Marvin wasn"t too surprised about Constantine"s return.
The powerful Night Walker had said that he would come back to White River Valley and help protect it after dealing with the Red Dragon"s corpse.
His return did seem to have been delayed though.
He brought a group Sha clansmen with him.
Both parties had a long discussion, and Marvin finally understood why these Sha clansmen came.
The Shas originated from the northern part of the Sage Desert. They were very creative people who further developed gunpowder and firearms, the inventions of the ancient Dwarves.
The Shas" Battle Gunners were also famous. The cooling time of firearms was a pain and the cla.s.s burnt through a lot of money, but the Market Scuffle technique guaranteed their basic strength.
There weren"t many Shas, and their economy was not very developed. They still occupied the same region in the Sage Desert but were being encroached upon by the Bais.
Constantine brought that group of his countrymen this time to discuss with Marvin whether he could get them a place to live south of White River Valley.
"The environment of the northern part of the Sage Desert is worsening. It"s not a place where people can live."
"Even if the Shas originated from there, they don"t necessarily need to end there. Although the elders are against it, there are still many people willing to follow me."
"I want to find a safe place for them. They are very dutiful people. You don"t need to find work for them, they will find ways to earn a living."
"In fact, your territory has an iron ore mine, and Shas are experts at mining…"
Facing the embarra.s.sed Constantine, Marvin was decisive.
He would accept these Shas!
White River Valley currently lacked manpower. Furthermore, Constantine had helped him quite a bit in the past. Not returning the favor now would be too selfish.
Marvin wasn"t that kind of person.
The South Wizard Alliance was very strict regarding population movement. But if both sides had an agreement, they wouldn"t take issue with it. Constantine"s words had a lot of power in the Sha Council, and could easily convince a lot of their people. And there was no problem on Marvin"s side, so the Alliance wouldn"t interfere.
Anna handled some procedures on Marvin"s behalf at the South Wizard Alliance"s eastern headquarters.
The current Marvin was already a Viscount, giving him the power to bestow t.i.tles. He could make someone a Baron or a Knight.
Constantine could be a va.s.sal under Marvin"s name.
As long as Constantine didn"t feel wronged about it and was willing to receive a t.i.tle, these Shas could settle in smoothly.
South of White River Valley was a wilderness area, and despite most of it being in the range of the Wilderness Clearing Order, it had yet to be completely cleared out.
Letting the Shas live there wasn"t much of an issue.
After he agreed, he discussed a bit with Daniela and then chose the place where the Shas would live, about 30 kilometers from the adventurer camp.
Daniela had previously dispatched a group of people there to survey an iron mine, but they didn"t have enough manpower.
Both sides immediately worked together.
As for the matter of profits, it was left to the negotiations between Daniela and the elders of the group of Shas.
Marvin had worked with Constantine so many times that the friends.h.i.+p between them had grown quite deep. They wouldn"t let something like money be a wedge between them.
After all, their collaboration was profitable to both sides.
Seeing Marvin answer so straightforwardly, Constantine felt very grateful.
Not every Overlord would accept a group of foreigners so easily.
They would be worried about their loyalty.
But Marvin considered Constantine as his friend and trusted him.
He believed these Shas living in White River Valley wouldn"t be an issue. White River Valley itself was a new territory made of a group of outsiders, so they were very tolerant.
"This time, besides looking for a place to settle my people, the most important matter is that of the Red Dragon."
Constantine was in the castle, taking a deep draw from his cigar. "That Red Dragon has already been harvested. I already found someone to do the preliminary processing and preservation."
"Dragon Blood, Dragon Leather, Dragon Bones, Dragon Tendons, Dragon Scales, Dragon Heart, Dragon Spinal Cord…"
"You can take a look."
He casually threw a list to Marvin.
Most of these raw materials were transported to White River Valley"s warehouse untouched.
A few parts had been processed by an Alchemist.
That was the friend Constantine asked to help him.
Both sides discussed a bit and chose a simple 50-50 split.
Marvin was the one that slew the Red Dragon, but it was entirely due to Brilliant Purple. And Constantine had used a lot of effort to take care of the body.
Marvin had in fact borrowed Ivan"s momentum to land his shot.
He hadn"t done anything else. He gained a great amount of experience for doing almost nothing and was still able to get so many good things, so there was nothing to complain about.
"Oh right, I still want to make a deal with you." After talking about the details for a while, Constantine suddenly said, "I want all of the Dragon Spinal Cord."
"In return, this thing is yours."
Then, he fished out a metal suitcase.
Brilliant Purple!
Marvin easily agreed to the request.
He didn"t know what Constantine planned to do with this Spinal Cord, but he clearly knew about the value of Brilliant Purple.
The cannon was very expensive, but it was very much worth it. With the homemade [Dragon Tooth] and [Dawn Light] artillery sh.e.l.ls, its firepower was simply too high.
With something like that in stock, Marvin was a lot more confident.
He bought Constantine"s surplus artillery sh.e.l.ls.
One [Dawn Light], and three [Dragon Tooth]s.
These things greatly increased Marvin"s fighting strength. Even if they were consumables and had a side-effect (mainly the huge recoil), Marvin still felt happy with the deal.
After all, his Battle Gunner cla.s.s wasn"t a free sub-cla.s.s.
After getting all of the Dragon Spinal Cord, Constantine still seemed a bit apologetic and wanted to give Marvin some more valuables.
But he was shocked by Marvin"s next words.
"Does your Dragon Harvesting Master have some free time? I have another one. It"s rather damaged, but since it"s a Master, he should be able to save quite a few parts, right?"
From the Thousand Paper Crane in Marvin"s hand, a badly mangled Black Dragon"s corpse appeared in front of Constantine.
By the time he was done talking with Constantine, it was already evening.
Marvin took a rare meal with everyone in the dining hall. After chatting a bit with Wayne he gathered some people in charge of White River Valley and held a small meeting.
It was a pity that before the meeting even began, the others saw through Marvin"s intention.
"Planning on ditching us once again?" Daniela sneered.
"Sir Marvin, even if your Overlord position seems a bit unnecessary, as an Overlord, being away from the territory all the time isn"t good, right?" Lola, who had already become the Chief Finance Official, widened her eyes.
"Brother, be safe." Wayne was a lot calmer.
"Where this time?" Of all the people, only Anna cared the most about Marvin"s destination.
The female butler had to subst.i.tute for Marvin and pick up the broken pieces in order to manage White River Valley"s internal affairs. But she was already used to Marvin hurried lifestyle.
"A Secondary Plane. The strongest powerhouse there shouldn"t exceed level 18."
Marvin smiled. "Rest a.s.sured and wait for my return."
Next morning, Marvin once again left White River Valley.
But he didn"t leave alone this time.
He took nine Dark Knights with him. After having Madeline complete the necessary preparations for River Sh.o.r.e City and White River Valley, Marvin and the Dark Knights went north, quickly reaching the Ashes Tower.
This time, Marvin"s target was Arborea.
But due to the Secondary Planes being separated from Feinan by the Universe Magic Pool, he could only use special means to enter that plane.
In the past, before the information about the Planar Wars spread, Marvin managed to enter this secondary plane by chance.
At the time, he thought it was a normal instance, but later on he found out that this was a G.o.d"s Secondary Plane.
And because of that event, he ended up with deep enmity with that G.o.d.
That G.o.d"s name was Glynos.
Hathaway had been waiting for a long time under the Ashes Tower.
But this time she was very cold. There was a hint of disappointment in her eyes while looking at Marvin.
Marvin bowed his head and didn"t say anything. He knew that Hathaway would definitely react to that matter.
But it wasn"t the time for explanations.
Early on, Marvin had already told her about Arborea"s coordinates and asked her to help find a way in, because that was where he could find the Shadow Diamond, the item he needed for his advancement to Ruler of the Night.
As a Seer and Legend, Hathaway was very bold when she set her Demi-Plane"s location… She chose to establish it just outside the Universe Magic Pool!
This meant that she might be found by G.o.ds.
But it also meant that she could easily go in and out of Feinan. She had more freedom than the G.o.ds stuck in the Astral Sea.
She brought Marvin"s group to her Demi-Plane, the Ashes Plateau.
She then pointed to a tower and told him, "This is the s.p.a.ce-time lighthouse."
"I found Arborea based on the coordinates you gave me, but if you are unable to establish a s.p.a.ce-time lighthouse at that place... you"ll never be able to come back. Time flows 21 times faster there, you should have enough time."
Marvin nodded. He already had the materials to create a s.p.a.ce-time lighthouse.
He had definitely made proper preparations for this trip to Arborea.
Seeing Marvin"s nod, Hathaway expressionlessly made a Teleportation Gate.
Bright light flickered on the lighthouse as an huge arch materialized in front of everyone.
"Let"s go! Let"s conquer that world." Marvin smiled and told the nine people behind him.
The nine men didn"t say anything in response as they tightly held their greatswords, stable as mountains.
But a fire could be seen in their eyes, just like those times when they followed the Night Monarch on his expeditions!