Chapter 179 Life Of A Level 1 Hero

After my loss to Demon Lord Valefor, the [Domination] effect I had on the monsters was removed.

Upon my revival, I didn't even have enough power to control them since I had to sacrifice my Levels to request the impossible from Death.

'Thank goodness the monsters were handled before they could flee in the direction of the settlement...'

My buddy, Death, helped me annihilate all of them—both the ones on Valefor's side, and the ones I had used—as a farewell present, solving the problem for me.

However, this left me with another problem I wanted to avoid in the first place.

'The Helios Labyrinth is as good as useless now. There are no monsters and also no valuable resource within.'

That meant the major source of Dulum's economy was in collapse.

How could I leave the City in such a state and return to my own settlement? Would saving it from Demons have any meaning of it was going to collapse eventually?

Besides, bearing the title of a Hero had its correspondent burden. It was unavoidable... I had to help them.

Sure, I summoned some materials using the SHOP function of the System, but I still had to use a lot of Mana Chalk and Mercury to create Magic Circles in order to help ease the building burden.

Since my MP was ridiculously low, and I couldn't afford to utilize Magic or complex Skills at this point, I had to use Runes instead.

'Even enslaving all those Demons required a lot of Holy Water, along with the other resources in order to compensate for my weakness.'

My resources were hemorrhaging at an alarming rate.

If I was grateful for anything, it was the fact that food and water wasn't a problem.

The city had a well, and I used my Runes to purify the water there, as well as replicate the trick I used for my settlement—absorbing the moisture in the atmosphere to generate water.

As for food, we initially had to resort to the stock of food that Dulum possessed, but considering how a lot of it had gone to waste in the destruction, and how they couldn't afford to splurge their finances on food, I had to send Sarah and Byron to the settlement to obtain foodstuff.

'This will somewhat delay my merchant plans, but it'll help in the long run.' Was my line of thought when I decided to use this method.

Sarah and Byron were responsible for keeping charge over the settlement, and they would visit Dulum every once in a while to drop off food supplies and fill me in on the occurrences in the settlement.

Fortunately, nothing major had happened.

'I'll have to remain here until this project is done. Or maybe I want to go away, but I would feel really guilty leaving these guys behind to do all the work.'

Frankly, I wasn't really doing much at this point.

Other than everyone reporting to me about the activities and achievements for the day, I didn't really handle anything major.

Zabdel was in charge of administration, and once I showed the artisans of the city how to build—creating a perfect model model myself, it wasn't exactly difficult.

'Unlike the settlement, I don't expect Dulum to be too reliant on me. They'll owe me big time for this, but I won't be with them for long.'

This way, they could be self-sufficient, in contrast to the settlement which I needed to rely on me. After all, that was my home base.

'I say that, but...'

Wasn't I splurging too many resources on Dulum alone? At this rate, my reserves would be emptied.

'I don't want to have to break the piggy bank!' A sigh of tiredness and exasperation escaped my lips.

'We'll need more resources to complete this project—or at least, for the future. That much is certain.'

Even if Dulum ended up being completely rebuilt, then what? How would it survive, going forward?

This was an Adventurer's City. They needed weapons. They needed items. They needed resources!

They also needed money!

I was running very dry on all of these things, and I really wanted a miracle right now. To the people of the city, the worst was over, but I didn't see it that way.

'Winter will be coming in a few months. I really need to get my shit together before then.'

If only a miracle could happen... anything! I would truly be grateful!

"For now, though, I have to keep working my butt off."

***************

"Huff... urgh.... mmh..."

A blond girl turned uncomfortably while in deep sleep.

Her tightly shut eyes were scrunched so hard that her entire face formed a frown, and then suddenly morphed into a frightened expression.

Sweat appeared on her body, and she made uncomfortable moans while turning even more.

The people sleeping beside her, all under one of the many tents procured by the Hero, didn't seem to mind as they were in too deep a sleep to care.

Still, the girl struggled and mumbled incoherent words. All a result of the darkness that enveloped her dream.

She could hear their voices.

She sense hear their screams.

She could feel their desperation.

The people in her dream called out for her. Their hands stretched out to touch her incorporeal self as she shivered in the horror.

The image of her hometown flashed in her mind. Multiple horrific memories popped into her mind as she felt like collapsing.

"Where are you?"

"Why haven't you come back?"

"You promised..."

"We miss you..."

"Come back!"

"Don't go..."

"Return to us..."

The girl was in so much confused agony that she couldn't help but scream in her dream. Unfortunately, not a single voice leaked out of her clogged throat.

And that was because someone tightly gripped her by the neck. That someone... was a pointy eared reflection of herself.

—An Elf.

'N-no! No...!' The blond's bloodshot eyes met the gaze of the one who who stared coldly at her.

"You coward..." The identical reflection's voice echoed.

"... Asa."

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[Welcome to the Land Of The Elves Arc]

I hope you have fun while reading.