Explore

[37th day]

Is it another morning, or an afternoon? I wake up at 2 because I cultivate, so technically it's afternoon, but for me it's still morning.

Moving on, I have a normal day: simple training and training.

Argh, it's so boring nowadays. You know, I want to do something different today. That's right! I am going to do an inspection.

I will go monitor the cave as part of my duties to the kingdom. Yes, yes, I will be doing a service to my kingdom, and I will finally escape this dreadful loop.

Right, I need to inform my citizens of my new schedule. I will still do the Sunday lecture, but anything else will be handled by Moyer.

Lately, Moyer had been acting as my assistant, partly because I wanted a cool butler and, partly, because I needed an assistant of some kind, and rather than picking a stupidly cute loli who barely works, I picked the more functional trope of an old man.

He did not use it, but his air element was very versatile and could speed him up and also attack, so Moyer was perfect for a bodyguard.

It's not like I would tell him he was partly a bodyguard; I needed to keep my invincible image, and him acting as my bodyguard gives the idea, he is stronger than me.

Right, I was going to explore. I hated the habit of going off topic.

I picked up a trusty maginite sword on the way and finally set off. I had clothes made from Randol, which consisted of a wolf coat, a wolf vest, and also wolf shorts.

I looked very odd, but it worked. I would have picked any trousers, but sadly we could not make them as our work bench did not provide the blueprint.

So, I was stuck with a coat and shirt on the top half of my body and shorts below that. I looked really stupid.

Anyway, it's time to explore my beautiful cave.

Two hours later, my shorts brushed up against the foliage, my hands crept onto the sharp, jagged rocks, and I looked at the entrance to the cave.

It was that cave.

I did not mean to come here; I was just wandering around.

Yet, here I was, at the place I hated the most. My mind was a fragile place, especially so because I'm a demon.

I was just about to move on and forget about the past, yet it seemed as though fate would not allow me to. I remembered their smiles, laughs, and even their annoying pleasantries.

I miss them. I hated the fact that I had nearly moved on already.

I needed to learn from my failures so that I would never repeat them.

Yet, my mind unconsciously locked away my true feelings and made me forget. I hated having no control over my actions; it reminded me of how I died.

I remember dying a death I could never avoid, and this time I would never allow that to happen. But how would I get that far if I could not get over my grief?

I wanted perfection, or at least strived for it, yet I would never achieve it if I locked away my memories of losing.

With losing came the perfect opportunity for learning, and I was trying to forget that chance.

How stupid of me?

So, I sat there, and remembered all the memories I had with them, with Oliver, with Asylum and Aggressor, and with Tranny.

Immediately, I felt a pang of sadness and loss. Then came disbelief, anger, desperation, and finally acceptance.

It did not take 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or even an hour. I spent an entire 7 hours there dealing with only my emotions.

By the end, I felt relieved, like a burden had fallen off my shoulders. I was free from guilt and sadness, as I now saw I had no guilt of any kind.

I reasoned I could have been more perceptive, but that was it. It was their own choice, and I played only a tiny part in that choice.

I could and should have taken more precautions, but I did not, so why worry about that now? Instead, I should fix the problems that could be learned from this, like sectioning off dangerous areas and telling people that to go on mass hunts, I must be informed beforehand.

There was no reason to feel sadness and regret over something I could never change. I was still sad, though, just a little.

I missed them, so I would always remember. That was the best I could do for them.

Later down the line, I would probably make a memorial for them. They died serving their kingdom, and I needed to honour them.

Many participants in the challenge, I believe, would not remember the dead. They might treat the people as NPCs or something. Knowing the people, myself, I could tell they were real, and for that reason, I would treat them as equals.

I took a deep breath.

I should stop speculating; it was a grand waste of time. Instead, I should take action.

So, I powerwalked back to my kingdom and started to lay the groundwork for some precautions to be taken. I made the dangerous areas off limits and made hunting only available to those who either had a talent for magic or were regular or higher demons.

This would create some inequality, but it was for their own safety, so I pushed through the rule.

If it created problems later, I would revise my rules, but for now, they would do well enough.

Another thing I learned from their deaths was my cave's massive lighting problem. When I went mad, my natural abilities were boosted, and that included my minor night vision.

But when it was regular and not mad, lighting was a massive problem, especially at night when it is pitch black. So, to fix this issue, I implemented torches made with a special technique by one of the Sun users called the Everlasting Flame, which makes a small flame that would never go out.

It was super convenient and would fit this scenario perfectly.

Thinking about it, it would also be great at torturing, but that's going off topic again, so back to what I'm doing.

I finished making my rules and made my way back to my viewing cave.

It was somewhat late, and the sun was setting. The view of the sun and the scenery captivated me. It had now been a month since I had been here, yet I felt I had grown more as a human than I had ever been on earth.

Well, I guess it would be a demon, not a human.

I chuckled at my habits. I would probably always refer to myself as a human in my mind, but I also needed to think of the future.

I finally felt ready to take on the outside world: my people were growing complacent, and I needed to revive their enthusiasm.

I needed to do it frequently: I was going to be the Emperor of the World, so I needed the strongest army possible.

Training was good, but experience was always superior.

I looked over the hills, wondering where I would even find an opponent. I mean, I could always venture into the dungeon if opponents were lacking.

Ah, finally. The moon appeared in the sky.

It was cultivation time.

I wanted to wage a war tomorrow and I needed to get as strong as possible. I looked up at the moon and wonder what it might do in my scenario.

Did it even have an ego?

Maybe, it was a cultivation world after all.