Chapter 143: Scholar Vane
Silas stepped up to the glass counter, resting his forearms on the cool surface while Lia stood on her tiptoes next to him, peering over the edge at the glowing magical books.
"I need civic infrastructure items," Silas stated directly, bypassing any casual pleasantries. "Specifically for an intelligence hub upgrade."
Instead of listing the items verbally, Silas closed his eyes for a fraction of a second and mentally accessed his Warlord territorial interface.
He navigated directly to the blueprint he had seen while Aeli was giving him suggestions.
With a subtle flex of his will, he pulled the interface tab directly into his active field of vision.
A translucent glowing blue holographic projection materialized in the air right in front of his eyes.
Because it was tied directly to his personal biometric Lord system, the floating screen was completely invisible to Scholar Vane and Lia and to them, Silas simply looked like he was reading an invisible slate in the empty air.
He scanned the text to confirm the exact component ratios:
[Unlocked Blueprint: Grand Archive - Tier 2]
[Type: Civic Infrastructure / Intelligence Hub.]
[Materials Required: 800 Ironwood Beams, 400 Refined Stone, 200 Blank Paper Rolls, 50 Vials of Starlight Ink.]
Silas kept his eyes locked on the glowing blue text.
’Okay... this is quite much, even though Eluned can help me get the beams and I can also get stone as well, let me just buy everything here... I do have money after all,’ Silas reasoned silently.
It was a matter of pure macro-efficiency.
If he forced Eluned to spend half a day manipulating nature mana to grow or even harvest eight hundred ironwood trees, and made Thora’s heavy infantry girls quarry four hundred blocks of refined stone from the cavern, he would be diverting his most powerful combat assets away from perimeter defense and weapon crafting just to save a few credits.
He had over two million sitting in his account right now... paying out of pocket to have the entire construction bundle instantly deposited into his inventory was the only logical move.
’Though if I had to, I would have told them to do it while I was gone...’
Silas blinked, dismissing the invisible system screen from his vision, and focused his golden-ringed gaze back on the woman behind the counter.
"I need the full supply bundle," Silas instructed her clearly. "Eight hundred structural ironwood beams, four hundred blocks of refined load-bearing architectural stone, two hundred rolls of high density and mana-conductive blank paper, as well as fifty vials of pure Starlight Ink."
Scholar Vane’s eyebrows rose slightly above her wire-rimmed glasses.
It was an exceptionally large, comprehensive order for an individual independent Lord to purchase over the counter without a corporate guild requisition form...
"I see, all at once?" Vane remarked with a genuine smile of professional appreciation touching her lips. "That should be for a Library I think, I built one in my own territory quite some time ago... You are clearly a Lord who prioritizes the intellectual threshold of your soldiers, that is quite an admirable quality."
She reached out with a slender manicured finger and tapped a series of glowing runic sequences into the polished obsidian surface of her counter.
Instantly, the space directly above the glass desk hummed to life.
A three-dimensional, highly detailed holographic projection beamed upward, displaying miniature rotating wireframes of the exact supplies he had requested.
Silas saw the dense tight grain of the ironwood beams, the flawless structural cut of the refined white stone blocks, the thick mana-conductive binding of the paper rolls, and the glowing radiant silver-blue liquid swirling inside fifty sealed crystal vials of Starlight Ink.
Silas inspected the holographic display precisely, checking the density readouts floating beside each item.
The stone wasn’t porous scrap, and the ink carried a 99% starlight saturation rating which was perfect for what he had in mind for the territory.
Silas nodded his head in firm approval as he saw the holographs of everything.
"The quality meets my requirements. What’s the damage?"
Scholar Vane tapped one final rune on her desk, consolidating the bulk industrial shipping rates, the high-tier reagent taxes, and the immediate spatial transfer fees.
"For eight hundred ironwood structural beams, four hundred refined stone blocks, two hundred conductive paper rolls, and fifty premium vials of Starlight Ink, the consolidated Association cost is exactly 300,000 Spirit Credits," Vane announced smoothly, looking up to meet his eyes.
Three hundred thousand credits?
Silas let out a slow breath through his nose. Even with two million sitting in his pocket, his brain instinctively flinched at the number.
’This is quite expensive,’ Silas thought with his jaw tightening slightly.
Never did he think that he would be spending money like this but Silas honestly did not mind, as long as he got what he wanted at the end of the day, that was all that mattered.
"Fine," Silas said flatly.
He reached into his trench coat, pulled out his phone, and tapped his encrypted financial token directly against the runic scanner embedded in the obsidian counter.
CHIME!
The scanner flashed a brilliant approving green light as three hundred thousand Spirit Credits were instantaneously deducted from his balance, transferring directly into the LAB’s corporate holding accounts.
"Payment verified," Scholar Vane stated with her professional smile widening as the massive commission registered on her terminal. "Prepare your Lord Inventory for a direct deposit, Lord Graves."
She didn’t reach under the counter or call for a forklift.
Instead, Scholar Vane stepped back half a pace, raised her right arm, and extended her open palm directly toward Silas across the glass display.
Silas mirrored the stance, extending his right hand outward with his palm facing hers, mentally unlocking the receiving gate of his Lord Inventory.
A blinding concentrated beam of radiant blue spatial light erupted directly from Scholar Vane’s palm.
The beam cut cleanly through the air of the promenade, striking Silas’s outstretched hand with a deep sound that vibrated the glass display cases around them.
HUMMMM
For three continuous seconds, a rushing torrent of compressed pixels, structural data, and physical matter streamed directly from her own high-capacity Lord Inventory into his.
Silas felt the internal weight of his spatial storage expand rapidly as eight hundred massive ironwood beams, four hundred stone blocks, two hundred scrolls of paper, and fifty crystal vials of starlight ink locked cleanly into his inventory slots without spilling a single drop of liquid or dropping a speck of sawdust onto the floorboards.
The blue light snapped off, dissolving into harmless ambient sparkles of mana.
Silas closed his fist, checking his internal UI to confirm the transfer was 100% complete.
Everything was accounted for, perfectly stacked and ready to be deployed the second he stepped back into the Keep’s courtyard.
"Thank you," Silas told her, nodding his appreciation for the seamless transfer.
"The pleasure was mine, Lord Graves," Vane replied politely, preparing to clear her desk for the next client.
Before she could turn away, Silas stopped her.
He remembered the specific earnest requests his commanders and specialists had shouted across the dining hall right before he activated the ascension portal.
"Hold on. We aren’t done yet," Silas said, leaning back over the counter. "Do you sell actual books here? Not blank paper or blueprints, but written, comprehensive reference literature?"
Scholar Vane paused, turning back to face him with renewed interest.
"Of course. As a Grand Civic Archive, we maintain one of the most extensive physical and digital repositories of terrestrial and Sovereign Realm literature in Valoria City. What specific disciplines are you seeking to integrate into your territory’s library?"
"I have a head chef who’s trying to elevate her production threshold," Silas explained, remembering Kaelia’s nervous blushing face as she handed him the chilled berry juice. "I need a massive, high-end cookbook. Something comprehensive, dealing with complex baking recipes, meat rendering, and multi-course meal preparation. Give me something with at least a thousand recipes in it..."
Scholar Vane’s eyes lit up. She tapped her runic keyboard, rapidly navigating through the culinary arts index.
"An excellent investment," Vane approved. "A territory that eats well recovers stamina and mana at an accelerated rate. I have the exact tome you require..."
’Just call it a book, this is the big 26 for crying out loud.’
She reached beneath the counter into her immediate physical stock and pulled out a gargantuan thick volume bound in white dragon-leather and reinforced with brass corners.
The book weighed easily fifteen pounds and its spine was embossed with golden script:
[Guide To Cooking On Earth: One Thousand and One Feasts.]
She handed the massive cookbook across the counter to Silas.
He took it with one hand, feeling the heavy satisfying weight of the paper, and immediately dropped it into his Lord Inventory with a flash of golden light.
Kaelia was going to lose her mind when she saw it...
"Next," Silas continued, ticking the items off on his fingers. "I need heavy war books... Specifically, I need comprehensive texts detailing naval warfare, maritime navigation charts, ship-to-ship boarding mechanics, and coastal siege tactics against irregular pirate fleets."
’I think that’s what she asked for right?’ Silas thought.
Scholar Vane actually paused her typing, looking up at Silas with a deeply amused incredulous expression.
She let out a soft, melodious chuckle that shook her wire-rimmed glasses slightly.
"Naval warfare and pirate boarding mechanics?" Vane repeated with her lips curving into a knowing smile. "Lord Graves, unless your anchor point has dropped you directly into the middle of Archipelago Fish or the Erimbu Sea zones, that is an extraordinarily niche discipline for a terrestrial Warlord... Are you planning to launch an armada?"
"Something like that," Silas replied with a sigh. "Just find me the heaviest and most technical manual you have in stock."
Still chuckling at the absurdity of the request, Scholar Vane navigated her system toward the military history and naval command sectors.
She reached to a high shelf behind her desk, pulling down a pair of dark blue weather-treated canvas tomes that smelled strongly of tar and sea salt for some reason.
[Principles of Maritime Dominance and Siege Logistics.]
She brought the books out and slid them across the glass. Silas inspected the detailed diagrams of rigging, hull reinforcement, and boarding formations before transferring them cleanly into his inventory.
Morwenna would have enough reading material to keep her occupied in her room for a month...
"One more thing," Silas said, remembering Eluned’s haughty, divine demand as she sat in her green silk dress. "I need botany. Specifically, a comprehensive gardening and agricultural encyclopedia detailing grown Earth foods, terrestrial plant biology, and soil optimization."
He leaned forward slightly, pointing a finger at the counter.
"And while we’re on the subject of gardening, I need actual seeds. High-yield terrestrial crop seeds. Vegetables, root crops, herbs, and fruits that can be planted and cultivated inside a mana-rich environment."
Scholar Vane’s professional appreciation for Silas seemed to multiply tenfold with every request he made.
He wasn’t just buying weapons to kill things like Lords at his level did... he was buying cookbooks to feed his people, manuals to educate his people, and agricultural seeds to establish sustainable long-term food security.
He was operating on a level of territorial maturity that most Novice Lords didn’t reach until their fifth or sixth year of being in the Sovereign Realm.
"Terrestrial agriculture integrated into mana grids is a brilliant specialization," Vane told him enthusiastically with her hands flying across her console to summon the agricultural inventory. "If you plant standard Earth crops within a territory saturated by high-density mana, the cellular growth rate accelerates exponentially... You get significantly larger yields, enhanced nutritional density, and natural resistance to common blights!"
She reached under her desk and retrieved a thick green-bound botanical book.
[The Terrestrial Flora and Agricultural Compendium.]
She placed it on the counter, then turned to a specialized, temperature-controlled runic drawer built into the side of her obsidian stall.
Vane pulled out ten sealed canvas pouches, setting them down in a neat row next to the encyclopedia.
"I have assembled a comprehensive agricultural starter suite for your grid..." Vane explained, tapping each pouch to identify its contents. "You have high-yield winter potatoes and hardy root carrots, which provide dense carbohydrates for heavy infantry. You have heirloom climbing tomatoes, sweet corn, and protein-rich black beans. For your culinary specialist, I have included a dedicated pouch of aromatic culinary herbs... rosemary, thyme, basil, and crushed peppery sage as well as a packet of cold-resistant orchard apple and sweet berry seeds."
Silas looked at the row of seed pouches.
When combined with Eluned’s divine manipulation of nature mana and growth acceleration, planting these inside the Blessed Land would turn the base into an agricultural powerhouse.
They wouldn’t just be surviving on the wheat and Spirit fruits... they would have a self-sustaining Michelin-grade farm operating right inside the walls with variation too!
"Perfect," Silas nodded, sweeping the green botanical book and all ten canvas seed pouches directly into his Lord Inventory. "That covers the entire list. What’s the total for the literature and the agricultural package?"
