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In stark contrast to his daughter\'s warmth, Tsar Dimitri\'s face hardened, as if he\'d just learned that North Korea had unexpectedly won the World Cup instead of Brazil, Germany, England, France, Russia, or any other major football power.

"Can you repeat what you just said, Lord Emberweave?" Dimitri asked, his tone incredulous.

"I said I have a solution for the mana depletion problem, without resorting to opening a Hell Gate," Daniel reiterated calmly.

Daniel had come to initiate negotiations with Tsar Dimitri Romanov, seeking his support for both his endeavors at the UN and the mage organization he planned to establish. To achieve this, he needed to present something of substantial interest to the Tsar.

And a solution to the mana depletion problem was something any mage with a vision would find incredibly tempting.

"How?" Tsar Dimitri inquired, his expression still clouded with doubt.

"With this," Daniel said, revealing a chromatic orb to Dimitri. "This is the Chromatic Philosopher\'s Stone. Using this as an energy source with the Ether mana replenishing plant in a confined space for at least six months to a year should form a mana font underground." Daniel offered a thumbnail-sized Chromatic Philosopher\'s Stone to Dimitri.

Dimitri took it from Daniel\'s hand and attempted to sense its magical power. He could feel a tremendous amount of mana condensed within its small size, including even rare elemental mana found only in certain places, though Dimitri couldn\'t identify the exact elements.

As he examined it, part of the stone represented fire, then suddenly wood, then darkness. It was as if this Chromatic Philosopher\'s Stone could transform into any rare elemental mana.

"How do you know this small object will produce a mana font underground after six months or so, and how long will it take to deplete a Philosopher\'s Stone of this size?" Dimitri asked.

Daniel smiled and answered, "We had an... incident in Sector Alpha City, leading us to discover a secret laboratory belonging to a rogue mage. There was a tunnel, seemingly dug by the rogue mage, connected to a naturally formed mana font underground." He paused, then continued.

"That mana font is directly about 20 meters below our secret base, where we have an Ether power plant that powers our facility. And the mana font is overflowing with mana," Daniel explained.

"So... that power plant of yours that was advertised at the time uses this thing as a power source to produce electricity? So wasteful! If you have enough of this and use it as a power source for your base or the city, you\'d be better off selling it to me," Dimitri said, his expression as if he\'d heard someone use fine silk as a rag to wipe away dust.

As a mage, using a difficult-to-produce Philosopher\'s Stone as a power source to generate electricity seemed incredibly wasteful.

While Dimitri displayed his irritation at the perceived wastefulness, he received a light slap on the shoulder from his daughter, who stood beside him.

"What!?" Dimitri retorted, as if asking what was wrong with his assessment.

"You\'re being too rude, Dad. Aren\'t you supposed to be forming a cooperative relationship with Lord Emberweave? Wasn\'t it your idea for me to inquire about an alliance with him?" Anastasia countered.

"Yes! But what he did is still wasteful! This thing is so difficult to produce! And from what I know about Lady Envy\'s personality, she wouldn\'t allow Lord Emberweave to use humans as raw material to produce this," Tsar Dimitri said, showing the small Chromatic Philosopher\'s Stone to his daughter, then continued.

"This means it can only come from rare materials or condensed mana energy from some natural mana font! That\'s why I say it\'s wasteful! Ridiculously wasteful!" the Tsar exclaimed.

"Ahem..." Daniel faked a cough, drawing the Tsar\'s attention back to him.

"Actually... it\'s not wasteful at all. I don\'t produce this from any of the materials you\'re referring to," Daniel corrected the Tsar.

"What!? You mean you actually use human sacrifice to produce this thing!? How!? From what I know, the mana power in this thing is even more potent than the red Philosopher\'s Stones on the black market," the Tsar quickly speculated.

Tsar Dimitri Romanov was just an above-average mage with average strength, but he was quite diverse in his knowledge, particularly in artifact creation and alchemy. Though not skilled enough to open his own workshop, he could discern fake products.

Unlike Daniel, who had been duped by Viper into buying a fake mandrake.

"I produce it with this," Daniel showed his hand to Dimitri as he placed it on the table. Suddenly, an alchemical formation circle appeared, and condensed mana gathered within it.

The Tsar also felt the mana in the air being pulled toward the circle, but it wasn\'t much, and he noticed no fatigue on Daniel\'s face. It was impossible that this thing could be formed by condensing mana from the air or using Daniel\'s own mana.

A few seconds passed, and a Chromatic Philosopher\'s Stone appeared in Daniel\'s hand, stunning both the Tsar and his daughter, who covered her mouth in surprise. Daniel slowly offered the newly produced stone to Tsar Dimitri.

"This...." The Tsar slowly took the Chromatic Philosopher\'s Stone from Daniel, bringing it closer to his eyes for scrutiny.

"This doesn\'t make any sense..." Tsar Dimitri muttered, examining the newly produced stone.

"Why?" Daniel inquired.

"Do you know about the thermodynamic law?" the Tsar began. "It states that energy cannot be created or destroyed; it must come from somewhere and go somewhere else. And also, when energy transformation happens, some energy is lost in the process," the Tsar explained.

"Yes, I know about it... So?" Daniel asked, his expression as if to say, "So what about it?"

"So... it shouldn\'t work like you just did! I felt the mana in the air when you produced this, and judging by your expression, you didn\'t use that much mana from yourself either," the Tsar said while Daniel frowned.

"What are you trying to imply, Your Majesty? I still don\'t get it," Daniel asked, confused about what the Tsar was getting at.

"Don\'t you see? It\'s like in an RPG game; you use one mana to produce this condensed mana block worth ten mana. It doesn\'t make any sense, and it breaks the thermodynamic rule!" The Tsar finally said it, but... Daniel\'s frown deepened.

After a moment, Daniel slowly relaxed his frown, then looked at the Tsar strangely. "Er... with all due respect, Your Majesty... but, isn\'t magic supposed to not make sense?"

"It\'s not science," Daniel said, trying to understand what the Tsar was trying to convey.

The Tsar wanted to retort, then hesitated, then wanted to say something again... but in the end, he decided not to say it because what Daniel said made some sense. But... didn\'t this not make sense? Oh well, he didn\'t want to care anymore. The Tsar thought to himself, covering his mouth and deciding not to say anything.

"Okay... so, regarding our cooperation, Your Majesty," Daniel attempted to steer the Tsar, who had strayed from the main topic, back to the matter at hand.

Upon hearing this, the Tsar\'s face, which a moment ago had been full of self-doubt and questioning the meaning of life, quickly transformed into a diplomatic smile, faster than any actor could manage.

"Yes! Absolutely! How many mana replenishing machines can you spare for us? Russia and the Romanovs will support you in anything you do in the future!" the Tsar exclaimed with a smile, extending his hand toward Daniel.

Daniel responded in kind, shaking the Tsar\'s hand.

"Since we are allies, Your Majesty, for the first phase of the project, we are ready to give you one machine for free and will sell the rest for one million Origold per machine, given that we have enough machines to sell," Daniel said with his own diplomatic smile.

"Is that so? What if I add Anastasia and the position of our prince consort into the mix? Will you provide us with five machines for free?" The Tsar countered, under the disapproving gaze of his daughter, who stood beside him.

"Dad... that\'s not funny," Anastasia said, lightly slapping her father\'s shoulder again.

Hearing this, Daniel could only smile wryly.

— A few Weeks later —

Currently, with the UN assembly happening during the last week of the month, there\'s only a week left before it takes place. At this time, many things have been finalized, but strangely, several key factors remain undisclosed to the public.

For instance, the exact number of countries participating in the conference at the UN assembly remains unknown.

This is due to the work Daniel has put in over the past few weeks. After reaching an agreement with the Romanovs, he went on to lobby many mage families with influence in various UN countries. As of now, he has Russia and the USA in his pocket from the major UN powers—or rather, four, since the Confederation has been absorbed into the USA.

He avoided the Qing Empire and Britain for the obvious reason that they are not friendly toward him.

As for the countries outside the four major powers, he has secured Germany, Poland, Romania, Italy, and Greece. For the rest, he entrusted Albert, Cao Cao, and Guajia to handle them.