Anser took a walk around the drow elves' temporary village. When Delira still hadn't returned after quite some time, he teleported straight back to Fort Jacqueline.
He didn't contact Nefis, Mason, or the others. The Magic Research Society was a neutral organization, and even though he was a member, it wouldn't be right to guilt-trip them into helping him.
Favors were the hardest debts to repay. Unless absolutely necessary, it was better not to ask.
He did a quick count. Between the Bral royal family, the clergy, and the local nobles, he already had more than enough manpower.
If too many people joined in, there wouldn't be enough mind flayers to go around, and the experience gains would drop considerably.
With all that settled, he relaxed on the lounge chair by the window and lazily basked in the sun.
'If there weren't any disasters, life would be so comfortable. But then again, that's not what I'm after.'
One look at his d20 was enough to tell that it was a born troublemaker. There was no chance of living a peaceful life with that thing around.
He connected to the Spirit Net to check the latest developments.
The Spirit Net's mental projection had undergone a major overhaul. The layout of the "News" homepage was much cleaner now, and with a thought, he could sort and precisely filter the contents. There was zero delay, making for an excellent experience—far better than he'd imagined.
He casually opened the news about the establishment of the Holrewen Federation.
His mental world abruptly darkened. Stars lit up one after another, joining together into a dazzling galaxy.
Then an enormous six-winged creature descended from the heavens with its back to him. Its dragon wings swept through the air, its posture flamboyantly domineering, blotting out even the stars as streaks of rainbow light accompanied its descent.
The rainbow light erupted, then the light and shadows faded away. The image froze on a six-winged starsea emblem stretching across an endless sea of stars.
Only then did neat rows of beautiful Common script emerge from the emblem, dancing through the starsea like tiny sprites.
'Holy shit... I'm just reading the news. Does it really need to be this over-the-top?!'
Talk about opening with a bang!
Anser had never imagined Sakkors would put together something this extravagant. It was utterly breathtaking.
It was far more outrageous than the animations from his previous life, because this was completely immersive!
Most ordinary Faerûnians had hardly seen anything of the world. If this was the first thing they saw after entering, the sheer mental shock would probably stay with them for the rest of their lives.
'This is practically a divine miracle!'
He hurriedly checked the other news and discovered that not every article had effects like these. Only a small number marked with a golden star did.
Touching one mentally brought up an explanation: paid effects...
He pulled up the mythallar's Character Sheet. Quite a few additional details had appeared on it. A news article pinned to the top and enhanced with special effects started at 10 Spirit Coins, with no upper limit.
'He's gone completely money-crazy.'
Anser's lips twitched. Memories stirred in his mind, and the whole thing somehow felt strangely familiar.
Sakkors was an ancient monster who had seen just about everything, after all. Once he'd grasped the tricks of the trade, Anser didn't need to teach him much at all. For the sake of making money, he'd already started coming up with new schemes on his own.
'With the way he's running this thing... even Waukeen wouldn't have grounds to object.'
Besides "News," both "Mental Calls" and "Sending" had been upgraded, with much more polished projections.
The "Sending" page was no longer a simple list of messages. Instead, it closely resembled the chat apps from his previous life. Selecting a friend brought up the entire history of their Sending exchanges.
There were even group chats.
That feature didn't require any real upgrade. It simply gathered everyone's Sendings together.
But naturally, it also cost extra. The fee was still calculated by the number of Sendings: groups of three to five people incurred an additional 50% service fee per Sending, groups of six to ten cost double, and so on.
'That's downright predatory.'
Anser didn't even know what to say.
When he pulled up the statistics, he discovered there were actually quite a few group chats—over a thousand in total, most of them with three to five members.
In addition, the Spirit Net had added "Knowledge" and "Tasks" sections.
Several hundred pieces of basic educational material had already appeared under "Knowledge": Introduction to Common, Common Elvish Vocabulary, Chronicle of the Continent of Faerûn, Basic Religious Knowledge, The Complete Guide to Human Cuisine...
Every publisher was listed as "Official." Sakkors had obviously uploaded them himself, drawing from material stored in the dice's database.
And every single one cost money, ranging from 10 to 1,000 Spirit Coins.
'These prices... really aren't expensive.'
Among the members were quite a few illiterate ordinary people with Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma scores above 14. They clearly possessed some talent, but their circumstances had denied them the chance to receive an elite education, making it difficult for them to become professionals.
The Spirit Net gave them a chance!
'At least Sakkors knows where to draw the line. He hasn't put up anything too valuable.'
Anser nodded inwardly.
Knowledge could be sold, and it had to be sold. The more expensive, the better. Making it free would be where the real trouble began.
Distributing knowledge for free would inevitably cross too many people's bottom lines. Even Candlekeep might not tolerate something like that.
Anyone could share "Knowledge," but their submissions had to pass approval first. Just like with news, the revenue was split thirty-seventy.
'Now the god of knowledge is a suspect too.'
He joked to himself and opened "Tasks."
There wasn't much content yet. Everything there consisted of experimental tasks posted by members.
Some asked about the origins of the Spirit Net, some offered bounties for wanted criminals, and others sought to purchase Spirit Coins.
The rewards were also extremely low, mostly just a few Spirit Coins. As for offline transactions, those fell outside the Spirit Net's jurisdiction.
Anser tried posting a task himself and discovered that he could set the task level, requirements for accepting it, the reward, and more. It was even more detailed than an Adventurers' Guild.
A 10% commission. Reasonable enough.
'Well, the Adventurers' Guild is going to be cursing up a storm.'
Traditional organizations like those, with legacies stretching back thousands of years, might soon begin to decline.
They could rack their brains all they wanted and probably never guess that their competitor wasn't another organization in the same line of business, but the once-unattainable "Weave."
Anser glanced at the statistics. Total membership was approaching twenty thousand, and tens of thousands of Spirit Coins had been produced in total—yet the account balance was completely empty.
'So it wasn't dedication after all. He's just addicted to this.'
Anser smiled faintly, with no intention of interfering.
Sakkors had done far better than he'd imagined. He might seem a little mercenary, but in doing so, he'd also avoided a great many risks.
The very existence of the Spirit Net had already put a lot of people on edge. Giving everything away for free from on high would only make others suspect some hidden agenda. It was actually better to put the objective out in the open.
Mid- and high-level spellcasters could easily figure out what Spirit Coins fundamentally were. There were no tricks or side effects involved; they simply gathered energy.
Surely no one actually thought the Spirit Net operated without consuming anything!
Anser was confident that most spellcasters would accept the Spirit Net before long.
...
Rock of Bral.
The city had yet to fully awaken in the early morning, and there were few people on the streets.
Ever since the Weave had fallen into chaos, this once-thriving trade city had grown increasingly desolate.
Most of the city's residents made their living through wage labor. With business dried up, life had become difficult for everyone.
One figure after another emerged from the stone building in Middle City, gathering in groups of three or five before heading toward the Star Palace in Upper City.
Stoll, Iris, Salian, Giant Tail, Makaria, Adolf... along with more than fifty elite soldiers, every one of them carrying firearms and ammunition on their backs.
The Drow sisters followed behind Anser, with more than a dozen drow elves in black cloaks trailing behind them.
Rand and Zahir had brought over a dozen elite members of the Church of Tyr, all of them professionals.
Osborn led General Smokefire, Bruno the hill dwarf, and two hundred elite troops, who had already assembled at the headquarters.
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