Chapter 376 - Lair
Chapter 376 Lair
The search for a territory was not too smooth.
Roy spent most of his time constantly going in and out of spatial entrances. He checked more than hundreds of fragment worlds, but he could not find a fragment world that satisfied him.
Perhaps someone might say that he could just find one randomly. Why did he have to be so obsessive?
But in fact, Roy knew that it was completely different from when he randomly chose places to be his lairs in the upper levels of the Abyss. If nothing unexpected happened, the territory he found would be his genuine ‘home’ for a long time. This period of time would most likely last hundreds of years. Given this, he certainly wanted to find the most suitable place.
So even though he was impatient, he still continued to search patiently.
As time passed, Roy was surprised to discover that the number of fragment worlds here was astonishing. He had entered and exited hundreds of spaces, but the repetition rate was only about 2% at most. The rest were all new spaces, each different in size, terrain, and environment. It was hard to imagine how vast it would be if all the fragment worlds here combined.
While searching, Roy had also intruded into territories with masters. The demon lords in these territories were all very wary of him, and the more irritable ones would even fight him directly. In such situations, he would usually exchange a few blows with them before retreating, unwilling to continue fighting.
It was not that he could not win, but there was no need. Not only was he looking for a suitable territory and environment to stay in, but other demon lords would generally choose comfortable environments that they liked. But because of the different bloodlines, what suited them was not necessarily suitable for Roy. For example, he had encountered a demon lord who was a scorpion, and his territory was purely a black and red desert. He could walk freely in the desert, but Roy did not want to stay in it.
These demon lords that Roy encountered usually found some demons of the same race to be their subordinates, but they would occasionally recruit demons from other races. However, there were generally not many of these subordinates. After all, these low-level demons were summoned from the upper levels of the Abyss. This was equivalent to turning wild demons into domesticated ones. As lords, they naturally had to be responsible for the food and shelter of their subordinates. If their territories were not big enough, they could not support these subordinates.
Therefore, demon lords usually controlled their number of subordinates. This number would range from hundreds to around a thousand. These demons would serve as a standing army and stay in the territories of the demon lords for a long time. They would mine, build buildings, operate the territories, and so on. Demon lords usually did not personally manage these low-level demons but instead handed them over to high-rank demons to manage.
That’s right. Roy had encountered this operating pattern before. Demon Lord Rogeros was not the only one who used this method. Most demon lords used this method to maintain their rule.
Only when there were territorial wars with other demon lords would the demon lords summon more demons from the upper levels of the Abyss in large numbers.
Or maybe when they wanted to punish some traitors, they would find some demons to serve as execution demons to hunt down the traitors and give them some rewards, like Roy before.
This method of ruling and management could be regarded as a relatively efficient method of rule among demons. In millions of years of history, demon lords had always used this method. Let alone the demon lords, even the low-level demons were used to it… When Roy governed his territory, he would probably follow this management method.
Keeping these things in mind, he continued to search the various spatial entrances to check one fragment world after another.
“Huh?” After some time, when Roy plunged into another spatial vortex, he was stunned when he saw the situation in this fragment world.
It was an extremely cold fragment world. The ground was full of crystallized rocks, and long icicles hung on all kinds of withered and distorted plants. A strong blizzard howled in the sky, and the plain that entered his eyes was full of whiteness, making it impossible to see too far.
Finally, he encountered another world of ice and snow. Roy felt that the temperature here was lower than that of Anivia’s territory, and the entire world had an atmosphere of deathly stillness.
Roy spread his wings and flew forward against the blizzard. He found that this fragment world was quite large, likely over ten thousand square kilometers.
This size was not too big compared to the other fragment worlds that Roy had entered, but it was not too small either. It was a lower-medium-sized fragment world. The rarest thing was that there was actually an active volcano in the center of the plain. Moreover, this volcano was buried underground, only showing a small portion on the ground. Precisely because of the existence of this volcano, the center of the plain was still relatively warm, and he even saw a few hot springs.
Most importantly, the environment here was still clean. There was not much of a dusty and dirty feeling, and it was instead beautiful.
This environment was perfect for Roy. The blizzard and low temperatures outside were natural barriers, and the warm parts in the center were suitable for Julia and the others to live in. If they built a city around this volcano, it would be the perfect territory.
It’s here! Roy flew toward the volcano. He had already decided that even if there was a demon lord in this fragment world, he would chase them away! Boom! Roy landed on the surface of the ice. His three pairs of demon wings spread freely, and his entire body was full of magic power. In the Abyss, he did not need to resist any world repulsive force, so he was naturally at his peak. Under the influence of his magic power, the surrounding ice and the blizzard all turned into black frost and spread from his feet.
His powerful magic power was surging in the world, and he used this method to announce his existence. If there was another demon lord in this territory, then this was the method to draw them out.
Seemingly sensing his magic power, the ground trembled slightly, and the trembling was gradually increasing. Roy quickly confirmed that the source of the tremors was in the crater, so he grinned sinisterly and spread his wings to fly toward it.
The exposed part of the volcano was about a hundred meters tall, and the boiling magma inside was lower than the crater. When Roy reached the crater, the magma suddenly churned up, and then an enormous figure rushed out.
It was an incomparably gigantic… Worm! It had a round body and dark red skin. It had no eyes, but it had a circular mouth with a diameter of tens of meters. It had ferocious and sharp teeth that looked like spikes. When it rushed out of the magma, it brought out a large amount of fiery red and boiling lava. In the falling lava rain, it stood upright and faced Roy. Roy calmly looked at the terrifying demon worm. He did not know how it grew to be so gigantic. The body exposed from the surface of the magma was more than sixty meters long, and the remaining part was still inside the volcanic magma.
Most importantly, Roy judged from the other party’s aura that it was not a demon lord!
This guy was not even a demon and could only be regarded as a monster. It had a demonic aura, which meant that it had a demon bloodline, and its strength was at the middle-rank demon level at best. But this guy looked too… too ridiculous!
Another mutant! Roy came to this conclusion.
Without eyes, this demon worm relied on its sense of smell and vibrations to move. Although its body was many times bigger than Roy’s, after sensing his demon lord aura, it let out a loud gurgling sound and lowered its head at him.
This was a gesture of submission, and Roy could naturally tell. He rubbed his chin. When he checked this territory earlier, he found that there were no other creatures on the icy plain, but now that such a demon worm had appeared, it meant that the creatures here most likely lived underground.
Roy flew over and touched the top of the demon worm’s head a few times, indicating that he accepted its submission. This excited the demon worm, and its gigantic body began to twist.
The only pity was that this guy was merely a monster, so it could not communicate with Roy. Otherwise, he could ask it if this territory had a master before. This place was very suitable for frost demons to inhabit. Roy felt that if there were other frost demon lords, they would not abandon this place. But after conversing with Anivia, he suspected that if there really was a frost demon lord here in the past, would the hunters of the Burning Legion have killed them…?
But no matter what, this territory belonged to Roy now.
He flew out of the volcano and returned to the icy plain. The demon worm wanted to follow him out, but the low temperature outside made it uncomfortable, so it could only soak half of its body in the magma and sway in the crater.
Roy knelt on one knee on the ice and placed his right hand on the ice. Magic power surged out of his palm. The blue flowing brightness flames spread out in all directions with his palm as the center, and wherever the flames passed, the solid ice immediately turned into the pattern of a magic formation.
In just a few seconds, Roy completed the summoning formation. After injecting magic power into it, the summoning formation began to shine.
Julia and Benia had lost contact with Roy when they returned, but he knew that they should have returned to the Abyss level where high-rank demons were. What he wanted to do was to summon them directly. And Cassandra, because of her demon contract with him, had also come to the Abyss when she returned, but he did not know where she was. Roy wanted to summon her through the contract…