Darion knew he was being watched, but today’s mission was of the utmost importance. He waited until the last worker elf got away from the paper factory’s main entrance.

All the paper that was used for packaging came from here. This is the place where Darion originally started working for the overlord. So many good memories were stored within these walls.

He thought about whatever he was doing was the appropriate thing. If he had enough revenge, for the slight dealt to him. Then he shook his head. No, if he was on the bad list, he, who always followed the rules, then everyone should be on it. Out of necessity, if not because they deserve it.

Darion knew all the bottoms of the emergency alarm by heart. Once upon a time, he proudly had alarm maintenance duty. He opened the box of the alarm and cut the timer cord. The alarm blazed red but didn’t make a sound. Now for the next part of the plan.

Darion made his way to the command center. It was dark out and no one was there. If he hadn’t said that he was on cleaning duty, then he wouldn’t be allowed here either.

Darion was not very familiar with the control room. He still knew what to do, though. All the machines in the factories of the overlord were powered by mana. A few had lightning enchantment generators, but even they had a few mana crystals in them.

Opening the mana crystal box, he saw only three crystals inside. The overseer must have forgotten to reload them. Darion took them out and smashed them, then he returned the mana dust inside the box.

Warnings blazed on the screens in the control room, but the alarm didn’t make a sound. It was already on. That was the trick with the alarm. Once the timer cord was cut, which was also the sound cord, it was useless. Darion had the prankster that had taught him that fired, once upon a time. Now he was thankful for the insight.

With a last look at the factory, which was going to become a crater soon, Darion made his way home. The overseer would take the fall, and Darion will be the right-hand man to the supreme overlord again. If only the bad feeling of guilt he was feeling could go away.

Two more auctions came and passed, and now the clovers sold for no more than a million. Anyone who could afford a bigger price had one or two by now. The bank account was full of 60 million-plus a couple of thousand gold coins and the return rate was 6 million gold coins.

Theanore wanted to have 60 million mana, or at the very least 30 million, and give the rest to Marinus. But Crassus didn’t let her. Instead, she absorbed another 1000 and now had 42000. Marinus was also given 1000 and had the same amount.

With the mana Theanore upgraded all of her deep wheat and Crassus harvested it. Then she replanted a lot of the seeds and upgraded them again, after which their grain stores were full.

The last planting for the year of deep wheat was done with the promise that if they ran out of wheat for flour or for the chickens, then Theanore would simply spend more mana.

Marinus threw himself into expanding the aquafarm. He found more underwater caves and bought an expansion for the pool that was connected to the sea.

Breeding half of the silver longtails, he led them out into the sea. Then he had them in near closed-off caves, so they couldn’t swim away. The caverns were big and deep, so about 1000 silver longtails fit in a cave. So far, he didn’t have a single cave filled. The one he was trying to fill had 100 fish in it.

Deciding to use the new mana-carved caverns as pens for his fish, Marinus moved his Eelacondas in one and his Mundyd in another. Then he closed the entrance to the caverns behind them, so only enough space was left for water to come in.

But Marinus used up only 10000 mana for this project. He wanted to use all 42000 in a single day for the aquafarm. So, he asked Tania the system if either Alina or grandpa Thinker had a bigger fish selection, and he was given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“A school of salmon that are trained to come here after they breed in the rivers instead of dying? How is that possible, Tania?” Asked Marinus.

Salmon was a delicacy for a merman because you had to catch it just as it was going to breed. Many merfolks got beached trying to follow the salmons in the freshwater.

Simple, the mana you will invest. Ten thousand per school. Will give them the extra power to come back here. You can spend 20000 per school, and they will live for a couple of months after they return to the sea.

“I’ll spend 20000 mana then. That way, the ice room won’t overflow with fish. Say, are they coming soon? It’s their breeding season now, right?”

Order received. Transaction in progress. Transaction complete. To answer your question, yes. In fact, they are coming now. Spend 10000 mana for a second ice room? Yes/No?

Just as Tania was saying this, a school of salmon swam into the empty underwater caverns, filling them to the brim. Marinus caught one and ate it raw. He smiled underwater as he considered how much meat they will get. Enough for the whole winter, surely. But the ice room was too small.

“Yes. And make it an extension of the ice room we already have. Tania, what can I do with the rest of my 2000 mana? We have too many mana crystals already,” said Marinus, and he got a wall of text as an answer.

In the end, he decided to get 10 orca mini whales breeding pairs. They were like the dogs’ humans used as far as the merfolk were concerned. He could sell them to some of the mermaids he knew that hunted around here.