308 I Can Do Whatever I Want Because I’m Rich! (2/2)
You're worried about our mecha armors being overly heavy, causing the speed to become slow? Are you joking with me? Have you ever heard of goblin rocket backpacks? Plus, we can just etch a few extra anti-gravity spell arrays that will lessen the weight of the mecha. After all, we have plenty of top-level magical materials available.
Right, don't forget about our elf artisans' enhancements. I wanted angel feathers on the helmet, the mecha's appearance must be in the currently popular steampunk style, with two volcanoes tattooed on the shoulders, and illusion magic that constantly spews out magma? Cool, right? I also wanted an eyepatch with three red-glowing deep emeralds, along with an evil dragon's eye!
Alright then, apart from my personal requests which caused everyone around me to wonder at my sense of aesthetics and how chuunibyou I was, the other archmages ordered much more normal suits of mecha armor. They all wanted practical customizations that would improve their personal safety. The most important part was that they were plenty rich, with countless treasures horded over the years. After these mages discovered, from my previous announcement, that they might be forced into battle against powerful future opponents, they were now naturally willing to part with their money in order to protect their lives.
I did some slight calculations and unhesitatingly tossed the job of creating the mechas to others, while I personally took care of the most profitable part: negotiating the orders for the armors.
The prerequisite for such long-term orders was that we needed to deliver on what we were paid to do. Being paid such high prices meant that we had to deliver high-quality goods. And if I wanted to attract more and more rich customers who were willing to pay the ridiculously high prices and even invest in us, I would have to show them high-quality goods worthy enough for them to pay the price.
That was why a weak mage novice like Cohen was now wearing the I Can Do Whatever I Want Because I'm Rich! Mecha #1 and battling in the arena. Plenty of top-level archmages witnessed his battles, and some top-level mages even personally tried dueling him in order to test this ridiculously pricey 'armor of money's' true defense power. After the archmages found out that the pilot was merely a novice who had started learning magic less than two years ago, they unhesitatingly tripled the amount of money they were paying me, swearing that their personal customized mecha armors would surpass this #1 model that Cohen was wearing.
Actually, I heaved a great sigh of relief at receiving the mages' money. I would have otherwise been forced to think of some idea to come up with the funding for all the top-level magical materials.
Why was I lacking magical materials? Well, I hadn't started the work on the other magic mechas. Back in the old times, when tailors stocked up on cloth to make clothes, there was an unspoken rule about how the amount of cloth they ordered and the amount of cloth they had in stock would never exactly match up. Each roll of cloth would be ever so slightly shorter than what was listed. And after making several sets of clothes, the tailor would mysteriously have enough cloth left over for a set of clothes for himself.
I didn't have that many top-level magic materials in stock. The ”I Can Do Whatever I Want Because I'm Rich! #1” was created using the funds from the pre-orders I had received beforehand. If I couldn't receive enough orders to continue funding the magic materials I needed, it would form a huge hole that I would need to fill in somehow.
I gave Cohen some encouragement. My goals here were both for him to accumulate practical combat experience as well as to show off Thorn Garden's power and combat strength. It would also make for an excellent test run for the mecha armor. I couldn't help but sigh and exclaim at how things were going.
”The mecha armors' functions have far succeeded our original expectations. I suppose that this is the saying of how even an inventor can never predict the effects of his own invention? I originally thought that this phrase was just nonsense. I never thought I would one day be proved wrong.”
Just thinking about how my butterfly effect would cause the top-level archmages to be well-armed to the teeth when entering battle, turning them from their former glass cannon selves into movable impregnable artilleries—forbidden spell mages would no longer be so easily picked off by assassins in the shadows—I felt that the game's ”history” would definitely take a different path.
”By the time we face demons equipped with powerful huge swords from antiquity and Evil Gods riding gigantic wild beasts, our side will have archmages wearing mecha armors and rangers zooming around the battlefield on Iron Horses. We'll also have taurens equipped with heavy cannons and zombies with electric saws… Hrm, teamfighting like this makes it feel like there's something wrong with the drawing style, though.
There was plenty of work waiting for us after we left the arena. I had unknowingly become the largest weapons dealer in the Cloud Tower, and I now had to check on the progress of another program of mine.
This program wasn't one so honest and open that it could see the light of day.
It took an entire two hours by horse-drawn carriage to finally reach our destination. We crossed several mountains and rivers, and it was almost completely dark outside before we finally arrived at a graveyard outside the city of Arlo.
It was already dusk, and a chilly wind swept through the mountains. The trees around us shook as if they were possessed by demons. Our horses seemed to be spooked by something as they collapsed listlessly on the ground, refusing to go on any further.
”Sigh. Every time, I can only go the rest of the way by foot after reaching here.”
”No wonder the 'Soul Demon Association' loves this place so much. The negative energy here almost matches the scale of negative energy in the Undead Planes. It would be strange for corpses to not become undead after entering such a graveyard. Judging from the surrounding environment, this place should be the byproduct of some failed experiment.
Since she was a half undead living creature, Harloys had always been particularly interested in this location. I could see the black cat appearing and vanishing in the shadows of this remote mountainous location, which really did make this place seem like one right out of a ghost story.
”Look over there, it's so out of the way, but there's still a crop field here.”
”Hmph! That's definitely a secret scout for the Soul Demon Association. Do you think that any crops planted here would be harvestable? The only harvestable product here are the zombies.”
Alright then, I actually knew it as well. Nobody but the insane would think of planting crops in such a location with chilly winds and negative energy.
Although we were cooperating with the Soul Demon Association in trading our money for their magic information, it was evident that they were still intent on collecting information on us. They had planted a scout next to this area of land we had purchased which was filled with negative energy.
Well, we did have a goal with this land, after all.
”How's the big guy's condition?”
Harloys sat there quietly on the ground, and her eyes seemed rather hollow and unresponsive. However, this simply meant that her clones were currently gathering information for her. Soon enough, her eyes filled with the light of life again.
”Excellent. It's already entered a semi-hibernation period. It should be able to move around after two more weeks or so.”
I nodded in satisfaction. Since everything was going smoothly, we would simply need to return here in two weeks to harvest the end product.
”…It's just that the brats from the Soul Demon Association kept coming over to check things out. It seems that they still haven't given up on finding out just why we purchased this piece of land. Heh, can't blame them. You are Yongye, after all. It's only natural for ordinary undead mages to be curious what you're up to.”
”Let them look around all they want. They won't be able to discover anything, anyways. Who would imagine that what we really want is simply the ground here that's filled with negative energy? Our goal isn't a singular new undead, but an entire group. Our new product is this entire graveyard, that's all.”
We recently created and named this new undead species as graveyard demons. They were half-undead, half-elemental creatures created by large amounts of negative energy corroding the earth. Graveyard demons were powerful sources of negative energy pollution. Not only were they capable of strengthening other undead, but they were even hosts for medium and small-sized undead.
These undead creatures weren't our original invention. In ancient times, there was a similar existence among the undead, but no such creatures existed in recent times. This was an experimental species that we recreated using modern technology and knowledge from ancient texts.
When I was in the Forest of Dreams, what I envied the most was the forest's home turf advantage and Jill's ability to change the environment. Even if one couldn't choose the environment to fight in, one would be able to change the environment to a more advantageous one.
That was the use of graveyard demons. They were moving graveyards from which undead could replenish their negative energy, exchange body parts, and power up combat strength. Any injured undead that wasn't completely dead would be able to recover quite quickly when within a graveyard demon.
The wood spirits' method of battling had given me inspiration. Perhaps the undead didn't actually need powerful troop types anymore. What the undead lacked was a job class that could heal them like druids or priests could for the living—a supporting job class. The undead were supposed to excel at attrition to begin with. If they had the ability to heal themselves on the battlefield, their overall fighting capabilities would increase to be far more than any other fighting undead species.
Of course, we didn't come all the way for just this alone.
A crow landed on the black cat's head before transforming into a silver liquid that combined with her body. When Harloys received her flying clone's information, she slightly nodded, which greatly delighted me.
”The big fish has finally been hooked?”
Note:
[1] ED/N: Royal elves are those of the Four Elven Aristocracies. All previous instances of superior/upper elves mean the same, and I'll change them in the future. It is to distinguish them from the extinct high elves.ED/N: Royal elves are those of the Four Elven Aristocracies. All previous instances of superior/upper elves mean the same, and I'll change them in the future. It is to distinguish them from the extinct high elves.