The negotiation price between the two individuals fluctuated up and down as the duo began their long-winded battle between silver tongues. Both listed out various reasons and the difficulties they had to face, trying their best to steer towards the most beneficial outcome for themselves.
Half an hour soon passed. The terminal on Garen’s watch chimed; the first batch of highly potent fuel powders had been sold. A total of ten bottles were in this shipment, and each bottle weighed around a thousand grams. They were sold not in accordance with market value, but through a channel found by Blue Narcissus. As it was a test batch and sold in small quantities, Garen released the first batch. Costing ten million Units per kilogram of highly potent fuel powders, as he expected, did not have many transactions.
He used his hacking skills to scour for the value differences on the internet. He ran simulations in comparing prices to ensure that both sides would gain profits without suffering too much loss on his end.
As he glanced at the figures displayed on his watch, he’d obtained a hundred million units of profit in total. Forty million Units were transferred to his account, and more than thirty million remained after tax deduction.
“Money sure does flow around quick….”
With more than enough leverage, Garen’s foundation suddenly became more than enough for his means.
“For the first batch, we need five hundred pieces. Shouldn’t be a problem, yes? All of them must adhere to the previous large sizes with no inferior qualities,” Garen straight up demanded five hundred pieces. “This will only be the initial quantity. May our partnership be a successful one, as we may increase our orders in the future.”
“Five hundred pieces….” Carlos gulped. These stones would at most cost additional labor fees, and the rest would purely be profit since these stones were everywhere. He was so broke to the point of being unable to sustain himself. Previously, he’d taken the initiative to seek out Kendall. Setting aside his dignity to act truly produced a different outcome.
“I’ll give you a rounded up price. In accordance with our previously negotiated price, it will be three Units per piece. The total amount will be a thousand and five hundred Units, including labor fees,” Garen happily transferred a thousand and five hundred Units over. “This is just the initial order. If our partnership goes well, we may increase the quantity in future orders.”
This amount of money was nothing to him. With more than thirty million just transferred into his account, a little over a thousand Units was mere rain droplets in his eyes.
“You are simply too generous,” Carlos was excited beyond words. He was actually a minor noble that had declared bankruptcy. Although the territory he’d inherited from his family was quite vast, there wasn’t an abundance of valuable resources. With the White Rainbow Stones, he could still manage to profit off them a little. In the past, he’d barely scraped by each day. Each shipment would only be around ten pieces or more, and it would take a long time to sell them all out before a second batch was needed to restock.
After living life with a tightened belt until recently, the only servant left in his family was an old butler. Not a single residence remained on his land, as no one was willing to stay long-term in a godforsaken area. Even hiring people to gather rocks required him to travel a long distance to another small town.
The garment that he had on him now was the only one he could get his hands on. It was a garment for the leader of the household passed down from his grandfather. The long periods of dire lifestyle had left him breathless, but now he’d finally seen a turning point!
“Sir Carlos, from what I gathered from my assistant, Kendall, I understand your predicament. Our previous partnership had led to great success for both of us, and this following deal will solidify the foundation of our partnership. If we can reach a long-term direction in our partnership, I believe it will be a huge help to the development of your kingdom,” Garen answered through the terminal.
“Long-term partnership…” Carlos gulped.
The two further discussed the overall details of the shipment, ascertaining the deal.
Carlos requested for three days; he’d definitely be able to successfully deliver the goods in three days’ time. After hearing that Garen was a Blackboard Academy student, he was especially confident that things would work out. Most of the students in Blackboard Academy were extremely wealthy, and a little over a thousand Units wouldn’t even bother them. Perhaps a single meal for them would cost as much. A big spender client like this needed to be kept close!
Upon resolving the issue of resources, although it was only a spoken agreement, Garen felt quite assured as he was aware that sources of White Rainbow Stones could be found everywhere. However, this particular family was more willing to deal than most. His partner’s attitude was great to work with as well. He considered the man as the most suitable business partner for this.
Moreover, it was better to provide help to someone in dire need of it as compared to going extra lengths to sweeten the deal. If he could find an even more reliable business partner in the Polar Region, it would be much more favorable for him.
Garen decided to get some rest in his dormitory since he had continually managed matters one after another. He was mildly fatigued too. He sat on his bed and practiced on his training methods but as always, there was little to no effects for him. It seemed that this method truly didn’t match with his traits.
“Guess I can only hope that absorbing high-grade White Peacock Stones will increase my Willpower,” Garen heaved a sigh as he laid down.
“Next, I’ll test out the power of absorption, Devour.”
Concerned that the hospital staff would find out his secret, he had no chance to use this power as his body condition was constantly monitored during his stay in the hospital. Now that he had returned to his dorm, he didn’t need to worry as much anymore.
“How do I activate Devour? What should I devour in order to produce effects?”
Garen picked up a glossy red apple from the table, which emitted a mild fragrance. With it in his grasps, he felt a minor chill seeping into his palm.
“Devour!”
Garen gently lifted up the apple as his inner body activated the Hellfrost Peacock Technique.
In that instant, countless thin, blue lines emitted from his palms without a sound. The lines acted as if they were piercing a balloon, surging into the apple’s core. Garen’s Attribute Pane blurred slightly before it returned to normal with no obvious changes. It was clear that an apple provided too little help to his body.
However, his stomach oddly felt full.
Garen’s eyes gleamed as he recalled the message implied in a secret technique from his past life.
He then picked up the alloy pen stand from his study table. The pen stand was entirely coated in silver and molded into a statue of the world’s most brilliant physicist, Larz. Now in Garen’s hand, however, it was gradually enveloped by the same blue lines which were as thin as hairs, slowly reforming it into a blue firefly.
Minutes and seconds passed as the blue firefly slowly shrunk and became thinner.
As Garen held the blue firefly, he felt a thin stream of sticky residue seeping into his palm. The countless blue lines then spread throughout his body, and the wounds on his body seemed to be recovering slightly.
After another half an hour had passed, the blue firefly finally ceased shrinking, and remained still.
“It’s still being devoured, only at an extremely slow pace…” Garen furrowed his brows. “Based on the speed of devouring, it would take a few months to finish the process. Perhaps it was true that nothing can’t be devoured, only the rate of the process would differ.”
A thought came to his mind. He relaxed his grasp on the blue firefly, revealing the unrecognizable pen stand. The pen stand looked as if it had been melted at high temperatures and transformed into an unidentifiable metal object. Its surface was unusually smooth to the touch.
Next, he dug out rubber, pure copper, pure steel, water, cotton, and various other materials to test out the technique.
“This devouring power produces different effects with different materials. It’s likely that ninety percent of materials provide nothing more than effects of sustenance and healing. These alone are impressive enough though, as I’m only at the most basic level of using it. If I raise it to higher levels, I may produce even greater effects.”
As he’d imagined, the Hellfrost Peacock could devour a variety of things to recover from any damage taken in an instant. From here, he knew that this would be complicated to figure out.
“Metals provided healing to wounds, food can provide sustenance, while cotton had no effects. For objects of too little density, I could barely supplement my body structure with essential elements. What about highly potent fuel powders then?”
Garen suddenly thought of the wastes produced by White Peacock Stones, this stuff was a fuel that would produce a large amount of heat upon burning.
He quickly found some leftovers of the powder in his dorm cupboard.
With the powder in his palm, Garen activated Devour once more.
Once again, a large number of blue lines stem from his palm. As if they were countless tentacles, they vigorously enveloped the pouch of powder.
Sizzle….
The reaction was different from the other objects. When highly potent fuel powder was devoured, noises of crackling explosives were produced.
A reenergizing heat wave surged into Garen’s body. This heat wave produced no effects. But after encircling his body, it quickly converged in front of his abdominal area, forming a spherical object.
Garen gave a mystified look at it. He felt as if it formed into a ball of meat, slightly moving about.
“This is…” a thought suddenly came to mind. “This thing, could it be a contaminated power waste produced by Hellfrost Peacock? A Distorted Seed?”
A Distorted Seed was radiation material naturally produced by the Hellfrost Peacock. This radiation would distort the state of surrounding beings, corrupting them into bizarre, non-sentient battle machines. The Hellfrost Peacock Technique mimicked this power and produced this kind of radiation, which was able to converge into Distorted Seeds. When planted in an enemy’s heart, it would turn them into a mindless and formidable killing machine. Body quality stats and other characteristics would be multiplied by 1.5 times of their base power through the radiation.
“Not entirely. This is probably the partial product of Distorted Seeds,” Garen determined. “To think that highly potent fuel powders could churn out Distorted Seeds. This seems to be normal though. The Hellfrost Peacock is categorized as an ice lifeform, so naturally, it would not need heat energy. Instead, it would transform heat energy into Distorted Seeds, able to harm others while expelling waste formed in its body.”
“Perhaps I can find a chance to test out the effects of the Distorted Seeds. If this thing can be modified according to my will, rather than a mindless killing machine, it can be used as a quick buff and provide power to others. That would be great,” Garen was getting excited at the thought.
Even if a Hellfrost Peacock couldn’t control the Distorted Seeds, with its highly rigid blood veins capable of suppressing the Distorted Seed parasites and its potential threat intimidation, it wouldn’t rule out the possibility of it being a way to buff the Hellfrost Peacock’s powers. If he could retain his will and be able to control the unsheathing of its fangs, then…
An idea struck Garen’s mind.
The scientific technology in this world was too advanced. The research and development of human willpower rivaled to that of divine spirits. A grand scale war could even wipe out entire planets. As for the development of strengths of the human body, however, it had not been developed to the same degree of advancement.