The Golem Mage

Although only a few days had passed since the assault on Alec’s domain, his fame had already swept through the entirety of the wilderness region; nearly every human lord was now fully aware of him.

He had risen to such prominence that even the neighboring beast groups bordering the Wilderness understood that a powerful new human lord had arrived, one they should not dare to provoke except they were at the level of Great Lords, because it has been said that Alec domains have no equals below the Great Lord level.

His ability to endure consecutive waves of attacks and emerge victorious made many realize that he was far from someone they could afford to offend.

Consequently, the neighboring human lords finally caved in on just looking around as neutral lords, as they arrived bearing gifts under the pretext of congratulating him for maintaining his top ranking among the Tier 6 lords of the realm for consecutive weeks.

This, however, was merely a convenient excuse to present their offerings, extend their goodwill, and clearly demonstrate that they had no intention of opposing him, and they hoped he wouldn’t attack them when he wanted to expand.

Yet, upon their arrival, it was Agnes who stepped forward to receive them.

Ordinarily, for these proud human lords of the origin realm who ruled over vast populations, being attended to by a sub-lord would have been seen as a grave insult.

But with the stark reminder of how countless lords perished every single day, they quickly swallowed their pride and stepped off their high horses.

After all, Agnes was a vital figure they all wanted to get closer to, especially after realizing she was not only Alec’s family but also held a high position within his political cabinet, even if it wasn’t particularly expansive yet.

This meant that if Alec ever became a true big shot, maintaining a good relationship with her now would bring them far more benefits than harm.

_ _

Meanwhile, Alec, who had become the talk of the entire region and neighboring kingdoms, finally realized just how much harder it would be if he ever wanted to become a human king of the Origin realm.

After returning that day, he had been highly curious about the incredible strength displayed by the one who called himself a the great shadow lord, prompting him to question his city’s heart AI about what are the difference.

Since the AI contained fundamental information regarding the realm and its lords, Alec was able to uncover the root mystery behind the ’great lord’ title.

As it turned out, every King-level expert possessed immense power, but their realm of cultivation wasn’t the sole reason for it.

This immense power stemmed from the king seals they could create, these seals possessed the unique capability to gather the faith points of their subordinates and everyone under them, enabling them to perform unimaginable feats that could only be characterized as mystical.

One such feat was progressing further after entering the monarch realm.

Cultivation practitioners from the lower realms had always struggled to comprehend how to advance once they reached the status of a monarch realm expert.

In the Five Kingdom Realm, countless experts strove tirelessly to reach the monarch realm, viewing it as the absolute pinnacle of both martial arts and the magical path.

However, for those residing in the Origin Realm, that stage was merely the beginning, the primary issue was that the world energy within these smaller realms was simply too stagnant to easily foster warriors of such a caliber easily and in surplus.

In fact, the world will of the Five Kingdom Realm had exhausted all of its available energy just to elevate a five resident mage to the monarch realm, just to elevate its own status to a world with a monarch realm mage.

These individuals were the one who had been eventually detected by the watcher mages, who monitored the smaller realms and subsequently arrived to take them away.

And they created a rumor that there was one great lord, and he is still known as the great mage of the Five Kingdom Realm.

Although all 5 are rumored to have passed away, however; envoys from the Origin Realm continuously invoke the name of one of all those monarch realm mages whenever they operate within the Five Kingdom Realm, as the local resident showed them reverence more when they believed they were subordinates of those great ancestors of their realm.

They have utilized one name so effectively that it has spun into a legendary tale.

Even though members of the royal clan are privy to the truth, they remain eager to send their descendants to the Origin Realm, which is renowned for housing numerous growing monarch experts as they wanted to build a foothold for when the five kingdom realm eventually merged with it, that way the great powers wouldn’t be starting from the ground.

In smaller realms, advancing to the monarch realm is a privilege reserved exclusively for those deemed the heavenly chosen or highly revered within their clans.

However, the top experts of the Origin Realm have discovered a much faster method to nurture such experts.

By granting individuals prominent positions within cities where they could be widely revered, the continuous accumulation of minor faith points amasses enough power to propel them into the monarch realm when the ime comes, because the realm itself signifies them as kings and kings are those that are looked up too.

Conversely, in the lower realms, the only individuals capable of reaching this stage are those who are already popular in the kingdoms or deeply respected among their clan members, as their existing karmic ties and the collective faith from others are what provide the necessary push forward to the monarch realm.

Unlike those in the Origin Realm who did not have to solely focus their energy on family respect and reverence, as they found it as a much slower route to the monarch realm.

With the human race engaged in a multi-front war, the human emperors who faced these wars saw it as a way to delegate the task of discovering talented mages capable of reaching the Monarch Realm to the King-ranked experts under their command.

In return, they absorbed top mages with immense potential from other smaller realms at intervals, this explained why they were indifferent to the daily deaths of numerous human lords; because to the higher-ups, there was an abundance of replacement lords waiting to step in and fill the void.

Thus, the lives of ordinary lords under a regional king meant very little.

While the King experts were the only ones said to have a ninety percent chance of entering the Monarch Realm in the future, whereas there was a less than a one percent chance among the ordinary lords they recruited to reach the monarch realm if they couldn’t survive the harsh realities of the origin realm.

Then there are the great lords, who have elevated their cities to level 3 and stand just a single step away from becoming king-level experts themselves.

Upon reaching level 3, every lord is bestowed a title by the origin world, connecting them directly to their king as a Great Lord within his court, the pure blooded nobles.

Meanwhile, normal lords operate as low-level nobles who are granted lands by their regional kings to hold a Lord rank, which ultimately expires when that generation ends, like when the lord dies.

The great lords on the other hand served as the highest tier of aristocrats directly beneath the regional king, functioning like dukes who commanded authority over all other minor lords.

If their king went to war, these great lords would spearhead the front lines as vanguards to execute his commands. Furthermore, their positions were hereditary; as long as they could groom a suitable successor before any misfortune befell them, their descendants could inherit and rule their miniature kingdoms with their Token of lordship.

In addition to receiving official titles, massive armies of about a hundred thousand and vastly expanded territories, great lords unlocked a critical advantage at this stage: the ability to imbue their tokens and those of their sub-lords with accumulated faith points which could be used to do many things with one of them being stacking its powers on themselves.

When this power of their Token was stacked on top of their original cultivation realm, it made them significantly stronger than their current realm normally allowed.

Kings and emperors alike had numerous uses for faith points far beyond simply creating King seals, imperial seals, or basic lord tokens.

These tokens and upgrades of some special things in their realms represented only a minor aspect of the mystical feats that accumulated faith points could truly achieve.

While a standard city token simply acted as a key to merge with a city heart and establish lordship over a domain, the seals and tokens from a level 3 city upward possessed vastly superior power.

And one among these capabilities was stacking the power of their seals onto their natural strength, making themselves far stronger and rendering their foundations much firmer, a phenomenon Alec had already experienced firsthand, though he failed to understand its underlying mystery back then when he faced the Shadow Great lord and his guards who seems stronger than they should be.