~~~~~Rox's P.O.V~~~~~

Although I haven't stayed with them for long, I am feeling kinda lonely now that Seven of my Xerxi subordinates are gone. I am also feeling a bit tired but I want to set up a tent for Au before I take a nap. I'll be leaving the fifth tent for when I summon Aicis so if I get any more visitors they'll have to share a tent with Au or sleep in the throne room.

After I was done setting up the tent, I placed an inflatable bed, a chair and a table in it for Au. I have three luxurious beds in total. I am currently sleeping on one. For the other two, one will be my spare and I'll give the other to Aicis. Aicis hates mortals but I am going to force her to serve me so I have to make some concessions. I don't want her to hate me too much.

When I told Au she could sleep in the fourth tent, she hit me with a large truth bomb. "Adult Xerxi do not sleep." She said. And she said it in a way that showed that she found it weird that I asked that question.

I wondered if the inhabitants that are on this side of the planet slept a while back but since they have eyelids and my subordinates collapsed when I passed the fifth-tier system to them, I assumed they do.

Turns out only their children sleep to repair their body tissues and grow but when they reach a certain point, their body starts losing its need for sleep. Just by resting for a while, they are able to gain all the benefits humans gain during sleep except dreaming.

I wonder how the fact that they do not dream affects them. Does it mean their creativity is below that of Earthlings, not to mention Soyzians? Or does it mean that while we are dreaming, they stay awake making what they would have dreamt come true? These are a few of the questions I couldn't ask Au.

Ansah can only give me information about things that I have already encountered so I couldn't ask her about how long the Xerxi have existed and also about their culture yet. I think I can ask for more information after I visit their country though.

After Au briefed me about the reason why they don't sleep, I told her I was going to sleep. "My Lord, You still sleep?", Au asked with a bewildered face.

"Of course, I do." I replied and went on to explain the wonders in dreams which is the main part of sleep that their biology doesn't provide.

After I was done talking with her, I went back to the first tent to sleep. While on the bed, I started thinking about the battles I had with my new subordinates. If they were all having the same level, Abre would be the strongest.

Abre can beat all of my subordinates except Urch and Zairitz. Urch can teleport away from him to avoid his attacks and Zairitz can simply order him to stand down and he would. Although Zairitz is the weakest among them all, she can use her authority to defeat them all.

If ever Abre and Urch get into a fight, Urch can run away by teleporting, but if he doesn't teleport away fast enough and Abre gets him, he is doomed. Since Urch's teleportation is a sight-based skill, Abre can charge at him wherever he teleports until Urch runs out of mana.

It will be hard to reach Urch with your attacks but, the mages will find it easier dealing with him as long as he chooses to stay and fight in a fair fight. If it's not a fair fight, Urch is more likely to win.

I would say, Lante is probably the second strongest if they are all on the same level. As it stands she should defeat every mage on her level but Ache is her natural enemy. Ache's attributes are boosted when he is cutting down trees and his skills revolve around powerful physical attacks which are Lante's weakness. Epei will also do well against Lante since he also uses powerful cutting attacks although they are not as powerful as Ache's. Epei is also fast making him formidable in his own way.

I'll give the third and fourth positions to Epei and Eu with Au right behind them. Epei has speed and powerful attacks but low defences while Eu has powerful defences with low speed and attack. Au is also powerful. One-on-one against Epei and Ache, she is more likely to win because she can burn them if they try to get close to her. Abre will simply pass through her flames and beat her anyway because of his resistances.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Ache will be sixth because although his attacks are powerful, he is slow with low defences.

For Urch, I can not rank him because of his fighting style. If you lock him in a room with any of the others with no chance of him teleporting away, he'll surely lose but if it is an open space, he won't lose even if he can't win. And as a sniper, his expertise is killing people who are not expecting him so he may even be able to kill me.

*******

As I was thinking about my new subordinates' strengths I drifted off into the land of dreams. I dreamt about my wife and I enjoying ourselves at the beach with our three-year-old daughter of ours. The daughter was very cute and I very much liked spoiling her in the dream.

But, it didn't last. I woke up exactly forty-seven minutes after I slept. I am losing my ability to sleep and I hate it. Or maybe I should put it this way. My stamina recovery is now so fast that I don't need to sleep to recover.

I sat on the bed and started thinking about how I'd be able to bring Nana here. Since she is my partner, I can share experience with her but she is currently in a different universe at a place where time has been slowed down. If I start giving her experience right now, she may receive it so fast that she may die.

I asked Ansah about the reason why I fainted when I levelled up so fast. Ansah explained that when a person levels up because they learned new skills or upgraded their skills, the growth is internal or you can say; it is growth tied to the soul.

When someone levels up by killing others, you can call it external growth as this time, you are growing by absorbing strength from outside so you can call it; growth tied to the body.

If either the soul or body far exceeds the other in strength, pressure is put on the other. As a Seed, I already have a very powerful soul so when I levelled up because of skills, my body couldn't keep up.

As long as you rest for a while after levelling either the soul or body up, the other side will adapt to the higher level one so the main problem is levelling up rapidly. I am currently coming up with a plan that will help me level up as fast as possible without putting myself in danger but before that, I have to spar with Juba.

*******

When I was initially going to battle Juba before she became my mount, I decided I'd use my second dummy armour which gives me plus eight hundred durability and two hundred speed. I also wanted to use a physical reinforcement spell that I learned to boost my physical stats and my second dummy sword which doubles my attack damage.

For now, since Juba is now my subordinate and she does not have a way to defend against my sword, I will not use a sword to battle her.

Because of how the first cheetah fought with me, I thought I would find it not too hard facing off against Juba but after fighting against Abre, I am starting to second-guess myself.

I walked outside my tent and invited Juba outside the barrier for a sparring match. Au also followed but stayed inside the barrier for security.

For this match, I decided I'll only use the skills that I had before Juba became my subordinate and the [Physical Reinforcement] skill I got from Abre. The [Physical Reinforcement] skill will be replacing the spell of the same name and the sword.

Since it was Juba that I was fighting, I didn't reduce my stats before the beginning of the match. She was fast but predictable. I didn't even need to [Movement Prediction] to predict the direction of her movement.

I gently moved aside when she tried to pounce on me at the beginning using both [Physical Reinforcement] and [Wind Haste] during that split second and kicked her to the side.

I could not afford to waste my mana so I only activated my skills when she approached and I must say, although she is quite fast, the fact that she can not stand upright is a great disadvantage of hers.

She could not deliver a flurry of punches like Abre. By lifting her front paws to swatt me, she is effectively slowed down or she outright has to stop running because of how her limbs are placed. When she jumped to attack, it simply made her an easy airborne target.

Maybe I found it easy fighting her because I had already fought another like her when I was weaker but I am starting to think speed alone isn't everything. Being fast but lacking sophisticated attacks doesn't help at all.

Your reaction speed which is dependent on your normal speed, your strength and how fast you think is very important in a fight and I exceed her in both strength and thinking speed so I was able to easily combat her although she far exceeded me in running speed.

*******

After the battle, I asked Ansah to pass my more enhanced skills down to my subordinates as long as it wouldn't let them level up by more than one. The skills to be passed down to each of them are the ones I got from each of them respectfully. Then I told Ansah to send them a message through the systems I gave them that the improved skills are my parting gifts for them.

Then, I sat on Juba and said to both of my subordinates; “We are going rabbit hunting.”