Chapter 106: Returning to the Human World
Hiro didn't care for the commotion caused by the sudden repair of the stronghold's damaged and dilapidated districts.
With the barrier in place, no one can pry into his secrets from the outside even if they wanted to.
The same was true for the Demon Tower, as Hiro was certain that the Great Demon families of this stronghold must have left backup plans.
Taking advantage of his presence in the core of the Demon Tower and the fact that the space had yet to be sealed by the power of laws, Hiro summoned the newly obtained summoning tokens.
He used his demonic energy to draw four summoning magic circles on the ground and placed the four tokens in the centers of each formation, respectively.
The first token had the words "Shadow King" inscribed on its surface.
The second token had the words "Monkey King" inscribed on its surface.
The third token had the words "Lord Aza'zel" inscribed on its surface.
The fourth token had the word "Lord Hades" inscribed on its surface.
All four of them had bloodlines just a little shy of reaching the level of ancestral bloodlines, their purity comparable if not a notch superior to Asmir's Nine-Tails Fox bloodline.
After putting the tokens in place, Hiro visited the shop once again to buy the suitable skills he wished to impart to each of the four generals.
He decided to invest 50,400 points in total on each skill, elevating them to Level 6 directly.
The espionage skill was already at Level 4, so he only needed to spend 38,400 points to get it to Level 6.
In total, Hiro needed to invest about 190,000 points on four demon generals who would ultimately start off as Tier-9 Paranormals.
In the short term, this would undoubtedly be a loss. However, in the long term, the fruits of this investment would definitely make up for the losses a thousand times over.
With that in mind, Hiro purchased {Art of War VI}, {Art of Deception VI}, and {Art of Torture VI}.
The first was for the Monkey King, the second was for Lord Aza'zel, and the last one was for Hades.
As for the Shadow King, Hiro simply upgraded the {Espionage IV} by two levels and prepared it for the demon.
Like that, Hiro waited patiently while bearing with the pain of spending 190,000 achievement points.
Soon, Hiro realized that the summoning process was taking much longer than expected, so he sat down and closed his eyes.
After setting up the system to notify him once the summoning ritual was completed, he entered the {Simulation Space} and continued on his quest to clear Draconia.
…
Two weeks in real time passed quickly, and only then was Hiro notified of the successful summoning.
His eyes slowly opened, moving to the four black portals surrounded by four magic circles.
Soon, four figures stepped out.
The Shadow Lord was a woman, the other three were men.
The Monkey King had a masculine build, buffed muscles, and a brown beard. Hiro expected as much, but he was still a little dazed by the disproportionately large arms.
The Shadow Lord was a tall, scantily clad woman. Her outfit was an assortment of black metallic gear, rounding up her chest and shoulders, and other sensitive areas.
Once she passed through the portal, black mist diffused from the metallic gear, shrouding her body like a cloud of smoke.
Lord Aza'zel looked like a refined young man, but his eyes were concealed behind a blindfold with intricate drawings of red and white roses intertwined.
Finally, Hades was bare-chested, wearing tattered white pants, and long steaming chains wrapped his forearms and dragged behind him on the ground.
The clanging noise was jarring, to say the least.
Hiro followed the standard procedures and transferred the four skills respectively, and then he proceeded to enlist them as his generals in the stronghold.
After waiting for so long, Hiro wasn't even interested in checking their stats, innate divine abilities, or current levels.
"Familiarize yourselves with what you need to do after you enter the Demon Tower," Hiro waved his hand. Four tokens that carried his aura appeared, landing in front of the four generals.
Hiro added, "With your talents, it's not difficult for you to increase your strength with the tower's resources. I have something else to do."
The four generals snapped out of their daze pretty quickly. Bowing in unison, they expressed their understanding and stepped out immediately.
A gust of wind blew past Hiro's face, and he was more than a little shocked by how fast they moved.
Such speed wasn't something a Tier-9 Paranormal was capable of executing, much less those who had yet to start training.
For a moment, Hiro felt comforted about the long wait and the spent achievement points.
Shaking his head, Hiro also stepped out and disappeared, and once the special space was vacated, the law fragment shook slightly.
Then, the space disappeared as though it had never existed, and it wouldn't reappear as long as the current Stronghold Lord remained standing.
…
When Hiro arrived at the throne room on the uppermost floor of the Demon Tower, he moved past the throne and entered a secure chamber in the back.
Then, he settled down on a comfortable cushion and waved his hand.
Buzz!
The portal to the training space opened, and with a thought, Hiro's clone stepped out.
Inside his tower, Hiro wasn't afraid anyone could spy on him. From outside the stronghold, no one can pry into the barrier no matter what means they try.
They can only look and observe the happenings on the surface through visual scrutiny, which is as good as useless.
When his clone stood in front of him, Hiro made a hand seal, and his main consciousness transferred from his current body to the clone.
The dull look in the clone's eyes gradually faded away. Soon, Hiro snapped back to his senses.
In front of him was the demonic version of himself. Indeed, he was very handsome.
"My five-year plan was cut short, but it can't be helped… If what Asmir said was true, things must be very chaotic back there."
Hiro shook his head and started to feel the power in his body. As expected, his Sorcerer was at the peak of Tier-4 standards, which was attributed to many factors.
For one, there weren't many Paranormals who actively absorbed the energy from the Unfathomable Domain.
Another factor was the purity of the energy coupled with the difference in the passage of time. However, the pocket dimension was limited, and until it could expand to become a Minor Realm, it couldn't give birth to Tier-3 Paranormals no matter what.
Thus, Hiro was satisfied with his current level of power.
"Since I have so many points, I'll stack up on exclusive spells for now," Hiro murmured to himself before he opened the shop and bought spells recklessly.
He didn't buy anything less than B-grade spells, but he didn't go so far as to buy an SS-grade spell either.
At most, he bought three S-grade spells; an AOE attack, a targeted attack, and a passive protective mantra for the mind.
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With the reserves of his current power level, executing one S-grade spell was enough to wring him dry of spirituality.
After Hiro spent less than three hours digesting the newly gained spells, he planted a mental cue for the clone to silently continue refining demonic essence while drawing the excess faith energy from the stronghold to nurture divine energy.
He wouldn't let his clone draw from the main river of faith energy no matter what. If something major happened and someone disrupted the clone's training, Hiro would be notified immediately.
When he completed his preparations, Hiro used his ability as the Planeswalker and opened a portal back to his mansion in the Tsukiyomi Lake's Third Ring.
…
Capital City, Hiro's Mansion.
It was breaking dawn when Hiro stepped out from the portal and entered his master bedroom.
Without thinking much, he disrobed from the standard sorcerer outfit that the system had generated for him, burned it to ashes, and strode into his bathing chambers for a comfortable hot bath.
"Welcome back, Master!"
Ei's electronic voice resounded from the ceiling, drawing Hiro's attention.
With that reminder, he opened the system space and summoned his quantum watch.
Obviously, he didn't need a quantum watch in the Demon Realm, so he almost forgot about it.
The watch vibrated vigorously once it was on Hiro's wrist, making him wonder if an advanced artificial intelligence had feelings.
"Do you have feelings now?" Hiro asked curiously, then he looked up toward the ceiling in search for speakers.
"I'm the main processing unit for the S-gear technology, Master! I've come into contact with all kinds of humans through the virtual world, improving myself in the process!"
Hiro understood. So, Ei was learning how to better interact with people through the countless simulations in the game.
"That reminds me, did the expansion pack start yet?" Hiro recalled the current progress of the Seeker's Legend.
Although he was very busy, it wasn't to the point where he didn't check on his subordinates for the last three years.
He wondered if he should join the fun in Seeker's Legend during his free time.
[End of Volume 2: Living Among Demons]