Sovereign of the Ashes

By the end of the Eversurge War, the senior members from the Verdant Flame Faction had already more or less calculated how much Sein would earn from his participation.

Honestly, Sein had not contributed all that much.

If he was being real with himself, he had only taken part in the final siege and capture of the two native Rank Four creatures. Aside from that, he had not done much else.

The fact that the senior members still wanted to share some of the war profits with him was clearly a gesture of goodwill.

When converted, those profits would give Sein at least two million magicoins.

The exact amount could not be confirmed just yet, mostly because the two native Rank Four creatures had not been sold off.

Still, aside from the one-time payout, Eversurge would remain a viable foreign world for Sein to stay connected with once he established his divine tower.

That meant any mages who joined Sein's future divine tower would be able to explore Eversurge freely, which made for a pretty nice perk.

Even though the earnings from Eversurge had not come in yet, Sein received about 2.2 million magicoins from Master Lorianne first.

Since he had already agreed to join the Elemental Gate Council, Grandmaster Feylis later sent him another half a million magicoins as a gesture of support.

It was not that Feylis was being stingy—the Elemental Gate Council was not a demanding organization.

In fact, it was entirely possible that thousands of years could go by without them ever asking anything from Sein.

So that half a million magicoins was basically free money.

Feylis had originally founded the Elemental Gate council to bring together a few like-minded friends for collaboration.

Most of the time, she acted under the direction of the Pyro Secret Society, rather than working independently.

Sein only accepted that money because it was just half a million. If it had been anything over a million, he would have turned it down.

He had already received enough help from Grandmaster Feylis and her apprentices, and he was not the type to be greedy.

Including that gift from his grandmaster, Sein now had around three million magicoins in savings.

Once the rest of the profits from the Eversurge War came through, his total wealth would hit a staggering five million.

It was the most money he had ever had in his life.

As expected, reaching Rank Four came with a whole new level of wealth and social standing.

In an interplanar war, a Rank Three grand mage might walk away with a few thousand to maybe ten thousand magicoins. Demigod-level mages could earn a bit more, but even then, tens of thousands was pretty much the ceiling.

Resource haul in the millions was reserved for those of Rank Four and above.

But then again, considering how expensive it was to build a divine tower or to purchase even a basic space fortress, the few million in Sein's pocket suddenly felt like pocket change.

After the Eversurge War ended, Sein did not stick around because he lacked a divine tower combat legion to take part in the post-war world development for resource collection.

He just said his goodbyes to Lorianne and a few other senior mages, then returned directly to Magus World.

Even teleportation costs skyrocketed at Rank Four.

Sein glanced at the teleportation array inside the Divine Tower of Verdant Flame. Just the resources needed to send him from Eversurge back to the Magus World had cost nearly twenty thousand magicoins.

It was a relief that Tourmaline did not expect him to cover any of her expenses. Honestly, her life level was far beyond his.

Ah, money... In this world, nothing could be achieved without it.

Even though he had just reached Rank Four, Sein could already feel a headache coming on as he thought about all the plans he had made for the future.

Some ideas sounded great in theory, but once he actually tried to carry them out, reality had a way of hitting hard. So did the pressure and all the obstacles that came with it.

***

Once Sein returned to Magus World, he first headed to a building near the Divine Tower of Verdant Flame.

As it turned out, the two overseers' office was not far from the tower at all.

No wonder they had arrived so quickly when Sein's Rank Four aura had surged out of control.

By the time he got there, one of the overseers had already gone out on duty. The one who remained was the male overseer—the more easygoing of the two.

After chatting for a while, Sein learned that six overseers were assigned to the region where Grandmaster Feylis was.

These two managed the area near her divine tower, while the others were responsible for more distant zones.

The number of overseers varied depending on the region. The Divine Tower of Verdant Flame was located in one of the Magus World's more prosperous heartlands, so naturally, it was overseen by more overseers.

By contrast, over in the Viridescent Land where Lorianne resided, there was only a single overseer in charge of several divine towers.

Since the founding of her tower, Lorianne had only met that overseer twice—once during the initial establishment, and once when Tourmaline helped with the construction of the Verdant Wave Canal.

The small talk with this overseer turned out to be more informative than expected.

Of course, most of what he shared was general knowledge—things Sein could have figured out on his own in time, but it was still helpful to hear it directly.

After handing over 1.2 million magicoins, Sein reclaimed his two divine relics.

Although these relics were heart cores of early-stage Rank Four creatures, they were extremely valuable on the Magus Alliance market—easily worth five million magicoins if he got lucky, and at worst, around four million.

That said, Sein had no clear plan for them yet. He had no intention of selling them either. They were rare materials, and now that he had reached Rank Four, many of his future experiments might require such high-grade energy cores.

Besides, divine relics were not something one could just buy off the shelf. Even tracking down the right kind could cost millions.

"If you're planning to set up a divine tower anywhere near the Divine Tower of Verdant Flame, just give me a heads-up," the male overseer said casually.

"It's just a bit of a shame, though—you're a little late. Invitations for the 25th Magus Alliance Conference have already gone out, so you might miss this round," he added.

Magson was his name. Compared to the other female overseer, he was definitely easier to deal with.

Sein simply nodded at the comment without saying anything else.

***

After leaving the overseer's office, Sein paused to think things through and decided it would be best to visit the Alveroth Empire first.

Even after discussing the idea of building a divine tower there with his mentor following the Eversurge War, he still felt a bit uncertain.

Sometimes, things often played out differently in reality than they did in one's head.

Whether or not the Alveroth Empire was truly the right place for a divine tower, Sein figured it was best to go there himself and see it with his own eyes.

Besides the Alveroth Empire, he was also considering a few other locations—the area near Feylis' Divine Tower of Verdant Flame, the Darwell Region, the Marmett Union Alliance, and even the Western Archipelago.

Major decisions like this should not be rushed. It was better for him to take his time, think things through, and avoid any future regrets.