Chapter 38: 421-429
We walked around following the rocky wall for quite some time. Nothing particular looked much different except the change in the rock formations as we followed alongside it. After quite a few hours, we finally came to the end of the rock wall and hit the side of the dungeon itself. There were stone bricks like the dungeon walls of the floors above but still no sign of any monsters.
"So far, this is how the map looks." Sei pulled out the multiple sheets of paper now stuck together, showing the line of the map she had made. "We are currently here."
After adding some lines, Sei pointed out our current location. I was quite surprised at how well she was able to make maps. There was no gap in her drawing, it was all done intricately, not leaving out a single nook or cranny that she saw. "If we now follow this wall north, we will eventually reach the northern wall of the dungeon and should maybe finally see a staircase or some kind of path leading down. Unless, for some strange reason, this dungeon designer decided to make it impossible to find the entrance to the next floor."
"I have tried to use my detection magic, but I am not able to pick up anything. I get as about as far as we can see, then there seems to be some kind of blockage." I said while pursing my lips. If I could send my magic out further, I would be able to deal with this. "The only thing I can suggest is pushing my barrier out completely to all sides of the dungeon. What do you think?"
"If you could do that, you should have done it already!" Sei gave me an aggrieved look. Well….It's not that I was doing it on purpose, but I didn't think about it, to be honest….
"You got to practice your map-making skills!" I tried to make my mistake seem like I was helping, but the girls just gave me a weird look, so I shut my mouth and expanded the barrier.
The entire ocean floor suddenly became dry as I sent out balls of light in all directions to light things up. There were no monsters at all to be seen. Just some fish who got caught up in my barrier expansion. I did not want them to die, so I used wind magic to send them back into the water, but now, with the water gone, my detection magic was working again. And low and behold, I found the dungeon exit…. On the other side of the rocky outcropping!
I sighed and looked at the girls. "I found the exit," I said as I opened a small portal. "Atollie, you first, in case there is something that I did not detect, we will follow after."
Atollie nodded and walked through the portal. I then sent the girls through before stepping through myself. Sure enough, the stairs leading down to the next floor had a barrier on it to keep water out. I canceled the barrier I made once we passed through. A crashing sound as billions of gallons of ocean water slammed back down to the ocean floor. It shook the entire stairwell, I guess you could call it that we were in. luckily the barrier held up and did not break after so much water pressed up against it again.
We made our way down the stairs to find a door that we had to open. When we did, the light of day pierced through the darkness, revealing a large sandy beach and also a crab monster not too far off to our right. "An island?"
"Seems it. We will at least have an easier time now." Adel sighed in relief.
"The next entrance is on the mountain peak off towards the center of the island." I pointed at the hard to miss mountain that rose up into the clouds. We could not even see the peak itself due to the thick layer of clouds covering it, but I was able to detect the next entrance there.
"Do you think we can eat the crab?" Sally had a finger to her lip as drool began to flow from her mouth. I chuckled as I asked: "You must really like crab!"
"I had it once and will never forget it!" Sally answered. She never took her eyes off the crab.
"Let's kill it and see if it is editable." I had only just finished speaking when Sally suddenly pulled out her hammer and jumped high into the air. Seconds later, a loud smashing sound was heard as The crab in question was smashed into the ground creating a crater. The look in Sally's eyes was scary…. It seemed Sally was an extreme foodie for things she liked. I know she eats a lot but this was just….
"Come on, let's help her, or she might squish the thing into mush!" I quickly chased after Sally. Surprisingly the monster was called a king crab and was level 2002. It was very slow and had a short attack range, but this might just be because Sally kept smashing it into the ground, screaming: "Just die already!"
But because of her actions, it did make things easier, and we were able to kill it quickly. But to prepare such a huge crab, I used earth magic to make a huge mud pot filled with water magic and then used fire magic to heat it. It took almost four hours, but when the crab was cooked, I had to hold back Sally before testing it for poison or anything. And to be honest, when I sunk my teeth into the crab, my taste buds lit up. "This is really good!"
At my words, everyone dug in. Sally claimed one of the claws for herself that was bigger than her body by many times and basically crawled into it bite after bite until she sucked all the meat out of the claw breaking out through its tip.
I think since coming to this dungeon, this was actually quite a new experience since the ocean air was blowing by us, and with the smell of cooked crab, it was like a beach party. Something I had not done since I was little back on Earth. Please visit 𝑖𝓃𝓃r𝒆𝘢d.＆nbsp;c𝘰m
We went down to the water and dipped our feet into the cool ocean waves after we ate. Only after we played a bit did we finally gather our things and look at the mountain peak in front of us. "Shall we clear the way up to the mountain peak?"
"Let's do it!" Sally was now raring to go. Her stomach was also protruding quite a bit. One thing I did notice about this trip was that Sei was very much attached to Sally. She always seemed overly concerned with the silly rabbit girl, which I do not mind but still find quite amusing. Well, not so much amusing but more cute because Sei is like the boy who had just met her first love, and it seems to have only happened just recently.
I leaned towards Adel and asked: "Have you noticed?"
"Mmmm…. It's cute. Although I do not think Sally realizes it yet, but Sei is definitely trying to show her interest." Adel replied.
"Sally might not swing that way, though. She did seem to like that catfish prince at one point. But who knows? You were able to make me like girls, so maybe after a while, she will give in." I teased as I nudged Adel. She smiled and kissed my cheek.
"No fair, me too!" Sophie cried out as she came over and kissed my other cheek. I couldn't help but laugh. These girls, Iena and Diablo, bring smiles to my face. And I hope I can always keep a smile on their faces as well.
We killed our way toward the mountain to find that there was no path up this mountain. If we wanted to reach the top, we would need to fly or climb. "I will carry Sophie and Adel. Sei, can you carry Sally?"
"Huh? But I can…. Huh!? Wait, what are you doing!? I can go up by myself….." I chuckled as I watched Sei quickly scoop Sally up into a princess carry with a big smile. "It's okay, you should save your energy."
"Sei!" Sally's cheeks blushed as her ears danced about. It was very cute. I, on the other hand, had a girl in each arm wrapped around their waists as I flew up using my wings. Sei used air steps to move up the mountain, and lastly, Atollie flapped her wings and followed closely behind me.
We slowly made our way up, stopping every so often to adjust to the new temperatures as the temperature dropped. Sally sat there and pouted due to Sei overly pampering her. But she did not seem to resist too much, so I guess you can say that maybe things will work out well for the two.
When we reached the cloud bank, I ended up wrapping us in a barrier and used wind magic to blow the clouds away from us, similar to how I did with the seawater on the previous floor. One thing I did not understand, though, was why was the door on top of a mountain? Were these two floors just for recreation? Like some kind of break in the dungeon. I mean, most of the monsters did not drop anything, and the crabs were slow and only attacked when attacked. However, I did stock up on tons of crab meat.
A lot about the two floors was confusing, but the passage to the next floor was both at two extremes. One was deep on the ocean floor, while the other was on top of a mountain that rose into the sky. But I, of all people, know not to think too much about such things since these dungeons never really made much sense to me.
When we pushed through the cloud bank, we finally found the entrance, which was situated just below the peak on a small ledge. We landed and quickly entered the stairwell, and I must say the temperature difference was like night and day. While it was cold in the air, this stairwell made the mountain peak air seem like a summer vacation.
"Everyone, use warming magic. Sei, keep Sally warm." I teased, causing Sally to blush and Sei to nod her head. "As the Empress commands!"
Sei saluted me and proceeded to hug Sally, causing Sally to stamp her feet and push her away. "I can use warming magic!"
Sophie came over and nudged me, giving me a thumbs up. "They are cute together. And the way Sally is acting, it seems like it will only be a matter of time."
"I do hope they will. They have been good friends for a long time now. But Sally always seems more worried about you even though she can't follow you as much anymore." Sophie made a good point. But I will not interfere too much. I will give Sei as much help as I can get. It will be up to Sally if she is willing to accept her or not.
"Well, now that you girls have jumped so high in level you can follow me anywhere now," I said as I scratched Sophie's ears, causing her tail to wag back and forth. I couldn't resist, so I ended up tilting her head to the side and sinking my teeth into her. While I needed blood to survive, eating that crab still tasted pretty good.
We made our way down the stairs until we reached the bottom. When we pushed open the door, we were met with a frozen wasteland. The bitterly cold wind blew by at a high speed. I could only set up a barrier around us to block out the snow and wind that was pelting the land. It was hard to see much in front of us, but with detection magic, I could at least tell that there were monsters on this floor. I expanded my barrier as much as I could. But unlike the ocean floor, my barrier was not able to go more than a few hundred feet. Why this was, I do not know. Maybe a reverse effect of the sea floor. On this floor, I could use detection, but the barrier could only go out so far. Either way, I could make it big enough for us to at least be able to fight within it. 𝓲𝓃𝐧𝓇𝗲𝒂d. 𝑐𝐨ｍ
"How many monsters is this!?" Sophie yelled out. Right now, we were surrounded by what are called snowmen. They are, just as one would guess by their name, snowmen, the things kids would make when it snowed out. But these ones had razor sharp teeth, and their skinny branch link arms stretched out quite a ways with their pointy claw link fingers.
Now, normally this would not be such an issue, but there were just so many of them! "Master, the monsters on this floor are all converging on to this area. There are millions of them."
"Wonderful!" I yelled out as I melted another snowman. What made this situation even worse than this was that they were easy to kill enemies, but they gave little experience for their level! It's as if we need to battle the entire floor just to get to the next staircase leading down!
"Ahhhh! I can't take it anymore! Everyone stand back!" I yelled out as I took a deep breath. Since they just wanted to keep coming, I will do something that will make killing enemies easy as stepping on the grass of someone's yard that has a keep off the grass sign! After everyone retreated, I let a stream of flame spread out in front of me. I melted all the snow men within my barrier before turning it into a spinning barrier made of flames. "Let's go! I do not want to spend another second on this floor!"
"I was waiting for this!" Sei yelled out. "I thought we were really going to have to kill them all!" Please visit 𝑖𝐧𝓷𝓇𝙚𝙖d. c𝚘𝐦
"If the experience was good maybe, but the three experience per kill is just…. It's not worth it!" I snorted as I walked forward. The girls all giggled and followed behind me. I just wanted to level, not play around with weak monsters.
We continued forward until we found the next staircase. When we reached the next floor, it was another series of the same thing. So we once more moved until we reached the stairs leading up. This repeated all the way until we reached the thirtieth floor, where we were met with a large snowman who roared and died from my fire breath.
The boss was level 5065 but died with a single shot from my flame breath which gave me a total of one thousand experience! Yay! Not! I can't believe how much of a waste of time those floors were. Maybe if it was a team who did not have flames or something, it would be hard, but for us, it was like stealing candy from a baby, which I would never do. If they had a shiny, I might, but not candy!
When we exited to the thirty first floor, we stopped in our tracks as he seemed to arrive on a blanket of clouds. But what startled us all was that Atollie suddenly jumped in front of us. "Master, stay back!"
"Atollie!?" I cried out as a golden barrier suddenly appeared around us.
"Come out!" Atollie yelled. Her eyes had turned cold as she looked out over the puffy cloud landscape.
I scanned the area and saw no one. I didn't even detect anyone. So I was unsure of what was going on. It was not until a few minutes passed that a chuckle was heard, and a made with white feathered wings floated down. "To think one of the gate guards dares to bare their fangs at me."
"I am no longer a gate guardian but my master's guard, and you are overstepping your bounds." Atollie looked at the man wearing a white robe with golden trim and a golden circlet on his head. His golden hair fell down to his waist, and his golden eyes sparkled in the light. He looked very much the part of a spoiled rich kid with too much money. Well…. Or an angel or god or something like that….
"Oh? I see…. So you were the one…. You can relax. I am not here to harm anyone. I was just curious about something." The golden haired young man's eyes went from Atollie to me, causing me to frown. "Why are you even here?"
"Huh?" It was not just me who blurted this out but everyone else as well. This included Atollie as well.
"Oh? It seems you… We will just leave it at this. Things seemed to be getting interesting. But for now. I will say this. If you reach the last floor of this dungeon you are in, I will give you a little surprise." The golden haired man smiled at me before turning back to Atollie. "Protect her well…."
I watched as the mysterious golden haired man disappeared. I did not understand what was going on. Atollie's hand was gripping her sword tightly as she stared at the spot the man had disappeared. You can call it intuition, but I think there is something being kept from me, and well, it's annoying…. "Atollie?"
"Ignore it. It was just a clown." Atollie replied as she turned and smiled at me. "There are no monsters on this floor, so we should take a break and enjoy the scenic view that not many will ever get to see…."
Seeing how quickly Atollie was trying to change the subject kind of irked me, but there was probably no way she would answer even if I asked. She was not something you could call as a contracted monster or something like that. She was a summon who would fight for me, and that was it. She was not someone I could order to tell me things because she still had her own free will. So no matter how much it bothered me, there was nothing I could say or do to pry the information out of her. After all, she was too high of a level for my dragon speak.
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly before saying. "Let's do as Atollie suggests," I said as I walked over and sat down on a fluffy cloud. Adel followed behind me and sat next to me. She then leaned over and asked: "Is it okay to drop things like this?"
"We have no choice for now…."
<strong>--AN) Late chapters today! I was stuffing my face with turkey! Happy Thanksgiving to those who are celebrating!--</strong>
While I said this, I was still very curious as to why the golden haired man said such a thing. It seemed as if he knew who I was. But… I still do not understand how he would know me unless… As I lay back on the soft fluffy clouds, I entered my inner space and looked around. It still looked the same as before, half and half but no sign of her. "Trinity! Come out, I need to ask about something important."
Silence filled the space. She seemed to really not want to talk to me anymore. Last time she said a lot of things and many of which seem to be true. Whether I can trust her or not is another story, but at this moment and time, I need to know more about myself. "Trinity! I do not wish to speak about the Altorians. I wish to ask about the golden haired man. I know you were at least watching….."
Still silence which made me sigh as I sat down on the ground. And looked over at her side of this inner space. "I know you do not like me. And I can not agree with your ways, but we are indeed one…. This much I know…. But Trinity, if you wish to accomplish anything, you will need to at least speak with me. I can now help you gain revenge."
"Humph!" A snort filled the air causing my lips to curl up. "Trinity, do you know why the golden haired man spoke to me as if I was not supposed to be here?" 𝘪𝑛𝒏r𝘦𝚊𝐝. 𝒄o𝐦
"I am not sure…." Trinity suddenly appeared before me. She was not close. She sat down, staring at me from her side of the area. "Your guess would be as good as mine. I only know I have worked hard to gain my strength and know nothing else. We may be one, but we are also not the same."
"That is true. We are one but not the same, but that does not mean we need to be enemies…. I know I reacted harshly, but you have to understand where I am coming from. And now you can see that I am growing stronger at a fast pace. And I will only keep growing stronger. Atollie, who is beyond you or me, is also by my side. I have the means to help you gain revenge, but if for some reason you have to take over the body, you must understand my own values as well…." Trinity may not be fully trustworthy, but she does seem to be someone who cherished those she loved in the past. Otherwise, she would not have worked so hard to gain strength. Her story, after thinking about it for so long, is truly heartbreaking.
"Values….." Trinity hummed as she looked up at me. "I will let you know I do not wish to die, and I really do not want much to do with you, but I can promise you this. If you are willing to help me wipe out the Altorians, then I will step in if you are on the verge of death and do my best to save the things you care about but…. Just remember, the more you accept me, the more your mind will slip, and this is of your own doing. Death… Slaughter…. These things will become second nature to you. Do not blame me for this as this is how we truly are…." pan(da-n0vel.c)om
The sadistic smile on Trinity's lips was filled with a craziness I am very familiar with, but…. If it allows me to be someone who is able to protect what I want to protect, then maybe the death and slaughter she is talking about…. I shook my head. I will just need to contain such instincts when the time comes. I have been doing it all this time, so I am sure I can do it more. Maybe even find a skill that will help me keep my rationale.
All I know is that I was nowhere close to being able to figure out what the golden haired man was trying to say. But it seems that me getting the ultimate skill was no fluke. Someone did something so that I could summon Atollie to stay by my side as a guard.
I let out a sigh as I got up. Trinity's eyes were locked on me. I let out another sigh before thinking for a moment. I dug into my previous life's memories and pulled out the shows that I had watched. Entire seasons of stuff most people would not be able to fish out of their memory, but since this place was controlled by me, I could get them out. A large screen appeared in the air, and a video started playing. I looked over at Trinity and said: "It might not be much, but for now, you can watch this. You can control it as you see fit. It's all the shows I watched since I was young in my past life."
"Like I would be interested in…." Trinity's voice trailed off as she began swiping her hand back and forth before stopping on what looked like a horror movie of some kind. I chuckled and left the space. My eyes opened to find myself being used as a pillow by two sneaky girls.
I raised my head a little to see Atollie standing not too far away. I moved the girls to the side gently before walking over to Atollie. She gave me a slight glance before staring off into the endless cloudy abyss. "I won't ask, so do not worry. But…. When I am strong enough, will you finally explain to me what that man meant?"
Atollie finally turned to look at me before giving me a slight nod. "But you are far from being strong enough…. Some information will only harm you than help you, so for now, forget ever meeting him and continue with your current goals. I will do my best to keep you safe."
"Then I will be relying on you…. I know things will only get more rocky from this moment on, but I do plan to at least work hard and do what I can. I have a feeling something big will happen soon. Something that is nowhere close to being as troublesome as the Altorians. What that something is, I do not know, but I do feel that maybe whether it is further in the future or as soon as tomorrow that something will eventually happen." I do not know where I was getting this feeling, but I can only guess that maybe my mind was just playing tricks on me, but I do feel deep down that something would soon happen. How much it will change things is another story.
--AN) Check out my Fantasy Carnival entry: Alantina Online: The Greatest Sword Mage Reborn As A Weak NPC--
We continued our dive into the dungeon. The thirty-first to fortieth floors were all desert landscapes which was no fun. Luckily we had cooling magic, or it would have been worse. The boss for that floor was a huge scorpion which, after some effort, we were able to take down. Luckily this time, we were all able to damage it without issue.
When we reached the forty-first floor, it was nothing but a canyon area with many wyverns flying about and giant lizards. These floors were a bit more tricky as they required us to deal with many flying enemies at a time. It took us quite a while to clean up these floors because I stopped helping as much and went to being a support role to give the girls more practice.
And now we were standing in front of the staircase that leads to the next boss. "Everyone ready?"
I looked around, and when everyone nodded, we moved down the stairs. We came to an oddly ordinary door which I pushed open. But to be honest, what was in front of me was not something I would expect. I was met with a strange room. It looked like a rest area, maybe an inn. I am not sure because when we walked in, there were a few couches and chairs. A table and even a few beds, all set up throughout the entire room.
There was also a door directly across from the room from the door I was standing out that said exit to floor fifty-one. While the room did look inviting and was not really big enough to be a boss room, we still entered the room in a wary manner.
"Welcome!" A booming voice was heard overhead. "You have arrived at the midway point! From this moment on you, when you enter the dungeon with this team of people, you will be able to continue from this floor. There is a teleport on the right side of the room that will allow you to leave the dungeon and return to the entrance. But be warned, if you reach the one-hundredth floor and are able to reset the dungeon, you will need to start from the first floor once again. Have a good stay at the lazy dungeon retreat…." Please visit 𝓲𝗻𝚗𝑟𝑒𝓪𝑑. 𝘤𝚘𝚖
"Ummm… just to be sure, but I am not the only one who heard that, right?" Sei asked as she rubbed her ears.
"No, we all heard it. It looks like we can return to the capital for some time. I do wish to take a bath and sleep in a comfy bed." I answered as I stretched. And looked at the girls. "What do you all think? Want to go take a break?"
They all looked at each other before nodding their heads. I smiled and walked towards the teleport, with them following behind me. We all got into the teleport, and after I fed it a bit of mana to activate it, we were all teleported out of the dungeon.
Clear skies and fresh forestry air filled my nose as we appeared just outside the dungeon. The people who were standing there seemed startled, but I felt dead. I was tired. I really wanted to bathe and sleep.
"Alright, let's head home…." I used dimensional transfer and sent us all back to the palace. The others were still in the midst of their training, so I was not going to interrupt them. We all dropped our gear off and went to the baths. Atollie followed us as well. However, she was looking around at everything, which was probably fun for her since she had been stuck guarding a gate this entire time.
After stripping our clothes off and washing off, we all soaked in the tub. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the side of the bath, and let the hot water sink into my muscles. It was truly relaxing. Of course, Sophie and Adel sat on either side of me and used my shoulders as a pillow, which I did not mind one bit.
I will say Atollie has a nice body. Perfectly shaped hips and chest that were a little bigger than my own. After watching her undress, I began to realize I was one hundred percent a pervert now. Luckily no one seems to care if I look. Not like I planned to touch or anything. I got enough girls at my side. As for my friends, Sally's cheeks were red due to Sei being pushy and wanting to wash her body for her. In the end, she gave in and allowed it, but only after Sei pushed a few times.
"Faith, you turn eighteen soon." Adel suddenly whispered as she hugged my arm.
"Mmm…. But I do not think my body will age any more than it already has. Adel, what age do you plan to have me reset you to when you begin to grow older?" I asked out of curiosity.
"Me? This age. Whatever age is closest to yours." Adel replied. I could see that. She did not want to look older than me, I guess.
"I want the same. I do not want to age any more than I already have." Sophie nuzzled into my neck as she jumped into the conversation.
"Then I can just stop time for your bodies. Well, more like your cells that would force you to age. Now that I have full control over the spell, I can pretty much do anything. So if you want to stay at this age forever, let me know, and I will cast the spell on you." I did not wish to keep other cells from being affected. I would only stop the aging process of their body so they will never have any issues as the years go on. Kind of a false immortality.
"Then please do!" Adel hugged my waist, and this was followed by Sophie doing the same. I then got to warm sets of lips pressed against each cheek, causing me to smile. I hugged both girls' waists and cast stop on them. They will now live forever unless someone undoes the spell or they ask me to undo it.
"Hey! What about Sally and me!?" Sei yelled out as if she was being left out of a good thing. I chuckled and replied: "But you don't even need it since you can reverse your age on your own."
"Well, Sally then!" Sei pouted and pushed Sally to the front. I looked at Sally, who seemed confused as to what was going on, and asked: "Sally, do you wish to stay this age forever?"
"I…. I wouldn't mind…." Sally replied. I nodded and cast stop on her just like I did to the girls. "Then you will forever be the same age. Let me know if you wish to grow old again, I will remove the spell." i𝒏𝐧𝒓ea𝚍.＆nbsp;𝘤𝗼𝓶
Sally smiled and nodded before getting tackled hugged by Sei. Sally tried to struggle out of the girl's arms only to have to give up and slouch over while Sei hugged her from behind. It made me wonder when Sei would finally just confess. To me, as a bystander looking on from the side, it did not seem like Sally was rejecting Sei. She never used her full strength when trying to push her away, and her attempts fell flat after a few seconds. But looking at the two as they rested in each other's arms, they did look like a cute couple.
After a hot bath, we got out and parted ways with Sally and Sei. I went to my room with Sophie and Adel. "Let's rest for a bit. Then I need to go speak to our father to find out how things went."
"Ugh…. Can we not? I hate talking with him! He always complains!" Adel whined. I leaned into her bumping her slightly before saying: "I will talk to him myself. You are just one of my queens, so you do not need to be there for the meetings. Go relax with Sophie."
"Alright! I heard the cooks had come up with a new recipe for a desert. I want to try it out." Adel somehow already knew all the happenings around the castle. No idea how she does it but she does.
After a nap which Atollie joined us for, we all split ways, while Atollie and I went to the throne room after I called a meeting. The former king, now my father in law, was all smiles when he saw me. "Haha! You are back! I can go back on vacation!"
"Slow down," I said, raising my hand. "Father, you might need to stay here for the time being, just in case. I can not have you going off somewhere just yet. If I need to go out on the battlefield or to another nation, your presence will be needed."
"You! Why!? I don't wanna!" The man who was once a king of this nation was now rolling around on the floor, kicking and screaming like a child throwing a temper tantrum! I really did not know if I should laugh or cry at this scene!
"Will you stop!?" I yelled out helplessly. "I do not wish to keep you here either, but current times call for it. Now tell me, what level did you get to?"
"Ah…. Level 2340." My father in law replied. I nodded and then handed him a small pouch. "Inside are thirty skill stones and a limit break stone. Use them all and build up your skills list. The more you have, the better."
"Oh! Alright, thanks!" My father in law lips curled up as he took the pouch. For some reason seeing his smile and how he was acting it as if I was looking at a small child receiving a bag of candy from an elder.
"Anyway, for now, we will need to keep you on call. I plan to let the others continue leveling up. Our level jump was a bit unexpected due special circumstances. So the others still need to work hard to level up. But we might have many more issues soon. There is more to worry about than just the Altorians." I still couldn't get the golden haired man out of my mind. I only wanted to take a small break for the time being before continuing our dungeon dive. Speaking of which….
I opened my menu and summoned Hordren, who appeared half asleep. "Hmmm… where am I?"
"Hordren, you are in my empire. For now, just take a seat to the side, and I will settle things with you and give you a place to stay." I replied with a smile. Hordren nodded and found a seat that was already occupied and pushed the official who was sitting there out of the way and sat down. I held my head and sighed. I guess he needs to learn some common sense before I let him out of the castle. "Ahem!"
"Hey Faith, who are these two?" My father in law asked. I looked at Hordren and Atollie and knew it would probably cause some uproars, but what else was new right? "The man over there who still needs to learn proper manners is Hordren, he is a fire dragon who I tamed in order to free him from the dungeon, and this over here is my protector Atollie. She is ummm… a goddess?"
"Master, I am not worthy enough to be considered a god." Atollie humbly replied. But in my eyes, she was already a goddess who could easily kill an ultimate boss who was over level 9000!
"I see…. A fire dragon and a goddess… Why did I even ask? Of course, you would not bring anyone normal home. This was just asking too much…. Haha…. A goddess for a protector…. Hahaha…. I need a nap…." I think my father in law's mind was about to break down. I decided to ignore him as he came to terms with himself.
"For now, just give me a rundown on what is happen…"
"Your majesty!" a soldier ran into the throne room and knelt before me. "We are under attack! The beast kingdom has sent an army of over one billion to attack us!"
My face sank. I was like a ship that just hit an iceberg, my hull cracked open, and I sank to the bottom of the ocean. I rubbed the spot between my brow and looked at the soldier who rushed into the room. "How has General Briggs reacted?"
"He has ordered our military to hold them off until Your Highness makes a decision." The soldier answered respectfully.
"Good…. How are the levels of our people?" I had wanted everyone to level up as much as possible, and from what I understand, our generals had their men jump into the goblin den dungeon. I guess it was a good place to train as they were sentient beings and a lower level.
"We are mostly all at level one hundred, some even higher than that as some decided to spend a few weeks in the dungeon at a time. We only have about ten losses…." The soldier replied. I nodded my head and felt a bit better about this. But there was no telling if the beast kingdom had done the same thing.
"Last question, are the beastkin normal looking? Do they have any signs of being consumed by the Altorians?" This was the most important question. If they had been consumed, I would need to move myself and if not, our soldiers could probably handle it with all the training they have undergone, and I could move to invade the beastkin capital alone.
"They seem fine. Nothing too strange about them at all." The soldier answered. With this, I nodded and said: "I will send one person of a higher level out to help. But be careful she might be grumpy."
I planned to send Sei. I would keep Sally, Adel, and Sophie here to protect the capital. If things went wrong, at least a few level 2000 plus would be here to protect things.
"Faith, why not let me go?" I paused, hearing the voice next to me. I turned to see my father in law with a twinkle in his eyes. I really did not know if I should laugh at this man or not, but he did seem eager to use his spells. I thought for a moment before nodding my head. "I guess you can go out and stretch your legs. But you will be going to Sei as your guard, just in case. Adel can take my spot as leader with Sophie, Grace, and Sally here to protect the capital. I will go and have a chat with the best king."
My father in law looked at me and let out a sigh. "You are going to make more work! But I guess it is for the best…." I chuckled and disappeared and reappeared in my room. I walked over to the bed and crawled on top of it, and hovered over Adel, who was sleeping peacefully, before leaning down and kissing her lips. Please visit 𝑖𝓷n𝘳ℯ𝐚𝐝. 𝒄om
"Mmmfff… Faith? Wha…. Mmmmm…." Adel fell into my kiss, causing me to smile. "Wake up, my queen, you need to take my place for a while. I will wake Sophie up as well."
I know I said I would wake Sophie up with a kiss as well, but who knew Sophie was awake and would wrap herself around my body and shover her tongue down my throat!? Instead of making her get lost in my kiss, I got lost in hers until Adel finally pried us apart.
"Ahem…. Anyway… Sophie, you, Sally, Adel, and Grace will protect the capital." I explained as I cleared my throat and rubbed my now-red lips. Sophie had a proud smile on her face while Adel was trying to hold back her laughter. I will need to punish these girls later!
"We will head to the throne room then. But wait, why all of this suddenly?" Adel finally realized something was off.
"It's because the beast kingdom suddenly attacked us. I am sending Sei to the front line while father in law will be going as well. He said he wanted to test out his new skills." I replied.
"Ah… Sounds like him. If he gets beaten up after all the levels he has gained, I will toss his ashes into the sea." Adel seemed very indifferent about her father going to the front lines, but she did have a point. He was over level 2000 now after freeloading off us.
"Okay, I will go speak with Sie." I left the girls to finish getting ready and walked down the hall to Sei's room. I knocked once and got no answer, so I slowly opened the door and looked inside. I heard nothing, so I walked over to where the bed was to get an eye full. One rabbit and one Sei were in the buff hugging each other. I guess they must have connected in more ways than one.
I made a finger gun and pointed my index finger at Sei's face, and squirted her with a stream of water. "What!? Ahh! Who is it!?" Sei suddenly jumped up and looked around. When her eyes finally met mine, her whole face turned red. "Faith!? Why didn't you knock!?"
"What are you being so bashful for? I have seen you both naked in the bathers many times. But I do have to hand it to you. You finally caught your rabbit, huh?" I asked, giving a knowing grin.
Sei pouted and covered Sally up, making me burst out laughing, and asked me: "Why did you come?"
"I need you to follow my father in law to the front lines. The beast kingdom has attacked us, and he wants to go out and play. Just make sure he doesn't get himself into any trouble." I explained with a sigh. Sei frowned but still nodded her head. "Can you give me ten minutes?"
"Mmm… He won't be leaving for an hour. I will send you both there. Let Sally, who is already awake, know that she is staying here. She is needed to help protect the capital."
I saw a set of bunny ears twitch, which made me smile. It was nice to know the girls were together now. I just did not think it would be so quick. I guess Sei must have used her special skill to rope her in.
With things settled here, I went to find Grace to explain things and to allow her to take some blood from me. She had been drinking my blood from packs I filled for her, but it seemed it tasted stale. So I wanted to give her some fresh blood for her to drink. "Master, can I go with you?"
"Do you really want to go?" I asked, and Grace nodded her head. I guess maybe she had been feeling left out recently. Seeing her pleading look, I nodded my head. "Alright then, let's go together."
Myself, Grace, and Atollie all left the Cyrilia Empire and quickly arrived at the border where the war was going on. I looked over the battlefield and noticed our people easily fighting one person to ten of theirs without issue and smiled. "Looks like their leveling spree really ramped up their abilities!"
"They have all worked hard, and more people even signed up to become part of the military as of late. The people of our empire really look up to you, our Empress, who has sacrificed so much to try to keep our empire safe." Grace replied. Her eyes were turning red as she looked down at the battle below with so much blood.
"Grace, come on." I tugged on her arm, causing her to nod and reluctantly look away from the blood bath.
It seems Grace has an issue with controlling her blood lust. I will need to figure out a way to fix that in case she accidentally hurts someone she cares about. We flew to the beast kingdom undetected and in a very short time, thanks to Atollie. I hovered over the Beast Kingdoms castle and snorted. With a wave of my hand, I shot a flaming sword through the air. The barrier surrounding the castle shattered instantly, and the roof of one of its towers blew off in an instant. This was just me venting some anger.
"Master, you just notified the entire beast kingdom that you are here." Grace gave me a reminder. I turned and stuck my tongue out. After all, I did that because I was letting them know I was here. It could be considered a knock. I was knocking to let them know I, Faith Cyrilia, was here to play! Please visit 𝙞𝙣𝗻𝒓𝗲𝓪d. c𝘰m
"Who dares to attack my castle!?" A beastly roar was heard from inside the castle. Not long later, two figures appeared in the sky. One I recognized and another who I did not recognize.
"It's you!" The sly cat yelled out, pointing his finger at me. I frowned as I said, using dragon speak: "Punch yourself and pull your tail!"
That was a loud slapping sound as the sly cat punched himself square in the face and then yelled out in pain as he pulled hard on his tail. I snickered with my hand covering my mouth. Seeing this little basta-sly cat being punished is always amusing.
"Empress Cyrilia! You come to my lands and destroy my castle. Do you think my Beast Kingdom is easy to bully!?" The middle aged cat next to the sly cat yelled out.
But I couldn't help but furrow my brow as I asked: "Are you an idiot? You send a billion man army to my doorstep, and you say I am bullying you? Something is really wrong with your head! You attack my empire and want me to sit by and do nothing. I am sorry old man, but this castle, this kingdom of yours, is now hereby annexed!"
"You dare!?" Heh…. The stupid old man did not even deny he sent soldiers to my empire. I have already scanned him from head to tail, and he has no worms in his body, so he is not under control. It seems he is just an idiot altogether. Attacking my empire and not expecting retaliation, who the hell does he think he is!?
"Why wouldn't I dare!? You damn old cat. I will tell you this now. Anyone who dares to invade my lands and try to harm my people becomes my enemy. I will never harm an innocent person but you. You sent a billion of your men to my borders. Give me an explanation!" I roared out even louder than him in a dragon roar, causing the beast kind's king to stare at me in shock. The finger he had pointing at me shivered.
"You….. You are…. Why!? Why is someone like you siding with humans!? Why are you even willing to befriend humans, elves, and dwarves!? They shun us beastkin like we are some kind of plague!" The beast kingdom's King answered back with questions of his own.
"Because not everyone is bad! What is wrong with having friends and citizens that are humans? What is wrong with befriending the elves!? Why is it wrong to want world peace with no slavery!? You are no better than the kingdoms who promote this same abuse against our own kind, but yet here you are now invading a friendly nation, and for what reason!? Because we are not like you?" I sneered as I waved my hand. "Gates of Faithylon!"
Millions of swords of fire appeared in the air and were all aimed at the castle below. "You start a war without knowing your enemy's true strength. You question me about my values, but what about you?"
"I….." The beast kingdom's king's body shivered as he looked at my massive spell that was on a whole new level compared to before. I could push this spell to almost a few billion swords if I wanted to, but that would be overkill at this time.
"I what!? Answer me, O'Great Beast King!" I roared once more, shaking the air around us. But in return, all I got was a blank look, which made me furrow my brow. "Atollie, is there anything wrong with that man?"
"No… he has no magic cast on him, nor has he been invaded by the worm things you told me about," Atollie answered. I knew I could trust her answer, which made me even more puzzled. Why would this man do all this for no reason?
"Master, let me handle the rest. I have not fought in a long time." Grace suddenly stepped forward. Seeing her crack her knuckles, I nodded to agree. "Okay, but I want to go punch the sly cat myself. I dislike him."
"As you wish, Master." Grace grinned and then disappeared. The next time I saw her, she already punched the Beast Kingdom's king back into his castle with a single punch. Which I kind of figured would happen. Now that Grace was off doing her thing, I decided to go knock out a sly cat. Although I still have the feeling within me that something strange is going on.
With the father out of the way, I looked at the sly cat, who was staring at me with fear in his eyes and a crushed face from punching himself. "Faith! Look my father wasn't thinking correctly! We will call back the troops right away!"
"It's too late. I am sure you must have a system by now." Of course, I already knew this since I used appraisal on him, and he was already level 160. "You see… our soldiers are pretty high level. My father in law is also at a high level, along with one of my own people who is at an even higher level. Let me ask you, just these two people alone whose levels range over two thousand, do you really think an army of one billion low levels can harm them?"
The sly cat's face paled, and his tail sagged. I guess he finally understood the biggest problem of all… They underestimated the power of my empire. "I will give you one chance. Tell me, why did you attack my empire? No… Tell me who instructed you to invade my empire. Was it a man or woman with purple lines on their body?"
"This…" The sly cat averted his eyes. So I guess my guess was right. I do wonder what level they are.
"I see… then I am sorry. Of all the people you could have colluded with, you had to collude with them. My biggest enemy." My voice grew cold as a sadistic smile formed on my lips. "I do wonder. If I drain you of your blood, will you become my slave?"
I flicked my fangs that began to protrude out. And disappeared and reappeared behind the sly cat. I guess my charm began to instantly take effect because his entire body went limp as if accepting what was about to happen. I chomped down and began to drink. I was not anywhere near limiting the blood I was taking in as I drank it without restraint. The sly cat's body began to grow cold as blood flowed into my system. Sadly he only gave me one experience point per second, but it was better than nothing. A few minutes later, I pulled my mouth away from his neck and wiped my lips, and let out a satisfied sigh. How long had it been since I felt this full?
I looked at the dried up husk in front of me, who was too weak to even more, and shook my head. With a flick of my finger, I sent him flying down into the ground below, creating a massive crater. "Now then!" I stretched and looked down at the castle below, that now had a few more holes in it, and frowned. "What is going on down there?"
"It seems someone appeared and is now fighting Lady Grace," Atollie replied. I used detection magic to see Grace fighting someone who was on par with her level and snorted. "Atollie, if anyone stronger appears, deal with them. I will handle this person."
"As you wish." Atollie respectfully bowed to me before following behind me as we descended into the castle.
What awaited us was a now destroyed throne room. Many holes riddled the walls, and even part of the floor had been destroyed all the way to the basement. I looked at the woman who had purple lines on her body and checked her level.
[Yarsel]
[Level: 2636]
"Oh? Grace is doing pretty well against someone who is of a higher level than her. I guess she has been using her points wisely. Then again, I am sure she would say,: 'All servants must be able to protect their masters!'" I said with a chuckle. But I could see that Grace was slowly getting at a disadvantage. Just as she was being kicked away, I appeared behind her and supported her before she flew off. "I will deal with this guy. Go play with the king."
"Yes, Master." Grace nodded as she wiped her sweat and turned her attention to the man hiding behind the throne.
The Altorian woman stared at me with killing intent in her eyes. "Trinity!"
"Unfortunately, no." I admitted but paused and added: "Well, I guess yes, at the same time. You see, Trinity and I are one and the same. I am her, she is me. Although I do hate to admit but it is the truth." This was a fact, and I just had to accept it.
"But you see, you Altorians really must at me. You even got this kingdom to run amok and send one billion soldiers to my empire. Did you know? You worms are getting stupider with every meeting?" I asked with a smile.
"You! You call us worms, but we are just doing what we were created to do. To us, you are nothing but a means for us to…. Forget it. I will kill you here now, Trinity or whoever you are!" The Altorian woman yelled out as she dashed forward with a strange purple sword in her hand. I shrugged and allowed her to strike at me.
*Ding!*
It was as if a bell was being tolled. The metal from her purple sword slammed into my arm, causing sparks to fly all over the place. I had created a set of scales on my arm and blocked the attack. I still had one hand behind my back as I slowly reached up and grabbed the blade of the sword while the Altorian woman stood there in shock. I could tell she was trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.
"Was the scene too shocking for you? Did you think I would sit around and do nothing? You see…. Even my armor is morphable. I purposely moved it out of the way to show my bare arm and allowed my scales to appear to prove something to you." I paused and smiled as I jerked the woman forward and slammed my fist in her face. I dug it down, so her head slammed directly into the floor. "And that something was that you are nothing but a worm. Now die!"𝓲𝓷nr𝒆𝚊d. 𝘤𝑜𝘮
Weekly Power Status
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