Chapter 279 It's Time
Alex did some tests with the dark crystal, starting from the system appraisal, which described the crystal as an energy container with no other info, while the appraisal from the Red gem was a bit more specific, describing the crystal as a Law essence collecter.
Alex tried infusing the crystal with mana to get some form of reaction, but no matter the mana he used, it was all devoured without any trace, and with no intention of consuming it, he stored it back into his inventory.
Alex then contacted Alden and set up a meeting with him in the capital city, Nova, and after meeting him, he gave him the fire element source crystal before asking him about the task he gave him.
Alex had asked Alden to check on the situation of Twilight Embers School and who was involved, and he had not contacted or received any form of info from him since then, which made him believe that things weren't developing as smoothly as he had hoped.
Alden looked hesitant at first before he started taking, telling how, at first, things developed without any issue with him locating the two individuals backing the Agostino Bernardo family and The Death Traders mercenary group.
It was Alden maternal uncle who was backing the Death Traders, and convincing him to back down was easy, but the one behind the Agostino Bernardo family was "Lorenzo" the head of the Girardo Trupiano family, one of the two most influential branch family.
Alden didn't go into details, but he told him that one thing led to another, and eventually, the Italian Mafia main Family (Famiglia Donatelli) head got involved, forcing him to involve his father.
Ultimately, it was agreed that both families would leave the Twilight Embers School to the Shadow Oblivion Organization.
While the Gedeon Family wanted nothing in return, the Donatelli family was not so generous, and the compensation they wanted in return was hefty, to say the least.
The Donatelli family wanted to become a substantial shareholder in the Shadow Oblivion Organization, and they were willing to pay ten times the premium of what AI-Zero would evaluate it at in any form the organization would desire.
A substantial shareholder means 10%, and agreeing to sell any shares meant that Alex would first need to make his organization public and then disclose things he wanted that his organization owned, from materialistic value to informational and connectional value to Zero, for him to make an evaluation.
Alex knew that his status as the Domain Ruler alone would make his organization worth more than an unfathomable amount of money, but that would require making it public, which was not happening any time soon.
While all the other valuable things, such as his status as an SSS rank legacy holder, his noble status, which he could upgrade to honorary Duke of the human Empire, and his lucrative connection and knowledge, he had no intention of disclosing any of them publicly.
So Alex had no intentions of accepting their request, but doing so meant that he needed to stay away from the matter of Twilight Embers School as the Donatelli family requested.
Alden told him how he had been trying for weeks to use any connection he had from his father to his Mother's side to make the Donatelli family head change his demand, but he was adamant about it.
Alex understood that both families would have done their research on him by knowing and would know a lot about his organization, and while one family was strengthing their friendship, the other was testing the waters to see how real the organization was.
Alex wouldn't lose much if he left the Twilight Embers School to the Donatelli family as he had already helped them enough, and now they would be integrated into the guild and would be treated fairly.
However, after hearing Alden explain things, Alex understood that both families just wanted to confirm the legitimacy of his organization, and he had a perfect thing that would not only clear their doubts but would also make his organization the giant that they absolutely needed to befriend.
And it was his greatest gift, the Malefis Domain, a place only he could access as an outsider, and only he had the ability to grant other players access to it.
Alex thanked Alden for his help before telling him to arrange a meeting with the Donatelli family, and when he asked if the organization would accept their request, he answered with a straight no, not to raise their hopes.
Alex told Alden that the organization would be offering them a grand opportunity that would make the legacies he sold to him nothing more than trash in comparison.
Alden asked if it was (SSS) legacy or some instance dungeon, and Alex told him it was much better, and before he could digest his disbelief, Alex told him that he, with his guild, would also receive that opportunity before he took his leave.
Alex went to a training chamber to work on the remaining half of mana veins and, without much delay, started to work on them.
After twelve hours of work, Alex completed the third major Artery, and after a short break, he drank the two potions again and started to work on replicating the final pathways of the blood vessels.
After thirty-nine hours in total, Alex completed his mana veins, and even though he was mentally exhausted at the end of the session, he was thrilled with his work as he did without even the slightest of failure.
Alex didn't linger any longer in the ancient world, logged out minutes after the session ended, and then went straight to sleep.
Alex, having awakened, Alex's physique was getting better and better day after day as it got refined from impurities and strength with mana.
So before awakening, Alex would sleep for 6 to 8 hours, depending on how burnt up he was, but now he barely needed 4 to 5 hours max before he was in his peak mental and physical state and less if he was not mentally exhausted.
After waking up, Alex spent some time circulating his mana to slowly refine his heart, as it was still too early in the morning and, after a few hours, to have breakfast with the family.
After breakfast, Alex went straight to his room and returned to the ancient world with the goal of going back to the Malefis Domain to not only set the teleportation locations for the domain entry tokens but to consume the Evolution fruit.
After becoming a Ruler, Alex was given two gifts, and he decided to natural law energy stored inside it that he could use after reaching the Elemental Ruler Rank to swiftly progress his understanding of use them to the fullest to gain the best early benefits.
The first gift was the Dawn Tree, which had the purest form of natural law energy stored inside it that he could use after reaching the Elemental Ruler Rank to swiftly progress his understanding of the law.
However, he also needed that law energy to use his second gift, which was a magical fruit of his choice, and he decided to possibly make a stupid decision by going all in and picking the wildest fruit that used the entirety of law energy.
Alex picked the Evolution Fruit over the safer option of the Ancient Bloodline fruit simply because of the wild difference in the benefits it could provide.
Now, it was finally time to see if he would regret wasting a grand opportunity or would get rewarded for his courage.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l