The first day of the first month of the year 1000100
Bertha emerged from her house and made her way to the training ground.
She was a young wood elf woman, only 100 years old, and beautiful from most people's perspective.
Like all wood elves, she wore no clothing. Wood elves held a belief in the supremacy of nature and considered clothing to be unnatural.
This belief was a common practice among wood elves throughout the entire mage world, and it was rooted in how the god of beauty created them. It was not in the least bit strange; nobody even batted an eye. This habit of wood elves was one of the main reasons they didn't integrate well with humans.
Bertha reached her destination, picked up a specially made steel sword, wore specially made heavy armor, and began training.
"Don't forget the 'foundation' pill," Rachel said.
Bertha was the wood elf child whom Rachel had found many years ago.
Unfortunately, Bertha had absolutely no talent for mage training.
Rachel was upset, but she couldn't choose another host since Bertha was already her host. Technically, Rachel could have poisoned Bertha and selected a new host, but that would be too evil, and Rachel was not a demon.
Instead, she tried to help Bertha reach rank 1 on the knight's path. If she could achieve rank 1 as a knight, Rachel could then make a rank 1 'mage talent' pill.
Reaching rank 1 as a knight is not impossible in theory.
The primary reason it's challenging to achieve rank 1 is quite complicated.
When mages reach rank 1, their root mana solidifies into a mana core. The mana core is much denser than the mana gas in the apprentice mage stage and can be within the aperture without spillover.
However, a knight's true energy won't condense into any solid state.
For this reason, if anyone breaks through rank 1 as a knight, their true energy would spill out of their aperture, causing them to explode.
It's not that nobody has ever come up with a solution for this. In fact, all the mage academies already know how to create knights up to rank 9!
However, the resources required for knights to reach a high rank are so huge that it doesn't make sense to pursue this path at all.
It's more cost-effective to concoct a 'mage talent' pill and grant people mage talent. A ' mage talent ' pill is nothing compared to the resources required for training knights.
It has been proven without doubt that a knight's 'true energy' can never be transformed into a solid state. The only way for knights to survive the spillover is to strengthen their bodies to the point where they can tolerate the pressure of rank 1 true energy with their bodies.
Rachel acquired this information through communication with her main body in hell. That's right; she discovered she could mentally communicate with her main body.
Bertha used the pills Rachel provided for many years and displayed a remarkable talent for knight training. She kept the pill container a secret and strengthened her body so it could finally withstand rank 1 'true energy.'
Eventually, she got promoted to rank 1, and Rachel was finally able to talk to her.
This only happened after Bertha had used precious rank 0 pills for 50 years! For apprentice mages, only a few years are enough to reach the official mage status.
Bertha took the rank 1 'foundation' pill and trained hard for 3 hours. Then, she took off the armor to rest.
The armor was much heavier than it seemed. It was made of special iron, specifically for her. Even a legendary knight would be crushed if they wore it.
As a rank 1 knight, Bertha is the leader of her and the surrounding wood elf tribes.
This is a mortal continent with no magic energy anywhere, and humans predominantly inhabit it.
Humans have highly advanced technology, but fortunately, they are civilized and have set aside reserved territories for non-humans to live.
They have even sent a lot of pesticides to help non-humans deal with insects, which have flourished for the past hundred years.
Wood elves inherently oppose anything not found in nature, but in the face of an army of various bugs, they took the pesticides and used them to deal with the pests.
"We have a meeting with the humans in a month about control of the forests. What should I do, Rachel?" she asked.
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Bertha trusted Rachel more than anyone in this world.
"Let them do what they want. Fighting them is extremely detrimental. We should maintain good relations with the humans," she said.
The dispute was about the neighboring forests.
Humans accused wood elves of not properly using pesticides and controlling the animal population, thereby providing a breeding ground for them.
Bertha nodded and said, "That is also what I thought." With that, she returned to her home.
...
"I have a few more questions about the River of Time from my main body," Rachel told God of Fate.
God of Fate had taken her a century ago.
She could have run from the beginning because of one of her 'essential skills,' 'Heavenly Box.'
With 'Heavenly Box,' she could teleport limitlessly to random places in heaven. However, she didn't and waited to see what God of Fate would do.
Rachel indirectly communicated with her by producing pills.
It was like when God of Fate asked a question, if she produced a pill, it meant yes, and if she didn't, it meant no.
Finally, after years, she conveyed to the God of Fate how she could be promoted to rank 1.
God of Fate brought a captured demon and made him Rachel's host, then helped the demon get promoted with a jump in rank, and this way, Rachel reached rank 4 in a few hours. Unfortunately for Rachel, she discovered that incarnations cannot outrank the main body, so she got stuck at rank 4.
Fortunately for her, she gained all the skills when she went up to rank 1, including the ability to talk to her host.
In rank 2, she gained the ability to fuse and defuse pills. At rank 3, she gained the ability to dive in time. In rank 4, she obtained 'Mage World Incarnation' and 'Hellish Incarnation.'
This discovery meant that she could create an infinite number of incarnations.
However, this time, she chose not to activate the ability because she didn't want to risk being discovered by other gods and demons. She planned first to find a way to conceal her trace in the river of time before creating more incarnations.
God of Fate had a method, but firstly, he could only do it in heaven, and secondly, Rachel didn't even want God of Fate to know all of her plans.
God of Fate, who was gazing at the River of Time, said, "What is your question?"
The Fragment Law of Fate is the best for examining the River of Time, even better than Destiny.
Rachel asked her question, which was quite technical.
Lately, she has been focusing on studying 'Dive in Time' and learning its true abilities. Through these studies, she discovered that if she could fully control the ability, she could essentially resurrect anyone who had died, travel to the past or future, and manage everything related to the River of Time.
However, that's mostly theoretical. After many years, she still cannot do more than look at reflections, as 'controlling' Dive in Time is easier said than done.
God of Fate answered her question and asked, "Did you look up Doris?"
God of Fate paid great attention to Doris and what she was up to.
"I looked her up, but, as always, no result. It seems the future of Doris is not within the Original duty," Rachel replied.
Original duty can only reflect futures that happen within it.
"Still nothing? This is very fishy! I should go and meet the Wisdom Council and warn them again," she said.
She had warned about Doris for years, but Gods were very passive, thinking the secret weapon was enough to protect them from everything.
"Don't waste your time; they will not do anything!" Rachel said.
God of Fate shrugged and walked toward the Wisdom Council to convince them.
...
Cory was now a rank 1 demon in Baron Iggad's army.
"XP +1!"
"Finally!" he shouted in happiness and deactivated 'Shadow Clone.'
Getting XP was much harder than it looked. Initially, he thought it would be easy, and with the system, he would embark on the path of greatness to take over the world. However, the reality was that even after 100 years, he was still just a rank 1 demon.
Although technically, due to the system, he was comparable in strength to rank 2 demons.
"I'm just a little away from getting my next job, just 109 more XP points!" he thought.
He was already at level 25, which was the minimum requirement for job advancement.
At level 25, he had acquired two skills from the system. One he obtained at level 10 was called "Shadow Clone," and the other from level 20 was "Ninjutsu Bundle," a set of 10 skills that strangely resembled the ninjutsu techniques from that anime.
To earn XP, he had to act like a ninja. This involved hiding, carrying out secret missions, assassinating targets, etc. There was no specific limit; it depended on the task's difficulty, with riskier missions offering more XP.
The system was quite stingy, often requiring weeks or even months of work for just 1 XP.
He returned to his home to prepare for his next ninja mission.
...
Rachel gazed at the three children. After a century of effort, Lana and Zagronan finally gave birth to triplets with Royal blood. Two possessed the God of Envy's bloodline, while one had Tanoth's.
Back then, Lana had boasted for months about her bloodline being superior. Strangely, Royal children grew much slower than normal demons.
"Zag, take this trash and toss it in the 'camp,'" Lana said as she handed over the most recently born child.
Rachel had watched countless times as they "acted" to give birth to children. Lana even ate the child she had just given birth to a few times.
Today, Rachel has long become entirely numb to it.
Zagronan took the newborn demon child with a chicken head and a wolf's body and said, "I think we should rest for a while. Lately, the Baron is working me to death."
"Don't even think about it! I want more Royal children. I'll look for other Royal males if you don't want it!" she retorted.
Zagronan, who preferred Lana to be exclusively his, said, "Okay, we will continue to have more children!"
In truth, it was easy for the rank 4 Zagronan to force Lana to do what he wanted, but he was unwilling to do it.
He pondered at times why he might feel this way. Rachel suggested it might be 'love,' but he rejected the idea. How could demons love anything? He glanced at the library and discovered that 'love' was primarily an irrational human act. As a proud Royal demon, he considered such 'human' acts beneath him.
He went to 'Camp Delivery' with the child and dumped the latest unfortunate demon baby.
This one was unintelligent, so it would be sent to the 'camp' outside the city.
The 'Carehouse' inside was only for intelligent demon children.
Inside 'Camp Delivery,' there were many other unintelligent demon children of all shapes. A few guards were present to prevent other demons from stealing the demon children.
"Let's go," Zagronan smiled and left.
Rachel sighed.
Even though her emotions were significantly weakened, she still felt pity for those demon children. However, as she couldn't do anything, she soon pushed it out of her mind.
...
Doris looked at her countless 'Justice Points.' It was far more than enough for just one 'Domination' spell crystal, but she deliberately concealed this fact to encourage mages to take over more and more continents, thus helping her achieve that rank 10 jump rank.
Ten years ago, she had finally accumulated the required number of Justice Points to buy 'jump rank.' Still, she wanted more points as insurance, so she continued to wait. At this moment, she finally felt confident.
"It's time for me to reach rank 10!" she exclaimed excitedly.