53 - Chapter 52 - Day 2173

  Adya was excited she had finished off her projects and would be able to finalise them shortly, this should lead to her being able to get the support of an Elder, and with their support, gain that most important of resources, time.

  She needed the time to become stronger, and get to the point where she could defend herself. Not that she had any illusion that she would have a lot of time, no matter what. Once she was officially identified, even under the protection of an elder, and with her real value obfuscated, she would still be a target for the schemes and machinations of the others. It would also not stop those that wanted her dead.

  If they managed to assassinate her, then no matter the power of the other elders, there would not be much that anyone could do about it. While she was alive, the one Elder who had known about her from the beginning would probably go out of her way to defend Adya. However, she was under no illusion that would remain the case if she was dead. Once she was no longer on the board, no one would expend political or actual capital to go after the culprits.

  No in the end, she would need to hide in the short term, and become powerful enough to defend herself in the long term. She had a fleeting thought that there could be entities more powerful than tier 10s. If they existed, and had access to this material plane, would they also target her? Would the system allow her to face obstacles at that level? The problem was that her own actions had caused the removal of the systems protection, and she had no idea what the scion protocols allowed. Adya had already tried to get answers out of the system, but it had stayed silent.

  If she was to go based on her own experience of how the most powerful clans treated their scions, not the mediocre clans that damaged their offspring's potential by giving them everything they asked for, but the ones that made their young earn their opportunities. Then the system would stop her from dying, but that would be it. It would force her to face those several levels higher than herself and expect her to find a way. That was the best case scenario. The worst case was that the system was leaving her to sink and swim on her own, and had removed all protections once she had breached the power requirements by starting to cultivate. She felt the reality was somewhere between those two points. The system was definitely not going to coddle her.

  Adya pulled herself away from her musings, and decided to go and visit her mother. She decided that after that she would return to the city.

  “Sally, please let Dexter, Philippa and Evelin know that I will be going to the city shortly,” said Adya as she left her room. “Also please send my breakfast to my mother’s office.”

  With that she made her way over. She was surprised to see that the guards in front of her mother’s office had increased. Further, they were all people she had soul marked. No one tried to stop Adya, and she knocked and entered.

  “Greetings mother,” said Adya. “What is going on?” Adya had not told her mother about the contingent of cultivators who were guarding the estate. It was something she would only mention once they were ready to actually take the final step and become a sect.

  “Thanks to your formations,” said Gauri, “We have managed to root out all the spies in the estate. It seems like we were being targeted by every influential and powerful family in the three kingdoms. I think it is only the fact that we are human that allowed us to not become the targets of those from other kingdoms.”

  “So what have your investigations revealed?” asked Adya. She had inkling of the amount of trouble her family’s ascension had caused, but had been too distracted to get a full overview from Evelin. Apparently the cultivators had stopped or redirected several direct attacks. After the failed ransoming of her family, those behind it had taken to becoming significantly more aggressive. She would have to let her mother in on the details of those attacks soon.

  “We rose too fast,” said Gauri. “Our success created far more envy than even I had anticipated. If that was not bad enough, we also stepped on a lot of toes. On the surface, it looked like our new routes were not impacting any existing trade caravans. Even though we did not take away work from any of those established families, they were worried we would expand further and challenge them for their traditional routes.”

  “I am guessing it was more than that,” said Adya. “Let me guess, they have an unofficial group. And since our family is not part of it, they came together to try and break us?”

  “Yes, that is what we learned once we managed to capture all the spies,” said Gauri. “Even though we have dealt with the immediate threats, we are going to be facing escalating issues going forward.”

  “How much time do we have,” asked Adya. “Before the issues become unmanageable?”

  “I am guessing here, “ said Gauri. “But somewhere between six months and eighteen months. We will still be facing issues in that time, but that will only impact the profit margin.”

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  “In that case, carry on as you are.” said Adya. “I can’t tell you the details just yet, but all your enemies will not be an issue in that time frame.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Gauri.

  “Yes,” said Adya. She was not able to reveal the details, but once they became a recognised sect, of any level, the mortals would not be able to challenge them in any business sphere. Based on her understanding, there were very few sects, and most only had passing arrangements with the other merchant organisations. “And don’t worry so much, the estate is protected.”

  “By your bandits turned into an army?” asked Gauri. “Are they ready?”

  “They are being trained,” said Adya. “We are going to have a fully trained, fully equipped army soon enough.”

  “How are the family finances?” asked Adya. “We need to move to procure substantial quantities of both steel and void steel. We will also need to secure regular ongoing supplies. The cost of both are about to increase substantially in the short term.“

  “Is this to do with your plan?” asked Gauri

  “Yes,” said Adya. “I also need to understand how we work out the cost of sending trade caravans to other countries. We will need to ship directly to most of the capitals, and major cities in the near future.”

  “That will be expensive,” said Gauri. “Still we can offset some of that cost with sending full caravans to take advantage of locally available items. As for our family's finances, we are stable for now. The wealth and items procured when your people freed our family will make up for all your expenditure. Still we will need regular income to offset the investments soon.”

  They spent some time discussing the costs. Afterwards Adya left for the city.

  Gauri sat back thinking through her conversation with Adya. It was clear whatever she had in mind it would be a massive step change for the family. Just the idea that her little girl could deal with most of their competitors in that short time was unbelievable. Yet Adya had already shown her more unbelievable things, so she would trust her daughter. The only question was when she would bring the wider family into Adya’s secrets. Some of the more traditional members would balk at being dictated to by a child. She would have to wait and see.

  Adya was also lost in her thoughts. She was going through her plans multiple times. She was getting close to achieving her short term goals. According to Murphy's law, now would be the time for things to go wrong.

  “Evelin,” asked Adya all of a sudden, “What would it take to subdue a tier 8 level threat? Is it something we could do?”

  Evelin spent some time in thought. “It is possible,” said Evelin. “But it will cost us. If we can use a talisman to subdue them then it won’t be so bad. If we had to fight them, then we would lose a lot of people. Why do you ask?”

  “I have a feeling that we are going to be facing a tier 8 threat shortly,” said Adya. “This is the worst possible moment for things to go wrong, so they invariably will. Please plan accordingly.”

  “We are going to have to call in a lot of my people,” said Evelin. “It will leave us blind to the wider events.”

  “Use anyone you need apart from Jarel,” said Adya. “I need him for a special task. Also, it won’t be for long. It is between now and when we get authorised as a Sect.”

  “That will reduce our exposure,” said Evelin. “Still, we will miss things. We simply don’t have the numbers.”

  “Once we are done with this step,” said Adya. “Then we can start our version of recruitment again, but targeting those hunting in other countries. You can start to make plans for that too. I am sure it will take time to gather the resources.”

  “Yes,” said Evelin. “We will need to keep our captives subdued and return back to you each time. That will significantly increase the difficulty of the missions. Let me think about how to create effective units for this kind of missions from our existing agents.”

  As they were talking they had arrived at Rory’s shop. Since everyone was aware who Adya was by now, she did not have to wait on anyone and directly entered the workshop.

  “Greetings Rory,” said Adya. “How are things?”

  “Things are amazing,” said Rory. “I have no idea where you got the new codex, but it has increased my speed so much.”

  “I am glad to hear that you are happy with your decision to work with me,” said Adya. “What has been your average improvement across the various formations?”

  “I am seeing anything between ten times faster and fifteen times faster,” said Rory. “And I am not done improving!”

  “That is good,” said Adya. It was within the range she had been expecting, still any further improvements would be a bonus. ”So my main reason for coming today is to tell you that the last design worked well. Also I need you to create a blank prototype for me for another design. Lastly, I need your help to work out the cost of each type of artifact. I need to be able to price the final items.”

  “Sure,” said Rory. “And I am happy to help. But pricing has nothing to do with costs when it comes to artifacts. Pricing is based on supply and demand. Artifacts are always in demand. The general profit margins are between 90% and 99% of the sale price.”

  Adya supposed that would make sense. Artifacts were a limited resource, so they would be priced to keep them exclusive. That also meant that if she started to mass produce the items, then she would most likely crash the local price. It would make sense for her to send more artifacts out with her family caravans.

  Adya handed over the new artifact designs, then spent some time working out the exact costs of creating both devices. She still wanted to know her bottom line. It turned out that not including the time cost Rory and Adya herself put in, the rest of the cost were around 5 to 10 gold range. Adding Rory’s time would take it to 25 gold. Rory’s suggestion was to sell starting at 10 platinum or more.