"Hmph, now that we have established my hard work and good graces, how is the Supreme Pantheon planning to reward me? Please note that I do not take cash upfront, only Semi-Origin and above items." Draco stated casually as he glanced at his fingernails arrogantly.
When they heard his words, the True Gods snapped out of their thoughts on how to advance and felt speechless. This fellow, couldn't you tell that you were in the middle of being grilled for your evil crimes? How dare you ask for a reward?
"Or could it be that after all I've done, the Supreme Pantheon wants to avoid its debts? I've cleared an entire zone of the Grey Rot for you, who else has achieved such since before my arrival? Let's not even start with this being my very first day among you." Draco pressed with a frown.
The True Gods were at a loss and the council members were whispering with each other, pondering the feasibility of these words. Kilobar coughed lightly and attracted the focus of the entire chamber to himself.
"What Brother Draco says makes absolute sense. Putting aside the cause and effect, it is indisputably a good thing that we've found a way to demolish the Grey Rot, even if it's at the cost of a somewhat arid land." Kilobar began with a nod towards Draco.
The fellow's eyes shone as he felt like this Kilobar fellow was truly handsome. After this trial was over, Draco would give him a pat on his back as a reward for his hard efforts, and he likely should cherish it for the rest of his life as he would not receive anything more important than that.
"However, the fact remains that the Supreme Pantheon is going to have to invest a lot of manpower and resources into recovering those lands that have been cleared. As such, the reward for Brother Draco will have to not only be postponed to after the Supreme Pantheon sorts everything out and recovers some wealth, but some part of the reward would have to be deducted as well." Kilobar continued.
Immediately, Draco's happy smile disappeared as his face fell. What a treacherous Kilobar, he roused his greed only to give him a big face slap later! Hmph, he always knew that people with handsome faces are not to be trusted! Rather than a pat on the back, Draco began to think up an extra nice 'reward' he should give the Divine Envoy at a latter date.
Still, Kilobar wasn't done. With a drawn out sigh full of lament. "It is even to the point where, after calculation and valuation, the damage done by Brother Draco has surpassed the necessary threshold to take down the Grey Rot by far."
"Every bit of damage that is required to take down the Grey Rot is fully covered and sponsored by the Supreme Pantheon, but what comes after… we simply do not have the resources to manage it. Yet we have no choice to work on it if we are to reclaim those lands and gather wealth for Brother Draco's reward, so the extra bits will be billed to Brother Draco's account."
Kilobar looked at Draco with respect. "Sigh, Brother Draco is truly a hero not seen in a million years. Because of your valor, power, courage and intelligence, you have taken on the task of assisting the Supreme Pantheon in recovering those lands by contributing some of your endless wealth… a thank you is simply not enough!"
Draco's expression became red with fury as he was about to rage and refute, but the True Gods wouldn't allow him. Immediately, they cheered and rained down praises on their 'savior', causing him to be drowned out.
Draco could see that there was schadenfreude and mockery in their eyes, as they understood Kilobar and the Supreme Pantheon's scheme and were fully supportive of it.
Hmph brat, we almost lost our precious lives after listening to how great you are. It isn't too late to take back some revenge for that, huh?
｢System to Player Announcement
Player Draco, it has been detected that you have incurred a debt agreement with the Supreme Pantheon of the Divine Realm. As such, every time you clear out an area, it will undergo a damage check to ascertain any debt incrued.｣
｢The Withering Plains Debt Settlement
- Cratered and Uneven Ground: +10%
- Arid and Desolate land: +30%
- Plagued by powerful Laws: +50%
- Cost of extra Labor and Research: +5%
- Insufficient materials: +90%
- Grey rot cleared: -100%
Base restoration cost: 10,000,000,000 Aether Coins
Discount: 10,000,000,000 Aether Coins
Additions: 18,500,000,000 Aether Coins
Final cost: 8,500,000,000 Aether Coins
Pay? Y/N｣
Draco felt like coughing a thick wad of blood. The fuck, the bill for just this one region started out in the billions? And not even platinum which he had a lot of, but Aether Coins which he had only begun to farm?
Putting aside the 10 million Aether Coins Eva got from Sunna back then, Draco had only earned about 500 million from the recent bombing. He had earned over 800 thousand Divine Essence so earning that much Aether Coins was normal.
After his surprise reward, Draco had believed himself to be rich once more and had even intended to use those up funds to establish his own pantheon and city in the lands he would clear. Alas, now it turned out that using his moon had caused more damage than it fixed!
If he continued to drop it all over the place, the gains wouldn't make up for the losses!
Draco's eyes became cruel as he resolutely pressed no and decided to renege this debt. He would butter up these guys and find some excuse before escaping into the wild and drop more bombs into the world.
He would use up the Divine Essence he would gain from this to level up his Law crazily so that he could withstand their hatred and pursuit. After his core members ascended into True Gods and joined him in the Divine Realm, he would lead an army to come and uproot this bloody pantheon and vent out his anger!
Thinking like this, Draco felt much better and even wanted to laugh out loud. However, before he could do so, he saw that the prompt reappeared before him.
｢System to Player Announcement
Unfortunately, Player Draco cannot refuse this debt settlement since the deed has already been done, and all future debt settlements of this nature will be automatically carried out.｣
Black lines appeared on Draco's forehead as he gritted his teeth. "AI, you are courting death!"
It was clear that the AI was long unhappy with the fact that Draco had used a loophole to acquire multiple Laws and the ability to control them. The AI was happy enough to bend the rules and allow Draco and his people to enjoy special privileges on the Main Plane, but here in the Divine Realm it was a different story.
If he was going to use some cheat method to use Laws, at least be sensible and use a single Law like everyone else.
However, Draco's endless greed made it such that he dared to create a method to use endless Laws and even grow them as he wished! If he was going to wantonly disregard the balance in the Divine Realm that served as a basis for any future content, and do such things, then he couldn't blame the AI for being cruel!
Now that it had got a legitimately chance to suppress him, how could it not be full of joy?
｢System to Player Announcement
It has been detected that Player Draco does not have enough Aether Coins to pay the debt. As such, Aether Crystals shall be deducted to make up the debt at the standard exchange rate.｣
"STOP!" Draco roared, trying to quickly move his Aether Crystals from his inventory into a pocket space controlled by his bloodline, but the AI quickly locked his account and froze his assets.
As such, he could only watch with an ashen face as his stah top-grade Aether Crystals were deducted wantonly, like a man watching his wife shop for jewelry or a parent watching their life savings disappear because their deadbeat son bought gacha packs.
The Aether Coin was cut from a Low Grade Aether Crystal. One Low Grade Aether Crystal could make 10 Aether Coins. It increased with every grade by a factor of 100.
Since Draco already had 510 million, he had to make up the remaining 7,990,000,000 Aether Coins with his crystals. Luckily, his current quality was purely Top Grade, and since the exchange rate was the highest, the deduction was not too brutal.
As one Low Grade Aether Crystal was 10 Aether Coins, one Medium Grade Aether Crystal was 1,000 Aether Coins, one High Grade Aether Crystal was 100,000 Aether Coins and finally, one Top Grade Aether Crystal was 10,000,000 Aether Coins.
In the end, the final deduction was 799 Top Grade Aether Crystals. It was a small amount compared to the thousands Draco had saved up after all this time, but it didn't feel good to have it seized like this.
Seeing that the deductions had been made, Kilobar smiled warmly. "We thank brother Draco for his magnanimity and kindness. Truly a hero who will be remembered throughout the ages!"
Draco harrumphed coldly and turned to leave the council chambers. He felt like if he stayed here for another moment, he might be tempted to do something crazy.
Seeing Draco storm out Kilobar smiled while the True Gods continued cheering with amused faces. They felt endlessly refreshed as if they had drunk cold lemonade on a hot afternoon. The fellow who had been insulted by Draco was laughing wantonly, feeling like his comprehension of his law was going to breakthrough soon.
When Draco left the chamber, he looked around to make sure no one was around before his look of anger disappeared. He then walked along the hallway as he laughed wantonly ass well, his lips curling into a playful sneer.
Exchanging 799 Top Grade Aether Crystals for almost 1 million Divine Essence… what a good fucking deal! How much did an Aether Crystal cost him? Nothing! He only had to wait 15 minutes for one to appear on its own.
How much did Divine Essence cost?
1 Divine Essence was dropped by a True God NPC or Monster with a Basic Law. With every grade, it increased by 10. So even if you were a Supreme Law True God who killed another Supreme Law True God, you would only get 100,000,000 Divine Essence.
100,000,000 Divine Essence was only enough to take one Law from the Master Law grade to the True Law grade. Meanwhile, the effort it took to kill someone of the same level, especially at the peak like that, was astronomical.
1 Divine Essence cost 100 Divine Trial Points. Meanwhile, Divine Trial Points were a precious resource that could only be earned by clearing stages after getting a token, and if you didn't get a good score you couldn't even get much.
Most importantly, there was no way to exchange Aether Coins or Aether Crystals for Divine Essence. Draco didn't even have a use for Aether Crystals anymore as he didn't need to them to force his crafted items to be of the Legendary grade like before.
He was a Divine grade Blacksmithing and Alchemist! Of course, his other Tradeskills might need it as well as a few things on the main plane, but he had an endless supply of Aether Crystals!
They were about as valuable to him now as a Bronze Coin.
Draco's eyes flashed with greed. The Supreme Pantheon were now his lackeys, taking some money from him to wipe his ass after he had fun. They were like gold collectors who found a bunch of gold nuggets and were rejoicing, not knowing that a gold-eating beast had shat it out a few minutes earlier.
As such, he directly left the Supreme City without looking back and didn't even enter their portals. What he had to do now was survey the area around Supreme City to understand the terrain of the Divine Realm and how far it was from the frontline.
Draco took to the air and manifested his Dark Angel wings again after so long. With a single flap, he was like a streak of black light through the sky, moving so fast that he caused an explosive wake behind him.
He traveled to the north of Supreme City and in a matter of minutes, he passed by many forests and grassy plains that were full of preserved life.
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