Chapter 28

“Damn it! Claude Preston, how dare you!” The old mage inside the cave cursed loudly. The connection he has over a wolf under his command that he used to spy on the mountain’s condition was cut off since the wolf itself have died

The last scene he had seen was the scene of hellfire burning and killing thousands of magic beasts at once

There were still many magic beasts in the mountain but what does it matter? Claude and his damned subordinates can just take a rest and repeat this tactic a few times

The wolves under the old mage’s control along with the subordinates of the 6th fusion rank grey wolf might be more than a hundred thousand when combined but so what? He can only use a small part of them to disturb the other magic beasts!

Besides, there were only five grey wolves at the 5th fusion rank and tens of 4th fusion rank

There were many 3rd fusion and below but even if he used all of them, Claude might just slaughter them

Even if the old mage sends the 4th and 5th fusion rank beasts the result might still be the same because of the monstrous power of that Claude!

Things might be different if the old mage and his 6th fusion rank wolf personally made a move but that would almost be akin to suicide!

If such a threat were to show itself, no doubt that the military or even the Magic Academies will send their experts!

It was fine if the threat were only some low-level beasts but once beings of high levels appeared, the military would treat the matter with more seriousness

“Claude Preston… that damned bastard… how did he even get this idea?”

The old mage clenched his fist. The thing he knows about Claude all depends on the man’s reputation

Only now that he is facing him did he realize that Claude is indeed not ordinary

Not only was his talent and personal power monstrous, even his mind is extremely sharp!

The old mage thought that it was Claude that created the plan of using beast-luring powder when in ‘reality’ it was Rezen, an unknown little mage

“This wouldn’t do… the plan will fail if this goes on…” he muttered as he bit his fingernails

After a moment of thinking, the mage took out a phone to call a certain someone

“You know that we shouldn’t contact each other frequently, right? Make sure that you have a good reason for calling”

“I do! You have to help me. That Claude Preston is ruining the plan! Take him back and assign other soldiers to spearhead the operation!”

“I don’t know what Claude did but I can’t do what you want”

“Why not?! With your position, how can you not pull back a mere Captain?! You can just pull the strings from behind!”

“A mere Captain? Are you stupid? You know his background”

“He’s just an illegitimate bastard!”

“Just? You really are getting old! If he’s an ordinary illegitimate bastard then fine. But he is not! He is the most talented mage in the Preston Family! Even the higher-ups are partial to him because of his monstrous talent!”

“I don’t care! You have to pull him back, he’s going to ruin the experiment! Do you think any of us can afford that?!”

“Shut up! Have you forgotten the difference in our status?! How dare you speak like that to your superior?!”

“What? Do you think that I am the only one that would be punished if the experiment failed? What’s the use of infiltrating the military if we can’t even use your authority?”

“Fuck you! I will see what I could do but for now, lie low and pause the experiment! If I act in the way that you want, I would blow my cover!”

The call ended with that and the old mage heaved a sigh in relief

There is a setback in the plan and it has to be put on hold but he at least didn’t fail

If the plan was a hundred percent failure, his superiors would think that he was just being incompetent and they would most likely feed him to magic beasts

Just thinking about it made the mage shudder in fear

———

After dealing with the magic beasts, it is now time for the cleanup and Rezen hurriedly approached Claude

“Brother! Can I take these corpses?” Rezen asks anxiously

With Claude’s personality, he might just donate all of these corpses to the military and have the resources be given to the newbies

“You can take as many corpses as you want. And oh, have you thought of the reward that you want to receive?”

For Claude, he couldn’t easily deal with all these magic beasts if not for the brilliant plan that Rezen has ‘created’. This made him feel greatly indebted to him

At first, Rezen wanted to feign humility but in the end, he is still a man of greed. If he were to try and refuse, who knows if Claude would think of him as a pure good samaritan and not insist on the reward?

Rezen’s heart would further shatter if he can’t receive the reward especially after Claude killed that many magic beasts that didn’t even leave a corpse

“Brother, I actually have a habit of planting. Can you get seeds of spirit plants for me? Anything is fine as long as they help a mage in their cultivation!” Rezen replied

When he found out that he can also use normal seeds to plant, Rezen didn’t have the time to search and buy spirit plant seeds as he was busy with various things

With Claude’s connection, it should be easy for him to get Rezen some rare seeds, right?

“Just seeds?” Claude asks as if he felt that what Rezen was asking is too little

“Yup? Why are you looking at me as if I was just asking for candies? They are supposed to be expensive, right?”

Hearing that, Claude realizes something. Rezen is just a young man that is ‘fortunate’ to have a fortuitous encounter!

He naturally doesn’t know many things that only people with high social standing know!

“Rezen, you might not know this but spirit plant seeds aren’t actually supposed to be that expensive, especially the common spirit plants like your vismian grass and soul-tearing peas. We have an abundant supply of them that we might as well really do treat them as candies”

“There are too few people and groups that can successfully grow spirit plants in a ‘normal’ way… since there are few demands on the seeds, they should be cheap products but of course, that is aside from the really rare seeds”

“It was those black-hearted corporations that made the prices of the seeds expensive to trick people. If it’s seeds that you wanted, I could give you as much as you want but I don’t think that is enough of a reward for your contribution”

Rezen felt like he was a frog living at the bottom of the well. To think that there was actually such a thing!

But thinking of it now, this situation was not that strange. Even in the ‘original’ earth that he previously lived in, giant companies do the same thing

Just look at the few companies producing insulin. Their mark-up is just insane!

Claude speaking like this made Rezen feel that this soldier is really kind! A man of character!

He might be the most trustworthy person that Rezen has ever met!

“Brother, you can give me as many seeds as you can. It would be better if this could be a regular thing but of course, I promise to pay for the seeds with spirit plants!”

Although using seeds that are not bought from the system would take double the amount of time for them to grow, it would still be more profitable

Besides, who knows when Rezen’s back would break if every four hours or so he has to harvest his crops then dig holes again to plant seeds and repeat the process constantly

At least, by using seeds, Rezen’s back has more time to rest!

“Alright, alright, I believe you” Claude nodded in affirmation but Rezen still thinks that Claude does not understand him

Claude might be thinking of just sending thousands of seeds to Rezen from time to time but that is far from enough!

Rezen cannot possibly constantly slaughter magic beasts for blessing points and lottery tickets. He would have to ‘recharge’ using mana stones

But since there were miscellaneous rewards, he would need tons of mana stones

To secure mana stones, Rezen would have to expand his business!

“Brother, I’m serious. In fact, even hundreds of thousands of seeds are not enough. That’s why I need a constant supply and I definitely wouldn’t take them for free! I will pay using spirit plants!” Rezen spoke so seriously that Claude has no choice but to believe him

“Alright, I understand. If it’s you, I’m willing to pull some strings behind” Claude agreed, and only then did Rezen feel relieved

“Then brother, I will go and take the corpses now!” Rezen said both excited and impatient and Claude can only shake his head before he received a call on his phone and he saw that it was the General

Thinking that this is an emergency, Claude hurriedly accepted the call

“General” Claude greeted but the voice at the other end of the call sounds cold

“Is the reports true? Did you use beast-luring powder in your plan?”

“Yes, General, why?”

“Why would you do that?! Not only did you endanger your subordinates but also the Greenwood City!”

“General, I made sure that the place of operation is far from the foot of the mountain!”

“And you think that because you did that everything is fine?! Do you really think that there is zero chance that no magic beasts would attack the residential areas or even the Greenwood City itself?!”

“The powder we used is only enough to attract the low-level magic beasts, General!”

“That doesn’t change the fact that you enacted a risky plan! Besides, do you plan to continue this massacre? Do you want to earn the wrath of the experts of the magic beasts?”

“General, I know the limit. I wouldn’t kill enough to exceed their tolerance”

“Captain Claude, I know that everyone praised and complimented you. In fact, even I, have to admit that you are an amazing person but your thinking is still too naive! On our side, we have moderates and extremists, do you think that the beasts don’t have extremists?”

“But General even the extremists wouldn’t…”

“They are called extremists for a reason! You can’t judge them by normal standards especially since you are a high-level mage slaughtering the low-level ones! I would expedite the sending of a sensory mage and they will come tomorrow. For now, just prevent the beasts from going down the mountain and don’t make any unnecessary moves. Do you understand?”

“Yes, General”

The call ended with a deep frown on Claude’s face. The General’s words sound both logical and not

Indeed, there are extremists in the higher-ups of the magic beasts but even they wouldn’t normally bat an eye even if there were tens of thousands of magic beasts that died from human hands

Even if there is such an extremist, it was far-fetch to say that there would be a war that will happen

Claude can only think that the General also cares for the public although his heart felt suspicious

Besides, Claude is really a high-level mage slaughtering the lower-level ones. Even if there wouldn’t be a war that would occur, there is a chance for an expert from the magic beasts to come and kill him in anger

“Still… why do I feel this disturbed? It’s not like the General’s words were completely illogical… just why am I like this…”