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“I see. That could be possible.”

As the walls gradually narrowed towards the ceiling, the cave itself seemed to resemble a crack of some sort.

Since it was a cave stretching along an underground waterway, Blanc seemed to believe that it was originally all a waterway. However, it seemed more natural to think that a crack formed somehow, causing water to flow and turning it into a waterway due to some incident.

Considering the significant mass of land rising as if uplifted, there must have been some cause for the formation of cracks.

However, this contradicts the hypothesis that Lizardmen couldn’t come out due to tectonic shifts. Before the tectonic shift, there were probably no cracks, so where did the Lizardmen originally live?

Combining both speculations, it would be reasonable to assume that the cave, originally serving as a waterway, expanded due to tectonic shifts.

“And you know, at first, Lizardmen would turn into zombies, but if you reject the system message, they become skeletons.”

“Oh, really? So, if you left them like that, would they have become Lizardman zombies? If you combined them, it might have turned into a Dragon Zombie or something.”

“Dragon Zombie! Well, but it’s still a zombie… We already have Burgundy in the dragon category, so it’s fine.”

“[Death Aroma].”

“Stop it already!”

During their trivial conversation, they reached an open area. This seemed to be the underground lake that Blanc mentioned. While there was an underground lake in the first cave of the Liebe Great Forest, this one was incomparably larger.

Near the underground lake, there were several structures built on raised ground. It seemed to be a Lizardman settlement.

“Should we check each one individually?”

“Isn’t it dangerous?”

“Then, you guys, bring a few companions with you.”

Although it was unlikely that Rare and Blanc would be in danger of a surprise attack by Lizardmen at this point, it was better to be cautious to avoid falling into such complacency. They decided to send the Lizardmen they had tamed earlier to investigate. There weren’t many adults, but there seemed to be quite a few children.

“Let’s leave the children alone. Bring only those that have grown to a certain extent. And let’s leave a few adults… No, forget it. Let’s turn all the adults into subordinates. We can leave some here to protect the children.”

This could be called the Lizardman farm.

“That would have been a good idea. I usually take care of them when I see them.”

“No, Blanc, if you turn them into subordinates, won’t they become skeletons? Raising Lizardman children under the care of skeletons leaves some concerns in terms of moral education.”

If Rare planned to make them the commander of the Demon Lord Army in the future, that might be acceptable, but…

“They can become zombies too, you know?”

“If you really think that’s a solution, then you’ve come full circle.”

Anyway, they had managed to acquire as many Lizardmen as they could for now. They also got quite a number of Hiers Newts. Both were left without much intervention, so they were expected to multiply again. The growth cycle for humanoid-sized creatures was too short for them to reproduce as a game, but without such limitations, the game wouldn’t work. Looking at examples like treants, it seemed that the system restricted the number of creatures within a certain range and set the limit for reproduction speed until they reached the stage of being able to reproduce.

“What about Lyra’s share? Is it okay if there’s none left for her?”

“It will probably increase sooner or later. Besides, there are still plenty of Newts outside, and even after Lyra goes on a rampage, there should be no problem.”

Moreover, Lyra couldn’t fly easily. She wouldn’t be able to come here as casually as Rare or Blanc.

“Well, for example, if she takes over the avatar of a human subordinate, uses the transfer service to fly to Verdesud and walks from there, she can come.”

“Then, I’ll let her know.”

“Please. Since there are still few Lizardmen, tell her to capture only Newts.”

“Okay!”

＊

In order to push through with Blanc’s insistence, they decided to go even further upstream through the waterway to visit the Count’s castle.

“I brought some friends, Count!”

“Friends…? Isn’t it the Demon Lord!? Give me a heads-up next time!”

“…Sorry for the sudden intrusion.”

The Count stood up from his throne-like chair and walked towards Rare and the others.

This was the first time someone had seen through Rare as the Demon Lord at first glance.

Even if the Count knew about the Demon Lord, Rare’s appearance was quite unique, how could he have known?

“No, I don’t mind. Today, what kind of…”

“No, I just dropped by to say hello to a friend of mine who has taken care of me, since I happened to be in the neighborhood. Blanc has always been a great help to us.”

“Oh, not at all. It’s the other way around. Always causing me trouble.”

“What’s this, a teacher’s home visit?”

According to Blanc, the Count seemed to know a lot about many things. For Rare, he was a figure she wanted to have as an acquaintance. Blanc, in the meantime, had summoned a zombie in the corner of the audience room, possibly as a marker for his movements.

Rare wanted to add the Count as a friend, but sharing that information with such an important NPC might not be advisable. Considering the official silence on this matter and the absence of NPCs who knew about it so far, it was safe to assume that the developers did not want to widely spread this inventory aspect of the in-game world.

In that case, it seemed reasonable to think that Rare’s current state was “tolerated” by the system. She didn’t want to touch on delicate matters and risk penalties.

“…First and foremost, I want to make it clear that I have no intention of being hostile to you, sir Count.”

“Please refrain from being overly formal with me. There’s no need for honorifics, you’re higher ranked than I* am.”

“I*!? You… But “I” is what you always say!” (T/N: he uses the pronoun 我 but he changed to 私 while speaking to Rare)

“- It’s good to know that you don’t have the intention of antagonizing us in the immediate future.”

“I’m sure there are several other factions in this world, but are there any other factions that are friendly with the vampire faction?”

“I can’t tell you much in terms of details of what goes on outside of this continent… There’s no such thing as a friendly faction, at least not at all times, for any of the factions out there. They join hands or turn against each other depending on the situation at the time. That is the way of those who are watched by the world.”

“Watched by the world?”

“When something is born that has the potential to become an exceptionally powerful being, there is a ‘signal’ that is sent out to inform others. Special skills are needed to receive that signal, which unfortunately I don’t have. However, some humans and some highly intelligent monsters specialize in such thing.”

In other words, he was referring to the kind of announcements that could be heard through the [Spiritual Wisdom] skill. If such an announcement was audible, it was natural to assume that one was under surveillance. In fact, everything in this world is being monitored, but it would not be wrong to assume that a being that warrants an announcement is seen as a particularly important target for surveillance.

And apparently, although it’s unknown how many of them exist in the world, each of the so-called disaster-level beings is aware of each other to some extent, and they cooperate or antagonize each other depending on their interests.

Then you can assume that if you don’t go against their interests, they won’t bother to antagonize you.

On the other hand, if we suffer damage, we can fight back without question, but other forces will not bother to intervene.

“However, there were exceptions. Once, a Golden Dragon fell from a height higher than the sky itself to the northern pole. At that time, all factions temporarily joined forces to seal the Golden Dragon, and cover it with a Crystal Wall to prevent it from being broken.”

“Is that Crystal Wall some kind of skill?”

“It is likely something like that. It was activated by the former Holy King at the time, but she passed away at the moment of activation of the Crystal Wall, so the details are no longer available… But the Holy King was a race with excellent defense, so it would not be surprising if she had such a skill for exclusive use. I don’t know the principles behind how it works, but I was told that to destroy or disarm the Crystal Wall, you need proof of power from the Spirit Lord, the Queen of Insects, the Sea Emperor, the Mythical Beast King*, our True Ancestor, and the Holy King, who provided the mana at the time of its activation.”

*(T/N: written 幻獣王 where 王 means king and 獣 means beast, 幻 seems to mean something like mythical, phantom, illusion, dream… so I’m guessing it’s Mythical Beast King)

It sounded like a condition for unlocking endgame content. To unlock the content related to defeating the Golden Dragon, one needed to meet or defeat these top-level entities and obtain some event items…

“Some of them are already deceased, right?”

“We don’t know the details since we don’t have the Holy King herself. If the wavelengths are close to each other, it might be possible if a new Holy King was born.”

In addition, I don’t know much about the existence of the Mythical Beast King. I’m sure it wasn’t among the 6 great calamities mentioned in the Official Forum discussion threads. That being said, neither the Spirit Lord nor the Holy King were included there.

If these do not currently exist in this world and are set to be achieved by the players, the first possibility would be a Spirit Lord. By growing elves or dwarves, a Spirit Lord can be created.

Considering the convenience of the game scenario, it is reasonable to assume that the Holy King and the Mythical Beast King have similar difficulty levels. Assuming that the Mythical Beast King is the destination of the beastmen, then the remaining Holy King can be considered the pinnacle of the human race.

In other words, the player grows up or promotes the growth of the human race or nation, and the player obtains key items by cooperating with or defeating the disaster-class characters that have appeared in this way.

We have already launched an offensive against the elven kingdom of Portree. Deas is a character with a grudge against the human species nations, although the key target is their rulers only. It’s not certain that he will not kill all the royalty under the guise of being considerate.

If this happens, it will be hopeless to produce a Spirit Lord from the NPC elf country.

Be that as it may, I am concerned that there are two people who are counted among the six major disasters but have no role in any of them. If we include up to seven major ones, there will be one more unemployed, but that is not important right now.

“Come to think of it, there is one other faction that is an exception to the rule besides the Golden Dragon. The Archangel that hangs around this continent, he is basically always “hostile” to all factions!”

“Is there a reason for that?”

“I don’t know. They only came into being fairly recently.”

“They?”

“The Archangel and the Archdemon of the Sea of Trees in the southern continent. However, the Archdemon is a little older than the Archangel. Well, the Archdemon doesn’t seem to be have the personality to pick fights with anyone.”

I can imagine from the name that there might be some connection between the Archangel and the Archdemon. They’re usually thought of as a pair, like the Demon Lord and the Spirit Lord. It is therefore natural to assume that their roots are in the same race.

The fact that both have only recently appeared suggests that they may not be species that originally inhabited this world. They were probably not there in the first place when the Golden Dragon fell.

“…So Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Beastmen have a role in opening up endgame content. Skeletons and Goblins, well, let’s leave them out for now. There was one other race that players could initially choose from.”

A magical creature that Rare once tried to create through “alchemy” but has yet to find the recipe.

That one probably won’t be born until someone has mastered [Alchemy]. No wonder they are “young” in terms of species.

Speaking of which, there was one more race with an endgame role for the initial player choices.”

The magical creature that Lea tried to create with [Alchemy] but hadn’t discovered the recipe for yet – the Homunculus.

“The homunculus, was it? It’s like hard mode, to put it mildly, with no bonuses, lots of disadvantages, and if you get caught, you’re treated as a monster. Skeletons were easy.”

I don’t think skeletons and goblins are easy mode, and I think it’s more like very hard, considering that Sugaru was in Blanc’s initial spawn location, but I’ll leave it at that.

A homunculus is a creature that resembles a human child, but if its true identity becomes known, it will be attacked by humans as a monster, and because of its appearance, it is usually prey in the monster territories. In any situation, they have enemies, a true hard mode. Moreover, they don’t get an initial experience bonus.

I have never seen it on social networking sites or in the game, so there are probably not many players who have chosen it, but if it were possible to reincarnate from it into an angel or demon, its value would be immeasurable. If that was the case and it was discovered and publicly revealed by someone, the paid initial race reincarnation charge items, for example, will sell like hotcakes.

“About this talk, you can’t talk about it anywhere else.”

“The only other people I talk to are Rare-chan and Lyra-san.”

“Well, in that case, it’s fine.”

What was intended to be just a casual greeting and chat turned into a really eventful conversation before I knew it.

Moreover, it was with the Vampire Count, who was probably an essential NPC in terms of the continent’s action-limiting cap.

It’s likely that, under normal circumstances, defeating this Count would have earned us information about factions and hostile forces outside the continent and about endgame content, but I seemed to have bypassed all such procedures with this turn of events.

If I were to defeat the Count and have a conversation with him, it would require some sort of process whereby I would prove myself and be recognized by him through fighting. Perhaps this is the way it happened because I was recognized only by my title, and maybe my relationship with Blanc, without needing to fight.

“Count, thank you for today. I learned a lot.”

“I’m glad I could be of help. It was also fortunate for us to have made the acquaintance of the Demon Lord.”

“By the way. I have received some very detailed information just now, but what if after hearing it I planned to revive the Golden Dragon?”

The Count kept his eyes down and laughed lightly.

“It doesn’t matter. Even if you know, currently, no entity is currently capable of breaking the seal on the Golden Dragon. If someone was actually able to do so, that person might also be able to reseal it or maybe even defeat it. Now that the Holy King has passed away, it is unclear how long the Crystal Wall will remain in good state. If we can do something about that ambiguity, we should force the situation to move, even if it might make the situation worse.”

“And you think I’m the one who can do that?”

“That’s right. It could be anyone from your side.”

The Count seemed to be looking at Rare, then at Blanc, and then into the distance.

By “your side” I assume he means the players. This all tells me that he is probably the most important NPC on this continent; he may have even more privileged information, or the ability to sense something about the player or something, within limits that do not affect the AI’s personality.

“…I will be diligent. Well then, I think it’s time for me to take my leave. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I hope you will continue to take care of Blanc from now on.”

“Likewise, I apologize for the trouble, but please take care of this one, I’m counting on you.”

“Again, what is this, a parent-teacher meeting?”

＊

It seems I’ve overstayed quite a bit. By the time of leaving the Count’s castle, the sun had started to tilt.

I parted ways with Blanc above the Count’s castle and flew to the forest of Tore with the quiet Sugaru, who had been well-behaved all along.

However, I managed to obtain a considerable amount of invaluable information. Some of it might be mixed with speculation, but that’s usual. Since it’s a game, it’s probably fine to consider this as the correct answer to some extent.

Just thinking about it makes for an exciting scenario.

If possible, I would definitely like to be ahead of the players and try breaking this so-called Crystal Wall, releasing the Golden Dragon. If using substitutes is possible, there’s already the Queen of Insects, even if it’s a different person of the same race. In this regard, it’s safe to say that I’m at least a step ahead of other players.

Releasing the Golden Dragon would undoubtedly lead to a worldwide crisis, but aiming to bring about a worldwide crisis is quite fitting for a Demon Lord, isn’t it?

This is by no means a retaliation for the fact that [Demon Lord] was not involved in the conditions for unlocking endgame content.

{***} Author note:

Endgame Scenarios Envisioned by the Administration:

Scenario 1: Ordinary players aim to liberate and defeat the Golden Dragon for the purpose of subjugation. If unsure when the seal might break, they intentionally break it at a convenient timing and proceed to defeat the root cause.

Scenario 2: Players from the chaotic side, or those playing a heel role, aim to destroy the seal with the goal of the world’s collapse. The unleashed Golden Dragon is cooperatively defeated by players on the human or lawful side.

Scenario 3: As no player attempts to interfere with the Crystal Wall, the seal unintentionally unravels, releasing the Golden Dragon. All players then collaborate to defeat the dragon.

The lines for the Count are crafted in a way that could fit into any of these scenarios. The way he expresses himself may vary based on his emotions towards the other party, but the fundamental content remains the same.

Since he won’t answer unless asked, there might be players who engage in battles with the Count without any specific purpose, concluding with a simple “won/lost” or “you were strong” without gaining any information.

These three scenarios are prepared for such developments.

At any rate, at this point, there is no anticipation of the situation unfolding.

{***}