B3 C41: A Good Deal

For the first time since I’d met the guildmaster, her face twitched ever so slightly, a crack forming in her enthusiastic demeanor.

“Chamberlain! I wasn’t expecting you today. What’s this about a client? You wouldn’t happen to be talking about my new friend here, would you?”

In this, I was just as clueless as her. I was fairly certain I’d never met the man before, and I definitely didn’t recall hiring him for anything.

“Ah, a new friend! How apt. As it so happens, I’m told the young lady before you is also a new friend of the Sylus household. The Lady Verin recently requested that I assist Miss Astorius with all matters pertaining to this ‘Emer’Thalis’ of hers. I believe the lady’s words were to ‘treat the settlement with the same diligence and care I would were it owned by the Sylus household themselves.’”

For all the social skills that the guildmaster must have had, it was still evident as she wilted at the chamberlain’s words.

“And as for you, Miss Astorius,” Thompson addressed me with a nod. “I must apologize for the hectic introduction. It was the lady’s plan to have us meet in a few days. Imagine my surprise when one of my skills went off to let me know you were already in an important meeting before we’d met! I suppose it’s a good thing I have a recall gem keyed directly to the merchant’s guild, hmm?”

Wait, Verin hired me a helper who’s basically on par with the chamber heads in terms of levels? I vaguely recalled her saying something about getting me some assistance, but in no way shape or form had I pictured this.

“Now! I know you’re a rather busy woman, Elmyra, so we’ll skip the idle chatter. Mind if I take a look at that contract you wrote?” He stepped further into the room, grasping for the papers I held.

Only for the guildmaster to snatch them back from me in an instant.

“Hardly a need for that, am I right? I know you like things set up slightly differently for the Sylus properties, so why don’t I just-”

“Copy Documents,” intoned Thompson. He removed a hand from his cane, and with a flash, a perfect copy of the contract appeared in it even as the guildmaster was in the middle of stuffing her own copy into a drawer. Noting my attention, the chamberlain shot me a wink. “Handy skill, hmm? Now let’s see.”

He flipped through the contract, and with each new page, his calm and cheery expression slipped from his face more and more, replaced with a cold and stony visage. The room felt as though it had dropped a few degrees by the time he finished, and I was half-convinced it actually had, some class skill of his manifesting his displeasure in a concrete way.

Despite the change in countenance, his voice continued on in its gentle, upbeat tone. “Now Elmyra, forgive this old man for rattling, but I believe I have a few innocent concerns and suggestions, hmm? To start, darkwood and mana-enriched obsidian are rather rare materials, are they not? Rare enough that they’d fall under the high-end crafting material category rather than the basic resource category, yes? An honest mistake, as I’m sure you weren’t trying to get out of paying the mandated premium on high-end goods brought in from vassal settlements. And while we’re at it…”

For the next few minutes, all the chamberlain did was grill the guildmaster. The price charts were a few months old. The deal was to buy from me in bulk, which was apparently an abysmal idea for me -- we’d get much more by trickling goods in to make them more desirable and exclusive. Perhaps the most egregious was the duration condition. Apparently long-term contracts were subject to a much larger host of legal protections that I’d been about to sign away by agreeing to something short-term.

The guildmaster bore the various “concerns and suggestions” without a word until at last the list was over with. Finished with his notes, the chamberlain took a deep breath in and out before once again donning his earlier cheery grin.

“That’s quite a number of mistakes, guildmaster. Are you sure you’re not working too much? I know rather well how good you are at your job, of course, so to see something like this, I worry that you must be rushing yourself, yes?”

Elmyra pounced on his words, agreeing immediately. “That’s exactly it, chamberlain. I was so excited to help before my next meeting that I ended up doing a rush job of it. I’m sure you know how busy things get around here.”

At this, Thompson folded his copy of the contract up, squirreling it away in a pocket. “I knew that must have been the case. Although if this is how busy you always are, are you sure you haven’t made any other honest mistakes? If I showed Chamber Head Victa this, I’m sure she would be kind enough to assist you in correcting any mistakes by calling for an audit.”

The guildmaster looked like she’d been physically struck the moment the chamberlain spoke the word “audit,” recoiling before bowing her head.

“Your concern is greatly appreciated, but I would hate to trouble the chamber head with such a trivial matter when I could take care of it on my own.”

Once more, Thompson grabbed his cane with both hands, tapping it against the carpet twice. “That’s wonderful to hear, guildmaster! I’ll make sure to hold off on that suggestion, then. Ah! But look at me getting off track. I suppose you’d like to write us up a new better contract so you can catch your next meeting, hmm?”

It was at that moment, as the chamberlain affixed the guildmaster with a smile as sweet as syrup and as sharp as a razor, when my Watch and Learn ability kicked in.

Trade has reached level 5!

Given what I’d been about to sign, it felt like a level I didn’t exactly deserve, but along with a shiny new contract for my settlement, I’d take it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The remainder of my meeting with the guildmaster was incredibly brief, though I did stick around outside the guild house afterwards to speak with Chamberlain Thompson. His earlier display notwithstanding, he seemed to be in a gleeful, almost giddy mood about the entire thing, telling me that we probably wouldn’t have gotten such good terms had I not come so close to accidentally getting swindled.

He also gave me a communication trinket to contact him if need be. Considering his level and who he worked for, giving me something that expensive shouldn’t have been surprising. What was surprising was that he’d given me one even when Suds, Verin, or anyone else hadn’t. His reasoning was simple, though: If he was to help me with important decisions that affected an entire settlement, then he needed to be reachable, even if I was all the way back in Emer’Thalis.

After talking to him for a while about the exact state of the settlement, we parted ways with plans to check in once every two months, or more frequently as needed. Given that I still had nothing but his word that he’d been sent by Verin, I held off on giving him any sort of official position or access to my settlement interface, but that was solely out of an abundance of caution. If a level 29 noble chamberlain wanted to help me run my city’s economy, I was damn well going to let him, and I planned to thank Verin heavily the next time I saw her.

Admittedly, it was hard to say how much of what she’d done was purely for me. With her new vacation home in Emer’Thalis, part of me wondered how much she just wanted to kickstart the economy so she could have a more comfortable getaway spot. In the end, though, I liked to think it was mostly because she was a good friend.

In the end though, I was happy that I’d successfully completed what I’d set out to do today, even if perhaps not in the way I’d intended.

~~~~~~~~~~

Clank. A large shard of reflective metal rammed into my armor, the goal of which was to skewer me or at least send me flying.

Rather notably, it did neither.

A few days had passed since the fiasco with the guildmaster. A bit of construction. Some mining. A healthy dose of poisoning myself. And with the passing of the days, at last we’d arrived at a momentous occasion.

Today was the day we would clear the dungeon for the fifth time.

Or, at least we would unless the dungeon boss had something to say about it. Unfortunately for it, the massive metal-covered titan wasn’t doing so hot. Already, I’d managed to hit it with one of my supercharged death arrows, and in fact, with an extra two ranks into Spellsword/Swordspell than when I’d started our first run, the effects were even more pronounced. The massive mana damage translated into a much greater boost to its physical damage now, the arrow utterly ravaging the boss’s flesh and burrowing halfway through its arm.

If the progress I’d made on my attack power was a bit flashier, my defensive progress was still incredibly satisfying. The first time I’d fought the boss, I’d made it a point to dodge the ranged attacks it threw out. Emboldened by the fact that we were still in student mode, though, I’d finally attempted to take one head-on, boosting my defense with a well-timed Overload Armor.

Ultimately, I wasn’t even sure the skill was needed. The attack’s cutting power was nowhere near enough to slice through my empowered plate armor. With my recent rank up in Force Dispersal paired with my Strength threshold’s bonus against knockbacks, the blow’s blunt power was also laughable at best.

And so it was that an attack meant to tear someone in half pitifully bounced off of my chest.

The reflective metal pooled at my feet and transformed into a metal slime, but ultimately that was even less threatening. With a chuckle, I switched from my bow to my spear, channeling some fire mana into it. Between the fire mana, my ranks in Spellsword and the points I’d put into Armor Penetration, the poor slime stood no chance.

Naturally, none of this made the giant troll-like colossus very happy. It was then rather fortunate that none of us cared much for its opinion.

It let loose a bellowing shout full of primal rage before thoughtlessly hammering away at Alara with its one functioning arm. Gone were the days where the boss would charge at me after I attacked it. I wasn’t entirely sure if it was a class skill or a regular one, but accepting her role as the party’s tank, Alara had managed to pick up a skill to grab the boss’s attention.

And then, of course, it was my turn again. I summoned my bow, nocked one of my physical arrows onto the string, and began to charge it. More and more and more mana sank into the deadly arrow until the entire air about me radiated with a cold and sterile feel, as though I was already half-buried in my grave.

It was an unpleasant sensation, to be sure. Not nearly as unpleasant as its effects on the other end, though. As I at last released the arrow and it found its mark, I imagined the war-forged titan could attest to that.

With the arrow busy delivering its necrotic payload, the fight was over in all but name. Seemingly devoid of understanding, the titan continued to bludgeon Alara with its decaying arm even as it grew increasingly limp, but the force behind its blows was now negligible to her.

In a slight change to how we’d started the boss fights, Emin and Oachin teamed up to end things a bit quicker. Oachin uncorked one of his many solutions, using his remote application skill to place it directly under the boss.

While it also contained the usual fast-growing seed mixture for Emin to manipulate, it was, in essence, glorified oil. Combined with the weeds that quickly sprung upwards and started to pull at the titan’s legs, the slippery substance proved too much for the boss without any arms to stabilize it. Much like the time it had made the poor decision to kick Alara, it crashed to the ground.

We could have hacked away at it then, but instead, we let Nella have the final word.

In a massive conflagration fit for even the devoutest of pyromaniacs, the oil and weeds caught fire, transforming the center of the chamber into a funeral pyre. On the off chance the boss managed to muster up one final ranged attack, I stood right next to her as she torched its head with a maniacal cackle.

In only a matter of moments, the last of the boss’s health fell, and we at last received the notifications we’d been waiting for.

Congratulations! You have cleared the Sylum Metal Dungeon!

Student clear progress: 5/5

Congratulations! You have completed your student training program! Student training mode disabled for future runs.

Five sets of cheers filled the room, drowning out the loud crackle of the flames which still raged. We’d done it!

Of course, the fact that we’d done it without once needing the student mode to save us was a bit of a sore point -- by now we could have actually cleared the dungeon a full five times, complete with real experience and loot -- but not even that could mar our feeling of achievement.

The sensation of victory ran through all of us until we couldn’t even remember the exhaustion that came with a full dungeon clear.

Somewhat expectedly, it was Nella who capitalized on our energy first.

“Hah! As only to be expected from our party! We have breezed through all five runs without a single loss. Are you energized? Are you all ready? Let’s do it again right now!”

Even with my own eagerness to put my Detect Secret and its augment into action, I knew very well that we weren’t going to do a back-to-back run like that. Still, it was the very last person I’d expected to disagree with Nella who ended up shutting her down.

Looming above us with her arms crossed and her head tilted imperiously downwards, Alara shouted out. “No! We shall not be running the dungeon again today.”

Nella seemed to be just as taken aback as I was, though she pivoted at the drop of a hat: “Fine! Then we will run it tomorrow!”

This time, Alara shook her head, the force with which she did so nearly forming a gust of wind. “No! Not tomorrow either.”

As she offered no other information, I took it upon myself to ask. “Um. Alara. Do you have a specific date in mind?”

With this, her stern expression transformed into one of utter joy.

“As it so happens, I do, PPG! Thank you for asking. Eight days from now, we will all celebrate. Nine days from now, we will rest and recover. Ten days from now, we will venture out and complete our first true dungeon run!”

Well, that answered the when, but not exactly the why. “Alara, is there something happening in eight days?”

“Indeed, PPG!” Alara uncrossed her arms, placing them instead at her hips, only further radiating a sense of bubbly happiness. “In eight days it will be the day of my birth! As my party members, you will all celebrate with me, and our dungeon run shall be a gift to me! We will meet at my house.”

Huh. I didn’t even realize. What am I going to get her?

My musings could wait for later, however, as it turned out that Alara wasn’t quite done. Her aura of laid-back mirth melded with her earlier imposing mein as her eyes grew slightly steely. Her next words were not so much informative as they were a command.

“Prepare yourselves!” she bellowed. “I do not celebrate lightly.”