Chapter 91: A Dangerous Rescue and Warnings in the Forest

During this period, Donald acquired quite a few useful items. Just over two months since its official establishment, the development of Dalaran Territory already rivaled that of small local noble domains that had been around for generations.
Of course, in terms of prosperity, it still fell far short of the top three towns in the North County—Stonehold City, Shining Gold Town, and nearby Redmaple Town. Yet in terms of scale, it was only slightly behind them; it was just that the population was small, and various aspects had not yet been fully developed.
The two main street-front shops Donald left behind in Dusk Town had already seen three sold—stores dealing in grain, leather goods, and daily necessities.
It was a successful start.
With the aim of attracting merchants from other places, Donald did not set prices too high, choosing to earn less initially so that once the commercial district developed, those shops would become in high demand.
Over the past few months, he used the Demon Seal and exploited loopholes in the Abyssal Contract to summon demons twice. Unfortunately, luck was not on his side—both times, only mid-to-low-level bronze demons appeared. Thus, even though he had almost absorbed the power of the Fireburning Demon, he had no interest in taking in the power of these worthless demons.
The four demons together provided Donald with less than 2,000 units of soul power, along with materials from their corpses.
However, demand for demon materials was always high in the main world. So even though Donald traded them at favorable prices to the mages at the Mage Guild, he still obtained other materials worth 2,000 gold sols. These materials greatly facilitated his research in alchemy. After all, magical materials were not easy to obtain—money alone did not guarantee quick access to them.
Today was Donald’s turn to teach the apprentices. Following his disciple Merlin, another of the three apprentice mages became a full-fledged apprentice mage. But this time, Donald did not take him as a disciple. One disciple through such a hereditary relationship was enough; there was no time to teach more, unless the apprentice was even better than Merlin.
Donald’s elite program in the territory was only in its initial stages. Currently, there were only four apprentice mages, along with a few dozen highly promising warriors, members of the guard force, and 100 archers from the hunting team, who could barely be considered backup forces. Like those apprentices who needed time to grow, they still fell short of the standards set by Donald, the lord of the territory.

The only thing that satisfied Donald was those over a dozen summoned warriors under Clinton. Of course, with their daily training, Donald estimated that in about half a year, he would see a group of competent warriors appear in Dalaran. There were also several children in the territory learning other skills and knowledge; according to William’s report, over a dozen apprentices could already handle basic tasks and contribute to the territory’s work. For now, everything in Dalaran was on track, and there was hardly a shortage of manpower, allowing Donald to have free time each day to engage in his hobbies aside from practicing magic, researching alchemy, and teaching—living a very leisurely life. However, this peaceful existence was soon disrupted. Donald, who was explaining some basic theories of magic spells to the apprentices, was halfway through his lesson when Tik, the deputy captain of the guard, came to report. “What’s going on?” Seeing Tik’s anxious expression, Donald asked sternly, “Have the members of the lord’s hunting party returned from their patrol? They were attacked by monsters. Captain Barn says both young men are seriously injured and on the verge of death!” Without finishing his sentence, Donald left the apprentices behind and rushed outside the lord’s manor. He saw a large crowd gathered in the square, with Captain Barn and several hunting party members in disheveled clothes surrounding two injured youths, trying to save them. “The lord is here! The lord is here!” “Move aside! Make way!” “Let the lord pass!” “Lord! Please save them!” Instead of responding to Barn’s request, Donald went over to the two injured men and knelt down to examine them carefully. He quickly realized their injuries were extremely serious. In this world without modern medical facilities, such severe injuries meant that without the help of priests or mages using divine or magical powers for treatment, they would likely die within half an hour. Thinking this through, Donald immediately took out two vials of life potion and handed them to Barn and an archer in front of him, saying, “Give these to them!” The hunting party member hurriedly took the potions and fed them to the injured men. One of them had severe external injuries and had lost a lot of blood, but his condition was somewhat better—he was conscious and able to swallow the potion, and his wounds quickly began to heal, stabilizing his condition. However, the other injured man, belonging to Barn’s group, was in much worse shape. He had suffered severe internal injuries from a heavy blow and was already unconscious. Only half of the life potion could be poured into his mouth before the rest spilled out.

Barn squeezed the medicine bottle so hard it made a cracking sound. “My lord, he can’t drink the medicine!”
Donald frowned. Seeing this situation, he immediately ordered, “This won’t work. Tear open his shirt!” The hunters nearby rushed forward to help Barn untie the injured man’s shirt, revealing his sunken chest and purplish-red ribs.
Just then, a bright silver reflection appeared—Sir Uther and Clinton, who were training the guards, had arrived after hearing the news.
“Just in time!”
Seeing the young man’s injuries, Donald judged from his memory that he had at least five broken ribs, and there was a risk of bones piercing his chest. Without hesitation, he drew a curved sword from one of the hunters, igniting red flames on its surface to clean it. He then shouted at Uther and the others, “Stay outside and keep everyone away from me. Barn, press down on his shoulder—this is an order. No matter what I do, you must not let go…”
Barn nodded and acted immediately.
Once everything was ready, Donald, amid the crowd’s screams, sliced open the injured man’s chest.
“Ah…”
The pain woke the injured man, who cried out in agony.
Donald inserted the sword hilt into his mouth for him to bite on.
Then he said, “Hold on, it’ll be fine soon!” Ignoring Barn’s astonished look, Donald reached into the injured man’s chest and carefully aligned the broken ribs, piecing together the fragments. He then poured a bottle of Moon Essence into the man’s severely bleeding wound.
After finishing, Donald, drenched in sweat, finally breathed a sigh of relief. He summoned a pool of clean water to wash the blood from his hands and ordered, “He’s not going to die now. One more dose of the life potion will restore him. Go get two stretchers and carry them home carefully for recovery!”
As he spoke, the severely injured young man’s chest, once cut open, began to heal, and his complexion turned rosy.
The properties of Moon Essence were extremely mild. The entire bottle’s contents were absorbed into his body, instantly replenishing his vitality and repairing all internal injuries and external wounds. All that remained were the aftereffects of severe blood loss and the broken ribs, which hadn’t fully healed yet. With such injuries, even without the life potion, a month or two of rest would be enough for a complete recovery.

The injured man, who had originally been sentenced to death, recovered in such a way that not only were others astonished, but his family was also extremely grateful. However, such a brutal and bloody treatment method made those who witnessed this scene today feel both admiration and fear toward Lord Donald. Their sense of belonging to this powerful mage lord grew even stronger. Especially Barn, the once stubborn and strong captain of the guards, was now completely conquered by Lord Donald’s actions and demeanor. Even if someone offered him ten thousand gold coins and a knightly title to persuade him to betray them, he would never leave Dalaran and his young lord.

“Tell me! How did you encounter danger?” In the council hall of the lord’s manor, Donald sat at the head, surrounded by his subordinates such as Uther and William, as well as three Merlin family mages including Moray who had rushed over upon hearing the news. Below them stood the hunters who had brought back the injured man. Faced with the lord’s question, the young men looked terrified and nervous. One of the older ones replied, “My lord, our team originally planned to patrol and hunt some prey to bring back for the elders at home to strengthen their health, so we went deeper into the Moonlight Forest. We all thought we’d be safe as long as we stayed within the boundaries. Who would have thought…”

“Our arrows couldn’t penetrate the thick skin of those giant monsters, but we managed to kill two smaller ones. However, we were in a hurry to escape and couldn’t bring back the monsters’ bodies!”

The natural barrier couldn’t cover the entire village; it only included the area where Darknight Manor stood and part of the Moonlight Forest. There were also blind spots in the defensive circles of the Ancient Guardians at the forest’s edge, so Donald wasn’t surprised that foreign magical beasts could infiltrate the territory. This was why, in addition to assigning the guards and hunters to conduct regular patrols, he also ordered the five trained owls to fly over the territory every morning and evening.

He had thought this would ensure safety, but yet another accident still occurred. Donald didn’t blame the hunters for approaching the border without permission, because even without their actions, signs of other creatures’ activity near the border would have posed a threat to the territory, and something like today’s incident would have happened sooner or later.

So Donald asked carefully again, “Did you see what the monsters that attacked you looked like? Were they advanced magical beasts?” The archer hurriedly replied, “We all saw them. Those monsters definitely weren’t magical beasts, because they looked very much like humans, walked upright, and even carried weapons.”