Unlimited Power - The Arcane Path

Much to Leon's surprise, Donan was there and even Darya. He also recognized Gurr, Eadmund, and Anton. By the look of things, they were being treated like prisoners, but there were no signs of wounds on them, and judging by their expressions, they had been treated reasonably well.

"Hello there," Leon said a few dozens of meters away from the fortress.

"… What do you want?" Darya glared at Leon

"Nothing, I just came to confirm a few things," Leon answered. "How are you guys? Did they obey my orders?"

"Yes," Eadmond answered. "Thanks to you, our people can now live in the city… the other inhabitants look at us as if we pieces of shit, but since we look at them the same way, that isn't a problem."

"I see… " Leon nodded.

"What are your intentions with this?" Eadmond asked while looking at the harvesters.

"I'm just experimenting," Leon explained. "As you can see, I will help them for a while. I'm necessary for them to reach their goals, so I asked them to stop attacking. I can also ask them to attack even more or worse. I can make them suddenly appear inside the barrier… but that is not necessary, right, Donan?"

Donan was clearly mad, but he didn't intend to act crazily in front of his men. Not when the harvesters gained a power upgrade thanks to the man who defeated him. Fighting against them now would be catastrophic, besides, if it could be avoided, the best choice would be not to fight the harvesters.

"Did he say something?" Leon asked.

"... No," Donan answered. "He doesn't care, as long as he gets what he wants."

"I see..." Leon rubbed his chin. "Well, then. Let's become allies. Surely you can understand we won't obtain anything by opposing each other. Besides, since the barrier is useless against me, you don't have much of a choice. Not only that... you can now understand that you solved a problem but created others."

Donan looked away, annoyed; he became a bad person after losing his wife, but not an unreasonable maniac. He knew about how he was limiting the growth of his people while offering a false sense of security by creating the barrier using their mana and segregating those who didn't agree with them in the past.

"As long as you understand that, everything else doesn't matter," Leon said. "What is done is done. As long you change your ways a little bit and don't make the same mistakes of the past, we won't become enemies. Maybe we can become even allies. I'm sure you can have some use for weapons made of mithril."

Donan looked at Leon, puzzled. It looked like he imagined would make some unreasonable demands. He concluded that Leon was just an insane idiot because he challenged him to a fight where he certainly didn't have any advantage. That was the problem for most people. They judge others based on their own prejudices and past experiences. To most people of Miebos, sentient beings of other worlds were all evil. Mostly because of the harvesters… Still, even though Leon didn't feel like letting Donan alive, if he repeats his mistakes, it was a good idea to show that he was a reasonable guy. That way, Miebos would find another leader, and Leon would be able to give them mithril in exchange for their magic knowledge. As long as Leon doesn't show or tell them how to produce mithril, everything would be fine, after all.

"Anyway, I will come to play eventually," Leon said. "So, play together nicely… because I will come to visit without giving any warnings."

After that, Leon used Transfer and reappeared at the harvesters' side. With that alone, his warnings became much clear. That skill was still at low-level, but eventually… it wouldn't be weird if Leon obtains the power to travel half of the world in a second… but before that, he would have to improve his sight many times.

Just as Leon promised, he visited Miebos many times while he kept his identity hidden. Finding the warriors that once lived in the lower world was quite easy since they big and easily stand out from the other short inhabitants of Miebos. As expected, most people looked at them with annoyed eyes, but soon most of them would also forget about that kind of prejudice. Without the harvesters to torment them and now that no one was living on the lower world, both warriors and the mages of Miebos would have to work together to defeat the monsters down below and on the oceans. Fighting together and helping each other would probably solve that problem.

As much as Leon wanted to obtain knowledge of the research center, he refrained from appearing in front of Donan and Darya. It would be suspicious if he appears before then now and then suddenly stops visiting since soon he would go to the harvesters' worlds. So, it was better to make them stay on guard for a long time.

Regardless, while the people of Miebos that treated each other as mortal enemies for decades were trying to find a way to work together, Leon resumed his job of producing the harvesters' equipment. Although Leon wasn't used to creating armor or many types of protective gear, it actually went much easier than the time he created the weapons. The harvesters weren't that fast, so they didn't want anything that could hinder their movements all that much. So, Leon only created helms, knee pads, elbow pads, and breastplates by combining mithril with monsters' skin. Alurelle and her friends went to search for the other materials, and that saved Leon a lot of time. After one month, Leon finished their gear.