Chapter 43
A Change in State
"Onii-chan! Onii-chan! Get up! It's morning already!"
A voice called out to me as I comfortably drifted in and out of sleep . Though my consciousness was hazy, I could still somehow make out the words that were being said .
"Nrrggh…" I groaned .
"Come on! Hurry up and get up already!"
The voice was that of a young girl's . It was so pleasant to the ear that it almost sounded angelic .
"Just give five more minutes…"
"No! You have to get up now, Onii-chan! Leila's already done making breakfast!"
In fact, it was so heavenly that I felt like it was slowly lulling me back to sleep .
"Nrrggghhhh…"
My body sudden began to jerk back and forth right as I was about to drift off to dreamland .
"Onii-chan!"
"Okay, okay, fine . I'll get up, so stop shaking me already . "
I groaned again before opening my eyes . Illuna's shaking had forced me awake, regardless of whether I liked it or not .
Ugh… I'm still so sleepy…
I groggily yawned as I raised the upper half of my body off the throne room's floor .
Wait, why's it so warm?
There was a really comfortable patch of warmth to my left, so I looked over and tried to identify it .
"Oh . It was Lefi . "
The dragon girl was sleeping right by my side . One of her hands had made its way toward me and grabbed ahold of my shirt . The look she had on her face could only be described as innocent . Seeing it made it hard for me to think of her as anything but a girl in her early teens .
Oh yeah, she made me play with her until the crack of dawn last night .
Lefi had kept losing . She got more and more indignant with every round, so she continued challenging me throughout the night . She kept playing until she was literally too tired to continue . Neither of us had had enough energy to make our way over to our beds, so we'd passed out on the spot .
"Get up Lefi . It's morning . "
"Come on, wake up . It's time to eat . "
"Just… 17 more years…"
That's an oddly specific number .
"Geez! Get up already Onee-chan! You're gonna miss breakfast!"
Illuna realized that Lefi wasn't listening to her, so she did to the Supreme Dragon the exact same thing she did to me . That is, she grabbed her by the shoulders and started to gently shake her back and forth .
"Ugh…" Lefi groaned . "I get it, I get it already . Stop shaking me . "
I couldn't help but smile wryly at the fact that her reaction was more or less identical to my own .
Once Lefi let go of my shirt, I got up and started to stretch . Sleeping on the floor had not been a good idea . My body was stiff and I hurt in all sorts of places . Worst off was my shoulder, so I started to rotate it in wide arc in order to loosen it up .
God damn it Lefi . I know you hate to lose, but can't you at least like, get better before trying to beat me? We had to keep playing all night because you couldn't pull off a win .
"Hmmm? You’re kinda looking cooler than usual today, Onii-chan . " Illuna curiously tilted her head as she looked at me .
"Huh? I am? Well uh… thanks, I guess . You're looking pretty cute yourself today, Illuna . "
"Ehehe . " She giggled . "Thanks!"
Illuna and I started walking towards the dining table set up in one of the throne room's corners . Lefi was trailing a bit behind us, still half asleep . She couldn't walk straight yet, so she kind of just ended up staggering along .
Lyuu was already sitting at the table and waiting for us . At first, she and Leila had both protested the idea of joining Lefi, Illuna and I at the table because they were our "servants," but I eventually managed to convince them otherwise . Though they were helping us with chores and stuff, I didn't really think of them as hired housekeepers . I felt that treating them that way was just far too cold .
"Mornin' Master . And you too Lefi," said Lyuu . "Wait, a sec . It is just me, Master, or do you kinda got this like different feel to you today?"
"Huh? I do?"
"For sure, but I dunno how I'm s'pposed to describe it . You're just… kinda different . "
I didn't really quite get what she meant .
"Good morning My Lord . Good morning Lefi . "
Like Lyuu, Leila also ended up awkwardly pausing as soon as she finished greeting us .
"Interesting," she said, her eyes gleaming with curiosity . She put down the plates she'd carried out of the kitchen and, without warning, brought her face right up to my own .
"W-What're you…"
My heart rate shot up . She was so close that I couldn't help but smell the feminine scent wafting off her body . Though I was certain she heard me, Leila didn't answer . She instead began to circle around me and examine me from all sorts of different angles . She remained totally silent throughout; the maid didn't start speaking again until she was looking me over .
"Have you perhaps undergone a racial evolution, My Lord?"
Though she'd phrased it like a question, her tone was conclusive . She seemed fairly confident that she'd hit the mark .
"Huh? Racial evolution? What's that?"
Leila explained to me that monsters, demihumans, and demons would go through a sort of metamorphosis after obtaining a certain amount of experience . In other words, leveling up enough would lead an individual ascending a step up their own evolutionary chain .
So it basically works the same way it does in P*kemon?
Monsters were the quickest to evolve . Demihumans and demons tended to require much more experience, so they almost never evolved until they were relatively high level .
With that knowledge in mind, I checked my stat page .
***
General Information
Name: Yuki
Race: Demon Lord
Class: Demon Lord of Judgement
Level: 35
HP: 2951/2951
MP: 10321/10321
Strength: 897
Stamina: 912
Agility: 804
Magic: 1132
Dexterity: 1409
Luck: 72
Skill Points: 6
Unique Skills
Magic Eye
Translation
Flight
Skills
Item Box
Analyze: Lv . VIII
Martial Arts: Lv IV
Primordial Magic: Lv IV
Stealth: Lv V
Enemy Search: Lv IV
Sword Arts: Lv I
Weapon Creation: Lv III
Endow Magic: Lv II
Art of Trapping: Lv I
Titles
Demon Lord from Another World
Supreme Dragon’s Owner
One Who Judges
One Hostile to Humanity
DP: 420131
***
"Huh . You're right . I did undergo a racial evolution . "
My class had changed from just Demon Lord to Demon Lord of Judgement . I was quite happy with the change, as my new class sounded much more badass . My race had switched from Archdemon to Demon Lord .
But why'd this suddenly happen? Oh, wait, duh… It must've been been all the people I killed last night .
I'd wiped out so many humans that I'd even got a title for it, but because I didn't personally end any of their lives, I didn't actually end up gaining any experience . My level hadn't changed . My stats, however, had . Most of them had been boosted drastically . My MP had even shot all the way past the ten thousand mark . The only stat that didn’t change was my luck .
But again, that didn't make sense . It wasn't me that'd done the killing . It was the dungeon .
Wait! That's it! The dungeon must've leveled up!
Humans were weak . Their deaths barely generated any DP . The dungeon didn't gain too much from absorbing a human's corpse either . But that said, there'd been a whole 400 of them . Added together, the humans had provided a significant boost to my DP, as evidenced by the fact that I was currently holding on to the most I'd ever had at any given point in time .
The dungeon had always been passively gaining DP because Lefi and many of the Wicked Forest's more powerful monsters were within its bounds . The DP gained last night must have finally pushed the total over some sort of threshold and caused the dungeon to grow . And since the dungeon and I were linked, I'd grown as well .
It made perfect sense .
I made a mental note to check to see if the dungeon had gained any new features once I was done with my meal .
"I see," Leila nodded . "I presume that means Demon Lords evolve quickly, which likens them more to monsters than demihumans and demons . But wait, what if the demon lord was but a part of the dungeon and its systems? If I were to think along those lines, then…"
Leila rambled under her breath as she looked at me as she would a lab rat .
"H-Hey Leila…? The way you're staring me down is kinda freaky . "
"Sorry, I do apologize . The phenomenon was so interesting that I forgot myself . "
So she thinks I'm an interesting phenomenon…? That's uh… discomforting .
I felt as if I was starting to see a whole new side to Leila .
"R-Right, no problem," I said . "Anyway, I'm surprised you guys could tell . I didn't even notice it myself . "
"It’s because you’re you, Onii-chan! It’s super easy to tell!" said Illuna .
"Us beastkin have got sharp senses, so it was real easy for me to notice that you were seemin' a bit different," added Lyuu .
I looked at the full-length mirrors I had propped up nearby and quickly examined my body . I didn't really know what they meant . I still didn't see it .
Maybe it's just something that's obvious to everyone but the person that it happens to .
"Oh well, whatever . Nevermind that, let's have ourselves some breakfast . "
We all sat down at the table and got ready to eat, but Lefi nodded off before we actually got around it . She'd somehow managed to retain a near perfect posture despite no longer being awake . The only thing that looked off was the position of her head, which'd dipped a bit in the forward direction .
"God damn it, Lefi…" I sighed .
"Oh come on Onee-chan! I told you it's time for breakfast!"
Illuna promptly shook her awake yet again .
"Ugh… Can I not just sleep? It is not as if we had anything planned for the day . "
"You can’t! You’ll end up getting as fat as a cow if you keep lazing around!"
Seeing Lefi get scolded by a girl far younger than her brought a smile to my face . And apparently, I wasn't the only one . Lyuu smiled wryly, while Leila allowed herself to adopt a bit of a grin .
And that was how the five us began yet another average day .
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login