Chapter 49: The Eastern Lords

The night of the siege, after killing Aylinor and consequently stopping the horde of monsters, Marcus returned to the city undetected and locked himself in the mansion to put all his things in order.

Even though the city was in a chaotic state and it was too dangerous to stay there for too long, Marcus wasn't worried about his safety or that someone might discover he was undead. Even if someone did find out, he was fully confident that he would be able to escape the city without much trouble.

After all, the number of casualties during the battle had been enormous. With almost 6000 dead and over 3000 wounded the city barely had enough people to maintain law and order. The number of magic users and aura warriors who died during the battle wasn't small either, so their numbers were significantly reduced.

In addition, of the seven most powerful people in the city two were dead, two others were seriously injured so they could not fight and one had been turned into a zombie.

As for the last two, the deacon of the Forest Church, Catalin Janeva Rostass, had escaped the city soon after to inform the church headquarters about the attack, and the city governor was too busy to worry about other things.

So Marcus had no problem with staying in the city for a little while longer. However, it didn't take him too long to change his mind.

Shortly after arriving at the mansion, Marcus had checked the contents of his [Storage], and among the things there he also found everything related to Aylinor's plan and the reason why he attacked the city.

Being by the sea, the port city of Neima was important for the maritime trade between the kingdom and the other countries of the continent, as well as being a connection point between the eastern part of the Austra continent and the Central continent. But that wasn't all.

Originally, the city had been built in that area because of the river there. This river connected the sea with a series of natural waterways that ran through the entire northeastern part of the continent.

The idea was that the city would use the river as an access point to these waterways to use them as alternative trade routes so that merchant ships could navigate the interior of the continent and connect with the other cities of the neighboring kingdoms.

In this way, the port city of Neima would become the main point of commercial interaction between the northeastern part of the Austra continent and the Central continent.

Unfortunately, due to constant migrations by the monsters of the jungle, the project could never be carried out and the city never prospered as it was supposed to.

However, this was not a problem for the Church of the Deadly Plagues, which had multiple methods to control and enslave the monsters.

Therefore, the church had decided to take control of all the cities that were connected to these waterways, including the port city of Neima, so that they could transport their troops and supplies undetected by the other enemy forces.

Unfortunately, the Church of the Deadly Plagues had two drawbacks. One was the Forest Church and the other was the mercenary clan known as the Eastern Lords.

In this world, mercenary clans were groups whose main economic source was hunting and exterminating monsters. These clans were divided into six categories according to the number of mercenaries they possessed.

These were:

Small Clan (10 to 99 members); Medium Clan (100 to 9,999 members); Large Clan (10,000 to 99,999 members); Super Large Clan (100,000 to 4,999,999 members); Continental Clan (5,000,000 to 25,000,000 members); Intercontinental Clan (over 25,000,000 members).

Some mercenary clans had so much military power, influence, and resources that they even surpassed many nations and kingdoms of the world. So it was normal for the super large clans or higher to have one or more kingdoms under their jurisdiction.

This was mainly because the mercenary clans had many more elite warriors than the troops of the kingdoms as they were more accustomed to war and facing powerful monsters.

The Eastern Lords was one of the three continental-ranked mercenary clans on the Austra continent.

The clan had over 12,000,000 members in its main branch and over 200 lower-ranking affiliated clans. In addition, the clan was led by a council of elders and its ruling leader was a powerful elemental aura warrior at the pinnacle of the 7th realm.

As their name indicated, the influence of the Eastern Lords extended over the entire eastern part of the continent, as well as a small area in the north. Their domain encompassed more than 20 nations, in addition to controlling dozens of cities and hundreds of towns.

The Cristol kingdom (of which the port city of Neima was a part) was only a small kingdom in the eastern part of the continent and did not have enough military or economic power to face the attacks of the monsters or the other nations.

So the Crisol kingdom had no choice but to submit to the Eastern Lords. So in exchange for protection, the Eastern Lords charged a tax and had the right to participate in the political decisions of the kingdom.

But no matter how powerful the Eastern Lords or the Forest Church were, if they thought that a kingdom or city did not provide them with any benefit then they would not bother to invest in it.

Taking this fact into consideration, Aylinor planned to use his army of monsters to eliminate the main leaders of the city and damage its defenses as much as possible. That is why he had destroyed the protection array and tried to kill Orson, Catalin, and the other mercenary leaders of the city.

Once they were dead and the city had received enough damage, the Eastern Lords and the Forest Church would think that it was all caused by a monster displacement and that the city was too damaged to invest in repairing it, so they would end up abandoning it.

When the mercenaries and the church abandoned the city, the Black Lions would take control and the Church of Deadly Plagues could fulfill their goal of moving their troops and supplies across the continent, as well as creating a connection point between the Austra continent and the Central continent.

Although Marcus thought Aylinor's plan was ridiculously complicated and that there were dozens of easier ways to take the city, he could not ignore the war that was being waged, let alone what happened after the attack.

As the priest's plan failed, Orson Silverward, who was a member of the Eastern Lords, and the other leaders of the local mercenary clans concealed the fact that the Church of Deadly Plagues had been responsible for the attack and the whole thing was taken as a simple mass displacement of monsters.

The morning after the attack, Orson had requested the Eastern Lords clan for a clearing and extermination order to hunt down the remaining monsters in the surrounding jungle. Once the monsters were eliminated, the jungle would be cleared, its resources would be extracted and the area would be converted into new spaces for human activity.

This news would not take long to spread and when that happened the city would be filled with mercenaries, merchants, and all kinds of people looking for new opportunities.

Upon learning of this fact and knowing the plans of the Church of the Deadly Plague to initiate a full-scale war, Marcus had opted to leave the Austra continent and migrate elsewhere before the first mercenary troops arrived in the city..

'Let's see... where am I supposed to go...?' Without taking his eye sockets away from the map, Marcus picked up a quill from the table, dipped the tip into the inkwell, and traced a cross over the Austra continent that was right in the center.

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Shortly after arriving in the city, Marcus had studied the geography of this world and was quite surprised when he learned its true size.

Although the distance he had traveled in the jungle from the time he fell off the floating island until he reached the city had exceeded 9,000 KM (5,592.3 Miles), Marcus had not even traveled a third of the continent.

According to his calculations, Marcus estimated that the true size of the Austra continent was at least three times larger than the Eurasian continent and was not even the largest continent on the planet.

Apart from the six supercontinents, this world also had multiple archipelagos and islands, some of which were as large as Australia.

'Not this one, not this one either and islands are not an option so...' Marcus dipped the quill back into the inkwell and without hesitation crossed out the continents at the north and south poles and all the islands on the map.

The reason for this was because, unlike the continents, the amount of resources on the islands was very scarce as well as the monsters, warriors and high-level wizards. So there was almost no benefit in going there.

The northern and southern continents were inhabited by dangerous creatures as well as being ruled mainly by the evil cults, so getting to them from the port city of Neima was impossible.

Next, Marcus looked at the continents to the Southwest and Northwest of the Austra continent and crossed them out as well.

The Northwest continent was the Dark Lands and no one dared to go there. So, even though that continent was the perfect place for the undead like Marcus, there was no way to get there.

On the other hand, the Southwest continent (Gamidir) was mainly ruled by the great empires of Aurar and Naria, whose dominant populations were the Alument and the Rassling (beastmen) respectively.

In addition, the main religions of Gamidir were the Church of the Natural Elements and the Church of the Starry Night.

But to get there, Marcus first had to reach the western part of the Austra continent. However, this would take too long and he wanted to leave the continent as soon as possible. So he also ruled out Gadimir.

'That means that by rule out I only have...' Marcus took the quill dipped in ink and drew a huge circle around the only continent he hadn't crossed out. '...The Central Continent.'

The Central continent was the main continent of the world. It had the largest population compared to the other continents and was where the major superpowers were located.

These included some continental and intercontinental mercenary clans, four of the six great empires, and five of the seven churches that worshiped the great gods of creation.

Moreover, the amount of resources in the Central continent was very abundant, so both the number and level of aura users and wizards were far superior to that of the Austra continent.

'If I take a ship from here it will only take a month to get there. Well, I think I know where I'll go when I'm done here. Now...' Once he decided on his new destination, Marcus took all his things and several books from the library, put them in his [Storage], and left the mansion with the intention of never returning.

*****

[Neima port city- Slums. 11:40 P.M.]

In the center of the slums, there was a two-story brick building that remained illuminated. This place, which was a tavern, was under the control of the Black Lions and was one of their many meeting places.

Currently, downstairs there were about fifty people doing nothing but drowning their sorrows with the cheap liquor they served. Upstairs only ten men were sitting around a round table. They were very entertained as they drank wine, played cards, and chatted with each other.

Marcus was on the roof of a building across the street about twenty meters (65.61 ft) from the tavern. He had been watching the actions of the ten men for some time, through the windows of the second floor.

Shortly after learning of Aylinor's plan, Marcus had been searching for information about the Black Lions for the past two days. Finally, his research had led him to Makroft and the old man told him everything.

At first, Marcus was just investigating out of pure curiosity, but after getting the information from Makroft, he decided to destroy the Black Lions that night before leaving the city. He had several reasons to do so, besides stealing their money, their magic and enchanted items and getting XP.

After his confrontation against Aylinor and his duel with Night Fox, Marcus had realized that he was not experienced enough when it came to fighting other humans and beings who knew how to use combat techniques, spells, and magic items.

According to what the old wizard had told him, the Black Lions had moved many of their goods and men to the neighboring cities shortly after the attack because they wanted to move their operations base before the Eastern Lords arrived in the city.

Currently, the Black Lions only had one-third of their total combat power. Moreover, except for the chimera soldiers, a wizard from the 2nd realm, and the gang leader, there was no one else who could pose a threat to Marcus.

Facing the Black Lions would help Marcus practice his fighting techniques and gain combat experience.

Furthermore, for almost the entire time he had been in the city, Marcus had been suppressing his murderous urges and, despite all the monsters and humans he killed recently, his undead nature was only somewhat calmed.

By slaughtering all the members of the Black Lions, Marcus hoped that his murderous urges would calm down for a while. At least long enough until he reached the Central continent.

'Alright, let the show begin.' Marcus raised his right arm and pointed his index finger towards one of the second-floor windows. Then a small white magic circle five centimeters (2 inches) wide appeared on the tip of his finger. 'Energy bullet.'

*Xiu...*

At that instant, a marble-sized sphere shot out from the magic circle on his finger. The energy bullet traveled the distance between the two buildings in the blink of an eye and shattered the building's window.

The bullet finally struck one of the men in the forehead, killing him instantly and causing him to collapse on the table as his blood and cerebrospinal fluid poured out of his wound.

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