Shun POV:
“Then why isn’t the Floor Boss in front of me?”
“...A dispute between Fishy and Talk—“
A deep sigh left my mouth. Whenever things were going well, another annoyance would always appear. By now, I should have made significant improvement, yet these two idiots were wasting my time.
“Fishy, don’t make me stand up.”
“But Master! I found the Sentri Warrior first!”
“Don’t lie to our liege! You’re aware that it was my technique that subdued the scouting troops, thus creating an optimal path for the units to travel...”
I ignored their back-and-forth conversation that wouldn’t stop anytime soon. It was another drawback of Rise: the inability to wipe the personalities of the monsters raised.
“Reaver, send units to watch over the Floor Exit. If it’s possible to go up without defeating the Floor Boss, then it’s possible Adventurers can come down.”
“...Understood, my liege.”
Judging by the slight intonation of happiness in his voice, he had already given out similar instructions to his unit. Reaver’s animosity toward me vanished once he saw his peers empowered by the darkness of light.
It didn’t take long for the Tactical and Warrior Unit to return once I voiced my irritation. Behind the bickering leaders was the Floor Boss, bound by several layers of a dark pink rope. It was Fishy’s technique: Stomach Containment.
Fishnin and Ultimate Fishnin developed small stomachs to consume food found on dry land. However, only Ultimate Fishnin were able to remove these stomachs and still survive. Stomach Containment weakened Ki Armour, lowered all senses and, depending on the condition of the target, could poison them too.
Fishy’s version did more than that. The stomach would constrict tighter based on the force the target exerted; it was similar to my Binder gadget.
I shifted my attention toward the Sentri Warrior. Firm grey scales covered parts of its arm like open armour. It wrapped around the monster’s back, forming an amalgamation that revealed the toned muscles underneath. The chest and abdomen exposed its dark skin before being hidden by baggy bottoms that resembled a hakama fastened with a kyahan.
My KP had dropped to less than 1/4, but the Sentri Warrior wasn’t responsible for this steep decline. Fishy chucked the Floor Boss in front of me. It struggled to its knees; eyebrows furrowed deep enough to almost touch one another as an intense glare met mine.
“So it’s you! You’re the on—“
Fishy crushed the monster’s head into the earth, caving in the entire area. She lifted the bleeding Floor Boss up by the hair and parted her lips.
“Respect our liege.”
Her dark eyes enlarged to an almost manic degree. There was no smile or cuteness to be found on her face anymore; only darkness. Fishy’s pressure forced the Sentri Warrior to avoid her gaze. It coughed up blood from the extent of damage her blow caused.
When it came to beating some sense into these monsters, no one was better than Fishy. I held out my hand, and Talky bowed before handing over her report.
[You have obtained ‘Talky’s Report #444.’]
[Report: Talky’s Evaluation No. 444
My liege,
You look as wonderful as the first day we did battle. In order to not anger you any further, I will get straight to the point.
The Sentri Warrior, under observation, controlled 20 units of Sentri. He was adept at military strategy and able to counter the probing formation I deployed. This was done by spreading out the Sentri in a double-wing formation, covering both the front and back, which granted them a 360-degree field of vision.
Normally, such a tactic wouldn’t be effective, but this Sentri Warrior supplemented the glaring weakness with an adjustment. He stood in the middle of the moving formation and used a technique called Sentri Style: Sentri Zone. I calculated that each Sentri within the Zone expanded it by up to 10 metres, broadening their senses significantly. I must add that the expanded Zone was unable to be detected at our current level.
Forgive me for my inadequacy.
I was able to determine the Zone’s new range by their unit’s response to another probe. This development led me to deploy other formations next once his guard was down.
The flank formation caused the Sentri Warrior to take on the strongest force alone. Here, he demonstrated a sufficient level of Elemental Ki using the Earth Ki Nature in conjunction with Sentri Style: Earth Sentinels and Earth Sentramould.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The former aided the creation of detailed earth golems in the form of soldiers. The latter moulded the earth into various weapons before imbuing them with another resource. After scanning through the report Experienced Scout Byeol submitted, there was no mention of the Sentri Style being able to create a resource.
Therefore, I carried out further tests aimed. Through them, I discovered there would be moments when he would retreat and close his eyes for a period of time. The longer the duration, the more of this imbued resource appeared.
So I crafted a situation that forced the Sentri to protect the Sentri Warrior and was able to find out the name of the technique as a result.
Sentri Style: Sentric Focus.
Through this focus, he was able to form a resource of the same name. As interesting as this discovery was, its uses were limited and not as diverse as an ability resource. At most, it could increase a technique’s effectiveness and power by a 1.5x multiplier. Weapons could only be imbued with it if formed by the Sentri themself.
I believe Sentri Knights and above have this Sentric Focus active at all times. Whereas the less experienced Sentri Warriors and Sentri need time to gather this focus.
...]
The 50 page report went on to detail patterns used in combat, methods of retreat, Ki Natures, weapons and all techniques Talky came across until Fishy interrupted her observations. I fine-tuned areas that would help this Sentri Warrior achieve the most optimal growth before raising my head.
Talky clasped her hands together and looked at me with eager eyes.
“You’re useful.”
Her bright smile made many of the male shadow monsters stumble. Talky bowed her head while Fishy looked to the side, annoyed by the attention she wasn’t receiving.
I shifted my gaze back toward the Sentri Warrior. Light grey hair had several spikes to it that contrasted with dark skin and bright yellow irises.
“Name.”
“HUMA—“
The entire area shook in succession. Fishy didn’t have a lot of patience, but this Floor Boss would find that out the hard way.
[Floor Boss: Sentri Warrior]
Its HP fell to 1/4 when I flicked my fingers toward Fishy. She stepped back, and many of the shadow monsters did the same. Reaver’s glowing violet eyes narrowed, amused by the fear Fishy embedded in most of them.
“I want you to become strong.”
Muscles caused the compression of skin to create folds in the middle. Faint wrinkles developed around the Sentri Warrior’s nose. The slight tilt of the head, and a fair expansion of the pupils, finished the emotion it was expressing.
“I... don’t understand, human. Why would you want that?...”
My eyes curved upwards before I parted my rising lips.
“So I can kill you and grow stronger. Right now, your value is 1. I want to make your value a 4. If I kill you once your value reaches 4, the growth I’ll receive will be more than when your value was 1. Was that simple enough for you to understand?”
Bloodlust spiralled out of me as I peered down at this stupid Floor Boss testing the little patience I had left. Sweat poured down its face that fell toward the ground.
“You... aren’t normal.”
“If you went through what I did, you wouldn’t be normal either.”
Fishy stepped forward once my eyes shifted to her. She had been with me long enough to know the routine by now.
“Train him. You have 10 minutes.”
“Yes, Master!”
She rested a hand on the monster’s shoulder and vanished. Reaver commanded the rest of the shadows to relax when Talky closed the distance between us.
“My liege, your Title has evolved again.”
[Title: Overlord Tunnelmen Teacher (+36)
Effect: Teaching dungeon monsters massively increases all of their physical attributes. However, their anger and rage will be directed toward you with no room for negotiation.
• As an instructor, you can force those trained underneath you to fight you at full force.
• As an instructor, your teachings encourage independent thinking and growth.
• As an instructor, your pupils can develop into capable teachers themselves.
• As an instructor, the intelligence of all pupils ever taught is permanently increased by a significant amount.
• As an instructor, units under your control can teach other dungeon monsters to achieve half the effects.
• The deeper your bond with the dungeon monster(s), the more additional bonuses will be applied.
• Training additional dungeon monsters evolves this title.]
‘Good. Very good.’
The greater the benefits, the less time it would take to see adequate growth. In other words, the party’s fast clearing speed would become less of a factor as this Title evolves.
The only issue was the time needed for me to improve. It was a variable that couldn’t be controlled just by making monsters stronger. That was why I taught them how to strategise, increased their knowledge, and developed their way of thinking to adapt beyond their innate fighting styles.
‘...’
Talky rushed to use her body as support once I leaned back. Faint tremors added to the cracks along the road, shattering whatever windows remained in the surrounding area.
“I think it’s approaching the limit soon.”
“Whatever.”
I didn’t ask for Talky’s input, but her words weren’t unattentive. The likelihood of there being another rank after ‘Overlord’ was low, so I also agreed with her reasoning.
She turned around and ran her thin fingers through my hair. I continued to organise additional information when Reaver reappeared with most of his unit. He flicked the blood off the Zero Sword before his gaze fell on Talky.
“...You must be happy, my liege.”
He didn’t need a response to know the answer to that statement.
I closed my eyes and began adjusting a few hundred iterations for that plan.
Talky’s expert use of her fingers improved blood circulation, lowered blood pressure and eased any head pain present. In order for her to understand the effectiveness of massages, I demonstrated it on her own head and back.
Fishy refused to speak to me for an entire week once she found out, and most of the male shadow monsters looked at me with jealous eyes. If it wasn’t for Talky vouching for their lack of understanding, I would have erased the latter from existence.
That was when I found out she wasn’t an ordinary Goblin Warlock. Orcs had the elusive Highbornes, but Goblins had the unknown Purebreds.
A Purebred Goblin was marked by red skin that formed an intricate pattern on its back. This separation of skin tones, pale green and red, created the impression of two slanted eyes in the middle.
Like Deadmin, Goblins performed their own rituals, and that involved blood. Whether it was the blood of humans, animals, or even their own kind, it didn’t matter to them. Purebreds stopped this fanaticism that ran rampant throughout the race. They were chosen leaders of their community, holding both power and authority.
According to Talky, her being a Purebred should be impossible. The Warlock lineage was exempt from the selection of Purebred lines, yet her existence disproved this fact.
“My liege, what am I?”
I stared at the rare look of deflation across her face. After experiencing death in more ways than one, her question resonated with something deep inside of me.
“Find that out yourself, and when you do, talk to me about it.”
Talky’s tears spilt over. For once in her life, she didn’t know what to say.