The old mayors were stunned by this move. He had bluntly told them that he wouldn't share it and in the same breath, he had single-handedly declared that attempting to make him do so would a terrible punishment.
They all shivered inwardly when they imagined a life as an outcast. It was truly a fate worse than death in this small world, especially for them, so they all took a step back.
"Hahaha! Young Master Draco, there is no need for such things! We were merely trying to do what we felt would be best for our people!" One mayor justified their behavior as he hastily wiped his face.
The mayor who had stood out appeared to be the least intimidated though, as he had been entrenched in power for a long time. He smiled thinly and spoke in a light tone: "However, I think it is too much to deem such a punishment necessary. While I understand that you are likely the inheritor of our Supreme Ancestor, that is just that, an inheritor."
He smiled even wider as he continued: "We recognize your authority and that some of your words and actions may reflect the Supreme Ancestor's wishes, but it remains a fact that you are not our Supreme Ancestor."
"Not to mention as the Supreme Ancestor's only descendants, the last thing their esteemed self would want would be to lose one of us for such a meager reason. Usually, such punishment is doled out only when an unforgivable crime had been committed."
The mayor then bowed respectfully. "Of course, I do not mean any offense or to challenge you in any way. I just feel that such tyrannical actions might hamper your relations with the populace if repeated often."
This was a fellow who had clearly placed all points into Charisma and maxed out his speech techniques. He had told Draco many things in just a few short sentences, a lot of advice, a concession, a warning, two threats, and a plea.
Draco had to admit he had been impressed. This fellow would make a great diplomat for Vita City-State and would work well under Sublime. He deserved to be cut some slack due to his talent, and Draco agreed that a better method could be used here.
As such, he used Species Shift to emulate Norma's Source Origin and increased the output. To him, his resonance with the Treasury simply increased and his connection to many things here grew exponentially.
To the mayors before him, it was as if Draco had transformed into the Refinement God's spirit that they had seen just 7 days ago, only much more intense.
Their faces changed a great number of times, yet none of them hesitated to kneel in obeisance. Their love and loyalty to their Supreme Ancestor were paramount to anything else.
Draco smiled with satisfaction. 'You see this, Norma? You've hardly paid attention to these folks, yet they still love and revere you unconditionally even after all this time. Your life was tough, but you were never alone.'
"The Refinement Goddess, your Supreme Ancestor, the Great Lady Norma, has bestowed everything to me. And I do mean EVERYTHING. For all intents and purposes, I am not just her Inheritor, I am more like a reincarnation or a copy of her."
Draco shook his head. "No, a better term would be that I am a perfect progeny of her life, essence, and Tradeskill path. Do you all understand?"
As politicians, how could they not? Their Supreme Ancestor likely no longer existed, having put her everything into her chosen Inheritor, even her life essence.
In this case, Draco was not merely an inheritor, but, as he had stated, her number 1 progeny. Ultimately, this meant that Draco was no different from the Supreme Ancestor themselves!
As such, the mayors kowtowed three times while loudly shouting: "We greet the New Supreme Ancestor!"
Draco nodded and allowed them to rise. "Also, no need to call me the Supreme Ancestor. Just continue calling me as you did previously. Any objections?"
The mayors acquiesced quickly. In truth, calling such a young fellow Supreme Ancestor felt quite weird, but luckily Draco was thoughtful enough to sort out this issue before it became worse.
"Now I need you to return to your villages and inform our people about the incoming changes. Soon, I will be refining this small world and will take you all out. You will become citizens of my own kingdom in the outside world and many accommodations will need to be made. I trust I can rely on you all?"
The mayors nodded and made hefty promises in light of Draco's question. Draco himself nodded and waved them away as they all left hastily. Vishad and Hoover stayed for a bit, hesitant about how to go forth.
Things had gone out of their reach now. They had hoped for an Inheritor who could back them among the various races, but what had come out was a person who was no different from their Supreme Ancestor themselves.
As such, they didn't even know how to relate to him anymore. As for Draco, he could easily see through their problems and chuckled with amus.e.m.e.nt.
He approached the duo slowly. "Vishad, I need you to do the same for your people. Once outside Evergreen Village shall be treated as the capital of this small world, and will be given an equivalent position when integrated into my kingdom."
Vishad shuddered with excitement when he heard this. It had been every mayor's dream to be above their compatriots, yet Draco had exceeded such a simple wish by such a large margin the Lizardman had become speechless. He bowed low to Draco and thanked him profusely before rushing back to Evergreen Village to spread the good news.
Draco then turned to the goatman butler. "As for you Hoover... your duties haven't changed. You shall serve as the head butler for my entire estate. I expect great things from you."
Hoover also shook and was grateful. Being a steward of a mere manor meant for outsiders and being the personal butler for Draco's clan were two seriously different things. They couldn't even be compared on the same wavelength.
Hoover only knew the tip of the iceberg about the Morningstar Clan. He just assumed that since Draco was so great, it was likely that the clan was also excellent.
However, it was far beyond his comprehension. In the future, He would often look back to this day and feel shy that his response had been so exaggerated when he had known almost nothing.
After sorting those two out, Draco sent a telepathic message to Clarent and Qiong Qi, telling them to stand back and stand by. The duo, who had been about to unleash the Armageddon of thefts, were dissatisfied with Draco's message but going against his wishes would not be worth it.
Naturally, they had cursed him the entire time in their thoughts while they went to retrieve all the Advanced Spatial Creation Devices they had planted around the treasury. When they had spent all that time roaming the Inner Section, they hadn't been doing so for fun.
Draco's backup plan in case he would have miraculously failed to get the inheritance was simple. If he couldn't have it legally, he would have it illegally! He and his two evil buddies had intended to rob Norma of her descendants, resources, and everything else before fleeing like dogs!
Fortunately, that was now unnecessary.
Draco teleported towards the edge of the core section, precisely the area where he had handled his Rank Up. There, he saw what he had hoped to see and which got his blood pumping.
It was the wall of impure Origin Energy that had prevented others from entering the core section until the time Norma's ghost opened it for the test. Just to be safe Draco had left that one open.
Draco smiled and placed his hand against the wall of impure Origin Energy, making sure to maintain Norma's Source Origin. Even though it was only an emulation and wouldn't allow him to generate or even store Origin Energy, he still could use it to control the energy itself.
Like that, Draco condensed the barrier of impure Origin Energy that covered that entire space like a dome into a small Origin Crystal. Even though it had previously been impure, after condensation to Crystal form, it became pristine as the one he had received from the Legacy Chest.
This meant that Norma had literally chucked out an Origin Crystal and used to energy to form a barrier. Had Draco not known about the Refinement Tradeskill, he would have believed that Norma was a rich wastrel, but now he knew that Origin Energy had been that hard for her to acquire.
As a Semi-Origin God, she could get whole crystals full of Origin Energy to even use on external matters. One shouldn't forget, the qualification to become Semi-Origin was to be a True God with an iota of Origin Energy within oneself.
This was the stage even Hikari's Dragon-God father had been at. Compared to Norma, he had been like a pauper to a prince, yet the Dragon God had been far more feared and revered.
Draco shook his head and took out the Etz Chaim seedling1. He then placed it next to the Origin Crystal and as he expected, a system prompt appeared. While Draco felt confident he could do it manually, he knew the AI that favored him would bend the rules a bit to make things smoother.
｢System to Player Announcement
Detected Origin Energy Source and Unique Item Receptacle. It is possible to fuse both items and increase the potential and power of the latter greatly. Proceed?
Y/N ｣
Draco naturally chose yes.
In the next moment, the Origin Crystal and seedling floated away from his palms and hovered in the air above him. Lights flashed in the air as the Origin Energy from the crystals flowed out like thunder into the seedling that began to spin crazily.
It shook and reverberated greatly during the process, and it felt less like a fusion and more like Draco was trying to create a forbidden weapon that could rend the world in its entirety.
From a certain point of view, this wasn't exactly wrong.
Soon enough, the light show came to an end, and a glowing Etz Chaim seedling fell into Draco palm. Even without looking too deeply, he could tell that the item he was holding now was fundamentally different from the one he had been holding just a few minutes ago.
Whether it was the look or feel it gave, they were vastly different. Draco held it up to eye level and then decided to inspect its details before deciding what to do next.
｢Universal Seedling – Consumable
Rank: ?
Effect: Allows one to grow a sprout of the Universe Tree within them, opening the foundation of an internal super mini small universe.｣
Draco's hand shook. What he had done was just imbue this seedling with a bit of Origin Energy with the help of the system, but what he got out of it was something he had never even dared to dream about.
He had expected his World Tree to produce the highest quality life force and fruits, as well as have infinite growth potential. That way, he could use it as a base world to keep the members of his Morningstar Clan close by whenever he wanted to move out.
Something like an idyllic resort planet from sci-fi movies. Now, what he held was something greater than that… the foundation of an entire universe!
For reference, the entire Western Fantasy section counted as a universe! Each section of the game was its own universe, and Draco had literally received an item that would allow him to create his own section within a section!
No, since he could leave Western Fantasy and have the universe fused within himself, he would become his own section! A section that could pass through all others and take bits and pieces of them to strengthen itself, creating the ultimate universe!
Draco wasted no time before choosing to fuse the seedling with himself. Who knew if an Origin God saw him in passing and quickly snatched away the seedling? Would he even be able to cry then?
｢System to Player Announcement
Detected fusion item. A merger would be performed in order to validate ownership. Proceed?
Y/N ｣
Draco hurriedly chose yes and his face twisted greatly when he felt the seedling zoom from his palm and strike into his body, right through his reverse scale. The pain made Draco scream like a little girl as he panted and released volumes of sweat.
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Author's Note1: As my second novel, Darius Supreme, has been officially launched on various platforms, I have decided to take a one week break from Guild Wars to build a stockpile for it.
This new novel features a more interesting plot than this one and all lessons I learned and mistakes made with Guild Wars have nee channeled to make Darius Supreme well... Supreme.
Once I return from the one week break, 20 more chapters will be added once a day till we reach 500, where there will be an official hiatus for Guild Wars indefinitely.
The novel will not be dropped, but the priority between it and Darois Supreme will be switched. I hope you all can understand this choice I've made, as this novel has long lost its steam due to backlash over the first 30 chapters and especially chapter 30.
Thank you. ｢Etz Chaim Seedling – Consumable
Rank: Epic (100% effectiveness)
Effect: Allows one to grow a sprout of the World Tree within them, opening the foundation of an internal super mini small world.｣docs.google.com/doc.u.ment/d/1zXqQ7zX7eq4p9iQcHP8FrQHVCcOEWKPPOQgn6OOp4Yk/edit