"Which design should I choose?" Muria looked at the two castle models in his hands, feeling hesitant.
Three seconds later, Muria made a decision, "I won't choose. Let's build both of these castles. Is that okay?"
"Yes, Your Highness Muria." After hearing Muria's command, the cloud giant leaders exchanged glances and replied in unison.
Thus, the construction of the castle began in full swing. The cloud giants, being the most numerous, took the lead, with the storm giants providing central command. The hill giants worked tirelessly to produce the material needed for building the castle – the White Jade Stone.
Meanwhile, the tidal giants executed Muria's orders, exploring the ocean depths for treasures to adorn Muria's future castle.
On the first day of construction, Muria received the population census data provided by the storm giants.
Currently, there were a total of 6,185 cloud giants who had followed Muria to Tai Chi Island. Among them, there were 1,876 adult male cloud giants, 1,882 adult female cloud giants, and the largest number of juvenile cloud giants, totaling 2,427 males and females combined.
The hill giants numbered 352, with an average strength of Gold Rank Three. The tidal giants numbered 1,268, with varying strengths ranging from Gold Rank Three to Gold Rank Four. The scarcity of these two giant races compared to the cloud giants was due to their solitary nature; they rarely congregated, and their interactions with each other were minimal.
As for the storm giants, they were the most powerful among Muria's four giant races, but also the scarcest in number, with only 97 individuals. However, each one possessed strength equivalent to Gold Rank Five. With their full power, they could summon small-scale storms on their own.
The cloud giants numbered over six thousand for several important reasons. Firstly, their innate ability, flight, made them less restricted by terrain. Secondly, their social structure, living in family units, occasionally forming groups of ten or twenty. Thirdly, they were of lawful good alignment, with a high proportion of wizards, warlocks, and clerics, ensuring a vast information network among them.
These three factors combined resulted in an astonishing number of cloud giants gathering around Muria.
It is worth mentioning that news of Muria declaring independence and accepting the allegiance of the giants had spread. Consequently, a large number of cloud giants were converging on the Titan Archipelago where Muria resided.
In fact, not only cloud giants, but also many storm giants, hill giants, and tidal giants who had received the news were heading towards Tai Chi Island, where Muria was located.
Moreover, not just these four types of giants, but other types of giants were also finding ways to cross the Thunderstorm Ocean to reach the Titan Archipelago. The temptation to surpass their limits of life was too great.
...
The construction of the castle progressed rapidly under the tireless efforts of the cloud giants. However, the hill giants providing building materials couldn't keep up with the usage rate of the cloud giants. After a discussion, the cloud giant leaders decided to simultaneously start the decorative carving work on the castle to reduce the consumption of White Jade Stone and give the hill giants some breathing room.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
In every corner of the castle, the cloud giants carved exquisite patterns and murals depicting legends about the Titans on the Eralcia continent. They also polished and refined the magical crystals and various gemstones salvaged by the tidal giants from the ocean depths, embedding them in the walls of the castle, giving it a luxurious atmosphere.
The tidal giants not only found crystals and precious metals, but also various colorful and unique coral reefs, and pearls of various sizes. These underwater treasures, when first seen by Muria, surprised him. Even under the strongest sunlight at noon, their brilliance was eye-catching. These pearls would be considered priceless in his previous life.
"You dare to cause trouble again, and I won't mind teaching you how to behave with thunder every day!" Muria warned the six young dragons, his golden electric arcs beginning to dance, and invisible wind blades occasionally flying out with his fluctuating breath.
Dragons were greedy creatures, as Muria had known. So, when the tidal giants salvaged gold and silver ore from the ocean floor, Muria generously gave each dragon the equivalent weight in gold. He hoped this would satisfy their greed at least a little.
However, Muria underestimated the allure of treasure to dragons. For the sake of those shiny treasures, the young dragons were willing to temporarily set aside their pride and act as thieves, sneaking into the construction site and prying out the crystals, gemstones, and precious metals already embedded in the walls.
After several reports of dragon thefts witnessed by the cloud giants, Muria stormed into the dragons' temporary lair, ready to "educate" them.
It was an underground cavern dug by the young dragons, permeated with a faint sulfur smell from their fiery breath. Muria walked in to see the glittering crystals and gemstones illuminating the cave in various colors. His expression darkened as he saw what the dragons had been up to.
"Muria, I didn't steal..." Albert, a young dragon, tried to defend himself as he saw the black-haired golden-eyed boy enter the "hall," but he was so scared that he cowered and tried to hide something.
"What's this, then?" Muria walked straight into the cave, where he picked up a sparkling, translucent, sky-blue diamond lying in the corner, questioning the fearsome dragon in front of him.
"This...," Albert awkwardly looked at the sky-blue diamond in Muria's hand, shining with a brilliant light, and with a strong water element fluctuation, "I found it."
"Found it?" Muria narrowed his eyes, "Where did you find it? I remember that only the castle I'm building has such perfectly shaped water element crystals."
Although the cloud giants were massive in size, they also had dexterous hands. The sky-blue diamond in Muria's hand had been evenly cut into sixty-four perfect facets by the cloud giants.
"...," Albert hesitated, at a loss for words. Red dragons were known for their strength among the chromatic dragons, not their intelligence. Being able to come up with an excuse to cover up his mistake was already surprising to Muria.
"Step aside!" Holding the sky-blue diamond, Muria walked up to Albert, whose belly scales were reflected in various colors, and coldly ordered.
"Master Muria, I..." Albert, sweating profusely, started to call Muria "master," realizing what was going to happen. The young dragon already had a premonition of what was coming.
"Refuse, huh?" Muria's eyes narrowed as he saw the scene in front of him, his anger rising.
Recently, Muria had been living in a wooden house with his maid Mia. He was looking forward to his future castle residence, but now there was a dragon causing trouble behind his back.
In the midst of the radiant light after releasing the Transform spell, Muria reverted to his true form and lifted Albert by the neck, stepping into the dragon's den. Instantly, the light from various magical crystals illuminated the crude cave, making it colorful.
Muria's face turned even darker as he saw the scene, and the young dragon squirming in his hand: "You should know how dragons should treat creatures who steal their treasures, right?"
The young dragon in Muria's grasp heard this and widened his eyes, filled with fear. He started struggling harder. Dragons never showed mercy to those who stole their treasures; they would inflict the most painful punishments on thieves.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you." Muria looked at the young dragon, who relaxed as soon as he heard this. "After all, I'm not a true gold dragon. But while the death penalty can be pardoned, the living can't escape their sins. Punishment is still necessary."
After that, a piercing scream echoed from the dragon's den, followed shortly by five more screams of different tones...
When everything was over, Muria walked out of the dragon's den with a ring full of "stolen goods," leaving behind six dragon-shaped charred corpses twitching from time to time.
This time, not even the young female dragons, Lena and Cynthia, could escape Muria's punishment. The greed of dragonkind was not just talk.
Under the tireless efforts of the cloud giants, the castle construction progressed rapidly. In less than a month, the cloud giant leaders informed Muria that the main structure of the castle had been completed.
As Muria followed the cloud giant leaders to one of the grand and majestic white castles, preparing to tour his new residence, something unexpected happened.
Golden lightning tore through the space in front of Muria, and black spatial rifts intertwined, forming a spatial gate over a hundred meters tall. Behind the gate, a Titan with black hair and golden eyes was striding forward with long steps...