"Here. Your egg," Arima said and put down the egg in front of the sky dragon. The large beast picked the egg up with telekinesis and covered it with his body as if he was trying to protect it.
"Thank you," he bowed his head
"It's okay. If you want to repay , please look at this," Arima projected a map in mid-air with magic. "You see that location here? There's a war going on. I want you to go and help a bit."
"Which side?"
"The Kingdom, of course. The Empire is not even a country anymore."
"Hum, well, if you ask. I will gladly do it. But why don't you do it yourself?"
"I'm lazy," Arima replied unhesitatingly.
"" The dragon was speechless in front of his shalessness.
After returning the egg to the dragon, Arima directly left to the Alliance. He visited Niria and offered her the unconscious Pope.
"Thank you very much," she exclaid in a very excited voice.
"What will you do with him?" Arima questioned with a strange expression.
She tilted her head. "I'll torture him, of course," she stated as if it was obvious.
"Y-yeah, right" Even Arima beca awkward because of her sincerity. He glanced at Alex next to her who for once let go of his expressionless face and sighed helplessly. Arima forced a cough and looked away. "I'll borrow the smithy for a bit."
"No problem. Use it freely."
Arima started working on the orichalcum the mont he reached the smithy. He first refined it with Night's help. Coating sothing with orichalcum was actually pretty easy but it took ti. He started off with Karma.
He just had to dip the blade into the lted orichalcum and hamr it until the tal 'magically' fused with the sapphire, which wasn't really a tal, but it worked the sa. Technically, that sapphire was an alloy after all of the alterations it underwent during Karma's forging process back in the old world.
For the fra of the guns, it was even easier. Because to fuse orichalcum and mithril, only magic control was needed. The biggest problem resided in the barrels made of adamantite. After dipping it, he had to re-ream and re-rifle it after hamring it again. For the bullets, it was as simple as it would get. He just lted the already existing bullets and mixed the lted adamantite and orichalcum into a mold.
He finished in a day. When he left the smithy, he stumbled upon Niria who was waiting for him at the exit.
"What's wrong?"
"I'm here to tell you that the Alliance has already begun to integrate with the humans," she said with a smile.
"Already? That was faster than I thought."
"It's because a sky dragon suddenly appeared in the battle and wreaked havoc. We still don't know why though."
"Oh, seems like he got carried away," Arima mumbled and Niria's fox ears twitched.
"Carried away?"
"Nothing. That's all you wanted to tell ?"
"No, actually soone wants to et you," she shook her head and pointed at a little girl standing beside her. She had pointed ears, red eyes, and small fangs.
'She's from the demon race,' Arima said inwardly. "Now that I think about it, she's here from the beginning. Who is it?"
"My mom," Niria answered with a bright smile.
"Sorry?"
"My mom," she repeated herself without changing her expression.
Arima scrutinized the little girl then Niria again. His head moved back and forth. Night did the sa and they both repeated the sa motion a few tis.
"I'm impressed," he finally opened his mouth and Night nodded.
"About what?"
"I always thought that loli mothers were just a legend," Arima blurted out.
"What's a loli?" The little gi Niria's mom asked.
Arima observed her and squinted his eyes. "You don't need to know. What is your business with ?"
The loli demon scowled but soon rembered why she had co to et him. "I'm here because my husband, Free City's King, along with the Elven King and the Human King all want to thank you for your good work."
"I understand. And?"
"And we want to give you sothing in return. To be frank, you're the person who was behind the scenes of basically everything. If we don't reward you, one way or another, we will feel like the whole continent is yours."
"I see, what do you want to give ?" Arima followed.
"We know that you don't need any money or materials after we saw the capital's treasuries bei-"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Arima interrupted her and feigned ignorance.
"Y-yes" The loli wore an awkward smile. "In the end, we want you to make a demand and we will do our best to et your expectations."
"Sothing I want? I don't think there's sothing..." Arima put his hand on his chin and contemplated for a mont. He suddenly thought of sothing after a few minutes of awkward silence.
"I heard that if at least two different rulers recomnd soone to the guild, they can promote their rank. I want you to promote to S rank."
"We can do that it would an that we'll have to owe a small favor from the Republic, but that's fair enough for a reward after your plundering," she muttered and Arima's lips twitched at the end of her sentence. "What about your title then?" She asked afterward.
"My title?" Arima was unaware of what it referred to.
"When a rcenary is promoted to S rank, he is given a personal title. I would like to know the title you want."
"Oh, I see. You can choose it yourself. I don't have any idea," Arima nonchalantly waved his hand and the loli slowly nodded her head.
"I understand, we'll find a title that suits you. It should be done by tomorrow. You can go check at the guild by then," she said and left almost imdiately.
Arima bid goodbye to Niria and then visited Elia and Lifa one last ti. The King had a eting with the Human king so he wasn't there. He was most likely going to explode the second he learns that he had visited.
Right after, he went to see Jorga.
"How are you supposed to fulfill the favor you promised if you leave the continent?" That was the first thing the serpent asked.
"It's okay if you call . I'll co back imdiately."
"You do realize that the continent you're going to is at least five thousand kiloters away, right?"
"It's okay, I can teleport back unless you call when I'm in a fight or in a situation where I don't have enough mana." Arima naturally replied.
"Well, it's true but you didn't have spatial marks last ti I saw you. You're growing fast So? Why are you here?"
"I'm going to the Republic for a day. Can you train Night a bit in the anwhile?"
"Ah?" Night exclaid. "Wait! I never heard about that!"
Arima ignored him. "I want to you to help him break through to the eighth level."
"Don't ignore !"
"Sure, I can do that," Jorga accepted and Night grunted.
"All right. [Altera Rationem Terram] (Next Dinsion Territory)," Arima chanted and a colossal amount of mana poured out of his body. He then disappeared from the forest along with Jorga and Night.
***
Arima was smiling and Jorga and Night were scowling at him.
"What happened?" Jorga asked with a puzzled voice. He was sure that he felt sothing like teleportation but he realized that he was still inside his forest.
"Keeping things short, I brought you in a parallel dinsion by creating a rift in space. It's one of my trump cards. In here, I can use my strongest magic without worrying about killing millions, and I also can detain people here. But I can only sustain it for around a day until all of my mana is spent," Arima explained.
Night and Jorga listened with blank eyes. They were on the sa side at the mont. Staring at Arima as if he was a monster. Although Jorga lived for thousands of years, he never invested his ti into dinsions. But he knew that it wasn't sothing a person should be able to do so easily.
Arima clapped his hands. "Have fun," he laughed and exited the dinsion. Jorga and Night were left alone. They looked at each other and Night helplessly transford into a dragon.
"Let's go, we have twenty-four hours," Jorga said and smirked.
***
Arima reappeared in the forest and directly made his way toward the Republic. Before arriving, he made sure to hide the mana that was surging out of his body.
In the city's streets, no matter where he looked at, he could see rchants selling products.
"That's a marketing country for sure," he remarked and his eyes fell on a certain booth. He approached it as if he was in a trance.
"Hey, can I buy all of that?" Arima beckoned the owner and pointed at a case full of white chocolate.
"Yes, five golds for everything."
Arima easily gave the coins away and left with all of the chocolate. He began to eat it while sightseeing. He had a day to wait to get his S rank designation so he decided to go to the library one more ti. This ti, to look for information about the continent where he was about to go.
He kept reading until noon and he went to sleep at an Inn straight after. He was too tired because he hadn't slept before taking care of the Pope and his mana was continuously leaving his body to maintain the connection with the other dinsion.
***
anwhile, in a big room, three people were sitting around a table. One of them was a fox man, another was an elf, and the last one was human.
"What kind of title should we give to a guy like that?"
They were in the middle of a heated discussion.
***
The next day, Arima woke up realizing his connection with the other dinsion was severed. He promptly teleported to the Great Forest.
When he arrived there, he saw Night lying on the ground. He had successfully broken through the eighth level. His body had beco bigger. His scales and claws looked stronger and his wings' nets seed toucher as well. The red lines on his body also beca brighter.
"You worked hard."
"Yeah" Night replied while gazing at the sky with a deadpan face.
Arima turned toward Jorga. "Thanks for your help."
The serpent laughed. "I don't mind it. It was a refreshing experience to train soone, so you don't have to thank ."
"I see. Let's go, Night," Arima called and Night groaned before returning to his wolf appearance which was also bigger than before.
"Until next ti, Jorga," Arima waved his hand and returned to the Republic. He went to the guild along with Night and walked to one of the receptions.
"Hello, I'm here to update my rank and register my soul beast," Arima told the receptionist. He was taking the occasion to register Night and give him an official identity while receiving his rank.
"Welco, your card please," the receptionist requested. When she took the card and saw the information on it, she froze and then searched hurriedly for a paper on her desk. She looked at it with a serious face. "Wait a mont, please."
A few minutes later, she ca back with a silver card in her hands and handed it to Arima.
"Congratulations on your promotion, sir. You're now an S rank," she smiled and bowed politely.
"Thank you," Arima grabbed his card and put it away. "What about my soul beast's registration?"
The receptionist took out a form. "Can you bring your soul beast here?"
"Sure."
Night usually stayed outside because he was too big to use the door. In the end, Arima teleported him inside. The receptionist wrote the information about Night on the form and issued another card.
"By the way, I'm supposed to have a title, right? What is it?"
The receptionist smiled uneasily. "It's written in your card, didn't you see?"
"Oh, my bad. I didn't pay attention," Arima took out his card and read it carefully. "Huh?"
***
At the sa ti, in a white room accommodated with only a fireplace, a table, and two sofas were seated the old god, Azes, and the unknown goddess, Zesta.
"Have you looked at what that human has been doing recently?" She asked while drinking so unspecified beverage.
"No, I had work to do," Azes replied nonchalantly.
Zesta slamd her cup on the table. "He destroyed a country already! He has no record in the human world and no soul imprint. If it continues like that, he will be noticed by the other Gods. No, I'm sure one of them already did."
Azes laughed. "What a promising human."
Zesta sighed. "Do you know the title they gave him?"
"Hm? What is it?" The old man was curious.
"They called him"
***
"Kind Demon?" Arima read his title with a raised eyebrow. "What the hell is this? No wonder that receptionist was so awkward about it."
He had already left the guild and was now moving through the streets with Night.
"Isn't that good? It describes you well. Whether it is the 'kind' part or the 'demon' part," the black wolf comnted.
Arima glared at him and stored his card. "It's here," he looked at the front and changed the subject. They had arrived at the harbor of the city. He looked around and saw many docked ships.
"It's ti to go," he cracked his neck. "It's been a long ti since I had this much expectation about sothing."
"Which is?"
Arima's smirked. "I want to et stronger people. Have fun, you see."
Night exhaled loudly then grinned as well. "Then let's go. What are we waiting for?"
Arima chuckled and the two resonated together. They flew off toward the sea and the sonic boom startled everyone in the city. They only managed to spot a shadow gradually moving away from the coast.
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