Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 72: Thayer Consortia

Calrin despondently surveyed the various reports strewn about his table. Twenty thousand years of heritage teetered on the brink of destruction, all under his watch. He knew that he was partly to blame for the situation, but others were far more culpable.

’Greed is the fuel which push us forward. Honor is the compass which keeps the course.’

That was the creed inlaid under the painting of his ancestor, hung behind him in an ornate frame. He didn’t need to turn around to know the words, or to remember every single detail of their ancestor’s face. The slight upward tug of his mouth, the ever-present Ancient Empire coin in his hand, ceaselessly whirling between his fingers. The mischievous light in his eyes that seemed to see through all lies and posturing.

Almarillo Thayer was born a beggar in a lowly E-graded word on decline. He had no family, no education, and no prospects, but through his intellect and drive he managed to become an assistant to a shop-clerk. From there he gained the Assistant class, the first step which ended with him founding the [Thayer Consortia], a System-sanctioned mercantile corporation with branches in hundreds of worlds, and its headquarters located on a bustling C-Ranked continent.

Those awe-inspiring offices were long pawned off, even before Calrin Thayer was born. For the last five hundred years, the company had been in a steady decline. Calrin, with his quick wits and solid business acumen, was chosen to steer the company back on course and was given the chairman position at the young age of 80. But all he accomplished was the reduction of branches from 26 to one last struggling location.

He knew the cause wasn’t only himself. His family remembered the first half of their founder’s creed perfectly well, but the second half had gotten blurred over the years. Shady and short-sighted business practices made them lose a few branches and simultaneously made them quite a few enemies. A few family members even betrayed the Thayer name for personal wealth, and even if they were eventually found out the damage was already done.

But the downfall started for real roughly 25 years ago. The great Tsarun Clan had turned their avaricious gazes toward the Thayer Consortia. Or rather, at the Mercantile License their founder gained all those years ago. The license was something awarded by the system, and not something that could be forced away or stolen. Even eradicating the whole Thayer family wouldn’t do any good, and would even result in a punishment by the System.

But a business license could be seized through business. Normally it should be almost impossible to snatch a license from a sanctioned corporation, and it would be far easier to try to gain one through normal means. But between the Thayer Consortia being in tatters and the Tsarun Clan’s vast connections and wealth, they actually managed to incrementally bring down their corporation, one world at a time.

If they lost their last branch as well the System would void the Thayer Consortia’s license, and revoke access to the multi-verse Mercantile System, rendering them completely and utterly powerless. The merchant’s protection they currently enjoyed would disappear as well, and Tsarun clan would begin a wholesale slaughter of the remaining family members. No need to risk a come-back, after all.

Calrin desperately tried to open up new branches to keep the situation afloat. He had tried every means, such as lowering the requirements or offering great rates on various common resources. He even tried bribing various fledgling city lords, but nothing worked. Between the machinations of the Tsarun’s elders and the awful reputation his consortia had amassed due to multiple scandals no one would place their branches in their cities. And if they did it would soon be closed after a visit from a Tsarun clan emissary.

His intellect strained to find some way out, but the numbers in the reports were clear. In 3 days their last branch would be declared defunct, and he would have to flee for his life.

It was time for one last desperate gambit.

Zac skipped sleep that night in favor of watching his pile of wealth grow. He unceasingly kept throwing sack after sack of crystals into the chute, and then ran over to the other side to gleefully gather the refined crystals. A completely filled bag had taken roughly 10 minutes to completely process, and it resulted in around 200 finished crystals.

That meant that the machine could refine almost 30 000 crystals every single day, which should be enough for the mining operations for now. Instead of the numerous sacks he now carried exactly 11 328 crystals, including the first ones he had stolen.

In the downtime he kept training his axe-work. He only dared to use half of his cosmic energy to activate the [Axe Mastery] guidance system, leaving the rest as a backup. Then he let his body slowly recharge the energy, instead of using any aids.

The beast hordes were coming, and it was a real possibility he might have to face the sea of monsters without the aid of his skills. He needed to get faster, stronger, and better at using his axe. He remembered how all his moves were in vain against the demon leader. The difference between them hadn’t been skills or attribute points, it was the huge difference in technique.

Around midnight the sounds of activity from the shipyard ebbed out, and Zac guessed the transformations were done. He kept going for about another five hours until all the refinement was done. Luckily the Furnace seemed to need neither rest nor maintenance, and unceasingly spit out crystals as long as it had something to process.

The next step was to get a shop to sell the crystals in order to start shoring up the defenses of the town. Since the transformation was complete for the shipyard he didn’t really need to worry about gossipy shop clerks leaking the secret, but as he opened the Town Shop he paused after a few seconds.

Initially his idea had been to buy the only store that he was able to purchase at the moment, which was the System-run one.

He was, of course, loath to buy it after hearing about the ridiculous prices since he believed that the System would give equally abysmal rates on crystals as well. Unfortunately, none of the privately-run businesses in the multi-verse deemed his island good enough to open up a branch at the moment. However, that had changed since he last checked the store.

In a sea of red, a green-marked shop had silently appeared, called [Thayer Consortia, Headquarters]. For some reason this shop was not only ready to open a branch at his island, but it actually wanted to move its headquarters here. When he opened the store he realized that it wasn’t luck that he somehow managed to fill all its criteria. The Thayer Consortia had removed every single normal restriction such as population and security and only demanded two things. First, they required a far larger space compared to the other shops. Secondly, they required the world to be within three years of integration to the multi-verse.

At first glance it looked like a God-given gift, but he wanted to wait for Ogras before he did anything. If something seemed too great to be true, it usually was. Zac felt that it was fishy that a large corporation would move their headquarters to a place like earth. Any newly integrated planet should be quite chaotic and poor, and should be a bad place to move your business to.

Perhaps they weren’t actually traders, but rather bandits who wanted to gain access to a new world through the outpost, and then start a massacre when they arrived. Even if it was an opportunity he’d forgo it rather than potentially making a fatal mistake. As it was still quite early Zac decided to get a few hours of sleep while he waited for Ogras. He simply sat down with his back to the furnace, and went asleep with his axe in hand.

After who knows how long Zac was awakened by a loud sound. Immediately alert he jumped to his feet, axe at the ready. Soon he relaxed though as he saw the now familiar face of the demon outside his array. Ogras seemed content to just stand there and idle about, so Zac ventured outside to meet up with him.

“What are you doing?”

“Basic etiquette not to enter someone’s array without permission. It’s an easy way to get your head cut off,” the demon answered off-handedly. “By the way, impressive work with the little demoness. She’s growing a third horn now in her forehead,” he added with a snicker.

“Well, tell her I’m sorry about that. Couldn’t have her scream after I left. Anyways, I need to ask you something,” Zac answered with a shrug, and proceeded to share the window of the Thayer Consortia while explaining his concerns.

“Hmm… Very interesting. You don’t have to worry about them being raiders, as The Ruthless Heavens place extremely strict restrictions on those who use the Mercantile System. Even if a shop-clerk turned out to be an A-Ranker Hegemon in disguise he wouldn’t be able to do anything to you.” Ogras explained.

“So, isn’t this a great opportunity then? They demand quite a bit of space, but that shouldn’t be a problem.” Zac eagerly asked.

“Well, they are merchants for certain, but there is something wrong with them wanting to come here. They likely are escaping something. It’s almost impossible to find a baby world except by going through an incursion, so they are excellent places to hide out in. So if you accept them you’ll likely have a bunch of refugees rather than well-stocked merchants.” Ogras explained.

“So kind of like you demons then?” Zac retorted gruffly, annoyed that the golden opportunity didn’t turn out so golden after all.

“Cough... well, something like that. The thing is that if they are forced to flee here, they will likely be barely stocked at all with items and crystals, and will have an abysmal support system for acquiring treasures in the multi-verse. Only moving their headquarters here might completely clean them out. So even if you wanted to task them with finding some specific item they’d probably not be able to help you out.”

“So which should I buy? The system-run store or this Thayer Corporation?” Zac didn’t understand how the so-called Mercantile System worked, and could only ask for directions for now.

“You should get the headquarters. They are likely desperate for sanctuary, and will be extremely weak in negotiations,” Ogras said with a ruthless grin. “After all, since you will pretty much be their only customer for a while you can single-handedly run them out of business if they don’t comply”.

Zac felt a bit of sympathy for this Thayer company that was forced to escape some unknown hardship, only to be exploited here on Demon Island. Well, he didn’t really have a good time being stuck here, so why should anyone else?