“Gwen, did you remember to get me a few of those talismans the Hunters use to monitor the vital signs of groups that adventure out?” I asked.

“I brought a dozen, Baroness,” one of the men answered for her.

I wasn’t sure who he was, he was part of the group that Gwen had invited, someone who represented the town somehow, but from his clothing and bearing, he would be easily overlooked. Nondescript. Just another face in the crowd, even if he was an Elf. Something I didn’t think was possible.

The thing that stood out about him was his weathered skin. From his peeling skin and chafed lips, it was apparent he worked outside. Elves might not age, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t be affected by our environment, and constant exposure to the sun did have an effect. I was sure if I shook hands with him, I would find calluses. A life spent working hard, one that required manual labor.

“Jai, allow me to introduce you. This is Atid Prida, the Hunter’s Guild leader,” Gwen said, formally introducing us. “I asked him to meet with you today. I thought it better to have someone from the Lodge on hand to answer whatever questions you might have.

“Atid,” I said, directing my attention more fully to the man introduced. “Thank you for coming. I want to talk to you about expanding the function of Hunter’s Lodge when this meeting is finished. I want to begin posting requests for resources from anyone interested, including the amount I’m willing to pay.

“I’m also interested in creating a system that rewards those who report unique and new resources they discover with bonuses, going so far as to register their finds in their names and providing ongoing payments as harvesting continues.

“For now, can you spare a dozen or so of those tracker talismans and explain how they work?”

“I brought six with me. I’ll make sure to send over a dozen more,” Atid replied hurriedly.

“Basically, they are talismans that have been bound to each Hunter with a drop of blood and an injection of their Qi signature. A link forms by adding a drop of blood to a piece of coral and then breaking that piece of coral in half. A link monitors each Hunter’s vitality. It lets us know if a Hunter is living or not. The talisman’s two pieces are separated. One piece of coral remains at Hunter’s Lodge. A person carries the other.”

“Is there a range before they stop working?” Ming, one of the cultivators I had recruited from the Sect, asked.

He was the most accomplished of the people I had recruited when it came to arrays. I was hoping these devices would catch his attention. I was positive this talisman was the first piece of the puzzle needed to create the communication network I envisioned. If this coral could stay linked well enough to monitor vital signs, then it should be able to be adapted to send other types of signals.

“Not that we’ve ever noticed,” Atid replied. “But our Hunter’s don’t range too far from town, and we have never really tested if the connection between the two parts fails when any real distance is involved.”

“I wonder what makes the coral work like this?” Ming mused aloud as she examined one of the talismans. The runic work that had been etched into them was almost childlike in its simplicity. But that only made me more confident that a talented Arrayist like Ming could expand on the design.

“I have a theory,” I said, gaining their attention. “Coral is a living animal; each piece thrives and grows into a colony, a thriving community with other elements of coral. Each coral reef has grown into a colony that depends on each other for stability, growth, and sustenance.

“They don’t have to compete for resources, so I believe they have formed a rudimentary type of synaptic communication—a thread of world energy, of Qi that cycles like a cultivation technique across the reef.

“When you chip or break off a piece of coral, that connection remains. The coral might not have meridian channels, but they do form hollows and tunnels that might work in the same manner,” I finished explaining my theory.

“Why would they continue working once they are separated from the main reef and die?” Atid wondered.

“That is something I hope Ming and Bao can discover,” I admitted. “I would like to understand the efficacy of this talisman, the runes used to make them work, and what energy signature exists that allow the pieces to continue to communicate even after they have died.”

Atid handed the few samples he had brought, half to Ming, half to Bao. Boa was an herbalist, and while coral was not a plant, it had enough similarities. I thought her contribution might prove significant.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Both became immediately engrossed in examining the talismans. I would have to caution them about investing too much time in this endeavor at the moment. I hoped they would make some progress in understanding what was going on, but it would have to wait until after the Dojo was completed.

Ming still had arrays to help build, and Bao needed to plant the spirit gardens that resonated and were tuned to specific elemental affinities. These gardens would supply the elements the formations built into the foundation of each building would use the runes to channel and guide the collected elements as each affinity merged in the main building. Her work and the gardens she created were essential to making the elemental harmony I was working towards.

“Yes, Baroness,” Bao and Ming replied.

“Lily,” I said, turning my attention back to the coral collected, “what do you do with the coral that is normally harvested?”

“Some is used for the talismans that the Hunter’s Lodge needs; a small amount is used for trade or barter, but crafters and jewelers use the most significant amount, locally. Chon used the art and jewelry they created to trade with some ships, ships that weren’t invested in smuggling.

“He usually traded for spirit stones, but he wasn’t opposed to any luxury goods, especially food they might offer.

“Much of the raw coral was sold unprocessed to those same ships.”

“I’d like to see a breakdown on what was traded, for how much, and the percentage of income that trade generated for the townspeople,” I said, watching as Gwen made a note of my request.

“For now, what was the rate of pay a coral diver, crafter, and jeweler expect to collect in a year?” I asked Lily.

“240 mid-level cores a year for the divers,” she replied, “for the crafters and jewelers that varies, it could be as much as ten times that. It depended on how much they produced and what interest the cargo masters for each ship might have.”

“Gwen, hire all of the coral divers. The town will need their help in replanting the reef and helping it recover. We’ll pay them the going rate of 240 mid-level beast cores for now. Allow the crafters and jewelers to buy as much of the coral stored in the warehouses as they’d like. Sell it at fifty percent of whatever they were paying.

“We’ll reserve five thousand tons for House Myche’s use. How much was the raw coral sold for?” I asked.

“A mid-level spirit stone every hundred catty,” she said after leafing through her notes.

“I assume that is where most of the 240 beast cores the divers made come from?” I asked.

“Yes, Baroness,” Lily replied.

“How many divers are there?” I wondered.

“It varies,” Lily said, “but on average, 125 divers.”

“There are fifteen hundred catties in a ton. That means fifteen spirit stones for the raw cargo,” I mused. “A mid-level spirit stone is worth 150,000 mid-level beast cores. That divided by the number of divers is 1200 each, not 240.

“Were the divers aware that Chon was paying them five times less than the amount of what they were sold for each year?” I wondered.

Lily’s silence was answer enough. “Of course, they didn’t.”

“Gwen, adjust the rate of pay for each diver. They will be paid 192 high-quality beast cores for now. A tax of 5 high-quality beast cores from each diver is more than sufficient.

“Pay each of them monthly. Use sixteen of the cores that were harvested from the Laodicea. The quality and purity of those cores are superior. The Sect has valued one core equivalent to one low-quality spirit stone, giving them an infusion of capital to hold until the ships come and the coral that is warehoused can be sold or auctioned.

“As the raw coral is sold, tax the sales at 2.5 percent and give the rest to Lily to distribute.”

“It would be better if you gave that money to the Coral Divers Guild, Baroness,” Lily informed me. “They know how much each diver has collected and can distribute the funds based on those numbers.”

“Gwen, make a note of that. Also, instead of giving cores to each diver, deposit 1,460 cores in the bank for the Guild to draw upon. Ensure the Guild is aware that one plant core is the equivalent of one low-quality spirit stone and inform them they are to use those funds to pay divers based on their contributions.

“At the new rate of pay.

“If the divers haven’t created an account with the bank yet, inform them that all transactions from now on will be made via bank transactions. The Guild and its members should get a jade token quickly. It will make it easier to deal with the increased amount of funds they will be dealing with.

“For the 5,000 tons of coral that I have reserved for House Myche, reserve an additional 7500 cores for a ten percent deposit. If the coral can be used as I hope, I will pay the remaining 75,000 immediately. If not, we will sell the 5000 tons I have reserved to trade, and the Guild will be reimbursed at market value.

“Also, have a letter drafted informing all of the branch managers at each bank throughout my territory about the value of a Laodicea core. I want to make sure the difference in quality and purity of these cores is understood and that they are valued correctly.”

The influx of funds was going to make a significant difference for Xiwang. The 75,000 alone was more money distributed in the town than what had been paid in wages in the last ten years.

Each box I had confiscated held a thousand cores. Counting the cores I had harvested myself, those found in Chon’s keep, the ship that attacked, the warehouse full of cores, and those confiscated from the Harbor Master, I had collected almost fifteen million cores.

I wasn’t worried about distributing that many cores, but my funds were not bottomless. At some point, I needed to begin taking in at least as much money as I was spending. I had counted on the cores I confiscated to expand and rebuild my territory. I still would, but I would need to focus on trade and profit more than ever now.

There was so much left to do, so many things needing to be done that would require funding. I needed to meet with the Hindel to repair the relationship Chon had destroyed. Discuss with Zui a way to set up negotiations with the mainland. Decide what we should focus on for trade. Have Earth Cultivators search the mountains in my territory and hope they had the metal I would need to supply the secondary professions with resources. And begin training the new cultivators.

I had a few tentative plans for making money, and with a bit of luck and some hard work, I’d have those plans in place before the well ran dry.