Chapter 210

“…Now then.”

Demon King Tralzard slowly turned her head to the left.

There was a small window that allowed you to see the scenery outside.

I followed her gaze to the right.

Outside, far below, you could see the town.

After gazing at the town for some time, Tralzard finally spoke.

“What is important, is how to use that power.”

“…What?”

What was she saying?

“Before you arrived, I had Seitry look into this matter of the special evolutions of Ogres.”

“I see.”

I was grateful for that.

If the Demon King’s tactician was looking into it, I could surely expect decent results.

I turned to Seitry.

“While the Shura and Shuten are famous, there are several known accounts of Ogres having undergone special evolutions that did not result in a new race being established.”

There was something about those words that bothered me.

“Ogres are somewhere between the middle and the bottom in rank. It is not easy for a special evolution to occur with them.”

Usually it was just the high ranking races that evolved into Origins.

They were already strong. And once they had become even stronger, they were almost untouchable.

This allowed them to distance themselves from the others, and they were able to evolve in their own way.

On the other hand, Ogres, Goblins, and Orcs were numerous. And while it was easy for them to evolve, they very rarely evolved into Origins.

In the case of Ogres, one of the requirements was ‘defeating superiors,’ and if you accomplished that, you would become a High Ogre.

If you wanted to undergo a special evolution, you would have to store a ridiculous amount of mana while not defeating any superiors. Either that, or you had to ‘avoid’ evolution for a long time while defeating them.

Of course, both of those weren’t really solutions, as they were near impossible.

In the first place, it wasn’t something you could just control by your own will.

“I too was surprised when I saw the list that Seitry gathered. Ogres had undergone all kinds of evolutions.”

“And why are there so many cases of Ogres undergoing special evolutions?”

I had no idea what the reason could be.

“Seitry has a theory.”

“Mmm.”

She really did let her tactician do all of the thinking.

“My theory is that it depends on how you use your power.”

“How you…use your power?”

So we were back to that.

It was what Tralzard was saying.

I looked at the Demon King and she nodded with satisfaction.

“According to Seitry, Ogres who have undergone special evolution were always of the violent sort, who had power that was beyond the others. They were as strong as adults when just a child, and no one in their settlement could stand against them. And they just loved to fight. They lived while constantly challenging those who were stronger than them. Well, does that sound familiar to you?”

Tralzard’s words made me think. And…

“Well, there are two Ogres like that among my subordinates.”

The idiot siblings, Saifo and Beka.

The description matched them perfectly.

“And what about you?”

“Me? Oh, I’m pretty mild-mannered.”

I only fought people who antagonized me.

Well, I might start fights if someone I had decided to protect was being tormented, but I didn’t count instances like that.

I didn’t go wild for my own gain. I was not a roughneck.

“You can’t be serious…but never mind that. According to Seitry, those who underwent special evolution were always very good at fighting. Better than their mana level would suggest. That’s why they were able to take down their superiors. While there were differences between individuals, they were able to evolve because in the end, they were good at using their power. That’s how they became stronger. And those who become strong become famous, even in other countries.”

And Ogres were meat heads.

That’s why gaining some knowledge about how to use your power could make you so much stronger.

Still, we had almost no magic resistance, so we were still weak against magic-type enemies. I wonder if they found a way of dealing with that.

“I think I understand what you mean about the use of power.”

“Mmm. And so there was something that came back to me.”

“What is it?”

“It’s about Lesser High King Yamato. He was also quite the ruffian.”

That was a surprise. A Lesser high King would be leading many men. I would have expected someone mature and well loved.

“A ruffian with that much power? Isn’t that a little disastrous?”

“Indeed. From what Bargman told me, he once launched King Melvis into the place beyond the sky. And when King Melvis returned, he was shaking.”

“I see.”

I saw Lesser Demon King Melvis as someone horrifying. He might as well have been a Great Demon King to me.

And yet he shook with fear. How much power would it have taken?

Wait a minute…beyond the sky? …Surely she didn’t mean outer space?

“According to King Bargman, he treated him as an enemy at that time.”

An enemy… That would mean taking his mana.

And making it his own. How gruesome.

“What an…exciting story.”

That was the only thing I could say.

I didn’t understand why he took his mana and tried to launch him into space.

“Apparently, King Yamato used his own mana and the newly acquired mana to gain a temporary and explosive boost in power.”

“Ah, so that’s why.”

“You knew?”

“No…. But I think I can do something similar.”

“Like when you escaped my Roar.”

When I had done that, I had charged up the mana in my legs.

Tralzard wasn’t even able to see it.

Well, she was using Roar so perhaps that was the reason.

“I think that my special ability is partial strengthening of my body. But I haven’t really awakened to it yet.”

“Hmm. What do you think, Seitry?”

She left the thinking to her tactician.

“Indeed. If we are to continue to search for correlations with Lesser High King Yamato, then it is possible that it’s not just partial strengthening, but a skill that combines that and the absorption of mana.”

“You’re saying that the special ability is absorbing an opponent's mana and using it for partial strengthening?”

“It is possible. In that case, you will not be able to do it until you learn how to absorb mana.”

It was true that some races had skills that they could only use if they learned certain other abilities first.

So perhaps it was possible that if I learned to absorb mana, I would be able to do other things.

This tactician was good. Observant.

“Regardless, you could start there?”

Tralzard suggested, and Seitry nodded.

“And if you succeed, it would confirm several theories.”

The tactician had even more theories already.

“Golan. Why don’t you start thinking about absorbing mana?”

“So that’s what it all leads to, eh?”

Absorbing mana from enemies… In order to awaken, I would have to keep fighting.