Without realizing it, forty years have passed in the blink of an eye.

  Cedric looked at the research notes that’s strewn across the floor around him and nodded in satisfaction.

  During these forty years, he has been studying the training method that Lucius has invented.

  Once he understood it, Cedric also upgraded the training method for other elements and allowed it to be used up to Peak Level 3.

  He hasn’t only created Peak Level 3 training method for all elements that have awakened in the humans living in the Crystal Cube world. But has also adapted some of the training methods and created training methods suitable for the dwarves and elves.

  Without anything else to do, Cedric asked the System.

  “How long will it be before my world leveled up?”

  [If the current growth of your world persists, it should happen in 24 years and 3 months.]

  “After I allow the war in the human’s territory that’s going to involve most of the kingdoms, will the time required for my world to level up got affected?”

  [Yes. It will at least decrease or increase by a year or two depending on the situations.]

  “Alright.”

  “Then, do you know how strong the demon king will be this time?”

  [the System isn’t sure. But, it’ll most likely be stronger than the previous demon king.]

  “Why?”

  [That’s just how the rule is. Usually, demon kings that appear in a world will be getting stronger with each iteration. That’s why most gods will try to suppress the NE in their world from gathering. Rarely are there any insane gods who play with NE like you.]

  [The System can’t tell you the exact reason yet. But it’s recommended that you didn’t try this kind of thing too often.]

  Cedric listened to the System’s advice and nodded his head. “Alright.”

  Then, he began to calculate the timing of his plan. After all, this plan to gather NE artificially requires perfect timing.

  If he started it too early, then the demon king might’ve wreak havoc in the world before he can intervene.

  But if he started it too late. Then, the demon king might not be born yet when his chance to intervene in the world ended.

  “The System said the demon king will be born 20 years after a lot of NE appeared in the Crystal Cube world.”

  “If I include the possibility that my world might level up in advance or got delayed, and also the possibility that the demon king will arrive in advance. About two years later seems to be a suitable time to start the plan. Especially since it took time before the NE caused by war will gather,” Cedric muttered.

  He patiently waited for two years before starting the plan.

  Cedric picked a [Divine Intervention: Word] from a nearby table, and connected with Lacius.

  Cedric ordered Lacius to allow the kingdom in the north territory to start a war against the kingdom in the southern part of human territory.

  Once the temple released the blockade for kingdoms to attack each other. The north kingdoms can only sit still for a year before they started gathering troops and immediately invaded the south.

  The northern kingdoms, which consisted of three small sized kingdom quickly gathered into alliance for the attack.

  They ignored the two giant kingdoms that’s Sacred Kingdom and Great Sun Kingdom. Instead, they targeted Golden Light Kingdom, one of the three small kingdoms located in the south.

  Hundreds years of peace have caused every kingdom’s defense against invasion to be extremely weak.

  Within a month, Golden Light Kingdom has lost a small city to the northern kingdom alliance.

  Due to the delayed response from the southern kingdom. It’s only when the northern kingdom has conquered another small city does the kingdom that’s being invaded responded.

  The Golden Light Kingdom sent their troops to stop the invasion from the north.

  But even if the southern kingdom has relatively stronger strength compared to their northern counterpart.

  The strength of a kingdom still can’t defeat the strength of three allied kingdoms.

  After three months of constant battle, a thousand soldiers, or approximately half of the Golden Light Kingdom’s army, have been obliterated.

  At the same time, many casualties have also happened in the northern kingdom alliance’s army.

  Even so, the northern kingdom alliance has ignored the loss for now and continued steadily claiming the village and city under the Golden Light Kingdom’s jurisdiction.

  Seeing the Golden Light Kingdom’s predicament. The other two kingdoms located in the south have joined the fray and sent some reinforcement to the war.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Due to the massive amount of death from the war. The notification that Cedric has awaited finally arrived.

  [Warning! The density of Negative Energy within an area has reached a dangerous degree!]

  [NE infection rate within the area has greatly increased.]

  [Warning! The density of Negative Energy within several areas has reached a dangerous degree! A demon King will be born in your world.]

  [Estimated time until demon king’s birth: 20 years.

  Estimated level of the newly born demon king: Lower Level 3 to Middle Level 3.]

  Cedric read through the familiar but slightly different notifications calmly.

  He realized the demon king’s estimated level was actually only Lower Level 3 to Middle Level 3 and couldn’t help but look at Lacius’s stats through his Divine Sight.

  [Life Level: Lower Level 3

  Potential Level: Peak Level 1]

  Cedric can’t help but fall into doubt. ‘Perhaps… I don’t even need to get involved?’

  “Considering the buff he gained from faith energy, Lacius seems to be strong enough to handle that demon king.” Cedric contemplated before continued watching the war happening in the Crystal Cube world.

  In the world, he saw the six small kingdoms started a large scale war.

  After the initial attack where the northern kingdom alliance easily captured two small cities. Both parties quickly entered a seesaw like situation where one side one and soon the other side won a different battle.

  Cedric felt the amount of death from those battles might be too much for his plan, and will cause the demon king to appear earlier or even with stronger power than estimated.

  He activated Divine Intervention: Word and told Lacius to stop the war, and also told him about the birth of demon king that’ll happen in less than twenty years.

  Cedric’s command to allow the war before quickly stopping the war made Lacius confused. But he still followed it, especially when Cedric mentioned the demon king’s appearance.

  With the movement from the temple, the war between the six small kingdoms quickly decreases in intensity.

  Even so, several small skirmishes still happened around the border of those kingdoms, which causes NE to continuously gather.

  This caused the amount of NE infected creatures to be several times higher than during the first demon king’s time.

  Soon, the kingdoms began to get busy dealing with the chaos caused by the demons and started a cease fire.

  Among the kingdoms, the Golden Light Kingdom is the one that got affected the most.

  The damage to their kingdom’s military coupled with the fact that their territory is where the war happened and most of the NE gathered at, made the amount of resistance the Golden Light Kingdom has against the demons became extremely weak.

  Soon, the Golden Light Kingdom fell into a hard time, to the point they are barely surviving. Luckily, the temple took action and sent their humanitarian aids.

  The temple’s knight helped the Golden Light Kingdom to slaughter the demons. While the temple’s headquarter began to send resource to the Golden Light kingdom to make sure they won’t suddenly collapse and cause further chaos.

  All that war led to misery and death, which caused NE to gather at an increasingly faster speed.

  The demon king that initially needs twenty years to be born has already appeared eighteen and half a year after the System notified Cedric of the demon king’s birth.

  In the Divine Space, Cedric asked the System, “How long will it take before the Crystal Cube world leveled up?”

  [If nothing much changed, approximately 1 years and 8 months]

  “This… should I tell Lacius to quickly kill the demon king, or should I wait until my world leveled up before I kill demon king on my own?” Cedric fell into a dilemma upon seeing the time until he could directly intervene.

  That’s when the System suddenly appeared to warn him.

  [You need to kill it ASAP! Don’t underestimate demon kings. Their level will increase with the amount of NE it absorbs. So, the longer it took for the demon king to be defeated, the stronger they’ll be. Furthermore, the destruction that demon king caused might delay the time your world took to level up.]

  [Delaying will cause needless death to hundreds of thousands of lives!]

  After reading the System’s warning, Cedric seems to wake up and at the same time began to sweat when the recall what he has planned to do.

  His plan to not take immediate action will cause the death of thousands or even tens of thousands people. Yet, he didn’t even feel anything from considering such action.

  He then recalled everything he has done for the last few years and said, “I think there is something wrong with me!”

  [Indeed. The System has detected some problem with your mentality since hundreds of years ago. It’s just quite unexpected for the problem to get so serious in just a few hundred years.]

  “Problem with my mentality?” Cedric asked in confusion.

  [Do you recall the time when the System asked you what you think of the people Lacius used as experimental materials?]

  Cedric rummaged through his memory and quickly found the moment that the System mentioned.

  [At that time, the System felt there was something wrong with your view of the world. You seem to see the Crystal Cube world as a mere game, or perhaps a drama serial. You didn’t see the creature in the world as a living creature and only merely as data.]

  [The System won’t say that seeing the world as a game is a completely bad thing. But for the current you, it definitely is. If this goes on, you’ll turn into an emotionless machine sooner or later.]

  “Why don’t you tell me if you realized there is a problem with me since centuries ago?”

  [This is a personal problem. Until you realized it, the only thing the System can do is to send some tips and clue.]

  “Then how do I fix this problem?”

  [This is beyond the scope of free information. Do you wish to spend 10 GP to receive an answer?]

  “Yes!” Cedric quickly nodded. This isn’t the right time to be stingy.

  [During the moment when the world advanced, and you gained the right to directly intervene. It’s recommended to create several weak clones to experience the life in the Crystal Cube world.]

  [By directly experiencing life in the world, you should be able to connect more with it and empathize more to the creature in the world.]

  Cedric kept the System’s advice in mind and refocused his attention on the Crystal Cube world.

  As the area affected by the war is quite wide, Cedric has been searching through the world for the demon king’s location while talking with the System.

  Soon, he finally found its location.

  This time, the demon king isn’t a humanoid species. Instead, it’s a swarm of gigantic ants.

  They created their colony below the land where the Northern Kingdom Alliance’s army first fought against Golden Light Kingdom’s army.

  If not for the NE that seems to seep deep into the ground when the demon king is born, Cedric might not have realized the existence of this ant colony.

  He skimmed through the ant nest and found out all of them are currently busy continuously shedding their carapace while their strength is raising at incredible speed.

  Cedric activated Past Observation to check the situation and saw the ant colony initially consisted mostly of Lower Level 0 worker ant and only have a few soldier ants at Mid Level 0.

  But, after the demon king was born, and the NE began to gather around the nest, they began to continuously shed their carapace.

  With every shedding, their body turns bigger and their life level increased.

  At the short delay between shedding their carapace, the ant are busy enlarging their nest to fit their newly enlarged body.

  Cedric closed Past Observation and began to sweat when he saw all ants have reached Mid Level 0. ‘This time, the demon king seems to be a bit too powerful.’

  Spreading his mental power widely throughout the ant nest, Cedric soon found the queen of the nest and activated his Divine Sight on it.

  [Life Level: Lower Level 3

  Potential: Peak Level 1]

  Just like he expected, the ant queen of this nest is actually the current demon king!