Chapter 714: Familiar Woes

Chapter 714: Familiar Woes



Sylas watched with shock as Szorn did things that didn't make sense.

Every so often, the Familiar would pop back up from the depths of the mine with a neatly shaped cube. It looked like a masterful artisan had carefully chiseled out all six smooth sides by hand, leaving a reflective surface that Sylas would have practically been able to see his face in if not for all the lava floating around.

But the changes to the lava were probably one of the most shocking parts about it all.

Szorn seemed to have the ability to repel the lava away quite well. The moment it started to power itself up with Aether Stones, the abilities it displayed only grew likewise.

It wasn't even an hour before 17 large cubes of Metarock were laid out neatly, revealing a pulsing mass of Aether Stones beneath.

"I've finished, young master. Metarock is about as dense as a resource the people of your world would call coal. These are 17 equally sized pieces of 10 meters cubed and weigh approximately one and a half million kilograms each by your metrics.

"By convention, about 0.5 meters cubed of F-Grade Metarock is worth a hundred billion F- Coins. Functionally, young master has now earned 3400 trillion F-Coins. However, this is just the base price as 0.5 meters cubed is the lowest threshold necessary to guarantee a successful Treasure formation.

"That said, I would not advise young master to sell. Metarock cannot have a true value placed on it. If such a piece appears in an auction, it isn't uncommon for it to go for ten times that price if the market is particularly volatile. Metarock is one of the few resources that retains value to higher Grade existences.

"As for the Aether Stone mine beneath, I've already analyzed it properly. There are about 1.7 million Common Aether Stones, 213,000 Bronze Aether Stones, 76,000 Silver Aether Stones, and 16,000 Gold Aether Stones. This, though, already adjusts for how many Aether Stones I would need to successfully mine this treasure trove. Otherwise, the number of Gold Aether Stones would be about ten times this amount.

"Would young master like me to proceed?"

Sylas' eyes narrowed. "There are more Gold Aether Stones than Silver?"

"Yes. Due to the peculiar nature of Metarock, rather than being buried deep, Gold Aether Stones could be found both above and below the Aether Stone deposit. Mining Aether Stones is much more difficult than mining Metarock. By my calculations, I will need about 140,000 Gold Aether Stones to finish properly."

By any metric, it was a ridiculous ask.

"Yes, young master. My settings have been configured long ago and this Szorn has not been calibrated in a long time."

Sylas suddenly looked at the perfect cubes by the side and he realized something.

"... How much extra energy did you use making these perfect cubes as compared to how much you would have had you just mined them normally?"

"The difference is about 50%, young master."

Sylas shook his head inwardly and realized the problem. It had taken Szorn about 17,000 Gold Aether Stones to mine this Metarock. That meant that it had wasted 8,500 on something so

trivial.

It was enough to drive a man mad.

It seemed that Sylas would have to take his time to tinker with Szorn's settings. Otherwise,

who knew how many ways he would be screwed over?

An AI was only as good as the prompts it was given. A Familiar was clearly valuable, but not to

the point of being its own being. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a Familiar.

"Mine the Gold Aether Stones alone. No need to neatly arrange them."

"In that case, this Szorn only needs 1,000 Gold Aether Stones!"

Sylas shook his head once more. He would have to watch this Familiar like a hawk.