636 Acharon's Gratitude
After Vaan calmed down and rethought the matter on Deep-Sea Steel, he quickly realized it was possible for solid uranium to exist at the bottom of the sea.
It was general knowledge that the planet of Pangea was mostly covered in water.
However, the planet of Pangea wasn't necessarily a water planet at the very beginning of time. Water could have been something that came after, like how water came to Earth and brought life.
As such, it was quite possible that the surface of the planet was originally filled with uranium and the introduction of water that came after brought a cataclysmic change, transforming it into a toxic water planet.
However, such an event would have happened long before the Golden Dragon Pangea descended upon this world.
'Even if there used to be radioactive uranium at the bottom of the sea, it should be nonradioactive lead now. However, that also means there's possibly more uranium buried under this layer of lead,' Vaan mused.
He could guess how the Great Ratholos Empire procured their Deep-
Sea Steel and what sort of consequences it produced that forced it to ban the mineral and cover its traces. He couldn't help but applaud the Great Ratholos Empire for its forward-thinking.
The destructiveness of radioactive uranium wasn't something mortals could handle, and the world wasn't ready for it.
Vaan shook his head and replied with a smile, "Don't worry, Young Master Acharon. I'm not interested in items that can't help me train."
"That's a relief," Acharon relaxed with a soft sigh before introducing the upcoming items, "The Deep-Sea Steel is a no-go, but what do you think about these High-rank Jadefire Crystals? If you can find the supplementing herbs, you can use them to cultivate the Jadefire Body."
"These Jadefire Crystals are not bad. It's a pity that some of them are damaged, leaking their innate essence and lowering their quality. Do you have the supplementing herbs, Young Master Acharon?"
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Erm…"
"No? Ah, I see. That's unfortunate too… Haiz…"
"Hahaha… How about these Calmsea Golden Jades, Young Master Vanderlin? You can use them with a high-rank earth flame to practice the high-rank body-refining method, Indestructible Golden Body Method, to forge a body as tough as Threefold-Refined Tungsten. If you can master it, no one below Transcendent will be able to hurt you."
"Oh, these Calmsea Golden Jades are really not bad. But, alas… a high-
rank earth flame is too rare to find and even harder to possess. Without the Indestructible Golden Body Method, it's also useless. I just joined the Martial Hall; I don't have anywhere near enough contribution points to exchange for it. Haiz…"
…
Acharon continued introducing rare and precious minerals to Vaan, but the latter sighed and lamented with disappointment, listing reasons why he wasn't interested in them each time.
It was also precisely because Acharon couldn't refute Vaan's reasoning that he wanted to cry.
'If we had everything, do you think these precious items would just be rotting in the treasury instead of being used to cultivate a new talent for the family?!' Acharon complained in his mind but didn't dare to say out loud.
Shortly after, Acharon left the precious mineral section and guided Vaan to the rare herb section.
'Surely, this punk will be interested in our collection of rare herbs at least, right?' Acharon silently prayed.
"What do you think of this Eight-Petal Iceheart Flower, Young Master Vanderlin? This is a key ingredient for the Rank 3 Iceheart Perseverance Pill, which can protect your body from breaking down as you temper your body with fire-base body-refining methods."
"Eight-Petal Iceheart Flower? Haiz…" Vaan sighed again, gripping Acharon's heart.
"This Eight-Petal Iceheart Flower's quality is pretty good... It's just unfortunate that it was harvested thirty years too early. Otherwise, it would have become a Nine-Petal Iceheart Flower. Perhaps a Rank 4 Iceheart Perseverance Pill could have been produced from such a rare herb then. Haiz…"
"Ugh… What about…"
"Haiz…"
"This one would definitely satisfy…"
"Haiz…"
…
No matter what Acharon introduced, Vaan would always find some reasonable excuse to express his disappointment. It happened so frequently that even Acharon started to think all the rare herbs and minerals in his family's treasury were trash.
After all, rare herbs and minerals that couldn't be used were useless.
Right?
Unwittingly, by the time Acharon finished touring Vaan through the treasury and returned to the flight of stairs leading out, his eyes were reddened from straining, and his hair was disheveled from excessive scratching and pulling.
It looked like Acharon had suddenly aged an extra fifty years.
He seemed so stressed that he would gladly smoke any tobacco offered to him without a second thought, even though he never got into that stuff.
"This is so embarrassing. I'm apologizing for showing you such a disappointing treasury, Young Master Vanderlin," Acharon said dejectedly with his head hanging down.
Acharon didn't even want to look back at his family's treasury, lest he felt repulsed.
Not only did Vaan make Acharon feel like sh*t about his family's wealth, which the latter was originally proud of, he even got the latter to apologize for it.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmWhat was gaslighting? This was gaslighting!
"Don't worry about it, Young Master Acharon," Vaan warmly assured like a caring friend before offering some words of hope to lift his mood, "This is not necessarily a bad thing."
"What do you mean, Young Master Vanderlin?" Acharon asked doubtfully.
"You see, even if I managed to find some things I like in your family's treasury and sold my Rank 4 Body Reformation Pill to you, it wouldn't be a good thing for your family's standing in Duke Gamliel's faction," Vaan calmly mentioned.
"Think about it. If Duke Gamliel learned someone was selling a Rank 4 Body Reformation Pill, but one of his people kept the matter a secret to purchase the pill for yourself, Duke Gamliel would not be happy."
"And if the Evron family fell out of Duke Gamliel's good grace, it's hard to say what others in the ducal faction would do to your family to please Duke Gamliel," Vaan stated.
Acharon immediately broke into cold sweats as he imagined the potential future. Such a situation could possibly doom his family.
"Thank you, Young Master Vanderlin. You have helped my family avert a possible disaster by telling me all this," Acharon said gratefully as he closed the entrance to the treasury on their way out.
When that happened, Vaan's Omni-Sense was cut off from the treasury.
However, Vaan already had a complete understanding of the entire treasury's layout and positioning in his mind. As such, he opened a spatial portal that covered the treasury's entire ground and sank everything into his Heaven-Swallowing space.
The entire treasury was swiped clean in an instant.
Even the shiny tiles that fitted the whole floor weren't spared from Vaan's looting. As a result, the glamorous treasury was instantly transformed into an empty stone chamber.
"Don't mention it. Isn't this what friends are for?"
Vaan smiled shamelessly after taking everything from the treasury seamlessly without the other party's knowledge.
If Acharon had known what had actually happened, he probably would have puked blood in anger.
'What f*cking friend? I have never seen a black-hearted friend like you! You swiped generations of my family's accumulated wealth clean! F*ck! Even the pretty specks of dust in the room were probably taken by you too, huh?!' was something Acharon probably would have also said.