The Monarch-Chapter 505: Recruitment
NT:I owe two more chapters in the next few days to upload the ones that are missing.
"Impressive, isn’t it?" an old man with a red beard and white hair appeared beside the two. Kayden hadn’t noticed him until he was just a few meters away. After thinking for a moment, he realized it was the main rune that had brought this person there so quickly.
"Indeed, I didn’t even know a rune could be this complex," Kayden murmured. This mountain was easily the size of a medium-sized planet in the universe, and yet every inch of it was interconnected by runes, which, in fact, were all part of a single rune.
"This has been the work of my life. I spent the last billions of years just perfecting this masterpiece of runes." Kayden had to admit that it truly was a masterpiece, one of the most complex things he had ever seen in his entire life.
"What brings you to my mountain, Mr. Kayden? I’ve already told countless mages that I will not join any organization and will only maintain my services for those who pay." The old man seemed tired of repeating these words, and indeed he had been—thousands of times over the years.
"I’ve come to make you an offer," Kayden showed no discomfort, even with the old man clearly seeming annoyed.
"Nothing you offer will make me change my mind. I’ve been offered entire worlds, and I still refused. What do you think you have that would make me change my mind?" Kayden was just buying time while he continued casting subtle influences on the old man’s soul, so slight that he didn’t even notice.
"I only want to offer a safe haven. Bring your organization to my world, and I will protect it from any threat. You can continue to operate as an independent world." Kayden threw his bait and intensified the bombardment on the old man’s soul.
"This... no," the old man hesitated a little; others had already offered him this, but Kayden’s soul influence was working a little magic on him.
"Why?" Kayden sensed there was more than just a casual refusal in this answer. The old man remained silent for a few seconds and chose to keep his refusal, forcing Kayden to keep pressing while bombarding his soul.
"My masterpiece cannot be taken with me, so I prefer to stay here with it." Kayden didn’t take long to hear these words. He perfectly understood the old man’s reasoning and realized that it would be very hard to sway him at that moment.
It was a very simple matter—no matter how much he bombarded the old man’s soul with positive intentions about him, the old man was fixated on his work for his entire life. It was an attraction a million times stronger than anything he could impose.
"It can’t be taken with you?" This mountain was massive, and its runes extended far beyond the mountain itself. Kayden couldn’t think of any way to take all of this, especially considering he’d need a spatial mage with far greater power.
Asking for help from the gods, like Yan, was completely out of the question; the gods had decisively withdrawn from the universe—they no longer participated in any battles or took any interest in conflicts.
"I have a way to improve your masterpiece and even take it to other places," Athena spoke these words as casually as someone would comment on a sunny day. If it were anyone else, the old man would have raised his voice with latent anger.
The thing was, Athena wasn’t just any mage; her aura was completely overwhelming. Not even against gods had the old man felt such a natural pressure emanating from her. It seemed as though the universe itself stood by her side, supporting her words. She was simply far beyond what any common mage could do. In fact, she was far beyond what any genius mage could achieve. And beyond all that, she had her fame.
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The greatest genius ever born in the universe—the daughter of Yan. Some legends say that when she was born, the heavens closed in gold across entire constellations, just to celebrate her birth.
"Forgive my arrogance, Miss Athena, but I have studied runes for billions of years. I don’t think there’s anything you could teach me," the old man replied politely yet with a hint of pride in his words.
Athena merely laughed and began to speak about this masterpiece. In just a few seconds, she pointed out dozens of points and detailed them to the old man. He might have had billions of years, but she had far more—a literal universe of lifetime behind her.
Almost 70% of all the foundational elements used here had been studied by Athena. It was funny that she was practically a secondary master of this masterpiece. The old man started listening with disdain, and each minute, his pride fell lower and lower.
It was exactly like a frog at the bottom of a well; when he finally met someone who knew more than he did, he could hardly believe it. It was extremely rare to find people with his level of knowledge in runes, but above him? He had seen barely three in his entire life.
"Finally, you need to put this entire rune system into a spatial rune capable of manipulating all the space in these millions of kilometers, making it into a pocket city," Athena gave a few tips and dropped that bombshell at the end.
"How could I do that? How insane is this?" Athena sometimes forgot that this universe was still practically a newborn; it had only produced the birth of a single ten-ray mage—it still had a long way to go before it even became minimally decent.
"This is one of the next steps to becoming a divine rune master, even though you are just a mortal. But it’s not something I could do for you," Athena replied and stepped away, leaving only the old man with Kayden.
The old man fell into deep thought, reflecting on everything Athena had said. The young man simply waited; he hadn’t stopped bombarding the old man’s soul at any point in the conversation. This was the perfect moment to strike.
