"As you suspected."

Souei stood on a cliff, gazing at the barren land under the scorching sun, devoid of grass or trees. "Everything's gone... plants, trees, all of it."

"So, Hungerer has awakened."

This confirmed Damien's timeline estimate.

'Rimuru took months to leave the labyrinth after reincarnating.'

'He then tamed Goblins, Direwolves, met Benimaru's group after the Moderate Harlequin Alliance wiped out their village, and soon faced the Orc invasion.'

Damien pegged the current time as roughly six months before the main plot, with Veldora still around.

But the insect monsters, absent from the original story, made him wary of relying on it entirely.

The real world had butterfly effects.

Damien doubted events would unfold exactly as written.

"Souei."

"Here, my lord!"

"Go to the Lizardmen's territory, inform them of the Orcs' changes, and propose an alliance."

Damien aimed to unite all the forest's monsters, each a vital Magicule source, not to be lost like in the original story.

"As you command!"

Souei, ever efficient, headed to the Lizardmen's stronghold.

'This is tricky.'

Realizing the timeline, Damien felt a twinge of concern, which Snow Empress noticed.

"Master, what's wrong?"

After a moment, Damien shared his intel. "Someone's plotting behind the scenes, with strong foes lurking. It's unsettling."

Rimuru's early antagonist, a minor villain turned power benchmark, was Clayman, one of the Ten Demon Lords.

Despite his poor showing in the original story, easily defeated by Rimuru, Clayman was still a Demon Lord.

Here, "Demon Lord" meant a Demon Lord Seed with a territory and army, claiming the title.

At a Demon Lord meeting, if unopposed, you were a Demon Lord.

"Clayman and the Demon Lords... are they strong?"

Eager for a challenge, Snow Empress itched to test herself against them.

"Seven of the Ten Demon Lords are True Demon Lords."

"The other three are between Demon Lord Seed and True Demon Lord, with Clayman the weakest."

"His Magicules are probably around 400,000."

Magicules weren't everything, so even now, Damien could potentially face Clayman.

Snow Empress and Ogerpon, both A+, could outmatch typical Special A-ranks.

But that wasn't enough.

"I'm not worried about Clayman, but the Moderate Harlequin Alliance behind him."

"Clayman's the weakest member of the Alliance."

"Every other member matches a Demon Lord's power."

Frankly, Damien would be crushed by any Harlequin.

Fortunately, they stayed hidden.

A conflict's commotion would draw other Demon Lords' attention.

Yuuki Kagurazaka wouldn't reveal himself now.

"Each one has Demon Lord-level power?"

Snow Empress was shocked, increasingly convinced following Damien was her best decision. "Intriguing!"

"There'll be a chance."

Damien said, "If things go south, I'll use Planeswalker to take us to another world."

With Planeswalker as a fallback, the worst case was retreating to grow stronger and return for revenge.

"Time to explore a new world after settling things here."

Being targeted felt awful, and Damien loathed schemers in the shadows. "Even if they're not after us specifically, if they're destined enemies, there's nothing to discuss."

Walking Rimuru's path meant facing Rimuru's foes.

"The Orcs' intel is secured."

"Treyni's guiding the Goblin recruitment."

Damien wasn't worried about Sakurako's team with the Goblins.

Treyni could summon the Elementals Lord of Wind; even if Harlequins were in the forest, they wouldn't dare provoke her.

"How are Benimaru and Hakurou doing?"

Damien knew little about this world's Tengu.

"Tengu?"

Snow and Ice Empresss perked up. "What are those? Some spirit?"

"No."

Damien clarified, "They're more like winged angels."

Long ago, angelic spirits merged with mutated Mountain Wolves, birthing the Tengu.

Not literally long-nosed, they wore red long-nose masks, with white or black wings, dubbed Tengu for their arrogance.

Three hundred years ago, the Tengu chief, Kaede, trained under Hakurou's master, Byakuya Araki, alongside Hakurou.

They fell in love, conceiving a daughter, Momiji, from the original story.

Tengu pregnancies were long; Kaede took three hundred years to birth Momiji, passing most of her Magicules to her.

Stronger monsters rarely reproduced, as it harmed them.

Offspring inherited significant parental power, even felling the Star Dragon King.

With Hakurou's ties to the Tengu and Benimaru's potential for a marriage alliance like the original story, Damien saw a strong chance to win their loyalty.

If needed, he'd take on their feud with Frey.

Frey might outmatch Clayman but not the Harlequins.

Damien was confident he'd grow too strong for Frey to challenge before any conflict arose.

***

Bonus Chapter:

100 Power Stones = 1 BC

300 Power Stones = 2 BC

500 Power Stones = 3 BC

700 Power Stones = 4 BC For original chapters go to novel※fire.net

1000 Power Stones = 5 BC

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