Encounter in the Forest

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With his new skill, Julius was able to accompany his wife and tend to her while at the same time work. The skill did use quite a bit of his psyche to use but Julius estimated he’d be able to hold the skill for around 2-3 hours before his main consciousness began to feel burdened and he’d have to dispel it.  However, he figured that was more than enough time to keep his wife company so that she wouldn’t feel too lonely or neglected. Julius didn’t want Eisha to think that she was just an outlet for his s****l desire.  If it wasn’t because she had protected him with her body, sacrificing her life and her limb...he wouldn’t even be alive right now. And even if he was saved thanks to her sacrifice, without Eisha standing next to him, Julius would have long since given up after being transported to this place.  Julius promised to love and be faithful to her for the rest of his life and he transmitted his feelings to her as he rammed his d**k and tentacle into her ass. “Ah! Right there, Honey! Harder, do me harder!” Julius did as Eisha wanted him to do and f****d her ass even more fiercely. He continued to pleasure his wife and do whatever he was told as long as it didn’t involve penetrating her v****a.  Julius felt pleasure by pleasing his wife so he let himself drown in it. Even though he was working hard to please his wife, he didn’t neglect to do his duty. In front of the forest, Julius, in his main body, pulled out his bow and had his homunculi spread out in a fan formation ahead of him. He left 2 homunculi close to him to act as guards.  Julius scanned the area with his eyes before cautiously making his way into the forest. His minimap was at the corner of his vision and he would occasionally glance at it to ascertain the terrain around him. The minimap wasn’t absolute since the information that was fed to it was based on the information his minions obtained while on the field in real-time. The terrain data was already fixed unless something changed, but the enemy position and everything needed to be fed to his consciousness through his minions. What they sensed was what determined the minimap’s data. Even though his homunculi had great senses so not many things could elude them, however, they were still just low-ranked units that had the base attributes of a normal fiend. They couldn’t be completely relied on because there were naturally stronger monsters out there. Of course, if Julius upgraded them into their higher grades such as the Fiend Soldier or the Fiend Stalker, then he could rely on them a little more. Even though he was being cautious, Julius wasn’t going to waste his time moving inch by inch into the forest. They moved at a regular pace and kept their senses alert. Whenever Julius detected a monster, he didn’t have his homunculi rush to attack it. He just learned yesterday that to level up, he needed to personally kill the monsters to raise a number on his level-up counter. If he had his minions kill them, they needed to kill 10-20 monsters to raise that counter by even 1. It was rather inefficient since he had to do things personally, but it would have been much too easy if the system allowed him to level up in that way. Raising his attributes was also another problem. The system had informed him that to level up, he also needed to raise his attributes to a certain level, or else once the level up counter reached the last number, it would halt at that number until he fulfilled the other conditions to level up. This was why he wanted to do things himself. To hasten the process of his level up. The attribute requirements were already filled, all he needed to do was kill enough monsters to level up. Only at level 2 was he able to construct more advanced buildings for his legion. He wanted to eradicate the Mysantis swarm as soon as possible so he needed stronger units and the more he had, the better. Of course, he knew his limits already and planned to work around those limits until he got stronger. A few monsters tried to attack them, but Julius quickly took care of them from afar after his homunculi pinned them down. There were also times when he rushed to the front and attacked the monsters to hone his close-archery combat. Julius needed to train himself so he wouldn’t be helpless when faced with any situation where he couldn’t get any help from his allies. He didn’t want to become a weak king. Julius admired his father for being a man who was both a wise ruler as well as a fierce warrior. He used to be the strongest warrior in their Empire so Julius figured that the only reason he lost against Maximilian in a swordfight was that something was affecting his condition.  Julius didn’t believe for a second that his father got weaker. Once he killed his way back into his Empire, he’d first get to the bottom of that before exacting his revenge and leaving. Once he built his forces to the point where nothing could stand against him, Julius wouldn’t need to pursue his previous status as the Empire’s successor.  As he made his way deeper into the forest, Julius encountered a small anomaly on his minimap. “Yellow dots?” It was the first time Julius saw this color and there were 5 of them that appeared on his minimap. The 5 yellow indicators were being surrounded by a few red ones and since Julius was rather curious about this, he moved towards their location. He had his homunculi hang back because he had a slight hunch on what these yellow indicators identified. “Ah, I knew it…” Julius had climbed up a tree to see what was happening down below to the surrounded yellow dots and saw that his hunch was correct. The blue indicators indicated allies, the red indicated hostiles, while the yellow indicators... indicated a race or a species that could either be enemies or allies. What he saw below was a group of 5 people surrounded by monsters. The people below had long pointed ears and light-colored hair of different hues with a lean body build. They had light skin tones and their faces were all young and beautiful, regardless of whether they were a male or female. Simply put, they were elves.  The group consisted of what Julius believed to be 3 female and 2 male elves and they were using nature magic to keep the monsters at bay while shooting them with arrows. Only one of them was fighting in the front but he wasn’t tanking the monster’s hits. He was avoiding them and flitting around while occasionally slashing at the monsters. The one with a shield was a female elf warrior and she was keeping the monsters from getting too close to her teammates. They didn’t seem to be overwhelmed so Julius decided to just observe. It was only a little later when a few more monsters showed up that they landed themselves in a momentary dangerous situation. When Julius saw a monster breach past the female elf warrior’s blockade, he involuntarily reacted by shooting it down with a wind arrow. The monster’s head exploded and Julius groaned, smacking his forehead at the stupid decision he made.  “Dammit…” The elves saw what happened and began looking around to see who had helped them. Naturally, they wouldn’t be able to find him because his arrows didn’t have form and were untraceable. Since he had already helped once, he might as well see it through. Julius knocked a few more arrows and shot down the monsters one by one until a manageable number was left. The elves quickly took care of these monsters. They used their nature magic to form vines that pulled these monsters into the earth, burying them underneath. “No, wait―ah, goddammit…” Julius could only look on in regret as the monster corpses were buried in the earth.  He wanted his homunculi to take them back to his base, but now it was impossible. All the monsters he hunted before were all safely stashed near the periphery of the forest and the homunculi he had back at base were already moving to retrieve them. While Julius was lamenting on this, he heard someone shout. “Le hannon! Mana nalyë?”  When Julius looked down, he saw the warrior elf woman shouting.  [It is in Elvish. Would you like to learn the language?] “I can?” [Language Mastery (Novice) has been acquired.] “Le hannon! Mana nalyë?” When Julius heard the words, he could somewhat understand what she was saying. The elf woman was yelling out her thanks and asking if he could show himself. Julius contemplated for a moment before he decided to show himself. He jumped down from his tree and landed stably on the ground before walking towards the elves’ location. When he showed himself, the elves put their guard up when they saw that he was human.  “Uhm...Aiya, suilad!” Julius mustered up to say in the limited elvish that he knew after gaining the basic-ranked Language Mastery. Seeing that he could speak their tongue, the warrior elf cautiously replied. “Firya, mana cáral sinomë?” “...Orqui, hain dago an aes.” Julius’s wording was very awkward, but the elves understood the premise of what he meant. He then continued saying with his hands raised. “Im foeg baw amarth.” The elves noticed that he was carrying a bow on his back, but they didn’t see any arrows. “Manen cin belth orqui?” [Language Mastery (Novice) ➝ Language Mastery (Basic)] “Let me show you,” Julius said. He brandished his bow and pulled back the string. He didn’t pull out an arrow from anywhere so the elves were a little puzzled before they felt the elements begin to gather. They immediately noticed that the wind elements had shaped themselves into an arrow which was knocked on Julius’s bow. Julius aimed for a nearby boulder and released the wind arrow. There wasn’t much to show after that since the arrow struck a boulder but at the very least, they were impressed at his ‘magic’ archery. The female elf warrior stepped forward and stuck her hand out in greeting. “Vandë omentaina, firya!” “Oh, vandë omentaina.” Julius took her hand and shook it. “Man eneth lín?”  “Julius, i eneth nín. Cin?” “Arlayna. Arlayna Para.” After they exchanged greetings. Julius sighed inwardly when the other elves lowered their guards. They maintained a slight bit of caution against him, but they weren’t as wary as before. The others introduced themselves before Arlayna, the female elf warrior, asked him, “Human―no, Julius―how did you come across this forest?” “I walked here.” “Walked?” “Yes, from the...Shifting Hallows…” The elves were surprised when they heard his words. “!” “The Hallows!” “Cursed place…” All of their reactions were the same, they all had loathing expressions on their faces. Julius could understand. As a race that loved the forest and thrived in and with nature, the Shifting Hallows which was a barren and lifeless place was a really deplorable area for them. “Are you from there?” “Yes, and also, I’m not a human,” Julius answered and clarified. “Hm?” “I am a Fiend.” “Fiend? What is that?” Julius couldn’t explain it well so he answered, “Different race. At the very least, I’m no human.” Julius had a slightly repulsed look on his face when he said this. Arlayna saw this and shrugged. The elves weren’t compatible with the humans as well so she empathized with his expression. “Well, whatever you are, just know that you are Arlayna Para’s friend. If this was any other time, I would welcome you to our town, but with the humans invading…” “Humans?” “Yes, they began encroaching on our forest a few months back. Their presence has startled the monsters and has made them irritable. We used to live in harmony with these creatures but now, we’re forced to put them down sometimes…” Arlayna explained. “Humans...they’re always up to no good.” “Mhm.” Julius was a human up until a few days ago when he became aware of what he truly was, but after remembering all the things that happened to him as a child which was caused by those humans, Julius began slightly detesting them. He was really glad that Eisha was also now a Fiend. Although, he wouldn’t mind if his wife was still a human anyway. He detested the humans, but Julius wouldn’t judge every human as the same. There were good and there were bad ones, but he just severely loathed the people of the Ephalerith Empire. “I would like to trade some food with you. In exchange, I can help you protect your forest and keep the humans out…” “With just you alone?” Arlayna asked. “No.” Julius’s homunculi showed themselves and their visage sent chills running down the spines of the elves. “Wh-what?!” “Demons?!” The other elves immediately became alarmed when the faceless homunculi revealed themselves from the treeline. They quickly readied their weapons and spells to attack but Arlayna quickly stopped them. “Wait!” She then turned towards Julius and asked, “Are those...yours?” “They are my fellow Fiends…” “...You...you aren’t an enemy, right?” “If I was your enemy, why would I help you?” “...” Arlayna was a little skeptical, but she decided to repay his earlier kindness with her trust. “I’ll trust you on this. Fine, I’ll discuss things with my village’s elders. If you’d like, please follow us.” Julius nodded and put away his bow. When Julius moved, the homunculi behind him also began following. Arlayna quickly addressed that. “Can you leave your...friends behind? We don’t want them alarming the other elves…” “Okay, shall I have them patrol the area?” “No, that’s alright. We have a few warriors still out and they might mistake your people as enemies.” Julius nodded and said, “It can’t be helped. All of you, head back.” Julius ordered his homunculi to step back and blend into the forest. They would secretly follow him since he still didn’t exactly trust these elves. The only reason why he had helped earlier and why he proposed to help the elves with their human problem was so that he could regularly procure some supplies from them. And since the elves were present, it naturally meant that this forest was their home. He needed to move around this forest so it would be best if he made his presence and standing known to the caretakers so that there wouldn’t be any needless conflict in the future. Establishing a good relationship with the elf village would do him and Eisha good. Trading was a good way to build economic and diplomatic power. If he wanted his race to be acknowledged later in the future, he needed to have the support of some races, or else he’d just be seen as an enemy...
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