"Okay, stop it."
"Can't do. Now say Aaah~"
"Master, please say aaah~"
The morning after Arana's arrival, we were gathered at the dining room and both Lizzie and Skaly were trying to feed me.
"You two, please leave this to a pro. Come on Zaru, say Aaaaah~"
"You have no appeal Ari."
"Ack!" Ari, the demon lord feared by many, was gripping her heart as if it was in pain.
"Do you really thing you would have better luck in this then your daughter? Dream on."
"Zaru's words are as sharp as a holy sword, won't you tell him something master?" Ari looked at Hestia while breathing heavily.
"You should start the healing soon. It seems like she's loosing her mind too."
"Ack!" Ari fell back to her seat as if someone cut her strings.
"The food was amazing Haba. Now it's time to finish this," I ended the conversation and headed to the Throne room.
The magic circle was shining with pale white light. Lizzie stepped inside it and took out her staff.
"Darling, when I cast the spell and send the mana from the circle, please suply me with yours too."
"Okay."
I stood behind Lizzie and prepared the mana transfer.
"Alright. Show time. Reversal magic: True curse flip!!!" The magic circle instantly went off and enveloped Arana. In that moment, I sent my magic into Lizzie, through her heart and out of her hands to meet with Arana.
Right at that moment, pure white chains appeared around Arana and started to change to solid onyx color. As soon as the chains were completly turned, they dissapeared once again.
"Lizzie? You okay?"
Lizzie who was out of mana fell to the ground and I noticed something. The Demon lord's seal I engraved on her abdomen shot out streaks of black lines resembling roots of a tree. I quickly used «Identify» on her and found no bad status. Only her race now didn't read Azure elf, but Azure elf (Demonized).
'Huh? Can someone be demonized without Demon fruit?'
"Of course they can," an irritating voice spoke up.
""Goddess of demons"" I and Arana said in completly different tones.
"Heyo! I'm back! Now to answear your inner question. Yes people can be turned into demons if they give their body and soul to demon lord. Then just sprinkle a little magic on them and BAM! You have demonized person! Isn't that great?"
"Forever... with Zaru... heheh... heheh," Lizzie, while sleeping soundly smiled as lewdly as the previous night.
"She sure think so!" the goddess giggled.
"So? What do you want here? Did you came to mess around like last time?"
"Yeah, that slime was a fun one," the goddess looked away, "Well, anyway! You take this!" She hurled a black round object at Arana.
"Huh? A Demon fruit... that's such a precious gift... I'm sorry, but I can't accept it."
"Nuh-huh! This goddess doesn't accept refunds!" she crossed arms before her enormous chest and flew to me, looking me strightly from eye to eye.
"I also have something for you, kid," the goddess smiled and a silverish coin appeared on her hand, "Goddess of elves wished to thank you in person, but she can only come to mortal realm by being summoned so here the Elven coin."
"Th-thank you, but what does it do?"
"Oh, noting that important, it just allows you to summon Drows and other elvish variants."
Drows, fully demonized elves living only in the mortal plane. Not much is known about them except for the small information that they can use poison magic and are top notch constructors and inovators.
This coin in other words can summon something different then monsters.
"Is it really fine for me to recieve this?"
"Of course it is! She said that you can think of it as thanks in advance!" the goddess laughed again.
'Thanks in advance? I guess I don't want to know what will happen to us next.'
"Well, this is all I wanted so baiiiii~" she disappeared in black smoke.
"Zaru... No, Demon lord Zaru, you have my gratitude," Arana bowed her head lightly and the torso warrior, who finally grew small legs bowed as well. Well, his disproportion made him fall squarely on his nose and I had hard time supressing my laugh.
"I can't offer you much except of alliance, trade deals... or my body."
"Milady..." the bug torso mumbled his disapproval from the ground.
"Not happening! He's mine!" Lizzie instantly woke up and threw herself around my neck.
"Yeah! He's ours!" Yuki and Skaly added and jumped tacked my sides.
Haba watched this with andger in her eyes and Hestia chuckled.
"I'm fine with just the first two," I smiled from under my girls.
"Fufu, well I guess it would be hard to get among this three cute young wives," Ari smiled a little as if it was just a bad joke, but I felt her (Charm) spell getting resisted.
"From this day onward, Demon spider Queendom fully recognize Demon lord Zaru as an ally of the Demon spider Queendom and both sides vow to help the other in time of need. The queen of DSQ, Arana the Queen of nightmares, recognizes Snowy mountains as domain of the demon lord Zaru and his followers. That should do, right? Oh and we will need a signatures of you two. Hestia, as progenitor of all vampires would you add your sign too?" Lizzie read from the paper I prepared.
"I quess I should do at least this for my cute disciple. I'm also planning to live here so it works for me," Hestia shrugged and signed the paper under my and Arana's signatures.
In that moment, a knock on the doors brought us from continuing with trade deals.
"My lord, I bring you urgent matter!" Gobura entered the room. She had pale white skin and her eyes turned milky white. It wasn't becouse of sickness or anything, but becouse she evolved into [Cave goblin].
"What is it Gobura?"
"Sir... if you could..."
"Private?" To my question, she nodded.
"Okay. We will step out for a second," Arana nodded and stepped out followed by Hestia.
"Sir, we found several caverns that are irregular. Bulette's were eating through the bedrock and we found cave competly covered in moss. There was crawling ivy and some insect monsters too."
"If that's the case, then there must be Nature magic stone deposit. Those things are quite useful for druids and... hohoho... There is type of druid who can use insects these stones can be sold to them. Also we could use them to create Verdant staves or give them to Treich to use them in the agriculture... Oh, you said there were caverns, implying there is more then one correct?"
"Yes sir. There was a cavern covered in ice and one that have lava lake. Oh, here take these," Gobura continued and took out magic stones from her unlimited item box.
"Hmm... that's really diverse. More then I thought. There may be Fire stones and Ice stones. If we are lucky, then there will be even Flame pearls and Ice pearls."
'Pearls' are commonly called high purity magic stones that shine even without light hiting them. Pearls unlike Magic stones produce magic. The stones absorb mana in the air and when they are taken from their deposit they start lose it over time, of course this can be used in crafting magic tools. Staves made from Pearls can be even ten times stronger then same size magic stone staves for example.
"Okay. Showtime," I nodded and took out my dungeon core from table's drawer and pushed the coin I got from goddess of demons in it.
"Summon: Flammen, Glattian and Demoss" I chanted and summoned three flame covered elves with fox-like tails, the Flammens, four pale blue elves with werewolf-like stature, the Glattians, and lastly three elves with moss instead of hairs, the Demoss.
These three elf looking creatures are actually something between spirits and humanoids, broadly called fairies. 'Fairy' itself is a term used for half spirits-half humanoids. Technically speaking, the Sprites I summoned before should also be put in this group, but they are closer to pure spirits then fairies.
"Okay you guys. Go to the mine and bring me the magic stones in the three caverns. Gobura will lead you there."
"Yes sir!" the group saluted left the room and Arana came in their place.
"Good news?"
"Oh, yes. What would you say to start the bussiness talk?"
"Sure. So first thing I would like to offer to you are golem cores that are unique to us."
"Yes, I heard that your golem cores, while being made from one kind of material, able to create any type of golem."
"That is correct."
"Hm... that's quite a valuable asset. So what do you think about us sending you these as a payment?" I showed her three smaller stones that were still as big as an apple.
"Ma-magic stones?!" Arana was taken aback, "A-are you sure? Can we use them?"
"As long as apropriate price is paid," I smiled at her and we exchanged glances.
Magic stones can be used to strenghten armor and give it special abilities. That also works for natural armor of monsters of course. 'There is this mole-type demihuman that specializes in eating those if I remember correctly...'
"Okay, take this as paymen in advance!" Arana placed the Demon fruit on the table.
"Are you sure? These are quite valuable."
"This thing only brought me suffering so I would be rather if you take it from me. Plus it will take at least one year until you get your first one. This can be used to strenghten your defences."
"Okay. Do you have something you would like other then the magic stones?"
"That Azer's metalwork is high quality, I would definitely like to get some weapons made from magic iron."
"That should be doable," I nodded.
"Oh yeah, one more thing. What about sending ambasadors in our countries? My country don't like weaklings so it could also be a show of your strenght!"
"Yeah, that's a good idea. Skaly, bring me one of the adventurers we captured."
"Right away," Skaly nodded and run out of the room. In the mean time, I prepared a stone slab with rised sides, making it look like a pool with no drainage.
"The hell you doing you monster! Just wait until our reinforcements come here!" the adventurer shouted at Skaly who was clearly ignoring him. I used the [Dark cloak] spell to make myself look more evil and let Yuki open the door.
"Aiiiiiiiee!" the adventurer yelled with fear the moment he saw me.
"Pool," I ordered Skaly with single word, making myself look as cold as ice.
Skaly with nod pushed the adventurer in the pool and made him kneel.
"For the disrespect you've shown by entering my home uninvited, I, the demon lord of Snowy mountains Zaru sentence you to death," I stepped before the adventurer who was shaking uncontrolably with fear and rised his head by pulling his hairs.
I took out my dagger and stabbed it in his neck. The blood started gushing out and colored his wolf leather armor with dark red color. The adventurer soon fell down like a puppet with no strings.
"[Create undead: Death knight]" my cold words activated skill I got from my dungeon core in exchange for DP, Necromancy.
The pool filled with blood changed into black sludge which rised and made a cocoon around the dead adventurer. That was all it took to make him into a warrior with a giant sword in one hand and tower shield in the other hand.
"Death knight your name shall be Fret Norr'ga. I will send you to Demon spider queendom as an ambasador. Do your job well."
The death knight bowed and started to shine with dark gold color, a sign of evolution. The death knight got shorter and his shield shrunk as well. The sword became typical bastard sword and his body changed too. His helmet, now in his hands, was previously hiding pinkish gray hairs, purple eyes and ash-like gray skin. 'Just like Renzir, I see. But he doesn't look anything like that adventurer before.'
"My queen... is that what I think it is?" the bug warrior whispered in low voice.
"Unholy paladin. No doubt about it. This guy is really crazy sending this legendary monster as ambasador," Arana whispered back.
"A-are we doomed? Not even your thirteen generals can take on that thing without loosing 90% of their forces."
"I'm fully aware. Just make sure no one offends him okay?"
"Yes, my queen."
"What are you whispering about over there?" I asked.
"Oh, it's just that I don't think I have a subordinate on this level so I will have hard time choosing one."
'In the end, I'll probably have to send her... sorry Zaru, but I guess you will have to meet her sooner,' Arana thought.
"Well, I don't care who you send as long as they are not as crazy as that torso guy."
"Hehe, okay, you have my word that I will send someone more normal," Arana laughed and picked up the bug torso, "We will take our leave now, until next time, Zaru."
"Yes, until next time," I smiled and waved her on her way back.
***
"You were suprisingly cooperative, darling," Lizzie said as she rested her head on my shoulder.
"By having Arana in the dungeon, my DP broke through the roof," I laughed dryly.
"So... you can start summoning en masse?"
"Yes. It's time to build an army, but before we do, we will need have something to use it for."
"Hmm... between Ork kingdom, Fallboar city union and High elvish empire is small land that doesn't belong to anyone. What if we conquer it?" Lizzie smiled at me fiendishly.
"Oho. What an interesting idea, I heard that there are some Hill giants living there. All right! It's been decided! I will expand the Dungeon area to north from Yallo river spring!"
'You rather be prepared for when I get to you Black leaf. Becouse when I do, I will be even stronger then I already am.'