Chapter 508: The Land of Dragons
Soon, the first batch of sixty trial spots were filled. Together with the eligible members selected by Dalaran this year, over a hundred people entered the sacred land for transformation.
Everyone who got the chance to transform was extremely excited. Take for example Eustace, the Baron of Red Maple—once the second-largest commercial power in the Northlands and a neighbor of Dalaran—who unexpectedly received an invitation!
Although this noble merchant had once shown kindness to the Merlin family, Dalaran’s support for the Red Maple domain in commerce over the years had long repaid even that small favor. Thus, receiving such an opportunity was a pleasant surprise. Now aging, the Baron of Red Maple gave this chance to his son-in-law, a hereditary minor noble from another province.
Whenever he thought back to his intention to marry his daughter to the now-powerful figure, he couldn’t help but sigh.
There was also Sir Brewster, the former commander of the Stone City garrison and commander of Bloodstone Fortress, who had been appointed as the city’s lord. This grand knight had reached the peak of Silver rank but had been stuck at the threshold of Gold for years, so he focused on governance and family development, achieving significant results. Since becoming the lord of Stone City, he now held both territory and real power, making him a true elite noble in the Northlands.
Of course, this was all thanks to the great Nature Guardian’s favor toward these old acquaintances. Though Stone City remained the capital of the Northlands, its lord still had to follow Dalaran’s instructions. After all, he was only a nominal ruler—the real master of the city was still the Merlin family.
Other candidates included the Kingdom Marshal and Minister of Military Affairs, Count Dawson; Silver Fox Anguva; even Bert, the former head administrator of Golden Sol Auction House; Grand Duke Adolf Kadochi; as well as the royal families of Gardrel, Polin, and Kurt, along with several demigods who had fought together last time. All received an invitation, filling the sixty spots.
Since it was the first time, Donald decided on some candidates based on their good relationships, while leaving the rest to Dalaran’s senior administrators to decide according to various circumstances. This would become the standard for future years.
Among these candidates for transformation, there were a few who lacked any outstanding talents and were completely unsuited for those professions. Yet Donald still offered certain benefits to such invited individuals—those who failed to transform would each receive a bottle of Great Purification Potion, which could enhance mental strength.
As for whether one can develop talents suitable for a profession after obtaining the purification potion, it depends on their own luck and effort. Such additional benefits are limited to those who have been invited; other participants do not enjoy such advantages. Fortunately, this time there was only one person with mediocre talents who could not inherit a profession, and after taking the Great Purification Potion, he successfully unlocked the talent of a mage apprentice. Although other mages considered his potential still very low and that he might never rise above the apprentice level to become a full-fledged mage, for someone who originally had no talents at all, this was already a tremendous gift! Once news spread at lightning speed that the first batch of outsiders who underwent the profession change had successfully obtained their professional status, it caused a worldwide sensation. Thus, when the second profession change site opened, many commoners flocked there. These commoners, both from nearby areas and elsewhere, had heard the news from the Adventurers’ Guild. In addition to the sixty invitation slots and the local candidates from Dalaran, any outstanding commoner not on the invitation list could also apply to become a citizen of Dalaran. If they passed the screening, they would instantly rise above the lower classes. This news led to a huge influx of people to and from Dalaran during the period of the second profession change. Not only people from Thelos itself came, but also many from other countries. Though they knew the chances of passing the screening and becoming residents of Dalaran were slim, the bustling scene reminded Donald of the Olympics in his past life, giving him a somewhat familiar feeling. Thankfully, Dalaran was large enough, with well-planned facilities. Stonehold was also granted to Dalaran’s jurisdiction, allowing it to accommodate so many outsiders properly. The streets were bustling, but there was no excessive crowding or congestion. The lively crowd also brought significant economic benefits to Dalaran’s residents. The advanced urban cleaning system quickly cleared away the trash and other messes created by the newcomers, sending them to purification arrays for destruction, leaving no hazards behind. With the experience from the first time, the sixty slots were once again just enough to fill. Aside from the usual allies and close forces, the remaining list saw slight changes, but generally, no oversights occurred.
This time, Donald’s construction of his divine kingdom has entered its final stabilization phase. Not only has the environment in various regions become almost indistinguishable from the real world, but he has also utilized the Power of the Book of Truth and the divine kingdom’s creative abilities to create a variety of small animals and wild creatures. These lower-tier creatures, whose strength does not exceed that of level-two magical beasts, have consumed very little of Donald’s soul energy reserves. To further refine the biological ecosystem within his divine kingdom, Donald ordered his subordinates to acquire live magical beasts of all levels under the guise of territorial expansion. Thanks to Dalarn’s convenient transportation infrastructure, live magical beasts were quickly brought there from all corners of the world. Donald sent these creatures into his divine kingdom to reproduce, serving as its inhabitants. Having spent years immersed in the environment of the House of Time, he also grasped some basic laws of time, allowing him to control the flow of time within his divine kingdom at ten times the speed of the outside world. As a result, within just a month, the creatures released into the divine kingdom had almost adapted to its environment, with many new generations already emerging. With another month left until the second phase of developing the sacred sites for class transformations, Donald received another batch of magical beasts and other creatures delivered from various places. With a wave of his hand, he brought all the creatures in those cages into his divine kingdom, then vanished from the main material world in an instant. Within the divine kingdom, aside from the desolate floating island of the Lost Temple in its core area, all other regions were brimming with vitality. Over the past few months, although the rules of the divine kingdom had not yet reached Donald’s ideal standard, they already surpassed those of many lesser divine kingdoms in terms of spatial stability and rule rigor. However, because the scale of his divine kingdom was many times larger than those of the lesser divine kingdoms, his control still lagged slightly behind theirs. He was not prepared to launch a full-scale campaign until he achieved complete control. As the master of his divine kingdom, as long as Donald wished, he could know what was happening in every corner—ranging from large animals hunting to microbial activities. Thanks to the powerful computing and sensing capabilities of his true godly essence and soul, not even the shedding of a single hair from a magical beast could escape his detection.
Of course, Donald wasn’t so bored as to pay constant attention to these creatures. His goal was to quickly fill his divine kingdom with vitality and establish a sufficiently complete ecosystem, using this environment as a breeding ground to create powerful creatures of his own. Nearly 50% of true gods did the same thing.
Using the powerful creatures born from the divine kingdom to defend against foreign invaders was much more time- and effort-saving than further refining the kingdom’s rules. The period from a newly ascended god to a lower-tier god was the busiest time for a true god. If they could have some helpers, even if it was only minor assistance, it would ease their burden from the numerous tasks, which would be invaluable for them.
Donald didn’t lack the ability to create powerful creatures, but his soul energy was limited, especially when it came to creating creatures of the Gold rank or above. Even if he wanted to do this on a large scale, his soul energy wouldn’t be enough. Therefore, Donald had to create an environment suitable for creatures to grow and reproduce, and then create a group of creatures to mate and breed on their own.
As a result, the requirements for the rules of the divine kingdom became even higher—it had to have strong defensive capabilities without affecting the normal survival of the creatures. It was fortunate for Donald that he had powerful aids like the Book of Truth; otherwise, even a mid-tier god might need hundreds of years to achieve this.
With his ability to control the flow of time in the divine kingdom, Donald achieved significant results in just half a year. Whether it was the creatures created by the Book of Truth or the foreign magical beasts, they had all grown ten times larger. There were now over a hundred species of creatures in groups of more than two, and the number of magical beasts of the first rank or above had exceeded 100,000.
Among these, what Donald paid the most attention to cultivating was the Dragon Kingdom. This included several semi-realms manifested from maps related to dragons in the magical beast world, such as the Dragon Mountain Range and the Dragon Bone Wasteland. After being integrated into the divine kingdom, they formed a vast small world that occupied roughly one-third of the entire kingdom.
With dragons as the main race, Donald directly created eight adult dragons, thirty-two young dragons, and 120 dragonlings. Bronze dragons, red dragons, blue dragons, and green dragons each made up one-quarter of the population. Although the three colored dragon species other than bronze dragons generally belonged to the evil faction in the main world, if raised in the divine kingdom from a young age and marked with the kingdom’s seal, it wasn’t difficult to cultivate them into neutral or good-aligned species.
Among the five summonable dragon species, only the black dragon has not been summoned by Donald, because like the dark elves, the black dragons are also a group exiled by their own races; they either live in dark regions or have fallen to the abyssal planes. Essentially, creatures from the main world are regarded as representatives of evil dragons, and their appearance causes considerable panic, which is why Donald made such arrangements.