(Aeyrs POV)

My brother’s birthday is today. Even if his age doesn’t line up with reality, the day still remains the same. Today he turns 8000, a monumental feat for someone like him. If I was unaware of his actual age, I would have thought he was a completely different person. To survive so long without accidentally setting yourself on fire, which in his case wouldn’t do much, or blowing himself up, which again, wouldn’t do much, or even angering someone more powerful than him, which was still up for grabs. But I doubt that anyone like that exists in this world, and even if they did, how powerful could they truly be? The only true threat to him would be a level 1050 world boss, and from the history of this world, and common knowledge, the chances for that are slim, to say the least.

A max level player would have to bring something new to the table, something no other max player specialized in, just to have a chance of beating him. Perhaps if they had actual invincibility, not the temporary spell, they could stand a reasonable chance of fighting him, or myself for that matter. Invincibility comes in different flavors though, magical, physical, and true. Magical invincibility protects from all magic, excluding specific cases, physical invincibility protects from all physical attacks, again excluding very specific cases, and true invincibility just blocked every strike that wasn’t a direct attack from a god…

Which means no player stands a true chance anymore. My brother is a god, so he bypasses every stage of invincibility unless a new case comes along, but those chances were practically none. Magical invincibility protected from all spells of tier 25 and below, that is to say, only tier 26 spells could deal damage. The same goes for physical invincibility, everything but the highest tier skills, tier 12, were nullified. True invincibility just combined the effects and slapped another resistance to it. So if a divine being were to cast a tier 26 spell or a tier 12 skill, the invincibility couldn’t protect against it.

Calling it immortality was more of a stretch than a reality, but when you considered what normal players are capable of, it was basically immortality. High-level players were known for being exceptions to any preconceived notions in the game. My brother was enough proof for that concept, even without half of his spells. To put it into perspective, most players had two dozen spells or so, and they were intimate with them, relied upon them, and used them regularly to great effect in their respective fields. Higher-level individuals have more spells to have more variety and therefore more survivability and versatility, but that said, those players tended to not have many more than a couple of dozen spells at most.

My brother, on the other hand, he had basically every spell in the game. Custom spells, summoning spells, useless spells, attack spells, defensive spells, support spells, even cooking spells! It made me wonder why they were even in the game, it wasn’t a VRMMORPG, and was still dominated by keyboards and mouses, so how come it had so many spells that, made sense for an actual world with magic, didn’t have an impact on the actual viability of the game. Maybe it was for world-building purposes, but then again, that’s a lot of world-building in the spells alone. Not to mention the fact that the spells functioned as advertised, and you could just plant a forest, on top of a mountain, floating on a lake, inside of a volcano, and then go on with your day and wait for someone else to stumble upon what your art displays.

Sometimes those spells were useful, that much was obvious, from needing wood, stone, water, and lava, but why were the effects semi-permanent? I can understand that a mountain doesn’t disappear overnight and all, but what was the use of having that much power if the spells were more or less useless to the vast majority of the game? People didn’t want to waste spell slots on some useless spell, and to waste massive amounts of mana on an ineffective, inefficient, useless, and generally, dumb spell was a wasted effort on the developer’s end. Although there were the few nut-cases that just had to use them anyways, thus the effort wasn’t entirely wasted.

Speaking of spell slots, I wonder what his limit actually is? The magic skull he wears said it could allow for an unlimited amount, but there must be an actual limit, right? Either limited by the number of spells that exist or the amount the skull can allow him to learn, it must have some limit. Regardless, spell slots don’t come cheap. Most players would spend a week’s income just to increase their spell slots by as little as two or three. But those players were far and few between, the same as the items that allowed for them to increase their spell slot allowance. They were incredibly rare, and I’d go as far to say that it was easier to find a dozen godly tier items from random monster drops, than to get a dedicated drop for an item that actually increased spell slots.

But most players didn’t mind the 30 spell starting limit, and luckily for my brother, he didn’t have to worry thanks to a kind guildmaster a couple of years ago. To think someone would just give away an item, that could very well make them rich in the real world, to someone they just met on a whim, it amused me. My brother and I would never make a mistake like that, whether it’s due to our lack of generosity or not, we wouldn’t waste the items, especially not in this new world where a trash item for us could cause kingdoms to fall. I should research more about the world in my free time, so I can tell what we should do and what to avoid, the whole moon incident was barely avoided because of a fundamental flaw.

Ignoring the implausibility of it, if the moons didn’t govern the magic of this world, then my brother would have recked havoc on the world. With nothing that could restrain him, who was there to stop him from upturning kingdoms for fun, or enslaving the gods or dungeons. If the world system didn’t exist, then I’m sure he wouldn’t have thought twice about doing those things, as he would have seen it the same way I would have, the smart choice. To have such powerful, in this world’s standards, entities that were exposable, it was almost impossible to give up unless someone was a complete buffoon. I suppose that I have enough on my plate to deal with, so until I can feast on my thoughts and act upon them, I’ll redirect my focus elsewhere.

It seems like my dragon form was here to stay for a while, but it shouldn’t be permanent. Ashen said it himself, the pain was caused by an overstimulation of super-condensed mana, and for a magical entity, like a dragon, or by extension Dragonoid, it was nearly a death sentence. I’m sure a massive chunk of magical beasts and species suffered heavily from it, but only time and detective work would tell. It made me think of the small village I encountered a while ago. In the middle of the forest that was ablaze, it was rather intriguing, but I didn’t really intrude much, especially since the villagers seemed unwelcoming to me. Perhaps they hated dragons? Or maybe just outsiders as a whole?

Whatever the reason is, I will have to settle those matters another time, I need to focus on today. The surprise was already set, the party was waiting to explode into action. The chefs have worked for the last two and a half days straight, cooking and baking everything for today. I’m just glad that he grew flesh on his skull, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to eat any of the wonderful food they prepared, but I don’t think he will indulge in such an affair too heavily. Knowing him, he would probably eat a slice of cake and leave it at that, but for everyone else in the castle, they would likely chow-down on as many delectable treats as their stomachs would allow. I’m no exception, I love food, and now that I have the freedom of consuming anything and everything I desire, I am going to make good use of the opportunity that has shown itself to me.

Some might consider it rude to pig out at someone’s birthday party, and in all fairness they were true, but I’m certain nobody would mind, excluding the chefs, they would have good reason to dislike my soon-to-be actions. The food was ready, the decorations were prepared too, the only thing that was left to chance was the presents. I’m sure everyone in the castle got him something, even I have found a worthy gift for him, but I wonder if the Puppet Master would spoil the event? She has a knack for unwelcomed entry on private affairs, but she promised not to. The most she could do would be leaving a gift and disappearing before he received it. And hopefully, she would do just that, a sign to show she cares, and then leave before she can ruin the day.

The mountain of presents was going to be impressive, surely, as there were over a thousand NPCs, and on top of that, there were a few people from this world that we're going to stop by as well. The most memorable of which were Xylith, king Arthur, king Erik, and Hairz. There were a few more, but I couldn’t remember their names, as I’ve not met most of them personally. The queen of the bandarainian empire was also likely to show, but it wasn’t guaranteed, but it wouldn’t matter much. She brings back some memories, the fear installed on her face when we first met, the emptiness she expressed when she was at the wedding, it just brought an odd sense of joy to my reptile heart. It also made me remember my brother’s gifts to everyone.

He made small crystal beads for everyone, even for some outside the castle’s walls. Although I wished to enjoy the gift as just that, my intuition was screaming- no, demanding me to investigate the gem. Although small in size, and varying in color, the crystals all held one specific commonality, a god-like amount of magical properties. With the help of a dozen of the best magic users in the castle, we were only able to correctly identify half of its properties. And what a mind-boggling set of properties they were. It was unlike anything I’ve seen in the game or in this world. It was something that would easily rival a Godly tier item, maybe even pushing Supreme Godly tier, the highest one there was. The crystal’s identified properties are as follows.

Magical amplification and resistance equivalent to a tier 22 spell. Mana regeneration of 2,000 per second, in addition to adding 50 attribute points in every category, including willpower, which increases the total mana pool size and regen rate further. Emotional stability equivalent to a tier 22 spell. An increase of 50% to HP, HP regen, and physical resistance. Spell amplification, which increases the level of a spell to boost it’s damage if it wasn’t at max level, of +10 levels. Spiritual magic immunity, which prevented an alteration to one’s soul in a negative way, which allowed for repairing, resurrection, and so on. The crystal could turn mana into health at a conversion rate similar to a tier 22 spell, which is to say, extremely efficient, one mana per thousand health. Not to mention the fact that the crystal acted as a catalyst for spells and skill, and could replace or enhance staves, wands, and other similar weapons.

That was only half of what it could do, and that was already pushing the limits before you came to pure cash shop items. At first, I thought it was one, but the lack of prior knowledge about it and the presence of his mana in each gem proved that point to be false. It was like he shared his power with everyone in possession of a crystal. It might be that literally, but I doubt it. Even if he had the ability, I doubt he would share it so freely with so many others, even some that were mildly untrustworthy like king Erik, but I couldn’t discard that possibility. Then could he have made a new spell to enchant the crystals? I couldn’t rule that out, but we didn’t find traces of enchantment on them either. If only I did my homework on magic like he had, I could have found the answers to these questions easily, or perhaps not even then? Well, once he comes home, we’ll give him gifts that top even all of those crystals.

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(Ashen POV)

The fight with the hero left my mind with thoughts and memories of earth, but it didn’t last long. I refocused on the current task of mine, wrapping up the day, but seeing as I have already done everything I planned on doing, and still have a few hours to kill, I guess I could mess around with magic until something surprising or alarming happens. Maybe I can try working towards a cure for those gnomes, it’d be a good use of time, and I still have to keep my promise with them. I guess my list of chores never truly ends, does it? I keep chipping away at it, but it grows every day like I did no work at all. I’d sigh, but that wouldn’t help right now, so I guess it’s magic studies today. Even if I fail to do it all today, I still have tomorrow to finish or at least further develop my advancing knowledge.

As I took a meditation pose in the large room, I focused my mind on the very idea of fixing the gnomes. I couldn’t let a single scrap of intelligence go to waste, so I forced everything I had into it. What could I do to the gnomes to return them to their original status? Do I have to change them physically? Perhaps mentally? Maybe alter their souls? Or maybe a combination of them all? It wasn’t out of the question, but that’s a lot of work for me to do. Or maybe… Xylith said their fallen status was brought upon them via null magic, so perhaps it has something to do with a magical status effect, or something akin to a magic poison that persists through generations and shows some variation in the level of effectiveness, as seen with the few gnomes that can still talk and retain some resemblance of sentience.

In Sugarea, nothing like null magic sickness existed, so I will have to start from scratch. Perhaps I can use a cash shop item to undo the effects if it turns out that it was something equivalent to magic sickness or poison. The Emerald Lattice, a cleansing item that can remove every status effect from a person, even permanent effects like racial changes. The item could even remove the lich status from someone, restoring their original race, and can even revive the undead back to their alive state. In addition, the item had the ability to potentially create or recreate an extinct species, as long as some remains are present. If all that remained was a skeleton, you could just raise it as an undead, then use the item, and it will be revived back to its state before death, although some memories will be inevitably lost, as the more remains allow for more memories to be kept.

Even if the person’s soul doesn’t exist, or is stolen or locked, the item can overpower the lock or just duplicate the soul. I didn’t have many of these lattices, but I could at least revive a small community of the dead races, and by extension, the gnomes. I had a few items that boosted the effects of other items, but they were extremely rare, and I only had twelve, but using one or two shouldn’t be a problem, nor would it be a waste. When I’m back in Apoctaclass I’ll ask to see the remains of the dead races, and if discovering their corpses was possible, I’ll bring them back from the afterlife. From what I knew, there were tens of thousands of gnomes in just that one underground community, but there are definitely millions more worldwide, it was only time before I could restore them all.

Then again, perhaps I should look into a different approach if I were to restore millions back to their former status. A magic spell would be optimal, even if it were limited to scrolls. But a skill could work too, even if I came at a hefty, yet reasonable, price. If it cost health to use, it wasn’t an issue, as I could just heal indefinitely, but if it came at the cost of lifespan or damage to the soul, I might hesitate a little longer. I guess I could finally test my godly abilities and see If the god of magic can create a spell capable of lifting an entire species from the brink of no recovery. My mana should be enough to cast the spell, and even if it wasn’t, I had my ways to increase it exponentially.

[Spell Created: Raise Species] [Raise Species: A spell capable of removing the effects of [Fallen Species].]

A simple description, but it answered two questions, but asked a dozen more. Why does such a spell exist? Why would anyone cast it? How could anyone cast it? When did they cast it? How much mana did it cost? How could they affect every gnome worldwide? Are they alive? How does it work? Similar questions popped up, but I stopped the clutter from reaching my mind, instead, I started focusing on the spell’s specific details. I knew deep in my mind that it worked on a species level, and couldn’t be used on a single target unless it were the last of its kind. The mana cost was directly dependent on the number of creatures targeted, the length of time they were fallen, and how severe their fallen state is. My mind started to crank numbers automatically, and I started pulling some items from my pocket dimension.

Six crystals, all yellow and blue swirling together in color, now laid in my hands. The crystals were going to act as a catalyst for my spell. I need the crystals so the spell can properly disperse itself and spread evenly across the world, while not being diluted and weakened over distance and time. I felt the cost in my heart, 7 million mana. What? Now that’s an amount I didn’t think it would cost, but I guess It works out just fine. To raise an entire species for just seven million? I know that the heroes have close to 300,000 mana, so that number just seems so low, but it made some sense for the world’s standards. If someone from this world cast it, then someone, or many people together, must have been able to use 7 million mana, even if it was in the form of mana crystals, it still counted.

I raised the crystals in my hands, and let out the spell in a proud dignified voice. “[Raise Species: Gnome]!” My mana was whirled into the crystals and they shattered upon its arrival, signifying that they worked as intended.

[The Gnome Race has been Raised]

Whether it was because I was a god or the one who cast the spell, the notification confirmed its success. Not even ten seconds after the spell was cast the notification popped up, so I guess it was either instantaneous or slow-acting, but I wouldn’t find out until I checked. My mana already started to regenerate, and soon the cost was nearly replenished entirely. With this much power, I could bring back all the dead races, even without a resurrect species spell. But if I could create that spell like I did this one, then that reality could be realized. But I shouldn’t jump straight into doing it, I need to wait for more information first. I need to know what the species were like, their society, their diet, their needs, their behavior, and why they died off in the first place. Considering the fact that there are nearly a hundred different Beastman races, it stands to reason that there were a few more that didn’t make it or were actively hunted or purged.

Regardless of the past racial tensions and conflict, they died for a reason, so I must be cautious when thinking about returning them to this world. I’ll focus on that later, as for now, I need to check up on the gnomes. With a brief flash of light, the room around me faded into the vast empty demon lands. My arrival was met with the gnomes, they all started to emerge from the ground like termites from the walls of a house. Their small hands grabbing at the stone to hoist their bodies up from the massive cracks in the earth. Dozens, then hundreds, then thousands, and tens of thousands of gnomes started erupting from the ground, all seeming desperate to leave their underground residence. The same gnome that I had talked to before was the first to greet me again.

His body quivered, his eyes having small trails of tears running from them. “My lord! You’ve done it!” His voice was filled with a powerful joy that went unmatched by many in this world. “I cannot thank you enough, my lord!” He started to grovel, tears still leaking down his face and wetting the stone beneath him, the other gnomes were quick to join him.

The sight of thousands of short gnomes all huddling against the ground while crying was an odd sight, even after all that I’ve seen in this world. “But how did you find out so soon? The spell was cast less than a minute ago.” Did that notification get sent to the gnomes as well? Or was it sent to everyone in the world?

I gulped the thought of my announcement being spread worldwide. “The effects have been obvious already, and for the few of us that retained some semblance of our former selves, we were blessed with the message from the gods.” So the effects were already evident? And the gnomes that were affected the least received a notification from the world system?

I really need to explore this in further detail, but that comes later. “You need not lower your heads to me, please stand up and rejoice in celebration! Don’t cry, laugh! Be happy for the joyous event, and be glad that you put your faith in the one person that could help you!” I started to sound slightly condescending towards the end, so I stopped myself before I went any further. “Rise! Rise and relish the lives that were restored to you!” Almost like a spell, they all rose in unison with my final words, tears of pure joy cascading their faces, surely flooding their undergrounds.

Although it started small and quiet, a massive uproar of joy burst from the crowd, not a single person withheld from contributing. “We thank you, Lord Ashen.” The gnomes said together, and I finally realized what I had done.

For someone like me, it seemed like just another thing that I have done in this world. Just another footnote or page in my autobiography, something that I did because I had the time and mana to burn through, and I had a promise to fulfill. But to the gnomes, I had finally shattered the shackles of time that had caged their minds. I had released their hidden reality from their sealed fates. To them, I surely appeared to be the god that I proclaimed to be. It makes me feel like I’m truly doing something for the betterment of the world, even if it’s not much. I may have taken hundreds of thousands of lives, and even though it’s not much compared to it, I helped save thousands of others. Even the fates of those that were slain by my hand weren’t sealed, I could still resurrect them since I have their souls, and thus, their lives could one day continue.

I don’t plan on letting that fact justify my actions of killing them all, but at least I had the chance to undo that wrong if need be. I don’t think it was the best choice, but it was what needed to be done. I cannot allow myself to act that way without reason, so having the ability to reverse the death I spread to so many was an option that I would gladly accept. It never hurts to have the option, but still, I shouldn’t think about it as a game, this world has proven to be more real than any game could be. Sure, the world shares heavy resemblances with Sugarea, but that fact is only a coincidence, something that only shaped its creation, not its inhabitants. The people are more real than the NPCs in Sugarea could ever be, excluding some of the really detailed characters or those in the guild bases, as players loved to take care of their creations and give them such extensive backgrounds.

The old gnome spoke to me again, his voice still stained with the effects of a heartfelt cry of joy. “My lord, although our initial greeting was rough and disrespectful, we humbly wish to serve to the best of our abilities.” His words caused the gnomes to strike their chests with the fists, their way of saluting.

Did they just formally submit their loyalty to me, and also strive for employment? “Excellent, if you’d have it, I love for you to aid me in a matter that has been looming over me for a short while.” He didn’t even ask what it was, only nodding in understanding and awaited for more information. “Cities. I need more cities and towns to be formed, and I need teachers and citizens to inhabit them. I plan to host schools to educate the citizens, and I hope you all could lend a hand.” Although it was already going to be tackled by Wheatberg and Apoctaclass, it was best to diversify the towns to have the best chance of unifying the races together.

The discussion was held for an hour, the fine details hammered out as briefly and straight-forward as possible as to not waste all the time I had. They agreed to settle four new towns close to their current home, each with two thousand citizens that would divide the workload properly. After the towns were done, then the schools and business would come, and after that, others would soon come and the towns would all thrive. But I still had no reason behind why I wanted to unify the races of the world. I had lesser reasons, those were plenty, but nothing major. I guess it was just part of my nature to care for those that had little, to begin with. The races that I helped were all considered bad or evil by humans and similar races. The only four races that seemed to be discrimination-free were humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs. But even then, sometimes the dwarves and orcs were hated on for some reason or another.

Today has been pretty jam-packed with duties. First Apoctaclass, then Wheatberg, then the hero attack, and just now the gnome raising spell and discussion. I'm tired on every level, despite having no fatigue. How could today continue to drain me of my mental strength and resolve further? Let me guess, the gods are going to come down? Or Puppet Master is going to suck me up to the Eatherian plane? Or maybe a dragon is going to attack? The worst part of that was that it was possible, likely almost. I shouldn't jinx myself, not because it would bother me, but because that was Jinx's job after all. Well, her job was supposedly a nuisance rather than a help, but everyone liked her to a decent degree regardless. Perhaps she would be annoyed with me jinxing myself instead of her doing it, the thought of it kills me.

If memory serves me right once more, she was a young child, barely ten at best, at least in maturity and looks. But of course, my impure guildmates would make her technically legal age by saying she was a Notyrian. They were more or less super young-looking humans with black hair and dark grey skin. They could sprout wings and appeared to spread bad luck. In honesty, they were more like a placebo in that regard, since they didn't do anything. Whenever you saw one, you instantly felt like your luck was sapped and stolen. Jinx wore some purple and black dress-like thing that had dozens of cloth strips suspended in the air around her, each leaking a small trail of mysterious and ominous black fog, which was as harmless as their bad luck. To be honest, dozens of races in the game was all an excuse to have young, sometimes old, looking characters that were the opposite age, young being old and old being young.

Our guild had a few NPCs of these races, mostly just for fun or diversity, but they were in the guild all the same. We probably had the most diverse guild in terms of race alone, mostly because NPCs were hard to procure and even harder to care for. But for one of the top guilds, the upkeep of the NPCs was negligible at best, and annoying at worst. It wasn’t particularly expensive, to a max-level player at least, being only 10,000 gold per hundred levels of NPCs. Meaning, 100 level 100 NPCs would cost 1,000,000 gold. Considering the number of NPCs that we own alone, we are already paying tens of millions to hundreds of millions, but when you consider that a world boss gave half a quadrillion gold coins at the bare minimum for the top 100 damage dealers, then the cost just feels worthless.

That isn’t to say that smaller guilds could afford it either, as they had far less money, and didn’t have the luxury or privilege of affording NPCs. In that regard, our guild was special. Having two max-level players, and the rest above 900, meant that we could earn the cost of the NPCs in our free time, individually. Every member had the means to make a billion coins in a day, so the financial status of the guild was covered near indefinitely. NPCs were costly to make or buy, but we coughed up the money for the hell of it. We set a dozen new records while having fun, and that’s what really mattered, that we as a collective had a good time while doing it. I’m not saying that we didn’t have an unfair advantage over other guilds, we did, and a ginormous gap at that, but we didn’t wage wars, most of the time whenever a guild attacked, we just chilled out at the castle, defending slightly, but since they couldn’t pierce our walls after we strengthened them, it was useless to fight back against the smaller guilds, even the larger ones too.

Sure, the large guilds wanted to wage a war and test whose guild was better, and sometimes we would just tell them off or duel privately, but never did we truly wage a war, only ever just playing the feud like a game. Sure, the other guilds got mad when we didn’t oblige their request for conflict, but what could they do? Storm the guild base of two max-level players that were almost always online? Fight an entire guild of nearly maxed out players and high-level NPCs? That’s the same as rushing to finish digging your own grave then diving like an Olympic swimmer head-first into it, it was insanity at its finest. Not to mention the fact that the door only opened to guild-aligned members, meaning guild members and NPCs. Any hostile or neutral party was immediately rejected, and any friendly party was able to request entry, but most were denied anyway.

Alright, I lost track of what was on my mind. Oh right, today. One hell of a day so far, and it can only get more ‘fun’ the longer it goes on. With the whole kingdom management game I got sucked into, and the recent events that have taken place with the heroes, I just want to have a day to myself, even a peaceful night’s rest would be appreciated. I can sleep, I have the ability, but not the need. If I felt like it, I could drop into a coma for all of eternity, but that wasn’t exactly on my to-do list, nor will it be. Just eight hours, that’s all I wish for. Eight hours to sleep and be comforted by the embrace of dreamland. But with how my life currently was, I doubt that was a reality that was waiting for me. Maybe in a different timeline, but definitely not this one. I might as well go home, I don’t have anything else to do, and I just want to get the day over with at this point.

I sent a message to Misfortune. I am about to return to the castle. Simple, but it was all that I needed to do.

After five minutes she sent a reply. The castle is ready to welcome you, my Lord. I didn’t know why they would welcome me today, they haven’t done this any other time before this.

A spell circle briefly encumbered the ground beneath me, and soon my surroundings changed to that of the mountains and the castle’s massive doors. “I have returned,” I said aloud, the doors rushing themselves open in a mechanical manner.

Behind the doors was Misfortune, she walked alongside me, almost like a mother would with her child. “Welcome back, my Lord. If you wouldn’t mind following me for this evening, I have something to show you.” Did I miss something? Did Aeyrs issue something that I was unaware of?

Perhaps some kind of holiday was today, but nothing I knew of came to mind. “Alright.” I still tried to think about anything that could take place today, but nothing came to mind.

We walked through the halls, the destination unknown to me for now. I could teleport, but that wasn’t needed for now, nor would it help when I know not of the location I needed to go. It was also incredibly rude to her since she wanted to show me to the place personally. I didn’t want to upset her or make her see me in a bad light because of simple impatience. I could manage the wait, and the walk wasn’t half bad, so I had no need to hurry the process. From what I remember, nothing important was planned for today, nor was it the anniversary of anything major or of any importance. It’s been over four months in this world, so I doubt that it was anything native to the planet either, since Misfortune would have caught word of it and reported it back. Perhaps something related to winter? Like how there was Christmas back on earth, and Winter Tree Season in Sugarea. There were plenty of other holidays related to winter, but nothing rang a bell for today. If I had Vron with me, I would just ask him, but I didn’t know if he was busy since he was outside of my tail.

We finally reached the entrance of the Dining Hall, and something was happening inside. “My lord.” She bowed respectfully, but I only opened the doors in return, and much to my frozen surprise.

The room was decorated in many colors and fire-related ornaments. From decals and stickers of cartoony flames to large streaks of fire in the air, bright colors and a warm feeling emanate the entire room. In the middle of the far wall, just behind the seats for the guild members, was a large banner that read: Happy 8000th Ashen!. My jaw would have fallen off if I didn’t have flesh preventing it. Row after row of tables was packed to the gills with food, and the table for the guild members had a massive cake the size of Arath, maybe even larger. The cake was decorated with white frosting as a base, and red, orange, and yellow intertwined in a ribbon-like pattern in rings going up the cake’s three layers. The top of the cake was still blind to me until I got a closer look at least.

Nearly every NPC was gathered here, much like the wedding. All the maids, butlers, guards, and most others, only a few individuals weren’t here. The Star-Mates were present, Xylith standing with them, almost as if she were an artificial member. Misfortune quickly joined the other level 950 NPCs, and all four of them stood together, like a proper group of friends or adventurers. Arath stood in one of the corners, another person was talking with him. Altogether, there were nearly a thousand people in this one room alone, yet Vron and Aeyrs weren’t present. I guess they were going to come later, I’d just have to wait. The chefs were all admiring their creations, even Kraken had a strange smile upon his lips. They likely stayed up for days to get something like this all done. I’d have to thank everyone after the party, even if I forgot about this day myself.

Almost like a landmine, of which I stepped directly onto, everyone turned to me and spoke in slightly creepy unison. “Happy Birthday, Lord Ashen!” Some slight variations were audible as well, but they all meant the same thing.

The doors closed behind me, and just like before, the Star-Mates and Xylith pounced onto me, but I stayed standing. “Miss me that much?”A slight joy was present in my voice, like a father talking to his children that were gone for a week.

Their arms pulled me closer to each of them, tightening their embraces like snakes hungry for prey. “Like the sun misses the moon!” My brother’s voice echoed around the room, and then I saw his lizard face standing just in front of me.

Our eyes locked, a slight smile emerging from both of our faces, mine in slight relief of his recovery. “Are you going to hang yourself on me too? I might be running out of room if you don’t become a little girl too.” I slightly wished that last sentence didn’t leave my mouth, as he did just that.

He took out a small pinkish-purple potion from his pocket dimension, and downed it swiftly, the effects making him female for an hour. “Well, then I guess I shall join you.” He used a gender swap potion for a humorous gag, well spent.

Without delay, he jumped up and draped his body off of mine, his arms making a solid ring around my neck, but it didn’t bother the eight others that were doing the same. “Sometimes I wish you didn’t take my words so seriously.” My smile grew, things like this reminded me of the good old days, and even now, a stupid brotherly moment was needed from time to time. “Does anyone else want to join while I’m offering?” Just like the other sentence, I wished I didn’t say that, as every female, and even some males, came rushing over and formed the largest group hug I’ve seen.

After the group hug, I exchanged a personal hug with everyone that wanted it, it made me happy to finally interact with everyone like this like I was actually doing something with them. It made me feel like it was real life rather than a game, something I would never truly embrace without something like this. Each of the maids seemed satisfied with the hug, even if it was only a programmed feeling, but I’d never know for certain. The most interesting part of the exchange came from the few that I didn’t expect to want a hug. Those people were: Misfortune, Planthra, Premium, Arath, and Kraken. Each hug was a different surprise entirely. I never took Misfortune for the kind of person that would want affection of any kind, even from her lord, and her embrace was surprisingly warm.

Planthra spread vines all around me, constricting us in our embrace with far more force than I would have thought she could muster, and her body seemed to cling to me like glue. Premium surprised me when he wanted a hug, as he never seemed like he wanted such intimate interaction with someone he viewed as higher than himself, he always acted so strictly and proper, so I couldn't have guessed that he would want to do something like this. Arath I could understand, since he couldn’t really embrace any other person, but it felt like he reserved all of his strength to crush me in his arms, failing, but it felt that way nonetheless. Last was Kraken, someone I knew for certain didn’t want anything like this to happen with someone other than a female, yet his embrace felt friendly as if we were great friends for years.

The last person I embraced was someone that felt overlooked, even if she was short enough for that to be a possibility. Her cheeks were puffed and a blush washed over her face. Her arms were crossed in wait and defiance as if she didn’t want to hug me, but I knew she couldn’t contain herself for much longer. Xylith sprung up from the ground in an instant, and I caught her in my gentle embrace. What started as a joke ended in a touching moment with everyone here, and I enjoyed that. I might be considered a demon, but I still felt like I was a good person regardless of that fact. We ended our embrace with a kiss and I let her down. With that done, we finally moved onto the party itself. Over four hours, we partied into the night, everyone having the time of their lives.

I ended up splitting a slice of cake with Xylith, as my stomach wasn’t used to eating, so it was rather small. I could almost swear that Aeyrs ate half of the massive cake by himself, but it’s not like anyone would say anything. We played plenty of games throughout the night, some silly, others just plain stupid, like pin the tail on the dragon. Aeyrs got quite mad after I ‘missed’ the placement, and stung him almost a dozen times in his ass. His scales were enough to protect him from damage, but it was the action and humiliation that followed that really mattered. The night ended with a large present opening session, everyone managed to get me something. It was rather imposing to me, having a thousand gifts, give or take a couple, and I had to open them in front of them all. It touched my heart to know that they cared for me as much as I cared for them.

Most of the maids and butlers gave me some simple gifts, most handmade and heart-filled, others, we don’t speak about the undergarments that I received. Every time I got panties or a bra from one of the maids, I immediately put it into my pocket dimension, and Xylith blushed intensely. I was surprised by their actions, to go as far as to do something like that, it was something I could never predict. Premium got me an ornamental sword, a near replica of his own. Misfortune gave me a small statue of a chest that unfolded into herself, an action figure of sorts. Planthra got me a small bracelet made of intertwined vines and had a blue flower in replacement for a gem spot. Titan gave me something unique, a perfect statue of my body, armor and all, something truly eye-catching.

The Star-Mates all came together to give me a singular gift that changed appearance with a dial. A small metal plate that had their figure carved into it, like a negative projection, and it cycled through all of their appearances. Arath gave me something mundane, a simple set of fake demon horns, a gag item from Sugarea. It relieved me to see him give me something simple instead of a statue or figurine. I enjoyed their gifts, truly, but there was only so much that I could do with action figures or fancy images and statues. Vron ended up giving me something mundane as well, a simple wooden plaque with an image of everyone together on it, and the name of the guild under it. It nearly brought a tear to my eye, but Aeyrs’s gift stopped that.

Leave it to my brother to get me a fully living lizard as a pet. It wasn’t even a special lizard, just some ordinary tamed pet. I swear it was just a common iguana from earth. It was green and had a nearly non-existent mana signature and was barely 30 centimeters long. He literally gave me a pet version of himself. At least he got me something different than the others, a living being, but still something different. The last gift given to me was from Xylith, and it came with a small note, or rather, a letter. The item that she gave me was a classic ‘World’s #1 Demon’ mug, equipped with small horns on the sides, a slim tail from the back, and everything. The note was something else.

8000 years of living isn’t an easy feat, but for someone like you, I bet you still got a million more. I hope our kids will live that long too, but there’s only one way to find out. Lots of love, Happy Birthday! Xylith’s words were nothing but a disguise for requesting children again, but I guess it was time.

8000 years old and still a virgin, not exactly something I thought would happen to me, but it would appear it was so. “Thank you all for everything you’ve done for me. I hope I can do even more for you in the future. I love you all, good night!” After a small speech and departure, I ended up back in my bedroom, finally ready to release myself in bed. “Xylith, I suppose it’s time for an heir.” My words made her lose hesitation, and the night took itself away from me.