"Hmm."
"If anything happens, I'll notify you immediately."
"Treyni, I appoint you as the administrator of the Jura Forest."
Damien looked at her. "As before, continue to manage the ecological balance within the Jura Forest for me."
"Understood."
Treyni bowed respectfully before continuing, "As per your orders, ordinary individuals with magicule counts below 500 will be expelled immediately."
"However, while we were asleep, some adventurers and one otherworlder entered the forest."
"How should we deal with them?"
If it were the old Treyni, given her personality, she probably wouldn't have cared about them.
But now, Damien was the master of the forest.
Their fate was his to decide!
"Hmm?"
"Those people."
Without needing Damien's prompting, Treyni projected images of these individuals before him.
Damien glanced over most of the groups.
His attention lingered on two particular scenes.
One showed a trio, the same group from the original story... Elyun and her companions, who had come to explore the Sealed Cave.
However...
"Wow!!"
"We're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna die!"
"Help!!"
"..."
Watching the trio being frantically chased by a B-rank monster, Damien didn't even know where to begin with his commentary.
"Are the adventurers in this world all this fearless?"
On the surface, these three were adventurers from the Freedom Guild, but in truth, they hailed from the Sorcerous Dynasty of Sarion.
The blonde girl, Ellen, was the daughter of Sarion's Grand Duke.
The other two appeared to have only B-rank strength.
But in reality, their powers were sealed, only to be unleashed if Ellen was in danger.
Their true combat ability could likely hold its own against A-rank Kijin like Benimaru, who had just received his name.
Such strength would have allowed them to roam freely in the old Jura Forest.
But the problem was...
Times had changed, my friends.
The Jura Forest was now fraught with danger.
Magical mists, new rules of power, monsters with strength elevated by a whole tier, and gathered hordes of creatures.
If they explored the Jura Forest with their old mindset, they'd soon learn what true despair felt like.
"Don't let them die."
Damien sighed. "Treyni, guide them. Lead Shizue Izawa..."
"That's the masked girl in this scene. Guide her to them."
The masked girl in the scene Damien referred to was none other than Shizue Izawa, the destined person of the original story's protagonist.
Damien wasn't surprised that these two groups had come to the forest.
Though Veldora was still present, the recent disturbances in the forest... especially the barrier set up by Treyni and her sisters... would naturally draw attention from other forces.
"Is that all?"
"Yeah."
Damien said, "No need to stop them or pay them too much attention."
He had more important matters to attend to and didn't have time to deal with Ellen's trio.
As for Shizu, Damien had some ideas about her.
She was, after all, a tragic character from the original story. If he could meet her, Damien wouldn't mind lending her a hand.
'Perfect timing. After this evolution, my familiar slots have increased significantly.'
Damien thought Shizue Izawa would make a fine addition.
"Swish!"
As Damien pondered, four figures appeared before him, summoned by his call... the four Primordial Daemons.
Kneeling on one knee, they offered their congratulations to Damien for his awakening.
"Thank you."
Damien smiled and thanked them. "Thanks to you, this town was protected."
Violet had already told him what happened during his awakening.
The four had gone all out to protect the town, ensuring the magicules erupting from Damien didn't destroy his territory.
"No need for thanks."
Noir said, "We were summoned here and naturally serve our summoner."
"Hmm."
Damien nodded. "Even so, I won't let those who've served me go unrewarded."
"So, one last time: are you willing to pledge your loyalty to me, never to betray?"
"Absolutely!"
Without hesitation, the four swore their unwavering loyalty to Damien!
"I accept your allegiance."
Damien declared, "And now, I shall grant you names."
"!!!"
Hearing that Damien would name them, the four were stunned and overjoyed.
For daemons, being named was akin to the highest level of incarnation.
As the progenitors of daemons, the Seven Primordial Daemons, three of whom stood before him, found it far harder to gain physical forms than other daemons.
But if it was Damien...
He absolutely had the power to create bodies for all four!
"Are you truly willing to name us?"
"But doing so will consume a lot of your magicules. Should we..."
"No matter!"
Damien cut off the concerns of Noir and Blanc. He had plenty of magicules now, and they were constantly increasing.
With Veldanava's bloodline, 210 million was far from his normal magicule limit.
According to Violet's estimate, he could maintain at least 400 to 500 million.
Here, "maintain" meant that any consumed magicules would be instantly replenished.
Moreover, once magicules exceeded 100 million, the exact amount became less significant.
In the cardinal world, breaking 100 million magicules was equivalent to infinite magicules.
In other words, Damien no longer needed to carefully calculate magicule consumption and recovery.
As long as he wished, he could name them no matter how many magicules it took.
After all, the consumed magicules would quickly recover.
Rimuru relied on Veldora.
But Damien himself was an enhanced version of Veldora!
"This is your reward for protecting me."
"No need to hesitate... just accept it."
Damien finished and looked at Noir. "From now on, you shall be called Diablo."
Then came Primordial White, Testarossa; Primordia Yellow, Carrera; and Primordial Purple, Ultima.
"Thank you for your gracious naming!"
After receiving their names, the four Primordial Daemons saw their magicules surge dramatically.
From a few hundred thousand, their counts broke through the million mark in the blink of an eye.
At the same time, Damien used four of his familiar slots, binding them all as his followers.
"This is..."
The four didn't resist.
Even the fiery-tempered Jaune accepted Damien's transformation without the slightest resistance.
***
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