Tales of the Endless Empire
Chapter 158: The night before Power leveling

Thalion sent a message to Maike to gather the vinehorses. If he remembered correctly from one of their talks, she had always loved horses but could never afford one.

Next, he descended into the chambers, adding more of the gathered blood to his blood pool. He checked on the darkness elemental and cleaned up the chamber where he had evolved as Eagly. Afterward, he sampled some unfamiliar plants, devouring them to gain four vitality points—an unexpected but welcome boost.

It would take some time before the connection to the mountains opened. Thalion had decided to travel to the mountains first, then shift focus to the ocean. He planned to rely more on Eagly in the higher stages rather than the Tidecaller Serpent and wanted to practice it further.

He had already informed the council of his intention to move on to the next stage soon. The final days in this area would be spent waging war against the termites. With luck, they might even launch an attack on his base first. The strength of the last specimens he had encountered was on a different level. If the queen had produced more of them, his defenses would get a solid warmup—especially before facing the undead faction.

Thalion landed on the gravity array in his Eagly form. He could only withstand the first level, but that was more than enough to gain additional stats and strength—both of which would prove invaluable when evolving into a wyvern.

He recalled hearing from others that Kael had hoped not to face the undead faction too soon. Thalion, however, felt the opposite. He intended to keep his blue signal pillar glowing to lure in as many undead as possible. Vampires, in particular, would be perfect food for the Sanguine Thorn, so there was no reason to hide.

His base was well-prepared. He had multiple skyships, fortified walls that would require several wall-breakers to breach, and defensive equipment stationed everywhere. If they couldn’t defend against the undead, no one could.

There were still over a hundred thousand survivors in the region, so it was possible that other races had banded together to form a larger base. However, Thalion doubted it. When the system shop reopened, he would invest heavily in defenses and purchase a darkness crystal for his elemental. He hoped to bond with it before traveling to the next stage for a final power-up.

How much the elemental would grow depended on how well it absorbed the wind elementals he planned to feed it in the coming days.

Thalion also contemplated the termite pixies’ skills. Those abilities would suit his Umbral Predator form perfectly. However, the last fight had exposed a glaring weakness in the form—it struggled against multiple enemies who could match its speed and strength. While the Umbral Predator excelled in brute force and agility, it lacked crowd control and long-range attacks. Adding a movement skill and fast, long-range options would make a significant difference.

He hoped the elemental would help address those shortcomings when the time was right.

While cultivating, Thalion received several messages. One was from Kaldrek, asking for tips for body tempering and improving swordsmanship. Another was from the council, asking if he planned to attend an upcoming meeting. Finally, there were multiple messages from Amalia, who was furious that Maike had told everyone about her abilities.

According to Amalia, many people had started outright attacking the women, fearing they might be mind-controlled.

In Thalion’s opinion, everything was going perfectly. With the chaos keeping others occupied, he could focus entirely on his progress.

He ignored most of the messages except for Kaldrek’s. Kaldrek had proven to be a reliable ally, backing him up on numerous occasions. Teaching Kaldrek some swordsmanship before launching an attack on the termite hive seemed like a good idea.

Speaking of the hive, Thalion realized he had forgotten to inform the others about the termites’ growing strength. He quickly sent a message to the council, Kaldrek, and Maike, warning them about the hive and its potential threat to the base.

The responses came quickly, but Thalion ignored most of them. Kaldrek and Maike took the news calmly, while the council’s complaints were, as usual, irrelevant.

It was unlikely that the hive would launch an attack. Thalion had no idea how many termites were in the hive, but he doubted their numbers were enough to assault a base with over fifteen thousand people.

Still, it was best to stay cautious.

More messages from Amalia poured in, her anger escalating over his lack of response.

Thalion pondered his plans for her. He intended to use her to extract information from the vampires. They might have insights into the vampire gods, and Amalia was the perfect person to make them speak.

Thalion decided it was best not to push things too much with Amalia. The question was how to approach the matter. If he entered her building, rumors could spread that he was under the control of that woman. Similarly, if he ordered her to visit his tower, the same suspicions might arise. It was a peculiar decision to make. Those women had become quite unpopular, and Thalion had no intention of ruining his image.

Simply messaging her back might not be enough, but it was worth a try. If it didn’t work, he could always pay her a visit later. If all else failed, he would deal with it through brute force and fear. In the end, those women were parasites feeding off the people in this base, and Thalion had little mercy for them.

He sent Amalia a message claiming that everything was part of his grand design and a test of strength. Since then, she hadn’t responded, which could be either a good or a bad sign. Either way, Thalion didn’t care enough to find out.

The night passed more quickly than he had anticipated. He made excellent progress, earning 32 strength points as Eagly, consuming another hill of plants that boosted his vitality by five points, and swallowing a few more pearls as the Tidecaller Serpent to improve his water affinity.

Things were looking very good. Today, he planned to gather some large wind crystals and hunt as many flying beasts as possible. The creatures in the skies weren’t as powerful as those in the ocean depths or the termite queen. There would be carnage in the sky.

As soon as Thalion received a message from Lucan that the portal had been activated, he left his tower and headed straight for the teleporter.

<--

Maike had a rough night. She had spent the entire day leveling up, but fighting with her class was difficult. She excelled at evading enemies, not killing them. She had joined a group of newbies for hunting, and it had taken forever to kill anything. A whole day of effort had resulted in barely any progress.

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Just as she arrived home, Thalion contacted her, instructing her to take one of the smaller skyships and pick up a herd of vinehorses near the river. Ever since, she had been wondering if she had done something wrong. She had once told Thalion about her childhood dream of owning a horse, only to reveal that she was allergic and couldn’t be near them. Now, he had sent her to gather a herd of vinehorses.

This felt like a punishment, though she couldn’t figure out what she might have done to deserve it.

Halfway to her destination, she received another message from Thalion warning her that the termite hive had grown significantly stronger and might even attack the base in the future.

“Great,” Maike thought sarcastically. “Right above the hunting grounds of this incredibly powerful termite hive. Jackpot.”

At least she no longer had to worry about those women. After exposing their abilities with Thalion’s help, the women faced significant backlash. Two bars had even been shut down due to repeated attacks. The guards, for the most part, ignored the situation, as they didn’t like the women either. Some guards seemed overly eager to catch those attacking the bars, likely under the influence of one of the women’s abilities.

Maike had already compiled a list of people who openly or secretly supported the women. The list wasn’t very long—only about twenty names—but she had too much on her plate to waste time on those witches.

The teleportation to the next stage was only two weeks away, and Maike wanted to be ready. Life would become much harder then.

She was accompanied by four guards, close friends of Kaldrek, to watch out for her safety. She wasn’t strong enough to handle powerful beasts on her own. Even with her level at 72, she had almost no offensive abilities. She could evade and buy time for others, but killing an enemy wasn’t something she could do effectively.

Maike planned to change that at the next system shop by purchasing some offensive skills.

The chances of termites flying up to their altitude were slim. The real problem was finding those damned horses.

It didn’t take long for her group to reach the grasslands. Thalion had given one of the beasts a token to help locate them, but the tokens worked poorly so far outside the city.

“Let’s fly in that direction,” Maike instructed one of the guards at the steering wheel. She had tried to pinpoint the herd’s location using the token, but the signal was vague.

“I say our dear leader has finally lost it and sent us on a wild goose chase,” one of the guards joked with a laugh.

“Uh… guys? There really are vinehorses down there,” another guard interjected slowly, clearly uncertain what to make of the sight. “And… they’re all looking up at us.”

“Alright, let’s head down and get our passengers onboard,” Maike sighed as she spotted the herd. “I don’t want to stay here any longer than necessary, not if this is termite hunting ground.”

"What do you think he wants to do with them?" the guard at the steering wheel asked.

No one really had an answer. Maike, however, was curious about how Thalion had even communicated with the horses. It might have been a new ability he gained through his shapeshifter class, but what did she know?

They landed in front of the herd of vinehorses and rolled out a wooden plank to make it easier for the horses to board.

"Welcome, travelers, to the kingdom of Thalion," Maike said with a wave of her hand as she stood at the foot of the plank. She even punctuated her words with a slight bow toward the horses. Some of the guards burst out laughing, and even Maike couldn’t suppress a smile.

The smile quickly vanished when the first horse nodded in her direction before stepping onto the skyship, followed by the rest of the herd. Each horse repeated the same motion, nodding politely at Maike as they walked past her.

A stunned silence fell over the group as Maike and the guards instinctively nodded back at the horses in surprise.

Once everyone was back onboard, the skyship shot up at full speed, eager to return to the base as quickly as possible. Maike had no intention of encountering one of those termites. If Thalion called them strong, they must be absolutely terrifying. That was a problem for the base’s fighters, not her. She planned to stay out of it as much as possible.

"Do you think they can hear us?" Maike overheard two guards whispering near the steering wheel.

"I'm not sure, but did you see how they nodded at us, like they were saying hello?" the other responded in a hushed voice.

"This is so creepy. Where are we even supposed to take these horses?" the first one asked.

"As Thalion said, they’re getting their own building," Maike replied with a shrug as she approached the guards. They weren’t surprised that she had overheard them—Maike’s senses were exceptionally sharp. As a scout, she relied on heightened awareness, and eavesdropping on conversations was easy for her.

"You’re serious? They’re getting their own building? Are the doors even big enough?" the guard asked, sounding surprised.

"I guess it’s just temporary, until the next system shop arrives," Maike said thoughtfully. "Then Thalion will probably buy something more suitable for them."

She was still unsure why Thalion wanted vinehorses and why they were so unusually friendly. On the other hand, it was just another mystery to uncover—a prospect Maike enjoyed.

She watched the vinehorses gather near the railing, peering down at the jungle. Occasionally, they made relatively normal horse sounds and nudged one another when they noticed something unusual. Maike’s curiosity piqued as she leaned over the railing to get a better view of the jungle below.

She hadn’t expected what she saw next: a dark insect pixie flying up toward them. In fact, there were more—ten in total—rising from the trees, power crackling around their forms.

The vinehorses grew increasingly agitated, unable to run in their confined space.

"We need to go full speed and send a distress signal once we’re in range! It shouldn’t take long!" Maike shouted at the guards, who were still trying to grasp the situation.

They reacted quickly, empowering the ship’s runes and sails to reach maximum speed.

At over 700 meters above the ground, it would take some time for the insect pixies to catch up. Maike’s tension eased into a smile when she noticed the insects giving up the pursuit. She had expected them to use a movement skill to accelerate further and attack the ship, but thankfully, they either couldn’t or chose not to.

They had been incredibly lucky that the insects hadn’t spotted them earlier.

Hopefully, this mission was worth all the trouble.