Chapter 400: Battle For The Seat Of The Barbarian King [Part 1]

Leone originally planned to explore the dungeon with his vassals. Unfortunately, that had to be postponed.

Right after breakfast, the chieftains of the high-ranking tribes came to visit his fortress.

"We need a bigger table," Leone said to Kael.

"Understood, Great Chieftain!" Kael then lightly tapped the round table in front of him.

A second later, the table grew in size until it could easily seat eight people.

Kael then waved his hands, and on cue, chairs meant for the chieftains, as well as their Elders, appeared around the table.

Leone then welcomed the guests who had come to the fortress for a subtle inspection.

"Please take a seat, everyone," Leone said with a smile.

Duncan, Oswald, and Garen remained standing, intending to wait until the higher-ups of the high-ranking tribes were seated before taking a seat themselves.

However, they didn’t wish to sit anywhere near Hagen or Godwin.

To their luck, Godwin sat first, then Hagen sat on his right. Malik occupied the other spot beside Godwin, while Troy took the spot beside Hagen.

Leone sat on the seat facing Godwin, while Duncan and Oswald sat beside him.

As for Garen, he sat right beside Malik.

All the chieftains of the Borderlands were now gathered, and it was time for them to discuss important matters.

"Before we start, let me just ask one thing," Hagen said calmly. "Leone, does this fortress have something to do with what you did last night?"

"No." Leone shook his head. "Even if what happened last night had been stopped, Kael can still build this fortress."

He wasn’t lying.

Daedalus could build any structure at any time, anywhere. Of course, there was just one problem.

Those structures would degrade and collapse over time.

At most, they would only last for a week. Only those that were built within the boundary of Leone’s territory would last permanently.

"Then, can you tell us the true purpose behind what you did last night?" Godwin asked. "I won’t force you to make an oath to the Earth Mother, but I want the truth."

The Elders of the Warclaw Tribe that sat behind Godwin all nodded their heads in agreement. Right now, they were the Regent of Eden.

Usually, anything that would be done within the city, including events, ceremonies, or rituals, must first receive their approval.

Leone broke those rules last night, so now they wanted him to give them a proper explanation.

Actually, the young chieftain already expected them to ask this question today. He could have made excuses, or perhaps bluffed his way around this question. But he didn’t feel like doing that right now.

For better or for worse, Eden was now his second territory.

Also, he didn’t really want to lie, especially to his great uncle, Gundar, who always supported him despite his recklessness.

"Very well. I will tell all of you what I did last night, then," Leone replied calmly.

Everyone’s expression turned serious after hearing the young chieftain’s reply.

They expected Leone to brush off Godwin’s question or spit out a lie to pacify them.

But his gaze told them that he had no intention to hide anything.

"By planting my flag at the center of Eden, I declared the entire city to be my territory," Leone said calmly.

The moment those words left his mouth, the atmosphere around the table immediately turned heavy. The Elders and Chieftains looked at Leone in shock.

"I knew it!" Hagen pounded the table with his fist. "You bastard! How dare you desecrate the sacred lands of the Barbarians?!"

The other Elders behind Godwin and Hagen also took the opportunity to voice out their complaints, while Leone casually sipped some water from the cup in front of him.

A sigh escaped Gundar’s lips. He was one of the few who understood what Leone was doing last night.

At first, he had planned to stop the young man. However, Leone’s words managed to stall for time, preventing Gundar from stopping whatever he was doing.

The only saving grace was that the countdown of Eden’s territorialization was only a few minutes away from completion.

Had there been five minutes or longer left on the clock, Gundar might have successfully stopped Leone from claiming Eden as part of his territory.

"What exactly do you mean by declaring Eden your territory?" Troy asked, not caring about the chaos ensuing around him. "How does that work exactly?"

"I cannot divulge all the details, but to keep it simple, I can reconstruct the city any way I want using Kael as a medium," Leone replied.

Technically, Leone wasn’t lying.

It had been established that it was Kael who could create a fortress from scratch.

He was indeed the medium that Leone and Daedalus had used to hide the fact that it was they who actually had the power to build things.

Kael raised his chin arrogantly at those words, making sure he looked extra important in the eyes of the people around him.

Gundar was probably the only one outside of the Aslan Tribe who knew which among them truly possessed such great powers.

"Is that really something that you should do without permission?!" Elder Yun of the Grimhowl Tribe shouted as he pointed a finger at Leone.

He was the same Elder who had met Jafar and negotiated over the conditions needed for the Grimhowl Tribe to turn a blind eye in their war against the Darkmane Tribe.

"If I asked for permission, would the chieftains allow it?" Leone asked calmly.

"Of course not!" another Elder shouted. "How can we allow such a thing to happen?! Eden belongs to the barbarian tribes. We cannot allow an outsider to claim it as their domain! Besides, this is why we have the tournament! Those who win will be able to serve as the Regent of Eden for a period of time!"

Leone smiled wryly, genuinely unable to refute anything. After all, he was the bad guy here, and he had no intention of sugarcoating his words.

"Then, all we need to do is win the tournament, right?" Leone asked. "Once we do, we’ll have the legitimate authority to ’own’ Eden for a period of time. Am I understanding the rules correctly?"

"Not exactly, but it’s the closest you can get to ’owning’ Eden," Hagen answered. "However, the tournament is not yet held, and the Aslan Tribe hasn’t won anything."

Now that the matter of the tournament was brought out in the open, Hagen decided to use this opportunity to make an announcement.

But before he could say anything, Godwin made his thoughts known to everyone.

"I’ve been thinking a lot about it, and I believe that the Borderlands cannot stay the way it is now," Godwin said. "For decades, we have tried many ways on how to unite all the tribes together, making them stand under one banner.

"Some used foul means behind the scenes to make it happen. The perfect example of this is none other than Osteon’s collaboration with the Monster King. Sure, it’s an extreme example, but it shows how much he wanted to make the other tribes kneel to his power and authority."

Everyone quieted down as they listened to Godwin’s speech.

Except for the middle-ranked tribes and the Sandreaver Tribe, the other tribes had executed countless schemes to rise to the seat of power and claim the title of Barbarian King of the Borderlands.

The Warclaw Tribe, the Grimhowl Tribe, the Bonegnash Tribe, and the Darkmane Tribe.

In fact, Jafar had nearly perfected his Undead Army, which he had planned to use against the other tribes in the future.

Troy and Jafar thought that using it against the Aslan Tribe was the perfect opportunity to test the strength and effectiveness of their Undead Army, which should have helped them win the war.

If they had fought the other high-ranking tribes, they might have stood a chance.

Unfortunately, they picked the wrong opponent.

Attacking the Aslan Tribe on their own home turf was like trying to fight a snapping turtle by putting your hand close to its face.

Not only were its defenses solid, but anything that came within their range was as good as dead.

Plus, with Leone’s cheat-like abilities, any type of siege weapon wouldn’t be able to breach their walls unless he ran out of materials to constantly repair them.

But that was a very hard thing to do.

Leone’s miners constantly dug through the Grimjaw Mountain Range.

What did this mean?

It meant that all the stones and dirt they dug up were automatically sent to the resource point that allowed Daedalus to convert them to raw materials for construction.

The only way to defeat the Aslan Tribe was to damage their defenses so fast that the materials in Daedalus’ inventory would fail to keep up.

Unless flying monsters or absolute powerhouses managed to break past their walls, the Aslan Tribe could defend themselves for an extended period of time.