Chapter 386: The Decline of the Macbeth Family
After holding secret discussions with Ferdinand and Duri, Donald issued a series of orders, immediately getting all departments in Dalaran busy!
At the same time, Carlisle and Abel, who had been on reconnaissance missions for several days, returned from Stonehold.
As soon as Carlisle arrived at the lord’s residence, he began to complain to Donald.
“You have no idea—just to keep an eye on the secrets hidden in the Viscount’s manor, I stayed there for three days without eating or drinking before finally figuring out what they were up to…”
Knowing Carlisle’s personality, Donald decided to just listen to his complaints rather than take them seriously. What concerned him more was what secrets the Macbeth family was hiding!
Seeing Donald ignore him, Carlisle, with a resentful expression, gave up acting up and spoke in a normal tone.
“As you suspected, the Macbeth family is indeed in collusion with the Southern and Dawn Church!”
“We monitored the Viscount’s manor for two days without finding anything suspicious. Eventually, we followed the servants out to the manor outside the city and traced their whereabouts. But since there was a magical barrier at the manor—easy to break but would reveal our presence—we spent a lot of effort before finally seeing the people inside when they weren’t looking!”
“It was a holy warrior at least at the legendary level. Due to divine powers, if they really wanted to hide, even I couldn’t see clearly!”
After hearing Carlisle and Abel’s account, Donald nodded in satisfaction.
“That’s enough information. All I need is psychological preparation. Thank you for your hard work!”
Pleased with the praise, Carlisle immediately approached with a smile. “Since you know we’ve worked hard, it would be nice to reward us with something tangible! My request isn’t much—just one or two secondary divine weapon pieces. I’ve been eyeing Amps’ great sword for a long time!”
Donald glanced at Carlisle’s shameless flattery and said irritably, “Is that not too much to ask? Then those who’ve never even seen a secondary divine weapon can just die!”
“Don’t be so stingy! You know that with a secondary divine weapon, my combat power could increase significantly. I might not be able to defeat even a demi-god, but at least I could resist them!”
It makes sense when you think about it. Currently, there is indeed only Carlisle as a legendary Sword Saint in this territory; the others are all spellcasters, even the Bronze Dragon King Nozdormu is no exception. Their powerful physical combat skills are merely innate traits of dragons, while their innate spells, dragon speech magic, and divine spells granted by the authority of earth deities are no less formidable than those of other legendary spellcasters! If Carlisle, as a legendary Sword Saint, could obtain a powerful sub-legendary weapon, he would be someone even demi-gods couldn’t underestimate in direct combat, greatly enhancing the strength of the territory. So despite initially saying no, Donald agreed to Carlisle’s request. With the available materials and the help of the Book of Truth, it was relatively easy for Donald to create a non-special type of sub-legendary weapon. Acting on his word, he first exchanged for a sword belonging to a necromantic hero, a Death Knight, from the Book of Truth. It wasn’t the most famous one, Frostbite, but its elegance, appearance, and exquisite craftsmanship were on par with that legendary magic sword. Even if it were Frostbite itself, it would be unacceptable to let Carlisle use a weapon imbued with necrotic energy—such a weapon, no matter how powerful, would suppress the user’s own strength and might even backfire to harm them. Therefore, Donald only wanted the same material and design. To bring this longsword to life, Donald used one-tenth the weight of refined gold as the main material, along with refined black iron and cold steel. He also added blue-veined magic metal, which has extremely strong energy storage capabilities, as a supplementary material. Additionally, he forged mysterious patterns on the surface using a small amount of sterling silver to facilitate subsequent enchanting. Once completed, the sword was four feet long and three inches wide. Its exterior featured a magnificent Gothic design, entirely in blue-black. Both sides of the blade’s spine had silver-glowing mysterious patterns, while the blade itself emitted a deep, cold light, making it appear terrifyingly sharp! Based on Carlisle’s characteristics, Donald specifically used the Book of Truth to endow the sword with a vampiric aura and curse abilities. This allowed the sword to absorb the life force of attacked enemies to replenish itself while also cursing the enemy’s attacks, causing them to fail one-third of the time! With just its basic attributes and these two powerful enchantments, this sword had already reached the pinnacle of legendary weapons, even surpassing ordinary sub-legendary weapons. Donald then imbued the sword with a trace of divinity, drawing its laws from the destructive realm within the divine core of the Destroyer Monarch.
After extracting the power of the laws from the Divine Core through the Gods’ Codex, Donald gained control over the associated mechanisms and divine powers. By paying a certain amount of divine energy, he could replicate a small portion of this power, which was even more efficient than a true god manipulating and transforming divinity! This destructive divine power instantly transformed the weapon into a sub-legendary artifact, endowing it with greater destructive force. Any weapon or equipment below the level of a sub-legendary artifact, no matter how sturdy, would be shattered in one strike by the power of this law domain. Even if not directly hit by the sword, any creature or substance near its blade would suffer varying degrees of damage from its destructive force! Holding the newly created sub-legendary sword, Carlisle couldn’t resist and immediately started swinging it. “What a great sword! Only such a sword deserves me, Carlisle…” “Donald, does this sword have a name?” Donald thought for a moment before coming up with a name. “Let’s call it the Blood Demon Sword! It can form a series with Amps’ Demon-Slaying Sword and also fits well with your title!” Holding the sword in one hand and stroking its blade with the other, Carlisle said in ecstasy, “Blood Demon Sword—what a wonderful name! I knew Donald would never produce something ordinary!” With excitement, he ran off to find someone to fight against. Of course, it wasn’t ordinary—this was after all a fragment of divinity derived from the Destroyer Monarch! Donald thought this to himself but didn’t reveal it to Carlisle. In fact, law domains like the domain of destruction are usually mastered by true gods from the chaos and evil factions. If Carlisle’s own source of divinity hadn’t come from the God of Hatred, Pache, who was himself a true god of chaos and evil, he wouldn’t have chosen this divinity. Donald still had some concerns about this. Although Carlisle’s personality tended toward neutrality and kindness, he couldn’t rid himself of the chaotic elements in his bloodline. This was the curse that came with inheriting divine blood—allowing Carlisle to unleash combat power far beyond his usual level when emotionally stirred or in despair. But the price was losing his sanity, with each use pushing him further toward chaos and evil at an unbearable cost. The God of Hatred, Pache, stemmed from a naturally twisted curse, and even a powerful higher deity like the Goddess of Agriculture couldn’t immediately find a proper way to remove it, only sealing away the harmful part temporarily.
Donald wasn’t sure whether he had done right or wrong by endowing this secondary artifact with divine power to destroy realms—long-term exposure to such a realm could push Carlisle toward the chaotic faction, which might affect the seal placed by the Goddess of Agriculture! However, since he himself was on the verge of becoming a demi-god, just one more step away, Donald felt somewhat confident. Even if Carlisle’s cursed bloodline changed over time after he was deified, he believed he could still intervene to help. If he couldn’t resolve the issue completely, he could at least delay its deterioration and seek the Goddess of Agriculture’s aid later!
After Carlisle left, Donald summoned William and Tik, two of his territorial officials. He wanted to inquire about the specifics of the territories and the outside world. The previous report had been incomplete because he had been busy with the alchemy factory. First, William reported on the development and construction of the three territories under the Merlinna family: Dalaran, Emerald Dream, and Swordhorn Peninsula. The small knightly domain in Goblin Valley, being geographically close and also under Uther’s rule, was considered an appendage of Dalaran by the kingdom’s noble council and not counted as a separate territory.
Donald’s three major territories were currently thriving, with Dalaran leading the way—so prosperous that it surpassed places like Stonehold in the Northlands, Shining Gold Town, and its neighbor Redmaple Town, becoming the most developed, wealthy, and beautiful city in the kingdom’s north. If it weren’t for Donald’s aversion to crowded cities, expanding Twilight Town into a well-fortified stronghold wouldn’t have been a problem either.
So far, aside from building some public facilities in the areas surrounding Moonlight Lake and Twilight Town centered around Twilight Town, Dalaran still consisted of only four human settlements—this town, two villages, and an elven settlement in the Moonlight Woods. Everything else was left largely untouched. Donald even asked the druidic tribe’s nature mages to plant beautiful and useful plants in the barren areas, aiming to blend human settlements with the natural environment and create a perfect utopia! At least until the population of the territories reached the limits of the existing towns and villages, he had no plans to expand further.
If there are extra resources, some favorable conditions can be offered to relocate some of the people to the other two major territories, which would also help alleviate the shortage of labor! After William reported on the situation in his own territory, Tikk, the first intelligence chief of Dalaran, presented the information gathered by their department regarding various regions of the Kingdom of Thelos outside Dalaran, as well as some news from the lands south of the Northlands. The rebellion in the southern part of the kingdom was as described by Ferdinand, though from Dalaran’s perspective. The news from the various countries on the continent wasn’t essential for Donald; he just listened briefly. What he was more concerned about was the recent series of actions taken by the Macbeth family.