Alexander The Great Mage

"NINETY." Alexander glowered at Blackfire.

"Fifty-five percent, Your Majesty, that's the highest I can go." Blackfire shook his head firmly.

"EIGHTY-FIVE! STOP HAGGLING LIKE A TOOTHLESS OLD HAG!" Alexander roared, spittle coming out of his mouth.

"Ah, sixty percent, then Your Majesty! You're robbing me blind!" Blackfire cried out dramatically,

"YOU'RE robbing me blind!" Alexander shouted indignantly. "Eighty, no lower than that. You know I don't have the money anyway."

"Sixty-fi-"

"EIGHTY!"

"Seve-"

"EIGHTY!"

"Ah, okay, eighty percent reduction it is." Blackfire said sadly to Dubaza.

Dubaza sighed deeply and shook his head as well, bemoaning the tragedy that had so mercilessly befallen them.

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"Still, I am extremely pleased. They should be ready for space training very soon. How goes the production for their space-capable armor?" Alexander asked Dubaza.

"It's well underway, Your Majesty. We have the design team and the production lines of all three Starships focused on arming our three Wyvern Rider regiments as well as spares for another seven regiments."

"How goes the search for more Wyverns?" Alexander glanced at Blackfire.

"My clan mates have been deployed, and they should be returning very soon. In a planet like Arcanus 26 with bountiful wild and untamed lands, I estimate that there would be anywhere between one million to twenty million Wyverns to be found. I have instructed my clan mates to bring back a hundred thousand of the strongest Wyverns they could find. And of course to capture the wild dragons that have managed to evade us for so long." Blackfire reported.

"Hmmmm. Which reminds me. Will your dragon clan join us in mobilizing for the invasion of the lower realm?" Alexander asked.

"All the dragon clans, without exception, are fully sworn from birth to Magius." Blackfire explained. "We are allowed to make personal contracts with others, like I did with Aleyria, but as a clan, we are prohibited from marching under any other banner aside from Magius's."

"I see. So officially, you guys are out. Unofficially, though, how many dragons can you muster?" Alexander asked.

"Ah that, of course, depends on the rewards." Blackfire smiled widely.

"Rewards." Alexander snorted. "I've never figured you dragons for such treasure-hungry, sneaky, slimy, grandma-level hagglers!"

Blackfire's smile grew wider and wider until he laughed out loud.

"We never tried to keep it a secret. If you must know, the top three mercenary groups in Symphonia are dragons. And out of the top twenty, I dare say more than half are dragons. Of course some are open about their race, while others prefer to keep it on the down low. But still, for a price, you probably can mobilize dragon numbers that rival an entire clan or two!"

"How much treasure are we talking about?" Alexander asked in trepidation.

"Most dragons would mobilize for a short trip for the sake of a Planet Grade Treasure. For an entire campaign lasting a year, they would probably ask for ten Planet Grade Treasures. A fair compensation would be around Ten Planet Grade treasures per year per dragon. Of course these apply to most dragons. Some stronger, more specialized dragons would ask for more."

"Specialized dragons? What do you mean?" Alexander asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Well, since your faction would be leading our realm in our upcoming wars for survival, I guess there is no harm revealing a little bit about the depth of the Dragon Clan's strength, and how powerful Magius actually is. When he says he has a chance of fighting against the Ascendant Realm's Gods with just the Staff of the Almighty which he is trying to craft, he was actually being serious.

Let me tell you about five types of dragons that command the highest prices in the mercenary world and three other types of dragons that are so powerful and so proud that they would not lower themselves to join mercenary groups. But even so, countless factions have formed whole organizations to regulate the amount of petitions that could be submitted to these dragons yearly. Each year, these dragons would pick one or two assignments which they liked and would get paid ENORMOUS amounts of treasure to get these assignments done. Are you ready?" Blackfire paused to take a deep breath and for effect.

"Yes, yes, tell us quickly." Alexander said impatiently.

"The first type of dragon commands the fifth highest price in the mercenary world. Coincidentally, the top mercenary group in Symphonia, aptly named 'Death' is run by this type of dragon.

The Royal Battle Dragon." Blackfire said reverently.

"Ehm, sorry to interrupt, Your Majesty. But I believe that we need to handle the situation at hand. It seems like the three regiments are mobilizing." Dubaza pointed out at the dispersing Wyverns.

"Ah yes. Ehm." Alexander cleared his throat and then firmly boomed out. "All Wyvern Rider Regiments. Stand down and prepare for inspection."

"Inspection, sire?" Dubaza asked.

"Yes, inspection. Go on ahead, inspector and inspect them! And please convey my congratulations for a job well done." Alexander then began to shoo Dubaza away. "I need to stay behind and study our potential allies. Please continue, Blackfire."

Blackfire chuckled lightly as Dubaza bowed and took his leave. "The Royal Battle Dragon has two titles.

The first title is Royal, which means that the dragon has condensed a pseudo-God core within his body, thus granting him or her a qualitative upgrade in magical energy as well as maximum affinity with the basic elements of the Universe. Fire, Water, Earth, Metal and Wood. This maximum affinity I am talking about is vastly different from the 'maximum affinity' which you people consider as maximum here on this planet. As dragons, our maximum affinity is approximately ten entire grades higher than yours. Anyway, a pseudo-God core can only be condensed when Magius grants the dragon a single tiny drop of his Godly Essence to the dragon. Thus all Royal Dragons can be said to be Magius's children.

Additionally, having a pseudo-God core within a dragon will boost the dragon's physicality by a factor of three.

With such game-changing advantages, it is almost impossible for dragons to achieve their second title without having their "Royal" title. Of course, there were freaks of nature who managed to acquire their second title first. Whenever you meet a dragon with 'Royal' as their second title, be assured that they are freaks and you would do well to be nice to them.

Of course it's a different story if Aleyria is with you. She's the ultimate freak now.."

"Hey! She's not a freak." Alexander protested.

"Hee hee, thank you dear." Aleyria called out from somewhere behind them.

"Anytime!" Alexander replied with a smile.

"Uhh… Okay. I'll go on then. The second title is Battle, which means that the dragon has proven himself or herself to be supreme in physical combat. There is only one way to achieve this title, and that is to defeat the avatar of the first Royal Battle Dragon acknowledged by Magius within ten minutes. This first Royal Battle Dragon got his second title through impressive "meritorious acts in the battlefield", which can be roughly translated as "He killed thousands of powerful enemies and single handedly turned the battle around." There was no lack of powerful dragons in battle, I assure you. To stand out in savagery in a vast collection of savages is truly impressive.

The amount of time you take to defeat the avatar determines your ranking among Royal Battle Dragons. The weakest Royal Battle Dragons who took more than nine minutes to defeat the avatar are called Nines. Those who took more than eight minutes but less than nine minutes were called Eights. You get the idea. Those who took less than a minute are called Zeroes. There is only one who did it in less than three seconds. Just for him, another unofficial title was given.

He is Rag-Hatharos, THE Royal Battle Dragon."

"Sweet." Alexander commented.

"Rag-Hatharos is the leader of the number one mercenary group called Death. They are number one not because the number one Royal Battle Dragon is leading them, but because they are an insanely elite group of dragons. They have only less than fifty members in their mercenary group. But they feature more than TWENTY Royal Dragons, of which FIVE have dual titles. Some even say that Rag-Hatharos isn't even the strongest member of the group. Others are gossiping that he isn't even the real leader. Whatever the truth is, the fact remains that they have a perfect record. More than a thousand missions under their belt, and zero failures. You can be extremely sure that once you pay for their services, your problem is as good as solved. Well, if you're not fighting for the fate of the realm, of course." Blackfire chuckled.

"How much to hire them for a campaign?" Alexander sighed and braved himself to ask the question.

"They've only hired themselves out for campaigns three times before. All three times, the enemies were completely obliterated very quickly, and the 'campaign' ended much earlier than expected. All three times, Death took all the spoils of the enemy and almost bankrupted the 'victor'. I'm sure you can guess who the real 'victor' is."Blackfire laughed.

"Yes, yes.. Just tell me how much!" Alexander snapped impatiently.