Chapter 398: Anomaly

"Demons!" Muria tapped her desk lightly, a contemplative expression on her face. Over forty reports of demon sightings in just three days was alarming at first glance.

However, these reports were from all over the Rockman Kingdom, spread out so thinly that some provinces might not even have a single incident of demon activity.

If it were not for some officials and nobles reporting up the chain, allowing Muria, who governed the kingdom, to see them, hardly anyone would pay attention to these demons because they were too weak and caused disturbances too minor to bother with.

"Mia, send out the order. Anyone who sees a demon, a demon follower, or a demonic descendant, in short, anything related to demons, must report it to me."

Without turning, Muria instructed the golden-haired beauty standing by her side, a personal maid who had been with her since her childhood, who immediately went to relay Muria's commands.

"Miles!" Muria called upon the great devil she had subdued in her youth through a magical contract.

"Master!" With an air of mystery, eeriness, and evil, the arcane array before Muria took shape, forming into the figure of Miles, a gentlemanly middle-aged man, who then knelt before Muria in a humble gesture of reverence.

"Hmm?" Just as she was about to give Miles instructions, Muria's gaze sharpened slightly, the golden brilliance in her eyes flashing as she pierced through the aura Miles was trying hard to conceal. "Are you about to break through to legendary status?"

"With your grace, master, it won't be long before I reach the legendary level," Miles reported with his forehead touching the ground, in an even more humble posture than before.

"So soon." Muria smiled, "No wonder so many demons and devils are desperately trying to enter the material world."

"Master, even if I reach legendary status, I remain your loyal servant," Miles quickly assured his loyalty to Muria. He had signed a master-servant pact with Muria, holding his life in her hands; how could he not be respectful?

Besides, even without the constraints of the pact, Muria, who could summon a horde of ancient dragons at will, also possessed the power to kill him at any moment, keeping Miles from harboring any ulterior motives.

"Heh!" A faint smile appeared on Muria's face. "It seems you've consumed a substantial number of souls in the process of forming the intelligence network."

"Your Highness, I indeed have consumed many souls, but mostly those of evil creatures mingling among humans. I've consumed very few human souls, and I can assure you, every human soul I've devoured belonged to irredeemable scoundrels."

"Good, I believe you wouldn't dare disobey my orders." Muria nodded in agreement. Devils are highly intelligent evil creatures; they know what should be done and what should not.

There are too many evil doers among the humans, and Miles could eat his fill without ever finishing them off, so there was no need for him to risk Muria's wrath and his own life by consuming the souls of ordinary humans.

"Take a look at these documents." Muria tossed the pile of demon sighting reports in front of Miles. "Send someone, or go yourself, to investigate why demons have appeared at these locations and try to capture some for questioning."

"Master, it's not a problem to interrogate demons, but such weak demons have probably already been eradicated by the local nobility," Miles said, somewhat troubled after flipping through the documents, wondering where he could capture demons now.

"There will always be some remnants left." Muria tapped on the desk, "Moreover, according to these reports, this is just the beginning; more demons will definitely appear.

I need to know how they are appearing in the Rockman Kingdom. Aside from devouring souls and creating slaughter and chaos, what else are these creatures up to? Who is pulling their strings?"

From the current demon incidents, there was definitely an entity or power wanting to stir up major events in the Rockman Kingdom. As for the demons themselves, given their chaotic nature, they were almost incapable of accomplishing anything substantial on their own.

Chaotic creatures are inherently more likely to botch things up than accomplish them. Any well-planned activities become a mess in their hands; they are natural troublemakers and agitators.

"As you command, master, I will report back everything you wish to know." Hearing Muria's definition of demons, Miles smiled and accepted the order before leaving.

"Alright, begin the investigation."

Time slowly passed. Muria stayed in the capital, Scaret, teaching combat skills to the two non-human lolis and handling various administrative tasks and matters related to the genius martial arts competition, not leaving for anywhere else.

The month-long registration period quickly ended, and based on reports from local officials and subsequent summaries, over a hundred thousand geniuses nationwide had

 qualified to participate in the competition.

This was an astounding number. According to Muria's rules, to obtain official competition eligibility, one had to defeat ten peers. With a hundred thousand qualifying, this meant over a million people were eliminated. One could imagine how intense and brutal the preliminaries were.

After selecting the hundred thousand competitors, Muria immediately announced that the "Golden Dragon Cup" martial arts competition would officially begin in half a month. The large-scale, richly rewarding competition instantly captured the attention of most of the Rockman Kingdom's populace.

This diverted the public's attention from the changes occurring across the kingdom, such as the increasingly frequent appearances of demons, large-scale mutations in wilderness plants, and a surprising number of evolved and mutated monsters among the monster populations.

For instance, creatures with dragon blood experienced dragon vein awakenings and bloodline purifications, and ogre tribes saw a surprising number of two-headed ogres emerge. Many creatures with ancient but dormant bloodlines were experiencing awakenings.

"The number of demon appearances is increasing, and their scale and strength grow with each occurrence," Muria frowned in thought. "According to Miles's investigations, although some demons are summoned by demon followers through blood sacrifices, the vast majority of demons arrive through accidental spatial rifts in the Rockman Kingdom, without being summoned.

Furthermore, experiments have shown that the cost of summoning demons through blood sacrifices has decreased significantly, to the extent that killing just a few chickens can summon a lesser demon, which is quite problematic."

However, facing this situation, Muria could only order all nobles and city officials to use all means at their disposal to hunt down demon followers entering the Rockman Kingdom.

___________________

(Support with power stones, comments or reviews)

If you guys enjoy this story, In support me on Patreon and get access to +200 advance Chapters

Read Ahead

Patreon.com/INNIT