Chapter 282: Cores and Connections

The patrols continued for the next three weeks, and every day, many soldiers lost their lives to the living shadows.

Using the information Bael had provided him, David drafted a set of regulations to keep the soldiers safe.

The same was happening at the other camps, but the deaths there were way more because for the first two weeks, there were no survivors.

In the third week, all the camps were informed of the existence of living shadows and ordered to provide any information they had on them, and that was how David’s regulations were now being used in all the camps.

The regulations were rather easy to follow; all the soldiers needed to do was stay away from dark areas, keep their distance from the living shadows, and, upon seeing them, use the ether flashbomb, which emitted a blinding light when it was slammed into the ground.

However, this wasn’t something they could continue to do because ether flashbombs were made from ether cores, and the cores weren’t cheap; instead, they had more value than gold because of rune smithing, potion crafting, and so on.

Even though the kingdom wanted to save as many soldiers as they could, the cost of doing so was getting too high for them.

Normally, Bael would’ve been down because of such a thing, but as he was from the red and black mountains and during the last few weeks there and while walking down it, he had done nothing but slay ether beasts; he had three times more ether cores than what the kingdom needed.

The issue was how he would supply it to the kingdom; he couldn’t just go to David and tell him.

Bael paced in his tent while rubbing his chin in thought.

Jareb and Henry stared at him with puzzled expressions, and seeing that he was in no mood to stop, Jareb asked, “What are you doing?”

Jareb’s words pulled him out of his reverie, and he turned towards him. “Trying to think of something.”

At his words, Henry spoke, “What is it? Maybe we can help you.”

“Oh?” Bael looked at their serious faces and thought, ’Maybe I can use the connections their families have with the kingdom.’

“I want to sell something,” Bael muttered as he folded his arms across his chest.

Jareb and Henry frowned and stared at him with dumbfounded expressions as they mumbled at the same time, “You want to sell something…?”

Bael nodded. “Yes.”

They stayed silent for some time, and Jareb asked while brushing his red hair in place, “What is it you want to sell?”

’Should I tell them?’ Bael thought for a few moments and concluded, ’It won’t be a problem even if I do tell them.’

With a wide smile, he opened his arms and said, “Ether cores.”

The tent fell silent as Jareb and Henry gaped at him with deadpan faces, and Henry spewed, “How common do you think ether cores are that you can just sell them?”

’Huh?’ Bael blinked twice and thought, ’Do they think I am lying?’

Jareb spoke next, “Most ether beasts never form a physical core; that’s why the ether cores are rarer than ether beasts.”

“I know that…” Bael mumbled as he shook his head and murmured under his breath, “To think you two aren’t believing my words. Tch tch.”

“The cores are just that rare,” they said at the same time.

’For you maybe,’ Bael thought.

The barrier that had stopped Dhaevrak from living in the mountains had also stopped most of the ether from entering them. Because of that, a heavy amount of ether had accumulated around the barrier, and when The Remnant broke it, the ether rushed in and transformed the beasts into ether beasts, all of which had ether cores from the beginning.

Each ether core was the size of an adult human’s palm, and the amount needed to create an ether flashbomb was one-fourth of it.

Bael picked up his leather pouch from his bed and rummaged through it as he took out an ether core from his inventory.

His lips curled upwards as he turned towards the two noble heirs and mumbled while showcasing the core to them, “So? How is it?”

Seeing the blue liquid, yet solid crystal in his hand, their eyes widened beyond belief, and just as they were about to shout out its name, Bael placed a finger on his lips and stated, “Shhh. Don’t shout.”

Both of them covered their mouths with their hands and stared at the ether core in shock.

Until now, the only ether cores they had seen were half the size of what Bael was holding, and they looked at his face, and their hands lowered as they blurted at the same time, “How do you have such a big ether core?”

Bael proudly puffed his chest and muttered with a smug look, “I found it during my travels, of course.”

The two heirs shot deadpan stares, and Henry stammered, “Do you think anyone can find that?”

Bael shook his head and said, “Not anyone can, but I can. So? Can you help me sell it?”

They looked at each other, and Jareb asked, “I can ask the patriarch to buy it…”

“Same,” Henry added afterwards.

A chuckle escaped Bael, and he muttered while putting the core back in the pouch, “I don’t want you to buy them. I want you to sell them to the kingdom.”

“Them?” Henry asked with wide eyes, and Jareb followed, “To the kingdom?”

“Yes to both,” Bael answered as he threw the pouch on his bed and said, “Can you help me?”

Jareb shook his head and stepped forward while asking, “No. Before that, tell me why you want to sell them to the kingdom?”

Bael smiled wryly before he let out a defeated sigh and said, “Because the kingdom needs it, but if I just give it to them, they won’t use it out of suspicion.”

Henry and Jareb pondered over his words for some time, and Bael sat down on his bed.

A few minutes later, they looked at him with serious expressions and asked, “How many ether cores do you even have?”

Bael displayed a thoughtful look as he stared at the inventory screen, which had a slot of ether cores with the number thousand floating above it.

“A few hundred,” he said, and the two heirs just looked away from him.

They didn’t even know what to think of this anymore. After heaving a sigh and calming themselves, they turned towards him and said, “How do you want us to help?”

A grin appeared on Bael’s face, and he explained while rubbing his palms, “I want you to get us out of the camp for a few days.”

The two of them frowned.

Unlike the knights and recruits, the nobles could request their camp to go out for at most a week. This request, however, could only be made by the head of their family.

“I don’t think the patriarch would agree to it,” Henry and Jareb mumbled at the same time.

Bael had obviously expected this, so he gave the answer he had already thought of, “Just tell them that you need to do something important for the kingdom, which you can’t tell them yet.”

They shook their heads. “It won’t work.”

“Try it,” Bael muttered as he took out two mythiron daggers from his vest and gave one to both.

They looked at him with confused faces, and he spoke, “Put the letter and the dagger in the same pouch and send it to your houses.”

“You sure that they would agree just because of a dagger?” Henry asked, still unable to understand how or why he was even listening to him.

Jareb was the same… Bael had randomly appeared in their lives, and from the first moment, he became the central point as if everything revolved around him.

Above all, he cared for them and most of the time didn’t try to annoy them, so they naturally began to see him as a big brother, even though they never had one.

“What are you two staring at me for?” Bael asked, and a smug smile found its way on his lips as he added, “Am I so handsome that even nobles are falling for my charms? Though I have to point out that I only like those of the opposite gender to me.”

They gave him a disgusted look as they walked over to their beds and began to rummage through their bags for the parchment and pen.

After about half an hour, they finished the letters and placed them in a pouch with the dagger.

They stood up from their beds and said, “Let’s go.”

Bael nodded, and all three of them walked out of the tent and made way towards the command tents at the west edge of the camp.

After reaching the command tents, they gave the pouches to the responsible knight and told them their destination.

Once everything was finalized, they returned to their tent.

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