Chương 156: Chapter 3-155 - More than One Kind of Pyramid Scheme

-Predictably, they went apeshit. They were also among the first ones to pay full price and get their hands on one to take apart. - Sama's /chortle sounded quite smug as I cooked some fish over a fire for Reynard and Turk. It wasn't that they didn't enjoy fish raw, but hanging around Humans rapidly made them aficionados of strange and different foods, and that included us 'ruining' it by burning it.

Of course, I was being careful here about exactly what was cooking, saving the wild taste they preferred, and little brushes of sauce were ghosting across it and making both of them drool as golden liquids dripped down into the fire and vaporized, filling the air with a certain scent or six. If anything had dared to get within a mile of us, they probably would have attacked us just for the fish.

-Yeah, I imagine ripping their new Amulets open and finding the Formations we used had absolutely jack shit to do with Soul Remnants and Undeath Magic was horrifying to them. - My tear-down of the Mana Gathering items had been more about finding the effect they used that pulled in Mana, rather than replicating the methods they used. I wasn't going to use any form of Necromancy in such stuff, not the least because it was stupid, expensive, and very inefficient.

We'd only come out with the most basic Mana Amulets at this point, a point of Mana every ten minutes, really only suitable for Novices... although plenty of Adepts were grabbing them up, because free Mana was free Mana. Putting a hundred of them on the market the first day for bidding drew a tremendous reaction, people going crazy at the opportunity to get such things for themselves, even if they were low power.

Then there was a hundred more the second day, the third day, the fourth, and people realized that we really could make a bunch of these things, and that it wasn't even that hard. The Novice Amulet could be made in two days by a Typeless wizard, artificer, or alchemist, once they learned the Formation and how to empower it. Actually, the hardest part of the job was making the masterwork Amulet to be Infused, since it all had to be done by hand or magic, no machinery.

Naturally enough, if they wanted to pay an additional fee, a qualifying Amulet of their own personal design could be so empowered... And, hey, we had some people in India now who could help with those things, both on the carving and the Infusing side! -Cameron has been informed that certain members of the Dow Family Council are going green and purple, - Sama /laughed.

-They don't realize that the alchemical operations are going to generate MUCH more passive revenue, once the investments are fully made, and the Amulets are more about individual production with a referral fee attached. - -And gouging the wealthy hard when the improved varieties come out in a year or so. - Get some good solid experience with the carving and Infusing under their belts, then start making the higher QL Amulets with one Mana/minute draw rates for Adepts. -You know it! - Sama /agreed cheerfully.

After all, there were a lot of wealthy people who wanted the best in all things, just begging for us to take their money. Even if they potentially had the patience to wait until the cost came down, did they really dare to do so when their friends and rivals had their own Amulets and were using them to speed along the progress of their younger heirs? Sama had passed down that high-power Amulets of Mana Gathering, although very cool, were not a high priority for anyone outside the Allegiance.

Inside the Allegiance, demand was not as high with the Refactory Towers available. More Novice Amulets for low-level Mages were easier, just as profitable, and demand for them would never run out. The higher-level ones were only 'better' to make if there was a scarcity premium on them, and with the significantly higher demands on skill, concentration, time, Burned gold, and Caster Level, would basically be individual commissions... which we would ream the fuck out of the wealthy for their vanity items, sure enough.

That still meant we were going to be basically churning them out vs the three Families currently making them. Said Families, after a rather deadly bout of internecine warfare, weren't really in any great shape to be trying to lean on us, especially since all the manufacturing was done in White Magic Zones, and, well, in India there were at least two Families backing each and every one of the places with a zeal that bordered on the outrageous.

Of course, the Amulets were also great theft targets, but it is amazing what a White Mana Zone did to the many thieves with their eyes set on them. A -20 to effective Caster Level of all their variant styles of stealthy magicks basically neutered all of them, and they didn't have the mundane skills to fall back on to do the job correctly.

That had naturally resulted in going after the purchasers of the things, and after the fact finding out that we had ways to track the Amulets if the purchasers chose to buy that service. If done quickly enough, it could result in a captured thief, buyer, middleman, and often a bunch of cash being bandied about, as well as often-increased tensions between the Families who were usually the victims and the other Families who were the beneficiaries of the thefts.

Business as usual in a world where laws were for the weak, and the strong and immoral did as they liked until someone stronger put them down. There were certainly many offers from multiple governments and some really big businesses to buy every single Mana Gathering Amulet we could make up, which went a whole lot of nowhere when we were auctioning them off and making the real money that way. Those who had money wanted to spend it, and we were more than happy to help them do so.

We already had minimums, so they knew our bottom line, but the demand for the things was potentially every single mage on the planet. We would never run out of demand, and the prices we charged friends and family was going to be much, much less than everyone else, of course. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Needless to say, lots of Typeless mages and their families were going to profit by this.

Having an Amulet for the first years of your Magery was a nigh-priceless benefit, and they all knew it. Helping some rich kid satisfy his parents was much less important than helping your own family get ahead, and extorting the rich so you could afford to do just that was basically a given! It was also the real, hidden benefit to the twenty Indian Families who'd signed up with us.

In five years, they'd have a new generation hopefully years ahead of their rivals, along with lots and lots of Typeless Casters making good money. The only thing we had to do was clamp down on their greed and raise the standards of living around them, which Families often were extremely uncaring about. If they wanted to get ornery about claiming profits, they'd find out that Typeless could work just about anywhere, and putting up and taking down White Mana Zones wasn't all that hard for our people...

But they were making bank, they were under Oaths, and the best revenge was success. If it hamstrung the Anjaesilim, well, that was only something to approve of... The Sage of the Anjaesilim could have made a move, of course, and probably had the power to make the twenty Families' lives Hell if he did, too. Of course, he'd heard a rumor that the Sage DuPont had gone missing after an operation against Coralost had gone wrong, and just where did those White Mana Zones come from, and all those Typeless mages?...

That wasn't to say there wasn't pressure coming from thralls, vassal Families, and Hunters under contract, but, funny thing. When you suddenly have a lot of income, you can hire mercs of your own, and if there was one thing Sama and Briggs were good at, it was encouraging a very over-the-top fighting spirit against people who preferred to move in the shadows and stay as blameless as possible.

Sama was also really good at finding out who issued certain contracts to certain assassins and such, courtesy of the skulls of said killers, and removing the entirety of assassin networks and Families was like one of her favorite methods of relaxation. It had been a fun and relaxing romp over the Indian subcontinent for Sama the past few months.

At this point she had racked up a kill total of over a thousand Thuggee and wiped clean four separate temples of the assassin cult, with network charts built up of over ten thousand informers, safehouses, spies, and businesses related to them who were being moved on piecemeal, vengeance claimed, assets taken, and life went on in the subcontinent.

The fact the Thuggee were working very closely with the Underworld, and the deity they called Kali was one of the major powers down there, wasn't too hard to ascertain, either... which meant the Thuggee were one of the major powers pushing the Dark Mana, naturally enough.

"Anything you need from me?" I asked her, slicing the skin off the fish and delivering the steaks to the drooling Beasts waiting for them. A little heat wasn't going to bother either one of them. -Nah. Briggs is having fun with his logistics and stuff, of course, and there's still more people who can become Typeless than he can train at any given moment. Growth isn't going to be a problem except 'not growing fast enough'. But, purity of the Allegiance comes first.

- -I can imagine the faces of some people when they can't even become a Typeless mage. - If they didn't have an Intellect Stat over 10, it was totally impossible, as we couldn't do a jumpstart with a level in Wizard to start the ball rolling and force the Awakening. These people didn't have Bloodlines as Power of Ten knew it, so we couldn't force that open, either. Their Magery Tradition was basically Sorcerer Bloodlines done large.

Intellect and brainpower or go home, which was exactly where a whole lot of hopeful people had to go, unless they were Good and we decided to Mark them to make up for their deficiencies. Of course, that meant training them with guns and sending them off to the Littoral Zones to Level up their Marks and maybe die. Those picked for the privilege were universally willing to do so, it was crazy how combat-minded the average person here could be.

Grow up in a world surrounded by magical monsters and not being able to fight back, I could totally see it! What was really funny... was some older folks were totally eligible for Wizardry, and could force the Typeless Element open. They were too old and calcified in their Starfield to ever break out of Novice, but with a Mark and the will? They could totally become Ten Casters in the Typeless Traditions! Age bonuses for the win!

Although young people with the brains had the bright future, there was nothing stopping the older folks who wised up and applied themselves from getting stronger, too, and it was probably surprising to many of them just how hard they were willing to work and what risks they would take to claim something that escaped them their entire lives! Like I said, we had no end of recruits to train, and could move them right into production at Coralost.

Marks meant education at a telepathic clarity and speed nobody else in the world was willing to do on this scale, more pity them. -Yeah, but nothing we can do about that. Just think how lonely Briggs and I are with no other Forsaken around. Even the other hairy guys around are Magical Humanoids, and Hags are Hags, of course, - Sama /sniffed. -Damn, it would be nice to be training up a proper bunch of Forsaken here, you know? - -Lots of Casters could definitely use the reality check, - I /agreed.

-Which reminds me, what exactly do the Hags do here? - -There are several types, not exactly the same as Power of Ten, - Sama /scoffed. -The Curse sometimes manifests as a disease or parasite, taking over the bodies of young women, with the initial source serving as sort of a Hive Queen. Then there's the one born into the various Sasquatch Tribes, who've got mean streaks a mile long and turn the Tribes very hostile to normal Humans.

-Then there's Human women who get twisted by Curse Magic, either deliberately for power by Compacts with the Underworld, or imposed on them by others. They can basically have Humanish spellcasting, in addition to a lot of physical Buffs, but are really slow at gaining powers once so afflicted. -There's some rumors that Hags can also result if you bodyhop into a woman and steal their body with Dark Magic. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest. -The Medusas of this world are the most famous Hags.

Their origins are completely Human, a woman who embraced Dark Magic and became the favored of the Lord of Serpents in Egypt. Her descendants can take on human forms, but they are definitely Magic Creatures, not Humans. - -Been to Egypt?

- It was famous for its Death Zone, centered on the Pyramids there, which were basically all nexii to the Underworld collecting the souls of Humans who died throughout much of Africa to strengthen themselves, the undead Pharaohs ruling over the souls of the Damned like spiteful kings of old. The Undead liked to attack the Human cities along the Nile to gather in more souls, simply because they could and it didn't really cost them anything to do so.

Undead were like Outsiders Summoned in, their spirits just returning to the Nether Realm if they were killed without vivus, ready to come back when called upon again. -Of course. The Undead didn't bother us too much, but the Snakes and Scorpions, led by the Medusas, were incredibly annoying. There were just so damned many of them. - Death Zones were weak links in the world, and the beings who dwelled in them were literally the biggest conduits of Dark Mana on the planet.

But there was a big difference in fighting Undead and in fighting the more mundane forces led by the Medusas... which was the main reason the Undead Sages of the Dead Zones had allowed them to join their forces. Well, someplace to visit in the future.