Chapter 714
Maybe it was the influence of Billis’ conspicuous black garb.
A handsome and dark-skinned youth ran up to Billis and bowed as he said, “Lord Adept, where is it that you wish to go? Bill is willing to serve you!”
Billis looked at the youth with his green eyes and asked in the oddly accented Faen tongue, “How did you know I am an adept?”
It wasn’t odd that he was suspicious. There were many other people like him in the lively market, cloaking themselves in thick robes or traveler’s hoods and not revealing even an inch of their skin as they snuck about.
The fact that a weak native youth could identify him as an adept under such circumstances was clearly beyond Billis’ expectations.
The native youth was momentarily shocked before bowing and explaining with a weird look on his face, “My Lord, we mortals who have been permitted entry into the tower are all required to wear this.”
Billis followed the youth’s eyes and found an odd brooch pinned to the collar of the boy’s shirt. Billis lifted his eyes and looked around to see that everyone was wearing a similar brooch on their chest.
When he closed his eyes, he could vaguely sense the weak magical flux radiating from the brooches.
Of course, this was only natural.
An elf as valuable as a Second Grade couldn’t possibly be imprisoned in such a crude and harsh environment. They had to be concentrated at a higher-class facility. There were agile and tattooed war dancers among these First Grade elves, along with flexible and fast elven archers.
Those who had special abilities–such as elven casters, druids, or beastmasters–were specially selected and enclosed together in a neighboring cage.
In all honesty, if it weren’t for the fact that he wouldn’t be able to bring the entirety of his insect army back to the World of Adepts, Billis would probably have chosen to stay on Garan and slowly devour all of the forest elves, bit by bit.
As a bug adept, his individual strength was still too lacking; he didn’t have too many powerful spells he could use. His swarm and insect soldiers were the deciding factor in almost all of his battles. That allowed him to overwhelm opponents stronger than himself, forcefully wearing away powerful creatures that were far superior to him. However, his insects were not beneficial to his personal strength.
As such, Billis had to find a balance between the improvement of his swarm and the enhancement of his abilities.
His grandest and wildest dream was to own a resource-rich material plane of his own and to transform all the creatures within into his swarm, hoarding all of the resources for himself.
When that happened, he would be the master of the swarm and the one who reigned over tens of thousands of planes. He would be the great bug adept revered by all adepts!
Sadly, he had been taught a cruel lesson of reality after experiencing multiple planar wars. It was no more than a fantasy for him to achieve this dream as a mere First Grade. That was why, for the sake of his future development, he had given up on the hundred thousand-strong insect army he had so painfully raised in Garan. Billis instead chose to bring part of the elites back with him to the World of Adepts.
At this moment, what fifteen elves he should pick became a question he needed to ponder.
Ordinary elven fighters could only be used to hatch swarm insects; only elves who also possessed elementium powers could be used to raise insect soldiers. As such, Billis paid most of his attention to the elven casters and the druids.
Just as he was brooding with indecision, a crass head slaver found the courage to move to his side.
“My Lord, were you willing to give your elf claims to us? We are willing to purchase them at a high price. Moreover,” The slaver head lowered his voice and said, “we can get you things that you might be interested in.”
“Things I might be interested in?” Billis snickered with his hoarse voice and said, “What things could you mortals possibly have that could satisfy me, hmph.”
“My lord, this is a list of our inventory at this time. Why don’t you give it a look?”
The head slaver carefully took out an ancient parchment and opened it in front of Billis.
Billis glanced at the piece of parchment, and his bug’s face beneath the hood’s shadow couldn’t help but betray a trace of shock.
Hm? Why would they have this?