One Last System

"I really hope my former teammates will end up returning to that place too," Mia whispered in a voice just loud enough for me to hear it, yet, way too silent for anyone else to have even the slightest shot at it.

I took a deep breath. Then, I stopped a smirk from emerging on my face as it would easily give away a small ploy that appeared in my mind.

"Do you really think picking the location for our camp is something we are going to decide based on your wishes alone?" I whispered back while holding myself back from giving away my true intentions.

Mia's face froze.

She breathed in and then held her breath as she battled her thoughts.

I could see the tension exploding in her eyes...

"Well, that would mean you just know me well," I finally added, putting an end to my small scheme.

"Wha...?!" Mia's nearly jumped when she turned her lovely eyes to my face. Seeing her surprised like that with the lingering sense of guilt and tension still written all over her face...

'She is too damn adorable for it to be legal,' I cried out in my thoughts.

"You....!" Mia's eyes welled up when she realized I just played a small prank on her. She then pulled her hand into a fist... "You dummy!" she cried out, gently striking my chest with the side of her fist.

"I'm sorry, dear," I whispered, reaching out and bringing her into my embrace. "You were so cool when speaking out... I just couldn't help myself but tease you a little."

For the nth time in my life, I immersed myself in the gentle warmth of my wife. She was stronger than even the greatest heroes of the fiction I knew from the earth... and yet, within my embrace, she felt like an adorable, squishy ball of cuteness and softness.

"Guys, not to rain on your parade... but weren't we supposed to decide on a place to settle?" one of the cultivators from the other world we saved dared to butt in on my cuddly moment with Mia.

"I know where Tuxi outerpost is," I replied, raising my eyes and giving the man a look of extreme dissatisfaction.

And then, I felt something twitch in my soul.

Right now I was standing in front of nearly two hundred people. They were all willing to listen to my words and follow my orders... but I couldn't care less about that.

What I did care about, was how I could flex in front of all of them the cute and cuddly wife of mine!

My dissatisfied smile quickly gave way to a look of extreme satisfaction, elation, even.

"That place is of great strategical value," I then announced. "First, it's near the river, giving us a means of easy transportation through the core of this land. Secondly, it's only two to three days of march away from the borderlands," I pointed out while raising my hand in the direction I meant.

"Borderlands?" someone in the crowd raised their voice in a question.

"It's not what you guys think," I said, shaking my head right as I moved my hand back on Mia's back.

And she was one crafty girl.

Initially, she hid her face in my chest to hide her embarrassment. But now, I could feel that she was no longer bothered by that small play of mine.

Instead, she remained in her place so that she could enjoy being cuddled herself!

"The borderlands I'm speaking off are lands that not only hold a great number of valuable herbs and other treasures, it's also the only place where we will be able to reliably obtain otherwordly energy later on, once you are ready to properly cultivate it," I continued my explanation.

Then, a vicious smile appeared on my lips.

"But most importantly of all, it's only connected to the main highway of the continent by a subsidiary road," I pointed out.

"Sir, we don't have the maps of the lay of the land," one of the cultivators pointed out. "Even if you point those things to us... it doesn't help at all."

Those words... The woman who said that held a valid point.

But I wasn't going the truth or right rain down on my parade!

"While it's true you might not be able to imagine it well, you can still understand the points that I bring up," I pointed out. "But let me give you a mental exercise," I grinned so hard the white of my teeth showed between my lips.

"Imagine yourself being intelligent... but an aimless monster of great power. You are drawn to the borderlands from all over the place. And by following the roads humans cultivated out of convenience, you end up at a crossroads."

I took a momentary pause to get a breath and swallow down my saliva.

At the same time, I had to extend quite a lot of my willpower to stop my blood from flowing down to my crotch.

In the end, even if I wasn't some horny virgin for quite some time already... Keeping Mia's soft and eager body in my arms while she clearly enjoyed her position was still more than enough to get my instincts going!

"You can either follow the smaller roads north or south, each of them stopping you from taking the massive bridge over the river that you can see right ahead," I added the last few details necessary for people to understand the situation.

"Remember, you wish to travel due west. The path to the north visibly curves to the east while the path to the east remains on the wrong side of the river. And to top it all off, you have a massive bridge right before your eyes, conveniently leading you right in the direction you want to go."

As much as it pained me to do so, I placed my hands on Mia's shoulders before gently pushing her away.

"In such a situation, can you imagine a monster with some sort of intelligence actively taking on the path north and east?"

I waited for a little, giving the cultivators some time to think about the answer.

Or to be honest, humiliating them by pretending to believe they needed time for a question with an answer this obvious.

"Judging from your lack of response, I believe you now understand that monsters would likely take the path west rather than the path north," I said with a smile.

I then took two steps forward before wrapping my hands behind my back and raising my chin.

"That means, we will only ever need to take care of those few monsters that will end up falling on the narrow strip of land between the Tuxi outerpost and the river that protects it from the north."