Central Island (2)

'Our bodies.....!'

"What the Hell is this feeling!"

They felt their nervous systems slowing down and death creeping up on them, after examining themselves, they soon found the reason. His blade had an unnatural dark red edge .

"You lowly cheating motherf*cker, you actually used poison!!!"

They screamed at him, with fear plastered on their faces, they felt it, they were going to die, they were dying this very instant.

"Oh. What's so wrong about poison, there's no wrong and right here in this God forsaken world, even before, things weren't fair so why should I play nice, you all ganged up on me, perhaps if you honorably fought one and one , I wouldn't resort to this."

They glared vehemently at him. What a joke, it was obvious now, one on one, and they wouldn't last 30 seconds against him, he'd pick them off one by one, it was equivalent to lining up to get eaten by a ferocious tiger.

V smirked at this while taking advantage of his high resistance to touch the poison on his blade affectionately. With his resistances, touching with just his skin was fine.

The poison, it was what he created back in the first stage, their resistances were low and none of them even had the stat, even if they did, it'd have to be at the colorless level to save them. He hadn't used it since the fight with the Carnivorous Beast. The effect was slow with it but it was faster with them.

V easily finished off the remainder and gained both colorless and ordinary runes that he redistributed to his stats. He didn't even need to look, he was still some points shy for his three remaining combat stats to achieve colorless level.

After the big slaughter, he looked over at the Warrior Clan.

He honestly thought that becoming a God would involve less talking so he turned over a new Leaf and ditched that majestic title, he was closer to a Demon anyway, however Verathragna was a good name he'd have to change it up a bit, perhaps it'd be one part of his name, that was for when he had luxury however. In hindsight that was childish of him for both the killing machine and God demon whatever, he was just himself.

Names weren't what you were called but what you recognized yourself as, your identity, names were usually that powerful and didn't change unless you had a more powerful feeling to another name that suits you. He'd stick with his original name from now on.

Now to the present situation.

V decided to give the Warrior Clan one final push to have them under him.

He would love the raise up those with traits as personal minions but he hadn't the time right now. That would have to wait.

He took in their fearful expressions before speaking.

"Listen closely, We must co operate with the Clans of we wish to survive. Why did the fairy deliberately promote the dungeons to us, they love to see us fight against each other and kill each other. The dungeons cause internal strife because they increase our strength."

"Think. It wants us to fight amongst ourselves. However the dungeons are still necessary for survival. The situation will only worsen and many will die, the clans will not oppress us as we shall be united. To minimize our deaths we must fight and defend with them so more of us may live."

"Any one who takes it upon themselves to disobey and be selfish must defeat me, does anyone disagree?"

"Together, our voice is louder than theirs but only together, acting out is strictly prohibited."

He scanned the murmuring crowd and waited for their their response, they grew silent. They agreed with him, the fairy was a bringer of bad luck and their initial misgivings were cleared up when the 30 entered, they'd forgotten the fairy's enthusiasm that it usually used to throw them in the pits of danger. There was also a mysterious feeling of trust towards him.

Nonetheless, it wasn't absolute and everyone wouldn't fall over themselves to be under him, it seemed certain conditions has to be fulfilled, like them being under him in the first place. One future underling couldn't help himself and spoke out,

"Was it alright to kill all of them, couldn't you have just beat them up to teach them a lesson. That was too ruthless!"

A few others seemed to agree with him but said nothing, intending to see how things played out.

V unhurriedly walked over to him as he replied," Oh. but I did."

"The lesson was, my way or the highway..... to hell."

He placed his sheath tip in that person's neck and kicked him off his feet.

"Care to say anything else."

He twisted his sheath.

" N..n..no." *gasps*

"Good," He removed the sheath from the middle of his throat and glanced around with an 'anyone else' look. They all lowered their heads or backed away.

'Inspiring fear and leadership is pretty simple huh, no wonder the slave masters and dictators got their way. It's the same here, all of them together will be difficult even for.... well I would get destroyed if not for my trusty shoes.'

V had no idea that his enhanced charm and charisma, had emoved planted seeds of rebellion within them and gave them a sense of reassurance within him, he also had no idea that it had a gradual effect and wouldn't run out like luck, it would fester spirits of loyalty within them.

V took the lead and began to set some ground rules. Fighting was natural in this environment so he didn't try to overly restrict them and allowed duels with stakes. He also randomly selected a few people to serve as his council and patrol who'd enforce the rules. He listed a few key rules and immediately sent them to the wall.

He also went to negotiate with the Clans, well it was more of an order since none of them could really refuse him. The agreement was that they'll all defend together at all times while each day 10 each from each clan were allowed in the dungeon.

His clan would send 30 each day, they'd switch their men each day. There were no complaints. They actually expected him to oppress them more and were surprised it was only that much.

They wanted an excuse to band together against him but had none, his forces were larger so it wasn't unreasonable that he had a larger dungeon quota.

"Oh any one who does anything that's..... Hm , threatening to the wellbeing of us all will be executed by yours truly, come now. Clan lords should lead by example, we'll be at the forefront of the battle."

"Well now, friend, we should all have a say in that matter shouldn't we, after all we are in this together right"

V stopped and looked at this lord, Tatsumi, the name of a Japanese protagonist, he probably felt good about himself, awakening to his trait, he probably also felt he was the main character.

"No, actually. You don't get a say. You've made it this far, yes? Show some sense. There are no rules the strong make them, so you'll all do as I say."

Everyone had faces like they stepped in shit, Of course they knew that. It was obvious but they didn't want to roll over and be ordered around. However it was an unchangeable fact that he was the strongest in both individual and collective power. They had seen his power as well.

They had no doubt he'd act on his previous statement,

'But we are in this together he needs us like we need him, they'll minimize their losses and so will we.'

It was a win win situation, however they didn't feel like it was.

None of them realized V and the now second strongest clan lord exchanging weird glances.

****************

Despite him saying he'd lead the defense, he was more of watching from above while constantly supplying mana to his shoes. He was gauging the overall situation from in the air. It hadn't reached a critical state as yet.

'There's a lot to do in order to destroy the Demon Lord's Castle in one month, I need to do things properly in the beginning'

'This worked out well. I guess it's that slavery mentality people have, needed a beating to clear up their minds.'

They needed to work non stop for the whole month. Hansoo needed their help and he was just around his level so by comparison he'd need their help as well unlike Hansoo however, he'd temporarily take the lead, and then kill the survivors.

It was cruel in a way, but he was at war until he could guarantee his life which was after The Final Dungeon. No, perhaps later than that. They weren't really his people, this clan of his, they were all after their own self interests, including him. He could slowly become their true leader but time was of the essence.

Kang Hansoo was still alive and he would most likely start changing the wave from the get go , five years later. He aimed to be at the blue or violent zone by then. For now,

He needed their help to kill the Demon King.

And even then it was just a possibility and not a guarantee.

The difficulty of the Demon Lord's Castle was that high and because of this it was necessary to clear it.

Since that's the only way to challenge the final dungeon.

He slowly felt himself growing stronger despite not doing anything.

The Battle Puppet also had another function he was made aware of, through their connection, it could transfer all the runes it possessed to him, not its innate stats inherited from him but the runes from beasts it kills as it couldn't grow on its own, when he got stronger, it reflected a stronger him.

Even at this very moment it was killing non stop with his spear within the dungeons, while he held an ordinary weapon. It would never tire and make use of the time greatly, he felt his runes increasing by the minute, this was a broken ability yet not at the same time.

All artifacts were kept by it since he currently had no use for them and it was obtaining them simultaneously as well. It had all his techniques and strength so it was equivalent to an inexhaustible him. The downside was the user of such a puppet would grow lazy and let it do all the work, it's techniques would remain the same while the owner's deteriorated.

Making them vulnerable to sneak attacks and the like, also the puppet wasn't indestructible and could be destroyed by a strong enough opponent, in fact, it was already damaged and was growing increasing worse the upside was that it should last until the Demon castle however it would be eventually destroyed.

Until then, he had free runes and time to instill some basic sense in his rag tag army, to make them into a real clan. He planned to do such a good job and put in so much effort, he'd feel sad when even one of them died.

He couldn't communicate with them through symbols so he used words. He'd already divided up the troops in a suitable order.

Teams were made of 5. 10 teams made a company. 10 companies made a squadron. Each group had a leader to relay orders. The clans had their own groups that didn't need his meddling.

"1st company retreat, second company take over from the head of defense. "

"3rd company relieve the fourth on the wall. Fourth company support the second from below the walls."

"7th team. You have a 5 minute break, return."

"3rd team....$$$$&"

Minerva was below with the other clan leaders who were commanding their troops effectively, they'd thought they could at least surpass them with their teamwork but V was commanding them too well, he was a born leader. How did he not awaken the Lord trait?

This made them even more wary and they grew restless trying to think of a plan to deal with him, but intentionally or unintentionally, his gaze would wander over their location like a warning-I have my eye on you- they could only continue guiding their clans.

There was actually a lot of leisure due to everyone working, they followed his example and gave their clan members short breaks as well. They actually wanted to get stronger and go to the dungeons as well but seeing every other lord here, they couldn't go off by themselves and 'he' would stop them as well.

As long as the already strong guy didn't get even stronger, it wasn't all that bad. They hadn't the slightest clue that he was getting stronger secretly this very second.

******************

There was no incident with the Clans, V had his council coordinate both a head count and a body count to ensure they did as they were told, his commanding skills got better and better as he reflected on his mistakes and fully understood how to utilize his men and the clans.

'The tutorial should be finished around now...'

'Here it comes'

The fairy which had appeared suddenly above the castle.

'Can't it just piss off…'

Everyone in the castle frowned as the fairy appeared.

The fairy greeted everyone as it saw their looks.

"Hi everyone! Aww, Don't frown like that. I'm not here to lay my hands on you."

"…"

"If you look at me with such distrustful eyes then you'll hurt me. I'm just here to tell you something which I didn't tell you about. It's not much. If the crystal gets crushed then the whole island will fall. Well. It won't fall right away. It'll fall slowly in about 10 to 20 days."

"…"

There wasn't much shock between the people.

Since they had expected as such.

The fact that they had to protect it with all their strength did not change.

The fairy spoke as it looked at these people.

"The actual important part is the second part. You were all comfortable so far right? The undead is… well, just child's play. This team defended better than I thought. The demons will start coming out on this third day!"

"…fuck."

Everybody cursed as they looked at the fairy.

That son of a fly was like a messenger of destruction.

There wasn't a bit of good news whenever it opened its mouth.

The fairy made a slightly hurt expression at those words but then opened its mouth again.

"You guys are too much. Don't you realize how good of a news that the demons are coming out is? This is a really rare chance for you guys!"

"…"

Everyone looked at the fairy at those words.

The fairy did mention it before.

That there were extravagant rewards.

But even then it would be all over if they died.

"It isn't some crappy rune or artifact. If you kill the Demons then a mini-crystal comes out. Hehee."

"…?"

"If you collect the Mini-Crystals then you can trade it for a really good artifact! It is much better than the ones you have. It's obvious that the reward would be better the more you collect right? Look at the catalogue in your pocket for those. By the way there aren't many demons, you need to try harder than the others in order to get the crystals"

Everyone made a sour expression.

Even if they had such things, it would merely be pearls on a pig's neck.

And how would they collect enough from the bits the demons dropped to trade it for an artifact when there's thousands of people?

They might not be able to lay their hands on one after a whole month.

Even if they did lay their hands on it, only the Clan Lords would do so.

'And the thing that that thing will throw at us won't be weak.'

As the people made sour expressions, the Fairy added another thing.

"Oh. I didn't say this yet. There's another use for the crystal."

"…?"

"As long as you have the crystal, you can leave this island to go to the island above at anytime. Isn't it a really good privilege? The people with it won't need to care if everybody dies either from falling after the crystal gets shattered or from being invaded by demons right? A total of five people can move on. Heehee."

No matter if that giant crystal broke or not.

No matter if the defense line broke apart or not.

They can escape this dangerous situation to a different island at any time.

Which meant that this was a privilege equal to a life.

Everyone's expressions changed at these words.

The story was different then.

The fairy smiled as it looked at everyone's expressions.

"You get it? About how important of an existence the Demons are? Be strong everyone. One demon coming your way for today!"

And the fairy disappeared as a beastly looking otherworldly existence started to slowly approach them.

Everyone started to calculated their risks.

There wasn't enough information yet.

They didn't know how strong the Demon was and they also didn't know how the others would act.

Then they abruptly realized something.

'Shit, What fucking others, there's a king amongst the lords. We can't do sh*t without his say so.'

V smiled after it disappeared,

"Continue as you were. I'll take of the Demon myself"

"Be quiet as I didn't ask for your input."

A clan lord was ruthlessly shut down as he attempted to say something, his face turned beet red in embarrassment but he couldn't do a thing to him.

'Damnit, were like his pawns.'

V ignored the crowd and focused on the demon, he doubted his luck so he didn't expect it to have a AOE skill nonetheless he'd have to stay alert in either case. He subtly used the rune water snake to convert the most recent runes sent to him before warming up his body.