A Demon's Journey

Azaroth was taking care of the Crimson Lightning Phoenix. After some time, he observed the training of his retainers.

Since the work on his array was completed, he could be considered free.

He could go and begin his personal training in that Array but he stayed behind and continued observing his retainers.

However, observing them was not his primary reason for not attending and commencing his training. He was expecting to see someone soon.

'All of their movements are unrefined because they can't control their strength. They need to think too much to get the results they want. Once they master their strength, it will increase their power by a notch.'

'But still, in a few days, they might be ready for the next phase.'

While he was thinking to himself, he sensed several individuals.

There were more than 10 carriages. Nearly 40 individuals got out of the carriage and walked in Azaroth's direction.

They were dressed in pretty average-looking attire, and it was evident that their social level was low.

Azaroth remained on his seat as he saw them, "Rampo. You know where to assign them, right?"

"Yes, milord," Rampo spoke while bowing slightly.

He then went over to talk to these men and slowly led them to the lands assigned to their respective masters. They were laborers who were tasked to build the manors for their respective lords.

Azaroth had no intention of meeting them. The ones Azaroth had been anticipating arrived a little later.

Their attire looked similar to those of the laborers with a slightly torn shirt, rough trousers.

These people numbered 70.

"Greetings, I am Edwin Rhodes. I am the Mayor of this Town." Azaroth introduced himself to them with a smile.

The people ahead of him looked nervous as they met Azaroth.

One of them spoke up, "We met with a man named Tronte. He told us you would give us work if we come here."

Tronte was the one who had gathered them all and then sent them to the Kloras Town in one go. Naturally, this was all under Azaroth's instructions.

"That's correct. Tronte had been tasked with gathering persons who were farmers or had worked on a farm. I'm confident you fall into one of these two categories." Azaroth stated with a confident expression.

The people ahead of him were slowly understanding what Azaroth wanted from them.

"I am sure you now have a slight inkling of what I want from you. Yes, I want you to start farming in Kloras Town. There is a lot of farming land available. According to your abilities, I will assign specific land to you. And the rest will work under you. You all will have just one job, and that's to take care of the farm. My aim is for us to possess enough rations to support an entire country within 3 years."

Someone among the people asked, "Supporting an entire country on the rations produced in 3 years? That's impossible!"

"That's right."

Azaroth calmly replied, "You don't need to worry about whether it's impossible or not. The question is whether you are willing to work or not."

There was another question from someone, "What will be our advantages?"

"Advantages huh? Well, you won't get to die." Azaroth spoke with a deadly serious expression.

When the people saw his face, they were scared shitless. Some even thought it was a bad idea to have come here.

However, Azaroth's face changed and it showed a relaxed look now, "Just kidding. Why would I kill my farmers for no reason?"

Even though Azaroth seemed to be speaking casually, the people couldn't relax yet. They noticed something in Azaroth's words.

He stated, "Why would I kill my farmers for no reason?" This meant he would kill them if they gave him a reason.

And not obeying his word seemed a fair enough reason.

"Alright, let's talk seriously. I can't guarantee you great profits because the money received after selling the grain will be used by me for other things. However, I can guarantee you that as long as you are here, the food, residence, and other utilities will be absolutely free for you. In this town, you won't ever feel unsafe." Azaroth spoke with absolute confidence in his voice.

A person snorted in contempt, "You think we will accept those condition-"

Azaroth coldly interrupted him, "You have the time until I count to three."

"One."

"Two."

A few people had already spoken up, "I accept the conditions."

Azaroth wasn't surprised to see this.

He knew that majority of them will accept his conditions.

In reality, he had told Tronte to only look for those farmers or workers who had been thrown out of their old jobs.

Many of the farmers among this group had their land falsely usurped by merchants or the lords reigning over that territory. They were used to poverty and just wanted someone to provide them a stable shelter, protection, food, and some income.

Azaroth was providing them these 4 things. Thus, all he had to do was make them take a quick decision.

Unsurprisingly, all of them decided to work under Azaroth.

Azaroth smiled and spoke, "Let me take you to show you the land. I will provide you with the supplies. I don't care about the method used. Just show me the results."

He had already brought the seeds along with him when he departed from Wrihull City.

There were 17 farmers and 53 were workers. Azaroth assigned 20 acres of land to each farmer. This meant that he had given away 340 acres of farming land.

The 53 workers were divided among those 17 farmers. On average, each farmer had about 3 people working for him.

Naturally, this was far too less for the farmers but Azaroth informed them that they didn't need to work on the whole field from the start.

They could begin working on part of their land and show him the result.

Azaroth also had another card underneath his sleeve. And that card was Laura!

As someone who possessed the bloodline closest to that of nature, she could assist in increasing the growth rate of the plants.

Only the Royal Blood of the Elves possessed this ability.

All they had to do was drip a drop of blood into the water and soak the seeds in it.

The seeds would be blessed by the Royal Elves' Blood and their growth rate would be much greater.

Azaroth had not yet notified the farmers of this knowledge. By the time they figure it out, he'll have put in place sufficient protection to prevent the knowledge from leaking.

Laura's identity was too sensitive. He couldn't have anyone leak it out.

~~

The next day, Azaroth was standing in front of all his retainers.

They had been specifically gathered for an announcement.

"Yesterday, I told all of you to get used to your strengths. I hope you have done that because that was nothing compared to what you are going to experience from now."

"I only have a single instruction for you. Do whatever you can to endure and continue fighting."

Azaroth finished speaking and glanced at the faces of all his retainers.

They looked nervous and somewhat scared. Especially Laura and Sargan. These two knew just what sort of training they were about to witness.

"Training Ground 1 is assigned to Noah."

"Training Ground 2 is assigned to Ralph."

"Training Ground 3 is assigned to Sargan."

"Training Ground 4 is assigned to Laura."

"Training Ground 5 is assigned to Yrellea."

"And Training Ground 6 is assigned to Tiana."

"Alright, you can go and check out your respective training grounds."

Once Azaroth was done speaking, he dispersed them all. All of them split in different directions and headed for their respective locations.

The first one to reach his spot was Noah.

After he entered his training ground.

For some seconds, nothing occurred.

Noah even wondered whether the array formation was malfunctioning or not.

He then heard an automated voice of Azaroth, "Destroy 1000 minions of each element within one hour. The timer starts now."

Noah suddenly felt the ground rumbling. It was shaking so violently that he had to use Ardor to prevent his body from shaking.

He laid his eyes on the 10 Lava Plumes that launched their fireballs at him.

Just when Noah was about to take a step forward, he felt that his feet were getting colder.

When he lowered his head, he was surprised to see his feet already frozen. He looked around and saw 10 Ice Trolls some distance away from him. Soon, he felt something stab his stomach.

Currently, 3 Earth Spears stabbed his stomach. Noah turned his gaze and saw 10 gnomes made from mud staring at him with an empty gaze.

It was at that moment Noah understood why Azaroth spoke that his training would be the hardest.

Instead of falling into despair though, Noah smiled.

His body burst with a strong aura. The ice that trapped his feet shattered and the Earth Spears that had stabbed his stomach were instantly slashed by some invisible blade before they all turned to dust.

Noah released a strong battle intent and spoke, "Bring it on!"