Chapter 4008: Hidden Game (Part 1) "It seems I fare no better than your friend Jirni." This time, however, Salaark’s desk was covered in old documents and reports that she was compiling in the light of the new evidence Lith had brought back from the Yellow Wind tribe. "Is something wrong, Grandma?" Lith noticed her frown and knew it couldn’t mean anything good. "Yes, but before that, I want to thank you for returning the stolen resources and sharing the cloaking and light-distorting arrays with me. I’m in no shortage of magic crystals and metals, but no one likes being robbed. "The magical formations, instead, are an amazing discovery that will increase the security of my domain. I just need to study them a bit to develop an artifact that will stop the criminal outlaw tribes from eluding the patrols of my children. "Aside from that, their magical legacy is nothing much." The library of the Yellow Wind tribe contained the basic knowledge of all the magical specializations and a few selected, powerful tier four and five spells for each discipline. It was a treasure hoard for a single tribe, but nothing compared to what the Overlord entrusted to each one of her Feathers. Salaark spared no effort to ensure her envoys had everything they needed to protect their people and nurture the new generations of mages. "With your permission, we are thinking about adding the light-distorting and the cloaking arrays to the tower." Solus said. "They would make us nigh-invisible to all detection means and protect our secrets from prying eyes." "They are so good that under normal circumstances I’d break down the tower with Creation Magic and add them to its power core permanently." Ripha looked at her daughter in worry. "As things are, however, the Heart will have to do." Dismantling the tower would have meant breaking its bond with Solus, and there was no telling if it would be reestablished after the modifications, or even if the tower would resume rebuilding the missing floors after being dismantled and put back together in its still-incomplete state. Whatever the answer was, discovering it entailed too many risks that Menadion had no interest in taking. "First, you don’t need my permission. You are free to keep every piece of magical knowledge and all artifacts you found during the rescue mission. The Yellow Wind tribe was outside my law, and so are their possessions." Salaark replied. "Still, I appreciate the thought, and I’m going to reward you and your friends with one-tenth of the reclaimed magical resources. Divide them among yourselves as you see fit. "Second, I wouldn’t waste the precious few slots of the Heart on something like that, Ripha." "I know that the light-distorting array has no defensive or offensive value, but ’waste’ is a big word, Sally." Menadion furrowed her brows. "The Annihilation and the Bastion are indeed more effective, but not having to use them at all is worth the risk. "Lith can always switch them back in the Heart whenever he knows he must go to battle." "And that’s my issue with that." Salaark stood up from her seat. "My Featherlings can’t always know when danger approaches and can’t afford to be caught unarmed. Not when there is a much simpler solution." She handed Lith a sphere-shaped white crystal encased in an Adamant frame. "Put this inside the Armory, and the tower will have access to the light-distorting and the cloaking arrays." "Did you craft an artifact capable of casting magical formations on its own?" Lith stared at the sphere, recognizing it as the priceless treasure it was. "Yes." The Overlord nodded. "Consider it your reward for returning me what is mine and gifting me what wasn’t. Also, don’t get too excited. I didn’t simplify the magical formations, and they still need a lot of energy to work. "Unless you stand above a mana geyser, that sphere is useless. Even when you do, activating it will still drain part of the world energy that would otherwise fuel the other floors of the tower, like the Spark or the Crucible." "But it’s still the same as if the two arrays were part of the tower core, correct?" Solus asked after Lith passed the sphere to her. "Of course." Salaark replied. "I didn’t improve on the arrays, but I didn’t make them worse either. Always remember that the power of a mana geyser is finite, and so is what the tower core can do with it. "There is a reason Baba Yaga’s Bloodhaven and your Starforge are so different. Even if Ripha and Baba Yaga pooled up their knowledge and resources, crafting a tower capable of doing everything Bloodhaven and Starforge can is impossible." "I know." Menadion sighed. "I meant that if I could, I’d replace my hologram array with the light-distorting one. There’s no point keeping them both." "Still, this is a wonderful gift. Thanks, Grandma." Lith and Solus hugged the Overlord, who immediately returned the embrace. "You are welcome, Featherlings." She said. "As for you, Ripha, put my gift in the Thievery, and our friendship is over. All the bonds between us will be broken, and you’ll be nothing but a stranger to me." "Thanks for the vote of confidence." Menadion clicked her tongue, trying to sound outraged, but the thought had crossed her mind, and Salaark knew it. "Now that this is out of the way, I need to talk to you about the reason I’ve summoned you here." The Overlord said. "I’ve thought long and hard about what Meln said to the chieftain of the Yellow Wind tribe, and I can’t afford to underestimate the threat he poses to my turf." "Threat?" Lith asked. "What threat?" "The same one that almost killed Nalrond and Friya." Salaark replied. "The ability of Meln and his Upyrs to go unnoticed even by a Guardian. I’ve checked all the recent records and reports for inconsistencies, and what I’ve found is alarming at best. "Until this moment, I had dismissed the increase in successful raids of the outlaw tribe on merchant caravans and attacks against my border patrols due to bad luck, but in light of your discovery, the picture changes dramatically. "I believe that the intensification of criminal outlaw tribe’s activities across the Blood Desert isn’t just a coincidence. Meln must have visited many of them and offered his blood to their chieftains as he did for Hassar Fellhand. "Whatever their deal is, the criminal outlaw tribes used their Divine Beast form to overpower my soldiers and escape my detection by leaving no witnesses alive. My pieces on the chessboard have been attacked in a game I didn’t even know I was playing." "But Grandma, Hassar and that female mage were just thralls." Solus said. "They had received no training and little blood. They were no threat to us and mere ants to you." "Indeed, yet they almost killed your friends." Salaark pointed out. "Never underestimate the effect of surprise, especially when combined with sheer numbers. Meln would need much more than a few thralls to aim for my throne, but I doubt that’s his goal." "It’s not." Lith shook his head. "Meln made no mystery of his intentions from the beginning. He wants to take revenge on me and everyone he thinks treated him unfairly."