Chapter 431: Mana Generator

Back in the Aurelius Hall, Brok’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when he saw Leo make that expense.

"Throwing 9 Million just like that...? That’s enough to sustain my future family and me for 10 lives..." Brok muttered under his breath.

If his family—which he had yet to form, perhaps with 2 kids and 1 wife—spent 1 gold coin every 5 years, even that would already be considered outlandish in any countryside. And 9 Million AC was 3600 gold. Even if his parents were included in that, it would be more that enough.

"Yes, enough for 10 lives..." But after thinking for a while, he changed his words.

"Maybe 5 lives with 2 wives?" Brok immediately shook his head, trying to clear the thought. If strong people like Leo were content with 1 wife, who was he to dream of two?

"Hmm... maybe Boss is special. I can definitely get 2... 3 even." Brok nodded to himself, the corners of his mouth curling into a pleased, absentminded smile.

"Why the hell is he drooling and grinning stupidly in broad daylight?" a passing girl muttered to her friend in a tone of disgust.

Sluurrrp.

Brok quickly wiped the drool from his chin, his grin vanishing as he straightened up, and hurried off to buy the Mana Generator and MMCs.

---

Back in the territory, Leo was already planning ways to refill his now nearly empty reserves. With the expense of 9 million and another 1 million for the teleportation array, he was down to 3.4 million AC. Mostly planning to sell the Mana crystals since he was buying Modified Mana Crystals.

"Hmm, Tavian said if all his arrays and formations were always active, the energy consumption would be around 10 Mid 3-star Mana Crystals every day..." Leo murmured, running through the numbers in his head.

Apparently, Tavian’s arrays and formations consumed 10 Mid 3-star Mana Crystals daily. If converted into Peak 3-star Mana Crystals, the consumption would drop to 6 Peak 3-star Mana Crystals per day. With the Mana Generators and 10 Peak 2-star MMCs, he would still have 4 Peak 3-star MMCs left as reserves—in other words, for teleportation use.

4 of them would be enough for 1000 teleportations per day between the academy and the territory. More than enough for the current traffic.

And if Leo charged at the rate of 10 AC per kilometre, an 80 kilometer distance would fetch him 1600 AC for each round trip. He kept it at 10 AC because anything lower would cut into Brok’s earnings, who charged 6 AC per kilometre for flight fare. A 4 AC difference for greater comfort and significant time saved.

And 1600 AC would be negligible for people coming to buy Bison milk, Avian feather arrows, and the various agricultural and industrial products Leo planned to introduce soon. In fact, just spending 1600 AC to travel to Leo’s territory for bulk purchases would save far more compared to buying from Aurelius Hall, where the tax rate stood at 4.5%.

Soon after, Brok was seen returning, riding his Skyrend Eagle. But Leo noticed something interesting clutched between the eagle’s talons.

"That’s a steel feather?" Leo muttered.

Brok quickly explained that he had spotted it lying on the ground while taking a detour to avoid a fight along the way. After checking, he realised that a single, raw, untreated feather like that could fetch him 20,000 AC.

Brok couldn’t hide his excitement as he spoke, grinning from ear to ear.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Now give me that spatial ring," Leo said flatly, his interest already fading.

Must be a leftover steel feathers that Lily couldn’t store during her first trip with Miho after the storm, Leo thought.

Brok, however, wasn’t bothered by Leo’s lack of interest. What was a meaningless 20,000 AC to Leo was a small fortune to him.

Leo sensed the object inside the spatial ring and nodded.

"I guess the generator is that big cuboidal object, around 2 meters in height... and the 20 centimeter kite-shaped one is the MMC. Where would be the best place to set them up?"

The array expert responded promptly. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"The best place would be in a high mana density zone—in other words, near the Territory Beacon. I know letting an outsider near it is dangerous, but I promise I won’t do anything foolish. For insurance, you can even hold my neck while I work. I suppose you could crush it anytime with your strength if I act suspiciously."

Leo simply nodded, stepping behind the man and gripping his neck. The man’s body instantly stiffened under the hold.

He actually did it...

The man hadn’t expected Leo to take his words so literally. But in the next moment, his body trembled, cold sweat forming along his back.

W-what the hell? Did I walk myself into a dragon’s mouth?

The man froze the moment Leo marked him as prey. Shyra’s trait—[Silent Predator]—was in effect.

But Leo wasn’t foolish enough to think holding his neck was sufficient. What about the eyes that could still observe and gather information?

[Mist Shroud]

-2000 mana

This time, the cost was lower since he wasn’t boosting anyone’s stats, only using the mist to block vision.

As a thick veil of mist spread across a 100-meter radius, anyone inside—except those connected to Leo through the soul—was rendered completely blind. The air turned damp and cool as visibility dropped to nothing more than a meter.

But Leo frowned.

[Mist Shroud] — Low 85%

Too low... 100 meters is nowhere near enough now. Leo thought. If possible, he wanted to engulf the entire territory in mist when needed, but the skill level was still lacking.

I need to train this further.

With his upcoming training under Professor Gunther in a few days, it wouldn’t just be [Mist Shroud] improving—his other skills would also advance alongside any new ones he learned.

"W-what happened?" the man asked anxiously, his voice trembling slightly in the suffocating mist.

"Nothing. Just walk where I guide you. Don’t try anything funny," Leo replied coldly.

What if the man had offered to do the work for free? Leo wasn’t naive enough not to notice the attempt to form a connection. And he had no obligation to reward such intentions with trust.

In this world, carelessness was fatal—especially when it came to someone probing into his territory’s secrets, even under the guise of professional work.

"B-Boss?" Brok’s voice came from somewhere behind, equally blind within the mist.

"Walk back to your house by instinct, or wait a few moments. You’ll be out of range soon," Leo instructed as he guided the man forward.

Brok nodded and tried to walk back, feeling his way through—but—

"Aak!"

He tripped over a rock and slammed face-first into a rough tree trunk. Bark scraped against his cheek as he groaned.

After that, he simply sat down, rubbing his face and waiting for the mist to recede enough for him to see again.