Chapter 26: Caravan Leader Nicholas

At Bru's words, Sharlock quickly took a look through his magic, and sure enough, just like Bru said, out past the dungeon entrance that faced Frostlake City, about half an hour's travel away, a caravan stretched out like a long dragon was headed toward his dungeon. No need to worry about the caravan running into the players, though — right now Sharlock had only opened one entrance for the players, the one leading to the Spider Nest, while the road the caravan was coming down was still shut.

Sharlock told Bru to keep an eye on the dungeon, then headed off on his own toward the great gate on the dungeon's other side.

Meanwhile, the players inside the dungeon were busy as bees, every last one of them scurrying around on quick little legs, each wrapped up in their own business. But when they spotted Sharlock walking out of the dungeon's core hall, a handful of players' eyes latched onto him. And as Sharlock passed the smithy and crossed the training plaza where twenty-odd people were gathered, more and more players started tracking where he was headed.

"Where's Locke going?"

"No idea, dude. Never seen Locke go this way before."

"Wait, is that it? Is the Frostlake City caravan storyline finally going live?"

"Could be. Otherwise Locke hardly ever leaves the core hall."

"Don't miss the story, don't miss the story."

The players stood around loudly chatting, apparently not caring one bit whether Sharlock could hear them, and Moros — who was right there teaching players combat techniques — had already gone slack-jawed. He'd gotten used to these goblins shooting the breeze no matter the occasion, but in front of His Lordship, these goblins still looked as loose and comfy as ever. The real kicker was that His Lordship seemed not to even notice, like it was old news, which dropped Moros into deep thought yet again: clearly His Lordship held these goblins in high regard! Otherwise he wouldn't revive them an unlimited number of times, and he definitely wouldn't be so forgiving of their rudeness. It only hardened Moros's resolve to win His Lordship's favor through hard work!

As for Sharlock, this was old hat by now. Honestly, these days counted as pretty good. When he moved around the dungeon these days, the players just watched him go. Back when he'd first summoned them, though, they'd been like gum stuck to his shoe, glued to him every single day — the second he stepped out of the core hall, they'd tail him. Fine, tailing him, whatever — but then they'd also yap nonstop the whole way.

The only reason they were tagging along now was that news about the Frostlake City caravan had already made the rounds across the forums, which was why Sharlock's movements were suddenly such a must-watch event.

Sharlock ignoring the chattering players trailing behind him didn't mean he'd actually let them follow him the whole way. Once he got up near the entrance, Sharlock walked straight through the magic barrier gate — and the players, naturally, couldn't. They got stuck behind the magic gate, disappointment written all over every one of their faces.

Once through the gate, Sharlock followed the tunnel for a good twenty minutes or so and ran head-on into the caravan.

The caravan was about fifty strong, mostly beastmen, with a sprinkling of goblins, gnomes, and other Underworld creatures mixed in — probably the ones doing the odd jobs.

The caravan had thirty big wagons in tow, every one of them pulled by massive beetle beasts. As the column rolled through the enormous underground passage, you could see the dust clouds churning from ages away, bearing down on Sharlock's dungeon.

The caravan had clearly noticed Sharlock's arrival too, and slowly ground to a halt. Soon a tall, pale-faced figure stepped out of the column, and Sharlock quickly clocked him as a vampire. The vampire hollered over from a distance:

"We are a caravan out of Frostlake City, under the protection of the Merchant Alliance."

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Sharlock blinked, then remembered he was showing up in front of this caravan in full demon form. No surprise the caravan had taken one look at a demon suddenly appearing and figured he was here to rob them.

"Please, no misunderstanding — I am Sharlock, lord of the Eternal Kingdom dungeon. I've come out here to welcome you. Welcome to my dungeon."

Sharlock delivered that with a smile on his face, and the vampire finally let out a breath, hurrying to give Sharlock a bow:

"I am Count Nicholas, leader of this caravan, and I offer you my most sincere respects. Your great name reached us long ago. That someone of your exalted station, Lord Sharlock, would come out to greet us in person — truly, we are overwhelmed."

Sharlock didn't have much love for these polished, polite vampires. They might look like perfect gentlemen, but only two things ever ran through their heads: one, drinking your blood; two, drinking another mouthful.

"You flatter me, you flatter me. Truth is, I did come with a few matters I wanted to discuss with you all."

Sharlock breezed through the pleasantries, then pulled out the proposal he'd had ready for ages — the proposal for the 【CBT1 Event: Frostlake City Caravan】, naturally. Though the contents weren't written in the style of his old world; they were written to the habits and common sense of this Underworld.

Count Nicholas took the proposal Sharlock handed over with a puzzled look and skimmed it. The gist was a set of trading rules for the caravan's stopover business inside the Eternal Kingdom dungeon, plus a few notes:

Nicholas had been in the Merchant Alliance for many years. He'd been to plenty of dungeons and was good friends with a whole roster of demon lords — the intimate kind of friendship where you go out together for a drink of blood and a good thrashing of somebody. When it came to commerce, he was a pro.

Signing a trade agreement between dungeon and merchant before doing business was nothing strange. But trade rules THIS weird? First time in Nicholas's life.

Rule One, no problem whatsoever — most caravan-and-dungeon deals worked exactly like that.

Rule Two, he could understand too. Some open-minded lords let their servants trade with caravans, and Nicholas generally welcomed it — you might snag a precious item off a servant for dirt cheap. But the strictly-barter arrangement was a new one on him.

Rule Three, also understandable. After all, this Lord Sharlock was possibly quite the wealthy Dungeon Lord. Word from the "None Pricier" smithy was that even if he didn't have any magic stones lying around right now, the dungeon was crawling with servants. Nicholas figured this rule was to keep his caravan from tempting those rare servants into defecting.

Rule Four, a little odd, but understandable, same logic as Rule Three. It was worded like a matter of life and death, but Nicholas didn't think the dungeon's servants could trouble him one bit. He was a vampire count — not as exalted in rank as the vampire progenitor, and nowhere near the high-tier demon Sharlock standing before him, but your average dungeon monster wouldn't necessarily dare come near him at all, let alone come ask him weird questions. Harass him? Please — one pulse of his dominating aura and they'd be down on the ground, trembling.

Rule Five nearly had Nicholas laughing out loud. This demon lord in front of him looked young — Nicholas had assumed it was a disguise at first, but it seemed he really was young. Who gets into the Merchant Alliance without being a seasoned merchant with real chops? Nicholas hadn't made it to the point of running his own dungeon yet, but he'd seen plenty: poor dungeons, booming dungeons, even regionally central dungeons like Frostlake City itself. What possible curiosity could the Eternal Kingdom stir in him? He'd seen far stranger dungeons than this one. Still, no point stomping on His Lordship's pride — Nicholas certainly wouldn't let his feelings show.

Questions about the Eternal Kingdom? A powerful rush of curiosity? In his dreams!

As for Rule Six, Nicholas quit reading halfway through. It was all goblin food — nasty AND priced like that? This Lord Sharlock was out to fleece him.

The rest of the terms had no major issues. Nicholas finished reading, signed his name to the document, and shook hands with Sharlock — and with that, the trading rules officially took effect.

Nicholas put on his professional smile:

"I can hardly wait to visit your dungeon, to live in harmony with your servants and forge a deep and lasting friendship, Your Lordship."