Greed God chapter 119

February 23rd 2016 Gemworld 6:00 PM EDT

Spending  all day drinking incredible wine and spending money I stole from  bandits I owned now was surprisingly fun, but the whole exercise was  more than just an excuse to screw around. I'd memorized every word I  heard spoken, and spent the entire day building up a basic understanding  of how things worked here so I could get some real use out of the  information I'd gathered. My brain was cranking at full tilt after my  upgrade, and I was able to collate the information into a workable plan  with only a small amount of direct prodding to clarify some things.

The  first important fact I'd managed to puzzle out was how the magic of the  house of Amethyst actually worked. From what I could tell, the house of  Amethyst had three distinct abilities, but only two of them were  relevant to my situation. The first ability was a form of hard light  projection similar to Green Lantern. They could create crystalline light  structures of extreme durability and make shields and weapons of them.  This made them extremely versatile and dangerous in pitched combat, but  it wasn't something I could really use.

The important part  of what I learned was the second ability. While powerful weapons and  shields could be constructed from the hard light constructs, these were  temporary, the could use them to fight, but for crafting and  architecture like I'd seen here they were useless. The other ability  they had however, was the ability to manipulate and enchant ACTUAL  physical Amethyst (and to a lesser degree other stones, which was the  third ability, but that wasn't relevant to me right now) and use it in  construction.

All of the buildings and important landmarks  in the city were made of Amethyst that had been mined from the local  quarries, with the more impressive buildings being constructed from  higher quality and more magically dense stones. However, the Amethyst  bloodline had been living on this land for a long time, and they had  picked the quarries mostly clean. There were still a few veins of the  stuff, but they were low quality trash stone that could only be used to  make basic buildings.

The nobles could raise the rank of  Amethyst stones by imbuing them with power, but trying to do so would be  an absurd waste of time and energy on the scale needed to make more  impressive buildings and create powerful enchantments. Because of this, a  new office had been created, headed by Mordiel, Princess Graciel's  sister and Amaya's aunt, to acquire more powerful gems that could be  used to lift the Amethyst kingdom out of the rut it had fallen into in  the last several years.

There were multiple important  political ramifications of this decision since Mordiel was apparently a  power hungry psycho who desperately wanted to rule the bloodline, but  she wasn't actually strong enough to take power from her sister. Graciel  kept Mordiel in check, but since she was a Duchess and one of the more  powerful ones at that, she couldn't afford to punish or execute her  sister without proof of some sort of transgression.

So to  get her out of the way, she'd put Mordiel in charge of the country's  declining gem stores, something she couldn't produce any reliable  results for, to keep her both occupied and away from power until Amaya  was strong enough that the two of them could handle Mordiel in a way  that wouldn't damage the kingdom.

Now, all of this might  have seemed pointless to a layman, but in fact it was VERY important for  a few reasons. Fact one, they needed higher ranked Amethysts in bulk in  order to return their kingdom to its peak. Granted, they were still  more than strong enough to hang with the other dynasties, but Amethyst  used to be the undisputed top dog, and at this point they only had a  slight edge over the other houses. If they could find a new source of  powerful gems they could reinforce their power base substantially.

The  second important factor was that power hungry and influential noble was  in charge of ACCRUING said resource, and had a vested interest in  sewing discontent and weakening the current regime. Which meant once I  got a chance to get Amaya under my control, Mordiel had a valid reason  to HELP me do that, especially since I would be taking her with me when I  left, massively weakening Graciel as a ruler and giving Mordiel a  better chance to fight for the throne, or at least for more power.

Which  was why I was currently on my way to marketplace in the city, to pick  up as many pieces of low grade Amethyst as possible so I could merge  some more powerful stones. I wanted a meeting with royals, and while I  might get on the docket with what I'd accomplished, chances were good a  random Earl showing up to ask for a meeting wouldn't be prioritized, and  I didn't feel like waiting around for the next three weeks or however  much longer it might be for a spot to open up in the court schedule.

If  I could stockpile some powerful gems and bring them to Mordiel, I could  claim that my town was near a quarry. It wasn't like I couldn't MAKE a  quarry if need be, and I could supply them with gems directly until  then. Mordiel would get a bump to her prestige and a result she could  use to show her own capability and allow her to wield some more  influence at court. I'd get someone to keep Emerald off my back and a  head start on wooing my new princess. I'd have to actually convince her  of that, but I could be charming when I wanted to be, I was sure I could  make her see reason.

I considered fucking her, and I  actually might, but if I did it would be AFTER I met the Princess and  made a solid agreement for trade with the kingdom. The last thing I  wanted was for her to get a buzz off my new and improved super charged  cum and lock me up in her basement to be her little battery bitch. I had  a feeling if I went to see Mordiel and dicked her down the same day, I  might never be seen again. At least not by anyone that wasn't a cock  hungry Duchess hoping for a quick juice up. Hell, I couldn't even be  sure Eros and Psyche would work on someone that strong, and that was my  biggest trump card against women.

Once  I got to the marketplace I browsed around for a while. There was a  surprising amount of shit here, and when I had time I'd come back to  look into some of it. I was pretty sure there was a few useful things  hidden around, but I had other things to do sadly. I found a couple  stalls selling low level Amethysts, and paid a couple of gold coins for  the things, happy the bandits had been so wealthy. When I picked up the  first stone, a shaft of purple crystal the size of my arm, I used  appraisal on it.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Gemworld Amethyst- I rank. The  dregs of a once mighty quarry of primordial Amethyst that has supplied  the Amethyst kingdom with materials since its inception. The lowest  possible grade of stone, literal trash rock found as a byproduct from  the quarry and sold to gullible tourists trying to make a profit by  getting lucky and finding something of value.]

I  winced. That made sense. This stuff was their main construction  material and the source of all their power. If these pieces had been  useful to anyone they wouldn't be on a table in the middle of the market  being sold to random idiots. I bought every I rank Amethyst I could  find, which luckily didn't cost too much once I made it clear I knew  they were garbage, and ended up with about eighty of the damn things.  Then I headed for a comfortable inn someone recommended nearby.

Once  I was upstairs in a room, I slipped a pair of the I rank stones from my  pouch and, without much worry about price at this level, spent a  hundred points to create an H rank Amethyst. Once it was done I held the  stone up, staring at it to see if there was any external difference. I  could see the stone was both shinier and more deeply colored, but other  than that there wasn't a visible effect. So I appraised it.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Gemworld Amethyst-H  rank. An incredibly basic material found in the quarries of the  Amethyst kingdom. Used in the construction of only the most benign and  inelegant projects at the height of their power, the increasing rarity  of more powerful stones has made this lackluster gem a staple of  Amethyst creation in recent times.]

That  was...better. Not great still, but at least functional to start with. I  pulled out the other seventy eight I rank gems. After an expenditure of  four thousand points I'd managed to merge them all, leaving me at about  a hundred and thirty six thousand GP. Determined to see the next level  up and hoping it was at least useful enough to catch some attention, I  merged another pair of gems, the H ranked ones this time, before  appraising.

[Appraisal function activated. Treasure detected. Gemworld Amethyst- G  rank. A Baron level material used by the Amethyst kingdom as its basic  construction material in times past, currently considered a mid grade  asset due to its growing scarcity.]

This  time I could actually see the difference in the stone. The Amethyst was  charged with a sort of energy I hadn't seen, flickers of glowing purple  light danced through the surface of the deepest purple material I had  ever seen. I felt like I was falling into a violet abyss just staring at  it, even as the wisps of light were refracted by the prismatic interior  of the absolutely breathtaking stone. This, I decided, was the literal  least impressive material that I could get away with bringing them to  create interest.

I merged the rest  of the damned things, bringing myself to a hundred and twenty thousand,  and my stock of G rank crystals to twenty, before stopping. These would  be enough to prove I had a source for these things, but if I condensed  them any more it would be just as possible I found some kind of cache or  pocket. Plus if I went any stronger the attention I got for this might  not be a good thing. Mordiel might get greedy and just wipe us out for  the vein if it was too strong. Baron ranked stones were useful in large  quantities, but no way would a duchess  be willing to mine the things  herself.

No, this was just  enough of an asset to make me interesting and useful without being  valuable enough to push her to act personally. While it was hard to  remember here, I had to watch out not to produce anything so valuable it  made me more interesting than I was dangerous. The chalice might be a  cheat, but it was a cheat people nearby understood, and it wasn't a  cheat that upset the balance of power. Being able to manufacture stones  the could return the Amethyst kingdom to glory was liable to get me  locked up in a basement, and not in a fun way.

Still,  twenty G ranked stones was perfect. Large enough amounts to look like a  deposit, not too powerful, and since the quarries sometimes had higher  ranked stones peppered in, I could 'conveniently' find an F ranked stone  here or there when I needed a bit of cash. I stood up and stretched.  Now, all I needed to do was contact Mordiel through her official  position and initiate a meeting. It would be a delicate negotiation  though, so I'd need something nicer than armor. I headed off towards one  of the local tailors. I wanted to pick up a new outfit before my  meeting with the wicked Duchess. Regardless of world, I was sure it  would be useful. Every girl was crazy about a sharp dressed man.