Crystals capable of holding mana in them are rare and expensive and usually needed a lot.

Today I got a request for fundraising from the wizard council. They said the lack of mana crystals causes problems for studying.

As a good who wants powerful weapons to destroy his enemies, I need to fix the problems of the only place that can count as the university in my kingdom. Wizard council is one of the most important aspects of my nation. They work as a laboratory that inspects how magic works and raises mages for further generations.

The council needs considerable funding to keep their research on the way. Thankfully, tribes raids to villages across northern land, a famine started.

Food prices skyrocketed, a potato raised from fifteen copper coins/1 kilogram to five silver/1 kilograms. (20 copper coins are equal to one silver)

I don't even talk about alcohol prices. Even the tasteless vodka-like drink we crafted has high demand right now.

I made deals with tribes to prevent possible conflicts and guaranteed the safety of my food stock.

I got enough money to raise funds but finding an alternative for magic crystals must be the council's main focus for now. I will tell this to master in next week's economical.

...

From Master Luo: An alternative is possible. Anything with mana infused inside them has the potential of becoming a "Battery." as you say in your weird language, but our studies showed up most efficient way of storing mana is crystals.

Councils resources for alchemy are not enough for making high-grade items, but crystallization is a process I may try (Especially one you offered as it is easy as a child's homework. Using a material containing a mix of processed mana dust and sugar can be crystallized.

I will order Wizard council to try this right now.

...

From Master Luo's mouth: Even though I am not happy with how we gained these extra funds, I will use it to the last drop for advancing our knowledge about magic.

The process lord Erwin told us to was simple but had potential. Usage of sugar for making crystals and adding mana dust for storing.

Council decided to use our increased fund for buying an alchemy artifact used for processing magical items.

We can compress our mana dust into Archana dust using it. Amount of mana it stores will increase drastically.

Some of the members had questions about using sugar for crystalization, but it is only an experiment, and king Erwin ordered us to do it.

Our experiment will start right now.

...

From Erwin: Our experiment with magic dust become successful in a way. We managed to get a rock candy that is capable of storing mana.

Still, it wasn't a success neither a fail. The amount of mana it is capable of storing is not close enough to crystals we use, and it is way more fragile than I expected, but the idea of making synthetic crystals is possible after today.

I need to find an alchemist who's capable of making better crystals than we did with sugar.

Freedom of work and good funds will be attractive enough. Some rumors said old artifacts use human-made crystals for power as their source was powerful as high-grade gems.

The mana candies we created are only capable of powering low-tier items. On the other hand, they are easy to produce and safe to eat by humans. I might say it even tastes better with all the mana it has inside.

If they weren't super fragile, I could think of a way to use them in the military, but they do great as a refreshing treat for our people for now.

Notes from the king: I want the council to compare them with the same amount of mana potions. If mana candies give more mana than mana potions, produce them as mana potions. I want to make the best of every coin I used.