End of the Magic Era

However, further development in the Sten Kingdom would be very hard. All the profitable businesses in the Sten Kingdom were dominated by the business alliances. It was unlikely for a foreign force to rise here.

Lin Yun was already very satisfied with the current progress. Ever since he'd brought 10,000 Universal Cores to the Lincoln Business Alliance, it had been releasing new magic tools in the Sten Kingdom. After all, it was very convenient to apply the Universal Cores to magic tools.

The new magic tools that the Lincoln Business Alliance released in the Sten Kingdom were 50% more expensive than similar tools, but also 50% more effective.

The mages of the Sten Kingdom were known for their fastidiousness. They were all rich thanks to the Sten Kingdom's unique resources that the Odin Kingdom and the Andlusa Kingdom had to import at high prices.

Those people weren't short of money. They were also very picky. They wouldn't hesitate to pay for better products. If the Sten Kingdom's population weren't limited by its terrain, the kingdom probably would've been even more powerful than the Odin Kingdom. It was wealthier than the Sten Kingdom per capita.

Almost every Archmage had their True Spirit Magic Tool. The Heaven Rank experts would be too ashamed to greet others if they didn't have some tailor-made True Spirit Magic Tools.

The Lincoln Business Alliance released Spiritual Magic Tools that were embedded with Universal Cores and even the service of producing tailor-made True Spirit Magic Tools with Universal Cores.

Immediately, the Roosevelt Business Alliance lost more than 50% of the market share in terms of Spiritual Magic Tool and True Spirit Magic Tool businesses.

Their influence in the high-end market plummeted. Many mages who couldn't buy magic tools with Universal Cores would rather wait until the next month than buy Roosevelt Business Alliance's products.

That was a major strike for the Roosevelt Business Alliance, which was only responsible for the sales of the magic tools, but not any of the previous procedures.

The choice of materials, the purchase, the refining, and the forging weren't done by the Roosevelt Business Alliance. Even the components of the Spiritual Magic Tools were handled by its partners too.

This division of labor had been very efficient in the past, but became a fatal flaw now. The Roosevelt Business Alliance was responsible for sales, but couldn't sell any magic tools. So, not only did the Roosevelt Business Alliance suffer a major strike, but its partners were also greatly affected.

To cope with the Lincoln Business Alliance's pressure, the Roosevelt Business Alliance had to react by significantly lowering the prices of its products, hoping to exchange half of its profits for the market share. But it didn't work out well.

Dissidents emerged within the Roosevelt Business Alliance. Its partners were questioning it too. Some of them were even renegotiating cooperation with the Lincoln Business Alliance. The matter spread to the Upper Parliament in only one month.

During the voting on one particular motion, one of the Roosevelt Business Alliance's partners supported the Lincoln Business Alliance for the first time and abandoned the Roosevelt Business Alliance, which caused a chain reaction. The Roosevelt Business Alliance lost its influence in the Upper Parliament, and failed to pass any motion.

It was only a matter of time before it lost a seat.

Then, it was revealed that the Universal Cores were the Gilded Rose's products that the Roosevelt Business Alliance intended to steal with a plot, only to fail. However, the Lincoln Business Alliance struck a deal with the Gilded Rose very easily, which gave it the edge.

In particular, the Lincoln Business Alliance publicized the details of the negotiation so that everybody realized that the Roosevelt Business Alliance could've cooperated with the Gilded Rose fairly instead of plotting against it.

As a result, the Roosevelt Business Alliance's credit suffered a major strike. There were 30 percent fewer members of the Upper Parliament who supported the Roosevelt Business Alliance. Discontent with the Roosevelt Business Alliance was rising too.

Three of the Roosevelt Business Alliance's important partners betrayed it, and started cooperating with the Lincoln Business Alliance. Had it not been for the support of the desert ethnic group, which didn't want the Lincoln Business Alliance to dominate the magic tool market, the Roosevelt Business Alliance could be going bankrupt.

The Roosevelt Business Alliance had been stabbed in the heart. It was too busy dealing with the domestic crisis to plot against the Gilded Rose. All measures that were against the Gilded Rose had to be paused.

Without the Roosevelt Business Alliance's support, those who spread rumors and smeared the Gilded Rose were easily caught. Then, the Gilded Rose searched with the leads. Before they found out the mastermind, the mastermind had exposed himself.

The person who had been dealing with the Gilded Rose behind the scenes was none other than Wolkrie Carter, who was found by the Roosevelt Business Alliance during his escape. Then, the Roosevelt Business Alliance supported him to smear and plot against the Gilded Rose.

However, due to the Roosevelt Business Alliance's domestic crisis, it couldn't spare any more attention to Wolkrie. He lost all his support. All of the Roosevelt Business Alliance's members were operating in the Odin Kingdom, hoping to reclaim its lost market share.

Wolkrie was left alone for a month. Then, he couldn't hold back any longer, and continued smearing the Gilded Rose on his own. However, the Gilded Rose chased him down very quickly when he lost the support and connections of the Roosevelt Business Alliance.

He asked the Roosevelt Business Alliance to help deal with the Gilded Rose, only to be told that Reynolds didn't have time for him at this moment.

He was told that the Roosevelt Business Alliance's misfortune was all because of Reynolds' doing, and that the latter was still alive only because the Roosevelt Business Alliance needed him to manage the Odin Kingdom's market. However, his successor was already on the way, and Reynolds would be punished after his successor took over the power and connections in the Odin Kingdom.

Everybody in the Roosevelt Business Alliance was too busy to talk to Wolkrie, and the latter panicked. Seeing that the Gilded Rose was about to hunt him down, he simply gritted his teeth, and snuck into the Roosevelt Business Alliance's treasury, stealing a bunch of magic tools.

The Roosevelt Business Alliance then put a bounty on him. With the bounty that the Gilded Rose offered earlier, even the Heaven Rank experts became interested in him. They all wondered what he had stolen from the Roosevelt Business Alliance to deserve the 10,000,000 purple gold bounty.

Then, the Gilded Rose increased its bounty to 10,000,000 purple gold too, which made more people interested in Wolkrie's head.

As long as they killed Wolkrie, who wasn't very strong in the Heaven Rank, they would not just receive the bounties, but also the friendship of the Roosevelt Business Alliance and the Gilded Rose, which was more valuable.

The mastermind that had been smearing the Gilded Rose was exposed, and his schemes were torn apart, which restored the Gilded Rose's reputation. It was even more respected than before. Everybody knew that the Gilded Rose was the Lincoln Business Alliance's partner, and the Lincoln Business Alliance had crushed the Roosevelt Business Alliance in the Sten Kingdom with the Universal Cores that were rumored to be useless products in the Odin Kingdom.

All the rumors were clarified. Also, due to the incidents in the Sten Kingdom, the magic tool market had been changing. The Universal Core became popular again, and even more people wanted to buy it.

The stores in the Spiritual Magic Tool market and those which sold tailor-made True Spirit Magic Tools would have great profits if they got Universal Cores. If they couldn't, they couldn't even keep half of their profits.

Unfortunately, as Lin Yun instructed, the stores that had returned the Universal Cores earlier were all blacklisted, and couldn't buy any more Universal Cores from the Gilded Rose in the future.

None of them couldn't distinguish the quality of the Universal Cores, except those who were only buying the Universal Cores to resell them for higher prices.

Those stores were on the Gilded Rose's blacklist. The Gilded Rose wouldn't cooperate with them in any way or sell them anything.

After all, the Gilded Rose's products were always in demand on the market.

Now that the Gilded Rose had made the declaration, if they wanted to stay in the magic tool market, they would have to work on low-level magic tools which were less profitable and more competitive.

The employees that had left the Gilded Rose, be they salespeople or alchemists, would never be hired again. Also, it was revealed that several alchemists intended to reveal the Gilded Rose's secrets, but they were immediately punished by their contracts. Some lost their mana, some had damaged souls and lost all their alchemy knowledge, and some's souls even collapsed.

After the accidents happened several times, nobody wanted to hire the alchemists from the Gilded Rose anymore. They would rather not spend a fortune at the risk of pissing off the Gilded Rose for nothing.

Those who had left the Gilded Rose couldn't come back even if they wanted to.

They couldn't make a living even if they didn't reveal the Gilded Rose's secrets. Although they had more alchemy knowledge, what they learned in the Gilded Rose couldn't be applied elsewhere at all.

"The situation doesn't look bad. We can continue expanding the Gilded Rose in a steady way. However, consolidation also matters. We must not let others smear us again. Was Wolkrie caught yet?"

Faleau shook his head. "No. We've advanced the reward for any lead on him to one Universal Core, but we haven't received anything. It seems like he's gone."

Lin Yun nodded, not considering it a big deal.

"Raise the bounty to 20,000,000 purple gold. Unless he never appears in the Odin Kingdom, Andlusa, and the Sten Kingdom, he cannot escape."

Lin Yun wasn't really concerned about Wolkrie. After the truth was revealed, the man could hardly stay in the north of the Odin Kingdom. Andlusa was the Gilded Rose's hometown. Lin Yun could even find any mouse he was interested in in Andlusa. It was unlikely that Wolkrie was there.

The Roosevelt Business Alliance wanted to swallow Wolkrie alive at this moment. He wouldn't go to the Sten Kingdom unless he wanted to get killed.

So, he could only run south. Unfortunately, there were even more experts in the south of the Odin Kingdom, and many of them were willing to kill him for tens of millions of purple gold.

As a matter of fact, Wolkrie had truly run to the south of the Odin Kingdom. He even went beyond and left the country.

In a dense rain forest, Wolkrie, whose robe was ragged and whose hair was full of unknown mucus, traveled forward vigilantly, but he seemed quite exhausted.

The continual escape had almost destroyed him. Looking at the rain forest, Wolkrie seemed delighted, and mumbled to himself, "This rain forest is out of the Odin Kingdom's territory. Nobody can find me after I come here. I'll go to another plane from here. Nobody will possibly find me…"

Still, he warily examined the environment with magic power. Any magic power reaction within 1,000 meters would be detected.

As he moved in the rain forest for a few minutes, Wolkrie's robe became even more ragged. To hide himself, he didn't release any shield, and only covered his skin with mana. However, the thorns here were exceptionally powerful, and easily penetrated his mana protection, causing bloody wounds on his skin.

"Gilded Rose, just wait for it. I will survive and become even stronger. Just wait for my retaliation. Mafa Merlin, just wait for me to tear apart your soul…"

Wolkrie traveled in the rain forest prudently and scarily. However, a traveler who frequented rain forests wouldn't proceed any further, as none of the countless assorted vermin and insects could be found in this area, as if it belonged to some horrifying existence. Wolkrie, however, didn't feel any danger.

When Wolkrie walked past a tree that was five meters thick, a gigantic rod was swung from inside the tree towards his head. He tried to establish his shield, but the rod cracked it, and its remaining force hit Wolkrie in the head. Immediately, Wolkrie fainted and trembled on the ground.

Ripples appeared on the tree, which turned out to be an illusion. Then, an ogre that was more than three meters tall and had rocky skin grinned, and walked out with a stone rod. Looking at Wolkrie, who was still trembling and seemed alive, the ogre raised its rod, ready to smash his skull.

Exactly at this moment, a shrieking voice came from nearby.

"Idiot, idiot, don't break his head!"

The ogre hesitated and looked aside, where the bushes made way for a special half-meter-tall plant.

The plant was walking on countless roots as if they were its feet. Its trunk and stems looked like those of a rose. Yet, on its top was a cat's head without furs. The cat's head was craning and shrieking at the ogre.

"Idiot, how long has it been since any living creature passed by? It's all because you killed those human mages last time.

"Why did we end up here? Because you were stupid enough to eat one of the princes of the arrogant elves. Idiot, if you dare to eat him, I will never forgive you! Never!"

The ogre grimaced and glared at the cat-headed plant. It roared, releasing a violent vibe, as if it were going to smash the stone rod at the plant anytime.

Wolkrie, who was feeling dizzy, was greatly relieved to hear the conversation. He thought that he was as good as dead under the attack of the ogre, and didn't expect another living creature to rescue him.

Wolkrie struggled to turn his body aside, and saw the cat-headed plant, which stared at him with green eyes, and spouted a stream of smoke towards his face from its mouth. Immediately, Wolkrie lost control of his body and his mana…

Lying on the ground, Wolkrie was unable to even turn his eyes. He watched the cat-headed plant move to his head, and its foot-like roots penetrated his skin deep into his stomach.

Caught in indescribable consternation, Wolkrie felt that his blood was drifting away, but he had lost control of his body. He couldn't even control his eyes, and he could only look in one direction.

The cat-headed plan let out a joyful exclamation, and looked up at the ogre, shouting.

"Idiot, this is an extraordinary life. Do you know what extraordinary life means? He's exactly like me, the great Lord Cathead. Yet, he is so stupid he walked past this place. This is a rare gift of fate. To think that you were so dumb that you wanted to kill him!

"As long as I control my speed while I absorb his blood and soul power, he will be able to continuously regenerate new blood and soul power. How wonderful is that? If we don't get too greedy, this will be our food for years!

"Do you know what years mean? Never mind. You're too retarded to understand that. It's just a long time. You were so stupid that you wanted to eat him once and for all. Idiot, idiot!"

The cat-headed plant roared curiously, but the ogre grinned, and even squatted, even though the cat-headed plant was yelling at it. To have the food for a long time was indeed better than to have the food for one meal. It decided not to kill the man…