Harem Overlord: I ALWAYS Finish Quick!

The first black antelope charged toward Ryan as soon as he noticed Ryan standing still. Coming out of the memory only a split second later, Ryan brought up his blade to meet the charge and cut it in half down the middle.

A wave of power rippled through the air in front of his hand before bursting outward in all directions. As Ryan watched its blood gush out onto the grass below, he took a deep breath, smelling the sweet metallic scent of blood.

As the red liquid mixed with the green grass, he looked over and saw that Izzy had already sliced through two of the F-Grade beasts with her battle-axe. Leaving behind a trail of sloppy innards and dripping blood on her beautiful dress.

Emily was slicing away at another antelope, but she only managed to make shallow cuts along its side as it quickly evaded her attacks. She was getting frustrated by this point and stabbed faster as if trying to beat the beast to death by punching the creature's sides.

Lizzy was doing good for someone using a dagger, cutting into one beast and then spinning around to attack the other from behind in a flash.

Ryan ran forward and attacked the nearest target with his sword, cutting right across the head with a loud squishy sound.

Blood sprayed everywhere as he pulled back his sword and found it covered with a dark fluid. He shook his weapon off after a second and let his senses wash over the area again.

The same thing happened every few seconds now. Ryan would stab something and get covered in a sticky black substance, which dripped on his blade when removed.

Finally, after several more hits, he had enough of being peppered in filth, so he decided to end the fight.

He drew his blade back and sent an arc of energy that spread between the antelopes, instantly killing all of them.

The girls turned to face him, looking exhausted and happy at once.

"Nice!" Izzy said, wiping the gore from her forehead with her hand.

"Thanks," Emily replied, panting slightly before she realized she was still on uncertain terms with Ryan and blushed.

"We didn't die." Lizzy sighed with relief. "Thank you... Master!"

Ryan chuckled and nodded at them. "I'd be a fool if I didn't protect my harem." He walked over to where the bodies were piled up and inspected the dead creatures' wounds.

Each body looked the same to him as they lay limp in the grass, except for the apparent difference in their levels.

There was one pile of E-Grade antelopes, one big mound of F-Grade antelope corpses, and two piles of G-Grade antelope corpses that weren't worth mentioning.

After seeing no immediate danger, he knelt and examined the corpse he had just killed, finding nothing out of place about its appearance.

It was standard skin color but had green splotches all over its fur, similar to a leopard.

He picked it up by the neck and tried to examine the head by opening it like a can of beans to check inside, only to find that he couldn't even see through the skull due to how thick it was.

As he was about to throw the beasts into his spatial bag, he got a prompt.

[Harvest 'Green-Spotted Antelopes'?]

[Yes/No]

He took his time with this choice as he wanted to have a taste test with them first. He felt compelled to try them in some way or another. But what could he do?

'The things I do for power,' Ryan lamented, shaking his head.

Selecting yes, his worst fears were imagined.

"Dammit, all they gave were the quest items, not even one stick of jerky."

[Congratulations on completing your first task.]

[Second Task: Climb the tower of monsters]

[Select this prompt to be teleported inside the tower]

[Note: The higher you climb, the better the rewards you will receive at the top. Only those who complete the final stage will become eligible for the entire inheritance]

Ryan felt energy rush into him after the first notification. He had been looking forward to doing something a little more dangerous now.

He looked back to where Lizzy and Izzy were standing and saw Emily off in the distance chasing some smaller animals, her eyes shining bright with excitement.

Shaking his head, Ryan called, "Come over here, girls!"

The three figures walked over slowly with their weapons still in hand while their bodies stiffened like wooden soldiers awaiting orders.

"I have my next task."

"What is it?" Lizzy asked from behind.

Izzy grinned wickedly and stepped beside Ryan as she licked her lips, eager to hear his answer.

"Our goal today is to make it to the very top of this thing," Ryan replied, pointing toward the massive structure that appeared in the sky above them. But, unfortunately, it stretched far into the clouds, making its tip impossible for them to see.

"How are we going to get there?" Emily asked.

"It's letting me teleport there, so everyone hop in my palace, and let's get going."

===

The Old Man's POV...

'Hopefully, this tower can provide him with some much-needed energy. He is, after all, only E-Rank.'

'The lowest Xygar ever born was already C-Rank. Pretty sure that guy's mother threw him off a cliff... or was that my mother?'

The Old Man watched as Ryan completed his tasks, unconcerned that he had improved the difficulty of the tests by multitudes by making Ryan go into the tower of monsters.

'Either way, no one can pass the final test. At least no one I've tried.'

He had been to the Fygar, Jahna, Ottoman trading houses, and Maru galaxies, searching for someone worthy enough for 'the egg'.

The egg that made his race jump straight from an S-Tier Kingdom to King-Tier, but no one was worthy, not even to become a vessel.

'Although we weren't a true King-Tier civilization, the rest of our legacy would make any lower-tier civilization drool with envy.'

The Old Man leaned back on his chair as he watched Ryan enter the tower with a hopeful look.