So, the following chapters are an infodump enough that we won't need another one at least until the protagonist conquers the entire Black Forest, along with others showing the protagonist's current territory so readers can have a clear image of the situation.
After those, maybe 3 or 4 chapters, we'll start the actual conquest and expansion, but unlike before, this won't be a case of "they provoked us, we responded and conquered." This time, it's about expanding, and keeping on expanding until it's no longer possible.
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"Rank 1 in the server: Lucifer Rank B+
Rank 2: White Rank C+
Rank 3: Black Rank C-
Rank 4: Kirito Rank C-
Rank 5: Yellow Queen Rank D
Rank 6: Black King Rank D
Rank 7: Aime Rank D-
Rank 8: Asuna Rank D-
Rank 9: Solo Rank D-
Rank 10: Arata Rank D-"
"This is the top 10 of the national server 26, the one we are in.
Although I also investigated the world rankings, I focused on these first, since the people in the same server are geographically close.
Also, I know the in-game identities of nine out of these ten, excluding those present here of course, so only four remain. Among them, number 10, Arata, is the one who used to be in second place under another name, the same one you fought against, so you know his abilities better than we do. There has been no improvement in any of his skills, and in fact, he seems to be in a weak mental state, so it's likely he won't improve until that problem is resolved.
Rank 5, besides her in-game identity, we also know her real identity: Eriri Spencer Sawamura, from a high-level academic family but with no interest in economics. Rank 6, called Black King, is a sub Lord under her command, and is actually her childhood friend in real life, Tomoya Aki, from a normal family. The most relevant thing about him is that he's an extreme otaku, which is actually a problem.
As for Eriri's skills, they are quite normal, mostly different kinds of magic.
Tomoya, on the other hand, is troublesome. He has an ability that basically lets him turn mana into a semi-physical form, something where his strong imagination becomes very useful. Where others think of shooting mana, he imagines a railgun, concentrating the mana and making it several times more destructive. Where others see a mana clone, he sees an explosive decoy. That's an example of what his ability can do. His only limitation seems to be mana, of which he doesn't have much, according to what we saw in the Battle of the Lords.
As for 'Solo', the case is the complete opposite. We know nothing about him or her. The only thing we know is that they obtained an incredible power from the world of gods and dragons on the first floor of the Tower of Worlds. This is because right after that world, they were ranked second in the top, and from there they only went down. They were never seen socializing in chat or in person, completely unknown.
We have the locations of Yellow Queen and Black King, but we know nothing about Arata and Solo.
That's all. Among all these, I recommend you focus on Black King and Solo," Kaguya finished her explanation.
"Why those two specifically?" asked Kaito.
"Tomoya, even if he might have other skills, focuses mostly on that special ability of his. And 'Solo' reached second place after a single world, so it's likely they also have a special ability. It's always best to have people who focus on something specific under your command," explained Kaguya.
"I understand," said Kaito, realizing the implications.
Each skill or specific path is hard to master. Becoming fully specialized in support would take years, the same if you wanted to be a tank, a damage dealer, or any other example. Now expand those three to millions, since there are countless paths a person can take.
Kaito wasn't naive enough to think he could have all the abilities in the world. There would always be someone better than him at something, someone who had mastered what he didn't know. But that wasn't bad, it was enough to have those people under his command, and instead of being a weakness, they would become a strength, increasing his power explosively.
An example of this situation is a famous novel called The King of Skills. Can you guess what ability the protagonist has? Necromancy. He doesn't have a talent for everything or something like skill stealing, but he can resurrect other people as his army, and they keep the abilities they had when they were alive.
Because with countless paths to take, it's impossible for one person to walk them all alone. The King of Skills is not the one who walks every path, but the one who commands all those who have already reached the end of theirs.
And speaking of specific abilities, Kaito frowned as he looked at the list.
"Is something wrong?" asked Kaguya uncertainly, not knowing if she had said something wrong.
"It's not that," replied Kaito, dismissing her concern. Then he explained his situation with the Omnitrix Prime to see if anyone present could understand it.
But the one who answered wasn't Kaguya, it was the least expected one.
"I know who it was," said Lala, raising her hand with excitement.
Kaito looked at her in disbelief.
"Why that look?" said Lala with fake indignation.
"It's nothing," Kaito laughed a little suspiciously, "who was it?"
Lala looked at him as if she was about to reveal an important secret.
"The Colorless Queen," she finally said.
Kaito looked at her surprised, only to realize he had no idea what that name meant. "Who's that?"
"The real number 5," she said with excitement.
"Wait, what do you mean by real number 5? Hayasaka?" asked Kaguya, looking at her maid.
"I have no idea either," replied Ai.
"Explain," said Kaito to Lala.
"Alright, this is a story from a long time ago," said Lala, waving her arm dramatically as if starting a tale. "As you know, I accessed Gaia's internal system, just to investigate a little.
Then, while checking data, I noticed that the names Red Queen and Black King were subordinated to another Lord. It caught my attention, I mean, two sub Lords ranked higher than their Lord? But when I tried to find who they were subordinated to, I couldn't find the origin. It's completely hidden, even from the system. After trying for a while to find her, well, not physically, but at least inside the ranking, guess where she was?"
Before anyone could answer, Lala answered herself.
"That's right, she's right where Red Queen's ID is. Isn't that amazing? She's using Eriri as cover in the ranking. And I made sure, they appear as two separate entities in the system, it's not just a disguise. It caught my interest a lot because maybe she's an incredibly high-level hacker, or maybe just someone with an impressive ability, but even in that case it's still amazing.
Unfortunately, when I tried to contact her, Eriri denied her existence, and I couldn't find her on my own."
"I see. If that's the case, and she can even hide in the system, then it's completely possible she approached me and stole something without me noticing," said Kaito.
"But that also means," he added, looking at Kaguya, "that you missed some important information in your previous report, and the data was quite close. This was clearly a mistake on your part during information gathering."
"I'm sorry, I'll do better next time," Kaguya apologized quickly with a guilty expression.
"It's fine, let's move on to the next thing," said Kaito, changing the subject quickly. He had no intention of making things hard for Kaguya, only to remind her of her mistake so it wouldn't happen again. "Do you have a summary of the current situation, Sonya?"
Sonya appeared in front of him and knelt as if she were a ninja.
"I do," she said, handing him a document with several pages.
"All the information about the villages I know is written down. Information about the villages, their defenses, army, location, and some special data.
Also the ladies of each city, their abilities, alliances, and thoughts, so you know if you can recruit them. As for the general situation," said Sonya, "the Black Forest is divided in a rather peculiar way. With the elven capital at the center, all the other villages spread outward from it, with a total of 80 elven villages divided into 8 areas depending on the cardinal points, dividing 10 for each. There are 10 to the south, 10 to the north, and so on.
However, even these are further divided into 4 sectors. From the outermost part of the forest to the center, they are separated by level: 3 low-level on the outskirts, 3 mid-level in the middle, 3 high-level near the center, and finally, almost reaching the capital, there is one whose level is incomparable to the previous ones. These 8, one for each cardinal point, are ruled by a noble of the elven country.
Although it may seem that those other villages respect the noble house, in reality it's not like that. In fact, it's the opposite. You could say that the noble house serves as a shield that separates the other villages from the capital. If one of those Lords wanted to reach the level of someone from the capital, they would have to surpass the noble house of their region, so their relationship isn't good, and we don't need to fear acting."
"So the noble of the southeast region is the main problem right now, right? Do you know who it is?" asked Kaito.
"You don't have to worry about that. The nobles of this region are the Shadeward. They respect two things: strength and family. And the strongest person in that family after the patriarch is on your side, so they won't be a problem."
"There's a member on my side? Who?"
"Sonya Shadeward," answered Sonya with a proud smile.
"You're a noble?" said Kaito in surprise.
"Didn't I tell you I used my connections to come to my sisters' territory?"
"Yes, but... those are some very good connections."
"Speaking of connections," Sonya changed the subject quickly, "to explain the real situation, I've invited someone who knows more about it than anyone else," Sonya finished.
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)