Chapter 380 - A Genuine Ancient-tier Monster 2

After a day of rest back at the frontier city, Lucia teleported everyone over to their previous campsite near the lake.

Once they got there, everyone went to check their previously assigned areas to clear out any more monsters that might have arrived overnight when they were back in the city.

Angelia went over to the lakeside and quickly called out to her new monster which she humorously named Nessie. After further investigations, or more like after Angelia had asked the monster what it was, everyone learned that the huge aquatic beast was an Ancient monster from the Hydra family, a Hydragon.

It wasn't a genuine Hydra but it was still a genuine ancient-tier monster. Its rank was easily at the SSS rating and it might even be stronger under certain conditions. Unlike the Hydra whose weakness was probably at the heart of the creature, this Hydragon had its weakness situated in its main head.

Its heart would provide it with a nearly inexhaustible source of vitality that���ll regenerate its injuries in due time but once its head was blasted away, it would immediately die. This was the reason why the monster submitted under the threat of having its life snuffed out by Cecil's Over Flash.

Angelia's Nessie turned out to be the monster Overlord of this section of the great lake. There were 5 Overlords that ruled this lake and they each controlled a section. There was an unwritten rule that each Overlord would not interfere in the territories of another. If they wanted to start a conquest of another one's territory, then they could only do it by sending out their underlings who had pledged loyalty to them.

Another piece of information was that the monsters all called the lake Ugvindta in their monster language. In the common language, it meant the sea of demonic depths.

From what Angelia learned, the lake turned out to have a pretty abyssal depth to it. Nessie also informed her that the lake's depths ran through the Midgard Continent and connected to the Malestrom Ocean.

Cecil was intrigued by this little bit of information but it didn't mean much to anyone else since even if they knew that the lake was connected to the ocean, they wouldn't be able to traverse the depths and reach the ocean anyway because of the many underwater threats that they'd most likely encounter along the way.

It was different for Cecil and the others, however, since they had the Hydragon, Nessie. If the Silvaria Kingdom was able to create a submersible vessel, they'd be able to traverse these underwater pathways and get to the ocean.

This endeavor would be postponed for later since they still had to get the nearby areas and waters under their control right now. Angelia's monster wasn't in control of any of its underlings' motives so it didn't have the power to control them into not attacking any of the people that would come later, but it did promise to protect the area near the place where the city would be built so that it would be protected from any aquatic monster attacks.

Angelia did ask her monster whether it would have a problem if her people came and killed its underlings but Nessie only responded to her that it did not matter to him. The monsters that pledged loyalty to it only did so because he was much stronger than them and they needed his protection.

After she had a long chat with Nessie, the monster returned underwater and went back to its home. She'll come and call upon it again when she needed to but for now, it could just do whatever it wanted.

News about their conquest soon reached Kaiser's ears and he proudly announced it to the kingdom. He also immediately had some volunteering craftsmen and citizens move out to the newly acquired territory to go and develop it, he even kindly had a company of soldiers escort them.

He assigned the Heimdall family to oversee the new territory and he ordered Cecil to hurry with the plans to create the Teleportation Formations for each city. For now, Kaiser had the Exploration Group stationed near the area and to keep watch of the surroundings and to receive their people once they get there.

Since this was a joint operation between the Silvaria Kingdom and the Anglaria Kingdom, Kaiser had sent over a message to the Anglaria King and asked whether he wanted to send any of his citizens over to help develop the city.

Kaiser wanted to make this city a place where both of their race's people could live in coexistence. A newly developed area where the people built it up together from scratch would see to it that the population would hold a strong bond of camaraderie with each other.

It was a perfect time for their kingdom's people to grow closer to one another and with Kaiser's timing of sending a few of his citizens over to the Anglaria Kingdom, this was the opportune moment to have them send a few of their citizen's here.

Kaiser wanted to know more about their culture and what kind of specialties each race of beastfolk had so that if he wanted to ask for some help in the future, for example, in matters regarding the industrial side of things, he would know which race he could request from the Anglaria King he should ask for.

When the Anglaria Kingdom's people had come over, he did see a few half-elves and some dwarves, but Kaiser didn't want to be biased and judge a book by its cover. He wanted to confirm whether or not the dwarves were skilled craftsmen just like how those fantasy stories from Earth portrayed them. The stories couldn't be more right, but there was still a need to confirm things.

A few days after Kaiser announced the Exploration Group and the Little Kings accomplishment to the kingdom, he received a new message from the Goldenia family, congratulating them on their recent achievement and Augustus requested a formal meeting with him.

He didn't know what the Goldenias wanted but he figured that it had something to do with either the impending threat of the Faustus Archduchy or their kingdom's recent achievement.

"Hmph, it better be about that Archduchy. If those Goldenias think they can get a piece of the pie from our new territory then they're sadly mistaken if they think I'll let them," Kaiser scoffed in disdain.

Kaiser knew that the Goldenias were opportunists. As long as there was profit to be made, they didn't care if they had to dabble in the affairs of a friend or foe.

Even though he felt disdainful, regardless of whichever one was their motive, he still agreed to a meeting with them. He didn't want to admit it, but there was a very slight possibility that his son may get married to the Goldenia family's daughter who was currently staying with them.

Whether it was intentional or not, Katya had been spending more and more of her time together with his son, Cecil. Although there were no clear indications that the two had grown feelings for each other, but it was only a matter of time at this rate.

Kaiser didn't agree to it since he wasn't an advocate of polygamy or anything, but since his son already had 2 wives, another one probably wouldn't matter to him. Also, Kaiser thought that it was their choice to do it or not and if they truly did love each other, then he could only support them as their father. Kaiser knew that his son had grown up learning the ethics of this strange new world which had now become their home so he couldn't reprimand him about anything. If Cecil wanted to marry Katya in the near future, then Kaiser could only support his decision.

Of course, Kaiser didn't know that his son was somewhat forced into accepting Serilla, but it wasn't something that Cecil or Lucia would say since they now loved Serilla and thought of her as part of their family. It'd be demeaning for Serilla if they went around and announced it.

Well, in other words, Kaiser's worries were unfounded. But since he didn't know this, he still accepted to meet with Augustus. In the letter that the Goldenia family leader had sent him, Augustus wrote that he wanted to inform Kaiser about the other powers of the No-Man's Land who in recent years, have been eyeing the Silvaria Kingdom's power.

This was the only other reason why Kaiser wanted to meet with his longtime enemy. Kaiser hadn't been paying much attention to any other power in the No-Man's Land since he was busy developing his own and he had much of his time back then preoccupied with finding Cecil.

Now that his son was back, he had more time to focus on other things. He needed to know whether or not the other human powers were friendly or were a threat to his kingdom. He was now responsible for the lives of millions of people. If there was a threat, whether it was human or not, it had to be eliminated.

"Matheus, go get Fatima. You two are to prepare for the meeting. Also, bring Cecil back already. We need him to finish up the Teleportation Formations in all of our cities."

"Yes, father. And about Cecil, I already contacted Gabriel and he says that Cecil is still currently busy with the extermination of some monsters found within the lake."

"I heard that Angelia tamed another monster, and it was one of the lake's overlords?"

"Yes, that's what Gabriel reported."

"It looks like we won't need to worry about the new city's protection. Honestly, that Cecil, he went and decided to go build a new city just because he promised Lucia..."

"Heh, he could be a little bit impulsive, but I see this as a pretty good development. This wasn't in the report and I only heard it from Gabriel. He wants this to be off the record."

"Hm?"

"Apparently, the lake seems to be connected to the ocean through large underwater pathways that run from here to the Malestrom Ocean in the west."

"..."

"We can't traverse it yet due to not having an underwater vessel, but we should begin developing one."

"...We're tight on manpower at the moment. Most of our workers are working on manufacturing the kingdom's household magi-tech. The ones who are left are working on the prototype airship that Cecil wanted to build."

"It looks like we'll have to postpone it then. I'm glad that Gabriel was able to read the current situation of our kingdom and left this piece of info off the record. We don't want others to know about this just yet or they'll try doing things on their own and just die meaninglessly. Not many people know about the dangers the waters in this world possess."

"Hmm... well, enough about them. I have to ask, how are you lately? Are things going well with your girlfriend?" Kaiser said, quickly changing the topic to a more casual one.

"...father, do you need to know?"

Kaiser shrugged and said in reply, "Hey, you aren't getting any younger. Look at your brother, he already has two, while you, my eldest son, still hasn't had any..."

"Hey! I do now!"

"Just make sure it lasts."

"..."

Matheus shook his head and quickly excused himself. He went to go find Fatima and informed her of the meeting.