After several hours, Lucas stirred. He blinked and looked around before standing up. He felt slightly dizzy because something was very off. He gripped the back of the sofa.

He soon figured out what was going on because his size perception was off by a few centimeters.

Lifting his arm, he looked at his hand and arm.

The thin fingers and boney arm were very different. His hands that looked like an old man’s before were full of life and like a young man’s and were no longer boney with wrinkly skin. As for his arm it could now be regarded as a skinny arm and no longer a skin and bones arm and you could make out his muscles.

He looked at his arm in a daze, ripped off his shirt and looked at himself. His movements caused a series of cracks from the pressure on his joints but there was nothing much coming from it. It was no different to what people faced when waking up and cracking their bones.

His thin frame appeared but now there was meat on his bones. His thin frame was now skinny. This size was something Lucas did not imagine himself having. He went to the bathroom stumbling a bit because his height had also increased. Both weight and height had changed causing him to stumble about like in the game.

He entered the bathroom and looked at his own face.

He saw that his messy hair was twice as long and the new hair was much stronger. As for his face, it was much different. The skeletal appearance was gone, and he had a fuller face. His sunken eyes were fuller and not as dark. The size of the bags has decreased by half and the color gained a healthier hue.

“Was that a magic medicine?” he asked. He couldn’t be blamed, his body simply reacted far too well after being starved.

He washed his face and went to the packet of the bar and tried to get some information off it. Sadly there was nothing so he could only assume that it was something special about the food. What he found was that for normal human consumption it needed to be diluted in the form of food seasoning as he read from the bar’s information.

After seeing this much he looked at the clock and saw it was 6 pm. He had slept from 8 am to 6 pm. Which was a shocking amount for just rest but the result was his body getting the time to adapt.

He looked at himself and smiled before going to the kitchen and picking out a frozen snack which needed to be heated for 3 minutes.

He was previously 170 cm but now he had increased to 175 cm tall which was a considerable increase if one thought about it since each bone in his body had to grow to achieve that.

The snack was satisfying enough making him feel emotional that he could live like a normal human with this food. He wouldn’t need to overeat anymore which was the greatest thing for him.

After finishing he finally laid down, turned on his VR device and logged in.

He appeared as his character, a demon lord based on the imp race named Akor. He was 180 cm tall, his face similar to his real one with fuller features and he was lean and muscular.

He appeared in front of the lord’s house. The house was two stories and made of wooden planks and beams. Below was a stone foundation that was a bit rough and many small windows along the walls.

The entrance to the floor below was inside the lord’s house and was inaccessible by those outside.

The village was now much larger. The increase in town rank came with increased building ability. The number of houses had increased to 20 for both the imps and minogida.

As for the barracks, they were also at full capacity. There were warriors, archers and magi. Although the minogida were said to be better for magic, it didn’t stop Akor from using them as warriors because of their lineage from the hairy mountain goats. They could unlock the rush ability of their goat ancestors as warriors.

Akor looked around and saw the increasing number of players.

When Akor’s village became a town, it opened to players. There were quite a few players rushing from one side of the village to the other doing quests the minions regularly did.

What is more, the status of town came with several benefits. First off, the attraction of intelligent merchant type NPCs appearing increased. The encounter rate that the merchants under Akor had with other merchants attracted them to the towns and villages since merchants aren’t bloodthirsty.

Another benefit is the level 1 animals had begun to appear. They were different to the common human villages which usually had rabbits or slimes for level 1, foxes at level 3, wolves at level 5, goblins or kobolds at level 6-10 and so on.

For Akor’s village, he actually had mountain squirrels for level 1, coyotes for level 3, cougars and hairy mountain goats between level 4-8 and yaks between level 7-10 as the most basic animals.

They appeared once the ecosystem opened and the tutorial zone broke. The ecosystem opening meant that the nearby demon wood forest made by the foresters expanded wide enough to attract animals and other native plants.

Because of the care taken to raise the wood, they were not aggressive so weeds and native mountain base level weeds spawned drawing in the squirrels which in turn drew in the coyotes and cougars. The mountain goats were brought over because the ranchers and farmers both worked together to make pastures with a specific grass which spread out past the pastures and covered the valley below while the woods covered the upper half of the mountain the village was on.

The well Akor built at the spring of the village’s water source was never fully diverted and instead expanded, the stream was wider and passed through the pasture feeding the grass with much more water. Because of the abundant fresh water the yaks also began to spawn due to favorable conditions.

Because of their high levels they were much harder to hunt. They ran in packs of 10 but were never too far from a larger herd. They lived close but not beside the village. They resided on the other side of a nearby mountain which had a flatter valley and abundant grasses and herb distribution for them to feast on.

The goats on the other hand could be found all over and some players were said to have seen them on a very steep cliff on one of the mountains.

Akor felt refreshed in the game, it even felt different from before.

Looking at his minions, he could see they were much more serious. The difference between player and minion were obvious. Because minions had 3 extra stat point in all physical stats and wisdom as well as 2 in intelligence, they had both horns and were taller by a bit.

Akor had spent a few days training his guards. Slowly he named 3 captains in his party while Valring, the succubus Akor had saved brought up another 3. Below the captains were the sergeants. There were 30 in each group meaning 6 main guard captains and 60 squad sargents who commanded a squad each.

The positions they held granted them some charisma to make the followers obey their orders.

After a week their current highest level was already 8 after a week. As for Akor, because he was their lord, all kills gave him 0.1% of the experience points which increased to 25% if he took direct control of the imps.

He was already level 9 because he had four villages developing their local militia with strict criteria he laid out, requiring them to train their skills and participate in organized party hunting. Although only the last hit counted for demons, there was already a camaraderie forming between the imps who fought and suffered the training their lord imposed on them so they actually took turns of their own initiative, though not all.

Of course Akor paid more attention to these imps and was slowly promoting these imps to stimulate this kind of behavior.

His current stats looked like this.

Status

Name:

Akor

Race:

Demon Lord (Imp)

Class:

Demon Lord

Race Tier:

Tier 1

Level:

9

Exp:

857/3100

HP:

150/150 HP

MP:

130/130 MP

HP Regen

60 HP/m

MP Regen

65 MP/m

Stat Points

13

Strength:

10 (10)

Wisdom:

20 (3)

Agility:

10 (10)

Intelligence:

20 (3)

Constitution:

10 (10)

Dexterity:

10 (10)

Charisma:

15 (13)

Akor had gained 60 stat points from level 3 to level 9 had, and he added 10 on wisdom and intelligence before adding 8 on strength, agility and dexterity, 7 on constitution and 13 in charisma.

This leveled Akor’s stats to a common human, not counting his demon heart buff. Though it could be seen that the skill was there to balance out the beginner stages and basic level strengths.

Player imps start with the same stats as infant imps but information from the company says that the imp race receives a racial buff when they mature.

That explained the demon race maturation.

Only demons ‘matured’, maturing referred to a kind of metamorphosis. Depending on their stats, their body would mature into a higher tiered demon. Tier 1 imps were nothing more than dumb labor hands but at Tier 2, it became more interesting.

Other races of demons only differ slightly from one another. Some like the strigoi experience an intense evolution as the devil blood becomes the primary blood and suppresses their demon blood making them take a human form as a vampire.

Wolf devils undergo a similar transformation to become werewolves. From what the company explained, the human blood inside devils suppresses the demon blood when they reach Tier 2. Because humans are Tier 2 so once the power of evolution reaches that point, the blood of the human is improved above the common grade of humans resulting in suppression of the demon blood and forming the breeds of demons with a human and demon form.

Imps on the other hand were the most unpredictable demon race. Simply because their DNA is so malleable. It is explained that imps have ‘paths’ in their race. These aren’t different races, all the races will grow as great imp but the demons themselves named these ‘breeds’.

The combinations are far too varied so many people refer to them as the imp tribes. Akor was actually looking for these tribes because he needed to rapidly increase the population of his subordinates. Not even counting minions, he needed subordinates which were the civilian class.

Most players had been pushed out of the village and built their own shacks outside the walls. They work in the village but can’t stay in. This isn’t something Akor set up but the minions and Valring did. She said it was to form the inner and outer city of their capital. Only minions should be allowed to live behind the protective walls because only they were trustworthy while subordinates should be content working outside the walls.

Akor didn’t really agree since it caused dissatisfaction in the players. They spawned in the village so they were his citizens but he also could not think of anything better to say. He simply told Valring to send out a good number of imps to train and scout.

He looked around before walking into his house.

The inside was more decorated, because of the abundant wood and stone which was finally flowing through the four settlements, he had begun to produce some basic furniture. He walked into the throne room. This was a naturally spawned room and not something he made. It was a long empty room with a wooden throne at the end. This room was actually a second area for him to manage his territory without needing to go to the demon heart.

He sat down on the hard and uncomfortable throne which opened the screens and notifications.

Territory Notifications

Research: Basic Temple complete

Research: Request Board complete

Research: Basic Meditation skill complete

Research: Basic Double Shot skill (archer - sling/bow) complete

Research: Slash skill (warrior - sword)

Research: Staff Crafting complete

Copper Coin Production Update: 421 coins

Unlocked Items

Basic Temple

The basic temple is the first building for religious purposes. Once built, faith can be gathered through prayer to your nation’s chosen gods.

Request Board

This is a request board, NPCs and players can place quests for others to do for them. Special events may also appear automatically there as do racial or server wide quests.

Basic Meditation skill

A skill for calming the mind and improving the generation of mana. Improves mana regeneration by 10%.

Basic Double Shot

A basic archer skill for sling or bow. You fire two projectiles instead of one doing double the damage.

Slash skill

A basic sword skill for warriors. Can only be used with an edged sword to deal damage to an enemy.

Staff Crafting

Unlocks the method to produce a mage’s wooden staff.

Akor went over all the unlocked items and was happy with the choices. Now that he had four villages, each of them could do Tier 1 research as well as the architect house which could research buildings and a few other things. He could research many things at once. The basic temple was the most awaited one because it would unlock the ability to pray and generate faith.

Surprisingly, demons were actually a very faithful race, at least imps were. They believed the gods would rescue them from their savage wasteland life. It was the reason why almost all tribes of demons were heavily cult based. He had seen several nearby villages, and they were all built around altars and other religious type structures but all to the active dark gods.

Valring arrived with a grin on her demonic face. “My Lord, I have found it!” she said.

Akor withdrew his eyes from the windows, “Found what?”

“A Tier 2 great imp.” She said.

Akor was surprised, Tier 2 great imps are a requirement for upgrading the Demon Huts. Without it, he couldn’t breed a large number on his own so he needed to find the first one. It was quite a headache since the minogida had a smaller spawn rate and even though many of them left daily, it was hard to find them because they travelled far. From the reports of the merchants, they had not found villages of minogida, though they had seen villages with them living in small numbers

“Where is it?” He asked.

"In between Prosperity and Dawn.” She said.

A map opened up, and she pointed. The territory were not in a square, Sanity, the capital was closer to the center between all the villages. The subordinate villages formed a triangle and Sanity was closest to Prosperity.

“That is quite close.” He said.

“Actually, this is a very big village. There are quite a number of imps here, nearly 500. It seems most of the imps that leave our village go that way.” She said.

"Isn’t there a way to subdue those?” he asked.

“Well… we are also limited in the number we can actually manage with our weak military.” She said.

Akor sighed, “When can the militia class up?” he asked.

“Level 10 they get their official class as does everyone besides you Lord, since your race and class are very advanced already.” She replied.

Akor rubbed his head and nodded, “Leave them be, just watch them, we can’t suddenly attack since we are on the attacking side and them on the defense side. Most likely they have large walls right?” he asked to which the succubus nodded. “Leave them be then. We need to grow the size of our troops and expand as all the villages at the same time. Now I have news as well.” he said.

“What my Lord?” She asked.

Akor smiled, “The Basic Temple research is complete.” He said.

She stood there and nodded, "Indeed, a truly great thing.” she said.

Akor picked up on the strangeness of her tone. “What is wrong?” He asked.

“Well…” She said and scratched her head. "If you, my Lord, were to start the construction of a temple, I don’t think the other gods would allow it, don’t you think?” She asked.

“But none of the huge nations and dark lords are near us, what can they do?” he asked.

“A lot, my Lord.” she said, “For one, all demon tribes pray to the demon gods so they all serve them. As such, they can also send a decree to all the many demon tribes to attack.” She said.

Upon saying this, he realized what she meant. “You don’t think it will be so savage right?” He asked.

“Sadly I do. My Lord, your thoughts and development have really changed the demons in your territory even if you don’t know. The common ones are much crazier because they lack food and knowledge. Even if our god is the god of education, he is not an awakened god. We are still at the mercy of the dark demon god’s ‘system’ which is one of massacre and blood. As soon as they feel the temple being built, any demon under their rule will instantly attack. All the tribes born from our blood will attack like a swarm of locusts.” She said.

Akor scowled which knit his hairless brows scrunching them up. “How long is the construction time?” he asked.

“Around 6 hours but the temple is quite large, nearly 3 stories with many decorations and then the many idols and things needed to make it a proper temple.” she said.

“6 hours.” He said.

He looked at the map, “What is the distance which imps can run in 6 hours without rest? If it’s not running but walking what is the distance?” he asked.

She blinked and looked at him before walking over and after calculating she formed two circles.

“How many villages are still unmarked but discovered.” he asked.

"I do not know.” She said.

“SCRIBE!” he shouted.

After a few moments, a scribe came scrambling inside from the scribe office. “My Lord calls!” he said.

“Do you have all the reported demon tribes we have found in our territory?” he asked.

“Yes Lord!” he said and ran out. After several minutes, all the scribes in the lord’s house ran with papers which were maps. After holding each map and report, the map would update slowly filling up the territory with the tribe location. There were 12 demon tribes within 6 hours running distance and none of these tribes surpassed 200 individuals.

“This is pretty good.” he smiled nodding. “What is our copper supply looking like?” he asked.

“We have quite a lot, master.” an imp scribe said.

“What is a lot?” he asked.

The imps looked at each other before a sigh came from the minogida scribe that walked in with some papers, “We have enough to have all captains and commanders with copper armor and weapons as well. This would use a bit over 60% of our stock here in Sanity.” he said.

"I see.” Akor nodded and closed his eyes and began to think.

His mind was racing like never before while he was running many problems for over a minute. It was dead silent in the room before he sighed and opened his eyes. “Have the blacksmith start working on copper weapons. Focus on swords and axes until all the militia have weapons. After that make only essential armor, that is, chest plate, shoulder and head pieces for the common soldier. Sergeant rank gets boots and captains full armor.” he said.

“What of you, master?” the Minogida scribe asked.

"I have learned magic, I will not be in the front lines and will lead from behind. I require leather armor.” Akor said.

Leather armor was all he could get on since he didn’t want cloth armor which had little to no defensive force.

“Yes Master.” the scribe bowed and began to shoo the others out and give out orders.

“My Lord, are you really going to build the temple so soon?” she asked.

“Once our troops are fully armored, then we will be more assured to survive. We just finished upgrading the palisade walls with watch towers and strong gates. Without fire magic it will be harder to get on.” He said.

“But how will we defend with the walls?” she asked.

“With this.” he said and opened the town walls upgrade page.

Demon Management

Demon Towns

Town Management

Stone

564 Unit

Wood

365 Units

Number of Buildings

Town Walls

Double Layer Wall

Requirements:

Wood 200 units

Stone 100 units

Upgrade

Reinforced Watchtower

Requirements:

Wood 250 units

Stone 100 units

Upgrade

“Double layered wall…” She muttered and suddenly remembered that this was the obvious progression of the town walls. After getting these two upgrades, the next upgrade would be stone walls and the second city walls since the maximum size of the inner city walls would be reached with the stone walls. “My Lord is wise.” She said ashamed that she did not remember.

“Alright, now we will focus on upgrading the walls. Order the imps to extract wood to complete the two projects starting with the double layer wall then reinforce the watchtowers.” he said.

“Understood my Lord.” Valring said.

He pressed to upgrade the walls and the imps received the order to build. This included the players who were regarded as subordinates but didn’t get the minion bonus.

They also gained town contribution which was a new system. When they redeemed points, they could do things from getting better items from Akor or learning special magic if he had any or get titles or something of the sort.

Since he had yet to found a proper lord-dom, he couldn’t give noble titles but there were many things they could do such as become a guard if they wanted, but they were too weak to do so and common requests didn’t give enough contribution but construction did.

Since they built the town, it would also slowly make them gain a feeling of honor in the town since they helped build it.

The time it would take to build it all was 12 hours because it was just that high levelled. It would take even longer when the walls transformed into stone.

The players were excited and ran to the first work area.

In the lord’s house, Akor picked the next research skills before going to the underground floors. There were two floors like the upper half and the first floor was like a library study which held the research scrolls and research zone. Two scribes were there to do the research, and the rest did the common work of a scribe.

“Where is the scroll on meditation?” he asked.

One of the scribes stopped researching instantly, turned and bowed before running to a shelf bringing out an old scroll and bowed while presenting it. “This is the one Master!” it said.

He nodded and took the scroll before calling for his royal minion, Adok, to come study with him as the two had studied magic with Akor taking the magic path over the physical path.

The peg legged imp soon walked in using an old branch as a support.

“Come, let’s learn a new skill.” Akor said.

“Yes Master.” Adok said and happily hobbled over and sat beside Akor for them to learn how to meditate.