Lord Martin Breggas looked on at the Knights prostrating before him with apathetic eyes. The Knights were bowing before him in pitiful indignation trying to appeal to his mercy.

"Our frontlines have been obliterated. Most of the Mobile Fortifications have been destroyed, and we have lost countless Knights. Without reinforcements, we might not last much longer."

They were the Knights of the Order of the Iron Blood Knights. The Order had been receiving concentrated attacked by the Demons since a distant past. It has long been a tradition among the Demons to halt their offensive during the winter, but they had broken praxis and continued their a.s.sault through the winter driving the Order into a corner.

The Order of the Blood Iron Knights had immediately requested support from Martin Breggas who oversaw the Demon Realm Battlefront, but for one reason or another, he didn't even send meager reinforcements to complain about. It was also becoming increasingly clear by the man's att.i.tude that he didn't intend to send any support. As Lord Breggas did not utter a single word, the Knights clenched their lips and left. The eyes of the Knights who looked back from outside the door were filled with rage and resentment.

When the doors shut, Martin yawned as he picked at his ear. His attendant who was standing beside him carefully drew closer.

"Is it ok to just send them back? I have learned that the Order of the Iron Blood Knights is truly in a critical state."

"How critical?"

Martin squinted at the ear booger that had been stuck to his finger as he asked his question.

"The Order has lost 60% of their military forces. With the exception of their last line of defense at the ‘Fortress of the Iron Blood Cross’, every other base is under siege or captured. They will not last once spring arrives."

"Is that so? That's good news. I didn't like their kind from the beginning. Worthless Summoned referring to themselves as an order of knights. It might not be so bad to let them fall given this opportunity?"

Martin drank the milk poured into his cup with a relatively gleeful expression on his face.

"But, Lord Martin. If the Order of the Blood Iron Knights fall, the Demon Army will head toward our direction. Not to mention the blame for the fall and destruction of the Order will be on our heads as well."

"Don't worry about that. Wasn't it for this purpose that we poured our hard-earned money to develop our friends over here?"

Martin rose from his seat and stepped towards the window. Beyond the window filled with the blinding rays of the sun, soldiers numbering in the thousands were awaiting orders in neat formations. Soon, a youth dressed in lavish clothes stood on a podium and spoke to the soldiers in a cheery voice. The contents of the speech could not be heard from here, but Martin had a satisfied smile as he looked at the youth's backside.

"If the Order of the Iron Blood Knights fall, we can just have him contain the situation."

Martin had countless illegitimate children. Parlim Dargot, the leader of the militia of Trowyn the army which Martin had poured his heart and soul over for a long time to create, was one such child. Being the child of a dancer at a bar Parlim could not use his father's name, but if he were to thwart this demon invasion which put the Iron Blood Knights in peril, then he would be in a position to lay claim as the true heir of Martin Breggas.

"Reinforcements will only be sent once the Order of the Iron Blood Knights fall."

Martin was prepared to devote all of his effort for the child of the sole woman that held his heart.

On the other hand, upon hearing this news, the Order of the Iron Blood Knights prepared to use their trump card that they had been holding back until now.

The Leader of the Iron Blood Knights, Sungtek Jo.

He had once been hailed as a great hero and word of his might was spread through the North, perhaps even the entire continent. But he was currently diminished to the state of a local feudal lord. Nothing had been going his way even to the point where he tragically lost his child that had been summoned through the Summoning Palace recently; he had been living bitterly in resentment ever since. The situations that surrounded him displeased him greatly.

"If you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are going to come at me like this, then I also have my own plans."

Sungtek ordered for his guest whom he had secretly accommodated at the palace to be brought before him. A strange being with the wings of a bat, hooves of a goat, and the head of a human was brought to his audience chamber. Surprisingly, the guest's ident.i.ty was a demon.

"Have you finally made a decision?"

The demon quietly asked in a soothing voice that was pleasing to the ears. A frown appeared on Sungtek's forehead. It was possible that this decision would destroy all the reputation and renown he had acc.u.mulated over the years. However, when he thought about it, did any of those have any value?

'The children I sired in Other World have died from the curse and even my little Ahram brought to the Summoning Palace was killed pitifully by the brats of the other b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. And even Martin Breggas, that son of a wh.o.r.e who couldn’t look me in the eye, now wishes for my ruin.'

It didn't take long for Sungtek to reach a conclusion. He soon raised his head and spoke politely towards the devil standing in the corner.

"… I will collaborate with your king. However, do not forget to fulfill your end of the bargain."

Eight years ago, the 13 Continental Champions agreed to prolong the approaching Calamity at the first stage, which seemed the most manageable, and set this plan into motion. A single Champion had opposed obstinately and deserted the group in the process, but the Calamity was managed smoothly over the past eight years, and those in power enjoyed great wealth and prosperity no different than before.

However, the Calamity cannot be stopped.

The words ‘cannot be stopped’ actually also included the fact that it also cannot be delayed, but the people often thought of these two ideas as two separate things.

The Calamity that the people mistakenly believed was postponed would continue to grow stronger and stronger until it breaks free and unleashes upon the world even more violently than before.

–

The meteor fell from the sky and critically struck the Deep Sea Demon. Successive meteors fell without any additional Aria. The number of echoes had naturally increased as his magic power grew. Sungchul who was getting close to reaching the value of 500 for magic power gained an additional 2 echoes for every spell that he had cast. In other words, two additional meteors would fall for every single cast.

"Guwaaaaa…."

The Deep Sea Demon could not endure the consecutive blows from the powerful meteor. This meant that Sungchul who used to beat up the Deep Sea Demon once a week now had to change his schedule to beating it up once every 2 weeks. If he went any further, he might end up killing the demon.

'If it were possible to land a meteor on the Demon King, then seeking him out now wouldn’t be a problem.'

The Meteor's might was of the highest grade among all the spells in the world. The greatest problem was with its accuracy. But if it were to hit, it might even be enough to critically injure the Demon King when combined with the echo effects. However, Sungchul did not rush forward.

'Intuition is going to hit 500 soon.'

Currently, it was sitting at 479. A month and two weeks had pa.s.sed since he left the Tower of the Devil Wors.h.i.+ppers, but he only managed to raise his Intuition by 2. He thankfully had Alchemy to raise it by that much, because otherwise, his growth would have stopped completely. As a result, he was also about to complete a quest of the Path of the Creationist after a long while.

"More! A bit more!"

Sungchul felt his enormous magic power being drained away as he mightily stirred the cauldron. He could smell a unique scent emanating from Eckheart's Portable Alchemic Cauldron before a blinding light poured out to signify the success of a creation.

[Synthesis Success!]

Sungchul confirmed the message that appeared before his eyes as he held up the new Alchemic item within his cauldron. It was a statue of a duck radiating a golden light. Sungchul had improved from being limited to altering simple characteristics of ingredients to being able to create specific forms using the Alchemic Cauldron.

[Golden Duck]

Grade: B

Type: Everyday Item

Note: Floats when placed in the bath.

"…."

It was a relatively useless item. It radiated with blinding golden light, looked adorable, and floated on water despite the material it was made of, but it couldn't be gauged with any more significance than a useless trinket. There were too many items in Alchemy that wasn't helpful in combat.

Despite this fact, Sungchul continued to pump out items in order to complete Bertelgia's Ill.u.s.trated Alchemic Collection Journal. He had finally managed to complete everything that Bertelgia had categorized as basic Alchemy. The rewards were slowly being unveiled.

"Hm Hm. You've done well. You've finally taken a step onto the true path of Creationist from being a human butcher!"

A strange light poured out from Bertelgia's body as she fluttered in the air and enveloped Sungchul's body. Sungchul finally witnessed the long awaited message within its splendor.

[You have followed the great legacy of the Eighth Hero, Eckheart, and succeeded in recreating one of his great inventions.]

[Ordinary Ill.u.s.trations Complete!]

Reward: Magic Power +20

Eckheart's Collection Notebook

Sungchul immediately brought up his stats.

[Stats]

Vitality    801   Magic Power 494

Resilience 502 Charisma        18

Luck 18

"Mmmm…."

He was 1 short. He was 1 short of hitting 500. As he managed to raise his intuition through Alchemy 3 days ago, it would take three weeks minimum and a month maximum of Alchemy to raise it once again.

"How is it? How do you feel taking in the knowledge of the Creationist?"

Bertelgia spoke proudly.

"Very unhappy."

"W-What? What did you just say!"

"I didn't mean that. I'm just a bit short on my stats."

Sungchul sighed as he gazed out towards the Demon Realms sky. Deep regret welled in his heart. If everything had gone according to plan, he would have killed Hesthnius Max today and resolved the first Calamity. His plans had gone awry due to his unexpectedly stunted growth.

Sungchul calmed his turbulent heart and gathered the other reward that had fallen beside his feet. It was a small book which he opened immediately. It was filled with ill.u.s.trations and microscopic letters written in ink that moved freely in the pages. Sungchul read one of the pa.s.sages.

[… Ogres of the Foggy Mountain Range sleep on beds of rock. To human eyes, the bed of rock may appear like any other bed of rock, but to Ogres, they have some standards with which they rate these rocks. They rated excellent beds of rock with stars. And the more stars it was rated, the better it was. Upon the great bed of rock, there are…]

Sungchul read up to that point and put the book down. It prattled on pointlessly, but Eckheart's Collection Notebook appeared to be some kind of guide with the locations of rare Alchemic Ingredients recorded within. The problem was that the era in which Eckheart lived and the current era in which Sungchul lived had a vast gap in time.

"… I can't use this."

There were major differences even in that page he had just read. The Foggy Mountain Range that Sungchul visited in his time didn't have Ogres living within it. Through frequent subjugation by the humans and enslavement by the orcs, it had been a long while since the Ogre Kingdom had vanished.

Sungchul placed the notebook into his Soul Storage and grabbed the duck before leaving.

"You didn't like papa's notebook? He might be a worthless person, but his information is real!"

Bertelgia followed behind and spoke in a sullen tone, but Sungchul didn't pay them any mind. He arrived at a hot spring that reeked of sulfur. It was a bath that he occasionally visited.

Sungchul tossed away his clothes.

"Oh my G.o.d!"

Bertelgia quickly hid herself behind a tree, and when she sneakily peeked from one side, the hardened body of a man veiled by steam came into her sights. The countless scars and burns across his wide back appeared like medals for Sungchul who lived a life of conflict.

Sungchul immersed his body into the hot spring and floated the golden duck that he had just created. The golden duck that had been made entirely of gold surprisingly began to float around Sungchul's vicinity.

"It really does float."

An amused smile slipped onto Sungchul's lips. Cries of Devils rang out from a distance souring the mood, but overall, it was a decent bath. Sungchul closed his eyes and let time slip by.

It isn't clear how much time had pa.s.sed since that moment, but a m.u.f.fled explosion could be heard from the southeast side. It was in the direction of the fortifications along the Storm Battlefront. He tried to ignore the noise, but the sound of explosions continued and he could hear the faint sound of drums.

'Did a battle break out? Can't be. I didn't notice any activity from the Demon army to the north.'

He felt a terrible premonition.

As you might have noticed that Sungtek Cho was changed to Sungtek Jo here. More minor changes will be coming up to match the ebook and the text on website. For example Balrog is changed to Balroq(Balrog is a beast from LOTR universe and is copyright protected).

Also we are conducting a twitch stream where we will play games and interact with readers. The stream will be held on August 5th 7pm Pacific time. We will also do a giveaway of the ebook there. So be there!

Here’s the stream

You can buy the book here!