Chapter 124 - Guild Growth – 9 (1/2)

Guild Growth – 9

The chaos of the underground castle began to subside quickly once Rain and A took over. I tried to join them, but Mireina began to cry and cling to me as soon as I tried to.

“It’s really too much! It’s like I’m invisible!”

“No, I just have no reason to notice you.”

“Fate is so cold…”

Katsuragi was still fascinated by Mireina, and Lee Chan-yu and Cain were working in different places.

“Katsuragi.”

[Yes?]

“…Mireina, go somewhere else first. Help the dwarves.”

“It’s really too much…”

[Ahh.]

It’s not that I didn’t understand his feelings. He was stuck in the boss room of a dungeon with no change in the environment. It was hard to get it out of your mind when you saw a beautiful woman. But those loose thoughts didn’t suit the situation. Even with his basic knowledge of the current situation, it was problematic. I made up my mind.

[Cheh…]

“It can’t be helped?”

[What does that mean?]

I turned away from Mireina and approached Katsuragi, who had a sad expression on his face, and grabbed his head.

[…You said you wouldn’t kill me!]

“I won’t. I’m just trying to guide you so you can better handle your abilities. I was going to postpone it, but I think it would be better to educate you and increase my workforce.”

[So, why is your expression scary?]

I laughed bloodily.

“You’ll figure it out soon.”

By the time five hours had passed, he was barely able to understand how to express magic with his mana. The process was surprisingly helpful to me as well. I continued to beat the knowledge into his existence, so his understanding would grow.

[Belkena Spell became Lv5.]

[Blackmine became Lv4.]

[Space Destruction became Lv4.]

It was more important for me to know how to use my skills rather than focus on their rank. It was difficult to grow them, but when they did increase, it was easy to see the increase in power, especially for Space Destruction and Blackmine. The overwhelming increase in my skills brought a smile to my face. And, unlike his first impression, Katsuragi was crumpled on the floor like a piece of tissue paper. Green mana bloomed around him and healed him, making me even more satisfied with myself.

“Do you understand now?”

[Save me…]

He let out a pitiful cry.

“I can save you, but those you meet later will not, no matter how much you beg. That mana of yours will make you a tasty prey.”

[I don’t want to die. I don’t even want to fight.]

“Give up on one of those.” If you don’t fight, you die. If you don’t want to die, then you must fight. That was how everyone had lived now. The mask of social morality and norms, formed over hundreds of years, had been stripped away to never return. Even if only humans were left, they would just begin to fight amongst themselves.

[Damn, I want to go home and play games.]

“If you don’t learn to survive now, you’ll be wasting your potential. You can miss the everyday stuff when you’re strong enough.” Lee Chan-yu had already long lost his place in society, and Cain never talked about his hometown once. They had come to an understanding with the reality they had been thrown into after becoming fallen. Most of the fallen were usually lower or middle class, and their families were the same. Unless he was quite lucky, it was unlikely that Katsuragi’s house remained the same as he remembered.

[…Captain is right, but can you teach me a little more kindly…]

I didn’t have to say it. He was like a child with unusually strong abilities. I needed to tell him the reality of the situation, but if I hit him with it all at once, he may never get up again. So, now he needed time. The time to go through it with his own body. Not that I was a mentally mature adult myself, but at least I’d endured through a lot of reality. I could only hope he, too, would grow enough to endure.

“From now on, you’ll also work. First, manage the monsters that belonged to your dungeon and take part in strengthening the walls. You do it to survive, okay?”

[Okay…if I do, will you introduce me to that elf?]

“When you’re stronger.” I let out a deep sigh and threw a blackmine orb bearing the power of Space Destruction and Predation at his direction, to absorb the mana blooming around him. It exploded in front of him, frightening him away. There was no way to escape from it, however, due to how fast and unpredictably it moved.

“After that disappears, get to work.”

With his help, the reinforcing of the walls went quite swimmingly. Through the absorption of the Devil’s night and the many dungeons, my realm had expanded to a level that it could be called a manor. It was difficult to protect the land, given how wide it was, even with the walls we had built. But it was fine. The walls were just to make the castle like a cup, to filter out the visitors.