Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 76: Business Tactics

Calrin looked over the reports and agreements strewn on his table, his feelings not much better compared to when he was holed up waiting for the Tsarun Clan to hunt him down. He had cried in relief when someone finally purchased their headquarters, the window with the teleportation prompt looking like a writ of amnesty.

He had thought that the Thayer Consortia would be able to slowly regroup and recover on this new world. The newly integrated planets and continents were filled with valuables that needed a buyer, and the natives seldom knew the worth of what they held in their hands. A single trade could result in a profit that would cover expenses for months.

But who would’ve expected that they got placed on a deserted island instead of some burgeoning town. Apart from a shipyard there wasn’t a single building, and the Merchant’s Window showed that Port Atwood, as the presumptive town was called, only housed one solitary citizen; its Lord.

Worse yet was the Lord’s companion, the System-blasted Demon. For a second Calrin was ecstatic when he heard that the Lord controlled an actual Nexus Crystal Mine. That meant there was a Nexus Vein on the island, and sooner or later things like farms with valuable plants would pop up. Even cultivators would relocate here for the high density of energy, which would only help business further.

Until then he would be able to turn a tidy profit buying the crystals and reselling them through the Mercantile System. A native had no idea of value of things, and if they added a larger margin, who would know?

But that Demon wasn’t actually a native, but a defected invader. He ruthlessly started to pressure down the profit margins to a razor’s edge, even threatening them with a trade embargo. He obviously had a general idea of the Thayer Corporation’s situation and knew that if they didn’t produce some profit and turnover, the System would rescind their business license.

Gone were the dreams of a mighty comeback, replaced with a nightmare of toiling under a demonic taskmaster for little to no profits.

Zac was quite happy with the result of the negotiations as he moved through the forest. Ogras kept proving his worth as a teammate. The little genie, whose race was actually called Sky Gnomes, made a big production of support and mutual cooperation after he heard about the Nexus Crystal Mine. After almost wiping away a tear of self-sacrifice he offered the most generous price of 35 Nexus Coins per Crystal.

The price seemed to have awoken a dragon in Ogras, and he started making a scene. It turned out that the value of a crystal was actually closer to 50 Nexus Coins, and after subtracting transaction costs for using the Mercantile System and some profit for the merchant, the crystals were generally bought for 44 to 46 crystals at most merchant shops. The price-gouging System-run stores only gave 35 crystals though, and it seemed that the gnome planned on offering the same price and pocketing the difference.

What followed was an almost surreal exchange between the gnome and the demon, where the demon initially wanted to get 54 coins per crystals, forcing the trading firm to eat a loss at each trade.

The gnome tried every trick in the book to keep the prices reasonable in order to make some profit. At one point he had even tearfully ordered one of the clerks to fetch a noose, as he said he would ‘rather hang himself than keep suffering this kind of injustice’. Not long after the noose was long forgotten, and instead the chairman paraded two little Gnome Children in front of Zac and the Ogras.

They were some of the cutest things Zac had ever seen, but they were wearing frayed clothing and looked hungry with large puppy-dog eyes. Zac was tempted to stop the demon at this point, but Ogras waved him away and ruthlessly pushed forward. Zac did however spot the demon surreptitiously place candies in each of the kid’s hands, without pausing in his screaming contest with Calrin.

Ogras’ trade tactic was simpler, as it was just a long stream of threats, insults, and angry gestures. He tried everything from threatening to fill the area with competing businesses to enacting trade embargoes on the Sky Gnomes.

Finally, the price they agreed upon was 47 Nexus Coin per refined crystal, a rate that obviously was one of the best one could get without selling them directly to a customer who needed them. Both Ogras and Calrin was heaving and sweating at this point, looking like they had just finished an arduous battle. Zac quickly handed over 11 000 crystals, and immediately received 517 000 Nexus Coins in return.

Next, Zac asked about a pill that could help with his situation with his pathways, but as expected the little gnome had nothing of that quality in the store. He did however promise to acquire one through his channels, but it didn’t look like he even believed himself.

Content, Zac and Ogras left as there wasn’t much else of value to buy in the shop. Besides, both of them were suffering from a lack of funds at the moment. Ogras told him that the System had confiscated all the demons’ nexus coins when they stayed on Earth, but Zac wasn’t convinced. After watching the previous display he was more inclined to believe that he simply refused to expose any hidden wealth.

Not long after they were done at the consortium they parted ways, with Ogras heading to the camp to start converting more raw crystals he had ‘found’ in the town. Meanwhile, Zac headed toward the mines to start mining himself while staying in the energy-rich atmosphere of the tunnels. Ogras estimated the daily turnover from the mine to be roughly 5 000 crystals now that most of the demons were gone and they were short on man-power.

That meant that together with whatever Zac managed to excavate the daily Nexus Coin gain would be roughly 250 000. It didn’t seem like too much compared to the prices of some of the structures in the Town Shop, but it was a steady source of wealth that could be increased as soon as more citizens arrived. And judging from the tunnels he had walked through before, the crystals would last for years.

That meant that before the horde arrived he would be able to afford the [E-Grade Medium Scale Town Defense Array] array he had spotted earlier for 5 000 000 Nexus Coins, and even add in some more fortifications.

After walking for half a day and killing a barghest every now and then, Zac finally reached the mines once again. Less than two days had actually passed since he last was here, but it felt like much longer for some reason.

After walking some distance into the tunnels he felt the air had filled up to the density of cosmic energy that suffused the depths and going any further wouldn’t make the environment any better. Unless he went to that cave he woke up in, but it was too far into the mountain for convenience.

Thus began Zac’s monotone days down in the mines. On the first day he only focused on recuperation and seeing whether staying here actually helped with his situation. He expended some cosmic energy by using the guidance system, and was ecstatic to notice that he actually recovered quicker here compared to at his camp. It looked like the demon had told the truth. The difference was small though, but it gave Zac some hope.

The following day he retrieved Alyn, enlisting her as a private teacher to go through various subjects about the System, Cultivation and the Multi-Verse. Every time he paused after having furiously whacked at the mines for a few hours they would go over some subject. Alyn also helped him recruit a few ranger demons that would lead a barghest to a patch of grass next to the mine entrance. It was the closest spot that System considered a forest, and killing a beast there did advance his quest.

After two days of trials he learned that he only needed to kill a monster every hour, and then that whole hour would be considered as “fighting in the forest”. After that his daily life took on a very structured schedule.

He’d mine for roughly 45 minutes, then run out of the caves to kill a barghest. After running back to his mine-shaft he’d have a mini-lecture of 5 minutes with Alyn while he had a small break, before starting mining again. He felt a bit bad for the demoness having to just fiddle around for 55 minutes an hour, but she seemed perfectly content taking out a book and read in a comfortable couch. And Zac guessed it beat toiling to erect a wall.

On the fourth day Zac got ten identical axes to the two he had from a scared-looking demon. It looked like it would take some time until they warmed up to him. He didn’t want to use other weapons even while mining, and instead used his weapon of choice. His mining wasn’t only for gaining wealth, but also to improve his proficiency with his axes.

Every time he hit into the wall, no matter if it was with the edge, the spike, or the butt, he tried to remember the trajectories and methods that he learned from the guidance system. He had realized that while blindly following the paths had made him stronger, there was a limit. If he wanted to truly improve he needed to internalize the teachings and understand why he swung like he did.

He realized that just some small differences in how he applied force, or a slight change in angle on impact, could have a huge difference in how much rock he managed to cut. As Zac progressed through the days more and more rock started to gather at his feet. His furious assault on the mountain walls kept damaging the axes, and he was forced to keep circulating them and let the old ones rest.

As time passed he felt that his pathways were truly slowly healing, as every day he could sense his recovery speed had increased a bit. Still, the improvement was very limited, and he wasn’t sure if he’d make it in time for the beast horde.

If he had to point out one negative about his current lifestyle was the complete and utter lack of progression in levels. He unequipped his amulet long ago, and the few barghest he killed per day could barely move his level forward.

Zac had simply run out of targets on the island. The demons and their beast hordes were some sorts of allies by now, leaving only the small critters in the forest. There also were the salamanders, but those huge lumbering beasts were too few and far in between to actually be an effective target for improving further.

He knew that he would likely get more targets than he could wish for as soon as the beast hordes arrived, but it clearly showed the long term problem that he had outgrown the island. If he wanted to improve further he needed to venture out into the world.