Green Monster Epic

Chapter 401: Remarkable Results

The Cooking Competition concluded successfully. Among the five rewarded goblin contestants, four were dwarf goblins. However, the sole hobgoblin female, Meikong, won by simmering small fish and shrimp from Green Lake into a rich broth, then pouring it over a golden bok choy, creating a dish resembling a blooming flower. Not only was the taste incredibly fresh, but the presentation was also exquisite, a surprise coming from a robust hobgoblin.

The dish, ultimately named 'Flower of Fortune,' immediately captivated the twenty-plus representatives serving as judges. Even Allen was astonished by Meikong's ingenuity.

As for the other dwarf goblin contestants, their winning dishes also had merit. The cooked dishes were perfect in color, aroma, and taste. Allen praised all five dishes and directly added them to the 'Allen' cuisine, as part of the training menu for the village's culinary school.

In addition, several other dishes, though not ultimately victorious, were also included in the menu, enriching the village's culinary repertoire. Before long, these dishes would likely appear on the tables of every household.

After the Cooking Competition, Allen rushed back to the Mansa West Mountains, not lingering in the village for too long. Besides wanting to test the tribesmen in the valley and see if the training had significant effects, he also didn't know how to interact with his partner, Lena.

In any case, the benefits he should have received were in hand, and the alliances that needed to be made were also completed. How to get along with Lena would have to be worked out slowly over time.

The ten books detailing the principles of alchemy were now being studied and pondered over like treasures by the dwarf goblin alchemists, who were using them as a foundation for various experiments. The financial and material resources invested in the experiments were continuous and substantial. The magical plant materials collected from the wilderness in the early days were now being consumed like flowing water, but Allen didn't feel any heartache. As long as the tribesmen could improve, it was all worth it.

Just like now in the village, some could already develop elementary healing potions. Although the success rate wasn't high, and the medicinal effects weren't as good as those bought from the outside, these were breakthroughs for the village. In the long run, it was a cause for celebration.

Allen stayed in the valley for half a year. During that time, a batch of tribesmen in the valley was replaced. Previously, nearly thirty tribesmen stuck at level 12 had, after Allen's continuous squeezing and tempering, seen eight members successively advance to level 13, which meant that this kind of tempering was effective.

As for the guys who didn't complete the advancement, Allen let them choose whether to continue after four months of continuous training. If they continued to train, then they would continue to stay in the valley to hone their bodies. If they wanted to rest, then they could go back to the village and fend for themselves. At least, in Allen's heart, those who voluntarily gave up could no longer enter his eyes, unless they had other talents, such as being as intelligent and eager to learn as Tom. Otherwise, the tribe's resources would no longer be heavily invested in these guys.

After the Cooking Competition, Allen finally replenished the lack of inspiration in his cooking. Through the inspiration of thousands of participating members of the tribe, he completed the new generation of 'Agony of Bones' dishes he developed. It was precisely with the help of 'Agony of Bones' that eight high-level members were successfully produced among the thirty experimenters in the tribe. If this were a normal promotion rate, Allen would be secretly happy if 3-4 tribesmen advanced.

Although the thirty carefully selected members were all elites who had grown up in the tribe over the years, each with good talent directions, the probability of breaking through from middle-level to high-level was not necessarily much higher than that of breaking through from low-level to middle-level.

Until now, the success rate of adult warriors in the tribe, excluding the dwarf goblin bloodline, advancing to the middle level was only a little more than one in ten. As for the advancement rate of dwarf goblin warriors, it was even lower, less than one in twenty, which was why Allen had always had some discrimination against these dwarf goblins.

According to the information Allen had collected over the years, the success rate of middle-level advancing to high-level in large tribes in the wilderness, excluding the four major civilization systems, was also only about one in ten. This was why Allen estimated the success rate of these thirty tribesmen to be between 3-4.

However, after this high-intensity, continuous valley training, and with the assistance and stimulation of the 'Agony of Bones' potion, the fact that these thirty tribesmen were able to successfully advance eight members was enough to prove that the experiments Allen was conducting did have powerful effects.

Of course, the real experimental results certainly couldn't be completely verified based on just one set of data. Therefore, Allen re-selected a batch of level 12 bottleneck warriors from the village to replace the tribesmen who had temporarily lost their experimental value.

Time passed so plainly. In the wilderness, as Obadai-Hai, the God of Nature, inherited most of the authority after the slumber of the Father of the Oak, and rose strongly, there were also gradually major actions. If the Father of the Oak, when he led the gods of the Temple of Nature, stood more from an objective point of view and maintained the balance of nature, then Obadai, who gradually controlled the leadership power of the Temple of Nature, was more inclined to use powerful means to maintain the Temple's ideals.

The power that the Temple of Nature had operated in the wilderness for countless years gradually came from the shadows and began to raise the banner of the Temple, drawing and conscripting the vassal races under its command for its own use, establishing armies. As the strongest balanced force in the Wilderness Alliance, it has now split. More than half of the tribes have completely sided with the Temple of Nature, and under the call of several gods of the Nature God system, such as the God of Nature, the Patron God of Rangers, and the God of Exploration, they began to actively prepare for war.

In the wilderness, countless messengers and high priests were running around, trying to win over allies for their forces. With the Temple of Nature stepping to the forefront, the originally loose alliance gradually had a strong voice.

The wilderness was the foundation of the Temple of Nature. When the Temple of Nature, which had been spreading faith and developing believers in this area for countless years, truly took action to win over tribes, those tribal leaders who once thought they could challenge the Temple of Nature suddenly discovered that their neighbors had changed their affiliations and become the Temple's lackeys.

Fortunately, this was still the early stage of the Temple's strong consolidation of power. The methods of the God of Nature and other gods were still relatively gentle. After all, the Temple had always adhered to the strategy of secretly guiding for so many years, and had not prevented different voices, which allowed the wilderness to maintain a loose alliance full of humanity.

Taking advantage of the opportunity that the Temple was also wooing tribes, the balanced camp that did not want to become a vassal of the Temple, and the conservative camps that sought peaceful life in the wilderness, launched actions one after another, forming small groups with a certain strength to contend with the increasingly powerful Temple of Nature.

Even within the Temple of Nature itself, there were several church camps, such as the gradually declining Father of the Oak, the Ranger Goddess, and the New Sprout Goddess, who still adhered to the original ideals of the Father of the Oak.

The sudden outbreak of a war between powerful nations on the two continents ultimately led to the chaotic situation in the wilderness today. The word peace seems to be getting farther and farther away from Allen and his tribe.

Allen stayed in the Mansa West Mountains for more than two years, rarely even returning to Green Lake Town. And in these two years, the number of warriors under Allen's command who were mining the mountains together became increasingly large, now reaching a scale of over 300 people.

Don't underestimate these three hundred people. Over a hundred of them are clansmen who have reached the peak of the intermediate level. Although some of them have been training here for over two years, and may never advance to the high level in this lifetime, Allen hasn't abandoned these clansmen who are eager to improve. At least they have put in sweat and diligence, and Allen hasn't skimped on the resources they deserve.

The corpses of demons and legendary high-level beings collected on the battlefield have been almost completely consumed in these two years. Allen even made a trip to Mansa City for this purpose, finding mission postings at the city lord's mansion or the temple, searching for traces of surviving abyssal creatures, and acting as a hunter to replenish his reserves a little.

For Allen at this time, chasing down a high-level demon or devil who had strayed outside with his legendary strength was quite simple. Coupled with his decent intelligence gathering capabilities, Allen could earn mission rewards while also obtaining the abyssal flesh he needed. With this win-win situation, Allen accumulated enough merit points and contributions to exchange for an ordinary inheritance.

Only when your strength reaches a certain level will you realize that some things you used to have to work hard for are now relatively simple.

The Moor Fortress at the northern exit of the Carter Canyon is the most important core city of the Ajinaja tribe. The Ajinaja tribe's territory isn't large, centered around the fortresses at both exits of the Carter Canyon, with a radius of only about two hundred miles. After all, the tribe's greatest foundation lies in the natural barrier formed by the canyon and mountains, which almost completely controls the tax revenue from the prosperous trade route, so it doesn't need a wide territory to support the tribe's population.

Countless passing merchant caravans not only bring considerable tax revenue opportunities to the Ajinaja tribe, but also bring diverse goods from the northern and southern continents, as well as the living supplies needed by the tribe.

However, as the four civilizations on the two continents engaged in fierce warfare, the Mansa Corridor, a trade route that had been prosperous for many years, also fell into a state of depression rarely seen in many years. Large merchant caravans almost completely ceased long-distance transcontinental trade, because the powerful elf and human civilizations issued orders to close the borders at the beginning of the war. Under these circumstances, small and medium-sized flexible merchant caravans, and even solitary traveling merchants, were more flexible than large merchant groups, and easier to travel back and forth through the strict blockade network.

After all, it was a trade route with substantial profits. Even during wartime, those vested interests wouldn't be willing to give up the dazzling money, and they used all means to collude with the powerful classes on the kingdom's borders, secretly continuing their trade activities, but the scale and volume were naturally much smaller.

Although it had entered a period of depression, there were still fewer foreign travelers in the Moor Fortress than in previous years. But in fact, if you observe carefully, you can find that there are many more soldiers on the fortress walls, and there is a faint atmosphere of solemnity in the city. Compared with the prosperity of previous years, the situation of interrogation and patrols has become more frequent.

Earth Genie Chieftain Beryl has led the Ajinaja tribe for more than 150 years. Although the establishment of the tribe's two important cities can be traced back to a certain chieftain thousands of years ago, Beryl feels that he has been working hard for the tribe and is no less than any promising chieftain.

It's just a pity that during the tribe's inheritance, there have been many exquisite leaders, but more are mediocre or even somewhat prodigal leaders. It wasn't until Beryl took over as chieftain that he realized that the seemingly prosperous scene and the tribe with considerable income were actually strong on the outside but weak on the inside. The public reserve of the tribe was far from what the tribe showed to the outside world.

Especially behind this wealthy and stable appearance, only Beryl, who inherited the position of chieftain, understood that there were too many families attached to the tribe sucking blood. In fact, most of the tribe's income fell into the hands of these families.

After Beryl took over, he first spent more than ten years to control all the power of the tribe up and down. Then he spent more than 40 years to outlive the legendary high-level elder above him. Finally, after there was no restraint, he suddenly launched an attack. He joined forces with Manoranjin, who had already been persuaded by him and had just been promoted to legend, to wipe out the families of the elders and chieftains of the past thousands of years in one fell swoop. He directly eradicated them with trumped-up charges, and after searching for the rich industries accumulated by these families for thousands of years, the Ajinaja tribe finally had some of the heritage of a prosperous tribe.

Of course, Beryl used thunderous means internally to recover the huge benefits distributed by the tribe's high-level officials. Externally, he chose the powerful Oak Church, leaned on it as a backer, in order to dispel those restless guys.

With the support of the Oak Church, Beryl then invited several surrounding tribes that had a hand in the fortress's tax revenue to renegotiate the distribution of benefits that previous chieftains had reached. He even kicked out two tribes that were far away and had already declined.

It is absolutely impossible for the Ajinaja tribe alone to control the interests of the throat of the prosperous trade route. From the time the two fortresses were built, a portion of the perseverance was taken out and distributed to several large neighboring tribes, pulling them into their own camp. Only by making money together can there be long-term peaceful coexistence, and they can also jointly resist strong enemies. However, whether a wilderness tribe is strong or not has never been completely determined. What truly supports the strength of a tribe is more about whether the alternation of old and new forces in the tribe's upper echelons is balanced, and no one has ever been able to control the matter of finding the road to legend.

When the older generation of powerhouses gradually passed away, but the new generation failed to produce an heir, then the decline of the powerful tribe became inevitable. At that time, the surrounding tribes would stretch their claws over and tear off pieces of interest from this tribe, weakening the other party while strengthening themselves.

Therefore, the benefits once promised to the surrounding tribes no longer conformed to the current interests of the Ajinaja tribe, and it became appropriate to redistribute the interests between each other.

These measures have led to the gradual revitalization of the Ajinaja tribe. If Beryl is given some more time, and when the tribe's resources tend to the new generation, and a group of elite backbones are created at all costs, the Ajinaja tribe will have at least hundreds of years of glory.

However, the sudden slumber of Lord Sylvanus, the Father of the Oaks, completely disrupted Beryl's carefully laid out plans. The unpromising new generation has not yet found its own road to legend, adding bricks and tiles to the tribe's deterrent power. For a time, the tribes that had been forcibly taken back a lot of benefits by their own means began to show their sharp claws, demanding the lost benefits from themselves, and even powerful tribes wanted to obtain more benefits.

At this time, Beryl was dealing with an envoy from the Snowme tribe in the north, and the two sides were having a serious conversation.