Last Words chapter 49 (Patreon)

Paying for my friends to rush for Beginner tier Mana Bodies was NOT cheap. I had expected to spend some money, admittedly, but not as much as I ended up spending. The fruits were expensive, yes, but not impossibly so. Seven hundred fifty each was hefty when you were talking twenty plus fruits, but that was at least manageable with my current income.

No, the biggest expenditure was those damned mushrooms. I bought twenty mana fruits and five mushrooms, and the whole thing ran me thirty six thousand two hundred fifty dollars, with only fifteen of that being fruits.

Now down to one hundred seventeen thousand five hundred, I left the others to their training with Ron as I headed back to Derkholme to get in touch with The Silent Pond. It was time to find out exactly what they needed from me, and whether it would be enough to buy me the guide I’d need to make my trip into the interior to search for the next level of fruit.

Luckily, I wasn’t completely without leads. Ridley, who had contacted me on behalf of The Silent Pond last time, had been supposed to get back in touch with me at the inn. Since I hadn’t BEEN at the inn, I was pretty sure that hadn’t happened, but if they needed me as bad as they thought, they’d probably have left some means of contact with Esther. Sure enough, upon arrival, when I dropped in to see if I had any messages, Esther passed me a small glass bottle with a note in it.

“Seriously,” I said as I took it from her, eyeing the contents. “Isn’t that a little on the nose?”

She shrugged. “Did you think they picked such a dramatic name because they were calm and reasonable? Something about being in large groups of people makes mages way more dramatic than they would normally be.”

“I think that’s just true of all human beings,” I admitted. “And hey, Bran is going to be out for the day, by the way. He’s got some training going with some friends of mine, but don’t worry about work, he’ll be back to shovel the Korai tomorrow.” I grinned wickedly and she rolled her eyes at my obvious enjoyment of my friend’s predicament. Just because cleaning out the stables was easy for me didn’t mean it was easy for Bran.

Sitting down, I ordered some stew, then popped the bottle and slid the note out of it so I could read what they’d left.

Gus,

I hope this message finds you well, or doesn’t, I actually don’t really care either way. As you know, our expressed interest in you comes from your ability to transport and unload cargo from seemingly nowhere. We suspect you have access to a spatial artifact, though we won’t press you to reveal it. Regardless, your ability to transport and liquidate assets became apparent to us during your recent shopping trip and it is that which we hope to test.

Below this message is a map, and at the destination is a small grain silo. Inside is a large amount of low value goods, specifically, several hundred pounds of mana grain that can be used by soldiers for rations. Your test will be to liquidate these grains, which are fairly popular, and deliver the money to me at the inn on the second night after this message was delivered.

All the best, Ridley. Also, don’t fuck this up.

I grimaced at that. Not the test, I assumed it would be something like that. On the face of it the test seemed weird, but considering the things I’d been doing in town it made sense. I imagine they were aware of my ability to clean out the stables too, so the spatial nonsense was the logical guess. Hell, they probably managed to get a copy of my test and saw space listed on there.

My main question was exactly why they wanted me to just…make it disappear? Unless that was the point. If I had a spatial artifact and a seemingly limitless amount of funds, it would make sense to assume I was here scouting for someone. If I could liquidate their goods in bulk without them being able to figure out where I sold them, it would prove I had access to trade avenues that they weren’t aware of, essentially opening a trade route between them and an unknown third party.

In fact, I was pretty sure Ridley had implied something like that when we’d talked. But how screwed were these guys trade wise that they were willing to sell to a faceless force just to get some income?

Ultimately it didn’t matter, because I COULD be that force for them. And once I liquidated the grain I’d have chance to more more interesting things like I’d been hoping, not to mention Ridley might be able to set me up with the guide I wanted. I thanked Esther, finished my stew, then headed out, following the map to the location marked out under the message.

It wasn’t guarded or anything, but I did case the place just in case, to see if I was being watched. I eventually found a crawlspace entrance behind a pile of stacked barrels that seemed like it would be hard to keep watch on, and slipped in through there, selling off the dirt on my clothes once I was inside. 

Sure enough, within the silo were stacks of huge bags, each of the neatly stamped with some symbol I wasn’t aware of. I briefly considered that this might be an ACTUAL grain silo and that I might have been hired to steal this grain instead of selling it…and then decided that I didn’t care. My capabilities would be proven tonight one way or another, and since no one had seen me come in, they wouldn’t be able to connect me to it. I hoped.

Stepping forward, I knelt in front of one of the bags, focusing on it to get a price.

Sell: First tier mana grain. Price- 10 Delyrans per bag = 500 USD

I grimaced. Only ten? Admittedly, the mana fruits were fifteen, though I was pretty sure that was market price which they never sold at here. Regardless, five hundred per bag, and there were about a hundred bags here, so I was looking at moving about fifty grand. After confirming that I could cover it if something went wrong and then some, I quickly sold off all the bags, then slipped out the crawlspace and vanishing into the surrounding trees.

Once I was far enough away, I checked my cash reserves. One hundred seventy thousand, even. That meant I’d liquidated fifty two point five thousand in grain, coming out to one thousand fifty Delyrans of goods.

I walked around for a bit, making sure I wasn’t being followed, just to give anyone who might have been hoping to screw me over a chance to catch me and confirm I had no spatial artifacts, grain, or money on my person. Apparently I had been a bit too paranoid about thinking this was a trap, though, so I eventually headed back to the tavern, stopping in my room to fill a bag with the Delyrans needed and then lugging it downstairs to see if Ridley had arrived.

He had, he was sitting at a table in the center of the room enjoying a bit of stew. I sat down across from him, setting the bag gently on the wood. He looked up, raising an eyebrow at it, but made no move to take the money.

“Evening,” he said genially as he took a big bite of stew. He closed his eyes, groaning in bliss. “I have no clue what she does to this stuff but I can't get enough. I’ve never had anything quite as good.” His eyes flicked down to the bag. “So, I take it that’s the payment for the goods we had you move? That was…fast. I think. Last check in we had on the stuff was about five hours ago. We’ll have to confirm it’s gone, though if you’re willing to drop this much money without any goods exchanged we might be willing to consider other business.”

“I’m sure,” I said dryly. “But it’s gone. You guys aren’t that lucky.”

Snorting, he reached for the bag, but I pulled it away at the last second. He raised an eyebrow, not getting mad but clearly preparing to if needed. “Is there a problem?”

“Not a problem, as such,” I said slowly. “More a request. You tested me, I passed. I’ve never been one for the whole ‘a job well done is its own reward’ thing. I’ll give you your money, of course, I’m not a thief, but I do have something I need help with, and I thought it made more sense to pose my request before we concluded our business.”

He shrugged. “You can ask. Not sure what I’ll say. Go ahead.”

“I need a guide,” I told him bluntly. “My employers sent me here to acquire certain…goods. Or at least to confirm their existence. If I can’t get my hands on them, I’ll be forced to move on. I only need one, proof of concept if you would, and then they’ll arrange retrieval. If that happens, they’ll be looking to do more business in this area, and I know you’re intrigued by that concept.”

Sure enough, he didn’t blink at my imaginary employer. He probably thought I represented some kind of merchant guild from far away, trying to expand into the market here. He took a pensive bite, sighing contentedly, then frowned. “I don’t like this kind of thing, honestly. It’s not really my kind of party. What do you want, just say it.”

I shrugged. “I need a guide,” I told him bluntly. “Into the deeper forest. I need to get my hands on an indigo mana fruit. I have people to help me with the mission, a whole team outfitted with high end weaponry, but I can’t just go bumbling around in the interior without knowing where anything is. I’ll get eaten by giant spiders or something.” I shuddered, and it wasn’t for effect. I did NOT like the idea of giant spiders.

“Yeah, the spiders are assholes,” he admitted. “But honestly, that’s a lot less merchant shit than I was expecting. If you want to go exploring I’m down. I could be your guide myself. Of course, if you want me to do that there’s got to be something in it for me. I want your team to help me get an indigo fruit too.”

I blinked. That had been easier than expected. But considering I’d just told him I’d be sending a fully armed team to retrieve something he probably needed and couldn’t get, it did make sense. “Alright,” I said slowly, pushing the sack of coins toward him. The electrum didn’t jingle the way most metal would have, oddly enough, but it did jingle a bit. He smiled as he picked it up, weighing it in his hand before peeking into the mouth of the bag.

“We have a deal,” he said as he stashed the bag in his cloak, holding out a hand for me to shake. “Let’s toast to a successful expedition with some of this fantastic stew.”

Snorting, I shook his hand. “I don’t think that’s how toasts work, but if you’re paying, I can think of something you might like even better. What do  you think? Willing to shell out some of that grain money for celebratory drinks?” He grimaced, but eventually nodded, and I laughed, turning to the bar. “Esther!” I called to my landlady. “We’ll take two shots of the mango nectar!”

She raised an eyebrow at us, but eventually nodded, busting out the bottle and poring them. I clapped Ridley on the shoulder as I hopped up to go snag them, enjoying the wince as he realized what I’d ordered. But hey, at least I hadn’t had him pay for the bottle.