Alexander The Great Mage

Thankfully, Dubaza immediately dispersed the Lightning Avatar once he sensed that Vernie was in pain.

Bzzzzz!

The Lightning Avatar disappeared, leaving behind a sorrowful Vernie, a stunned Alexander and a still-cackling-with-joy Flamewing.

Vernie quickly made his way down and landed near Alexander. He was still smoking slightly. His body had reached the saturation point for lightning energy and his skin had begun to char. Thankfully he had extremely high levels of regeneration, and would probably recover in a day or two.

Dubaza landed near Alexander as well, still grinning. "I had always wanted to make a Lightning Avatar. But I never had the opportunity to absorb such a vast amount of lightning energy before. It was a good experience. Well done, Vernie." Dubaza patted Vernie fondly. Vernie could only smile his ferocious Wyvern smile weakly.

"I WIN!" Flamewing exclaimed.

"Yeah yeah, you win." Alexander grumbled. "You knew all about the Lightning Avatar!"

"Of course!" Flamewing said proudly.

"Actually, you knew too. Aloxandros was extremely clear on Dubaza's powers. You just never took the time to study and fully assimilate with the knowledge and memories that Aloxandros left behind. If you must blame someone, blame it on your lazy self!"

"Fine. It's my own fault, and my loss this time." Alexander conceded. He had to make some time to study Aloxandros's memories, lest he loses more bets, or even worse, an important battle.

"But Dubaza really is strong huh?"

"In a lightning-rich environment or against a lightning-based opponent, Dubaza becomes incredibly powerful. In fact his win was almost guaranteed from the start! Plus, Lightning Avatars are no pushovers. You know that they are like Energy Clones right?"

"Uh-huh. I did read and assimilate most of the general knowledge found in Aloxandros's memories. That was how I recognized the Lightning Avatar for what it was. They're basically the full-offensive versions of Energy Clones right?"

"I guess you can put it that way. Lightning Avatars are extremely powerful. And with Dubaza's Pure Lightning Body which allows him to fully absorb lightning, he can create an infinite number of Lightning Avatars as long as the lightning supply is there! It's incredible." Flamewing said with a trace of awe in her voice.

For a dragon to be in awe of a human being, that really was something.

"Well done old man. You still got it!" Alexander praised Dubaza.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Dubaza said formally with a slight bow. He was obviously pleased at successfully beating up his freshly-powered up Wyvern.

"Vernie still can fly right?" Alexander asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty. He is still capable of flight."

"Let's go, then. You can ride with me. Vernie can follow us behind. We have two dragons to rescue!" Alexander quickly hopped on his Wyvern, followed by Dubaza.

"Alexander, to the rescue! Yay!!" Flamewing shouted happily.

*-*-*-*-*-*

Aleyria stood atop the highest tower in the City of Rin. From there, coupled with her magically enhanced eyesight, she could see the entire city with great clarity.

She had decided to focus all the building of the new military facilities in Rin. Rin was strategically located at Rin-Turah's eastern border, making it the center of the newly formed Rin-Turah / Zan 'alliance'.

As per Alexander's masterplan, she would build up 4 massive Military Academies that will focus on producing Rin's Flying Regiments, Mounted Regiments, Shadow Operatives, as well as officers in charge of Military Planning, Support and Logistics.

These four Military Academies would ring the City of Rin like four massive coiled beasts in each of the four cardinal directions.

Currently, hundreds of thousands of Black Robes were feverishly digging up deep holes that would serve as the foundation of the tall buildings that Aleyria planned to build.

Thousands more were felling trees and preparing all the building materials they would need. Stone masons, lumberjacks, blacksmiths, engineers and architects were all fully immersed and engaged. None were slacking off. It was a vastly different scene compared to just the day before.

Aleyria had gathered all the Black Robes she could summon, as well as all the skilled workers and artisans. Within a few short hours, she had a gathering of at least fifty thousand men and women outside the Royal Palace Gates where she had prepared a large stage with a massive item on it draped with heavy black cloth.

It stood almost ten meters tall, and was at least sixty meters wide and fifty meters long.

All of them had wondered what that monstrous thing was during the time they spent waiting for Princess Aleyria to make her appearance. They had passed down rumours, gossips, conjectures and speculations as to what exotic treasure it was.

The Royal Dragon Battalion stationed around the grand plaza had tried to glare down the whispers, but it was no use. The crowd simply ignored them, so inflamed they were by the wild speculations some were making.

For a moment, the rumor of heathenism reigned supreme among the gossip mongers. It was an altar! They cried out to each other. An altar to worship demons! The Princess had turned to demonism and we would be mass sacrifices! Look, her infernal demon masters had already sent her a demon guard! Dragons!

The rumour rippled with astonishing speed and soon, the fifty thousand men and women were in uproar. Some of them were so sure of the rumor that they had drawn their wands, and were on the verge of mutiny. Down with the Demon Princess! Defend the honor of Rin-Turah! They cried.

Thankfully, however, before spells were cast and the Royal Dragon Guards split those ridiculously empty heads apart like watermelons, someone caught sight of a High Cleric of Magius who had finally appeared. Instantly, the fear of demonism was squashed. There was no way a High Clerif of Magius would appear if the Princess had turned to demonism.

The chief competing rumor made a grand re-entry into the chaos. That object was a table filled with raw ingredients, and the Princess would be holding a cooking competition! The winner would be the new Royal Chef and would be paid TRIPLE the minimum wage!

The crowd began to discuss the various secret recipes they know and talking about cooking methods and styles. The women were especially excited. Finally! A stage for them to shine!

When Aleyria had finally appeared, the gossips and rumors had reached a fevered pitch. Everyone was anticipating what the object was. So when she announced Alexander's ambitious plans to create the military economy and the many buildings that they would have to make in a very short amount of time, she was met with boos and catcalls. There were even derisive laughter heard among the crowd. Worse still, some had begun to walk away.

They had simply assumed the item to be something related to the work they had to do. A grand plan of all the buildings they had to break their backs building perhaps? Thanks, but no thanks!

Seeing such blatant disrespect, members of the Royal Dragon Battalion had immediately leapt up upon their Wyverns and were ready to put those disrespectful brats into their rightful places. However, Aleyria had waved them away.

She allowed those who wanted to leave, to actually leave. At least ten thousand had walked away right there and then. A full forty thousand remained, and it gave her a deep sense of satisfaction and joy to know that so many had answered the Kingdom's call.

She had not even started talking about payment yet. So she did.

"All forty thousand of you, the first responders to the Kingdom's call to rebuild the economy, will be greatly honored and rewarded. You have volunteered your services and your strength without needing to know how much you'll be compensated, how long your hours will be, and how you will be treated.

Let me tell you now. Your King, Aloxdandros is generous to his allies and his faithful subjects. Your Kingdom, Rin-Turah, is rich beyond measure. All of you will be given compensation of one hundred times the Kingdom's minimum wage."

At that, a roar of surprise and joy had sounded. But Aleyria was not done.

"Tomorrow, we will open recruitment once more. We will still honor and reward these second responders. They will be given compensation of ten times the Kingdom's minimum wage. We will have a final day's recruitment in two days time. And all who sign up then will receive five times the Kingdom's minimum wage."

The roar of surprise intensified. All forty thousand were excited. One hundred times the Kingdom's minimum wage?! They'll be rich!

Aleyria gave a signal and some men pulled back the heavy black cloth that draped the subject of all the gossips and rumors just moments ago.

A sharp blinding light burst forth and blinded the crowd for a time. Finally, someone at the back who were too far away to be affected much by the light screamed out. "IT IS GOLD! IT IS GOLD!!"

A roar of surprise rippled out like never before. "GOLD! GOLD!" They screamed.

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