In the vast lands of the nether realm, a white fox casually flew in the sky, its pure cream white fur a bright contrast to the valley of black rocks that they were passing by right now.
The fox was in a particularly happy mood, and so was the person lying peacefully on its back.
"Hmmm? What did those two do? Did they perhaps overdo it?" Liam grinned in amusement as he looked at the last message from Abraki.
[Bro, you are God! Congratulations! The whole world wants to join your guild!]
He chuckled lightly and then closed the interface.
In reality, as soon as he started the guild, he already knew that these sorts of problems would begin to crop up from the woodwork.
Until they established themselves as a legitimate guild with a strong base, these issues would not be easy to root out and continue to emerge.
Liam knew about these things as he had already seen several guilds rise and fall with the tides of time.
It was still a long way for their guild to shape up, if at all.
Just as he was thinking about this…
"Hmmm…?" Liam suddenly stiffened and sat up. "Luna, slow down. Stop here."
In front of him, between two huge rocks, there was a small group of creatures.
They had long pointed ears and huge feet and hands with a thin body frame.
They looked like goblins and were thin and short but their features were different from that of a goblin.
"Imps?" Liam narrowed his gaze and observed the group carefully.
[Demonic Imp; Level 13]
[Demonic Imp; Level 14]
[Demonic Imp; Level 10]
…
…
…
…
Without any exception, all the creatures in front of him were lower-level imps.
Liam was already familiar with these creatures and was also very interested in them.
This was because, unlike the other demons he had come across so far, these imps belonged to a pure demon breed.
They were not a beast hybrid like most demons, and their bloodlines were probably not contaminated.
More importantly, just like the lesser dryads, these imps were also able to cast fire magic.
Ever since he forged the souls of the lesser dryads, Liam had been wanting to forge another similar creature and hone his skill.
So, these imps were just what he needed to train!
Liam looked at the imps and then back at Luna. If they landed right now, he probably wouldn't be able to use all of them.
So he decided to follow the little fox's technique.
"Luna, head to the village we just crossed a while back. Do it fast."
Kyuuuu!
The fox bobbed her head and then zoomed to the location in a jiffy.
Liam quickly hopped off from her outside the village and went in all by himself.
He then returned back in a couple of minutes and in his hand, there was a huge cage.
Who was this cage for? The white fox cocked her head and looked at him curiously.
Liam grinned. "You have some work to do."
A few minutes later, the duo was back in the same valley. Liam jumped to the ground and Luna dashed ahead to take care of business.
Within seconds, the group of imps was banged up, shoved in the cage, and brought back with only a gift wrap missing.
"Good girl." Liam smiled and patted her head.
He then sat down to start his work.
Now that he had the guild matters somewhat sorted out, at least momentarily, he wanted to focus on the most important task at hand.
Liam knew that he would only be a fool if he delayed his progress any more even after knowing the self-regenerative property and growth potential of his soul undead.
He needed to focus on forging. He simply needed to forge more and then some more.
Quality, quantity, type, he had so much to experiment with and improve.
And because they had the ability to grow with him, the sooner he achieved this, the better it was for unlocking their full strength.
In fact, he did not have any time to waste.
"Come out," Liam murmured, and his small army of soul undeads instantly emerged.
There were chickens, rabbits, wolves, bears, and dryads.
It took a second for Liam to take in the presence of this very diverse group.
He let out a small sigh and then looked at Luna. Her next task was ready. "You know what to do."
Kyuuuuuu!
[Yes, Master]
"Be careful. We don't know this place well. So stay close and don't wander too far."
The fox nodded, rubbing her head up and down on Liam's shoulder, and then ran away to do her bidding.
The other soul undeads also promptly followed her.
Liam silently watched the group disappear behind some rocks and let out another deep breath. "Time to get to work."
He then looked at his cage of imps. They were screeching and clawing, trying to break free. The whole cage was rattling.
However, Liam did not care about that. He opened the cage and reached forward to grab a single imp.
He took a beating, but it was barely a scratch on his health.
On the other hand, he only needed a single punch to end the imp's life.
Liam quickly sat down and tried his best to focus on the small soul bead that popped out of the dead imp.
Argh. He could already feel a burden on his mind just sensing this soul bead.
Just like the lesser dryads, he could tell that this one as well was not going to be easy to handle.
However, that did not matter because he was now in the nether realm and not in the Xion realm.
"Come on!" Liam grunted and commanded the thick nether in the air to condense to form hundreds of tiny black hammers.
He then forced all the hammers to thrum with life and made them bang the small soul bead up and down repeatedly.
DANG. DANG. DANG. DANG.
The thundering of the hammers echoed loudly, filling the entire place, but Liam was far too occupied to hear it.
"Damn it. Why is it still so difficult!"
He clenched his hand and used all of his mental focus to concentrate and continue forging the soul bead.
Based on everything that he had learned so far, Liam came to a logical conclusion.
He had made prior calculations and then started this forging, but now it looked like all the logic was out of the window.
Forging this damned thing was still ridiculously difficult!
"Why? What am I missing?" Liam gritted his teeth and tried his best to persevere. However, he couldn't hold on any longer after a few seconds.
Seeing that he had no other option, he once again fished out a fire essence crystal from his inventory space.
Even though he did not want to, it looked like he needed to rely on this.
Liam tossed the crystal up into the air and then caught it back in frustration, absorbing everything that was present in the stone.
The stone dissolved, and a wisp of energy floated across him. Almost immediately, his eyes widened in surprise!
"What the heck? Why is this effect so instantaneous?"
The soul bead that he was struggling to forge up until now was just like that no longer stiff and sturdy.
It became soft and malleable making it easy for him to finish the rest of the forging.
Only a few more seconds passed when the notification also popped up.
[Ding. Soul Forging Successful]
Liam flashed his eyes open to see the familiar bluish white soul bead with a tinge of yellow orange hue spread across it.
The bead then disappeared as the ghost of an imp emerged in its place.
Grug. Grug. Grug.
The soul undead grunted and gazed at Liam, waiting for his command.
Just as it lifelessly looked at him, he also stared at it blankly for a minute, trying to understand what just happened.
"Attack that rock," Liam muttered in contemplation.
Grug. Grug. Grug.
The imp dragged its scrawny body and tossed a small ball of fire.
Its casting speed was faster than the dryad's but clearly, the damage capacity of the attack was a lot lesser.
Liam already expected this because while an imp fought with a quick succession of fire attacks, dryads tended to be cannons that delivered big hits.
So the forging was indeed successful. There was no doubt about it.
From whatever angle he looked at the imp, it was a perfect replica, just like the imps in the cage.
It also seemed to be capable of doing magic and its level was also Level 11 which almost mirrored its original level.
So no matter how he analyzed it, the forging was very successful. However, Liam was still not satisfied.
What he did not understand was… why did he need a fire essence crystal even though they were in the nether realm currently?
This was supposed to be his strong point!
He was strongest in all aspects when he was in the nether realm. So why was this particular forging still proving to be difficult?
"What am I missing?" Liam quietly pondered.