"..."

"Two days ago, out of boredom, I was kneading Slime."

"Yesterday, again, out of boredom, I was kneading Slime."

"Today, with nothing else to do... Murphy oh Murphy, supposed to be the beacon of hope for the demonic race, how did you end up lazing about? Today we must... forget it, let's just knead some Slime and decide tomorrow."

Back in the demonic court, Murphy finds himself trapped in a stagnant cycle of idleness. Not because there aren't things to do, but rather the current to-do list is all filled up.

The pestilent swamps, barren hillocks, and dark giant tombs surrounding the low-ranking demons have been sowed by the lower demons with crop seeds that Murphy and his crew brought back. Whether the seeds will be poisoned by the demonic terrain or grow unpredictably, only time will tell.

Led by Tyre, the succubi are on a strange cosmic research endeavour. Werewolves and ghosts are also executing their respective assigned tasks. As for the other demons, Murphy is yet unsure what purpose they can serve. After all, progress is to be made step by step. With the demons' resources currently close to nil, one wrong step can mean losing hold of the future.

So, during this rare free time, Murphy lies on the grand bed in the devil's palace, playing with a cat while awaiting his crew of demons to report their progress.

Alright, a substantial part of that was made up- for instance, there's no bed in the devil's palace, and Murphy doesn't own a cat.

Lying on the palace floor, Murphy is dabbling with the rainbow Slime in his hand, musing about how once the demons are back on track, there should be plenty more time like this. He should find something to do for himself.

The Rainbow Slime, an extraordinarily rare variant within its family, was relieved of its janitorial duties post-Murphy's arrival. Relying on its harmless appearance and extreme rarity, it has managed to secure the esteemed position of top mascot within the demon race.

During the many idle days, Murphy spends his time mostly playing with the Slime.

Murphy even sketched a cat that closely resembles a real one with his amateur drawing skills, and instructed Slime to morph into that.

However, the Slime that was still currently only able to eat dust in the corner， it was not even level 3 yet and did not have that skill. ItIt is entirely possible for it to be accidentally trampled to death by a high-level demon. It really had no idea at all how to transform.

While Murphy lies listless in the demon king's palace, Tyre makes his entry into the court to find Murphy sprawled on the floor.

"Your Majesty, our research has made some progress. Would you like to inspect it?"

"Is it the 'useless' crystals?" Murphy suddenly perked up.

The term "useless" for the crystals, which were yet to appear, was introduced by Tyre after he heard Murphy's description. Before his plan ran its full course, Murphy had no sagacity to rename it. Despite the backing of the demon king's panel, Murphy still had a cursory understanding of magic item crafting and couldn't fully ensure the smooth progression of the plan.

"Yes, it is." Tyre pulled out a cut crystal and devotedly handed it over to Murphy.

Because it was a prototype, the edges of the crystal were still very sharp, and it looked somewhat similar to the raw crystal ore.

Murphy grabs the crystal and infuses it with magic. Once the infused magic reaches a certain level, the crystal diffuses a soft light, forming a clear image.

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"Sizzle."

"Brother, have you started recording?" The voice belonged to Tyre's sister, Neil, a girl who appeared in the image projected by the crystal.

"It's started. Do you have anything to say? This crystal will probably be shown to His Majesty if there's no hitch."

"Hello Your Majesty, I'm Neil and I hope to travel to the human kingdom in the future. Goodbye, Your Majesty."

“Beep”

Murphy looks at the innocuously faced male succubus.

"That... is it?"

"That's really it. A crystal can theoretically record about ten minutes if magic is continuously infused. Provided we have enough time, we can still further improve it."

"So, why are there only a few sentences?"

"My sister was in a hurry to go out and play."

"Tsk." Murphy looked contemptuously at this male Succubus who, due to his doting affection towards his sister, was wholly obedient to her wishes.

"Alright, I'm quite satisfied with its current function. Ten minutes footage can allow us to do a lot of things."

"As for the directions for improvement, you're aware that these items are to be sold to the human nobility, correct?"

Upon hearing this, Tyre nods.

"What do humans appreciate the most? They love exclusivity. Even a golden-edged toilet bowl, as long as it's one of a kind, there will likely be a noble desiring it. So the first thing you need to do is to purify the crystal. Look at this one, there are still black specks inside. We won't be able to sell it like this."

"After purification, we need to dye it. Any colour would do. Just make sure the dye is evenly spread and try to make each of them different from one another. That way, people will like it."

"Now comes the processing of the crystal. Whether it's incorporating more cuts or molding it into various shapes, making it into pendants and such is also a good option. The key is to make it unique and attractive so that the nobility can't resist it."

"That's about it. Take your time. We'll release these good items little by little. There will be those businessmen helping us out."

"Ah, it's advantageous to have connections. Selling items through these human merchants not only aids us in maintaining these relationships butalso hides our existence. Retaining safety through anonymity before a compulsory exposure is a good thing, the only minor caveat is that we might earn a tad bit less. But that's trivial when compared to the larger picture."

Tyre pulled out a small notebook to note down Murphy's requirements, after which both of them continued to test the crystal.

Murphy withdraws his magic and instead funnels his vitality into the crystal, which also activates it as expected.

After repeated attempts, Murphy perceives changes in the crystal's projected image. The image quality seems to have gone from 4k Blu-ray to a 1080p display.

Throughout the enduring torment that the crystal endured from the pair, both image clarity and sound quality gradually deteriorated. When the clarity fell to around 480p, the crystal emitted a snapping sound, unable to bear the load, and subsequently turned into sparkling dust and scattered.

"It appears to be quite durable. For now, just proceed according to the improvement directions that I mentioned before. Now, I'm going to show you a great treasure that I found."

Murphy led Tyre to a room, which he had stumbled upon during his idle days. Opening the door, they saw books scattered all over the room. Nimbly maneuvering around these obstacles, Murphy approached a bookshelf covered with a cloth. He pulls it off forcefully, revealing the contents of the three-tiered bookshelf.

"Introduction to Succubus Techniques (One) — Motion Chapter"

"Useful Succubus Skills- A Summary"

"Insights on the Work of a Succubus"

"Memoir of the Chaotic Era"

Tyre, seeing book after book on the bookshelf, was completely flabbergasted. He picked up the closest book to him, "Memoir of the Chaotic Era". Upon flipping the opening page, he found that it read:

"Dictated: Anita

Collated: Raphael

"May I ask, who is Raphael?"

"It's the old demon king, a name with quite the artistic flair, how could you not know?"

"And who is Anita?"

"Through my investigation into the succubus lineage, it can be fairly certainly concluded that Anita is your great-grandmother, the one in the portrait."

Looking at the similarly styled books on the three-tiered bookshelf, Tyre's voice wavered, "Your Majesty, these aren't all..."

"Indeed, half the books on this shelf were written by your great-grandmother. Some of the rest were co-written by her, and a few were compiled by others, like the one you're holding."

Tyre had never imagined that his influential great-grandmother was also an author with a list of works as long as her arm.

"It seems that the old demon king had foreseen you losing your craft during peacetime, so he diligently compiled these books." Murphy pointed to the scattered books on the side, "there are books from other races as well, though the succubi's are in the majority, probably because your race requires more skill."

Murphy pulled out "Introduction to Succubus Techniques (One) — Motion Chapter" and "Useful Succubus Skills- A Summary", then tossed them over to Tyre, "Off we go then, I'm going to give them a lesson in the realm of sleep."