Chapter 359: An Expert on the Natives

Piers Haldane was among the first to respond.

[Piers Haldane: How fortunate the Crown Lords are. A chance to hunt in the Outer Realms whenever they please. I envy them.]

[Nerissa Vaust: Indeed. If Lord Cassian says the area is safe, he must be certain. The Crown Provinces should make the most of this opportunity.]

For once, neither offered a word of mockery.

They did not believe him. They simply hoped everyone else would.

The dangers of the Outer Realms had already been proven. If the thirteen Crown Provinces sent their Lords out in great numbers at Cassian’s urging, those Lords would die in great numbers too. His enemies could win without lifting a finger.

But even within the Crown Provinces, few were ready to believe the announcement. Fewer still were willing to risk their lives on someone else’s assurance.

Had anyone other than Cassian made the claim, the Channel would already have drowned them in abuse.

Then the seven Valcrests, Tobias, Dain, and the others who trusted him completely began announcing that they were forming groups to leave.

Lana spoke up from Hidden Dragon.

[Lana Whitmere: I trust Cassian. Anyone in Hidden Dragon who wants to go to the Outer Realms, register with me now.]

Before long, Gates began opening throughout the designated part of Pandora Forest.

The bolder Lords from the thirteen Crown Provinces stepped through in groups, watching the unfamiliar trees with caution.

[No native Lords here so far.]

[None here either.]

[I’ve found a Region with five Fortune. It’s empty. There’s no one in it.]

Reports passed through their respective Channels. At the first sign of trouble, they were ready to open Gates and flee home.

Half a day passed.

"It’s true. It really is!"

Lana had been collecting reports from her Province’s scouts. Now she could hardly contain her excitement.

"We’ve explored thousands of kilometers of forest without finding a single native Lord. Their Regions are empty too!"

The other Crown Provinces soon reached the same conclusion.

Lana no longer had any doubts. She took out an Expedition Writ.

"Relocate the Domain."

A pillar of golden light descended. When it faded, her Rank-XVI fortress stood among the ancient trees of Pandora.

An Expedition Writ moved a Domain into the wilderness while preserving the benefits of its original Region and its assigned Capital site.

A million Elven Lords had moved toward Pandora’s frontier, leaving more than a thousand Regions empty. Maereth had not opened them to immigration, however. Even an Advanced Relocation Writ could not let a Homeworld Lord settle in one without permission, unless the Lord forced an entry.

Nor would permission have made ordinary relocation attractive. Becoming residents of those Regions would mean giving up their status and bonuses as Homeworld Lords.

Expedition Writs let them bring their defenses while keeping what they already had.

As more empty Regions were discovered, the last doubts began to ease. Lords from all thirteen Crown Provinces started moving their Domains into the forest.

——

Outside one fortress, more than a hundred Giant Chinchillas hurled themselves against the defenses.

They were around Level 105. Monsters of that Level posed a deadly threat to ordinary Lords at this stage of the sector’s development.

They cleared the moat with ease and ran up the vertical walls as though crossing open ground. Each blow they struck drove a deep dent into the Barrier.

But that was as far as they got.

"Knights, hold them!"

The young Lord stood behind his defenses, shouting orders.

"Marksmen, concentrate on the one at the far left!"

Another monster fell.

"Sixteen Outer Realm Kill Points!" He laughed. "Keep going!"

He was an ordinary War Lord from Divine Province, with one Epic Hero and two squads of Epic troops. Without his Domain’s protection, he would never have dared come to the Outer Realms.

Behind its defenses, he could hunt Level-105 monsters despite the gap in Levels.

In less than twenty minutes, the entire pack was dead.

"Several hundred points from one fight!" His laughter rang across the wall. "Divine Province is going to take first again. Two hundred to every attribute this time!"

The third Provincial Ranking offered twice the rewards of the second. Every Lord from Divine had reason to work hard.

He sent his workers out to gather materials from the bodies, then turned to his Shadow Dancers.

"Go lure in the next group."

"Yes, Lord!"

Similar scenes unfolded throughout Pandora Forest.

Cassian kept watching the reports. Once he had seen how the hunts were developing, he posted a few rules in the Homeworld Channel.

[Cassian Vale: War Lords without Legendary troops must remain within ten kilometers of their Domains. Whenever possible, fight from behind your defenses.]

[Cassian Vale: If you encounter a monster you cannot handle, post your coordinates in the group chat immediately. Someone will come to support you.]

An operation involving a million Lords—a million War Lords—could never remain secret. He saw little reason to pretend otherwise.

The Western Beacon, Black Banner, and Jade Court Lords watched in growing confusion.

[They all seem so excited. Could the hunting grounds really be safe?]

[Piers Haldane: This is another of Cassian’s schemes. Remain calm. Above all, don’t act rashly.]

[You think hundreds of thousands of Crown Lords are all putting on a performance?]

Nerissa supplied an explanation.

[Nerissa Vaust: He’s committing everything. Gathering all thirteen Provinces to occupy one piece of land.]

[Nerissa Vaust: As for this supposedly safe area, he was lucky enough to find some barren territory the native Lords abandoned.]

[Nerissa Vaust: Give it a few days. Once the natives discover the invasion, they’ll attack.]

The Shattered Marches were boundless. Some lands were rich; others had few monsters and little worth gathering. Her explanation sounded reasonable enough.

The doubters settled down to wait for the Crown Lords to be driven out.

Meanwhile, those Lords kept earning points.

——

A week passed.

In the same meeting room, Gavin Roswell’s patience finally broke.

"Damn it!"

He looked around the table.

"Every report says the same thing. Homeworld Lords in that area are not being attacked by the natives. And Pandora isn’t barren. It’s overflowing with monsters and resources."

The others wore equally grim expressions.

"If this continues, the thirteen Crown Provinces could take every place in the top ten of the third ranking."

"Could Cassian have reached an agreement with Pandora’s Lords?" Merris Velisse asked softly.

Merris had now been confirmed as a Divine Servant of Lust.

"Impossible," Gavin said at once. "Every Province has been trying to negotiate with native Nations. We all want land where we can hunt safely. And look how that has gone..."

His gaze slid toward Piers. There was a trace of malicious satisfaction in it.

Piers’s expression soured.

Very few people knew the details.

Concord Province had taken the Outer Realm campaign particularly seriously. Its representatives had approached more than a hundred native Nations before, three days earlier, they finally received what seemed to be a favorable answer.

An Ogre Nation had agreed to rent them a tract of hunting land spanning five thousand kilometers.

The Concord Society paid a trillion Aether.

Ten thousand of its Lords moved their Domains into the area. As soon as they had arrived, the Ogre Lords tore up the agreement and used Spatial Lock Scrolls to seal the whole region.

Every one of those ten thousand Lords had become food for the Ogres.

Concord had lost the people, their forces, and a trillion Aether.

They had at least considered the possibility of betrayal. Neither the Province’s strongest Lords nor its senior leadership had joined the first expedition.

That offered Piers little comfort now.

Afterward, no other Province had dared trust a native Lord’s promises. Their expeditions became brief raids. If they encountered a native Lord, they fled immediately.

"Wait a little longer," Nerissa said through clenched teeth. "Perhaps Pandora’s natives are waiting for a bigger catch. They could attack at any moment."

Another week passed.

At last, even they had to accept it.

"Cassian really reached an agreement with Pandora?" Nerissa sounded unable to believe her own words. "How did he do it?"

Piers’s eyes gleamed.

"If Divine Province’s Lords can hunt in Pandora, why can’t we?"

Corven Talcrest frowned.

"Because we haven’t reached an agreement with Pandora, Lord Haldane."

"Hmph. It’s remarkable enough that the natives surrendered the use of their land. They won’t care which Humans are hunting on it, and they certainly won’t help Cassian."

Piers raised his voice. As if that were not enough to convince them, he struck his chest with a hand.

"The Concord Society has dealt with more than a hundred native Nations. No one understands the natives better than I do!"