Chapter 491: Real Business with Real Businessmen

The end of their rest period came far to quickly for either Veem or Notveem. There was a loud pounding that matched the pounding in their heads. Neither had experienced anything like this before, but they did have memories of some creatures complaining loudly in the morning about their nocturnal activities. The two sentient cave mantis didn't understand everything about mammal psychology, and they tended to ignore things like this. But personal experience was a great teacher.

The pounding came again. "Yo! I hear moaning and groaning inside, so I know you lived through the night. Heard you tied one on. But I've got business with you, so suck it up and get out here." There was the melodic jingling of gold coins, a sound the mantis normally delighted to hear.

"As senior mantis, I order you to handle this customer, Notveem."

"Senior by only one minute, but it does make a difference. You are so much more clever than I, and only you can deal best with this customer. I will assist from here on the floor."

Abruptly, the front cover of their stall was thrown back over the roof, exposing them to light, which made everything worse. A large, heavily muscled humanoid was standing in front of their stall, annoyance written on her face. "Let's get a move on here! I was told there were two serious business men who wanted to do some serious business. Where are they?"

Veem levered himself up and assisted Notveem. They straightened their hats, adjusted their bowties, and walked carefully to the counter where they found a large, belligerent orc who was tapping her fingers loudly on the counter, her fingernails putting deep divots into the wood.

"We are here, Madame."

She scoffed, "You two? You look like someone who drank until half-past-dawn and got ten minutes shuteye."

Both mantis nodded, "That describes our nocturnal activities as we scouted this fine city for business prospects."

She laughed, "Meaning you found out that your old, expensive, imported mulch isn't in vogue any longer and you'll be packing those heavy boxes around for the rest of your lives. I can see why you tied one on."

Both professional businessmen looked at the heavy boxes of mulch and expensive additives, and their complete lack of customers. Veem looked her in the eye. "It is not so bad, you say you wish to do business with us, and you have entered the pre-haggling phase where you disparage our goods. I will counter by saying that these fine items are worth twice the value we are asking for them."

Notveem was happy to observe this scene. It was where Veem shined, being able to out-haggle anyone. His reputation had grown so much that many customers paid 20% above what Veem would normally settle for, just to save time. The orc, however, was unaware of that reputation.

"Don't have time for any of that haggling shit. Waste of both of our times and I've got things to do. I'll take the crap off your hands at 10% of your original asking price. I'm not picky and I'm taking all it and I'll have it gone in an hour so you can get some nap time in."

That sounded very good to Notveem and he nudged Veem and whispered to him, "Perhaps less haggling today, a nap does sound good."

Veem glared and whispered back, "Never! Watch as I wear her down until she begs to accept my original terms."

He straightened his hat again, pushing it forward on his head to indicate he was ready to bargain hard. "Please, such an offer is insulting, I could not live with myself if I even considered it. I will accept 90% of value if you take all items, but that is the lowest I can go."

The orc shrugged, "I'm going to go find whoever said you two wanted to do business and punch them into the next city. Have a nice nap." She turned and strode away. Veem was in shock, this was not how the Myconians or anyone he'd dealt with haggled, although he had to admit that Cazact had handled most of the transactions dealing with non-myconians. Notveem was smirking at him, which caused him to be hasty. He leaped over the counter and rushed after the orc.

"Madame, wait! We had just begun our business!"

She turned, looking annoyed, "And I ended it. 10%, take it or leave it, and you left it." She started to turn around, and Veem laid a foreleg on her muscular arm. "Wait."

Before he could react, her hand grabbed him by the throat and hoisted him in the air, forelegs and legs flailing. "Oh no you don't. You may think it's alright to stalk and assault a young lady in some other city, but not here, and not with me. I've half a mind to pop your head off your shoulders."

Veem had never found a female that he liked enough to lose his head over, and certainly this wasn't the one. Her threat was real though, and his neck carapace was cracking. He croaked out.

"25% of value, and 30% on all extracts!"

"Nope. And now I have to kill you. Too persistent. Must be those stalking instincts."

"Very well said, I apologize for my instincts. 15%!!!"

She shook her head, and shook him around like a dog shakes a toy he's playing with. "5%."

Veem's eyes bulged, and not just from the lower offer. "5?! You said 10%!"

"And you should have taken that offer. Now it's 5%. Want to try for 3%? I'm sure your partner will take it after I pop off your head."

Notveem had come slowly to where the orc held his egg-brother high in the air. "Yes, now that you mention that, I probably would."

Veem screamed, "Please, Madame! I beg you, let us return to our opening bids and I will gladly accept 10% and we will forget about any accidental stalking."

She considered for a moment, "Disappointing, I was in a head popping mood, but... I was sent here to do business. Offer accepted. Let's go write it up and I'll pay you and let you get that nap." She dropped Veem in the dirt and strode confidently to the stall where she took paper and stylus from a pouch and began adding up the merchandise.

Notveem helped his brother up. "I like the way you had her begging at the end."

Veem brushed himself off and stated huffily, "You would have settled for 3%. I got 10%. Let that be a lesson to you in how to haggle."

"Oh, I learned much in this encounter. Thank you for the lesson, brother. I notice you neglected to stipulate the type of payment we would accept for our merchandise."

Veem's head throbbed, realizing his brother spoke the truth. That was another harsh lesson from the road. While a small village might value the skulls of their enemies and use them as currency, it was hard to convince the next village that bartered fish with each other to accept that. "Oh no. What horrid sort of currency do orcs use?" They ran to their stall to find out. Notveem circled around and came in the back.

The orc presented them with a list. "This should match your inventory sheets. Now, about payment. I'm sure you'd like gold and gems, but I've got something you might like a little better."

Both mantis pointed to the hastily written sign Notveem had put up on a dark corner of the back wall "Payment in gold and gemstones only! No exceptions!"

The orc shook her head a little, amused. "Got those too, but I thought that paying in rare magi-tech metals might help you make up for your losses and be easier to hide. I hear these go for a lot in places like Bloth." Carefully, she took a thick leather pouch and dumped out five small ingots of very shiny metal on the counter. "There you go. Five one-pound ingots of Duram Argenti. That's the fancy-smancy name the madboys call it. Big time magi-tech material and worth a hundred times it's weight in gold to anyone doing magi-tech."

The mantis sucked in their breath. The alchemical societies in Bloth routinely listed work-orders of the rare items they were looking for to entice mercenaries to risk their lives for perfect diamonds, fire-infused rubies, and most of all, anything to do with magi-tech. Duram Argenti was always on certain lists. Extravagant prices were offered for it.

"Well, a good merchant is always willing to break the rules for their best customer. But how can we be sure of this is indeed the rarest of metals? Perhaps an expert can be called in. At your expense, of course."

She laughed, "No expert needed. Pick it up."

Veem motioned to his brother, annoyingly close to him and trying to look at the metal. Not-Veem picked it up, and his mana went to zero as the metal bar sucked it all in and glowed. He hastily set it down, and collapsed on the floor, snoring.

The orc pointed at the bar. "See how the others are hardness 5 and this one is now 4? It absorbs mana and becomes softer and easier to turn into flexible wire."

Veem was convinced. He used tongs to place the items in the bag and then tied it around his neck for safekeeping. "And perhaps you would be willing to entertain me with where you obtained such metal?" Veem had no hope at all of her answering. No one gave up their sources.

"Oh, sure. They hired a bunch of us to help mine out this newly discovered cavern full of volcanic rock and shiny ore. Black Dwarves from Urgab-Washgrug were there with these big, belching crushers. They had us sorting the tailings for the small chunks of ore. About five hundred miles from here as the mole digs, but part of it is on the Deep Roads. Have to be careful getting there. The Tyrant and the Mad King both claim that area. I think we were working for the Tyrant, but can't say for sure. They tried to short change us on our payment in gold, so it was a good thing we'd been running a side scam sneaking out bits of raw ore, just in case."

Veem nodded. "A very intriguing story, and your forethought in dealing with less than trust-worthy employers shows initiative. I might wish to go there some day. Would you be able to point it out on my maps?"

She grinned, "Another thing we were careful about. We didn't want them to get us lost, so we made sure we all had maps." She pulled a much folded piece of parchment from her bag. "Still have it on me, but I ain't ever going back. You can have it. Hope it's of some value to you."

Veem nearly snatched it from her hand, "It may be so, and if it is, I thank you in advance, of course offering no future obligation of payment for such happiness occurring."

She began to load up the boxes into a cart pulled by a small drudge lizard and said over her shoulder. "Of course not. If there's some value in what I told you, it's only because a hard working businessman like yourself makes it happen."

She shook hands with him, nearly breaking Veem's foreleg. "Good doing business with you." She led the cart away, leaving Veem with an empty stand and a snoring brother.

"Up with you, slacker. We must find Cazact and report our good fortune and plan our return to Bloth."