Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“So this is the Vengeance Fortress?” Five men and women dressed in various clothes, looking as though they came from the circus, walked out of the Teleportation Light Portal slowly.
The Light Portal was the fixed-point teleportation portal that Garen had ordered some Wizards to make. It led straight to a place called the Green Oakstone Plane.
Similar to the Primary Plane, most of the inhabitants living here were humans.
“Looks like it,” replied a man who looked like he might be the leader in a low voice. “This is the territory of Winter Sigh, and according to the information, this place should be relatively safe. We can choose to join the Blood Wars under the name of Winter Sigh, and we can also use this place as a base for exploring the surroundings.”
“Let's rest here for a few days before we make our preparations,” said a voluptuous woman softly.
There were only a few elder demons, more than two meters tall, standing guard around this teleportation portal. They did not even look at the situation over here and isolated this small area completely.
There was a newly-opened shop in this area, with all sorts of potions, scrolls, and magical items displayed on the counter within. The shop owner was a drowsy little Succubus. It was the relative Garen's two Succubi Subordinates had brought over.
The visitors from the Void took a stroll around the area and only found one hotel, one restaurant, and that one shop.
Every other part of that huge s.p.a.ce was empty. They were clearly the first batch of visitors to arrive here.
Garen had put the few Level Ten powerhouses he had signed contracts with in charge of ensuring these shops' safety. They were scattered across a few spots around the area, and they seemed to be doing their own thing, but in truth, they were keeping an eye on everything that was happening in this area.
The visitors from the Void bought some scrolls and potions from the shop, and then looked for a Level Ten powerhouse, receiving the Winter Sigh's dragon-shaped insignia that allowed them to partic.i.p.ate in the Blood War. After that, they left the city hastily, clearly in a hurry to join the slaughter in order to obtain more power and progress.
Lady Vengeance barely governed any matters here at all. That was why n.o.body really interfered with what Garen was doing in his own territory, and no one batted an eyelid even when he carved out an area and turned it into a temporary supply point for Void Creatures.
Anyone who could set up a supply point in the Abyss had to be either extremely crafty or extremely powerful.
If Garen had not used his connections with Ann, there was no way he could have gotten such immense authority from the start either. At the most, he would have had to work his way up the ranks from his initial position as an advanced thug, racking up contributions slowly.
But thanks to his relations.h.i.+p with Ann, he could leap all the way to the top because of the fact that he once studied under the same teacher as Lady Vengeance. He became Deputy Commander of the Vengeance Fortress, wielding awe-inspiring authority. That was also a stroke of luck.
Once the first batch of visitors arrived here, they realized that this place was relatively stable and decided to set up base here, beginning their Blood Wars to acc.u.mulate slaughters. Soon enough, word got out. There was a second batch, a third, a fourth…
Now, there were more and more visitors from the Void seeping into the major planes. They disguised themselves as various races and came to the Abyss one after the other, arriving at the supply point Garen had set up. Using the Vengeance Fortress as their base and Garen's name, they began to spread ma.s.sacres everywhere.
Within a mere five or six months, the name of Winter Sigh began to spread rapidly.
And after an attack by a powerful Level Thirteen Thunder Elemental, the name instantly reached the pinnacle of popularity.
This Void Creature whose host was a Thunder Elemental had stirred an uproar by killing three of the opposing h.e.l.l Army Warlord-general's four sons. As a result, it was pursued for more than ten thousand miles and somehow managed to return to the Vengeance Fortress, barely avoiding death.
It wore the insignia of Winter Sigh, Garen's symbol, so with that, Garen instantly became famous.
At the same time, the Vengeance Fortress' reputation as a supply point was also beginning to spread through the ranks of the Void Creatures, with more and more Void Creatures arriving here. They carried Garen's insignia and symbol, hunting and slaughtering things all over the place. His influence grew, further and stronger.
Out of the several hundred fortresses that already existed in the Ten Thousand Abyss Plains, the Vengeance Fortress was originally just another new fortress, and the weakest one to boot. But these Void Creatures surged in by the dozens, ma.s.sacring many devils around the area and even some of the more unruly demons.
The influence of the Vengeance Fortress also began to increase rapidly.
The businesses, such as shops and hotels, that Garen set up in the supply point area also began to gradually increase in number, and the rate at which he earned soul-coc.o.o.ns sped up as well. His wealth s...o...b..lled, and the Void Creatures from all those different planes also brought plenty of rare materials that could be used for trade, greatly reducing the time Garen needed to construct his Wizard Tower.
Once he became aware of this beneficial cycle, Garen gave a share of the materials he had obtained as taxes to Lady Vengeance and the other Deputy Commander, instantly earning the approval of the Lady and the support of his colleague.
With the support of Lady Vengeance, Garen could easily suppress even some advanced-level disturbances that appeared at the supply point. His powers were drastically reduced right now, but with Lady Vengeance's support, even the strongest disturbance could be suppressed in the shortest possible time.
And the army under his control had also begun to search around for the materials required to build a Wizard Tower.
Large amounts of resources flowed ceaselessly into Garen's private s.p.a.ce.
As his injury healed, he also bought many Wizard Slaves who were Level Five and above to help him construct the Wizard Tower.
Everything seemed to be on the right track.
In the blink of an eye, a year had almost pa.s.sed.
In the sky above the Vengeance Tower, Garen flapped his wings slowly as he flew. He looked down on the half of the fortress that was under his jurisdiction, patrolling it.
The Winter Army already had about five hundred thousand soldiers on reserve, comprised fully demons of different types. At the same time, Andrew had also built up a special elite a.s.sault squadron called White Feather. There were only ten members in this team, and they were all pinnacle powerhouse Wizards from everywhere, from all the different planes. The highest-leveled one was Level Twelve, and the lowest was Level Ten. They all had vast resources as well as considerable authority. Some were even the heirs of some powerful factions that had come here to gather experience. They came from all walks of life and signed temporary short-term contracts, stating that they would only fight on behalf of the Vengeance Fortress for a short while. They could form a powerful Three-Dimensional Rune Matrix, and at their highest power, they could even temporarily confine a pinnacle powerhouse for some time. It was very impressive.
The army reserve and White Feather.
These two comprised Garen's greatest a.s.set. His own powers were shocking, but that also meant he naturally needed to use many more resources. Thankfully Garen could make use of the Void Creatures' hunting and spreading out, and he also grabbed half of yet another large piece of land by the sh.o.r.es of the Underground River. That way, he could harvest many soul-coc.o.o.ns every year to make up for his losses. Like this, he was more or less breaking even.
Garen looked down from his vantage point in the sky and saw many hunting teams come and go through the fortress' side door. They all wore the insignia of Winter Sigh. Some of the returning teams had suffered heavy losses, while others had a full bounty. And the exiting teams were all fully armed.
With such intense slaughtering going on, the area also sp.a.w.ned houses of desire opened specifically by Succubi, functioning as a place for the powerhouses in the middle of their slaughters to vent their desires and frustrations.
The place had a large collection of humans, Elves, and Succubi as entertainment tools.
Garen's two Succubi subordinates came up with this idea, and this also brought him a significant amount of profit every month.
There was even an auction house built in the small area. One of the Level Ten powerhouses Garen had signed a Soul Contract with in charge of hosting and running the auction house. Occasionally, when a small team obtained a treasure or item that was not easy to deal with, the auction house would simply buy it at a low price and auction it off at a higher price.
More and more people were gathering at the auction house nowadays, and even the powerful beings from the fortresses nearby would occasionally send their Projections over for a look.
The area, less than half the size of the fortress, was actually developing rapidly.
Every second of every day, Garen was earning a tremendous amount of wealth and resources. At the same time, he could also mobilize many various combat forces.
By the time he glided across the sky above the auction house, satisfied, Garen's injuries were already half-healed, and his power had also returned to Level Eleven.
Since he was flying lower now, he carried a treasure with him that hid his aura in order to maintain his dignity and authority as a Deputy Commander.
Soon enough, Garen flew to the most central part of the area. There was a spot there that was left empty, and about a hundred Wizards were busily casting spells there, building a tall cylindrical tower. There were also many Engineering Puppets floating outside the tower, laboring away constantly, looking busy as a swarm of bees.
The Advanced Wizard in charge of this place saw Garen land and hurriedly walked up to greet him.
“Deputy Commander, progress has reached up to 80%, and all the Magical Formations are more or less complete. All that's left is the Tower Soul. You just have to find one last Tower Soul, sir, and complete the Enchantment, then everything will be complete,” explained the Wizard calmly.
“Very good.” Satisfied, Garen raised his head and looked at the giant Wizard Tower, almost a thousand meters tall. For the sake of this tower, he had later expanded the area, until it covered a large piece of land outside the fortress as well. In order to expand the territory of the fortress, he had worked several tens of thousands of little demons and other slaves to death.
The entire Wizard Tower was like a slender, long white staff. There was a ball of pure white ice suspended above its peak, and a transparent ring of pale silver power circled around its middle.
There were four dragon statues depicting Garen himself in different poses built around the base of the Tower. The backs of these statues were all connected to the Tower, so they helped to secure the base while also functioning as decorations and defense matrixes.
The Advanced Wizard explained to Garen.
“If we can completely finish building it, the whole tower will have a flowing barrier of white electricity. In our initial test designs of this electric barrier, we found that it can reach Level Thirteen and can withstand twelve Level Thirteen attacks. If we have enough energy in the Energy Pools, and if the attacks come at a frequency of no more than one attack every five seconds, theoretically, the electric barrier could even defend the attacks infinitely.”
“Not bad…” Garen nodded, satisfied. His dragon eyes slowly lit up with pale blue lights.
The Energy Machinist Willpower Neuroprocessor was complete. He had a large number of potential points as back-up, and besides, he had done all this before, so he did not encounter any bottlenecks.
That was why he could reach the pinnacle that he had once accomplished within a mere month. Now, he was already beginning to rebuild the Biochemical Pool and the experimental platform.
With the large number of resources he earned from the Blood Wars and his businesses, Garen probably only needed a few months to create the best models of the Biochemical Pool and the experimental platform.
When that happened, it would no longer be just a dream to recreate the Energy Machinists' Biochemical Army. This type of army would truly be a powerful military force that was loyal to him and him alone. The Biochemical Pool could create regular armies and soldiers, whereas the experimental platform produced absolute peak-level elites. The two complemented each other.
But all this was secondary, because the Abyss never had a shortage of cannon fodder and soldiers.
What Garen truly had his eye on was still the Willpower Neuroprocessor's immense computing power.
The Energy Machinist training method he was recultivating was the most standard NIS training method from back then, because this training method was the most original. It may not result in the best creatures or effects, but the increase in computing power was excellent and evenly distributed.
And right now, Garen's eyes stared straight at the Wizard Tower. Instantly, his computing power spread out rapidly, and soon he obtained a series of matrices and structural data, proving that the Advanced Wizard was not lying.
“I hear that a lot of the materials you guys bought recently came from the dragons?”
Garen asked suddenly.
The Advanced Wizard paused and then reacted.
“Yes, the teams that returned recently seemed to have sustained significant casualties, but the materials they brought back all had a different degree of increase in quality, and most of them came from White Dragons. We're guessing that they might have come into conflict with White Dragon Mountain.”
“White Dragon Mountain…” Garen mused.
