Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 835: Pearls

Since he was here anyway and battling Demonic Fish to search for improvement in his understanding of laws, he acted just like the others here did. The things he killed were made of valuable materials and the hunting they were doing formed a huge supply of raw materials that the locals happily engaged in business with them for. Sage had no idea where it was all going, but then he realized that it didnt have to go anywhere. The majority of the materials they collected were in the fifth tier and so wouldnt make up the most common trade on the outside. After a few weeks selling away his gains he realized that the materials were being sold back to local craftspeople, of which many of them were foreign cultivators.

It was only then that Sage realized why there were so few high level craftspeople in the Kingdoms hed visited. Even the Holy Flame Sect, a place formed by Professionals for protection and profit, had a small number of masters. Hed always been warned that those who reach the peak would be offered lucrative terms to abandon their roots. There were also rumors about young geniuses who had left the sect. It seems that hed found where most of them disappeared to. He knew that the royal families of kingdoms were also eager to recruit them, but theyd have to compete with the excellent conditions he saw here. With such a large volume of high level materials passing through the city every day, a Professional would never be at a loss for practice materials.

The only downside he could think of was that the majority of the materials here were all from sea creatures. That would mean all their experience here might not serve them as well if they switch over to other types of Demonic Beast materials. Even so, this was only a small detriment at best and most Professions used highly refined versions of these materials. What did it matter if the powdered tooth an Alchemist used came from a shark or a tiger. A true master would be able to test and discover all the exact qualities of their materials no matter the source.

Sage was pretty sure the Professionals here were those with deep and rich backgrounds. Those with weaker heritages would either not be invited here or theyd be taken into some other power in order to give them a better foundation. Those sorts of backgrounds meant that they would all have the best techniques and methods. They would be the sort that had ways to know exactly what they were working with and switching between fish parts and deer parts wouldnt cause any problems. Only the shallowest Profession foundations relied on using very specific quantities of very specific materials for their recipes. Most of them balanced the type and quality of the energies a material contained, not the material itself.

While tempted to open up shop himself, Sage didnt want to get tied down to this specific location for a long period of time. Yet, he wasnt about to miss out on this opportunity. Instead, he opted to do some larger deals with the most reputable local shop. While he wasnt individually hunting that many beasts, he had instead focused upon capturing breeding pairs of most of the local beasts. Without the boost of a Human Seal, most of the Demonic Fish and Crustaceans were even dumber than the Dragoons. The seas of the Inner World were soon filled with many beasts and after a few generations of growth half of them were released into the wilds while the other half were used to start fisheries.

High level beasts took time to mature so they werent churning out high level materials immediately. Even if it took thousands of years to mature, as long as they continued to breed them they could build a constant supply. If they ensured a hundred were bred every year, then even if the cycle took ten thousand years to complete they would still have a hundred to harvest every year. After waiting for ten thousand years that is. In practice it wasnt quite this simple as there would be a certain percentage of them that would be lost to sickness, disease, accidental injury, or even predation. Even if they were very careful to protect and isolate them, there were also accidents.

It was even more troublesome because of the long maturation period. If a disaster struck the farm and a few generations of fish were lost it could ruin many thousands of years of work. Thankfully, it was a lot more difficult to suffer such disasters with high level creatures. Where it would be simple for small mites to wreck a whole field of crops, it would take a real disaster for hundreds or thousands of tier 4 fish to get wiped out. Sage traded for Spirit Pearls and also used Spirit Stones to purchase knowledge about raising and caring for the local creatures. Unfortunately, such knowledge was hard to come by. The sea life was so abundant in the area that there was no need for anyone to farm them. Worse yet, anyone that did know such things wouldnt want to share them with others.

Thankfully, there were still eccentric rich folk that created fish tanks and gardens, filling them with different creatures for aesthetic reasons. There were also some very old tablets passed down by local families on keeping livestock. While there was an abundance of choice now, the race local to Deep Shore, the Gilogos, werent only Hunters and Gatherers. Despite looking like floating octopus with humanoid faces, they were quite advanced even before the Depths was used for cultivation. Sage found a few snippets of local history in a tablet shop and learned they werent a servant race like the Dragoons Sage had made. They were quite similar to humans and other races of this world in that they could cultivate and also had technological achievements equivalent to the medieval period just like the places Sage had stayed. For the mortals at least. The capabilities of both races' cultivators were far more advanced. They had their own version of raising livestock and farming crops, and even if they were extremely unpopular now, he was still able to find a few old texts about them and even visit a few of the more exquisite aquatic gardens.

The most extraordinary of which was owned by one of the local overlords. While he wasnt the City Lord, he was in the upper echelons and this fellow seemed to be in competition with the City Lord on who had the best. To snub the City Lord, this man, Lord Aballaron, opened his second best aquatic garden up to the public. He claimed that this public display was almost as good as the City Lords, while his best aquatic garden was the greatest in Deep Shore. By showing it off to everyone he raised his own status and popularity. The entry fees to view the garden were only enough to pay a portion of the upkeep costs of such an elaborate place. He also put the City Lord into a tight spot. Would he show off his private garden to prove how much better it was than Aballarons? Worse yet, since the man claimed it was his second best, after they saw the City Lords garden, wouldnt they think even more highly of Lord Aballaron?

If he shows his private garden to prove Aballaron wrong, then the man was crazy enough to spend a fortune to copy his garden at a larger scale. It had happened once before in the past, so the City Lord was forced to constantly change the subject anytime it was brought up. It was especially bad when Lord Aballaron caught him in public and constantly bragged.

Sage thought this little feud was quite funny, but he really didnt care much about it. Unfortunately, he was forced to listen to an overly aggrandized and pompous version of this story told by the tour guide that was forced upon him. By the time hed finished touring the immense aquatic garden hed heard about this event a few dozen times and hed ended up building a blueprint for the whole place on the Inner World.

If I have to hear about this crap any more I swear Im going to build an even bigger aquatic garden and rub both their faces in it.