19 Chapter 19
[||||=LEVEL 19= ||||]
I set out for the wilds of patch early at seven. Ruby was sleeping and wouldn't wake up until eight, being a weekend. Being an early riser now was so odd from sleeping until noon as a teenager in my past life. Raven was asleep too and wouldn't be up until nine. Maybe eight thirty if she was feeling energetic today.
I didn't make breakfast today, which might make some people cranky for the day but I had steaks marinating for dinner today so they can quiet down. I can't be annoyed at them for getting used to making breakfast and dinner. They all pitched in with chores around the apartment and in their work under Roman. I didn't. I did, however, do all the shopping for food through my avatars and do all the cooking.
Raven asked for a receipt once and checked how much I spent. Five hundred lien isn't a big deal for me but Raven collected that from her bandits and paid me back for getting all that food for her clan. She paid her debts.
Going to the wildlands of patch was easy for me. I just used all my magic in a momentum spell, weaken spatial resistance spell, and some wind magic, got out my wings, and flew. I'm not at the speed of sound but I'm definitely going at a few hundred miles an hour. I didn't have to do anything to keep myself fine at high speeds this time too, which was nice. My DEX skill I got at 200 made me completely unaffected by my high speeds.
Patch wasn't that big. A bit more than two thousand five hundred square miles of land, most of it being craggy, dense, cold, and unfit for farming with a somewhat high concentration of grimm of dangerous and rather exotic varieties like most islands big enough to warrant grimm. It also wasn't tropical like most of Vacuo's islands.
So it couldn't be farmland, it couldn't be a tropical paradise, and it had too many grimm to really move into as a population center. So what to do with it? Make it a training ground for huntsmen! There was all that huntsman business going on but patch was also a retirement home of sorts, contributing to it's sleepiness and relaxed air. The bad land,
Roman decided to put a lot of trust in me and bought about sixty square miles of land to start with. That couldn't have been cheap for him. Well, land in Patch was dirt cheap outside the towns. Literally since there was nothing but dirt outside the land. Not even good dirt for farming.
I appreciated his gesture of good faith so I'll make good on it. I settled down about where the map feature of my scroll said I should stop and made a seat of ice. I runed it to not melt and began to meditate. The bonus to my MP regen was 100% with a fully maxed out level, which wasn't to be sniffed at.
Four of my five parallels made tornadoes while my fifth made sure that the tornadoes stayed long enough to really tear up the land and vegetation. I was regenerating 5864.5 mana per minute (x2 with meditation), all of which was being used to wreck shit up, and my air affinity after my modifiers of dominant affinity and all the other stuff I picked up amounted to 2352 air affinity with 296 nature affinity supporting it. Not that the nature did much. Tornadoes were 90% air, 3% nature, 2% chaos, and 5% a whole bunch of other stuff like destruction, motion, and all that. Well, roughly that number of affinities in the tornadoes.
It was a little ridiculous but I'm not complaining. It just made most air magic REALLY easy to cast. I mean I could make a tornado without trying kind of easy. My tornadoes would tear up all this land in about an hour. Then I'd have to move around and bring Raven over to fix my messes with a nice finish and get rid of the cliffs and stuff that I tossed in pieces all over the place. I'd also have to go around breaking down boulders and such that didn't break down properly before I left an area.
I made sure I didn't kill any poor passerbys trekking through the patch wilderness as I wrecked the landscape of course. I did kill plenty of grimm though. It was really fun to pick them up and throw them around. They made a nice crunchy splat when they ran into stuff. I flared my aura to attract them to me before I started a new tornado up sometimes. I got enough XP from them to finally get myself up to level two hundred eight before too long. With that I could equip a second title! How nice! I equipped my Little wizard title, giving me some more mana regeneration and boosting my air affinity a little.
What was really interesting, though, was that when I made my tornadoes and held them around these suckers showed up. I did a more detailed observe to show their stats since their level was so high. It was different than a human or faunus' since it was a creature.
Petty wind elemental (Lv. 387) - An extremely minor elemental born of a high concentration of mana with a wind affinity in this location. As it is born of your mana it is willing to defend you so long as you emit wind aligned mana. It is naturally hostile to other entities besides you and those who emit wind aligned mana. However, you may command them as you wish. They will dispel as wind mana ceases to emit.
Stats
STR: 203
VIT: 424
DEX: 1230
INT: 11
WIS: 35
LUK: 32
AFF: 2000
I had a suspicion that these guys might show up but I wasn't certain. I am, however, absolutely THRILLED that they're here. That I can command them so long as I emit wind aligned mana is even better. They're kind of scary though with how powerful they are.
Elementals were actually really interesting creatures. Mages of old used to contract them in a way. They supplied them with mana of their affiliation and they took commands from their host. Mages were required to have one of the lowest caliber to be called a mage. To summon them in an element was to be considered a wizard in that type.
Elementals contracted to a contractor since they didn't have to compete for affiliated mana there. They had to play a sort of tug-of-war for mana in the same way atoms in a covalent bond fought over electrons. Going to a contractor meant they could bask in all that sweet mana.
They didn't have a distinctive look other than sort of wispy forms of pale blue discolored wind (Probably because unaffiliated mana was blue for some reason) but they did have a mana and aura signature of their own. They passively collected ambient mana and pulsed with the flow of my mana, making my spells stronger.
To command them I tried a few different things before I got it right. I had to combine aura with my mana and use that with my mana. I tried to imbue a sort of feeling of 'come over here and stay here' into my aura and sent it to one of the petty elementals. It immediately turned the crimson red of my own aura and came to me. It sent a little aura with feeling of it's own and I got the distinct feeling of happiness from it that I was talking to it.
Before I continued talking to it it occured to me that I wasn't including my aura with my tornado. It irritated me that I wasn't doing so before and I leaked my own aura into the mass of tornadoes.
Immediately all the elementals turned my aura's red and pulsed their auras with happiness towards me for increasing the amount of energy in the storm. I pulsed the question of why they were so happy to the elemental closest to me and he sent that they grew in number as the storm increased in size and strength as the density of the affinity increased; the size being related to the amount of mana I was using and the density of the affinity being the intensity of my air affinity in the storm.
I grinned and the elementals felt happy as I was happy.
Wanting to brag a little I calmed the air around me and sent an image of Raven to the elementals with the idea of her being a friend. They sent acknowledgement and I opened a portal to Raven. It was only ten o'clock but she went through with a plate of eggs and overcooked bacon in her mouth. As she stepped through she stopped and her arm went limp.
The elemental closest to me caught her plate for her and she stared at it.
"What the hell?" Was her elegant question to what was going on.
"They're elementals. They appear in places where there's a huge amount of an affinity. With all the air affinity in the air from me they popped up. I can command them with my aura since they instinctively want to defend the source of the air affiliated mana."
Raven stared at them contemplatively. "Can I make some?" I snorted.
"Not even. With some trickery you could probably make one but my air affinity is insane. More than three times yours."
Raven nodded. "I remember that only wizards could make elementals without a ritual. Normal arch-mages could make them in rituals… can't you bind them to you? I believe they're called familiars if you do that, right?"
I nodded. "It was a rite of enlightenment for hopefuls looking to become mages. They trained in an affinity for a few years and went to a location with elementals of an affinity they believed they were strong enough in and signalled them somehow, which is through aura by the way. I figured it out myself, and they offer a place in their soul. I'm pretty sure they mean living their soul space by that. Those that could actually summon them were arch-mages."
Raven nodded. "Do you think I could contract one?" I looked to my petty elemental.
"Would you be willing to become her familiar for wind?" I sent. He (He seemed like a he) thought about it for a moment and signalled that he was willing but skeptical as to why he would leave my awesome area dense with wind affinity for her affinities, which were worse.
I rolled my eyes and sent back that there were no air elementals there so he wouldn't have to compete for air affiliated mana. He immediately sent back extreme excitement.
"He's alright with it. You should talk with him. Push a whole lot of a thought or feeling into your aura and send out a little pulse of that aura to him." Raven didn't ask for how and just tried it. Feel it out, as it is.
She figured it out sort of and sent the feeling of questioning as to whether or not he would like to be contracted to her. He sent back a resounding yes and she sent amusement and a sort of list as to what he would have to do. Some murder and choking people out mostly as well as helping to defend her when the need arises.
He agreed easily but sent that she wouldn't exhaust her mana to less than a tenth of what she had. He would die if she ran out so that was fair enough for Raven. A moment of silence passed.
"How do I actually contract him?" Raven asked. I… don't know.
"Put him in your soul space and let him do his thing." I said acting like I knew what I was doing. Why she asked me I don't know.
Raven sighed. "Could you open it for me?" I nodded and moved towards her. I touched her hand and casted an inventory on her. The petty elemental sent a thank you towards me and Raven and moved to the space. He floated into the inventory space swiftly and I closed it. Raven stood still for a second before she hissed and clutched a hand towards her head.
"Oh dust that's uncomfortable!… It's gone now… oh that feels nice." I looked at her puzzled as she sighed with a tiny smile on her face.
"Can you bring him out now or do I have to open your inventory every time?" I asked. Raven closed her eyes and seemed to be conversing with the petty elemental.
"He can come out. He says that he had to saturate himself in my aura but now that he's done so he can come in and out as he pleases. Oh, and I'm giving him a name now. His name is Hawk now."
I didn't mind the naming thing. That was standard. Elementals were always named for convenience. I was more interested in something else.
Wind: 2352 (+100)
So that's how Ozpin did it! I had never read that air elemental's raised your affinity. It made sense though. I should get my own I suppose. I sent a pulse to one of the petty elementals asking to contract him and got a rousing yes. I planned to replace him with a minor elemental eventually though.
I opened my soul and he flew right in. I felt the immense discomfort that Raven had talked about and winced at it. It only lasted a few seconds and faded quickly to a nice feeling. Like a cool breeze on hot skin.
*Ding!* You have contracted a petty wind elemental! +100 to air affinity!
*Ding!* Through contracting an elemental you earned a title: Mage; Little wizard title has been replaced
-Reduces all mana costs by 10%
-Increase all affinities by 20%
-Increase mana by 40%
*Ding!* Through summoning an elemental you earned a title: Arch-mage; Mage title has been replaced
-Reduces all mana costs by 15%
-Increase all affinities by 30%
-Increase mana by 60%
*Ding!* Through summoning an elemental through your own power you earned a title: Wizard; Arch-mage title has been replaced
-Reduces all mana costs by 20%
-Increase all affinities by 40%
-Increase mana by 80%
I stopped and immediately put on the title. My elemental, who I might as well call something… how about Swift? That sounds good. I can hurl spells and let Swift do the work now. Gods, being a wizard was awesome… but I'm nothing compared to Ozpin. He has that horrible modifier on his affinity usage and he still has affinities that vastly outstrip mine. Gods, what does Cinder have to combat that absurd mana?
It's not really a big issue that I lost the 25% bonus to my aura from the little wizard title but I can use mage armor if it comes down to it. The wizard title is by far better.
Anyways, I have to keep tearing up the world. I turned to Raven. "Want to work on your part of the land since you're here?" She chuckled.
"I'm going to introduce Hawk to Ruby first. See if you can make other elementals I can contract, won't you?"
"Yeah, yeah you freeloader." I muttered. Raven laughed and made a portal back that she stepped into. I sighed and went back to playing god with the landscape. Being a force of pure destruction was boring when you only had a forest to wreck. Well it was about to get a lot more interesting soon. Oh! There's a weird looking grimm! What is that anyways? A turtle with eczema- and it's dead. Damn.
[|||| == ||||]
"This is Lisa Lavender here with day four of extreme tornadoes in patch. For two days multiple tornadoes have been tearing the wildlands of patch and after stopping for day three they resurged in full! This happened directly after the purchasing of the property on which the tornadoes occurred by one aspiring businessman Mahogany Armello purchased the land."
"After asking Mahogany about the tornadoes yesterday he replied that he hired a close friend of his by the name of Mystic with no last name given, to create the tornadoes on the property with the intention to grow crops on the harsh landscape of patch. The huntsman has several offered contract from landscapers to the SDC themselves publicly at prices leaning to up to several million lien a year for mass terraforming to mass grimm extermination depending on the details."
"However Mahogany has replied to such statements that Mystic already works for him and has no interest in reaching out to other employers at this time. In response to this Ozpin Meridian has summoned Mystic for a high profile meeting to talk about his previous silence over his semblance. In addition, no paperwork could be found on any huntsman named Mystic with his type of semblance."
"Should we be concerned over the extreme destruction this single huntsman can cause? Is he even a huntsman? It will be decided in this meeting coming live on friday in Vale between Mystic and Ozpin."
"Next up is the potential economic impact of such terraforming on the kingdoms. Stay tuned everyone."
[|||| == ||||]
After a week of terraforming I left it to Raven to get to work on the land with her earth affinity. She did some grumbling about it but I'll be fuelling her with my mana from our shared inventory and that transferring stone. She likes the feeling of being powerful and it's not hard.
With all my work terraforming the stretch of land I've been working on looks like a wasteland. Trees torn out and strewn around. Cliffs half destroyed into hills, their rocks torn from the stony walls and pounded on by wind and whatever was caught in it until they crumbled down.
Raven had her work really quite cut out for her but it wasn't all that bad. Most of what she was doing was just manipulation. Breaking up the earth to be smaller and looser to support crops and the trees and burying the trees and strewn plant debris under the earth. It's not that hard for her.
With it being just earth manipulation she could just dump mana into her affinity to move the earth around. It was like playing god mode in a video game. She could wave her hand and stuff happens. She totally enjoyed it. She was also drinking while she worked. It apparently made it more enjoyable.
At the moment I looked as I did when meeting Roman. Like a taller version of myself basically except for a few things. I had a dark purple streak in my hair and wore a smattering of purple on me as well as the black I tended to wear. I kept my eyes the silver with veins of crimson and my skin rather pale as I did. There was also a little change in facial structure. Slightly lower cheekbones and wider eyes with a larger nose. I had good reason for it. Very good reasons indeed.
I made my way to the conference center where Ozpin and the news team was around one in the afternoon, as I was supposed to. It was unpleasant, though. Very unpleasant.
"Mister Mystic! Mister Mystic! Could you please answer a few questions for us?!"
"Sir! Do you intend to use your semblance for the good of Remnant or for profit?!"
"Excuse me sir if we could have just a minute of your time?!"
"Do you support the white fang, sir?!"
The news teams were like vultures. Luckily a team of security muscled them back for me and I could walk into the building somewhat safely. Somewhat. A few of the stick microphone things hit my face. I'm not sure what they're called.
I entered the conference building and instantly a few glares were sent towards me. Or, more specifically, my ears. Observe marked them all as politicians. They didn't matter.
I didn't know where I was supposed to go so I flashed mage sight and saw Ozpin and a collection of other people including Qrow, Glynda, the council that manages Vale, general James Ironwood, Headmaster Lionheart of haven academy, and Headmaster Straw of void academy in a courtroom seemingly prepared for a sort of hearing. Strange. I was under the impression that this was more of a meeting than a hearing. Well, it's not officially a trial but it may as well be. I had considered it as a possibility. Labelling me a threat to the kingdom would be trivial.
In the audience were reporters already filing in and… oh just the people I wanted to meet. Jacques Schnee, Weiss Schnee, and Winter Schnee. This is going to be a thrilling day.
Actually Ozpin is probably looking to recruit me against Salem and the council is looking to get me under their thumb. Another mage sight with observe showed that a minority of the council had that goal. Most of them wanted to push me into taking jobs for Vale or the SDC. They all had an agreement to put me in Ozpin's seat should I prove agreeable. That might be somewhat nice but no. Too much work when I could just politically control Ozpin… is it weird that controlling the four kingdoms through my criminal empire is easier than being a headmaster?
I walked my way over and entered the room with confidence and the same confident and charming smile as when I walked into the building. It was a little more confidence and charm than calm though.
The small chatter that was prevalent ceased as I entered the room. I calmly walked to the front and stood, as there wasn't a chair.
Ozpin looked at me, clearly knowing I was Abyss with an irritated look in his eyes but a calm exterior otherwise. I'm not sure what he was thinking though.
"Mister Mystic, do you have a family name?"
"Of course." I said smoothly. "My full name is Mystic Macabre Mavros. Some people call me M." Ozpin's hand tightened on his cane and the sound of pens scratching down came from the throngs of reporters and businessmen looking to meet with me came from behind me.
"M then. I'm already familiar with your… son?" Excited whispers rang out.
"Nephew. However, with his parent's murder I am his current guardian if not legally though I am seeking that. I didn't expect to cause such a fuss with my work." The whispering quieted down a bit when Ozpin looked at the crowd sternly. I glanced back and saw a gleam of opportunity in the eyes of the businessmen. Weiss and Winter looked interested as well.
"I see. Let's meet privately afterwards to discuss that." I nodded.
"Oh he's still going to beacon. I understand that the agreement between you two was made though not on equal grounds. I do hope, however, that you don't pressure my nephew to make such decisions further." The whispers grew much but kept themselves down since I was still talking. "He's alright attending so long as you don't continue to control him or otherwise encourage him to work under your… guidance."
My last word was barely heard. Loud talking was occurring and furious typing and writing was being done. I heard a small laughter from Jacques and a smirk on his face. Ironwood looked towards Ozpin with a threatening look. Undoubtedly looking to make me a specialist. If I, the uncle, was so powerful and Ozpin had actually recruited my son early of all things… well, my value just increased to literally everyone in Remnant. I think I could walk out now and fake my death and my identity as Abyss Mavros would be worth it's weight in gold a hundred times over. Since I've got signal behind me as a student I think I'll be alright.
"I'll make a note of that." Ozpin said. "However this meeting is about your excess of power. While the use of it in that land in patch is legal as you have the consent of the landowner you yourself are not a registered civilian or huntsman of Vale. Would you please clarify where you are from and why you aren't registered as a citizen?"
"My life story then?" I joked. Nobody laughed. I coughed uncomfortably. "Well then. I was born in Vacuo, you see. The slums. Not like Vale slums but Vacuo slums, where water becomes worth more than a life and children starve in the streets." I allowed my voice to grow more bitter as I talked.
"I quickly got out of there since I had talent. My brother, however, did not have such talent. I received some training and a shortsword from a huntsman. I had unlocked my aura naturally, you see. It interested him and so I received some training. I didn't enter shade, though. I took on work as a rogue huntsman at the age of thirteen." Some exclamations came from the they quieted themselves down.
"Now, see, by this time I was a really good huntsman for my age already. I had unlocked my semblance, which I call disaster call, and made good work with it to kill hordes of grimm. Sandstorms in desert don't really get noticed. I got paid and made a living. I kept up my work with my shortsword of course. Grimm got through and tried to fulfill their case of the munchies."
"I've kept my work up, met some people, and done some stuff - and before you tell me that done stuff and meeting people isn't important I'll just tell you all that you really shouldn't care so much about my singing practices or who I dated in my free time." Some faint chuckles came from that little joke.
"Now flash to me at about age thirty something and I'm running around Mistral just doing my thing. Killing grimm and meeting people, doing stuff, and get this - I get a letter from friend of mine saying she met a kid who happens to have the same last name as me and my absolutely gorgeous visage." The audience seemed to universally scoff at me but I saw a few blushes in there.
"I pop by and lo-and-behold, my nephew Abyss is there! Him and his cute little sister, Ruby Rose that is. She's a bit like a little sister to him. We talk a little and work through some private family stuff and BAM! Family reunited, I get to be a layabout since I acquired quite a bit of profit being that I'm not a citizen so I can't be taxed and I'm damn good at what I do. My nephew's semblance, which I'm sad to say is more useful than mine if not as powerful, lets me teleport around a bit too so I can even wander when it suits me though I don't do that as much anymore."
"And the name of this friend of yours?" Ozpin said while adjusting his glasses. He reached for the glass of water on his little judge table and took a sip.
"Oh it was Mahogany. He's the reason I started on the whole patch thing in the first place. Abyss knows him and he knows me so he put two and two together and called me over."
Ozpin nodded. "I see. Could you elaborate on your semblance?"
"Sure." I nodded. "Though it's called disaster call it actually makes disasters. Well, not that many but I can get more with practice. Sandstorms, tornadoes, storms and hurricanes, blizzards, tsunamis, and a heatwave. I never had a need for anything else. I tried earthquakes once really far out in the wilds but it's too widespread and hard to control so I never use them. I make sure there's nobody around when I use my semblance but it's kind of rough sometimes. Really! I do! I'm not looking to kill any poor fool! Nobody's died, which is kind of a miracle really, but there's been a few broken legs and arms, one guy went into a coma for a few days, and one guy I had to do CPR on when he was doing his girlfriend on the b-" A glare came from Ozpin and I shut up. "Oh. Kiddie language. Right. Anyways, I felt more injured than the guy since I had to lock lips with him but he was fine and we had a drink afterwards."
"I see. Thank you for your time. We will take a half hour recess to discuss this."
"What am I supposed to do with a half hour?!" I complained.
"Mingle." He said with a hint of snark. I sighed heavily and wore a resigned and enduring expression as I marched out of the room.
I was pretty much immediately snatched by Jacques. Did he bribe somebody just to get to me first?
"Hello! I'm Jacques Schnee, CEO of the Schnee dust company. I'm quite interested in hiring you off the bat. I can do quite a lot, you realise. Making this whole court business go away, getting Ozpin off your nephew, drawing up the adoption papers, and a very generous pay. What are your thoughts?" His facial expression was good. He looked benevolent, honest, and entirely devoid of any motives. He even had a twinkle in his eye like some sort of jolly Santa Clause.
"Thank you for your kind offer Mister Schnee." I said with a sort of honesty. Really I do think the guy intended to actually hire me and not toss me into a dust mine but I honestly can't work for him. He'd doubtlessly be a full time employer and I can't do that. I've got to stick with Mahogany *Cough* Roman *Cough* for my plans of culturing magical plants. If I'm hard on cash then sure I'll cause some stuff to happen here but not now.
"I do appreciate the offer, really, but I've a nephew to raise and a job I'm quite happy with. I can probably do some independant jobs for you but not very often." Jacques didn't lose his jolly attitude, mirroring my own.
"Of course! I was hopeful but I understand that time is a resource you can't spare. I've actually got a different one then. A partnership with the business you're backing. Taking it to a more global level. It's to my understanding that you wish to sell only to Vale for the moment, correct?"
I nodded cheerfully. "For now yes but we'll certainly move to a larger scale soon."
Jacques nodded. "But do you know what you'll be cultivating? How to plant them? Where you'll be getting the labor for said venture? How will you deal with the legalities of the company? How to deal with the criminal elements or grimm? You've a good idea and I'm willing to support it but do you know just how to move to such a large scale so soon?"
"Oh Mahogany and I have most of the details down." I said without concern. "The cultivation and planting will be easy with the crop we're going to grow, which is staying private for now. We plan on building a company town to let them live in peace and export the crop back to us. Legalities are being dealt with by Mahogany. Criminal elements are already dealt with. As for labor… well you might not like this part."
Jacques let his mouth twitch a little into a tiny smirk. "Oh?"
I smiled. "The poor faunus. We'll just treat them fairly and offer a settlement of our own. It's not going to be terribly hard to build a town owned by Mahogany's company so we'll invite faunus there and offer them a sort of new life. Plenty will be skeptical at first but with my moment of fame here I'm sure my and Mahogany's company can serve as a sort of symbol of equality or somesuch. It isn't a large goal to do that though."
Jacques nodded thoughtfully. "I see… This talk has proved quite informative. Ah, here." Jacques reached in a pocket in his suit's inner pocket and pulled out a business card.
"My personal scroll number. I'm sure we have plenty more to talk about." I raised an eyebrow but shrugged it off.
"Of course. I'll call you if an opportunity between the two of us arises." Jacques left directly after that. I can't say if my presentation was quite right but I got the point of it to him I think.
My point being that I don't want into the SDC's bed unless there's a damn good reason to do so.
The rest of the day passed in a sort of boring string of questioning from Ozpin and influence from the council. People trying to win me over, a few attempts at blackmail, and generally just boring politics. Jacques apparently left right after meeting with me, thank dust for that.
Finally at the end of the day the court made to a verdict - I mean the meeting ended. Because this wasn't a court case obviously. I was to be granted a Vale citizenship and left to do my thing with a swear to not attempt to murder everybody in Vale, which I agreed to easily. It took a good deal of blackmail from my end and a lot of sitting through pompous businessmen and a few councilmen to get to that. Sadly I didn't get to speak with Ironwood, Lionheart, or anybody important in the occasional recesses from the meeting.
Before I left, however, Ozpin pulled me aside and spoke to me lowly. "Abyss." He said with some menace. "Don't play these games out of the blue. There's enough on my plate and everybody else's that we don't need you stirring the pot." And with that said he left me promptly.
I watched him leave and simply walked off.
[|||| == ||||]
"Absurd… simply absurd…"
"Father?"
"Weiss… this Mystic Mavros is capable of turning a useless, poor plot of land to a fertile and flat stretch of land. That and a heatwave allow much for the SDC but of equal interest is his son, Abyss Mavros. Abyss is capable of creating portals to any location he has been before. Any at all. This eliminates travel costs entirely for large exports of dust."
"I… I see."
"Additionally, this company of his, nature's bounty, is just starting up yet it has reached a large scale so quickly. Mystic's public proclamation of wages sent faunus flocking to patch like flies. He already constructed a town. But of course that's not all obviously."
"The crop?"
"Exactly. Red sap. A single jar can go for upwards of six hundred lien outside of Vale. The problem is it's scarcity. The fall is too difficult to tap industrially. But Mavros figured out not only how to grow the trees but to make land fertile. Their first harvest is expected in april. But they aren't tapping forever fall. He has several square miles of trees, the laborers to tap it fully, and the land with their trees keeps expanding due to his efforts. And as if that's not all of it there have been hints of more crops."
"You… father, if I may be so blunt what are you getting at?"
"Nature's bounty isn't an open stock company. It is owned solely by Mister Mahogany, who is reclusive and refuses face to face meetings, and Mister Mavros, who is co-owner of the company. Obviously the company is going to great heights but we aren't in on it. So we'll find another way."
"Are you speaking of an arranged marriage, father?"
"Not quite. Abyss Mavros is included as the inheritor of both Mahogany's and his uncle's shares in the company. He is the heir to the company in full. An arranged marriage would be beneficial but not to the point that we should actively pursue it. I speak of befriending him and using said friendship to bring our companies into a partnership. If a marriage results from your closeness then all the better."
"I… I don't understand, father. How would we achieve this?"
"At the moment Abyss Mavros is attending signal academy. You will be following him in his second year. You have expressed desire to become a huntress and have acquired some skill the rapier. You will be the heiress but you will grow closer to Abyss through your studies together. When he inherits the company you will stay friends and our companies will not come to blows."
"Father… what prevents us from simply ruining their company?"
"Roman Torchwick, for all intents and purposes the ruler of Vale's underworld with his complete conquest of Vale's criminal element coming to a close likely before summer, is backing the company."
"... Oh."
"Oh indeed. It hasn't been a secret that Roman Torchwick has had some sort of backer. His rise has been far too smooth to be otherwise assisted. I believe this backer to be Mahogany and Mavros."
"Father, are you insinuating that nature's bounty, a rising star of a company, has a hunter undoubtedly on par with Ozpin himself at it's head, holds a monopoly over a valuable crop, can use land no other company can, and owns Vale's criminal underworld on top of all of that?"
"On the contrary they have something else as well."
"Dust almighty…"
"The white fang recently sent a public message of support towards the practices of Mystic and nature's bounty. They claim that they will react accordingly with any movements towards the company and have herded faunus towards their expanding company town to assist with the company. I expect that they will attempt a movement towards Abyss Mavros and to gain a say in the workings of the company."
"Father… when will all of this be happening?"
"The white fang is currently searching for a suitable representative to send. Mystic Mavros is requesting that the company receives one in the summer so he may first deal with the continuing set-up of his company but has publicly stated that so long as the representative is not wanted in the four kingdoms they will shelter them. You will be meeting with not only Abyss Mavros but also a representative of the SDC's enemy. See to it that you acquire some influence with the Mavros heir and avoid agitating the representative of the white fang."
"I understand father."
"It is imperative that you truly do. Your lessons in etiquette will be cut by a half. The Mavros' don't care extensively for etiquette themselves. Your lessons in your rapier will be doubled in length. Business lessons will be increased as well. You'll have no more musical lessons to make time for these. Do not disappoint me, Weiss. This is a turning point in your life."
"I understand father."
"Good."
[|||| == ||||]
I spent most of the break continuing to tear up the land. It actually did wonders for my air affinity and a small bit of good for my nature affinity. I also got started on growing the red blooms. It wasn't too efficient at first. The red blooms could grow with the grow spell, being that they were alive but it was inefficient. I found the problem pretty quickly. They needed a corruption element in the grow spell to grow at their full potential. The grow spell worked but it didn't work as well.
I found through mana sense that the corruption affinity was directly imbued into the tree's body. As the tree grew so too did the corruption affinity. The two were directly related.
I also did a few tests on red sap and found that the allergies in the show? Yeah, that wasn't… well it was an allergy but it was a magical allergy. If you had a purity affinity your body rejected it, being that pure things and corrupt things don't get along. If you had a corruption affinity the sap would probably taste amazing. Sadly I have a purity affinity so I'm allergic. Damnit.
While I was growing the first orchard of red sap trees my parallels were making a huge runic matrix spanning miles. It contained the corruption element inside the circle from getting outside and neutralized it with a purity affinity. I made it so that the circle collects mana from the air to fuel itself. It was so big that it could store plenty of mana in it without trouble. I also made huge circles devoted to collecting and storing mana branching out under the orchards. It's purity element also functioned to repel the grimm.
The whole matrix wasn't a circle, of course. I had the rather ambitious goal of creating plants that were the opposite of the red blooms that created purity mana. There would also be other sorts of mana plants like the ice trees from Vacuo and whatever else I could find.
To fuel the circle for now though I had to give it a purity element occasionally to clash with the corruption affinity the red blooms emit so as not to attract grimm or, if possible, create them. I'm not sure if grimm are corruption elementals or not. Of course, the more dense the affinity the better it will hold as it spreads and the longer it takes to dilute from taking in all that ambient mana. The obvious solution was to flare my eyes and push all that beautiful purity mana into the circle. So when the circle finished I did.
I felt like my soul was burning with a warm fire. Like standing next to a fire as the world was cold. It was a good feeling. My eyes flared out with purity mana like that of a maiden's. It was a good feeling. My other affinities were repressed, however. I couldn't touch them since purity was so consuming. Swift was fine though. He just stayed in the little pocket of air affinity that I couldn't touch.
With a circle set up to make the area around the red blooms safe from grimm and the blooms themselves I had other matters to attend to. The white fang.
The fang sent a few different messages to me and I sent some back. Sienna was a lovely person actually. She admired me in fact. That I could 'beat the humans at their own game' was inspiring to many in the fang. We chatted and she agreed to send a representative so long as I agreed to shelter them. I agreed and added a list of requirements for a representative to be sent around summer since I had school to attend to. I might be able to take time off from that though with all that's going on. I wasn't really learning anything anyways. SubI was the only class worth attending.
Roman himself was getting pretty overworked though. Setting up the company along with taking the criminal underworld was taxing on him. So he hired an assistant. Well, he asked me for one. So I found one for him and he agreed and we hired her. Her name was Neopolitan. I had expected somebody else but Neo did well at her job so I backed off. If she worked there's no reason to complain.
Neo was a really nice girl actually, and she could talk. She just didn't like to. She was a prominent independent contractor that did plenty of things. From assassination to bodyguarding to abductions to information and even torture. Enforcing the criminal empire was new though.
Neo was introduced to Raven of course. Neo was Roman's second with his empire but she knew Raven was in charge through and through. Raven made that very clear through a spar with her.
Neo began enforcing Roman's empire and keeping everything in line and became a somewhat feared face. It used to be that you could screw around and get a strongly worded letter from Roman. Then you screwed around again and you were replaced. Now, though, you screw up and you get to go face to face with Neo, which was generally terrible news for you.
Roman sent out orders that were followed without question with Neo making sure the bosses followed them and Raven kept making sure Roman didn't pull something and knocking out gangs. She also kept working on using earth magic on the land I tore up to expand them for later.
Back to Roman, though. With his criminal empire becoming low maintenance with Neopolitan as his second (The two worked extraordinarily well together and her position was quickly made clear) he could focus on the legal end of his work. Nature's bounty, our company was called.
As we were becoming important fast people wanted a piece of the pie. We didn't sell stock whatsoever but that didn't stop a flood of letters from coming in asking on some sort of deal.
Some of them were fair. I shelled out and bought supplies to tap the trees and the dust to make everything work and enough materials to house a few hundred faunus in the little town we were building to work the trees. We needed people to tap the trees, transport the sap, package the sap, make sure nobody was playing dirty like smuggling or some such, and whoever was needed to keep everything working.
Roman had acquired some incredible management skills from playing as an underworld boss and picked the people for the town and whatever was needed for it himself. I was so happy with him that I got him a few gifts. A coffee machine, a few bags of high quality beans, and I runed some of his equipment. His mugs, for example, held the heat of the liquids in it better now. Roman thanked me with a "Merry christmas, boss. I've got a company to run so I can't really get you a gift but I appreciate the effort." and got back to his work. He was really quite busy.
Anyways, besides the equipment and people I called Jacques and negotiated the delivery of dust to make my little town run and the equipment to make it a decent space. He and I worked out some prices, persuasion leveled up a few times, haggling reached level fifteen from level one where it was at before, and all I had to do was make a few portals as Abyss to transport the dust and some other things to Vale. Jacques would have the things to transport and a warehouse to put it in ready in a week.
Handling everything was… exhausting. If I didn't have my parallels to work out the runic matrix and the creation of new land I think I would have a heart attack from all the stress. I didn't get to do anything with Ruby for the week and she tried her best to be understanding. She could see that I was working hard.
Luckily I had a little trump card of mine. Remote avatar. The avatar spell allowed me to make Abyss Mavros to go and deal with school while I dealt with the real work as Mystic. But I only had the spell at level fifty at the beginning of the break. Now it was at seventy eight. I could keep an avatar all the way in Vale while I did what I pleased. Be at two places at once, basically.
Finally after that whole work frenzy (not much of a break) I took a few days off for christmas. Just a small break for everything to settle down. The fuss over nature's bounty settled down and all of Vale seemed to just stop and take a breather. I'm taking one too. I've had enough work for now.
[|||| == ||||]
"Blake Belladonna. I suppose you're wondering why you're here."
"Yes, high leader Sienna."
"I suppose you've heard about nature's bounty? The new corporation in Vale?"
"Whispers but nothing truly informative, high leader."
"Hmph. Well they're a new business backed by a newly emerged powerful huntsman. A faunus huntsman by the name of Mystic Mavros and co-owned by a man named only as Mahogany. He's more of a paper pusher to my understanding through our correspondence.
"His company has become a rather… large issue for Vale. They've developed a plethora of advantages. They can farm the forever fall trees of Vale and industrialize the process of tapping the trees for their sap, an expensive seasonal export of Vale's, and using Mystic's semblance creatively have the power to turn the poor and harsh land of patch to a rich flatland suitable for farming or running an orchard of red blooms, as they're using it.
"The company is unique in that the public face of it is a faunus. A powerful faunus that has now grown to influence and has nothing but a promise of growth. The company has hired poor faunus for it's labor and given them a better chance at life. Plenty have placed faith in the company as of now. The white fang is no different except that we have taken it further. The company of nature's bounty is to be aided by us as a sort of haven for faunuskind. A symbol of what we can do and our power as a people. That's what people will see when they see nature's bounty in contrast to the cruelty of the SDC.
"As a representative of the white fang for the rising company you, as Ghira's daughter, are to show that the white fang are willing to take equality and not simply attack humanity. A concept your father strives for. Show that we use violence to stand up for ourselves and not to lash out. Nature's bounty is an example of beating the human's at their own game. Something I had a good laugh about.
"But… why me?"
"Normally I'd prefer a more experienced diplomat but… well the requirements for a person Mystic would accept are rather demanding for us but reasonable. You're one of the few options we have."
"I think I understand. So I'm to represent the white fang's peaceful ideals publicly as a representative in this company?"
"Yes… well, except for one small thing. You see, the heir to the company, Abyss Mavros, who is also the nephew of Mystic Mavros. He's a powerful huntsman in training attending signal. It occurred to me that being a public figure it would be useful to have a public supporter of our own. Nature's bounty is a start towards representation of faunuskind. Not representation."
"Are you suggesting I become a huntress?"
"I'm suggesting a lot of things. To become a public huntress that shows what faunuskind can do, as Mystic has. To grow closer to Abyss and bring nature's bounty to a more publicly pro-faunus point of view. It passively helps the faunus as is but to actively show faunus pride would help more. I'm certain more opportunities will arise on the job. Do you believe you are up to the task?"
"... Will Adam be with me?"
"Adam will be assigned as the head of our Vale branch and manage operations there in a few years. I plan for two years. More experience will hopefully allow for him to cool his temper and grow as a leader before taking on a higher position."
"I see… yes. Yes I will do this. When can I start?"
"This summer you will enter signal as a second year. Adam said you were competent in your weapon and recently discovered your semblance. Grow those talents. To stand above and show what we as a people are capable of you will need to train. There will be eyes on you. I will be taking over your training due to the seriousness of this mission. I have the time for it at the moment. Adam has already agreed."
"Yes, high leader."
"That said, we start tomorrow. Fern, the guard who escorted you in, knows your schedule. Go."
"Yes high leader."
"And stop calling me that. We'll be seeing each other far more often this spring. Call me Sienna."
[|||| =NEXT LEVEL= ||||]
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