Chapter 1221 - Billis’ Springtime
Billis’ life was exceptionally dull.
Ever since he decided to convert his body into an insectoid form, his thoughts, likes, dislikes, standards of beauty, and life had been upended.
Wine, food, beauties, uncontested authority– none of these things attracted him any longer. The meaning of his life had been twisted and distorted beyond recognition by that ugly, evil Queen Bug. He had lost interest in everything else apart from high-energy meat.
Billis’ unique traits turned him into the most lonesome and conspicuous figure in the Crimson Clan.
He conducted missions alone, ventured into the Black Forest alone, lived in a shelter alone. Even when he was within the clan’s towers, he kept to himself, never interacting with anyone else.
Even so, the terrifying name of the Bug Adept Billis had still spread far and wide.
His ugly, vicious insectoid body, his ferocious, cruel army of insects, and his phantasmal movements made outsiders more curious and fearful of him.
As a veteran core adept of the Crimson Clan, Billis’ fighting power was at the top among Second Grade adepts. He had even, at one point, been the core fighting force of the Crimson Clan when they went to war. However, with the gradual rise of the Crimson Clan, more and more high-grade adepts began to appear. The core of the clan started to shift from Second Grade to Third Grade and was now showing signs of moving entirely to Fourth Grade.
“My lord, since this divine creature once reached Fifth Grade, it must possess an immortal body. If I devour it, my potential will rise from peak Second Grade to Fourth Grade. When that happens, my chances of advancing to Third Grade will be 100%, and my chances of reaching Fourth Grade will also be as high as 60%.”
Greem listened silently. The Chip’s assessment agreed with Billis’ evaluation.
Billis’ most significant problem currently didn’t lie with himself. It lay with the Queen Bug that had assimilated with him. The Queen Bug’s limit was once intermediate Third Grade. However, the forceful reversal of its assimilation with Acteon had caused its potential to fall to peak Second Grade.
With the corpse of this divine creature, it could raise its potential once again. That was well within the Chip’s calculations.
Greem had thought of asking the Death Witches to turn this corpse into an advanced Fourth Grade undead creature. However, the Chip had determined that an advanced Fourth Grade undead creature could not match the value of two future Fourth Grade subordinates!
That was why Greem had opened the doors to his treasury and used these resources to create loyal, high-grade fighters for the clan. Billis might be inferior to Arms when it came to individual fighting power. However, his unusual method of manipulating swarms to devour his enemies often had unexpected effectiveness in certain situations.
No other Fourth Grade adept would dare waste such resources on their subordinates before they could confirm their own advancement. Only Greem had such absolute confidence in himself that he dared to bestow his juniors with Fourth Grade resources, creating so many individuals with the potential of reaching Fourth Grade in the clan.
Even though it was a bit of a waste to hand over half of a divine creature’s corpse to Billis, a mere advanced Second Grade adept, it wasn’t a big deal. A small loss in benefits at the moment was more than worth it for the future of the Crimson Clan.
Greem controlled Arms through the dragonsoul contract.
Greem had to find a method of doing so for the bug adept as well. However, before he even came up with an idea, Billis had already hastily offered up a suggestion.
Bloodsoul combined with a Primal Voodoo Curse.
Methods of control that remained effective at higher grades all had to do with the soul.
This suggestion of using Bloodsoul and Primal Voodoo Curse from Billis was a combination of two spells that affected the soul directly. Judging from this, Billis didn’t seem opposed to having another person control his soul.
Greem had walked too easy a path. He had no idea of the despair and agony that Billis had felt for all these years, the pain of never being able to improve. Without Greem’s help, Billis alone would never have found a way forward.
That was because the resources and items that could solve his problems were not things he could come into contact with at his level!
Rather than stay trapped at his current level and die of old age as a Second Grade, it was better to present his value and become a loyal subordinate beneath a powerful adept like Greem. Handing over his soul and offering up his loyalty with both hands was the best way to gain Greem’s trust!
Thus, it wasn’t a matter of Greem finding a way to control Billis; it was Billis trying his best to offer himself up to gain Greem’s favor.
In all honesty, a single word from Greem would have plenty of individuals willing to offer up their souls for the chance to advance to Fourth Grade. When that happened, Billis would no longer have such an easy opportunity to gain such valuable resources!