Eve patted his body, his gaze focused on his reflection on the pond below him.

‘No signs of tearing,’ he murmured. ‘These are the only times that I'm glad that I'm a clay man.’

When the blinding lightning bolt descended, Eve's body was cleaved in half. Luckily, Kurgos was near enough to retrieve him and Lucky in time, otherwise there was no way they'd survive whatever magic the heroes used.

‘Was it lightning magic? But I only felt something piercing my body, none of the other properties of lightning magic,’ Eve sighed.

‘Whatever that was, I have to suspend my search for the World Beacon for now.’

It was a shame, but he had no other choice. He already took the risk once, he wouldn't do it again. Especially not with the “mage” who casted the “lightning magic”.

‘Kurgos didn't know what it was either,’ Eve clicked his tongue. It's been a few days since they fled from Devlin, and as soon as they recuperated back at the base, he fired questions at the blind man.

Who was the mage standing on the city walls? What was the lightning magic? What about that ridiculous archer?

Kurgos answers were; “I don't know. Never heard of it. Probably someone strong.”

‘So much for a Demonic General,’ Eve scowled inwardly. Of course, he couldn't truly blame the man, it was he who wanted to act recklessly.

‘It’s worth it.’

If he found the World Beacon and seized control, he'd be able to enter a new world. Even if the new world had no clay soldiers, there'd be at least fewer gods—he hoped.

‘With primal energy, clay soldiers aren't as important anymore.’

Still, having an army was useful, he wouldn't trash his army just because they weren't as crucial as before.

‘Speaking of primal energy, I'm depleted,’ Eve frowned. To escape from Devlin, he had to use all of his primal energy, otherwise he'd be dead.

‘I can't attack human cities, but the other villages are far away… if I were to relocate my army, I'd certainly be noticed.’

Eve could leave his army behind and hide it, but what if the hideout was discovered?

‘Animals provide barely any primal energy…’ Eve couldn't help himself from sighing multiple times. ‘It’s a habit, at this point,’ Eve sighed, only to stop himself.

He shook his head, trying to not sigh again, only to sigh at the thought.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

‘I sound like an old man.’

Technically, he was.

Clearing his thoughts, he sat on a rock and closed his eyes, beginning another round of meditation.

‘There’s no way to naturally recover primal energy, I must get it from a foreign source. Unfortunately, my mental energy can't survive outside of my body, which makes direct consumption the only way to gain more primal energy.’

Eve hummed. ‘But if I use primal energy to permanently enhance my body, I won't need to worry about primal energy regeneration. Of course, if I were to be injured, healing my body would be much more troublesome.’

There were pros and cons, but he was willing to endure it. ‘Compared to needing more and more primal energy without it being an actual part of me, healing slower is not a bad deal. Not to mention, being stronger means less injuries in the future.’

With that thought, he once more resumed his sighing ritual. ‘Since primal energy can't fuse with my body, how about my mental energy?’

If that still failed, he would take another risk and fuse primal energy with his soul.

‘If even that fails, then it can't be helped. The next best move would be to make a primal energy farm.’

He wasn't all too worried about his plan A failing. In the end, mages who use mana would be weaker than an average adult if they run out of mana.

‘Merely hunting animals is out of the question, how about raising a human village?’ Eve considered it, when a thought popped up in his mind.

‘Wait, what's the difference between a boar and a human? Both have flesh, and while humans are vastly more intelligent, primal energy isn't formed from mental energy.’

In his experience, primal energy was the essence of life, something close to physical energy, albeit more violent and less controllable like chaos energy and raw energy.

‘Is it because of mana? But mana doesn't affect primal energy,’ Eve scoffed. ‘Primal energy attacks mana, that I'm sure of.’

Spending the rest of the day in thought, Eve shook his head and resigned from his meditation. ‘Does primal energy consume mana when a human dies, making it grow in the process?’

He couldn't be sure of it. Animals do provide a very faint amount of primal energy, so Eve was fairly certain that since animals possess primal energy, humans should too.

Like he said, humans and animals both are made of flesh.

‘What if I stimulate the primal energy inside animals?’

+

The next day, Eve found Kurgos, who was training his Telekinesis as usual. By now, Eve was certain that Kurgos had passed the beginner stage of Telekinesis—the man could lift a tree if he exerts himself.

‘What a talented man,’ Eve sighed. Every being, if intelligent enough, can practice Psychokinesis, provided they weren't limited like Eve. ‘It should've taken years of practice to reach this level, but alas.’

Eve shook his head. ‘I’m getting distracted.’

“Kurgos.”

“Hm?” Kurgos nodded in response. He already knew that the former was there, silently observing him.

“What’s the best way to get humans?” Eve asked. He may have an idea regarding farming animals, but he wouldn't scrap a better option just because it was a dead end for him. What if Kurgos had a better idea?

“You want to recruit humans?” Kurgos frowned, thinking about it.

“No, I want to eat… err, farm humans,” Eve shook his head. Kurgos said he didn't mind if they ate humans, he wouldn't mind this, right?

“You could buy slaves,” Kurgos nodded. “But we don't have money. Kidnapping is another option, but we'll get caught sooner or later.”

Eve nodded. He wasn't an expert at stealth, nor was he overwhelmingly powerful. Otherwise, he wouldn't be here, he'd be plucking humans like dandelions in the field.

“Honestly, it may be dark, but you could kidnap a few dozen humans and make a breeding factory,” Kurgos suggested, not even a tremble in his voice.

Eve frowned. He already thought of it, but there was a problem. “It'll take too long for infants to grow… wait a minute,” Eve suddenly remembered.

“Is there a difference between an infant and an adult?” He murmured, not noticing Kurgos' strange expression. Before the latter could speak, Eve was already in his own world.

“Technically speaking, all humans will have a certain amount of innate mana inside of them when they are born, and it wouldn't grow unless they train it,” Eve hummed. “If we breed hundreds of female humans, the fruit will only take a year, isn't that right?”

Kurgos fell silent. “That's… correct,” Kurgos sighed. In some ways, his new boss was more wicked than his last, he thought.

‘Though I'm not that much different.’

Kurgos spoke up. “I know a way to speed up the pregnancy process.”

“Wait,” Eve had an even better idea. “What if we don't need infants at all, what if fetuses count? We need to experiment about this, to learn when exactly does mana start infecting the human body,” he murmured.

“I'll help,” Kurgos chimed in. Morbid as it was, he was indeed intrigued. “My previous colleagues did a similar experiment before. He wanted to harvest mana from human bodies for himself,” he said.

“What happened?” Eve asked. ‘If that person practiced on pregnant women, then we might not need to do experiments at all.’

Kurgos sighed. “Nothing happened. The Demon King Losvher killed that colleague of mine. I suppose it was his bottom line,” Kurgos shrugged.

Eve sighed. “What a shame. We do have to experiment, after all.”

Kurgos chuckled. “Why humans, specifically? What about the other races such as elves?”

Eve fell silent. He hadn't thought of them at all!

“We can add them to our list. I doubt elves would be tainted too much with mana, but…”

Eve didn't mind finding out otherwise. After all, he wasn't after mana. He was after primal energy!