...

Shortly after giving Lili [Mana Sense], Alexander's office

"This mana ink is fantastic..."

"I guessed you would like it, so..."

"So..." Before Alexander could say anything, Green interrupted him, not even trying to hide her greedy smile, "...just say a number, and I will give you the gold."

After Lili successfully got her [Mana Sense] skill, instead of putting her through the training of getting all the other ones, he immediately went to Anastasia for a law lesson, which he was already tired of learning. Still, with his skill being level 73, he would need, at most, another month.

Afterward, instead of training his magic or alchemy or doing something more physical, he needed to meet up with Green, presenting her at last with the finished mana ink. Even though he wanted to create some batches beforehand, it was the right time to show it to her now and make a deal while at it.

The reason was that she visited him more rarely, only to give him pamphlets or books with spells and sometimes theories. With Ipe basically glued to his ass when he trained, there was no need for her to observe his lessons anymore. There were also no educational reasons since he had already eclipsed her in that sense.

For now, she was nothing more than a supplier for spells and magic theory and a middleman for the wares he would produce. So, he readied himself for some serious bargaining. Yet, after testing the ink, she suddenly didn't care about the finances anymore.

However, he wasn't too keen on getting one over his partner and aimed more for a long-term relationship where both could benefit. Ultimately, she was his entrance into the Temple and their market, his sole buyer, making things much more manageable. The last thing he wanted was to look for new buyers who could never buy his current or future wares in bulk.

Another reason was that he was already remarkably rich, and including the mana ink in place, he probably could reach half the yearly tax income they made through Wolfsteeth. Making a little more or less because of greed was too shortsighted.

He wanted something else, something very specific, but before asking for it, Alexander decided to be more casual and talk honestly about what the price could look like, "For how much will you sell it? We can try and negotiate a good deal."

She didn't listen to him and only answered, "Sounds good."

"I will have a hot threesome with the Oracle and my Dad, you know?"

"Fantastic, just write it down so I don't forget it."

Alexander rolled his eyes and flicked her forehead, "Ow!"

She suddenly looked at him, annoyed, "What?! I said I will pay you the price!"

He frowned, "I want to know how much you will sell it for so we can adjust everything together accordingly."

She raised an eyebrow, "Do you fear I will get one over you?"

He leaned slightly back in his chair and shrugged, "Not really. You are not that stupid, and you have goals other than getting wealthy."

"Why do you ask me then? Just give me ten times the amount of coin it costs to make it. Isn't it a great margin?"

Alexander smirked at her, "Then it would mean I would sell you this little bottle..." He pointed at the ink bottle before her, which she held like a newborn chick, "...for around one small silver coin, and this would truly be too little."

She tilted her head, surprised, "Wait, is this as cheap as the mana paper to make?"

Alexander nodded, "Around the same, and I can create it actually much faster."

"How many ink bottles can you create per month?"

Alexander showed a so-so gesture, "Right now? Around 10.000 bottles, and like with the mana paper, we can do much more over time when we get the production on track. I would say..."

Green smiled widely, interrupting him, "You are too conservative, which means that in a month, you can easily double or triple the production."

He was always very conservative in his assurances. He would rather underpromise to surprise her positively than overpromise and not deliver.

In business, the most important thing was that one could plan for the future, and while there were a lot of risk-takers, he saw no need to go that way. He would instead take the slow road while focusing on his political and societal projects.

He shrugged, "Depends, really. The resources are there, renewable, and nobody uses them except for compost. Still, for emergency cases, I can quickly create something similar out of very different resources, and all that will change will be the color. I think I will implement something like thi..."

She interrupted him, "Nobody cares, and this is your problem. Thirty average gold coins per bottle."

Alexander raised an eyebrow, "You want to sell a bottle for 30 average gold coins?"

She shook her head, "Nooooo. I want to buy it from you and sell it for 35 or 40."

Alexander was genuinely confused about the price as he predicted ten large silver coins at most, "Isn't it too expensive?"

"Haha, of course not! Mana artifacts for contract writing are very costly to maintain, repair, and replace. Besides, one needs a lot of time to write a substantial contract..." She slowly patted the ink bottle, weirding Alexander out, "...instead, this little wonder will save me a lot of time and gold."

Alexander ignored her behavior and calculated in his head that with 10.000 bottles per month, he would get around 30.000 large gold coins, an insane sum. Even more so because there were almost no expenses after taxes, which he paid voluntarily, he would have around 24.000 large gold coins left, 'Now I get why having too much money is fucking annoying.'

It was too much already. He had no way to spend it quickly as his other revenue stream, the mana paper, was already bringing in massive amounts of gold. Even Aurum, in his letters, was slowly getting annoyed that he had no way of spending it efficiently and asked for ideas.

All he did was bring most of the gold to the bank. Alexander was also worried about this, as inflation was real, even though gold seemed to be a finite resource. Yet, with enormous and replenishable mines inside of dungeons, real alchemy, and magic, gold was brought into the economy continuously. The only hindrance was energy and time. So, the precious metals were inflating and losing value. As such, having a large portion saved up in the bank while it was losing value was a waste.

Such a situation would be golden for anyone who was not the per se government of the region and could just buy out every business. However, for him, buying out companies could become a problem in the long run as he would stifle competition and, with it, the local economy.

Alexander, however, decided to invest only in sectors that seemed to others a waste of gold but had a long-term gain, like education, poverty prevention, etc. Now, though, after some thought, he decided to also go for technologies since it was a relatively novel thing in this region, having his new grandiose idea in mind, "I don't need so much gold."

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She looked away from the mana ink bottle and at him, confused, "What do you want then? You know our branch isn't the largest, and while we increased heavily in size, prestige, and other factors, we can't really do much."

She was right in this aspect. From all the reports and talks with his Father, the Twin-Acorn branch was growing tremendously, bringing more and more people in who wanted to prove themselves and get as many merits as possible by volunteering here against one of their most hated folks of the Temple, the wild demons.

They even opened another two smaller branches in the Cold-Snout and Nine-Fire territory to the north, which brought a ton of goodwill to his Father, who made sure to increase his reputation with the Temple, who saw their efforts in widening their religious and ideological influence in hostile environments as essential but not something they want to put their people in forcefully.

The border to Kratikal was on the same level as the conflict point where humans, dwarves/gnomes, and nature-dweller territory met. There was a whole history to that, but the short version was that the draugr captured a giant chunk of the nature-dweller territory and afterward were captured by the humans and dwarves/gnomes.

Even though the wild demons didn't do such a thing, they hated them nonetheless as they destroyed their natural habitats and, not only that, also made them uninhabitable for generations to come, which was apparently a sacrilege for the Temple.

However, there were good reasons for concentrating on their borders rather than here. For one, not many could stay here for long as most went insane as nature-dwellers were very sensitive to their environment. Only those like Green, who were already on a more secular side, could survive here long term. Also, it was much harder for them to clean the Kratikal region from the miasma, so they mostly left the region for good, leaving it to the hands of volunteering branches.

Regardless of their inner politics, most beast-kin loved the Temple as it did a lot of good work around here and gave his subjects some peace of mind. Even though Alexander was mainly non-religious, besides the typical agnostic mindset, he understood that many needed traditions, rituals, and other religious events to ease their mind. Be it funerals, weddings, or something else entirely, it was always soothing to know that they weren't only some carbons patched together with luck and spit floating around in space.

With that, the folk became much more amiable and calm, making also the rulers happy and, thus, more friendly towards them. However, now he needed the Temple as what he wanted was almost likely not anywhere in the black market, "I need something particular, and I am ready to take a substantial cut to 20 average gold coins per bottle."

She raised her eyebrow and laughed out loud, "Haha! How gracious of you. Now, you don't make a whole baron amount of wealth but only one-third less."

Alexander waved his hand in dismissal, "You want me to jack up the price? Don't you want to cut out the royal draugr household? Do it by lowering the price even further..." He rubbed his chin and thought, shrugging, "...fine. 10 average gold pieces per bottle."

She leaned back and looked at him more seriously, "Sounds great, but what do you want?"

Alexander smiled and became more serious, "You know what a train is?"

She tilted her head, saying, slightly confused, "Aren't trains those giant mechanical machines in the dwarf and gnome territory?"

"I mean..." He wondered if they meant the same, "...maybe, but they look like this..." He moved the earth from a nearby plant pot, using his mana, creating a replica of a train and some tracks, "...does it look like this?"

She nodded, "Yeah? How do you know? It looks slightly different, but I get what you mean, and you want a train?"

He shook his head, "I need those blueprints."

She shook her head, "Imposs..." He interrupted her, "...5 average gold pieces, and you can sell it for 10, making the draugr bleed out in weeks or months. The merit you will get will probably be enough to..." He actually had no idea what they used it for in the Temple, "...get a lot of stuff and because it is so cheap, you can even undercut them in their territory, selling it through the black market as they probably have a monopoly on their stuff."

It was silent, and she stared toward the train for a whole minute before turning to Alexander, becoming severe, "I get why you want it, but aren't you a genius? Can't you build it yourself?"

He shook his head, "Yes and no. Yes, I can design, build, and create it, but it will take at least some years. Still, with functioning blueprints, I could have something ready and would need only to better the model and design..." He snapped his finger, "...oh yeah, I also obviously need how one creates the motor, the fuel, and a blueprint for how to make steel efficiently."

While he was knowledgeable, certain things were just too cumbersome and time-consuming to design from the fundamental level. Steel was such an example. While he knew how to make it, which was a straightforward process of separating iron from oxygen and then adding some carbon to it, it would streamline the process if he could get his hands on a functioning process and simply finetune it, like with the train as a whole.

Green looked at him, baffled, "Excuse me, I think I didn't hear right. You said years but probably meant tens of years, right?"

Alexander remembered that technology developed much slower here on Orbis than on Earth. Even though Earth needed a lot of time to create everything, the time scales here were much longer. Through historical records, he found out that, for example, the numbers system was only developed thousands of years ago. If he went by his assumptions, it was brought over by an Earthling as it was too eerily similar.

The reason was apparent: Old mindsets persisted much longer since the lifespan was also immensely longer. Together with body modifications, which increased their lifespan every time by half and generally more vital bodies, change was on a much different scale.

There was also the problem with skills, levels, and so on. While they were beneficial, many would concentrate on already discovered ones instead of trying novel approaches, wasting years of their time. Anastasia and the researchers in the free cities were, in that sense, a novelty, but even they were tied up in their conservative approaches because of funding.

He shook his head and leaned forward, smiling, "Years, and if I have the darn blueprints, I can quicken everything to a year or two, making even the logistics of the Temple branches a breeze. How does it sound?"

She looked at him but frowned, obviously wanting to decline, "No..." He interrupted her again, "...3 average gold pieces, and you sell it for 5. Also, I will immediately hire more workers and concentrate my efforts on making 30.000 to 40.000 bottles in two to three months per month. By the end of the year, the draugr royal family who creates it will go bankrupt, and you..." He knocked on the table, smiling at her, "...will drown in honor and praises for achieving this."

Green clenched her hands repeatedly, her smile changing into a frown and back, but Alexander saw her greed slowly flaring up. He was ready to take an enormous hit to his margins if he could expedite the whole technological process.

He could make much more money and develop closer ties to other territories by getting the logistics on track. The tax revenue alone through trading would triple or more. All he needed was the full knowledge of everything related to the train system the dwarves and gnomes used.

After almost five minutes of silence, Green looked at him, nodding, "Fine, but I need to contact my oracle."

Alexander stood up excitedly, "Great! Let's transform this barren land into something fantastic, making your Temple branch one of the most important, and all the while fuck over some undead!"

Green, though, wasn't as excited, "I... will try my best..."

...

Cave of Life

An enormous and colorful flower glistened as a giant stalactite, which hung on the ceiling, emitted relaxing light. From the tip of the stalactite, a single drop fell down onto the flower.

As the droplet touched the flower, it became suddenly much bigger, as if going through years of growing. Hours passed, and another drop fell, making the flower even bigger. Like this, it grew and grew.

However, when the flower became big enough to touch the stalactite, it suddenly withered, turning in minutes into compost. Hours passed, and another drop fell from the stalactite toward the small patch of earth where the flower previously stood. A bud slowly opened, and the process of life and death began anew- a circle and symbol of the Temple.

This peaceful process was interrupted when a light brown-reddish flame appeared beside the flower. The small and barely moving flame looked calm, but if one looked closely at it, it was deep and slumbering emotions no one wanted to bring out.

On the other side, a bright purple flame appeared, erratically moving around. It looked honest and barely able to contain itself, but there was also some stubbornness that even the coldest winter couldn't make it go extinct, "What?! By the Outer Circle, why do you call me into a meeting!"

The small brown-reddish flame never moved too much, almost standing still, "Hello, my dear oracle of the Earthly Sisterhood, how are you?"

The purple flame became more massive, "Didn't you contact me because it was something serious? Why are we chit-chatting?! You know where my Temples are, are you not?! I have no time for something this stupid!"

The brown-reddish flame barely moved, "I understand your aggressiveness, but I thought some casual exchange was in order before talking about the important things?"

The purple flame grew, almost towering over the brown-reddish one, "You..." However, the brown-reddish one suddenly became hotter, almost snuffing out the purplish one, "...careful Kalia. Just because I am nice doesn't mean I can't snuff you out. Never think I will take anyone's aggression because of the size of my branch. There is a reason why we survived as one of the oldest branches."

The purple flame moved again erratically but wouldn't dare to become larger, "Fine! I fucking hate your branch..." It calmed considerably down, "...so, what do you want?"

The brownish flame sounded solemn, "My messenger has another offer for you."

The purple flame calmed now fully down, also barely moving, "Do you want to sell me more mana paper? I will take it gladly, of course, if the price is the same."

The brown-reddish flame created space inside itself, forming a vicious smile, "Mana paper? No, something much more exciting, something you would love to have."

The purple flame suddenly became erratic again, "Oh? What is it?"

The smile expanded, "However, I also need something from you..." The purple flame suddenly shivered, feeling the madness the brown-reddish flame showed for a moment, "...you see..."