Eldritch Creature's Guide

Citadel of the Zephystrand City, sometime later.

The Citadel of the Zephystrand City was looking as it always was, not touched by the combat or battle, and people living there, though mostly the servants were carrying out their duties like nothing was happening outside of the city.

The cleaning up of the battlefield was going smoothly, as the corpses of the Monstrous Spiders and other foul creatures were dragged away by a squad of the city\'s cleaners, who would be processing them and selling the materials to the Alchemists and other occupations who would make use of them.

After Samiel returned to the Citadel with Yvraine, he went to a meeting room where several people were already discussing some of the city\'s domestic affairs and how to deal with the aftermath of the Magical Beast invasion done by the Underdark\'s forces.

"Your Higness, Lord Zentaur."

Several people greeted them when they noticed them entering the room. After a short while, everyone returned back to what they were doing, as Samiel and Yvraine went to the Sarun Daragan so they could organize the teams to destroy the breeding lairs of the Monstrous Spiders and Ettercaps.

"Samiel here has found out the locations of all lairs where the Drows were breeding the Monstrous Spiders and Ettercaps; we need to destroy them as soon as possible."

Yvraine stated while Sarun\'s eyes immediately drafted towards her because this was the most crucial information they were after. Sarun knew that the moment the Monstrous Spider overpopulated their lairs or something else happened; they would leave and create new lairs.

And then, it would be extremely hard to find them all together, and it could be possible that they would become permanent inhabitants of the 3rd Floor, which would be annoying as hell, not to mention, some of the smaller and weaker settlements on the 3rd Floor would be overrun by the spiders for sure.

"Of course, we will instantly organize the hunting teams and destroy all of the lairs as soon as possible."

Answered Sarun Daragan immediately afterward because this was a critical matter that needed to be dealt with as soon as possible. The Monstrous Spiders and Ettercaps were not natural species to the 3rd Floors, but they were brought here down by the Drows directly from the Underdark.

If they overpopulated once more, then the situation would repeat itself several decades or centuries later, not to talk about the damage to the ecosystem they could cause. Mainly because they lacked any natural predators on the 3rd Floor, who would be hunting them down and maintaining the balance.

"How are the damages in the city?"

Yvraine questioned, curious about the state of the city right now after the Magical Beast invasion had ended. It was clear that while the city was in a good state, it still had sustained some kinds of damage, as the walls were breached on certain parts and some buildings were destroyed.

"Nothing much; we managed to keep them outside of the city for most of the part of the invasion, only a few houses and places were destroyed during when the breach happened, and that was all. On top of that, even our losses of lives were kept at a minimum."

Summarized the administrative officer as he looked through the stack of papers. Right now, there was a lot of work to do; considering that the invasion had ended, there were some slight damages to the city itself, not to mention the complicated and long process of disposal of everything from the battlefield.

"Ladies and Gentlement, if you now excuse me, I have some matters to attend to, so I will take up my leave."

Samiel then excused himself because he wanted to do some things, and he felt that his presence wasn\'t that necessary right now here, especially after he passed the Yvraine all information about the breeding lairs of the Monstrous Spiders and Ettercaps.

When he exited the meeting room, the first place where he went was to the outside of the Citadel, as he needed to find Estrid, who should have returned from the battlefield back to the city. Not even aware of how much money Samiel now made off her.

He had searched for her for about ten minutes already; in truth, Samiel hated waiting for someone like this, as he instructed Estrid to return to the Citadel when she finished killing all of the Draegloths, which were released onto the battlefield.

But clearly, she then joined the battlefield instead, but whatever.

In his mind, he was still thinking about the massive amount of money he would soon receive from the Daragan Family, as he made significant contributions to the defenses, not to mention he would also get a great cut from the cleaning up operation of the breeding lairs, as he provided all the locations.

"What the hell was taking you so long?"

Instantly seeing Estrid coming here, he adapted the usual strict facade he kept with her, not wanting her to realize something out of order. While Estrid seemed and behaved like an average muscle-headed thug, which was indeed partially the truth, she had a very keen mind.

There was a very small and slight possibility that she could sniff out that he would be making a tremendous amount of money on all of this and ask for her share, which Samiel wasn\'t planning to give her.

He was taking it as compensation for taking care of her and all the mental damage he suffered when he was dealing with an annoying dragon girl who constantly wanted either to fight him or mate with him.

"I was pursuing some of the enemies that managed to escape, mainly the drows... I wanted to eat more of them; they tasted good."

Samiel\'s brow twitched in anger, though he soon calmed down, hearing her reasons? They were very Estrid-like, something only she would come up with.

"Okey, you did the good works with the Draegloths, and I will make a note to report it further so that you can get some contribution points from the Hall. Dismissed."

Samiel stated, as he then left in relative haste.

Because Estrid was fulfilling his order at the defenses of the Zephystrand City against the Magical Beast Horde, she would get some contribution points from the Hall of Kadath due to it being seen as completing the mission issued by the Hall of Kadath itself.

Such was the perk of being the Holy Son of the Hall of Kadath that he could issue missions in times of need, which indeed came in handy in situations like this.

***

After the meeting with the high-ups of the Zephystrand City had ended and he dismissed Estrid of her duties, Samiel returned to his quarters to read the final notifications from the Akashic Records he got when the last Monstrous Spiders and Ettercap were killed.

[Advancement Quest: City Defense of Zephystrand

Description: Join the defense of the Zephystrand and help to defend the city for 10 years. However, the times can be shortened by achieving a higher kill count of Magical Beasts and other creatures that are attacking the city in periodical monster waves.

Status: Completed

Reward: Based on contribution]

[The Akashic Records are calculating rewards.]

[Samiel Zentaur has contributed to the defenses of the Zephystrand City by killing x23,587 Monstrous Spiders and x1,312 Ettercaps, x1 Drider.]

[Rewards have been calculated by the Akashic Records.]

[Samiel Zentaur has been awarded the Basic Principles of Necromancy Necrosis.]

[Samiel Zentaur has been awarded the Intermediate Principles of Necromancy Necrosis.]

[Samiel Zentaur can advance to the 4th Floor.]

Samiel read the notifications from the Akashic Records with a smile on his face, seeing that he got exactly what he wanted. Getting a Magic Grimoires as a form of reward from the Akashic Records is way beyond good, especially considering the fact he got something as rare as Basic and Intermediate Principles of Necromancy Necrosis.

With this, Samiel could learn Necromancy Arts up to the 5th Level Spells, which should last him through the entire Bronze-Tier, and get hands-on Grimoires filled with Advanced Magic, basically the 6th Level and 7th Level Spells.

"With this, I can basically conclude that Akashic Records should have copies of all Magic Grimoires and Magic Tomes within it if it could give it out as a form of reward."

Samiel muttered to himself as he held both Principles of the Necromancy Necrosis. Now, he could finally master higher levels of Magic, that he was approaching the Bronze-Tier, and on the Zephystrand, he wasn\'t able to buy anything above the Basic Level of Magic, truthfully.

Of course, that wasn\'t that surprising because the Grimoires and Magic Tomes were relatively rare and precious commodities and even though the Tower was rich in these kinds of things on the lower Floors, it was still a rare commodity.

And on top of that, he didn\'t really want to ask the Hall of Kadath to provide him with those, as that would be practically a waste of the contribution points for something like that, even though he was the Holy Son of the Hall of Kadath, he didn\'t have unlimited access to all resources.

After he inspected the Intermediate Principles of Necromancy Necrosis, he stored the grimoires in the Dimensional Ring before he went to the kitchens to make some of the food for the Nefertari to make her some good snacks.

Nefertari performed very well during the siege of the Zephystrand this time, so certainly, she deserved some of her favorite snacks. He decided to make her some dry meat sticks made from the meat of Silver-Tier Magical Beasts; she liked those ones very much because she could munch on them for several hours.

Like a meat lollipop.

He always rewarded her when she did a piece of a good job, like now, so he needed to prepare her some nice snacks.

***

After Samiel finished making the snacks for his familiar, he took all of the dried meat sticks and went to find Nefertari, whom he sensed sleeping on the roof garden of the Citadel, which was a place where almost nobody had access aside from the City Lord.

Naturally, Yvraine was an exception to this rule, and thus Samiel became one, and now Nefertari decided to take a nap there. Samiel soon arrived at the roofs of the Citadel, in the part where this concrete garden was located.

Because the entire Citadel was built on the enormous Tree of Life, even the garden which was built on the roofs of the Citadel or the part of the Citadel, the entire feeling of the garden was beautiful, like out of a fairy tale.

\'I brought you your favorite snacks.\'

Samiel said to Nefertari, who instantly woke up and appeared next to him so fast that he didn\'t even have time to react, as she started pushing her head against his own, trying to look cute. This was her strategy when she wanted to get some snacks or more food from him, and it succeeded with the most tried.

Her success rate was over 98% because Samiel couldn\'t resist the cute animals, especially cats, so Nefertari was getting a little bit chubby. Sometimes Samiel though that it would be prudent to put her on a diet.

\'Thank you, hooman.\'

Nefertari said as she got her hands on the several dried meat sticks and started munching on them, while Samiel sat next to her and started petting her, enjoying some time of peace for a moment.

When he sat like this, he realized that it was time to move to the higher floors because he already got everything he could on this Floor, and staying here for a prolonged amount of time; his progress would be hindered.

"So, here you were."

Samiel opened his eyes as he saw Yvraine standing before him. Yvraine was searching for him, the past half an hour, thinking that he once again cooped himself in some shady place with his Grimoires and Magic Tomes. Though this time, he was relaxing in the garden on the roofs of the Citadel, which was relatively unusual for him.

"Little one deserved the rewards for her feats on the battlefield."

He answered while she sat next to him.

"So, I take it that you decided to move higher?"

Yvraine asked as she leaned her head over his chest, and Samiel enjoyed her warmth and presence.

"Yes, it is time... while the time I spent here was wonderful, staying here for a prolonged time, it would be detrimental to my growth. Are you coming as well?"

He asked her.

"As always."

She answered, taking her head from his chest and looking straight into his eyes.

"I never liked when someone was looking into my eyes... it always made me uncomfortable."

Samiel stated after several seconds, not taking away his sight from Yvraine.

"Even now?"

She asked quietly.

"No."

Surprisingly, this time it felt differently; it felt nice?

"This time, I feel like everything is just as it should be."

No more words were needed between the two of them as Samiel leaned over and slowly kissed Yvraine on her lips; their kiss turned passionate as their tongues battled for supremacy, which in the end, resulted in Samiel\'s victory.

"Together."

Yvraine said, after they separated and their fingers interviewed, as they enjoyed the view.

"Together."