This time, Aiden was going to summon some natives of Valoran. A force can't just have heroes; generals without soldiers under their command are worthless. And these natives were the key to Aiden's foothold in Azeroth.
He immersed his consciousness into the Heart of Valoran. A virtual map of Valoran appeared before him. According to Zilean's previous explanation, he could use his thoughts to specify the creatures he wanted to summon. Now he was preparing to build a basic, fully functional Valoran social system, so this would be a large-scale summoning.
A portal appeared before him.
The first to walk out was a squad of police officers, about fifty in number, with armbands indicating they were from the Piltover Police Department.
The refugees and the Alliance soldiers responsible for the nearby defense were astonished to see a group of people actually walking out of the light gate; their eyeballs almost popped out.
"Is this a magical illusion?"
"It looks real."
"Amazing!"
The crowd whispered.
Next to emerge was a construction team, also from Piltover, led by construction engineers. Over a hundred people walked out of the light gate carrying various tools. Including the Piltover police force, there were already two hundred people. The square was becoming a bit crowded.
They all seemed to recognize Kayle, so at Kayle's suggestion, the Piltover police maintained order, allowing the engineers and architects to move outside to free up space.
And the soldiers and refugees of Lordaeron, after interacting with them, finally confirmed that this was not a magical illusion, but real people.
Naturally, in their eyes, their lord Aiden was a powerful mage.
Thinking so wasn't really wrong.
After the construction team came out, next to appear was a group of summoners from the Institute of War, some specializing in summoning spells, and others specializing in rune crafting. Some of them would be stationed in the magical city of Dalaran as representatives of Valoran, bringing their unique summoning spells and rune technology there.
Next, Aiden was going to summon his administrative organization, and here he was a bit troubled. The first thing he thought of was Demacia, but then he thought that Demacia was a constitutional monarchy, and he, living in a republican era, might not be able to accept their governing philosophy. But then he thought that Noxus was too authoritarian and even less in line with his requirements. After thinking it over, he finally chose administrative talent from Piltover—after all, it was a city of technology, and it might be closer to his original understanding!
Today was destined to be a day belonging to Piltover. Because in the next defense force, he summoned another air force from Piltover—the Screaming Serpents flying squadron that the Courageous Bombardier Corki (airplane) served in. Considering that Corki wasn't needed for the time being, he didn't summon this air combat hero.
Next, it was finally the turn of Demacia and Noxus: he summoned a battalion from each, plus corresponding logistics, totaling about a thousand people.
Due to space limitations and lack of urgency, Aiden had no plans to summon naval forces for the time being.
And with the simple thought that "Demacians are law-abiding," Aiden summoned two thousand civilians, all from the Kingdom of Demacia.
Of course, having people alone wasn't enough; there had to be corresponding living facilities to ensure their lives. So Aiden used energy points to summon a large amount of supplies from Valoran, including food, currency, living supplies, and even some luxury goods. However, the cost of summoning these things was much lower than summoning civilians, costing very few energy points. Aiden didn't feel any heartache at all.
Considering that it was already evening, Aiden paused his summoning. He had only used less than one-fifth of his previous energy points—it was clear how cost-effective it was to summon non-hero units, even leading Aiden to have the idea of desperately saving energy points to summon all non-hero combat units in Valoran. But reason told him that this was not advisable.
Rebuilding Durnholde would inevitably require various other supplies, and it was necessary to reserve some energy points to cope with emergencies.
This time, Aiden summoned more than four thousand people in total. Adding the natives who originally belonged to Durnholde, even if it didn't fill Durnholde, it would be enough to fill seven or eight tenths of it.
The square where the refugees had gathered now only had a portion of Piltover police maintaining order. The entire square was piled with various supplies, with boxes of gold and bags of grain dazzling the eyes.
Seven or eight people were gathered in front of Aiden, waiting for him to regain consciousness. These were all representatives of the various units he had summoned. When he summoned them, he had already obtained their respective information in his mind. But no matter what, they still had to meet their object of allegiance.
When Aiden woke up and saw them for the first time, he nodded to signal, "Introduce yourselves!"
Starting with the first one on his left. The middle-aged man wearing the Piltover Police Department uniform said, "Reporting, Commander, I am Chris Redfield, Captain of the Special Police Squad directly under the Piltover Police Department!"
Then the Demacian officer said, "Reporting, Commander, I am Albert Mueller, Battalion Commander of the Reconnaissance Battalion of the Demacian Vanguard Army!"
"Reporting, Commander, I am Bill Niven, Captain of the Noxus Northern Legion Marine Corps."
"Commander, I am O'Connor Wallis, Professor of Architecture at Piltover University."
"I am Rebecca, the First Consul of Piltover, Commander."
After shaking hands or returning greetings to each of them, Aiden said to the female governor, Rebecca, "Ms. Rebecca, you and your team need to quickly establish a complete administrative structure. The supplies here must be distributed equally to everyone, not just the people of Valoran, but also the natives here. From now on, no matter where people come from, as long as they gather under my banner, we are one family and must be treated equally. I don't want to see any discrimination or exclusion. Do you understand what I mean?"
Rebecca nodded and smiled, "Very much so. I will act according to your will, Commander!"
"I believe you can all do it! Good work, and welcome to your new home!"
The refugees of Durnholde spent a day that was both satisfying and unsettling.
They were satisfied because the new lord was very kind. For so many years, they had only known to pay taxes and grain to the lord on time, and had never heard of a lord giving grain to the people—but they saw it today. After the summoning, Rebecca organized a working team to register everyone, including the refugees of Durnholde and the people from the Valoran continent who were summoned today, and distributed grain and other supplies according to the roster. Everyone received the same amount, without any favoritism. This grain was a godsend to the refugees who were still receiving meager relief from the Kingdom of Lordaeron.
What made them uneasy was that so many people from another world had come to Durnholde, and they completely obeyed the new lord's orders. The lord would definitely favor his own people in the future. Moreover, those Valoran people who were summoned either had a skill or were strong and sturdy, and each of them could contribute to rebuilding Durnholde. Looking at themselves: most of the young and middle-aged had died in the previous orc riots, and most of the others who could escape had already fled. Most of those who remained were the old, weak, women, and children, who were completely a burden.
How could they, the remnants of Lordaeron, receive equal treatment? This was what they were worried about.
After Lord Aiden summoned his soldiers in Durnholde, the soldiers sent by the Alliance obviously no longer needed to be stationed there. Alexandros readily handed over the defense to Aiden's officers. His next task was to lead his soldiers to search every corner of the Hillsbrad Foothills, tracking down the leader of the Cult of the Damned, Kel'Thuzad. Because according to previous information, Kel'Thuzad was either lurking here or had already gone to sea.
Terenas had already sent a message to Stormwind in the south, warning them to be vigilant against Kel'Thuzad, because this was the only place suitable for him to develop the Cult of the Damned after he went to sea. And the possibility that Kel'Thuzad was still lurking in the Hillsbrad Foothills was also very high, so a large-scale search was necessary. After Durnholde was settled down a bit, Aiden would also send people to participate in the search. His Night Hunter, Vayne, still remembered this evil magician who had faked his death and escaped from her grasp.
The Kel'Thuzad that the Alliance had been painstakingly searching for was indeed hidden in the Hillsbrad Foothills. And these foothills were named precisely because the northern part of this land, which originally belonged to the Kingdom of Alterac, was surrounded by mountains that were exceptionally steep. Let alone hiding a few people, even hiding an army, it would be difficult to find their traces in the mountains even if ten times the number of people were sent out. Because the mountains were the best cover.
After the fall of Alterac, this mountain range, which was covered in snow for most of the year, had become a ruin. Kel'Thuzad lived in a small house on the mountain that had been abandoned for many years. Now he had passed the most difficult period. His two most loyal subordinates, Brox and Rivendare, each led thousands of Scourge soldiers. Some of them came from tombs everywhere, and some came from corpses that were transformed during raids on Alliance defense forces.
The reason he was hiding here was to wait for an opportunity, an opportunity that would allow the true Scourge to descend and sweep across the entire continent. And the Lich King told him that this day was approaching.
His only task now, besides waiting, was to kill the new lord of Durnholde—Aiden.
When Aiden went to Tarren Mill before, Archmage Her'kula, who had claimed to be ill, was now standing in front of Kel'Thuzad in high spirits, reporting what he had seen and heard.
Kel'Thuzad had now completely shed his human form. After escaping the Alliance's pursuit, he had been transformed into a true lich by the Lich King, and no longer had to worry about that crazy woman with sunglasses coming to kill him.
"You're saying that this Aiden summoned thousands of living people and supplies through a gem in front of thousands of people?"
"Yes, I even made a special trip to Durnholde for this. There are indeed several thousand more people there. And they are now leveling the ruins there and building new buildings. They are working hard! My informant told me that these summoned people came from a continent called Valoran, which is not in our world."
In Kel'Thuzad's empty eye sockets, the flames of the soul flickered, and he smiled gloomily: "So that's how it is, so that's how it is... Excellent, how can that black-haired young man deserve such a powerful treasure! I must obtain this gem, it will be the best gift I can offer to the Lich King."
"This Aiden does have very powerful heroes protecting him, but this also fully exposes one of his weaknesses—he himself is too weak. I have already thought of a way to deal with him. Wait for my revenge, boy!"