"So what will you do now, master?" Corduul asked.
"Take over this city and reinforce it. We are now quite deep in enemy territory. I believe we will face retaliation."
Gruckarth resided in Apseare City. Now that he was gone, the city could be taken over from the inside. But this city was in a dangerous spot. Aldred's main task was to distract the enemy from the sea and let them think that the main forces were coming from land.
Killing two of their strongest generals should be enough to make them think that way, but one escaped already.
'It should be fine. I manage to kill one of their strongest general, so heavily injuring one of them should be enough.'
As Aldred was deep in his thought, a flower petal landed on his nose. Suddenly, his messy thoughts vanished and his sight and mind was only in the presence. He thought about nothing else except for the softness and the beauty of the petal. The wind swept it away. Every strands of hair on his body moved in motion, and Aldred could felt that much more sharply.
After a few seconds, Aldred shook his head. "What was that?"
His thought became so calm and focused all of a sudden earlier. He almost could not think of anything else.
Aldred looked out of the door, staring at the tree in the center of the courtyard. He pushed a sliding door to the side. The room actually looked very similar to traditional Japanese room he used to saw on television.
Outside, the tree stood 15 meters tall with colorful petals. It looked like a sakura tree, but instead of all the petals having the color pink, this one had a varieties of colors.
Aldred activated his godly eyes.
[Tree of Wudan]
Coming from the spirit realm, the Tree of Wudan exuded and invisible energy that could affect the spiritual reality around it. It was known to increase focus and let creatures with consciousness to enter the spiritual realm momentarily at random times.
"What an interesting Tree. It almost has the same effect as that mysterious crystal, but this one can let me enter the spiritual realm as well."
Spiritual realm… Aldred was very curios of it. What would be inside there? Would there be treasures? Weird animals? A completely different universe with its own laws of reality?
Aldred already believed in the theory of reincarnation, transmigration, multiverse, and realms.
The differences between realms and universes was that, realms exist within a universe. In simple terms, it is the sub-reality within that universe. Which mean, that particular realm could only be accessed through that one particular universe.
Should that one particular universe vanished, all the realms inside it will vanish as well. It was like a world in a world, but the two world almost couldn't interact with each other. Some people could enter these realms, gain powers from it, and use it in reality.
Aldred also heard about the existence of infinite realm. Infinite realm was basically a realm that was not bound by any universe, and in fact, any universe could access it.
This spiritual realm might be one of those infinite realm. It might be possible to enter another universe through it.
Aldred was not sure if Earth was located in a different realm or in a different universe.
A universe usually had laws of reality that was applicable in all of its territory. So if Aldred could use magic here, he could probably use magic in another planet or another galaxy of this universe. It also depends if mana exist there. Some continents had stronger mana than others, making the creatures inside it either be weaker or stronger.
Although the universes always seemed to balance itself. The stronger creatures were few, the weak were many. That was always the case.
Even though Aldred had met a lot of powerful figures, those people were actually the top 3% of the population.
It was also very hard for stronger entities to produce an offspring. Normal people could reproduce like rats, but most Diamond Ranks could barely reproduce every few decades.
Even though they were inflicted by such a terrible curse, most Diamond Ranks did not complain since their could had a high chance of having a great talent. If two talented Diamond Rank produced an offspring, there was a chance that their child could have a greater talent than them.
Although that also depends on many factors. Some prodigies written in history were too strong and too talented, that nothing could compare to them.
Aldred had even read about an entity that could cleave an entire continent in half, separating one piece of land into two. Such power was simply amazing.
But of course, if Aldred compare them to his parents, then nothing would have meaning. He had to compare this kind of power from a normal human perspective. What these people could do were simply god-like.
But his parents were literal god-like entity.
"That makes me wonder. Where are they? Why isn't the steering wheel works? Am I not strong enough?"
Aldred actually come to this continent to look for that answer. His first theory was that he wasn't strong enough. But he did not know exactly how strong he needed to be to make it work.
He wanted to meet his parents so bad.
"I have to be patience. I will meet them again. It's only been a few years. For them, it's probably a blink of an eye."
Both of his parents were universal level being. They could even hop onto another universe that was impossible for a spaceship that could travel faster than light. In fact, his father alone could fight against ten gods by himself.
These gods could delete an entire universe by themselves. The fact that Hujarar could fight ten of them was proof of his power.
"Can I become that strong in the future?"
The system did not seem to indicate any limit on him. So it might even be possible for him to surpass his father and mother.
Aldred shook his head. "I shouldn't daydream too much."
He needed to focus on the task at hand. This is his only chance to expand his territory. All the other territory would be impossible to take. He could not kill or wage war against another noble. The fact that King Withokere tolerated him was a miracle already.
The neighboring nation was also very hard to attack. Their size was simply too large. If Aldred provoke such enemy, he could lose all of his territory.
That was why he needed to secure a lot of territories on Ber. And then perhaps expand his business to other nations before using the wealth to strengthened his army.
He could also use money to buy lands in other nations, or make a deal with the local lords about tax reduction.
For the time being, he could not use force on the Divine Empire of Stotford. He could send another clone as a wandering adventurer though.
"That might be a good idea." Aldred considered that thought. "My clone could make a reputation of himself, and if he is seen in a good light, then he could have privileges in that nation."
Adventurers were neutrals most of the time. They refused to fight for political battles, which make it easier for them to go to any nation without much problem.
This way, Aldred's clone could go anywhere.
"And I can tell Corduul to send a few secret golems to kill some people to obtain their memory."
Obtaining memory was a very important activity. It almost removes all the mystery, and the Mechanicum found a lot of treasures from it. People had secrets. And some people had valuable secrets.
Corduul sometimes used these information to blackmail someone and convince them to pay with a secret treasure. So, even without conquering lands and taking over cities, the Mechanicum had gathered a lot of wealth from all kinds of shady activity.
And nobody knew it was the Mechanicum's doing.
Because for other people, the Mechanicum basically did not exist. They only see Aldred as the golem master who created all of these weird metallic golems, and they were all rented for a cheap price and would follow any order without restriction.
So even if they manage to see a metallic golem somewhere, they would not think of Aldred because a lot of people rented these golems for weeks, and even months as bodyguard.
The golems were so cheap and so convenient that some people even replace their maids.
In other words, Aldred's golems could remove jobs. Thankfully, it did not went that badly as Aldred began to charge a little higher so people could still have their jobs.
Nothing would happen if they lose jobs though. No one dare to gather and protest. The strong stepped on the weak. If they dare to protest, a single Diamond Rank would be enough to decimate them.
"I should stop thinking and start doing something. Since Gruckarth runaway, I must look for the other four." Aldred's eyes flashed with great killing intent. This time, he didn't plan to let anyone escape.
