“Excellent, this is Habin he will handle the details. Thank you for your time,” Karson said and then departed.
“If all business were so easy,” I muttered and Habin smirked.
“Karson has impeccable hearing but he will like to hear you appreciate his style. We will start a second ferry next week from Remi to Evrin. If it fails to maintain a profit then you will cover our losses until you deem it prudent to go back to one ship departing a day. If it does turn a profit or breaks even expect to hear very little from us,” Habin said and then excused himself.
“I like them. Straight to the point, and no guessing what you get,” Nicole said and I agreed.
“I wonder how all these massive structures were built. Was the castle built with magic?” I asked Harmony and she frowned.
“Magic helped, yes. You can swing an axe harder or lift a tree on your own within limits of your skills and orb strength. But no you cannot create buildings with anything besides hard work. There is a reason most structures are made of simple wood,” Harmony said.
“It gets worse when you try to build underwater,” Kata said and I grunted from the thought.
“Okay, so we need a permanent smithy and smelter. A lumber mill and tools to get started. Oh, also an alchemy station for making potions. Going to guess here but I would wager every major crafting profession drops a familiar. Tanner, stave crafter, bowyer, seamstress, mechanical shop for siege weapons as well as crossbows, and so many more. We should probably get a full array of familiars to start so we instantly have them. I guess we will visit Francine in the morning. Since everyone is at a low level, go with commons for now and worry about nice ones later,” I said while thinking out loud.
A troll in a toga outfit turned her head when I was talking about familiars. She walked over to our group with a warm smile that revealed some pointy teeth.
“I happened to be an Auction House manager. I am Lady Deedee and always try to greet potential new clients. We have a nice mythic smelter coming to auction tomorrow. Buyout is a platinum, which is fairly low…”
“Sold,” I said with a joyful grin. “How about a seamstress that can produce legendary robes or any air shields mythic or above?”
“While I welcome the enthusiasm and certainly the business let me explain how it works. You come to our office and there will be items that are coming up for auction and have a buyout price clearly marked. Then there are those that refuse to do so knowing the final price might fetch far more. As for your robes, there are four different versions of a Mage’s Tower which is where you can produce things; one for crafting staves, one for robes, one for gems, and the last one is for mage trinkets like jewelry. All those are in a tower form which can double as a lookout point. The problem is, they are of course familiars. If the crafter of the structure resides there then there is little issue with it staying open and spawned all the time. They will vanish if struck by arrows,” Lady Deedee said with her hands folded in front of her.
“Then I shall have to browse your lists. I happen to be a big fan of lists. I take it Lady Ovaria will know where I can find your place of business?” I asked politely.
“Indeed, thank you for your time,” Lady Deedee said and left.
“We still need to get some basic familiars, what are you using Harmony and Kata?” Nicole asked.
I interrupted first. “Is there an inn familiar?”
“Yeah but they are in the airship category of rare,” Harmony said and a half foot tall parrot colorful parrot spawned on her shoulder. “This is Squaky my guard dog. He can sense everything and is insanely loud when upset. I went with a defensive familiar due to my need to thwart assassins when I was younger. Now I am friends with the little guy and refuse to kill him. Never know when someone will try to kill you and figure a protector is always useful.”
I went to pet the little vibrant bird and the parrot grew agitated. Harmony quickly removed her summon into her core to avoid making a scene.
“I am empty right now, had a storage box and then broke it when I thought about transitioning to a wagon. Then I couldn't decide,” Kata said while spooling her tail to her hands to fidget with it. “Since we were in limbo of jobs and not adventuring I left mine open. I am not sure what I want to add.”
“Which brings up an issue. We need to probably get more organized. If we buy an excess of cheap familiars we won't cry if a few are broken when people want something different. Everything really hangs on us finding a quarry and a mine. We can build with wood to start but I feel stone is a must,” I said and the ladies nodded.
A new dance song started to play and Nicole dragged me onto the floor. As the night progressed I wondered who the King had wanted me to meet. I guess I would have to rely on Ovaria finding the right business partners as we went. With our treasury bustling, I doubted the hiring would be too difficult.
The night dragged on and we met a few more useless nobles who were more interested in my backstory than anything else. Harmony and Kata were inseparable and quickly bonded. I had no problem with keeping Nicole in my arms on the dance floor. When the announcer called the event over we were escorted by a servant to a nice suite with a wonderful view.
My favorite part of the evening was sipping a whiskey neat from a reading nook in a lavish rocking chair. I watched what I could best classify as tail fucking. Nicole was on her back with Kata kneeling over her. Her tail tip was inside Nicole while they kissed passionately. I think Nicole was very bi for monster girls only. I certainly enjoyed seeing them entwined. When Harmony stripped her dress off the bouncing titty reveal was epic and I may have gulped my whiskey in a single sip. Harmony kept her word and used her tail to thrust into the naga’s slit. The moaning, big boobs bouncing, and delicious was amazing. My viewing from the sidelines was temporary.
I dove into the action and used all three girls until I was a sweaty mess. The monster girls sure were something else. I had found infinite enjoyment from their uniqueness. When I went to sleep that night I did so a happy man.
CHAPTER 24
The large wood axe smashed into the tree with a jarring impact. I yanked it back out of the divot and swung again. The blunted edge created chunks of flying wood as I worked to bring the tree down. As my body stayed in a rhythm my mind reflected on yesterday.
We started early by visiting Francine. She mentioned we were owed a nice amount of coins from our troll dungeon expedition. When I told her of my plan was to buy an assortment of low-level familiars and orbs in mass she mentioned that was exactly what travel merchants specialized in. She needed a full day to prepare properly. I was pleasantly surprised when she mentioned she was bringing other vendors to help me out. I was taken aback by this. Instead of offloading me with crummy items she was willing to travel to the dwarves and let them pick from her wares and the supplies of her competitors. To me, that was a really classy gesture. We left grateful for the meeting and were even directed to the Berry Rosey Inn where the rest of our team was lodging.
Before we braved the busy corridors of congested sidewalks - Harmony departed to catch the morning portal off Thur. She said a few kind words and handed me the divine atmospheric orb before heading home. The affair was brief and we went to the Berry Rosey Inn after the quick goodbye. I was ecstatic to see Garataur, Frooska, Shala, Barq, Ossa, Dib, and Desmond again. They mentioned Awesome Adjective Annihilators were paying for their stay and wanted to ensure I was okay with that. I laughed it off and brought up that our finances were not a major concern at the moment. The primary thing they needed to do was some shopping. Once we finished a nice breakfast meal and I told them of our adventures we headed back to the Zany Zemporium. I expected them to be a bit more surprised when they learned how things in the arena went. They rationalized I did what I had to and agreed the big players would probably not raid a non-warring planet.
Francine was not surprised to see us again when I returned with the rest of my team. When it came to money Shala said we had not divided ou
t the equal share from our troll adventuring. She needed to get with Ovaria to get some final numbers since the big sales had gone through her. We realized Nicole still had the valuable dolphuna mount and decided to deposit it at the auction house. I told the group to consider me a bank to borrow against for now while we shopped to better prepare for what came next. Eventually, the money would get divided and I could be paid back with no interest applied.
Desmond bought a blue fire set of orbs, robes, and even a staff. He really was determined to try being a mage. The best air shield Francine knew of was an epic and that the owner may not even have it right now. Air shields were a hot commodity and we would need to tour around the universe to get a nice set. I realized we had sold the old healing orbs that Nicole had. She even saw her levels on the orbs as they had not been reset. I decided to give healing a try since I was going to be supporting the team for the coming weeks if not months. There was a frown when I added them in exchange for my other orbs and they went back to zero. Francine even let me buy the orbs back at the rate we sold them to her for. I found a robe sized for a large cyclops and the garment fit okay. The material was shit, but it would do for when I swapped to a healer. I bought a blue staff to go with the set and was confident I could be useful. Kor, the ‘come hither’, and water orbs were resting in interior pockets as I had swapped into a healer.
Dib was never part of the equal share and asked for a bonus to buy some upgrades. I happily gave him a hundred thousand silver and he gasped. When he asked why I said because he was family now. This seemed to hit him pretty hard and he mumbled his thanks while flapping away to go shopping. Francine’s store was so easy to get endlessly lost in. We ate a nice midday meal at the central market area and then went to the lavish auction house that was not far from the bank.
Ovaria waited for us there patiently. She had four male kitsune with her combing over paperwork and balance sheets. The moment we arrived the underlings pulled Shala aside. I knew then that my accounts were being balanced and was grateful I was not handling the minute ledger details. While they conversed and compared notes I went to the auction house. I placed the matriarch dolphin up for sale with a moderately high recommended price of three platinum. I then browsed the list of upcoming auctions to find what was rare and affordable. I did buy the smelter and I remember Garataur going crazy at seeing a line item.
There was a legendary tool creation orb on the auction house. We waited four hours for that auction and no one besides me bid on what Garataur said was a life-changing orb of insane proportions. I rolled my eyes so hard at the fact we were the only interested party making an offer. If the seller would have put a buy it now price we would have paid full price. Our next stop was the market for leenspar since that was all the orb would use. As imagined the amount of raw ore was minimal and buying more was added to the list of off planet acquisitions. For now, we had enough to create a full set of long-lasting construction tools.
By the end of the evening, I was done shopping for the foreseeable future. We stayed at the same Berry Rosey Inn that the team had earlier. There was no Harmony, and due to a lack of rooms, Dib slept on the couch with us. I later learned his wife left him and I was surprised by how well he was handling the situation. When I tried to talk to him about he got grumpy and said he may talk about it later. I remember when I left him, he thanked me.
When the sun rose the next morning, Ovaria was downstairs sipping on a smoothie while waiting for us.
I wanted to get breakfast but she led us to the King’s private blimp launching platform. When we arrived I was handed deeds for the property by a team of the King’s property assessors.
They went with the King to get my dwarves and inspected the exact area I wanted with minimal issues. The king’s men, reasoned in exchange for one platinum, I could buy the open area where I dropped the dwarves off.
A steal of a deal as Ovaria put it.
Before I spawned my blimp to go to our new home I saw a few hundred dwarves hard at work on a partially destroyed blimp.
King Ptera was in adventuring clothes working side by side with them.
The joy of working on his passion had invigorated the shaman and he was far too busy to even wave to us as he took orders from dwarves.
After what felt like hours; my team, the dozen loaded wagons of traveling merchants, and even some potential recruits boarded my blimp.
Not long after the last of us were situated, the ramp was locked down and we were ready.
I flew us to our new home northeast of Remi. We owned a hundred acres of infertile desolate land just south of the new dungeon.
The name was obvious to me and me alone. Riza Stronghold started to be built that very day.
When we arrived the merchants set up their wagons. A few even spawned whole warehouses full of goods. I watched as classes and lessons were being repeated numerous times by vendors getting pestered with vital questions. The scene made it apparent the dwarves were lacking a lot of key knowledge. I decided a single lecture was needed. A long loud shout gave me everyone's attention and I went into how you had to enter a familiar under friendly terms and then you could hit it and it would not despawn. The assembled dwarves seemed to get the point. Then I covered how familiars were like fragile trinkets that could despawn easily and they died on removal. A long portion was me covering orbs and how they came in various tiers. Those tiers could be leveled but a low tier at a high level would only go so far. Next, I went into the limit and how most orb users picked a few themes to stick to. I mentioned the types of combat orbs provided and how some like enhanced strength could be applied to mining also. With my lecture concluded I let the vendors handle more specific questions.
Groz and Zoey found me after and reported what occurred for those I had left behind. The last day and a half consisted of scouting the area and securing food. Inside the nearby forest roamed a large herd of deer tethered to a clearing with a wide river. The dwarves had killed the entire herd, harvested the weak and mostly useless orbs, and even managed to skin all the hide. There were roasting deer over numerous fires and I ate a few helpings happily.
The next thing Groz mentioned was that a thousand-strong team had cleared the nearby dungeon three times. The way they explained the miniature dungeon was there was a single tunnel to a medium sized room. A gargantuan matriarch spider with an orc torso waited in a sticky web. You would arrow her minions down as you backpedaled up the tunnel. When they thinned and died the dwarves would whittle her down with a few volleys and claim the kill. She died easily to crossbow bolts. The problem was the damn bolts kept breaking. The orbs her minions dropped were trash and the matriarch spider was giving only a few levels. They had one treasure chest with silver coins drop and that was at least a positive. Groz ensured me every bit counted and I remember chuckling at that statement.
When the merchants finished the questioning phase of their sales they opened their wares to the dwarves. I gave each vendor a single platinum coin and said to give me back whatever was not spent. Francine called me silly but said they would not cheat us no matter how tempting. I watched the dwarves excitedly accept their new roles in the gaming verse. While they shopped I went to chopping trees to help start our stronghold.
There were other scouting teams looking for the additional dungeons out to the north and I was hoping to go smash some goblins and find a quarry instead of chopping trees. While I was zoned out in my mindless rhythmic swinging my mind did not register the sound of shattering wood.
I was suddenly sent flying as a tree crashed into me with such force my ribs exploded and punctured my lungs. My body twirled from the impact as I was propelled into the woods. My torso and hips wrapped around a tree until I fell to the ground. Every breath was a struggle and I was dying as my body was wracked with intense pain. I managed not to scream mainly because I was drowning from the blood in my lungs.
Healing washed over me and I vomited red gore over and over until I cleared my lungs. The magic p
rocess of it being projected from my body was brutal but thankfully quick. I shook my daze off and readied for battle. My spear was in my hand while I scanned for someone to kill. My eyes never found a target to unleash my collected rage.
“I am so sorry Gryff!” Shala screamed as she ran as fast as her little legs would carry her.
I peered over her small frame and saw a stegosaur swatting trees into the air effortlessly. My mind pieced together what had occurred. I dusted myself off and realized the blood had soaked my adventuring set. Ugh, it was everywhere and I was drenched in it. Nicole gave me a loving wink when our eyes lock and I mouthed an I love you in thanks for saving me.
“I told him to clear some trees for you. Not literally throw trees at you. I am so sorry,” Shala said, still in a panic.
I was already over it and walking for The Queen’s Bitch where my new robe set was stored.
“Shala, you made a mistake. There was no nefarious plot behind your attempt to help. If anything thank you,” I said and she grew confused. “I came to chop trees to be left alone to clear my head. Well, my head only has stars now… I’m jesting. Anyway, I am getting changed and then going to see what those jogging dwarves coming from the north have to report. Keep up the good work.”
“I will, sorry again,” Shala said and you could see she was angry with herself.
Mysti, ever the friendly team spirit booster ran to Shala while Nicole came to my side.
“Zoey and Kata are getting along very well. Almost everyone likes her. It is odd because she is not that warm and welcoming while still being someone you don’t mind having around. Ah, stop right there,” Nicole said when we arrived outside the lavish wagon. “No tracking blood inside, I am hoping this upgrades to having an exterior shower. I do have my water orb but I don't want mud here by the door either.”
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