Chapter 63: Burning Wallet

Chapter 63: Burning Wallet On the second floor of his office, Karl’s boney finger traced a line on a glowing, holographic screen. Below him, the Necro Market hummed with commerce, a symphony of growth he had orchestrated. But even as the profits rolled in, a bottleneck loomed. He needed to think bigger. He needed logistics. He needed to build a truck. "Hmm," he muttered, the dry click of his jaw the only sound in the cavernous room. "Which should I prioritize next?" He looked at two flashing icons on his dashboard: the Metallurgy Center and the Skeleton Barracks. The logistics of his empire, his budding Necro Corp, demanded a vehicle. A truck. A symbol of true industrial power. For that, he needed engine parts, gearboxes, suspensions, and wheels. All of that required the Metallurgy Center to be upgraded and operating at a much higher capacity. But then there was the manpower issue. "I could just buy a few packs of skeletons," he considered, tapping the barracks icon. "The good thing is they don’t increase the minion command capacity. It’s just a raw numbers game. The bad thing is... they’re not exactly flexible. I can’t just reassign them from forging to, say, accounting." He scoffed at the idea. He sighed, the sound a dry rustle of air. "No, let’s just go with the Metallurgy Center first. Manpower is useless if I have nothing for them to work with." He dismissed the barracks icon with a flick of his wrist. He focused the view on the Metallurgy Center, a blocky, unimpressive structure on the third floor. He could see his skeleton workers hammering away at forges, powered by archaic, charcoal-burning fires. It was a scene from a history book, a relic of a pre-industrial age. "That won’t do," he said to an empty room. "Not for a Volvo FH16." He closed his eyes, his consciousness retreating into the system’s design interface. He began mentally building, drawing on the raw magical elements of his dungeon. "Right, the metallurgy center is not yet integrated with the elemental stones. Let’s fix that. I need a new module, a new structure right next to it." He envisioned it taking shape—a grand hall, with specialized bays and integrated pipes. This structure wouldn’t just be an upgrade; it would be an engine of its own. It would draw on the power of fire stones to replace the inefficient charcoal. It would use earth stones to stabilize the molds for perfect, flawless casting. The water stones would provide a new kind of precise quenching—not regular water that caused thermal shock and made the metal hard but brittle, but a special non-polar fluid that cooled it safely, preventing microfractures. And at its heart, an Arcstone, a pulsating core that would control the timing and output of every single elemental stone, ensuring perfect synergy. As his design solidified, the system chimed to life, a series of notifications flashing across his inner vision. [ You have created a custom structure! ] [ Stage Two Synergy Detected! ] [ Adjusting synergy parameters... ] Karl’s eyes snapped open, a slow smirk spreading across his skeletal face. He knew that feeling. It was the feeling of hitting a gold mine. The feeling of a million-dollar idea paying off. [ You have created a Metallurgy Center Synergy upgrade! ] [ Synergy Structure Blueprint: ???? Elemental Integrated Foundry Hall ] [ Status: Offline ] [ Level: 1 (Upgradeable to Lv.5) ] [ Elemental Slots Installed: Fire x8 | Earth x6 | Water x4 | Arcstone x1 ] [ Capacity: 4 concurrent production lines ] [ Overview: The pinnacle of your metal industry — a unified complex where smelting, alloying, casting, and magical enhancement merge. Elemental stones power every stage of the process, Arcstone triggers control sequence timing, and refined output flows directly to your Distribution Center. ] [ Functions: This Foundry Hall combines base metals with elemental energy to produce magically attuned alloys. It features integrated casting lines for automated pouring, cooling, and shaping, along with precision quenching and tempering using elemental water and fire. Mana-infused forging is made possible through Arcstone-powered hammers and presses, and an automated routing system ensures finished products flow directly to storage, builders, or other production chains. ] [ Output Types: Elemental Steel (Fire/Earth) Frosted Iron (Water/Earth) Shock Alloy (Fire/Earth + Arcstone trigger) Dense Mana Bronze (Earth + Water) Decorative Mana-etched Plates Arcstone Housing Frames ] [ You earned 650 NP ] Karl threw his head back and laughed, a hollow, echoing sound that filled the room. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" he howled, jumping to his feet. He started a bizarre, spidery dance, his skeletal limbs a blur of motion. "Yeah, boiii! This is what I like! There’s even a combination of elemental alloys! HAHAHAHAH!" He pointed a bony finger at the "Shock Alloy" listing. "Shock alloy?! Damn! Electricity is now something I can reach! HAHAHAH!" His mind raced with the possibilities. "I can even create elemental machines, like air conditioning, and elemental swords and armors, HAHAHAHAHA!" He pointed to the Frosted Iron. "While I have no vehicle yet, I can use the wagons to carry frosted iron as a large cooler for my food! My first truck is coming! HAHAHA! Volvo FH16 here I come!" The 3D map of the dungeon showed the metallurgy center [ Upgrade ] button. Karl, still dancing from his success, tapped the upgrade button, then he stopped when the system notified him, [ Build Materials and Components Missing! ] .Karl sighed. "Here we go, this is the painful part of upgrading, buying the missing components I don’t have." Since he had most of the wooden beams, stone blocks, elemental stones, and arcstones, he could just buy what he didn’t have from the store. He sighed again, "All of that happiness just lasted a few seconds." He then opened the shop and started purchasing the components, equipment, and new tools for the upgrade. As he pressed [ Purchase ] on the bucket list of requirements, he watched as his NP slowly dwindled down. He leaned back in his chair, a hollow, dry click echoing in the room. "This still feels like a never-ending cycle of paycheck to paycheck," he muttered to the ceiling, the joy of the upgrade already a distant memory. Karl then decided to walked outside his office. The builder skeletons and haulers were at work again, but now the second floor was much larger, the rooms now were in the middle of the floor due to the expansion. He then got to dungeon edit, opening his 3D map, and panning wide the second floor. He selected each structure and repositioned them and moved them in accordance with the expanded floor, moving each room to the edges of the walls. As usual, anyone inside had to endure the sudden, disorienting effects of gravity, but Karl was laughing, enjoying the chaos. He moved each room to the edges, then finished and stretched. "Ahhhh.. that’s comforting." "Now," he said, smiling, "the entire second-floor hallway is wide enough. I can put in more industrial rooms, or maybe more resource gathering, like the lumber yard but upgraded, and a hunter’s lounge." He smirked, "Or better yet, a magic station for skeleton mages! Since I have elemental stones, maybe I can actually add mages to my army." An idea began to form in his head. He smirked. "Hehehe, maybe I can make an army of ranged units. Instead of actual guns, for the moment I can use elemental stone-integrated staves as guns." He then sighed, "For that, I need a lot of raw mana stones." As he sighed wondering if he can actually make it into a reality, then the manager approached him. "My lord?" the manager said. Karl smiled. "Oh, manager, how are our customers and suppliers doing?" "They’re enjoying our establishment well, my lord," the manager replied. "That’s good to hear. So what do you need?" "I’ve got information regarding the raw mana stones, my lord," the manager said. Karl smiled. "Just in time. Go on." "I’ve got the information from a wandering trader. He said that raw mana stones are usually a common occurence," the manager began, "particularly because a very rare percentage of beastkins knew magic. Only a few foxkin clans knew how to convert these raw mana stones into light stones, fire stones, and water stones, like we do. While the foxkin companies and merchant conglomerates use these raw mana stones to sell them to the populace at an extremely high price. But due to the high consumption of mana from these stones, they seem to constantly replace them." Karl said, "Ahhh... yes, it’s similar to our issue, huh? Thankfully, we now have arcstone that can constantly transfer mana to the surrounding elemental stones." The manager nodded. "Yes, my lord. Now, due to the foxkins’ secretive nature, the elemental stones in the market degraded in value particularly, because the citizens don’t want to buy a these expensive stones and then later buying another. Now, only the nobles and large merchant companies will buy them and use them into their everyday lives. But since some of the populace hunts wildlife, the butchered animals, also have mana stones in them." Karl was already smiling as he started his slow dance again. "And?" he said. The manager smiled and said, "Now, the entire region has an excess of raw mana stones. A trader saw our light stones and asked us for a supply deal. But my problem is, some of the foxkin clans might not like this move of ours. They might see this as an interference and sabotage to their business." Karl scoffed, mocking, "Pffftt!! Fuck them, obviously. That’s just competition and availability. If they pressure us, we’re gonna use the people against them if it comes down to it. We’re gonna need a lot of raw mana stones, and if this region is shitting magic stones like crazy, then I say, buy them all. Use everything necessary to control the flow of our mana stone imports. The foxkin are gonna do the same thing, with buying them at high prices, but they don’t have the spending power as much as we do. Though it’s still early to tell, it’s better to come prepared than have them surprise us later on." The manager nodded and smiled. "Yes, my lord."