Ruthless (The Completionist Chronicles Book 5)

by Dakota Krout

  “Does dexterity help with speaking?” Joe rolled his eyes as the obvious question popped out of his mouth. “Never mind; I have no interest in hearing about how nimble your tongue is now.”

  Bard’s grin smoothly transitioned to smug, and Joe snorted at the fact that he had caught on to what Bard was about to say. “Okay, I still have a lot of work to do, Bard. I need to get going, and you should go find out when Alexis will come back.”

  “Sounds good. I have to figure out what my new responsibilities are as the Champion of Hansel, anyway!” Bard waved and jogged off while chanting a movement speed enhancing spell.

  “Interesting.” Joe watched Bard run off. “Two Champions in a party… that’ll be a tasty target for anyone needing to grind Divine Energy. Makes me wonder if-”

  “Joe! There you are!” Aten himself was jogging over this time; he hadn't sent Mike as he usually did. “The Bardic College has launched an attack against us, and-”

  “It’s already taken care of, Aten.” Joe waved at the massive building behind him. “We killed off like twenty assassins and such. They should be all cleared out.”

  “No, Joe.” Aten shook his head gravely. “Whatever else you had to deal with, this is different. The Bardic College has openly stated its support for the assault against us, and even now they are ordering all their members to start singing against us in all taverns and public areas. Now that a major power has publicly announced their support, half a dozen other powers have joined in as well. A huge mob is turning into a huge, well-funded, well-trained army.”

  “What does this mean? Why is this happening?” Joe was stunned by this turn of events. He never expected that the Bardic College would act so swiftly; they wouldn't be so petty as to go to war over this, right? Surely there had to be more to it than Bard getting away with an idol of Hansel?

  “Something about one of their greatest treasures and secrets being stolen.” Aten lifted his hands in confusion, and Joe maintained a flat expression. Welp. Guess the College could be that petty. “At the rate people are joining up, and given their lack of resources - especially food - the next time we are attacked is going to be tomorrow; the day after at the latest. Is there any way that you might be able to help us get ready for this attack, or for the seige?”

  Joe contemplated the path advancement and closed his eyes. Hansel had known that this would happen; there was no way he had been given that item just because his clothes got destroyed. Ugh… gods and their games… Joe locked eyes with Aten, and nodded sharply.

  “Maybe.”

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  “So is there a reason that Aten made me come with you?” Mike grumpily demanded as Joe and several other people with extremely high carrying capacity walked deep into Ardania. “I know that you said you needed help, but why should the Vice Guild Leader have to be the one that helps you with a secret task?”

  Joe stopped dead in his tracks and turned to Mike. “Listen. Do you remember when I talked to the guild about buying up all the items and materials that they could? How I really pressed the issue, and the board of directors vetoed it until they saw that prices were starting to climb? How the guild missed out because they didn’t listen to a basic economics lesson?”

  “I do, and I was the one who went in and forced that decision through, lest you forget.” Mike raised a hand to calm Joe. “We missed the best opportunities, but we came in and walked away with a large profit. I’ve been on your side for all of that.”

  “Yeah, well.” Joe ran a hand over his bald head. “I’m the reason that the guild missed out on all the really good stuff. When I first got to Ardania, I had a hundred thousand gold with me. Since then, I’ve spent most of that on goods. Through proxies, of course. My mother was able to get merchant discounts, Jess was able to put together lists of everything she could think of that I’d need, and I gave both of them access to my accounts. In fact, I’m just about broke right now, to the point that I can’t even buy replacements for the gear I lost today.”

  “What? Really?” Mike’s face lit up. “We’d be happy to help you out by buying what I assume is building materials?”

  “And you just found out why you’re here.” Joe handed over a parchment with Aten’s signature on it. “I’m selling everything we need, at double what I bought it for, to the guild.”

  “What? What about all the discounts you were talking about?” Mike’s left eye twitched as he looked at the authorization order from Aten. “Double what you paid for them? I highly doubt-”

  “Here is the expense report, and everything you can expect for cost.” Joe handed over a full scroll full of numbers and items. “On the left is what I’m willing to sell to the guild, followed by the price. The column after that is current market value, and the final one is our estimate on what it would cost the guild to buy these things with our reputation as it is.”

  Mike scanned the document, his face paling. “Has the price on these cured oak beams really quintupled?”

  “You are free to run to the market and confirm it for yourself.” Joe told him directly. “Remember, Mike. A billion people were dropped into an area that was previously barely supporting a quarter of that. A single loaf of fresh bread is getting close to a silver right now.”

  They kept walking as Mike kept reading. “Do you really have all of these things?”

  “What you have in your hand is the list of all things in my warehouse that are for sale, given to me by my mother. She is also the one that listed out the market value on each item. If there is a more accurate list in all of Ardania, the only place you would find it would be her shop.” Joe smiled as he thought of his mother, and her relationship with Blas. He had never seen her happier than she was now, and it blew him away how well she had settled into a life in Eternium. “We’re here, so let’s put these guys to work. Make sure to keep a proper accounting of everything they carry, because if we don't use it and it goes missing, you’re still on the hook for paying for it.”

  “Won’t be an issue, Joe.” Mike nodded at the people with them. “These are some of the guild’s most trustworthy people. Besides that, none of them would want to lose their position, benefits, free food, and affordable housing over building supplies!”

  Joe decided not to comment on the fact that Mike was being louder than conversational volume. ‘Trustworthy’ members indeed. The shadows in the area were deep enough that Mike couldn’t see their expressions, but Joe clearly saw them grimace. He hoped that it was only because they were having their honor called out so blatantly, but either way, they simply and silently got to work. Mike supervised the men as wood, cut stone, crates of nails, fashioned doors, and pallets of shingles were loaded into storage devices. Mike looked sidelong at Joe when they got to the shingles, but Joe was innocently looking away.

  Joe’s eyes suddenly widened and his head snapped around to focus on Mike. “Wait a second… we get benefits?”

  “They get benefits.”

  The talking ended, and everyone set to work. Thanks to the spatial bags, rings, packs, or other storage devices being used, the entire process took under an hour to complete. In fact, it would have gone much faster if they hadn’t needed to check every item and write it down. Eventually, and reluctantly, Mike had to call everyone to a halt. “That should be enough for our purposes… as much as I want it all, this is a shop and we need to pay for whatever we take. We do still have to pay for it, right?”

  Joe rolled his eyes at the hopeful question. “Yes, Mike. Unless I can just walk into the guild treasury and clean it out for free as a ‘reward’ after an extra large raid?”

  “Fine, I see your point.” Mike sighed and the group started walking out of the building. Realizing that Joe wasn't joining them, Mike gave him a questioning look.

  “I have some things I need to get while I’m here. I’ll see you all back at the guild.” Joe closed the warehouse doors, and turned to look at the huge stacks of stuff. Even with all the things that the guild had just bought, the room
was still three-quarters full. Not everything was building supplies; about one-twentieth of it was components, rare materials, and various objects of interest. Even so, at the time of purchase, those articles had cost as much or more than the significantly larger portion of building supplies that filled the warehouse.

  Joe started walking through the structure; awkwardly pushing his hips forward and letting the stacks be swallowed into his Codpiece of Holding. Since he was starting near the bottom of each pile, everything fell straight down and was pulled in directly. There were a few times when a corner came down awkwardly and landed on him, but all in all, it was a very efficient method of grabbing everything. Besides, he was able to restore any pulverized bones after a little screaming and a quick spell. After that, he pumped mana into his recently-shattered Exquisite Shell and kept going.

  In about an hour, he was able to clear the entire warehouse simply by walking through it and directing his codpiece accordingly. Joe scanned the empty space and nodded sadly. This was the first place he had really done research on rituals. Right over there, Joe had captured Cel and kept him in a ritual of containment while testing healing spells on him. Still, it was time to let go of this place. “I’ll miss our times together, Potato.”

  Joe hadn't been joking when he told Mike that he couldn’t currently afford to replace his gear. Jess had run up to him while he had been talking to Aten, handed him a foreclosure notice, then took him aside to let him know that she and his mother had spent every single gold he had put in the bank. At first, Joe wasn't sure how to react, but everything had worked out pretty well. By selling five buildings’ worth of raw material, he should have enough to get by until he and his team were adventuring heavily again.

  Either way, he only had until midnight to clear out the building before the owner of the Odds and Ends shop would be forced to confiscate all his goods. His mother, the owner, had tried to figure a way around it, but the kingdom used royal authority to purchase all the land in this area. Though Joe had a lease, it was annulled and he had made a bit of money back. Joe looked down at his spatial storage device and grinned while shaking his head. “I have made a warehouse out of my junk.”

  He left the building behind and traveled back through Ardania to the town square. At this time of the night, at least there was no one recruiting for the destruction of his guild. No one was singing about their black hearts or lack of ‘charity’ either. Joe snorted at that; his guild gave out more free food than any other. He pulled open his quest list and reviewed the task his guild had given him.

  Quest completed: Feed the People! The greenhouse that you have created is now able to support the nutrition requirements of ten thousand people! Good thing they can eat vegetables, right? Reward: 10,000 guild contribution points!

  Quest gained: Feed the People II. Figure out a way to stretch resources enough to support 25,000 people! Reward: Guild contribution points, reputation increase with the people being fed! Failure: reputation decrease with the guild. Time limit: 30:18:23:33.

  “Thirty days to figure out how to feed twenty-five thousand people? Guess I’m gonna take a hit to my reputation unless I flood the greenhouse with monsters and make it a food dungeon. Forget this.” Joe realized that he was getting grumpy from sleep deprivation, so he went back to the guild to get some shuteye.

  Most pressing, Joe needed to get rolling on making some buildings. Still, even though he had so much to do the next day, he ignored his spinning thoughts and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. All too soon, far too soon, he was awakened by the rising sun streaming onto his face. Joe grumpily covered his eyes and shook a fist at the window.

  “I need to figure out who in this world makes curtains, and then put them on retainer.”

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  “That’s the last of the spare buildings.” Joe wiped his face with a towel as he landed on the ground with the rest of the members of his Coven. “All that we have to do now is wait until we have a higher-grade Core, and we can get the main bathhouse up and running.”

  “Can I say, that sounds super out of place?” Hannah offered seriously. “You said that it's an open air Japanese-style bathhouse, right? That makes no sense with the rest of our architecture being… I don’t know, modern-medieval?”

  “I don't think the guild cares about making everything look the same, Hannah,” Kirby joined in. “Everyone that’s at the top of the rankings was a gamer at some point, and all they care about is having the best stats and functionality. That’s why you see people dressed in patchwork gear. It’s the best that they have to offer at that point in time.”

  “There’s a word for that, right?” Big_Mo seemed to be wracking his memory.

  “Hobo?” Hannah scoffed at the thought. Joe hadn’t realized until just then, but her outfit was perfectly coordinated in both function and form. Set equipment?

  “That’s it!” Big_Mo snapped his fingers and beamed. “Murderhobo! Because they show up looking like a hobo, but they are way stronger than anything they are killing because of it.”

  Mike interrupted their conversation by strutting over with a huge smile on his face. A stack of papers appeared in his hand, and they vanished into Joe’s ring as soon as they were handed over. “Payment for goods. It’s all there. But, that’s not what I’m excited about!”

  The influx of cash was what Joe was excited about; wearing only a cloak and codpiece was getting a little… drafty. Especially when he was floating in the air and being spun around by his rituals. He was far too pale to be showing off his thighs to the general population. ‘Day glow Joe’ wasn’t his favorite nickname. Mike reached into a bag and handed over a small lockbox. “We got the Core. The bathhouse can go up.”

  “That’ll push us over the edge, won’t it?” Joe gulped and stared at the box in Mike’s hand. There had to be at least a ‘Special’ Core in there, which would be worth at least ten thousand experience to absorb. He couldn’t imagine how much it was worth in the city. Even though he could earn the same amount by grinding challenging monsters for a couple of days, there were many people who would rather purchase than fight; and everyone was trying to get a leg up on the competition.

  “I think so.” Mike took a deep breath and looked at the box. “The town will reach tier three, and there should be one abyss of a benefit waiting for us. Remember, tier five is all we can reach before we switch to a city, and we need permission from the Royal family to do so.”

  “I think I know someone who can get you the chance to ask permission.” Joe winked at Mike, who returned a wan smile.

  “Mmm. Sorry, I’m excited, but can we go and make this building? If it doesn't seem to be worth the wait and the money…” Mike swallowed deeply while nodding nervously, “then a whole lot of risks that I’ve taken are going to come back to bite me in the butt.”

  “You’re really that concerned?” Joe waved to his Coven, and they all started walking excitedly toward the center of town. Today was a great day for experience and skill gain.

  Mike was quiet for a long minute. “I have made town development my main issue as Vice Leader. I have spent so much of our money, and slowed down the progress of so much else… if we don’t see a good return, I’m almost guaranteed to be voted out.”

  “It’s not that easy to vote someone out though, right? I know Aten was able to retain his position pretty easily.” They had only another few minutes, so Joe tried to push for as much information as possible.

  “His position is determined by the guild at large. Any living guild member in the game at the time of a vote gets their chance to speak up. Sorry, in the world; not a game.” Mike stood straighter. “Until we make the transition to a Sect, and Aten has more power than this current model allows him, my position is at the leisure of the council and Guild… Commander Aten. They can try to fire me, and he can veto it, but they can overrule him if they vote unanimously. After we are a Sect, only Aten can give me the boot, and I’ve proven myself to be too indispensable for that
to ever happen.”

  The picture was starting to become clear to Joe. “So, if this doesn't pay off in a big way, they are going to see all of your actions as self-serving to the extreme. They will think that you are just trying to solidify your position, and are willing to put the guild at risk to make it happen.”

  “Pretty much.” Mike didn't sigh, but he did let out a long, low breath. The clear risk that this man was taking made Joe want to do something nice for him, but he had only managed to get his ritual subskills to the Beginner ranks. Even though he wanted to do something special for this building as it went up, it was going to be ‘Unique’ ranked. Joe had no potions, stabilizers, enchantments, or activateable effects that he could use to guarantee anything extra.

  “Well, the ritual is ready.” Joe didn't pull it out of his ring yet; that would be a waste of time. He retrieved his Rituarchitect Survey Grid and started inputting the measurements. Then he did pull out the ritual, because he remembered that he could just link the two and he would get an exact illusion of the building. Joe was glad he hadn’t said anything out loud; he could have embarrassed himself there.

  The illusion filled the southeast courtyard almost entirely, and there should have been plenty of room for it. Still, no matter how he twisted or refined the shape, it remained red. Joe looked at the ritual again, trying to locate the issue. “Hmm.”

  “What’s the matter?” Mike questioned him anxiously.

  “Ya know, I just don’t know?” Joe walked away from the area, and the illusion went with him. When he was about twenty yards further south, but not yet at the wall, the illusion turned green, indicating that the building could be built there. “What’s different about that spot?”

  Taka called over just before Joe was about to ask for soil samples or something, “What about these water wells and stuff?”