Awakened Earth!!

After some trial and error, I successfully gained the skill Rune Smith. It was then immediately integrated into the subskill Sixth Sense. It seems my desire to not have too many skills to keep track of means that Sixth Sense is becoming the skill where everything gets integrated into.

Drawing the runes in the air with my finger, I snapped, and the runes flew into the sword. I used a basic appraisal spell but still couldn't detect them. Runes should always be visible, even if Rune Smith made them too small to see—basic appraisal should let you see them. I decided to use another spell, All-Seeing Eye: Reveal the absolute truth, nothing is concealed beneath your gaze. True Appraisal. This spell, like Abyss Annihilation, required a chant to work, even with a skill like Chant Annulment.

One of the abilities of my Sixth Sense skill, which was becoming a jack-of-all-trades skill, was chant annulment. The runes appear—a bunch of holographic runes flew out of the sword check for mistakes i snap my fingers into despell the appraisal spell. Runes have a meaning, so by engraving something with runes, you engrave that meaning onto the item. It looks like I seal the runes in the item, it seems only those with sharp senses could tell it a magic sword. The enchantment works because I’ve essentially sealed the meaning into the sword, so as long as the sword exists, it will remain enchanted.

I began learning other craftsman skills, even though I wasn’t very talented at first. I worked non-stop for two years, which flew by in the blink of an eye.

My photographic memory allowed me to absorb information quickly, and I learned very fast by constantly working. I mastered the skills, even if I wasn't naturally talented, by working my ass off.

Sophie and I met up, and we entered through the front door instead of just creating a gate to the meeting room at the palace, very polite of us. As for why—well, I believe the airplanes were ruining the total fantasy vibe. Hence Rimuru invited us, of course. It’s not like Rimuru expected us to stay out of the upcoming fight since we both had some idea of what was going on and want to Awaken as true demon Lords. So, Sophie simply telepathically transferred the information of what she been up to in the last two years.

The throne room Sophie created in our house was grand. All the thrones were extremely comfortable, luxurious, and overly ornate. The room had a red carpet stretching from its ridiculously huge doors all the way up to the thrones, which were placed on an elevated platform. Additionally, two of the thrones were perfectly in line, with one throne slightly behind the other two—this one was Alex's, as Sophie wanted to show her higher status as the first wife. The room had chandeliers made of silver with magical illumination. The floor was a made of marble with gold and silver designs and details. It seemed she had gotten some help from the craftsmen of Tempest.

Alex, on the other hand, had built a treasury with the craftsmen of Tempest. Rimuru even helped her create a storage room with an infinite void inside where time was frozen, something I wouldn’t be able to enter unless I used my unique skill. It turns out she was using a bunch of empty bedrooms for storage as well. The treasury was now filled with gold and silver, left over from the throne room. Using alchemy magic, Sophie was able to extract pure gold, separating the gold from impurities. Sophie's version of mining involved simply teleporting the ores to the surface.

Magic could do the impossible—there were no technological limitations. Anything you could not do with technology, you could easily do with magic. Anyway, after entering very politely and taking our seats, I noticed that Alex had also been taste-testing all of the food, piling up the best items. She took advantage of the new storage room to store a large amount of food, keeping all the good stuff. After reviewing all the information, I noticed that Sophie had actually improved the defenses in the treasury. I suspected that if anyone tried hard enough, they might be able to get in, but they would have to put in a lot of effort, which was quite impressive, especially considering Seal capabilities making her put in effort was obviously quite impressive.

Anyway, after everyone had gathered, the plan was to infect people with a virus that lowers fertility to address the overpopulation in the Western Nations. However, we discovered that one of these nations had developed advanced magic technology and was building planes and tanks, planning to invade the western half of the continent. We pretended not to know anything, but we began discussing our plans to make an example out of this country. I would use my unique skill to decimate the entire country with flames, leaving nothing behind. Rimuru would then place a skill on it so it would remain that way forever, serving as a reminder to humans, whose short memories often forget the past. Having a constant reminder of the horrors of aerial bombing might prevent others from attempting this in the future. Rimuru mentioned using the virus as a desperate last attack, trying to take everyone with them before they’re wiped out—basically, we're pinning the virus on them.

I made a suggestion to Rimuru, stating that I wanted to collect 10,000 human souls to awaken as a Demon Lord. Instead of using my unique skill, I proposed using the spell Abyss Annihilation. With my Staff of Twilight, I could amplify the spell enough to affect an entire country. The spell could be configured in such a way that it wouldn't destroy the souls, allowing me to collect the necessary souls to awaken as a true Demon Lord. Rimuru didn't mind since this spell would annihilate everything, reducing it to nothingness. However, this version would be controlled to preserve the souls, simply because I could manage the spell better than I could control my unique skill, allowing me to stop the souls from being target by the spell