Chapter 503 Spies

There was no need for Nial to spend a lot more time with the only government official who stayed awake.

He used Dominion a little on the awake official and the two sleeping officials before he allowed all of them to leave.

If not for the entrance of the bulky guard, Nial would have done a little bit more but he still wished the bulky man to join his Onyx Association.

The three dogs of a guard were returned to their old mentality. They didn't dare to look into Nial's direction again and they rushed out of the building and his territory once they got hold of the sleeping government official.

With their exit, Nial retrieved a little bit of his freedom. He sighed deeply nonetheless.

'Looks like the influence of the Linaton is quite strong. Just how many officials of the government were corrupted?'

'...I will probably find out soon enough…'

With that in mind, Nial turned his attention away from the government officials and the Linaton. He started to focus on the creation of powerful Runic Armaments and two weeks passed in the blink of an eye.

The bulky guard chose to join the Onyx Association, which satisfied Nial quite a bit. He gave him a neutral mana breathing technique, some resources, and two Tier-2 Runic Armaments of his choice. Neither of the things he handed out was extremely valuable for Nial, but that didn't mean others thought of it in the same way as him.

The bulky guard was overjoyed, even if he looked at the mana breathing technique in suspicion. Nial didn't understand why the former guard was eyeing the technique warily. Only when the guard told him what was on his mind did Nial fathom what the guard thought.

It was a misunderstanding created by the Victims of the Linaton race's Soul Contract scheme. They made several posts about the Linaton race's schemes, warning fellow humans about everything, which included never using a mana breathing technique, no matter how much you trusted the person who handed you the technique.

Nial explained to the guard that the mana breathing technique used by the Linaton race was different and that they altered it to trick humans. To make sure that the guard had no need to doubt him, Nial practiced the mana breathing technique in front of him for an hour.

'If I can use the technique, you shouldn't have the need to be scared about any after-effects!'

That was what Nial's action seemed to scream. The former guard was relieved after the live demonstration and he began practicing it.

It was also the first time for Nial to hear about the posts, which was why he told Melheim to hire someone to spread the truth in the comment section of the posts. Nial also added that he wanted the comments to be sent by an anonymous name, which was why many might not believe the truth but that was something he didn't really have to worry about.

Others could decide whether they wanted to believe the truth or not.

Two weeks had passed since the visit of the three government officials and it was oddly silent. Not too many people came to Nial's lands with the thought of causing trouble.

All of them were easily repelled, or if Nial encountered them, they had to face the consequences of annoying him. Nial used Dominion on them without any qualms, turning the tables by interrogating the people who had come to create trouble.

Most of them were higher authorities of organizations, or they had some connection to the government, somehow. Nial made them reveal all their secrets, recorded all of it, and he sent them back with a copy of the recordings.

Through his acts he instilled fear in the minds of everybody including the higher authorities of government and other influential organizations. The repercussions that could be caused due to most recordings were also not to be underestimated.

Thus, nobody tried to create trouble a second time. That was beyond stupid and suicidal, after all!

Now that he was left alone to work in peace, Nial finished quite a few runic armaments in two weeks. He didn't eat much and Nial could hardly remember when he last slept but that was not really important anymore. His need for water, food or some sleep decreased the further he advanced his Mana Core. Precisely, the higher the quality and quantity of the mana inside his body, the less mortal needs he had.

Thus even if he stepped out of the artisan hall after two weeks, Nial made lots of money. It would be more than enough to maintain the expenses for both the Orion Artisan Guild and the Onyx Association for a year or two.

That excluded the expenses and salaries of most Instructors but the Elves were rather cheap. They instructed the members of his Association and Guild because they desired something from Nial. Their curiosity made them less expensive than ordinary Instructors at the same level.

Nial was not too worried about the Instructors and he returned to his father while making sure that he was kept up to date with the latest news when he was focused on his work as Runicier.

'Things are a lot easier than expected…but also quite complicated, ain't it?' Nial wondered when he read the reports that had been further summarized by Melheim Zorn.

The reports included information provided by the three government officials whose minds he had permanently altered. They had become his spies, whether they wanted or not!

It was only obvious, but the Masked Shadows didn't reappear again. Two weeks had passed and it would be a lie if one were to say that there hadn't been any trouble in the ten human shelters but the Masked Shadows never appeared again.

But that was only obvious because some of the trouble that happened when Nial was in the artisan hall had been caused by the government itself.

Rather than apologizing to the civilians for what they had done to their fellow brethren, the government chose to use a completely different tactic.

They did not only not apologize but also started to imprison those who were actively seeking justice for the victims. The government should take responsibility for the traumatic events their people had to go through, just because the government had been too afraid to offend one of their trusted 'partners'.

Nial could tell that the situation between the government and the civilians was getting tenser and that a civil war was unlikely to be avoided.

The only problem in that regard was that not every human was equally strong, or similarly strong. A single Prometheus ranked Original could obliterate hundreds of Mirae Originals and countless unawakened Originals.

It was not possible for the civilians to fight the government head-on…and that was something the government was fully aware of. Nial was pretty sure that this factor was one of the most important when it came to the actions the government took.

While they were too afraid to offend the Linaton race for a few thousand newly awakened Originals, they had no problem using their imposing power to overwhelm unawakened civilians!

No matter how Nial thought about it, the government was ridiculous and not capable of leading more than a billion humans. He was pretty sure that they would sacrifice tens of thousands of humans, if not more, as long as it would allow them to save their necks.

That was also why Nial kept reading the reports, including what his lovely spies had written down.

'So that's what they think?'