A man could be seen walking away from the Royal Audience Chamber. It was Clay, he had released his transformation. His black hair and eyes caught the attention of the soldiers, but they did not show much of a reaction. The whole palace had been informed of his ability to transform. His countenance had recovered a little compared to when he had arrived with an island-like piece of land above his shoulder, literally, as he carried the soldiers through this method, through the Forest of Death. The soldiers he carried were not happy when they arrived. Instead, they looked to the ground as if they could not face the people around them.
That was when everything was smoothed over by Giselle, the people gathered started clapping and lauded them as heroes who returned from the operation and successfully showed the demons that humans can't easily be bullied. To this welcome, the soldiers and their families cried tears of joy, and even those whose husbands and fathers were killed cried, but amidst their tears, there were smiles on their faces as they felt proud of their husbands and fathers!
"Amazing."
Clay thought sincerely. He had never been to war before, and he had never experience this much. However, he had somewhat of an experience playing videogames after all. So, it wasn't that he couldn't relate, it was just that he couldn't relate to a personal level.
On his way out of the palace, he was intercepted by Giselle.
"Lord Clay, what's our next move?"
"Giselle. That… well, I plan to just improve myself for the time being. Seeing as my level alone doesn't serve as an advantage against opponents on the same level or close to it. I've fought with the Grand Generals of the Demon Empire; do you know of them?"
"The Grand Generals?! Did you just say the Grand Generals, Lord Clay?"
"So, you know of them. Yes. I fought with them and since I found that fighting them altogether just by myself is pointless, I escaped their encirclement. Right now, I can probably fight and defeat them one-on-one, but four against one, that's pointless."
Giselle suddenly stopped walking with Clay and suddenly burst with energy to ask,
"Wait, wait, wait! You fought not one of the Grand Generals, but four? At the same time?!"
"That's what I said. Why are you so energetic?"
"Why?! You're asking, why, Lord Clay! The Grand Generals of the Demon Empire are legendary demons that paved the way to the creation of the Demon Empire, even though we are standing on opposite sides, their feats are worthy of respect! And among the powerhouses in the current era, only the Grand Generals have lived after fighting with a Hero in that tumultuous period, with the exception of their founder and leader, the first emperor of the Demon Empire."
"They're that great? Hmm. So, that's why they fought with such coordination that it gave me the feeling that they could read each other's minds instantly."
"I'm amazed that you can even escape from their grasp, Lord Clay!"
"Previously, I found Agamemkeru and feared his strength, however, after training straight for a few days, I reached a peak that even he could not and I regained my confidence, minus the hubris, I hope. So, I did not think of them less when I faced them and went all out. I guess that's how I left that place alive and even brought the survivors."
"Ah, that's right! It seems the captain of the soldiers that survived, I guess the acting captain then, wished to relay a message to you from every one of them."
Hearing this, Clay's face turned serious, and his eyes were full of pain and guilt. Noticing this, Giselle somewhat smiled and knew then that she saw something that made Clay seem human, just like the rest of them.
"What is it?"
"The acting captain, he's called Caltec. He wanted to relay a message from the bunch of survivors saying: 'If the Hero needs able and fearless men, we will gladly work under him! If he promises to do his best for humanity and for victory!' is what he said."
"Really?!"
Stunned, Clay stood rooted to the ground. Unmoving. As if a heavy weight was placed upon his shoulder just then. However, instead of feeling the burden, his expression showed relief, and enthusiasm.
"I… I will do my best!" he said in his heart.
"I will remember that, Giselle. Thank you for relaying the message."
"Of course. It's a small thing to do."
Clay left the palace after that and left Giselle standing there as she stared at the receding back of the Hero.
Unbeknownst to Clay, whatever it was that Giselle said, was perfectly placed lies that served to carry him out of the ditch that this incident would have pushed him under. Just the guilt that she observed then from his eyes, were enough for Giselle to understand that he indeed was fit to be the Hero. His heart was in the right place, but his power was given too suddenly and without any sort of struggles that came with acquiring it. Although, she also did not know what kind of pain and torture Clay had to go through for this strength hidden within him even from the god that bestowed him the blessing of a hero here in Alleucanth.
"I pray he'll develop to our greatest ally, not our worst nightmare, Lord Clay."
Clay was out of the kingdom. He held a map and on it were points of interest that were marked by Sunshine. They were kingdom owned dungeons fit for training. Now, Clay knew that leveling up was not the answer to their current predicament, however, only by going to places where even world-breaking forces cannot break, could he hope to practice techniques and disciplines that he himself has to research thoroughly first before applications are made in reality.
After all, there were cultivation techniques, magic, psionics, and even martial arts that need time and place for practice. Clay chose the nearest dungeon that was a constant source of worry for the whole of Acadria because of its frequency in spilling. The term Spilling was coined for when the dungeon's population grew too numerous inside that the weakest among them are spit out by the dungeon ruler.
This results in tragedies when things like this happen without their knowledge. To prevent this, the kingdom set up a perimeter to monitor this dungeon's activities. The dungeon in question is called, Arimatea. This name came from the monsters that it spits out, Arimartos. They were monsters that seemed like a combination of ants and some other bugs. They were labeled as C-Class monsters when isolated, but when they gather in groups of at least five, they become A-Class monster threats. When they start to gather five times that of the A-Class classification of the Arimarti, their rank also increases to S-Class monsters. And that is when at least a legion is needed for its extermination.
Clay chose this place, primarily to train, and to constantly have practice dummies in the form of Arimarti. Upon confirming his target location, Clay moved at full speed. Friction couldn't even act on him as he directly escaped this physical phenomenon in the dust. After discovering that FTL movement was possible and that what he was doing was already FTL movement, Clay further reinforced his distinction of how powerful the Grand Generals had been. For them to be able to keep up with his speed in their previous battle, proves this point. And knowing that they all were almost at the peak of this world's power structure also gave Clay an idea as to how this world is locked by a force that disables further growth in strength. Heroes were no exception to this rule.
"I have to find a way to bypass the restriction on growth within this world. And to do that, I have to start my research from scratch. I'll need a lot of materials for it."
Meanwhile, within the Demon Empire, before Clay started his training. After the meeting of the powerhouses on how to deal with the hero and the central continent's humans.
"In the end, our hands are tied. If we wish to deal with the humans, then we better be prepared for the hero to use any means necessary in exacting vengeance. And if that happens, then we, the coalition of all races would effectively have created our worst nightmare. Unless we can catch him and kill him, which is something close to impossible." The Elf Keeper said.
"This is correct. That is why, we will only continue to pressure the humans and blame them for breaking the taboo. This way, we can slowly whittle away at their economy, and their solidarity. Once a chink in their faith in the hero presents itself, we can pounce at it to give them bigger wounds!" the King of the Beastman Prairie agreed and suggested.
"That is also a good strategy. However, this would take time. And time, is not something we have the luxury of. That hero is already, as suspected, MAX level. So, there's no worry about him becoming even more unstoppable. What we should be afraid of, is the means by which they can develop high-level, to even powerhouse-level local forces to match out numbers. That is the real problem!" the Dragonborn Saint narrowed his eyes as he pictured the scenario.
"Hear, hear!" the Dwarven Paragon yelled out.
"We, the four Grand Generals of the Demon Empire will try to rattle the humans well, as we border each other's territories, but more than that, we just cannot execute. If this becomes a genocidal war, then we all will be the ones to suffer. After all, the human hero is not of this world. Even if he abandons the humans, he will lose nothing!" Agamemken laid out a truth that hurt them all.
"This is why heroes were banned. How dare the humans summon one without just cause! Arrgh!" the Dwarven Paragon complained in frustration!
"We shall end our little strategy meeting here for now. There's nothing to be had even if we continue talking about this. For the time being, is it agreed upon by the coalition that we will continue to pressure the humans without involving innocents?"
"Aye!" everyone agreed.
"Then, we shall dismiss. Continue to share relevant information through our secret channels."
"Will do!"
Although this coalition looked peaceful and cooperative, each races' powerhouse was thinking of selfish plans and totally despised each other. They may have been cordial to each other but that was only forced by the circumstances. If not for the threat of the hero, they would all go at each other's throats at a moment's notice. In a way, Clay's presence had truly forced them to unite against a common enemy this time. That is, until the time when they shall begin to devour each other.
The powerhouses and their escorts returned to their respective territories and continents. And in time, peace returned to the world as if nothing happened. That is, only in their own territories. The human kingdoms and more importantly the human empire had been put into the spot because of the pressure it was receiving from the races.
More than 3 months since Clay arrived in this world. Arimatea, the dungeon belonging to Acadria. Within the dungeon, was a space that was dedicated to alchemy. In this space, Clay stood as he brewed, extracted, concocted, decocted, dissolved, fused and diffused alchemical essences.
Tok, tok, tok.
Footsteps rang out as metal boots made clanging sounds throughout the dungeon floor. It was a soldier who came. This soldier was perceptively powerful. His aura was of a high-level being, one who stands below the peak of power in this world. It was Caltec, the acting captain of the soldiers that survived Clay's operation towards the Demon Empire a few months prior.
Behind him were two others. They were Jon, and Mor. Two younger soldiers who also fortunately survived the slaughter in the Demon Empire. Right now, they exuded the same pressure as Caltec.
"We're back, master!"
Caltec, Jon, and Mor kneeled towards Clay who was busily fusing ingredients into the constantly boiling pot of alchemical brew.
"How goes the effect of the latest dan?"
Clay got to the point. He didn't even acknowledge their kneeling and bow. In his heart, they were forcing themselves on him by calling him master. He was not their master. At least, not that he accepted them under his wings. The hundred or so survivors of the operation he planned then all signed up to be assistants to Clay in his quest, whatever it was. They even volunteered to be used as guinea pigs for alchemical research pills to be tested on instead of criminals on death row.
This move, greatly distressed Clay, and even infuriated him enough that he came barging into the palace to receive an explanation from Gracius vi Acadria. However, he was convinced not by the king but by the soldiers themselves. As their gamble, they wished that Clay would succeed rapidly so that they don't die too fast during the experiments. However, they won out in their gamble, as Clay, instead of not worrying about those who would take his researched dans, or pills, began to carefully, almost with obsessive compulsive perfectionist attention to detail, gave it his all-in developing medicines, boosters, and even attribute enhancers.
"This batch of pills used on the retired veterans of the kingdom netted us a force of more than half a million reserved military personnel, master! Those veterans who were forced to retire because of incapacity to fulfill their duties due to lost limbs and other deformities and invalidities, were restored to their peak. The only side-effect collectively expressed by the subjects is the almost tangible bloodlust they displayed."
"Bloodlust? That's not part of the pill formula's effects at all. How did it develop like so?"
"Pfft!" "Snicker!"
The two others couldn't hold their laughter as they listened to the master and the would-be-disciple captain of theirs' conversation. They had advised, Caltec not to mention the bloodlust because clearly it wasn't a side-effect but an expression of their willingness to use their bodies to defend the kingdom and humanity again, given the chance they had again. However, Caltec seemed to want to earn cookie crumbs with Clay by reporting a 'possible' side-effect. And now, as expected, they couldn't hold their laughter.
Noticing their laughter, Clay narrowed his eyes towards Caltec and sighed.
"You're making this up again to earn some sort of recognition from me? I told you, your help is appreciated, all of you hundred or so soldiers. However, don't ask to be my disciples or whatever. I have no intention of teaching you all the dangerous things I've learnt and am learning." Clay paused there as he continued his thoughts in his mind, "at least not until I know it can be transmitted safely among humas in this world."
"Master…!"
"Enough! You don't need me as your master. Go to dungeons, take my pills, develop yourselves to the point when you can stand toe-to-toe with me, then and only then will you be ready to take on the name of being my disciples."
Clay said these things, one, to encourage them t strive to reach the peak of this world rapidly and without foundational problems, and two, so that even if they failed to, they won't be too disappointed when they called him master and couldn't deliver.