Chapter 322: Receiving the Siren Territory
In this confrontation with the demi-god Abyssal Demon Forger, it was still Donald who had the upper hand. In the end, though Amps managed to escape the abyss and free itself from the Spider Queen’s tyranny, it became a vassal of the human mage Donald.
Still, for it, this was probably better than remaining in the abyss and suffering at the hands of the Spider Queen, right?
After some thought, Donald decided not to summon Amps to the main world for now, as two-thirds of the magical disaster he had caused remained unresolved. He didn’t want to leave any loose ends that might harm ordinary people due to his actions.
While saying the demon invasion was entirely his fault might be an overstatement—demons are inherently evil and chaotic—without the Spider Queen’s push this time, there would surely be another invasion by powerful demons from other abyssal realms.
Yet since this massive magical disaster was caused by his offense against that twisted female demon god, Donald, who lacked the strength to suppress his humanity, couldn’t help but feel guilty.
So he planned a bold strategy: eliminate the other two legendary demons to put an end to this disaster first. In that case, Amps, who was still inside the enemy’s territory, would be of great use.
Without saying much, Donald left the hidden valley and teleported back to Dragon Tooth Fortress along with Carlisle.
Upon arriving at the fortress, the Siren soldiers and civilians who had witnessed Donald, the great mage from Celt, showing his prowess on the battlefield, looked at them with utmost reverence.
Since the dawn of human civilization, people have always loved to worship and fear the strong and heroes. The most iconic examples are the ancient heroes who led humanity out of barbarism and backwardness to establish city-states and nations. Many of these ancient heroes were worshipped by humans as if they were gods—partly because several of the existing human gods were actually deified by those ancient heroes.
“Welcome back, Lord Donald. You are a great hero to us Sirens and to all human nations. Once today’s battle is known throughout the continent, your fame will surpass that of all the heroes of this generation!”
The Siren Duke, as the leader, welcomed Donald and Carlisle back.
“Your Grace, you flatter me. As a human and a member of the main world, it is my duty to maintain peace and defend against the invasion of evil abyssal creatures. Compared to those predecessors in history, I still have much to learn!”
Donald smiled humbly. Long before he proposed the theory of natural balance as a human lord and a mage, his name had already spread across the continent. But back then, there were only theories—no major practical actions that could shock the world—so the results were merely known to others and brought him little real benefit. If his achievements in resisting the magical disaster were now publicized, Donald was sure the power of worship he would gain from personal adoration would far exceed that of the indigenous believers confined in the half-plane. This was the population of an entire continent. Although there were no censuses in this world, based on Donald’s estimates, the human population on this continent must have exceeded tens of millions! Perhaps this number seemed pitifully small to modern people on Earth. Take Donald’s country in his past life as an example—the population of just one municipal district was roughly the same, not to mention massive cities like the capital with populations of over 20 million. In contrast, on this continent, which was slightly larger in land area than Earth in his past life, the total human population was only about ten million. Some couldn’t help but wonder, “Are you joking? This is completely unreasonable!” In fact, this was precisely the most reasonable situation. Take Earth as an example. What was the total population during the most prosperous periods in Donald’s country’s history, such as the Han and Tang dynasties? At most, it was around 50 million, and that was during the Tang Dynasty, when it was one of the largest countries in the world, known as the Celestial Empire. At the height of the British Empire, including colonists abroad, the total population was only about 30 million. Living conditions determine population size. Simply put, arable land resources determine how many people a country can sustain. In the early Middle Ages, the amount of arable land was far less than in modern times, and hygiene standards, as well as people’s dietary and lifestyle habits, were much lower than those after the 20th century. So how many people were there in all of Europe at that time? Even in famous cities like Constantinople, the population never exceeded 800,000 to 1 million—already a huge number in Europe at that time.
The technological advancements across various fields in the 20th century led to a peak in global population growth, which continued into the new century after 2000. With only 149 million square kilometers of land on Earth, the total population reached nearly 7 billion—showing that the planet was already under immense strain! It’s no wonder that energy conservation, low carbon emissions, and environmental protection, along with sustainable development, became priorities during that era.
Especially in some developing countries in Southeast Asia, the exploding population has almost gotten out of control. In contrast, some European and American countries, due to their colonial history, have large areas of land with few people, allowing their living conditions to remain among the best in the world.
As for this other world, although it is larger in total area than Earth, over 70% of it is undeveloped wilderness. The plains suitable for human habitation—such as mountains, hills, and forests—are generally dominated by magical creatures. Only powerful professionals or hunters from remote areas occasionally venture there. After all, the situations in the two worlds are different, so they cannot be generalized. The fact that this world’s population can reach tens of millions already surprises scholars studying human societal development on Earth. This is even more so given the support of human warriors and the divine churches. If Earthlings, lacking individual combat skills and without modern weapons like guns, had to survive here relying only on traditional weapons, it would be fortunate if even one-tenth of the 6 billion population could survive.
If this world could achieve the level of magical technology seen during the ancient Arcane Empires or Ancient Magic Empires, then population growth reaching or even exceeding 100 million would be quite possible in Donald’s view!
After pondering many things, Donald briefly briefed his teachers before being captivated by the words of the Grand Duke of Siren. It turned out that by defeating this army of hundreds of thousands of demons and killing their strongest legendary demon leader, the magical disaster plaguing the Sirens was likely over ahead of schedule. Although many demons still fled to the western part of the fortress, they were no longer a serious threat. With the aid of Celt’s reinforcements and their own proactive attacks, these remaining threats could be eliminated in just a few attempts.
This near-catastrophic magical disaster also brought tremendous gains to the Grand Duke of Siren. There were estimated to be over 200,000 demon corpses. Even with all the soldiers and civilians from Dragon Tooth Fortress working together, they could only transport about 30,000 corpses in half a day, with at least another 170,000 to 180,000 corpses piled up outside the fortress.
This was also because Donald and his group used powerful spells later on, and those hundreds of Thorn Vines had consumed many demon corpses as well. As a result, the vast majority of the demon corpses were destroyed in the battle, leaving less than a quarter of them. Even if the price dropped due to the magical disaster, the value of these 200,000 demon corpses would still amount to millions of gold Solars. After all, they were rare and valuable materials, and many mages would be willing to pay for them, especially in large kingdoms like Gardrel and the Female Forest, which relied on mage power to sustain themselves. Even if it were just the disaster in Siren alone, it might not be enough to meet the needs of these two countries, as although 200,000 sounds like a large number, most of them were low-level demons. Overcoming this crisis would also bring a significant income to the treasury, no wonder the Grand Duke of Siren was beaming with joy. He planned to reward everyone who participated in the battle with gifts or rewards. Of course, since the Celt reinforcements were foreign forces, he couldn’t take matters into his own hands and instead handed the rewards to Duri, the leader of those reinforcements, to distribute them. After the battle, those soldiers and knights would likely receive between ten and a hundred gold Solars each. As for the elite forces from the Celt nobles who provided friendly assistance led by Donald, the Grand Duke of Siren was generous—each of these silver-ranked powerhouses received demon materials worth at least ten thousand gold Solars, which could be exchanged for actual wealth once the war was completely over. As for Donald, the greatest contributor to their victory, to everyone’s surprise, the Grand Duke ordered a Siren map to be brought in, intending to grant a piece of land from his family’s private territory to this foreign noble. Although the Siren officials and nobles present were surprised, it was somewhat understandable, after all, he had saved Siren from destruction! Millions of demons! They hadn’t anticipated such a huge number before. A disaster of this scale could only be dealt with by legendary powerhouses and forces on the level of the five major continental kingdoms with their large armies; smaller countries or human territories simply wouldn’t stand a chance! Some who were jealous that a foreigner like Donald could receive land as a reward from the Grand Duke, or some local nobles with ulterior motives, might be dissatisfied, but seeing the Grand Duke’s firm determination, they couldn’t speak out against it.
“That’s not good! After all, I’m a Celtic noble; it’s not easy for me to accept your appointment as Grand Duke!” Donald was tempted, but he wouldn’t accept it greedily without consideration. After all, he was a lord of the Celts and needed to take into account the opinions of his own homeland, right?
Grand Duke Siren laughed and said, “Why not? There are precedents! Given your status and achievements, I believe your king won’t only have no objections but will also approve wholeheartedly. Come on, these areas here are all part of our Kadochi family’s private territory. You can choose any one of them. If you don’t like it, you can also select from other vacant lands in the duchy—as long as it doesn’t exceed the size of an earldom, I’ll agree to it!”
Hearing Grand Duke Adolf say this, Donald couldn’t be too picky, so he glanced at Siren’s map.