“Have a royalty contract: take a few percent of the overall value that the potion is worth at market price or however much it is sold for in auctions. Lump sum payments will be limiting. This formula will become the newest rage among the Blue Lotus; add in that they are never able to trade this formula away and only the products. Though one issue you could come into is price fixing. There might be people trying to fix the prices of these concoctions low so that they don’t have to pay you so much. They are a pillar of the Ten Realms but like the Alchemist Association, they are controlled by people.”
“I have a method to deal with that.” Erik smiled and sat back in his chair. “Would the Alchemist Association be interested in buying these formulas and entering a royalty contract with me?”
“Oh?” Old Hei raised his eyebrow, a smile on his face.
“That way you get the Alchemist Association and the Blue Lotus to keep one another in check, stabilize the market price so one or the other couldn’t mess it up. Also get revenue from two groups instead of one.” Rugrat looked to Erik with a look of pride.
“Right!” Erik smiled and looked to Old Hei.
“Seven percent of the market price of the goods where they are sold. We will be allowed to freely distribute the formula as required,” Old Hei said. “Payment to be made at the end of the year.”
“To this branch. I am hoping to set up a place here,” Erik said.
“Very well. This will be sealed in a contract,” Old Hei said.
“I will get a special token to access the funds or send someone in my stead to gather them. I do not want people to know my identity unless I use that token,” Erik said.
“We can do that as well,” Old Hei agreed.
“You pay the taxes,” Rugrat interjected.
“Taxes?” Old Hei asked.
“Well, I think that it all sounds good,” Rugrat said, giving Erik a look.
“If it is possible, I would like to ask for an advance,” Erik said.
“An advance?” Old Hei asked, unsure of this new word.
“A loan, if you will, against the trade. One thousand Mana stones. Only after the acquired amount from the sale or consumption of the concoctions has reached one thousand Mana stones will I get any additional payment.”
“So laying a loan against the future profits.” Hei stroked his beard in thought and looked at the formulas. He was Erik’s friend but he was also a pill head of the Third Realm. He couldn’t act beyond his position and this deal had large ramifications as these concoctions could extend the lives of some of the old ancients in the Alchemist Association, holding onto their strength longer or giving them an opportunity to increase their ability and lifespan again. It would incur a heavy cost.
“Okay, I can agree to this.” Old Hei looked to his guards. “Khasar, bring me the head scribe and make sure that he brings his tools to make a binding contract, one that will be passed to the rest of the Alchemist Association.”
“Yes, Pill Head Hei.” Khasar cupped his hands and used his sound talisman.
“So when will you be leaving?” Old Hei asked.
“Soon, but I do not intend to leave forever,” Erik said.
“Have you thought on becoming my direct disciple?” Old Hei asked.
Erik stood, cupping his hands, and bowed deeply. “I would be honored to become Old Hei’s disciple but I like to keep wandering and would be a bad student.”
“I don’t think anything could stop your drive to explore and to venture through the Ten Realms.” Old Hei laughed. “The reason I want you to become my direct disciple is because I can see the heights you will reach, because I want to make that path a bit easier. I hope that you are able to surpass me in ability and come back to this old man with a few tales! I have lived for a very long time. I know that we might meet frequently in the future or rarely; with being my direct disciple, it will be easier for us to meet up along our path and share our stories and help one another grow,” Old Hei said.
A weight that Erik didn’t know about lifted from his shoulders. He didn’t want Old Hei to feel as though he were abandoning him. With Old Hei’s words, this was lifted: they would look to meet up with each other in the future, but they had their own lives and paths to travel down.
“I would be honored to be called your direct disciple,” Erik said.
“Good. Catch!” Old Hei tossed an emblem and Erik caught it.
“Now you’re my direct disciple—no getting out of it!” Old Hei grinned as he grabbed some fruit from the food in front of him.
“Now, come on, let’s eat! How did the pill go? Old Hei asked.
“I am stronger than ever,” Rugrat smiled proudly.
“Good! Now you both must try this Jsodif fruit! It is good for your mana circulation!”
They laughed and obeyed his words.
***
Erik and Rugrat left the Alchemist Association, with their stomachs heavier, a contract created, and Erik’s purse substantially heavier.
“I’m going to head back to the smithy. You good with the Blue Lotus?” Rugrat asked.
“Yes. I got the scribe to make two contracts so everything should go smoothly,” Erik said. “See you back at the house.”
They parted ways and Erik headed toward the Blue Lotus. It looked a lot more domineering than it did the last time he had entered. He talked to a guard, and quickly left the main areas of the Blue Lotus and found himself outside of Manager Ebeneezer’s office.
The doors opened as Ebeneezer put away some paperwork and moved to greet Erik. “You look like you have come to a decision?” Ebeneezer smiled.
“I have.” Erik pulled out a contract and handed it to Ebeneezer.
He read it over and checked the quality of the contract, making silent judgements and appraisals as he did so.
Erik stood there, waiting.
“Very well, we agree to this contract. As I sign this with the Blue Lotus oath, it will be connected to everyone in the Blue Lotus. I do want to ask—who made this contract?” Ebeneezer asked.
“Head scribe of Division Headquarters Mao Yuzi. Also, you might want to know that the Alchemist Association has completed a contract identical to this one, which will give you both a way to trade with each other, to gain resources or the concoctions from each other,” Erik said.
Ebeneezer’s expression remained passive as he hid his thoughts on a professional level.
“Smart, very smart.” Ebeneezer nodded. He went to his desk, signing and stamping the contract. The power of the Ten Realms descended, acknowledging the contract and placing restrictions on Erik and the Blue Lotus. Ebeneezer didn’t seem that stunned as he sent a number of messages.
A guard came in with a woman; they took the scroll, Ebeneezer passing them quick instructions.
Then another man entered the room and passed Ebeneezer a storage ring.
The others left, leaving Erik and Ebeneezer alone.
“Do you have them?” Ebeneezer asked.
Erik pulled out the two simple-looking pieces of paper and held them out to Ebeneezer.
He accepted the paper scrolls with gentle hands, unraveling them and looking them over. His expression changed a few times before he stored them away.
“It is good doing business with you, Mister West. Please let me know if there is anything that I can do for you. I would like to take you out to the Golden Phoenix restaurant to celebrate, if you are interested?” Ebeneezer handed Erik the storage ring.
Erik looked inside, seeing the mountain of Mortal Mana stones.
“I’m sorry. I have other plans but I thank you, Manager Ebeneezer. I do not doubt we will be meeting with each other in the future.” Erik smiled and cupped his hands to Ebeneezer.
Ebeneezer did the same.
Erik came out of the Blue Lotus, letting out a sigh. He looked around before looking inside his storage rings once again to make sure that his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. It took all he had not to break out into maniacal laughter and do a jig on the gro
und. He headed right for the residence that they were staying in, finding Matt and Domonos.
“Have you found anything?” Erik asked.
“Well, it depends what you want. We found a small home on a largeish piece of ground for three hundred and sixty Mana stones. Then we found larger residences that cover all of the ground for three thousand Mana stones,” Matt said.
Erik’s joy from before turned into stomach pain. He let out a sigh filled with suffering. “How big is the cheap property?”
“It is three hundred meters by five hundred,” Matt said.
“But it is in the middle of the traders’ homes, not the high-class ones but the places where they keep their goods and their beasts,” Domonos said.
“So it smells a bit,” Matt added.
“Well, that’s big enough. We can grow plants that diffuse the smell, build up a big residence with the people of Alva. And being around the traders will make it easier for us to sell our goods,” Erik said, trying to look at the positives.
“Shall we take a look?” Domonos asked.
“Sure,” Erik said.
“What about Rugrat?” Matt asked.
“He’s working on an upgraded set of alchemy tools for Old Hei,” Erik said.
They headed through the city and reached the property. It wasn’t much more than a shack on a plot of land. There were gardens on it, but there were signs that it had been nibbled at around the edges by the beasts that were stored in the trading stables. And the smell was pretty damn awful as the area was one of the hotspots in the city from the volcano underneath. They were also bordered by larger buildings, making it hard to get anything like proper sunlight.
“Most of the time, materials and builders are pulled from the outside, because it is just so expensive here that the builders couldn’t survive here with so few jobs. Most of the builders and crafters related to building are all high-ranked Experts—painters, carvers and the like. Getting one of them to work here is the same as getting an army to work on your home in a normal city,” Matt said.
Erik closed his eyes, linking to the dungeon and looking at where the hidden passage ended. He could expand it some more; then it wouldn’t be too far to dig to.
They had shown him some of the other residences. They were nicer and in better locations but they had less land and the buildings were made already, with no room for development. With the builders from Alva, they could make their own place here.
Also, I don’t want to be broke when I just got two thousand Mana stones!
“Contact the seller. We’ll buy it for three hundred and sixty Mana stones,” Erik said. It was a fortune, but in Division Headquarters, it wasn’t worth all that much. It was one of the capitals that ruled over the entire realm—how could anything be cheap?
Chapter: Return to Alva Dungeon
The next three days passed quickly. They bought the shack and the land. Erik met with Old Hei; the two of them wandered around the Alchemist Association, going to different places to sit, talk, and eat.
Erik turned a portion of his Mana stones into contribution points with the Alchemist Association and bought the Internal Burning pill.
==========
Internal Burning pill
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Ignite the Fire attribute Mana within your body, allowing your body to transform and be tempered by the forces of flame.
==========
The pill had reached the Inscribed pill level, with seventy percent efficacy with its effect around the twenty-three percent mark. That increased Erik’s potential to temper his body by twenty-three percent, only a quarter higher than before, though Erik had more plans. Still, the pill had cost him one contribution point, or ten Mortal Mana stones.
Rugrat exited his smithy, and handed Old Hei the tools he had worked on. Old Hei accepted them, pleased with the workmanship. Rugrat had taken so long to make sure that they were of the highest quality and even added in a bit of the Earth-grade iron ingot to increase the overall grade of the new tools.
With this, they had completed all they needed to in the Third Realm.
The party of four went to the totem. Old Hei saw them off as they entered in their destination as Chonglu.
Domonos looked around the familiar city. It was the same as it had always been but it had changed since he had been there.
“Go and check on your family. Head to the Wild Reaches Trading Outpost and head to the bar the Bloody Ram to meet up with a guide who will bring you to Alva,” Erik said.
“Thank you.” Domonos bowed to the others.
The others smiled and headed off. They exited the city and made off into the surrounding forest.
“City, huh? Haven’t seen a city that size in a while. Doesn’t look like any more than a town,” Matt muttered as they found a hidden cave.
Erik and Rugrat found the teleportation array and plugged in a Mana stone.
Power built up in the teleportation array as they disappeared from the cave and appeared on the teleportation formation in Alva Dungeon.
The guards rushed out with their weapons as Erik and Rugrat pulled down their hoods.
“Damn, that is an actual town! What is that stream of Mana doing?” Matt asked before taking in a deep breath. “The Mana here is so fresh and removed from other Affinity attributes!”
“Welcome to Alva.” Rugrat grinned as he walked forward. The others followed.
“Mister Erik, Rugrat!” one of the guards yelled out. A few of them looked to be new and questioned the first man, who bowed deeply to them.
“Looking good. Have a good watch. We’re going to head back to the manor.” Rugrat grinned.
Erik smiled as well. There was nothing like coming home; tension seemed to leave their bodies and smiles appeared on their faces that would be impossible to remove even if they wanted to.
***
Matt looked around at everything. He had not seen something like this in a long time. It was completely new. There were only a few hundred people around; there couldn’t be much more but then the facilities were on the higher end of what he had seen. The town wasn’t that large but the area it was in was much larger. Roads were lit up to guide one through the earth; the ceiling projected light down onto the people below, actually making one feel heat from the fake sun.
There was a glowing array on the ceiling that had to be some kind of massive formation. The density and purity of the Mana—he had seen how it improved as one ascended the Ten Realms, but he had not yet felt Mana that was as pure as this.
They moved through the streets. The people greeted and talked to one another excitedly as Erik and Rugrat walked through, as if they were some kind of returning heroes.
“Just what the hell have you been feeding them to make them look at you like that?” Matt asked in a low voice.
Erik rolled his eyes as Rugrat laughed.
“We built this place, though after that it’s been pretty much all up to them,” Rugrat said as they entered the main area of the town, around the large pillar-like structure.
“This is the dungeon core headquarters. Basically, everything in this dungeon is powered by it, so no touching.” Erik looked to Rugrat first and then Matt.
“Why you have to look at me first? I am part owner, too!”
“You’re also a marine, so don’t touch anything!” Erik turned and looked at the rest of the town.
“Fair enough,” Rugrat said to Matt in a low voice.
Matt was looking over to the market area, where people were doing a brisk business. People came from the large school campus, getting different goods and then heading back into the campus.
“You got the bait?” Erik asked.
Rugrat pulled out a book and let out a whistle. Nothing happened for some time. Then there was a commotion in the campus before a pile of bones appeared in the sky and shot toward Rugrat. The bones started to come together and a cloak wrapped around them, creating a skeleton as it stopped in front of Rugrat.
“Why were you
a pile of bones? Has someone been beating you up?” Erik asked.
“It was too slow to go through the front door so I went through the windows. They’re really small and I was warned about breaking any more glass,” the skeleton said.
“Dude, you got a necromancer?” Matt asked in excitement, looking Egbert over.
“Necromancer? I was raised as a construct, not raised from the dead so I have no memories from before and you know, none of the insatiable soul hunger of the undead.” Egbert then looked back to the book in Rugrat’s hand.
Rugrat tossed the book over and it disappeared in mid-air.
Egbert rubbed one of his finger bones, hunching down his face and making a creepy expression.
“Dude, I think your skeleton is broken,” Matt said to Rugrat.
“He came that way,” Rugrat said.
“Right,” Matt said, not totally believing him.
“I swear, I only tried to kidnap him once!”
Matt looked at Erik and then gestured at Rugrat, as if to ask, Yeah, fricking right. You hear what this guy said?
Rugrat looked to Erik to back him up.
“Egbert, what has been going on? Cliff notes version,” Erik said.
“Cliff notes? You want me to carve it into a cliff?”
“Quick and dirty version, as much as possible. The cookhouse looks bigger—well, everything does,” Erik said.
Rugrat snorted at some joke he thought of and elbowed Matt as if they were both in on the same joke.
Matt’s blank expression made Rugrat pout and look around with a bored expression.
“Why don’t you go off to the smithy and show off your ingot,” Erik said.
“See you later!” Rugrat ran off, filled with energy in a moment as he laughed, rather evilly, on his way.
“There is something wrong with that human,” Egbert said, as if giving his clinical opinion.
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