The Fiend's Creation System

Leveling Up

Julius woke up the next day feeling extremely refreshed. His wife was still asleep so he went about with his new daily routine. He ran in the morning and did shooting practice while he did it.

Overnight, he had his homunculi work non-stop to create a peculiar shooting gallery outside of their Sanctum. It wasn’t anything special, just a bunch of piled-up rocks and boulders that he could use as targets.

He also had his homunculi train with him by ordering them to attack him with the intention to incapacitate him. It was good since it kept him on his toes while training. The system also provided him with the most effective methods of movement for his footwork. 

He planned to use the system to its fullest and absorb all of the methodical calculations it did to improve his technique and eventually turn it all into muscle memory. This way, he wouldn’t need to think while dodging or moving since it would become an instinct at that point.

Julius’s stats showed him the attributes and condition of his body, his enemy, and his allies, but they were just numbers, just stats. The information was just a scratch on the surface of what the individual was truly capable of. 

He noticed this to be true because yesterday when he was facing the Scorpion-man, he wasn’t able to put a dent in the monster’s carapace despite the monster’s stats not being as high as the Mysantis General Swarm.

At least on the General Swarm, he was able to take out an eye or deeply injure the mantis monster’s shell. However, the Scorpion-man from yesterday, he wasn’t able to put a dent in its shell at all.

What more, it was faster than the Mysantis General Swarm which was presumably an A-ranked monster. The monster’s agility was indeed higher than the General Swarm but it was only by a single grade. If it wasn’t because of Julius’s homunculi hindering it and his preemptive advantage in range, he would have easily been caught by the Scorpion-man and put into a dire situation.

If he couldn’t win through attributes, he needed to at least get an advantage through skills and techniques. Thankfully, the system was able to provide him the supplemental techniques that he needed but they needed to be unlocked by meeting certain conditions.

It was one of the new functions he received just this morning after the first Fiend Soldier was created.

[Notice: Function unlocked, Fiend’s Library]

[Library

Movement Techniques:

Martial God’s Impact (S - Upgradeable) - 100,000 EXP

Seven Stars Array (D - Upgradeable) - 500 EXP

Attack Skills

Fiend’s Grip (A) - 5,000 EXP

Daemon Thorn (D - Upgradeable) - 500 EXP

Support Skills

Fiend’s Instinct (A) - 5,000 EXP

Black Armor (D - Upgradeable) 500 EXP

Note: Cost will increase with each skill acquisition]

He had immediately purchased the upgradeable D-ranked skill [Seven Stars Array] and had been working on it during his morning training. 

The skills all cost EXP so it was quite regrettable that he had to postpone his level up in favor of acquiring the Seven Stars Array movement technique. The movement technique followed a certain sequence that once he’s mastered, would allow Julius to instantaneously appear at any 1 of the 7 points of the movement array.

Right now, he could only use the movement skill to dodge attacks and projectiles using the minimum required amount of movement for his body. It was hard at first, but Julius was a quick learner so after getting hit a few times by his homunculi, he soon grasped the superficial essence of the technique.

It was a bit similar to his Empire’s movement technique but it was slightly superior in his opinion. Of course, he didn’t get a perfect grasp of the minimal movement technique just yet so he would occasionally get hit by his homunculi’s attacks.

He spent the entire morning training and it was only until Eisha told him that brunch was ready did he stop. Today, he was going to go hunting in the southern parts of the Shifting Hallows with Eisha and their newly created Fiend Soldiers.

After finishing his brunch and showering, he quickly donned his armor and prepared to set out with Eisha. He noticed that Eisha was wearing a new dress so he asked about it.

“You look beautiful. When did you get that?”

“It was the wedding gift that the Elder gave to us, remember?”

“Mhm, but are you sure you want to wear it out to battle?”

“Proto modified it using the Fiend’s plasm so it’ll repair itself in battle and it’s a lot more sturdy, just like the clothes we normally wear.”

“I see. Well, we should get some armor and weapons for our Fiends from the elves next time and have them modified with our Fiend’s plasm too.”

“That’s the plan. Today, I’ve sent Proto on an errand to the elves along with a few homunculi. They’re bringing the Mysantis materials that the elves requested in exchange for a few weapons and armor along with some food and supplies.”

“Good work, Eisha,” Julius rubbed her cheeks before saying, “Let’s get going then? We don’t want to return late and run into the Mysantis Swarm on our way back.”

“Un.”

The team he was bringing today was himself, Eisha, her retinue of Fiend Soldiers, and his own soldiers that were created overnight. 

The conversion was rather long and it was limited to 15 homunculi conversions at once so Eisha’s evolved homunculi were prioritized first. He noticed that after becoming Fiends, the faceless homunculi grew more humanoid and now had faces. 

They had a pair of eyes but their noses were flat on their faces. The mouth didn’t change as they were still grotesque looking with their sharp teeth spilling from the sides and the long tongue which would occasionally flick in and out of their mouth.

Nonetheless, they at least looked better than before. Their bodies had become muscular and their arms had sharp blades growing out of their elbows and forearms. They didn’t necessarily need weapons, but they definitely would need armor to enhance their survivability.

[Status

Name: Pyro Fiend Soldier

Race: Fiend

STR: A-

AGI: B+

INT: B+

Skills: [Blaze Cut B], [Immolate A], [Incinerate B]

Additions: Combustive Regeneration, Fiend’s Zeal, Devour]

[Status

Name: Aero Fiend Soldier

Race: Fiend

STR: B+

AGI: A-

INT: B+

Skills: [Wind Blade B], [Wind Bullet A], [Haste B]

Additions: Float, Fiend’s Zeal, Devour]

[Status

…

…

…

]

All of Eisha’s Fiend Soldiers were the evolved ones. They had brought over the unique characteristics of their homunculi selves during their transformation. Their power was naturally stronger than their normal counterparts.

[Status

Name: Fiend Soldier

Race: Fiend

STR: B

AGI: B

INT: B

Skills: [Lacerate B], [Frenzy B]

Additions: Fiend’s Zeal, Devour]

The only good thing was that their stats were uniform at B rank. It was a large step up from the previous D-rank stats of the homunculi. Before he left the Sanctum, Julius made sure that his homunculi, besides a few that were tasked with gathering resources, were all going into the Fiend’s Dwelling.

Once they had become Fiend Soldiers, Julius wanted to try his hand again at the Mysantis Swarm. He really needed to get rid of them since they were a thorn in his eye. With them closeby, Julius wouldn’t be able to expand his territory.

*****

A few hours later, Julius and Eisha arrived at the southern parts of the Shifting Hallows. The area they needed to map out still extended further downwards on his minimap so the southern parts were only relative to his Sanctum’s location. 

On his minimap, his Fiend’s Sanctum was actually located in the northeastern part of the Shifting Hallows while they were moving towards the central regions. The center region was where all the monster dens were concentrated.

Apparently, the northern part of the Shifting Hallows belonged to the Mysantis Swarm as there were no monster dens close by. Julius was actually the invader here, but he didn’t care. It was all going to be his territory soon once he’s gotten rid of them.

For now, Julius and his Fiends terrorized the monsters in the central region and methodically took them out one by one. He helped his subordinates raise their levels. This time around with Eisha and her evolved Fiend Soldiers, Julius was able to take down the Scorpion-man that he couldn’t defeat yesterday.

The stats of the scorpion-man was indeed high, but with Julius restraining it with his long-ranged attacks and Eisha ripping away its carapace piece by piece with the evolved Fiend Soldiers’ help, they made short work of the monster.

The materials were collected and Julius had his retrieval team which consisted of only unevolved homunculi take them back to their Sanctum. He had prepared a few teams such as this.

If he left them out in the sun, the materials would quickly rot and deteriorate. He wouldn’t be able to process them or sell them to the elves if that happened. Yesterday, he wasn’t prepared so the monster materials had deteriorated in value somewhat but this time, he was ready.

Once they cleared a monster den, the homunculi teams would immediately retrieve the corpses and head back. One thing that they needed from the elves was definitely wagons. 

Eisha had already taken note of this and Proto, who was heading to the elf town, had that on his to-do list. The accumulated Mysantis materials would surely be enough to get that much or maybe even more.

Julius was keeping a close watch on Proto’s location so that later, he’d be able to transfer his consciousness into the homunculi if needed.

Eisha and Julius spent almost the entire day hunting for monsters and raising their levels. Eisha had risen by a few more levels while Julius was finally able to rise to level 2.

[Notice: Level up! 1 → 2]

[All stats have risen by a grade

All skills have risen by a grade

New functions have been added

New buildings have been unlocked

…

…

]

There were a lot of notifications from the system and Julius decided to look at them later once he returned home. It was about time for them to return anyway since it was getting close to nightfall.

Julius ordered everyone to return home and thankfully, he didn’t need to transfer his consciousness to Proto’s body earlier today. The elves were honorable and kept to their word and traded fairly.

Proto was able to garner quite a bit from the monster materials he traded to the elves including 3 wagons along with the horses that pulled them.

The system informed Julius that once the horses were exposed to the Fiend’s plasm, they’d be slowly transformed as well. Basically, any creature exposed to the plasm would be changed.

However, not all creatures would successfully transform. They needed to have a certain quality in their genetic structure or else they would just die after being exposed to the plasm for too long.

Naturally, Julius had a few words to say about this since his wife would have died if she didn’t possess that quality. Of course, the system rejected that by saying that her body had been reformed and healed by the hatchery so Eisha was already part Fiend at the time. Being exposed to the plasm as a half-fiend wasn’t damaging to her at all. Instead, it was nurturing.

After arriving back at the Fiend’s Sanctum, Julius quickly took account of their goods from the elves and was pleased. Proto had done a good job so he was going to award the homunculus by allowing it to evolve into a Fiend Soldier.

Unfortunately, however, Proto wasn’t able to evolve into one. He was restricted by the fact he wasn’t a homunculus created by the Spawner. It was regrettable, but there was an upside to this. 

Proto was treated as being a part of Julius so they shared similar stats and skills. His only upgrade was to slowly level up like all of the other units under Julius’s control.

Not all the homunculi were able to level up. As far as Julius knew, only Eisha’s retinue of Fiend Soldiers possessed the ability to level up as well as a few other homunculi and Fiend Soldiers.

He wasn’t sure as to why this happened, but the system informed him that it was due to the varying qualities of the homunculi that were spawned. A majority of the homunculi weren’t able to level up so Julius had only been taking along those who could level up on his raids.

On their bed, Julius was cuddling with his wife. 

“Eisha, tomorrow we’ll go and trade with the elves in the morning. After that, we’ll head to the human city.”

“Alright, honey~”

“Mhm.”