CHAPTER 447: SYSTEM PUNISHMENT

"...So Elena... how was it?" I ask, looking outside. It’s already morning, and yesterday afternoon Elena returned to report the earnings, so I had a ’hot’ night with Zephyra and now I’ve come to settle this matter in the morning.

"Pandora, we managed to get about three times the value in gold that we have in our entire kingdom, as well as enough supplies for the next three years, and we acquired 200,000 human slaves," Elena says, jotting things down on a piece of paper.

"200,000? How many are girls?" I ask, more interested in the slaves I can give as rewards, since labor slaves aren’t that useful.

"150,000 girls, and 50,000 men... children and the elderly became food for our troops, so everyone we brought back is between the ages of 16 and 30," she says as I nod positively.

"Let’s give... 100,000 of those girls, after they drink the potion to become demons, as a war reward for the soldiers. The other 50,000 we’ll send to Shogo’s milk farm. However, those ones won’t get benefits or pay since they’re slaves, so Shogo can drain them for milk to the maximum," I think about what else to do.

"As for the material gains... we’ll use everything to expand the kingdom." Normally a king would hoard the treasure, but I don’t need money sitting idle; it’s better to use it for something useful.

"By the way, Elena, I want them to build an academy... a very large academy, and the teachers must be very experienced and strong demons... I will enroll my daughters in this academy to study and learn things..."

"It will also be an investment. The academy won’t operate on a nobility basis, but rather on talent and merit. The entrance exams will be conducted through magical, physical, and intellectual tests."

"And we’ll give rewards to outstanding students to encourage demons and beast-men to actively join the academy... but we’ll limit how many people can enter... I think... 5,000 people maximum..."

"As for the curriculum and training content, we’ll see later. For now, just start the construction project for it," I tell Elena, who looks impressed.

"Education for common demons? How rare," she says with a sweet smile while writing down what I said.

"Ah, and of course my daughters will be enrolled without any test, because they don’t even need it. Azazel alone has more magic and power than a human Rank A."

"Eclipsya already has so much intellectual capacity that she created a magic spell on her own, and Lycoris... she already has more magic than Azazel and Eclipsya combined and has shown a very high capacity to adapt to her environment."

"And they’ll grow even stronger as time passes, so obviously their place is guaranteed... Elena, possibly I won’t be here when this happens, so I want them to be treated equally to everyone in most things."

"In other words, they must not break rules or think they are above everyone, because I don’t want rebellious daughters causing damage to what I’ve built. Therefore, if they make mistakes, they must be punished accordingly," I say, already thinking about what to do.

"Pandora, you talk as if you’re going far away? What are you planning?" Elena asks curiously while I think if I should tell her.

"Elena, I plan to fight the Goddess of Humans, but I’m nowhere near powerful enough for that... so I plan to go to the Abyss soon. I have the means to enter there using a skill, and I know I need this..."

"When I enter, I will try to find my mother and I will strengthen myself to the maximum... but before that, I must free my older sister from her seal," I say with a smile.

"...Ah... so... you’re not..." Elena seems sad.

"Don’t worry, Elena, I won’t abandon this planet! Too much of what matters to me is here. I have my servants and friends like you, I have Zephyra, Delphina, Mikael... and even Grimm is here, along with the fact that my children are here."

"However, I don’t know how long I will spend in the Abyss. It will probably be many years... but I will return as soon as possible. So I will leave you in charge of my castle... and I will try to create a countermeasure to maintain order here." When I leave the planet, I’m sure problematic things will happen.

So I must create some countermeasure that will prevent troublesome people from bothering what I’ve built.

"Pandora, then I..." Before Elena can speak, I place my finger on her lips.

"Elena, there’s something I’ve been practicing. Do you want to be part of it now? I have some free time for now. I have paperwork to look at, but I’ll leave it for later since I still have two weeks to do whatever I want," I ask with a smile.

"Of course, whatever you wish," she says.

"But you might die, for real..." I say as she tenses up.

"My Phoenix Blessing is active. If I die, I will revive. And even if I were to die forever, if it is your wish, I will do it," she says as I smile at her.

"Great... yes... I’ve been testing something, Elena. I have a skill that allows me to evolve monsters. With this skill, all I’ve managed to do was evolve Shogo, but I hadn’t evolved anything else..."

"However, while I was at war, I was also thinking about how to do this, and I think I figured out how to evolve things besides monsters, and I want to test it on you. If you evolve, your power should increase considerably," When I say this, she seems excited.

"I want to try!!" she says as I pat her head.

"Great, then drink this." I pull a vial from the shadows. I think it will work, and if it does, I could evolve thousands of demons and make the demon race even more powerful.

"..." Elena drinks the potion as I grow anxious to proceed. As soon as Elena drinks it, her body glows faintly.

"Elena, this potion makes your body simulate some of the parameters of a monster! You aren’t a monster, but this potion makes you reach various physical points that monsters possess! In other words, you have temporarily become a [False Monster] who theoretically has the parameters to evolve."

"Are you ready to become very strong?" I say with overflowing joy. If this works, I can fix Elena’s body and make her strong enough for her family to no longer see her as a failure.

"Yes..." She is trembling, but I don’t know if it’s from nervousness or excitement.

[Ruler of Monsters]

"..." I use the skill on her. I quickly feel my mana being drained. Elena writhes, falling to the floor clutching her heart. She grips the floor tightly, creating cracks.

"..." She looks like she wants to scream as I see blood dripping onto the floor, until her body begins to change. Wings start to grow in pairs until they become large, giving her four wings.

Her tail grows, splitting at the tips, while her horns grow from her forehead, becoming large, as I feel Elena’s power triple, making her much stronger.

Her body grows to 185 centimeters. She looks at me and I see her eyes turning a dark blue like the depths of the ocean, while her pale skin seems to gleam slightly.

Her breasts grow a bit while her figure becomes more seductive and mature, to the point where [Charm] affects me, making me aroused, which is absurd.

"..." She stands up, looking at her body in enchantment.

"P-Pandora... I..." Before she can speak, I collapse to the floor feeling an infernal pain in my head.

[The System is furious! You have broken natural laws that you should not have broken! The System is punishing you for causing a member of the demon race to evolve, which goes against the balance.

Only monsters can and should evolve. By breaking this rule, your punishment has been decided. You will lose the skill [Ruler of Monsters], but considering your Goddess status, other punishments like the removal of your current Level 100,000 ended up being nullified.

Therefore, the only punishment will be the permanent loss of the skill [Ruler of Monsters] and a warning not to attempt this again, or you may receive even worse punishments.]

"H-Huh?" I look confused at this message. I quickly open my status and look at the skill, seeing what is written.

Ruler of Monsters - As the ruler of monsters, you have met the necessary requirements to help monsters evolve upon reaching certain parameters. [Skill Permanently Lost due to violation of divine rules]

’W-What!!? I-I could have lost my current level just for evolving Elena?’ I finally realize how dangerous this was. I’ve been punished by the system before, but never a punishment this severe.

"P-Pandora, are you okay?" Elena crouches down to my height, worried.

"...I’m fine, I just... used too much magic," I say, disappointed. I lost the Ruler of Monsters skill, and I had finally figured out what parameter makes monsters evolve.

"...Elena, I want to be alone..." I heard a voice... it was a strange voice, somewhat distorted, and I didn’t understand what it said, but it didn’t seem at all pleased with the fact that I evolved Elena.

’Elena didn’t lose her evolution... should I consider that a good thing?’ The system only punished me, but it didn’t seem to have touched Elena, making it clear that I was the only one in the wrong here.

’This is the first time the system has taken something from me... it was... disturbing...’ I didn’t like it. It was painful in a [Spiritual] way, as if it were directly touching my soul to tear the skill away from me.

It was... a sensation as if a hand had grabbed a piece of my existence and pulled that piece out because I had overstepped the boundaries.

’This is why Goddesses don’t break rules...’ I always found it strange why the Goddesses didn’t break the system’s rules, for example, the level limit of races. Each race cannot surpass its level limit.

But the Goddesses, with all their power, should be able to create beings with higher levels, yet they still obeyed the system, and now the reason is explained.

’The system can take away skills, and even make levels drop to 0...’ The system didn’t mean it would make me lose the potential to reach 100 billion levels.

It just meant that if I weren’t a Goddess, it would make my status jump from my current level of 100,000 down to 0, forcing me to level up all over again by myself, which would be terrible.

’It’s... like... a game administrator?’ It seems like the punishment a game administrator would give, like you broke the rules so your account gets [reset], forcing you to start over.

’I must be more careful... I must not break any more rules...’ I admit I was thinking about other rules to break. I didn’t know about the punishments, but now that I know, I won’t try to break rules anymore.

"This is crazy..." I slump into my chair looking at my status. Everything is the same except for the removed skill, which now has that text in front of it.

"Should I be grateful that only this was taken?... What a shame... now that I knew how to do it, I could have made the demons absurdly strong... but it seems existence itself doesn’t want the races evolving... shit..."

"If I had known I could only do it once, I would have evolved Zephyra..." I start imagining an even hotter Zephyra.

"Or... I could have evolved myself..." Although I don’t even know if I can evolve, but since Elena evolved, it might work.

’At least Elena seemed very happy with her new form... she is now strong and even more beautiful...’ Her Charm affected me, and with our level difference, that’s absurd. It means she can probably seduce like 97% of all beings on this planet if she tries.

’I must keep an eye on rules I’m close to breaking...’