New plans

After leaving the mine, I quickly fled the area. I doubt the military base doesn't know what happened here.

It is better to leave quickly. I left with all the speed I could muster and returned to the hill where I appeared to use the portal again.

When I arrived, I waited the usual hour for the portal to fill with energy, and when it opened, I left.

When I returned to the guild, I made my reports, omitting the techniques I used to destroy the mine. It is best not to let anyone know about the possession.

I was paid and left.

I collected quite a bit of gold. The division of money is the same as in the human world. Copper, silver, gold with differences of 100 between each type of change.

The currency is unified and there is no real inflation. Let's say 1% per year.

A typical family can live on about 40 silver coins a month.

A rank 1 looter like me can collect between 1-4 gold coins per mission, rank 2 between 5-15, rank 3 16-40, rank 4 41-80 and rank 5 81+ depending on the mission.

I also got a lot of money from the count. About 800 gold coins.

My net assets are 811 gold coins. I can retire to the countryside and die there if I want to.

Although I have never used the money, my armor was given to me by the Count, and the information I need also comes from there.

My brothers do not bother me or ask for anything, for one is in the army and another is learning politics to rule.

I won't lie, the position of the count interests me. But for that I would have to kill my brothers, which could be very tragic for me if they discovered me.

Besides, I lack the means and the strength to kill them.

I must strengthen my position in the empire.

Not to threaten my brothers, but to create my own base.

And the only way to do that is to enter the capital's underworld.

I need to be so much stronger to create a mercenary group. No one follows a weak leader except weak members.

Nobles can have their own army and bussiness, but that would be underneath my father and later my brother.

Church is weak in the elven empire.

So I ran out of options. At least none that were viable in the short term.

It would take me 40 years to create a stable organization.

To rise in an existing one would take 20.

And always with the risk that the count would discover me and cut off my head.

So I looked for the only thing that could give me a more or less secure position, and that was to work for my father.

He has an army separate from the Count's army.

It functions as a group of mercenaries.

They intervene in conflicts between the elves. An occasional power struggle. The usual.

They also work with the guild and attack humans quite often.

It has 5000 members. It is one of the largest organizations outside of the regular army.

For comparison, the regular army currently has 35 million active troops, of which 25 are Drysicc without Core Essence. No rank.

On the other hand, in my father's group, they are all elites of elites.

I don't think there are even any members with a blue core. Certainly the royal family does not like this group, but the Count has more influence than it seems.

The group itself belonged to Marcus' late mother. The group is called the White Serpent, and their logo is a snake wrapped around a sword. Apparently, they were so named because my mother, with her white hair and pale skin, would crawl on the ground like a snake and sneak up on her enemies.

With this in mind, I went to find my father to ask him to let me join.

I stand before my father now, the man as calm as ever.

"What do you need, Marcus? You don't spend any money and you only train and do missions. So I can't imagine what you could want from me," the count says, his voice indifferent.

He must be spying on me, probably through Elias.

"Father, I would like to join the White Serpents," I said, looking him in the eye.

"No," he answered me dryly.

I didn't really expect that.... "May I ask why, Father?

"You are still weak, the other mercenaries will not accept you." He said as he sat down at his desk.

"But you might be able to join them in a few years when you gain more power. I'm sure your mother would be happy because you want to join her group." The count said with a small smile.

"Alright father. Then I will leave now," I said and turned to leave.

I hate being so weak, I really do.