Chapter 1253 - Family Meeting and Apology (1/2)

Pabiete was completely overpowering his opponent thanks to his three ability runes, his melee abilities, his two casting weapons, and his recently regained battle awareness.

That huge puppet holding two swords couldn’t even catch Pabiete’s shadow.

Pabiete’s body was like a phantom. The laser sword he held kept revolving around the dual-wielding sword puppet, slashing seven or eight times every time it whirled. And with its terrifying cutting power, the laser sword left deep cuts at the most important parts of the energy transmission pathways.

After a few minutes, the dual-wielding sword puppet became unable to move as its energy couldn’t flow to its legs.

Pabiete once again attacked from the front but the two huge greatswords slashed together at him. He instantly halted his momentum and stopped right in front of the slashes and only started moving again after the swords crossed past.

His slender body flexibly stepped on the dual-wielding sword puppet before jumping up to reach its head.

The laser sword in his hands instantly dissipated, replaced by the casting weapons on his arms. Firebolts, Frostbolts, and Lightbolts simultaneously burst out. The Elemental Strengthening ability rune also shone.

The casting weapons on Pabiete’s arms burst out and a terrifying power exploded under the effect of the Elemental Strengthening ability rune, and it happened faster than the time it took to blink.

It looked like a mana crystal cannon opened fire right in front of the puppet’s face.

The explosion was extremely loud and glaring rays of light blossomed. Pabiete used the other side’s chest as a stepping stone and instantly disappeared.

A second later, the light dissipated and more than half of the puppet’s head was missing. This was caused by the instantaneous reaction between the ice and the flames, along with the light’s fatal blow. This kind of fighting technique could be called an art.

After the fight was over, Lin Yun personally went and dissected that puppet. All of the components were dismantled and the ability rune was also sealed and put in storage. He also discovered a fist-sized lump of black substance in that puppet’s chest.

Xiuban’s fight was also over by the time Lin Yun finished his dismantling. It’s just that the eight-arms monkey puppet no longer had its original appearance, it’s body was like a pile of scraps components carelessly mashed together. All of its components had been smashed into scraps by Xiuban.

The only thing remaining was the eight-arms puppet’s low level ability rune.

Dismantling was no longer necessary, because this had already been forcibly dismantled.

After putting away the small piece of black substance, Lin Yun unhappily glared at Xiuban.

Xiuban was proudly pointing at the pile of scraps.

“Sir Merlin, how is it? Isn’t the great Xiuban very powerful? Aren’t I invincible? Look at this guy, not a single usable component is left, everything has been smashed into scraps.”

After saying that, the exulting Xiuban glanced at Pabiete. Pabiete turned his head away, his crystal eyes flashing with light while Reina was looking at Xiuban as if he was an idiot.

Reina’s magic was bound to crush everything, while Pabiete only focused on getting as many intact components as possible. If he hadn’t been meticulous, he would have also turned that puppet into scraps and wouldn’t have taken that much time.

But Xiuban clearly destroyed everything, and with his intelligence, forcibly turning the puppet into a pile of scrap was a way to display his strength.

Lin Yun had given up on Xiuban’s intelligence and didn’t even feel like scolding him. He spat out a rune and hung Xiuban in the air before whipping him with a dozen Mind Lashes.

Words were useless for that kind of guy, whipping was the only language he understood.

Everything went smoothly after they conquered another steel city.

On the other side, the Gilded Rose’s influence in the Odin Kingdom was rapidly growing. After the exhibition, most of the clients had been low rank mages, but now, even Heaven Rank Mages made their purchases at the Gilded Rose.

The Gilded Rose spread from the eighteen shops of Neverwinter City, using it as the core of its expansion towards the neighbouring cities. In less than a week, Faleau opened 38 branches within a few hundred kilometers of Neverwinter City.

He recruited three hundred ordinary Alchemists from the Starry Sky College, and this was a strictly controlled number. Over a thousand ordinary Alchemists would apply within a week.

He also recruited over thirty Great Alchemists, three Master Alchemists, and one Artisan. The only condition the Artisan had put forward was for Lin Yun to take an hour every week to teach him alchemy theories.

That Artisan was one of the roaming Artisans who studied truth runes during the gathering. He went crazy after accidentally learning that Lin Yun had researched 1,800 truth runes and signed a 1,000 years contract with the Gilded Rose, with only one condition: For the first decade, Lin Yun had to instruct him one hour per week, or teach him the mysteries behind three hundred truth runes.

Even the materials he needed for experiments didn’t have to be prepared by the Gilded Rose, this was no different from selling himself into slavery.

If he knew that 108,000 truth runes were carved in Lin Yun’s Demiplane, he might cry out and directly request a 10,000 years contract.

In fact, that 1,000 years slave contract was something that guy begged for and he wouldn’t let Faleau refuse.

In addition to the preparations for opening new branches, some forces of the Odin Kingdom dropped by to seek cooperation. Some families selling materials even dropped by to sell supplies.

After all, 95% of the Gilded Rose’s raw materials came from the Gilded Rose itself, and the transportation costs were quite important. They could save quite a bit of money if they had local sources of materials, and it would also be a lot safer.

After all, transporting materials from the Andlusa Kingdom to the Odin Kingdom was a huge risk. Aside from dumb bandits, there would be all kinds of environmental hazards, dangerous lifeforms, and various other dangers.

When they were planning to open a branch in the Odin Kingdom, they couldn’t find a single supplier. No matter the size, no one was willing to supply materials to the Gilded Rose, even when Faleau raised the price.

But now, big and small suppliers of raw materials started taking the initiative to drop by. Even if they lowered their prices, whether they could sell the materials or not still depended on Faleau’s mood.

With this rate of expansion, the Gilded Rose would be able to cover the entire northern part of the Odin Kingdom within a few years while slowly expanding towards the Odin Kingdom’s capital. With the Gilded Rose’s technology and strength, it might become the largest chain of stores in the Odin Kingdom.

Every aspect of the Gilded Rose was rapidly expanding, all employees and partners were happy, and this was translated in a large number of purple golds.

But there was one cooperating family that wasn’t so happy…

The mood of the Jackson Patriarch was quite complex. As a partner of the expanding Gilded Rose, the Jackson Family was purchasing most of their things from the Gilded Rose at a price lower than market price.

Thanks to the Gilded Rose’s potions, magic tools, puppets, and arrays, the Jackson Family had recently resumed the conquest of a plane that had been in a deadlock with very minimal losses. Their gains had also greatly increased.

Moreover, the superfluous alchemy items were discreetly sold to families they had a good relationship with, which was another source of income.

According to some rough calculations they did, the profits from cooperating with the Gilded Rose would soon amount to 60% of the Jackson Family’s income for a year. But that number couldn’t be confirmed, because of the hidden growth and hidden benefits they would receive from this cooperation.

It was reasonable to say that this was a good thing. But the Jackson Family was unhappy because they had recently wanted to increase the cooperation time of the contract only for the Gilded Rose to refuse.

Back then, they only agreed to sign a 1 year contract in order to test the waters, who would have thought that it would bring so much benefits, it was at least ten times what they had anticipated.

Based on their speculations, their Jackson Family may become dependent on the Gilded Rose, but according to that growth trend, the Jackson Family would have expanded to five times their current size within five years.

This was a number that was difficult to refuse. Let alone a cooperation where they depended on the other side, the members of the family might not be too much against directly serving the Gilded Rose.

Unfortunately, the other side didn’t agree to prolong the cooperation contract. They kept it at one year only because the Gilded Rose didn’t want their credibility to be affected by a breach of contract.