Runes of power

The portal opened and Jordan together with Mary, William and several goblins stepped through, today he is going to take the crystals for the upper-rank angel, get the crystals for conquering the town, take the printed coins, and spent more crystals on knowledge, weapons and more.

In the two days, Jordan managed to conquer all the camps that were around the city, now there is only his camp, ´well… camp now sounds quite bad, I will have to think of a name for our new town´

One would think that now when he conquered the town he will be able to rest but the opposite was the truth, with having complete control over the area problems only started, the citizens, for now, are scared to complain but many things can be improved, the free humans either leave or stay and work, those that leave sometimes return scared of what is outside the relative safety of the empty town, and as for the forced workers… they have their quarters outside the wall of the town´s center and everyday work in to build a new wall and earn freedom.

Still, those are only the dwelling problems of humans, not talking about how they cope with living next to beasts and monsters, there were already several incidents of monsters attacking humans but luckily the humans that have been attacked are only forced workers so by killing those that didn't cooperate and promoting those that cooperated Jordan managed to sweep the thing under carpet.

And the problems continued, there isn't enough food as even the mutated plants cant grew fast enough, sure they could try and plant them outside the city but too many people will die as the monsters and beasts roam everywhere. Luckily, the population of the town dropped from 50 000 to around 15 000 so there are not that many mouths to feed, quite a drastic drop that shows how bad the situation is.

Another problem is the mutated covid that rampages in the streets, anyone with symptoms gets isolated and if the person dies the body and the isolated room is directly cleansed with mana fire.

And lastly, the wild goblins… even though they acknowledged him as a leader they don´t exactly behave, they mostly do anything they want, the only reason Jordan didn't kill them is that they are all way stronger than the warrior goblins he bought when considering that the warrior goblins were trained in life and death situations its quite the surprise, the wild goblins have enormous potential so Jordan is currently sending them out to search the outskirts of the town.

At the platform Jordan approached his handler and gave him a bag with few horns and bat wings, those were the body part to exchange for crystals, they come from the other demons that had theirs camp in the town and sadly couldn't be cooperated with, all those demons had the humans as slaves and gruesomely tortured them, to accomplish his goal Jordan can't publicly cooperate with those demons, if he did it would be only matter of time before the whole down betrays him.

With the dictatorship in the town Jordan is on thin ice, he can´t act recklessly before the roots are spread. The humans are used to live in a democracy with equal rights and so on, now with the mana theirs view changed a bit, but they still hope that the good old days will return.

Seeing Jordan, the slime Just took the bag and gave him the crystals, after that Jordan added "before I take the money for the auction… I also conquered the town of Hazleton so I would like the reward" The slime wobbled and then summoned the crystals from the air, the crystals were in a big leather bag so Jordan just threw the back over his shoulder.

As for why it was enough for Jordan to say he conquered the town? It was because of the platform and its magic arrays that prevented anyone from lying, yes there were ways around such as believing that you are right but you would have to be completely sure for that to work, also brainwashing didn't work as there were arrays to discover that, there were also the workers that were checking any suspicious information… when you add it all together there is very small chance to steal from the platform.

After claiming the reward Jordan gave the slime handler the card which he got for the angel body and upon receiving it the slime spoke "the respectable noble demon A´gheros Stamper who won the auction for the angel body would like to speak to you, please step in the portal" and a few moments later gate appeared next to the slime.

Bit hesitant Jordan spoke to the slime "how about my safety?" The slime wobbled and then said "speak politely, make sure you know your place, don't lie and you will be fine" Jordan thought to himself ´well that sucks balls´ "can I just get the money without going there?" the slime "no, rejecting the offer of a visit would be great disrespect, not even the body will be returned upon returned if you reject´

"well fuck me", steeling himself Jordan gave the bag of crystals to William, "wait here" William was a bit worried but he nodded and said "ok", after Jordan quickly checked his looks, as always he was wearing formal cloth so that was fine and he even washed so that should be covered as well after that Jordan stepped through the portal.

The only reason Jordan come was the anti-lying array on the platform but still… he was quite nervous, after stepping through the gate Jordan found himself in a glorious castle, red carpet on the floor, almost too tall ceiling, stone walls made of white stone and lastly smaller version of the teleporting crystal from the platform.

Jordan ignored all that and focused on the demon before him. The demon "good day, I am butler of the honorable sir Stamper, please follow me". To be polite Jordan just kept it short nodded to the butler and said, "thank you" and followed the butler.

After a short walk, they got in a small room and the butler said, "please wait here, representative of our Lord will be here soon" With this, the butler left Jordan alone.

Looking around Jordan was almost scared to touch anything, the table was completely white carved from a single piece of unknown bone, on the floor, there was carped made of angel feathers and the sofa was made of angel skin. Jordan could tell by the smell the soda and the carpet gave off it was the smell of shit he smelt when the angels cast a spell. Still, he didn't know how long he will wait… Sighting Jordan sat down on the sofa.

Surprisingly it didn't take long, short demon with neat black long hair walked, the demon had huge wings and three horn on his forehead, the demon spoke to Jordan "good day, I am here in regard of my lord" Jordan got up and slightly nodded, "good day to you as well, first I would like to apologize for my lack of manners as I am not educated in it" the demon slightly smirked and nodded "it's fine, let´s get to business then, my lord has an offer for you, either receive 3000 crystals for the body of the undeveloped angel or a rune of power of your choosing"

Jordan "rune of power? Can you tell me what it is?" the demon "hmm… you were truly lucky to kill the angel while he wasn't completely matured… the rune of power is a rune that will be imbued to your body, it will act as mana strengthening medium, it carries the meaning and by infusing it and providing it with mana you will be constantly supplied with mana with meaning, the meaning from the rune is top quality and very pure, providing a huge increase in mana strengthening, you won´t have to imbue the meaning yourself and have it spread to your body, the rune will do that for you leaving your mind less strained in fights"

Jordan ignored the biting comment and instead focused on the description of the rune of power. The runes seemed very powerful, just one thing bothered Jordan "what´s the catch?" the demon smiled and said "only minor thing… if you accept the rune we want you to sell any bodies od upper-rank angels to us, do not worry we will give you a fair price"

After a bit of thinking Jordan decided ´crystals can be earned… on the other side I may not get ever again gain such offer to instantly increase my battle power´ in the end Jordan gave in and said "please tell me which runes you have" the demon smiled and silently handed Jordan thin book.

Jordan skimmed through it and after a while he decided on a rune, it was the rune of speed/swiftness/agility, this rune has three levels that can be upgraded from the first one. Jordan chose this rune because it negated one of his obvious weaknesses, despite his strength he was a bit slow but with this, he will effectively make up for it.

Jordan told the demon about his choice and the demon said with a smile "alright, will you get the rune now?" Jordan "how long will it take?" the demon said with an even brighter smile "only a few minutes" Jordan started to feel that something is wrong but still he got this far, hopefully, it won't be something to make him a slave, ´they probably wouldn't go to all those troubles… would they?´

But seeing the castle Jordan decided to trust them, someone with such luxury wouldn't need someone like him, the demon left and after a while, the butler came and brought Jordan to another room.

The room was just like the previous but there was no furniture or carpet, there was only a long table with cuffs on sides.

The butler "if you do not trust yourself to handle pain put the cuffs on" Jordan said with a smile of his own "It's ok I trust I can deal with it" the butler didn't say more and only silently waited.