Chapter 607: The Women’s Plan

"Stone, give me the needle cartridge for Rain of Thousand Needles!"

Still riding the high of his victory, Marcus handed the needle cartridge to Princess Celeste. She took it with both hands and examined it closely, unable to hide her amazement.

"Stone, I can’t believe you actually have a piece of lost history. Rain of Thousand Needles. That’s incredible..." She turned the cartridge over several times, studying its construction.

"The most important part of Rain of Thousand Needles is this cartridge. Its design is extremely complex, and making one requires many rare materials. According to legend, the Misty Moon Palace originally crafted six of them. Most were lost or destroyed over the years. I never thought I’d actually see one of the surviving cartridges, much less that you would have one..."

’Six?’ Marcus was stunned. If six players could use Rain of Thousand Needles at the same time, the combined damage would be terrifying. Even a Super Divine Beast might have trouble surviving a coordinated attack like that.

The nine great sects of Dominion really were on another level, and then another thought occurred to him. ’What if I somehow managed to collect all six cartridges?’ Just imagining six Thousand Needles firing together made him grin.

"Stonehaven, once the Shadow Needles have been fitted, I’ll have them delivered to you."

With the Heavenly Thunder Leopard Horn secured, Princess Phoenix was ready to leave. Before she could say anything else, however, Celeste quickly spoke up.

"Sis, after Stone activates the Twin Wing Island teleportation array, let’s deliver them to him together. We also promised him a Chain Attack Skill Scroll."

Princess Phoenix considered it briefly, then nodded. Celeste turned back to Marcus.

"Stone, the Level 90 Thunder Rage Beasts in Ten-Thunder Valley are difficult to deal with. You’d be better off hunting the Level 70 Thunder Beasts in Thunder Dragon Ravine and collecting the Millennium Thunder Beast Horns from their corpses. Just be careful. The drop rate is low, and you need Advanced Gathering to extract the horns. You should start as soon as possible."

Marcus blinked. ’Advanced Gathering?’ The Dragon Emperor had never mentioned that requirement, and had only given Marcus ten days to complete the task. ’Damn. So that was the catch.’

The Dragon Emperor clearly had no intention of making things easy for him. If Marcus had not already reached Advanced Gathering, he would have been stuck. Fortunately, he had.

"Got it." Marcus nodded. He would activate the array within ten days. Once he completed the requirement, the Dragon Emperor would have no excuse to refuse him Dragon’s Roar Town.

"Stone, we’ll be going now..."

Celeste hesitated before leaving, then added, "Get the array activated soon. Once you do, my sister and I will come find you. We can go to Twin Wing Island together and collect the True Flame Cloud."

"Deal." Marcus nodded eagerly. Princess Phoenix had not objected, which meant the plan was settled.

Marcus liked doing quests with beautiful women, and this one would give him plenty of time with the two princesses. Next time, he would have to make some progress with Celeste. At the very least, he was going to get that first kiss. The thought alone put a grin on his face.

"Stone, see you soon."

Celeste waved goodbye. She and Princess Phoenix then activated their Town Portal Scrolls and disappeared in a flash of light, returning to the palace.

Marcus followed shortly afterward, teleporting back to his mansion in Dragon’s Peak Citadel.

"Marcus, you got the leopard horn?"

"Bro, that’s amazing!"

The women waiting on Dragon’s Roar Isle immediately erupted into cheers when they heard the news. Moments later, they activated their own scrolls, and one after another, they appeared beside him.

With the Heavenly Thunder Leopard defeated and the horn secured, they could finally activate the teleportation array. There was no longer any reason to worry about the enormous distance to Twin Wing Island or spend time figuring out how to get there.

Everyone gathered around to look at the golden Lord of Dragon’s Roar token and the newly acquired Heavenly Thunder Leopard Horn.

Amber smiled at Marcus. "Bro, leave Twin Wing Island to me and the girls. We’ll handle the planning and management. We’ll turn it into the most popular place in Dominion, with everything people could want."

"Perfect." Marcus nodded. That was exactly what he wanted.

The women were all students at Crestwood University, and none of them were the type to sit around doing nothing. More importantly, the women around him were all capable in their own ways.

"Alright, then. I’ll head out and hunt the Millennium Thunder Beast Horns. Anyone coming?"

"Marcus, we need to start planning first." Talia immediately stopped him. "We’re going to turn Twin Wing Island into a full-service destination. Tourism, dining, entertainment, monster hunting, everything. We need to get started now."

Marcus looked at her. "So no one’s coming?"

"We have work to do." Talia gave him a firm look.

The others nodded in agreement. They had another reason for being careful about leveling. None of them wanted to climb too high on the player rankings and attract unnecessary attention. For now, building up their territory was more important.

"Okay. I’ll go solo, then..."

Marcus had no idea that the women, especially Anya, Chloe, and Talia, had already discussed what they wanted to do. Twin Wing Island was not just another territory to them. They intended to use it to help Marcus establish something substantial within the game, something that could eventually draw the attention of even their powerful families.

If they wanted their families to take their relationship with Marcus seriously, they needed to show that he was capable of building something of his own. Only then would they have a real chance of staying together.

Marcus, meanwhile, had no idea what they were planning. He changed into his casual gear and left the mansion, making his way toward Boss Blaze’s shop.

The moment Drunkard saw him, his eyes lit up. "Stone! Hurry up and show us the recording!"

After the explosive discussions on the forums the previous day and all the attention surrounding Princess Phoenix’s quest, Path to Heaven had already begun running promotional advertisements featuring the princess. Naturally, they had been waiting for Marcus’s recording.

Marcus opened the footage with a grin. "Now that’s a chain combo..." The recording showed Princess Phoenix’s Phoenix’s Fury Chain Combo from two different angles, capturing the entire sequence clearly.

"Stone, that’s insane!" Drunkard and Invincible Strong were both excited. "A chain combo that powerful? This recording is going to become a classic training video."

They carefully edited the footage, keeping the most important combat scenes featuring Princess Phoenix and Princess Celeste while showing the battles against the Mythic Beast Heavenly Thunder Leopard in Ten-Thunder Valley.

The final recording was given the title:

Phoenix Knight Princess Phoenix’s Chain Combo: Phoenix’s Fury Chain Combo

Marcus made sure the footage did not linger on Celeste any longer than necessary. There was no way he was going to let every player in Dominion sit around staring at his Princess Celeste, and Princess Phoenix, too.

After the recording was released, it would average and estimated four views per player across the server. Princess Phoenix’s devastating chain combo would leave players stunned. It would quickly become a benchmark that countless players would want to reach, and many will even begin studying the recording to figure out how they could reproduce the technique themselves.

"Stone, why does it have to be Level 70..." Drunkard stared sadly at the Heavenly Thunder Drill dagger in his hands.

Marcus could only shrug. He turned around and left.

Next stop: Thunder Dragon Ravine. He still had to collect one hundred Millennium Thunder Beast Horns.