⟐ CHAPTER 10

Taken aback by the sudden question, I stared into the child’s eyes. There was no hint of malice I could see, but I was reluctant to give out information about myself to someone I don’t know, especially someone I’ll return back to where she came from.

“W-well, it's because it’s the first time I’ve seen someone like you, mister. I thought you were a golem back then, but now I’m not sure.”

A golem huh? Well, I actually hypothesize my race to be similar to something like that, as my only other reference other than me are my [Neutrulite Basics] which were not only behaviorally robotic, their very noticeable featureless head does give out cyborg vibes. Another fact that reinforces that is the fact that not only does my [Neutrulite Basics] not have any daily consumptions, they don't bleed either even after getting damaged by the spider earlier. And another that adds to that is the fact that in my available [structures], there's a building called [Small Neutrumoid Repair Station] which in its description said to repair [Neutrumoid] units, kind of solidified that notion of my race being a golem-type race. Even if I try to argue that the way the [Neutrulite Basics] and I move our body so naturally, that could just be a unique feature of ours. Well, whatever race I might be, I'm quite content with who I am right now as unlike on Earth where I could barely move at all, this is a thousand times better. And while I was lost in thought, the child was just staring at me curiously, awaiting an answer to her question, and so I gave mine.

“The less you know about me, the better, child.”

After hearing my answer, the child didn’t pursue the matter further and just twiddled her little thumbs patiently. Now that the information gathering is done, I wanted to enact my plan of visiting the town that she lives in. From what I gathered from my questioning, which went a lot harder than I thought would be, is that the defense force of the town is rather weak. When I asked if the [Enhanced Epic Forest Rune Bear], or better known as the guardian of the forest or The Great Kulvian, were to attack them, would they be able to defend themselves? Her answer was a quick and firm no, and she said that they’ll all die if that happens, which is a good thing for me and a bad thing for them. It means that they don’t have the capabilities to defend from the bear, much less me who overpowered it three times. Though I never forget to take the words of the child with a grain of salt; nonetheless, I still want to go there, and so I need to be prepared. That's why I decided to do some upgrades.

“Stay here, child. I'll do something for a bit.”

“I-I won't go anywhere, mister.”

It’s good to know that she listens to my words, most likely because she’s afraid of me. I can see it—the fear in her eyes, even without using my inspect skill. I don’t know what to feel right now as I might have given her some little trauma but as long as she’s alive, any psychological problems that she might have gotten isn’t any of my concern. And so with that thing finished, I went to my [King’s Core]. I plan to not only level up my personal combat value but also increase my base value and [Neutrulite Basics] count. Though the most part that I’m excited about is the chest opening. I know fully well the joys of opening these little stuff, as even back on Earth whenever I played a video game with loot boxes, my little primate brain always went into dopamine overdrive. But first I need to see how many resources I have.

[Current Resources: [Gold]: 16,150, [Souls]: 401. Current [Neutrium] in [Small Neutrium Storage]: 2,276/50,000]

That’s quite a lot. Though I don’t quite know how much is the average resource gathering this early in the game of other [Kings], I do have confidence that mine is up there in the above average. I began to calculate the things I wanted and how much it’ll cost. With the collecting speed that I have with just these few gathering and hunting units, I calculated that I can sooner or later max all my tier one upgrades before the end of the protection period if I can keep this up.

Though it might look like a [King] is heavily advantaged when compared to [Champions], it changes when considering each of the unique traits of our factions. Also, this is too early in the game, along with there being quite a lot of information that we don’t know about [Champions]. It might feel like it's too tilted against them. It's vital to remember though that they play by different rules than ours and one of them is that this early in the game, [Kings] are expected to be able to set up their foothold. It’s quite understandable if viewed from a different perspective. Not to mention, we [Kings] tackle dangers on a larger scale than [Champions], with them only needing to focus on their individual power against the many dangers of this new world. While [Kings] need to be able to defend ourselves from not just mere beasts but also [Champions], Natives, and other [Kings] unlike [Champions] that are supposed to be tackling only monsters right now. That’s why we [Kings] need to get stronger quickly and especially before the invincibility of the [King’s Core] disappears. As in the event of a [King’s Core] is destroyed it could not be restored, meaning a [King] cannot upgrade themselves further, and they cannot build any more [Structures] and [Summon] any more units. And in this battle for supremacy world, that is nothing more than a death sentence.

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After listing what I want to do with the resources in my mind, I decided to ask the [King’s Core] to open my [Inventory] to see the chest that I got from [Conquering] the Kulvian Forest.

“Show me my [Inventory].”

[As you will, my liege.]

[Inventory:

Kulvian’s Epic Chest (C).]

My inventory being empty except for the chest does hurt my hoarding heart a bit, which I developed back on Earth. But I washed those emotions away as I promised to myself to fill it up with treasures in the future. Back on Earth, I was quite the hoarder of items in video games, and I always loved to see an inventory filled with things that were valuable enough to cause in-game fights for. Being a person that’s neither rich nor poor in the real world back on Earth, I loved the feeling of power. Though I had no ambition to be something greater than who I already was back then. But now that I’m in this world, I have to twist those views if I am willing to live and enact my desire upon it.

“Open the [Kulvian’s Epic Chest].”

[As you will, my liege.]

[You used [Kulvian’s Epic Chest (C)]! You receive: [Contract (2x) (C)], [Sacrificial Offering Site Blueprint (D)], [High-Quality Mana Wood (100x) (D)], [Runic Pendant of Nature (D)]!]

There were quite a lot of items, and some of them piqued my interest. Especially the [Blueprint], which upon reading the description, turns any offering to me into an [Essence] of my choosing. I don’t know what use it’ll serve yet, so I moved on towards the other items. The next one that I got could serve many purposes: the [Contract]. Upon reading the description, it says that I and another being could make a contract, but both parties must agree to its contents. At first, I thought of using it on the child, but I deemed it unnecessary to stop the leakage of information about me, as I’ll be going to her town anyways. Also, she didn’t actually see me fight, so she can’t really spread the capacity of my power so there really isn’t any reason to use it on her. Additionally, I don’t know how strong the contract this item will make, and it could even be easily dispelled by others. But with the rarity of (C), I have reasonable doubt of that not happening. Though I have to always remember that there are no absolutes in the world, and I have to be careful, especially in this weird world where I have very little knowledge of.

Moving on to the materials, I don’t really have much use for them, so I tried to command a [Neutrulite Basic] to reform them, but it didn’t work, as it is classified as an intermediate level material, which is above their capability to harvest yet. So, I just left them back in my [Inventory]. And moving on to the last item which is an [Equipment] called [Runic Pendant of Nature], which I took out and inspected.

[Name: Runic Pendant of Nature (D)

Stats:

+Increase Intelligence by 15

+Increase Wisdom by 15

+Increase Nature Element Resistance by 25

Skills: Beastial Love (D): This skill will make it so that beast-type monsters are more attracted, less aggressive, and more open to you.

Description: This pendant dropped by the former ruler of the Kulvian Forest is a gift given to it by its master before it was tasked to guard the forest. Within this pendant holds the love and affection given to it, making it its greatest treasure.

Hidden Skill: Soul Connection (D): This skill allows the user to connect its soul to another’s soul. While connected, the user and the other can transfer messages in the form of emotions.]

I can’t say much about the item except the minor stat boost, which for my case isn’t really going to give me much, and the skill it has is not something that would benefit me, along with its hidden skill. I could think of a few ways to use it in the future, but right now I have no use for it whatsoever, though considering I don’t have any equipment yet, there’s no real reason not to use it, even if it's just for its stats.

After I equipped the pendant, I felt its effect immediately, even though it was very minor. The design of the pendant was that of a leaf with a simplified bear symbol with runic text on the outer edges. Originally, it didn’t match well with my aesthetics, but after I wore it, it changed its greenish bronze color to pure white, now making it barely noticeable from a few distances away from me. And now that I’m finished with the contents of the chest, it’s time for me to move on to my other upgrades.