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'Why am I so weak??' was the thought constantly running through my head.
I could only take ONE hit..... I could protect my lord from just a single hit. He had to carry the burden on his own. I'm supposed to be the first of his Legion, yet why am I so useless?? Why? Why? Why? WHY?!
He has given me so much, a new life, a new chance, a name, the gift of speech, and I've done nothing to repay him.
I had just been reminded of the first rule of this world, the rule that is ingrained in every monster since birth, The weak bow to the Strong. I'd gotten too comfortable in my Lord's protection, and because of that, HE had suffered.
I had become prideful due to my superiority over the other monsters in the cave. And my Lord had paid the price.
MY Lord Ashborne had been hurt because of my incompetence!!
That can never happen again. I can't forget.... I have a purpose now, I was a mindless beast predating on other mindless beasts..... but now I have a new life, and I have to serve my Lord the best I can.
I can't even imagine what could have happened if the circumstances were a bit different. Thankfully, it played out in our favor.
After the Lord gave the order to us, his Legion, to scatter and run, he also seemed to have managed to escape.
The ogres and the other legionaries also escaped safely....but I knew better. That Vampire let them go.... He could have killed everyone, whenever he wanted to, but he let them escape.
But I ignorantly chose to re-engage him in battle. I guess I thought that I had to buy as much time as possible.
Hahh-- what a foolish thought. With my meager strength, I would be lucky to buy a few milliseconds at best.
And that Vampire showed me that difference in strength in quite a spectacular way. I still remember it very vividly.
He was standing so still, yet it was as if an army was marching towards me. His mere aura rendered me completely petrified.... The roles are supposed to be reversed. I am the one who should be petrifying my Lord's enemies with a mere gaze.
This is all unacceptable. I shall strive to be more useful. And for that, I need power, TRUE POWER!!
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It was almost night by the time I called for the Legion. I decided to let them rest for a bit after the stressful situation. Though Rigurdo had kept updated me on everyone's statuses.
No one had been injured beyond recovery.... well, that's not saying much since all my legionaries can heal from pretty much any physical injury that's not decapitation.
There was also no need to worry about food and other supplies like that since no one here actually needed food to survive.
Coatl was sleeping soundly, curled up around my neck. He seemed quite depressed when I finally regrouped with him. But I chose not to ask him much, poor guy had taken a direct hit to protect me.
There was still some time before everyone was supposed to come here. They must still be in the Soul Realm.
I had done a lot of researching into my own powers in the hours after that fight....couldn't afford to slack off.
Out of all my powers, my main focus was the skill [Necromancer]. It's very Unique, even compared to other Unique Skills. It has a shit-ton of effects, on me and my Legionaries.
After a thorough Analysis, it looks like me and my Legion have become a sort of Hive-like magicule structure, where all the magicules possessed by my Legion can be freely shifted to one another on my command.
That basically meant that the whole Legion behaved as a single entity, with me as it's administrator, at least when it came to magicule capacity and storage.
There was also another side-effect. Having this interconnected structure meant that, the overall magicule regeneration of the legion was also very fast.
[Great Sage] told me that normally, monsters regenerate magicules through their souls. Monster souls have an innate property of contantly generating magicules. However, this process is slow, so often, monsters kill others to consume their magicules. All monsters can also absorb magicules from the surroundings, which is their primary source of nutrition.
So having this matrix-like interconnection made it so that my Legion as a whole could regenerate magicules extremely fast. As every monster in my Legion constantly regenerated magicules on their own and also consumed them from the surroundings (Atleast when outside the [Soul Realm], since all magicules inside there were my own.), I could have an endless, constant supply of it.
That was frightening and amazing at the same time. But it wasn't like that by default. Each individual Legionary still had their own magicules for free usage, it's just that they ultimately belong to me through the hierarchical Soul-Circuit.
But there was also an unexpected weak-point to this skill. Unlike how Necromancy worked in different fictional stories in my past life, I can't endlessly revive my Legionaries after they are killed again. It's a one time thing.
It actually depends on the strength of the Legionary. If they die again after being revived once, their soul crumbles and there is nothing left for me to seize. However, if the soul is strong enough, it can remain intact even after dying twice, which allows me to seize it again and essentially revive the legionary.
The problem was; none of my Legionaries had souls strong enough to survive death twice. That meant that if they died, they DIED. And I can't allow that to happen no matter what!
There was another piece of news! One that greatly surprised me, but I was kinda running for my life when it happened.
I Evolved!! Into an 'Enlightened Demonoid' to be exact. I've never read or heard of this evolutionary stage in the original story.
<Received. It is a unique evolutionary stage, caused by your unique circumstances. You essentially are both a human and monster. This is different from normal demonoids like Leon Cromwell, as in their case, their humanity is completely left behind, and they're monsters. However, you are an anomaly, a half-human, half-monster hybrid. For regular humans, 'Enlightened' or 'Sage' is their next stage of evolution, in your case, its 'Enlightened Demonoid'. This also presents a great opportunity for you. Due to having both monster and human factors, you possess the potential to become a 'True Demon Lord' as well as a 'True Hero', a case thought to be impossible. Results of such an outcome cannot be calculated due to insufficient information and computing power.>
"So I can become both?!! That's insane, they're literally the polar opposites, meant to directly oppose each other. Aren't I too overpowered?" I thought.
My potential might be groundbreaking, but there was a tradeoff. Since I was a part of the Legion too, albeit at its top, my evolution affected the Legion as a whole, instead of just me. So I didn't see quite as much of an increase in personal power, instead it increased the magicule capacity of the Legion as a whole.
Now, if I had to estimate my EP, it would be around 175,000.
There was another thing except for my magicules that was new.... The bracelet. Ciel told me that it had another secret function but I'm yet to test anything. I do have a suspicion about its true form, but we'll see.
I got up from the tree I was sitting underneath and strtched out my arm before me.
I slowly started pouring magicules into the bracelet--
*SCHWING*
"WHOOAAH!!!"
"That is wayyy bigger than I expected."
The bracelet had transformed into a gleaming sword. It was still very wierd though.
It wasn't exactly a sword, since I wasn't holding it in my palms. Instead, it would be more accurate to say that the bracelet had just extended from one side to form a long blade over my wrist.
It was long too, about a meter in length.
'Hey [Great Sage] Can you run an analysis on this?'
<Report. Item is estimated to be 'Unique Grade'. It also seems to have a special property to feed on your magicules to grow stronger. Essentially, it can evolve alongside you.>
'Future-me really likes to spoil me huh? First he gave me all that information, and now this sick weapon!! And its already Unique-Grade!'
Every piece of equipment in this world can be graded into various categories, those being:
1. Normal
2. Special
3. Rare
4. Unique
5. Legendary
6. Mythical/God
Normal Grade was what most blacksmiths could produce. Special grade equipment could be made by experienced blacksmiths and needed to be crafted from magisteel instead of normal metals. Rare Grades are highly valued in the market and only owned by high-level adventurers and alike. Unique Grade equipment could be considered national treasure, possessed only by the elite, like the Royal Guards of a monarch.
Legend Grade could not be achieved normally. A piece of equipment can only reach Legend Grade, if a Unique Grade made out of the finest materials, by the finest blacksmiths absorbs magicules for many years. Their value is unimaginable.
The final grade, as it's name suggests, exist in myth only. At least that's what most think. There are very few Mythical Grade equipments in this world. One example is 'Asura', the sword belonging to Milim Nava, one of the Ancient Demon Lords.
By the time I was done marveling the sword, the time for the Legion to assemble had come.
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"We have all assembled, my Lord" announced Rigurdo.
In front of me were around 150 creatures, standing in perfect order.
"Good. Now that you're all here, I'll make some announcements."
"First of all, I'm very glad that all of you are okay. You were in danger because of my weakness, and I assure you, it will never happen again, I promise. You are MY LEGION, no one is allowed to take you away from me." I proclaimed with a fire in my eyes.
"MY LOOORD!!!" Rigurdo was screaming with tears running down his face. A chorus of similar screams rang from the crowd as the monsters started crying tears of emotion.
'They're really devoted huh?? I've gotten really attached in such a short period of time. Didn't think it was possible.'
"Now, getting down to business. I will be issuing orders to everyone. These are to be carried out to the best of your abilities."
Following that, I gave different orders to different squads.
1. Few of the Ogre-Spider groups were sent to Dwargon to keep an eye on things there. They were told to not draw attention and report back regularly.
2. Few of the Ogre-Bat groups were sent to all over the Jura Forest to find creatures who possessed Elemental Manipulation skills. I needed them to upgrade my skills. They were ordered to engage and capture the creatures and bring them back.
3. I told the rest of the Ogre-Bat groups to keep patrolling the Jura Forest and keep an eye out for any direwolves. I knew that the direwolf attack would come soon, if everything went according to canon.
4. All the rest of the groups were ordered to collect resources like wood, stone, 'Hipokute' herbs, magic ore and then build. More specifically, I told them to terraform the Soul Realm and make a village in there. However, I also told them to build a small settlement in the outside world, where it was in the original story.
Unfortunately, unlike Rimuru, I didn't have the [Predator] skill to perfectly synthesize the Hipokute Herbs into Healing Potions.
Those Healing Potions made by Rimuru were a major reason for his country's rise as a large trading center. This is because he was the only person in the world who could produce Full-Potions, the highest quality of Healing Potions, which could even regenerate whole limbs.
I would have to manage without those potions....
For now, I would take a break.
"My Lord? Do you have any orders for me?" asked Coatl, who had just woken up from his sleep.
"Nope, you and I are just gonna chill for a while."
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A/N: 8th Chap is here!! I changed some things with this one. Nothing major, just a slight change in the writing style and tense.
Anyways, things are calming down, too much was happening in the past two chapters. The next chapter will also be quite chill. Sorting some things out and all that.
Review the story guys!! And don't forget to leave some Power Stones.