Shepherding Humanity

Chapter 106: The birth of demonic beasts.

“Your Majesty..”

In the throne room, countless witch ministers were anxiously holding their breaths.

After the Three Witches brought an end to the tribal era and ushered in the Age of Magic, mankind became the absolute masters of the Magic World. Ever since then, there had been no species that could threaten man’s supremacy.

Because mages wielded supernatural powers, no matter how large they got, ordinary giant beasts weren’t a match for them.

But, once they’ve assimilated the Evil God’s organs, those giant beasts turn into grotesque life-forms that could practice magic and even gain self-awareness.

If this kept up, then humanity would completely lose its advantage.

“Are we going back to those dark and horrifying days of the ancient era, back to that time when inferior human beings could get eaten at any time by fearsome giant beasts?”

Medusa was silent, her dark and solemn eyes seemingly gazing into the past. It was as if she could see the era of the Three Witches, when mankind defied nature with nothing more than fire and blade, as she looked up at the deep blue sky.

But, mankind had gotten lost in its endless infighting between setcs. Over her hundreds of years long conflict with the Emperor of Alchemy, people have slowly began to forget about those difficult days.

But Medusa would never forget.

“After all, one of the Three Witches who ushered in the Age of Magic—the legendary witch, Circe—is my master.” She silently looked at the mural of the Three Witches at the side of the throne room.

It depicted that legendary moment in the ancient era: Three maidens crowned in flowers and clothed in animal pelts stepped over the bodies of countless women; emerging from a mountain of corpses, they came together to lift a giant torch up high.

After meditating for over 3 hours, she opened her aged eyes.

“To think that this kind of thing would happen in my generation.. I’ve grown old, far too old. I do not know if I will be able to overcome this trial and make another breakthrough.”

“My teacher, Circe, has entrusted to me the Magic Civilization that the Three Witches had started. I cannot let it end under my watch… As long as I, Empress Medusa, sit on the throne, my nation will never perish!” Medusa gripped the delicate armrests of her throne with crushing force.

“Those creatures who’ve been infected by the Evil God’s organs are half-demon and half-beast, so I will call them… demonic beasts.”

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of hurried footsteps.

“Your Majesty, giant beasts are attacking the small town of Loche at the edge of the mountain range! They’re destroying the streets and cleaning out the Alchemical Stores! We’ve lost a great number of potions, and many Level One and Two Witches have been wounded!”

“What! Giant beasts are attacking in great numbers?”josei

Medusa stood up in shock.

The Evil God’s organs… were training themselves in magic???

Although it’s been dismembered after arriving in this world, its individual organs still retained self-awareness and were now trying to learn this world’s unique magic system.

It’s trying to learn our magic! What kind of monster is this!

She felt chilled to the bone.

She coldly commanded: “Send orders to the Three Great Magic Kingdoms! The Great Magic Academies and Magic Sects are to lead their disciples on a sweep of the woodlands and major mountain ranges. All demonic beasts must be eliminated!”

“The Spear of Witchcraft” recorded this historic moment when demonic beasts first appeared thus:

[The Kingdom of Babylon, year 837. The Evil God Cthulhu’s body parts were scattered throughout the world. They infected various creatures and turned them into demonic beasts. This was a very turbulent time period in the Age of Magic.]

…

“We’ve finally arrived at this point.”

In the calamitous tribal era, giant beasts fed on mankind, and every day had been a harsh game of survival. But once mankind gained magic, they immediately cleared the level. Giant beasts who couldn’t keep up with the version update were now far too weak.

This was what Xu Zhi had thought when he saw this:

“It’s super boring when mankind is the uncontested master of the world. A proper Magic World should have all kinds of wicked, horrifying, and incomprehensible creatures.”

Which was why he was smiling right now. With the addition of all kinds of supernatural life-forms, his world was finally complete.

He turned his attention to the pet at his side. The oddly shaped bird that looked like a turtle’s shell was eating from a stainless-steel rice pot at the moment. He felt an oncoming headache at this. “This kid eats more than three grown men put together. That’s a big problem.”

His money was just about spent. He needed to come with a way to make some easy money.

He sighed deeply, walked to the scooter he bought a few days ago, got on, headed into town, and bought another bag of rice along with some foodstuff.

He was taking care of a glutton now and had no choice. He couldn’t just release it into the large sandbox and let it forage for food by itself, right?

For a while, Xu Zhi wandered the town’s suburbs. He traveled the small countryside roads and greeted the elderly ladies who were planting crops by the roadside. Instead of hurrying home, he headed towards an isolated patch of forest.

“Heaven’s Hammer!”

*Boom!*

The flowing brook before him instantly parted in two. The water spray reached over 2 meters high, and he could clearly see the stream bed lined with pebbles.

*Woosh.*

After a second, water surged in, filling the open hole, and the stream continued its steady flow.

“It’s 3-4 times stronger than before.” Xu Zhi was pleased. “After training for the past several days, I’m finally a Level Two Wizard.”

Medea’s Heaven’s Hammer was a super versatile spell that would grow stronger along with the caster.

When he had been a Level One Wizard, it was equivalent to always carrying a hammer on his person. He could smash people’s faces in whenever he pleased, but its offensive power was not that high.

Now that he was Level Two, it has turned into a giant 2 meters hammer that could instantly cave in a person’s chest, making it quite the savage spell.

“I’m growing stronger by the day.”

Xu Zhi thought for a moment. “But all of a mage’s power is in their mind, while their body is extremely weak, making them vulnerable to sneak attacks. I’ll need to reach Level Three before I’ll be able to learn defensive spells.”

Other Level Two Mages normally had 2 to 3 spells of the same level, but Xu Zhi was too lazy to learn such low-level spells. Having the versatile Heaven’s Hammer should be enough.

His farm life followed a strict routine where he set aside time every day to meditate and train his magic.

It had taken Grantham a month to reach Level One, and a year to reach Level Two. But it had taken Xu Zhi only a day to become a Level One Mage, and right now, he was extremely close to reaching Level Two!

Thanks to absorbing energy from the past two Extinction Events, his spiritual power was very strong.

“As a Level Two Wizard, I should be able to scan my body, and even use my mental energy to keep the cancer cells from spreading and multiplying.”

Xu Zhi stood contemplatively by the side of the brook, a slight frown on his face. “Perhaps, if I keep training like this, once I reach the higher levels, like the Epic level… no, just the Legendary level should be enough, I would be able to purge the cancer cells in my body with my immense spiritual power.”

Unfortunately, he was out of time.

The magic system was still a work in progress.

But his cancer was already in its final stages. Even with his super fast leveling speed, he didn’t have enough time to reach the Fourth Level. At this rate, he would certainly die.

Magic training took too long to solve his problem.

Meanwhile, the Tyranis Hive Mind had lost the science and technology of the previous generation, and only two simple functions were left.

The first was its manipulation of spores.

The second was the ability of the Hive Mind itself to perform complex calculations like a supercomputer and control the internet…

He could not use the advanced science and technology of the previous Tyranis Queen to cure his cancer.

Furthermore, although he was a Tyranis hero and could control his own genes, he had no way to get rid of his stubborn cancer cells.

Though he may claim to be the Creator, he was pathetically weak.

A simple issue that any Legendary Mage in the sandbox could solve was the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head.

“In the end, I still need to depend on the sandbox.”

Xu Zhi considered his options. “The Age of Alchemy should have reached its peak. It’s time for the main event! I’ll place my cancer cells into the sandbox, and let the mages inside study them.”

“After preparing for so long, I should finally get started.”

After he finished experimenting with his Level Two magic powers, Xu Zhi got on his scooter and rode back to the orchard with his bag of rice and groceries. He did not even bother to put anything away before heading straight to his room and opening his laptop. There were various things that he needed to buy online.