Chapter 175: The Poor Rely on Mutation, the King Relies on Money Piles (23)

Mages use the Soul Linking Magic Ring to both strengthen their souls and acquire mana.

Therefore, mages can not only sense mana, but also sense the power of the Magic Ring and the power of the soul.

In the lower rings, more precisely, among mages below the Eighth Ring, the three are almost indistinguishable.

But in Luosen's eyes, there is a clear hierarchy among them.

The order of power is: Magic Ring power level 1, soul power level 2, mana power level 3.

Originally, it was thought that there was nothing between the Magic Ring and the soul.

As it turns out, there still is!

Thus, on the night he obtained the True Name Dao Marker, Luosen personally cultivated in the underground secret chamber of Swan Castle.

During cultivation, he clearly felt the boundless Magic Ring power, as vast and infinite as cosmic void.

He also felt his own soul, like a solid planet drifting in the universe.

The planet is his soul, and the atmosphere enveloping its surface is his mana.

Because Luosen's mana has reached the peak of the Ten Rings, no further power from the Magic Ring's cosmic void descends onto the planet.

Only when Luosen's mana is consumed, his soul slightly weakens from outputting mana, does the Magic Ring regain power transfer to replenish that loss.

That is to say, in dynamic equilibrium, Luosen can only replenish mana from the Magic Ring, and cannot strengthen his soul.

But now, on the surface of his soul-planet, a tiny conduit has directly appeared, continuously pouring a gentle force into Luosen's soul.

Compared to Luosen's soul, the amount of water flowing from the conduit is tiny—perhaps even after a year it would not increase strength by 1%.

But this is still progress beyond the hundred-foot pole.

He is at the peak of the Ten Rings; what would another 1% be? Luosen hardly dares to imagine.

"Mother Nature said the Eleven Rings are divergent; if I break through into them, what would happen?"

Until it's clear, one must not act recklessly!

Thus, Luosen decided: "Temporarily reduce the training frequency of the Soul Linking Magic Ring, using this strange power to substitute for part of my soul's consumption, to maintain the balance of soul strength."

But merely maintaining is not enough; research is also needed.

As an Earth visitor, he couldn't help but have an idea.

"This is very likely the faithful's divine power."

"This power is so subtle that I can barely perceive it; naturally, those below the Ten Rings cannot detect it."

"If I understand this power, perhaps I can safely break through to the Eleven Rings."

How to understand it? Of course, by conducting various experiments.

"But this experiment has never been done before; it's research from zero to one, extremely difficult, and the investment will certainly be huge."

Why do it?

Of course we must do it!

He wants to witness the splendor of the Eleven Rings, so he must do it.

But how to do it requires careful consideration.

Because this experiment involves soul research, it's easy to stray onto the evil path and earn the infamy of depraved wickedness.

Luosen values his reputation and does not want to be cursed for that.

After careful thought, he decided to emulate the process of developing new drugs on Earth.

"First test on mammals, seeking answers from pigs, sheep, and dogs. Once we have sufficient experience and safety assurance, we will experiment on monkeys. Finally, we will seek human volunteers."

After deciding, Luosen began writing the experimental plan.

As he wrote, he realized the experimental investment was indeed huge—without several million Ogres, it couldn't be undertaken.

For a powerless mage, one could only sigh in helplessness, turn to the evil path and be killed, or else gamble one's life on luck.

"Fortunately, I am now a Duke and can afford this money."

"But right now, money is being spent everywhere; we need to raise funds quickly."

"Switching to paper money is one option, but this merely reallocates resources of Weilan Giant Island, with a safety ceiling."

"If money is printed without restraint, hyperinflation will immediately erupt."

"Therefore, to obtain more money, we must also earn it through trade with various nations."

"Of course, we must first accomplish the initial step."

While pondering, Luosen completed the preliminary experimental plan; after writing it, he did not keep it but scanned it into the Laifu Database and then destroyed the original.

The night passed in silence.

The next morning, Luosen immediately rose and hurried to the newly established paper money printing factory beside Swan Castle, also known as the Weilan Mint.

The factory uses Levinde-produced high-quality printing equipment, employing Kao's green-pattern paper, and then matches it with Weige's newly developed ink.

The printing equipment cost nothing; it was found among the supplies detained by the Levinde merchant.

Levinde secretly sabotaged him; his earlier words naturally count for nothing, and the total value of about three million Ogres' worth of supplies was naturally confiscated by him.

But one must admit, Weilan is truly a desert of magical technology, almost a completely impoverished rural area.

In every aspect, society's technology lags far behind the three great kingdoms of the Alliance.

To catch up and surpass across all fields requires not only tremendous effort but also massive financial investment.

"In the future, purchasing magical equipment from various countries will certainly cost a large sum; fortunately, patents have not yet appeared in this era."

Luosen plans to proceed in two steps.

He will take the imitation route, first solving the problem of going from nothing to something, then solving the problem of going from something to good.

Returning to the subject: "Click~click~click~"

The printing factory has already commenced operations.

A large group of native Weilan apprentices, under the guidance of a batch of high-priced printers hired from Kao, began attempting to print exquisite first-edition banknotes.

Luosen, accompanied by the newly appointed Mint Bureau Director, inspected everything one by one.

Finally, the two arrived at a special arcane workroom underground in the printing factory.

In the laboratory, a group of Four-ring Arcane Masters had already taken their positions.

The Arcane Masters numbered a full 100, all commoners from Weilan, with no blemish on their record, clean family backgrounds, and an average age of around 35.

These people were basically newly promoted Arcane Masters, previously stuck at the peak of the high stage, always just a hair's breadth away from a breakthrough.

But after the release of Luosen's Cultivation Path, a large number of Four-ring Masters emerged within a few months.

The workroom was very spacious, equipped with a constant-temperature ventilation formation that ran nonstop twenty-four hours a day, and the indoor lighting was bright yet soft.

In short, the working environment was very comfortable.

There were twenty rows of long tables, with five Arcane Masters seated at each row.

At the head of each long table lay a large stack of printed rectangular banknotes, about the size of half an adult's palm; the paper was crisp and hard, and possessed waterproof, oil-resistant, and tear-resistant qualities, among others.

Because of the huge quantity, with costs spread out, the unit cost came to about 0.5 copper klei, equivalent to five mao of Chinese currency on Earth.

There are currently five denominations: 100, 50, 20, 10, and 5, with the unit being the klei formerly used for copper coins.

The Arcane Masters have also begun work.

Following the standard procedure, they picked up the ink‑dried banknotes, and starting with the first Arcane Master, they applied the anti‑counterfeit arcane seal in five steps onto the exquisite banknotes.

The anti‑counterfeit arcane seal was named the "Three‑Color Seal".

It was designed by Luosen with great effort, incorporating a deep understanding of the 'Force of Steel,' the 'Force of Nature,' and the 'Force of Pure Water,' and then fitted with a constant magical lock that even he himself could not break.

Its appearance is exquisite and eye‑catching; in sunlight it displays a dazzling tri‑color glow, and when touched with a finger it gives the toucher a very wonderful feel, somewhat like the delicate smoothness of a young woman's skin—overall, it feels exceptionally pleasant to the touch.

The Arcane Masters could of course not grasp the essence contained within the Three‑Color Seal.

Their work consisted merely of infusing a thread of their own mana into the dedicated Three‑Color Seal, then imprinting the strange power produced by the seal onto the fixed position on the banknote.

As low‑ring mages, they cannot sense high‑ring power, yet with the aid of high‑ring magical devices forged by high‑ring mages, they are able to employ refined high‑ring power.

Crack—crack~~crack!

Under the dedicated positioning clamp, the banknotes flowed like water across the long table, finally entering a square frame where the quality inspector in the next room examined them, confirmed they were problem‑free, and then proceeded with standard packaging.

Besides that, there was an independent team of reviewers operating within the workroom.

Whether during work hours or off‑hours, reviewers and mint personnel were forbidden from any form of communication.

Moreover, the reviewers were rotated periodically to prevent them from becoming familiar faces to the mint staff.

Furthermore, there were many higher supervisory bodies implementing cross‑check, leak‑proof oversight to ensure that every banknote's disposition could be traced.

Throughout the entire inspection, Luosen remained silent.

Soon he arrived at the frame holding the finished banknotes and examined them closely.

The design on this banknote was obtained by inviting all the art masters of the Natural Alliance, for which he paid a design fee of 2000 ogres.

The obverse bears a dignified half‑length portrait of him in formal attire, while the reverse shows the outline of Weilan's map, together with phantom images of aircraft, Black Stone warships, and so on.

Finally, various intricate anti‑counterfeit patterns were added, along with the highly distinctive Three‑Color Seal, making the banknote look both exquisite and magnificent—almost like a work of art.

After examining it for a while, he nodded and praised, saying, "Very good."

After adding the Three‑Color Seal, the final cost of each banknote is one klei.

In other words, a single one‑klei banknote can be exchanged for at least five copper klei, creating an extra four klei out of thin air.

These four klei constitute the minting tax that Duke Weilan Luosen collects.

The Mint Bureau Director accompanying him was none other than Gos Master, the father of Cavendi and former director of the Artillery Research Bureau.

The old fellow was getting on in years and could no longer handle the 'Booming Thunder' cannons; his son Alshut could now bear the main responsibility, and Luosen appreciated his meticulous character, so he invited him to oversee the Mint Bureau.

Now it seems this decision was excellent, for the banknotes are not only of good quality but also very stable, just like the cannons the old man used to make.

Seeing Luosen satisfied, he too was pleased, yet he still felt the banknotes were rather insubstantial.

"Duke, it's not just me; we all have this doubt."

"Can such a small‑denomination bearer note actually work?"

Previously, the smallest notes were 50 ogres, even as high as 1000 ogres; now the largest is under 50 klei, which amounts to only half a cron's worth of money.

How many of these need to be printed to meet market demand?

Luosen laughed: "In the past, nobles were extremely wealthy; spending money didn't pain them, and they would casually spend hundreds or thousands of ogres, tens of thousands being common."

Now everyone is a Weilan citizen; the average annual income is under 10 ogres, which equals about 150 notes of 100 klei—you know, roughly a stack this thick.

Luosen casually picked up a small stack of banknotes and said, "Using them wouldn't be just right, would it?"

Gos still couldn't see it: "Wouldn't that require an awful lot of notes? Our mint's output isn't enough either."

It may seem like a lot, but after a day's work the total face value of the produced notes is still under 4000 ogres.

There's no rush to roll it out; let's first pilot it in Monte County, see if the market responds well, then scale up production.

After a while, he went to Gos's office and said, "Old sir, have we now accumulated about fifty thousand ogres' worth of notes?"

Yes, the warehouse holds a total of fifty‑four thousand ogres of notes of all denominations.

Good; please keep building up your stock here—ideally to three hundred thousand ogres' worth of notes. I've also started promoting the idea in the market.

(End of chapter)