After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World - Chapter 1014

Chapter 1014: Aether Stones

When Octavia left the room, she had already wiped her tears and held her head high. She tried to retain the pride she had left and even managed to say a curt goodbye to Gaia.

However, the dark atmosphere around her was indicative of what Orion chose to do.

Sure enough, Orion and Hilda soon emerged from the upper floors with dire expressions on their faces.

The family couldn’t help but look at each other. Hilda’s eyes fixed on her husband, and she pursed her lips.

Otto shook his head. “Will this be alright?”

Zaol sighed, though also a bit worried. “Orion’s leaving soon. Time apart would do well for both of them.”

“What are they doing going so far away?” According to the information, they went to both Holt City and Hassen City, with the Lord staying particularly long in the latter.

“Well, Holt City has a lot of aether stones, that could be it.” There were very few things that could get a city lord outside for a visit.

“As for Hassen, who knows? He has a lot of relatives there, right?” Obi said carelessly, though he was pinched in the stomach by his sister in response.

He was confused at first, but then he saw his father and he quickly shut his mouth.

Anyway, Otto put the topic back to Bleumrick.

“Aether stones… those are quite expensive. Does he need it so much?”

Aether stones were basically an amalgamation of massive amounts of aether. They were extremely expensive, the cheapest ones costing hundreds if not thousands of gold.

“His lifespan should still be sizeable,” Otto said, pondering. At the lord’s level—and his father’s as well, to some degree—the way to level up was through aether stones, but it had diminishing effects.

Not to mention, leveling up that way was a bit like cheating as well. He learned the term ‘ballooning’ in Alterra, and it felt apt.

At some point, it was not worth it to spend years’ worth of income when one couldn’t level up properly.

“Maybe he’s putting them out as rewards to the noble families,” Obi said.

Some cities would gift a few aether stones to top families in their territory. It was a way to retain loyalty and increase the overall strength of the place as well.

It was one of the reasons why people fought hard to be a top family in cities, because the higher the rank, the more stones they could receive. Of course, this also meant their interests would be tied deeper and deeper to that territory.

Bleuelle was not as generous as territories like Holt City but it did follow its example to some degree.

Aether stones had many other uses. For instance, they were used by cities to create, power, and maintain things like teleportation arrays and some superior magic tools like magic barriers.

In Bleulle, there were three teleportation arrays going to three allied territories—Holt, Hassen, and Cloth City.

The cost was extravagant because each trip consumed some energy from the aether stone. It might heal itself through time, but the speed of consumption usually could not match the speed of recovery.

This was why all the arrays were in a special building near the palace, and could be used only for at least a thousand golds each trip. Of course, each trip could include a group of people and a lot of luggage so if one had money, it was usually worth it.

They also had a Magic Barrier. The barrier was something the first lord and the first patriarch of the Golds managed to obtain from Dwarves back then. After the Elves, the Dwarves—who were considered the Elves’ closest relatives, in a way—were the most proficient race that dealt with arrays.

However, when the Dwarves disappeared, no new barriers were created, making Bleuelle one of the very few territories to have it.

Another limitation was that the barrier couldn’t be too big either. When activated, it only covered the central area. This area could only contain the lord’s, as well as the top 12 noble families.

This was one of the reasons why the position of the 12 noble houses was so revered and sought after.

One had to know: A magic barrier was 100x more effective than even the highest-level walls.

The barriers had only been used a few times in the history of Bleuelle, but it had proven its amazingness.

Wars between cities were very rare—but they were the bloodiest.

There were no more limits on wars between cities. They could go against Level 40 enemies, or Level 60. They could go against tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even more.

However, even when there were cities that worked together to take them down, Bleulle kept strong—and it was primarily due to this barrier.

First of all, the barrier was counted as the territory’s ‘top defense’. This meant that, in order to win the war against Bleuelle, the enemies must enter this area first.

However, it was practically indestructible with a single stone lasting at least a few hours of maximum usage. If they had more stones (which they always had) then they’d just replace it.

Basically, as long as they had enough stones, the war could end without the enemies managing to cross the barrier at all!

Of course, the enemies would vent on the people left outside, but that wasn’t much of a concern within the ruling party.

“Aether stones are important—I don’t think we should stress out too much if one territory’s trying to collect more.”

“It is if the amount is abnormal.”

“I’m sure Bleuelle isn’t the only one doing it.”

As they discussed this, Otto froze a little at a thought. His caravans were far-reaching, and so was his network. Sometime before, he seemed to have gathered that Hassen was not only gathering a lot of black metal but also of Aether stones.

At the time, he didn’t think too much of it. Hassen was so far away from them, after all, and its region barely touched theirs outside of the alliance.

Were they connected? Or did their interests align more than before?

Olga noticed her twin’s daze. “What is it?”

“I remember hearing something about Hassen City.”

Hassen City had been keeping itself in the background during the past few decades. It made sure not to enter any conflicts, and it hadn’t been in a war for as long as they could remember.

However, by pure serendipity, his people realized that its power was far beyond what it showed and that it had a lot more subsidiaries than what was claimed.

In retrospect, Guia Village could have been one of these places.

What were these Lords planning, exactly?