Because only the elites of elites took part in this battle against the t.i.tan skeletons, there weren"t any mishaps on our side except for No.3"s unexpected run-in with my Nether Flames. Having tallied up our losses, we actually came out without any deaths though there were a few severely injured members. Thankfully, none of them were injured to extent of No.3.Now that the battle was over, it was time to split the spoils. The biggest reward we gained from that fight were the soul flames of those t.i.tan skeletons which were, unfortunately, useless to the lizardmen, the medusas and the demonic werewolves because they weren"t able to feed on souls.
In light of that, custody of those soul flames pretty much went entirely to me. As compensation however, I planned to use the bones of those t.i.tans to craft more weapons for them. Because their bones were particularly st.u.r.dy, that crafting job might just end up costing more mana than expected. However, the end result of my labors should end up proportionally stronger as well.
“Well then, Mo En, will you be able to evolve into a five-star if you consume this soul flame?” I pointed at the nearly one meter wide soul flame as I said so. While there was only a single star of difference between the two levels, the difference in power, however, wasn"t just a simple as one plus one.
It was worth mentioning that letting him have the most precious loot wasn"t just to simply raise his combat strength, there was another reason as well. Mo En only submitted to me because of Julia. To me, his entire family were irreplaceable allies in this dangerous prison break. Yet before this, I had no way to express my grat.i.tude. While it was true that I gave Julia the art of dark alchemy, that wasn"t enough, not by a long shot. Thus, I came to the decision to give him that soul flame.
Eyes curved into crescent moons, he smiled a silly smile as he gazed at that soul flame. Clearly, he wasn"t going to reject it either way. “Sure sure, I can feel my evolution coming already, I just need to eat that soul flame…”
However, just as I was about to hand him the soul flame…
“You"d better come clean here!” Julia suddenly walked out of his shadow and slapped this deceitful husband of hers on the back of his head. Only after giving a thorough thrashing did she finally stop: “You"d better come clean, if I see you lying to his Highness again, this wife of yours will break your leg!”
Slightly confused: “Lie? What are you talking about?”
“It"s like this…” Julia glared at Mo En who was shuffling his feet about as we spoke before turning around to explain the situation to me. A short while later, I roughly got the gist of what she was saying. Truth be told, I had some rough theories regarding this matter but didn"t pay much attention to it before.
Why were there no life forms above the level of four-stars in the Prison of the Dead? Because of the restriction placed by the prison itself, that"s why! Initially, I thought that once a creature reached five-stars, they either left of their own accord or were forcibly teleported out of the prison. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that the truth could be so far from my expectations.
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In actuality, the prison wasn"t just a chain on our freedom, it limited our levels as well. Simply put, every creature was only allowed to evolve up to four-stars. Even if you were already a five or six-star, your level would automatically be suppressed down to peak four-stars upon entering the prison.
That was why Habona was able to match up so easily against what was supposed to be a six-star black iron t.i.tan skeleton. Those t.i.tans were strong, for sure, but their levels had all been suppressed to that of four-stars. Being at the same level as Habona, their lack of intelligence clearly put them at a disadvantage especially given the epic-grade Shadowfang.
However, while their levels had been suppressed, those t.i.tans were still stronger than the average four-star devil. After all, while the prison was able to suppress one"s level, it couldn"t suppress the innate strength of a six-star"s body. Given the fact that the t.i.tans were a race who specialized in defense to begin with, it wasn"t at all strange that Shadowfang couldn"t slice through that six-star"s neck in one go.
"Speaking of which, if Mo En already knew that he would never be able to evolve even after eating that soul flame…then…wasn"t he just digging a pit for me to jump into?"
Turning around, I found a rueful looking Mo En staring right back at me…thus, I relented.
"Forget it, in the first place, he"s kinda pitiful himself. Because of his wife, he ended up having to serve me for no rhyme or reason. Besides, that soul flame was meant to be a compensation of sorts for him. However, since it can"t raise his level, I"ll just give it to someone else."
“Mimiya, here you go, you can have this soul flame instead.”
"Before you ask, this wasn"t me trying to kidnap a loli with candy, it was just that her father couldn"t benefit from it so I decided to have her eat it instead. As for why it wasn"t Mo Xixidi…that"s because it was Mo Xixidi…I did say I was a part of the Judging a Book By its Cover Society!"
“Mimiya can eat it?” Eyes sparkling while they stared at this sudden boon from the heavens, she practically leapt into my embrace as she yelled. Arms and feet wrapped around my upper half, she proceeded to viciously smooch my…face, of course.
As she did so, my eyes nearly glazed over from that unique fragrance of a loli: “…”
“Scram, you shameless woman!”
“Let go of this harpy"s hubby!”
“Elena is going to hit you.”
Not long after I was stunned by that dastardly loli, my forced-upon-me harem arrived on scene, wings and claws ready to defend their meat. However, just as everyone thought that Julia was about to start another lecture, she instead revealed a radiant smile: “Remember to treat his Excellency well from now on, got it?”
“…mhm! Hehehe!”
“Looks like you gained another one.” Violet Snow rolled her eyes back as she delivered her trademark emotionless tsukkomi.
After messing around, it was time to proceed on with the soul flame distribution. In just a few minutes, the remaining the soul flames were distributed as followed: the six-star soul was given to Mimiya, one of the fiver-stars was consumed by me while the other was given to Violet Snow. As for potato-faced Mo Xixidi, he naturally worked for free. Other than that soul flame I gave to No.3, the remaining t.i.tan souls were handed out to Big 4, Big 5, Nine-finger, One-eye and the Grimoire of the Dead.
In what was most likely a lack of soul flames, only One-eye managed to evolve from consuming his share of soul flames. Because the majority of his soul flame was expended to heal his wounds, No.3 wasn"t able to evolve as well.
In his new form, One-eye grew a pair of red devil wings on his back and his body became a lot bulkier. a.s.suming nothing else changed, his evolutionary path was most likely that of Mo Xixidi"s: the sin of Gluttony.
The fact that he was the first of my named subordinates to evolve didn"t come as a surprise at all. He was the strongest amongst them all and before meeting me, he was already the head of his own band of devils. His talents were naturally a cut above the rest.
However, the fact that Big 4, Big 5 and Nine-finger weren"t able to evolve still left me exasperated. Having three more four-stars would undoubtedly speed up our future progress. Because we still weren"t sure about what hidden traps laid ahead of us, growing stronger was of utmost importance.
Being a three-star prior to meeting us, Mimiya was naturally able to evolve upon consuming that six-star soul. Because she was born with the original sin of Greed in her, she was born as a primal devil destined to tread the path of an infant devil. Thanks to that, her form didn"t change much after evolving; it was still that of an adorable loli.
In order for her to become a newly-evolved infant devil, she would have to evolve to the level of five-stars first. Thus, her innate skills had only been partially unlocked. Her affinity with dimensional magicks had definitely increased substantially but it still wasn"t to the level where she could teleport. In order for her to do that, she had to at least be a five-star.
As for the Grimoire of the Dead, it was a bottomless black hole just like before. No matter how much souls I fed it, it would never be full.
As for me…that five-star soul actually had no effect on me at all…undoubtedly, all those energies had been forcefully absorbed by the slumbering Ferti"nier within me.
Naturally, she made sure to leave me some sc.r.a.ps. As for how much that was… "let"s have a looksie, about two percent? That d.a.m.ned woman…no wait, d.a.m.ned she-devil, once you wake up, I"m going to make you cough up the rental fee!"
After reorganizing the army once more, we were now ready to set off.
What was once a giant black whirlpool was now an immeasurably thick bone wall with a giant gate carved into it. The gate itself was over fifty meters wide and was already open as if it was inviting us in. However, that wasn"t the only thing strange about it. The location where it appeared, in other words, where the black whirlpool used to be, didn"t use to have a gate at all. In fact, when we first entered this cavern, those walls weren"t even there.
Even so, now that a road had opened up before us, we naturally had to take it. As for the way back…it was already gone.
“There"s no time or mana to process those t.i.tan bones so I want the dogmen to take them apart and carry them for now.” Having dumped that task onto the dogmen, I continued: “The Abbadon Rodents will continue serving as our vanguard. Weslin, make sure you watch them carefully, I don"t want any mistakes.”
“Alright, I"ll be extra careful.” She nodded her head and as she did so, she gave those thousand rodents under her an evil glare: “Listen up, if you perform well enough, you will get promoted. As for those cowards amongst you who don"t dare to advance, death on the spot!”
“Chit chit chit chiiit cccchit…” The ratman beside her furiously translated her words for its brethren who upon hearing its words, immediately trembled. Chits flying about, they immediately rushed towards the mysterious gate.
“What did they say?” Slightly curious, I turned to Violet Snow who seemed rather bored right now.
Rolling her eyes at me as usual, she said: “They said: for food, for the does, we fight!”
“…”
Does huh…
(TL: Does: plural of doe. A doe can be a female hare,rat,deer, goat and some other animals.)