This Lich Requests More Remuneration

Chapter 98 - 98 95 One Meter Tall with a Two Meter Aura

?Chapter 98: Chapter 95: One Meter Tall with a Two Meter Aura Chapter 98: Chapter 95: One Meter Tall with a Two Meter Aura The vast yellow sands, under the sunlight, reflected a golden hue.

This was the unique Golden Sand of the Salokma Desert, which looked like genuine gold, and hence Salokma was also known by the nickname “Golden Kingdom.”

But this was only because, many years ago, a Legendary Mage had used the World Weaving Spell, a legendary spell, on Salokma, modifying the desert’s atmosphere layer, so that when sunlight fell upon it, it left a dazzling golden color on the sand.

However, this was done merely for aesthetics.

After all, sand is just sand. Away from the Salokma region, there’s no difference from ordinary sand.

Moreover, because the desert during the day is too glaring, the residents must wear specially made sunglasses, or within minutes in the golden desert, they would go completely blind.

And deep underneath this Golden Desert, there lie countless maze-like underground tombs, rumored to be remnants of a previous civilization.

Even after several hundred years of developing these underground tombs, Salokma has only uncovered the tip of the iceberg, but the ancient civilization’s heritage excavated from them has already provided for Salokma’s stable and prosperous living.

It could be said that the entire economy of the Dwarf Kingdom of Salokma is built on grave robbing.

Therefore, these Desert Dwarves are most skilled at digging pits, tunneling, breaking seals, disarming magic traps, and so on… but these abilities seem somewhat insufficient on the front lines of battle.

Facing the iron cavalry of the Laine Empire, the defense structures of the Desert Dwarves were only slightly stronger than paper mache.

The Paladins crying out for Holy Light, under the banner of liberating human slaves, had been grinding Salokma into the dust for many years.

What made the Desert Dwarves even more helpless was these religious fanatics showed an abundance of patience.

Once, someone suggested to the Dwarf King to feign weakness to lure the Laine Empire into a deep advance and then exhaust and eliminate them by taking advantage of the desert environment. But the Laine Empire fought their battles without any hurry. After capturing a city, they’d start preaching, and wouldn’t rashly proceed until all in the city had become devotees of the Lord of the Dawn.

The bait laid before them, they could refrain from indulging.

They seemed to have guessed the Dwarves’ plans long ago, so over the years, they continued to train their forces in the border desert cities, seemingly to develop a contingent of Paladins fully adapted to the desert environment before making a decisive strike.

Facing such an enemy who was unbeatable and made no mistakes, the Golden Kingdom slowly sank into a chronic death. Though the Laine Empire’s advance was slow, every step taken was firm. Now, even if they relinquished all the cities they had conquered, it’s unlikely that the Golden Kingdom could reclaim them, because the hearts of the people had long since changed.

In such circumstances, the Dwarf King had to change policy, initiating a hundred-year-long integration plan.

Any non-human species could receive equal citizenship rights in the Golden Kingdom, including the Undead, who were discriminated against by most other races. As long as they were willing to abide by the laws of the City of Gold, they could exist on this land.

Hake Stone had become a lawful citizen of the City of Gold once again, in such an environment.

In the depths of an underground tomb, two crimson lights ignited, and under the dim light of a candle, one could see a face with firm lines. Hake Stone, unlike those effeminate Vampires, had features as though chiseled from marble, and his gaze was deep and authoritative.

Hake Stone commanded the Orc kneeling before him, “Come, my breakfast.”

The robust-bodied Orc approached with a vacant gaze, step by step. Hake Stone slowly rose to his feet, his towering form enveloped in a long cloak that made him appear at least two meters tall.

Yet, when he moved forward, the silhouette of two feet was revealed where his belly should be.

Hake Stone, with a height of one meter and levitating at one meter twenty, took phantom steps over to the truly two meters tall Orc and bit into his neck.

After sucking vigorously a few times, Hake Stone disdainfully tossed the Orc aside.

“Orcs every day, can’t we have a change of taste?” Hake Stone said discontentedly.

In the darkness, two Dwarf servants stepped forward, anxiously saying, “Master, if it’s not Orcs, it’s been very difficult to find virgins.”

“Ah, moral standards always drop during wartime.”

Hake Stone sighed. Vampires actually preferred times of peace; more people meant more food. When war broke out, many died, and most of the survivors were hardly appetizing fare.

Although he complained, Hake Stone understood his servants did their best; nothing could change the dire circumstances.

Wiping the blood from his mouth, Hake Stone said to his servants, “Are the Gargoyles you were preparing ready?”

The mention of this made the corners of Hake Stone’s mouth uncontrollably twitch.

That newcomer’s relationship with the Rose Queen had cost him heavily.

The top-grade Gargoyles, ah, his own stock was not enough for a hundred, and yet he had to give away twenty, the pain of it like a stake slowly piercing through his heart, being tugged back and forth between life and death.

But Hake Stone didn’t dare refuse.

When the Rose Queen spoke, he truly didn’t dare disobey.

This also made Hake Stone unable to help but wonder what the relationship between this newcomer and the Rose Queen was, considering she so clearly favored him.

Out of respect and a hint of curiosity, Hake Stone became even more interested in Amberser.

Opening the Necromancy Codex, he prepared to send Amberser a message to cover some of the shipping costs. Gargoyles were considered large items, and their transportation was not cheap. Any reduction of loss would be beneficial.

But before he could send the message, Amberser sent him a private message first.

[Diga Ultraman: Senior, do you have any connections with the Desert Dwarves? I’ve captured several Twilight Guardians of the High Elves and I’m wondering if the Desert Dwarves are interested?]

Wait, had the Elf Tribe already taken action?

Hake Stone was a bit surprised. Based on the intelligence, the Elf Tribe should still be rallying their troops, shouldn’t they? The newcomer should be in the heartland of Alchemy City; how could he encounter an Elven force at this time?

[Dislikes Humans: What’s the situation? The Elves have come to your doorstep? I do indeed have some connections with the Desert Dwarves, but they are as solid as rock; you can’t feed them false information, or they will refuse to trade with you forever.]

Hake Stone was still worried that Amberser might provide false intelligence. After all, an undead could do anything.

[Diga Ultraman: Don’t worry, I’ve recorded it. You can check it out.]

Upon accepting Amberser’s transfer request, Hake Stone saw a Memory Crystal pop out of the Necromancy Codex.

He opened the Memory Crystal and, indeed, it was the Dusk Guardians of the Elf Tribe, all twelve of them.

Hake Stone had to reconsider Amberser’s capabilities; the Dusk Guardians were the elite forces of the Elf Tribe. Defeating them was not hard, but capturing so many alive was incredibly difficult.

“Are all the new guys this powerful now?”

Hake Stone felt astonished; then he quickly replied to Amberser: [No problem, I’ll communicate with the Desert Dwarves for you. I believe they will be very interested in the Elves.]

[Diga Ultraman: Thanks for the help, senior. I will cover the cost for the Gargoyle’s transport.]

[Dislikes Humans: Brother, you are so generous.]

Hake Stone had just replied with this message when he suddenly felt that something was amiss. Hadn’t he been planning to discuss the transportation costs with Amberser beforehand?

Now he had offered a favor for setting up the deal, and in doing so, he had waived the transport costs. Didn’t that mean he just gave away a favor for nothing?

Could it be this newcomer had anticipated he would ask for the transport fee, and thus preemptively blocked it with this move?

“No way, it can’t be that calculated, right? I’m probably overthinking it,” Hake Stone reassured himself.

But even if he lost out in the deal with Amberser, it didn’t matter; he was a middleman. The price the Elves would fetch still had to be negotiated with the Desert Dwarves—there’s a fair amount of markup to play with there.

After calming his thoughts, Hake Stone discussed the trade of the Gargoyle and the Elves with Amberser, settled some of the details, and then commanded his minion to send the message.

This was a significant matter involving the Elf Tribe, and he believed his letter would go straight to the Dwarf King.

Hake Stone also needed to prepare well to strike a good deal, to compensate for the loss of twenty top-tier Gargoyles.

On Amberser’s side, after receiving Hake Stone’s reply, he was very pleased.

Indeed, choosing the right buyer was important. The last time he tried to sell Allen Watson to his own father, he ended up attracting a horde of Paladins. Now by selling Elves to the enemy forces, that was the essence of true trade.

After the joy, Amberser got busy again.

The Porcupine Knight’s order needed to be fulfilled quickly; he needed this Lord to help him build a reputation. Just imagine, once the Porcupine Knight used his Skeleton army to conquer territories one by one, wouldn’t many people see the benefits of a Lich war loan?

Using the Undead for war, one only needed to pay in Gold Coins, without worrying about logistics or halting construction and agriculture in their own territory—indeed, the perfect war machine.

As more people became aware, more would seek out Amberser to buy the Undead.

The more customers he had, the fiercer the battles would be, leading to faster consumption of the Undead.

They would continuously need more Undead, more elite types of soldiers.

This was an arms race. Whether you liked it or not, once the habit of spending money on Undead armies formed, everyone was drawn into the spiral.

And as the only supplier of Undead arms in Alchemy City, Amberser would earn an endless stream of Gold Coins.

Thinking of this future, Amberser could feel his Soul excitedly trembling.

Enough of that, it was time to get back to making the Undead troops. With the Porcupine Knight as the poster child, he must give him the best.