"Lily, how will the academy know that we've acquired a territory beacon plant and want to establish a territory?" Leo asked, turning to her.

Lily paused, then unlocked her phone and began scrolling.

"It says we need to capture a photograph of the plant and submit it in the Territory Plants Verification section of the Aurelius Academy Application." Her eyes moved steadily as she read.

"After the initial verification is complete, an instructor, assistant professor(now Elder will be referred to as such), or a professor will be sent in person to check the authenticity of the plant. For that, we need to share our location. When the person arrives, they'll note down the coordinates and register the leader's name."

She scrolled further, her brows knitting slightly.

"He'll then ask you to specify the area of territory you want under yourself. There's no upper limit, but it's advised to only claim what you can actually control. Once the territory is claimed, they attach a sensor to the plant, officially making it a territory beacon." She hesitated for a moment, then squinted at the screen.

"And that sensor is a smart device containing ar… arti… artificial intelligence."

Leo raised an eyebrow, amused.

"That AI can detect when a territory is being attacked, how much of the claimed area is being patrolled regularly, or if someone destroys the territory beacon itself."

She read on, her tone growing more matter-of-fact.

"Once everything is done, you'll receive a confirmation notification on your phone. After confirming it, you'll be officially registered as a territory leader. That's where academy interference ends. After that, you can take members into your territory and assign them various roles. There's even a tax collection system—members pay their leader monthly so the territory can function smoothly."

Her finger stopped scrolling.

A line of text glowed in bold red on the screen.

"There's a warning here. It says becoming a territory leader is free for the very first time. But if one's territory is destroyed, declaring a territory again requires a fee of 5 hundred thousand AC." Lily looked up briefly before continuing.

"A territory is considered destroyed when the claimed land area falls below one hectare."

After a short moment of contemplation, Leo spoke again.

"And how does that artificial intelligence know I actually control the amount of territory I claim?"

Lily searched for the relevant section and nodded when she found it.

"It says the claimed land must be patrolled at least once every five days under normal circumstances. If not, the beacon detects the area as lost and automatically unclaims it." She continued reading aloud.

"If the territory is attacked by other students and they manage to capture part of it, they can notify the beacon through their phones. If the leader fails to drive them away within one day, that portion is considered lost."

She glanced up.

"The one-day ultimatum doesn't apply if the territory beacon itself is destroyed directly."

Leo nodded slowly, absorbing the information.

"Then what about beast attacks? They don't exactly have phones to inform the beacon."

"It's written here that the beacon has aura sensors," Lily replied.

"They detect beasts that aren't wearing life bracelets. If the foreign aura level crosses a certain threshold, the territory is declared 'under siege'. If that situation isn't resolved within five days, the territory is considered lost. Once again, the ultimatum doesn't apply if the territory beacon itself is destroyed directly."

Leo frowned slightly.

"And friendly beasts? Like the druid, its summons, your spirits… or tamed beasts that don't have life bracelets?"

"For those," Lily said, scrolling again,

"Their mana signatures must be registered with the sensor. Once registered, they're treated as friendly or domesticated beasts and excluded from the foreign aura readings."

Leo nodded again.

Many people in the world lacked beast-taming talent, yet by raising a beast from birth or being kind to them, they could still form a bond strong enough to classify it as domesticated. By that definition, the druid could now be considered one as well.

"How long does the entire procedure take?" Leo asked. "I mean—from now until officially becoming the leader."

"Almost an hour," Lily replied. "Maybe longer if the territory is far away. About thirty minutes of that is taken up by the plant verification alone, since a lot of people try to fake beacon plants or spam photographs repeatedly."

Leo exhaled.

"Alright. Let's establish the territory first before we terraform any further. And keep the Colossus' existence hidden—just say we found an extremely lucky location by chance." His gaze shifted to the others.

"Also, bring out the treant. I'll bring out Niri. You, me, and Miho will pretend to bind the druid in vines, so we can say we captured that beast through collective effort."

Everyone nodded and moved to carry out his instructions.

It was necessary to present the druid. Without a stabilising agent, the Fluxsoil Heart was nothing more than Super-grade alchemical material—it couldn't function as a beacon. Showing that they possessed a beast capable of stabilising the treasure would allow it to pass inspection.

Leo also checked his phone. Stabilising agents were indeed sold by the academy—for AC. And they were absurdly expensive.

The cheapest one cost 500,000 AC and could only stabilise treasures up to High Green Tier. For a Low Purple-Tier treasure like the Fluxsoil Heart Leo acquired, the price skyrocketed to nearly 40 million AC.

That was almost 1,600 gold coins, or 16 platinum coins.

Nearly a Grand Duke's monthly stipend of 20 platinum coins.

"The academy really has everything, huh?" Leo muttered. "All I need is enough credits to buy it."

Out of curiosity, he had also checked the listings for soul-enhancing treasures. They existed—but in limited quantities. The highest-grade option could only enhance 50% of a Common-ranked soul, and even that cost 15 million AC.

And that fifty percent didn't scale evenly.

For Uncommon, it dropped to 10%.

For Rare, 2%.

For Super Rare, a pitiful 0.4%.

"Damn… I really struck gold back in the city by acquiring the Elasian Bloom plant." Leo muttered.

The Elasian Bloom(The Flower)was absurdly potent. A single petal out of five had pushed Lily directly from Rare to Super Rare, and elevated James from Uncommon to Rare, even with his injured soul that was healed along with the advancement. Leo knew Lily's leap was likely because her soul purity already exceeded 90% at Rare, but even so, the result was astonishing.

And now, the original Elasian Bloom plant—evolved through Niri's help—had become the Elasian Aether Bloom, producing three Elasian Blooms per month.

He could practically sit back and print money.

"Heh," Leo mused quietly, a faint grin tugging at his lips.

"If I ever sell even a single petal… a 100 million AC would be the bare minimum."

Currently, he had 2 whole intact Elasian Bloom flowers, and there were still 2 weeks left for the new ones to flower. So they had kept it aside for his, Lily's, and Miho's consumption.

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