The next morning after the celebration, Illianna and Sian went to meet the demon lord Claygramor again. Unlike the previous time, that was a quick visit, so Sian took them using his space magic to meet the lord directly.
When they arrived there, the lord had already made a survey of the products that could be traded. Thanks to this, Illianna discovered that the demonic continent was a more prosperous land than she had expected.
By themselves, the animal-type monsters around the city were already a huge resource that could provide meat and leather.
If you count different monsters like the insect and plant types, the profit could be even higher. Some specific parts of their bodies can be used to make weapons, armor, and even medicines.
Besides monster materials, the other commodities were grains, ores and fruits. The number of commodities that the lord had available to trade was extensive.
As these were abundant resources around here, their price was low, but on the central continent they are certainly worth a few times more.
Illianna's plans were big, so the quantity of the products she wanted was the same. Unfortunately, at the present time, her demand could not be completely met.
Although Claygramor had the resources, especially the ores, he still needed some more time to considerably increase production in the mines. As for grain and the like, he planned to increase productivity gradually as the months went by.
With a formal contract in hand, Illianna and Claygramor signed it. Of course, although Illianna was responsible, Sian himself was in charge of the initial expenses of her investment.
Even if reluctant at first, Illianna convinced him to fork out a few gold coins. Although they were on the Demonic Continent, gold coins were money anywhere in the world.
Because of the church, gold coins were regarded as a universal currency, but each kingdom was allowed to have the crest of the royal family on its coin. To try to keep all coins of equal value, the church determined a percentage of the metals used in their manufacture.
After the negotiation, two days passed and in the meantime, Illianna's strengthening plan was delayed. At her request, Sian was building a teleportation array that could connect the central continent with the demonic one.
Sian's initial proposal was that he could connect the spaces in the magic bags with his warehouses, so she could always pick up when she needed it. This was one of the reasons Sian did not use his own space storage that much.
Although not everyone knows it, people with an innate aptitude for space magic have the ability to create a small magical space. But this space has one limitation, it can only be accessed by oneself.
Because of this, Sian uses his magic bag more, since he can connect it to his warehouse. In this way, no matter where he is, as long as he has enough mana, he can take whatever he wants from there as long as it is not something living.
However, Illianna refused his proposal affirming it was counterproductive. That way, it would always take someone with a lot of mana on hand to remove something from the magic bag.
Because of this, Illianna came up with the idea of building a teleportation array. It wasn't something really innovative, there are already several out there. But there wasn't one that connected two continents, so this instigated Sian to have his own teleportation array.
Of course, most of his motivation came from the fact that if he didn't build one, he would have to be in charge of transporting the products from one continent to another.
In the end, that combined business with pleasure. Since it would be convenient for the girls to be able to come and go without depending on him, Sian did his best.
Normally, building something like this would take a considerable amount of time. However, thanks to the documents he stole from the elves years ago, his job became a little easier. All he had to do were a few modifications.
Moreover, with Illianna's help, things proceeded quickly and smoothly. With her ability to create objects, the more complex parts were easily completed.
"Almost done here, have you done what I asked?" Sian said as he placed two halves of a small gray cube on the messy table in his workshop.
Placing a small yellow plate filled with circuitry in front of him, Illianna said, "Here it is."
Receiving it from her hands, he connected the plate inside one side of the cube and connected both.
"Okay, now let's see if it's working."
With the cube in hand, Sian inserted his magic. Almost instantly, the cube emanated a faint gray aura, which left him with a smile on his face.
"Does that mean everything is working?" Illianna asked.
"Basically, yes," He replied. "Now all that's left is to couple it to the regulator."
The regulator that Sian was talking about was a circular silver plate 50 cm in diameter and 10 cm high. This plate, as its name implies, serves to regulate and also provide power for the operation of the cube.
He then took the cube that was the size of a fist and fitted it right into the center of the plate.
Taking the control orb, Sian activated the plate, which immediately glowed with a faint silver light.
"Is it working now?" Illianna asked.
"Yes, but now we need to do the other array." Pondering a bit, Sian continued, "It took us 2 1/2 days to do one, but since we already have practice, I think we'll get the next one done in a day, a day and a half at most."
"Or today," Illianna had a confident smile on her face. "Although it's almost dinner time, I think I can do before it."
"Your skill?" Sian looked at her doubtfully.
It wasn't that he didn't believe in her, he himself had seen her skill in action and knew how capable she was. But what she needed to do now was far more complex than anything she had ever done.
"I already have the complete design of the array," she said. "If you give me all the materials, I can create one in a matter of minutes."
"Are you sure?"
"Do you think I would say that if I didn't? But you will also have an important role, for such a thorough job, I will need a lot of mana."
"That won't be a problem," he promptly replied.
Taking the materials for the second array from his storage, Sian placed it on the table in front of him.
"You can start whenever you want."
"Excuse me."
Pushing Sian with her elbow, Illianna stood where he was and raised her hands that held her majestic staff.
After a brief moment of stillness, a blue replica of the array magically projected appeared above the materials.
The materials on the table began to float and slowly took shape.
Unlike the first time Sian had seen her use her skill, this time it was different, instead of sweating, she looked calm as if she were taking a stroll in a field of flowers.
"What a convenient skill," Sian muttered in envy.
"I know something even more convenient," she said.
"Are you talking about your other skill, your armor, your staff, or this system that makes you get stronger without doing anything?"
"I admit that all that stuff you talked about is convenient, but that's not what I'm talking about."
"So, what's it about?"
Without taking her eyes off the materials taking shape in front of her, Illianna replied, "Yourself."
"Me?" Sian was confused.
"You are abnormally convenient," she said. "You're so absurd that you look like the character of some author with Mary Sue syndrome."
"I may even be multipurpose, but it's thanks to my efforts."
"I don't take away your merit for that, but getting to the point, I think you can generate an even more profitable business than our trade with Claygramor."
Having gained Sian's attention, Illianna commented on the way Sian made the ex-mercenaries learn a spell instantly. According to her, the moment she saw that, she immediately associated it with the system's method of granting her skills.
In her time in the library, she had never read about such a thing being possible. That said, this method was probably one of Sian's abnormalities.
The only difference was that his method caused pain and the system's did not, or at least that was the case until a few days ago. In his desire to teach Emily and Tina spells, Sian managed to improve his method, making it painless.
"I know that at the rate Emily eats, she would turn into a ball sooner or later." With an indignant look on her face, Illianna continued, "But I think it's a waste for you to use something so great to teach girls a fat-burning spell."
"It's not simply a fat-burning spell," Sian corrected her. "Surplus fat is consumed while making your body stronger and more compact, especially your bones and muscles. Moreover, it increases your endurance considerably."
The spell they were both talking about was called Draconic Sturdiness, is Ayze's creation. She created it especially for Sian, so that he could become strong without becoming extremely muscular, otherwise it would hinder his movements.
"Even if you transmitted the spell to me as well, I saw no effect."
"When you start eating more, you'll notice," Sian said. "But backing to the point, what exactly is the lucrative business you were talking about?"
With her businesslike gaze, Illianna returned to the main subject.
"Think with me, in a matter of seconds, I have gained a spell that acts passively and strengthens my physique continuously, right?"
Nodding his head, Sian said, "Proceed."
"From what I've seen, other than the little bit of time required, you didn't have much difficulty doing this. If you use your ability to transmit spells as a product, rivers of money will come to you. Not to mention the favors you can win from important people."
"Refused," Sian said. "If I do this once and go public, it will fill with ants all around me. That's sure to be a pain in the ass."
"I don't think it's for that much."
"It seems that this time it is you who is lacking in common sense," Sian provoked her.
"What do you mean?"
"Having such a convenient system that gives you skills makes you not understand what acquiring an effortless spell can do."
Unlike now, at the beginning of his journey, Sian himself had difficulty learning spells. Learning a spell instantly means skipping several days or months of training in just a few seconds.
If such a miraculous method went public, people would go crazy for it.
With that said, even though Sian was Tina's teacher, he didn't plan to simply impart multiple spells to her in an easy way. He planned to let her work hard and learn spells in the normal way so that she wouldn't become unaccustomed to them.
"How about if I can get a way for you to do this without them discovering any connection to you?" Illianna asked.
"In that case, I am willing to cooperate, but the rewards must be good."
"Of course they will be," she said. "When we get back to the central continent, I'll think of a way for you not to be discovered."
While they were talking, the second array was ready, and it looked exactly the same as the first.
With the two arrays next to each other, Sian then opened the side of the second array and placed a cylinder filled with magic stones. Using the control sphere, he connected them.
As a test, they used a small mouse, which came out the other side safe and sound.
Faced with the success of both of them, Illianna smiled, "It seems that the time for us to return has come."