Tales of The Mighty Dragonair

"First of all you need a strong base to start from. You did great here, and this city will turn into the capital of your empire in the future," she said these words first before adding:

"As for what you lack, sigh you lack a lot. First you need to know that focusing on the army is good. An empire without a strong army defending it isn't considered an empire at all.

Yet empires won't be built on military alone. You need science, trade, and stable internal affairs; things I can say clearly that you lack."

Arthur just glanced at her deeply with just nodding. He came from a world where strength only mattered, as for all these things she spoke of; he didn't ever care about them.

"Science is one of the major bases of any empire. Without innovations you will always be one step behind everyone else. Science is a thing that can touch any other aspect here; be it military, citizen lives, or even trade. All depend to some degree on science.

To encourage science you need to look first for scientists. Frankly speaking they are rare after what those filthy invaders did to my world. But there are many still. You need just to focus your search upon them. Plus…"

She paused while giving him a meaningful glance. "The sky castle and those kids?" he asked.

"Yup, those are very crucial for your future. Most of them hailed from the ancient scientific families. Have you gained their trust yet?"

"Don't worry yourself about them," he simply replied, refusing to give her more details about these kids. Since the start, she showed great interest in the castle and those kids.

"Sigh," she helplessly shook her head with a long sigh, "after gaining their trust, and gathering more scientists, you can establish the academies."

"Academies?" he was surprised to hear this term from her. He came here to join the academy, and now she was speaking about him establishing one.

He knew nothing at all about academies to begin with!

"Not like your academy," Sara seemed to know more than he thought about the Dorgazine academy. 'Lilly,' he sighed inwardly as he knew from where did she gain such knowledge. 'I must have a word with her and everyone later,' he decided.

"The academies I meant are those interested in science and innovations. From these academies, inventions will be born, and you will be able to apply new things to various life aspects in your empire. But…"

She paused before adding, stressing on her next words with deeper tone, "this would take much time than you think, plus many resources and support. This is a future step, a giant step for you, so you should be patient and not rush things."

He noticed how much understanding she had towards these academies. "You can work as these academies chief," he proposed.

"Dean, it's called dean."

"Whatever, you will be their dean."

"That would be better indeed," she smiled as she hurriedly added, "when will you give me those kids then?"

He understood the reason behind her compliance. "Later," he vaguely replied, "what about trade?" he asked, shifting the topic away from this matter.

"Tsk," she glanced at him silently for a period before saying, "having currency is the core of any trade. Yet you don't own one."

"Tell me, genius, how can I have one?" he replied with the same look and tone she gave him. He wasn't challenging her, he really didn't know a thing about currencies!

The trade term he knew about was based on bargain, changing goods for goods with equal value.

"What do you know about trade then? Don't tell me you know nothing!"

"Bargain is the trade I know."

"Primitive," she said, in a mocking tone that he totally ignored. "Bargain isn't fair and subjective. Some goods might be priceless for you, pointless for others. Currencies solve this problem."

"How, genius?" he replied in the same mocking tone.

"Setting a unified version to value everything, people wouldn't bargain about goods. Simply a pricing system will be applied controlling everything. This way anyone inside your empire will be able to trade on equal terms, regardless of place and time."

"Seems interesting," he liked the idea, "how can I have this currency then?"

"A coin must be made first, easy for us to make, impossible for others to copy. You need to make sure you, and you alone, have the right to make this coin. Or else anyone would make forged coins and make you lose," she started to explain in detail before adding:

"Then you need to link it to something valuable. Not anything can be used to link to coins; and this is considered the toughest step in making any currency."

She paused, so he could absorb all she said, before adding:

"For example if you selected an ore from this world, and the next day another rival clan or empire found mines of this ore. The value of this ore would decrease, affecting your coin negatively.

So, you need to select something hard to find, very precious to anyone, and you have a way to gain it easily and cheaply, and above all in great quantity!"

"So I should look for ores from my world then?"

"Not only that, you also have to make sure it's not easy for dark clans to get their hands on it, or make trouble for you to get more of it."

He went into a period of silence thinking about something. 'I have ores inside my garden world! If I can find something rare and unique, then I would be the only one able to get hands on, plus no one would ever cause me trouble inside my garden world.'

This idea seemed much more appealing to him than going out and seeking the world for ores. "After finding this ore, what else should I do?" he asked, as he would give this task to Agnus living inside his garden.