"My lord," Garrick addressed Ethan with a respect unusual for a grumpy dwarf like himself. "Do you know what a divine forge is?"

"Yes. A forge with a dragon’s eternally burning fire." Ethan nodded, confirming without hesitation.

He already knew full well where the dwarf was going with this conversation, but he didn’t attach much importance to the matter.

He had already confirmed with the system that he could build a divine forge. The problem was that the price was steep.

Three hundred thousand gold coins for a fragmented high-level divine forge.

That was the minimum price for a dragon’s fire forge—higher even than that of the fallen god-emperor’s palace.

There were cheaper ones, of course, but those were generally nothing more than fake divine forges.

Throughout the entire system, there was only one true divine forge, which is why the price was so high.

Even the fake ones were good, yes, but they simply couldn’t compare to what Ethan had in mind for Goldenveil’s future.

"Ah..." Garrick let out a long sigh.

The dwarf had also seen the Tree of Life and the new cathedral up close. Earlier, he had even climbed to the highest tower in the barracks just to observe the new palace Ethan had built.

Dwarves, in addition to being blacksmiths, were also great engineers, so he knew full well just how absurd those structures were.

He didn’t know what kind of strange ability that was, but he was sure of one thing: Ethan simply never stopped creating absurd things.

"If you can get me a divine forge, and I have a hundred veteran dwarf blacksmiths with me, I should be able to produce five hundred suits of armor in a month. Maybe even a thousand," the blacksmith replied, his words drawing a satisfied smile from Ethan.

A thousand suits of armor a month, with a hundred dwarves working, amounted to one suit every three days per blacksmith.

Considering the level of detail and craftsmanship required for those suits, it was a truly absurd pace. Something simply impossible for any race other than dwarves to achieve.

"Good, then," said Ethan, giving Garrick’s broad back a light pat. "For now, just focus on forging armor for all the centurions and officers. Soon, I’ll build a divine forge in Goldenveil."

Garrick nodded firmly, his eyes shining with anticipation at the prospect of getting his hands on a forge of that caliber.

Shortly after, Ethan finally set off, a faint smile playing on his lips.

He was excited at the thought of seeing his entire army equipped with that powerful armor, and, honestly, he only wanted to march to expand Goldenveil once everything was ready.

Unfortunately, arming all his men before winter returned to the region wouldn’t be possible.

After all, they were already entering the third month of summer. Next month, it would be time to march.

Ethan shook his head, his eyes then falling on something he had practically forgotten about in his inventory over the past few months.

[Attention: Your Rank S beast egg is about to hatch sometime in the next two months! Prepare a suitable dwelling to raise the beast.]

He skimmed the notification before heading to his mansion, where the guards were already carrying out the move, transporting everything to the new palace.

After confirming that everything was in order, Ethan made his way to his new home, quickly passing through the wide gates guarded by the paladins of the Order of the Silver Wings.

His eyes fell on the gacha tickets in his inventory, and he let out a heavy sigh.

At that moment, he had about sixty premium gacha tickets, along with more than four hundred common ones he’d accumulated.

Strangely, his quest "The Path to Power" still hadn’t been completed, even though a fortress already existed in the palace of the fallen god-emperor.

"Hm... it’s probably because it needs to be an outer fortress," Ethan thought, scratching his chin as another sigh escaped his lips.

Reaching the foot of the staircase, he began climbing the polished marble steps until he arrived at the top, where the entrance to the throne room—currently sealed—was located.

The gates leading to the mansion’s common area were open, a clear sign that his wives were already inside.

Without hesitation, Ethan entered the building, walking through the long, luxurious corridors until he finally reached the palace’s main chamber.

Pushing open the door, he stepped inside.

The room was at least five times larger than his previous bedroom. The white and gold walls were meticulously paneled, and the furniture was impeccable.

In the center, dominating the space, stood a bed large enough to comfortably accommodate fifty sleeping women, covered by a fine red silk veil that cascaded from the ceiling like a pyramid.

A massive window took up practically an entire wall on the side opposite the door, currently concealed behind a black curtain trimmed with gold embroidery.

The bed stood against the wall to the right of this window, while to the left there were three doors.

One led to a dressing room, another to the bathroom, and the third to a private meditation room.

Ethan walked over to the curtain, sensing the dense mana that filled the entire bedroom.

He parted the heavy fabric, revealing a small glass door framed within the window panel, which opened onto a suspended balcony.

From there, he could see the mountain walls into which the palace blended seamlessly, as well as a large inner garden and, further ahead, the mine used for extracting magic crystals.

"Hmm... are the girls already there?" Ethan murmured, noticing the mine entrance was open.

With a soft sigh, he leaped from the balcony, landing gently in the garden, which alone was larger than his entire previous mansion.

Crossing the marble paths flanked by lush flower beds, he entered the mine.

The tunnel plunged several hundred meters into the ground, its corridors supported by sturdy steel pillars.

The surrounding rock was completely encrusted with large crystals every few centimeters, all shimmering with a soft, bluish light that bathed the surroundings in an ethereal glow.

His eyes immediately fell on Alice, and a smile spread across his face.

Apparently, she had already started working.

The other girls in the mine noticed Ethan’s presence the moment he crossed the entrance.

Alice, however, was so immersed in extracting the magic crystals that she only noticed his arrival when his palm came down firm against her plump ass, the sharp crack of the slap echoing through the tunnel.

His hand sank into the soft, ample flesh, one round cheek molding around his fingers before springing back with a heavy quake that rolled across her ass.

A sweet squeal escaped her parted lips, her body arching forward from the sudden impact.

Her extraction spell dissolved instantly, the mana particles dissipating into the air like tiny stray sparks.

"Ah~ Ethan... I’m busy right now, can’t you see?"

"I can see." Ethan leaned in from behind her, planting a slow kiss along the delicate curve of her neck, his warm lips gliding gently across her soft skin.

His gaze, however, quickly drifted down to the single crystal pinched between Alice’s slender fingers.

"I’ve been working for almost an hour, and that’s all I’ve managed to extract," she said with a weary sigh, passing the crystal into his hand.

[Name: Superior Mana Crystal

Description: An extremely rich and pure mana crystal of the highest quality. It can be used for training mages or to power magical arrays. One superior mana crystal is worth a thousand inferior mana crystals.

Rank: A]

Upon seeing the item’s stat screen, Ethan could only let out a heavy sigh.

Superior mana crystals were extremely rare, even for the royal family of the Burning Ice Kingdom.

They were necessary both to keep the capital’s powerful magical arrays fully operational and to train fifth-stage mages.

A single superior mana crystal could sell for anywhere between one thousand and five thousand gold coins, depending on its purity and quality.

Of course, extracting such a crystal was far from an easy task.

Alice had been working for just an hour and was already exhausted. For a mine of this caliber, at the very least a few third-stage mages would be needed just to get started.

These mages, all far inferior to Alice in power, would manage at most about ten magic crystals a month with luck.

Alice herself, on a good month, might manage about fifty, or even a hundred if she focused on this.

In the end, Ethan just sighed once more.

Indeed, he would need to invest in training more mages.

The following month, when Ron returned, he planned to secure at least another five hundred thousand gold coins.

If that were possible, he could build his first mage tower and begin preparing Goldenveil’s magical industry for the future.

If they managed to extract just a thousand of these crystals a year, that would already amount to over a million gold coins.

Of course, that was assuming all the extracted crystals were superior ones. Most of them surely wouldn’t be.

Ethan let out another soft sigh, his gaze falling on his other wives, who until that moment had been chatting animatedly with Arwen while watching Alice work.

Shortly afterward, he accompanied them all to the spacious master bedroom, where they were able to take a look at the new room before heading off to explore the rest of the palace, already imagining what their perverted husband planned to do with them in that enormous bed.

It wasn’t long before Ethan found himself alone in the palace’s silent corridors, walking toward the central office.

It was time to open his more than sixty accumulated premium gacha tickets.

***

[My neighbor had the damn music blaring until 3 a.m., and I’m exhausted and have a headache. I’m going to get some sleep now, hahaha.]