Chapter 88: The Thief Prince and the Young Fox

Sophie's sword was the sword of a knight.

As for the little wolf princess, she had no technique at all. She had only instinct.

"Oh dear, they're fighting again!" Honey rubbed her eyes and bounced out of the manor astride a big cat. From the look of her, little girl, were you praying, meditating, or taking a nap at midday?

"Brother Venigo, do you need help?" Little Honey asked, tilting her head.

"Not for now. Keep watch for me," Venigo said, stretching lazily.

A character construct: the bizarre scholar Tao. As for the purpose, it was purification alchemy.

With a flick of his hand, Venigo initiated purification alchemy. The target was, of course, the half-giant whose giant bloodline had been ignited.

He was not disappointed. Within the half-giant there was not only giant blood awakened by genetic modulation, but also some kind of extraordinary regenerative power belonging to a reptilian creature. Under Venigo's purification alchemy, those two precious forces were sublimated, condensed, and distilled into tiny crystals, which were gathered into a prepared vial.

Then Venigo waited for Sophie to show her full might and reduce the other half-giant to fragments.

After two rounds of purification alchemy, Venigo dismissed the construct, waiting for the power of his imaginative shaping to settle once more before using it again.

Character construct: the scavenger trait, Meow Meow, formed.

After breaking through the thirtieth-level limit, low-evaluation construct types no longer required such meticulous preparation. Even the processes of analysis and reconstruction could be shortened to an extremely brief sequence.

Venigo blinked his large eyes and lifted a claw to scratch the gold coin on his forehead.

"I know the scavenger trait won't let me down," Venigo said with a sly laugh. "Meow, just like that."

Honey blinked. No matter how many times she saw that cat face make a human expression, she always wanted to rush up and pinch it hard.

After scavenging, Venigo found two syringes and some pills nearby. It seemed these were the drugs Nua had prepared for the half-giants. They were clearly left behind by the half-giant Sophie had killed, since when Venigo acted, he had blown the opponent into fragments; there was probably nothing left.

As for the spoils of the others, they could only be sold for money. In any case, Venigo no longer cared for such ordinary goods.

Ah, one remained: the Thief Prince, the fat man who called himself Marlin.

A rather shrewd fellow.

"Have you made up your mind?" Venigo asked the sole survivor, the captive, with his head tilted to one side.

"I have," the Thief Prince said with a nod. "The Sheep-Singing Cult may not truly trust me. I can sense that. So, sir... how do you intend to use me?"

"I don't have many people I can use right now, and my power amounts to only this one manor," Venigo replied. "In terms of force, there are only the few you see before you. In terms of influence..."

Venigo smiled in satisfaction and held up his fingers as he counted. "On the commercial side, I work with Lady Frith to sell wine. She takes the larger share, I take a modest profit, and I earn four hundred gold coins a month. In addition, there are sugar, blazing gel fire oil, and a few other things. The output is small, but altogether it still amounts to a hundred gold coins a month. Through this connection, my relationship with Lady Frith can barely be called an alliance."

Marlin nodded. "Although I can't provide you much help, I imagine the intelligence network and smuggling routes of Lady Frith are what you value most."

"Exactly. All of this is for that one little advantage." Venigo nodded appreciatively. "Sophie is a named disciple of Sir Temp, and that lord has spoken highly of both her character and her swordsmanship. We also provided him with a fair amount of service."

"That lord's only real strengths are martial instruction and training soldiers. Still, being on good terms with him counts as a valuable card in hand." Marlin nodded as well.

"Little Honey gets along well with Sir Anthony Stone. If she wishes, she could always enter Sir Stone's tutelage. My relationship with Sir Newton is also quite good. Whenever I gain some insight, I send a copy to that old rogue, the chief mage himself," Venigo continued counting. "And then there are my enemies: the Sheep-Singing Cult, the Silver Helm, and the Flame-Prison Brotherhood. Of course, in truth, they're all one and the same."

"You actually saw through that? It shouldn't be very obvious, should it?" Marlin said, somewhat astonished.

"Well, I admit I'm no match for you when it comes to planning and analysis. But don't underestimate me too much," Venigo said with a grin. "These are the cards I can show. What's your decision?"

"I understand," Marlin said with a nod. "I can see that you still have an ace you haven't played."

"I'm satisfied that you can see that much," Venigo laughed. "All right, enough talk. Let me give you a little sweetness first."

Marlin had only just begun to ask, "What kind of sweet—" when Venigo seized his left hand and drove a needle into his wrist.

"That is..." Marlin had no time to say anything before he fainted completely.

It was one of Nua's creations, a genetic modulator used to alter the human body. Venigo, in his kindness, had subjected it to purification alchemy to refine its effect and remove impurities, then used Alchemist Mary’s ability to prepare an alchemical diluent to mellow the potion's potency. He had long been preparing for this, and at last he had found a suitable subject.

Six hours later, Marlin awoke in the grip of hunger, with a basin full of wheat porridge and a mountain of white bread set before him.

With a bitter smile, Marlin grabbed the food and began stuffing it into his mouth. He was already fat to begin with, and now the hunger was unbearable; he only felt his appetite surge wildly. In just a few bites, he had devoured the little mountain of food completely.

At that moment, Venigo pushed open the door and entered with a laugh. "Good thing you were already fat. Plenty of stored fat makes you quite suitable for modulation."

"Modulation?" Marlin asked, puzzled.

"Leaving the rest aside, after the genetic alteration you lost quite a bit of fat, but your constitution and strength have both improved noticeably. Learn a few basic sword techniques from Sophie, enough for self-defense, and that will do." Venigo said. "With your constitution improved, it will also help your thinking. At the very least, you won't tire easily, and your brain will get enough blood flow."

"Though I don't really understand... it does seem I gained quite a lot of benefits," Marlin said.

"All right, don't just eat. Help me think over something," Venigo said. "I have four thousand gold coins in hand. Help me spend them. I need to at least have some strength, enough that the High Council will take notice of me, but not so much that they become hostile."

Marlin spat out a mouthful of wheat porridge. He looked up and asked, "Four thousand? Gold coins? Did you rob the royal treasury?"

"Just sold off some spoils I didn't need," Venigo said lightly. "And the income from wine and so forth. Lady Frith is very trustworthy."

"Four thousand gold coins... Back then, when I obtained a thousand gold coins, I also thought of plotting something and turning my fortunes around. Unfortunately, you, wicked guest that you are, came charging to my door and took everything clean away," Marlin complained. "Still, I was indeed born with shortcomings."

"You have no power to protect yourself, and no backer to rely on. No matter how much you do, it isn't for yourself," Venigo said with a smile. "Or rather, it's a matter of fortune."

"Fortune?" Marlin said blankly.

"Luck, strength, and the general direction of things," Venigo explained. "On that point, I'm far stronger than you. You have to admit that."

"Fine, fine." Marlin waved a hand. "Now that I have no way back either, I'll join you in making some noise. Four thousand gold coins... First, you need soldiers. But with your current status, you can only amount to the scale of a mercenary company. Should we recruit people, or directly take in a mercenary band we can trust?"

"We don't have the time to choose one by one, so let's first take in a few small mercenary bands and slowly sift through them in blood and fire. There are plenty of small companies around Free Haven looking to strike it lucky. Your eye isn't bad; go pick out a few. Sophie's and Honey's identities are enough to attract them. All you need to do is prepare the weapons, equipment, and wages that will make them decide to stay."

"I have a complete set of ready-made regulations that can be used for this. After all, I once controlled the entire sewer system of Free Haven," Marlin replied.

"Then use that as the standard and modify it slightly. These are meticulous tasks; leave them to you. I'm not good at them." Venigo replied. "I still have some unsold equipment from Mary's alchemy shop. Keep them for winning people over. Our team... will be called Prism."

"Let's set the number at two hundred first. Slowly eliminating them down to fifty elite members—that should become your core force," Marlin said.

"Oh, and one more thing. The Malzan people, do you know them? Northern foreigners, seasoned warriors who can wield the power of lightning. Do you think they can be recruited?" Venigo asked.

"If you don't want to earn the enmity of Sir Skamon, you'd best not do that," Marlin said with a wicked grin.

"Fair enough." Venigo nodded. "By the way, there's another thing. I have some items that can curry favor with Sir Temp. Help me judge their value and whether I can borrow some sword instructors from him."

"What are they?" Marlin asked with great interest.

They were longswords.

Using the god-forged construct, Lich, Venigo infused them with divine power. He broke down a great quantity of ore to obtain the basic elements, added the purple lightning crystals of thunder lizards as magical ore, and forged thirty-six blades known as the Swords of Heavy Punishment, each bearing the power of lightning.

A single longsword was nothing special, merely a third-rank magical item worth roughly one hundred gold coins. But what Venigo had forged were thirty-six identical Swords of Heavy Punishment, unified in style and excellent in performance, perfectly suited for the elite troops of a regular army.

"Recruitment, requesting instructors, selling merchandise... leave those things to me. I won't disappoint you," Marlin replied.