Chapter 361: An Overdue Meeting (1/2)
“What's the point of delaying the stay?” Zac asked with a frown.
“There are all kinds of reasons. The Tower of Eternity is the gathering place of young elites and a way for forces who would never be able to contact each other to interact. It’s a great opportunity for trading or making connections. Some of the larger forces have a permanent presence there, hosting auctions or the like,” Ogras explained with excitement glimmering in his eyes.
“Auctions?” Zac said, his eyes lighting up. “You think we might be able to find a soul-mending treasure for sale?”
“Perhaps,” Ogras said with hesitation. “But you should know we’re just country bumpkins compared to most people that are there, and there are no restrictions on the wealth they bring. Some bring tens of billions in spending money, and soul-mending treasures are always in demand. I brought a billion nexus coins I got from my grandpa last time, yet I was only a small fish over there.”
Zac frowned in realization. It was true that his net worth was a few billion even excluding the shipyard and the repository, but a lot of it came from the mountain of gear that he looted from Rydel and the hunt. If he easily could convert all that to real money he would have long done so.
There was a significant pile of Nexus Crystals accumulated from the mining operations, but that would make up less than a Billion Nexus Coins even if he sold it all at Calrin’s. A C-grade powerhouse might make more than Zac’s whole net worth in a day or two from exploring a Mystic Realm. So the financial prowess of old established forces was something that Zac couldn’t even dream of matching up against.
He remembered how Average offered a Billion Nexus Coins just for Zac to back off and let him fight the Star Ox. If he encountered such a scion who wanted the soul mending for himself there was no way he could compete. Zac suddenly felt quite impoverished for the first time in a long while.
“Don’t look so glum,” Ogras snorted. “We’ll figure something out. Besides, auctions are not only about spending strength. If we gather enough funds to seriously overspend we’ll most likely win the treasure in an auction. Even most rich scions would stop at a certain point unless they really need the item, as they would look like wasteful idiots who are only good at spending their parent’s money otherwise.”
“Can we rob people over there?” Zac suddenly asked. “In case we get outbid.”
He didn't relish the idea of turning to robbery, but if it came down to it some thievery was nothing compared to what he had already done. If snatching a Cosmos Sack would save his people's lives, then he would do so. Of course, stealing was the last possible solution if they truly ran out of options.
“Rob people?” Ogras said as his eyes widened, clearly not liking Zac's idea. “Don’t even think about it. There’s technically no laws over there, but it’s very uncommon for daylight robbery to take place.”
“Why not? A bunch of rich targets from another side of the cosmos. It seems like a pretty good place to rob someone,” Zac said with confusion. ”Chances are you'll never see them again afterward.”
“It’s not that easy. The Ruthless Heavens will restrict you if you attack someone,” Ogras said with a shake of his head. “You can't just snatch the Cosmos Sack and disappear, teleporting out will get a one minute delay. I've heard that even a quest might be created to take you down, depending on what you did. Besides, there’s the issue of treasures.”
“What do you mean?” Zac frowned.
It sounded like the System didn’t directly stop you from robbing people, but you needed the strength to survive the ordeal. It was almost like a quest for the robber as well. You can rob someone, but you needed to survive for a minute to keep your spoils.
“The Ruthless Heavens restricts what treasures you can bring to the Tower of Eternity,” Ogras explained.
“Like the hunt?” Zac asked with a frown, not wanting to leave behind all his stuff again.
“Not exactly. You can bring as many items as you want, but defensive and offensive treasures are limited to E-Grade. Raw materials and other types of treasures can be D-Grade, likely since the Ruthless Heavens wants to give young elites a chance to trade valuable items that can help them grow,” Ogras said.
“So what’s the problem then?” Zac asked. “I already have E-Grade defensive gear and an E-Grade Spirit Tool Weapon.”
“Yes, but both are at low stage,” Ogras snorted. “Made for Peak F-Grade warriors and the recently evolved. But what if someone takes out a peak E-Grade defensive treasure to block your attack, then a peak E-Grade offensive array to attack you. Mind you, the [Void Ball] you threw at the Technocrat monstrosity was a High E-Grade item, not peak.”
Zac frowned, finally understanding what Ogras was getting at. If some rich guy snatched the soul healing treasure out from under his nose it was also possible that he brought some extremely strong defenses, since he was already wealthy.
“How is that fair?” Zac muttered with annoyance. “So some rich guy can just rip through the tower with the help of his family’s wealth? Just throw out thousands of offensive arrays at everything around him?”
“Having a rich family or strong friends is a strength in of itself,” Ogras smiled. “The Multiverse was never fair, and neither is the Ruthless Heavens. Just look at yourself with all your Progenitor titles or the other Earthlings with their Tutorial title, how is that fair? But the tower tests potential in the end, and external strength gets more and more restricted the further up the tower you progress.”
“But those restrictions don’t apply to the town outside?” Zac asked, understanding what the demon was getting at.
“Exactly,” Ogras nodded. “That’s why there’s so little violence outside apart from the occasional village idiot who doesn’t understand the immensity of the heavens and earth. No one knows what hidden tricks the other people are carrying around. Starting a fight might kill you, even if you’re the young master of a large clan.”
”Okay, you've sold me,” Zac finally said with a nod. ”We're heading to the tower as soon as we're ready. I just want to reach the peak of E-Grade in my second class to get the quests, and we need to figure out the Dao Funnel as well.”
”Agreed,” Ogras nodded. ”But we're truthfully running out of time. We can only delay these hordes from completing the Terraforming Array for so long. We will probably need a week or two in the tower to accomplish all our goals, so we can't just go at the last minute either.”
”I know,” Zac sighed, all too aware of the constraint of times.
Where was the peak quality Clone Technique when he needed it? Splitting up into ten people to hit all his targets at once would make his life so much easier. But he knew he was stuck in the middle of the wilderness for the time being, so he could only make the most of it.