Within the forest of Arden lay a hidden elegance that even elves will find something not achievable by mortal means.
Lush trees with, lively animals frolicking about, waters stream with trickles of dew drops converging towards the ponds where small fairies fly about not caring about the eyes of people that beholden them.
This was the hidden village Mark had built over the years after he had rehabilitated the tribes of Beastmen.
Not only have they fully forgotten their past ways of worshipping the chaos gods, but they also gained a great amount of civilized manners that they can be considered to have become a proper sentient species.
They have become into a rather nature loving people that took care of the forest according to the teachings of their new god, the ever merciful God of the Forrest.
Mark had given them a small guide book that they now used to treat as a holy book that guided them in being great caretakers of the forest that provided them with food and shelter.
They have been able to make wooden houses by using some ability they awoke that Mark felt might have come from their worship of him.
He had felt it, the few devout souls that prayed to him and now becoming some sort of shaman or priest that can use the power of the trees.
They manipulated the roots to open up and make a hollow space inside which will become the home of these Beastmen, but Mark felt they were not simple beastmen anymore as they have gone into some sort of phase that they gained a rather anthropomorphic appearance.
Gone were the savage remnants of their past, their fangs as well as claws have dulled, horns less harmful and body more refined.
Though it was a loss of physical gifts, it did not bother Mark one bit because he found they have gained a better ability to use magic and are much more smarter than the barbaric Beastmen.
For now Mark categorized them as Demi-humans that were totally the ones that those furries back in his past life wanted to interact with.
Though right now it was but a rather sizeable community which numbered about five thousand.
Mark did not plan in taking most of them yet into his force but rather guide them slowly in learning the ways of the world.
So that even if Dwarves, Elves and even Mankind saw them they will not think of barbaric but rather a civilized species unknown to them.
Mark wanted to see what the Slann might think when a new kind of species now existed because of his help.
He even wanted to show them to the Wood elves to make them jealous that these Demi-humans of his were rather more gifted in the affinity with the lore of life.
But right now he has no concrete plan on how to come close to the Oak of ages and prevent the avatar of Isha, Ariel, from being corrupted by the malevolent energies of the corruptor, Morghur the shadowagave.
Mark knew time was of the essence but even then, the event that might transpire will still be a century away.
"No, I should not think like that." Mark said as he walked in the cleansed forest devoid of corruption form chaos.
" As great as things might be if they follow the cannon events, my presence alone had changed a lot of things." Mark murmured as he patted the head of a cub demihuman who was using him as a hiding post from his friends.
"Mui… you are leaving already your grace?" the small child pouted as he and the other kids liked when Mark was there visiting them because he always brings candies.
"Many matters need my attention young ones, but fret not. I'll always be there to hear your prayers and shall listen to them with rapt attention." Mark smiled as he walked away but was slowly rising up as he floated in the air leaving.
He looked up the sky and remembered there was a certain elder that might try to save Ariel from her eventual corruption but he must come into a solid plan gaining the trust of these rather xenophobic elves.
He had good relations in trade to them but he was not that close yet that they'll let him in into their kingdom.
Mark flew away slowly as he thought about things he should do but then he put them back into his head when he arrived home as he embraced his wives.
Francine got spoiled by him that she always seeks him out whenever she hears he is home when she is near.
Her mother Paris was even more insatiable but rather reserved if it was her daughter's turn but competitive when she knew it was Neferata being taken care off.
Melissa and Marie never took active roles in ever coming to Mark but he finds time in taking care of them since he always made them work quite hard jobs like paperwork and public relations stuff that bores him.
Shoika though recently added was a personal favorite of Mark, not that she is good at it but she is just downright awkward and too clueless as to what she should do to have him favor her.
Mark was getting used to the mindset of the people here but even them he placed some restrictions to himself, though he can break them if he wants. He's not a saint so being a bit of a hypocrite is a given.
Yet one thing alerted him is that the gods were already aware of him yet they have not taken action yet and even the Chaos Gods did not make a move.
Maybe it has to do of the weird feeling he has that if he took it apart he might step into unknown territory and this calm before the storm might just end too early.
It felt like he was still in the Demigod threshold and was close to taking a step forward but he did not make one move.
Thus it felt like he was the current strongest for now as the rest were also at Demigod level but not to the point that they have given great losses to the Chaos Gods.
But it also meant there are people or beings that are strong enough to harm him but to kill him was another matter as he felt invincible.
Yet this feeling was fleeting as Mark as ever pessimistic as he is brainstormed ideas in finding ways to meet up or even have an audience with Ariel.
Yet thinking about the fact that she had not even revived her husband from the Oak of ages meant something that things are really bad for the Wood Elves.
He did see it from time to time when they discuss trading agreements and some form of darkness had taken root into the souls of the Wood Elves of Athel Loren.
[Mousillon]
"My Lord, for what reasons have you in need of even getting inside of Athel Loren?" an Elf captain of Mark's archer battalion asked curiously as he knew his kind were rather unwilling to bring humans inside their homes.
He who was but a half-breed elf took jobs of being a mercenary because the forest seemed to be unwelcoming for him as many still believe in purity of bloodlines like that.
But he was thankful that his new lord had taken him from the life he was about to fall into when he became a slave to be sold like merchandise.
He thought his lord was the same to the others but no, he was totally different in many ways.
Not only did he give them a chance to become free, but he even led them to glory as he fought in the frontlines to ensure the safety of the world.
Unlike those high raising arrogant glade lords that do not know the real dangers the whole world faces, his new lord acknowledges that even he was lacking and needed their help in saving the world.
Such a humble lord even made him a wood-elf, though only a half-blood, submit and realize the greatness in following such a benevolent ruler.
And he and a few others know that their Lord is immortal yet he made the arrangement to act like another person growing up to appease these humans not to panic.
He knew that people do not like knowing their lord is immortal especially mankind who showed great evil that made them prime targets for chaos to feast upon.
Yet this ruler of theirs went to lengths to ensure his people are calm and would not have much dark thoughts for the unspoken evil gods to corrupt.
"There are things brewing within the shadows of the great Oak of ages captain, it is now festering deep within and the sacred tree wails in pain. I want to go there to calm it down but I too know your people's thoughts on an intruder…" Mark looked seriously at the elven captain that had pledged his life to him.
"I see, if that is the matter my lord then only a rather important event would ensure you an audience with the Queen Ariel if you really plan to meet her to talk about the sacred tree." The elven guard understood that the matter might really be of urgent importance if it included the Oak of Ages' safety.
"That is why you must journey back to your home and find a way for me to even meet one of the elders. But you still must prioritize your own safety warrior, as important the mission is, I still feel burdened to send such a great soldier like you away." Mark said solemnly which made the elven captain tear up emotionally.
"I swear on my honor my liege that I will find a way for you to get your audience, as soon as possible!" the rather young half elf said as he kneeled with fervent worship towards Mark as he felt it was his life's duty to make sure his mission is to be completed.
"I know warrior, but this matter is of utmost importance that no one else must know of this. Only you and me, journey back to Athel Loren and gain a name for yourself, also bring these with you to ensure your safety." Mark leaned down to let the elf up on his feet and showed him the contents of a beautifully decorated box.
Mark had found this specific elven archer to meet as he knew only that those of the same kind would these Wood Elves even deem of listening.
Though he is only a half elf which is quite a curious choice for Mark as there were other elves in his army that were much more of pure blooded descent.
Yet this man was who he chose as he found this elf's resolve and skills to be top notch even amongst various candidates he had found for this specific mission.
He was hardworking with a great sense of duty as well as a righteous moral compass that might just be the thing needed for a warrior that the elders of the forest might just listen to.
But there was another factor, strength, so that is why Mark is giving him a full set of armor made by him using all he has as well as an enchanted bow that makes its own arrows using a magic spell carves into the body of the bow.
If it is left idle then it'll fill the quiver with arrows and stop there, to produce one arrow at least 15 seconds is needed.
So there is the other option of the bow using ambient mana to make mana arrows, not as powerful as real arrows used in the bow but the user could produce about one arrow every two seconds.
There was also a bangle that helps in this process as it also uses the user's body to help gather ambient mana within the air to produce the arrows.
A cloak that will ensure the elf will be hidden within the shadows as it further lessens the already faint presence of wood elves within the forest.
Boots with a enchantment that Mark liked to call windwalk to soften the landing of the elves like they were made of feathers.
This equipment were the best Mark could produce now and it took him a week where he used the combined form of four arms and XLR8 to quickly make this armor set.
This was something he had planned already before, a set of armor that could be used by his best soldiers just like the armor sets he gave to the Forest Knight order as soon as they join the slew of subordinates under him.
This was the first time Mark ever rewarded a soldier that was not human with such an expensive and powerful set that would place this guy in front of him at the level of a glade lord.
The saber he bought though was of good quality as well but it had not special enchantment other that it being really sharp and sturdy as well as elegant and light.
Now this elf captain whom he forgot to ask his name had already left in the middle of the night riding a Great Eagle which he provided.
Mark thought that soon he might gain an audience towards the elder's council and must convince them to let him in the Oak of Ages to prevent Ariel from falling further.
Other than this matter he looked at the reports given to him from various parts of the world.
It seems that as usual the dark elves prepare to find ways attacking the High Elves like terrorist fervent on destroying that way of life they oh so place importance on.
The world of men chaotic as always but thankfully Mark has sent various agents all around the world to ensure the devious deeds of the chaos cultist bets unraveled before they even come to fruition.
The orcs were always as warlike as ever pillaging left and right, fighting whosever unlucky man or woman their eyes set on as they prefer to just hack their way in the world.
Goblins were rather silent for now but they are on the watch list of the beings that must be observed carefully.
Beastmen warherds were spotted but Mark did not make a move yet to capture them and 'indoctrinate' to become their lord and savior.
The Empire still in shambles from the infighting while the three churches seem to hate his guts to the extreme that they have not stopped sending their own inquisitors like his land was their home.
But even now they found no way of entering as they have all been identified at the border even before getting a chance to step into his lands.
Why should he be civil about people who wanted to criticize him on doing something better than what they should have done?
Now almost all the higher seats within the top brass of the various cults are corrupt to the bone. Mark thought he would only see this in his past life, things about priest being rather touchy to the younger acolytes.
This one he did not care much and had his agents spread word of their actions making the general populace slowly averse themselves from the religious nuts that call themselves priest and men of the holy order.
This made the rather busy inquisitors that wanted to get into Mark's lands busy as they went left and right purging these bad seeds of their clergy.
Chaotic and filled with war the Empire was but the frigid northern country above theirs were rather peaceful now since there had been fewer signs of chaos raiders coming down mountains and beyond to attack the innocent of the Kislevites.
The Boyars of Praag were happy getting a time of peace as well but even then being borne warriors they were rather restless people so they volunteered in changing shifts in the keep which Mark did not allow.
But he did give them info about where to find the hidden strongholds of these chaos worshippers which made these hot-blooded Boyars happy as they went on happy week pruning out the troublesome matters of the kingdom.
Mark did this much since their Queen is technically his woman, not that she was brave enough to admit it without blushing a bit.
Mark really wondered how such a cold hearted sorceress still retained her rather innocent view of relations between men and women.
She was intelligent and powerful as well as a talented queen since being the daughter of the former Khan Queen was quite a large boot to fill.
Mark kind of like this part of her so he helped the people under her rule and even watched out for her by having agents have a thorough check on every person trying to get close to her.
The court were rather surprised when suddenly their queen was younger but when she said it was the gift of their gods they were rather happy.
Since some of them were rather experienced they knew that their queen was no vampire as she now exuded warmth like the sun even when she has the Lore of Ice flowing within her body.
This meant their Sun God as well as Ursun has blessed their Queen for reasons she says to be secret only the gods will know as she was rather shy about saying the real reason.
Also the fact that she also found ways to expose the corruption of the nobles under her rule made those in the conservative faction happy as they felt their future was bright with such an intelligent Queen.
They are a newly born Kingdom so trouble from handling such a large territory was bit of a burden to the old nobles but now that their Queen was solving problems left and right made them happier to serve her.
Mark also found that the dwarves were rather boisterous recently as some dwarven holds that thought to have lost contact with each other for centuries finally had a meet up but things did not go well.
His intelligence say that it was because of a few reasons like showing who was the better smith or who could drink more bugman brews.
Mark just shook his head in confusion as to why these dwarves fight over these things, sure they might disagree but somehow from his intelligence a war between two dwarven holds were rather imminent.
But Mark did not pay much attention to this as his mind was rather focused on the fact that the Skaven underground placed more of their raiders to try and kill his men who were getting a lot of resource underground.
Borten and Gimbult, the two drunkard dwarves that swore loyalty to him were over the moon when Mark had shown them the underground base making them salivate at the abundance of resources that lay beneath the earth.
Now about thirty thousand men and women were assigned here which was quite a large secret but the underground base has expanded with the help of Mark's bright mind and the powers of the Martial spirit enabling him to grow roots even as deep as this base that he has.
He used the way the demi-humans way of parting the roots to make large caverns and also this became a way for air to go down this rather dark place.
There was a generator here as well providing electricity to the large base where many resources were being processed like metal, gemstones and even some underground flora that can be used in various alchemical formulas.
This had become a large maker of the revenue of his domain which gained envy of many as they tried to seek out where Mark even found an abundant mine that provided these large amounts of metal.
Surprisingly 40% of his sales were from the High Elves who needed the large amounts of metal as their own production of metal cannot keep up with the demand of the battlefields.
Gemstones were a hit to the market of the Empire as Mark had many dummy companies or merchant associations sell his wares far and wide.
But another large percentage of his customers were from the border princes that were also starting their own small kingdoms.
Though it can be barely called as kingdoms as most were just self-proclaimed kings vying for supremacy within the trouble lands filled with orcs and death.
They were mostly just a gathering of thousands of survivors of the troubled lands that had no choice but to live since some of them were former Brettonians that wanted to gain a name for themselves.
Though some did it in honor of their past country as they were all but members of noble households within the Kingdom but were mostly the second sons or the illegitimate children of nobles that were sent to the last crusade.
Mark felt that he should at least form good relations to these people in case they indeed develop in the desert a rather good civilization.
The desert might seem barren but the fact that it was where the first ever human kingdoms ever sprouted makes it a great place to find treasures as well as knowledge about the past.
Sure he has Neferata the 4K year old wife of his that still acts like a spoiled teen whenever she meets Mark, she was a total brat when she is with him and always tried to find ways to nudge up and cuddle with him much to his confusion.
Even then he read more and more reports but this time something happened as a guard hurried towards his Solar.
"My Lord! My Lord! Urgent news!" the guard was sweating as he went to look for Mark who was now paying attention to him.
"Breath, calm down and tell me what the matter is that made you panic as such?" Mark had made a special guard for him that were equipped with great weapons and armor as well as trained to be the best knights there is in his realm.
"My Lord, a dragon has been spotted near the south East border and it seems to have gone berserk, her lady Melissa and Lady Maria have taken their steeds to face the beast but they said to warn me before they left." The Guard said making Mark frown as he did not expect a dragon to be within his lands.
"Get me Gideon, I'll follow them towards the Dragon." Mark wanted to see if this dragon was just a wild one and he wanted to tame it as his own so he waved his hand and his standard platinum armor with golden carvings as well as some jeweled inlays floated from the armor rack where he placed it towards him.
The Guard ran out as well as he called for the farriers that took care of the lord's noble steed, no more than two minutes passed a loud neigh of great power echoed within the mansion as Gideon fully equipped with his saddle and armor galloped towards Mark who awaited with his spear by his side.
"Neigh!!" Gideon pranced as he felt happy being able to let loose again.
"I am glad to ride again with you Gideon, so make haste and ride like the wind!" Mark smiled as he felt it was a bit childish for him but Gideon did not tarry as he went from 0 to 100 in four seconds until he reached 130kmph after half a minute.
Mark was amazed at how much compound V developed his horse to become such a beast that their figure was like a blur as he rode fast to catch up to his women.
He too had given them a horse that was bred using Gideon as the stud horse, they too were powerful and could reach up to about 100kmph at top speed.
Mark really wanted to call them Ferraris but he held his mouth up since he felt that was a bit inappropriate to copy the name of such a famous brand on both worlds he is connected to.
"Well, let the people decide how to call them. I rather catch a dragon myself right now." Mark smiled as he had a great amount of beast within his backyard yet there were no dragons yet that was tamed nor bought since Mark felt that there would be a difference if he tried buying from the system.
His actions were no secret as he had been seen to be rushing towards danger as long as there were things that no normal soldier nor citizen can handle, this gained him a great reputation amongst many people that others even tried to use this to harm him.
But try as they can, it all ended up in the same situation. The people targeting him dying and Mark gaining more popularity, such that they felt that unless they find ways to instantly kill Mark they no longer made any movements.
(A/N: Anywho, sorry for the recent updates as midterms were getting my nerves bundled together. This was all I could muster up as it was hard to think of the continuation of the plot I planned when all I could think in recent times is the lessons in the modules I have reviewed.
I was surprised to see when I found time to write that I totally forgot some names of characters that I was about to insert in the story like Morghur which I even had to search in google to remember.
Seems like the brain can only hold so much especially mine which was totally unused in intellectual purposes and is mostly occupied by my ADHD. Though writing this chapter made me relax a little since my school has been rather strict lately.
Thanks to the alumni that were so great in getting a position in the top ten of the national board examinations every year!!
So what did our wonderful Dean say during the start of the semester?
"Let us keep the standard!"
*Insert Table flip Gif here*
Aarrgh!!
Like hell you will! You are not even the one slaving away to keep our grades floating above the red line you bald headed middle aged person going through a mid life crisis!! Hope the remaining strands of hair in your head falls off!!!
Phew....
Anyway rant over, hope you like this chapter and thanks for reading.)