Outskirts of the Belmont Empire.
"Yosh!!" Isla knelt at the edge of the running stream, her hands digging into the water before she pulled it close to her mouth to drink.
"Ahh finally, water to drink…." she uttered with relief, "Hey you guys should try it out, it's clean."
"Don't mind if I do!" Terra immediately dropped the load she was carrying and ran towards Isla.
The rest of the elves were already settled on the ground, resting from the day's walk.
"You guys are tired already?!" Yelled Lumin, safely being held in Alpha's hands.
"Lord Luminnnnnnn…" Ruxy cried out, "Are we not there yet? My legs are starting to ache real bad." She massaged her thighs.
"I…think I already died a while back…maybe…" Melfi muttered under her breath, her head resting on the tree.
Lumin sighed.
'System, how far have we gotten?'
[You are currently an hour away from the Belmont Empire, and 30 mins away from the Sovereign land.]
'Hmm, in other words, we will soon be out of this forest.'
[Correct.]
[80% of the sovereign land is also occupied by trees and bushes.]
'Sigh, we are leaving one forest, to step into another… at least that one is closer to a kingdom, so we'll take it.'
Grrr!
Melfi's stomach rumbled.
She immediately looked away, her cheeks red with embarrassment, "S–sorry, I guess I'm hungry and all."
He had no choice.
"Okay, we'll camp out here tonight, we are almost close to our destination so you don't have to worry, relax." Lumin voiced for them to hear.
A smile glued to their face now that they knew they were going to rest.
It had been three days since they decided to leave the Forest of Disaster, and in those three days, each one of them had experienced multiple near death experiences, but somehow, they had always been able to come out on top— mostly thanks to Lumin's interference.
Now, it was night time, and the girls had begun to set up camp tents that Lumin had graciously taught them, using tree branches and skims from the monsters killed.
They were all sitting around the fire, patiently waiting for Pimo to finish roasting the meat; in the group, the brown haired elf, Pimo was the only one who could cook well, and she was the shortest.
Settled a bit far away from the group was Lumin, observing them from afar, while also handling his newly acquired skills.
[Skills:
Unique Skills: Mana Absorption, Predator, Mana Amplifier, Soul Dominion.
Core Skills: Advanced Regeneration, Enhanced Mana Sense, Light Sensitivity, Mimicry, Water Dash, Advanced Mimicry, Mana Manipulation, Weapon Assimilation, Curse Resistance, Blade Mastery, Aimbot, Superhuman, Lust poison.
Offensive Skills: Lightning Strike, Elemental Manipulation, Size Control, Weather Manipulation, Vine Bind, Barrier of Aegis, Slime control, Counter, Multi form.
Ultimate Skills: Devour, Soul bind, Beast summoning, Subordinate.
-Other Skills: Undead Army, Death Aura, Thermo vision.]
'Ahh nice, I got the thermo thingy, I didn't think I'd get it after killing that monster, but I guess Predator is very effective.'
[All eight of your Subordinates have also been linked to the soul dominion, their growth will speed up 10x more than they were supposed to.]
'Sweet, I should consider myself a cheat code for these girls… wait, does that mean at some point they could grow even stronger than me?'.
His answer was left unanswered as a voice interrupted,
"Hey Master, what are you doing here all by yourself?" Beta asked, walking towards him in her leaf outfit.
Lumin turned his attention to her, since he was on a small rock and Beta was standing, he could get a good look of her –
'Yooo, nah she isn't wearing anything under there! I'm being flashed.'
"Master?"
"Uhm? Come, come sit next to me."
A smile formed on Beta's face before she happily sat beside the Blop, her gaze now fixed on him.
Pheeww~
"What did you ask again?" Lumin turned his full body to her.
"Beta asked why you weren't eating with us? You should come take your share before they finish it." Beta said to him with genuine care.
"I would, but I don't have a mouth or teeth to do that—" Lumin used his pseudos to point at his face, "So eating is a big no no".
"Ah… if Master can't eat, then Beta won't either. She's not really an elf, so she doesn't need food, only mana."
'Right, I always forget she was born from the Olf egg, for someone seeing the world for the first time, she sure doesn't seem all that excited.'
"Beta, do you want me to tell you a story?" Lumin suddenly asked.
"What kind of story?!" Beta leaned closer to the Blop, her expression filled with anticipation.
"The story about a huge war that took place in a far far distant universe." Lumin said with a dramatic flare— he wanted to let her enjoy the thrills of the world, and a story was the only thing that came to mind.
"Beta wants to hear, she has only ever heard of the war that took place a few hundred years back, but she doesn't remember… so tell her war, she likes it!"
She beamed like a little kid.
Heheh~
In his previous life, he was a traditional writer for a small organization, so storytelling had always been a part of him.
"It all started when a famous mister of a country was assassinated… and the people of that country weren't happy about it…"
As Lumin continued the story, Beta listened attentively, her eyes solely fixed on him as if nothing else in the world mattered.
Lumin continued on with the stories, fabricating lies from different anime and mangas he had read, and merging it with the little knowledge he had on world war 2.
It didn't take long for the rest to catch on.
They all gathered around him, listening to their master tell them tales of worlds they had never heard of before.
Though it started with wars, he then moved on to tell them about the amazing things he did before he found them — from making high programmed devices, to moving people in boxes.
Every tale he told them all defined him as the smartest man to walk the earth, and this only made their affection grow bigger.
Their master, Lumin, was really an amazing person.
But they had no idea, the stories he portrayed were simply fabricated lies.