Asher had told him they had killed the Demon Lord many times in different bodies, but he could always take another body like a living parasite. It was not the flesh that was his target—but the soul. Damian had some plans about what he should prepare. Simply waiting or sleeping felt like a waste, so Damian took out his runic forge and all the tools and materials—starting experiments and putting his theories into real application.
He had sacrium armor, so he didn't need to work on that—some light-attribute weapons would help, though.
Before Damian knew it, engrossed in his work, the morning arrived and the whole city got to work—especially the pigmen warriors. All other civilians were also doing their best to help their soldiers. Each day, new recruits were led into the dungeon by experienced second-rankers to level up. Grace, Sariel, and Amy also helped in that regard.
Damian had given all his friends access to as much liquid mana as they possibly needed for operating all the Waygate devices he had made for reaching all the checkposts and forts they were building and arming with the help of over a million Black Emperor rank pigmen. He had heard the Legendary rank black pigman was the one who did the most work. The pigmen lords were really making the guy work. Building things was easy with them, but as Bloodedge had said, he couldn't control their actions with precision, and once in a while some black ones disobeyed or made things difficult—they had to put those down.
Still, the casualty count was not high, and all people beside the Black Army were always alert, so the work the Black Army did was more beneficial compared to the occasional slip-up.
Damian suddenly sensed a Waygate locking onto him. He immediately sensed who it was—Amy, and pigmen beside her along with Toph and Evante. They were back.
Damian let the Waygate connect and saw Amy and the second-ranker pigmen soldiers coming out one after another—not all in good shape. Using the Waygate was not easy on one's stomach. Only after constant use could one get used to it.
"Everything good back there?" Damian asked Amy as she dealt with the aftereffects of using the Waygate.
"Ah.. Damian, yes. Nothing notable. There was some talk about wars and stuff. Evante gave me this report they've compiled for you."
She gave him a few pages. They had been here for more than half a month now. That wasn't much time for Earth—still, he knew his absence was something the people of Earth were waiting for with bated breath, and given the chance, they had immediately sprung into action. Damian didn't concern himself much with Earth's business—he had done all he wanted to do there. He would go there in the future, but only after everything was done and he had time for leisure.
The report was all just news about what country was doing what, what they were preparing for the upcoming battle, and this and that. Damian skimmed through it and put it in his storage. Then he opened a wormhole from the top of the stone shrine back to the army camp. Amy nodded and led all the pigmen to their camp.
Once Damian was effectively hungry and the results of the experiments were not going as he needed, and he was feeling a bit stuck—he decided to take a break. He kept everything as it was and flew down towards the gate of the shrine, landing directly inside the stone palace. The pigmen in the street who saw him shouted his pigmen name, cheering loudly.
The things he had done for the army and the runic research of their people had spread throughout the city, and people were even more excited whenever they saw him than before. Damian had learned to ignore them by now.
He told the pigmen attendant, who was also his translator, to prepare food since it was lunchtime and to gather all humans that he could for it. The attendant asked to confirm that he really wanted to call all of them or not—without humans, the pigmen could not operate Waygate cubes. Well, Damian had given permission to the king and the two Transcendents along with a few powerful second-ranker warriors, but mostly it was humans who handled that task with their liquid mana containers.
Damian took a shower, changed his clothes—he had to choose the more open ones since his height and body size had grown slightly. Till now, no one had commented on his horns or changed appearance, but pigmen rarely questioned him about anything—they rarely even lifted their heads in front of him, always acting subservient.
Whenever he saw this, he felt a tinge of regret for the trouble he had brought to this land. Wallowing in regret wouldn't help any, and he knew it—which was why he believed in action over words and always worked towards his beliefs without wasting time explaining. He slowly made his way towards the room with the large dining table. The pigmen guards were always around him.
No one was inside. The food was already prepared, though. Damian had asked for an only-human meeting. The king and others should already know about it—not like he was hiding it from them. However, just as he was about to take a seat, Damian sensed the king along with Rurik heading his way with a group of high-level pigmen.
He waited, not starting his lunch. They came and said lots of things all at once. Then the king stopped the others, and only he spoke, the rest following behind one by one. The translator revealed they were there to congratulate him for becoming a Transcendent. Damian thanked them, and they left the room—the king even apologized for coming without any notice for the private meeting. Damian told him it was no big deal, no one was there yet.
Respecting his wishes, they let him be. The fancy room once again emptied out. Damian started to eat this time, though—not waiting for others.