Chapter 496: Buying A Void Ship
Meanwhile, in Shadowcrest Castle, Maximus was in the seclusion room.
Over the years that Liam had been managing the blood race and integrating them into the Etherium Realm.
Maximus, in seclusion, was meticulously revising cultivation manuals for each of his wives, children, grandchildren, and in-laws.
Although he was happy and eager to have another child soon, there were still many things that needed his attention.
His primary goal at the moment was to gather corrupted causality of power from the void.
But before all of that, he needed to prepare.
First and foremost was the creation of revised tier 10 origin manuals for his family.
They were still walking blindly on their paths: his children were using the sect's manual as a guide, while his wives had nothing to follow.
After hundreds of years of research, Maximus slowly opened his eyes, his face filled with a satisfied smile.
Using only time points, Maximus managed to deduce revised manuals for each of his family members.
"The River of Knowledge was a divine assistance!" he exclaimed.
With knowledge flowing into his mind at just the right time, Maximus felt endless inspiration, as if he could create anything.
Standing up, he breathed in the fresh air.
"I wonder how my wives are doing,"
When he arrived at the laboratory, he saw them still busy configuring the Tier 10 liquid solution.
They had been left with millions of units of causality of power and needed to configure millions of potions.
Tier 10 liquid solutions were much harder to create than Tier 9 ones.
Despite the hundreds of years, they were only able to create a few million of them.
Of course, it was also because they were not able to focus and still had to train and study most of the time.
Seeing their busy figures, Maximus couldn't help but smile.
"Husband, you're here! Are you done with your work?" Hazel asked.
The other also looked at his figure with happiness, eagerly missing him.
"Hmm, yes, I've finished. Here, each of you gets one." Maximus smiled, handing them the manuals he had created.
Etheria also noticed his exit and appeared beside him.
"This is yours, Etheria," Maximus said, giving her a pat on the head.
It seemed that Etheria was becoming more and more dependent on him.
Unless she was engaged in important work, she would always be beside him, staring blankly, waiting for his attention.
"Thank you, husband. You didn't need to work so hard—we're already strong enough and can wait."
"No, it's not enough. We're about to travel through the void, and we can't do that without adequate strength and abilities," Maximus replied seriously.
Even he couldn't guarantee that they wouldn't encounter danger.
The void was a wild place; they might meet a powerhouse who was a master of the Ocean of Law, or one of the overlords of the devourers, like the Zerg Queen or the Void Beast Overlord.
Too many possibilities and dangers awaited them; Maximus could only prepare them thoroughly.
"Traveling through the void?" they asked in interest, hearing about it for the first time.
"That's right. It's time we explored the world. Staying cooped up in this small dimension isn't conducive to our cultivation."
Although his main goal was to collect corrupted causality of power, opening their view to the Aeon Plane was another objective.
"That's great! We'll get to travel!" Luna jumps in excitement.
"I wonder how many different places we'll see," Livia muttered, imagining the scenery they would encounter.
"I'm excited for the fights. I wonder how my fists will fare the world," Skye said with enthusiasm.
"Don't be too violent, Skye. We're here to cultivate," Angeline said gently.
"No, no! We're here to be on an adventure and have fun!" Rose said, clenching her fist.
While his wives busied themselves with chatter about the upcoming trip, Etheria grew quiet.
"What's wrong, Etheria?" Maximus asked.
"Can I come too?" Etheria asked tearfully.
As a dimensional will, Etheria was bound to the Etherium Realm.
While her consciousness could venture into the virtual realm and out of the etherium realm, long-distance and long-duration travel wasn't feasible.
Seeing her master about to leave, Etheria couldn't help but feel an indescribable pain in her heart.
"Of course, you'll come with us. How could I leave you behind?" Maximus smiled warmly.
Maximus had been strengthening the Etherium Realm for this very reason.
He even planned to rebuild the dimensional rules to handle autonomous tasks.
"Really? I can go?" she asked eagerly.
"Hmm. Look at the manual I gave you—it has the answer."
Etheria quickly opened the manual.
In her excitement, she mobilized the entire Etherium Realm, comprehending the manual in an instant.
Feeling the binding of the Etherium Realm breaking, Etheria felt euphoria and jumped into Maximus's arms, tears streaming down her face.
"You're mine. How could I leave you behind?" Maximus whispered.
"I'm the property of Master. Master must never leave me behind," Etheria murmured, feeling deeply touched.
As they were flirting, his wives joined in, wanting their share of his attention.
Knowing it was the surge of soul and spirit energy, the time of spring, they all wished to be the one to win the ultimate prize.
…
Mechanical Alliance Dimensional Void Fleet:
After spending time with his wives, Maximus left the Etherium Realm to run an errand.
Remembering Sam and Luke's grand entrance into the Etherium Realm, Maximus wanted to acquire a ship for himself, one that could be used for their travels through the void.
Although they had already reached Tier 10 and could fly through the void without issue, traveling on their own was not a practical solution.
They needed a transportation vessel to carry them safely through the void.
Direct teleportation was also risky—he didn't want to accidentally step into corrupted causality of power.
While he might be fine, his wives surely wouldn't.
Using the pass given to him by Iris, Maximus visited the shipbuilding commissioner.
"What specifications does the esteemed guest have in mind?" the commissioner, Morlov, asked politely, recognizing who Maximus was.
Morlov remembered him clearly: a man with a mysterious identity, protected by the Immortal Palace's supreme leader, Iris.
Recalling the commotion Maximus had caused and the condition of the elder who had offended him, Morlov was as polite as possible.
"I want it to be stealthy."
"Just stealthy? What about size, speed, firepower, and defense?"
"No, none of that matters. I only want my ship to be stealthy and large enough to accommodate a few hundred people."
"This… how stealthy do you want it? Do you have something specific in mind?"
"Yes, I need it to be invisible even to an Overlord's eyes."
Maximus's goal was to stealthily gather corrupted causality of power.
While no one cared much about it, if large amounts of the energy suddenly disappeared, it would raise suspicion.
Wanting to come and go unnoticed, he required a top-notch stealth void ship.
The size only needed to accommodate them to have a vision of the void.
As for living quarters, they had the World Tree, which provided ample space.
Maximus even planned to renovate the dimension inside the tree to make it more suitable for long-term living.
Morlov was stunned, thinking Maximus must be joking.
"Invisible even to an Overlord?" Morlov repeated in disbelief.
"Why not? If you can create a ship that can withstand an Overlord's attack, why can't you make one they can't see?" Maximus responded impatiently.
"That's a different matter. The dimensional ships we have, took over trillions of epochs to build—creating one of this rank is no easy task. Furthermore, creating invisibility is much harder than strengthening defense," Morlov explained helplessly.
"But you can make it, can't you? Don't give me unnecessary details. Just tell me the price and the time needed," Maximus said, growing impatient.
"If you insist…" Morlov sighed, calculating the price and contacting the peak shipbuilders of the Mechanical Alliance.
As a commissioner, his job was only to satisfy the customer, not worry about whether the builders could actually make it.
After a few hours, Morlov received the quotation.
"My Lord Shadowcrest, according to the specifications you asked for, it will cost hundreds of trillions of origin coins to build the ship. As for the time, since it's relatively small, we'll need just over a thousand years to manufacture it."
"Hundreds of trillions of origin coins?!" Maximus nearly had a heart attack upon hearing the price.
Though he had been prepared for a high quote, he hadn't expected it to be this exorbitant.
Maximus had thought it would be a few trillion at most.
After all, a Tier 12 ship with normal specifications cost only a few billion origin coins.
"Why is it so expensive?" Maximus asked.
"We can't help it. The material used for your ship, Phantom Overlord Metal, is prohibited in the Dimensional Alliance. To procure the materials, we have to deal with the Devourers, which hikes up the price thousands of times," Morlov explained patiently.
"I see…" Maximus frowned.
Originally, if the price had been a few trillion, he could have borrowed some money from Iris.
But now that it was in the hundreds of trillions, Maximus felt stumped.
"How about lowering the specifications? Even reducing stealthiness by one level—so it's invisible to a Tier 11 Master of the Ocean of Law—the price would drop to a few hundred billion origin coins."
"No, I don't want to lower the standard."
"Then the payment…"
"Can I take it as a loan?"