BAMN: Chapter 39/41
Added 2025-08-08 16:59:00 +0000 UTCChapter 39: Ogre Race's Allegiance
"My Lord!"
Benimaru quickly reported the good news to Rin. "Father has decided to lead the Ogre village and pledge allegiance to you."
"You did well, Benimaru."
Rin had already heard the conversation between Benimaru and the Red Ogre leader. He smiled and said, "Actually, there's no need to be so nervous. I'm not a cruel person."
"I'm not great at managing a village."
"So, that task still falls to you."
To Benimaru's surprise, Rin then asked him to summon the Red Ogre leader and Hakurou, and bestowed names upon them. "From now on, Village Chief, you shall be called Akano. And Old Sword Master, you shall be called Hakurou."
Neither of them had expected Rin to grant them names.
And as a portion of Rin's magicules dispersed, surging waves of magical energy exploded from Akano and Hakurou's bodies.
Soon, like Benimaru and the others, the two completed their evolution from Ogre to Kijin.
However, perhaps due to their advanced age, their potential wasn't as great as Benimaru and the younger generation.
Although they had also evolved into the Kijin race, Akano and Hakurou did not awaken Unique Skills.
Still, their combat power was far from weak.
The extra skills inherited from Rin were all formidable and significantly enhanced their strength as monsters.
"Thank you for bestowing us with names!"
Akano's appearance was nearly identical to Benimaru's, just more composed and dignified. "Benimaru was right. Your generosity is truly astonishing!"
Everyone knew that bestowing names severely depleted the namer's strength.
Yet Rin still willingly shared his power.
First Benimaru and the other three, now even these two old men, Rin's sincerity and his respect for the Ogre race left them deeply moved.
"To think you would name an old man like me, already halfway in the grave."
Now evolved into a Kijin, Hakurou stroked his beard with a wise look. "You really are reckless."
"Please take care of yourself, Rin-sama."
"Don't worry. This little burden is nothing to me."
After bestowing names upon the two, Rin's magicules didn't drop.
Because both Hakurou and Akano had gone beyond the 10,000 threshold, increasing their magicules to 11,000.
After gaining several hundred more magicules, my current magicule count is 37,000.
Subtracting the basic 10,000 needed for an A-Rank, I still have 27,000 I can use to name more Ogres.
Rin planned to spend all of it enhancing the village's strength, evolving as many Ogres as possible.
When they heard that Rin still intended to bestow names upon more members of the village, Benimaru and the others were all shocked.
The four tried to dissuade him, hoping Rin would prioritize his own well-being and not make such a large sacrifice.
But there was no such thing as "scarcity breeds conflict" among monsters.
Monster communities functioned as one.
With Benimaru, Akano, and the other six evolving successfully, the overall power of the village had already taken a significant leap.
Their strength would naturally protect the rest of the village, helping it thrive further. That was a good thing for everyone.
This was completely different from Rin taking his named subordinates and leaving the village behind.
Leaving meant robbing the village of its core power.
Staying meant providing protection.
If Rin had a favorability system, his standing in the eyes of the Ogre race would have already reached worship.
Powerful. Generous. Benevolent.
How fortunate it was for the village to welcome such an exceptional leader.
"It's fine. My situation is a little different."
"Bestowing names on part of the Ogre village won't hurt me much."
Rin didn't bother to explain that he possessed the Unique Skill Leader, which caused those who were named or pledged as followers to return a portion of their magicules back to him.
This meant that the actual magicule cost for Rin was much lower than it appeared.
"But before that, there's one more thing I need you all to do."
Rin looked at the six before him and shared his next request, to gain the allegiance of the entire Ogre village.
"I'll gather everyone immediately!"
Hearing that all Rin wanted was a simple show of allegiance, Akano instantly stood up and began organizing the ceremony that would make Rin the village's true master.
Excellent!
Rin had calculated that getting the entire Ogre village to submit would generate at least 30,000 magicules.
Adding that to his current 37,000, Rin would have enough to reach Special A-Rank based on magicule quantity alone.
"Staying just below Special A-Rank. Letting this magicule sit idle isn't worth it."
Naming wasn't a waste of magicules. It was more like transforming them into a stored form elsewhere.
---
It's finally over!
The allegiance ceremony lasted from day to night.
Throughout the ritual, Rin wore a luxurious ceremonial robe and sat at the head, as families stepped forward in turn to swear fealty and offer their worship.
And one thing had to be said, the Ogre race was truly sincere and honest.
Originally, Rin had estimated that these ordinary villagers might return 1% of their magicules as feedback, which was already considered decent.
After all, to be officially recognized as a Follower under the Leader Unique Skill, they needed genuine loyalty from the heart.
In Rin's view, that was no easy task.
But the reality of the Ogre village exceeded his expectations. These big, fierce-looking warriors turned out to be soft-hearted.
Rin's earlier actions had completely won them over.
The amount of magicule feedback from the Ogre villagers basically hit the full 3% cap possible for Followers, even the Ogre children weren't exceptions.
Ogre children didn't have much magicules since they hadn't matured yet, averaging around C-Rank, or 4000 points.
The Ogre village's total population was 254. Twenty were away on missions, and another twenty or so had died in the Insect Monster disaster.
Whew~
Recalling the scene of the Ogre race's oath, Rin opened his status window.
[84000EP]
Nearly 85,000 magicules. Just seeing it gave him a deep sense of satisfaction.
"Benimaru, Souei, Shuna, Shion."
Rin looked at the four of them. "Have you selected the elites I should bestow names upon next?"
"We have!"
This time, Rin planned to use 64,000 magicules.
With the 15% feedback ratio for named subordinates, any Ogre with over 8,500 magicules would give back enough to result in zero loss to Rin.
But within the entire village, only Akano and Hakurou had crossed that threshold.
Even top talents like Benimaru, Souei, Shion, and Shuna had only started with 7000+.
So, Rin set the naming threshold at 6500 to 7000.
He had noticed that most young adult warriors in the village had just over 6000 magicules, putting them at early B-Rank.
In that sense, the Ogres, who relied mainly on brute force, didn't hold a very high ecological position among B-Ranks.
Ogres with over 6500 magicules were absolutely the best of the best in the village.
Rin assigned Benimaru and Souei 10 slots each. Their squads would be called the Red Corps and the Shadow Squad.
Benimaru's Red Corps would manage patrols and hunting missions by organizing and leading the rest of the village.
Souei's Shadow Squad was structured more like a ninja corps, specializing in reconnaissance and protection.
Shuna and Shion were each given 5 slots.
They planned to select elite female Ogres from the village to form their own groups: the Purple Corps and Miko Hime (Shrine Priestess).
The Purple Corps under Shion would serve as Rin's personal guards.
The Miko Hime under Shuna would be responsible for Rin's daily care, essentially becoming his exclusive maids.
(To be continued.)
Chapter 40: Changed Form
Bestowing names upon the thirty selected Ogres cost Rin over 50,000 magicules.
With the remaining 14,000, Rin, following the recommendations of Hakurou and Akano, bestowed names upon several of the village's special talents.
There were five of them: OshiroibabΔ, an expert in medicine. Kurobe, a blacksmith who survived in the original story. Kinkaku (male), skilled in mathematics and calculations. Yukihime (female), who was highly knowledgeable. And lastly, Benihime, who, like Akano and Benimaru, came from the Red Ogre clan and had impressive confidence in her cooking.
[Itoshi Rin]
[Magicules: 26000EP]
Twenty-six thousand. That was the amount of magicules Rin had remaining after finishing the first batch of namings.
Less, but not small.
"My magicules haven't disappeared. They've just changed form to accompany me."
After establishing his presence in the village, Rin officially began reforms.
First was the village structure, shifting from the old employment model to one that emphasized autonomy and independence.
Then came the expansion of territory.
Every Ogre was basically a humanoid excavator. Even the children contributed to the construction.
"The center of the village will be the main square. From there, we divide it into four zones using a cross-grid layout."
In a quiet traditional courtyard, Rin sat beneath the eaves. Curled up in his lap like a small beast was a delicate, fairy-like girlβOgerpon.
At the moment, Ogerpon had buried her head into Rin's chest, gently sniffing his scent and letting out a soft, contented murmur.
"Residential, labor, entertainment, and cultivation zones."
"Shops will be built along the crossroads to create a shopping street."
As Rin gently patted Ogerpon's back to coax her to sleep, he calmly laid out his plans.
Swish, swish, swish.
Shuna wrote down Rin's instructions word for word. She listened attentively and occasionally asked important clarifying questions.
"Yes, yes, yes, I understand..."
Shion was also jotting things down on the side.
Rin peeked at what Shion was writing and saw she'd drawn a bunch of rectangles and squares.
As for the text...
Rin could only sigh, this was exactly what he expected from her.
Completely incomprehensible.
Thankfully, he had Shuna. Who had an exceptional talent for internal affairs and administrative work.
"The residential area is almost finished, but isn't it a bit too big?"
Following Rin's instructions, Shuna had the Ogres cut down part of the forest to build new homes.
The number of houses now far exceeded the village's actual population.
With fewer than 250 members, and even with the 30 out on missions, less than half of the houses would be used if distributed by headcount.
But this clearly wasn't the plan.
The Ogres operated in family units. With only about 80 households total, they didn't need that many houses.
"This is preparation for the future."
Rin was thinking of the village built by Rimuru in the original work. He intended to follow a similar model and subdue other monster races.
Doing so would not only bring Rin more magicule income, but also lay the groundwork for founding a nation.
If he wanted to become a Demon Lord, he couldn't walk that path alone.
He'd need ministers, armies, and citizens.
"What do you mean?"
"There aren't only Ogres in the Great Jura Forest."
Rin said, "Lizardmen, Goblins, Insect-type Monsters, Tengu, Orcs..."
"I need their power."
Shuna and the others were Rin's followers now, so he didn't need to hide such intentions.
"If I can get them all under my banner, even if each only provides 1% of their magicules, and the average is just 10 points, that's still millions."
When Shuna heard "millions," her face turned bright red. She looked like a new bride learning her husband's annual salary.
"1% is just the beginning."
Rin was confident. Under his people-first policies, the rate of magicule feedback from these monsters would definitely rise.
After all, this feedback model wasn't a one-time gain.
Once they became Rin's followers, recipients of his protection and dependents under his rule, every bit of growth on their part would provide Rin with a 1% to 3% increase in magicules.
When the timing was right, Rin would use his stored magicules to name them.
That way, the return rate would rise from 3% to 15%.
At first glance, it looked like a lossβRin would be spending his own magicules to evolve others.
But when you thought about it, was it really a loss?
Take the Ogres as an example. Was 12,000EP the cap for evolved Benimaru or Shuna?
Obviously not.
They would continue growing stronger.
All future magicules gained after evolution would be profit, pure return on investment.
So for Rin, who possessed the Unique Skill Leader, naming wasn't wasteful. It was strategic investment.
Even though Leader is powerful, it has its limits.
During this time, Rin had more or less figured out the skill's ceiling.
Its upper limit is 1 million magicules. Anything more and Leader won't be able to affect it.
This was understandable.
Leader was just a Unique Skill. It was impossible for it to endlessly increase magicules without any restriction.
Fortunately, Rin could use his stored magicules to empower the monsters under his command.
As long as I use the magicules before reaching the 1 million mark, Leader will let me gather more.
This cycle not only empowered Rin, but also gave the named Monster races a massive leap forward.
That's why Rin didn't just avoid harming the intelligent races of the forest, he was giving them a better future.
You're all experience packs I treasure!
No killing required. Just make them submit and magicules will flow endlessly. Was there anything more delightful than this?
"Let me go, Rin-sama!"
Shion volunteered eagerly. "I'll beat them all into submission, one by one!"
"I already asked Souei and the Shadow Squad to investigate nearby territories."
Rin didn't plan to act so soon. "I'll make the call after they return with intel on the neighboring races."
"Ugh..."
Shion looked disappointed. She really wanted to go out and fight.
"Don't worry. When the time comes, you'll get your turn."
"Really?!"
Shion was easy to please.
This girl was a pure tomboy. In terms of IQ, she was about equal to Ogerpon, not the sharpest blade in the rack.
(To be continued.)
Chapter 41: Full-Level Adventurer
After wrapping things up in the Cardinal World, Rin brought Ogerpon back to the Konosuba World once more.
The reason for returning was to convert the newly acquired 100,000 units of magicules into several million experience points.
"One million experience should be enough to raise my level to 100."
Rin didn't know what the level cap was in the original novel's version of this world.
But in this real Konosuba World, the highest level an adventurer could reach was Level 100.
There was a hard cap for adventurers.
And reaching Level 100 was theoretically possible.
As for whether anyone had actually hit that ceiling...
When Rin asked Luna before, her answer was, "I've never heard of anyone hitting the limit."
So, unsurprisingly, Rin was about to become the one and only full-level adventurer in the Konosuba World.
[Experience Value Conversion Successful]
Rin looked at the magicules that hadn't decreased at all and the several million experience points that appeared out of thin air on his character card.
Without hesitation, he started leveling up.
The next moment, a massive amount of experience points were consumed, and in exchange, Rin gained an enormous amount of skill points.
This was the real reason he returned to the Konosuba World!
That's right, skill points!
Rin was planning to max out every skill he had learned.
"Explosion Magic? Add points!"
"Martial Artist job skills? Add points!"
"Resurrection? Add points, add points!"
Rin had far more skill points than he'd imagined.
As mentioned earlier, the skill points an adventurer gained when leveling up were tied to the job's class.
Meaning, the earlier one obtained an advanced job, the more skill points they'd have upon reaching the max level.
But Rin was even more absurd than that.
His situation was similar to Aqua's. This time, when he returned to the Konosuba World again, even though his level and attributes hadn't changed...
He still received a massive amount of skill points, granted by the rules of this world.
If Aqua was a goddess descending into this world, then Rin was a Demon Lord from another world!
"Huff~"
It took nearly fifteen minutes, but Rin finally maxed out all the skills he'd selected.
Even so, he still had plenty of skill points left.
"Whatever, I'll just hold onto them for now."
"Maybe I'll get the chance to copy more skills later."
Rin wasn't the type to hoard skill points.
The Konosuba World was only one of many. He had a sea of stars ahead of him, so there was no need to be stingy here.
Even if he missed out on some rare skills later, Rin wouldn't feel regret.
"But... I don't feel like I got much stronger."
He clenched his fist, quietly sensing the changes in his body.
"Maybe because I'm already too strong."
An A-rank upper-tier Monster, combined with the attribute boost from Magicules Solidification...
The stat increases from reaching Level 100 in Konosuba probably didn't even make up one percent of Rin's true attributes.
"Rin, you seem a little stronger than before."
"You noticed?"
"Mm."
Ogerpon gestured with her finger, "About this much."
"..."
Rin shrugged.
Ogerpon's descriptions were as abstract as always.
Luckily, he was used to it by now.
"Let me get used to it for a bit."
Rin treated this trip back to the Konosuba World as a mini vacation.
Here, he wasn't going to flaunt his overpowering strength.
"Let's see what Level 100 stats are like."
Rin used Appraisal on the adventurers he passed on the road, and used their data to build a new attribute system.
In the Konosuba World, each adventurer had different limits to their attributes.
Take Intelligence, for example.
When something like [Intelligence: 10 (max)] showed up, it meant that no matter how much that adventurer leveled up, their Intelligence would never increase again.
Because for that adventurer's potential, 10 was the maximum possible.
This was why, in the original series, Kazuma felt so frustrated seeing Aqua's maxed-out stats, yet her Intelligence was so low.
'So basically, no matter how much this person levels up, her Intelligence won't go up?'
Aqua's Intelligence was low and could never improve.
As expected of Aqua. The useless goddess lived up to her title.
Back to Rin.
All of Rin's attributes had reached the Konosuba World's limits without exception.
Not his personal limits, but the system's limit.
In numeric terms, that was 999.
This was the conclusion Rin reached after analyzing the data of all adventurers in Axel using his magicules perception.
Even Wiz, the secluded Lich, had max attributes that only hovered around 800.
Of course, Rin's strength, agility, and vitality couldn't be measured with a mere 999.
His true stats had long since exceeded the Konosuba system's framework.
"But in this world, it's best to keep power within the allowed range."
In other words, keep all visible stats at 999. As long as Rin didn't exceed that boundary, the world's will wouldn't reject him.
"Ogerpon, same goes for you."
Rin shared this upper limit with her. "Keep your strength within 999, got it?"
"Mm-hmm!"
Ogerpon nodded obediently.
"Oh, right, Rin."
Ogerpon tugged at his sleeve and asked, "Now that our level's gone up and we've used our skill points, are we heading back?"
To avoid causing a stir, Ogerpon had returned to her Spirit Space form.
She didn't mind it.
In fact, that form was more comfortable than her human girl form.
"No need to rush."
Rin gently patted her head with a smile. "You've worked hard helping the Ogre Tribe build up their infrastructure."
"Ogerpon doesn't mind hard work!"
"I know, I know."
He gently stroked her head again. "But you still need to rest."
"Don't you think this world is great for relaxing and taking it easy?"
Rin originally came to level up and assign his points.
Now that his goal was complete, he could have returned immediately.
But he didn't want to.
"We'll stay here for a couple of days and properly enjoy ourselves."
Ogerpon immediately agreed to his proposal.
She really liked the Konosuba World.
There was delicious food, the people at the guild were kind, and they all played with her.
The little one loved this world's warm atmosphere.
"Come on, let's stop by the guild first!"
Rin wasn't short on money. Now that he was max level, there was even less need to accept quests.
The Konosuba World was like a resort for Rin now.
No scheming, no life-and-death battles.
Just a bunch of ridiculous adventurers and a useless goddess dragged down to earth by mortals.
"Huff! Huff~"
"What, haven't you eaten? Hurry up and carry the stuff!"
While walking along the road, Rin and Ogerpon passed by a spot where some people were taking a break.
They instinctively looked toward the noise.
A young man in a white short-sleeved shirt and green sweatpants was sweating like crazy, struggling to keep up with a group of shirtless strongmen.
"This really is..."
Rin paused instinctively. "A famous scene."
"What's wrong, Rin?"
Ogerpon followed his gaze and noticed Kazuma SatΕ. "Is there something up with that young man? Why are you looking at him like that?"
"Do you know him, Rin?"
"No."
Rin replied, "This is my first time seeing him."
"But I know of him."
Just as he was talking, Ogerpon pointed at a blue-haired girl sitting on a wall, laying bricks with cement. "That one! I think she's..."
Ogerpon remembered!
She was the girl who called herself a goddess when they first crossed over!
Ogerpon didn't really understand what a goddess was.
But judging by the title, it sounded super powerful.
So why was someone like that laying bricks here?
Was she also here to take a break like Ogerpon?
(To be continued.)
