Absolute Beast Dominion - Chapter 435: Titanbreath Lotus

Chapter 435: Titanbreath Lotus

It wasn’t as expensive as figures reaching into the millions, as in the case of elves, if he opted for normal people with no soul ranks.

A normal human slave, for instance, would only cost him 10 AC to 5000 AC, depending on age, gender, and physical abilities or disabilities—yes, a human slave. They also existed in the Human Empire. But their reason for enslavement wasn’t as indiscriminate as that of the other races. They became slaves because of their own faults or bad luck. For example, falling into debt—to repay that, people sold themselves—this was the most common cause.

Second were war prisoners. For some reason, when two Kingdoms fought due to legitimate reasons—the legitimate reason could be a high-level natural treasure appearing in disputed boundaries, or simply productive land—the Emperor allowed them to fight, and the winner took all.

These fights could be between individuals or escalate into full-out wars. In the case of a full-out war, many prisoners were captured. And since most of them were foot soldiers without any talent—specifically without any Beast Taming talent—and thus without the protection of the Empire, they were sold away to slave traders to cover expenses if their homeland didn’t try to get them back.

Other reasons included punishments for crimes or simply betrayal by friends or family who discreetly sold you. In that case, if you didn’t have the strength, you became a slave, because a slave trader wouldn’t look into your circumstances; he looked at the money.

Leo decided to leave the matter for later discussion with the core members. Because even if he wanted slaves to ensure trustworthiness, he couldn’t ignore Lily’s viewpoint.

Accepting refugees brought many variables, especially when he had recently come face-to-face with the incident of demons disguising themselves. And he could tell that because of the demons, even Kaelion was inclined toward having slaves in his territory. He always looked a bit sceptical around the three girls, Brok, and even the siblings.

If Leo was transparent about his ways and simply stated he had trust issues, then Kaelion just hid even bigger trust issues under a calm surface.

With his thoughts shorting out, he finally walked toward the Titanbreath Lotus to examine the changes after the rank-up.

[Titanbreath Lotus] — Low → Mid Yellow-Tier Treasure

“Damn… what is this height?” Leo exclaimed as he approached the tree. He had only watched it from afar after it grew, but now that he stood close, he realised it had almost reached 40 meters in height. It had nearly doubled in size in a single rank-up.

A faint rustle passed through its massive leaves overhead.

But Leo also realised the tree was using almost all its energy to grow itself and keep Howl fed. This had completely halted the growth of the Earthpulse Heartstone. Not to mention, since the tree didn’t actually generate mana but rather consumed it, the lowering density of mana in the surrounding area had slowed the growth even further.

Still, the system gave him some good news—once the tree started receiving adequate mana and water, the heartstone generation would quadruple.

Heartstone rank – days required to grow → No. of heartstones generated [Recharge time]

Mid Blue-tier – 5 days → 5 → 20 [2 → 1/2 days charge time]

High Blue-tier – 10 days → 5 → 20 [3 → 2 days charge time]

Peak Blue-tier – 20 days → 5 → 20 [4 → 2 day charge time]

Low Purple-tier – 40 days → 5 → 20 [5 → 4 days charge time]

Mid Purple-tier – 160 days → 20 [10 days charge time]

Simplified:

Mid Blue-tier – 1 day → 4 [half day charge time]

High Blue-tier – 1 day → 2 [1 day charge time]

Peak Blue-tier – 1 day → 1 [2 days charge time]

Low Purple-tier – 2 days → 1 [4 days charge time]

Mid Purple-tier – 8 days → 1 [10 days charge time]

Leo still recalled the day he sold the High Blue-tier ones to that Dale guy for 7 gold coins each.

“Almost 17,500 AC…” Leo muttered, a faint frown forming on his face.

“Wait… isn’t it a bit low for something ranked High Blue-tier?” he added, narrowing his eyes.

The academy’s general price for something ranked high in the Blue tier was 400,000 AC—that’s 160 gold coins per piece.

“Maybe the price was lowered since it’s technically a fruit… no, not even a fruit—more like a raw material that needs processing to be of use…” Leo thought, rubbing his chin. “Then there’s onsite purchase, like a wholesale deal… but… no. Was I scammed? But that… shouldn’t be possible with how panicked he looked.”

At that time, 7 gold coins had been way too shocking for him—an extremely high price for something he had pried off a broken golem.

“But I made sure to hide my expression pretty well…” he muttered under his breath.

He could only guess that it had something to do with the heartstones themselves. There was no way Dale would scam him after witnessing his strength.

Because the price of a treasure varied greatly depending on its uses and ease of use. Dale had stated that the heartstones needed heavy processing before they could be consumed.

“Maybe the treasure itself is less known?” Leo wondered. If there was no documented use of an item, even a Gold-tier treasure could be sold as scrap… though that would only be possible if it didn’t even serve as an eyepiece for collectors and simply looked like garbage.

At that moment, he sensed Aeila approaching from behind with timid, almost hesitant steps. Leo made a mental note to inquire about the matter at Aurelius Hall and shifted his attention.

“L-lord… G-good morning,” Aeila stuttered, her voice barely above a whisper.

She didn’t know why she had been summoned. A cold unease crept up her spine as she walked towards Leo’s location. She was terrified, convinced that her time to be punished had finally come.

When she had informed Sylrael about the incident, Sylrael had felt a headache coming on. The elves kept making foolish mistakes that might get them punished. Though Sylrael knew that climbing the tree wasn’t that serious—she had seen Lily and Miho do it during training, and she herself had been allowed while sparring with Lily.

Still, to teach Aeila a lesson, Sylrael had pretended to be distressed and told her to stay calm until Leo said anything.

But seeing Sylrael’s expression, Aeila had felt as if the ground beneath her had shattered. She began to think that Leo’s earlier words—that he wasn’t bothered by her climbing—had only been him postponing her punishment due to urgent matters.

She had already prepared all sorts of apologies in her mind, her fingers trembling slightly, but before she could say anything—Leo spoke.