Optimizing Your Isekai - Progression Fantasy w/ Slice-of-Life and Biz Building Elements

Chapter 37 Part 1 - Optimizing Your Isekai


Excerpt from The Profound and Pretty Princess' Ultimate Guide to Cultivation, Captivation, Cuteness, and Carving Your Way to the Top, English Edition (the worst-selling guide in the history of Putijama)

On Energy Generation and Storage

Putijama has a – presumably – unique issue with energy generation: Energy generated through non-magical means is overwhelmed by the ambient essence and is thus destroyed. Even the heat of mundane fires is far less than physics would say to expect, though it's still kinda usable.

This makes things somewhat difficult for people in remote places who look to eschew technology like mana-powered stoves, heaters, and the like.

There are three sources of magical power generation that are effective: qi, mana, and essence.

Qi

Qi is a complicated one because while there are some sources of ambient qi, it is very hard to harness. It's similar to trying to use lightning to power things: sure, it exists, but the difficulties outweigh the benefits in most cases.

Qi stones are essentially power in a contained form. Mana and essence must be converted to qi, at a relatively inefficient rate, to generate power but qi stones are just ready to go.

Mana

Mana is naturally produced by living beings with cultivation. Any mana that is generated above the creature's full mana pool is released into the atmosphere to create ambient mana. Rifts and dungeons absorb some of this ambient mana but the biggest consumer is cities – or wealthy homes.

Ambient mana accumulators are used by large cities to provide a moderately cheap and renewable source of large-scale power. The major issue is that they need to accumulate a lot of mana to make the conversion to qi worth it. This is partially why cities like Velez are mostly without powered vehicles or large-scale manufacturing.

The other reason is politics. Bigger cities decide they need the power and create impractical restrictions and scarcity of large-scale equipment to prevent the smaller cities from vacuuming up any of the mana they want.

Personal mana can also be used to power at-home equipment to keep homes heated and well-lit, cook food, power electronics, etc. People simply need to put their hand on the conversion machine, pump mana into it, and it is stored for later usage by the home. The conversion ratio is rather atrocious but it's usually less than a Tier 1.0's mana pool to power a modest-sized home for a day.

Certain professions, such as forges or large-scale industrialized production, specifically hire people with larger mana pools so they can be used to power the equipment.

There are also mana stones but they are incredibly inefficient and it's better to sell them than use them for power.

Essence

Ambient essence can be used for power. But it shouldn't be.

Rifts and dungeons create and use ambient essence. No one is exactly sure of how and why they push it out and then bring it back in.

There are also theories that cultivators create ambient essence but measuring essence density compared to people density has led to extremely inconclusive results.

Theories abound, facts do not.

All that said, essence can be converted into qi. It just shouldn't be.

It's inefficient for one and highly illegal for another. Depriving rifts and dungeons of essence will get people killed, whether via the legal route or by delvers upset that their local rifts are being deprived of essence.

Energy Conversion and Storage

There are all different sizes of energy converters for mana to qi.

For at-home use, most not-insanely-wealthy people use a highly inefficient but also easy-to-use system that drains their mana across a ten to fifteen minute timeframe (for 'what is a minute?', see 'On You All Keep Time Weirdly'). Most can store up to two days' worth of typical energy consumption for a home.

Some devices, like tablets for on-the-go usage, have an incredibly inefficient mana-to-qi converter and/or an ability to plug into the at-home network. Their storage is not high but they are extremely optimized for low-power usage.

In some large cities, like Zalano, they have a number of electric vehicles that move goods throughout the town. This can be accomplished by having someone onboard the vehicle pushing mana directly through a converter for the entire trip, or, more sanely, by using a large battery in each truck that can be swapped when power is low.

As mentioned, most large cities have mass-scale mana accumulators to allow for more general power usage. The cities have large storage devices that companies can tap at registered locations. It is extremely rare to push power over large distances as the amount of fluctuation and issues from magical forces make it untenable.

Finally, there are some types of equipment that need exceptionally fine control to convert mana to qi like most Scanners and a lot of scientific measuring devices. Even hooking them onto an energy storage system can cause issues as power generated through mana initially is usually quite… temperamental…

I saw him across the room.

The expected emotions – anger at his actions, regret at my own behavior, worry about our negotiation – felt muted.

Not in a bad or concerning way. More that this needed to happen and letting emotions rule me was not my optimal path.

Vidas gave us a small smile.

Inara and I walked over. She hugged her future brother-in-law and I shook his hand.

I can't trust him but that doesn't mean I have to hate him.

After a fair amount of reflection, I was willing to admit my own mistakes. His decisions were focused on protecting his team and Velez.

The way he went about them was wrong but it still wasn't like he was trying to traffic orphans or create a restaurant that only sold pineapple and anchovy pizza or something.

We sat down for what I expected was a protracted negotiation.

"I have a proposal for you before you share yours, if that's acceptable," Vidas said as I took my seat. "It means we can walk out of here in a matter of minutes and nothing much changes."

At my surprised eyebrow, Inara cut in, looking at me. "I didn't have anything to do with this." She turned to Vidas. "Okay big bro, what ya got?"

Vidas steepled his hands. "Essentially, the deal we have – for the delves where The Order participates and where it doesn't – stays the same. 40% to you and Steve, 60% to the rest of us. And yes, before you ask, I do receive a portion of the proceeds as team leader. That is worked out between the rest of us, I hope you understand."

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"No," I said simply. It was a bad deal and a weird place to begin the conversation.

Vidas sighed. "Yes, I didn't start that well. A portion of proceeds is, at least typically, pushed into the shared pot we use for buying 'team equipment', such as potions, arrows, sometimes weapons, etc. In this scenario, the economic split would be exactly the same but you would not be expected to contribute to this shared pot. The benefit is that we don't have to register an official change, which can cause Adventurers Guild scrutiny. We can do it with only a small binding addendum to the contract."

"But I'd still have fair access to everything from the shared pot, correct? And that would be included in the contract?" I asked.

It was an interesting offer and kept the terms relatively clean but I wasn't sure if I liked it. Not having anything flow to the Adventurers Guild for approval was a benefit, but a rather small one: it meant less of a chance for them to fuck with us in some way.

I still wasn't sure exactly where I sat with the organization rather than just the Pitola branch and its head, Selim Koval.

Vidas sent over the addendum for me to review and I couldn't find anything wrong with the language. While we hadn't contributed to the team pot for our delves in Struva, it was still generally going to be eating into the profits if we needed lots of things like potions and arrows.

"I'll consider it. Now, let me present my offer and we can narrow in on the specifics of it. After that, I'll decide which of the two I want to take." I told rather than asked.

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #48: When you are making a deal, optionality is often of significant worth. Give yourself the option to choose when possible, especially if the other person probably doesn't see how valuable it is.

Vidas' eyes narrowed momentarily but he nodded.

"Look at how well you boys are getting along!" Inara said, somewhat souring the mood. At my glare, she held up her hands. "Yeah, I'm gonna be at the bar."

Both Vidas and I both visibly relaxed. A feeling that someone wasn't going to try to forcefully cut any tension somehow made a significant amount of the tension fade for us both.

"I'll lay out the framework and then we can get into specifics. Sound good?" At his nod, I continued. "So, for delves where the team is not involved, I considered just saying everyone else should get nothing. You all are raking in a fair amount of money for the other delves – plus Struva's rifts were probably the least filled we'll see as they were on top of things. It's also a bit rough to pay people to sit outside a rift for a few minutes."

"I don't like where this is going," Vidas said gruffly with a bit of warning.

"I am setting the scenario. And being fair. Don't jump ahead. You have to understand that paying people to do nothing is not a great feeling…" I said with a bit of frustration.

I didn't specifically mean him but realized it probably came across that way given his current situation of sitting around while his team delved.

Vidas crossed his arms.

"Not perfect phrasing but let's keep this civil," was all I said. "So, I am proposing that, for delves where I am carried through by another team and The Order is present, we—" I pointed to Steve on my shoulder and myself, "—hand over a set percent of both the delve fee we receive as well as the after-tax money from the delve reward itself."

It seemed like this was what Vidas was expecting as he responded, "50%."

I snorted a small uncontrollable laugh. It was a preposterous number. They were currently getting 60% and that was way too high so knocking it down only a bit was a ridiculous starting point.

Engage combative dickhead negotiation mode.

"5%," I grunted.

Now it was his turn to involuntarily react, this time with his hand on the table balling into a fist.

He leaned forward, glaring at me. "That's bullshit and you know it."

"So is 50%. Who told you to go with that number? I may not like you a whole lot but I don't think you're dumb. Especially not that dumb. Feels like bad advice."

His eyes narrowed and then the anger in them dropped slightly. "Online negotiation tutorial. Said to negotiate like your life depends on it…"

"Look, I was debating 10% or 15% but I'll be nice and go with 15%. That's more than fair honestly. That would still have netted the team a pretty decent amount this last trip," I said, trying to push him exactly where I wanted him.

My plan was 20% and making it seem like I was being nice by offering 15% would probably work with someone unaccustomed to negotiating.

As I explained to Steve the previous night, by locking them in at 20% instead of going as low as I could, it meant far less of a chance of economics becoming an issue, causing any kind of rift in the group.

While I was dealing with professionals, I still wanted people who were invested in keeping me alive. The old statistics about couples and business partners fighting most about money came to mind. It would cost me some gold but bought me peace of mind.

"25%," Vidas said with a small smile.

Got 'em.

"20% it is," I said, standing up to shake his hand.

He seemed surprised but nodded.

There were a few things to come out of the meeting. If I took Vidas' original offer to not change the deal in general, it meant less upside – if I got a huge windfall like the spell disc, giving up 60% instead of 20% was a lot of money – but it meant probably a more cooperative team dynamic.

The other thing was he didn't notice that in my agreement, I had only said a percent of the rift reward and delve fees. If we discovered something of value in a delve, like the magical ore or the Affinity Alteration Amaryllis, I would get to keep all of my share if I wanted.

I'll make the decision of which model to use before our next trip.

Inara came over, blue drink in hand with a crazy straw sticking out of the top. "Okay, dick measuring done? I want to get to that delve!"

Vidas looked at her sharply. "Does that have alcohol in it? You know you shouldn't drink before a delve," he growled.

She rolled her eyes, setting the drink down and looping her arm through mine as she started walking towards the door.

Vidas chuckled slightly then sipped at the drink, making an incredibly sour face.

Even without turning around to see him, Inara laughed, saying, "You always fall for that!"

***

Inara walked me over to the armorer – the place that had also made Steve's bathysphere-like backpack – for me to do a final fitting.

Since they had a few extra days to finish the suit when I was off in Struva and then relaxing, the brother and sister duo had also finished all the enchantments, actually laying on a few that I hadn't specifically asked for. They also used a bit of Tier 2 metal in it to make it that much more resilient, at the cost of a bit of weight.

Since it was on Velez's tab, I didn't care about the extra cost.

It was a gorgeous royal blue with a bit of a purple hue to it – I never knew my colors that well so I was sure there was some exact word for it – with silver filigree. Across the chest, there was a large open space for a crest if I ever decided on one.

The actual makeup of the armor was an incredibly tough woven material over chainmail in most places. I asked them why they didn't do the chainmail on the outside and they laughed.

"It doesn't look as cool," Inara replied.

I threw her a blank stare.

"What, delvers have images to maintain! Plus, this hides the enchantments on the metal so people don't know what you have. Lastly, for stealth silly. It prevents the armor from glinting or, especially, with the special under armor, it prevents any jangling sounds. Breaking stealth for no actual benefits is dumb," Inara 'helpfully' added. I looked to the armorers and they just shrugged as she had hit the nail on the head.

The siblings started walking me through the actual set.

There were the typical enchantments, like self-cleaning and self-repair, but they also added in an increased weight enchantment that I could activate to prevent myself from getting tossed around so easily. It was a set-level enchantment so if one of my pieces was missing it wouldn't work.

"Can I use the added weight on a specific piece, like the arm as I'm swinging?" I asked to a confused head shake.

The multiply momentum enchantment sounded incredibly cool if I added a charge skill – though they said it only barely worked on Tier 1 materials. I asked if it could be used discretely on specific body parts too and they gave me a slightly weird look.

I just want to smash things harder.

"Terry, the reason they don't do that is because it can break an arm. It all has to flow together," Inara said.

"Ah, so I'm not some tactical genius that was the first person to ever think about this?" I asked slightly sardonically.

The sister of the sibling pair spoke up. "At Tier 3, if you focus a lot on physical cultivation, or definitely Tier 4, it's totally possible. But we built a set that is, sorry to use the phrase, 'idiot proof'. We know Tier 1s like to experiment and it would be terrible if our armor actually hurt someone…" She looked sick to her stomach at the thought.

Finally, I put on the helmet and inspected myself in the mirror.

I looked good.

It highlighted my large form without providing any additional friction from any arm, leg, hip, or neck movement – thanks to a small enchantment that kept things extra-well lubricated. I was having a bit of fun admiring myself in the mirror when Inara suddenly popped into view, smashing the butt of her dagger into my chest.

"Ah! What the hell?" I said as an automatic response. Then I actually considered what happened.

I barely felt it.

Inara gave me her smuggest grin.

"Cushioning enchantment," the brother said with a smile. "It's hard to get just right but we tested it with some pretty big hammers and no bruises. I'm unfortunately the test dummy even when my sister is the one that deals with that enchantment. I swear she gets it wrong on purpose just for fun sometimes."

The brother-sister duo bickered jovially for a bit while checking the armor over.

It only needed a few minor adjustments, which were built to do easily as part of the design. A few tighter tugs and it was perfect.

Wearing it out of the shop so I could strut a bit on the jog to our delve wasn't the smartest decision but I was still glad I made it.

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