The slightest shift in a rock that hadn''t been preordained by fate could send fate spiralling down an unknowable path."
Yokino tilted her head, unsure with direction her partner was going with this.
"Everything has lined up perfectly now. The next phase of my n will happen automatically regardless of what we do. I guess in this case, I steered Fate down a path so hard it has instinctively decided to work in our favour."
"What do you mean?"
"Looks like someone else is trying to alter fate. With how casually it''s happening, this person definitely acquired a [Hero]. I wonder which faction managed to do this and if they realise that this isn''t going in their desired path."
"I''ve never been curious about this, but why do you talk about [Heroes] as if they aren''t people themselves."
"Eh? It''s unusual for you to care about such things."
"Ah¡ I guess you''re right. Anyway, summon up a portal to Larm for me."
"No. Walk."
"Eh!? From here to the West?"
"It''s just a 3-week journey if you head south-west only at night. In fact, about 2 weeks if you choose to swim. This shouldn''t be a problem for you."
"B-But. It''s so far."
"Bye."
The figure jumped through a portal, leaving Yokino alone to the darkness of the cave she had been stalking out for a few days. A vein almost popped as she let out an enraged shriek.
<A/N: I personally wasn''t nning on bringing Yokino back into the story until waaaaaaayter, but I suddenly had a different role for her after mauling over how to write this chapter for quite some time. I''m sorry for how long it took to release, but it''s here now.
Next chapter will start focusing on Reiman and his problems leading the West against both the East and North. It''s going to be an all-out battle royale on their side and extremely experimental for me in terms of how I''ll be writing it.
Welp. I haven''t written an <A/N> in so long I guess I''m saying too much here. I''ll end it here. My dogs also like to bark a lot, keeping me up at night. Why''d I say that? There''s no reason, just felt likeining to someone. Have a good day!>
Chapter 288 War For Larm Pt.I
One week into the war for Larm, the state of things had remained somewhat neutral and unchanging for both sides. The West had managed to keep the powerful North at bay, not letting the opponents cross even an inch into their border. The [Fenrir Alliance] and [Goblin Army], normally inconceivable, had performed a spectacr feat of halting the enemy''s encroachment. Truly, Julian''s training regimen was disying excellent results.
However, one week into the war, it would appear the Alliance of the North and East were ready to take the West seriously. Surprisingly, soldiers of the East had managed to show up. The original n the West''s general had in mind was for the South to stall the East while the West defeated the North. With the South''s tyrant, Zana, using her powerful magic, halting an army shouldn''t have been a huge problem. With this, the West could finish off the North and then aid the South to annihte the East. Fate clearly wasn''t in the favour of the West''s general.
No matter, this was simply a nuisance. He had summoned the [Bug Army] and the [Shadow Ops] to stealthily slow down the encroachment from the East. The [Bug Army] had a collection of 10 generals, serving under one queen. The queen''s whereabouts remained unknown to this date, but the generals had agreed to ally the West per their queen''smand. Giant Spiders, Giant Centipedes, Toxic Bee Swarms, Giant Iron Beetles and Erosive Termites were whatprised the [Bug Army] present in the West. The other factions were in other portions of the forest and had yet to be given any particr orders. The [Shadow Ops] were an elite group of shadow rats, stealthy goblinoids and a few of Hinotori''s Shadow demons that had been aiding in information collection and the sorts. Usually, they weren''t meant for such confrontations, but even they were trained enough to keep themselves alive.
With their help, the West''s general was focusing entirely on the North and what kinds of moves its leader would make. With his unique skill [Devil''s Tactician] given to him some days after his queen started evolving, his view of the entire battlefieldpletely changed. This particr skill converted the entire battlefield into a game of chess for him that allowed him to strategically move about points, while also allowing him to get somewhat of an idea of what his opponents are doing. Of course, this skill had an extremely worrying w that could make it useless in most situations and that was, the user wouldn''t be able to see some of the opponent''s chess pieces.
To solve this issue, the user needed information on the user. Any information he could acquire would be converted and if relevant to the on-going battle, would reveal a hidden chess piece on the opponent''s side. Right now, as things were, the King, one knight and two rooks were missing from his opponent''s side. That was the reason he hadn''t ordered for the West to invade, but to keep everything at bay.
Even more infuriating was the fact that the queen had been making several moves on the board, yet he couldn''t quite get how the queen was ying. It was almost as if the opponent had multiple queens on the board and it was extremely tricky to manipte. ording to the information he received, half of the North was keeping the South at bay, which meant only half of the North was what the West was wasting resources on. Now that the East had arrived, he had the [Bug Army] and [Shadow Ops] there, but they were at best a temporary solution. Eventually, he would need to have them retire. The only problem was that the cyclopes, orcs and kobolds would most likely lose if they were to go up against the East. Sure, the cyclopes were strong, but their terrible stamina would make them fail in the face of the brute unwavering stamina of both the Trolls and Ogres. The orcs and kobolds were also weaker than their opponents and would at best serve as shield for the cyclopes.
But then, it was surprising the North hadn''t attempted an aerial attack yet. And ording to reports from the goblin captains and what he saw, the two unimaginably huge giants from before weren''t present. Even if not those two in particr, he doubted the North didn''t have any more of those giants there.
Something wasn''t adding up and he couldn''t put his hand on what exactly it was the North was up to.
"In the first ce, how do they have so many forces? Lady Hinotori took away their cyclopes and the captains defeated quite a number of opponents. How can there be enough that he''s holding back quite a few of them?"
Reiman muttered to himself while looking at the sheets on his table.
"General! I''vee with the daily report of Keimen.", a shadow rat materialised behind Reiman on his knee and bowing down.
"How are the preparations going?", Reiman decided to ask about the only thing of value on that city.
"We''re ready tounch at any point."
"Good. We''ll wait for a good opportunity to do that then. What about the humans that go to the dungeon?"
"There''s been a good stream of them. A few of them died, but not so much as to scare a lot of adventurers off. In fact, there''s been more news about the dungeon. Most humans are oblivious to the events in Larm."
Of course they were. Unlike in human society where such major events were spread, the monsters in Larm were considered an unreasonable bunch of thoughtless creatures. The concept of war supposedly didn''t exist amongst the monsters of Larm. Except for the East that had humanoid monsters.
"What about any news on invading humans?", the second most important thing about Keimen was the fact that it was an info hub for low-lives and criminals. Ever since the kingdom lost its prestige, the crime world had managed to sink its ws fairly deep into it.
"The new city lord is taking drastic actions to rid the city of crime. I''m afraid I only got information from less than reliable sources this time."
"Tch. Tell me regardless. Maybe we can make something of it."
"ording to him, there are human soldiers already in the North."
"What?"
"Yeah. He said there was recently a huge secret deal an emissary of a certain kingdom made with ''The Circle''. Rumours have it that it was a crate of [Portal Rings]."
"Hm? How does he know that they are in the North then?"
"He simply surmised that if all nations were itching to get their hands on Larm, it was a race to see who acquired it first. However, there''d been an international treaty sent out to everyone by the Holy Mexar Empire, forcing them to agree to not steal resources. They most likely teleported to the Demise Mountains in order to get close enough that no one would figure out that they had made any moves or something like that."
Reiman held his chin, thinking over what he just heard. At first nce, it made some sort of sense. If others saw them marching, it was over for them. But if they somehow ended up in Larm and back without moving through thends, no one would know that they even took resources in the first ce.
But when Reiman thought about it, the more stupid and less convincing this was. The pieces fit in almost too conveniently and there was no way that the Holy Mexar Empire that was powerful enough to force all countries to not do such things wouldn''t have any means to identify any countries disobeying. In the very first ce, the Holy Mexar Empire was strong enough to issue amand to all other nations. There was no way a fit king woulde up with something so stupid.
"Keep tabs on that particr person who gave you this information and tell the others to keep a close eye on the new city lord. If he catches even a sniff of what we''re doing, eliminate him."
"Yes sir.", with that, the shadow rat disappeared.
''Grimm, can you hear me?'', sending a telepathic message via the system, Reiman asked.
''Yeah!'' The reply came almost immediately with a high pitch.
''Uh¡ I''ve got a job for you.'', worried by the odd sound Grimm produced, Reiman was hesitant about his n now.
''Oh, s-sure. W-w-what is it?'', his nervousness was far too obvious. Grimm clearly didn''t want to partake in the fight.
''I need you to investigate something for me.''
''Huh? Investigation? In a war?''<novelnext></novelnext>
''Yeah. You''ll have to head out of Larm though.''
''Seriously!? When do I go~?'', an excited response! Reiman felt somewhat offended, but now wasn''t the time.
''Yeah. I need you to check up on a certain crime syndicate and what they''ve been up to offte.''
________________________
TAIKU POV
"Don''t give up, soldiers! Your strength is far beyond what the enemies can ever be prepared for!", Taiku roared loudly, using his skills [Commander''s Heart] and [Hypnosis] to power up his subordinates.
Over the course of the past week of fighting, Taiku had resigned himself from direct confrontation. It was difficult to do, but he was able to do that to focus on what he actually could do.
As far back as Taiku could remember, he wasn''t particrly special at anything. Back when he was a goblin, he was asmon as goblins came. Hungry, lustful and always scared. If he had to point out something that mad him different from the others, it was the fact that he had no interest in superstition as most of them did.
''I won''t believe in something I can''t see, hear or touch'' was the sort of thing he used to say. This made him unpopr with the older generation of goblins, but strangely enough, the younger ones flocked towards him. Till date, he didn''t know why, but they all inadvertently made him their leader without his permission. Of course, this wasn''t official, but everyone would ask him before doing anything and it got to a point, everyone in his tribe believed him like mindless sheep.
His perspective of the world didn''t change one bit. Gods didn''t exist, everyone else simply worked hard in particr areas to get to their level. To prove his ims, Taiku worked hard. He always admired Gorm of the Ooo who had asionally visited his tribe. Because of his admiration, he tried learning the sword. If he could be just as good if not better with the sword as Gorm was, wouldn''t that be evidence that gods didn''t exist? For this one reason, he worked hard on his swordsmanship to the point he got an evolution.
When he evolved, he didn''t get a blessing from any higher being. That only further solidified his belief in the false existence that is ''God''. Still, that was the least important part about his evolution. He always heard stories of how the ''gods'' gave goblins who evolved special abilities. After evolution, Taiku didn''t feel anything different about himself. He wasn''t nearly as good as Gorm with a sword and he wasn''t stronger than Oki. Nukeme had better assassination ability and both Tsuna and Yuuna could use magic. Out of everyone, he was the least impressive. Somehow, this was starting to break his belief.
It wasn''t until he met Hinotori that his belief waspletely shattered. If there was such a thing as God-given talent, she was the embodiment of it. Her growth was absurdly fast and the sorts of skills she possessed were so out of the world, Taiku couldn''t believe that only one being could have that many. She even managed to share skills with others. A child, yet so wise and far more mature than Taiku could ever be. She transformed the impossible to possible. The perfect proof of the existence of ''God''.
The existence that was Hinotori was an absolute contradiction to all of Taiku''s beliefs, yet he could never get angry that she existed. If anything, he was grateful that such a being had chosen to gift him. Of course, Taiku still believed that hard work was crucial, but he now had a new belief.
In the face of someone with God-given talent, hard work would always fall short. It was best to give up and pray for God-given talent. This new perspective was unbelievably difficult for Taiku to ept, but he eventually did the moment his ''God'' blessed him with a talent.
"The opponent is so weak they stumble and kneel before you in the face of your might! Now charge!", after issuing this, all the opponents in his view went on their knees,pletely unable to move. The goblinoids closed in the gap and cut open the bowels of their kneeling opponents or creating insertions that would eventually kill them.
"Hahaha! I wish I got such a unique skill like yours.", Okinded next to Taiku and patted him on the shoulder.
"I''m sure you do. [Devil''s Advocate] is possibly the best skill I could have ever gotten."
Just like he said, [Devil''s Advocate] was a skill that matched perfectly with Taiku. As a person that liked to oppose general beliefs, this skill allowed him to argue against this particr belief. For example, the belief that the creatures of the North could easily trample on the creatures of the West was easily reversed by this skill. With this skill, Taiku had singlehandedly managed the border at Reiman''s request.
"However, the skill doesn''t work on some of them, which doesn''t make any sense.", Taiku pointed out an inconsistency in his new unique skill.
"Isn''t that just because some of them can''t hear you?"
"No. I''m still not sure how my skill works, but I''ve confirmed that my target doesn''t need to hear my voice in order for this work. There''s something different about those that can move."
Oki just shrugged at Taiku''s foreboding tone.
"Have you noticed any oddities amongst them?"
"I''m not sure. I just smash em up."
Taiku scratched the bridge of his nose and waved Oki off. The oni jumped off, leaving a zing trail behind him as he went to traumatise his opponents.
''What about you guys? Is there anything weird?'', Taiku sent a telepathic message to the other captains that were present.
''Nope.''
''None here.''
''I don''t get experience points for some of them, but I think that''s because Lady Hinotori''s blessing has been on-and-off ever since she started evolving.'', Nukeme, who was a surprising voice, pointed out. Taiku''s eyes widened as he thought back to the previous weeks and what happened when he fought the North.
''Don''t think too much about it. I''m sure there''s nothing particrly special about them.''
As much as Nukeme tried to take Taiku''s head off it, he simply couldn''t try to find something odd about it.
<A/N: Honestly, it took me a while to start writing this chapter. Not because I had a block or anything, but I was binging some shows andpletely forgot I write! I think the binge was a blessing though, because the moment i sat down to write, the feelings i used to get when I first started writing came back to me. So many interesting ideas for this arc and the future ones. I hope I don''t lose interest or that something elsees up and makes writing feel like a chore in the future again! With that said, I missed christmas, so I guess happy boxing day!>
Chapter 289 War For Larm Pt.II
"Hey, Arisu. Why won''t He respond to me?", Ulva, riding on the back of the massive horned rabbit king, questioned. The one being asked wasn''t sure how to respond after knowing what just happened.
It wasn''t long after the war started that Arisu, Ulva and Dharm were given a mission by General Reiman. It was mainly a mission for Arisu, but Reiman felt that he had to make some use of the others, so he had them act as her partners for this mission.
Arisu was both excited and anxious, but she believed that now, she probably stood a chance against that fiend. The horrid mindless monster that had given her a tough time for 1~2 years straight with absolutely no respect to her, the oldest bunny matriarch in Larm.
It took 3 days of tracking, for them to actually find He''s whereabouts. He was closer to the edge of the forest that led to South, but for some reason, none of Reiman''s spies had been able to track it down. After encountering the fiend, it was a long-heavy battle thatsted 2 entire days, with Arisu mostly dealing damage and the other two having to hide and recover since they didn''t evene close in power and stamina to her.
In the end, the one who actually dealt the silencing blow was Ulva with her scythe. It was like she was an entirely different person all together and that terrified Arisu.
She had heard from Ulva that her scythe had a mind of its own and that it was dangerous, but she always assumed that she was blowing things out of proportion. Even if the scythe had a mind of its own, it was limited by Ulva'' overall stats, meaning it could never be stronger than her. But when Ulva summoned it, Arisu actually pictured the image of Ulva somehow dominating her in a fight.
This wasn''t possible in the slightest, but when Ulva was overwhelmed by her scythe, her demeanour and aura gave off a sense of hopelessness to some opponents.
"He just makes noise. This unforgivable trash can''t talk.", Arisu smacked the big ck rabbit on the side andughed. It responded to the hit, with drooping ears, kept marching forward, started to make an odd sound.
"Isn''t it weird though? That he simply submitted to us out of nowhere?", Ulva pointed out. From her perspective, all she did was punch He and the fight ended. In her mind, there was no way that should have tamed He to such a degree.
"He''s just a coward. Stop thinking abou- go tell Reiman that enemies ha-", before finishing her sentence, she kicked both He and Ulva away, but had opened herself to an iing attack. The attacknded dead centre on her abdomen and smashed her through a couple of trees before she knew what had happened.
"Arisu!", Ulva''s concerned shout entered Arisu''s ear drums, creating a weird shock in her body. Arisu recovered almost immediately and she looked at the source of the attack.
It was a creature with red skin, golden eyes and grey hair. The creature possessed the dry, warty skin that trolls did, but its size was smaller than that of the usually bloated physique trolls were born with. Whatever creature it was, it mattered not to Arisu.
She kicked off towards the monster with full lethal intent, but had her kick stopped by ten ogres jumping in front of her and nullifying itpletely, forcing her to retreat.
The red creature started to mutter something which Arisu couldn''t understand. She hated the fact that it was so difficult for her to perceive what other races said. At first, the only one that understood her was Hinotori, but after acquiring a blessing from her, Arisu could understand every other race. Yet, now that Hinotori was evolving, her understanding was fickle. These was one of those moments were everything sounded like noise in her ears.
The red creature flexed his muscles and started tough, still saying something Arisu couldn''t help but feel was important. To her, one of the oldest living kings of Larm, 10 ogres were the equivalent of 10 ants she could squash unknowingly. So how in the hell did 10 of them cancel out her kick?
She couldn''t help but feel like the red one was exining something about it.
Sick and tired of all the noise they were making, she fired off a st of pure white light at them, but they all evaded it. Quickly, she charged at one ogre and kicked him dead centre in the chest, but rather than him being smashed or her leg passing through, he was only kicked back quite far.
''How!?'', the other ogres saw her moment of confusion and decided to pounce on her. With a simple spin kick, she managed to repel them, but from the sky, she saw two wyverns diving at an unavoidable speed. Reflexively, she let go of her humanoid transformation which had a much lower defence, allowing her body to tank the attack and be drilled into the ground without feeling much.
She transformed back, to escape the crater, then pounded hard on the ground, erupting gems and crystals from beneath her feet. These crystals were a random mix of elemental crystals that were in the ground and exceedingly abundant in Larm.
For some inexplicable reason, Arisu had always loved crystals. From the moment she was born, she always sought crystals. She would always eat them over other food sources. She preferred to have them over having a colony of fanged rabbits she could be safe with. To her, crystals were everything. Her unusual and unhealthy obsession with them led to her developing in an unusual route for fanged rabbits and before she knew it, she was a bunny matriarch. Even then, she couldn''t care less about anything other than gems. Her own children were nothing more than pebbles in her eyes.
That very same obsession had led her to develop the skill Advanced [Efficient Miner]. A skill that allowed her to sense the location of precious minerals, as well as uproot them with ease. This, coupled with a new blessing from Hinotori developed the unique skill [Diamond Cutter]. A unique skill with the same function as [Efficient Miner], only that it allowed the user to immediately refine the mineral and utilise it in any way the user wanted.
With [Diamond Cutter], Arisu crafted readily explosive elemental crystals which she shot off at random towards her opponents, hoping to kill them. Fire, lightning and wind elementals exploded violently, causing an unnatural eruption of gale and breaking the ground beneath them.
"Hahaha! Such pebbles can''t harm us."
Finally, Arisu could understand the voices of her opponents. The red thing jumped down in front of her and tried to grab her head but she pped his hand away. Holding back the urge to straight out attack once again, she decided to use restraint just like Grimm had been teaching her.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"Wha-!? I introduced myself already! You brat!", out of nowhere, the red creature exploded with rage and his skin turned red as he glowed with power. Arisu recognised this as the [King''s Aura] skill that she very well possessed.
"You''re a king as well?", she asked, somewhat underwhelmed by his dramatic disy of power.
"Yes!" He spat in her face with veins snaking out. "I''m Zodd of the East! The strongest troll king to have ever lived and you, little girl will cower in fear! Now!"
Arisu wiped the saliva from her face and growled.
"Don''t you ever, dare, spit in my face, you stupid pebble!", Arisu activated her skill [Goliath''s Roar], amping up her voice and causing the ground behind him to shake. Zodd could feel goosebumps rising up on his dry skin and a sense of dread akin to the one he got from whenever he faced the tyrant Krull, entered his heart.
However, that sense of dread now turned to excitement as he grinned maniacally.
"They said to capture you and the girl alive, but you''re probably as strong as Lord Krull, right?", he pointed right at her face.
"Who?"
"If I beat you right now, that means I don''t have to listen to a word Lord Krull says!"
He unleashed a barrage of attacks that Arisu either epted or avoided. It was flurry of attacks that pushed her back, breaking the ground and creating a lot of violent wind, yet to Arisu, it was a waste of time.
The other ogres jumped in from behind and Arisu was ready to deal with them, but Zodd jumped before the ogres.
"If any of you dare to interrupt this fight, I''ll kill you myself.", he ordered, then immediately swung his arm at Arisu''s neck. She flipped back to avoid it while kicking Zodd in the chin, lifting him up into the air.<novelnext></novelnext>
He fell back down, with his face bloodied and a few teeth shattered. From the way he shakily moved, it was obvious to Arisu that the kick had dealt immense damage to him.
If Arisu had to define her opponent in one word, she would have to call him ''Weak''. Barely any of his attacks did any sort of significant damage even in her human form. It was so terrible, that frankly, Arisu who normally wouldn''t even consider other possibilities, tried to think up whether he had a n in mind, but he clearly didn''t.
There was a belief that went that, it would take 10 D-ranks to beat a C-rank, and 100 C-ranks to beat a single B-rank. Arisu, was a B-rank and Zodd was worth about 10 C-ranks. 11 if she was being generous. In no universe did he stand a chance against her. The ogres present were each worth about 10 C-ranks themselves and with the wyverns in the sky, maybe, they could equal 122 C-ranks. Even then, Arisu was worth 10 B ¨C ranks herself, so altogether, they could at best waste her time and eventually die.
Yet, he told them all to not interfere. There had to be something else up his sleeve, right? Arisu wasn''t the brightest in the box and even now, it was almost impossible for her to think up something sketchy in a fight. Being a straight and honest fighter, she hated the scheming types the most, but she had to admit that they were exceedingly dangerous. Especially people like Grimm who always imed to be weaker than everybody.
"Here ites! My ultimate punch! The [King Killer]!", he roared, as his fist grew in magnitude with red aura surrounding it.
''Is this why he''s so cocky?'', Arisu still failed to understand what he was making so much noise for. ''Maybe if I get hit, I''ll be killed by it?''
She thought this from the name given to the move, [King Killer]. There was no way someone would dub a weak move the name ''King Killer'', right? It had to be something that could absolutely kill a king with one hit.
Arisu was ready to avoid the hit considering how slow it was, but then
"You''re taking too long to beat something so weak, you stupid queen?" An unfamiliar voice called to Arisu. When she blinked, she saw a little boy with dark grey skin, stark naked and holding Zodd''s fist with only one hand.
"Who are you?", Arisu was starting to feel like she''d been forced to care about too many people''s identities in the past few weeks than she had in her entire life.
"You don''t even recognise my voice? Maybe I just need to beat you up again.", the boy turned his head, allowing Arisu to get a good look at his features. His chubby cheeks, hair and eyes so ck they seemed to suck in all light and a pair of crooked, branch-like horns that had little violet rose buds protruding out of his forehead.
"He?"
"About time you heard my voice, you stupid queen."
________________________________
SYLPHIE POV
Ever since the war, Sylphie hadn''t had a single moment''s rest. Constantly working, creating renosue potions to heal troupes, working on weapons and even learning about enchantments. She even assisted Kara on her barrier invention a little bit, while still working on her own projects. It was no exaggeration to say that the West relied greatly on Sylphie''s work.
A few months ago, she couldn''t fathom herself doing anything more than just eating fruits while sitting in Diane''s tree and watching the days go by endlessly, yet now she was here, sweating and working her hardest. Oddly enough, this kind of tedious of life felt more suiting to her than sitting about and ying with other sprites. Well, she never was like other sprites.
However, it was also true that the rate at which she worked would eventually cause her body to shut down. That was why, at this moment, even though she wasn''t particrly happy about it, she chose to enjoy the sunlight while on her way to Diane''s tree.
She had been working on a new weapon when she was summoned. She had to leave the rest of the work to her assistant, a shrewd looking goblin. He liked toin a lot about how Hinotori didn''t value him enough and said a lot of nonsense about how if it wasn''t for him, she''d have died a long time ago. Sylphie didn''t take it too seriously as goblins were selfish creatures by nature. A low-ranking goblin that hadn''t even evolved yet had definitely never met Hinotori face-to-face before. In her mind, he was just an adorableb assistant, just like Ulva.
The moment she arrived at Diane''s tree, she was led inside by two sprites that still hadn''t evolved. She tried to tell them to join Hinotori and evolve, but they all refused to listen to her, saying that doing such a thing wasn''t the way Larm had nned things to be.
More and more, she was reminded of just how different she was from them.
On the inside, Sylphie saw two people sitting around a round table. It wasdy Diane, looking as radiant as ever and General Reiman, a stark-contrast to the dryad head. The two seemed to be arguing about something, but Sylphie wanted to go back to work if this was a bad time.
"Um-"
"Take a seat, Sylphie. I''ve been waiting for you.", Diane cut her off before she could ask any questions. A chair grew up in front of Sylphie, so she sat down quietly.
"Shall we continue this discussion at ater date, rat man?", she proposed a ceasefire and Reiman simply got off his chair and marched away.
"I think you might want to hear this.", she tempted him. The general stayed and folded his arms.
"Hurry it up. I''m busy.", tapping his foot hurriedly, he urged her to get to the point. Sylphie, nervous about what this entire thing was about, couldn''t help but fiddle with her arms while her eyes darted around the room.
She hadn''t been around Diane much, apart from Diane asionally passing by and just saying "hi" to her. This was the first time in a while that Diane had called her for a proper conversation and it was most likely going to be a scolding about something she did.
"Honestly, I wanted to tell this to Hinotori alone after Larm was united under her, but I guess I have to now."
Now both Reiman and Sylphie were invested.
"This is the truth about your origin, Sylphie. The reason why you were so different from the other sprites."
"How does that concern me?", Reiman, dissatisfied with this supposedly important truth, asked. Sylphie couldn''t help but feel offended, but she could also understand his shock.
He was leading a war against two powerful forces and didn''t have time to waste on other things. Though, Sylphie did remember a time when Reiman was free enough to wonder about what made her so different from others.
"In all honesty, I don''t know if it will affect this battle in anyway, but I feel like this is something I need to say now."
"What could be so important that you have been waiting for that?"
"Well, it has to do with the King of the Forest Larm, and his creator, Kaleb Zen."
Chapter 290 War For Larm Pt.III
It was the 2nd week since Lord Sora had set his sights on the entirety of Larm. The king of manticores wasn''t a particrly strong king, but he was still important enough for Lord Sora to have personally given himmand over the invasion force.
Unfortunately, the West was stronger than anticipated and progression was near impossible. Rumours he''d heard about the West possessing the weakest collection of monsters started to feel like made up fantasies by delusional idiots.
The West was organised, relentless and cunning. For some reason, Lord Sora had permitted him from sending in all his manticores for a full assault till he was given permission. Even though it was earning them no results, the king chose to obey. The manticore king would never disobey Lord Sora, but it was obvious that ever since returning from the Mystic Peaks, something just hadn''t been right about him.
However, the king''s luck was turning around today! Lord Sora was wise, but he wasn''t present to see the events of the battlefield. The king on the other hand, knew that the West''s forces would have been in a more unfortunate situation after a certain amount of time. When he thought about it, the angle at which Lord Sora was fighting appeared obvious. Waste their time and corner them for a bit, then strike when finding food bes difficult for them. Since the War was happening so close to the West, the edible creatures must have run to less violent ces for safety, meaning hunting would have been far more difficult for them and the forest had a lot of spirits protecting the trees, so they couldn''t take fruits and the likes excessively.
It was simple and unfortunatelycking n. The king felt like he could touch on it just a little bit. Now that the West had shown weakness, they''d be foolish to not use it to their advantage. In fact, if he did this and seeded, he''d be praised and possibly given a name by Lord Sora.
That was right. He was doing this to simply promote Lord Sora''s image as a genius strategist. He couldn''t fathom a scenario where this failed.
So, how did things turn out so terribly?
They progressed mercilessly, hoping to vanquish the West''s forces and met a new force that had been waiting right out in the open. A collection of Orcs, kobolds, wolf monsters and silver-back pumas, all in new-looking armour with weapons at the ready and in formation.
At first, the king thought that this was ast ditched effort from the West to resist losing to the very end, but then the goblins and timber wolves ran past the army, going to hide under the cover of the forest and bing nearly impossible to spot. Still, that was no concern of his. They could just burn down the forest. It''d grow back and there''d be no problems.
But then, the ground forces were beingpletely overwhelmed by the West. Aerial support from the north was rendered useless by the West''s mages and those hiding in the forests and shooting projectiles at them. Burning down the trees didn''t even work for some inexplicable reason. Flying too close to the forest ended up with some manticores being swallowed by the trees.
All that the king could hear were the screams of the fallen. The scene that befell his eyes was one of iprehensible defeat. He couldn''te up with any sort of exnations for this and all he could do was to order a retreat, but their escape point had been blocked off.
From behind, an army of cyclopes and shadow beings was pushing the North army back and preventing them from moving away. From the very beginning, the North was being manipted into jumping into the West. It wasn''t that the West couldn''t proceed or that the North was that good, but that the West had been putting on an act this entire time to make the North drop their guard for this one particr moment. Even worse, the king couldn''t figure out when and how they got the cyclopes behind them without anyone noticing.
As much as he hated to admit it, this was an immense failure on his part. He had to return to report this.
No, he had to escape from this fight, then flee Larm entirely. There was no way Lord Sora would ever forgive him for this blunder. He had doomed himself and there was no chance of surviving no matter who won this war. His only chance here was escape.
But there was a problem now. A storm cloud had appeared. The king had experience with flying in dangerous storms, but even he couldn''t escape this one. It wasn''t natural. This storm was definitely out to wipe out anything that was in the sky without fail. The storm wasn''t natural.
The West. They were monsters.
NUKEME POV
It was the 2nd week since the war officially begun. Neither side had made any serious progressions against the other and it was obvious that both sides were still holding back somehow. Everyone was waiting for the other side to strike first, but there was neither side was so impatient to unleash their full power before the other. If need be, the leaders of both sides were ready to keep this stalemate for as long as humanly possible.
Nukeme had been kept on scout duty, leading a huge portion of his [ck Division] ¨C a division of the [Shadow Ops] concentrated by stealthy-goblinoids - to track the enemy''s movements and report back without being noticed. It was a really easy job, although risky since the moment they slipped up, they''d be killed without mercy. Their leader may be strong, but resurrection was beyond her even. At least, for now or so they believed.
Today, Nukeme had been given a new job. He was to leave a good portion of his scouts checking the enemy, and have a few of them guide Reiman''s experimental [Inferno Ops]. A collection of cyclopes and some shadow demons Hinotori had summoned, but hadn''t given any specific use to. They weren''t obeying anyone''smands, but it was then revealed that Maou, Hinotori''s child, had total control over them just like their mother.
With that, Reiman had started to utilise them and this was their second confrontational mission. The n was simple honestly. Reiman forced the original [Goblin Army] and [Fenrir Alliance] to backdown, allowing the North to push a bit further in and create the image of weakness and tiredness. Nukeme had to lead the [Inferno Ops] behind the North so they could perform a pincer attack and force the North from behind within a certain range.
Once this was done, Kara could set up her barrier. ording to her, it wasn''t the sort of dome she was dreaming about, but it was one good enough to work in this war. This barrier could prevent the Northerners from returning and reporting anything, giving the leaders in the North the presumption that this fight was still going on. That way, the West had some time to recover a little bit before preparing for the next phase of the general''s n.
The n worked perfectly without a hitch and in one wless swoop, they had conquered the North''s attack forces. Nukeme couldn''t help but feel a little bit icky, like something wasn''t right. Everything went ording to n, but his senses were telling him that what they just did wasn''t profitable in some way.
Then again, even if he was right, Reiman had imed to already have a countermeasure. He was dead-set on winning this war before Lady Hinotori woke up to show just how capable of a general he was. Nukeme had to admit that he admired Reiman''s undying fealty to Hinotori and was inspired to be better.
KIARA POV
"Sister, I''ve returned with great news!", the doors leading to the room burst open and Kara came running in with a wide smile on her face. Kiara, who was sitting down in front of a desk, reading some scrolls just smiled as her sister came in.
"Really? Did something good happen?"
"Yes! My barrier, although not what I was going for, managed to trap all the Northerners.", she sat next to her sister and rested her head on herps. "They said my barrier was the most crucial part of this n. I''m so d all my research and learning were actually useful to someone. Maybe now Lady Hinotori would praise me. Teehee."<novelnext></novelnext>
"That''s great.", Kiara patted her sister on the head with a gentle smile.
She was happy that her sister could smile so many days in a row offte. Back in the east, it was always terror,ining and annoying teenage angst, but now she only ever came with joyful news. This new version of Kara really put Kiara''s heart at ease. She had to admit that she couldn''t help but feel a little bit jealous as well.
If she was the one that had been kidnapped, would she have been lucky enough to meet Hinotori like Kara did? Then again, for a girl has manly as her, she doubted Hinotori would have any sort of interest in her.
''What the hell am I thinking about?'', she finally noticed her thoughts and shook her head violently.
"What''s wrong, sister?", Kara caught her head shaking, but Kiara just smiled and put her head back down on herps.
"It''s nothing serious.", her thoughts were simply stupid. Besides, there was something that concerned her far more considering what she''d heard from Kara over the past few days. "Sister. I don''t like how this war is going."
"Why? We''re winning, aren''t we?"
"That''s what appears to be the case, but remember how Karon is like?"
"Uh, I know he used to act cold, but was secretly watching out for me just like you."
"Huh, he really didn''t show you his other side at all?", being pampered and kept away from the true reality of the family business most of the time, Kara had a childishly pure perspective of her older brother. "I guess sometimes he would get really mad and shout at me, but that was the worst of it."
"I see.", she heaved a heavy sigh and gently lifted Kara''s head off herps. "Father believes in upfrontbat with both sides bringing their full power at the beginning, but Karon is the opposite. Karon believes in baiting the enemy with countless traps and finishing them off with one clean blow. In a sense, Karon is someone far worse than father. An obsessive psychopath that never stops till he acquires what he wants."
"Eh?", having heard about this side of her brother, Kara tilted her head,pletely shocked.
"Sorry about that. Don''t think too much about what I just said."
Sheforted Kara. If anything, she was happy that Kara was still innocent enough to think of her older brother in such a light. If possible, she wanted it to remain like that.
If she had to kill Karon to protect this innocent smile of her sister''s, she wouldn''t hesitate to do it. It was her obligation as Kara''s older sister to keep her smile.
''What are you up to, Karon?''
KARON POV
"Lord Karon, news of the North''s capture by the West has arrived!", a guard marched into the room briskly. Staring at a mural depicting a family of ogres, was the prince of ogres, Karon. He didn''t respond for a while and just kept looking at the mural.
In the centre was arge ogre, sitting on a throne. Krull, the tyrant. At his side was his beautiful wife, K, who was deceased at the moment. At the feet of both parents, the children, Karon, Kiara and K, all of them ying with one another. It was a picture-perfect family at first nce, but now the mother was dead, the father had lost his mind and one sister had eloped to help an enemy nation and the youngest was kidnapped and being forced against her will. The only one that remained in tact was the first son.
To recover his family, or at least a semnce of what it once was, Karon was going to win this war. It was his moral imperative as the oldest child in the family, to ensure that they were together with as little problems as possible.
"Finally. That general is either smart or just a coward for having taken so long to do this. I do have to admit however, his assassins are really good.", he stood up, the skulls that he wore around his waist rattling.
Behind Karon, stabbed through their hands, abdomen and feet and squirming on the wall, was a random assortment of rat men and goblinoids that had been sneaking around the premises. From the looks of things, rather than simply scouting for information, they were here to kill someone.
Their killing intent made it too obvious for him. He narrowed down the possible targets to himself only. Krull waspletely out as him being a tyrant must have given them the perception that killing him would be far too difficult a task.
The motive here probably went along the lines of: "I''ll kill the son to set Krull off so he makes rash decisions."
A good n if Krull actually cared about his family. Clearly, the one who ordered the assassination had no actual awareness of who his opponent was and that made him aplete fool. From this one action, Karon believed he hadpletely figured out who the leader of the West was. A sly, cocky fool who acted on surface-level knowledge rather than digging any further.
"Now to get Sora start the second phase of this war.", he walked out of the room, then tapped the two ogres standing guard on the shoulders. "Leave only one of those things in there alive."
Chapter 291 War For Larm Pt.IV
After having his meeting with Diane and Sylphie, he immediately returned to work. The news he received was absolutely phenomenal and left him with many questions, the biggest being why Diane was insistent on telling Hinotori and not Sylphie herself.
It also left him doubting a lot of things about what he''d been told so many times as a child, but now wasn''t the time for that.
"General, the south is about to copse.", a shadow rat delivered the news to Reiman from behind.
"General, Ulva and Arisu encountered a group of assants on their way back from the mission you gave them."
"General, the Tyrant of the South, Zana is requesting back up. The North has been relentlessly attacking them."
What? What did they mean by the North had been relentlessly attacking them? Sure, Reiman had his suspicions that the North didn''t attack the West with all their power, but for the North and East to tag team against the South? That wasn''t in his calctions.
Under normal circumstances, he would have sent aid to the South, but considering the news about assants from the East sneaking up into the West without him hearing about it, he felt like jumping in to help was the worst possible move.
Reiman had been acting cautiously considering he seeing the full picture of the opponent''s side of the board, but now it was obvious that king was making a move and it had altered the game drastically. He thought he had everything under control, but he had severely underestimated his opponent''s tactical ability.
The question now was who was controlling the game. Reiman had a few tricks up his sleeve, but considering he wasn''t aware of who his opponent was, this was a tricky situation. Should he save the South, he could be ying right into the opponent''s hands. There was also the possibility that this was simply a scare tactic to keep the West away, but Reiman couldn''t be sure.
The more he thought about it, the harder the decision became. After a few more minutes of running possible scenarios, he finally settled on staying in the West and buffing up their defences. Travelling from the West to the South was no quick trip. They''d need at least 4 good days to get there, and even then, the cyclopes would have run out of food and wouldn''t be in any proper condition for a fight.
The monsters in the West too wouldn''t be used to fighting in the swampy area, so if anything, they''d be burdens and die for no reason. Even if the opponent was betting on the West staying away, they must have also had a fear that the West wouldn''t be easy to conquer.
This way, they''re destroying the rtions between the West and the South. In this kind of situation, if the East and North won, they''d have an easier time convincing the South to fall under their rule than if they were to beat them while they were working with the West. However, if the West won, it''d create a certain level of enmity between the West and all the other portions of the forest, which could end up in another war for Larm.
Either way, allowing the South to be defeated was going to end badly for the West. Still, Reiman couldn''t risk the lives of those in the West for the off-chance that they might actually win. Reiman was a realist and in times like these, he threw away all notions of friendship or partnership.
"Where are the assants now?"
"In the prison."
"Alright. I''ll be heading there. Call Nukeme and Taiku as well. We''ll get as much out of them as possible."
Reiman headed off towards the prison cell that rested underneath Hinotori''s mansion.
"Um, sir. What about the South?", the rat man that delivered the message asked. Reiman let out a heavy sigh and looked at the him.
His eyes alone said it all. The South was of no necessity to the West anymore. When the West won the war and they felt like resisting falling under Hinotori''s rule, Reiman was ready to subjugate each and every single one of them.
***
While the West was wrapping up with the first phase of their fight against the North, the South found themselves in quite the situation against their opponents. First, as nned, the South intercepted the East on their way to the West. The Lizardmen group, although out of theirfort zone at the edge of the South, managed to overwhelm the East''s forces thanks to the tyrant, Zana''s, magic.
However, they were ambushed by the North that had been waiting for them with a staggering 30,000 monsters, with a majority of them being B ranks, something not even the tyrant can defend against. The South had been pushed back and were currently being assaulted with no rest. Most of its denizens had already switched sides and were actively fighting against Zana''s forces ¨C The copperheads and lizardmen.
Reiman had been under the presumption that the South was struggling against the North. The truth was that it was only Zana and a few stragglers. With her control over the entire South via her Fog, she had managed to slow them down, but even the fog couldn''t touch some of the North''s soldiers. Especially the 10 giants that were as tall as mountains. Relentlessly, the North had pushed Zana''s forces so far back that there was virtually no escape, except leaving Larm entirely to the Dourean deserts further down south, but they wouldn''tst even a week out there.
Zana had sent for help from the West, but even now, there was no helping. The copperheads and lizardmen were on theirst legs and were wondering if the West was a good ally now. Some were regretting not having switched sides earlier as they marched up to what appeared to be their final stance against the North.
Tensions were high, but one fact remained true. Although none wanted to admit it, the only reason all of them stayed was because of Zana. They weren''t fighting this battle because of the West, but because Zana had asked them to. Her recent change in appearance was a major cause for this change. No, they weren''t following her because she was suddenly beautiful. It was more like because she was beautiful, they actually took the time to talk to her to consider what she said. And even better, her suggestions had be more mature andcked her original naivety and foulness to it.
Without her ugliness, Zana was able to show her true colours. A kind, reasonable and powerful person who was simply dealt a bad hand at the start. She had be a respectable leader to others since she stopped with her childish thoughts and now, everyone in the South was willing to fight with her to their deaths for their home.
"Haaah, the odds are looking impossible.", the new head of the Lizardmen tribe said standing just next to Zana with his spear pointed towards the sky. This leader, like Zana, was inexperienced, yet loved by his people so the two could rte.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Indeed, but I believe we shall survive this, isn''t that right, tyrant?", the copperhead leader slithered to Zana''s side and hissed.
Zana remained quiet and looked at the open battlefield before them. She had cleared out the fog and it had made everything quite visible. Powerful sunlight couldn''t pierce the battlefield since she had left clouds up in the air. The ground was moist and difficult for most races to move in, but to the South, this ce was the best sort of territory for a fight.
"I wish we didn''t have to deal with those giants. They could wipe us out by themselves.", pointing to the 10 ginormous beings that marched, albeit slowly, the leader of the lizard menined.
Indeed, no matter how much hope they all tried to have, a fight against those giants was absolutely useless. They knew that they would all die to those giants. A simple breath from the giants was probably more than enough to kill them all.
Zana, nervous, finally spoke.
"I think I can deal with the giants.", this shocked both men. Her hands were shaking and her voice didn''te out well, but the look in her eyes was more than enough to convince them.
"Those giants look quite monstrous."
"You might not be alone to beat it."
"Wh-what are you two talking about?"
"We''ll be there to help you."
"We copperheads can''t let one of our own just do something so dangerous alone."
"Utterly unnecessary.", an unexpected opinion entered the discussion, causing everyone to freeze in their ces. "Those giants aren''t real. They are simply the result of an [Illusion magic] so strong that it''s almost like [Creation Magic]. It''s honestly impressive that someone other than Lord Ramiel can do such a thing."
Zana, as the master of the fog, was are of everything within its perimeters. The fact that this person snuck up into their midst had left herpletely paralysed with sweat running down her forehead. The other leaders standing next to her reacted before she could, with both of them attacking behind Zana were the voice came from, but they only struck the moist ground.
"Whoever conjured up that illusion should be older than me. Maybe even far more ancient than [The Age of 9 Monarchs].", he muttered to himself. "I never expected Arcane magic to be so pathetic."
Having had enough of this oddity, Zana''s body moved forward without her awareness.
"W-Who are you?", shaken to her core, the question flew out of her mouth. The mysterious man turned, revealing his odd facial features. Like a clown, his face was caked up face of white powder with ck spots for eyes and red grape-coloured lipstick. The man''s face was all bones with high cheekbones and a disfigured jawline.
He lifted an eyebrow at her and scanned her. "You must be Zana.", he muttered.
"Wha-?"
"Please do not be confused. I am under a contract that requires me to utterly obliterate your opponents. As long as I am here, no harm shall befall you."
With that said, the man turned his face back to iing soldiers.
"Hey! Exin in better detail who you are.", the lizard man ordered, but the man ignored him. Rather, he raised up his arms as he walked forward. Magical runes formed around his arms, as the battlefield was instantly littered with magic circles.
Zana who had spent quite sometime learning various forms of magic couldn''t help but shiver at the absolute control over runes this man disyed. Casually, he had summoned advanced level runes and created extremely dense magic circles on the battlefield. Suchmand over the runes was apanied by the elemental spirits all cowering in fear of this man and obeying his everymand. Zana couldn''t see them, but she could sense them and as of this moment, the very air trembled in the presence of this man.
He swung his arms down and a myriad of elemental spears shot out from the ground, pierced the cloudy sky and caused a thunder boom in the sky. For a few seconds, there was nothing. However, when the spears started to rain down, the North met with a very gruesome and unfortunate end.
A rainbow shower of lethal spears so deadly not even Larm''s recovery power could fix what happened that day. The giants all faded into nothing the moment the spears touched them. The ground exploded in a fiery mess of blood, dirt, magic and water. The earth shook and even Zana''s fog seemed to want to avoid every single spear. In a matter of minutes the North that was 30,000 strong had been vanquished. This attack that seemed to announce itself to the entire world, left a permanent print on Larm and the minds of those who were there to witness it.
"[Kaiser Impact]."
Chapter 292 War For Larm Pt.V
"[Kaiser Impact].", bowing down after that inexplicable disy ofmand over magic, the mysterious man bowed down. When the light faded away and the shockwaves stopped, the man lifted his head u and Zana stopped covering her face.
She looked at the horrifically violent scene, holding back the urge to vomit on the spot.
"Time for my feast then.", the man waved his hand and Zana could see ethereal substances escape the corpses. They weren''t nearly as voluminous as the number seen earlier, but it was still enough for her to lose count of how many were suspended.
The orbs then disappeared into thin air. The odd man licked his lips and stretched out, satsified.
"That wasn''t nearly as many as I was promised.", he then turned around to face Zana. No. He wasn''t looking at her, but rather, past her. He was looking at Zana''s forces with a wolfish, voracious gaze. "I guess they will do."
She immediately understood what he meant. This time, fully in control of her body, she spoke, "You can''t!"
"Hm?", the odd man tilted his head slightly.
"You are not allowed to touch anyone from my group, right?", with a shaky voice, Zana said.
"Hmm, forgive the misunderstanding. I simply aren''t allowed to let harm befall you.", the man corrected her with a gentle smile. "I do believe I told you that I was supposed to ensure your safety alone. Anyhow, now that we''ve cleared up tha-"
"No! I won''t let you touch a single one of them!", this time with a resolute voice, Zana inched towards the man and dered.
"What?", with a perplexed smile on his face, he asked.
"You heard me. If you want to attack even a single one of them, I will fight you.", now the two were barely a foot away from each other. From an outside perspective, Zana was the giant amongst the two. She towered greatly above him and it would give anyone the idea that she was the clear superior in this confrontation. However, to those who had fought in the war and knew their enemy''s strength, Zana was the mouse staring down a tiger.
Zana hadn''t forgotten her initial fear of the man, but she knew that she had to face it head on to protect her people. She gripped her staff tightly and looked at the man dead in the eye. The fog that had originally been whispering in her ear for her to run was now backing her up, ready to go down with her. She knew the others were too terrified to help her, but as long as the fog was by her side, she didn''t care at all.
In a battle of magic, Zana would lose pathetically, obviously. Physical strength wise, Zana wasn''t one to boast, but she was certainly stronger than a lot of her subordinates. Someone so powerful with magic was definitely physically weak, right? They had to bepensating for something, right? She could only hope. Either way, her only bet, well plea, here was that she was fast and strong enough to knock him out in one hit.
"In that case, I have no choice other than to restrain you.", saying that, his left arm evaporated into ck smoke that swallowed Zana whole at a speed too fast for her to even register. Her head alone was left above the smoke to allow her to breath, but from neck to tail, her body was encapsted in the smoke, utterly incapable of any form of movement. Grunting, she tried to move her body, but only her neck could move.
The odd man strode forward with his one hand behind back, "Please do not interrupt my meal any further."
Zana attempted at casting magic, but there was something about the smoke thatpletely disabled any magic she casted. As if the instructions she wasying out were being interrupted andpletely shut down, rendering her paralysed in every sense of the word.
The man, with a malicious grin, licked his lips and ogled at the army. The members of the army were confused about what had just happened and still weren''t certain of the man''s status. Of course, not all of them had seen him stop the North, but those at the front were vaguely certain that he was the cause of that grand disy of magic control just moments earlier. This man saved them without a shadow of doubt. Yet that very same man had imprisoned their tyrant and was approaching them with a malicious aura. They were confused as to what was happening.
That confusion was cleared soon enough though.
The odd man stopped in his tracks when a spear pierced through his back and came out his stomach. His grinpletely disappeared and had been reced by an unreadable expression. He turned his head a perfect 180 to look at the lizard man leader. Thetter could only gulp, having no idea why he even jumped in to attack the odd man.
He wasn''t the only one confused and scared, as the copper head leader immediately followed up with a sh aimed at the odd man''s neck with his curved de. A head plopped down lifelessly onto the moist ground, leaving the entire battlefield deathly silent.
No one dared to speak or move an inch during this moment. Overwhelming fearpletely had a majority of them in a chokehold and they couldn''t do a thing.
"Ha, ha, t-that was scary.", if he could sweat, the lizardman leader would have been covered from head to toe.
"Indeed.", the same went for the copper head leader. His voice was stoic, but his arms betrayed his true feelings. Deciding not to loiter about, the copper head leader turned around towards Zana. "Let us attempt to free her."
"Y-Yeah.", the lizard man leader dropped the body of the odd man and was about to turn around when-
"It would seem that I underestimated the quality of some of the souls here.", the odd man''s voice, although barely audible, entered the ears of the leaders.
They knew from the very moment the man appeared, that it was impossible to kill him. At least, it was impossible for them. Attempting to stab a man that could wipe out an army without breaking a sweat was madness. At a very fundamental level, anyone knew that even sneaking up on such a person was far too difficult to do. No one''s instincts would allow them to approach such a person, but the leaders dropped their instincts and rather acted as quickly and logically as possible.
"I won''t make that mistake a second time.", as he bellowed, the leaders were immediately paralysed. Unlike before when they could at least move or think, this time they had beenpletely frozen, mind and body alike.
The odd man''s body broke the shaft of the spear and spat out the head. It then picked up the odd man and reattached it back, making him whole.
As Zana saw all of this, her mind raced through possible ways to get out of this conundrum.
''How do I save all of them? Is this possible? Can I do something about it? Come on, granny. Give me some advice! Ugh, what would you do? Fog! Stop him!'', of course, she had thought about using the fog already.
In fact, she had been calling out to the fog for a while now, but the fog wasn''t approaching the man. It kept quite the distance away from him and somewhere deep in her heart, Zana felt like the fog wouldn''t be able to finish him off.
The past month had honestly been a funny ride that turned the world upside down for her. She was tyrant. One of the strongest creatures in the world! So strong that people outside of Larm didn''t dare to intrude upon hernd! Yet, in the past few weeks, that notion had beenpletely shattered.
An upstart hadpletely wiped the floor with one of her fellow tyrants. A necromancer had rallied up a force powerful enough to cause her to quiver. That same upstart was the one toe to her rescue. The greatest of the tyrants had been killed by an unknown assant. There was something akin to a civil war happening and she had been on the losing end. Even if she won, the chances of her remaining in a position of actual relevance was low. And now, this strange man out of nowhere had shown her just how weak she and her other tyrants truly were.
This man was so strong that even the fog refused to fight against him. The fog had been around far longer than Zana and had experienced a lot of beings, but even then, it wouldn''t hesitate to choke a tyrant to the death. This man was absolutely fearful!
''Choke? Choke¡ choke! That''s it!'', a light bulb lit up in her head as a solution had been formted.
"Stop! Do not take another step, strange man!", the man ignored her as she barked her orders at him. He held the lizard man leader''s face in his left palm, applying pressure to it in order to crush his face in.
"If you don''t stop, I''ll make you regret it!", she threatened, but the odd man ignored everything she shouted. Clearly, he saw her as an absolutely powerless creature.
Clicking her tongue, Zana spoke once more, "I''ll kill myself if you don''t stop!"
The odd man stopped moving. He lifted an eyebrow, looking at her, stunned.
"That''s right! I am not sure why, but it is your duty to keep me safe, right? If I kill myself here, you would have failed, isn''t that right?"<novelnext></novelnext>
Over the course of her struggle, Zana had finally realised what this man was. She hadn''t personally seen one, but she could infer that this man was a devil from the way he spoke and his overwhelming control of magic.
It wasn''t necessarily his mannerisms that made it obvious as it was the fact that he obsessed over keeping Zana safe and acquiring a satisfying "meal". Those two things didn''t precisely narrow it down to him being a devil, but Zana was willing to bet on that.
"You know what will happen if you fail, right? I mean, you are a devil, aren''t you?", at thest part, the odd man visibly flinched.
Zana was happy that her theory was proven right. To a devil, a contract was essentially the ultimate gamble. Complete the contract for a good prize. Fail the contract and receive a myriad of negative oues, the worst being theplete destruction of the devil.
"This is why I despise some of the life forms in this realm. You all believe you''re so smart and that no one else has you beat.", with an annoyed tone, the man started to rattle. "So what? You''ve figured out that I''m a devil and I''ve been contracted to protect you. It doesn''t change anything. You''ll kill yourself? Go ahead! Try it! You think I haven''t thought up a means of preventing you from doing that?"
Zana gulped. He had clearly anticipated her doing something like this which was why he had restrained her arms. He must have also thought about Zana biting her tongue or using some other means, meaning Zana had no way to kill herself. At least, that was what he was thinking.
Zana always had one particr means to kill herself.
"I''m sure you have countermeasures for almost anyway I could kill myself.", the man grinned when she said that. However, the grin was short lived as she continued, "Still, I doubt even you can prevent me from dying due to choking on fog."
The fog around them all packed itself densely and approached Zana''s face. The devil tried sending a powerful gust of wind, but that didn''t work and the fog remained inches away from her face, now as hard as rock.
"You''re right. I can''t stop the fog from killing you. Even I am not strong enough break something as powerful as a [Universal Law]."
Universal Law? What the hell was he talking about?
Clearly displeased, the man scowled, "I won''t forget this."
The smoke that had held Zana hostage returned to the man, forming his other arm. The sudden retraction caused Zana to fall on her butt without any care. When she looked up, the devil was gone and everyone in her army remained untouched.
It was a miracle.
***
Angry, hungry and disappointed, the devil cavalier went in a haste to his summoner. He hadpleted the summoner''s request, but wouldn''t be getting his promised half of the deal. Normally, he would kill the foolish summoner and gone on a rampage in a couple of cities before returning to hell, but this summoner wasn''t your average summoner.
In hell, there were seven ranks amongst the devils. In these rankings, the devil cavaliers ranked 4th in power and influence. Perfectly in the centre, yet a level so incredibly difficult to enter that it took several centuries for arch devils to evolve to such a stage. In fact, it was the second highest rank of devil that could be summoned into this realm ¨C the highest being Devil Lord. There was even a point in time where a devil cavalier had been more than enough power to create a prominent empire in this realm.
Yet, this cavalier knew there was somethingpletely different about this summoner. He didn''t like the summoner at all and by no means took pleasure in doing this contract, but he couldn''t refuse it. The contract had been imposed forcefully and no matter how hard he resisted, he couldn''t refuse it.
Even to a devil, there was something ominous about this overly imposing contract that made them all want to avoid it. He wasn''t too pleased about returning to this summoner, but he wanted his half of the deal so bad, that he actually chose to return. The promise of 30,000 souls was far too delicious an offer for Devil Cavalier to refuse.
The moment he arrived; he bowed down ¨C an attitude most devils never took even with higher rank devils. It was as if his instincts instructed him to show the utmost respect to this summoner.
"Haa~ So you have returned? I can assume that you havepletely wiped out the bugs then?", a childish voice asked with a condescending tone to it.
"Yes, however there weren''t nearly half as many as you promised there would be.", he voiced hisint without raising his head to take another look at the summoner.
"Hm? What? You aren''t pleased with having an easier job?", annoyed, the person asked.
"¡ I was promised 30,000 souls for this endeavour. I only acquired 2000. I was hoping you could give me the remaining 28,000.", he took a moment to think about to phrase his request and eventually settled on being blunt.
"Only 2000? Hmph. Even the rat man''s informationwork can fail sometimes, it seems." Contemtively, the person responded. "Very well t-"
"Shut your mouth, Julian. We don''t have any souls to feed him." Another voice cut him off. This voice was even more childish-sounding, but clearly contained more authority of the two.
The devil didn''t move out of his ce as the summoner''s gaze bore down on him.
"Hmm, I would rather not promise you an extra 28,000 souls. Just go away.", coldly, the person simply sacked the devil from his doorsteps.
The devil could feel a metaphorical vein burst at thepletely unreasonable request of the summoner, but something malevolent about the summoner kept him from simply shouting and demanding his bounty.
"May I request some other form of equalpensation?", the devil tried to approach this from a different angle. If he couldn''t acquire the souls themselves, at least something of equal value was more important, no?
"No. Go away.", aplete rejection. This summoner had absolutely no interest in keeping up his half of the deal. He clearly had no fear of the devil attempting to kill for failure to uphold his end of the deal. That alone made the devil scared to ask for more, but the thought of him not getting at leastpensation for his hard work was infuriating to say nheless.
He would be aughing stock for this, but something told him that was far better than incurring the wrath of the summoner.
"Wait, Master Maou, I have a suggestion.", Julian, the boy dressed up as a butler said before the devil cavalier simply returned to hell. He stayed, hoping to get something out of this.
The boy whispered something into the cat-like being''s ears for quite some time. After a few minutes, the summoner heaved a sigh of resignation, then red at the devil. He sat down, but the pose he struck and the re he gave all said: I have the high ground here.
"Ahem¡", Julian cleared his throat, straightened his back up and proceeded, "The future World''s Most Terrifying Demon Lord, Maou Hyakkiyago has chosen topensate you by employing you in his service. Rejoice! You are the very first subordinate of Lord Maou!"
Julian dered proudly, but to the devil, that was horrendous news. In fact, he was quite willing to jump back into hell at this very moment and beughed at for all of eternity. There was something instinctively repulsive about the summoner. All his cells were warning him to not follow this cat-like creature and he had full intention to listen to them.
"I apologise, but it would seem I do not requirepensation after al-"
"I shall acquire a body for you so you may remain in this realm for an indefinite period of time. Till then, I shall supply you with my mana.", Julian ignored the devil''s wordspletely.
His fate was sealed the moment Maou had summoned him.
Chapter 293 War For Larm Pt.VI
"¡ that''s everything we know.", one of the ogres that had captured earlier answered. He had a nk look on his face as he looked at Taiku. The others behind him had the exact same expression, including the Troll King, Zod.
It was a short session with Taiku forcing all of them to spill the details on what their objective was. There was some resistance before, but that was easily taken care of by Taiku''s [Hypnosis] skill. The trolls and ogres weren''t particrly known for their mental fortitude.
ording to them, the North was sending barely a fraction of their forces to the Northern parts of the West, while the East struck from the South-Eastern parts of the West. While all this was happening, a majority of the North''s forces would be concentrated on the South to subdue them. The general idea was to put Reiman''s attention on too many things for him to actually focus on what the East truly wanted. All the assants believed it was leverage on the West that they wanted ¨C which was why they were sent to capture Ulva and Arisu ¨C but Reiman couldn''t believe that.
Taiku looked back and nodded to both Nukeme and Reiman, confirming that this indeed was all they knew.
Frustrated, Reiman punched the wall for falling right into the East''s trap. From an outside perspective, it looked like they had prevented what the East wanted, but Reiman knew better. Sure, everything appeared to be a diversion, but they were all real attacks, coordinated with the intention of harming the West in some way or form.
With the borders all being preupied, the remaining soldiers close to home, weren''t particrly the strongest or the craftiest. It was very easy for someone to sneak in, an example was the group that was right before them. If they managed to infiltrate, the chances that others did the same were high.
The story about the East wanting leverage on the West was usible, but far too na?ve to actually be the East''s true objective. There was something in the West that they wanted and Reiman couldn''t quite figure it out.
"If this was going to happen, we should have just sent soldiers to the South rather than leaving them to waste time here.", Taiku who had heard news about the South''s request for aid muttered.
"No. There was no need for that.", Reiman shut down that ideapletely and started to walk off. The others followed closely behind him, passing by another cell. Nukeme scoffed at the prisoner in there and caught up to Reiman. "No matter what action we made, the enemy had multiple ns to reap some sort of benefit. I was overconfident."
"Still, shouldn''t we have at least sent the shadow demons? Or one of Lady Hinotori''s Shadow Fiends?", Nukeme presented a good argument.
Even if not a Shadow Fiend, a single Shadow General was more than enough aid to the South. With their ability to summon more Shadow Demons, the West had an immense army,rge enough to threaten both the North and East. At least, that was the general notion at the moment.
Reiman doubted anyone else was aware, but ording to one of the Shadow Generals, there was a current issue in the realm they came from. Summoning more shadow demons was beyond them at this point. Obviously, the East and North weren''t aware of this, but their time sure was convenient.
For this reason, Reiman dared not spare a single resource as the West was no longer unlimited.
"We can''t do that. I have other ns for the shadow generals and their fiends. In fact, they should bepleting their tasks right about now.", both Nukeme and Taiku eyed Reiman suspiciously, wondering what he meant by that. However, he didn''t share the details with them.
"Still, I can''t help but feel that Lady Hinotori would reprimand us for not aiding the South. Was there truly nothing we could do?" Taiku pondered, but the answer came to him swiftly.
"That too has been taken care of.", Although barely a whisper, both of them heard Reiman''s words.
"What''s that supposed to mean?", the two asked simultaneously, only to find a deranged grin spread across Reiman''s face. His eyes shook greatly and his body trembled powerfully as he remembered the events from mere moments earlier.
***
Some hours prior to the current events, back in Reiman''s control centre, Reiman was leaving to go meet up with Taiku and Nukeme to gather information from the captured assants that hadunched an attack and Ulva and her party, when he was stopped.
''Won''t you respond, Reiman?'', a telepathic message went directly into Reiman''s head. 2 beings appeared behind him and he could feel a cold sweat run down his spine. He turned around only to find a boy with pale skin in a butler''s uniform, carrying cat with dark golden feathers, a pair of wins and a short horn growing out of its head, in his arms.
''What is the situation in the South?'', Maou, the little kitten asked with a pompous attitude.
Reiman would have to be lying if he said that it didn''t tick him off that the new-born acted in such a manner. But he also knew he couldn''t underestimate the kitten simply due to its age when he thought about its mother who was far younger than Reiman was. The mere fact that this kitten was mostly mute, but had such easemunicating was proof that he was no idiot.
"I made a serious blunder and underestimated the North''s assault on the South. From the looks of things, they won''t survive what''sing to them.", answering honestly, Reiman bowed to the duo. His subordinates followed suit, all aware that an insult to the kitten was an insult to their leader.
''The South? Is that not where Zana lives?'', such a casual way of addressing the tyrant. Either they were that close or Maou''s impertinence knew no bounds.
"Yes.", either way, Reiman wasn''t going to risk his neck correcting the kitten.
Silently, the kitten pped its wins, jumped out of Julian''s arms and onto Reiman''s table then stretched its body. As if it did nothing but sleep all day, he yawned as his bones cracked, producing an oddlyfortable yet concerning sound.
''So, howrge is the force in the South?'', he asked. For a moment, Reiman was starting to feel like the kitten saw all of this as a game. Still, something told him that pointing this out would only end badly for him, so he signalled for the informant to respond ordingly.
"30,000 strong. 10,000 mountain trolls, 500 griffins, 100 wyverns an-" the informant was cut off.
"You can beat those numbers, right Julian?", unamused, Maou asked the boy who had an exaggerated grin on his face.
"It is not my job to do so.", a chirpy attitude with a t rejection. Still, something about the way he said that ticked Maou off.
"I didn''t ask if it''s your job. I just asked if you could do it.", he snapped back, ring at the annoying butler.
"Well, if I release my evil eye of Doom and-"
"So you can do it?", uninterested by all the unnecessary details, he cut to the chase.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Ohe on! Just let me describe my super special mov-", Julian was starting to whine about Maou''s indifference to his rather entric mannerisms, but was cut-off once more.
"I don''t need that. If you can do it, but aren''t allowed, then I just need a servant as powerful as you to do the job, right?"
An odd and unexpected proposal so out of the blue, even Julian couldn''t help but to be perplexed, "Huh?"
Maou, unamused, bit into his leg. The blood trickled down onto the floor.
"What are you doing? You can''t harm yourself!", like an over protective guardian, Julian rushed towards Maou and tried to attend to his leg, but the kitten hissed at him.
"Just shut it, Julian. I''ve been listening to you for so long I can feel my ears bleeding and I don''t like it." Understandably, Maou had lost any sort of patience he could have had with Julian. Over the course of the past few weeks, Julian has been at his side at every single moment. When he slept, Julian watched over him. When he ate, Julian tried to feed him. When he eased himself, Julian tried to wipe his ass. What made it worse was Julian''s over-the-top character and his corny lines that made Maou cringe-up every time he spoke. Maou generally didn''t care for most things, but even he couldn''t help but to be extremely concerned by this very, very odd child.
"Ah~! Your cold demeanour is truly bing of the future demon lord. I''m so proud.", running to the background, Julian shed tears of joy. Maou scoffed at the man, correction, masochist who enjoyed being berated, wounded or rejected.
He focused on what he was doing. His blood spread out across the floor, forming a circle on the floor. From the circle, lines of the blood started to connected, forming aplex web on the ground. A symbol that Julian was all too familiar with. So familiar, that he couldn''t help but feel a tiny bit of concern that Maou could create something like this so casually.
Maou applied his mana to it, turning the blood pitch ck,pleting the magic circle''s formation. It was a summoning circle for devils. And not a low-ranking devil''s summoning circle, but one of the highest possible summons.
"Nowe forth, devil."
As soon as hemanded, a devil emerged from his blood.
At a single nce, Julian could easily tell that this devil was not ordinary. He scouted it out from head to toe and considering the fact that most of a devil''s power was capped when they left hell, he estimated that this devil was around the level of a Devil Cavalier, if not higher.
"Excellent, master. Your summoning abilities truly ar-"
"Stop talking, Julian. Your voice irritates me, you disgusting vermin."
Afterwards, Reimanpletely loss focus. The devil before him was greatly supressing its presence, but there was a voice whispering his ear to not make any sudden movements even though Maou summoned it.
The next few moments shed by in an instant and Reiman was now walking through the prison area with Nukeme and Taiku behind him.
"That''s not important now. Let''s hurry up. Taiku tell the other captains ¨C cyclopes, orcs and kobolds included ¨C to start infiltrating the North. Nukeme,pletely abandon the assault on the East and focus extensively on finding the other invaders or at least finding out what it is they''re searching for with the aid of the dryads and treants. This war has dragged on for too long, I want to send things into the final phase."
"Hm? Final phase? So soon?", Taiku was the first to show concern for Reiman''s abrupt decision.
"Isn''t it a bit too early for that?", Nukeme agreed Taiku''s trail of thought. iming to be ready to enter the final phase was a bit rash. They were no were near ready to take on the tyrants Krull and Sora without Hinotori''s presence, which is why they originally chose to weed out their forces before facing them.
"No. Our opponent is far craftier than I expected. I doubt I can keep up with them, so I''m going to throw this entire ga- urh, war into shambles. Both sides will be confused and at least then, I can start to control the momentum once more.
__________________________________
In the skies above the West, as Reiman was having his discussion with Taiku and Nukeme, a lone ogre was flying high above the clouds on his wyvern and looking down. He couldn''t see through the clouds, but he had a vague sense of where his soldiers were.
He was no mana expect, but even he could tell that a powerful barrier of mana was covering some portion of the West. This barrier was what served as a prison camp for the North''s soldiers. He had already had a meeting with tyrant of the North, Sora and the discussion had gone exactly how he wanted it to.
The second phase of his n was beginning. The first phase was still ongoing, but due to ack of a report from one of the teams he sent to kidnap a certain group, he felt like that particr n was in trouble. It was the ultimate n he hade up with, but now he felt it was useless. From the way things had yed out, Karon understood that his opponent was no retard.
He was intelligent, although his ns were awfully obvious andcked creativity. It was so bad Karon was starting to feel stupid for creating multipleyers to his n for conquering the West. Perhaps, he gave the West''s mastermind far too much credit. Still, he wasn''t going to let up here. His n had 3 phases.
Phase 1 was to give the opponents the notion that they had the upper hand. Feed them enough wins to make them growcent and that have gone off without a hitch. Phase 2 was now going to start. Phase 2 worked on the premise of his opponent finally realising that everything went ording to his desires and trying to switch up everything by causing as much disarray as possible.
He had no proper information as to how his opponent was about to act, but he knew for certain that this was what was going to happen. In order topletely wreck the West''s general, he was going to flip the battlefield first and continue being in charge of the momentum.
Everything was going ording to his ns. The South would be conquered whether the West sent aid or not. Word of their victory woulde soon. If the West was intelligent, they would attempt to focus on capturing the North, but even then, a majority of them would still be preupied by the East, leaving themselves vulnerable to an attack from the inside ¨C the imprisoned soldiers.
Then there was the thing his men were still searching for. He doubted it would be easy to find, but if they found it, he wouldn''t even need to lift a finger anymore to win this fight.
With everything having been thought out, Karon flew straight towards the North. To the Wyvern''s Graveyard, home of the tyrant of the North, Sora. He would return a few dayster to kick off phase 2 once the West had started their attempt at controlling the entire field.
When that was done, phase 3 would begin.
Chapter 294 War For Larm Pt.VII
Keimen Kingdom, Shandel City
The streets of the city were empty, save the patrol guards that were active all night. There had been a curfew set in ce for both citizens and outsiders, after an incident that urred a month ago. This incident had revealed an infestation of subi and incubi in the city''s walls, so for the protection of everyone, no one was allowed to roam the dangerous streets at night.
Two people were sneaking through the dark alleyways of the city, having no problem seeing as they both had skills that were useful in such conditions. Both were cloaked figures that moved swiftly, barely making a single sound or drawing any attention to themselves.
Their original destination was Boulderdane City, the capital of Keimen, but post a certain event involving shadow demons, their target had been redirected to Shandel City. Having travelled from one city to the other in the past week, it was no surprise that they were exhausted and in a hurry. Well, one of them was exhausted.
They arrived at a wall that was hidden in between two buildings. This wall had a door fixed into it. The door was a in wooden one, too short for any regr person to walk thoughfortably, but big enough that they didn''t have to crawl. This door was impossible to move with strength alone ¨C many had tried and failed. Some people were starting to feel like the door was an illusion and that there was nothing but a wall behind it.
The door was very much real and there was something behind it.
One of the two figures approached the door and knocked on it in a particr pattern. 3 rapid knocks, 2 slow knocks and a final jab.
"Password.", a bulky voice requested from the other side of the door.
"Grimm ck.", this wasn''t the password for most users, but for special members such as himself, this was more than enough to gain him ess.
Silently, the door opened up, revealing an empty space. Grimm and hispatriot passed through, and were met with the cold gaze of a burly man looking down on them. He scanned them suspiciously, but spoke nothing and shut the door the moment they were both through.
He lit up a torch and handed it over to Grimm, then pointed in a direction for them to head to. Without any words, they headed off through a narrow path. It was minutes of walking in silence before they spotted a light bleeding through strings of beads up ahead.
Hurriedly, Grimm quenched the fire on his torch and dropped it on the ground before passing through the beads and emerging out onto a lit-up area. Before them, there was a counter with a bunch of shelves loaded with alcohol of all sorts behind it. A shirtless man was attending to a customer that sat before him. All around, tables had been set up, filled with various groups of sketchy people, all conversing, eating or drinking and women in skimpy outfits going around, serving the customers.
Once the beads rattled, everyone lifted their heads to look at the duo that had just appeared. A necessary precaution in case the patrol guards found a way to infiltrate this little secret spot of theirs. Once they noticed who it was, they all looked away, returning to whatever they were doing.
One of the women sneakily retreated, but both Grimm and hispanion easily noticed this. They chose to ignore it and rather focus onpleting their main objective.
They went straight to the counter and sat down. Grimm tapped on the counter, summoning the bar tender who came over immediately with a scowl on his face. "What''ll it be?"
"The usual." The man scoffed at Grimm''s reply then walked to the room behind his shelves, leaving the duo alone.
Both sat in silence for a while, waiting for the man to return with what they needed. The person seated next to Grimm looked around the area, although not out of necessity, but purely due to intrigue. This was their first time being in such a ce and it was hard to keep their excitement down as they were supposed to be undercover here.
They stopped however, when they noticed that the person seated next to Grimm was staring at them. The person was hooded themselves, but their features were easily seen. Pale wrinkly skin, with dark bags under their eyes and crows'' feet. Their hair was a mess of ck, grey and white and their dark eyes peered right into the person''s eyes.
''Stop looking at her. You''ll only get unnecessary attention.'', Grimm sent her a telepathic message, and she immediately averted her eyes to look at the counter.
''Sorry. It''s all so new to me.'', she apologised and started to y with her fingers to pass the time. As she did this, someone took a seat next to her.
She didn''t need to see the person to know that it was the older woman she was making eye contact with just moments ago. This time however, the woman was staring intently at her. Now, she wasn''t sure what to do. She didn''t mind being looked at, but she had gained unwanted attention, just like Grimm had warned her about.
"Can we help you?", Grimm spoke finally, trying to get the woman off her back.
"It''s been a while, Red.", the woman ignored Grimm and spoke to the woman named Red. Behind the mask, Grimm''s eyes widened in shock as he hadn''t expected to run into any of Red''s acquaintances that he personally wasn''t aware of.
''Should I say something?'', Red asked, hoping to avoid any mistakes. After all, she did request toe on this mission when Grimm wanted to go by himself.
''Just use Red''s memories to get this over with.'', he gave her the green light, so she smiled.
"Huh? Who the hell are you?", she took on a crude persona in an instant. The woman scoffed thenughed.
"You still have that shitty tone, huh?", she patted Red on the back. Red resisted the urge to punch the woman in the face in that moment.
"Seriously, if you won''t tell me who you are, just get lost.", she searched through all of Red''s memories instantly, but a face didn''te to mind when she looked at the old woman who appeared to be on herst legs.
"Yeah. I guess you wouldn''t remember me. We''re both¡ different now, I guess.", she said with a sorrowful smile on her face. Her eyes were one of someone with great regret, but she couldn''t understand why.
''We''re?''
Fortunately, this awkward conversation didn''t have to continue any further. The barkeep returned and mmed a scroll on the counter, right in front of the odd woman. She smirked, then took the scroll.
"I guess I''ll be seeing you around then, Red.", waving at her, the woman took off.
''Does she look like anyone in Red''s memories?'', it wasn''t like Grimm hadn''t anticipated meeting anyone from Red''s past. It was one of the reasons he was sceptical about bringing her along in the first ce. Red had connections to some less than pleasant folks, but you never knew when they could be useful.
''I''m not sure, but she talks like someone called Charlotte.'', matching the woman''s voice and mannerisms to an image in her memories, she responded.
''Charlotte, huh? You have any idea what sort of rtionship the two have?''
Red shook her head. All she could get from the iplete memories were images and little bits of conversation between the two, but nothing else. Having apleteck of emotional intelligence as well, she wasn''t able to determine just how close the two were so trying to find out from her was a dead end.
"There''ll be a meeting in two days. Would you like me to inform them of your arrival?", the barkeep asked,pletely emotionless.
"Nah. This is good enough. I''ve got a different request though." He reached into his cloak and started to search through before pulling out a scroll. "Give this to her for me."
The barkeep eyed the scroll suspiciously before epting it with a grunt.<novelnext></novelnext>
The duo left quietly.
***
In the West, close to Hinotori''s mansion, the army of monsters from the North were all being monitored intensely by chosen guards from the West. Hob-goblins and Fenrir alliance kept a good eye on the monsters ensuring that not even a single one of them could make a stupid move.
It had been 3 days since they were captured and most hadn''t even been given the slightest drop of water. asionally, one of Hinotori''s captains would march up toe inspect them, but generally, the responsibility fell down to a certain hob-goblin known as Baka.
As much as most didn''t enjoy hispany, they all took into consideration that Shitsuke had still chosen him as his choice for the next tribal leader for the goblins of Ooo. Currently, Baka was riding on the back of a timber wolf, being followed closely by his two brothers.
They were making rounds, making sure to not get too close to the captured enemy. A massive wall of earth had been conjured up by the goblins that discovered affinities for magic ¨C with the assistance of the two dark elves ¨C and the sky was covered by a barrier that rained down lightning on anything that tries to fly in its range, rendering the opponents essentially paralysed, but one could never be too careful.
"It''s been kinda quiet since we beat these idiots.", the hob-goblin to his right said.
Post their victory against the North, they hadn''t heard anything. Rumours of a battle ongoing against the East at the Eastern border had surfaced, but no one had heard anything anymore. Usually,munication was easy and fast, but ever since Hinotori''s evolution begun her blessing on them had also started to falter. This had started to create some doubt about her surviving it, but that was another topic on its own.
"I''d like to see the useless bastards show their face again. Kekeke.", cockily, he mocked the North. The other hob-goblin grunted in response, and the trio continued their usual surveince.
The enemy ¨C mountain trolls and goblins, were quiet and exhausted. Something about the change in environment wasn''t doing them any good as they found being down below unbearably hot. The manticores simply watched, showing no obvious fatigue, but it was evident that they had all singled out one single manticore ¨C the manticore king. The reason was unknown to the West.
Upon finishing their rounds, the trio was just about to goze about when two unexpected visitors popped up.
A pair of war ogresses, both twice the size of the goblins and Timberwolvesbined, yet both giving offpletely different auras. One wore nothing more than a simple white robe whereas the other was d in dark armour from neck to toe. A ymore rested at her hip and a whip next to it. Both had simr features ¨C dark violet hair, grey scaly skin, golden eyes ¨C except the one in armour looked far older, like an elder sister.
Both were bickering when they came in.
"I told you, there''s no need for this.", the younger one spat.
"I just want to be on the safe side. You never know with Karon.", the older one retorted, her eyes scanning their surroundings.
"Tch, you should be resting."
"I''m a war ogre. What more rest do I need? We are born to dominate the battlefield.", she argued.
It wasmon knowledge that war ogres existed purely forbat purposes. Their entire body was centred on given them an edge in battle, and as such, war ogres were an extremely feared race. Fortunately, there hadn''t been a proper war in a long time and the war ogre race had dwindled. Their need for war had incited an internal battle which ended with most of them dying out. Only a few remained and that few had be royalty amongst the various ogre ns in the world.
"What are you two doing here?", Baka, unamused by the out of the blue visit, stopped them in their tracks. Both wouldn''t have even noticed him were it not for the timber wolf he was riding on.
"Oh, uh, sorry, but my sister wanted to survey the area.", the younger ogress said apologetically.
"Huh? We''ve already done that. You can return.", he rejected their request without so much as a second thought. Normally, he couldn''t care less what anybody did, but considering they were both ogres, he wasn''t too trusting of them, especially the one d in armour.
"Move aside.", the one in armour however, clearly wasn''t taking no for an answer. She tried to push forward, but Baka moved in front of her with a snarl.
"I said no. I''m in charge here.", it was a reasonable argument, but the armoured ogrepletely ignored his words and walked past him, little care for the beast he was riding on.
Perhaps, it was due to her life in the East before, but she struggled to follow the orders of anyone other than her father, let alone creatures that barely entered her eyes.
"Sister, you can''t simply do that! We''re not in the East anymore.", Kara ran after her sister, trying to convince her to stop in her tracks, but even she was no match for the hard-headedness of her family.
"Oi! You li-", Baka just about ready to explode when his brother called to him.
"Brother, maybe we should let her do what she wants. I mean, the younger one is Kara, right? One of the leader''s wives."
"So? They still need to follow rules!"
"Are you going to pick a fight with a war ogre? Even 50 of us wouldn''t be enough to get her to excited." Hob-goblins definitely couldn''t hope to take down a war ogre. It took 5 of their best to take down a single strong troll. A war ogre was the equivalent of a god whenpared to the hob-goblins.
"Tch. If only I was a war ogre.", Frustrated by the difference in strength, he could only mutter under his breath. A handnded on his shoulder and when he looked, he saw his second brother. The brother grunted, saying more than enough.
"You''re right. We should be aiming to get stronger than them."
"Together." The other brother ced his hand on Baka''s other shoulder.
The sudden support warmed Baka''s heart. He held both hands and was about to agree, but just then, the sky boomed. The silhouette of a massive dragon spread across the crowds, followed by its enraged roar. The lightning of the barrier was being absorbed by the dragon and in no time, the barrier itself copsed.
Looking up in the sky, everyone could see something dropping from the sky. Behind it, a big streak of the lightning that once littered the sky followed like a predator chasing its prey.
The trio couldn''t remember what exactly happened after the lightning struck the ground.
There was a loud noise. Maybe the ground shook? Maybe the world itself spun?
None of them were sure. Nothing made sense anymore before they all cked out.
Chapter 295 War For Larm Pt.VIII
"Tch, just like I thought!", drawing her ymore, Kiara roared mightily and charged forward. Her destination was the creature that descended from the heavens with a lightning bolt massive enough to engulf a massive castle.
A lone cyclops with green skin and ck tattoos covering his body stood at the centre of the former prison camp, wielding his axe that still surged with lightning. In the sky, the dragon that had delivered him had started to recede to whence it came from.
That, however, was of no concern to Kiara. All she could think about was the cyclops that stood right in front of her. Upon his entry, he had killed some of the North''s soldiers as well as broken down all walls that kept them bound. Whether that was an ident or not, again, it was of no concern to her.
The monsters of North had been weakened. This "liberation" ¨C if it could even be called that ¨C was nothing more than a show of strength. It may have intimidated the orcs, kobolds, goblins and wolves nearby, but Kiara couldn''t feel nothing but pride.
No matter how you looked at it, that lightning st was from Kara''s barrier. The cyclopes simply redirected its focus to the ground below and caused a decent amount of damage. Kiara was happy that all of Kara''s efforts had clearly not been wasted. She may have been thinking she was the ck sheep of the family, but her power was truly great.
With a grin on her face, Kiara shed down at the cyclops, who blocked the attack with the shaft of his axe, throwing her back. She skidded to a stop, before slowly circling her opponent and analysing him. The on-lookers dared not make a move on her.
Whenparing the cyclops and the ogress, there was a clear size disparity, however, to the onlookers, it was the same as watching two giants battle each other. Stepping in carelessly would only lead to their deaths.
"You have guts! Who dares to oppose Kalkiba''s Chosen One?", he asked for her name, a simple courtesy most never showed when facing an opponent.
"Kiara, Daughter of Krull, the War Monger!", she responded as she charged at him, swinging her ymore from above once more, this time, she had set the de aze with fire magic ¨C a skill which her weapon, Fire Biter, possessed. The
The cyclops this time chose to parry the attack, spin around and swipe at her neck with ruthless efficiency. The parry set Kiara''s bnce off, so she used that to her advantage, rolling on the ground using her momentum and recovering almost immediately. She pounced instantly, shing at his wrist rather than his axe this time.
Cockily, the cyclops parried her de away with his very wrist. What he didn''t expect was for the de to actually cut some bit of flesh off. Kiara looked directly into the cyclops'' confused eye and roared victoriously.
"First blood.", she mocked while circling him slowly, looking for an opening. "You didn''t think much of my sword, but it was forged with wyvern fire. Your weakness."
She meant it. As a reward for victory in her first ever battle, Krull had the sword forged for her by some, rather reluctant dwarves. It took a while, but they forged it for her and even added the effect of allowing to the sword to ignite with the very wyvern fire that made it.
The cyclops shrugged it off, before blitzing towards her like a hungry beast. Kiara, waiting for this moment, also blitzed towards him, both moving too fast for everyone on the field to keep up with. He swung down viciously at her, but she pulled out her whip to throw his aim off by just an inch. With that mistake, she got in and managed to stab him in the abdomen.
Unfortunately, her sword barely pierced him and only created a scratch. She retreated once more and was about to start circling him like she''d been doing, but the angry cyclops clearly wasn''t going to give her breathing room this time. Like a rapid beast, he swung at her without care for the sort of damage he was causing to the surroundings.
His swings tore up the earth, split apart his own allies and sliced the wind, yet they couldn''t even once touch Kiara who moved absurdly gracefully. With the way she grinned it were almost as if she was dancing to mock his efforts at killing her, whereas she was shing at him and creating tiny cuts on his skin.
This went for quite a while till the cyclops'' tattoos started to glow white. The sky darkened with ck heavy clouds. Lightning shed and thunder boomed. The cyclops glowed with a red aura and both his speed and power upped up to a degree that Kiara was struggling to keep up with.
The winds howled, swarming the duo and kicking them off above ground by a few feet. With ack of proper grounding, Kiara started to struggle to keep up. Just barely, she avoided a very direct attack at her chest, having her breastte torn through like paper. Swiftly, she wrapped her whip around the cyclops'' arm and activated its effect as well.
A streak of blue lightning spread from the lightning an onto his wrist. Shockingly enough, he simply absorbed the lightning and redirected it into his axe that was still in her breastte. The bolt hit Kiara at point nk, making it utterly impossible for her to avoid it.
She was sent spiralling down till she crashed right into the ground, but her lightning resistance had prevented her from being knocked out. From above the cyclops came crashing down as well, this time, carrying with him another bolt of lightning. Kiara managed to block the attack with Fire Biter, but received a strong punch to face. In retaliation, she kicked the cyclops in knee cap with enough force to shatter a human skull.
Although not enough to actually destroy his knee cap, the kick was strong enough to make him stumble back in pain. Kiara immediately kicked the ground mightily to create a dust storm. Quietly, she slipped into the cover of the dust toplete avoid the cyclops'' view. Then begun her flurry of stealthy shes, cutting up bits of cyclops as if he were her ything. Going on like this forever, she would eventually manage to wound him at a critical point, or so she thought.
Angrily, he howled, summoning a torrent of wind to clear the dust. A lightning bolt struck from the clouds andnded right on him spreading through the ground, and causing damage to anyone who was unfortunately close to him, including Kiara who hadn''t been able to create a substantial distance between them.
Without a moment''s hesitation, he pounced on her, his axe ready to split her skull in two. Kiara, having some resistance to lightning-based abilities, powered through and rolled over to avoid the attack. Now also starting to feel threatened, she went for more savage attacks, aiming at the cyclops'' eye with her [Fire Biter]. As if he couldn''t care less if he lost his vision, the cyclops swung his axe for her stomach.<novelnext></novelnext>
Going blind for victory was perfectly fine to him. Kiara was also perfectly fine with losing her life if she could stab this cyclops through the head, essentially killing him.
There was one person on the field who wasn''t content with either option, however she waspletely powerless in this situation. She wasn''t fast enough and neither was she strong enough to help. In this moment all Kara could feel was utter dread at the possibility of her sister dying right before her eyes.
As she shook, she wanted to cry out to someone. Anyone, that could help her. The first name that came to mind was Hinotori, but she knew that even Hinotori wasn''t going to be able to save her this time. She had to do something herself, but what could she do?
She had an affinity for lightning and lightning alone. Clearly, the cyclops could manipte that element, meaning any attack she threw at him was pointless. Was there anything she could do at all? Was she just going to just be a useless princess surrounded by amazing people her entire life?
As if on que, a film of dark coloured water separated the cyclops and ogress. Following that was a streak bright orange that mmed right into the cyclops and went further away. The sound of heavy pping wings filled the air as a beautiful fairy descended wielding an assortment of glowing runes all around her.
"The cyclops with a tattoo is so bewildered he won''t be able to move for the next 30 seconds! Unleash hell on him!", Taiku''s oppressive voice rang through the field.
One by one, the goblin captains had descended! Kara felt her knees copse as she tumbled to the ground, panting as though she had been the one fighting for her life just a moment ago.
"What happened here?", Yuuna, the fairy demon asked after descending to the ground. Her runes were still glowing and charging up with power.
"I-I-I¡ I don-"
"Very well then. It doesn''t matter. We''re just fortunate that Reiman chose to keep the prisoners close to the house.", noticing her inability to focus, he chose not to worry on the details for now. All that mattered was an enemy had invaded and he was lucky enough to be nearby.
"AAARGH!" a numbing war cry came from the cyclops as Oki, the ball of fire, was kicked up into the sky.
Taiku froze in confusion, before an ethereal voice that seemed to resonate throughout the entire world spoke into his mind.
[[Horizon''s Strongest God of War] has personally intervened]
[The [Champion of Thundering Clouds] has resisted the effects of the unique skill [Devil''s Advocate]]
[The War Gods of Horizon are currently monitoring this fight]
[Please entertain them]
For a moment, all the captains fell deathly silent, paralysed by thepletely unexpected announcement.
"Heh, looks like we''ve got some big guys on our hands.", with a shaky voice, Yuuna muttered. All of a sudden, the stakes of this battle had skyrocketed.
The captains hade out here expecting to simply dispose off or at the very least capture an idiot. Now, the gods that hadpletely abandon the world 6 years ago were showing themselves to personally watch?
This caused more confusion than anything. Now the captains felt like every single one of their moves needed to be executed with a certain level finesse to make it out alive.
The cyclops immediately came charging right for Taiku and Yuuna. Both prepared themselves to fight off against him, but another loud war cry boomed through the field, followed by a streak of blue lightning and bright orange mes, crashing right into the cyclops.
Kiara had recovered and was ready for a round two.
Chapter 296 War For Larm Pt.IX
In the North, the tyrant Sora''s domain.
The griffin tyrant was sitting confidently on his rock, his retainers all lined up before him awaiting amand from him. If one looked at this scene, it was a picture-perfect poster of a king''s court.
Contrary to the scene, the tyrant was currently experiencing some inner turmoil.
Currently, there were two beings inside the tyrant, both struggling to assume perfect control over the body. At first, the second being was simply suggesting and whispering, but after a certain point, the being had gotten extremely aggressive in its approach.
It would take over in the night when Sora was sleeping. It was having secret conversations he wasn''t aware of. It was giving out orders without his say so. At this point, he was basically a backseat character in his own body and he wasn''t going to stand for that.
''Simply hand over control. Things will be better that way.''
''In what way? The West has clearly figured out your trick.''
Both Sora and the parasite were shocked to see that their forces in the South werepletely overwhelmed. A number of the forces in the West had been captured as well and they''d been forced to send one of the strongestbatants out. On all fronts of attack, his skill had been torn apart.
Karon of the East wasn''t too pleased with their failure, but Karon was of no concern to the duo as they both believed whole-heartedly that he was not a match for them. Even his father, Krull, would be hard pressed tobat them.
Still, if someone had figured out the secret behind their skill, that meant there was no choice but going in personally now. It wasn''t an option the parasite was willing take. It had nearly been a month since it chose this host and it still hadn''t managed to take full control of the body. This was unprecedented, but the parasite surmised it had something to do with itsck of power at the moment.
It wanted to take over the war ogre''s, Karon, body instead but chose not to considering the difficulty it was having with its current host.
''Silence. This is my body. Leave at once!'', furiously, Sora ordered, however the parasite was not having it at all.
''A peon like thou dare to make a demand of me!? Prostrate thineself!''
''If you wish to fight, I am willing to fight a second time.''
Sora didn''t remember vividly how their first fight went, but the fact that he was still in control of his body suggested that he emerged victorious, right?
As the two argued, they noticed an intense presence appear before them. Taking a look around, they both noticed how odd it was that they couldn''t feel the wind blowing anymore. Everything was deathly silent and the servants that stood before them were frozen like statues. Even weirder, a child stood before them.
This child, dressed in a simple long-sleeved white shirt, a pair of brown shorts with straps keeping them on. The boy wore a pair of knee-high white socks and shiny ck shoes. He looked at the tyrant with eyes so dark they appearedpletely void of any light.
"Who are you?", Sora roared, standing up in order to intimidate the child.
"Oh? You don''t recognise me, [Pride]? Were you seven been fused so long that you lost yourselves?", he asked, looking at the griffin with genuine intrigue.
"[Pride]? My name is Sora, little one. You would do well to remember it!", Sora was on the verge of fleeing, but with his subordinates around, he felt like he couldn''t disgrace himself in such a way.
"It''s unusual of you to give your host so many liberties. Let''s silence it.", with a snap of his finger, Sora was swallowed up by an unknown darkness.
This was the darkness of death. The Tyrant of the North, Sora of Ravaging Winds, had been killed instantly. All that remained were his body and the parasite.
''What are you doing here, bug?'', finally, the parasite couldn''t hear his host''s voice. It was in total control now.
"Even in your current state, you still can''t hide your condescending tone, [Pride]?", the boy had a smirk on his face as he folded his arms behind his back.
''You don''t seem to be doing so well if you have to be in a human host toe talk to me, Themmir.'', Pride retorted.
"Oh this? I only need this since gods have been banned from being in this world. Besides, the prepubescent form of a boy is to my liking." He performed a little twirl, showing off his body to the griffin. "In fact, the only reason you escaped here is because of me. You should be thanking me."
Pride snorted at his remark, not believing a single word that came out of his mouth. The boy shrugged and looked south-west over the mountain, beforementing,
"It would seem [Kalkiba] and his faction are choosing to monitor this little spat."
''Surely you didn''te here to bore me with your useless observations, did you?''
"No. I came here to request a favour. Two actually.", with an innocent smile, the child stated. Pride on the other hand knew that innocent smile hid something far more sinister.
Under normal circumstances, he would have outright rejected the offer, but at the moment, Pride was weak. He lost a great majority of his personal power and even worse, his counterparts had all been forced to separate. Currently, Pride needed more allies than enemies.
''I shall receive two favours in exchange then.'', even if he needed more allies, he couldn''t appear weak. No matter how dire his situation, Pride absolutely could not appear weak.
"One, or none.", he rejected the offer. Pride red at him, but knowing who Themmir was, this was the best offer he could get. If he were at full power, this scenario wouldn''t even be happening. Themmir would have been far too scared to evene face-to-face with him.
Pride grunted, signifying his eptance.
"Excellent!", The boy pped his hands together. "For my first favour, please answer this question: If there was a man who lost both his mind and heart, but was yet somehow alive, would it be possible for the man to return should he be given a new mind and heart?"
It was an odd question, but Pride perfectly understood where Themmir was going with this.
''No.'' he responded tly. ''It would be a new mind and heart, making it virtually a new man.''
"Why is that?", the boy asked with his finger to his lip.
''Perhaps it is a matter of the soul. The mind and heart are two halves of one soul. The mind governs the logical and more objective point of view, whereas the heart is the emotions and desires. Together, these two form the ego, the sense of self of a person. Without both of them-¡ This is a question for a goddess that governs over life, not for a god such as myself. I can''t proceed."
"But who better understands life than the embodiment of its major ws?"
''Is that your second favour?''
Unamused, Themmir clicked his tongue and shrugged.<novelsnext></novelsnext>
"I want to know where the other Chaos Gods are and in what ways they will be reincarnated."
''How am I supposed to know? Unlike them, I was in horizon for close to a century. Those weaklings fled once they failed the war.''
"Oh? That''s not what I remember happening. Now that I think about it, you are different from when you fuse. Should I take it that a fusion of multiple minds and hearts create a new soul that is entirely different from the individual parts?"
''Last I heard, the Chaos Mother had already made a vessel for herself. Her reincarnation isn''t supposed to happen till a few yearster though.'', to avoid that entire conversation entirely, Pride decided to give the boy some sort of information.
"Oh? Do you know where this vessel is?"
''I am not certain about this, but I suggest looking into the battle gods of the Mystic Peaks.''
"I see. Your aid has been much greater than I expected. You have my thanks."
''I don''t need that. Tell me where my counterparts are.''
"Yes, yes. I am honestly stunned that you have grown so weak as to not be able to sense the others. Then again, considering you were up against the entirety of Horizon''s army by yourself for quite a few decades, even a [True Primordial God] like yourself is susceptible to being weakened. If this is what happened to you, I wonder if the other sins can even survive."
''Do you know where they are or not.''
"Hmm. [Wrath] was captured by Fafnir. I have no idea the whereabouts of the others."
''I see.'', at least, he now knew where one member of his group was. It was only a matter of time till he found the others.
"Considering how much of a help you''ve been. Let me give you a piece of advice. Simply submit to the master of the West. A majority of the gods are already keeping a close eye on her."
''Huh? Since when does that matter.''
"Well, that master is Vermillion''s spawn."
''!?'', words couldn''t describe the type of expression that Pride''s new face formed at the mention of Vermillion. Themmir had already turned around, skipping away before he paused, turned his neck around with a sinister smirk and said,
"Oh¡ I just remembered that before you came here, one of the sins was defeated by the master of the West. I''m not certain who absorbed who, but judging from theck of presence from both sides¡", he paused to think about it, but shook his head in surrender. "I still don''t know. Good luck on finding the others."
The boy dematerialised into the shadows. The flow of time returned to normal and the members present were shocked to see their king standing. None had seen him even move which caused a massive shock.
"Lord Sora¡?"
"I don''t care what the East wants. Send all avable forces to the West, now! We shall crush them and I will have that stupid queen for myself."
______________________
Meanwhile, in the East, Krull''s fortress
A conversation going on between 4 people had juste to an end. Inside of Krull''s chamber. Two demonkin had presented themselves as dignitaries of a demon who wished to forge friendly rtions with the future ruler of Larm. Essentially, unexpected allies.
"In that case, we shall return once the Ursa Major awakens." Saying this, both of them walked out of the room, leaving the father-son pair alone.
"What do you think, father?"
Karon wasn''t sure what had happened, but during the conversation, he felt something call to him. Something was demanding his urgent attention. More specifically, someone. Unfortunately, he couldn''t pinpoint what this was, although for a second, the image of his little sister shed in his head.
He wanted to ignore it as coincidence, but he could clearly tell that whatever that was, it had affected Krull as well. Light had returned to his eyes and Krull was back to who he was before his encounter with Goliath.
"About what?"
"The demons. It''s obvious their leader just wants to use us to take over Larm."
"We are going to use them. After this war, we''ll build up our forces better with the entirety of Larm, then attack the demon country. Even they can''t stand against Larm."
It was true. Larm, if ever united under a single banner, would be one of the most formidable empires in the world. Resources aside, the sheer popce was more than enough to make others wary of the forest.
"Did you also get the feeling that K needed our help?"
The conversation begun with Krull being half-dead, but by the end he was back to his prime. And there was nothing that suggested that the contents of the conversation revived him. It had to be the feeling he had during the conversation.
Krull''s face twisted up and his beady eyes burned red hot.
"She must be killed."
"Why?"
"Because another War Kishin cannot be allowed to exist! I won''t allow it!"
"War¡ kishin?" that was something Karon hadn''t expected to hear.
Karon had heard about them in his short time training in the Demise Mountains.
From what he knew, War Kishin were an evolution for the War Ogres. Not many could ever attain this evolution, but those that did were revered as gods amongst the War Ogres. They were essentially Ogre Deities, much like humans had their own deities. Thest anyone heard of a War Kishin was about 8 years ago, when the War ogres killed themselves off.
He couldn''t understand what made Krull make such an expression as he walked away.
Chapter 297 War For Larm Pt.X
A few hundred metres away from where the prison camp once stood, an army of cyclopes waited without budging an inch, watching as the fight between the West''s forces and their Best Warrior ensued. It was a heart-wrenching fight for the cyclopes to watch, as this was the herald of their god, Kalkiba, the god of the sky.
Standing in front of the army were 4 particr cyclops, 3 of which were a part of a council that had led the cyclops for a bit.
"This¡ this don''t feel right if ya ask me.", the captain of military grunted, clenching his fists and resisting the urge to jump into the fray.
"That''s why no one asked yer, bimbo.", the assistant, the young cyclops that served the king of the cyclopes muttered under his breath.
"Huh? What was that yer weak trash?", military interrogated with a scowl.
"He betrayed us all! If he dies here, it''s all his fault!", the assistant barked back.
"Huh? He didn''t betray us! He musta been forced ta do this!", Military snapped back.
"Only an idiot would think dat. Ain''t surprised you do!"
"Would ya two stop it!? Can''t ya see past how crucial this moment is fer us as a n!?", the captain of the walls interjected, causing a ceasefire between the two.
Both red at him, about to shout at him, but were silenced by the King of cyclopes.
"Captain of the Wall is right. This fight is the most important fight fer us.", there was a hint of a smile on his face, but practically no one would have been able to see it through his thick beard.
"Chief?", the assistant asked, clearly asking for an exnation. Slowly and calmly, the king of the cyclopes responded.
"I believe you all know the belief of ''Might makes right''.", he didn''t even need to ask. This was one of the most basic rules amongst the cyclopes. "This fight may not look like much, but it is a battle between the herald of our god and the herald of their god. Naturally, the better god will win."
It had been only a few weeks since the cyclopes came to the West, but from the way everyone talked about the master of the West, she seemed more like a goddess. There were some that didn''t know her in particr and a great majority of them actually hadn''t seen her since she was apparently always on the move. However, one thing was certain. They all revered her.
It didn''t even have to be directly. Most of them had their own tribal leaders, and they would follow these leaders to the ends of the world. These leaders were so devoted to the master of the west that their subordinates followed instinctually. To them, she was much more than a leader.
Whether it was intentional or not, she had created an entire cult quite easily. The king of cyclopes had even started to wonder if this ''coboration'' of theirs would simply end with them being allies.
"Shouldn''t we still go in ta help ''im out?", military asked anxiously.
"Hahaha! With or without our interference, if Kalkiba is the greatest, this battle will end in his victory, no?", the king burst outughing, finding it hard to contain himself.
"Chief!" military growled furiously, grabbing his weapon, ready to attack the king, but waspletely shut down by the king''s re.
"If all you do is swing your halberd, you''ll never ever think about anything else. Give a child a sword and he will learn how to swing it. Give a child a book and you have given him the world.", the king of cyclopes walked over to the captain of military and pped the halberd out of his hand before smacking him in the head. "You wish to attack the people that took us in, in our time of need? Where was he when we were being attacked? Colluding with the enemy, nning a false death! If you wish to side with someone like him, I will strike you down right now with your own halberd!"
The king towered above the captain of military, holding the captain''s halberd and looking down on him with a monstrous re. The captain was mostly never scared, but even he couldn''t help but feel a little bit terrified.
"And that goes to the lot of you!", the king pointed the halberd at the army. "I have never liked your stupid beliefs, and I haven''t once tried to hide this fact, but I respected them even after bing your chief because I respected you as a people. If any of you wish to interfere in this fight, you have disrespected me and those who showed uspassion in our time of need. I won''t stand for it! If you believe your god is almighty, then watch this fight with a confident heart and faith!"
He turned around and watched the fight, smiling brightly this time around.
To the king of cyclopes, this battle was going to prove whether or not he was right about the cyclopes having to change their ways. This battle was proof of his ambition. The results would determine the fate of the cyclopes going forward and for that reason, absolutely no one was allowed to help either side in any way.
________________________
Two spears of murky water shot at an intense speed towards the lone cyclops warrior, breaking up upon touching his skin. The cyclops threw his battle axe at the conjurer, but that was deflected by Oki who was engulfed in mes. The oni charged forward like a cannon ball, but was a few steps toote as the cyclops was hit by an ogre that had streaks of lightning and fire following them.
Kiara shed at the cyclops, but once again, her sword did little damage to him. Rather, he caught it in his palms and pulled her in close, grabbing her neck and mming her into the ground. The ground cracked under the pressure and wind howled, subduing Kiara''s grunt as she actually felt that.
The cyclops stood up and tried to cave her head in with a kick, but Oki came in, mallet aze and with an intense aura. His mallet made direct contact with the cyclops'' chest, causing the cyclops to cough in pain and stumble back. Following that heavy hit were balls of fire from above, summoned by Yuuna who was maintaining a good distance from the closebat.
Kiara had recovered and this time, she had given up on using her weapons and went a bit more primal, delivering a powerful uppercut to the unsuspecting cyclops. Normally, her strike shouldn''t have been strong enough to actually make him spit, but Taiku was at work in the back, buffing her up.
The cyclops let out pained cries as he was bombarded by her fire balls, but Oki and Yuuna didn''t give him time to process it. Heartlessly, the duo barraged him with hits that could break steal. Oki had received a power up from the demi-god of fire that was his patron, and his mes had reached a point above wyvern fire, meaning everyone of hits did some really good amount of damage to the cyclops. Searing of the flesh on his chest or leaving burn marks.
Before anyone had realised, the cyclops was on the receiving end of an unstoppable barrage from the opposing side. Kiara and Oki were both dealing powerful, quick sessive attacks up close, Yuuna was firing off decent fire attack magic spells to wound the cyclops and avoid the duo, whereas Taiku was buffing them up with his abilities.
Tsuna just stood at the back, waiting for something in particr to happen.
All of a sudden, thunder roared mightily in the sky above. The winds swirled violently and the ground shook. Lightning arced across the skies. In that instant, everyone instinctually knew something dreadful was about to happen.<novelsnext></novelsnext>
Oki and Kiara immediately stopped flooding the cyclops'' front with attacks and jumped back, turning to a run. It was precisely because they both lusted after battle that they knew that they had to get as far away from the cyclops as possible. Even though he was essentially paralysed, it didn''t mean external forces couldn''t aid him.
Kalkiba, the god of the sky was going to interfere directly now. A pir of lightning much bigger than anything any of them had ever seen shot down in a sh. If this attack hit, that would be the end for anyone standing nearby, but this was the moment Tsuna had been patiently waiting on.
"Veil of Poison!", she yelled, spreading her arms forward and causing dark murky water to shoot up from underneath the cyclops, engulfing him whole the instant the pir made contact with him. She didn''t stop though, and kept on adding more water to it when she noticed that the amount she had conjured was evaporating.
It was this moment that Tsuna realised she had made a bit of a miscalction. She had assumed that simply swarming the cyclops with water as he summoned lightning would be more than enough to leave him electrocuted, but the pir of lightning was far stronger than she had believed.
The more mana she poured in, the weaker she felt and the lower her concentration fell. It hadn''t even been a minute, but she felt like she''d been holding her arms up for hours and they were ready to copse at any moment.
''Kekekeke!'', shrewdughter ensued in her head. Her unpleasant guest had be active once more. ''Take a little bit of my power. That way you can easily stop this.''
''That''s¡ a lie¡ I''m¡ stronger than¡ you were!'', Tsuna rejected the offer, after taking into consideration that there was no way her guest had any more power than she did. After all, she only died as a mere hob-goblin. A lone hob-goblin that died couldn''t be more powerful than Tsuna who had evolved into a wight.
''Lies! Everyone knows I am the strongest out of us two. You know that I am the strongest out of us. Stop lying to yourself and ept my power.'', she shot down any silly ideas Tsuna might have been getting.
''I terrorised the West long before you were born. The only one that could stop me was Goliath and none of these small friese close! Take my power, stop that thing, save everyone. You''ll never ever have to feel the loss you felt when he died.''
''He''s not dead!''
''Is that what you still think? I''m the one who isn''t dead. That hob-goblin is dead. Listen to me.''
''No! The master said-''
''You think she has any idea what she''s doing? Are you really so silly as to put your faith into that fledgling?''
''But¡''
''Stop being childish! Where is this master you speak of? Taking a nap and acquiring more power. I am here! Listen to me and save everyone here right now.''
Tsuna, feeling what little reserves of mana she had left, was put on the spot. She thought about everyone that was close to her who could end up dying should she fail to deal with this attack from above.
Yuuna, Oki, Taiku, Kara. She also couldn''t allow harm to fall on Kara''s sister as that would cause her pain indirectly. She remembered how she felt when Shitsuke died. She didn''t want to feel so useless ever again.
''Fine! Give me your power!''
In that instant, Tsuna could feel ominous power spread throughout her body from her dead heart. She felt warmth for the first time since she first died and the sound of her beating heart evoked a certain emotion in her. In that moment, she felt invincible.
The power that flooded her body made her feel almighty. As if she had all the magic in the world and could do whatever she wished to. Quietly, with a grin that was uncharacteristic of her, she forced in more mana into her spell.
She even dropped one of her arms and controlled the spell with unexpected ease. With simple motions of her hand, she created more water that seemed to be eating up the lightning and even going into the sky, eventually piercing the clouds and splitting them,pletely cutting off the source of the attack. The massive pir of water then ate into itself, forming a massive orb around the cyclops.
She spread her palms apart and the ck water froze, forming an odd star-shape that floated above the ground for everyone to see.
"Hahaha! This is¡ intoxicating.", she gloated, feeling empowered by this unprecedented boost. She then clutched her hand, forcing the ice to explode in different directions.
The only thing left of the cyclops was his torso which was charred ck. The scene was almost gruesome enough to keep the others away. The bone in his left arm was sticking, and the sight of flesh that had rotted off from frost bite was nauseous. His massive eye had been hollowed out, allowing everyone to see the insides of his socket and even though he was frozen for a bit, he smelled like he was being roasted alive.
Tsuna looked at him and simply smirked, pleased with how easily she dealt with him whenpared to the others, although she herself wasn''t looking particrly good. More pieces of her flesh had fallen off as well as her hair. Her skin was dried up to the point that it felt like watching a skeleton wearing a tight skin suit. She didn''t feel any different though and rather focused on the cyclops who was shockingly still alive.
She approached him, ready to deliver the finishing blow, but was stopped by the loudest thunder roar ever.
The moment the cyclops breathed hisst, thunder boomed loud enough for some close by to bleed from their ears. Post the intense cry, the clouds parted, allowing sun to rain down violently on the field out of nowhere.
The crucial battle had ended in the victory of the West. All the monsters of the East that were still alive, kept their heads down and backed away, avoiding any sort of attention from those who fought the cyclops. Tsuna was nning on having the dark elves build up the wall again and both Yuuna and Kara would form the barrier before long enough. There were no heavy casualties on the West''s side, meaning, operations could resume as usual in a few hours. By tomorrow, the West would be ready to fight the East and North once more.
Unfortunately, the world didn''t seem to like this n.
In the sky, a great number of monsters wereing in hot. From afar, they looked like a storm cloud, but the closer they got, the easier it was to tell what they were. Wyverns, griffins, manticores, harpies and 2 dragons. An army, farrger than what the West could hope to fight on such short notice.
That very army then multiplied out of thin air.
The North was attacking with everything it had now.
Chapter 298 Intermission - Intruder
Holy shit!
I''ve been walking and running non-stop for the past 4 weeks. I felt like I was going to die, I swear! The sun is absolutely terrifying and that''s not because I used to shut myself off from the world over the weekends back on Earth.
No! I was a vampire now. A vampire!
I mean, when I first evolved into a vampire, I thought, "Oh boy! I''m a vampire now? That''s so cool!"
Then I made the mistake of walking out during the day! It hurt like hell. I quickly ran back in, but I discovered the wonder of Item Effects!
Like in a ssic RPG where you equip an armour that buffs up your defence by +5. I''ve always wondered if that meant your head''s defence was also up +5 points. Logically it shouldn''t, right? But clearly item effects work just like they do in video games, in this world!
With help from my, uuh, aid (I''m really not supposed to talk about her), I weaved a yukata that could nullify the sun''s effects on me! I was immune to the sun as along as I wore that yukata. Absolutely glorious, right?
I wanted to share it with Akkun, but to hell with that bastard! He lead me on for years! He shamelessly bashed me for doing something he did! He confessed to me once, but that retard pretended nothing happened after that incident. He was the most confusing bastard ever!
When those weird people in suits came to the ssroom and basically killed all of us, I had assumed that was it! Good riddance to the trash life I lived! But nope! I woke up to an even more trash life! Still, I persevered and through luck¡ like a lot of luck, I made my lifefortable and it only took a few months of being on the verge of death.
Life was going smoothly, till I was informed that Akkun was reborn as well! First, I was happy! I wanted to run to him and just cry in his arms like some sort of damsel in distress. But then what does this bastard do? He''s already ying about with another girl! A goblin! He preferred a goblin to me!
He''s lucky, you know? It had been months since I interacted with anyone I knew. I was desperate enough to not let my jealousy get in the way of me interacting with another human. I mean, my monstrous appearance wasn''t really going to help me out in that area. Akkun was my best bet at staying sane!
He introduced me to his system. You know, generic isekai novels where the MCs are sent to another world with a video game system to help them cope with the new world better than others. Yeah, he had that and because of that, his progress was at least a thousand times faster than mine. He let me in on it and, well¡ Lots of things happened and I finally evolved into an undine¡ sort of.
Long story short, Akkun was the cause of my current state in more ways than one. He''d basically been an architect, modelling me in a specific direction be it intentional or idental. Hey, if I use that analogy, it makes it sound like he''s morphing me into his perfect woman. Maybe he doesn''t pay attention to me because I never was his ideal woman.
That shitty birdbrain, I''ll smother him with-
You might be wondering why I keep talking like this. You see, vampires have this thing called an Inconsistent Brain Rot.
What is that, you ask? Well sit down my padawans. Let me exin to you what this bullshit is!
Inconsistent Brain Rot is an odd phenomenon that affects vampires, ghouls and on rare asions, dhampyrs. You see, most undead don''t have brains. Either their brains rotted away, or simply don''t function, which is why illusion, hypnosis and other mental magics mostly don''t affect undeads. Their bodies function through their souls, acting as their brains.
The races that I mentioned on the other hand, aren''t quite like other undead. This is because vampires never really died. We are undead, but we never un-died, if that makes any sense. I don''t me you if that''s confusing, because our bodies themselves don''t even understand it. In fact, our bodies can''t figure out if we''re dead or alive, hence why we get hungry even though undead don''t need food and why we can''t give birth. Well, not like I was ever nning on getting a kid.
Now to the Inconsistent Brain Rot part. You see, our brain is in a state of rotting constantly, but it never fully rots away. When a chunk of it goes away, a new chunk is made, but never to the extent of giving us a full brain. Because of this, vampires are more¡ entric and spontaneous than every other race, some more so than the rest.
*Cough, cough* Julian *Cough, cough*
I asionally feel disassociated from reality, as if I aren''t the one walking, talking, eating or taking a dump. It''s like I''m out there with you guys, simply reading about the life of the Undine Vampire called Yokino. You guys are real, right? I''m not just insane, right? Right?
Huh? Wha- who am I talking to? Holy shit, I might actually be insane¡
I sometimes just get suicidal, super duper happy, overly aggressive and reckless! I don''t know, it''s some weird something like that.
You never can tell what a vampire is going to do. Hell, vampires don''t even know how their moods will affect their ns, so most vampires just n short-term.
Small note: To a vampire that could quite literally live till the end of time, short-term usually means at least a year or two.
Ah, yes! That''s right, I don''t know if it''s the same thing, but I think I can liken it to a bipr disorder with a touch of psychosis!
I think that''s one of the reasons vampires aren''t allowed out of the Realm of Eternal Night. Not for their safety, but because we generally can''t co-exist with other races. We''d all be put into a mental asylum instantly¡ that is if there is anyone in this world strong enough to resist an army of vampires.
Huh¡ an army of vampires. Someone who has that could quite literally rule this current world¡ does that mean the queen of vampires¡ nope! Not worth thinking about it.
But if I became the queen of vampires¡ crap. I feel like by thinking this I''ve instantly put a target on my back. Forget I ever said this, your majesty. I''ll go back to being a lowly queen of spiders!
So yeah, do ignore me when I suddenly want to fuck the brains out of Akkun, then suddenly want to kill him the next moment. It''s just intrusive thoughts creeping out at random times. Stupid intrusive thoughts.
Oh? How do I cope with this problem?<novelsnext></novelsnext>
Easily, my dears.
I simply make clones to deal with anything random. I simply force all those emotions into the clones in that instant, as a way to give them life. That way, I''ve made a bin for all my stress as well as a recement for me in case someone is trying to hunt me down! Clones are the ultimate life savers.
Not only did they give me post nut-rity, but they also served to attend social gatherings I had no interest in! If I had this ability back on Earth, life would have been so damned good.
Although, I was forced to learn the hard way that putting all my emotions into a single clone overloads the clone and forces the emotions back to me when that clone dies. It was an¡ exciting experience. I mean, I couldn''t deny that I was happy that I managed to do that, but¡ hmm, meh. It clearly made Akkun cautious around me. I didn''t like that, but I can''t forgive him either!
If what ''she'' told me is true, I absolutely cannot forgive him! I''ll get my reve-aahh! I don''t want to hurt him though. Agh, this is fucking annoying.
Hm?
How did I deal with the new feelings of depression? I spread them out through a bunch of clones so even when the clones die, it''s not everything rushing back to me, but tiny bits I can easily deal with.
So yep, I have an entire storehouse of unconscious clones down in my cave. I made at least, 1000 clones. It looks like some freakyb experiment, but trust me, it looks absolutely glorious.
Ah yes, my cave! My home away from home!
The perfect living conditions if you ignore the spiders and bees and centipedes and beetles and dirt and moss andck of general electrical gadgets and no bed and no chair and no inte and¡ ok, it was below the reasonable standard of living for modern humans back on earth, ok?
I mean, sure, when I first came into this world, I almost died several times and I was forced to walk out in the sun a lot of times, but I managed to enve some monsters. I brought those monsters back and defeated that wench I had for a mother (I guess I couldn''t escape that in a second life). I enved her as well. I evolved a lot. I enved all my new siblings and every monster that lived in that cave. Then I started gathering information from other races. I became a queen through hard fought battles!
My cave may not seem special to anyone else, but it was proof of my hardships in this world. All that suffering in order to remake life on earth. I could keep the cave cool, there was barely any light in there, I didn''t have to talk to others and for entertainment, I could scheme like some sort of evil mastermind as well as practice magic. I mean¡ magic! It was one hundred percent better than the inte! I understood perfectly why no one had even thought of making the inte in this world!
Oh¡ but I guess I sort of made my own inte. If we take the literal the definition of the inte being a web of information, that is. Heh! I am the greatest. My cave is the greatest.
My cave is paradise. My cave is¡ being intruded by some creep?
"Huh? Who the hell are you?", furiously, I question the man walking out of my cave.
From his dark grey skin, to his silver hair and ck horn, I easily surmise that he is a demon. However, what is a demon doing out here in Larm, especially in my cave?
He looks up at me, as if he only just sensed my presence. I mean, I am hiding it most of the time and escaping being identified by [Zeroth Wall].
His eyes widen the moment they set on me. He was terrified of my presence, most likely because I wasn''t able to control the aura I was radiating now. He raises his fists up to me and takes a stance, ready to engage in battle.
From that alone, I knew he was a closebat specialist. The type I hated the most. However, I was a magician with the ability to fool anyone''s senses. If anything, I am his worst nightmare at the moment.
I looked past him and into the cave. A great number of my servants had been cut down by this fiend. My precious home was turned into a graveyard. Fortunately, he hasn''t found any of my clones or my ''egg''.
The important things were safe. But I couldn''t help but feel angry about the¡ less important things.
_____________________
Larm had numerous ancient ruins and monuments left behind by races that were now extinct. These ruins had various origins with no real or credible sources detailing a concrete story. Some were simply normal buildings made of stone whereas some were storage houses for innumerable treasures people had tried to get their hands on.
Amongst these old infrastructures, was one named the Forbidden Dungeon. This Dungeon was supposedly made by a human who was an ally of the creator of the Larm Forest. Some say it was made by a god. Others say Larm himself made the dungeon at a whim. No one knew which of these was true, but everyone was still aware of the fact that they were not allowed to explore this ce, hence the name: The Forbidden Dungeon.
In the lowest level of the Forbidden Dungeon, a beastid on the ground, resting in front of a throne. This beast, ginormous in size was crunching down on something while surrounding itself in an aura. It appeared to be eating, but it was meditating. Focusing. Training. Developing its abilities in an intangible way that was unique to members of its race.
The beast had been down here for close to a month now without seeing or hearing from the outside even once.
The beast''s eyes snapped open when an intruder popped up from the darkness. This intruder, a human sized rat man in a cloak, approached the beast cautiously.
"Amethyst, it''s time."
Upon hearing her name, the drake slowly stood up, terminating the intense training it had been performing non-stop. Quietly, the drake walked out of the room, emitting a refined yet dreadful aura.
Internally however, ''Finally! Amassing power down here was getting tiring. It''s time to show the world how great I am as master''s greatest familiar!'', she was as giddy as a child about to show-off.
Chapter 299 The Heist...? Pt.I
You know, after spending an indeterminable amount of time in hell, I was starting to feel like it didn''t deserve its title.
I mean, apart from the S-tier customer service, I had ess to all rooms in the royal pce, an all you can eat buffet of souls just being welded into the walls right outside, the ability to travel to any part of hell if I so chose to and ess to actual electrical technology!
Who would have thought that hell of all ces would resemble modern earth so much?
Sure, this city in particr was practically empty, but there was a room with a tv that connected to channels from other rings andyers. It consisted mostly of torture, fighting, learning and other immoral acts. Surprisingly, the sloth ring was filled with incredibly intelligent devils, and was sort of futuristic. However, it seemed toprise of the weakest devils in the entirety of hell, whereas Hell, Wrath and Pride consisted of the strongest.
I''d been browsing the channels for an absurd amount of time, so I had basically seen a huge amount of hell content. Enough to not ever want to visit this ce for at least the rest of my second life.
Well, it was enough time for me to start asking the agent a lot of questions. The most prominent being what happened to its actual body.
It was somewhere in the castle, simply hidden at an impossible to spot location. It wanted to keep it as far away from the devil king as possible. If he ever found the body, the agent dreaded to think of the things he''d be doing to it.
I wanted to consume the body to acquire all its power, or at least, a great majority, but apparently, absolutely no soul could handle that much power. It was like the whole thing with chaos energy. Too much of it would simply corrupt my soul and I would die.
A specific definition for the term die, here was I would simply lose my sense of self. I''d be absolutely chaotic and simply go on a rampage. I''d be a literal mindless beast of chaos. A Chaotic Beast, so to say. I imagined the same would happen to those who got too much divine energy. Leave it to Alpha to tell me things in the vaguest of ways imaginable.
Anyway, figures my only chance at obtaining enough power to rival a Devil Prince so easily waspletely thrown out the window before I could even think about it. I wondered if there were other things I could do other than eating souls and watching tv, but the next best thing was fighting other devils of a simr rank, which I wasn''t too interested in doing.
I was bored enough to start practicing my own magic. It was hard to create simple mes at first, but with time, it grew easier to manipte the mana orbs. Well, not easier, but I was getting more ustomed to how to do it.
Devils that couldn''t carry a certain level of ruthlessness or authority couldn''t really manipte the orbs. They were reluctant to listen to anyone. It was as if they had wills of their own and chose who was worthy enough to use them. Unsurprisingly, no one in hell was worthy enough to use them. For this reason, Devils brute force their way into using them.
Meaning, only really strong devils could properly manipte mana orbs in hell. Because of restrictions like these, when devils pop up in Elecryea, they had immense control over magic, as the mana orbs over there aren''t nearly as resistant.
Its what led to the belief of devils being absolute masters of magic, even though some of them aren''t allowed to use a great majority of their strength. Some cults have been created in Elecryea worshipping certain devils.
Calling them cults sound a bit bad, but they were simply branches of the Great International Magic Guild and were in no way illegal. If I made a name for myself as a devil and got summoned by someone, would I eventually receive a cult of my own? The cult would probably be something edgy like the Raven Sorcerers or the Masters of Dark Fire. Maybe the Dark Church¡ naah, I wouldn''t ever allow myself to be the figurehead of a cult called The Dark Church. That''s just beyond cringe and embarrassing.
Just thinking about it sent chills down my spine. And not the nice kind when you''re getting goosebumps.
"W-We f-found th-them.", Malius came just in time to prevent me from thinking about this any further.
Pai followed right behind him, both of them carrying a ck horn each. They bowed before me and presented the horns to me. I was sick and tired of the whole fear thing, but there was nothing I could do about it anymore.
"Ooh, nice. Thanks.", I snatched the horns from both of them and quickly flew towards Shitsuke and Kuro who still hadn''t budged an inch from where I told them to stay some time back.
"You guys ready to go back to Larm?", I asked, not really expecting a response. However, I saw Shitsuke tearing up and him trying to contain himself from smiling. He was excited to see his friends once again. I was certain both he and Tsuna wouldn''t be able to contain themselves. If only those two would hurry up and get hitched. Maybe I could do something about that¡ no, it was best if they sort it out themselves.
I knew that they would be able to properly celebrate this while being in my presence, so I simply shattered the Devil Horn, activating it.
"As soon as you two get there, you''ll feel a massive loss in power. This is because devils aren''t allowed to maintain their full strength outside of hell.", I had the agent exin how things would work to me in my free time. It wasn''t nearly as easy as I was thinking, but it wasn''t a problem so long as I had the agent. "And since you have no contract that''s allowing you to maintain your form there, go find a body to stay in temporarily. That body will decay faster than normal, but it shouldst long enough for me toe and sign a contract with you two so you can stay indefinitely."
Having exined all of that to them, I had them jump through the portal, leaving me to the gates alone.
''I guess all that''s left is to get the akashic records.''
But first, I had to sort certain things out. I hurriedly returned to the castle to go through the closet.<novelsnext></novelsnext>
I wasn''t proud of it, but I had to admit that I¡ kind of liked trying on clothes. Don''t get me wrong. I wasn''t a cross-dresser or anything like that back on Earth, but considering I was a girl now, I''ve had about one or two thoughts about checking out dresses.
Even better, Vagetha was a fashion freak and the most extravagant out of all the Devil Princes. Her closets were filled to the brim with the utmost absurd and over-the-top attire you could even think about. Like some of those fashion models from America or something.
I never got the point in their totally useless fashion choices, like wearing a couch for clothes, but maybe I simply didn''t have the right artistic eye. I doubted most of the people who went there to watch understood it either, but there was definitely a reason people went for those things. A plebian like me had no right to speak on such things, I guess.
My next mission was to acquire the ultimate attire! Or so I thought before,
"Vagetha! Let our conversation begin!", the ultimate stalker had arrived for the agent. My shopping trip was destroyed before it even begun. I was forced to use the Royal Sheol instantly to get to the 9thyer.
Stupid Devil King.
_____________________
PAI POV
Both Pai and Malius let out a heavy sigh the moment Hinotori left through the Royal Sheol. King Ozvon immediately left the moment he sensed her disappear from the ring, meaning there was no point in keeping up any sort of pretences.
Fortunately, the castle was empty. Almost all the devils had left this city after Prince Vagetha stopped giving outmands. Most devils that belonged to the Greed ring weren''t too happy about that. Their new leader was the most obnoxious and the greediest devil ever, and it made their lives a living hell. There were some devils that admired this and sought to surpass her cruelty by learning as much as they could from her.
The moment she stopped giving outmands, no one bothered to check if she was alright. They were simply pleased she was dead. Most immediately left this floor to go explore other floors and the strongest devils held a tournament in the 1st ring to determine the next ruler of the Greed ring. That hadn''t been too long though.
Who would have thought that that very same devil prince had simply popped up in the Lust ring? That waspletely unprecedented and Pai couldn''t even dare toe up with a n involving taking advantage of her in case her ignorance was simply a fa?ade.
"T-That was overwhelmin-aah-ooh!", Pai grabbed Malius by the arm and sped down the hallway, cutting him off. Her destination was the treasury in which those two had spent a decent amount of time searching through for an item Hinotori requested.
"Time''s a wasting!", she entered the room and ran past all the valuable treasures thatid about the floor like some unnecessary trash. The greediest devil prince in hell really cared not for her positions in the slightest.
Pai only stopped once they came across a white podium. This podium had a ss case on it, and in this case, there was a creature sleeping. Pai wasted no time in pushing off the ss case, exposing the creature to the open world.
It hissed the moment it sensed its home was disturbed and almost snapped Pai''s hand, but Malius quickly pulled her back.
"Oh¡ thanks for the save Mali- I see.", she looked up to see Malius staring right at the golden snake''s eyes. It wasn''t an intimidating re in the slightest, but more like both were entranced by the other and didn''t want to let go.
"P-Pai?", Malius hesitantly called out to her. She tapped his shoulder in response, as if that answered any of his questions.
"You know what to do, right?", as soon as she said that, he gulped.
"T-That is what terrifies me.", slowly, he reached his hand out to the serpent''s face.
"Fear not! I am here with you!", Pai reassured him. Still unsure, beads of sweat snaked down his forehead as he inched closer to the snake.
"A-Are you sure about this?"
"Yes. This is it, just touch it."
"Ah!" as soon as his palm was withing 10 inches of the snake''s head, it shot out and bit his palm.
Chapter 300 The Heist...? Pt.II
?
I could confidently say that I despised portal travel of any sorts no matter where I went. It was so disorienting and nauseating every time I used a portal that I¡¯d rather stick to raw teleportation magic. Maybe it had something to do with the portals being wormholes, but I absolutely wouldn¡¯t ever use a portal again.
Well, I said that, but my escape route for this heist was a portal.
Wow, calling it a heist suddenly makes me feel like some super thief about to steal a super important item the government is creeping under wraps. Then again, I guess it really is a heist. We have the customer, Alpha, there¡¯s the dreamer/ brains of the operation, Agent and then there¡¯s me, the totally expendable retard who reveals at the end that he actually isn¡¯t expendable and is the most crucial piece to this entire mission!
The n here was to steal the [Akashic Records]. A book that holds all information on all souls that have ever existed or will exist. A so-called [Book of Life] if you may. Why the system master wanted such a tool when she could easily do a google search of anyone, I¡¯d always be wondering. The agent was pretty clear about how it needed the book to help cure it of its affliction, but somehow, I doubted the book would help it out in anyway.
This sounded nice and dandy, but the main issue was that I had to steal this from the King of Hell. You know, the head honcho with red skin, two horns and a barbed tail. The lord of eternal damnation himself, Satan. Erh, well, King of Hell, Lord Ozvaloth, but you get the idea. He was the highest authority in all the nine floors of hell, apanied by the lord of the devils, Ozvon.
Their titles basically signified what they were. Ozvon was the strongest devil in all the nine floors, hence, he had absolute control over all nine of them, whereas Ozvaloth was the strongest being in all the nine floors. He was something akin to a god, possibly greater, considering he managed the souls of all things living and dead. Note, ording to the agent, gods had souls, meaning, he was of a higher authority than gods. Thinking about it just made me terrified of the fact that this guy was so excited and ready to kill an exiled devil that intruded on hell, as if he was bored out of his mind and was willing to do anything to have fun.
Yeah, so this was a heist for me to steal from a being of higher authority than gods, with the time limit of one month, yet I had no idea how long I¡¯d already wasted. Scratch that time limit. The new time limit was till it took Ozvon to figure out where I was. The agent had shed a little bit of light on what their dynamic was and I could feel a little bit sorry for him, but that wasn¡¯t my problem.
Right now, all I had to focus on was stealing the [Akashic Records]. ording to the agent, security around that book is prettyx. It literally sat on a pedestal, unguarded by any who saw it and was basically free for anyone to read it. She even managed to touch it, but after that, she couldn¡¯t quite remember how she got caught, but once she did, she was banished.
The holes in that part of her memory made me extra cautious. I also had a feeling that the king of hell would set up extra security after the 2nd greatest authority after him tried to steal it from him. Honestly, I¡¯m surprised he didn¡¯t simply ban all travel from any of the princes, just in case they did anything so stupid.
So, to summarise, I had to stealthily infiltrate the devil king¡¯s abode, scout the area for any guards and if the opportunity arose, steal the book and immediately return to the system master, then get my happily ever after in my peaceful home in Larm!
I was pumped up now!
The royal sheol had led me to an empty room. It was a spacious round room, held up by five pirs. The walls were lit up with pale blue me torches, although they didn¡¯t really help out with vision.
¡°I had a feeling you¡¯de here.¡±, I froze dead when a man spoke. I wanted to believe that this was a conversation starter directed at someone else, but I knew for a fact that it was me.
Slowly, I turned around to see a man leaning against the wall with both arms crossed. His facecked any sort of fat and was littered with stubbles of silky back hair. His deathly pale skin was mostly covered up by the simple grey robe he wore. He red at me with his bloodshot milky white eyes. Looking at him, I got the sense I was staring at an overworked sry man on the verge of death.
¡°Wh-?¡±
<<That is the King of Hell Ozvaloth>>
The agent quickly corrected me before I made a blunder in front of the God of the Underworld.
¡°Lord Ozvaloth! Sir! How are you? You good? You need to sleep or something? Not that you look bad or anything.¡±, I wasn¡¯t sure how to act to not get blown into smithereens.
¡°Silence.¡±
The man walked up to me, the way he moved wasn¡¯t natural. It was as if his feet didn¡¯t touch the ground, but hover. His garments dragged aground the ground, making it impossible to tell if he actually had feet under there. Once he was right in front of me, I gulped. He was about twice my size, so he red down at me. I could tell that I was nothing more than an ant in his eyes, given his calm nonchnt demeanour, whenpared to everyone else.
¡®W-What¡¯s he doing?¡¯
<<Most likely scanning us to figure out why we bare Makrov¡¯s curse>>
¡°So I take it you consumed Makrov?¡±, he interrogated with a deadpan expression.
¡°Y-Yessir.¡±, I coughed out instinctively. He scratched his chin while looking at me. I had a feeling he believed my response. Well, more like he was absolutely certain I wouldn¡¯t lie to him.
¡°Hmph.¡±, he scoffed at my response then walked past me, towards the only exit I managed to scout out in the room.
Being this close to him made me feel like I could die at any moment. It was the type of sensation I got back when I was still a weak chick. I was hoping to never have to experience something like that again, but clearly, fate had something else in store for me.
¡°Hurry up, now. Unless you want me to summon Ozvon.¡±, he threatened quietly, without even looking back to see my reaction. I hurriedly went over to his side, but receded to behind him when he red at me. It must have been offensive for a lower level being like me to walk at his side.
We continued walking in silence for a while through an empty hallway that was lit up with blue mes. My steps echoed throughout the entire corridor, making me feel very awkward and like I was doing something wrong, yet the Hell King never onceined about it or showed any sign of difort.
He was an imposing man with a menacing face. I was honestly starting to believe the scowl he wore was his default mode. <novelsnext></novelsnext>
It was a few more minutes till we came across an open garden. This garden had iridescent blue flowers, lighting up the ce and giving it an otherworldly feel. Looking up, I saw the open sky. It had purplish hue, littered with stars of all colours that appeared to be moving by the second. It was slow and harmonic.
Back to the garden, a rectangr table had been set up with two seats. The table had two silver tes and goblets served, with the other appropriate outrements set right beside it.
By the time I finished admiring the setting, the King of Hell had already been seated. He was ring at me, so I hurriedly took the seat across from him. Once I did, the te started to generate some fruits. Grapes, apples and a peach. The goblets filled up with silver wine. It was an oddbination in my opinion, fruits and wine that is. I¡¯d never done it before.
The king of hell started by taking a sip of his wine. I believed that was a green light for me.
¡®Well, there¡¯s a first time for everything, I guess.¡¯
<<Do not consume any of his food.>>
The agent stopped me before I grabbed the goblet.
¡®Eh? Why not? I¡¯m starving!¡¯
<<Food unique to Limbo traps the consumers¡¯ souls in it for eternity. This is one of the numerous methods he made to ensure thieves never escape his domain>>
¡®Um¡ I think you should take the lead on the conversation from now on. Just don¡¯t sign our death warrant.¡¯
<<Very well>>
I relinquished control once more. The feeling of losing control over my own body wouldn¡¯t ever get old. Immediately, the agent went to work.
<<This ce is a bit emptier than I remember.>>
¡°What you remember is an alternate Limbo. In this Limbo, I don¡¯t have any servants.¡±, he responded, then took a bite out of the apple in front of him.
He just mentioned something intriguing. An alternate limbo? What exactly was he talking about? Were there two limbos? Or¡ I simply couldn¡¯t wrap my head around that.
<<Alternate Limbo?>>
¡°That isn¡¯t something you should bother yourself with.¡±, he coldly shut down our question and resumed eating.
I thought it would be a while till the agent spoke up again, but this thing was fearless! It released the next question instantly.
¡°So¡ where do you keep the [Akashic Records]?¡±
My heart sank so deep, it had crossed the core of the earth and emerged on the other side.
¡°Same ce you tried to steal it from thest time.¡±
His response felt like a dagger stabbing my heart. The agent had basically raised our suspicion level to the max. Ozvaloth must have been thinking ¡®You¡¯reying it on real thick, huh? Want me to torture you for all of eternity or something?¡¯
How could I salvage such a situation? Should I take control once more? But even if I did, what would I be able to do? Tell him that it was all a joke? Then there¡¯d be silence. Then I¡¯d have to eat the food because its rude to not eat his food. But then I¡¯d be trapped in Limbo forever. What the hell is this?
¡°Did you up the security?¡±
The agent¡¯s question practically made me lose my soul.
¡°Doing that¡¯s a drag.¡±
¡°I see. May I excuse myself? I wish to powder my nose.¡±
Without waiting for a response, the agent stood up, and walked away, I on the other hand was busy bashing my head into an imaginary wall and cursing my stupidity for allowing this dumb voice box to handle the situation.
Chapter 301 The Heist...? Pt.III
?
¡°What the hell was that?¡±
<<I got the required information. I believe that is what we wanted, yes?>>
We charged down the hallway at lightning-fast speed, our goal was the [Akashic Records].
¡°You believe all that crap he spouted?¡±
<<The King of Hell has no reason to lie.>>
¡°So you believe he¡¯s just going to tell you that the ultra-important book is just sitting there unguarded?¡±
<<Yes.>>
I face-palmed, almost losing all tolerance I had for this devil. As I heaved a heavy sigh, I decided to persuade the agent through other means.
¡°Even if the book is unguarded by people, what makes you believe that there isn¡¯t any magic guarding it?¡±
<<That is an undeniable possibility, so we shall scan first>>
¡°If we scan and we find that there¡¯s nothing we can do about the magic spell, what then?¡±
<<¡ With your absurd magical affinity and the system master Alpha¡¯s aid, we should be able to take it with the most minimal effects from the spell>>
¡°Oi, oi, that means I¡¯ll take some sort of damage or be affected by the magic spell.¡±, I pointed out, but the agent didn¡¯t respond to that. I could sense the area a bit, but the King hadn¡¯t moved from his spot. He was still enjoying his meal, which meant he either was actually oblivious to our ns, or he really was confident that absolutely no one could steal the book. Somehow, I doubted it was the former.
Still, the system master had to be watching us, right? That meant she was protecting us in her own way. I had to believe that Alpha really could pull something off.
As I thought about it more, I started to realise that this [Akashic Records] thing was beyond broken. If I got a hold of it, maybe I could see my own future. Then again, I wasn¡¯t even a higher being so such a thing wasn¡¯t necessarily impressive. My mind was more on Alpha. Could the [Akashic Records] get a read on Alpha¡¯s past, present and future? If it could, maybe I could use it to get an insight into who the system master truly was.
There was also the matter of how urate this book was. Usually in manga, the future isn¡¯t set in stone and things can be done to alter it. Some of those stories didn¡¯t make sense and usually ended with paradoxes, but I also found them more usible than a certain future. I mean, the whole concept of the ¡®Butterfly effect¡¯ sounded like a stretch, but when you thought more about it, the more sense it made.
I mean, if I were to look into that book and I saw a future where I died a horrible death, I would do everything in my power to change such a future. Well, this wasn¡¯t really any evidence to my beliefs, but I felt like it needed to be said. No matter what, I simply don¡¯t believe in a certain future, because I would change any future so long as it didn¡¯t suit me. This must sound like some weird control freak monologue, but if anyone heard of something unfortunate happening in their future, of course they would do anything to change that.
Maybe that was the same for Alpha and the agent. Both were extremely determined to acquire this book after all. One to cure an ailment, and the other for some unknown reason. The only thing is, I didn¡¯t see how looking into her past or the future could cure an ailment. If she looked into the future, maybe she would see a future in which she got cured and find the solution earlier, and that would change the future in some way. Or maybe she was going to look into the past to find out what sickness she had. I mean, she had a clear memory problem.
With regards to Alpha, maybe she was looking into the future to see if she ever found love. With her shitty personality, I wouldn¡¯t be shocked if she was secretly aware that her chances of marriage were beyond abysmal and was seeing if the prospect was impossible¡ ah, of course I was just joking¡ before some spying brat takes away my stats.
<<This is it>>
Without me realising, we had arrived in the room containing the [Akashic Records]. The room was massive. A tower spiralling up to the heavens, with floors upon floors filled to the brim with rows and rows of books. Lamps lit with blue mes were fixed on the wall, going up with the staircase that led up. The ground was tiled, and had been ced in a way that created the symbol of two flowers, both facing opposite ends. One was a beautiful ck rose in full bloom, whereas the other was wilted and prickly.
The walls had murals etched onto them, going around the room. It depicted a duo ¨C man and woman, doing something. I couldn¡¯t determine for sure, but it went from a man with the woman, to a man alone, to the man with a child at his side. I was assuming the man and woman were something like lovers here.
Enough of that though. What mattered most was the thing at the bottom and very centre of the room ¨C a white podium. On this podium that was quite literally my size, a book rested on it, closed. I, the agent, flew over to the podium and got a better look at the book.
Its cover was made of something resembling dull red leather. Golden symbols of all sorts had been inscribed on the book from front to back, and although cumbersome at a first nce, they managed to find a way to fit onto to the cover elegantly to give the book a certain suave.
The book itself wasn¡¯t thick, surprisingly. A book that contained all information on all life that had existed and will existed, in my mind would have been infinite.
<<This is it>> the agent reached for the book, but paused. For the first time, I sensed an emotion from her. It wasn¡¯t happiness, or relief or a sense of victory like I would have expected. She was anxious. Her reason for doing all that she¡¯d ever done was right there, in front of her, but her, my, hands couldn¡¯t move any further than where they stopped.
¡°Is there something wrong?¡±
<<This¡ there¡¯s¡ I-I can¡¯t.>>
Oh? Her nervousness was actually showing in her speech now. Of course, it only sounded like aputer glitch to me, but since I felt her emotion, I could tell. Still, none of this made sense to me.
The agent didn¡¯t seem like the type to ever get anxious about such things. In fact, the agent definitely wasn¡¯t the type to get anxious. There had to be something else-
¡°I¡¯m surprised you stopped yourself.¡±, a voice whispered into my ear. My neck whipped around at breakneck speed, swinging my ws like a beast at one behind us. He easily caught our arm by the wrist and red at us like insignificant ants.
¡°Honestly, your greed will be the end of you, Vagetha.¡± He dropped our arm, with keeping his impertinent tone. ¡°You were lucky to not be erased the first time. Are you sure you wish to do this again? Maybe your new master will be able to bear the burden of the drawback instead of you is what you were thinking, hm?¡±
Eh? What did he just say? Bear the burden of the drawback? Me? Was I being betrayed at the moment?
¡°Meh.¡±, he shrugged, uninterested. ¡°I wish to talk to your master, please switch ces.¡±
Eh? What did he just say? Switch ces? With me? He knew I was here?
<<W-What are you talking abo->>
The agent attempted feigning ignorance, but was cut off by an impatient Ozvaloth.
¡°Have you no control over your own subordinate?¡±, he snapped at us.
<<M-My Lord?>>
¡°Ugh.¡± He groaned and waved his wrist at us. ¡°That¡¯s the problem with you devils. You change loyalties far too easily when faced with someone stronger.¡±
<<¡>> <novelsnext></novelsnext>
¡°Now assume control of your body so we may speak, Hinotori Hyakkiyako.¡±
I was busted! He mentioned my name! He probably knew who I was from the get-go, huh? I mean, it made sense. I could tell if someone had two souls in their body by virtue of the fact that I was part devil and could steal souls as well as the use of [Skills] to infer. Him being the master of the entirety of hell, being able to tell the number of souls in a singr body must have been as easy as breathing to him or he had to have at least had a skill for such situations.
¡°L-Lord Ozval-¡±
¡°Do you have any particr goals?¡±, this man really had to be getting it on from cutting people mid-sentence.
Still, I couldn¡¯t quite get angry at him. If I did, I was practically sealing my own death sentence. I was certain that if he sensed the slightest bit of hostility, he wouldn¡¯t waste a single second cutting me down.
¡°Huh?¡±, I muttered, confused by the randomness of the question.
¡°For your life, I mean. Is there something you can determine to be what you¡¯d spend the rest of your life doing?¡±
No, not that. I understood the question, I simply didn¡¯t understand why he, the king of hell, would ask me that. Was this one of those death threats from movies, where the bad guy goes all like ¡®Since you¡¯re about to die, anyst words or regrets?¡¯? If so, I guess I had lots of stuff.
¡°Hm? Are you ambitionless?¡±, for the master of hell, he who watches over the souls of every being in existence, he definitelycked the patience for most things. Then again, having trillions of souls to monitor must have been the most tasking job imaginable for a person, even if they were a god.
Guess I had to say something before he popped my head off. What kind of ambition would satisfy the great king of hell? Wait¡ in the first ce, why do I think that giving him a good response automatically saves my life. I just tried to steal from him!
¡°You¡¯re about to take up the mantle of kinghood. Do you not have any aspirations or desires for your people?¡±
Oh? The king of hell was surprisingly virtuous. But if this is what he was talking about, then I wasn¡¯t sure how to respond. I mean, in the first ce, I never really nned on bing the king of Larm. Things just happened and I was forced into that position. Lots of people look up to me now for some unfathomable reasons. I mean¡ me, a shut-in that was ready to leave my friend to die, is now being heralded as some hero worthy of leading an entire nation in under two months.
The more I thought about it, the more stupid the monsters in Larm seemed. But given how short their life spans were, two months had to be extremely close to a year for them. Give or take, 8 months in their eyes.
Back to the point, I honestly had nothing in particr for the future of Larm. I mean, for now, since Larm was my home, I was willing to make it some sort of imprable fortress to ensure our safety, but I hadn¡¯t thought about it past the war between humans and demons. Once that settled down, I imagined we would simply return to life before. Everyone would live their own lives in Larm the way it was before and time would pass on as such.
In short, no. I had absolutely no future ns for Larm as a whole.
¡°I just want to make everyone happy.¡±, I told a lie, hoping he would take it.
His cold eyes met mine and we stood there, looking at each other for quite some time. The whole atmosphere felt tense and it was like his eyes were tearing me apart from the inside.
¡°The moment you stop lying to yourself, you will achieve great things, Hinotori.¡±, he saw through me easily, then raised up his arm, his palm wide open.
I heard a thud from behind, followed by the fluttering of pages flipping open at a rapid pace. I turned around to see the [Akashic Records], being ran through by an invisible force.
¡°Do not look at it.¡±, he warned, but it was toote. My eyes had already caught hold of a single page.
I saw a girl. Blonde hair, vermillion red eyes and phoenix wings on the back, crying over a corpse. Around the little girl, a war was going on, spears, broken swords, corpses, scorched earth and blood surrounded her. She was in a swarm of death and she had survived. The girl had an absurd attachment to corpse before her. It didn¡¯t make sense, but I knew that she adored the man in front of her, but now he was no more. She was dirtied, but had no injuries on her as far as I could tell. She cried and cried till her body ignited into mes. She¡ she was trying to kill herself with her own mes, but she couldn¡¯t. Nothing in this world could hurt the little girl. She thought it was her blessing, but now it only looked like a curse to her.
Up in the sky, a pair were watching her. Both of them wereughing. It was a duo of gods who had betted on which side of the battle would gain victory. They pitted both sides against each other and that had costed the girl dearly. As she burnt herself, the girl red at the gods. They both took notice of her, but ignored her immediately. Little did they know, they were breeding their worst nightmare. For the first time, her mes caused a burn mark around her neck. Like a dog cor or choker, her neck was now steaming red, visibly different from her pearly skin.
The little girl-
¡°I told you not to look.¡±, the king of hell grabbed me and turned me around. My eyes met his once more and for the first time, I noticed that he wasn¡¯t ring at me. His eyes showed¡ concern. Something I wasn¡¯t expecting to see.
He let go of me once he saw that I was fine, then pushed me aside. A page tore out of the book and fluttered onto his open palm. The book then closed with a thud.
¡°I believe this is what you were searching for?¡±, my eyes darted over to the page in his hands.
¡°U-Um, whaaaattt? Nooo. I would never try t-¡±
¡°I am aware that the Demiurge Alpha sent you to acquire the [Akashic Records].¡±, I was starting to feel a wee bit light-headed now. Then again, I guess it would make some sense, right?
Alpha was trying to get her hands on this book. That must have meant, her future was also in here. That meant, the King of Hell sort of ranked higher than her, right? Ok, thatst part didn¡¯t make sense, but I was going with it. If he could see the future, then he definitely knew all of this was going to happen.
My only problem is that when I first came¡ he didn¡¯t know who I was. He thought I was Makrov. Did that mean the vision of the [Akashic Records] had a loophole? Like some sort of blind spot one could use to stay out of its range. If I took in the various factors, it had something to do with a curse on the soul. Since Makrov¡¯s ¡®Blessing¡¯ cloaked my soul, he wasn¡¯t of the fact that I was in hell. In that case, maybe the [Akashic Records] required to be able to actually sense the soul. If this was right, I had possibly just found a way to blindside the all-seeing king of hell.
¡°My [Akashic Records] is able to see multiple futures of every soul in existence. Because of this function, certain events just fly over my head at times. Warn the demiurge that prolonged use of even a single page by an entity other than me will result in a shattered, irreparable soul.¡±
I was totally wrong! He was simply looking at an alternate future in which Makrov actually did return to hell.
¡°Heed my words, Hinotori Hyakkiyako.¡±, his voice suddenly had an oppressive power in it. ¡°In theing days, a sacred event will begin. You will be given the option to join in and under no circumstances must you agree to this event.¡±
¡®Sacred event? Again?¡¯
¡°Should you decline this message, teleport to the location of the [Sacred Event] as a bystander. Collect what you have been searching for and flee immediately. Under no circumstances are you to interact with any other sacred bearer, or you will lose everything.¡±
With his warning delivered, the page in his palm begun to disintegrate, as did my body.
¡°Huh? Huh? Eh? What¡¯s happening to me?¡±, confused, I questioned. I felt no pain whatsoever though.
¡°Never return here, Akira Kuromiya.¡±
¡°Hu-!?¡±
I lost sight of him after that.
Chapter 302 Alphas Plan
?
¡°Wee back! Yay!¡±, There was a pop sound, followed by falling confetti around me. I blinked several times, only to see the system master standing before me with a party popper in hand and a party cap on her head.
¡°Congrattions on not dying! Oh, how much you¡¯ve grown from that weak little chick! I feel like a proud parent who¡¯s watching their kid go to college now.¡±
She got all in my face, her nostrils ring and her eyes shimmering like stars. It was obvious what she wanted, but I had bad news for her.
¡°I don¡¯t have it.¡±, I didn¡¯t even get to touch that sheet before it disintegrated in front of me. My journey had literally been pointless.
¡°What are you talking about?¡±, before I knew it, the system master held a thin sheet of red paper in her hand. I looked at it and blinked several times, wondering how and when she got the paper.
¡®How?¡¯
¡°Ozvaloth sent both you and the paper over.¡±, she waved the paper in front of me while shing a cocky grin at my face.
¡°Of course¡ why did I even think he destroyed it?¡±, I was dumb for thinking that. I mean, he did teleport me in the same manner, so I should have at least assumed he did same for the sheet.
¡°Maybe because you¡¯re a little dense?¡±, she retorted, striking at my sensitive heart. I could see her lips turning upwards and her cheeks puffing up as she restrained augh unbefitting of ady. I had to change the topic before I lost my dignity in front of her.
¡°What do you even want that thing for? It¡¯s not necessarily urate, is it?¡±, I asked something I had been wondering about earlier. The king of hell had proven that the book led him astray once before.
¡°That¡¯s none of your business.¡±
I¡¯d like to think that it was. I was the one doing the heavy lifting after all, but I guess it was one of those ¡®You aren¡¯t high level enough¡¯ type deals. I was just a grunt doing her dirty work for her. Well, considering the way she begs me to do stuff for her, I was more like a hired gun.
Need someone to randomly disappear? They never existed. You want to find a missing ancient artefact? I¡¯ve got years of archaeological experience at the ready. Want someone to take care of your kids while you¡¯re busy at work? Parents call me the better parent. You want me to steal a super important item from the king of hell who apparently ranks higher than every single being in this world? That¡¯s right, handy-man Hinotori is at your service!
¡°Well, at least I was right that he would hand it over to you.¡±
Eh? What did she say? Did she just imply that everything turned out exactly as she had nned out? That didn¡¯t make sense and I wasn¡¯t going to just ignore it.
¡°Oi! If you knew he¡¯d just give it to me, why didn¡¯t you just send me right there?¡±
¡°Hmm, that¡¯s beside the point.¡±, she aloofly brushed aside my rage.
¡°It isn¡¯t. You wasted my time!¡±, I had nothing to do, so it wasn¡¯t really a waste of time, but I felt like I had the right to be angry here. She made me travel through 3 floors for something I could have gotten had she just teleported me to the right floor.
¡°It¡¯s not a waste of time, though. Rather, it¡¯s beneficial to you.¡±, she started making up some mumbo-jumbo about how she did it for me. The nerve on her!
¡°Your evolution¡¯s done. I¡¯ll see you next time. Peace!¡±
Sensing my growing wrath, she kicked me out of her dimension.
All that was left was for me to wake up back in Larm.
______________________
The moment Hinotori was kicked out of Alpha¡¯s domain, another guest appeared. It was Beta, a fellow demiurge, with bags under her eyes and her hair in shambles. She looked at the spot where Hinotori once stood as she came to halt next to Alpha.
¡°You know, I never thought much about it, but hasn¡¯t your subject grown way too fast? It¡¯d take at least 2 decades for the others to reach her level and those are the really good ones.¡±
She pointed out the abnormality of the being Alpha kept attending to.
¡°Yep. I made a mistake with this one. I know I got the best student from that ss, but I didn¡¯t expect that he¡¯d be so strong I¡¯d have to make multiple revisions to my system in under a year. At the rate at which he¡¯s growing, I think there¡¯s no use in a system for him.¡±
¡°Eh? Won¡¯t that mean you seeded before all of us?¡± <novelsnext></novelsnext>
¡°No. The goal was to make the ultimate system. I think Hinotori is a being that can¡¯t be controlled by a system. I added in so many functions like the stores, familia and dungeons. I even added a Quest system so she grew faster than everyone, but she never focused on any of those and she¡¯s already surpassed a great majority of the subjects. It¡¯s likely she would have reached this point in about 2 or 3 years if she didn¡¯t have the system.¡±
¡°Yeah. Must be that unique skill of hers. [Evolver] is it?¡±
¡°Yeah. That¡¯s it.¡±
Whenever Alpha thought about that unique skill in particr, she could feel her stomach churn. No one else had seemed to notice anything weird, but having been the one watching over Hinotori, she couldn¡¯t help but feel intense concern about that skill in particr. Clearly, the skill was a growth-type that boosted Hinotori¡¯s strength over time, but Alpha felt there was something more to it.
In the first ce, Hinotori had other skills that performed that same function. In fact, to a higher degree as each of those skills were specialising in those categories. Alpha had performed a simtion of some of Hinotori¡¯s skill fusions, but nothing ever produced something rtively close to [Evolver]. What made it worse was, even if Hinotori hadn¡¯t noticed it, [Evolver] was still functioning in some way.
¡°I¡¯m surprised someone actually got assigned such a skill.¡±
Alpha didn¡¯t respond to that. This was because the unique skill [Evolver] was never assigned to Hinotori. Alpha wasn¡¯t particrly sure how Hinotori got the skill, but she did have a rough idea.
¡°Hmm, I guess she¡¯s still weaker than mine and Delta¡¯s though.¡±, Beta boasted with a shrug.
Alpha agreed whole-heartedly, very much aware of the kind of monsters those two had produced. Of course, it wasn¡¯t fair since theirs had been born years before Hinotori. Even then, Alpha was only concerned about one other subject.
¡°Yeah, though Gamma¡¯s looks like he¡¯ll catch up to her soon. Honestly, I feel like the Great One just gave us the hardest project this time around.¡±, heaving a heavy sigh, Beta held her forehead and shrugged.
¡°Yeah, we got the hardest project, yet you got the easiest candidate. I kinda wish I was only second best now.¡±, Alpha took a shot at Beta.
¡°What the hell¡¯s that supposed to mean?¡±
¡°Oh, nothing.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t just brush it off!¡±
¡°How¡¯s the systeming along?¡±
¡°Meh. I took into ount her skills and level and took out most of your ¡®modifications¡¯. It¡¯s all too cumbersome and clearly, she isn¡¯t going to focus on everything, so in order to maximise efficiency, we limit the amount of functions she has ess to.¡±
¡°Wow, you¡¯re really good at this.¡±
¡°Well, we¡¯re supposed to interact with the subjects, see their reactions and find the best way to amodate them with our system, while not giving them too much. I guess a friendless, air-head like you would obviously fail in this aspect. You probably didn¡¯t even read the assignment, huh?¡±
Beta berated Alpha who simply shrugged, barely listening to a single word she said.
¡°I underestimated you.¡±
¡°Ke. You might be the best in theory, but your people reading skills limit your abilities. In that regard, I¡¯m way better than you.¡±
¡°Sure, sure. At least, we¡¯ve confirmed that I made the most efficient system out of everyone.¡±
¡°Did you hear a single thing I said? The system isn¡¯t supposed to make them grow this fast! At most, their growth rate is to be twice as fast as everyone else, but if they all grew too fast, the world would copse. The Great One definitely isn¡¯t letting that fly. You¡¯re lucky you begged me to help you before submitting this.¡±
Were every one of the subjects to receive a system that made them too strong too fast, the world would be littered with too many strong beings and its continued existence would be doubtful. The continent of Krione once had several powerful beings in it, but most of them hadws preventing them from acting willy-nilly, all for fear that they would destroy the continent, and eventually, the world.
¡°Me? Beg you? That¡¯s the funniest thing toe out of your mouth. Keep it up and you might make it as a stand-upedian one day, Beta.¡±
All of that was of no concern to Alpha though. With Beta¡¯s aid, Alpha had created her ¡®Final System¡¯ for presentation. Originally, she would have kept on altering the system till it felt right, but she would settle for this lesser product. She had other objectives in mind that most likely wouldn¡¯t sit well with her fellow demiurges. Now, she had the means to begin her ns.
Chapter 303 War For Larm Pt.XI
?
While an unexpected battle was ongoing close to the impromptu prison camp, a certain person had chosen to sneak in through the surprising attack toplete a different goal. This person was a demon, sent to aid the East in their efforts against the West, South and North.
He had grey skin which was characteristic of most demons, dusty brown hair that wasbed neatly and wore a light tunic, and pants. He walked bare footed, with both arms behind his back. Two dark horns jutted out of his head and both eyes of his were closed as he walked, his ears doing all the ¡®seeing¡¯ for him.
He stopped before a cave, a low and peaceful snore erupting from within. He had found what the East had been searching for so desperately throughout this entire war. The ¡®Wild Card¡¯ that would end the entire battlefield in the East¡¯s favour.
A thin smile spread across the demon¡¯s face as he took on a fighting stance ¨C hips lowered, left arm pulled in and right arm hovering right in front of him. He took in a deep breath as he charged up Ki ¨C most simply called it aura.
¡°Ha!¡±, like a bullet, she shot his left arm towards the cave, releasing a golden ball of light, aimed for what rested inside the cave. Shockingly, the attack didn¡¯t make it past the cave¡¯s entrance. The demon¡¯s ears perked up as he performed a wide area search with his ability [Presence Detection].
Nothing came up on his radar. It was unfortunate, truly, for if he weren¡¯t blind, he would have noticed the oddity of the amount of mist in the area. Especially the thick mist thatpletely negated his ki attack.
The mist was moving, quickly, sweeping the ground beneath the blind demon, spiralling around him. The demon couldn¡¯t see or sense anything but, his skill [Sixth Sense] warned him that something bad was about to happen. As he stood there, waiting for the slightest sense of life or an iing attack, the mist that was oddly moving around him grew fangs and closed shut at breakneck speed, making a loud ¡®SNAP¡¯ sound, revealing a massive white wolf head.
¡°That was far too close forfort.¡±, The blind demon said, a cold sweat running down his forehead. He barely managed to move out at thest second, and even then, the distance between him and the wolf head was barely a metre long.
The eyes of the wolf head red at the demon. ¡°You are quick on your feet, I see.¡±
Right before he got killed, the blind demon sensed the wolf¡¯s intent to kill him and managed to move out of the way, although from the looks of things, his gauging wasn¡¯t nearly as efficient as he would prefer it to be. At least, the blind demon martial artist could finally sense his opponent.
¡°And you are quite the patient predator.¡±, He responded to the voice that entered his head. ¡°Wha-¡±
Before he could ask his question, another wolf head came rushing for his neck from the right. Sensing the killing intent, he managed to side step the attack. Just then, another wolf head came from behind, forcing the martial artist to somersault over the head. From below, a fourth wolf head had its maw at the ready.
Reflexively, he shot a ki st at the head, destroying it so he couldnd. By now, all sense of rxedness he had, vanished from his face and was now reced by a stern expression. Suddenly, all he could feel was killing intent all around him. Like he was swimming in a pool of killing intent, that was light enough for him to move through. Clearly, this opponent of his wasn¡¯t someone he could light-heartedly brush aside. And their brutish attempts at devouring him whole only suggested to him that they were definitely a monster.
¡°Who am I fighting, if I may ask?¡±, He was already in position for a surprise attack. But just in case, he encased himself with protective ki, using [Tempered Body].
After a few seconds of silence, the wolf responded to his question.
¡°Shiroi, Captain of the Hyakkiyako Familia!¡±, the wolf dered their identity, however that didn¡¯t help him identify what exactly she was. If anything, it had given him a different question.
¡°Hyakkiyako Familia?¡±, He tilted his head quizzically. However, that was all he was getting from Shiroi. The white wolf proceeded with her violent and ruthless attacks, the demon being forced to simply dodge or negate.
¡°Tch!¡±, having had enough of the wolf¡¯s stubbornness, the demon performed a sweeping kick infused with mana, clearing the existing mist within a 5-metre radius of him. This was simply to test out a theory though, and he was right. Given how he couldn¡¯t sense the killing intent as severely as he did originally, he surmised that the opponent was spreading their very being through the air. It was as if they became the very air itself, however he knew better.
There were skills that allowed some monsters to transform their bodies into various states. This had to be one of those skills, and if a ki-powered sweep kick managed to push back the body, the skill had to be along the lines of [Fog Body] or [Mist Body]. An extremely versatile skill that made the user¡¯s nigh untouchable and virtually unavoidable. However, such a skill had a fatal w.
¡°[Battle God Technique: Path Paver]!¡±, Dering the technique aloud, the blind demon punched a fist full of kill in the direction of the killing intent right before him, clearing aside a great majority of the mist.
¡°[Battle God Technique: Mountain Carver]!¡±, Powerfully, he roared and swung his arm in an arc, sending a bow of golden ki behind him, cutting apart trees and severing the mist.
¡°[Battle God Technique: Giant Frenzy]!¡±, He performed a barrage of uncontrolled punches in random directions, shooting powerful shockwaves all around, and spinning fast enough to create a massive fan that pushed away all the mist.
If his opponent was wise, they¡¯d form their body back before their bodypletely dispersed into the wind. In the moment that they did that, he would attack them and draw out as much information from them as possible.
As he was thinking this, he felt killing intent from behind. He almost disregarded it, but his [Sixth Sense] was ringing far too hard. Before he noticed it, a living being had entered his sense range and was closing in on him. Confused, that was when he realised that whoever he was fighting hadn¡¯t used a skill that transformed their body, but had conjured up such an element. For Martial Artist such as himself, such a tricky opponent was deadly.
With a big gulp and using the momentum from his [Giant Frenzy] attack, the blind demon spun around, narrowly avoiding death from behind. He felt a sharp object graze his skin and draw ck blood.
¡°Reiman did warn that those they would send to wake up the Ursa Minor would be tricky, but I didn¡¯t expect much from the East. You clearly are not of the East.¡±, the powerful presence muttered as it slowly turned around to face him. ¡°Exin to me what a creature that doesn¡¯t belong in any part of Larm is doing in the West, close to a taboo area. Who dares to disturb the Ursa Minor!¡±
¡®Minor? If that thing down there is the baby, then where¡¯ the mother?¡¯
¡°State your name before I kill you where you stand.¡±, The wolf ordered for an introduction.
The demon, although wary, decided to respond. ¡°My name is Beryl. I hold no special position like yourself.¡±
That was a lie. Under normal circumstances, the demon wouldn¡¯t hesitate to give his real name and boldly dere what position he held and under whom he served. This time however, the demon was feeling like he might not find this battle so easy toplete. He had already heard from his associate about a certain mastermind demon having been manipting events in Larm in secret. <novelsnext></novelsnext>
Considering the East and North had allied up to battle against the South and West, the demon couldn¡¯t help but feel like that was where this demon had aligned themselves. And there was that ¡®Hyakkiyako Familia¡¯ name from earlier. He wasn¡¯t certain, but his [Sixth Sense] was telling him that the name was relevant. He couldn¡¯t be certain under any means, but he felt like the monster before him held some connection to the mastermind who was also a candidate for the demon lord position.
If he were to announce his true name and master, and through some unforeseen events, lost, that would only be to the detriment of his master.
For this reason, this demon was Beryl for now.
¡°Beryl, hmm? You stand before the king of timber wolves! Shiroi of the West! I will assume you have made your peace already.¡±
As soon as the monster dered, mist wolves jumped at the blind demon, their maws open, hungry for his flesh.
***
¡°[Sr re]!¡±, Yuuna roared, casting a ball of golden fire into the sky. This ball, exploded, spreading tendrils of golden tentacle mes that burnt through anything they touched. Several harpies were shot down using this one attack, however, even more so of those harpies simply disappeared once the mes touched them. What made the whole scenario more unfortunate was the fact that this wide area attack hadn¡¯t done much to cut down the numbers of the opposing forces.
Griffons, wyverns and manticores, all were swooping down, plucking up members of West and dropping them to their deaths.
¡°[Water Sphere]!¡±, Tsuna managed to catch some of the falling allies through multiple water spheres, but a good number of them fell to their deaths and Tsuna was finding it difficult to continuously cast the spheres of water. The power she received was great, but not Almighty.
The cyclopes were also doing their best, their spear-bearers shooting down enemies, but the spears simply flew threw some of the enemies, like a magic spell. It made some doubt if they were real, but those very monsters¡¯ attacksnded and caused damage.
The worst part of all of this were the dragons. The two massive green scaled dragons that heartlessly fired their own breath attacks, causing the most amount of damage there. Due to the sheer size of the attacks, most of West found it next to impossible to avoid taking some form of damage.
The mages of West tried their hardest, but most of their attacks couldn¡¯t pierce the incredibly hard scales of the terrors of the sky that rained down violent heat at them.
Unfortunately, their opponent weren¡¯t only the masters of the sky. The captured mountain trolls and goblins had gotten vigour to resume their fight once more and were giving an insane onught from the ground below. Worse, their number appeared to have multiplied somehow as well.
The goblins and cyclopes weren¡¯t fairing too well, even with the likes of the goblin captains and the chiefs of the cyclops army giving it their all to minimise casualties as well as cause severe damage to the opposing side.
But then, as if waiting for this exact moment, a loud howl echoed throughout the battlefield. No one stopped to see where it came from due to fear of being struck down, by the opponent, but even the North couldn¡¯t ignore it when more and more howling sounds echoed, as if bouncing off each other.
Following this massive disy, was a blinding twinkling light from the sky. Like stars falling to the earth, arrows poured down violently, piercing the skulls of the opposing side that were unfortunate enough to be in its trajectory.
¡°Hide you-!¡±, a random war goblin shouted, but was immediately squashed by a nearby troll. He looked up and felt no fear as he saw both dragons pping their wings so hard, the arrows werepletely thrown off-guard, some going as far as hitting members of the West themselves.
Yuuna tried her best to incinerate the arrows, but underestimated just how strong those arrows were and only unleashed fire arrows at her own allies. It was up to Tsuna to protect them and her range, although wide, couldn¡¯t possibly protect everyone. What once seemed like a great aid, was now causing great damage on their side.
Like a storm of hell fire, smoke rose to the sky, streaking behind the arrows. However, as if the arrows never existed, they simply disappeared from the battlefield, leaving absolutely everyone baffled. There was no proper exnation as to what just happened, but the West chose to use this moment of disarray to their advantage.
A loud howl echoed across the battlefield as members of the Fenrir Alliance charged onto the battlefield, behind them, the entire goblin, orc and kobold armies. All announcing their presence with their war cries and weapons waving through the sky, the army joined up with their allies and shed with their enemies.
With an army of wyverns, harpies, gryphons, mountain trolls, mountain goblins and manticores fighting against an army of goblins, kobolds, cyclopes, wolves and treants, the West had descended into utter madness, the battlefield now resembling a scene out of a fictional story.
And to add to the madness, a pir of white light fired off from within the forest, piercing through the wing of one of the dragons, causing it to lose control and plummet to the ground.
A might roar like thunder erupted. The ground shook as trees fell and a quick shadow blitzed through the forest. The owner of this shadow emerged onto the battlefield, stomping on the bodies of mountain trolls and goblins that tried to get out of the way.
The monster jumped to the sky, going to a height that no one would expect for a creature of its size to be able to and plucking down wyverns and gryphons like they were nothing more than treats to it. Bouncing off wyvern to wyvern and attacking cruelly and viciously with their ws, the monster shredded through the North.
Some harpies tried to use wind magic on the monster, but the monster¡¯s lc-coloured scalespletely nullified any attack. Their sharp, jagged fangs bit through those attacking harpies and their tail got and strangled any that tried to flee out of its range.
A wyvern flew in, tackling the monster off of another wyvern to send it plummeting, but a crystal surface formed underneath monster, allowing it to maintain its position in the sky. To the wyvern that tackled the monster, a crystal shard was sent barrelling through its skull.
With another roar, crystal spikes started to materialise around the monster. Ten, twenty, fifty, hundred, two-hundred, five hundred, one thousand, a seemingly infinite amount of spikes formed around the monster, only for those spikes to break into at least 10 different pieces, multiplying their number ten-fold and shooting out in seemingly random directions.
Still, not a single piece hit any member of the West. Raw power, precision, speed and ruthlessness were disyed effortlessly by this monstrosity.
This monster was the first ever familiar of the master of the West. A drake with scales harder than diamond, yet lustrous enough to possess the same value. ws that could shred through steel like it was paper and a tail that was as fast and deadly as lightning. Four jet-ck horns grew out of the drake¡¯s head in sharp contrast to the tinum mane growing, giving it an all too majestic look. Amethyst, the Twilight Crystal Drake had finally made her awe-inspiring debut in the war.
Chapter 304 War For Larm Pt.XII
?
Amethyst had dominated the battlefield with her presence ever so effortlessly. Because of this grand debut, the little drake couldn¡¯t help but feel overly proud of her achievements. She wanted to jump down and start squashing the opponents so everyone would praise her, but she also felt like getting her scales bloodied wouldn¡¯t be praiseworthy and fighting from above would earn her even more praise.
Maybe a downpour of shards? No, she couldn¡¯t control it well enough to avoid hitting allies. In that case, some blinding lights? No, that would also blind her allies.
Oh, that was right. Amethyst alwas had that skill.
No, that didn¡¯t make for a good enough shy debut worthy of praise! She needed to be super extravagant to earn the focus of every single body on the field. That was right, Amethyst was the super star of the battlefield and needed everyone¡¯s eyes glittering at her beauty and elegance.
This mindset of hers was super reinforced by a certain person while she was training her hardest in the dungeon. As she pondered on what her next move should be a shadow loomed over her. With a snort that could fell trees, the shadow snarled at the little drake. Confused, Amethyst turned around to see the other dragon right behind her. The dragon snapped at her, trying to consume her in one bite, but the drake was faster.
She jumped onto a second tform, then fired a barrage of crystal shards at the dragon¡¯s face, causing it to winch in slight annoyance, before roaring powerfully, shattering the shards. Furiously, it pped its wings hard to get higher into the sky, where Amethyst¡¯s shards didn¡¯t reach.
It took in arge breath, sucking up a massive amount of air ¨C a sign that a breath attack was iing. Amethyst took notice of this and immediately started to prepare a counter. She would have preferred to simply set up a wall of crystal to protect herself, but the casualties she would let build up felt unbing of Hinotori¡¯s strongest familiar, so instead, she took in a big breath herself.
Five crystals appeared before her, all separated by a 4-metre distance, each bigger than thest. These crystals were [Magnifying Shards] that boosted the power of any magic that passed through them. Amethyst had practiced numerous times in the Dungeon master¡¯s room ¨C since it had regenerative properties ¨C and had quickly built up her power.
The [Magnifying Shards] boosted magic power by at least half and the more shards were present, the more boost there would be in magic power. In fact, they increased the magic power by an exponential degree. This was a technique Amethyst was extremely pleased to discover as it meant she could make up for her shortings in raw power with this for now.
As bright orange light fire erupted from the mouth of the dragon, a bright purplish light shot out of Amethyst¡¯s, right through the [Magnifying Shards], turning bigger as they passed through the other, and eventuallying out so big it was on the same level as the breath attack from the dragon and both powers shed, illuminating the entire battlefield.
It paused the battle for only a singr moment, but in order not to lose their lives, everyone continued to fight desperately. Amethyst, surprised the dragon with a barrage of shard attacks from the bottom, throwing it off. As the dragon stopped to deal with the new problem, Amethyst¡¯s st hit it, boring a hole through its skull.
However, rather than burning away, the dragon simply faded out, almost as if it was never there. Almost like it were some sort of¡
¡°Illusion! That dragon was an illusion!?¡±, Amethyst eximed, bbergasted at the sheer thought. Following that discovery, two gryphons swooped in, grabbing by the tail and a leg.
¡®Eh? Eh? Eeehh!?¡¯, She shouted internally, surprised by just how quick those two were. They¡¯d done it so swiftly and stealthily that she hadn¡¯t been able to defend against it and now she dangled pretty dangerously from these two¡¯s grasp.
¡®Oi, oi, swooping in to kidnap me is a bit underhanded!¡¯
¡®Huh? This is a war! Nothing¡¯s underhanded you stupid drake!¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t waste your time on her Nyxon. Let¡¯s just drop her!¡¯
Amethyst felt a vein burst at being called an idiot. The great familiar of Hinotori was stupid? She wasn¡¯t going to tolerate any form of insults to her as it also insinuated disrespect for her master.
She didn¡¯t want to have to do this, but as much as these two gryphons infuriated her, they were right. This was a war. Nothing was underhanded or obscene in a war. A better phrasing would be, everything in a war is unsightly, underhanded and obscene. It was up to those participating in the war to change the look. In that case, she definitely could use that skill.
¡°Explode.¡±, Following hermand to the letter, the gryphons simply exploded, blood and organs flying everywhere.
¡®Can¡¯t believe I had to use that skill.¡¯, Feeling a little bit embarrassed, Amethyst stood on a tform of floating crystal and reached a certain point right above the centre of the battlefield. She created a [Magnifying Shard], then cleared her throat. ¡®Well, if I¡¯m going to have to use it, might as well make it gra-eh?¡¯
Amethyst was cut-off by an unexpected sound.
¡°Woohoo! Let¡¯s get them, Arisu, He!¡±, the sound of cheeky girl¡¯s high-pitched voice sounded through the battlefield. An odd sight appeared before them. What was very obviously a human girl wielding a scythe, was riding on the back of a massive rabbit monster. This monster had jet-ck fur, with ivory horns growing out of its head and a wrecking ball for a tail. Beside them was another rabbit, with pinkish silver fur and fangs instead of horns.
The existence of a human in Larm was enough to leave some members the opposing side in shock, but they all recovered and tried to kill her. That was one of their biggest mistakes. Aside the fact that they were underestimating the girl, they should have looked at who it was she had appeared with.
Two kings that had been battling each other for quite a while and caused quite some noise in Larm, were her allies in this fight.
Let alone touching the human girl, a majority of them couldn¡¯t even touch the rabbits. With He¡¯s massive horns piercing through opponents and Arisu¡¯s breath attacks, the North found it impossible to even get close to the girl.
¡°This isn¡¯t fun¡ I¡¯ll go get something done myself. That way big sis will praise me!¡± Almost no one heard what she said as she jumped off the rabbit and charged at a group of trolls. The trolls felt a bit underwhelmed, but wouldn¡¯t mind crushing a human or two.
Unfortunately for them, once they interacted her, it became obvious that this was as much her yground as it was the rabbits. The scythe-wielding demon in the form of a little girl cut through enemies like paper. Beheading, dismembering, dividing, no matter how tough their defence was, her de cut through like a hot knife through butter.
¡®Hey! They¡¯re stealing all of my spotlight.¡¯, Amethyst, watching from above thought while looking at it. She then cleared her throat, before shouting through the magnifying shards.
¡°Enemies of the West, kneel!¡±
A heavy pressure descended on the battlefield as all trolls, mountain goblins, wyverns, harpies, gryphons and manticores fell to the ground. For the third time, the entire battlefield went silent as a majority of the North¡¯s forces simply disappeared, confirming Amethyst¡¯s im even further.
Still, there was one very real individual who didn¡¯t kneel down even after Amethyst¡¯smand. The biggest gryphon that had yet to make a single move. This gryphon overlooked the battlefield from a position so high that Amethyst had to look up to even get a look at his face. And it was one of apathy.
The gryphon clearly had no interest in the battlefield and was rather looking out for something. It was like nothing happening down there concerned him, not even Amethyst¡¯s [Overlord] skill. This wasn¡¯t sitting well with her. If [Overlord] didn¡¯t work, what kind of skill would work on him? Maybe she had to try again, this time with more force.
¡°You! Gryphon! Fall down, now!¡±, shemanded, but this only managed to garner the gryphon¡¯s attention. ¡°You! W-Why isn¡¯t overlord working on you?¡±
¡°Hm?¡±, He cocked his head, clearly unsure what she was speaking off.
¡°I used [Overlord] to force all enemies to kneel! Why the hell are you unaffected? Answer me!¡±
¡°Is that supposed to be a joke?¡±, Rather than an answer, he mocked her.
¡°Ha?¡±
¡°I see¡ you are being serious about not understanding.¡± He lost any sort of jovial tone he once had and frowned, like he had just been offended in the worst possible way. ¡°Why would I see ants that struggle against illusions as enemies?¡±
¡°W-What?¡±
¡°You wish for me to treat you as an enemy? Let me show you.¡±, Upon his deration, the gryphon seemingly disappeared into thin air. The next thing Amethyst knew, she was in a crater in the ground, her dense scales broken and a hole punctured through her stomach.
Amethyst didn¡¯t even catch a single moment of what just happened to her as she blinked, looking around trying to make sense of what the hell just happened.
¡®W-Why isn¡¯t [Overlord] worki-¡¯
¡°That skill is nothing in my presence. The only one with the authority tomand others, is me! Don¡¯t you ever assume you can control [Pride]!¡±
He dered, then flew off.
***
¡°That little abomination shouldn¡¯t be allowed to roam free.¡±, Angrily, a boy snarled as he overlooked the battlefield. His eyes were trained on abination of three children. Specifically, the tallest amongst them ¨C a girl with a mix of silver and ck hair and red eyes. This girl was going on a rampage with a scythe, mowing down the opposing troops like they were toys, but her very existence made the boy¡¯s skin crawl.
¡°I wish to annihte that insult to my queen. May I?¡±, he threw the request to the kitten that rested on the rock next to him.
¡°That is mother¡¯s dear little sister. If you touch her, I will kill you.¡±, The kitten threatened with apletely casual tone. This wasn¡¯t the first time Julian had suggested this and it wouldn¡¯t be thest time. Maou had resolved to turn him down every single time.
Heaving a heavy sigh, the boy decided to change the conversation topic.
¡°Hm, I didn¡¯t expect you to interfere, master.¡±, The vampire butler muttered with a cheeky grin on his face. The kitten couldn¡¯t take the vampire¡¯s cheekiness. He jumped off the rock and headed deeper into the forest.
What he was referring to was the
¡°What about the Tyrant of the North?¡±
¡°What about him?¡±
¡°Are you not going to have me or your new subordinate handle him?¡±
¡°If they can¡¯t defeat minor threats like these on their own, how do you expect them to be worthy of being in mother¡¯s service?¡±
¡°I guess so. However, maybe your new subordinate should stand guard, in case they need assisting?¡±
¡°Hm, if you notice anything unusual happening, take care of it.¡±
The devil silently nodded with both arms folded behind his back. He waited for the pair to go out of sight before turning around to watch the battlefield. His mind was in turmoil, holding back the urge to say some unnecessary things just in case both were reading his mind.
At this point, he wasn¡¯t certain what to think of his new master. First, it was fear, then maybe he wasn¡¯t such a bad person and now, he was confused. The indecisive ambiguous cat who simply went with the flow most of the time wasn¡¯t the kind of master the devil felt like it could get used to.
***
Hinotori¡¯s Mansion
¡°I didn¡¯t expect to find you here, Reiman.¡±, Kara, who just entered Hinotori¡¯s room said with wide eyes. The rat man sitting behind a desk with baggy eyes said. From the way his hair stood messily, it was obvious that he wasn¡¯t in the best of states.
¡°Well, I wanted to move Lady Hinotori to the basement, but none of us have been able to move her from the bed.¡± He said, looking at the massive egg that was being cushioned by multiple pillows. He thought back to the day she was evolving. As if she knew that no one would be able to move her, she quickly moved into her room to her bed and immediately passed out. In fact, she seemed out of it, like she was on auto-pilot. ¡°I¡¯m here to guard her in case anything happens.¡±
¡°Is that so? Y-You¡¯re so dependable, Reiman.¡±
¡°I have to be dependable, since I¡¯m the one our master trusted everything to after all.¡±, he chuckled at the end, but it sounded dry and exhausted.
¡°Are you feeling alright?¡±
¡°Hm? Oh yes. I¡¯m perfectly fine, just a tad bit confused, but fine nheless.¡±
¡°You¡¯re ever so reliant.¡±
Sensing her frustration, Reiman decided to investigate the matter. ¡°Is there something bothering you?¡±
¡°Is it that easy to see?¡±
¡°I wouldn¡¯t say you have a good poker face.¡±, he mused, but that didn¡¯t do well to lift her spirits. Rather, he perfectly understood her anguish.
¡°It must be hard.¡±
¡°Excuse me?¡±
¡°Not being as strong as your sister, or as powerful with magic as the others. You don¡¯t have the ability to gather information like I do, and you can¡¯t deal with other people properly. If anything, I¡¯d say you¡¯re useless at almost anything you do, isn¡¯t that right?¡±
Having heard some especially harsh things, Kara started to bite her own lip, while looking out the window, beyond the balcony and in the direction where sounds of screaming and explosions could be heard.
¡°With that said, there¡¯s still something you can do that no one else can.¡±
¡°What?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know. You¡¯ll eventually figure it out one day and you will undoubtedly be a very important asset tody Hinotori. No matter what, never let yourself feel like you¡¯re useless. You were innovative enough toe up with the n for acquiring the prison camp, although the enemy had a means to counter that.¡±
He only made her feel even worse with that. Her n had beenpletely demolished by the enemy in a heartbeat. It made her feel like, ¡®What¡¯s the point of any of it?¡¯. She¡¯d tried her hardest, but she was never good at anything and even when she tried her hardest. She was absurdly weak for an ogre ¨C a war ogre no less, her magic power wasn¡¯t great enough to actually rival even the best mages in her father¡¯s camp and someone with less experience like Tsuna easily overtook her both in magic power and learning ability. She really was on the verge of giving up.
¡°I guess what I¡¯m trying to say is, it may not be apparent now, but there¡¯s something only you can do that will make Lady Hinotori happy, so don¡¯t think so much about how you aren¡¯t as strong as the others and instead focus on things you think you can do.¡±
As crude and crass as it was, Reiman still found a way to instil hope in her. She looked out at the battlefield and rubbed her stomach.
¡°Something only I can do, huh? Yes, I guess this might count.¡±
Reiman smile contently as he looked at her but frowned upon looking at the egg.
How would Lady Hinotori react to Kara when she woke up?
When this thought came to mind, the egg seemed to twitch. He could have sworn he saw the egg shake, but it was now perfectly still and unmoving. Maybe it was his tiredness affecting his cognitive ability.
¡®After this, I¡¯ll need to sleep for a long while.¡¯
He then looked at Kara again. She was staring seriously in the direction of the battle, her hands shaking. Reiman would be lying if he said he wasn¡¯t nervous as well. His skill had proven useless at the end. Everything had beenpletely sent into disarray and now he felt stupid for relying so much on the skill simply because it was a Unique one.
¡®Please let this be resolved smoothly.¡¯
Chapter 305 War For Larm Pt.XIII
<h4>Chapter 305 War For Larm Pt.XIII</h4>
The tyrant of the North looked around the entire battlefield, scouting out the ce and trying to get a read on where the Master of the West could possibly be. Originally, he had intended on hiding in the cover of his illusions then getting to the location of the master undisturbed, but the West was better than he anticipated.
For all of his illusions to be destroyed, and by someone that didn¡¯t hold the reigns of the entire region, that was something beyond the scope of his imagination. Fortunately, that creature¡¯s skill didn¡¯t work on him, allowing him to create the image of overwhelming presence and ending it in one blow.
¡
Of course it ended in one blow! [Pride] was the strongest amongst the sins! He possessed overwhelming power and presence. His very existence was one of absolute domination. Bow? He would never! A fight that took more than one blow? Then he was ying about! Luck? That was simply a given!
This overgrown lizard was simply another beast he ended easily. After that disy, he could feel power flowing into him. The thoughts and fears of everyone empowered him.
¡®I-Is he that strong?¡¯
¡®He took down that monstrous drake like it was a bug.¡¯
¡®Does that mean he could¡¯ve ended this from the very beginning if he wanted?¡¯
Looking around, he started to feel the impact he had on everyone. They all looked up at him, as if waiting for his next action ormand. He felt like a simple gesture of his could actually determine the entire flow of this war, whether it worked in the North¡¯s benefit or vice versa. However, none of that mattered to him. They were all insects in the first ce, hence whoever won was of no importance to him.
Now, he had to return his focus to searching for Vermillion¡¯s spawn. That wretched bloodline would be perfect for him. Exchanging his current host for that one wasn¡¯t even a question.
¡°Oh boy, we have quite the mess here, huh?¡±, Pride¡¯s thoughts were interrupted by a hob-goblin that still dared to move even after he just defeated their strongest asset.
A war troll standing next to the hob-goblin brought down its club to smash the hob-goblin, but its attack was parried. In fact, the war troll¡¯s head was caved in instantly as it fell lifelessly to the ground. Everyone looked at the hob-goblin with wide-eyes. At a first nce, there was nothing special about it.
Dark green skin, dark hair on its head, about half the height of the average human and an ugly face.
¡°Honestly, I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d have to deal with this the moment I returned home.¡±, The goblin muttered as he stretched out his hand. A bright orange me ignited before him and he grasped his hard, then swung, putting out the mes and revealing a crimson sword.
¡°You there, devil!¡±, The hob-goblin pointed his weapon at Pride. ¡°Come down and face me like a man, or have me disgrace you in your own domain.¡±
As if there were no other options, the hob-goblin nonchntly warned him. Was this creature insane?
The Pride, obeying rules imposed by others? As if.
¡°Hmph.¡±, Pride snorted at the little ugly creature. Such a threat was pointless and held zero value to him whatsoever. He wanted to return his focus to finding the master of the West as soon as possible.
Just then, he felt a great power. He looked in its direction and hidden in a mess of trees was a mansion. He surmised that that was the master¡¯s hiding spot.
¡°You¡¯ve chosen your own domain then, very well.¡±, finally feeling annoyed enough, Pride returned his focus to the hob-goblin.
¡°Do you wish to die by my hands so badly?¡±
¡°I apologise, but I have done enough dying tost a lifetime.¡±, as the goblin walked forward, it grew taller and its skin changed from green to deep red. Two short ck horns grew out of its forehead and its eyes changed from golden to dark purple.
The goblin ¨C devil, shed its goblin appearance and revealed its true form.
¡°You see, Hell wasn¡¯t so kind during my stay.¡±, he held up his de with a calm smile.
¡°Vermin. Being a devil doesn¡¯t change anything. You are still weaker than I am.¡±, That was right. Being a devil didn¡¯t mean he was suddenly stronger. He was still an ant.
¡°On the contrare-¡±, suddenly, Pride heard the devil¡¯s voice at his side. From the corner of his eye, he saw the devil looking at him with a smile. ¡°I believe my period in hell makes a world of difference in this fight.¡±
He brought his de down mercilessly, cutting off one of Pride¡¯s legs.
¡°Kiiiieeeeeeeekk!¡±
¡®What? What happened? When did he? How did h- Gah!¡¯, interrupting his thought process, the devil struck from behind, this time, cutting off Pride¡¯s tail. The gryphon struck back in a rage, hitting the devil in the chest, but the devil disappeared almost instantly.
¡°Kekeke, where is all the power you showed earlier?¡±, the devil¡¯s voice echoed in Pride¡¯s heard, as if he was in some chamber.
¡°You¡ how can you keep up with me? I demand a response immediately.¡±, Pride roared to the emptiness that surrounded him.
¡°Am I supposed to be struggling to keep up with you? Isn¡¯t it that you are so weak this isn¡¯t much of an issue?¡±
¡°Huh?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve fought countless devils in the pride ring. The easiest way to defeat one is to cut-off their source of power, their reputation.¡±
Devils of the Pride ring all had one or two skills in the Pride section of the Sin skill tree. And those skills all had a particr basis for operating. Belief.
¡°I had to take you from that space. Since we¡¯re no longer in Larm, there is no one to give you power. Rather than catching up to you, it¡¯s more like I¡¯ve brought you down to your actual level.¡±
¡°No longer in Larm?¡±, For the first time, Pride noticed his surroundings. It was pitch ck and he was the only one there.
¡°Wee to my [War Room].¡±
[War Room] was a skill that created a space separate from an already existing dimension. This was originally intended to give the user a space to have secret conversations with no eavesdropping or spying of any type. The perfect ce for a private discussion where the only chance of betrayal came from one of the people in there.
For this type of scenario, the [War Room] was a perfect foil to Pride.
¡°The devils of pride simply impose, create the imagery of them being stronger than they are. Since [Pride] is all about creating a fa?ade of strength. You are all nothing but weak scum.¡±
¡°Excuse me?¡±
All around Pride, balls of hell fire appeared, barely illuminating the space.
¡°I mean, Pride is the weakest of all of the Primordial sins, hence you weaklings of the Pride ring.¡±
The balls of fire exploded upon making contact with Pride, muffling out the sounds of his cry.
¡°HUH!? You¡ You dare!?¡±
The devil had made one crucial mistake here. Pride wasn¡¯t like other devils. Pride was an existence beyond devils and such rules and limitations didn¡¯t apply to him. He had been weakened, definitely, but assuming the rules applied the same to him was stupid.
In the first ce, Pride didn¡¯t require a host to remain in this in. He simply wanted to hide and rejuvenate himself. That was the only purpose of a host to him.
He didn¡¯t want to do this originally, in case gods other than Themmir took notice of him, but now that he had been ced in a dimension separated from their view, he didn¡¯t mind.
Pride had only one weakness. He was only as strong as his pride.
***
¡®T-That was¡¡¯
¡°Shitsuke?¡±, Taiku¡¯s questionpleted Tsuna¡¯s thought. A moment ago, both Taiku and the tyrant of the North were here, but now both were nowhere to be found.
¡°There¡¯s¡ no¡ way.¡±, Oki grunted in between breaths as he pulled out a spear from his stomach.
¡°L-Lady Hinotori did it. She brought him back like she promised.¡±, tears started to fill Tsuna¡¯s eyes as she said this, feeling really relieved.
¡®If that¡¯s the case, where is Lady Hinotori herself?¡¯, this question entered both Taiku and Oki¡¯s minds as they sceptically looked at the ground where the hob-goblin once stood.
¡°Now¡¯s not the time to getzy.¡±, Yuuna flew down to knock Tsuna on the head for letting her guard down. The wight winced in pain and red at her master.
¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right.¡±, Oki grinned as he stood up, the heal in his stomach already starting to close up with fire.
¡°Let¡¯s hurry up and finish them off, while he¡¯s dealing with their strong one.¡±, Taiku now had a new fire zing in his eyes.
¡°That¡¯s not what I¡¯m talk about. Look!¡±, she pointed towards the North. Beyond them even, where a mountain of darkness was moving forward.
The mountain copsed, allowing ck smoke swept across the battlefield from the behind the North. Screams could be heard from the smoke, but they eventually died out. Quickly, the smoke engulfed the North, forcing them to run for their lives in the direction of the West, who were also starting to run away, unsure what the hell that was.
¡°What do you think that is?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know. [Magic Perception] isn¡¯t telling me anything.¡±
¡°This ck smoke shan¡¯t continue any further!¡±, Taiku shouted at the top of his lung, trying to enforce his will, but that didn¡¯t slow it down in the slightest. If anything, the smoke seemed to have gotten annoyed and increased its pursuit.
¡°What about burning it?¡±, Oki asked, setting his mallet on fire and preparing to jump at it.
¡°Yeah, genius. Burn smoke with fire!¡±, Yuuna smacked his head like a tired teacher and just looked at Tsuna.
¡°You think you have enough power to freeze that thing in ice?¡±
¡°I doubt. I¡¯ve used up most of my power protecting us from attacks.¡±
¡°Tch. So even that old bag¡¯s power isn¡¯t almighty.¡±
¡®Who is she calling an old bag?¡¯, Tsuna chose to ignore the voice in her head.
¡°A [Cerberus Storm]? Really? Two devils out of the blue?¡±, a man muttered as the goblin captains considered their options. Confused, they all looked at him, but none dared move as they hadn¡¯t even sensed his presence till he spoke. ¡°Honestly, if I knew I would be doing this much work for nothing, I really would have run back to hell with my tail tucked between my legs, immediately.¡±
The man, with an ugly face, heaved a depressed sigh and walked to a stop a few feet from the captains.
¡°Oh well, let¡¯s hurry this up.¡±, With a simple wave of his arm, this one man cleared out the smoke, forcing it into a singr form. The appearance ofrge wolf with three heads and ck fur. On the centre head, this wolf had a scar over its eye.
The three headed demon wolf snarled and shook its heads before ring at the man.
¡°Tch. I didn¡¯t expect to see a devil here.¡±
¡°Neither did I expect to see a lower-level member of the Ars Goetia.¡±
The wolf¡¯s eyes widened at being called a ¡®lower-level member¡¯.
¡°Lower-level, eh? Are you saying you¡¯re in the top brass of the Ars Goetia?¡±
Members beneath the 20th rank weren¡¯t giving proper details of other members and hence had no idea what they looked like or what their abilities were. There was no particr reason for this. In fact, the top 20 weren¡¯t an official group, but each and every single one of them acted in a much different manner than others.
¡°Oh please. I wouldn¡¯t associate myself with that second-rate organisation even if I was begged to.¡±
¡°Second-rate, huh? Fair enough. Any devil satisfied with being in the Ars Goetia isn¡¯t strong enough.¡±
¡°Ha, great minds do think alike.¡±
Both started to have a cordial conversation while stalking each other.
¡°What sin do you cover?¡±, the wolf asked.
¡°Pride. You?¡±
¡°Greed.¡±
¡°Oh? I¡¯m guessing youbine [Cerberus Storm] with one of the skills to either steal the stats or skills of all the monsters you just consumed.¡±
¡°Do you use illusion magic as well?¡±
As they chatted amicably amongst themselves, the goblin captains couldn¡¯t help but stare in disbelief. Both of them acted like they weren¡¯t there at all and in a way, it felt offensive.
¡°What should we do?¡±, Yuuna looked at Taiku for a solution.
¡°Run¡ I think we should run.¡±, He responded, his throat sounding dry.
¡°They¡¯re pretending like we don¡¯t exist. I think we should fi-¡±, Yuuna smacked his head before he could finish that sentence.
¡°I dare you to say fight. You¡¯ll be a roasted oni by the end of the word.¡±
Oki gulped, then looked at the others for support, but none of them wanted anything to do with this. In all honesty, they were tired and would really appreciate backing off for now.
¡°Honestly, it might have been good to know you under different circumstances. My master gave orders to interfere the moment I saw something unusual. I have deemed you and yourpanion as oddities.¡±
¡°Is that so? Well, in that case I¡¯m sorry for what I¡¯m about to do to you.¡±
¡°Oho, you mean what I am about to do to you.¡±
Their conversation ended abruptly and both started to go at it. Their power scaring the captains off the battlefield.
***
¡°Tch. This¡ this is beyond my expectations!¡±, Karon roared in outrage.
He had been betrayed by the Tyrant of the North who acted before his actual time.
¡°That doesn¡¯t matter. Let¡¯s go there.¡±, Krull pointed in the direction of mansion, throwing aside Karon¡¯s concerns.
¡°Why there?¡±
¡°Your sister¡ that wretch is over there. I can smell her.¡± With that, he flew off in the direction at insane speed. Karon followed closely behind, a different sort of thought going through his mind.
¡®Father ns on killing K without hearing her out. I need to do something about that.¡¯
Karon wanted to listen to K¡¯s point of view. If it turned out she was a traitor, he wouldn¡¯t hesitate to kill her on the spot. If she wasn¡¯t, he¡¯d just punish her for causing so much trouble and hopefully she lived through it.
Chapter 306 War For Larm Pt.XIV
<h4>Chapter 306 War For Larm Pt.XIV</h4>
The war ogres on wyvern back swooped down on the mansion in the West, flying around and performing a good survey of the entire house. There weren¡¯t guards protecting the mansion, but they could both smell creatures in the buildings ¨C weaklings, running around and cowering in fear at the sight of the wyverns.
Kobolds that ran, weak goblins that refused to fight, pregnant mothers and children, all hiding in the mansion as if those outside couldn¡¯t sense them. There were a few soldiers, but they didn¡¯t count for anything. In other words, none of these creatures mattered.
Only one did. The war ogress that was hiding on the first floor. She was setting up some sort of electric field around her and it was growing. If they allowed it to continue, the barrier would be big enough to cover the entire mansion.
So, of course, they didn¡¯t allow it. Both jumped off their wyverns onto a balcony with a closed ss door. Pass the ss door, they could make out the blurry figures of creatures hiding in the room there. One was noticeably bigger than the others.
Without hesitation, Karon punched through the door and marched forward, half-surprised to not have been hit by any sort of magical defence. Then again, if they had the resources to spare for such a thing, the war wouldn¡¯t have been nearly as messy for them.
Past the door, leading into a massive room clearly meant for the master of the mansion, there were two creatures standing alertly. One was human-sized rat man and the other war ogress on the small side. A group of kobolds were cowering in fear behind these two and behind all of them was an egg that none would ever be big enough to hide.
A crystal-like oval-shaped rock was the only way any of them would have been able to describe. Rather than calling it crystal-like, calling it an actual gem seemed efficient. It was reflective enough to even allow Krull to get his own image, and even then, there was something eye-catching about it. Maybe the size was a ¡®woah¡¯ factor, but the rock gave off a certain alluring aura one couldn¡¯t quite exin.
¡°K, get over here now.¡±, Karon dragged Krull out of his daze with an order thrown at K. Krull shook his head a moment and blinked for a bit before returning to reality.
¡°W-What are you doing here, brother?¡±, she stammered at first, but got bolder at the end. It wasn¡¯t something Krull was expecting to see, but that all the more made him feel he was right in his decision to kill her as soon as possible.
¡°I havee to take you back home. Nowe over to me.¡±, he stretched out his hand to her.
The look in K¡¯s eyes alone were more than enough to tell anyone that saw her what she thought of this request, but Karon wasn¡¯t able to see it. He was waiting for her to jump into his arms, crying about how much she hated being so far from home. It never came though.
¡°No.¡±, Instead, he received a shocking reply.
¡°Eh?¡±, dumbfounded, the word escaped his mouth.
¡°I-I¡ I refuse!¡±, with a stronger conviction than before, she rejected his proposal loudly enough for it to echo off the walls in the room. At her side, the rat man grinned triumphantly.
¡°Now that you¡¯ve heard her response, leave!¡±, Boldly, he pointed towards the opening behind them. Karon¡¯s brow started to twitch as his arm plopped down lifelessly.
Krull silently monitored this entire scene unfold before his very eyes, waiting. Karon requested he be allowed a chance to convince her peacefully, but that had clearly failed. Brushing aside Karon, Karon took some steps forward.
The rat man jumped at him, but he sent him flying with a single smack like the bug he was. Unbothered, he kept marching till he stood directly before K, towering above her like a monstrous giant. A choking amount of steam erupted as his nostrils red. She shut her eyes and braced herself.
¡°Your mother begged for me to keep you alive the day you were born.¡±, K¡¯s eyes widened, surprised to be hearing anything about her mother instead of losing her head. ¡°In exchange for hers a few yearster, you were allowed to live. How stupid I was to take that deal instead of killing you on the spot.¡±
Stunned, K warily looked up to Krull¡¯s face. His red beady eyes looked at her, void of any affection possible.
¡°You see, I knew your mother would do this kind of thing, so I set in ce measures to ensure you could never be strong. You aren¡¯t even worth my time. Pftt.¡±, He lost hisposure and broke down into an uncontrobleughter. Wheezing for air and trying is utmost to keep himself from falling. ¡°How does it feel K!? Your daughter will never inherit your abilities now!¡±
K on the other hand was very confused, trying to put one and two together, but nothing made sense. It took a while, but Krull¡¯sughter finally ceased, then he raised his cleaver above K. Swiftly, he brought it down.
However, the cleaver did not make contact with her head.
¡°What is that jewel.¡±, He looked past the group of cowering kobolds at the jewel, ring at it greedily. The kobolds shivered even more after hearing the question. Only one of them shakily stood up in a defensive manner as if to hide the rock from his view.
Krull sniffed it, but still couldn¡¯t figure out anything about the rock, except that it called to him to take it for himself. Then, an odd image popped into his mind. The figure of an annoying avian that foiled his ns once before and was supposedly doing the same again just now.
¡°Where is the chicken?¡±, No one responded, but a heavy pressure descended.
¡°That? That¡¯s the chicken¡¯s state right now? Kuhahahaha!¡±
By no means was he filled with uncontrobleughter or amusement.
Although Krull was acting in such a manner, he had a very different n in mind. Most of Krull¡¯s enemies¡¯ greatest mistake was assuming he was simply a mindless brute. When he got serious, even he could y mind games on his opponent. His favourite being to shatter their psyche.
¡°Very well then. I shall deal with it first.¡±, At that deration, K flinched, giving Krull his response.
¡°Wait! Fight me!¡±, Kara spread her arms, ring at her father. The ogre snorted then pushed her aside.
¡°Fight you? You aren¡¯t even worth my time. Do to her as you wish, Karon.¡±
¡°You¡ you terrible¡ ass!¡±, K fired off a bolt of lightning which Karon casually absorbed with his cleaver, without even facing her. She fired off a few more, but he easily cancelled them out and kept walking forward. K, feeling desperate tried to run after him, but her older brother caught her.
¡°Let go of me! Let¡ go¡ Karon! Please!¡±, Her shrieks didn¡¯t even tug at Krull¡¯s heart strings as he neared the egg. Most of the kobolds had already run away from the direction of the egg, with the exception of one.
It was a white dog-faced kobold. Shakily, but with conviction, she held up her arms as if to block Krull. Cruelly, the war ogre brought down his cleaver to split her in half, but his attack was halted as a blood red spike shot out of the ground beneath him, almost puncturing his skull from below.
The war veteran easily avoided this attack, stumbling backwards. As if on cue, vines sprouted all around the room, all aimed at his limbs, but the ogre disyed grace on par with a ballerina as he twirled around, correcting his stance and instantly cutting up all the vines that shot at him.
Stealthily, two blood red lean trees darted in quickly, one going up front and the other throwing projectiles aimed for his head from behind.
Krull, having noticed this quickly prepared a counter measure, by releasing a lightning bolt he absorbed earlier towards the spike aimed at him, then charging like a freight train towards the tree in front of him. The tree transformed both of its arms into des, ready to swing at Krull, but he was also ready for it.
¡°[Battle God Technique: Cleaver]!¡±, Krull¡¯s fist produced a shockwave with the edge of an extremely sharp de that cut off one of the tree¡¯s arms.
¡°[Way of the Wind: Act Three ¨C Twisting Cyclone].¡±, his body performed a very odd 180-degree turn, setting him into the perfect position to encounter the monstering from behind him.
¡°[Battle God Technique: Straight Right]!¡±, His fist connected with the tree¡¯s face knocking it back, but before it could fly anywhere, he grabbed its leg.
¡°Way of the Wind: Act five ¨C Flow].¡± Upon activating this technique, the tree behind him took a stab at him, but missed by a hair¡¯s breadth. Krull somehow narrowly twisted his body in a manner that allowed him to avoid being hit. He continued this unorthodox movement of his into a flip one wouldn¡¯t expect of a person his size, then mming the tree in hand into the one below him.
Before, Krull would have simply taken the attacks like they weren¡¯t worth anything, but considering the state of things now that he no longer received power from blessings, he was being very mindful with how he took things.
Grabbing both of their legs, he smashed them into each other, before throwing them out the door. To ensure they wouldn¡¯t be returning, he fired off all of his remaining lightning bolts at them. Even if it didn¡¯t kill them, it would dy them for a bit.
¡®Hmph¡ those two are the perfect soldiers for war. I want them.¡¯
Fast, stealthy, powerful and filled with zero emotions whatsoever, they were the embodiment of the war ogres Krull grew up with. If anything, he now wanted to make those two submit to him. But that would have to wait.
Now, he had to destroy the potential threat to everything he had been waiting his life for. The stupid chicken thatpletely derailed his life. He really wanted to keep that egg to himself, but Krull recognised this feeling. All his reasoning was telling him that the egg contained something very dangerous and if he didn¡¯t destroy it now, he would be doomed.
He prepared himself, sending in all his aura into his right arm as he raised his cleaver. With this one strike, he aimed topletely shatter the rock.
¡°Now that, is simply in poor taste, Krull.¡±, A new presence entered the room. Right before him, a dryad had appeared bearing an eerily calm smile. However, Krull could never mistake this dryad¡¯s eyes for anyone else. The way she looked at him cunningly, like there were thousands of calctions going on in her mind at a second made him shiver.
¡°Since when do you partake in these sorts of things?¡±, He asked, stopping his initial attack preparations.
¡°Potential rulers of Larm won¡¯t be allowed defeat in such a manner, so long as I am around to stop it.¡±, She said tantly.
Krull wasn¡¯t a fool. Acting against her was the equivalent of acting against the very forest. Most dryads didn¡¯t matter, but Diane in particr did, being supposedly the oldest dryad, existing since the first ages of Larm. Weighing his options and eventually deciding a fight against the oldest dryad would end in failure, he changed his target to the original one.
¡°Does that apply to everyone else in this room?¡±
With an unbothered smile stered across her face, Diane shook her head. ¡°Their fate is beyond my control. What happens to them, happens.¡±
Krull looked at Karon holding up K and muffling her. She was still squirming about in his grasp, but Karon was far stronger than her.
¡°Bring her over to-¡±, before he could finish his sentence, he heard a grunt from Karon. Looking at him, K had just bitten his arm and he let go off her.
¡°I¡¯lle to you myself!¡±, haughtily, K dered. She took some bold steps forward, an attitudepletely unexpected given her situation and personality.
As he looked at her figure, images of his time with his shed through his mind. She was older, far older, than he was, but through circumstance, they ended up together. His mind flipped through all the time he spent with her and it just made him remember just how much he hated her.
Now looking at K, she was acting just like her mother did. He tried his very best to keep her from developing in this way. The threat of a war kishin was far too terrifying to allow to exist again.
He put her in the worst environment for development. Fed her mana circuit damaging substances and weakened her bodily constitution to the point she could be bullied by C+ ranked human adventurers, although she wouldn¡¯t die at their hands. She was never going to grow stronger, Krull made sure of that.
So, what was with that fiery look in her eyes. There was something off about her. The look in her eyes wasn¡¯t one of someone who was very noticeably weakpared to every other person in their life.
The way she looked at him was the sort of gaze only the strong should give to the weak. The condescending re that made him feel lower than a worm. The sort of gaze her mother once wore.
For the very first time since K¡¯s birth, Krull looked at her and saw her face. She bore a striking resemnce to her mother. No, rather than that. Krull could feel her mother over her. It was a sickening feeling that only a war kishin gave off.
Doing something like that should be impossible normally, but for a war kishin, Krull couldn¡¯t deny the possibility. Right now, he could see a faded image of K¡¯s mother walking next to her as she came face to face with him.
Krull had assumed she was dead, but K¡¯s mother, K, had been around this entire time. Rather than dying, she escaped her physical form permanently, bing a spirit. A spirit that was blessing K and doing her best to keep her safe from death for as long as possible. Without anyone being aware, she was giving subconscious orders to the others that made them avoid harming her.
¡°That bitch.¡±, Upon this shock, Krull grabbed her by the neck instantly without waiting to allow her to talk. ¡°She lied to me. She was going to make you the next war kishin even after our agreement.¡±
Karon grabbed Krull¡¯s wrist.
¡°What are you doing?¡±
¡°Do not harm her. She¡¯s still confu-¡±
Krull dropped his cleaver.
A ¡®SMACK¡¯ followed after the ¡®Thud¡¯ of the cleaver, then Karon¡¯s body flew across the room.
¡°She has already affected both you and your sister. Both of you will instinctively feel the need to protect her, although considering her current state, it manifested in a twisted way for you in particr.¡±
Krull waved her around like a lifeless doll as he brought up his cleaver.
¡°You know, while I said I do not care what happens to everyone else in the room¡ and that is true, I am not particrly averse to the idea of prolonging her life.¡±, After witnessing what just unfolded, Diane spoke up once more. Krull nced at her from the corner of his eye his eye met hers. That look of hers sent a shiver down his spine.
¡°And why is that?¡±
¡°Well, she does possess some essence of Lady Hinotori in her after all.¡±
¡°What is that supposed to mean?¡±
Rather than responded, Diane just looked at K. Specifically, her stomach. Krull looked at K closely. He sniffed her from head to toe till he caught an odd scent. He looked at her again, with wide eyes.
¡°You¡ when did you get pregnant?¡±
K wed at his hands, trying to break free of his grip, but she couldn¡¯t. Her squirming was getting on Krull¡¯s nerves.
¡°When did it happen!?¡±, he roared, saliva spreading across her face. ¡°Answer me! And to the chicken!? Of all things!?¡±
It wasn¡¯t as much the fact that she got pregnant without his knowledge as it was the fact that she could have possibly given birth to a war kishin before he found. If there was going to be another war kishin, it was going to have to be him and no one else.
Her fingers twitched with lightning, but they were cancelled out. Her magical power wasn¡¯t working because she couldn¡¯t properly focus on a particr spell to cast.
¡°Before there is another! I will end this.¡±, As he roared, Krull brought her face closer to his mouth and opened wide. In order to at least increase his chances of be a war kishin, he would consume both mother and child.
¡°No! Stop it! Stop it! Please!¡± K was shrieking, doing her utmost to get out of his grasp. Krull paused to see if Diane was making any moves, but she was absolutely still, pretending to not see.
¡®Either way she won¡¯t interfere, eh?¡¯
In the corner of the room, Karon had been knocked out cold by Krull¡¯s punch, the tree monsters oddly enough hadn¡¯t re-emerged into the room, even though they should¡¯ve recovered by now. Well, whatever. None of those mattered.
Once he ate her, there was a chance he would undergo an evolution to be stronger. As a War kishin, he would be on par with the gods themselves. He just needed that one evolution to get there.
K¡¯s screams were muffled out by his excited thoughts as his mouth widened to absurd proportions. Slowly, he begun to shove her into his stomach. Her head went in first, followed by her body until¡
Chapter 307 End Of The War For Larm
<h4>Chapter 307 End Of The War For Larm</h4>
I opened my eyes to find myself standing in the palm of a giant ethereal being, ring at me with golden eyes. Confused, I tried to get a better look at my surroundings, but the being was the only thing around.
I scratched my head and heaved a sigh.
¡°What do you want, big guy?¡±, at this point, I had grown bored of meeting all of these higher entities. They were being a real pain in my ass. For once, couldn¡¯t they all just leave me alone? I was just a high schooler, why do they all keep jumping to talk to me or have me do their dirty work?
¡°What is it you desire?¡±, oddly enough, this one imed to not have a job for me, but rather wanted me to tell him what I wanted.
¡°Eh? Me?¡±
He didn¡¯t respond, but the silence was more than enough proof that he was referring to me. For some reason unknown to me, this entity felt homely and trustworthy.
Now, when someone asked what you desired, they could be referring to favours, errands or items. In terms of questions, this was vague, yet I understood what exactly he was talking about.
My lips turned upwards as I shrugged and responded to him.
¡°Everything.¡±, when faced with this question, a lot of things came to mind. Wealth, power, fame, more subordinates, or embarrassingly enough, love, were among the things I immediately thought of. So, to me the answer here was obvious. ¡°I want absolutely everything! If you can give me that, I don¡¯t mind doing you a favour or two.¡±
He didn¡¯t respond to me. He faded into the darkness and I lost consciousness. In the next second, my eyes snapped open and I was in dark, cramped spot. Something about my current situation felt nostalgic.
Just then, I heard some beeping sounds.
[System version 1.0 + 2.0 boot up¡ sessful]
[System administrator(s): Alpha (Lead), Beta (Assistant)
[Loading system screen for disy¡ loaded]
[Disying message from Administrator Alpha]
[Congrattions on your evolution! I didn¡¯t think you¡¯d choose this one, but I guess a greedy bastard like you really does want it all. It makes some sort of sense why you were the highest rated specimen from your ss.
I¡¯m not one for long sentimental messages like this, but this is going to be thest update you¡¯ll receive for the system. Naturally, that means this is thest time we¡¯ll interact¡ probably.
Yep, the system is finally done, so I can go on to do other things in life¡ don¡¯t say something snarky. Anyway, I didn¡¯t input in the patch updates because, well, you¡¯ll figure everything out. I even made the system far less convoluted because you don¡¯t use any of the stuff I give you.
If you ever need help¡ don¡¯t ask me. I¡¯m not around or particrly interested in your life. Oh yeah, onest piece of advice from your favourite system master. Don¡¯t trust that guy or you will really die for good.]
¡
Huh?
¡°Well, she does possess some essence of Lady Hinotori in her, after all.¡±
HUH!?
¡°You¡ when did you get pregnant?¡±
HUUUUUHHHHHHH!!!!!???????
After being abandoned by the system master, I heard some odd sentences from the outside of my case. The voices sounded very familiar. Krull and Diane. And given this very oddbination of people, I had to scan the outside to see who it was and saw Kara in Krull¡¯s grip.
Ah¡ I finally get it now.
So, here¡¯s the state of things.
I wake in the palm of some unknown being asking to grant me a wish. Then I receive news from Alpha that she¡¯s given me the final system and we might never talk again. Following up, I overhear a conversation between an unlikely duo about my essence being in Kara. Now, it didn¡¯t take a genius to figure out how or why that happened.
But this is in no way how I expected the situation to be the moment I woke up. In the first ce, what the hell was Krull doing here?
Tch. I need to catch a break.
***
¡°You guys are really annoying, you know?¡±
Krull froze.
¡°This isn¡¯t how I wanted to find out I was going to be a parent¡ again.¡±, as the voice continued, the heavier the atmosphere became. To the point that Krull was starting to feel the urge to run away with his tail tucked between his legs. ¡°She was supposed to be like ¡®I¡¯m pregnant!¡¯ and I was going to have to say ¡®Eh? I¡¯m having a kid!?¡¯.¡±
Slowly, Krull turned around.
¡®I wouldn¡¯t advise that.¡¯, A message entered his head. From the corner of his eye, he saw Diane on a knee, bowing down. Shards of a crystalline substanceid at her feet. He tried his hardest to see further, but his eye was at its limit. Any further and it would be popping out of its socket.
He could feel light steps towards him. A certain gentle yet dreadful march. His hand was stuck and his body refused to continue consuming his daughter. It took all his willpower to hold himself from regurgitating.
K¡¯s head was deep inside him. It would be a miracle if her skull hadn¡¯t been shattered yet, still she wiggled about in his grip. She was still alive. He had to swallow her now, but his body couldn¡¯t move.
¡°I guess I have to put an end to this stupid family drama then. Forgive me for intruding, but since we¡¯re technically family now, I can y a part in this.¡±
A monstrous presence lurked right behind him. His darted upwards, to see a shadow towering above him. The monster was in the shape of a bird easily three times his size. It possessed feathers far more lustrous than gold. Its vermillion red eyes bore into his very being, as if it could see his soul. A collection of feathers stood up on its head like some sort of crown.
¡°Drop her.¡±, Krull¡¯s body went into auto-pilot with that singlemand. He spat her out onto the ground roughly.
The monster puffed steam out of its jet-ck beak, clouding his body.
¡°I feel really, really hungry, Krull. I might need something about as big as you to fill up my stomach.¡±
Krull shivered. This sort of fear wasn¡¯t something he¡¯d felt before. Not when he was about to charge into his first war. Not when he was under the influence of a war kishin. Not when he was standing before Goliath. This sort of fear felt far different. It rendered his body of any strength. His mind was nk. He couldn¡¯t think properly. He couldn¡¯t say a single word. He couldn¡¯t control his shivering.
It felt like his entire life up till this moment wasn¡¯t real. His experiences were simply fantasy made up in his mind. The persona Krull wasn¡¯t real. The children he¡¯d had weren¡¯t real. There was no real drive for strength, no true ambition. Nothing.
The only real moment of his life was this one, overwhelming event.
Without a hint of hesitation, the creature, swooped down on Krull, swallowing him whole.
It was also Krull¡¯sst ever moment.
***
I consumed Krull¡¯s soul. I saw his life sh before my eyes. Krull was a war ogre, an evolved form of ogres built for war. A rtively extinct species. In fact, at this moment, there are only 3 known war ogre families, Krull¡¯s included. They were seen as something like royalty amongst ogres. These 3 families are subservient to an evolved war ogre called the War Kishin.
Krull was sacrificed to her, but somehow, she fell for him. It didn¡¯t make sense. Even Krull didn¡¯t understand it, but she had somehow fallen in love with a bastard like him. She was older than him. Like, by a lot, although she was the youngest¡ well, only war kishin alive.
Upon further observation, I couldn¡¯t call what she felt for him love. It was more like pity in a sense. No, that didn¡¯t seem to do her feelings justice either. I couldn¡¯t quite get her feelings from mere observation, so I would have to use ¡®motherly-love¡¯ in this situation.
She tried to make Krull happy by marrying him. That didn¡¯t work. She then tried with a kid, two in fact. That also didn¡¯t work and so she asked Krull what would make him happy. There was a part of Krull that feared what would happen to him if she found out his true intention, so he told her he simply wanted his family to be the strongest. He wanted a war kishin child, in order to be truly happy.
Hearing this, she thought of getting a third child. One that would definitely evolve into a war kishin. I wasn¡¯t sure how or why she was certain about this, but she was. However, during her pregnancy, she somehow figured out Krull¡¯s true n. He wanted to eat the war kishin child in order to be a war kishin himself.
Krull¡¯s true desire was to be strong. From the very moment he was born, all he could think about was being the greatest there ever was. As a war ogre, Krull was far stronger than the average ogre. By the time he was one month old, he¡¯d already started killing and consuming ogres. After all, a war kishin was an evolution brought about from a time of war when ogres consumed ogres to live and get stronger.
He eventually wanted to devour Goliath, gain control of Larm, then wage a war against other strong beings in the world.
Honestly, I don¡¯t think it was more his desire as it was his primal instinct. War ogres were meant to dominate in a war. There hadn¡¯t been a proper war for about 300 years. The war ogres were dying out. Krull was a result of evolution trying to preserve a species, oddly enough. Rather than Krull being his own person, he was a tool for the world to keep the existence of the war ogres. Although that backfired badly and he ended up killing his own family.
Kara¡¯s mother, K, noticed this earlier on. She told Krull that Kara wouldn¡¯t be a war kishin. That there was a way for him to be a war kishin without eating her. She could transfer her powers to him and that was it. Krull was no idiot. He knew there was no way for her to transfer her power, but he took her up on it.
When she gave birth, she was weakened. Krull had been waiting for that moment, and killed her. After all, it had been a while since he ate another war ogre. This time, his meal was better. A war kishin for himself. Before she died, she warned him of a dark future. He would be swallowed by a dark shadowy monster. He didn¡¯t take her seriously.
He ate her, but for some reason, the thought of eating any of his children didn¡¯t cross his mind. It wasn¡¯t until now that he realised that she shed her physical form to be a spirit. And a spirit, she¡¯d been watching over Kara, sending out certain signals that made the others treat her differently.
Years passed, Krull grew up far more peaceful than he could exin. This was all her influence as a spirit. Unfortunately for him, we crossed paths and her vision quite literally just came true.
Well, that was the gist of his life. Krull was pathetic from the beginning to end.
I then looked at K. She was still alive, but barely. Her head was squeezed in, but I doubted she had any real severe brain damage.
I bought a [Restore Potion] for 3000 gold coins from the store and sprayed it on her. With that, she would be restored to her physical state from about 10 minutes ago. She would be fine, although she¡¯d probably need to sleep for a while.
¡°Wee back, king of Larm.¡±, Behind me, Diane was on her knee, bowing to me.
It felt kind of weird receiving this sort of treatment from her, but there¡¯s no point in focusing on these kinds of things. My interest lied only in what the hell was happening. I could feel so many of the West¡¯s soldiers screaming and running in fear or pain. A great majority of them weren¡¯t alive as well.
I flew out of the room to go get a better look at what was happening outside.
¡®Hmm.¡¯
¡®Oh boy.¡¯
¡®T-This d-doesn¡¯t look good.¡¯
¡®*sigh*¡¯
Can you believe these guys? I disappear for a month. Just 42 days. That¡¯s about 6 weeks alone. Just 6 weeks! And they start in-fighting! I purposefully didn¡¯t try to forcefully conquer anything out of fear that something like this might happen, yet it still did!
Was it too much to ask for them to simply try to keep the peace and protect themselves against the one true enemy? Anyone outside of Larm was the problem! It was that simple! There was no need to be stressing out like this. We were one big happy family! What happened to ¡®monsters in a forest stick together!¡¯?
Honesty, this was getting tiring. Not a single moment of rest for me since I came to this cursed world. I want at least one day where there was nothing for me to do.
¡®Maybe we need a holiday.¡¯
¡®Yeah! The international Don¡¯t-Mess-With-Us-Day!¡¯
¡®Oh? And what will be the repercussions for those who refuse to abide by the rules of this auspicious day?¡¯
¡®We kill them!¡¯
¡®Uuhh¡¡¯
¡®Burn them alive!¡¯
¡®Um¡¡¯
¡®F-y t-¡¯
¡®I¡¯m sorry, but you¡¯ve run out of talking privileges for the next 300 years. We will get back to you when you start thinking like a person again.¡¯
¡®I guess the priority for now is¡¯
¡®Stop this war.¡¯
¡®E-Eradicate all e-enemies.¡¯
¡®Then sleep!¡¯
With a n set, it was time to put an end to the war.
Chapter 308 A God?
<h4>Chapter 308 A God?</h4>
Pride shattered the [War Room], allowing himself to return to Larm. Following that, he released a burst of raw power to terrorise everyone on the field and boost the fear amongst the enemies. He expected to receive his power back, but all he got were two very important feelings.
The first of which was a familiar feeling. Greed. His fellow Sin God was nearby, right above him in fact. Although it felt a bit different, there was no denying that [Greed] was there.
The second feeling he got was also familiar, but not in the good way. More like the kind of feeling that made one was want to puke out their insides and fly into a blind rage.
¡°Veermiiilliioon!¡±, He bolted towards her, faster than lightning with his ws ready to rip her to shreds.
On the moment of collision with the entity before him, he noticed that he couldn¡¯t move. It felt like he¡¯d just rammed into an iron mountain and shattered all his physical bones, but there was no pain whatsoever.
Now that he was stuck here, there was a third feeling.
He was in the grasp of the creature¡¯s massive w. Upon closer inspection, he started to notice just how different this creature was from Vermillion.
Vermillion¡¯s feathers were pure golden with red tips. This one, had a mix of golden feathers everywhere, white feathers for her underbelly, dark violet feathers at the tips and ck feather patches. An orb about the size of a human head restedfortably on her chest, although it looked nothing more than a peanut whenpared to her size. The creature was majestic in an eerie sense, with a crown of standing feathers on its head, a jet-ck beak and vermillion red eyes. It had 4 pairs of wings that barely pped, yet kept it airborne.
If Vermillion was a picturesque golden statue, her child was art beyond normal standards that radiated a sense of superiority.
This third feeling¡ was something he¡¯d never felt before. [Pride] was only strong because of how overwhelmingly superior he believed himself to be above everyone else. Even amongst his fellow sin gods who were arguably on the same level of power, [Pride] couldn¡¯t fathom himself not being superior to them.
Yet, this third feeling he got was, confusing. Every single fibre of his intangible, conceptual existence told him to move away as far as possible. He, under no circumstances, wanted to be near that thing. In a flight or fight situation, [Pride] had never chosen [Flight]. Even if it appeared to be flight, he was fighting in a round-about way. This time around, he wanted to fly away as far as possible and never return.
He wanted to consume her, but now it became almost too obvious who was going to be consumed.
Was this what terror felt like?
¡®Ah¡ this [Pride] guy really isn¡¯t anything significant, is he?¡±
Going to be consumed? Howughable.
The way she spoke of the [Pride Sin God] already showed that she was much higher than he was. She had already consumed him and had reached a higher level of [Pride].
In his final moments, [Pride] started to feel that maybe being a stepping stool for the new [Pride Sin God] wouldn¡¯t be such a terrible idea.
If [Pride] continued to fight, to be prideful, there was a good chance he would have devoured her instead. However, [Pride] wasn¡¯t the same as it was before the God Wars. [Pride] had spent over a century fused with others, living as a different entity. Even now, [Pride] couldn¡¯t help, but be overshadowed by that entity¡¯s personality.
***
[System is fully functional]
[You have multiple notifications]
[Would you like to see all new notifications?]
No.
I didn¡¯t get any message popping up on my screen afterwards. I had a clear view of the battlefield now. Aside from the corpses, blood and fleeing soldiers, there was an interesting fight going on. A three headed wolf was fighting with a devil. Obviously, this was Kuro.
That at least told me that both he and Shitsuke managed to make it back and that Kuro found himself a body to temporarily possess. The fact that he still looked the same as he did in hell was him just using his [Devil Form]. That body¡¯s life force was starting to crumble, so he eventually would lose this fight if he didn¡¯t end it with the next five or so minutes.
Somewhere close to them, there was a ck orb floating eerily above the field. I couldn¡¯t get a read on it, so I chose to ignore it and focus on other things. Sending my senses elsewhere, I spotted others engaging in other useless battles.
To be honest, I wasn¡¯t interested in any of these things, but it was time to clear up this mess. It felt like I just came back to meet children ying with their lives on the line.
¡°I think [Devil Miasma] should do the trick.¡±
The other minds agreed with me, so I simply spread out my miasma unto the battlefield. It spread fast and wide, encasing the whole field in my colourless odour, immediately causing mass unrest amongst the enemies. Soldiers of the West would be exempt from this, including the cyclopes who I remember allying up with before my evolution begun.
A certain ck orb that had been floating ominously in the centre of the field shattered, catching my attention. A griffin much bigger than the others emerged from it. It blew up a breeze as it stretched, I think?
That didn¡¯t matter. A red imp fell out of the ck orb, meaning, Shitsuke. From the looks of things, he¡¯d been beaten up pretty badly. The body he was using was starting to deteriorate, so I had to act fast.
Before that though, the griffin from before charged at me. He looked so incredibly small that I got the feeling he would fit into my w. As a joke, I raised my w at thest second, but I couldn¡¯t feel a thing. I knew that he was in my w, but I couldn¡¯t feel the impact from his charge.
Name: -
Race: ????
Talent: ????
Health: ??? Stamina: ??? Mana: ??? Magic Power: ??? Strength: ??? Speed: ??? Defence: ??? Intelligence: ??? Karma: ???
Chaos Energy: ???
I wasn¡¯t getting anything from the system about this guy, but when a voice whispered to me. I heard the thing in my w¡¯s name.
¡®Pride.¡¯
¡®This is just like that time with-¡¯
¡®G-Greed.¡¯
Greed. Another face that almost killed me. I wasn¡¯t too happy with finding someone rted to that yellow bastard, but I guess there wasn¡¯t much of a problem. When I heard his name, I first assumed this was going to be a problematic fight, but now that I held [Pride], I couldn¡¯t help but think,
¡®Ah¡ this [Pride] guy really isn¡¯t anything significant, is he?¡¯
I mean, I could already tell from a single nce that he wasn¡¯t anything particrly impressive, but for him to be weaker than [Greed]? I simply couldn¡¯t believe it.
No. Maybe I was looking at this from the wrong angle. It probably wasn¡¯t that he was weak. Maybe my evolution had made me a bit stronger than he was?
Speaking of, I guess it was time to see my stats.
+
Name: Hyakkiyako Hinotori
Race: Arcane Demonic Twilight Phoenix King
Talent: ?
Health: 100,000/100,000 Stamina: 150,000/150,000 Mana: 70,000/70,000 Magic Power: 1000 Strength: 60,000 Speed: 80,000 Defence: 60,000 Intelligence: 1000 Luck: 86 Karma: 0
Chaos Energy: Stage 0 (0.1%) Corruption: 0%
Divine Energy: Stage 0 Tribtions: 0/1
+
¡
What the FUCK!?
W-When did I get so strong physically?
A bit stronger than he was? Sure, I couldn¡¯t see his physical stats cause of all the question marks, but this wasn¡¯t normal! I was already regarded as A rank before, mostly because of my skills and not physical ability, but now that my physical abilities were at this point, didn¡¯t that automatically put me on S rank?
Seriously, what the hell was this? I could probably beat Minerva in a fight now. When it came to physical ability, now I knew nobody on my level. I never thought I¡¯d actually live to see the day this would happen.
Also, where are my levels? What is my level, even? I suddenly don¡¯t get levels? Same for [Pride]? What the heck is up with this system. But then, when I bring up the stat of one of the goblin soldiers¡
Name: -
Race: Hob-goblin Warrior Level 45/60
Talent: C grade
Level: 65
Health: 31/1300 Stamina: 20/2000 Strength: 500 Speed: 550 Defence: 213 Intelligence: 50 Luck: 10
This random guy has a level, but neither [Pride] nor I do. Just to be sure, I made a few more inspections, till I noticed a trend. The only ones bearing levels were all under me. Specifically, the soldiers that have ess to the system.
From what I was getting, the only one¡¯s with a level on the system were those registered on the system. I wonder why Alpha suddenly chose to remove such a feature. She removed the race rank, status and age features too.
Ah¡ this was a bit confusing, but now wasn¡¯t the time for this.
Sheesh¡ uh, I guess I had to attend to all the dying soldiers. While I was busily thinking about something as trivial as a level, people were quite literally dying. I was starting to feel a bit ipetent.
¡®M-Mas¡ ter?¡¯, Amethyst weakly sent a message.
¡®Hm, Amethyst got beaten up quite badly.¡¯
It¡¯s not like I wasn¡¯t aware of her state. She was one of the first things I noticed when I came up here, but when I looked at her, I couldn¡¯t feel anything in particr. It just felt like I was watching a lizard bleeding out and I had no interest in it.
Something didn¡¯t feel right, but I couldn¡¯t quite put my finger on it.
¡®Well, whatever. Let¡¯s just hurry up and get this over with.¡¯
I absorbed [Pride] into my w, consuming him entirely. I didn¡¯t receive any notifications from the system like I usually did, probably because I asked the system to hold off on any further notifications.
Quickly, I summoned Amethyst to me, and she appeared in a poof of smoke. I created a tform toy her body down on, then used a [Restore Potion] on her. The hole in her chest was cleared up, almost as if it was never there.
¡®Now, if only we could use Reverse Potions on every dead person here.¡¯
¡®Yeah, just like we did for Amethyst.¡¯
¡®Hmm¡¡¯
Oh¡ Amethyst was the solution to this problem. Well, not Amethyst per say, but her skill [Overlord]. I could simply use her skill to resurrect every member of Larm. And all I needed were a few words.
¡°Wake up.¡±
***
Beryl leaned against a tree, huffing heavily and holding a wound made at his side. That monstrous wolf was really hell bent on killing him, but he managed to survive. If it wasn¡¯t for his little cyclone trick, he would have definitely been killed.
By now, he¡¯d made some significant distance and could rest to recover a bit. He reached into a pouch to take a potion, but immediately stopped in his tracks and looked up.
¡®W-What in the word is that?¡¯, He saw an iridescent creature up in the sky.
But that was impossible. Beryl was blind. He shouldn¡¯t have been able to see light, but even then, he could see the shape of the creature up in the sky.
¡°Wake up.¡±, he didn¡¯t know how, but he heard the creature¡¯s voice very clearly. Following her statement was an increase in the life force around Beryl.
He¡¯d sensed he was next to a pile of corpses, but all of a sudden, they weren¡¯t corpses anymore. Each and every single one of them just had life breathed back into them.
Beryl couldn¡¯t believe his eyes. Well, senses. He was beyond shocked and was starting to feel like the wolf bite was affecting his cognitive ability. Because, if he what he just felt was real, that meant the creature, with onemand, just resurrected an army of monsters.
¡®I-Is that a god?¡¯
Now Beryl wanted to return even faster. He had to tell his master what just happened. A god had appeared in Larm. There hadn¡¯t been a single sighting of gods for the past six years. They were more abundant over a hundred years ago, but their number dwindled over time till there were none.
If there was a god here, then conquering Larm was really the best idea. Maybe the approach of forcefully doing so was bad, but convincing the god to help them was as good as anything.
¡°Lady Hinotori¡¯s back?¡±
¡°The queen! She woke up!¡±
¡®Q-Queen? That¡¯s their queen? T-Then¡¡¯
His mind shed back to what he¡¯d heard about the Demon Lord Conference. A crazy bastard intruded to deliver news on a new candidate participating in the selection. The Queen of Monsters, she was called. This was no mere monster queen.
Bright enough to make him see her, powerful enough to resurrect her dead soldiers. That thing couldn¡¯t be ssified as normal anyway he put it. He had to report back. He had to tell his master to change his mind. No, beg him to change his mind. There was no fighting such a creature.
Chapter 309 Ultimate Skill
<h4>Chapter 309 Ultimate Skill</h4>
The war was over and everything returned back to normal, is what I wanted to say.
Yeah, sure, the war was over, but that left everything else. I mean, certainly, I ended the fighting and deaths rtively easy, but I couldn¡¯t justmand for everything to be fixed up between the sides fighting.
Aside the fact that I managed to resurrect them all at the cost of ny percent of all my mana, these were actual people that died for no proper reason. If I wasn¡¯t here, they wouldn¡¯t have been resurrected post war. Both Krull and [Pride] were literally just going to have a kingdom with no soldiers if they won.
The guys in the West weren¡¯t too pleased and didn¡¯t want to suddenly make up with the North and the East. I mean, this was the East¡¯s second offence. Sure, the orcs, kobolds and cyclopes proved that not everyone in the East and North were bad, but that didn¡¯t change the fact that the others chose violence over peace.
Things were getting a bitplicated and so now I had to hold some sort of reparations meeting to appease both the West and the South. Apparently, they also came under attack, although not nearly as much as the West did and considering the impromptu attack on the West and the distance required to travel, they weren¡¯t able toe over in time to help. That¡¯s besides the fact that they had no idea that the West was under such a surprise attack since that all ended in a single day.
Even then, ignoring the people themselves, the ground was a bit of an issue. ording to Diane, Larm would rebuild itself eventually, but the scale of damage would cause the process to be slower than usual. If Goliath were here, he would have sped things along with [Overlord], but considering how much mana and stamina it drained, it wasn¡¯t something I was particrly interested in using.
When I thought about it, it made me wonder how someone like Minerva who couldn¡¯t use mana was able to use [Overlord]. She should have died¡ Maybe let¡¯s not think too much about that. Clouding myself with negative thoughts couldn¡¯t possibly end well.
That¡¯s right! In times of depression, just don¡¯t feel depressed! Greatest piece of advice I¡¯d ever heard.
Ok, so here was a list of to-do things:
1. Ensure the smooth rehabilitation of Larm without the use of Overlord.
2. Host a conference or reparations meeting to see how best to sort out the anger between everybody.
3. ¡ Find Minerva
Since I had sorted out things to do at ater time, I decided to focus on something closer to me at the moment.
¡®I honestly don¡¯t want to deal with this, but it¡¯s time to look at the system notifications.¡¯
¡®Well¡ let¡¯s do this!¡¯
¡®Y-Yosh!¡¯
Right when I allowed it, I was flooded with too much information.
[Congrattions! You have sessfully evolved into an Arcane Demonic Twilight Phoenix King]
[Your stats have gone up and you have developed some new racial skills]
[You have developed the skills [Phoenix Feather], [Ash Rebirth], [Phoenix Fire], [Soul Gaze], [Bestow], [Sr Absorption], [Sr re], [Instant Regeneration], [Fire Form], [Blessing] and [Naming]]
[You have acquired the ultimate skill [Greed]]
[The ultimate skill [Greed] is absorbing the unique skills [Skill Alchemy], [God¡¯s Wisdom], [Supreme Wisdom Council] and [Energy Transcriber]]
[The ultimate skill [Greed] has developed into 2 new skills]
[You have acquired the Ultimate skill [Authority of Avarice]]
[You have acquired the Ultimate skill [Chained Mammon]]
[Congrattions! You have unlocked the [Sin Skill Series]]
[With the Ultimate Skill [Authority of Avarice] you have received ess to all skills under the [Sin of Greed] skill tree]
[The Ultimate skill [Authority of Avarice] is altering some of your skills]
[The advanced skill [World Eater] has been altered into the Unique Skill [Limitless]]
[The Ultimate skill [Authority of Avarice] has reproduced the unique skills [God¡¯s Wisdom] and [Energy Transcriber]]
[The Unique skills [God¡¯s Wisdom], [Energy Transcriber] and [Limitless] have been consumed to create the unique skill [Infinite Processor]]
[The Unique skill [Supreme Wisdom Council] has be [Mammon¡¯s Treasury]]
[Several Higher beings are watching you with hostile gazes]
[You have been blessed by the Greater God of Light, Janus for the annihtion of one of the Sin Gods]
[You have receivedplete immunity to Holy Magic]
[You have received an affinity for Holy Magic]
[You have received the title [Crusader of Light]]
[When faced with by a worshipper of the Light Faction in the Seven Great Gods Church, you will be treated with respect]
[Your title [Hell¡¯s Damned Monarch] has been removed]
[You have received the title [Marked By The Hell King]]
[You have received a great treasure from hell and are now held in high regard. All devils will instinctively feel the urge to obey yourmand]
[You have received the title [Explorer of Hell]]
[You sessfully went into hell and came back alive. Your sense of direction is great!]
[You have received the title [Alpha¡¯s Lacky]]
[You are a pawn in Alpha¡¯s games]
[You have received the title [Soon-To-Be Parent]]
[You found out that your servant Kara is pregnant with your child. Oh boy¡]
[You have acquired the Ultimate skill [Pride]]
[The Ultimate skill [Pride] has developed into 2 new skills]
[You have acquired the Ultimate skill [Authority of Pride]]
[You have acquired the Ultimate skill [Chained Lucifer]
[With the Ultimate Skill [Authority of Pride], you have gained ess to all the skills under the [Sin of Pride] skill tree]
[You have received the title [Saviour]]
[Your servants and minions are hailing you as their saviour. With their praise, you receive a grand boost in power! 1.5x magic power]
[You have received the title [Impending Cmity]]
[Gods are fearful of your future potential. Weaker opponents will be dreadful at the mere thought of you]
[You have received the title [Sinful One]]
[You are at the highest level of the sin skill tree.]
[You have received the title [Sin yer]]
[You consumed the sin gods [Greed] and [Pride]. You will receive a great resistance against attacks from other sin gods, as well have a higher attack power when fighting them]
[You have received the title [Foul Heretic]]
[Your very existence is uneptable to most gods. Your stats go up by 500% when fighting [Sacred Bearers], excluding during [Sacred Events]]
¡
¡®I¡¯m honestly not in the mood to shout at this point.¡¯
¡®Y-Yeah¡ k-kind of saw t-this c-cing.¡¯
¡®Ugh¡ whatever. Let¡¯s just look through them.¡¯
Of course, I brushed through the first few lines because I was already aware of what I chose to transform into. The skills there were pretty self-exnatory except maybe [Phoenix feather] and [Bestow]. [Phoenix Feather] meant any one of my feathers was capable of giving a user holding it an anti-death chance. Like the video game item, anyone using it could avoid death once, then it would burn up.
Bestow allowed me to grant something to one specific person or item. Like, I bestowed someone a holy sword which meant only they could use it or something like that. My new race was basically that one divine beast that gave the protagonist of a game or manga a cheat item before they went off to face the demon lord¡ which in this case wouldn¡¯t be happening since I¡¯d been chosen to be the next demon lord. (Sorry hero, but you¡¯re on your own this time!)
Ok, so that was it for the normal bit. The rest just left me confused.
Getting an Ultimate skill was wild. In fact, it was probably something to rejoice about. Having an Ultimate skill already put me in the top percentage of this world¡¯s important figures. But then I suddenly get more?
Of course the gods are angry at me. Most of them probably didn¡¯t have Ultimate skills and yet here I was getting 4 or 6 of them. I would¡¯ve offered my head to the chopping block, but I¡¯d juste back from that so there was no point.
So, now let¡¯s discuss the actual Ultimate skills themselves. [Greed].
¡®I w-was right.¡¯
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
¡®I-I t-thought M-Myne m-must have been a sk-skill, remember?¡¯
¡®Nope, do you Akira?¡¯
¡®Of course not. Akkun is just talking out of his ass now¡ totally didn¡¯t happen.¡¯
¡®Hey!¡¯
The ultimate skill [Greed] broke up into two different Ultimate skills, [Authority of Avarice] and [Chained Mammon].
As I looked through the system right now, I drew my attention to the two chains that were attached to my body. A golden chain and a white one. When I saw them, I didn¡¯t give too much thought to them and assumed they were simply parts of the transformation, but nope, they were Ultimate skills given physical form.
The golden chain was [Chained Mammon] and the other was [Chained Lucifer]. Mammon and Lucifer were wrapped around my waist like a belt.
They both looked like simple essories, but Mammon allows me to make anything it touches mine whereas Lucifer allows me to project a false reality onto anything that sees or touches it. Both were described in vague ways, but long story short, Mammon was the ultimate thief and Lucifer was the ultimate politician. Not much difference, but it works.
[Authority of Avarice] and [Authority of [Pride] were a little bit disappointing. Both gave me ess to all skills under their varying branches, but that felt a bit redundant since Mammon and Pride both did all of those things by themselves. It felt like there had to be more to them, but I couldn¡¯t quite figure out more on those.
Then there were the new unique skills I received. [Limitless], [Infinite Processor] and [Mammon¡¯s Treasurers]. [Limitless] essentially turned my stomach into a never-ending pit. I was unsure what the difference was from [World Eater], but maybe I would find out one day.
[Infinite Processor] turned the space inside [Limitless] into a math ssroom¡
I¡¯m kidding.
I was just aputer and [Infinite Processor] was my RAM. The exnation¡¯s a bit muddy, but think of it like all tasks were performed in a space where time didn¡¯t flow or exist. Basically, I could perform any fusion in there for an indefinite amount of time and it would appear near instantly over here.
¡®I think our stomach is a pocket dimension now.¡¯
¡®Right? The hell you mean ¡°a space where time doesn¡¯t flow or exist¡±!? What the hell did our stomach turn into?¡¯
¡®I could s-store s-s-so m-many b-battle ready sp-spells there. M-Maybe I can f-freely ex-experiment in there too. Hehehe.¡¯
¡®Huh¡ looks like it¡¯s just me and you now, Kira. Akkun¡¯spletely enthralled by this.¡¯
¡®Looks like it. But I think I¡¯ll also spend a lot of time there. That¡¯s an infinite number of skill fusions I can perform. And if you eat enough substances, I could start working on actual physical alchemy. This is the chance of a life time.¡¯
Oh. Looks like I was all alone inside my own head¡ bummer.
Then again, they were probably being like this because of thest new unique skill, [Mammon¡¯s Treasurer]. They were greedy for power now, meaning they¡¯d just be constantly working on new ways to make us stronger.
¡°Mother!¡±, Out of the blue, Maou jumped onto myp. I sensed both Maou and Julianing towards me quite a while back, but chose to ignore them, not that it matters.
¡°We¡¯re still going with this mother thing, huh?¡±, I patted Maou on the head.
¡°Of course. What else would I call you?¡±
¡°Hinotori¡¡±
¡°Mother.¡±
¡°Hinotori.¡±
¡°Mother¡?¡±
¡°¡ Whatever. Where were you during this whole fiasco?¡±, Maou was far too stubborn for me to change his mind, so I eventually settled on changing the conversation topic.
¡°Here and there. I summoned a devil to protect me though.¡±, As he said this, my gaze was directed towards the ugly man in the back dressed in a butler¡¯s uniform.
He immediately prostrated himself before me once he entered my sights, and didn¡¯t dare to lift his head up.
¡°Uuuh, why is he doing that?¡±, [Hell¡¯s Damned Monarch] and [Makrov¡¯s Blessing] had been removed, meaning I shouldn¡¯t be releasing any sort of fear gas to devils near me.
¡®S-So beautiful.¡¯
Oh¡ he was one of those kinds of people.
I hadn¡¯t even tried to think about my new appearance mostly because my heart hurt every time the fact that I¡¯d grown smaller came to mind. If I looked like a twelve-year old before, I¡¯d say I was ten now. I was far too embarrassed to even allow my brain to wonder about my situation.
¡°The glorious supreme overlord of Larm awoken from her slumber, eviscerated her foes and now rests at a location far from her allies. How charmi-¡±
¡°Shut it with the crap, Julian.¡±, I cut off everybody¡¯s favourite eye-patch-wearing, chuuni vampire brat in a butler¡¯s uniform.
If he continued rambling, I was sure I¡¯d die from the cringe.
¡°Did Julian take care of you?¡±, I asked Maou, but the kitten didn¡¯t respond. I could feel his irritation at the mere mention of the vampire¡¯s name, so for the fun of it, I set him on fire.
¡°M-Mydy?¡±
¡°Yes, Julian?¡±
¡°It would seem you identally set me aze.¡±
¡°Is that so?¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
¡°I see. Anyway, did anything interesting happen aside the war?¡±, I returned my attention to Maou.
¡°Hmm, I wanted to go see Zana, but she was too far.¡±
That wasn¡¯t something I expected to hear. Since when did Maou actually care for someone other than myself? Did something happen when I left those two alone thest time?
¡°You really like Zana, huh?¡±
¡°I-I wouldn¡¯t say that¡¡±
¡°Pfft.¡±
I grabbed my mouth to stop anything further froming out.
¡°What was that?¡±
¡°Pfft¡ n-nothing¡ pfft.¡±
¡°That wasn¡¯t nothing. Are you fine?¡±
¡°Mhm. Everything¡¯s all good, tsun tsun~.¡±
Confused, Maou tilted his head while ring at me with his cat eyes. I couldn¡¯t help but burst intoughter after that.
As I sat inside Minerva¡¯s cave,ughing about Maou¡¯s tsundere personality, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder about what came next. Humans, demons, gods, what kind of crazy mission was waiting to drop on myp. The kind of anxiety I had was probably what presidents of countries on the brink of war felt every day. Still, something felt oddly calming about my entire situation. I guess I foundfort in the fact that I was strong enough to live peacefully now.
All that was left was to get Minerva back and to turn Larm into a stronghold. Once that happened, maybe I¡¯d just sleep for quite a bit.
<A/N: Jesus¡ we¡¯re now done with the second arc... well first (hell arc was supposed to be it''s own thing, but guess I ended up mixing the two) of the third volume: Monster Queen or whatever I called it earlier on. I wish I could say we¡¯re jumping right onto the Oxaivalon arc, but then I¡¯d be lying. I want to make a 10 - 20 chapters detour into the Winter Zone first. Honestly, it could be done after the Oxaivalon arc, but I don¡¯t n on making either a long arc, so I think I¡¯ll just do this first.
Well, Tori¡¯s officially in the higher echelons of the world. Considering whates next for her, she¡¯ll need at least this much to survive, but sometimes I wonder if making most of the gods her enemy was the right call here.
Um, saw ament saying I should bring back <A/N>s¡ tbh, I was happy to see that and said to myself I would, till I realised I have nothing to really say here. Maybe I can give a daily update, like how it¡¯s hot as hell in this sted country and I¡¯m sweating buckets every day. Or how I (not-so recently) found out there¡¯s a genre of music called Depressed Lo-fi and that¡¯s all I listen to apparently¡ there¡¯s something so soothing about it though, so when my friends go all ¡®WTF bro¡¯, I justugh it off and go right back into listening to it, because my choice in music just doesn''t resonate with most of them. I usually listen to, uh, I don''t know the genres of music¡ yeah, that¡¯s about it.>
Chapter 310 Non-Existent Guild
<h4>Chapter 310 Non-Existent Guild</h4>
Dhijan Hero Nation, Excelcior¡¯s Chambers
The great hero king mauled over a piece of paper he received some weeks back. The information the paper contained found a way to make him anxious, especially considering he received it simply a day after he sent his own letter to the recipients.
There was a knock, followed by the sound of the doors leading to his room being swung wide open. A pair of girls, clothed in armour came marching. Under normal circumstances, entry into his room without permission was uneptable, but considering who it was, he paid no mind to it. One of the girls, Veronica, came to a halt at the door whereas the other, Jeanne proceeded to his side and ced a letter on his desk.
He looked up to the woman, and his eyes met hers. She gave him a meaningful look, implying that the letter was something he wanted to take a look at. Quickly, he opened up the letter that bore the seal of the Holy Mexar Empire and zed through its contents at lightning-fast speed. Even then, he made sure to not miss a single word.
As soon as he was done, he ced the letter down then stood up, grabbing his sword from the side of his desk.
¡°Veronica, prepare the army. We march for the New Kyoto Empire at dawn.¡±
Excelcior had been waiting for confirmation from the Holy Mexar Empire for close to a month now, and the letter he just received was an approval from them. They would send aid to meet up with the Dhijan Hero Nation at a convenient spot, and together, form an alliance to overthrow the current threat situating in the New Kyoto Empire ¨C The Dark Church.
Veronica saluted at hismanded, and remained in position.
¡°What about the matter of the Mana Comet?¡±, Jeanne followed closely behind him with her hands folded over her waist.
¡°We¡¯ll simply have the other pdins deal with it. Yvon and Ajax have been summoned to their home countries, but Seiko, Ss and Jasmine should be enough to deal with that.¡±, He answered brusquely, as he sped out of the room.
Veronica followed immediately afterwards.
¡°How about sister Neburis and sister Rulis?¡±, Jeanne inquired, but Excelcior didn¡¯t give an answer to her question. Rather, Veronica spoke up in his stead.
¡°The fugitives Neburis and Rulis¡¯ whereabouts are still unknown.¡±
¡°Ah yes. With Sister Neburis¡¯ control over space, it is possible we may never see either of them again.¡±, Jeanne exasperated then held her face depressingly. ¡°I do hope both of them are faring well.¡±
¡°Their situation is of little relevance now.¡±, Excelcior stated while marching, his cape pping behind him.
¡°Still, Neburis¡¯ unique skill might havee in handy in the fight against this¡ Hyak¡ Pandemonium the [Ster Gazer] spoke off.¡±, Finding it difficult to pronounce the original world, Jeanne decided to simply mention it in the generalnguage.
¡°A cmity with the name Pandemonium, huh? Sounds like an absolute st. All I¡¯m worried about is this manaet she mentioned.¡±, Excelcior weed the idea of a new cmity. It was simply a new opportunity for him to fight something strong.
The manaet on the other hand was a much moreplex situation. Although he didn¡¯t want to admit it, the truth was that they would need Neburis if they were to handle that entire situation calmly. Unfortunately, they didn¡¯t have Neburis, so it fell to him to find a new solution to it.
¡°Seiko, Jasmine and Ss are already on their way there. Maybe Hiro too if he¡¯s not too busy doing his own thing like the others.¡±
As this trio sped down the hallway, an unexpected figure appeared inside Excelcior¡¯s room. This person, wearing a dirty brown robe over surprisingly clean light-armour rummaged through the papers on Excelcior¡¯s desk.
She picked up all the letters she could find and sped through them, trying to get a gist of what was happening without her knowledge.
As soon as she finished reading them, she ced them down then disappeared into thin, leaving absolutely no trace. Almost as if she was never even there.
_________________________
¡°Eek!?¡± the girl shrieked as she jumped into the air. Her party members all looked back at her, with one of them actually going towards her to look at her entire body.
¡°What happened? Did you get hurt?¡±, Like a concerned parent, he scanned her from head to toe to see if she¡¯d been injured in any way, but she pulled back.
¡°N-no¡¡±, She replied bashfully.
¡°Then why did you scream?¡±
¡°I just felt some shock, that¡¯s all.¡±
¡®Shock?¡±
¡°Yeah, sort of like a lightning bolt.¡±
The guy backed up then gave an eye signal to his partner.
¡°Survey the area to the North, I¡¯ll check to the south. If you sense anything, report back to me immediately or take care of it. Daryl, Celica, Nika, watch them."
Leaving that order, both Seiko and Jasmine walked out in opposite directions. What remained was a party of eight; four adventurers and four teenagers. The teenagers all gathered around the girl who screamed to check on her as well, whereas the adventurers maintained a safe distance and kept their eye out for any danger.
¡°Someone¡¯s a bit jumpy.¡±, Akari teased with folded arms and a light smile.
¡°Hehe, sorry. Still, it¡¯s nothingpared to how Seiko¡¯s been acting since we left Dhijan.¡±, Shiro responded, talking about how Seiko had suddenly gone into an overprotective state since leaving the hero nation.
¡°Well, you¡¯ve got to understand him. We are in Larm of all ces. Any strong beast could just jump out and attack us.¡±, Daisuke added on.
¡°True. I guess I have to cut him some ck, huh?¡±
¡°I would have said that, but his behaviour has been a little¡ overbearing since we left.¡±, Daisuke¡¯s mind went back to the numerous times Seiko had nagged on them. Even someone as patient as him could only deal with so much without umting a level of resentment.
¡°That was kind of random though, huh? The lightning I mean.¡± Kana started poking Shiro¡¯s cheeks.
¡°Yeah. Th-that made me re-member something. Stop that already!¡±, Shiro was trying to push Kana off. The rowdy girl was getting too close and was sniffing her like a wild beast. Aside the weirdness of it all, the freakishly close proximity between the two made Shiro ufortable.
¡°Oh?¡±, Kana stopped for a moment, curious by what Shiro meant. ¡°What was it?¡±
¡°A familiar I had. She¡¯s dead though, so I might be reading too much into this.¡±
Just then, Karma who had been walking closely behind Shiro looked up. Images of a certain golden chick came to Karma¡¯s mind and for the very first time, Karma started to feel something.
¡°Eh? One of your familiars died? I thought those guys were practically unkible.¡±
¡°Well, I¡¯m not the average summoner that just calls for help from random spirits. I form contracts with very specific living creatures, which is much better and harder than what most summoners do.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t spirits count as living creatures?¡±, Akari pointed out, so Shiro decided to perform a little bit of a demonstration.
¡°Spirits are all around us, but they exist in a ne we can¡¯t interact with. Summoners call forth spirits into our ne to help out with somethings, like this.¡±, She opened her palm and a magic circle formed in it. From it, a little palm sized creature appeared.
¡°Since this little bugger isn¡¯t from our world, conventional means can¡¯t kill them, although they can be forcefully returned to their world if enough force is used like this.¡±, Shiro casted a ball of fire which encased the spirit, making it disappear.
¡°Contracted familiars on the other hand are different, since you can only have a familiar from your own world or ne. They don¡¯t suddenly disappear when they take immense amounts of damage and their power output isn¡¯t limited by any rules governing interdimensional travel. Since Karma is from here, the amount of power she¡¯d be allowed to use vastly differs from the amount of power a dragon summoned from a different ne would be allowed to use. It¡¯s like how tourists are given stricter rules than the actual citizens are back home.¡±
¡°Booriing! Tell me more about this familiar. What was it like?¡±, Kana wasn¡¯t here for a lecture and had more interest in stories.
Shiro, havinge to terms with this girl¡¯s nature simply sighed and smiled.
¡°Hinotori was a golden chick.¡±
_________________________
I left the clean up to Reiman. He¡¯d been knocked out cold earlier, but nothing too life threatening. I wanted to get an organised report of everything before I made any decisions.
As I said this, most of everyone was asleep and I was the only one awake. I could see a crap load of sleeping hob-goblins as they evolved. That wasn¡¯t a scene I could easily describe.
Besides that, there was the issue of the sky. I¡¯d chosen to ignore this, but it was far too freaky now. For some reason, I could see several figures looking down on us from the sky. A bunch of people shaped clouds were watching me, frowning it seems.
¡®W-What the heck?¡¯
<<Those are gods>>
¡®Gods?¡¯
<<Or higher beings. They must have been observing the battle before we arrived.>>
¡®D-Doesn¡¯t exin why I can see them¡ I mean, I know most of them don¡¯t like me now, but still.¡¯
[Grimm: Oh boss, you¡¯re back? That¡¯s great!]
[Me: Is that so? I wish I could¡¯ve slept more.]
[Grimm: Haha, same here.]
[Me: What¡¯s that supposed to mean?]
[Grimm: Oh, uh, I got sent on a mission and was about to report back to Reiman, but I guess I should just give it to you right here]
Honestly, since I wasn¡¯t up to date on what was happening, I felt like the right move to make here was to actually give the information to Reiman, but I was kind of interested.
[Me: Sure.]
[Grimm: Alright, so¡]
Grimm had been sent on a mission to investigate the appearance of Sundane soldiers in the North. The Sundane Kingdom was a rtively small kingdom that sat in between Keimen and the Winter Zone, making it a rtively cold ce. Back to the point, during his investigation, he found out that it actually wasn¡¯t the Sundane kingdom up there. Rather, the ¡®Sub-Circle¡¯ ¨C an underground organisation that I faced off already ¨C was busily trying to get ess to resources from Larm.
I wasn¡¯t sure when it happened, but if I had to estimate it was about a few days after Goliath died. Somehow, that information spread to all the kingdoms in this continent and they all signed an agreement that no one was to touch Larm yet.
Of course, there were some people greedy enough to actually want to do this first, but fear of having entire nations after them made most kingdoms and organisations wait. Of course, one organisation was fearless enough to pull a stupid n like this out of their ass.
The ¡®Sub-Circle¡¯ wanted to get as much ore as possible from the North to be ahead of theirpetitors, but how could they, one of the biggest crime organisations, move without others finding out about their ns? The answer was simple. They wouldn¡¯t.
All they had to do was maintain a fa?ade of them being busy with other things, like sending special packages all the way to a ¡®secret kingdom¡¯. Rumours would fly that these packages were ship-loads of teleportation rings that are difficult to acquire and some ¡®random adventurers¡¯ while passing the Demise Mountains happened to see a group of soldiers in armour unique to the Sundane Nation marching to Larm.
Considering Sundane¡¯s location, them using teleportation rings to March on the North of Larm without being sighted or suspected by anyone made the most sense and was hardly a refutable im. However, having covered up their tracks, the ¡®Sub-Circle¡¯ still didn¡¯t have a way to protect their men from the tyrants.
Or so one would think, but they already had a deal with both the North and East, brokered by Krull¡¯s son, Karon.
He had heard about their cloning projects and was interested in it. So in exchange for the North and East allowing them to freely mine as much as they wanted, the Sub-Circle simply had to help Karon through their clone technology. Grimm wasn¡¯t sure what Karon wanted to clone, since this was as much as they were willing to tell him, feeling a bit wary of him.
I could make a guess that he wanted to clone more War Ogres without even having to confirm this from him. Even if they ended up losing most of their soldiers, as long as they got ess to cloned war ogres, they would eventually have the ultimate army.
You had to admit that Karon was unusually smart for Krull¡¯s kid. Then again, when I thought more about it, Kara was also really smart, having made something of herself even after Krull did everything possible to weaken her. I didn¡¯t know much about Kiara, but from Krull¡¯s memories she was in charge of diplomatic matters with other nations.
When you had these kinds of really impressive kids, you would start to wonder just what the heck Krull was on. He¡¯d never made a single really smart decision in his life, but his kids had super bright futures with their intelligence alone, not to mention their battle capabilities which were already above the average.
Back to the point, their n was risky, but smart. Then again, an organisation wouldn¡¯t have risen to this level of influence if they didn¡¯t take any risks. I¡¯d originally have immediately teleported to their location to stop their ns and send a threat to them, but I had other ns.
Specifically, the guild both Reiman and I had been building in Keimen in secret. It should have been ready forunch by now.
Oh? You want to know howe a guild I haven¡¯t personally worked on or showed any progress off is fully functional in a month or two? The answer¡¯s simple actually.
You see, making a venture requires a lot of thinking. Logistics, money, human resources and the legality of that venture. Due to the fact that I wasn¡¯t a human, I couldn¡¯t legally own a business in Keimen and neither could I easily acquire the human resources or figure out simple architecture. Even with Reiman¡¯s help, none of these things were possible. Maybe, with Grimm¡¯s aid, all of these things could be done, but I honestly didn¡¯t want to have to go through the trouble of actually having to figure these things out.
Rather, I came up with the super brilliant n of simply not making this guild!
That¡¯s right, my super ultra-master n was to make a non-existent guild. Aren¡¯t I a genius?
I took inspiration from my experience with the Sikari Guild. No one could be faulted for believing that they didn¡¯t exist. They were so secretive and illusive that proof of their existence was fickle, but that made their name quite popr and gave it a sense of great importance.
Using that kind of logic, I realised I could easily make a guild off of notoriety itself. There didn¡¯t have to be a guild building, or guild members or a legal contract. The guild¡¯s name simply had to exist for the guild itself to be a reality.
Reiman had the shadow soldiers, shadow rats and some goblins take care of adventurer requests from guilds in secret, and leave no proof that they were there. However, there¡¯d always have to be a single ¡®witness¡¯ of some kind to spread rumours of them dealing with it.
How was this a protective measure against humans?
Well, this guild of ours simply had no alignments in particr. This was supposed to be a rule for guilds in general, but it was obvious that there were unspoken alignments. For instance, the Adventurer¡¯s Guild in Keimen didn¡¯t particrly like demi-humans and the adventurers were always forced as tools of war should the timee.
In times like these where war could break out at any moment, it wouldn¡¯t be shocking that an adventurer wouldn¡¯t want to participate, however since it was their only source of ie, they had no choice but to participate in these wars.
If a guild with absolutely no alignments were toe up, of course most of those adventurers would run to it. The n was to take away a major fighting force of the humans, which was the adventurers. Considering the sort of missions they take; it was no overstatement to say the average adventurer was stronger than the average soldier.
Launching the guild meant we¡¯d be taking in members. However, the only problem was that the only people willing to join us were the weaker adventurers. The stronger ones who didn¡¯t really mind fighting in a war didn¡¯t care about or guild¡¯s existence. I needed a better incentive for them.
However, we now had a solution to that problem!
¡®I didn¡¯t think we¡¯d ever make use of this guy again.¡¯
I looked at the blob of flesh that remained stationary at the furthest corner of the prison cell.
¡°Rise and shine, McAllister.¡±
<A/N: I said I¡¯d focus more on the human side of things over 50+ chapters ago, and I¡¯m only now keeping to that promise¡ whoopsie. Even as I say this, I know I¡¯m somehow going to deviate in this arc and keep the humans out for a little bit. Meh. Have a good day and thanks for reading!>
Chapter 311 First Steps Into The Underworld
<h4>Chapter 311 First Steps Into The Underworld</h4>
Percy McAllister POV
¡°We are rich. There are no consequences to our actions, so feel free to spoil yourself some more.¡±
This is the very first thing I remember hearing from my mother¡¯s lips. Of course, this simply went back to when I was 3 or so, but that one sentence stuck with me my whole life.
I was born into the McAllister family. We were among the higher echelons of noble society in Keimen, but I didn¡¯t have a father. Not that that mattered. Mother didn¡¯t treat me any differently, and neither did anyone else. To them, I was simply a very special boy.
But then it happened. Mother suddenly became poor. ording to the servants, misfortune hit us in the form of a monster from Larm. A creature caused so much havoc that the title ¡®Witch¡¯ was given to this creature. In one easy swoop, this creature managed to turn my life from heaven into hell.
My mother couldn¡¯t deal with it. Neither the rioting from the poor folk who no longer saw any value in the nobles nor the insufferably stupid plots the other nobles came up with to save their hides. Mother never said she was intelligent, but I believe her act of suicide was incredibly smart. If she didn¡¯t, she would be tortured by the rioters once caught, and even if that didn¡¯t happen, she definitely couldn¡¯t live the life of a poor person. That could mostly be attributed to the fact that she was growing old.
I on the other hand, chose to live. I definitely didn¡¯t want to live the life of a poor man, and I never intended to. I had already prepared myself for any sort of misfortune. It was simply something I¡¯d learned from researching my father.
Take the story of my father for instance. From the way everyone talked, I surmised that my father wasn¡¯t anybody important. Most likely simply a pastime for my mother in her earlier years. My curiosity couldn¡¯t allow me to ignore him, so I did a little background check.
That man was dead.
An unsurprising discovery, but the news that followed shocked me. He died of a disease on a king-sized bed in a mansion after receiving medical attention from some of the world¡¯s best doctors. He had a wife and two sons, all of whom were alive, healthy and quite rich.
This didn¡¯t make sense to me, so I looked further into him.
This man was born poor. He grew up poor. He was a ve at one point and was sold off to multiple ces, till he eventually became a prostitute in an organisation called ¡®Tyvnn¡¯s Night Pce¡¯. From being a ve, this man worked his way up into bing one of the most important workers in this organisation.
ording to the report, he had an uncanny ability to coax the nobles that paid to spend the night with him into constantly ordering for him. He whispered honeyed words into those gullible nobles and stole a lot from right under their noses.
Mother was one of those nobles, and even then, she got left with me. Still, he managed to get so deep into her head, she never once considered treating me like trash. Probably because she actually didn¡¯t care one bit about that entire situation.
After duping the nobles, he run away to the Mexar Empire where very was condoned and ¡®Tyvnn¡¯s Night Pce¡¯ wouldn¡¯t be able to get their hands on him. He found a woman and married her, then they got kids. He died when I turned twenty-four. Ten years years prior to the incident with the Mad Witch of the West.
There was a lesson to be learnt from these two. Although they came from very different backgrounds, they both still ended up dying in pathetic ways. They simply had a stupid misconception. They assumed that by having enough money, they would be alleviated of all consequences. Mother died out of suicide and that man died from multiple STD¡¯s he¡¯d contracted while working to achieve his money.
They just didn¡¯t get it. Being rich didn¡¯t suddenly remove all consequences. Being special did. And that was what I was. Special.
I had already begun to form an organisation a year after I researched into this man.
Not a single one of my des was of noble origin. A mad scientist pair, a human trafficker and a smuggler. Together, we formed a group known as the ¡®Sub-Circle¡¯ and quickly rose to power in the underworld. After the incident with the Mad Witch and my mother¡¯s death, I decided it was time to take my ce as the king of Keimen.
Truly, there were absolutely no consequences for a man like me. Power, money and all the pretty little girls I could have ever wanted. They were all ced before me. I indeed was special¡
¡
I thought I was different¡ special. But I wasn¡¯t. My actions really did have consequences.
Subsequently during the ¡®Sub-Circles¡¯ rise to power, a pair of well-known mercenaries came to join. They quickly rose up the ranks and both became my personal attendants. Red and Grimm ck.
Unexpectedly, Red was my daughter¡ erh, son. I had someone perform experiments to convert males to females, just for the fun of it, and used it on my son. After that, I got bored with the experiment and order for his death. Somehow, he survived and came back to my door with an assistant. A vampire.
Both were nning for my downfall, but it would seem they weren¡¯t the only ones. The universe itself was seeking to prove me wrong.
A monster captured me. Put me in my own dungeons and has done nothing but tortured me. Sometimes, when the monster didn¡¯te down to torture me, I was left feeling anxious. With every loud sound I heard from above, I felt that I was inching dangerously towards death, but the monster never seemed to give that to me.
However, for some time, I hadn¡¯t heard or seen the monster. asionally, a monster with the form of Red woulde down to feed me poisoned food, but even they hadn¡¯t beening aroundtely. It was even worse with the numerous explosions and earthquakes I¡¯d experienced.
Which was why right now, even as I sat in the darkness, my heart beats alone sounded like explosions. The sense that something bad was going to happen to me had magnified tenfold. Somehow, I¡¯d gone several days without torture, obviously they were saving me for something far worse.
A treatment beyond my understanding and a level of pain beyond manageable for me.
I wanted to die, but they wouldn¡¯t allow me. I was being monitored all the time, so even if I tried, I¡¯d be stopped then punished. Death wasn¡¯t an option for me. I couldn¡¯t remember thest time I¡¯d seen light. I never noticed just how dark the cers were until spending some time here.
How many days had it been? Weeks? Months? Maybe even a year.
¡°Rise and shine, McAllister.¡±
Like a ghost, a figure simply popped up before me, radiating a certain light that could only be called holy. A beautiful, child-like entity who I could only describe as ¡®God¡¯.
She looked at me with a confident smile. I could feel her vermillion gaze healing me little by little.
Maybe¡ just maybe, I really was special. There was no way God would appear before someonemon, right?
***
¡®G-God!?¡¯
That was the nonsense Percy McAllister spouted when he first saw me. I didn¡¯t pay any attention to that and rather healed him up to a somewhat presentable state and brought him up to speed.
I needed him to do some work. He was still technically the boss of the ¡®Sub-Circle¡¯ and so I could use him to my advantage.
ording to Grimm¡¯s report, there was a meeting for members of the ¡®Sub-Circle¡¯ a few nights back, but not a single member was present. They all sent projection stones to hold a conversation and both Grimm and Kawaii were the only physically present members which caused a bit of a shock for the other members.
It wasn¡¯t a matter of them being present, but rather that they were both still alive. It had been over a month and no one had heard word from either of them. It was natural to assume they were dead, but this then raised questions about if their boss was alive.
Both Grimm and Kawaii immediately confirmed his death to them, but that didn¡¯t matter. I nned for them to simply say Percy had ordered them to keep his status a secret till he wanted it confirmed.
Ignoring that, the reason I wanted Percy was because of his men in the North. I wouldn¡¯t mind just flying up to the North and wiping them out then threatening the ¡®Sub-Circle¡¯ into promoting my guild, but that was far too risky.
Without a doubt, I would be putting a ban on the mining or whatever they were doing there, but I preferred to do it in a less aggressive manner. With Percy as their leader, we could make them stop the mining, while investing into our guild and spreading its name to people of power.
Also, with his connections and power, there were limitless benefits to having him alive. I¡¯d originally kept him alive as a bargaining chip in case the ¡®Sub-Circle¡¯ decided toe after us with everything they had, but right now, I honestly didn¡¯t feel like anything in this world could hurt me.
There was also the matter of the cloning projects. I wanted to stop them from cloning more war ogres, but I decided not to. The universe went to some extreme extents to make more of them. I wasn¡¯t going to stand in its way¡ I also just wanted an army of war ogres. I mean, it¡¯s freaking war ogres! Who the hell wouldn¡¯t want that!?
This man was oddly enthusiastic about it.
I exined to him the dangers of trying to double cross me and let him know that both Grimm and Kawaii were going to be monitoring him in my stead. I also ced a shadow demon in his shadow to end him in case he betrayed me, as well as to protect him from any unseen dangers.
As soon as that was done, I created a portal that led straight to where Grimm and Kawaii where for this man to appear. They¡¯d dress him up then hold a meeting for ¡®Sub-Circle¡¯ and it was mandatory that everyone was present. They¡¯d need to have an in-person meeting with their new business partner ¨C me.
Having solved my problems quickly, a new issue came up almost immediately.
Both Kuro and Shitsuke came before me, in new bodies. Those were corpses that they¡¯d taken over. I signed a demon contract with them that allowed them to remain in this world for an indefinite amount of time provided I gave them about 10 corpses and 50 souls each.
It wasn¡¯t like they wanted it, but that was an alternative to me constantly supplying mana to them.
They then gave me a rundown of what happened once they popped up here.
They quickly went to find new bodies and ended up in fights to help the West. Shitsuke going up against Pride and Kuro going up against a devil. This devil being Maou¡¯s summon. I didn¡¯t get why both were fighting, but none of that mattered seeing as neither died.
Maou¡¯s summon was stronger than Kuro ording to him, so it was fortunate the war ended so quickly. Shitsuke on the other hand had me baffled. Of course, I knew that he was no slouch, but to have chosen to go up against [Pride] and to not die, I was left speechless.
He exined to me just what exactly he had done to keep [Pride] at bay, even if only for a moment.
¡®[War Room], eh? That¡¯s how Shitsuke managed to fight him, but he still broke out. In that case, the issue with [War Room] is its finiteness.¡¯
Don¡¯t get me wrong. [War Room] was an excellent ability, but if someone on the inside found it easy to shatter by simply overloading it with power, then it was pointless. The moment a spy got in and had enough power, there was no point.
In that case, the best thing to do was to remove this w. Eradicating the finiteness was also another issue, but maybe a solution woulde up.
<<It is possible to fix this problem>>
¡®Seriously?¡¯
<<We can eliminate [War Room]¡¯s limited area through a fusion with the skill [Limitless]>>
Oh¡ so to eradicate [War Room]¡¯s finiteness, if I could simply give it the infinite aspect of [Limitless], I¡¯d be done.
[Fusion of [Limitless] and [War Room] has created the unique skill [Infinite Corridor]]
Ah¡ eh?
T-That was a joke. A suggestion thrown to the wind. I didn¡¯t expect for such a fusion to bepleted so quickly.
<<Due to the Unique skill [Infinite Processor], time necessary for fusions and calctions have been reduced by an infinite amount>>
Oh, that was right. Basically skill fusions are performed instantaneously now. Go figure. But to think that it was this easy to create a unique skill. Maybe if I performed enough random fusions, I¡¯d end up with every conceivable unique skill in the world?
Yeah right. As if.
<A/N: I didn¡¯t expect it¡¯d be so easy to write Percy¡¯s backstory. I honestly hadn¡¯t thought about even giving him a backstory before this chapter. It was going to be ¡®Evil dude gets punished, finds God then decides to do the Lord¡¯s work¡¯. It¡¯s refreshing to put myself in new characters¡¯ shoes especially when I mostly focus on someone who doesn¡¯t even say what they are thinking or doing most of the time.
Meh, also just realised how many new characters I¡¯m about to simply spam. Tori might even take the backseat for a while. She isn¡¯t done growing mentally/spiritually, but her physical abilities are at the point where she doesn¡¯t even nee to be counting the days anymore.
Ugh, I¡¯m rambling on. Anyway, just got some kfc¡ I always regret it every time I buy that, but I can¡¯t stop. Have a nice day.>
Chapter 312 Promises
<h4>Chapter 312 Promises</h4>
¡°I refuse.¡±
¡°Huh?¡±
¡°I. Refuse.¡±
¡°Oi, at least tell me why?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve seen the records of the previous dungeon core.¡± The hollow voice said. ¡°That dungeon core had the pleasure to be one of the Kaleb Zen¡¯s personal assistants in most of his projects. Imagine having been there to converse with the greatest genius of all time. I refuse to be a downgrade of that.¡±
Some of you may be confused, well I am too.
I came down here, into my dungeon which I rightfully obtained after clearing it. The original owner himself said it was mine now and I even powered it up myself. I purposefully let it grow to attain enough mana to grow sentient all for it to just blow up in my face.
Calmly and reasonably, I exined to the dungeon core that I was going to be too busy to take care of it, so it would have to manage itself and eventually grow powerful, only for it to refuse my order. I couldn¡¯t even call it an order. A request felt much more suitable.
Why did it refuse? Because it wanted to feel important! I knew it grew sentience, but I didn¡¯t expect it to suddenly be an egotistical bastard!
To be honest, I was tempted to pass the job off to one of my counterparts or even have a servant take care of it, but all mes were already busy ensuring my survival. The next best thing was the servants and if I narrowed it down to a list of people I one hundred percent trusted with the job, I had only Reiman.
Not like the others couldn¡¯t do a good job. I simply calcted that Reiman¡¯s efficiency was far above almost everyone I talked to. He was that stereotypical sryman who just does everything excellently for a promotion. However, I wasn¡¯t a ve driver. Even I could understand that the sort of workload he was working with could make a man copse.
The next best thing I could think of was the dungeon core itself.
What I originally had nned was for the core to act as A.I assistant. A personal Jarvis so to say, that¡¯d be working on the dungeon and giving me frequent updates and suggestions as I organised everything. Just like the agent was supposed to be doing. Then¡ I gotzy. I was just going to shove all the work on the dungeon and make it do all my work for me.
If things got cumbersome, I¡¯d have the agent fix it up for me. Giving the way I was now, I didn¡¯t have to lift a single finger to get anything done! I simply had to coerce everyone around me into doing my bidding. Slowly, I¡¯ll amass a massive empire and be the king of this world. Money, power, workers, everything would eventually be mine! I really would attain everything this world has to offer and more¡
But this shitty Dungeon core didn¡¯t want to work.
¡°Ohe on, you¡¯re still the same dungeon, no? Kaleb Zen¡¯s already been in you before¡ pfft.¡±, I couldn¡¯t help myself.
¡°That was not me. That, was the dungeon core before me.¡±
¡°Ah¡ so what exactly do you want? It¡¯s not like you¡¯ll ever see Kaleb Zen again.¡±
Whether it liked it or not, the fact was that Kaleb Zen was dead. The details of his death were unknown, but no one¡¯s heard of him in quite a while, so it¡¯s best to say that he¡¯s dead. There was nothing neither of us could do about it.
¡°That is true¡ in that case, I would need something else.¡±, Finally, the dungeon core stopped obsessing over the dead man and moved onto something else.
¡°Oh? What is that?¡±
¡°I want to be the ultimate Kaleb Zen Treasury!¡±
The core dered its intentions boldly. I was holding myself back from grabbing the core¡¯s physical form and shattering it in that moment. Sadly, if I did that, I¡¯d have no dungeon core and the dungeon would remain dead. I needed it alive to make some profit.
¡°The hell is that supposed to mean!?¡± I could feel a vein about to burst in my head and I wasn¡¯t even sure if I had veins anymore.
¡®Ah, do phoenixes have veins? I don¡¯t bleed¡ I just burn or something, right?¡¯
<<Although your physical structure is distinct from most lifeforms, you still do possess veins>>
¡°I wish to have Lord Kaleb Zen¡¯s treasure in here!¡±, the core interrupted my lesson with a bullshit statement.
¡°And how the hell am I supposed to acquire Kaleb Zen¡¯s treasure?¡±, I didn¡¯t know the man personally. I doubted on his death he just said ¡°You want my treasure? You can have it I left everything I gathered together in one ce. Now you''ll just have to find it!"
¡°ording to my records, Kaleb Zen left some of his most valuable treasures in two other dungeons. The closest one is located in the Winter Zone.¡±
¡®Winter Zone? Is that where Kaleb Zen said his dungeon was?¡¯
<<He mentioned the crimson fields which can be located between the Demise Mountains and Fairy ins. The B rank dungeon <Yellow Springs> >>
¡®Oh? Thanks for that!¡¯
¡°If I go grab some treasures from this dungeon, you promise to spec this ce up?¡±, I asked, trying to make a deal.
¡°If you do this, I promise to turn this ce into hell for intruders.¡±
¡°¡ That sounds kinda sus, but alright then. We¡¯ve got a deal. I¡¯ll bring some treasures as soon as I leave.¡±
All I had to do was pop in and pop out with treasure. Easy-peasy. Even I could pull off such a heist. I mean, not to brag, but I was the person to steal from the king of the underworld after all.
We had a deal. I¡¯d have to go out, but it couldn¡¯t be now.
¡°Could you start now then? I¡¯ll need to sort out a few things before I can leave, is that alright with you?¡±
There were a few minutes of silence before the core responded approvingly. I was about to march out the dungeon when I sensed a familiar personing my way. Normally, I¡¯d have just teleported to go do something else without batting an eye, but I chose to wait.
¡°Big sis! I knew it was you!¡±, Ulva said as she jumped into my arms giddily, causing me to stumble back a bit.
¡°Woah there! You¡¯re getting a bit heavy.¡±, I lifted her up in a hug. From an objective point of view, it was quite weird since I was smaller than Ulva in my human form. Ignoring that, there was something about seeing Ulva¡¯s bright smile that just made me happy.
Following closely behind her were two children of a height simr to mine. One was Arisu and the other was a dark-skinned boy with horns and bunny ears - He. I honestly didn¡¯t expect to see He ever again, especially not in a humanoid form and acting as Ulva¡¯s bodyguard.
Then again, I assumed it had something to do with Ulva¡¯s new unique skill [Doting Touch]. The skill made anything or anyone she touched want to submit to her¡
I wanted to lie that I didn¡¯t know what the hell could have caused her to develop such a skill, but I got the sense it had something to do with me. This was probably a cry for more attention in the most roundabout way possible.
Maybe I needed to pamper her lots more. If she was strong enough to fight in the war without taking any damage, then she had probably done enough training with Grimm. And given that he¡¯d be a lot busier with the guild, he definitely didn¡¯t have time to teach her anymore.
Oh well, it¡¯s still a win.
¡°I haven¡¯t grown any bigger. You just grew smaller.¡±, Ulva teased my new size. It was bothering me that I grew smaller in my human form. Something wasn¡¯t adding up here, but I couldn¡¯t quite ce my finger on it. In the end, I just had to assume the system master¡ Alpha, had a hand in this.
¡°Meh. I¡¯m just d to see you¡¯re doing alright.¡±, I gently dropped her down then patted her on the shoulder because I couldn¡¯t reach her head¡ this was just wrong.
¡°Of course! I even helped Reiman out, see?¡± She gestured to He, as if that exined the entire situation to me. The bunny boy red at me with unflinching eyes and I responded in kind, not sure what his problem was.
Ulva exined that Reiman had both her and Arisu go out in search of He. Their mission was to either knock him unconscious or ensure that the enemy didn¡¯t use him for any nefarious plot of theirs. He was right about them trying to use a slumbering monster against us, but he probably gave this order before he found out that they were looking for the Ursa Major.
I had to hand it to Reiman. His instincts and foresight were leagues better than anyone I knew.
I decided to sit down and have a conversation with Ulva. I found it amazing that she didn¡¯t run out of things to talk about even though it had only been a month. Then again, a lot could happen in a month. I was probably just downying things.
Arisu and He stood back like guards, but once I told them to act normally, Arisu scuttled next to me and decided to rest on myp, whereas He sat next to Ulva, still ring at me. He even allowed her to pat his head, showing me one of the funniest faces I¡¯d ever seen.
After spending about thirty minutes with her, I told her to get some sleep. This was mostly because I was furious. ording to Arisu, Julian had mistreated Ulva on more than one asion. Maou was the one who stopped him, but every time both were in close proximity, the chuuni bastard tried to shorten her lifespan.
I had to hunt him down and make him pay for disrespecting. However, the moment I left the room, all my anger subsided, almost as if it was fake. I didn¡¯t understand why, but I suddenly didn¡¯t care anymore.
¡®Ah, that¡¯s right. Did you get what you were searching for?¡¯, I directed a question to the agent.
<<Yeah¡ I found the origin of my sickness.>>
¡®Oh? Does it affect me?¡¯
<<No. Rest assured, it¡¯ll affect me and me alone>>
¡®Eh? What sickness is it?¡¯
<<I forget¡ everything I learn>>
¡®So¡ you have Alzheimer¡¯s. We¡¯re twinning now.¡¯
<<No. It¡¯s a curse. And there¡¯s no fixing it>>
Oh¡ so we really were twinning.
¡®Huh. You know anything else? Like who did this to you?¡¯
<<Yes. The Chaos God, or something. I only saw glimpses, so I¡¯m not sure. I¡ I had a family, but they¡ they are all gone>>
I wasn¡¯t expecting that.
The agent¡¯s monotone voice sounded¡ sad. I wasn¡¯t sure how tofort her, so I chose to do the next best thing.
¡®Don¡¯t be sad, because being sad makes you sad. Be happy.¡¯
<<¡>>
¡®Ok, that was a terrible joke.¡¯
<<Absolute garbage>>
No need to rub it in!
¡®All I¡¯m saying is, we¡¯ll find a way to undo the curse on you.¡¯
<<How? The archive I contain has no records on means to deal with such a thing.>>
¡®So? It doesn¡¯t matter if such a thing doesn¡¯t exist! We¡¯ll make it exist! And even if we can¡¯t, then all I need to do is beat up that Chaos God¡¯s ass, right? We¡¯ll definitely fix you up, so don¡¯t be sad! Or something¡ God this sounds cringe.¡¯
<<¡ Why?>>
¡®Hm?¡¯
<<Why would you do that?>>
¡®Why wouldn¡¯t I do that? We¡¯re partners after all. We¡¯re even twins now with our memory problems.¡¯
<<But->>
¡®Nope. Don¡¯t try to make any objections. I¡¯m already beet red from embarrassment. Don¡¯t make this any sadder than it has to be. I fight for you and you fight for me. That¡¯s how we do this. You (the agent) have always been with me since Day 1, so it just feels right to be there for you at your time of need.¡¯
Nope. Nope. What the hell was I spouting? This was beyond cringe. Aah, this never happened. This absolutely never happened.
***
As Hinotori closed off the conversation from embarrassment, a change had begun to take ce within the agent. An unfathomable direction for the emotionless demon had been opened up. The agent was starting to¡ feel.
A concept that was foreign to it. If this was the skill [God¡¯s Voice], it most likely would have copsed from the foreign element. However, this was not [God¡¯s Voice], but a far moreplicated entity.
Unbeknownst to the two, they had already taken their first steps towards curing the Agent.
Chapter 313 City Project
<h4>Chapter 313 City Project</h4>
Day 115
¡°This is a report on everything that happened during the past month, including yesterday¡¯s events.¡±, Smacking folders down on my desk, Reiman informed me.
I took the folders and appraised them, honestly impressed that Reiman actually documented everything on paper. In fact, I was curious as to when Reiman had learned to write, but I didn¡¯t say anything in order to avoid offending him. After all, Reiman was easily the mostpetent creature in Larm. I wouldn¡¯t be shocked if he learned reading and writing just in case of anything. That was simply the kind of man he was.
He must have acquired the folders, paper and ink from one of the offices in the mansion. Although this mansion was structured solely for Percy McAllister, it had several offices. There was one massive office which clearly belonged to him, but the others were smaller and had items a person like Percy wouldn¡¯t use. Most likely, those were the offices of his other workers who attended to other things for him.
Inside the folders, I got aption of events, ns and strategies Reiman had employed or was nning to employ during the war. His ns were turned upside down at the end it seems, but he still made the best of what he could, given his opponents unusual strategies. All this while providing aid to the South in a way. Well, we were lucky the South could spare some food for the cyclopes, because those guys were going to render us starving during the war. The cyclopes could fight and build. Aside their benefits, the cyclopes were walking burdens that I didn¡¯t want to deal with.
Leaving them in the hands of Reiman was the best thing to do, but I wasn¡¯t so cruel as to leave him with more work after what he¡¯d just done. The cyclopes would simply need to return to the North. The West most likely couldn¡¯t provide enough food for them in such short time periods.
The orcs and kobolds could return home at any point they wanted, but considering they were much more knowledgeable than we were in terms of infrastructure and smithery, I preferred them staying. The orc king was especially good at smithing apparently. And from the reports, both sides were eager to stay in the West, so I was willing to offer them their ce here as long as we could upgrade this ce.
At the moment, the West was going to undergo some serious renovations. Why you ask? Because everyone decided to grow bigger! Those shitty hob-goblins suddenly evolved into ogres or onis, depending on which were specialising in something. The ogres formed the majority, whereas the onis were specifically magic or elemental.
The Fenrir alliance, in coboration with the silver back panthers were still in charge of maintaining security around the borders of the West. Shiro, Unmei and the Silver-back Panther King were ensuring that no humans crossed into the West or even if they did, not dangerously close to where our operations were.
We had eyes and ears everywhere with Reiman¡¯s rats and the Fenrir alliance. I decided it¡¯d be great too if we could have eyes in the sky, but that wouldn¡¯t really work given the West didn¡¯t have many hignds.
As I looked through everything, I had a sudden realisation. The answer felt obvious, but I still had to ask.
¡°Suna didn¡¯t participate?¡±
¡°No. We¡¯ve been unable to make any contact with the nymphs or guppies. It seems theypletely vacated the West.¡±, He answered back quickly.
I looked through the folders and saw one with ¡®List of Potential Allies¡¯ written on it. It was at the very bottom of the pile, so I hadn¡¯t seen it yet. I read through it and saw a few cancelled-out names like wyverns, dark elves and water nymphs.
The reasons were listed as well. Under the water nymphs, the reason written was: ¡°Unavable¡±. Considering what I¡¯d seen in Antis, I wondered if something was happening that required the guppies to be taken down there. After all, they were brought here for their own safety. I imagined the journey to Antis alone must have been dangerous for them. Maybe I had to perform a check up on them. Not that I was excited to pay a visit to Elriek.
I shut the folder, then informed Reiman of my opinions on the entire situation.
The war was kind of messy, as all wars were. It was clear that Reiman had a decent level of control over the events, but things got out of hand towards the end and he had no real n to counter that. If I hadn¡¯t arrived, it was quite obvious that Reiman would have ended up losing. I berated him on that part. This wasn¡¯t a matter of me feeling superior or anything, but rather I felt that Reiman had gotten a bit carless. He relied too heavily on his new unique skill [Devil¡¯s Tactician], as stated in his reports.
The skill was one that broke down the current situation into a chess game for him to y around with. However, what he wasn¡¯t considering that living creatures couldn¡¯t be manipted like an actual chess game, especially in a war. There was too much happening, too many emotions and opinions circling. Unless he could perfectly manipte all of those, he would lose no matter how well he yed. Besides that, there was also the matter of outsmarting the opposing chess master. It was possible he was smarter, but the chess pieces didn¡¯t move like actual chess pieces. They jumped about the board in unconventional ways that would leave anyone watching bewildered.
Reiman assumed he¡¯d received a great power and was better than the opposing side, however that practically caused him the war in the end.
¡°Ah¡ yes, you¡¯re right.¡±, He bowed his head down apologetically.
¡°However, I must admit that it is impressive how you handled everything. You really were the best person for the job. I¡¯m d you¡¯re my general.¡±
This wasn¡¯t just lip service. I doubted anyone else under my service could have pulled it off. Reiman really deserved a lot of praise, ignoring the fact that he lost.
¡°I am d to hear that¡¡±, the look on his face was one of shock, awe and pride. I was surprised I could find so many emotions on a rat¡¯s face, but I was d that I could read his expressions.
¡°Alright then. Get the ogres, onis, orcs and kobolds to pick up the broken armour, weapons and corpses of the dead. It should barely be noticeable that a war took ce.¡±
I didn¡¯t revive the dead from outside the West. Why? I saw absolutely no need to. If we were low on man power, I¡¯d just summon shadows to take their ce. Shadow Fiends alone could do the job of an army and I had two of them at my side.
¡°Ah¡ wait, why weren¡¯t any of the shadow fiends involved in the final war?¡±, I just noticed that oddity.
Reiman froze, looking perturbed. This question caught him off-guard and clearly, he hadn¡¯t even wondered about it. He must have had so many things on his mind that it flew over him. With that, I¡¯d confirmed that it was no intentional y on his part, which meant there was only one culprit.
Maou. The kitten must have ordered the shadows to not interfere or something. That was the only logical exnation here. For what reasons, I couldn¡¯t figure out, but maybe it was time to discipline him.
¡°Never mind then. I think I know why.¡±
I leaned back into my seat and stretched, popping my joints and yawning in sweet relief. Reiman stood up and turned around to leave, but I stopped him.
¡°Oh, we aren¡¯t done.¡±
Confused, he returned to his seat and looked at me anxiously.
¡°I was nning on hosting a ceremony to honour the soldiers who aplished the most during this event in about a week¡¯s time, after the conference with the leaders from all sides of Larm.¡±
¡°Oh?¡±, Reiman was intrigued. I hadn¡¯t told him about my n yet, so it was no shocker that this was his reaction.
¡°However, I have no idea what sort of gift everyone would like.¡±, Yeah, that was the problem with these sorts of the things. The first time, everyone was satisfied with just a name. This time, giving them a new name felt redundant, but I couldn¡¯t think of what they wanted. For that reason, I came to test this out on Reiman.
¡°Would you like me to find out what they want?¡±, Eager to aid me, Reiman asked. However, that wasn¡¯t why I told him.
¡°No. I just want to know what you want.¡±, I stated inly.
¡°Eh?¡±, Too stunned by my statement, Reiman let out a sound he didn¡¯t usually make. His dumbfounded expression wasical to say the least.
¡°Your efforts in this endeavour can¡¯t be denied by anyone. It shoulde as no surprise that such effort needs to be rewarded. So, tell me what you want. I¡¯ll give it to you.¡±
Ok, cross sounding like a kind,petent, superior off my bucket list, cause I just fucking nailed it!
¡°I¡ I wish for nothing, My Lady.¡±, He bowed down to me. I was reading his mind the entire time, and nothing came to mind. He really wanted nothing from me. I was testing [Authority of Avarice] here to draw out his desires, but there was nothing. Reiman wanted absolutely nothing.
¡°Eh?¡±, Now I was making a stupid sound.
¡°If anything, please give me more chances to prove my worth.¡±, He said with ambitious eyes that resembled a puppy.
¡®Ah¡ what the hell? This guy¡¯s gung-ho aura is killing me. Isn¡¯t he tired of work or something?¡¯
Reiman was theplete opposite of me. Whereas I was looking for ways to avoid work, this man wanted all of it. Who the hell wanted more work? That¡¯d just shut them down eventually.
¡®Oh well, if that¡¯s what he wants.¡¯
Who was I to stop him? I didn¡¯t want work, he wanted work. This was the perfect rtionship right here. That meant I didn¡¯t have to feel bad about unloading some work ideas onto him.
¡°In that case, can you organise the orcs and kobolds to start making living areas for the ogres and the likes? Also make sure that the ogres learn and are actively involved in the process, rather than just watch.¡±
¡°Hm? If you do that, you will end up converting this area into a city.¡±, Reiman pointed out my n.
¡°Well, that¡¯s what I want¡¡±, Wasn¡¯t it obvious?
From the look in Reiman¡¯s eyes, it apparently wasn¡¯t obvious. Maybe I overrated his insight.
¡°C-Could I be involved in the process?¡±, he stammered out with shaky hands.
I wanted to scratch my head at the odd question. I was starting to consider the possibility that Reiman¡¯s brain was fried.
¡°Uh, you¡¯re practically in charge of it now. Don¡¯t forget to show me the city n first.¡±, I didn¡¯t want to have a hand in this, but I still wanted to at least know what the city would look like before they started building.
¡°Diane and the dryads probably won¡¯t be happy about this, so we have to build around the trees. We¡¯ll just make it into a forest city. Like how elves would. You can ask the dark elves¡¯ opinions on the matter.¡±
I remembered the duo that joined our ranks. Since they lived in the West, they should have some idea on how to build a vige without gaining the ire of the spirits.
Excited, Reiman got off the chair and was headed out, but this time, he stopped himself, then faced me.
¡°Oh, do you have a name for this city?¡±
I was then caught off-guard.
¡®A name, huh?¡¯
I hadn¡¯t sat down to ever think of a name for a city before. Well, it was eventually going to happen if I actually built a city, but until then, I guess I had no name for it.
¡°This little isted forest full of monster¡ we¡¯ll call it Onigashima. Hehe. How¡¯s that sound?¡±, I joked, but instantly regretted the moment Reiman¡¯s eyes glittered like stars. I wanted to point out that I was just joking, but he spoke first.
¡°In that case, on the matter of the cyclopes¡ may I speak?¡±
¡°What is it?¡±, Curious, I asked.
¡°I think it¡¯s a waste to send them back. They consume a lot of resources, but they are clearly experts at building good, sustainable architectures. Maybe we could make some use of them?¡±
¡°Hmm, is there a way to keep them fed?¡±
¡°Well, it should be possible.¡±
¡®Eh? It is? Well, if that¡¯s the case¡¡¯
¡°Sure.¡±
¡°Huh?¡±
¡°If you think you can handle it, do it. You¡¯ve proven beyond a doubt that you are capable.¡±
I just didn¡¯t want to have to work out theplicated parts of anything. If Reiman knew a solution, I was one hundred percent down for it.
¡°Also, I was nning on passing on the guild project to Grimm and Kawaii since both of them are stationed in the human city. Upon reconsideration, I think you should coborate with them instead. I¡¯ll expect frequent check-ups, so do try to steal as many human adventurers as possible.¡±
He nodded to that, then left.
I hadn¡¯t exined my n for the soldiers in the North, but Reiman was quick. Once hemunicated to Grimm and Kawaii, he could probablye up with a n simr to mine and act.
Well, that was all I had to do for the day. Reiman exited the room, leaving me to the silence of the office. I leaned into the leather chair and rxed, expecting nothing in particr as I just stared in boredom into the ceiling, just when I sensed something appear in my room.
Not something, but people. Two humans to be specific.
The tall one, Neburis had her de against my next, whereas the shorter one, Rulis just looked at me with her blood red eyes. My eyes darted back and forth between the two, taking in their abilities, skills and assumed level.
Both wore dirty cloaks that hid the armour they wore.
¡°Been a while, Akira.¡±, the short girl, Rulis said to me.
<A/N: I didn¡¯t think I could write a full chapter on a conversation just between Tori and Reiman. Both are just so opposite in nature that they normally wouldn¡¯t have anything to talk about, but Tori being the superior and having a myriad of ideas she¡¯s toozy to bring to fruition and Reiman being an ambitious subordinate that wants to work all the time ended up being the perfect dynamic in my opinion.
Anyhow, I don¡¯t know how many of you saw both Neburis and Rulis suddenly appearing to have a conversation with Toriing, but it did! I feel like I can just kick into overdrive now and speed up the events of the story, but I probably won¡¯t do that¡ Welp, I¡¯m going to study now. Kind of a bummer, but school is very important¡ even though I have zero interest in it. Not that I have interest in many things.
Thanks for reading the chapter, have a good day>
Chapter 314 Unexpected Meeting
<h4>Chapter 314 Unexpected Meeting</h4>
Huh?
Kuromiya-kun? Been a while? Who the heck was this brat and why did she know my other name?
¡°It¡¯s me¡ Maya. Maya Shinobu.¡±, As if she could read my mind, she told me her name. Well, a name that wasn¡¯t in line with what the system said. She must have been lying to me at the moment and assumed I¡¯d fall for it easily.
Maya Shinobu? I felt like I¡¯d heard that name somewhere, but I couldn¡¯t put a finger on it. The name felt like it was of great importance to me, but¡ ugh. Too annoying.
¡°Oh, Maya. That Maya? It¡¯s been a whi-¡±, Neburis¡¯ de went a tiny bit closer to my neck. One more push, and she¡¯d have pierced my throat. Her strength wouldn¡¯t be able to do that with my high defence, but her unique skill definitely allowed for it.
¡°So you don¡¯t remember me, huh? I guess [Evolver] must be at work here.¡±
¡°!?¡±
[Evolver]. I¡¯d forgotten I had that unique skill. In fact, if she didn¡¯t just mention it, I¡¯d probably never have remembered. Just then, the memories came flooding in. Maya Shinobu was a girl I knew from back on Earth. Last, I remember, we went out for ice cream. Ken was also there, but I could never forget Ken.
¡®Odd¡ it¡¯s like remembering [Evolver]¡¯s existence unclogged my memory pipe.¡¯
<<The unique skill [Evolver] must be actively repressing your memories from your former life. The skill [Soul Armour] has reached it¡¯s max and cannot be any more effective>>
¡®Ah¡ that¡¯s bad. We need to find a solution quick. Can¡¯t we just synthesize a new skill or something? Force [Soul Armour] to be stronger?¡¯
<<That¡ I am unsure. Creating a new skill doesn¡¯t seem possible>>
¡®Then we make the impossible possible! I don¡¯t want to lose all my memories.¡¯
¡°It seems it was a mistake toe here.¡±, Rulis - well Maya, said. She opened her mouth to say something else, but I cut through.
¡°Sorry. I do remember you. Maya, from Earth, right? We went to the same school and stuff.¡±, I even mentioned ¡®Earth¡¯ to get her to trust me.
Both looked at each other cautiously before looking at me. It was obvious Neburis didn¡¯t trust me, but Maya felt relieved. She pressed her hand against her chest and let out a sigh, allowing her shoulders to fall and her guard to drop.
¡°Rulis!¡±, Neburis yelled her name, but thetter just shrugged.
¡°You can calm down. Kuromiya-kun won¡¯t kill us.¡±, She defended my validity, causing Neburis to contemte. She red at me for a few minutes, piercing my eyes and trying to ascertain if they contained the slightest hint of hostility. Once she deemed me docile, she sheathed her de, but still kept her guard up.
I rubbed my neck, a little sweat running down my cheek. That wouldn¡¯t have permanently killed me, but death still didn¡¯t sound like a fun experience.
¡°Phew. I¡¯m d you don¡¯t hate me or something.¡±, Looking at me from atop my desk, she said.
¡°Uh-huh. Can you get off my desk?¡±, They magically appeared on my desk and were ruining the folders on it with their footprints. I didn¡¯t want to appear like some ipetent bum that stood on work notes.
¡°Hmm, not the kind of reaction I expected.¡±, She cocked her head, disappointment and surprise evident in her doll-like face.
¡°What kind of reaction were you expecting?¡±, I was genuinely curious about that. We didn¡¯t have a particrly special rtionship as far as I can tell from the memories I got, so my current reaction felt perfectly reasonable. Maybe she wanted me to jump in joy at seeing another reincarnater? Well, I wouldn¡¯t. Not that I didn¡¯t enjoy seeing them, but I had no reason to want to meet someone else in a situation like mine. I wasfortable in this new life, so whether I met one or not was unimportant to me.
¡°I don¡¯t know. Something NEET-like? Maybe fawning over me like you used to?¡± Fawning over her? Me? Why would I do that!?
¡°Right, cause I was crushing over you.¡±, I sarcastically remarked. However, she looked at me with confusion, like she didn¡¯t understand why I said it the way I did. ¡°Wait¡ I didn¡¯t have a crush on you, right? Right?¡±
¡°¡ Whatever. That¡¯s not important.¡±, Like a pro at rejection, she brushed off the topic.
¡°Yeah¡ can you get off the desk already?¡±, I myself didn¡¯t want to think about that any further, so I followed along.
Finally, both of them got off my desk. Neburis took a sit on the chair before my desk, whereas Neburis went closer to the balcony and took a peek outside. There, she saw ogres, oni, kobolds and orcs moving about in harmony.
¡®That¡¯s¡ quite the amount of.¡¯, She thought. Even with this, she didn¡¯t have a shred of fear. She was confident in her ability to walk out of here unscathed. The only one she was worried for was Maya. You had to hand it to a pdin, she was dangerous.
Oh yeah, she was a pdin. The [Pdin of Space] to be specific. Her patron god wasn¡¯t listed, but I could tell from her unique skill that she was exceptionally powerful. I wondered if this could be said of the other pdins. Then again, it was amon notion that pdins could walk through Larm unperturbed.
¡°What¡¯s a building like this doing in the middle of the Great Larm Forest?¡±, Neburis was the first to speak, her curiosity having reached its limit.
¡°I wanted a house, so I got one.¡±, I responded. ¡°Isn¡¯t that what regr people do?¡±
¡°Regr people don¡¯t pluck a house from a city and drop it in a dangerous forest.¡±, She countered, narrowing her gaze.
¡°Forgive me, but it turns out I¡¯m not even human, so I¡¯m lost in the ways of regr people.¡±, From the way she spoke, she must have heard about my time in Keimen. Well, it wasn¡¯t a shocker that a story about shadow demons had spread far into other countries.
¡°And the way the monsters move about with weapons. It¡¯s like you¡¯re preparing yourselves for a war.¡±, She had noticed what we were doing. She was far more observant than I¡¯d originally assumed.
¡°I mean, there is a war knocking on our front door. We¡¯ve got to be ready to defend ourselves.¡±, I responded, hoping to just give her that much. One of our advantages in this whole situation was that nobody was aware of the fact that we were also prepping ourselves to fight back against those who entered Larm illegally.
No one could have predicted that she would just teleport in here and figure everything out. Even at this moment, I didn¡¯t want to allow her to return back to human cities if I could help it. But if not, I¡¯d just let her think that this was all we were doing.
¡°That isn¡¯t what we came here for!¡±, Maya shouted, causing a ceasefire between Neburis and I. I was grateful to her.
¡°Um¡ what is then?¡±
¡°This is kinda¡ hm, how should I put it?¡±, Maya was searching for the words. She looked a bit frustrated and embarrassed about this. She kept twiddling her fingers while looking around the room, her face turning red. ¡°This is embarrassing. Oh.¡±
For some reason, I couldn¡¯t read her mind. There was something inside her that didn¡¯t allow for any mental pration.
¡°If you won¡¯t say it, I will.¡±, Neburis came up from behind Maya and tapped her on the shoulder.
¡°Ne-!? Wait!¡±, It was toote. The pdin wasn¡¯t listening to her.
¡°We¡¯re on the run and need a ce to stay. I was wondering if you¡¯d allow us to stay here for a while.¡±, she told me their ordeal tly. Looking at her face then at Maya¡¯s red face, there was no hint of joking. They were both actively searching for a ce to stay.
¡°So you want to freeload?¡±, I identally spoke my thoughts.
¡°D-Don¡¯t say it like that!¡±, With a face as red a melting steel, she waved her hands around.
¡°Hehe, that¡¯s cute.¡±, I rested back into my chair, leaning my face on my arm as I watched them.
¡°Is that a no?¡±, Neburis, straight to the point, inquired. Clearly, she didn¡¯t n on dilly-dallying anywhere.
¡°No. However, I need to be sure that you guys aren¡¯te up with any sort of n to mess up the peace here.¡±, This entire time, I¡¯d been trying to read both of their minds. Rulis¡¯ mind was being protected by something whereas Neburis¡¯ shallow thoughts were the only things I could here.
It was weird, but I absolutely couldn¡¯t get a proper read on them.
¡°And how would we prove that?¡±, Neburis was about to refuse my request, but Maya asked first with a straight face.
¡°Easy, just tell me if there¡¯s anything you want to do with Larm.¡±
¡°Hm?¡±, Maya tilted her head, not getting where I wasing from.
¡°Do you have some sort of magical device in ce that will kill us if we¡¯re lying?¡±, Neburis wondered. I simply shrugged at her, trying to say ¡®Who knows?¡¯. It was up to them to believe what they wanted to believe.
¡°W-Wait. Do you have something like that?¡±, Maya, frightened by thought of it asked me, but I didn¡¯t respond to her. The silence alone must have raised her anxiety to a whole new level.
We sat there for quite a while and I could hear Maya¡¯s heart racing. Beads of sweat started to form as her chest bloated bigger and bigger by the second. The pdin ced her hand on Maya¡¯s shoulder, smiling at her and causing her some ease. For the first time, I finally read one of Maya¡¯s thoughts.
¡®Akira¡¯s gotten scary.¡¯
¡°I simply came here to find shelter as rmended by Ru-Maya, over here.¡±
After she spoke, nothing happened. I then trained my eye on Maya who still hadn¡¯t spoken.
I didn¡¯t know why she was so reluctant to do so, but she eventually broke.
¡°Mou¡ ugh! I just wanted to hide here, ok!?¡±, She yelled at the top of her lungs, but this was only the beginning. ¡°One moment I¡¯m having ice cream with the guy I like, the next thing I know, I wake up in the body of some girl I don¡¯t know. As if that wasn¡¯t bad enough, I¡¯m attacked by some scary demon and the next time I wake up, my new adoptive father is trying to kill me and now I¡¯m on the run! I just thought I¡¯d find a safe space with someone I knew. Even if that person¡¯s the weird guy that has a crush on me, ok!? I¡¯m sorry for calling you weird, but that¡¯s what you were! You and that Manabu guy. Ugh, I hated how you guys kept Miyamura-kun all to yourself. Couldn¡¯t you see he wasn¡¯t the kind of guy to be hanging around weirdos like you? He was hot and good at sports. You guys weren¡¯t supposed to even breathe the same air as him. Mou! I wish I could get Ken to myself. Even now.¡±
She was panting by the time she was done, but by then, I was certain everyone within close proximity had heard her. Even Neburis looked at her with a bbergasted expression.
¡®Ah¡ I didn¡¯t think [Authority of Avarice] would be this effective.¡¯
Thinking back to how Neburis¡¯ answer was simple, I didn¡¯t think it¡¯d make Maya go on a rant like this. Ah, that means people like Neburis and Reiman didn¡¯t want much.
At least, I now had an idea on the effectiveness of the skill.
¡°That was¡ unexpected. Anyway, I¡¯ll get you two to your rooms.¡±
The doors leading to the office flew open and came marching a pair of cat-faced kobolds in maid uniforms.
Talk about perfect timing. I¡¯d already messaged them toe over Maya¡¯s rant, but I didn¡¯t expect them toe so quickly.
¡°I¡¯lle see you guyster tonight to see how you¡¯re settling in. Please don¡¯t wander about though. Not all of the guys here like humans.¡±
I¡¯d already sent a widespread message to everyone informing them of these two. Even though I purposefully ignored all feedback, I could tell that a great majority of it was negative.
¡°Honestly¡ I can¡¯t catch a break.¡±, I heaved a heavy sigh, slumping over my desk, mentally exhausted by that meeting. ¡°I didn¡¯t think I¡¯d be so close to death on my very first day back.¡±
<<Fear not. The unique skill [Space God] will not be able to cause your death ever>>
¡®Huh?¡¯
<<The unique skill [Space God] has been analysed and a counter unique skill [Void God] has been created>>
Sensing my confusion, the agent decided to exin.
¡®Huh?¡¯
<<Is my exnationcking?>>
The agent didn¡¯t get my confusion at all! Her exnation was perfect, easily digestible. My only confusion was,
¡®Since when could I just analyse my opponent¡¯s unique skills and create a counter unique skill?¡¯
<<With the skill [God¡¯s Domain] ([God¡¯s Wisdom] + [Remorse]), I acquired her unique skill [Space God] and performed a serious analysis on it using the skill [Skill Alchemy] and with [Chained Mammon], I searched through a catalogue of previously existing unique skills, then synthesised certain elements of [Space God] to forge the new skill, [Void God]>>
¡®Ah¡ how long did this take?¡¯
<<An estimated time period of 0.1 seconds>>
¡®And you couldn¡¯t tell me this when I thought she was going to slice off my neck?¡¯
<<¡ Hehe>>
¡®Shitty bastard.¡¯
<A/N: Well, Neburis and Maya are now staying in Larm. We¡¯ve sessfully increased the human poption in Larm to 3! We can keep rising little by little.
Anyhow, I¡¯m kind of disappointed right now. I asked my roommate to get me a Fanta, but he got me some other orange juice. Also been reading ¡®Death¡¯s Daughter and The Ebony de¡¯. I honestly didn¡¯t expect myself to enjoy it as much as I do.>
Chapter 315 Kin
<h4>Chapter 315 Kin</h4>
Later that night, I decided to go over to the mess hall just for the fun of it. The ce was practically empty with only a select few being in there.
Kara, Kiara, Ulva, Arisu, He, Shitsuke, Taiku, Oki, Tsuna, Yuuna, Shiroi and Kuro were all present there, seated around the massive table, with the most important spot vacant. Amethyst too was sulking behind my seat, and even cowered once she felt my presence.
¡®That¡¯s weird.¡¯, I pointed out before taking a sit. The whole room felt oddly tense the moment I entered, but Ulva decided to speak to me like there was nothing different happening. She clearly wanted me to pamper her some bit, but now wasn¡¯t the time.
Since the food hadn¡¯t arrived, I felt like I had to say something to at least make the mood feel a bit lighter.
¡°Uhh¡ hm.¡±, I tried saying something, but nothing came to mind.
The way they¡¯d made the mood alone was making it quite difficult to bring up any topics for conversation. I also didn¡¯t want to read their individual minds because I was¡ admittedly a teeny tiny bit scared of what they could be thinking at the moment.
¡°Lady Hinotori, may I speak.¡±, The first person to break the silence was Tsuna. Her face had more cracks in it than I remembered, but then again, I didn¡¯t have good memory to begin with.
She suddenly bowed down to me. ¡°Thank you for bringing back Shitsuke like you promised. This may not sound convincing, but I¡¯m really grateful.¡±
¡°Ah¡¡±
Just then, all the other goblin captains stood up and bowed. Shitsuke, grinned, then bowed to me, before saying. ¡°Truly, you are the best leader we could have ever asked for. Thank you for saving us, Kuro and I.¡±
¡°Indeed! Although Hell was fun, I must admit that harassing my sister is better.¡±, Kuro added in loudly, then whipped his sister with his tail.
¡°Huh?¡±, Shiroi, caught off guard by that snarled at her brother. ¡°Want me to send you back down there?¡±
¡®T-Thank you for saving me, master.¡¯, Amethyst bashfully said. I reached back to pat her on the head.
She¡¯d been feeling down for some reason, so the best I could do was console her with head pats, right?
¡°Big sis¡ I want head pats too.¡±, Ulva pouted, so I grabbed her with my free palm and patted her. She purred like some sort of kitten, making me retract my hand out of concern for a moment, before she grabbed it and continued patting her own head.
¡®I¡ think there¡¯s something wrong here, but I can¡¯t put my finger on it.¡¯
¡°Ehem.¡±, Cutting through the cluster of noises, was Kiara. Thest person I expected to hear anything from or even see in this ce when almost everybody was out.
¡°Yes, Kiara?¡±, I decided to give her my full attention.
¡°When will you be getting married to K?¡±
¡°!?¡±, Everyone¡¯s eyes widened at her question. I myself, ended up coughing up quite a bit of saliva at thepletely random question.
¡°K-Kiara!¡±, Embarassed, Kara shouted at her sister.
¡°Since you¡¯ve impregnated her, I hope you intend to take care of both her and the baby.¡±
¡°Kinda blunt, don¡¯t you think?¡±, She didn¡¯t respond to my statement, and rather red at me, waiting for a proper response from me. Warily, I directed my attention to Kara, who was fidgeting with a flushed face.
¡®Ohe on! There¡¯s no tact in this whatsoever.¡¯, I red back at Kiara, but she didn¡¯t even flinch. In this staring contest, I eventually lost and had to say something.
Clearing my throat, I called out to Kiara.
¡°Y-Yes!?¡±, she yelped.
This whole interaction was bing tedious and awkward. I¡¯d assumed all her family members were well-versed in the art of social interaction, but clearly, Kiara wasn¡¯t.
¡°So¡ you¡¯re pregnant.¡±
¡°¡ Yes.¡±
¡°You¡¯re going to be a mother soon.¡±
¡°¡ Yes.¡±
¡°That means I¡¯m going to be a father soon.¡±
¡°¡ Huh? Y-Yes?¡±
¡°Interesting, huh?¡±
¡°Yes.¡±
¡°S-Sorry¡¡±
¡°Huh?¡±
<<Sigh¡ say this¡>>
The agent grew bored of this tiresome back and forth and decided to give me tips for this conversation.
I knew I wasn¡¯t the best when it came to small talk, but I wasn¡¯t aware that my conversational ability was this poor. No. It couldn¡¯t be that. I was a great conversationalist, right? It was probably just because of the topic. Definitely because of the topic. Anyone would find it difficult to talk to a woman they impregnated identally, right? Right?
¡°Kara.¡±, I started to repeat what the agent said to me. The ogress yelped, then looked at me with rasp attention. ¡°Thank you for letting me experience this with you. Thank you for giving over your body so that we can embark on this life-changing journey together.¡±
¡ Something didn¡¯t feel right about what the agent was feeding me.
¡°Thank you for helping me to be a parent. Ah what the heck is this!?¡±
I snapped, having actually listened to the words I was saying. Everyone on the table was shocked by my sudden outburst and looked at me weirdly. Clearly, the only reason they weren¡¯t saying anything was because I was technically their boss.
Embarrassed, I scratched the back of my neck, cleared my throat, then decided to say something, that felt less embarrassing and had some heart to it. But first, I wasn¡¯t going to say this in front of all of these guys.
I grabbed Kara by the hand and teleported us out of there. I had no particr location in mind so we were in the sky, right above the mansion. In front of us, we could see two full moons, basking us in their beautiful glow. Below, around the mansion and further beyond that, several races sat by campfires, eating and conversing. The day after the war wasn¡¯t a celebration, but rather a peaceful, quiet time everybody took to rx and enjoy themselves.
¡°See, Kara. I¡¯m not really good at these sorts of things.¡±, I started, returning my gaze to her. She hadn¡¯t even looked around a single bit and her eyes were stuck on me. Glowing a faint blue as they dazzled. Her hair fluttered in the breeze and our faces were separated by barely 10 inches as I held her close to keep her from falling.
¡°It¡¯s embarrassing to say this, but, I¡¯m really happy that you¡¯re going to have my kid. I mean, I¡¯m nervous about this. It¡¯ll be my firs- uh, second time? I don¡¯t know if Maou counts, but that brat sure as hell is convinced. I guess, what I¡¯m trying to say is, just like you, this¡¯ll be my first time, so please forgive me.¡±
After masterfully expressing my honest opinions on the matter, I ended up apologising to her. Anyway I looked at it, this whole pregnancy thing wasn¡¯t fair for her.
I invited her to go dungeon exploring with me. It¡¯s my fault she got caught in that trap and ended up getting pregnant. All of that happened because I was reckless. This was suddenly forced unto her and I was too scared to bring up the subject because I knew I was in the wrong.
¡°Ah¡ why would I need to forgive you?¡±, Rather than being angry or anything, Kara looked confused.
¡°I mean, aren¡¯t you angry that you got pregnant?¡±
¡°Hm? No. Why would I be?¡±, Looking into her, I couldn¡¯t find a trace of a lie. She was beingpletely serious.
¡°Eh? I thought¡ but¡ what?¡±
I was dumb, wasn¡¯t I? Maybe it was time for me to have these heavy conversations. Things just might not be so difficult in life.
¡°Fufu. I¡¯m happy that I can give birth to your baby. At least, I¡¯ve found a way to be useful to you.¡±
For a moment, my heart skipped a bit. I could feel blood rushing to my face and my ears heating up.
¡®Ah¡ Kara¡¯s actually kind of cute.¡¯, I hadn¡¯t really seen in her in that sort of light before.
¡°Y-Your hair! It¡¯s on fire!¡±, She yelled bringing to attention the fact that my cowlicks had been set aze and were twitching violently.
¡°A-Ah. [Water Ball].¡± I doused my own head in water, allowing me to cool down. Karaughed at me.
¡°I just lost some cool points, I guess.¡±
¡°N-No¡ you are still cool.¡±, She said, looking away and holding back herughter. Just for the fun of it, I sprayed a bit of water on her too.
¡°Now we¡¯re both cool.¡±, I smirked at her as she pouted.
¡®Victory is mine!¡¯
¡°Well, let¡¯s do well as parents then.¡±
¡°Y-Yeah.¡±
I teleported us back to the mess hall and everyone looked at us, anxiously expecting some sort of giveaway that our conversation went well. When I confirmed it, Tsuna, Yuuna and Kiara were all over me, asking us for the details on how things went.
Even if they weren¡¯t human, I guess there were certain topics that all girls simply enjoyed.
The kobold servants marched in, trays of food in hand. I didn¡¯t take a single bite though, out of fear of starting a hunger pang again. Later that night, Kara¡¯s status changed from servant to kin. Someway down the line, the [Member] role changed to [Kin].
***
In an unknown location, a meeting was ongoing between a group of six people.
These people were the elite of the elite of a group known as The Cardinals. The Cardinals were the highest-ranking officers of the Dark Church, each, masters of various practices ranging from espionage, to martialbat to warfare stratagem. Officially, there were only 12 cardinals, and a meeting was usually not held without all members present, but an exception had to be made for this one instance.
¡°I swear, if I catch 5, I¡¯ll rip him to shreds!¡±, One of the members yelled to the room. He smashed his fist into the wall before him and seethed with rage. This was Cardinal 3 of the Dark Church.
¡°4, 6 and 7 are on their way to the [Divine] are about a week¡¯s journey away from the [Divine]¡¯s location, ording to the Head.¡±, Cardinal 12 informed, ignoring 3¡¯s outrage as it wasn¡¯t anything new to their meetings.
¡°What about Cardinal 5 and his treachery?¡±, Cardinal 10 asked with a heavy tone.
Cardinal Five. The most damaging part to their entire operation. A bug none of them had seen throwing a wrench into their whole n. With his treachery, he coveted two-thirds of the Dark Church¡¯s forces and reduced the Cardinals from 12 to 9. Cardinal 5, Cardinal 11 and Cardinal 8 were now removed from the list of Cardinals.
¡°What does he matter once the [Divine] is in our hands?¡±, Cardinal 2 retorted.
¡°It matters a lot. Is the [Divine] truly so mighty that it would be able to defeat a god at this age?¡±, He asked.
¡°Of course. The [Divine] has defeated multiple gods before. What makes you assume it wouldn¡¯t be able to do the same again?¡±, Cardinal 2 red at 10. Thetter didn¡¯t back down from the contest, and instead added,
¡°The [Divine] hasn¡¯t even had a year to grow. Sending it into a fight right now, the [Divine] could di-¡±
¡°Hold your tongue before you say something akin to heresy.¡±, Cardinal 12 cut him off before he could finish his sentence. Intense animosity was directed at him from Cardinal 4, making him back down a bit.
¡°All I¡¯m saying is, perhaps relying on the [Divine] to deal with this is perhaps a bit selfish of us.¡±, Carefully altering his words to avoid offending anybody, Cardinal 10 exined himself.
¡°Indeed it is. However, our quest for the [Divine] has been going on for over 2 centuries now. We don¡¯t have time to waste.¡± Cardinal 1, the oldest of the Cardinals spoke up for the first time in forever.
His voice caused everyone present to turn silent and listen to him. He walked to the centre of the room.
¡°¡®Cardinals 5, 8 and 11 have betrayed us and have coaxed a majority of our forces with the promise of god-like power for each and every single one of them. This is an emergency of the highest order. All resources shall be put into aiding the [Divine] for it is ourst hope.¡¯ Is what the Head has ordered.¡±, Word for word, Cardinal 1 repeated the order he¡¯d been given from the Head of the Dark Church.
¡°As his Eminence wishes it.¡±, in unison, the cardinals present said, then bowed.
For those who weren¡¯t too pleased with the order, there was nothing they could do or say that wouldn¡¯t be counted as treason.
The Dark Church¡ the original Dark Church, was making its move.
<A/N: I¡¯m writing this note, before I¡¯ve even finished the chapter cause, uh, I¡¯m not sure what to write for this chapter because there¡¯s lots of things to set up before the next arc begins. We¡¯ll see where it goes.
#Update 1: I¡¯m going to watch a show called ¡°The Glory¡±. I¡¯ll write after I finish the first episode.
#Update 2: ¡ Damn, I¡¯m so frustrated with the antagonists of the story after the first episode alone. Irredeemable trash!
Welp, Tori had to have this conversation sooner orter. I was meant to write this chapter 2 days ago, but here I am, now finishing it. And it wasn¡¯t even because of a creative block¡ My managements skills are just bad, LOL. I¡¯m going to eat some noodles. Have a good day.>
Chapter 316 Days 116 - 119
<h4>Chapter 316 Days 116 - 119</h4>
Day 116
The day started off with a general assembly. Everyone presented themselves, lined up in rows of their races, with their leaders standing before me. Reiman exined everything to them and so we assigned duties to them all.
The cyclopes intended to stay close to the Northern border of the West, making them virtually close to home, but after hearing the exnation to build a city in here, they decided there was no point. Diane and dryads weren¡¯t happy to hear about me wanting to build a city here, so it took a bit of convincing to make her agree.
The cyclopes would be in charge of clearing the trees and altering the ground. The kobolds were in charge of transportation of any necessary resources like water and food for the cyclopes. It was unfortunate, but given how weak they were, they would have to act as errand boys for thebourers.
The new ogres and oni were also assigned to do the same job as the cyclopes. I wasn¡¯t going to allow thosezy bastards to get everything easily. Of course, some of the stronger ones were put on guard duty in various sectors around the West. The wolves and panthers were the main guard force surrounding Larm as their aesthetics fit the perception of ¡®Wild Monsters¡¯ more than ogres and oni in armour.
The orcs on the other hand had nothing to do for the day and would only start their share of the work once the ground-levelling was done.
Shockingly, Yokino and her bug group actually made an appearance. For obvious reasons, she didn¡¯t bring the entirety of her forces, but she was present now and was ring at me throughout the entire event. I ignored her and focused on the remaining tasks.
You might be wondering why I¡¯m already clearing thend without even having a n. Well I had a n!
Reiman had alreadye up with a blueprint for the city overnight. I was beyond shocked, but with the help of the agent, I added my own unique touches to the city to make it feel a bitfortable for me personally.
Personally, I wasn¡¯t busy that day so I just spent it on mundane things like talking to Ulva, or testing how strong she¡¯d gotten. Normally, I¡¯d have the other mes to converse with, but those guys were super busy inside me. And newer mescked any personality whatsoever. It¡¯s like a personality kill-switch had been flicked after Hyakkun.
Speaking of Hyakkun, none of us could find him. I was starting to wonder if [Greed] had anything to do with it. Unfortunately, the skill couldn¡¯t converse with me, so I just had to ept that Hyakkun was gone for now. Maybe he¡¯d return to us.
Later that night, we had dinner as usual, except this time Rulis and Neburis were invited. I honestly expected them to reject the offer and take dinner in their rooms, but they were probably trying to not seem rude.
The guys were sceptical of the duo, and that dinner was possibly the most ufortable I¡¯d been in a while. We ate in silence and the day passed by.
Day 117
Ugh. I¡¯dpletely forgotten that we were supposed to hold a meeting in a couple of days with all of Larm¡¯s leaders. I looked to Reiman, and apparently, he¡¯d already sent out a message to all the leaders and was organising the venue.
The only problem was getting everyone to be able to attend in seven days. Larm was a massive ce. Travel within a single portion of Larm alone could take up to 7 days, that is if you were travelling hindered by the monsters. Using shortcuts you could greatly reduce this time, however that was within a single quadrant alone. Travel from one quadrant to the other takes a lot of time.
Even for me, thest time I travelled to the South, I was fortunate both my escort and ride was Shiroi. From the beginning she was one of the fastest and strongest, giving us an advantage. With her being a native, travel was fast and fortunately, our destination itself was already close to the border. Several factors lead to our journey being shorter than a week.
I couldn¡¯t say the same for those living on the outermost parts of Larm. It would take them quite a bit to get to the West. Teleportating to their locations was easy enough and I felt it was the best option, but Reiman reminded me of creatures like the Marsh Rusalkies that couldn¡¯t leave their marshes. There were other creatures that were most likely unwilling to leave their ces unless I, maybe forced them.
It wasn¡¯t a part of my intention tomand everyone with force. That could create resentment towards me, which in a roundabout way could lead to our downfall. In that case, we had to devise a means to project the meeting to them.
For the South, we could easily use the mist like we did thest time. I doubted we could reproduce the same effect as efficiently in the other quadrants. After all, themunication technology of this world sort of wasn¡¯t the best. Letters were the main form of long-distancemunication and those took weeks to be sent between countries. Formon folk it could range from one to 3 months.
This was besides the fact that the creatures in Larm didn¡¯t use letters. Communication here was in person, meaning messengers had to run about. Magic could be used, but given howplicated magic was in itself, doing something as trivial as sending a message was unnecessarilyplex and tiresome, meaning most people didn¡¯t learn how to do that.
Maybe Yuuna, Tsuna and Kara could do it, but that would take a lot of preparation to instantly send a message to a different location. However, doing something like that required a keyponent which was [Spatial Magic]. Apparently, this was the hardest to master out of all the magics, even if you had an affinity for it. I mean, it was easy to me because of the agent, but most people couldn¡¯t perform theplicated equations and spells nearly as fast as I did, so spatial magic was a no-no.
It''d been reduced to simple party tricks like creating tforms to walk on or even to store some items. Advanced spells like teleportation required a lot of time to actually build up since the person had to factor in the logistics of where they were going, the issues of quantum discement and the mostly uncontroble mass of mana that appears whenever a portal appears. However, some people found a loophole through using beacons as lightning rods.
The teleportation would end them up at the location of these lightning rods. These lightning rods were mana signatures that the users were familiar with. Unfortunately, not just anybody could do this.
This was why [Space Mages] were a high valuemodity. That made [Teleportation rings] and equally high valuemodity that was hard to acquire. Which was testament to just how powerful the ¡®Sub-Circle¡¯ was.
All this to say that as of this date, there was no efficient means to have an online press conference with the leaders. The world¡¯s level of technology was too low for something like that to exist and even then, the closest thing they had were projection stones.
[Projection Stones] were devices that recorded magical signatures in the environment and converted them into perceptible particles of light, giving the users a somewhat urate in-real-time view of what was happening or a recording.
Unfortunately, these couldn¡¯t transmit sound. Someone had to write what was said, show it to those on the other end, then continue from there. Or if some were good with lip-reading, the conversation could happen much more smoothly.
This was where the agent and Akkun came into y!
Combining their forces, both hade up with a solution to this problem by simply teleporting both light and sound. I didn¡¯t get theplicated bits of it whatsoever, but they basically used the [Projection Stones] as a basis for the light and worked in a way to send sound using quantum discement.
In case you were wondering, quantum discement here was the randomised rearrangement of particles entering through a portal. Using this, they were both confident in their ability to rearrange the mana particles we unconsciously gave off as we spoke to convert it to actual sound. Or at the very least, make it so these particles could reach the target audience and some sort of automatic trantion in the sub-conscious would happen.
See? Complicated nonsense!
I quietly ignored them to let them geek out and figure out whatever the hell they were doing. I told Reiman to tell them that not all of them needed to be physically present and that I would have a solution soon.
The day flew by quickly afterwards. The cyclopes still weren¡¯t done levelling up the required space and the orcs were put on set-up duty for the conference.
That night, we had an awkward dinner once more. Shitsuke tried to make small talk with Neburis, but shepletely shut him down, clearly uninterested in a conversation with a monster. Ruli- Maya, on the other hand tried to keep the peace, definitely scared that I¡¯d kick them out for rudeness. I found the entire sceneical.
Day 118
This morning I found Maou spying on me from a rtively safe distance. Somehow, he¡¯d noticed that I had questions for him and was avoiding me. I managed to sneak up on him and interrogate him on the matters concerning the shadow demons.
He imed he had nothing to do with that and that rather, they suddenly stopped listening to him. I asked one of my shadow generals in front of him and to my surprise, Maou was telling the truth. ording to the shadow general, there was something akin to a civil war happening in the Realm of Eternal Darkness, where they were from.
My patron goddess was currently battling against another god that governs the same realm that she did. Realm in this case being her element.
Basically, there were multiple gods of one element. However, there was one major honcho of these gods and would be known as the Great God of that element. Or in some case, the Primordial God of that.
Zatana was an ancient god. I didn¡¯t know where she ranked in the hierarchy of gods as these didn¡¯t even exist in the god rankings. ording to the agent, the rankings for the gods were as follows: Primordial, Great God, Lesser God/Demi-god, in descending order.
She very well sat at any of these positions for all I knew, but from the sounds of things, her opponent wasn¡¯t particrly easy to beat. The shadow generals couldn¡¯t give me more information beyond that. I just had to take it as fact.
Maou, happy that I didn¡¯t find him guilty of doing that, still acted suspicious. I wasn¡¯t sure what he¡¯d done, but it definitely couldn¡¯t be as bad as interfering with a war. I asked him, but he didn¡¯t spill. It came down to Julian to snitch and the butler wasted no time.
I¡¯d never felt so wrong in my entire life.
As bad as interfering with a war? This guy practically just set off a nuclear warhead!
He told Zana I had gotten myself a new wife and that I was forgetting about her. What¡¯s more, after hearing this, Zana wanted toe charging to the West, but other duties kept her in the South.
I suddenly felt scared and confused. Zana wasn¡¯t my wife, so I¡¯d never cheated on her. This brat just created drama out of nothing and wasughing at me. Maybe it was time to take up the rod.
That evening, Rulis was the only one present for dinner. Neburis was nowhere to be found and I couldn¡¯t sense her sneaking about the forest, meaning she had left the forest entirely. Gently, I asked Rulis where she¡¯d gone and she wasn¡¯t really sure. This wasn¡¯t the first time Neburis just disappeared without notice and it wasn¡¯t going to be thest. Rulis hade to ept that, so there was no point overthinking things.
But just in case, the next time she came back, I¡¯d sneak a shadow on her to make sure she wasn¡¯t spilling our secrets somewhere.
Day 119
First thing in the morning, I teleported to the South to talk to Zana. She¡¯d been in a bad mood and that was showing through her fog that turned into smoke, making it hard to breathe. Fortunately, most of the south guys lived in water, but those that didn¡¯t were definitely in a lot of trouble.
Zana was sulking in her room, pouting while beingforted by her assistant. Outside her little cave, the lizardman chief was begging for her to turn the fog back to normal.
She whined about like a brat for a bit and asked me about Kara and if she was actually pregnant with my kid and stuff. I answered honestly and she looked at me with wanting eyes. I perfectly understood what she meant by that, but there was nothing I could do to help her here.
The whole thing with Kara was a total fluke. Something I definitely didn¡¯t intend on letting happen again. I mean, if I could¡ I would. Like, of course I totally want to experience it again, but¡ the only way to do that is to magically reacquire whatever it was Kaleb Zen used on me and that wasn¡¯t happening anytime soon.
¡®Is there a way to repeat that whole event?¡¯, Curiously, I threw the question to the agent.
<<Yes>>
Having heard that, I was left stunned. Maybe, just maybe, I could get my johnson back.
<<However, your constitution as a phoenix gives you aplete immunity to any and all toxins. The required drug is considered a toxin>>
Figures.
I went back to the West to check up on everything else. Kara called out to me and it turns out her stomach was growing bigger. She wanted me to talk to it¡
Personally, I saw no need to do that, but Kara was probably going to be dejected if I didn¡¯t do it. I ended up saying some weird and cringey things to the stomach, then ran away almost immediately. I waited purposefully for Neburis to return by dinner, but she hadn¡¯t. I was getting somewhat anxious, but everyone had lives to live. Hopefully, their lives weren¡¯t going to intrude on mine. Because if they did, I wouldn¡¯t hesitate to end theirs. The only person who¡¯s happiness mattered was me.
I spent that evening with Zana.
<A/N: OnG Exams pull up every 2 weeks, lol. Month long break¡ again. Sorry!>
Chapter 317 The Conference Begins
<h4>Chapter 317 The Conference Begins</h4>
Day 120
The early bird, gets the worm! Or whatever it is that morning people say.
I was already out of the South and back in the West before Zana could wake up. Mostly because I didn¡¯t sleep and I was very interested in how the setup for the conference was going.
Fortunately, most of the work was done, as the setup didn¡¯t require much. I¡¯d have to teleport to the various parts of Larm to bring in the leaders that could leave, as well as to set up the device or magic spell Akkun and the Agent were cooking up.
As usual, Reiman was hard at work. I decided to inquire about the progress with the city. I expected that we were still quite far from being able to actually start building, but clearing thend happened quite quickly with the aid of magic and the cyclopes tirelessly working on it.
Some Earth oni were used to speed up the entire process, paving up the ground and dividing it up into sectors. Originally what Reiman had intended was to make up different living settlements for the different races. I didn¡¯t like this idea of his so much and decided to mix it up a little bit. As an experiment, the races would live together unfiltered, in order to see how well they could co-exist.
If that failed, I didn¡¯t have a problem breaking down and starting again from the very beginning. After all, I wasn¡¯t the one who was going to be breaking it down or building it up. That¡¯s what the monsters were for! Haha¡ crap, I sound like a ve master now.
I received some reports from the patrol guards that a couple of humans had entered the West. And that they were stronger than most normal adventurers. For now, I had them monitoring the humans from a safe distance. If they ended up growing too close to our location during the ceremony, I didn¡¯t mind having to go stop them personally.
Moving on, I went to the venue of the conference. It was being held in an open field, with a massive table set in ce. Wild flowers spread as far as the eye could see, but only a few chairs had been set up and guards had been ced within a 100-meter radius of the meeting ce.
A massive throne had been ced, obviously for me, with other less impressive chairs around it in a square formation. Most likely this was set up to represent the North, East, South and West. There was a centre part of Larm, though it mostly wasn¡¯t considered and technically Amethyst was its new ruler, so she could stand in ce for them.
I¡¯d helped the mages with portal creation to the necessary leaders, so they¡¯d be able to bring them without me going personally.
The reward ceremony itself would be held in a different location, much closer to where we made an impromptu prison camp for the enemy. Reiman had some of his subordinates overseeing its production. It would seem not even Reiman was capable of performing so many tasks at once.
Before anyone realised it, the time for the ceremony to begin hade, and everyone had already been gathered.
All that was left to do was think up a grand entrance for myself. As the host, I needed to be fashionablyte and the loudest person in the room. They all needed to at least know that, in a hierarchy system, I towered above them all.
While I was doing that, an unexpected face tried to sneak up on me. Unfortunately for them, I sensed theming a mile away.
¡°Hm? What is it, Yokino?¡±
¡°Tch.¡±, She clicked her tongue, having been caught. ¡°I wanted to talk to you about something important.¡±
I furrowed my brows after hearing that. It had been quite a while since Ist spoke to her, and for her to suddenly bring up a topic she thought was important, it had to mean...
¡°Go on.¡±, Normally, I¡¯d just try to avoid the topic once it involved the girls and wasbeled ¡®important¡¯. But I realised it was best to talk about these kinds of topics. Of course, it couldn¡¯t be as frightening as Kara saying she was pregnant.
¡°Last week, a demon tried to sneak into my cave.¡±
¡°Yes!¡±
¡°Excuse me?¡±
Crap. I was so relieved that it had nothing to do with something as outrageous as having a baby that I blurted it out. In fact, how would Yokino even have my kid? We were both girls when we did that thing, so from a logical standpoint, my fear waspletely unfounded from the very beginning.
¡°Sorry. I had something of a eureka moment. Please continue.¡±, I cleared my throat.
Yokino red at me suspiciously as she continued.
¡°I managed to work some information out of the demon. His name is Jasper, and he works for some demon noble called Bael or something.¡±
¡®Eh? A demon? I heard from Shiroi that she fought a demon, but he escaped.¡¯
¡°What did he want?¡±, I had my suspicions that he was on the same mission as the demon Shiroi fought. Although we weren¡¯t one hundred percent certain on that, Reiman and I came to the conclusion that he was also searching for the Ursa Major like the trolls and orcs, although why they¡¯d be doing that is a bit of an unknown.
¡°He was sent on a mission by this Bael to help Krull take over Larm. I guess he was subsequently ordered by Krull¡¯s kid toe searching for the Ursa Major, which he assumed was in my cave.¡±
¡°Eh? Did he mess some stuff up?¡±
¡°Yeah. He killed a lot of my kids, and I¡¯m kind of angry.¡±, she growled.
¡°K-Kids?¡±
¡°Huh? My subordinates, if that¡¯s easier for you to hear. The actual kid is safe.¡±
¡
¡°The what!?¡±, My voice boomed throughout the entirety of the West. There was absolutely nothing that didn¡¯t hear my scream as I started to choke on my own words. ¡°W-what kid? You¡¯ve got a k- Whe- Huh!? How!? Huuuuh?¡±
¡°Sheesh, lighten up, would you? Yeah, I¡¯ve got a kid. What¡¯s it to you?¡±, Cooly, Yokino asked, brushing off the question as if it wasn¡¯t anything.
¡°H-How old are they?¡±
¡°Can¡¯t say since she hasn¡¯t hatched yet, but about 50 days or more... I think.¡±, Putting her hand to her chin, Yokino started to y guessing games with her own kid¡¯s age. ¡°Yeah, should definitely be more. Over 2 months.¡±
¡®Ah¡ then it¡¯s definitely not mine. Phew.¡¯, I let out a relieved sigh, then straightened my back up, a new vigor burning up inside me. I wasn¡¯t a bastard going about impregnating people without thinking about it! There was no way I could do that!
¡°Is the demon still here?¡±, It was time to focus on better things.
¡°He¡¯s at the bottom of my cave as we speak.¡±
¡°Hm? And you¡¯re sure you can leave him to move about freely?¡±
¡°I¡¯ve rendered him immobile. It¡¯s not worth worrying about.¡±, There was a scary glint in her eyes as she said that, but I didn¡¯t point it out.
¡°Ok, can we hold this off till after the ceremony? I¡¯d like to find out more about this demon and his boss¡ uuuh.¡±
¡°Bael.¡±
¡°Yes. Bael.¡±
With that, Yokino walked off to join the audience. Unfortunately, she wasn¡¯t one of those being awarded. She apparently took no part in the war whatsoever, which made me doubt her reliability. It was more than concerning that one of the major forces in the West couldn¡¯t be counted on in such times.
I decided to fly over to the event in a grand disy, trying to evoke awe and reverence from those present.
¡®Alright then, let¡¯s get this Monster Conference over with!¡¯
______________________________
??? POV
¡°If you just stopped beingzy, you¡¯d actually be one of the best, you know?¡±
¡°Did you even try?¡±
¡°Can¡¯t you try? For me?¡±
I¡¯d heard these sorts of things my entire life.
Academics? I didn¡¯t even need to study to get an A.
Sports? I was one of the best, back when I was a kid.
Social life? Everyone knew me and wanted to be my friend.
I was simply good at everything I tried. That is, till I got to middle school. Then things got rough.
Academics? I was starting to fail.
Sports? I definitely wasn¡¯t one of the best anymore.
Social life? I stopped talking to everyone.
I met this transfer student. He introduced me to anime. And in no time, I lost interest in everything else. My entire life became about anime.
No, it wasn¡¯t because of anime that my life made this odd 180. It was more like I came to the realisation that I didn¡¯t want to try. Sure, I was brilliant, but even brilliant people wouldn¡¯t pass an exam if they hadn¡¯t read or heard anything regarding the material. I hadn¡¯t trained, so eventually, my body became average. A social life? Everybody was fake. They only cared about me because my parents were better-off than theirs. There was no point in trying at anything.
As long as I had anime tofort me, I couldn¡¯t care less about anything else.
Trying? That¡¯s for people who actually cared. I didn¡¯t.
Before I knew it, I was in the second term of my first year of high-school, still having zero interest in anything. If anything changed, it was the fact that I''d grown distant to my only friend. Different high schools and our homes being in vastly different locations, all made it hard to keep up, so we eventually stopped talking after the first term.
As the days went by, I found myself caring less and less. My parents shouting at me to produce better grades like when I was a kid so they could boast to their social groups. Constantly ruining possible friendships because I didn¡¯t feel the need to put effort into forging any rtionships with people. I¡¯d grown fatter because I didn¡¯t see the point in not eating what I craved at whatever moment.
My days quickly became nd and boring with the only thing ever making me feel alive being anime. And even then, slowly, I was starting to lose interest in it. Maybe, when that happened, I could just kill myself and have this tiresome existence done with.
Then something weird happened one day. A bunch of guys in suits came to the ss and said something weird. I didn¡¯t get it, but all that happened next was I was in darkness. I couldn¡¯t see anything. I couldn¡¯t hear anything. I couldn¡¯t feel anything. I couldn¡¯t do anything.
This was what I imagined death would be like. Except, I could still think. Luckily, there was an easy solution to that. Sleep. That way, I¡¯d erased thest thing that was proof of my existence.
I slept. Minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years. I didn¡¯t know how long it was, but the next time I woke up, I could see a mountain terrain covered from head to toe in pure white snow. I could hear the cold wind billowing and I could feel something holding onto my hand.
I looked down to my left hand to see a little girl. The most striking feature of this girl was her veridian green hair that reached down to her feet. Her skin looked pale, almost as if she¡¯d been on the verge of death. The girl looked up to me, and my eyes met with her veridian green eyes. She cocked her head, like a curious little puppy, bangs on her head falling to one side.
Nonchntly, I looked from the girl, towards a direction I felt something in. The sun was setting behind me and my feelings said whatever I was looking at was quite far away. I gripped the little girl¡¯s hand tighter, then started to walk forward.
I didn¡¯t know where I was going or why I was going, but something told me that if I went, with this little girl in my hand, I just might find something interesting.
<A/N: I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 318 The Monster Conference
<h4>Chapter 318 The Monster Conference</h4>
I did it! I perfected my entrance.
After making the guests wait a few minutes, I appeared in a ball of fire on my seat, then majestically introduced myself as the king of the West. As corny as it sounded, I was starting to dig it.
Maybe since I beat the North, I should have called myself the King of the North instead. Yeah, that sounds way cooler. I¡¯ll have to remember to use that the next time I was introducing myself to someone.
Just as I was about to kick off the meeting, there was an unexpected development. With a sh of lighting and a thunderous boom, a storm cloud appeared right above us. The storm cloud rained onto the centre of the table, forming a body of water with the physique of a woman, finishing off with the cloud shrinking to fit the head size of the person.
¡®D-Did she just out do my entrance so casually? I¡ I really thought about it for a while.¡¯
¡°Suna? Where¡¯ve you been?¡±, Ignoring any and all formalities, I asked.
¡°I apologise for my absence. I have been busy performing some duties back home.¡±
¡°Oh right. I heard all the guppies also disappeared. I¡¯m guessing that has something to do with Elriek¡¯s ns?¡±, Her sudden appearance made me think to the odd disappearance of all the water nymphs and guppies from the West.
¡°Yes. The princess has created a¡ kindergarten for the guppies. Rest assured, the guppies will grow up¡ um, strong there.¡±, Her voice was shaky and unsure as she answered.
Reading her mind and seeing what she was seeing, I was starting to feel convinced that Elriekcked any sort ofpassion or empathy. I¡¯d have topare her to an A.I performing its objective, thinking solely about the end rather than the means. Not like I was any better than her, but now my mood was soiled.
¡°Um¡ no offense, but why are you here?¡±, It was really odd and surprising to see her here especially if she was busy working on something back in Antis.
¡°Princess Elriek asked me to attend this event in her ce.¡±
I mean, I guess I could see that happening. She was a citizen of Antis, no less a potential future queen¡¯s attendant. Well, with the way things were going back in Antis, there was a high likelihood that she was winning that crown whether anybody liked it or not.
I didn¡¯t like Elriek as a person, but even I aren¡¯t clueless enough to ignore the potential benefits of having Antis on my side. If only her brother had a better chance at the throne. From an outside perspective, it looked like he had an equal chance, but it was clear from the inside that he didn¡¯t. I guess he had about a year to prove himself if he truly wants the throne.
¡°That so, huh? Well, su- how did she know about this event?¡±, I mean, sure I was broadcasting it to every part of Larm, but I doubted that anyone outside of Larm even knew this was happening.
¡°The princess has her ways.¡±, Something about the way she said that irked me.
¡°So she¡¯s been spying on me this entire time?¡±, I quickly deduced, taking into ount her nasty personality and the old man¡¯s magic to look at people from afar.
¡°Um, n-no.¡±
No, no, Suna. That¡¯s not how to tell a lie. Make it more convincing. You have to be convinced by your own lie for it to be believable. Like this.
I pointed to a random spot in the air and red at it.
¡°I¡¯m warning you to stop this crap, Elriek. If I ever catch you spying on me again, there will be consequences.¡±, I sent a bit of magic power to the spot I pointed out, and following that was the sound of ss shattering. Suna flinched after witnessing the scene I just made. ¡°And that goes for you too, Suna. You helped us out the first time against Krull, however I won¡¯t hesitate to kill you if you¡¯re acting to disturb our activities here under her order.¡±
Maybe I was being a bit rude here. If it were someone else, I definitely wouldn¡¯t have responded in such a way, but it was Elriek. I didn¡¯t like her and I wasn¡¯t going to pretend like I did at any point. She definitely knew as well so she didn¡¯t hold back when acting like the spoiled, cunning brat she was in front of me.
¡®You see? That¡¯s how you tell a lie Suna! All I had to do was shatter ice before you and you werepletely under the assumption that I could sense and shatter her gaze easily. Muhaha... wait. Can we actually do that agent?¡¯
<<Yes¡ although we can¡¯t break it so easily>>
¡®That so? At least we gave Suna a scare.¡¯
<<You were pointing in the wrong direction. They are watching from behind us.>>
¡®Ah¡ You couldn¡¯t tell me that before!?¡¯
<< *Cough, cough* >>
¡®Whatever. I¡¯ll just lie that I shattered a god¡¯s vision if Elriek ever questions me on this.¡¯
With that out of the way, a seat was added for Suna.
We kicked off the meeting and although I was the one to host it, I greatly regretted it about an hour in. It wasn¡¯t like there were any troubles or anything. It¡¯s just, these guys came here, already having formed the opinion that I was the ¡®Queen of Larm¡¯.
Absolutely none of these guys was going to argue for the position or my eligibility for it. In fact, right now, they were giving me a list of the problems in the parts of their forest that they wanted me to solve, which I found to be extremely odd.
¡°Wait¡ this is the most dangerous forest in the world, filled with powerful monsters of all sorts and treasures the outside world seeks¡ I remember my first few days here; I couldn¡¯t catch a break. Why the hell are you guys so damned organised and civil!?¡±
I was on the verge of flipping the table in blind rage when they all cocked their heads at me in confusion.
¡°Hmm, isn¡¯t that how it always has been?¡±, The cyclops king asked.
¡°I mean, sure, Larm is presented as dangerous to outsiders, but we¡¯re all just trying to live as peacefully as possible in here. Wasn¡¯t that what Larm was built for?¡±, The orc king said.
¡®Eh? What are these guys saying.¡¯
¡°Well, it is true that Larm is dangerous to outsiders, but I think it¡¯s been pretty calm to those living inside of it as long as we followed the rules of the tyrants.¡±, Kiara answered.
¡°Come to think of it¡ I remember Goliath saying the West might be doomed because of its tyrant.¡±, Zana added, thinking back to something she¡¯d heard before.
¡°What do you mean?¡±, Unable to hold myself, I asked.
¡°Well, once every decade, Goliath wakes up to hold an inspection or perform management as the Emperor of Larm. Usually this was to give us orders or to check up on our progress. Amongst those orders, were a list ofws to govern our territories in Larm. ¡®We may be seen as monsters from the outside, but there¡¯s no point in living like savages in this utopia¡¯, he said.¡±
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡°When I think about it¡ I guess, Minerva has never attended a single meeting. Aside the fact that she¡¯s the youngest tyrant, meaning she¡¯s been alive to witness only one and that she chose to skip the meeting, I guess it¡¯s safe to say, Minerva never could create a civil enough environment for the West.¡±
¡°Ah¡ so you¡¯re telling me the West hasn¡¯t been civil since the first time Larm created it?¡±
¡°I mean¡ it sort of was? I haven¡¯t been doing this tyrant thing long enough to actually know, but before I became a tyrant, the South was in disarray as well. Even after I became a tyrant, it took some time to make things sort of civil. I wasn¡¯t nearly as efficient as Krull or Sora. Those two really knew how to control territories.¡±
¡°Ah¡ they just had to be the bad ones, huh?¡±, I muttered, depressed. That didn¡¯t matter though, since I had both their memories in me¡ somewhere. I¡¯d explore thempletelyter.
¡°Well, at least I now know that all sides of the forest are cooperative. There¡¯ll be some changes to how each side is governed, although I don¡¯t want to change your established dynamic too much since that¡¯s the only way some of you guys get your food and stuff.¡±, Thetter part of that was mostly directed to the North who lived in a strong eat weak world. Literally.
Even if I wanted to change it, there came the issue of what they¡¯d eat afterwards. I doubt wyverns would be satisfied after 5 horned bunnies. Maybe 100 of those would be enough for a light afternoon snack or something. I also couldn¡¯t suddenly force them to be vegans or make meat miraculously appear out of nowhere¡ wait. Maybe that could work?
¡®Yeah, I¡¯ll just tell that to Reiman and have him figure out the best way to implement my n.¡¯
¡°Ahem, regarding the border patrols¡¡± Kiara brought us back to business. ¡°The demon army has yet to make any noticeable movements in the East. We¡¯re still waiting to see if they¡¯ll choose to use Larm as a route.¡±
¡°Oddly enough, the humans also haven¡¯t made any moves to attack the demon country.¡±
¡®Eh? The humans and demons aren¡¯t going on a rampage?¡¯
¡°Are they not simply preparing in silence? Bidding their time to attack?¡±, Zana asked.
¡°Well, it is possible. After all, the humans were the ones to instigate this. That must mean they are waiting to be attacked, right?¡±, The cyclops king proposed.
¡°If they attacked first, wouldn¡¯t it have made more sense for them to continue striking instead? I mean, the demons did just lose a major fighting power. That¡¯s a devastating enough blow to cripple them, right?¡±, I asked.
¡°Well, not really. Demons, although small in number, are quite powerful. Taking out their demon lord just leaves the group of demons that wanted to be the demon lord, all of whom possess powerparable to the demon lord. If anything, the humans were merely lucky to have been able to kill just a demon lord.¡±
¡®Seriously? What the heck was that hero thinking then?¡¯
Sure, he soloed the party, but then what does that mean for the other demon lord candidates? Could he have done the same thing for at least three times the number?
¡®Do the humans have something that gives them the upper hand against the demons in this?¡¯
¡°Don¡¯t the humans have an alliance with the Fairy ins and Oxaivalon? Surely, they felt confident with such numbers.¡±, The cyclops king asked.
¡°The Fairy ins is currently in the middle of a civil war, so they can¡¯t be relied on for a war. The Oxaivalon Empire is non-affiliate and will most likely ignore anything that doesn¡¯t affect it. The only forces the humans can rely on are the Dhijan Hero Nation, Sundane Kingdom, Holy Mexar Empire, New Kyoto Empire and the Allied Nations Force. That totals about 5 million troops guaranteed.¡±, Kiara ced the numbers before us.
¡°No. The New Kyoto Empire is unavable and even if they were, they¡¯re seen as a thorn by the Holy Mexar Empire. I greatly doubt they would ever join forces no matter the cause.¡±
So, that meant the humans had the Dhijan Hero Nation, Sundane Kingdom, the Holy Mexar Empire and the Allied Nations Force tobat the demon country. From the sound of things, that alone might not be enough.
¡®The humans decision makes less and less sense the more I think about it.¡¯
At least, we knew that the potential danger itself was in disarray. If we focused a majority of our defence to the East to ward of the demons for a bit, while watching from the West in case the humans struck, we should be good to go. Though, if I were to actually be a demon lord, I could cancel out one party, but that would lead to me being thrown right at the fore of the war.
Honestly, why did these selfish bastards¡¯ decisions have to affect me so much. Was it too much to ask for me to live my life unbothered?
Oh wait, that¡¯s right. I just needed to be so powerful that none of their actions could affect me.
¡®I¡¯m already S-rank, meaning a lot of things in this world aren¡¯t even a bother anymore. If I master both Chaos energy and divine energy, I¡¯ll be unstoppable. Just a little bit more and I can live the life of ultimate peace.¡¯
¡°Alright then! It doesn¡¯t matter what the humans or demons do! We¡¯ll fight back hard and win!¡±
¡°It¡¯s great that you¡¯re excited. In that case, we should start talking about how to circte resources between all portions in Larm and the new rules you¡¯ll be putting in ce.¡±
I immediately zoned out and let the agent take over for this part. I took a trip into the bottomless pit that was stomach to check up on the other mes, only to get ignored by them. All in all, it was a very boring 2 or 3 hours before the award ceremony would begin.
__________________________
¡°Shiro, are you alright?¡±,
¡°Y-Ye¡ª", Before she could finish her sentence, the silver haired girl fell over the side. Kana moved in quickly to grab her from falling. The other two drew in closer to help hold up the girl.
¡°What¡¯s happening to her?¡±, Kana asked, beads of sweat starting to form.
¡°I¡¯m not sure. We haven¡¯t heard anything about her having any sicknesses.¡±
¡°Look at her leg. It¡¯s bulging.¡±, Daisuke pointed, raising up her foot for the others to see. There was a red swelling on it with two holes in it.
¡°Bite marks.¡±, Akari clicked their tongue then looked around to see if the perp could be found. Unfortunately, the snake was out of sight.
¡°Uh, do any of you know healing magic?¡±, Kana, acting a bit more frantic than usual asked. Akari shook their head and Daisuke grabbed Kana by the shoulder.
¡°Our families are more battle-oriented specialists, so we don¡¯t possess any such skills.¡±
The Minamoto n was filled with martial artists trained for the sole purpose of absolute victory inbat. The Saito n were a school of ruthless swordsmen who lived for the thrill of battle and considered wounds acquired as badges of honour. The Taira n, although the smallest in number, were blessed with an absurd body that allowed them to take on massive amounts of damage and recover quickly.
All three of these ns were not particrly interested in learning about the art of healing, and as such, it wasn¡¯t unnatural for the next generation n heads to have no idea about such things.
However¡
¡°Hmm, I may not be able to perform magic, but with the right ingredients, I should be able to force the poison out of her system.¡±, Daisukemented, making the others turn their heads, looking at him with confused res.
¡°I have experience with poisons, ok? Please watch over Shiro while I look around for ingredients.¡±
Not wanting to exin any further, Daisuke started to look around. The story of him developing knowledge in poisons is one so shameful he wouldn¡¯t be able to live with himself should thate out.
The others didn¡¯t care though, and instead, returned their gazes back to Shiro. Just then, as if the universe was actively trying to annoy the teens even further, two men appeared before the group and an extra female from behind.
All of them were wrapped in dark cloaks of designs the group was familiar with.
¡°Aren¡¯t those¡¡±, Daisuke croaked out with sweat snaking down his cheek.
¡°Looks like they came to finish the job.¡±, Akari silently drew her de.
However, before any of them could make a move, there was a streak of blue lightning, flying right into the woman at the back. When Daisuke looked back down, he saw that Shiro was on the ground and Kana was nowhere to be found.
¡°She acts fast.¡±, Akari whispered, then jumped off towards one of the men in front of her.
¡°Wa-¡ what about Shir- ugh, guess that also falls on me, huh?¡±
<A/N:
Me: Let me write just one more chapter before I go to bed.
A few momentster, hears the birds choosing violence in the morning.
Hi, I''m a little tired from no sleep and my brain is kind of dead at the moment, but pleasure to be back again. Alright then, We''re back again for hopefully at least 2-3 months before another exam pops out of thin air.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave power stones,ments and reviews!>
Chapter 319 Generals of Pandemonium
<h4>Chapter 319 Generals of Pandemonium</h4>
Right after the conference, we moved towards Diane¡¯s tree for the award ceremony. All the monsters in Larm had been organised into their respective races and were standing in attention, while a few seats had been set up for the leaders of the sectors of Larm.
A stage was elevated before the group, with the monsters that contributed the most already standing in attention, waiting patiently for our arrival. If this were a human ceremony, there would have been a lot of formalities to get out of the way before getting to this part, but clearly these guys preferred to get straight to the point. I did not dislike this type of thinking.
Once the leaders sat down, I was forced to go up on stage to make an announcement.
¡°Uh, been a rough couple of weeks, huh?¡±, I spoke directly into the minds of everyone present. This method ofmunication was 100 times better than using a sound amplification tool. ¡°At least, it wasn¡¯t a coarse one¡ haha¡ ha.¡±
No one found my pun amusing. I just wanted to find the closest rock to bury myself in afterwards.
<<Ahem. The speech>>
¡®Hm? Ah, yeah. That.¡¯
I straightened up and looked at the people intensely.
¡°The universe seems to keep putting us in quite the rough situation. First, we got attacked by a crazy tyrant, then we got attacked by a crazy god, then we lost two tyrants at a go. Our home was exposed to the dangers of the outside world for the very first time in a long while. But, as if that wasn¡¯t bad enough, two of the remaining tyrants chose to bully us because we no longer had our tyrants protecting us. Some of us died, or got injured greatly, but we¡¯re all fine now.¡±, I felt a little bit weird adding in thatst part. ¡°Unfortunately, I can¡¯t pretend to really understand how hard things were during that time, as I wasn¡¯t avable. For that, I greatly apologise.¡±
I took a bow. Even if things were beyond my own capabilities, I was still the one who promised to fight alongside them if they chose to work with me. I wascking greatly as a leader.
¡°Fortunately, even in my absence, a group of brave soldiers took charge of the situation and led the entire scenario to the best possible oue in the end. Today, we¡¯re gathered here to celebrate those brave men and women who fought hard to ensure that as many of us survived.¡±
I gestured towards the group standing behind me.
From the left to right, Taiku, Tsuna, Oki, Yunna, Nukeme, Kara, Arisu, Sylphie and Reiman.
These guys were the ones who yed major roles over the course of the battle. Reiman had been charting down everything, so he¡¯de up with contribution values and said those above a certain mark were the ones who I should be presenting awards to.
I extended my hand to Taiku to shake his. He held it with a straight,posed face.
¡°Captain Taiku of the Goblin Captains. Thanks to your leadership on the battlefield and your insight, most soldiers were able to fend off against much stronger opponents. You have proven that you truly are worthy of the position of captain. For your efforts, I present to you the skill [Heart-to-Heart].¡±
¡°W-What!?¡±, Taiku, dumbfounded, finally brokeposure. His body shook and his smile started to turn crooked.
I knew he was excited, but it was starting to look creepy.
[Heart-to-Heart] was a skill under the [Greed] skill tree. It allowed the user to lock on to a target they were rtively close with, then borrow their physical abilities for a bit. As the skill levels up, the more physical abilities one can ess and the more targets the user can lock on. If the skill ever evolved into [Heart Thief], the user could lock on to even people they aren¡¯t close to in the slightest to use their physical abilities.
For someone like Taiku whocked the proper physical abilities to properly be in the frontlines, this was the best way to ensure his safety. I also heard that he¡¯d been feeling a bit down about the fact that he couldn¡¯t actively contribute as much as the other captains did.
Before snot started running down Taiku¡¯s face, I moved on to the next person, Tsuna. I then grabbed her hand.
¡°One of the greatest contributors. I head you managed to single handedly kill an exceedingly powerful foe. I hope you enjoy this gift.¡±, Tsuna was a bit hard to figure out.
I could have easily decided to present Gorm to her right now as that had been the only thing she was constantly egging me on for, but I chose to do something else. There had been a thorn in her side for far too long and I now had the ability to help her remove it.
With a simple handshake, using [Chained Mammon], I stole Zana from her. The old coot that was constantly trying to take over Tsuna¡¯s mind was now sealed away in my stomach, thanks to my ultimate skill. Ultimate skills really were unmatched, huh?
¡°Huh? Just now, I can¡¯t feel her in my mind anymore.¡±, She muttered under her breath, holding her head.
I moved towards Oki.
¡°Uh, here you go, bud.¡±, I grabbed my former Sigma Sine Armour and gave it to him. Apparently, he wanted fire armour to go with his fire mallet and since the armour could take on particr attributes, I just gifted it to him.
¡°Oh, this armour will be excellent.¡±
I ignored him and moved on to the next person.
¡®Hmm, Yuuna. I¡¯m d she told Reiman what she wanted earlier, or I¡¯d have been in a little bit of trouble today.¡¯
¡°For Yuuna, a grimoire. And not just anyone. The [Grimoire of Immortal mes].¡±, I handed the thick book in her hands.
You¡¯d be surprised by the unholy number of things the agent had looted and kept in her treasury. This book was graded as [Divine], which is the second highest rated item ss, just underneath Godly. Apparently, a god used to own this before it lost it.
¡®Ha. Loser.¡¯
¡°W-Wow! This is amazing!¡±, She quickly scanned through the contents of the book. ¡°And I can actually read it! Haha! You see this, Tsuna? This could¡¯ve been you, but you focus on the less important things like men.¡±
¡°Oh shut it, you old crone.¡±
¡°Old? Can¡¯t you see my physique? I¡¯m a prime example of the sweet power of youth!¡±
Master and student started arguing, so I moved on to the next person. I shivered when my eyes met his.
¡°Ugh¡ Nukeme. Your efforts were greatly appreciated. For your reward, I¡¯ll uh¡¡±, I was getting shivers talking to him. ¡°I¡¯ll let you touch my hand.¡±
¡°What!? I get to touch my goddess¡¯ hands!? This¡ kekekeke.¡±, he licked his lips lustfully and stretched forth his hand.
Warily, I reached my hand out to him. Certainly, he was the ugliest out of all the captains, but that wasn¡¯t why I didn¡¯t want to touch him. No, I didn¡¯t want to touch him because he was a pervert. A disgusting, creep pervert.
In fact, I refuse to touch him.
After enduring what felt like hours of his beady eyes boring into my soul, I quickly withdrew my hand and instead took out a pair of daggers.
[Aurum] and [Argentum]. A golden dagger that can sense treasures and a silver dagger that forces its victims to spout the truth. They were definitely the perfect tool for a stealthy, money loving freak like Nukeme.
¡°Although not as grand as touching my goddess, a gift she held is still grand.¡±, he immediately took the daggers then sniffed them.
¡°Haah! They even smell like you.¡±, He stuck out his tongue to lick the de.
¡®What the hell is wrong with this freak?¡¯
I moved on to Kara who was standing attentively with shaking hands. I grabbed her by the hand and moved her a bit further away from Nukeme.
¡°H-Hinotori?¡±
¡°Sorry. It doesn¡¯t sit right that you¡¯re so close to that creep.¡±
Sheughed when I said that, making me turn a bit bashful. I scratched the back of my neck, and almost made a joke, but I could feel eye boring into the back of my head. 8 spider eyes to be exact.
¡°Kara, without your barrier, Reiman wouldn¡¯t have been able to execute his ns. For your disy of great ingenuity and brilliance, I gift you this [Staff of Fortuna]. This was once wielded by an extremely powerful magician, and it can boost one¡¯s magic power to impressive levels.¡±
I gave her the staff and walked by.
It was among the things I stole from the treasury in hell. Fortunately, my stomach existed in my soul and body, so no matter where I was, I could eat anything to store it. The [Staff of Fortuna] was a legendary Grade item, meaning the chances of you ever finding another one like it were close to non-existent. I checked to make sure it wasn¡¯t a [Soul Weapon] as well, since those things were a bother.
¡°What have you prepared for me?¡±, Ever the confident runt, Arisu stretched out a palm for her reward.
Rather, I tapped her on the head, messing up her hair.
¡°Hm?¡±
When I removed my hand, a tiara had appeared to rece it. This tiara had multiple jewels of varying colours that seemed to serve as highlighters for the pink diamond sitting in the middle.
¡°For you, the [Crown of Wisdom]. Because you¡¯re too stupid for your own good.¡±, I whispered thest bit, but Arisu heard that and bit my hand.
¡°Ow.¡± I withdrew quickly and red at her.
The [Crown of Wisdom] would hopefully help her to think better and make more rational decisions when doing anything. I mean, there were no negative reports about her decisions or behaviour in this fight, but knowing just how basic she was, I couldn¡¯t count on her to be this safe the next time something like this was to happen.
Besides its practical use, the tiara looked good on Arisu. Like a cute little princess.
¡°Now Sylphie. Due to your non-stop work, our forces were kept supplied with the best of the best weapons and armour, some even being enchanted. Thanks to your tireless efforts, a majority of us were kept alive.¡±, Sylphie was the other person who I didn¡¯t know what to gift.
When she was asked, she said something about wanting to spend time with me, but I wasn¡¯t going to give her that. After all, I was going to be a parent. It wasn¡¯t time for me to be scandalous.
Rather, I decided to get her something else. Something that had been a thorn in my side and would probably excite her.
I presented a sword to Sylphie. The sword the tip of its de chipped off, multiple cracks etched into the side, giving the impression that it could fall off at any point in time.
¡°This is [Scorching Winter]. A shitty weapon with cool effects.¡±
I did warn that if it betrayed me, I would break it. A few monthster, I finally acquired the power, so I paid it back tenfold for that one incident in the South.
¡°Thank you very much, Lady Hinotori! I shall, uh, make use of this chipped sword somehow.¡±
She sounded unconvinced. I gave this sword to her as a way to see how good her skills were in practical terms. This was more of a test than anything.
¡°It¡¯s a soul weapon. One that was owned by Kaleb Zen. I thought you¡¯d be more excited to see it.¡±
Her eyes widened once I borated a bit further. She then eyed the sword intensely, but frowned almost immediately.
¡°Are you certain?¡±
¡°You can choose to believe me or not. I said what I said.¡±
¡°Oh no! I do believe. I¡¯m just a bit surprised that you would actually give me such a rare treasure. Thank you very much!¡±
Now, for thest person.
¡°Yo, Reiman, my man. Wassup.¡±
¡°Ahem!¡±, Reiman made a loud noise to cancel out my informality. I growled at him for doing that, but he paid no mind to me.
¡®Buzzkill.¡¯, I sent a telepathic message to his head to let him know my feelings.
¡°Lord Reiman. Supreme Commander of the West and the genius who kept everything running. For you, I have two gifts.¡±
¡°Eh?¡±
¡°First, is the skill [Enhanced Processing].¡±, I gave him a sort of basic skill that could evolve into a really important skill should he keep using it, which he definitely was.
¡°Second. I will give you a second name.¡±
¡°What!?¡±
The entire field grew murmurous. All the creatures started talking, looking at us with shock and some with envy.
¡°I probably shouldn¡¯t be saying this out loud, but I want you to know that you are the subordinate I value the most. For that reason, I will call you Hideo!¡±, I dered boldly. ¡°Now go out and prove a man worthy of this name.¡±
That¡¯s right Reiman, live up to the GOAT himself. Do not disappoint me!
¡°Truly¡ you are the best master one could ever hope to serve.¡±
¡®Yes, yes. Praise me more!¡¯
He bowed down to me. Just then, the others followed her lead and went down, bowing to me.
[YOUR SACRED IS REACTING TO THE INTENSE LOYALTY THESE SOLDIERS HAVE DISPLAYED]
¡®Huh?¡¯
[AN AUXILLIARY CHAPTER HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE SACRED |CHAMPION OF DARKNESS|]
[AUX CHAPTER: [Generals of Pandemonium]]
[In the absence of their liege, the generals of Pandemonium will appear to wreak havoc. Demonic entities of mass power that make the world tremble with their presence.
Registered Generals: Reiman, Taiku, Tsuna, Nukeme, Yuuna, Oki, Kara, Arisu, Sylphie]
--Registered Generals have ess to certain benefits of your [Sacred] and can actively participate or serve to move your [Sacred] forward in your stead--
[NOTICE TO ALL FAMILIA MEMBERS]
-Anyone who demonstrates enough loyalty and valour can be included in the Generals of Pandemonium list, effectively making them one of Hyakkiyako¡¯s best subordinates! Pour your heart and soul into your master¡¯s cause! ¨C
Huh? What¡¯s this? A notification to everyone in the familia? What the heck? Ah¡ wait. It¡¯s going beyond that? Even non-familia members can hear it? To everyone in Larm? What the hell!?
DING!
[There are a few candidates that can be included in the |Generals of Pandemonium| list right now. Would you like to see them?]
¡®Hm? Sure.¡¯
[Shiroi, Gorm, Kuro, Kiara, Ulva, Amethyst]
¡®Uh, I see. I¡¯ll do thister then.¡¯
[You have received the title [Emperor of Larm]]
[You are now recognised as the supreme leader of the entire Larm Forest. Every denizen will immediately recognise your authority upon a single nce, and your power in Larm is iparable]
¡®Oh? Noice! I guess that¡¯s that.¡¯
¡°Ok, the awards ceremony is over. I guess we can all disper-¡±
¡°I apologise, but we¡¯re only starting now.¡±, A few dryads popped up before me.
¡°Huh?¡±
¡°We wanted to demonstrate our gratitude for your efforts in uniting Larm, so the awards were meant to just kick off the ceremonies. Now, we shall begin in earnest.¡±
¡°What?¡±
¡°Please sit down patiently and wait for event to finish, then we proceed to the feast.¡±
¡®Nooo! I take back my praise. These guys have got to be worse than humans. Who continues on to the boring part after the main event!?¡¯
<A/N: Sorry for thete chapter¡ I was, uhhh, uhhhh¡ I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Comment, review and drop power stones!>
Chapter 320 Outsiders
<h4>Chapter 320 Outsiders</h4>
¡°Hey, Seiko. What are we doing out here, again?¡±, Jasmine, who¡¯d grown bored of sitting on a tree branch, inquired.
¡°We need to survey the area as well as gather some food.¡±, Seiko was looking at some berries growing in a shrub.
¡°Huh? Isn¡¯t that what those other guys are doing? The food thing, I mean.¡±
Seiko red at Jasmine for herck of tact in this situation. He gestured with his eyes for her to look around, but she didn¡¯t get it.
¡°What are you trying to say?¡±
¡°For someone with exceptional senses, you are really terrible at this.¡±
¡°Hm?¡±, Frustrated, Jasmine cocked her head, trying to make sense of Seiko¡¯s exceptionally vague words.
¡°Shut up and just watch then.¡±, Instantly, Seiko spun around and fired a barrage of shots at the trees. The bullets connected, breaking the trees and kicking up some dust.
¡°Eh?¡±, Jasmine was shocked by the sight of the fallen trees changing size and form to reveal that they were, in fact, wolves. ¡°The tree transformed into wolves!¡±
¡°Treants. They¡¯ve been following us for some days now, and it was making me uneasy. Fortunately, I was right that they were only monitoring the stronger members of the group.¡±, Seiko said, walking over to inspect the bodies. He crouched to make sure that his gun really did kill them.
¡°Some days? Seriously? That¡¯s scary. Creepy monsters.¡±, Jasmine stuck her tongue out from atop the tree branch in a childish manner.
¡°How didn¡¯t you notice them?¡±, After confirming their deaths, he stood up to re at Jasmine.
¡°Um, I guess my brain filters out things it doesn¡¯t consider a threat to me. Teehee.¡±, She smacked her head and stuck out her tongue, trying to act cutesy to get Seiko to forgive her.
He ignored her, then started to walk back to camp.
¡°Whatever. Let¡¯s get back before anything bad happens.¡±
¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right. The kids probably can¡¯t handle those weirdos that showed up.¡±, Jasmine jumped down from the tree, to march yfully behind Seiko.
¡°Weirdos?¡±
¡°Yeah. Some men in ck robes just appeared and are fighting them. Kana, Akari and Daisuke are fighting them at the moment.¡±, She listlessly responded.
Seiko grabbed her by the shoulder and brought her face closer to his.
¡°What the hell are you talking abou-!?¡±, Before Seiko could finish his sentence, the sound of massive trees falling entered his ears. In the distance, he could see sparks of blue lightning and hear metal shing against metal¡ªdefinitely not amon sight in Larm.
¡°Let¡¯s get back!¡±, He ran full speed towards the group, taking out his 4-ban, a lengthy sniper rifle, then aiming it in the direction where the kids were. Looking through the scope, he determined the mana signatures of those present and was able to separate friend from foe.
¡®How the hell did she know about this before me?¡¯, Having such thoughts, Seiko fired off a red-hot steel bullet at one of the enemy mana signatures, aiming directly for the head. By thest second, the enemy managed to deflect his bullet.
¡°Huh!? They deflected my 4-ban!?¡±, Seiko, genuinely shocked and impressed, couldn¡¯t help but shout. He looked at the gun, as it was one that was impossible to deflect, then growled when he saw the barrel. ¡°Wrong barrel¡ This is 4-ban mk.1. Did I leave the mk.2 back in the kingdom? Crap.¡±
¡°What the hell are you shouting? Why¡¯re you wasting time?¡±, Jasmine grabbed Seiko by the arm, then took out a gem. She instantly shattered this gem, and a sh of rainbow colours entered Seiko¡¯s eyes, causing him to blink rapidly.
When he properly opened his eyes again, he was now standing before a battle scene.
Akari was trading swords with someone dressed in all ck, Kana was getting thrown about by another person in ck, whereas Daisuke was busily running about, carrying Shiro¡¯s body on his back, and narrowly avoiding being cut down by the various monsters that were attacking him, as well as the man controlling them.
¡°You might feel a little nauseous, so join the fight when you get over it.¡±, Jasmine rapidly said, before jumping in to help Kana by slicing at her attacker¡¯s wrist, forcing the person to let go of her hair.
Just as Jasmine said that, he could feel his breakfast jumping up from his stomach, into his mouth, and onto the floor. He crumpled to his knees to let out all the puke while the fight was ongoing.
¡®W-What the hell? Teleportation? Jasmine has teleportation? No. That¡¯s not important now.¡¯, He looked back up at Daisuke, who was currently being swarmed by a group of Electra wolves that were smaller in size, but possessed enough speed to blitz him and cause some confusion, whereas their master was taking out his whip.
Immediately, he looked through his bag for his 3-ban, but couldn¡¯t find it.
¡®D-did I leave it in Dhijan?¡¯, He clicked his tongue, frustrated that his forgetfulness was biting him in the ass at the moment.
Rather, he took out his 1-ban from his waist. A silver revolver gun. He pointed it at the one using the whip and aimed for his head, but before his bullet could reach there, the person fighting Akari jumped before the bullet to split it in half.
¡°Bold of you to worry about someone else in front of me.¡±, Akari jumped in swiftly and cut a gaping wound in the enemy swordman¡¯s chest, but he wasn¡¯t done there. He quickly turned around as if performing a dance, and released a barrage of slices, cutting open flesh wounds anywhere possible on the enemy swordsman, causing them to drop their weapon.
From behind, Seiko heard footsteps, forcing him to turn around, ready to fire his gun at the perp.
¡°Hey! Hey! Don¡¯t shoot. We¡¯re on your side.¡±, It was Marcus and his group. They¡¯d just arrived, but were already in battle mode.
Celica fired three arrows at the beast tamer, forcing him to jump back to avoid them.
¡°Throw her here!¡±, Daryl shouted at Daisuke. Thetterplied withoutint, throwing the unconscious Shiro with as much care as possible.
Mid-air, however, she¡¯d been caught by someone in a ck robe. Akari¡¯s eyes widened when she realised that it had been the very person she had just cut down. When she looked down, the body faded into clouds.
¡°6, 7! I¡¯ve got the girl. Let¡¯s retreat for now.¡±
¡°Over my dead body!¡± With a growl, Kana bolted towards the assant in a streak of blue, and threw a powerful side kick.
¡°4!¡±, the now-identified 7 shouted in warning. 4 narrowly avoided the kick by throwing Shiro above the trees and swinging down below the branch like some type of monkey.
He recovered immediately, grabbing Kana¡¯s leg and flying her off into the distance without care. He then jumped to the sky, but that was a terrible mistake.
¡°Gotcha.¡±, Celica¡¯s bow had already been aimed at Shiro in anticipation of 4¡¯s catch. Same could be said for Seiko, and both of them fired their shots the moment Kana was countered.
4, upon realising that their attack could actually make contact if he went on, immediately fired off a st of wind to repel him back towards the ground, leaving Shiro Tatsumaki up for the bullets.
At this point in time, the safety of Shiro Tatsumaki was the least of the Dark Church¡¯s concerns. All they needed was the [Divine].
¡°Shiro!¡±
No one there could have done anything. The fastest person present had no interest in saving her life. None of the Kazoku were fast enough to catch up to Shiro before she got hit. Seiko could possibly shoot Celica¡¯s arrow before it hit, but there was no catching up to his own bullet. Jasmine, who had a little teleportation trick, couldn¡¯t even help here, as there were strict conditions required to activate such a thing.
As of this moment, Shiro Tatsumaki¡¯s fate, truly was left up in the air for the gods to decide.
And truly, God did decide what to do next.
Not a single person dared to blink while looking up in the sky, but Shiro suddenly disappeared into thin air.
¡®Wha-!?¡¯, Before Seiko could formte any thoughts in his head, a dreadful sensation ran through his entire body. The hairs on his skin stood on their ends, and he shivered a bit. He wasn¡¯t the only one.
Every single person here experienced the exact same thing, as their eyes slowly traced down to the thing causing this feeling.
Six massive wings of ck, white, purple and golden opened up to reveal Shiro in the hands of someone. The person was gigantic. So much so that she made Seiko, who was the tallest person present, appear average in height.
They were clothed in a beautiful gown that looked far too casual for any formal meeting, but still radiated a certain elegance. The being had golden hair with dark purple tips on its end. Some horns protruded from her head and her vermillion red eyes glowed faintly as she looked at the girl in her arms.
In more ways than one, her beauty was far too ethereal for any of them to even believe she originated from this world. This was definitely a higher being and you couldn¡¯t convince any of them otherwise.
However, this image of a godly existence was ruined by the crass words that came out of her mouth next.
¡°What the hell are humans doing in Larm!?¡±
****
<<Alert! Four treants have suddenly died>>
¡®Eh?¡¯
<<They were the ones assigned to monitor the humans in Larm. They were shot dead>>
¡®Hm? The strong humans? That means they¡¯ve got a strong archer on their team. We need to handle this before it esctes.¡¯
¡®¡®¡®Master!¡¯¡¯¡¯, The captains all looked up at me, having received the same report that I did. Clearly, they were ready to rush to the problem to resolve it as quickly as possible.
¡®There¡¯s no need. I¡¯ll handle it. The ceremony will continue.¡¯, I ordered, and none of them argued. I half-expected at least one of them to say something, but they confidently grinned as their face muscles rxed.
¡®Akira. Take over my body for a while. I¡¯ll be back.¡¯
¡®Huh? All of a sudden? Sure, but¡¡¯
¡®Thanks!¡¯ Not waiting to hear what he said, I created a clone and jumped out of my body so fast that practically no one would have seen me moving.
Finally, I was free to do as I pleased, and the universe, being so generous, chose to bless me with a fight. Could anything get better than this?
Well, yes. Many, many things could be better than this.
In the sky above the scene of the crime, I was met with a very odd sight. Quite a number of people were looking into the sky. More specifically, they were looking at an unconscious person, falling from the sky who was at gunpoint.
What made this scene particrly shocking and unpleasant for me was the identity of the unconscious person. With a red face and silver hair, Shiro Tatsumaki, my previous short-term ¡°master¡±, was on the verge of taking a bullet to the head, resulting in death. Even if that didn¡¯t do it, the poison she was battling was definitely going to kill her.
I looked at the others and saw some other familiar faces. The newbie hero party I befriended some time ago was there, although some members were absent. The new faces belonged to three people wearing ck robes and two others who had the ss [Pdin].
Not that I wanted to hurry up and get back to the ceremony, but I grew tired of watching them in dyed time, so I jumped down quickly to get Shiro out of the way. Inded on the ground, with Shiro in my arms, then red at the others.
I appeared in the midst of the people, separating them. They all looked at me in awe, and I couldn¡¯t me them. After all, I modified my body to look bigger. I gave myself a little bit of height and tried to make it look like I was way older. In myter twenties, at the very least.
¡°What the hell are humans doing in Larm?¡±, I wouldn¡¯t have hesitated to kill either side, were it not for the presence of the group of humans I knew.
¡°[Divine]!¡±, The group in ck immediately bowed before me, dering something.
I looked at them, confused.
¡°Get out of our way.¡±, Meanwhile, in the other group, a guy with silver hair pointed his gun at my face. His name was Seiko, and from scanning him, it was apparent he was a pdin. The Pdin of Steel, to be precise. To his side was a girl named Jasmine, also another pdin. And curiously, she was¡
¡®Interesting.¡¯, Now wasn¡¯t the time for this, though I was starting to wonder why, all of a sudden, I was seeing more and more of these guys.
¡°I¡¯d drop that gun if I were you.¡±, I threatened, but the guy didn¡¯t budge an inch. Rather, he pulled the trigger, right in my face. His gun barely made a sound as the projectile came barreling towards my face.
¡®Ah. We¡¯ve got a really violent bastard here, huh?¡¯
Unfortunately for him, his bullet didn¡¯t make it past my elemental barrier. I stared right into his face and tried to intimidate him a little bit using some of my devil skills. That was also cancelled out by his ss, [Pdin], which, for some reason, gave him resistance to some mental tricks.
¡°I won¡¯t say it a third time. Drop the gun. Now.¡±, Not even allowing him to think, I had tentacle shadows appear an inch away from both parties¡¯ chins, ready to impale them in an instant.
Their next move would decide if they got to live or die, pdin or not.
<A/N: I contemted on whether to add the outside perspective on Hinotori to this chapter for a while. Eventually, i decided to do so just because I find it funny seeing a god-like being cursing like your average Joe.
Chapter 321 Welcome to Onigashima
<h4>Chapter 321 Wee to Onigashima</h4>
¡°Woah. You got super big in such a short time.¡±, In this highly tense situation, there was someone with zero situational awareness. And that person, was the blonde idiot with no arm.
¡°Marcus!¡±, Celica smacked the back of his head without any care for the shadowy tentacles that were before them.
¡°What? Just saying ¡®Hi¡¯ to an old friend.¡±, He cried, rubbing the back of his head, apparently unaware of the mistake he had justmitted.
¡°Are you idiots ever going to change?", While I was trying to look intimidating, I found myself breaking my persona because of their stupid, reckless behaviour. ¡°Seriously, there¡¯s no way this world is safe if it has you guys as its future heroes.¡±
I dropped my shadows, to lessen the tension.
¡°Clearly you did. You¡¯re so big now.¡±, Marcus marvelled at my size. He took some steps forward and came to be just a few feet away from me. He put a hand to his chin and started to check me out.
¡°It¡¯s like watching a little sister grow into a woman. I¡¯m starting to feel so proud. Is this what older brothers feel when they see their younger sisters all grown up?¡±
¡°Want to die? Who the hell¡¯s your younger sister, you freak?¡±, I retorted.
"Oh,e on, don¡¯t say that. We¡¯re practically rtives at this point.¡±, Marcus raised his arms for a hug.
¡°I didn¡¯t even spend more than a week with you.¡±, I flicked his forehead and sent him stumbling back a bit.
Honestly, this guy had to be the boldest person I¡¯d met. Ignoring my strength, who in their right mind just walks up to an 8-foot-tall woman that was shorter than 5 feet some months ago and treats it like it¡¯s the natural progression of life?
¡°Celica! Tori¡¯s ignoring me.¡±, He cried to the elf who was busily thinking of how best to keep her neck at this moment.
¡°Stop dragging me into your crap. I swear, I¡¯ll kill you one of these days.¡±
¡°Calm down. There¡¯s no need to get agitated.¡±, Daryl, the ever calm and reasonable sage, tried to mediate. ¡°Still, you¡¯ve gotta be a bit smarter, Marcus.¡±
¡°That¡¯s right. If it was somebody else, you¡¯d have lost your head already.¡±, I added in.
¡°I knew that Tori wouldn¡¯t decapitate me, though.¡±
While this silly conversation was happening, I sensed that everyone else was preparing some sort of attack.
Kana, Daisuke, Akari and Seiko were thinking of how to get Shiro out of my hands. The other group with the names 4, 6, and 7 was thinking of how majestic I was. Then there was Jasmine. She was the only one I couldn¡¯t get any sort of reading on. She looked so aloof and rxed that it was absolutely disheartening.
¡®Can you all just rx. Shiro¡¯s not going to die.¡¯, I wanted to say, but I wasn¡¯t sure how. This conversation with Marcus was dragging on for too long, and anytime now, these guys would snap, so I needed him to act fast.
¡°Ahem. Marcus.¡±, I called to him, making him stop his banter with Celica. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to introduce me to these people?¡±
¡°Oh right.¡±, He scratched the back of his head and walked forward.
¡°You already know Daryl and Celica.¡±, he said, gesturing at his teammates.
¡°These are Mister-I-shoot-before-asking-questions, Jasmine, Daisuke, Kana, Akari and the girl in your arms is Shiro.¡±, He listed them in the order in which they were standing, ending with my arms. ¡°You guys, this is Tori. She¡¯s¡ uh, what are you?¡±
The moment Marcus turned his neck to ask me that question, my eyes trained on Seiko. He was ready to use Marcus as a cover for the bullet he was firing, in order to hit me in the head in one shot.
Honestly, if he wasn¡¯t so heartless as to try to use Marcus to get to me, I just might have spared his life.
Before the pdin¡¯s finger pulled on the trigger of the gun, my shadow spike pierced through his head from the chin, making him drop lifelessly to the ground.
¡°Wow, you were right. He really does shoot before asking questions.¡±, I joked, then stretched my body a bit. ¡°Alright, you guys can be on your merry way out of Larm now. Nukeme, ensure that they leave Larm safely.¡±
That slimy goblin disobeyed my orders, snuck over here, and was spying on my conversation with them. He¡¯d also brought along his corps, meaning, these guys were surrounded and had no chance of escape. I¡¯d analysed all of them and had acquired a counter for their unique skills, meaning, there were no real threats here.
I spread my wings to lift off, but then¡
¡°Wait! Tori! We need your help.¡±, Marcus yelled at the top of his lungs. I stopped myself from lift off. ¡°As you can see, some part of my body is missing.¡±
He waved his right arm in front of me.
¡°We came to Larm hoping that you would help us fix ourselves.¡±, He said with the most serious expression he could ever muster.
¡°Hm? How in the hell am I supposed to help?¡±
¡°Eh? You can¡¯t grow back my limbs?¡±
¡°Do I look like I can just help people grow limbs back willy-nilly?¡±
¡°Eh? B-But she said¡ ah.¡±
¡°She?¡±, Now I was interested.
¡°Your rtive. She said, "We¡¯re supposed toe here for you to help us.¡±
Rtive? The only rtive I had was Vermillion, right? At least, that was what everyone had been telling me recently. Did that mean these guys had been in contact with Vermillion this entire time?
¡°You know of Vermillion?¡±, The moment I asked this, five people¡¯s expressions turned grim. Three were the numbers, and the other two were Celica and Daryl. Both their faces turned into a concerned frown, so I immediately read their thoughts.
¡®V-Vermillion? Isn¡¯t that the God-killer?¡¯
¡®S-She¡¯s rted to that being? That means, Sora is rted to her? So, why is she opposed to freeing her own rtive?¡¯
Oh? This Sora person, who might be my rtive, was opposed to the release of my supposed mother? The more I heard about her, the more interested I was.
¡°Don¡¯t know anything about a Vermillion, but Sora says you¡¯re rted. Remember we told you about her when we met thest time?¡±
¡°You did? My memories are kinda fucked at the moment. Sorry.¡±, I said, dropping my wings. This entire conversation changed things. ¡°Well, if a rtive of mine sent you guys, I can¡¯t just send you packing. I¡¯ll wee you to my home like I should have. It¡¯s not that far from here, so you guys should be able to make the trip with Nukeme¡¯s guidance.¡±
I gave the signal to Nukeme for my change in orders.
If these guys truly had some sort of rtionship with a rtive of mine, I could use them to get to that rtive. That way, I could get more answers about Vermillion and why I keep having dreams about Vermillion. And if I couldn¡¯t get any answers that way, the robed people behind me definitely had a lot to say on the matter.
The only issues were the others.
¡°Hey! W-Where do you think you¡¯re going with Shiro!¡±, the girl, Kana, timidly shouted.
¡°Hm? She¡¯s clearly unwell, so I was going to give her emergency treatment. Oh, that¡¯s right. I need to take care of that rude bastard as well.¡±, I grabbed Seiko off the floor.
When I did that, my eyes crossed paths with Jasmine. The stare she gave me actually sent a chill down my spine. She really was creepy for so many reasons. Both she and Seiko having the race [Modified Human] was something I never thought I¡¯d see.
¡®Are they siblings? Or from the same facility?¡¯, With such thoughts in my head. I flew off to the mansion. I didn¡¯t have to go back to the ceremony. Those guys could have all the fun they wanted.
****
¡°Woah. You really evolved, huh, Nukeme?¡±, Marcus, following closely behind the goblin captain,mented.
¡°Keh. Of course. All thanks to the grace of my goddess.¡±, Nukeme boasted. ¡°Look at the new weapons she even gifted me with.¡±
Nukeme showed off his gold and silver daggers to Marcus and everyone else following closely behind.
¡°Hey, hey! Aren¡¯t they [Aurum] and [Argentum]!?¡±, Cardinal 4 pushed Marcus out of the way and shouted in glee. ¡°I thought those were lost long ago? How did you acquire such relics?¡±
¡°My goddess! She can acquire anything.¡±
¡°Hey! Don¡¯t push me!¡±, Marcus tried to push the cardinal in retaliation, but he was so much weaker inparison that it felt like trying to push a deeply fixed tree out of the way.
¡°What¡¯s this bug saying? Want to die here?¡±
¡°C-Can we calm down?¡±, Daryl, who was tensed, pleaded.
¡°No, no. Please kill him. That retard¡¯s given me far too many heart attacks in the past month than I¡¯ve gotten in 30 yearsbined.¡±
While this group was conversing at the front, the Kazoku at the back were having their own conversation.
¡°Hey, what do you guys think of this situation?¡±, Daisuke, feeling extremely ufortable, asked for the others¡¯ opinion.
¡°Hm? Nothing much, really.¡±
¡°Same.¡±, Kana and Jasmine high-fived, both happy to have the exact same mindset in this situation.
¡°I¡¯ll admit that I am a bit on edge.¡±, Akari said, with a smile. His eyes kept darting into the shadows of the trees, where various hobgoblins and shadow rats were hiding and monitoring them.
¡°Eh? Why? Shiro¡¯s getting healed up, and we get somewhere to rest. What¡¯s there to be on edge about?¡±
¡°Gee, I wonder. It couldn¡¯t possibly be all the dangerous creatures watching our every move at the moment.¡±, Akari sarcastically responded with an exasperated smile.
¡°Oi, Kana. Were you born with no situational awareness?¡±, Daisuke asked, putting his hand to her forehead to check for a fever.
¡°Of course. I was the best in my ss back in school, you know?¡±
¡°Doesn¡¯t answer the question.¡± Daisuke face-palmed. He was starting to feel stupid for even expecting any kind of proper response from her.
¡°Still, this is the most dangerous forest in the world. I wouldn¡¯t raise my expectations for the reception.¡±, Jasmine pointed out. ¡°For all we know, we¡¯re just going to a cave in the middle of nowhere and will have to sleep on the floor.¡±
¡°Huh? Seriously, Jasmine? That¡¯s just stupid. You think a giant thing like her sleeps on the floor?¡±
¡°Well, where else would she sleep?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know? A tree branch? Oi, Daisuke. Where do you think she sleeps?¡±
Kana stopped walking when she realised everyone else had stopped. She looked up at Daisuke from behind him.
¡°Um¡ why don¡¯t you have a look.¡±, the giant of a teen listlessly pointed his finger to his front.
Kana, confused, followed Daisuke¡¯s raised finger to its target. There, she saw a massive mansion sitting conspicuously in an open clearing. Around it, the ground had been artificially ttened, and a few other structures had been set up, a majority of them about halfplete, whereas the minority were finished.
It was empty at the moment, but just looking at it made them all wonder why the hell there were human buildings being built in the West of Larm.
¡°What the heck is this?¡±
¡°Kekeke. Wee to Onigashima. We are still in building, but we shall soon be the most powerful country in the world!¡±, Nukeme announced.
<A/N: While writing this chapter, I looked up outside my window to see the peaceful neighbourhood with absolutely nothing happening, then I realised. It''s too hot! Wish I could sit in the living room to write so I can turn on the AC, but that messes up my entire flow.
Anyhow, if you enjoyed the chapter give me your power stones,ments and reviews.>
Chapter 322 Purpose
<h4>Chapter 322 Purpose</h4>
SHIRO POV
¡®Afortable bed, a nice aroma, and a gentle breeze. Strange¡ I could¡¯ve sworn I was in a forest when Ist awoke.¡¯, My first thoughts after regaining some form of consciousness led me to have some suspicions about my whereabouts.
I got out of the bed, then summoned Karma. We had to leave the little familiar back in Dhijan since that was the easiest solution to inn problems while travelling. With her contract, she could easily summon Karma from Dhijan and send it back if need be.
The dragon youngling, now the size of the average dog, sat resolutely and attentively.
¡®Master!¡¯, It sent an excited telepathic message to my brain.
¡°Were you watching through our shared vision?¡±, I asked.
¡®Of course! I am always watching!¡¯
Its response irked me in the wrong way, but I¡¯d grown ustomed to Karma¡¯sck of interest in anything other than me.
¡°So you saw what happened to me before I passed out?¡±
¡®Of course!¡¯
¡°borate then.¡±
Karma quickly exined how I got bitten by a snake and passed out. The moment I was unconscious, our shared vision was cancelled, meaning Karma knew nothing more. If Karma and I shared a better bond, the dragon might have been able to teleport to my location of its own volition, but I doubted it could think for itself.
¡°So, we don¡¯t know where I am, huh?¡±, Saying this, I walked over to the window to see what was outside.
I was met with a scene of ttened earth and iplete infrastructure. Beyond that, there was a sea of green, spreading as far as the eye could see. However, the most shocking part were the creatures right in front of the window.
Several groups of ogres and goblins were moving about in harmony, working on the construction of these infrastructures. Some were shouting orders in anguage I couldn¡¯t understand, whereas a couple were simply sitting and chatting with each other. There were even a few in armour walking around and keeping an eye on things.
I immediately crouched to avoid being seen, cing my hand over my mouth to muffle any screams that mighte out, my heart performing gymnastics in my chest.
¡®W-Where the hell did I end up?¡¯, I asked myself, stunned by the scene.
I was in Larm at the moment. I¡¯d heard from Senku-sensei that there was a group of ogres that lived in Larm and built habitable infrastructure, but they were supposed to be in the East. They were led by one of the tyrants of Larm. The war monger, Krull.
Unfortunately, Krull wasn¡¯t what you¡¯d call a kind person.
¡®How am I still alive? Why am I still alive? Where are the others? Kana, Seiko, Daisuke, Akari, Jasmine and even those bumbling idiots¡ gosh, what¡¯s happening?¡¯
Many questions popped into my head, and the more I sat to think, the more the questions flowed. Rather than asking questions, I had to find a way out of here. Or at least, find the others.
¡®No, no. The best thing to do right now is to escape. I can scout the area once I get a better idea of my current situation. Oh! This really is like one of those epic adventures father always talked about.¡¯, Myst memory of my father went as far back as when I was three.
He¡¯d always describe tales of his adventures with his friends to me, before he disappeared.
¡®Now isn¡¯t the time for such thoughts. Get yourself together, Shiro!¡¯, I pped my cheeks, then walked over to the door.
On the outside, I could sense the mana signatures of two creatures standing outside. I would need a distraction if I wanted to escape.
¡°Karma. Burst through the door, then run in any one of the directions in the hallway.¡±, Karma listened to my exnation with rapt attention. ¡°The guards will follow you and try to hunt you down, but if they get too close, I¡¯ll just summon you back to my location. By then, I should at least be at the end of the hallway.¡±
I wasn¡¯t even sure if there was a hallway. For all I knew, it was a one-way path the moment the door was opened, but I¡¯d cross that bridge when the time came.
¡®Which direction should I run in?¡¯, Karma asked.
¡°Any.¡±
¡®Which direction do you want me to run in?¡¯
¡°Ugh¡ go left.¡±, I groaned, then leaned on the wall besides the door. The moment Karma jumped out, that was my chance.
¡®Very well master!¡¯, Karma responded, then ran right out the door.
I was originally nning on having a countdown, but the dragon went right into it, leaving me a bit baffled.
However, before Karma could even touch the doors, they opened up. Yet, rather than justnding on the ground outside, Karma hit something of a greater force than the door, then bounced right back.
The immovable force took a few steps forward and entered the room. It was a little boy, about the same height as me. He had neatlybed dark hair. The boy was in a butler¡¯s uniform ¨C a ck suit over a white shirt, apanied by a ck vest and matching pants. His ck shoes shined so brightly it was like they radiated light themselves. He wore an eye patch on his right eye, as well as fingerless gloves on his hands.
The boy looked at me with a smile, then bowed.
¡°My master as summoned for you, human. Please make your way to the reception room.¡±, The boy spoke politely, shocking me. I was so dumbfounded at the sight of a human boy that I was left speechless. So much so, that I apparently hadn¡¯t spoken for quite some time. ¡°Is there an issue? Or do youck the ability to speak?¡±
¡°Oh, erhm, no. Yes. Um, master?¡±, I had no idea what I just spouted myself. Too many things wanted toe out at once.
¡°Yes! The great monster queen.¡±, He raised his hands innocently as he boldly dered this.
¡°Hm? Krull is a queen?¡±, I hadn¡¯t heard that title being used for Krull before.
¡°Krull? Krull was a man. Are you confused?¡±
<Listen to me now, princess>, Before I could respond to him, Tora spoke to me.
¡®Tora?¡¯
<That boy in front of you. Run away from him. Run away as far as possible>
¡®What?¡¯
<He¡¯s dangerous. Far too dangerous for you. It is in my contract to protect you, so I am giving you this piece of advice right now. Run>
¡®Hey! You think telling me this can suddenly make me run away when he¡¯s right in my face?¡¯
¡°Who are you talking to?¡±, The butler asked. I could feel the warmth leaving my face the moment he said that. The butler closed the distance between our faces in an instant. His blood red eyes started to glow as a maniacal smirk crossed his face.
¡°Let¡¯s bring that person over here.¡±, His voice and demeanour changed.
He reached his hand out to touch my abdomen. With his touch, I could feel an unusual surge of magic power within me.
<Ah! Tatsumaki Shiro, I am cancelling our contract. From henceforth, we are no longer partners!>
Immediately, Tora cried out in alert.
¡°What!? You can¡¯t just do that! You are supposed to protect me! You promised!¡±
<I already did my job by advising you. I am not bound by contract to kill myself for you. Farewell.>
After that, I lost my connection to Tora. He abandoned me in the moment I needed him the most.
¡°Oh¡ he seriously cancelled your contract? That¡¯s pathetic.¡±, He cursed, backing away from me. He then snorted. ¡°Get a better familiar next time. The useless trash from the [Fairy ins] are all bark and no bite. Once they see someone ofparable level they start to run away. Anyhow, please follow after me.¡±
I dropped to the ground, breathless. The butler marched towards the door, but stopped the moment he noticed that I hadn¡¯t moved.
¡°I believe I gently asked you to follow me. Do not force my hand, human.¡±, He threatened, not even giving me a moment to think about my current situation.
Weakly, I stood up and followed after him. Karma walked over to my side and followed closely, but that didn¡¯t register on my mind tillter. All I could think about were the events that just transpired.
Tora left me.
Tora was my first familiar. I was 6 years old when I forged my contract with him. Tora was so immensely powerful that the next time I could get a familiar, I was 11.
Growing up in the Tatsumaki household, I was always alone. I¡¯d always start out with someone, but in the end, I¡¯d be alone. I never even got to spend time with the n head. Dad left me at 3. Hiro left me at 6. The twins were taken at 12. Mr. Sotomura was now nowhere to be seen. Even a new familiar I acquired was taken before the day was over.
And right now, Tora. The most reliable entity in my life, had abandoned me. Maybe, my life¡¯s purpose really is to stay in a tower. To rule the Tatsumaki n and birth the next n head.
¡°I am the strongest, princess. Form a contract with me, and you will never regret it.¡±
Thinking back, I should have realised that this was a con. He came to me when I was sad and crying about how Hiro was gone. He found the perfect opportunity to trick me. To manipte me. Like everyone stronger than me always does.
Damn it. I was stupid. I was really stupid. My punishment for my stupidity¡ my purpose in life, is to be lonely. Forever.
****
Harbouring such thoughts in her head, a great darkness begins to grow. This darkness starts to affect her fate. If the entity known as Tatsumaki Shiro is ever to acquire a [Sacred], this darkness would surely corrupt it and in turn, corrupt her.
And for the very first time since the World Forge Era, a [Chaos Hero] would be born.
_________________________
Day 121
We arranged for the humans to stay in individual rooms yesterday. Their food was delivered to their rooms and we had multiple guards stationed around to keep them doing anything stupid.
I had to keep the pdin, Seiko, with me as he simply regenerated from the stab to the head after a while. I could have chosen to poison him, but he had a really high resistance and I wasn¡¯t merciless enough to keep destroying his brain over and over again just to keep him down.
So, I opted to keep him in my stomach till it was time.
There was a bit of discord that night with the guys. They all disliked the idea of me harbouring humans in Larm. First it was Neburis and Rulis and now, these guys. They were scared that I¡¯d eventually let the human army steamroll and take over.
I couldn¡¯t fault them for their worries, so I simply reassured them that I wouldn¡¯t be allowing those humans to stay. They simply had to trust me. However, Reiman felt that he had to be present to keep me in line during the meeting, so there was no avoiding that. The other captains, well, generals, tried to do the same, but I resolutely refused them. They had other duties to attend to, whatever it was they did¡
¡®Aside from fighting¡ what are these guys for again?¡¯
Which is why, today, in my office, I sat on a chair, faced with 10 humans and 1 elf. We were missing one more person.
Just as I thought this, the door to the room burst open with no grace, revealing Julian and Shiro. The vampire butler spread his arms wide open with a grin.
¡°Queen! I have arrived with the final human scum!¡±, Saying this, he waited for Shiro to enter the door before walking out. ¡°I shall go attend to master Maou. Wherever he is¡¡±
The doors m shut, leaving Reiman and I alone with the outsiders.
¡°Since the final member is present, shall we start discussing your purpose in Larm?¡±, I started.
<A/N: It¡¯s like the heat gets worse by the day. I called this arc the [Winter Zone], but we still haven¡¯t seen snow¡ Maybe I should change the name, since the [Winter Zone] ys the tiniest role here. Maybe, a chapter or 2. Maybe 3? Idk, that fight will take a while. Yes! The nameless arc!
If you enjoy the story, please give me your powerstones,ments and reviews. :) >
Chapter 323 Travellers
<h4>Chapter 323 Travellers</h4>
¡°We humbly request that you return with us to take your rightful ce as the ruler of our organisation.¡±, The Cardinal 4 dered boldly, no hint of sarcasm present whatsoever.
¡°Huh?¡±, I was left dumbfounded by the sudden proposition by the leader of the men dressed in ck.
¡°Excuse my impertinence.¡±, He straightened his back, folded his arms behind his back, and avoided direct eye contact with me like a nervous subordinate. ¡°I am Cardinal 4 of the Vermillion Restoration Army.¡±
¡®The Vermillion what now?¡¯, There that name went again. This Vermillion bastard really went and left all of her troubles on me.
¡°Don¡¯t listen to him. That¡¯s the uniform of Dark Church cultists. He¡¯s a liar!¡±, Marcus called out the cardinal¡¯s ims.
¡®Dark Church?¡¯
¡°The Dark Church is a false name, originally meant to throw off organisations that were against our cause. Unfortunately, it somehow became¡ our name.¡±, The cardinal exined, sounding a bit embarrassed towards the end.
Boy, these guys were starting to sound more and more pathetic. If I continued focusing on their pathetic side, I might just give up on listening to them entirely.
¡°Why do you want me to ce me in charge of the Vermillion Restoration Army.¡±, I chose to focus on the more important bits.
¡°At once!¡±, they bowed in unison, yelling. ¡°However, we request that outsiders not hear this.¡±
Cardinal 4 red at the others. The other party chose to repay their res with res of their own, creating unnecessary tension in the room once more.
¡®Hm, then think it. I¡¯ll simply listen.¡¯, I sent a telepathic message to the cardinals. They showed no obvious sign that I¡¯d made any contact with them, clearly to avoid arousing the suspicion of the others.
I activated [Infinite Processor] and shared its ability with those three, allowing our brains to function at an entirely different speed than everyone else present. I wasn¡¯t sure how long a beast man¡¯s brain could take it, so we would make it snappy. Even I got nauseous if I kept functioning at such an impossible speed for too long.
¡®W-Wow. How?¡¯
¡®It¡¯s a skill of mine. We can finish this conversation quickly before the others notice anything.¡¯
¡®Y-Yes.¡¯, 4 tried to regain hisposure, meanwhile¡
¡®Can¡¯t wait to get back to boast to the others.¡¯, 6 said, squealing in his mind like a teenage girl at a k-pop concert.
¡®About 300 years ago, during the God Wars, our goddess was betrayed by a close acolyte of hers, and her followers were mostly wiped out. However, before her untimely demise, our goddess had blessed us with an egg. Her offspring who would lead us into a prosperous age.¡¯
The God Wars I needed to look a bit more into that.
¡®This goddess is Vermillion and that egg is me, huh?¡¯
¡®Indeed.¡¯
¡®You¡¯re called the Vermillion Restoration Army because you want to bring her back to life?¡¯
¡®No. Our organisation simply seeks to restore order to the world by ushering in the new Vermillion.¡¯
¡®Hm? How does ushering in a new Vermillion restore order to the world?¡¯, I asked, now more interested in what sort of role Vermillion yed.
¡®The past 300 years of Vermillion¡¯s absence are proof of what we mean.¡¯
¡®Hm?¡¯
¡®Ever since the gods won the God Wars, this world has been forcefully thrust into their desired order. Within just 300 years, they have managed to convince the humans, fairies and beast men to worship them.¡¯
ssic religious stuff. I don¡¯t see what¡¯s so bad about that. It''s not like I know much about the Holy Crusade or whatever, but I feel like those dark, egregious bits of history from Earth are what helped shape it into what it is. There was no avoiding conflict. At least the God Wars were over.
¡®Whilepletely eradicating or antagonising everyone who is opposed to the idea of following their rule.¡¯
Yep. Sounds really familiar. All that¡¯s in the past, though. Nothing you can do about dead people¡¯s business.
¡®Till date, the demons are being harassed simply because they refuse toply.¡¯
¡®Oh¡ ooohh. Ok, that¡¯s pretty nasty.¡¯
The whole Hero versus Demon Lord bit was just a grand holy crusade given a different name by others¡ªssic religion.
¡®Indeed. However, a great majority of our group as lost the way and seek to revive the original Vermillion.¡¯
I felt like I¡¯d roughly heard this somewhere before. I just wasn¡¯t sure.
¡®You want to revive Vermillion?¡¯
¡®Well¡ no?¡¯
¡®Well then! I¡¯ve got great news for you guys!¡¯
¡®Oh? You ept?¡¯
¡®Hell no!¡¯ I promptly turned down their offer. Ain¡¯t no way in hell I was ever going to actively partake in such a tedious role. I didn¡¯t need three heads to tell me that taking them up on this would mean I¡¯d be suffering for quite a while. ¡®I¡¯m never joining a cult.¡¯
¡®B-but!¡¯
¡®Good for you guys, there¡¯s another person just like me. Possibly a better option since they seem to be older and far busier.¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
A look of genuine confusion. Excellent!
¡®Yes. I might have an older rtive who you guys could simply use instead.¡¯
¡®T-That¡¯s impossible.¡¯, They responded with disbelief, making me smirk.
¡®Hm? What¡¯s impossible?¡¯, I decided to y a bit.
¡®There can only be one phoenix at a time. If you are alive, that means the original Vermillion is dead.¡¯
¡®Eh?¡¯, My good mood was suddenly ruined.
¡®Yes. All texts speak of there only ever being one Vermillion that keeps dying and rebirthing. A singr existence with no peers.¡¯
¡®W-Wait. So, the reason you guys are against Vermillion¡¯s revival is¡¡¯
¡®Against? No, we aren¡¯t. After all, you are Vermillion.¡¯
The cardinal¡¯s words started to echo in my head. Vermillion? Me? She isn¡¯t my mother, but rather, me? I am Vermillion? That doesn¡¯t make any sense. I know for a fact that I am my own person and not a reincarnation of Vermillion. If I was a reincarnation of Vermillion, wouldn¡¯t I at least have some memories of that life¡ shit.
¡°Very well, then,ter.¡±, I cut off the connection with the cardinals and returned them to normal time. They hadn¡¯t realised, but they were sweating heavily, and their body temperatures had risen greatly during their time with me.
¡°V-Very well.¡±
Ah, wait. I am about to be the new demon lord because of that selfish vampire queen¡¯s decisions. Doesn¡¯t that mean I¡¯ve automatically been thrust to the forefront of this entire war? Gods, demons, humans, heretics, resurrections, cults¡ªit¡¯s all starting to be a major headache.
¡®I need to find a way to avoid doing any of this. Tch. This is too bothersome. Maybe I should... Oh yes. That¡¯s it! I¡¯ll just do that. Hehehe.¡¯
¡°What of your group?¡±, Having lost interest in the cultists, I turned my attention to the adventurers.
¡°I told you earlier, right? We were told you can fix this?¡±, Marcus raised his missing arm like it was the most normal thing in the world.
I red at the arm, a bit annoyed, yet intrigued that this rtive of mine had chosen to drop this burden on little old me. That is, if this rtive was truly a rtive of mine to begin with.
¡®Would a renosue potion work?¡¯
<<No. They restore health, not limbs>>
¡®What about if I gave him the [Instant Regeneration] skill?¡¯
<<The limb would need to have existed while he possessed the skill, or else it wouldn¡¯t recognise the missing limb as an abnormality>>
¡®Hmm. [Polymorph]?¡¯
<<Humans can¡¯t use some racial skills of members of non-humanoid races. This includes slimes>>
¡®Do you have a solution then?¡¯
<<Ye->>
¡®I-I have an idea!¡¯. Akkun popped up out of nowhere, cutting off the agent.
¡®Oh?¡¯, I was more interested in the fact that he chose to leave his work toe see this. Normally, those guys prefer to be kept out of all of this hassle.
¡®I¡¯ve been working on the [Dark Arts], and realised some things from your trip in hell that looked very interesting.¡¯
¡®What?¡¯
¡®Th-those mechs y-you fought. T-They were made f-from devil parts.¡¯
¡®Eh?¡¯
¡®T-That¡¯s right¡ no. I s-should say, fiends?¡¯
My mind went back to the 80-80 and other robots I fought when I entered hell. From the looks of things, those were purely mechanical in my eyes, and I didn¡¯t sense anything off about them. Then again, being in hell, surrounded by demonic energy, it wouldn¡¯t be easy to sense weak demonic energy from those weak robots.
¡®C-Can I take control?¡¯
I gave my body over to Akkun, interested in the oue. He walked over to Marcus and grabbed him by the arm, raising him to our new height level and inspecting him like a lifeless doll.
¡°H-Hey. This kinda hurts.¡±
¡°Please be quiet during the inspection.¡±, Akkun coldly said, continuing on with his investigation. Once he was done, he smiled.
¡°This should do it.¡±, He ced his hand over Marcus¡¯ arm, and a ck magic circle formed on the arm. Red lightning crackled, and the amount of mana I could feeling from it felt almost too absurd.
¡®What the hell is that?¡¯
<<A summoning circle for devils. You are attempting to summon an Arc Devil>>
¡®What? Hey! Akkun, the hell are you doing?¡¯
¡°Rx. I¡¯ll be done soon.¡±
¡°H-Hey. W-What the hell is-¡±, Akkun, tired of hearing Marcus¡¯ voice, shut him up with a cluster of magic. The young man wiggled about like a worm, the pain from whatever the hell Akkun was doing, clearly taking its toll.
His party members, Celica and Daryl, tried toe to his aid, but a pair of shadow demons materialised, pinning them down to the ground and muffling their voices to prevent any loud noises.
The others got the message and kept quiet while watching the event.
A new arm, as ck as the night sky, grew out of the magic circle. The arm appeared inhuman in nature, with sharp, pointy ws for fingers and jagged, rough scales for skin. Like an overcooked cake, the arm was smoking and burned with bright orange cracks. The arm simmered down as the light faded.
¡°I am uncertain how the arm will operate, so you will need to stay a few days to run some experiments.¡±, I said, dropping Marcus heartlessly. He managed tond on his feet, but immediately crumpled to the ground, holding his new arm and wincing in pain.
¡®Why do I sense demonic energy from that arm?¡¯
¡®B-Because t-that¡¯s a d-devil. I-I made a c-contract for the d-devil to act as an arm f-for him.¡¯
¡®Wouldn¡¯t it have been better to use a shadow demon then? We could have used a shadow fiend if you wanted to make them crazy powerful too. That way, no contract needed.¡¯
¡®W-well, yes. B-But I have a-a better idea! Hehehehe, i-if I am right, t-these humans will b-break co-conventions.¡¯
¡®Huh?¡¯
¡®Kill lots of people and absorb lots of souls. Be stronger and achieve a state of fusion between humans and devils. Surpass the human limitw and show me that there are limitless uses for magic. Hehehehe.¡¯
¡®A-Akkun?¡¯
¡®S-Sorry. I lost myself a bit. I¡¯ll go back now.¡¯
¡®W-Wait! What the hell do you mean by Human limitw? Akkun! Akkun? Aaaand, he¡¯s gone.¡¯
Whatever. I could always get the answerster, if needed.
¡°Can you feel it?¡±, I asked, removing the cluster of magic from his mouth.
¡°Y-Yeah. It burns, but¡ I¡ I can actually feel?¡±, Marcus only just realised that he could feel his arm. He wriggled his fingers around in awe before starting to y around with his arm. ¡°H-Hey! I can actually feel it.
I immediately let go of his friends as well. They quickly rushed to his side.
¡°A-Are you ok?¡±
¡°She didn¡¯t hurt you, right?¡±
¡°Nope! Look at it! It¡¯s a brand-new arm!¡±, Like a kid showing off his new toy, Marcus put his new arm on disy for the duo to see. ¡°Go on! Touch it.¡±
¡°Get that thing out of my face.¡±, Celica punched Marcus in the face for bringing it in too close.
¡°W-What is that?¡±, Daryl asked me, concerned.
¡°Don¡¯t think too much about it. Just think of it as a functional arm for now.¡±, After saying this, I moved on to the others.
¡°Is this what you guys also came for?¡±, I asked their apparent leader, Seiko.
¡°No. We are simply passing by.¡±, He responded coldly.
¡°Wait! S-She could help us recover our ho-¡±, Kana shouted, but her mouth was immediately shut by both Daisuke and Akari. Clearly, she was the wildcard of the group. A few interactions with her outside of this room would probably give me good information. That is, if she knew anything.
¡°When will you be leaving then?¡±, I asked, not wanting to get involved in whatever problem they were having.
¡°As soon as possible. Tomorrow at the earliest.¡±
¡°Eeh? B-But, Seiko. There¡¯s a bath and actual food here!¡±, Jasmine broke her silence for the very first time, clinging to Seiko¡¯s arm like an annoying little sister. Her sudden childishness intrigued me.
¡°Jasmine, we do not want to impose on our guest.¡±
¡°You wouldn¡¯t be imposing at all.¡±, I responded sharply. Both Seiko and Jasmine were pdins, meaning they were exceptionally dangerous beings. After swallowing Seiko, I went through multiple pieces of his stuff in his bag, and inside it were a few letters and approvals, some stamped by really important figures such as the King of the Dhijan Hero Nation and the High Council of the Holy Mexar Empire.
These two were potential enemies in the future, especially for me, who was doomed to be the next demon lord. If anything, I¡¯d prefer to take them out here so my identity doesn¡¯t get out. But if at all possible, this was my chance to do the impossible: establish friendly rtions between humans and the monsters of Larm.
If I actually seeded in doing that, I could at least rest a bit easier about the potential war at our gates. I could simply make the demon lord a separate persona with no connections to Larm. That way, everyone was safe.
¡°See, Seiko? Not imposing at all!¡±, Jasmine continued with her childish tantrum.
¡°Ugh, please stop that.¡±
¡°We¡¯ve been travelling for weeks. A nice bed, bath and food don¡¯t sound too bad.¡±, Daisuke walked up and whispered into Seiko¡¯s ear. Thetter red at the former, his eyes saying a lot more than his mouth ever would.
¡°If anything, please consider Shiro-san¡¯s condition. A few days rest would be good for her, no?¡±, Akari also added.
¡°Huh? What the hell are you guys on about? Shiro¡¯s as fit as a raging thunder charger, right?¡±, Kana threw the question to the quiet Shiro.
¡°Hm?¡±, She responded listlessly, like her mind wasn¡¯t even in the room. Well, it wasn¡¯t.
¡°Hey, Shiro?¡±, Kana, a bit surprised by Shiro¡¯sckluster response, called her.
¡°She¡¯s fine. We can be on our way t-¡±, Seiko ignored Shiro¡¯s concerning behaviour and decided to speak up.
¡°Are you feeling alright?¡±, I decided to ask her myself, feeling like we¡¯d get better results if it was me. I didn¡¯t know why I thought this, though.
¡°¡ What¡¯s happening?¡±, The light returned to her eyes, as she looked around, only to find the entire room staring at her.
¡°We¡¯re asking if you¡¯re healthy enough to continue travelling.¡±
¡°Um, uh, yes. We can continue at any time, I guess.¡±
Everyone in the room could tell that she definitely wasn¡¯t ready to continue travelling.
<A/N: Took a break. Sorry for not giving a notice. I need to learn to bnce things better. I¡¯m thinking of only posting chapters after I¡¯m done with about 70% of that arc for multiple reasons, so please forgive any major gaps in the posting schedule. Had to give this announcement before the next month, so I''ll be back to posting chapters in full soon! Have a nice day.>
Chapter 324 Fortress Of Solitude Pt.I
<h4>Chapter 324 Fortress Of Solitude Pt.I</h4>
??? POV
After walking through the ice for quite a bit, we stumbled across an interesting sight. A creature covered in snow-white fur, with horns made of ice stood in our path. Icy breath escaped the creature¡¯s fang-filled maw as it scoffed at us. It¡¯s blood-red eyes glowed dimly in contrast to his ugly blue face and snow-white mane.
Oddly enough, this grotesque image wasn¡¯t enough to stir any emotions in my heart. I wasn¡¯t sure why I was certain I was supposed to feel something.
The little girl to my left tugged on my arm, making me look at her. Strangely enough, I understood her perfectly just by looking into her eyes.
¡°You want to fight him? You can beat him? Have at it then.¡±, Our conversation ended there. The girl let go of my hand and jumped at the creature, but an explosion of snow stopped her mid-air.
When the snow settled, it revealed a person of short stature, wrapped in numerous dirty rags that perfectly hid their body, standing there with a staff in hand. The person wore a witch¡¯s hat, and their rags were so numerous, it gave them a rotund figure.
The little girl retreated, hissing at the person. Even the creature on the other side made no movements.
The person searched through their rags, eventually pulling out a book. They flipped through the pages, reading briskly, before eventually settling on one page.
¡°Hashimoto Rensuke-kun and Kanata Suzuki-kun, right?¡±, They said, causing the creature on the other side to wince.
I might have had the same reaction if I was bothered enough, although the name, Hashimoto Rensuke, sounded ufortably familiar to me.
¡°Great. I found most of you. Just six more students, and we can return to Earth.¡±
At the mention of Earth, all my memories started to flood my brain. I was a student on Earth, and I suddenly appeared here. How weird.
¡°Please abstain from killing each other. It¡¯ll be a hassle searching for your souls again.¡±, Having said this, the person held their staff, then mmed it into the ground.
A circle filled with markings formed beneath the person. The crystal on the staff glowed, producing a power that filled the circle beneath them, causing another explosion. As soon as the explosion settled, there was nothing there anymore.
The little girl looked into my eyes, once more as soon as the odd person left.
¡°Sorry, but I don¡¯t think you can kill this creature anymore. Just put it to sleep or something. What? I¡¯m the one who should do that? How am I? Oh? That so? I see.¡±
ording to the little girl, I possessed the ability to put anyone to sleep. If that was so, how did I do it? Was I supposed to simply raise my arm? Make a grand gesture? Yell out some embarrassing nonsense?
But that was too much work. I wasn¡¯t in the mood to do that. Couldn¡¯t he just fall asleep and not make me do such tedious work?
As such thoughts flowed through my mind, the little girl tugged on my arm again. I looked down at her, but she was facing forward. I traced her gaze to meet the unconscious body of the ugly creature from before.
¡®Oh¡ that works too.¡¯
The girl squeezed my arm tightly, signalling for us to proceed with our earlier march.
Honestly, walking was starting to feel like a drag. If only there was a way to cancel out the need for me to walk entirely. Like a self-driving car. Unfortunately, there was no such thing nearby. Maybe I could make it for myself? I didn¡¯t know why, but creating such a thing felt incredibly possible to me.
¡°Wait there¡ boy it¡¯s tough moving in the snow.¡±, Stopping us in our tracks once more, a new person arrived before us. This person was clothed in what I remembered to be a traditional yukata.
¡°Who are you?¡±, I asked, curious about something for the very first time.
¡°Are you looking for work?¡±, She asked, ignoring my question.
¡°No.¡±, I didn¡¯t want to walk, much less perform work for a stranger. A dangerous stranger at that.
¡°In that case, don¡¯t go in whatever direction your instincts are telling you to.¡±
¡°Hm?¡±, Truly, this stranger was interesting. Somehow, she was aware of my instincts and my drive. Before, I was unbelievably confident that I was safe, but now¡ even the little girl holding my hand was shaking.
¡°You see, in that direction, there¡¯s a dangerous forest there, ruled by an extremely dangerous monster. If it catches sight of you, you¡¯ll end up in a lot of trouble. Rather, follow me.¡±, She borated vaguely.
¡°Who are you?¡±, My intrigue was now reced by a sense of wariness.
To my sharp and cautious tone, she replied with a wide grin and glimmering eyes that betrayed the sickening aura I could feel from her.
¡°You can sense it right? I¡¯m the ruler of this world, obviously!¡±
HINOTORI POV
We came to the conclusion, that more time was needed for Shiro to recover, although she was in perfect physical condition. Unfortunately for them, I couldn¡¯t allow them to move about too freely, so as to maintain as many secrets as possible. They were allowed to go about certain ces in the mansion, of course, but the treasury, cers, upied bedrooms, and Sylphie¡¯s workshop werepletely off-limits.
I honestly wanted to talk to Shiro, but she couldn¡¯t tell who I was.
Obviously, there¡¯d be no way for her to tell who I was given my new appearance. Still, I felt that there should have at least been an instinctual feeling there. Maybe I was expecting too much of her. Yeah, it wasn¡¯t right to expect her to automatically know who the hell I was.
I¡¯d have to talk to herter, but Julian wasn¡¯t having it. The bastard wanted me to begin my training as soon as possible. I¡¯d managed to push it back this far because I had recently evolved and effortlessly stopped the dispute, but Julian now wanted to test me.
The selection was going to start in two weeks, and he was getting a tad bit anxious. It would seem that his very life was riding on my sess. Which was why, at this very moment, we were both in the winter zone, standing on one of the peaks.
¡°I don¡¯t see why I have to be naked for this.¡±, Iined, getting a bit self-conscious about the whole thing.
¡°To ensure that you are not receiving any sort of buff from anything. The whole point of this event is to ensure that you yourself are in top-notch shape.¡±, Saying this, Julian spread apart my arms and started to feel me all over.
¡°Nice. Very nice.¡±, I couldn¡¯t feel a thing, but it still felt extremely weird having him ze over my body like that.
¡°Are you done?¡±
¡°You definitely have the body of a child with the strength of a named dragon.¡±
¡°10 named dragons?¡±
<<By named dragon, he means a dragon with a title. Most dragons, being creatures with whole souls, don¡¯t get any significant boost from receiving a regr name. However, titles are very different and are only given to exceptional dragons.>>
¡®Hm, I see.¡¯
¡°Yes. Maybe more? I¡¯m just going off your physical potential here. Lord Maou will be stronger than this one day.¡±, He started topare me to my own child yet again.
¡°Yes, yes. Can we get this over with?¡±
¡°Of course. Now, we are about to begin. Please refrain from using any and all magic.¡±
¡°What? Why?¡±
¡°I simply wish to see how good yourbat prowess without magic is. I intend to make you participate in the [Demon Lord Selection] without magic. Imagine everyone assuming that you possess no magical capabilities, only for you to reveal them in the finalpetition.¡±, Julian begun his rant. ¡°¡°Ha! You, a mere demon lord candidate, believe that you are worthy of my magic? Nay! I am simply choosing to bless your final moments with it!¡±. Imagine the crowd! Oh my days, I¡¯m getting heated by simply thinking of just how epic such a disy would be.¡±
¡°Don¡¯t push your chuuni fantasies on me.¡±, I immediately recoiled after hearing his n.
Still, Julian¡¯s idea wasn¡¯t half bad. I didn¡¯t mind participating in the selection without magic, as long as I could actually do it smoothly. The less anyone knew about me, the better.
¡°So, what exactly is the test?¡±, I asked, looking around.
I¡¯d scanned the nearby area and found that there were a lot of C-rank and above creatures. There was a shocking amount of B and A ranks nearby too, but nothing that could give me any problems.
¡°You want me to fight the monsters around here?¡±, I asked, feeling like this wouldn¡¯t take very long.
¡°No. Those beasts are too weak for you. We are here to clear one of the most dangerous dungeons in the world! Kaleb Zen¡¯s Fortress of Solitude!¡±
¡°¡ I know being a reincarnator means no copyright or whatever, but there should be limits to how shameless a person can be.¡±
While I was having such thoughts, a monster came up to me. The monster shook timidly as it slowly approached me, clearly not wanting to step any further.
¡®Fight! Fight it!¡¯, The monster shouted in its head.
It was an Ice oni. A decently powerful monster, although not so much that a party of experienced A-rank adventurers couldn¡¯t handle.
What made this monster even more interesting was the fact that it was a reincarnator. I wanted to ask some questions, but this monster just wanted to fight me. What to do?
¡°Rubbish.¡±, Julian said, quickly attending to the issue by punching the monster away. By the time I realised what had happened, the beast had been thrown quite a distance away.
It was no issue to fly over to him to ask some questions, but looking at him, he wasn¡¯t going to get back up any time soon. I didn¡¯t mind waiting just a bit longer. Who knew? He could have been one of my ssmates.
¡°Shall we?¡±, Julian led the way into the dungeon.
It was an impressionable gate of ice that reached as far as the human eye could see and looked impossible to move by mere brute force. Of course, Julian brute-forced it open, but that was beside the point.
We entered the dungeon to begin my training. Hopefully, this wouldn¡¯tst too long.
----------------------------
DING!
[Unexpected mana levels detected]
[Converting Dungeon Room to amodate intruder]
[Altering Floor Terrain]
[Generating Multiple Dungeon Mobs]
[Activating, Project CATH: Y]
The Fortress of Solitude¡¯s internal structure begun to morph.
Dungeons were locations with multiple floors, each of which became more difficult the more a person descended. Kaleb Zen, as a researcher and explorer, preferred to try things out in a different way. The second-most dangerous dungeon in his series, the Fortress of Solitude, possessed only one floor. An icy, frozenke, with nothing but freezing snow as far as the eye could see.
The floor could cause a freeze effect that could kill even B-rank adventurers 10 minutes after setting foot inside. No one who had entered had ever made it out.
Now, this frozenke was being converted into a massive forest. A frozen winternd with icy-blue trees covered in snow and thorns of ice spikes, mountains as tall as the sky, and multiple frozenkes.
Rather than a simple floor. The entire room had been converted into a massive forest on a scale that no normal dungeon core could ever hope to process.
This wasn¡¯t the only thing the dungeon core was busy with.
An autonomous unit Kaleb Zen had been painstakingly working on for years had been activated.
It was in the form of a humanoid machine that was bound to the core of the dungeon by multiple wires. The humanoid machine was fed its status and objective, as well as the necessary tools to eliminate the intruder.
The automaton moved itself from the core as it looked at the intruder on a screen.
¡°It emanates demonic energy, but seems to possess a holy barrier. The blessings of a few gods also give it immunity to some elemental and mental attacks. Mana reserves are voluminous, and magic power is potent. Physical stats, are about B-rank, but skill [Mythril Body] can change that. Estimated physical stats: SS-rank. Analysing other skills¡ battle difficulty: Impossible. Activating the Skill Barrier. Activating the Anti-Ster Barrier. Recalcting battle difficulty: Extremely Difficult.¡±
¡°Personal report on the matter: It may not look too good, but a sryman has no choice at the end of the day.¡±
Chapter 325 Fortress of Solitude Pt.II
<h4>Chapter 325 Fortress of Solitude Pt.II</h4>
The moment we entered; a giant hologram of Kaleb Zen appeared before us
¡°Wee, to the final dungeon in my series! You are honestly pretty impressive. As expected, youpleted the <<Yellow Springs>> without a hitch and now you¡¯re here to do the same to this one.¡±
Yellow Springs? I hadn¡¯t done that one yet. Maybe he assumed it¡¯d be done in a particr order?
¡°Well, finish this dungeon for a cool surprise.¡±
With that, the hologram faded, leaving both Julian and I alone in the snow forest. I looked to him for any sort of information, but he simply shrugged, just as unknowledgeable as I.
¡®Agent?¡¯
<<¡ C¡ n¡¯t¡ arri¡r¡ skills¡ shut¡ down.>>
¡®Eh? This hasn¡¯t happened before.¡¯
¡®Oi, Akira, Akkun, Hyakkun.¡¯
They didn¡¯t respond to me. Somehow, I couldn¡¯t feel my connection to them anymore, even though they were supposed to be in my head. A bit perplexed, I reached out my hand to use a skill, just as a test. My hand was covered in bits of steel scales, but the scales just fell off before they couldpletely encase them.
¡®Hm? Skills are active but at a weaker level?¡¯
Just as I figured this out, Julian spoke up.
¡°W-Well¡ i-it would seem this wasn¡¯t as bright an idea as I believed.¡±, In his palms, blood that he was summoning just fell to the ground lifelessly.
I looked at him with disbelief and anger, but before I could berate the dumbass, the growling of monsters cut through the air. From behind the trees, a group of giant white-furred creatures with ice blue eyes and fangs about the size of my forearm appeared.
¡®Kill! Kill! Kill!¡¯, was the only thing in their minds. Either that, or my telepathy was now at a level where I could only interpret simple thoughts. I highly doubted it was thetter though.
One of the yetis jumped down, swinging a frozen tree branch at me. Easily, I sidestepped to avoid the blow, then used [Spear Stab] to pierce it in the chest. The yeti backed down, falling on its knees, holding its chest and huffing heavily.
I looked at my hand. I was a bit surprised that it wasn¡¯t as easy as a one-hit kill. However, I wasn¡¯t going to waste time thinking about that. Quickly, I used [Spear sh] to decapitate the yeti. Its body fell lifelessly to the ground.
¡°Well¡ at least I know I can kill them without breaking a sweat.¡±
Julian pped his hands excitedly.
¡°That¡¯s the queen of monsters for you.¡±, He muttered.
To avoid hearing more of his cringe nonsense, I looked back at the yetis. Three more fell to the ground, all charging at me. Avoiding their attacks were no problem for me. Within seconds, they were all on the ground, either missing a head or a limb.
The rest of the yetis that were hiding up on the trees red at me quietly. Obviously, they were analysing me, using their friends as test dummies toe up with counter measures. After all, even if yetis were savage beasts, they wouldn¡¯t be able to survive in the [Winter Zone] with brawn alone. If I had to give a singr yeti a rank, it¡¯d be B-. At my current level, even with weaker skills, an entire group wouldn¡¯t even make me sweat.
The yetis hiding in the trees started to break off the frozen branches of the trees and started to throw them at me.
Ignoring their silly attacks, I jumped at their trees, hunting them down one by one. And as if to protect them, the trees started to move around, their branches swinging wildly to hit me. Now they were a bit harder to dodge due to the sheer amount, but the moment I grabbed one branch, it was game over.
Using the branch as a rope, I swung the tree I¡¯d caught, clearing all the other trees easily.
¡°Oi, Julian. This isn¡¯t even a challenge.¡±
Although I said this, I was starting to get anxious. Sure, I was clearing these guys easily, but this was Kaleb Zen¡¯s final work. If there were more floors beyond this, my inability to use my skills to their full extent could result in my death. And there was also the fact that Julian was watching me closely to make it so I wasn¡¯t able to use anything else.
¡®Wait¡ don¡¯t they need me though? The queen chose me to be the demon lord stand-in while Maou grows up. That means, Julian can¡¯t afford to let me die¡¡¯
No. That wasn¡¯t the right way to think. The queen most likely only picked me because I was the most convenient and easiest to control. I doubted she¡¯d put in a lot to ensure that I survived this. I had to think of this like I was extremely disposable if I wanted to survive.
¡°You¡¯re right. I¡¯m starting to feel underwhelmed-! Huh!?¡±
There was a whizzing sound in the air and then, half of Julian¡¯s stomach was no more. The boy¡¯s eyes widened, at the sight of his blood spilling everywhere. The impact of whatever it was that effortlessly broke through his defences kicked up a storm of snow behind him, as he fell limply.
Instinctively, I also kicked up another cloud of snow, then covered my body in steel scales and dragon scales. I also used [Mythril Body] to up my defences as best as I could. Just like with Julian, something hit me, right in the forehead, shattering through my scales and knocking me back, quite the distance.
¡®Oi, oi, oi! T-That¡¯s overkill! I actually almost died just now!¡¯
It felt like my skull almost split in two.
That was bad. Considering just how weak my skills werepared to when outside, I wondered what sort of effects it would have on my resurrection skill. I highly doubted it¡¯d be functional. And even if it was, there was no telling just how long it would take.
At least, I now had a sense for which direction it came from. I then grabbed one of the frozen branches, then using [Dragon Spear Technique] and [Snipe], I fired off the branch in the direction, at my maximum strength.
The branch connected with the peak, creating an explosion of snow. I quickly ran over to Julian¡¯s side and picked him up from the ground.
¡°Y-You good?¡±, I asked.
¡°N-No¡ my regeneration ispletely off. At this rate, I may die if don¡¯t get blood. If you could oblige me with yours, I would be eternally grateful.¡±, He said, already baring his fangs and getting ready to dig into my neck.
I pushed him back, then looked at the mountain top.
¡°If it¡¯s blood you want, you can have the blood of whatever it was that¡ did¡ this. To.¡±, The sound of something charging up entered my ears. ¡°You¡?¡±
I took in a big gulp. There was bright bluish light from the mountain top. The light only grew brighter and bigger and my survival instincts told me that was a st I didn¡¯t want to receive.
¡°L-Leave me, monster queen!¡±, Julian yelled dramatically. ¡°Take my death as a lesson. This is the start of thine divine legend. I am d to have been thine motivation for world dominance.¡±
I had to give him props. Even in the face of death, he still found a way to be cringe.
I just had to stop it before it charged up topletion and we were good.
Quickly, I flew up to the top of the mountain, ready to fight whatever it was that was attacking us, but to my surprise, all I found was¡ a sniper rifle? The bright light that I saw earlier was merely a giantntern that was getting brighter by the second. However, I could still hear the sound of something charging up.
I looked back to where I originally was, and crouching right next to Julian was what appeared to be a girl. She held a bow and arrow made of pure energy, with its sights set on me.
Before I could react, the arrow was sent flying in my direction.
¡®T-This is bad!¡¯
***
¡°Targets have been identified. Hinotori Hyakkiyako and Julian. Releasing neutralising agent for the vampire, Julian.¡±
I pulled out the sniper rifle that my master had assigned as my personal weapon and aimed at the duo. Specifically, the vampire.
Without hesitating, I fired off, carving out a chunk of the vampire¡¯s innards. Quickly, I set my sights on the Hinotori and aimed my sights at her head. She was a smart one, however, as she kicked up snow to obstruct my view.
¡°Switching to infrared vision.¡±
Her body heat through the snow allowed me to observe her easily. I fired off another round, hitting the target, right on the forehead. Rather than splitting her skull in two, it simply knocked her back a few metres.
I readjusted my sights, ready to fire off at her again, but she had already started her counterattack. An icicle came flying at my neck, just as fast as my bullets moved. No, maybe even faster. I rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding death, then jumped back.
Even with her skills nerfed, she was too strong a target. I¡¯d already prepared myself for this, though.
I ced the rifle down, with it still aiming at her.
¡°Call Gate: Open Vault 02.¡±
A silver bow appeared in hand.
ording to a manual I¡¯d been given, this bow was one of 12 weapons crafted by a legendary weapons master before the God Wars. They each contained insane power, but this power couldn¡¯t ever be used since the chances of them ever epting mere mortals as partners were almost non-existent.
Still, this bow had epted me.
I pulled back on the bow, and a string of yellow light formed. The further back I pulled, I created a spear of light.
In an attempt to end it all with one attack alone, I continued to charge up the attack without regard for the kind of effect it would have on the ground below.
But, as if aware of the sort of destruction this attack would unleash, Hinotori flew towards me. I activated my teleportation ring, choosing to appear right where she¡¯d just abandoned.
¡°Huh? W-Who are you?¡±
I chose to ignore the invalid as I let go of the strings, shooting the bow forward. It''s size, too big to avoid, and speed too fast to react to. If I was lucky, this would kill her.
¡°You don¡¯t actually believe that your arrow can kill her, do you?¡±
Of course, I didn¡¯t. My hope was that, at the very least, this arrow would buy me 5 minutes. Even a god would have a hard time when the fabric of space-time around them was being ripped apart and they were being overloaded with cosmic radiation.
The whole floor started to shake violently. No doubt the effects of her collision with the invisible dome. I took out a knife.
¡°For now, I¡¯m going to take off your head, the-¡±
I paused.
A shadow loomed over me, the scent of burning chicken wafting in the air.
<A/N: Looks like this ranger''s about to get a fistful of KFC... get it? KFC... cause chickens and burning and... Yeah... I''ll stop now.
Anyhow, pray for food vendors. Especially those who give us good fried chicken. In fact, I''ll go order myself some KFC rn.
Have a good day!>
Chapter 326 Fortress of Solitude Pt.III
<h4>Chapter 326 Fortress of Solitude Pt.III</h4>
Automatons were machines created in the likeness of sentient beings. They were mortals¡¯ best attempt at recreating life from scratch. Depending on what they were made for, automatons were stronger, faster, and smarter than humans.
However, there was one factor automatonscked. And this was emotion. The forceful injection of souls, the insertion of hearts, or the numerous attempts at getting them to bond with others all resulted in failure. No matter what was done, automatons simplycked emotions.
Yurei, was one such automaton.
However, for the very first time since her inception, Yurei could feel a twinge in her chest. There was a weird bumpiness in her stomach, and her skin tingled. It unlocked something from the past of the soul inhabiting the automaton. A feeling that was primal to all living souls.
For the very first time, Yurei felt what she could only describe as insurmountable fear.
And this fear was being caused by the monstrosity that had its murderous gaze pinned on her.
This was apletely absurd scene for her. That amount of cosmic radiation was more than a lethal dose for any regr being. It would have taken even a god some time to recover from that. Of course, she never initiated this whole n with the belief that Hinotori was any regr being.
Still, she couldn¡¯t sense anything godly rted to her. It made absolutely no sense how she simply wasted no time with that attack.
Her mind rattled through the possibilities as she scanned through Hinotori¡¯s avable abilities, before her eyes eventually widened in horror.
¡®W-When did... how!?¡¯
While her mind was frozen, her body was ready to protect itself.
She pulled out a butterfly knife from her boots, quickly striking at Hinotori¡¯s sides.
*****
That was easily the most painful experience I¡¯d ever had.
I feel like my soul left my body at some point.
Fortunately, [Evolver] kicked in at thest moment! And so¡ ta-da! A new, unique skill [Darwin¡¯s Final Gambit]!
[Darwin¡¯s Final Gambit] is a super powerful skill that only ever activates at the final moments of its user. When the user is on theirst life, all negative effects on the user are forcefully removed, and the user¡¯s abilities are boosted by 10 times! At that point, it¡¯s basically up to you to save yourself.
Unfortunately, this ability can only be used once per day andsts only as long as you¡¯re still on yourst legs. Meaning, if you even get just 1 more HP, the skill immediately deactivates. Essentially, you instantly be a ss cannon!
But hey, no pain, no gain, right!?
And [Evolver] gave this skill to me too! Hahaha!
As soon as I got the alert that [Evolver] was acting up, I knew I was really screwed! Because if it wasn¡¯t that bad, I¡¯d have simply died and been reborn thanks to my phoenix rebirth skill. That really was almost the end for me.
Hahaha!
I quickly used [Energy Transcriber] to convert all that cosmic radiation into Chaos energy. Hahaha! Brilliant, right? RIGHT!?
I¡¯m a genius! I¡¯m the absolute best! Everyone should bow to me and shower me with praise! This world and everything in it belongs to me! Yes! Rather than causing me some problems, everyone needed to be serving me.
Yes. The demons, the humans, the demi-humans, the merfolk, the gods, the devils, and that bitch vampire queen all need to bow! How dare they cause me so many problems!?
They all deserve punishment. Punishment so intense that they will never dare cause me problems again.
Yes. They all deserve to die!
I will wipe them all out! Not a single one of them left standing.
[Karma has reached -120]
[Chaos stage has reached stage 2]
[Too much Negative Karma for Chaos Stage 2]
[The Chaos Energy will start to affect your soul directly]
[Soul Armour has reached MAX level]
[Soul Armour has reached MAX level]
[Soul Armour has reached MAX level]
[Soul Armour has reached MAX level]
[Soul Armour has reached MAX level]
[Soul Armour has reached MAX level]
[Soul Armour has reached MAX level]
[Soul Armour has reached MAX level]
[Soul Armour has reached MAX level]
[Would you like to use the excess skill levels to modify the skill in your own unique way?]
Huh? Huh?
What¡¯s this?
<<-ar me?>>
Eh?
<<-an¡ u¡ ea¡ m¡ !?>
What¡¯s that sound?
<<Can yo¡ ear¡!?>>
That sounds familiar. I know that voice. That¡¯s the, um, the, huh?
<<Can you hear me!?>>
Eh? Agent?
<<Yes, you can finally hear me.>>
Well, of course I can. You¡¯re literally in my head. How wouldn¡¯t I be able to hear you?
<<You haven¡¯t been for the past half an hour>>
Huh? It¡¯s been only a couple of seconds since I¡
As light entered my eyes once again, I was baffled by the scene before me.
I was in a room, much like the dungeon master¡¯s room from the [Forbidden Dungeon], back in Larm. My ws were mere inches away from the half-broken face of the little girl that shot me earlier on. Underneath the cracks, all I could see were metal and broken wires.
The majority of her body was surrounded by thick cables, like she¡¯d fused with them. She herself hang lifelessly before me, with her face dishevelled and her hair messy.
¡°Come to think of it, she looks like a terminator... a weird, tentacle, hentai terminator.¡±
<<Of course, that¡¯s the first thing you think of>>
¡°Hey. You were thinking it too.¡±
I took in the scene around us.
This room was more or less destroyed. There were definitely signs of a fight here, with multiple of my feathers being scattered and tonnes of guns, traps, and other weapons littering the ground. The dents and craters also told another story with all the blood stters.
I looked down at myself. I was in my phoenix form and wounded from head to toe. My body was healing up, fire covering the wounds, but still, a whole chunk of my stomach was gone.
"What the hell happened?¡±
<
>
¡°Yes, yes. I know that bit. What else?¡±
<<The drawback of [Evolver] and the chaos energy overloaded your soul. You took your first step into bing a Chaos Beast>>
Eh? Chaos Beast? Me?
<<Yes>>
Oh¡ OH!
Oh shit!
So¡ I did THIS!?
<<Yes>>
Wow.
<<On the bright side. You justpleted the dungeon>>
Eh?
Like before, a hologram appeared before us, with the image of a sses-wearing otaku grinning mischievously.
¡°Impressive. You cleared my dungeon even though it was altered to specificallybat you. You must be at the very least a demi-god."
Kaleb said, scratching his back.
¡°Well, you¡¯ve sessfully defeated the Forbidden Dungeon, Yellow Springs, and the Fortress of Solitude. Now that you¡¯ve got 8 of the 12 of Zero¡¯s legendary weapons, you¡¯re probably wondering where the other three are. Don¡¯t worry, you¡¯ll see them once this message ends."
I wasn¡¯t really wondering that, but that was good to know, I guess.
¡°Now, for the cool secret. You see, I¡¯ve been hearing rumours of the members of the New Kyoto Empire trying to seal up the gods since they¡¯ve been causing too much chaos ever since they won the war. Of course, the gods were already sealed in Horizon, but they still have ways toe down. Normally, I¡¯d stay away from such things, but I¡¯ve unfortunately ascended in my [Sacred] and achieved the rank of a [Legendary Hero]. My [Divine Energy] has also be too much for a human body to handle, so I¡¯m being forced to evolve into a [Divinity]. If the New Kyoto Empire seeds in their n, that will mean I¡¯ll be trapped in Horizon with those annoying bastards.¡±
Oh?
¡°I¡¯ve modified Zero¡¯s 12 weapons to act as a key to the backdoor of Horizon. The moment you acquire all 12,bine them into one. It will open a door to my immediate location in Horizon, and I¡¯ll be able to return to this realm.¡±
Hm? So Kaleb Zen is still alive?
¡°Oh yeah, by the way, before this video ends, if you have any interest in Project CATH¡ªthe automaton you fought just now..." My gaze shifted to the lifeless doll before me. "There''s four more homunculi, although I haven¡¯t given them any artificial souls, so they can¡¯t function. Yurei was the final prototype before I finished my masterpiece. If you show up in the West of Larm with anything from this dungeon, a dryad named Diane will present you with my masterpiece if you¡¯re interested."
Eh? Diane has Kaleb Zen¡¯s ultimate treasure?
¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t care what you¡¯ll use any of these things for. As long as you¡¯re interested, feel free to do what you want. This is thest time we¡¯re speaking this way. I¡¯m interested in what kind of being you are.¡±
Oi!
<A/N: ¡°Wow! This story is still alive? Crazy¡¡± Lol, I hope you enjoy the chapter. Have a nice day.>
Chapter 327 The Ice Oni
<h4>Chapter 327 The Ice Oni</h4>
After collecting the three weapons from the dungeon, we decided to return to the West. Of course, I¡¯de back to check up on Project CATH and all the other goodies in the dungeon, but I wanted to do something before I forgot.
As soon as the dungeon was conquered, Julian was able to regenerate, so he was perfectly fine. Back outside, I couldn¡¯t find the ice oni reincarnator. Turns out he¡¯d woken up while I was fighting the automaton and was already on his way back to his vige. We easily caught up to him, though.
¡°P-Please spare me!¡±
He cried something like that.
I had no intention of killing him, of course. It¡¯s just that it was finally time to do it. Ever since my return, Alpha¡¯s odd actions and words had been bugging me. I knew there was more to this whole reincarnation bit, but I didn¡¯t want to pry too much into something messy.
There was no point now. Everything was already messy, what with the war on our doorsteps. There was no harm in digging a little bit into what exactly that being was doing and why it was, right?
Also¡
¡°Hey, do you want to return to Earth?¡±
¡°Waa¡. E-excuse me?¡±
Finallying out of his cowering position, the ice oni asked.
¡°Earth. You know of Earth, right?¡±
He remained frozen for a bit. With how crystalline his features were, I almost believed he¡¯d actually turned into ice, but there was no fooling me, hehe. With a little bit of aura release, he broke free from his nk state and returned to his rightful ce in the food hierarchy.
¡°Yes! Ie from t-there! My name is Kanata Suzuki, 16 years old, male! I don¡¯t know how I ended up here; please don¡¯t kill me!¡±
He kowtowed before me,ying bare his very soul.
¡°Yes! Bow lowe-¡±
I kicked Julian as hard as I could, sending him miles away from where we stood. The force was so strong that the mountain shook. Somewhere on the floor level, there was going to be an avnche, and it wasn¡¯t my problem.
¡®God, I love not being weak!¡¯
The oni, Kanata-san, was still shaking, trying his hardest not to upset me.
I went down on one knee and offered him a hand with a bright smile.
¡°My name back on Earth is Kuromiya Akira, 15 years old, and despite my current appearance, also male. Pleasure to meet you.¡±
¡°K-Kuromiya Akira¡ as in that Kuromiya-san?!¡±
He jumped up, eyes wide open with shock.
¡°That Kuromiya?¡±
¡°You were friends with Miyamura-san, right?¡±
¡°Ken? That¡¯s a name I haven¡¯t heard in a while.¡±
I scratched the back of my neck and decided to really think back on it. Why exactly hadn¡¯t I given Ken much thought? He was my best friend, right? Or was it [Evolver] again¡
¡°Wait, how do you even know Ken? Or me.¡±
¡°Oh, it¡¯s me. Kanata-san.¡±
He pointed his finger at his monstrous face like it was supposed to ring some bells for me.
¡°You know, Clumsy Kanata? Girly Kanata? Ghost Kanata? Worthless Kanata? Oh, oh, you¡¯ve definitely heard of Dumb Kanata. No? Wimp? sses-kun?¡±
He kept listing his various nicknames, none of which sounded familiar. Though, if these really were his nicknames, he was better off dying anding into this new world. He really needed better friends than the ones he had on Earth.
¡°Listen. I don¡¯t remember much from when I was on Earth.¡±
I put my hand on his shoulder.
¡°Oh¡¡±
He seemed to understand.
¡°Considering how strong you are and how mature you look, you must have spent at the very least a couple of decades in this world. I¡¯m in my 8th year, and it¡¯s been going great.¡±
¡°You¡¯ve been here for 8 years?!¡±
¡°Yeah. Pretty smallpared to you, huh? What monsters have you been fighting to get so strong? Is that kid from before also another reincarnator? Why do you look like a gravure model? Is that kid actually Miyamura san?¡±
I covered his lips.
¡°Anyone ever tell you you¡¯re annoying?¡±
¡®My parents did. A lot. But that was about it. Everyone else just beat me up.¡¯
¡°No.¡±
He shook his head, telling a bold-faced lie. Well, I couldn¡¯t me him. That wasn¡¯t something I¡¯d tell just anyone, even if I¡¯d been talking to them for over a year.
¡°Can we talk somewhere else? The brat will be here soon.¡±
Julian was approaching fast, and I could tell he was going to say something really stupid.
¡°We can go to my p-¡±
¡°My ce is close by. It¡¯s just a small vige. Over there, we can talk more and catch up.¡±
¡°Catch up?¡±
¡°Y-yeah.¡±
¡°Huh. You do realise it¡¯s a dude in here, right?¡±
I¡¯d caught him ogling at me.
¡°Of course.¡±
My face grimaced at the image he was having in his head. This guy was bad news. Still, he clearly didn¡¯t have the ability to give me any problems. It may have sounded cocky, but there was nothing in this entire zone that scared me enough to make me believe he could do something to me.
So, with all of that in mind, I entertained his request.
I flew us over to his ce.
¡°Small vige, my ass!¡±
This asshole had an entire city hidden up here in the mountains. Goblins, hobgoblins, and ogres of the winter variety lived freely within the confines of the ice blocks that served as walls for the cities. The houses were a bunch of igloos, with some of them being well-crafted wood and stone buildings. Thergest of which was a massive fortress being built into the mountain wall.
I counted a total of 320 total members roaming freely. Not a massive number, but they were certainly living invish conditions for goblins.
¡°Well, we have to defend ourselves from outside threats. The Winter Emperor and his goons won¡¯t just let us roam free; you know?¡±
¡®Winter Emperor?¡¯
I located him immediately. It was a dragon that rested in the heart of the mountain.
Kanata-san pointed at the fortress as being his home, so I flew us down there quickly, where we were faced with two guards¡ªogres.
¡°Mama.¡±
He walked up to one of the ogres. She gulped as he drew near. I couldn¡¯t me her. I was big, about the size of the average ogre, maybe bigger, but Kanata-san still towered above me.
¡°M-Master!¡±
¡°Where¡¯s Joe?¡±
¡°H-He was hung-¡±
¡°So what?! You two are supposed to be together at all times. Joe Mama. That¡¯s the joke!¡±
¡°S-Sorry.¡±
¡°Whatever.¡±
He pushed the ogress aside and marched forward. I quietly followed behind. The inside of the fortress was nothing impressive. Just a standard hallway, with the upper floors being held up by pirs. There were a lot of loud soundsing from the back¡ªmost likely the workers upgrading the building.
A few winter goblins came forward, swarming Kanata-san¡¯s feet like cute, well, ugly, puppies. They couldn¡¯t say any words but jumped around him with glee, like happy children do.
¡®Filthy mutts. Who let them out?¡¯
Hey!
¡°Little ones!¡±
A hobgoblin came forward with a menacing re. Her face looked angry, but she gave off the vibe of a terrified person.
¡°Mami-chan. What did we say about the little ones?¡±
¡°I-I apologise. I¡¯ll send them back to their pen.¡±
Saying this, she grabbed a bunch of the goblins and forced them away. Those she couldn¡¯t grab, she kicked away from Kakeru.
¡°Quite a few named monsters, huh? You must have used a lot of exp for these guys.¡±
¡°Yeah, but 8 years is enough time to name a few monsters.¡±
¡°Lord Kakeru.¡±
Another winter hobgoblin with a generous chest jumped on his back from the ceiling, hugging him tightly.
¡°Ha, Akemi-chan. I told you not to be ying around like that.¡±
¡°I wanted to surprise.¡±
She pouted, a little bit saddened that she got a scolding.
¡°Where are Madoka-chan and Sayaka-chan?¡±
My otaku senses were tingling, and not the good kind of otaku senses, but I couldn¡¯t figure out why.
¡°They are still waiting for your mercy.¡±
¡°That so? Tell them to wait some more. A friend of mine hase.¡±
¡°Okie dokie.¡±
¡®Okie dokie?¡¯
The girl jumped off his back and ran past me, but not without throwing a disgusted sneer my way. I shrugged it off.
¡°Friendly one.¡±
¡°Oh, don¡¯t mind her. She¡¯s the only one amongst my wives that¡¯s so cheeky.¡±
¡°Wives?¡±
¡°Yes. I have 4. I bet you got yourself some husbandos with that bod-¡±
¡°Not into men.¡±
I cut him off.
¡°What¡¯d she mean by mercy?¡±
¡°Oh, that is, um, it isn¡¯t important.¡±
As all people do, he unconsciously thought of it. And I was unfortunate enough to see what the hell he meant by it.
¡®Ew.¡¯
¡®That¡¯s disgusting.¡¯
¡°Y-Yeah¡¡±
That definitely wasn¡¯t something I wanted to talk about. But I was interested in something else.
¡°Are all your wives hobgoblins?¡±
¡°You expect me to get with the goblins and ogres instead?¡±
Goblins aside, the ogres were pretty fine. In fact, they looked better than the hobgoblins, in my opinion. Who didn¡¯t appreciate a good muscle mommy? The hobgoblins looked like childrenpared to them.
¡°Is there a reason you don¡¯t get with the ogresses?¡±
From the looks of things, there wasn¡¯t a shortage of them. This vige was massive, and it felt like there were more than enough of them around.
¡°Hm, they look ugly, and their muscles just make them worse. The hob-goblins are manageable enough, though I¡¯d like to see actual human women again.¡±
¡°Again? Like back on Earth?¡±
We¡¯d finally reached his throne room. It wasn¡¯t much of a throne room, what with it being possibly the tiniest spot in the entire building. There was nothing but fur on the ground, with a single seat propped up next to the furnace, which had a dim blue me burning.
The room was warmerpared to everywhere else. He sat down next to the fire, and I followed suit.
¡°No. Some human settlers used to live around this area a year or so ago.¡±
I saw shes of his memories. Humans in fur coats were building walls and houses. They were going to be living there with their families.
¡°We tried to make contact with them and form an alliance.¡±
They¡ªthe winter goblins, hobgoblins, and ogres¡ªattacked the vige, with him leading the assault.
¡°They attacked us regardless of how much we begged them to stop.¡±
They¡¯d made a mistake. The humans were far stronger than they thought, and they were losing.
¡°Luckily, we had the field advantage and managed to fight back.¡±
They knew the mountain better than anyone. With their sly tricks and cunning, they eventually beat the humans.
¡°Their boss was strong, though. I have to 1v1 him. Even then, I almost lost. Haha!¡±
The one leading the assault managed to survive and face Kanata-san in a duel. With broken bones and a hole through his chest, he lost to Kanata-san. He was just one stroke short of winning the duel, too.
¡°I got a lot of XP for beating him and evolved the next day. Heard something about beating a [Sacred Bearer] or what not?"
That part was true. [The Grey Hero]. That was the [Sacred]. A human who¡¯d fought his hardest and trained tirelessly to make his family proud, only to achieve what he sought on his deathbed. I was sure the god who gave him the [Sacred] in that final moment got a kick out of seeing the old man¡¯s pitiful expression upon seeing that he¡¯d received what he wanted sote.
¡°And the women? How do they factor into this?¡±
¡°I¡¯d have liked to broker a peace deal, but they ran away.¡±
He did try. The women obviously refused, but they couldn¡¯t escape because they had been caught by his minions while he was evolving. When he woke up, he¡ wow. He left their mangled corpses to rot in piles of snow. It was a shock that they hadn¡¯te back as zombies or undead yet.
¡°I guess humans and monsters can¡¯t forge friendly rtions in this world. It really isn¡¯t like those light novels we used to read.¡±
This guy¡
¡°Haha, so it seems.¡±
¡®He¡¯s useless.¡¯
¡®Yeah. There''s no point in talking to him.¡¯
¡®He¡¯ll hinder our peace negotiations.¡¯
¡®So we should ignore him?¡¯
¡®I s-suggest k-killing him. D-dangerous people like this c-connected to us coulde bite us in the asster.¡¯
I was ready to stab him through the head with his own shadow.
¡®No. He may be scum, but he is one of the top dogs of the [Winter Zone].¡¯
¡®So?¡¯
¡®He has a sort of monopoly here. If we manipte him and increase his sphere of influence, we would essentially have a monopoly on this entire region that no other country in this world does. With Larm and the Winter Zone, no one would be able to deny our power.¡¯
¡®You want people to know we have some dealings with a monster? Doesn¡¯t that just ruin our brand?¡¯
¡®Only if we let them know he¡¯s connected to us. We can easily manipte the spread of information on this matter. It isn¡¯t like humans will hold discussions with him. Think about it. Trade routes, resources, information spread, and more territory. We could easily have it all.¡¯
¡®Why not just install a new ruler then?¡¯
¡®Takes too long, not as easy to manipte. Besides, we¡¯re new to this, so it¡¯s better to use an idiot we know.¡¯
¡®Very well then. We will build up on this idea going forward.¡¯
¡°Would you like to work with me, Kanata-san?¡±
Chapter 328 The Scheming Oni
<h4>Chapter 328 The Scheming Oni</h4>
¡°That¡ actually looks troublesome.¡±
I took in the sight of the beast resting peacefully at the very core of the mountain. Unlike what I¡¯d seen from most dragons, it had white, crystalline feathers that made it nearly impossible to spot in the snow. It had to be the second-biggest dragon I¡¯d seen so far, the first being Charybdis.
¡°The Great Emperor of the [Winter Zone]! What a magnificent sight to behold!¡±
Of course, Julian was being Julian and idolising the grandeur of it all.
¡°Still, are you sure you want to do this?¡±
His tone suddenly got heavy.
I scratched the back of my neck, thinking back to the offer I¡¯d made to Kanata-san.
I didn¡¯t know how things worked here, in the [Winter Zone], but I got the gist of it from Kanata-san. True to the rumours, there was no proper organisation or hierarchy in this ce. Strong eat weak. That was the best way to describe it.
The Kaiser was always asleep, but his very presence sent this ce into an eternal frost that no one had been able to undo. The monsters evolved to live here, but with the unpredictable conditions, no one type could truly remain at the top for long.
As things stood, Kanata-san¡¯s winter goblins were the only organised force in the [Winter Zone]. There were six other tribes, and only 4 of them had agreed to friendly rtions with Kanata-san. The other 3 were too strong or too stubborn, and because of how things were, Kanata-san hadn¡¯t bothered to go there to handle things personally. It was much better to survive in the most familiar ce than to go out there and face a possible death.
In the first ce, the goblin species were just intolerable when left unchecked. Put them in a ce with extreme conditions, and they would get even more twisted personalities to survive. If anything, the 4 tribes that readily agreed to partner up with Kanata-san were the weird ones. It was no wonder his personality had been twisted to the point where I could barely call him human anymore. Or maybe he was already like that.
¡°It¡¯s just a single feather. I trust you can easily procure it.¡±
The kaiser¡¯s feathers had an effect called [Perfect Body]. The user could basically control the inner workings of their body in ways that simply don¡¯t make sense to make it so they weren¡¯t ufortable. It was probably how he¡¯d been asleep for decades without needing to eat.
Obviously, Kanata-san couldn¡¯t make use of such a thing, but possessing the item itself would boost his reputation amongst the other tribes. That was another one of the lies he was telling me, though. It wasn¡¯t even funny, just how badly he was scheming against me.
I was curious enough to see what he wanted to do to entertain him.
¡°Y-You wish for this lowly servant to g-go d-down there?¡±
I could see beads of sweat starting to form.
¡°Oh? Is a servant refusing a request from his queen?¡±
I ended up ying along when I saw just how terrified he looked. It made it all the better when his pale face grew even paler.
¡°N-No, but... t-this lowly dragon can¡¯t¡¡±
¡°Can¡¯t what?¡±
He started to fiddle with his fingers and looked away.
¡°What is it, Julian?¡±
¡°Y-You see, this may or may not, perhaps, be the first, second, or third time my person has had to interact with this entity.¡±
¡°Julian?¡±
¡°I¡ may or may not¡ have been indirectly responsible for the [Winter Zone]¡¯s abrupt formation.¡±
¡°What did you do?¡±
¡°T¡¯is not a matter of what I did, but who I di-¡±
<<The dragon will not be awakened by any external stimuli>>
¡®That¡¯s all I needed to hear.¡¯
I kicked him down the hill. He wailed as he rolled down the heel, eventuallying to a stop right next to the dragon. If he was going to beat around the bush so much, I wasn¡¯t even going to hear him out.
¡°Just pluck the feather, and we¡¯ll be out of here.¡±
Even if the dragon did wake up, I could kill it and get all the feathers. The only problem would be how to maintain this permafrost.
¡®I¡¯d like to broker a deal with him, if possible, but he doesn¡¯t even rule over this mountain. He just causes its problems.¡¯
¡®Killing him solves those problems but also makes the ce more essible to others.¡¯
¡®N-No. A-After decades of t-this cold, i-it¡¯d just be another D-Demise Mountains.¡¯
¡®I¡¯d agree, but give it a year or two and the monsters will start to die out because they can¡¯tst in warmer conditions and soon, this whole range will be easy grounds for humans.¡¯
¡®And we lose our advantage.¡¯
¡®Guess Kanata-san is the only way for now.¡¯
The n was to start a transportation service here in the future, after trust had been built. The winter zone separates the Oxaivalon Empire from the rest of the continent. The only somewhat safe forms of travel were through the ck Tiger Sea and the Noak Sea.
The ck Tiger Sea is violent, and the Noak Sea is peaceful, but to get to thetter you have to go through the Dourean Desert. Over there, there was apany that provided transportation services through the desert.
In fact, they were the guys I got this idea from.
¡°I-I got it!¡±
Julian cried out, holding up one of the feathers. Tears and snot run down his face as he looked at me with a pleading expression, as if this was the worst thing, I could have done to him.
¡°Let¡¯s go.¡±
I picked him up and flew off. Before leaving, I took onest look at the sleeping dragon. He showed no signs of waking up anytime soon, so I left it at that.
We gave Kanata-san the feather, after I¡¯d analysed its properties to replicate it for myself, of course. With that, we bid him farewell and said goodbye to the Winter Zone. There wasn¡¯t much to do there and it wasn¡¯t fun, so I definitely wasn¡¯t going to miss it.
****
KAKERU POV
¡°We¡¯ll talk againter, Kanata-san.¡±
¡®It¡¯s Kakeru now, you little shit.¡¯
¡°Yes. I will be expecting a visit from you soon.¡±
The monstrosity bearing the appearance of a beautiful giantess flew off with her vampire servant. After Kakeru could no longer sense them, he copsed to the floor, finally feeling like he could breathe.
He put his hand to his face, holding back a hysterical cowl. If he could sweat, he¡¯d have filled up buckets by now.
That was Kuromiya-san? Such a daunting presence and mind-boggling power. If Kuromiya of all people could attain it then it wasn¡¯t impossible for Kakeru too.
In the first ce, Kakeru had been here for only 8 years. Akira definitely had decades on him, so it was no wonder he was so strong. He wasn¡¯t the first one Kakeru had found out about. There were two, no three more of his ssmates he¡¯d met before.
One of which he had no choice but to kill. How could he not kill her? She used to bully him back on Earth and in this world, she was nothing more than a human adventurer.
On Earth, she was definitely his superior. But in the realms of isekai and all things fantasy, it was his right to toy with her life. A bully deserved no ce in this utopia he¡¯d always dreamed of.
The most recent was the blue guy travelling with the green girl. They both got on his nerves, but his revenge for them woulde soon enough.
The other reincarnator was¡ well, Kakeru didn¡¯t like to think about him. He didn¡¯t know his real identity on Earth, but he was definitely certain that he was one of the reincarnators. Till date, Kakeru could still remember the boy¡¯s sword ¨C steel colder than ice ¨C against his throat. If only he had the [Appraisal] skill back then.
Kakeru held up the feather. It was light and felt warm, contrasting its very appearance.
[Would you like to trade [Frosyade¡¯s Feather] for 10,000,000 store points?]
A holographic screen popped up.
¡°Yes.¡±
[You have received 100,000,000 store points]
[You now have 105,000,000 store points]
[Would you like to upgrade your membership to God-tier?]
¡°Not yet.¡±
A new screen appeared before him and he scrolled through it.
[SKILL SHOP
ULTIMATE SKILLS (LOCKED)
UNIQUE SKILLS
ADVANCED SKILLS
COMMON SKILLS
RACE SKILLS]
He tapped on the unique skills option. There, he quickly scrolled to the skill he¡¯d been wanting to acquire ever since he was allowed to buy [Unique Skills].
[Name: Contempt Gambit
Type: Unique
Description: Both you and any person you believe should be beneath you must roll the Die of Fate for 6 rounds. Whoever holds the highest total value at the end of the six rounds will gain the right to give a singlemand to the loser.
Price: 90,000,000 store points
]
Kakeru then traded the remainder of his store points into stat points, which he poured into his luck stat.
¡°With this, the next time I meet Kuromiya, I will make him my ve. Kekeke.¡±
If Kakeru wasn¡¯tughing so much, he might have noticed that his shadow trembled.
Chapter 329 Kaleb Zen鈥檚 Treasure
<h4>Chapter 329 Kaleb Zen''s Treasure</h4>
¡®Haa, so that¡¯s what he was up to?¡¯
''Well, that¡¯s annoying, but at least now we know to never appear before him.¡¯
¡®Hmm, but how do we deal with him then?¡¯
¡®J-Just th-through messages.¡¯
Kanata-san was quite the troublesome ally I¡¯d gotten myself. If push came to shove, I had no doubt I could deal with it, but something felt odd. For some reason, I actually hesitated when it came to him. If it were anyone else, I feel like I¡¯d have killed them and used the next best option already, but for some reason, here I was, making up excuses to keep him alive.
I put my hand on my face and grumbled.
¡°The hell am I doing?¡±
¡°Lady Hinotori¡?¡±
Sylphie asked.
I blinked, then took a look around. We were in Diane¡¯s tree. Sylphie was already here when I came over to see Diane, but Diane insisted she stay for our conversation. I didn¡¯t really mind since there was nothing wrong with her listening in on it.
¡°Oh, uh, sorry. Where were we?¡±
¡°You bested the Fortress of Solitude, no?¡±
Diane responded, taking a sip from the cup in her hand. I unconsciously analysed what she was drinking. It was an herbal tea made from her leaves. The health benefits were insane and would most likely fetch a hefty price in markets, but here she was, drinking it for lunch.
¡°How did you kno-¡±
¡°Know?" She finished for me. A gentle smile rested on her face. I felt creeped out, because for the first time since I¡¯d met her, her smile didn¡¯t look like it had some sort of secret n behind it. ¡°I simply felt that it was beaten. Now, I¡¯m supposed to present you with Kaleb Zen¡¯s greatest treasure.¡±
I sat up and looked at her attentively. Kaleb Zen was annoying, what with all the stupid dungeons he¡¯d made, but I couldn¡¯t deny the fact that he had really good stuff. Whatever the hell it was that he had as his ultimate treasure, it was bound to be impossibly massive.
¡°I apologise, but you were toote. The treasure¡¯s gone.¡±
¡°Excuse me?¡±
¡°The treasure disappeared around 6 years ago. Sorry.¡±
I slunk back in my seat.
¡°H-How?¡±
She didn¡¯t respond.
¡°Since you beat the fortress of Solitude, I¡¯m assuming you understand just what sort of treasure he was working on.¡±
¡°An automaton?¡±
She shook her head and walked behind Sylphie chair. She gently rested her arms on Sylphie¡¯s shoulders, and the poor sprite flinched, wearing an ufortable expression on her face.
¡°Life. Kaleb Zen sought to create life out of nothing.¡±
¡°So, he wanted to sma-¡±
¡°He wanted to create a soul. A feat impossible even for the gods.¡±
¡°Oh. Wait, is soul creation such an impossible task?¡±
She frowned at my question. Sylphie coughed and looked away, scared to even entertain my question. It would seem that I somehow offended Diane with my question.
<<Soul creation is impossible. Even the strongest of gods attempts at Soul Creation lead to the creation of Half-Souls that go into iplete life forms>>
¡®Oh, you mean the monsters and demi-humans?¡¯
<<Yes>>
¡°But then what about the fishmen from Antis? They had whole souls.¡±
Well, at the very least, the mermen didn¡¯t need to be named. They are technically ssified as demi-humans too.
¡°Not even the creator of the fishmen could aplish such a feat. She had to recycle certain human souls to give them life, I will have you know.¡±
I could see a vein pulsing on Diane¡¯s head, so I backed down.
¡°I-I¡¯m sorry.¡±
¡°No, I apologise for my tone.¡±
She cleared her throat, then we went right back to business.
¡°So, what was this treasure of his?¡±
¡°The previous overseer of Kaleb Zen¡¯s most precious creations, whom the forest was named after,"
And as it dawned on me just who she was talking about, the name left both our lips at the same time.
¡°Larm.¡±
I paused for a moment, then slunk back into my seat. I looked at Diane once more, then sat back up. She had a pleased look on her face, and I instantly knew what she wanted from me. But she definitely wasn¡¯t getting the satisfaction. I¡¯ve been in her shoes before, and back on Earth, no one ever let me get the satisfaction, so she wasn¡¯t getting any from me.
¡°Yep. That makes sense.¡±
¡°That¡¯s it?¡±
¡°What do you mean?¡±
I grinned, pretending to be oblivious to her words.
¡°T-That¡¯s all you have to say?¡±
¡°You expected more? Was such a thing not already the most obvious thing in the world?¡±
She pouted. I took a sip of my herbal tea, feeling like a boss.
"Well, if it was the most obvious thing in the world, I¡¯m assuming you also knew this, but I will say it regardless.¡±, She let go of Sylphie¡¯s shoulder and instead lifted up her head by the chin, forcing Sylphie to face me. ¡°Sylphie is Larm¡¯s only daughter.¡±
¡°That was obvious as w-WHAT?!¡±
Diane regained her pleased grin.
¡°I was tasked with keeping her safe, as Larm believed in due time Sylphie¡¯s half-soul would develop into a full soul, but she never did.¡±
¡°Hm?¡±
Sylphie looked quite dissatisfied with how Diane spoke about her but didn¡¯t give much of a reaction. Rather, she quietly let her body be moved around as Diane wanted it to.
¡°Because of her peculiar state, she wasn¡¯t like the other nymphs and dryads. If anything, she was more like a human.¡±
When I think back on it, there were moments when she was being odd. Or not? I couldn¡¯t remember. Some of my memories werepletely gone thanks to [Evolver]. Come to think of it, what exactly was [Evolver] burning my memories for? In fact, where did those burned memories go? They had to be somewhere within [Evolver], right?
¡°It became almost impossible to hide her secret from everyone, but fortunately, you came around and named her, which somehow made her more like a nymph.¡±
¡°Huh?¡±
¡°Isn¡¯t that right, Sylphie?¡±
Diane forcefully nodded Sylphie¡¯s head.
¡®Please stop.¡¯
Sylphie was crying out in her head, but it was odd. It wasn¡¯t like that of someone in a situation they couldn¡¯t affect. The closest thing I could think of is when a parent is saying embarrassing stuff about their kids to another adult.
¡°And now she¡¯s yours. I apologise, but in ce of Larm, you can have her child as your reward forpleting the [Fortress of Solitude]. I am certain Lord Kaleb Zen and Lord Larm would be pleased if you epted this inferior substitute.¡±
¡°Excuse me?¡±
¡°She may not look like it, but I believe that in due time, she will develop just some of Larm¡¯s abilities. You already have the guardian beast of Larm at your side, but it can¡¯tpare to the original overseer¡¯s authority. With her, you can skip over this farce of peaceful unity amongst the sides and forcefully overtake. With your power, she can be a mere figurehead at the start and you¡¯ll be able to disown h-¡±
¡°Wait, wait, wait! Stop rushing through all of this like that.¡±
I was getting annoyed.
¡°You don¡¯t want Sylphie?¡±
She knew why I was annoyed. I really didn¡¯t like how she¡¯d fake it at times like these.
¡°No, I don¡¯t want Sylphie as my property.¡±
¡°Then as something else? Like a wife!¡± She sped hands with Sylphie. ¡°Oh, you hear that, Sylphie? She wants to take you in as a wife.¡±
This was what she was after from the start. She was just listing all of Sylphie¡¯s importance, just so I¡¯d definitely take her in as a wife. I wasn¡¯t going to entertain her whims, even if it was in the best interests of a friend.
¡°What?! I¡¯m not marrying her because you want me to!¡±
The light in Sylphie¡¯s eyes died. I could feel her pleading for Diane to stop. If she didn¡¯t, the cringe and depression were more than enough to kill her.
¡°Uh, then what do you want?¡±
¡°In the first ce, what¡¯s so special about Kaleb Zen¡¯s treasure having an artificial soul he made, huh?¡±
If he wanted to make a whole soul, all he had to do was get a child with another human, and he¡¯d be done.
¡°He said ¡°What do you think makes a soul so special? It¡¯s the ability to be whatever it wants! That¡¯s what I want to do! To make a soul that can be anything it wants.¡± Or something along those lines.¡±
¡°Talk about cryptic bullshit.¡±
I stood up from my seat.
¡°Thank you, truly, but no. Marriage is thest thing on my mind right now.¡±
And that was true. I¡¯d pushed my proposal to Kara to the back of my mind. We¡¯d talk about it if she ever brought it up, but for now I was more fixed on sorting out all the issues at hand. From the looks of things, this would take months.
With that, I left. I had another meeting to attend to. Honestly, why were my days so hectic?
*****
Sylphie put her face into her arms, her face and ears, flushed red.
¡°W-Why did you?¡±
Diane rubbed her back gently, then went down on her knees so she could meet Sylphie¡¯s face.
¡°You won¡¯t get her attention if you simply sit and wait.¡±
She forced Sylphie¡¯s hands apart and was met with a red nose and wet cheeks. She wiped the tears away and held the girl¡¯s face, staring at it intensely. This was one of many children she¡¯d raised, but she was her child nheless. What mother didn¡¯t want to see her child happy?
¡°She says marriage is thest thing on her mind, then just get yourself at the forefront of it. You¡¯ve been too idle. I want to see you happy, ok?¡±
¡°Ok.¡±
Later on, Sylphie would go on to interact with Hinotori a lot. But before that, she had some more tea with Diane.
Chapter 330 The New Familiar
<h4>Chapter 330 The New Familiar</h4>
¡°Hinotori-sama!¡±
As I strolled through the mansion¡¯s halls, a loud cry rang out. From the end of the hallways, a girl was running towards me, screaming my name. Behind her, a guy on the bigger side was following behind, trying to grab her.
They both came to a stop right before me.
¡°Hinotori-sama! Can we talk?" Taira requested energetically. Behind her, Minamoto grabbed her mouth and forced her head into a bow.
¡°I-I apologise for her rude behaviour-ow!¡±
She bit him as he apologised. He let go of her, and she punched him in the gut, although it had practically no effect.
¡°Haha, I don¡¯t mind a conversation with Taira-san here, but please let¡¯s talk as we walk.¡±
I led, marching forward. I wanted to inform Reiman about what happened in the Winter Zone. I¡¯d already sent him a summary, but it was best to inform him in person about these kinds of things. It would be easier toe up with a n of action with him.
¡°Oh, you know how to use honorifics, Hinotori-sama?¡± Taira asked innocently. Truly, she was just like a child let loose.
¡°I have some experience with thenguage," I responded in standard Japanese.
Her eyes lit up with excitement, and I could see her hair wiggling. I¡¯d been informed I had a simr habit myself, but I doubted I was this cute when I did it.
¡°Have you ever been to the Empire?¡± The moreposed Daisuke asked.
¡°The New Kyoto Empire?¡±
He nodded to my question.
¡°Not yet. Although I¡¯d like to visit at least once, that is, if I can negotiate for peace with the heads.¡±
Both of them fell silent. I read their minds to get an idea and was quite pleased to havee to an understanding. Sure, it was sad that their parents were kidnapped, but should I get on these kids¡¯ good side and help them free their parents, peace talks wouldn¡¯t be so impossible.
¡°Have you been to the Oxaivalon Empire?" Daisuke was the first to recover, and he quickly changed the topic.
¡°No. I heard it was closed off from the rest of the continent.¡±
¡°Really? I assumed that was where you learned to speak ournguage.¡±
¡°Why would you assume that?¡±
¡°Hinotori-sama, may I make a request of you?!¡± Kana-san suddenly eximed with a deep bow. Judging from her memories, she was a typical proud person who never did this, yet here she was. I was intrigued, to say the least.
¡°Go on.¡±
¡°Ever since the news of our parents, a friend of ours, Shiro, hasn¡¯t been the same. I¡¯m not sure why, but when she heard your name, she lit up for a second. Is there something you can do to help her?¡±
Well, now that¡¯s an odd thing to ask a person you just met.
¡°Even if you ask me that, it¡¯s not like I know her well enough to be of some help.¡±
¡°Please! Coupled with losing her family, the strongest of her familiar cancelled their contract with her. She¡¯s really depressed, so..."
¡°Oh?¡±
If she had depression because she was abandoned by her strongest familiar, I could easily solve that. Do exactly what adults do to kids who are sad. Rece whatever is making them sad.
¡°Come on out, Amethyst.¡±
In a puff of purple smoke, the crystal drake manifested in all her glory. When I observed her closely, it appeared her scales were even brighter than before, and her stats were better than ever. She¡¯d been training really hard in secret. I couldn¡¯t help but be proud of her progress.
¡®Master! It¡¯s been a while since youst summon-¡¯
¡°I want you to form a contract with someone.¡±
¡°Eh?¡±
She ended up blurting out loud. The other two were confused as well.
¡°Before that, these two are Taira-san and Minamoto-san. They are friends of the person that you will be forming the contract with.¡±
¡°M-Master?¡±
¡°Is there a problem?¡±
¡°N-No, but¡¡±
¡°But?¡±
She held her tongue. Even in her mind, she was thinking something along the lines of ¡®I deserve this¡¯.
¡°This isn¡¯t a punishment, Amethyst.¡±
¡®What?¡¯
I felt hurt that she assumed I''d punish her for no proper reason. Just what kind of person did Ie off as?
¡°If you don¡¯t want to do it, there¡¯s no problem; don¡¯t worry." I scratched right under her chin, and her tail wagged. ¡°I¡¯d never force you to do something like this if you don¡¯t want to.¡±
There was a moment of silence and contemtion before she looked at me with determination.
¡®I want to do it, if you¡¯re asking me!¡¯
¡°Thanks.¡±
I turned back to face the others.
"This is my familiar, Amethyst. Shiro can forge a contract with her if that helps in any way.¡±
¡°Wahaha!¡± Kana was too excited. She jumped on Amethyst¡¯s face, hugging it tightly, although she wasn¡¯t big enough to cover itpletely. ¡°She¡¯s so cool! What kind of dragon is she?¡±
¡®Off my face, human!¡¯, Amethyst tried to shake her off, but Kana was relentless.
¡°She¡¯s a crystal drake, not yet a dragon, but I¡¯m certain she¡¯s strong enough to cover for the familiars Shiro lost.¡±
Amethyst was A rank, but with a little bit more training, she¡¯d easily reach S rank.
¡°H-Hinotori-sama. Surely, this is too much."
¡°No, don¡¯t worry. Amethyst doesn¡¯t mind.¡±
¡°Where did you even get such a powerful familiar?¡± Kana asked.
¡°I raised her from an egg. She¡¯s sure grown a lot.¡±
Actually, just a few months. Her growth rate was almost as frightening as mine. I guess from onlookers we were both growth monsters of the same kind. If she¡¯d started when I started, would she and I have the same amount of strength?
¡°This is my stop, so you can introduce Amethyst to Shiro.¡± We had arrived at the door leading to my office. Reiman was inside waiting for me because he apparently had an idea for a potential ally. This was an exchange of information! Time to pull out the smart-ass sses, heh.
¡°Thank you very much!¡±
¡°Hopefully Amethyst will liven up Shiro once more.¡±
Both of them left with Amethyst and I entered the room.
Hopefully? There was no way Shiro wouldn¡¯t be ted, especially considering Amethyst was the sacred beast of Larm.
Wait, did I just offer up the most important being in Larm to a 15-year-old human girl because she felt sad? Also, normal kids don¡¯t just get excited at the thought of a gone friend being reced, right?
There was no way this didn¡¯t end in some bad way.
Hmm, I guess I¡¯ll just monitor them for now. The human group ns to spend a week here, so I have to make the most of it.
¡°Lady Hinotori?¡±
¡°Yo, Reiman.¡±
I took my seat in front of him and smiled. But my smile quickly faded when he gave his suggestion.
*********
SHIRO POV
¡®Master, there appears to be something dangerous outside.¡¯
Karma was hissing at the door, cautiously keeping its distance from it. From what I could sense, there were three entities in front of the door. Two of those were Kana and Daisuke-san. The third was unknown to me, although it was immensely powerful. If anything, it resembled... Hinotori!
I frowned at Karma¡¯s cowardice and approached the door. Right as I was about to hold the handle, the doors burst forth with a kick.
Marching in like a queen, Kana had her head held high. Daisuke followed behind like an exasperated guardian, and behind him was a beast. A monster far toorge to fit through the doors that still somehow slipped through. It resembled a drake but was something more majestic. With scales that resembled jewels, a white mane, and sharp horns on her head, this beast was more akin to a dragon. In fact, this was the most unique drake I¡¯d ever seen. I¡¯d only heard rumours of drakes like these.
It walked up and stuck its head up proudly. Quite the magnificent creature, if I had to say.
I had to take a few steps back just to take it in all its glory.
¡°You can ask us what we¡¯re doing here now?" Kana urged hurriedly. I took one look at her, then at the drake.
¡°Where did you find this beauty?¡±
¡®Master! It¡¯s dangerous!¡¯
¡°Oh, hi. I¡¯m totally doing great and stuff, you know?¡±, Kana pouted and turned away. I walked up and patted her on the back. ¡°Hehe, you¡¯re forgiven.¡±
Honestly, I felt bad for how easy it was to manipte her emotions. I gave a look at Daisuke. He should have done a better job teaching her.
¡°What did I do?¡±. He asked, confused by my re.
¡°Hinotori-sama said you could form a contract with her if you want," Kana exined.
¡°What?! Really? Just like that?¡±
They both nodded.
Hinotori did? She just offered to give me such a unique drake out of thin air with nothing attached to it?
I left Kana and moved closer to the drake. I could see my reflection in her scales. She didn¡¯t lower her head even as I reached out my hand, but rather spoke directly to my mind.
¡®I am the first of the great Hinotori¡¯s familiars and the most loyal. Approach only after giving a proper introduction, human.¡¯
She sounded powerful. Her aura was suffocating, but it was stillparable to Tora¡¯s. I¡¯d been dealing with that for years, so this was no problem as well.
I bowed and introduced myself first.
¡°My name is Tatsumaki Shiro. I am a summoner, with two familiars under my belt, currently.¡±
I kept my head down, waiting for a response. The drake brought its head down and sniffed me, eventually puffing a load of smoke.
¡®Very well, you may call me by the name given to me by my master, human.¡¯
¡°And that is?¡±
The creature remained silent for a moment, as if regretting what it was doing, but it eventually spoke.
¡®Amethyst.¡¯
¡°Just like your scales?¡±
¡®A really excellent name, no?¡¯
¡®If anything, the one to name you was just beingzy.¡¯
¡°Yes, quite the excellent name for the excellent being.¡±
¡®Master, I don¡¯t think you should form a contract with this being.¡¯
¡®That¡¯s enough out of you, Karma.¡¯
¡®But-¡¯
¡®But nothing. Don¡¯t get in my way here. Go explore the mansion or something.¡¯
¡®Master¡¡¯
¡®Don¡¯t make me repeat myself.¡¯
It finally gave up. Sulkily, it dragged its feet out of the room, leaving us be. Honestly, this one was too much work.
¡®That¡¯s quite the way to treat your familiar.¡¯
Amethyst¡¯s voice sounded annoyed. I trembled a bit but kept myposure.
¡°S-She¡¯s just a bit hard to talk to sometimes. Like an actual child, you know?¡±
¡®Is that so? I won¡¯t get too much into your business. Let us form this contract.¡¯
With that said, I started to feel her mana flow into me.
A/N: You know, for the longest time, I''d wondered where Shiro and Karma''s characters were headed. A while back, I figured it out for Shiro, but Karma was always an odd one for me. Her original conclusion felt forced and out of nowhere, so I was so happy when I finally figured out how to conclude her in this chapter. Look forward to both their stories in the future!
Chapter 331 The Little Familiar (1)
<h4>Chapter 331 The Little Familiar (1)</h4>
¡°Oh my, oh my. I wasn¡¯t expecting a call from you so soon, Hinotori.¡±
My gut churned at the all-too-sweet-sounding voice that betrayed its owner¡¯s personality. Her eyes looked down at me with such sadistic joy, like I was a toy to be yed around with.
¡°Some might say too soon," I muttered, prompting a jab to the side from Reiman. I clicked my tongue and looked away. Reiman stepped up to set the stage for this silly farce.
¡°Your Highness Princess Elriek Sox Den Anon Yorul III, we thank you for epting our impromptu request for a call.¡±
I couldn¡¯t say I was surprised that Antis of all ces figured out video calling before the rest of the world. Theirs seemed a little bit more refined than what the agent and I came up with, but ours was supposedly more reliable.
¡°And who might you be?¡± Her joyous tone was gone. She was suddenly in work mode.
¡°I am Supreme Commander Reiman Hideo, advisor to Lady Hinotori and one of the Generals of Pandemonium.¡±
¡°Suna, I believe you call creatures like himself rat men?" she asked in the background. A voice came from behind, confirming her belief. She then resumed the confirmation. ¡°Why are you allowing a rat to talk for you, Hinotori? Did you fail to learn anything during our time together?¡±
"You!" Reiman grabbed my wrist, calming me down.
She was still ying with me. Judging from how good of a politician she was, I could infer that she still didn¡¯t respect me as a leader or Larm as a nation. If it were someone respectable or dangerous in her eyes, she would have kept up her mask and yed it like we were allies.
Unfortunately for her, she wasn¡¯t dealing with me alone this time. Reiman was here.
¡°This humble rat man was under the impression we were dealing with the genius princess who had single-handedly taken control of the political sphere. I was not aware that we would be talking with a mere fish.¡±
I was shocked. Of all the things he could have said, that was nowhere near the list of things I was expecting him to say.
¡°Pardon?¡±
¡°If this is the extent of the wisdom of a potential ruler of Antis, perhaps this alliance was a mistake on our part.¡±
Woah, woah, woah! Reiman, chill. Are you really going to destroy our alliance just like that? She will actually let it crumble, you know? She really doesn¡¯t care for us like that.
There was no reaction from the other side for a good minute. Her gaze turned from one of mockery to one of interest. Reiman was now a tool she wanted to use. This couldn¡¯t possibly end well. She then turned her gaze over to me.
¡°I see you have found yourself some decent subordinates, Hinotori. Good delegation is also important for leaders.¡±
She had a pleased expression on her face, like a proud older sister. I scoffed at her.
¡°Whatever. Will you help us out or what?¡±
¡°That depends.¡±
¡°On what?¡±, I was about to pop a vein.
¡°I would like somepensation for the prank you pulled on my dear Suna when she came to the surface as my representative.¡±
¡°What prank? Who¡¯s this Suna person, and when did she appear?¡±
¡°What?¡±
That¡¯s how you confuse a genius! Just spout bullshit till they give up!
¡°Did you suffer brain damage recently, or is that how you¡¯ve always been since birth?¡±
¡°I did not think the princess would be so rude to the head of an ally nation. Are you sure you should be speaking in such a way?¡±
¡°Rude? Who¡¯s this head, and when did we be allies?¡±
She got me with my own tricks.
¡°What do you want?¡±
¡°Well then¡¡±
***
I let out a heavy sigh and crumpled to the floor.
¡°I don¡¯t want to see her face for at least another year.¡±
That was a short and brief conversation, but it felt like I¡¯d spent hours there. She was also pretty brutal when giving us what we asked for. As for what she wanted, it really was of no harm to us. We had so much we could spare to give her just a few.
¡°We both know that¡¯s impossible.¡±
Reiman reminded me as he sat up from his seat.
¡°Ugh. That¡¯s right, we started this whole thing because you were saying you have a way for us to legally get into the Oxaivalon Empire as diplomats of a kingdom."
¡°It¡¯s not really diplomats when the actual ruler of said kingdom is going, but yes. We set off tomorrow.¡±
¡°Aww.¡±
¡°With flight, we should be able to arrive there in a day or two. Hours if we take no rest. You said we could receive protection in the Winter Zone if we help this Winter Oni, right?¡±
¡°Hm, yeah. Not like we even need it. We can just install someone else.¡±
¡°Ahem. I believe it¡¯s a little too soon for us to start ying at continental superpower.¡±, He scolded, a stern frown on his face.
¡°R-Reiman¡¡±
¡°I will be seeing you tomorrow then, Lady Hinotori. Please prepare yourself.¡±
¡°Reiman~~¡±
He ignored my pleas. The doors shut tight behind him, and I followed after, but he was already gone. He really wasted no time when it came to work. Honestly, I¡¯d have to give him a day off so he could just rx.
Welp! No point in slouching. If I had only a few hours to y around, I was going to y as hard as I could.
¡°Time to slouch off like never before!¡±
<<I don¡¯t think that¡¯s something a leader should be shouting in the hallways>>
¡°I don¡¯t care. I¡¯m done being a leader for today. There¡¯s too much happening at once. I¡¯m going to y... uh?¡±
As I was trying to psych myself up, I identally heard the mental tears of a familiar, impertinent voice.
¡®Master really hates me, hngh.¡¯
Well, now that¡¯s just depressing.
¡®Must have done something wrong. Maybe if I wasn¡¯t so useless.¡¯
Come on now; you¡¯ll make me feel bad.
¡®Maybe she would be happier if I wasn¡¯t alive.¡¯
Ok, I¡¯m not dealing with this today.
I red at the little ck lizard that was sitting on the sill of an opened window. I walked up to it and sat next to it.
¡°You good, lil guy? Gal? Thing¡?¡±
Karma sounded female but actually had no gender. Looking at its stats, it really hadn¡¯t grown any stronger since we first met. It¡¯s like Shiro gave it almost no time for its own development. The only major difference was its size. It could now pass off as a cat. An ugly, scaly cat.
Karma hissed at me and looked away.
¡°You really are a cat.¡±
I tried to stroke its head, but it moved away from me.
¡®What do you want?¡¯
¡°That¡¯s no way to talk to your master¡¯s beneficiary, you know?¡±
¡®You are still my junior, Hinotori. I won¡¯t treat you any differently because of simple power disparity.¡¯
It stood up and puffed out its chest.
¡®I am Shiro¡¯s third familiar, and you were removed from the group because you weren¡¯t good enough. Know your -ow!¡¯
I didn¡¯t let it finish talking before flicking it in the forehead, holding back enough to not crack its skull.
¡°You can talk all the big game you want, but look at me. I made it. You didn¡¯t.¡±
¡®Did youe to brag?¡¯
¡°No. I¡¯m going somewhere. Want to join me?¡±
I wasn¡¯t done with Kaleb Zen¡¯s treasury. I¡¯d left Yurei and the rest of Project CATH back there. I wanted to explore more. The forbidden dungeon already received the weapons I got from Kaleb Zen, so it was happily working overtime. By the time I went to the Oxaivalon Empire and back, it was bound to be unconquerable by any normal means. Not like the average adventurer could even conquer it as it was.
¡®No.¡¯
¡°Come on, it¡¯ll be fun.¡±
¡®I refuse.¡¯
¡°Man, you don¡¯t even have anything to be doing here. Let¡¯s go have a talk in the sky.¡±
¡®The sky?¡¯
¡°Hm? Yes, the sky. Haven¡¯t been?¡±
I looked at its back. It had tiny wings, but I doubt it could fly for very long.
Meekly, it shook its neck.
¡°Well then, let¡¯s go.¡±
¡®R-Right now?¡¯
As a response, I grabbed the little fe and teleported to the skies of the Winter Zone.
Chapter 332 The Little Familiar (2)
<h4>Chapter 332 The Little Familiar (2)</h4>
¡°How do you like the vie-huh?¡±
¡°Achoo!" Karma let out a cute sneeze.
We hadn¡¯t even spent a minute up here, but the cold was killing her.
I guess her type of dragon can¡¯t survive in cold environments. Either that or being so young meant she shouldn¡¯t be so high up.
I shrugged and teleported us into the dungeon master¡¯s room of the Fortress of Solitude. The room was still a mess, littered with craters, wires, and broken machinery. I was expecting the dungeon to fix itself up, but I guess for that to happen, I needed to insert a new dungeon core.
Weirdly enough, there wasn¡¯t another one in here.
Does inserting any random dungeon core work?
<<Yes, it will. But acquiring one can be tricky>>
How so?
<<Dungeon corese about as the result of a, frankly, toxic amount of mana condensation. For this reason, it¡¯s exceptionally rare to find artificial dungeons, let alone dungeon cores>>
So what? Kaleb Zen just randomly found a way to produce these things on a whim and gave such a valuable thing to whoever beat the Forbidden Dungeon? Seriously, I get that he was being sent to Horizon forcefully, but couldn¡¯t he have at least thought of the possible consequences of the things he left behind?
Wait, no. Those consequences areing to my benefit now.
Never mind what I was just saying. Thank you, Kaleb Zen! I¡¯ll make good use of the precious treasures you left behind.
¡®Why are we here?¡¯
I dropped Karma to the ground so I could pick up Yurei¡¯s body.
¡°For the exploration of science, Karma.¡±
¡®Science?!¡¯
It seemed excited.
¡°You like science?¡±
Karma shook its head.
¡®Master told me I¡¯m the result of science, so I¡¡¯
The little dragon didn¡¯t finish its sentence. It looked away, as if embarrassed by how excited it sounded. It was trying too hard to not open up. Heh.
¡°What kind of science?¡±
Karma refused to respond. It was being difficult for no reason. Rather than no reason, pride might be a better answer.
Even before reaching adulthood, dragons are too prideful.
<<Analysis of the automaton Yurei isplete. Would you like a full exnation or just a summary?>>
¡
<<Summary: The automaton¡¯s build itself is notplex, although the materials used to make it are extremely rare. It would seem that in exchange for the superhuman strength and physical abilities regr automatons have, the creator made the automaton cute. It¡¯s core, however, is tainted with an ethereal substance. I am unable to determine what exactly it is, but the more I scan it, the more I¡¯m led to believe its core possesses a soul, but it doesn¡¯t have the same make-up of other whole souls>>
Hmm, so it¡¯s an artificial soul. You can analyse it, right?
<<Still performing the analysis to find out how it works>>
Can we actually find out how they work?
<<It¡¯s like how when you eat a soul, you¡¯re able to see its memories and experiences>>
I can¡¯t help but feel you¡¯re making it much less of a deal than it actually is, but I appreciate that.
Anyway, how does analysing this help us out in the future? I can understand the other resources, but the creation of artificial souls simply feels unnecessary to me.
<<I am still unsure, but you can have a look at the blueprints I¡¯ve made based on what I¡¯m seeing>>
The holographic projection of the inner workings of the automaton popped up. Reading through her analysis, I could tell that this Kaleb Zen guy was just far too gone! Her build was the epitome of inefficiency! She was weak and slow, just like an actual little girl. Her only ability boosts came from the military-styled gear she wore, but I was certain that was merely due to Kaleb¡¯s fancies.
Tch. Hm, wait. What¡¯s this?
I zoomed in on the little egg-shaped thing that was sticking out of the automaton¡¯s chest.
<<That is the core of the automaton>>
Really? Just looks like an egg, ha. That¡¯s quite different from the other cores I¡¯ve seen. Guess Kaleb was going for something new?
<<An egg¡>>
Agent?
<<Readjusting my analysis on the core of the automaton>>
W-What¡¯s going on? Agent? Speak to me!
I didn¡¯t get a response for another few seconds.
<<Rather than a core, it¡¯s more like an egg that was nurturing something. The taint on the soul is merely the soul giving life to the shell>>
Oh? Oh! Oh... Hmm, I still don¡¯t get it.
<<Haah~>>
Don¡¯t sigh. You can¡¯t even get tired!
<<Well, because of my reanalysis, I have observed something odd in the familiar, Karma>>
¡°Karma?¡±
¡®What?¡¯
Oh, not you. Well, you, but not... What did you find, agent?
<<Karma¡¯s structure is built like an automaton>>
What?
<<Much like the automaton Yurei, Karma¡¯s body seems to possess materials far too important to belong to something so weak, and it has an egg-shaped core, much like Yurei>>
Wait, wait, wait!
I looked at the little familiar.
You mean to tell me Karma¡¯s an automaton much like Yurei?
<<I¡ am unsure>>
Eh?
What¡¯s this? The almighty, all-knowing agent doesn¡¯t know? Did you scam me, agent? Did you?
<<This is new grounds, ok? I bet even Kaleb Zen didn¡¯t know what he was getting himself into. This is territory that could get Ozvaloth extremely pissed. I¡¯m sure if Ozvaloth ever gets wind of this, he''ll turn the nine hells upside down to find the person who did this>>
He seemed like a pretty chill guy.
<<Yeah, you don¡¯t want to see what he¡¯s like when he¡¯s angry>>
T-That bad?
<<Last time someone tried to deceive him, they ended up being tied to a pole right in front of limbo, where their innards are ripped out for all of eternity>>
Oh, so like Prometheus.
<<How did you know his name?>>
Wait, I... yeah, that¡¯s not important. So, we won¡¯t be experimenting with artificial souls?
<<Who said that?>>
But you just said, Ah! You know what? To hell with it. Let¡¯s go crazy.
<<Yes sir! I hope nothing goes awry with this idea of yours!>>
Idea of mine? You little¡ ah, whatever. Still, what does this mean for Karma?
<<I am uncertain. Can you give me a little bit more time?>>
Sure. But I guess I¡¯ll y around with the other automatons till then.
I walked further down the dungeon hall until I came into a room. A vault of sorts, with piles of precious crystals on either side and mountains of gear. Without a doubt, the highlight of the entire vault were the 4 little girls, standing up lifelessly in little cubicles. They all had various characteristics, with their names written above them.
I walked up to the automaton with the name CATH: Tatianna.
It was a little girl with auburn red hair, covered in oversized ck furry coats, leggings, and high punk gothic boots. Her metallic skin was pale and soft to the touch. I was having a surprising amount of fun poking her cheeks.
She looks like she¡¯d be really fun to have around.
<<Well, she has no personality>>
None, huh? So, they are all actually children, huh?
<<More like mechas waiting for hosts. You can give a soul to an automaton. It will have the personality of whatever soul it belonged to, but will be loyal to you>>
That so? But I don¡¯t have any souls I¡¯d like to... Oh, there is one!
Yep, one that kept resurfacing and causing problems whenever there was a war happening. I¡¯d managed to calm it down, but that was only a temporary solution. She must have been taking a mental toll on Tsuna for how long she¡¯d been active.
<<Would you like me to perform a soul extraction from the General Tsuna?>>
Yeah, let¡¯s do that. We¡¯ll put her into Tatianna.
The agent went to work immediately. In a matter of seconds, I held the wicked witch¡¯s soul in my hand. She was screaming and wailing, begging me to let her go, but I ignored her pleas.
How do I insert it into the body?
<<ce it above the core. It should automatically absorb it>>
I followed the agent¡¯s orders to the letter. The automaton¡¯s chest opened up, revealing the egg-shaped core. Unlike Yurei, this core hadn¡¯t nurtured a soul, so cing a new one in it probably wouldn¡¯t change much. Even if it did eventually nurture a soul, this could have unexpected consequences. And for a scientist, there was nothing more exciting!
Let me pretend I¡¯m a scientist.
Tatianna¡¯s chest closed up, and her body pulsed, like new life was being breathed into it. Get it? I¡¯m getting better with these puns!
<<Haah~>>
Oi, agent!
Her eyes creaked open, revealing little pearly almonds.
Tatianna took steps forward, so I backed away to allow her to move around. She looked around, taking in her surroundings, before eventually settling a dauntless yetzy gaze on me.
She took a yawn, covering her mouth, before sleepily muttering,
¡°So, yer my new master, ey? Get me some food, I¡¯m starving. Also, it¡¯s cold, I want a warm bed.¡±
¡°Huh?¡±
¡®Why is she so impertinent, Hinotori?¡¯
¡°Don¡¯t ask me, kid. I¡¯m just as confused as you are.¡±
Tatianna walked over and hugged me, rubbing her cheeks on my stomach.
¡°Yer warm. Want me to call you master too?¡±
Wait, is this how the wicked witch used to behave? Was she this high-handed?
A/N: It''s been a weirdst 2 weeks. Definitely not how I expected my year to end, but whatever. We''re in 2024 now! On to better things! Hopefully I can end the story this year too, haha. To do that, I''m setting a goal of 30 chapters each month, let''s go
The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and
continue reading tomorrow, everyone!