"What kind of revenge do you want?"
"What do you mean?"
"If you just want to kill them, you don't have to come to me. But if you want to kill them without anyone knowing and with a sense of mystery left behind, I could help you a bit."
"No, no. No killing. If the clan finds out, that I killed my peers even before my previous generation heir selection was not over, then I would be dead."
Sam shrugged and said.
"Okay, that is just one option anyway, there are others.
If you want to take revenge on the business side of things, there are a few methods. You can penetrate the market and take away their share of customer base, you can destroy their business without any involvement in the market too.
If you ask me, these two are the best options. I would proceed with either of those two."
"What about others?"
"they involve some killing and smearing the reputation and a lot more deeds that accumulate to kill their business."
"Then I will go with the first two options, but still the question is which one is better?"
"That is the question you need to answer. Do you have interest in penetrating into that market?"
"Of course, I have interest, but those places were a bit too difficult, my brothers and sisters saturated their position a long time, in fact their parents did that for them when they gave those businesses to them. They have decades of loyalty and reputation behind their stability, I would say it is impossible."
"Nothing is impossible. Particularly in the business world. Customers might appear extremely loyal to a single enterprise, but that cannot be more wrong. They are fickle, as fickle as weathers in the wind. They just fly away along with the strongest current.
Most of the time, the customers appear loyal to one particular brand because, there is no other brand offering a better of similar service or there is no other brand with a better service that they could afford.
It is easy to get majority of customers to shift their interest as long as they have better product."
Grivon looked at Sam with a but skeptical expression.
Sam chuckled and said.
"Okay, it seems like your age-old clan teachings really got to you. I will prove it. Give me the profiles of the main businesses of the people you want to take revenge on. I will pick one as a trail and prove my point to you."
Grivon still had that skeptical expression and took out a bunch of profiles, Sam looked through them briefly and picked one.
"This is new. I never knew that people can target this niche and gain that many profits."
Grivon took a peek and said.
"Well, that is because of the loyalty and the brains behind the creations of that business. There is one main person behind this business. My sister only takes care of the customer and financial side, the person who creates the product is a complete outsider from the clan."
"She is not your real sister, is she?"
"What do you mean real?"
"Is she born to the same parents as you?"
"Oh, in that way, no. She is the daughter of my father's younger brother. But she is a bit older than me."
"That's good. You wouldn't feel as bad when you wrecked her business."
"Wrecking her business? Do you know the percentage of market she holds in terms of defense artifacts, within that realm? Ninety percent and the reason why she holds so much is that she created that market. She searched for this weirdly talented guy who was so interested in the defense artifacts and made his products more usable to people. She made them need these things."
Sam just shook his head. He is tired of explaining it to him.
"Just come back in two days, to collect the results. I will show you, how you can wreck a person's business without doing anything underhanded."
Grivon also shrugged as he left.
He clearly doesn't know too much about Sam. After all, the Dusk organization didn't spread far enough. Even though it has a greater influence in dozens of lower realms, it is not the same in the higher realms. The most he reached are the Medium level realms.
If Grivon knew how much Sam has earned in business and how many types of businesses he has monopolized, he wouldn't be this skeptical.
Sam once again started giving out a list of materials and a list of subordinates to the attendants who brought them to the warehouse within a few minutes.
He started designing things without much trouble. He didn't even have to think that much. After all, Sam has a decent experience with defensive formations to the point that he created a bunch of new types of defensive methods using the formations in a more unorthodox way.
Even from the top of his head, he can think of a hundred different kinds of designs that could swallow the business of Grivon's sister.
The assistants he asked for were stunned by the speed, Sam is dishing out the designs. If they didn't know any better, they would accuse him of copying from something, because only copying would grant them that speed.
For the next two days, Sam kept himself and the rest of the group busy with the products. He created exactly one hundred models all with various elements and various functions, but all of them have one thing in common, before activation, they all looked the same. They are but a small metal cylinder in their hands.
It is half a foot long and they all have one button on top of them. That is also another common thing, but the buttons on the bodies of the cylinders varied very much as they had different functions.
Most of these artifacts are created with the experiences of his new body as inspiration.
Due to him having so many elemental energies and defensive measures, Sam never really got the opportunity to explore the defensive methods in other areas.
Particularly, the energy barriers is something he only used for formations. But now that they are part of his daily routine, he managed to combine his knowledge of energy barriers and elemental energies to create varying models.
After two days, Grivon came back and he was surprised by the cylinders neatly arranged on the table.
Sam looked at him and said.
"All hundred products are of hundred different models. They have almost all elements. Fire, wind, water, light, dark, lightning, earth, metal, wood and space. Of course, there are some neutral models which could be used by anyone."
"Really? Almost? What else was left?"
"Maybe Time?"
Grivon shook his head as he looked around.
"Where are the neutral ones?"
Sam pointed at a row and Grivon picked one of them.
It has one button on the top for activation and two more on the body for variations within.
Sam showed all three buttons and explained which is which.
Grivon pressed the activation button. The energy suddenly condensed from within the cylinder and the surroundings as it condensed in the form of a large shield in front of him.
It is translucent and it is glowing.
Sam stood in front of the shield and said.
"Hold it properly."
Grivon held it tighly as Sam took a step back and threw a punch. He used the strength of a middle stage Astral Plane pre-transcendent cultivator.
*BAM*
There was a loud sound, before the translucent barrier rippled and the blow completely dissipated. Grivon was stunned. He almost didn't feel the impact at all. It as if the shield directly took the attack and sent it somewhere else.
"Use the first variation."
Sam said as he lunged forward and moved to the side attacking from the opening there.
But as soon as the first variation was pressed, the shield expanded and covered Grivon in spherical barrier. The attack was once again absorbed.
"The second variation."
Sam said calmly and Grivon pressed it. This time it still stayed as a spherical barrier, but the as soon as the punch landed, Sam was blown away from that spot and was sent flying.
He moved mid-air and landed safely as he walked forward.
"The second variation works on both normal activation mode and the first variation. To deactivate it, all you have to do is press the button on top again."
Grivon pressed it and the shield was gone.
"I didn't think these kinds of barriers existed. I know defense artifacts use energy barriers, but these barriers are different."
"Of course, they are different, I made them."
"What about their durability though?"
"That's what I am going for next." With that, Sam took out a very different device. It is a small stand with a groove that fits the cylinder base perfectly. The cylinder stands in it. Within that stand, there is another groove where he placed a space jade.
"One charge of the artifact can take ten blows from an Astral Plane Pre-transcendent cultivator at Middle-stage, three from late-stage and one from peak stage. As for the Initial stage, I think it can last for quite a while.
After it was gone, as long as the cylinder was not damaged, they can place it in this and place a space jade filled with spirit stones and place it here, the cylinder will charge itself.
Sam then turned the stand upside down and there is a small glowing semi-circle on it.
"This circle indicates the charge it holds, if it is complete, then the charge is full."
