Seated in a chamber in the royal palace of Avilla, the Emperor held a mana stone encased in his palm, drawing out mana from it, which he then used to expunge the poison within him.
He had done so for the past three years.
Progress was akin to that of a slug, but the Emperor could only be content, and even happy, that it worked at all.
With the war ongoing, today was to be like any other, until his space ring shone with red light.
'Hmm? Bolton?'
He paused his cultivation, brought out a red crystal, and shattered it on the floor, letting it splatter.
Thereafter, essence erupted from the pieces and coalesced into words on the floor.
As it formed, the Emperor realized it was longer than most messages Bolton sent him and began reading through.
As he read, his expression kept changing. At the end of the reading session, the Emperor was confused, amazed and disgruntled at the same time.
'Giving every A and S rank guild a land ownership certificate as a leash to ensure their obedience…It's not a bad idea.
'Then…Black Jaws was it? They've been causing a bit of trouble. Wonder why he approved the buffer zone'
The Emperor smirked.
'I would like to meet them. Must be something if Bolton spoke of them at such a length'
'Hmm'
He looked at himself. Much of the poison remained for him to clear up. At the current speed, he'd take him a few more years.
'That'll have to wait' he said, throwing the matter aside. Other matters came to mind.
Besides that, the war was reaching its boiling point. If he doesn't do something to prolong it, the war will end and his situation will be discovered.
And the moment people realized the Emperor was gravely injured, enemies and allies alike would come for his head.
He wasn't going to let that happen.
'With this in place, I should make things a bit more exciting. Besides-
His face crumpled.
-I don't like that that b#stard hasn't been affected'
He smiled.
'Now, shall we shake things up a bit?'
The Emperor increased the stakes once more, promising land and ownership of a beast region for a sufficient amount of contribution points.
If that wasn't enough, he had a party of Master-ranks land a surprise attack on Itrevezar - a kingdom beside Quartez - that lay at the edge of the continent.
It sparked a rage when the forces of Itrevezar came to battle.
Now, Niton was being attacked on all fronts, but the Emperor didn't panic.
After all, for him to make such a move, he would have something he relied on.
Thinking of it, he smiled.
'Let have it build up some more'
When the war reached the boiling point, he would come in and inflict damage on all parties.
Just thinking of it, the Emperor's grin stretched. (I guess we know where Ezra got it from)
Confusion spread as news of Bolton's incomprehensible action spread to all ranks of Lexon.
Additionally, Bolton revealed the fact that Black Jaws was given one in advance.
Fredrick couldn't care less. Instead, he took advantage while others were still trying to understand the situation.
For one, Black Jaws already had a comprehensive list of lands for sale.
Black Jaws went on a purchasing spree, buying multiple villages and isolated towns to begin reconstruction.
Alongside that, more and more people arrived and, like Cabrera conjectured, in the next twenty days, more than forty thousand people were recruited, or rather, enslaved.
The ice shower made many desperate, and Black Jaws was happy to make use of that desperation.
These thousands were then sent back to their villages as builders.
They rejoiced the day the loan was approved, expecting Black Jaws to grant them the life they'd always wanted.
Too bad though, Ezra had other plans.
With S and A ranks now land competitors, Fredrick swiftly bought all the lands Ezra mentioned in his list by hook or by crook.
Stuck-up officials? he bribed them.
Insufficient manpower? he bought slaves in the thousands.
A condition was placed in which the Emperor had to sign an acknowledgement for the transaction to be considered complete.
As he did that, Bolton tripled the land prices.
Land owners would pay yearly tax, and Bolton doubled these as well.
This posed no difficulty for Fredrick though. With an original document, he bought lands at the normal price from the Sentinel.
And with the tax exemption, Black Jaws wasn't paying any taxes any time soon.
Bolton was furious, but what could he do? Black Jaws was buffered.
For two weeks, Fredrick was on a rampage, splurging on all accounts as he bought anything deemed remotely useful.
To purchase anything, Black Jaws had to notify Bolton, who would then process the order and give the other party money.
It was the second reason for Bolton's approval. He could monitor their transactions without even trying.
For the price of five hundred thousand platinum, he bought a Gold-slated Beast region occupancy from Bolton.
Now, Black Jaws could buy monster regions, a privilege normally excluded to B-S rank guilds. A privilege Fredrick promptly made use of.
Seven beast regions were bought, as it was the maximum Black Jaws guild members could take on.
The smallest was two F-rank regions. Two were E-rank regions, the last three were D, D and C rank respectively.
Mind you, the highest number of regions owned by a single organization was twelve.
Come on, you didn't expect him to throw fresh recruits into beast regions to test their talents, did you?
Well, he was going to do exactly that, but not this soon.
To avoid complications, Bolton banned Black Jaws and all other guilds with land certificates from buying land beneath cities, apart from slums.
It was to nudge them onto the path of developing Niton. And Black Jaws was leading the movement.
Fredrick hired Master-rank builders, formation masters, cooks, blacksmiths, rune smiths, blood mages, farmers and ice mages.
The ice mages were hired for the duration of the ice shower to help accelerate the growth of the ice plants.
In the same breath, he attached two promising guild members to each Master to learn from them and shadow their movements. Black Works elevated to greater heights, going from obscurity to one of the top fifty profession guilds almost overnight.
The guild 'Goldmasters' saw a rise even more exaggerated.
After lengthy talks, Fredrick put Andras Halobren - father of the current head, Carlos Halobren - in charge of monitoring the money flow, essentially keeping an eye on Nathan and Mirahan.
Fredrick bought vacant land hosted right before a beast region he now owned and turned it into a large farm for ice plants.
The skyscraper being constructed was demolished, which had many questioning Cabrera's sanity.
Gathering the brains of four Master builders, twenty-five Expert builders and Ezra's past (future?) memories, an entirely new building was designed.
The demolished building was used as the foundation and construction of the new building began.
The former builders were fired, being allowed to continue working on the condition they joined the guild.
The best builders were hired and Fredrick lauded them with thousands of slaves to use for all the heavy lifting and miscellaneous activities.
Besides that, Fredrick began other projects simultaneously, including, but not limited to, the total reconstruction of the slums in another thirteen cities (Fredrick bought four more), and the reconstruction of twenty-two towns and ten villages.
For this, he used the guild members and outsourced manpower through the Missionary by posting missions.
The former problem was that they were tight on money and it would dilute manpower, making them susceptible to a flurry of issues.
Now, they weren't lacking money in any way. For the second, money was used to outsource manpower.
New sketches were made. The new buildings were built to be not luxurious, but eternally durable.
Meanwhile, the guild members were tested and the strongest thousand were segregated.
While others were sent to do missions, they continued cultivation and training as Fredrick focused the best resources on their growth. Beast regions were among the things reserved for them.
Along with that, Black Jaws welcomed a lot of shifters and a few psychics.
Fredrick held a test in which he gave out the eggs gotten from the A-rank snake at the Manite mountain.
One was given to Sebastian at his request.
Fredrick also distributed missions all round Lexon and beyond to find people with descriptions Ezra mentioned. They were hidden talents.
Alas, no matter how much was promised, the Sentinel was unwilling to extend the tax exemption period.
Black Jaws's upper echelon became extremely busy - Sebastian included - as they coordinated and supervised every project.
Black silence was elevated as five hundred members joined. Sebastian was likewise sleepless as he coordinated his agents and adjusted the information gathering process while updating Fredrick on any daily changes on external or internal factors.
Cabrera had to bear the brunt of these procedures because Fredrick's identity was obscured, and in name, he was Black Jaws's guild master.
Nobles of all ranks requested audiences. With so much on his plate, Cabrera didn't even consider it and humbly declined, incurring the wrath of many, but what did he care?
It wasn't like they came to render aid, though they said so. Each came with their own agenda, and Cabrera wasn't about to begin dealing with it.
They didn't like his attitude? Feel free to drop dead.
Naturally, rumors flew around as many cursed him, calling him arrogant, prideful, greedy, haughty and every other thing they could think up.
Cabrera didn't have time to hear about it, much less care.
Black Jaws felt the ice shower's devastation firsthand as they counted the slaves that died each day on the construction sites, a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.
It was a time of decline for many, and a time prosperous for many more.
This ice shower would be a determining factor to Black Jaws rise.
