The Third Portal: Chapter Sixty-Five

The rest of the day passed by swiftly enough after Meadow’s route planning, and I moved off to take care of a variety of issues, both mundane and otherwise.

“The thing that you need to understand is that investment is a complex, multifaceted, and layered field,” Orykson lectured as he took a sip of his iced mocha. “There is no one, universal one-size-fits all investment for anyone, least of all a mage.” 

“I’ve heard that gold and houses were good investments,” I pointed out. “But you told me to sell the gold, so I did.” 

“Gold is a good hedge against inflation. Even active cores grow gold at a rather slow rate, when compared to the high demand for it in power grids and consumer goods,” Orykson lectured. “As such, its value tends towards stability. Yes, new natural arrays that produce gold can be found, as with your myrmekes friend, but over-mined or old arrays can also fall apart. If you kept your gold as nothing other than gold, the value would increase solely in proportion to inflation.” 

I squinted at Orykson for a long moment, thinking through his words. I thought I got what he was driving at, but I wasn’t entirely sure. 

“Property is somewhat different. It tends to be stable, but on a long term scale, it is less stable than most people think. Over the course of a century, neighborhoods can move, schools can shift, industries can shift. Teffordshire, for example, might currently be a titan of industrial enchantment, but with increasing levels of imported flight devices from Thornfront each year, it might return to its origins as little more than a midsize port city within a century or two, causing property values…” 

Orykson continued to drone on, lecturing me about investments of a dozen different varieties, from governmental derived consol bonds that never technically matured, to the ungated mana generation markets operated by Etif’s Bonded Mages, to bundles of fractional stocks invested in hundreds or thousands of businesses, to investing in a weird banking Genius Loci called the Vault who was apparently where most Titled managed their personal financial and asset storage. 

It seemed like each and every one had pros and cons, and he went over each in excruciating detail, even detailing specific types of bank accounts that could be used to manage various levels of taxes. 

I did try to remember what I could. I really did. It was just… a lot. 

“One thing I don’t get is that you’ve emphasized all of these as being really long term,” I said. “Some of these investments you’re talking about, I couldn’t even start dipping into until I was in my fifties or sixties. Primes, with some of the Vault operated annuity, I couldn’t even start accessing the money for a full century.” 

“Well, you’d need more money to start with a Vault annuity, as I said,” Orykson commented, sounding a touch annoyed that I’d missed that minor detail in his deluge of data. “But yes. Compound interest is a powerful weapon. Your current lifespan is likely to be over three and a half centuries, assuming that you never advanced again, and your finances should account for that.” 

“Three?” I asked, blinking. “I thought I’d get about two centuries. Two and a half if I were lucky.” 

“Between Dusk’s dominion stabilizing your existence, Dawn’s dominion working to refine your body, the natural treasures that have improved the robustness of your organs, the flow of soul mana through your body, as well as all of the effects of your spellcraft, you’ve exceeded the standard limit of what a peak third gate life mage can expect to manage.” 

He took another sip of his mocha, as if he hadn’t just told me I’d added a hundred and fifty years to my lifespan. With that perspective, I saw why Orykson was talking about investments that would last for a long time. 

“If you win several other events at the tournament, it may be worth forgoing the mentorship or advancement prizes, and taking the cash,” Orykson advised. “If you then took those winnings and invested in some short term things like five or ten year bonds, it might push you over the six figure minimum account balance.” 

“Or I could advance to seventh gate without a heaven’s gate elixir,” I griped. “That feels about equally as likely.” 

“Yes,” Orykson agreed, though he didn’t seem to have picked up on the fact I was being sarcastic. It was… oddly heartwarming.

We spent a while talking over a variety of investments, and from there, turned to the conversion process for converting Mossford Standard Silver into the Golden Taels that Central Daocheng used. Zhuanzhe had its own, separate currency, but much like how Mossford Standards were accepted across the Mossford Alliance, and in local city states like Delitone, Taels were apparently accepted across all nations within Greater Daocheng. 

It was a bit annoying that Daocheng was both the name of a coalition of multiple nations, and also the most powerful nation within that coalition, but I supposed that I couldn’t really talk. After all, I came from the Mossford Capital, in the nation of Mossford, which was head of the Mossford Alliance.

With my financial future sorted – at least, as far as I could tell, I went back to performing a handful of various tasks around the island. I was still being called in regularly in order to act as the translator for the myrmekes queen, and today was the first time since the battle that I’d been called in to act that role. A part of me was terrified the surge of desolants across the island would result in the hive being wiped out, but as I teleported through the cordon, spread out my mana senses, and began spritzing scents into the air, I felt my eyebrows shoot up.

“Well, look at you!” I told the queen affectionately as she bonked her antennae onto my legs. She didn’t understand the words, but recognized the vibrations as the human way of communicating, just as I did the antennae waggling. 

Based on the sensory feedback that I was getting from the hive, they had definitely been attacked. One of their tunnels had even caved in, and they’d lost some of their warrior ants. But the months of peace had allowed them to rebuild their number from the first time I’d met them, and with those numbers and the human Brighteyes members who had been assigned to minding their cordon, they’d repelled an attack. 

More than that, though, the queen had advanced. I wasn’t certain if it had been in the battle, or in the aftermath, but judging by the still fresh feeling of her spirit, it had to have been fairly recent. 

Honestly, it gave me peace of mind. Though the country was flooded with beast mages at the moment, those who understood and respected nature, it wouldn’t always be. People would continue to move here, and not all of them would share the same respect. Politicians might one day push to take more from the myrmekes and give less. Sure, Crysite was being protected by a dragon and a worldspirit, so I didn’t think they’d be able to go too far, but giving the hive the personal power to back up the dragon’s demands also helped. 

I spent the better part of the day working with the ants on brokering deals in relation to certain advancement resources. The queen seemed to have come to a somewhat similar conclusion, and wanted certain treasures that could be used to ensure that the next queen would be able to reach her heights easier. Given she felt like she still had at least another couple decades in her, even as an ant, I admired her forward thinking. 

As we communicated, I felt as if her will and focus was more present, focused, and tangible in her thoughts. It wasn’t as though she’d suddenly become capable of learning more words, but more that the words she had became even more effective. The result of breaking into the second layer of her soul, perhaps? I’d never gotten a firm and clear image of exactly what the second layer was, but will was clearly a part of it. 

After our goodbyes to the myrmekes queen, I made my way back to Port Ruby, and found myself before a familiar board, studying my Crysite ID. 

I’d earned a significant portion of points in the battle. Elio had been true to his word, and though the pills and spiritual tools were a significant portion of my rewards, my point balance was now just over six thousand, and I had some spending to do. 

The first thing I did was check over the Timemind. It was still there, though the price had been raised slightly, to five thousand one hundred points. A three hundred point jump wasn't terrible, given the entire market was flooded and inflated right now. I thought Elio might have been subsidizing prices or something, and was sure Orykson would have lectured me for not knowing.

As I was looking it over, however, another treasure caught my eye. 

Sharpthought (Five thousand points. Three remaining): This natural spell treasure can be placed in a life, knowledge, or mind mana-garden, where it enhances the body’s ability to wield mental and knowledge energy in the brain against intrusion. When mana is run through it, it enhances the mana senses. 

It didn’t have the same passive information processing enhancement that the Timemind did, but the abilities that it did convey were quite useful. Thanks to my Runelight Lens, the improvement to my mana senses could actually further bolster my mental defenses, which would give me some truly fierce mental shielding for a non-mind mage. I continued to scan the list, mulling things over. The final treasure that caught my eye was actually somewhat familiar – I’d drunk a similar elixir before. 

Cycling Plum Wine Gourd (Five hundred and fifteen points. Nineteen remaining): When drunk, this wine will improve the spirit’s receptiveness to mana meditation, allowing it to be mastered more quickly. 

I was getting close to mastering the third level of my own mana meditation, and Dusk had leapt into fourth gate without completing hers. Dawn had her own mana meditation – somehow – but was nowhere near complete with the third level, having just reached third gate, so the wine would likely be useless for her.

I went ahead and purchased two gourds, then let my eyes flick back to the board. The Sharpthought wasn’t quite as potent as the Timemind, but it was quite powerful, and had the advantage of being able to be placed in my life garden, leaving my time free to focus on a temporary battle simulacra. 

Conversely, the Timemind would speed my reaction time, pairing perfectly with Foxarmor and my tendency to flicker around the battlefield. The memory enhancement wasn’t as useful, but it also wasn’t exactly bad. It would be nice to be able to preserve memories. 

And my talk with Orykson had also caused me to think about investing. I had no desire to become a landlord or anything of the sort, but I could still potentially purchase land and amenities as an investment, expanding the tiny teleportation platform out and maybe even putting in some supplies around it, turning it into a supply cache I could use while moving around…

Not to mention, as long as Kene didn't pick the second path, I had a few more weeks in Crysite. I could save and try to go after one of the larger prizes, but honestly, those were still fairly far away. With the market so flooded with new points, the board would probably see things being added and removed very quickly over the next few weeks, so if I did save, I had no idea what I'd actually be able to get with it.

I glanced at Dusk and Dawn, then manifested Hannah. 

“What do you all think?”