The goblins brought food to our tents, and we ate our meals. I was so tired that I fell asleep without much conversation. I woke up to the morning sun's light and yawned widely, feeling like I hadn't had such a good sleep in a long time.

Lilith: "You finally woke up."

I saw Lilith putting some clothes on.

"Why are you so comfortable walking around naked next to me?"

Lilith: "Are you saying that even though I slept next to you like this last night?"

"What? Last night? You had clothes on!"

Lilith: "Yes, but I took them off after we ate because they were wet from the rain. You had already fallen asleep, so I didn't want to wake you up, and I lay down next to you and hugged you. Feeling the warmth of your body was very nice."

My face turned red. Had we really slept together all night? And she was naked?"

"I-I'm going, I have things to do."

I could hear Lilith giggling behind me.

"Dagger!"

As soon as I called, Dagger appeared beside me as usual, kneeling and placing his fist on the ground.

Dagger: "Yes, my King!"

"We need to talk, can you arrange an empty tent for us?"

Dagger: "As you command, my King!"

It would be great to have places to go at times like this. If my plans go as I wish and Lisa can make it here, I'll make sure we've built something nice.

Dagger temporarily cleared a tent for us to talk in and arranged a place for us to sit.

Dagger: "Please, my King."

"I'm sorry for making you deal with all this while I was away, but it seems you've managed well."

Dagger: "Thank you, my King, with Lady Lilith's help, everything went smoothly."

"Alright, let's get to the point. I had asked you to find more people to expand our kingdom and to see if you could do something about our shortage of craftsmen, give me a status report. How are things going?"

Dagger: "Yes, my lord, we managed to add more monsters to our side. We took over a troll village we found and added them to our ranks. Trolls are normally monsters that a goblin cannot handle, but thanks to your teachings, we have become much stronger and were able to subdue them."

"Was a battle necessary?"

Dagger: "My lord, monsters tend to serve those who are stronger than themselves by nature."

"I see, continue."

Dagger: "Yes, my King, we were able to add 14 trolls and more than 100 goblins and lizardmen to our village. However, we couldn't find any other monsters or any settlements in the rest of the forest. I am proud to say that we are now the only and largest settlement in this forest, my King."

"I'm glad to hear that, but it seems we haven't been able to fill the gap for craftsmen."

Dagger: "I have something to say about that, my lord. I saw a trade caravan passing nearby the forest and followed them for a while. They were heading to a city in the North called Roskild, according to what I heard, to sell the precious stones and metals they were carrying."

"They're going to sell precious stones and metals, huh? They could sell them in Drynsoll, so why go to a city in the North? Unless... If there aren't people there who would value those stones more, or someone to work the metals."

Dagger: "As always, you are brilliant, my King. Indeed, the traders were talking among themselves about how much money they would make and that they could benefit from the dwarves' excellent craftsmanship while they were there."

"So, the North, huh..."

It seems I have a new destination, to go to the North to negotiate with the dwarves. But how can I persuade them?

Dagger: "By the way, my King, we encountered a strange black stone deep in the forest. We wanted to show it to you by bringing a piece, but no matter what we did, we couldn't break the stone."

"A stone that can't be broken?"

Maybe this could be useful in my negotiations with the dwarves.

"Take me to where this stone is."

Dagger: "As you command, my King."

Dagger and I went deep into the forest, which was now much safer because we had already added all the monsters in the forest to our ranks.

After a few minutes, we arrived at the location of the stone.

Dagger: "This is the stone I was telling you about, my King."

"Very well, you can go back now. I'll take care of the rest."

Dagger: "As you command, my King."

I looked at the massive black stone standing in front of me, feeling mysteriously intimidating and eerie as if staring at it any longer might make me lose myself in its darkness.

"Alright, you seem pretty tough. Let's see about that."

I punched the stone with all my might.

"Ah, dammit. Not even a scratch? Maybe hitting it with my aura will do better."

I concentrated my aura into my fist and my arm muscles, tensing up, and delivered a powerful punch to the stone.

"What? Nothing happened? Playing hard to get, huh? Or should I say, hard as a rock? Maybe I've hit a hard rock. Damn, I'm so funny."

I pulled a sword from my ring and filled it with all my aura.

"Alright, buddy, I'm going to put all my aura into this attack, so I hope I don't destroy a few trees along with you."

I raised my sword to the sky and struck the stone, but the sight that greeted me was shocking. My sword broke, and not a single scratch was on the stone.

"Damn it, so you won't break, huh? Wait here, I'll be back, you damn thing!"

I opened a portal and returned to the kingdom, then I saw Malik and Aiden at the training ground.

"Hey, guys, I need a favor from you. This is very important to me."

Malik: "Sure, buddy, whatever you want."

Aiden: "Send it, my friend."

I expressed my request with a very serious expression on my face.

"Can you, like, beat me up?"

Aiden and Malik were looking at me strangely.

Aiden: "What..."

6 hours later.

"Alright, damn rock, you and me. We'll settle this here."

After hours of getting beaten up and almost being unable to walk, I returned to the rock. My whole body was swollen and covered in blood; I might have even broken a few bones.

"My entire aura has been renewed, and if I use the damage I accumulated from hours of beating with [Reflection], I can inflict massive damage. But that's not all. [Mechanism]!"

With the Mechanism ability, I created a pickaxe made of Graphene, the strongest material I knew.

"This ends here!"

I transferred all my aura to the pickaxe and my arm muscles, also adding the damage bonus from [Reflection]. Now, all I had to do was to hit the rock. I raised the pickaxe to the sky and struck the black stone with all my strength.

"Oh, damn it! Did the pickaxe shatter? Did this not work either?"

I looked at the stone and noticed a small crack.

"Wait a minute, what? Is that a crack? HAHAHA! I BEAT YOU, DAMN ROCK! BOW TO YOUR NEW KING!"

I was very excited at that moment, but all I could do was create a small crack in the stone. After meditating and gathering all my aura for a week, enduring beatings during the day and continuing to hit the stone at night, I finally...

"I FINALLY GOT A PIECE OF YOU, YOU DAMN ROCK!"

I held a small piece of the black stone in my hand. Even though the stone was almost the size of a walnut, I was still very happy to have conquered it.

After placing the piece of stone in my ring, I slept for almost a day. I was so exhausted that even when I woke up, I wanted to sleep for another 5 minutes, but there was a lot of work to do.

"Lilith, I'm going to a city in the north for a while."

Lilith: "Are you leaving again? Can't I come too?"

"Sorry, but if you're not here, this place will probably collapse in a few days. We're hosting too many monsters, and we need someone to lead in my absence. And Aiden and Malik are not really suitable for this."

Meanwhile, Aiden and Malik:

Malik: "Hey, buddy, do you think I can shove this sword all the way into my throat?"

Aiden: "I bet my dinner tonight that you can't."

Malik: "You asked for it!"

Aiden: "HEALER GOBLIN! HEALER GOBLIN!"

Lilith: "I guess you're right..."

"Don't worry, I'll be back quickly after I finish my business."

Lilith: "You work really hard, don't you? What about them?"

"I think taking care of these two might be harder than watching over a kingdom of monsters, so I'll take them with me."

Lilith: "Thank you, it would be better if you come back soon."

"Of course, also, someone might come here while I'm away. He's a crucial figure for the future plans of our kingdom. He might be a bit difficult, but I'm sure you'll get along."

No, they won't get along. I hope they don't end up fighting and destroying an entire city...

I called Aiden and Malik to me and explained the situation.

Aiden: "To the north? We're finally going on a vacation!"

Malik: "I wonder how the food there is."

"I told you guys, this is not a vacation, oh well..."

While talking to Malik and Aiden, Sweet and Chilli jumped on me.

"Hey, kids, how are you?"

Both of them were happily bouncing on me.

"It seems like you've gained quite a bit of weight since I last saw you. How much more will you grow?"
Malik: "Hey, can't we ride on them?"

"It's possible, but if they see a wyvern flying in the sky, it could be a problem. Also, they're still kids, so they probably can't carry the three of us for too long and can't fly for an extended period."

Aiden: "So what are we going to do? Walk?"

Dagger: "Your Majesty, actually..."

As I learned from Dagger, two of the monster wolves we got from the forest had evolved into giant wolves. I didn't know that monsters could evolve, but according to Dagger, monsters reaching their limit can evolve, and if a monster becomes stronger but still doesn't evolve, it indicates how big its potential is. I also learned that leader goblins are formed by evolution. Goblins that specialize in a certain area and reach their limit evolve, and due to the power difference with other goblins, they become leaders. He gave examples like Healer goblin, Barbarian goblin, and Wizard goblin. But since Dagger, despite being almost as powerful as them, hadn't evolved, it showed how powerful of a monster he was. He still has the potential to develop, and I'm sure that when he evolves, he will be much stronger than other monsters.

I asked Dagger to bring the giant wolves here so that we could ride on them.

Aiden: "Wow, these wolves are really cool!"

Malik: "Hey! Leave my meal alone, damn wolf!"

"Haha, it's nice to see that you get along."

Everything was in order, and preparations were complete. It was time to embark on the journey.

"Alright, wait for us, Roskild! Here we come!"

Aiden: "Roskild?"

"I mean, Roskild! We're coming!"