Chapter 10

Chapter 9

First off, in order to verify the discovery just now — I decided to implement it by creating Rest Areas.

Operating the smartphone, I tap [Domain Creation] → [Small Room] → [Rest Area], in that order.

『It's impossible to add any further Rest Areas to this Domain.』

Wh-!?

My testing had already come to an end at this point.

I suppose I will check the Domain's DP distribution then.

First, the factors for the DP's increase — Rest Area +50 DP, Treasure Chest +1 DP. By the way, the maximum number of treasure chests I can set up is six.

Next, the reasons for DP's consumption — all kinds of weaponstraps and special restrictions.

Especially the consumption of the special restriction that limits the number of people to 12 is substantial. Just that alone consumed 80 DP. After that, the tumbling boulder takes 20 DP. Pitfall is 5 DP. Poison arrows, 3 DP each, and wooden arrows are 1 DP each. The alarm, which will apparently inform me of invaders, cost 0 DP.

So I guess a great variety of traps would be possible if I remove the number restriction...?

Having said that, the existence of a limitation on that part is a major help. Currently the number of invaders — [Law] are overwhelmingly large. If possible, I would like to limit the number of people even more.

However, limiting it to 4 people requires 1,000 DP, and 2,000 DP to limit it to one person. Since even a limit of 11 people costs 150 DP, it's impossible for me.

Hmm, that [Beginner Demon King Bargain Pack]...it's actually really well-balanced, isn't it?

As it's frustrating to do nothing at all, I spend 20 CP to make the layout of the passages a bit more complicated.

Right now I have 50 CP. Doing this and that, I waste 2 hours.

Next I will work on [Subordinate Creation].

Let's first check all types.

I touch [Subordinate Creation] and then select all of the subordinates in order from top to bottom.

—!?

Ooh... Once a bright hexagram appears on the ground, six subordinates manifest as if growing out of the earth.

From the left, a slime. Unlike a certain slime from a nationwide game which has a more than 30 releases, it's a green, wriggling lump of liquid. Its appearance looks like an acid puddle with a diameter of 80 cm.

Next, the rat. It's a dull-white colored rat with a total length of about 40 cm. The two front teeth protruding out of its muzzle are rather conspicuous.

Then, the bat. This guy immediately flew up to the ceiling and clung to it upside down. It's a bat with a height of 40 cm. The squeaking is quite annoying.

Next, the wolf. It has the size of an adult golden retriever. Its pelt has a dark grey color. The sharp fangs visible in its mouth are quite scary. It apparently likes me? It stood there panting with its tongue hanging out, it is adorable, but I still somewhat hesitate to hold out my hand.

Next, the goblin. A midget with a size of 100 cm and green skin. Its teeth and skin quality looks bad.

And lastly, the kobold. It's a dog walking on two feet with a fox-colored fur. It's on the bigger side with a height of 160 cm. I called it a dog, but once I looked closely, its hands are closer to those of a human, lacking anything resembling paws. This guy is also panting with its tongue hanging out, but its level of cuteness is zero.

That's all the subordinates I can currently create.

Although I went ahead and created them...what should I do with them next?

An awkward atmosphere hangs in the air.

Should I make them fight each other? But, for better or worse they are comrades, aren't they? Isn't that too cruel?

Then again, I do want to know their strength and fighting methods...

"Slime! Rat! Fight each other! However, you are not allowed to kill your opponent!" (Shion)

I order them with a dignified tone, befitting a demon king, more or less.

Upon hearing my order, the slime made its body tremble whereas the rat squealed with a "Kii," and then they began their battle.

The slime moves its body slowly as the rat swiftly leaps at the slime.

The rat scratches the slime many times, and at times, it also bites it, causing damage to the slime.

The slime burns the pelt of the rat by scattering acid liquid — its own body.

As the rat's body is scalded by the acid here and there, the slime's volume decreases...at the end, once the slime trembles slightly, the rat stops attacking it and looks at me.

We have a winner?

I can't judge the slime's condition from its appearance, but it looks like the rat has won.

Next I make the bat and the wolf battle each other.

At first the bat had an advantage due to its air superiority, but eventually it was bitten at the neck by the wolf, which leaped up into the air, resulting in the wolf winning.

The wolf picked up the living bat and presented it to me by placing it at my feet.

Eh? The bat is still alive, correct? You know, I won't eat that!

Once I look properly, the bat is twitching.

I gently moved the bat to the side and then ordered the next battle.

The last pair was goblin vs. kobold.

Both are human-shaped. A contest of hitting and biting unfolded. Eventually, the kobold - with superior total power, and above all, an exceeding biting strength - came out as the winner.

Even with the same rank, I guess the individual strength follows the consumed CP.

If it was back when I was still a normal human...in case I didn't take my feelings of guilt and fear into account, I think I would have been able to win against the slime, the bat and the rat. However that's with the prerequisite of me having some kind of weapon, otherwise, if unarmed, it would be limited to the bat. I wonder how it would turn out with the wolf? Would I have been able to win if I were to be cornered to the brink of life or death?

How about the goblin? If it was the completely same prerequisite (having a weapon), I still can't predict the outcome. As for the kobold, it's highly likely that I would have lost under the same terms, I think? Those were the impressions I harbored.

I had raised Creation from [E] to [D]. Maybe the kobold is a subordinate that I can't create at [E]?

My subordinates whom I had partake in a desperate struggle just now are standing in front of me.

The heck? I would at least consult with (unknown name) if they could talk...

However, the abnormal situation that took place in front of me, the living creatures I had never seen before and the battles that unfolded caused me to become even more anxious.

Who was it that created these unknown creatures?

It's me!

Who was it that made those creatures fight so desperately against each other?

Me!

But, it was scary! Especially the battle between the goblin and the kobold...that one was no good. It was a grotesque mess of half-baked human-shaped creatures.

Whether I like it or not, the coming future — the battle to the death between [Chaos] and [Law] pops up in my mind.

What should I do? Run away? To where!?

I can't leave my Domain. And the humans of [Law] will come to attack my Domain in order to survive.

[World Salvation Project]? Damn it, save me before the world!

All memories of humans except for myself were erased. As a side effect I lost all emotions such as love, friendship, honor and empathy. They could have at least taken my fear away as well, while at it!

Inside that space, surrounded by strange-looking creatures with whom I can't talk, my heart began to slowly break.

◆

I wonder, how often did I repeat that internal conflict after that?

Is it the effect of becoming a demon king? Is it the influence by my broken mind? I don't get sleepy and neither do I get hungry.

Once I came to myself, my CP had recovered up to 96.

At this rate it'll be hopeless. I will let my CP fill up completely and go to waste.

I'm a demon king, a being that might as well be called enemy to all humanity.

Even if I don't do anything, humanity will come to fight me.

I will oppose my fate — for the sake of survival.

For the sake of survival — I will harden my heart.

In order to survive — for the sake of attaining freedom, I will become a demon king!

To encourage myself, I continued with further tests.

Chapter 10

I, who had decided to harden my heart — to become a demon king from now on, carried out various tests.

First I have 10 slimes, each costing 1 CP, fight against 1 kobold which costs 10 CP.

Numbers or quality.

In the end the kobold won while having all its fur scalded.

Even after that I carry on with my tests. What if I set 2 goblins, each costing 5 CP, against 1 kobold?

How much will the combat power increase if I boost the number of kobolds, who can cooperate with each other, to 3?

And it's also explained that they can use weapons, so what kind of weapons can kobolds and goblins wield?

First I have to grasp their combat power. I won't be able to come up with a strategy if I don't even know my own combatant's prowess.

As a result of doing various tests, I learned that monsters capable of cooperating become stronger the more you add them into a group.

Even if a single kobold fights against 10 slimes that can't cooperate, the kobold will win, but if a kobold fights against 3 cooperating wolves (9 CP in total), the wolves will win.

Contrary to my expectations that an all-wolves army will have the advantage in that case, 3 kobold took away victory in a battle between 10 wolves and 3 kobolds, with both groups being able to cooperate.

Also, goblins excel at handling axes and bows, whereas kobolds are proficient at handling swords, spears and shields.

Especially kobolds equipped with sword and shield displayed an outstanding combat prowess.

And I also understood that the most efficient subordinates are goblins if you take CP cost efficiency into account.

If I make use of those 『Cheat Goblins』, I probably won't lose early on.

Also, if I leave the defense to kobolds strengthened with equipment in the early stages, I likely won't lose quickly either.

If I simply consider defense with my current combat assets, it will be more efficient to create 1 kobold than 10 slimes.

If I strengthen the kobolds, I will be able to repel humanity — [Law] that will come to invade without knowing anything in the beginning. But — I wonder, how should I proceed after that?

Humanity has an estimated number of 60 possible Domains to attack.

Among them, there are probably Domains of demon kings who haven't allotted any BP to Creation, too. In that case, the monsters appearing in those domains will be at most goblins.

If not only the demon kings but also humanity possesses the concept of levels, they will likely postpone domains where fully equipped kobolds roam around, and focus on Domains with enemies they can defeat easily.

And then after raising their levels, they will raid the more difficult Domains.

Seeing as I can't attack from my side, it will be checkmate once I fall into such a situation.

Even if they don't reach the deepest area, there's merit in deploying subordinates that can be defeated to some extent — it will produce the necessity to make them believe that there's treasures to obtain.

When I was younger, I wondered why the demon king doesn't defeat the hero at once. "Isn't it an easy victory if he attacks the Level 1 hero!?" There was a time where I believed that. I wonder, did the demon king inside the game have the same mental state as me right now?

Rather than defending my Domain, it feels as if I'm managing a dungeon — my Domain.

The arrangement of my subordinates is an extremely important component.

Besides that, there's a mountain of things I have to consider.

As a result of experimenting for two days, I have currently 3 kobolds, 5 goblins, 3 wolves, a full set of iron weapons and armor, as well as a sword, spear and shield of the Silver Series left. The CP I can spend until the end of the pseudo-peace is 6910.

To create a single kobold with a full Silver Series equipment - sword, shield, helmet and breastplate - as my strongest combat power, I have to spend 410 CP.

If I create 17 of those, I will use up all of my available CP.

How many of what weapons am I going to create? How many of which subordinates am I going to create?

I finished my trials. From now on I won't waste a single CP.

I used the Memo app on my smartphone and thought about possible strategies.

◆

15 days have passed since I became a demon king.

Only half of the allocated time has passed.

The 15th day as a demon king. If I'm to express my impressions in one word, it would be "Spare time!"

There was a time when I (tensely) thought that I can't waste even a single minute, but I was free while waiting for my CP to recover anyway.

If I were to put it into an example, it would be like a shut-in staying at home while playing an economy simulation game. Moreover, since you wouldn't be able to recharge that economy simulation game with some kind of energy system, you would have no other option but to wait for your energy to recover. I wonder if it'll be understandable when explained like that?

So far as it goes, I practiced archery, did practice swings with a sword and tried to hone my spearmanship during the downtime. I even did muscle training, even though it's unclear whether that'll have any effect or not.

However, if there's no opponent, there likewise won't be anyone to serve as a reference. I somehow managed to improve my accuracy in archery, I think? I can feel it to an extent, but it was unclear whether the other areas might have improved.

Also, there's new, important information I managed to obtain.

First, a demon king is capable of staying active without sleep or rest. And a demon king won't weaken if they don't eat and drink either.

This is information that I obtained from a certain source and knowledge which I confirmed by actually experiencing it myself.

And it also caused me to make a big miscalculation.

That big miscalculation provided me with various information. It had a lot to do with a certain source — an anonymous bulletin board on the Internet.

As for that miscalculation—

1 Unknown Adventurer ID:wertyui

I became a demon king, so do you have any questions?

2 Unknown Adventurer ID:ihsfhoa

>1 I will send some medicine to you.

3 Unknown Adventurer ID:iwrihfn

>1 I will send some medicine to you.

4 Unknown Adventurer ID:ldkrisn

> 2-3 Congratulations to your marriage! rofl

5 Unknown Adventurer ID:iwrihfn

>4 Thanks lmao.

6 Unknown Adventurer ID:wertyui

No, I mean, I'm a demon king for real lol. I'm a big landowner of a whoopin' 6 km² hahaha.

7 Unknown Adventurer ID:gaheuand

>6 A demon king with 6 km², how shabby lol.

8 Unknown Adventurer ID:wertyui

It will expand from now on rofl.

Omission

296 Unknown Adventurer ID:wertyui

>272 Hah? Are you fuckin' with me? For real? Come to my Domain! I will ○ck you up good!

300 Unknown Adventurer ID:wkeidhrb

>296 I've reported you.

With that feeling some retarded demon king spilled precious information that was supposed to be our advantage.

At first it was treated as a joke, but as the number of self-alleged demon kings grew steadily, and from the fact that their information matched, the rumor that the inviolable areas are ruled by demon kings bore a tinge of truth in some parts.

Or rather, a Domain with 6 km²...that's the real thing, isn't it? In addition, even words such as slime or wolf have appeared...aren't there way too many idiots among the demon kings?

Thanks to that, I unexpectedly obtained several information from the other demon kings. I learned that the [True Core] acts as the heart of the Domain, not the refrigerator. I also got to know that you can create dark elves, who are capable of human speech, as subordinates once you go beyond [C]rank for [Creation].

By the way, from a joke thread called 『Thread of Demon Kings』, I learned that the [True Core] can be stored in the most secure place located in your Domain.

Incidentally, the contents of that thread are —

203 Unknown Adventurer ID:wertyui

I laughed so hard when I put the true core into the lockable drawer of my desk roflmao.

205 Unknown Adventurer ID:feuairf

>203 What an idiot. Don't write about something so important.

207 Unknown Adventurer ID:skeidun

For me it was the safe rofl.

213 Unknown Adventurer ID:ndheuai

In my case, it's the freezer. Hahaha.

215 Unknown Adventurer ID:mkakjua

>213 Me too, lol. Isn't the refrigerator the central part with that? lmao

Just like that they most likely divulged the location of their very important [True Core].

And so, I lead a mysterious life as a demon king which was a jumble of fantasy and modern era.