54 - Chapter 53 - Day 2179

Adya had left orders for two additional devices with Rory as well as the mana compression artifact and multiple additional cores. Thankfully Rory had already been in the process of stockpiling the void steel and had already produced sufficient composite sheets for production of several devices.

He had been sending the devices across as he had created them. That had left Adya to complete the formations, and exhaustively test them to ensure they worked as intended. She was reasonably certain that no one should be able to work out how to replicate the process of creating an artifact. They would however get the formation that would allow them to manually create mana coins. She had ensured that the fake formation on the surface of the core worked, and that it would appear to wear out at a consistent rate.

The last thing she had tested had been various designs for the head side of the coin. She had created and used a variety of plates, and had been happy with the fidelity. The smallest designs were copied across even though the sizes would be miniscule.

Once that had been completed, she had tested the mana compression artefact. This one worked well on the first attempt. The difference was that instead of a core, the device would pull the required stamina and willpower from the user via intricately designed formations on the handles. This artifact was not for creating a large number of coins. It was for creating a small number of high value coins. The mana could be provided via external mana stones of any tier. The artifact could hold up to 12,000 mana or 120 mana stones equivalent before it would need to compress the mana. This would allow for the compression of 2 tiers.

Adya had designed this on purpose. Had she gone for any bigger, then the size of the artifact would go from a personal device to an industrial device. Of course that part could be ignored, and the mana provided directly from the user too. The formations created an energy siphon that pulled all three energies from their users and powered the process. The formation was actually created in the local language, with some artistic flourishes. The formation spoke of taking mana and stamina. The artistic flourishes took the willpower and would be perfectly hidden.

As long as someone copied her design exactly it would work, but they would not know why. The system’s obfuscation of her language would leave people at a loss, or at least she hoped that it would. The last thing was the design. She did not want everyone to know the difference, so the same design plate system was in place. It would effectively make people think that the mana coins had been created in the first artifact. If no plate was used, then the design on both sides would be the same and show the value and tier of the coin. She did not want to make people targets. The second artifact would be a carefully controlled item.

Once Adya was happy that all her testing had been thoroughly conducted, she decided the next step was to test with her cultivators. She had stopped her tests at tier 8 mana coins, those would be expensive enough. She did not want to push to tier 9 or tier 10 just yet, though she could with just 120 tier 8 coins. She called for Evelin and Jarel.

Jarel would be the one who would contact the elder, and Evelin would need to know what was about to happen in any case. That made them both the best test subjects. Both would be asked to use their own Mana. She would also let them keep the resulting mana coins. It should be easy enough for them to spend 11,000 to 12,000 mana and create a coin two tiers higher than their current mana density. The reason for the testing was to ensure that normal cultivators could use the device and not notice anything strange. The pull of stamina and willpower should be minor enough not to cause any problems.

While Adya was still testing edge cases, there was a knock on the door. The door was opened by Sally and at a wave from Adya, Evelin and Jarel entered.

“Thank you both for coming,” said Adya. “Please take a seat. I have called you for a few reasons. I wanted to let you in on my plan to deal with this witch hunt and to confirm if I am the person who is being targeted.”

“Are you sure that is wise?” asked Evelin. “We have contained the search in the three kingdoms and are able to vet any other agents entering the area. You could wait.”

“I could,” said Adya. “The problem with that strategy is that it could go wrong very fast. If tier 7s or tier 8s are tasked to come after the person, or if there is a push to test every child of the right age by mortal authorities, it would put us in a reactive situation. I would rather control the information release so we can limit the damage.”

“So who are you going to trust with the secret,” said Jarel. “I take it my elder is your choice?”

“Yes,” said Adya. “Only your elder has known about this person since the beginning. I have reason to believe that makes them somewhat trustworthy. The elders who learned about this person later are likely to have more malicious motivations.”

“And I take it you won’t share that reason with us,” said Evelin with a frown on her face. She did not like being kept in the dark. It made it very hard to keep Adya safe.

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“Not at this time,” said Adya. “The more you know, the more danger you will be in. There is even the possibility that beings above tier 10 would be interested in the search.”

That shocked both Evelin and Jarel. Just what was Adya involved in that the ascended would take an interest in mortal affairs.

“Now to that end,” said Adya. “Jarel, do you have the scroll that you were given, or do you need to retrieve it?”

“I would need to get it,” said Jarel. “It is close by, but not in the estate. I did not want it to be tracked or recognised by accident. Are you sure you want me to bring it here?”

“Make sure to check with our teams to ensure that there are no other cultivators in the region,” said Evelin. “Also increase the security for the whole estate.”

“How long would it take you to return?” asked Adya.

“It will take me less than an hour at my best speed,” said Jarel. “That already factors in Evelin’s instructions. Do you want me to leave now?”

“Before we take that step,” said Adya. “I need your help to test some artifacts. I also need to let you into my plans. This is the final opportunity for me to change my mind, and I want to make sure that everything is ready before we take the next step.”

“Everyone is back,” said Evelin. “I just had them resting. I am confident we can deal with at least one tier 8, possibly two. We are as ready as we can be.”

“So I have been working on two artifacts with Rory,” said Adya. “The first artifact allows for the automated creation of mana coins from mana stones. It will work with up to tier 5 mana stones at the present time.” The limitation had been set by the quality of stamina and willpower stones Adya could create and socket in to her replaceable cores, though she was not even going to tell her subordinates that little secret.

“Are you serious,” said Evelin, struggling to control her voice, while Jarel looked on in shock. “You managed to get something working that no other formation master has managed to achieve. I thought you wanted less scrutiny not more?”

“That’s the thing,” said Adya with a wry smile on her face. “It is not about more scrutiny, but the right sort of scrutiny. If an elder takes an interest in a mortal family, gives them agents for protection and raises them to the status of a clan, everyone will pay attention. It would be like sending everyone a missive that here is the person you are searching for. From the moment Jarel reports, we would be targeted, and unlikely to survive the attention. But what would happen if the same thing happened along with the announcement of an artifact to do what no one else has done before?”

“It would look like a formation genius has arisen,” said Evelin, now nodding slowly. “It would be unlikely that a small child, no matter how dangerous or blessed, would be able to create such a thing. So while it would be a big deal, it would be something that would actually get less scrutiny during the search for the child.”

“But only if they are all given the opportunity to benefit from the advancement,” said Jarel. “If they are locked out, then it would be the same situation. You intend to give away the designs?”

“No,” said Adya. “That would again create a focus on us. It is too valuable a thing to give away. However, nothing is stopping me from selling it. Making it look like a business family is protecting their big break will also reduce the amount of interest in us. As long as everyone can place orders. I already have Rory working on multiple devices.”

“Can we see the artifacts?” said Jarel, sounding more like an excited child than a grown cultivator.

“Yes, but I am not done telling you my plans yet,” said Adya with a cheeky twinkle of her eyes. “You know what, since you are so eager, you can wait to hear the rest. Let us go and test the mana coin machine first.”

With that Adya led them to the other room that she had been using as her workshop. Three large artifacts stood side by side. There was also a table that held several cores. In the corner of the room was a sack full of tier 1 mana stones.

“So I am planning to sell the artifact for 25 platinum,” said Adya. “The replacement cores would be priced at 15 platinum each. Each core would allow for a certain amount of coins to be created before the formations burn out. They can then be easily replaced.”

Adya then showed them how to open the machine and fit a core. She showed them how to operate the machine. Then she pointed her eager cultivators to the sack of mana stones and let them play.

They spent some time playing with the artifacts and seeing the coins being created. The fact that you had to pour in the stones, lock the device, then wait for it to finish, before opening the other end to take out the coins was a novel experience for them both. Adya had added a simple switch with a red and green light to make it easy to know when the process was complete. She had also warned them that attempting to open the machine while the light was red would cause the core and all the mana in the device to be destroyed.

Evelin and Jarel were behaving like little children with a new toy. They tried everything out, and with Adya’s permission, even wasted a few hundred mana stones on testing the destruction process. Adya also had them attempt to scan the device during use, as well as the cores themselves. Neither were able to work out how it functioned. While it was not concrete proof against higher tier cultivators, it was still a significant milestone.

Finally they were done with playing and suitably impressed.

“If you like that,” said Adya. “I am not even sure how you are going to react to my other artifact.”

“What does that one do,” asked a curious Evelin.

“It allows you to compress mana and create a coin two tiers higher than the tier of mana you feed it,” replied Adya.