Since Darius had already provided an answer this powerful, the entire meeting became moot as it was ended in a rush. The various persons there got to know what he was planning and what their next steps were directly from him, so it was time to get to work.
Darius checked his Quests tab and saw that he had a mission to increase Safemoon's value by 10%. It may sound simple, but it was quite tough, given that Safemoon already shipped out some of the best goods. The only way to do so would be to expand their consumerbase or introduce a new product that drove the world mad.
In fact, Darius was currently planning to do both. By conquering Fallon, he could expand his consumerbase without hindrance and he would soon add more precious materials to the sales, in order to raise Safemoon's value so it can expand quickly.
To do that, he would need more 'citizens'. Since he could create his own that were truly loyal, Darius had already informed the top echelon during the meeting that they were to stop taking applications from citizenship and those already given were to be monitored heavily.
Either they would conform or they would feel uncomfortable enough to leave. Darius didn't care what price they had paid to come here, but such fellows were like thorns in his eyes when he could create his own loyal citizens.
He couldn't outright remove them, but they would be gotten rid of slowly or cultivated into loyalists like the 'citizens' he was about to make. He returned to his lab in the mage tower and sighed.
First things first, he called Luna forward. His newest Branded Servant was demure but restless, ready to prove herself to her master, just as Gunner and Xela had been when they first joined.
After she spent some time with them, such pressure would reduce as she would recognize that she was among family.
"Luna. You are newly minted and have yet gained a single experience point to your name. Your current task is to learn the following skillbooks which would form the core of your power going forward." Darius instructed as he handed the Moon Elf three skillbooks.
Luna immediately inspected them out of curiosity.
[Void Walking - Level 1 Skill
Grade: Intermediate
Cost: 3 MP per second
Description: This is the trademark skill of the Void Beast Clan of Unyris. It is a skill that can only be learned by one with the ability to connect with space on a fundamental level and allowed a person to create a void within their own body where they may fight from. At level 1, the size of the void is only 5 square meters. ]
[Void Transfer - Level 1 Skill
Grade: Intermediate
Cost: 20 MP
Description: This is a spell that allows the user to create a portal in two places within 10 meters of their body. These portals are invisible to the naked eye, and are the size of a hand. At level 1, it only remains active for 3 seconds.]
[Eyes of Death - Level 1 Skill
Grade: Basic
Cost: None
Description: The trademark skill of the moonslaughter vampire clan, the Eyes of Death allow one to see the weak points in a target's body and strike for them. They are also able to see through mild illusions and trace movements and tracks to a small degree.]
Luna looked up at Darius questioningly. These set of skills with the knowledge he had imbued her seemed to lead her down towards the path of-
"That's right. Henceforth, you will be my shadow, the one I task to kill my enemies without being seen, heard, or felt. You are to become the best assassin this world will ever know, and the best thief it would ever remember." Darius stated grandly.
Luna's heart trembled as she bowed once more. "I will obey your maxim dearly, master."
Darius nodded with satisfaction. "Good. Learn those tomes and practice with them. We no longer need skill points to grow strictly, so spend the next month or so practicing. After that, your next assignment will be ready."
Luna acknowledged the order and left, leaving Darius to start his work turning huge slabs of stone cut from the area into human bodies without souls.
When born, a drop of Soul-Nourishing Lunar Dew would be injected into the brain of the subject, and Darius always found it a visual miracle to see how light came into the eyes of these soulless subjects.
Each one would then be moved to a separate lab where they would enter a virtual reality pod for training and education. The time dilation was intense in there, 100 years of intense training done within the span of a month.
Darius and Miranda went into overdrive during this time. Darius continually used Flesh to Stone and Bones to Stone while Miranda got her factor assembly working to make new pods by the hour.
After one week, Gunner returned with Celia Lovu, but did not disturb Darius as he could tell from his Supreme System interface that Darius was in intense focus. It didn't matter anyway, as Gunner practically had the same authority as Darius when Darius was not around, so he was able to integrate Celia into the core section.
Knowing that she was with child for Gunner, many faces changed as they realized that despite being new, her status was somewhat higher than theirs, so she was treated with respect.
It didn't matter to Celia much because she was a gentle soul who loved nature, which was why she was enraptured with Gunner who looked like the son of nature in her eyes.
She had been greatly saddened originally when she thought that she might never see Gunner again after their tryst, but knowing that she was pregnant for him filled her with some strange childish joy.
She kept giggling to herself all the time, thinking about how she would surprise Gunner and how he would tease him. She was naturally shocked when Guinean himself came to find her and take her away.
When her superiors heard of what he was doing, they were furious, wishing to beat him down. However, Gunner simply fired one Eraser Cannon at a nearby mountain, and the entire city could only watch with horror as it was turned to rubble in an instant.
Immediately, Gunner was received as a top-level guest deserving of high praise. Celia no longer became a traitor who was eloping, but a proud Princess who was marrying into another territory's lord.
Gunner disdained such actions, but could not do anything otherwise as Celia was an orphan raised by her kingdom to become a Master through heavy investment and training.
For the purposes of their engagement to come, he had to tolerate them as they represented her guardians. When they found out that Gunner was a family member to the ruler of Safemoon, the Emperor of that empire had almost fallen off his throne.
If his demeanor could be even more respectful, it was just that. He almost kicked out his own princes there and then to give the crown to Gunner, but he naturally refused.
Why would he bind himself to some shitty empire that had no real future?
The reason why he had even spent a whole week away was because of the various ceremonies he had to go through to formally engage himself to Celia. Gunner was lucky Darius was not one for events, otherwise, he would have had to repeat more of that nonsense in Safemoon too!
After 2 weeks, Xela also returned. She had gone back to Pokterr to chat with Pyrrha and reassure the Goddess that her choice was right. She also received permission from Darius earlier to let Pyrrha know the whole truth, so when she discovered the puny nature of her existence, she wept.
Not because she had a crisis, but because the last justification in her heart for the God's actions was forcefully crushed. They were simply evil brutes who had tortured mortals that they didn't even create, making them monsters she hated the most.
It was not a stretch to say that she was now more invested in Darius' campaign than before. However, her part to play was to feed information to them from the other side, reducing the number of needless deaths as Elysium would 100% send their mortals to die.
This fact pissed Pyrrha off even more as negative emotions slowly grew within her towards her own kin. If it was their war, why didn't they get down to fight it themselves?
Why lie to the mortals and use them as cannon fodder? To what end?
With this in mind, Darius gave Pyrrha and A-okay to be released. His job was done and recalled Xela who was feeling heavy at heart. She wasn't exactly wrong in what she was doing, but it would be hard to call it right as well.
The difference was that Xela accepted the true nature of the world and what she had to do, despite being a kind and benevolent person.
