Jake laughed and asked all of them what they would do if the demon's hand mercenary group was re-established.
“We would join, sir,” the two beast folk said without hesitation. But Eric stayed silent. Jake looked at the two beast folk and said, “Even if I do re-establish it, I am not going to be part of it. It will be entirely up to you to figure everything out. That also means getting approvals and dealing with my ministers to operate in this territory, as well as any outside contracts you might get.” Eric looked over at Jake in surprise. “Are you not going to take command of anything? You have ministers to deal with your territory, and now you're even saying you don't want any part of the mercenary group.”
“I only have one goal, and that is to get stronger, to get my wife back, and anything or anyone that gets in my way will die. Again, I am sorry for what I did back then. I let the power go to my head and left you with only one option. I won't be making that mistake again.”
“So you say, but what about in the future when the group won't help you or even goes against your interests?”
“As I previously said, anyone that gets in my way will die, but as for not helping me, I won't do anything.”
“I think I can deal with that. I would be happy to take up my old position with the demon's hand mercenary group on the stipulation that you and your people are not involved with it.”
“I couldn't ask for anything more.” Jake activated the interface and re-established the mercenary group; only this time he removed any mention of himself or his people. Instead, he added in their place the words “branch leaders.” He also removed the highest positions that could be held, and he even removed the term “demon's hand” from the name before giving command over to Eric. Then he said, “It's all yours. Now I'm going to save my friend. Are you willing to help?”
“The demon's hand will assist in this matter,” Eric said with a smile.
“You kept the name,” Jake said.
“Most definitely. That only makes sense. It was the name of the group, and plus you're not getting away from us that easily, sir.”
Jake then received a notification with a simple question.
Notification
Request for Jake Everal to become an honorary elder of the reformed demon's hand mercenary group.
This elder position comes with no obligations.
Yes/no
“You know if I say yes, you all will be hunted by the system.”
“We will take on the heavens if need be,” the three men said.
“You might just end up doing that,” Jake muttered before he agreed to their proposal. A moment later, the three grinned and said, “It looks like we're bound to your misfortune now, sir. We might just need to warn people about what will happen if they join.” The three agreed. Jake, on the other hand, was in the dark about all that had happened, so he asked.
“What happened? Did the system do something?”
“You could say that we got a warning the moment Eric asked you to join, but once you joined, the system kicked us out, and now we need to do something called cultivation to increase our grade levels.”
“Did you all get a cultivation manual of some kind?”
“No, it seems we didn't. Is that bad?”
“Well, yes, but I think mine should help you at least.” Jake went over what he had learnt fromcultivation so far and let them practise for an hour just to see if it would work for them before he told them to catch up when they were ready. As he disappeared into the night, heading directly for the Murray River and passing through the small town of Numurkah, it was once a thriving little town with a nice little market and a beautiful golf club, but now the town was riddled with monsters and gangs of ex-drug runners that now rule over the small town. As Jake got to the town's outer limits, he came into contact with a group of locals. They seemed to be shifting carts of produce into what remained of the town centre; the humans had taken control of the area from the pub back to the hospital, while the beast folk had the area from the Commonwealth Bank to the church, with the rest being contested or monster-infested. Jake waited for ten hours to see if Eric and his two men would arrive, but no luck, so Jake ended up just following the railway through the town in hopes of bypassing any trouble, and surprisingly, it mostly worked. He had made it through the human territory and the beast folk's territory, but when he reached the area just outside of that, he was immediately spotted by a group of Hunters. These Hunters were a mix of humans and beast folk, which at first seemed strange, but with a second look, Jake noticed slave marks on the humans. The hunting party was made up of five beast folk and three female humans, each in a state of partial undress; at least that’s what it looked like to Jake. He flashed into action, knocking out all five beast folk in an instant.
“What have you done?” one of the females asked in a frightened tone. “I didn't kill them.”
“That's not the point. You hurt the son of the Great King Aaron.”
Jake laughed, then said, “If someone needs to put the word 'great' in their title, they’re definitely nothing of the sort. So tell me, what makes this Aaron a king so great?”
The lady looked at Jake with amazement. “You haven't heard? The Great King slayed theevil demon Jake Everval and claimed his bounty. Now he rules over all of the evil demons' territory.”
“So what is his grade, this so-called king?”
“The king is a magnificent E grade after completing the bounty.”
“Really? Does he have any proof of his accomplishment, like a title or something that has shown you?”
“The Great King wouldn't lower himself to the level of a slave; we are just here to serve his magnificence,” the lady said.
“Have any of you even been into the town centre?”
“We of the lower races are not permitted to enter the great king's inner sanctum.”
“So you're saying you don't even know that over half of this small town is actually ruled by humans. Your so-called king doesn't even rule over this half of the town. Your king is nothing but a poser.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Who are you calling a poser?” Jake turned to look at who spoke only to see a 5-foot-tall rat man with more gold jewellery than Mr T. The human slaves were all bowing to this rat. Jake used Identify on the rat.
Identify
Name: Great King Aaron Footlicker
Race: Ratman
Core: n/a
Grade: Redacted by a skill
Weakness: Redacted by a skill
“I guess you’re that so-called king that supposedly killed me,” Jake said.
“What are you talking about? The only man I've killed is the evil demon.”
“So you say. This demon, did he have a name?”
“Of course he does. The demon's name is Jake Everval, and you should beg for his mercy.” One of the slaves screeched in anger at Jake's utter disrespect for their king. The king, on the other hand, most likely used Identify on him. “Sir, it seems we have had a bit of a misunderstanding. Can I offer you some refreshments?”
“No, I've got a mission to get back to.”
“Then can I get someone to escort you?”
“I don't believe that will be necessary. Oh, there's one thing I should say before I leave, and that is I'm not a fan of slavery.” Those were the last words Aaron heard as Jake vanished, leaving the man wishing he had never used that name in his scheme. The three slaves were just staring at their king in shock.
“Your Majesty, who was that man for you to show him so much leniency?” one of the slaves said before the others could stop her, but nothing happened at least until the king spoke.
“From today onwards, there will be no slavery within this town.” The slaves looked up at the king and began praising him for his kindness, only for a second later to be looking up at their king from an odd angle, and it seemed their bodies were no longer under their control. The king stood over three headless corpses. “If there is no more slavery, there is no more need for you,” he said as three heads rolled along the ground, his blue shimmering sword covered in blood.
“Fucken hell, this is going to cost me a lot.” The blood on his blade was sucked into the blade before entering his body, where it began eating away at his soul. “Only nine hundred two to go.”
Jake left the small town, cutting a path through the low-grade monsters all the way to the Murray River. Upon reaching it, Jake laughed as he looked at where his territory ended.
“So New South Wales wins again.”
Setting up camp on the banks of the Murray River, Jake began a short session of cultivation to help solidify his gains over the past few days of fighting and travel by using his skills as a means of transport, from short flights to dashes and then teleportation from the bottom of Victoria to the top, going over the Great Divide and down into canola country, and now sitting on the banks of the mighty Murray River. Now unrestricted by human intervention, the river was flowing clean and free, so clean in fact that the Murray cod could be seen clearly from the surface. The moment Jake set up camp, he received a very interesting guest: one with human-like features but clearly a fish man. He was covered in scales and had piping from his gills to a water rebreathing apparatus. Jake identified the man as he approached.
Identify
Name unknown
Race: cod man Envy
Core: ???
Grade: F
Level: 10
Weakness: unknown
“Sir, my name is Envy Borg. I would like to ask you a few questions relating to your actions here?”
“I'm Jake, and I would be happy to answer them for you.”
“First and foremost, I would like to know if you are here to harm the children in the nursery.”
“Oh, sorry, I wasn't aware this area was a nursery. I can move on if you wish me to.”
“No, you can stay as long as you aren't intending harm to the children. We would also like to know your reasons for coming here?”
“Just to rest up, do a bit of cultivation, and wait to see if more of my people show up so we can find a lost friend.”
“Lost friend, someone like you?”
“No, not like me, a cat lady named Kiki. She crossed this river some time ago and we haven't heard from her since.”
“I'm sorry to hear about that, but I might be able to help with that for a small fee, if you're going to stay here for a while, that is.”
“What type of fee and what kind of help?”
“Let's see. I can send out a request for information on your friend's location and the approximation of forces within the area. This will only work if she is near water, though. As for the fee, how about this: you take some of the children away from here and deposit them in areas of flowing freshwater?”
“And what would these children be doing for you? Gathering information? Setting up for an invasion, maybe?”
“No, simple surviving. We don't have the ability to fight off the humans and their meddling in the natural order, so if we spread out, we might be able to survive a bit longer.”
“What would you say if I put these children on a different world?”
“I would thank you, if that was even possible.”
“You're an envy right, so if you go ask a person named Alric and tell him Jake Everval sent you, he will help with the relocation of your people. But for now, let's help with spreading your people out.” Jake pulled out a crude map he had made on his way up to the Murray, marking all the rivers along the way. “These are the locations of rivers I passed on the way here, and this is where you can find Alric. As for transporting your children, I don't know how I would even do that.”
“That's okay. With the information you have given us, we should be able to use the underground river systems and tunnels.”
“Wait, if you have underground rivers, why do you need the above-ground river systems?”
“Well, it's actually something I would rather keep quiet about.”
Jake and Borg talked for a bit longer, where Jake learned that his territory didn't actually extend into the ground more than ten metres. This made his defence plan slightly redundant when someone could just dig a tunnel and pop up anywhere they wanted within his territory. Seeing how his territory was just letting anyone come and go, Jake was a bit worried about this issue. One other thing Jake learned was that Borg's race actually evolved well before the system took over. The humans were very wrong when they thought the dinosaurs went extinct; really, what happened was only those that didn't evolve were wiped out on the surface. But now, after the system event, they are all waking up, and there is not enough prey for them underground, so they will be coming to the surface to hunt soon. With every passing minute, Jake's worries were getting bigger and bigger. It seems that the one dinosaur Jake saw after coming back from the tutorial was just one of many scouts. Jake did ask if the dinosaurs could claim territories like he had, and to Jake's irritation, the answer was yes. Most of the inner planet was already claimed, and not just that; a quarter of the territory under Victoria, which includes the zones bordering New South Wales and South Australia, are also claimed. The good news was that the area under the Murray River was actually claimed by the Murray Cod people. As for the other areas, Borg didn't know. This did make Jake feel a little better, as so far, Borg had been a stand-up guy, so hopefully, the rest of his race is similar to him in this regard. Once Borg left to complete his part of the deal, Jake went back to going over his gains and continuing with his cultivation.
Stats at the end of the chapter
Name: Jake Everval
Race: Demon of the Past. Unique
Core: Haven Breaker, First Grade, Restricted, Fully Unlocked at D Grade
Grade: F
Information on F Grade:
Upgrades: 600 above previous; anyone below this grade in the open universe will not survive unless protected by life-sustaining means such as planetary shields and the like. No F graders have ever entered space and survived for more than two years without adequate protection. Note: levels are gained through cultivation; levels must be solidified by practical use.
Solidified Level: 78. Levels required until next grade evaluation: 1000 total.
Cultivation Level: 3
Life: 90%
Void: 1%
Mana: 100%
Arcane: 10%
F grade energy storage
Life: high ×7 F shards
Void: low ×1 F shard
Mana: high ×5 F shards
Arcane: high ×2 F shards
Genesis: medium
Death: low
Note: shards will be dropped for each energy type once it reaches the limit for your grade.
Class: trooper shadow mage (common); 2000 levels required until next major threshold.
Solidified Class Level: 1109
Cultivated Level: 37 of 60%
Profession: Arcane Smith (common); 2000 levels required until next major threshold.
Solidified Profession Level: 538
Cultivated Level: 0 of 0.1%
Information: at common rarity, your profession will have less impact on the environment around you.
Stats points available: 110,259
Conversion multiplier: ×10
Mana: 1,000,000
Arcane: 1,000,000
Stamina: 2,000.010
Health: 1,526.500
Base multiplier: ×10
Strength: 100,101
Agility: 100,000
Intelligence: 100,000
Wisdom: 100.000
Perception: 100.000
Integrity: 152.650
Complete dungeons to advance multipliers beyond the starting ×10 multiplier.
A basic collection method has been granted to you by the heavens.