MMORPG : Ancient WORLD

After the banquet, Alex returned to his daily routine, refining his body with elemental flames, trying to comprehend the mysteries of his elements, and also spending time dealing with the ever-increasing matters of the Shiekh.

As Alex had expected, after the rumors about the Mystium Ore and the Forge King spread, many searched for Thogrim to confirm it, as they couldn't trust the words of an individual they knew very little about.

As instructed, Thogrim didn't contact any player or NPC to confirm the rumors for the first two weeks and spent them gathering a group of individuals bound by blood oaths to keep everything about their work a secret.

Thogrim knew that even with a blood oath, there were means to reveal sensitive information without breaking the oath, so he didn't just hand out the creation method.

Instead, he made the various groups gather a list of materials, with refined dark crystals acquired from the poisonous Newts being one of them, which was harder to acquire in large quantities among the two materials needed for the Mystium Ore.

The mana essence crystals needed to synthesize the ore were easily available, so the task of gathering it was given to a few selective individuals whom Thogrim trusted fully, and they were also responsible for creating the ore.

After the creation and distribution chain was built in just two weeks, Thogrim made a public appearance in the capital city Nova, demanding an audience with the Emporer, which he was easily granted.

He repeated this process over the two days to make contracts with the Empire and all three kingdoms, five big guilds, and a few powerful factions while also having a brief meeting with the Asgardian, the first-ranked guild.

Thogrim confirmed the rumors of how he had acquired the creation method from a player named Shiekh while also making it clear that if they wanted the ore, they should contact Shiekh and not waste time with him.

Once the rumors were confirmed, the information spread like wildfire, and hundreds of parties were trying to contact the Shiekh. 

They were not limited to players as solo blacksmiths also wanted to get their hands on the legendary ore, and for now, he was their only way because there was never going to be enough ore to flood the market.

The stock price of four of the six guilds Shiekh publicly announced he was a major shareholder of skyrocketed as big guilds and companies offered them partnerships.

The majority were just trying to benefit from the wild fame the unknown figure was receiving or cut a deal to get a consistent supply of the Mystium Ore, knowing its demand would only increase and they stand to make a good profit.

Meanwhile, the big powers, like the top thirty guilds, wanted to get Shiekh on their side and become a part of everything he had.

Venedikt and Alex didn't stay free for even some time, as their time was split between progressing their strength and dealing with the matter of the organization and the Shiekh.

After things became heated, Venedikt made it clear on the official forum that he was not looking for a partnership with any guilds, and he would stay neutral and be willing to do business with anyone who treated him with respect.

He also made it clear that the Empire would decide the price of Mystium Ore as the Ruling power, and he was not allowed to sell below the set price for stability or sell more than a certain amount to a single faction.

The big powers didn't like the stand Shiekh took, as he was telling them in nicer words that he was not getting involved with them.

However, they also felt better knowing such a person with a monopoly over a scarce resource was not aligned with a single power and wanted to build something of his while open to doing business with all of them.

It was the best-case scenario for everyone, but they also had their suspicions, so everyone related to Shiekh was being researched to see if he was what he made himself appear in everyone's eyes.

Venedikt also announced that there would not be enough Mystium Ore to meet everyone's demands, so besides making permanent deals with the top hundred guilds, they would sell the rest at random dates through public auctions.

The auction would have a limited cap of participants, and everything would be sold through a lucky draw at the market price.

The buyers would be required to pay 25% of the payment in galactic coins, and there would also be restrictions preventing more than a specific number of players belonging to a faction from entering.

The announcement was well received as every player had the chance to acquire the ore while the big powers would be receiving a consistent supply.

It took two days of effort for Alex and Venedikt as they met one guild after another in disguise to discuss what amount of Mystium Ore each guild would receive, for how long of a period, at what discounted price, and what the guilds would give in return.

The top three guilds would receive 30% off the market price, while the hundredth-ranked guild would receive 3% off for the following two years.

The top three guilds would receive 2% or 5 kg of Mystium Ore, whichever value was bigger, and the percentage dropped ever so slightly with the following guild, with the ninty to hundredth ranked guild receiving 0.5 or 1kg. In return, they all were required to pay 25% of the payment in galactic coins.

As for custom items forged by Thogrim, it was decided that the opportunity would be decided through private auctions once every two months, and the bidding would be done in galactic coins.

The persona of Shiekh was fully established among the players, but there was a mountain of work that needed to be done to get things done as Alex wanted.

The rumors about the Malefis Domain started to spread on the unofficial forums, but they were buried under the other million posts.

However, Alex knew that those big powers could stay patient for only so long, and at best, in two to three weeks, chaos would begin.

In the following week, small events happened, as the Frozen Flower guild decided to delay the war with the Hydra Guild even though they had received the War ships and battle puppets.

Venedikt hired two individuals to deal with unimportant stuff related to the various guilds and mercenary organizations working from them.

Alex received over a thousand kilogram of Mystium Ore from Thogrim, and the first sale and the auction was concluded, with Alex selling 80% of what he had to players at a market price of six thousand and four hundred white flame coins per kilogram of ore.

In the end, Alex made close to four million white flame coins and around seven million galactic coins, as each galactic coin was currently valued at fourteen gold coins.

However, if someone wanted seven million galactic coins, they would be lucky if they paid less than a 30% premium.

In the latest week's payment from the five factions, the organization earned 8.9 million white flame coins and 23.5 million Galactic coins multiple times from the first week, on top of a great amount of resources.

Alex was practically swimming in money, but he needed to be careful how he spent it because those big powers had started to show their fangs, as their peaceful offers were starting to fade away, and warnings were being made to the organization.

The threats were not limited to Twilight Embers School, the most famous and known assembly to have joined the organization, but even individuals from the first batch who were not even known received threats.

Alex expected the Twilight Embers school to be threatened but not anyone else as he had warned everyone not to share their real-life identity with anyone or tell anyone who they worked for.

But clearly, few didn't take his warning seriously, while a few had sold their identity for money and were now acting as agents of big powers.

The threats ranged from causing inconvenience to death, and they sent a crippling wave of fear among the members, and even those who were not found wanted nothing but to get out of this mess, and those turned mooles were only fanning the flames of fear as few among them even stopped logging in.

Alex understood that, for the time being, this was merely a tactic to create unrest in the organization and force them to make a deal, but he also understood that it wouldn't be long before warnings turned into reality.

Alex was willing to wage war with big powers, but he was not heartless enough to have innocent blood on his hands, so as prepared, he took measures to agreement with the situation.

Alex posted in the member chat that whoever identity was exposed in the real world would be given 100K in gold coins before being released from the organization in under an hour.

The same offer stood for the Twilight Embers school, and anyone else who wanted to leave could leave and be free for anything they owed to the organization.

The organization lost many promising talents by taking this step as more than a hundred left after an hour, and more would follow in the coming days, but he made it clear that his organization's members were not a weakness.

Alex did not make any statement to take a stand in reply to these warnings because he knew that in weeks, every big power would find out they were dealing with ghosts, and his silence would speak more volumes to them than empty threats.

However, Alex also didn't merely plan to stay silent because when they crossed the line, which they would, he would make sure to hammer their pride into the ground.