After I entrusted Wight with the darkness dragons, I went to Aura’s orchard to talk with Kohaku on the topic of spy monsters.
Kohaku was a seasoned veteran so I thought there was a good chance he was well-inford about the topic.
After so walking, I finally reached where he was resting and that place was sowhere near the First Tree in the innermost part of the orchard.
There, I found Aura holding her hands over Kohaku while beads of sweat ford in her forehead.
In the anwhile, Kohaku had his eyes closed. It was almost as though he was dreaming. Even though he was big, he still had that soothing cuteness peculiar to cats.
As I neared, he slowly opened his eyes.
"Oh, master. Welco. I’ve already heard of your request."
Kohaku inford so with a sowhat drowsy voice. It seed Aura had properly relayed my ssage.
"That’ll make things easier. But anyway, the reason I’m here today is to ask you about intelligence gathering."
"Hmm, I don’t really mind but can it wait for a little bit? Aura’s treatnt feels so pleasant, it almost makes want to sleep. Besides, stopping now will only an doing it all over again. This girl won’t look it and will just comply without ever frowning but since I know how dedicated she is in healing and how precise that process is, I just can’t bring myself to ask her to do it all over again."
"I don’t mind, really. We can’t let master wait."
Aura seed like she was about to stop her work.
"It’s alright, Aura. Carry on with the treatnt. Your top priority right now is to heal Kohaku. Delaying it will not do."
"Yes, certainly, master!"
Aura cheerfully nodded and returned to her work which was the continuous transfer of both magic power and vital energy to Kohaku. It was a process that was done to counteract the miasma that had gotten inside him.
After about five minutes like that, she slowly withdrew her hands.
"Kohaku-san, that concludes our session for today. We’ll continue this tomorrow. Please don’t forget to eat the golden apple."
"Even if you don’t tell to, those are apples are so delicious, I’m still gonna. That said, I want so at in my al though. If I eat too much of the thieves and lessen their strength upon their resurrection, Wight surely won’t let hear the end of it. It’s such a hassle."
Kakaka, Kohaku laughed.
It seed like apple thieves still kept on coming despite the risks.
"You want so at? Then, I guess as thanks for your valuable knowledge, I’ll have so delivered to you later. Which do you prefer, raw or cooked at?"
"Hmm, I’ll go with a thick slice done rare. Don’t forget to season an ample amount of salt, now. That’s simply the best."
I almost laughed at his human-like request. It was a little surprising that even though he’s a tiger, he still preferred to have cooked als.
"Understood. I’ll have it brought to you later."
"Mm, I look forward to it. Well then, you wanted to know about intelligence gathering but I wonder where I should begin."
He then began to think. To advance the conversation, I decided to speak up.
"I would like to first know how an intruder has gone unnoticed by my monsters, monsters like Kuina and Aura who have good sensing capabilities."
Aura is capable of gathering information of everything within a radius of a few kiloters that has wind. Due to that, I had regularly asked her to confirm whether or not a dangerous being had gotten into our city. Even if they were humans, so long as they had strong magic power, they were to be reported.
In addition, I had also asked Kuina who was often with to tell if she ever felt a suspicious presence. To be able to effectively gather information, the other party would have needed to be sowhere near to , the central point of information. However, should they ever cast their focus toward , Kuina—whose presence sensing capabilities isn’t anything to scoff at—would imdiately notice.
"Hmm, very well. First of all, when talking about first class monsters, they’re able to completely prevent their magic power from leaking out. If there’s no magic power leaking out, appearances aside, they will be indistinguishable from humans."
"I’m aware of that. But even if that’s the case, if they are often near, either Kuina or Aura would surely have noticed that there are humans acting strangely. I’ve asked but the both of them said there was none."
All the more reason for to be wary.
"Then, the answer is simple. There is a monster here that has an ability that lets him gather intelligence without even needing to be near."
Kohaku nonchalantly said it like that.
"You don’t seem to have understood so I’ll give you an example: there are monsters that can synchronize their consciousness with the birds and insects. I knew soone that can even synch with a flea. You, Aura, and Kuina, wouldn’t go so far as to be vigilant against fleas, now would you? Anyway, a small amount of magic power leaks out when establishing a path to their target but once that’s established, their magic power would be completely undetected from thereon."
"......I have overlooked that."
I had been wary only of humans and monsters that got near. I couldn’t afford to pay attention to each and every insect that had no magic power flowing within them, after all.
"Additionally, there are also monsters with incredibly good hearing. These guys will be able to pick up any sound within a kiloter in the sa dungeon room. So if they conceal their magic power and themselves, they would go unnoticed. After all, they just strain their ears as they go on their daily routines to gain intelligence."
"There are even monsters like that, huh."
There was no way to recognize the enemy and its patterns since they would not behave suspiciously at all.
"There are still so more. There are monsters that can hide themselves in another dinsion and from there, make a window which they can use to peep. In a sense these would be considered the strongest. With their ability, they can peep and listen in as much as they want from that other dinsion. If their enemy didn’t have any dinsion manipulation ability themselves, these monsters will not be discovered and that enemy is pretty much done for. Although, they do have their faults such as it is hard for them to make their peeping windows on a place that has a magic barrier around it."
"...they’re the strongest kind, huh. Or rather, in terms of performing surprise attacks, theirs go way beyond fair, right?"
On places they could construct their peeping window, they could observe from any which one and appear from there as well if needed.
I knew of only one such monster: Marcho’s [Monster of the Covenant].
To make realize my naivety before heading out to the Demon Lord Palace, she made her Covenant Monsters attack .
During that, one monster suddenly appeared from my shadow. He looked and felt like a ninja but it might be better to say his ability fell under the classification of dinsion manipulation.
"Have I been staring at the answer all along?"
I cursed inwardly. Marcho had definitely showed that monster’s ability to test and yet, despite that, I only connected the dots this late. So stupid, I thought as I pitied myself.
There was a high chance, I thought, that the monster she used to spy on was either that one or the ones two ranks under it that she beca able to buy when she made the forr.
"Thank you. You have been greatly helpful. I guess what I should do now is to erect a barrier not only at my residence but also at Rorono’s workshop. I’ll also ask Aura to periodically suck out all the air in the important places so that all living creatures trapped in there will be killed. Additionally, I’ll prohibit everyone from speaking about sensitive information except when they’re in a completely soundproof room. That’ll be enough for now, I guess."
"Hmm, that’s a really pragmatic response. However, that will only deal with the monsters I’ve ntioned. Moreover, if the barriers are too weak or if the enemy is too strong, they can just brute force the barrier and bring it down."
"For the first point, we can only do so much but we must do it nonetheless. For your latter point, it doesn’t really matter since if brute force was indeed used, we would know that there is sothing strange going on and be alerted to the presence of a monster that has a dinsion manipulation ability."
Kohaku nodded as though he was satisfied with my answer, much like a teacher would at his student.
"Ah, you really are smart. Really worthy of my service."
"I’m happy that you say that. And, I’ll be relying on you more from now on, Kohaku."
"Yeah, I’m almost fully recovered too."
"Good, that’s encouraging. Can I ask a question though? Have you ever thought of wanting to return by your forr master’s side? Your master before [Steel], I an."
"I most certainly have. I have thought of my beloved forr master, my important comrades, and my subordinates who look up to ."
Kohaku nonchalantly said so.
"My forr master has deed it necessary that I be the one to be sent to test you. In the mont he gave that order, I guess he had already predicted my defeat and death. No, he might have even foresaw that I would co to serve you. ...that is perfectly plausible for him. But if that is so, being here and serving you, I can’t consider it other than my destiny."
He really had faith for his forr master. For that reason, I had co to a decision.
"As we agreed upon, I will not ask you to tell anything about your forr master but if by chance I run into him and we co into a negotiation, I intend to trade you back, for favorable terms, of course."
"That, wouldn’t that be unnecessary?"
"I think that it is necessary for I can see that your heart yearns for your forr master. And if that really is so, I think it would be for your best interest that you be with him. I would lose you but as I said, it won’t be for charity; I intend to get as much as is taken."
"Kakaka, you really are interesting. I might soday truly, from the bottom of my heart, admire you as my master. If that happens, I’ll ask that those negotiations be stopped."
"Oh please do. If your heart truly belongs to , I will absolutely never let you go. I value you not only for your abilities and knowledge but also for your character."
Kohaku and I both laughed.
With that, my task there was complete.
"Kohaku, Aura, I have decided that for the next monster to be made with [Creation], it will one with the ability to manipulate dinsions."
"That’s great! After all, even I can’t deal with enemies that are in another dinsion."
Aura comnted so.
Under the assumption that monster that can manipulate dinsions can only be dealt with one that can do the sa, we were truly in deadly situation. It was though an unseen dagger was being pressed against our throats.
With that decided, all that was left was to figure out how to make that monster.
What dals should I use, I wondered. ...don’t I have one closely related to other dinsions, I then suddenly thought. The identity of that dal was...
"I’ll be going now. Thank you, Kohaku, Aura."
In order to not forget the thoughts in my head as well as to examine them further, I headed back ho.
And so, I looked forward to monster that I was going to make next.
That then reminded of the only [Creation] dal I traded away. I wonder how it was used, I thought.
The one I traded it to was the [Ti] Demon Lord Dantalian, one of the strongest Demon Lords still alive.
I then wondered just how strong a monster could be when my [Creation] dal was used to its fullest potential by him.
That being said, it was still only one dal. Whereas I had four S rank monsters beginning with Kuina. I have nothing to fear, I thought.
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