584 Big Changes At The Second Earth World
Lots of digging spread for tens of miles. I could see the general layout of two big cities and at least ten towns around this place.
Large number of humans were working shoulder to shoulder with other races. It seemed the two girls did a great job handling the situation here.
In the most central part, ores were placed there after getting melted down and purified. The early signs of vast buildings, wide streets, and big walls were starting to take shape in the first city out there.
It was like a totally different world for me! As for the group of hundred blacksmiths, their eyes got attracted to the big piles of ores that I sent over here.
They were moved from the place I was sent to, moved from the central zone towards somewhere tens of miles away.
But the two girls assigned workers to keep working over these ores, moving them to big ovens where many workers were trying their best to melt them down.
"I don't need to speak too much, you have to go there and start working. Also don't forget, your talents aren't just a gift from the heavens. You have an obligation to pass the knowledge to others, just like your masters did to you."-.
"We got it, lord," he nodded and said in deep respect. From the look over their faces, I got the size of shock they got.
It was… Immense!
I liked that look on their faces! If it was me, I'd also end up just feeling like them.
"Let's deliver you then to your places of work," I led my chariot over the big stretch of ovens there. As I delivered them, I saw one of the dragon rider girls coming towards my direction.
"Lord, the ladies are expecting you."
"Great, lead the way," I was away from here for long hours, and they did a good job here. But I had to listen to what they found while I wasn't here.
They led me towards a place that can be considered a small village built out from wood and ores. Just from a single look, I could guess which building belonged to which girl.
The big mansion made entirely out of wood in the central part of this place belonged to my chick. As for the other simple looking wood building with few carvings on its surface, it belongs to Isac.
The last one was made out of shiny and beautiful looking ores, looking like gems or jewels. It was the one that belonged to Angelica.
This girl… She was the type to love anything shiny and big!
Around the three, smaller buildings scattered, made out of wood and ores. I got to recognise which forces belonged to which girl by the general design and nature of each building.
The size of this village wasn't that big, and I got the feeling it worked as the temporary headquarters for all the forces here.
And in the central big plaza that was paved with faint green ores, the three girls stood in wait for me with a group of their trusted subordinates.
"You did a great job here," I said in applause and encouragement when they got on board.
Only the three came, as for their people, they stayed down there.
"You vanished for too long," Hilary ran and gave me a deep hug. I knew I got so damn busy taking care of my girl. But she understood this, luckily. "How was my big and mighty man doing?"
"Just running talks here and there," I patted on her long hair before looking at the other two girls. I could still see the fire of desire burning hot in the eyes of Angelica.
As for Isac, that girl really sucked at playing her role as a boy.
Just from a single look, any blind could tell she was a girl!
"That's my man," Hilary laughed before waving her arms around, "what do you think? We are trying to push all the work here with everything we got."
"I just gave you a little extra help," I started telling them about the blacksmith talents I brought over, "also I'll see if the next batch of humans are ready."
"That would be for the best," Angelica sighed, "my boys are growing beards without work like this!"
"Hahaha! I promise they won't have time to even eat or drink next time we meet," I had a plan with the new impact, but I was still waiting for that higher up to contact me. "Any new discoveries about this world?"
"Sigh! It's really a treasure trove," Isac sighed, "everywhere we found gems! Hidden things, even ancient relics were found."
"Really?" my eyes shone when I heard that.
"We just need time to unearth these," Hilary said, and from my surprised look, she added, "we found at least ten ancient cities buried under the dirt in the places we dug at. That's not damn cool! It seemed we started from such a bad spot."
"So?" I got what she meant. Relic sites were priceless! Forget about treasures found in them, we could find old and forgotten knowledge.
And such things were really priceless in my eyes.
"We can dig in the central zone for now," Isac handled the explanation as she added, "but we will be limited by the relic sites later on. If you go fifty miles away from ground zero, you'll get to see the old cities."
"Ground zero?" I looked at Hilary who shrugged and motioned with her head towards Angelica.
"I liked that name! So why not use it here?"
It was an old term used to describe a place of importance in the lost United states. "Cool," I didn't mind adding such a human touch to this place, "so we have to dig for these ruins?"
"We… Lack of manpower," Hilary sighed, "we are working at many places. Large number of people are working to expand the territory. Others are out there, delving into the forests and trying to draw a map of that world."
585 Talks With The Talent Providing Impact
"Don't forget the teams to look for ores," Angelica added, "they found lots of mines, and we needed miners to work there."
"Didn't you find any in the humans we got?"
"We got few, but not that enough," Isac said, "we need at least ten folds, no, even more."
"To such an extent?!!" I was surprised by the large number of mines they found.
"We just looked in a radius of three hundred miles around. This world… It's too damn big! I suppose it's ten folds the size of Earth."
"Maybe larger," I nodded before pointing at Hilary, "but you got to first discover how big and special resources here are before we set our priority at work. Any dangers by the way?"
"Nothing yet."
"Cool. Have you started farming?"
"We started for an area of ten miles," Hilary said, "but this world lacks any animal life, only trees. We tried eating fruits and seeds, and found good things here."-.
"Good," I thought about finding a source for animals to be brought here. But this wasn't an urgent problem for now, "I'll try to bring a new batch of humans and races to work for you here. I'll focus on developing this world for now. About the relics… Try to first mark them down. We don't want to waste time digging and planning to find out we did it over an ancient site or something."
"Do you know what technology the old folks here used?" Isac asked. And as a Selvator, she knew more about technologies than the two girls next to her.
"Like human technology I suppose," I didn't recall anything eye catchy about their technology.
"Rudimentary one then… Weird," Isac said before adding when she noticed my questioning gazes, "this world is so rich in its energy. So why did they just use the basic forms of energy?"
"I… Dunno about that," I paused, "but it might not have been like this back then in their days. After all, the world was left empty for thousands of years."
"Might be the cause," she shrugged, "anyway see if you can bring more man power here. We need anything you can provide."
"Give me a minute…"
Just at this moment, a message came. It wasn't from the lady, or from any god. It came from a new name, one that is called Silverlining.
[Hi!]
He only sent this, making me a little at a loss here.
[Are you the one sent by my god? The one from the talent impact?] I asked, as this was the only one I could think about who would message me.
[Indeed. I heard lots of nice stories about you. Are you really a human?]
So he started our talk with such a remark. What? Was it so impossible for a human to shine in this damn universe?!
[So, I heard your impact works on talents, is that right?] I shifted the talk back to the main topic.
[We do. But what talents are you exactly looking for?]
[Everything] I didn't know how big their business ran, [As many as you can get]
[Such a big hand opening I see… My friend didn't lie then]
[How come a god befriends a race like us?]
[As long as they need something, they will befriend you]
Well… He had a logic here. [Anyway, let's first start small. What kind of currency are you planning to use? We can provide all kinds of talents, starting from just novices up to paragons and hegemonies!]
[I'm using a special kind of currency] I got interested in his confidence. Such an impact would be a cornerstone in building and expanding my kingdom, perhaps even reaching to other worlds like I did here.
[Special kind? How?]
[Can you send me a reel to exchange items? Let me show it to you]
[Cool!]
I learnt this trick from dealing with Bringold impact nymph girl. In the next minute, I got a reel that allowed me to exchange items with him.
[I'll send an example to you] I selected a green grade bone and sent it over to him, [Check it out and tell me what do you think]
[Damn! So you are the source of these earth shattering bones!!!]
The response I got from him was so damn fast and a little surprising to me. I even raised both eyebrows. [Did you hear about my bones before?]
[Who didn't? Damn! You don't know how big your bones are! Listen, an impact called Bringold brought a batch of these and sold it in a huge auction once. Damn! The hype it caused, and the price it was sold at made all of the big names like us drool over it!]
[And?] This was all new to me. I didn't hear about such a thing before.
So the Bringold impact tried to test out my bones, see if they were worth the value they spent in exchange for these or not.
[That impact got a grade higher thanks to your bones! Many other impacts tried to curry favour with them, and a limited number got their hands on these legendary bones. Damn man! Your bones… You are the source of it, right?]
[I'm] I didn't hide it from him, [So you are going to trade with me using these bones, right?]
[Sure! Hell I'd be a mad Toranks if I didn't accept your offer!]
"Toranks?" I muttered to myself before sending it over to him, [Are you perhaps from the Toranks race, the same mighty race?]
[So you have heard about us?]
[Just a little] I didn't know anything about them, [But you can exchange information regarding your race]
[Sure! If you want, I can even speak with few powerful figures to give you little help if you wanted]
[Really?]
[In exchange for your bones, anything is doable. But… Just a rude question, do you have many of these?]
[I have enough] at this moment, I felt I was holding my bones cheap to the Bringold folks. Those bastards… They knew the real value of my bones, and yet they still belittled them.
586 [Bonus chapter] The Greedy And Foolish Bringold Impact
This was the worst side of dealing solely with one power! From now on, I had to look for other impacts to deal with.
As long as my bones were warmly welcomed like this, it wouldn't be a problem securing deals with anyone.
[Cool! Then let me talk with them when I meet them. For now, let's talk business]
[I dunno what kind of talents your impacts offer] I started talking business as well, [Do you have something like a manual or a list?]
[Sure, let me send one over to you] he paused for a moment, before I received a large list that had many weird names there. [All of these talents can be provided in all ranks and grades. You just select whatever you like, specify the grade and the number, and we will deliver]
[And the price?] I started reading through weird names here. There were talents to control time and space! They weren't just dealing with professions, but also with rare abilities like these.
That made them indispensable in my eyes! I had to secure a good deal from him right now, make him crave for more bones from me.
[I'll have to check this when you select the talents you need]-.
[I've decided] I closed the list, [I want a thousand at least from each name here. Ten of the highest grades… Also do you trade with normal folks?]
[Normal? You mean races that act like workers?]
[Workers, miners, builders… I didn't see any of such names here] that was something weird. I thought such basic professions would be provided first.
[We do, but this is part of our subsidiary impact] he said such a weird thing before explaining, [We do business like this, our impact deals with rare breeds, stuff that can't be found easily in the universe. We got other subsidiary impacts under us]
[Like what?]
[There is one that deals with low grade talents, like the one you just mentioned. There is also one who trades in race traffic, providing any number of races you want. There is also one that trades in gears, weapons, tools, and machines. There is one that trades in materials, and the last one trade in warriors]
[Fighting races you mean?]
[Warriors, like the ones bound to you by seals. They can be stored in your inventory and be used much better than normal race fighters. But if you wanted fighters, you can look for them at the races traffic impact]
Damn! This… this wasn't a single impact, but an entire empire of impacts working at everything the universe would need.
[I also want to order from these impacts. Can I do it through you?]
[You want these services too? Terrific! Let me arrange things first]
[Also check the price of the talents I want]
[Sure, give me an hour or so. I'll deliver the great news to the big boss. Damn! I bet he will jump around and dance! I'll also send a word to our higher ups at the alpha world. I'm sure they will be much interested in dealing with you]
[Sure, do whatever you feel like] I closed the chat with him while having mixed feelings.
For a moment, I was excited about the impact my bones left on the entire universe. Like this not a single door would be shut in front of my face.
Not a sane person would shut an eye over dealing with me.
But that also made me a little mad about that greedy impact! They got all this hype, all these benefits, and they still acted stingy like this with me.
I now understood why that lady acted in such a way when she got the news. I thought they agreed for fear of me going to other impacts.
But they were terrified for me to know the real value of my bones in the universe. Like this, my bones wouldn't be given this easily to these stupid greedy folks!
They just ruined the long and good relation we had together, ruining it with a single stupid decision!
What a stupid group of people they were!
If my bones were this precious, then I should make sure I'd gain the best value in return for them. Right now I had this new impact, or group of impacts actually, to work with.
As they covered almost all the aspects I might need, then I'd slowly stop relying on the Bringold impact.
The contracts between me and them were valid until I'd stop asking for their services. I'd have to wait for that Silverlining dude to give me his response and make a few deals with him before ditching the Bringold impact.
"Are they coming now?" from the side, Angelica mistook my talk with that Silverlining dude as if it was with the nymph lady.
"One sec," I returned to speak with the lady again. [Are there any humans and races available now?]
[They are just preparing the bones, rich boy!]
Mentioning bones in front of me made me want to vent my frustration over her. But this wasn't the right thing to do now.
I had to first secure a good alternative for them. Besides, they promised to provide me with the kingdom of hearts.
If Silverlining could provide the kingdom heart to me alongside the invitation to the betting world, then I wouldn't continue working with Bringold impact.
But if he couldn't, I would have to endure this loss for now and wait until I'd get what I wanted.
[Send them over]
I closed the chat with her and ignored the next message she sent. I paid the price for the races to arrive here, and the next moment I was hovering in the air, flying with my chariot away.
"We are going to get some, hahaha! You are the boss I like!" Angelica said while laughing, and her last words got her a glaring gaze from Hilary.
I didn't know why, but it was clear to anyone that Angelica was trying to spread her net around me to force me to fall for her.
587 I Can Get Warriors!
Hilary was a smart girl, she would have seen that from miles away. And yet the closest person to her was this sexy girl. And that was something I couldn't understand.
Why would she let her be so close? Sigh!
"Stop fooling around and tell your boys to get ready," I stopped just at a nearby empty zone while many portals started to flash, "make sure to get the best use of these humans and races. I'll finalise their contracts and send them a message to follow your orders."
"Yes sir!" Angelica did a military salute as a joke. I shook my head in response, while getting myself busy signing contracts in batches.
As for the three, they descended and I just watched after finishing my part of what they were doing.
Angelica and her men got experienced in dealing with such tasks. They arranged themselves into teams, each took charge of an entire portal.
Doing this saved them lots of trouble and lots of time. They would just stand by the portal, shout and start organising the races coming out according to their abilities and preferences.
I stood there for an hour or so before I was about to leave when I got a message.-.
[I got a good response from my boss]
It was Silverlining, and he seemed pretty much excited about his meeting with the impact boss.
[Is that so? So do we have a deal?]
[Sure, I'll send you a list of prices. You just revise and tell me what do you think]
The next moment he sent me a list with many papers in it. In general, he used the batch of ten bones in exchange for a group of talents.
Starting with novices, who seemed to be the lowest in any talent ranking system, I could get close to five hundred with a single group of my bones.
The higher the rank, the lower the number of talents I'd get. The highest ranks there were the grandmaster, and I could get only one per group. As for paragons, I'd have to pay five groups to get one.
The highest in price was the hegemonies. I had to pay fifty groups of bones to get one hegemony.
This… It was damn cheaper than the prices I used to pay for the experts I got before! I paid tens of thousands of bones to get those five grandmaster wood experts.
I got such a talent in the list. But I could get one grandmaster for ten bones. Damn! The difference… It was a steal!
[Ok, I'm good with this price tag] I sent to him before adding, [How about the amount you can provide?]
[From each rank, we can provide lots of it. But starting from grandmaster and above, we can supply small numbers of them. Besides, these folks will ask for many benefits and will set conditions]
Set conditions and ask for benefits? That was new!
[Like what?]
[They will ask for things to make their craft better, nothing much actually. They'll ask for resources, good treatment, and also to bring their families with them and treat them well]
[These are basic things, they don't need to state any of that. I provide such things to all my experts]
[That's a relief. So how many do you want?]
[Hmm… There are over a hundred talents in the list, right?]
[One hundred and thirteen]
[Good! I want from the higher ranks, grandmaster and above, all the talents you can provide]
[This… We are speaking about almost a hundred of each. Can you pay for that?]
I didn't answer his useless question. [I also want from other ranks at least tens of thousands. If you can get me hundred thousand then I'll be satisfied]
[This…]
[Also I won't pay with the bone I showed you, I'll pay with this]
I opened my inventory and selected a blue grade bone and sent it over to him. This was my way to repay the kindness of the Bringold impact.
They got the green bones as their highest grade. But I would deal with this petal impact using my blue bones.
I still had silver grade, fine golden grade in large amounts to count left in my inventory.
[This bone… This… It has much denser energy than the previous one!]
[This is my blue grade bone] I introduced my bone to him, [And I'll use it as the standard of payment from now on]
[Really?!!] I knew he would be shocked, [Let me examine it then and return to you with the new prices. But… The deal we are speaking about here is…]
I knew what he wanted to say. [Just prepare what I asked for. Also contact the subsidiary impacts under your command. I need materials, ores and resources, lots of them. I need races of all kinds with different professions and abilities. Also I want humans, all the humans they can get. As for warriors, I'm also interested in forming a grand army of them]
[S… Sure…] at this moment, I knew he realised how big dealing with me was. I wasn't making deals in small amounts, or hustle about price and such.
I was going to shift all my business with them. The talents I'd get would be just the ground I'd use to lay a strong foundation of my kingdom here and back on Earth.
I didn't want them to just come here and do their work, I wanted them to start picking talents and training them to get more and a stable stream of talents of my own.
As for the resources, I wanted to secure another route aside from the Bringold impact. The only two things remaining for the Bringold impact to do for me would be the kingdom heart and the invitation for the betting world.
Warriors was an issue I tried to solve for many times. All I could get were soulers, and nothing more from the Bringold impact.
The number of my souler army was now in the hundreds of thousands. That made me stronger, yet didn't help my kingdom or other forces.
588 The Warriors, Resources, And Races Lists
From the last setbacks I experienced, I learnt a valuable lesson. One should be strong and mighty, but he should never neglect supporting his forces.
These forces were the real backbone of any powerhouse. What was the benefit of being the mightiest being in the universe when your subordinates sucked it bad?
It just didn't make sense to depend on one's power to do everything. I couldn't be everywhere all the time, wouldn't be around to help my forces in time of need.
Just like the two failures I tasted before. If my forces were strong and capable, I'd have seen much better results than the ones I got so far.
Training them on the hands of Hectors and later on Selvators was something great. But my generals and trusted teammates should experience a different kind of support.
I planned from the moment I realised my weakness and flaw to look for warriors and get them enough to secure their lives. If I could get enough to make them fight and change the tide of any battle, it would be for the best indeed.
Dealing with such a grand impact with so many subsidiary impacts was a chance I'd not slip by.
"You can let him join my ultras group," as that god did such a big favour with me, I had to honour my promise with him.-.
Yes the deal wasn't over, but it was this close from being so.
[Thanks Hye! I'm honoured to be in your Ultras group]
[Thanks to you. This impact… It will be of a great help to me]
[I'm happy that I helped you with this]
I closed the chat with that excited god, and made sure to close all the private messages coming from my channel.
Right now I have to focus. I had many unfinished things at hand to take care of.
Just after dealing with that petal impact, I'd return back to Earth to see what the teams did.
The fourth quest was just looking from far. I was sure that once it started, things would grow hectic.
So I had to make sure I did my best to prepare my kingdom and forces with everything I could. And one of these preparations was to get the news about the movement of the enemy.
Knowledge was, after all, a sort of power, a great power indeed.
And above all this, I had the cultivation thing to care about. The talents I got from that impact didn't have any blacksmith, wood experts, or alchemists.
According to Silverlining words, he considered these as common talents, ones that didn't suit the prestigious work of his impact.
I opened the list and checked its content again. The names of the talents here were really unique and weird. Also I got many tablets. I didn't know what they were doing exactly.
There were foretellers, space controllers, time benders, and even world creators. These fancy names and others filled this list, making me wonder about all the possibilities I'd get from them.
But on the other hand, there were talents with weird names. For example the Soukers, what did they do exactly? I didn't know!
Almost half of the talents had such weird names. But I didn't actually plan to handle these talents myself. First I was too busy to do that, I wasn't going to stay for a long time here, and I had to assign someone I trusted to handle this task.
And Hilary was just perfect for such a task.
She was really not doing much here. Isac handled the planning, and Angelica handled sorting out talents and executing the plans.
So Hilary was the one with the least tasks here. She might help in supervising over the work, sorting out knowledge we got from here, and try to make sure things were going according to Isac's plans.
But the role I decided for her was much bigger than that. She would act as my prime minister, supervising literally everything in my kingdom.
So starting from the talents arriving here, she would work to understand them, see how they might fit best for our interest, and assign tasks for them to do.
This would be the start of a grander role later on. But for now, I had to wait for the answer from Silverlining.
And the wait didn't last longer than an hour.
[I got the new price list. I'll send it over to you]
[Great!]
I got the new list. And this time, I had to inwardly sigh.
That dude was acting fair, much more than those greedy bastards!
The price tag of the hegemonies from before which needed fifty groups of my green bones only needed two of my blue bones.
As for the rest, you could only imagine!
[Great, I'm happy with this list] I sent over to him, [Now, when will you deliver?]
[Let's sign a contract first. Ah, by the way, I also got lists from other impacts for you to check]
[Really? That's great! Send them over and I'll sign the contract as well. After that, how long will it take to deliver?]
[Just a couple of hours… I'll send whoever I have here first before starting to gather more talents from the universe]
[Fine!]
As I closed the chat with him, I got the contract. I read it and signed as it had no errors.
The lists came next. Damn! Each list was filled with tons of names in it. I started by sorting them out first. The material list was the biggest, followed by the race trade list, and the smallest list was for the warriors.
But checking that list made me grin. There were my beloved Bulltors, dragons, and even Gollams and Krakens. I also found more fierce warriors that could make a difference in my forces.
However what I lacked was the price tag. [Can you check the race trade impact and the warrior impact for me? I want to know the price tags for their goods]
[Found anything interesting?]
589 Dammit Hye! It Hurts!
[Many things actually] I laughed, [but I can't decide how much I wanted without the price tag]
[Cool! But that would take a day or two]
[No problem. Start sending the experts now]
I moved my chariot towards an empty place not far from the spot Hilary and Angelica were working at. As for Isac, that girl returned back to the village to continue her work there.
*Fwoosh!*
As I reached that spot, and in less than a few minutes, many portals started to flash and open. Large number of races appeared here, with many old looking people.
That impact seemed to have the high level experts in their headquarters for their immense value and rarity. I could imagine the demand over them.
"Hey," I stopped one dragon rider girl who was flying just nearby, "go and find Hilary for me. Let her come here with her boys."-.
"Ok, lord," the girl's face changed the moment she noticed me. She hurriedly nodded and said in such respect and veneration before leaving fast.
Was I this scary or what? This wasn't the first time to experience such a reaction when dealing with these girls.
As the new talents flocked here, and considering their initial large number of talents to begin with, they formed a decent force here that was in the hundreds of thousands.
Yet unlike the races I got and the humans I received before, those guys stood in silence and didn't make any ruckus or noise.
I kept signing the loyalty contracts of them while Hilary came from far with a large number of her force.
"Wow! You managed to get an army of old folks!"
As she arrived at my chariot, she said in such mockery. She didn't realise how valuable these talents were.
"Don't be rude, they are special people that I had to pay a large price to get," I lied. I just paid for my blue bones, the second lowest grade bones I had right now.
And I had them in heaps hard to count.
"Special? How so?" she blinked twice.
"That's left for you to figure out…" I started to explain the real value of these talents. I also told her this was just the first batch we would get.
She had to get to know them better, and know how to best use them. She kept nodding, and when I told her about the part of warriors, her eyes shone.
"At last you are taking care of me!"
"Foolish girl," I jokingly hit her on the head with my left hand, making her touch her head while retreating a couple of steps.
"Dammit Hye! It hurts!!"
"I'm treating you nicely all the time, since when have I mistreated you ever?" I rolled my eyes before adding, "these warriors aren't just for you, but for the entire team and their trusted and capable subordinates."
"But I'll get the most out of them," she said with a cute face, "I'm you girl, right? And you have to treat your girl better."
"Sigh!" I raised my head and looked at the bright sky. As Isac told me before, this world changed its light and now it was a pale pink coloured sun up there. "Fine, take whatever you want. But don't take too much, ok?"
"Promise," she jumped and hugged me while a broad smile was on her face.
"Go down now, start working with those folks. Don't forget to treat them nicely."
"I always treat others nicely."
"They aren't like the races we got before," I stressed over this point. "Also plan a place for them to stay. They will bring their families over. Handle this matter as well."
"How will they bring them?"
"I… dunno yet," this part was something I missed to ask. And I planned to ask Silverlining when we talk again.
As I stood up there, I watched her start working with her boys. I sent a message to all the new talents here, asking them to follow the instructions of her as she would be their leader from now on.
I was curious though about how they would help my kingdom. But that was something left for the later times.
[I have to do something else] After an hour of watching, I felt bored. I wanted to get back to Earth, to check over the teams I sent and get the latest news from the frontline.
That jumper jerk was busy out of late. He hasn't sent me a single message or showed his face since the last time I lost consciousness.
He spoke about pushing with his monsters up north. The lands there were now covered in ice, but that would change in the upcoming merging processes.
The ice would melt, dense rivers would be formed. That cold part of the world would become warm, and the all cold white world out there would turn green.
But wasn't there another human powerhouse there? I had to see what that jerk would do with that prodigy.
I didn't want to start a big war between humans. For the best, we should sit at a round table and discuss alliances.
As other races did, we should learn to let go of our differences and ambitious plans and desires, and try to unite for the better of our race.
But something told me the problem wouldn't be in that powerhouse, but in the jumper. He never showed interest in expanding my lands to a certain direction.
He said he wanted to join the epic fight up north between the three races. That was a good reason indeed, yet I felt it wasn't the real deal.
He wanted to clash with the powerhouse in the north. But why? I had to get to the bottom of this before this bastard would cause a big trouble that I wouldn't be able to solve.
Besides, the situation here was changing fast. The mysterious enemy was doing his best to demolish everything I built with effort and sweat.
The next quest would be a big war, I could already sniff the gunpowder. So letting that jumper walk away with such sizable and strong force was a mistake.
590 We Did It!
I had to let him be near, ready to intervene at any critical moment. I didn't plan to bring him home. It was better to leave an army or more outside, acting as things would turn out and based on the developing situation.
That would give me more options, allowing me to flexibly handle any situation without much stress.
[I can save this place and send the talents over]
[Good! Keep sending them here then] I had to leave. If he could save this spot, and keep sending people over, then it would be great. [Once sent anything, just let me know and I'll pay the price]
[Sure]
I checked the world here for the last time before opening a portal and leaving through it.
This world was going to be my crown jewel.
As I passed through it back to Earth, I opened the messages and started to check over the hundred teams I sent.-.
Few reached their targets and started to look around. Some found nothing suspicious yet, and the others found traces of a big army marching out of the tunnels.
[Go and check these traces with caution. Try to get to that army and stay trailing them] I sent to the ones finding the traces around the tunnel openings.
If they spotted the traces, they could track these to reach the main army.
I had to see where these forces were going. In the end, I hoped to draw a big map with cities and towns controlled by these forces.
After that, I'd make my move.
[Any news?] As I got to know the updates of my one hundred teams, I sent this to Leo.
[They attacked towns and cities, controlling them] he sent before adding, [We are drawing a big map for the places they controlled. But their army isn't that huge to control many places]
[There are more armies getting out] I sent this to him, [Are they controlling a circular area or a linear one?]
[Well… When I look at the map, I find that they are controlling zones in linear way from north to south]
[Good!] my eyes flashed in the cold light, [Keep watching them from far. Don't risk to get exposed]
[Got it boss]
So, they were trying to form a linear formation with towns and cities under their control. They were surrounding my kingdom. And if I guessed it right, then they were expanding from the ocean down at Texas up towards Canada's cold lands.
But for what? Forming such a line around my kingdom wouldn't help but to stretch out their forces.
That tactic would only help in one case, if they got a way to bring forth lots of forces to attack my kingdom. Like this, this line up would end up being the bottom of hell, a place that would be damn hard to reach.
If they had a way to do it, then forces starting from that line up would start to eat up my lands in big bites each time.
Even if I ended up surviving this, a new strong kingdom would lie at my borders, surrounding me like I was entrapped.
And for sure I'd end up like this with the Hector continent at the East and ocean lining up at my eastern shores.
If I let such a setting mature, I'd end up in great trouble. However this had one single solution. And I decided to go for it in the last couple of days before the start of the fourth quest.
"Lord…"
Just as I was lost in thoughts, a feminine voice came with extreme respect from my side.
"Yes?" It was one of the dragon rider girls. And she, like any other girls I met before, was acting shy and a bit nervous.
"There… Is someone who wants to speak to you."
"Who?" I wasn't in the mood to speak with anyone at the moment.
"They are… The youths back at the MIT campus… A girl there wants to tell you something."
"A girl? MIT?" my eyes flashed with realisation before turning towards the direction of the MIT campus. "Thanks," I just said that before controlling my chariot and moved towards the MIT campus.
That girl was the one leading the entire operation back there. As she asked for me, that meant they managed to breakthrough the power problem again.
I didn't meet up with her or with the other two dudes with her for a long time. After the battle here, I didn't see her around.
I thought she died, but it seemed this wasn't the case. Luckily she survived.
But when I got to see her, I realised that the other two dudes who were with her died in the past battle.
"My condolence," I said before closing this page, "have you cracked it?"
"Thanks lord," she said while standing in the middle of the big place that once had that iconic ancient building of the MIT academy. Right now only less than half was present, and the rest was in ruins.
"We did it," she pointed at a group of youths standing next to a table. It was covered with dirty piece of cloth, trying to make a surprise here.
"For the second time,"' she added in such bitter tone.
"Always the hardest time is the first. Once done, you can repeat it as much as you'd like."
"That's… True," I knew she wasn't feeling that much of joy thanks to the loss of her two friends.
"Show me," I was impatient to see the result of what they reached. She snapped her fingers and the group of youths standing at the metallic table moved and removed the cloths off.
Underneath I saw something looking like a big capsule. It was made out of transparent material, showing many things inside.
There were wires, the monster core I gave to them before, and also few ores. "You used ores?" I came closed to better inspect this device.
"We did it before without using ores, but it yielded small amount of energy," she explained, "this time we used the ores you brought, especially the ones which helped to augment the strength of anyone standing around it. These ores are really something! They augment any form of energy, not just stats."
591 [Bonus chapter] A Violent Energy
"Stats are a form of energy," I corrected this wrong belief for her, "how does it work?"
"I'd recommend stepping back," she said, "let's go back guys," she added while I retreated with her for almost twenty metres away.
"Isn't it a bit too much?" I asked, and she shook her head.
"It's barely enough," she paused before adding, "the device is still in its early phase. It can generate energy, but we still can't control the output."
"I see," I nodded in understanding, "what now?"
"Now? We will start it," she took out a device that looked like a remote control. It got a single red button in the middle, with nothing connecting it to that capsule.
"Will it connect?" I asked in doubt, and she just smiled without saying anything else.-.
"Watch my lord, this moment marks the first step of humans over the new technology of the post apocalyptic era," she said in such confidence and pride, the pride of a scientist.
I turned my eyes towards the capsule, focusing over it. Once she pressed the button, I could feel the fierce reaction all around it.
The ores she used started to shine while the monster core in the centre started to buzz. The capsule vibrated with the table, before it started to flow in the air.
I could see wisps of energy of white colour forming around the capsule, looking like tentacles getting birthed from it.
These energy wisps looked docile at first. But seemingly they started to gather up energy fast, and soon started to grow rampant.
"This…" the energy was indeed strong, but it wasn't that high like any strong attack here. However it was an energy that could work in the apocalypse world rules.
Having such energy was a good step. Of course it needed work to become stronger, to learn to control it, but it was for later times.
"It's good," even if I truly didn't like it, I had to give her and the youths some sort of encouragement.
"No, it's not over yet," she firmly said, making me return to watch the capsule once more. And this time, I couldn't help but look with widened eyes towards what was happening.
The energy turned from wisps to form a wave, a mighty wave that expanded fiercely , even throwing the table and turning it to shreds in mere seconds.
With a faint roar, like a beast was entrapped in there, the wave of this energy kept growing and expanding until it formed a big ball of blue energy, covering up an area of twenty metres.
It just stopped an inch or two in front of my face! I looked at it then at the girl next to me and she grinned. "This is what we reached, not the docile early stage."
"That's…" I paused, returned to watch the ball of energy, "… Truly amazing!"
"Thanks! Lord… Don't!!" but just before she could enjoy her moment, she got an instant scare when I extended my arm towards the depth of that ball.
"Don't worry," I used my right arm, and the moment it touched that ball it started to suck away this energy out of control, "I'm not that weak."
"…!!!" I could see the shock over her face and others. Something told me that few tried to touch this ball of energy before, and it seemed they didn't end up well.
By inserting my right arm in that energy, I felt two things. First this energy wasn't as weak as I initially thought! My arm was eating it up more than what it was doing with the energy of the world here.
And the second thing I discovered was that this energy wasn't the end of this device's abilities. It was like the outer shell, the outer layer, and by inserting my hand like this, I felt like I stirred up the hornet nest.
"Get back!" I instantly shouted, "get back more than one hundred metres! Stay away! Now!"
"Get back now!" The shout came from the girl, while I felt all the youths moving. But their speed wasn't on par with the fast expanding ball of energy.
What I caused was to absorb the first gush of energy, the one that kept the more violent ones under check. I didn't know if one metres was enough or not, but I couldn't risk losing any of these genius kids here.
"Come down now!" I had no other choice but to control my chariot and bring it fast forward. It wasn't that far away anyway, and it landed just next to the kids.
"Get inside!" I shouted, "don't leave its side no matter what!"
*Rumble!*
The energy went berserk at this moment. The previous blue energy started to get infiltrated but a thick bolt of scarlet red energy that looked like they were going to explode at any moment.
I just had time to turn back and when I saw my big chariot standing next to these youths.
"They are safe," I turned my focus to that berserk energy that engulfed me the next moment. I felt like a gush of hot air lashed at my face, making me feel a little hot and uncomfortable.
But it was nothing to worry about. The right arm worked its magic, kept absorbing this energy in a crazy way, making me safe.
I watched the fast expanding ball of energy. It reached my chariot, got stopped by the shield of it. The youths were all inside the reign of my shield, and so they survived.
But the energy kept expanding, covered an area of over two hundred metres and kept expanding as well.
When it hit the four hundred mark, it finally stopped. Right now the energy was rolling inside the ball, coming out in torrents from that capsule.
This energy wasn't as docile or weak as before. Just touching the ground left deep marks there, deep enough to be in metres depth.
I felt like if I kept absorbing this energy, it wouldn't stop there. I got the impression there were still much more layers hidden in that energy, something that I wouldn't be able to control.
Damn! What did these youths do exactly? Was this energy from that monster core?
592 Energy Enough To Power Up Big Cities
If so, then I greatly underestimated that core! It looked like a nuclear weapon of old human days, not just a mere and simple source of energy.
Should I stop? Retreat back to the chariot and shield myself there?
For a moment, I seriously considered doing this. But the next moment I ditched such an idea.
I looked back, and all I saw was fear, doubt, and confusion over the faces of the youths here.
They… Were like kids playing with fire without realising they could start a big fire that might take away their entire home.
So I had to go deeper, unlock more of this energy so they'd learn what they were dealing with.
If I wasn't around, and one of these youths triggered the explosion of that energy, then things would go south for all of them.-.
Even with my presence, all I could help with was to summon my chariot to help them.
As I decided that, I continued to absorb this energy. This time I had to go all out. So I sat on the ground, closed my eyes, and started regulating my breathing.
I was going to start cultivating, accelerate the speed of absorption so I'd allow this energy to go beyond this level and show its true terror.
As for my safety, I got the feeling that no matter what I wouldn't get any harm. As long as my arm was there, my secondary dantian was absorbing energy, I'd get no harm.
So I started circulating the absorbed energy into a much faster pace, allowing more energy to gush in. This kept going for as long as it took until the outer energy died down.
When I opened my eyes, I was shocked by what I saw. The entire region got hit hard, like something fierce exploded or caused a rampage here.
The standing part of the old building of the MIT campus got destroyed! Only big pieces of stones remained on the ground, while many were eaten away like they were dry weed faced fire.
As for the ground, I could see deep grooves, extending for ten metres or more. They stretched for hundreds of metres, starting from the spot where that capsule took, and even few reached beyond one thousand metres mark.
This… It was a big damage that I didn't expect. However, it was good. This way these youths would learn how deadly playing with these cores was.
"Are you alright?" As I went to my chariot, I looked at the ashen white faces of these youths.
"You… Lord… Are you… Alright?!!" the girl asked, as if it was a miracle for me to stay alive.
"Foolish girl," I messed with her hair before adding, "do you think your lord is that weak?"
"L… Lord… You just… Didn't see what it looked like!!!"
The girl was still in deep shock. It seemed the magnitude of this was way beyond what I imagined.
Good! Like this they would be extra careful when dealing with these cores. Also they'd know these cores held much more energy to harvest.
If such energy was directed right to serve my kingdom, then a single core would be enough to lighten up and power an entire city for months!
This wasn't the full throttle of this energy. I absorbed much of it, so only a small amount was left to get out of control.
If just such an amount caused all this damage, then how about the entire thing? Damn! If they were to harvest the energy in a stable and secure way, these cores would be enough to solve the problem of energy for a long time.
As for getting more, I'd have to ask the help of those Hectors. I was quite sure during the upcoming quest, these Hectors would use a huge number of aquatic monsters.
Lily was proof of that. She was very experienced in naval battles. I didn't know if Hector's mainland was formed mostly of water or what.
But adding these things up, I knew the Hectors would use aquatic monsters during their next attack. And it was the best option, as my boys were getting familiar with fighting such monsters now.
"Just try other things out," I said to the girl, "you did the first big step, knowing how to salvage that energy out from these cores. But as you saw, these cores aren't that safe. They have an enormous amount of energy."
"Sigh! They are like ticking bombs," one of the male youths here sighed.
"But if we could regulate the energy output, it would be enough to fuel entire cities for a long time with power, right?"
I knew they were impressed and scared of these cores. They got the wrong impression of these, and I had to help in changing that vision.
I had to let them see the possibilities of taming such wild energy. Like that, these young scientists would get excited and might end up giving me a good surprise.
"Do you want us to keep working on these cores?!" the girl asked in surprise, making me inwardly sigh.
"These cores have levels of energy inside them," I said before adding, "you just watched the energy getting wilder and fiercer. All I did was to uncover the energy step by step, and you have to learn how to do this."
"The cores have layers of energy…" her eyes shone in realisation, and she wasn't an exception. All of the youths here seemed to get something from what I just said, letting me hope they'd start thinking differently about these capsules and cores.
"Go back now," I waved, "be careful from the deep grooves. Be cautious and try to do things carefully this time."
"We will, lord," they said in unison before leaving back to their campus.
Well, this time it was a failure. But they managed to break something here. Next time… I was sure next time they'd give me a pleasant surprise.
As I watched them leave, I returned to my chariot and decided to check over someone.
593 Attack On The Jumper
[Where are you dude? You vanished and didn't say a single word since I last saw you]
[I'm in the middle of a fight]
[Don't tell me you are fighting humans!"
[Humans? No, they are a bunch of crazy folks. I dunno what race they belong to. They were trailing me, leaving me no option but to hunt them down]
[Tracking you? Are they this strong?]
[Not strong, but too many. They can summon portals wherever they want. I was fighting them for the past couple of days, smashing one portal after another. But that didn't help at all!]
It was… Weird! That jumper finally found a foe that could make him feel so helpless!
[Where are you now?]
[Just stepped up north towards Canada lands. I didn't cross any distance before hitting those crazy folks. They are crazy, Hye! They don't fight with any tactic but with their numbers! As I kept smashing portals, they will summon more, forcing me to keep fighting]
[So you are moving aside from your desired destination? Where are you now?]
[Frankly… I dunno! They kept moving East, but I still couldn't see the ocean]
[Hmm… Don't go near Niagara falls, ok?]-.
[These falls? Oh, wait a sec… I believe I'm not that far from that place]
[Stay away from there] I sent in warning, [Try to retreat and don't move forward]
[But… They will flood the entire lands with their great numbers!]
[As long as they are weak, that doesn't matter]
[What's up there at Niagara falls?] he finally spotted the main issue, and I had to explain what I knew to him, and also state my concerns.
[They are deliberately luring you towards the direction of these big tunnels. They kept sending weak troops, and in such a way to exhaust your forces. You use monsters, but even monsters can get tired. So make sure to not risk it, retreat and keep killing them while returning back to Wisconsin]
[Getting back? But…]
I didn't continue to read his message. I knew for a reason this jerk was trying to target the human overlord at the northern lands.
[Just what's going on between you and that overlord of human forces up north?]
[That… Aren't we going to claim all these parts for ourselves?]
[Not in that way! And you know better]
[I believe it's better to hit that overlord here!]
[Not now! And not when we have bigger issues to handle]
[Like what?]
[Dude! I just told you, they are amassing armies and sending them out from tunnels. They are going to attack us soon once the fourth quest starts]
[But they attacked me!]
[You were just too cautious and noticed them, decided to hit them hard without even checking their background]
[I thought… They were sent by a race, like Hectors]
[Anyway] I decided to close an eye over this, [Just come back, station yourself at Wisconsin, and wait for my orders]
[Are we going to wait for them to attack?]
[No way! I will hit them two days before the start of the fourth quest]
[Then I'll entrap them?]
[No need. As you saw, they are weak]
[Then… What's my role then?]
[I doubt the one who did this will only use weak forces. He has a plan, a card that makes him reassured to crush us]
[You mean…]
[You will act once that force appears. If you can't crush them, you have to contain them as hard as you can]
[Ok. But after that… Can I head north?]
[After that… You and I will have a sincere chat together, where you will tell me everything about your bad relations with that overlord at north]
[It's… Nothing!]
[Yes, I can tell that]
I closed the chat after stressing over retreating now and kept me posted of his location.
He acted slightly reckless. It wasn't his habit, and that told me the issue of that northern overlord wasn't just something trivial.
As I closed this issue for now, I started to check over the other teams. I was worried such a thing would happen to them like it happened with the jumper.
But nothing like that happened. The teams were all cautious and kept their distance away from the hostile forces they were tracking.
[Did you get a deal with the petal impact?]
Just as I ended talking with my teams, I got this message from the lady nymph.
[They offered a good price and lots of things for me to choose from] I didn't hide this from her.
[What about our deals? Are you going to drop them?]
[I heard you once auctioned my bones, right?]
[This… What about it?]
I knew she was shaken the moment I said this. As she dared to come and question me, she had to take the responsibility then for stirring me up!
[I heard interesting rumours, about how fierce the fight over my bones became]
[That's… Normal. After all your bones can't be supplied except by you]
[That's indeed true. And in such case, I decided to work with the petal impact using my bones]
[This…]
[It's my most precious currency. Thanks for making propaganda for it. As for our deals, you can continue to work for what we agreed upon from earlier]
[So… No change?] She seemed deeply worried about the deals we had. Of course we were bound by contracts, but that was in case I asked for something from them.
I couldn't change the price tag in these contracts, but I could shift my focus and deal with the petal impact instead.
[When can you deliver the next human and races batch?]
[Soon, in less than half a day. And I promise, the number this time will make you happy!]
[Cool!] I knew she wasn't doing this for my sake, but for hers. She was terrified I'd stop dealing with her and her impact.
So the next deal would show a significant increase in amount, trying to get as many bones from me as she could.
I had no objections about that. Although I could get as much with a cheaper price, I would still keep issuing them orders every now and then of old sake times.
And who knew, they might just lower the price when I'd start acting like that.
594 Can You Provide A Kingdom Heart For Me?
Closing the chat with her, I got nothing else to do except training. I got a slight push when I absorbed that core energy. But I had to keep training.
I got the feeling that with each upgrade of my energy, more work was needed and much longer time it would take for my energy to get to the next level.
So I sat on my chariot, closed my eyes, and started my training.
Time flew fast! When I ended my cultivation session, I found many messages coming from many people.
Most of the messages came from Silverlining. This dude seemed to take my deals and requests pretty much seriously, making me smile in content.
He was informing me of delivering more talents to the second Earth world. Also he sent me the lists he got from other subsidiary impacts of his.
The lists had the price tag. Like the list of talents, these lists all had cheaper prices, dealing with my bones in the right way they deserved.
[Thanks dude. I'll think about the orders I need and tell you about it]
[You will order through me then?]-.
[Sure, I hate dealing with many folks]
[But that will cause a bit of delay]
[How long?]
[Hmm… From few hours up to one day at max]
This dude… He was dealing with me on a total level different from what the lady nymph did with me.
Few hours? I was delayed many days many times!
[I have two questions to ask] as we were going to do business like this, I had to ask about what I truly need.
[Anything, human Hye, you can ask me anything]
[I'm looking for two items, they are precious and might take effort and time to get]
[Tell me what they are. If the impact doesn't own it, we will find a way to get it]
[A kingdom heart]
[What?!!!]
[I know, I know it's precious and rare. But I'm in desperate need for it]
[Well… It's not that hard to get you one]
[This… Are you sure?] Was it this simple? No f*cking way!
[Of course trying to get it from the impact will be quite hard! But I had another way to get it for you]
[How? Tell me!] I was willing to close such a deal on any price tag! No matter how pricey it was, I'd just accept the price without any bargaining with him.
[Through my race. We have lots of kingdom hearts. Of course such thing is considered as a no for trade treasure, but I can speak with my friends and secure you one]
[That… How much will that cost?]
I knew he wasn't this sure of completing this deal if it didn't include lots of bones. He said it himself, it was a no for trade item. Yet he was sure to close such a deal.
Such confidence came from one simple fact, he would ask for lots of my bones in return for it.
[The price will be your bones indeed, but we will ask for a much higher grade than what you offered back at the impact]
[And the price? How much?] I knew he was smart to guess it on his own. If I used a higher grade of bones than the one I used to trade with the Bringold impact, then that meant I had a higher grade of such bones.
[A treasure must be traded with an equal in value treasure] he sent such weird word before adding, [So you have to select your highest bone, one that will force anyone to accept offering the kingdom heart to you]
[This… Isn't it a bit loose condition?]
[If you are smart, you will know this is a hard condition to fulfil. You have one chance to convince my friends. So you can't just select any bone. You must be aware of the immense value of a kingdom heart. With it, and in such early stage of the apocalypse, you will be invincible]
He was right, indeed. Sigh! He was acting sly this time with me. So he asked for a high grade bone. Something told me this wasn't just for the kingdom heart deal.
It seemed he wanted to start building a good relationship between me and his race. Such a loyal fellow! He didn't even ask for anything for himself.
Not like that nymph lady, who kept pestering me all the time with personal demands and gains.
This Silverlining was just the kind of a person that I liked!
[But… What if the bone I offered held a greater value than the kingdom heart?]
[This… Is there even such a thing?]
It seemed he underestimated me! He thought I wouldn't be able to honour such a deal, and mostly would offer a bone that was close to the value of the kingdom heart.
But dude… I got even red grade normal bones here! And they weren't my top graded bones. I still had my dark monster higher grade bones, that diamond grade bone.
[Yes, there is] I send with such confidence, [So, how will you deal with such a problem?]
[In that case… We'll assess it closely and give you a fair price! If we have to add more treasures, we will]
[Better to be war related treasures] I looked at my mighty chariot. Since I got it, I was feeling untouchable! My girl here saved my life countless times.
If I managed to get more treasures like her, I'd be satisfied with this deal. I had to secure my teammates here, especially that impulsive jumper and my chick.
These two were the strongest of my team. They also had enough experience in this apocalypse to set them apart from anyone else.
So if I could, giving them a treasure to secure them would be nice.
[That depends on the value of your bone]
[Can I add more than one?]
[A treasure with more than one copy isn't considered a treasure] he said something deep again. What went wrong with him? Why was he acting this wise with me?
595 A Red Graded Bone
[Ok, send me a contract that will secure what we agreed upon]
[Give me a minute… I have to contact my friends now] he paused before adding, [But won't you take more time to think thoroughly about this? My friends are very busy and won't just accept a bad offer]
[Don't worry, I know what I'm doing]
I was touched by his concern. It seemed he had some sort of benefit from doing this trade.
Anyway I wasn't in the position to question him. If he had a way to get benefits from his race, then I had no reason to object.
[Ok… Give me a minute]
I used this time to check my own bones. I got red bones, five actually. They came from the paragons I killed, especially from the Hector race.
For me, these bones weren't as good as the dark monster bones. I thought about offering the dark monster bones, but I refrained from doing so.
Such bones were my secret. I wouldn't risk showing them up without a good reason. Plus, the universe reacted this fiercely to my low grade green bones. What would they feel like my red bones then?-.
[I got their word… If you offered something interesting, they will consider giving the kingdom heart to you]
[Consider? Bro, I want it for my bones!]
[Don't blame them, they just don't place much hope over your bones. Let them get surprised by your bone, and I'm sure they will agree]
[Send me the contract first] I didn't like this but with a contract, my bones would be safe.
[On the way]
In the next few minutes, I received a contract. I read it thoroughly and made sure the terms secured the return of my bone if we didn't reach a deal.
[Now, can you send the legendary bone to me?] Once signed, Silverlining seemed so impatient about having my bone.
[On the way] I selected my red grade bone and sent it over to him. For long minutes, he kept his silence, making me worried.
[Hey bro, is everything alright?]
[Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! This… What the heck is this bone?!!!] what I read made me laugh.
[Told you, it's a treasure, one of a kind] I lied, [So, send it to your friends and make them assess it. Let me know their response once they decided its value]
[O… Ok… But Hye… With this… The kingdom heart you want…]
[That's why I asked if the value of my bone is above what I asked for]
[Damn! You really are a weird human! One of the kind! Let me return to my friends. Damn! No, wait… It's better if I went to see them in person. Their response… Damn! I can't lose such a marvellous sight!]
[Hahaha! Ok, do as you see fit] I knew that would take longer, but it would be fun. [How long will it take for you to reach your world and meet them?]
[Not that long! Give me a few hours, mostly a day!]
[Sure]
Something told me he planned to not only show it to his friends, but also to other people. Well, if this ended up with building a strong relation with that mighty race, then this bone would seem a cheap price for such gain.
Well… I forgot to ask about a pass for the betting world. Yet something told me securing such a thing wouldn't be an issue.
I didn't get what I wanted through the petal impact route, but I'd get what I wanted eventually.
As I had to wait for hours, I checked the other messages I got.
Few came from the nymph lady, asking my permission to send the races and human batch over. I knew this nymph was so terrified to lose such deals with me, and that meant she prepared a huge delivery this time.
Well, if I managed to secure the kingdom heart and the pass to the betting world, then I'd end all the deals with that greedy and unfair impact.
As for my potions… Damn! I forgot about them! I had the feeling that if I told Silverlining about these, he might get an instant scare or something.
But wait… He was from a mighty race. Would that mean they'd have their own way to turn normal races into cultivators?
If so, then my potions held zero value to his race. Would they still hold value for his impact?
I had to test waters first when I'd get the first group of the nine potions.
The next couple of messages came from the jumper. It seemed when he decided to retreat, the enemy got confused at first. So he managed to pull back without paying a large price for that.
However when the enemy sniffed what he was going to do, they came at him with everything they got! For a reason, the enemy placed a great importance on killing the jumper or delaying his retreat.
Wait a sec… Wasn't the jumper the main focus of the enemy attack before at the illusion shield? Damn! It seemed that the bastard selected my jumper to be the first to fall.
But… Why? Considering real value, I'd place the spearhead above that jumper!
The jumper couldn't use his biggest advantage, which was to jump over and reset the apocalypse.
Hilary would come on top of the strongest person in my team. However for a reason, that sly enemy of mine placed great importance over the jumper.
And that made me want to secure that jumper even more!
The enemy came with lots of races, even few showed strength that would endanger the jumper.
However, according to his last messages, the delay in their response made him able to create enough distance to secure himself.
When he spotted new races, he went ahead and tested them. According to his words, he had to use a few treasures to kill a bunch of these races.
That told me how bad the situation was. But he was retreating now towards Wisconsin. So I had not to worry for him at the moment.
But after that, what would happen?
596 Wryly's Mistake
He was strong, with a strong army of my monsters. But if he felt threats from those races then he wouldn't be able to hold his ground when stopping at Wisconsin.
Should I ask him back here? But wouldn't that make me lose his card? Also wouldn't he face the line up formation of the enemy forces surrounding my kingdom?
Well… I had to think deeply about this move. For a reason, I felt this decision held much more weight than it should.
For a reason, I felt the outcome of the entire upcoming big battle would be decided by this decision of mine.
What should I do then?
If I decided to go and help him, that would mean I'd have to stay there until I'd crush the enemy. What if they kept coming without any moment of rest?
I looked around. My capital was all peaceful at the moment. Everyone was working as planned. The workers were digging the ground, laying the foundation for the buildings.-.
As for fighters, they were training at the massive training grounds in the south. The coast was the place filled with bustling activity with walls and forts being built there for a long stretch of miles.
Farmers were working over the crops fields, doing their best. In general, the place here looked calm, that sort of calmness before the storm.
"I have to go and help then," I decided. I took out my staff and looked into the saved bookmarks there. I was looking for a saved bookmark of any city or town near Wisconsin.
That jumper was getting closer to Wisconsin, and would arrive there in five or six hours at most.
I thought of going there early on and preparing a trap for those forces. I also wanted to scan the area there, looking for any possible unexpected enemy movement there.
If that enemy was cunning, and I knew for sure that he was, then he would send troops towards Wisconsin to encircle the jumper.
It was obvious the destination of the jumper by this point. So if that bastard decided to do this, I'd be there to crush all of his efforts with my strength and personal army.
"Detroit!" my eyes flashed when I read that name. I want once from up north all the way south. But I didn't visit Wisconsin at that time, only Michigan.
According to the map drawn over my chariot, I knew it was situated to the east of Michigan, overseeing a big lake there.
To go to Wisconsin, I had to cross the state lands to the West before crossing the lake. I could also encircle the big lake separating Wisconsin from Michigan, but that would take much time.
Plus as there were big lakes there, I had to make sure the enemy wouldn't use the card of aquatic monsters to ambush the jumper and his retreating forces.
The monster army with the jumper was so huge. However after fighting all this time, it seemed the size of that army got smaller.
I didn't need to check the amount of contracts viable at my profile to be sure of this. I was sure this was the case. If I was him, I'd do that.
It was easy to hide aquatic monsters in any water zone. And when time was right, I'd issue a grand command for the army to move.
"So… I need to create Krakens," I thought about this for a while. During my last epic fight here at the capital, using the aquatic monsters was the strongest move that helped me secure everything.
I first collected my chariot before I went through the portal to appear in Detroit.
Detroit was supposed to be under Wryly's forces. When I started my wide attacks when the third quest was running, I controlled it for a brief time before giving it back to Wryly.
So it wasn't strange to see a few Berserkers standing in the city on watch. However their number was really low. That Wryly… It seemed he called most of his forces to join the battle in the north.
There was no other race in the city. As for the portals here, they were all under my control. Not a single portal was left for any race in the areas under my direct control.
I just left a few places for Wryly to control portals at. As for Fang, that dude asked for most of the portals in his cities and towns, making me have only one or two portals under my control.
The problem wasn't in the portals. It was in the small size of the forces here. If a big army attacked, they would come and take over without any trouble.
That… It was bad! I never expected Wryly to grow so negligent, not caring about his lands here.
I knew he was a war lover, but that didn't mean he wouldn't secure what belonged to him. And now, and with the approaching army from the north, and the hidden forces around, taking over these areas would be a piece of cake.
"Sigh! That bastard… He placed me in such a tight spot!"
I had forces stationed nearby, but asking them to come and secure more places wouldn't work. I had to bring forces here. Or else when the fourth quest would start, these places would be lost.
[You know you left weak forces back to secure your lands?] First I had to try with that jerk. He was supposed to secure these parts, and he should honour such agreements.
[I'm fighting up north, you know that!]
[That doesn't mean you can let go of the lands I gave you!] That jerk! He was still convinced he did nothing wrong!
[Then take these back, I'm really busy at north and can't help in any fight right now]
[You… Fine, I'll take over them] As this was the case, then I'd take control over these parts. [Just don't come later and cry for losing your lands]
[I won't!]
[Ok]
597 I Lack Souler Generals
I knew he would do that! Just seeing Fang having large areas under his control while he held nothing would get on his nerves.
I closed the chat with him, looked around and could only resign to this fate.
"I didn't want to use any of my new forces until they are well trained, but I can't do it with the forces stationed here."
I opened a portal and went back to the zone outside the capital blockage. I already saved lots of spots around the capital with different distances just in caution.
I went directly to the training grounds. I didn't need elites to lead this army. After all, they were going to get distributed over a large space of lands, starting from Michigan and heading south through Ohio and Indiana, ending up at Kentucky.
I stayed there for five hours, gathered four big armies, each had one million forces in it.
I selected a few and appointed them as leaders. I selected those leaders from the second stage training grounds, where they learnt to work together and kill fiercer monsters all the time.-.
After the meeting with these leaders and explaining what they were going to do, I let them lead their armies towards four different directions.
Each army would control one of these four states. As for Wisconsin, it would be managed by me and the jumper.
I knew there was a blockage formed by the enemies in between here and these four states. So I didn't forget to mention this to these leaders, and asked them to fight and control these areas before continuing to move forward to reach their destination.
Like this, the enemy wouldn't realise I discovered what he was doing. He would mistake this as random battles with alien forces and races that were common to happen in the apocalypse.
If the forces remained behind or stationed few forces to safeguard these parts, then the enemy would grow suspicious. It was better to let these places go, as he would resend armies again to control the lost cities and towns.
As for this army, I was sure the enemy would send many teams to track them. When they'd discover they were heading to secure the four states, the enemy would heave a sigh of relief.
He would think he fooled me, not knowing it was the other way around.
As I finished this, I looked at the training grounds here. Taking four million out seemed like a lot, but in fact it wasn't!
I almost felt the impact of taking such a number out of here. The place looked as densely packed and bustling as before.
As for the ship training zone, the number of ships doubled and now there were two more ships joining the brutal hellish training grounds with my elite teams.
Two more ships… Interesting! It meant there were lots of promising talents there. I would spare time then to come and get to know these rookies, hopefully I'd find a few who would be trustworthy to join my exclusive circle.
"Time to go and help that jerk," I moved my chariot towards an outside zone before collecting my chariot and then moving back to Detroit.
When I arrived there, I didn't find the Wryly's men like before. Damn! That bastard called the few he scattered around once we closed the chat together.
Was the situation up there this bad?
I'd spare time and go to check the situation up there. But for now, let the three races earth themselves up for now before selecting a moment to intervene.
As long as they could keep Hectors busy, it would be nice. I had a Hector continent to worry about for now.
I didn't feel any guilt to move and leave this city behind empty like this. Once I was done helping the jumper, I'd set him loose over this region, taking back anything the enemy laid hands upon.
As such I started moving to the west. Any place I passed over was devoid of any sign of life, like I was walking in a huge graveyard.
This soon would change when my boys would arrive here. The distance from my capital to here would normally take ten to fifteen hours. But considering the fights they had to go through, this might be doubled.
That meant they'd take up to one entire day to arrive here. During this, I'd make sure to route all the forces coming at the jumper.
Then I'd leave this region to the jumper to act as the supreme general over such a big army of humans.
Something told me he would love such a thing.
It took me roughly two hours to reach the lake. I had to delay my speed as the jumper's retreat speed was delayed.
He got attacked from both sides per his words. That meant the enemy was really targeting him, placing his head as the biggest trophy here.
I knew in terms of value, I'd come first without doubt. But as a grand monarch, I was untouchable until the enemy would cut off all my strong raiders.
And that enemy selected the jumper to be the first to fall, the first one I'd lose.
As I arrived at the lake, all I saw was a huge stretch of calm sparkling water. It looked so damn calm and peaceful to make me believe there was a disaster down below.
During this time, I kept summoning my Krakens. I had lots of spirits now. Even when there was no war going on, the training grounds back at the capital secured lots of souls for me.
My class didn't differentiate between souls of races and monsters. That might be good just in case of peace times like now.
But in war time, it wasn't fair! How would a soul of a paragon be equal to a soul of a weak soldier or even a monster?
I had no choice but to accept such a thing. I got some, and lost some, that was the rule of the universe.
598 Bringing The Army Out
"How will I push you to come out and show your ugly faces?" I stood on the back of my chariot, flying over the shore overlooking the lake, while pondering about this.
The lake was huge! And it seemed it was connected to other lakes as well. So trying to get in there and hunt these monsters down wasn't practical.
It wouldn't only make me lose time, but I wouldn't get much of them. With such a huge area submerged with water, I knew I'd have tons of blind spots for the monsters to hide at.
So, the better option was to drive these monsters out and let them come at me in hordes.
But how would I achieve such a thing? And should I do it here? Or cross it first and do it at the other side?
If I decided to fight here, the enemy would focus his ambush forces on me. I'd save the jumper the trouble of getting flanked. But that would also mean I would lose the help of him and his monsters.
If I went there and started the fight at Wisconsin, there might be a risk for a group of monsters to break free and go to attack his rear.
However I'd be there to help, and he would be there also to help me. After thinking about this for half an hour, I decided to cross the lake.-.
Also I got a way to drive these monsters out.
And that was by using me as a bait!
Monsters might look fierce and brutal, hard to understand. But they have few things in common, making them not that hard to read.
One of them was their crave for energy. They attacked humans and other races in an attempt to devour our body energy.
Even if they got the order to not move, stay hidden, this wouldn't stand against their nature.
I might get myself under great pressure out there, but using this way would lead to lots of benefits.
I wasn't only aiming at driving these monsters out to kill. I had another motive in doing so.
[Are you near?] I sent it to confirm the jumper's current location.
[I need at least four hours to get there, if things don't get any worse!]
[Still pouring races and monsters in your face?]
[They brought aerial monsters this time! I had to exert more effort to keep things under control]
"Flying monsters? That enemy must have sniffed my current location and read my intentions… Interesting."
Using flying monsters meant he got the help from a race. Hectors were experts at aquatic monsters.
There was no race who used flying monsters so far. But I knew of one that was famed for their large and grand armies of flying beasts.
Dragons!
They established their future fame in the later quests using flying monsters. So if this dude brought flying beasts over, he must have connections with the dragon race.
This wasn't a surprise. Dragons hated me. Besides, my boys spotted a myriad of races gathering at the tunnels, including the Dragons.
Anyway, I knew the army the jumper had was fierce on ground, weak fighting aquatic and aerial foes.
But they were led by the jumper! That dude amassed lots of treasures and deadly items during his past jumps.
As he didn't ask for my help, that meant he had a way to deal with such a threat. I was going to get myself busy fighting aquatic monsters here, so I didn't voice out my intention to help him if he ever needed to.
I closed the chat after warning him to not interrupt me for the next five hours until he'd reach here. Then I turned to look at the grand lake stretching in front of me.
It was time for me to make my move.
"Come forth!"
I first summoned my entire army.
Of course in terms of numbers, soulers held the upper hand. They were in hundreds of thousands as I kept receiving batches from the Bringold impact all the time.
Although they ate away a large amount of souls when they were inside my inventory, in times of war they consumed nothing.
They ate part of the souls they killed, so I loved sending them out to fight.
My only and biggest problem with them was the lack of a strong and mighty general. They were fierce, but I didn't find any outstanding talent in them yet.
Why was that? They were supposed to be a race. Any race would show differences in strength and talents.
How come, out of all these hundred of thousands of soulers, not a single one was unique? In my eyes, they all fought in the same way, like they were clones of the same person.
I had to think about this issue later on. Now I called forth even the Kraken army I summoned.
I had close to ten thousand Krakens at the moment. It wasn't enough, but at least they could help in killing the aquatic monsters here.
My dragons flew in the air with the flying monsters. I looked at my army and felt like it was missing a lot.
I needed more of everything! Depending on a single unit wasn't a good solution.
Soulers were beasts on ground, but in terms of water and air battles, they sucked! I had to start buying more of other warriors from the new petal impact to make up for the shortcomings of my personal army.
Enough with all these soulers, I needed Krakens and Dragons next.
I had a vision for my personal army, to be invincible on land, water, and air! I wanted it to be the source of fear towards my enemies.
If I managed to do it this way, then I wouldn't fear any fight!
"Get ready," I shouted at my boys once they were ready. I took out god essence and gave them to my fallen gods to consume. "Once the monsters appear, wait for a minute or two. Let them come forth first, gather up in large numbers before hitting them hard."
599 [Bonus chapter] Fighting A Fierce Water Battle
I then turned my attention towards the Krakens and Dragons. "You two will have to wait on the side. After half an hour, start going to the water and fight the rear monsters or those trying to get away. Always keep pushing them hard, don't give these bastards any moment of rest."
"Roar!"
And I got an earth shattering wave of roars in response to my words.
They were bloodthirsty for the battle. And now I had to do my part.
I went towards the lake, walked in until the cold water reached almost my waist. I took out my glaive, used it to injure my right arm.
I was going to use the richest form of energy I had, the energy running in my veins. Monsters were weak in front of blood. And my blood contained a large amount of energy thanks to my cultivation.
And it was needed for something else.
My blood spread over the lake water surface, getting fainter when it mixed with it. In the early couple minutes, nothing much happened.
Only a few bubbles appeared here and there, giving me the impression my blood needed time for the monsters to sniff it.-ɴ(0)ᴠᴇʟ.
But after five minutes, I felt it was weird. What? Was my blood not tasty enough for your taste? Why didn't they come yet?
I was close to giving up when the tenth minute arrived. However just before I'd take my arm off the water, I noticed a big change happening in the distance.
The calm water of the lake changed abruptly, rising up for tens of metres out of the blue. This sudden rise was broad, extending almost from a point of the horizon to another.
It felt like a violent explosion occurred. I looked at that mighty wave, and waited impatiently for the monsters to arrive.
"Get ready," I shouted, "they are coming!"
ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ Just as I shouted, that wave broke in such an unnatural way. If it was like tsunami waves, it would advance and get momentum and more height.
But it broke down towards my direction, falling in altitude while gaining speed.
It was like it wasn't a wave made out of water, but monsters racing to come in my direction. ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ
Come, come baby come, let me get rid of you in one fell swoop! Let the big battle begin.
*Roar!*
The first to hear was the violent roars coming from the direction of that wave. As it got near the shore, near me, its height dropped from tens of metres to around seven or eight metres or even lower.
As the wave shrunk down, hazy silhouettes of monsters started to appear. They looked big, at least ten metres in length.
They got big heads with broad horns that extended obliquely from the side of their eyes.
I couldn't see their shapes in great detail thanks to the massive amount of water they rode upon. The water wave came in such fierceness and speed towards me.
And I knew I had to act.
"Time for you, my beloved technique, to shine," I wasn't planning on directly fighting those monsters. Instead, I planned from the start to work at taking control over them.
I was lacking aquatic forces. And this was a chance for me to turn the tables around, use the same dagger my enemy prepared for me and turn it into my weapon.
As for my forces here, they would work to first control the brutal wave coming in my direction until I'd control enough monsters to make things balanced.
Then I'd make them surround this place, making sure not a single monster would retreat. As for those who would be wise to not come here, I'd use my Krakens and Dragons to attack them.
In brief, I wasn't planning on leaving any single monster in these lakes. One way or another, I was going to purge this entire place and get rid of such threatening monsters.
"Go!" Once I completed my technique using my right arm, I took out piles of bones and started to absorb them.
It wasn't time to do things slowly. Once the bones turned into energy, I started to release a ton of threads around.
It was my first time trying such a thing. I didn't know if water would hinder my thread speed or ability, but nothing of this happened.
My threads moved like snakes, directly hitting at the incoming monsters. And with it, the first batch of monsters got under my control.
"Attack!" I shouted, "kill those at the sides, leave the centre to me!"
"Roar!"
I previously planned this fight to commence in a different scenario. But the monsters didn't come like I imagined.
So I had to let my boys attack early one, focus their fire at the flanks, leaving the centre for me to handle.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
Sounds of explosions came from all over the place. I stood so damn close to feel my eardrums getting penetrated by such high and intense sounds.
But that didn't distract me even for a second. Once the first batch of threads worked to control monsters, much more appeared from their bodies and moved to control the ones behind them.
As these monsters were driven by my blood and energy, they lost much of their mental strength, leaving them vulnerable for me to take over them without much trouble.
In a few seconds, these monsters would be controlled by my threads. Then like a bomb exploding, my threads would expand from these and reach others around.
In the span of time it took for the wave to reach the shore, I already controlled thousands of these monsters.
"Attack!"
Their first task was to interrupt the movements of the other monsters. I didn't have time to force a contract over them. Also I didn't know how much of these early monsters would survive this bloodbath.
So I just focused wholeheartedly over controlling them, leaving the issue of the contract for later time.
*Splash!*
The sudden turning of the frontline monsters against those around made a great ruckus, enough to disturb the big momentum of these monsters.
600 [Bonus chapter] The Weird Pillars
They fought, flipped over each other, and lost their target which was me. I stood in the middle of all this chaos, surrounded by circles of my controlled monsters, defending me against others.
They fought, they wasted time, and I kept controlling more. The more I controlled, the more circles formed around me.
And my boys from behind didn't stop firing for even a second!
The attacks of my fallen gods were the most effective and deadly ones. The least to participate were my soulers. They couldn't fight in water, and had to wait for monsters to come on land to attack.
Only a small part of the attacking monsters came on shore. That made my soulers, even with their great numbers, unable to make a difference in such an intense fight.
This was a glaring example of how bad it was to focus over a single force. I felt like my hands were tied, without much to do but to keep releasing my threads.
During the past half an hour, the number of monsters I controlled reached ten thousand. That was after all the losses I had by the clash with the incoming monsters.-ɴ(0)ᴠᴇʟ.
As my monsters reached such size, I started to send them forward in batches. As long as my threads were connected to their bodies, they would keep infecting other monsters with my threads, adding more monsters to my growing army.
"Phew, it was intense," as I sent my boys to the lake, I knew it was going to end sooner or later. During the early minutes, I felt a little nervous. After all I was just so damn close to the fierce fights going on between monsters.
But now I stood in water, surrounded by dead bodies of monsters, without any threat coming at me. "Let's bind them then," I knew keeping threads attached to such a large number started to put a pressure on my technique.
I had to keep controlling these monsters while expanding my threads to control others. In such a way, my speed to control more monsters started to decline with each passing minute.
The only way to solve this was to force the existing monsters under my control to sign a loyalty contract. This would relieve lots of mental pressure off me, and let my technique regain its former ferocity and effectiveness.
As for my boys here, I gave them the order to scatter around and start hunting any monsters trying to run away. For my fallen gods, I let them over the chariot which I controlled to roam around. ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ
ɴ(O)ᴠᴇʟ My Krakens and Dragons went into water, and only my soulers and ground forces remained behind.
They had nothing to do at the moment. The aquatic monsters stopped flooding outside the lake for a quarter of an hour so far.
They idly stood there, and I had no way to let them participate in this ongoing big fight.
Starting from here, it was me playing with monsters in the lake, not the other way around.
As I let my new boys fight to their heart content, I even had time to chat with the jumper.
That dude was facing a harder time than me dealing with the aerial monsters.
He should thank me for coming all the way here. Or else if the scheme of our enemy got through, then he would have to face a combined attack from air and water, while facing hordes of ground monsters.
Just as I checked on him and knew he had at least three to four hours to reach here, a new change occurred.
It didn't come from the direction of water, but from the ground, far away from Detroit.
At the horizon, a weird pillar of cyan light appeared, then another. Each pillar skyrocketed to a certain height before stopping.
One, two, five, ten, thirty, forty, eighty… Damn! How much of these pillars were going to appear? And what were they doing here?
I didn't need to think much about them. One person had an interest in stopping me, and that was my deadly enemy.
As for these pillars, they would never be there for a good reason.
They kept flashing and increasing in number fast until I counted over a hundred and stopped.
But the pillars kept flashing. They appeared to be far away from Detroit.
In a few minutes, the pillars stopped appearing and the world out there looked peaceful and calm.
I had to use my Hawk Eye skill to see closer and get to know what was coming at me.
Once I moved my eyes around, I spotted lots of dark monsters that kept moving at fast speed, trying to get to Detroit as fast as possible.
They kept moving at a fierce speed, making it hard to get a glimpse of what they really looked like. Unlike the aquatic monsters, these monsters were much smaller in size, with long four to six arms that stretched out from their bulging bellies to help them speed up like that on the ground.
"So you are trying to get me from behind? Bad for you! I got lazy boys here, itching to kill someone…"
I cancelled the skill and turned my eyes towards my soulers, "Go out there, there is a big army of monsters coming. Kill and feast on their souls. Don't let them set foot inside Detroit!"
If they reached the city, then it would be hard to control them.
It was better to bring the fight up to them, outside Detroit.
At the same time, this meant I was doing a good job here. If not, then that bastard wouldn't have to intervene here.
But what was with these pillars? Were they portals in different shapes? Did they have special meaning or effects?
Did that mean this bastard was here?
I thought for a moment to go out there and look for him in person. But I soon threw this idea away.
The last time I met him, he ran so damn fast and hid inside one of his portals. He wasn't a fool. He would station himself near one of these many pillars, get inside any if he spotted me coming.