Chapter 183: The Summit Begins
Every faction was settled in when Uhtred, Black Sun and Jolene Okafor finally stepped into the amphitheatre. The aides and attendants present had directed everyone to their designated seats around a large U-shaped table.
This time, no one acted brazenly or sat where they weren’t assigned to, not even Stormcaller or King Alexei. Their names were clearly written on their seats beforehand.
The same applied to everyone, including the mid-tier factions, and even families like the Donovans and the Alberts. So long as they were part of the fifty factions to accept the invitation, preparations had been made for them regardless of their faction size or power.
As Uhtred, Black Sun and Jolene Okafor entered, everyone looked to Uhtred, thinking it would be he who would head the Summit meeting.
They had seen how free and brazen he was here and had come to the conclusion that it was likely even Uhtred who had initiated this meeting. Jolene Okafor and the Marina Archipelago were probably just a means that aligned with what he already wanted to do.
But contrary to their assumptions, Uhtred sat just like them after he entered. It was Jolene Okafor herself that stepped to the center of the open-air amphitheater to kick off the Summit.
She began by welcoming everyone to the first Global World Summit, the first of many to come. Right then, she revealed that this Summit would continue to be held every year with the same number of limited slots each time.
From her enthusiastic tone and her confident words, it seemed as though she was certain this Summit would be something every faction present here and even any later faction yet to come would vie to attend.
Her words made it such that the Summit now had a lot to live up to in the minds of everyone present. But the next words she said showed exactly where her confidence was coming from:
"I’m guessing everyone here has questions about how I got so rich?" she started first, looking around at the different factions. "Well, you won’t have to worry for too long. To set the mood for the Summit, why don’t we begin with that. Something that can get everyone here very, very rich."
Several factions sat up straighter, particularly the mid-tier factions and families like the Donovans and Alberts. They were the ones who would benefit the most from what she said next.
"Who here has heard of Inert Crystals?" Jolene asked.
No one answered, and even the World Government party was exchanging glances as though trying to confirm amongst themselves if the words meant anything based on all the information they currently had.
Jolene looked genuinely surprised, even frowning slightly. "Golden Finger Chen, you possess a regional dungeon, do you not? How come you act like you don’t know what I’m talking about?"
"Ha! Because I’m rich doesn’t mean my value is being bloated by owning a regional dungeon," Golden Finger Chen snorted, looking slightly displeased he’d been called out like that. "I don’t see you calling out Luciano Vanezzi. He has more money than I do. Or even Glorious Eagle Vance. Who knows what the World Government is hiding up their sleeves."
Jolene looked at him blankly, not at all impressed. And she wasn’t the only one. The major players all nearly rolled their eyes. Everyone was silent, till eventually, even Golden Finger Chen seemed to sense the awkwardness. It was as though each powerful faction were separately all privy to an inside knowledge, but no one was willing to speak first.
Realizing that every major party here actually knew already, the World Government were the ones to speak up.
A lean, blond-haired male agent cleared his throat. He looked like the stereotypical information analyst in every sense.
"On the entire planet, within Zone 1, there are only four regional dungeons. Two in the Zone 1 band of the northern hemisphere, and two in the southern band," he stood up and explained. "Uhtred possesses one of the two in the northern hemisphere. Jolene Okafor possesses one in the south, here in her territory. The second southern regional dungeon has been claimed, but we don’t know its location or who controls it..."
"...and the last, the second one in the northern hemisphere, is currently in the control of Golden Finger Chen."
Golden Finger Chen couldn’t even refute. The analysis had been delivered too precisely. Not only had the World Government agent revealed that he had a territory, he had also revealed things that Golden Finger Chen didn’t even know about before.
It just went to show that even with the new reality, the Government was still very capable.
But then again, literally every big player here had already known Golden Finger Chen possessed a regional dungeon.
"Thank you for that succinct breakdown, Michael," Jolene Okafor nodded. Her "thanks" made several World Government officials, and the blond-haired man himself, frown slightly. Just like they had shown their information superiority, Jolene was also showing them they weren’t the only ones with deep information networks.
"Anyway," she continued. "Since Golden Finger Chen refuses to be plain, I’ll explain what Inert Crystals are in his place."
She turned on a holographic display and began to explain.
Essentially, Inert Crystals were minerals that formed only in regional dungeons after they had been claimed. The dungeon core would begin to form these crystals on the last floor of the dungeon. In its base state, this crystal was inert. It possessed no essence within, and in that state, it could be used as a storage for cosmic essence.
It was very similar to an essence core, except it was the ascender doing the filling with their own essence reserves, saving essence to be used for later, or for dire situations. The use-case sounded very niche, but for people who had gone for the Trial of Ages in Australia, they knew just how vital something like that could be in certain scenarios.
Not to mention, the benefits didn’t end there.
"Unlike an essence core that disintegrates after one use, an inert crystal can last more than a hundred uses, depending on the quality," Jolene paused, looking around to see who had gotten the implication of what she was saying.
Golden Finger Chen had a glum look on his face, knowing fully well what Jolene was getting at, but refusing to speak. It was as though this was something he had planned to capitalize on in the long term, but here she was revealing it to everyone.
"More than a hundred uses. It is being produced naturally by regional dungeons everyday... if the issue of filling them up is solved, wouldn’t that mean you can deploy these things at scale?" A man from the Free Ascenders’ Guild asked. "Create some kind of grand array that focuses the output of several crystals to one point at once..."
Nods of assent and murmurs of realization spread immediately. With this kind of resource in hand, just what kind of insanely dense cultivation environment could one build?
Sure, only a few people would benefit from being in the focal point with such a setup, but this was essentially a tool for creating ascenders that leveled up at insanely terrifying speeds!
Several eyes turned to Uhtred at once. He possessed a regional dungeon. Was this why he was so high-leveled?