Eve frowned, sitting on top of a rock while counting his army one more time. With a helpless sigh, he looked at his blind aide. As he opened his mouth, a leaf happened to drop on his face, forcing his words back down his throat.

Picking up the dried leaf, he stared at its wrinkles with furrowed brows. Closing his eyes, he planned to crush the leaf, but waved his hand instead. The leaf fluttered freely in the air, traveling far, far away, going on an adventure of its own. Seeing the leaf disappear, Eve felt his tense body relaxing bit by bit, and his down turned lips had unknowingly flattened.

‘That’s it,’ his eyes widened slightly, turning back at his kneeling army of slightly less than 40 thousand. They carpeted the forest floor, trampling over the foliage and vines that grew about like a blanket of ugly pebbles.

‘A tree may shed its leaves, but the tree itself remains standing.’

“Kurgos,” Eve called out, waving his hand to dismiss the gathered clay soldiers.

“Are you curious about that guy?” Kurgos asked, already knowing Eve's intention. During their last raid on a large village with three hundred people, there was a “hero” who tried to stop them.

“He killed my soldiers,” Eve said calmly. He can accept casualties, but a debt must be repaid.

“His name is Florence,” Kurgos paused, rubbing his chin. “I believe he's Miguel's Eugene's disciple.”

“Florence,” Eve narrowed his eyes, etching the youth's face in his mind.

“Miguel's the right hand man of Sapphire's leader, and he's great at fire magic. Like teacher, like student, eh?” Kurgos smirked.

Eve frowned. Kurgos may not have seen it, but Florence summoned dozens of fireballs and threw it at his army as if it were raining. ‘If that was the student's fire magic, then what of the master’s?’

Eve sighed.

‘A lot of soldiers were burnt to ashes, that should be why I can't summon them anymore.’

“We need to be more careful,” Eve commented. ‘I can't resurrect a clay soldier that was fully destroyed.’

“You said that was the last village you knew, how come you know so little?” Eve frowned. Kurgos suggested retreating because of the appearance of Florence, and also because they ran out of prey to pick on.

Kurgos laughed. “I was a Demonic General, naturally I destroyed numerous cities, let alone small villages. It's also why the villages nowadays are puny,” he shrugged.

“Then, let's target a city. We can't back down after smashing the wasp nest.”

Kurgos pondered. “The weakest city I can remember is on the west side of Garven Kingdom. With our pace, it should take around two months…”

“What about the cities near us?” Eve asked.

“The weakest near us,” Eve added.

Kurgos shook his head. “First of all, with your recent rampage, the kingdom will definitely send heroes to defend their land. And to answer you, the weakest should be Devlin City, but that's four years ago.”

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Eve frowned, diving in his thoughts.

During their raid, his clay army rapidly grew. Nine villages had a total of more than seven hundred humans, which evolved his army of thirty thousand to max. He grew to two feet tall, whilst the rest, including Lucky, only grew to a maximum of one feet.

“By the way,” Kurgos suddenly spoke up. “The nearest cities are Devlin, Geck, Vaso, and Ponil. Through rumors, I heard that Vaso had been developing rapidly.”

Eve didn't reply.

‘From now on, we're going to fight stronger and stronger opponents, while we will remain stagnant,’ Eve felt himself slumping at the thought. ‘Is this the limit of a clay man?’

Every species has their own limits, but advanced species like Humans can break through said limits. They did it by using outside forces, for example, magic.

‘Che, damn this clay body,’ Eve scowled. He was starting to suspect that his rebirth was sabotaged. ‘When a fraction of my soul survived back then, was it because of my cunning or because the gods allowed it? Did they purposefully resurrect me as a clay man?’ He gritted his teeth, his body growing hotter as flames engulfed him from within.

“What's the rank of that kid?” He asked, looking at Kurgos.

“Florence? From what you said, he should be a low silver,” Kurgos said after a pause.

“A low silver—”

“Oh right,” Kurgos cut him off. “He ran away, right?”

Eve nodded, waiting for a response. Then, he clicked his tongue, “Yes, he did.”

Kurgos furrowed his brow, “If he's a low silver, he has no reason to flee as soon as the fight starts. He could've exhausted his mana first. Maybe he's a high bronze, or maybe he just recently advanced to low silver.”

“Hm,” Eve recalled Florence's appearance. Though his eyes were hidden behind a pair of thick, round eyeglasses, he saw fear etched into those eyes after seeing a man get ripped apart by his soldiers.

“Maybe he's inexperienced. A flower that grew in a garden,” Eve said. Kurgos hummed, putting no input.

“Say Kurgos, you said you have no affinity to mana, right?” Eve asked.

“Yes, why's that?” Kurgos raised his brow. “I thought you hated the very mention of mana.”

“If I hated it that much, I would be dead already,” Eve cursed. “Mana is everywhere, it's mixed in the air we breathe.”

Kurgos exclaimed. “Then, doesn't that mean that we're mixing mana into our bodies?”

Eve shook his head. “We already cleansed our bodies free from mana, so no. Because mana is a foreign energy, our bodies will reject it. Lastly, the mana in the air is miniscule.”

Like he said, mana was everywhere. To practice Psychokinesis and learn Telekinesis, Eve forced Kurgos to purify his body and clean the mana residue inside him. Only after that did he start training him via the “Wack a Head” method.

“Oh,” Kurgos gasped at the revelation. “I never knew that.”

“You wouldn't be surprised otherwise,” Eve clicked his tongue. “Now, without an affinity to mana, how did you learn magic?”

Kurgos tilted his head in confusion. “You just said it, mana is everywhere. I had mana inside my own body, and I studied magic using that mana, since the mana outside my body hates my very existence.”

Eve frowned. “Is that so…”

‘Tsk, another dead end.’

Unlike Kurgos, he had no mana inside him. The only time mana managed to get into his body was when the world tried to reject him, either intending to destroy his body or merge with him. But, even if he did have an affinity to mana, he wouldn't use it.

‘Let alone use it, I'll reject it myself,’ he scoffed.

‘Psychokinesis is a dud,’ he sighed. To learn Psychokinesis, one must harness mental energy and project it outside of the body. Eve was a master of mental energy, that's how he taught Kurgos.

‘But I can't project it outwards,’ he sighed.

‘All the practices I know utilize the same method. Even cultivation,’ he cursed. To cultivate, he first needed to feel the mysterious energy outside of his body via projecting mental energy. After feeling it, he could draw the energy into his body and start cultivating.

‘That leaves me with primal energy,’ Eve frowned. ‘But even that is elusive.’

He dismissed Kurgos, before going toward the outskirts of the forest. The sun was dropping, and the world was starting to turn yellow. As he arrived, he saw a rive he named the “Splitting River.”

The Splitting River separated the forest and the vast plain, hence the name. According to Kurgos, the river didn't have a name yet, so he was happy to claim it as his own.

Following the river, he eventually stopped when he found a smooth slab of rock. It was big enough for him to sit on, and crossing his legs, he closed his eyes and started meditation.

‘After absorbing numerous humans, the faint primal energy in my body became pronounced,’ he hummed in thought. ‘Now, it's like the primal energy I felt back during that tournament game.’

Primal energy was warm, almost comfortingly so. Yet, it lashed about like a violent streak of electricity, wanting to destroy everything it touches.

‘It reminds me of the chaos energy found in the void,’ Eve remarked. ‘Maybe I can treat it as such?’

Chaos energy was used by void monsters, but some Cultivators and even Sorcerers used it. Eve ignored the practice of sorcery for now.

‘If cultivators used it, then there must be a way to enhance the body using chaos energy… if primal energy is a substitute for it, then—’

+

Gathered outside of the Yuka Forest, three men snickered to themselves.

“Hey, you sure we'll find a ‘Demon Lord’ here?” One of them laughed. He had long, silver white hair and his ears were pointy. He was wearing leather armor, and on his hand was a longbow, while a short bow was strapped behind his back.

The other man wearing a similar outfit scoffed. “What do you think, Hammer?”

Hammer, the third person in the group, a youth with short black hair and filth covered face, wearing only a tattered shirt that barely covered half of his torso.

“I…” He looked at the two elves, tugging on the corner of his lips to form a smile. “I can sense the Demon Lord,” he said. He couldn't.

“He's here,” he said. He didn't even know what a Demon Lord was.

But he was a slave, what else could he do? Tell the truth? Be called worthless? And then what, be killed?

He didn't want to die yet, not before seeing those two elves be ripped apart by wolves.