While a Dominator could see the status of his slaves, he couldn't see them all at the same time. If that were possible, it would be a completely unmanageable amount of information. So it was an important step for him to learn to filter that information to only see the crucial things.
"Hm? Erika's signal is gone." As blade-like claws bit into him, Yuuki Tachibana received a warning from his Slave Management skill.
Standing in front of him was a four-armed monster, perhaps best described as some sort of insect-human hybrid. Covered in a lustrous black shell, it stood about three meters tall. It was more than strong enough to cut through an ordinary human with ease, but its attacks barely scratched Yuuki.
"As expected of my master! Even monsters on the one hundredth floor are no match for you!"
They were now in the depths of a ruin near Hanabusa. Yuuki had come here to test out his strength, but in the end, none of the enemies could provide enough of a challenge to actually be useful test subjects, so the entire experience was something of a letdown.
Off to the side, one of his upper-tier slaves, Stephanie, was getting excited. Her wavy brown hair framed a charming face, but Yuuki's interest was more in her sensual body.
"This guy is about level one thousand, right?" he said. "I guess this is what you would expect for being ten times their level."
Yuuki's own level had reached ten thousand. An ordinary human was typically level one to five. Those who hunted monsters for a living would make it to around level fifty, and those who trained themselves to the ultimate extreme had a limit of ninety-nine. Anything beyond that required a special class.
Dominator was one of those special cases. Yuuki had reached level ten thousand without even expending much of his own effort. He defeated monsters by using his slaves, gaining experience and money from each of them, which he then used to purchase more slaves.Taking control of a group of bandits, he had attacked trade caravans and conquered whatever cities and villages he could find that didn't have the protection of the Sages, making their inhabitants into his slaves as well. Whenever he was able to get the defeated monsters close to death without finishing them off, he made them into familiars to boost his army as well. Even small animals and insects were drafted into his ever-growing troops.
This was all set up to happen automatically. As the cycle continued successfully, he gained more and more new slaves at an incredible rate.
"Who...are you?!" The beetle man jumped back, raising his voice in confusion. It must have found the existence of a human who could defeat it to be unbelievable.
"Interesting. I didn't know there were monsters that could speak."
"Once they surpass a certain level, monsters acquire a degree of intelligence and are able to comprehend human speech," Euphemia explained, standing beside Stephanie. For this expedition, he had brought only those two along with him.
Euphemia belonged to a race known as half-demons, characterized by their darker skin and bright silver hair. He had acquired her by raiding a village in the Haqua Forest. Among the half-demon slaves he had picked up there, she'd stood out as being particularly attractive, and so was made into an upper-tier slave.
"Ahh. Maybe it has some use as a lower-tier slave, then."
Yuuki had divided his slaves into upper, mid, lower, and labor tiers. As he couldn't manage all of the slaves on his own, he had set up this system so that the higher-level slaves could manage the lower-level ones. But his number of slaves had long since surpassed a point at which even four ranks was sufficient. He would have to overhaul the entire system soon.
"A slave?! How dare you?!"
"Uhh, Flare Bomb. How is that?" Yuuki carelessly spoke the spell.
A Dominator possessed skills only for controlling and managing slaves. But among those was a skill that allowed him to borrow his slaves' abilities. In short, Yuuki could use any skill possessed by any one of his slaves.
The beetle man spontaneously exploded, the impact tearing a hole through its chest and blowing off its limbs, leaving only its head and torso to collapse to the ground. Leisurely stepping forward, Yuuki placed his foot on the head of the creature.
"Contract." Bringing it close to death, and with his foot on the monster's head, he used the Contract skill. With that, his control was established.
"Heal." As Stephanie spoke her own magic, the creature's mangled body began to reconstitute itself. She was a Healer, whose power was further enhanced by Yuuki's own. Healing injuries like this was trivial for her.
"How many levels are there in this ruin?"
"One hundred and fifty levels," the creature responded instantly.
"All right, then. Head down to the bottom level and gather as many allies as you can along the way. If you get through all of them, return to the surface and do the same thing in the forest."
"Understood."
The monster immediately left to carry out its orders. For vague commands like these, there was room for the slaves to use their own discretion in executing the orders.
"I came here to test my strength, but it seems there isn't anything here strong enough to do that for me."
Yuuki figured if he just increased his level without getting any practical experience, he might run into problems down the line. That was the reason for his expedition into the ruins, but at this rate, the whole venture seemed completely pointless. At first, he'd been interested in seeing the ruins of a culture from a world other than his own, but after a hundred levels of the same scenery, he had grown tired of it.
"Your combat is on a completely different plane of existence, Master. Surely you would be better served reigning as a king over your troops rather than doing the fighting yourself."
"So what happened to Erika?"
Yuuki had the slaves he was particularly interested in join his Bodyguard Unit. For this expedition, he had brought only two of them. The remaining three, of which Erika was one, had been told to wait in the hotel.
Yuuki reviewed Erika's action log. Concealing her weapons, she had left the top floor of the hotel, heading to the fifth floor in search of Tomochika Dannoura's room. Using a skill to conceal herself, she had hidden near the room. The action log didn't show Erika's intentions, but she must have been waiting for Tomochika to step outside.
After waiting patiently for a significant amount of time, eventually Yogiri Takatou had come out of the neighboring room. He had looked directly at her, and nowhere else, despite the fact that she should have been invisible. At that point, Erika's consciousness had abruptly cut off."Hm? I have no idea what happened. She just died? Was she hit from behind?" The action log only recorded the senses of the slaves themselves, so he couldn't see anything outside of her own line of sight. It was highly likely she had been struck from behind, but if so, there had been no warning at all of such an attack.
"That is rather baffling. Erika's class was Assassin, and she was a member of the forest tribe. Furthermore, she had received even more strength from you, Master. Even if there is a faint chance she could be bested in one-on-one combat, to think that she could be assassinated this way defies belief."
Assassins possessed an Alertness skill, which allowed them to be aware of what was happening outside of their own fields of vision, and there was no way Erika would have failed to use it while waiting to launch an ambush.
"Why was she in front of Dannoura's room in the first place?"
A slave was completely unable to disobey orders, but was free to act on his or her own volition outside of that. The slave's actions were generally still in the service of his or her master, but there was no way of knowing what Erika had specifically planned to do without asking her.
"If I may share my conjecture," Euphemia said politely, waiting for permission.
"Go ahead."
"You said you intended to make Miss Dannoura your lover. I would imagine that is the reason."
"Why would she be waiting outside her room because of that?"
"One possibility is that she thought Miss Dannoura was unworthy of you, so she decided to eliminate her. Another possibility is that she intended to kidnap Miss Dannoura for you."
"But a slave isn't supposed to bring harm to their master, right? Do you really think she'd kill someone that I've shown an interest in?"
"If she believed that it was in your best interest, I imagine she would."
"I see. So if I don't specifically tell her not to, she might do things on her own that I don't actually want her to do."
"That is correct. With each individual slave's ideas of what is best for you, there is a possibility their actions may run counter to your wishes."
So not everything would always go according to plan. Yuuki made sure to keep that in mind for later.
"Well, now that she's dead, we'll never know. She was quite expensive, though."
"If you wish for more of the forest tribe, there are a number of settlements nearby. It may be prudent to launch an attack now."
"More settlements like yours, huh? Sounds like you might have a bit of an ulterior motive."
"Absolutely not. I was simply stating a fact," Euphemia bowed her head deeply as she spoke.
"Well, I don't really care. I guess I'll just get Riza or Chelsey to do Erika's job. Go retrieve Dannoura for me." Riza and Chelsey were still in the hotel. Yuuki immediately sent them their instructions.Someone had died right in front of Tomochika's room...which meant she would likely be leaving that room behind rather soon. And whatever the method, Yuuki intended to have Tomochika Dannoura for himself.
As a Dominator, the idea that there were women beyond his grasp was unthinkable. At the same time, he felt it was unbecoming of someone of his stature to act desperate for a single woman. That was why he had stepped back for a time. But now that Erika had died, he didn't care anymore. A Dominator always had to have the best women around him. Yuuki would need to find someone to replace Erika.
"Do you believe Miss Dannoura could be responsible?"
"Who knows? But once I've got control of her, maybe we'll have a better idea. For now, just bring her outside the city."
Within the city, thanks to the protection of the Sages, the abilities of the Gift bestowed by the Sages were restricted. His contract of control could only be used beyond the city limits.Yuuki and his entourage made their way to the elevator leading out of the ruins. By the time they reached the surface, Tomochika would be in his hands. He had no reason to doubt that would be the case.