Chapter 2107: Only Two Stops

Rue led the group of three Captains through the city to the Guild Hall, with only a few short stops along the way. One to place an order with the Darklight Silk Emporium for their bulk clothing and raw cloth needs, and one more to purchase a variety of cakes and pastries from one of the bakeries along the main road.

That one wasn’t a planned stop, but it was hard to turn down when the shop smelled so good.

It was a pitfall that many first time visitors to the city succumbed to, and patrons at the Lycan’s Den Tavern often joked that visiting Elders would need armour adjustments if it weren’t for System Bonded gear.

The Dungeons were as much a workout program to burn excess calories from the bakeries at this point as they were a source of wealth and rare resources.

And the Darklight Host was making the very best of it.

Almost all the members were going into the dungeon regularly, from the Elders all the way down to those who had only recently finished forming their Immortal Spirits. Even the ones who rarely left the Tiny World were making daily outings.

Often along with Thor’s team, so the Behemoth could send them back at the end of the day, though Karl had opened an access inside the Guild House, in the replica of the Drodh Library, hidden in the city outside the window of the tower, near where Remi’s Alchemy labs were.

That was purely a practical matter, as the Alchemy Labs needed product, and they were busy both in the Tiny World and in the Guild House.

But they preferred to go back directly and not make a show out of how many people came in and out of the Guild House every day.

Even Dana and the beasts were often invited along on dungeon runs, either by the Guild or by visitors.

Rae had just returned from one, where she was working on her ability to make more spider constructs, without much success, when the clothing order was placed. That made for an excellent day. First, plenty of killing in a difficulty four dungeon, and then fancy clothing for the Elves, who had excellent taste.

Of course, the Elves weren’t buying entirely for themselves, they were buying both for themselves and for shops that their associates ran on dry land, which catered to the upscale audiences.

There was no need to ship low value clothing across the continent, they could make it locally.

But for the higher end fancy clothing, it was a point of pride to have it imported.

The group was met at the door by Karl and Eryman, and then headed directly to the back room where the meetings were usually held. It was far from the only option, but it had become tradition by now, and the Elves had already been informed of the usual procedure by the ones who had come before them.

None of these Captains had been here before, but they did know Eryman, who said that they had delivered Darklight Host goods to his auctions.

So, the Elves must be trading among themselves to distribute goods before they made it to land.

Which likely meant that the best stuff was never even making it to auction, as the Captains were taking it for themselves out of the profit off the shipment.

That was fine, though.

The Elves weren’t a militant force, for the most part. They were known for piracy, and attacks on rival trading groups. But they had never been known to launch a full scale attack on another faction.

Their presence still attracted attention from the visiting Elders, especially when Eryman was with Karl to welcome them to the Guild House.

Those two spending time together was a growing concern for most of the region, as they had no idea what they were plotting, and little faith that the publicly rumoured nonaggression pact was both real and really going to be enforced.

If they were actually just agreeing not to attack each other, and not to attack in general, that spelled doom for many of the smaller factions in both regions.

Perhaps for the larger ones as well.

But if the two of them were working with the Blue Elves?

That would be an alliance that was not only well supplied, with millions of zealous followers, but a supply line that the rest of the factions on the continent. could only dream about. Having the Elves move goods around the continent for their armies would allow them to march into a city, take the docks, and then get a steady supply of reinforcements and food for the duration of the siege.

Once that was accomplished, they could simply move inland, and the rest of the alliance was doomed.

However, in the meeting room, the topic of discussion was much more mundane.

The three of them were drinking fruit juice, and looking over the intended shipment details, with both the buyer and the City Lord of the purchasing region in attendance.

"You know, this is possibly the easiest negotiation that I’ve ever been in. We already know what is going to sell before we do anything, and we don’t even need to argue about it. Plus, we can just openly order the pieces that we want for ourselves, instead of pretending that they’re going to go to auction."

Karl laughed. "You could always do that. I don’t discriminate between intended purposes. The other Captains just like to be mysterious and pretend that the buyer is not them.

Though, sometimes it isn’t, but that’s not really my business.

Now, Lord Eryman has some concerns about the weapons going to his auction houses when there is an imminent war."

The Captains nodded. "Indeed. We have been concerned about the same thing, both from a pricing standpoint, and from a retaliation standpoint.

If some idiot gets it in their head that we’re on another team’s side, it hurts our business."

Eryman chuckled. "Yes, there should be no mistakes about what team you’re on. Now, if you can limit the number of Peerless Weapons, and focus more heavily on armour and accessories, I would appreciate it.

Having the Church members buy defensive items only reduces the death toll, it doesn’t encourage them to do stupid things like launch attacks thinking their new weapons will turn the tide."