《Reincarnated As An OP Paladin》 1 Prologue: Optional In the land of Yggdrasil, Magic, Science, War Power, and Economic Prosperity are the measures of success. The country that obtains the majority of the four is seen as the chosen country to rule the continent. However, each country on the continent specialized in one of the four measures of dominance. The country comprised of mostly humans is Amera, which specializes in science but has above-average prosperity as well. The humans also have average War Power and average Magic usage. Thus, when "Gifted" children are born, they are given priority status in human society. Gifted children are those who are born with powerful magic gifts and usually possess a superior intellect. Even a Gifted child born into a poor family can instantly bring his or her family out of poverty. That being said, gifted children can also see themselves as a "Superior Human" and can disregard the lives of regular humans when left unchecked. Thus, gifted children are trained from the moment they are born to protect humanity instead of being the ones to destroy it. Not all gifted children become heroes, however. Some decide to devote their time to science and research, which has helped bring Amera to the pinnacle of technological prowess on the continent. The "Gifted" among humanity create their most valuable export: Ameran Magic Technology. On the other hand, the humans who decide to become heroes usually go to either Englacia for work or Kani to train. In contrast, the demonic country comprised of mostly demons is Elu, which specializes in War Power at the expense of science and prosperity. They had the ability to learn other magic in the past but countless years of specializing in dark magic have left their bodies unable to learn anything else. Thus, demons are seen as highly dangerous dark magic users continent-wide. However, demons are similar to humans in a sense. Most demons are citizens who want a normal life. They send out their strongest citizens to join the military and enjoy an average economy, fueled by the income they earn from mercenary work. They have schools, shops, bars, homes, roads, currency, and other staples of a civilization. Despite this, citizens of other countries may look down upon the demons. They see them as nothing more than weapons of war and a country that profits off of tragedy. The country of Amera has been kind to them, however, citing that their dark magic can help improve Ameran Technology. They agreed to a partnership where the demons would send Dark Magic infused crystals to Amera in exchange for helping their economy diversify. A strange partnership in the eyes of Englacia \u0026 Kani The 2 Moderate countries that participate in neutral politics include Englacia \u0026 Kani. Englacia is a rather prosperous nation, which is inhabited by all races of Yggdrasil. Strong races like Giants, Orcs, Titans, etc don''t live elsewhere since Englacia has some of the most labor-intensive work. They practice a Democratic system of government, so the power in the country is usually split between multiple races. They lack War Power, Science, and Magic but make up for these faults with their valuable currency. Engis is the name of Yggdrasil''s most valuable currency and its value is derived from the Englacian jewel standard. Englacia''s land houses multiple types of jewels that not only have utility for many of the world''s people but are also bought for their beauty. It would be wrong to call Englacia a mining country, however. Many things can be found in Englacia thanks to its jewel standard. This is part of the reason that Englacia decided to switch from a monarchy system of government. It was noted that the wealth that could be created from Democracy as opposed to Monarchy is what caused the Royal Family and nobles to accept it. The royal family that once ruled Englacia are still treated as influential members of society, however. Former nobles, who were once known for their obsession with being as ruthless as possible, were also calm in the face of the prosperity that democracy brought. Since Englacia is considered the most prosperous nation, it usually hires from the other countries to meet its immediate \u0026 long term needs, including the demons for "underground" work. Finally, Kani is cited as being the magic capital of the continent, with the most prolific magic users heading to Kani for instruction. Kani is mostly filled with beings of high magical potential, which includes Elves, fairies, demi-gods, gods, and other magical creatures. It also has a diverse range of inhabitants, similar to Englacia but with an above-average prosperity level similar to Amera. Magic in Yggdrasil is known for being extensive. The number of magic types that are known to exist grows every day. Some are lost to the embrace of time while others are found from the fruits of research. The four main magic types that inhabit Yggdrasil are Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. These are considered basic types that anyone can learn. Other types of magic require certain aptitudes and training to be able to use them effectively. One such example is Light \u0026 Dark magic, which requires that a person have the innate ability to learn it. Kani is the place to go if you are an aspiring mage or a person who wishes to purchase magic-based products. It is also known as being the most beautiful country, as it''s the government that needs the plants and animals intact in order to continue its pursuit of more magic. These four countries rely on each other for there individual imports and exports. Amera exports High-grade magical technology and imports magic from Kani \u0026 Engis from Englacia. Englacia exports its valuable Engis and imports Magic from Kani, Technology/science from Amera, and War power from Elu. Kani exports its magic to Amera \u0026 Englacia and imports Engis \u0026 Technology from its appropriate trade partners. Kani placed a ban on anything from Elu since a certain incident occurred in the past regarding conflict of beliefs. Finally, Elu gets a majority of both it''s imports and exports primarily from Englacia. Amera also occasionally requests the demonic country to send items that only Elu can produce in exchange for valuable technology that the demons need to build their infrastructure. Recently, humans have been planning to summon capable beings from different worlds in order to deal with a new threat. They hope that with this research, they can bring the aforementioned peaceful way of life back to Yggdrasil before the Demon Lords appeared... 2 New Beginnings! As I awoke from a rather peaceful nap in the library, a beautiful clear sky greeted my senses. The air was pure and clean, cleaner than any place that I''ve visited in the US. The trees were large and mystical, as if they were speaking a language I couldn''t hear. I placed my hand on the grass around me and felt it''s softness. I didn''t know where I was but I could at least appreciate the beautiful forest that I had seemed to find myself in. The problem with this beautiful forest was a large white dragon in front of me. The dragon had gold markings over its body. Its facial expression was seemingly perplexed as it looked at me. The dragon''s size was definitely large but not massive in any sense. If I had to compare, I would say the dragon was around 18 feet tall. Eventually, I decided to stand up, wiping off any dirt from my clothes and preparing myself to speak to a dragon that shouldn''t logically exist. "Hello...Dragon. My name is Brice. I have seemed to find myself in a rather strange place. Is this some type of lucid dream or what?" The dragon seemed to stare at me. Its expression seemed to indicate that it could understand the language but didn''t know how to respond. I then decided to reformat the question. "What is this place? Why am I here? I was sleeping in the library and now I''m in front of you in this forest. I want to know why." The dragon nodded its head and started to walk towards me. As it began to walk, the dragon seemed to shrink in size. With each step, the dragon became shorter until it began to glow. I closed my eyes at the brightness. The brightness seemed to last around 5 seconds, which allowed me to open my eyes to a woman standing in front of me. "Hello, Brice! My name is Arcana \u0026 I''m the dragon queen of Yggdrasil!" she said with pride, as she smiled. The large white dragon that had appeared in front of me seemed to have turned into a rather young looking woman. She looked around 25 and was very beautiful. Her hair was long and red, with medium-sized horns on the side of her head. Her body was very human-like, with her very nice assets being partially portrayed through her outfit. Along with her horns were a pair of small white wings on her back, though they looked different from dragon wings. The wings she had were still white and covered in gold markings, but they seemed more like angelic wings. It was no doubt that she could be a huge model if she wanted to. "You are here because I summoned you from your world. I asked the gods to summon a legendary hero for us. We must take on the 3 demon lords that plague the continent of Yggrasil", she stated firmly. I began to ponder my situation. For one, she said that I wasn''t from here. This means that I must not be on earth anymore, which makes sense considering what I''ve observed so far. Why did she call me a legendary hero though? I haven''t fought much on earth so what use could I really be to this breathtaking woman? She also said that I had to defeat 3 demon lords? As if 1 demon lord wasn''t bad enough? Just where the hell did I wake up too? I think there is only one thing that I can possibly say in this situation. "I have decided to pass. Send me back, please. You have the wrong guy" I stated, as I began to lay my head on the soft grass. "What? No no no, you ARE the one. I can''t send you back! You can''t pass on this Brice! The world is at stake here!" shouted Arcana. After judging her reaction, it does seem that she is telling the truth. That must mean that this is really another world huh? I watched a ton of isekai anime but I never thought that it was a legitimate thing. It seems a lot different compared to watching it to be honest. I mean, does she really expect me to agree to give my life for a world that I just arrived in? This is real-life!. An agreement must be made in order for me to do anything! "Look Arcana. I''m not fighting the Demon lords of this world. However, I think that we can make a deal that we both agree to. I believe that we should play the game of Rock-Paper-Scissors from my homeworld to decide this important matter. If I win, you must become my companion for life. If you win, I will go defeat the Demon Lords and become your servant for life. We will play one game and the outcome is final, no matter what." I looked Arcana straight in the eyes while I told her the rules. I explained to her how to play and the terms of our agreement. She seemed to cast some sort of magic over me to see if I was lying about the game but I was serious! Seriously going to cheat! You may be asking how I could cheat in Rock-paper-scissors? It''s simple! All you have to do is say what you''re going to play and then play the opposite! I even made her promise not to use magic while we are playing so she can''t use it to tell! You may think less of me but you should know that I was one of the smartest kids in my class at university! This is just using your intellect to your advantage! "Ok Arcana. Those are all the rules. Are you ready to play?", I stated. "Hahaha! Foolish human! To think you would give up your life so easily! I''ll be sure to make it so you can fully serve your life sentence as my servant! Prepare to be had!" she stated, as she had the look of desire. Looking at her face, there was no doubt that she was beautiful. Too bad she was an arrogant queen. While I was explaining the rules to her, she explained to me that she was recently given the title of queen by her mother a year or so ago. Obviously, she isn''t as smart as she should be if she''s willing to bet her future on a game played by kids. I would feel bad but honestly, this will be a lesson for her. Plus, imagine the things I could make her do for me! If she''s the queen of the dragons, I could just use their army to do the work for me! Am I lazy? Sure but the smartest should be rewarded with relaxation! As one of the greatest isekai protagonists said: "I believe in true gender equality!" "Ok Arcana. Let''s play! Rock-Paper-Scissors-shoo..." It was at this moment, in the strange forest, that the lives of Arcana and Brice would be intertwined forever... 3 How To Become A Paladin After I "won" that spectacular game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, I proceeded to ask Arcana questions about our situation. She notified me of the 4 countries that made up the continent of Yggdrasil and what each country did. She also said that we were currently in the country of Amera, as they asked her to summon me in response to increased attacks by the Demon Lords. She was also unsurprisingly salty about the beatdown that I gave her in RPS. "I can''t believe you did that. Have you no shame? Aren''t heroes supposed to be honest, caring, and trustworthy beings?" Arcana stated, visibly salty at her loss. "You can complain all you want but a win is a win! Plus, you put a contract spell on the agreement so it''s not like we can change it anyway" I stated while rubbing her head. I forgot to mention that Arcana put a servant spell on a contract and had us both sign it in order to keep the security of the agreement. However, I knew that she really did it because she thought that I was going to run away if I lost. She wasn''t wrong in that assessment at all though. She seemed like the type of queen to make me do demoralizing things like becoming her chair or something. While some people on earth may be into that sorta thing, I was definitely NOT one of those people. Anyway, it had been around 30 minutes since I had come to this world and I still hadn''t seen what I could actually do. Especially since this hot queen was asking me to save the world. "So you said that I need to kill 3 Demon Lords but what exactly can I do?" I stated, after sitting on a wooden log. "Oh! I forgot about that! You are the first hero to not accept the quest so I forgot about the process! Let''s see...after you were SUPPOSED to accept my quest, you were to understand your class, skills, and abilities by saying Status!" stated Arcana, as she sat down next to Brice. I decided to give it a shot, as cliche as it sounded, and say "Status!" to see what I have to work with. As I shouted status, an RPG-like screen popped up in front of me. I would be lying if I said that it wasn''t cool. It listed my stats as followed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Title: Paladin Lord Of Yggdrasil+ Class: Paladin God+ Subclass: Paladin Mage Of Calamity+ Name: Brice Pridellion Lvl: 01 Race: Demi-God+ HP: 100 Mana: 100 Additional Stats+ Main Skills: Scholar+, Index+, Creator+ Additional Skills:(5)+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Interesting. The class name could be better but Paladin God does seem like an interesting class. Paladin Mage of Calamity also seems pretty good" I said, while analyzing the status screen. It seemed like the plus marks indicate additional information, as I had clicked on each one and was told more information about them. I started to have a better grasp of my situation thanks to the index skill. Apparently, the index is an A.I that will passively give you knowledge about the world. It actually reminded me of Great Sage from a certain isekai that I had watched. Anyway, I decided to call it Central and start preparing for battle. While looking at my status, I noticed that the interface had 3 additional tabs on the top next to Status that was in the following order: Status Void Inventory/Storage Map O.P Store I decided to ask Arcana some questions about the UI. "Hey, Arcana. Can you see this UI right now? Why do I have this? Is this the Ameran Technology you were talking about earlier?" I asked her, pointing at the UI. "I''m able to see the entire interface but that''s only because my level is high and I have the blessed technology. Most beings in Yggdrasil will be able to see your class and subclass but won''t be able to see any of your stats. Summoned heroes get the blessing passively but regular beings in Yggdrasil have to get an injection in order to acquire and see one. Most of the time, it is given to them at birth since its the norm. It was a revolutionary technology that was the result of the four nations working together" Arcana stated, as she was pointing to her neck where the injection took place. I switched over to the void menu and looked at the items. The inventory housed a set of basic paladin armor as well as a set of paladin mage clothes. It also housed their respective weapons, which were basically lvl. 1 starter items. I also had additional items that you would expect to start with like food and water, though the items were strangely from Earth. Among the items that I had the pleasure of starting with, I noticed a note with gold letters on it. Upon hovering my finger over it, it read "Letter From The Goddess: Welcome". I decided to save that for later since it seemed like a personal letter to be read by myself. I switched the screen over to void storage and a portal appeared in front of me. Upon further inspection, I was right to assume the void portal was mine. With a scroller on the Void storage page, I could increase the size of the void tear from a hand to the size of a human. I switched back to the Inventory screen and clicked on the Paladin Armor set. The set of armor immediately replaced my university clothes and moved them to the inventory. I surmised that the void inventory was more convenient since you only had to click on the items for them to appear. Void storage seemed to require that the user reach inside the portal and take it out but those were my impressions of how it worked. I went to the Map screen and saw a map of the forest. Unfortunately for me, the functions of the map were locked due to a level cap. If I wanted to access the more lucrative abilities of the map, I had to level up. The option to activate a Heads-Up Display was on the page so I turned it on and moved to the last page. OP Store was the last page. The name was sooo bad that I thought it was a joke but it seemed interesting. After looking over the content of the store and it''s point-based currency system, I decided that it would be a good idea to not tell anyone but those I trust about it. I decided to ask Arcana to make sure. "Hey, Arcana. Do you have Void storage, Map, or OP store on your Status? Is it a hero thing or something?" I asked, slightly confused. "What? No. You should only have a status page. Void storage is a lost art and the only maps we have are magical maps we make ourselves. Also, what is an "OP store?" Arcana asked while scratching her head in confusion. "I see. In any case, let''s start leveling up! I want to see what I can do!" I shouted, as I got used to walking in my armor. The armor was surprisingly light, though it was clear that it was because of my strength skill. As I selected the sword from the menu, I watched it appear in my hand. I began the process of re-evaluating the situation that I was in. It was similar to a game but for real! I still didn''t want to face the Demon Lords but I did want to see what this world has to offer. I turned the sword around to get a good look at it. I still couldn''t believe this was happening or the fact that I had RPG elements tied to me. However, I was sure of one thing. Something that would motivate me to keep improving and becoming a stronger Paladin. And that, of course, was the fact that in the Official Paladin Store for 10,000 points was the ability to summon...an "Overpowered Pet Of Your Choice"... 4 How To Become A Paladin.2 I began to walk on the dirt path that was left in the Ameran Great Forest. Underwhelmed by the naming scheme of the continent''s most advanced nation, I searched for something to fight. I had activated the Heads-Up Display that was in the maps section earlier and was pleasantly surprised by how good it was. It was like I had the UI implanted inside of my eye without the excruciating pain that would have accompanied it. The UI was pretty standard in terms of information placement. In the upper right corner, I had the mini-map that could only show a radius of 10 meters at lvl1. In the upper left corner, I had my Title, Class, and subclass listed along with my laughably low level. In the bottom left corner, I had my HP and Mana bars which actually looked pretty solid thanks to my class types. In the bottom right corner, I had a very useful index. However, the index felt like an isekai''d Alexa more than anything. Arcana said it was a legendary skill but I don''t really see what''s legendary about an Alexa. Anyway, I began to grow tired of the useless mini-map that I was given so I asked Arcana for help. "Arcana. Can you find us some hostiles? I need to be lvl.5 for hostiles to appear on the map. How do I level up anyway?" I asked, visibly annoyed. "The primary way of leveling up is by killing enemies. When heroes like yourself kill enemies, their bodies will be consumed by the blessing of the Goddess but will drop important items. For example, if an Ameran villager killed a goblin, the goblin would simply die and rot. If the villager was one to desecrate, he would have to manually recover the loot from the body. The Goddess recognized this as a potent deterrent for most heroes. Thus, beings who have the blessing of the Goddess will automatically activate their passive skill Holy Devour, in order to encourage the killing of evil creatures." Arcana stated, surprisingly sounding intelligent. She further explained the ways to level up. Apparently, I didn''t ACTUALLY have to kill any hostiles to fix the mini-map. Arcana called them Amera points but I''m going to call it XP. Anyway, XP can be gained in many ways, which was also similar to an RPG. If I think about it, this world is technically more advanced than Earth. I mean, we don''t even have Heads-Up Displays in our retina! Magic seems pretty damn convenient. Anyway, it seems like fighting and training gives the most XP but you could also gain it from cooking, trading, crafting, researching, etc. This works out for me since I''m not into fighting the Demon Lords in the first place. If they gave me a good offer, I can''t say I wouldn''t refuse but it seems like it would be way too noisy near the Demon castles. The best bet is probably to be an adventurer. All I have to do is earn enough to pay the bills and then proceed to relax. Of course, I won''t tell Arcana that since she won''t be useful if she''s angry. While I was thinking about all this, a small blue and red slime appeared in front of us. "Oi. It''s two slimes Arcana. Are they hostile or what?" I asked, practicing the swing of my sword. "No. But this would be a good time to practice your moves. We need some Slime jelly anyway for the guild" Arcana stated, while beginning to sit on the ground. With Arcana sitting and watching me, I guess I can''t really mess this up. I wanted to score some cool points so I decided to use my thoughts to ask my boi Central how to fight. Central pretty much said to think about what I wanted to do and just do it. BUT he also said that he could just take over by having me set fighting to autopilot. It was at this moment that I realized why he was called a legendary index. Apparently, the index knows fight moves and movement patterns enough to execute autopilot. Unsurprising to no one, I set fighting to autopilot and let Central handle it. Central said that all I had to do was think about it turning it on and he''ll do it automatically, which was pretty convenient. I decided to try it out on the blue slime. "Watch this Arcana!" I said, while walking towards the slime. Immediately after I activated autopilot, I hit the first slime with the shield. With the slime staggered, I used lightning magic to fry it. The slime began to fade away, leaving a vial of Slime jelly. I turned off autopilot and decided to copy Central''s moves. I raised my sword and slashed the slime. The cut began to return to its original state, signaling that I did zero damage whatsoever. The slime jumped at me to attack, but I blocked it with my shield. "Arcana, are slimes resistant to physical attacks by any chance?" I asked. "Yeah. I thought you knew that already. Isn''t that why you used lightning magic?" Arcana asked. "...Yeah. Yeah. Of course, I was just making sure you know?" I said, remembering not to tell her that I used autopilot on a slime. With this newfound knowledge, I shocked the Red slime with lightning magic, resulting in red slime jelly to be dropped. I went towards the slain slimes and picked up the Slime jelly. I tossed them into void storage and began to walk back towards Arcana. I looked to the upper left hand of the screen and saw that my lvl went up to 2. Central said the scholar skill can help level up as an XP booster skill. From when I looked at the additional details earlier, it also said that the Scholar skill is the ability to learn another person''s skill at a faster pace. In short, it helps you to learn and level up faster. I was about to look into my stats when a group of thugs appeared to walk towards us. "Arcana...are they hostile?" I asked, walking back towards her. "I''m afraid so. Thugs are known to give in to their desires. I would suggest killing them before I do" Arcana stated, readying her attack. "Don''t worry about it. I''m a Paladin, right? It''s my duty to protect anyway" I said, actually wanting to attack so the mini-map could be improved. It was clear that the thugs were actually demon mercenaries from Elu. They looked like they knew how to fight but their leader looked like an expert. In the middle of the 5 was a mercenary leader, with dragon-like horns and devil-like wings. It was obvious to me that their leader was some sort of dragon race like Acarna. Central even suggested that the level of that dragon could be around 20... 5 How To Become A Paladin.3 The situation that I had seemed to find myself in was not a favorable one. Not only did Central tell me that the lvl of the dragon was 20 but the 4 other mercenaries were also lvl 5. As a newly minted lvl 2, I was understandably worried. I asked Central for more information on the leveling in Yggdrasil and was greeted with comforting information. A person''s level is an indicator of the experience that they have gained. It is the culmination of all the XP points that you have earned from the various things in Yggdrasil. A great example was the Orc farmer in Englacia being a lvl 25 but only having a combat prowess of a lvl 10. XP is similar to your seniority in your class and subclass. You tend to gain more XP points doing things associated with your class and significantly less if you do things unassociated. If the Orc was to try his hand at being an adventurer, he would be significantly disadvantaged since his rate of leveling would be slower. In contrast, the Orc could quickly level up in farming if he has the farming class. Apparently, this was done by the Goddess in order to encourage the best and brightest to pursue their respective professions. Central stated that the 4 nations rewarded the highest levels in the population and usually attempted to ignore the lowest ones. In contrast to earth, hard work in your class and subclass was actually rewarded with higher wages, additional respect, and the ability to do your work more efficiently. You could essentially work your way out of poverty in Yggdrasil. This was the primary reason that the peacetime before the Demon Lords'' arrival was for such a long time. The levels in this world have been recorded as reaching the max of 1000, but it has been recorded that demi-gods can reach 2,000 and Gods can reach 4,000. Certain races tend to have lower max levels that they can reach on average. Other than gifted humans, regular humans tend to have a max lvl of 100. Gifted humans have been cited as reaching lvl 1,000, which essentially makes them 10x better in whatever class and subclass they obtain. Central said that summoned heroes usually have different max levels depending on their classes so I have yet to know what my max is. However, I can expect to be above lvl.1000 whenever I reach my max. I decided that I had to be cautious in the face of every enemy since I wasn''t that strong yet. I disregarded the complex nature of levels and began to prep for battle. By prepping for battle, I obviously meant turning on autopilot since I had no fighting experience whatsoever. After turning on autopilot, I walked over to the mercenaries. I told Central to attack once he sensed killing intent. Arcana and I began walking towards the mercenaries until we were both around 20 meters away from them. The dragon mercenary leader spoke. "Hello, Paladin. I see that you have been summoned by our Dragon Queen. If you are done talking to her, we would like to take her back to the castle of dragons. You don''t need to worry about her anymore." he stated, while licking his lips. Essentially, I realized that this dude was not a good dragon, despite being under Arcana''s rule. For one, I can tell by his dark wings that he must be a different type of dragon. He looked like the human version of an average asshole. He had the cliche scar over his right eye. He had a moderate build and was around my height at 6''2. I noticed that he had no markings on his wings compared to Arcana. It led me to believe that those markings indicate the class level among the dragons but I can just ask Arcana about it later. I was going to speak but I didn''t really see the point in negotiating with mercenaries. I mean, why would I hold a conversation with these guys? Ignoring the mercenary, I went to the OP Store and looked around. The store had many categories but the one that caught my eye was the lesser soul crystal. Apparently, it was a Calamity Paladin specific item that could store the soul of most beings under level 50 for 10 points. I had gained 10 OP points from those slimes so I went ahead and bought it. "Hey! Did you hear me? I said you can go!" the dragon said, as he starting to walk towards me. I put my hands behind my back and reached into void storage. Upon pulling out the soul crystal, Central told me how to use it. Apparently, all I have to do is touch him with the crystal and the process will take care of itself. I kept the crystal behind my back until the dragon mercenary was 10 meters in front of me. I could see that his class was a dragon knight and his subclass was Mercenary. It seemed like I had no real need to speak to him. "If you are going to ignore me then..." the dragon Mercenary said, as he took out his sword. He began to lunge toward me. As he closed the distance, Central sensed killing intent and activated AP. I readied my shield and took a defensive stance. The Dragon knight proceeded to do a downward slash but was parried by my shield. He quickly recovered. He began to tell me that I wasn''t half bad but I wasn''t really paying attention to his monologue. Central and I knew that the other mercenaries wouldn''t let us fight alone. 2 mercenaries tried to run around to the back and flank me. 1 of them began to ready their magic albeit slowly and another began to confront the queen. "Hello, Queen Arcana. I believe that I will be your opponent." the demon mercenary said. I ignored the last mercenary because I figured that the problem would take care of itself. I decided to use magic to end this fight. I used ice magic to send projectiles towards the dragon but it dodged to the right. He sprinted forward to attack me and was met with an additional parry. With his sword against my shield, I saw an opportunity. "This is good and all but I think its time to end this!" I stated, blocking the additional 5 attacks with my shield. "How do you expect to end this Paladin? You may be able to block my attacks now but how much longer can you do it I won..." While he was gloating about his strength, I took the opportunity to throw the crystal at his face. The crystal began to hover and glow. The mercenary began to slowly fade away into the crystal. The particles began from his feet and made its way up his body. "What the hell is this? What did you do to me?" he shouted, dropping his sword and unable to move. Obviously, I didn''t answer since I would be an idiot to give away my cards this early. For some reason, people have a tendency to do that. It took about 10 seconds for him to be fully absorbed into the crystal. The 2 mercenaries, who were initially ready to flank me, were in disbelief as to what happened to there leader. I assumed they thought that I give a monologue so I took this opportunity to cast ice magic and freeze them. Apparently, beings in this world actually do chants in order to cast magic but that''s literally giving up your cards before you play. I casted the magic and watched as the ice magic moved up their bodies. I assumed it was effective since they eventually became giant ice shards. I went ahead and broke the shards, with the mercenaries being absorbed by Holy Devour. With 3 down, I was left to deal with the mage who was now trembling 30 meters away from me. I''m guessing this guy was still new since he seemed like a nice kid. If I had to guess, he was probably only 16. He seemed like the type of person who would help an old lady cross the road and less like a person who would kill an old lady. "Y-Y-You won''t get away with this! I''ll b-b-beat you and save my colleagues!" he said, unconfident in his words. I decided that he was more useful alive than dead. He also called them colleagues instead of friends which began pique my interest. To be honest, I didn''t really want to kill this kid. Especially since his class was Demonic Mage with a subclass of Holy Healer. I found it strange that he was a demon but still had a holy healing ability. I eventually introduced the concept of RPS to him. "Look here Demonic Mage. I say we play a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors. If you win, I''ll let you have the queen and join your team. If I win, you''ll have to become my bag carrier." I said, while turning off autopilot. I explained the rules to him, with the mage nodding to the complete terms of the agreement. He proceeded to apply a servant spell to the contract that we made. He seemed like a good and honest kid. I wondered how he got into partying up with these mercenaries though. Of course, that wouldn''t stop me from cheating again. This is me we are talking about after all. Logically speaking, you shouldn''t trust a Paladin you just met. It seems pretty effective so I don''t see why I wouldn''t honestly. "Ok! Let''s play! Rock-Paper-Scissors-Shoo..." And just like that, in the Ameran Great Forest, a healer had joined the team... 6 How To Become A Paladin.4 After I successfully "won" the RPS match against the mage, we began to walk over to Arcana. It looked like she was cleaning up her torture of the demon mercenary who was talking it up earlier. Arcana was in her dragon form, with her white scales covered in gold markings and her black claws inside the chest of the mercenary. It seems like she had put poison on the tip of her claws and was slowly letting him die from a mixture of blood loss \u0026 poison. It was at this moment that I didn''t regret cheating in RPS against her. Luckily, she wasn''t as smart as she was strong. "Oi. Arcana. Is this really necessary? This is a bit much." I said, crouching on the ground next to the dying mercenary. "This asshole said that they were contracted by one of the Demon Lords! We have to interrogate him more!" Arcana shouted. I may be an asshole but I wasn''t heartless. I went ahead and killed the mercenary under her claw by a quick and painless Ice shard to the head. Arcana obviously objected but I didn''t really care. Interrogating that guy would only lead us to fight the Demon Lords anyway. It seemed like the appropriate time to tell Arcana about our new ally. I stood up from the fading mercenary and walked back over to the mage. I put my arm around his shoulder and introduced him. "Arcana. This is Shobe. He is an elf that possesses the Demonic Mage \u0026 Holy Healing classes." I stated, smiling. Before we had walked over to Arcana, Shobe and I talked about how he came to be in this group. Apparently, Shobe was seen as an outcast in the elf community for his unholy combination of opposing skills. The demon mercenaries had recruited him, citing "true potential" from him. They were unhappy about his lack of killing intent but they appreciated his healing ability. This led to Shobe \u0026 the mercenaries to be on good terms. Since he had both Demonic \u0026 holy skills, he had the rare ability to heal demons. That was most likely the true reason they treated him so well. In general, assholes are usually nice if it benefits them in some way. Shobe said that the party was formed around a week ago but they were doing pretty good for themselves in terms of their finances \u0026 quest completions. They were even good enough to get recruited by one of the Demon Lords men. Arcana \u0026 I sat to listen to Shobe''s life story. Expecting it to be sad, I was surprised to hear a pretty solid story. He had basically left his community in Kani around 3 months ago, after turning 16. He traveled over to Englacia, where he tried to find work after leaving home with only a handful of coins. He eventually met these 4 dead mercenaries and the rest was history. I wanted to hear more about my new healer but the time seemed to be nearing the afternoon. At present, I was technically homeless and poor. However, the loot from these mercenaries would hopefully fix that. After asking Central for advice, I told Shobe to look for herbs, fruits, and other things that grow in the forest. Elves were apparently good at that sort of stuff. I told Arcana to hunt some edible animals in the forest so that we could eat. Dragons are popularly known as being excellent hunters. Since I didn''t even know what was edible in this world, it seemed appropriate that I stay behind. While they completed their tasks, my job was to pick up the mercenary items and toss them into void storage. The loot was about what I expected from mercenaries. Swords, pieces of armor, potions, equipment, and even the more trivial things, like a porno poster of a busty succubus. I threw it all in void storage, ready to sell them when the time arrived. Upon approaching the spot where the Dragon mercenary was absorbed, I noticed that he dropped his sword. It was a pretty nice sword, with the ability to emit elemental magic passively. Central also agreed by saying it was a pretty find. The dragon''s sword was all black and had a golden handle. From the looks of it, it was a custom sword made to compliment the dragon''s abilities. I decided to use the sword until I could either sell it or acquire a better one. I looked to the left of my HUD and noticed that my level had gone to 9, largely thanks to the Dragon I defeated. Thanks to my current level of 9, I began to eagerly expand my Map from the Status Menu. I could now see 1000 meters around me on the map, compared to the measly 10 I had to start with. The UI notified me of enemy movement tracking unlocking at lvl 10, which made me aim to achieve it before nightfall. I went ahead and pulled up my status screen, with the following data greeting me: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Title: Paladin Lord Of Yggdrasil+, Dragon Slayer+ Class: Paladin God+ Subclass: Paladin Mage Of Calamity+ Name: Brice Pridellion Lvl: 09 Race: Demi-God+ HP: 1576 Mana: 1985 Additional Stats+ Main Skills: Scholar+, Index+, Creator+ Additional Skills (7)+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Nice! That''s what I like to see. I even gained two new skills!" I said, checking my void storage. I went ahead and put on the Calamity Paladin outfit since it was significantly lighter than the armor I was wearing. I checked the mercenary items in storage and got Central to mark their value for trade. I went over to the OP store and checked my points. I had gained 10 points per mercenary that I killed. The dragon didn''t give me any points since its soul was still in the crystal. Luckily, the page had a redeem section that lets me redeem certain items for points. A lesser dragon''s soul was near the top of the reward list, at 5,000 points. There was an option to double or nothing your points by choosing a random card from the 6 that were on the screen. I went ahead and chose one of the cards at random and was blessed with an additional 5,000 points. I couldn''t believe my luck at turning a measly 200 points into 10,000 but I remembered that in the additional stat section, it had my luck % up to an insane amount. If I had to guess, my luck in any endeavor was increased by around 40%. That essentially meant that I had to find out if this world had a lottery and proceed to become a millionaire overnight. Anyway, my total point balance was now a strong 10,030 points. I decided to immediately return to the OP Pet page that I was so interested in earlier. It had a variety of options to choose from, with tigers, dogs, birds, lions, and even more mystical Yggdrasil creatures listed as "Overpowered companions for an OverPowered hero". I decided that I wanted my first pet to be what they called a "Destructive Calamity Lion, exclusive to the Calamity mage class \u0026 subclass". I confirmed my purchase and pressed the summon button on the UI, causing a large 20 ft magic circle to appear in front of me. Appearing from the circle, looking me straight in the eye, was none other than a giant 20-foot lion. Its roar was menacing, scaring the small and medium-sized animals that were in the area with me. Its eyes were a shining gold, with a red scar over its right eye. The entire front right leg and back right leg was inscribed with black markings over his white coat. I noticed that the markings were similar to Arcana''s, which might signify the status of the "pet" in front of me. Appearing in my hand was a black and gold collar that had a blank spot for a name above my name. "Oi. How am I supposed to put this on you? Can you shrink or something?" I asked the Lion, hoping that he could understand me with the auto-translator. While the sky began to clear, the lion started to glow green. It began to aggressively shrink, which caused an extremely bright light with a radius of 30m. After around 8 seconds of covering my eyes once again, a small and cute lion greeted me. It was around the size of a french bulldog and was honestly the cutest thing I had ever seen. I petted its head and felt it''s white coat. Luckily, the lion liked it and didn''t bite off my hand in the process. I looked at his nametag, partially unsure what to name the frightening 20-foot beast that had appeared in front of me. "Hm. I don''t know what to call you but for now, I guess I''ll call you Titan. Is that ok?" I said, while rubbing the small lion''s head. The collar I had placed on the Lion began to emit a small glow. What could now be read was the following: Name: Titan, The Calamity Lion Owner: Brice P. Class: Calamity Mage Companion Lvl: 1000... 7 First Night In Yggdrasil I carried Titan in my arms, rubbing his cute little head while walking around the forest. I had sent Arcana \u0026 Shobe to complete their respective tasks so I decided that I would set up the camp. I had 30 OP points left over so I looked through the store to see if there was anything to purchase. I knew that I didn''t need to purchase anything as extravagant as Titan for awhile. I clicked on the shelter section of the storefront and looked at the available options. I noticed that one of the options was a small, one-room spatial fortress for 25 points. I placed Titan on the ground to allow myself to accurately place it in the world. "Ok Titan. I want you to stay close by. Brice needs to do this right." I said, watching Titan chase a strange rabbit with a horn. I looked at the description of the fortress. Apparently, it was not only considered a modular base but was also able to be placed inside of my void storage. It also seemed that amenities could be added to the unit at a later date if I chose to. There were many different styles available but I chose to go with the modern floor plan since it looked the most like home. I decided that this is what I wanted and pressed the purchase button. On my HUD, a blue message stating "placement" was prominently displayed in the middle of the UI. An outline of the square fort was seen in front of me. Central advised that I could mentally move the outline in order to pick the correct placement, which is what I did. I found a nice, cozy place under a big tree and placed the small, 350 sq. ft home in front of the tree trunk. Since I had chosen the modern floor plan, the base took the appearance of a warm, cozy cottage with a loft on the top floor. Its current amenities included 3 beds, a magic-based A/C unit, and one bathroom. Between choosing to spend my last 5 points on a kitchen or a bathroom, I felt that the bathroom was the sensible choice. The plumbing and disposal system was supported by the use of the void, while the water, electricity, and heat came from their respective elements. The aforementioned was included as a bonus for choosing either the kitchen or the bathroom, so I knew that I was going to get it regardless. With all of my OP points spent, I noticed that it was getting late into the afternoon. I looked for Titan, who was graphically ripping the rabbit''s meat off of its bones. I hit him on the head. "Oi. You can''t do that Titan! You need to cook it first! That''s how you get sick!" I said, rubbing the spot where I hit him. It seemed that Titan really liked getting head rubs since he always wagged his tail when I rubbed it. It was hard to believe this from a "pet" whose starter level was 100x my current level out the gate. He is a lot cuter when he is small though. I''ll have to try to keep him in this form for as long as I can. He looks so similar to a Frenchie(French bulldog) after all! I carried Titan in my arms, rubbing his head as I walked towards the cottage. "Brice! I''m back with the items from the forest!" Shobe said, running towards Brice. Shobe wasn''t really carrying anything by hand so to speak. It looks like the items he collected had a strange, faint purple glow around them and were floating behind him. I surmised that it was thanks to his Demonic Mage skills since that''s what immediately came to mind. It was actually the first time that I had seen him use his powers. "Good job! Leave out some of the edible stuff and put the rest into this void tear here. After you do that, we will put your haul on the main table in the cottage" I said, making a circular void storage tear with a radius of 3 feet. Shobe proceeded to send the items into storage while bringing the edible fruits, veggies, and spices into the cottage. He noticed the white and black Lion that I had in my arms. When he tried to touch his head, the lion immediately began to roar. "What is with this menacing aura?! Why do I feel my life flashing before my eyes?" Shobe said, slowly stepping back. I explained to him the concept of the OP store and how I got the 20-foot lvl 1000 lion to become a Frenchie sized terror. I also went ahead and explained to him how I "built" the cottage that was in front of him. He seemed to believe what I was saying, despite the absurdity of my claims. This was thanks to Shobe''s ability to see the class and subclass of Titan and me. He couldn''t see Titan''s complete stats but seeing his class and aura made it likely that he was indeed a high level. As Shobe and I began to walk towards the cottage, Arcana was in her human-like form, carrying the varied meat from the animals she hunted. She used similar magic to Shobe to carry the items, but her items had a red glow. Central informed me that it was simply the color of their mana and nothing more. He noted that my mana was special and could vary in color as I grow stronger. I told Arcana the same things I recently explained to Shobe and stored some of the meat she carried in Storage. The three of us began to walk towards the cottage, with the time being around 8:00 pm earth time. Since we didn''t have a complete kitchen, Arcana prepared the meats for consumption and started the fireplace inside the cottage. Shobe began to prepare the vegetables and spices so that he could cook the food. It was obvious that the cooking courses that elves had to take in order to survive in the Kani Forest qualified him as head chef of tonight''s meal. I decided to take Titan for a walk and hopefully unlock the enemy movement tracking that I could gain at lvl 10. Apparently, I get half of whatever XP that Titan receives so we decided to go on a mob hunt together. We proceeded to walk down the steps of the porch when we could hear a warning from Arcana. "Make sure you''re careful Brice! Many dangerous foes are more prevalent at night!" she said, cutting the foreign meats with her knife. As I walked down the steps and towards the front of the house, I appreciated the cool breeze that was passing me by. I watched the trees around the forest emit a faint bio-luminescence as I took Titan for a walk. I noticed the two moons that took the place of the sun and their strange beauty. It seemed that the forest was not only beautiful in the daytime but also at night. I appreciated the beauty as we turned left towards a path that we had yet to explore... 8 First Night In Yggdrasil - Magic 101 Titan''s first walk was peaceful since he was killing everything that tried to attack us. Titan could still use magic in his miniature form, so I told him to "hunt what he wanted". Little did I know he would proceed to massacre everything that we encountered. I went ahead and cleaned up after him with my own powers. Stragglers, who had run away from Titan, were mobs that I had to deal with. Thanks to Titan''s void magic, the enemies were slowed as to not escape. As I still had on my calamity mage outfit and gear, I decided to practice my own magic usage. In the background, I set the void storage to Auto-collect, which was a useful feature to have. According to Central, I had the 4 basic types of magic unlocked, along with the void \u0026 lightning magic I already knew. He said that if I wanted to learn more specialized types, I would have to either go to Kani for training or spend points in the OP store. I decided to try out my types of magic on the stragglers. Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind were types of magic that I needed to familiarize myself with anyway. I didn''t really know how the combat system worked so it seemed like a great opportunity to enlighten myself. Up first was fire magic, which worked as I expected. It could apply a burn status to a target and could take the form of many creative spells. One could easily throw a ball of fire at their opponent but it was more versatile than that! You could summon fire-based creatures, enhance magic weapons, increase your attack, or even cancel out water magic. It could also be used for its utility purposes, like heating water, starting fires, heating the air, and more. There were many ways to use magic for defense as well as offense across all categories. It was not surprising since most beings in Yggdrasil had the ability to learn it. This democratization allowed for the creative use of it during peacetime. Everyone except the demons of Elu had integrated it into their daily lives. In contrast, Dark Magic''s main purpose was more suited to destroying opponents so its popularity was entirely based on times of war. While thinking this, I burned the scurrying mobs that were frightened by Titan''s onslaught and gained 8 OP points in the process. Water magic worked similarly to fire magic but applied a wet status to a target. The wet status by itself wasn''t that impressive but since you could freeze the target after it was applied, it was ideal for slowing down or stopping the enemy. Water \u0026 Ice magic are seen as apart of the same skill tree so the terms are used interchangeably. This is because the only difference in their usage is the temperature applied to the water. I was somewhat familiar with the magic, as I had used it earlier to kill the mercenary under Arcana''s freak claw. It was rather useful to not have to recite unbearably long chants to use the powers. A pack of what looked to be fire wolves were slowed by Titan''s void magic. I shot a blizzard of shards towards them, resulting in an additional 12 OP points. Wind \u0026 Earth magic were the more creative utility magic systems in Yggdrasil. It''s most common use is in the infrastructure industries of major cities. It was clear to know why, since you could build quicker with the magic than without. Earth magic allowed you to create whatever you wanted in a sense. If your magical power and mana were high enough, there wasn''t many things you couldn''t make. Of course, you still needed the core materials and a clear idea of what you were making but it was definitely faster than what I had on planet earth. Popular Earth magic-users were the labor-based races in Englacia, as the country is always upgrading and improving upon itself. While wind magic was also popular in construction, it was primarily used in Kani. Kani had a large number of magic users who had to learn wind magic in order to properly transverse the continent. Large, mystical trees were the norm in Kani and magic classes were usually taken in the skies, as to not damage the delicate landscape below. In order words, wind magic is essentially used for flight more than anything else. I saw an even better use for it, however. With the combination of Wind and Earth magic, I could make a hovering vehicle! I could even make a golem by hand with the earth magic if I learn enough! As for wind magic, it seemed appropriate to try flying before attempting to create a land-based vehicle. A goblin jumped in front of me, spouting words I didn''t care to know. Before he got to the third word of his monologue, I summoned a stone spike to stab him through the chest. As he faded away, I saw I gained 2 OP points from the short, brief interaction. After Titan \u0026 I spent 10 minutes clearing the area, I noticed that Titan seemed tired. It was clear that he was exhausted from going all out to impress me. His mana was still plentiful but his mental strength was waning. "Let''s go, Titan. We have dinner to eat! Let''s get you a nice big steak!" I said, picking him up and petting him. As I walked back to the cottage, I could smell the delicious food that my companions had made. I decided to properly thank them when I arrived and ask their thoughts on this strange adventure. I seemed to gloss over the fact that I literally had the Queen of the Dragons in my house cooking me dinner. I also seemed to shrug off the fact that I had a very rare healer in my party on my first night. Reconsidering these factual statements, I decided that I would learn more about my companions. So far, I have been relying on Central for my information but what about their perspective? Central is more or less an Isekai''d Alexa so I surmised that it may prove fruitful to talk to my companions more. As I walked to the front of the cottage, a mysterious person sat on the steps. Upon seeing my arrival, they stood up from the stairs and calmly walked towards me. As they got closer, their outline became clearer with each step. The moonlight began to shine on the woman, who had beautiful golden hair and a green, floral head wreath. Her aura was pure, as I sensed nothing but calmness from her presence. I looked down at Titan and he was also captured by her beauty, making a happy, derpy face. I didn''t even know that was possible, to be honest. Her body was human-like but godly in a sense. I couldn''t take my eyes off of her. To be blunt, I couldn''t take my eyes off her chest. "Those had to at least be F cups!" is what I thought when I saw her for the first time. Shrugging off my 19-year-old hormones, I wanted to know more about her and how she found my cottage. She began to speak in the purest voice that had ever graced my ears. "Hello, Brice. I am the Goddess of Yggdrasil. I believe that you have started your quest towards the Demon Lords Subjugation?" she stated, smiling. She stared at me, expecting me to answer with absolute certainty that I was planning to do my duty as a legendary hero. Of course, I didn''t really care for it but it seemed hard for me to say no to those big ti-, I mean to the Goddess of Yggdrasil. My mind became confused about what to say to the Goddess in order to eventually ask her out. Unsure of what to tell the Goddess that randomly appeared on my cottage''s doorsteps, I muttered the first thing that was on my mind. Still mesmerized by her beauty. "Nice tits!" As I saw the Goddess''s smile slowly turn into one of disgust, it became clear that I had just blown my chance at dating her... 9 Goddess Of The Hun Looking at the young Goddess, I told her my situation. I explained that I didn''t want to defeat the Demon Lords because it seemed like a suicide mission. I explained the plans that I had for myself in this world, which included hoverboards, mobile fortresses, handmade weapons, lots of sleep, and a plethora of OP points to spend. As I explained all of these ideas, the Goddess''s eyes began to shine. Her face was more beautiful when she smiled and I couldn''t help but stare at it. Her face spelled nothing but pure wonder. "Ok. I''m in!" she said, looking at me straight in the eyes. I was taken back by the statement I just heard. I immediately snapped back to reality. "Starting today, I will be accompanying you on your adventure Brice! Please treat me well!" she said, smiling while standing up. Titan was unsurprisingly happy at the news but I personally couldn''t believe it. Why would an absolute babe of a Goddess leave the heavens in order to adventure with a paladin? How does that even make logical sense in this world? Seeking the logic behind her decision, I asked her for more information. Her name was Artemis and she was the "Goddess Of The Bow" in Yggdrasil. She said that I can call her Daera since she grew tired of her name. Apparently, she was the Goddess assigned to my summoning. When Arcana summoned me, she asked for one of the Gods to answer her call and Artemis was picked to overlook me. The way she explained it, it seemed that every Goddess you encounter is simply referred to as "Goddess of Yggdrasil" in order to keep all the Gods equal. She also explained that she was the daughter of the supreme God of Yggdrasil, simply referred to as the "Supreme One". It seemed normal for the Gods of Yggdrasil to walk around the continent. This was done in order to check on the progress of their respective altars and followers. Daera, who was always training in the Amera Great Forest, was rarely seen by anyone. Her love of the hunt was regarded as being so strong, that she turned down the hundreds of suitors who came to seduce her. This was also the reason why she had the face of disgust when I said "Nice Tits" earlier. It had reminded her of the "filth who would dare talk to a maiden" like herself. To keep it short, she said that she grew tired of hunting in the forest with her Bow \u0026 Arrow. She wanted to leave the forest with someone strong enough to where she only had to worry about the practicing \u0026 sightseeing. She honestly didn''t care if I went to defeat the Demon Lords or not since my current plans were more exciting to her. Apparently, the Goddess who is put in charge of a summoned hero has full discretion in what they are allowed to do. Since she was known as a respectable Goddess, she would have the necessary influence needed to convince the other Gods to leave me be. Unexpectedly, she said that she summoned me because I was "chosen" by the Supreme God (a.k.a her Father) among the list of candidates. While I had the Goddess next to me, I decided to ask her about the OP store. She told me that it was something that only gets blessed to someone every 2000 years. The purpose of the OP points system was to encourage the hero to hunt for Demonic Beasts and defeat evil. The OP store is an organic system, which adjusts to the summoned heroes'' tastes. A good example was the cottage that was behind us. She also said she added the Void storage and map to my UI since she had the influence to do so. She could also use the void herself, which she demonstrated by pulling out an apple from her personal void. As if in unison, our stomachs began to growl. We laughed it off and got up from the steps. Daera agreed to eat dinner with me and put the "blessing of the forest" on the house. She gave me Titan, who had fallen asleep in between her thick thighs. I woke him up and he began to smile. It was obvious he was rubbing it in my face. I figured he had earned it since he got me to level 13. As we walked up the steps to the front of the door, Daera stopped me. Her face was red and she was mumbling her words. It was obvious she was flustered. "So..what would you say if we..you know...dated for a little while?" she said, shyly. On this lukewarm Yggdrasil night, I was absolutely sure of one thing: My luck stat was undefeated. 10 Queen Of The Dragons I happily agreed to Daera''s request but was curious as to why she asked me to date her. Before I got the chance to ask, Arcana opened the front door. She seemed jealous, as she made a pouting face at me. I guessed that she was listening to our conversation while we were on the steps. The cottage was built on the prefab of a mobile fortress so certain defensive measures were passively active. One such measure was heightening dialogue in a 50-meter radius, as to warn occupants of any potential ambushes. "If you lovebirds are done, we need to eat dinner! Shobe and I just finished making the dessert!" she said, grabbing me by the arm. I didn''t realize how strong she was in her human form because she proceeded to body slam me on my own cottage floor. She began to perfectly execute numerous wrestling moves for no apparent reason. Since I watched a variety of isekai, I guessed she may have been a tsundere. As she proceeded to keep me in a "Boston Crab" wrestling move, I looked at Daera. The Goddess Of The Hunt was currently snickering at me and not giving an indicator of helping. Luckily, Shobe was as helpful as you would expect from a healer. "If she breaks any bones, I''ll be sure to heal you Brice!" he said, smiling. I shall rescind my previous statement. He was as useless as you would expect from a healer. As I proceeded to be held in a chokehold by a tsundere Dragon Queen, I asked her a question. "So...Arcana, why are you doing this? Why are you so mad? Are you perhaps...JEALOUS?" I said, smugly. Her face became red and flustered as she proceeded to drop me on the cottage floor. She ran into the bathroom of the cottage, citing that she "needed to do something". As Shobe attended to my bruised ribs, I introduced Daera to Shobe. "Shobe, this is Artemis. She is the Goddess Of The Hunt but wants to be called Daera. She is going to join..." As I spoke, Shobe proceeded to drop me on the floor and run over to Daera. He proceeded to take her hand, kiss it, and begin to speak to her. "Oh, Goddess. Your beauty knows no bounds. We, the elven race of Kani, worship you every day of our life. If you need anything, let me be of service. Unlike the Dragon Queen, your aura is pure, your body is exquisite, and your personality is beau..." Before Shobe could finish his sentence, Arcana began to execute more advanced wrestling moves on Shobe. As Arcana began to execute a "seatbelt toss" on my dazed companion, I slightly chuckled. The companions who I had been ordering around showed their relaxed personalities for the first time. In this warm, fortified cottage in the middle of the Ameran Great Forest, I was happy with who I had gathered so far. I had companions with interesting personalities and a hot Goddess at my side. As I thought of how lucky I was, I began to move over to the dinner table. As I sat at the table, Daera sat next to me. As Daera and I began to pick up the plates, she began to talk to me. "It seems you have built quite a team of adventurers Brice. I never got to meet the new Dragon Queen. That elven boy I met also seems like a sweet person. With such a fun group of adventurers, I hope this hunting Goddess is not a bother on your journey!" she said. As I grabbed a plate and picked out my food, Arcana and Shobe walked over to the table. Arcana was smiling while Shobe was still in a daze from the bullying he just took. They sat across from Daera and I but had their chairs spaced from each other. It was obvious that there was still tension. "Arcana, isn''t this a bit childish? I mean, you are the Queen of the Dragons. This is not how a queen shou..." Before I got to finish, Arcana gave me a firm scowl. Central said he sensed killing intent as I sat across from her. I decided to drop the case and change the subject. "As I was explaining to Shobe, this is Daera. She is the Goddess Of The Hunt and will be joining our adventure." I said, drinking the warm soup. "I hope to be of service to you all" Daera said, as she took another piece of fried fire snake. We began to eat dinner, enjoying the spoils of war from Arcana and the expertise of magic from Shobe. I began to give my own stories from planet earth, telling them of popular movies, great TV shows, and a number of fairy tales that I thought they would love. We even listened to Daera''s favorite hunts, citing great interest in her way of storytelling her adventures. As I listened to my three companions, I brought up my status to check my strength and was greeted with the following: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Title: Paladin Lord Of Yggdrasil+, Dragon Slayer+, Goddess'' Hunter+ Class: Paladin God+ Subclass: Paladin Mage Of Calamity+ Name: Brice Pridellion Lvl: 13 Race: Demi-God+ HP: 2456 Mana: 3184 Additional Stats+ Main Skills: Scholar+, Index+, Creator+, Blessing Of The Hunt+ Additional Skills (9)+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Interesting. I gained two new skills and something called "Blessing Of The Hunt". I even gained a new title as "Goddess'' Hunter" I said to myself. As I began to look over my status, I decided to click on additional stats and skills to find out the full scope of my abilities. As I pressed the plus mark, a list of hidden skills was revealed to me. The skills and stats were surprising, to say the least... 11 A S.P.E.C.I.A.L Status I decided to click on "Additional Stats" since I didn''t know what categories the system focused on. When I clicked on it, a full list of stats was expanded and shown to me: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Additional Stats- Strength 5* Perception 3* Endurance 4* Charisma 3* Intelligence 5* Agility 2* Luck 4* The current individual stats are out of 5. As it stands right now, you are looking at the base stats you arrived with. As you level up, your base stats will increase slowly. If you wish to increase your base stats, you''ll have to train for that respective stat specifically. Otherwise, it will take a considerable amount of time to rank up the specific stat. For example, once you reach a star rating of 5 stars across the board, you''ll be considered in the top 1% of Yggdrasil in terms of power. Most races can only get to a max of 4 but even so, most end up at 3 for the rest of their lives. However, as you move closer to 5 stars, it will become more difficult to increase the star rating. Even if you make it to 5-stars, you would still have to break the lvl. 1000 barrier in order to be in the top .5%. Finally, to be considered a God in Yggdrasil, you would have to reach the unreachable lvl. of 4000. This is the only way a Demi-God can be considered a God since Demi-Gods are the only beings capable of achieving such a feat. That would obviously place you in the top .1%. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Finding the aforementioned note interesting, I asked Central to explain. Apparently, he categorized and arranged the stats in a way that made it seem familiar. Hence, I was blessed with having the S.P.E.C.I.A.L-inspired system guide me on my progress. I asked him to explain each stat simply since I still wanted to listen to Daera''s story while he explained. While I listened to Daera''s story, Central explained the system to me as simply as possible: Strength: Increasing Strength will allow greater carrying capacity, greater damage from melee, greater defense, and a boost to your overall physical abilities. As a paladin, this is a crucial stat to watch over. Perception: Increasing perception will allow greater accuracy when using ranged weapons and attacks. Increasing perception will also increase the potency of Magic attacks, as more damage can be inflicted with less mana. As a Calamity Paladin, I would suggest that you find ways to increase your perception. Endurance: Endurance is the second main stat that I would suggest looking over Brice. This helps increase your resistance to negative status effects, poisons, and allows you to have an "iron stomach" so to speak. It also lets you enjoy a damage reduction based on the current multiplier and the stat''s current star number. Charisma: This increases your likeability with other people. It also helps you to receive better prices on the wares that you buy and sell. A higher charisma will allow you to talk your way out of most issues and is generally a very liked stat to have. If you are really not going to fight the Demon Lords, this may be one to keep in mind Paladin Brice. Intelligence: As the name suggests, the intelligence stat measures your mental aptitude to decide, lead, strategize, and more. The average level of intelligence in Yggdrasil, according to my data, is 3 stars. Having your intelligence already maxed will make you a more respected hero. It''s personally my favorite since...well...I''m an AI. It would be obvious, right? Agility: How fast you move. It''ll be hard to level this one up but I''m sure you can find ways around it. Especially if those mental plans that I see in you are any indication. Luck: Increases the number of good things and encounters that can happen to you! The average luck in Yggdrasil is currently 2 stars so you have around 100% more luck at the moment. It''s also the one stat that is hard to level up. The amount of XP that you get is increased with the Luck stat, so if you had low luck, it would not only be hard to level up the stat but also your overall person. In short, this stat is going to be your best friend. It''s the reason that you are currently in the situation that you are in right now, despite having 3 Demon Lords attacking the continent as we speak. "Did that answer your question, Brice?" Central said. It seemed pretty straightforward to me so I switched over to the skills side. Eagerly looking towards seeing the abilities that I had, I noticed some of the skills listed were ones I already knew about: Portable Map Void Storage/Inventory Legendary OP Store Central also explained that the Creator skill, which was listed as the main skill, allowed me to create whatever came to mind at the cost of a sizable amount of mana. He said that it is similar to using Earth Magic but infinitely more advanced than that. For one, you don''t need to gather any source materials since the magic will create it passively. You can also create more complex things all at once, which was a limitation of the Earth magic. This is part of the reason that the mana cost is so high since more complex materials require more mana to create. Usually, Demi-Gods and Gods are the ones who get blessed with this skill, as it can become highly dangerous in the wrong hands. Central said that it was so dangerous that the head of the 3 Demon Lords possessed it. It was part of the reason why their army had gained so much power as well as why the other Demon Lords listened to him. After listening to Central explanation, I looked down the additional skills list. Many skills began to catch my eye but one stood out from the rest. More Specifically, The Skill "Dominator"... 12 Starting Our Adenture! After I looked over my skills and stats, I updated my HUD to include my OP Points balance. Since it was late into the night, my companions and I were ready to rest and go on our first adventure. Before going to bed, I added a kitchen to the mobile fortress so that we had a place to wash our plates and store our food. Since it cost me 5 OP points, my current balance was now 17. We only had 3 beds in this small cottage, so I decided to add a personal room for myself. For a small room, the cost was only 10 OP points but larger rooms can get into the 50-100 points range, depending on amenities. After telling my companions good night, I jumped onto my bed and enjoyed the softness of the mattress and sheets. Thanks to the OP store, the materials for the rooms were advanced enough to take all my pain away. I spared no time falling asleep, as I had finally completed my first day in this strange world. ------------------------------- 8 Hours Later... ------------------------------- As I woke up, I felt something soft on my arm. It was a rather pleasant feeling that I enjoyed but one that I was unfamiliar with. It felt like soft happiness for some reason so I decided to see what it was. As I looked over to my left, I saw that Daera had sleepwalked into my bed! She was wearing her hunting themed pajamas and seemed to be smiling while she was asleep. As I looked out my window, I noticed that it was my first morning in Yggdrasil. The sun was beautiful and the sounds of the morning animals could soothe any heart. I began to slightly shake Daera to wake her up. As I did, her tits began to do a heavenly jiggle. "Damn, those are really F-cups after all" is what I thought. Seeing as she was a Goddess, I deemed it a wise decision to keep my relations with her pure (for now obviously) since she could probably have me killed by her father. Horrified at the projected consequences of pissing off the supreme God, I told Daera to wake up. "Hey, Daera. Wake up. We need to start getting ready for Amera." I said, as she began to slowly move. Last night, we decided to check out the village near us before going to Amera. I hoped to find gear and items that would help me on my adventure, as well as get some currency in my pockets. I knew that I could convert my OP points into whatever currency we stumbled across but the conversion rates were unfavorable. It seemed that I would have to level up more in order to get more currency per point. Seeing as the OP system was designed to encourage heroic deeds, I was not surprised by it at all. As I was reflecting on our parties'' conversation last night, Daera gave me a morning kiss on the cheek while blushing, citing that we are a "perfect combination" in her eyes. As if on cue, Arcana had opened the door to wake me up and saw the situation. As Daera was about to give me another morning kiss, Arcana cockblocked me once again. She grabbed Daera and threw her to the other side of the room. Since the Goddess was nimble, she was able to land gently on the ground with a combination of magic and her reflexes derived from hunting. "Jealous as always I see. Maybe if you weren''t such an arrogant queen, Brice would like you more" Daera said, asserting her dominance. As Arcana had an annoyed face, she walked over to me and looked at me. Her face was beet red and flustered as she gave me a soft, morning kiss on the cheek. "This is....um....this is...I got to go get breakfast so I''ll see you later!" she said, as she ran out of my room. As she left, I felt pretty good about myself. I had a Hunting Goddess and a Dragon Queen giving me good morning kisses on my 2nd day. "The luck stat is really undefeated" is what I thought as I went to the bathroom. Last night, I had explained how to properly use the bathroom to my companions. It was a small bathroom that could only fit one person but I was planning to add a bigger bathroom or hot spring to make my home more like a mansion. As I washed my hands, I headed over to the kitchen table, where Shobe was arranging his inventory. "Good morning Shobe. Do you know where Arcana and Daera went?" I said, sitting down at the table. "They went out to get breakfast. Daera is in charge of the fruit gathering and Arcana is in charge of procuring the meats" he said, putting things in his travel pouch. I looked at Shobe, who looked pretty young but was actually a pretty smart kid. According to his stories from last night, he is a demon-elf hybrid that inherited both traits from his mother and father. His hair was what you would usually expect from an elf. Goldish hair, pointy ears, human-like appearance, etc. but he suffered from Heterochromia. His right eye was gold while his left eye was green. It was a side effect of the mixing of two opposing sides with one another. Whenever he used his demonic power, the right eye would usually turn red since his mana output was high thanks to his elven bloodline. While we were waiting on Daera and Arcana, I went over to Titan, who was still sleeping on his dog bed. Luckily for me, the cottage came with a pet bed attached to it by default as a feature of the modern design. Given that we gave him as much Bear steak as we could, it was no surprise that he was sleeping with a smile. It was clear that Titan would be a heavily spoiled pet lion if he wasn''t already. I decided to gently shake him up so we could go for a walk. I knew that he was a level 1000 pet but he was still a pet to me. He still needed to have his daily walks \u0026 exercise in order to stay healthy. As I picked up Titan and gave him his daily head rub, the fortress informed me of unidentified entities that were talking 34 meters away. The fortress security system said that the projected threat level of the entities was currently unknown... 13 The Threat Of Ringdrex We waited around 6 minutes before Arcana \u0026 Daera returned. When they arrived, we told them to store the ingredients they gathered and prepare for battle. Thanks to the Mobile Fortress, we could overhear the two hostiles planning to ambush us while we were gearing up for war. They stated that their plan was to ambush the "Paladin Hero" and to bring Artemis to the Head Demon Lord. He was also called the Supreme Demon to draw comparisons to the Supreme God. I personally thought the name was generic as hell though. I decided to call him Head Demon instead. "Yuck! Like I would ever go out with that misogynistic prick! I would rather go to hell than touch that asshole!" Daera shouted, as she slammed her fist on the table. I could feel the anger coming from Daera but I wasn''t surprised by the revelation. I mean, he IS a Demon Lord who wields enough power to command 2 other Demon Lords. It''s expected that his personality is immoral to some degree. As we finally packed our things and left the mobile fortress, I checked to make sure that we didn''t leave anything behind. Once I realized that the house was good to go, I proceeded to store it in Void Space by clicking the house icon in my Inventory. The house began to glow purple before teleporting in an instant. I picked up Titan and we began to walk towards the Head Demon''s encampment. Looking at my party, I felt that we had a pretty good team. We discussed our roles since this would be our first time fighting together as a group. To start, we had Arcana, who was our pure offense in battle. With her strength, magic, and aptitude for combat, it was clear that she would be our main damage dealer. She wielded specially crafted dual-blades that housed a great dragon''s soul. Next was Shobe, who was our primary healer and secondary attacker. His job was to support us in battle by buffs, debuffs, and healing. He had a short demonic staff that he used to amplify his healing and damage dealing. Daera was The Goddess Of The Hunt so it was obvious that she would have a bow. Her bow of choice was the custom golden "Failnaught", which had an accuracy rate of 100%. Central said it was a legendary Bow that never missed its mark. Titan was another attack/support ally that we had in battle. He could attack the enemy with his void-based attacks or inflict status effects upon them. His weapon was either his magic-infused claws or his projectile-based attacks/debuffs. He could conveniently make his size 10 feet for real battles. Finally, there was me, who was a Paladin. My job was to be our perfect defense. Wielding the Paladin God and Calamity Paladin classes, my job was to be our force of nature on the battlefield. I may not be the strongest person in our party offensively, but I was the one who had the highest armor/defense ratio of us all. I also had defense and shield based powers that I could use to buff my allies. As long as I was still standing, we absolutely had a chance of winning. With our battlefield roles figured out, we walked towards the Head Demon''s men. As we got closer, we could feel a plethora of eyes watching us. The mini-map only showed 2 hostiles thanks to enemy tracking but it was a system currently at level one. Thus, it would not be hard to wonder if a certain amount of concealment magic would be strong enough to evade it. "Oi. Watch your back guys. We got company." I said, sensing killing intent from the woods. When we crossed the forest pack, we were greeted with a large, open area. The area had tents, campfires, sideways logs, and a crest stitched on what looked to be their main tent. It was accompanied by a flag near its entrance. "Welcome to Associate Demon Lord Ringdrex''s Camp!" he said, smiling sadistically. "Ew. What kind of name is Ringdrex? Haha. Does his mother hate him or what?" I said, while our party began to laugh. "YOU DARE DISRESPECT DEMON LORD RINGDREX? IN HIS NAME, WE WILL KILL YOU!" he shouted, as he readied a battle stance. His friend next to him held him back, who seems to be a more sophisticated demon but was curiously more human-looking. It was obvious that these two were our bait as they didn''t really seem like fighters to me. The sophisticated demon was currently quiet, though he gave a mysterious vibe. He was wearing glasses and carrying a book. They were both wearing uniforms with similar crests, with the sophisticated demon having a higher ranking emblem. "Allow us to introduce ourselves. I am lieutenant Belvath and this is my Staff Seargent, codenamed Q. We are in charge of Lord Ringdrex''s army, also serving under Supreme Lord Trirron and Associate Lord Onnaron. We are pleased to meet the Paladin God and the Goddess Of The Hunt" he said, bowing politely. "Oi. Aren''t you forgetting the bloody Dragon Queen Of Yggdrasil, Arcana herself??" Arcana shouted, vexed. "Unfortunately, you are not on Ringdrex''s agenda for today. Our job is to take this Paladin and Artemis to Lord Trirron by order of Associate Demon Lord Ringdrex. If you come calmly, we promise not to harm you. He said he wanted you in the best condition we could "manage" he stated. As we stared at each other, ready to fight at a moment''s notice, I realized a variety of things. For one, the situation in Yggdrasil was worse than I thought. The Yggdrasil that I had pictured in my mind was wrong and a new picture was being painted as we spoke. It seems that the Demon Lords, despite not being here 24 hours, have already tracked me down. More specifically, they tracked Daera and happened to find me at the same time. I''m thinking this may be part of the reason the Supreme God summoned me to his daughter''s side but I couldn''t confirm yet. "So if I were to say no...what would you do Seargent? I wonder, you know?" I said, smiling arrogantly. The lieutenant snapped his fingers, revealing around 1,000 of Ringdrex''s subjugation troops. Surprisingly, the army was not only made up of demons. Human mages, demonic beasts, titans, giants, dragons, centaurs, goblins, and more were surrounding us. Beings from friendly races had joined the Demon Lord''s army, most likely for profit. Even though mercenary work was primarily a demon occupation, it was not strange to see mercenaries from other races. Similar to humans, some people are just gifted at killing other people effectively. Those people have the option of joining the military and doing the right thing or the opposite. It was clear what path Ringdrex''s troops chose. "You know, I came to this world with the intention of leaving you all alone. Do you know that? I was going to go about my days relaxing and enjoying my time in Yggdrasil." I said, walking slowly towards the sergeant. "However, there are two things that have come to my realization at this moment." "Hmph. And that is?" "If anyone tries to disturb my peace, then I''ll just have to kill them. Simple as that." "Ha! Aren''t you a confident shit. And what''s the other one Paladin? Doing the right thing?" he stated. "No. I don''t care about doing the right thing. It''s too much work for a lazy paladin like me. I''m not your regular hero I''m afraid..." But if Trirron thinks he will lay a hand on my companions then he shall witness all 9 hells that I have for him! If Demon Lord Trirron wants a war, then pray for salvation as I rip your army apart one general at a time... 14 Lieutenant Belvath It was obvious that Belvath wanted me to attack first. Thanks to central, I learned that Trirron''s lieutenants tend to be smarter and stronger than most demons. Staff Sergeants are usually the ones to do the grunt work while lieutenants strategize the assaults. It would be wrong to say that the demons were a savage, belligerent, and unintelligent race. Contrary to popular perception, demons in Yggdrasil were intelligent enough to know what is right and wrong. However, demons that joined Trirron''s army were the typical low-lives that any developed society would have. We also have to consider the fact that Trirron has the creator ability so not all of the demons in his army are Yggdrasil residents. Technically speaking, as long as Trirron is alive, his army will keep expanding until he reaches his goal of world domination. This would put a hinder on my relaxed lifestyle in this world since I can''t make money if everyone is dead. Thus, if I can take out this subjugation army, I can buy myself more time to relax before his next assault. Before we arrived at Ringdrex''s camp, I bought a basic Telepathy skill from the OP store for around 5 points. My balance was now 2 points but it seemed like a good purchase. Unfortunately, since it is a basic skill, I can only communicate with one person at a time. At higher levels, I could talk to as many as 7 people at once! Since I was a sucker for strategy games, I knew that it was needed in order to direct troops effectively. Wars are won based on how many intelligent decisions you make. Thus, the one who is smarter with their troops will usually win. Using Telepathy, I gave the following orders to each of my companions: Shobe and Daera will take the army to the left of us, which seemed to be around half of the subjugation troops. With Daera''s Bow and Shobe''s magic, they should be able to handle themselves. This is what Shobe wanted anyway since the elves worship her daily. He''ll probably do everything he can to protect her so I shouldn''t have to worry. Arcana and Titan will take the army to the right of us, which was the other half of the army. Arcana and Titan are exceptionally strong so the faster they can take out half of their army, the better. If we can cut their troops in half before they are able to regroup, we can get a sizeable advantage. I would take on the two demons in front of us and join either group once I was finished. The quicker I can take out their leader, the easier it will be for everyone. This also made sense since I had the highest survivability amongst all of us. With these battle plans formed, I was now 10 meters in front of the lieutenant and Seargent. I switched to my regular Paladin armor by quick selection and took out the custom dragon sword that I received from the mercenary. I decided that a monologue wasn''t needed so I made the first move. As soon as I had cast protection magic over my allies, the battle had started! Arcana and Titan were the first to split from the group, proceeding to attack the troops to our right. Arcana began to use her Draconic blades to slice through enemies while Titan used a mix of void magic and physical attacks to reduce the army. Daera and Shobe were ranged attackers so they casually took out the enemies as they tried to attack them. Daera was a hunting Goddess so she was also skilled at using a custom dagger made by the Gods. This became important when ranged attacks were not doing enough damage to the thick-skinned troops. They reduced the enemy numbers with moderate ease compared to the massacre that Titan and Arcana were creating. The protection magic I had cast on them wasn''t unbreakable but it was good enough for the strong companions that I had. They didn''t need a beefy protection spell if they are strong already! Belvath and "Q" had yet to attack for some reason, as they watched me closely. I decided to attack first, albeit reluctantly. I summoned holy swords and shot them at the two demons. They dodged the attack and began lunging towards me! "What''s going on Paladin? Not fast enough?!" he said, as he dashed towards me. According to Central, Belvath was a dual-sword wielder who was known for his ruthless efficiency. No matter the enemy he faces, he always aims for the head. I was sure to protect that first. As his first sword met my shield, his other sword came from above. I used the draconic blade to parry the blade, attempting to freeze it with ice magic. The magic seemed to be nullified. "You like that paladin? My blades can nullify any magic you throw at me!" he said, as we had an additional 10 parries before jumping back. My defense was good but his offense was great. I decided that it was time to use autopilot to help me out. I wanted to see if I could take on Belvath with the skills I learned from Central but I was still inexperienced in the way of combat. As Central executes autopilot more, I''m sure I can pick up habits from his guidance. As I turned on autopilot, I noticed that "Q" was not attacking. As I looked for him, I saw that he was summoning something with an orange and red magic circle. "Belvath. Enlighten me. What are you summoning?" I said, taking a defensive stance. "You want to know that bad? You won''t have to Paladin. It has already arrived!" he said, as he smiled sadistically. Coming out of the summoning circle was something I wasn''t expecting. Belvath had summoned 2 juggernaut level demons, who were basically heavily armored tanks with high resistance and brutal combat tendencies. One was level 250. The other was level 1000. "Enjoy my friends here. I have to take my leave earlier than expected so we will finish this later Paladin Brice. I''m afraid we did not factor in your additional companions..." he said, as he looked at Arcana, Titan, and Shobe. He sheathed his dual-blades and instantly teleported with...void magic? How was that possible? I pondered this as "Q" grew his wings and hovered in the air. He said some type of monologue but didn''t seem important enough to listen to. I did overhear his muttering when he began to fly. "Shit! I didn''t bring enough troops! Those dame scouts! How do you forget about the bloody Dragon Queen!" Q began muttering to himself, as he flew away. As he flew away, the other four members of my party began walking towards me. I wasn''t surprised that they finished so quickly. It only took around 10 minutes for them to defeat all the hostiles thanks to my strategy. I mean, it''s a Dragon Queen, a Calamity Lion, and a Goddess Of The Hunt that are fighting. However, they could still recognize the juggernauts in front of us were an issue to deal with. "What a pain. This is gonna take a while" Arcana said, sighing. "Yeah. We still didn''t eat breakfast yet so I was hoping we would be done earlier. I could eat a fire snake right now" Daera said, rubbing her stomach. As our party began to regroup, the juggernauts began walking over to us. Their movement was as slow as you would expect but their strength was something I''ve never seen before. The killing intent that Central sensed was also 7x higher than average. It was clear that I could actually die if I made the wrong choice while fighting these two. Thus, I made an important choice that any true leader would make in this situation. I decided it was time to use Dominator. Despite the consequences that Central told me in secret... 15 Dominator? That''s what I would say if I was a normal hero! Why would I use such a dangerous skill on these two brutes? How do I know Trirron''s spies aren''t watching my skillset in order to counter when we meet? Anyway, I''m sure I have better options than using a skill that does "that" to me. I''ll need to put off using it until I meet Lord Trirron. Instead, I decided to pull up my status screen and look at what I have to work with. Thanks to Titan, my status screen looked like this: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Title: Paladin Lord Of Yggdrasil+, Dragon Slayer+, Goddess'' Hunter+ Class: Paladin God+ Subclass: Paladin Mage Of Calamity+ Name: Brice Pridellion Lvl: 23 Race: Demi-God+ HP: 6493 Mana: 7015 Additional Stats+ Main Skills: Scholar+, Index+, Creator+, Blessing Of The Hunt+ Additional Skills (12)+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Nice. I went up 10 levels! I even gained 3 new skills! Thanks, Titan!" I said, as I gave Titan his congratulatory head rub. In a normal situation, I would have to use some hidden skills that I didn''t know about in order to deal with this situation. Luckily, this situation was not only unique but it was also beneficial! Watch and observe as I outsmart the system! "Titan. Kill that juggernaut, please. I''ll give you a premium steak when we reach Amera" I said, pointing at the lvl 250 juggernaut. As Titan nodded, he proceeded to turn into his 2nd form, which was the 10-foot version of his 20-foot body. The passion in his eyes were like nothing I''ve ever seen before. You would''ve thought I died or something cause he got extremely serious at the prospect of a steak. Like, damn. I didn''t realize steak was that good in Yggdrasil. What''s gonna happen if I actually get injured? Is the world gonna break in half or something? Are the skies going to tear open? It only took 2 seconds for Titan to not only pounce on the juggernaut but also to start ripping his skin apart. I would prefer to not describe the scene but just know that Titan is still a very good boy despite what I just witnessed. I blinked my eyes twice and I see the juggernaut just ragdolling through the air as if he weighed NOTHING. I tried my best to hold my composure cause that was the funniest thing I''ve ever seen. Then again, Titan is literally 4x the juggernaut''s level so I guess I''ll expect that in the future. Juggernauts usually have significant resistance that can sometimes equates to 5x their level, but I don''t think that was the case here. For example, the ragdolling juggernaut that was just trying to kill us could probably only protect up to lvl 750. The real threat was the level 1000 that was watching his buddy soar through the air towards the east. I guess that made him mad because he activated Absolute Defense. That meant he was a rare juggernaut, evidenced by the red summoning circle that he came from. "Oh boy. We''ve done it now. So does he only protect to lvl 3000?" I said, asking the group. "No. That''s what we were talking about...he protects up to lvl.4000" Arcana stated, cleaning her blade. "In other words, we need to work together to take him down. That lvl.250 was an insult to us. The real battle begins now!" Daera stated, as she readied her bow. My other companions began to assume battle stances as the Juggernaut looked to be going berserk. Similar to the minotaur that I encountered earlier, he began to lose all sense of reason. The killing intent that Central sensed was now 10x the average amount. As we prepared to fight this 10-foot Demon Juggernaut, I began to smile. Thanks to the massacre of the 500 troops that Titan participated in, I had an extra 10,000 points in my OP account. My next purchase? "Build-A-Shield". The evolving, "OP" shield for 5,000 points... 16 DawnBreaker Essentially, I need that shield if we are going to beat this juggernaut. My stats may be good enough to block Belvath''s attacks but this starter shield won''t last a single hit. We also have to consider that Shobe and I are low levels compared to Arcana, Brice, and Daera. As far as I know, Shobe was only lvl.20 thanks to his battle with Daera earlier. Since I am the only one with the highest survivability, I need to get that shield and stay on the frontlines. This will allow them to carry out their attacks without interruption. "Guys!" I said. "I need a new shield! Buy me some time while I create it!" Arcana and Daera smiled. They readied their battle stances and looked to be excited at the prospect of a challenge. Titan took on his full, 20-foot form since the Juggernaut was around 15 feet tall. Shobe''s right eye began to glow as he readied his support and offensive magic. I was...buying a shield. I felt left out but I also didn''t want to die so I began the process of customizing the shield. By this time, the juggernaut was around 8 feet in front of my companions. I did a quick prayer and began the process... "Arcana, Titan!", Daera said. "I''ll provide artillery support! Make a weakness for Failnaught! Shobe! Provide regeneration and support to those two! He may be slow but he hits hard!" I never realized Daera was a leader like that. She sounded like an experienced war general. Her personality shifts are also interesting. She went from carefree to serious in no time at all. I wonder which one was her real personality? Arcana began to fly towards the juggernaut, her draconic blades glowing as red as blood itself. Despite her normal-looking frame, she had immense strength inside of her. I didn''t know if this was normal for other dragons but she was definitely a force to be reckoned with. She began to fly around the juggernaut at what seemed to be the speed of light. While doing so, she inflicted a variety of cuts along its body. However, the juggernaut began his rapid regeneration process. "Shit!", Arcana said. "He has regeneration? Just what the hell did Belvath leave us?" There was also another problem. Despite the Juggernaut''s movement being slow, his attacks were fast. Fast enough to catch Arcana off guard. "Arcana! Look out¡ª" It was too late. Arcana was struck by the juggernauts sledgehammer. She was sent flying into a tree but luckily shook it off. "Arcana!", I said. "Are you ok?!" She got up and cracked her neck. She started to do some quick stretches before walking back towards Daera. It was clear that she was focused. "Ok, Daera", she said. "I may be a Dragon Queen but I know when to ask for help. Let bygones be bygones?" Arcana put out her hand. Daera grabbed it, smiling at her new friend. "So, you have finally stopped be an arrogant Queen eh?" "Oi. Don''t push your luck. This is just to buy Brice time." "This is why Brice likes me better anyway." "Are you really going to bring that up now!" Arcana''s face was red but she was smiling. I guess they finally became friends. It took them long enough. If I''m being honest, I don''t think it''ll last long but at least they accepted that they can work together. I relayed telepathically that I only needed an additional minute or two, as I was finishing up the build of my evolving shield. For 5,000 points, you would expect the shield to be special in some type of way. You are correct. The shield could adapt to the current hero''s level as well as stats. It favored the Strength and Endurance stats so that was a bonus for a Paladin like myself. I decided to call it "Dawnbreaker" since it sounded nice. The UI gave me the ability to switch between only two different types of shields from a complete list of 30. The shield could never be broken and it had special properties attached to it. For example, when you are in danger, it will try to protect you autonomously. If I didn''t notice an arrow was coming from behind, it would auto-deploy a phantom shield behind me before disappearing. The physical shield also didn''t weigh much so I could carry it around as much as I liked. The problem was that it was so custom that it took time to process and materialize. The options I chose were a light shield and a great shield but they were both strong enough to survive a few hits from the juggernaut. More specifically, to negate the impact of the juggernaut''s hits. I decided to join the battle while the shield was being made in my inventory. Even if I didn''t have a shield, I had my offensive and defensive magic! I decided to fight without autopilot since I felt I relied on it too much. If I''m really going to take back my peace and quiet, I need to do it with my own hands! My true strength as a paladin is only shown when I''m without a shield... 17 Absolute Defense As a paladin, you get used to keeping a shield on you at all times. Even in the calamity mage class, I had my shield on my back. Despite being a starter shield, it did a good job keeping me alive so far. That''s why it felt a little uncomfortable going shieldless for once. However, I only needed to buy myself 3 minutes before the shield was ready. However, my companions had already started fighting. Daera and Shobe were already providing suppressive fire towards the juggernaut. Daera was aiming for critical joints with Failnaught while Shobe was buffing Arcana and Titan. Titan was wrestling with the juggernaut. Unlike his weaker friend, this juggernaut was significantly stronger than anticipated. He was able to throw Titan 20 meters without so much as a scratch thanks to his absolute defense. When Titan wasn''t attacking, Arcana was fighting the juggernaut hand to hand. Whenever they parried each other, the ground would break around them. Whenever they happen to meet kicks, their blows would create intense airwaves. It was incredible to watch but I couldn''t just do nothing! "Daera!", I said. "How are you guys doing so far? The shield is being processed. It''ll take another 3 minutes!" "Brice. We have a problem. We can''t break his absolute defense. We need something with enough power to break it!" At first, I didn''t know what to do but it was clear what was needed: The shield! The shield that I purchased had the ability to negate damage but also deal it back once enough force was stored up. If I could parry enough of his attacks, I could break his absolute defense and end this already. I think I was too excited at the prospect of ending this because I subconsciously began to run towards the juggernaut! "Hey! What are you doing Brice?!", Daera stated. I decided to cast defensive magic while I was running and began to catch up to Arcana. "Arcana! I''ll distract him! Aim for his knees!", I said. Arcana nodded and jumped from in front of the juggernaut. She proceeded to fly towards the back of the juggernaut. Titan was beginning to pounce but waited for my signal, as if he could read my mind. After running for a bit, I was finally in front of the juggernaut. His size and stature were staggering and his rage was uncontrollable. He spared no time swinging at me, which I attempted to block with my starter shield. As his Sledgehammer met my shield, it began to break. The pressure on my arm was increasing with every second. "Now! Titan! Arcana!", I said. As if in unison, Titan pounced on the juggernaut as Arcana flew to his knees. Titan had gained a footing and held the juggernaut in a chokehold, which the juggernaut was frantically trying to escape. Arcana began slashing his knees, enough to leave a medium tear. As the tear began to heal, Arcana began shooting arrows at it. As the bow''s name suggested, she never missed her shot. The juggernaut was now on his knees, still trying to get free of Titan''s chokehold and trying to have his knees healed. The relentless onslaught of arrows from Daera had made his knees unable to regenerate. Luckily for us, Daera had Armor-piercing arrows for hunting armored beasts in the wild. As the 3-minute mark finally came, I received the light shield on my arm. I switched over to my main paladin class and took out the great shield. Thanks to some quick customization that I did, the shield was gray, white, black and had gold accents. As I had finally gotten my shield, Arcana ceased firing her arrows and allowed the juggernaut to stand back up. With his anger at an all-time high, he began to swing his hammer at me, which I blocked with my great shield. Luckily, I didn''t have pressure on my left arm this time. I had confidence! "Be Broken By The Dawn! DawnBreaker!", I shouted. As I swung my shield at the juggernaut, his absolute defense began to crack. He staggered back, amazed he was able to be broken from his berserk mode. I spent no time speaking a monologue. I directed my companions to attack! Fueled by their previous attacks being useless against the juggernaut, my party began to ruthlessly barrage the juggernaut. They landed enough attacks to eventually deform his body. Arcana began to slice him up while Titan applied slowness with void magic. Daera was aiming for every critical body part that she could find while Shobe was buffing Arcana and Daera simultaneously. I decided my turn wasn''t over yet and began to attack with Arcana. As if we were dancing choreographically, we beautifully worked together to bring down the juggernaut. While she was attacking at the speed of light, I was meeting the juggernaut''s slowed blows with my great shield. I couldn''t stop myself from smiling since I wasn''t using autopilot! I guessed that using autopilot trained me in basic combat enough for me to make it in a one-on-one with a juggernaut! We continued sparring with the juggernaut until we finally got him to fall. Daera was lucky enough to get the final shot to be in the head, where it finally pierced. As the juggernaut began to disappear with Holy Devour, I realized that fighting without autopilot wasn''t so bad after all. I was definitely more tired than if I had used it but it felt more...rewarding. We all couldn''t help but fall on our backs, exhausted at the battle we just finished. I would summon the Mobile Fortress but we still needed to find the village before nightfall. We had spent around 3 hours on our mini-adventure in total so it was around noon. As I helped Arcana and Daera up, a mini-Titan began to run around my feet. I picked him up, gave him a very nice head rub, and we began to slowly walk towards the nearby village. Hungry, tired, and not wanting to see another juggernaut for a while, we dragged ourselves towards the next destination. Though, if you were to look at our faces, there was nothing but smiles to be found at a job well done. Especially since I got back towards my peace and quiet. 18 MapleHorn Village We followed Daera to MapleHorn Village since she knew the forest better than us. It was a pretty casual walk so we decided to eat on the way there. I took out some fruits from void storage and tossed it over to each of my companions. I also gave Titan some horned rabbit meat until I could give him the steak I promised. As I was holding Titan, I began feeding him the meat. I decided it was a good time to start a conversation. "Arcana", I said. "Thanks for having my back! I didn''t realize you were so good with dual blades! We make a great team!" "Yup!", Arcana said, smiling. That was probably the first time I''ve seen her smile like that. Despite cutting it close against a juggernaut, she was filled with joy. It was easy for the good vibes to spread to me. "Haha. We make a great team! I thought you and Daera were overpowered but it looks like even you have real battles sometimes!", I said, smiling. "Huh? No. There''s way worse than that juggernaut. This is only the surface of what Yggdrasil has to offer, P.B. The enemies in Yggdrasil are nothing to-" "Oi. What did you just call him?!", Arcana said, irate. "I called him P.B! He''s my boyfriend after all!", Daera said, proudly. "Yeah right. All he wants are those oversized flaps of fat on your chest!" "At least I don''t have the strength of a juggernaut on berserk!" "Nani? Do you want to take this to the forest? Are you all talk and no show?" "Beasts need their discipline, right? I''ll be happy to help you!" "Let''s go then! Right here, right now Artemis!" Yikes. They continued arguing for a few minutes before I had a great idea. "Why don''t you guys play Rock-Pap-" "Hell no! You think we would play that loaded game again?", they said in unison. I guess their shared hatred of the game was enough to calm them down for now. They began to laugh at my game of RPS but seem to forget that two-fourths of the party members are here because of it... A little while later, I asked the levels of Arcana and Daera since I didn''t know them yet. "Oh. I''m around lvl. 3000 at the moment. The former Dragon Queen(My mother) is around 4,000.", Arcana said, casually. "As a Goddess, I''m unsurprisingly lvl.4000 but I''m somehow still not as strong as some of the male Gods.", Daera said, sighing. Like I stated before, 2000 was considered demi-God tier and 4000 was considered God tier. I guessed that their current levels made sense seeing as it takes time in order to reach such a high number. The rate of increasing levels tends to decrease as you move up the scale. Even Daera, a Hunting Goddess, was lvl. 4000. However, Gods are usually specialized in an individual category so they usually have a weakness. Their lvl systems are also calculated differently from regular Yggdrasil residents. The level that she told me was just the Amera Lvl. System equivalent. When it comes to Gods, they could still be considered weak even if they have a perfect 4000. This is because their strength is primarily derived from their followers/believers. Her stated max of 4000 is what she can reach if a large number of followers do their daily prayers. Arcana was a different case. Dragon Royalty is usually seen as Demi-Gods so her level matches up. Being a Demi-God also doesn''t automatically make you strong but it can be stronger than most. Classes can play a big role in how strong of a Demi-God you are. Arcana and Daera wouldn''t show me their Status screens so I just have to trust them. Before we knew it, we found a perfectly sized "town". I say town because it didn''t look like a village at all! It looked to have stone roads, fountains, shops, schools, guilds, rest areas, and even an Ameran Research lab! "Huh. When you said "village", I was picturing something a bit more...basic?", I stated. MapleHorn was doing well for itself, since everyone seemed pretty happy from a distance. The town was in the middle of a large, open grassland that was near the forest. We were still in the Ameran Great Forest but I guessed that this was one of the areas that Amera wanted to domesticate. Judging by the perfect circle of grassland, I figured they found a way to clear out those miles of forest somehow. As we walked to the town with a giant wall, I noticed that it wasn''t made of stone! It was actually made of some sort of metal, most likely a product of Ameran research. When we got to the gate, we were met with two pairs of guards. Two were what looked to be human lieutenants. The other two were... Dullahans? Before I got to ask why they had dullahans, Daera spoke intently. "Please let me and my companions into MapleHorn! We have the Paladin God Of Yggdrasil with us!", she stated firmly. The Dullahans heads'', which they were holding themselves, were surprised at the statement. The other two lieutenants began walking towards us. "The Paladin Hero, huh? Why should we let you in? Just cause you brought a pretty Goddess?" he said, arrogantly. It was clear this dude was an asshole so I went ahead and took out the sledgehammer that the juggernaut was using. If it wasn''t for my strength, this oversized Warhammer would have crushed me! After he saw the Warhammer, he knew that I was the real deal so he decided to let us in. "Uh...Sorry about that. Make sure to get your ID card and Rank from the guild so we can properly identify you. *Cough*. Please don''t hurt me.", he stated, worriedly. I decided to listen to his advice since I apparently needed an ID card to buy and sell things. Thanks to Ameran Technology, it worked similarly to a Debit Card or a Credit Card. It could not only identify you but it could also magically store your money inside it. It was too complicated to explain apparently. That was the most science-like statement that I''ve heard since coming here. As we began to make our way towards the guildhall in the center of town, people began to call Daera''s name. "Daera! Daera! We love you!" "Daera! Please bless our next harvest!" "Daera! Please marry me!" She gave a death stare to the last guy but she smiled and waved towards the rest. I didn''t realize how famous she was in Yggdrasil. I can''t say that I''m surprised by her ability to appeal to a large variety of people. I was happy for her since she seemed to enjoy the praise of the residents. Meanwhile, someone important in our party was being ignored... 19 MapleHorn GuildHall I''m not sure why they ignored Arcana but she obviously didn''t like it. I could tell since she made a pouting face all the way to the guildhall. I decided to call this place a town since it seemed too advanced to be a village. It was a nice, cozy town in the Ameran Great Forest that would hopefully make me some money. We finally got to the guildhall and opened the door. We were greeted with the ground floor and an additional 2 floors in the building. The GuildHall was a medium-sized building, which was what I expected for a town. The way up the three floors was either the regular staircase to our right or the spiral staircase to our left. On the ground floor, was the reception desk and 7 long tables spread in front of it. It looked like a meeting area for adventurers or teammates to plan their next adventure. If I had to put a number on it, I would say that there were around 60 adventurers spread around the Hall. I didn''t care about that though. All I cared about is getting my items sold! I walked up to the counter with my party, still holding Titan in my arms. "Hey. I need an ID and Rank to buy and trade stuff right? Hook me up with one", I said. "If you want an ID and Rank, all you have to do is touch this Ameran-Insight Collector! It''ll automatically give you your ID based upon important factors!" Caeda said, smiling. She was holding a white, metal ball the size of a basketball. When I put my hand on it, it began to glow yellow as it processed my information. After around 20 seconds, a bracelet appeared on my left arm. It was inscribed in the local language but thanks to auto-translate, I knew that it said "Brice P. Paladin God" around the bracelet. Arcana, Daera, and Shobe never had a need to get their ID''s so they did the same process as me. After they got their respective bracelets and titles, we had to get our ranks. "Good! Now, since you are new, we have to start you at the lowest rank. From lowest to highest, the ranks are Stone, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Mithril, and Adamantium. If you can get to the top of the ranking, you will enjoy better quests, better rewards, vendor discounts, free gifts, free housing, premium services, and more! Please try your best to rise up the rankings!" Caeda said. She gave us the ranking necklaces, which were all stone. She said that we had to talk to the guild master before the ID would activate so we went up to the 2nd floor. Upon reaching her office, I knocked on the door before letting myself in. The guild master was currently...sleeping on the couch? "Hey", I whispered to Daera. "Is this really the guild master? I was expecting someone...older" The guild master looked to be around 21 and was one of the gifted humans that Arcana told me about. She was a cute brunette with blue eyes and long hair, probably a C cup. She was wearing some light armor for what looked to be a knight class. She was currently sleeping on the couch in her office with a large smile on her face. "Guildmaster Arlette, can you wake up please?", Daera asked. Arlette rubbed her eyes before slowly getting up from her nap. She quickly noticed that she had been drooling and was furiously wiping it off. She tried to change the subject. "So...what brings the Goddess Of The Hunt to my guildhall?", she said. We explained to her the situation, which she happily helped us with. As she was activating our IDs, we sat on the couch and had a chat with her. She got one of the guild officers to make us tea. "I see. So...you are the Paladin Hero from the legends huh? Interesting." she said, vaguely. I didn''t care for that stuff though so I asked her about how the currency system with the IDs work. "Oh. Don''t worry about it. It''s too complicated to explain anyway.", she said, smiling. I was getting tired of hearing that phrase so I changed the subject. "How is MapleHorn doing? You guys seem pretty happy for a nation who''s fighting the 3 Demon Lords." "Oh. We are doing fine. Trirron has no reason to attack us in the forest. He is a strategist after all. Despite being on the enemy side, I have to give him props on his planning process. We Amerans pride ourselves on being intelligent so it does hurt when you find the enemy is outsmarting you..." she said, gripping her cup tighter. She finished our ID''s and wished us luck on our adventures. I immediately went to the front desk and asked Caeda where to sell my items. "If it''s monster components, the guild can pay for it. If it''s anything else, the shops in the area may be interested. How many components do you have to offer?" Honestly? Enough to bankrupt the guild most likely... 20 The Drunken Horn For the sake of time, I won''t be specific but I was able to sell everything to the guild. Slime Jelly, Minotaur horns, Demon blood, Horned Rabbit fur, etc. was sold to Caeda as I helped her put it in the guild''s storage. In total, I was now 250,000 Engis richer thanks to the troops and creatures that we killed so far. Of course, I made sure to give each member their 50,000 Engis cut since it was a team effort. Since Titan couldn''t use the money by himself, I pocketed 100,000 so I could help him spend his share. According to Central, he said that the dollar equivalent is 2:1 so 250,000 Engis was actually $500,000 USD on earth. Since the town was considered a non-profit Ameran research center, we didn''t even have to pay any tax! The guild didn''t give us the money physically but they were able to put the Engis on our ID bracelets. For something that was "Too Complicated To Explain", it was pretty damn useful. The guild was funded by the Ameran Research Branch since MapleHorn was considered a research site. They shipped the Monster Components to Amera in exchange for profit/additional funding. I initially thought that the guild would be bankrupted by my "donation" but they were actually going to make serious money off of it! As I move towards Adamantium rank, I''ll be able to sell the components closer to the retail price that Amera purchases it for! I guessed that the guild was more or less a Monster Component Wholesaler to Amera. As we walked out of the guild, we noticed that it was getting late so we decided to head to the Bar \u0026 Grill called "The Drunken Horn". Daera said it was the best spot to go for good food and better tales! Apparently, the drinking age in Yggdrasil was only 18 so I decided to agree to her suggestion. It was a 5-minute walk from the guild so I decided to let Titan stretch his legs. For the most part, I''ve been carrying him for a few hours so I deemed it a good time to stretch his legs. As I put him down, he looked up at me with a smiling, hungry face. I guess he remembered my promise of a nice, big steak if he killed the juggernaut. "Titan. You can have as many steaks as you want! As long as it doesn''t break the bank ok?", I said, rubbing his head. His tail began to wag as we walked towards the Drunken Horn. It was around 8 pm when we got to the front of the place, which had a drunk Bicorn as its mascot. The establishment was a decent size and very lively as we walked in. The floor layout was more or less what I expected: 20 medium tables, a place to get the beer, a kitchen, and a restroom for when you drink too much. When we walked in, the customers immediately recognized us. "Hey! It''s Daera! How are you doing?!" "Look! It''s the Paladin God that Arlette told us about! Think I can beat him in an Arm Wrestling Match?" "Look! It''s the girl with the sexy outfit! How are you doing!" I guessed that no one knew who the Dragon Queen was but wow. This was pretty bad. To be known as the girl with the "Sexy Outfit" was nothing to laugh at. "Hey, Arcana. Don''t let it-" Eh? She''s gone? Wasn''t she right next to me? "So, you like to talk huh? Want to put your money where your mouth is? Let''s Arm Wrestle! 500 Eris! Unless you think you can''t beat a girl?" she said, seemingly teleporting over to the catcaller. I decided to let Arcana be...well, Arcana. We got a seat at a table and saved a seat for her. I put Titan on my lap as he went to take a nap. I guess he only wanted to be awoken once the steak was prepared. We began to order our dinner, appetizers, and drinks from a cute server that was on duty. She wore regular Ameran clothes but had the attire that you would expect from a bartender. Her name was Syndra. "Oi! Arcana! What do you want to eat!", Syndra shouted. Arcana was too occupied with drinking and beating the guys in Arm Wrestling to give a response. Syndra decided to order the dish of the day and a glass of water for Arcana. She left for a few moments and brought back some juice and biscuits. "Your food should be ready soon. Just enjoy the atmosphere Paladin Brice!", Syndra said smiling. As she walked away, Daera nudged me in the stomach. "Well? Aren''t you going to say something? I brought us here so you could keep your promise to Titan!" she said, making a pouting face. As she sat to my right, I rubbed her head while enjoying the sounds of the bar. I figured that it was like we were on a date in a sense. As I looked towards her, she seemed to have the same pleased expression that Titan usually has. I found it difficult to imagine that this was actually the Hunting Goddess making a face like that. Shobe was unable to drink since he was 16 but went to talk to some elves that he saw sitting a few tables away from us. It was a pretty relaxing time in the bar as we were finishing up a rather tiresome day. Arcana finally came back from making grown men cry and threw a bag of Engis on the table. "That''s how you make a name for yourself! Another 2,000 Engis for the Queen!", she said, arrogantly. She may have been back to being arrogant but it was good to see her bright smile. I told her that she looked better when she smiled and she blushed at me. Daera nudged me a little harder in the stomach this time. Shobe came back from talking with the researcher elves and was happy to say that they found Shobe as an "interesting specimen". As we laughed at that statement, Syndra finally brought the food! Titan could smell the premium steak that I ordered and began wagging his tail in my face. I had to place him on the ground, where Syndra placed the 5 steaks that I ordered for him. Shobe ordered a mixture of vegetables and meat while Arcana and Daera had a meat-heavy dinner. I only ordered two steaks compared to Titan''s 5 but they were 40 oz. steaks anyway. As we finally sat down to eat our dinner, we began to enjoy the Drunken Horn to the fullest... 21 MapleHorn Fortress We happily enjoyed our dinner at the tavern, where we lightly consumed Ameran Beer and got to hear some clever, enjoyable jokes. We were even able to get Syndra to join us since she had a 10-minute break every hour. I felt that beer had an "acquired taste" but I still tried to participate in the festivities of the tavern. We told our tales of hunting mercenaries, summoning Titan, facing Belvath, and even the Juggernaut that we faced earlier today. The tavern patrons who laughed were the ones who were drunk and amazed at such a grand story. The other, more sober patrons just looked at us with amazement. If a lvl. 1000 Juggernaut were to attack this city, it would take everything that the city has to defend itself. Even then, I''m sure they could survive. That''s just how powerful the rare Juggernaut was. Eventually, we moved over to the bar counter, which was where Syndra was located. We decided to talk to her while she worked so we can learn more about her. With Arcana to my right and Daera to my left, I felt like I was living the dream! Two beautiful women who could kill juggernauts were my party members! I feel that I could relax here in MapleHorn and become a Merchant! I was a Finance-Management student after all! I also have the "Create" skill so I may have to look into profiting from that! I could also farm monster components with Titan so I really do have some options. This town seems pretty easygoing so all I have to do is make sur- "Princess Arcana! Are you there? We need to talk! The Queen is looking for you!" A few dragons were flying around the Great Ameran Forest in search of Arcana. It seemed that one of them flew above MapleHorn. "Ugh", Arcana Said. "I don''t want to go back! It''s so nice to be with Paladin Brice! That old hag is just going to work me to the bone again!". I was going to ask what she was talking about when a group of three dragons walked into the tavern. They were adorned with black armor that had gold accents on it. The crest that was on their armor was similar to the crest that I noticed on the draconic blades. It was easy to make a connection. "Arcana", I whispered. "If you don''t want to go back, what are you going to do? They have the skies and the ground littered with troops. Can''t you say something that will make them go away?" Arcana''s face turned red in an instant for some reason and she began fidgeting. Initially, I thought it was the beer. "Hey", Arcana said. "If I make them go away, will you promise not to be mad at me?" For some reason, Arcana looked very cute when she looked at me. I thought it was possibly the alcohol that was messing with my vision. I didn''t know she was even capable of such an expression. I initially thought she was going to sacrifice herself for the team or fight against the guards in order to stay with us. Little did I know what was actually about to happen. Arcana got up from the tavern''s barstool and walked over to the 3 royal dragon knights. Since the bar was quiet, we were able to hear their conversation. "Princess...I mean, Queen Arcana. Former Dragon Queen Umi has requested that you update your status. Have you summoned the Paladin? Was the reincarnation a success?" Eh? Reincarnated? I thought I was summoned? No one told me I died... "Yes", Arcana stated. "The reincarnation and summoning was a success. We also ran into Demon Lord-Lieutenant Belvath on our way here. It seems that Ringdrex knows about the Paladin God. I''ll need to spend at least 6 months uninterrupted and with no contact with mother in order to properly support him". "Ok. We''ll be sure to...wait. 6 months? Are you sure you need that much time? I don''t think you need 6 months to support the paladin-" Arcana quickly took the knight by the shoulder and began whispering the rest of their conversation. I wasn''t able to hear what was said but the Dragon Knight''s facial expressions went from shocked to amazed to joyous over a matter of 2 minutes. When they finally finished, the Dragon Knight was grinning from ear to ear. He was also directly looking at me. "I''m so sorry to bother you, Paladin Brice! I''ll be sure to leave you two alone until you come to the castle. It must be nice to be young! Make sure to protect our Queen! Welcome to the family!", he said as the three guards left the bar. The hell? "Welcome To The Family"? The hell did Arcana tell this man? "Oi. What did you just tell him? What did you do?", I said. "You promised not to be mad...so I told him that we were dating...", she said. While Arcana was red and fidgeting, I thought over her proposition. "Did I like Arcana? I mean sure, she''s cute and has a great body but her personality is so horrible. If she had the personality of Daera then there''s no question that I would like her. Maybe if she was less arrogant and more feminine like her outfit portrays then-" For some reason, I found myself in a chokehold by an extremely flustered Arcana. I think the beer got to my head and I said my thoughts out loud. Whoops. "What did you just say? You s-s-said that I was cute huh? But my personality was trash?? Explain yourself heathen!" "I never said that your personality was trash but you''re not really helping your cas-" Unsurprisingly, Arcana began to strengthen the chokehold around my neck as she seemed to lose all sense of reason. I guess she wasn''t used to compliments on her femininity cause she wouldn''t let go. "This was part of the reason that I didn''t want to date her in the first place. At least her breasts are pressing against my bac-". For some reason, Daera lightly punched me in the stomach. I guessed that I was thinking out loud again. Whoops. "What the hell are you saying at a time like this? If you are too drunk, let me fix it for you!", she said angrily. As I kept thinking my thoughts out loud, I eventually lost my buzz. --------------------------------------------------------------- After we woke up Shobe and Titan, we left the Drunken Horn and decided to head home. I decided to place the Mobile Fortress outside MapleHorn since we didn''t want to waste money on an Inn. I was too tired from the assault that I took from Daera and Arcana to make any upgrades. However, since I had 5,000 points, I decided to make a decision. "Hey", I said. "I''m thinking about setting up a permanent base here in MapleHorn. Do you guys agree with my decision? It seems like a nice, quiet base to conduct our planning. If we are going to avoid the Demon Lords, this place is our best bet." Initially, they were surprised at the suggestion but they eventually began to smile. I took it as a yes and decided to revamp the fortress. After I told everyone to get outside, I went to the OP Store and traded in the 25 pt. cottage for a 2,000 pt. mini-Fortress. First, it''s fortified walls enclosed a total of 9,964 square feet. Since it was an expandable fortress, there was a large amount of empty space. In the center of the fortress was an 800 square foot cottage, double the size of my old one. It had the same amenities and design as the one that I turned in. The fortress also touted a bonus feature: A medium-sized magic shield. It wasn''t much different utility-wise than a regular medium-shield but it featured 3x the shield regeneration speed. I would explain all of its properties but I was getting tired. As I looked back towards my companions, they seemed to be in disbelief and amazement that this was our new home. "Don''t worry", I said. "This is just the outside. The inside has a bigger version of our cottage!" As we walked into the cottage, we saw that everything was pretty much upgraded for the better. The floors, walls, ceiling, kitchen, bathroom, rooms, etc. were all greatly improved. With the price being so high, I had expected to get something this good! As I jumped into my bed, I could feel the premium sheets that were wrapping around me. I felt that I was sleeping on freshly made clouds from the heavens itself. As I began to doze off, I thought I heard someone walking towards me. Actually, I thought I heard two people who seemed to be arguing near me... 22 Sweet Maple Morning I woke up from my deep slumber thanks to Central telling me it was morning. As I opened my eyes, I saw Daera above me. I was currently laying my head on Daera''s thick thighs as she was rubbing my head. I could tell that this was the legendary lap pillow that I always wanted to try. I decided not to question it and savor this moment. "Good Morning!", Daera said. "May the Gods bless you today!" She seemed to be in a good mood. Her face was currently beaming as she was petting my head. I guessed that she got enjoyment from performing the action. "Good Morning but uh...why am I on your lap? Did I do something right?", I said. "Yes. You chose me over that arrogant, brutish Dragon Queen that doesn''t know her place." I didn''t want to tell her that I recently found Arcana to be a dateable woman if she cleaned up her arrogance. I felt giving Daera that information would end the heavenly Lap Pillow that I was currently enjoying. I wasn''t a pervert but I could see her F-Cups in front of me so it was a rather calming experience. I then remembered a question that I never got to ask her. "Hey, Daera", I said. "Why do you like me anyway? When we first met, you randomly asked to be my girlfriend. I''m not saying that I''m mad but it doesn''t really seem logical." "Oh! That''s easy. It was love at first sight! Out of all the heroes, Gods, and civilians that approached me as suitors, you were the only one with a soul of truly pure intentions. You acknowledged my beauty but wasn''t swayed by it. I''ve seen the most rational men in this world lose their minds at the sight of me. I guess it''s because of these two." She grabbed her breasts and let them go, causing them to wiggle. I had to pinch myself at this point. "Why are you pinching yourself P.B?" "Uh...no reason. What do you mean by "pure soul" though? I''m literally leaving an entire continent to fall to the hands of Trirron. Wouldn''t I have a dark soul? One that doesn''t care about people? One that''s willing to let people die for the sake of a little relaxation? Daera, look...I''m not a hero. If anything, I''m the furthest from it. I don''t think I''m the guy that you wan-". Before I got to finish, Daera brought my face to her breasts to calm me down. I never knew what true happiness was until I felt her softness. So this was a Goddess huh? I had to pinch myself a few more times to make sure. "P.B., Gods like myself can see the soul and morality of beings. I know that you are a good person on the inside. Even if your intentions are unheroic, you will always end up being the hero that we summoned you for. That''s the legend of the Paladin God after all." As she continued to pat my head, I thought over her statement. "Even if your intentions are unheroic, you will always end up being the hero"... What did that mean? Before I got a chance to ask, Daera kissed me on the forehead. As she continued patting my head, she began smiling. "As long as I''m with you, I''m sure that we will be a happy couple! Despite Arcana''s nature, she does make a good teammate...and a friend." Eh? Friend? Arcana and Daera? I definitely had to pinch my arms now. I know my luck stat is great but this was just too illogical for me. I started to bleed a little from the aggressive pinching. I guessed that Titan smelled my blood as he jumped up onto the bed with Daera and I. He began to lick my wound, which found itself healing with his saliva. Thanks to the upgrades that I made to the Fortress, I had a fully-featured dog bed on the other side of the room. Titan seemed to love the bed as he looked more well-rested than usual. He was also beaming with a derpy face at the sight of Daera. I mean, she was a Goddess after all. As Daera rubbed my head, I hugged Titan in my arms. I was in a very good mood. "Hey, Brice! I wanted to talk about last night. I didn''t get to ask your feelin-" Arcana''s speech was cut short as she walked into this glorious setting that I found myself in. It was a horrendous sight to her though. "Daera, you bitch! You said we would leave Brice alone last night!" "Well, we let Brice sleep but no one said the morning was off-limits. That''s your fault for not clarifying." "Oi! Are you really going to do this in the morning again?!", Arcana said irately. As they began their usual arguments, I was surprised that I didn''t think of this simple solution sooner. It was the thing that solved many problems on earth when it came to stuff like this. "Why don''t I just date you both at the same time and see who I like better? Won''t that be the ultimate competition to determine this?", I said. Judging by their faces, I guessed that they deemed it a valid idea. Luckily, they never heard about a harem before so it was easy to get them to agree to it. Hopefully, I could use this to increase my likelihood of having peace \u0026 quiet in the future, since I won''t have to hear them arguing anymore. Around this time, Shobe walked in to see what the commotion was about. "Good morning!", he said. "You guys sure are lively today. I''m going to use the food we gathered yesterday and make breakfast. The new bathhouse is ready for use". As if two giant lightbulbs went off at the same time, I knew exactly what was about to happen. Arcana and Daera walked out of the room whispering to one another, looking to work together on something. It was clear that they were planning to do something with the bathhouse. As I got up and picked up Titan, I remembered the phrase that I heard last night. "Reincarnated". Although that phrase bothered me, I tried my best not to think about it. As far as I know, I was summoned! Thinking about being reincarnated is not something I should be doing if I''m aiming to relax. However, it kept nagging at me as I walked over to the bathhouse. As I got changed, I was too distracted by the idea of Reincarnation to notice that the bath was in use. I remembered that Arcana \u0026 Daera were planning something but I forgot what it entailed. As I opened the door, I saw Arcana \u0026 Daera relaxing in the bath with nothing but body robes on. I forgot that it was a unisex bathhouse... 23 General Beth Daera and Arcana saw me when I opened the bathhouse door. Surprisingly, they were calm about me walking in on them. It made sense since we were all covering our private parts anyway. I covered mine since I had to wash Titan while I was here. They motioned me over to the hot spring that they were in, which was a feature of my fortress purchase. As I got in, Titan turned into his 6 ft version to properly fit in the hot spring. They told me to sit in between the two of them while we relaxed. As I sat next to Arcana and Daera, I could feel my worries about reincarnation melting away. Those 2,000 points were definitely well spent. As I put my arms around Daera and Arcana, I spoke my thoughts. "Man!", I said. "I never would have thought I would be able to experience a luxury hot spring! This is the reward we get for killing a juggernaut So much work!" "I felt completely useless in that fight. If only it wasn''t a rare one...", Daera said. "True. We could''ve killed him a lot quicker if he didn''t have an absolute defense skill. Only Trirron would be lucky enough to find one like that", Arcana stated. After I enjoyed my time in the spring, I went over to the bath section of the bathhouse. I began washing myself and Titan when Daera approached me. "Do you need help washing your back P.B?" She was smiling so it was hard to say no to her. Arcana walked over and took care of washing Titan for me. At this point, Titan was in his miniature form to make it easier to wash. "I still can''t believe you summoned this lion! He''s so cute when he''s small!", Daera said. "Yeah", Arcana said. "He''s also terrifying when he''s huge..." Titan seemed to pay it no mind as he was being washed by Arcana. As we were all together, I told them my current plans for this week. "I think I''ll tinker with the "Create" skill this week while farming monster components with Titan. What do you guys want to do?" "Hunting", Daera said. "I might join you in the forest while I''m hunting some mythical beasts." "I think I''ll join Daera on her hunt. It''ll be a good time to become friends and bury the hatchet.", Arcana said. I couldn''t believe my ears. Arcana? Being reasonable? Being nice? Being considerate? Something was obviously wrong here. "Oi. Are you ok Arcana? You seem unlike yourself. Usually, you would be more...aggressive? Did you finally drop your arrogant ways? It''s about time you start acting like a-" Arcana proceeded to grab my...arm? Usually, she would inflict some sort of violence on me. Her face seemed to be more calm than usual as well. "Daera told me that I should behave more feminine so I''m giving it a shot...", she said. I never thought I would say this but it was true: Arcana looked really cute. As I stared at her face, Daera pinched both of my cheeks simultaneously. "You have a girlfriend washing your back and you''re staring at another woman''s face? You really are a hopeless paladin", Daera said. I may be a hopeless paladin but at least I was a rich one! Once we finished our bath, we dried ourselves off and headed to breakfast. Luckily, we caught Shobe when he was finishing breakfast. "Oh!", he said. "You guys made it just in time! I was just about to call you!" As we sat down to eat breakfast, I noticed that my level was 48 thanks to the HUD. I opened the Status screen while eating a baked boar: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Title: Paladin Lord Of Yggdrasil+, Dragon Slayer+, Goddess'' Hunter+, Juggernaut Hunter+ Class: Paladin God+ Subclass: Paladin Mage Of Calamity+ Name: Brice Pridellion Lvl: 48 Race: Demi-God+ HP: 15068 Mana: 14587 Additional Stats+ Main Skills: Scholar+, Index+, Creator+, Blessing Of The Hunt+, Absolute Defense+ Additional Skills (17)+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I was going to ask Central why I learned Absolute Defense but he already began to explain. "Thanks to your scholar skill, you were able to pick up Absolute Defense from the Juggernaut. You were supposed to unlock it at lvl 100 but it seems that the chance encounter proved fruitful." As I returned to eating my Breakfast, the fortress alerted me of a trespasser at the front gate. "Occupants! Please visit the front gate to confirm an unidentified guest! No action will result in the termination of the trespasser!" The hell? Isn''t that a bit much? I told my companions to stay at the table while Titan and I went to the front gate. As we opened the gate, we saw a female knight in front of us. As she took my hand, she began to speak in a light tone. "You are the Paladin God Of Yggdrasil, correct?" I nodded. "The Kingdom Of Amera has been waiting for your arrival! We thought the summoning was a failure until we heard from Arlette that you were in MapleHorn!" Shit. Arlette sold me out. I guess I can''t be surprised about that. She doesn''t know my plans. "My name is Beth and I''m the Gifted Knight General Of Amera! We require your immediate assistance Paladin!" She began to salute me, which let me get a good look at her D cups. She had blue hair and a beautiful face to go with it. Her armor was also decorated in gold accents representing Amera. It reminded me of the way the dragon knights designed there armor. However, it was clear that her armor was special somehow. "I would love to help but I''m not interested in fighting the Demon Lor-". "If you help us defeat the armies, we will pay you a minimum of 150,000 Engis per mission! As per Ameran Law regarding Legendary summons, we are required to pay you handsomely!", she said. After hearing money like that, I guess a battle or two wouldn''t hurt the bottom line... 24 Creating An Army I invited the young General into my Fortress for breakfast. She looked to be 27 and tired from her travels. She told me that I could call her Damaris since Beth was her more serious name. As we walked up the courtyard, she was impressed by the design of the fortress. It looked foreign to her but familiar to me. "Amazing!", she said. "Is this the legendary Create skill that I''ve heard about?" She began touching the fortress walls and cottage as I sat down on the steps. Since the fortress was designed to be a modern take, I can''t say that I was surprised by her reaction. She brought up a good point about the create skill but I actually never used it! I decided to try it out in my courtyard. I wouldn''t go back to finish my breakfast until I figured it out! Since my level was now 48, it seemed safe to use it without worrying about mana depletion. As I make more complex things, I may need to level up more in order to have the required mana. I placed Titan on the steps and told him to watch my attempts to create. Apparently, I just need to visualize what I want to create as clear as possible. I also have to properly describe the properties of that item so it works as intended. I walked over to the center of the courtyard and angled myself so that I could see Titan''s reaction. Beth was sitting next to Titan, eager to see what I was planning. Despite her being hungry from her travels, she was more interested in my abilities. My first attempt was to make an apple. I closed my eyes and visualized the apple appearing before me. My right eye began to glow brightly as my right arm was covered in multiple magic circles. I pictured a red apple with the perfect size, sweetness, and freshness to appear before me. As I opened my eyes, a perfect apple was in the palm of my right hand! "Not bad for my first creation! I''ll place it in storage for later." Beth was impressed by the simple creation, as well as the void storage that I used. It was clear that I had her full attention. I threw the apple in storage and decided to try the power for real. I knew some Programming and War Strategy from my previous life so I decided to make what I always wanted: An autonomous army! If Lord Trirron can make an army with the skill then I rationalize that I can do the same. Even if Lord Trirron wasn''t from earth, he was smart enough to apply programming principles to his creations. Based on how I built this apple, creations are not capable of independent thought without the building of their mental capacity. If that''s true, Trirron is dangerous enough to warrant a defensive force. If he really wants a war, an offensive force may also need to be considered... I wanted to start small so I decided to make a slime monster with mimic capabilities. After spending 5 minutes creating and "Programming" the monster, I pictured the slime in front of me. I knew that it wanted it to be green, 4 feet tall, and a lvl 25. I tried to make it a higher level but it seems that I can only create beings who are at the same level as me or lower. Since I didn''t want to use too much Mana, I felt 25 was strong enough to last in the Ameran Great Forest. I realized that I didn''t have to close my eyes but vividly picture the creation in front of me. As my right eye glowed once again, multi-layered magic circles appeared on the ground. Rising from the circle was none other than the green slime that I had pictured in my thoughts. Since I worked on his personality, he was very joyous and easygoing. However, when he was threatened, he would mimic a different beast and attack ruthlessly. The strength of the mimicked beast would only be lvl 20 but that was for me to save on mana. Similar to programming, I set up rules that he had to follow so that I could use him to the best of his ability. He also had the ability to mimic whatever race he encountered so he switched to the form of a human butler. I also made it so I could upgrade him when needed. However, I felt I put in too much "programming" because I used a quarter of my mana on building him. It was safe to say that he was my prized creation so far. "Ok Slime", I said. "You know what to do. Farm those components while we eat breakfast. Here''s a sword from some mercenaries I killed. I set up Auto-collect and Holy Devour to run through you so don''t worry about picking up the items. Just keep getting those components!" The slime nodded his head and started walking. As the slime walked out of the gate, it turned into a human adventurer. It began to casually walk into the forest, portraying nothing on its face but a smile. I felt proud of my first creation when Daera called for me. "Brice!", she said. "Are you done with the intruder yet? I''ll eat your food if you don''t want it!" I decided to leave the slime to his travels and walk back towards the cottage. Titan was wagging his tail and smiling while Damaris was amazed. "Incredible. I''ve only seen artificial troops made by Trirron! You really are like the legend says! The Paladin God shall lead us to victory over the three Lords!", she said happily. I knew she had the wrong perception of me but I was too hungry to tell her. It turns out using Create makes you hungry. I walked up the steps and opened the door, where Arcana and Daera were eating off my plate. "I leave for 10 minutes to take care of an intruder and you take all of my baked boar?", I said. After I hit Arcana and Daera on the head, I introduced Damaris to the group. I told them what she told me and the first question was not surprising. "If we help Amera, will we get a cut of the reward money?", Arcana said. "Of course! The total amount would be raised based on who helps the legendary hero. If I had to guess...I would say 300,000 Engis total per mission?", Damaris said uncertainly. Arcana and Daera spit out their tea. Their eyes were replaced with money signs as they put their arms around Damaris. "How about you rest and eat this baked boar here? Let''s talk more about this mission you have for us, ok?", Daera said tenaciously. As they gave Damaris my breakfast and comforted her, I realized that I may have influenced them the wrong way... 25 Our Trip To Amera According to Damaris, Amera received intelligence that Ringdrex was planning a raid on one of the 5 military outposts. Surrounding Amera in a star-like fashion are 5 military bases that protect their assigned portion of Amera''s borders. Similar to MapleHorn''s wall, Amera has a circular wall that wraps around most of the urban centers of the country. Judging from Damaris'' description, it seems that it has a 35-mile radius containing Amera''s most important cities. Central also informed me that the continent of Yggdrasil was around 202,459 mi. squared! Each Country''s land size was roughly similar portions so that meant each country had around 50,000 miles inside their borders. If I had to compare, I would say that the countries had similar sizes to US States. Since the continent was so massive, most people decided to use magic to travel. The most common way was to fly but was limited in what you could carry in some cases. Different countries also tend to have different approaches to travel. Since Amera was a magic technology powerhouse, they used carriages that were powered by magic to travel. The horses they used were modified with Magic enhancing properties that allowed them to run significantly faster and last longer without resting. When they wanted to fly, they used their modified dragons to achieve a similar feat. After I got myself a fresh plate of food, I finished my breakfast. I told Arcana and Daera that I believed in true gender equality, which was another way of saying that I wouldn''t be bitched by either of them. I was pretty damn salty they took my baked boar and the rest of my breakfast. Damaris walked around our fortress and was impressed by the design. She wanted to try out our premium bathhouse but I said that we could come back later. While I was eating my breakfast, I was scrolling through the OP store to see what stuff was available. In other words, the 3,000 points that I had were burning a hole in my pocket. Luckily, in the "New" section, I saw that I was able to purchase an instant teleportation skill that didn''t cost any mana. According to Central, it was rare to have a teleportation skill on your person. Most ways of teleporting are done by the use of magic scrolls. Even then, they are slower and cost a significant amount of mana. I guessed that its rarity was factored into the price. Instant teleportation at no mana cost is definitely worth more than the mini-fortress but less than "DawnBreaker". With that in mind, I felt the price was pretty reasonable and purchased it. The only stipulation was that you had to have visited the location so you could accurately teleport to the coordinates. As we packed our things and left the fortress, I decided to leave it in MapleHorn. The fortress was still mobile but it was significantly larger than the cottage. It would save the headache of finding an appropriate spot if I just left it here. As the royal carriage pulled up to the front of the fortress, the mimic Slime walked in from the forest. Its sword was drenched in blood and its face was still carefree, making me rethink its settings. I told it to clean and maintain the fortress while we were away so it turned into its butler form. As we got into the carriage and let the horses run, Arcana and Daera sat on both sides of me. Shobe and Damaris were in front of us while Titan jumped on my lap. "How long is the trip going to take Damaris?", I said. "Thanks to the horses'' speed and our distance from Amera, it should only be a day or two. That''s how we were able to see you guys so fast in the first place!", she said smiling. As we embarked on our journey, I told my party members about my Create ability and the Slime butler that they saw. I showed them the amazing apple that I created earlier and they were very impressed. They began to issue all of these demands and requests but I told them that I need to get the hang of it first. Since Mana replenishes itself at a rate of 10% every hour, it would be smart to use the ability when I''m over 50%. Complex creations seem to sap a lot of mana at the moment but I think my mana pool will greatly improve as I level up. I decided to pass the time on the carriage by looking into all my new skills and practicing the Create ability. Around 3 hours had passed before we ran into our first encounter. "General Damaris, we seem to have mercenaries up ahead. What''s are your orders?", the Carriage driver said. "Depends. If Brice wants to handle it, it''ll be a good way to see what he is capable-" I wasn''t a person to take chances so I went ahead and used void magic to apply slowness and blindness. As the carriage stopped, Titan jumped off my lap and out of the carriage. As he walked over to the incapacitated mercenaries, he switched over to his 6-foot form. With one swipe of his claws, he killed the 8 mercenaries in an instant. I wasn''t surprised by this outcome since they were level 25. Since we were technically still in the safe part of the Ameran Great Forest, the only mercenaries who live around here are the ones who prey on newbie adventurers. I don''t know why they got so cocky as to think they could actually rob a royal carriage but we killed them before we could ask. Damaris was happy that we defeated them but questioned my unfazed ability to kill, as well as the seemingly shapeshifting lion. "I have to be honest Damaris. I''m not a hero. I''m also not a villain. I''m just a guy who likes to earn money and relax in peace and quiet. In a sense, you could call me a neutral power", I said. I was expecting her to be mad or question my unheroic statement but she looked at me with admiration? I thought she was a strange woman even before she made her statement. "Wow! You''re so amazing Brice! You seem like you would make a fine General! Speaking of fine...do you happen to be single? I think I have some good quali-" Before she could finish, Arcana and Daera began to do combo moves on Damaris. I wondered how they were able to have such coordination so quickly but I guessed it was one of those rare phenomena. They were non-lethal moves but they looked like they hurt. After Arcana executed a shining wizard move, Damaris waved a white flag. Since Damaris was a general, she was able to take the hits without leaving a permanent mark. She apologized to Arcana and Daera but subtly winked at me. I could tell that this was most likely not over. We continued our trip without too much interruption until it became late in the afternoon. Damaris and the Carriage driver wanted to set up camp but I told them we could just go back to the fortress. "We would love to stay by your fortress but we need to set up a proper camp here. We are in the more dangerous outskirts of the Ameran Great Forest so there are more lucrative materials nearby. I would advise that your party take this opportunity to explore and find useful things", she said. Arcana, Daera, and Shobe seemed to agree with her statement so we decided to help her set up camp. Initially, I was planning on leaving Damaris and her driver while we went back to the Fortress but I realized that would only make me an asshole. When we needed certain items and food, I did teleport back to the Fortress to gather the items. Whenever I teleported back, the Slime Butler was cleaning a section of the Fort. Given his expression, it seemed that I was right to say that MapleHorn is the perfect place to have my peace and quiet. After we ate the food that we had stored in the fridge, we decided to sleep in the tents that we put up earlier. The carriage driver got his own tent while Shobe and Damaris shared one. Unsurprising to no one, Arcana and Daera were in my tent sleeping next to me. Titan was also sleeping in the corner of the tent, acting as a guard for our traveling party. As I laid there, thinking about what to create next, Titan and I heard a sound nearby. I got up, picked up Titan, and decided to check it out. As we left the tent, we were facing a shadowy figure in front of us. At first, we were ready to attack the person but as they moved closer to the light, we could see that it was Damaris. She was currently wearing a nightgown and fidgeting in front of us. "Hey, Brice...can we talk in private?", she said. I was up anyway so I decided to hear her out. We walked over to a stream that we found earlier in the day and sat on the ground in front of it. In the water, we could see the dual moons shining brightly along with the beautiful night sky. Even if this area of the forest was considered dangerous, it was still a beautiful sight. 26 Welcome To Amera! "Please let me join your party!" Those were the words that graced my ears as Damaris and I sat next to the stream. At first, I was taken back by her statement but I began to think it over. If I was to build an efficient army, I would need individuals who have the ability to lead. I knew enough strategy to be a decent general but if I really wanted to achieve my goal of peace and quiet, I would need someone to do most of the army maintenance. I''ll most likely need an appropriate management structure to minimize my surveillance over the army. I was happy to accept her into the party but I still had an important question. "Why do you want to join us? Isn''t your duty to protect Amera? I can tell by your decorated armor that you are a highly favored General. I don''t see what you would gain from joining-" "Foolish!", Damaris said. "I would gain everything from joining with you! Fame, Money, Power, and the ability to finally relax instead of worrying about godforsaken paperwork! I don''t even want to be a Gifted Knight General! I''m just too good at what I do! The pay doesn''t even cover the lost opportunities of being someone''s wife, and..." As I slowly began to tune out, Damaris went on about her dreams of being a regular housewife as well as her hatred of the Ameran paper management system. She also explained that her role as General took away her opportunities of having a boyfriend or husband, even though she was already 28. After hearing her talk about herself for 5 minutes, it was clear that this woman was an opportunist. "Are you really going to abandon the most advanced nation in Yggdrasil just to benefit yourself?" "Absolutely! What''s the problem with that?!" I thought the response was a little too quick but I would be lying if I said I wasn''t an opportunist myself. I''m not as...uh...aggressive as Damaris but I was similar in a sense. Thus, I decided to make her an offer since she was proposing the idea. "If I like how you perform in battle, I think we can consider letting you join the party. Although, you would most likely be in charge of managing whatever army that we put together. If you are ok with that, I don''t see why-" "Do I have to do any paperwork? Do I have to get a stamp made in materials that come from Kani infrequently to the point that I have to go out of my way to get the paper accepted? Do I have to fill out an absurd amount of paperwork just to leave the city for more than 5 days?!" "Uh...No?" Damaris'' face beamed with excitement, as she hugged me tightly. Tears of joy were running down her face as her breasts were pushed against my chest. She wasn''t as big as Arcana or Daera but her size was more refined in a sense. Before I could enjoy the embrace some more, someone tapped me on the shoulder. As I looked back, I saw that Daera was grinning at me. She began to whisper in my ear. "If she joins us, it''ll mean more time alone with your favorite goddess...", Daera whispered. As Daera, Damaris, and I talked about our future travel plans, we walked back over to the tents. Similar to how we were before, Daera, Arcana, and I were sleeping in the same tent. This time, Daera was holding me tighter than before. -------------------------------------------------------------- When we woke up from our slumber, we decided to bathe in the stream, eat breakfast, and prepare our traveling items. Daera, Arcana, and Shobe were searching through the woods for the respective components that they were looking for. Damaris, Titan, and I were preparing the carriage for the trip. "You should know that Amera is really advanced. You''ll most likely be surprised what is possible once you arrive in the capital. Although being a Gifted Knight General is a pain, I always liked living in Amera. There''s something beautiful about contributing towards the advancement of an entire continent.", Damaris said. I would be lying if I said I wasn''t looking forward to seeing what the hype was about. Once we had the carriage ready, the rest of the party returned from the forest. I teleported back to the fortress to check up on the slime, who was relaxing on the patio. I envied the slime but I also liked the money so I teleported back and got on the carriage. As we resumed our travel, Arcana took a nap on my shoulder while Daera took a nap on my lap. I didn''t expect Titan to let someone take his prized sleeping spot but he was fine sleeping on the seat next to me. "This is quite the relaxed party that you have here Paladin", Damaris said. "They are always relaxed. Meanwhile, I''m practicing my elven magic!", Shobe pouted. We chuckled at the statement as the carriage sped through the lush landscape towards Amera. --------------------------------- After around 4 hours, the carriage driver announced that we had finally left the Ameran Great Forest and was in the rural part of Amera. Arcana, Daera, and Titan woke up as we looked outside the carriage window. We could see a variety of small villages, farmlands, roaming monsters, vegetation, and dirt roads in the area. We could also see a giant wall that spanned the northern horizon. "So that''s the legendary Ameran Enclosure huh? I heard the Gods talk about it from time to time", Daera said. "I''ve flown over it a few times. You would be surprised by how much wall there actually is! Gifted Humans are a strange occurrence", Arcana said. "We are not ''Strange'', we are innovative! It took the best and brightest minds to set up this defensive installation! This has to be one of Yggdrasil''s greatest wonders!", Damaris said proudly. It took around two hours before we finally made it one of the wall entrances. It had a similar military checkpoint set up to MapleHorn but contained more "Reinforced" units. The gate itself looked more like a biometric scanner? "Good morning outpost #6! We are transporting the Paladin God! General Damaris reporting!", Damaris said as she waved. The troops began to run towards the sides of the gate and salute the carriage as we passed. I guess she really was a bigshot after all. As we passed through the scanner, I noticed that it was some sort of magical technology that glowed green when we passed through. "That''s one of the ways that we protect the inhabitants of Amera. Unregistered, dangerous, evil or otherwise unwanted persons who go through that gate are either killed, stunned, or blocked from entering. Unsavory as it is to say, that includes the rural inhabitants who are unregistered with the Ameran Government. Luckily, the process to register itself isn''t hard. It''s the fact that it''s so selective in who it grants citizenship. It''s an impartial process that gauges if a citizen has the ability to contribute to the city. Passing visitors can get up to a 10-day permit to stay before they have to renew it with a nearby guard office", Damaris said. I guess I shouldn''t be surprised that something like Meritocracy exists in this world, especially in the most advanced country in Yggdrasil. It was disappointing to see but it wasn''t a democracy after all. Amera was run on a Monarchy system of government. Most likely, the influential nobles and royal families are the ones who supported this policy. As for the layout of the cities, it was similar to what you would find in countries on earth. Surrounding the capital city were numerous big and small cities that were important to Amera''s innovation. They each served an important industry, purpose, and goal for the Amerans. Expanding upon her previous points, Damaris explained Ameran society as we continued to ride through. As we rode through the first city, we saw the various races from throughout Yggdrasil whose merit contributed to the city in some way. With 20 miles left before we arrived in the capital city, I decided to admire the architecture that the Amerans had adopted. Strangely, it looked to be more modern than I initially expected. 27 Captain Galaros It didn''t take long for us to make it to the capital, despite being 20 miles away. According to Central, this carriage was going 50 MPH for most of our trip. Since the average horse can only go 30 MPH over the same distance, I guessed that it was due to the modifications the amerans placed on the horses. As we rode up to the capital city of Amera, we noticed that there was another wall installation surrounding the capital city itself. Compared to the Large Ameran Enclosure we went through before, this looked to be more intimidating but also seemed extraordinary. As we got up to one of the four military checkpoints, I could see that they were heavily armored. "Damn. Is it Fort Knox or a capital city? Why is security so tight?", I said. "The capital city houses all of the royal families and nobles, as well as the richest individuals in Amera. It''s only natural that they would want extra security. They also want to keep the poor out of their sight. What better way to do that than build a heavily reinforced wall?", Damaris said. Judging from her tone, this seemed to be the part of Amera she hated the most. Upon seeing our royal carriage, two giants stepped in front of the gate. As they watched our carriage come to a halt, 10 royal knights of various races were on either side of the checkpoint. As we got out of the carriage, Damaris began to walk over to one of the knights. "Hello, Capitan Galaros. I hope your troops have been keeping our nobles safe. We need to deliver the summoned hero to King Rilo, per his request. He''s the paladin holding the lion over there". "Hey! Are you really the paladin God we''ve been hearing about?! Show us and we''ll let you pass!", Galaros shouted curiously. Seeing as there were centaurs, giants, cyclops, elves, and dragons at the heavily reinforced checkpoint, I felt like this was the perfect example of peer pressure. Despite that, I decided to take out my shield and show them my Create ability. If I wanted to persuade them to let me pass, I needed a creation that would impress them. Thus, I decided to make the first thing that came to mind. I activated Create and pictured the being in front of me. As it was slowly being created, the troops'' eyes began to shine. "Is that what I think it is Paladin?!", Galaros said cheerfully. When the cute woman was finally finished, she grew her devilish wings and began to hover above the ground. "Can your average person create a succubus? I think not. Praise your Paladin Lord! He shall bestow you many Succu-" Before I got to finish my sentence, Arcana and Daera punched my arms. They did not hold back their punches. "What the hell was that for? Didn''t we get into Amera?", I said. "Really, Brice? Succubus? Out of all the things you could create...you make a succubus?", Daera said pouting. "You really are trash, you know that? Creating a succubus in front of us!", Arcana said. As we headed back into the Carriage, I brushed off their complaints since we finally got the clearance we needed. I deemed that the money to be made from the mission outweighed a little loss of respect. The succubus was only level 12 anyway so she didn''t really cost much mana to make. After the knights were finished ogling at her, I sent her back to the Fortress to become our maid while we were away. I needed to send someone to keep the slime company anyway. Since we got the clearance we needed, we were on our way to King Rilo! Although the carriage was moving extremely fast, I could tell that the capital city was a very affluent place. Compared to the cities that surrounded it, there was no sign of poverty anywhere. Most of the people that were walking around seemed to be rather affluent. There was also a variety of royal knights that were either patrolling or enjoying the city. Researchers, understandably affluent themselves, were also seen walking around the capital city. The demographics were less diverse, as it was mostly humans who walked the streets. Given the information that Damaris told me, all of the humans here are called "gifted humans". This only enhanced my perception that Amera was run on a meritocratic society. After some time sightseeing the beautifully designed districts, we finally made it to the massive castle that belonged to Rilo. I had to give him props: he had pretty good taste in design. We jumped out of the carriage, waved the carriage driver goodbye, and followed Damaris through the massive castle. My mini-map was able to project a map of the inside but it wasn''t able to name the individual rooms. Essentially, it would only take little effort to get myself lost in Rilo''s palace. "Ok. We seem to be a little earlier than expected, which is good. Rilo usually banishes subordinates who are late more than 3 times. I''ve seen many young knights get banished from Amera this way. It''s always a sad occasion, especially since the knights are usually one of the gifted" Damaris said. Daera, Arcana, and Shobe never visited Rilo''s castle so they were as amazed as me. I''m not sure I''ve ever seen so many things with gold trims on it. It also had magical technology scattered all over the palace, each gadget serving a different purpose. Unsurprisingly, high ranking knights were passing by us as we were walking towards the royal throne room. When we finally got to the doors, we saw two royal minotaurs who were 7 feet tall and built. Initially, their faces were stoic but upon seeing Daera they began to smile. I guess Daera made their day less mundane. "Ok! We are about to meet King Rilo and Queen Draella! Judging from the knights that passed us, they just came from strategizing the defense of the outpost! As I previously stated, we obtained intelligence that Ringdrex is planning a raid on one of the 5 military bases. They are strategically placed between the military checkpoints that you saw earlier. We can''t allow Ringdrex to take a single base or risk Amera falling apart completely. If you understand all that, you''re ready to meet the Rilo and Draella Dragonbane of the royal family!" Damaris said as she opened the door. As we walked into the massive throne room, we saw hundreds of knights sitting, standing, training, and protecting the royal family. Some of the soldiers seemed to be low-ranking rookie units, as their armor was more basic than Capitan Galaros'' armor by a fair amount. As we walked up to the throne, the higher ranking knights began to walk beside us. It seemed that it was in response to not only Damaris'' presence but out of respect towards Daera and Arcana. When I finally got close to the throne and looked at the royal family, I couldn''t help but notice a particular detail. Despite Damaris telling me that the King and Queen were around 120 years old, they looked to only be 40... 28 Charismatic King Rilo "You must be the Paladin God Of Yggdrasil! Welcome to Amera! My name is King Rilo, known as the Cautious King! I hope that my soldiers didn''t give you too much trouble!", Rilo said. Judging from his personality, I could tell that Rilo was a charismatic person. He was a handsome person with black hair, light blue eyes, a lean muscular body, and a manly beard. He also seemed to be getting more carefree and relaxed, most likely due to my group''s arrival. "I''m Queen Draella, known as the Intuitive Queen. I''ve already taken care of your paperwork to become a citizen of the capital. You should have no trouble getting approved to enter through the capital''s Royal barrier in the future", Draella said. Even though the queen was supposed to be 120 years old, her beauty was captivating to me. She had blonde hair, gold eyes, an alluring body, and a miniature crown on her head. She also had a royal scepter, which seemed to be curiously unique and strange. If I had to compare, I would say that her beauty was on the same level as Daera. "She had to be a D cup" is what I thought for some reason. "We did not expect you to come this early, so Princess Ena is currently training with one of the Colonels at the moment. However, we can still proceed with the meeting in her absence", Rilo said. I didn''t know how strong the army''s royal titles were so Central showed the following information in my HUD: Ameran Army Classifications: General [lvl 1000+] Lt.General [lvl 800] Colonel [lvl 600] Major [lvl 400] Captain [lvl 250] Gifted Knights [lvl 175] Knights [lvl 80-100] I thought that the classifications made sense. Regular humans can only reach a max of 100, while Gifted humans have the potential to reach their max at 1000 or higher. The 80-100 range also allowed a large number of regular citizens to serve their country, despite not being able to rank up past the knight title. "My name is Brice Predillion, and these are my companions: Arcana, Daera, Shobe, and this lion named Titan. I heard that you asked for Arcana''s help in summoning a legendary hero. I also heard that there is an Ameran Law requiring ''handsome compensation'' for my efforts. I would like to confirm this before hearing the details of the meeting", I said. "Of course! That''s not a problem, Paladin! Initially, we asked Former Queen Umi to help us with the summoning but she recommended that we use her daughter, Arcana. Dragon royalty have the required levels and power to achieve a Legendary Summoning without any major issues. Luckily, we are on good terms with the Kingdom Of Dragons since Umi, Draella, and I were adventurers 100 years ago. As for your reward, we can negotiate a fair payout for your efforts. Amera is run on a royal, meritocratic system of government. The minimum that you and your party members can expect individually is 50,000 Engis per mission. However, I doubt that we will have to pay you such a low amount", Rilo said. The fact that Rilo said that $100,000[Equivalent] was a "low amount" showed me that he was a person that I would take a liking to. King and Queen Dragonbane got up from their thrones and walked towards their war room. The knights that filled the throne room began to salute the royalty as they got up. Colonels and Generals that were nearby walked with us, wanting to hear the current plan and protect Amera''s most important couple. While we walked towards the war room, I decided to talk to Rilo. "How are you 120 years old? You still look so young! Your wife looks she could still be 30!", I said. Hahaha! It''s thanks to our royal blood! The dragonbane''s enjoy many holy blessings! Thanks to our bloodline consisting of dragon and "gifted" human hybrids, we enjoy longer lifespans and almost eternal youth! Dragons and humans have been friends for a long time, originating from when my great ancestor fell in love with the dragon queen of that time. Luckily, the Supreme God approved of the couple and bestowed them blessings that would last to this day! Arcana, Umi, and the dragonbane''s share similar blood. It''s how the royal dragons are able to take a human-like form in the first place. Didn''t you notice that Princess Arcana has the most human-like appearance compared to other dragons?", Rilo said. I stared at Arcana, who looked away blushing. I guess that would explain why Arcana has the type of scales and wings that she has. Those golden markings were holy markings that were bestowed by the Supreme God. "Daera!", Rilo said. "How has your father been? Or should I say old man Omus? Hahahaha-" Draella punched Rilo in the stomach while he was laughing. Despite his armor, I could tell it hurt him a little. "Jeez, Rilo. One of these days Omus is going to curse you! Then, I''m going to punch you for being cursed!", Draella said pouting. "That old man isn''t going to curse me! He still owes me Engis from our last strategy game! We''re practically family!", Rilo said. "You know Daera''s father?! Isn''t he the Supreme God? How do you know the Supreme God??", I said. "The tiny details can wait, Paladin! We have arrived at the War Room!", Rilo said proudly. In front of us was a large, golden door with a royal dragon crest on it. Guarding the War room was 2 large gold golems, whose design was strangely modern. If I had to guess, they were the earth equivalent of Humanoid tanks. Upon seeing the King and Queen, they opened the War room and stepped inside. They proceeded to stand in the corner of the room, watching us and the entrance. In the room was a variety of things but what stood out to me was the black and marble conference table. In the middle of the table was a map of the continent in holographic form. On the wall, they had a TV-like display that showed the current battles and information about the troops. They even had various weapons, paintings, gear, etc. that looked to be futuristic as well. I didn''t really know what to say but I sat down at the table. I then realized that the matte-black chairs had no legs! They were hovering above the ground, seemingly yet another example of Ameran Technology! After everyone was seated, the humanoid tanks left the room and closed the door, resuming their watch of the throne room. "Ok! Let''s get this meeting underway!", Rilo said. For 20 minutes, Rilo explained the situation that they were in. Here''s the synopsis: Demon Lord Associate Ringdrex has been assigned to take over Amera. He is known for pure brute strength, with his favorite units being tanks and blunt-damage based soldiers. He specializes in army management for Trirron''s army. Demon Lord Associate Onnaron has been assigned to Kani. He is seen as Trirron''s Second-In-Command and ranked above Ringdrex. He is known for not only his incredible strength but his magical aptitude and genius-level intelligence. He is considered to be highly dangerous to Amera since he is the only one intelligent enough to enact psychological warfare against his enemies. Finally, Demon Lord Trirron goes by the name "Supreme Demon Lord", an affront to Supreme God Omus. His goal is to take over Yggdrasil and hunt the gods down. He also wants to marry Daera, since she''s Omus'' daughter. He currently has a castle near Elu, the country comprised of demons. He is busy recruiting demons to join his cause voluntarily. Of course, if he really wants you, it ceases to be voluntary. Trirron is cited as being the world''s greatest strategist, as well as the strongest demon that this world has seen in recent years. He is driven by logic and reason as opposed to bloodlust and hatred. This is what made him so dangerous. When you have one of the strongest demons in recent history become the world''s greatest strategist, how do you outsmart him when he is already 7 steps ahead? The fact that he was able to recruit a fair amount of demons and other races was because he appealed to their minds. How can you hate a demon lord that''s willing to not only save your children but to pay for your children''s education? This was the central issue in the fight against Trirron: Is he really a bad person? As that sentiment grew, so did his army. It also doesn''t help that he has the same Create ability that I do. If he doesn''t find the troops that he wants, he can just make them. As for the reason that he embarked on this conquest? Displeasure with Omus'' treatment of the demons. He felt that Elu was left to wither away while the other nations prospered. He took it upon himself to change that. "Now that you know the situation that we are in, there''s only one question that we have to ask", Rilo said. "Will you help us stop Ringdrex from taking over Amera, Paladin?", Draella said. After thinking it over, I felt the answer was clear. The answer was clear since I came into this world. An answer that I didn''t realize was the right one all along. "As long as you keep paying me, I''ll help Amera achieve the peace and quiet we deserve!", I said. As the King and Queen smiled and laughed, the high-ranking officers began to laugh with them. They were happy with my answer, as unexpected as it was. Damaris, Daera, and the rest of my party began to smile and laugh as we high fived each other out of camaraderie. As we got up from the table to leave the War room, the King put his arm around my shoulder and praised me. "I''m so glad that you agreed to help us! I wish you were my son, Paladin. I like your humor!", Rilo said smiling. As I tried to get the slightly heavy King off my shoulders, I couldn''t help but smile. Even though I was primarily doing this for the money and influence, I couldn''t help but want to protect this charismatic King. I could see why Damaris said he was popular continent-wide. 29 Dragonbane Castle Since the meeting was dismissed, we were free to explore Amera until we began our first mission. Damaris and the other officers escorted Queen Draella to her political appointments since she was in charge of Amera''s politics. King Rilo is primarily in charge of all things having to do with the military or the economy. King and Queen Dragonbane shared all other areas of power, including the shared responsibility of the Research \u0026 Development branch of government. According to what Damaris told me during our trip, Amera primarily specializes in science. They benefit from above-average prosperity thanks to the popularity of their scientific creations. "While Draella is busy with conducting foreign policy, I can show your party around my castle! I need to go see my daughter Ena anyway!" Rilo said. As we followed Rilo, we noticed that the walls were of great design. I could tell that the artwork and architecture were made with the principle of the golden ratio. It seemed that Amera was either as advanced or more advanced than the earth that I came from. The thing that differentiated the two was the fact that Amera made their technology with magic. For example, my fortress has a refrigerator but it doesn''t run on electricity or modern technology. The fridge runs on ice magic that is set to loop continuously. With that in mind, it''s significantly easier to progress technology-wise in Yggdrasil than on earth. It was evident by the fact that Amerans have their very own status screens. We don''t even have that on earth yet! "Ena is currently training with one of our colonels. If she is to be a Dragonbane, she needs to be able to defend herself. As a princess knight, I''m expecting great things from her!", Rilo said proudly. Rilo told me that his main class was "King" and his subclass was "Multi-Class". Apparently, it is one of the blessings that the dragonbane''s are able to take advantage of. It lets them not only choose their subclass but also lets them have a max of three subclasses. When they turn 18, they have the ability to choose from three categories: Assault, Defense, and Magic. Once they choose their three subclasses, they are shown the skill tree that is associated with each one. Through deliberate practice and experience, they are able to move up the skill trees. This blessing was given to the Dragonbane''s in order to make sure that the bloodline would persist against all odds. I cautiously asked him if the Queen was his biological family but he said that she wasn''t. Apparently, after a dragon bane chooses a spouse, a conversion ritual is done to covert the spouse''s chemical makeup into a dragon bane. The ritual requires the approval of Omus in order to work since he is the one who has the power to do so. "Ok! We have made it to the Royal Training Room! Let''s see how Ena is doing!", Rilo said. We opened the silver and matte-black door that had the dragonbane seal on it. Upon opening it, we could see a cute woman, around 20 years old, with beautiful orange hair and eyes. She was currently fighting a high-ranking officer, who was parrying her blades. "C''mon, Princess Ena! Is that all you got? How do you expect to face the Paladin God if you can''t beat an old man like me?!" he said, smiling. "Shut up, Rubin! As if 35 is old! Stop being an ass and focus on our fight", Ena pouted. They didn''t notice us so we decided to watch their duel for a few minutes. The princess, although 20, was very skilled with her Royal dual-swords. She used it as a means of defense and offense in her duel with Colonel Rubin. It was clear from watching her that her problem was her stamina and her hasty fighting style. She lacked coordination in her ability to fight effectively. As Ena tried to attack, Rubin was able to block any attack with only one sword. He looked to not be exerting much effort, while Ena was trying her best to land a hit. Ena stabbed the two swords in the ground and held them as she took a knee. She was breathing hard, exhausted with the duel she had with Rubin. "I think we''ve seen enough Rubin! Say hello to the Paladin God Of Yggdrasil, Brice!", Rilo said smiling. "Eh?! He''s here now? I thought he was supposed to come later! I''m not prepared for the meeting let me-" "Don''t worry about it, Ena. Brice has already agreed to help us. You know, I see him like my son now. He has a really great-" "I won''t a-a-accept this e-e-embarrassment! You! Paladin! We will have a duel before we face Ringdrex! P-p-prepare yourself! I won''t hold back!" she said blushing. She ran out of the Royal Training Room, her face red with embarrassment. Rubin began to laugh, as he walked towards Rilo. "Hahaha! She''s as prideful as ever! Loves to be seen when she wins but hates to be noticed when she loses! She still has some work to do on her stamina but I think she is progressing Rilo!", Rubin said joyfully. "Thanks, Rubin. I know you are busy with your subordinates but she doesn''t want anyone lower than a colonel. The brat is only lvl. 230 so I don''t know why she doesn''t fight the captains instead. No matter how hard she works, it''ll take time to reach her full potential", Rilo said. "I don''t mind! I''ll do anything for King Rilo! You helped my child get scarce medicine from Kani when everyone else left her to die. I would happily lay my life for you!", Rubin said bowing. "Hahaha! Don''t embarrass me in front of Brice''s party Rubin! It''s weird to see a 35-year-old colonel bowing to someone", Rilo said embarrassed. Rubin got up, shook Rilo''s hand, and told him that this was what made him so likable: his humility. Rubin dusted off his armor and walked towards the throne room, where he left his subordinates to wait for him. "Now that you''ve seen the Royal Training Room, you are free to train here anytime! We have a variety of weapons, practice dummies, and space for you to prepare for your next fight!", Rilo said. We walked with Rilo towards the dining hall, where hundreds of soldiers were getting their meals. We saw that there were cooking golems who were preparing the food and human servers who were distributing it. There was also a door that led to the officer''s dining hall, which had higher quality food, service, and seating. The general dining hall reminded me of the one at my university, while the Officer''s dining hall reminded me of a premium restaurant. As we passed by the hall, the soldiers began to chant ''King Rilo!'' before Rilo told them to settle down and enjoy their food. He stopped by the officer''s dining hall to say hi to the Generals, Colonels, Majors, and Captains who were eating there. They smiled and waved at him, before returning to their conversations. After we left the Officer''s dining hall, we saw the armory, barracks, rooms, bathhouse, and storage for the general army. Rilo then showed us the Royal versions of the previously mentioned spaces, which were also utilizing the golden ration concept of design. He also showed us many other locations, too numerous to name with such a large castle. Finally, to end his tour, he showed us to our rooms. As we got there, two Captains were waiting for us at the location. "I hope you enjoyed the hour-long tour of the Dragonbane Castle! You should have all the information you need to properly navigate this place! I have prepared these 4 Royal Guest Rooms for your party. The day is still young so I shall speak to you later Paladin!", Rilo said. As he walked away, the two captains escorted the King to his next appointment. Judging from what I was able to pick up, he was going to meet with his wife and daughter, who were currently discussing foreign policy with the government officers. It seemed that Elu was the topic of discussion... 30 Training With My Companions Over the next few days, I began to train with my companions, learning more about them in the process. After Rilo left us, I decided to go train with Titan in the Royal Training Room. Shobe was planning to visit the Royal Library to learn new spells while Arcana was starting to head to the Captain''s dining hall. Daera decided that she would train with Titan and me, as she needed to work on her archery skills. While we were heading over to the Royal Training Room, I checked my status: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Title: Paladin Lord Of Yggdrasil+, Dragon Slayer+, Goddess'' Hunter+, Juggernaut Hunter+ Class: Paladin God+ Subclass: Paladin Mage Of Calamity+ Name: Brice Pridellion Lvl: 54 Race: Demi-God+ HP: 16964 Mana: 16438 Additional Stats+ Main Skills: Scholar+, Index+, Creator+, Blessing Of The Hunt+, Absolute Defense+ Additional Skills (21)+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "I forgot I leveled up thanks to Titan fighting those mercenaries", I said. "Yes. This cute little terror is something else". Daera picked up Titan, holding him close to her chest and rubbing his head. "It feels like it was only yesterday when I met you and Titan". Daera was right. I would''ve never guessed that she was this type of person. Daera was smart, beautiful, funny, and a natural-born leader. She hates to eat vegetables and she loves to receive head rubs by me. When she sleeps, she sometimes mutters Failnaught in really a cute way. Sometimes she alternated between serious and easygoing, similar to what I do sometimes. When she smiled, I felt that everything in the world was peaceful at that moment. For some reason, all of these thoughts populated my head as I was walking with her. "When am I going to meet your father, Daera?", I said eagerly. As I stared at Daera, her face became red. She seemed to be embarrassed by my question. "D-d-don''t worry about it! In due time, you will meet my father Omus! Let''s focus on training!", Daera said quickly. When we finally reached the Training Room, we checked to see if anyone was using it. Since it was empty, we entered the room and allowed Titan to grow to his 6-foot form. Luckily, the ceiling of the training room was 20-feet tall. I thought about Titan, who was basically my best friend. I loved this Lion more than anything else. It was a creature that was too cute and too powerful. The fact that my pet was already at the max level of most people was insane to me. Of course, if I didn''t have Arcana or Daera, he would be shouldering most of the intense battles that we''ve encountered so far. However, since Arcana is lvl 3000 and Daera is lvl 4000, we have been out-leveled by our female party members. Even Damaris, albeit a general, was probably lvl 1000 given how the titles are determined. Titan''s easygoing nature is probably my fault since I spoil him way too much. However, if he keeps performing at a high level, I don''t see why I shouldn''t keep spoiling him. He also gained a few levels since he was around lvl 1050 now. I decided to let Titan and Daera train together first, as Titan needed to refine his moves and magic. I practiced with the help of a training golem, which was like the equivalent of a training A.I. As the A.I. was tuned to lvl 75, I saw that Titan and Daera were having an intense training session! Since Daera was 4x as strong as Titan, she was easily able to dodge Titan''s claw attacks. It didn''t help that Daera, a hunting goddess, was used to fighting beasts like Titan on her hunts. Similar to how Ena looked powerless against Rubin, the 6-foot Titan looked powerless against Daera. "Damn Titan! You''re getting your ass kicked, boy! Use your magic!" I shouted excitedly. Titan smiled, as he tried to use his void magic to slow and inflict status effects on Daera. Thinking that he inflicted slowness, Titan attempted to slash at Daera, only to hit her after-image! After Titan looked around for a few seconds, he randomly fell to the floor dazed and changed back to his miniature form. "Whoops! I forgot to hold back! Sorry, Titan!", Daera said. I''m pretty sure I only blinked my eyes but Daera was instantly in front of Titan, picking him up softly. "Hahaha! I got flashbacks to when I was fighting Griffins so I accidentally hit Titan''s neck to put him to sleep! He''ll be fine eventually", Daera smiled. ''What a terrifying woman'' is what I thought as we walked Titan back to the Royal Guest Room. I went back to train for an hour or so and got myself to lvl 57. ------------------------------------------------------ The next day, I decided to train with Shobe, as I barely talked to him during our adventures. Shobe seemed to be a rather quiet, studious kid. He was only 16 so I guess that should be expected. Most of the time, like on the carriage ride, he is reading various magic books. He also reads Kani cooking books from time to time, evident by the improvement in his cooking. He was timid and shy, but a reliable party member to me. Having an elf with green and gold eyes always turned heads in the city. However, it was interesting to see when his gold eye turns red while he utilizes his demon powers. Since we already had a large amount of offense, his primary job was to be our healer. After Shobe applied more healing to a now happy and healthy Titan, I picked up Titan and walked with Shobe to the Royal Training Room. He said he needed a favor since I was the closest to his level at the moment. Since Shobe didn''t have XP sharing or much fighting time, he was currently lvl 41. Thus, he was currently the weakest person in our party. "Thanks, Brice! Sorry to bother you!", Shobe said. "Don''t worry about it! You need to talk more Shobe! All I ever see you do is read and cook-". "I need to be strong to be worthy of being in Daera''s presence! How can I call myself a Kani elf if I can''t be strong enough to protect our Goddess!" Shobe shouted. It seems that I hit a nerve. I tried to calm him down by talking about the steak that Titan and I had in MapleHorn. I didn''t realize that Shobe was that serious about his religion but he was a holy healer after all. Similar to yesterday, we checked the room to see if anyone was inside but it was empty. I sat Titan on the ground while I readied Dawnbreaker. All I had to do was block Shobe''s attacks, which he would carry out with the main class of Demon Mage. He threw a variety of spells at me, all of them devoured by Dawnbreaker. I learned how to apply Absolute Defense to the shield as well as absorbing some of the magic and physical attacks that Dawnbreaker encounters. It was probably one of the skills that I picked up as my levels grew. I helped Shobe practice his magic for a few hours before Arcana came in the Royal Training Room to look for us. "Oi! Are you guys coming to the Captain''s Dining Hall or what? Daera and I are hungry!", Arcana said pouting. As Daera, Titan, Shobe, Arcana, and I walked over to the Dining hall, I asked Arcana if she wanted to train. "Me? Train? Hahaha! I don''t train. I just fight!", Arcana said proudly. As everyone passively acknowledged Arcana''s arrogant nature, we walked over to the Captain''s Dining Hall. Walking into the Dining Hall, we noticed that Princess Ena and Colonel Rubin were having dinner together. Princess Ena gave me an embarrassed look as we sat down with them and talked about Amera''s current affairs. They were more serious than we expected. 31 Preparing For Battle "Good Evening Paladin! I hope these past 5 days have been good to you and your companions!", Rubin said. Although he had a serious expression just moments earlier, he was back to his usual lighthearted behavior. It was clear that he wanted to change the subject. "It''s been fantastic! We are grateful that King Rilo gave us the opportunity to become familiar with his home. All of my party members have been able to find what they wanted to do before our mission begins", I said. "That''s good! That''s what I like to hear! Hahaha! It''s good to enjoy peacetime while you have it!", Rubin said. Princess Ena slammed her fist on the table, irritated at Rubin ignoring her. "Dammit, Rubin! Don''t change the damn subject! I want to join in the upcoming mission! I''m not a little princess anymore!", Ena fumed. "Ena! You are a royal Dragonbane! Please control yourself in front of the captains in here!", Rubin said. "I''m lvl. 230! Are you really going to tell me that I can''t fight? What''s the point of being a Princess Knight if I can''t fight in any battles!", Ena shouted. Princess Ena got up from the table and pointed at me. "Paladin! You still owe me a duel! I''ll show you both what I''m really capable of!", Ena stated. As Princess Ena angrily walked out, Rubin let out a large sigh. "Ugh. How did a sweet little princess turn into a bloodthirsty warrior? I remember when she wanted me to help her catch unicorns and bicorns. Now, she wants to fight Trirron and his lackeys". Rubin sighed. He drank from his mug of beer and slouched in his chair. "Sorry about that, Paladin. She was trying to convince me to let her join our upcoming mission". "Is she not a good fighter? Judging from the duel and her levels, it seems like she wouldn''t be horrible to have on our team.", I said. "The problem isn''t her abilities. The problem is her personality. Princess Ena doesn''t like to follow orders from anyone except her father. She also decides to act without permission when it comes to conflicts. She''s desperate to prove to King Rilo that she isn''t just a cute princess. She wants to be a famous adventurer, just like her father and mother were", Rubin said. Rubin explained that Ena was always told stories about her parents'' conquests and adventures. As she grew up, she became increasingly interested in becoming a heroic adventurer as a result of that. Since Rubin was only a captain back then, he had more time to take care of Ena. Rubin and the King were good friends since Rubin was the 15-year-old rising star in the Ameran Army. 20 years ago, when Ena was born, Rubin was the knight assigned to help train her in basic self-defense. However, as she grew up, she desired more intense fights. Fueled by the stories of her parents, she wanted to be the best dragonbane ever and impress her parents. She felt that they were shielding her from the real world. Before Rubin got to finish his touching story, Damaris ran into the Captain''s Dining Hall! "All Officers! Prepare for battle! Our scouts just sighted 3 armies moving towards our Military bases!", Damaris shouted. As the Captains dropped their dinners and ran out of the Dining Hall, Damaris saw us talking to Rubin. "Perfect! We were looking for your group! We need to run over to the War Room! C''mon!", Damaris said. As our group ran out of the dining hall and towards the War Room, we could see hundreds of soldiers gearing up for battle. Upon passing the barracks, we could see soldiers taking out a variety of weapons and armor that suited their classes. We saw scientists turning on their War Golems and waking up the modified creatures that they used for battle. Looking outside, we saw that the soldiers who were outside the castle were running in. This was due to an alarm that was being broadcasted directly to them through their status implants. The civilians, knowing the gist of the situation, began to clear the streets and run into their homes. "If we had to guess how much time we have to prepare, I would say an hour. They are planning to attack 3 out of the 5 military bases that are outside of our walls. As I stated before, the bases are placed in a star-like fashion around Amera''s borders, so our army will need to be split into 3 groups. Luckily, we have a permanent magic teleportation spell installed in each of the 5 bases thanks to our advancements in Magic Technology", Damaris said. After a few moments, we arrived at the War Room where the mission''s planning and operation were about to begin. As the golems opened the doors, we saw Rilo, Draella, Ena, and 3 other generals in the room. We also saw another man who looked to be in his mid-20s. Upon further inspection, it seemed that his armor had the Dragonbane crest on it. "Paladin! Perfect timing! We were about to start the mission planning for this unfortunate situation. Since this is the first time that you''ve met, I would like to introduce you to my son! It''s important to know who the heir to the throne could be one day! Hahaha!", Rilo said. The mysterious man with black hair, purple eyes, black facial markings, and what looked to be a mouth gas mask was the King''s son? As he turned towards me, I could tell that he was exceedingly dangerous. "My name is Prince Xernan, also known as the Sadistic Prince. It''s a pleasure to finally meet you, Paladin Brice". 32 Working With Xernan & Ena Part 1 As we sat at the war table, I had to be the one who would sit next to Prince Xernan. I didn''t feel comfortable letting Daera or Arcana sit next to him since he called himself ''sadistic''. I knew that King Rilo wouldn''t allow someone evil to take the throne so why did I feel so uncomfortable? More importantly, why was he wearing a mask over his mouth? "Now that we have all assembled here, I want to make something clear. Paladin Brice, despite not meeting the Ameran level requirements, will be assigned as temporary commander of one of the 3 defensive armies. If you think it''s unfair, speak now!", Rilo said. The room was silent, as the other 3 generals nodded in agreement with the King. Prince Xernan and Princess Ena also nodded slightly, along with Rubin and Damaris. "Good! Now, on to the mission briefing! We just received information from our scouts that Ringdrex is planning a raid on the three military bases. Judging from the size and makeup of their army, it seems that this attack is a test. This was most likely planned with the help of Lt. General Belvath, who is Ringdrex''s second-in-command. I want to elaborate more on our situation but we are running out of time! Each army is approximately 10,000 strong, which is 90,000 less than Ringdrex''s Assualt teams. If this is a test army, he''ll most likely be using us as guinea pigs for his new troops. However! The people of Amera come before any wicked tests that those damn demons want to bring to our borders!", Rilo shouted. "How do you want to distribute the leadership, King Rilo?", Damaris said. "I want these two generals to command the 1st army and head to the first military base, A1. Damaris and this capable general will head over to A5 with their own army. Finally, Paladin Brice will command a smaller defensive force but will have his companions, Rubin, Ena, and Xernan to support him. They will head over to A3, which will intercept the biggest section of the raiding party. The forces planning to attack A3 number 20,000 but I know that you guys can handle it! Paladin! I''m trusting my kids and my best colonel to you! Don''t disappoint me!", Rilo said. "What? You''re actually going to let me fight for once? Are you sure you''re King Rilo? Where is the stubborn old man at?", Ena said happily. "I see you''re as incompetent as ever, sister. Obviously, you won''t be fighting as much as the Paladin''s group here. Father is most likely testing your resolve", Xernan said. "You think you''re so handsome and intelligent huh? Do you think being a master of the Royal Demon Sword makes you better than me? Why do you think Father is sending you then, Xernan? To quench your endless bloodlust? To satisfy your craving for blood? To control the demon insi-" "That''s enough Ena! We don''t need to bring that up in front of the Paladin! Make sure you actually follow the Paladin''s orders! This is your last chance to enter combat and act like a Dragonbane! If you break orders again, I won''t send you out in the field anymore!", Rilo said. "Why are you assigning your kids to me though? We only met 5 days ago? How are you able to trust me so soon?", I said. "You have Daera and Arcana in your squad! They''ll be safer with you than in the city. We may have a strong royal army but I''ll always be known as a Cautious King! Hahaha! Enough talking though! Let''s win this fight boys! I''ll be in the throne room watching our armies and giving orders! You are dismissed!", Rilo shouted. As we got up from the seemingly rushed meeting, Xernan and Ena were standing together in front of me. As they waved their parents off, they looked at me with serious faces. As Ena took out her double swords and Xernan crossed his arms, I could tell that they would make interesting companions in battle. "I''m willing to concede our duel if you manage to give me a good amount of enemies to kill! I won''t be outdone by Princes-, I mean Queen Arcana! I''ll kill as many enemies as I have to!", Ena said. "I''m happy to join you, Paladin! I hope to see lots of blood in the future. May the skies rain crimson as we defeat this impending threat", Xernan said bowing. As Rubin hit both of the royal children on the head, he began to laugh. "Hahaha! Sorry about these two brats Paladin! I''ll make sure they don''t get in your way! I''ll also chop down a couple hundred enemies while I''m at it!", Rubin said smiling. As we walked out of the War room, Rubin directed us over to the deployment room that was nearby. After we walked down a street-wide set of stairs, we were greeted with a large door. When we walked in, we immediately noticed that the ''room'' was significantly bigger than I thought and currently filled with Mounts, Monsters, Captains, Ameran Tech, Food, and some of the 30,000 total troops that would take part in this operation. Since we just left the War room, the deployment room was filling up quickly so the soldiers began to stand on their corresponding circles. As each soldier stood on the giant circles, they were instantly teleported to their assigned base. According to Central, this room was approximately 150,000 square feet. A feat that I thought was damn near impossible. 33 Working With Xernan & Ena Part 2 Judging from the size of the large Deployment space, having a room this large could accommodate all of the different troop types that Amera has. It was also large enough for Amera to gather large armies in one place and mass teleport them to a designated military base. That''s most likely why the magic circles for each base was so massive. As we walked through the deployment room, Rubin told us that we would be given around 6,000 advanced units for our assigned operation. The other two armies will be given 12,000 units each in order to compensate for the demon''s higher levels. As we walked, we saw a variety of soldiers and modified monsters preparing themselves. Behind each massive Magic Circle was the title of the military base that it went to. Since there were 5 Military bases, 5 massive magic circles were evenly spread out in the deployment space. Once we found A3, we saw a group of 250 soldiers who were heading over the military base before us. Judging by their armor, they were more experienced than the rest. "Are those our advanced units? What level are they currently at?", I asked. "Those troops are lvl. 175 Gifted Knights. Knowing my father, we have 2,000 of them in total, with the rest of the units being a mixture of Ameran beasts and Ameran Magic Weapons. They are all advanced units so they should be effective allies", Xernan said. Before the enemy arrived, we needed to set up our defenses at A3. The A3 Military base was currently unprepared for the sheer number of hostiles that would be arriving. I would say that we had around 30 minutes before Ringdrex''s armies attacked all 3 Military bases at once. The Military bases were placed in a Star format around Amera''s Walls. Since A3 was at the southeast of Amera and A1/A5 was to the Northwest, we would be separated from the rest of the defensive forces. We would essentially be on our own. "How much can I expect to be paid from this? If I''m going to protect Amera, I expect to be compensated for my efforts", I said. "Is this really the time to ask about your payment?! We need to head over to A3 and kill as many of those disgusting demons as possible!", Ena fumed. "Settle down Sister. The Paladin is asking a fair question". Prince Xernan began to walk towards me, his face currently emotionless. As he stopped in front of me, he put his hand on my left shoulder. "If you protect Rubin, Ena, and myself to the best of your abilities, I don''t see why I can''t authorize your party to receive 400k Engis total. The extra 100k Engis is to cover any extra combat conflicts that arise from the supervision of King Rilo''s children". Prince Xernan may have been sadistic but at least he was a rational person. Since I got the payment confirmation from royalty itself, I decided that I would spend my 3,000 OP on items that increase the chances of us winning. That meant that I needed to upgrade the gear that I had. While I had Dawnbreaker as my shield, my armor and sword were still weak. I still had the Elemental sword that the dragon had but it was geared towards lvl 20 users. The armor that I had was still the starter Paladin and Calamity mage armor that I had since the beginning. Thus, I decided to buy myself a new set of armor from the OP store, which I favorited while I was in the carriage heading towards Amera. For 3,000 OP, I could obtain a set of Paladin armor named "The Golden Darkness". As I went ahead and bought the armor set, it began to phase in and replace the current armor that I had on. The armor set shined in the light and featured the color palette of Black, Red, and Gold. It was extremely light and durable so I felt that it could also replace my Calamity Mage outfit. It featured two modes of protection, similar to Dawnbreaker. It could switch between medium armor and heavy-duty paladin armor at will. I also summoned Dawnbreaker, which appeared on my arm in its light shield state. Since the shield was an ''Evolving OP Shield'', it quickly began to change its appearance to match the armor set that I bought. In a sense, the shield was alive. Since we were all ready for battle, we began heading towards the massive magic circle for A3. As Rubin led the group there, Ena and Xernan were arguing about who would kill the most enemies. Daera and Arcana were speaking about teaming up against the hostiles. Shobe was mentally preparing himself for the battle, hoping to impress Daera. As for me, I was looking over my stats and skills to see what I could use in battle. When we arrived at the massive circle, we saw that a few captains were waiting for us there. As we all stood on the magic circle together, I checked my stats one last time: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Title: Paladin Lord Of Yggdrasil+, Dragon Slayer+, Goddess'' Hunter+, Juggernaut Hunter+ Class: Paladin God+ Subclass: Paladin Mage Of Calamity+ Name: Brice Pridellion Lvl: 60 Race: Demi-God+ HP: 19436 Mana: 18457 Additional Stats+ Main Skills: Scholar+, Index+, Creator+, Blessing Of The Hunt+, Absolute Defense+ Additional Skills (24)+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ If I was lvl 60 now, how many levels would I gain from defeating 20,000 troops? Or rather, how many OP Points could I gain? That''s why I couldn''t stop grinning as we were teleported to the base. As far as I know, my luck stat was undefeated. It increased to 4.25 Stars. 34 Working With Xernan & Ena Part 3 The A3 Military Base was designed to be near-futuristic, thanks to the advancements in technology that Amera made. It seemed that we were teleported to the center of the base, as we were enclosed within the fortified walls. Upon arriving at the base, Rubin eagerly sought to speak with the commander of A3. The commanders of each Military Base were experienced, Major-rank individuals with a strong sense of strategic warfare. Since they know the terrain and are more familiar with the invading army, listening to the commander''s recommendations is important. In this case, Commander Wilhelm was the person in charge of A3. "Rubin! Ena! Xernan! I didn''t expect King Rilo to send you to the hotspot! I''m guessing this is a special occasion?", Commander Willhelm said. Commander Willhelm looked to be around the same age as Rubin but more muscular. He was also bald and wearing an eyepatch. However, he had a masculine beard to make himself look more like a strong leader. "Yes! We currently have the Legendary Hero that was summoned a few days ago". Rubin walked towards me and placed his hand on my shoulder. He gradually panned over my entire party while speaking to the Commander. "This is the Paladin God Of Yggdrasil, Paladin Brice! As you know, we also have the Goddess Of The Hunt and the Dragon Queen Of Yggdrasil! This guy''s name is Shobe and he''s also apart of Paladin Brice''s group! Rilo felt that Ena and Xernan would be safer with them so he also appointed me to this operation as well", Rubin said. "It''s not like we are gonna sit and do nothing! I''m lvl 230 and I''m going to kill as many hostiles as possible! Even Xernan can agree with me on that!", Ena said. "Indeed. However, it was clear that I was going to fight since I''m lvl 550. This demonic blade needs more blood anyway. It''s starting to hunger for it", Xernan said. When Xernan briefly brought out his sword, a number of events seem to occur. His markings started to glow purple, his right eye quickly turned red, and the mask he was wearing showcased bright, purple markings. As soon as he sheathed the weapon, everything on his person returned back to normal. It seemed that the Royal Demon sword and Xernan were connected in some way. "Just listen to what Paladin Brice says! I need to talk with Willhelm about our strategy in regards to the 6,000 units". Rubin turned to me, his face becoming more serious. His demeanor changed to what I would expect from a Colonel. "This begins your Operation, Paladin Brice. Your mission is to intercept the hostiles and reduce the numbers as much as possible. Amera''s units will be providing support for any stragglers that you miss. Xernan and Ena will also accompany you on the front lines so make sure that they come back alive! Xernan has already given the Dragonbane approval for your payment so just focus on defending!", Rubin said. After Rubin spoke, he began to walk with Willhelm to check on the units that we had in the barracks. This meant that the operation fell to my full discretion. "Guess that means that we are going to head out soon. Do you guys have any suggestions?", I asked. "Yeah. Arcana and I were discussing this in the deployment area earlier. This shouldn''t really be that hard for us. I mean, we are both lvl 3000 and 4000. Titan is lvl 1000 so he shouldn''t really have much trouble either. Since the army was made to attack Amera, the average lvl should only be lvl 150 per troop. It may reach a max of lvl 300 but nothing more than that. This isn''t Ringdrex''s assault teams so we shouldn''t really see his armored troops either. Since they won''t have their best troops, the bigger issue we have to worry about is the number of troops we have to kill", Daera said. "I agree. I don''t even think we need the 6,000 units that Amera gave us. We could probably just head out right now and get it over with. That way, we can have Rubin send those troops to A1 and A5. I mean, this should only take an hour at most", Arcana said. "This should only take an hour"? What the hell? What kind of Overpowered bull is this? Why did she say it in such a nonchalant tone? Wait a minute. Let''s think this out, Brice. If they said it''s going to take an hour then they must believe that they can kill...333 enemies per minute? Holy shit, that''s a lot of enemies. Then again, they did kill Belvath''s 1,000 Subjugation troops in 10 minutes. These enemies are a lower-tier than those but obviously in a higher amount. If the number of enemies they can kill is true then... "The most important thing that we have to worry about is defense, right?", I asked. "Yes. Despite Arcana and I being a high level, we can still be overwhelmed by 20,000 troops attacking us at once. Good thing it''s not just us! We have my wonderful Paladin Brice to protect us!", Daera beamed. "So the plan is to divert attention away from Daera and Arcana while we kill whoever they miss? Sounds like I''ll get my wish for blood", Xernan said. "If that''s the plan, I guess I''ll fight with Xernan. The last thing we need is Xernan to turn Sadistic again", Ena said. "Ok! We have 15 minutes before they reach the base so we can intercept them before then. Is everyone ready?", I asked. As everyone mutually agreed, we each started our preparations to intercept the army. Xernan was using a grindstone to sharpen the Royal Demonic Blade, which had the matte-black version of the Dragonbane crest. Ena was practicing with her Dual Swords, making sure that her movements were as sharp as possible. Daera and Arcana were discussing how to work together effectively, hoping to expand on what worked when they faced the Juggernauts. As for me, since I was going to primarily be on defensive duty, I decided to create something with the ''Create'' skill. I was out of OP points but I still had a trick up my sleeve. Holding Titan, I went through the process of creating my next creation. It took 40% of my mana but I felt that it was worth it. I mean, how hard is it to make an Armored Personnel Carrier? 35 Future Of OP Paladin Series OP Paladin has been placed into indefinite Hiatus. Thanks for reading 40,000 words of my first novel! I learned a lot from writing this and I hope to apply the stuff I learned in other novels! -CautiousTitan 36 New Version Is Out Now! @@The New Version Of OP Paladin has been released! You can find the title by going to my page or by searching it up. The new version is leaps and bounds above this old version. I hope you enjoy the improved story! Also, like always, join the Discord!: https://discord.gg/PHrjSuh