《Dragon Cross》Chapter 30: The problems of a City Lord
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After imprinting the Base Template onto his Soul, the first thing Jack did was have a good nights sleep. When he woke up, surprisingly two days had already passed. When Jack heard that he had been sleeping for two days straight, he could only smile bitterly and try to not get so engrossed next time.
There were several people in charge of various miscellaneous affairs of the City but major affairs like the tax rate for the next ten years or the various salaries of personal were all waiting for his authorization. If you counted in the eight days he was engrossed with the Magic Circle, you would get ten days of absence.
So the first thing Jack did after eating a hearty breakfast was head to his “office” aka the study. All important documents will be transported here for Jack to look over and sign them if there are no problems. When Jack opened his study door, he was greeted by a half a meter high stack of papers that all needed his signature.
Breathing out a heavy sigh Jack had his servant bring him a cup of tea and also some snacks for Nalser as he sat down and started going over the documents one by one. As he took the first page itself, Jack frowned after reading it halfway. It was a report on the relocation of the aggressive faction Clans and Sects.
In only a few days all of the bases were without any people and all of their businesses had been shut down and cleared out. However, what they forgot to do was pay the land taxes and also they had still not paid for various property damages they had done while “friendly sparring”.
If those sums were small, Jack would pay for it himself just to save himself the trouble but these bills were all quite astronomical. Every building, street or park was the property of the City and it was only possible to rent either a living place or a shop front from the City but you could never buy it as your own.
For years, they caused trouble and owed the City quite a hefty sum of money now. When the servant brought Jack the cup of tea, Jack stopped her for a moment and asked her to send word for Shu to come and give him a visit if he had the time. After the servant acknowledged the order, Jack put the report aside for now and continued looking through the pile.
After reading half of the stack, he could sign them all in one go as there were no problems with them. Some were the yearly profit reports of shops while some were just some requests for leave. All the people that applied for leave from Jack were without a doubt quite high up and since they have done a good job up till now, Jack had no reason reject them.
As Jack kept reading and working on these documents, he suddenly heard a knock on the door. “Come in.” Without raising his head from the document he was currently reading he had the person at the door come in. The one who entered was Shu, who Jack had asked to come by.
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After seeing that Shu had arrived, Jack looked at him and said, “Wait a second, I’ll finish this document first.” Shu nodded his head as he gave a hearty laugh, “No rush. I will entertain myself by having a cup of this fine tea.” Jack nodded his head and quickly finished signing the document. After finishing, he rubbed the bridge of his nose as he pulled out the first document and threw it to Shu. After catching the document, Shu frowned as he asked, “What’s this?”
Jack let out a sigh as he said, “Read it and you’ll understand why I asked you to come.” After saying so, he took his cup and took a sip as he waited for Shu to read through the document. The more Shu read it, the more his brows furrowed and when he reached the end, he turned to Jack and asked helplessly, “So the reason you summoned me was to ask how far you can go?”
Jack nodded his head as he seriously said to Shu, “Prestigious Clans and Sects my ass. They quietly scumper away after falling on their faces and leave behind this kind of a debt. If it was something small, I would pay for it from my own pocket just to save myself form wasting the time but these sums are no small numbers….” Jack shook his head and Shu nodded his head in acknowledgement that Jack’s words were right.
Sometimes it is smarter to take a step back and forget small debts to save yourself form wasting time uselessly but these sums were quite astronomical so this was quite a painful step to take.
Shu then said, “The Seven Giant Sect owes Virbeth 1.2 million Spirit Jade, Eternal Dawn School owes Virbeth roughly 800 000 Spirit Jade, Fa Clan owes Virbeth roughly 750 000 Spirit Jade….” Shu listed all of the Sects and Clans and how much each of them owed.
In conclusion he said, “In total they owe a bit over 23 million Spirit Jade. This amount of money is not something that can be so easily brushed off.” Jack nodded his head and said, “I wanted to ask you, how much am I allowed to pressure them?”
Shu closed his mind as seemed to do some calculation’s in his mind and then said, “The Merchant Hall earns Dragon Cross a 20 million Spirit Jade on an average. That is the pure profit in a year. I think Master Zhi would personally accompany you to cash in these debts if he heard about them.”
Jack let out a small laugh as he said, “Even though a big Sect earns a lot in a year, we also spend a lot in a year.” Shu nodded his head and said, “20 million in pure profit each year is already astronomical to put aside and there are some times when we need to take out that cash in order to pay for the maintenance of Training Formations or Defensive Formations. Also, there are some materials we purchase from outside our Cosmos as they are not available in our Cosmos.”
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Suddenly Shu’s eyes lit up as he said, “I may have a solution to your problem.” Jack’s ears perked up as he was currently quite troubled on how he was going to solve this thing with the least effort and least amount of time. Shu then smiled cruelly as he said, “You know, Old John needed 18 million to purchase some materials to create some Top Grade Life Saving Artefacts. However, we currently do not have enough money to spend in the vault on them….”
Jack also smiled as he understood the meaning behind Shu’s words. Most of the money would go to Dragon Cross any ways and currently, John was in a tough spot because he needed the money from the Sect but the Sect didn’t have that much to spare at the moment. However, if John was willing to do some work, he could easily get the 18 million he needed to purchase the materials.
Jack immediately agreed because he only needed to provide John with the complete listing of the debts to John and he wouldn’t need to worry about this problem any more. For him it was like killing two birds with one stone.
Shu contacted John and as soon as he heard that there may be a chance for him to purchase those materials he needed, his eyes lit up. Even after hearing the details, he wasn’t disheartened in the slightest but even more eager to to the work when he heard the amount of money involved. After asking Jack to prepare the detailed list of every Sects and Clans debt, he started moving towards Virbeth with the fastest speed possible.
It didn’t take long for Jack to prepare the detailed list of every broken piece of tile and who did it and when he did it. He trusted the list to Shu as he himself continued doing the paperwork. Since the other half of the stack was also without any problems, it didn’t take more than half an hour for Jack to finish all those papers.
By the time he was finished, it was exactly the time for lunch. As he ate a light lunch, someone from the office came to collect all the signed documents and after bringing the ones he needed for tomorrow. Since the documents were delivered and taken away at noon, Jack let the few documents wait for morning as he himself went to his training room.
Now that he could successfully create a Base Template, it was time to start training in Magic Combat. Although he could use only Non-Element Magic Spells, it was still worth it as they served as good training practise. When Jack entered the room, he was greeted by a giant hall that was 30 meter’s high, 300 meter’s long and 200 meters wide. This wide area was a good place to use for any type of training.
Long range Magic Spells, close combat Magic Spells, Reinforcement Magic, Defensive Magic or Movement Magic it could all be practised here. Raelag had prepared this entire room from rare special materials that had an auto recovery function. As long as the damage wasn’t ludicrous, the room could “heal” itself. At one side, there were several practise targets if he wanted to train his long range precision.
At by the targets were various Golems that were used for Defensive Magic practise or Close Combat Magic practise. At the very back, there was an area where there were dozens of metal rods standing ruler straight. In that area you can practise your Movement Magic and also increase your dodging or repositioning.
Every area had multiple uses and since this entire Training Hall was quite big, several people could actually train here at the same time and not disturb one another. Jack took up a spot at the 50 meter mark and stared right at the target he wanted to hit.
He took a deep breath and raised his right hand and faced it with the target. After exhaling, a Magic Circle appeared in front of the palm and as soon as Jack said “Bullet!” a bullet of energy shot out from the Magic Circle straight towards the target.
However, Jack’s aim was way off as it hit the target board next to the intended one. After readjusting his aim, Jack kept shooting these bullets of energy towards the targets.
In the beginning, he would hit the targets next to the intended one more times than the intended target but as he kept shooting these bullets, he familiarized himself with the process and also how to aim better and more accurate.
So, as time went on, he started hitting his intended target more and more and soon he could set his sights on trying to hit the bullseye. After he exhausted all the Mana he could, he started gasping for air. He looked towards the target and could see that the little holes made by his bullets were getting smaller and smaller. Soon they would disappear all together.
Jack looked at his bruised palm and murmured, “I hit the target 8 times out of 10 in the last few rounds. At least my aim is getting better, now I need to work on the power of the bullet and Mana consumption.” He was quite content with his current progress rate and he decided not to rush things to much and focus on one thing at a time.
After briefly thinking of his next actions, he sat down cross legged and closed his eyes as he started replenishing his Mana. When he started drawing in the Energy from the Cosmos, two brightly lit places appeared on his back. These were the bases of his future wings.
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