Chapter 33: A Future Threat!
Author’s note: The word count for each chapter will gradually increase from Chapter 43 onwards—that is, after ten chapters—to allow for one chapter a day with rich content. Please bear with me a little. Thank you for reading!
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Kaiden took hold of the glass vial and raised it before his eyes. He looked at the dark blue liquid, and a strange, ominous feeling crept over him. His brows drew together as he watched the liquid move slowly inside the vial.
"What exactly does this potion do?" he asked Luther, trying to conceal his hesitation.
"My lord!" Luther responded with enthusiasm, entirely missing the uncertain tone in his master's voice. His eyes were gleaming like a child who had discovered a new toy. "This is a Common-tier Mana Recovery Potion! After drinking it, you recover approximately 300 mana points instantly!"
Damn… I had a feeling.
Kaiden cursed inwardly. His ominous premonition had proven correct. The moment he saw the blue potion, he had expected something like this. And therein lay the problem.
Who in this territory needed mana recovery besides himself? No one — not a single soul. He hadn't cared previously about the potion's ingredients being derived from another intelligent race. After all, as the Lord, he assumed he wouldn't be the one drinking it. Who could have imagined the situation would circle back to him this way?
It wasn't that he was refusing on grounds of human morality. In this world, morality was a luxury he couldn't afford. It was simply that the idea was revolting in practice. The thought of drinking a medicine that contained part of an intelligent creature's blood was genuinely repulsive.
"My lord…" Luther's shy, hesitant voice reached Kaiden's ear, cutting through his thoughts. The alchemist was rubbing his hands with uncertainty, his eyes shifting between the floor and Kaiden's face. "I still need usage data… and the only one who uses mana inside the territory is you, my lord."
Luther paused, swallowed, then continued quickly as though afraid he'd lose his nerve: "Please don't worry, my lord! I guarantee the potion is one hundred percent safe! I just need to understand the limits of its effectiveness so I can determine the ingredient ratios better… so?"
Kaiden blinked slowly. He looked at the vial. He looked at Luther. Then he looked at the vial again.
And so the unfortunate Lord was dragged into the role of test subject.
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Later, in the courtyard before the Lord's Hall.
"Blech!"
Kaiden spat on the ground. The bitter taste was still stuck in his throat. There weren't any real issues with the taste, frankly — the majority of the potion's ingredients were plant-based, and the catalyst, the Twin-Headed blood, represented only a very small portion. But human psychology was a strange thing. Merely knowing that something was present in the mixture was enough to make his stomach turn.
He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. If it weren't for this potion's strategic importance, I would never have drunk it, he thought. He imagined himself in the middle of a battle with his mana depleted, then drinking the potion — and returning to full strength in an instant. It was an advantage he simply couldn't ignore.
At that moment, a notification appeared before him:
[Quest "Intelligence Gatherer!" Completed! Reward dispatched: ×5 Random Elite Soldiers.]
"My soldiers have returned, and it seems they did good work," Kaiden murmured. His dampened mood lifted the moment he read the notification. This meant both teams had succeeded in pinpointing the coordinates of three other Lords — and the advantage of knowledge was enormously important to him.
A white flash appeared before him and faded, leaving five new elite soldiers standing in a single row.
Kaiden examined them one by one: an archer, a spear-carrier, a shield-bearer, an assassin, and a swordsman.
Kaiden welcomed them: "Welcome to my territory," then sent them off to conduct patrols.
As for himself, he didn't linger either — he went to find the members of his two expedition teams in person.
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He didn't have to search for long. A large crowd had gathered in a courtyard near the territory's eastern border.
Both expedition teams stood in the center of the courtyard, carrying the bodies of monsters. Behind them, Casper was directing the villagers with precise gestures to receive the bodies and transport them to the appropriate workshops.
But what truly caught Kaiden's attention was the spoils from Laura's team — what they had brought was different. Four enormous shattered black spider carcasses, still bleeding green from their bodies.
Kaiden approached and checked on Laura's team — they had fought a fierce battle. They were dusty, their armor somewhat damaged, with a few surface scratches. But despite all of that, they stood tall with their heads held high.
He felt relief. No one was seriously injured. The health recovery potions seem to have done their job, he thought.
When the crowd saw the Lord approaching, they made way for him. Everyone greeted him with respect.
"You have not disappointed me."
His voice was calm and carried a weight that came from days of exercising authority. He looked at the members of both teams one by one.
"You have done good work."
He praised them sincerely, one by one.
Then he approached the black spider carcasses and studied them carefully. Had it not been for the system notifications confirming they were soldiers belonging to a hostile Lord, Kaiden would have assumed they were natural monsters of this world.
He thought for a moment, then straightened up and told the villagers: "Send the spider carcasses to Luther the Alchemist." The alchemist had just finished his previous research — he would be glad to have new samples.
Kaiden told both teams to go rest, with the exception of Laura and Golan, whom he asked to follow him to the Lord's Hall.
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Later, on the ground floor of the Lord's Hall.
The meeting hall was quiet. The sun had begun to set outside, and orange light was slipping through the arched windows. At the stone meeting table, Kaiden sat in the main seat, leaning back into the grand chair. Behind him, Casper stood upright and respectful.
On the seats to his right and left sat Golan and Laura respectively.
"Tell me what happened on your journey."
Golan and Laura recounted the events in detail, and Kaiden listened with keen interest throughout.
Then, based on the coordinates they had provided, he drew four small circles. One here, to the north. One there, to the east. Two to the south and west. They surrounded the large circle representing his territory from different directions.
Inside each small circle, he wrote the name of the race that inhabited it:
- Twin-Headed race.
- Human race.
- Spider race.
- Green-Skinned race.
He set the pen aside. He looked at the map he had drawn.
"So… this is our situation."
Kaiden made no distinction between the human race from his original world and the other alien races. He didn't yet have the luxury of making such distinctions — he placed them all in a single category: future threats once the seven-day Beginner Protection period ended. Everyone surrounding him would be a threat that needed to be eliminated.
He had significantly weakened Ashbel's forces. That Twin-Headed Lord no longer posed a major threat — he was like a lame chicken waiting for its fate in a cage.
As for the Lord from the human race — he didn't appear particularly powerful. Kaiden was at least confident he was stronger than him, so he set those two aside.
His fingers stopped at the two remaining circles.
The spider race… and the green-skinned race — whom Kaiden mentally called goblins, since their description matched the goblins from the novels and video games of his old world.
These two races were different.
They were growing at a tremendous rate. His conclusion was clear: if left to feed and expand, they would become a serious threat to him.
They must be eliminated while still in the cradle, he thought.
Kaiden placed the pen slowly on the table and sank into deep thought. Anyone with sharp enough eyes observing him at that moment would certainly notice the cold, lethal gleam in his eyes.
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— End of Chapter Thirty-Three —