NOVEL NEXT Chapter 61: A Fortress Ahead
"Okay, we are interested." Said the man from Windy Willow. "But you should know that it is very hard to hold a fortress if you only have 2 people."
"Once the fortress is conquered, I can have NPC soldiers sent over. That isn't a concern. I-."
"NPCs won't come back when they die." The man interrupted. "An all NPC defense won't last in the long run."
Lucan clicked his tongue. "Just say what you want and be direct. My time like yours isn't infinite."
The man chuckled. "If the fortress had been around this long and is still unclaimed, you probably don't have a chance making a profit off the market. However, a tier 2 fortress still has some good training facilities and I am sure there are a few undiscover dungeons nearby. I very much want to get my foot into an unpopulated area. If the surrounding territory isn't trash, I think it would be good pace to set up a base of operations for when we aren't under contract. For gaming organizations, it is very important to maintain our levels without making enemies out of the local guilds. As the Lord of a territory I am sure you can understand the importance of high-level players calling your territory home. My biggest concern though is the distance from this fortress to the material plane."
"Take a transfer point and ride a mount for an hour or 2 and you are back in Avalon. Once conquered it isn't too far."
The woman excitedly turned to the man. "We have had a big ol' pie drop into our laps. Headquarters will want us to make this work."
The man frowned. He had already showed his hand slightly to better his relationship with Lucan but now the woman with him had just up and tipped the scales, letting everyone know that Lucan held the power in this negotiation.
"Ha ha, don't worry." Lucan said. "I contacted you because your one of the only powerful gaming Org. that's not attached to a corporation with its own territory. I haven't learned anything new."
The man rubbed his head and held a complicated smile. "Ah, well first lets just deal with this contract. If the surrounding land is decent, we can talk about future cooperation later."
The group spent the next hour ironing out the contract. Lucan would pay Windy Willow $6,000 for every real-world day the group was under contract. He agreed to sign them up for 2 weeks and he had the option to add on another week if needed. On top of that, Lucan would also have to pay 5 gold in compensation every time a player died. This was to off set the lose of equipment and experience. The plus side was that Lucan would get all the drops from every monster they killed, of course if they wanted something, he would probably sell it to them.
The man Lucan was negotiating with was called Sturdy Willow. He was normally a vice captain of there A team but for this contract he would lead their C team. Normally it would take 1,000 something players to capture a fort but since it was inhabited by monsters, they could take a small group and nibble away at the enemy over time. The monsters wouldn't work together and communicate like players would.
Sturdy Willow was happy to have work for one of the lesser teams. Normally the Org. would take a loss while they trained the lower level team because most clients were only interested in hiring those with higher levels to accomplish their goals fast. This was a good chance to raise the levels of the C team and get paid.
Lucan shook hands with Sturdy as the woman, Sleepy Willow spoke. "I will finalize the contract and send it over immediately." She said before logging off.
Lucan, Silent and Sturdy left the tavern.
"Give me an hour to get the team together then we can depart for the shadow realm. I don't have to worry about you not signing and stiffing us do I?" Sturdy asked jokingly.
"Of course not." Lucan said waving him off. "I already put money into 'Evolutions' system. Its only waiting for the contract and you to hold up your end of the deal."
"Good, good. I will meet you at Avalon's south gate in an hour." He said before walking off into the crowd.
"I didn't realize my leveling partner was such a tycoon. Spending close to $100,000 without blinking." Silent teased.
"What can I say, the mana crystal business is very lucrative. This young tycoon even opened up his own business in the real world in order to deal with all the money coming in."
"Oh, really now. Good for you."
"I still can't compare to your family. I saw in one of Heaven's interviews that your parents' company is worth billions. Do you guys live in an epic mansion."
Silent's cheeks turned red from embarrassment. "We are actually going to be moving soon." She said, brushing off the question.
"Let's not talk about money and our lives outside, those conversations always get awkward." Lucan said.
Silent nodded, happy to change the conversation. "If things go well you should be able to reach level 100 with plenty of time to spare."
"Yeah, I hope so."
Eventually Sturdy Willow returned with 37 other players that also had the second name of Willow. The shadow tunnel from Avalon to Shadowsweep had been greatly enhanced since its original construction. There was decent lighting and enough room to be able to ride mounts and cut travel time.
"So this is the Shadow realm." Sturdy said after stepping out into the village.
One of SuperSleuth's subordinates was waiting for Lucan. She passed him 40 booklets before leaving. On the way over Lucan had provided Super with the name of every Willow employee that was contracted to him.
He handed them all to Silent who would read them while they travelled. It would take 8 days of travelling non-stop to reach the fortress Luan wanted to take over. The fortress itself was located on the edge of his territory, near a border that was close to both Hellfire's territory and The Plague Baron's territory, Raze's fourth Hand.
Sturdy Willow would be leading this expedition and seeing him at work left Lucan satisfied. He was obviously skilled at leading a raid. When they traveled, numerous scouts went ahead to inform him of the easiest traveled paths with the least obstacles. The chef's in the group helped erase down time, allowing them to move faster. Sturdy always kept his people in formation and ready for an attack. The monsters that crossed their path barely slowed the group down.
On the seventh evening they could see a fortress blocking the passage between two large mountains. Sturdy decided to set up camp 2 miles away from the fortress and make a base while they gathered more information.
"Frantic Willow, start setting formations around our camp. Scout team, move ahead and get a better understanding of the situation, but be cautious, the nearest available graveyard is a day and a half away. Team four set up defensive position while the rest of you should secure the nearby area. This is our fall back point, we don't want any surprise to cause a raid wipe if we end up retreating here. Take a look around while staying in groups of 3." Sturdy said before walking to where Lucan and Silent were standing.
"You actually brought someone who can use formations. I am impressed." Lucan said.
Sturdy smiled happily at his client's enjoyment. "Frantic, come over and meet our client." He called out to the young man on the edge of camp. "This is Frantic Willow, right now he is our organizations only formation master, but we are planning on training a few more. Right now Frantic bounces around to different teams, with the steep learning curve it is impossible to maintain high ranking levels while learning formations, but he has convinced me of their worth."
"Ah, boss, I can hardly be called a formation master. It's nice to meet you I am Frantic Willow, I am really only a novice, but don't let that fool you. Even novice formations can be powerful when used appropriately."
"You don't need to convince me." Lucan said with a gleeful smile. "I am also a novice formation master. Tell me what are you reading right now? Since your my acolyte for the duration of the contract you should check the spells I have for sale. There are plenty of good combinations to be made. Do you want to compare books and trade anything your done with?"
"Ha, great." Frantic looked towards Sturdy eagerly.
The boss gave him the nod. Both Lucan and Frantic pulled out their collections as a large pile of books popped up. Normally Sturdy wouldn't want to trade books since he was losing resources to train others but if the 2 were swapping novice books it was okay. Frantic would become more knowledge and they would still have the same number of books to train others. It was a win.
Silent chuckled before turning to Sturdy. "He will be absorbed for awhile. I will send my pets to scout as well. Do you need me to do anything else?"
"No that is plenty." Said Sturdy with a sigh.
Watching the 2 formations master get lost in conversation, he realized it would be awhile before the formation for the camp was set up. Silent released over 200 dark blue butterflies into the evening sky.
"Lucan!" She shouted.
Without turning from Frantic, Lucan waved his hand. A shadow drake with a brown mouse on its back took flight from their hidden position in the tall grass. The familiars caught up to the butterflies and followed them to the fortress.