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Chapter 144 - Expanding Enterprises
🕑 Added 2024-10-08 19:00:05 +0000 UTCNate appeared at the entrance to the Adventurer’s Guild compound. A second later he felt a burst of soul energy next to him as Kiri joined him. They had shadowed each other the entire way from the University, with him using his farsight sphere of awareness to scout ahead of themselves. He was confident that even if there had somehow been an ambush laying in wait for them, that he was fully prepared to deal with it. Using Farsight of the Runic Artist he looked at his two runecrafted items.
Runecrafted Trinket of Mana Release (Epic)
Stats: N/A
Features: Mana Storage (Epic), Mana Release (Legendary)
Mana Storage: This item has been runecrafted by a Master Runecrafter to utilise its Epic affinity for mana to store an incredible amount of mana to power any other effects the item is capable of.
Mana Release: Upon activation this trinket will release its stored mana into its immediate surroundings. Rate of release is 5% of total possible stored mana per second until all stored mana has been vented.
Runecrafted Trinket of Spatial Release (Epic)
Stats: N/A
Features: Mana Storage (Epic), Spatial Release Affinity (Epic), Spatial Release Activation (Legendary)
Mana Storage: This trinket has been runecrafted by a Master Runecrafter to utilise its Epic affinity for space and release to store an incredible amount of spatial release affinity mana to power any other effects the item is capable of.
Spatial Release Affinity: This trinket will convert any mana stored within to gain an affinity for spatial release. Conversion rate is 10% of total possible stored mana converted to spatial release affinity per hour.
Spatial Release Activation: Upon activation this trinket will release its stored spatial release affinity mana into its immediate surroundings. Rate of release is 5% of total possible stored mana per second until all stored mana has been vented.
Nate couldn’t help but smile. They weren’t yet Legendary of course. That would take about another week. But they functioned exactly as he had intended. He’d tested them himself of course, using both his own capability for Mana Exclusion runes as well as his one and only spell, Minor Spatial Lock. It was only a Rare spell though, and he wanted to do some additional tests. Which made the return of his mentor perfect. He wasn’t sure to what extent Luc could control or lock down space, but if the man couldn’t do it himself, he probably knew someone who could.
The guards let them through with a glance and a nod and they headed straight for the nicer of the two inns. Entering the taproom they were immediately guided to one of the private rooms in the back and found Luc with his feet up on the table eating something that smelled a lot like lamb to Nate.
“Surprised you wanted to meet here and not at the Den,” quipped Kiri with a smile.
Luc flashed an amused grin in response, “I thought about it but was worried we’d lose Nate to some painting.”
A second after making the comment Luc’s face transformed from joking to serious and he stared at Nate, “How you doing, kid?”
“I’m…getting there,” Nate replied. “I’m still having the occasional nightmare or…darker thoughts…but I think I am doing okay at processing it all and the new tools I have been creating are definitely helping. Kiri too, even if she is watching over me like she’s my mother.”
Kiri chuckled, “Sister. Sister! Don’t make it weird.”
Nate rolled his eyes with a small grin which turned into a laugh as Frick appeared.
“And their perverted cousin!” screamed the Goblin as the spirit appeared.
A second later Frick was flying across the room, courtesy of Kiri’s lightning quick punch.
“Can’t be that bad if the three of you are acting like some kind of comedy troupe,” commented Luc, ripping some meat off the bone with his teeth as he watched them.
Nate chose to ignore the small shake of Kiri’s head. Sometimes, being aware of everything around him meant ignoring the things that either weren’t his business or were meant to be private. Especially when those ‘secrets’ were meant for his benefit.
“Well, just remember what I said, kid. You need someone to talk to…I am here. Or Aisling. She should be back in a couple of days along with Evindal.”
“Was the Dungeon run a success?” asked Nate.
“And then some! Take a look for yourself.”
Nate activated Farsight of the Runic Artist, utilising the skill carefully so that he could bypass the obfuscation of Luc’s Class Core without breaking the Enchantment. It took him a little longer, but he managed it after thirty awkward seconds.
Luc Crozier
Arcane Riftwalker (E) (59) / Magnetic Arcanist (R) (34) / Toxic Arcanist (U) (12)
“Two levels in your Primary Class? Is that normal for an Epic Dungeon at your level?”
“A little on the high side, actually. Only reason for that is we went in as a team of three instead of the usual four. Meant a little extra processed mana for everyone but it also meant it took us a little longer,” explained Luc.
There was a pause in the conversation as Luc saw the look of concern on Nate’s face.
“I get it, kid. You’re worried I am not going to stay ahead of you for much longer. And you would be right, if it wasn’t for our little side gig. Which reminds me…”
Nate felt space warp as Luc opened his spatial storage, depositing a pile of processed mana gems onto the table. His eyes widened as his sphere of awareness gave him a quick assessment of how much was contained on the table. It was hard to estimate exactly, but he suspected there was enough to give himself at least nine levels.
“That all of it or just my cut?” he asked, still gobsmacked.
“All of it. Wanted you to see how much we were getting paid before I took my cut. Which of course is enough to get me another level. Which is why I can probably keep up with you. Unless you intend to use all of yours to level?” asked Luc curiously as he grabbed a few of the gems for himself.
“No, no,” muttered Nate, still processing how much they had made from the manerium sales. Academically he knew epic materials weren’t easy to come by, but this seemed exorbitant. “Kiri and I want to hit our Stat Orb caps first. Gives us more time to work on our Skill Development and catch up to our peers.”
As he finished speaking Nate glanced at Kiri who gave him a quick nod, “I’ll go trade these with the Guild now. Planned split?”
He nodded. He knew technically that most of these rewards belonged to him. Kiri had even pushed for that, trying to convince him she should only take a ten percent cut for handling the negotiations with the Guild. But as always, he had firmly rebuffed her. He had no intention of leaving her behind and that meant she needed to keep up with him. So, it was a fifty fifty split he had eventually gotten her to agree to. With that in mind Kiri had been very detailed in getting a list of the items or knowledge he was interested in. That included the Stats he wanted to raise with Stat Orbs and even how much. She had taken to her economics subject with a fervour and had even made sure they had set aside time twice a week so that she could ask him if his needs had changed and to track what he was still after. He also knew she was disappearing from the University with semi-regularity which he suspected was her becoming a regular at the Auction House.
He smiled slightly as Kiri vanished out the door with all the processed mana gems before turning back to his mentor.
“So,” started Luc, “How would you feel about upping it to two per week? Is it doable?”
Nate only had to think over it for two seconds, his Intellect Stat allowing him to go over the implications incredibly quickly, “I could do three a fortnight without it impacting my other projects. Is it not going to become a little bit suspect though?”
Luc nodded, “It might, but the smugglers I am working with aren’t the type to ask questions or reveal their sources. Not when we’re making them rich.”
Nate tried not to let the encroaching memories of fire and pain show on his face as he replied, “You sure? In my limited experience…greed makes people do stupid things.”
Luc’s expression softened, looking a little concerned as he locked eyes with Nate, “You’re right, kid. I’ll vouch for this lot though. They’ve survived this long by not asking too many questions and sticking to working with people they know. Besides, we should strike while the price is high.”
When Nate raised his eyebrows in response Luc continued, “There is a shortage of manerium on the market right now. It’s sent the prices up by quite a bit. It’s unlikely to stay that way though. As soon as they figure out what the supply issue is, it’ll go down a bit.”
Nate thought about it for a moment. He had even made plans to reduce the level of risk for himself. With that in mind he gave his nod of agreement, before extracting the two wooden boxes from his spatial storage and plonking them down on the table.
Luc instantly leaned forward, eyes narrowed as he looked at the boxes.
“They’re spatial artefacts,” his mentor commented, looking them over curiously. “Something weird about them though…it’s like they’re the same…even though there are two of them. Explain it to me?”
Nate smirked a little. He wasn’t above being proud of his work, and he thought this might be one of his better recent ideas.
“You know I got kidnapped while making a delivery?” he asked. After Luc had nodded he continued with his explanation, “Well, Kiri’s reaction was to suggest she should be the one making the deliveries. It wasn’t a bad idea, per say, but it wasn’t a good idea either. While her weaknesses might not be as obvious as mine are, she still has one very large, glaring one. If someone got wind of that, she could potentially be just as easy to capture or kill as I was. That’s something else I am working on, but ignoring that, it was still a huge risk. That idea wasn’t mitigating any risk. It was just transferring it.”
“Unacceptable, I get it, kid. Get to the good stuff,” said Luc, running a hand over one of the boxes as if by touching it he could force it to give up its secrets.
“Right. So, I thought, wouldn’t it be easier to send the manerium without having to leave the University at all? So I came up with this.”
Using Farsight of the Runic Artist he brought up the item description, before making it visible for Luc.
Runecrafted Twin Boxes of Spatial Transfer (Rare)
Stats: N/A
Features: Mana Storage (Rare), Shared Space (Rare), Item Concealment (Rare)
Mana Storage: This item has been Runecrafted by a Master Runecrafter to utilise its Rare affinity for mana to store a reasonable amount of mana to power any other effects the item is capable of.
Shared Space: This item shares a created spatial zone with its twin. Any item placed inside either box can be retrieved from its twin. Range of the shared spatial zone is limited by the tier of the materials.
Item Concealment: This Item is Runecrafted to conceal its nature and the Sigils used from identification. Powerful enough identification Skills will bypass this Runecrafted effect.
Luc stared at the description before his blue eyes flicked back to Nate, “What’s the distance?”
“Haven’t fully tested it yet but it covers the entire Capital.”
Luc nodded slowly, “Did you make it using your other Class?”
Nate shook his head, “The woman you had to threaten for me…you know the one…she had a copy of a Sigil for Space. I used that, and some of my own Skills and other Sigils.”
The truth was the item was full of Master Tier Sigils. He had utilised not only the Master Tier Space Sigil, but also the Tunnel and Enclosed Sigils he had acquired back on Arikanvil’s research station. The Concealment Sigil was of course lower tier, which explained why Luc was able to get some sense of the item, even if he hadn’t been able to completely pierce the protections. Nate guessed it also didn’t help that the materials were only Rare, but he didn’t think he needed the item to be better than that and his time was finite, even if his access to mana wasn’t, for now.
“It has built in concealing functions to try and hide what it is,” he explained. “In addition, it has markers that will light up if it cannot access the other box. Like, say, if you put it in your spatial storage. You charge it with mana here, which you can do manually or it will work with a mana-gem. Finally, while the insides of the box ‘technically’ occupy the same space when activated, it is not an actual spatial storage space, meaning you can scan it with any Skills you have for that kind of thing.”
Finishing his explanation he looked at his mentor expectantly.
“How long?” Luc asked, still running a hand over one of the boxes.
“Huh?” replied Nate.
“How long did it take you to make this?”
Nate did a quick calculation in his head before responding, “Hmm, the materials only took a few hours. The runes another one or two hours I guess?”
He was pretty confident he had gotten it done in under five hours but he couldn’t remember exactly as he had split the work with Frick and had been working on another rune design for Kiri.
Luc sighed dramatically, “You made this in an afternoon? An afternoon?! At some point I am going to stop being surprised, but today is not it apparently. Do you know how much this would go for at Auction? Well neither do I! But it’s probably a lot! Fuck me, Nate. Just…fuck.”
Nate tried not to laugh. Frick of course wasn’t as polite, cackling as he sat on the table and pretended to mess with Luc’s food by blowing what Nate hoped were fat booger bubbles out of his nose near the man's meat.
“And now you have Kiri to handle a bunch of the business stuff. So, how do I keep myself useful…” thought Luc out loud. “Wider!”
Nate looked at his mentor in confusion, “Come again?”
“We should go wider. If we could get you a student to do the…you know, shit work, we could sell more stuff. But the Capital is kind of a small market. Especially since you know, most of the populace is incredibly poor,” Luc explained, rushing on when he saw Nate’s eyes narrow. “Not their fault, kid. I’m not judging. They got the shit end of the stick, but it’s how it is. Even if you hate it. Most clients are going to be nobility. And they want custom work. Which means revealing you, which we’re not going to do. So we need to look further afield. We need to start selling to Asmuisil and Gashana!”
“Aren’t we, you know, potentially going to war with Asmuisil?” he asked.
Luc waved a hand, “That’s the nobility’s problem. You think that would stop me?”
Nate blinked a couple of times. It made sense, he supposed. Luc doing whatever he wanted was pretty on trend. On the other hand, creating a merchant empire wasn’t really his goal. But if he got to create things, and got paid well for it to fund his development, that could be a good thing. Maybe one day he wouldn’t need to steal mana from the State to fund his work.
Kiri chose that moment to return, dumping a small pile of Stat Orbs onto the table for Nate as she glanced at the three of them, “What did I miss?”
“I’m going to play delivery boy for your growing business,” explained Luc with a grin, punctuating his words by taking a bite out of a hunk of meat.
Nate couldn’t help but laugh as Kiri sat down, pulling a piece of paper out of nowhere and flourished an enchanted quill, “Let’s get your contract written up then.”
The look on Luc’s face was priceless and Nate moved towards the Stat Orbs to see just how much three months of epic tier manerium sales had gotten him. He had absolutely no interest in the intricacies of managing a business and Kiri seemed more than capable of making sure that he was well taken care of. The best part was, he even knew how he was going to handle the production side of things. There was a certain Professor who had a lot to learn, and was no longer a necessity for getting new Sigils. He would just have to make sure Kiri wrote up the contract and bound that one through the System. Maybe, just maybe, when he was done, he could change Etrua for the better. Starting with a certain district in the Slums. If it helped safeguard his paintings, well, that was just some icing on the cake.
Comments
Davi(d)
This is a damn good novel!! No complaints, just happiness
GoodMornin2U2
Thank you for the chapter ^_^
Connor Mcharg
With a pinch of “Nate’s got a very different education, which will inevitably lead to very different ideas”.
Connor Mcharg
The boat’s already rocking a fair bit though, and that’s mostly from him trying to get stronger, not from trying to rock the boat.
Samuel Lévesque
I feel like Nate is doing things out of order... You get strong enough so that you can't be threatened before you try to rock the boat...
Sam
Why not both?
Jason Hardman
Those boxes are only a short step away from making full on portal devices.
C
good chap.
James Squibb
I love this story!
Beggar of Freedom
Divines bless your kind heart!
Jamison Schneider
Can't tell if Nate is an amazing crafter or if everyone else in this world sucks 🤣
