Building An Empire Starting From The Labor Camp In Exile-Chapter 303: Enchanted rods?
Atrox was having his evening meal, that was supposed to be his breakfast, when he heard the news. Valtor himself came to deliver the news.
When Atrox saw the look on his face, he knew something was up, but he didn’t stop eating as the message was delivered.
"...Then the Master Knight woman that was with him stored his body into three spatial rings and took off."
Atrox didn’t stop eating throughout the message. He drank his wine and cut his meat before eating, all perfectly done.
He took a deep breath as everyone turned to him for what he would say next. Eryndor was there, Tiber had returned with Valtor, and Slya was giving him anxious looks as well.
"Well. It just keeps getting worse, isn’t it?" Atrox said. He sighed. "Why the worried face? There was nothing you could have done differently, and we knew the Akatsuki would declare war but are just looking for excuses anyway, so it won’t be a surprise."
"What we should be worried about is this Grandmaster. Are you sure it’s not from the Akatsuki?" 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
Tiber shook his head. "If the Akatsuki had a Grandmaster, then they would be the ones in this castle already. From what Master Valtor said, there’s a possibility that the Grandmaster was hired to do it by someone."
"Tell me your guess," Atrox said.
"My guess is that it’s very likely to be one of the Elders. The Grandmaster said that he was only doing it because someone he owes our Clan a favor."
Atrox was silent for a long time. "I know of no such thing," he raised his voice. "Tell me, do you know of such, Spymaster?"
A voice as light as feathers entered the room. "There are rumors of such, my lord. That a Clan in the Kanji owes your Clan a small favor that could be collected even through generations. The Elders would know more about it."
Atrox felt anger replace his blood in a blink. Heat waves came out of his body, and his eyes hardened. "The Elders of the Soryu Clan want war to fall on the Clan in this situation that we are not strong enough?
"Listen to my orders. From now on, I declare war on the Elders, and I dissolve their seat in my court. Kill them on sight. Their heads will be worth hundreds of thousands in gold!"
Valtor was so shocked he first stared blankly at Atrox. He didn’t know that Atrox could take such decisive methods, but there it was. He bowed. "As you command. I will send words out. The whole of the Soryu will be informed!"
Atrox nodded sharply. "The Akatsuki will use this to declare war on us. Slya, send word to my messengers. I want to speak with the head of the Enchanted Association. Let the Administration know that I want every head of their respective association to gather for a meeting with me."
"Valtor, go and prepare the shelters for when we will need them. I need to have Takoda back here to oversee the Eastern army with Pomora."
Atrox took a deep breath after saying everything at once. His body relaxed a little. "About the issue of the Grandmaster. There is nothing we can do. Inasmuch as the Grandmaster did not belong to the Akatsuki, then there’s no problem at all.
"And from our guess, he doesn’t belong to their Clan. Then that means the Grandmaster represents a third party or was hired by it. In any way, I don’t think the Grandmaster would make any appearance here again."
"How are we going to deal with the Akatsuki Clan, my lord? They are the most pressing issue we have now."
Atrox smiled. "What else are we going to do? We fight them, of course! We will defend our Clan with everything we have. And... I still want an advanced team into the desert to investigate, but with the said Akatsuki’s throne, it might be more difficult than we initially expected."
"Get the Administration to start engaging in ’peace’ talks with them. Also, I want an update on our progress with the Ito Clan..."
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Things went extremely fast after that. So much so that Atrox didn’t sleep a wink for the next three days as he focused on finding a solution for the problem he now found himself in.
He went together with the Enchanted Association Chairman to the Eastern wall to check it. And it was better than he expected; the wall wasn’t that bad.
But it would take the enchanters a few months to rebuild it. They could reduce the time if Atrox was willing to give them a Master Knight that’s good at controlling stones.
Safe to say, Takoda would be continuing his career as an enchanter for some days.
But what Atrox was most eager to hear was about the enchanted tools that he commissioned. The Chairman had looked at him with his eyes shining. "My lord! With the amount of resources you gave us, and you let us study that artifact armor that was left behind by Lord Thrain, we were able to come up with something spectacular!
"We call it the Enchanting Rod... I know it lacks creativity, but that’s only because our creativity is put into something else. See, I brought one here as a test for you to see."
The Enchanted Rod was just like a rod, but shorter and more stocky. A small hole compartment to the sides was there to hold essence stones. The head was shaped in the way of a snake opening its mouth.
As he watched, the Enchanted Association Chairman, who’s merely a squire rank, raised the artifact up into the air and fired.
The mouth of the rod turned blinding white-hot in an instant, and a silver light of mild blinding intensity tore out, sizzling in the air.
Atrox narrowed his eyes. "That’s almost a Knight-rank attack."
The Chairman grinned. "Yes. See, this Enchanted Rod has the ability to store essence for a long time and then shoot it out in a single shot. I’m sorry, my lord, but that’s the only way we were able to come up with for now."
