Michael’s eyes widened upon that promise. A hundred million Sand Dollars was inconceivable to him and treated it as if it was a distant tantalizing dream that he would need years upon years to achieve.
But now, a Mermaid princess was pledging that amount upon the completion of one project. It was insane.
"Is it too small?" Octavia asked, an anxious frown growing on her tentacled face.
Her colored spots were changing colors, physically showing the mental calculations that she had to do to find a way to increase that money even further.
"It’s enough, it’s enough!" Michael said. "But are you serious? You’re going to give me that much?"
"Of course," she said matter-of-factly. If she had offered less money, she herself would be indignant for Michael’s sake.
Solving the problem in the lake with such an ingenious and miraculous way necessitated such a high price.
Never would she have imagined that such a strange piece of metallurgy would produce something with such a magical, almost magnetic effect within Marine life. In her and every other Mermen’s mind, metals and the sea didn’t mesh together very well. One rusted under the onslaught of the other, and the other became polluted because of such effects.
More than that, this ’filter’ of his was a product of the surface world. How come something that was made by human hands solved a problem that even Mermen themselves didn’t even have an inkling of an idea on how to answer?
Granted, they have asked the humans for help regarding the lake, but even those Legacies couldn’t have made something so consummate. It brought life back to the waters immediately and with everlasting effects.
The company that she had previously chosen to partner with only promised a temporary solution. They would have visited the lake every day to bring artificial growth inside the waters to promote underwater life to procreate.
When they tested it out, although life boomed for a short while, it also came with some unwanted side-effects. It ranged from something inconsequential like seaweed becoming stiff, to mildly concerning with the mutation of fishes to become more savage and monster-like.
The worst side-effect was when young Mermen began to grow grotesque, horrid, and misshapen tentacles all over their bodies. This only happened very rarely, only once or twice in a span of a month, so most Mermen accepted it as a good trade-off for not starving in these cold lake waters.
But this filter solution had none of those complications. Instead of horrifying marine animals by feeding it with artificial magic food and forcing them to mate, it naturally attracted them and made a suitable breeding ground instead.
It was also self-sustaining, obvious by the fact that it had been running for a few hours now with no signs of stopping. Michael estimated that the Unity Bomb inside the filter would run out every week, but that was nothing compared to the maintenance that the other companies offered.
And most of all, it solved the very root of the problem instead of just fixing its symptoms. It didn’t just fix the famine in the lake, it fixed the very quality of life inside it.
Princess Octavia felt fresh water cycle through her lungs. She closed her eyes, feeling as if she was back in the comforting tentacles of the seven seas.
"When would you be able to install the filters in the Sunken Ship?"
Still reeling from shock, Michael shook his head to regain focus. "I can do it right now."
"Splendid. Let us go back now so you can receive your compensation."
...
...
...
Michael, in his little bubble, sauntered over back to the Sunken Ship in a daze. Time seemed to whizz past him, and before he knew it, he was looking at a sunken, half-decayed, full of barnacles treasure chest right in front of his eyes.
This was the kind of alluring prize that the infamous Flying Dutchman would offer you in exchange for your soul. But no. It was just the price for one giant filter totalling a million Sand Dollars.
And if Michael continued to create more and more filters throughout the New Sparta lake, he would end up with a hundred million Sand Dollars by the end of it, maybe even more since he’d need more than a hundred filters to completely saturate the waters with healthy mana.
It was insane. Somehow, in a span of a few days, he just kept on finding ways to earn enormous amounts of Sand Dollars, and the opportunity to earn even more.
Immediately, his mind began to think about how to produce these filters as soon as possible.
Now, the process to create them was easy and could be done by the Rebornian Dwarves in a heartbeat. The problem now was the materials.
Just like with the Rebornian Phones, these filters needed both Unity Power Sources and Mithril in order to function properly.
Only something as durable as Mithril could contain the enormous explosion inside the filter.
Unfortunately, only a select few Dwarves could create Mithril all on their own.
Fortunately, this would be solved once he found Biru, the Dwarven King, somewhere in the bustling life in New Sparta. Once he got his cooperation, they could finally start on the mass production of Mithril, for both the phones and the filters.
Then, the next problem would be the Unity Power Source itself. These filters needed to be replenished with new fuel every week, which meant he had to produce them constantly alongside the phones.
Now, because of such a high need for power, these filters needed a total of 10 Unity Power Sources to function, which was equivalent to 10 Reborn Phones.
And unlike the Mithril, he had no help when creating Unity PS. He only had his clones to help him, which were already working day and night to produce it.
The demand for Unity PS keeps rising. My clones can keep up for now, but eventually, it’s not going to be sustainable.
He hadn’t even finished delivering on the phones that the Duchess and the Dwarves bought. And now, he was burdened with another order. He’d have to push back his original schedule to deliver with the giant filter Princess Octavia ordered.
It was worth it though, since ten phones only equaled 100,000, while a single filter cost a million.
Not only that, but these Mermen were in a more desperate state. The more these filters were delayed, the higher the chances of people dying from the water’s ’pollution’.
"Behold! Dear inhabitants of the Sunken Ship!"
Princess Octavia’s shouts reverberated through the breached layers of the wooden vessel, taking every invertebrate Mermen’s attention.
They all looked towards the captain’s quarters, where Octavia’s throne room resided.
"I have brought with me a savior. He has with him an object of salvation and a device of miracle—a filter!"
Gasps and gurgles echoed through the waters.
"I have seen it do the impossible: bring back the luster of scales within our fishes. It has brought back life even within the dead and decrepit lake floor.
Trust that I, your great and benevolent leader, have finally solved the problems of the lake!"