Never again

[23rd day]

I woke up in the viewing cave.

It was now my home. What can I say? I just loved the view that much.

The scenery was blissful today, and it looked as though the sun was going to be out all day.

I did my cultivation last night for the first time since I came back, and my stats were looking like...

[Name: Alex] [Age: 28]

[Species: Unique Demon (low Baron rank)]

[Agility: 4]

[Strength: 4]

[Intelligence: 6]

[Mana: 2.4]

[Magic: Moon Magic, Stage: Infant]

[Bloodline techniques: mental clarity, LVL 3]

[Overall grade: F++]

My mana had gone up by 0.2, just like last night.

My mental clarity also levelled up, which kept me nice and calm.

Most of the time anyway.

Otherwise, my stats have not grown. It seemed the mad demon state reversed its stat increase once over. What a shame?

Lately I had been feeling down. I felt unmotivated and sad. Like what I was consistently in my previous life.

In a state of just wasting my time doing nothing important.

I wanted to sleep more and more and felt less and less motivated to cultivate at night.

My citizens were all nice and hardworking, but through their laughs and faces, all it brought me were traumas.

There was this new citizen with blue hair who I could not even look at.

The only reason I don't want to break down was probably from my mental clarity technique.

I was stuck in a bottle and could not escape.

Today I had teaching of another set of 5 students.

They would be from us completing the medium mission that will be set in a second.

*Notification*

Ah, here it is now.

[Missions available: 3]

[Mission 1: Gather supplies]

[Details: Gather materials from the surroundings to make your workhouse.]

[Reward: workhouse blueprint]

[Difficulty: Easy]

[Time limit: Infinite]

[Mission 2: Build 1 workhouse]

[Details: A workhouse is a building with 5 or more workbenches inside.]

[Reward: 5 more citizens immediately.]

[Difficulty: Moderate]

[Time limit: 1 week]

[Mission 3: Conquer]

[Details: Capture 1 person's citizen pole]

[Reward: Beginner help book.]

[Difficulty: Hard]

[Time limit: 1 month]

Great, I should be most of the way done already, just need to accept both of the mission.

Accept mission 1 and 2

[Mission 1 and 2 accepted]

[Time remaining to complete mission 1 is Infinite]

[Time remaining to complete mission 2 is 1 week]

Okay, let's get to work.

4 hours later, we get it all done and I complete both missions.

Now was finally the time for me to teach the new citizens, but first I need to accept them.

I run over to my pole's location and find 5 people standing there

I look over their stats to find 2 high demons and 1 regular demon!

What a gain from just a medium difficulty mission.

Seeing them bow on site to me was nice. It seemed unlike Dante; they were not as dumb.

"Good to see you knew citizens, and I welcome you to my kingdom. Here you will train and prepare for battles for the future and also build a city the likes never seen before.

I have grand ambitions, and I plan to complete them.

Here you will gain status, wealth, and freedom, you will only need to fight for it. That is all I ask of you.

Can you, you and you come with me for an extra chat? The other 2 can join Dante over there", I point to the place Dante was working.

Once those 2 had the runoff, I looked over my new high-grade citizens.

First, the higher demons:

Damsel was the first one. She had purple hair and pure white skin; the 2 horns and red eyes complemented her beauty, and she was by far the most attractive female demon I had ever seen.

Lexus was the next. He had yellow hair and dark grey skin. He seemed childish if any word could describe him. He was 22 on inspection, yet his cheeky grin and uncomfortable fidgeting gave the idea he was 12.

Not like I would mess with either. Both had just the same number of physical stats (STR and AGI) so I knew they could pack a pretty punch.

The regular demon, though the weakest of the people here, looked the most mature. He had wrinkles in his face and his name was Moyer, he also was, hold on.

I looked closer at the guy and noticed he had his eyes closed.

How had I not noticed before and how did he know I pointed at him?

I double checked his stats and found he had a technique called 6th sense. Was I blind? How did I not see this before?

I skimmed through to be fair to myself, but I was still disappointed.

But I was also really excited I had this new citizen. Could I potentially learn this 6th sense skill?

Realising I was just staring at them whilst in thought, I snapped back into reality and began my speech.

"Hello upper and regular demons, unlike the lower demons, I will teach you earth magic soon enough. With this comes more power but also more responsibility.

But before I get ahead of myself, may I ask for your names?"

Not like I don't already know them.

After I get their introductions I continue, "Like I said, I will teach you, Lexus, Damsel and Myer, earth magic. Earth magic is a magic I conceptualised whilst studying the earth and once you imagine earth, you will get an attribute of magic corresponding to that image.

Why am I telling you this now? Because I need diligent workers and I need comrades.

I will begin training tomorrow at 3pm, so make sure you go to the viewing cave and if you need directions, please inquire to Dante over there.

Thank you for listening and I hope you serve the kingdom well."

Wow, that was an odd speech. I really am not getting better at this. I look at their responses and they were all positive, so I stopped worrying about it.

Oh well, if they liked it, that's all that matters.

What do I do now?

I looked around to see Dante busy and the only lower demon in the Training ground.

No, I shouldn't bully them.

So, I went to have a nap before I would cultivate for the night.

It was a nice and successful day.

Easy and had no difficulty apart from the work.

No, I was complacent. I needed to train more, so I did some lone sword training.

Simple slashes and cuts at the wall in my cave was what I did. Some may say it's ineffective, but I felt my form improve, so that's good.

I hated the fact I was weak and complacent. I was still lazy from my past life, but this life I swore to be more active. I wanted to win, and I was working hard for it.

But it was never enough. I was feeling stressed.

No, I needed to keep moving, so that no one would die again. Push harder, work harder, so I never have to experience the pain again.

I didn't want to be alone again.

Tears fell down my worn-out cheeks as my sword cut through the stone.

Never again.

Never again.

Never again.

Was what I repeated in my mind to keep myself focused