Chapter 344 |
Arishem had left, and the not-yet-fully-promoted Margot was temporarily taken away by him.
According to Arishem, the foundation for Margot had already been laid by Josh; what remained was just the final step.
Under normal circumstances, the final transformation would be completed within half a terrestrial month.
However, Margot, having just completed the transformation, would surely have significant problems controlling her power. After all, the Celestials were extremely powerful. Even someone like Margot, who had taken an unconventional path, could easily bring massive destruction to Earth with just a simple movement.
Therefore, after Margot’s advancement was completed, Arishem would arrange for veteran Celestials to guide and train her. Once she had sufficiently mastered her powers, she would be ordered to return to Earth on her own.
This process was expected to take about half a terrestrial year.
Josh had no objections to this, as this was the most prudent approach for both Earth and Margot.
After all, he didn’t want Margot accidentally wiping out a city.
Moreover, at Arishem’s level, orders were absolute.
Plus, there was Tiamut’s assurance.
Therefore, Josh didn’t need to worry too much about Margot’s safety.
After Arishem’s departure, Josh quickly got busy, sending his subordinates to all his close trading partners to help them fully launch cosmic expansion activities.
The goal was to search for planets that might possess star souls.
Up to now, apart from Marvel, Warcraft’s Azeroth, and Pandora from the Avatar world—which had just been drained of star soul essence—Josh had not found a fourth dimension with star souls.
But that did not mean those dimensions truly lacked them.
Before this, the Avatar universe was just a seemingly ordinary world with little value other than resources in Josh’s eyes.
Yet now it was proven even such an ordinary world might contain star soul-like entities.
Given that, having just received five Celestial seeds from Arishem, Josh naturally could not miss any possible opportunity.
This was not only a promise and exchange with Arishem but also for Josh’s own interests—even if it meant paying extremely high costs.
Because Arishem promised that the ownership of these five Celestial seeds belonged entirely to Josh.
Josh could give them to whoever he wanted, provided the promoted “Celestials” accepted the Celestial ideology and responded when summoned.
Other than that, Josh could even lead these mortals-turned-Celestials to conquer the universe—as long as they did not target the Celestials themselves.
However, this cost was nothing significant for Josh now, mostly just some routine resource consumption.
These resources would be replenished slowly by the dimensions themselves.
This was ultimately a long-term mission; any universe was vast. Even the Celestials could not claim to fully understand the entire universe.
So even with faster-than-light engine technology, searching for those extremely rare star soul-bearing planets in the vast cosmos was much harder than finding a needle in a haystack—it all came down to luck.
Compared to the uncertain timing of discovering star soul planets in other dimensions, there was one dimension Josh could extensively lay plans in.
That was Azeroth, which Josh had long been fixated on.
It was now the late 1960s—15 years since the first connection to the Azeroth universe.
The then three-year-old Abbendis was now a very valiant 18-year-old young man, having been an adult for several years.
Coming of age at 18 was a human world matter, but in Azeroth’s magical medieval setting, the coming-of-age ceremony was at 15.
At just 18, Abbendis’ rank had long surpassed that of his count father; he had been made a marquis by King Terenas of Lordaeron.
This was only because Abbendis was still very young.
In fact, with the forces Abbendis controlled now, even a duke title or self-declaration as king would not be a problem.
Because his fief was actually not within Lordaeron or the Seven Kingdoms but far in Northrend and Kalimdor, areas usually hard to access under normal Seven Kingdoms circumstances.
Over the years, with Josh’s help, Abbendis had expanded maritime trade and absorbed many struggling marginal races in Azeroth as his subjects.
For example, Tauren, Yeti, Vrykul, Walrus people, and so on.
There were also many humans originally living on the edge of survival.
In places like Northrend’s Borean Tundra and Zul’Drak Basin, and Kalimdor’s Dustwallow Marsh (Theramore region) and the Barrens (the northern castle in the game), Abbendis had established many cities and fortresses.
To facilitate governance, Abbendis spent a large sum hiring many high-level mages to build numerous magical portals within his territories.
He also formed an airship fleet that was supposed to appear decades later after the technological explosions of goblins, gnomes, and dwarves—though the existence of this airship fleet was kept secret.
But this was not Abbendis’ ultimate trump card—how could he not have spaceships with Josh around?
Thanks to long-term efforts, Abbendis’ official subjects had grown to nearly one million after over a decade of development.
This was an astonishing number in Azeroth.
According to Abbendis, the official tax population of the Eastern Kingdoms was less than ten million.
Among the Seven Kingdoms, the smallest and least populous was Alterac, with fewer than one million people.
Meaning population-wise, Abbendis’ territory was already comparable to Alterac.
Of course, the Seven Kingdoms’ populations were pure humans, mixed with only very few dwarves, gnomes, and high elves—the three races each had their own kingdoms, and only a small number settled in human kingdoms, thus they were not considered citizens of the Seven Kingdoms.
Abbendis’ subjects included almost every race, even the extremely rare Night Elves at this period in Azeroth, which was a very closed society.
Thanks to Josh’s help, Abbendis’ greatest asset was the strategic resource most lacking in Azeroth’s medieval world—food!
Yet, having such power at a young age, Abbendis was naturally a bit arrogant.
He had entertained thoughts of declaring himself king under his subordinates’ advice.
However, with Josh’s counsel, Abbendis ultimately gave up on the idea.
Not only was everything he had given by Josh, Josh was more important to him than his own biological parents.
More importantly, while most of his subordinates and Azeroth’s creatures were still focused on their own territories, Abbendis’ vision was already fixed on the universe’s most dreaded Burning Legion.
Many years ago, when Abbendis was already sensible and starting to develop his privateer fleet, Josh had basically told him all the secrets about Azeroth and the Warcraft universe.
From Titan creations to the ancient wars, the Old Gods, the Tirisfal Guardians, and the soon-to-open Dark Portal, and more.
So for Abbendis now, the question of whether to declare himself king was no longer important.
Even the mightiest elven kingdoms in Azeroth might not match the power and influence he now possessed.
How to unite all forces in Azeroth to face future crises was the priority but he would not foolishly spread these potential future events around.
Under Josh and Josh’s appointed “teachers,” he followed the strategy of accumulating resources and postponing declaring kingship.
He showed no arrogance or disloyalty toward Terenas, and instead voluntarily placed all his territories under Lordaeron’s name.
He even deliberately gave some of the richer lands he controlled to Terenas as direct royal territories to strengthen the Lordaeron crown.
Such “loyalty” naturally made Terenas very pleased.
His lifelong wish was to restore the glory of the ancient Arathor Empire.
Although the strength of the Kingdom of Lordaeron was strong, it was absolutely impossible for it alone to suppress the other six great kingdoms.
Especially the Kul Tiras, isolated overseas; the militarily strong Stromgarde; and the Stormwind Kingdom, which was supported by Arathor bloodlines.
And as the power of Abbendis expanded continuously over the years, he began to see a glimmer of possibility to achieve his wish.
Of course, Terenas had also been wary of Abbendis’ strength but compared to the other six human kingdoms, Terenas believed Abbendis’ threat was actually negligible.
Not because Abbendis’ strength was insufficient.
But because Abbendis did not have the bloodline of the ancient nobility — and this was a very important reason why the royal families of the present Azeroth nations have survived and continued.
Before the opening of the Dark Portal, more precisely, before the fall of the Kingdom of Lordaeron, the state of the human kingdoms in the Eastern Kingdoms was somewhat similar to China’s ancient Spring and Autumn period.
Great emphasis was placed on oaths and alliances.
This can be seen from the fact that after the destruction of the Stormwind Kingdom, Varian was adopted by Terenas, and after the war, the various nations spent huge manpower and resources to rebuild Stormwind.
Among the seven great kingdoms now (more precisely, six great kingdoms, since the Mage Kingdom Dalaran does not have a king), there was such an unwritten rule: those without the noble bloodline of the ancient Arathor Empire were not allowed to be kings!
This was also why in the future Azeroth, despite having many powerful warlords with strong military forces, none of them declared themselves kings.
The only exception was Dalaran — it could enter the ranks of the seven great kingdoms not only because of the strength of its mages, but also because Dalaran simply did not have a royal family; it was a parliamentary system, and thus did not violate the taboos of the other kingdoms.
It was precisely this unwritten rule that caused the royal families of the various human kingdoms to decline over time, ultimately benefiting the Wrynn family of the Stormwind royal house.
So if Abbendis really declared himself king at this time, he would certainly face an assault from the seven great kingdoms.
Not to mention that Abbendis’ people—the humans—were not numerous.
Although Abbendis fully possessed the strength to crush all human kingdoms except Dalaran, there was no doubt that such a method, which consumed his own race’s strength, was undesirable.
But if external forces broke the current royal monopoly in Azeroth, then there was no problem at all.
Undoubtedly, this external force could only be the orcs of Draenor and the Burning Legion behind the orcs, as well as the yet-to-appear Scourge.
It was under this unwritten agreement of the seven great kingdoms that Terenas not only did not deliberately restrain Abbendis, but even opened the door wide for Abbendis in the human kingdoms while gaining substantial benefits.
He even promised his daughter, Calia Menethil, to Abbendis as a fiancée to win him over — there was no other way; Calia was only eight years old now, so she could only be a fiancée.
However, when Calia turned fifteen, reaching the age of adulthood for Azeroth’s humans, Abbendis could officially become the prince consort of Lordaeron.
Under Josh’s instructions, Abbendis was naturally very willing.
Imagine, if Arthas, as in the original timeline, took up Frostmourne to kill his father and slaughter Lordaeron.
Then Abbendis, with his wife Calia, led troops to rescue and successfully defeated the traitorous Arthas, crushed the Scourge and Burning Legion, and became the savior of Azeroth...
Tsk, that picture would be simply wonderful.
But these were Abbendis’ ultimate goals, not Josh’s.
If Josh’s previous desire for Azeroth was merely for countless magical materials, now he had completely set his sights on Azeroth itself.
No, not just Azeroth, but also those Titans and Eternals.
These were similar existences to the Celestials of Josh’s universe and perhaps could all serve as nourishment for the Celestial Seeds.
To achieve this goal, Josh’s original plan for Abbendis was not enough.
He had to make some deeper arrangements!