Chapter 260: Chapter 260

Although Haley didn’t ask this time, Irvin spoke up, “But young master... what will this elite team even do to require so many resources?”

His question was purely out of curiosity as he wasn’t able to hold himself back any longer.

“They will be exploring everything on this continent, so I want them to be as strong as they could get,” Ozul answered which surprised the husband and wife who never in their wildest dreams thought that an elite team was created for exploration even when they were an organization based on information collection.

“But what will they be exploring the continent for?” Irvin asked again.

There was only a vague answer from Ozul, “Whatever I ask them to explore for.”

He would rather just directly inform that future elite team. He didn’t have the time nor the mood to explain anything to Irvin and Haley.

“You can go now,” Ozul waved off Haley who bowed her head before swiftly leaving the room.

.....

Irvin stayed back as he noticed that Ozul had only given Haley the permission to leave and not him.

“Start the preparations for moving this headquarters now, Irvin,” Ozul spoke after a moment of a dreadful silence for Irvin.

After hearing everything from Kure, anything could happen in the Neutral Lands, so he wanted to move as fast as possible now. Just that he didn’t know how long it would take.

“How long will it take, Irvin?” Ozul asked because he remembered that it had previously taken a couple of months before finishing this headquarters.

Irvin bowed his head a little in respect and answered, “We already have all the basic resources required to move locations, young master. Now I only need to visit the Ashin family to get the artifact.”

“Artifact to move locations?” Ozul muttered with a questioning face.

Irvin realized that he hadn’t told his young master about this artifact before so he was quick to give a brief explanation, “Young master, it will take us a couple of months to create this same structure with all the formations set up inside and outside in a completely new location.”

He continued after a pause, “That’s why the most prominent factions use these artifacts to transport the already set up formations to a new location without disturbing it!”

‘Hm? That is useful...’ Ozul thought inside his mind.

If that was the case, then it would only require them a few days before they could move the whole headquarters to a completely new location.

And if there was really such an artifact, then he didn’t need to bother about moving the headquarters.

Instead, now he wanted the headquarters to remain in the Neutral Lands for as long as there were people here.

Not everyone could simply migrate to some other location on a whim. Most people didn’t have the resources to move places so suddenly, so he expected that people would take a couple of years to completely move out of these Lands.

Until then, it was best to keep the headquarters running here.

“Is the artifact costly?” Ozul asked as he wanted the Three-Eyed Strangers to have one for themselves for emergency situations.

Irvin helplessly nodded his head and answered, “We will need to have it made specifically for us, and that would require time since we now have enough connections and more than enough funds.”

Ozul told him not to proceed with moving the headquarters and instead told him to contact the Ashin family to have their experts build one such artifact for them.

This artifact couldn’t just teleport things from one place to another. Things were much more complicated than that.

In fact, they would have to physically carry the formations as a whole from this place to where they wanted to move the headquarters. What made this artifact useful was that it preserved those formations which would have instantly broken apart otherwise.

Creating a tower like this wouldn’t take so much time as they would need to organize all the formations from the scratch.

After giving Irvin a few more instructions, Ozul also gestured him to leave. Although he had planned just a nap previously, he wanted to sleep more now.

Even after closing his eyes, he couldn’t help but think about the ruins marked on the old parchment inside his Spatial pouch.

He mentally told himself that he would visit it before the five years of time given by Old Gu. He had a feeling that he might find something interesting there.

‘I also have to start their training,’ Ozul sighed before he shook these thoughts of his mind.

About his practice, Blaze and Raven’s training, these ruins, and the matters of the organization; he would think about them after he had rested enough.

——-

While Ozul focused on having his long-awaited naps again, two people in a conspicuous white structure were having a discussion about him.

At this time, Lammert was summarizing the reports of the Church’s losses after the Three-Eyed Strangers started selling that extra piece of information on their regular offer.

“Not only does that brat have the guts to go against the Church, he even had the gall to declare that he killed Luthien in self-defense!” Lammert ground his teeth as a ferocious expression took place on his face.

Meanwhile, an old woman sat in front of Lammert with her legs crossed and closed eyes.

While Lammert kept on shouting and kicking the air in a rage, the old woman with visible wrinkles on her face didn’t move a muscle.

However, Lammert’s voice got louder the more she stayed silent. Her eyes twitched before she opened them and glared at him.

“Stop yapping!” Darcia raised her voice, instantly causing Lammer to shut his mouth as his legs began to shake from the sheer terror that tone brought to him.

“These small tricks don’t matter considering the bigger picture. He is doing things so openly because he knows that we wouldn’t dare to do anything to him because of that old man... and he is right,” Darcia spoke without moving a muscle from her spot.

Her deadpan face made Lammert feel as if she didn’t even care about how they were helpless and couldn’t make a move against that brat.

“If that old demon realizes that I went after his ‘candidate’, he wouldn’t leave the matter as it is even if I am a Rank-10 Mage. I will probably suffer severe consequences. Though considering his nature, ‘severe consequences’ is an understatement. He would probably just kill me,” Darcia spoke as her tone darkened after each sentence.

Though her casual acceptance of the fact that Old Gu could kill her anytime he wanted, made Lammert look at her with wide eyes.

Darcia was the only person in this world that he would be so respectful of, and now, this person was saying that she would be killed if she made a move against some newborn puppy caused Lammert to feel embarrassed.

“Don’t look at me like that brat. You are centuries too young to understand the disparity of power between me and that old man,” Darcia certainly looked annoyed.

Though before Lammert could explain himself, she let the matter go for now and said, “How is it coming along?” She emphasized ‘it’, indicating something that only she and Lammert knew about.

“It is coming along great, ancestor,” Lammert hurriedly answered before proceeding on, “Though those incompetent fools might need a couple of years before they finish making it.”

“Few years? I don’t have enough time. I want it under four years and that is final,” Darcia waved her hand and made the demand with her half-closed eyes.

Although she couldn’t hope to go near Ozul right now, it would be a different matter if no one ever found out how he had disappeared. And she planned to do just that.

“Together with that, keep an eye on that brat. If you see him leaving the Neutral Lands, inform me immediately,” Darcia ordered to which Lammert nodded his head like a chicken.

If one were to observe Darcia from up close right now, they would notice how her eyes were a little redder than usual.

“Until then, I will continue to absorb that wisp of smoke,” Darcia stated with a ferocious smile and continued while grinning, “I might not be that old man’s match right now, but it will be a different matter altogether once I break past Rank-10.”

To her side, Lammert also nodded his head in agreement. He knew the gist of what was happening and had seen how the ancestor’s aura became oppressive the more she absorbed that black smoke released from the severed right hand of Ozul.

“But ancestor... are you sure you will reach that old man’s power after the breakthrough?” Lammer asked worriedly.

He worried because like others, he also feared that the old man could be a deity that they would never hope to match.

“Don’t worry about it. That old man is definitely not some god. If he were, why would he bother to stay in the mortal lands?” Darcia reassured him as she thought that Old Gu might just be someone above Rank-10, a realm that only a few ever reach in the entire continent, so they might be unaware of it.

But it would probably not be compared to being a deity like how her grandfather had ascended.

She planned to breakthrough Rank-10 and reach this secret realm with the help of Ozul’s arm.

Once that was done, she would have no problem in dealing with Old Gu and she would then have Ozul all to herself!

This was her only chance to ascend to godhood!