Chapter 86 - Steady Growth
[Day 55]
Today I was woken up by Alice once again. I"m already getting used to it, and it"s not that bad, she is a beauty and her beautiful crimson eyes are somewhat hypnotic.
"Aah! Good Morning, Master! Do you want me to prepare your bath? Maybe you want to eat right away? Y-You can also touch me if you want…"
After saying these words, Alice grabbed her maid dress upwards as she moved her legs over the bed, showing me her pale white thighs.
As I looked over them, she began to breathe heavily and her face started to blush.
Because I didn"t see anything bad on touching her for a bit, I did. Despite her slim appearance, her thigh was rather plump and very squishy.
Wait, what I"m even doing?
I quickly dismissed Alice, sending her to the training grounds.
Afterward, I woke up my wives and had a relaxing bath, Yurei also joined and Nereid wasn"t here, thankfully.
After having a nice breakfast, I decided to spent half of the day with Kusuri and Kajiya, researching the different qualities of Magic Cores and Spirit Stones.
Spirit Stones have already become something necessary for our Kingdom. Its power can be used in various ways, like using Fire Spirit Stones to generate heat and warm houses in winter, which can also boil water and are a crucial element on more intricated factories that produce several healing items, clothes, and utensils.
Water Spirit Stones are essential to all, as it can easily produce several quant.i.ties of clean and pure water, something that water magic cannot create unless it"s heavily refined.
Thunder and Light Spirit Stones can be used for more complex objects and items, and can even be used to replicate Fire Spirit Stones if used on specific heat-generating devices, similar to the ones on Earth. However, we still have a long road ahead if we want to catch up with this world"s Human Kingdoms.
However, the thing that I want to prioritize the most, for now, is the creation of different weapons and armors. Its obvious that we need these first, being a monster Kingdom, we will be despised by even other demi-humans, and will most probably be on war multiple times in the future. We must first use our resources and invest them in war, and quickly absorb what we conquer.
This is why absorbing the Aquaria Kingdom will be so crucial, as its population would greatly complement ours, granting advanced technology and magic items alongside the production of high-quality materials and food. Meanwhile, we will concentrate on reinforcing our war power.
With Kusuri and Kajiya we quickly found out the power of Magic Cores. It wouldn"t be crazy to consider Magic Cores as "Cheap Spirit Stones", as they possess a wide variety of cla.s.ses and elements affinities. There are also Magic Stones which possess some type of concentrated magic, but it"s usually hard to extract this power as easy because Magic Stones are frailer than Magic Cores and Spirit Stones, and will leak their magic as time pa.s.ses.
Magic Stones are less rare than Spirit Stones, as one can easily find them if you search hard enough around ancient caves, and there are even monsters that produce it naturally.
On the other side, Spirit Stones are the rarest ones, which need to be produced in an area with strong Spirit Energy, which usually are the Spirit Shrines that became dungeons. I"ve read that old enough spirits are able to easily produce Spirit Stones. In the future, I will probably make a deal with the surviving Spirits around the different Shrines so I can get Spirit Stones from them.
Lastly, Magic Cores are a more unique type of Magic Stone, only produced inside monsters of very old age or that are strong enough. Most of the time, this Magic Core functions similar to a heart of sorts, facilizing the flow of Mana across their bodies, this is why they contain such a concentrated amount of Magic and are extremely tasty to me. I"ve eaten several Magic Cores that the Blood Monsters produced and they"re indeed a delicacy.
Some weeks ago, I remember eating the Magic Core of an Ancient Holy Whale, a very strong monster that inhabits the central continents, and I obtained more than four abilities just by eating it.
And because of these reasons, it"s better to use Magic Stones on the creation of weapons and armor. And leave Spirit Stones and Magic Cores for the rest. Of course, the best soldiers and servants will receive High-Quality Equipment reinforced with several Spirit Stones.
Common Magic Cores were the weakest ones, only possessing a fraction of magic that a Spirit Stone would have, but they"re still better than most Magic Stones, as they remain their magic storage capabilities while Magic Stone usually lack this feature.
Fine Magic Cores are the second-best option, having enough magic storage to work for several weeks and can replace Spirit Stones if you have enough quant.i.ty.
Quality Magic Cores are by far the best ones, having magic storage capabilities that can even rival Spirit Stones, these Magic Cores are extremely valuable and are sold at very high prices on most Kingdoms.
Most monsters on this forest won"t possess any Magic Core, I"ve only found some on the Dungeon Bosses and monsters of the Vast Plains. That time I killed several Giant Golden Beetles, from 20 only 3 had a small Magic Core, so I need to kill even stronger monsters if I want to obtain Magic Cores by "natural" means. However, I can easily obtain big quant.i.ties with the wonderful Dungeon System.
In these last days, the treasury of my Kingdom has obtained more than two hundred Magic Cores from the various groups that went on expeditions, and this number keeps increasing every day.
Kusuri and Kajiya taught me new ways of using these interesting stones, and in the middle of our meeting, Brontes entered the room for her daily forging cla.s.ses, so she joined in the meeting. I found out that she was rather talented in forging, not only in the act but also while theory crafting, being able to easily bounce various ideas on how to use the stones.
Afterward, I spent the next three hours on "Forging Cla.s.ses" that Kajiya do every day. It was rather fun and I was able to learn various insights on these arts. Aside from Brontes, there were other students, mostly monkey goblins and troll rookies.
After the cla.s.ses finished, Brontes wanted to spend the rest of the day forging with Kajiya, so I gave her a small kiss on her cheeks and said my goodbyes. I will spend the rest of the day alongside Zehe on a date, it wasn"t Bronte"s turn yet, sadly.
Today"s date with Zehe went quite smoothly, we had a nice trip around the forest and we both taught each other new types of magic, which she keeps researching every day. I also gifted her various magic books that weren"t available on the castle library and that I knew she really wanted.
I obtained them thanks to my new skill named [Merchant Dimensional Shop], which lets me do transactions with any Merchant that I know, so Caspian easily sold me the books his Kingdom had.
Several hours pa.s.sed and a sea of stars decorated the black night, so I invited Zehe to a nice dinner that I prepared myself. She always liked "simple" meals, but she has been recently developing a sweet tooth, so I surprised her with several cakes and crepes that I made using Earth"s recipes.
Afterward, I gave Zehe her [Unique] Cla.s.s [Enhanced Phantasmal Spirit Stone Golden Ring], which I"ve been carefully forging these last days, I applied several enchantments to increase her magic power and resistance to the elements, alongside a small s.h.i.+eld that would protect her from strong physical attacks whenever she is vulnerable. This s.h.i.+eld is not strong enough but it should be able to at least take one hit from a High Kaiser monster head-on.
Seeing the beauty and power of the ring, Zehe surprised me with a strong and pa.s.sionate kiss. As she kissed me, Zehe started to play with her tongue inside of my mouth, and I immediately knew that she wanted to do it with me.
We spent the rest of the night having a lovely time together, and we ended up coming back to the castle very late, thankfully my wives didn"t wait for me and were peacefully sleeping.
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[Day 56]
Today I was woken up by Alice once again, lately, she has been having "Maid Cla.s.ses" by the several Arachne Maids on the castle, alongside training every day with the rest of my servants. Due to this, she has become both stronger and more refined.
"Good morning, dear Master Kireina"
Unlike yesterday, she was better mannered and didn"t offered her thighs to me.
With the help of Sakura, the two were cleaning the room and slowly woke my wives up, while also preparing the bath.
Today was Nesiphae"s turn for a date, but first, I wanted to train with my servants and gain some levels at the very least.
We had a relaxing bath and then a nice breakfast, at around 2 PM, most of my servants were already fighting and practicing on the Training Grounds.
Everyone greeted me with happy smiles and I ended up sparring with various people, I noticed a nice growth in the power of the three Half Lords, Palami, Asure, and Raito. Their strength has at least doubled since I first sparred with them and I noticed a more mature combat style from Asure and Raito, however, I still feel like they have a long way to go.
Sometimes, Asure and Raito would begin to discuss and will quickly be stopped by Palami, it was always fun to see those interactions.
"You have gotten stronger, huh, shrimp? But you still can"t beat these muscles! You"re still a shrimp!"
"Gggr! What did you say?! I"m not a shrimp! And I also have muscles, but they"re refined, unlike yours that look like tumors!"
"Oh? Wanna fight, shrimp?"
"Any ti-"
Before the two started fighting, Palami flew like a flash of bright light towards the middle of the two, raising her hands, she gave each one a nice knock on the head.
THUMP! THUMP!
"Uuagh!"
"Sis P-Palami"
Palami looked at the two with an intimidating glare.
"Will you both behave in front of Lady Kireina?"
"Y-Yes… Sorry"
"I"m sorry…"
Haha, Palami is scary sometimes.
On the other side, the Centaur sisters have grown stronger too, and successfully learning several new techniques that I taught to them. The two are rather intelligent and very talented, and I think that they"re hiding something from me. I"ve tried Appraising their status but it always gets blocked. The rings that both are using seem to block any type of forced Appraisal, and surprisingly, it can block my [Enhanced Appraisal] which is even able to look over [Sealed] Skills.
I used this sparring session to ask them about their true origins, and they ended up telling me everything quite fast. In truth, both Sofelia and Sofarpia are the twin princess of the Cilane Kingdom and had to run away as several n.o.ble Families were planning their a.s.sa.s.sination to take over the throne.
Their rings were the last gift from their father before they were forced to leave the Kingdom to save their own lives, the two promised that one day they would grow strong enough to beat those n.o.bles and reclaim their throne.
This really makes things interesting. In the end, I promised the two that I would train them until they manage to evolve, which is still quite far, as Centaurs evolve at level 200, and they"re just at level 112. And will help them proclaim their Kingdom, of course, I will also receive benefits from this alongside several riches that they promised me.
Of course, I could just rob the entire Kingdom and take everything for myself, but I have already accepted these two as part of my family, and I"m not planning on making them suffer while destroying everything they love.
On the other side, the Wind Wyvern beast woman Roneth has become far stronger than before, and she was very close to evolution, I made her spar with the Harpy Girl Nephiana, as both had similar powers, and wanted to see what would triumph, someone blessed by a Wind G.o.d or a very talented and powerful Wind Wyvern beast woman.
In the end, it was a draw, with Nephiana almost winning if it wasn"t for her running low on MP, which she needs to constantly maintain what she calls [Wind Cloak], a powerful buff that increases all her capabilities and also works as a s.h.i.+eld.
Today, Nephiana was rather conceited as she wanted all my attention. So, I had to spar with her for an entire hour until she left me alone. She is very strong now that I a.n.a.lyze her power. And further training will only transform her into an unstoppable beast. In the middle of the sparring, Roneht joined in for a second match with Nephiana, however, I forced both of them to work together against me.
I decided to go quite serious on both, so if they didn"t want several of their bones broken, they were forced to work as a team while evading my strong attacks, at the end, they managed to break my guard and landed several hits.
A specific combined kick from both successfully shattered the hand that I used to receive their attack, which was obviously bare and didn"t had any magic s.h.i.+eld or enhancement buff.
After this, I decided to spar with my five human slaves while they were being attacked by several of my servants and thousands of Undead Soldiers all at the same time. It was a very harsh battle but I forced everyone to keep going, healing any shattered bone or detached limb.
[You gained 574090 EXP] [The rest of your servants gained tons of EXP]
[You gained one level!] [LEVEL 58/70 EXP 259038/746000]
[Your servants gained tons of levels!]
After five hours of training, the humans gained several levels and I could sense a powerful aura coming from them, they were successfully growing stronger. Even Lilith (Protector Girl) and Charlotte (Archer Woman) wouldn"t believe their strength if their past selves watched them now.
Meanwhile, Makesia (Amazon Woman) and Armand (Black Haired Swordsman) who were already strong had grown incredibly fast and quickly learned several new fighting styles. Makesia has been reconstructing her "Berserk" fighting style adding several techniques that she learned from Jorogumo and Truhan while Armand has redefined his sword techniques with new Blade Energy attacks and Light Sword techniques taught to him by Kizuato and Palami.
Lastly, Evan was the one who has grown the most, already exuding a powerful aura befitting of his t.i.tle as Hero. He has learned several new techniques from various types of weapons and has already obtained a [Masterful Technique] with swords, and he"s very close to getting one with Axes and Maces.
His physical strength has also been refined through the countless trainings and his body has grown as tough as a rock thanks to being constantly destroyed and healed every time, now he"s able to easily take more than three hits from Kekensha before any of his bones shatter again.
He has grown more confident and mature, being more expressive with me and less shy. However, he still remains his cute boy face, which I find some times adorable. He has grown accustomed to receive pats from me every time he accomplishes something. He"s like my little brother who is trying to catch up with me.
I"ve been asking him if he misses his family but he seems to be happier here. Evan told me that his family was rather hostile towards him and that he was never raised like a proper kid should, always growing on the shadows of his big brother.
I wonder who is this big brother of him, someone stronger than him shouldn"t be any less than another Hero, right? Would he let me eat him? Fufufu…
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