Over the next two hours, Gravis and his mother went through a ton of contracts, all having been manipulated in some way. If Gravis hadn't learned all of these secrets and ways to screw people over, the chances would have been high for him to get scammed.
Some of the ways to screw someone over were insane. For example, there was a way to change the consistency of the paper so that the coloring of it would spell out an additional clause. As long as the contract went through the Contract Officiation Office, this would still be okay. After all, the office only made it so that the contract couldn't be altered. The contents and how they were displayed were of no concern to them.
After a while of looking at one of the contracts, Gravis signed it.
Pack!
"Well done," his mother said. "This was the correct contract. It is important to see if contracts include shady clauses, but it is also important to accept true sincerity. If you continually mistrust your business partner, they will also start to mistrust you. If I were a normal business partner, you should have cut contact with me long ago after offering you so many scummy contracts."
Gravis sighed. "Why can't things just be simple? I just wanted to make a forge and sell my weapons and armor."
"Because business is like power, Gravis," his mother said. "You need to kill and steal from others to become powerful. The same is true in business. You need to siphon the money out of other companies to become richer yourself. Even if you act very honestly, your wares will inevitably drive other people that offer similar wares out of business. The only selfless thing would be to not create a business at all."
Gravis looked at the mountain of discarded contracts. "If I look at it like that, it seems more reasonable," Gravis commented. "I have probably already ended billions of lives without me actually trying to. Driving other forgers out of business isn't such a bad thing in comparison."
"Good," his mother said with a smile. "Now, I will take Orthar and my cute granddaughter out on a tour of the highest world. They need to learn more about our city and how everything works."
"Is that alright with you?" she asked Yersi and Orthar.
"Optimal first action," Orthar commented.
Meanwhile, Yersi beamed with excitement. She was about to meet more people! "Sounds great, granny. Can I call you granny?" she asked.
Gravis' mother beamed when she heard Yersi's words. "Of course you can, sweetheart," she said.
"What am I supposed to do?" Gravis asked.
"You need to exchange for some small base capital, Gravis," his mother said. "But first, I need to take a look at what you have. I would like to request access to your Spirit Space," she said.
"Sure thing," Gravis said.
Yet, his mother didn't immediately enter Gravis' Spirit Space.
"Gravis, you should know that you can't give people access to your Spirit Space lightly. Usually, people only trade via Space Rings," she said.
Gravis furrowed his brows. "That has been one concern of mine. I can't just unload all my stuff in the city, or it would get buried. Yet, giving other people access to my Spirit Space is also dangerous. What are these Space Rings?" he asked.
"Space Rings are Artifacts specifically created for trade exchanges," his mother explained. "These rings have a compressed room inside them where you can store your wares. With these, you can trade large chunks of resources at once."
"How do I get one of these?" Gravis asked.
"Space Rings are relatively expensive in comparison to what they actually accomplish," his mother said. "The cheapest ones cost about 10% of what an apartment would cost while the more expensive ones are ridiculously overpriced."
"Can I make them myself?" Gravis asked.
"No, silly," Gravis' mother said with a laugh. "There's a reason why they are so expensive. If you only need to know the Law of Space, every Immortal could create them. Theoretically, you could make the cheapest one, but it would cost you more money to learn how to create one than necessary."
"Why is it so hard and expensive to learn?" Gravis asked. "I know the Space, Time, and Gravity Laws. I even know the Law of the Dead World. Something like a Space Ring shouldn't be a problem."
"Normally," his mother said. "You would be right, but the problem is that you can't create a reliable Space Ring with lightning. You need Energy, and you need to be very, very, very good at manipulating it. Your Spirit is not even attuned to Energy. How would you be able to learn something like that?"
Gravis thought about it. If he put his mind to it, he probably would be able to learn it, but it would probably be many times more difficult for him than for others, thanks to his unique Spirit.
"Would I be able to learn additional Laws by learning how to make a Space Ring?" Gravis asked.
"No," his mother said with a shake of his head. "You already know all the Laws to make the cheapest version."
Gravis sighed. "Okay, then forget it. I should concentrate more on my abilities as a forger."
His mother nodded. After that, Gravis felt a force knocking gently at his Spirit Space. This was his mother, and he let her in.
A small version of herself appeared in Gravis' massive Spirit Space, and she quickly checked out all the contents inside Gravis' Spirit Space.
After a while, she frowned. Yet, her eyes widened in exhilaration, and she quickly picked up a watermelon-sized sphere of something shiny. She inspected this ball for a while, nodded, and left Gravis' Spirit Space again.
Gravis opened his actual eyes again and looked at his mother with a questioning gaze.
Instead of looking at Gravis, his mother looked at the Opposer with a disappointed expression. "You are behind on the prices," she said.
Gravis' father blinked a couple of times in a bored manner. "So?" he asked.
Gravis' mother groaned. "Gravis has barely enough to afford a shop, and even if he manages to get one, he would have no capital left to purchase actual resources to forge equipment. You said he doesn't need any money, but he sure does."
The Opposer blinked two more times. "But he has a Middle World Core," he said in an even manner.
Gravis' mother ruffled her hair in exasperation. "Yes, but exchanging that for money is a huge waste! It's way more economical to forge something with it! Did you honestly expect Gravis to exchange that massive chunk of a Middle World Core just to buy a shop!?"
"Yes," the Opposer answered immediately. "Money is money."
"Sometimes, I just can't with you," Gravis' mother groaned. "I just can't."
"Yes, you can," the Opposer said.
And that was when the ultimate ability to deal with the Opposer's straightforward mindset appeared.
Gravis' mother simply ignored her husband like he didn't exist.
Then, she turned to Gravis. A list of different materials appeared in Gravis' mind and an associated price tag. After that, a map of the city appeared with some buildings marked on the map. "Exchange these materials for these prices. Try to get the price."
"But you need to keep something in mind," Gravis' mother said. "These are the prices that a trusted businessman would be able to achieve after lots of haggling. You won't be able to sell these materials for these prices. So, instead, go to all the stores and accept the best offer you can get. After that, contact me again. Your Spirit should be powerful enough to encompass nearly the entire city by now."
Gravis nodded. "Will do," he said.
For now, if he wanted to be successful, he needed to follow what his mother said. She was far more experienced in these things, and he needed to learn as much from her as possible.
Gravis had already accepted that he had no such thing as a pure path to power. Might as well ask for help in these things.
The four of them walked out of the Opposer's palace and looked at the bustling city.
The city was absolutely massive, and with their powerful souls and Spirits, all of them could take in the grandeur of the actual city.
Yersi and Orthar were taken aback by the number of teleporting humans. Everyone in the city was an Immortal?
Meanwhile, Gravis took a deep breath. He had never known how big the actual city was, but he hadn't expected it to actually be that big.
It was over 150,000 kilometers across!