Chương 40: A Plan

Ch 40: A Plan It was morning, the day after the Krosak family's ambassador left the school. I was in my room, sitting in front of my writing desk and staring at the first copy of the newest version of the system. A wide smile covered my face.

"That's it. That's how we get away from all this mess." The sphere in front of me was not like the one that came before it. It offered the usual status and levels, of course, but what really set it apart from the other versions was the translation capability. In other words, my system would sell like water in the desert the moment it hit the market. For every Granar, Driari, and Zufi in the city with only a partial understanding of the Grey language, it was a sure sale.

It would certainly help them adapt to their new lives on Navar. And besides, even the Greys who worked for the city administration, law enforcement, and everything else that required interaction with the public would surely want a copy. And the best thing was that I had mitigated the problems with the broadcast of emotions to the point where they remained only in the receiver's subconscious, basically fixing the discomfort and security problems. This meant one thing.

I could charge whatever I wanted for the spheres and they would still sell. Yeah, my company was about to make a lot of credits even without a Mimic infestation. And even in my worst sales projections, a couple thousand sales were basically guaranteed. The market was vast, since the sales team could also benefit from the translation and gain access to the city, so even distribution logistics wouldn't be a problem.

Which meant that not that far from now, I could probably rival the Krosak family in terms of financial power.

"Fuck those nobles," I said to myself. I knew our company's total net worth would still be far from rivaling theirs, but we would quite possibly have access to far more credits than they had spent on this whole operation to adopt Sahirah. This meant I could very likely cover the promise of providing Sahirah with the very best private education money could buy, and I would have a very strong argument in my favor that she belonged with me rather than with the Krosak family.

Also, as long as I offered to double everything the Krosak family had already spent on this, I didn't see them having the balls to force the issue of trying to adopt her. In my head, it didn't make sense for them to risk a confrontation with the archmage to retrieve an asset no matter how valuable she might be in the future.

Of course, I would deliberately made the negotiation very hard for them, to the point where it might not be worth the trouble, asking such a high price for our adoption that they would judge us not worth it. Yeah, the plan was solid. I smiled again, deciding to finally test the sphere and check my status for the first time after the third stage.

[SYSTEM STATUS] Name: Eric Nevermore Level: 58 Translation: Active ATTRIBUTES ‣ Strength: 18 (+10) ‣ Agility: 21 (+11) ‣ Constitution: 30 (+18) ‣ Mana: 105 (+50) As expected, the gains were massive, something I had already noticed myself given how light everything felt and how my body seemed to be able to react quickly enough to follow my improved thought speed. Even my arm was not painful after my use of Kinetic Push to break the inn's window, which I suspected was a consequence of my high constitution.

Still, there were a few things my system didn't account for. My newly awakened external mana perception for example, and even the way my mind was faster and didn't seem to need to rest a lot anymore. I hadn't slept a single minute, but I wasn't sleepy at all. Though obviously, I still missed my morning coffee. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

As I considered what it would take to add a perception and an intelligence field to the system, someone knocked on my door. Knock! Knock! Knock! I wasn't expecting anyone, but I recognized the voice coming through the door.

"Eric, I can smell you inside. Please open the door. There's something you need to see." I stood up and opened the door immediately.

"What's up, Niko?"

"Please follow me," said my furry friend. I didn't even get to ask another question when Niko simply grabbed my arm and pulled me out of my room.

"The door." Yeah, I didn't even get to close my room's door, and Niko kept pulling me as though someone's life was on the line. The only reason I didn't resist was because I believed he had a very good reason to be doing this, so I matched his hurry, following him through the corridors until he suddenly stopped in front of a window on the third floor. I didn't understand anything when all I saw was Elitha's tower.

And for a moment I thought this might be just Sahirah trying to ask me to pay her an early visit to the tower, but no. Niko pointed at something near the horizon, and said, "Check that." I leaned against the window, squinting and using a hand to block the excess brightness. That's when I saw a massive flying object emerging from the horizon. First a bow, and then, as more of the wooden hull emerged, the whole ship quickly became visible.

It was suspended on top of two massive stone circles, just like the hovering vehicles the Greys loved. But this thing was a different beast entirely, hovering higher than the tree line and commanding the kind of respect only a massive structure could. I shifted my gaze to Niko.

"What the hell is that thing?" Given that he'd brought me here before that thing had even emerged from the tree line, he certainly knew more than I did.

"Zorik has just announced in the food court that Lord Krosak would visit the school in person, and that we should all greet him when he disembarks." Wait, why had Lord Krosak decided to visit the school in person? Fuck. Things were not supposed to move this fast, and I was counting on the ambassador coming back to negotiate with me, which would allow me to stall this whole negotiation indefinitely by taking advantage of delayed communication.

As I considered the new challenges, my attention returned to the enormous flying ship. For some reason, it was reducing its speed way before it got near the school. And the place the captain chose to berth near... Elitha's tower. The moment I saw the crew of Greys throwing their anchors as the ship hovered just a few meters above the tower, I could tell this was a statement.

"Fuck." The curse didn't seem to do the situation justice. What kind of stupid noble family sees the enormous tower with the noble-hating archmage inside and decides poking it with a short stick is a good idea? During the next couple of minutes, as the crew deployed the stairs and prepared for Lord Krosak's disembarkation, the only image in my mind was that tower teleporting on top of the ship and smashing against the ground. At some point, I even got to see Sahirah opening a window.

Our gazes connected across the distance, and I waved and smiled at her, ignoring the whole big-ass ship for a short moment. She smiled back at me, though she seemed equally worried as she watched the floating ship. Still, Elitha Hearthstrong never showed herself, and somewhere inside I knew she wouldn't show up.

Because if she had decided to act, the area translation spell would have ceased working by now, and yet I could still hear the words spoken by the students waiting on the ground below, watching the ship as if it were the event of a lifetime. Niko suddenly placed a hand over my shoulder.

"What are you going to do now, Eric?" I had informed the crew of my plan yesterday, telling them I would need their help to assemble the thousands of copies of the system in an improvised production line.

"Nothing changes for now," I said.

"Tonight we convert the gambling ring into a production line and we pull an all-nighter to get more work done quickly." This was only possible because I could now stamp nearly two hundred runes at once, which meant I could create copies of the system as quickly as a printer.

"But the big ship and the–""I'll meet Lord Krosak if he requests a meeting," I said.

"But I'll come up with some ridiculous conditions for the adoption. When he pushes back, I'll tell him to wait until I've had a meeting with Sahirah and the archmage. And by doing so I'll stall the final negotiations as much as I can." Niko crossed his arms, his gaze alternating between the ship and me.

"How can you stay calm after seeing such an enormous flying construction?" he asked.

"Is that a human superpower?" Well, perhaps it was. That ship was not that impressive when compared to a transatlantic hauler or a large plane, and knowing the Greys weren't anywhere close to mastering flight without mana made the whole thing way less intimidating to me.

"No superpower," I said.

"But I hope you and the rest of the crew can keep calm too. The next few days are going to be full of turmoil, and we absolutely can't screw things up now." Niko stared at me for a while, and then replied in a firm voice, "Is there anything I can do to help you and your life mate, Eric?" Life mate? This time, I wasn't bothered by the term in the slightest.

"You know what?" I said.

"There's something you can do that can improve our chances by quite a lot." With a wide smile, I said, "I'm going to lend you the Fire Moon book, and you and Lili should try completing the first two stages of dual cultivation."

"The special meditation that binds you and your partner together?"

"The two of you will not be bound permanently as long as you don't reach the third stage," I said.

"Right now I could use more powerful people, and having you both on my team might make a difference later." Instead of saying anything, the big furball just nodded, and my eyes returned to the ship. The timing was perfect, because a Grey dressed in a robe made of expensive-looking animal fur was climbing down the ship's stairs. He had rings on every finger, and a pendant the size of an apple hanging from his neck. I knew instantly I was looking at Lord Krosak.

He paused midway through his descent, and his gaze somehow found me in that window. I didn't avert my gaze. Lord Krosak was the one who broke eye contact and continued climbing down the stairs.

"I'm going to visit Elitha's tower now," I said to Niko.

"If I can delay my first meeting with that guy for a day, believe me, that's already a small victory." I was already walking toward the closest exit, when I turned around.

"Meanwhile, gather the crew and convince everyone to skip the evening classes. Our first priority right now is getting that production line going, and I'll be there as soon as I can." Niko replied with a thumbs up, a gesture that he picked up from me. I cast the Presence Erasure spell, already preparing Haste in my Mind Library. First, I would have a chat with Sahirah and fill her in on the current situation, and then I would try to figure out Elitha's stance on that big ship near her tower.

And finally I would have to find out why Lord Krosak showed up in person so quickly. The less terrible possibility was that it had something to do with his ego being hurt because of the way one of his soldiers died at my hands. The worse possibility was that I had underestimated how much his family actually wanted Sahirah...