⟐ CHAPTER 9
The fight with the [Enhanced Epic Forest Rune Bear] or [The Great Kulvian] as it was named lasted for about five minutes or so. It wasn’t a hard fight per say but it was definitely the strongest one I fought with so far and I wasn’t even planning to fight the boss man of the forest himself actually as it was too early and not even a day has passed before I came into this world, but for it to serve itself in a dinner plate like that who am I to say no to a free meal? Especially after seeing its stats I didn’t even consider backing off after that. But the fight was not without its small struggle, even though I overpowered it, the usage of its skills managed to corner me a few times and give me very minor damage. After I evaded its massive initial attack, it changed its usage of the giant tentacle skill and instead transformed it to medium sized ones that made it faster but it also made it weaker. And when it finally managed to hit me after I made a mishap it caused me nothing greater than simple annoyance. After that it tried many more skill combinations like adding thorns, poison, sticky sap, hallucinogenic pollens to its tentacles, and many more, but even so, in the end it couldn’t keep up with me and after I was close enough to retaliate against it, it was basically game over and soon it wailed with every single punch of mine that clapped like thunder.
[You have killed [Enhanced Epic Forest Rune Bear]! You receive 1000 [Gold] and 25 [Souls]!]
[The location [Kulvian Forest] has lost its ruler! You are qualified to claim this location! Do you wish to [Conquer]?]
After killing the ruler of the forest, a new notification showed. I wasn’t surprised as this feature was part of the tutorial knowledge. It said there that after a [King] kills the ruler of a location he can [Conquer] said location and basically gain plenty of advantages and a one of them is a [Map] that shows the entirety of the [Conquered] land and there it also shows the resources within the land one claims along with some knowledge of other nearby locations. And that’s not all, after [Conquering] the location, the stronger the previous ruler is and the more valuable the land is the more [Rewards] one could get.
What are [Rewards]? [Rewards] are as its name implies are rewards after [Conquering], the rewards received could range from [Equipment], to [Structure Blueprints], to [Special Summons], and many more. But it’s not all sunshines and rainbows with [Conquering] though as the next part is the one that’s making me contemplate on whether I should claim it yet or not, as once one claims it, one needs to manage it and defend it against others as other [Kings] and especially the [Champions] that wants to take this as an opportunity to take down a [King] as all nearby [Kings] and [Champions] will receive a prompt saying that a certain place has been [Conquered] by a [King] and even though other [Kings] are of the same faction, [The Great Game] is still a battle for supremacy and anything synonymous with conflict greatly rewards the winner.
I contemplated on whether I should [Conquer] this place being this early in the game as I tried to rationalize my situation, for now there won’t be any other [Kings] and [Champions] ready enough to attack other [Kings] and even when they do actually attack it would probably be later on but at that point I’ll be powerful enough to defend my domain. And also, the concept of rewards is so alluring that I can’t help but want to claim it as soon as possible. And after great consideration I said.
“[Conquer].”
[You have [Conquered] the location [Kulvian Forest]! You receive [Kulvian’s Epic Chest (C)]!]
[Nearby [Champions] and [Kings] has received notice of your feat!]
A chest didn’t appear in front of me directly as I can only open my rewards in my [Inventory] at my [King’s Core] and the second prompt kind of gave me a faint sense of threat but no one should be able to face me yet this early, right? And with my new sense of confidence I moved on towards another matter.
…
After finishing the things with the former ruler of the [Kulvian Forest]. I returned to a matter I left in the middle of the forest. And after retracing my steps I soon found it. Curbed like a ball, a little girl was faintly sobbing. A quick inspect showed her status screen.
[Name: Lynn Yatella
Race: Human
Class: Forest Enchanter
Faction: Yrrariel Empire Citizen
Lv. 3 (24/300)
Status: Moonlight Essence Overload, Weakened, Terrified, Depressed.
Stats: Strength: 5, Constitution: 6, Agility: 7, Dexterity: 8, Intelligence: 6, Wisdom: 6, Willpower: 5
Skills: Moonlight Chosen (C), One With The Forest (D).
Description: A ten year old human girl that was born in the Town of Kulv… ]
I didn’t have any interest in her stats and description but her skills did slightly pique my interest. And as I approached the child it seemed like she didn't want to leave her position and so I grabbed her little shoulder and accidentally said her name while reading her status as I forgot that she isn’t just a mere beast too.
“...Lynn Yatella.”
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She instantly left her previous state as she now looked at me with a face of confusion, shock, and relief. Well it’s understandable with my appearance and the fact that I just uttered her name out of nowhere when we just met a few minutes ago without her giving any hint of her name was kind of expected. But what she feels doesn’t matter right now and I need to think about what to do with her.
“H-how do you know m-my name?”
I ignored her questions as now I have my own ones, many questions in fact that I want to ask her first and after that, what I’ll do to her once I’m done taking what I need is a problem for later. But first I wanna leave this place and I need my [Neutrulite Basics] to reform and gather the corpse of the [Enhanced Epic Forest Rune Bear] that I killed. So without further ado I picked her up by the waist and put her on my shoulder horizontally as I went back to my [King’s Core] which isn’t quite far from the [Kulvian Monolith’s of Sacrifice].
“W-wait what are you doing!? H-hey let me go! Wait! Where are you taking me?! Stop!”
She did struggle a bit but I ignored her and not so soon after we reached my base.
I wanted to ask the child about the place she was from, though I have little hope of getting a credible answer from a kid but it's better than going in blind. Especially now that I [Conquered] land this early, the nearby [Kings] and [Champions] have been notified and if a [Champion] is in her town, I want to meet it for personal reasons. As for whether things will get too violent or not is up to them.
“Sniff! Sob! Why did you take me here! Sniff! Sob! Please, I just want to go home.”
By the looks of it, gaining what I wanted from this child might be a lot harder than what I thought it’s going to be.
“I won't do anything to you as long as you answer my questions, child.”
“Sniff! t-then you'll hurt me if I don't?”
“It is up to you.”
“Waaa!!! Big brother help me! Please! Waa!!!...”
What!? Why is she screaming? Haven't I given her a decent proposal? All she has to do is answer my question and I won't do anything to her. So why?
“Stop your screaming if you don't want me to do anything to you.”
“Don’t hurt me! Waa!!!”
“Stop what you're doing child!”
“Waa!!!”
“I said stop!”
…
It took a lot of tears, tinnitus, and fruit offerings before the screaming stopped. It seems like my words were understood a bit differently from what I intended by the child. I mean if she kept it up I might have just done it out of annoyance though I understand that she is a child and also I might not be human anymore but I am still a civilized adult and not some wild beast so I was more lenient towards such small and annoying being.
“Are you calm now child?”
“Sniff! Yesh.”
Unlike a few moments ago she was now more cooperative, and she isn't wailing anymore though her snot is irritating me quite a bit but now that she's calmed I want to begin my questioning.
“Where do you live?”
“Sniff! In the town.”
“What is the name of the town and where can I find it?”
“S-sniff! The town is called Kulv. To find it just follow the road from the sacrificial site.”
“I see, now are there any defense forces in your town? If so, how many?”
“Sniff! What’s that? I don’t know what that is, mister.”
“Defense forces like guards, militia, soldiers, anyone that protects the town. Specifically, how many are there?”
“S-sniff! I-I don’t know how many but there are guards.”
“Are they as strong as the beasts here?”
“Sniff! I don’t know…”
“Alright then let's move on to my next question, are there [Champions] in your town?”
“S-sniff! I don’t know what that is too mister.”
“I see.”
…
Well this interrogation is wielding very little results. The child barely knows anything useful, but what else do I have? And so I questioned her some more, first I asked questions from her description to see if she’ll try to lie but after hearing only the truth from her I began to ask the rest of my questions. Most of them are basic stuff that she was able to answer but other than that there really wasn’t anything much of value. So after three hours or so when it's long past noon, she had long stopped sobbing and I already gathered all that I could from her and now I have to decide on what to do with the child.
First thing I thought of doing was just to release her back, but I want to visit the town she lived in for something important. And bringing her might make it easier to establish diplomacy for my own interest as what I was planning isn’t actually a peaceful one and I still feel like using too much violence against civilized beings is too barbaric because even though I’m classified as a monster now I don’t want to act too much like one.
But while I was in thought of what to do with her, she asked a sudden question while biting into a fruit I offered her a few moments ago.
“What are you mister?”