Chapter 52: Big Arrangements
In the end, Deon's request was slightly excessive. There was no way that he could exchange a single spirit for every refinement recipe in the kingdom, but he started with this request so that he had room to negotiate.
Remi explained that many refinement recipes were known only to the royal family. These were family secrets, they were invaluable and wouldn't be sold easily.
"Truthfully, what I want more than anything else is to study and properly understand my own core spirit. That's why I'd like to compare my own core spirit with other core spirit refinements. Also, I'm very interested in core spirit class evolutions." Deon spoke with a serious expression, lying to everyone with a straight face.
In reality, Deon wanted to study core spirits because he wanted to find targets for the soul refinement spirit. If he couldn't find a shaman with a high-class core spirit, then the other option was to choose a talented shaman and help them to evolve their core spirit to a higher class.
"Core spirit class evolutions?" General Li blinked and scratched his head awkwardly. "But that…there isn't such a thing, is there? The core spirit can only be refined to a higher rank, right?"
Deon shook his head, preparing to school these shamans once again.
"No, it's possible to advance the class of a core spirit further. I've never heard of a case of someone doing so personally, but, just think about the vital physique spirit." Deon smiled slightly. However, when he saw the blank stares in return, he sighed and lamented this nation's terrible understanding of spirits in general. They had some great specialised knowledge, but there were some core fundamentals that they were completely oblivious to.
"Since the 0-Star vital physique spirit is the precursor to the 5 body tempering spirits, which can all be enhanced from 1-Star to 6-Star, ordinary class to mythril class, then the same is naturally true for the vital physique spirit. It is common knowledge that this spirit can go from 1-Star to 6-Star, so it must also be able to reach gold class at the very least."
Deon expected to see looks of enlightenment, but he was met with even more confusion.
"Why does the vital physique spirit being able to reach 6-Star mean that it can evolve to gold class?" General Li asked, not doubting Deon, but honestly feeling curious.
"This…could it be that you're not aware of the requirement for a spirit to reach 4-Star?" Deon asked with a startled blink, but he was starting to regret saying anything at all.
"What, how could we possibly know anything about that?"
"Deon, are you saying that you know something about 4-Star spirits?!"
"This, there's no way that you could…right?"
…
He had once again underestimated the cluelessness of a mortal kingdom. Anything regarding 4-Star and above was like a distant legend to these people, they simply knew nothing at all!
In the end, he had no choice but to explain this very simple matter.
"All spirits at 4-Star and above are at least gold class. I honestly thought this was common knowledge, but I suppose I've never heard anyone in the academy or military mention it…"
"Deon, how do you know this?" General Li leaned in seriously. How could he possibly know anything about the legendary realm of 4-Star?!
However, General Senlin's eyes lit up as he realised the 'truth'.
Deon knew what General Senlin was thinking…it seemed that he would need to develop his backstory a bit more.
"Before I became a shaman, I used to leave the kingdom now and then, since I heard that some people would find a spirit when they went out adventuring. And indeed, I discovered my core spirit out in the wilderness. I have no idea what this spirit is, but after I made it my core spirit, I noticed a strange book sitting on a tree stump. I read the book without stopping a single time, somehow memorising each and every word. When I looked up, I felt dazed for a while…when I looked back down, the book was gone."
This was more than he had 'revealed' to General Senlin last time back at the academy, but the more Deon showed of his broad knowledge, the more mysterious he needed to make the story. This way, he could explain his unusual knowledge whilst making it difficult for others to probe any further.
Such a tactic would never be possible on earth, but in this world, where mystical things were an integral part of daily life, it was quite effective.
Perhaps if Deon's core spirit was something normal, then they wouldn't believe him. However…
Nobody in the kingdom could identify Deon's core spirit, nor could they even guess what class it was. It was weirdly demonic and extremely powerful, whilst anyone could guess that a big portion of his rapid progression was due to the external talent provided by his core spirit.
Obviously, it was something incredible. For this reason, it didn't sound so unbelievable when he made up this bizarre story.
"Commander Deon, what else was written in that book? I remember you mentioned before that you found the recipe for the bronze muscle spirit when you found your core spirit, right? Could it be that such a basic recipe was in such a mysterious book?" General Senlin leaned in even more and his eyes gleamed with curiosity.
Deon started sweating slightly. What was he supposed to say? That yes, the book just contained a couple of simple recipes and that was all? Nobody would believe something like that, he would only raise even more suspicion!
No, he would need to show something more…
Suddenly, Deon's anxiety at being seen through was replaced with excitement.
With danger came opportunity!
Perhaps he wouldn't have dared to reveal some of his knowledge in the past, but now, his status was different.
"There was some basic information regarding shamans…and a few spirit refinement recipes…" He spoke slowly, enticing everyone with his lingering tone.
"Commander Deon, if you could enlighten us about one or two of the spirit refinement recipes, then perhaps we could strike a much more lucrative deal!" General Senlin laughed joyously.
Deon's heart rate sped up…he was going to take this risk!
"In truth, I know the refinements for all five of the 1-Star body tempering spirit evolutions up to 1-Star gold class."
"WHAT?!" The 4 exclaimed again, now a hundred times more shocked compared to before.
General Li's breathing was rough as he stared at Deon intensely. The others also wore serious expressions.
However, the look in General Li's eyes took Deon aback for a moment. He glanced at the general briefly, before looking away, showing nothing on his face.
The look of greed he saw in General Li's eyes went beyond the norm seen in these virtuous military shamans…he needed to keep an eye on this person.
'Thankfully I left it at gold class and 1-Star…' Deon thought wryly.
"So basically…" Remi stepped in between Deon and the greedy-looking generals, who now felt a bit embarrassed by their prior demeanours.
"What you want most of all is information on core spirits and spirit refinement recipes?"
"Right." Deon nodded. He waited for Remi to respond, hoping that she would finally show her only use.
Remi pondered silently for a moment, before she suddenly smiled brightly.
"How about you do this deal directly with my royal family? Whilst the 2-Star spirit alone isn't enough for all of the information you initially requested, I think we can indeed arrange a larger deal…my royal family will pay you properly. Even just a single silver class body tempering spirit recipe is really valuable. We don't even possess all 5 bronze class recipes yet!"
"Oh? I would of course be happy to engage in trade with the royal family." Deon's eyes brightened.
Why was it that he invited Remi to this meeting, despite her only being a normal 1-Star shaman soldier? Of course, it was because of her family background! This princess had ties to the royal family, and Deon fully intended to exploit this so that he could reap the greatest possible gain.
He could see how the bronze class recipes would be extremely enticing to the royal family. Whether it was to provide their own family with superior physiques, or to strengthen the masses of shamans in the military, the value of those recipes was greater than it seemed on the surface.
After some further discussion, this meeting came to an end for now. Everyone went their separate ways, each dealing with different matters on their own.
Remi temporarily left the mountain to directly bring Deon's matter to her father, the king. Deon saw that she had her own goals in proving her usefulness to her father this time, but she also seemed to be quite willing to do Deon himself a favour.
Aside from the matter of the 2-Star silver class spirit, Deon was still owed a massive number of merit points for his recent exploits; namely, killing a 2-Star shaman enemy, then leading his army to slaughter the Fan forces whilst barely suffering a 5% loss to his own side. He also became a fully-fledged commander and managed to quickly and effectively create a war fortress under his lead. All these things were worthy of merit.
After he gave away all but one of the 1-Star spirits that he obtained from various Fan captains and the 2-Star lieutenant, he was rewarded with another 100,000 merit points. This might sound absurd, but 2 of those spirits were gold class, and one was a very powerful and useful spirit at that. There were also 3 silver class spirits and nearly 20 bronze class spirits, and of course, many, many ordinary class spirits.
For becoming a commander, he earned the standard 5,000 merit points. This was supposed to be a massive bonus to show the kingdom's goodwill to those who worked hard, but it was practically a joke to Deon. As for killing the 2-Star lieutenant…
He was rewarded with another 500,000 merit points.
Prior to this, the most he had accumulated at any one time was around 80,000. Before this sudden influx of merit, he had a 'meagre' sum of 34,000.
Now, his merit points added up to 639,000.
Not a single item in the catalogue cost this much.
Actually, Deon hadn't checked the updated catalogue in quite some time. He didn't expect all that much, but what he found left him speechless.
So many resources, spirits and refinement recipes!
The kingdom was going all out now to promote the merit system! It made sense though…the war had almost reached its peak, there were countless battles taking place every week. The kingdom needed a system to encourage the soldiers to continue fighting on.
It wasn't long before Deon spent the majority of his merit points.
His first action was to request every single refinement recipe in the catalogue for free, under the promise that he would eventually produce 10 of every spirit if he was given 50 sets of resources for each refinement.
He didn't expect much, but the kingdom actually sent him 6 recipes for free!
Oddly, he was also sent Lieutenant Shi…
Why did this woman never seem to do any duties befitting her position?
Lieutenant Shi was ordered to watch over him, ensuring that he didn't steal this massive amount of resources for himself. Of course, that part went unspoken, but Deon understood that central command was feeling uneasy after lending him such a massive amount of wealth.
Deon quickly discovered the joys of being in charge.
Whilst his men trained torturously for 3 days out of every week, then spent the rest of their time exploring, fighting, expanding and guarding, Deon delegated all of his own duties to his new 5 captains and 5 vice captains.
Deon immediately set to work on his refinements, practising for a sizeable chunk of every day. He also started treating the depressed Lieutenant Shi as his messenger girl, sending her back and forth between Jing Mountain and the kingdom to take away the spirits he produced. She also brought back the resources he was granted and delivered all the absurd things he bought from the catalogue.
He had been given 6 decent refinement recipes for free, but this was far from enough.
"Apologies commander, but this is all that high command would gift to you free of charge. They said that the other recipes are simply too valuable to give out for nothing." Lieutenant Shi smiled apologetically.
"No matter…I'll just buy the rest." Deon glanced at the lieutenant, whose eyes widened for a moment. Apparently, she hadn't expected him to be quite so extravagant with his spending.
After spending 292,550 merit points, Deon purchased every single refinement recipe which appeared in the catalogue but he didn't yet possess. In total, this was 29 refinement recipes! However, 7 of those recipes added up to 235,000 merit points, whilst the remaining 22 recipes cost 57,550 merit points.
Those valuable 7 were class evolutions, 2 from ordinary to bronze class, and 5 from bronze to silver class.
Class evolutions were far rarer, they were shockingly expensive.
Not only that, but high-class evolutions were simply too difficult…if he wanted to refine the gold, platinum and mythril class body tempering spirits, Deon needed to improve his ability as a spirit refiner.
Deon realised that becoming a 2-Star shaman would assist his refining just as much as practising refining itself. 2-Star shamans possessed stronger origin souls, as well as deeper, more concentrated and more powerful origin energy. Refining a 1-Star spirit as a 2-Star shaman was 50% easier than doing so as a 1-Star shaman!
Even so, he would only be able to ascend to the rank of 2-Star if he engaged in further dangerous battles. At the very least, Deon calculated that he would need to kill multiple 2-Star shamans before his core spirit was able to break through.
He almost died in his last battle against a 2-Star shaman. He needed to think over his future plans properly, otherwise, he would inevitably get himself killed.
In the meantime, Deon focussed on his spirit refinement.
Firstly, he placed his attention on learning to refine the spirits from those 6 recipes he received from the kingdom. These refinements all started from basic 0-Star spirits, evolving them into more useful 1-Star spirits. Honestly, at this point, such refinements were simplicity itself to Deon.
He realised just how much he had improved when he succeeded in refining the first spirit on his first attempt. This recipe looked like the easiest of the lot, but even so…
He possessed great talent as a spirit refiner, Deon realised this early on. Now that he had the time, the resources and the recipes, he would surely improve by leaps and bounds!
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