The Golem Mage

Alec, still shocked that Connan, the Amazon Archer Queen and their army had somehow followed him back into the Origin Realm, forced those thoughts to the back of his mind for now, as he had more immediate matters to settle with old man Iroh.

Iroh first spoke on behalf of the citizens, relaying how happy they were that their king had returned. After that, he quickly moved on to the pressing issues at hand.

He explained that the farmers had already begun harvesting their second batch of crops and, as usual, wanted to offer him his percentage as their king.

However, Alec firmly put an end to that idea, declaring that for the next six months, they would not have to pay him any taxes, the moment he said that, old man Iroh immediately dropped to his knees, insisting that if Alec refused to accept it, the people might get the wrong idea and think their lord did not want them, this act of his just made Alec roll his eyes.

Because of that, Alec had to explain in detail that his refusal had nothing to do with rejecting them. Instead, it was because he planned to create another form of currency that would have to be generally accepted by anyone who wished to become a citizen of his city.

He said that by the time that system was in place, if they were still willing to pay taxes, then they could simply do so with money instead of bringing him food, as he just didn’t feel it was right to take a portion of the harvest the original citizens of his city had worked so hard to produce, regardless of the fact that he now owned the land, with this he was able to get the old man off his back concerning that issue.

After that, old man Iroh also made sure to mention the golden blisters of light that had rained through the air after Alec returned, but Alec already seemed to understand what had caused them and simply asked him to move on to the next important matter.

That was when Iroh informed him that their small city zone borders had been under attack the entire hours he was gone.

At first, Alec assumed it had been the High Orcs making their move against him again. However, Iroh quickly corrected that thought and explained to him that there was also another player on the board now, as another human lord in the Tier 7 realm was also trying to cause trouble for him.

And from the way Alec listened to the explanation, he was able to piece together exactly what had happened, the opposing human lord had deliberately left a portion of his army behind before departing for the Blood Moon Region.

It was obvious that this human lord had been planning to strike Alec’s territory at its most vulnerable moment.

He must have assumed that, like any normal new lord, Alec would leave no forces behind and would take every last soldier with him into the Blood Moon Region, because new lords really don’t have enough soldiers and they are always naive that only the other races were their enemies.

However, when he attacked, he met resistance in the form of Arthur Gordons, who led his Ironblade Vanguard and Iron Revenants summoned units into their very first battle.

The Vanguards were more like heavily armored warriors wielding massive weapons, with the ability to control metal, while the Revenants were more assassin-like, using the metal element in a far more refined and manipulative way.

This was one of the advantages of the synchronization they had gone through. It allowed everything Alec purchased for a city to adapt itself to the mana, traits, and characteristics of the subordinate lord ruling that land.

That was why Arthur’s summoned units possessed those particular traits and perks after he summoned them from the army barracks in his city region.

Though Arthur had still called for support, Endrick and Sophia had also come over with their own summoned units, it was only with their help that they were able to force the battle into a standstill, because the Tier 7 lord had never expected Alec to leave anyone guarding his home.

That was a common mistake many new lords made, and he had clearly been counting on it. If things had gone his way, his army would have invaded freely and stolen whatever they wanted.

He had not been trying to destroy Alec’s City Heart, he had only come to steal the harvested food.

In the Wilderness Region, Alec was the only Tier 6 human lord who had lasted this long. But that wasn’t even the full problem. The moment he became number one on the Tier 6 leaderboard, the nearby Tier 7 lords had already started keeping their eyes on him.

Just like Alec, their lands were dry and poor for farming, so food had always been a constant problem for them. One could even say they were living through a slow plague of hunger.

The exceptional mages and wealthy merchants who had once settled in those cities, hoping that things would improve now that a Tier 7 lord ruled there, had long since left in anger as the food crisis only kept worsening.

Because of that, most of the Tier 7 lords in the Wilderness Region had no choice but to purchase huge amounts of food from lords in other regions in order for the residents of their cities to still have food, and it just so happened that those lords they bought from always sold it to them at outrageous prices.

The truth was, the lords from the other regions were fully aware of the predicament of those forced to remain in the Wilderness—how difficult it was for them to grow food and how poor their harvests usually were—so they never missed the chance to take advantage of them.

So, with the nearby Tier 7 lords already aware of Alec’s location and the fact that his farmlands would begin yielding far better after he topped the Tier 6 leaderboard, one of them finally decided to act before the others could move first.

His original plan had been to steal the harvest while Alec was away in the Blood Moon Region. However, the reason Brandon had not been able to come to Arthur’s aid was because he himself was facing trouble along his own border.

The Red Orcs had also decided it was the perfect time to launch another assault on Alec’s cities. This time, Brandon was the one in charge of the defense, and his summoned units—the Sandbender Soldiers—helped hold the line.

Meanwhile, Knight and Beatrice, who complained every other minute she got, had been sent over to support Brandon at his side of the border with their units, while Agnes remained in charge of everything else during the few hours Alec had been away.