Marcus...
He had been contemplating how to earn enough money to pay for Selene's armor but even so, the price was unbelievably high by this world's standards. If he were to compare the price of the armor by how much it costs in coins compared to how much it would cost in Americans dollars, it would cost 1.7 million dollars to forge.
There's no way he would be able to find enough jobs to make that sum of money in the time that would allow Selene to keep doing her job.
He could ask Ruvick if he can loan him some money. With him spending over ten thousand years in this world, he would be disappointed if Ruvick wasn't wealthy to some degree. If it really came down to it, then it was certainly an option worth considering.
However, relying on him financially didn't sit right with Marcus. This was something that he needed to figure out on his own, like a man.
Then an idea came to him, and fittingly, it had to do with lightbulbs.
He decided to make his way over to Alfronn's shop, where they had made this world's first TV.
The moment he walked through the door of the shop, Alfronn's eyes locked onto him and he shouted, "You're back!"
"Uh, yeah. Is there a problem?" Marcus asked, confused.
"Problem?! Of course there's a problem dammit! You show up one day, ask for my help in reinventing some revolutionary piece of technology from your world, and then leave without showing me more?! I say, that is a problem! There be only three things that dwarves hate most in life, lack of beer, elves, and seeing the untapped potential of a great mind going to waste!"
Feeling slightly overwhelmed by Alfronn's enthusiasm, he debated about whether it was the right move to come back to this shop after all.
"W-well, I was busy but I came back, and that's what matters. Most importantly though, that television cost me a lot of money to make and I can't fund any more projects unless I have a steady income," he said and as he heard this, Alfronn had a confused look on his face.
"So...you're pockets aren't as deeply lined as they seemed huh...then why the hell did you come back if you didn't have the means to work on more projects?" he asked.
"Because I intend to capitalize on the reinventing of the lightbulb, along with many other forms of technology that I have in mind. I would like your help in making that happen," he said and Alfronn frowned before walking over to a chair and sitting down. He then waved for Marcus to sit down as well.
"So...if I am hearing this correctly, you want my help in monetizing and distributing your inventions?" he asked and Marcus nodded.
Alfronn was then silent for a few minutes, as if contemplating what to say next.
When he spoke again, he said, "Running a distribution empire like what you are suggesting along with introducing new technology into the world would require a good deal of resourcefulness. Even the kingdom of Forrosa, currently the most advanced society in the whole world, barely has the means and the resources to develop and then mass produce the technology that they develop. A kingdom like Duranell, with its economy being based mainly in agriculture, wouldn't be able to meet the demands of a mass distributor of technology. That is, unless, a certain person were to appeal to another willing to invest in a start-up business."
Hearing that, Marcus gave Alfronn a knowing smile that seemed to make the dwarf visibly uncomfortable.
"Would you like to know what I used to do for money back when I lived on Terra?" he asked and the dwarf's eyes brightened as his expression overflowed with curiosity.
"Yes, do tell!"
"Well...to be honest, I was involved with some rather nasty work for over a decade but that part isn't all that important. What is important is what I did to try to get out of that line of work that matters. When I was a child I had seen a film, quite like the one I showed you. It was a film about an incredibly wealthy man who had seen the weapons he developed in the hands of his enemies being used to nearly kill him. The man was then captured and forced to build them a weapon of unbelievable destruction but he used the materials they had brought him to make a mechanical suit of armor to escape and right the wrongs he made. That film inspired me to make a similar mechanical suit of armor and I did. I managed to invent a suit of armor more advanced than anything anyone was capable of replicating. Though, to do this I needed money and I didn't really care about the other message that the film had told me. And so, I ended up developing weapons and selling them to governments across the world," Marcus told him and Alfronn looked impressed.
"That's amazing! Were you successful?" he asked and Marcus laughed before he looked at Alfronn with a deeply disturbing look in his eyes.
"Alfronn, I'd like you to pay close attention to what I am about to tell you. Very close attention, because I'm not sure many people can really grasp the amount of money at the scale I'm going to tell you," he said and Alfronn leaned forward as if to listen very intently, "The average person in America, the country that I come from on Terra, makes fifteen American dollars an hour working eight hours a day, four to five days a week. That makes about five hundred and forty dollars, before the country taxes them for around twenty percent of their income, but that's not important right now. To put that into perspective with this world's currency in mind, that's about two silver coins per week. Are you following along with me?"
Alfronn squinted his eyes as he thought about it before he nodded.
"When I was developing and selling weapons to the governments of Terra, I made twenty billion dollars," Marcus stated with the tone of voice he would have used if he had admitted to killing a man with no remorse.
When Alfronn heard that he struggled to understand what Marcus had meant by the number 'twenty billion'. Once he realized the sheer scale of the number, he laughed in Marcus's face at the absurdity of it. He laughed as if to think that he had been telling him a joke but Marcus did not smile. Alfronn's laughter ceased and his face turned pale as the realization of what he had been told truly dawned on him.
He then shook his head and said, "No...that amount of wealth is...its inconceivable! How can any one man have so much? There is not a kingdom in all of Erebus with that much wealth! How did you-"
"The three major powers of Terra, that being America, Russia, and China, all seemed to hate each other and were constantly fighting to be the dominant power in the world. It was easy to extort them out of their money for weapons under the guise of 'keeping them from falling into the wrong hands'. It didn't really matter whose hands they fell into, they were all all corrupt anyways. Although it does give me piece of mind that they were willing to monopolize the weapons I developed as alternatives to nuclear warheads," he said as he chuckled darkly.
"Surely...with that amount of money, you must have been the single wealthiest person in the world! Right...?" Alfronn asked, already knowing he was wrong.
"Far from it. In fact, I heard rumors that there were 'secret' trillionaires somewhere in the world. That amount of money even makes me feel sick to my stomach. So...do you doubt my resourcefulness?" he asked Alfronn.
"No," Alfronn stated firmly. It was made painfully clear to the dwarf that whatever Marcus set his eyes on, he intended to see it through.
He then continued, "I do wonder though, what is my role in all of this? If you intend to start a large distribution business, then what good am I to you?"
"I assume that dwarves tend to hole themselves up in mines and mountains don't they? I bet they would benefit quite a bit from the use of lightbulbs. Lightbulbs can illuminate a wide area far more brightly while using less energy than light crystals. To make a light crystal brighter, it demands more and more energy at a consistent rate which exhausts the user. Seeing as you helped me in reinventing it in this world, you can be the one to promote our first product to our first customers and maybe even hire other dwarves to assist in production," he said and Alfronn seemed slightly offended.
"Do you really think I know every dwarf that buries himself in the mines?"
Marcus raised his eyebrows and tipped his head forward to look at him as if to say, 'come on...'
Alfronn rolled his eyes and said, "Okay yes, I do. I'll...see what I can do for now. But for me to make a decent amount of product to sell, I'll need your help making those lightbulbs. We'll have to make the globe out of diamond so that they are durable enough to last in such an environment."
"When can we start?"
Over the next several hours, Marcus and Alfronn spent the time making over three thousand diamond globes for the lightbulbs, and set them aside so that they could be finished at a later time. He wasn't completely sure of what he intended to do next but the first idea that came to mind was to ask Ruvick to take him to Forrosa again. Once there, he wanted to try and offer them a part in developing more advanced technology.
He hoped to monopolize and monetize this world's technological advancement.
As he was making his way back home, he ran into Thalia being escorted home by Selene. Thalia also seemed to be wearing clothes that were a few sizes too large for her...
"Uh...she seems a bit small for those clothes...?" he said in a way as if to ask Selene what was going on.
"Her uh...clothes caught fire. I had to give her new ones. Sorry," Selene apologized.
"And how did her clothes catch fire?" he asked curiously and Selene looked away, almost in shame but Thalia didn't miss a beat.
"I found Selene sitting in an alley way with the walls melting around her! I was worried for her and when I walked towards her my clothes caught fire!"
The walls were melting...?
Marcus slowly looked up at Selene and she seemed ashamed, almost afraid to look him in the eyes after hearing what Thalia said.
Hmm...
"Thalia, I'd like you to do me a favor please?" he asked.
With an almost excited expression on her face at the idea of doing something for him she nodded her head.
"Okay, I want you to reach out your hand and close your eyes for me," he said and although confused, she did it. He snapped his fingers to get Selene's attention, waved his hand to get her to come closer to them, and mouthed the word 'watch'.
He then pulled out a lighter from his back pocket, flicked it, and lit the flame. He looked into Selene's eyes as he waved the flame underneath his own hand. Her eyes flicked to the flame licking his hand and then back into his eyes.
The flame did nothing to him, it didn't even burn his skin. He felt only a comforting warmth to it.
As he pulled the lighter away from his skin, he put it underneath Thalia's hand and the flame licked at her skin harmlessly, to which Thalia giggled as if feeling ticklish.
"Okay, I'm done. You can open your eyes now," he said as he flipped the lid over the lighter and put it away.
"Oh...alright," Thalia said, disappointed that she wasn't able to do more than that.
Selene just stared at him with an unsure expression, as if she was having trouble understanding what he meant by doing that.
And so, he decided to make it very clear to her, "I trust you Selene. I know that you would never hurt my sister, but now even you know that your flames cannot harm her. You saw it for yourself. Like me, she is immune to heat."
The expression on her face turned even more somber as she said, "I'm sorry Marcus. I feel like I am placing my burdens on you."
Marcus only chuckled and she was taken aback by his reaction.
"What are you laughing for?"
"Did you already forget what I said to you when you told me about your past? I said, 'I want to use that fear that people have of you to defend my family. For that, I am putting my faith in you.' However, I can't very well depend on you if you aren't in top form, so now your burden is my burden whether you like it or not."
Her voice was caught in her throat as she didn't know how to respond to him saying that.
"Now come on. Why don't you come with me and Thalia to my home for a bit. I'll cook something up for all of us," he offered as he turned to his sister and held his arm out to her.
She then blurted out, "Why are you so unafraid of me? Why is everyone in this world so distant and afraid and angry towards me, but not you?"
He turned to look at her with a dead-eyed expression as he said, "Because compared to you, I am far worse than you can possibly imagine."