The Tower

"Huff... huff..."

Trying to keep myself on my feet in the core room, it was hard to feel any sense of enjoyment in living right now.

My body felt like it was breaking down, as a result of my forcibly trying to increase the numbers in my army as quickly as possible. Something that led to my throne hall now being occupied by a number of fairies and birds of prey, loitering around while waiting for my command.

I wasn't sure quite how it happened, how my attempt at diplomacy had failed so completely, but now I had no other choice but to make sure that we could win in case a war broke out.

No matter how true it was that I would at some point be forced to deal with the orcs, there had been absolutely no reason to agitate them like I had done, as there was no reason why I couldn't have just delayed it.

Yet, I had been so caught up in my own acting that it had felt completely natural to believe that I was superior to the point where I inadvertently viewed them as nothing more than lesser beings, thus also making it natural for me to deal with them swiftly and decisively.

===Status===

Name: Aldric the Demon King

Race: Fallen Cherubim

Level: 14

Strength: 14

Agility: 14

Stamina: 14

Intelligence: 40

Free stat points: 0

Demonic energy: 25/200

Traits: [Blood of the Patriarch]

Skills: [Demon Claws], [Flight], [Claws of Darkness], [Glow]

Talents: [Light magic - Beginner], [Dark magic - Beginner]

==========

Despite my increased DE, it was still a struggle to try and create a large troop of birds of prey and fairies, which would undoubtedly be the most suitable for my already tried and tested tactic of attacking from the air.

Even if I wasn't the brightest demon in the pond, I still felt like it made a lot of sense that the added benefit of wings would make a troop a lot more effective in a war, as this meant that not only could we attack from outside of our enemies' range, but it would also make it possible for us to get out of there quickly in case something went wrong.

At the same time, I understood that if there were a lot of orcs that could use abilities like the one I had accidentally killed, we might be in for a lot of trouble.

Neither the fairies nor the birds of prey were particularly durable, with one of them sacrificing their strength and stamina for firepower, and the other for agility and speed.

Naturally, I would still bring the goblins, but I had steeled my heart to make sure I was ready to abandon them if needed, with the exception of Gob, who I still cared about, in a weirdly sweet sort of way.

'I'm actually becoming a demon, aren't I?'

Of course, I knew that I already was one, but as my emotions seemed to get duller and duller by the day, I was also aware that I was slowly changing into something else. A change that was, unfortunately, necessary for me to be able to live in this world.

To some extent, it was quite liberating, to slowly feel the shackles of common sense wash off of me as I accepted what I now had become. Though it had to be said that I still wasn't sure what that even meant.

What I did, know, however, was that I had decided to follow along with Tatiana's suggestion for now, creating an empire that could stand tall even in front of the three nations, an empire that could protect me against the heroes that were my old classmates.

An empire that so far only consisted of a village full of nose-picking goblins that had no idea what a bath was, a couple of big, brown birds that couldn't even conduct a proper conversation as well as a group of fairies who were honestly just happy to be here.

The more I thought about the three nations that Tatiana had told me about, envisioning the armies full of high-leveled, well-trained soldiers marching into the Dark Lands, the more I felt like I was trying to clean the Great Wall of China with a toothbrush.

'At least I think I'm getting pretty strong...'

I had some suspicions about it before when I and Pi had gone hunting together, that maybe I wasn't as weak as I had previously thought, and what I had done to the orc did to some extent confirm that thought.

A thought that made me even more desperate to somehow figure out a way to use my magic in different ways. And due to the fact that we were going to the orcs in two days, I had decided to use all of tomorrow to do nothing but try and develop new spells and skills.

"Are you done, master?"

"I am."

Making my way out to the throne room after allowing myself some time to recover after using up most of my DE, I was greeted by a noticeably excited Tatiana, who took her place beside the throne that I sat down on.

Inspecting the new additions to my army, with all the fairies happily flying around in the air, and the big birds trying to act bigger than they actually were, a very important question occupied my mind.

So, before Tatiana even got the chance to read my mind, I vocalized it, "Say, Tatiana, where should these guys even live?"

It was a thought that I did have a couple of times before, but as the numbers of fairies and birds of prey had been so low, I had merely dismissed it and allowed them to live on the second floor of the tower. A floor that somehow consisted of green, grassy plains.

To be honest, this whole tower was incredibly strange.

It consisted of twelve floors, with the throne room being on the eleventh, while the rest of them was constructed like this:

1st floor: A somewhat small lounge-looking area with a staircase that led to the second floor.

2nd floor: Large, grassy plains, as well as an artificially created blue sky. Very suitable for keeping livestock.

3rd floor: An open bath. That was it. The entire floor was simply just an open bath.

4th floor: A huge restaurant area, where the strange device kept on creating that disgusting porridge made of meat. This was the place where all my monsters got their food, with the goblins delivering it out of the tower to the village.

5th floor: A blazing, infernal hell where no creature should ever enter. I still had no idea how my monsters could traverse it, but I also couldn't be bothered to care.

6th floor: The opposite of the fifth floor, consisting of an icy mountainside where snow never stopped falling from the sky. Or, ceiling, I guess.

7th floor: The library that had crushed any and all dreams of me ever becoming a grand magician.

8th floor: A huge cave, with numerous stalactites reaching down from above, seemingly very appropriate for something like a huge spider monster.

9th floor: Not sure.

10th floor: Even when thinking about how absurd the other floors were, this one was the one that blew my mind the most. Because the entire tenth floor was a gigantic labyrinth. Now, what confused me wasn't the interior design in itself, as it wasn't weirder than the fact that the 5th floor had a literal volcano in it, but it baffled me that my stupid monsters managed to navigate it.

11th floor: As already stated, it was the floor where my throne room was located.

12th floor: Very cozy bedroom, fully equipped with the balcony where I had looked up at the moon from.

When I had asked Tatiana about this, she had just shrugged her shoulders and said 'Magic', as if that was a good enough answer for me to accept things. Which, in hindsight, it was. Because if I started thinking too deeply about it, it would only give me a headache.

"I think you could just tell them to use the second floor as their living quarters. It's not like anyone's occupying it anyway."

"Hmm? Oh right. Yeah, I guess that's a good idea. Well, you heard her guys, please head down to the 2nd floor and await my orders."

"Pi!"

"Crawh!"

Without objection, my newly acquired troops left the throne room, leaving me imagining that I could feel the smell of grilled chicken in the air. Luckily, Pi had gone with them, acting as their guide to make sure that the smell I imagined wouldn't become reality.

Did it make sense that I knew that they would traverse all these different floors in only a couple of minutes when it had taken me hours to just check them out for a bit while using the elevator? No. Not at all.

But it was okay as the different floor would still be insanely useful in case an invader somehow managed to get inside.