Chapter 560: A Little Lesson
Whenever this matter was brought up, Councilor Suville couldn't help but clench his fists, his eyes practically shooting flames.
So what happened on the second night?
Heh, it was then that I realized—Matthew Merlin never intended to give me any land. He wanted me dead..." Suville's face was ashen, his furious roar echoing: "That empty plot was actually hiding a demon, a real demon. Even a Seventh-Level Title Archmage like me was no match for it. I barely escaped with my life, almost dying in Specter Valley. And that Matthew Merlin just watched from the sidelines..."
So you think the distribution plan Matthew Merlin proposed was a setup?
Isn't it obvious?
...
Weiss didn't know what to say. He gave Suville a long, searching look, then simply shook his head and walked away...
This Suville is just too sensitive...
Especially this time—he's so jittery that the Black Tower suffered heavy losses. Once the Horn of Plenty business wraps up, I must suggest to Lord Heron that Suville be transferred out of the Furyflame Plane. If this keeps up, something bad is bound to happen.
As for what happened to Suville...
He figured the young mage was just teaching Suville a lesson, not targeting the Black Tower itself.
After spending so much time together, it was obvious—the young mage was clever. He might act indifferent, sometimes do things that catch everyone off guard, but everything he did was measured. Why would he risk killing an important Black Tower member for nothing?
Soon, three days passed. The three major factions followed the previously agreed distribution plan, withdrew their planar legions, and rested in different areas of the Horn of Plenty. During this downtime, they sent out multiple resource-gathering teams to operate within their respective zones.
At that meeting three days ago, Suville's odd behavior let the Merlin Family claim the richest land in the Horn of Plenty. And during this time, Leon made a new discovery.
More precisely, it was the Merlin Family's resource-gathering team that brought him a windfall. On the first evening, the team returned from a nearby mine with some ore...
Among the assorted ores, Leon immediately recognized a deep crimson stone—Crimsonfire Mithril. The unexpected find made him quietly delighted.
Even in today's Northend, Crimsonfire Mithril is a rare magical metal.
A thumb-sized piece could fetch an astronomical price at auction...
And the Horn of Plenty had an entire vein of it...
What really mattered to Leon wasn't the wealth from the Crimsonfire Mithril vein, but the fact that he needed it.
If this was before he came to the Furyflame Plane, even if he'd gotten Crimsonfire Mithril, it would've been useless.
But now, things were different...
After upgrading the Doombringer Staff to a High Essence Relic and giving birth to its Relic Spirit, Leon had advanced to Worldshaper. He could now use Crimsonfire Mithril to craft the components needed for his Sky Rank Alchemical Golem...
Repairing that Sky Rank Golem had been on his mind for ages. Last time, he brought back a haul of rare parts from the Turin Mountains and spent days fixing it up, but it was still missing some components. Right now, its strength was only on par with a Fifth-Level Title Archmage—still miles from his goal.
If he could gather every last part, the Sky Rank Golem's power would probably leap straight to the peak of Title Archmage.
But for Leon right now, that goal was still out of reach. To fully restore the Sky Rank Golem, he'd have to make a trip to the Plane of Golems...
He wasn't in a rush to go to the Golem Plane. After all, it was on par with the Undead Plane in terms of danger—maybe even worse. Back in the magical golden age, it took Northend's top powers decades to conquer it, and more than ten Sky Rank heroes fell there.
Although Leon's strength now let him crush high-level Title Archmages with ease, charging into the Golem Plane would still be risky. With a bit of bad luck, he could easily end up dead.
So he waited...
Once he advanced to Title Archmage, he'd finally be able to wield the power of the Death Tome. Even in the Plane of Golems, he could probably make it out alive if something unexpected happened...
Soon enough, Leon realized that making components for the Sky Rank Alchemical Golem was way more complicated than he'd thought. First, there was the issue of smelting the ore—in its current state, the Horn of Plenty was still primitive, and smelting was impossible.
To solve this, the mined ore would have to be shipped to Frostfire Fortress, the nearest stronghold to the Horn of Plenty. Each round trip took at least a day.
At this point, Leon couldn't think of any other solution, so he just went with it...
So, early the next morning, Leon personally visited the Crimsonfire Mithril vein, mobilized a workforce to mine the ore, and handed off the logistics of transport and smelting to Larn Merlin from the Planar Legion. With everything arranged, Leon returned to camp—he had something even more important to deal with.
Compared to smelting Crimsonfire Mithril, designing the alchemical golem components was probably even more of a headache...
Actually, 'headache' was putting it mildly. It was driving Leon up the wall.
He planned to use Crimsonfire Mithril to craft three core components. After half a day of brainstorming, he had a rough outline in his mind, but when it came time to actually make them, he realized the blueprints were nothing like he'd imagined...
(This chapter isn't finished yet~.~ Please click next page to continue reading!)
You have to understand—these were Sky Rank Golem components. Only a Saint-tier alchemist could make them, not just any Worldshaper. In all of Northend, Leon was probably the only Worldshaper crazy enough to even try...
Coming from thirty thousand years in the future, Leon possessed alchemical knowledge far beyond his era. In the apocalypse, he'd handled countless golem components and, after repeated study, mastered their principles and construction. With these advantages, he was confident that, as a Worldshaper, he could make Sky Rank Golem parts.
Of course, the process was going to be tough...
Over five days, he came up with twelve different blueprints. But after careful review, he found each design had its own flaws.
Some matched the Sky Rank Golem but weren't powerful enough; others were strong but incompatible with the golem...
It was giving Leon a major headache...
He spent three days meticulously refining the twelfth blueprint, tweaking minor details until it finally met his standards.
By then, he'd gained some experience and began sketching out plans for the other two core components.
Meanwhile, the three factions were still resting in the Horn of Plenty, sending out resource teams to various corners. Immersed in his design work, Leon had no idea that something was brewing—a Merlin Family resource team had gathered a haul of magical materials for Inferno Fortress, but crossing the Horn of Plenty meant passing through Watson Family lands. As soon as they entered, trouble started...
No surprise—the Merlin Family team was at a disadvantage. The squad had fifty members, most were Grand Mages, and their captain was only a Seventh-Level Archmage.
The Watson side had four or five high-level Archmages, and even a young Title Archmage...
This Title Archmage was none other than Mark Watson, who'd come to Inferno Fortress on behalf of the Watson Family to propose a partnership with the Merlin Family.
In the clash with the Watson Family, two members of the resource team died, and even the Seventh-Level Archmage captain was severely injured.
When news reached the Merlin Family camp, most of the Planar Legion’s top brass were furious. Some hotheads even called for payback against the Watson Family, but Larn Merlin managed to keep things under control. He went to confront the Watsons, only to be told the Merlin team had secretly gathered 'Watson resources' and this was just a little lesson...
Larn Merlin was livid—his face turned pale and his whole body shook. He finally understood what true shamelessness looked like. But there was nothing he could do; the young commander had been holed up in his quarters, refusing all visitors since the last incident.
In the end, all they could do was let the matter drop...
Still, Larn Merlin knew that once the young mage was done with his work and heard about this, the Watson Family was bound to suffer. All he could do was bide his time for now.
Mark Watson, the instigator, had no idea. Three days after the incident, he swaggered into the Merlin Family camp all by himself.
As he walked through the camp, Mark Watson felt plenty of hostile stares, but he didn't care. As the Watson Family's only prodigy to reach Title Archmage before thirty-five, the only thing that could faze him was a high-level Title Archmage...
"Hmph..."
Mark Watson's face twisted in a sneer as he shook his head. After his cold snort, he strode on—until an elderly figure blocked his path. Instantly, Mark's face lit up with a smile. "Councilor Larn, what a coincidence..."