Jack used the [Dispel Curse] spell to get rid of the potion’s effects on him.

His skin became red and his horns grew back from his forehead. He was taller and had more muscles to show off. His six pack returned.

“HAAAA! You’re a demon!” screamed Olduf.

Olduf turned around and tried to run away from Jack. He must’ve forgotten the seal on his chest.

With a flick of his finger, Olduf got electrocuted and fell to the ground. This time around, Jack made sure to have the spell last for a short time with a smaller voltage.

When Jack commanded the seal to stop, Olduf was on the ground but still conscious.

“Why are you running? It’s not like I’ve threatened your life,” Jack asked amused.

“You never told me you’re a demon, for damn sake!” he shouted. “I thought you were an envoy for them.”

“You’re overreacting. Come, get up. We need to go to the palace.”

“Just kill me. I accept death. I don’t want to be eaten.”

Jack shook his head, “Why does everyone think that demons eat people?”

In the game, demons don’t eat people. They ate food like any other race in the game. But in the new world, the people here always accuse him of wanting to eat them.

“You don’t eat humans? Aren’t you a demon?”

“I am… in this world. But I don’t eat human flesh. Nor do the demons in the palace.”

Olduf stared at Jack,

“Look, Olduf. I don’t hate myself enough to start gnawing at human bones. The best meat in the world is chicken. Not human.”

“Chicken?”

“You don’t know chicken,” Jack asked, confused. “It’s a bird. Two legs and two wings.”

“I know what a chicken is!” he cried out as though offended.

“Ease up, Olduf,” Jack extended out his hand. “There’s lots of food in the palace to give around. There’s no need to resort to cannibalism.”

Olduf stared at Jack’s hand. He grabbed it, reluctantly, and Jack helped him up.

“Now I’m going to eat you!” Jack showed off his teeth in a rather exaggerated facial expression.

“Very funny,” Olduf rolled his eyes.

His common sense had returned and the fear he had in his eyes had gone. Jack felt that Olduf could handle seeing more demons without freaking out with fear.

[Gate].

The two got teleported to the throne room of the palace.

A maid was replacing oil in one of the torches.

“Tell Isoldea to meet me here,” Jack ordered the [Maid].

She nodded and left.

Olduf was staring around the room. “Nice. A bit fancy for my liking but nice nonetheless. Do you ever get lost here?”

“Lost? No.”

“I think I’ll get lost if left alone.”

“I’ll have someone be your guide then.”

“Really. I’d like a cute [Maid] to be my guide then. Just like that one who was here.”

“Careful, Olduf. The last thing you want is for you to be seen as a menace in a palace filled with demons. They might eat you out of spite.”

Olduf grinned uneasily. “I don’t wish to cause trouble. I’ll mind what I do here.”

“Good.”

Jack sat in his throne chair and awaited Isoldea. She arrived after five minutes.

When she entered the throne room, she completely ignored Olduf and bowed before Jack.

“My lord, I hope your travels were a success.”

“You may stand,” Jack said to her. “I believe we finally got the casus belli we needed.”

“How splendid,” she smiled.

“What the fuck is a casus belli?” Olduf asked.

“My lord, who is this human you brought here?” Isoldea asked with annoyance.

“That’s Olduf. Olduf say hi to Isoldea.”

Olduf turned to Isoldea, “Whyare you so pale?” he asked her.

“Why does your breath stink, human?” she responded back.

“Anyway,” Jack waved them off each other. “How many people can we support in the palace? I know currently we’re around 500. But if we capture maybe three thousand slaves, could we support them all?”

Isoldea shook her head, “Not without a severe rationing of food, my lord. Besides, what will we do with so many captured slaves.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Farming. Mining. Building. The list goes on. But I hear you with the food situation. We should plant food down.”

“Yes, but winter is soon arriving.”

“Right.” Jack turned to Olduf. “How long do winters last in the North?”

“Uhm… they last too bloody long, hehe,” chuckled Olduf.

Isoldea took out her lance, “How about you answer the question, human.”

“I have a name, Lady.”

“Tsk!” Jack hissed. “Olduf, focus. I need you to be more specific. How long do the winters last in the north?”

“Four months.”

Fuck me.

His plans to attack the Black Grass tribe and capture slaves had to be paused. Supporting a large labour force on limited food in winter would be a disaster waiting to happen.

“If we can’t capture slaves then maybe we should raid them,” Jack mused out loud. “I wonder if Skullgrave is even worth raiding.”

Olduf grinned, “It certainly is, Master. There are two big warehouses. They store very valuable stuff there. Stuff like olive oil, wheat, wool, wood and iron ingots.”

Jack sat up. “Iron?”

“Yes, iron. The iron is mostly used to craft swords and–”

“I know what iron is used for. But where did they get it? I didn’t see a mine nearby.”

Olduf nodded, “There used to be a small iron mine in my village. But it kept collapsing and water eventually drowned it shut. But you’re correct, there are no mines in the North. The [Soothsayers] say the iron is too deep for anyone to get. That’s why all the iron in the North is from the dwarves.”

“The dwarves?”

“The Dwarves of the Crystal Mountain. Their mountains have plenty of minerals. The dwarven kings are the richest in the continent. Rumours say they have so much gold that they use it to wipe their asses.”

“Do you think the dwarves will be interested in trade?”

“With the demons?” Olduf laughed loudly. “Of course not, Master. You know the last [Demon King] that spawned in this world destroyed many places. Even the dwarves were not spared. Most of their prized treasures were destroyed by the Demon Army. So I don’t think the dwarves will be interested in doing trade with you. No offence.”

“None taken,” Jack shrugged.

“If they’re not willing to give us what we desire then we must take it for ourselves,” stated Isoldea in a serious monotone voice.

“Let’s try not to make too many enemies at once,” Jack raised his hand. “We need to focus on the Black Grass tribe for now. They stole my goods and we need to retaliate. A raid in their warehouses for iron will be beneficial for us.”

While Jack still wanted to capture slaves. He knew reality had other plans. The demons had limited amounts of food. They had more than enough to sustain them through winter but if a thousand more mouths were captured, then they’re food supply would dwindle quickly.

Now iron was very valuable. WIth iron, better tools can be crafted. These tools can be used to make better pickaxes, better swords and also the resource can be used to maintain items that have iron in them.

“Should I recall Leofric?” asked Isoldea.

Jack nodded, “Yes. This raid will be an opportunity for him to prove himself after the disaster that happened on the island.”

“He’ll be grateful for giving him a second chance, my lord.”

“Hopefully he won’t squander it.”

…

…

While Leofric and the expedition force were readying themselves for the raid, Jack returned to the palace’s laboratory.

There he reunited with his slime monsters.

The breeding program that he started was paused. All the time spent with Erzilla had sucked much of his energy away from productive tasks and into activities that… concerned the flesh.

But Jack was not having it this time around. He was going to focus and make right with his people. As leader, he had to work even harder than his subordinates.

He grabbed a round green slime monster and placed it on his desk. Then Jack instructed the slime to transform into a sheep.

The slime did as instructed and it became a sheep. But not just any random sheep, Jack made sure the sheep had a specific genetic variation.

This was the only safe way he could experiment on the effects of potions the [Alchemists] had brewed up for him.

Jack would also mix certain potions together to see their results.

As hours passed on, Jack found moderate success.

He found the genetic variation in a certain sheep that could have three or more babies at once. And with a potion, this sheep could produce enough milk to sustain the three baby sheep.

But unfortunately, while this sheep could make lots of milk and make lots of babies, it had no wool and the meat it produced was very muttony.

Which might sound strange, after all sheep meat is called mutton. And mutton has a very distinct taste to it. But Jack wanted the mutton to taste more lamb-like.

And also for the sheep to produce lots of wool too.

Was he asking for too much?

When he changed the genetic makeup of the sheep to produce better amounts of wool and good tasting lamb-like meat, the sheep ended up with a very slow reproduction performance. Jack estimated using the slime that this sheep would have a foetus every two years. Far too slow for his liking

You might ask, how in the world does Jack know that a certain sheep with a certain genetic makeup will produce a baby sheep every two years.

Well, the slime. Slime not only mimic animals and can copy their DNA, the slime can also speed through the life cycle of any animal. That’s how he knew that certain sheep will end up having a baby every two years.

Jack fell to the ground in exhaustion. Every muscle in his body ached and his eyes were heavy.

He didn’t know how long he'd been in the laboratory. The only thing he knew was that he needed to sleep.

So he closed his eyes and slept on the cold wooden floor of the lab.

He felt blobs of slimes surrounding him. They warmed him up as he slipped deeper into sleep.

…

…

The worst time to have a Eureka moment is when you badly need to go to sleep.

But Jack had no choice but to drag his sleepy body off the floor. In doing so, he woke up the slimes that were sleeping around him.

The idea he had came from a dream. In the dream he saw a large termite queen. This termite queen pooped out lots of spiders for some reason.

The dream didn’t make sense of course. But it got him thinking. What if he had to think outside the box to solve the breeding question.

So Jack took one slime and instructed it to transform not into a sheep but… a sheep’s womb.

And the slime did as told.

“What the fuck!” Jack was horrified by the soft, fleshy meat sac he held. He dropped the thing on the ground and washed his hands.

Maybe next time not a real womb.

“How about a box with a sheep womb inside?” he asked the slime. He didn’t want to see the womb.

The slime did exactly as told.

Jack smiled. He had created an artificial womb that didn’t need a sheep. He had plenty of slime so he could incubate as many sheep babies as possible.

Now he had to extract the eggs and sperm from actual sheep.

Jack wrote a request to the [Alchemists] for a potion that did two things: force a sheep to produce as many viable eggs and sperm as possible.

Jack had the report sent to the department.

If this crazy plan worked, it could unlock a new phase for their realm.