+1 extra chapter because you surpassed the goal
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Kaito leaned back slightly in his chair and, with a firm tone, gave his first order:
"Kaguya, gather information on all the Lords in the surrounding areas. I want you to focus mainly on this region of the Black Forest and then on the forest as a whole. Also include those on the continent who might be dangerous. I need a detailed report as soon as possible. When you're done, prepare another one on all the Lords you can learn about in general."
"Understood," Kaguya replied instantly, bowing her head slightly.
"How long do you think it will take?"
"I already have quite a bit of information, but if I want to dig deeper into this specific region to avoid surprises, it will take me at least until the start of next week."
"Good. You and Ai take care of that," Kaito nodded, satisfied, before turning to Sonya.
"Sonya, I want you to do the same, but with the situation of the ladies of the Black Forest cities along with information about those cities. Also include the situation in the capital, along with the factions and alignments you know."
"Do you want to recruit them?" Sonya asked, surprised.
"That depends. If most of them are like you, your sisters, or Colette ,that is, easy to convince and opposed to the current government, then I'll at least try," Kaito answered honestly, pausing for a moment. "Leaving that aside, how much do you know about the ladies of each city?"
"I know most of them, even if only from having seen them. I have information on nearly all, so it shouldn't be too hard to fulfill your orders. As for the current situation in the Elven Kingdom, that information is public, however..." she hesitated briefly before continuing.
"What is it?"
"Precisely because it's public, it's... suspicious. The current king became monarch in a questionable way and keeps doing things that infuriate the people. He doesn't even try to pretend to be a good king. Although the possibility that he's a complete idiot is real, there's still a small ,very small, chance that he actually has some strange plan." Sonya's voice dripped venom every time she spoke about the current elf king.
Kaito frowned. Though he didn't fully understand the situation, he knew Sonya would detail everything for him later, so he decided to wait to read the report before thinking more deeply about it.
"Also, when you have time, help Ai improve her shadow magic," Kaito added before dismissing her. Sonya nodded and disappeared without a sound.
"Silver, Korran, Ben," he called. The three, who had been kneeling, stood up at the same time.
"How is the situation on your side?"
"Most of the kobolds have already evolved into beastmen. Around 80% are willing to become warriors and are being trained by men specifically selected by me. These men are apart from my personal team."
"The wolves continue hunting and expanding the territory, but lately the pace has slowed. We're getting close to the territories of nearby elven villages and, following your orders, we haven't drawn their attention."
"The situation among the devils is complicated. It's as if, despite being human before, upon becoming demons their tastes shifted slightly toward their respective clans. This has caused invisible divisions. It's not severe enough to cause fights, but they do feel odd among each other. Leaving that aside, most of their strength has reached mid-class demon level. Even those who aren't warriors want to enter the tower since the ability to revive inside makes them think of it more as a challenge or a game than as training."
Kaito reflected for a few seconds while listening to the situation.
"Korran, we'll be expanding the ranks soon. Select even more trusted men strong enough to lead teams. Silver, I'll handle the situation soon, keep going as you have been. Ben..." Kaito pondered the division between the clans. It wasn't necessarily bad; after all, even humans have natural divisions. As long as it didn't reach open conflict or bias, it was normal. "I'll have to see the situation in person later. If it's not serious, we'll make some minor reforms to fix it. But if the situation is at a dangerous level, then I'll have to separate them into clans distributed among different villages we'll acquire in the future."
Sometimes, for two groups to overcome their conflicts, what's needed isn't to unite them but, on the contrary, to separate them. If the issues aren't serious, constant friction only makes them worse. By seeing each other occasionally, the problem might resolve on its own. In fact, as separate clans in separate territories, relations could improve as they begin to see one another as different peoples with cultures to explore. Of course, it would be necessary to maintain balance so they don't reach the point of discrimination or conflict.
"You may leave," Kaito dismissed them.
"Koneko, Mashiro."
"Yes?" Koneko asked, intrigued, while Mashiro looked at him with the same expression.
"I want you to participate in a training regimen."
"I don't want to," Mashiro said immediately.
"It won't be hard, you just have to teach me a little magic, like before. Koneko too, I'd like to learn some hand-to-hand combat techniques."
"Alright then."
"I'll train you hard," they both replied.
"And after that, you'll fight each other."
Mashiro frowned, but before she could protest, Kaito interrupted her:
"You don't need to learn to fight each other, just to defend against the opponent's style. Even though Koneko is already an expert, practicing to defend against magic will still be useful. As for you..." he looked at Mashiro, "anyone who approaches can easily knock you down, you need to fix that."
"But..."
"It's not up for discussion."
Mashiro finally resigned herself.
"And lastly," Kaito said, looking toward the corner of the room, where a pink-haired girl was watching everything as if it were an entertaining show, "you already checked the territory thoroughly, they told me..." he added with some frustration, remembering the complaints from many about a crazy girl entering their residences and inspecting their belongings. "What do you think?"
"Ah, disappointing!" Lala replied. "There's nothing really interesting. There was a shiny toy a little curious compared to the rest, but that's it. I could probably reproduce it in minutes at my house."
"Yeah, well, let me remind you that your house is the palace of the king of the entire galaxy. Just tell me if you think you could make something useful."
"I could, but it wouldn't be fun. At most, some interesting rays, maybe armor or robots, but nothing else. That's the problem with Earth's technology."
"The problem is Earth's technology?" Kaito asked, confused.
"That's right, it's very boring. For example, if I wanted to build a bed, I'd need sleep technology, technology to enter the mind, technology to improve comfort, maybe something that slightly alters the flow of time so that sleep always lasts as long as necessary. Things like that. But if you look at Earth, you'll only find energy, weapons, robots... boring. Earthlings have no imagination."
"Alright, enough of that. Ask me for what you need and I'll make the lab I promised you."
"Mmm... even though the materials are deficient, I should be able to make interesting things with my tools. Even if dad wouldn't let me use resources to help you, using my tools should be fine. I'll give you a list of things later. Ah! I also need your help to bring the tools into Gaia."
"And how do you expect me to do that? I hope you're not planning to hack the system again to bring objects."
"It's not that," Lala replied as if she'd been accused of something she hadn't already done twice. "With the experience from last time you should be able to unlock the backpack, right? I'll just give them to you and you'll bring them into Gaia."
"Right," Kaito thought to himself, remembering that Lala had told him the backpack is a system function that unlocks at level 30.
After discussing a bit more about Lala's strange requirements for her lab, he turned his gaze to the system, ready to use all the experience gained last time.
---
[Name]: Takayama Kaito / Lucifer
[Race]: Original Speed Demon
[Titles]: Lord of the Territory, King of Hell,
Winner of The Battle of the Lords (1st edition)
[Nivel]: 38 (64.500.000/300.000.000)
[Base Stats]:
HP: 31,900 (3,190 × 10) (Added 19)
MP: 750 (75 × 10) (Added 25)
Strength: 3,750 (((95 + 30) × 10) + 2,500)
(Added 25)
Agility: 10,100 ((90 + 20) × 100) (Added 26)
Constitution: 1,250 ((85 + 20 + 20) × 10) (Added 25)
[Skills]:
Original Speed Demon (MAX), Speedforce (MAX), Shadow Manipulation (3/5), Sacred Affinity (5/5), True Damage, Fire Manipulation (2/5), Air Manipulation (1/5), Water Manipulation (1/5), Earth Manipulation (2/5).
[Stat Points]:
[Skill Points]:
[Gold]: 130,500,000
---
Kaito looked at his updated status and for a moment felt it would be very hard to kill him. He even struggled to imagine anyone capable of doing it.
But then he remembered Lala's strange artifacts, which he couldn't do anything against last time, and sighed.
"Alright..." he murmured to himself for comfort. "As long as I don't run into another weird alien like her, I won't die... probably."
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So, unless you haven't been paying attention until now, you've probably noticed that I love foreshadowing. In fact, there's one about Lala, who doesn't even appear until around chapter sixty-something, already hinted at back in chapter five or so.
And while I do enjoy using them, I don't want this to turn into something like the actual Marvel, where everything revolves around the future and each release feels more like a teaser for what's coming instead of focusing on the present.
That's why I usually just slip in a small line or detail, but if it ever starts to bother you, let me know and I'll try not to do it as often.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)