That dealt with, he headed off for the guild hall. He hadn’t told Suzy what he’d done yet, letting her have some time with Induca.
Deia said she would be free from her training in a couple of days. Dave was hoping he could have everything ready by then. He hated dealing with all the managing crap, but it seemed he’d gained some skills from his past life.
He stepped through the teleport pad and entered the guild hall. Malsour was there and waiting for him. He’d already talked to Josh, who had given him the okay to start building up factories and the like. He was also on a payment plan because he’d put all of his money into his mine manager class, but he felt that it would pay off.
Quest: Mine Manager Level 8
Pay 20,000,000 gold
Rewards: Unlock Level 9 Quest
Increase to mine’s output
Class: Mine Manager
You have become a manager of a mine! Provide more gold to this class in order to increase productivity! Items will be delivered to you once a week.
Status:
Level 8
Effects:
Every week you gain:
1,280 Steel ingots
128 Silver ingots
64 Ebony ingots
8 Mithril Ingots
384 random ores
With the first level Dave gained ten steel every week, which doubled with each level. At level 2, he got one silver each week; it doubled with every level as well. Ebony he got at Level 3 and Mithril was unlocked at level 5.
The upfront cost was immense and it was only because Bob had put the resources of the Datskun under Dave’s name that he was able to even buy the extra levels. It had cost him 31,500,000 gold. More wealth than most kingdoms on Ashal had access to. For the Mithril alone, it was worth it. Dave would be getting the same amount of Mithril as the Dwarves mined in a week.
Since the Aleph and the Dwarves had talked, the Dwarves agreed to teach the Aleph some manipulation techniques for the different materials, including Mithril, for a large chunk of the stored deposits.
There was simply no other way for Dave to get Mithril other than to try to mine it himself or get it from the guild hall’s miners.
With the additional resources, he could put them directly into his smithies or sell them off. Although it was a massive upfront cost, Dave had little use for gold. His patents were making him money and he had paid off his factories in Zol’Ord and his smithy in Cliff-Hill.
His teleport pad was making gold hand over fist and so was the massive contract for armor with the DCA. Gold wasn’t as good as silver for filling runes and there simply wasn’t enough Mithril for sale for his smithy to use.
Mine Manager was a costly class, but in Dave’s eyes well worth it. He watched as the horses pulled the carriage through the teleport pad and brought him into the Stone Raiders’ guild hall. Aleph automatons moved with their own loaded cart of materials that the smithy had bought from the Stone Raiders, ready to load the cart up.
“Thanks for the ride,” Dave said to the teamster driving the cart.
“Have a good day, boss.” The Elf tilted his hat.
“You too!” Dave jumped off and headed through the housing complex. He greeted Stone Raiders and various others in the first housing complex. In the second, there was just Aleph who had been hired by the guild and guild members. Automatons worked tirelessly, moving resources from the refinery and into the warehouse filled with crates of holding.
Dave continued on his way, working his way through the housing complex and to the large corridor that overlooked the growing city. Dave conjured a disk of metal beneath his feet; runes covered it as he floated down to the city street below. He destroyed the disk and headed through the city.
“Hmm, that would be a decent place for a workshop and smithy.” Dave wandered through the city and into a large open area that looked like most cities’ marketplace.
He conjured a disk, carving out runes on it. Light shot out from it and created a laser that cut through the rock easily. Dave moved the laser around, cutting out a rough room from the stone block that had been cut out by the mining machines.
“Okay, so, we need more automatons. Also going to need more miners and to get this whole thing moving. So, need power. If I can up my sensing power, I can probably scan the area and see the fluctuations of Mana and follow it to a Mana ley line.” Dave carved out a rudimentary desk and conjured a rolling chair. The floor was pretty rough but workable.
Dave pulled out soul gems, the size of his torso, and put them off to the side. He pulled out a carver, making runes around them.
“You are so handy!” He talked to the tool. Excitement at just what he was going to do bled through to all his actions.
He pulled out a number of other materials and laid them on the table, pinning windows of his interface to the wall and destroying his conjured laser. He looked over at the walls. It showed the materials in stock, the number of automatons in use and their locations; another, the rate that the miners were working at, then the power levels, air saturation and the like.
“Okay, we need more room, more resources. To do that, we need more miners, more automatons, and more gardens to keep the air in here working. Maybe an enchanted fan or dozen to keep air circulating—got a few, but still a bit stagnant. Also going to need power to keep this all going. So, to break it down: first, power station; second, gardens; third, get this city spinning; fourth, mine our damned brains out!” Dave wrote down his plan on an interface notepad, “sticking” it to the wall next to the other interface screens. It was as if he had a massive wall screen with all his information.
“Feel like I’m a damned stock market trader.” Dave snorted and sat down in his conjured rolling chair. Making sure all of his conjured and powered items were hooked up to his varying power sources, he pulled out Induca’s rings and put them on.
“Whoa, that is a rush.” Dave’s voice sounded odd with the sudden boost to his Intelligence.
He checked out the rings.
Rings of Smartness
Formed by David Grahslagg, these rings increase the user’s smarts.
Quality:
AAA
Abilities:
Increase user’s Intelligence by 15%
Ability to resize
Soul Bound (not currently bound)
Charge:
100,000/100,000 (10 weeks)
Durability:
70/70
“Well, not happy about only getting a triple A rating—just one rank below S, though,” Dave grumbled.
He had found that getting a nice bonus 5% was easy enough, but going higher than that it became harder and harder. Getting to 10% took a heck of a lot more Mana and needed to be made of ebony, not steel. It was only through Dave’s magical coding skills and use of silver he was able to get the ring to work at 15%. Any higher and he would need a full day to work on it instead of a few minutes or use Mithril.
Adding in the soul bound ability and resize was relatively easy now that he’d used it for his own armor—made it easier to move in even at a higher expense of Mana.
Dave’s Intelligence was originally 738; with the two rings he was boosted to 976.
“Wait, need to do some stat changes. Been a few days since my last, so, shouldn’t be too bad.” Dave opened his character sheet.
“So, increase Intelligence, bigger base stat. Then up Agility, so I’m not totally falling over myself. Also less hand cramps from all this coding. Hmm, I want to work longer, so, Endurance as well?” Dave only needed four hours of sleep where most needed eight, but he hadn’t slept that much in two days and he didn’t want to get stopped for much. Endurance also meant he didn’t have to eat as much food as a normal person.
“Okay, 40 in Intelligence and Agility because thankfully I’ll be sitting in this seat. Add on 50 Endurance because I have the feeling I’m going to need it. The Mana barrier on my armor is good to make up for my Vitality, which is much higher than when I started off.” Dave snorted, think
ing of how he thought a stiff breeze could possibly kill him.
He removed the rings and looked at his new stats.
Character Sheet
Name:
David Grahslagg
Gender:
Male
Level:
148
Class:
Dwarven Master Smith, Friend of the Grey God, Bleeder, Librarian, Aleph Engineer, Weapons Master, Champion Slayer, Skill Creator, Mine Manager, Master Summoner
Race:
Human/Dwarf
Alignment:
Neutral Good
Unspent points: 356
Health:
24,300
Regen:
10.06 /s
Mana:
7,780
Regen:
22.55 /s
Stamina:
3,090
Regen:
20.25 /s
Vitality:
243
Endurance:
503
Intelligence:
778
Willpower:
451
Strength:
309
Agility:
405
Dave closed the window, feeling his tiredness falling away and feeling a little less hungry. He carefully pulled out a handful of nuts and berries and munched on them. The time dilation effect was really noticeable now, but it seemed that the increase in Agility was doing its work to make it so he wasn’t all messed up.
“Okay, smarter, faster for longer—let’s get started.” Dave put the rings on again, which boosted him up to 1,029.
Dave made an unintelligible noise. His eyes moved rapidly as he opened interface windows around him, changing different things before he carved out runes on his table and conjured the basics of what he would need to make his plan a reality.
Chapter 35: Madman On The Loose
General Loughbreck looked out over his “guards.” Technically, he was the guard captain of Gufaross. In reality, he was the general of Lord Esamael’s forces in the northern cities. Gufaross and Owesa made a barrier between Emaren and Haugr.
It was Loughbreck’s duty to make sure that none of the king’s spies went south to find out what Lord Emaren and his allies were doing. Seeing as Loughbreck not only controlled the guards in both Owesa and Gufaross, but also the “bandits” who lived outside the city, ready to support him if needed, it was easy to make sure that any spies had an unfortunate accident.
He looked to his new orders. Their plan was continuing on as before. When spring and the Dwarven tournament came, Lord Esamael’s forces would be moving to take Haugr. Originally Loughbreck was to take his army and assault Barosvik, keeping the forces there pinned down, so that they couldn’t support Haugr as Lord Esamael’s armies used the Emaren teleport pad to take the city. Now that there was a teleport pad in Verlun as well, the plan was to assault the city, take the teleport pad there and support the forces in Haugr. Once they killed the king, then the other lords and ladies would bow down to them. Those who didn’t, they could hunt down and destroy.
The plan had been to take over Verlun and force the Stone Raiders to give the teleport pad over to Lord Esamael. The problem was that the overconfident Stone Raiders didn’t care for the lord or his minion Geswald’s subtle threats and pressures.
They were pushing out the old and entrenched competition in Emaren with rare and powerful items that they sold to the mage’s college while they made alliances and trades with the farmers in Verlun. The traders there were treated as equals by the Stone Raiders.
They supported the Stone Raiders and they’d overcome the ever-increasing number of barriers Geswald and Esamael had put in their way. Still, even with all of that, the Stone Raiders and their farmer friends had figured out ways around it and were making a ton of gold.
Then it was revealed that the Stone Raiders had fought real Demons in Ashal. Loughbreck just thought it was the work of songwriters and tale tellers. There were no Demons anymore and there was no way that a group of four hundred were capable of defeating them. Loughbreck had an army of two hundred thousand at his command, half of them with magical talents. Gudalo, being so close to the headquarters of the mage’s guild and college, attracted a large number of proficient mages.
Loughbreck used his interface to send messages off to some of the captains commanding the “bandits,” ordering them to move toward Verlun. He also sent messages to the forces in Verlun. He wanted to know everything about the Stone Raiders’ defenses. He cared not for economic warfare and whether they would give over the teleport pad amicably.
Lord Esamael has said that we get to keep half of what we find. Imagine the kind of goods that these Stone Raiders have piled in their guild hall
A greedy look crossed Loughbreck’s face as he thought of the wealth and prestige he would gain for supporting Lord Esamael.
Once this is all over, then we can do what we should have done a hundred years ago. We can finally rid ourselves of those non-Human creatures to our south and those Dwarves. We’ll make it clear that the mage’s college and guild are under our control. We can’t have the other races gaining power to try to bully us anymore.
***
Bronx made excited noises as he looked at the glass-blown item in front of him. The Stone Raiders who had found the item had pleased looks on their faces, just imagining what they could get for the piece.
“Could you stop making noises like a damned preening peacock?” Florence smiled. It was odd, looking at the massive man using his large fingers to delicately trace the beautiful lines that formed the simple vase.
The other Stone Raiders chuckled, including the traders who were used to Bronx’s idiosyncrasies.
“Sorry, boss. Just, ohh...it’s so damned beautiful!” Bronx practically squealed, not caring what it looked like in the slightest.
“We’ll put it up for auction for the noble houses. I know a number of different houses and even kings and queens would be very interested in having this,” Florence said to the fighters.
“See, I told you it was worth grabbing.” A thief-looking character punched a melee fighter with a large shield on his back.
“Okay, your hunch was right,” the melee fighter agreed.
Bronx looked like a kid being told that they couldn’t take a puppy home from the store.
Florence chuckled as a message pinged on her interface. She hummed to herself as she walked out of the back of the guild hall and toward the front.
She swiped the message away and frowned. She walked through a sound barrier and into the front of the store.
“I demand to talk to your manager. This is unacceptable. I will not have some Gnome treating me like a damned copperless beggar,” a man in the essential red robe and staff with a glowing red crystal of a Fire mage said.
Ugh. Why do they all have to color-code themselves. Do they not know how easy it will be to pick them out in a fight and know how to fight back against them? Florence moved to Unasli’s aid.
“I’m sorry, sir. I meant no offense. I was just stating the price for that particular soul gem,” Unasli said.
“Trying to rob me of my gold, you are, with those over-the-top prices! Look here, I will let you off with a warning, but you will have to find a way to compensate me!” The man’s eyes thinned, looking down at Unasli, who sat on a high stool to compensate for her smaller stature.
“Hello. I heard that there was something the matter.” Florence stepped up beside Unasli.
“Your pet here slandered my name and tried to sell me a soul gem for well above market value to steal some gold for herself,” the mage said, not hiding the way he studied Florence.
She hid her shiver, just feeling his eyes trying to look through her clothes.
“One moment.” Florence opened her interface to check the recording of Unasli. She trusted the Gnome but she had to make sure that she was impartial to these things.
She got to the part about the customer using rather nasty r
acial slurs about Gnomes, and then Unasli snapped back just a bit before regaining her cool. The man had gone into a tirade after that.
“Unasli, I can take over this transaction.” Florence decided to get the two of them apart as soon as possible.
“Yes, boss.” Unasli dropped off her chair, looking like a furious child as she walked to the back. Florence felt some of her parental feelings flare up. Unasli was only fifteen in Emerilia, a POE who had been looking for work after her mother and father had died in a plague a few years back. They’d had enough money to get their daughter healed, but hadn’t survived.
“Good—someone knows their place around here. I will take four of your grand soul gems as repayment for the slight on my honor.” The mage held an imperious hand out.
“I’m sorry, sir mage, but this is a business and while we are sorry that Unasli lost her temper, it wasn’t without some provocation. Please feel free to browse our wares and tell one of my associates when you are ready to order.” Florence tilted her head slightly and smiled at the man.
He seemed to have trouble understanding what she had said before veins started to pop out across his forehead and his pale Human features turned red.
“Do you know who I am!” The man’s aura surged outward at Florence.
“I don’t,” Florence admitted.
“I am Mage Adept Research Tolondur of the Forty-Third Island! Son of Lord Gesar! I will not be treated this way!” The mage slammed his staff on the floor. A bloom of flame appeared above his staff. As soon as it appeared, it disappeared. “Prostrate and bow before me, so that I might spare you!” Tolondur declared.
Florence noticed that a squad of eight fighters held their weapons. They didn’t look happy about the circumstance, but it was clear that Tolondur was their master.
Emerilia Series Box Set 2 Page 65