Chapter 515 - Entering Seclusion

Sike! 

Actually, Draco did not need to lie to them. He just informed them straight up that he had cleared out all monsters within a certain range in between the Cario Continent's Genshin Plains Field Zone and the Vareas Peninsula's Tershuanzed Field Zone. 

He also bluntly revealed that he planned to charter a privatized sea route for intercontinental trade. Draco told them this for three reasons. Firstly, he would need the go-ahead from the two councils - or at least, agree to pay taxes on the route - or things would become difficult. 

Secondly, as Vita Kingdom's King, he was now a registered member of the Cario Continental Council. If anything, he couldn't just lie to them open-facedly if he wanted peace here in his homeland, and Vareas would likely find out anyway if he fessed up to Cario. 

Thirdly and finally, Draco was not worried. If he could clear the sea for miles in a certain range by paying a certain price, he could easily 'pay a visit' to their lands and assist them with some 'population control'. 

Upon hearing his story, the many parties were left speechless. Something amazing like that can happen? All 7 soon displayed excited expressions because they knew what it meant for them and the world. 

Even for Voila, she dared not mess with those mindless sea monsters and could only live in the area that the merman races had cleared for themselves. If she tried to encroach, she would be swarmed by endless amounts of them. 

Otherwise, why would she choose to expand on the relatively safer and already populated land? The sea had always been far more resource heavy than any land zone, especially at the seafloor. 

Even Draco planned to have serf players take up diving quests to excavate the ocean floor in the area, but one thing at a time. Umbra was stretched thin at the moment, trying to stabilize the sea zone, stabilize the recently expanded kingdom and conquer some Field Zones around the area. 

Brendan was first to speak. "What plans does His Majesty have?" 

Draco smiled, as Brendan was tactfully asking how the benefits would be shared. The others also looked on with hawkish eyes, their ears flapping as they wanted to catch every sound from Draco's mouth. 

"I will give the Cario Continental Council 3% shares of the sea trades profits and pay the standard 15% tax rate as well. Also, I would like a representative to reside in the main coastal city so as to overlook things on our side of the coast." Draco began. 

Cario's three representatives seemed extremely satisfied, and their gazes toward Draco were extremely warm. It could be said that he had given slightly more than what they were going to ask for, showing that he too treasured his relationship with them. 

Treating partners with respect and propriety was always the best way to go, as they would favor you over others. 

Draco then gazed casually at the Vareas Continent duo. "As for your council, I will pay the applicable taxes in full according to your laws, which is also 15%." 

She glared at Voila for a bit then smiled towards Draco. "Not a problem, Your Majesty. You are simply following the law on this matter." 

Draco frowned in disp.l.e.a.s.u.r.e at her reaction, but felt dread inside. Even Eva was alarmed, Brendan and his trio also shared looks of fear. The reason why Carla made them feel this way was due to her sharp wits that were able to deduce everything in a split second. 

Bluntly speaking, Draco only needed to pay the taxes legally and he was squared. He did not need the approval of the two councils, only that it would help smoothen his path. 

What he gave Cario Continent was just the cherry on the cake to make their relationship much better. He had denied Vareas anything so as to provoke their rage. Knowing that egotistic and arrogant mermaid, she would have likely demanded to be treated better, perhaps even on the same level as the Cario Continent. 

In either case, Draco had already prepared a logical answer to refute such a demand. As such- according to the script -Voila would then foolishly threaten or warn Draco, which would allow him to retaliate. 

If the duo then refused to acknowledge Draco's ownership of the trade route, they would have fallen into Draco's cruel trap. He could then call up an Impartial Arbitration and slaughter them through it legally. 

The beautiful thing about Impartial Arbitration compared to manual litigation in Boundless was that the verdict of an Impartial Arbitration was immutable and could not be changed. 

In other words, if the Impartial Arbitration decreed that Draco was entitled to the sea trade route and was therefore only supposed to pay 15% of taxes on the route, this would be fixed for eternity. Even if Draco lost his mind at some point down the line and wanted to give more, the system would not allow it. 

What made them all feel dread was how Carla had been able to quickly able to see through this, shut the retarded Voila up, and then smoothen things out with Draco. This meant that the table was open for future negotiations, and they could still reap more. 

Draco quickly reigned in his worry and remained composed. The next thing on the White-Haired Duo's agenda was to pay a visit to the clans and territories of the various Rank 7 powers who had stood behind Joker and Happy Scholar in the First Guild War and had used them as puppets to launch the Void Infestation Emergency Quest. 

After they had finished 'passing through', it was unknown whether Carla would still entertain any funny ideas towards their faction, so Draco moved on for the time being. 

He then gazed at Emperor Jusen and Emperor Kutu. 

"I would like to officiate a trade agreement with the two empires, allowing them to be the first hub of trade for all goods brought into the continent(s). Are you agreeable to this?" 

Both Emperors were incomparably excited and rose to their feet, not ashamed to bow to Draco in gratitude. They indicated that they were satisfied with the arrangements, and it was not surprising. 

As the chosen official distributors, the kind of economic boom it would have for their empires would be scary. In the next 100 years, they estimated that it might rise by almost 20 times to their scale just based on the wealth they would be receiving by proxy. 

How could they not be satisfied? Even the Cario Continental Council and the  Vareas Penninsula Council groups were envious. This was a pie in the sky falling down upon just because they established their powers in the right place and happened to live during the right time. 

Draco patted his armrest. "Since we have sorted out the main issue, why don't you guests stay in the Aether Castle for a short feat to celebrate our cooperation?" 

They all acquiesced to this as it would be a good idea to enjoy the benefits of this kingdom. Voila almost left, but Carla glared at her once more and she decided to stay. Voila could bully all others on Vareas because she could easily retreat to the sea, but she dared not cause trouble with Carla. 

As such, all seven attended the party. Draco and Eva hosted them grandly, and despite the small size, it was quite a lively show. After that, all of them decided to leave as they had to make many preparations to deal with the sudden development before them. 

As for Draco and Eva, they shared a look and apported to the area above the Aether Castle. Luxia then swooped from afar and carried them on her back, blazing into the horizon as they crossed great distances in mere seconds. 

Draco and Eva first appeared above a hidden valley where a large clan was established. It was a clan of High Elves who were living peacefully on their own. Two of their Rank 7 leaders had decided to help the idiot duo back then, so Eva directly released a small part of the Psychic Curse on a random citizen. 

Soon enough, it would spread and cripple the entire clan, leaving those on top anxious and afraid. Even a Grandmaster Mindmage like Olivia had only been able to prevent herself from being infected, but had failed to dispel the curse. 

And Eva had been nursing it for over a week, so its power was incomparable to what it had been at the Merchant Guild. She only cut a small piece off to infect this clan, but it was larger than what she had initially used to spark the curse 

Soon, these powers would call upon various experts hoping to find a solution to the issue. They would act like the Merchant Guild and their outcome would be the same. 

Nothing these Rank 7's could call up could match the arguably ric.h.e.s.t guild in today's era, so Eva and Draco weren't worried it would fail. 

Eventually, the Merchant Guild would contact them and secretly tell them how the problem had been solved, which would leave them in a tight spot. Contact the party they offended in the past and beg for help or let their clan perish. 

Draco and Eva were practically throbbing with excitement in anticipation of the choice they would make. The agony they would go through in having to choose either path was enough to intoxicate these two cruel entities. 

If they let their clan perish, Draco and Eva would thoroughly enjoy watching it from the sideline, aware that they could have prevented it. If they came to them for help, they would keep them stewing in pain until they fleeced them off all their wealth, then they would 'help'. 

This would lead to the second part of their cruel scheme that was even more chilling than the first part, using the children of their enemies to fertilize and breed the curse. 

After splitting the grown curse up and planting it, it would then use these minds to grow and connect itself. By the time Eva came to 'cure' it, she would then collect it back, far stronger than it had been. 

And she would do this for every clan that came to her for help, greatly increasing the amount of psychic curse she had on hand in both quantity and quality. She could then replant it in other enemy clans and locations to further propagate and spread it. 

As for whether the Merchant Guild would suspect them, it would make no sense for them to. Firstly, they had no idea that Eva was the cause, still believing that it was a random burglar. 

They had long ruled Umbra out despite Zaine coming there, because the thief had only stolen money and Aether Crystals, showing that they were utterly poor. 

Umbra did not lack money and they had billions of Aether Crystals after the First Player Auction, so there was literally no motive. Last time, Eva had suffered for curing the curse, which had made them indebted to Umbra. 

If these various clans also got struck by the same thing, they would think it was the mysterious thief again, or an outbreak. After all, Draco and Eva had the alibi of meeting the powerhouses a while ago, and no one knew they were around here. 

It was possible to link them using the fact that all the suffering clans were suspiciously enemies of Draco and Eva, but it would remain a suspicion since the facts and logic did not back up the conclusion. 

Not to mention, some of the clans were known enemies of Umbra while some weren't, like Godmar Empire that had offended Draco. However, they had done so in a Unique Quest, so they did not even expect the calamity that was about to befall them. 

Just who was the one throwing about this curse and why? 

......….. 

Draco and Eva finished their task quickly. There was no need to spend too long on it lest they risk their alibi becoming weaker and weaker. Soon, they returned to the Aether Castle and settled in. 

They were like spiders in the web, waiting for their prey to come over themselves, despite knowing they would get devoured.  A spider did not move and was extremely patient, so too was the White-Haired Duo. 

The first thing they did after settling down was to finally check the details of the loot. Now that everything had been collected, the number of items, materials, resources, and misc things they had acc.u.mulated were too many for Draco to easily perform inventory. 

The majority was in the Guild Warehouse, and it was on the brink of being full. Guild Warehouses were o.b.s.c.e.n.ely large and grew in size exponentially which every tier the guild climbed. 

Umbra was a Tier 4 Guild, yet their warehouse was almost full. This was something that had never occurred in the previous timeline, and Draco and Eva were helpless about it. Not until they stabilized the trade route and cleared an Area Zone for Vita could they get enough reputation to climb a few more tiers. 

As such, a few of the goods had to be stored in Vita City's warehouses, and even they were almost at capacity. Before chasing those fellows who embezzled goods, he had to solve this storage problem first, and that was something that would take time. 

Draco could only ping Sublime and send her the list of those with itchy fingers for her to deal with in due time. 

After that, the duo checked the experience gain for the entire raid party of Umbra's 10,000 members. When they saw how much they earned, they could only take a deep breath and stabilize their shaky legs. 

The total experience gain was 100,000,000%! They had killed 3.425 million monsters with one attack which netted them this much. Of them, 70% were Rank 1, 20% Rank 2, 8% Rank 3, 1.9% Rank 4 and 0.1% Rank 5. 

Split among 10,000-ish players, each person gout about 10,000% points of experience! Even if one was Rank 2, level 50, and had 50 levels to cross to reach Rank 2, level 100, they needed only 5,000% experience to cross the distance. 

For many, they were new to Rank 2, so this was enough to send them all the way up. Even the extra they had could be used to push them forward within Rank 3, though not likely knowing how cruel the AI was. 

Of course, this was the best time to have growth items, so many within the guild crazily redeemed any growth items on sale and placed the excess experience into them, raising their grades. 

After all, it was better to use it for something as utilitarian as this than to have the AI butcher their 'hard-earned' experience when converting up. Draco also used this time to place many of the growth items he had made with the Grandmaster menu on sale for cheap. 

When it came to strengthening the players of Umbra, Draco was not stingy with them. The way he pampered them, one might think he was their ancestor and not their Guildmaster! 

How great would it be to transmigrate into this world and be a member of Umbra? Life would be so simple and easy. 

After that, Draco and Eva did not rush to Rank Up just yet. They hadn't been at Rank 2 for long, and they needed to spend some time at that Rank for their bloodline to adapt before attempting the Ascension Ceremony once more. 

Since Draco had given Sublime three months to stabilize Vita Kingdom - which could also be used to stabilize the sea route - they would wait till the end. The duo decided to go into seclusion during this period of time to lower suspicion on themselves. 

Draco decided to work on his Refinement. As for Dungeon Creation and Skill Fusion, they could be worked on later. Refinement was far more important, beneficial, and interesting compared to them. 

Luckily, the guild had just restocked on countless items, so Draco had endless things to use as research material. Obviously, he began with the most valuable of them, first inspecting their elements deeply and then committing them to memory. 

After that, he would attempt to make one and see how successful he was, then put it aside and analyze a different material. Right now, more than trying to increase his proficiency in transmuting things, he was more interested in increasing his knowledgebase about as many materials and items as he could. 

After all, once he memorized them, he could make them at any time as long as there was enough energy around. He only created a test sample to see if he had gotten things right, as well as gauge how much energy each of them required. 

As for Eva, she worked with Sanji to increase her various departments under the Intelligence Tradeskill, greatly expanding it. She had already used the Tradeskill altar that had come with the 99 villages to extract her less desirable Tradeskills and had fed their experience to Intelligence. 

Now, the Tradeskill had hit the Elite Rank and her utility with it had expanded, she could also hire helpers using the system to assist Sanji, at the cost of Aether Crystals of course. 

But with the White-Haired Duo's current wealth, such costs were nothing but a pittance. The way Eva paid, it was as if the AI was some poor beggar who needed this blessing, leaving the robot speechless. 

As the duo went into work mode, so too did Umbra buzz with activity as various things occurred. Just like that, 3 months passed.