The Real Monster 25 Turning Away From Humanity Vii

The feast lasted well into the night and those who drank a lot got drunk obviously while those of us who utilize our heads used pots to counter the toxin of alcohol, or something. Although in my case I don't need it since my body just ups and deals with it automatically.

"Are you still fit to discuss and report to me?" I asked the four of them who are most central in handling the city they built up. All four of them; Caltec, Jon, Mor and Isaac nodded with serious faces. For reports, it seems that they have already agreed who would speak for them. And Isaac did what I was expecting.

[Sire, for the last few years, 4 years and 7 months more specifically, we have brought up the little camp that we had to this size all thanks to your teachings for the alchemists where we banked the funds to build up on. Then later, we used the strength that the men you trained especially us to set up hunting areas to procure materials to sell to the merchants that tried their luck when they heard there had been a camp or settlement established at the foot of Mount Moribor, which was a rumor we spread as well.

[So from that time on, in terms of building up, we had no problems and even now we still don't as the alchemists have discovered to mix different herbs to make various potions with effects that made it smell so good to adventurers and mercenaries alike. Even monarchies and the empire coveted our potions. So from there, building up really was a breeze.

[Then after a year of managing the whole place, I had taken it in as my responsibility to manage what you left me with so I did my job just as you ordered me. The three of them became the heads of security, hunting, and training the others, respectively from Caltec, Jon and Mor.] Right there I showed a reaction in the form of raising my eyebrows as Mor being the training head? How? Is my question and as if knowing I'd react to it that way, Isaac explained, [Sire, it is true that Mor can be too gullible and easy to manipulate at times or rather every time, but when training he really is quite serious especially when you had pa.s.sed out. He became even more serious and hard to deal with when in battle or practice. So please rest a.s.sured that the training of others is well in his hands. Jon on the other hand has spread the culture of fas.h.i.+oning monster materials as armor and it had become a trend right away. Armorers were challenged to work with monster materials instead of iron and steel instead. Which divided the armor blacksmiths to the Ore based Armor camp and the Monster Material based Armor camp.

[It became quite the thing so the guilds could not mediate and the two guilds were made to cater the specialization of each. It's a good thing that the weapon blacksmiths knew where to draw the line and instead combined their efforts into making weapons from both ores and monster materials to better surpa.s.s the dying industry of weapon making. A time later, the armor blacksmiths also realized their folly and demolished one guild to combine their efforts as well, and through this the Armor and Weapon Blacksmith Guild was established in the city of Alchemists for the first time ever with arms that come from monster materials as well as ore.

[It was also a good thing that we named our magicians as Elementalists to make a precedent Sire.] He stopped there when I opened my eyes wide to hear that the word Elementalist was accepted by others. It was just a whim of mine to name them that to avoid generalizing them. I would have further categorized them as Pyromancers, Hydromancers, Geomancers, and Aeromancers; but it's a good thing that I did not, for now let's have him continue, […It's because the Elementalists way of handling the affinity or as you call it elements is way different from what other people have been doing for the last hundred years. So calling them Elementalists instead of mere magicians was a thing to be thankful about for the proper identification.

[With that, our men who have been slowly training their bodies with your method, exclusive to the families of the three here, have showed great growth in the past four years. Some guests wanted to hara.s.s some of the women in the camp and even the ladies that you personally trained, and in fear the hara.s.sers would die a rather painful death, they subjugated them instead to save their lives. Although they had bruises and broken bones here and there, it was a show of force that made the camp even more famous and well talked about by merchants, as even when small in number, they had strengths rivaling those of a kingdom's elite knights troop or even stronger.]

"Wait, wait, wait… Did you just say to save the hara.s.sers instead of punis.h.i.+ng them because they hara.s.sed our girls? So you mean those ladies would have disintegrated, buried alive, drowned in mid-air, or choke on air those guys if not interfered with?" I made a rough estimate of what those ladies would do and it seems I was right. After all, I was the one who taught them, "…the elements can be manipulated like this and that, to our will…" or something along those lines when I taught them. So disintegrating something in flames is easy to imagine as well as the rest. How scary.

[Yes Sire, those women are loyal to you alone and if they are touched by men other that you they would have shown those people a world not of hurt but of h.e.l.l.] Isaac said as a matter of fact. How is that something to be said so certainly? I did not teach them to have them become my women have I?

I appreciate the thought of it, but well, I'll talk to them later about it. "Ah well, continue…] I told Isaac.

[The influx of merchants and other organizations have also boomed the moment we announced that we would make Inns and other establishments to cater those who would travel here, and so public safety was needed since then. The men were given that task while Caltec headed them. In time, new recruits came in as well as new residents applied to live in the settlement we had out of their satisfaction with us.

[Although we did not train the men who were recruited later with your methods, we still made them do the usual training method of this world which was to build stamina first and then the body. So they would still be decent enough in trying to fight off crimes and the criminals.

[There was also a time when artists came to the settlement to reach out to us and plead to have them make the settlement a bit more colorful. Music in each corner of the camp then arose and painters also made the buildings we erected more colorful. It was a fine addition to the community's liveliness so we allowed it.

[After the second year went to pa.s.s, mercenaries and adventurers suggested building guild buildings here to accept quests and requests from the residents which became a good way to reduce the burden on us and so we welcomed their suggestion. After establis.h.i.+ng those buildings, things became even livelier as of course the taverns became packed with rowdy people. And a group od drunk people would not always result in a good night, so when trouble came, naturally we would react to it. Now because of that, our reputation yet again boomed and we attracted even more merchants.

[There was one merchant company that really struck a huge deal with us. She provided us with funds and materials for potions that had a higher rarity than what we've been cultivating in exchange for being the only merchant that gets an exclusive on the produced potions. By the way, the potions produced by using the higher rarity herbs had the same effect of the master crafted potions the alchemists produced when they mastered Sire's potion making technique, which did not really bring anything in the table for them to improve on their alchemy, instead, it only one-sidedly became the fund raising gold mine we took advantage of.

"Hahaha! That's one twisted way of using people isn't it? Anyway, that's good and all. Since my technique is already the pinnacle of brewing potions, it doesn't matter how rare or old or magically suffused the herb is, what matters is the brewing process and how the whole essence of the herb is used. I'll not explain this further since you're not really practicing alchemy anyway…" I had a good laugh when I heard they were taking advantage of the merchant who thought they could take advantage of us. It's like they were giving us money for them giving us materials. Does that even make sense, we were not losing anything! How shrewd my people are.

[That's not all Sire they also signed an exclusive contract for researching other potions and the successful batches would be given to them first to use. We suspected that this merchant group had some grand plan for why they need our potions so much so we investigated it and what came back was that they are using the potions to support an army it seems.

[We did not pry too much into their affairs as dealing with those kinds of people will only bring us trouble once found out, so we only maintained minimum information gathering about them while doing business. As long as we are not threatened by their business, we would not put too much effort in monitoring them.

"Naturally, that should be for the best. We don't have enough trust worthy people for that anyway. Don't risk our people for that kind of worthless s.h.i.+t. I can't have any of you dying on me. Continue…" I just had to make that as clear as day. They can do what they need to, to prosper in this land but I don't want them to risk their lives for something not really of their concern. I'm curious about that female merchant though, it seems she's funding an army for something in parallel with raising money as well by trading.

[Continuing on Sire, the growth of the city can totally be credited to alchemy, so you have every right to be proud of these ladies.] Isaac made a gesture with his hands and this time to point at the ladies who're right there sprawled on the tables and even on the floor drunk. They really drank quite a lot huh? Let's do something nice for them once in a while huh?

I stood up and rummaged around my storage to look for blankets then one by one covered the ladies with it. "I'm grateful for your efforts girls, thank you" while whispering such, I think I had a smile on my face.

After doing that little intermission, "So, continue your report guys." I said and sat down again on my spot. Oh, it's kind of warm where I was just sitting huh.

[Sire, in the last 4 years the greatest movement that occurred in the Empire, is the empire and the kingdoms under it hunting for the greatest fiend as they dubbed him. Killing an entire royal family line and also destroying a kingdom singlehandedly.] Isaac paused there, and it finally sank in to my mind.

"So they tried looking for me, and what happened?"

[They combed the whole eastern part of the empire for that duration. Currently, we are at the northern part so they have yet to arrive here. We've been monitoring their movement all this time and currently they are moving up towards us. It would take another two years for them to reach this place with that large a force they are moving. So there's no need to worry about us being attacked for now.]

That's what he says, well, not that there's anything I need to fear of from them anyway. Let them come. I'll deal with them when they do. That'll actually make things faster for me to accomplish my goal. Shall I tell them my plans now?