Zhang Dong along with his two golden-haired summoners rushed to where this secret meeting was taking place. Apparently, his side was not informed for some reason or another.
He was more inclined to believe that the people from the royal family pulled some strings instead of the dwarf side. This race of people didn’t really interact with him in anyway shape or form before this so there shouldn’t be any animosity between them.
‘They probably want to keep us from gathering any more power.’
For him, it was a race for time. He wanted to defeat the demon lords, get the cube parts and then go home. For the humans living here, it was different, they probably saw him as someone that could affect the status quo.
From the perspective of the royal family, he could be someone more dangerous than the demon king. He already showed that he could handle the human monarch and the elven queen.
What would stop him from taking over the world after they were done with clearing up the demonic beings? What was to stop him from doing it even before he faced the demon king? This was probably what the human King and his children were worried about now. They were on the very top of this world and would without a doubt like to remain in this position.
“Halt! The council meeting is in session, no one is allowed to enter!”
A group of heavily armored dwarves cut off their path. They had quite the peculiar-looking exosuits. It looked like they were inside of metallic golems but with tiny heads. This head part belonged to the soldier that was in this mechanical suit of armor.
“Make way for the Spirit Emperor!”
The two elven mages saw the group of mechanical golems blocking their path. They had large two-handed halberds in their hands and were blocking the way. The two women found it rude for these people to be addressing Leigong in such a way. The two were instructed to protect and follow the instructions of this Spirit Emperor by their queen. They intended to do that, even if they would need to fight.
“No wait, let us talk this over…”
Zhang Dong put himself between the battalion of dwarven defenders. They looked like they were riding some primitive mechs which took him a little bit to process. He couldn’t let a fight break out, the royal members would just use this as a pretext to have him removed from this city.
“If the Spirit Emperor commands, it shall be done.”
The two women bowed their heads at his request and moved to the sides. The group of dwarves didn’t move out of the way which meant that Isabella would need to take care of this. She had one of her men move forward and present their case.
“You are with the heroes?”
The commander of these guards stepped forward and they began figuring things out. They had all the paperwork that identified them as part of the hero party.
“The council meeting is close to being over, was there some kind of mistake? I fear we aren’t allowed to open the doors before the meeting is over...”
The man gave the papers back to the group but there was a problem. The meeting had already started. Inside were the most influential people from this city and they were all rich and powerful nobles. They couldn’t just barge in at this point, these guards would not let them. Zhang Dong didn’t blame them as they were only doing their job.
“How could they do this to us?”
“This is unforgivable!”
Beatrice and Isabella stomped their feet on the ground while outside the large building. They were mad about the royal members not telling them about the meeting more than about the dwarves not allowing them to venture forward.
‘It’s fine… I’ll just go take a peek instead…’
He smiled and moved a bit to the side with the girls while sending them a telepathic message.
There was not much that they could do to get inside without making a big scene. It would not be hard to blast their way inside but then they would probably be banned from the city. He feared that if that happened it could take god knows how long to get everything sorted out inside.
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“Okay, this will be enough girls.”
The plan was easy, he just needed some more juice from his two girl sized magical batteries. The range he could operate in had increased ever since the two had gotten stronger. He had also learned many spells and incantations that would aid him in this task.
Zhang Dong’s body flickered and soon he was invisible to the naked eye.
“Just wait here and I’ll see what those chuckleheads are up to.”
Beatrice and Isabella just waved at the floating voice while holding hands. They and their guards were sitting in a nearby cafe while Zhang Dong floated as a mana cloud towards the building where the meeting was taking place.
He might have looked like a regular person to the people here but his body was made from mana particles. These particles could take any shape that he wanted, even make themselves invisible.
While utilizing some of his knowledge he made himself undetectable to any living being or machine. Even with their advanced dwarven technology, he was able to get past the guards. In this shapeless form, he squeezed through the doorway and arrived inside the large building.
Inside there were even more guards, these weren’t in huge mechanical suits but in more traditional-looking armor. They were patrolling the halls but were unable to see or feel Zhang Dong’s presence.
‘It’s in there…’
He flew towards Takeshi’s unique mana signature and arrived at the wide-open area. This place was the large room he saw where the dwarven nobles were looking down below at the humans. The sword hero was there along with a couple of members of the royal family.
“Eight hundred thousand coins? I will offer one million and ten of my best bottles of wine!”
‘Hm?’
A loud sound of a hand landing on something rocky was heard by him the moment he slipped into this room. It seemed that the dwarves were shouting at each other and also bidding on something.
He glanced at who they were looking at and it was Takeshi. He and the others were just there smiling while looking between the dwarven nobles.
“A million? You are really going all in, you’re not afraid that your house will go under if this so-called hero doesn’t win?”
Zhang Dong looked at the person that was talking. It was some old fart with a long white beard, he was looking at a slightly younger old fart.
“You think I’m stupid? You just want the hero as your champion yourself!”
‘Champion? Oh no, are they really going to do this now?’
If he was in his human shape his face would be showing a frown now. Previously he did find out that the dwarves had a peculiar way of picking out their king. This would only come into place if they couldn’t come to some kind of agreement.
They were clearly unable to go through with that. Instead, they would go with option two, getting the king's position by trial by combat.
This didn’t mean that the person that was hoping for the king’s position would be battling himself. No, the dwarves didn’t pick their kings by strength alone, they picked them by their resourcefulness.
The candidates had to use everything to their disposal to get the best possible champion for themselves. These champions would fight in a tournament and the one remaining would be crowned king.
‘Why does it always have to be a tournament…’
Takeshi was taking center spot, apparently, these people wanted him to be their champion. He was the sword hero and also the strongest from the party if you didn’t look Zhang Dong’s way.
‘But… can he use one of those things?’
Zhang Dong was referring to the large mechanical suits that the dwarves used. The champions wouldn’t actually be using their bodies to battle, they would be using huge robot-like suits of armor that the dwarven craftsmen prepared for them.
These were quite similar to Mechs that he saw in some anime shows back in the day. Just like in the shows the pilots were quite important and could shift the tide of battle. The dwarven mech suits also used their users' mana to fuel themselves along with the mana engine.
He was only here in spirit form so he didn’t intend to disturb this hero auction. The whole thing continued until one of the old nobles was able to seal the deal. Having Takeshi as their champion didn’t mean that they had the win in the bag but from the point of view of these dwarves it was very probable. The legends concerning the heroes were widespread so the trust they had in them was immense.
‘How can I salvage this situation…’
While thinking he continued to glance around the room. He could see the dejected faces that all the other nobles were showing. They truly believed that the person that managed to get this hero as their champion would be the winner.
“This meeting is over, the Tournament of Kingship will be taking place in a week’s time, everyone please prepare!”
He floated around while not knowing what to do. Soon the place was being cleared up and he started going back to the girls. Now was the time to make a decision, if Takeshi won the tournament it could become problematic. He was entangled with the pink-haired princess and could grow a big head. It would be possible for the royal faction to start stalling and time was not something that he wanted to waste.
‘What should I… wait what’s that?’
While returning he noticed something, this large building was quite old but he felt a peculiar aura close by. He was attracted to it and decided to change directions. After slipping through some guards he arrived at a large area filled with books and scrolls.
‘Basics of golem creation?’
‘How to produce the best alloy for your golem.’
This was apparently a library filled with dwarven knowledge, knowledge that could be used to craft golems or Exo suits. If he wasn’t a transparent cloud of mana he would be grinning now. A plan was formed in his mind with which he would soon go through.
‘I bet not all of those nobles were able to get good champions… I think some poor sob will be very lucky…he he he’
The mist descended onto the library as he started to absorb all the knowledge that was in here. After combining it with his understanding of making automatons from his previous world he would fashion something that no one could beat.