Injecting mana into a compressor wasn’t a new experience for Ebony. The only difference was the appearance of the machinery required. Since he always had a thread of mana connected to the callstone on Xin’s mask, he told her to come over whenever she felt like it.
Regardless of what she was doing, the longer she took the more money he would’ve made by then.
‘I should at least be able to afford two Myriad Bracelets before she gets over here.’ Ebony saw how deserted the building that looked like a hospital with open beds lying around. Although not many people used the facility, it seemed like some treated this as a place for shelter and sleeping.
The Myriad Bracelet also had the same function of conversion and compression that would directly lead to money but it was less efficient than this facility by a huge margin. Unlike Elcra’s currency, the wider range of unique mana properties from various races made the conversion more wasteful. The standard mana was different too. It would be best if he placed a custom order. It would require him to give up information about his mana and have it experimented till they made an efficient converter to universal standard.
Giving information about one’s mana was like telling everyone else their weakness. He could pay for Eidolon’s services with a crafter and sign a contract that was backed by the God of Just but that was for the truly rich.
If he was lucky, the fee would be 40% of his converted mana or maybe less, if he was unlucky, it would be greater. Humans were the majority and he should be considered a human, chances were, he would be lucky. He just had to buy higher-quality bracelets.
‘I definitely can’t afford the best ones without a few weeks. I should go for Ancient. Those are tens of millions each and even more if I want element specific so they don’t break from our elements…’ Ebony got himself a private room, courtesy of his guide and probably instructions from Hex.
‘Having a big name helps but this much attention makes me nervous. Huh, nervous? Me? Serenity is different from Tranquillity. I’m less muted.’ Although he thought he was nervous, it didn’t show.
Ebony saw that there was a small module to Hex in the private room as well. The private room was similar to that of a hotel room. With a metal bed, table with a mirror and a nightstand. Tapping on the module, he checked on what one 🜋 equates to.
‘That’s a simple conversion rate and I have a feeling it's not a coincidence. So 1 Blue is roughly 🜋1000, yeah, those drinks were a ripoff.’ Ebony noticed that 1 Black mana ore on Elcra which equates to 100 Elcra’ purity and flavour ambient mana equated to 1🜋. Using Elcra’s Myriad Bracelet and converting his mana to their ores, he had faced a loss of nearly 20%. The loss increased as he evolved because his mana kept changing. Now the standard is different, he might face even greater loss due to conversion efficiency. Even considering the higher tech mana purifiers and convertors.
“Don’t worry, the God of Just guarantees that our facilities do not have any analysers. All your mana would be directly purified to the equivalent closest rarity and you can choose if you want to transfer it to your account or take the physical ores.”
“Transfer it. Would it be more efficient if I gave you diluted or concentrated mana?”
“It depends. If you lie down on the bed, you should be able to feel numerous tubes under it. You can try sending different versions and I can show you the statistics directly.”
Familiar with the process, he got to work and looked at the live statistics Hex gave him. There were all sorts of information from efficiency when he changed the concentration and density to giving him the choice of further purification to a higher rank. Apparently, some races gained benefits when they forcefully purified their mana to a rank above their own while others just weren’t worth the energy to purify them.
For Ebony, his mana could be converted to the universal standard Epic-quality mana without a huge power increment and it increased efficiency. At roughly 92% but 50% of that was taken as the required power to run the facilities. In short, it took 217.4 of Ebony brand mana to equate 🜋1 if he used Hex’s services.
‘I guess I’m really not that rich.’ Ebony ran Resonant Battle Hymn and sped up his earning capacity. Almost earning 🜋638 per second, he thought that was pretty poor. How was this reason for people to kidnap him?
“Ebony, where are you?” Xin knocked on her callstone and spoke to him through the thread of mana he kept. It was not easy since she needed to be out of her combat state so that her magic body didn’t stop his connection.
“Bank, you might want to get the bag from me and find somewhere to sell the materials. The prices should be higher since we don’t have to take account other merchant’s transport fee from Teheil anymore. It might take me a day before I bring you shopping.”
“...I’ll stay with you instead. I’m bored already.”
Ebony led her with his mana thread and she slowly walked over to the room and took a seat by the table. When she bored herself even further, she asked for a room for herself and went to sleep while making money of her own. She hadn’t slept a wink since the shuttle ride and had been overusing her life force during the destruction test and their additional favour so it didn’t take much for her to fall asleep on an unfamiliar bed.
‘Bed’ was stretching it since it was more like a flat rectangular metal plate.
Cautious or paranoid, he didn’t know which it was but he was kept awake. He kept his mana pool full and only used overflowing mana.
The rooms were rented to him for free, maybe because there were so many empty rooms and he was one of the few customers Hex had. He didn’t know when but his personal reputation went up for a successful ‘trade’ with Hex. Represented by a colour and number, blue most likely for Rare or Grandmaster and a number of 88.
Since he was free he browsed the internet while he rested and charged his bank account. The nightstand was well placed. From the looks of it, in the Sector’s market websites there were very few public posts by Grandmasters and if there were, their reputation numbers were all in the tens of thousands if not higher.
In the jobs’ sites and posts that Hex pulled up for him on multiple screens, the offers were honestly terrible to him. 🜋12000 for a level 600 King ranged fighter for a 4 week hunting-focused Ancient Dungeon did not sound good. Even if there was a contribution based factor to their earnings in the dungeon. There were also many specific needs for skills and equipment, they had to go through interviews and tests before being hired. Yet it was one of the most popular posts by far according to Hex.
‘That’s a twenty minute nap. Maybe I am rich?’
“Why is the pay so low?” He might as well ask.
“It’s pretty high. Most of the money would come from the harvested monsters and materials. For an Ancient ranked dungeon, as long as they're not unlucky an average contribution would at least triple that hiring price. Good achievements and contributions would be ten times that price.”
‘That’s still around 50 to 120 Blues per month, by Elcrain standards. Maybe it’s not that low since the buying power of 🜋1000 is a lot more than a single Blue despite the equivalent numerical value.’
Ebony even saw posts for farmers and miners to Teheil. It offered them harvest-based rewards but it was not a popular post. Few farmers or miners took individual jobs. At such high levels, most were part of groups. And the post said the destination was a secret, Ebony just guessed it was Teheil from the brief description of the Worldcore’s properties.
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“Do you think I’m putting a bounty on my head by wearing an Ancient quality Myriad Bracelet?” Ebony realised that most people would not be able to afford one.
“Fear not, there are basic enchantments available to make them invisible and unable to be sensed by all but Saints and stronger. At Ancient quality, you can place many enchantments without overburdening the material. Though it really depends on the order. Have you decided?”
“Oh right, I might as well place a custom order. 🜋10 million is just over 4 hours…” Ebony’s words silenced Hex for a moment.
“Place the order through me and I can keep everything a secret, find a suitable crafter, and they wouldn’t even know who ordered it.”
“How much for secrecy?”
“🜋15,000,000”
“Sure.” Ebony learned the importance of keeping strength a secret from Mr Guru. He wasn’t nearly strong enough that he could openly share his skills.
“Both of them have to be as unaffected by ice, fire, vibration, gravity, lightning, wind and blood as possible.”
“That can be done rather easily with materials of that quality. What else?”
“Enchantment for invisibility. Oh I hope there is a comfort factor. Try to make it such that we can barely feel it on our skin. The thinner the better.”
“Easily doable.”
“For me, an active stealth for mana, for hers, vitality. Make it an option we can activate or deactivate.”
“That might be a bit harder, and it might require your mana and her vitality.”
“Hmn, forget it then.” Ebony decided it was still better for him to learn how to hide their own aura than risk giving information about his mana's properties just for a stealth function.
“Mana conversion to standardised mana for mine, just add on one of your portable modules too. ”
“Which rank? For Myriad-rated modules, Ancient costs 🜋32,542,000.”
“That is expensive, which rank allows me to connect throughout the sector?”
“Rare should suffice but it’s slow and there might be a few days lag depending on how far away you are from the station.”
“Fine, Ancient for both.”
“What else?”
“Can’t have it breaking.”
“Definitely. Are you aware that a portable module with me and a convertor would mean direct banking services?”
“Yeah, can you estimate how much the efficiency would decrease?”
“At least half. Something small enough to fit a bracelet simply cannot outfunction the current facilities you’re in. okay then, for obvious reasons I’ll throw in the registration card that would prove your account with me and also act as a wallet, you can trade money with it directly. Would you like support combat options?”
“Such as?”
“Support spells could be imbued that could be activated. This would likely require an additional person to work on the Bracelet, more depending on the enchantment or spell.”
“Hmm, if I don’t do that, the material still has space for more enchantments?”
“At the moment, yes. Other popular functions are powerful healing, element amplification, navigation and of course, spatial storage. Binding is an obvious choice, so no one else but you or your mana signature can open. Mana signature can be used against you so the best would be soul signature but, we do not have anyone in the entire sector that can craft or cast a soul binding.”
“Give me the healing, spatial storage and binding to all essences from vitality to stamina and mana.”
“Either give one of those choices up or the price would increase drastically due to a composite material required and the thickness would be compromised unless you are fine with a further price increase for a spatial compression.”
“Let’s do that. As for physical appearance, just let the crafter make what they think would match our fit.” Ebony actually didn't know if Hex or Eidolon, the group of spirits had eyes in the physical world to see what he was wearing.
“With the current specifications desired, the estimated cost is 🜋235,600,000 each.”
“...I don’t think I want to spend that much time lying here.”
“You can place the order now. I will sell to you on credit, when the trade is successful your reputation will rise a lot thanks to the sales volume.”
“You will do that?”
“I doubt you’ll die or renege on the deal as long as you stay on the station. And you can’t pay for a ticket off the station if you don’t get a bracelet with the registration card or the money. No one else would sell to you on credit with your non-existent reputation.”
“How long would the creation take?”
“We have the materials but the crafter we have in mind is not on the station, estimated time for product to arrive. A standard month.”
“Let me ask, is all natural worlds’ day and night cycle the same as a standard because someone made it that way?”
“...that is not free information.”
“So I’m right, someone made all natural worldcores born follow the same time, same celestial body cycle as an attempt to ‘standardise’ time. And Cinderash doesn’t, either it is not a natural worldcore or it was born before the time of standardisation. As far as the Book of Laws stated, Worldcores born before a certain period would not be affected.”
“I’m not saying a word.”
“Alright, then just put the order down. I’ll use a cheap bracelet in the meantime and sleep here every few nights.”
He got two free hotel rooms that weren’t the best furnished for living but they sufficed. After he got a cheap myriad bracelet, he took Xin out to sell the stuff they got from Teheil.
“Half each?” She cocked her head.
“You keep it, the Altarbound wouldn’t have given me anything. They gave it to you.”
Fortunately, they didn’t trade everything in just for the tickets to get to this station. A lot was lost to transportation fees and the prices increased drastically once they were here and found a reputable store. Run by a race more lizard than human. They were not beastmen but actual lizards that walked on fours. They usually used mind magic for communication but since that left people susceptible to mind attacks, they used an attachment on their bracelet to vocalise their words.
Most of them wore leather clothing or armour but the merchants of this race wore baggy linen.
The materials Ning Xin got were all Ancient quality and most importantly, unique and new. Barely any was circulating in the market. It was clear that Mirellans kept the harvest goods for themselves at the moment.
She was also a millionaire now.
‘No way, surely King ranked can earn more than a few hundred thousand per month if they hunt in Ancient ranked dungeons…oh well, this is technically decades worth of harvest.’ In terms of volume, she didn’t actually take much from Teheil or the natives. Golden Fields simply produce immense harvests at a time.
They went restaurant hopping and were basically always eating till they returned to the bank’s facility.
Although he searched through Hex, there was nothing of ice or fire element that was as good as what they got from the Cinderash or Teheil. People simply didn’t sell things that were rare and useful. Who didn’t want a stronger physique?
Ebony found out about the God of Knowledge’s library but it was only for people of a certain reputation. And it was equivalent to Saints and above even excluding the price they were asking for access. In any case, it didn’t matter because this station didn’t have a physical branch. There was only a single branch in the regional station, not a puny sector station like this.
They found a shuttle service that would go to Elcra which, fortunately, was in the current sector they were in. While Cinderash was actually two sectors away. It was no wonder why Elcra didn’t know about them in the past. The Cinderashians' reach was pretty far if they’d managed to get their hands on Teheil initially.
Ebony bought information from brokers online on the different powers and forces but it was introductory and seemed unreliable at best.
Browsing the net, taking food journeys through various cultures and cuisines, walking through physical stores, sleeping on a metal bed like a test subject.
They found themselves boarding a semi-private shuttle service a higher grade than the one they took to the station and set off back home with fresh new clothes, a phone in the form of a bracelet and the spoils they’ve got over the years.