The Fiend's Creation System

Fiend’s Hierarchy

Eisha continued looking for a secondary Sanctum for their forces because the humans were taking a bit too long in making their way to the Shifting Hallows.

Julius had sent scouts to monitor their movements but they were moving way too slowly. Partly because the group was a bit large and they weren’t used to traveling through such a dense forest where the elves' magic was influencing their sense of direction, however, the biggest reason was the bigotry of the priests that kept on ‘purifying’ the lands as they moved.

Due to their excessive and wasteful use of mana every day, the group needed to spend more of their time resting than moving. They also blamed their exhaustion on the ‘evil presence’ that loomed within the forest and kept on praying every other hour to their god for protection.

Julius was baffled at what the idiotic priests were trying to ‘cleanse’ and protect themselves from. It wasn’t like their holy spells could dispel the ancient nature magic that the elves had placed on the forest and there wasn’t anything evil about the forest besides their presence that was tainting the harmony and tranquility of the forest. 

Thanks to the elves’ magic, the monsters in the forest had finally settled down and were peaceful once again but with the Church’s group of priests, crusaders, mercenaries, and adventurers, the monsters began acting up again after they sensed the danger the humans brought to the forest.

The only evil in the forest was them and from what Julius saw as they were just exhausting themselves in their futile efforts, the priests were just trying to save face by justifying themselves using a nonexistent reason. 

For the evil presence tainting the forest, it was all just hubris. However, if the priests were of higher rank then maybe they could have ‘purified’ the elves’ ancient nature magic using their holy spells. They wouldn’t be able to completely dispel the magic but they could have dampened the bewildering effects.

According to the system, only ancient magic of the same tier could affect each other which in this case only the Holy Light Church’s Pope was capable of casting. They needed the pope if they wanted to completely lift the elves’ magic from the forest.

What the priests were doing at the moment was such a waste of time and mana that Julius left one mimic behind while calling back the rest of the team he sent. He wasn’t going to have a team of his mimics keeping an eye on the humans’ stupidity.

He instead refocused his efforts on expanding his forces and searching for additional places where he could create more Sanctums for his fiends.

Julius was going to experiment somewhat and see how far down he could create his dungeon. On the next shift, he needed to find out about the depth limit of the shift so he could plan and construct his future sanctums accordingly.

With the church having noticed his race’s presence already, it would seem like a bad idea to divide their forces, but there was a certain benefit in creating more sanctums.

He could spawn 1 Hero-ranked Fiend for every new sanctum he created. The fiend would have its own personality and operate independently from him but with the collective consciousness and his directive in mind.

Since it had its own personality and consciousness, it was categorized as an entity that was similar to Eisha who was connected to the collective consciousness but remained as an independent individual that was capable of its own thoughts, opinions, and emotions.

His fiends had a hierarchy with him at the very top. If he was to categorize his entire forces into ranks, then there would be 5 in total.

The lowest ranks would be the labor forces. All of the homunculi post any sort of evolution was ranked here as well as a few other special units that Julius could create. Their task was to carry out all sorts of labor such as mining, material collection, landscaping, crafting, and any other sort of labor.

Above the lowest-ranked labor forces were the lower class fiends. The fiends that were categorized here would be similar to those homunculi who had experienced some form of evolution.

Previously, Eisha’s retinue of guards was categorized as lower-class fiends but since they were directly under Eisha, the Fiend Queen, they bypassed the restrictions of the lower class ranking.

Mimics and regular Fiend Soldiers would also be part of the lower class fiends and above them would be the middle-class fiends. Enhanced Fiend Soldiers or those that have experienced a secondary or tertiary evolution would be part of this class.

Eisha’s current retinue of Enhanced Fiend Soldiers was part of this class. However, because of their status as the Queen’s guards, their middle-class fiend restrictions were lifted.

Above that would be the upper-class fiends. Currently, Julius didn’t have any fiends in this class so he couldn’t make a comparison. However, the system informed him that Eisha’s Enhanced Fiend Soldiers needed to go through 2-3 more evolutions before they could be categorized as High-Class fiends.

Finally, the rank above that would be the Hero Class. Eisha fell into this category as she was the Queen of Fiends, Julius’s spouse. The new unit that Julius could create after erecting another sanctum would fall into this category as well.

Having another unit as strong as Eisha would definitely help his forces out so he didn’t stop his plans on creating another sanctum.

He was currently limited to creating 3 Sanctums at one time so he could only erect 2 more. Eisha occupied one slot of the 3 Hero classes he could have under him so there were still 2 more Hero Units.

He was anticipating what kind of Fiends he could spawn and what qualities they possessed. Julius didn’t think that Eisha fell into this category at all but he was grateful that she was indeed a Hero unit in the end. 

The system stated that a Hero Unit possessed unlimited growth in both leveling and evolution. They could continue to gain strength without limits so there would never be a need to replace them.

However, there was a catch. Other than Eisha who Julius saved and transformed into a Hero class Fiend, the other Hero class units would be created at random. Their attributes and abilities would be randomized but Julius could select what type of unit he preferred.

The system had a vast selection of consciousnesses they could combine to form the perfect unit that Julius wanted but in his opinion, he would have preferred if there was a preset list of units he could select from.

The system didn’t have this because it would actually restrict Julius’s choices if there were presets already available. By specifying what kind of unit he wanted, it allowed the system to select and combine the consciousnesses that had a description similar to what Julius specified into one being. 

This way, the outcome would always be the best and most perfect for the situation that Julius needed the unit for. The units were also permanent so he wouldn’t be able to change them later on. 

“I already have Eisha and myself as attack units...the next hero unit should definitely be a support type… a healer or an enchanter would be good.”

Julius was reminded of the priests that were heading his way. In the memories he saw of his fiends battling against them, the priests had been able to save a few of their comrades thanks to their healing, barrier, and support spells.

It was a good distribution of forces, having paladins who could attack and defend with priests at the back healing and protecting them. 

Julius wanted his fiends to be able to do the same. For now, he only had fiends that were capable of attacking and scouting. He wanted some more useful ones that could not only do battle but also heal and defend their fellow fiends.

He thought about creating a magic-oriented or a castle-type fiend that could attract and soak up damage but what he needed the most right now was a fiend that could heal other fiends.

Especially now that the church was aware of them and could be out to exterminate them, he wouldn’t be able to win a war of attrition if he didn’t have any healers.

“Eisha, how goes the search?” Julius asked. His question and thoughts directly transferred into Eisha’s mind.

Eisha heard his voice loud and clear so she replied, “Honey, I’ve found a few possible places, but they’re too close to monster dens or are monster dens… the best one by far is the black Arachne nest.

It has an underground water pool just like ours albeit it’s probably tainted by the spiders’ venom but our hatcheries can purify the waters.”

Julius opened up his map and searched for the location of the spider’s nest. Previously, before the shift happened, the black Arachne nest was situated in the central parts of the Shifting Hallows but now, it was in the northern parts. 

If Julius built a sanctum there, he would be able to begin trading with the elves once again until the next shift happened. He also wanted to see what would happen if his fiends became exposed to a poisonous environment. He was curious to see what direction they would take in their evolution.

“I’ll send a company of our soldiers to you. Forget the rest of the places for now and focus on clearing the spider’s nest of monsters.”

“Understood.”

After giving out his orders, a large number of fiends began moving out of the sanctum towards Eisha’s location.

Julius turned back to his map and looked up at the few red dots that were still inside of the Redgrove Forest.

“Man, these humans sure know how to take their time…”

The red dots weren’t moving anymore so they had probably stopped to rest. It was infuriating to wait for them especially since they weren’t coming because of any good news. 

Waiting for his enemies to arrive was truly bothersome and because they were a potential threat, Julius couldn’t keep himself from worrying about their location every now and then.

Of course, this didn’t stop him from his training. Even now, Julius was multitasking by having his consciousness split into many different portions, each handling a simple task for him. It strained his mind but he was able to tolerate it.

“Maybe we should go meet them instead of waiting… at this rate, it’ll take weeks for them to arrive at the Shifting Hallows’ edge!”