The third problem Fredrick findings brought to light was their overall growth.
The guild's expansion was too slow.
Of the eleven slums, only two had been tapped into, the rest lay dormant - a huge waste of potential for sure.
At their current speed, it would take forever before all the slums were tapped into.
'Hmm' that said, tapping into all of them at once wasn't a wise choice.
So he ruminated, drawing out Niton's map in his mind.
'Qunchester, Felleris, Pierland, Irondale, Gattiste'
'How many members are D-rank?' he wrote.
'Thirty' Fredrick wrote back.
'Hmm, this'll have to do' thought Ezra.
'Group them into three groups and have them head to Qunchester, Pierland and Irondale. Have them gather information'
While they might not immediately embark on massive reconstruction like that of Traxford, they could begin slowly.
'Wait, didn't Cabrera say he knew someone in Qunchester? Or was it a guild?' he thought, and asked Fredrick to look into it as well.
Then, Ezra attended to good news.
The advisor offered to buy back Kingsmere's businesses for twice the initial price.
Outright rejection won't do them good since Black Jaws was part of the royal faction.
'Sell half of the businesses bought for ten times the initial price'
'If they want it, they'll have to bleed a bit'
Half of Kingsmere's businesses brought more than a thousand gold coins daily, and it cost them a bit more than five thousand platinum. A crazy sum justified by their location - the Empire's capital.
Those of Traxford were even more costly, but not enough had been bought to justify the 100,000 platinum spent.
Then, the issue of the mana stones.
Fredrick postponed giving them to anyone because their loyalty wasn't affirmed.
A year now gone, he certified a few as qualified, but he still sought Ezra's words on the matter.
Ezra had other ideas, his ruse of revealing himself to Fredrick still clear.
Letting others know of the mana stones - no matter who they were - didn't seem like a good idea no matter how he thought of it.
But…what options did they have?
'Something that can draw out its essence for cultivation while keeping it obscured'
He recalled nothing that had such a function, so he wrote his idea to Fredrick.
Fredrick got thinking…
'Draw it's essence…but it'd have to be enclosed else the essence dispersed. Some kind of chamber…Chamber! That's it!'
It clicked.
'We can use formations' he wrote to Ezra.
'Ah!' Ezra's eyes widened in realization.
'Why didn't I think of that?'
He looked around to see the carvings along the walls.
This was a formation, one of many embedded in the walls of the chambers.
It was a formation that kept out the sound of anything beyond the door.
It was a formation that kept the air circulating.
Formations came in various sizes and had various uses.
Some, like the formation scroll, were used in spells, allowing for instant effects.
Others - mana formations - drew in mana from the atmosphere, making it coalesce till it was prime for cultivation - which allowed for cultivation virtually anywhere.
Ezra guessed that he would use a mana formation, though he had no knowledge of a formation that catered to mana stones, so he wrote…
'How are you going to set it in place?'
'I'll just hire formation experts' Frederick answered.
Ezra nodded.
'Do that then, but have the cultivation chambers ready'
That was the last issue.
'Any news from Cabrera?'
'None as of late' replied Fredrick.
With the issues dealt with, Ezra wrote…
'Anything else?'
'None'
Ezra folded the scroll, ending the session.
He stretched, sucking both scrolls and the pen into his spatial ring.
'Fuuu…' he exhaled, taking a lotus posture and a mana stone from his ring.
'Now to check how far I've come'
He drew in mana, having it flow to all the parts of his body through his meridians.
'Oh!'
Much of his impurities had been cleared out, smoothing his mana flow and its overall effects.
For most Adepts, they advanced the moment they had a 'decent' pathway - by clearing minimal impurities in their meridians - to support their mana flow.
'I wonder, what would happen if I cleared out all my impurities before I became an Adept?'
It was a promising prospect, but Ezra wasn't too forthcoming with taking such a risk.
After all, his current situation was more than good enough-
*Pah!*
He slapped himself on both sides.
'Why should I settle for less? I did enough of that the last time'
And where did that leave him? Betrayed and disposed of.
'If I do like last time, the same thing will happen again' his face darkened, moments of powerlessness flashing by.
'And I can never let that happen again'
So…
'I'll clear out all my impurities before heading to Intermediate'
He set a goal.
'No matter how long it takes!'
And he swore by it.
In the same castle, another woman with blue eyes flipped through pages.
The door was pushed open and a small figure walked in garbed in armor from head to toe.
The woman closed her book, looking at this figure with a smile.
"So? How was training?"
The boy took off his helmet, revealing short golden hair and blue eyes of his own.
"It went well, Mother"
"Splendid. My little boy will become a man soon"
Triton bowed with his helmet in his armpit.
"I shall take my leave"
But she wasn't done.
"They say he practices all day"
He stiffened.
"Utter lies. That is all it is"
"Maybe. But don't you ought to do the same?"
He grit his teeth and clenched his fist, forcing out the words…
"I will not disappoint you Mother"
"I hope so"
With that, he left.
*Bam*
Triton's helmet smashed against the wall.
He stomped the floor in anger.
'Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!'
Three months ago, he chose the path of a Knight and had begun training since then, picking a greatsword as his weapon.
His progress was astonishing, everyone at the training grounds said so, and that made him feel proud.
Yet every time he looked to his mother for compliments, he was compared instead.
'That b#stard!'
He couldn't help but be angry.
'It's always him! Ezra this, Ezra that! Because of him, my mother's not happy with me!'
He looked to the ceiling, gnashing his teeth as he vowed.
'Just you wait! I'll definitely beat you, then mother will be happy'
Ezra opened his eyes, having just finished looking into himself, a smile hanging on his lips.
The mana stone had done more than just clean impurities, it had affected his musculature as a whole.
Formerly, his body could barely hold the mana in the mana stone because of its quality.
Now, he didn't have to try so hard to contain the mana. His last stunt had his meridians tempered, drastically increasing the amount of mana he could intake - a hundred and thirty drops to be exact. He could also use it better than before.
Tempering meridians was another function of cultivation, because meridians were that which held mana.
When tempered, they grow tougher and, by expelling impurities, they grow to contain more mana, allowing for stronger attacks and defense.
And normally, the quality of mana increased as one advanced in rank, which was one of the reasons Grandmasters would kill each other for mana stones.
The quality of mana in mana stones was above that of Grandmasters, though not by a lot.
Now, Ezra was using such mana to forge his meridians - that of beginner level!
The result would be anything but ordinary.
But then…
'I can't do things carelessly'
While the results of the first try were spectacular, what was the guarantee that it'd be the same the second time? Nothing.
So he had to take things slowly rather than swiftly, and be as thorough as possible.
To do that, he had to know the full extent of the change his body went through.
What better way to do that than training?
'I've mastered the staff's fundamentals'
Since that was what he set out to do, having achieved it, there was no more need to primarily practice with a staff.
'Now…'
He took a pin of his clothes, a pin in the shape of a scythe.
'This comes next'
'Fuu…' exhaling, he infused mana into the pin.
It enlarged till it was a bit taller than him.
He mastered the staff fundamentals in the four months. He learned fourteen out of the thirty-six spear movements.
So…
'This should be easy'
