Lord Shadow

Chapter 2021 2021: Energy Stone Mine

This time Azief did not delay.

He holds Katarina hands and take a step. Each step makes the scenery around them to flash by.

Space and time seem to distort with each step that Azief taken. And before they know it, Katarina suddenly found herself in a cave.

It took Katarina a moment to calm herself down. She felt dizzy.

She was about to scold Azief when she suddenly feels her entire body is now absorbing energy. Her eyes quickly narrows and her Divine Sense spreads almost immediately.

And her eyes widened

”An energy stone lode”

”One of the mines close to the capitals. There is many. These are the tenth largest discovered energy stone mines”

Hearing this Katarina pupil could not help but tremble a bit.

This is the tenth largest.

Her Divine Sense had just scanned this entire cave network.

And then she frowned

”There is something else” Azief nodded

”this is the tenth largest. There is more below. A somewhat undiscovered…. mine.” For a moment Katarina eyebrow rises up.

Azief continue saying

”For now, this mine is closed. By imperial order”

”By your order?”

Azief nodded

”There are other mines in Pandemonium and there is no really lack of energy stones in the capital or all of the kingdom inside Pandemonium”

”So, the imperial order stands. And unless anyone is stupid enough to defy the imperial order, this place, has not been touched for ten years”

The energy mine stone is like a mountain.

There is a mine on the cave, on the walls, on the ceiling…. but there is another below.

And it is underground.

Half the size of Everest.

Hidden underground.

With this many energy stone mines, Pandemonium could print money as much as they could and not worry that they could not pay it in energy stones if people wanted it.

Most regime peg their currency to the energy stones.

Of course, there is still difference on how each stone is being categorized.

But one thing is clear.

One could not just print whatever they want especially one could not print energy stones.

They could produce energy stones if they wanted to.

They could take a stone infused it with their own energy to create energy stones. But this kind of energy has different kind of purity, not to mention sometimes, some….no… a lot of these energies are incompatible.

Only those who have pure energy could create an energy stone that lacks those harmful properties.

Thus, making energy stone one of the hardest currencies in the world even more than gold. Many regimes, whether they were approved or not uses energy stones as their currency. Some pegged it to paper money

This is mostly seen in kingdoms and countries under the umbrella of the Seven World Powers which is mostly stable and blessed by strong central government.

this currency stuff is for the mortal populations.

For beings like Katarina and Azief they did not care that much for money.

If they do care, it would be more about the energy stones.

But even Azief who had reached the highest realm possible right no on Earth, did not use energy stone that much now.

In the beginning there is still a need.

But when you reach his realm, the need for energy stone is not that urgent

But for many people, this is what pin the stability of the currency of nations.

Each number on that piece of paper better be worth it.

If you print so many papers money and then the people using that paper money wanted to exchange it for energy stones and you found yourself lacking, be prepared to have your entire economy ruined in a day.

For now, there is no problem pegging the paper money to energy stones.

After all, energy stone could be found in many places all over the word, the difference is only whether it is numerous or a few

Maybe someday, there would be a day where the energy stones are scarce and using it as a standard would be untenable.

But for now, it is the best solution born out of necessity

Katarina always knew that Pandemonium is rich. Not only because they have stable governments because of Death Monarch protection, they also have many mines and dungeons.

With Death Monarch, they have peace.

With peace come commerce.

But commerce also needs product.

And so, with the mines they could extract the energy stones and produce a working economy.

With profit comes danger.

So, it needed an army.

And an army need to be strong. But how do you train soldiers in this new world? Normal soldiers are insufficient?

They needed at least Energy Disperse stage soldiers.

And they needed a lot to even stop one Energy Disperse stage realm leveler. And one needed more Energy Disperse stage realm leveler to suppress Seed Forming leveler. The higher the level, the more men and power that is needed to suppress. For example, Death Monarch. He is one man. But his strength alone could suppress the entire world.

Not by words. Not by an army. By his own prowess. If one million people fight him, unless they are at least in Divine Comprehension realm or Disk Forming, they could not even withstand one strike. One strike and Death Monarch could sunder the heaven and earth.

That is how powerful he is.

And so, a new kind of army is needed in this new world. Other regime has the problem to create such army

Pandemonium did not have this problem. First, they already have many mines of energy stone which means they have a lot of supply of energy stones.

But energy stone alone is not enough. Energy stones does give energy but depending on the purity of the energy in that energy stone, the quality differs.

Not to mention, it would not train the soldiers to become brave and able to fight.

Dungeons solve this problem.

The rookie soldiers could come to the dungeon and clear the monster while taking EXP and quickly broke their levels.

Training elite armies is not a problem for Pandemonium who did not mind opening up these dungeons to the people of Pandemonium

This kind of things like training soldiers, fortifying the armies would feel distant to being like Azief who no longer relies on EXP.

The system itself is rarely look upon by him. Even if he looks, it shows nothing. Most of the window tab is cracked.

Because his path deviates from the prepared course.

Most people in the world however still uses the system. And so, they are still very game-like. Destroy and fulfil quest and get reward from heaven and earth.

Kills monster and get EXP.

But for beings like Azief and Katarina, they have reached the point where the system quest is more of a suggestion instead something they must fulfil

Azief for example had never had any quest and there is no warning or reminder from the system from the moment he breaks through to Disk Formation realm.

Katarina…. knew that Pandemonium is rich

But she never knew how rich Pandemonium is. If this is the tenth largest mine of energy stone in Pandemonium, how much bigger is the largest mine of energy stone in Pandemonium?

And what is that mine beneath this cave.

She could not help but wonder.

”For your plan to work, do you need this mine?” Katarina suddenly asks.

Azief did not answer.

Instead, he seems to be inspecting the mine. Katarina was not offended.

She knew this must be Azief engrossed in his own thoughts.

She also does it.

And she knows the best thing to do right now is just to wait it out and not say anything else it could break Azief concentration

Azief right now, just like what Katarina thought is concentrating

He is concentrating his thoughts.

Even though that concoction on Erika temple cleared his mind, and most if not all of his memories return, there are still some blank spaces.

Not because it disappeared.

Because he still did not organize his thoughts on certain matter

Now that he is back on familiar ground, now that he is healed and have full power over himself, he could think

There were many things he had pushed back to the back of his mind. Because before, he was in a desperate strait.

He did not know how to heal his injuries.

During that time, he even crafted a countermeasure of what he should do if he could not heal that affliction.

Fortunately, he did not need to do any of the plans he had concocted in his mind because he is healed.

”At that time, I was worried the plans I already have would be forgotten.

If not for my premonition and that vision….” Some memories come quickly; some memories come late.

It wasnʼt until he reached the Temple of the Great Oracle, drink that concoction, that he finally remembers why he was adamant in sitting in Arturia and wait for Katarina.

Before, he just stays there because he wanted to wait for Katarina.

But then when he gains his memories, he remembers something else and his reason for staying on Arturia become more coherent with his personality. If not for something convincing, he would not stay in Arturia that long

He would have already gone to Pandemonium and settle certain things before he falls into sleep again and forget more and more things.

What did he remember?

..