After Surviving the Apocalypse, I Built a City in Another World novel Chapter 1014

When Octavia left the room, she had already wiped her tears and held her head high. She tried to retain the pride she had left and even managed to say a curt goodbye to Gaia.

However, the dark atmosphere around her was indicative of what Orion chose to do.

Sure enough, Orion and Hilda soon emerged from the upper floors with dire expressions on their faces.

The family couldn’t help but look at each other. Hilda’s eyes fixed on her husband, and she pursed her lips.

Otto shook his head. "Will this be alright?"

Zaol sighed, though also a bit worried. "Orion’s leaving soon. Time apart would do well for both of them."

"What are they doing going so far away?" According to the information, they went to both Holt City and Hassen City, with the Lord staying particularly long in the latter.

"Well, Holt City has a lot of aether stones, that could be it." There were very few things that could get a city lord outside for a visit.

"As for Hassen, who knows? He has a lot of relatives there, right?" Obi said carelessly, though he was pinched in the stomach by his sister in response.

He was confused at first, but then he saw his father and he quickly shut his mouth.

Anyway, Otto put the topic back to Bleumrick.

"Aether stones… those are quite expensive. Does he need it so much?"

Aether stones were basically an amalgamation of massive amounts of aether. They were extremely expensive, the cheapest ones costing hundreds if not thousands of gold.

"His lifespan should still be sizeable," Otto said, pondering. At the lord’s level—and his father’s as well, to some degree—the way to level up was through aether stones, but it had diminishing effects.

Not to mention, leveling up that way was a bit like cheating as well. He learned the term ’ballooning’ in Alterra, and it felt apt.

At some point, it was not worth it to spend years’ worth of income when one couldn’t level up properly.

"Maybe he’s putting them out as rewards to the noble families," Obi said.

Some cities would gift a few aether stones to top families in their territory. It was a way to retain loyalty and increase the overall strength of the place as well.

It was one of the reasons why people fought hard to be a top family in cities, because the higher the rank, the more stones they could receive. Of course, this also meant their interests would be tied deeper and deeper to that territory.

Bleuelle was not as generous as territories like Holt City but it did follow its example to some degree.

Aether stones had many other uses. For instance, they were used by cities to create, power, and maintain things like teleportation arrays and some superior magic tools like magic barriers.

In Bleulle, there were three teleportation arrays going to three allied territories—Holt, Hassen, and Cloth City.

The cost was extravagant because each trip consumed some energy from the aether stone. It might heal itself through time, but the speed of consumption usually could not match the speed of recovery.

This was why all the arrays were in a special building near the palace, and could be used only for at least a thousand golds each trip. Of course, each trip could include a group of people and a lot of luggage so if one had money, it was usually worth it.