“I am a grandmaster-grade professional cook.”
The moment Priscillia said that, the other cooks sucked in cold air, their eyes wide and their mouths left open even after sucking in the cold air.
“What attracted you here?”
“I heard about the miraculous eggs and corn going around and from the notification board, cooks who are hired would be able to prepare different meals with extraordinary ingredients.”
She replied softly.
“I see. Welcome to Westfall Restaurant, Miss Priscillia.”
………….
After hiring all 10 cooks, 5 waiters, and 5 waitresses, Asher put up an announcement that the restaurant was open for every citizen to eat for free. But it only lasted till nightfall. The cooks were busy preparing what was on the menu, causing a cloud of different aromas to linger inside and outside the restaurant.
People kept trooping in, eating merrily, chatting, and praising their lord till nightfall.
By nightfall, Asher mounted Bezerk and began his journey back with his BloodBlades and 20 King Swordsmen.
Rumble!
Dust rose up in their trail as they ran through the sandy plains in the early hours of the night. The skies were dimly lit as if it was stained with a purple paint. Beyond the clouds that floated about in their never ending journey, were the stars.
After a long time, a dark shadow swooshed past them causing Bezerk to lift its forelegs and neigh loudly. Asher could tell his horse was frightened.
He swiftly reached out for Euodias. His men dismounted, unsheathing their swords as they did. Their eyes move about.
While the King Swordsmen spread out, the BloodBlades came close to Asher who stood in one spot, looking around with a solemn expression. Their horses were still neighing loudly causing their expressions to harden even more.
“It’s a snake.” Nero whispered.
All of a sudden, a creature lunged out for one of the King Swordsmen but Nero blocked it. His swords created sparks as it clashed with the beast’s scales.
“It’s a sand cobra!” Asher bellowed, dashing toward the beast. When he arrived, he swung his sword at its neck but the snake suddenly vanished into darkness. It was strange for a beast that big to suddenly vanish.
In the next moment, a Centrak was caught.
Asher spun unleashing a crimson crescent beam. The snake hissed deeply and it was about to escape when Alex appeared under it, thrusting his sword through its underbelly!
Nero leaped and plunged his sword into the snake’s eyes causing it to thrash about. The thrashing launched them into the air, raising a massive dust cloud. A shadow moved through the dust cloud and grabbed the snake’s tail.
With a grunt, he lifted the beast over his head and slammed it behind him with a great thud. Both the twin swords and Alex’s sword went deep, killing the snake instantly.
Asher let go of the tail, breathing heavily.
As he lifted up his head, he saw his men looking at him with shocked expressions. Clearly, they never thought their lord had this sort of raw strength.
[Ding! Host has slain a sand cobra, a famous desert predator, along with your valiant men.]
[Materials for upgrade found: Sand Cobra’s left eye!]
[Criteria fulfilled. Use the material to upgrade Noble BloodBlade Nero. Yes or No?]
‘Do it.’
Swoosh!
A yellowish light left the sand cobra and covered Nero’s face. Grunting, he took several steps backward while clutching his face.
This was the first time Asher watched an upgrade that looked quite painful. By the time the light died down, Nero was on his knees, panting heavily.
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Asher and Alex noticed the sand around him seemed to have a life of their own. This made the King Swordsmen retreat.
All of a sudden, Nero vanished, only to appear behind a King Swordsman with sand swirling around him like a mini whirlpool.
When the King Swordsman felt Nero’s palm against his back, he spun and unleashed a swift cut out of great shock, but Nero leaned back, watching the blade swoosh over his face.
Like a phantom, he appeared beside King Swordsman and then appeared before Asher with his knee on the ground.
“Thank you.”
“How does your new power work?”
“I can teleport as far as my Dreath Sight range and as long as there is sand; I can also use sand to heal my wounds.”
Asher raised an eyebrow.
“How far is the range of your dreath sight?”
“As I will it. Sometimes 5 meters, sometimes 10, sometimes 100 meters. Max, I can expand it to 1000 meters, but I won’t be able to react much because there will be too much information. But I can freely go anywhere in 100 meters without feeling exhausted.”
Alex’s jaw almost dropped.
This new ability was boosted massively by his son’s talent, making him a formidable soldier. It seems like his son would catch up to his kill count.
Nero’s new ability made Asher smile. He felt even more confident in his plans to head for Tiberias and auction his oil. That was his plan to attract people to head for the outpost.
He wasn’t planning to hide the outpost, not even from Count William.
“What should we do with the cobra’s corpse, Your Lordship? It’s a half-step sacred-ranked beast. Surely, its scales could be used to make great armor for commander Eritrea.” A King Swordsman said when Asher was about to mount Bezerk.
“If we were to cut it, it would take a long while. Sacred-ranked swords can’t even cut through it with ease; how are gold-ranked swords supposed to do any better?” Nero retorted calmly.
He held his left wrist with his right hand and looked at the King Swordsman passively. His demeanour showed that he wasn’t against the King Swordsman but just quoting facts.
Asher looked at the cobra.
His eyes flickered for a short moment. “I’ve informed Sirius. Let’s go. He’ll come get it.”
Nodding, his men mounted their horses and they continued their journey toward Nineveh.
……………..
Boom!
The castle doors were pulled open, revealing their lord to the servants and maids who stood behind Cynthia and Kelvin.
Tapk! Tapk!
Asher’s black boots tapped against the polished ground as he removed his coat. Kelvin hurriedly took the coat and followed Asher, who went straight for his study.
“Have you received information from the outpost?” Asher asked while he ascended the stairs.
“I have. I can only see one problem with it.”
Asher turned.
“What problem?”
“Your outpost doesn’t have a name.”
“Ah!” Asher gasped lightly. “We should find a name then.”
They kept chatting until he entered the study.
All of a sudden, Asher came to a halt and turned to face Kelvin. “We should name it Goshen.”
“Goshen?”
“Yes. That’s the name of the capital of our Great Dukedom that existed centuries ago.”
“Ah, what an iconic choice, Your Lordship.”
Asher sat down.
“I’m planning to head for Tiberias and auction 12 barrels of evergreen olive oil. I’ll pay the auction house to advertise the oil and after 4 different sales, 3 barrels per sale, the fame of the oil should spread throughout the city. At least the officials and nobles should hear of it and come looking for the source, which will be Goshen.”
“What if you are recognized?” Kelvin asked with a worried expression.
“I won’t be.”
When Kelvin finally calmed his worried heart, he cleared his throat. Asher looked at him, sensing there was something he didn’t know about or perhaps he knew but didn’t pay much attention to it.
“Your lordship, the exploring miners have discovered an adamantine mine in the Ash Mountains; it’s about 100 kilometers away from SilverLeaf.”
Asher turned to face Kelvin fully.
His ears rang.
“Adamantine mine!”
“Indeed.”Kelvin nodded with a small smile.
“How big is it?”
“It’s a medium-sized mine. Not like the two large sized silver intricate iron ore mines in the bastide.”
Asher got to his feet.
“This is great news, Kelvin. Our intricate iron ore is one of the metal ores that can form an alloy with every other metal and even create a unique resonance! With Adamantine, I would be able to start the new armor project.”
“That has been covered. The adamantine mine was found 3 weeks ago and 2 days ago, the blacksmiths forged new armor they think will suit the Ashkelon Guards. According to them, it’s a three-layered armor built to be able to resist an arrow shot 40 meters away without sustaining any damage. It can also repel attacks from sharp weapons and it is half the weight of the current Ashkelon armor.”
Seeing Asher’s stunned expression, Kelvin chuckled inwardly.
“Because of the unique resonance which they managed to acquire in the blueprint, the armor has the capacity of a half step diamond-ranked armor!”
“Tomorrow at dawn we leave for SilverLeaf.”
Asher proclaimed with a determined tone. He had to see this marvelous armor that would change the state of the Ashkelon Guards forever. With this new armor, the Ashkelon Guards would surely be upgraded by the system.
This meant he would have a division of 10,000 sword and shield knights of the gold rank armed with half-step diamond ranked full set armor.
With such mighty force, the looming threat of Count William and his powerful noble friends vanished like a breeze.