Read Novel Full Chapter 892: Cement Business
Chapter 892: Cement Business
CH0892 Cement Business
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“Stop!” Alex quickly shouted as Udara moved to finish off the ‘assailant’.
“Master?” Udara stopped in position, tilting her head in an inquiring glance.
“It’s a friend.” Zora said, barely holding back her laughter. “Why would you jump out like that, Baldrick?” she asked the gnome who was picking himself up.
“Apologies. I let my excitement get the better of me,” Pinchcoin tried to gloss over the matter.
Unfortunately for him, the cuts and blood from the side of his head where Udara’s kick had connected destroyed the image.
“If you please…” Alex said to Eleanore.
The High Elf stepped up and cast healing spells on the gnome, healing away his injuries.
“It’s been a while, Sir Pinchcoin. I see you are still as… vigorous as always,” Alex said.
“It is all thanks to you, Young Master Alex. It is thanks to the coin our little business collaboration gives us that I am able to afford the oil for my lamps and ink for my pen,” Pinchcoin answered smoothly.
“As soon as I noticed you had returned, I rushed over to welcome you back.”
“What do you mean, Sir Pinchcoin? You flatter me too much. Our little business wouldn’t have succeeded if not for your tireless efforts,” Alex replied.
“No, no, no. I don’t deserve such credit. If not for your excellent mind, Young Master Alex, the business would not exist. All I did was move my pen a little. It is nothing more than what anyone can do,” Pinchcoin replied.
“Surely, you jest, Sir Pinchcoin. Who doesn’t know that a single movement of your pen is worth any grand essays from many others?” Alex replied smoothly.
Alex’s entourage watched speechlessly as Alex and Pinchcoin smoothly flattered each other back and forth—the two becoming increasingly shameless in their flattery.
It got to a point where it wouldn’t be surprising if the two of them claimed the Empire couldn’t survive or even exist without the other—and all with a straight face.
The thickness of their faces—their shamelessness—indeed put any city wall to shame.
Fortunately for Alex, most of the entourage had already separated.
People like Mogal, Kavakan, Havel and Silver were given holidays to return to their clans for a well-deserved rest.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Lopota and the rest of the Silver Wolf Guard, as well as Commander Conrad Horst and the officers of the Silver Fang unit, were travelling across Fury lands to meet the families of the deceased troops as planned.
Currently, Alex was only travelling with his wives, beast companions, Sugud and Mogal.
Zora was no stranger to Alex’s shameless flattery exchanges with Pinchcoin. However, it was not so for the rest. It was quite a sight for them.
Pinchcoin gave Alex a run for his money, so much so that they thought the Silver Tongue might have finally met his match.
Disappointingly, however, Alex and Pinchcoin seemed to come to an unspoken agreement to end the verbal back-and-forth between them as a draw.
They were both awesome and didn’t need to outdo the other—much to the disappointment of their audience.
“Come to think of it, perhaps the Silver Tongue was born due to Alex’s verbal ‘duels’ with Pinchcoin. So, Pinchcoin doesn’t need to defeat the Silver Tongue since he might have given birth to him,” Zora said behind Alex’s back.
The others became ‘enlightened’ and looked at Pinchcoin with even more awe.
The person who helped the development of the Silver Tongue, which could swindle—no, convince—an entire city to give everything up and move to a dangerous frontier, was a force to be revered.
After the brief entertaining scene, Sugud and Mordor left the group to return home.
“I will be visiting your homes in the coming days. Please inform them for me,” Alex said to the duo just as they left.
Pinchcoin ushered Alex and his wives towards the Enclave’s main spire while conversing with him a few steps behind his wives.
Just as they entered the area of the main spire, Eleanore spotted someone from Grand Mage Taman Lancaster—the Royal High Arbiter who arbitrated the Fury-Kellerman post-war negotiations.
“I will go meet with Sir Taman,” she informed the others before walking away.
Grand Mage Lancaster was not only a Grand Mage, but he was also a Grandmaster Alchemist who shared close ties with Eleanore.
He could potentially help with the more technical aspects of Eleanore’s research—or at least point her in the right direction.
“How’s the Enclave doing recently, Sir Pinchcoin?” Alex asked as they approached the building.
“We are getting by with the revenue accumulated from the dividends we receive from the Golden Palace. The entertainment city has also remained a hub for our lower-tier members to continuously sell their products, earning us small incomes daily as well. All in all, I can’t complain,” Pinchcoin replied.
He turned to Alex. “Can I expect you to present us with a new product on your return, Young Master Alex?” he asked.
“I am not sure if we’ll do something as massive as the Auction Festival until I meet with Sir Haggleworth. For now, all I have planned is to meet Master, yourself and some other people, then sell a small product we found in my fiefdom on my plane,” Alex replied.
“What kind of product is it?” Pinchcoin asked.
“It is just a bit special, nothing that groundbreaking. It is a cement that can hold mana and be configured to disperse it as needed,” Alex said.
Pinchcoin’s money-grubbing brain worked to deduce the value of such a product.
“Am I correct to assume that such a product will make structure-scale runic formations easier to inscribe?” Pinchcoin asked.
Alex nodded. “You are correct. Buildings constructed with this mana cement do indeed become easier and more receptive to runes in most, if not all, parameters. Most especially the fact that it reduces the needed formation complexity for mana flow and, to some extent, the mana storage configuration needed to power the formation.”
“Essentially, it significantly reduces the cost in resources, time and complexity of structural runic formations as the size of the building scales,” he added.
“Hmm…” Pinchcoin mused over it. “How is your production capacity? If the production capacity is high enough, I might just be able to induce a big market for it. But volume will determine how large this market will be.”
Pinchcoin could tell this was a product Alex would like to sell outside of the Golden Palace under his own brand. After all, it would be weird for a successful interplanar explorer who had their own plane not to sell specialities from the plane.
The sale of the mana cement and other products Alex brought back from his plane would add another layer of anonymity to the source of the youth’s immense wealth beyond the weak cover of being the Mad Earl’s son.
“For now, my inventory is relatively on the lower side. Production isn’t exactly low, but most of it is being digested by my territory on my plane. Since I also intend to ship a significant portion for my domain here, the available inventory shrinks further,” Alex explained.
“How much can you provide currently?” Pinchcoin asked.
Alex thought about it.
“About 1,000 bags of the mana cement. Each bag is about the same unit size and weight of a standard cement bag,” Alex replied.
And interestingly, each bag of cement in Pangea was also roughly about 50 kg. Meaning Alex was planning to deliver about 50 tonnes of mana cement for the product reveal.
Pinchcoin frowned in thought.
1,000 bags, or 50 tonnes, wasn’t a large amount—in fact, it was very small, considering any serious project could easily consume this.
For example, a modest building could easily consume several tonnes of cement. A serious or major construction project, such as a bridge, even a small one, could consume tens or hundreds of tonnes.
Alex saw Pinchcoin’s frown and quickly chipped in.
“The entire structure doesn’t need to be constructed entirely with the mana cement. Using it for the surface plastering of the structure would be enough.
“In fact, considering the cost and effects of the material, it might actually be better for surface plastering rather than for the entire structure,” Alex explained.
With the ARIA drones operational, Alex and the Bureau of Research and Development had gotten the chance to expand their understanding of the material.
They quickly discovered that it wasn’t efficient to make the entire structure from Mana Cement.
Technically, the mana storage capacity of the Mana Cement depended on the amount of Mana Cement used. However, extra factors like the surface area in contact with ambient mana affected other properties, particularly its capacitance.
Based on the experimental data they obtained, Alex and the BRD determined that the storage capacity per unit of Mana Cement wasn’t that special. It was better to use a runic formation or another battery-type material to store mana instead.
Rather, the major advantageous property of Mana Cement was its capacitance—i.e. its ability to temporarily store mana and release it smoothly as needed.
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