Chapter 12 It has been a two weeks since I went out of the forest and I have been wandering here and there. I met some imprudent devils and some cheeky humans along the way. They all ended up seven feet below or a few thousand feet above ground. I wonder if I look like easy picking since most of them clashed with me after seeing me or speaking a few lines. I watched them fight the faceless but after they were done, they would face me and rain me with curses. I am just watching and what is wrong with that? Their vocabulary is rich too as they reach even the pubic hairs. What the heck is wrong with these people? As for the humans, they look annoying and cheeky as they would grab their weapons without even asking and fight me on their own. So far, I have not summoned the hunters. I plan to let them thin out the devils as much as they can and then let he demon race build their own place in this Mirth. I now know where they came from and why they ended up in here. Once again it was the fault of a human. What’s new in Metrobank? (Sorry! This was kind of a catchphrase in an advertisement of a bank and I think it really works well with this one…” So far I have not met someone that I can say with value. Most of them were all soldiers and fighters on their own way. Some were questionable by having needles and sling shots as their weapon but I guess it was with one’s taste. I remember this one guy that makes dolls fight for him. The best part of it was that the dolls were all shaped to be a little girl dressed in black and frilly. I somehow feel that this guy is not a fighter but tailor. Though those marionettes are truly astonishing. I wonder how is he doing up there in the sky. I sent him up in the sky since he was not speaking. Only moving his fingers which have these special threads that attach to the marionettes to attack me. This world is truly vast as I see new magic and arts which I do not recognize. My spells were all basic now that I realized it. The only thing that is making them powerful is that I have vast storage of mana. I guess I was loading high specification bullets into a makeshift gun. Even though it will fire it was truly bad in a sense. As of now, I am walking along the beach. I am watching the great scenery where the sun will set after a few more minutes. I like the moment when the sky will suddenly change their colors from bright to deep reddish color for a brief second. Then will go darker and darker until darkness truly envelops the surrounding. What I am doing for the last two weeks? I am collecting different kinds of plants that look nice. There was this plant with violet hue on their leaves that smells nice. Even though it was a bit strong and monsters seem to gather around it. There is also this other plant that looks like a pitcher that has lots of insect inside of it and smells heavenly. I think they were called pitcher plants back then on my world but in this world they are really small. The pitchers only spans nearly same as my thumb. On the contrary, the capacity of it was truly astonishing. The plant was a magic plant with space attribute. It looks small but terrible as little feelers would pop out here and there. They will pull prey inside the small pitcher it has. As expected of the magic world. They were bizarre but interesting. It was a bit irritating since it would reach out to me from time to time. I think it was only a joke since when it touches me, it would hastily retreat and the plant will tremble for a bit. I wonder if it is laughing with its joke. I am walking along the beach when an idea suddenly sprang into my mind. What if I build my abode here and collect all the interesting things in Mirth in here? I wanted to create something nice and live here instead of being the demon lord. I will create minions and annihilate one or two villages once in a while. That would count as doing my job as the demon lord right? That much is my biased reasoning speaking, I know but as I am the ruler of this ship then I think I can decide what to do. The cool sister told me basically to govern this world unintentionally. Placing this role on me with the huge power which I don’t know how to properly spend. “I think I will do that then. This place looks nice too and there is no one near.” I am smiling as I walk into random direction to look where I will precisely build my house. I dream that one day I can fill this area with all the things that I find interesting and fun. The role of demon lord can wait. The hate for humanity can wait. The destruction can wait. Time…. I can wait. Drake surveyed the area and was satisfied to find that the settlements of any intelligent beings were far from him. He does not even know that the area he was so fascinated with was once the origin of various legends and unbelievable rumors. It once spread in the entire Mirth making the place untouched for so long. The name of the place is Dream Island. A land where all dreams come true but with the appropriate cost. Somewhere north of Dream Island Lisa was training with her companions when he was suddenly carried away by a huge flying beast. The beast is one of the most troublesome creatures of Mirth. Aside from the demon lord and his army as its race is well versed with magic and can fly. The beast belongs to the Winter Infernals. They have a bird like body but they have a pair of extra hands which they conceal with the thick feathers along their body. It function to restrict prey which their legs will grasp when travelling. The hands of the beast have contrasting elements with them. Their arms were equipped with ice magic and fire magic for each hand. The intensity of their magic will vary as their age increase. Some legends spoke of winter infernals which can hold the sun and the other hand freeze the entire world. Lisa was able to escape the beast when it dropped her into an empty nest. The beast thought that it still has younglings when those beast already went away to be independent. Lisa was now left alone in the nest. The beast did not seem to be coming anytime soon and she was not looking forward in knowing what will happen when beast came back. Lisa went out of the nest and started to run like mad. She still has her casting wand on her luckily and the forest seems to be lush enough for preys to be present. The good thing is that she was taught how to hunt when she was still young. It was tradition of their village so even though she was special born, she was still sent into the forest to hunt. Now she was thankful that she has those skills and she can persevere until help comes. She did not cast magic towards the beast earlier since she was already way too high above the ground. If the beast decided to drop her, she would end up like red tomatoes along the road. “How did I wrong the gods!” she was in tears as her outfit was not fit to explore the forest. She was with her cousin Klein a few hours earlier while fighting with the stray demons that infiltrated their lands. Suddenly a winter infernal took the chance and snatch her up into the air. She was wondering why she was having a bad luck. There are dozens of other people it could snatch up and somehow the beast ended up choosing the slender her. “Light ball” She cast a simple light spell to lure away the curious predators away from her since she can feel various gaze towards her. When the light sped off into the distance, she can no longer feel the gazes of different predators inhabiting the forest. She heaved a sigh of relief and chose a secluded spot which can hide her small figure to take a rest. “Where exactly am I?” she only knows that she somehow started to head along the west but she was not sure how far she is from the norther lands of humans. She does not have levitation spells as they were exclusive secrets of the wind specialized magicians. She was a water type magician and only majors water support skills. She has ample power to defend herself but she was not sure if she can last the journey back towards the north. “I hope Klein will arrive soon.” She murmured as she closed her eyes. She was exhausted both physically and mentally. The flight lasted for almost an hour. The beast’s speed was truly incredible but it also put strain on her body. She was constantly casting spells to counter the sharp wind blades. The constant squeezing of the beast also happened once in a while. If she did not support her body with magic, then she would be half dead already. She won’t even have the strength to stand up. Soon her breathing started to even out and soft snores sounded from the secluded place. Lisa opened her eyes without knowing how much time has passed. She stood up and somehow her stomach started to growl unfitting of a lady. If she was still in her home, she would be admonished by her strict mother and would be lectured for eternity. She smiled as she picture that out but after a moment started to walk and start to hunt. She cut her long skirt as they will get in the way and will entangle with branches along the way. The torn cloth was then wrapped into her leg to protect from the irritating bushes which can cause itches to her skin. The robe was a bit gaudy in the beginning but after Lisa modified it, it ended up as a fitting one which hugs her body firmly. Even though the lower part was questionable. It was a robe originally and somehow became a short skirt. The excess cloth somehow became like stockings to protect her lower body. “I really don’t want someone to find me in this weird outfit.” They will laugh at me. Lisa traveled for some time and the surrounding is starting to get dark. She already caught a few rabbits. She drained the blood and carried it before she can find a place to stay the night. She is now starting to worry since she is still inside the forest. She can hunt but she never stayed the night inside the forest. The forest is the home of various animals. Magic beasts and a human is not meant to be staying together throughout the night. “I need to find a place… I can’t stay inside the forest…” her voice is now tinged with worry as she hastens her pace. She can somehow smell the salt and she was following it. It will lead into the sea and from there, she can occupy an area and fortify it for the night. Lisa walked for an hour before she finally saw the ocean. She was happy when she saw some rock formation that she can use for the night with a little help of her magic. She hastily run towards the place and inspected the formation. It can shelter her from the rain. She can just use water curtain to make the walls and patch some holes from the original formation. “I somehow pity myself…” she was looking at her handmade and grimaced. She can cook but she was never an artistic one herself. The newly finished temporary home really looked hideous. In a sense it was ugly but practicality comes first. She was humming a tune which she does not know where she learned from. She was inspecting the inside to see if there are small creatures which live in. Somehow she found crabs and fish that were trapped into a small pond. There are a few of them and it truly made her happy. It was like someone is blessing her with fortune so she can survive the situation she was in. She closed her eyes and gave a silent thanks to whoever orchestrated these blessings for her. Lisa gathered the crabs that were carelessly above the rocks. The fish can be left alone in the little pond. They will not go anywhere as long as she fortified the surroundings of it. It was not much but it was enough for her to get by for a few days as the main source of protein. Lisa cleaned the space she was planning to lay down into. She does not have any cloth she can use to act as a blanket or any mattress for a little comfort. She went out to seek something she can use. She needs something that can help her resist the cold at night and something that can help her soften the rocks. She was thinking of using dried leaves and pile them over to make the ground a bit softer. She might get itch so she was looking for something that can help her with that problem. She made a few trips with the nearby forest to get lots of leaves. She laid them carefully inside her temporary home. When the surroundings became darker, she did not return to the forest again. She started casting light balls then scattered them away towards the sky. She was doing it to lead the beasts away from her home so she can have a peaceful sleep. “Though they look comfortable… I might regret it tomorrow.” She was looking at the pile of leaves with a grimace. Though it looks comfortable, she was sure that some little creature would be crawling over them like ants and little bugs. In the end she chose the possibility of her getting itch rather than sleep in hard rocks. She left the makeshift bed she made and then created fire with magic. Even though she was a water mage specialized in support magic, she knows basic spells in light and fire. She knows how crucial light and fire can be in certain situation. Even though it was outside of her specialty, she was still adamant on learning them. Now she was once again thankful for being greedy with abilities. “Now for an early dinner.” It was barely night but it was already dark. She needs to minimize in using fire and light to not attract hunters at night. She gave the rabbit a little sorry and thanks for letting her eat for the night. She created a blade made of water magic then solidified it to make substance. Now she has a knife she can use for skinning the rabbit and taking out the unnecessary parts which was hard for her to consume for food. She knows some people will grumble by wasting precious resources. She really can’t stomach eating guts and brains of the little animal. In the end, she buried the head of the rabbit away from her home along with its innards and gave a silent apology. She went back and started to roast the rabbit. She was truly hungry since it has been eight hours since her last meal. She was a bit regretting for having a light meal that time. If she knows that she will end up in such situation then she would have ate her fill. Soon, the smell of burning meat started to spread. Somehow her ladylike face was loosening up with a captivated look. The hunger was able to win against the constant reminder of her mother to never lose composure in any situation. Now Lisa just wants to eat her fill and retire for the day. After her meal, Lisa put out the fire hastily. She surveyed the area if there are some beast around that was attracted with the smell earlier or by the light but there doesn’t seem so. She sighed in relief and went back to her temporary home. She curled her body against the dried leaves feeling a bit scared and lonely. It was the first time that she was sleeping outside the scope of civilization. She experience sleeping out in a camp but for her it does not count since she was with the company of others. For the first time, she was sleeping alone. It felt really lonely and unsettling. “I wonder when Klein will come…” she murmured before closing her eyes and tried to sleep. She did not know how much time has passed and somehow her eyes opened. She can feel slight vibration through the ground and somehow it awakened her from her sleep. She stood up and looked outside through the holes. “What is happening?” she was a bit scared with the unexpected event. In the end, her nerves can’t calm down and she decided to go outside and see what is happening. She went outside and carefully feels the ground with her hands. She was trying to see the direction where the vibration is coming. It was a bit hard since the source seems far. She can only decide where to go if the vibration will increase or decrease in intensity. She followed the direction for a while when she suddenly saw something really bizarre. “Why is an idiot making a garden in the middle of the night?” She was looking at a man who seems at his twenties with a red hair and a slender build. The man was remodeling the very land as he crushed the stones which would explode and send shockwaves everywhere. Now she knows what is creating those vibrations. Though it was not strong, it was annoying for her who was trying to sleep. She knows that the man was creating something akin to a garden. At the man’s side was a bunch of bizarre and random plants of different size and shapes. They were all brightly colored and the man was placing them in the place where the rocks were before. He was planting them forcefully. She does not know if his head is working properly. Plants grow in different kind of environment. Some were very sensitive and will die if the conditions were not met. What is this man doing? “Hey! What are you doing in the middle of the night?” Lisa raised her voice more than usual since she was a bit irritated for being interrupted in her sleep. The man turned around. Lisa was now in the crimson eyes of the man which bore straight through her own eyes. They were like rubies and she somehow finds them attractive. She was a bit captivated as the eyes that were staring at her seem to be shining ominously and attractively at the same time. It was kind of weird but she somehow can’t take her eyes of the man in from of her. It was the night history recorded as the greatest spark of tragedy.