The Devouring Dragon

"This is… a lot bigger than I expected," I muttered, staring up at the towering building in front of me.

Two days had passed since I defeated Ragnar and became the new King, and I hadn't spent much time resting and enjoying my new prestige.

There was work to be done.

Firstly, I had gone back to find Chippy, returning to find a literal wooden mansion sitting in the middle of the forest. 

The demonic chipmunk hadn't been happy to learn that I was repositioning to a more secure location, that being the top of the mountain, but I assured him that the mansion could act as a guard post.

Before I had returned to the mountain with Chippy, I had decided to test out [King's Aura] and [King's Command] a bit more. I spent a few hours looking for more demonic chipmunks, and I was very pleased with the result.

While the descriptions of both skills were rather vague as to how effective they would be, since it varied greatly depending on the 'creatures nearby,' through testing I had narrowed down just what that meant.

It seemed that both the level of the creature, as well as their actual species, played a factor. For the demonic chipmunks, who were mostly under level 10 and a generally weak species, they had submitted and become my [Subordinate] near instantly.

And so, Chippy, along with his newly formed 'Chipmunk Platoon,' had torn down thousands of trees on the upper half of the mountain to build my new base of operations.

In front of me, a wooden mansion that would've cost literal billions of dollars towered over the surrounding barren land. 

It was at least twenty stories tall and stretched literal miles in each direction, resulting in pillars of wood acting as support as it stretched over the side of the mountain. 

The mansion itself was also pretty well-made, as it had triangular slanted roofs, along with multiple balconies, and designs made of different colored wood. 

There were also some rather flimsy windows built into the side, as while Chippy and his platoon wouldn't work with anything but wood, I used [Material Change] to make square holes of glass.

Overall, it looked like a modernized Japanese temple, but much bigger. Obviously, Chippy didn't know what that looked like, so I had to help out a bit with the designing portion.

There was also a large fence in front of it, acting as the first line of defense, and a moat that stretched around the entire structure with a bridge acting as the entry path. 

"Good work," I hummed, nodding approvingly at Chippy. In response, he along with the nearly 50 chipmunks behind him gave a salute as he puffed out his chest proudly.

"I finished the entire report if you're ready for it, Your Highness!" I turned to the bridge in front of me, spotting Raya standing in front of the large door to enter the mansion. 

She was holding a stack of papers, which I had created with [Material Change], in her arms as she called out to me.

"Go see Podo for your reward," I said to Chippy, watching as he and the other chipmunk's eyes went cutely wide. He nodded rapidly, and the platoon scurried off.

The 'reward' in question was just a pile of acorns, which were plentiful in the forest and easy to gather with my new army of dire wolf subordinates, as it seemed that demon chipmunks were still chipmunks at heart. They loved acorns.

"I told you not to call me that," I called out to Raya, walking across the huge wooden bridge toward her.

"That's the proper way to refer to the King," Raya shifted, looking up at me.

"That's the proper way for subordinates to refer to the King," I grinned lightly at her, "Not how the Queen refers to the King."

Raya blushed deeply at my words, glancing away as she wouldn't meet my eyes.

The transition of power had been seamless, and that was mainly due to Raya. Without her, the process would've taken much longer than a mere day.

The tens of thousands of dire wolves that inhabited the forest wouldn't take kindly to being ordered around by an outsider, even if said outsider had defeated their king. That was even more true for the remaining intelligent direwolves, as there were many pack leaders and commanders whose generals had died at my hands.

There was also the language barrier problem, as outside of the pack leaders and commanders I couldn't communicate with the regular four-legged wolves. They were the weakest portion of the species, but also by far the largest, so they were essential.

Not being able to communicate with them would've been a huge issue, as I would've been forced to relay any orders through the commanders and pack leaders. Not having direct communication with the foot soldiers meant that any rebellious commanders or pack leaders could raise insubordination and cause a rebellion.

My new skills, [King's Aura] and [King's Command], could guarantee some loyalty, but it was still a security risk. A risk I didn't want to take considering that the dire wolves were now my sole army and would be the basis for my future army.

So, my sole killing of Ragnar and taking over as King had been changed a bit. Now, it was a joint takeover between me and the king's daughter, Raya. She was the new Queen, and was also the primary one giving orders.

She acted as my mouthpiece to the general dire wolf population, being more trustworthy and respectable in the eyes of the commanders, pack leaders, and the four-legged wolves. I was also much more confident in her loyalty to me, and thus her properly carrying out my wishes, than trying to communicate through the random commanders and pack leaders.

"A-Anyway, Valon," Raya continued, turning around and walking through the mansion doors as she reverted back to using my name, "The scouts have all returned, and I've compiled their reports."

"Good work," I nodded approvingly, "How long until the list of candidates will be ready?"

"I will have it ready within the next two moons," Raya looked at me apologetically, "I'm sorry for the delay, I'm just being… thorough."

"It's fine," I waved her off. 

The 'list of candidates' I was referring to was a list of any talented or interesting dire wolves I didn't know about. I assumed that the princes were the strongest wolves remaining, but I still wanted to find any wolves that could be useful beyond being foot soldiers.

So, Raya was compiling a list from her own observations as well as recommendations from Podo and the three princes of candidates for potentially higher-ranking positions in my new kingdom.

"Just give me the report," I nodded at her, gesturing at the papers in her arms, "That's what's most important right now."

The report in question was about the other three sections of the Familiar Forest, as after completing the previous quest I had received three more 'main-line' quests.

I glanced at the three idly as Raya shifted the papers around her in her hands, preparing to relay the information to me.

[Quest]

Conquer the Land of Iron

Rewards:

All [Territory] owned by the Great Dwarf King

All [Subordinate]'s owned by the Great Dwarf King

+5,000 STR

+5,000 END

+5,000 INT

+1,000 HREG

+All unclaimed [Dwarf] related skills!

+All unclaimed [Cyclops] related skills!

+All [Dwarf] related skills will be raised to level 25!

+All [Cyclops] related skills will be raised to level 25!

Failure:

Eventual Death

Considering there were three quests in total, it didn't take a genius to figure out what each one was referring to. There were three more sections of the Familiar Forest, so each quest was in regard to a section.

The first one was the least concerning, as judging by the name of the land, along with the main inhabitants seemingly being dwarves and cyclops, I figured that the territory was home to more intelligent creation-type monsters.

They probably wouldn't put up much of a fight compared to the dire wolves, and I could possibly get some badass armor or weapons for my trouble. 

The second quest was a lot more concerning.

[Quest]

Conquer the Meadow of Love

Rewards:

All [Territory] owned by the Succubus Queen

All [Subordinate]'s owned by the Succubus Queen

+10,000 CHA

+7,500 AGI

+7,500 HREG

+7,500 MREG

+All unclaimed [Succubus] related skills!

+All unclaimed [Fairy] related skills!

+All [Succubus] related skills will be raised to level 25!

+All [Fairy] related skills will be raised to level 25!

Failure:

Eventual Death

A succubus and fairy-riddled section of the forest. 

I suspected that both of those species utilized magic as their primary form of combat, which would make them troublesome opponents. 

However, upon conquering them I'd have access to more magical skills, as well as a lot more CHA, which would be very helpful considering the world I was in.

So far, I haven't had much of a chance to test out just how useful CHA was. I wasn't sure if it was having an effect on Raya, or if she was just naturally easily flustered and obviously attracted to me. 

In the same vein, I wasn't sure if Podo and the princes were submitting so easily because of [King's Command] or if my high CHA was playing a part in it.

However, as daunting as the second quest seemed, the third one was by far the most concerning.

[Quest]

Conquer the The Land of the Blue One

Make the [LEGENDARY] Dragon: Tiamat into your familiar

Rewards:

All [Territory] owned by Tiamat

All [Subordinate]'s owned by Tiamat

+25,000 STR

+25,000 END

+25,000 AGI

+25,000 INT

+25,000 CHA

+25,000 LUK

+25,000 HREG

+25,000 MREG

Failure:

Eventual Death

I didn't just have to beat Tiamat, but also make her my familiar? 

Talk about a difficult quest.

But, the rewards were also massive. If I gained that type of boost right now, my overall power would more than triple.

Unfortunately, I didn't think I was anywhere near ready to take on Tiamat. I didn't have any context for how strong Tiamat was compared to someone like Ragnar, but it was safe to assume she was a lot stronger.

She's not just an early-game mini-boss like Ragnar was - she's a literal end-game boss. She was towards the top even in the scope of the DxD World - a world with literal gods.

While her exact strength wasn't really known, anyone who could make a Ddraig, a dragon with enough power to force the three strongest factions to team up to stop his rampage, nervous was bound to be overpowered as shit. She was considered to be Satan-class at least, meaning I'd have to be strong enough to face a literal satan before going against her.

While I was definitely strong, with my skills allowing me to have enough power to literally blow away an entire section of the forest with just a punch, I wasn't that strong. Not yet, at least.

By the time I finished with the first two, I was hoping I'd be able to hold my own against her.

I idly glanced down at the [King's Claw], which was hanging from the make-shift shorts I was wearing. 

I wasn't all that familiar with cloth, but I had done my best to create something that at least resembled clothes. Most of my underwear had been burned away during my fight with Ragnar, and I wasn't keen on being known as a nude king.

"The scouts from the northwestern section returned the quickest," Raya started, bringing my thoughts back to her report, "They had difficulties getting deep into the section, as there was a massive 'cliff wall' blocking them, which likely means there was a stone wall surrounding the section."

"The entire section?" I muttered, raising an eyebrow at her.

Considering how poorly managed the dire wolf section of the forest had been, I didn't expect any of the other sections to be this well put together. If they were coordinated enough to build a massive wall, then the Dwarf King must've been rather competent.

"Yes," Raya confirmed, nodding at my question, "The scouts walked along the side of it for multiple hours, but could not find an opening. There were some stronger creatures lingering outside of the wall, so they retreated per my orders."

"That's fine," I nodded. It was better for them to return alive with a little bit of info rather than not return at all, "Send a couple of commanders and pack leaders next. If they can find a breach in the wall, tell them to enter and try to make contact with anyone inside. Tell them to stay neutral unless they have to defend themselves."

While I'd need to ruthlessly take over the Land of Iron eventually, and likely eat a fair share of dwarves and cyclops in the process to raise my stats and gain skills, I wasn't going to charge in recklessly.

That had been the primary reason why Ragnar was stupid - he was expanding outward without caring, needlessly sacrificing men and turning the entire forest against him. 

If I just burst through the wall and started massacring my way to the Dwarf King, then the rest of the forest wouldn't sit by idly. The Succubus Queen could attack the dire wolf territory while I was gone, or Tiamat herself could come over to stop my conquest.

So, I was going with the political approach for now. I'd try to form contact with the Dwarf King first, and if I couldn't, then I'd spend some time reinforcing the perimeter of my new territory until I was confident that I could go in guns blazing.

"Got it," Raya nodded at my words, holding up the poorly made pencil I had created and scratching notes onto the paper. Then, she looked back up at me, "Should I continue the report?"

"Go ahead," I nodded.

"The scouts from the northeast returned next," Raya continued, referring to the territory Tiamat resided in, "As per your orders, they didn't venture deep enough to be spotted by the Blue One. There were numerous casualties, as the species dwelling in that section of the forest seem very unique and powerful."

"Do you have descriptions of them?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"I do," Raya nodded, "Let's see… miniature creatures with wings and scaled skin, who can shoot bolts of lightning from their mouth… A ball of thick green water… a four-legged creature with fur, triangle ears, and that goes… 'meow?'" 

I blinked at her words. A sprite dragon, a slime, and a cat.

That sounded awfully like some of the potential familiars from when Rias took her peerage to get familiars. 

I had thought that the section between each kingdom, where the dire wolves hunted, was where devils went to get familiars, but it seemed that was wrong. They went to the area under Tiamat's control.

But, that wasn't particularly a bad thing. If anything, it was a good thing. 

For a while at least, I wouldn't have to worry about running into any devils. 

"Good work," I hummed, nodding at her again, "And, the last section?"

"That one had a… issue," Raya said, looking up at me apologetically, "Our scouts couldn't reach it."

I blinked, looking at her curiously, "Eh? Like, someone stopped them?"

"N-No, they, um…" Raya shifted slightly, "Couldn't find it."

I looked at her blankly, "...they couldn't find it?"

"Nope," Raya confirmed. I still stared at her blankly.

"...Did they need a compass or something?" I asked blandly, "It's just straight to the east. They just had to walk in the same direction until they reached it."

"Well, they did do that," Raya started to explain, "But… they got lost. They ended up walking back in the direction they came, but they thought they were going in the right direction. I sent another scouting unit immediately after, but they had the same result."

Well, that might be problematic.

Either Raya sent two overly stupid scouting units that both coincidentally got lost while trying to reach the magic-centered section of the forest, or they got affected by some type of magic.

Magic was scary, to say the least. That was mainly because of how unpredictable it was.

If someone threw a punch at me, or if a dire wolf lunged at me with their fangs bared, then I would know what the result of the attack hitting me would be. Then, I would be able to act accordingly and negate the attack.

With magic, it was much more random. I didn't know what types of magic the monsters in that section of the forest had access to, and I didn't have any resistance to magic in general.

If I found myself on the wrong end of a spell, then I could end up dead, or worse. My END wouldn't save me.

"...Ignore that section for now," I decided. It would be better to try and find a counter to magical abilities before trying anything in that area.

"Alright," Raya nodded affirmingly. Then, her face suddenly flushed red as she glanced away, "A-Also… I-I'd like to report that our bed is finished!"

I blinked, looking at her blankly.

I had ordered for my bed to be made, as I wasn't keen on sleeping against the trunk of a tree any longer than I had to.

So, I created a soft material as best I could with [Material Change] for the bedding and pillows, then told Raya to guide Chippy on making a bed frame.

"Our bed?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"A-A K-King and Q-Q-Queen should sleep t-together, right?!" Raya spit out, her face turning even darker red as she spoke. I stared at her blankly. Then, my eyes glanced over her, taking in her toned yet curvy and soft body.

…

Well, it did get cold at night, and I didn't have thick clothes, much less a blanket, to keep me warm.

"Fuck it. Good job."

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