Chapter 281 - Astral Artisans' Use
Three days had already passed since Shane found himself staring at the all too familiar underwater cavern entrance once again.
Rather, one could say that Shane was at the bottom of the cave, right next to the pond everyone had fallen inside upon their arrival.
He stared into the air as he asked Cosmo and Umbra,
"This time it should work out, right?"
Shane had made use of many different ways to escape the underwater cave, but he had yet to successfully come out of it unscathed.
Nevertheless, he was not in a bad mood, because Talia had told him that 984 tons of Syldalyr sand had been sold!
That was 29,520,000 gold coins after all!
Once he safely walked outside the cave without using several million gold coins to purchase a [Safe-return-teleportation] parchment, he would be able to pay the Starlight guild members that were worried about Shane's health.
They didn't know how exactly they had appeared below the colosseum of the Shirai academy, but it was a fact that Shane had safely transported them outside the cave without any issues.
Shane was the only one left behind, and everyone had urged him to purchase and use the parchment that cost several million gold coins!
However, Shane didn't want to be so wasteful!
Instead, he made use of Cosmo and Umbra, which had almost worked out!
Umbra had thrown both Shane and Cosmo in the air before Cosmo had manifested a spatial portal that brought them much higher.
After that Cosmo activated his [Space Jump] ability in order to teleport them even higher.
Unfortunately, this was not even close to being enough to reach the required altitude to see, let alone leave the underwater cave.
The cavern hall was already extremely high, and Shane was not even sure if he would be able to take Umbra with him if he were to throw him into the air.
Everything was more complicated than he had thought, and he told every single Artisan in the Astral artisan group that he required a huge watchtower in addition to a huge ladder!
The ladder should be sticky on one side so that he won't slip off while trying to leave the underwater cave without any issues.
Shane had already planned to enhance Umbra and Cosmo's quality because it was likely that Cosmo's spatial affinity would become stronger through that, while Umbra's strength would increase as well.
During the last two days, he had measured the empty space around the pond to place the watchtower, the height of the cavern hall's ceiling, and the estimated length of the slippery and smooth cavern entrance!
At the same time, Shane had purchased the required goods to enhance the quality of both Umbra and Cosmo!
While Umbra's quality increased from [Trash] to [Common] which allowed Umbra to reach the 9th Awakened stage, Cosmo's quality reached the [Uncommon] quality as his strength increased to that of a 10th Elite stage beast!
At the same time, Cosmo's control over his affinity had increased and his loyalty had reached [63%] too!
As Cosmo's quality reached [Uncommon] his second possible evolution had been unlocked.
It was the Starstream fox as Shane had expected and Cosmo would have to attain a [Rare] quality in order to evolve into a Starstream fox.
However, that was not what both Shane and Cosmo wanted.
Cosmo desired to take the latest evolution path after he had noticed that Shane was able to increase his quality without any issues.
This was also the reason for Cosmo to request a second quality upgrade immediately after the first had been completed!
Shane agreed to Cosmo's request because it was beneficial for himself too, and the only downside was that it would take a few days to be concluded.
Yet, this was less of a problem, and Shane didn't need to worry about paying the price for Cosmo's quality enhancement too!
He also wondered how many times Umbra's quality could be enhanced before he would become too strong!
Right now, if one were to add his [Limit breaker] title, Umbra's strength could be compared to stronger peak-Experts with a mana purity of 60% to 65%!
After he discussed everything with Umbra for some time, Shane purchased the required goods to enhance his quality once again.
When a beast's quality enhancement was in process, they were vulnerable, but this was no problem for both Umbra and Cosmo, who had been transferred to the Hidden Paradise!
This could be seen as reckless because Shane was currently alone within the underwater cave, but that didn't bother him.
Furthermore, he had to think about how he could make use of the funds he had acquired.
It was ridiculous to think that he had already accumulated 30 million gold coins, and it felt even weirder if he were to compare it to the amount of 40 million gold coins that the Hidden Paradise required to awaken its mana heart!!
Yet, instead of using all the coins for the awakening, he set aside around 3,000,000 gold coins belonging to the Starlight guild members and Milan.
They had to distribute everything among themselves, while Shane and Talia had to be careful about what they should do with the remaining 27 million gold coins!
While Shane wanted to invest everything, Talia was of the opinion that they should set aside some coins to keep themselves prepared for emergencies or kinds of accidents!
There were always perilous situations cropping up every now and then and with enough gold coins, one could avoid most of them!
Though Shane agreed with her that didn't mean he would agree to 10 million gold coins in his finances when they could be used much better for the Hidden Paradise, Astral Starlight faction, and the entire nurturing ground they had yet to establish.
In the end, only 3,000,000 cold coins remained within his finances, and the remaining 24 million gold coins were invested into the Astral Starlight guild!
This amount of funds was more than they had ever expected to earn in such a short period and it might be possible to be at par with the government's artisan organization they were about to expand slowly.
Talia had also told him that the real estate agent had reverted, inquiring about their background because the government that had wanted the same land that Shane and Talia had purchased had apparently backed off!
Because it was not the real estate agent's business to enquire about such things, Talia gave him a cold shoulder However, the next message from the real estate agent required her to pass on the message to Shane.
[The whole Neptua Ladra region has been reserved for you. Either accept it or not, but it will be your present for the 18th of July!]
When Shane heard this, he was not sure what to say, but it definitely lifted the pressure off his chest to purchase the surrounding lands hurriedly.
As such, most of the 24 million gold coins could now be used to construct the nurturing grounds for both Artisans and the guild.
This included instructors for combat ground and several thousand books about all kinds of non-combat occupations and much more!
The whole nurturing ground cost 14 million gold coins!
Those were just ordinary building complexes, and if it had been possible, Shane would have invested even more.
They had to use the remaining 10 million gold coins efficiently!
The Astral Artisans' foundation was still feeble and both Shane and Talia had yet to initiate their real plan!
Now, they had to lure in several new blacksmiths, runemasters, and alchemists in order to nurture them perfectly into the Astral Artisans.
It wouldn't be long before the Astral Artisans' value would shine through the huge investments Shane had to do until now!
He was confident that with this enormous investment, everything would be solved, and it was an undeniable fact that he was excited to see how far the Astral Artisans could go!
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