It took us nearly three days to travel across the continent, and now, we were on the outskirts of the Heirloom Kingdom.
As cheesy as the name sounded, it was for a reason.
Their emperor had some sort of artifact that let him control time, and he went around parading it as an heirloom.
It was pretty overpowered, but I had no intention of crossing his path.
So instead, I shifted my attention to this.
A large cave on the side of the mountain.
There was a hole drilled out of the top, and through it, smoke came out.
This was the demons' camp.
It was pretty well hidden, since the smoke blended with the clouds.
And no one was brave enough to explore a dark cave anyway.
"So this is it?" Clementine asked.
"Yep. The thing I'm looking for is inside that camp."
Specifically, inside the Demon Viscount's house.
Clementine just stared at me for a moment, then sighed.
"You brought me here, so you must want my help. What do you want me to do?"
I shook my head.
"Don't worry. A fight will only break out in the worst-case scenario. I have a different idea."
Demons weren't the smartest bunch.
The stronger they were, the more brains they had, basically.
But the smarter they were... the more likely they were to pin their work onto the lower-ranked demons.
These weak demons made the camp.
There was only one entrance.
And there was also only one way to ventilate.
So what would happen if I were to plug their two escape routes?
When I told my plan to Clementine, her eyes widened.
"That's... what if the Demon Viscount just decides to break out?"
True.
It wasn't very hard for a Grade 20 to destroy a boulder or two.
But by then, I would have the upper hand, and all I would need to do was destroy its core.
I was ready.
So after floating Clementine a bit further away, I closed my eyes and found two of the biggest boulders I could.
Just lifting them gave me a nosebleed, but as they hovered above the clouds, I couldn't help but chuckle.
And then, without wasting even a single second, I brought both of those boulders down.
One of the boulders covered the top of the mountain, and the other, the entrance.
I wiped the blood from my nose and continued watching.
Minutes passed in the blink of an eye, and the Demon Viscount hadn't tried escaping yet.
Or at least, I couldn't see it.
Clementine, on the other hand...
"Someone's underground."
I frowned.
"Where?"
After pondering over it for a moment, she pointed just slightly outside of the closed cave.
However, her finger didn't stop there as it perfectly traced someone underground.
I knew whoever it was, they were escaping.
Not thinking twice, I uprooted tens of trees and railgunned them straight into the ground where Clementine pointed.
The ground split open as rocks and debris flew everywhere.
More importantly, the demon hiding underground finally revealed itself, and that was only because I managed to pierce straight through its chest with the tree.
"This is...?"
It wasn't the Viscount.
It was a mole-type demon baron.
Although I was confused, I found the demon baron's core right away, and before it could burrow underground again, I crushed its core.
Just like that, the demon baron died without even putting up a fight.
I waited a few more minutes, then an hour.
Only then did I realize something.
The main character only got here near the end of the first year.
That was when the Demon Viscount appeared.
Since there was still half a year until then... I guess it just wasn't time.
But that didn't mean what I was looking for wasn't here.
I just had to find it.
I removed the two giant boulders and alongside Clementine, entered the cave.
The smell was horrible, but more importantly, there were hundreds of demons lying on the floor, unconscious.
They suffocated, but they didn't die.
So I decided to finish them off instead.
Within 10 minutes, all the demons down here were dead.
The only things left were a few pickaxes and a bunch of burnt-down houses.
"These demons seem very barbaric," Clementine said.
"Was this your first time seeing a demon?" I asked.
She nodded.
"They don't seem very strong, but the way they survive is a bit ominous."
"Mhm. They can regenerate from anything as long as their core is still intact," I replied with a chuckle and grabbed a nearby pickaxe.
"I'm going to look for something. It should be a shiny golden material, so if a tiny piece flies out while I'm mining, let me know."
Right as I was about to swing down, she tapped my shoulder, then pointed at the wall.
"Something like that?"
I turned where she was pointing, and to my surprise, there was a large chunk of a golden ore literally embedded in the wall.
There were a dozen pickaxes right beside it.
These demons were probably trying to mine it.
Unluckily for them, this was an unbreakable material.
But...
Why was there so much?
I could've sworn in the game, there was only a small ingot.
With how much there was, I could probably build a whole ass tank.
Should I...?
"This is Vivium?" Clementine approached me. "I remember hearing about it from my parents... so it really exists?"
Noticing her amazement, I smiled.
"Vivium is a legend, and it doesn't exist. This is Clorafite. It's the material that the whole Vivium legend was based around."
I looked into it back when I was still playing and lore hunting.
It wasn't a very big deal to me, but clearly, Clementine was really interested.
"Clorafite is unbreakable, but if you're a good enough blacksmith, you can smelt it and turn it into anything."
Basically, I needed to find that dwarf.
I was expecting Clementine to say something, but she just stared at the material in awe.
"..."
I guess there's a lot more than I expected.
I'll have to give her a gift.
Nonetheless, after searching the entire cave for some more ores and not finding any, I decided to simply rip out the vein of Clorafite.
My dimensional ring was big... but it could just barely fit the Clorafite inside.
Anyhow, since it was a bit easier than I expected, now it was time to move on to something a little harder.
"We'll be going to the Heirloom Kingdom now. Um... try not to stand out too much."
Clementine tilted her head, puzzled.
"Stand out? What do you mean?"
Right...
If this was anyone else, I'd say they were fishing for compliments.
But Clementine here wasn't exactly aware that she was very, very beautiful.
Plus, with how loose her clothes were...
I'm not risking anything.
It's about time I gave Clementine a make-over.