About three hours later, Solam walked out of Glacier Fortress, thoroughly satisfied.
Kostchtchie was a pauper—there was no doubt about that. But one could not look at things one-sidedly, and that was exactly the case when it came to Kostchtchie being a pauper. As an old-established demon lord, the sheer lack of wealth in Kostchtchie's possession was practically a disgrace among demon lords.
Divine artifacts? None! Legendary equipment? Only a handful. As for the rest of his miscellaneous collection, it was pitifully scant as well. At least, Solam could barely be bothered to look at the equipment Kostchtchie had collected.
But then again, while Kostchtchie was a pauper, he was at least a pauper with some assets. Solam was even worse off—he was truly penniless, with absolutely nothing. Kardum had once possessed a bit of wealth too, but after the planar upheaval, it had all been destroyed, along with every last one of its armies.
If Kostchtchie was a disgrace among demon lords, then Solam was the scum of the scum. Comparing him to other demon lords was an insult to them. There was not a single being in the entire Abyss poorer than him.
So even though Kostchtchie's collection was nothing impressive, Solam was still extremely satisfied. He had previously returned completely to a state of abject poverty; now, at least, he had a little pocket change. Besides, Kostchtchie had not truly gone all these years without acquiring anything good.
At the very least, Solam found a thousand supreme-grade soul crystals in his treasury.
That was what foundations meant! A full thousand supreme-grade soul crystals! It meant that, if Kostchtchie were willing, he could create a thousand high-ranking, utterly loyal demon subordinates in a single day.
While Solam was feeling thoroughly satisfied, the struggle for control over Frostfell had