Chapter 215: The King's Call

Since Ashlock was no longer in the Mystic Realm, the cost to use {Dimensional Overlap} was no longer [Free]. If he wanted to try and bring these Mudcloaks back to Red Vine Peak, it would cost him.

"I might have a way to bring these Mudcloaks here so long as them flocking to you due to the crown is true," Ashlock explained to Douglas, and the man seemed surprised. "However, it comes at a cost on my part, so I need you to confirm if these Mudcloaks are worth the price. You said they were well versed in earth Qi techniques, and you were able to communicate with them? Would there be a purpose to bringing them back here?"

Ashlock could always butcher these monsters and turn them into Ents if needed. However, he found the idea of intelligent monsters fascinating as he didn't even know that was possible. He had always assumed monsters were unintelligent beasts that only knew one thing: slaughter, so he had no qualms with feasting on their corpses to fuel his cultivation. But now? He wasn't so sure...

Douglas hesitated, "Patriarch, if I am being honest with ya, I can't give a definite answer as I'd only been their king for like a few hours and was only just starting to understand them when I was pulled back here."

"I see," Ashlock pondered.

"However, I can give you my opinion," Douglas continued, "The Mudcloaks are a weak race of monsters but showcased almost human-like intellect. Within a short time, I was able to teach them a few human words, and they showed some evidence of civilization, such as having a crown like this, and they also lived in a stronghold carved into the rock."

Ashlock listened to Douglas's words intently. It seemed these monsters were sort of like monkeys? Maybe even more intelligent? If that were the case, it could be interesting to try and bring them back here, but the last thing he wanted was these Mudcloaks to be feral and murder someone when he wasn't looking. They were monsters, and the fact they were intelligent monsters made them all the more dangerous.

"What about their hunting methods?" Ashlock asked since Douglas had specified they were a weak race, so they likely didn't use claws or teeth to hunt, "Did they throw rocks or bury their foes alive with earth affinity?"

Douglas stroked his chin, "Mhm, they mostly ate a specific type of moss that grew throughout their stronghold. However, I did watch them attempt to fight the kobolds that were like feral dogs which had invaded their home, and the Mudcloaks actually tried to control golems to fight and, of course, collapsing tunnels and making pits with earthen spikes."

"Golems? Have you ever tried to make them before?" Ashlock asked. To his recollection, he had never seen Douglas walk around with an entourage of golems.

Douglas shrugged, "Not really. I mean, what purpose do they serve? Anything a golem can do, I can do better for less Qi myself. Creating and maintaining a being made entirely from stone and my Qi takes a great toll on my mind and soul."

That was a fair point. Considering how weak the Mudcloaks sounded, golems might be helpful to them. But for Douglas, they were rather useless. However, that brought up a concern... if these Mudcloaks were so weak they could do nothing without golems, what purpose could they serve other than simple labor as golem masters? If that's all they could do, then turning them into Ents and letting Douglas command them directly would remove a lot of headaches from trying to train them.

"Bringing these Mudcloaks back for nothing but labor seems counterintuitive. I would much rather hunt for some earth affinity monsters among that horde Elder Brent encountered and turn them into Ents for you, Douglas." Ashlock said, "Is there anything you can think of that would make bringing the Mudcloaks here worth the cost and risk of sharing our home with monsters?"

"Well... other than the moss, they did have one other thing they loved eating," Douglas shuddered. Earning the interest of everyone else listening in on the conversation.

"What was it?" Elaine asked.

"They seemed to find these giant turtles delicious and would hunt them via a giant cannon that impaled those lumbering beasts with a twenty-meter-tall crystal spear." Douglas explained to Elaine, "I didn't get a chance to actually see the cannon, but I did watch them kill a turtle in one shot that shook the entire mountain, and then they descended upon its corpse like vultures."

Stella patted Douglas on the shoulder, "I love them already."

"Pardon?" Douglas furrowed his brows at Stella.

"You definitely should have led with that," Ashlock chuckled. Obviously, the Mudcloaks could be a potential source of labor for the Ashfallen Sect, with Douglas apparently being their newly crowned king and able to communicate with them, but that wasn't a selling point worth the risk and cost. However, monsters that knew how to build such advanced-sounding weaponry that could impale monsters with a spear of crystal that long? Now, that was something he was very interested in. Some freshly raised Ents would never be capable of anything that advanced, even if ordered.

"So... are we going to try bringing them back?" Douglas asked, breaking Ashlock from his thoughts. "I think they would be a massive help if they assist me with my work. They had decent skills and showed enough intelligence to learn. I could totally train them up." He grumbled, "Not to mention they would be way better than those useless rogue cultivators I hired for the White Stone Pavilions."

That was true. It was weird, but Ashlock would feel safer having weak monsters around than rogue cultivators. There would be far less chance of sensitive info being leaked or betrayals. Humans were greedy creatures.

That was new. When Ashlock had last used {Dimensional Overlap}, there hadn't been any terrain. It had simply been a bubble of spatial Qi. If he looked to the north and south, through the beige hue of the bubble, he could vaguely make out the tips of some trees.

"Try and make a tunnel through it," Ashlock said.

Douglas nodded and put his palm back on the dusty red rock. A moment later, it rippled as if it had turned to a watery clay, and then it easily melted away to form a tunnel, which Douglas then walked through.

Ashlock's vision blurred as he used his roots, still firmly planted in the mountain of Red Vine Peak, to gaze upon the giant bubble of earth Qi from the outside. It was as if a snow globe filled with swamp water had encompassed the entire peak, and through the murkiness of the earth Qi, he could vaguely make out the shadows of the two cliff faces and his towering body dominating the center.

From the shadow of the closest cliff face, Douglas emerged through the murky bubble and glanced around in confusion.

"Don't worry, this is what I expected," Ashlock told Douglas, "Head back inside."

"Oh, alright..." Douglas said to the sky as he took a moment to admire the enormous bubble of earth Qi before tracing his steps and vanishing back into the looming shadow of the cliff.

With him gone, Ashlock took a moment to ponder this discovery. Since {Dimensional Overlap}was supposed to be a combat ability focused on altering the environment to a desired Qi-type to give himself and his allies an advantage, it made sense that terrain could also be brought in.

"So much swirling earth Qi alone would make Douglas a tough opponent to face, but if he also had piles of rock on either side of him to manipulate into golems or to use as projectiles, that would make him even more formidable."

Ashlock now wondered what would happen if he had made the size of the {Dimensional Overlap}even bigger. Would it encompass more of the canyon? Or would the overlap have picked a different location?

"How does the {Dimensional Overlap}skill even choose where to put me? Is there a way I could select to appear in the middle of the Mudcloaks stronghold? Or perhaps in the middle of the Azure Clan's library?" Ashlock hadn't seen any such option in the menu, so it seemed safe to assume it was randomized, or he would always appear in the same place. "I should revisit this pocket realm with {Dimensional Overlap} later and see where it puts me."

Done with his inspection and confirming the skill had functioned like last time despite the added terrain, Ashlock's vision blurred as he returned his sights to inside the bubble. The fact that Douglas's Qi seemed to stop at the boundary of the bubble and could only affect the bit of canyon inside made Ashlock concerned that the crown might not work at all.

"And even if it does work, I'm unsure if the Mudcloaks can see, interact, or enter this bubble. But the fact there's a bit of mountain in here gives me some hope." Ashlock would be rather annoyed if this turned out to be a total waste of credits, but at least he got some new knowledge about one of his S-grade skills.

"Knowing that terrain can appear is essential to my future decision-making regarding the skill. For example, Sol wouldn't benefit much from terrain with his light affinity, so I could go for a cheaper and smaller overlap. In contrast, earth affinity is rather useless without stone lying around."

"Patriarch," Douglas said respectfully, which broke Ashlock out of his musings. "Should I activate the crown and try and call the Mudcloaks here?"

"Yeah, go ahead."

Douglas straightened his back and placed both hands on his brown gemstone walking stick, firmly placed into a notch in the stone at his feet. Brown soul fire swirled around his form as he looked into the distance. A wind rustled his black cloak of minor concealment casually draped from his shoulders, and the crude gemstone crown on his head began to glow with power.

"Mudcloaks," He said with his chest, and his voice thundered out, "Your king calls you."

The crown on his head lit up like a beacon, and Ashlock felt a wave of power roll out and phase through the bubble.

Nothing happened for a while, and Ashlock grew concerned that he had wasted his credits. However, his patience was soon rewarded when a single head poked through the bubble at the top of the cliff. It was a tiny thing with giant glowing eyes resembling blue orbs. A baggy black cloak with a deep hood obscured the rest of its face and body.

"King!" It cackled with a high-pitched voice and pointed at Douglas excitedly with its spindly finger that emerged from the folds of its cloak. Many other Mudcloaks emerged beside it, and more appeared on the eastern cliff face.

Soon, they were being stared down by dozens of Mudcloaks, all pointing at Douglas and shouting, "King!" with excitement. It would seem the Mudcloaks answered their king's call.