Meanwhile, the adepts couldn’t care less about the dragon lords shivering in their lairs. Just the internal matters of the clan were enough to keep Greem busy with work.
The new stretch of mountains that Gazlowe had chosen as their base was also an area with abundant metal reserves.
The belly of the mountain that had just been excavated was only a hundredth the size of the original metal fortress. Meanwhile, Gazlowe had gathered all of the metal ingots from before and was working day and night to infuse them with the magical energy from the magic generator furnace.
Right now, Gazlowe controlled the massive magic generator furnace, while Gru controlled a new, miniature magic generator furnace. This was Greem’s compensation to Gazlowe for all the effort he had put in over this time!
With two magic generator furnaces constantly working to transfer magical energy, a small metal fortress was starting to shape up. However, to avoid the sounds of excavation being heard from the outside, Gazlowe had to reduce the size, scale, and the number of mining machines at work.
Furthermore, to avoid the black smoke from smelting metal attracting the attention of the native tribes, the sly Gazlowe even sent out a magical machine army to trigger a catastrophic volcanic eruption in the depths of the mountains. He took advantage of the changes to the environment to exterminate all intelligent lifeforms near the camp in a targeted manner.
Judging from the current situation, Gazlowe needed at least seven months to restore this base to the scale of the original fortress.
It couldn’t be helped; Lance was on full alert right now. A swarm of Dragon Cultists would investigate any odd occurrences in an area. If these Dragon Cultists were defeated or killed, then dragonborn scouts and dragon lords would personally make the trip to investigate the matter.
Consequently, Greem brought his dragon ‘subordinates’ back to the World of Adepts while the new fortress was under construction.
Greem had originally intended to place these dragons, who were unwillingly taking shelter with him, in the Goblin Plane. However, that was a low-magic plane. The magical aura was heartbreakingly thin, and the dragons immediately refused.
Greem had no choice but to bring them back to the World of Adepts, placing them in both Fire Throne and White Tower.
The Crimson Clan wasn’t wealthy enough to construct towering dragoncliffs for these dragons. As such, the dragons had to be placed near the two towers. As long as they didn’t fly fifty kilometers away from a tower, and had the magical emblem of the Crimson Clan on them, they would not need to worry about being abducted by adepts of the other clans.
The emerald dragon beauty Iritina seemed to have developed a bit of dislike for Thunder Dragon Arms, and the two Third Grade dragons decided to stay in separate places. Iritina led the seven green dragons to stay in a forest thirty-five kilometers northeast of White Tower and started a relatively carefree life. Meanwhile, Thunder Dragon Arms temporarily stayed at Fire Throne and lived the life of a hermit of some sort.
The arrival of these dragons undoubtedly spread the name of the Crimson Clan. Many clans and adepts who were in a rush to obtain dragon resources hurried to the Crimson Clan to find out about the price of the dragons.
After all, dragons might not be the most powerful amongst all wild magical creatures, but they were definitely the most famous and awe-inspiring of them all!
Even Greem couldn’t help but consider promoting dragons as the leading brand and product of the Crimson Clan when faced with this overwhelming response.
While Greem was silently giving his all to the management of the clan, the battle between the Crimson Clan and Kamala Clan raged on.
As the Crimson Clan lacked any other clan properties and territories apart from their two adept’s towers, the Kamala Clan had no targets to attack. It forced them to remain on the defensive resentfully.
Moreover, the Crimson Clan had sent the powerful Second Grade Bug Adept Billis, who was an army on his own. A few blood elves also assisted him. Their pervasive, mercurial attacks allowed them to raid all of the Kamala Clan’s territories, villas, cities, and resources sites over and over again. Many adepts guarding these resource sites had also been killed.
Yet, every time the Kamala Clan attempted to counterattack, they failed to catch the trail of the bug adept and vampires. Even when they sent out the Second and Third Grade powerhouses of their clan, they could only slaughter the apprentice adepts of the Crimson Clan.
And even in this endeavor, the bug adept could beat them ten to one.
The Kamala’s means of murder were too conventional and straightforward compared to Billis, who had a swarm of countless insects.
…………
Misty Valley.
Fifteen kilometers away from Stonefield City was a narrow valley that remained cloaked in a dense mist all year long.
It was said that there was a strange magical creature within the valley who could breathe out the mist. This creature had taken the place as its lair. As long as no living being entered the area and disturbed its slumber, it would never wake up. However, once it awakened, it would not be satisfied until it ate at least ten humans or more.
Such rumors spread throughout the nearby villages and cities, causing countless merchants and civilians to fear for their lives at the very mention of the Misty Valley.
Of course, this was only the information that ordinary civilians could know of.
Only some nobles in Stonefield knew the truth.
There were no magical creatures in Misty Valley. It was only a First Class resource site that the Kamala Clan had secretly placed there! As for all these ridiculous rumors, they were only stories that the nobles had spread to prevent the civilians from interrupting the peace of the resource site out of curiosity.
Of course, any resource site would be defended by powerful magical arrays, and apprentices and adepts alike.
Span was one such apprentice adept in Misty Valley!
Span was fifteen this year and an intermediate apprentice. His talent and background were mediocre. HIs father was an ordinary tailor in Stonefield, while his mother was just a cooking maid helping in a noble’s kitchen.
His lowly parentage didn’t provide him with handsome looks or exceptional ability. However, when he was discovered to have elementium talent by a Kamala adept at the age of seven and brought into Misty Valley, his life changed completely.
He might only be an ordinary intermediate apprentice in Misty Valley, but in the eyes of the Stonefield nobles, he was a worthwhile investment that had emerged from among the locals.
From the moment he entered Misty Valley, his father became a small official subordinate to the city lord and was gifted a small mansion with two levels and a garden of its own. His mother also left behind the tough life of working and cleaning. She too became a noblewoman who could order a maid around.
Span obviously noticed the changes to his family, which caused the youth to mature rapidly.
In the second year since entering Misty Valley, he became a beginner apprentice and in the fourth, an intermediate apprentice. Now, troubled by his innate talent, Span couldn’t wait to become an advanced apprentice.
As one of the apprentice adepts stationed at Misty Valley, Span’s daily mission was to patrol the few ‘flowerbeds’ at the edge of the valley. The soul-eating flowers and killer trees here were all low-grade magical plants that weren’t much of a threat to apprentices like himself. However, they were extremely dangerous for any ordinary person who wandered into the place.
According to the agreement between the clan and the Stonefield nobles, the city would send over a group of death row criminals every month to serve as food for the magical plants.
Yet, today, despite waiting from sunrise to sunset, Span did not see that familiar black prison carriage.
Chapter 813 - The Pressure on Greem
Span had a very strange dream!
In that dream, he turned into an odd beetle, only the size of a nail. He was quickl
y climbing through a grassy plain high above the clouds.
He wrapped around many obstructing boulders (dirt particles), climbed over many towering trees (fire pokers), and continued on his way toward the giant mountain before him. Finally, after much difficulty and having traversed thousands of mountains and rivers as well as endured all sorts of trials and tribulations, he arrived at a pitch-black cave. A viscous liquid was slowly flowing out from the cave.
He dove into the cave without any hesitation and vanished in an instant.
Span shivered in fright and got up from the field.
He rubbed his aching head, somewhat unsure of how he had suddenly fallen asleep at this. Moreover, the insect in his dream had been so real. Span couldn’t help but wipe away the saliva on his face and smack his tongue.
It was almost as if there really was that sickening stench in his mouth!
Could he have been manipulated by some mysterious magical creature in the Misty Valley? Why else would he have had such a ridiculous ‘daydream’? Span shook his head and focused his senses to look for any oddities in his body. However, he was surprised by the rumbling sounds of wheels from the forest road.
The carriage carrying the death row criminals was here!
These damned, unpunctual mortals; it was time to give them a lesson.
Span strode toward the carriage with an unsuppressible rage inside him.
Just as Span and the black carriage made contact, a black-robed individual on a cliff in the distance turned and looked in their direction. The man’s gaze landed upon the intermediate apprentice through the thick mist and the many branches and leaves.
The hundreds of ghostly-green compound eyes shone with an incomprehensible and strange light beneath the shadow of the hood.
“Calm down, my little babies! When the fruits are at their sweetest, remember to bring back their souls, flesh, and Spirit– all of it. Kehkehkeh.”
The voice was hoarse and deep. It was the strange voice of Bug Adept Billis.
There was one First Grade adept and thirty-seven apprentice adepts at this Kamala Clan resource site. Exterminating them with Billis’ current strength was as easy as the flip of a palm.
However, Billis would never so easily slaughter them, having run into such excellent puppet hosts. Should a monstrous adept like himself start a slaughter in the strictly regulated Zhentarim area, it would very likely cause high-grade adepts to intervene in the conflict.
It was only during moments of clan wars like these that both parties were allowed to use whatever methods they had up their sleeves without worrying about intervention.
This resource site was one of the targets that Billis had chosen.
Of course, simply sending out the swarm to devour all of them and take all of the resources was too simple. A slaughter like that was not of any interest to Billis now. The heartworms he had spread throughout Misty Valley was his highest aim in coming here.
He didn’t even let the First Grade adept go. Every single adept and apprentice adept in Misty Valley had been infested with the heartworms he had spread. With their mediocre abilities, they would never sense the existence of the heartworm without resorting to special magic rituals or techniques.
As long as these heartworms had a chance to grow to maturity, everything belonging to the opponents would become the stepping for Billis’ continued growth.
Growing and strengthening himself had become Billis’ sole concern ever since he advanced to Second Grade.
Meanwhile, this clan war was undoubtedly the best stage for him, where he could slaughter and harvest to his heart’s desire.
He needed their souls, their flesh, and most importantly, he needed the Spirit they had spent so much time cultivating.
After confirming that every lifeform in Misty Valley had been infested with the heartworms through sensing their souls, Billis left.
He was in no hurry. No hurry at all. No hurry to harvest these delicious fruits that stilled need to be watered and fertilized. The war was going to be a long one. He had plenty of time to wait until these cute little worms brought back with them everything that his enemies possessed.
…………
Greem was very busy.
Apart from the clan matters, there was a large group of prisoners that he had to deal with in Fire Throne.
Apart from the Third Grade vampire they had caught during the last war, there was another powerful Third Grade dragonborn prisoner in the sealing room on the second level. Moreover, there were eleven more Second Grade dragonborn in the prison underground.
These dragonborn were all stubborn individuals, and making them bend the knee was nearly impossible.
The Crimson Clan also lacked sufficiently powerful necromancers or voodoo beast craftsmen, making it difficult to turn these dragonborn into powerful undead or voodoo beasts. Consequently, after a discussion with Gargamel, Meryl, and Alice, Greem decided to put them up for sale at Snorlax’s goblin merchant company.
A Second Grade dragonborn would not sell cheap, even as an experimental subject.
As such, all of the Second Grade dragonborn were priced at five thousand magical crystals, while the Third Grade dragonborn was priced at seventeen thousand magical crystals.
Apart from this, large amounts of high-grade dragon materials also appeared at the merchant company. Dragon crystals, dragon brains, dragon bones, dragon horns, dragon teeth, dragon tendons, dragon spinal fluids, dragon blood, dragon scales, and even rare materials meant for those with special interests– dragon penis!
All of these materials were on sale, ranging from First to Second Grade.
The terrifying thing was the fact that Third Grade dragon materials were actually mixed into this array of products. Some busybodies, after appraisal, decided that the harvesting of these Third Grade materials had been a little too violent and that the quality of the materials had gone down. Still, there was no stopping the passion and zeal of the adepts who came rushing over while waving their magical crystals in hand.
Third Grade dragon materials were still Third Grade dragon materials after all. Even if the quality was a bit lower than it should be, they couldn’t be replaced by low-grade dragon materials. Moreover, many large-scale magical arrays and Third Grade spells demanded items to be Third Grade at the lowest. That resulted in a perpetual shortage of high-grade magical creature materials.
Even large clans or adept forces would stockpile Third Grade materials to prepare for unexpected cases of emergency.
The Crimson Clan would never have sold these materials without the massive plane in their pocket that was Lance. After all, if the clan held onto these Third Grade materials, they could use them to set up even more powerful offensive arrays in their tower.
When that happened, they would just wait and watch to see which idiot dared to attack them!
However, now that they possessed Lance, they could have as many dragon materials as they wanted. That was why the Crimson Clan had the confidence to trade them for much needed magical crystals and other resources. Otherwise, no one would dare sell such strategic resources!
Every single clan needed a stable source of magical crystal income if they wanted a sustained growth and development, be it through the excavation of resource sites, the raiding of another planar world, or the monopolization of a trade. That said, all of these ventures were extremely risky and took plenty of time to accomplish. A slight mistake, and one could end up empty-handed.
Greem now had two lesser planes in his hands. He had the massive amount of cheap metal and countless technicians from the Goblin Plan. The cute, little dragons that were basically sculpted out of magical crystals he had scoured from Lance; the injection of this fresh and nutritious blood was what allowed the Crimson Clan to continue growing stronger.
It was only when the Crimson Clan had grown stronger that it could better support the development of Greem’s own powers.
In all seriousness, it was a mutually beneficial relationship!
At t
he very least, the current Crimson Clan was supported by the trifecta of Greem, Mary, and Alice. It was certain to develop at a much faster pace than an ordinary adept clan.
However, though the momentum of the clan’s development was nearly unstoppable, there was a relatively sizeable hidden concern. This very concern had brought tremendous psychological pressure down on Greem.
It was his personal strength!
There were already a dozen Second Grade adepts and creatures in the Crimson Clan now. He even had three Third Grade creatures he had somehow tricked to his side. Yet, as the Crimson clan leader, Greem was still Second Grade. That was far too low, no matter how you looked at it!
In fact, it was precisely Greem’s ‘low’ grade that had resulted in the current instability.
There was the restlessness of the Third Grade dragons above and the pursuit of the Second Grade bug adept from below. Greem’s position was unstable if he, as the leader, did not possess the power to make others fear and respect him.
That was the situation that most adept clans faced!
The leader of every clan had to be the most powerful one, not the wisest or the smartest. Why was that the case? It was simple. The core that maintained the unity of the clan had never been the respect for rank or intelligence. It had always been a regard for brutal and naked power that could crush everything in its way!
If you had the power to crush everything, then you would have intelligent scholars and sages to aide you. You would have brilliant managers to deal with everything for you. However, if the leader of the organization were weaker than his underlings, then the organization would be in a perpetual state of restlessness and constant suspicion between allies.
When that happened, the internal conflict alone would cause the organization to break up and vanish from the annals of history!
Consequently, after several reminders from Alice, both direct and indirect, Greem treated his advancement to Third Grade as the most critical issue facing the clan.
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