Walking on the streets of the Ascatla administrative area, Uthea was observing the city ruled by merchants from a new perspective, as well as the adventurers and mercenaries who were driven by bounties and money.<
/p>
There is no doubt that being directly promoted from a little devil to a hell fiend is definitely a huge surprise that cannot be described in words.
Because when he cut off the connection with hell and made it into a card, he thought that his strength and external form would always stay at the level of a little devil. He could only become more powerful by gaining professional levels through continuous learning and training.
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In fact, he was already mentally prepared for this and began to tap into the magical power in the devil's bloodline, becoming a low-level warlock.
But what Uthea never expected was that his unfathomable master actually gained some kind of ability similar to a devil duke or even a level lord after returning from a trip, and could promote and demote any devil.
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Although he doesn't know exactly where this ability comes from, he is certain that the bard named Kels must have an inseparable connection with the forces of hell.
It is very likely that his master has reached some unknown deal with the other party.
As for the content of the transaction, Zuo Si didn't dare to ask without telling Usiah.
But overnight, he transformed from a small figure who could only hide behind the scenes and play tricks to a big devil who could easily subvert a city or even a country. He was undoubtedly excited in his heart.
If he didn't get permission, this guy would even randomly select a few "lucky ones" from the adventurers and mercenaries in taverns and hotels, and guide them into the sewers or forests outside the city to test who is the strongest in hell.
The power of the great devil.
But now...
Uthia thought it would be better to honestly complete the tasks assigned to him by his master first.
In this way, he went straight to the door of the administrative district government office building with a massive amount of food that could destroy the entire agricultural production of Sambia.
After identifying himself and showing his signet ring to the guard at the door, he was immediately taken to the exclusive room of the six-member council at the top of the building.
However, the moment they crossed the threshold, two of the six people who were originally sitting on the chairs and held the highest power in the country of Amn suddenly stood up as if they were stimulated, and activated a lot of protective spells without saying a word.
Obviously, they all wear magic equipment that has a constant effect similar to [True Seeing].
Therefore, you can see through the hell fiend with a terrifying aura hidden behind the transformation magic at a glance.
The unusual behavior of the two six-member council members instantly made the other four people subconsciously aware of the danger, and quickly stood up and prepared for battle.
Especially the representative of the Shadow Thieves Guild. He rolled directly under the table and entered a stealth state and disappeared without a trace.
There is also a guy dressed as a mage, reaching out to activate the magic alarm hidden on the table, calling for the masked mage and guards to come for help.
But before he could take any actual action, Usiah took the lead in putting one hand on his chest and bowing in a very elegant movement. He said with a smile: "Everyone, please don't be so nervous. I don't have anything."
Malice, just following the master's order to send you a piece of information and something."
"Master? You mean... you are a servant of Soth?"
A member of the six-person council dressed as a mage asked in an extremely surprised tone.
Because in his impression, the Hell Fiend is not an easy character to deal with. Only the most powerful and top spellcasters can successfully summon and control this terrifying Hell Demon.
"That's right! If I had other intentions, I wouldn't have entered this building this way."
After saying that, Uthea ignored the vigilant and fearful eyes of these people, gently placed the box in his hand, as well as the investigation report and list in his arms on the table, and then slowly retreated to the room.
Doorway.
He could feel that the humans in front of him were very afraid of him from the bottom of their hearts, so they very "considerately" set aside a distance that was enough to make them feel a little safer.
But what he couldn't understand was that as his master, Zuo Si was obviously many times more powerful, dangerous, and evil than him, but why did the six-member Council of Amn never show such nervousness?
You can even discuss with the owner how to deal with potential enemies like Sambia and how to divide the huge benefits that can be obtained after winning the trade war.
You must know that if you were a devil, you might feel happy and satisfied when you see mortals being so scared, but for devils who like to work "within the system", it is not something worth boasting about.
After all, the more afraid you are, the more alert you are and the harder it is to be deceived and exploited.
In Uthea's view, Zuo Si's ability to do this just shows that he is better at disguise than himself and even most of the devils in hell. He can always take advantage of certain weaknesses in human nature to make the other party lower their vigilance unknowingly.
In order to achieve some ulterior purpose.
As the highest authority in Amn, the Six-person Council is undoubtedly very cautious.
They first used detection magic to repeatedly check the investigation report and the list. After confirming that there were no problems, they carefully picked it up and checked the contents recorded above.
You won’t know the result until you see it, but you will be shocked when you see it.
When they learned that there were already so many mind flayers lurking in Ascaltra, and had secretly infiltrated into the political world, business world, and Shadow Thieves Guild, and controlled more than a dozen adventure teams and mercenary groups, everyone couldn't help but fall.
Take a breath.
Especially the six-person council member whose family had been eroded, he immediately knocked on the table and roared angrily: "Asshole! How dare these damn octopus heads attack my son and daughter! I demand that immediately
Take action and launch a major purge of the entire Askatra, and be sure to root it out."
"Don't be so excited and calm down. Look at this list. They already control too many resources and power. If they use hard measures, they may cause unnecessary panic and turmoil, which is not good for our booming trade.
"Another member of the six-person council quickly dissuaded him.
"Calm down? These dirty monsters have put their hands into my family! How can I calm down?"
"Then we can't launch a brutal cleansing of the entire city, which will cause countless businessmen, nobles and civilians to flee out of fear."
"I also agree with this point of view! In any case, we cannot break the current good development form of Ascatra, but must protect this business atmosphere."
"How about letting the shadow thieves take action? If the action of clearing out the lurkers is disguised as a war between guilds, the panic caused will be much smaller."
"Please! Who do you think our Shadow Thieves Guild is? Most thieves and assassins can't handle monsters like the Mind Flayer that can control minds and read memories at will. I think we should leave it to the Masked Mage Guild."
"Leave it to the Masked Mage? Don't be kidding! With their current manpower, it's already quite difficult to barely suppress the Emerald Society and those bold adventurers."
……
Suddenly, the members of the six-person council fell into a quarrel due to internal differences of opinion.
As we all know, Amn's wealth and prosperity are based on massive trade.
Especially after Zuo Si arrived, he first started a series of very profitable trades in the Nelanser Islands such as sugar, salt, fishing, pearl cultivation, rum, condiment manufacturing and spice cultivation, and then funded the opening of
A safe route to the Maztec New World, and finally brought a large number of cheap industrial products from the earth for planned monopoly and sales. Ascatla has become one of the most important commodity distribution centers on Faerûn.
One.
Compared with the past, its prosperity has simply improved by countless levels.
Just look at the berths at the pier that have been renovated and expanded three times, as well as the densely packed merchant ships anchored near the harbor, and you will know how lively the gold coin capital is today.
Just the fees for berthing and disembarkation of ships is a quite objective figure every day, not to mention the rising operating and commercial taxes.
The permanent population has also surged from just over 100,000 to more than 400,000 now, which seems to be on par with Calimport.
Among them, merchants, nobles and their escorts, entourages and sailors from all over the world account for almost one-third.
The rest are bankrupt farmers, beggars, craftsmen, vendors, adventurers, mercenaries, etc. who pour in from the countryside and other places to find opportunities to change their destiny.
For a long time, the city council has been troubled by the sudden increase in population, the deterioration of public security caused by the increase in population, and the rising prices of land and housing in the city.
As a last resort, we could only use a large amount of tax money to buy land that was originally worth little money from civilians and poor people, and began to re-plan the no-care zones in the Bridge District, slums and dock shantytowns.
Using cheap cement and bricks purchased from Zuo Si, a large number of four- to five-story buildings were built to house ordinary families who were not very wealthy but could provide labor and create wealth.
Because the prices for both purchase and rental are very low, it is very popular among the lower class people.
Of course, don’t even think about things like this kind of house that cost a lot of money such as tap water systems.
Generally, a large public water tank is built in an open space downstairs, with one side connected to the river running through the city and the other side connected to the sewer, with some stones and plant fibers placed in the middle to filter impurities.
Although it will be slightly crowded during the morning and evening peak hours, for the poor who could not even get clean drinking water before and had to live in leaky stilts, this is already considered a rare event since the founding of the Amn Empire.
There’s not much “good governance” left.
Even the Ilmat Church, the God of Suffering, which has never been very interested in the government, secretly praised the greedy six-person Council for finally doing something "human".
It is precisely because the current situation of Ascatra is so good, and the wealth of major families and chambers of commerce is also increasing at an unimaginable rate, so from the perspective of the ruling class, it is best not to make any big moves.p>
Otherwise, once this prosperous development is interrupted or causes any negative effects, the losses will be huge.
It has to be said that the short-sightedness of the business class and capital is vividly reflected in these supreme rulers of Amn.
Just like when they sold the battleship dockyard, which was losing money instead of making money, to Zuo Sixu, all the workers were sold en masse.
To be continued...