Chapter 260: Eastern Conquest Plan 1

“Then, are you planning to vie for a Divine Throne seat? There are two epic dungeons in the West,” Woohyuk asked.

[.. Honestly, I am interested. However, when I think of how and why my father died, I’m not sure that I’d want to risk my life for it.]

After the death of Emperor Tiberius, Eleanora seemed to have undergone many changes, both in her heart and mind.

Woohyuk decided to console her as much as possible.

“I don’t want to see you getting hurt. At such a young age, governing an entire Empire will certainly not be easy. So, accept Hwarin’s help and grow, but for the time being, forget about the Divine Thrones,” he suggested.

[If you say so, I’ll follow what you say. I’m living to be with you.]

After Emperor Tiberius’ death, the only person that Eleonora could fully trust was Woohyuk.

Woohyuk nodded his head and immediately ended the video call.

‘I feel a little dirty. Something feels wrong or misplaced.’

Tiberius was a greedy and cunning opponent who he had to eliminate sometime in the future.

However, in the case of Eleanora, although she was wild, she was not a villain or politically ambitious.

Thus, Woohyuk felt a sense of guilt for using her as he did.

‘But it can’t be helped. If we start arguing and fighting, the Eastern Conquest expedition plan will become a pipe dream.’

The best-case scenario for Woohyuk was for Eleanora to become a strong enough Empress to defend the Holy Aperian Empire from foreign attacks.

There was no need for him to place her on a Divine Throne seat, nor did he think it would be a good idea.

Placing her on a Divine Throne seat only increased the risk that Eleanora would one day turn into an enemy, especially if his love potion lost its effectiveness once she became a god.

Woohyuk decided to leave for the Eastern Conquest before Hwarin could further convince Eleanora.

“This conquest war will be quite long. Make sure you all are ready,” Woohyuk said aloud.

“..”

Those gathered at the meeting place looked at each other’s faces with nervous expressions.

An Eastern Conquest..

In terms of scale, it would be like a world war.

“Any questions?” Woohyuk followed up.

“Master, when the expedition is over, how about taking the women from the east as prisoners? I’ll build a wonderful palace on this Heavenly Island..”

Bam!

Woohyuk’s fierce fist strike squarely punched Roan in the stomach while he was mid-sentence.

“Don’t say useless things. One more time and I’ll have Helena castrate you,” he warned.

“R-Roan doesn’t want to be castrated! My poor family jewels..” Roan cried out while trembling with fear.

When Lisa saw this interaction, she looked upon Roan pathetically and said to Woohyuk, “Really.. we’re the same Homunculus, but the quality of this one is so poor that I feel skeptical if he’s even useable. Why did you choose to keep this guy?”

“He’s still better than nothing.”

During the battle against the ancient demon Lucifer, the two Homunculus were damaged and incapacitated.

Woohyuk had them recover and fixed in Inotia, leaving the repairs to Aris.

He did this because they would be a net positive in terms of combat force.

“Asura, this is the new Ishvar Calvary Unit. What do you think? Do you like it?” Aris asked.

While Woohyuk was dealing with Roan, Aris appeared with the Ishvar Calvary Unit.

Woohyuk’s expression darkened.

“Isn’t that the unit who answered 1+1 equals 3 last time?”

“Ha.. ha.. At that time, there was a little problem with its calculation artificial intelligence (AI)..”

Aris was a bit too greedy on the first prototype, putting a plethora of functions and abilities into it. She had packed so many functions into the first prototype that she overlooked a minor defect.

“Alright, let’s say that’s what happened. Anyway, tell me, what can this guy do?” he asked, still a bit skeptical.

“Since we’ve mass-produced 100 units, we can entrust Inotia’s defense to these units. They can even save lives in the event of a disaster,” Aris stated with pride.

It seemed like a fairly useful invention.

When Aris finished proudly explaining all the details of the Ishvar Calvary Unit’s specs, Woohyuk nodded.

“Okay. Start on-site deployment today.”

“Ye-ess~! Then I’ll get back to the factory and produce some other useful units!”

Aris seemed to be having a lot of fun researching, studying, and producing magically engineered prototypes these days.

When she disappeared, Cadiz walked up to Woohyuk’s and stated, “Lord, I produced the amount of Adamante you ordered.”

“... Lead the way.”

Woohyuk followed Cadiz with runesmith Dexter and Irene following closely behind.

When they arrived at their destination, Dexter saw Adamante piled up high in a large warehouse. Dexter couldn’t help his jaw from dropping in amazement, stuttering, “T-T-This, this i-is..”

“It is the magic metal called Adamante. It is immutable like gold but malleable and firm enough to make various equipment. It’s also light in weight,” Woohyuk explained.

It was the perfect material for Dexter, who was currently focusing on developing his blacksmith skills.

As Dexter constantly exclaimed and bounced around with joy, Irene asked Woohyuk, “But why did you bring me? I don’t have any knowledge about alchemy or production.”

“Ah, I called you for a different purpose..”

Woohyuk pulled out Verserios and cut Cadiz’s neck.

Ahhhhhhhhh!

His blood spurted out like a fountain. Cadiz’s headless body rolled on the floor.

“Uh.. why..?” Irene asked.

“Eat his heart,” Woohyuk stated flatly.

To complete the Death Alchemist quest, Cadiz had to eventually die.

Woohyuk had waited until he accrued an appropriate amount of Adamante. In other words, he made the decision that he had accumulated enough golden eggs as insurance before breaking the belly of the goose that laid the golden eggs.

Of course, now that there would be a new goose, so there was nothing for him to lose.

Pluck. Munch. Munch.

Irene took out Cadiz’s heart and started to chew on it as if it was a delicious treat.

Dexter’s face turned blue as he watched the scene unfold.

“Lord, that beautiful silver-haired woman.. what is her identity?”

“.. Let’s just say that she loves people’s hearts.”

Woohyuk didn’t want to marginalize his colleagues, especially in front of other colleagues. He also didn’t want it to be known widely that Irene was a chimera.

Of course, there were already quite a few people who knew the secret.

Soon after Irene ended her snack, Woohyuk had her perform the Death Alchemy.

“The recipe is already pre-set. You just need to follow the process,” Woohyuk instructed.

“I’ll try.”

Irene put the alchemy tools in front of her and began to move busily.

Meanwhile, Woohyuk checked the system messages that appeared in front of him.

[Legendary Quest: ‘Death Alchemist’ has been completed.]

[You have acquired ‘Mirroring’ as the reward for completing the quest.]

‘Mirroring.. it’s has a similar ability to the Armor of Revenge.’

The only difference was that the Armor of Revenge only returned a small percentage of the damage back to the opponent, whereas Mirroring could potentially return up to 100%.

Hence, Mirroring was considered one of the most ‘cheat’ abilities.

‘Although, Mirroring itself is impossible to use in the case that the damage output goes beyond what I can handle.’

Even taking that into account, Woohyuk couldn’t deny that the reward was good.

While Woohyuk was checking the Mirroring ability, Irene spoke up, “It’s over now. Shall we check the results?”

“Yeah. Let’s look at it,” Woohyuk replied.

When he opened the alchemy pot’s lid, he saw a pure Adamante crystal.

Dexter’s eyes flickered with excitement.

“I think we can create something incredible with this material,” he blurted out, unable to contain his excitement.

“First, use the Adamante to make the armor of those who are staying here. Make one for me, too,” Woohyuk said.

His Immortal Armor could absorb other items, so he would feed it the Adamante armor.

Leaving Irene to work with Dexter, Woohyuk returned to the main office and took out Bhilante’s Dagger.

‘Now, there are only two more abilities I can obtain as the Mythical Successor.’

Bhilante’s Dagger.. it was the Bhilante Family’s greatest treasure, allowing Reinhard and other historically important figures, such as paladins, to come from the family lineage.

Since this was the case, he would certainly receive a satisfactory ability.

When Woohyuk injected his mana into Bhilante’s Dagger, a system message floated in front of him.

[New Achievement]

Name: Unbreakable Belief

Type: Legend

Content: To be recognized by the seven Paladins of the Holy Aperian Empire.

Others: No retry if you fail. Only one chance is allowed.

historical

‘It’s starting to give out some nonsense quest objectives now.’

Of course, there were many different quests with weird objectives throughout the continent.

However, he never considered that the contents of a legendary quest would be organized in this way.

Woohyuk fell into deep thought.

“Do you have any problems, Lord?” Leifina asked, tilting her head from beside him.

She had no idea what kind of quest Woohyuk received.

“I’ll have to leave for the Holy Aperian Empire this time,” he replied.

“.. Is there a rebellion or riot?” she asked in concern.

“No, I have to meet the seven Paladins,” he answered.

Luckily, it would be easy to meet them because Eleanora was on his side.

The problem was getting them to acknowledge him.

The acknowledgment description was a bit ambiguous, so he didn’t know how to approach this situation. Furthermore, they had a completely different worldview than he did, so he didn’t know how to start.

When Woohyuk described his concerns, Leifina nodded her head.

“Surely, the seven Paladins will have a different perspective and thought than us. If you’re concerned, why don’t you meet the Saintess of Prophecy?” she suggested.

“Where is she now?”

“She’s probably on a walk with Fiona in the artificial garden.”

Fiona was very interested in Maria, the Saintess of Prophecy.

Even though Fiona herself was dead, with only her consciousness remaining in the system within the boundaries of Inotia, she was immensely interested in what the world would be like in the future.

Woohyuk went straight to the artificial garden with Leifina.

“It’s been a while, Maria,” he greeted.

“Oh, Hero King. You’ve come at an opportune time,” Maria, who was talking with Fiona, replied.

However, her expression was dark. It seemed that she had received a bad revelation.

“Did you have a vision last night?” he asked after seeing her dark visage.

“Yes, something really big will happen soon.”

Maria carefully described the vision she had seen in her dreams.

Numerous fleets in the east crossing the strait.

The Croix Principality turning into a sea of fire.

Elf Queen Ophelia trampled and impaled by a long sword from a man who appeared to be an Emperor.

All these events signaled the beginning of a great war.

“Is it possible for the Eastern Empires to invade this side first? Their purpose is probably to secure the west’s epic dungeons,” Woohyuk murmured while deep in thought.

“What are you going to do? The future may change again, so you need to think and act carefully,” Maria suggested.

“First, I need to let Ophelia know. Then, we’ll come up with some sort of plan,” he replied.

It would be difficult for the elves of the Croix Principality to face the Eastern Empire’s forces by themselves, so Eleanora’s help was needed.

Woohyuk immediately returned to his office and had a three-way video conference with them.

[Really.. to think that the Eastern Empire would invade us.. What should we do now?]

Elf Queen Ophelia said as her visage darkened.

The elven camp had been fighting for a long time against Alice the Queen of Thorns, so their overall power level had considerably weakened.

They wouldn’t last long against the Eastern Empire.

[I can help the elf queen. I can’t stand still while the Eastern Empire goes crazy.]

Eleanora said with burning rage as she raised a twitching eyebrow.

For someone to dare invade the West.

As the newly minted Empress of the Holy Aperian Empire, the Eastern Empire’s actions were unacceptable. It was like a slap in the face move, looking down upon her and the Holy Aperian Empire.

“The actual ruler of the Eastern Empire is a man named Marcus. After earning the Emperor’s trust, he must have used some method to make Emperor his puppet,” Woohyuk explained.

Marcus, the Lightlord, was clearly different from the one Woohyuk knew from his previous life.

Therefore, it was difficult to judge what type of person Marcus was at this moment.

For now, Woohyuk had no choice but to rely on fragmented information from his Eastern spies and contacts.

After Woohyuk brought up the Eeth Continent map on the screen, he and the two women began to plan and take measures.

The confrontation between the East and the West.

The beginning of this confrontation was to take place in a small waterway strait above the Krobaichen Isthmus.