"Tell them that money could not be used as a bet.", said Axel.
"Sir, if we are not using money as a bet, then how can the betting system function?", asked Ashmita.
"Only resources and moves sharing would be used as a bet. Krishna will also handle this betting system. If they are going to use money as a bet then they will be punished."
"Sir, I don't think that will be possible. It is a great idea but bartering is not the answer."
"Who is saying that there will be bartering? We are going to create our own currency in the mercenary team.", said Axel.
"Our own currency?"
"Yes, I have already thought about this and I have already told the supplier to make this currency. In the next bet, only our currency will be used. The member can then use this currency to exchange resources, training manuals, and new moves from us."
"Yes, we don't have that many variety of resources, training manuals, and moves. We cannot create such a system."
"You guys are really innocent. We will not be buying these resources and training manuals. We will be getting them for free from our members."
"Sir, can you please explain your idea to us.", said Henry as he was getting nowhere from this conversation.
Axel's plan was actually very simple. He would create a currency and would be the sole creator of this currency. Since he was the creator of this currency, he would not be able to use it. He could only distribute it to others.
After creating this currency, he would share this currency with other members of the team in exchange for resources, training manuals, new moves learning manuals, eggs, and other valuable things needed for a mercenary team to prosper.
So, now he would have all those resources, and the members could use their currency to trade with him. He would be the sole supplier of those manuals and resources.
This idea of the new currency system had many advantages for Axel. First of all, this was a creative idea and this would bind the members to the mercenary team. Very few of them would leave the team after this.
Another advantage would be the sharing of ideas, moves learning manuals, and resources within the team.
Also, for the first and only time, a member could use 1 million Poke dollars to exchange for 10000 currency points from him. This was done to get some funding from the members. He would need it in the future.
Henry and Ashmita were so impressed with the idea that they started to work on it from the very second. They also announced the new currency called RM that would be used in the mercenary team from now on.
###
Axel had some meetings about this currency system and then he went back to his own training. Since his rank had decreased to rare rank after the new soul arts, he needed to increase his rank as fast as possible.
Axel realized that it was not as hard as he thought. The progress was slower than before but he already knew how to improve his rank as he had already done before. So, the pace of his progress increased.
There were many soul arts that interested him. He had to go through them one by one but as of right now, the one he was concentrating on was called, 'Mind suppression'.
This soul art would increase the mental resistance of the user and after reaching a threshold, the user can also suppress others' thoughts and mind making them unable to do anything.
Of course, this would take a lot of time but Rome was not built in a day. 'Mind suppression' was an upgraded version of 'Psychic shield' which was one of the requirements to gain 'Enhanced willpower'.
To gain the power of 'Enhanced willpower', Axel had to fulfill 9 requirements. He had finally fulfilled 2 requirements called, 'Enhanced survivability' and 'Pain suppression'.
Focusing on 'Mind suppression' would also let him master 'Psychic shield'.
To train on this new technique, Axel needed the help of Slowemperor. Alakazam was too busy with its new experiment. Axel didn't even know what it was trying to accomplish. It was so focused on the dead bodies of the Pokemons that Axel didn't want to disturb it.
It had asked for some time to complete all this and Axel was waiting for it.
"Magnus, can you now control your psychic powers?", asked Axel.
"I cannot control it at a high level but at a low level, I will not have any problem. Why? Do you need my assistance?", asked Slowemperor.
Slowemperor had recently ranked up and it could not control all of its powers. If the psychic pressure emitted by Slowemperor was on the higher side, Axel would literally die. He was just a rare rank human after all.
"That would be enough. I need you to use your psychic powers to disturb my mind. Don't use illusion on me. I cannot handle myself with that right now. But start slow.
I will take 1 hour of your time every day…."
Axel explained why he wanted to do this. Slowemperor didn't even know that a human could resist psychic powers at a high level with enough training. It was truly interested in this concept.
Within a few minutes, both of them got ready.
"Magnus, try to suppress my mind. Don't use too much force. I don't want to be crazy."
Suddenly, Slowemperor's eyes glowed in purple light and Axel immediately felt a powerful suppression in his mind. He tried to think about something but he could not do it. He tried to move, but he could not do it.
After 30 seconds, Axel fainted on the spot.
After 5 minutes, Axel woke up. His head was still spinning.
"How can I not handle it for more than 30 seconds?", asked Axel as he was clearly confused.
"Axel, I think you should shield your mind with aura. If you could do it, then you can defend against my attacks.", suggested Slowemperor.
"I think you are right. The stone also said the same thing but I want to learn 'Mind suppression' not 'Psychic shield'."
Both of them were similar concepts but they were not the same. 'Mind suppression' would use the power of souls to defend the mind while 'Psychic shield' would use the power of aura and psychic to defend the mind.
One might ask, what is the difference between soul power and aura power?
Both of them were similar but they were not the same. Soul power was like an advanced version of aura power. But soul power was also very hard to manipulate.
Soul power was more concentrated and slow. But it was also very consistent. Like, if Axel wanted to use soul power to defend the mind, with enough mastery, he could do it passively but it would take some time to completely use it the first time. But with aura, he could only do it actively.
As of right now, Axel had yet to unlock 'Soul power' stat in his status page. So, why was he so eager to learn 'Mind suppression' right now? Because he recently realized that training on one of the moves of soul art would hasten the progress of unlocking soul power.
If he could manipulate soul power with enough mastery, then even after his death, his soul would have that power and technique. This was much overpowered but also very hard to do.
For the past 2 months, he had been training on soul power but he had yet to gain any of it.
Axel took multiple rests in between while doing meditation and suffering from the psychic attacks of Slowemperor.
Very soon, an entire day had passed.
"Sorry that I kept you here for a whole day.", sighed Axel.
It was very hard to learn soul power. But Axel would not give up so easily.
It was already evening and Axel was having dinner at his office. He didn't need to go canteen but he liked to visit there sometime.
It was already 8 p.m. at night and the betting time was over. Axel called Krishna to how much was used as a bet.
"Around 10 million RM is on the bet. 3 million in favor of the returnee group and 7 million in favor of the experienced group. There is a 5% tax on betting that I set up. So, around 9.5 million in the betting pool."
"RM? But we have not yet released the currency. How are they able to bet on it?", asked Axel. He was the sole creator of that currency and he knew that he had not started to distribute it.
"After the news of RM got out, everyone wanted to trade in RM. It was easier than to bet with resources. So, I asked them to contribute a maximum of 1 million Poke dollars for 10000 RM. Most of them did and they had used that money for the bet."
Axel had no idea that his currency would be so popular that even without its creation, people would start to trade in it.
"Well, if they want to bet on it, then I don't have any problem. What is the time of battle and who is participating in this battle?"
"John from the returnee side and Kate from the experienced side."
"Kate?"
"Yes, she is the leader of the experienced team. She is a captain."
"Oh ok."
The experienced team members were divided among the new members team but there was one experienced team consisting of only experienced team members. Kate was the leader of that team.
Hearing the name Kate, Axel realized that he also had a girlfriend called Kate. He had not talked to her for months and now she must really be angry at him.
She was the type of girl that never called but expected Axel to call her. Seriously, their relationship was very weird. Axel didn't give enough time for Kate and Kate was also busy with her training.
He decided to call her at night.
"So, both of the captains are fighting for their teams, huh?"
"Yes sir. That seems to be the case."
"But why are people not betting on the returnee team? John is not weak."
"I really don't know sir but since they seemed to believe that since they had quit before, they must be very weak."
"Haha, those people might be in for a surprise.", said Axel and told Krishna to give him the details of tomorrow's battle.
###
Tring…. Tring.. Tring.. Tring…
Katchak.
"Hello?"
"Oh, it is my luck that the first knight of the Kanto region has decided to waste his time upon me.", came a voice.
"Kate, I am really sorry but I was very busy with all the work. So much of things have changed. I just needed time."
"Axel, you seem to forget that I am your girlfriend. You have only met me a couple of times in these many months and you have forgotten about me for a couple of months now.
I don't think you really care about me."
"That is not it. I am just so busy with all the training and the new mercenary team."
"Axel, I am not blaming you for it. I know that you are super busy. You could have included me in this mercenary team business and I would have been happy to help you.
But you didn't think about doing it. I know that you are busy but I am also busy. But I still do have the time to miss you.
I don't think that this is working anymore and I think that we should break up."