Ostria’s Transformation (Part 2)

It took Kilian and his clones another week to fully equip the labs and the completed Celestial Garden. In the Fleshcrafting Lab, Kilian's clones first worked on the 5,000 new workers, turning them all into riveting beauties, and giving them their badges of office.

Of the pile of dead bodies, they crafted two separate sets of females, 2,200 that could be described as soul-stirring beauties, and 500 angelic females of transcendent appeal. The completion of this challenge took them an extra two weeks. In the meantime, starting with the second week, Olaf made the promotion of the new brothel throughout his viscounty and beyond, using the Phira Channel to spread the news across the entirety of Orloth.

Arcadia didn't have television or the internet in the same sense as Earth. Instead, they used Virtual Channels. Browsed through mirrors of various sizes, Virtual Channels served many purposes, ranging from recreational to informative. Some channels could read the viewer's brain to produce shows or animations tailored to their taste. The most high-end channels could even pull the viewer in a world of virtual reality—making them live the lives of their dreams.

Phira was Arcadia's version of the World Wide Web, a channel that allowed the viewer to access all legal information, send or receive messages, and create sub-channels to advertise content. All channels were nobility reserved and required accounts, Phira was no exception. Although Kilian previously possessed an account, for obvious reasons, he couldn't use it. But of course, as the Viscount of Ostria, Olaf also possessed one.

With 750 qraftas of investment, they advertised the Celestial Garden to the entirety of Orloth's nobility circles, ensuring that on the opening day, legions would stand in line. Kilian split the Celestial Garden's workers into three categories: angels, saintesses, and goddesses.

Angels had bronze badges, saintesses had silver badges, and goddesses golden badges.

To advertise the brothel, he allowed Olaf to take pictures of 300 angels, 50 saintesses, and three goddesses. The frenzied reactions they got convinced Kilian that if scaled to the entirety of the Arcadian Empire, his work would make him one of its wealthiest men. One and a half months after the fall of Olaf, the brothel was ready. Because the likes of gloryholes and strip poles were not only far too common but would undermine the value of his girls, Kilian settled for other events, masked balls, and orgies, hedonistic games, as well as unique drugs and beverages that he manufactured thanks to the Compendium of Species.

However, only angels could take part in those games. In the same manner, only angels had an upfront cost of either three qraftas or three gold coins. To obtain saintesses or goddesses, however, the customers had to bid.

Although Orloth possessed a debauchery-seeking noble market of approximately 310,000 noblemen that openly clashed for the ladies, in the first two weeks, Kilian only made 700 angels, 120 saintesses and six goddesses available, rotating the angels week after week, but keeping the same saintessess and goddesses on the roster. Saintesses and goddesses also possessed very few hours.

On average the saintesses went for 160 qraftas, with the goddesses going for as high as 1,200 qraftas—a bid of some hedonistic duke.

Meanwhile, the Fehl Beasts remained in Ostria's shadows, controlling the twelve noble houses to prevent any leakage. Of course, even the nobles understood that if words of 3,000 Fehl Beasts residing in Ostria spread, the entire city would be wiped out.

Still, to solve the beast issue once and for all, while his clone handled fleshcrafting tasks and fed him with their experiences, Kilian used his legions of nano-spiders and his Eye of Revelation to thoroughly examine the root of the virus, as well as the form taken by the taint in their bodies.

By the time the brothel opened its doors, Kilian had come up with and mass produced a serum to temporarily return the beasts to sanity, and give them the ability to shift back to their human forms—a marvelous breakthrough. Although the fehl beasts had to take the serum once a month, the difference with their previous state was incomparable.

And since he now had a more sensible method to keep them tame, Kilian retrieved his 3,000 nano spiders. From that moment on, Kilian changed their names from fehl beasts to fehl shifters.

But while the majority of fehl shifters saw him as their savior and pledged eternal allegiance, others believed he exploited the situation to his advantage.

Not that it mattered. On the one hand, Kilian held the only serum able to maintain them sane and human-looking, on the other hand, his 210 clones fleshcrafted Olaf's 3,500 soldiers and piles of corpses into 4,000 abominations whose pure destructive might rivaled top-level Core Emissaries: the venandis!

Worse, they also created seven greater abominations with the destructive potential of top-level High Emissaries: the boyars!

Besides their man-made mutations, those creatures' bodies concealed top-notch dra cannons comparable to the best on Orloth's market. Moreover, all wore transformation rings to hide their true - grotesque - forms and cheat the onlookers into thinking them human. Those creations not only required the full measure of the Eye of Revelation, the Lv. 3 Fleshcrafting and Lv. 3 Transmutation, but also allowed Kilian's dra control to rise sharply.

As they dived into Ostria, little did Orloth's nobility know that what they now saw as an earthly paradise was in fact nothing less than the haven of monsters!

Three and a half months thus passed. In the first month, Orloth's hedonistic nobility, the 310,000 customers, on average spent 6 qraftas on Kilian's brothel. The angels got to keep 60% of their profit which amounted to 37% of the revenues. The saintesses and goddesses, however, lived for Kilian and had no need for money.

And since Kilian put the bill for drug and beverage production on Olaf's treasury, he didn't have other charges to consider and took home a whopping 1,447,080 qraftas. Unfortunately for them, the noblemen, especially those winning bids for the saintesses and goddesses, became addicted to their partners, with some going as far as purchasing new residences in Ostria. The more affluent simply rented dwellings in the Celestial Garden.

Ostria now felt rather crowded. And while the streets abounded with lustful noblemen, the rate of extramarital affairs across the nation skyrocketed, with legions of abandoned noble wives finding comfort in the arms of guards, soldiers, and other available commoners.

With the noblemen's devotion, in the second month, Kilian took home 2,894,160 qraftas. On the third, another 3.2 million dived into his coffers. But now, although they still met a steady rise, the revenues seemed to stabilize.

"Thriving on vice is indeed the righteous path," Kilian stated in a rare gleeful tone as he lounged on a king-size bed with Jezebel straddling him.

"More than 7.5 million qraftas in three months. Although you'll undoubtedly face low periods, with this wealth alone, you can compare to an imperial duke," Jezebel remarked while rubbing her crotch against Kilian's. Across those five months, they'd experimented with a whole lot of things, learning to enjoy all there was to in the other's body.

At the same time, Kilian learned more on fehl magic from Jezebel, predominantly focusing on fehl hexes. Although hexes were typically a dark magic discipline, because it englobed all attributes, fehl magic could accomplish all things the other could—thereby making it both the broadest and strongest form of magic.

Unlike dark magi who cast all spells and hexes from negativity sources, fehl magi had no such needs.

"Just an imperial duke? No worries, soon, my wealth will even surpass King Erik's," Kilian leisurely replied. The nobles of the Arcadian Empire always distinguished themselves from their foreign counterparts by adding "imperial" to their titles. Imperial duke, imperial marquis, imperial count and so on.

Though pompous, there was an undeniable truth in the distinction. Imperial and non-imperial nobles didn't stand on the same level. In Orloth, although the nobility didn't pay taxes to the king, a marquis' average net worth was only 120,000 qraftas. But in the Arcadian Empire, nobles paid 12% taxes to the emperor, and yet the average marquis held one million qraftas—making them as wealthy as Orloth's average duke. Beyond, a massive strength gap also existed.

"We still have two weeks before the Imperial Academy opens its gates, and you're done with all the things you planned to do here. What's the plan?" Jezebel asked while lowering her hands on Kilian's belt, clearly intent to unbuckle it.

"Let's see, besides letting you take advantage of me, I think I will just focus on dra control. If I can take it to Archon level by the time the academy opens its door, I can breeze through the first three magic ranks," Kilian replied. Across those months, regular mating with Jezebel made his dra grow by another 4,200.

However, as far as magus ranks were concerned, dra was only one of many requirements.

"You were plowing my ass last night, and I'm the one taking advantage of you? Logical," Jezebel rolled her eyes, yet didn't stop unbuckling Kilian's belt. Pushing it aside, she lowered her lips onto Kilian's while his rose to meet hers. Their lips locked in an ardent kiss. But as their tongues entangled, and clothes started dropping…

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

A succession of knocking sounds stopped the two in their rut.

"Ignore it…" Jezebel whispered with the glint of annoyance flashing in her amethyst eyes.

"Since the person can reach the door, they can't be irrelevant," Kilian denied Jezebel's motion, and snapped his fingers, causing the door to fly open. With his current level of dra control telepathically moving small objects required little effort.

But when the door opened, Kilian was surprised to see the lithe figure of a green-eyed brunette he'd rarely seen across the last three months.

"Oh, Lena?"