I was going to teleport to the demon country first thing today, but I thought my plan needed some adjustments.

I was reviewing the fights the Atlas series of magic puppets did in the demon's fort, and I realized one big weakness. They have no weapons. Atlas had to punch, kick and claw at the enemies, and sometimes size was a hindrance. I need a colossus-sized weapon. And it will suck because the thing will be super-heavy and will eat up a lot of item box room. Unless I make it be very light and change weight when in use. I don't know if the item box counts mass or weight, but the description says weight.

There is no helping it. I'll make a colossal weapon that weights as little as possible when not being wielded and helps to hit smaller things. I have nine wyvern bodies to process, but I'm pressed for time.

I'll teleport to my workshop at the willow meadow, remove the pemadras and store them back.

I change my jobs to wizard and magician. My max MP more than doubles. It will take over an hour to fill without meditation though. I have time before the proper enchants.

I create Atlas IX and have him try to wield a roc thighbone. Too thick but the length is just right for a club. It is light though. More like an aluminum baseball bat. The wing bone is too thin and will break. If I replace the marrow with metal it would work, but I don't have enough metal. Maybe stone. I scrape out the marrow and use earth magic to fill the bone with stone. It is heavier now, but there is no problem with the swing. Just a matter of adaptation. For the head, I'll make a stone ball on one side and a stone counterweight on the other. And in the end, I'll coat the stone parts and the bone with bronze. I don't have steel.

I should get a kiln and a furnace.

To cast the bronze all I need to do is make a stone mold around the parts to be coated using magic. I'll add metal spikes over the ball. I'll later remove the mold. I crush some E-rank pemadras and some quartz. Mixing them with the bronze will 'awaken' the metal to magic energy. It will make it easier to enchant later.

Even using water and ice magic, the thing took an hour to cool. Atlas can swing the bloody thing easily. Now the enchantment part.

Beowulf: Zahariel, I need you for an enchantment, can I pick you up?

Zahariel: Sure. I'm at Mirfield's central square.

If I only knew this was just one level ahead, how big a headache would be avoided during the Viscount incident. But I have only a faint idea on how to level this [Party / Job Management] skill. I need to make different party compositions. Anyway, I'll go and get the angel. Petal came with me this time.

Our combined MP pool was never this big. I discovered I can use Petal to help with the enchants. The enchantment was over really fast. Unfortunately, I am not a big expert of enchanting weapons. I only got a weapon of the same rank as the pemadra.

Colossal Bronze War Club (A)

Weight reduced by 99% when not being used in combat. Adds +30% to accuracy. Doubles attack speed. Weapon durability increased 5x. Self-repairs using ST. Drains 5% of user's ST pool every time it is full. Automatically teleports to Grendel's item box if dropped.

Monster Weapon: Rank: 0

Soulbound to Grendel. Can only be wielded by creatures at least 23 feet tall.

And now the moment of truth. Put the weapon in the item box. It uses up only 43.2 lb of weight. The item box counts items by weight, not mass.

"This weapon is way ugly," remarks Zahariel.

"I don't care about looks. Atlas, swing this thing a little." The magic puppet picks it up and takes it for a spin.

The swing speed is normal. but there is almost no recovery time after a swing. The thing becomes featherweight after a swing and it can be moved back to a ready position easily. It is as if inertia was subverted. Clip those animation frames. The nice part is that this was a weapon crafted from monster parts by a monster. The status window shows, it is a genuine monster weapon. It means this bone, bronze and stone weapon will grow as it is used to kill things.

And I hope it will convince the demon country of not being the fodder for such growth.

"I am going there tomorrow before dawn. Today I'll just scout and set an anchor deeper in their territory. Probably near the capital. Petal, do you want to come?"

"Wow, what is this feeling, like, you are relying on me! My heart beats so fast! But I am too scared of the demons. I'll stay here with Zahariel if you don't mind."

"Don't be silly, silly. Can I get Sepal then? Hold my finger if yes."

She timidly flutters next to me and puts her hand on my finger, "It is fine, but please take care of her!"

Sepal appears as Atlas vanishes like a mirage.

"It is more inconspicuous if I go as Sepal. Possession!" And once again I am a faerie. I don her dress straight from the item box. At least the puppets don't make me think like them after a while.

"Have a nice flight!" Petal waves goodbye as I teleport into the ruins of Fort Gehenna.

There is nothing around. I'll still cast invisibility for safety. Sepal is very fragile.

I reach the fort's ruins and there is nothing of value left. There are some geckos scavenging the bodies that were left behind. The demons left in a hurry and did not care for their dead. I don't even know if they care. But demon bodies have too much magic power, it is a delight for monster's tastes. The geckos are rank F, E, and one D leader that has sharp spikes along its back. It is a good opportunity to harvest some pemadra to use later. It is a good opportunity to test the force blade spell. I take some altitude to put them at the edge of the spell's range. Some forty feet.

"Force Blade!" There is a ripple in the air in front of me. I can feel it and sometimes see it if it shifts its angle but is ephemeral. Like it has no depth. Sharp like some sci-fi monofilament. I command it to attack the geckos.

My invisibility faded when I cast the spell and the gecko leader senses Sepal. He spits some goo upward, but I dodge easily. The force blade goes down and the gecko leader takes a step forward, but its hindquarters don't follow. Its internal organs flop onto the cobblestone pavement before it thrashes and dies.

The other geckos are disoriented, but they can't spit goo like their boss. They run for cover but I chase and finish them with force bolts. Their pelts can be used to make boots and bags so I'll get the pemadras using the force blade and prestidigitation. Faerie hands are too small to do this kind of heavy work. The ones with good pelts will go to the item box.

Dismantling level 9. {Task Division} learned. When dismantling several corpses of the same type, the time required to dismantle each additional corpse is reduced to a tenth.

Going around the south part I quickly pick up the trail of the survivors. Flying at full throttle it took me about three hours to reach them. They camped for the day, the tents are the same model as the forward scout force we annihilated was using. There are about fifty survivors here, none of them seem to be high level except for the officer that led them, but it is a low patent. Four sentries are watching the camp.

I get the geckos' pemadras and begin to set lava bomb glyphs using the E rank ones. The trigger is me being more than 100 feet away. I was able to set three before a sentry spotted me. It shoots an arrow at me but it is hard to hit a fast-moving ten inches creature. And now that the alarm was raised I'll hightail it away from there.

Grendel has gained 1 + 1 + 1 levels (4-Racial: 41 > 42, 3-Warrior 49 > 50, 3-Scout 49 > 50). + 21 SP

I think I should've left at least a survivor, now that I think of it. Well, dead men tell no tales. Unless it is a fantasy world.

"Summon Spirit!"

The vengeful ghosts of the dead soldiers rise and I order them to stay at the camp.

"Tell me where you were going to. Was it to the capital?"

"To Dragonclaw. Abbadon is too far away."

Dragonclaw won't do. I need the capital. Setting an anchor at the ruined campsite, I'll fly to demon city Abbadon now. I think I can use wind magic to make me go even faster.

There are some farming villages along the way. Strange. How do the demons deal with the monsters? I think a demon villager is strong enough to beat most E-rank monsters by himself. If I assume they are stronger than the Symians, it is possible the monsters the humans dread are just a small nuisance for a demon farmer.

I fly southeast until night falls and I see the rising moon casting a reflection on the ocean. I stop to gawk at the sight. Are these oceans navigable? Can I have my fanservice swimsuit episode on its shores? Are there terrible aquatic monsters hundreds of feet in size that no one dares to challenge? Is there a pirate treasure everyone wants but nobody knows what it is on the other side of the line? I think there are so many marvels in this world I haven't seen yet.

But these are demon lands. Humans can't survive here. Going for a few more miles I glimpse some lights at the shoreline ahead. Forward!

It took me almost an hour to reach close enough to see it in detail. It is a sprawling metropolis about the size of three Heorot cities. There are some torches illuminating the streets and the outer wall is heavily guarded. Some giant bats, maybe D-rank monsters are flying over the place transporting demons back and forth.

Oh, crap. They use sound to 'see'. There is no use being invisible. I got too close to one of these bats, and it senses and comes to attack me. Probably my butterfly wings made it think I am a tasty giant insect.

Fight, Flee, Item, Pokesummon. Think fast, Beowulf! If I fight, there will be a bat n' demon corpse falling on the streets below. If I flee they will chase and it will be hazardous. Use Item. One gecko corpse coming out. Fetch!

The bat's bite misses the gecko corpse but tumbles down to get it and forgets about me. Is gecko this tasty? The demon riding the bat panics and loses control. The bat barely controls its fall and plummets on the roof of a house. The bat fell on its belly and is twitching and dying, but the demon rider's fall was cushioned by the wings. He will survive. I should get out of here. It didn't even count as my kill. I got zero Exp.

I would love to sightsee, but I'll just set an anchor in the outskirts and teleport the spirits here. It took five trips, but I got twenty-five demon soldier spirits with me. I dismissed the others. This many will be enough.

"Now, your orders. You will charge the gates moaning and screaming that Fort Gehenna was destroyed. You are to fight the demons but focus on defense. Don't deal any killing blows."

"We serve the master!" And off they go. These spirits have ghostly versions of whatever they were used to wield in life. It is swords and spears for these guys. And the standard-issue demon army armor. I hope they hold long enough to be recognized.

I spend the remaining SP to max out elven senses. 34 SP from level 6 to level 10. I can now see perfectly under the moonlight.

The engage the soldiers, and since the spirits are both hard to hit and are fighting defensively, the combat goes long enough for some magicians to arrive. After that, it was a one-sided slaughter. Or should I say exorcism? They did use elemental magic, so I'm thinking the former is right.

The message should have gone through though. A few minutes later a wyvern, a bigger version of Benorass took off and dashed northwest. Pretty awesomely fast. I think even faster than the me-enhanced Sepal.

I should return and get some sleep. I'll visit them to negotiate a truce at dawn. Or dusk. Freaking demons.