After hearing Michael's bragging about the god's strength, Leo's eyes widened so much they looked like they were about to pop out. He knew Michael's words were probably a bit exaggerated, but strength like that was just too terrifying.
"So that means you, as a god, can take on an entire kingdom by yourself?"
This kind of insane power reminded him of things that had happened in the past. If his side had had strength like this back then, they would've won a long time ago.
Michael narrowed his eyes slightly when he heard the question. He felt like Leo might have actually done something related before, not just asked randomly.
"Did you fight against an entire kingdom?"
He was really curious what kind of fight that was. If Leo took on a whole kingdom by himself, he couldn't be an ordinary person like humans on Earth.
Michael knew a lot of famous generals on Earth, but they were famous for their strategic minds in war, not for beating an army single-handedly.
"Not me, but we. There's no way one person's strong enough to take on a whole kingdom. If there was, that wouldn't even be a person anymore."
Leo didn't plan on hiding his past from Michael. Anyway, since he'd already said something crazy like wanting to become the king of this world, this stuff was just small talk.
"So you're actually admitting you lived a past life?"
Getting such a straightforward answer was really unexpected for Michael. He thought transmigrators usually kept that secret pretty tight.
"What's the big deal? One life's fine, two lives are fine too. Compared to me, a weird existence like you is way stranger. Besides, you're stuck helping me anyway, so telling you isn't a problem."
Leo wasn't a fool, so his thinking was a lot less short-sighted. Plus, his past life was constantly filled with danger. Compared to that, this little secret was nothing.
"You still haven't answered my question."
"Ah, um, probably yeah. Logically speaking, I can win unless that kingdom has way too many demigods or a god. I don't know how many demigods are on this continent, but gods haven't shown up again for the past tens of thousands of years."
Of course, Michael wasn't sure if the thing about gods not appearing was true or not. The only source he had was Cook God, so he had no choice but to believe Cook God. Right now, he didn't even have a human body yet, so he couldn't go gather intel either.
Hearing the number "tens of thousands of years," Leo was stunned. In past life, he'd only lived a little over forty years. A number like tens of thousands—how many lifetimes would he need to live to make that?
Just thinking like that, the value of this "useless" genie instantly skyrocketed in Leo's eyes. Not long after starting, he accidentally "picked up" a god—his luck was seriously exploding.
"But how long will it take you to reach that kind of strength?"
Leo asked seriously. If Michael said something like "several hundred years or more", then he felt like this life was gonna be just as hard as the last one. Could humans even live for several hundred years?
"Don't worry, just a few decades. I don't know exactly how many decades, but under a hundred years, you can wait that long, right?"
This wasn't Michael guessing randomly, nor was it something Cook God told him. He'd calculated it based on the max exp per day and the exp needed for each level.
Of course, that wasn't under normal conditions—it was under lucky conditions. According to the info the system provided, it'd definitely take over a hundred years. But Cook God said a few decades, so maybe this world had a "shortcut."
He didn't know exactly how that "shortcut" worked. But he knew that when Cook God got killed, Dragon God was still in this world, so he could go find that god to ask. Anyway, he wasn't Cook God, so there shouldn't be any bad blood between him and that god, right?
"That's not impossible. If I'm lucky, maybe I'll live that long."
Though he said that, Leo didn't really think he'd live that long. The path he was on was extremely dangerous. Dying halfway was totally normal, so living to that age was pretty unlikely.
"Wait a sec. Let me create a human body first. Floating around without a lower half like this is kinda messing with me."
Normally, the feeling of free flight might not be more comfortable than walking, but at the very least it shouldn't feel uncomfortable. But the biggest issue was Michael couldn't feel his lower half, so it felt like something was missing.
'System, make me a body now.'
[Ok.]
The system didn't explain what the body would look like and immediately got to work. The natural energy, under the system's control, rushed like a flood toward a single point.
From faint, blurry streams of energy, they gathered into an extremely intense, radiant point of light, like a blue sun.
Once enough energy had accumulated, the system began shaping it into a human form. But there was one problem: the height stopped once it was a few centimeters shorter than Leo.
Michael felt like something was wrong and was about to question the system, but before he could say anything, his soul was forcibly yanked straight into the body being created.
The body's features gradually became more detailed. The light faded as well, replaced by diverse colors. Just like that, a kid around Leo's age appeared.
Michael now had golden hair that looked even better than it had on Earth. His genie outfit could change size freely to fit the body, so it tightened up as he shrunk to fit.
He was chubby but sturdy for his age. Though compared to someone like Leo who trained constantly, he was still far behind. But for the current situation, it was way too useless.