City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Proofread by Thomas F

"Watching him is like watching an artist," said Miss Ulaxasys. I said nothing other than nodding.

In front of me is Mage Irgal, along with Simar Wells, Lady Blackwell, and a group of people, planting the sandalwood trees.

It's a Soryn Sandalwood, a precious variant of sandalwood. If everything works successfully, then I will plant four dozen big ones, along with over a hundred saplings, which they had already planted.

Now, the first big one is being planted into the specially made soil, which took eight months to create.

That is fast.

People would be shocked by its price. Thankfully, I didn't have to pay for it, like these grown trees; it too has come from Nova Alyra.

I turned back to the man, a Great Mage. He is weaving one spell after another, manipulating the tree floating in front of him and the soil beneath it.

Lady Blackwell, Simar Wells, and others are supporting him as he plants the nine-meter-tall tree at an early stage of maturity into the soil. It still needs to reach maturity and ultimately harvest maturity before we can harvest it.

The Hidden City did have trees at harvest maturity in the grove, but I do not want those.

I need plants that will accept mist; those at harvest maturity will be useless for that. At max, it needs to be early maturity or a lower stage of growth.

The younger it is, the more mist it will take, but these plants take many long years to mature. It is why we chose an early-maturity tree and also planted saplings, which will take decades to mature.

It looked like a common tree with long roots.

Though if one looks carefully, they will see very tiny crystalline dots covering the roots. When it reaches maturity, it will cover the roots so densely that everyone will see them without focusing.

Maybe not "see" them, as they will be underground.

It is also when they will finally release the enthralling fragrance. With the mist, the fragrance would be even more enchanting.

Though it will take time, it is still in an early stage of maturity. To reach maturity and then harvest maturity, it's going to take ten to twelve years or even more.

My backer, even she, couldn't properly predict the changes the mist will bring.

"Let's hope these will accept the mist as well," said Miss Ulaxasys. I nodded with hope in my eyes.

Over 90% of the grown plants that came from the grove accepted the mist, but there were some that didn't. Some were too mature, so we needed to bring those of a lower growth stage.

Some didn't like mist at all.

Though that was a tiny minority. Only two plants didn't accept mist at all at any stage, other than germination, which is very hard.

Not everything could go smoothly. We could say that things went better than we had expected with Precious Grove.

Over half an hour passed, and they finally finished planting the tree.

"Lord Silver," said Mage Irgal, turning to me. I nodded, and a moment later, mist appeared around the sandalwood tree.

"What do you think, will it work?" I asked Lady Blackwell as I appeared beside them; she has a skill related to that. "There are good chances it will," she replied, with hope filling her eyes.

"Let's hope so," added Mage Irgal.

I nodded and looked around, where over a hundred saplings of it were planted. They will take a long time to grow, and that is with the help of magic.

Without it, it's a lot more.

"With the speed precious grove is expanding, I believe you will have to bring more people from the Hidden City, Mage Irgal," said Mage Ulaxasys.

The man smiled as he looked around.

The precious grove is the most restricted part of the park. Its security is as tight as the artisans' garden and the college. Every tree here came from a secret grove of a hidden city and is precious.

It occupies a considerable part of the park, and once they mature, it will provide us with materials that will make even kings salivate.

I talked to the man for a few more minutes before walking away with Mrs. Ulaxasys.

"I hope you will be finished by the end of the month," I said, but she shook her head. "It's going to take at least two weeks or two and a half beyond that, maybe even more," she replied, while I sighed in disappointment.

They will need to start digging canals, but before that, I need her to finish her work.

"I had talked to Eudo. He is going to make some changes, which will allow him to dig the canal in most parts aside from those that we are not finished with," she added.

I am frustrated by it since there are fewer than six months before we open.

There are a lot of things to do and so little time.

"Try to do it faster," I said. "I will," a few minutes later, she walked away, while I walked toward the direction of the college.

I am not going to the college, but the place is between it and Velvet Garden.

Soon, I reached the compound; in it were five buildings. They are four six-story buildings of standard imperial office, but unlike hard power, they project soft elegance.

It's another high-security facility in the park.

"He succeeded sooner than I had thought," said Zela. She sounded quite excited. "It was not without a cost," I replied, but there was a smile on my face.

It is the reason I have come to the park today!

The place is called Alchemy Garden; it is where the dominion's best alchemists work.

I had spent a lot on them since I took over, and today, we have achieved the biggest milestone, which couldn't help but make me happy.

The special facility I had made for the alchemist. It was first made for the beauty alchemists who work for Velvet Spa, before I extended it to the other alchemists here as well.

This has been beneficial as they collaborate, speeding up progress.

We stood before the five-story-tall, alabaster-white building before stepping inside.

People greeted and bowed. I nodded at them until I reached my destination. The large door opened, and I walked into a large alchemy laboratory.

Filled with expensive equipment, some of which was difficult to get, but I found a way.

The best tools are necessary to get the best results.

"Lord Silver," a greeting rang out as a man mid-fifties, with long, unkempt hair, walked toward me. I could see the spring in his step and the gleam in his eyes, filled with joy.

Mine too, as it benefits me just as much as him, more actually.

He is Anton Velaris, the head alchemist. I paid a lot to smuggle him out of the empire, and today he proved I had made the right decision.

"Show me," I said, without going further into pleasantries. The man grinned and took out a bottle of potion.

It looks pale green and faintly shining.

There is glittering crystal inside it, which is what emotion drop potions have. It looked like a regular potion, an alchemist using different ingredients.

No, it is not.

It's an emotion essence potion, the one he and his team had been working on for over a year and spent an eye-watering amount of resources to craft.

"We are still testing it, but it has at least 65% more efficacy than the regular emotion essence potion. It worked 40% faster and even worked in healing from mana drain and potion drain," he said.

"These are just initial numbers; it will take another week and a half before I can give you the concrete numbers."

I said nothing and just kept looking at the potion.

Most healing potions, whether an emotion-essence kind or a normal one, use a combination of plants, ores, and crystals. A few use metals and other things.

This one is entirely made of plants, specifically plants that absorbed emotion essence while they grew here within the legacy.

I had gotten those recipes for potions from the hidden city when I first got the plants.

The reason I am so excited is that crafting it is much cheaper than the potion crafted by using the emotion essence. When all is said and done, it requires three times less emotional essence.

Hell, even if it required a similar level of emotion. It would still be a huge success because of its efficacy.

"Finish the tests. We need to start mass production as soon as possible," I said to him. "I will, my lord," he replied.

It is a Grade I potion, but Grades I to III follow similar formulas. Only the difficulty increases with grade.

I already have alchemists who can craft Grade I to Grade III emotion essence potions with raw essence. I will shift them to this formula, which is easier to follow, according to Anton.

"How is the progress on the other formulas?" I asked as I finally looked away from the potion.

"By next month, we will have finished with the Mana potion; the others are going to take a few more months or even a year," he replied.

Health and mana potions are the most important ones. They are 90% of the potions I require.

"Give me a progress report," I ordered. Surprise flickered across his face before he opened his mouth. One could lie on files; it is harder to do so in person.

This is the most important part of Velvet Garden and the city. I won't be lax with it.

We sell a massive amount of emotion essence potions. To over 95% of the people, I give emotion essence potions instead of the raw emotion essence.

Only a few parties, such as the Imperials, Namdar, and merchant states, receive raw essence.

Meaning, I require an immense number of emotional essence potions. I started early and aggressively poached alchemists, but it was difficult.

Even more difficult was to craft an emotion essence potion.

At least, I had made it more efficient with the mist. Instead of the raw emotion essence. The target is to use only plants that will be the epitome of efficiency.

Currently, we produce around 40% of the potions we need. The other 60% of which come from merchant states and Namdar.

I want to increase local production, but it's hard. My speed is already amazing, but it's not enough, and it will be harder once the legacy opens, and the demands will become wild for more.

"Good; one more thing. We will achieve this at high volume, right?" I asked as he finished the report.

"That is the best thing about it; the formula is a lot more stable. We can craft it in high quantities," he replied, and a big smile appeared on his face as well, which was replicated on mine.

Currently, we cannot move into high production even if we want to.

Or at the scale I want.

I do not have enough plants; the ones he is using are the ones I planted in the legacy and garden, most of which have shifted to Inam.

They will be enough for his research and to train new alchemists in the formula.

I want them to be ready before the first harvest of plants I had planted in the park. They will help me localize 80% of the potion production in the dominion within two years.

It is a grand target, but not an impossible one. Today's success has proved that.

Half an hour later, we walked out of the building.

"They are doing well, not as well as the Beauty Alchemist, but well," said Zela, and I smiled.

Carla and Maeva did an incredible job. They hired beauty alchemists from across the continent and the world. Many of them have been running their own successful business,

We offered them mist, rare materials, money, and most importantly, the name.

The same condition we offer to alchemists here. If it is their personal formula, they will have their name on the potion bottle and will gain higher loyalty per batch.

The beauty division started with two alchemists and now has over fifty working there.

When the legacy opens, Velvet Spa will produce everything in-house. From essential oils to scrubs and everything else needed. Including the staff uniforms and robes for the patrons.

"Any reports?" I asked. She knows what I am asking about.

It had been one and a half weeks since they discovered the life signatures of the monsters in the mine, and in the subsequent days. It had been confirmed without doubt that there are monsters.

We are mining toward them. I want to deal with them as soon as possible.

It wouldn't be long before we reach them, or they reach us. The sooner we deal with it, the sooner I will be able to focus back on Drelthar.

I am getting calls from a lot of people about it. They all want it.

I had banned its export, sending only samples out. I want to understand it fully before I start selling it. Though Hardt had been pushing to lift the restriction.

I will not, at least for another month or two.

"No, but I had got a message from the General. That she will add three more companies around the mine," she replied, and I totally agree.

Safety is important, as even now, we don't know what monsters there will be and their levels.

It's important to be cautious.

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