The harsh cold winter wind filled with snowy powder, that was stuck on the branches, blew turning the world white and foggy.

Within this fog, a group of ten humanoids rode upon large goats with saddles. These goats were muscular, hairy and instead of having rounded horns, they had long horns which were gripped by the riders like handles.

These figures were red skinned and the size of humans and each wore a set of double padded leather armor which helped protect them from the cold.

This group was a group of red demons and their mounts were Savage Hairy Mountain Goats, the ranked up version of common Hairy Mountain Goats being more fit and sturdy and they mostly appear during the savage winter.

The weakest among this group was level 10 while the leader was level 13. This was a full 10 person scout and messenger squad for the main bulk of the forces.

In the distance, a small fire lights were seen through the foggy snow powder filled wind. Soon a large shadow was also seen reaching nearly 15 meters. As they drew closer they saw a large stone wall and every so often a watch tower was raised along the divide of the wall. The city guard patrolled the walls and a large wooden gate was at the main source of light. The lights were simple large camp fires that would aid travellers like a lighthouse.

“We have finally arrived!” the leader said.

The group cheered and spurred the goats on until they reached the gate. There was a squad of gate guards around the two campfires and upon noticing the incoming group they took up their weapons and covered the entrance. The squad leader stopped about ten meters and got off the goat, patting it’s head and walking half way, “Messenger squad here to report to lord Akor! It is a scout report from the north!” he said.

The city guard captain at the gate walked forward and received the report and looked at the seal. The seal was an item fabricated by the lord and was hard to reproduce for unskilled people and since skillful beings were hard to find in the territory the captain nodded after seeing it and handed the report back.

He turned around and waved his hand, “Open the gate!” he shouted.

The captain was a red demon while the squad was a mix of giant demon, blue imp, blue demon and red demons amongst others.

The messenger squad leader returned to his mount and headed inside after the gate was opened and found the city before his eyes.

This city was named Sanity, the first town of the demon lord Akor and this man was one of the scouts of the demon lord.

Different from other demon lords, this one focused on research and knowledge development over military, but never completely suppressing military because only with strength can a type of thought be protected.

At the center, where the lords house was located was a small castle. Where once was a manor, it has grown to a small 4 story castle shaped building with a library tower and many different rooms used for all the important delegations of the territory.

The streets were stone paved and the buildings were wood or stone. Countless imps, filled the streets bringing money, work and life to the city. Something that one would not expect during winter.

The squad walked through the main street all the way to the castle gate and announced their purpose before the report was handed in and the squad was sent to the barracks to rest and recover from the cold travel.

Inside, at the throne room, Akor sat. He was in a light mood as he and his advisor, the succubus Valring, handled the needs of their territory through the many territory menus. Missions were sent out constantly to deal with threats, others were to gather certain materials and others for hunting to supply the huge amount of food needed for the territory during the winter.

A scholarly demon goatman walked in. Goatmen are the Tier 2 breed born from the Minogida, a breed of demon that is born between the hybrid breeding of an imp and any goat creature. This particular demon goat was actually a head butler that was hired and taught by Akor on the duties he needed to fill and hire among the demons.

“My lord, a scout report has come in from the north. It seems to be both an update of territory scouting as well as a report on the Blood Imp Demon lord born to the north.” the butler said.

“Thank you, Bolwin.” Akor said and took the report which quickly turns into light particles. This was the map section of the report and was instantly integrated into the territory map, including beyond that towards the north which shows enemy territory and some scouted positions.

What remained recondensed into a scroll with the remaining report which he handed to the succubus who read it for him.

“It seems that because winter is ending, they have begun to expand the military. Large movements to hunt and gather bone material as well as mining has begun to happen in preparations for their expansion it seems.” Valring said.

“Well they are our first major enemies.” Akor said before pulling up a new menu and continues working. “How is the work on the second brigade and what is the current population?” he asked.

“The numbers have been added up. Training of the second brigade has been completed more or less. The specific leadership positions were filled by talented and intelligent demons who came from Pyarus academy. As for the overall level of the demons, they are still between 10 and 15.” she replied.

“Then send the second brigade to the southern territory and have them train while moving the first brigade to the north and have them be on the alert.” Akor said.

The two territories he mentioned are two new territories he obtained which had demon hearts, the core of a demon lord’s power, planted into them.

The north was in the area that once belonged to the father of Akor’s first queen, Idra the demon kobold, now formally a demon Dragonewt. He discovered a medium sized mana spring which added in a large section of territory equal to about 60% of the size of his previously owned territory.

The other one was found to the south and was of a similar size adding another large section of land. Both mana springs were discovered in early autumn and were developed to a degree before winter set in. The south possessed more forests covered mountains and larger biodiversity making it a great hunting ground and training area while the north was more sparse but had many more caves. Some of which new material was discovered.

Bronze armor was now the highest grade armor but the techniques to making it was very undeveloped. Blacksmith levels were hard to raise and very few bronze pieces were produced but that didn’t mean Tin and Copper wasn’t produced constantly.

Bronze was used as a symbol of power now. The previously mentioned leadership positions are such people who wear bronze armor. These specific demons are all very talented demons found after a very large screening and were trained to be leaders. Among them are the current Colonel ranked demon, leader of a full brigade, who is level 25. This is actually the strongest demon minion Akor had.

That said the general level in his territory is only around 15. It is a major improvement because this was a general overall level including players and npc.

“Do we recruit players?” Valring asked.

“For now let them be. We still have to think about the goblins to the east. We also don’t know if there isn’t something that will come from the west or south so for now, stay on alert.” Akor said.

“I understand my lord.” She said.

Valring bowed and they went back to work.

The current state of the city of Sanity is very good. Having leveled it up once more, though it has not changed from a town, major changes did happen. First off the wall expanded to over 500 meters and after upgrading it, the walls and watchtowers are stone. Secondly a second wall was built much further out going nearly 3 km away from the first, absorbing all the nearby villages into the town forming an inner and outer city.

Not only that but the subordinates in these villages were elevated to minions, improving their status and making them much smarter than before. Under the effort of Akor, the inner and outer city were arranged. The inner city became a commercial center while the outer city remained as the area that held the fields, pastures and forests. There was no dangerous monster that could invade making it a safe beginner zone. Outside that though, it wasn’t as easy because winter brought winter monsters.

First was many cold adapt demons, then were countless beasts like starving wolves, bears, fox and more creatures that lacked food during the fall and could not hide away. Worst was even some magical creatures like frost ghosts, frozen undead and ice spirits, the third in particular was a very dangerous one that could only be beat with magic.

It was thanks to these animals that the territory did not starve. Because of the huge stockpile that Akor made, as well as turning off the option to get migrants that weren’t born from his demons, he was able to make enough food to survive the winter. This along with his attempt to find winter crops which bore only about half results made him not suffer to much the first winter.

Why it only succeeded half is because of a restriction to the domestication upgrade. Any new wild crop obtained and cultivated will be domesticated over time. That is, the more times cultivated and harvested, the more domesticated it will become until it reached completion becoming a complete domesticated crop.

The crops in question were root crops. Wild carrots which were about the size of a human thumb and radishes which were the size of baby fists were only partially domesticated. They didn’t all survive winter that well though making the harvest per field very low but barely sustainable for each village that grew them.

Beyond just Sanity, all the other villages with a demon heart were leveled up to the status of town producing better results then as a village as well as population and production.

Although just the possession of food didn’t stop the death rate from increasing. Daily about 300 demons die of cold but this is just barely off set by the birth rate of tier 1 demons.

The last great achievements was from the church. First is establishing the religious school which formed a basic systematic teaching environment that could teach basic support skills required such as reading, writing and such to the imps.

The other is the most basic prototype to their attempt to make a fertilizer tree. Fertilizer tree are the kind that bring nutrients deep in the soil to the top and put nitrogen into the soil from the air. Their success came from the super basic runic knowledge that Idra possessed. As the daughter of a dark lord from the badlands, she was exposed to a bit of runic knowledge, or the language of magic. Through it they were able to take a sprout of demon wood and do a kind of purification and enchanting of the sprout adding runes to it’s bodies that worked like an ‘order’.

The sprout, after the change, became dark brown instead of black and it had wide roots which actually parasites off demon trees. The effect it gave wasn’t fertilizing though but the effect it had was still good. It suppressed the destructive nature of the demon wood so that it wouldn’t drain all the water from the land allowing it to soak into the ground and feed other plants.

This wasn’t widely planted because the sap extracted was a huge source of food in the winter but when the winter ended that would change and they would be planted large scale.

Akor continued to work until the dead of night before he finally logged off from [Magic Life].