Badge in Azure

The number of dwarf demons in the warehouse kept increasing. These creatures were one point two yards tall on average, and the stronger ones could even reach up to one and a half yards. Despite their lack of height, the dwarf demons were actually creatures that came from the abyssal plane. These creatures were able to spread to many other dimensions and were more adaptable than magic bugs.

At least the magic bugs would always be stuck in the demon dimension, but the dwarf demons were said to even exist in the Kingdoms of God.

Unfortunately, there was no hiding. If they left the warehouse, the dwarf demons would be able to burrow through the sixteen yard long tunnel and eventually take over the entire Goddess’ dimension, possibly even reach the purgatory desert and reproduce there. Judging by the attributes of the dwarf demons, they were similar to sand scorpions in the sense that they would be able to survive even in harsh conditions.

Although the Goddess did not request for the protection of the temple as one of the conditions, for the temple to be fully opened and ready to accept disciples, there needed to be enough space for them to at least settle down and build a home for themselves. At the rate that these dwarf demons could reproduce, they would soon occupy the entire dimension. They had to get rid of the dwarf demons.

Even the creatures of the abyssal plane treated the dwarf demons like locusts. The armies of the abyssal plane did not recruit the dwarf demons because they ate too much and reproduced too quickly. If they had recruited the dwarf demons they would run into many logistic problems very quickly.

Lex flew up as well. Sika decided that she might as well release her monster bones, she stood on top of them and flew to mid-air. Luckily. The space in this underground palace was big and the warehouse also measured about fifty to sixty yards in height.

Now, only Cuisi and Bain were still left on the ground. Both of them could fly, yet chose to remain hidden.

“What should we do?” Lex and Saleen began to discuss. More and more dwarf demons were at the door and many of them had started to look upwards at the big hole above them. Dwarf demons did not possess many ranged attacks, except for hurling rocks.

“If we escape, we will need to bury this hole again. The dwarf demons know how to dig, so this hole…”

Lex knew as well that burying this hole again would not be easy. The dwarf demons already knew that this hole was their way out so they would keep digging as if their lives depended on it.

“I am curious to know how the dwarf demons have been able to survive all this while.” Sika looked at the countless dwarf demons in the warehouse. By now, there should be more than one-thousand of them.

“Damn it. There must have been a lot of food kept in the Goddess’ storage, but they have eaten it all!” Saleen said furiously.

Back on top, they only managed to find some seeds, but down in this warehouse, there might have been large quantities of food and grains. Looking at how many dwarf demons there were, no amount of food that the Goddess left behind would be enough. The food that the Goddess had left behind must have had a long shelf life. If Saleen and Lex could get their hands on this food, they would not have to worry about Metatrin City’s shortage of food in the near future.

“Damn it, these dwarf demons will eat anything. The food supply in the warehouse must be mostly depleted by now. The Goddess might be able to manipulate the dimension and the food supply probably mostly consisted of green cloud wheat, which was extremely filling, but there was no way that the supplies were unlimited for the dwarf demons.”

“If I had not opened up this palace, these dwarf demons would have starved to death sooner or later.”

“These dwarf demons must have been left behind by the Goddess. The Goddess did not like to kill for no reason. Dwarf demons are extremely capable in digging, so they must have been used to create the foundations for this huge palace. After they had completed their tasks, the Goddess must not have had the heart to kill them. After the Goddess fell, these creatures were locked up…” Lex did not continue, but Saleen understood anyway. Without the Goddess, there was no one else that could control them from reproducing.

Lex might not be entirely right, but she was probably not too far off either. At that time, the different types of creatures that humans had captured were just too many, so some of them must have been offered to the Goddess, including the dwarf demons. These remaining dwarf demons must have been surviving on the food supplies that had been kept in the warehouse. Without the intelligence to comprehend population control, they must have reproduced rapidly and armed themselves up as if they were still on the abyssal plane.

Within the underground palace were metals, food and medicine that the Goddess had left behind for Saleen and company. They had all been used up by the dwarf demons. If Saleen and company had not come now and the dwarf demons began to turn against one another, they would not have survived for more than three to five years.

The large amounts of supplies that the Goddess had left behind were clearly to help those who were willing to sign the contract with her, so that they could quickly set off to spread the faith and unify the mainland. Unfortunately, even Gods make mistakes sometimes. The Goddess’ mistake was to leave these dwarf demons behind. Aside from the food supplies, the Goddess had also left behind some agricultural produce. The humans that signed the contract with her could use magic to turn them into eggs. These had been eaten up by the dwarf demons too.

With these food supplies, Saleen could have fed an army of more than one-hundred-thousand and still would not have to worry about food-related logistics for another one-hundred years.

Just as the astrologer had said, one could never predict the future entirely. The Goddess might have predicted that the Lord of Glory’s faith would spread, that Myers Mainland would divide itself and that the fourth dynasty would dissolve. She never would have guessed that a small form of life would destroy all her resources.

“Sika, give it a try.” Saleen wanted to confirm the level of defence the dwarf demons possessed. Sika nodded and took out her boomerang. The boomerang looked totally different now. It was now a crescent-shape and transparent metallic weapon. This transparent metallic weapon was very thin, yet much heavier than its previous version. Saleen had added metallic materials that even he himself could not bear to use.

Sika did not possess any ranged attacks, so Saleen refined this new boomerang according to the diagram that Sika had given to him, no matter the cost.

Saleen had conducted a test. He found that Sika’s boomerang could now easily cut through war puppets that were clad in heavy armor. Although the war puppets’ bodies were not made of metal, their bones were the same as those of low-grade demons. A small boomerang could now cut through a war puppet entirely. This was because it could now release power that was equivalent to the sword aura of swordmasters.

In order to achieve this result, on top of the mysterious totem pattern on the inside of the boomerang, Saleen also included some dragonshards. Without these, Sika would not have been able to use typical swordmasters’ attacks just based on her abilities alone.

Sika understood Saleen’s hint and did not need another reminder. Suddenly, the boomerang disappeared from her hand and was cutting through a dwarf demon’s waist in the next moment.

The dwarf demon cried out pitifully as it fell. Saleen’s icy sight saw everything clearly though. The armor that had been covering the demon’s waist had now been completely sliced open and there was a huge gaping wound at the waist caused by the boomerang. The injury only reached the dwarf demon’s fat layer and its internal organs were still intact.

“I hate these creatures.” With a twist of her fingers, Sika’s boomerang did not return back to her hands like it used to. Instead, it flew straight to a second dwarf demon. This second dwarf demon had already noticed this strange weapon and wielded its war hammer at it. The boomerang suddenly jerked in mid-air like a butterfly before bypassing the war hammer and cutting across the dwarf demon’s neck.

With the sound of a “crack”, the dwarf demon’s neck did not break but fresh blood was spurting out wildly. This dwarf demon made a hissing sound and the blood stopped quickly.

“They’re like cockroaches that can’t be killed!” Sika grumbled. Her finger twisted around again. The boomerang now flew towards the face of another dwarf demon. It was as if there was an invisible barrier in front of the dwarf demon’s face. The boomerang was jerky as it slid through at the top and cut off the dwarf demon’s face. The cut was not deep enough to reach the bones.

“How is it?” Saleen asked as he saw Sika recalling the boomerang.

“Tough. The defence of the armor can only be overcome by middle-grade magic. The attack would have to be focused on a single point; a multiple target spell would be disastrous.” Sika knew how powerful her boomerang was right now. Even magic with element attributes might not be stronger than it. If she controlled the attacking rhythm and slowed down the speed, Sika’s boomerang could still inflict some serious damage on the dwarf demons.

The problem was that the dwarf demons’ rate of recovery was too fast. The dwarf demons that were injured at the neck and waist were already climbing up and were waving their war hammers in rage.

Saleen was troubled upon hearing Sika’s reply. If it was true that only middle-grade magic would be effective, then the icicle magic that he was most familiar with would be useless. Icicle magic was only a grade-1 magic on its own. It had now reached grade-3 after Saleen had continuously refined and modified it. That was probably already its ceiling.

If the icicle magic was to be upgraded to grade-4, it would transform entirely into another type of magic. The magic chords that would be required for it would also be beyond a grade-1 magic.

Before Saleen could figure out a solution, the dwarf demons below had already started to attack. They were throwing their war hammers at the three of them in the air in quick succession.

Sika had the easiest time. She was standing on the monster bones and their hardiness was unimaginable. Even after it was hit by war hammers that weighed more than ten pounds, there were no traces of the impact that Saleen could detect using his mental strength.

Saleen’s defence was simple and came in the form of his water shield expanding into a huge bubble and enveloping his entire body. Shrouded in a fog, the war hammers flew around him aimlessly as there was no way to throw at him accurately. Even if they did manage to hit the water shield, the nature of the shield was able to negate the effectiveness of heavy weapons such as the metal war hammer.

Saleen was able to calculate where the war hammers would land and then control the water shield so that it would easily avoid the location where the war hammer would create the most impact. This way, the war hammer would just slide past on the side.

Lex used her technique and also released her grade-0 magic; the Wind Dance spell. While in the air, the war hammers were diverted away by the element of wind and were never close to landing a hit. Although using this spell would exhaust mental strength, Lex had so much equipment and resources that this was never an issue.

“Lex, use a scroll to seal the door.” The way Saleen saw it, avoiding the war hammers was not the solution. They would need to attack. Even as he spoke to Lex, he had already taken out a grade-6 magic scroll. Although multiple target spells would deal lower damage, a grade-6 multiple target spell should still be comparable to a grade-4 magic with single point of attack. Since the dwarf demons’ defence could be penetrated by an attack of grade-4 magic, it was worth a try to use multiple target spells instead. If they continued to kill the dwarf demons one by one, it would probably take them until next year to finish them off.

If only Lex’s metal titan had already fully recovered from its injuries. She could have unleashed it and the dwarf demons would all be stomped to death in no time. The attacking prowess of these dwarf demons were not too strong, and Three King’s grades and above would be able to slaughter them all easily. The body type of mages were just too weak for this though.

“Alright,” Lex took out a grade-7 magic scroll without hesitation. Only a person like her would be able to take out the right kind of scrolls for situations that specifically called for them.

Crystal guardian!

A transparent wall instantaneously materialized and sealed off the door. Saleen took a breath and gently revealed the grade-6 magic scroll in his hands.

Fire blast, a grade-6 multiple target spell, was the lower-grade version of the fire enchantment.