But would he become vengeful? It wouldn’t be hard for him to connect the dots between my arrival and his shipments being robbed. If that were the case, I’d have an undead army barking at my door in a moment’s notice. If we couldn’t survive a full-blown conflict with a human enemy, why would I even think it possible to survive against a monstrous force?
I was awake most of the night, racking my brains on finding a means for a solution, other than violence, but I could find none. Exhausted, I went to sleep, hoping that in the middle of my dreams, there would be some moment of clarity, some aha moment that gave me the exact solution to my problems.
But daylight crept into my room in the morning, shining on my face and awakening me, my dreams having failed to bring anything to light. I was still just as stuck today as I was yesterday. But I had advisors, did I not? Perhaps they could suggest something to be done about all of this. So, I called for an official advisor meeting, summoning both the Mayor and Teresa into the dining hall, to eat breakfast and discuss the Baron situation.
Once adequately informed, Teresa was the first to pipe up. “My suggestion would be for you to hire a specialist from the job board to handle this.”
“Indeed, this sounds like something an adventurer should be doing,” Hemmings said as he dug into the freshly cooked bacon, barely looking up from his meal. “I mean that’s what they are here for. Fighting monsters, stealing treasure, tricking terrible creatures.”
“Your average adventurer will certainly know how to handle such a beast,” Teresa continued. She had the decency to avoid stuffing her face while discussing important matters, a true hallmark of a diplomat. “I could sort through the current list of available hires and provide suggestions, based on what you want to achieve.”
“I say you kill the damned thing. It’s only a matter of time before it realizes blood is a lot more important than iron, and then who do you think he’s coming after?” the Mayor said.
“I told you before, I don’t want it dead,” I replied. I looked at Teresa. “If I did go this route, could you find me an adventurer who would be able to sway it away from its obsession? If that breaks, then we can take the mine for our own. And best of all, we won’t even have to pay for it, since he told us never to return.”
Teresa narrowed her eyes. For a moment, I thought she was glaring at me, until I realized that a small silver film had come across her face. Flashes of silver and white energy flickered across her eyes as they darted forth. So this was how they accessed parts of the Great Picture. How interesting.
“I have found three adventurers who would meet your criteria; you can see them on your overlay,” she said, standing to her feet and taking her full plate in hand. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to rest. That was exhausting.”
I thanked her and was quick to open up the Great Picture, curious to see what kind of adventurers were for hire. The only time I had interacted with the job board was once, when hiring a healer to tend to the villager I inadvertently injured. Truthfully, until Teresa had mentioned this, the idea of hiring a specialist had completely slipped my mind.
Opening the Great Picture, I was greeted by the adventurer overlay. There was a large selection of adventurers to choose from, but their names were grayed out. Only three were able to be selected, with a symbol next to them, meaning they were suggestions from Teresa. And of course, the first thing I looked at was price.
All three adventurers wanted 2,000 gold for their services. This was a cost well outside of my scope, but well within the terms of my arrangement with Savannah. Since the mine was already constructed, she would actually be getting a discount with spending her gold on one of these specialists. Satisfied with the price, I looked at more information about each adventurer.
The first was a man by the name of Graxson. He specialized in theft, with many attributes that indicated he’d be able to steal much of the iron ore without being caught. Impressive, but not quite what I was looking for. I’d rather find a more honorable solution to the problem.
The second was an elf woman whose name was Wintersong. She possessed great magic that allowed for her to manipulate thoughts and minds. Such spells would be capable, Teresa noted, of changing the Ligafen’s obsessions, although there was potential for this to backfire, for we would not be able to know for sure what the new obsession would be.
The third was a monster hunter named Trimar. He was a valiant warrior who had fought hundreds of monsters in his life and kept a serious journal of each one. Since Ligafens weren’t the absolute rarest of creatures, he must have experience with them. If that were the case, then perhaps he’d be able to find a non-violent solution to dealing with the beast. Or at the very least, he’d be able to tell me if it were possible for there to be good Ligafens in this world.
After some time of deliberation, I selected Trimar. The other two were skilled, for certain, but I had a good feeling about a monster hunter. In order to pay him, I brought up the trade menu and sent a message to Savannah, informing her that the price of the mine would be 3,000 and that I needed the cash in hand to make the purchase. She had given me a small smooth stone that would allow me to immediately transmit messages to her without the need for a messenger, an artifact that would only work once.
As part of the message, I included a request for 3,000 gold. As it turned out, in this world, when deals were struck for trade, caravans were required to move resources around. However, as Savannah had discovered, simply sending gold to another champion did not require a caravan, and the transfer was instantaneous. This was one of the divine powers of the champion, and could be used to get around the travel restriction between our two villages. If only that would work for any other resource, things would be a lot easier. But then again, I wouldn’t be able to create a powerful trade route. So I guess it evened out.
Savannah’s reply was fairly immediate. She wasn’t thrilled at the idea of just handing me the gold, as she wanted to build the unit instead, but her back was against the wall. News of my dealings with her husband had leaked, and now she had to get that iron before he got his lumber. The gold was transferred to my account and she said nothing more. I wondered if she was infuriated with me because of my dealings, or if she understood my position. Either way, it provided enough pressure to remove her hesitation. Now I had enough gold to hire the adventurer, and to pay for a mercenary army, in case of a sudden need for them.
Trimar arrived in the afternoon. He was a tall fellow, with a broad chest and dozens of potions strapped to his body. He had a scraggly red beard, and walked with a lightness that indicated he was ready for danger at any moment. He bore many scars on his face and did not seem to smile. He looked perfect for the job I had for him.
The welcoming party, i.e. the Mayor, led Trimar to my office, where I had been working, ensuring that the village’s needs were being met. During all of this excitement, I didn’t want to become too distracted and neglect them.
“You have need for my services?” Trimar asked as he sat in the chair across from me. One of the servants tried to offer him some water, but he pushed it away. “I don’t drink from anything that doesn’t come from my own supply,” he said as he drew out a flask and took a swig from it. He offered it to me. Not wanting to offend, and perhaps wondering if this was part of his customs, I took it in hand and heartily drank of it.
The concoction was foul and disgusting, burning both my throat and nostrils. It was as if I were drinking moonshine and gasoline mixed together. Still, this might be a show of force, a competition of sorts, so I refrained from hacking and wheezing and instead tried to push it down. My face, however, betrayed me. This elicited a laugh from Trimar.
“That, my friend, is a combination of Goraxian Blood and grain alcohol. Fortifies the heart against terrible diseases. Few have a taste for it.”
“I mainly drink it for the health benefits,” I wheezed. This elicited another laugh from Trimar as he took another drink before putting the flask away.
“Well, this is a different job than most, I suppose. I’m sure you’re often hired to kill monsters. But there’s this Ligafen that ought to be handled without killing,” I said. “He is currently controlling an iron deposit that I need, but he’s become obsessed with iron.”
“Ligafens,” Trimar said, tilting his chair back a little. “Not really a hard monster to kill. Why not just ask me to slay it? I can have it done within a day.”
“He…could have been merciless to me when I entered his lair. But he chose not to kill me, despite knowing that a human might not be so kind to him. This shows me he has a sense of morality. But I don’t really understand these creatures. What do you make of it?”
“People like to classify any bestial creature as a monster,” Trimar said. “They use the word monster as a way to justify wanton murder. Dragons want to be left the hell alone, but they’re called monsters so treasure hunters don’t feel bad when killing them to get to their horde. They called elves monsters for two centuries, just to take their land. You aren’t a monster because of your face or your fangs, but what you do.”
“I see. So Ligafens are not innately evil?”
“No more than you or I,” Trimar said. “But that obsession is a problem for most of them. There are ways to break the obsession though.” He paused and pulled out a rather small bag, almost the size of a sack of marbles. Yet, in spite of the size, he was somehow able to fit his entire arm into the bag as he rummaged around for something.
“Here we go!” he said, pulling out a large book from the bag.
“How does that bag work?” I asked, looking at it in curiosity. “It stores anything you want?”
“Yup,” Trimar replied. “But it costs well more than ten of your grain silos, so don’t bother thinking about it.” It seemed that the monster hunter wasn’t only well spoken, but also astute. My exact thoughts had been about using those bags for storage solutions.
He unfolded the book and flipped through a few pages before showing me an illustrated section on Ligafens. “Here we are,” he said, pointing to a section about rituals. It said all manner of interesting ways to overcome a monster such as him. Particularly, salt seemed to be very irritating to them.
“So, what you’re going to need, if you want to break the obsession, is to salt whatever he’s obsessed with. Heavily. They don’t like it; exposure to it causes them to become very confused and disoriented.”
“Why?”
Trimar shrugged. “Hell if I know, the gods are weird. They make strange stuff like this all the time. Anyway, each repeated exposure to salt will cause him to eventually become spiteful of his obsession, breaking it.”
“I see. Since he is required to count the objects each time…”
“It’ll break his obsession within a few hours,” Trimar said. “So that’s simple enough, really.”
I nodded, reading through more of the book. “But how do we prevent a new obsession?” I asked.
Trimar shook his head. “You don’t. Ligafens become obsessed when exposed to humans. So, if this is a good guy, like you think he might be, he probably will stick in his castle and enjoy his time, free of compulsion. And if it turns out he’s a bad guy, call me.”
“Wait, you aren’t going to help?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure you can handle applying salt to a few dozen pieces of ore,” Trimar said, standing up and grabbing the book off the table.
“I just paid you two thousand gold, and all I got was what? A ten minute conversation?” I asked.
“No, you just paid two thousand gold for 25 years of hunting, fighting and killing monsters to earn the knowledge to give you that ten minute conversation,” Trimar replied. “It’s called consulting, and you’d be surprised how little I need to fight these days.”
Chapter 26
I wondered if Savannah would be angry with the way I was handling things. She was a prudent economist, so she would no doubt recognize the necessity of my spending her money on a Salt Mine for my town. At least, that was what I told myself as I made the purchase order, spending 300 gold on the mine and 150 on promoting the middle-aged Jackson to become the Prospector who would oversee the mine’s operation.
I had tried to find alternative means to gain salt, namely stopping by the Butchery to see how much salt they had. There was a small shaker of salt that was kept in the pantry, and each day, it would refill itself, giving the butcher just enough to preserve today’s haul of meat. It wouldn’t nearly be enough to coat dozens of iron ore in the substance.
And so, I opted to finally purchase the Salt Mine. The mine itself generated 20 units of salt per day, since it was a particularly large and bountiful deposit. Much to my surprise, when the salt was unlocked, the Butchery indicated that a new, special upgrade was possible. A Jerky Station could be added to the shop, allowing for the production of Jerky. This specialized meat type was considered to be a luxury for people in villages, and a staple for those who lived on the march. Selling that jerky in the Tavern would certainly increase our income. I made a note to look more into this after I finished my current task.
With the salt being mined and crushed, then carefully being placed into barrels, I was just about ready to pull off the heist of the century. I would send the Amber Forest Bandits to the Iron Mine in Cornet and have them carefully apply a coat of a special solution that would help the salt stick to the ore. The bandits would be threatening enough to convince the workers to leave the ore alone long enough to do so. Once the ore was covered, they would then load it up in the wagon themselves and send it to the Baron, since the wagons he used were self-directed by skeletal horses.
One question I had asked Trimar, before he left to count his gold and brag about another successful job, was whether the Baron could access the Great Picture. Apparently, monstrous rulers, as they were called, could also access the overlay, but doing so was risky for them, as they were unable to directly monitor around them. So for the most part, monsters only used the Great Picture whenever they absolutely needed to; otherwise, the trance-like state would leave them vulnerable to monster hunters and angry townsfolk.
This meant that we could potentially pull this off without him noticing. And once he was in possession of iron ore that was salted, he would give up the obsession within a few hours. My bandit crew (who had been compensated 25 gold per head to do this deed) would then capture the Iron Mine in my name, giving possession over to me. And then, we’d finally have control over the iron, putting this crisis behind me. The only thing left to worry about was the construction of the road. And with 150 gold left over from Savannahs contribution, I’d be able to build the Logging Camp.
With the plan put into action, there was little to do other than sit back and wait. Finch the Pinch and his men took the barrels of salt and moved into action. I could watch from the Great Picture, to see that rather than violently intercept the transportation of the iron to the wagon, Finch and his men waited until it was time for the workers to take their breaks. Once the miners were resting and eating their lunches, Finch’s crew moved in on the wagon, opening up the storage crates and carefully applying the sticky solution that Tine’s Tavern bartender had created. It took two barrels of crushed salt and two separate breaks, but by the end of the day, Finch’s crew had done exactly what I had asked. And best of all, without any violence. The Baron wouldn’t suspect a thing.
Tomas was more than happy to put Finch and his men up for the night, allowing them to sleep in the luxurious manor that was looking better kept, now that Peters had been taking in some money. In fact, Cornet was looking healthier in a lot of ways. The population was still fairly small, and I didn’t see a lot of people working, but I did notice that a new farm was up and running. For all the problems his decision had caused for me, I was proud of his initiative. Once the trade route was running, I’d help him continue to develop his village.
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After all, he had been so eager to stand by me, even when facing against a terrible monstrous foe, and for what? For nothing. I hadn’t promised him a thing. He only saw me as a friend and this is what friends did for one another. And so, I would help him, asking for nothing in return.
By the next morning, I saw the border around the Iron Mine become neutral, meaning that it had been abandoned by its owner. No doubt the Baron wanted nothing to do with this iron, now that it had such a deleterious effect on him. Would there be consequences to my actions? Or would he be relieved that he was no longer enslaved to such an inane desire? There was no way of knowing, but since I had a large supply of salt coming in, I wasn’t terribly worried. I had more than enough means of self-defense.
Finch’s men captured the mine, claiming it in my name, since they were technically under my employ at the time of capture. And at once, I had access to the mine and all of its features. I was thrilled to see the number 50 hovering over the mine. It would be able to produce everything I needed to secure Savannah’s trade agreement.
I looked at the detailed options of the Iron Mine. It was only level 1, meaning that it could produce 50 units per week. Spending 2,000 to upgrade it to level 2 would double production. But two weeks was plenty of time anyway, because I still needed to get my roads actually developed. I would need lumber, and lots of it.
The next thing to do was get the Logging Camp up and going. There was a special area within my newly expanded border that would allow me to build a camp for a discount, since the wood there was plentiful. The price was only 200 gold, something I could afford by spending the rest of Savannah’s gold as well as some of my own. I was keeping track of the expenses I was incurring in order to get the iron to her, and she would be paid back as soon as it was possible. Originally, the plan had been for her to take ownership of the mine, but since there was no buyer, I had to acquire the mine on my own. Transferring ownership at this stage, however, wasn’t something I was interested in yet. I needed to have some leverage over her, in case she perceived my dealings with her husband as a betrayal. Besides, with the mine so far away, it was of no use to her until the road was finished.
CivCEO: A 4x Lit Series (The Accidental Champion Book 1) Page 16
