Kaito checked his new notifications while taking the chance to spend his accumulated experience points.
With the million he got from the chests, plus another two and a half million earned since his last level-up, he had plenty to invest.
The fact that his wolves had hunted so many beasts, and that this only covered the range of three elven villages to the east, west, and south, without causing any major anomaly, was proof of how vast the Black Forest truly was. The disappearance of at least two hundred thousand beasts barely made a difference.
---
[Name]: Takayama Kaito / Lucifer
[Race]: Original Demon of Speed
[Title]: Lord of the Territory
[Level]: 20 (450,000 / 2,000,000)
[Base stats]:
HP: 30,000 (3,000 ×10)
MP: 300 (30×10)
Strength: 1,000 (((50+30)×10)+200)
Agility: 7,500 ((55+20)×100)
Constitution: 890 ((49+20+20)×10)
[Skills]:
Original Demon of Speed (MAX)
Speedforce (MAX)
Shadow Manipulation (3/5)
[Stat points]: –
[Skill points]: –
[Gold]: 6,700,000
---
He leveled up four times and distributed the 40 stat points: 20 to strength and 20 to MP.
The skill point he had, he used to upgrade Shadow Manipulation, the technique Sonya taught him.
In this world, people are born with talent for a specific type of magic; that talent decides which path they'll follow. That's why Sonya only mastered Shadow Manipulation: she was born with that gift, and thanks to the high rank her family once had (her father was part of the king's personal army), plus being an elf (a race with greater magical knowledge), she managed to get something almost impossible to obtain: a Shadow Manipulation skill book.
For someone with shadow talent, this book is like a sacred treasure. Most must learn dozens of different spells to become strong, but with this skill it's enough to perfect it to the limit.
After all, every shadow ability depends on manipulating shadows.
It's correct to say this is the original shadow skill from which all others came.
Skills have five levels: from apprentice to absolute master. It's said that in the entire world, fewer than a thousand people have reached level 5; those at level 4, like Sonya, are already considered part of the elite.
Thanks to his innate talent and the advantages of his demon skills, it took Kaito very little time to reach level 2, something that took Sonya years. Reaching level 3 would take him at least a year, even with all his advantages, which only showed how valuable that spent skill point had been.
Though realistically, Kaito knew it had been pure luck. Normally, silver chests shouldn't give such powerful rewards.
Now, with more MP, he could use his skills more freely and for longer, and his strength had risen to almost seven tons.
But there were still two pending matters.
First: Personal messages.
After what happened in space before the mission world, plus his final message, his identity as "Lucifer" was exposed. Before, he had received a few messages by name, but not many: they weren't sure it was really him.
Now it was different: there were over 500,000 messages, and that was only from players on the same server.
Kaito ignored most of them. They were just empty praise, flattery, or absurd requests asking him to share his resources "because we're all comrades."
'Fools' Kaito thought.
He was about to close the tab when he found one that caught his attention.
[From: Kirito.
Hi. I'm Kirito, though you might remember me as Kazuto, the one who led the group that approached you in the last mission.
First, I want to apologize for the behavior of some of my teammates. I don't speak for them, but I can say they meant no harm. They're just… not very subtle.
That said, I'd like us to build a relationship based on mutual respect.
I have some things that might interest you, and I'm sure you also have something we could trade.
If you're interested, reply.]
"Interesting," Kaito thought.
He wasn't like the others trying to flatter him senselessly. He apologized, proposed mutual respect, and even offered something concrete that could be useful.
Half of Kaito's interest came from that. The other half, of course, came from who Kirito was.
After all, who that's watched anime doesn't know Kirito? He wasn't like the thousands of "copies" popping up everywhere; he was the original. A protagonist who, while good and reliable, didn't fall into hypocrisy or exaggerated heroism.
Kaito also wasn't too surprised. The game of the Lords confirmed they weren't only in the world of Sakurasou. There was also Makima, whom Kaito couldn't quite remember which anime she was from, but he knew it was something famous.
He decided to reply. Being ranked number one and having a D+ rank didn't mean he couldn't find something to make him even stronger. Kaito wasn't that arrogant.
Kirito replied quickly and got straight to the point: he explained, roughly, that he had a skill that let him create sword techniques.
It wasn't unlimited: he could only create techniques, not skills, and their strength depended on his level. But the useful part was that these techniques could be recorded into blueprints and taught.
To test it, Kaito offered him 2,500 extraction points in exchange for one technique. Kirito accepted without hesitation; apparently, those points were much more useful to him than to Kaito.
The trade finished and Kaito got a new blueprint:
[Name: Slash
Type: Sword Technique
Description: When activated, the speed and power of the slash are doubled for an instant, allowing you to strike so fast many won't even see it, let alone block it. The speed boost only lasts for the strike itself]
A simple but effective technique: the basic fast slash of any swordsman. Kaito planned to give it later to his soldiers who used swords.
Second matter: the elves.
There were many hunt notifications mentioning elves. Too many to be just an isolated group or some who got lost in the forest.
His soldiers wouldn't enter a village without orders, so there was only one explanation: either they ran into an army or were attacked while Kaito was busy in the mission world.
He left it for last because there had been no damage to the city, so they had probably managed to stop the problem before it got serious.
Besides, his city was surrounded by three elven cities: east, west, and south. He had already conquered the east and west, so the culprit was obvious.
He called Koneko to tell him what had happened.
"Kaito, you're late today" Koneko said, approaching.
"I was busy in my world" he replied, avoiding details "But it doesn't matter. Let's not talk about that."
Kaito grew serious.
"Many elves died while I was away, didn't they? Tell me what happened and how bad it is."
As if she knew they had to talk about this, Koneko sighed.
"I was going to tell you yesterday, but you seemed in a hurry. It's serious but not enough to be an emergency."
"I see, guess I can't go to sleep just yet" Kaito murmured.
He had planned to rest a bit after coming back to Gaia, but running a territory was never that easy.
Koneko looked at him, a little confused.
"Go? Didn't you just get here?"
Her ears twitched softly, and Kaito, without resisting, stroked them.
"I didn't say I was leaving. Tonight I plan to sleep here, and I want to keep doing that from now on."
Koneko flinched slightly, looking at him with an emotion that surprised Kaito.
"You'll… sleep here?" she asked, her voice trembling a little.
He nodded. A smile appeared on Koneko's lips.
"Then it's not that important."
"Huh?" Kaito raised an eyebrow, confused.
"The situation can wait," she said, gently pulling Kaito toward his room, "Go rest. Don't worry."
She pushed him inside and closed the door behind him before leaving.
Kaito stayed there, thoughtful for a moment, but decided to trust her.
According to the system, Koneko's loyalty was at 80%. Enough to even want to marry him.
He lay down, closed his eyes, and got ready to rest.
______________________________________
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)