After submitting the quest, Alex's third Ruler mission was completed leaving him with just the last one, which had the objective of knowing about the struggles of any one clan.
Alex went to the most popular bar in the city, knowing it was the best place to gather information, and with his popularity and generosity in offering free drinks to everyone, information gathering was coming along smoothly.
In the first hour, Alex talked to many individuals, mostly about how he was so strong for his Rank and got praised for his victory against the barbarian prince.
After the people in the bar were comfortable talking with him, and the effect of the booze was setting in, he slowly started to lead the discussions toward the struggle that every clan was facing, especially the clan members.
"Our Domain was a special place thriving with the multitude of clans, there were struggles, but they were the ones every being could experience in their life,"
"But Now we are plunged into darkness, with every individual having a sword hanging on their head, because of the damm curse placed on us by FU**KING CO** M**** S*** ** B*** Demons,"
"BOOOOMMMMM," A dwarf said out loud and slammed his hammer-like fist on the wooden table, destroying it.
"CALM DOWN, You Drunked. My furniture is not for you to vent your frustration," The bartender said, releasing heavy mana pressure.
"Owner, Let them loose. I will also pay for the damages," Alex said, raising his glass of wine and making the whole bar cheer for him.
"Owner, Little Baldie is right. Those Shit Heads haven't even spared our children, with every one of them being cursed, living their lives in constant fear that one day they could start to show symptoms of losing their sanity and would get frozen and be placed in the graveyards of coffins,"
"It's not like there is any hope in this shit show with no cure to the curse, and even getting frozen could only delay the destruction of sanity, slowly turning them into flesh-hungry monsters with their eventual end being death," A female Beastmen said chugging down her drink to drown her sorrow.
"Our Situation is not as depressing as you lot make it sound like, sure thousands of individuals are getting placed in eternal sleep coffins every day, and millions are living their life on the edge,"
"But only a few thousand individuals are dying every day while the majority of regular folks with their strength being in mortal boundaries don't even succumb to the curse and live their lives normally,"
"So stop with this damm depressing discussion and talk on some other concerning matter," The bartender said as he poured more drinks, releasing heavy mana pressure laced with killing intent, making the drunk individual ready to rebuke him swallow their words back.
The small discussion gave Alex a lot of insight into the situation of the Devourer curse, and even though the situation was still terrible, it was much better than what he had imagined it to be.
The people returned to enjoying their drinks and discussing other matters, and after listening to their random conversation for close to an hour, Alex picked on a few issues affecting normal people on a major scale.
Alex decided to take the initiative to ask questions about the issue plaguing the dwarven clan to quickly complete his Ruler mission.
"Owner, What are they talking about? Dwarfs being unable to sustain their own creation?" Alex asked the bartender, and without raising his head, he started talking as he cleaned the glasses.
"After the Devorer Curse plagued the domain, the Dwarfs were affected the most as every Blacksmith Emperor was affected by the curse, making them stop forging in just three decades to preserve their lives."
"The same happened to the majority of Blacksmith Kings, and quite a lot of Grand Masters were taken out as well in three decades,"
"The dwarfs knew tough times were ahead, so they mass-produced everything they could, knowing their survival depended on them, but those preparations are getting burned through with every passing year for the last seven decades."
"The dwarfs are masters at controlling their strength, have ingenious minds, fine control over mana, gift of molding metals, and controlling flames to their desire."
"All their attribute makes them the best masters of forging and invention with no rivel that could even touch their heels, but even they have limits,"
"In the last seven decades, more Ranked Blacksmith has died or got placed into eternal sleep than new one has been produced,"
"Now the situation is that the once massive barriers used to protect the capital and normal cities are downgraded to a shell of their former self, same with mana canon, Mage tower, and other forms of defense weaponry,"
"It is happening because the original technologies required maintenance from the highest Rank blacksmiths of different fields, but with their absence, those technologies are getting downgraded to where the currently available blacksmiths could maintain them,"
"This has caused the mostly self-dependent dwarfs to hire a vast amount of mercenaries to defend their cities and clear new areas from monsters for them to gather materials,"
"All this cost them a vast amount of money, and with only a majority of Master, Grand Master, and just a few King grade Blacksmith among their Ranks, keeping everything running is very challenging, to say the least, and the worst thing it is only getting worse with every passing day,"
"I told you the list of things which do sound bad, and it is but believe me, they will be fine as those short knuckleheads are genius inventors," The bartender said, poring Alex another glass of fruit wine.
'The Dwarf clan situation is quite messed up,' Alex thought, feeling a bit sad for the dwarf clan's struggles.
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[Domain Mission: Ruler's Duty Completed]
[1000_Ruler Coins] Gained
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[Congratulation Domain Ruler Hidden One]
[Domain Connection Rank Promotion Mission] Completed.
[Ruler Missions Completed] (10/10)
[Reward: Accept]
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Alex was about to ask a few questions related to the dwarven clan members when his head started to ring with notification making him relieved that the hanging sword on his neck was finally gone.
Alex sometimes thought that he would end up not completing the first domain connection promotion mission in time and would lose on the free 4000 permanent intelligence, but in the end, it all worked out in his favor, and he was delighted with the results.
"Owner, Thanks for the help," Alex said as he stood up and placed a magic bag on the counter.
Alex left the bar and went to his hotel room, and after a small conversation with Elder Darrien, he accepted the reward, starting the promotion of the Domain Connection to the First Rank.
The promotion process was similar to normal Rank promotion as the moment it started, Alex lost consciousness, but this time his body was not enchased by mana cocoon but was slowly covered in dark ancient runes.
After twenty minutes, the runes vanished back into Alex's body, and a few minutes after that, he regained his consciousness feeling refreshed, and the first thing he did was to check his status window.
'This is Nice,' Alex thought with a bright smile, looking at his intelligence stat increased by four thousand points.
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