The weretigers, however, who were large and had tiger heads, and the headless knight Dullahan, who carried their own handsome head under their arm, didn’t join in the complaints. They seemed reluctant to repay kindness with betrayal. Both appeared to have a warrior’s spirit. Because they were so understanding and agreeable, they would be quite easy to manage, so I decided to give them a slight advantage. It wasn’t much, just a promotion from apprentice to second-class soldier, but it was something.
And I decided to teach the fourteen who spouted the nonsense about being in charge a lesson about their place.
First, I took on two demon lords simultaneously. I didn’t hold back or apply any enhancement enchantments as I had for the Dull Iron Knight. This was because these two, a gale lord with excellent attack speed and a flame lord with high attack power, had complementary abilities, making their combat power considerable… not that it really mattered.
My real reason was that they were the most arrogant among the fourteen. They had been loudly proclaiming that I, as an ogre, was a lower-ranked monster. They seemed to enjoy mocking me, so I thought it was time to crush their pride and other things. (I heard later I had been grinning ominously.)
Now, my two opponents were barely alive, lying there on the ground. It had taken about three minutes. After about a minute, they’d begun to unleash the power of their Demon Orbs. The gale lord donned emerald armor and long boots imbued with wind, while the flame lord equipped a flamberge that spewed ruby flames. Both had unlocked their unique abilities, significantly boosting their combat power.
However, I matched their escalation by using my threads and poison to restrain their movements. In the end, I shattered their weapons with one of my silver arm abilities, the Arm Blast, concluding the fight without taking any significant damage.
This incident revealed that when the weapons created by unlocking an orb’s power are destroyed, the orb itself cracks, rendering a demon’s abilities unusable for a while. The demons themselves also become paralyzed by the backlash, so they’re unable to move for a period. But according to them, both the orbs and their bodies naturally recover over time, so there’s no need to worry.
I decided to have Seiji treat them right away.
Next up were the four dragonewts. The six half dragonewts, upon seeing how the two (superior) demons had been utterly defeated, had a change of heart, which made things easier.
Incidentally, the simple way to distinguish between dragonewts and lizardmen is by whether they look more human or more reptilian. Dragonewts have a human appearance with dragon-like features, such as horns or tails, while lizardmen appear more reptilian at a glance. Half dragonewts fall somewhere in between, leaning slightly more toward dragonewts.
Setting that aside, the exact classification of the four dragonewts was thunder dragonewts. They could generate lightning from their horns and use Lightning Breath, a powerful attack that some subspecies of dragons can wield. They also possessed physical abilities on par with demon lords.
Even with these attributes, I had no trouble dealing with all four simultaneously. I had already acquired the ability to nullify lightning attacks, making me immune to all their electrical assaults. Whether they fired Lightning Breath at me or launched thunderous spears, the lightning would blink out the moment it touched or almost touched my skin.
While their strongest ability, lightning, was rendered ineffective, their physical prowess remained formidable. If they’d had decent combat skills, they might have had a chance to kill me. However, their techniques were generally poor, predictable, and easy to counter. They had likely been relying solely on their innate powers without any deeper thought. They stood no chance against me; I had, of course, surpassed my natural physical abilities through numerous enhancements.
Like the demons’ Demon Orb, dragonewts also have something called a “Dragon Sphere.” Although these spheres have similar powers to Demon Orbs, I was able to neutralize them almost entirely, rendering them insignificant.
I left the dragonewts’ treatment to the medical team to give them some practical experience.
Next up was the boss ape. He launched a surprise attack from my blind spot the moment I finished battling the dragonewts and instructing the medical team. I sensed it with my Intuition and could have dodged, but I decided to take the hit to assess his capabilities.
The way he concealed his presence, the timing of his strike, his footwork, and the efficient use of his body all pointed to his high skill level. Although his species’ physical abilities are inferior to those of the demon lord or dragonewt, his combat techniques, likely honed to compensate for this, made him one of the more formidable candidates among the fifty hopefuls.
His powerful blow, which could have shattered rocks, struck my side and sent me flying into the rock wall, embedding me there.
Seeing this, the boss ape pounded his chest. For a while, the sound was all that echoed around us.
I could have just recovered as if nothing had happened, but a mischievous idea struck me. I decided to repay the sneak attack with a sneak attack of my own. I began by just watching the boss ape for a while.
Just as the boss ape started to declare, “Starting today, I’m the boss around here,” I extracted myself from the rock wall and launched an identical sneak attack from behind. He must not have noticed me at all; my fist plunged deep into his unguarded side, and the sound of bones breaking rang out. The boss ape was sent flying, embedding himself in the wall just as I had.
When I checked on him, he was barely alive. Hmm, he was surprisingly tough. It seemed he was about more than just speed; he had a good balance of abilities, too. Given the severity of the boss ape’s injuries, I entrusted Seiji with his immediate treatment.
As for the dhampir, he had spent the wait trying to seduce Dhami, so I putF a bit more force into my actions. Vampires generally have high vitality, so he would likely be fine unless something extreme happened.
Right at the start, he tried to charm me with Enthralling Evil Eye, but since we were the same gender, its power was halved, and at his level, it had no effect on me.
I pinned his limbs to the ground with a large knife retrieved from my Item Box and beat him until several of his organs ruptured. Despite inflicting what could be considered fatal damage, vampires can heal most injuries by drinking blood, so I let him drink mine.
For me, this was simply a way to introduce a part of myself into his body so he’d be more likely to obey me. However, my blood seemed to be extremely delicious. As soon as he drank the first drop, his expression became one of ecstasy, and his red eyes gleamed. This was likely related to my secret Elixir Blood ability.
I only let him drink about a mouthful, but as soon as he finished, he started saying disturbing things like, “Oh, my beloved,” and “My body and soul are all yours, my love,” and trying to kiss my hand. I was genuinely creeped out.
I reflexively punched him, which felt like a normal reaction. Then I thought he might be enjoying being hit, but I decided it was just my imagination. Pursuing this further wouldn’t be good for my mental health. Since the dhampir was so creepy, I decided to keep my distance from him going forward.
So, I had all the new recruits fitted with ear cuffs and subjected them to the usual basic training. However, because everyone already had a reasonable skill level, I made the training harder than ever before. It was a fulfilling training session with no reservations.
In the afternoon, I instructed the five dwarves to work with the blacksmith. The dwarves’ blacksmithing skills were said to be among the best of all species. Their strength did make them useful on the front lines, but it was more convenient for me to have them focus on smithing.
I advised the blacksmith to learn from the dwarves, whose skills in smithing surpassed hers, and I appointed the most skilled dwarf as the head blacksmith. Although the blacksmith seemed a bit intimidated by the stubborn, craftsman-like dwarves, I believed time would resolve that issue. The blacksmith herself has a similar stubbornness, after all. I look forward to seeing what kind of work the dwarves will create with our mithril supply.
For today’s afternoon training, I had Ogrekichi train the new recruits, as usual. He’s a battle junkie, so Ogrekichi’s training began with taking on ten Black Skeletons at once, with no breaks until all ten were defeated. After that, he increased the number to twenty, then thirty, and so on, making it quite a rigorous session. I told the recruits to push themselves to their limits—without dying, of course.
Now that I finally had some time on my hands, I decided to try out my new Synthesis ability. Since I was apprehensive about synthesizing abilities right away, I decided to start by synthesizing the orbs and spheres I’d recovered from the battlefield. I had deliberately limited myself to ten orbs and spheres in order to minimize human casualties. Too many losses could result in a situation where they couldn’t retreat, even if they did obtain the medicine they needed. Although the practice of recovering orbs and spheres from deceased slaves, demons, and dragonewts had been going on for a while, it was better to play it safe.
Orbs and spheres are highly valuable and can be made into powerful magic items. I decided to start by synthesizing two emerald-like orbs with my knees. The result was a success. When I activated the gale lord’s orb ability, a luxurious version of the long boots I’d seen in the previous battle with the demon lord appeared, only a bit blacker.
I tried moving around several times and found no issues. The ability worked perfectly fine, and there were no signs of rejection. Delighted by this, I diligently engaged in several more syntheses. Then I experimented with Chaos Wraith and obtained some interesting results.