He walked through the village, ignoring the startled looks the people he passed gave him. Within minutes, he had arrived at his destination – Whisp’s house. He walked up to the door and knocked. He could hear movement inside the house, and when the door opened he could see the tear-stained face of his best friend looking out. “Hello.”
“Oh, my goddess, Brint! I thought you were dead,” she exclaimed before throwing her arms around his neck and crying into his shoulder.
Chapter 35 – Entrepreneurship
He had to admit that if felt good holding the woman he had been in love with for years. A knot inside his chest seemed to loosen when he held her, as if he had been wound up so tight that only her touch would help alleviate the problem. He teared up a little in response to her happy tears, glad to know that he wasn’t alone in being glad to see his friend. “Let’s go inside where we can talk – and away from prying eyes,” he told her.
She nodded into his shoulder and he led her inside, closing the door behind him. He hadn’t been inside her house in years, but it looked the same as it did back when they were kids together. Leading her over to a bench, they sat down, and he waited for her to compose herself before speaking. When the waterworks seemed to be over, she asked, “Where have you been? I was told you were killed yesterday during a spider-wolf attack in the fields.”
He explained in general what had happened, excluding the presence of The Milton as per their agreement – he wasn’t sure how much influence the voice had, and he wasn’t going to put either of their lives in danger just so that he could tell her about him – and told her he spent the night in the forest before heading back to the village. She, of course, was smart enough and knew him well enough to know when he was lying.
“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you any more than that – I made a promise. Just trust me when I say I can’t say any more about it, but it wasn’t anything bad. In fact, it may have been the best day and night of my life! What I can do is show you something…” He brought the bag given to him by the Milton, opening it up and displaying the contents to Whisp.
“That’s great, Brint. You have some water. I’m glad you didn’t die of thirst out there at least. Although, I do like that bag – where did you get it?”
“Hold on, that’s not…wait, did you happen to use some of your ability this morning or last night?” he asked.
“Yes, I did, actually. When I heard about your “death”, I threw myself into my work to distract my thoughts. I worked through the night and it was only about a half-hour before you showed up at my door that I was finally ready to think about you. I’m exhausted, and I’m just about out of power so if you want me to do something you’ll have to wait,” she told him, and now that he looked, Brint could see dark circles under her still-beautiful red-rimmed eyes.
“Here, drink one of these and tell me what you think. Trust me.”
She looked at him like he was crazy for a moment, before she grabbed one of the vials that were separated into different padded pockets to protect them from casual damage. She pulled the rubber stopper out and looked interestingly at it, after which she sniffed the water inside and then downed it in one gulp. Almost immediately, he could see her perk up and the usual energy in her eyes seemed to glow again. She stared at the vial in her hand and then at Brint, her mouth open in surprise. “What…who…where did you get this? You didn’t steal it, did you?”
“Don’t worry, I didn’t steal them. But I can’t tell you where I got them either. The best I can do is say that I found a source of these little vials for relatively cheap – all it takes is some secrecy and a wagonload of metal.”
“Metal? Why would they need metal? As far as I know, there is very little in the way of metal needed for the processing of this stuff. And while metal isn’t cheap, it is much less expensive to produce, so why can’t they buy it themselves?” she asked with a confused expression on her face, which Brint had rarely seen before since she was super-intelligent.
“Again, I wish I could tell you, but I can’t – part of that whole secrecy thing. Do you think you could find an Elemental Caster that could produce large quantities of metal, even just metallic deposits of ore, without alerting my parents? I don’t really want them involved in this.”
She was hesitant to agree to anything at first, since he was being so secretive; however, their friendship won out in the end and she decided to trust him. Once she was on board, she took the reins and developed a plan to distribute the remaining nine vials through a contact she had in the capital, as well as arranging a shipment of metal that would be difficult to trace back to them.
He felt bad about deceiving her over the exact nature of the source of his vials, but he felt it was for the best. He hated involving her in anything clandestine, but he didn’t have the knowledge or the contacts to sell the Power Potions without alerting the Cordpower Company of their existence. Although there wasn’t any hard proof, rumors circulated even in this backwater village that anyone trying to compete against them met “unfortunate manufacturing accidents”. He wanted to get in and sell the potions as quick as possible, make a quick profit and disappear from their radar. At least, that was his plan.
* * *
“Holy crap, Brint! Do you know how much we got for those vials? Renviert – my merchant contact in Grestwinch – sold the first one at below the going price for a normal Power Potion, but when word got out that it was even better than Cordpowers’, he got nearly 50% more for each of the others! He has a lot of buyers lined up who are interested in acquiring more, when can you get some?”
Brint held his head in his hands, rocking back and forth on Whisps’ couch as he listened to her. This is what I was afraid of. Speaking to the floor as much as Whisp, he told her, “I don’t think it’s a good idea. I mean, what if Cordpower gets wind of this? I know you said that Renviert is discrete, but someone is bound to talk when the wrong person can overhear. I don’t know if it is worth it, especially with how much we’ve made already.”
She wouldn’t hear of it. The whole enterprise had gotten her entrepreneurial juices flowing and Brint was powerless to stop it – he could only hang on and hope everything turned out alright. Hopefully he would be able to convince her to stop after another few shipments. Besides, he had been fired from his job the day after he returned from the forest, the Mayor stating that he had lost another Picow and had abandoned his position by running into the forest – even though it hadn’t really been his fault. He needed some sort of income and a couple more shipments wouldn’t hurt.
He had delivered a wagon full of various metal ores that Whisp had acquired somehow to the edge of the forest under the cover of darkness a couple of days ago. He had sensed some of the giant lizards, or BBQs, and figured they were waiting for him to deliver it as promised. He didn’t try to talk to The Milton again, for fear that the voice would change his mind and ask for something else as compensation for the valuable power potions. But then came the news from the successful sales in the capital and he was back out in the forest again.
“Hello? The Milton, are you there?” He waited a couple of minutes and was about to walk further into the forest and try again when the voice popped into his head, startling him.
“I’m here, Brint. Did you decide you want more vials?”
“Yes, if I can pick up another ten vials or so that would be perfect. I can try to find my way to you or come back another time if you are too busy…”
“No need for that – I dispatched a BBQ with another bag of vials as soon I sensed you within the forest. It should be there shortly. Just remember to drop off payment as soon as possible – same terms as before.”
“Sounds good.” Surprised at the quick response, he waited for a couple more moments before he sensed the BBQ approaching from the East. Although they were still frightening to look at, he had become a little more accustomed to their presence while being held as a prisoner and afterward as a trio of them escorted him back to the village. That, of cour
se, didn’t take into account its whisper-quiet arrival in the dead of night in the dimly-lit forest.
A short little-girl scream erupted from his mouth before he stopped it when it appeared almost as if by magic just feet away from his face. When his heart had ceased trying to break out of his chest, he looked and saw a vague outline of the vial bag hanging around its neck. He reached up to grab it, just as the BBQ brought its head down to make it easier. Another short squeak of terror escaped as he thought for a second it was attacking, but he was able to gather what shreds of dignity he had left and steadily took the bag from around its neck. As soon as it was off, the giant lizard turned around and quietly disappeared back into the forest.
He delivered another wagon full of finished metal products this time, including old swords, knives, random pieces of armor, and even a couple of full sheets of steel plating. He questioned Whisp about this, but she said that even though it cost a bit more, the diversification of material would help hide their activities. He hadn’t even thought about what it would have looked like if they continued buying wagonload after wagonload of ore without showing what they were doing with it. This way, they could buy some metal from here and there, from different suppliers and it would be harder to put together the bigger picture.
The same routine continued over and over for the next two months: acquire some more vials from the Milton every 3rd night, ship them out to Whisps’ contact in the capital the following day, deliver some sort of mixture of metal material to the forest the next night, and receive payment for the potion sales at some time over the next two days. They had accumulated more money than he had ever thought he would see – more than enough to live comfortably for two lifetimes – but he still lived in his same broken-down hovel to keep up appearances.
Right now, he was off to the forest to acquire another bag of vials to ship off to the capital. Even though payment for the last batch was a day late, he was silently hopeful it was because the demand for their product was drying up. He didn’t want to be doing this forever – sooner or later the Cordpower Company would catch on to their scheme.
Brint didn’t know how to broach the subject of stopping the entire operation to Whisp, since she was so caught up in the joy of the business dealings. He also was afraid of what The Milton would do, breaking it off abruptly like that. Perhaps we can gradually decrease the supply, stating that the source of it was drying up? He wasn’t sure if that would work, he would have to ask her Whisp when he got back.
He found that the BBQ was waiting for him, as it had since they had been on a regular schedule. He grabbed the bag and patted the giant lizard on the nose, thanking him before turning away from it and walking back down the now worn path to the village. I should probably be altering my pathway in and out of the forest – it’s way too well-traveled now and will stand out if anyone is looking for it.
He walked back to Whisp’s house, still excited to see her whenever he came by to drop off the bag of vials. He hadn’t seen her since earlier in the day, but that was normal since they still had to try to avoid the attention of the watchers who were constantly observing them, ever since they had slipped-up when he first came back from the forest. He rarely went near her house without seeing at least one of them, but now the street and surrounding buildings were uncharacteristically empty. Hopefully this means that they’ve given up the constant surveillance because we’ve been good lately.
Brint approached the entrance and was about to knock when he noticed that the door was slightly ajar. That’s weird, she’s usually pretty good about making sure all her doors are closed and locked, especially at night. He pushed to door open, took in the scene, and fell to his knees; the bag of vials he was holding dropped from his hand and hit the floor with a muffled clink of broken glass. The potion water from the now-broken vials seeped out of the bag, only to mix with the large pool of blood in the middle of the floor.
Chapter 36 – Emergency
Milton, and by extension ALANNA, had been ecstatic over the last couple of months from the trade deal he had with Brint. The Proctan had brought the same quantity of metal that would have taken him at least a decade to gather with his drones – all at essentially no cost to Milton. The fact that ALANNA made it into a quest only enriched the rewards he was receiving.
New Short-term Goal: Money, Money, Money
After learning that your “waste” is a valuable commodity, you have brokered a deal with a local Proctan to package and sell it for a large quantity of metallic material.
- Accumulate 100,000 Basic Metal Units through trade
Difficulty of Goal: Very Easy
Timeframe: None
Rewards: +1 to your Ingenuity/Wisdom statistic. This goal is repeatable.
In fact, he had just repaired his Core further and was only waiting on a couple more deliveries from Brint to purchase a Defensive Weapons Factory. The influx of BMUs was just what he needed to jumpstart his plans to start clearing out the mountains to the East. He wanted to make sure that he was over-defended in the slight chance that his attack force was overwhelmed and an army of vicious Quizards attacked his dungeon.
He had accumulated quite a lot of Bio Units over the last couple of years from his hunting squad, so everything was coming together quite nicely. In addition to the accumulation of resources, his roaming BBQs had provided enough experience to increase his Combat Level to 12, allowing him to bring his Communication/Charisma and Ingenuity/Wisdom stats up to 50 and 40, respectively. Nothing special occurred when he reached 40 in ingenuity, but with his C/C at 50 the effective communication range with his units was increased by 50%! He figured another month and he’d be ready to start raking in those sweet, sweet ore deposits.[35]
His BBQ had successfully delivered another shipment of vials a little earlier that night, so he turned his attention to his drones and their constant struggle to locate sources of metal throughout his territory. They were still finding pockets of deposits throughout his now-expanded territory, but nothing like the motherlode he knew he would find in the Quizard Mountains. He was concentrating on his Tactical Map, trying to decide on a new place to start exploring for ore, when he saw one of his BBQs near the village border quickly heading toward his dungeon.
He couldn’t think of any orders that he would have given, even contingency plans, that would cause it to return to him without his express orders. He connected to it, looking through its eyes and saw that it was racing through the trees at a break-neck pace. He slowed it down until it came to a stop and was about to turn it around when he felt a weak nudge at his connection with it.
“Hey! I told you, I need to see The Milton! It’s an emergency!” The voice of Brint coming from behind his BBQ made Milton turn its head to see the man in question seated along its back, with a bundle of clothing lying across his lap.
“What are you doing, Brint? What’s the emergency?”
“Please, I need your help! I need you to heal my friend here!” he paused for a moment, before adding, “She’s the one who helped me sell the vials and get all the metal I’ve delivered. Don’t worry, she doesn’t know anything about you.”
Milton was conflicted. On one hand, he wanted to help his friend – he had gotten to know Brint a little more and it felt good to be able to talk to another “person”, even if they were only brief conversations – help heal his girlfriend or whatever. To do otherwise would seem heartless, and Milton was anything but heartless. On the other hand, he didn’t want any more people to learn about his presence, and if he did this than there would be just one more person that could share knowledge of his whereabouts.
In the end, although he was now a Station Core, he was human at one time and human decency demanded that he act in whatever capacity he could to help. He still debated with himself as he started the BBQ running again, arriving at his dungeon within a couple of minutes. Maybe I can limit what she sees, so that she doesn’t know what is going on or where she is. Then, Brint can bring her back to the village without e
xposing her to too much.
Before they arrived, Milton had reopened the tunnel using some drones that he always kept in reserve near his Core that led to the holding cell and from there to his Bioconversion Laboratory. A drone was waiting for them when they arrived, and Brint carefully climbed off the back of his BBQ, gingerly holding the bundle of clothing that he had carried there. Milton didn’t have to say anything as the Proctan instinctually followed the drone underground and through the rough tunnels.
When they arrived at the Lab, Brint immediately started walking up the pathway leading to the top without prompting. He gently lowered the bundle into the water when he got to the top, looking down with expectancy as the water solidified. Milton initiated the “repair” process and waited for it to run. And waited, and waited, and waited.
“Ok, ALANNA, what am I doing wrong? It should heal his friend just like it did Brint, right?”
She was watching from the same sensor orb he was watching from, perched as usual on a nearby ledge with Fluffy napping on her lap. Heavy silence filled the room after he asked the question, and Milton worried that he had really messed up somehow. When she spoke, her voice was measured and soft, “I don’t think you did anything wrong, Milton. There probably just wasn’t anything that you could heal.” It was only when she finished that he realized that she hadn’t even cursed – and then the meaning behind her words became clear to him.
He, and his Combat Units, had killed numerous creatures over the years – for self-defense and while defending his borders. But he had never seen a dead person before and it was morbid on a whole other level.
The Station Core: A Dungeon Core Epic (Station Cores Book 1) Page 25
