Chapter 43

A Change in State

"Onii-chan! Onii-chan! Get up! It's morning already!"

A voice called out to me as I comfortably drifted in and out of sleep . Though my consciousness was hazy, I could still somehow make out the words that were being said .

"Nrrggh…" I groaned .

"Come on! Hurry up and get up already!"

The voice was that of a young girl's . It was so pleasant to the ear that it almost sounded angelic .

"Just give five more minutes…"

"No! You have to get up now, Onii-chan! Leila's already done making breakfast!"

In fact, it was so heavenly that I felt like it was slowly lulling me back to sleep .

"Nrrggghhhh…"

My body sudden began to jerk back and forth right as I was about to drift off to dreamland .

"Onii-chan!"

"Okay, okay, fine . I'll get up, so stop shaking me already . "

I groaned again before opening my eyes . Illuna's shaking had forced me awake, regardless of whether I liked it or not .

Ugh… I'm still so sleepy…

I groggily yawned as I raised the upper half of my body off the throne room's floor .

Wait, why's it so warm?

There was a really comfortable patch of warmth to my left, so I looked over and tried to identify it .

"Oh . It was Lefi . "

The dragon girl was sleeping right by my side . One of her hands had made its way toward me and grabbed ahold of my shirt . The look she had on her face could only be described as innocent . Seeing it made it hard for me to think of her as anything but a girl in her early teens .

Oh yeah, she made me play with her until the crack of dawn last night .

Lefi had kept losing . She got more and more indignant with every round, so she continued challenging me throughout the night . She kept playing until she was literally too tired to continue . Neither of us had had enough energy to make our way over to our beds, so we'd passed out on the spot .

"Get up Lefi . It's morning . "

"Come on, wake up . It's time to eat . "

"Just… 17 more years…"

That's an oddly specific number .

"Geez! Get up already Onee-chan! You're gonna miss breakfast!"

Illuna realized that Lefi wasn't listening to her, so she did to the Supreme Dragon the exact same thing she did to me . That is, she grabbed her by the shoulders and started to gently shake her back and forth .

"Ugh…" Lefi groaned . "I get it, I get it already . Stop shaking me . "

I couldn't help but smile wryly at the fact that her reaction was more or less identical to my own .

Once Lefi let go of my shirt, I got up and started to stretch . Sleeping on the floor had not been a good idea . My body was stiff and I hurt in all sorts of places . Worst off was my shoulder, so I started to rotate it in wide arc in order to loosen it up .

God damn it Lefi . I know you hate to lose, but can't you at least like, get better before trying to beat me? We had to keep playing all night because you couldn't pull off a win .

"Hmmm? You’re kinda looking cooler than usual today, Onii-chan . " Illuna curiously tilted her head as she looked at me .

"Huh? I am? Well uh… thanks, I guess . You're looking pretty cute yourself today, Illuna . "

"Ehehe . " She giggled . "Thanks!"

Illuna and I started walking towards the dining table set up in one of the throne room's corners . Lefi was trailing a bit behind us, still half asleep . She couldn't walk straight yet, so she kind of just ended up staggering along .

Lyuu was already sitting at the table and waiting for us . At first, she and Leila had both protested the idea of joining Lefi, Illuna and I at the table because they were our "servants," but I eventually managed to convince them otherwise . Though they were helping us with chores and stuff, I didn't really think of them as hired housekeepers . I felt that treating them that way was just far too cold .

"Mornin' Master . And you too Lefi," said Lyuu . "Wait, a sec . It is just me, Master, or do you kinda got this like different feel to you today?"

"Huh? I do?"

"For sure, but I dunno how I'm s'pposed to describe it . You're just… kinda different . "

I didn't really quite get what she meant .

"Good morning My Lord . Good morning Lefi . "

Like Lyuu, Leila also ended up awkwardly pausing as soon as she finished greeting us .

"Interesting," she said, her eyes gleaming with curiosity . She put down the plates she'd carried out of the kitchen and, without warning, brought her face right up to my own .

"W-What're you…"

My heart rate shot up . She was so close that I couldn't help but smell the feminine scent wafting off her body . Though I was certain she heard me, Leila didn't answer . She instead began to circle around me and examine me from all sorts of different angles . She remained totally silent throughout; the maid didn't start speaking again until she was looking me over .

"Have you perhaps undergone a racial evolution, My Lord?"

Though she'd phrased it like a question, her tone was conclusive . She seemed fairly confident that she'd hit the mark .

"Huh? Racial evolution? What's that?"

Leila explained to me that monsters, demihumans, and demons would go through a sort of metamorphosis after obtaining a certain amount of experience . In other words, leveling up enough would lead an individual ascending a step up their own evolutionary chain .

So it basically works the same way it does in P*kemon?

Monsters were the quickest to evolve . Demihumans and demons tended to require much more experience, so they almost never evolved until they were relatively high level .

With that knowledge in mind, I checked my stat page .

***

General Information

Name: Yuki

Race: Demon Lord

Class: Demon Lord of Judgement

Level: 35

HP: 2951/2951

MP: 10321/10321

Strength: 897

Stamina: 912

Agility: 804

Magic: 1132

Dexterity: 1409

Luck: 72

Skill Points: 6

Unique Skills

Magic Eye

Translation

Flight

Skills

Item Box

Analyze: Lv . VIII

Martial Arts: Lv IV

Primordial Magic: Lv IV

Stealth: Lv V

Enemy Search: Lv IV

Sword Arts: Lv I

Weapon Creation: Lv III

Endow Magic: Lv II

Art of Trapping: Lv I

Titles

Demon Lord from Another World

Supreme Dragon’s Owner

One Who Judges

One Hostile to Humanity

DP: 420131

***

"Huh . You're right . I did undergo a racial evolution . "

My class had changed from just Demon Lord to Demon Lord of Judgement . I was quite happy with the change, as my new class sounded much more badass . My race had switched from Archdemon to Demon Lord .

But why'd this suddenly happen? Oh, wait, duh… It must've been been all the people I killed last night .

I'd wiped out so many humans that I'd even got a title for it, but because I didn't personally end any of their lives, I didn't actually end up gaining any experience . My level hadn't changed . My stats, however, had . Most of them had been boosted drastically . My MP had even shot all the way past the ten thousand mark . The only stat that didn’t change was my luck .

But again, that didn't make sense . It wasn't me that'd done the killing . It was the dungeon .

Wait! That's it! The dungeon must've leveled up!

Humans were weak . Their deaths barely generated any DP . The dungeon didn't gain too much from absorbing a human's corpse either . But that said, there'd been a whole 400 of them . Added together, the humans had provided a significant boost to my DP, as evidenced by the fact that I was currently holding on to the most I'd ever had at any given point in time .

The dungeon had always been passively gaining DP because Lefi and many of the Wicked Forest's more powerful monsters were within its bounds . The DP gained last night must have finally pushed the total over some sort of threshold and caused the dungeon to grow . And since the dungeon and I were linked, I'd grown as well .

It made perfect sense .

I made a mental note to check to see if the dungeon had gained any new features once I was done with my meal .

"I see," Leila nodded . "I presume that means Demon Lords evolve quickly, which likens them more to monsters than demihumans and demons . But wait, what if the demon lord was but a part of the dungeon and its systems? If I were to think along those lines, then…"

Leila rambled under her breath as she looked at me as she would a lab rat .

"H-Hey Leila…? The way you're staring me down is kinda freaky . "

"Sorry, I do apologize . The phenomenon was so interesting that I forgot myself . "

So she thinks I'm an interesting phenomenon…? That's uh… discomforting .

I felt as if I was starting to see a whole new side to Leila .

"R-Right, no problem," I said . "Anyway, I'm surprised you guys could tell . I didn't even notice it myself . "

"It’s because you’re you, Onii-chan! It’s super easy to tell!" said Illuna .

"Us beastkin have got sharp senses, so it was real easy for me to notice that you were seemin' a bit different," added Lyuu .

I looked at the full-length mirrors I had propped up nearby and quickly examined my body . I didn't really know what they meant . I still didn't see it .

Maybe it's just something that's obvious to everyone but the person that it happens to .

"Oh well, whatever . Nevermind that, let's have ourselves some breakfast . "

We all sat down at the table and got ready to eat, but Lefi nodded off before we actually got around it . She'd somehow managed to retain a near perfect posture despite no longer being awake . The only thing that looked off was the position of her head, which'd dipped a bit in the forward direction .

"God damn it, Lefi…" I sighed .

"Oh come on Onee-chan! I told you it's time for breakfast!"

Illuna promptly shook her awake yet again .

"Ugh… Can I not just sleep? It is not as if we had anything planned for the day . "

"You can’t! You’ll end up getting as fat as a cow if you keep lazing around!"

Seeing Lefi get scolded by a girl far younger than her brought a smile to my face . And apparently, I wasn't the only one . Lyuu smiled wryly, while Leila allowed herself to adopt a bit of a grin .

And that was how the five us began yet another average day .