Instant Death

Chapter 27 - With a level ten times as high that much is to be expected

The Dominator class allowed one to know what each slave was up to, but not all of them simultaneously -- too much information would have to be taken in at once. Consequently, the base setting was for the Dominator to be notified only upon major events.

"Hm? Erika's perception stopped transmitting?"

Yuuki Tachibana picked up on his Slave Management skill's notification while being on the receiving end of a vicious claw attack. At this time, Yuuki was facing a monster that could only be described as a four-armed insect-human.

The monster's body was roughly three meters in height and covered by a jet black carapace all over, its strength would have ripped apart a regular human with ease, but had practically no effect on Yuuki.

"As expected of Master! A monster of the hundredth floor doesn't stand a chance!"

He was currently in the deepest stratum of the ruins not far from the city he was staying at. The enemies here were supposed to offer him some real battle experience, but the difference in strength was so great there was little for him to learn from it.

The one cheering him on from the side was Stefanie, a high-rank slave girl. Yuuki was a fan of her sensual brunette hair and cute face, so he usually kept her close by.

"Well, this thing's level 1000, right? With a level ten times as high that much is to be expected."

Yuuki's level had already reached 10,000.

Normal people's levels ranged from one to five, warriors that made hunting monsters their profession usually peaked at level 50, and if someone trained all their life they might reach level 99, the human limit, but to go beyond that, a special class was needed; and Dominator was that special class.

Yuuki had reached a level that high with hardly any effort. He commanded slaves, had them slay monsters, gained experience points and bounty rewards, and purchased more slaves. He subjugated criminal gangs, had them attack merchants, and trampled entire villages when spotting one outside a sage's protection. Whenever one of the monsters didn't quite die it was added to his slaves, which he then sent out to further increase his follower count until even animals and insects were under his control. The whole process was set to auto-pilot, meaning the number of slaves he controlled was increasing rapidly even right now.

"Answer me, who are you!"

The manlike rhinoceros beetle took some distance with a back step and raised a voice filled with dismay. It seemed like he couldn't believe a mere human was unconcerned by his attacks.

"Oh, so there were monsters that could talk?"

"Lord. After passing a certain level even monsters acquire a hint of intelligence, becoming able to comprehend human language."

The one that spoke this time was Euphemia, the silver haired girl next to Stefanie and the other follower he took along for this expedition. Euphemia was of a race called half-demon; Yuuki picked her up when he raided a village in the Hakua ancient woodlands. He decided to make her a high-ranking slave because she was particularly beautiful, even when compared to the other half-demons.

"I see. Might use him as a low-tier slave then."

Yuuki split his slaves into four ranks: high-tier, mid-tier, low-tier and laborers. Managing them all himself was impossible, so he set up a hierarchy in which the higher ranking slaves handled the lower ranking ones.

However, his slave count had long increased beyond a number that could be managed with a four layer system, it was just about time to revise his current management structure.

"A slave, he says! How dare you, a puny human!"

"Let's see, Flare Bomb. Was that right?"

Yuuki chanted a spell, more or less.

The Dominator class only offered him skills for the sake of managing his slaves, but among those skills was one that made it possible to borrow the skills of his slaves. As such, Yuuki could use every single skill his slaves possessed.

And like that, explosions wreaked havoc all throughout the insectman's body, a gaping hole opening in its chest. With his limbs blasted away only his head and torso were left over, which fell to the ground with a thump.

Yuuki leisurely walked up to him and stepped on his head, completing the domination process.

"Extra Heal."

Stefanie used her magic and just a few moments later the insectman had recovered. An easy task for a healer like her, whose powers had been strengthened by Yuuki.

"How many floors are there in these ruins?"

"There are 150."

The dominated monster replied in an obedient tone.

"Alright, then descend to the bottom of these ruins and gather new followers as you do so. Once you've reached the 150th floor, head out to Hakua and continue there."

"Very well."

Without wasting even a second the insectman acknowledged Yuuki's orders and went on his way. In the case of ambiguous orders the slaves execute their tasks on their own discretion.

"These ruins were supposed to offer some combat practice, but I'm really not feeling it."

If he continued raising his level without actually taking action himself he may find himself unprepared when facing some crisis in the future. With that in mind he decided to explore these ruins, but in the end there wasn't much point in having come here. At first he was fairly curious about these ruins left behind by an ancient civilization of a different dimension, but after several days of exploration he started growing tired of them.

"Lord, haven't you already transcended beyond requiring real battle experience? I believe just reigning as the magnificent monarch you are destined to be would be a reasonable course of action."

"Now then, I wonder what happened to Erika."

Euphemia raised her voice, but Yuuki had his mind elsewhere.

He had put his favorite slaves into their own group of personal guards, both the followers with him right now making up two of those five special slaves. The other three were on standby at the hotel, Erika having been one of them.

Curious about what happened he brought up Erika's action log, which showed how she equipped herself with a hidden weapon, left her room on the hotel's highest floor and headed to Tomochika Dannoura's room on the fifth floor. There, she used the Conceal Body skill and lurked nearby his classmate's room. The skill Yuuki was using, Action Log, didn't do much in telling him what her intent was, but he could guess that she was waiting for Tomochika to come out of her room. Erika spent quite a while waiting in that spot, until eventually Yogiri Takatou left his room. Shortly after that her memory stopped.

"I don't get it, why'd she die? Some attack from behind?"

Action Log only allowed him to watch his slaves' conduct from their perspective, so it was impossible for him to tell what was going on behind Erika at the time. There was a good chance she fell victim to some stealth attack, but there were no signs hinting at anything like that.

"That's certainly baffling. To think a forest assassin like Erika, who was granted further power by you, Lord, would be caught off guard. Even if someone managed to surprise her by some fluke, I can't imagine her being assassinated."

Assassins possessed the skill Vigilance, which made it possible to have a grasp even on the surrounding's outside one's vision. It was unthinkable for Erika to not have it activated while performing an ambush.

"Yeah, and I'd also like to know what she was ambushing Dannoura-san for."

Slaves were bound to obey any order they were given, but when they had no specific task to fulfill they could decide their courses of action themselves. They were always aiming for those actions to be beneficial to their master, but without asking them there was no way to figure out what exactly they were hoping to achieve.

"If I may take a guess."

Euphemia responded again, her manner of speech as stiff as ever.

"Go ahead."

"Possibly because you brought up making Dannoura-sama your lover."

"And how does that have to do with Erika deciding to ambush her?"

"One possibility might be that she deemed her unworthy of you, Lord. Alternatively, perhaps she decided to kidnap her for you."

"Hmm. But slaves always aim to move in a way that wouldn't cause their master problems, why would she kill someone I've shown interest in?"

"I can't answer that very well without having seen Dannoura-sama myself, but maybe Erika had some reason to believe that her death would be best for you."

"I see, so unless I explicitly tell a slave to refrain from doing something they might randomly come up with it themselves and do it even if it goes against my actual plans, good to know."

"Yes. What we believe to be right has a possibility of not aligning with your intentions."

It appeared things weren't guaranteed to always go the way he intended, Yuuki decided to keep that in mind.

"Oh well, no way to figure out what she was thinking now that she's dead. Shame, she was expensive."

"If the lord wishes for a new forest human, there are some settlements nearby that could be raided."

"Settlements like yours, you mean? Are you trying to tell me something?"

"Absolutely not. I was merely raising a fact."

"Oh well, not like it matters. I think I'll have Lisa and Chelsey inherit Erika's dying wish and capture Dannoura-san."

Lisa and Chelsey were the other two personal guards left behind at the hotel.

Yuuki gave them the order right away; with a person dying right in front of her room there was a good chance Tomochika would already be vacating the hotel.

No matter the method, Yuuki was set on getting Tomochika Dannoura into his hands. There was no way he, the Dominator, wouldn't be able to get the woman he wanted. However, getting desperate over a single woman didn't seem very Dominator-like either. That was why he didn't push the matter when she declined him, but now that Erika had died he no longer cared. As the absolute ruler he was supposed to be surrounded by the most supreme women at all times, and unlike a few days ago, now there was a need to replace Erika.

"Could it be that Dannoura-sama herself is the culprit?"

"No clue, but once she's dominated things should clear up. Let's take her outside town first of all."

Hayabusa was under the celestial protection of the saints, which put a limit on certain powers bestowed by them. Domination fell under that limit, making it impossible to dominate people within town.

Yuuki started heading to the elevator to get out of the ruins.

He had no doubts that by the time he arrived on the surface, Tomochika would be in his personal guards' custody.