The damage to the walls of the city wasn't too severe. Only the city gates and part of the walls were damaged. The dragon had flown straight in when it first attacked the city, and the gates were destroyed by it.
Fortunately, it was a white dragon that attacked the city. The white dragon's breath was a breath of ice. Although it was powerful, it wouldn't have caused a fire. If it had been a red dragon, the city probably wouldn't have needed to be repaired. They could've just rebuilt it somewhere else.
The houses in the city were more severely damaged. After all, the northern barbarians had plundered the city without restraint. Suhlen had demolished all the severely damaged areas and flattened the slums in the city.
The city was rebuilt according to the model Suhlen had used to rebuild the other cities in the Kingdom of Florence. This saved a lot of work. As the city's restoration work began, the refugees who had escaped from the city began to return to their homes. Originally, there were 50,000 to 60,000 residents in the city. After a series of natural and man-made disasters such as war and fleeing, Su Lun estimated that at most 30,000 people could return from the city.
In addition to the people Suhlen had forced from the surrounding nobles' territories, the final population of the city could reach fifty thousand people. The city had basically recovered to its pre-war level. Apart from the refugees, Suhlen also selected five hundred able-bodied refugees to train the militia.
The first legion of Sanferto couldn't be stationed here for long. The soldiers in the city had either died or escaped, and there weren't many left. As a border city, it couldn't do without a sufficient army to defend it. Suhlen had no choice but to start the training from scratch.
Training a militia of five hundred people wasn't difficult. Suhlen's veterans could easily do the job. After the training, Suhlen ordered the barbarian warriors to bring the militia to the wilderness as soon as possible so that they could become capable of fighting.
Because the city had been conquered, the surrounding land was completely out of control. Many kobolds and goblins had become much more active in the wilderness. Now that a new army had been formed, these monsters could be used as practice. At the same time, the captives would be sent to the city's construction site to work.
Restoring the city required a large amount of manpower, and the city of Valatia did not have enough manpower. Now that there were goblins and kobolds to provide the manpower, Suhlen naturally did not mind.
Those new recruits only needed to go through a few encirclement and suppression battles before they could be considered qualified soldiers. Then, they would not be afraid to fight against the Gnolls and Northern Barbarians of the Wilderness. The battlefield was the best place to train new recruits. After a few battles, these people would become elites.
Of course, only Suhlen could do this. As long as the army under his command did not reach the upper limit, killing enemies would give experience. As long as they didn't die in battle, they would level up after a few uses.
As a border city, 500 soldiers were far from enough. Suhlen planned to station 5,000 soldiers in the city. Of course, Valatia alone would not be able to support so many soldiers, so the soldiers' pay and food were provided by the kingdom. The army was also directly under the kingdom's command.
Suhlen planned to expand the city to a hundred thousand people. Valatia City had many mines, such as copper, iron, and coal. While it was not very big, it would be enough to supply the surrounding cities. Suhlen had also checked the land outside the city. It was considered fertile, and the surrounding water was abundant. Just the plains near the city would be enough to support a hundred thousand people.
Valatia City was also the only way from the Northwest Desert Kingdom to Northguard City. As long as there were no problems, the city would soon prosper.
After taking control of the city, the surrounding nobles would have no choice but to obey the king's orders.
Suhlen stayed in Valatia City for half a month, then handed everything over to the newly appointed consul before returning to Northguard City.
Northwind Tower, astrology platform.
A beam of light rose, and Suhlen's figure appeared on the astrology platform.
"Master, welcome back!" Half-elf maid Angela quickly appeared.
Suhlen patted Angela's head and asked, "Where are the others?"
"Sister Hathaway is in the lab. Sister Alex has returned to Eagle Castle. Sister Karina and Sister Xanthi are in the Mystic Realm," Angela said softly.
"By the way, how's the development in the city recently?" Suhlen asked as he took off his cloak.
"Nothing has happened in the city recently. A while ago, we gave the serfs the status of commoners according to your orders. The other serfs were stimulated and worked very hard recently."
"Also, the number of people who came to settle down in Northguard City has been increasing rapidly. According to the city hall's statistics, the permanent population of Northguard City has exceeded 170,000 people. If this trend continues, it's very likely to exceed 200,000 people this year."
"Looks like they're working well." Suhlen nodded with satisfaction. He took a sip of the black tea Angela handed to him.
"Master, the goods that you instructed us to prepare have all been completed. Do you want to take a look?" Angela reminded.
"They're all ready so quickly!" Suhlen was a little surprised. He prepared these goods to open up the sea trade route. They were going to be transported to the Eastern Continent to be sold.
Now that the goods were ready, it was time to open up the new sea route.
However, some preparatory work had to be done. The navy camp Suhlen obtained this time had to be built as soon as possible. At the same time, the divinity had to be absorbed and integrated.
Not long ago, Suren had absorbed two divinity crystals obtained from the Abomination. There were still six divinity crystals in his own divinity crystal, seven in Hathaway's divinity crystal, and a lot in the god's corpse sealed in the basement. With so much divinity added up, the divinity of a god with weak divine power was more than enough.
Soon, Suhlen arrived at Hathaway's laboratory, and poured a part of the moonlight dew into a crystal bottle. The entire laboratory was instantly illuminated in a silvery-white color.
"It really is moonlight dew." Hathaway looked at the liquid in surprise. "This thing is not easy to find. It's a waste to use it to remove the pollution and evil power on the divinity crystals directly!"
"It's okay, I still have a lot. Besides, it's not safe to keep the divinity crystals in your hands. It's better to integrate them into your body quickly and convert them into strength directly."
"That's true." Hathaway thought for a moment and agreed.
The next step was to set up the runic magic circle. Although it was possible to use the moonlight dew to remove the pollution and evil power directly, it required more moonlight dew to do so. The requirements for the purification runic magic circle were not high, and Hathaway completed it quickly.
Suhlen poured the moonlight dew into the center of the magic circle, and a silvery-white aura shrouded it. With the surge of magic, the moonlight dew was quickly integrated into the magic circle, and the whole magic circle shone with a sense of holiness.
Hathaway waved her hand gently, and a wave of magic emerged. Then, the whole runic magic circle began to operate. Suhlen took out a black stone. As soon as the palm-sized stone appeared, an evil and chaotic aura suddenly spread out. The whole laboratory was filled with this chaotic and evil power.
Soon, Suhlen put the stone into the runic magic circle. After the silvery-white energy sensed the stone, it immediately released a dazzling brilliance. A sizzling sound was constantly heard, and waves of black evil energy and pollution power were constantly purified by the silver light.
As the silver light continued to flicker, the pollution power on the stone became weaker and weaker. The originally black stone gradually changed from black to purple gold. When all the pollution power was removed, the aura of the runic magic circle also dimmed.
Suhlen picked up the divinity crystal from the runic magic circle, and then released some soul power to examine it. Soon, Suhlen opened his eyes with satisfaction. All the evil power and pollution power on the divinity crystal had been removed. Not only that, even the original soul consciousness of the Abomination had been directly erased.
In other words, this divinity crystal could be directly extracted and integrated with.
After seeing that the purification was successful, Hathaway also took out the divinity crystal in her hand and put it into the runic magic circle. Then, she activated the magic circle once again.
The silvery-white aura lit up, and the two completely opposite energies continued to fight. The silver energy constantly removed the chaotic and evil aura on the divinity crystal. Sizzling sounds were constantly heard, and finally, all the evil aura was completely removed.
The aura of the runic magic circle slowly dissipated. The moonlight dew in the runic magic circle had turned into a colorless and transparent liquid. The energy in the moonlight dew had been completely consumed.
Suhlen took out some moonlight dew again and gave it to Hathaway to integrate with the divinity. The power of divinity could directly change her body from the original mortal to a divine creature. Her physical fitness would be improved, and at the same time, her soul would become more powerful. Although it did not increase her magic knowledge, it would improve her learning, understanding, and control in all aspects. This was equivalent to directly increasing her upper limit.
"By the way, the goods to the eastern continent have been prepared. We will set off in a while. You can arrange the time when the time comes," Suhlen reminded her.
"I know. I will arrange everything when the time comes. In addition, I will directly set up a teleportation circle on the magic ship. I can rush back anytime, anywhere." Hathaway waved her hand and carefully put away the divinity crystal and moonlight dew.
"That's good." Suhlen nodded and said, "By the way, I also got a Nether Scroll this time …"
"What did you say? Where is it? Show it to me! "Before Suhlen finished speaking, Hathaway instantly grabbed Suhlen's arm excitedly and asked.
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