Adonis hurriedly lowered his head as he declared. "I am willing to answer each and every question you desire from me with full honesty. So please, ask right away!!"
He said, still under the intoxication of adrenalin that he felt when he saw all that Damien showed him right now. That power, that demeanor, that authority... he desired it!!
"Alright, calm down. First..." Damien waved his hand and a small pile of gold, silver and bronze coins appeared, and floated before him, shocking everyone once more.
Including the members of the Gray House. 'Hey, junior brother, who did you rob? Which Stronghold was so unfortunate?' Sixth thought.
"..."
Adonis was left speechless as well. The small pile of coins was almost ad tall as him!! It made him guess that they would be at most 300 000 coins in total.
But Damien did not mind their shock. "This is approximately one hundred thousand gold coins. If I were to give them to you, what would do with them?"
"Remember, you're supposed to be a lord, and should use it wisely. For the humans, and for your Stronghold... What would it have been your next step?" He inquired.
And Adonis paused briefly, thinking hard on the question. Fiona was also thinking about the question, and what her response would be.
Meanwhile, both Sixth and Ninth were partially interested at the answer as well.
Fortunately, Adonis did not waste much of their time. "A hundred thousand gold coins, right? I am not sure if this would be feasible, but... with our current circumstances, I'd create an institution that helps everyone understand our current circumstances."
"...With how things are, I think chaos is bound to arise due to the overabundance of powerful people. And our authority might be challenged. But that might not be feasible..."
He paused, and rethought his words. Damien not rushing him and just patiently waiting. Fiona also had a bit of trouble thinking about a solution as well.
"..."
The silence went on for over a few minutes, and both candidates were sweating buckets due to the pressure.
'...no, there's no way I'm going to be able to do something like that... it's practically unfeasible...' Adonis thought in despair.
A hundred thousand gold coins were lot, even as royalty around here.
After all, his monthly wage was only 50 gold coins, and even if he saved up all his life, he still wouldn't have that much amount.
But despite that, it was useless if it had no better purpose at all. Damien also saw through the difficulty of his question, and added a handicap for them.
"Let's say, you have a group of experienced supernatural beings who know of the world, as possible work load for you." He said.
And a light bulb suddenly clicked in Adonis' mind. "Then, is it possible to claim that within the group of supernatural beings, some of them exceed our current limits of power?" He asked.
"Indeed, it's possible." Damien nodded, and this time, Fiona was the one who inquired. "Then are these people loyal to us? Or presumably, to you?"
"Being loyal to me, means that they would listen to you. Or rather... they wouldn't make things hard on you people."
"I see... then that makes things more easier. In that case, my plan of creating an institute would be possible." Adonis said, slightly getting excited, then he explained;
"If we build an institution that teaches us how how to properly harness our powers, that would be great. These supernatural beings would help, if possible, to teach and guide us."
"This way, we could restrain the hard-headed guys, as their loved ones and families would be relying on this new system of ours. They wouldn't dare revolt."
"We could also use this to build connections with the other Strongholds, building institutes within their home grounds as well. Banding us together." He concluded.
His eyes were shining with ambition, almost blazing into blinding flames. Fiona also added, half as excited. "That's a splendid idea. If possible, we could also use it to build special forces that would fight for us."
"After all, from my statistics, there are various kinds of classes, and so far, 70% of them are just auxiliary classes. Examples are "chef", "farmer", "lumberjack" and many such classes."
"If we use these assets, and possibly, the resources sir Damien mentioned, it wouldn't be impossible to support legions of superhumans." She also concluded, and Adonis heavily nodded.
"I had not thought of that. That's amazing, no doubt." He said, forgetting the presence of Damien and his seniors from the Gray House.
Until a moment when he remembered the purpose of this whole conversation. "Ah, sir Damien, I'm really sorry. It seems we got ahead of ourselves." He said, embarrassed.
"Our apologies." Fiona added in embarrassment as well.
"I don't mind it much. Now are you done discussing?" Damien responded lightly, and the duo nodded their heads. 'He seems cool headed and calm.' Adonis thought.
"Now for the second question, in a warfare, where humanity is going against a powerful army than themselves. What would..."
The question and answer process continued, and both Adonis and Fiona answered together. Most times helping each other brainstorm when the other was stuck.
She didn't even realize herself that she was participating in the process, and just did her best to bring out her inputs and solutions.
Half an hour later, Damien nodded in satisfaction at the responses he obtained. While Sixth and Ninth were also impressed, and had their views broadened.
Especially so, as they were both professional killers, and not the types to do management and military tactics. Hence why they also benefited from this.
'Well... from my previous timeline, both of them had superb military and kingdom management feats. I'm not surprised.' Damien thought, as his choices were never made without base.
"Alright, that settles it." He concluded the matter, and Adonis looked up at him, "Then does that mean we..?" His eyes brimmed with expectations.
"Mhm. You're qualified to become a King candidate for this Stronghold. And for that, my initial pack of support would be this..." Damien gave a nod of affirmation, and presented a small pouch to him.
"This is a Tier 3 storage pouch. It has quite a vast space of storage, and has many resources within. Within the next coming month, use them wisely and make a name for yourself."
"There are definitions for each resource within, so this will be my farewell. Oh, and these two seniors of mine, are considered a part of your resources. Use them wisely."
He said, and stood up to leave. Fiona hurriedly following after him. "Farewell, lord Adonis. Hope we meet again soon." She left after that.
She was impressed by their discussions, and felt a bit closer to him than before. Especially when they could both relate as royalties, and... possible future King candidates.
But throughout this, one person was frozen due to shock. "...Huh?" Sixth blurted out after a moment of silence, failing to understand his circumstances.
"Junior brother said that–"
"I heard what he said." He cut off Ninth's words with his own, his tone full of frustration. He then frowned and looked up at Adonis. "Do you dare use me, young future king?"
He asked, his last set of words being laced with ill intentions and killing intent. Adonis felt his soul tremble and hurriedly shook his head with might.
'Sir Damien... this... this isn't a good resource.' He thought, not thinking much on the fact that Damien left him two assassins of the Gray House.
He then sent his will into the Tier 3 storage pouch, and he felt his consciousness expand greatly. 'Wha...What's this?!' He thought in stupor.
His consciousness expanded so much that, he felt like he could store his entire mansion within. But that was just his will entering the storage pouch.
'Calm down... you've been within a vaster, and more beautiful place.' He calmed himself down, and assessed the resources given to him.
The first was a bright spark of light, that transformed the whole storage space into a sea of golden light. It was located at the center of everything, forcing every other resource to circulate it.
'Is that... the Domain sir Damien mentioned? It's spectacular even as an outer shell...' He thought, marveling at the pure wonder before him.
The second resource were approximately a thousand golden stones, glowing like starlight within this space.
Next to them, were a hundred golden-white crystals, and ten mirror-like orbs containing a golden glow within. They all exuded the same presence, the latter being more potent than the former.
'I'm not sure what those are... according to their definitions, they are Mana Stones, Mana Crystals and Mana Cores... wait, is this Mana related to the Mana flowing within me?' He thought.
'I'm not sure, but the definition states so. Then... what can I do with these things? Absorb them? Or do they have more peculiar uses..?' His thoughts continued on.
Until he gave up, and moved on to the next resource. This one was a a bundle of a hundred and fifty purple stones, glowing with resplendency.
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