Volume Dragon: Start by obtaining the Infinity Gems

Chapter 102 The Duke's Reward and Knowledge Church

Nemesis stood in the crowd with a stiff smile on his face. Collette, who was standing next to him, sensed his embarrassment and couldn't help but raise the corner of her mouth.

Prince Ryan opened his hand and announced the start of the ball, and the crowd regained its lively atmosphere. Although many people still looked at Nemesis curiously, there were even many nobles who were willing to take the risk of "putting a hot face on the cold butt" and approached this upstart who was extremely important in Prince Ryan's eyes.

But unfortunately, Prince Ryan did not give them this opportunity. He walked down the stairs quickly, enthusiastically pulled Nemesis and said, "Sir Nemesis, let's go to the second floor to talk. The old duke really wants to see you."

Being able to leave the noisy crowd was a blessing for Juan Celong at this moment. He caught up with Prince Ryan. On the way, Colette was explaining to him who the so-called "old duke" was.

There are three dukes in the Kingdom of Inbutu. One of them is Prince Ryan who is from the royal family, and the other is the old duke Gavin Stilgar who is known as the "Eagle of the Kingdom".

"What about the third one?" Nemesis asked curiously.

An old voice came from not far away: "That guy, he chose to remain neutral, just like his usual rat nature."

Nemesis looked over and saw the man he couldn't see through, Gavin Stilgar.

Duke Gavin greeted the young man with a smile: "I never thought that His Excellency the Volume Dragon could actually combine the power of arcane and psychic energy."

Nemesis raised his eyebrows. He could sense that he possessed psychic powers. It seemed that the other party was also a powerful psychic. No wonder the psychic powers blocked his detection.

Prince Ryan, who was standing by, heard Gavin's ridicule and sighed, "That guy Lu Hansen knows that even if we have the upper hand, the throne has nothing to do with him, so he naturally doesn't want to get involved. The fact that he can remain neutral and not surrender to the queen is enough for us."

Prince Lu Hansen
Nemesis suddenly realized that Lu Hansen was also a member of the royal family of Inbutu and the cousin of Saint Delis. It was said that he was a playboy who lived a life of luxury every day. Fortunately, he had very good business skills and had shares in most of the famous industries in the Inbutu Kingdom.

But if you want to be a king, it is useless to rely on these alone. In a supernatural society like Furen, the most basic condition for becoming a national leader is to have strong enough strength. Otherwise, you will not be able to avoid assassinations by other supernatural beings even if you have someone to protect you closely.

"Sir Nemesis," Duke Gavin looked at him very seriously and said, "I know that Leorel has contacted you today. That old fox must have asked you to join their faction, right?"

Nemesis nodded indifferently. There was no need to hide it. Instead, it would stimulate the other party to offer a higher price. After all, at this time, the balance in his heart was already close to Prince Ryan's faction. Not only did they have Prince Ryan, a level 17 melee professional, but they also had Duke Gavin, a psychic of unknown level.

In comparison, the royal family that only has Leorel is not so good. Unless the old king appears, it is highly likely that they will not be able to match Prince Ryan in terms of high-end combat power.

As for the appearance of the old king, it might be a joke. Now that he appears, who would want to rebel?

"I wonder what the Church of Knowledge behind you thinks?" Duke Gavin asked casually.

Nemesis raised the corners of his lips and said, here it comes.

How could he have the capital to attract these top nobles in Inbutu to scramble for it?
Strength? No, a young dragon was not enough for them to take it seriously.

Wealth? That's even more impossible. Even a moron wouldn't do something like that to take the dragon's wealth.

Merit? It wasn't that Nemesis was cynical, but he didn't think these nobles would be so kind and just want to repay him for saving Degen City.

The only identity is the one favored by God. For mortals, the gods standing in the heavens are always the objects of their greatest attention. A giant dragon is not uncommon, but a giant dragon that is favored by the two gods suspected to be Selûne and Oghma is rare.

Nemesis still didn't know that after he became famous, many powerful wizards cast prophecy spells to try to collect information about him. After all, a scroll dragon with extensive knowledge and powerful bloodline is the experimental material that most wizards dream of.

But Oghma's blessing has shattered countless wizards' prophecy crystal balls, causing them great pain and making them dare not continue exploring.

As a powerful deity, Oghma's followers are very powerful in Faerun. Not to mention the temple of knowledge called "Candlekeep" standing on the southwest coast, which has gathered the footprints of almost all the powerful wizards in the world.

"Candlekeep" contains almost all the books in Faerun, and is constantly collecting unfamiliar knowledge from the outside world. Any spell model that exists in Faerun can find its original page in Candlekeep.

Within this building alone, there are a large number of powerful professionals who believe in Oghma, pursuing the path of knowledge in peace day and night.

Although there is no Church of Knowledge near Inbutu and Ser, the belief in Oghma is quite prosperous on the west coast. Duke Gavin has already preconceived that the actions of the Tome Dragon are to find partners for the Church of Knowledge behind it.

The victor, whether it be the Queen or Prince Ryan, must introduce the faith of Oghma into the Kingdom of Imbutu.

Having guessed the other party's thoughts, Nemesis did not intend to explain. The strength of the Church of Knowledge had no disadvantages for him. On the contrary, he could use it to bully others.

"Your Majesty the God of Knowledge will not interfere with any of my actions. If necessary, I believe that under my prayers, the God will also let the Church of Knowledge cooperate with me." Nemesis Gu said confidently, and a strange feeling arose in his heart. He felt as if he was being spoiled.
Never mind, this was Oghma's own fault, it's not his fault.

Moreover, his actions would also benefit him. With nearly one million people believing in the Inbutu Kingdom, wouldn't that be good? Even if only one percent of them became devout believers, that would still be 10,000 people!
Duke Gavin was very satisfied with Nemesis' answer, and Prince Ryan on the side also breathed a sigh of relief, not knowing that a certain Volume Dragon was just bragging. Both of them thought they had brought in the Church of Knowledge as a backer.

Nemesis was also happy that they misunderstood, because soon Duke Gavan and Prince Ryan asked him for cooperation, hoping that he would join them. The more capital he had, the more compensation he could get.

"The throne of the Duke." Nemesis stretched out a finger and pointed at Colette behind him.

"I want your promise to give the Rosa family a dukedom."

Colette's eyes widened. Duke? The master wanted her to jump directly from earl to duke? This was too outrageous. Prince Ryan looked a little unhappy about Nemesis's request. After all, there was only one duke of a different surname in the entire Inbutu Kingdom, Gavin Stilgar. Every additional duke of a different surname would be a bad factor for the stability of the royal power.

But there was no way, they wanted to get Juan Ce Long's help so much that the two looked at each other and nodded.

After Prince Ryan agreed, he immediately swore an oath to God, but the greedy Nemesis would not give up. The position of Duke was his preparation for controlling the Kingdom of Imputu in the future. In this world dominated by humans, as a dragon, he could not use brute force to force a kingdom to surrender. That would only be courting death and would attract siege from many dragon slayers.

But Colette is different. She is a pure human being, and it is feasible to control the Kingdom of Inbutu through her.

This request was for the future, but Nemesis also made a wish concerning the present.

"You want my training manual? Or a large number of power stones?" Duke Gavin raised his eyebrows, seeming a little surprised, but he soon agreed. It was just some knowledge he had already learned, in exchange for a powerful ally, which was well worth it.

"Very good, in that case, I agree." Nemesis agreed with satisfaction.

After finishing talking about the main business, the atmosphere among the four became much more relaxed and they began to talk about other topics. Nemesis, out of curiosity, asked Prince Ryan if he knew about the vampire derivatives in those small towns, but got a negative answer.

"What? There are disgusting vampires in almost every town? Could it be those damn Sel mages again?" Prince Ryan's face was full of disgust, and then he waved his hand, indicating that he would send people to investigate and deal with these vampires.

"Speaking of which, you haven't settled in a tavern yet, Nemesis, so why don't you stay at my place for a few days? I promise to have the servants buy you the most spacious villa in the next two days."

Nemesis readily agreed, as he didn't want to stay in those taverns anymore.
-
Nemesis was very comfortable living in the prince's palace, and Leorel in the palace no longer sent him letters. It was obvious that the other party had determined Nemesis's position through this action.

Nemesis didn't care and leisurely sorted out the gains he had made during this period. The first thing he did was the spell book of Schneider, a level 13 transmuter, which greatly expanded his transmutation spell list.

He has already learned all the spells of levels 1 to 5, and has sorted out the spells of levels 6 and 7 together with the six-ring spell book given by the royal family, leaving them for future study.

Among them, the 1st-7th level evocation spells are:
First-ring spell [Thunder Wave], second-ring spell [Flame Sphere], [Hydro Pressure Sphere], third-ring spell [Call Thunder], [Flash Blast], [Daylight], [Missile Storm], fourth-ring spell [Ice Storm], [Wall of Fire], [Roar], [Brilliant Radiance], [Stone Sphere], [Thunder Spear], fifth-ring spell [Short Message], sixth-ring spell [Chain Lightning], [Trigger], [Ice and Fire Storm], [Sun Ray], seventh-ring spell [Delayed Fireball], [Bigby's Grasping Palm], [Rainbow Eye], [Rainbow Jet], [Mage's Sword], [Burning Stone Haze].

As for the remaining six-ring spells, excluding the conjuration and divination systems that Nemesis was proficient in, and the transmutation system that basically overlapped with Schneider's spellbook, there are the following spells.

Protection: [Anti-magic field] [Advanced dispel magic] [Spell nullification barrier] [Iron wall] [Advanced teleportation foresight].

Enchantment system: [Frozen Gaze].

Illusion: [Eternal Phantom] [Dream Casting]

Necromancer: [Mind-stealing Gaze] [Sand Alliance Death Pact] [Bone Crushing]

Transmutation: [Lesser Dragon Form] [Boiling Mud]

These two spell books greatly enriched Nemesis' spell library, but they also consumed a lot of his time. By the time he finished organizing this knowledge, nearly half a month had passed.

As for the manuals on training psychic powers, he hadn't even had time to start reading them. The training of psychic powers was much slower than that of spells, and he was also very surprised by the strength of Duke Gavin - a 14th-level psychic!

His training manual was filled with abstract ramblings of a madman. Nemesis estimated that it would take him at least a year to comprehend all the psychic powers in this manual full of practical information. He even had a hunch that just understanding this manual would be enough to raise his psychic level by one level!

Nemesis was also looking forward to this. He had not forgotten that his agreement with Miss Shana of the Am Empire was only one year away. Only a stronger strength would be enough to support him in earning more wealth in the new world surrounded by wolves.

After putting away the spell book, Nemesis stretched his body. As usual, he took out thirty gems from the space bag, threw them into his mouth like chewing candy beans, crushed them with a "crunch" sound, and swallowed them. He felt his stomach starting to heat up like a furnace. After absorbing the magic power of the gems, he walked out of the door with satisfaction.

Today is the day I have an appointment with Prince Ryan. A few days ago, the prince sent a letter to the Church of Knowledge on the west coast, announcing that the Tome Dragon blessed by Oghma has joined them, and also stated the conditions for introducing the faith of the Church of Knowledge in the future cooperation.

Nemesis was confused and didn't know how the Church of Knowledge would respond. The Archbishop of the Church of Knowledge was also very confused. After receiving the letter, he felt baffled that a scroll dragon favored by the gods and the Prince of Inbutu had secretly reached a cooperation, and the condition was the introduction of the Church of Knowledge.

He had a strange feeling that he was being used.

But the oracle issued by Oghma afterwards made him even more confused. The master who had been invisible for many years and ignored his believers and only bestowed divine powers actually gave the order himself, asking the Church of Knowledge to cooperate with the missionary activities of the volume dragon named "Nemesis".

Forehead.
The archbishop had vaguely heard rumors that his boss was an incurable fan of dragon scrolls, but he had always scoffed at such outrageous rumors.

Come on! How could a noble god like the God of Knowledge be obsessed with dragons?

But now Oghma's behavior made him see clearly that hidden behind the solemn appearance of seeking knowledge was an incurable dragon fan.

How else could such a confusing oracle be issued?
The Kingdom of Inbutu is blocked by a whole huge desert from the headquarters of the Church of Knowledge - the west coast. Not to mention that as a foreign god, the belief in the God of Knowledge is extremely rejected in the central and northern parts of Faerun where the native gods of Faerun gather. The difficulty of missionary work can be said to be half the result with twice the effort.

But there was no choice. No matter how many shortcomings there were, the boss had spoken. What else could the archbishop do?

He had no choice but to issue an order overnight, asking a distinguished bishop to rush to Imbutu immediately to discuss missionary matters.

　Sorry, I'm busy attending weddings and don't have time to update. I can only write 4,000 words.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)