It'd been a few days since the old man moved in.
The babies brought back prey again.
The old man almost got attacked in the process, so I stopped it.
After stopping it, I kinda felt like I didn't really need to, but oh well.
He's an amusing old man who's endlessly entertaining to watch, and while there's no need to keep him alive, there's no need to kill him either.
Anyway, babies.
Unless my eyes are deceiving me, is that a mid-tier Earth Dragon I see among the prey you brought back?
It should be a monster that inhabits the large corridors, with fairly high stats — roughly the same class as the Eel.
You've already gotten strong enough to take down monsters on par with the Eel? Even with the advantage of numbers?
What are these overachieving kids.
Still, it looks like nobody evolved this time around.
Yeah, that's fair.
If any of them had evolved two stages in this short a time, I'd seriously feel the sting.
When did I do my second evolution again? When I took down the Monkey?
Those were the days.
Such nostalgia now.
But I can see several of them on the verge of evolving after just one more outing.
Some of them have probably gotten strong enough to solo the Snake.
Of course, their stats are still nowhere near the Snake's, but their Skills have filled out considerably, so if things go right, they could genuinely pull off a win against the Snake.
After all, I was way weaker with far crappier Skills when I defeated the Snake.
If they had human-level reasoning like me and could fully utilize their current stats and Skills, they could probably take down the Snake with ease. But realistically, they're not that smart.
Right?
When they're this competent, it starts getting a little suspicious.
Well, having capable pawns is a good thing.
Thanks to them, I can laze around doing nothing.
The babies dropped off their prey and immediately headed back out again.
Magnificent.
{Hey, don't they feel more capable than me?} They don't. Just my imagination.
That's the story, and I'm sticking to it.
The one on Queen duty had grown a lot over the past few days.
When the old man first arrived, she was only slightly bigger than me. Now she'd grown to roughly the same size as a Greater.
Since this spot is at the boundary between the Upper and Middle Layers, there's plenty of room. But at her current size, she probably can't move around freely in the Upper Layer anymore.
Maybe I should teleport back to the lowest layer once the Demon King is gone?
Then again, the Demon King might end up back in the lowest layer through some chain of events. You never know.
What should I do?
Maybe I just let her stay here permanently?
There's more than enough space to live, and with the babies around, food isn't an issue.
If anything happens, she can retreat to the Middle Layer, so the location isn't bad.
That might actually work.
Either way, I'll be staying here until I'm fully recovered.
Depending on the Demon King's movements, I'll need to respond accordingly.
Speaking of the Demon King, apparently that guy had an intense battle with the Earth Dragons that were in the lowest layer.
There were nine Earth Dragons total in the lowest layer.
I confirmed it with Skill Search, so there's no mistake.
Checking their approximate strength from the Queen's memories, they were each slightly weaker than the Queen.
Stat-wise, the weaker ones averaged around 7,000. The stronger ones averaged around 18,000.
Way tougher than Araba.
Nine of them.
I have no idea why he ended up fighting them, but it sounds like a brutal battle between the Earth Dragons and the Demon King is raging down in the lowest layer.
How do I know? Because I've been peeping with Thousand-Mile Eye.
Man, this Skill is incredible.
It should be an enormous distance to the lowest layer, yet I can still see.
Watching through Thousand-Mile Eye, the Demon King is just as absurd as I thought.
The Earth Dragons appear to have coordinated to create some kind of barrier, sealing the Demon King inside, but he's breaking through and picking them off one by one.
One versus nine, and he doesn't bat an eye.
The barrier seems to block summoning too — there are none of those puppets he used against me — but he's still overwhelming the Earth Dragons.
The Earth Dragons are barely managing to buy time with the barrier.
They've been retreating while stalling for time, moving in a circuit around the lowest layer.
That said, their time-buying is about to run out.
Three Earth Dragons remain.
They look like big shots in the Near-Mother class, but even so, they're absolutely no match for the Demon King.
Honestly, the Earth Dragons don't stand a chance.
The gap in class is just too vast.
If anything, I'm more impressed that they've held up this long against that monstrosity.
But why are the Earth Dragons fighting the Demon King in the first place?
Did Guriguri order them to?
If so, you'd think Guriguri would intervene, but there's been no sign of that.
Well, no point overthinking what I don't understand.
The important thing is that the Demon King is still trapped in the lowest layer.
The Earth Dragons look like they're nearing their limit, but I'd estimate they can hold out another two or three days.
Meaning, for at least two more days, I can move around freely.
Fufufu.
And at last, my Status has been restored.
My body size is back to normal.
The Demon King is gone.
I'm fully recovered!
So there's nothing stopping me from going wherever I want!
Time to head outside!
{Sure thing!} Guard the fort for me!
{On it!} Oh, and keep an eye on that old man too, casually.
{Isn't ignoring him fine though?} He keeps doing bizarre things, yet somehow his Skill levels keep going up.
I must uncover that secret.
{No thanks. Even if I found the secret, I don't want him self-destructing on me.} Fair point.
Well, just watch him casually.
{Casually, got it.} Right then. First things first — let's go check on what happened to that town where the vampire girl was.