Strongest Mage with the Lust system

Chapter 706  Interesting

”Sir, um, Overlord, maybe you pushed yourself too much just now.” A man, who seemed to be around the same age as Mark—his late elder brother—said, ”If you donʼt mind, you can come with us to rest. We would like to thank you properly and treat you to some fine wine.”

Others looked at Max with looks of emancipation. All of them were grateful to him and wanted to form some sort of connection to him while also thanking him. Who wouldnʼt? He was, after all, such a talented young man who, even when in the Four Star realm, could fight king realm beings. To their disappointment, however, Max shook his head, ”I appreciate the thought, but I canʼt. Need to kill some more demons and gain war merits.”

Saying this, he bid them farewell and rushed away.

Right when he was approaching another group fighting the demons…

BOOM!

Another explosion rumbled through the sky. Some other demons had self-detonated.

Max narrowed his eyes. ʼJust what is going on? Why are they being so ruthless?ʼ

The same question everyone else, including the emperors watching over the battlefield, had in their mind. Even they couldnʼt understand why the demons were acting like this.

In the war temple, Tristen, Verana, and Alton were sitting in a room. ”You said the first wave of demons you faced when coming here was the horned demons, right?” Verana asked, ”And they were prepared to die?”

”Yeah.” Alton nodded.

Verana rubbed her temples in worry. ”Just what is going on in their minds? They usually use this tactic when they fall into a disadvantageous position near the end of the war, but they are already doing it now.”

”Even weirder is the fact the horned demon tribe is doing the suicide bombing.”

Tristen and Altonʼs brows creased at her words in worry. Usually, the weakest tribes, which only had a few Five Star demons at the helm, would self-destruct, and the horned demon tribe, by no means, was such a tribe. So, their strange actions were worrying.

Alton hesitated a little before saying, ”Maybe the rumors are true…”

Both Veranaʼs and Tristenʼs expressions hardened. After a few moments of silence, Verana sighed as she stood up to leave, ”Letʼs hope they are not. Otherwise… the chaos will be much more than we can handle.”

Before leaving, she said, ”Inform the mages about the countermeasures available in the resource exchange hall.”

…

Max would leave if he saw the mages could deal with the demons, and if he thought they wouldnʼt be able to, he would forcefully interfere and kill the demons.

By the time the last demons died, he had killed several dozen Four Star demons and over twenty Five Star demons—nine peak Five Star, six high-stage Five Star, and the rest early and mid-stage—and earned a grand total of 98,000 merits. He couldʼve earned more if he hadnʼt left some of the Five Star demons in the lower stages for the mages to kill. He didnʼt do this because he was afraid or something, but because he knew just as he needed merits, others also needed them.

Just then, Altonʼs voice sounded in everyoneʼs heads.

[As you have seen, the demons arenʼt hesitating to sacrifice themselves to kill as many of you as they can. Iʼm sure many of you must be worried because most of you canʼt survive a Five Star demonʼs core detonation if you are not prepared for it.]

[We have faced such situations in previous wars and have already prepared some countermeasures. You can find them in the Formation, Artifact, and Talisman sections in the resource exchange hall.]

[Since the demons usually resort to this core detonation tactic a lot later in the war, people usually have gathered quite a bit of the merits and can easily afford these special countermeasures, but you guys canʼt as they are quite expensive.]

After saying this, he paused, causing everyone to start worrying about the lack of merits. But then his voice sounded again, a hint teasing.

[Oh, sorry. Something came up. So, where was I? Yeah, they are very expensive, and since we know most of you donʼt have enough merits yet, we have used our limited authority to subsidize them. For the next three days, you can buy them at half the price.]

Swoosh! Swoosh!

As soon as he was done speaking, everyone started rushing toward the war temple.

Max was among them. Although he didnʼt need any countermeasures since he had the Death and Nascent energy, Lily, Emily, and Sera would need them because he couldnʼt be with them at all times.

While rushing, he didnʼt forget to send the trio a message stating he was going to buy those countermeasures for them, so they didnʼt need to worry and could calmly continue their cultivation.

Emily, Lily, and Sera were indeed worried after Alton spoke to them because they had already spent their war merits earlier. So, when they got Maxʼs message, a beautiful smile bloomed on their faces.

Martha waited in front of the formation house for a while for them to come out, but when they did not, she frowned.

”Are they not coming out?” Pauline asked as she walked over to her side. Kriss, Armand, and others also came.

”It seems so.” Martha nodded.

”They must have spent all their merits earlier.” Pauline said, sighing, ”My people and I did the same and now canʼt buy those countermeasures. Only if we knew we would need them so soon, sigh.”

”Since you have no merits left, why did you come out? Shouldnʼt you have continued your cultivation?” Martha asked, looking at her with interest, a small smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

Pauline shrugged. ”I was curious to see what these countermeasures are. So, I came out.”

Suddenly thinking of something, she asked, ”You have merits left, right?” She then turned to Kriss, Armand, and three others from Marthaʼs group, ”What about you all?”

”I didnʼt spend all of it, so I still have some.” Kriss nodded while Armand and others shook their heads, causing Pauline to frown, ”Then why are you here? Go, and culti–”

Swoosh!

Suddenly, her words got caught in her throat when Armand enveloped her in his aura.

ʼOh shit. I forgot they are a lot stronger than me.ʼ She grimaced before putting on a flattering look on her face.

”Um, what I meant was that you seniors shouldnʼt have halted your cultivation since you didnʼt have any merits left.”

Hmph!

Armand hurrumped before retracting his aura. Pauline sighed in relief and patted her chest while reminding herself to think before speaking for the billionth time in her life.

Suddenly, she noticed Kriss looking at her with interest, which made her frown and say, ”What are you staring at me so creepily for, Martell?”

She knew Kriss was stronger than her, but since their cultivation and ages were similar, she wasnʼt as afraid of him.

Kriss panicked for the briefest moment before regaining his composure. He then said, ”Miss Fuller, if you like, I can lend you some merits to buy those countermeasures.”

Paulineʼs cold expression immediately softened upon hearing his words, but she shook her head, ”No. If I take yours, you wonʼt have enough left for yourself.”

”Donʼt worry about it. I will have more than enough.” Kriss smiled.

Pauline hesitated. She knew since he could kill a demon king, he must have killed quite a few other demons and earned a substantial amount of merits; she didnʼt want to receive any favor from him and complicate things between them because even though the Fuller and Martell families werenʼt enemies, they werenʼt friends either. If something happened to set them against each other, she wouldnʼt know how to treat him.

But…

She also wanted to buy the countermeasures, if not for her, for her people. Many of them had already lost their lives, and she didnʼt want the rest of them to die too.

Kriss, realizing why she was hesitating, smiled and calmly said, ”There is no need to think too much about it, Miss Fuller. Just treat it as me loaning them to you. When you return them, just pay me a little more as interest.” Paulineʼs eyes lit up. ”Right. I can do that.” She nodded before taking out her merit plate, ”Alright, lend me half of what you have then. If I can buy something with them, fine; if not, Iʼll return them to you and you can buy them.”

Kriss nodded and placed his merit plate against hers before transferring half of his merits.

”So many? And these are just half of what you had left after spending earlier?” Paulineʼs eyes widened when she saw how many merits he transferred to her.

[War Merits: 60,000]

Kriss smiled and said, ”Shall we go now?”

”Of course. Letʼs go, princess.” Pauline said and started running toward the war temple. Kriss followed after her like her shadow.

Marthaʼs eyes flickered, and her lips curled up in a thoughtful smile as she watched them leave, ”Fullersʼ young miss and Martellsʼ heir… how interesting!”