After Orion left, Kael leaned back in his chair and couldn't help muttering to himself.
"That kid doesn't waste time."
Then he remembered the handful of occasions when Orion and Rena had both gone offline at the same time. Add in how nervous Orion had looked just now, and something suddenly clicked.
"Hold on. This might not be a simple wedding problem. If he's that desperate, he may have already gotten a head start on the family part."
His thoughts were drifting somewhere they had no business going when Elon spoke up.
"Boss, there's something you should be prepared for."
Kael pulled his attention back and looked at him seriously. "What is it?"
"Revenue from Land of the Behemoth has started to decline."
Kael frowned. "How? The mainstream player level is sitting right around 30."
At the moment, the player base broke down into three main tiers.
The first tier was level 40 to 45, with fewer than a hundred players across the entire server.
The second tier was level 35 to 40, made up of elite players from the major guilds.
The third tier was level 30 to 35, which represented the mainstream player base.
There were still plenty of players below level 30, but Kael didn't factor them into serious planning.
Elon explained, "The mainstream players are around level 30, yes, but they're not desperate for fast leveling anymore. Land of the Behemoth is more efficient, but if they're willing to put in the work—run quests, clear dungeons—they can still catch up on their own, just slower.
"The players genuinely willing to pay for leveling speed are the top players and the guild elites."
"What about Tydrisa's Quarry?"
"Tydrisa's Quarry is still doing well. Gemstones drop there, so most players can recoup part of their costs. With a bit of luck, some even turn a profit. As long as we control gemstone prices, Tydrisa's Quarry can keep running for a long time."
Kael shook his head inwardly.
Controlling the gemstone output from Tydrisa's Quarry alone wouldn't let them corner the gemstone market forever.
It wasn't as if the Mythrosian Empire had no mines. The problem was that the monsters occupying those mining regions were too high-level for current players to drive out.
As player levels rose, the mines across Mythrosia would gradually be discovered and captured. Once that happened, gemstone prices would fall.
By then, not only would fewer players use Tydrisa's Quarry for leveling, but the promise of earning money through gemstones would lose its appeal too.
Then a simple, brutal solution crossed Kael's mind.
Just take control of the mines as well.
Elon watched Kael's expression shift back and forth and knew at once that his boss was cooking up another way to make money.
People always call me a greedy merchant, Elon thought. Please. I'm an amateur. The real monster is sitting right in front of me.
After that, Kael sent Elon out.
He'd known the income streams from Land of the Behemoth and Tydrisa's Quarry would run dry sooner or later. That day had simply arrived earlier than expected.
It was time to prepare something new.
Open a higher-level hidden realm and keep selling tickets?
Kael quickly rejected the idea.
The level-40-to-50 hidden realms he knew of were all one-time clears. Once completed, they collapsed or transformed. None of them could be preserved as a permanent farming ground.
In the end, he gave up on squeezing leveling money out of players.
That kind of business was never going to last forever.
Even after players hit the level-60 cap, there would still be a long storyline ahead.
The bigger issue was Orion.
If Land of the Behemoth's revenue declined, Orion's steady income would eventually dry up. Kael needed to find him a replacement.
Before long, Kael had mapped out a near-perfect route for him. After checking the feasibility several times over, he nodded to himself.
"Wizard-boy, consider this a wedding gift from your boss."
Then he left the office and headed for Freya's Cradle.
Freya's Cradle was currently the busiest main city in the game.
Since guild upgrades required players to complete missions at the [Demon Tower] outside the city, an entire industry had sprung up around clearing the [Infernal Spire].
There were guides for breaking the hornsnapper satyrs' battle formations, equipment and gemstones that strengthened stun and slow effects, special lenses that revealed nearby specters, and all manner of other tools.
Entry into the map was restricted to guild members with at least seven days of tenure and enough contribution points, so paid carries were rare.
Of course, that didn't stop players from getting creative.
Some professional teams sold voice-guided clear services. They joined the upgrading guild's voice channel, walked them through each stage in real time, and even bundled in temporary equipment rentals as part of the package.
Naturally, the market had its share of scammers and half-baked "experts."
Kael didn't linger in Freya's Cradle. He teleported straight to Westwatch.
Westwatch was an unremarkable town, except that roughly ninety miles to its south stood a mist-shrouded mountain called Wyrmwatch Peak.
Players had tried exploring it before, but the beasts around the mountain were all level 50 or 60, and they had been forced to turn back.
Nobody obsessed over it. High-level zones like that were everywhere. The Ironclad Citadel had the Celestara Range. Alderfall had the deep woods of Aelindale. Every region had places held by monsters that current players couldn't handle.
Kael checked his bearings, then headed toward a small hall on the west side of town.
Westwatch had two arcane halls, one in the east and one in the west.
The eastern hall was larger and was known as the Hall of Three Stars. It honored three ancient archmages who had founded the town's first warding system.
The western hall was smaller. It was called the Seer's Hall, and it preserved the legacy of Aldren Wyrd, a legendary diviner said to have unlocked his final class advancement on Wyrmwatch Peak.
Several of Westwatch's old families had once been protected by Aldren's students, so although the Seer's Hall was smaller, it drew far more visitors than the grander Hall of Three Stars.
When Kael arrived at the Seer's Hall, players were filing in one after another to purchase ward-charms.
Different charms granted different levels of [Blessing] buffs.
However, these buffs only worked in the area around Westwatch, so few outsiders came here specifically for them.
Kael walked into the front hall and saw a young diviner carrying a satchel filled with all kinds of sealed charm-sticks.
He stepped forward and struck up a conversation.
"I'd like to buy a charm."
The young diviner gave him a polite nod. "What kind of warding charm would you like?"
A list appeared in front of Kael.
There were plenty of categories.
[Autumn Laurel]: Temporarily increases all five core stats.
[Honeyed Frostpear]: Temporarily increases Critical Chance and Drop Rate.
[Old Stone Hearth]: Temporarily increases Defense.
...
Since each player could only have one [Blessing] buff active at a time, different classes bought different charms.
The charms were also divided by quality. The cheap ones cost only a few dozen copper coins, while the expensive ones ran one or two gold.
For dungeon runs, most players would never spring for the expensive versions. They usually spent a few dozen copper on a small buff and called it good.
Kael ignored all of them.
He scrolled straight to the bottom of the page and found the final item.
[Dragon's Breath Amber]
Price: 10,000 gold.
Effect: Unknown.