Chapter 1332
But expanding in the Stoneland Kingdom is nearly impossible. Every link in the chain of interests has already been carved up by the merchant guilds, leaving no room for outsiders to make significant progress.
Leon was already very satisfied with the current situation. After delivering ten thousand Universal Cores to the Lincoln Trading Guild, they immediately launched a new line of magical devices in the Stoneland Kingdom. Thanks to the convenience of embedding the Universal Core into magical devices—even those already manufactured could be easily modified for use.
The Lincoln Trading Guild’s new magical devices were fifty percent more expensive than those of the same tier, but their effectiveness was also increased by fifty percent.
Mages in the Stoneland Kingdom are notoriously picky. These people are all wealthy—after all, the kingdom possesses many exclusive resources. Even the Odin Kingdom and Andalusia Kingdom have to import those resources, and no one expects the prices to be cheap.
They’re rich and demanding; if there’s something better, they don’t care about the price. If it weren’t for the kingdom’s natural geographic limitations and small population, their overall strength would probably surpass the Odin Kingdom. In terms of average wealth, they’re already ahead.
Every titled Archmage in the Stoneland Kingdom has their own True Spirit Device, and any Sky Rank powerhouse would be embarrassed to go out without a few custom-made True Spirit Devices.
The Lincoln Trading Guild released Spirit Devices embedded with Universal Cores, and even started offering custom-made True Spirit Devices powered by Universal Cores.
In an instant, the Lincoln Trading Guild’s business in Spirit Devices and True Spirit Devices squeezed the Roosevelt Trading Consortium’s market share down by more than fifty percent.
Overnight, the high-end market’s share plummeted by half. Many mages, unable to buy magical devices with Universal Cores, refused to purchase from the Roosevelt Trading Consortium. They’d rather wait until next month—even if it meant waiting around doing nothing.
This was a particularly heavy blow to the Roosevelt Trading Consortium. You see, they only handle the final manufacturing and sales of magical devices—the earlier stages are managed by other parties.
From material selection and procurement to refining and forging, even many Spirit Device components aren’t handled by Roosevelt’s own people. All of this is managed by downstream partner guilds.
This division of labor was highly efficient, but now it’s become a fatal flaw. Roosevelt handles final sales, but when the magical devices stop selling, all the downstream guilds get choked off. Not only is Roosevelt hit hard—its partners get caught in the crossfire for no reason.
To counter Lincoln’s pressure, Roosevelt had no choice but to adopt a rather clumsy strategy: drastically lowering prices and sacrificing at least half their profits to regain market share. Unfortunately, it didn’t work very well.
Discord arose within the consortium, and partners began to question Roosevelt—even a few started negotiating with Lincoln. It took less than a month for these issues to spread all the way to the Upper Parliament.
During a recent vote, one of Roosevelt’s partners did the unthinkable: they supported Lincoln, abandoning Roosevelt. This triggered a chain reaction—Roosevelt’s influence in the Upper Parliament kept declining, and not a single proposal passed.
Losing a seat in the Parliament was only a matter of time.
Once it was revealed that the Universal Core was a product withdrawn from the Gilded Rose, Roosevelt tried to seize it through underhanded means—but to no avail. Lincoln easily secured the deal, leading to the current situation.
Lincoln even secretly spread the details of the negotiations, making it clear to everyone that what should have been a straightforward deal turned into a mess thanks to Roosevelt’s interference.
Roosevelt’s reputation took a major hit. In just a short time, their support in the Upper Parliament dropped by thirty percent, and dissatisfaction began to surface.
Three major downstream partners betrayed the Roosevelt Trading Consortium and joined Lincoln. If not for the desert clans backing Roosevelt to prevent the ice-clan Lincoln from monopolizing the magical device market, Roosevelt would have collapsed already.
Roosevelt’s headquarters was nearly burned to the ground—everything exposed, nothing left to hide. They had no energy to deal with the Gilded Rose, so all measures against it were halted.
With Roosevelt stopping their attacks on the Gilded Rose, anyone spreading rumors against the Gilded Rose was quickly caught. Following the trail, the true mastermind was exposed before the investigation even finished.
The person behind the attacks was Walker Carter from the Carter Family. After a period of fleeing, he didn’t dare stay in any town. Roosevelt found him and used him to smear the Gilded Rose, supporting his secret schemes.
But with Roosevelt’s base in chaos, they had no power or energy to support Walker anymore. All their resources were focused on the Odin Kingdom, trying to recover their market share.
Walker was left hanging for a month, and when he tried to smear the Gilded Rose on his own, he quickly found himself being tracked down.
When he asked Roosevelt for help again, all he got was a cold response—Reynolds had no time for him now.
It was because of Walker’s actions that Roosevelt ended up like this. The only reason he wasn’t disposed of was because they still needed him to maintain the Odin Kingdom market. But now the replacement had arrived; once they took over, Reynolds would have to answer for everything back in Stoneland.
Everyone at Roosevelt was too busy to care about Walker. Desperate, he saw the Gilded Rose closing in and, in a panic, snuck into Roosevelt’s vault, stole a pile of magical devices, and fled.
Now he’s wanted by Roosevelt, and with the bounty offered by the Gilded Rose, even Sky Rank powerhouses are interested in his head—especially curious about what he stole to make Roosevelt put up a ten million Purple Gold Coin reward.
With the Gilded Rose raising the bounty on Walker Carter to ten million Purple Gold Coins, more and more people became interested in his head.
As long as someone took out Walker—who wasn’t an especially strong Sky Rank—they’d not only get the bounty, but more importantly, earn the friendship of either Roosevelt or the Gilded Rose. That was the real prize.
With the mastermind behind the Gilded Rose smear campaign exposed, the whole conspiracy was torn apart. The Gilded Rose’s reputation rebounded—better than ever, actually. Now everyone knew Lincoln and the Gilded Rose were partners, and Lincoln had used the supposedly fraudulent Universal Core to crush Roosevelt in Stoneland.
Once the smear campaign was fully exposed and the Stoneland Kingdom’s influence added in, the magical device market was in turmoil. The Universal Core was back on its pedestal, and demand soared.
Whether it was shops selling Spirit Devices or those specializing in custom True Spirit Devices, whoever could get their hands on Universal Cores would see their profits skyrocket. Anyone who couldn’t would be lucky to keep half their current earnings.
Unfortunately, following Leon’s instructions, the Gilded Rose blacklisted all the forces that had previously returned Universal Cores. They’d never get another one. The same went for the alchemy shops that returned them.
None of these people were unable to tell whether the Universal Core was good or bad. In fact, except for those looking to resell them at a higher price, almost everyone could tell the quality.
Those on the Gilded Rose’s blacklist would never work with them again. The Gilded Rose wouldn’t sell them anything—ever.
The Gilded Rose’s products have never had trouble selling; demand always outstrips supply.
But with this stance, anyone wanting to stay in the magical device market would have to settle for low-profit, highly competitive, low-tier devices.
Any employees who left the Gilded Rose—whether sales or alchemists—were blacklisted for life. Recently, it came out that several alchemists tried to leak secrets after leaving, only to be hit by contract backlash. The mildest cases lost all their magic; worse ones suffered soul damage and had their alchemical knowledge wiped; the worst lost their souls entirely.
After a few incidents like this, no force wanted to hire former Gilded Rose alchemists. It cost a fortune, risked offending the Gilded Rose, and gained nothing—so why bother?
Anyone who left the Gilded Rose can forget about coming back. Once you’re gone, you’re gone for good.
Even those who didn’t leak secrets couldn’t survive outside. Their alchemy knowledge was stronger, but what they learned at the Gilded Rose was now just useless information stuck in their heads—completely unusable.
“The situation is stable for now. The Gilded Rose can keep expanding slowly, but we need to consolidate. We can’t let another smear campaign happen again.
Has Walker Carter been caught yet?”
Farrow shook his head.
"No, we raised the price for information on his whereabouts to one Universal Core, and there’s still no news. It’s as if he’s vanished completely..."
Leon nodded indifferently.
"Raise the bounty to twenty million Purple Gold Coins. Unless he disappears from the Odin Kingdom and never shows up in Andalusia or Stoneland, he won’t escape."
Leon Merlin truly didn’t care much about Walker Carter. After all that had happened, the guy couldn’t even show his face in any town, let alone linger in the northern reaches of the Odin Kingdom. And as for Andalusia, the Gilded Rose’s headquarters—Leon could sniff out a rat there with ease, so Walker Carter had no chance.
The Roosevelt Trading Consortium wished they could devour Walker Carter alive; trying his luck in the Stoneland Kingdom would be pure suicide.
In the end, all he could do was flee south. But heading toward the southern borders of the Odin Kingdom only meant more powerhouses—and with tens of millions in purple gold coins as bounty, plenty of people would gladly kill him for a quick payday...
In fact, Walker Carter did escape toward the south of the Odin Kingdom, even crossing its southern reaches and leaving the kingdom behind...
Within a dense stretch of rainforest, his robes were in tatters, his hair matted with sticky, unknown substances, and his breath had grown weak. Walker Carter moved warily through the jungle.
Constant flight had nearly broken him. Staring at the rainforest, a faint glimmer of hope flashed in Walker Carter’s eyes, and he muttered incoherently to himself.
“Making it to this rainforest means I’ve already left the borders of the Odin Kingdom. Here, no one will ever find me. From here, I can slip into other planes—no one will ever track me down... never find me...”
Walker Carter kept muttering, but remained vigilant, continuously sending out magical probes. Any magical fluctuation within a kilometer would be detected.
After only a few minutes in the jungle, his robes had become even more shredded. To stay hidden, he hadn’t cast a shield, relying only on a thin layer of magical protection. But the thorns here were terrifyingly strong—their sharp tips easily pierced his defenses, leaving bloody gashes across his skin...
“Gilded Rose, just you wait. If I survive, I’ll become a true powerhouse. Then you’ll suffer my vengeance—especially you, Leon Merlin. I’ll tear your soul to pieces...”