Galaxy's First Ruler

The night on this planet shouldn't have been so silent.

This planet was selected not because of its size but because of the sheer number of low-ranked beasts it had. No matter where one was to go, and no matter where one was to run, these beasts would have never let one take a breath of relief.

Day and night, all kinds of beasts were there on this planet to keep one awake. All had their hearts in their hands, and their breaths in their mouth, hoping they would reach the checkpoint within the time limit.

But unlike the tense atmosphere of the planet, there was a 50-60 meter clearing which wasn't so quiet. The loud snores of a giant man and the growls of a tiny beast were intermingled with a buried hissing sound.

Aldrich motionlessly gazed at the sprawled figure of Meuric with a bump in his stomach. The young boy hadn't even managed to stay awake for a moment after gulping down around 100 kg of meat by himself. If it weren't for Aldrich asking him to bring dinner, Meuric would have lost consciousness just after drinking the HP potion.

The rest of the meat got cleaned up by Shu, who was snoring over Meuric's chest. One of the two snake-headed tails always had its eyes open throughout the night. Aldrich wondered how much "fear" would be equivalent to the food Shu had eaten in just a single seating.

But even more baffling to Aldrich was the time. It was almost dark around him, yet this darkness wasn't from the lack of day. The day had already come and gone. In the thick wilderness, Aldrich's surroundings hadn't lighted until the sun reached almost to the top. Then, after only a few hours, even before sunset, all around him had become dark.

Aldrich could accept Meuric's oversleep because of his body adjusting to the pain and food. But he couldn't guess what's wrong with Shu, too.

'Is this innate to Abomination No. 9, or is it because of his current form? Hmm…'

Shuuu!

Aldrich was just contemplating when the familiar sound echoed around him. El Cid walked into the clearing and passed by the two sleeping beauties. One tail let out hisses at El Cid, but he didn't care any of it. As he approached Aldrich, El Cid kneeled and spoke out.

"My Lord, it's done."

Aldrich nodded in his mind, listening to this.

After experimenting with ARISE for so long, Aldrich had found out many wondrous things about it. This Viscount Ranked Class-specific Skill had too many things that at one glance looked disheartening.

First, Aldrich needed to have a deep understanding of the target to use him/her as an undead. Second, if the resurrected being had a rank higher than Count or over two Ranks higher than Aldrich's, then the undead's Rank would drop. It could be said that this was the single most weak point about ARISE.

But hidden behind the obvious banes, were boons so huge that only a being like Aldrich could take their advantage to their fullest.

ARISE was just a Viscount Ranked Skill, but it could be upgraded unlike most of the Skills. The only reason for Aldrich to not upgrade it to Level 2 already was that he didn't know if he would get Skill Points after becoming a Fallen. If he won't then he would need to save as many Skill Points as he could to Rank up in the future.

The second and even horrifying advantage of ARISE was that all undead came with a set amount of Stats. And unless Aldrich were to cancel the Skill, or the undead were to die, they wouldn't disappear. That meant, if Aldrich could keep supplying an undead with MP, SP, and HP potions, it would almost be immortal. 

A fact he had already confirmed on the planet, Rosalia.

Aldrich took an SP potion out of his FIR and threw it at El Cid. The undead didn't seem out of breath, but Aldrich knew only loyalty and reverence were keeping El Cid from not falling on the ground.

-"How many?"-

Aldrich asked as El Cid gulped down the potion. A hint of yellowish vapor rose around him, and the undead let out a refreshing breath.

"Using no perception I could only find 30, My Lord."

'30…'

Aldrich repeated the number in his mind. This wasn't the number of magical beasts or even some Mana cores. This was the number of Dreamers, which were on the same path that Aldrich would take to the checkpoint.

As soon as Meuric had gone to sleep, Aldrich had sent El Cid on a round trip from his location to the checkpoint and back. It was less to see who he would be meeting, and more to find out how many of them had survived. The more the Dreamers, the more they would have the Mana cores.

-"Keep an eye out for anything that seems out of the ordinary. It isn't likely, but the N.I.K.E. may have hidden monitoring systems scattered throughout the wilderness"-

"Yes, my lord."

With this command, El Cid stood up and walked out of the clearing. Even with this Rank limited to the boundary of Common and Rare, there was no magical beast who could catch up to El Cid's False One Step Shunpo.

Aldrich noted the time and kept hearing the clutter-clatter coming out from the jungle. But after waiting for a moment, when no sign of any spaceship appeared, Aldrich slightly smirked.

For the first time after landing on the ground, Aldrich moved his legs and took a step.

Slowly, almost as if a turtle was exaggerating its ability to dawdle, Aldrich approached Meuric and Shu. He could see a hint of burnt-out woods beside them in the face of ash. But Meuric had already neatly stored away most of the bones and even the skin.

It was common knowledge that all things on a magical beast's body brought high prices. There were many uses of these bones, skin, and meat. Especially for a potion crafter like Meuric.

-"Wake up"-

Aldrich poked Meuric's scarred cheeks. But before he could wake up, Shu lunged off Meuric's chest as if someone had come to claim his life.

Grrrrrr!!! Hissss!!!

Shu let out mad grunts and hisses, but soon the memories of yesterday kicked in, and he looked at Aldrich.

Aldrich had already let Meuric know of Shu's presence. He needed a plausible explanation for getting his hands on a magical beast. And with Meuric in his company, he could let him be a witness that Aldrich had indeed got Shu from this planet.

For the same reason, he hadn't canceled his summoning. It was better to let Shu remain outside and get seen by other Dreamers.

Shu's six yellow eyes were dead set on Aldrich. It seemed in the next moment he would lunge at Aldrich's neck and won't stop until Aldrich bleeds to death. But despite this obvious turmoil in Shu's heart, Aldrich could sense an ethereal wall blocking Shu from acting on those emotions.

"Mmmm…. Uwahhhhh…."

The eye contact between Aldrich and Shu got broken by a loud yawn. Meuric sat up and scratched the back of his head as he saw Aldrich and Shu standing on either side.

"… Are we all dead?!"

'This idiot.'

-"No one is dead. And why do you think we will remain together even after death? Tch! Get up, we will move out soon"-

Aldrich's words blasted into Meuric's mind, making him jump to his feet in the next moment. All traces of the sleep vanished from his eyes, and when he couldn't see any sun, his jaw dropped.

"No way… I slept through an entire day?! I missed five meals…"

As Meuric incomprehensibly muttered, Shu kept looking from Aldrich to Meuric. Finally, he jerked his head, as if scoffing at Aldrich, and flew to Meuric's wide shoulder. The corner of Aldrich's lips twitched, seeing this uncanny way of showing defiance.

Meuric, not caring for Shu's presence on him, took out a vial having brown colored potion in it. Aldrich narrowed his eyes as he figured out the purpose of this potion by the hint of smell coming out of the vial. It seemed even a stopper couldn't prevent the gas bubbling out of the potion.

Meuric turned to face Aldrich and brought the potion to Aldrich's eye level.

"Master, you slept while standing. You ate energy pills when I was hunting dinner, which I killed with only one punch. But don't tell me you would take a shit while standing, too. Ahem! This is a Shit Vaporizing Potion I have made. It will vaporize all the shit within your body and then it will come out as a fart. That's it…"

"…"

"…"

Aldrich and Shu stared at the brown Potion. Suddenly, Shu let out a burst of grunting noise.

Grr-Grrrrr!!!

It almost seemed he was laughing at Aldrich. Aldrich shook his head inwardly and replied.

-"Maybe some other time"-

"…?!"

Meuric tilted his left from right to left, finding no reason in Aldrich's refusal. But the young boy wasted little time on senseless thinking. He popped open the stopper and gulped down the entire potion.

Aldrich didn't mind drinking the potion. In his opinion, it was an absolutely smart option for Common Ranked Dreamers in an unknown place filled with magical beasts. But there were better alternatives and he was also apprehensive about the Potion's efficacy, given how Meuric's last potion had turned out.

Suddenly, a growling noise came out of Meuric's stomach, making the giant boy clench his teeth in pain.

Gud-Gud!!

Aldrich was about to use Rumok when a blast came out from Meuric's ass.

FRAPPPPP!!!

"Ah! This one was okayish, I guess?! One time, when Big Brother was around me, I had let out such a massive one… Oh! Haha! It was the biggest news in the family for days and no news in the Galaxy can be compared to it…"

Sigh!

Aldrich let out a sigh, but then Meuric said something, which made him blurt out in surprise.

"Yes, no news… Hmm, maybe only the news of Queen Eluned's dethroning is above that…"

"WHAT?!"