The Exalted Prince Lives Again

"Do you happen to have some highly reflective pieces of metal?"

Inside a massive open space filled with stores, furnaces, pillars, and rugged people, Lucien was inside one such store.

Clank!

"How reflective do you want it to be?" A thin, tanned man asked, while a constant clanking sound came from behind.

Lucien wiped the minimal sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief and answered, "Enough that I can see my face in that."

Meanwhile, the tanned man saw it and reduced the temperature of the Air conditioners.

The atmosphere inside was completely different from that of the outside.

When Lucien arrived on this floor, he started sweating from the sheer heat trapped inside.

While the upper floors were dripping in luxury and riches, this floor was a furnace in itself.

There was a funky metallic stench permeating the air, which repelled many people from even entering this place.

But not Lucien.

"Can it be somewhat dull, or does it have to be completely reflective?" The tanned man asked curiously.

Lucien fell into his thoughts.

His sword wasn’t the most reflective piece of metal out there, but it still worked.

So it doesn’t necessarily have to be super reflective.

But just in case, "The most reflective you can do. Money isn’t the issue here."

The tanned man nodded and scribbled something in his notebook. "Any size requirement?"

"Anything that fits in a pocket." He clawed his hands in a semicircle shape and asked, "About 4 inches in diameter."

Lucien had tried with a small reflective coin and realized that there was a minimum size requirement as well for the teleportation to succeed.

"The most reflective metal we have is silver." The tanned man immediately answered, then asked, "Is that fine with you?"

Lucien nodded.

He was even prepared for it to be gold.

"How many do you want?" The tanned man asked again.

Lucien looked at his watch.

19:15 hrs.

Their reservation at the restaurant was at 20:00, and it would take them 5 minutes to reach there.

So, considering a few minutes for the margin of error, he had approximately 30 minutes for everything.

"As much as you can in 30 minutes."

"..."

The tanned man’s pen stopped, and he started looking at Lucien with a deadpan expression.

Lucien wasn’t even phased.

"I’m sorry if I misheard you," He spoke, then continued, "Did you just say, 30 minutes? Not hours, not days, but 30 minutes?"

"I will pay you a bonus per piece." Lucien casually mentioned, "As I said, money isn’t an issue here."

The tanned man immediately pulled out a calculator and started calculating something.

A few seconds later, he put it down and spoke, "Considering the thickness would be around 2 millimeters, the raw materials alone would cost you 180 Lari per piece."

He pulled a few more sheets of paper and said, "Then we would need to get some of our workers to dedicate their time to your work, use already polished silver pieces to save more time, and the priority bonus."

After that, the tanned man dropped it all and finally said, "In total, the price of one such piece would cost you 350 Laris per piece."

It was expensive, but Lucien agreed.

"Deal. Get to it."

The tanned man nodded, stood up, and left for the back of the smithy.

Lucien sensed two people standing guard outside, ready to engage in a battle at any given moment.

But he wasn’t offended by that at all.

He was wearing a mask and didn’t provide any ID either.

And on top of that, he also placed a massive order, possibly worth thousands of Laris.

It would be weird if they didn’t suspect him.

Ding!

He received a message on his phone.

[Please be on time.]

Lucien nodded.

It took him 6 seconds to just reply, ’Ok’, and another 12 seconds to find the thumbs up emoji.

Sigh!

He shoved his phone back inside and started looking around.

The office was nothing fancy, just a standard office with a table, a few chairs, a few plants, and decorations.

Waiting for 30 minutes was going to be boring, so he decided to cultivate his spirit energy a bit.

This was another method to cultivate the energy, albeit a little slower than just practicing, fighting, and gaining practical knowledge.

Meditating and focusing on actively absorbing atmospheric spirit energy.

Lucien closed his eyes, and since he already had a lot of experience with this, it didn’t take him long to start absorbing the spirit energy.

The speed was slower than usual, since he was not focusing on it deeply.

He was in public and had to maintain a certain level of wariness to be safe.

...

In no time, 30 minutes had passed, and the tanned man returned with a velvet pouch in his gloved hands.

Clatter!

The coins inside clattered against the wooden table, attracting Lucien’s attention.

"There are a total of eight in there." The tanned man spoke, removing his gloves.

Lucien was about to grab them, but the man stopped him, "Careful, those are hot, straight from the grinder."

Lucien nodded, coating his hand with spirit energy, before picking it up.

He opened the pouch and took out one of the silver coins.

Hmm.

He hummed, looking at his face in the silver, before nodding in satisfaction.

It looked like a miniature metallic mirror, perfectly reflecting nearly all the light.

"Do you accept cards?" He asked, taking out his wallet.

"We do." The tanned man said, taking out the card-reading machine.

The tanned man’s eyes widened in shock as he saw Lucien taking out his custom black card.

He gulped, and in no time, the payment was completed.

"Thank you," Lucien said, pocketing two silver disks in each of four pockets.

"Pleasure doing business with you." The tone was a lot politer now than before. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

Lucien nodded in acknowledgement and left without saying much.

It was a successful endeavour.

Just as he entered the elevator, his phone rang.

Ding!

Another message.

[Meet me at the main gate of the mall.]

Lucien didn’t even bother replying.

He would reach the gate before he replied.

"What did you get?" As he reached the main gate of the mall, Selene spotted him and asked.

Lucien didn’t bother hiding it and took out one of the disks. "Useful with my powers."

Selene nodded and didn’t bother with asking about his abilities.

If he wanted to tell her more, he would.

"Let’s go."

The venue was just a half a mile away, so they just decided to take a stroll till then.

Both were chatting, discussing random topics on their way to the menu, when suddenly, Lucien’s hair stood on end.

"What happened?" She found Lucien’s sudden pause unnatural.

Lucien turned his head towards a random alleyway, "There is something there."

"Something extremely unsettling and... powerful."