Volume 7 epilogue (1/2)

Several days after I saw Stolas off, I spent time to think on what to do next while also improving my war potential.

Young Demon Lords had formed a faction focused on going against me. That being the case, I had no intention of dealing the first blow. So long as they haven’t actually done anything, there was no need to be more cautious of them than I would with other Demon Lords.

“But as to be expected, a faction being formed against me is worrisome.”

A young Demon Lord wasn’t the same as a new Demon Lord like me. For one, after living a few decades, their ambitions were burning hotter than ever before—and perhaps ever will.

Catching up to them in half a year was a tall order, but if things were to go as I feared, I had to do it regardless. I could form my own faction, but unless it was very strong, it would be useless. To be blunt, putting together war potential that could barely match the strength of multiple older Demon Lords would ordinarily be impossible.

…which is why I should do something not ordinary.

“The very first goal I should do is make a new S rank monster.”

S rank monsters, including Kuina and the others, were worth at least 10 A rank monsters which most other Demon Lords would already consider their trump cards. Even one could potentially change the tide of battle.

And the only one that could make them almost freely was me.

Soon, the 1-month cooldown restriction would be over and I could then again make another [Creation] medal which I could use to make another S rank monster. Considering that I would make that monster be able to level up, it was best that I make it as soon as I obtain the new medal. After all, without any large-scale battles that Kuina and the others were able to gain massive amounts of experience points from, it would take some time before the new monster caught up in levels.

“The first question is: which medals do I use?”

For me to make an S rank monster, I needed at least one other original A rank medal other than my [Creation]. And at the moment, the only A rank medal I had was the [Time] medal. Aside from it being my only one, it was a very powerful medal, so I saw little reason not to use it for the new monster. The question then was what to use as the last medal.

“Whatever medal it is, the new monster has to have the ability to fight in the other dimension.”

I said so while remembering what Ruru did during our campaign to save Marcho.

Ruru was my only S rank monster that could fight in the other dimension. Because of that and the overwhelming amount of enemy forces there, she was forced to use a risky ability of hers. By doing so, she was able to hold the line, but it was at the cost of corrupting herself.

According to her, she could still revert after a second use, but a third use would definitely cause her to lose herself forever and be someone—or something—else. So, for her to not have to use it another time, it was imperative that I make monsters that could help her in the other dimension.

“But how could I obtain more medals?”

It might be fine for now, but I needed to find a reliable source of original A rank medals. One way was to destroy another Demon Lord’s crystal. By doing so, I would gain the ability to make that Demon Lord’s medal. It wouldn’t increase how many medals I could make in a month—which was still limited to one per month—but it would increase my options.

In my case, other than my [Creation], I could also make [Evil], [Viscosity], or [Steel] medals if I wanted to. However, those 3 were just B rank medals, so I wasn’t excited in using them.

If they were A rank medals though, that would mean that I could use them with my [Creation] medal to make an S rank monster once every two months.

“I should aim to break the crystal of a Demon Lord who has an A rank medal. Is it time to break the crystal in the [Crimson Cavern]?”

Marcho had already given me permission to do so.

Should I go with it, the [Flame] medal would be added to my pool of options when making a medal. On the other hand, I would then lose such a convenient hunting ground for leveling up my monsters.

“No, wait… Marcho still has [Demon Lord Powers], right? Is it possible that other than still being able to manage her dungeon, she could also still make medals?”

Despite becoming a monster, Marcho still retained her Demon Lord abilities through a skill. If she could still make medals, I could ask her to give it to me.

I need to verify this as soon as possible.

If things went as I imagined, the new monster would be made using [Time], [Beast], and [Creation]. It would be a monster very similar to Fel the Celestial Wolf, but also be entirely different.

[Time] had great affinity for different-dimension monsters. The [Beast] medal, meanwhile, was very versatile and could work with almost all combinations. And, if I changed my [Creation] medal into one that could provide excellent different-dimension abilities, I just might be able to make an ideal different-dimension monster. Needless to say, I was looking forward to it.

“But before anything else, there’s something that I have to do. She should be arriving soon from the royal capital. It wouldn’t do to make her wait more than she already has. Alright, I should finish all the remaining work.”

I said so and tackled on the remaining paperwork.

◇

I had finished the paperwork at last.

With just enough time to spare too. Today’s the day she’s coming back to Avalon. I bet as soon as she comes back, she’s going to go to my estate and complain about how much of a slave driver I am. She’s going to slip the idea of a bonus for her work too.

While I was thinking of such, a bell notified me of incoming visitors.

“Master, the preparations in the assembly hall are going well!”

“A surprise party truly is quite the tasteful choice, my lord.”

The ones that entered were Aura the Ancient Elf and Duke the Black Dragon of Death Siegwurm.

They were the ones I entrusted with the preparations for the surprise party.

“Thanks for your hard work. I just thought it’s the kind of thing she’ll like… on another note, Duke, how are the souvenirs I gave you?”

Upon hearing my question, the middle-aged dragonewt showed a broad grin on his face.

When I said souvenirs, I meant the corpses of the artificial heroes that attacked us in the royal capital.

“They have been turned into my subordinates, my lord. They have further strengthened our undead corps. There is one issue though: the graveyard dungeon room is now too populated. It seems the number of corpses from Marcho-sama was more than we have anticipated.”

I didn’t foresee such an issue happening. Without doubt, the number of adventurer corpses from Marcho’s dungeon were a lot, but I didn’t think it would be this many.

“Okay, I understand. I’ll make a new dungeon floor. The original graveyard room will now be used for  the bread factory and the weapons factory only. Meanwhile the undead corps will be moved to the two graveyard room I’ll add in the new floor. As for the last dungeon room in the new floor, I’ll add a valley so that the Darkness Dragons can fly around freely there… hmm, no, before that, I should add another [Mine] instead. Half of all the golems, except those in charge of the city’s defense, will remain in the original [Mine] while the other half will be moved to the new one.”

“That will be a great help. I’m sure everyone will be delighted with this news.”

The undead corps wasn’t the only force that had exploded in numbers.

Through the two [Maelstrom] I bought, the number of my Darkness Dragons increased automatically by two each day. There were also the low-ranking golems made daily by the Dwarf Smiths, and of course, the Avalon-Ritters made by Rorono.

Coupling this daily increase in war potential with the fact that my dungeon only had two dungeon floors and also the increased risk of being attacked, increasing the number of floors in my dungeon could be said as an inevitable task.

“Master, I have a proposal in regard to our goal of increasing our war potential.”

It was pretty unusual for Aura to say such a thing.

Naturally, I was quite interested in any method to improve our war potential besides those that I had already tried.

“Tell me. What is this proposal?”

“Let’s use the [Evil] skill you’ve obtained and make a child! If you make a child with an S rank monster, S rank will be the least–”

“Proposal rejected.”

I interrupted her before she could finish her sentence. In response though, she puffed her cheeks.

Breaking another Demon Lord’s crystal not only allowed one to make that other Demon Lord’s medal, but also use their Unique Skills. As a sort of limitation however, one could only use up to three Unique Skills other than their own.

In my case, however, [Steel] was pretty much just an inferior version of [Creation], [Viscosity] was frustrating to use, and [Evil] was completely out of the question.

“I thought it was a good idea though…”

“Sorry for saying it like that. It’s just contradicts with my set of values. You girls are my important daughters, you hear?”

The [Evil] Unique Skill allowed its user to impregnate humans and monsters, with the child becoming stronger than the mother.

It wasn’t that I never thought of using this ability, it was just that I didn’t want to use it on them. I wasn’t inclined to assaulting adventurers either.