“Me too. In fact, that’s the one. Everyone… meet Peacemaker.” Allistor put his hand on the sword and used his interface to name it. There was a round of golf claps, and they moved on.
“Okay, Chris… tell us about crafting resources.”
Chris asked Nigel to pull up a presentation file, and a holo appeared above the table. “As you can see by the bottom line, we’ve spent nearly two million klax in purchasing crafting materials for our people in the last month. And distributed another four million klax worth of materials from the vault obtained through looting or trade among our own people. When one of our citizens comes to me with a material request, they have to provide information on what they plan to use it for, as well as their current stats in that craft. I have compiled that information, with Nigel’s assistance. The results show that, on average, our crafters have increased their skills by at least six levels in that same thirty day period. Our highest achiever raised her Leatherworking skill by eight levels.” He smiled at Lilly.
“It was the enchanted thread that Michael helped me figure out, and working with the dragon hide.” Lilly blushed at the attention.
Allistor hadn’t gone through Chris to get any materials, either taking them from the other smithy, his own inventory, or buying them directly from the market. He didn’t want to take away from Lilly’s glory by telling them that he’d leveled Weaponsmithing to ten, and Enchanting to four, as well as Engraving to two over the last week.
“That’s amazing, Lilly! Well done! And I know I don’t say it enough, but the armor sets you’ve made me have saved my life more times than I can count. So thank you.”
Lilly blushed an even brighter shade of red, and just nodded. Chris continued his report.
“Several of our people, including Lilly and Michael, have reached the point where they can start using higher quality materials than we generally have in stock. We can purchase them, but the prices start to go up pretty steeply. I just want to confirm that you wish to continue purchasing on their behalf?”
The question triggered something in Allistor’s mind. “Yes, I do. But hold on a second.” He opened his inventory and scanned it, pulling items and setting them on the table as he found them. When he was done, he looked around. “Items like these? I’ve looted these from various monsters, mostly bosses, and just set them aside because I didn’t know what they were good for.”
The others stared at the items on the table. There were Forest Drake fangs and claws as well as its heart, the Ancient Shellback Heart, which glowed purple, as did the stack of Crimson Drake hide. There were vials of the black void titan goop, and some Emperor Scairp venom, as well as the antidote vials. The Occulant Sentry Elite power core he brought out last and set on the table glowed golden as it rocked back and forth slightly.
Ramon started chuckling. “Leave it to you to be carrying around a fortune’s worth of rare materials and totally forget about it.”
Allistor shrugged, feeling slightly sheepish, but not about to dwell on it. “You know what these things are worth? Or what they’re good for?”
Gralen spoke up before Ramon could answer. “I can help with some of that. Any purple item is considered quite rare, and is therefore valuable. There are different degrees of rarity. That Ancient Shellback Heart, for example, can be used to enhance an item’s attributes or increase the level of enchantment. It is a master level ingredient, and would be greatly prized. If you were to put that up for auction on the open market, my guess is it would go for a few hundred million klax. The elite golden power core is not quite as rare, but still quite valuable. It can be used to power enchanted items, recharge items, or even power a ship’s engine for a short while. And it can be recharged using your own mana, or mana from another source.”
Ramon added, “Just like with the purple scroll we talked about, all of us here are a long way from reaching master level in our crafting. A few years, at least. It’s not like in the games where you can just grind out your crafting for a few weeks or months and pick up levels. We’re getting levels pretty quickly now, because we’re just starting. But increases are already slowing considerably. I suggest you either sell that turtle heart or put it into the vault instead of carrying it around.”
Gralen coughed and looked to Allistor, who nodded for him to proceed. “There is another option. It could be used as an offering to gain an alliance, or favor with a powerful figure. It could also be traded to a master in exchange for a custom-crafted weapon or other item.” He looked at Allistor’s weapon still sitting on the table. “I commend you on your crafting prowess, Sire. But as much of an accomplishment as that sword may be, it is an inferior weapon compared to those wielded by other Princes or even lesser Nobles.”
Allistor picked up the sword and hugged it to his chest, pretending to be insulted. “Gralen! How dare you insult my baby?!” When the beastkin mercenary didn’t get the joke and started to apologize, Allistor held up his hand. “I’m kidding, Gralen. Thank you for your honesty. I realize this is just a mediocre weapon. But at the moment it represents significant progress among us lowly human noobs.” He grinned as Gralen leaned back in his chair, looking relieved.
“I’ll check with Harmon, see if he knows of any masters who might make such a trade. But here again, I doubt I’m a high enough level, or have the required stats, to wield a powerful weapon crafted by a master.”
Looking around the room, he said, “Okay, anybody else have anything crafting related to bring up? Besides wanting to call dibs on some of these things?” He caught several of them who’d opened their mouths to speak, quickly closing them again. When nobody else spoke, he said, “I’ll put these in the vault, and those of you who can use them can request them through Chris per usual.”
“Now, on to our homework! I’ll start. I’ve been reading while crafting and being attacked by my squire all week. Here are a few things that I’ve discovered…”
The meeting lasted several hours as people pointed out various bits of information they’d gleaned from reading. Each one was discussed, some for only a minute or two, others at length. A lot of time was spent on quest-giving and rewards. Allistor had found out that monetary rewards, when they came in the form of klax, were only partially deducted from his treasury. For quests that benefitted Invictus as a nation, like clearing the buildings within the city, Allistor paid the klax. But for dungeon rewards, or hunting quests that specifically killed the Menagerie beasts that had spawned on Earth, the system rewarded the klax on its own, without deducting them from the treasury. It seemed now that the Stabilization was over and colonization had begun, the monsters were an inconvenience that the system wanted removed. Kind of like clearing mine fields after a war had ended.
Quests given by crafters were paid for by said crafter. But those could be structured with higher experience rewards and lower monetary ones. Class or skill-related quests often had little to no monetary reward, as the benefit came from both experience and skill leveling, or new spells or skills awarded.
And all quests had the potential to earn Fame or Infamy Points, for both the questor and the quest-giver. Apparently, Goodrich had earned quite a few Fame Points for sending people on quests with ridiculous requirements like skipping everywhere instead of walking, quacking like a duck as they fought, or verbally insulting mobs as taunts. Some of his people were embracing the shenanigans, others had begun to avoid him and his quests.
Chris had quite a bit to say about taxation and the possible structures, as well as allowing non-citizens to make use of the teleport system for a fee.
Helen had done a great deal of research regarding unauthorized intruders within the various parks. It seemed if they went unchallenged for a period of one year, they could make a claim to the land. So at some point within the year, they were going to have to make visits to all of the parks and reinforce their claims, or allow them to be taken. An alternative to chasing off intruders was to grant them permission to hunt or even reside within the park boundaries, negating their
opportunity to claim it. This is what he’d done with the Lakota at Thunder Basin without realizing it.
Lilly surprised everyone when she spoke about the benefits of putting ownership of certain resources into corporate entities, with Allistor as the ultimate authority – whether that be CEO, Founder, Chairman, or whatever they wanted to call him. This was meant to protect the rest of them should Allistor be killed and his assets claimed. His people could hold a combined fifty-one percent controlling interest in each entity. Their oaths would keep them from betraying him and removing him as boss, but no such oath would apply to his replacement.
They all agreed it was a smart move, and Allistor instructed Lilly and Chris to get with all the attorneys among their survivors and figure it out.
Meg hinted quite loudly that if Amanda were married to Allistor, she would have an equal claim to his share and could step into his shoes if he were killed. This caused both Amanda and Allistor to stammer as the others laughed.
They closed out the meeting with a review of the raid parties’ accomplishments. Bjurstrom had indeed seized Logan Airport in Boston, which sat adjacent to the hotel Stronghold there. It had taken nearly a full day of fighting monsters in the various buildings, and a small group of humans had attacked them from behind as they were clearing the last structure, a private hangar. They had apparently waited in hiding for Bjurstrom’s raiders to do the hard work, thinking they’d kill the raiders while they were busy with the final mobs, and take everything for themselves.
Two of the raiders had nearly died, shot in the back as they fought octopoids. But a heroic effort from the healer, and other party members throwing heals too, had allowed them to get back in the fight. Bjurstrom had reported that the human ambushers died badly. Allistor thought it best not to share the details.
The Toronto group had doubled the size of the Stronghold there, incorporating two more large buildings. They’d also run across another group of survivors, and helped them fight off a large pack of lizard-dogs. The other humans had a Stronghold of their own, but they were isolated, and not doing all that well. Their leader was currently considering joining Invictus.
Both Detroit and Chicago raid groups increased the sizes of their Strongholds without much of interest to report – just standard battles against mobs between level fifteen and twenty.
The DC team was approached by the Secretary’s forces almost as soon as they emerged from the hotel’s gates, and asked not to claim any more buildings until the Secretary spoke to Allistor. Daniel from the Stadium had been leading that group, and he immediately called in to speak with Allistor. Since they had no real need to expand in DC with the Secretary and her forces rapidly claiming the important bits, Allistor re-tasked Daniel to help McCoy and Logan in the subway.
The subway tunnels were indeed filled with monsters. The three teams eliminated dozens of individual monsters and small clusters, and mapped out much larger groups before turning back or going around. They’d found a complete set of blueprints for the tunnels in one of the maintenance offices, and added the entire system to their maps. Which they then shared with Allistor and the other raiders.
There were miles and miles of tunnels just within the boundaries of Invictus. The raid leaders were anxious to get their people down there, and were coordinating amongst themselves to take on the various dungeons they’d found. Or the closest thing Earth had to dungeons. There wasn’t a portal entrance or anything, just areas of consolidated mobs with mini-bosses every so often and a big boss monster in the final area.
The teams clearing buildings had had great success, allowing the droids to absorb monster attacks while the humans burned them down. The lower-level citizens in those groups were leveling up quickly, getting the extra experience and loot from quests as well as the kill xp.
Allistor now had more than a hundred people who were at least level twenty-five. His raid leaders were all level thirty or better. He was going to need to get out there and do some raiding himself to stay ahead of them.
As Allistor prepared to close the meeting, he asked, “Anyone else have anything we didn’t cover?”
Gralen stood. “At your request, I have reached out to several analysts. None at the master level, but experienced enough to be of considerable benefit to you. I’ve prepared background information on each of them, as well as my best estimation of their required compensation.”
When the others gave Allistor a bunch of questioning looks, he summarized his earlier conversation with Gralen. Heads began to nod, and everyone agreed it was a wise move. Allistor asked, “You guys want in on this? We can discuss the candidates here and now, or in a smaller group after this. Or I can just handle it.”
Chris, Helen, Ramon, and Meg wanted to be involved, so Allistor called an end to the meeting and asked them to stay, along with Gralen. He asked Nigel to request that Harmon join them. By the time everyone else had drifted out, Harmon was stepping off the elevator. Allistor gave him a quick rundown of what they were discussing, and he took a seat. “Happy to be of assistance!” He gave Allistor a toothy grin. Allistor turned the meeting over to Gralen.
The mercenary looked slightly embarrassed. “I’m afraid I did not prepare copies of my reports for everyone.”
Nigel spoke up. “If you’ll place the information on the Pedestal, I can scan it and create a holo-display.”
“Thank you, Nigel. One moment, please.” Gralen bobbed his head to Allistor and walked to the Pedestal Allistor had raised in one corner of the room. No more than a minute later, Nigel confirmed that he was ready.
“This first candidate…” Gralen went through each of them, and provided a thorough report on each candidate’s background, personality, alliances both political and familial, as well as their known skillset. At the end of each report he estimated what it would take in the way of salary, minimum reputation with various factions, and other intangibles to be able to recruit them. Allistor and the other humans were visibly impressed. Harmon just nodded along, tapping at his own interface as Gralen brought up each name.
There had been a total of six candidates. When Gralen was finished with the last of them, Harmon looked at Allistor and raised an eyebrow.
“Ha! Go ahead, Harmon, start us off. You have more experience in this, I’m sure.”
“I do have several analysts of my own. Though most of them are born of my own clan, orcanin I’ve groomed and trained almost since birth.” He looked at the display. “Nigel, please display the faces of each of the six candidates in a row, in the order they were presented, starting on the left.”
The faces popped up, with names and basic information under each.
“You should eliminate the goblin. Your current feud with at least one goblin clan may expand to include several others before you’re through. Including this analyst’s clan, or one they’ve sworn alliance with. You do not want to place an analyst in a position of being oathbound to both you and a clan you may have to eliminate. It would cause them discomfort at the least, and could potentially kill them for violating one oath or the other.”
“Shit.” Meg shook her head. “The system really takes these oaths seriously, huh?”
“Extremely.” Harmon nodded. “I would also eliminate this one.” His finger tapped the face from a race Allistor hadn’t seen before, but Gralen had called a Tervix. Her face was birdlike, with large eyes and small beaked nose that made her look owlish. “She was in the employ of a client of mine, and was dismissed for undisclosed reasons approximately thirty years ago. It may have been something personal, and nothing related to her professional duties. But I say better safe than sorry.”
Ramon added, “She is also the most expensive of the lot, but her qualifications didn’t seem to me to be better than the others. Or even as good as a few of them.”
Allistor agreed. “Okay, that’s two down, four to go. Let me ask a quick question of Harmon and Gralen. Is there a good reason not to have more than one?”
Harmon shook his head. “Besides the cos
t? There will be times when they offer opposing advice in a particular situation. Mine often disagree with each other.”
“Well, that’s good, right? Hearing more than one option.”
Gralen replied. “Not necessarily. While it might offer you valuable insight, you will have to choose to follow one or the other. And should you appear to value the advice of one over the other too often, one might decide to leave your service. Or worse, begin to perform at less than their utmost ability, potentially offering ineffective advice based on flawed research.”
Allistor drummed his fingers on the table, thinking. Helen spoke up.
“Harmon, you’ve eliminated a couple, for good reasons. Let’s go the other way. Which of the remaining options would you choose?”
Harmon didn’t hesitate. He touched the face of an elf on the far right. The last of the candidates Gralen had summarized. “L’olwyn. He was an analyst for over a thousand years before he was unhoused. He has the experience, comes with his own ship and crew, and is slightly less expensive than the Tervix. Though, if you add the expense of housing and feeding his crew, it might be a wash. Still a bargain, though.”
“Unhoused?”
Gralen explained. “L’olwyn was an analyst for a Noble House. One of his own bloodline. That House, and indeed the entire faction it led, were destroyed. When a House is destroyed, survivors are known as unhoused.”
“Very original.” Meg snarked.
“Indeed.” Gralen smiled at her. “In this case, the act that triggered the destruction of the House, and eventually the entire faction, has left him dishonored in the eyes of most elven factions. For this reason, he has been unable to find employment among his former allies. And making himself available to his former faction’s enemies might result in his death.”
“So he’s homeless, but with valuable skills.” Sam summarized.
Harmon cautioned, “Employing him might cause you to lose some favor with a few factions. Though, to be honest, I doubt many of them care enough for it to matter.”
Shadow Sun Rebellion Page 33
