As Victor was driving, he suddenly spoke: "Alright, the beehive should be a bit to the north from where we stopped last time. It will take around one hour in the car to get close, but… Hey, Granberia, how about you talk a bit about yourself?"
"..." Granberia frowned a bit as she stared at the mirror in the middle of the front side of the car, reflecting Victor's face. "...Are you really okay? You seem… in a good mood?"
"Don't mind it, don't mind it!" Victor shoved off her worries about his unusually cheerful state. "I can't just take a bad approach towards everything and everyone, I need to smile a bit in my life too."
Of course, that was just bullshit. The reason why he is smiling is the gains he made while he was sleeping. Glancing at his system's inventory, his smile widened a bit more.
204'863 Gold Coins, an unprecedented amount of Gold is currently sitting within his gold counter. Just seeing the number made Victor smile.
And finally, he can push himself forward with his agenda by buying both the Ruby Mine and Emerald Mine!
[Current Production: 85'065 Gold/Hour]
[Basic Production: 43'623 Gold/Hour]
[Current Multiplier: 1.95x]
[Automatic Wood Cutter: (1 Gold/Hour)]
[Automatic Stone Retriever: (2 Gold/Hour)]
[Coal Mine: (5 Gold/Hour)]
[Copper Mine: (10 Gold/Hour)]
[Iron Mine: (15 Gold/Hour)]
[Steel Mine: (30 Gold/Hour)]
[Silver Mine: (1 Gold/Minute)]
[Gold Mine: (5 Gold/Minute)]
[Platinum Mine: (10 Gold/Minute)]
[Sapphire Mine: (50 Gold/Minute)]
[Cobalt Mine: (1 Gold/Second)]
[Ruby Mine: (5 Gold/Second)]
[Emerald Mine: (5 Gold/Second)]
[Pure Crystal Mine: 100'000 Gold]
[Diamond Mine: 500'000 Gold]
[Cleaner: (+0,05x multiplier)]
[Purifier: (+0,05x multiplier)]
[Polisher: (+0,05x multiplier)]
[Refiner: (+0,1x multiplier)]
[Super Purifier: (+0,2x multiplier)]
[Super Refiner: (+0,5x multiplier)]
[Magical Enhancer: 100'000 Gold]
[Magical Rune Enhancer: 2'500'000 Gold]
Surprisingly, both the two mines gave off the same amount of Gold, but he really didn't mind that after seeing his gains. Ah, he can taste the power of the rich… See? He didn't even need to sell his new fan when he can get stuff like this in a short time!
Even though his money count fell to 124'863, he didn't mind it at all! That is money that will keep him alive until tomorrow, after all.
He will have to check his new skill list though, so maybe he will have to do stuff during lunch.
"So, how about it? Let's get to know each other better. I'm sure that everyone here knows who you are, but what about where you come from? Hobbies? Why did you become a Heavenly Knight? You know, stuff like that. If I'm right, you're going to be stuck with us for a while, so why not become friends?"
"..." Granberia raised an eyebrow and replied with another question. "You do realize we met just two days ago?"
"...?" Victor blinked in surprise as he paused for a moment. "...Holy shit, it was really just two days ago. Fuck, it felt like a week has passed… Meh, it must be all the stuff that I had been going through. Anyway, what about it? You speakin' or you don't feel like it? I'm not going to force you or anything."
The dragonkin merely shrugged. "If you insist…"
She shifted her gaze to the roof of the car as she fell in a deep thought, and after a dozen seconds of silence, Granberia opened her mouth. "Well, to start with, I was born in the Gold Volcano, in the Gold Region."
"Hmm." Victor hummed in confirmation to show her that he was listening.
"Apparently, I was left by my parents recently after birth, and consequently Salamander had adopted me. Maybe she felt like it, it could be because she was bored, or she genuinely felt pity; I don't really mind any of that, I am only grateful for her to take me in when I needed it the most."
"I see, so you got adopted by one of the Four Spirits…" Victor muttered with a casual tone before Luka joined in the conversation.
"Umm… I keep hearing about these 'Four Spirits', who are they?"
"..." Victor paused for a moment, thinking about what to say. However, he couldn't really find the words for that, which is why his explanation sounded broken. "Well… They are four… Hmm… I'd say conceptual beings, but that is only stuff that I theorized by myself after finding out about them… How about this? You go to Sentora and find out who they are. If you want to survive in your way to achieve coexistence, you will need them, after all."
"Okay…" Luka casually nodded and shifted his gaze outside the window.
Victor glanced at Granberia from the mirror over his head before he focused on the road. "Anyway, have you ever found your real parents? You have a lot of power on your hand, so you should be able to find your mother, at least."
"I don't have any interest in that. If my mother has abandoned me, she has her own reasons; there is no need to disturb her further."
Victor raised an eyebrow at Granberia's answer. "Are you sure? Aren't you at least curious about how she looks? Maybe she has abandoned you because she was forced to do so."
"Victor, you do realize that my mother is a member of the dragon species? There is almost no human or monster in this world who could push an adult dragonkin to this point, or even has a reason to look out for her in particular. Even if I am a Heavenly Knight, I got here through sheer physical exercise and fights alone; my mother is merely another common member of the dragon race."
"...That's a good point…" She was right, who could really force a dragonkin to abandon their child? And if what she meant was true, her mother is no one special; she is just an average dragonkin…
"...But to be fair, I was also a normal person without anything special two weeks ago. The only one who has the answer for why you had been orphaned at a young age is your real mother alone… Or maybe also your father?"
Granberia shook her head. "The only time when the man becomes important for a monster family is when the mother is married to the person, or they are lovers. Otherwise, he is only a slave that is there only for the monster in question to reproduce."
"Huh, the more you know… It sounds kind of depressing, though. Existing on the side of a monster girl just to make more children. Your very life is centered on keeping your seed alive to produce more and more children…"
"This is how nature works. Humans are naturally weaker than monsters; and not only are they important for us monsters, but their weak points match up with our strong points. It's not like we created their Critical Ecstasy, that's just how mother nature wanted humans to have."
"Is it really so hard to counter Critical Ecstasy for humans? I don't have anything like that, so I can't say anything…" Victor curiously asked, but Granberia shrugged.
"I have no idea on how it works, and I never wanted to use that to my advantage when I only needed a sword to win against my opponent. Hellgondo has a serious lack of human men after the Slaughter of Remina, which is why it sort of became my job to hand out people who challenge me and fall in defeat. After all, I don't care about disappointments."
"That's horrible!" Luka commented as he glared at Granberia. However, she didn't care about his point of view and rebuked.
"I am merely exercising my right as the winner. I am pretty much famous among humans and monsters, and people still want to challenge me without preparing themselves. At this point, that's just natural selection."
"But… That's just wrong. Also, you had attacked Iliasburg only to stop the Heroes from appearing; you basically tried to cripple the human species."
"Luka, you disturbed a sleeping mandragora because you were curious. I am not saying that what Granberia is doing is good; even if you kill someone because you have won a duel, murder is murder. However, it is quite hypocritical of you to speak about how bad it is harming a person from another race." Victor commented with a sigh as he looked on the road.
Luka, of course, didn't agree with Granberia's words even after Victor spoke. However, he had an idea of what to do to correct it.
"So that means that if I win a fight against you, I can stop you from taking the initiative to hurt the humans?"
A smirk appeared on Granberia's face as Luka had caught on her words. "That's right. If you think you have a shot, I am more than glad to welcome your challenge when you feel you are strong enough to take me on.
However, you have to remember that I am not the only one between the Heavenly Knights who is harming the humans. Each one of us has their own reasons: Obligations, hate, or for simple lust and fun.
Unlike you humans, even in full-fledged societies between monsters, we still use the rule of the strong. If you can show yourself to be stronger than all of us and the Monster Lord too, then you can have our full support on that little dream of yours… That is, as long as you don't become yet another slave in a monster's embrace.
Not everyone is like me, who wields a sword on almost every occasion. Some among the Heavenly Knights will try to challenge your intellect to escape from unique gimmicks, while others want to test how further you can go without falling into temptation. Trust me when I say it, it is not as easy as it sounds."
"That won't stop me!" Luka replied back with his own challenging glare.
"Well, you have a long way to go to get to that point. You did get bitch-slapped the shit out with her tail 2 days ago."
"..." Luka blushed in embarrassment once Victor pointed out the events that happened back while Granberia was assaulting Iliasburg by herself.
After half a minute of pause, Victor spoke again. "So, you got adopted by Salamander. Did she train you to get this strong?"
"Not exactly. She taught me the basics of swordsmanship and advanced stuff such as magic swordsmanship. As for my own strength and experience, I traveled around the world under her supervision ever since I was a child to challenge the strong.
There were few times when I was really close to dying, but I came out of the fight alive and lived until now. The combination of the duels I had in my travels in combination with the disadvantages I went through while traveling on different kinds of hazardous terrains forged my body and my mind.
After a while, I heard about a tournament to decide who will be the new Monster Lord, and I felt that the candidates over there would be a match for me. Unfortunately, I was too naive…"
Reminiscing about the greatest fight she had in her life, Granberia sighed. "Erubetie's body made it almost impossible for me to harm her, and even my flames at that time barely had any effect on her. Of course, that is not a problem now that I possess flames that are hot enough to actually hurt her.
Tamamo was as strong and heavy as an actual mountain. Each step she made could shake up the castle; and that is not all, since she is also extremely intelligent and proficient in magical arts. Even now, it still feels incredible how she had gathered so much strength…
Then there is Alma Elma…" For the first time ever, Granberia showed a nervous expression upon mentioning the name of the Queen Succubus.
Victor already had an idea about how it could have ended, knowing that even now, Alma Elma had a victory streak against Granberia. If he remembered right, it was something like 30:0 for the succubus, where she had won through sheer sexual molestation.
"...Anyway, while the other three Heavenly Knights are truly strong, the Monster Lord still won the fight… Well, even if she had shown that she is truly the strongest, only I had actually fought her in the tournament. Erubetie and Tamamo knocked each other out, while Alma Elma simply gave up in the middle.
That was probably the hardest fight I ever had in my entire life… I used every single drop of my endurance to fight against her, and unleashed every technique I could remember, both magical and physical. However, the most I could do is give her a hard time.
Even after giving out all of myself, she quickly read through my attacks and ultimately defeated me; I could barely leave scratches on her body, and her weird magic overwhelmed any technique I know of."
"Is the Monster Lord this powerful?" Luka curiously asked, and Granberia nodded.
"There is a reason she is the Monster Lord, after all. Every single member of her family had been a Monster Lord at one point in history, and they are all descendants of the Dark Goddess. The power of the Founder is not something that can be obtained with ease, but each Monster Lord had it in their blood.
Besides, the fight happened 5 years ago. I trained for long enough to be worthy of the name of a Heavenly Knight, but the Monster Lord is still growing with strength the more she lives. If she can live for something like 100 years, there will probably be no monster in the entire history that can approach her level."
"Wow… That is…" Luka didn't know what to say anymore, now holding doubts on whether he can actually defeat the Monster Lord or not. Victor noticed that with the mirror and comforted him.
"C'mon Luka. If Heinrich did it, you can also do it. Besides, that kind of power can be obtained only after the Monster Lord reaches the age of 100, right? It is still not too late to change things."
"Yeah… You're right. I guess I'll just wait and see when it's time." Luka replied as he looked down with a gloomy expression. Victor sighed and continued to drive.
"Anyway, we are almost there… You know, it's nice driving around without anything bad happening now." He commented as he enjoyed every single tranquil second of his time today.
"That is because we are still in this part of Ilias Continent. If you go a bit further north, you will see monsters that won't hesitate throwing themselves in front of this vehicle just to stop you; their bodies are quite sturdy, and can definitely take a hit from this car.
If I remember right, there is also a forest separating Iliasburg from Iliasport, you cannot drive through it with the car because there are too many curves to take. It will be better going through it on foot." Eva replied as she stretched her back on her seat.
"There will also be a lot of exotic monsters at the sides of the road, and they are the main reason why there are so many curves on the road between Iliasburg and Iliasport." She finished explaining, making Victor nod.
"I see. Well, we'll think about it when we arrive there…. Now that I think about it, I didn't know you studied medicine." Victor commented as he remembered her medicinal liquid. It was made really well, and also had great effects on Lucretia when she drank it all.
Eva smiled with a proud expression. "You can't be a real Hero if you don't at least know how to take care of yourself. There are many monsters that use different kinds of gimmicks: like paralysis, blindness, minimizing-inducing spells, hypnosis, horniness, and so on. Many of them need their own antidotes to dispel, while others require a counterspell."
"That sounds hard…" Victor commented. It was one thing in the game, but if he really had to deal with monsters who give off 10 different debuffs, that would be insane.
"I know, but at least it separates normal Heroes that you see everywhere from veterans like me. As Granberia named it, it is the natural selection between Heroes. The ones who can't adapt will remain as third-rate Heroes."
"Hmm…" Victor nodded before he announced. "Okay, we are here."
He switched his good leg from the accelerator to the brake and slowly pushed it to slow down his car until they completely stopped in the middle of the road. The travelers stepped off the car and Victor pulled it back within his inventory after he sat on his wheelchair.
After that, Victor pulled out his map and retrieved a cheap compass from the store, before he lifted his head to look at the direction of the beehive. "It will take around half an hour back and forth… Well, it won't be anything dangerous, so you guys can also wait here and play around… I don't know, do what you want to do."
"I want to come with you."
Surprisingly, the one who said that was Eva. Everyone looked at her in surprise as Victor asked. "Didn't you, Alice, and Granberia decide to observe each other in a weird triangle? What's with this new activity from you? ...Not to say that I am not grateful, I am simply curious."
"That would be the case yesterday." Granberia was the one that spoke out. "However, the situation changed."
"Did you three talk to each other and settle down or what?" Victor asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It doesn't involve you, there is nothing to worry about. Besides, won't it be better for you if Eva plays an active role in your journey?" Alice replied.
Victor sighed and shrugged off the subject before he looked at Eva. "Alright, you can come along. Follow me."
After saying that, Victor began to use his wheelchair's joystick to move in the beehive's direction with Eva behind him. As for Alice and Granberia, they were watching their backs with a calm expression that concealed cautiousness.
Actually, they had really talked about the observing matter yesterday evening, which is why they weren't at the party.
Alice and Granberia decided to look carefully at Victor instead of Luka and Eva. Even though Victor was a cripple, the potential danger he could cause is much greater than any other Hero in the past, even among the ones who defeated the previous Monster Lords.
At first, they had taken Victor's powers to buy anything with money as something secondary, a random argument which had no need to be solved at the moment, like the matter about how stars are born. Even if they would like to hear the answer, there was no need for them to invest their time on finding it out.
However, after yesterday's matter about how he cured himself, they had to reassess their opinion on Victor's strange power. He didn't seem to show any limit on what he could buy except for the amount of money he possesses, so can't he just outright buy immunity to any possible status ailment? He is already immune to magic, whether it was something he bought or he was born with it.
Then he simply needs to buy enough power to match the entire monster species single handedly, and then he can decide whether to keep everyone alive or dead; in the end, no one will be able to stop him.
Of course, Alice and Granberia had been with him long enough to take a vague guess on his personality. However, they didn't like to deal with 'possibilities'. Eva had found out about the conversation and joined in, telling them that she will protect Victor in the case he is under the threat of death from them. But, to make things fair, she won't tell any of that to Victor, to make sure he will show his 'true self'.
This is why Eva decided to follow Victor. She simply didn't see the task of observing Alice and Granberia to the same level as protecting the weaker members of the group from a possible death.
However, neither Alice nor Granberia disliked that. Even if Eva was strong, she wouldn't be able to defeat them at the same time.
Besides, there is no need for conflict at all. Alice and Granberia were simply curious about what Victor will do in the future; the only one who sees him as a potential threat is Granberia, but Alice had already figured out the majority of him with the talk they had yesterday after he woke up from his midday nap. The only missing things she didn't know of him are the few secrets he was hiding, and she didn't have the intention of rushing him out.
After all, he didn't commit any serious crime against humanity or monsterkind. Who knows, they could also be good acquaintances in the future; why make an enemy out of him?
…
Victor Luis' (future) Trivia Book: Rat Girl
Rat Girls belong to the category of beasts within the monster species, and they all possess rat ears and tails. They are also very small, matching their namesake. Because of their genes, they grow up very slowly, but once they look like children at the age of 12, they will have reached their full maturity and stop growing.
They are also a 'somewhat' cursed species, because their bodies naturally give birth to an inferior version of pestilence. However, they themselves have the antibodies for all kinds of bacterias due to their poor lifestyle, which is the only good thing about them.
They stink, they are hated by everyone, they are negative people, they are dumb, and they are easily scared. This is not an insult, they are all actual facts about them; and surprisingly, there is almost no exception. The only exception is when there are nobles who have a fetish for monsters and little girls, but even then the chances for a Rat Girl to be picked up is very small...
Because of that, it actually seems like they are born with homelessness as part of their DNA, when it is just their state that makes it so that they cannot join any full-fledged society without ruining it. They are always troubled when the subject of poverty is brought out, but they are also down-to-earth.
They are typical urban monsters who become more active following disasters, since those are the times when other living beings become few in number, expanding their range of action without causing an outbreak.
Every day, they sneak into houses and steal food with the help of their stature and agility. Food is usually stolen while people are away, in particular cheese.
However, when they're into heat, they simply can't help but attack humans and kidnap them, bringing them into their nest and gangraping them. The pestilence will certainly be dangerous to the man, but by the time their period of heat is finished, it is still possible to save the person, who will be usually left in front of a hospital for his safety because they themselves don't wish to kill him.
Their bodies' toxins act like the pestilence, but it isn't the actual pestilence. First of all, the disease cannot be spread airborne and by contact; the only way to spread the disease is through bodily fluids, which include saliva, blood, sweat, and vaginal juices.
Second, the effects show up much later than usual. Instead of the 10 days until death that is common with an untreated patient, it will take at least a month before it is too late to recover the patient in question. This gives the doctors a great deal of time to cure the infected by the pestilence.
And third, the genetics of the toxins are magical. The toxin is not alive like the bacteria of the pestilence, but it is created with pure dark energy. Because of this, there are no chances for the disease to mutate, because it isn't alive to begin with.