The main reason that the 3rd prince of the Avalon Kingdom was trying to kill Bane wasn’t that he had a deep grudge against him but because of Hell’s Gate Village itself, more precisely its location.
Originally, the Hollow Mountain range acted as a buffer zone between the Agnus Empire and Avalon kingdom. As such, none of the two countries counted it as part of their territory.
However, fifteen years ago, the emperor of the Agnus Empire claimed and bestowed the entire Hollow Mountain range to the Grand Duke Marcus Asteroth which was located right behind his Grand Duchy for some unknown reason.
At first, the Avalon Kingdom didn’t think much of it and stayed silent. The Hollow mountain range might be massive, but it didn’t have much value and was useless. Instead, it was a headache for both countries.
Not only the Hollow mountain range was infested with bandits, criminals, and violent nomad tribes, but it was also filled with other evil humanoid creatures such as trolls, orcs, goblins, and other monsters that inhabited there.
These monsters along with bandits often attacked the nearby villages and towns of both countries creating nothing but chaos.
The entire area was a lawless land and safe haven for criminals and bandits. It was one of the most violent, chaotic, complicated, bloodthirsty, and heinous places on the Driugron continent.
Everywhere, every day was a complete balagan filled with killing, thievery, plundering, and rape.
As such, the Avalon Kingdom didn’t even bat an eye when the Agnus Empire decided to claim it and bestow it to the Grand Duke Marcus Asteroth.
In fact, they were even happy about it. A place like the Hollow Mountain range was impossible to conquer let alone rule over due to its harsh topography and in its lawless and barbaric inhabitants.
Knowing this, they were more than happy to seat on the sideline and watched how the Agnus Empire was about to waste their time, manpower, and resources by trying to conquer and rule over the Hollow Mountain Range.
However, everything changed two years ago when a large deposit of high-grade Mana Stone mine was discovered in the Hollow mountain range, not too far from Hell’s Gate village.
As such, the Avalon Kingdom that had washed its hand off the Hollow Mountain range declared war upon the Agnus Empire over the ownership of the mountain range.
One has to understand that Mana stone mines were extremely valuable and scarce no matter the dimension, let alone high-grade ones.
For those who might be still unaware of its usage. Mana stone was a one-time use stone with concentrated mana energy. It could be used in many different ways. Crafting, Alchemy, refill mage's mana pool, etc.
Possessing and controlling a large deposit of high-grade mana stone mines could greatly enhance the power of a nation both financially and militarily.
Now, even though the two nations were currently negotiating about the ownership of the Hollow Mountain range, more precisely the high-grade mana stone mine, the cunning 3rd prince of the Avalon Kingdom was already making his move just in case the negotiation broke down.
As it was forbidden for both nations to intervene militarily in the Hollow Mountain range while they were negotiating, the ambitious and intelligent 3rd prince secretly created a powerful gang using well-trained knights mixed with true outlaws and began taking over part of the Hollow Mountain as well as swallowing the other bandits' group and nomad tribes.
His main goal was to gain total control of all the bandits' groups and villages in the southeast part of the Hollow mountain range and the Hell’s Gate village was the last one left to complete his goal, and also the most important one as it was closer to mana stone mine.
“I wish I could see the face that they would make when they realized that the high-grade mana stone mine they’ve been fighting over is been secretly mined by someone right under their nose.”Bane coldly uttered as his lips curved into an evil grin.
“Let’s hope Inevitable continued to stall them. The more time they spent negotiating and arguing, the more time I have to completely clean them out.” He added with a cunning expression on his face.
[Time until host can re-enter the Astral Plane: 05:40:29]
“Five hours and forty minutes, not bad.” Said Bane after checking the system timer.
After passing the tutorial, Bane thought he would be able to enter the Astral Plane whenever he wanted to, as long as he had the astral point to do so.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t the case. There were still restrictions when it came to entering the Astral Plane. There was a cooldown period, and it was designated to protect him.
This was due to the time discrepancy between the Material World and the Astral Plane which could cause psychological displacement if he were to stay too long in the astral plane.
Aside from that, it could also lead to confusion between the real world and the astral plane. As such, every time he came back from the astral plane, the system gave him a cool-down period to adjust to the rule or the laws of the real world to not lose touch with reality.
His mind and soul might have aged significantly but his speech, demeanor, and mentality were no different from how they were before entering the astral plane.
“Completed status window,” Bane whispered to himself after checking the system timer.
[Name: Bane Asteroth]
[Age: 10 years(Astral Soul 500 years]
[Species: Human]
[Occupation: Mage, Elementalist, Necromancer, Summoner, Blacksmith, alchemist]
[Uniqueness: Scavenger of the Astral Plane]
[Title: The One Blessed by Mana, The Emissary of Death, The One Blessed by Spirits]
[Level: 99 (400, 457/10 000 000]
Intelligence: 650
Wisdom: 649
Mental power: 897
Magic Power: 11,400/15,000
Astral points: 5700
Unallocated stat points: 24
………………………………
Physical Stats:
Strength: 240
Dexterity: 98
Stamina: 472
Vitality: 600
……………………………………..
Skills: Universal tongue(Unique), Appraisal (inferior), Akhrṓmatos Vision(Legendary), Psychokinesis (Legendary) Foresight (Legendary), Soul Consumption(Legendary) Thousand Poison Resistance( Superior), Hypnosis( superior)
Magic spells: Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Acid Arrow, Chain Lightning, Mana Absorption, Ultimate Void, Magic purge, Ice Shard, Finger of Death, Fire Meteor, Absolute illusion, Animate Dead, Arcane Hand, Blink, Mana Wings, Fire Shield, Wall of Fire, Wall of Water, Ice Coffin, Fire Storm, Greater Healing, Mass Heal, Reverse Gravity, Teleportation, Lightning Nova, Bone Spear, Wall of Bone, Ray of Death, Summon Skeleton Soldier…………………………………….
Contracted Spirits: Undine, Sylphide.
...................................................
“It seems like I still have a long way to go before reaching level 100. I can’t believe I’ve been stuck in that level for three years.” Bane murmured to himself as he was looking at a large number of exp left before he could meet the requirement.
When he first reached level 10 in just one day when he was born, he thought that everything was going to be easy and had this unreasonable expectation that he would be able to reach level 100 in just a week or so till reality hit him.
After reaching level 10, the amount of exp needed to level up multiplied and continued to do so with each level up. Not only that, once he had reached level 20, the level one two, three, and even four astral wisps didn’t give him any exp. He had to hunt more dangerous creatures if he wanted to get some worthwhile exp.
“Ohh well, at least I was able to amass a variety of occupations and a large number of magic spells and skills.” He consoled himself as he looked at his skills window.
He had so many magic spells that he hasn’t even had the chance to use many of them in the real world.
“Young Lord, dinner is ready. It's time for you to eat.” As Bane was going through his new stats and skills, a loud and caring voice of a woman suddenly echoed out in his ears from inside the small castle.
“Aisha!” Bane blurted out after hearing that voice as his expression suddenly changed.
“I guess my ears are in for another torturing afternoon.” He added. Sometimes he wondered why he still kept that talkative maid around.
