Chapter 348

The meeting lasted the entire day, and it was nearly evening before everyone gradually dispersed.

Establishing an independent government was no easy task. There were countless matters to deal with, and for now, they were little more than a makeshift administration.

The Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of the Interior, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of Education, Central Intelligence Office... most had only three to five people.

Fortunately, the Holrewen Federation was small. Even all four regions combined were smaller than Waterdeep, with a total population of only forty to fifty thousand, making it relatively easy to govern.

Everyone would be extremely busy from here on out: issuing public notices, establishing diplomatic relations with neighboring powers, determining borders, drawing maps, recruiting talent, training troops, establishing schools...

As the man in charge, Anser didn't need to handle most things personally. Others would submit proposals, and all he had to do was offer his opinion and make the final decision.

His most important job was signing documents and approving funds!

The Commercial Alliance and the taxes from Bral were enough to support the Federation's early development.

Before leaving, Anser had told Veronica about his plan to purge the Mind Flayers and asked her to gather a group of reliable professionals and have them stand by.

The operation would begin within the next few days.

After this brief period of calm, an even greater storm might be waiting. He had to level up as quickly as possible, enter the peak tier, and gain access to powerful 9th-level spells.

Bral could now be considered his territory as well. He couldn't allow the Mind Flayers to remain hidden there and keep causing trouble. He might as well secretly gather enough people to wipe them all out in one fell swoop.

And harvest a huge haul of experience points while he was at it.

'After that comes Baldur's Gate! I also need to keep a close eye on the Moonsea,' he calculated silently.

Being famous had its advantages and disadvantages.

The downside was that people knew much more about him. There were fewer fools who couldn't recognize trouble when they saw it, fewer people willing to provoke him, and even those up to no good would deliberately steer clear of him.

Even if someone wanted him dead, they wouldn't dare make a move without a reasonable degree of confidence.

The upside was that his ability to rally people was extraordinary. If he wanted to reclaim Baldur's Gate, followers would undoubtedly flock to his banner, and Grand Duke Ravengard would gladly welcome him.

As he was thinking, Sakkors appeared out of thin air in front of him, excitement written across his face.

"Looks like you made quite a haul," Anser teased.

Sakkors had contacted him earlier, wanting to report a few things, but Anser had been busy at the time and surrounded by people, so Sakkors hadn't appeared in person.

"Spirit Coins are incredible. They've brought tremendous improvements to both me and the mythallar, and the Spirit Net is expanding at an astonishing rate..." Sakkors rattled on, unable to conceal the excitement in his voice. He seemed completely different from his usual seasoned self.

He felt that he had been far too self-assured before. The Spirit Net's development truly couldn't do without Anser. Some ideas simply weren't things you could come up with just by living a long time.

Spirit Coins were nothing short of a genius invention!

To him, they were like faith to a deity, or biological brains to an Elder Brain. One taste was enough to get him hooked, leaving him utterly intoxicated and unable to stop.

More than a thousand Spirit Coins had been generated over the course of the day, and he had devoured every last one. He hadn't been able to save even a single coin.

He had never experienced anything like that before, and at the same time, he clearly realized that he could no longer do without them.

Over the course of a single day, both his spirit form and the mythallar had undergone subtle yet significant changes. His reserves of psionic power had skyrocketed, his cognitive abilities had improved, and he could now handle multiple tasks simultaneously without strain.

Most importantly, Spirit Coins weren't faith. They were relatively pure and harmless!

Spellcasters had once said that faith was poisonous. Faith carried believers' prayers, desires, and stray thoughts with it. It was toxic, capable of interfering with or influencing a deity's divine nature.

For example, faith associated with plague or slaughter could potentially drive a deity who wasn't originally particularly evil completely into the evil alignments.

Spirit Coins, on the other hand, were produced in a comparatively straightforward manner. They were simply mental power condensed by intelligent creatures voluntarily calming their minds and meditating, without any extraneous impurities mixed in.

Anser listened quietly, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something about Sakkors had changed.

'Are Spirit Coins affecting his temperament?'

He had his suspicions, but for the moment, he couldn't determine whether the effect was good or bad.

"How efficient is Spirit Coin production? And how did you price them?" He temporarily set the question aside and pressed on to the key issue.

"I established a minimum safe transmission unit, then modified and simplified a mental meditation technique for condensing Spirit Coins..."

With the Spirit Net's assistance, the meditation process wasn't difficult, especially for spellcasters, who could also recover their own Magic Power while meditating.

However, it placed a certain degree of strain on both body and mind.

According to Sakkors's calculations, an ordinary person could condense one Spirit Coin after meditating for a cumulative total of eight hours, but would then have to rest for a full day.

To avoid exhausting the source for short-term gain, Sakkors had proactively established a monitoring mechanism. Ordinary people weren't allowed to meditate for more than eight hours per day, and any meditation beyond that limit would yield nothing.

Professionals didn't have to worry about that problem.

Low-level professionals could condense one Spirit Coin after three to six hours of meditation, while elite professionals generally needed only one to three hours.

High-level professionals could produce one every thirty to sixty minutes, while peak professionals like Stoll needed only ten to twenty minutes.

The rate for legendary professionals was unknown because there were no data samples. Perhaps it would take a few minutes, or perhaps merely a thought.

Among all professions, spellcasters were generally more efficient at meditation than martial professionals, while professionals who wielded psionic power were even more efficient—more than twice as efficient as others of the same level.

Spirit Coin production wasn't determined entirely by combat strength. Stoll could easily slaughter hundreds of ordinary soldiers, yet his efficiency at condensing Spirit Coins was only thirty or forty times that of an ordinary person.

'Looks like the number of worshipers is extremely important to deities,' Anser thought.

Devout worshipers were certainly valuable, but without sufficient numbers, they still couldn't sustain a deity's divine status.

The Spirit Net's initial pricing wasn't cheap. One Spirit Coin could pay for two minutes of telepathic conversation or ten messages. The cost doubled outside the Spirit Net's coverage area, and the same applied to communication across planes.

If both parties were on different planes and also outside the Spirit Net's coverage, the cost would be four times the standard rate.

Anser glanced at Sakkors but didn't say anything.

The price was definitely high. Once the Spirit Net expanded, maintaining telepathic connections wouldn't consume nearly that much.

But considering the value of the service, one Spirit Coin for two minutes of conversation or ten messages was absolutely worth it.

An ordinary person could work at it for a day and then speak with a friend, relative, or stranger thousands of miles away. That "cost" really wasn't expensive at all.

They'd never even had such an opportunity before!

It was just as worthwhile for professionals. An elite 5th-level Wizard, for example, could only cast Sending around five times a day even if they had learned the spell.

Meditating for two or three hours in exchange for ten uses of the messaging service was an absolute bargain.

Besides telepathic conversations and messages, most of the news section was free to browse. Only the latest intelligence and confidential information required payment.

The publisher received thirty percent, while the remaining seventy percent went to the Spirit Net. Duplicate content earned nothing.

Thirty percent was extremely generous, because the Spirit Net might eventually have millions of members.

A single piece of breaking information that no one else knew could potentially make someone as wealthy as a Waterdhavian noble.

With that kind of temptation, intelligence organizations would very likely shift their attention toward the Spirit Net.

Intelligence was time-sensitive. The more people you could sell it to within a short period, the better. Selling intelligence in the real world was such a hassle by comparison.

Anser closed his eyes and connected to the Spirit Net, causing a projection to appear in his mind.

The home page was filled with news—densely packed, at least a thousand entries in total. They covered events from all across Faerûn, ranging from gossip to public news and everything in between.

Sakkors had divided them into categories and arranged them in separate sections, making the whole thing look like one enormous newspaper.

Good thing it was a mental projection inside his mind. There was no way all of that would fit otherwise.

Just looking at it gave Anser a headache. He complained, "Sort all the news by type, time, region, importance, whether it's paid content, and so on. Only ever display the newest, most important, and most interesting items. Streamline it."

"Then add filters so people can search through it easily. Separate knowledge-related content into its own section, and add a bookmarking feature..."

"Oh, right..." Sakkors hurriedly noted everything down. He had actually considered some of those things, just not in such specific terms.

He had been so busy today that he'd had to squeeze in time just to think.

After explaining his ideas, Anser opened the mythallar's control panel and discovered that the dice's responsiveness had improved noticeably.

All the data was there. Every interaction record was laid out clearly, including everything Sakkors had done.

'Ridiculously powerful. Is this what you're really capable of?'

He nodded silently.

"There's one more thing. I don't think Holrewen needs to drift away from here. There are quite a few demiplanes and other planes anchored around Candlekeep, and Candlekeep deliberately keeps this region concealed, making it difficult for outsiders to observe."

"We could remain in the vicinity of Candlekeep for now. Others wouldn't be able to detect us, so we'd be even better hidden, and we could mislead them at the same time," Sakkors suggested.

"That works." Anser narrowed his eyes. Taking advantage of Candlekeep's defenses wasn't a bad idea either.

Good neighbors were supposed to help each other, after all.

Seeing that Anser was in a good mood, Sakkors tentatively asked, "I'd like to increase the number of members to more than ten thousand tonight, and then add at least ten thousand every day from now on. Do you think... that's feasible?"

"You're pretty greedy."

"Time is crucial for us. I'm confident I can expand the Spirit Net across the entire continent of Faerûn within six months and extend it into the Inner Planes!"

"Six months, huh? All right."

Everyone was racing against time. It all came down to who could seize the initiative first.

At that thought, a sudden urge to go on a massive killing spree rose within him.

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