“Where are we?” I followed Hill through the castle’s winding corridors until we finally reached a space on the third basement level. Unable to hold back my curiosity, I asked.
“The core chamber of the Demon King's Castle.” Hill gave a brief answer, then opened the mechanical security door in front of us.
Once the security door had fully opened, a grand hall came into view. Dozens of white jade pillars carved with beautiful patterns supported the magnificent dome overhead. The walls on all four sides glowed blue, brightly illuminating even this underground space more than ten meters below the surface. Smooth, neatly laid obsidian tiles covered the floor, and an intricate magic circle had been poured onto them in silvery-white molten metal. It immediately caught the eye.
But soon, a huge mechanical device drew all my attention. It stood in the center of the hall like a tower connecting the dome to the depths below. Its black-and-white metal surface was covered in deep, delicate patterns, as if every component had been crafted with the utmost precision.
A dark golden crystal floated quietly above a hollow in the center of the device. Threads of light flowed across it from time to time.
For some reason, I felt as if I were looking at a beating heart. The magic circles, the machinery, even the entire hall were like the heart’s blood vessels, constantly pumping blood through the whole castle—or rather, the entire Dark World.
“This is the Heart of Herentis, the supreme divine artifact of the Dark Faction. Your Majesty, you can try controlling it.”
Hill’s voice sounded beside me.
Control it?
I looked at my own pale palm, then up at the floating dark golden gem. Hesitantly, I reached out.
But it didn’t take long for me to notice a serious problem.
“Um… Hill, give me a boost.”
The height difference was painfully obvious. I covered my face with one hand.
I shook my head and refocused on the dark golden gem in front of me. With Hill’s help, I could easily reach out and touch its surface.
A dazzling golden light burst from the gem, instantly flowing through the entire mechanical device, the magic circle, and the walls. Like a switch being flipped, it lit up the whole core chamber.
Before I could even figure out what was happening, a silver-colored screen suddenly appeared in front of me.
【Heart of Herentis】【Level 1】
Bound to: The Nineteenth Demon King
Energy: 200
Existing structures: Obsidian Castle, Warehouse, Eternal Tree
The panel was very simple, with no extra information at all. I couldn’t help feeling a little puzzled. “Hill, that’s all it shows.”
“Your Majesty, there should be blueprints for the starting structures in your inventory.”
I couldn’t help making a small quip about how even a Demon King could use a player’s inventory. Still, I did as Hill said and tossed the three blueprints from my inventory into the mechanical device.
As the blueprints vanished in streaks of light, a new line appeared beneath the simple panel.
Structures available to build: Dark Bat Nest, Slime Nest, Green-Skin Monster Nest
Curious, I clicked on one at random, and detailed information about the structure appeared.
Dark Bat Nest
Category: Monster Nest
Capacity: 2,000
Construction cost: 30 energy
Can hatch: Dark Bat (99%), Dark Bat Elite (1%)
Hatching requirements: Energy, dark element
The information for the other two nests was much the same.
“These are all basic monster nests. They can hatch monsters from the Dark Faction. The numbers indicate the hatching probabilities. Your Majesty can also spend extra energy to hatch elites. Each monster requires specific materials in addition to energy. You can obtain these materials by gathering from resource points, defeating groups of wild monsters, challenging bosses, and so on.”
“Huh? You can see all this too, Hill?”
“Yes. But only Your Majesty can control the Heart of Herentis.”
Hill continued, “Besides joining Your Majesty’s army, monsters can also be sent from the teleportation room to monster gathering grounds in the Light Faction. But first, Your Majesty must use the Dark Erosion ability granted by your Demon King powers to create a domain in the Light Faction’s world.”
“What are these monster gathering grounds for, then?” I could more or less guess what Hill meant by them.
They were probably what people called leveling spots. It sounded pretty fun for a Demon King to have a power like that.
“Monsters defeated by players in the gathering grounds will turn back into energy and return to their nests, without losing any energy in the process. In fact, they’ll even generate a little extra. For example, each Dark Bat costs 0.05 energy to hatch, but when it’s defeated, it returns about 0.052 energy.”
Wasn’t this just one of those wicked idle-progression games?
The thought crossed my mind, and I immediately lost some of my enthusiasm.
But Hill’s next words made my eyes light up again. “If an adventurer is defeated by a monster or takes damage beyond a certain threshold, energy is returned based on the adventurer’s level. The conversion rate is higher than with the first two methods. If an adventurer’s dropped equipment isn’t picked up within a certain time, it will likewise be converted according to a set rate—or reclaimed and sent to the Demon King's Castle warehouse.”
“So I should make sure they take as much damage as possible or get defeated, right?”
“That depends on what Your Majesty chooses.”
The first method was certainly more relaxing, but energy seemed like an important resource. At that rate, the Dark Faction would be overtaken by players before it had a chance to develop. The second method seemed much faster.
Besides, beating players sounded like a lot of fun. I was the Demon King, after all. There was nothing wrong with doing that.
Still, figuring out the best way to give players a hard time was worth thinking about.
“Let’s hatch a monster first and see how it goes.”
After choosing to build a Dark Bat Nest, I followed Hill’s instructions and started spending energy at the Eternal Tree to hatch sprites.
A Dark Bat only took 0.05 energy to hatch, but one sprite cost a whole point. Since they were the only source of production for the Demon King's Castle at the moment, I could only puff out my cheeks and spend 20 energy.
On the screen projected by the Heart of Herentis, little black balls of light soon began emerging from beneath a towering tree that glowed faintly. They made me think of plump little dumplings.
We were the Dark Faction, so why was the art style so cute? Could it be because I was in underage mode?
I couldn’t help making that little complaint as I sent them off to a resource gathering point.
Dark element was one of the most common elements on the Other Side of the World, so with Hill’s guidance, we soon found a dark-element gathering point and began mining it.
The sprites gathered 0.5 units of dark element per minute, while hatching each Dark Bat required 1 unit. In other words, ignoring energy costs, the nest could hatch ten Dark Bats per minute.
In game terms, that meant ten Dark Bats would spawn in the monster gathering grounds every minute.
Since the building was low-level, the Dark Bat Nest didn’t take long to construct.
System: Quest triggered 【Dark Bats’ Festive Feast (I)】
Quest: Dark Bats’ Festive Feast
Quest description: Use the Dark Bat Nest to put on a festive feast! This will be the Demon King’s first lesson for the Light Faction.
Quest objective: Produce Dark Bats (0/5,000)
Quest rewards: 20 energy, 1,000 EXP, 500 units of dark element
“Huh? I can get quests too?”
I blinked. But since even a Demon King like me had an inventory, getting quests didn’t seem all that surprising.
With a quest to motivate me, I felt a lot more driven. Following Hill’s instructions, I put in the dark element we’d gathered earlier,
and around thirty Dark Bats appeared outside the nest as the energy and materials were consumed. I used the Heart of Herentis to teleport one of them in front of me.
It didn’t look all that different from a real-world bat, except that the Dark Bat was much more cartoonish. It even looked kind of cute.
Dark Bat 【Editable】
Level: 3
HP: 150
Attack: 30
Defense: 18
Drops: Bat Claws, Bat Venom, Random Equipment, Skill Books
It was a standard low-level monster template. The Dark Bat’s build meant that, compared with monsters of the same level, it had high attack and low defense.
“Huh? Hill, what does 【Editable】 mean?” I suddenly noticed the button beside the Dark Bat’s name and asked curiously.
“Your Majesty can raise any monster’s level within certain limits and adjust its abilities.” Hill’s explanation immediately caught my interest.
If what Hill had said earlier was true—that defeated monsters returned extra energy, while defeated players yielded even more—did that mean I could edit monster stats to come up with a rule that made the most of both?
For example, high attack would make it easier for them to defeat players, while low HP and low defense would make it easier for players to kill them.
Of course, I couldn’t just follow that rule blindly. There had to be some balance, and figuring out how to strike it would take a little help from my experience in my previous life.
“At level 3, shield warriors currently have the highest defense. But even if they’ve learned Defensive Stance and Iron Wall, their defense shouldn’t exceed 50 at this stage. Their HP can’t be more than 200, either. So I just need to set the attack to 40…”
After my adjustments, the Dark Bat’s stats became close to extreme: 40 attack, 10 defense, and 120 HP.
I left its level alone. The Era had only just opened not long ago, and most players were around level 2 or 3, which was just right for a Dark Bat gathering ground.
More importantly, raising its level would cost extra energy. I still had plenty left, but just in case, I decided not to spend any more for now.
By all rights, this monster’s design should’ve been enough to give players a headache. Even I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed fighting it—but I still wasn’t satisfied.
“Hill, could you make some more specific adjustments?”
“Your Majesty, the Demon King, can open the editing space.” Since the Heart of Herentis was bound to me, I could remove it from the machinery, and Hill didn’t have to go to the trouble of holding me up—though that wouldn’t have been much trouble for her anyway.
With Hill’s guidance, I quickly learned how the editing space worked. Put simply, you create a template, set the monster’s various traits in it, then apply that template to some or all of the monsters.
Once I understood how it worked, I got down to making adjustments.
First, I set the Dark Bats to usually move in groups of three or four. That way, even a high-defense tank would have its HP bar emptied in just three rounds.
With the Dark Bats’ attack speed, it’d be about as easy as a shut-in dropping dead after seeing their 2D waifu send out a barrage comment saying “awsl.”
But then I suddenly thought of something and changed my original plan.
“Set one Dark Bat in each group to 20 attack, 30 defense, and 150 HP. Also, make it smaller.”
You can’t judge defense by appearances alone, of course, but most people instinctively assume that a smaller creature will have slightly weaker defenses. That’s the kind of impression appearances leave on you.
Thinking of how many people might fall into my trap because of that, I couldn’t stop the corner of my mouth from curling into a mischievous grin.
“No, no, that’s still not enough. Next…”
“The largest area-of-effect spell is Fire Explosion, with a range of three yards. So, set the distance between Dark Bats to 3.1 yards—wait, that won’t work? Then 2.6 yards. Close enough.”
“…”
After making a whole series of adjustments, big and small, I clapped my hands excitedly. “Perfect~”
Then I suddenly sensed a strange gaze from behind me. Curious, I turned around and saw Hill looking my way.
“What is it?”
“Would Your Majesty, the Demon King, like some tea?”
“Sure!”
There’s nothing better than taking a break after a busy stretch, and the black tea Hill brewed was surprisingly delicious. No wonder Alice had been singing its praises.
“What’s this black tea called? It’s so good.”
“It’s made by drying and chopping Kepa petals from Catmark Forest, so we call it ‘Wind-Dried Catmark Kepa’ tea for short.”
“…Hill, I suspect there’s a hidden meaning in what you just said.”
“There isn’t, Your Majesty.”
