Rescue

by R. A. Mejia

  At first, Keans and Mary just work the open market. They pay for a merchant license and get a booth made. The initial sales are made to curious, upper-middle class people that already have ice boxes but are happy to find a source for cheaper ice. We also point out that our ice is extra pure, having been specially prepared, and that it’s even safe for consumption. All we’re really doing is filtering and boiling the water before we put it in the freeze box. Mary reminds me that copper is also known to be antimicrobial, meaning that it kills bacteria. The sales pitch is a bonus, and all the servants for the upper-class folks are soon coming to us for a cheaper, cleaner ice block.

  Still, Keans and Mary aren’t satisfied. Mary, especially, sees the larger markets, but it's Keans that pitches the idea to the species-intolerant buyers. We move forward with a three-pronged approach that they come up with. First, we establish ourselves as having a reputation for good-quality ice at a cheaper price than the competition. We do this at the local markets and target the people that are already buying ice: upper middle class wives and the servants of the rich. You know, the ones that actually do the daily purchases.

  Second, once our reputation has been established, we expand into the industrial sector and start selling to businesses that don’t currently use ice because it’s too expensive but would if it were cheap: fishermen, grocers, restaurants, and anyone else we can think of. Keans makes the sales pitch that with our product, ‘Superior Ice,’ they’ll be able to reduce spoilage and thus increase profits. It’s a hard sell at first, but Keans is charming as all heck. After the first sell, we realize that most of these businesses don’t have the equipment to make the most of the ice. Our few profits are then turned into hiring carpenters to make large cold boxes, big things that take up a whole wall, or special troughs that hold large amounts of food to keep cold. Our blacksmith neighbor, Charles, even gets in on the action by making more copper boxes to hold the ice and distribute the cold throughout. He even adds a secondary pan underneath the box to catch the dripping water as the ice melts.

  After all this hustling, the profits from our business are good. We’re making thirty silver a week. Once more businesses start jumping on the ice wagon, as it were, profits go up even more. After all, we sell the cold boxes for only slightly more than it costs us to make them, but it sets up a model for future ice sales. The profits from this part of our business go into part three of our project: mass adoption.

  Part three of the project is to get just about every person in the city to want to purchase ice from us. We do this by creating a simple, inexpensive model of the cold box that can fit inside anyone’s home. It’s really no trouble to design the unit, but it’s a pain in the keister to get the carpenters and blacksmiths on board with the idea of creating uniform pieces that can be assembled by unskilled labor. The idea that each unit isn’t custom made just hurts their artisan hearts, but the money we offer them helps soothe their pride. It takes more money to find a place to manufacture, and even more to hire the labor, and then there’s the cost to keep everyone quiet about the project until we go to market.

  Still, the results are worth it. Once we introduce an inexpensive cold box, we demonstrate, infomercial style, how much money people will save with its use. Then the average citizen starts to become interested. Eventually, Mary suggests we hire people to go door to door to sell them. And that does it. Paying a few good salesmen commission on every cold box sold gets the things out the door like hotcakes. The fact that we’re barely making enough to cover the costs of manufacturing isn’t an issue as Mary explains. It’s the creation of a massive market that’s important. After all, who do you think all those people are going to go to when they need more ice? The expensive guys? Or us, the guys who sold them their new wonder box with our less expensive, ‘Superior Ice’?

  Before we know it, we’re inundated with orders for ice. I have to spend massive amounts of XP to magically engrave all the boxes that make the ice, but I do come up with a great solution to the time it takes to funnel mana into each and every block of ice so I don’t have to be working constantly: [Crystal Programing]. I essentially create mana batteries that I program to fuel the freezing process. Because the mana batteries don’t need a spellcaster to operate them, the entire process becomes semi-automatic, though I and the rest of the group have to spend time nightly recharging the batteries. I’m the best at it, of course, with my high mana regeneration rate. I even learn to charge them while I meditate, essentially making me a mana producing machine.

  Still, in no time, our revenue is measured in gold not silver, and we’re considering hiring more people to help run the business. Keans and Mary are quite the titans of the ice industry.

  Now, that’s not to say that there weren’t any problems. Boy were there problems. Besides the challenge of selling the idea of having a place in your home for the cold box and getting people to make buying ice a part of their shopping trip. We also had push back from the Ice Hauler Guild. I mean, at first, they laughed at our little ice stand where Keans would sell a few blocks of ice a day. They jeered at us for selling it so cheap because they thought there was no way we could be making a profit. They stopped jeering when we started to take some of their rich clients from them. Then they became concerned when we took all their clients. Still, it’s not like they didn’t try to compete. They lowered their prices to match ours. But us having much lower costs meant that we could always lower our prices just a bit more. There was also the fact that our ice was guaranteed 100% consumable and was not something they could easily replicate. Heck, a few smart businessmen even started to make cold treats with our product.

  Eventually, the Ice Hauler’s Guild stopped trying to compete directly and instead turned to other options. At first is was bribery. They offered to buy up the entire business. Then when that didn’t work, they started harassing us and interfered with sales and ice delivery. We had to hire security, and thanks to the Colosseum, there were plenty of guys with combat training looking to earn a bit of extra money. Then came the outright threats: letters and warnings delivered with promises of retribution if we didn’t stop cutting into the guild’s profits. Finally, the break-ins began.

  But it was all to no avail. We’d thought ahead and made sure to cover any ice-making unit in so many confusing glyphs, images, and fake arcane script that it would be very nearly impossible for them to figure out what actually made the process work. Sure, the guild tried to compete by hiring mages to freeze local water into ice, but those mages cost lots of money, and their mana regeneration rate was never going to match mine. Plus, our secret process of using mana batteries didn’t need someone with costly magical abilities to work, and we could manufacture almost 24 hours a day.

  So, to put it frankly, we pushed the guild out of the market. They couldn’t increase their hauling capacity fast enough to meet the sudden increase in demand, and it cost them too much to pay mages to make ice locally. They could compete again once they adjust their hauling capacity to the city, but for now, we dominate the ice market.

  Chapter 29

  Lanista Lucanus explains that Sonya, Vrax, and I will be starting out careers as gladiators now. He promised to explain more about the gladiator system when we were ready to fight, and he now makes good on his word. According to him, there are actually multiple levels of combat within the gladiator community. People fight for a variety of reasons but are separated by their skill levels. The lowest level of combat is the Copper Level. To transition to a higher level, you need enough gladiator points to challenge someone at that level. If you win, you and your opponent change rankings, which means that the ranks are always shifting as people win and lose. To challenge a Silver-Level gladiator, you need one-hundred gladiator points.

  Now technically, since we’ve been training with a sanctioned gladiator school, we could skip the Copper Level and move right into our first Silver Level match, but Lanista Lucanus feels that it’s good training for us to fight at the lower ranks. I guess I understand what
he means. After all, it’s one thing to practice your skills with blunted weapons and something else entirely to fight opponents more than willing to kill you for a win.

  The Copper Level fights don’t take place in the Colosseum, but in smaller arenas in other cities. These fights are open to anyone that pays the registration fee as a gladiator. There’s no magic allowed at this level of fighting, only non-enchanted weapons and armor. Each fight won earns you fifty copper, ten XP and ten gladiator points. Most of the Copper-Level fighters cash in their gladiator points for extra money, and a decent brawler can actually make a living at this level.

  After getting each of us registered as gladiators representing the familia, Lanista Lucanus takes the three of us out of the city as part of our training. The arenas in other cities are rather crappy looking compared to the giant Colosseum in Attilius. In the city of Lutum, their arena is no more than a large pit in which two fighters enter and beat each other up until there’s a winner. Spectators watch from above, holding their betting slips, yelling for their guy to win. In Lignum, the quality of the arena is a step up. The area where the matches are held is the size of a basketball court and is surrounded by six-foot-tall wooden walls. Behind the walls, there is raised bleacher-style seating from which the audience can watch. There are the same screaming fans, but at least their spittle isn’t raining down on you as you fight.

  Regardless of where we fight during that trip, it is always a brutal affair. Sonya, of course, always has an excited grin on her face. I am nervous knowing that I’ll be fighting other trained gladiators. Vrax. Well, Vrax is always a cool customer no matter where we go or who he faces. He always has a determined look in his eyes, as if each battle is just another step he has to take to recover his clansmen.

  To transition from Copper Level to Silver, we each need to rack up ten victories in order to accrue the hundred gladiator points we need. While Sonya tears through each of her opponents, Vrax and I have a tougher time of it. Vrax is always the villain in any match, which makes any of his opponents the crowd favorite. My kobold brother, who only comes up to my waist, faces adversaries two and sometimes three times his size. Each match, I watch with the other spectators and see him being knocked about. In our battles, much of Vrax’s damage-dealing potential lies in his ability to be stealthy and then backstab an enemy. He’s at a distinct disadvantage in these fights, since they take place in the arena, where his opponent can always see where he is. Still, he wins again and again. Sure, he loses a few matches too, but he wins his ten. I think the key to his victory is his high dexterity combined with his new weapon choice: the spear. The dexterity helps him avoid most of the powerful blows of his opponents and land his own strikes, and using a spear makes up for any reach issues inherent in the height difference between him and his opponents. I have to actively try not to laugh when I see my friend racing around these arenas, striking at these men with his spear then backing just out of their reach. He makes them look like they’re chasing him around the entire time.

  I only do slightly better than my kobold companion. In my time in the Copper Level, I win twenty matches and lose three times. The twenty victories aren’t particularly notable, but the XP I gain makes up for some I’ve lost recently from crafting. Most of the combatants that enter the arena at this level are little more than barroom brawlers, guys that think they are tough but have only faced other untrained opponents. Against others like themselves, they have a chance. But against anyone that’s had any training in either weapons or unarmed combat, they fall fast. Still, I don’t begrudge them their dreams. After all, if they make it to the Silver Level, they can earn twenty silver a month as a base wage. Heck, even at the Copper Level, they earn fifty copper a win. That means they only have to win a few matches, and they’ll already earn more than they would as an unskilled laborer.

  Now, my loses are the more interesting fights. My first loss is to this big bald mountain of a man. He is at least six foot five and fights without any weapons, or really even any clothes. He is called Bart the Barbarian, and he only wears a loincloth. He doesn’t even wear any shoes. Part of the reason I lose is my own arrogance. I have been on a winning streak and don’t think I’ll find any challenge with Bart either. But, once we are in the arena, he surprises me. The moment the match starts, he activates some kind of dash ability and is on me before I can blink. His first punch knocks the wind out of me and leaves me gasping for air. The next series of blows feel like I am being hit with a sledge hammer. Before I know it, my health hits the 10% mark, and the match is over. I stagger out of the arena, clutching my broken ribs. The loss teaches me not to get too cocky. You never know what your opponent is capable of.

  My second loss at the copper level comes from Agrippa. After his departure from the Familia Pontius training facility, he found a place at the Kabro Kia dojo, a non-sanctioned gladiator school. Rumors have it that the facility emphasizes victory above all else. Agrippa must have gone through some interesting training because, when he enters the ring, I can see how much he dislikes me. At the Copper Level, no one is allowed to bring in magical or enchanted weapons. But he definitely stretched the rule. Before, when I fight him, he wears the traditional gear of the Murmillo. During our match, he comes out wearing full plate mail. The design of the armor still resembles the Murmillo, but only in theme. Instead of the bare torso of the traditional Murmillo, every inch of the man is covered in metal, and his tower shield could double as a metal barn door. I am at a severe disadvantage against him since magic isn’t allowed at this level. Each of my attacks seem to either be deflected or completely absorbed by his high-defense armor. He lets me wear myself out trying to penetrate his defenses, and then, when my stamina starts to get low, he attacks. The [Shield Bash] stuns me, and his follow-up attacks with his gladius cuts me down. I don’t think he will stop attacking when my health reaches 10%, but the referee steps between us.

  My third loss is almost a win except that I make the mistake of hesitating before delivering the winning blow. I am fighting this little, skinny teen wearing a desert-style robe and head covering. He uses a curved sword and is pretty quick on his feet. He has a similar style of fighting to myself. The match drags on and on, the two of us striking and then retreating before the other could counter attack. Slowly, we whittle each other’s health down. Then the teen makes a simple misstep, trips on a rock he hadn’t seen and falls back. My sword is raised, ready to strike and knock the guy’s health below the 10% mark, when I see his head covering fly open--only it isn’t a ‘he’ that is revealed, but a ‘she.’ She has tanned skin and shoulder-length, dark-brown hair, but what makes me catch my breath are her stunning blue eyes and full pouty lips. While it is likely only a second or two, it feels like an eternity. Me, standing there, blade raised, shocked that I’ve been fighting a girl this whole time and her staring right back at me expecting me to strike her. But she gets over it more quickly than I do, and I feel her curved sword cut into my side, dropping me just below the health limit. Needless to say, no one on my team is pleased that I’ve lost by such a small margin.

  Sonya in particular is annoyed, not that I am stunned by my opponent’s good looks, but that I let it cost me the victory. We have a few practice matches over the next couple of days, and she thumps it into me that a pretty woman can beat me just as effectively as any man. She fights topless just to ingrain in me that distraction can mean defeat in battle. Anytime I let myself be distracted by her swaying assets, she beats me senseless. I soon learn where not to focus and, even though I never beat her, I learn not to be distracted by her womanly charms. At least not in battle.

  Still, after twenty victories, our group leaves the lesser arenas of the surrounding countryside, and we return to Attilius. Back at the familia training compound, Lanista Lucanus points out flaws in our fighting and works with us individually to adjust our strategies. Soon enough, we’ll be challenging our first Silver-Level gladiator at the Colosseum.

  Unlike the lesser arenas, the Colosseum can
hold over eighty thousand people, but for the Silver-Level matches, it’s nowhere near full capacity. According to the Lanista, only Gold- and Platinum-Level fights ever attract a full house, but even the Silver Level matches have hundreds of spectators.

  There are twenty ranks in the Silver Level, and we’ll have to reach number one to even be allowed the chance to challenge the next level of gladiators, the Gold Level. At the Silver Level, it costs one hundred gladiator points to challenge another fighter. But it costs five hundred points to challenge a Gold-Level opponent. That means I have to win at least five fights. Still, the benefits of fighting at the Silver Level are nothing to be sneezed at. As long as you stay in the level, you automatically earn twenty silver a month as long as you’re fighting at least three opponents a month. Additionally, each match you win earns you five silver, thirty XP, and at least one hundred gladiator points. The Lanista explains that, starting at the Silver Level, opponents have enough gladiator points to start buying match advantages.

  The ability to buy advantages with gladiator points allows for each match to feel different and challenging. Plus, any points spent go to the opponent if they win. So, an individual who has disadvantages placed on them can potentially earn many times the standard one-hundred gladiator points if they win. The Lanista gives us a list of some of the more commonly-purchased bonuses.