The answer, turns out, was not much. Still, it hurt a bit to let go of the chance to increase his stats by around fifty percent. In the long game however, that would equal less than ten levels on a White class if he got one, nevermind that he was still two grades below that.

Turns out however, that there were not only ten steles, but twelve.

It became immediately obvious that ten was not the final amount when he’d managed to take the tenth bonus and not complete the zone quest, but he only figured out there were two more because someone shot at Lea while she was scouting for more points of interest. When she beat the shit out of the strangely strong pixie, the little thing then started to monologue a lot of bullshit about how she was dooming two worlds and that she should be ashamed of that.

When Aki finally got there, they were able to ascertain that yes, there was a hero and villain situation here. The fairy was supposed to be the zone guardian, who would help the people to take out the strongest invader, which was some kind of zone destroyer.

That she thought Lea was one of the invader's lieutenants was to be expected as apparently her counterpart was a lich. On the other hand, he did receive her stone stele as his skills made the scatterbrained fairy unable to refute that the thing was safer with him as Lea didn't even have to use her image to defeat the first sized ranger.

Aki was honestly considering eating the irritating chatterbox by the time he had gained enough information on the subject, but she could still be useful in several ways, so instead he just pointed her towards Ashe Morten and mounted Lea so they could start searching for the Lich, which was much easier when looking for a trail of miasma in the middle of lush plains and forests through their magical senses instead of the more physically inclined variety, which ended saving them a lot of time.

They'd found it strange that the fairy stele didn’t do anything by itself, the only prompt that appeared thanks to it being one for Lea to rebel and deliver the stele to the lich, joining it and obtaining freedom. To which she scoffed at. She could do that herself already thanks to Aki vying for a hundred in each stat, nevermind that that would seal her image since monsters at this stage were not supposed to have any. As a sumon, she had a lot more freedom, ironically enough.

No, murdering the undeath out of the lich wasn’t even hard, he had even more bullshit to say than the fae, but ultimately he was an old man having a mid-life crisis and trying to kill people while at it, not a veteran warrior, so he quickly fell for several of their tricks before being overpowered with ease. This allowed them to loot his stele as his army of the mewling army of the dead became without direction, which was when both the steles he had floated towards each other and fused in a flash of light, very cinematic like.

Snatching it he received a new prompt.

[Congratulations! You have completed the zone quest until now entirely on your own, so you will be given a choice. Choose one of the following for the last part:

I- +50 to all your stats.

II- Deliver the fused stele to Guardian Pin so she may receive the power to guide you and yours through the coming trial.

Congratulations! You have received +50 to all your stats!]

If the question was between him doing it and letting a random person, nevermind a FAE of all things, do it, he’d obviously do it at every chance he got as long as the situation was important enough, and this most certainly was.

[The last stage of the zone quest will soon begin! Ready your blades, steady your resolve! Raxatum, the devouring flame (Lv 99) will soon arrive and attempt to lay waste on the zone!

Congratulations! You have completed the Strong path (250/250)! +10 to Strength. +1 to strength per level. All muscles have their resistance increased by a tenth. A tenth of the strength score now also contributes to muscle condensation.]

Since he was currently flying so high in the sky, Aki disregarded his sudden loss of a dozen or so centimeters, his whole body itching as it condensed, grew again and readjusted to each part of the sudden power of finally having all his attributes strengthened, the numbers he did not track suddenly cascading into each other and causing all sorts of annoyances as his body was improved.

He imagined the same had happened to his mental stats despite it not having felt like much, but he didn't have much time to think about all of that as a giant demon in fetal position was falling like a meteor towards him.

There was probably going to be a few minutes before it made contact with the ground, but that was already more than enough.

Without the need to exchange any words, Lea flew straight towards the falling red mountain of flesh, Aki already preparing a spell, partitioning the catalyst part so it would be inserted later on instead of immediately, which took some concentration, but for someone with around two hundred willpower it was easy enough if he focused his whole being into it.

As they approached the demon opened it's four eyes, slowly moving it's formerly asleep body to try and swat at the flier going for it. Unfortunately for the giant over twenty meters tall, all that did was reduce it's falling speed as his strike was easily avoided.

While passing the flailing humanoid supposed to destroy the zone, a small cut caused a torrent of purple blood to gush out only to be collected by Aki as the wound scabbed over at a visible rate.

He didn't mind, still peacefully constructing his spell as the small light javelin accepted the demonic ichor into its composition, quickly gaining purple markings and growing until it became proportional to the size of it's target.

Slowly, even as Aki further modified the spell, it started to fall, trying to move towards it’s target. At some point, it simply left.

“Keep going up and don’t look back.” Aki murmured before downing a mana potion. His reserves and items were very close to empty. That spear had cost a bit over five thousand MP despite all his efficiency and skill levels.

‘Whatever the fuck you did, it better not be up to me to clean it up!’ Complained Lea, hoping there really was nothing to worry about. Soon, their flying got them almost out of the atmosphere, only the emptiness of space above. That’s when the sound of the explosion caught them.

Going back a bit, those still on the ground, specially the fairy that was supposed to get the stele to power up and carry the fight against this demon, saw that the roaring monstrosity suddenly seemed to panic and wail around, it’s eyes shooting open as it’s back tore open to reveal two pairs of bat wings coming from below it’s shoulder blades, which formed giant gusts of wind as it stopped in the air, suddenly trying to flee in a random direction from what seemed to be a big spear of light that quickly kept correcting it’s slow trajectory.

Soon the demon was the size of a normal human in the distant sky despite how long it’d been falling for, yet the slow spear seemed to not have moved nearly enough to be where it currently stood, almost perforating it’s heart, ignoring every barrier raised in the air with fire, wind, shadows and even a strange purple liquid as if they were imaginary.

Roaring in indignation, anger and dread, the demon was finally hit on the chest before the spear completely disappeared at contact. For a moment it seemed like nothing would happen, but soon the giant withered before exploding with white fire, all of it’s blood condensing before suddenly being forced to expand due to the transfer of heat to the phased atoms of magnesium that lit the oxygen present all over its body with hellish fervor.

Just like that, the one sent to destroy the zone had been turned into flaming flesh debris.

“That guy was probably a mage.” Aki grinned.

“Because he died in one hit? I’m pretty sure anything that big with blood coursing through them would die if that spell did what I think it did.” Scoffed Lea.

“No, it’s actually from a lyric of a song that kind of got stuck in my head because I thought for a moment about sending the lance for it’s anus instead of anchoring it to hit one of it’s hearts and it just...”

“You’re ruining the moment, just shut up.”

“I probably should.”

…………….

[The trial has been defeated! Well done! Zone 33 will now begin integration into the wider world.

Due to being the first zone to be integrated into the new world, your reward will be tripled!

Ashe Morten receives the special building 'Tunnel to elemental realm of primordial earth', allowing for the mining of exotic and new minerals in grand quantities.

Energy allocation increased!

Plant and animal growth enhanced!

Land and natural resources enhanced!

Several new paths have been unlocked!

Danger zones have been unlocked!]

As he read it again, Aki looked at the expanding boundaries of the zone. He could now see the other side. Higher level resources, dungeons, portals to other realms. All at his grasp.

He'd unlocked some strange couple of paths thanks to one shooting the demon, together with a few hundred skill points mostly focused on his social and magical skills.

Now, he just wanted to properly fight some invaders and mercilessly conquer territory while establishing satellite cities to take in the worlds he'd integrate into his own.

What could possibly go wrong? Surely no one would suddenly open themselves to an attack of his through opening their zones up so soon?