"Patriarch," Harrison entered Li De's office shortly after Mohr left, his face brimming with excitement.
"How is it? Have you finished the tally?"
Li De found Harrison's expression amusing. "I imagine the elites from Risel City must've given you quite a surprise."
"Indeed, these people are high-quality talents. Nearly every one of them has a specialized skill. With this batch of talent joining Dawn City, our development speed will soar."
Harrison was visibly thrilled. The 7,000 elite professionals Li De had brought back from the centaurs had just been fully registered. These individuals were exactly the kind of high-caliber personnel Dawn City desperately needed at this stage.
"While population growth is a good thing, a rising population inevitably brings unrest, especially with the large influx of outsiders into Dawn City over the past two months.
It's created considerable pressure across all sectors of our operations."
Li De's expression turned a bit serious. Although he held absolute control over the city, with him around, no one could stir up real trouble...
The sudden flood of immigrants into Dawn City, however, could still cause major disruptions to both public order and administrative management.
"The number of vampires is still too low. It'll take time to expand. We must rely on the power of the residents to help manage the city."
"You mean...?"
A sharp glint flashed in Li De's eyes. "Expand the Blade of Kings. While the 600-man force we currently have is sufficient for maintaining order, it's far from enough for the next stage.
Moreover, our air force is about to be formed, and it will require a large number of warriors to support it.
The vampire race's innate limitations mean we won't be able to grow our numbers rapidly in the coming years, so leveraging the strength of the residents is inevitable."
Vampires could only perform the Embrace once per year. Although this allowed their numbers to double annually, it still required time to build a true army.
And time was precisely what he lacked right now.
So employing human strength was the only viable route.
"Recruitment for warriors should prioritize long-time residents, and every single one of them must sign a Soul Contract to ensure absolute loyalty."
The Blade of Kings would be his second sharp weapon, alongside the vampires. While he hadn't had the time or energy to expand it earlier, the time had come. This human-composed military force would now become one of his top development priorities.
"Yes, Patriarch. I'll have the recruitment notice posted right away."
Harrison also grew solemn. He understood that Li De's recent series of moves signaled the prelude to a great expansion of Dawn City. He had to do his part and fully support Li De's operations.
Li De glanced at his trusted aide and nodded in satisfaction.
"Also, by the end of this month, the vampires will be ready for their second Embrace. That'll greatly relieve our current manpower shortage."
As he said this, a hint of emotion crossed Li De's face. If vampires didn't have this limitation, he wouldn't have to worry at all, he could just start mass-producing troops.
But on second thought, if vampires really didn't have this limitation, the race likely wouldn't even exist anymore.
Unlimited Embrace, that would be more terrifying than the undead.
At least the undead had to kill a life before converting it. Vampires, on the other hand, could forcefully convert directly. A race that horrifying would never survive on the Main Plane. The dominant race of the Main Plane, humanity, would treat vampires ten thousand times harsher than they treat the undead.
And vampires were easier to suppress than undead. The undead required nothing, while vampires needed a supply of blood.
So imperfection had its merits too. A race that was too perfect would easily become everyone's enemy, survival itself would become uncertain.
"This time, we'll prioritize high-level humans for the Embrace. I need a batch of combat power that can take shape quickly."
After careful thought, Li De decided to temporarily abandon the strategy he used in the last round of vampire expansion. Back then, he had no choice but to use the Hero Selection Tournament to filter out enough candidates for Embrace.
But now, after seizing the elites from Risel City, his range of selection had greatly widened.
"Besides the few prospects with extraordinary innate talents, every candidate selected must be at least Level 5, and their natural aptitude must not be too poor."
This would've been extremely difficult to meet before, Dawn City had mostly absorbed commoners. Where would he find so many Level 5 professionals?
But these 9,000 Risel City elites were different, at least 800 of them were already Level 5 or higher.
That was the core reason Li De's strategy had shifted this time.
Thanks to the Vampire Progenitor's near-broken talent, all his Bloodline Descendants would be unconditionally loyal to him.
So selecting a batch of already combat-ready elites from Risel City to become Bloodline Descendants was undoubtedly the best choice.
It would drastically reduce the time needed to cultivate talent and quickly convert them into fighting forces.
Whether they harbored ulterior motives or not, their only outcome was to become his subordinates.
And right now, the large number of professionals within Dawn City also posed a significant security threat. To deter those who might endanger the city, Witherbone had been flying over Dawn City every day, freely radiating the bone dragon's oppressive aura.
Choosing candidates for Embrace from among this group would also greatly diminish any potential threats.
One had to admit, while the elites of Risel City were indeed a very juicy piece of meat, it still required a certain level of skill to swallow it.
"We must strictly manage these elites from Risel City. I doubt they'll behave themselves in the short term."
Upon hearing Li De's words, Harrison nodded solemnly.
With the massive influx of outsiders over the past few months, he too had begun to feel the strain of management. Although everything was still under control, the administrative efficiency of City Hall had clearly declined compared to before.
If they didn't expand their power base, the situation could worsen further.
It was obvious that Li De had already sensed this potential crisis. To this, Harrison could only sigh, perhaps this was precisely why the Patriarch was able to develop Dawn City so magnificently.