In late October of the year 1360 in the valley calendar, the forest kingdom of Cormyr had begun to enter winter. The sea breeze blowing from the shore of Long Lake was getting colder and colder. According to past experience, in a few weeks, the first snow of the year would arrive.
will come.
At this time, the autumn harvest of farmland across the country has been completed, and Cormyr has begun to enter the slack season. People are making final preparations for winter, slaughtering livestock, sewing clothes, and repairing houses.
Year after year, no matter what happens in the wilds of the country, to the farmers hanging their heads in the fields, everything does not seem to be much different.
But this year's Sousal is not peaceful.
On the surface, the royal city of Cormyr is still under the strong control of the Queen Regent after the winter. After experiencing the catastrophe of the Saint, the Goblin War in which Asan IV died in battle, and a series of turbulences when the Queen Regent took over the palace, it seems that
Finally able to spend a peaceful midwinter festival.
However, one wave came after another, and just in late October, two strange things happened in the royal city.
The first thing was that a night watchman discovered the bodies of two Queen's Blades in an alley in a wealthy area. The night watchman was shocked and quickly reported to the royal family and waited for a major earthquake that would affect the whole city.
They were all terrified, fearing that the Princess Regent would be furious because of this.
Surprisingly, Alice Sayre had no reaction to this matter. The regent princess just said lightly that she understood.
The second thing was that two days after the two Queen's Blades were killed, one of the clubs of the famous Mashanbai "Silver Falcon" Chamber of Commerce was attacked, and more than thirty people in the club were killed.
The Silver Falcon Chamber of Commerce is one of the main sponsoring chambers of commerce for the Crown Princess’ husband, Duke Kaspar.
The nobles of Cormyr began to look forward to whether this would create a new political storm.
The ending disappointed them again, and Duke Caspar said nothing.
At this time, everyone felt that there was a huge whirlpool hidden under the calm Long Lake. Both sides were accumulating strength and looking for opportunities. Both sides were waiting and were careful not to break the balance.
Aaron received no instructions from the regent in these matters.
Aaron knew that Alice Searle was protecting him and did not want him to get involved in the political whirlpool prematurely.
The other faction didn't dare to do anything to Aaron. Just because Aaron could summon the incarnation of gods and reached a contract with the dwarves, it was difficult for anyone to dare to attack him directly.
Both sides of the struggle currently treat him as if he does not exist, and Aaron himself is happy to be at ease.
On a quiet night, after dinner, Aaron sat in his study. He opened the window, and the cold wind blowing in his face shocked him. The viscount held a quill and began to write and draw on the parchment.
He listed what he wanted to do next.
First, Aaron wrote the first line "Prepare enough start-up capital" and put a √ on it.
After these several adventures, he harvested the Nese Scroll and signed a contract with the Dwarf God King Moradin. Aaron has absolutely no problem with starting capital. His current net worth is conservatively estimated to be 50,000 gold lion coins.
Above, this amount of money is enough for him to use for a period of time.
Moradin told Aaron that the dwarves needed some time to prepare.
The concept of time between dwarves and humans is different. Dwarves can live for 400 years, and legendary dwarves can live longer. So the "a little time" that Moradin said, and considering the impatient dwarf god-king, Aaron thinks that it will take at least one or two.
Years are enough.
One or two years...it's still acceptable.
In the second line, there is a "?" above the words "Improve your own strength".
After returning to Susar, Aaron's strength has become an elite mid-level "Chaos God Warlock". The power of the Secret Keeper's transformation has also been proven in previous battles to be able to fight against master-level enemies in a short period of time.
For Lun, the current situation is enough.
More importantly, Aaron has already started writing "The Second Book of Salian". After obtaining the fourth-ring spellcasting ability, Aaron learned two new fourth-ring magics from the power of Tzeentch and the power of Slaanesh.
The first magic is called "Tzeentch's Stealing Spell".
Tzeentch's Stealing Spell: Four Rings of Magic.
Casting Time: An action performed when you see a creature within 60 feet of you casting a spell you know.
Materials required to cast the spell: None.
Through Tzeentch's control over magic, Aaron can immediately control a 4th level or lower spell being cast by a creature. He can choose the area of effect, target, or control of the effect for the spell. If the spell requires concentration,
Then Aaron also needs to maintain concentration for this spell.
If the opponent's magic is lower than level 4, it will succeed directly. If the opponent's magic is equal to level 4, Aaron needs to compete with the opponent for control of magic elements.
The object of the stolen spell will suffer necrotic damage from the magic backlash. The higher the magic level, the higher the backlash damage.
The subject will be affected every time they cast a spell until they are free of the backlash.
Tzeentch's stolen spells can be cast at higher levels: that is, if Aaron can release magic of level 5 or higher in the future, he can also control the opponent's higher-level magic, but this magic cannot exceed what Aaron can release.
The highest level magic cannot be magic that Aaron does not know.
The second magic is called "Dance of Slaanesh".
Dance of Slaanesh: The Four Rings of Magic.
Aaron can call upon the power of Slaanesh, summoning the shadow of the Slaanesh demon to influence creatures with normal hearing and normal IQ within 15 feet, luring them to dance together.
Creatures who are tempted need to pass a charm attribute saving throw (a head-on collision with Aaron's charm). Those who pass will not be affected. Those who fail will be unable to control themselves and dance with the demon of Slaanesh, and will generate strong energy during the dance.
Hallucinations and gradually losing sanity.
Aaron can continue to focus on casting spells to make the Slaanesh Demon continue to dance, which can last up to 10 minutes.
You can also release it and let the Slaanesh Demon do its thing. The Slaanesh Demon will dance in place for 10 seconds and then disappear.
Those affected will wake up after taking substantial damage.
Neither of these two chaos magics are powerful output magics, but they are both very useful to Aaron. The former is specialized in restraining mages, especially ordinary spellcasters who only master familiar magics.
The latter is a special skill for controlling large groups, specifically to restrain melee fighters who rush in the face.
After learning these two new magics, Aaron's life-saving ability has been greatly improved.
But this incident also reminded Aaron.
This adventure in the ruins of the Serpent Empire made him realize that if he continued to rely solely on the power of Tzeentch and Slaanesh, the power of Khorne and Nurgle might never be unleashed.
The four gods of chaos are like this. If you pursue the gift of one of the gods, the other three gods will hate you. If you rely too much on one of the gods, the other three will close the door to you.
Aaron has relied a little too much on the power of Slaanesh and Tzeentch these days.
For him, continuing to develop the divine sparks of these two Chaos Gods is no longer of great significance. The most important thing at the moment is to determine the path he will take in the future.
The best way is to advance the power of the four gods together, use the priesthood of Chaos to become a god, absorb the divine spark, and become the God of Chaos Undivided, which is the fifth god of Chaos.
The worst path is to push the power of one of the gods to the extreme and become a slave god of Slaanesh or Tzeentch.
There is no doubt that Aaron wants the first item, not the second item.
If he sticks to the "power of Slaanesh", Aaron feels that even if he becomes a god, he will be a "weak divine power" at best, unless he intends to fall out with the Silver Virgin Suellen and the fire-haired lady Sune and seize their priesthoods.
This is impossible. No matter from the perspective of conscience, morality, laws, interpersonal relationships and future development interests, Aaron cannot do such a thing. Su Lun Mama is very good to him, so of course he must be ruthless.
Repay Him harshly.
Moreover, the power of a single Slaanesh is not to mention the four gods of chaos. Even Slaanesh, the weakest of the four gods, beating Aaron must be like a father beating his son.
It's true that father beats son. No matter how weak Slaanesh is, he is at least a powerful god. Along with the gods who are not good at fighting, his followers are spread all over the multiverse.
Wait, you still have weak divine power? You are overthinking, Aaron Salian!
Aaron laughed at himself.
Isn't this just like planning how to spend 30 million if you win the lottery jackpot, and calculating every expense, and now you are just short of winning?
Isn't this just like the post-Three Kingdoms era, when Sun Quan proclaimed himself emperor and discussed with Zhuge Liang how to divide Cao Wei's eight states equally. Even disputed areas like Sili agreed to be divided in half. Now can we start to attack Hefei?
You don't even have master-level strength now, so you just want to become a god, right?
Aaron slapped himself, took a quill and drew it casually, and continued writing.
The third line "form your own team".
Aaron wrote several names below, namely "Eleanor", "Foujar-Wilham" and "Cousin Robert".
For Aaron, Eleanor was close to being a piece of meat in his mouth. With Su Lun's endorsement, Miss Pastor was unlikely to leave Aaron without seeking his own death.
Aaron is not in a hurry to eat this piece of meat, because if his strength improves a little more, he can have the "Blessing of Chaos". At that time, Aaron plans to give it to Eleanor through internal injection, giving all the benefits to her, and the corruption will be solved by himself.
, Miss Pastor can get the best.
Her gentleness, her seriousness, her golden braid hanging down the back of her head and her little coquettishness when she gets along with her are the eternal white moonlight in Aaron's heart.
After what happened before, the dwarf craftsman Foujar has now become silent and hard-working. He swore in front of Moradin that he would work seriously for Aaron as his subordinate. This dwarf has now put away his pride and greed.
Aaron did whatever he said.
He knew very well that with Moradin's surrender, Forjar Wilhelm would no longer have a place in the entire dwarf society. He could only fulfill the mission of the God King and make some achievements under Aaron's command.
Wash away your shame.
Cousin Robert's talents were limited, but doing clerical work, sorting out information and writing letters was more than enough to serve as a clerk. He promised his aunt and uncle to find a way out for his cousin.
These three are already considered people that I can control.
So here comes the problem.
The fourth line of words "Find a fiefdom for yourself" is followed by a big "×".
Aaron needed a fiefdom, desperately needed it.
Among other things, the powers of the four gods of chaos are all making demands on him, and they all long to have their own symbolic buildings in the kingdom.
Currently, two types of buildings have been unlocked, and even the drawings have appeared in Aaron's mind.
They are "The Theater of Slaanesh" and "The Library of Tzeentch".
Not yet unlocked are the "Great Gardens of Nurgle" and the "Arena of Khorne".
Aaron wants to build a "Slaanesh Theater" first. When the time comes and the logo and name are changed to those of the Silver Virgin Suellen, he can share the blessings and faith brought by this landmark building with Suellen Mama.
.
My good brother’s Grand Theater is great, but the name and holy symbol must be replaced by Su Lun’s Mama’s and mine!
So here comes the question, once you have the start-up capital and money, where can you find the fiefdom?
This is another headache for Aaron.
The Salian family once had a fiefdom, just north of Susar, in the Forest of Kings, which their ancestors bought with iron and blood.
Now my grandfather has paid all of it back, and the land has been transferred to another noble family. My father also signed on behalf of the Salian family at the time. It is now impossible to come back.
You need to find a way to get a new fiefdom. If you have a fiefdom, you can do your own research, build a castle, and establish chaos landmark buildings. If you have a fiefdom, you can form your own loyal guard and establish your own small private group.
Aaron is not very interested in politics, nor does he particularly aspire to be a Roman Emperor, a Knight, a King, a Conqueror, a Lion-Hearted King, a Phoenix King, a Caliph, or something like that.
But even the Eternal Chosen needs its own Sword of Chaos battle group, its own Chaos Champion, Chaos Chosen and Demon Prince!
It seems that we still need to continue to use our brains on the regent princess.
Aaron rubbed his brows tiredly, too many things were pressing on him.
The Viscount glanced at the half-written second volume of Salian's book on the table, which recorded the second and third rings of chaos magic, and began to teach learners how to "sacrifice the true god."
Let’s finish the second volume first.
Aaron continued to write, and the black ink turned into weird and twisted chaotic words under the blessing of his magic power.
"Da~da~da"
There were footsteps outside the door, and the person came to the door of the study, seemingly hesitating whether to disturb him or not.
"Who?" Aaron frowned and put down his quill.
He recognized his cousin Robert from the sound of footsteps.
Strangely, if it was an important matter, Robert would knock on the door directly. If it was an unimportant matter, Robert would probably not bother him.
"Come in, what's the matter?" Aaron repeated again.
The cousin pushed open the door, and the hair on his head brushed against the door frame. Robert instinctively lowered his body: "Aaron, someone sent a message, saying it was from your sister."
I don't know since when, the aura of Aaron's body made Robert more and more afraid. His cousin no longer dared to talk casually like before and regarded himself as Aaron's brother.
Sister? Aaron asked doubtfully: "Which sister?"
"I don't know. It's a battle mage apprentice who came here. He said... Well, I don't understand very well. He said that your sister told you that what you said last time happened to be hers, and that person will go to her tomorrow.
Manor vacation." Robert obviously didn't understand.
Battle Mage Apprentice?
Got it, it’s Miss Charlotte! Miss Warlock is telling him that Alice Sayre will go to her manor by Long Lake to rest tomorrow.
My sister is creating an opportunity for herself to have close contact with the Queen Regent.
"Got it." Aaron nodded.
It just so happens that I can give the Queen Regent a little "surprise" and test her voice.