"You're not trying to take over my Empire by gaining monopoly, are you?"
"Hahaha! I will never do something like this to the Istarin empire. Unles...."
"Unless what?"
"Unless you anger me. Hahaha!"
Aditya's right eye started twitching. How dare this goddess play with the Crimson dragon? "Hehe! Princess, it looks like you need some spanking."
Alicia after hearing his words moved away from him while covering her butt with her hands. The princess then glared at the Crimson Dragon King. "You dare?"
"Do you think I am afraid of you?" From her words, Aditya now had an idea of just how much power Alicia held in her palms. With her single order, she can make the economy of an Empire collapse which would utterly destroy an Empire from the inside out. The princess had the power to destroy Empires without needing to use any weapon or any soldier.
"Alright enough talking. Let's get to work." Aditya took to put a silver female breastplate from his storage ring. The breastplate was a Peak 4-star armor made from special rare metal.
"Before I start, Alicia are you sure you want to come with us on this expedition? This time I might not be able to protect you." Since it was confirmed that the mutant fire ants has originally come from the outer region Heavenly Hemlock Forest to attack Blackwood city, the main nest of the Mutant fire ant must be located somewhere in the outer or the inner region. This morning after hearing Noah's report, Ronnie had shared his thoughts of sending an expedition team to find the main nest of the mutant fire ants in the Heavenly Hemlock Forest.
Knowing that there is going to be an expedition, Aditya became interested. He asked Ronnie if he can be on the expedition team or not. After some hesitation and some words from Noah and remembering how powerful Aditya was the whole family reluctantly agreed to include Aditya and Noah in the expedition team. As for Alicia, before the princess could even open her mouth, her father refused her saying that she was too weak for this expedition.
"By today, I will break through beginner 3rd-order and reach mid-3rd-order. Also this time I will be going there prepared with full-body Peak 4-star armor that has been enhanced with runes. I am sure I can take on even a Peak 3rd-order. Also, I have the pills and potions that Alicia has sent us. This time I won't become a burden to the team." Alicia was able to convince her father to let her go once she said these same words.
"How can you suddenly break through beginner 3rd-order?" As far as Aditya can feel Alicia's cultivation base, he knew that the princess needed at least another month to break through.
"I have used my sources to find a 3-star Crimson apple. The fruit will give me the final push that I need to break through. I just need a few hours to consume all the mana present inside the Crimson apple." Alicia was a Fire-type mage. Her specialty lay in fire-type attacks.
"Why do you want to come with us so badly?" Aditya wanted to know the reason why the princess was so desperate.
Alicia lowered her head while tightly clenching her fists. "Last night when you were protecting me and also fighting the mutant fire ants, I felt I had become a burden. I felt powerless. I don't like this feeling of being useless."
Alicia then looked at Aditya's crimson pupils. "Last night I did not have my maid to protect me. I realized that I had become too dependent on being protected by others. This has to end. Heaven has blessed me with a genius-level cultivation talent, something that almost every cultivator wants to have. I realized I was wasting my talent. I want to come with you so that I can gain experience in fighting and also learn more about my powers."
Alicia can't even remember the last time she had fought against someone. All these years she was so focused on expanding her business and earning money that she had neglected her cultivation. "I cannot change the past. I want to work hard for my future." Alicia wanted to stop being dependent on others to protect her.
"Alright. Now tell me what sort of abilities you want your armor to have. Do you want defensive abilities?"
"I want my armor to increase my defense. I also want the armor to be light and increase the power of my fire-type attacks."
"Understood." This silver breastplate was a part of the full body armor that Alicia has given to Aditya.
Time flowed like water,
Without even noticing the whole day passed. Alicia had gone into her bedroom to consume the Crimson Apple and cultivate it. She cultivated for the whole day; trying to consume the energy within the Crimson apple. By midnight, Alicia had reached Mid 3rd-order.
When she opened her eyes, she felt a big improvement in her physical stats. She felt that her senses have sharpened. Her total mana reserve has increased. Alicia was confident that now she can even give a tough fight to Peak 3rd-order.
"I wonder what Aditya is doing." Alicia stood up and then stretched her body. She then went to the living room, only to find Aditya busy drawing runes on her silver breastplate. Currently, the Dragon King was sitting on the ground. Beside him, there were two vambraces, two gauntlets, two pauldrons with spikes on top, and two rerebraces lying on the ground. Except for the breastplate and all other armor, parts were enchanted with runs.
"Aditya, are you finished?" Alicia slowly asked. She can tell Aditya has worked really hard on this armor set.
"I am done." Aditya just finished drawing the last rune word. He then put the silver breastplate on the ground and then wiped the nonexistent sweat from his forehead.
"Check it out."
"Alright." Alicia took out a snowflake-shaped glass from her storage ring. When she moved the snowflake glass on top of the breastplate, a ray of blue light came out of the snowflake glass and began scanning all the armor.
Seeing this Aditya was dumbfounded. On the snowflake, he can see some very small runic words which he cannot understand even though he is a 3rd-order runemaster.
After the scanning was done, the blue light dimmed down before disappearing. A second later, a transparent rectangular 10 inches wide and 10 inches long screen appeared on top of the snowflake.
"Alicia, what is this?" Aditya asked while looking at this strange artifact in amazement.
"This is a 5th-star artifact. This snowflake lets me appraise other artifacts, weapons, and armor. Basically, with this artifact, I can check the functions or abilities or uses or conditions of an item. But with the condition being that the item's rank must not be above 5-star."
[Fiery Armor set]
[Rank: - Peak 4-star]
[Description: - A special full body armor set which was later enhanced by a 3rd-order runemaster. The armor was originally built by a retired blacksmith at the request of the goddess of wealth.]
[Function 1: - The armor gives the wearer high resistance against fire, water, and ice magic. The resistance of the armor will be lowered if a 5th-order cultivator uses fire, water, or ice magic to attack the wearer.
Function 2: - After wearing this armor, the wearer will never feel cold. Even the people standing 40 meters near the wearer won't feel cold.
Function 3: - The Fiery armor has been engraved with Mana gathering Array. This will increase the wearer's cultivation speed or mana recovery speed by 25%.
Function 4: - The fiery armor can reduce any attack damage from any 4th-order cultivation by 90%. While attacks from 3rd-order or lower-order cultivators won't harm the wearer at all. If any beginner 5th-order attacks the wearer, 50% of the attack damage will be reduced by the fiery armor. While if a Mid 5th or high-order powerhouse attacks the user, the fiery armor will fail to reduce the attack damage.
Function 5: - When the wearer condenses mana into the whole set of armor, an energy dome will be formed. The size of the energy dome will depend on the amount of mana that the wearer uses. The energy dome can protect the wearer from multiple attacks from 4th-order cultivators.]
"I have to I am very impressed. Thank you."
"You're welcome. Alicia, I am more interested to know about this snowflake artifact that you're holding in your hands."
Alicia smiled while looking at this snowflake artifact. "For once, getting hold of this artifact was anything but easy. This artifact was auctioned around a year ago. I had to spend 7.3 billion royal gold coins just to get this item. In this whole world, the number of artifacts that actually has an appraisal function is less than two digits. On top of that, this snowflake is a Peak 5-star artifact. You can just imagine how difficult it was for me to get this artifact."
'7.3 billion royal gold coins is 730 in gold coins.' Just thinking of such a big number Aditya felt a headache. As expected of the Goddess of wealth. Not even the strongest Empires on the continents like the Dying Isle or Westnia had 5-star artifacts. The value of 5 artifacts cannot be counted in numbers. In short word, any artifact that was a 5-star or high star was considered invaluable.
Just the existence of a 5-star artifact can put an entire continent into a deadly war. Even the people from the central continent would do anything to get a 5-star artifact.
"But thanks to this artifact I was able to recover that huge amount that I had spent. In this one year, using this artifact I have earned around 10 billion royal gold coins."
"You know the longer I stay with you, the more I realized just how poor I am." Even if Aditya combines all of his wealth, he is not sure if his wealth would hit the one billion royal gold mark. And here was the goddess of wealth who had earned 10 billion royal gold coins in a single year.
"I am starting to feel I have made a mistake. I should have become a merchant instead."
"Hahahaha! Don't worry, if you're ever low on money, you can always ask me. I will lend you the money for a very low interest." Aditya rolled his eyes. Even if he ever needed money, he can just attack one Kingdom or send his army to kill bandits around his Kingdom.
"I prefer to plunder wealth. That is the fastest way of getting richer."
"Alicia, I think you should call your mother and let her know that we won't be going back tonight." Since it was already midnight, Aditya and Alicia had decided to spend the night in this inn. After spending this much time with her family, Aditya believed that her family would be worried if their daughter suddenly stayed outside without informing them.
"Alright." Alicia took out a cube-shaped earring. Just as she infused the earring with mana, the earring began glowing.
[Hello! Alicia, is that you? Where are you? Young lady, it's already midnight and you still haven't returned home yet. It looks like you have forgotten what happens when you break the family rules.]
Aditya saw Alicia tremble for a second before she spoke in a hurried tone. [Mom, the whole day I was cultivating. I have reached Mid 3rd-order. As for Aditya, he was adding some runic enchantment while I was cultivating. By the time we finished our work, we realized that it was too late. So we have decided to spend the night here.]
Alicia knew that if she and Aditya went back home this late, both of them would be scolded by her mother and grandmother.
[oh....! Congratulations on reaching Mid 3rd-order. I will allow the two of you to stay outside but tomorrow young lady you better give me a proper explanation otherwise you will not be allowed to go out for the next week.]
After both mother and daughter's conversation ended, Aditya and Alicia stared at each other. Aditya stared at her for a few seconds before he went to pat her right shoulder to comfort her and then he went to his bedroom.
Really Thank you very much to all those who sends support with valuable golden tickets. I hope we can keep it up!!!
