034 Bribery

In truth, what Karen called cooperation was merely a more polished way of putting it.

As for the matter concerning Dream, Karen was simply bribing Silverglow.

Ultimately, Karen had to offer the Silver Hand some benefits in order to get through this hurdle smoothly.

Whether he could buy off Silverglow, that spoiled heir, was never in doubt. Goblins were born with greed flowing through their veins.

Although Silverglow was one of the greatest wastrels in the Silver Hand, he was still completely unable to resist the temptation Karen offered him. He happily accepted Karen’s bribe.

Once Karen had given him those benefits, Silverglow’s attitude immediately improved considerably.

Of course, while Silverglow’s attitude had improved, he still made no concessions to Karen when it came to the distribution of market profits.

Whatever decision the Silver Council ultimately reached was precisely the result Silverglow and Karen negotiated.

In the end, another thirty percent of the profits from the market in Karen’s territory was taken by the Silver Hand. On top of that, the Silver Hand also claimed a substantial portion of the market’s regulatory authority.

It could be said that neither the Silver Hand nor the Bourbon Kingdom regarded Karen as an equal. The treaties they negotiated with him were unequal ones.

In the span of only a few days, half of the profits from Karen’s market had been taken away, and they had even begun extending their hands into the market itself.

This was not what Karen wanted to see, but he had no choice. It was something he had to endure for now.

Ultimately, it came down to a matter of strength. If Karen’s territory were currently at level six or seven, and he possessed tens of millions of units of territorial energy, then he would have no need to suffer such wanton exploitation.

Unfortunately, he did not, so he could only endure it.

Still, this time he had not gained nothing. After meeting Crane and Silverglow in succession, Karen had temporarily made it through this crisis.

The three parties had already reached an understanding regarding the market. If nothing unexpected happened, the commercial cooperation between the Silver Hand and the Bourbon Kingdom would soon deepen further, and the market would develop at an even faster pace.

At the same time, through Dream, Karen had managed to establish a connection with Silverglow. If Silverglow truly took the bait, it would bring Karen enormous benefits.

Karen was not the sort of person to make a losing deal.

Yes, he had indeed said that he could provide Dream free of charge—but only on the condition that Silverglow supplied the materials.

And what were the materials for Dream?

They were Whispers of the Dead. Each bottle required roughly a dozen blossoms of Whispers of the Dead as ingredients, yet Karen had told Silverglow that a thousand blossoms were needed to brew a single bottle.

Silverglow had not harbored the slightest suspicion. Based on Karen’s purchase price of twenty copper coins per blossom, he calculated that the cost of a bottle was roughly two silver coins.

A cost of two silver coins could create profits worth dozens of silver coins, or even several gold coins. In Silverglow’s eyes, that was already astonishing enough, so naturally he had no reason to doubt it.

In that case, every bottle of Dream that Karen brewed for Silverglow would earn him nearly a thousand blossoms of Whispers of the Dead. Naturally, it was a deal he was more than willing to make.

More importantly, after tasting the sweetness of Dream, Silverglow would undoubtedly take the initiative to help Karen promote the cultivation of Whispers of the Dead.

Karen had already been promoting it for some time, but no matter how vigorously he pushed it, he could never compare with Silverglow.

With Silverglow lending his influence, the cultivation rate of Whispers of the Dead throughout the Silver Hand would certainly soar. And since Karen was the only person in the entire world who needed the stuff, he would ultimately be the one to benefit.

Therefore, although Karen had surrendered a portion of his profits this time, the outcome was still quite favorable for him.

Moreover, the first batches of Whispers of the Dead planted by the Silver Hand and the Bourbon Kingdom were about to mature. If nothing went wrong, Karen would soon harvest another enormous amount of territorial energy.

Overall, everything was developing in a favorable direction.

Of course, it would be even better if Karen could raise his strength to the Fourth-Order Legendary realm and thereby upgrade his territory.

Unfortunately, that seemed rather difficult. During this period, Karen had constantly been troubled by the same problem.

His headache was not about increasing his strength. If he was willing, he had plenty of ways to improve his power.

The main issue was that Karen had never encountered the Legendary tier before. Several Fourth-Order undead under his command had reached the Excellent tier, but could go no further. There was no option for them to advance.

He did not know whether special conditions had to be met in order to advance to the Legendary tier.

He had not the slightest clue. After all, so far he had never seen a single Fourth-Order Legendary being.

Well, that was not entirely true. There was one—Ironbone.

Ever since Ironbone vanished three months ago, Karen had not seen it again.

Judging from Ironbone’s attributes, however, the past three months had clearly treated it well. Its strength had skyrocketed throughout that time.

It had originally possessed only the strength of an ordinary Third-Order creature, but it was now a Fourth-Order Legendary existence. Moreover, from the long string of experience displayed behind its attributes—so long that it was nearly overflowing from the status panel—Karen knew very clearly that Ironbone’s growth was due to the level of his territory.

If Karen’s territory reached level five, Ironbone might even be able to rise directly to the peak of the fifth level. Such explosive growth made Karen extremely curious.

Over the past three months, he had sent undead to search for Ironbone in that mine countless times. By now, Karen was desperate to find it.

After all, finding Ironbone might allow him to obtain the opportunity it had encountered. If he could replicate it, Karen might be able to mass-produce powerful undead. He himself might even advance smoothly to the Fourth-Order Legendary realm. At the very least, he could obtain some clues from Ironbone.

Unfortunately, Ironbone seemed to have vanished from the world. Aside from Karen’s status panel, there was nothing to prove that it had ever existed.

This left Karen deeply frustrated. Although Ironbone’s rise in strength had delighted him, Karen estimated that it would be difficult to see it again anytime soon.

It was even more impossible for him to learn from Ironbone how, exactly, one was supposed to advance to the so-called Fourth-Order Legendary realm.

If he wanted to reach that level, he would have to figure it out himself. Naturally, before he could begin investigating that problem, there was another prerequisite he needed to fulfill: he first had to raise his own strength to the peak of the Fourth-Order Excellent tier.

Fortunately, Karen had a shortcut to accomplish that.