The best room that he rented is located on the fourth floor of the inn.
The moment Cedric arrived at his room, he closed his eyes and planned what to do.
The main reason to send a clone to the Crystal Cube world is to connect himself with the world's inhabitants.
He also needs to make sure he starts to think of the creatures in the world as a living creature with their own will and emotions, instead of an NPC in a game.
'That means it'll be better if I come into contact with a lot of people during my stay in the world.' Cedric concluded while considering several places to spend his less than three remaining days in the world.
While staring at the room's window, Cedric saw the Silver Hope City's temple branch and decided to visit the temple.
'The temple is currently busy preparing for the festival. So, they're definitely in dire need of manpower. Maybe I can try to help them. After all, the temple's work most likely requires meeting with a lot of people.'
With a target in mind, Cedric went out of his room, locked the door, and walked to the inn's first floor where the dining hall is.
When the inn staff that served Cedric yesterday saw him. He quickly walked towards Cedric and asked, "Do you need any assistance, sir?"
Cedric shook his head, "I am thinking of visiting the temple."
The server said in concern. "Then I hope sir will be careful. Since yesterday, more people from the surrounding villages have visited the city, so the city is becoming even more crowded than usual. Also, it's better if you hire some guard. "
'Well, it's just visiting the temple, there's no need to look for guards right? At most there will be some thief or something. Although the clone I possessed is at Level 0, I can still use my main body to activate the telekinetic power to stop thieves from stealing my items'
Although Cedric didn't plan to hire a bodyguard, he still nodded and smiled at the inn staff's kind reminder.
Upon exiting the inn, Cedric followed the main road that led to the temple.
Just like what the inn staff said, some part of the main road is filled to the brim with people. Some parts are even jammed after several people surrounding a carriage got stuck in the middle of the busy road.
From their clothing that's relatively messier than the surrounding people, Cedric guessed they should be people from the surrounding villages.
After some contemplation, Cedric decided to occasionally pass by the alleyways whenever the main street got too crowded.
Although he kinda hoped to meet some pickpocket or be blocked by a gang while walking in the alleyways, his journey to the temple somehow ended extremely peacefully.
Standing in front of the temple, Cedric realized how grand it actually was.
It's still the same temple that looks like Earth's ancient Greek temples. But looking at it in person somehow gives off a different feel compared to looking at it from Divine Sight.
'Just the branch temple is already this awesome. I wonder how it feels to look at the main temple in River Stone City? It's probably as big or even bigger than the famous Parthenon temple on Earth right?' Cedric thought while following the flow of people and passing by the massive pillars surrounding the main building.
Looking inside, Cedric found the temple filled to the brim with people. It's extremely dense with people to the point Cedric felt he was looking at a school of anchovies instead of people.
If the temple isn't entirely made out of stone, he is afraid it might've been destroyed long ago due to overcapacity.
He turned his head around and saw some blessed floating in the air to fill the temple with fresh air, while some earth element blessed stood on top of a rock pillar while commanding blessed with divine strength to save some visitor that had been squeezed.
Seeing such a sight, Cedric quickly changed his mind and retreated.
'I don't want to experience dying from stampede.'
He immediately tried to leave the temple, but it's easier said than done.
When he is following the flow of people to enter the temple, he'll at most feel the surroundings are slightly crowded.
But once he tried to exit the temple and walk against the flow of people, Cedric realized it was as hard as swimming against river currents.
Actually river current is an understatement. Walking against the flow feels like swimming against a waterfall.
It took an hour of effort before he successfully entered an empty alleyway to take a breather from the crowd. During the journey, Cedric felt his clone had almost died twice or perhaps thrice.
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Passing through the alleyway's endless turns, he finally returned to a relatively deserted area of the main road.
While glancing around the store on both sides of the road, one of the stores pulled Cedric's attention.
The storefront used reinforced glass instead of walls. So, Cedric can easily see the interior of the store.
From his position, Cedric saw a lot of bookshelves containing books with hard covers.
There are also several small tables and chairs placed near the glass wall. On one of the chairs, a middle-aged man, who seems to be the owner sat. In his hand, there is a hardcover book with an unknown title.
'Is that a bookstore? No wonder it's deserted. After all in this era, books are extremely expensive.'
Unlike other stores where many people can be seen going to and fro, the empty bookstore is extremely glaring.
After almost being crushed by the crowd near the temple, Cedric decided to enter the bookstore and catch a break.
Once he opened the door, the sound of a bell rang as if to greet him.
The middle-aged man sitting on one of the chairs heard the bell and greeted Cedric without even raising his head.
"Welcome, please take a look at the books in the bookshelves. If any interest you, you can bring it to me and I'll tell you the price. You can also read any book here, and it'll cost you 5 silver coins per hour. If you damage any book, you'll need to buy it."
The middle-aged man paused and finally raised his head and stared at Cedric, "Also, don't try to haggle nor steal."
"Okay," Cedric replied casually while walking around the store.
The size of the bookstore isn't too massive. There are twenty bookshelves filled to the brim with books. Each bookshelf is one meter wide and two meters tall.
Those don't seem like much. But, considering the price of books in the world, just five bookshelves is enough to buy the inn he currently stays at.
While absentmindedly looking around, Cedric found several books that piqued his interest.
Picking those books, Cedric excitedly brought them to one of the empty tables.
It's not like he hasn't read any book before. Actually, in the past few hundred years, he often sent his mental power to secretly read some books in the Crystal Cube world. But, the books he read are usually research notes from Lacius or other geniuses.
As for the books in his hand, they're actually novels!
In an era where books are expensive as heck, finding recreational books like novel is extremely difficult. Most of books in the world are either about history, important knowledge and research notes, or accounting books.
While still in an excited state, Cedric opened the book for a few minutes.
Once he reached the twentieth page, he closed the book in front of him and picked a new one.
Just like that, Cedric continuously picked a book, read slightly more than twenty pages, and closed them.
After reading all of the books he picked, his eyes that are initially filled with excitement has lost their luster as he sighed, 'I guess my taste in book has been destroyed by those junk food xianxia and isekai light novels I usually read. I couldn't bring myself to read these books that seems to come from Shakespeare's era.'
"Why are you sighing so loudly?" The old man sitting in front of him frowned as he placed the book in his hand on the table.
Cedric truthfully replied, "These books are so boring. There isn't any action at all!"
"Tsk, children nowadays. If you want to hear about those kinds of stories, you should enter a tavern or an inn with bards. They often talk about an adventure or a hero's travel and whatnot. The stories contained in books are arts of the highest degree!"
Inside his mind, Cedric rolled his eyes, 'If I am a child, then you aren't even a baby. You're just an embryo.'
Still, Cedric decided to play along and asked, "Then old man, what kind of book are you reading?"
"This? It's a history book about the human race's history that has been compiled by the best historians in the world."
The middle-aged man proudly raised the book in his hand and explained nonstop as if he had been waiting for someone to ask that question, "This is one of the most expensive books in the store called the 'Book of Ancient History'. You'll need to have some connection to purchase it. It contains history that has been compiled and analyzed by several famous historians and recorded the true history of the world, or at least it's the closest history to the truth. There are several volumes and the one I am reading is the third volume which contains theory about the founding of the Great Sun Kingdom."
What the middle-aged man said attracted Cedric's attention, "Does the book say anything about the hero who founded the kingdom?"
The middle-aged man nodded, "It indeed mentioned the hero who has been known as the founder of the Great Sun Kingdom."
Cedric felt there was something wrong when he heard the middle-aged man's reply. Then, he realized why and asked, "Didn't the book mention anything about the hero, like his name or why he is called the hero?"
The middle-aged man shook his head with a regretful expression, "The Hero is called Yuma, or at least that's what's written under the hero's statue in the Great Sun Kingdom's capital city."
"As for why he is called a hero, it has long since been forgotten due to the chaos that happened in the Great Sun Kingdom long ago which resulted in two kingdoms separating themselves from the Great Sun Kingdom. The chaos has damaged the Great Sun Kingdom's archive and caused the loss of some important historical records."
Cedric nodded, "Ohh. Then let me tell you a secret. Yuma became a hero because he was chosen by the god to defeat the demon king."
The middle-aged man fell into thought while occasionally muttering something.
Then, Cedric continued, "I'll also tell you another secret, the hero is actually from another world."
That word made the middle-aged man wake up from his daze as he berated angrily, "What kind of nonsense are you spouting. Don't talk nonsense about important people like the hero if you don't want to die in an unknown ditch."
" Alright, alright." Cedric waved his hand. "Then, does the book say anything about why and how Yuma founded the Great Sun Kingdom?"
The middle-aged man saw Cedric's curiosity and tried to calm down while explaining several possible theories.
Once he finished speaking, Cedric said, "Is it possible that Yuma created the kingdom simply to guard his harem members from being attacked?"
"Stop messing around! Also, an hour has passed, you'd better pay me five silver coins. Otherwise, I'm going to kick you out immediately." The middle-aged man cut him off in the middle of his speech.
Cedric pulled five silver coins from his pocket and placed them on the table. Then, he continued to tell some true facts to the middle-aged man.
The day soon ended with Cedric pointing fault in the history book and the old man angrily arguing and rebuking him.
Looking at the sky that's darkening, Cedric asked the middle-aged man, "By the way old man, what is your name? You can call me Cedric."
"Merthyr." The middle-aged man said while gritting his teeth.
"I'll be back tomorrow, here are the tips for today." Cedric placed two gold coins and left them in front of the fuming Merthyr.
Before leaving the bookstore, Cedric can hear Merthyr complaining nonstop.
'Ahh… messing around with others is fun. I guess I'll return to this store tomorrow. This kind of thing should also be counted as experiencing the world, right?' While grinning, Cedric walked towards the inn he had rented.
Once Cedric has left the bookstore, Merthyr closed the book in his hand while grumbling, "Damned brat, what do you know about history! How dare he talked shit about the book I and my friends have spent half of our life to compile!" Merthyr angrily said while walking out of his store.
He pulled down the shutter door that was located in front of his glass wall and closed the store for the day.
Although Merthyr is a Peak Level 1 wind element blessed and can easily catch any thief that's stupid enough to try to barge into his store. But, he still decided to add an iron shutter door to protect his store just in case.
After all, he can indeed catch any thief easily. But it's unknown how many of his precious books will be damaged once someone with evil intentions enters his store without his knowledge.
Once he closed the door, Merthyr went to the second floor to take a rest while occasionally thinking of Cedric's comments about the history book he had compiled.
To be honest, he felt some of the words that Cedric said seemed logical. Which made him even angrier.
While fuming, Merthyr went to sleep and woke up the next day feeling slightly refreshed.
Just like usual, he opened the store once the street in front had been filled with people.
Opening a random book, he continued his daily retirement life.
While he flipped one of the book's pages, a ringing sound came from the door of his store.
Raising his head, Merthyr saw the same rich kid returning to his store.
Unlike yesterday where that rich kid's face looks bored. Merthyr can see Cedric's current eyes seem to be filled with amusement.
Once he saw Cedric, Merthyr continued to read the book in his hand while ignoring Cedric.
But seeing Merthyr ignoring him, Cedric took the initiative to speak.
"Old man Merthyr, it seems business is pretty bad here. How come I didn't see anyone here today too."
"Books are luxury items and it's not every day that someone can come to purchase a book," Merthyr replied without even raising his head from the book.
After he answered, Merthyr felt the air in the room move and sensed Cedric coming closer to his seat.
While holding his sigh, Merthyr saw the light around him dimmed after being blocked by Cedric.
"What is it?" Merthyr asked in annoyance.
The reason he opens a bookstore after reaching the Peak of Level 1 and retiring is so he can read his book in peace.
Yet, just being acquainted with Cedric for 2 days has made Merthyr feel his lifespan has decreased by a year from anger.
As if oblivious to his monologue, Cedric looked at his book with interest, "What kind of book are you reading today?"
"History book about the temple's founding."
"Ohhh… you seem to be extremely interested in history?"
"Of course. I am actually one of the most renowned history experts in the kingdom and even the world." Methry said with pride.
"What a coincidence, I am also an expert when it comes to the history of the world!"
Merthyr frowned and tested Cedric by asking him some questions about the world's history.
Soon, an hour passed by with Merthyr continuously asking Cedric several questions, all of which he replied quickly.
After testing Cedric with around fifty questions, Merthyr must agree that Cedric indeed has a lot of knowledge of history.
'Although this kid liked to talk nonsense, at least it seems he indeed has some knowledge in history and isn't just boasting.'
'It's just that the further into the past the question is, the more nonsensical his answer became'. Merthyr contemplated after testing Cedric.
'Well, at least his knowledge about the more recent history is decent.'
This made his judgment of Cedric rise from an annoying rich kid to an annoying rich kid who has some expertise in history.
While he is in thought, Merthyr heard Cedric say, "Old man, don't you think it's unfair if you're the only one asking me questions? How about I ask you some questions regarding history as well?"
Merthyr raised his eyebrows and calmly said, "Alright, come and ask me your question."
"You're an expert who has read a lot of historical text right? Then, among all the history books you read, have you ever seen the name Tsukiko or Gratian mentioned in it?"
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Looking at Cedric's serious expression when he asked that question, Merthyr closed his eyes to recall every book he had read.
After a few minutes, Merthyr reopened his eyes and replied, "There is a mention of the name Tsukiko in a book I got from a fallen noble family. But it's more like a diary instead of a history book. As for the name Gratian, there is only one I can recall for now. He is an alchemist from the Great Sun Kingdom who has invented some alchemy theory."
" Hmmm? That's not the Gratian I asked about. " Cedric rubbed his chin, "Anyway, can you tell me how Tsukiko is described in that book?"
"It's about an unofficial history that said the temple was actually built by a kind female sage who heard the word of the creator god. The sage, Tsukiko, used the temple to spread kindness throughout the world before finally, she fell after a battle against an evil person. Meanwhile, the writer is one of the kids who has received the sage's help and tried to take revenge against the evil who killed the sage. That's basically the summary of the book."
After hearing his explanation, Merthyr saw Cedric fall silent while muttering, "That diary should be from one of the bombs Tsukiko left before she died. Also, Lacius is truly an expert at distorting and removing someone from history. To think that Tsukiko's name has been thoroughly forgotten."
Thanks to his blessed power, Merthyr can hear Cedric's soft muttering loud and clear. Then, he saw Cedric fall silent while looking thoughtful.
When he saw Cedric standing in a daze, Merthyr didn't interrupt him and instead returned to read his book.
Once Cedric finished thinking, both of them continued to talk about history.
Without realizing it, the evening has arrived and the time to close the store has drawn near.
Just like yesterday, Cedric left his payment and an additional two gold coins as tips.
With his only customer today leaving, Merthyr planned to close the store early for today.
While he exited the store to clean the front lawn and close the store, he heard some noises that were blown by the wind.
Thanks to his Peak Level 1 wind element blessing, Merthyr can easily hear conversations that happened far away with the help of the blowing breezes.
"Kid, leave all of your belongings, and we'll let you leave with your life."
'Hmm? Is it a robbery?' Merthyr calmly cleaned the front area of his store while listening to several robbers threatening an unknown person who hadn't made any sound.
Just when he tried to ignore it and close his store, Merthyr heard a familiar voice.
"Is this robbery? Did I finally get to experience what it feels like to get robbed?"
Merthyr is pretty sure the voice he heard is Cedric's. But the weird thing is, although it seems he is the one getting robbed, Merthyr can somehow feel Cedric's excitement in his voice.
Merthyr shook his head and decided to walk toward the place where he heard Cedric's sound.
Throughout the walk, he is complaining internally. 'Sigh, can't you get robbed somewhere far from my store? If this robbery got spread out, the price of real estate in this area will fall down.'
Following the sound that he heard from the breeze, Merthyr found Cedric surrounded by five thugs inside an alley.
One of them is on the lookout for city guards and priests that might patrol the street. While the other four went to intimidate Cedric who looks excited when he realized he is getting robbed.
'Wait a minute, I thought my hearing had just gone bad from old age. But, is that kid seriously getting excited right now?' Merthyr looked speechlessly at the six figures inside the alley.
While he watched, the leading thug seems to have lost his patience and prepared to punch Cedric.
Unwilling for his golden piggy bank to be damaged, Merthyr made a move at the same time.
When the leading thug tried to punch Cedric in the abdomen, Merthyr controlled the surrounding wind to turn into a strong wind current that caused the surrounding thugs to tumble.
Once he saw the thugs run away from Cedric, Merthyr summoned a much stronger wind that immediately smashed all the thugs to the alleyway's wall.
With a loud thud, the thugs flew to the wall and fell down to the floor.
"He's a blessed! Everyone, quickly disperse!"
All of the thugs quickly ran away in all directions, while Methyr ignored them and looked at Cedric. "Why aren't you running away upon seeing those thugs?"
"I can handle them myself."
"Are you a blessed?" Merthyr asked.
Cedric shook his head to reply, "Nope."
Before Merthyr could say another word, Cedric said, "Well, although I don't need it, thank you for your help. I'll give you a gift tomorrow. I am quite busy right now."
'Damn, what an annoying kid.'
"I don't need any gift from you," Merthyr replied. But he isn't sure whether Cedric has heard him as the boy has run away before he finishes.
Shrugging, Merthyr returned to his store and closed it for the day.
When the next morning arrived, Merthyr opened his store like usual and returned to his seat to read his book.
He read in silence while occasionally watching many pedestrians bypass his store. That calmness continued until a ring sounded from the door of his store.
Just like the past two days, Cedric entered the store casually and sat in front of Merthyr before starting a conversation. He is so calm as if the one that almost got robbed yesterday isn't him.
Seeing Cedric acting like nothing was out of the norm, Merthyr simply followed suit and chatted with him. Both of them only paused when afternoon arrived.
"Well, these last few days have been quite fun. So, I'll give you these two books as a reward."
Merthyr raised his head and saw Cedric pull a book from his inner pocket.
It should've been a normal sight, if not for the ridiculous size of the book that shouldn't have fit inside his inner pocket.
While dumbfounded, Merthyr saw Cedric pull another book that was only slightly smaller than the first book.
"I already ran out of time, I hope we can meet again later." Cedric immediately exited the store after he left the books in front of Merthyr.
The dumbfounded Merthyr took some time to wake up and gently picked up the relatively smaller book in front of him. He actually planned to follow Cedric and return the book as he had said he didn't want to take any gift. But when he saw the cover of the book, his hand immediately trembled and he almost dropped the book in his hand.
On the book's cover, there is a sentence from an unknown language. Even so, Merthyr found he could actually understand the meaning of the word.
"Level 2 Wind Element Training Method" While muttering, he subconsciously opened the book and saw it was actually filled with a complicated diagram complete with some explanations. The more he read, the wider his eyes became, "This… Is this actually the real thing?"
Then he tremblingly picked up the other slightly bigger book that Cedric had left.
"Book of Forgotten History" Slowly muttering the book's title that's written in an unknown language, Merthyr opened it and skimmed through the book.
"This is a book about history? But most of them are different from the history known today. Especially the part about the first human king that has entirely gone missing." Once Merthyr finished reading the book, he realized it was already evening.
The idea of returning the books to Cedric has long since left his mind.
Right now, his mind is only filled with confusion about Cedric's identity.
Inside the Divine Space.
After three days passed, there were only a few minutes left before the world finished upgrading. Cedric recalled all of his clones and waited for the Crystal Cube world to complete its upgrade.
While recalling his experience in the world, Cedric checked the amount of stability remaining.
[Stability: 8%
Note: Please stop intervening when your world's stability has reached 5%, as it might cause lasting damage to your world that'll continue even after the upgrade process has been completed.]
While experiencing life through his clone, Cedric has been constantly monitoring the stability count.
From the initial 36 percent stability, 24 are spent due to the clones. On average, the three-day stay in the Crystal Cube world cost him 8 percent stability per clone.
It's almost double the amount that the System initially estimated. Perhaps because he often casually talked through the clone.
As for the remaining four percent,
The decrease came from writing the two books that he gave to Merthyr.
Cedric didn't know how the decrease in stability was counted. But, the books containing level 2 wind element training method cost him less stability than the Book of Forgotten History.
Thinking back to the book of forgotten history, Cedric felt a bit melancholic.
At first, he only planned to possess the clones he created and experience life in the Crystal Cube world just like what the System has suggested.
But when he heard Yuma, Tsukiko, and the other's name that had been thoroughly erased from history, Cedric decided to intervene.
No matter what, they are still people who have greatly contributed to the advancement of his world.
That's why he created the book. He even crafted it with the strongest but flexible metal in the world. This way, the book won't be able to be destroyed anytime soon.
Furthermore, he also added warnings about the danger of war and the demon king, which is one of the reasons he decided to leave the book.
While Cedric is lost in thought, his world finally finishes upgrading.
[Congratulations, your world has finished upgrading.]
[Warning, world stability has stopped being strengthened and has returned to normal.]
[Removing temporary stability meter function.]
Once the notifications were gone, Cedric checked the Crystal Cube world.
Inside the world, except for a few creatures who Cedric's clone has gotten close with. The three missing clones didn't cause much ripple to the world.
At most, the dwarves will start creating cannons and guns much earlier than they should've been because of his accidental slip of the tongue.
As for the elves, he didn't control his clone to cause much trouble there.
Perhaps, only the books he left in the human kingdom might cause a surprise. It's just, that whether the surprise will be something good or bad is something he is unsure of.
With his attention in the Crystal Cube world, Cedric focused on the elf village where his clone had visited and saw the familiar Vilina.
Except for occasionally going into a daze as she recalled Cedric's elven clone. Vilinia has returned to her usual routine before meeting him.
Seeing Vilinia didn't fall into sadness because he left, Cedric felt relieved. 'Well, it's good that Vilinia only has a bit of a crush on me. Otherwise, I might not be able to leave her alone.'
Even if it's just a clone he possessed, Vilinia is still the first woman who has a crush on him, whether it's on Earth or in other worlds.
While he is reminiscing, the System suddenly makes a noise to jab at him.
[What a pitiful single man.]
"Shut up." Cedric waved at the virtual system screen to shoo away the System that didn't know about other's privacy.
With the System making him lose the mood to reminisce, Cedric decided to check the situation in the elf queen's village.
There, the elf queen has gathered many elves to share the training method engraved on the stele.
During the three days he has spent experiencing the world, the elf queen has been busy testing the credibility of the training method engraved in the stone stele.
Every elf leader rose to their position through silly competition like sculpting, weaving leaves, or singing and dancing. All of them always took their responsibility seriously.
The same is true with the current elf queen.
She was the first one to test the training method and only called elves from nearby villages once she indeed felt her power being strengthened after following the training method engraved on the stone stele.
Seeing the situation in the elven territory has progressed nicely, Cedric moved his mental power to the Silver Hope city to check on Merthyr.
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Currently, Merthyr has closed the store and searched around the city for his trace.
'It seems he is incredibly surprised by the book I give.'
Cedric watched Merthyr searching for him for a whole day, and only planned to stop once he saw Merthyr finding the inn he once stayed in.
With how anxious, excited, and fearful his expressions are, Cedric thinks Merthyr might've guessed his identity.
When Cedric saw Merthyr exiting the inn building with a disappointed expression, he slightly grinned. 'Messing with others is pretty fun. Who asked you to doubt my word.'
[What a petty person.]
The System once again tried to increase its presence.
"You're wrong, I am not a petty person." Cedric immediately shook his head and denied the System's accusations.
[No matter how the System sees it, you're messing with that pitiful guy out of spite.]
"Well, I never said I am not petty. I just want to correct you that I am not a petty person, but a petty god."
[...]
Ignoring the System that seems to have crashed, Cedric moved his mental power to observe the dwarves.
The situation in the dwarf's magic mountain is still normal. There are dwarves busy mining to collect metals, dwarves who are busy forging new metals, and dwarves who are busy causing explosions.
Except for their normal activities, the dwarf council is also busy testing the training method he has engraved on the stone stele near their council building.
Currently, the blessed that has joined the dwarf council has been spread to different areas to test the training methods.
Some water element blessed went to rivers to train, those with earth elements trained while inside their mining tunnel, and those who hadn't found a suitable place are still traveling around to look for a suitable place.
The dwarves blessed with water element and earth element quickly returned to the council building once they indeed felt their power increasing after using the training method.
The returning dwarf blessed immediately acknowledged the content of the stone stele.
After a discussion, the dwarf council decided to spread the training technique written in the stele to every dwarf blessed and strengthen the overall strength of the dwarves.
Once he saw the dwarf had indeed started spreading the training method, Cedric observed the situation in other dwarf cities and stopped in the city that his clone had visited before.
With just a simple glimpse inside the familiar city, Cedric quickly found several dwarves working together to craft what he assumed to be a cannon barrel.
Most of the dwarves involved are faces he is familiar with.
They're his drinking buddy, and also the tavern patron who has exited the tavern after he talked about cannon and guns.
Amidst the clanging sound inside the dwarf's workshop, cannon parts are being built and combined at incredible speed.
Soon, several prototype cannons with varying forms were built. Next to those prototype cannons, there are also some cannonballs of varying sizes and what can be assumed as gunpowders.
The dwarves who had finished their work excitedly left the forge to test their newly developed cannon in the city.
Seeing the sight of several dwarves bringing several unknown metal pieces of equipment, the surrounding dwarves began to gather around them in curiosity.
One of the dwarfs that Cedric is acquainted with is the first one to test a cannon.
After placing the cannonball inside the cannon, he placed gunpowders into a hole in the cannon before plugging a fuse made with dried wood that had been fitted with some gunpowders.
After igniting the end of the fuse, the dwarf, together with the other dwarves who had created the cannons, quickly ran away.
Seeing the dwarves that ran away, the surrounding spectators also follow suit.
All of them had seen the dwarf placing gunpowder inside the cannon and knew it'll explode soon.
The moment the fuse finally triggered the gunpowders stored inside the cannon. It caused a massive explosion that knocked the heavy cannonball a few meters away.
But at the same time, the cannon barrel crafted by the dwarves also exploded. The cannon barrel's unplanned explosion caused the cannonball to only fly for a short moment.
Luckily, the dwarves have run away from the center of the explosion. Even though the explosion caused many sharp metal fragments to shoot out from the cannon barrel's location, there were no deaths or injuries among the dwarves.
The first failure didn't cause the other dwarves to feel disappointed. Instead, they started the next experiment with even more vigor.
Once all prototype cannon barrels had been launched, the dwarves who created the cannons began to discuss.
"Although all of the cannon has either exploded after launch or failed to gather enough force to launch the cannon too far, we've gathered enough data to conclude that it's indeed possible to create this cannon."
"Indeed. The strength of this cannonball is also pretty incredible."
Another dwarf nodded, " Although the cannon ball's destructive power is lower than directly causing an explosion with the explosive powder. But, it can achieve attack over a long distance, which is extremely beneficial in defending the city against magical beasts."
" The only problem now is to stop the cannon barrel from exploding while generating enough force to launch the cannonball at the same time."
"Perhaps we should try to pierce a hole in the back to decrease the explosive force?"
"But it'll also decrease the explosive force and make it unable to push the cannonball as intended."
The dwarves discussed for a long time before gathering their best metal to reforge a new cannon.
Some of the dwarves who have watched their cannon test also got interested and wished to join in the fun.
It caused the number of dwarves to experiment on the cannon to further increase.
Inside their workshop, the dwarves started gathering their precious secret metal alloy as a material.
They forged different alloys into the same hollow ball-shaped metal. Then, they placed some gunpowders and fuse to test the alloy's resistance to explosions.
They do so to test which metal has the highest resistance against explosions.
Most of the metal failed the test and immediately exploded into fragments that injured several dwarves. While the ones that passed the explosion resistance test are recorded for further testing.
While conducting those tests, one of the dwarves saw one of the failed experiments and seemed enlightened, "This explosive hollow metals… I think they can also be used as weapons."
The surrounding dwarves heard his input and thought for a moment before nodding.
One dwarf even added, "Perhaps we can change the solid cannonball with this explosive hollow metal ball to add explosive properties to the cannonball."
The surrounding dwarf's eyes lit up upon hearing that suggestion.
And so, the dwarves split their research team into two.
Most of them continued to experiment with creating cannons. While a few started an experiment to craft the even more dangerous explosive hollow ball.
Cedric who saw all that in the Divine Space has been dumbfounded since long ago.
"WTF?! They created hand grenades already?"
[Actually, not only hand grenades. If this goes on, the dwarves will be able to create cannon shells that can explode soon.]
Although he is the one who introduced the concept of the cannon to the dwarf, Cedric still can't believe it actually bore fruit so quickly.
'I guess I've been underestimating the dwarf's talents.' Cedric thought while trying to suppress the uncomfortable feeling caused by introducing such a killing weapon to the world.
[Well, look at the bright side. At least the dwarf in your world is pretty peace-loving.]
Cedric nodded his head upon hearing the System's attempt at calming him down.
It's truly a life-saving grace that the dwarves in his world rarely fought against each other.
Compared to the humans who started a large-scale battle at every chance they got. The dwarves are just nerds who love metals and explosions.
Cedric continued to watch the dwarf's experiments, 'If this goes on, the dwarf will be able to deal with the NE infected ant queen that I sent to pressure them to level up.'
Soon, the dwarves finished their material experiment and selected one of the metals as the material for their prototype cannon. Among every metal used during their experiment, that metal alone survived every explosion and stability test.
After crafting the metal into cannon parts that they had designed, the dwarves brought the parts out of their workshop and placed them in the middle of the city plaza.
The dwarves involved in creating the cannon quickly assembled them and started their test with excitement.
Just like before, several dwarves saw the cannon and gathered around in curiosity. But this time, they learned to stand a considerable distance from the cannon in case it exploded.
While being surrounded by many excited dwarves. One of the dwarves who has created the cannon is busy filling a slot in the barrel with gunpowders. While another dwarf placed a recently invented explosive hollow metal ball inside the barrel.
After the fuse was lit, every dwarf ran away from the cannon and awaited its launch with bathed breaths.
When the fuse lit the stored gunpowder, a massive explosion resounded throughout the area.
The massive repulsion force caused the slab stone pavement around the cannon to crack. Even the ground below them trembled for an instant before stopping.
When every dwarf thinks that's the end, a few seconds after the cannon is launched, everyone in the plaza feels the ground under them tremble.
This time, the vibration lasts for dozens of seconds before stopping.
Some dwarves who've kept their eyes on where the cannonball is launched finally saw something weird in the distance.
On the sky that should've been clear, a dust cloud rises from the place suspected to be the cannon's landing point.
The dust cloud didn't rise too tall. But it's still extremely conspicuous in the clear weather.
Every dwarf around the city plaza looked at each other and quickly ran toward the direction of the dust cloud.
The dwarves that had created the cannon also disassembled it and stored the separate cannon pieces inside their warehouse before following the crowd.
The closer the cannon maker dwarves are to the source of the dust cloud, the more nervous they are.
Once they're already incredibly close, one of the dwarves gulped while saying with a slightly trembling voice, "Don't you think… that place is extremely close to the city wall?"
The other dwarves looked at each other and paused in their tracks.
After a short silence, a dwarf said, "Perhaps we shouldn't go after all."
The surrounding dwarf nodded.
Just when they prepared to leave. Several dwarves wearing iron armor surrounded the group.
One of the cannon makers became nervous, "It's the city guards!"
Next to the city guards, several familiar dwarves who witnessed the cannon's launch also gathered.
Amidst the crowd that surrounded the cannon makers, a dwarf wearing extremely tough-looking metal armor walked towards the group of cannon makers.
Seeing the dwarf wearing that super though-looking metal armor. The surrounding guards saluted, "Guard captain!"
The guard captain ignored their salute and glared at the cannon makers.
"Are you guys the one that's responsible for causing the city wall's collapse?"
One of the cannon makers tried her luck and replied shyly, "No?"
While replying, she also sent a seductive gaze toward the chief guard, which proved futile soon after.
"Don't lie! Many people here have witnessed your weapon launching a projectile toward the city wall!"
"Then, you shouldn't ask in the first place!" The stout female dwarf replied while rolling her eyes.
That answer hit the guard captain in the nerve as the veins in his body bulged.
The other cannon makers also stopped that female dwarf from further angering the chief guard.
At last, the guard captain calmed down and said, "Do you guys understand what you have caused?"
The cannon makers looked at the dust cloud that had started to subside and the broken city wall that was finally revealed.
"You've broken the city wall! Luckily there is no one patrolling that area at that time. Otherwise, you would've caused casualties! Don't you know not to do a dangerous test in the city?!" The guard captain reprimanded.
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Then, he glared at the cannon makers and told the surrounding guards, "Bring them to the council representative!"
As the air turned tense when the guards moved closer to the cannon makers, an elderly female voice broke the tension.
"There's no need, I am already here."
The crowd parted to let an elderly but still fit female dwarf into the center of the crowds.
She looked at the cannon makers dwarves before staring at the broken city wall.
While closing her eyes, the dwarf mumbled and asked the guard captain, "Did you say there are no casualties?"
"Yes, ma'am. There are no casualties from the wall's collapse."
" Hmmm…" The council representative closed her eyes while pondering. She only reopened them a minute later to stare at the cannon makers, "Considering there are no casualties, and you all don't seem to destroy the wall intentionally, I'll just punish you all to repair the wall."
"Before the wall is repaired, everyone responsible for the city wall's collapse is forbidden to continue any research and will be banned from entering the mine."
Once she was done, the council representative looked at the guard captain and commanded, "Investigate everyone responsible for the accident and punish them accordingly."
"Yes, ma'am."
Hearing the guard Captain's reply, the council representative left the crowd.
The guard captain quickly went into action and looked for the people involved in creating and launching cannons.
It seems the guard captain is in a pretty horrible mood while investigating, as he investigated it extremely thoroughly.
Even the remaining dwarf that's busy experimenting with hand grenades has been included among the lists of responsible dwarfs.
Once he listed the name, everyone involved in the city wall's destruction was sent to the city wall to repair it.
Soon, the day changed and the first official day of the dwarf's punishment arrived.
Everyone looked at the city wall while in awe at the destruction caused by the cannon they created.
"To be honest, I expected it to be powerful. But, I didn't think it was this powerful." Said one of the dwarves.
"I think the explosive hollow metal ball used as a substitute for the cannonball is the main culprit." Another dwarf said while pointing at some areas with traces of gunpowder and some burnt marks.
The other dwarf joined their conversation. There is no remorse on their face for destroying the city wall during their test.
Finally, one of the dwarves sighed and pointed at the wall, "Alright, let's start moving. This city wall won't repair itself."
The surrounding dwarves nodded while grumblingly split into two teams. One team went to the wilderness to search for stone as materials to repair the city wall. While the other team cleans up the rubble from the city wall.
While the the group of dwarves is busy cleaning the city wall, some dwarves come toward them.
The newly arrived dwarves are familiar faces who have been watching the cannon's first test launch.
Without beating around the bush they asked the cannon makers to teach them how to craft cannons.
The dwarves that are being punished look at each other and discuss among themselves.
"Should we tell them?"
"Perhaps we can tell them as long as they're willing to help us." Said one of the dwarves.
The other dwarf's eyes glinted when they heard it. "That's right! The punishment only said we must repair the city wall. But, it never said anything about not seeking assistance from other dwarves."
"That's right! As long as they're doing so willingly, we won't be punished nor will our sentence become longer."
The dwarf continued their discussion which lasted for several minutes.
Finally, one of the cannon maker dwarfs responded. "We have decided to teach the method to craft a cannon to everyone who helped us rebuild the city wall. Also, we'll only teach you when the city wall has been repaired. So, bring as many people as possible, so we can finish this faster."
The dwarves who heard it quickly smiled and left the site.
With their endorsement, the news that the cannon makers were willing to share the cannon-making knowledge with dwarves who helped them repair the city wall quickly spread.
The dwarves who are interested in the knowledge joined the city wall reparation project while spreading the news to other dwarves.
Soon, the news spread throughout the entire city, with more dwarves joining the wall reparation efforts.
The wall that should've taken months to repair has been successfully fixed within weeks.
The moment the wall was completely repaired, all of the dwarves cheered in unison. At this time, the amount of dwarf that went to repair the wall has sextupled from the initial amount.
When the council representative heard the news, she sighed and pardoned the cannon makers for the crime of destroying the city walls.
Just as promised, the moment the city wall is repaired, the cannon makers explain how to craft cannons to the other dwarves.
Everyone listened with attention before entering their respective workshop in a group of more than three dwarves.
Just like the calm before a storm. A week after the cannon makers explained the theory behind cannon making to other dwarves, the situation in the city was extremely calm. The amount of explosions caused by dwarven experiments has even decreased by half.
But once a week passed and the first batch of prototype cannons was crafted, all hell broke loose.
Every day, there will be at least five cannon launches which cause the city's plaza to slowly turn into rubble with cracked pavement everywhere.
Among those experimental cannons, the one that succeeded or entirely failed isn't too dangerous or destructive. It's the one that neither failed nor succeeded that has caused several houses to be destroyed or even burned several houses.
Hearing about the destruction, the city's council representative massaged her temple in distress.
At last, she ordered that the cannon test could only be done outside the city.
She also spent resources and manpower to build a super sturdy platform outside the city.
The platform directly pointed toward an empty mountain near the city. It's a mountain without any precious resources or dwarven settlements.
It's pretty much a useless mountain with horrible terrains and wildlife, so the council representative set that mountain as the cannon test ground.
The dwarves who heard about it also joined the plaza construction efforts. They even added their own stash of mined metal to be used as the plaza's foundation to strengthen its resistance against impact.
From that day, the platform outside the city is constantly filled with explosion noises from cannons.
The explosion noises became even more intense when the dwarves somehow began challenging each other on whose cannon can launch the furthest cannon balls, or whose cannon is the most accurate.
The mountains that are used by the dwarf as target practice will also slowly lose their green and become a desolate mountain filled with bald patches and craters.
Those rapid and intense cannon explosions also successfully gathered the curiosity of the dwarf merchant who traded resources between different cities and spread the existence of cannons to other cities.
The spreading speed of cannon-making techniques is even faster than the speed of transmission regarding the existence of training methods in their capital city.
Along with the spreading news, the unknown newly built city has become the birthplace of cannons. Dwarves from other cities decided to call it Cannon City, while its official name slowly got lost in history.
Cedric has been watching everything in the dwarf territory while being extremely dumbfounded.
He never thought cannon-making would suddenly become a trend in the dwarf race.
All he can hope for is for the dwarf to not use it to fight among themselves. Otherwise, the destruction it'll cause will be enough to give him a massive headache.
Then, he turned his attention to the elves.
Since he gave them the steles engraved with several training methods, the elves have shared the training method with other elf villages.
Currently, most of the elven villages already knew about the training method and its ability to raise their blessed power.
Many interested elven blessed have visited the elf queen's village to look at the stele in person.
With the spreading of the training method, many blessed elves have tried to follow the method but quickly met with a setback.
The problem stems from the fact that the training method requires a suitable place to be used to its maximum potential.
Without a special place like the valley with the strong wind where Alan first created the wind element training method, the turbulent river where Hars trained, the magic metal vein where Lacius trained, a snowy mountain peak, volcanoes, or other wonders. The training speed from the training method will be extremely slow.
Because of the perfection of their magic forest, the elves constantly lived in a perfect spring season with no dangerous place in the forest.
This leads to the fact that among all element training methods, the elven forest is only suitable for earth element blessed due to the concentration of mana in the forest's soil that's higher than average.
Except for earth element blessed. The only suitable training place that can be found in the elven forest is the gently flowing river that can barely allow water element blessed to train, and places for wind element blessed where slightly stronger gusts of wind occasionally pass.
The most troublesome fact is that the elves are already too used to their slow-paced lives.
Even with the threat he has given, only a few elves often trained their blessed power.
Cedric can only sigh while watching everything.
"Both the dwarves and the elves are extremely talented at giving me a headache."
Finally, he checked the demons that he transferred from the human kingdom before.
The NE infected ant queen has finally recreated her colony and will reach the area where many dwarves gathered.
Inside the ant colony, there are already thousands of giant ants. Among them, around a hundred have become a blessed with average strength at Upper Level 0.
There are also ten ants that have reached Lower to Mid Level 1, and the ant queen that's still stuck at Lower Level 2.
Although the giant ants should've been weaker than the average dwarf at the same level. But the sheer amount of members they have is simply overwhelming.
Currently, the average level of the dwarf blessed is only Upper Level 0. In every city except for the capital, there is only a Lower to Mid Level 1 dwarf stationed.
If the whole ant nest attacked at the same time, they could easily take down any dwarven city except for the capital city that's built on top of their magic mountain.
Of course, that's only if the dwarven equipment isn't included in the calculation.
Depending on the situation and the amount of weapons stored in certain dwarven cities, it should be possible for a dwarven city to survive a giant ant attack at the current magnitude.
It's the elf's situation that gives Cedric a headache.
Previously, he has moved ten Level 1 and dozen Level 0 demons near the elf's territory.
After killing animals and terrorizing the forest they're placed in. There is now a few additional weak demons in the group.
Soon, the demons will also come into contact with the elves.
Yet, even though their enemy is much weaker than the dwarves, Cedric somehow feels they won't be able to handle it.
Especially since the elves have rarely fought thanks to the safety of their forest.
To make sure nothing wrong would happen, Cedric went to check his trump cards, the dragons.
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He mainly focused on the dragons living at the mountain range separating the humans and the other two races.
On the mountain range, the dragons have mainly gathered into two groups.
One group is located in the northwest of the mountain range, while another group is located in the southeast of the mountain range.
Both side already has their own respective dragon kings with pretty much similar amount of subordinates.
Looking at the southeast dragon group that consisted of 10 Peak Level 1 dragons and slightly less than 50 Peak Level 0 dragons, Cedric rubbed his chin and fell into thought.
"As long as I sent a Divine Intervention: Urge and control the dragons to support the elves. At the very least, the elves won't be wiped to extinction from the demon attack."
"It's just I don't know how effective the command from Divine Intervention: Urge will be. Especially since the dragons I created have low average intelligence and are mainly moved by instinct." Cedric muttered while dazedly observing the dragons
"Or perhaps, I could send Lacius to give some support to the elves and help them tide through their weakest phase? But it'll be against the reason why I created the mountain range in the first place."
"Furthermore, Lacius meeting long-lived elves definitely smells like problems."
Cedric felt his head started aching from the stress.
That's when the System decided to chime in.
[How about summoning a hero for the elves? Heroes aren't always used to fight against demon kings, especially if it's a hero from another world. Sometimes, other gods also summoned heroes from a suitable world to handle other mess in their world.]
Cedric dismissed the System, "Not now. I think I can handle it for now."
Cedric then continued to observe the situation in the Crystal Cube world while occasionally studying how to create another race and a better dragon race once his world leveled up.
After all the dragon in his world is more akin to a wyrm instead of a dragon from a high fantasy story. In those stories, dragons are usually described as long-living super powerful intelligent species.
Meanwhile, the dragon in his world only has the average intelligence of a three-year-old child.
While he experimented, the ant colony already annihilated every creature near their current nest and finally decided to start a new nest.
The location they choose as the new nest is coincidentally located near a dwarf city.
It's a dwarven city located close to the center of the continent, but still a considerable distance away from the mountain range Cedric created.
The first dwarf to meet the giant ant colony had been busy mining as usual when several giant ants suddenly opened a tunnel nearby him.
The dwarf that's still at Lower Level 0 and hasn't obtained any power is quickly killed by the ant group with two Mid Level 0 ants in them.
The giant ant brought the dwarf corpse to the NE infected queen who ate it to regain its energy after changing their nests.
The location of the ant colony's nest is located near the dwarf city. Their tunnels occasionally met with the dwarf's mine tunnels.
Although most of the tunnels are empty, the more the ant colony expands their nest, the more dwarves they meet.
After a whole day of expanding their nest, one of the ant groups finally met a tough opponent.
Unlike the lone dwarves that they usually met, one ant group in charge of digging a tunnel has met a group of dwarves with a Level 0 blessed among them.
When the Level 0 blessed dwarf saw the group of giant ants, they initially panicked before swinging their pickaxe to kill the group.
Among the thirteen giant ants, only one barely survived and returned back to the tunnel they dug.
The dwarf wished to follow the ant, but the tunnel that the ant dug was slightly too cramped for them.
Seeing all enemy had escaped, the group of dwarves discussed with each others before deciding to continue mining.
Meanwhile, the surviving ant has returned and brought the news about food to the colony.
The ant colony quickly gathered more than a hundred giant ants led by eight Mid to Peak Level 0 giant ants and a Lower Level 1 giant ant.
They followed the tunnel dug by the ant workers and arrived at the place where the dwarves previously killed the workers.
Although they didn't meet any dwarves in the surrounding area, the ant's strong sense of smell quickly found traces of the dwarves deeper in the mine.
Once both parties met, the dwarves panicked upon seeing a massive amount of giant ants.
Meanwhile, the ants emotionlessly started their attack.
Before the attack, the lower Level 1 giant ant commanded the surrounding ants not to kill the dwarves and only brought them to the ant nests.
The dwarves tried their best to fight off the tide of ants. But, soon after even the dwarf blessed with divine strength became exhausted.
By the time the battle ended, on the side of the giant ants, there were tens of casualties including two Mid Level 0 giant ants. Meanwhile, two dwarves have been accidentally killed while the remaining five have been captured with their limbs either being cut off or broken.
The Level 1 giant ants looked at the captured dwarves before slowly walking toward one of the dwarves.
It used its mandible to pierce through the dwarf's body several times. The dwarf who suddenly got attacked screamed as hard as he could. But, soon he became exhausted and lost his strength.
When the giant ant saw the dwarf had turned numb from its attack, the giant ant killed the dwarf before screeching. In the screech, one can feel traces of the ant's happiness.
If seen by a special sight, mists like NE began to spew out from the recently dead dwarf.
The NE went into the giant ants with most of them going to the Level 1 giant ants.
Once the ants successfully incapacitated the dwarves, they brought them into their nest while ignoring the dwarves' screams and curses.
The next morning, the dwarven city became lively with a lot of dwarves chatting with each other instead of mining as usual.
Usually, every dwarf will return from the cave by evening and only return to the mine in the morning. But yesterday, too many dwarfs didn't return to the city.
If it's only a few, it can be understood as a simple overtime. But when too many failed to return, the dwarf sensed some trouble.
Soon, an investigation team is sent. But they failed to find anything wrong with the mines.
After some discussion, everyone decided to wait for a day to see whether or not the dwarf who failed to return would come back.
Soon, the day of waiting came to an end. Some dwarves have indeed returned, but even more still failed to return.
The oddity has attracted the attention of the city's council representative who immediately sent another investigation team to check the mine. Thankfully, this time the investigation team has found new clues.
Compared to yesterday, there are now several additional tunnels in the mines.
Based on the amount of dwarves that haven't returned, the dwarves can't be the ones to build those tunnels.
That means, there is another creature or group of creatures getting involved.
The investigation teams quickly returned to the surface and reported to the council representative who immediately gathered an army of dwarf combatants to follow the tunnel and saw what lies at the end of the tunnels.
Returning to when the ant group led by the Level 1 giant ant has just killed a dwarf.
Cedric watched some NE spew from the dwarf's corpse and get absorbed into the giant ants.
The NE generated by the dwarf mostly went to the Level 1 ant, with only slightly more than half shared with other ants.
For a dead dwarf to spew NE after being tortured and then killed isn't news for Cedric. What gathered Cedric's attention was the amount of NE generated by the dead dwarves.
For dwarves that have died normally or been suddenly killed, the amount of NE they generated is normal. Some are even lower than the average human and can barely be seen.
But the amount of NE generated by the dwarf that has been tortured is utterly insane.
Compared to a human that has been similarly tortured before dying. The amount of NE generated by that dwarf is approximately three times higher!
Cedric scratched his head in confusion.
Before he even asked anything, the System suddenly gave him the answer.
[The amount of NE generated by a creature's death is affected by their life level, despair, age, and many other things. Basically, the more despair and resentment they felt, the older they were, the stronger their life level was, and the higher their intelligence. The more NE will be generated upon their death.]
Cedric felt enlightened and nodded.
'I guess, the NE generated by the dwarves increases because they're just a group of innocent metal-loving nerds. Their innocence means when they feel despair, it will be amplified several times because they rarely felt pain in their daily life.'
'With the fact that they have double the lifespan of humans and that they're extremely intelligent when it comes to metallurgy. Everything combined probably contributed to the insane amount of NE they generated.' Cedric guessed while staring at the dwarves that were captured by the ants.
'Sigh… I hope those dwarves will be successfully rescued or at least have an easy death.' Although Cedric thought so, he knew it was almost impossible for the group of dwarves to be saved by others.
Just like the dwarf that was mutilated before he died, they'll most likely meet a gruesome end too.
Even so, he decided to watch their last moments.
No matter what, this is still the result of his decision to push the dwarf and elf to be on equal footing with the humans.
"This is just the beginning, and it already pains me to see so many creatures being captured by demons and tortured for their NE. But this must be done to balance the three intelligent races in the Crystal Cube world as soon as possible."
[You sounded like a shameless hypocrite just now.]
"I kinda agree more with you." Cedric shrugged.
"You know, after I experienced life in the Crystal Cube world through my clone, I started to see the people there as real people instead of NPC or drama characters. But this makes me feel weird and uncomfortable instead. Especially when I am sacrificing the creatures for my plan."
"It even made me doubt whether the greater goods I planned are worth the sacrifice."
[You'll eventually get used to it. That mixed emotion is pretty good because one of the best states of mind for a god is to love all beings while giving them tests to push their growth.]
[The System just isn't sure whether the emotion you felt is indeed love for every creature or simply guilt for pushing many of them to their death.]
Cedric fell silent.
Soon, the captured dwarves are brought to the massive ant queen. She commanded a few giant ants to stab the dwarves several times before making them die from blood loss.
Their death generated thick NE that Cedric could easily sense with the help of Divine Sight.
Cedric frowned when he saw it, "This time, the amount of NE generated by the dwarves has increased even further."
Even after calculating the extra NE generated by a dwarf with Level 0 blessed power, the amount of NE they generated has almost reached four times of average humans.
'Is it because the dwarves that got killed this time are older? Is this what the System means when it says age will also be a deciding factor for NE?' Cedric moved his mental power from the bloody sight in the nest while lost in thought.
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Suddenly, he paused and opened his eyes wide. "Wait a minute! The older a creature is, the more NE they'll generate!"
He quickly controlled his mental power to leave the dwarven territory and moved toward the elven territory.
There, he easily found elves that had lived for more than two hundred or even three hundred years.
Most of them are currently living in bliss while being ignorant of the disaster that they'll face shortly.
While feeling nervous, Cedric asked the System, "How much NE will a despairing two hundred years old elf generate?"
[Five to ten times of average humans.]
Cedric asked another important question, "How many elves can die in despair before a demon king appears in my world?"
[After calculating your world's resistance to Negative Energy, A demon king will most likely appear if around 5.000 elves get killed within a short time.]
Cedric rubbed his forehead. '5.000 elves is equal to ten big elven villages or twenty to thirty small villages. Meanwhile, there are ten Level 1 demons that I doubt a random elf village can defeat, and dozens of Level 0 demons.'
'If each Level 1 demon targeted a big village, a demon king is guaranteed to spawn.'
After some contemplation, Cedric looked at the mountain range that split the continent.
He moved his mental power and observed the dragon group with 10 Peak Level 1 dragons and more than 50 Peak Level 0 dragons.
"I guess it's time for the dragon's first trial run."
Cedric opened the System shop and bought a Divine Intervention: Urge.
[Level 4 Consumable Divine Item, Divine Intervention: Urge.
Cost: 10 GP
Details: Give an urge to do something to a creature. The complicatedness of the urge is limited. There is a certain chance for the target to ignore this urge. The higher the item's level, the more complicated the urge that can be set and the more irresistible it is.]
Holding the octahedron crystal-shaped Divine Intervention: Urge, Cedric searched for the dragon king among the group of dragons living in the southeast area of the mountain range.
Just like how he designed them to be, the strongest dragon has been chosen as the group's king.
So, all Cedric needs to do is observe which of them are the strongest.
Soon, he quickly found the dragon and activated the Divine Intervention: Urge in his hand.
With Cedric's command, the energy inside the crystal turned active.
For the effect of Divine Intervention: Urge, Cedric initially wanted to set it so the dragon king would bring his minions to attack some NE infected demons.
But, he suddenly recalled that the dragon king might not know which creature is a demon and which creature is a normal one. Especially since demons have different shapes and forms depending on their initial race before they're infected by NE.
After some thought, Cedric decided to send an urge to the dragon king to move toward the elven territory and protect the elves.
He also added the urge to make the dragon return to the mountain if they lose the urge to protect the elves.
Cedric added this just in case the dragon suddenly went into a rampage after the effect of Divine Intervention: Urge ran off.
As it's the first time he used Divine Intervention: Urge, Cedric didn't make the urge too complicated to test the effect.
With the help of his mental power, Cedric added the command he had prepared. He also added information about elves, like their general appearance, how they walked, etc, to the energy within Divine Intervention: Urge.
Once everything is ready, he controls the energy inside Divine Intervention: Urge to move toward the dragon king.
Inside the Crystal Cube world. The dragon king that resides in the southeast part of the mountain range suddenly roared to gather the surrounding dragons.
Once all of its followers had arrived, the dragon moved toward the location where the elf resided.
When Cedric saw his attempt had succeeded, he thought for a moment before continuing to observe the dragons while occasionally checking the humans and the dwarves.
Several months quickly passed since he sent the dragons to the elves, and the event in Crystal Cube world continued to progress.
While studying how to create a more intelligent race, Cedric constantly busy himself with observing the situation in the world.
During these months, the humans have already started to expand their territory up north.
The desolate land that's caused by Cedric's expansion of the world's space has also started to be filled with more animals and some humans.
Now, there are already a few small human villages located close to the mountain range that separates the continent.
Meanwhile, in the south, some human ship has found the islands where a dragon resides.
But due to the dragon's curiosity, it bit every ship it saw and caused them to sink. After all, the size of a ship in the human world is still pretty small. Depending on the place that's affected, the most a ship can handle is five bites from a Level 1 dragon before it starts sinking.
It's not like the dragon hated every ship or felt the ship tasted delicious. But the human ship comes in varying shapes and forms, which made the dragon curious about every ship it met.
Without any witnesses alive to tell the existence of the dragons, it seems it'll take a bit more time before the humans find out about them.
During these few months, Lacius has also advanced to Mid Level 3 after investigating the mountain that's said to suddenly appear near Silver Hope city.
During his investigation, Lacius has luckily found a small magic ore vein in the mountain range. Although the magic ore mine is small in size, the mana density contained inside is incredibly high.
Lacius has only advanced after spending some faith power to boost his training speed while training for months inside the ore mine.
By the time he advanced, he had sucked most of the mana inside that ore vein. It's doubtful whether the mine can grow any more magic metal.
Honestly, Cedric felt a bit of pain when he saw that.
He has spent 6 GP and more than 1 percent world stability to create that magic metal ore vein while his world was previously in the process of upgrading.
Except for the ore vein that Lacius has sucked dry, there is only one more equally precious small ore vein that Cedric is inside the mountain range for people to discover.
He hopes the next one to discover it won't be Lacius or another earth element blessed that'll brutally dry that ore vein.
After Lacius finished training, he went to visit Silver Hope City and coincidentally met with Merthyr.
Lacius has even borrowed the Book of Forgotten History from Methyr's hand.
Once he read the book, Lacius merely looked thoughtful before closing his eyes for a moment, "That feels nostalgic."
Cedric felt relieved when he saw Lacius didn't try to destroy the book.
Although he made the Book of Forgotten History with the strongest and most flexible metal in the world, Cedric isn't sure whether or not that metal could survive Lacius's serious attack.