Day 65 (Continued):
The translator, who called himself "Andrews," continued to talk with me as he and a small cart pulled by two horses with three human guards made our way up the mountains to where my clan was.
"So, where do you come from? Is it far from here?" I asked him as I led them through a slow-incline route.
"From Volkanis. Very, very far. Took months for 4 to come this far."
"I've never heard of Volkanis," I told him honestly. "My clan and I have been here for only a short amount of time."
"Ah. Volkanis is... uhh, central? Yes, central to the Volreek chiefdom. Many, many people. At least hundreds of dozens."
A hundred hundred dozen.
"You mean a hundred thousand?"
"A thousand? That dozen hundred is?"
This broken "zandali" was really irritating.
"Yes."
Andrews seemed happy to learn new words. "Thank you," he said as he pulled out a small, worn-out notebook and scribbled something in it. "New word. Make books."
"Oh?" I inquired.
"Hobby translate is mine," he said excitedly in his still broken Zandali. "Make books. Hope to see people learn."
I nodded along. It was a good cause, I supposed. He would be leaving something of worth behind, even with his death, should he accomplish it.
"So, big clan, how?"
"You mean 'How big is the clan?'"
He nodded and scribbled something down again.
"Ehhh," I muttered as I thought about it. "Fifty."
"Fifty?" he looked up at me.
"Yeah, but I expect more people to join us soon, like those fairies."
"Fairy!"
The word "fairy" caught every human off guard.
"Fairy in your clan?"
I nodded. "Fifteen of them. Twelve of them joined a few days ago, and a few not too long after that."
They looked troubled, and I wondered why.
"Ah, we're almost there."
They looked ahead and were surprised to see our fort.
"Not a village?" Andrews asked.
I shook my head. "Bullywugs attack everyone. If we were going to survive, we needed a good, solid wall to depend on."
"Have you taken a long time?"
"...Okay, what?"
He looked down at his note and began to murmur something. "Ah! Must have taken a long time?"
"Close. Taken long time is what you were looking for. But no, not really. Two days or so?"
Andrews Maulta was a very learned man, even among merchants, scholars, and traders. As a quarter human and three-quarters high elf, he had a long lifespan and had used it so far for much.
At 15 years old, he had been apprenticed to one of the master alchemists of the Volreek Empire. By 25, he had been given the title of an alchemist journeyman. He applied himself to the invention and production of alchemic goods, and by the age of 51, he had been acknowledged by his peers as a master alchemist. Then, when he hit 60, a spry young man by elf standards, he quit his alchemy profession and delved into engineering. Then he moved on to arcane magic. And finally, after spending three hundred years doing all that, he had arrived here to meet this red troll as a master linguist.
Language, he found at the age of 261, was something he enjoyed learning.
Like how much you can curse another person in an ancient language, and others wouldn't even know about it.
But perhaps the main reason outside of his joy of learning, he had gotten into language because it helped to promote trade. While he had quit being a master alchemist, master magician of the transfiguration branch, and master civil engineer, it didn't mean he quit business related to those.
Oh no. In fact, he was one of the wealthiest, most politically powerful, and most desired bachelor in the Volreek Empire. On top of that, he was a family friend of the current dynasty of the empire, too!
But this red troll was odd. Like an adventurer odd, odd. This troll wasn't hostile to humans, which was generally the case (there's a reason why one can't find trolls in a big city). On top of that, he had fairies, the pinnacle of what could be called the good of nature joining his "clan." Then he says kobolds, one of the most bloodthirsty races to ever live, mines like a dwarf.
The troll was confusing, but perhaps it was not a bad thing.
The horses made it all the way up to the fort—what were we calling it anyway?- and the humans were surprised to see the fairies working with another troll in tending a garden of all things.
One of them decided to rant and was speaking at a pace way too fast, with spittle flying everywhere.
Andrews looked troubled.
"What's he saying?" I asked Andrews, pointing at the ranting guard.
"Fairy is holy. Is good of nature. M...Monsters is not. They hurt others. Humans trolls consider monster."
I scratched my chin. "Why?"
Andrews blinked. "Trolls hurt others?" he asked, stating it.
I sighed. "So even though I didn't do anything, I'm lumped with them? Even though by me having this fort here, I probably saved some of your lives?"
He looked serious all of a sudden. "Saved lives how?"
"A hundred or so bullywugs were about to pass through here towards your general direction a few days ago," I replied, and Andrews paled immediately. "See what I mean?"
Andrews immediately relayed something to the other humans, and they looked at me ... skeptically?
Eh, not that I cared.
"Oi, you can decide on whatever after you see the dump pit."
"Dump pit?"
I told Andrews to leave his men and the cart there, and told Dori and the fairies to tell the others to not bother the humans. Then I led Andrews to one of the peaks, and told him to look over.
He did so, and paled.
This was after all where we dumped the dead bullywug bodies.
He nodded. "Many bodies. Sorry for not believing."
I shrugged. "I wouldn't believe that our small clan could fend off all those if it hadn't happened already," I told him. "But now, let's get back to the fort, shall we? We do need to discuss how we are going to trade."
He nodded enthusiastically. I wondered if it was because of the bodies we were leaving behind or the trade that he seems to want so badly.
"So what do you have for trade?" I asked him as we made our way back.
"Some seed, some food, some fur. Many ores and ingots," he replied. "Some potions, too."
I nodded along. I guessed that Andrews was a broad trader, not focusing on just one or two specific items.
"Let's discuss the details inside the fort," I said with a grin as we approached the garden again. This time, I led him in through the gate.
In the past three days, I haven't been making maps. Instead, I had been building up houses, storage, and other infrastructure within the fort. As a result, there were now two sleeping halls built into two sides of the round fort, a single storage building that we dubbed "barn," and an open area where Shirou and I worked our magic. Well, it was mostly Shirou with his tracing and smithing; I hardly did anything there except to sharpen my own weapons.
Speaking of which...
"Do you trade weapons?" I asked Andrews as I led him to the off-center of the fort, where there was a single table and benches. The bench had been Shirou's idea. He said something about needing space to sit and a table to eat. One of the human guards had followed, and I gestured for them to sit on the other side of the table.
They did so.
"No. The law says trading non-listed races is not allowed."
"Non-listed?" I asked him. This was new.
He nodded. "Wait." Then he pulled out a ... stick? He waved it over himself and then at me. I used [Observe].
Spell: Spark of Minor Translation
*Helps to ease translation of language, but does not translate by itself.
"Do I speak better now?" Andrews asked.
I gave him the stink.
"Why didn't you use this in the first place?" I asked him.
He just smiled. "Then I wouldn't have learned new words."
I scoffed. "Are you trying to piss me off?"
He chuckled. "Of course not. But how am I to make a book on Zandali if I never learned it? If I offended you, I apologize. But back to the topic at hand, the human kingdoms have a list of races that each allow into their kingdom without a fuss. For the Volreek Empire, this list of races is longer than others, but it does not include races like trolls, orcs, ogres, kobolds, goblins, imps, and the like."
"Why not?"
"Well, trolls aren't included simply because there aren't too many of them in the area of the Volreek Empire. Most of them are concentrated in these regions and the jungles further south. Kobolds aren't because they raid human settlements. Orcs, ogres, and goblins are known to attack and eat humans."
I stared at him for a few moments before throwing my hands up. "Whatever," I said as I brought my hands back down. "So, why do you want the sunstone?"
He blinked. "You do not know of its properties?" he asked, surprised.
"Well, it glows, but that's about it," I replied. "I was never interested in rocks when I had to fight off bullywugs and keep them on their toes so that they wouldn't attack us."
Dresa used this moment to bring out the gemstone she had a particular fondness for. "This one is what I am not trading because it's the first I mined," she said as she crossed her arms.
He nodded. "Then I propose a trade: all the sunstones you could spare for all the iron ores I could provide. A 1-stone of my palm size for quadruple its weight in iron."
I looked at him in surprise. Why would he trade away iron so easily like that? It was a hard commodity to fin-
...
Iron was a hard commodity to find around here, but did this hold for other parts of the world?
'[Observe],' I mentally intoned as I stared at the sunstone that Dresa had brought so we could study it.
Name: Sunstone
Quality: Uncommon
Description: Sunstones are rare gems found in only certain regions of the world where parts of the sky are said to have fallen en masse. They are capable of holding large quantities of mana and, as such, act as a battery for many magical societies that can afford them. On top of that, a good artificer can fashion sunstone in jewelry that can be used for magic. The value of the sunstone rises as it shows how much mana it can hold.
And the one before me was solid. Like a yellow, milky, cloudy solid.
"Ten times."
Andrews looked shocked. "What?!"
"If the sunstone is as valuable as you say it is, then I see no reason to raise the price for it," I told him. "Besides, our fort here protected some of your lives. From what I also know, solid milky colors like these tend to be able to make brighter lights in the dark, unlike the crystal-clear ones," I added. "I guess that's what you were also looking for, am I not correct?"
The man's lips twitched a bit.
I chuckled. I understood what kind of a man Andrews was. He was a businessman. He approached me in a friendly way, in case I could help him. Then he suggested a trade without actually telling me the value of the sunstone. He only said it was valuable, and for a "country bumpkin" like myself, who didn't seem much, providing cheap iron from somewhere else for priceless goods like the sunstone was a good deal for him. Unfortunately for him, I had [Observe] on my side, and with it, the ability to discern the details of anything and everything.
Of course, he didn't know this.
"That is too much to ask for, regardless," Andrews countered. "I was actually being generous with my proposition."
"And I'm supposed to take your word for it? Please remember that while we are cordial with each other now, I don't truly know you."
"Then you'll have to trust my word."
"Then forgive me for not believing. I don't think the sunstones that you seemed to be so eager to get your hands on are worth so little. For us, they are a safe light that will ward off possible predators, an essential protection that we cannot just trade away for a meager return."
He conceded that. "Fine then. Seven times its weight in iron."
"Eleven times."
"What? You can't just pull up your price like that! That's not how you negotiate!"
"Your willingness to concede so easily to an increase in the exchange rate says I could. After all, if you are being generous with the rates here, then you would've lowered it instead of bringing the rates up."
"Fine. Nine."
I thought about it for a while. "I could deal with that," I said as I held out my hand.
He looked at it in surprise again. "You are familiar with human customs?"
I looked at him quizzically. "No, this is our custom. We shake hands to seal the deal," I replied.
He shrugged. And then he shook my hand. "It seems that humans and trolls aren't too different," he replied.
"How so? Because of the custom?"
He shook his head. "Both of us are shrewd."
Unfortunately, I was not able to set up a trade agreement as I had hoped. But I was able to clear him out of any iron that he had. Shirou looked completely ecstatic, while Dresa looked a bit too off about having to trade away her sunstones. Her pout remained until Shirou reminded her that he could easily make her a better pickaxe. Her pout disappeared faster than candlelight against a storm.
I escorted the humans back to their caravan and waved them goodbye.
Quest Complete!
Reward:
*+500 kilograms of iron ingots.
*+1000 EXP
*+3 LvLs of Negotiation skill.
LvL Up!
+4 WIS
+2 INT
Character Status by the end of Day 65:
Naruto [Imp Ruto] [Troll Ruto]
LvL 46
The Gamer
HP: 168.5(+143) (+1.5 HP per hour regen)
Mana: 710 (+5.9 per minute regen)
STR: 286
DEX: 85
AGI: 95
END: 120
INT: 92
WIS: 100
CHA: 49
Unused Points: 42
Spirit: 35
Magic: 24
Power: 30
Traits Taken + Earned:
Ambitious, Quick, Genius, Cynical, Stressed, Content, Teacher[Neutral] (Unavailable), Power Overwhelming, Strength is Key
Focus:
Growing
Racial Traits:
Beast Slaying (max)
Troll Blood (max)
Skills:
Archery (LvL 2)
Ambush (LvL 7)
Baiting (LvL 22)
Blade Mastery (LvL 10)
Charging (LvL 8)
Clairvoyance (LvL 1)
Crafting (LvL 5) - Construction (Subskill)(LvL 1)
Fishing (LvL 9)
Intimidation (LvL 7)
Leadership (LvL 9)
Listening (LvL 14)
Mapping (LvL 2)
Negotiation (LvL 4)
Observe (LvL 41) + Structural Analysis (Reveals Physical/Chemical/Magical properties of target if LvL of Observe is high enough)
Physical Durability (LvL 4
Projection (LvL 5)
Running (LvL 19)
Sonar (LvL 7)
Throwing (LvL 11)
Trapping (LvL 22)
Ironwood Clan:
8 Trolls (WoW)
3 Onis
1 Faze
1 Kobold (D&D)
22 imps (WoW + D&D)
15 fairies
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