"Faith, do you realize that the mark on your head means you are now the priestess of the world tree? You are someone who is as holy as the ancient herself…." Runa exclaimed with a hint of envy in her voice. But what can I say? I just said what was on my mind. I never asked to be some priestess and Nalia probably never thought of it that way either.

"Either way, Runa, it doesn't change who I am. This is no priestess mark but a mark of sisterhood between Nalia and I. Do not think too much about it." I explained but the two in front of me still gave me strange looks. Well, they can just think what they want. "Anyway, Runa, let's chat tonight since I need to return tomorrow. If you are coming with the envoys and your father tomorrow you need to rest up and it is already late so we can only chat for a short time."

"Ah right!" Runa nodded, and we finally left the long hall. Rolash seemed to want to ask me some questions, but I didn't really want to stay too much longer.

Although it was kind of annoying that everywhere I went, I heard gasps and then people kneeling. When I become, empress, I might ban kneeling unless it is an official event. It is kind of tiresome. I can understand why some people would want to have people bow for them, but to me, it is unnecessary. I do not feel superior just because a person bowed to me. I feel uncomfortable. I mean, why bow? Just makes things more tedious.

We ended up chatting in the early morning hours. Unlike me, who was of a higher level than Runa, Runa was dead on her feet, so I had to help her to the throne room where the elven king was waiting. When he saw me, he wanted to bow, but I quickly stopped him. "Your highness, please do not do this. I hate this formal stuffiness."

"Ahem…. Forgive me…." The king seemed to not know what to do so I could only hold my head and wish the headache would disappear. "When everyone is gathered we will all need to hold hands in order to make the transfer to the hangar."

Why was I going straight to the hangar, some may ask? Well, that is mainly because if for any reason, someone tries to assassinate the elven king, I will have a better chance of protecting him in the hangar as its security is tighter than the castle itself.

It did not take long to have over a thousand elves bowing to me out of nowhere, making me want to cry. I quickly made them all stand up before having them all hold hands as I used my dimensional transfer skill to bring us to the hangar with the metal golem. When we arrived, the elves all looked around in awe, and Thurul quickly ran up to me. "You are back, and you brought so many elves!"

"Mmm…. I think this many should be able to help you build at least this one mech before my coronation." I answered with a bright smile. I still couldn't wait to walk out with this thing while riding on its hand.

"Haha! We will do what we can!" Thurul smiled. He had been working with the elder dwarf on this and seemed very excited. More excited than when I showed him my idea for the pen.

"I will be counting on you." I smiled before I gave directions to the elves to follow Thurul's orders before taking the elven king for a tour. I showed him everything, including the ship, and he was quite surprised by the things he saw.

"I see why you wanted so many elves. In fact, I will be sending you more over to help with the other projects. Your ideas are sound, and if brought to fruition, then we can save many lives on the battlefields to come." The elven king looked around in amazement which allowed me to feel a bit more at ease.

"Are you okay with all of this, though? I know your people are a peaceful race." I still felt bad for dragging the elves into my ambitions as they were kind people.

"It's fine. We were once a warring nation ourselves in ancient times. And we still have quite the military force that still trains in the old ways. I am sure their skills will help reduce many deaths on the battlefield whether it is an enemy or not." The elven king replied.

"Then I will be counting on you." I smiled. We walked around a bit more and I explained more of my plans to him before he had to go back.

Runa stayed as she was now glued to the mech and would not leave it. But with her expertise in runic inscriptions I was a bit more at ease that things would go smoothly. With my job done I could finally relax as I returned to the house only for Freidinia to stop me. "Master, please come here."

"What's up?" I asked as I followed her into the lab. She quickly closed the door and put up a sound proofing barrier. Only then did she hold out a vial to me. I looked at the vial with a questioning gaze as I asked: This is?

"A means for you to get your wives pregnant. I did not tell them about this because I know they will play tricks as soon as possible since they seem to be dead set on giving birth to your child but this will allow you to mix your own…. Well you know, down there, into their spot and there will be a one hundred percent chance for them to get pregnant." Freidinia was blushing.

I was blushing as well but what she said made sense. I nodded my head and quickly stuck it into my inventory before saying: "Do not let them know about this. I will only tell them when the time is right and things have settled down more. Thank you."

Chapter2 Coronation Part 1

A few months passed quickly and I was currently being dressed up once more. Today was the day of my coronation, and I would officially become the first empress of the Cyrilia Empire. Thanks to the hard work and many sleepless nights of Runa and her team of elves, as well as the dwarves who have been working tirelessly as well, the mecha golem, mechazilla had been born.

It is fully made of metal and is able to move quickly if needed. It can even fly! And this was the main thing I needed since I can not exactly walk down the street riding this thing. It is way too big and would not look as cool either. But if it flies down into the center of the city with me standing on its hand, it would definitely make an impression on all the watchful eyes.

Now normally an abdication of the throne and the coronation of a new king or queen or in this case empress, would be done inside a safe place like the throne room and then streamed through water screens to the rest of the nation. But I do not need any protection so I wanted to make it so everyone could enjoy a fun celebration together. Plus, this helps out the small business as well as the big business, since they can set up stalls and sell their wares and other goods.

As such there seemed to be quite the festival going on outside. And I was currently in my estate being dressed to the nines in black robes with a reddish orange dragon on it. At first, they wanted to put a phoenix on my robes, but I quickly stopped them since I was not a phoenix but a dragon!

It seems that, unlike the current king, a queen or empress is supposed to wear a bunch of different things to show off her status for special events like this, which I did not mind as long as it was only for the one day. But this required me to be poked and prodded all over by my wives as they cleaned every inch of my body and readied me to be presentable for the people below.

Why did they have to clean every inch of my body, one may ask… I don't even know, but I will say they were being very handsy! And so handsy that I was forced to slap Adel who now had a red handprint on her face. I mean, what was she trying to do before my coronation!?

Anyway, I was now feeling a bit nervous as I knew I would need a nationwide speech as empress. I would like to just hand it over to someone else, but this was all part of the job, unfortunately.

"All done!" Grace, who was in charge of dressing me up, said in a very satisfied tone. "Master looks as beautiful as ever."

"Oh? Grace, should I marry you too?" I asked teasingly.

"Master, I am a servant, not an object of affection. I am here to serve you in anything you need and make sure you get up on time, or else you will become lazy and never get anything done. I even have to…."

"Okay, stop!" I yelled out before she started rambling about embarrassing things. Grace has a tendency to not stop once she starts ranting about how I am not as perfect as she would like me to be. But if I was perfect, she would not have a job! So I think it is perfectly fine to be imperfect.

"Master, you should get ready to go out. I am sure your wives and husband are already waiting." Grace quickly went back into work mode, which made me feel a lot better.

I took a deep breath and pumped my fists into the air as I got up and walked out of the room, followed by Grace. When I walked out, Adel and the others were indeed waiting for me, each wearing robes befitting their status as well as crowns on their heads. As for me, I would get a crown from the king as he transfers his position over to me.

"Faith, you look beautiful!" Adel was the first to comment this was followed up by everyone else. "Your girls and Diablo look beautiful and handsome. I am glad you all will be by my side because I am quite nervous."

"Mmm… count on us to give you all the support we can!" Sophie replied as she also pumped her fists.

I nodded and began walking out. From my house, I was going to teleport everyone into the air to where the mecha golem was already waiting for me high above the clouds. We really need to think of a name for this thing because I still do not know what to call it. But it's cool looking, and that is all that matters.

With everyone holding hands, we arrived at the large hand that was set up for me to stand on and smiled as I saw the king standing there waiting patiently. "I could have teleported you, you know…."

"It's fine. These old bones needed some exercise." I could tell this old man was basically jumping for joy because he was handing over his position to me, but sadly he would only have a short round of peace because I would need him to take over as soon as I finished doing my policy changes and begin dungeon diving. I planned to do an on off. Do a dungeon and then work as an empress for a few months, then do a dungeon and then work for a few months.

I really needed to level up after seeing so many high levels. I felt so weak. While yes, I was actually quite strong now, especially with my extra boast, that did not mean I was strong enough to fight Azengrade or anyone else atm. I had to become stronger and stronger so I could protect my family….

Chapter3 Coronation Part 2

"You are finally here." The king, or should I now say Adel's father, said with a big bright smile.

"That I am. Is everything ready below?" I asked. We had to make sure everyone was ready to go. We did not want anyone to be caught off guard, as we still had to ensure everyone's safety.

"Yes, everything is a go. All the troops are in proper positions and will make sure no one gets hurt. So we can descend at any time." Adel's father replied.

"Then let's get this show on the road. Lower us down!" I yelled out.

On my word, the entire metal golem shook as it came alive. It slowly began to fall down toward the ground using wind magic as a means to slow its descent. What surprised me was that they even took into account the wind from flying around and added a barrier around the metal golem to keep us from being affected by it.

As the metal golem reached the ground, I was met with wide eyes from the citizens as we came to a stop hovering over the middle of the lower city. At this point and time, it was not my turn but the current king's turn. "Citizens of the Gravos Kingdom! I, William Gravos, will be handing over my crown to a new generation. In the past years of my reign, I have done what I can to try to better the lives of the citizens of Gravos. But now there is someone much more suited than I to fill this role and bring you to new heights…."

"Shut up and let the new Empress speak to us!" A voice suddenly broke out from the crowd below.

"Yeah! Where is Empress Cyrilia? We want to see Empress Cyrilia!" Another voice rang out. I could see Adel's father's expression slowly turning gloomy. I sighed and stepped forward, and shouted: "Do not interrupt! This is no way to show respect to a man who has worked hard for this kingdom, doing what he can to help you all."

Everyone went dead silent. I snorted and turned to Adel's father, or I guess he is now my father as well since I did marry his daughter, and nodded. He gave me a grateful look before taking center stage again. "I will make this short since you all do not like me…. But I want to say that the path ahead will be different from the past years. Faith…. Or more I should say Empress Cyrilia will now be taking the reins I have left and expanding upon them to bring this kingdom, no this empire, to a new future we would never have thought possible. We will soon enter a new era, and I hope you can give your new empress your full support. As of this moment, I, King Gravos, Abdicate my throne to Faith Cyrilia."

Cheers filled the crows as Adel walked forward with a new crown that was specially made for me on a purple pillow with tassels on it. I knelt down in front of Adel's father and waited for him to place the crown on my head. Only when he did and stepped back could I officially give my speech.

"I leave this kingdom in your hands." Adel's father spoke softly as he placed the crown on my head.

"I will make sure the Cyrilia Empire flourishes and is brought into a new age, and I will protect the people of this land with everything I have." This was my oath.

I stood up and turned to the crowd to hear the cheers and sounds of music going off below. Some people even let white birds go signaling a dawn of a new era. I took a deep breath as I raised my hand and looked at all the people below. "As your new Empress, I would like to announce that the Kingdom of Gravos will now be named the Cyrilia Empire. We are now a land that is too big to be considered a small kingdom anymore. We are a nation of multiple territories, and this will probably soon grow.

"As your Empress, I only have one goal in mind. Better the lives of my people and bring them into a new age. But sometimes, things are not so simple. There are powers out there who wish to ruin our peace, and these foes are extremely strong. What you see before you is the first prototype of a new mech golem. It is carefully designed by our brightest minds and will be expanded on much further in the coming months. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. There will be much more to come, not only for national defense but also for personal use by our citizens. We are painstakingly working on new ways to make your lives easier, from the ability to have horseless carriages to how you communicate with your parents who live in the next house over.

"There is a lot to be done and a lot that will take time, but these things will slowly progress and be released as they do to the general public once we know how to manufacture them properly. This means new jobs for those who are willing to learn and new places to learn new skills to better your lives on the job front. No one should ever say I never had a fair chance in life because what I plan to offer is open to everyone. Free schooling, free trade skill skills that you can use in everyday life to make money on your own or with a company, whichever suits you best.

"I will keep doing my best to help you, the citizens, grow and become smarter and bring you bright minds to use for the empire, like this metal golem who was thought up by a single man. He came up with the idea and worked hard to make a working prototype like this.

"Do your ideas and innovations need to be as grand as this? No! They can be simple things that will help even the most common of folk. I plan to open up a call for talents to see if I can bring in even greater minds under my wing and expand even more on the front of a new future…."

Chapter4 Sudden Request

--AN) I changed the release time for this to 7pm EST. It makes things easier for me, and I do not need to rush chapters as much.--

"While I do hope for a future where things are different from how they are now, I also hope for a peaceful future as well. While I plan to do as much as I can diplomatically as your Empress and try to form peaceful ties through alliances, I know this will not always be the case. I do not wish for war. I do not wish to take anyone's land, but if the continent we are living on is not united, how will we face the greater threats that may come in the future? Just a short while ago, I formed an alliance with the elves. We did this peacefully, and now our people are able to trade freely between our nations.

"This is a peaceful way of uniting and becoming one but….. There is still slavery in this world. There are people who despise our way of life and think either demi humans or humans should be enslaved. I know there is unrest, and some races can not forgive the other, but it is a proven fact that by me standing here now that humans and demi humans can get along. We do not need to despise each other. We do not need to hate each other. We can coexist without issue and even learn to love one another." I turned and pulled Adel forward along with Sophie. Iena and Diablo also stepped forward as well. This was all planned ahead of time, so this was no surprise to them.

"As you can see. I not only have a human wife. But also a foxkin wife. A demon wife and even a demon husband. I love all four of them dearly and will give my life for them. I will not sit still and allow what is easily attainable to disrupt the harmony of our empire. And I can not sit by when greater threats loom overhead, and we are all still at odds over petty things." Back on earth, I never understood war. What was the point? Send your soldiers out for them to get killed and rile up the people of your homeland. Why interfere in other people's way of living? Why do things that make no sense? Why fight when it will only bring more suffering?

All these questions always went through my mind any time I watched the news with my father and mother during that time. But now…. As I say all of this. I understand the meaning of war. While lives may be lost but if the cause of the war has meaning, then maybe the war is truly for a good cause. Whether my cause is right or not is another story.

I do not want people to die, nor do I wish for people to suffer the loss of their loved ones. This is why, if we go to war, I will stand on the front lines with my own people. I will help them survive as I try my best to bring peace to this continent so we can focus on those who wish to cause trouble from behind the scenes.

I let out a long sigh as I continued: "I do not want war. I want to settle things peacefully, and if it comes to war, I will stand with those who are sent to the battlefield. I will stand at your side and watch over you and protect you with everything I have.

"As your new empress, I will work hard to protect this empire and its people." With this, I bowed my head. The crowd below me was dead silent. I probably should have kept a lot of what I said a secret, but this is what I needed to do. I could not lie to my people. And…. It was a warning to the kingdoms of this continent. I will be looking to form alliances even if I must use force.

It was only after a few minutes did clap and cheering begin to fill the streets. The silence was overtaken by the sounds of them chanting my name. I let out a sigh of relief that I did not scare the citizens too much. But I had to be as honest as possible. I did not wish to lie to them.

With the coronation now reaching its end. I decided to mingle with the people a bit. So I did not hesitate to jump off the golem and landed down in the crowd. As I did, the citizens went crazy and began cheering once more. It was not normal for the leader of a nation to suddenly appear in the crowd like this.

I looked at those around me and smiled as I walked the street. Many people came up to say hello, while others stood to the side and watched from afar. It was not until I sat down that a young man wearing ragged clothing walked up to me. He seemed hesitant at first, but he had a look of determination on his face. "Your hiiiighness!" Oh! His voice squeaked.

"Yes?" I asked as I looked at the young man.

"Do…. Do you have to go to war?" The young man asked.

"When the time comes, yes, but….. I will not force anyone who does not wish to fight. I will not force my people to do something they do not want to do. Although I will be opening the military up to allow new recruits from all walks of life to join, I will not force anyone to become a soldier." This I was firm about. I never planned to institute a draft unless it was absolutely needed. Bright minds would be lost if too many went onto the battlefield. I wanted my people to make the choice for themselves on how they wished to live their lives. Some would be willing, while others would not. It is not my place to tell them how to live.

"I-I see…. Your Highness…. May I know when you will be allowing for new recruitment? And will there be a way to get an advance in payment?" The young man clenched his fist. I guess this is what he was getting at.

Chapter5 Strange Sickness

"In a few days' time, the recruitment will start. Are you in need of money now?" Looking at his clothes and his state of urgency I can tell something was up.

"I….. I need money for my sister. She is sick and needs medicine." The young man had tears in his eyes. He looked up at me and wiped his eyes as he asked: "If you wish to bring change to the lives of your citizens then please I beg of you to help my sister!"

The young man suddenly knelt down and pressed his head against the ground. I couldn't help but sigh as I reached down and helped him up. "Hurry and stand up or people will think I am bullying you. What is wrong with your sister?"

"I do not know. She had been sick for a few days and had begun withering away. It's not just her either, many of the people on my side of the slums have been getting sicker and sicker." The young man replied. I couldn't help but furrow my brow. This did not sound as simple as it seemed.

"Grace!" I yelled out. And almost instantly, Grace appeared at my side. "Yes, Master?"

"Follow me. We are going to the slums to check on his sister. I want you to try healing her." I had no idea what was going on, but it seemed whatever it was needed to be taken care of quickly.

To me, from what the boy said, it sounded more like some kind of epidemic. One that was new. I have yet to run into anything like this since I was reborn on this world, but it does not mean it is not possible. This world has been undergoing many changes since the arrival of the dungeons, so some kind of virus might have also come from it as well.

Whether this was true or not was another story, but when I think about the seven sins that the others got during the first dungeon and then hearing that his sister was withering away, I wondered if it was some kind of curse that was spread from person to person.

"You are really going to help my sister?" The young man asked his eyes lighting up with hope.

"I do not know if I can help her, but I will take a look and see what I can do. What is your name?" I asked.

"It's Tryu, Your Highness," Tryu answered.

"Then Tryu, lead me to your sister, and let's be quick about it." I wanted to hurry and try to deal with this as quickly as possible since he already said many were sick with this same illness.

It took an hour to get to the east side slums that were still waiting to be reclaimed. Luckily I had my skill, or it would have taken much longer. When we arrived, Tryu led us to a small hut that was in decent condition. In fact, most of the slum houses have been upgraded to be in better shape than before due to Annie's efforts in helping those she would while they waited for things to be rebuilt.

When we entered, it was a one room hut with two beds. And behind a curtain was a young woman who should have been in her late teens, early twenties lying on the bed, shriveled up, looking as if she had no meat on her bones whatsoever. I used appraisal on her and found nothing wrong. No status effects or anything of the sort. "Grace any idea?"

Grace had been studying up on medical stuff as of late which was why I brought her along. She looked at the girl and took her pulse but still shook her head. "Her pulse is weak, but I am not sure what is wrong with her…. Let me try to use heal on her and see if that works."

"I will try to dispel after if heal does not work and if needed, I will call Iena and Diablo here to see if they know." I frowned. I did not think dispel would work as there was nothing showing in her status, but it was still worth a try. If it was a curse of some kind, it should have at least shown up at least I would think anyway.

If it is some kind of disease though, then heal should work. If heal doesn't, then it is something that magic can not take care of, which will put me at a loss. My only other options would be to talk to Diablo and the rest. I did not wish to bother Freidinia if I did not need to as she is usually doing some kind of experiment, and if I called her, it could cause an explosion of some kind.

Grace stood at the young woman's bedside. The young woman did not speak. She only looked over at us. It was as if she could not move at all. Her sunken cheeks and hollow eyes seemed like a mummy coming alive when her eyes moved.

"Greater heal!" Grace cast healing magic on the young woman, but even as the minute slowly went by, no changes accord. "Dispel!" It was my turn next but even dispel did nothing. I couldn't help but wrinkle my brow.

"Tryu, you have been in contact with your sister this entire time, and nothing has happened to you?" I asked. I should have asked these questions beforehand, but I did not think too much about some kind of illness.

"Mm…. I have not felt anything wrong with me. It seems only certain people are coming down with this strange sickness." Tryu replied. I nodded and called Diablo.

"Faith?" Diablo looked at me in confusion.

"Before I ask you to go get Freidinia, have you ever seen this kind of illness?" I asked as I pointed at the young woman on the bed.

"This…." Diablo looked at the girl, and like me, he wrinkled his brow and shook his head. "No, I do not know what is wrong with her. Freidinia would be your best bet. I will go get her." And before I could say anything, he disappeared.

Chapter6 The Undead

Not long later, Freidinia was next to the bed inspecting Tryu's sister to see if she could diagnose what exactly was wrong with her. "Master, this is really strange. It's not that she is sick per se, but more of her life force is being drained from her."

"Her life force?" I looked at Freidinia in confusion. I have no idea what could cause such an issue. Who or what could drain someone's life force from them?

"Yes, her life force has been drained. There are a few possibilities for this kind of occurrence. One is that she has a ghoul worm inside her which is easy to diagnose. They are worms that implant themselves in the upper intestines of a being no matter what race they are and will lay eggs which will then feed off the host's body, draining them of their life force and slowly killing them. These are usually only found near towns that are on the border of places with the undead.

"Now I said these are easily diagnosed because there would be a bulge in her stomach where the worms would be and she has no bulge. The second would be a little harder to diagnose but not impossible, and that would be some kind of magic imprint on her body. This is a type of curse and is harder to discern, but either I or Diablo would be able to detect it.

"The one inflicted with the curse would have a black magic circle somewhere on their body. And even though neither Diablo nor I have detected anything, I still searched her body and found nothing. This rules out two possibilities.

"The next possibility is that someone has some sort of ability to steal the life force of others that they might have gotten from a dungeon. This would be harder to detect but after testing everyone's skills from the dungeons that they got they all leave a kind of residual trace after casting the spell that lingers for a long time. And well, I have not found anything of the sort.

"The last possibility is that an undead has appeared here and is actually posing as a human or some animal. This is the most likely possibility because the others seemed to have become dead ends. If we do not find this undead soon, it will cause much harm to more than just a few people as well." Freidinia explained. I frowned, hearing the word undead.

But what kind of undead would be here in the slums… It would be hard just to make it into the capital. I couldn't help but scratch my head because this was truly an annoying thing. If it is an undead, then I would need to handle things carefully as the undead are not an easy race to deal with and are highly protective of their kind, even if it is an undead cockroach….. My own wandering thoughts might have actually given me the answer I was looking for.

"Diablo, do me a favor, please and send out shadows to search for any undead bugs, rats, or mice in the city. If you find any, capture them. I will need to make contact with the undead kingdom…." I never thought I would be making contact this soon, but it seems I will need to. I wanted to wait and contact them last because they are so hard to deal with, but if they find out we killed one of their people, it would start an all out war, and even with me there, I do not think we can stop an invasion with the undead.

They are not easily killed. They would need to be completely destroyed, or they would sometimes reattach their parts or even keep moving with no problem. Such enemies are a pain on their own, but when you have billions of them rushing your border using weapons and magic, it would not be an easy fight, this much I do know.

While I could contain them, I am still unsure how powerful the undead truly are. If they have figures like the elves have that are way past my level, then they might just completely destroy me before I could do anything. To be honest, I never thought of such high level people in this world until I saw Rolash. Only then did I realize that one does not need the system to reach such heights, just a long lifespan.

But now was the tricky part. The undead do not converse much with the outside world, so I guess I will need to hold an emergency meeting with the officials and see if I can get them to help me figure a few things out. " On it. I will give you a report as soon as I can."

"Thanks." I stood on my tiptoes and kissed Diablo's cheek before looking over at Tryu, who was waiting for me to pull off some kind of miracle. On this, I could only shake my head. "Tryu, if your sister was sick with some kind of illness or if your sister had some kind of curse, I could work something out to heal her. But if her life force was taken, I can only try to use rewind on her, but I am not sure if rewind can fix the loss of life force….."

"Master, there may be another way if rewind does not work." Freidinia interrupted me. "You are now a drakani. Which is also part vampire, if I am correct, right?"

"Yes, that is right." I nodded my head to answer her question.

"Then, if my research is not wrong, vampires have the ability to make kin. And the basis of that is pushing your blood into her right at the moment you have drained her blood. At least, this is what I read. I have also read a few other species of vampires as well that are lusty and can only drink female blood, which in this case might work even if that was the case, but that is a race of vampires that can only drink the blood of those who become their wives. You do not have such an issue." Freidinia explained. I guess she is right. I am able to drink anyone's blood if I so wish.

Chapter7 No Will To Live

"Alright, So drain her of her blood and then inject my own. But this would make her basically my slave, no?" I asked. I did not really want to make slaves since that kind of went against my morals. Grace could be considered that if you looked at it one way, but I never forced her to do anything and what happened to her was a complete accident.

"Yes. and no. She will become someone who will not be able to resist following your orders to the point that even if you told her to kill herself, she would. But master, you would let her live freely, right? She would only need a bit of your blood every month to survive." Freidinia explained.

I could only sigh because I still did not like this idea, but if it would help, then there was no reason not to try it. But this was not my decision to make. I looked at Tryu and asked: "What do you think? This is your sister. Do you want me to save her with whatever means necessary?"

"Yes!" Tryu nodded firmly. I could see his fists still clenched together tightly. But he seemed to be very firm in this decision of his.

I nodded and moved to the bedside, and asked: "What about you? Move your eyes up and down for eyes back and forth for no. But before you answer, let me warn you. That you will need my blood every month, or you will die. I will also be going away for long periods of time, so you might need to follow me as well. If I do this, I will take full responsibility for it, so do you wish to go through with this?"

The girl on the bed's eyes seemed hesitant for a moment before moving back and forth. Seeing this, I sighed…. She seemed to have given up on life. I looked at Tryu, whose eyes were now wide open in shock, and said: "I can not and will not force anything upon anyone. I think you should cherish the time you have left together."

"Sister, why!? You are still so young! You could…." Tryu broke down crying as he rushed to his sister's bedside and held her hand. "Please don't die like this. You can still have….."

His sister's eyes moved back and forth. She seemed to be using all her strength just to move her eyes. I guess sometimes, when something like this happens, the person will lose all hope and not care about anything. They will lose their will to live and just want to disappear.

Even if there is hope, they will still not care. This much I can see. Looking at her lying there no matter how much I wish to help her, I will respect her wishes since it is not my place to try to talk anyone out of anything. "Freidinia, let's go. Tryu and his sister need their alone time."

Freidinia nodded as she got up. We took one last look at the brother and sister and disappeared. When I arrived at the medical bay, I pulled up a stool and sat down on it. "Freidinia, do you think what I did was right?" I really did not know.

"Everyone has a path they choose for themselves. You are already trying your best for everyone around you. You are not a god. You are and will not be able to save everyone. I don't even think a god can save everyone. And from what I know you are one hundred percent mortal at this time. While I do admit some things you can do are god like but you are still no god." Freidinia answered.

"I know this. I never said I was a god or anything like that, but just seeing Tryu wanting to help his sister but his sister not wanting any help in return is just…." I couldn't help but feel bad for the young man. But I guess there is nothing I can do about it now. His sister made her decision, and I am unable to create life force out of thin air. It is just now possible.

Life force is more than just keeping a person alive but it is also a will. And once a person's will deteriorates so much, they will give up any hope at all in staying alive. But I saw no distress in his sister's eyes either. So I think she had come to terms that she was going to die and did not wish to continue living.

I had no choice but to push these thoughts to the back of my mind as I called all the officials to court since I now needed them. Most were still in their pajamas as it was now late at night, but they did not complain in the slightest. "You must be all wondering why I called you here. And, well, I need a way to get in contact with the undead kingdom. There seems to be undead in our empire."

"What!? Are you sure?" One of the officials asked in surprise.

"I am sure. A young man had asked me to take a look at his sister because she was sick. And it seems it was not just her but quite a few people within the slums. I had the girl checked for many different things, from illnesses to curses, but in the end, it was none of these, but her life force was still sucked out of her. This leaves only one thing, and that is an undead. Unless it is something we do not know about already and have already checked, then this is the only thing I can think of." I answered in hopes of someone knowing how to reach the undead kingdom.

"I am not sure. We have never had any contact with the undead kingdom. They are normally sealed off from the world since no one needs anything they sell, and they hardly eat anything. I am sorry, Your Majesty, but I think you will need to send someone personally to the undead kingdom to make contact. It might take a while, but this is the only way."

Chapter8 Loophole

In the end, we decided to send an envoy. I, of course, could not go myself since I had things to deal with here. Well, I did try to fight this as I did want to see what the undead kingdom looked like, but I was forced to give up when all the officials told me I needed to stay and finish all my reforms.

After the meeting, I retired for the night and went to my room. As I was getting changed and stood there in my underwear, Diablo suddenly appeared behind me. "Faith."

"Hmmm?" I turned and looked at the devilish man standing there with a blush on his cheeks and laughed. "What 's wrong?"

"My-My shadows have searched the entire capital and were unable to find any signs of the undead above ground…." Diablo's words made me turn around and look at him.

"What do you mean? Above ground? Are you saying there are undead underground?" I asked. If that were the case, things might be much trickier.

"It's not just one or two. We are talking about millions of them." Diablo stood up and helped me undo my bra as I stood there, trying to take in his words. Why would so many undead be underground? This made no sense at all. "Diablo, are they moving at all? Like heading in a certain direction? Or are they just sitting under the capital?"

"They are converging on the capital, and more are still coming," Diablo replied. He then tapped the air and created a water screen in mid air for me to look at. I knew I was half naked at this time, but right now, the scene before me took all my attention.

These were not just some ordinary undead like bugs or rats or something along those lines, these were skeletons and zombie style undead in full armor and weapons. I now realized I was not going to get any sleep tonight. "Diablo helped me get changed. I need to go back to the court for another meeting. Send someone to get all my generals and all officials to court now. Also, have someone bring back the envoy I sent out today."

I was really looking forward to sleeping. Sighing and with diablo's help, I was in my normal everyday armor in a matter of minutes. I tied my hair up and made my way to the courtroom while Diablo went door to door, calling all the officials back. I felt bad calling them back after they had just left, but now that we have a big emergency such as this, everyone has to suffer from lack of sleep with me.

An hour later, everyone was once again sitting in the courtroom. This time my military generals were included. "Your majesty, what is this sudden emergency?"

"Diablo," I called out, and Diablo stepped forward and created a large water screen in the air. "This is under our capital. Millions upon millions of undead soldiers. They went and detected and have amassed a massive army under our own capital, which means they are not here peacefully, but I am sure you can guess that by just looking at things. The envoy we sent out is on the way back. Since the undead has decided to attack us, I will not hold back. I have already cast a barrier around the capital.

"This barrier goes underground and is about thirty feet away from the undead army. If they wish to move from their current position, they will need to do so outside the barrier. But sadly for them, I have a second barrier containing them. Blocking them from being able to move anywhere but the way they came. Generals, I need you to get your men together and spread them throughout the city. Keep a close eye on the back allies and other areas. We will be undergoing a full lockdown of the city as of now." I have blocked the enemy's advancement, but I do not know how long that will last. I do not know if they have any powerful undead among the mix.

I am trying to use my detection magic and using appraisal on them from here, but it is hard to tell since some of these numbers are overlapping with one another, and I can't tell if they are the same or not. I could take the time to try to sort through them all, but I do not have the time for that.

I stood up from my throne and looked at the officials: "As of now, we are under attack, but we are in control of the situation. I will be leaving Iena here for the time being while Diablo and I make our way to the undead capital. We will be flying at full speed, so we should make it there in a few hours. I would like to see what the undead king has to say about invading my empire."

"Your majesty, I suggest you rethink this! Your safety is more important than millions of lives." An official yelled out, which made me stop my feet. I turned and looked at the official who spoke out.

"I think you need to correct your words. No one is more important than anyone else. I may be your empress, but I am still a person of this planet and a citizen of the Cyrilia Empire. I am not some god. The people here, from the commoners to the highest of nobles, are all the same in my eyes. Plus…. This is not something anyone else can handle but myself." I then tossed out three crystal balls to the generals. "Contact me if anything happens. You would be the first to know."

After saying this, I turned and walked away. I had no time to waste because I wanted to get this resolved. I did not like the idea of someone being so sneaky, and this also made me realize there was a major loophole in the defenses of my empire.

Chapter9 The World Descends Into Chaos Part 1

Sometimes I wonder if things happen for a reason. I wonder if it is because of the things I have done in my life that things happen in such a way that I am left without many options. I wonder if it is because of this that I am stuck here now, as I step out of the palace a large beam of light incinerates half of the lower capital, firing straight up into the sky turning night into day as my barrier shatters into dust.

The light was like an anatomic bomb going off as it rose high into the air leaving behind absolute nothingness. There was no shock wave. There was no wind. Only the sound of the shatter of my barrier and the scene of millions of lives disappearing right before my eyes.

What did the people of my empire do to deserve such an end? What did they do to be killed for no reason? The people I worked with for so long at my factories were now gone. Tryu and his sister. The entire east side slums, were gone in the blink of an eye.

I had no bad blood with the undead kingdom. I never once wanted to provoke them. But this was too much. Why? Why were my people dying for no reason? "Why!!!!!!???" I yelled out at the top of my lungs. I couldn't take this. I couldn't stand the people I knew dying one after the other for no reason. Is it because of me? Am I a bane to those who are around me? Am I some kind of plague that no matter where I go brings nothing but death and destruction to those I care for? Will my own family be next?

"Heh…. Hahaha!" My mind slowly sank into nothingness. I felt cold, and I felt the world around me slowly descending into darkness. "You dare…. You dare harm my people!? You dare harm the ones I care about!?"

"Faith!" I could hear Diablo calling out my name, but I was in no mood to listen as I shot into the air.

In my mind's sea, I sat in the white space curled up into a ball. In front of me, smiling away, was another me. "Do you want revenge? Do you want your enemies destroyed? Let me take over, and I will destroy everything that stands in your way."

"Leave me alone. I will not let you have my body." I replied, but I could already feel my mind sinking deeper. Through my eyes, below me was a massive hole that was tens of miles wide in all directions, and coming from that huge hole were millions, maybe even billions, of undead. They were flooding out and moving in all directions attacking and murdering everything and everyone they came across.

I waved my hand and cast a barrage of fireballs into the hole, but they were stopped easily by a strong barrier. "Haha!" A familiar laugh came from within the hole. I looked down to see five figures slowly rise up from the hole. Each one with purple lines on their skin. "It's been a while, my little friend, but hmmm… You are not very strong now, are you?"

"Faith!" Diablo showed up beside me as well as Iena and Freidinia. When Diablo saw the man in the middle of the five people, his brow furrowed: "Azengrade!"

"That it is. I am happy you still remember me. I am the General of the Altorians. It is a pleasure to meet you officially. To think that we would meet so soon, well… Maybe not since I had planned to wait a little longer, but I got word you are using an interesting bit of technology and wanted to check it out for myself. Of course, this is just a lie" Azengrade smiled a toothy grin.

"Why? Why are you killing innocent people!?" I yelled out. I should be attacking. I should be trying to stop these bastards, but I still did not understand they would kill so many.

"Hmmm? Cattle to the cause are nothing more than a means of fulfilling our goals. You see. We only want one thing." Azengrade slowly raised and pointed his finger at me as he smiled sinisterly. "We want you to die."

I was confused. I did not understand why he wanted me, of all people, to die. This made no sense since I had never met him before the time in the dungeon. "Me? Why me? What have I done?"

"What have you done?! You do not know!?" Azengrade expression turned cold. "You, of all people, should know what you have done. Because of you…. Because of you…."

"General! Why waste time!? Let's just kill her now!" Teladeadja cried out as his hands changed into sharp claws.

"I will not let you!" Diablo suddenly shot forward with Freidinia. I wanted to reach out and stop him, but a voice in my head was screaming at me. Screaming so loudly that I couldn't even think straight.

"Shut up!" I yelled out as I held my head and stumbled backward. The ancient will in my mind was crushing my thoughts.

"Let me out! Let me out! You can not handle them! You will only kill more of your people!" The other me yelled out over and over. My head was pounding. The pain was stopping me from taking any action.

"Shut up! You are in the way!" I yelled out as I shook my head and hit it with my fists. If I could, I would reach in and rip the bitch out of my head!

"Faith." Iena, who was at my side, called out to me. But as I looked up at her concerned face, I saw it…. A splash of blood and a claw pierced through Iena's chest.

"Iena!? Iena!?" My eyes went wide as the hand retracted and Iena's body fell limp into my arms. I turned and looked at Teladeadja, who was standing there licking his bloody claw with a smile on his face. It was then that the world around me turned blood red…..

"Hahahahha! I am finally freee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Chapter10 The World Descends Into Chaos Part 2

All around me was blood red. I sat there looking through eyes that were mine yet not. The ancient will, or maybe I should say the other me, had finally broken free. "Hahaha! After millions of years, I am finally free!"

Hovering in the air, the other me stood there in the sky confidently. The power flowing from my body was not something I could ever exude in my current state. She looked down at Azengrade and the other Altorians with a bloodthirsty smile on her lips.

"Trinity!" Azengrade called out a name I have never heard before as he gritted his teeth and looked at the other me. "You dare show your face in front of me!? After everything you have done!?"

"Hahahaha! So what!? What does what I want to do have anything to do with you? You are only lucky I even remember your race because of how powerful your leaders were. They are the reason why I have been sealed in the first place. I arrived on your world to have some fun and destroy a few things, and your leaders had to get in my way! Do you really think you alone are powerful enough to stop me?" The other me asked as she waved her hand. My body which was now out of my control became clad in a black skin tight suit. It covered every inch of my skin except for a diamond shape in between my chest that revealed some of my cleavage. Along with it, a black and blood red trimmed cloak with a hood appeared as well and fluttered in the breeze.

"I have long wanted to finish cleaning up the trash that dared to seal me away. I only destroyed half your world, and you made me fall into a system of reincarnation over and over. I had to sit and watch in disgust as my body did so many stupid mundane things! What is the point of having power if you do not use it freely and do the things you want to do with it? Why sit back and let others walk all over you when you can easily trample them with overwhelming power? Stamp out those who resist. Kill everyone who dares to turn against you. This is how everyone should live. If you see something, take it. If you are bored, destroy a world or two. What is wrong with this!? Hehehe…." After saying all these messed up things, the other me giggled and bit the tip of my finger, and looked at Azengrade provocatively. "How did it feel when your loved ones burned in my starry flames? How did it feel when you were forced to watch all the ones you cared about slowly die? All because of me?"

"You! Trinity, you bitch! I will kill you now and get revenge on the billions of my people you destroyed. I will take my revenge for my family! We had planned to slowly build up our forces, but since you are out now, I will do my people a favor and kill you now!" Azengrade seemed to have lost his mind as his bloodshot eyes looked at the other me as if he was trying to tear her apart with his eyesight alone.

"Hahaha! This is why I chose your planet. You and your kind are parasites in the first place. You did not even belong to that planet! You want to blame me for destroying half your race, but then what about the people your kind has thoughtlessly destroyed? Not that it matters because even if your kind was not there, I might have still destroyed the planet. Hahaha!

"The cries of pain. The look of horror on their faces. Is not thrilling!?" The other me asked as she waved her hand. A large black scythe three times the size of me formed in her hand. Its sheen reflected the moonlight in a murderous light. "I will finish up what I did before. I can not let your race, which is like a bunch of cockroaches, live. Otherwise, I might have to destroy this world as well."

"You!" I called out. I did not want to be the cause of death for my loved ones. Iena…. She was already….

"Humph! You whine too much. You should thank me because I already saved your little lover. But Now I am going to play whether you like it or not! My time is limited." The other me's voice rang through the white space. I looked up at the images in front of me and realized that maybe, just maybe, the other me was not all bad…. Because in front of my eyes was Iena, floating in the air surrounded by a green light, and the hole in her chest was slowly healing. Even Diablo and Freidinia seemed to be trapped in some kind of barrier. I had noticed any of this until now. "Now that you know. Hold your panties and watch as I show you what true power is."

*Ding!* *Ding!*

"The bells toll for those who are about to take their trip down the yellow river." The other me said softly as two loud bell rings rang out through the air. At the same time, the area around the other me suddenly turned into a hellscape where billions of hands were reaching up out of the ground.

The sounds of cries of pain and help could be heard all over the place. The sky had turned colorless. Azengrade seemed to have gone on guard as he looked warily at the other me. I have no idea what she was planning, but it seemed that whatever it was was not something Azengrade and the other Altorians did not want to have any part of.

Across the sky, a yellow river slowly formed. The arms below began reaching for it frantically, seemingly wanting to make their way in and follow the flow. "As those who have sinned are unable to set sail. I come and show them that true terror has arrived. The starry night sky."

The sky suddenly lit up with billions of stars as Azengrade, and his people all looked up in horror. "Are you really going to cast that here!? You will destroy more than just us!" Azengrade yelled out. But the sinister smile that formed on the other me's lips sent a chill down my spine. Was the other me really going to kill more of my people? Was she going to destroy everything I cared about? Would I even be able to live the life I lived before if she did such a thing!?

I could only helplessly watch as she grinned from ear to ear with cold eyes as she slowly said: "The starry fire descends upon the masses….."

Chapter11 Stealing Power

*Boom!*

"Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I screamed out with everything I had, but all I could do was watch as beams of light fell from the sky, destroying everything they hit. The lives of billions of people gone just like that. My mind was sinking even more. I did not want this. I did not want any of this. I just wanted the people of the empire I loved to live peacefully, so why!? Why must it come to this!?

"No… It won't end like this… I will not allow things to end like this…." I stood up in the white space, which was slowly being consumed with red, and closed my eyes. I slowly opened them again as my eyes lit up with a light so radiant that I never thought would ever be imaginable. "Stop….."

Everything in the world slowed to a stop. The other me who had been destroying the empire I was working hard to make better and defend suddenly appeared in my mind's sea. "Why!? Why did you stop me!?"

"Why!? Why the hell would you kill my people!? Why would you kill the citizens of my empire!? Are you fucking dumb!?" I yelled out, cursing at the top of my lungs. I could no longer take it. I could not allow this. I would not allow my people to die so needlessly. "You think just protecting my loved ones was enough!? Look what you are doing! How are you any different than the Altorians!?"

"I am doing this for you! You are weak! Sometimes a loss must be made in order to deal with the unexpected! If I do not use this power, I can not defeat Azengrade and his people with my current strength! Only this spell will hurt them enough to make them fall back! But to do that, sacrifices must be made!" The other me told back. Her eyes were bloodshot with anger, but I did not care.

"So sacrificing billions of lives is your way of solving the issue? I wonder…" I reached out and took the other's me's hand, and pulled her close to me. In her shock, she did not even know what to do as I tilted her head and sunk my fangs into her neck. In a muffled tone, I said: "Since you are so powerful, let me borrow that power."

[+1000000XP]

[Level +1]

I held on tight to the other me as I sucked her blood. My level was increasing by one hundred every second. "Get off me! What are you doing!?"

She struggled in my arms until she finally used her foot to push me off, but by then, I had already jumped up to level 1428. This was different than before. When I sucked the blood of my wives and husband, I could taste their blood, but from her, it was hard to describe. I could feel the power within her, making me stronger by the second. I did not taste anything. I just felt a surge of power flowing into me.

"You bitch! You actually stole some of my power!?" The other me yelled out. She looked at me in surprise and anger. I wiped my mouth and sneered.

"Heh… I did not think it would work, but I am glad I did it. To think you were at such a high level yet need to use such a strong attack to get rid of your enemies." I snorted as I looked at the world outside, still frozen. I had used a large scale cosmic magic to stop time for the entire capital. Everyone was frozen at this time, including the undead. "But let me make one thing clear. The lives of my people are not things you can just destroy without my consent. No one is allowed to harm the people of my empire. I would not have taken up the role of empress if it was not for the fact that I love this land I grew up in that was so welcoming to me."

"Trinity, was it? I guess this is your name. We will talk more when I am finished fixing what you have done. When it's over, the two of us will have a nice chat." After that, I disappeared from the space. I could only hear Trinity as she cursed me left and right. When I arrived in the time frozen world, I was still wearing the same clothes that Trinity was wearing.

[Skill Acquired: The Starry Night Sky (LVL 1)]

[Skill Acquired: Armor of Infinity(LVL 1)]

[When worn adds: Lesser instant regeneration, +2,000,000 Health]

[Side effects when taken off: Weakness, all stats lowered to a level 1% of current level for 300 hours.]

"Oh? I guess this is why I could so easily steal some of her power. She is currently in a weakened state of her weakened state. I do wonder what level she is at currently." I rubbed my chin and wondered if I should have more of a feast later. But I guess all of this will have to wait for the time being.

I looked down at Azengrade and the others, who were not fully stopped but in slow motion with cold eyes. I took a deep breath and spoke slowly as I said: "Rewind…."

The world around me began to slowly reverse. The beams of light that were raining down began to rain up until they disappeared, and the destruction and death they had caused disappeared with them. The undead that had also arrived all disappeared back into the hole they came from, with the city being returned back to its original state. The only thing I did not rewind was Azangrade and his people. Or more like I couldn't.

With a snap of my fingers, the world around me returned to normal. Azangrade and his men all looked around in confusion. I snorted once more as I yelled out: "Azengrade. No matter how much I wish for you to die, I can not allow it to come at the cost of billions of lives. Leave now."

Chapter12 A Tweak In Personality

I was making a gamble. I was currently wearing the same armor as Trinity was, so I could only hope that I would be able to fool him. Azengrade looked at me and then around at the untouched city around him in somewhat of a daze. After a few seconds of thought, he looked back up at me with a cold expression as he said: "To think the great Trinity was so magnanimous. But do not think this will be the end!" With this, he turned and created a strange blue barrier around him and his comrades that began to shrink down and disappear from sight.

I let out a sigh of relief as I stayed there frozen in the air looking out over at the sunset that was starting to rise. I only reversed time for the capital, so it was already good enough that I could do this much. I looked out over the horizon that was slowly growing brighter and tried to smile. Yet, no matter how much I tried, I was unable to.

"Faith? What just happened!?" Diable, Iena, and Freidinia all stood at my side and looked at me in confusion. I did not reverse time for Diablo or Freidinia, just Iena to make sure she was fully healed.

"I…. It's hard to explain, but for now, I need to take care of a bigger issue." I had no time for an explanation as I used detection magic to see the entire undead army still under the capital. After taking another deep breath, I used dimensional transfer to arrive in the middle of the mass of undead and then used aura healing to kill them all instantly. Holy spells were really handy against the undead.

With the undead taken care of, I put the entire empire under lockdown with a barrier before returning to the castle with Diablo and the rest.

I was mentally exhausted. But I still had to push on. The world around me was becoming more dangerous. Much more dangerous than I have ever imagined. Five of the same race, the Altorians, and there were probably many more than them out there. Not to mention Trinity, the other me said something about them being parasites which probably means they can turn other beings into their race. I am not sure about this, and I will only know when I speak to Trinity if she is currently willing to speak to me. After all….

[Humanoid Form]

[Name]: Faith Cyrilia

[Age] 17

[Level] 258 → 1428

[Race] Drakani Demigoddess

[HP] 701500/701500(2701500)

[MP] ∞

[Attack Power] 1233950

[Magic Power] 233950

[Status Points] 0 → 5850

[Strength] 123395

[Vitality] 70150

[Intelligence] 23395

[Mind] ∞

[Agility] 23395

[Skill Points] 171 → 1341

[Limit Break( 1/3)]

Total Domination

[Skills]

{Appraisal (LVL 10(MAX))} {Military Command (LVL 10(MAX))} {Military Tactics (LVL 10(MAX))} {Business Tycoon (LVL 10(MAX))} {Acting (LVL 1(MAX))} {Enslave Demon (LVL 10)} {Charm(LVL 10(MAX))} {Dimensional Transfer(LVL 10(Max))} {Blood Frenzy(LVL 1(MAX))} {Blood Manipulation(LvL 10(MAX))} {Shadow Meld (LVL 1)} {Shadow Clone(LVL 1)} {Blood Enhance(LVL 1(MAX))} {The Starry Night Sky (LVL 1)}{Armor of Infinity(LVL 1)}

I am now level 1428, and this means soon, when all my stats reach their mana drip max, they will be another 35100 points higher than before. This is such a boost to my prowess that I am feeling a tiny bit better about the future. If I can get Trinity to let me steal more of her power, then I can grow even stronger.

But I highly doubt she will let me get closer anytime soon. But I find it funny that her power was quickly reduced once she entered my sea of consciousness. I guess she never realized it. This was lucky for me. And luckily, because I gained two of her abilities as well, I was able to pretend like I was still Trinity. I guess the reversal trick just now was a shock to him. He was probably having a hard time understanding what had just happened.

"That is what just happened. I know it is hard to believe, but it is the truth." I said as I looked at the officials and generals, who were all staring at me in surprise. "Right now, none of my generals or the people of the lower capital city would be alive. I was able to turn back time to before the attack happened after chasing Azengrade and his men away. But now we are left with a crisis. Things will not be so easy in the future. The enemy may be able to turn our own people into their allies, making them part of the Altorian race, which seems to be a parasitic race. I will not go into details about how I know of all of this, but please understand what I have said just now is one hundred percent true."

"If what you say is true, then we really are in for a rough future. How should we handle the undead nation now that you have destroyed their army?" General Briggs asked.

"I will give them an ultimatum. Be destroyed or form an alliance with our empire. I will not take no for an answer, and any hostility will result in the entire annihilation of their race." My words caused everyone's eyes to go wide, but this was my last straw. Unlike other races, the undead did not give birth to new undead. Undead came from the corpses of the dead. So I did not mind saying I will wipe them out. Maybe my mind has been affected slightly by Trinity now that I think about it because…. I would have never said such words in the past….

It was very unlike me to resort to wanting to kill off an entire race when my purpose is to bring us together without discrimination but…. Well… So be it… I will just play it by ear and see how the undead race really reacts to me asking them for an alliance.

I know I should not do such a thing to a kingdom that had suddenly attacked us or was planning to attack us, but as of now, after I just reversed time, they had yet to flood into my city just yet, and I have already killed the ones who were under the capital.

Chapter13 Trinity Part 1

--AN) Chapter might seem late, but it is Daylight saving where I live, so it is still the same time for me.--

"Your Majesty, is this right?" One of the officials asked. "The Undead have been around for thousands of years. Their strength is not small."

"I know!" I gritted my teeth. I know there were probably some powerful forces within the undead kingdom but still… "We will put this aside for now. For the time being, I will make a trip soon with Iena, Freidinia, and Diablo. We will see just what the Undead King has to say about the invasion of my empire. Meeting adjourned."

I stood up and walked off. Diablo and the others followed behind me. I had to converse with Trinity and find out exactly what the Altorians wanted and what they were capable of. If she was even willing to talk to me. Right now, besides Azengrade and his people, she was my most powerful foe, and worst of all she was within me.

We all returned to my room, where Adel and the others were waiting. "Faith, what is going on?"

"I will explain more when I figure it out myself. Right now, I need to enter my mind's sea." I said before walking over to the couch and lying down. Before closing my eyes, I looked at Freidinia and Diablo and asked: "Please look after my body. If for any reason Trinity comes out, stop her at all costs even if it means you need to destroy my body."

"What, no!" Adel cried out. She had no idea what was going on, I know, but I had no time to explain. Before anything else happened, I needed information, or I could not prepare for what was to come.

"Adel, stop." Sophie walked over and pulled Adel who was standing in front of me with her arms spread out wide in a protective stance. "There seems to be more going on than meets the eye, so we will have to trust Faith."

"I will explain," Iena said as she pulled the girls to the side. I gave her a grateful look before taking a deep breath. "Put a restraint on my body now. Just in case I wake up and am not me."

As long as I allow it, I can be secured in such a way. This way, if Trinity does somehow come out when I talk with her, she will be restrained to an extent long enough for Diablo and Freidinia to do something. At least, I hope. "Don't worry. We will make sure nothing happens."

"Thanks, Freidinia." I nodded and closed my eyes. I was still wearing the Armor of Infinity because I did not want my spirit body to suddenly become weak. I needed my strength.

After closing my eyes, the world around me became white and red. It was half and half. It seemed letting Trinity out had caused my inner world to become a place that was being controlled by both of us. This was definitely not a good sign.

"Oh, you came back?" Trinity walked out from the red area with a mocking smile on her face. "I know what you want. After all, I am you, and you are me."

"No, I am not you. You are someone who was willing to sacrifice billions of my people just to kill five. No matter how powerful they are, there is always another route. Or at least a way to evacuate as many people as possible so that more people could live. You went straight for a kill instead of taking everything into account. Whether this was the right choice or not, you and I both know it was not!" I yelled.

"Hahaha! Deny it all you want. Who just said they wanted to annihilate an entire race? Admit it, you are just as bloodthirsty and as crazy as I am! Do you think I do not know what is on your mind? How many times you thought it would just be easier to kill everyone you hate? Do you not know what is truly deep in your heart, screaming to come to the surface? Your fake facade that you show everyone. If anything, you are nothing but a walking lie!" Trinity yelled back.

"Everyone has moments where they wish to kill someone. I am no exception to this. I will admit that! But…. this does not change the fact that you wanted to kill billions of lives for five people. Why? Why would you do it? If you say, I am you, then why would you do something that you know would hurt me!? Wait… no…. I don't even care. What I want to know right now is, what are the Altorians? How are they so powerful? And what is the best way to fight them and keep the people of my empire safe? After what you did, I think you owe me this much." I did not wish to fight semantics with Trinity, who did not have the same mindset as me.

While yes, the current her was messing with my own thought process now, I still had enough control over my own mindset to try to avoid turning into a bloodthirsty killer. I have killed many, but all with good reason. I do not want to kill innocent people if I can help it.

"Humph!" Trinity looked at me and crossed her arms across her chest. "I think I paid you back enough, did I not? Stealing so much power from me…."

"You can consider that rent for using my body. Now you are paying the price of almost annihilating my people. If I was unable to reverse time as I did, billions of lives and families would have been lost or in mourning. How can I explain that to my people? The lives of the citizens of my empire are not for you to take, especially not with my own body." No matter how you look at it or how much I deny it, Trinity was currently part of me. I just had to figure out a way to get rid of her or somehow cut a deal with her not to do anything rash anymore. However, this is probably only my wishful thinking.

Chapter14 Trinity Part 2

"Hah rent! Right…." Trinity said mockingly. "Isn't it more like you are the one who owes me rent? Originally you were me. You are just a part of me that was released from the seal to keep going with the soul that belongs to me. You keep saying we are not the same, but it is the truth whether you like it or not!"

"If that is the case, why would you do such stupid things!? You have so much power, but you do not seem to care about anything!" I yelled out. I did not want to bring this conversation back to this, but it seemed Trinity was not going to let me change the subject so easily.

"Heh…. Why should I care?" Trinity asked with her lips curled up. "Little Faith, you are too naive. You think the world can be won over with good deeds, but this is not the case! Any world, no matter which one you live on is filled with strife. The people that you wish to save, how many actually give a shit about you? Which one of them would actually spend time running to your aid when you are in danger? None! They would rather save themselves and leave you to your death than try to help you because they only care about saving their own lives.

"You may be the empress of this empire. You may care for the people of your land, but why must you sacrifice yourself for them? Why must you care for the lives of others when you are already doing so much for them? You are lucky Azengrade backed down. You are lucky that, combined with you still wearing my armor and your time magic that you were able to make him feel wary of you. If you even knew he had been tricked, not only you but every living being in this empire you so love would have died. Your loved ones, your friends and family, all of them. All of them would have died because of how naive you are.

"The Altorians are not what you think they are. They are not a race that you can easily deal with. They are parasites that will eat their way into a sentient being's brain and control them and make them do things against their will. They take over whole planets and grow and spread. Then when there is no one left to infect, they will move on to another world. They are a plague. They will consume and consume.

"I have lived my life hunting them down. Every last one of them must die! You do not know what it is like to watch your family being consumed and turned into an Altorian. They retain their memories, but they have no feelings for anyone but their own race. So they will not care for your people. To them, it is all a game. So I made it my life's work to kill them. I spent years growing stronger and stronger. Picking them off one at a time. I have destroyed countless of planets one after the other to get rid of those disgusting things.

"You want to save your people, I understand, but you are still naive. It only takes a single infection, and in a span of days, there will multiply, and soon your billions of citizens will turn on you and try to kill you. Hahahaha!" Trinity paused as she looked at me with crazed eyes.

"Think about it, your lovers all of a sudden having their skin split and showing glowing lines on them. Each one showing their disgust for you. No longer loving you. Wanting to kill you. Think about it! You naive bitch! Do you know what it is like to watch your parents go from a loving mother and father to people who are trying to shove this disgusting worm down your throat to make you one of them? Do you know what it is like to have no choice but to kill your own parents to escape with your life? Huh!? Hahaha…." Trinity tilted her head. Her lips curled up into a smile. "Life is not what it seems. You are happy now, but now that the Altorians are here, you will suffer the same fate as I have. You will become someone who has no choice but to rely on me, the one you deny. We will relive what I have lived through in my past life. We will see it all. We will watch as we have no choice but to kill the ones we love.

"You do not seem to understand what it means for the Altorians to show up. Whether you believe me or not is up to you. Now that you know what they are and how they act let's see how you are able to break free from this mess. You had your chance to kill five of them, and you gave that chance up." Trinity snorted and sat on the ground, crossing her hands across her chest.

I was shaken by her words. I was unsure if I should believe them or not. I was unsure if she was telling the truth. But the look in her eyes. Although they looked crazy, deep down, I saw sorrow. Pain that still lingered inside her to this very day.

"Then I just have to get stronger. Stronger than even you. They sealed you because you were a threat to them, so I just have to be sure to be stronger than you to show you that there is always a way." Yes. Strength. I just needed to level more. If I level more, then I might be able to win this fight. But the question was, did I have the time?

"Heh…. You do have one thing going for you. This world seems to like you. While those Altorians seem to have a bit of control over the dungeons you have visited, you have that system. This is something I did not have. I have nothing. I could only use my blood, sweat, and tears to grow stronger, even though it took me millions of years only to be sealed off and forced to watch a part of my soul live many lives. But don't get me wrong. I will not give you any more of my power. You stole enough already. Until the day you realize you need me, I will no longer surface. From this moment on, whether we live or die will be up to you. To be honest, I am tired of it all…. Let's see what the great Faith can do." With these words, Trinity suddenly disappeared. The blood red side of my spirit domain stayed, but she was nowhere to be seen.

I don't know what brought about this change in attitude. But maybe deep down. Trinity was actually a good girl who just longed to take revenge for all she had lost. Maybe her outburst was something she needed to do all this time….. Of course, this is my own speculation, and she could just be lying low until I was at my weakest once more…..

Chapter15 Heading To The Undead Kingdom

--AN) Sorry all, power kept going on, so chapters are late.--

When I woke up next, I found everyone huddled around me, looking at me nervously. I could see the care and concern in their eyes. "It's me…." I spoke softly as I slowly got up. Luckily my armor spell was still active, or else I might not be able to handle what I needed to do next.

"Is it really you?" Adel looked at me suspiciously, causing me to grin slyly as I said: "On our trip back to the capital from when I first left home, you had to pee really badly, but because we were not in a spot we could stop you…."

"Stop! Okay, it's you!" Adel yelled out while covering my mouth. Everyone gave her strange looks as her face turned bright red. She glared at me and punched my chest lightly as I laughed. "You asked~."

"I didn't ask you to reveal an embarrassing moment!" Adel yelled out as she for up and stomped her feet.

"So what happened to this Trinity" Sophie asked, getting on point.

"She yelled at me and called me naive before disappearing. But I now know what we are up against, and it is not good. I told you about my dreams. And one of them had us all fighting against people with purple lines on their bodies. Well, these people are Altorians, Azangrade's race, and they are parasites at that. They take over worlds and infect the citizens to give rise to more of their kind. And they are powerful at that. We can probably assume they are already infecting some of the kingdoms of this world. We need to push things forward. Adel, I want you to talk to Runa and ask her to bring more people from the elven kingdom. Get Annie to find all the craftsmen in the empire and have them come to the capital. You can take my seal to make sure it gets done in a timely fashion. Also, tell your father he needs to come sit on the throne for a bit to deal with the daily things. Let him know what is going on as well. Sophie, you will help her with this. Go now because every second counts."

"On it! Sophie, let's go!" Adel grabbed Sophie's hand, and they ran out of the room.

After they left I looked at Iena, Diablo, and Freidinia: "Iena, you will guard my house with Sally and Sei. Fill them in on everything that has happened. And please protect everyone there. My house is currently our only hope at this time since it has all our operations going on underneath it."

"I will protect it with my life. But Faith, please be careful." Iena gave me a worried look before running off.

"Diablo, Freidinia, you two will come with me to the Undead Kingdom. No matter what, we must investigate what is going on. I am not sure if Altorians can change undead, but we can at least find out. Either way, we need an answer to this invasion." Although mostly everyone was unharmed, there were still a few who were affected by their life force being sucked out of them.

"Master, are you sure you want to do this? We can go and investigate for ourselves." Freidinia asked.

"Yes, I need to hear with my own ears the reason for this sudden attack," I answered as I stood up.

"Let me at least send some shadows. There is no reason not to, right?" Diablo's words made sense, so I nodded my head. It was not a bad idea to know what we were walking into.

"Alright." With this, Diablo summoned multiple shadows that quickly disappeared. Only then did we fly out of the castle and head to the undead kingdom.

Because We had Diablo there pulling us along, we reached the border in just a few hours. There was an entire kingdom between us and the undead kingdom, which I made sure to use my detection magic on to see if I could see anything out of place, and sure enough, there was nothing. This meant that the Cyrilia Empire was their target from the start. Why this was, I do not know, unless they were wary of me.

I had a lot of questions but no answers at this time. When we reached the border, the kingdom that bordered it, the Rosen Kingdom, had a massive fortified fortress wall that spanned the entire border. There was also a dull gray barrier around the entire undead kingdom as well. There was only one entrance if you wished to go to the kingdom by foot, but I did not plan to be nice about my entry as I flew straight to the barrier and transformed my hand into a huge fist, and slammed it into the barrier shattering it into dust.

They came to my kingdom in the same manner. I will do the same to them. "Let's head to their castle."

Diablo and Freidinia nodded as he continued forward. "Faith, the shadows are finding something strange about the undead here…. Normally undead are like the living and are living out their daily lives, but these are just wandering around mindlessly… Like they have lost all their intelligence."

"Ignore it for now. Either way, we will need to head to the capital. We will see if the undead there are in the same boat." I only wanted an answer for the attack by the undead. Because to dig such a long tunnel to our kingdom would have taken a lot of time, even with earth magic. At least, I think, anyway.

As we continued flying over the undead towns and cities that were not much different from our own, I noticed right away the aimless wandering around as if they had really lost all their intelligence. Somewhere even walking into walls and other things falling over and then getting back up as if nothing had happened.

"The capital city is just head. The shadows are already there, and there seems to be some kind of battle going on there." Diablo explained. I nodded as I saw the smoke rising overhead. It was then that a thought came to mind. "Diablo, if Azengrade used earth magic, how quickly could he move to our empire?"

Chapter16 More Questions Than Answers

"If all five of them worked together with their power in just an hour or so." Diablo answered and then asked: "Are you thinking Azengrade did something to the undead to make them the way they are now?"

"Yeah, it would only make sense. If there is a massive battle going on at the capital, then that only means something has happened in this kingdom. Luckily I did not act on my earlier words…." Now that things seemed to be falling into place, I couldn't help but curse myself for having such thoughts before. But then again, if this was not the case, then what would I have done? Would my emotions take over? Would I have really annihilated the undead kingdom?

When we arrived at the capital, undead were fighting undead. But there was a distinct difference in the organization. The ones attacking the city seemed to be in a berserk type state, while the undead within the city was organized. But the thing about the berserker undead as they seemed to have something protecting them from damage.

"Diablo, I am going to teleport us in." I grabbed both Diablo's and Freidinia's hands and used dimensional transfer to move inside the barrier without destroying it. I then waved my hand and put another barrier around the kingdom of the undead.

"Who are you!?" A skeleton with thick black armor yelled out as he stepped on air and came over to us.

"I am the Empress of the Cyrilia Empire. Earlier, millions of your undead attacked my empire with the Altorians, or should I say the people with purple lines." I explained.

"Those bastards!" The skeleton seemed truly angered. Even his bones were shaking. "Your highness, on behalf of the undead Kingdom, I apologize. My name is General Tur. I will bring you to his Majesty. As you can see, we have a crisis on our hands."

"Thank you. And I now know it is not your kingdom's fault, so do not worry about it. I should apologize for destroying your kingdom's barrier. I put a new one up to replace it." I scratched my chin. I destroyed it out of anger but now…. Well, I guess this makes us even a bit….

"It's fine. His Majesty will not hold it against you. Please, this way." General Tur did not seem upset at all over my action.

We followed General Tur to the castle. The castle looked like a giant church. I can tell now why they call it the citadel. It was very grand and gothic looking. It had tall peaks on the towers and large stained glass windows with strange depictions on them.

We were led right to the throne room, where many other undead were in a meeting. "General Tur, what is the…. Who is this?"

"Your Majesty, this is the new Empress of The Cyrilia Empire. Our…. People attacked her empire…." General Tur answered.

I looked up at the man, that had gray skin and long white hair, and nodded my head. This man was what was called a Lich. He was the ruler of the undead kingdom. "I am Empress Cyrilia, Undead King. I came to find out why your people had attacked my lands with the Altorians, but it seems I might have let my anger get to me now that I see what is happening in your kingdom."

"It is my pleasure, and I am truly sorry for what my people have done. As their leader, I am ashamed to say I have no control over the actions of the undead outside my citadel." By citadel, I guess the entire capital was considered his citadel, which made since the main building resided in the middle of the city. "I am the Lich King Drandla. If I may ask, who are these Altorians?"

"They are the people with the purple lines on their bodies. A parasitic race that invades worlds and takes over their people." I explained lightly. "May I ask if you have come in contact with such people?"

The lich king sighed as he nodded his head. "As you know, we Lich are immortal. I built this kingdom in order to allow other liches like myself to have a place where they will not be shunned or killed. At first, when the Altorians, as you call them, showed up and offered us an incentive to trade, I thought it was time to try to open our doors to the outside world after so many years. And I hoped that the world would accept us, but I never thought…..

"I spoke with someone named Azengrade who wanted to trade and suggested we test it out on one of the border towns first to see if the living and the Lich could coexist. I felt like this was a good plan, and so I allowed it, but…. It was only a few days later that reports began coming in about the humans having their life force sucked away. It was then that things spiraled out of control. Every soldier we sent was turned into a mindless undead. They were no different from the scourge. They were brainless and only seemed to follow a single command. I am not sure what happened to them, but as you can see, the result is the war outside." The lich king had a bitter smile on his face. He seemed helpless in this situation.

"Hmmm… I wonder why Azengrade decided to use your people in such a way. The same goes for the way Teladeadja was trying to control the dwarves. If they only need to produce more parasites and inject them into their host, why are they going about things in a roundabout way? Is it some kind of game?" I really did not understand their actions. The only action I know makes sense is their attack on the capital because they seemed to have noticed Trinity. But I am still confused as to why they are playing games, I guess you can say, with the other kingdoms.

Chapter17 Mana Signatures

"They may be experimenting." The lich king spoke up. He folded his hands in his lap and let out a long sigh. "He originally came here to try to allow my kind and the living to get along but look what happened. He used them, and in the end….. I do apologize for this. And I do not blame you for their deaths. As you can see, even now we are fighting our own."

"Experimenting huh?" I frowned. If that was the case, then what if he found a more powerful race? One that is strong enough to take over the entire world with little effort but not strong enough to resist the parasites…. If I had only pushed Trinity for more answers, then maybe…. "Do you know which race on this planet is the strongest even if they are in seclusion?"

"The strongest? Besides the dragons…. I would say the one stronger than them might not exist anymore. At one point, there was a race of beings that were known as the Nolights. They were named that because they hid in the darkness. They did not come out during the day and only walked around at night. They were just like you humans, only they were long lived and had magic powers stronger than dragons. But they were a race that was closed off. I only know this because I have met them myself once and was even almost killed by them. I took my everything to escape. But if these Nolights were to be taken over then we might not have any chance of survival." The lich king answered.

I never knew of such a race on this planet. So this was a first for me. But what concerned me was not this race but the other continents. "Was this only on this continent?"

"Yes… Sadly I can not speak about other lands. I only know what we have on this continent. But if there are the Nolights, then maybe… just maybe there are even more stronger races out there on other continents that we do not know about." The lich king let out a heavy sigh, and so did I.

"Then I guess we will have no choice but to send an expedition out…." I still had to continue leveling up. The Altorians needed to be tracked. We also needed to check the other continents. It was not going to be an easy task.

"I will send shadows out. It will take them a while to reach the other places, but I can at least have them all over this continent within a few hours." Diablo spoke up as he placed his hand on my head.

"Then we will do that. It is our only option, for now, to try to keep track of things. I will talk to the dwarves and the elves and see if we can create something that will be able to track everyone on this planet who has a proper mana signature." I was thinking if we were to create a satellite and I flew it up into space, we could easily keep track of things over the whole planet. Well, I would need a few satellites, but it would be worth it.

"Track the mana signatures?" The lick king asked out of curiosity.

"Mmm… the world we live in all has mana. Everything has mana in it. But living organisms have a different sort of mana signature, and it is different per species. But if we narrow things down to those who are of the races, we can easily keep track of them since there is one thing that every race has, and that is its mana spark in their hearts. It is strange to say, and I only realized it myself not too long ago, but when I use detection magic, I know who is who based on their mana spark. Like I can tell a monster compared to a human just by their mana spark. While I am not sure if all the sentient races on this planet can be cidered the same in this aspect, I do know that most are. So…. If we can track them, we can check for any strangeness in their being. Like I noticed a weird fluctuation in the undead outside that you are fighting against. This fluctuation might not seem much, but it is very different from those who have not gone crazy." I explained.

"Then…. If you can really do as you say, you might be able to tell who the Altorians have infected or done something to?" The lich king asked.

"It's a theory, but it is worth putting to a test. But I will need to have the elves and dwarves work on such a device first. As of now, we do not know if we can even reverse what is done. Or if every being will react in the same way. We still have a lot we need to figure out, so we can only work on this one step at a time. Lich King, I do hope you can work with my Empire on this. I wonder, do you mind capturing a few of the berserker undead?" We were starting to formulate a plan, so if we could use both magic and technology and make use of things this world has never seen before to our advantage, we may just be able to keep ourselves from being overrun.

"Of course. I have, in fact, already many at my disposal. But I must ask….." The lich king's voice went soft: "Can you take care of my current problem?"

"Mm… I was about to offer this. I can use an area heal on those infected. It will cleanse them and turn them to ash…." I know this was not the nicest way to go for undead, but it was the quickest.

"I will leave that to you then. As for the ones we already have captured. We will prepare them to be ready to leave with you." The lich king gave me his thanks before giving out orders to his men.

Chapter18 Exchanging Hosts

In no time at all, I was already standing out at the entrance of the city again with the Lich King at my side. He wanted to see for himself the end of his people's lives. "Are you sure? I can put them in a barrier for the time being if you wish. We can then wait and see if the effects can be reversed…."

"Will the barrier be able to hold them?" The lich king asked. I smiled and nodded my head as I said: "Move your people back. I will put up a ten layer barrier for the time being. If this doesn't hold them, then I need to train more."

Luckily I thought of this before killing them all off. Because if we were able to turn them back then it would be a huge loss and more blood on my hand than I really want. When his people retreated behind their city barrier, I quickly set up another barrier which surrounded the berserker undead. It went underground as well, so nothing could escape easily. As a final touch, I also added an eleventh barrier that spun for added protection. This was a just in case barrier.

When I was done, I returned to the throne room where a berserker undead was being held. It was flailing about as three undead soldiers held it down with magic. The lich king kindly explained why this was. " We can not go near it, or we will be infected, so we can only use magic to keep it from spreading anything to us."

"I see…. So it can be restrained with magic…." I looked at the skeleton and used appraisal on it.

[Undead Skeleton]

[Level: 467]

[Status Effect: Parasitic Invasion]

"Oh?" I had yet to use appraisal on the skeletons, so I was quite surprised that they showed they were actually controlled by something. I scanned the entire body and found a small worm in the skull. It was latching on to the skeletons' source of life. "Appraisal."

[Infant Altorian]

[Level: 1]

[Will only mature once it has consumed enough lifeforce.]

"Hmmm…. Let's try this." My eyes lit up as I used dragon speak: "Stop!" I did not use it on the skeleton but on the worm in its head. I smiled when I saw that the worm had actually stopped feeding. "Move out through the nose…."

At my command, it did as I said and slowly made its way to the nose of the skeleton. But just as it was about to exit it, the entire skeleton suddenly combusted into a blaze of blue flames. The skeleton kicked and screamed as it burned into nothing but ash, the same with the worm as well… "A fail safe?"

"Empress Cyrilia, this? What was what?" The lich king asked.

"That was some kind of self induced combustion of the worm inside the skeleton's head. I was using one of my powers to control the worm and was trying to remove it so we could study it. If we can remove it this way, it might return the host back to normal. I never thought it would have some kind of fail safe…" As I explained this, another idea came to mind. I looked at Freidinia and asked: "Did you notice anything?"

"It seemed to trigger once it came into contact with air. But it might not be the case if we can transfer it into a new host we can dissect and examine the worm. The worms themselves do not have much mana or life force, so they can not survive outside the host body for even a few seconds." Freidinia answered. I was quite surprised she got all his information just from a single observation.

"What if we moved it to a monster or something?" I asked.

"This may be possible, but it might need an undead. I might not be correct on this assumption, but I think these worms evolve with the host they first latch on to." Freidinia's assumption may be right. We all began thinking, trying to figure out what to do next.

"Alright, let's get an undead monster here, and we will use them to test if we can move them from one host to another." I felt it was worth a try. If it didn't work, we could always try some other things out.

"Quickly bring an undead monster here!" The lich king did not seem to mind my not asking his permission for things as he gave orders right away. I know I was being rude by not asking her permission, but I felt this was really worth testing out. It could save all of the berserker undead outside.

But one thing did bother me. "Freidinia, you said it combusted when it came in contact with air, but….. This was a skeleton…."

"Undead have a membrane inside their skulls, especially skeletons. This is how they keep their mana and everything inside them." Freidinia's answer was still confusing since I do not know the undead race all that much, so I will just learn as I go.

Not long later, a skeleton monster was brought back along with another berserker skeleton. "Okay, this time, I will order it to move to a new host. This might be a better command."

"It is worth a try. It may just work out better and keep it from combusting on instinct." Freidinia agreed with my idea. I took a deep breath and said: "Stop and move to the new host!"

The worm inside the skull wiggled before slowly crawling toward the nose. It was slow, but it did eventually arrive at the nose. The two skeletons were face to face as the worm hesitated a moment before suddenly rushing out of its current host and into the other. It was so fast that one would have missed it if one had blinked.

"It worked!" We all cheered and looked at the original host. The skeleton shook its head and sat up, and looked around in confusion… When it saw the lich king, it began to panic and quickly bowed its head. "Your highness!"

"No need to bow. Stand up. We need to ask you questions." The lich king's lips curled up into a smile. With this, we had a way to move the worms to a new host and saving his people. I couldn't help but fist pump on the inside, knowing we had actually made progress.

Chapter19 Results And Planning For More Dungeons

"How many is this?" I asked as I sat down. This was a very tedious process, but we needed many test subjects.

"This makes over one hundred," Diablo answered.

"Okay, and how are the trials going?" While we were exchanging hosts, we were also testing how to extract the worms in different ways as well.

"I might have been able to figure out a method that we can do on a mass scale," Freidinia replied as she held a jar up with a bit of energy in it and a worm. "I recreated the conditions of the undead in a simplistic state. It's basically just a ball of mana, but it has the characteristics of the undead without any sentience. It's just that the worms do not seem to realize it."

My eyes lit up. Finally! "Do you think this same method can be used for the living as well?"

"I am not sure. Until we can grab hold of a few turned Altorians I do not think I will be able to do much. The brain of a living being is much different. I would need to know what they are feeding off of and what their commands are. They might be race specific as well, which will make things harder. The reason these are easier to do is because they are in a berserker state. If they were more conscious, like Azengrade and the rest it might be hard to get them to leave the host, and if they do, the host might be brain dead as well." Freidinia explained.

"Either way, it is still worth the try. If they are infected we can only test them. Even if they end up brain dead, it is better than doing things against their will or out of their control altogether. For all, we know, the Altorians could be eating the consciousness of the beings they take over so they might no longer be who they once were." I hated to use people as test subjects, but if we are able to somehow save those who become hosts for the Altorians, we can at least turn the tides and build up a bigger force to fight against them.

"When we are able to get a few test subjects, we can then test from there. For now, I will need all the jars we can get. As long as they can fit a worm inside, they will do. I don't even care if they are dirty." Freidinia gave out her order, and the lich king could only be at our beck and call since we were the ones saving his people. He quickly did as we asked, and soon the room was being filled with bottles.

Hour after hour, we worked day and night non stop. Until we finally turned the berserker undead back to normal. I let out a sigh of relief as I sat down. I was very tired, but this was needed in order to get a better understanding of these worms, and now we have billions of them that can be used to experiment on. "Empress Cyrilia. You have my thanks. You not only did not hold it against my people for the invasion of your empire, but you also saved my people."

"It wasn't your fault, to begin with. Anyway, if you truly wish to thank me, then form an open alliance with my Empire. It will allow trade of specific goods between our nations and also provide assistance as well when needed. This will also keep my people from harming yours and vice versa." I was too tired to really explain things in detail. So Diablo did it for me.

And within the same day, a new light flashed throughout both our nations allowing the Undead Kingdom and the Cyrilia Empire to be allies without bounds. This also applied to the elven kingdom as well.

"I am sure you have much to straighten out with your people. The teleport that I created will be linked to an embassy that I will set up for you in the coming days. I will send notice over the crystal orb I provided for you. " I explained as I held Diablo's and Freidinia's hands.

"Then I will speak to you then." The lich king smiled and waved goodbye as we disappeared.

The past few days were trying, but even so, I made a report to our officials. And set up a secluded lab where all the worms were to be stored. These worms were to be locked in a special barrier that Freidinia had created that would keep their aura sealed away. Although the jars already had such a seal, it was still something that needed to be done just in case.

Once I was done, I wandered to my bedroom, where Sophie, Adel, and Iena were all waiting for me. They helped me undress and allowed me to curl up in their embrace and fall into a deep sleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I was hugging Sophie like a body pillow, unwilling to let go. Her fluff was just too amazing. "It's not fair that Sophie gets all the cuddles…."

"Then grow some fluff…." I muttered as I sank into the fluff and wrapped my arms and legs around Sophie.

"I would if I could!" Adel whined, but she did not seem mad at all. Sophie, on the other hand, seemed very happy as she hugged my arms. Iena was still sound asleep. The girls all had a busy day the past few days as well. "That's it I am joining too!" Adel gave up and hugged me from the back. In the end, all three of us fell asleep like this.

When I woke up next, the sun was high in the sky, and only Sophie was left in bed with me. Not that she could slip out of my fluff death grip. "Good morning, sleepy head."

"Mmm… Morning…. Kiss…." I mumbled. Sophie rolled over and kissed my lips, making me smile before I clung on to her once more and buried my head into her neck, and sunk my teeth in. The sensation of sucking blood was strange to me. I still feel hungry a few times a day, but I do not need to eat all the time. I could probably go a week without eating, but I still couldn't resist. Sophie's soft voice as I sucked on her blood also tingled my ears. You can say that we did more than just a feeding session after that.

But that did put me in a good mood. Stress relief was very important, after all. When I walked downstairs, Adel was already organizing some things. She looked over at me and raised an eyebrow. "Where is Sophie?"

"Sleeping still. I wore her out just now after I ate." I said while sticking my tongue out. Adel chuckled and walked over, and hugged me. "You can't be biased."

"I know. You and Iena are tonight." I said as I hugged her back. "At least as long as nothing big happens."

"We will prepare." Adel licked her lips before kissing me and then putting her fingers to her chin and asking: "When do you plan to dungeon dive? The whole team is already waiting for this."

"I was thinking about next week after I finish a few things here. I want to run a few dungeons. But it will not be just with our team. We will be splitting up into groups. Everyone will have a team they will lead as we begin building our military levels. Mass recruitment of soldiers will need to begin as well. I was thinking of having General Briggs handle this. We will need all soldiers to jump into dungeons and make their way as far as they can. No one is allowed to die. If they can't push forward or are uncertain of the fight, they must retreat." Of course, I know people will still die in the dungeons. It is something that will happen no matter how prepared you are unless you are above the dungeon's level. But this was just a kind of thought that I wanted to instill in everyone's mind.

"So, does that mean we will all be splitting up?" Adel asked. She seemed a bit anxious.

"No. Not all the way. Sally, Sei, Sophie, and you will be on my team. Iena and Diablo will lead the other teams. We need those of higher levels to lead our elites. We can get more experience in smaller teams, so if we split up, we can gain experience faster. There is a dungeon in the elven capital that seems to be an instanced dungeon, so we can all go to the same place. The elven king has given me full access to it to the point that we now have a teleport to and from the dungeon." I explained. I did not want to split up like this, but the smaller teams would mean more experience. It has already been said among the mercenaries that many were leveling up faster in smaller teams rather than bigger teams.

"I see… Well, as long as I am with you since I really do not want to be split up from you." Adel pursed her lips. I reached up and ruffled her hair and smiled: "I know this. This is why I made the teams as they are. Diablo and Iena are both ways over my level and are perfect for power-leveling the others. I will do my best to do the same for you as well."

Chapter20 Mr. Blobs And The Slime Army Go Dungeon Diving

A month later, I found myself standing outside the entrance to a new dungeon. In front of me were not my teammates but an army of slimes! With Mr. Blobs jiggling in the front. I paced back and forth a few times with my hands behind my back. When I walked right, the slimes shifted to look at me. When I walked left, they shifted again to look at me. They were all very good little slimes. "Today is an important mission for all of you. You will be heading into this dungeon in teams! I want you all to work together and take down the enemy and level up as much as you can. Mr. Blobs will be forming his own team, while team leaders will also be forming teams as well. You are to work hard and level, level, level. If you can pick up skills, do so! Our future to survive will be left in your hands! You will have many missions and important tasks soon! I can not leave these tasks to the weak! So Work hard, and work together. I want all of you to come back fastly! What do you all say!?"

*Jiggle!*

Seeing them all jiggling and bouncing up and down, I smiled. My slimes are truly the best! A felt a tear well up in my eye as I quickly wiped it. "Good! Then go forth! And make the most of your time. If you complete the dungeon, then do it again! Keep going until you are all at least level 2000!"

*Jiggle!*

"Mmmm! Now go! " I watched as each team was quickly formed. This was thousands of slimes, all going into the dungeon in groups. My current slimes were now so many I lost count. The meter seems to be broken in the system. Not that it matters! Because they will only keep growing bigger over time! I turned and looked at the few girls behind me, who all had strange expressions on their faces, and ignored them! I don't care if I seem weird. My slimes will be the best!

In the past month, all my stats have finally been updated with the trickle. I now have some crazy stats:

[Name]: Faith Cyrilia

[Age] 17

[Level] 1428

[Race] Drakani Demigoddess

[HP] 1052500/1052500(3052500)

[MP] ∞

[Attack Power] 1584950

[Magic Power] 584950

[Status Points] 5850

[Strength] 158495

[Vitality] 105250

[Intelligence] 58495

[Mind] ∞

[Agility] 58495

[Skill Points] 1341

[Limit Break( 1/3)]

Total Domination

[Skills]

The strange thing is that my dragon form no longer raises my stats any more, which is kind of annoying. I was hoping it would make me stronger, but it doesn't. I guess this has something to do with the new race….

Either way, I guess it is okay. I can still use the weight of my partial transformation to my advantage by using the weight of my transformed limbs as a means of adding more damage which is useful. Not to mention my attack power and health now are much more than what they used to be in dragon form. It would just be nice if it stayed that way…..

But I guess such a bulky body is hard to fight in as well. So I am not too sad about it as I hardly use my dragon form. One good thing is that my new Armor of Infinity will shape shift with my partial transformations, which makes things easier. I can now cast it on me with just my underwear on and not have to worry about anything else. Like I can use my feet now as well instead of just my hands. The sword I picked up before seems to be a bit strange. It says it is a growth item, but it does not grow. In fact, it fused into my new armor of infinity spell and can now be called forth from that. Its name was Athena's Promise, but it really did not keep its promise and just stayed at normal stats. But having a sword that can now be summoned at will from any place on my body was quite neat.

"Faith, I may be seeing things but are you sending you slimes into the dungeon to level up?" Adel asked.

I turned and looked at her and smiled. "Hehe…."

"This… doesn't this mean you will also gain experience points!?" Now that Adel was saying something, this is very true! If the slimes kill things, I will gain experience from it, and in turn, so will those in my team. This was just….

"We should be much stronger after doing these dungeons a few times." And I mean very strong! I had forgotten that my slimes were basically my pets which were a part of me. I only know they can go into different instances of the dungeon because I had already checked. But now, this was a huge amazing thing! If they all cleared the dungeon, that was millions upon millions of free experience points!

"I never thought such a way of leveling up would be possible. If we can become stronger, we can easily become a match for the Altorians!" Sophie became excited, as did the other girls.

"I hope I can finally be of some use…." Sally looked depressed. I can see why though, since it had been hard on her to sit by and do nothing all this time.

"I know how you feel! It's not fair to use people who have not had a chance to do anything as of late to be left behind like this. At one point, I might have been a match for Faith, but now I feel like one flick of her finger will send me flying into the abyss." Sei was just as depressed as Sally for different reasons, though.

"Then let's put you to work and start leveling, shall we?"

Chapter21 How To Power Level

Upon entering the dungeon, we all looked around in awe at the strange landscape in front of us. Tall trees with colorful leaves, along with mushrooms taller than my head. "Faith, what kind of monsters should we expect to be facing here?"

"Plants…." Runa had told me that this place was filled with plant monsters, and it was hard to distinguish them from the regular plants and the ones that were monsters. But from what I was told, the plants here were on a high level, so I can hopefully get some experience myself.

One thing I hate about leveling is that I never get any experience points for monsters of a lower level. It is annoying since there are not many high level monsters to fight. While we have run into some strong monsters, things are now different due to my level. I can only hope the bosses will give me something at the very least on our first few run throughs.

"Plants!?" Adel seemed shocked, but then confusion filled her face as she began looking around. "Umm… Where is Grace?"

"I only said it would be the few of us. Grace is helping take care of things back at the capital with Freidinia. She is also now connected to me, so her level will also rise. Did you not realize she is much more powerful now?" I asked, which caused the girls to all frown.

"No fair! Why does Grace get it easy while we suffer? Quick turn me into your slave too!" Sei yelled out. She was always one to try to find the easy way out of things. She was also the one who slept in the most!

"No, go. Plus, if I did, I would probably make your work like a horse since all you do is laze around." I replied while sticking my tongue out at her.

"Then never mind. I have a feeling you would do such a thing!" Sei quickly retreated, causing us all to laugh.

"Getting back on point. The plants here are dangerous right now. I can see three, and they are all level 500." Sadly they were too low level for me to even be considered worth wild for me to gain experience from, but there was nothing I could do about that. The reason why I picked this dungeon in the first place was because of one thing I heard from Runa. The level of the dungeon seems to be based on party mid point. So with the girls in the level 100s and me at level 1000 plus, this means the mid point would be closer to their levels as I am the only one here at a high level. This is why I can say that we can run this multiple times. Because eventually, the mid point will get to a spot where I can start gaining experience as well.

Although this is all well and good for us all, there is one person who is actually slacking but complaining about not having a vacation, and that was my father in law who is now stuck running the empire for me.

I did say that he would need to do such things while I was gone. Luckily if anything happens because he is in team he can tell me right away. He will be getting free experience as well. But because he can tell me what is going on quickly, I can rest assured that I can appear there when needed and summon everyone back in under a minute with my dimensional transfer. I have checked, and my skill does work in this dungeon.

"What level five hundred!?" Sophie cried out. She seemed slightly frightened since her face paled a little.

"Don't worry. This is why I am here. For the time being, I will be helping you through the dungeon killing things. This is called power leveling. I will power level you all until you are able to fight on your own. But as we raise in level, the monsters will also become harder as well, so we have to be careful." Power leveling was invented in MMORPGs back on Earth. It was when you have a higher level tow you along and kill higher level monster for you to leech experience from. It allowed lower levels to level quickly.

"Oh…." Sophie nodded and let out a small sigh of relief. I think she was trying to hide the sigh, but I still heard it.

At any rate, the monsters in this dungeon were not all that hard from what I heard, at least the ones on the first floor. The second floor monsters were a bit harder, but that seems to be a trend for this dungeon. Although Runa did say that this dungeon had many floors and she was unsure what the floors were like past the fourth one since her people had yet to reach that level.

"Stay here. I will go see if I can round up a bunch of monsters." The key to a proper power leveling session was to round up as many monsters as possible and then kill them all! So with a wave of my hand, I put up a barrier around the girls, who were very confused at this moment, and took off to gather as many monsters as possible.

Luckily even though I was a higher level, these monsters were not shy about attacking me, but I did find something a little annoying. About half of them were rooted in place. Making it hard for them to chase after me. This was not what I really wanted, but this was not too bad. I still gathered up a hundred or so monsters all around level 400 to level 600. I then returned to where the girls were and cast an area of effect fire spell called: ring of fire. The monsters all caught on fire and died within a few seconds. With this, the power leveling session was underway!

Chapter22 Plant Monsters

The first batch of monsters I rounded up easily gave the girls ten levels which was nice. And for me, I got zilch… No experience whatsoever. But that was fine. As long as we continue like this, the girls will level up quickly. Some of the experience points even came from the slimes, who were doing well in leveling up as well.

"Alright, we will now go in and fight the ones who can't move. Be careful and watch your surroundings. There are many vine type monsters." I had to give this warning because when I was running around collecting a batch of monsters, I was almost tripped up a few times in the process.

This is why I have always disliked plant monsters. Even in novels, they were always the most annoying. Because it is hard to distinguish a plant monster from a real plant, after all, in a sense they are still plants.

A flower monster might be the same flower you sniffed not too long ago. You stop and sniff the same kind of flower only to have it suddenly open up and show razor sharp teeth that bite your head off and then consume you slowly. And that is if you are lucky to have a quick death by the plant. From what I know from Runa's explanation, some of the plants will slowly devour you within their bodies using a special acid their bodies produce.

It is not the best of ways to go, that is for sure. Runa had told me that many had died when they first entered the dungeon before they figure out what was what for monsters. One thing I have to say is lucky for her is that the monsters here are level based, so it enables her people to level properly without worrying about taking on monsters way too strong for them.

Although maybe plant monsters are kind of horrifying. When they attacked, they looked quite grotesque and even alien like. But now that I am thinking about it, there were some grotesque plants back on Earth as well.

If life on Earth evolved in even a slightly different manner, the plants of that planet could have grown legs and run around chasing after early humans. Maybe it would have never become so advanced and would have been more of a tribal planet. But who knows? Maybe humans would not have been able to evolve at all, and the me of that world, would never have been born. It is a strange thing to think about, but it is a possibility.

"Faith, watch out!" Sophie snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked up to see a large brown vine lashing out at me. I snorted and raised my sword, and slashed down, slicing it in two.

I pursed my lips, looking at the purple ooze coming from the cut parts. It was fizzling and melting the ground. If that had landed on any of us, we probably would have melted too. Luckily we all have barriers up, so that will not happen, but still. These kinds of plants are indeed scary if you are not careful.

"Faith, are you okay?" Adel asked as she came to my side.

"Mm… Just in my own world." I had to kinda be out in my own world to do power leveling. Killing monsters was not all that fun, to begin with. It was a big grind, and I was one to hate the grind.

I liked leveling up, but only if it was fruitful, so fighting monsters with no true reward was not very fun to me. The girls were leveling up, which was my intention, but still, it was very tedious and boring. And we just started! I did not plan to stop our leveling mission until everyone was at least level 1000 plus. We needed at least this strength for the time being. But even if I do have this kind of goal in mind, it was still boring as can be!

It took us three hours to clear the first floor. When we found the set of stairs leading down it was surrounded by strange pink glowing mushrooms that wiggled back and forth. Luckily, they were small, and if you stepped on them, they would squish instantly. They were not monsters at all, and according to appraisal, they tasted sweet, but….. They were hallucinogenic. This meant if you ate one, you would really be in for some freaky things.

When we reached the second floor it was much like the previous floor. I once again rounded up all the monsters that could roam around before killing the stationary ones after. This time the girls even helped with fighting.

Each floor was the same until we reached the fifth floor. This was a mini boss I guess you could call it, as it was just a big room that was sealed off once we all entered the room. And in the middle was a large Mushroom that was level 1034. "Careful."

"Is this a boss?" Sei asked as she looked at the huge pink and blue mushroom. It looked very ominous if you asked me.

"Yes…."

[Boss: Mutated Mush]

[Level 1034]

[Health 2000000/2000000]

[Mana 500000/500000]

It did not have the best of names, but I do wonder what makes this different from the other floors. But I did worry. The blue on the mushroom kind of stuck out to me as troublesome. I had not seen any blue mushrooms besides the mini mushrooms that were on the stairs leading down to each floor, so if it was mutated with parts of those little mushrooms, then we might be in trouble.

"I suggest that everyone use the spell I made to filter air…." Luckily I had made a special magic spell just for this that I had everyone learn. When you think of plants, there are kinds that have spores. And some novels also had these spores be used as poisonous attacks. The girls quickly cast their spells without a second thought. I also did the same. As we slowly entered the boss room from the stairwell, the boss that was slumbering suddenly shook, and spores really did fly through the air. It was just that….

*Sprout!*

Chapter23 The Troublesome Boss

"Ummm…." I touched my head to feel a small mushroom on top of it. I took a deep breath and tried to pull on it. "Ouch!"

"Faith! We all got mushrooms growing on our heads!" Sei yelled out. She seemed to be panicking.

"Relax. I will cast appraisal on us." I turned and looked at everyone. Each one of us had an identical mushroom growing out of our heads. "Appraisal…."

"A mimic mushroom?" I looked at the status effect on us and was a bit confused. I did not understand what it meant by mimic mushroom. There was no explanation….

"Ummm…. Should we try to attack the mushroom?" Sally asked, she seemed confused as to what to do.

"I am not sure…." Thinking for a moment, I decided to have Adel attack since she was the one with the lowest attack power. So if she used a sword to attack, it would not do much damage. My only issue was the mimic part which was why I was being so cautious. "Adel you will come with me. I want you to poke the boss with a sword. Do not attack but just poke it."

"Okay?" Adel gave me a confused look but it was still hard for me to explain since I was not one hundred percent sure this was correct or not.

We both walked towards the mushroom. I had my sword drawn just in case, but even when we stood right in front of the boss it did not move. "Okay, poke it gently."

"Like this?" Adel poked the mushroom with the sword I handed her, and as soon as it touched the mushroom, the mushroom wigged, and Adel let out a pained cry. "Ouch!"

"I figured this would happen…." I said as I rubbed my chin.

"If you knew this would happen, why did you ask me to poke it!?" Adel gave me an aggrieved expression. I gave a cheeky smile as I kissed her lips. "I choose you because you have the least amount of attack power. If I did that I would end up with most of my health gone. The same goes for the others."

"No fair!" Adel pouted. She explained that she felt pain throughout her entire body. It was as if she was struck by electricity. She even lost two points of health as well. But this allowed me to understand one thing. This first floor boss was no joke. The mushrooms on our heads acted as a transmitter. It transmitted the damage from the big guy to the little guys, which meant these little mushrooms were basically a parasitic type of mushroom that would then transfer that damage to the user.

"No one is to attack…." I said as I gazed at the stupid mushrooms on our heads. A thought came to mind, but I was not sure if it would work or not. Since the big mushroom was connected to these little mushrooms, would the big mushroom take damage if the little ones took damage?

"Don't be alarmed if I suddenly cry out in pain. I am testing something." I warned before taking my sword and stabbing it at the mushroom on my head. And sure enough, my guess was completely and utterly….. Wrong! "Ouch! Heal! Heal!"

My poor health! Even my heals were doing nothing! These damn little mushrooms are like the root of all evil! "Faith! What happened!?"

"Do not attack the little mushrooms, and do not get hurt. We need to figure out how to deal with this. I just took off five hundred health by attacking the mushroom on my head, and all my heals seemed to be transferred to the boss!" I cried out. There was no visible injury, but the shock you get from harming the little mushroom was intense!

"What should we do then? We can't just sit here doing nothing…." Sei seemed to be very worried about our situation.

"I am not sure we will just need to figure things out. For the time being, let's try to see if we can find anything unusual in the room. If you do, yell out." The girls nodded, and we all began searching the room. What we were looking for, I had no idea, but we had to look around for some kind of means to beat the boss.

As of now, we only knew two things. The boss would send a physical attack back at its user. The mimic mushroom on our heads would do the same. My heals seemed to be ineffective when trying to heal myself. But we had yet to use magic on the boss. I was a bit afraid to do so and would only do so if we could not find anything to deal with our current situation.

We looked around our room all over the place and could not really find anything worth mentioning. There were glow mushrooms, but even if you stepped on them, they did nothing. I know this because I tried, just in case. I kicked all the rocks, and seven stabbed the walls of the room, but nothing seemed to have any effect.

"There has to be something!" I looked around and only saw the boss mushroom silently sitting there doing absolutely nothing amusing.

If we could just figure out how this boss works, everything would be fine. But I am afraid if we do something wrong, one of us might die. If this happens, I would not be able to live with myself knowing I caused a friend's or lover's death. But then again, this could be the meaning behind it. What if the pain we are feeling is a means to defeating the boss? I know it sounds crazy, and it could be that this boss needs one of us to die to move on, which I can not allow. It makes me wonder if I can jump out of the dungeon and then bring back a monster or something to test this theory…. I guess I will leave this thought to be a last case scenario….

Chapter24 Hurts Like Hell

"Anything?" I called out. We did not have to worry about the boss attacking us, but we were still trying to find some clue as to how to defeat this boss so we could move on.

"Nothing here!"

"Not here either…."

"Faith, I think we need to figure something else out."

"Alright, let's gather and eat something…." I had to think about this. The mushroom takes damage from physical attacks and sends it back to us. I felt this firsthand. I tried healing myself, and it had no effect. If my assumption is correct, the healing probably healed the mimic mushroom or the boss mushroom.

The only things I have not tried are casting attack magic on the boss mushroom or poking myself. Now I am no masochist, so stabbing myself does not sound like a good time. And I can't bear to harm the others either. But we were running out of options…. "You girls stay here. I will be right back. I need to get a monster in here to test something…."

"Okay." Adel and the girls nodded. I waved my hand and went to use dimensional transfer, but when I did, nothing happened.

"Hmmm?" I looked around and tried again. But still nothing. "Really? Is this room sealed from all transportation magic!?"

"It's probably because we are in a boss room. Remember before we couldn't leave the boss room no matter what?" Adel was right. The room was sealed with magic blocking all exits. This also meant transportation magic of any kind.

I couldn't help but frown. I grew stronger, but I was still too weak to overcome the stupid dungeon! I really did not want to do this, but we had no choice. "Adel, poke me with your sword…."

"Huh? Why would I do that!? No!" Adel firmly shook her head and seemed to be fully against stabbing me. Well, I can understand why. I also did not explain things clearly either.

"I need to test something, so just stab me." I needed her to do it because I could not let my health drop below a certain threshold. Even if I had to take damage until I was almost dead, it would be worth it to kill the boss mushroom. At least then they could heal me.

Adel bit her lip as she looked at me. She stomped her feet a few times before walking over and gently poking me with her sword.

[-1 Health….]

The -1 did not damage me but the boss mushroom! While I did feel pain, the small cut did disappear after. This was probably due to my new skill from my armor, less instant regeneration. It was not so instant on large wounds as my health was slowly still rising from my previous self inflicted wound. But now I know that as long as they all attacked me, we could defeat the boss.

"Okay, it worked. We took one health off! Everyone, attack me! Just do not go for fatal points." As soon as I said this, I got strange looks. "Just do it! I do not wish to spend the rest of my life stuck in a damn boss room!"

"Fine, but don't think I will hold back!" Sei smiled brightly as she walked over and wound up her fist, and threw a punch right at my face!

"Ouch! Why did you aim for my face!?" I held my nose, which was now red. At least I wasn't bleeding! I glared at Sei, who was holding her hand with tears in her eyes.

"Why is your nose so hard!" Sei cried out.

"Serves you right for aiming for the face! You should be using a sword and stabbing me with it anyways! Why are you punching!?" My poor nose!

"I thought I could get some payback for training!" Sei shook her hand and blew on it. In the end, I am not sure who took more damage, me or Sei. However, the mushroom did jiggle just now and was one hundred health lower than before.

I rolled my eyes and snorted at her as I picked up my sword and stabbed my arm through. It hurt like hell, but when I saw another six thousand health drop off the boss, I knew I was on the right track. I pulled my sword out, and the wound began to close up.

Now it was just a matter of who will die first. The boss mushroom or me from blood loss. I swear if I knew who created this boss, I would definitely hunt them down and kill them with everything I have!

But sadly, I do not have such an ability at this time. Because I am sure whoever created these dungeons in the first place was probably on a godly scale. How Azengrade was able to control a portion of the dungeon, I do not know, but I am sure their people never created such things.

If my assumption is even remotely right, I think Azengrade was really just running tests on the dungeon when we met up with him in the goblin dungeon at that time. Which means, my system and the dungeons have nothing to do with the Altorians.

"Alright, let's take this seriously, alright? Everyone, come at me and stab me!" I yelled out. The girls looked at one another before really doing what I asked. And I must say it hurt like hell. I do not know how people can become masochists. How do they even get through the pain? We continued this for quite some time until I began to feel faint and had to drink blood. Luckily I have many ways to heal outside of normal means.

We continued this back and forth for almost three hours when the boss mushroom finally shriveled up, and the mushrooms on our heads fell off. Only then did I let out a sigh of relief, but This left a sour taste in my mouth. Because now…. I will have to do this same tactic over and over until I am able to instant kill the stupid mushroom!

Chapter25 I Will Cry

"Let's hope this is an infinite dungeon…." I mumbled as I stood up. We ended up taking a break while I fed on the girls. I still miss my refreshing Iena… Her blood is still the best, while Sei's tastes salty….

"Alright, let's move on to the next floor." The girls nodded, and we slowly began making our way down to the sixth floor. When we reached the plant life that made up the first five floors were replaced with a rocky landscape. I did not even need to ask what kind of monsters were on this floor since I could see rock golems and elementals all over the place. At least this place made things easier to level up with.

The previous floor boss didn't give us much. We got two skill stones for our trouble which I gave to Adel and Sei. This was after a fair roll to see who got them. I did not want anyone to think I was being biased about loot. So I had everyone play rock, paper, scissors to determine who would be the first to get new skills.

Basically, the next boss or when another skill stone drops, Adel and Sei will be left out while the rest of us battle it out. And once everyone has gotten one, we will just keep the same rotation. I already planned to go last, so I planned to make sure I did not win at all. It was not easy for them to get skills, while for me, it was pretty simple. I might not be able to buy normal skills, but I can buy other skills, which reminds me I have not bought any in a long time. I have over 1341 skill points, so I might go ahead and spend some later on.

But for now, the task ahead was power leveling once again! This time I just had the girls follow me as I killed everything in my path. One thing after the other, I killed, killed, killed. I did not leave a single monster alive! I was taking out my frustrations from the stupid mushroom level.

I do wonder how everyone else is doing, though. I mean, those in Diablo and Iena's team might be in for a bit of trouble. But then again, if those two can somehow figure out a different method like blowing up the entire room or something, then maybe, just maybe, they will not need to resort to the stabby stabby routine that hurts so much.

As for my slimes…. I do hope they will be okay. I do not think the mimic mushroom will be effective on them since they are slimes. Which means I think they can probably defeat it with ease. This thought kinda makes me wish I had brought a few with me, but I sent them out on their own. I do hope they all come back safely. My precious little balls of jelly!

While they have multiplied by many times, I have a feeling once they finish their training, they will be my Empire's most feared army. I do not plan to put them away anymore. Since they have all gained a bit of sentience, I plan to put them to work and reward them with some good stuff.

After everything that happened in such a short time, I think after all my preparations and growing stronger, I will be able to handle Azengrade, at least by myself. His flunkies I would not need to worry too much about his until they reached a super high level. But if we continue on this road, we are on now, we may be able to level quickly enough.

At least my group will not have too many problems. If I need to run teams myself, I can do that as well since my mana is infinite and will not run out anytime soon. I already had the girls tethered to it so they could cast spells at will. I just hope my too slackers are enjoying their free ride. Well… Grace is probably working since all she does is work, but that father in law of mine is another story.

Hopefully, he will not laze about too much while standing in for me. He knows my plans and should be able to sign off on things. I do have Anne helping him when she is free. I have been thinking that it might be a good idea to take a visit to Diablo's realm and try to persuade the other demon kings to come to my aid. But what I wonder is, if there are demon summons, are there any angel summons? There probably is, but it would require gaining the skill for it.

While lost in thought, we reached the tenth floor in a flash. This just goes to show how much easier it is to kill nonplant monsters. But I do hope this boss will be much easier.

[Boss: Mutated Rock Golem]

[Level 2341]

[Health 50000000/50000000]

[Mana 10000/100000]

"Oh? Looks like I will get a good chunk of experience this time, too, but….. Mutated…." The mutated, in its name, bothered me. The last boss had such a strange quirk about it that it made it hard to understand how to defeat. So I do hope this one is slightly different. If we all suddenly grow rocks on our heads, I will cry. I mean it. I will start crying here and now.

"Faith, what should we do?" Adel asked.

"Well… we are in for a fight no matter what because this thing's health is high as well as it's level. And when I say it is high, I mean really high. It has fifty million health. But only one hundred thousand mana. So I think it is more of a physical attack boss with high defense. We will need to work out a method to bypass its defense if we wish to kill it." I explained.

"We will follow your commands." Sei seemed ready to fight. Everyone else nodded as well. As team leader, I guess I can not let them down now, can I?

Chapter26 One Tough Boss

"For now, stay back. I will go in first to test the waters." I did not want to send anyone in just yet if we did not know exactly what this boss was capable of. But I do have a feeling that this will end up being a battle of endurance. We will need to fight even if we do very little damage to it.

I rushed in with sword in hand, wanting to test how much physical damage will do to the boss. Sure enough, though, as soon as I entered the middle of the room, the boss suddenly stood up, towering in the air. The huge boss room barely had enough room for how tall this boss was.

*Whirrrrlllllll!*

It made a strange sound before beating its chest like a gorilla and slamming its fist toward me. I quickly dodged to the side as I ran too close in but soon realized it was not a single attack. A rain of rocky fists suddenly powered down on top of me as I moved back and forth, avoiding them. The ground shook, along with dust and debris being shot into the air. This alone was enough to make me form a barrier around myself so I would not be affected by it.

I decided to take this chance as one of the fists were coming down to parry it and slash down onto the rocking arm that it was attached to. A clanging sound was heard as my hand vibrated from the impact. I could only frown as I spun my body around and aimed for one of the joints. Once again, my sword was reflected off its hard surface.

Seeing how my sword was of no use, I shot a few balls of each element at the arm to see if that would do any damage, and once again, I gained no results. "This is not working. I will try the head!"

The entire boss was made of solid stone except for two spots. One was the red ominous eye in the head and the black glowing core in the middle of its chest. I quickly cast a barrage of attacks at both spots, only to find my attacks to be quickly blocked by some kind of barrier. I could not feel any magic fluctuation in this barrier which made me frown even more. "This thing is like an impenetrable fortress!"

I quickly retreated and stood away out of arm's reach of the boss. As soon as I did leave its range of attack, it stopped moving once more. "Faith, how was it?"

"No good, not a single attack got through. No damage was done at all." I frowned as I looked up at the huge monster who was frozen in place. "There is some kind of barrier around the two spots that should be its weakness. But they are not made of magic, so I am unsure what to do."

"Faith if you go into your dragon form, do you think you can hold it off? I can try to use my dimensional attacks to bypass the barrier." Sophie suggested. I thought for a moment before nodding my head. "We can try, but you need to stay in your void. Do not come out when you attack."

"Don't worry. I saw how quick it was. I will not let myself get hurt." Sophie replied. I smiled and ran forward as I shouted out: "Get ready! When you see me grab it, attack!"

I did not wait for her to agree before suddenly turning into my new dragon form. My entire figure grew to the same size as the golem. I reached out and grabbed a hold of it. But I suddenly realized something was wrong. As soon as I grabbed it, it immediately flung my arms away and punched me in my stomach! I felt the wind suddenly being knocked out of me as I was sent flying across the room. But I know why this happened. I couldn't sink my claws into it! A barrier appeared!

"Faith!" I heard the others call out as I tried to catch my breath. Luckily my defenses were still high in dragon form, or else I might have been swatted to death. I looked up to see Sophie swing her sword through the void to use her void slash. I was hopeful that it would work, but that hope was quickly shattered. The attack was still blocked, and nothing got through. Sophie quickly retreated, feeling defeated.

"Now what!?" Sei cried out as she stared at the massive golem.

At least we could attack it without much problem, but the fact of the matter was, was that we were in a pickle since we would be stuck here until we could defeat this stupid thing. Even if we could attack, it was useless if we could not do any damage to it. Thinking for a moment, I yelled out to Adel. "Adel, can you use cosmic magic and try to stop it?"

"I can try, but I think you should do it, no? You are closer to it in level." Adel had a point. I returned to my humanoid form and landed on the ground.

"Then let's try this. I will use cosmic magic at the same time as Adel, and if it works, I want the rest of you to attack the core on its chest with your strongest attacks. But only if it works. We will know if I get into range to use my magic." This was a long shot, but if this does work, we will be able to tear this big boy down. Although it still annoys me that my dragon form was swatted away like a fly. It actually took a bit of three hundred thousand health in that one attack. Luckily my current armor actually melds with my dragon form, too, which is quite nice. It gives me a kind of black scaled armor on top of my blood red scales.

At any rate, right now, we can only hope this works in stopping the stupid barrier on the boss from blocking our attacks. "Everyone get ready. I am going in!"

Chapter27 This Is Impossible

In many games, there is always that one boss that is not even the final boss that is always super hard to defeat. If you do not have max level with all maxed out stats and all the most powerful magics, weapons, and armors in the game, you will never defeat it, no matter how hard you try. Right now, that frustration when you were just about to beat said boss only to be wiped out when it got to one health was the feeling I had right now as I rushed forward.

I looked up at the massive stone fist about to splatter me against the dungeon floor and yelled out: "Stop!" It was not just my voice either but also Adel's. "Attack!" I yelled out quickly after as the wind from the sudden stop of the fist blew past my body, causing my hair to flutter in the air.

The fist was only about a foot away when it stopped, and I could tell one thing. It was not fully stopped. I guess this is a level thing. I had noticed the same thing when I faced Azengrade and the rest. They could still move ever so slightly.

Resistance to magic is a main in the butt, but this means when I get to a high enough level, nothing will be able to resist this kind of magic which is very op. But now that I think about it. I have a feeling if Adel ever out leveled me, I would be toyed with and wouldn't even know it. After all, out of all the girls, she was the biggest minx who loved to get intimate.

I also rushed forward with sword in hand. The attacks of the three girls in front of me finally all landed their marks. I was not skimming out either as I jumped up in the air and stabbed my sword down. A cracking sound was heard as the sword smacked into the black orb. I quickly jumped back, and all four of us quickly left the boss's attack range. "Faith, how was it?"

I was also curious about how much health we took away in this attack. And to be honest, when I used appraisal, I was not expecting to see that the fifty million health it had would drop to one million with a four pronged attack. I looked up at the core that was cracking and chipping away and understood why. It had massive defense with the barrier and large health but was still weak once you bypassed the barrier. This made it fragile to attacks. "I am going in once more. We will finish it after this attack."

"Awesome!" Sophie yelled out. I quickly took off before anything unexpected happened. I once more jumped in the air and brought my sword down, stabbing it into the same spot as before. This time a loud shattering sound was heard, and the entire core broke. But I forgot one thing about bosses. Sometimes…. They had a second or third form. Or it could be something even worse.

A great wind whirled up, and I was sent flying away. Dust and debris filled the air causing a wall of a tornado to fill the room. I was tossed back and slammed against the wall for the second time today. It did not hurt any less, either. As I gathered my bearings once more and looked up, multiple red lights could be seen shining from within the wall of wind. These lights grew brighter and brighter. I couldn't help but have a bad feeling as I used dimensional transfer to the girls and surrounded us in a fifty layered spinning barrier.

Just as the barrier formed, multiple red lights shot toward us like beams. The barriers, even though they were spinning, shattered one after the other. Such an attack was unheard of up until now in the dungeons I have been in thus far. And right now, I felt like maybe I would not survive this attack. Thirty barriers shattered almost instantly and kept shattering until they reached the last one when the rays of light dimmed and stopped only after cracking the last barrier.

The wind and debris also began to settle, revealing a metallic golem standing where the rock golem once was. But this one looked more mechanical. Which made me frown. But it did explain why I did not sense any magic. It seemed this boss was never an actual elemental based golem but a mechanical one?

But we had no time to rest when the golem suddenly raised its arms, and its hands opened up, showing two red spots that were glowing brightly. Seconds later, another ray of red light shot toward us. I once again formed barriers around us but this time, one hundred layers worth. But they all shattered under the intense force of the rays. Had no choice but to grab the girls and use dimensional transfer to relocate us to the other side of the golem.

"We need to spread out! Or we will never get any attacks in. Sophie, Sei, and Sally, I will leave distractions to you three. I will need to protect Adel and use stop on the golem, so we can get out attacks in. But for now, hurry and move! Stop!" I yelled out so we could get a chance to move. But Sadly, it seemed to be ineffective because all it did was cause the golem to rotate its arms behind it and shoot more red beams of light at us. We all had no choice but to scatter. I have no idea why stop was not working unless it had some kind of anti magic field up that was much more powerful than before. But I do know this was not something I really wanted to deal with!

"Faith, what should we do? Cosmic magic is not working!" Adel seemed worried, but that did not matter. As long as one of us can attack, we can at least do some damage. Since I had a bit of time between the boss's reaction time and my dimensional transfer. I quickly used Apprrsial on it.

[Hidden Weapon: X9-1289]

[Level 9000]

[Health 1,000,000,000/1,000,000,000]

[Mana ] NA/NA

[An ancient weapon used as the core of the Mutated Rock Golem. After breaking its binds, the weapon was fully released. Note: only activated under special conditions!]

Just seeing the stats made me scream out: "This is impossible!"

Chapter28 Atollie

I can only think that I really jinxed myself. How was I supposed to know I would unleash some doomsday weapon? It fired lasers nonstop. If it was not for the fact that everyone here was quicker than the rate the weapon was firing, we would already be dead by now. But this makes me wonder. How was one supposed to defeat the golem if they did not destroy its core? It's like this dungeon is playing with me. First, I needed to be stabbed multiple times to beat one boss, and then I somehow awakened the ultimate weapon!

"I am open to any ideas!" I yelled out. I had no idea what I was going to do to get out of this mess.

"Faith, try using the skill stones. We gained quite a few, did we not? Maybe we can get a skill to defeat the boss." Sally yelled back. I thought for a moment and nodded my head. We ended up with like ten skill stones, so we might get something worthwhile, right?

I took a deep breath and activated the first skill stone.

[Common Skill Acquired: XXXXXXXXXXX (LVL 1(Max))]

I frowned. Yes, this skill was helpful in some situations but only when you are with your loved one! I now understand how Sei felt when she got her naughty skill. Frowning, I tried another one.

[Ultimate Skill Acquired: Atollie]

[Ultimate Skills Unlocked…]

[Atollie]

[The path to heaven is not an easy one…]

[Follow the path of butterflies…]

[Reach the end for untold power….]

The description was quite weird, but I had no time to really care about that. I had no idea what this skill would do, but…. For now, I could only try it. I took a deep breath as I dodged another barrage of lasers and closed my eyes, and let the name of the skill roll off my tongue. "Atollie"

At the moment the word left my mouth, it felt as if time had stopped altogether. The whole boss room began to light up as glowing butterflies began to fill the room in masses. I felt my body become lighter, and a surge of power welled up within me.

[Conditions met…..]

[Commencing Summoning...]

[Gate Has Connected...]

The butterflies suddenly condensed into a big massive glowing ball. It took up so much room that I had to retreat backward. My eyes were glued to the glowing ball as it slowly unfurled, revealing a young woman with huge glowing white feathered wings. She wore silver armor and had long blonde hair that trailed down to her back, just past her waist. She turned her golden eyes to me and softly smiled. "My name is Atollie. I shall smite your enemies."

With these words, she turned to the boss and raised her hand. A golden sword suddenly appeared in the air. It gave off a pressure I had never felt before. Before I knew what was happening, the one who called herself Atollie disappeared. There was only the sound of ringing going off in my ears as my level suddenly began to rise at an incredible speed.

I didn't even get to see what happened. The boss suddenly turned into balls of shiny light before dropping a huge pile of treasure. Slowly landing in front of me, Atollie knelt down in front of me and bowed her head. "I have dispatched the enemy, Master."

"Huh? Yeah…." I could only nod dumbly as I looked at the angelic-looking young woman in front of me. She was definitely otherworldly, that is for sure. She did not seem like anything that could come from any mortal plane of existence.

"Master?" Atollie looked up at me in confusion, but I was still out of it. It was not just me either. The girls all turned and looked at her as well, with shock written all over their faces. A boss… with one billion health died instantly. It was so fast I didn't even get a chance to figure out if she struck more than once or not. All I knew was that my crisis had come to an end.

Appraisal did not even work on Atollie. I tried two times already but got nothing. It was as if magic did not work on her. What was even stranger was that she did not seem to be disappearing….

"Ummm, Atollie…. was it? How…. How long is your summon time for?" I asked. I was a little scared, to be honest. I have never met anyone this powerful before. She was leagues above Diablo, and the rest, even Azengrade, could not hold a candle to her power.

"Hmmm? Summon time? I am sorry, I do not understand." Atollie blinked her eyes at me as she slowly stood up and walked to my side, and stood there like a statue. Was she planning on guarding me!? Not that I am complaining but still….

My level jumped by almost two thousand, and I am sure the girls got even more levels. The boss was like some kind of hidden mega boss and really gave us a ton of experience points. This was like a level 1 fighting a level 100 boss and winning. But I had no time to rejoice as I still needed to figure out what was going on with Atollie….

She stood at my side with her back ramrod straight. Her eyes darted back and forth as she looked around. I could see the excitement in her eyes. I guess this was all new and fresh to her. I scratched my head as the girls ran over to me and asked: "Umm…. Atollie, do you live off magic?"

"Hmmm? Of course. As long as I have magic I will never disappear." And so we have an answer. Atollie was probably one of those kinds of summons that would not disappear until you run out of mana to sustain it. And since I had infinity magic, I was basically made for such a skill. But an ultimate skill was something that summoned a powerful figure. I did not think such a thing would be possible. I wonder which realm or place Atollie comes from.

"I see… that is good. Well… Atollie, my name is Faith. This is my wives, Adel and Sophie, and these two are my closest friends, Sei and Sally." I went ahead and introduced everyone. I mean, I do not know if Atollie will ever disappear, but for now, she was our new friend and comrade, so….

"It is a pleasure to meet you all. My name is Atollie, one of the Thirteen Rounds of the Table of Gods. I will be in your care from now on." Atollie gave a knightly bow. But her introduction kind of said a lot more than I was ever expecting. Like, what is the Thirteen Rounds of the Table of Gods?

"Atollie, what are the thirteen rounds?" Leave it to Adel to pick up on the important stuff and ask right away!

"The Thirteen Rounds of the Table of Gods are a group of knights who protect the realm from any evil that dares to try to attack. You can think of us as the guardians of the gate. The table of gods is a table we all gather at for meetings. I never thought I would be summoned to another place." Atollie replied, her eyes still looking around curiously.

"Atollie, why do you call me Master?" This was something I did not understand. She is so powerful but is calling me Master. I feel she is much different than a demon summoned with enslave demon.

"It may sound strange, but when I was summoned, I was suddenly connected to you and was given an order from a higher power. I can not tell you more than this." Atollie's answer left even more questions. Is this dungeon truly messing with me in some strange way? Was this the reason it gave me this OP cheat!? I mean, Atollie is like the key to solving all my worries!

"We will be in your care from now on, then," I said with a smile.

"No, I should be saying this as I am now your guardian knight. It is a pleasure to serve one so cute." Atollie's lips curled up into a smile, as did her eyes. She seemed happy about her current situation.

"Was your job guarding the gate hard?" Sophie asked.

"No, but there were a lot of old men, and I was the one and only female knight. So being able to come here and see new things and hang around actual girls is something I have always dreamt of. It's hard because we can not leave the gate. I have been stuck there guarding it with the others for so long that I have lost count. Seeing the same sights every day gets boring and bland. I was hoping maybe one day I could escape such a fate."

"Well, hopefully, you will enjoy your stay here." I did not know how to send her back, and from the looks of it, she did not wish to go back, so this all worked out. We get a powerful ally, and Atollie gets her freedom from her boring life.

Chapter29 Inner Gate

We ended up taking a long break. The last boss was just insane. I never thought such a thing would pop out, not in a dungeon where it was level based. Such a boss should be illegal, but somehow I got some kind of protagonist luck and ended up summoning Atollie. Not that I am complaining because the way I look at it, we would have died otherwise. There were no resets and no save points to load back into. Once we die, we are dead.

I was really out of options for that boss. It was completely made of metal, with no way of getting close to it to see if there was a weak point. So without Atollie, we would have been in a bind until one of us slipped and was hit by the lasers that shattered over a hundred layers of my barrier in an instant. To be honest, I would prefer to fight Azengrade head on than to fight such a monster again.

Now, if I was even remotely close to it in level, then that would be another story. I would definitely make some sort of plan that would kill it, but this time…. I could only let out a sigh. "I need to be stronger…."

"You will get there," Adel said softly as she snuggled up next to me. Sophie was already asleep in my lap. Sei and Sally were both a few feet away, passed out on the ground. Atollie stood at my side as stiff as a statue.

I turned my gaze down to Adel, who now had her eyes closed, and smiled. I tucked in a lock of her hair behind her ear before turning my attention to Atollie. "Atollie, you can sit, you know. You may be here because of me, but I will not treat you some sort of slave."

"Master is very kind," Atollie replied with a smile. She sat down on her knees and placed her sword at her side. It was as if she was ready to jump up and attack at any time. I guess in time, she will slowly begin to relax.

I guess I fell asleep at some point. I know this because I am no longer in the dungeon. I am currently standing in a field by myself. In front of me is a large door. It has many different carvings on it of monsters or animals that I have never seen before. It does not look evil in any way, but kind of gives off a holy feeling. Why it is here, I do not know. I only know that I am in the middle of this field that seems endless, with nothing around me but the door itself.

I slowly walked forward to the door and placed my hand on it. It is cool to the touch, and for some reason, I feel like whatever is on the other side is calling me. But no matter how hard I push on the door, it will not open. I can only stand here staring at it. Where this door leads to, I do not know.

"Faith!" A voice enters my ears. I slowly wake up to Adel and Sophie looking at me with worried gazes.

"Is something wrong?" I do not feel like anything is wrong, but the way they are looking at me is making me feel something is off.

"Your body was fading in and out…." Adel suddenly said, causing me to look down at myself. There was nothing wrong with me from what I could see, but if they say this, then it is probably true. Did this have something to do with my dream? Was it because of that door?

"Strange…" I furrowed my brow and stood up. I looked around and saw everyone, including Atollie staring at me strangely. "I do not feel anything off, so maybe something to do with the dungeon?"

"Master, a moment, please," Atollie called out to me. I nodded and walked to the side with her, away from the others. "Master, your body did flicker in and out a few times. By chance, did you dream of a door?"

My eyes opened wide as I turned and looked at her and nodded. She let out a sigh and placed her hand on my shoulder. "Do not touch the door in your dreams. I am sorry. This is my fault. I should have warned you. You and I are connected in a different way than a normal summon. We are soul bound. My soul is now part of you as yours is part of mine. It is something the higher-ups did to bind me to this world when I was called. They would not have done this if you did not have the mana to support me. I guess it was them giving me my wish. But because of this, you are now connected to my inner gate. That inner gate is dangerous for a mortal to touch as it will suck your very existence into it. Until you form your own inner gate, you can not touch the gate in your dreams, do you understand?"

"I do, but what is an inner gate?" I was confused on this point. I know it is dangerous for the current me to touch but what was an inner gate, to begin with?

"An inner gate forms when you are about to break your mortal body and become a higher being. You, people, call us gods. But in truth, we are nothing more than people who have lived a very long time and gained power one way or another or were born in the higher realms that are not easily accessed. Nowadays, it is rare for anyone to come from the mortal world. I myself was born in the higher realms. But only those who are born there are born with an inner gate. But for mortals to gain one, you must become powerful enough to form one. I do not know the exact process, but I am sure one day when you reach that point, you will know. I can not tell you any more than this, but please, if you ever dream of the gate again, walk away from it." Atollie's expression was serious, but I was still confused. Why was her inner gate calling me?

"Atollie, should your inner gate have been calling me? It felt like something on the other side of your gate was calling me." I asked. I had to know if this was a common thing or not.

"Calling you?" Atollie gave me a puzzled expression. "I have not even been able to open my inner gate since I was born. I am still not powerful enough, so for something to be calling you from the other side…. I do not know. I never heard of such a thing before."

"You haven't opened it?" I was surprised. With how powerful Atollie was, I would think she could open it.

"I am just a lowly guard. While my title may sound amazing to you, we are only a bit higher in status than the commoners of the realm. And our job does now allow us to get many chances to free ourselves from our post." Atollie saying that she was not that strong made me feel like I was an ant. She was so powerful! But I guess that is true for the world I live in, but for hers, she was on the weaker side of things. But her title does sound grand, so I am surprised by this.

"At least now you do not need to worry about seeing the same old sights anymore. Is it just your world's military that is stuck in such jobs?" I asked curiously. I had not been able to talk with Atollie yet like this, so this was good to get to know her better.

"Mmmm... Our jobs are decided based on our aptitude. While it can get better and we can become more powerful over time, mine was very poor to start with, so I was lucky that after a few million years, I started to grow in strength after many years of hard work. But then I was stuck with the post guarding the gate, but now I am here with you. If my guess is not wrong, someone took pity on me and allowed me to come to this world." Atollie's explanation was kind of confusing, but I guess I will understand in time.

"Faith, what is going on?" Adel called out to us. I looked at Atollie, who shook her head. "Only I can tell you about this. It is not to be spoken about as it is not something a mortal should know. You can know because of our connection."

I nodded and turned to Adel: "It's nothing. I know what happened, and no worries, it will not happen again." At least, I think. Hopefully…. But I will not say this to them. I do not want them worrying more than they already are.

Chapter30 Getting More Skills

Adel and the girls seemed to be worried about my lack of response, but since Atollie told me not to say anything to them, then I won't. But I still needed to give them some sort of explanation. So after scratching my head and trying to figure out the best way to explain things, I slowly began to tell them what I could. "Basically, Atollie and I share a special connection, unlike other summons. This is totally different from Diablo, Iena, and Freidinia as well. Atollie comes from a completely different realm, and in short, our souls are connected. Due to me being able to provide her with the mana she needs to live on, she is now here to stay, but this also comes with a strange occurrence that I now know how to deal with. I can not explain things but trust me when I say I will not fade away anymore."

"I hope so…." Adel walked over and hugged me, so did Sophie. I sighed. I hated not being able to tell them the full truth, but it was probably for the best since I did not know what would happen if they knew. At any rate, for the time being, I will need to be careful in my dreams from now on. I just hope I can control my body during those times. After all, dreams are not always fully under someone's control.

But now that that was settled, it was time to take a look at the loot. "Oh?" I looked at the pile. I spotted not only skill stones but even a few limit break stones as well. "There are six here. So you girls split them up between the four of you. Sei, Sally, take the extra two."

"Huh? You are not taking any?" Adel asked in confusion.

"No, I already have one. And now also Atollie. I would prefer it if you all had better skills to work with. At least with the limit breaks, you will be able to have extra trump cards." I wanted the girls to have as many cards as possible to ensure their survival.

"I guess this is true…." Adel hummed. She looked at the skill stones and picked them up, and passed them out. I had given Sally and Sei extra ones because they will be the ones to protect Sophie and Adel the most. They were their personal guards now, after all. Luckily they were all now over level 1000 along with me…

[Humanoid Form]

[Name]: Faith Cyrilia

[Age] 17

[Level] 1428 → 3304

[Race] Drakani Demigoddess

[HP] 1052500/1052500(3052500)

[MP] ∞

[Attack Power] 1584950

[Magic Power] 584950

[Status Points] 5850 → 15230

[Strength] 158495

[Vitality] 105250

[Intelligence] 58495

[Mind] ∞

[Agility] 58495

[Skill Points] 1341 → 3217

[Limit Break( 1/3)]

{Total Domination}

[Skills]

[Ultimate Skills]

{Atollie}

So basically, at this time, I am sitting on a mountain of points. Just in this current dungeon, I have gained 1876 levels, 9380 status points, and 1876 skill points. If you add in my trickle…. That is an extra 56280 status points which will really boost me all around. With such a power boost, we are basically leaving everyone else behind, but this also means that the next floor level will probably be much harder. I do wonder, though, since I have Atollie, can I not power-level everyone quickly if we summon the mega boss? I will have to test it to see, but if we can, then it will be worth the repeated dungeon dives, that is, if the ultimate boss is able to be summoned.

I would not mind seeing my level hit nine thousand plus. Then again, greed is not a good thing either.

While I know, Azengrade is still at a higher level than me. He is no match for Atollie, but I do not know about the people above him or how many levels of ranks they have above general. Speaking of this… "Atollie, if one wanted to take control of this dungeon and slightly alter it, how powerful would they need to be?"

"At least around my strength to alter it. Even I can't do too much to this dungeon as it seems to be created but someone very powerful. Although if you were to have a tool made to change part of the dungeon from a powerful person, then you could still alter it at your level but such a tool would need to be crafted by someone even stronger than me." Atollie replied, which made me feel no better than before. So if what Atollie is saying is correct, then, Azengrade did not control the dungeon himself but used a tool to do so.

Scratching my head, I leaned over and whispered: "Is it possible for someone from your realm to be able to come down here and mess around?"

"Mmm… it happens all the time. They get bored and decide to do things down here to entertain them. It really depends on who and what they design to do." And those were the words I did not wish to hear. But this only brings about more questions. Like who is behind the Altorians, and were the Altorians created by this being, just following their orders, or are they something else? I felt another headache coming on. I am wondering why I was reborn in this world where it seems everything wishes to be on a power scale much stronger than I am. I thought I was amazing being a dragon, but I guess I am just a frog in a well. Or did these things all happen because I am here with this strange system?

I massaged my temples as I walked over to Adel and placed my forehead on her shoulder. This allowed me to receive head pats. I do this when I need to clear my mind. Head pats fix everything!

After sorting through all the items, Adel and the girls all got new armor. I did not take anything since my armor was probably the best I could get at this time. After all, it was the armor Trinity wore, and I still did not know what level she truly was. But one thing did come to mind. If Atollie had blood, would I be able to drink it? And if so, would I be able to gain experience from it?

I kinda wanted to ask, but I figured I would wait for the right time. My quest to grow stronger was real, but I did not wish to force anyone into anything.

"Now that things are put away, I want to rest a little longer. I need to take a look at my skill menu." With so many skills points, I really wanted to see if there was anything useful that I could use. I sat down once more and opened my menu, and began looking through the skills. There were so many skills that I really had no idea where to start. "Cooking mastery…. Fishing Mastery…. Tracking? Hmmm….. Let's get this….. And max it to level ten."

I kept scanning through the skills and came upon one called mesmerizing, which worked the same as my charm, so I skipped it. There were many that were absolutely useless. But if you look deeply, you can find a few gems here and there, like practical skills. Tracking, for instance, allowed me to track not only animals but any race with a quick look. I grabbed this since it seemed quite useful. "Hmmm? Lingual Mastery? A skill to allow me to understand any language to ever exist…." The price of this skill was high. While maxing out tracking costs me ten points, this skill will cost me one thousand points to max out. Just to buy it costs ten points. But this may just be very useful later on.

With these two skills, I decided to close my menu. I am sure there are more, but I do not want to waste too much time sifting through all the skills. "All set?" Sophie asked as she saw me stand up.

"Yeah, let's move on," I replied with a smile. We gathered our things and began deciding down to the eleventh floor. The first five floors were a forest area, the floors from the sixth to the tenth were all rocking areas, and now we seemed to be in a fire area. It was hot. I mean, this is coming from a dragon girl! It was really hot! The floor was sizzling under our feet. If we did not use ice magic to keep our feet cool, we would have already retreated. The only one who seemed fine was Atollie.

"Atollie, you are not hot?" I asked.

"No, this kind of temperature is not that bad. But I do suggest that you be extra careful there are some powerful elementals on this floor. They are hiding within the lava at the side and watching us." Atollie warned me, making me pursed my lips. Why do I feel like having Atollie here might have caused a break in the dungeon system?

"It would be funny if the boss for these floors is a dragon." Sei looked at me and snickered, which in turn made me stick my tongue out at her. But to be honest, it would be amusing.

Chapter31 The Fire Dragon

Luckily I did not stuff my foot in my mouth, and the level of the monsters did not reflect Atollie's level in the slightest, but this did not change the fact that we were still on the eleventh floor of the dungeon. And that was because we were basically in a wave type scenario. One of those situations where monsters just kept spawning over and over and over again while you killed them over and over again.

We were all fighting at full force except for Atollie, who I asked not to get involved unless one of us were about to die. She was basically our chaperone for this level. And one thing I noticed was that the girls were really lacking in skills. We got a handful recently, so I figure once we get out of this wave killing situation, I would give them all the skills so that they could try to pick up some more useful things. Maybe they can also get an ultimate skill. Although this is probably doubtful. I probably used up a life's worth of luck to be able to summon Atollie.

Not that I am complaining because with her here, I can concentrate on actually fighting without much worry. It reminded me of the first dungeon when I first summoned Diablo. But even so, I do wonder if I will ever be as strong as the both of them. Although I say this, I am slowly progressing. I have gotten lucky and boosted my level by a lot. While we were already way past the level I wanted to reach, it was still a good idea to keep going as much as possible. After all, the others had just started, and it would not be good for me to leave first.

Plus, I also wanted to see just how deep this dungeon would go. If it really did dive down over a hundred floors or so, I would not mind, but the fact of the matter was that each of the bosses so far had these tricks to them and were completely unnecessarily hard! After almost an hour of fighting fire elementals, we finally cleared the wave and got a breather. I passed out the skill stones as we took a rest. Each girl got five skills in total. And somewhere normal common skills like Adel got cooking, and Sally got hunting. There were a few that surprised me, like Adel got a skill called detonation sphere that she could send out bubble like objects that stuck to her enemies and then exploded on command. She could only cast five at a time for now, but it said the skill was upgradable so it would help her greatly.

Sophie got a skill that allowed her to create a large shadow under her enemies that would then have shadowy hands come out and wrap around those in the shadow and pull them down. Where they went from there, I have no idea. Sadly skills were not copyable because both detonation sphere and shadow grab, as it was called, were useful. However, I can recreate my own version of detonation sphere, which would probably be more powerful.

We keep moving forward floor after floor. And surprisingly, when we reached the fifteenth floor, there was no boss. The theme continued all the way to the twentieth floor, where I ended up slapping Sei on the back of the head. "You had to say something stupid!"

"Hahahaha!" Sei laughed. She looked at me and winked as she said: "It's your chance to show that dragon who is the better dragon!"

I sighed, looking at the huge dragon sitting in the boss room. It was a red fire dragon. "Appraisal…."

[Boss: Flamed Tongue Hordren]

[Race: Fire Dragon]

[Level: 4500]

[Health: 300000000/300000000]

[Mana: 300000000/300000000]

Yep, it was insanely strong…. But I still have one thing going for me! I was a dragon too! So maybe…. Just maybe we can talk things out. I took a deep breath as I looked at the girls and said: "I will go talk to him and see what he has to say. You stay here."

"Don't get eaten!" Sei let out a chuckle. She really found this whole thing funny!

I sighed once more as I transformed into a dragon and walked over to the middle of the room. The fire dragon opened its big eye and looked at me. "What does a youngling like you want!? Leave before I burn you to cinders!"

"Ummm…" I was quite surprised it was able to talk and even was willing to let me leave, but…. Sadly the room was sealed off… "I would love to, but we are stuck in this room."

"Hmmm?" The red dragon lifted its head and looked around, and snorted, causing flames to come out of its nostrils. "So you were stupid and got trapped here too? Heh… sadly, you will have no choice but to fight me then."

"Oh? Well…. Let's chat first, shall we? We have plenty of time." I wouldn't mind getting to know other dragons. It is my first time meeting another dragon, after all.

"I guess we could. I do get bored just lying here. But this form is probably not good. Let's take on human form, shall we?" The red dragon asked. I nodded, and the both of us shrank down. In front of me was a handsome young man with red flaming hair and orange eyes. I smiled as I took out some chairs and some snacks before calling the girls over.

"Faith, what is going on?" Adel asked as she sat down.

"Hmmm? We are having a conversation with a dragon. One from another place, I guess." I really did not know how else to explain it. I figured it would be a nice change after all the fighting we have been doing.

"Oh? Quite a few of you and…." The fire dragon looked at Atollie and quickly lowered his eyes. "It seems even if we do fight, the outcome is already decided. So I guess to have tea and snacks like this is not a bad thing."

"Even if that is the case, Atollie will not attack unless one of us is about to die. I know this isn't something you want to hear from me, but you should know that we have no choice but to continue on. Whether you are good or bad, we can not stay here. And our only way to leave is if you have died." I couldn't help but feel like a jerk when I say things like this. I feel so cold hearted but what can I do? I can not be stuck in this dungeon, and the dragon will actually respawn, I think…. To be honest, I do not know. It might end up being another monster altogether…

"Don't worry, I know." The fire dragon let out another sigh before picking up his cup of tea. He took a sip and then looked at me. "You seem to have questions."

"Mm…. It's about dragons. I want to know more about them. You are the first dragon I have met." After all this time, I had yet to meet a dragon. And I know they are hiding somewhere in this world, but I have not met a single one of them.

"Mmm…. Dragons are pretty much loners. We only mate once every few hundred years, and that is it. You would be considered an oddity. You are roaming around with humans, and either race like it is nothing. Even a higher being is guarding you. You can say out of dragons, you are something that would draw attention no matter where you go. Then again, we are from different worlds with probably different values.

"Dragons on my world rule the skies. We stay out of worldly affairs and only slumber quietly. Who would have thought I would end up here? Is it wrong to want to stay in my cave within a mountain and protect my treasures?" The fire dragon seemed depressed, but I was instantly drawn to the word treasure. After all, treasure meant shinies!

"Ahem…. You do not know how you came to be here?" I asked. I did want to ask more about the treasure, but I figured it wouldn't be here, even if that was the case.

"No. I was in a thousand year slumber, and when I woke up, I was here." The fire dragon replied. "My treasure is now gone, and all I have is the peace and quiet of this cave. But now you are here, and it seems my time is about to come to an end. I do wonder what I have done with my life."

My brow wrinkled. I do wonder…. "If we could somehow fake your death, then we could take you with us…."

"Master, you can try a taming spell…. Although it will bind the fire dragon to you for a period of time, from what I can see from this dungeon so far, it would probably count you as defeating the dragon if you tamed it. Then you could set it free once we leave the dungeon."

Chapter32 Water Zone Part 1

"A taming spell?" It was a possibility. I did have Mr. Blobs. So I know it is possible to tame monsters. I looked up at the fire dragon who was staring back at me. "Do you want to try?"

"Would I be able to leave this place?" The fire dragon asked.

"As long as it allows us to pass through the boss room, then yes, you will be able to. And. I will not bind you to do anything. You can roam the world as you see fit." I would not bind him into being my pet or anything like that. I am only doing this because I do not wish to kill one of my own kind who did not seem to be bad in any way. To be honest, it kind of left a sour taste in my mouth thinking about killing another dragon.

"Then we can try…." The fire dragon bowed his head. I smiled and walked over to him. I placed my hand on his forehead and closed my eyes, and took a deep breath before opening them again. A white light began to shine underneath us as a magic circle formed under us. It did not take long for me to see a new message pop up.

[Would you like to tame the Fire Dragon?]

I hit yes right away, which caused the light around us to increase.

[Name your new pet.]

"Hordren," I whispered, causing the light to glow so bright that everyone had to shield their eyes.

When the light dimmed. The barriers blocking the exit from the boss room disappeared. It had worked. Not only did I not need to fight Hordren, but I was able to save him from the dungeon. He could now roam freely around the world once more. I took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "You are free," I said with a smile.

Horden looked at me with tears forming in his eyes as he knelt down in front of me. "You have my thanks. I owe you my life and will help you whenever you need me. Just call for me when you are in need of my help."

"Alright, but for now, I still plan to dive deeper into the dungeon so take a rest inside your space. My. Blobs says it is actually quite cozy in there." At least, I think this is what he said…. It is hard to judge sometimes based on jiggles.

"Then I will. Please call me if you need me." With that, Hordren disappeared into a stream of white light and entered my body. It felt kind of strange. I was a dragon with a dragon pet…..

I looked at my pet window to see an avatar of Hordren there next to Mr. Blobs and the rest. At least for now, he would be able to live freely once I leave the dungeon. Where he will go or what he will do, I will leave that up to him.

"Now then…. I guess we should finish our little tea party, shall we? Atollie, come take a seat." Since we already had things out, I did not plan to finish my tea party too soon. We ended up spending quite a few hours chatting. The girls tried to include Atollie as much as possible, but since she had no idea what we were talking about, she only gave a gentle smile. I must admit that smile was very angelic.

Afterward, we packed up and moved to go to the twenty first floor. We were met with a major issue. We stood on a rocky outcrop that overlooked a vast ocean. Behind us was just a door that stood in the middle of nowhere. You could literally look at the back side of the door and only see more water. But if you stood in front of the open door, you could see a staircase leading up.

"What should we do?" Adel looked at me, and I looked at the others, but no one had any good ideas on what to do here.

I sighed and transformed my armor into a bathing suit, and said: "Stay here. I will be right back." I then dived into the waters to take a look, but as I swam down, I could only see darkness… I did not wish to go too far, so I quickly resurfaced. When I reached the top of the waters, I saw that I was a little further away from the rocky outcrop, so I had to swim back. I climbed back up with the help of the others and shook the water off my body. "It's too dark to see. But if I am right, we will need to dive to the bottom."

"How are we supposed to do that?" Sei asked, but the answer was simple. "We will use a spinning barrier to form a bubble around us. But I am unsure if we can fight like this…." I answered with a sigh. Because there were many flaws in my idea, we would need to move to the bottom of the ocean floor, but how were we going to fight?

"That may work, but if the barrier is spinning, won't we be asking for punishment if a powerful monster appears? We won't be able to avoid it if we accidentally attack it." Sally made a good point.

"Then, no spin, and the barrier will expand and retract as needed. This way, we can fight monsters as well to keep gaining experience points. I would hate to give up any free experience, but…. It will be hard to find the exit to the next floor…." I did worry about this, but I do wonder what we are going to end up fighting.

"I wonder if the exit will have a barrier keeping the water from getting into the stairwell or if it will just be a deeper water zone. We might have ten more floors of this or maybe twenty….." Adel also brought up some good questions.

"We can only keep advancing and try to work things out. Sei, you are good with map making, right? Can you keep track of our progress?" I asked. Sei seemed to have a knack for keeping a map inside her head that let us traverse areas quite easily.

"Will do, but I am not sure how well it will work underwater."

Chapter33 Water Zone Part 2

We took another small break before standing at the edge of the outcrop. "I will stick a barrier around us. I will use wind magic to keep us from falling too fast in the water."

The last thing I wanted was for gravity to take effect and the girls to fall through the barrier. It would only be designed to keep water out, and that was it. I did not wish to block other things. Because if a monster shows up, it could swim at us and attack and then fall into a space with no water where it would be vulnerable. Easy win!

With this in mind, I wrapped our feet in wind magic to make us all hover in the air and then put a barrier around us. I reached out and took Adel's and Atollie's hands. "Hold hands. We will jump at the count of three." When everyone was ready, I counted down. "1…. 2…. 3!"

We were definitely a good team. We were all in sync as soon as we jumped. Even Atollie jumped at the right time. We jumped up into the air and out into the water. The water began to part as he landed, and with the wind magic under our feet, we floated in the middle of the ball like barrier I made and slowly sank to the bottom of the ocean.

Our vision grew dark as we slowly descended. Many fish even entered the barrier, but these were just normal fish. We fell into the abyss of the deep dark ocean for what seemed like forever until we finally reached the sandy floor.

"Why is it not muddy?" Adel asked in confusion, which was not surprising. After all, the whole area was once under water until the barrier pushed the water away.

"The barrier repels all the ocean water. This includes the water in the sand. It won't affect living begins, though." I answered. I also did not wish to be walking through a bog the entire time we were trying to find the exit to this floor.

"Ah! I knew my wife was smart!" Adel praised me, causing me to blush. Only when they call me their wives do I remember I am really married. Diablo does the same thing as well. Not that I plan to run off and marry someone else. To be honest, I find having four people hard enough to deal with. I love them all, but I have to always make sure they are not being neglected. Relationships are hard, and even more so with more than one person.

"So, which way do you think we should go?" I asked. I had no idea where I should go from here.

"Well, we can backtrack to the rocks that support the outcropping we jumped from, if there is any, and try to see if we can follow anything," Sei suggested.

"Then let's do that. It is better than wandering aimlessly. Sei. get ready to map things out." Sie's idea was the only option. If we began wandering around underwater for years on end, it would not be too good. I did wish to try to reach the end of this dungeon. So far, things have been quite steady, and we have only spent a few days down here, and I wanted to keep it this way.

We did as Sei suggested and moved backward. Luckily the base of the rocky outcropping was really there. It was just a bunch of rocks, but it was enough for us to at least have a starting point. Sei took out a piece of paper and marked it on the map. "Okay, we will say that anything directly away from the rocky outcropping is north. We will walk around the rocks and see if it extends into a lower wall that we did not see while above water. So let's head southwest around the outcropping and then south."

"Sounds good." I nodded, as did everyone else. We walked towards our right since we were going southwest.

The rocks were piled up as if someone had placed them by hand. It looked strange and unnatural. I do not know why I felt this way, but I did. We walked for like five minutes before Sei stopped. She was leading us since she was mapping, but she stopped and took out the map once more. "The underwater portion extends out like this…." She drew more lines on the map that showed that the further we followed the rocks, the more it brought us to a wall that blocked us from heading any further south. "It seems if we wanted to go south anymore, we would need to jump off the other side of the rocky outcropping."

"Well, if worse comes to worst, we can do just that. There is nothing stopping us from surfacing and going to the other side." I did not see any issue with us being blocked off. I just worried that there was no end to this room.

"I figured the same. So let's follow the wall for now." Sei suggested, and once more, we were on our way.

The thing I found strange thus far was that there were no fish this deep in the ocean. I had yet to see any monsters as well, unless they were waiting in other areas that we had yet to reach. But for now, we were taking the safest route, and hopefully, if we were lucky, we would end the path to the next floor.

We walked for a few more hours, taking a few twists and turns as the rocking wall that blocked us was not straight. We rested for about thirty minutes before continuing our walk. Atollie seemed excited as she walked beside us with her eyes glowing. I guess things like this were not something she would get to see at all. I do wonder how long she was truly stuck guarding the gate.

I know I would go crazy if I was stuck doing such a thing. But then again, it seemed someone took pity on her and allowed her to come down here with me, which was a good thing, I guess. But everything had a time and place, and right now was not the time. Our quest right now was to find the stairs leading to the next floor.

Chapter34 Crab!

We walked around following the rocky wall for quite some time. Nothing particular looked much different except the change in the rock formations as we followed alongside it. After quite a few hours, we finally came to the end of the rock wall and hit the side of the dungeon itself. There were stone bricks like the dungeon walls of the floors above but still no sign of any monsters.

"So far, this is how the map looks." Sei pulled out the multiple sheets of paper now stuck together, showing the line of the map she had made. "We are currently here."

After adding some lines, Sei pointed out our current location. I was quite surprised at how well she was able to make maps. There was no gap in her drawing, it was all done intricately, not leaving out a single nook or cranny that she saw. "If we now follow this wall north, we will eventually reach the northern wall of the dungeon and should maybe finally see a staircase or some kind of path leading down. Unless, for some strange reason, this dungeon designer decided to make it impossible to find the entrance to the next floor."

"I have tried to use my detection magic, but I am not able to pick up anything. I get as about as far as we can see, then there seems to be some kind of blockage." I said while pursing my lips. If I could send my magic out further, I would be able to deal with this. "The only thing I can suggest is pushing my barrier out completely to all sides of the dungeon. What do you think?"

"If you could do that, you should have done it already!" Sei gave me an aggrieved look. Well….It's not that I was doing it on purpose, but I didn't think about it, to be honest….

"You got to practice your map-making skills!" I tried to make my mistake seem like I was helping, but the girls just gave me a weird look, so I shut my mouth and expanded the barrier.

The entire ocean floor suddenly became dry as I sent out balls of light in all directions to light things up. There were no monsters at all to be seen. Just some fish who got caught up in my barrier expansion. I did not want them to die, so I used wind magic to send them back into the water, but now, with the water gone, my detection magic was working again. And low and behold, I found the dungeon exit…. On the other side of the rocky outcropping!

I sighed and looked at the girls. "I found the exit," I said as I opened a small portal. "Atollie, you first, in case there is something that I did not detect, we will follow after."

Atollie nodded and walked through the portal. I then sent the girls through before stepping through myself. Sure enough, the stairs leading down to the next floor had a barrier on it to keep water out. I canceled the barrier I made once we passed through. A crashing sound as billions of gallons of ocean water slammed back down to the ocean floor. It shook the entire stairwell, I guess you could call it that we were in. luckily the barrier held up and did not break after so much water pressed up against it again.

We made our way down the stairs to find a door that we had to open. When we did, the light of day pierced through the darkness, revealing a large sandy beach and also a crab monster not too far off to our right. "An island?"

"Seems it. We will at least have an easier time now." Adel sighed in relief.

"The next entrance is on the mountain peak off towards the center of the island." I pointed at the hard to miss mountain that rose up into the clouds. We could not even see the peak itself due to the thick layer of clouds covering it, but I was able to detect the next entrance there.

"Do you think we can eat the crab?" Sally had a finger to her lip as drool began to flow from her mouth. I chuckled as I asked: "You must really like crab!"

"I had it once and will never forget it!" Sally answered. She never took her eyes off the crab.

"Let's kill it and see if it is edible." I had only just finished speaking when Sally suddenly pulled out her hammer and jumped high into the air. Seconds later, a loud smashing sound was heard as The crab in question was smashed into the ground creating a crater. The look in Sally's eyes was scary…. It seemed Sally was an extreme foodie for things she liked. I know she eats a lot but this was just….

"Come on, let's help her, or she might squish the thing into mush!" I quickly chased after Sally. Surprisingly the monster was called a king crab and was level 2002. It was very slow and had a short attack range, but this might just be because Sally kept smashing it into the ground, screaming: "Just die already!"

But because of her actions, it did make things easier, and we were able to kill it quickly. But to prepare such a huge crab, I used earth magic to make a huge mud pot filled with water magic and then used fire magic to heat it. It took almost four hours, but when the crab was cooked, I had to hold back Sally before testing it for poison or anything. And to be honest, when I sunk my teeth into the crab, my taste buds lit up. "This is really good!"

At my words, everyone dug in. Sally claimed one of the claws for herself that was bigger than her body by many times and basically crawled into it bite after bite until she sucked all the meat out of the claw breaking out through its tip.

I think since coming to this dungeon, this was actually quite a new experience since the ocean air was blowing by us, and with the smell of cooked crab, it was like a beach party. Something I had not done since I was little back on Earth.

Chapter35 SeiXSally?

We went down to the water and dipped our feet into the cool ocean waves after we ate. Only after we played a bit did we finally gather our things and look at the mountain peak in front of us. "Shall we clear the way up to the mountain peak?"

"Let's do it!" Sally was now raring to go. Her stomach was also protruding quite a bit. One thing I did notice about this trip was that Sei was very much attached to Sally. She always seemed overly concerned with the silly rabbit girl, which I do not mind but still find quite amusing. Well, not so much amusing but more cute because Sei is like the boy who had just met her first love, and it seems to have only happened just recently.

I leaned towards Adel and asked: "Have you noticed?"

"Mmmm…. It's cute. Although I do not think Sally realizes it yet, but Sei is definitely trying to show her interest." Adel replied.

"Sally might not swing that way, though. She did seem to like that catfish prince at one point. But who knows? You were able to make me like girls, so maybe after a while, she will give in." I teased as I nudged Adel. She smiled and kissed my cheek.

"No fair, me too!" Sophie cried out as she came over and kissed my other cheek. I couldn't help but laugh. These girls, Iena and Diablo, bring smiles to my face. And I hope I can always keep a smile on their faces as well.

We killed our way toward the mountain to find that there was no path up this mountain. If we wanted to reach the top, we would need to fly or climb. "I will carry Sophie and Adel. Sei, can you carry Sally?"

"Huh? But I can…. Huh!? Wait, what are you doing!? I can go up by myself….." I chuckled as I watched Sei quickly scoop Sally up into a princess carry with a big smile. "It's okay, you should save your energy."

"Sei!" Sally's cheeks blushed as her ears danced about. It was very cute. I, on the other hand, had a girl in each arm wrapped around their waists as I flew up using my wings. Sei used air steps to move up the mountain, and lastly, Atollie flapped her wings and followed closely behind me.

We slowly made our way up, stopping every so often to adjust to the new temperatures as the temperature dropped. Sally sat there and pouted due to Sei overly pampering her. But she did not seem to resist too much, so I guess you can say that maybe things will work out well for the two.

When we reached the cloud bank, I ended up wrapping us in a barrier and used wind magic to blow the clouds away from us, similar to how I did with the seawater on the previous floor. One thing I did not understand, though, was why was the door on top of a mountain? Were these two floors just for recreation? Like some kind of break in the dungeon. I mean, most of the monsters did not drop anything, and the crabs were slow and only attacked when attacked. However, I did stock up on tons of crab meat.

A lot about the two floors was confusing, but the passage to the next floor was both at two extremes. One was deep on the ocean floor, while the other was on top of a mountain that rose into the sky. But I, of all people, know not to think too much about such things since these dungeons never really made much sense to me.

When we pushed through the cloud bank, we finally found the entrance, which was situated just below the peak on a small ledge. We landed and quickly entered the stairwell, and I must say the temperature difference was like night and day. While it was cold in the air, this stairwell made the mountain peak air seem like a summer vacation.

"Everyone, use warming magic. Sei, keep Sally warm." I teased, causing Sally to blush and Sei to nod her head. "As the Empress commands!"

Sei saluted me and proceeded to hug Sally, causing Sally to stamp her feet and push her away. "I can use warming magic!"

Sophie came over and nudged me, giving me a thumbs up. "They are cute together. And the way Sally is acting, it seems like it will only be a matter of time."

"I do hope they will. They have been good friends for a long time now. But Sally always seems more worried about you even though she can't follow you as much anymore." Sophie made a good point. But I will not interfere too much. I will give Sei as much help as I can get. It will be up to Sally if she is willing to accept her or not.

"Well, now that you girls have jumped so high in level you can follow me anywhere now," I said as I scratched Sophie's ears, causing her tail to wag back and forth. I couldn't resist, so I ended up tilting her head to the side and sinking my teeth into her. While I needed blood to survive, eating that crab still tasted pretty good.

We made our way down the stairs until we reached the bottom. When we pushed open the door, we were met with a frozen wasteland. The bitterly cold wind blew by at a high speed. I could only set up a barrier around us to block out the snow and wind that was pelting the land. It was hard to see much in front of us, but with detection magic, I could at least tell that there were monsters on this floor. I expanded my barrier as much as I could. But unlike the ocean floor, my barrier was not able to go more than a few hundred feet. Why this was, I do not know. Maybe a reverse effect of the sea floor. On this floor, I could use detection, but the barrier could only go out so far. Either way, I could make it big enough for us to at least be able to fight within it.

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Reborn: I’m a Dragon Girl With An OP System Book 11

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