93 Chapter 83

This chapter is dedicated to readers [wisecat], [yulric564], [KidSage], [EnergyDao], for sending gifts to this novel.

Thank you very much, readers [wisecat], [yulric564], [KidSage], [EnergyDao]

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The current atmosphere of the living was very tense. Everyone had a serious expression on their faces. Everyone was looking at the man whose facial expression was constantly changing.

Adam was in deep thought. No one dared to interrupt him knowing that he was currently in the process of making a very important decision. Depending on his decision, the fate of millions will change.

At this moment, Adam was holding the lives of countless people. A single wrong decision from his side could get countless people killed.

In this situation, Aditya’s mind also couldn’t think of any useful solution. Adam’s choice was greatly limited. He had only two options, the first option will be to fight with everything he has. The second option will be to flee which he cannot do either.

The main problem was that neither Adam nor anyone had any idea of the number of monsters that they are going to face. If he had even a rough estimation of the number of monsters that were going to come out of the dungeon, then maybe he could have done something to prepare.

10 minutes quietly passed. Those 10 minutes felt like an eternity. Everyone was tense and very worried. After about 10 minutes of silence, Adam sighed as he looked down.

Sigh!

“I think from the beginning our options were limited to only one and that is to fight. Abandoning the place that I called home is not an option. I would rather die than live to see that happen. I will protect my territory with everything I have got.”

After a short pause, Adam glanced at Aditya, Eddie, and Tobias and continued. “That being said, I don’t think you all need to fight. If a dungeon does appear and when the situation reaches the most critical, I want all of you to retreat and flee from this city.”

“There is no way I am doing that.” Eddie was the first one to reject. Eddie thought of Adam as his big brother. This family, this castle, this city, and this land was the place that he swore to protect. There was no way he would just flee. He would rather die on the battlefield. Rather than living a life of cowardness, Eddie would die as a warrior.

“Master, you must have lost your mind. We have followed you everywhere. We won’t betray you. Besides this old man has lived long enough. I believe a battlefield would be the perfect place for this old man to die. Hahaha!” No one was in the mood to laugh with old man Tobias.

Aditya simply remained quiet. He was willing to give his everything in this fight but he was not ready to die here. Aditya still had a Kingdom. Ha still had to look after millions of people. If the King himself suddenly disappeared what would happen to the Kingdom? To make matters worse, he did not even have a successor yet. Besides knowing Julia, Sophie, and Zak’s personalities, they would never leave Adam here.

Adam focused in attention on Aditya. “Aditya, please promise me this. If things start to get out of hand, you will take Julia, Zak, and Sophie with you and go back to the Eastern region of the continent.”

Aditya took a deep breath and seriously nodded his head. “I promise. I will use my own life to keep them safe.” After all, Aditya had become a part of the family. Even if Adam didn’t ask him, he still would have taken Julia, Zak, and Sophie with him to the Istarin Kingdom.

“That’s good to know.” Adam weakly smiled and then looked down. At first, Adam did not like Aditya at all. Which father would want to marry his daughter to a drunk, poor, useless, and untalented man? Adam has even asked Julia hundreds of times to return. But she refused and continued staying with Aditya.

But his recent change and the things he has done with his Kingdom changed his opinion of Aditya. Adam knew that Aditya was an even better leader than he was. Unlike Adam who had everything when he became the Duke, Aditya build the Istarin Kingdom. Even if things go wrong, if Aditya takes his family with him, Adam can die in peace knowing that nothing can happen to the Istarin kingdom and his family can live a peaceful life.

Aditya hesitated for a moment before asking. “Uncle, why don’t you ask for reinforcement from the King himself?”

Hearing Aditya’s question, a bitter smile appeared on Adam, Eddie, and Tobias’s faces. “It will at least take a week for the army to arrive. I don’t think we have this much time. In case you’re wondering why not just use the teleportation array, there is a limit to how many people the teleportation array can teleport in a single day not to mention the huge cost.”

The Empire of Echo Dominion was almost 3 to 4 times larger than the current Istarin Kingdom. The Onard noble house contributed around 15% of the Empire’s total military powers which made Adam the strongest Duke in the Empire of Echo Dominion. The King had control over 50% of the military powers. The house of Campbell contributed around 10% of military strength. The rest 25% of military power was contributed by all other nobles.

When Adam succeeded his father and became the Duke, the military power of the Onard family sharply increased. The Onard family and the Campbell family are the two oldest families of the Echo Dominion Empire. Even if the King wanted to, he wouldn’t able to take all the powers these two houses held.

For generations, there seems to be some sort of rivalry between the house of Onard and the house of Campbell. Before Adam’s father became the Duke, the Campbell house had the most military power after the King. But heaven seems to be favoring the Onard house. With Julia’s birth, the status of the two houses completely changed.

Of course, the Campbell noble household was greatly tempted. Their desire to bring the goddess of alchemy to their family only increased. After Julia started showing her talents, the house of Campbell tried to get close to Adam and his family in many ways. But Adam and Sophie clearly saw through their intention and purposely kept a certain distance from them.

Over the years, the Head of the Campbell household also the person who was the current Duke pushed Lucian toward Julia even though he was above 50+ years old. At first, Lucian only pursued Julia because of her talent but later when he first saw her, his heart was instantly captured by her angelic beauty.

Sigh!

“Anyway, I already have sent a letter to his Majesty explaining our current situation. Reinforcement should start coming in a few hours.” After getting Adam’s letter, the King personally sent an order to all the nobles in the Empire to send troops to help Adam. If the Onard family fails to stop the monster outbreak, the entire Empire will suffer great losses. In severe cases, the Empire might even collapse.

Knowing the seriousness of the situation, every noble regardless of whether they liked the Onard family or not had to send their army to Apogale city. Even though the teleportation arrays had a limit, the King had allowed all the nobles to use the teleportation arrays in this dire situation for free. However, the teleportation arrays can only be used to teleport troops.

“I also have recalled our troops. They should be here in 5 to 6 hours.” The Onard family had around 300,000 first-order soldiers, 50,000 second-order soldiers, and 11 third-order captains. Each captain had around 30,000 soldiers under their command. Including Adam and Eddie, the Onard family had 4 fourth-order cultivators.

This huge number should be more than enough to crush a 4-tier Kingdom or a powerhouse in a few hours. Comparing the Istarin Kingdom or the Kingdom of Nyland to the Onard house military power is like comparing an adult man with a 5 years old boy. The difference was too huge. Forget about 350,000 troops, just the 11 third-order cultivators would be enough to crush the Kingdom of Nyland.

With a bit more discussion, the meeting finally ended. Aditya and Tobias returned to their training room. Tobias continued to guide Aditya. Aditya noticed a trace of urgency in Tobias. It was probably because Tobias wanted to teach as much as he can to Aditya before time run out.

“Grandpa, there is no need to hurry.” Even Aditya wasn’t able to keep up.

“You don’t understand. Among all the students I had, you’re the most talented one. If in case I die in this fight, I at least want my knowledge to be passed down. You’re the perfect person for that. I don’t know when the mana vortex will stop, I want to use every single second to teach you so that you can learn to make 3-star rune spells as soon as possible.” Compared to normal times, the old vampire Tobias looked very serious. His voice left Aditya with no room for further discussion.

The more time the mana vortex takes, the more mana will continue to suck. The more mana it sucks, the more stronger the Dungeon or the Labyrinth will be. If in case of lady lucky decided to favor them with a World treasure, then all the mana will be used to create a super powerful World treasure.

But according to old man Tobias, the chances of a World Treasure appearing is very low. Most of the time the Mana vortex gave birth to the dungeon. When the dungeon is born a colossal number of monsters will break out and attack any living being in their sight.

Meanwhile, Sophie looked a little dazed and sad as she made dinner. She no longer had that cheerful Aura around her. Zak sensed the change in her mother. Even though the little boy couldn’t understand what was happening, he still looked very worried about his mother.

“Big sister, what happened to mother and father? They did not even come to pick me up from school.” Either Sophie or Adam always made sure to drop off and pick up Zak from his school. But today it was Julia who went to pick up Zak. The boy was happy that his big sister came to pick him up but deep down he also wondered why didn’t his father come to pick him up.

Sigh!

“Zak, mom, and Dad, both are currently busy. A big monster is trying to make a nest in our city so dad and mom are planning to drive out that monster. By the way, why don’t I help you with your homework?” Julia had succeeded in diverting little Zak’s attention.

With the appearance of the mana vortex, for the first time, Julia did not feel like practicing her alchemy skills. Instead, she wished to spend time with her family. When the news of the Mana vortex was revealed all the cultivators who previously were standing in line to see the Goddess, also quickly left. So cultivators hurriedly left the Empire while some prepared to defend their homeland.

The dining table was gloomy. Unlike normal times no one wanted to say anything. No one had the appetite to have food. If not for little Zak, no one would have even bothered to have any food in the first place.

After Dinner, Sophie and Julia went to Zak’s room while Adam was busy preparing for the monster outbreak. Unlike other times when Tobias only taught Aditya for 6 to 7 hours, today Tobias did not stop even after Aditya had dinner. Fortunately, Tobias had prepared notes that he was going to use to teach his students. Aditya was able to use those notes to further quicken his learning speed.

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