Elfie was still in shock at how her new master just call her name. She hadn't had the chance to introduce herself, but Tom already knew her name.
Magic was strange with all kinds of abilities. Knowing someone's name might not seem much, but the situation this time was different. Elfie was a low Diamond Rank magician, so she had spells protecting her at all times. This included protection from someone to peer through her.
Magician could curse someone just by knowing their true name. Which was why the fact that Tom could find out about her true name was very terrifying.
Tom already knew about the existence of curse magic. He just did not want to learn about it, because it wasn't very effective at killing. At best, it could annoy someone and they needed to buy expensive potions, but that was it.
He wanted abilities that could make his enemies explode with a single attack. Something fatal and deadly, making anyone that witness it trembling in fear.
That was the the type of skills and ability he wanted. Curse magic was for cowards.
"I already like what I see," Tom said. "You don't have to give me a tour."
"Ehh… but."
"And you are also released from your position as the head maid. In fact, I want every maids and gardener here to stop working because my golems will replace them all. I feel much safer with the golems around, so I hope you can understand. Besides, my father strictly wanted me to use the golems as protection, and he will not rest will until I do."
"I… I understand. If that is what Sir Tom wanted, then I have to comply."
Elfie immediately bowed and left, calling out for all the maids and gardeners, ten thousand workers in total, and told them to go home.
After making sure everyone was leaving, Tom said: "Corduul."
The space beside him warped and Corduul's steel feet stepped into the living room.
"Yes, master?"
"There are espionage contraption all over this place. Do you have any technology that can prevent them from hearing us?"
"We can use sound wave barrier, and voice change A.I. That will solve our problem."
"Do that. And also, contact the school administration. Do whatever it takes for me to bring ten thousand golem into this mansion."
"That might be hard to achieve, master."
"Tell Ruhnan Noku to take care of it."
Corduul was silent at first before he nodded in agreement.
Ruhnan Noku was a fantastic diplomat. Not only he manage to make lots of great deals for Aldred, but he also created a wide network of useful personnel that would further help in their information gathering mission.
He was a master communicator. People drop their guards after talking with him for 5 minutes, and his charm was so great that even females Diamond Rank magicians showed some interest in him.
That was an extremely rare case, because most female always wanted a partner that was stronger than them.
The comparison was like a mortal peasant charming a goddess of heaven.
And he did all of this simply with his body language and verbal skill.
Ruhnan had now became one of Aldred's essential subordinate, and every diplomatic matters were dumped to him of which he gladly accepted them all.
With his skill, allowing Tom to bring in 10,000 golem might be tough work, but should be manageable.
"I have a proposal to make, master," Corduul spoke.
"What is it?"
"The Phantom Doomblade. The Mechanicum has gathered enough data about magical weaponry of this world. With Dobbs' skill, we can further improve the capabilities of your weapon."
Tom considered that option. Dobbs was a blacksmith with innate divine skill in forging and creating weapon, so leaving the Phantom Doomblade with him for a while should not be a problem.
"What are you planning to add?" Tom asked.
"We proposed to add long-range capabilities to your weapon."
"Like laser beam?"
"Or projectile release mechanism. We detected that the energy within your sword could materialized into a powerful object which then could be released at high velocity."
"Hmmm, my blade can already turn into a bow though."
"Adding more forms to your weapon might also add an element of surprise, master."
"Hmmm, compared to a bow, guns looked a lot cooler. What will the shape look like?"
"However you like, master."
"Giant pistol?"
"That can be done. Besides, your blade could shape shift to any form it liked. The tech priest will only install our technology around it."
"I still don't see the significant benefit."
"Your blade has the power to absorb soul when it came into contact with the enemy. This is not true when you are using it in its bow form."
"You are saying that I can absorb the soul of my enemy with long-range attack?"
"Indeed, the blade with imbued a tiny part of itself to every projectile, but it will not affect the blade in anyway since it could self-repair immediately. But the small part of the blade would increase the damage of the projectile by many-fold. In our calculation, even a mid-Diamond Rank would be terribly wounded by a single projectile if they do not use their protective spell."
"That's quite powerful…"
Tom looked at Corduul. "But why are you so excited to be working on my weapon?"
"The Mechanicum strive for advancement, master. Any possibilities of creating stronger activate a cell in our brain to excite and stimulate us. This let us work harder and more ambitious."
"Wait, so you manipulate your own brain to be more ambitious?"
"Precisely."
Tom laughed. "That is so smart. Imagine you remove laziness in every human. How far would they go?"
Working and inventing on every waking hour, how far technology could advance with that kind of civilization?
"It still needs to be balanced. Removing laziness completely is very dangerous as it affect other emotions as well. After some time of removing laziness, the brain would forget the meaning of diligence."
"That makes sense. Without knowing what is light, one cannot know what is darkness. Without knowing pain, one cannot know the meaning of pleasure."
And this could be taken very literally. As Corduul said, the brain will forget one emotion if its opposite was completely removed.
"Alright, I agree." Tom summoned his Phantom Doomblade. "Take it."
Corduul reached out with both hands and carefully grabbed the blade.
After taking the blade, Corduul warped the space in front of him and created a portal before leaving the mansion.
Tom was left alone with a bunch of maids that he brought from home.
"Well, since we just arrive why don't we have some fun in the bedroom."
The maids looked at each other and smiled before they followed Tom into the bedroom.
…
Duke Hushum, the Duke of Wihuland, one of the strongest, influential, and wealthiest noble in the Kingdom of Withokere, sat on his balcony overlooking the sky where a gigantic metallic ship floated above his city, Thaxted.
"CS-Armageddon-57. What a weird-sounding name. It's like it isn't from this world. But… a ship like this has never been seen before."
A ship that can fly wasn't new. But unlike warships that was put on the sea, flying warships were smaller and weaker, but they consumed tremendous amount of resources for every minute of flying.
The flying warship that Aldred gave however, could fly all year round non-stop. It did not need any manpower to run, and he could tell the ship to do whatever he wanted with a simple voice command.
For a few weeks now, Duke Hushum had told the ship to fly around the kingdom and stayed a couple of days above his city. He even destroyed a bunch of mountains with it.
In fact, he even collected thousands of magical beast using this ship. And he did all of this while relaxing on his balcony.
"Those nobles must be so envious of me." Duke Hushum laughed.
The Duke looked to the side, his eyes flashed with magic power, and his vision zoomed in 300KM away.
On a vast grassland, tens of thousands of golems were creating roads. On the side, more golems were installing iron bars that Aldred called rail tracks.
He said it would make transportation of goods much faster. Aldred's territory was quite far from Duke Hushum's territory.
And so, they passed by many fief, but with the Duke's name, they easily agreed to let Aldred installing these roads.
Besides, everyone will also be benefited from this road. More roads equal more opportunities to sell which equal more wealth, and more tax.
Things were going well.
Knock! Knock!
The sound of knocking door came from behind.
Not bothering to look back, Duke Hushum ordered: "Come in."
The door creaked open, and the sound of metal boots thudding against the ground approached.
The guard stopped beside the Duke and then knelt. "My lord, Tom, the son of Aldred, has arrived in his dorm."
Duke Hushum laughed. "Well, I should visit him then."
