The incident didn’t go down well with the Kobold Elder. However, having acquired one of the hundred banned poisons appealed the Kobold’s greatly. They were too quick to forget about their dead comrade. The inherent dark nature of the Kobold’s began revealing itself.
Next Weed spent all his time refining ores and melting them. He had his furnace delivered from Rodriguez house and used that. While the ore melted, he used the spare time to mold the molten ore from a previous batch. He had limited time. The Kobold’s had to retreive Kendelbreu’s treasure before he left for Skyholm as Weed had decided to use the precious stones from Kendelbreu’s treasure to make the most beautiful thing.
The swords and shields he made did not have great strength or durability, he could not do better as everything was mainly made from cheap iron ores. It was the cheapest metal available in dwarven kingdom due to abundance of it. As batches of swords and arrow heads were prepared, they were being dipped in the bone acid poison. When he ran out of poison, he would quickly prepare another batch. Once there were enough weapons and shields. The Elder dispatched the first batch of kobolds to retrieve some of the treasure.
It was decided that Weed would continue manufacturing weapons here while they would recover the treasure. Weed too agreed that he would not go to the mine as it was now a kobold affair.The grandson, Mnamanth was sure the kobold had to fight for themselves. He was lead the band with the map Weed provided to find the treasure.
“Elder, Master Weed, we are ready to depart.” Mnamanth bowed to Weed. The rest of the group followed his lead. Mnementh stood on one side, observing.
“Be careful. Don’t die, and avoid the scorpions!” The Elder said as he waived them bye. Concerted hiss rose up in reply. Mnamanth and the hundreds of volunteers for the expedition raised their newly minted weapons, donation from Weed.
Weed anxiously waited for them to return. He was running out of ore and needed to buy more. If this group failed to return he would be unable to make more swords, shields and armor.
It took them two days and their numbers were reduced by half but they returned. At long last the Kobolds came back from the raid. More than half had died and everyone was injured. Mnamanth came to Weed limping and said grimly “The acid did not kill the scorpion but made their shell spongy and weak. It was enough for us to escape.” Then in a stronger voice he said “Many of us had died but from today the kobold are proud and stand on their own.”
TRRINNGG!
You have betrayed Kendelbreu! By giving away Kendelbreu’s treasure you will incur his wrath should he ever learn who stole his treasure.
- Betrayal Skills levelled up!
- Betrayal Skills levelled up!
TRRINNGG!
You have failed Kendelbreu’s quest!
- You have lost 10% of all your fame!
- Your reputation with the dwarves has decreased!
Weed didn’t care about the penalty. It was a secondary quest, so there were no rewards to be gained. He had zero reputation with the dwarves, he couldn’t imagine that becoming any worse. His loss of 10% fame was made up 100 fold by the gain in treasure and leveling up of his betrayal skill.
The private celebration was in full force. The expedition was rated as a grand success. Even though not all the Kobolds made it back it was better than none making it back. Usually Kobold’s had a 100% fatality rate.
The next morning after the Kobolds departed again. This time with a bigger force they came back with Kendelbreu’s treasure the very same day. Weed was now eating the Chili Cave Crab served on a long table. The tavern he visited before now packed with Kobolds of all importance decked in expensive looking clothes. Weed had used a pittance of his newly found wealth to treat the Kobolds to the best food he knew.
“Toast!” Weed said as raised his tankard of juice. He was not allowed to drink yet. But the other Kobolds were slowly getting inebriated.
The Kobolds found the treasure room alright. And they found another four too connected to the first room he saw. They completed the expedition in one and a half day but had to double back to cart the rest of the wealth. Weed had not counted his wealth yet. The 5% cut he got was three whole trunk of jewels, a stack precious metals and a few more stacks pure bars of gold. In short he was rich beyond measure.
“Master Weed. I truly thank you for your help.” Elder Mnementh bowed at Weed for the umteenth time. A lizard’s skin seemed to be unable to flush. But if how his eyes rolled around a little any indication, the elder was truly in his cups.
“Don’t mention it, Elder Mnementh. Let us celebrate!” Weed said as he put his arm around the lizard. For once, a scheme of his that went right without a hitch.
Even the sour Mnamanth was drinking merrily. Weed did not get along with the grouchy priest. He kept all his contact with the Kobold to business only.
“Chees to Master Weed!” One of the drunk Kobold said. Tankards and glasses were raised in reply.
Again. Weed felt a bit sad as he could not truly join the merriment. He was refused when he ordered alcohol. He even tried bribing the bartender. He logged out soon. The celebration was getting too tedious for him to handle. He instead spent a little time in real life celebrating on his own with good meals then logged back in. It was already morning. It was also how he spent the time waiting for the Kobolds to come back from the expedition. Except he spent them catching up on his sleep.
Mnamanth, the elder’s grandson, quickly began selling the treasured ores and purchasing the ores for the ones he needed to make weapons. Weed was also given his due share of payment. In this fashion, they continued recovering Kendelbreu’s treasure in parts and Weed continued making weapons. In the process, Weed leveled up his blacksmithing skill only once due to the poor quality of the ores he got, but leveled his alchemy to beginner level 4 almost level 5. With money pouring in, the Kobold’s were visibly more relieved. Food was flowing into their city by the wagons and preparations for festivals were on their way.
The dwarves trading the city were suspicious and made note that since the elf arrived, the Kobold’s had been extremely busy and becoming richer by the hour. However, they were unperturbed as wealth flowed into the hands of the kobold’s trickles of it also made their way into their pockets.
19 days passed at the end of which Weed put down his hammer. He had completed making swords and weapons which would last the kobold’s a lifetime in his opinion. Furthermore, on a special request from the elder, he even prepared a whole barrel of bone acid poison. To better relationship with the Kobold, he decided not to charge extra for it. Everyone had completed their
TRRRING!
Mission completed!
Both parties had filled the terms of the mission!
Weed wore a crooked smile, from selling weapons, shields and armors, he made 2000 gold coins. But what got his head was turning was the massive fortune from Kendelbreu’s treasure. The cave he worked in was overflowing with gold. Upon recommendation from the Elder, Weed decided to store his wealth at a bank.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Armed with 100 Kobold’s by his side, armored wagons made their way to the ‘Goblin & Leprechaun Co’ bank located in the city. G&L banks were the best banks in all of Versailles. They banked with everybody who could dole out money and you could bank on them to keep your money safe. Their excellent banking skills, and offered players the best rates for their gold and currency conversions. This made them the best bankers and a player’s money was guaranteed safety against theft. However, they did have an annual fees of 10,000 gold coins.
Weed had just gone through the process to bank all his wealth with the G&L Bank. The ugly creatures wore suave clothings and spoke rudely to him until his escorts, the Kobolds, began carrying in the wealth. ‘One chest, two chest, three chest, four chest...’ There were so many wagons parked outside, each filled with 6 chests of gold coins.
The Goblin quickly bowed to Weed. “Thank you for banking with us, Master Weed. Please tell me what service of ours would you like to avail?” The branch manager bowed politely. His speech was well cultured. Though he was still grotesque looking with jutting teeth and scrunched up face.
Weed also opted to convert all of his gold coins to gold bars. 100 Gold Coins made one gold bar. 300 Goblins were counting Weed’s wealth. It resulted in over 10,019 gold bars and took over 4 hours to count. This excluded the three chests of jewels and precious metals. Weed was at this time the richest players in Elementarem Vim. Weed the pocketed some of the precious stones to take for the competition and stored the remaining in the vault.
The Goblins were astonished. They had never seen so much wealth before. Though the expressions never made it to their face, it was evident in their actions as their hands trembled. They even started greeting Weed like royalty. Weed could only wonder what would they do if they learnt of Kobold’s wealth, they had nearly 20 times his wealth.
Once Weed gave his money to the bank, he received a key. With this key he could access his wealth from any G&L bank. Weed was set to leave the Kobold Halls for the last round. Even though, the elder had not been doing well, he still came to the cave to thank Weed for his tenacious efforts. Holding a staff he limped towards Weed.
“Weed, you have done us well. I see my people happy. I feel I can now rest in peace. If you ever decide to return to Kobold Hall, please visit my family...”
Weed however was not paying attention. His eyes were fixated on the tip of the staff where lay embedded a single black stone. He observed it with a critical eye. It was blacker than night but has some kind of luminescent quality due to the darkness. There was a strange dark yet alluring aura that is possessed.
“Black Diamond.” Weed whispered. He had given up on it’s existence. Yet here it was all this while. A decorative item on the Kobold Elder’s staff. As Theodore said, explore the city...
“Elder, was the strange dwarf who helped the Kobold, Theodore Balkan?” Weed asked while his eyes followed the diamond. Never letting go of it from his sight.
“I know not his name. I forget.” The Elder replied with a smile. “Weed?”
“Sorry, I was completely dazzled by the stone on your staff.” Weed said as he remained fixated on the diamond.
“Oh this? The Great Silver gave it. It is a scale of the Great Black. Weed?”
“....”
“Weed?”
“Elder, I will you please give me that black stone. I need it for the competition.”
“Never! Don’t be sssilly Weed. This was a gift from the dragon to us! It is meant to watch over our kind. No amout of money...”
Weed quickly took out his G&L banking key. The Kobolds quickly traded the key for the staff. Weed pocketed the diamond in his inventory bag. He decided to read more about it during his journey. Weed had no remorse about the trade, he had no use for all that gold. It might make him rich in the VR game but not in RL. Weed just went from the richest player in RREV to average.
After the quick trade, Weed asked the Elder, “How far is to Skyholm?”
“It is three days journey on foot, Weed.”
‘I am so dead! Disqualified.’ This had been a serious miscalculation. From Northern Mountain City it was 2 days but from the Kobold Hall it was 3 days. Weed began pacing, occasionally holding his head in panic. He thought of running to the city, but even his enhanced skill was no match for the long distance. Not when he only has until noon to be there. Balkan would not be forgiving and wait for him to turn up.
“There is the Great Short Cut. It connects many dwarf cities through a network of tunnels. But is only used in times of emergency.”
“Please take me there! I need to reach The Great White Halls in 2 days.”
The Elder led Weed to “the great shortcut” the name made Weed shiver but he had little choice to make good times. The wagon stopped in front of an old abandoned mine.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Weed sat in an old cart mine. He suspiciously looked at the Elder, “You sure this will take me to Skyholm?” Weed asked as he checked out the mining cart he stood in. It was very old and creaky, even rusted in a few parts.
“Yes, absolutely sure. it’s like me” said the Elder “old but sturdy. This is the fastest way to Skyholm from Northern City.”
“Then how come I don’t see other dwarves using it?” Weed said getting into the cart
“…” the Elder kicked Weed’s cart hard and shouted out, “Dwarves are terrified of scary rides. Lucky you, your an elf...”
“CUUUUUURRSSSSSEE YOUUUUUUUuuuuuuuuu!” Weed screamed back as his cart sped downhill at full speed. In total darkness, he spun in every direction. Weed did not remember how long the ride was but too long for any living creature. At last the cart stopped.
TRRRING!
You have reached Skyhom!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Authors Note:
1. Will be edited soon. Please do expect a lot of mistakes as we worked .....very late to write this. Please do expect mistakes and mark them up in comments.
2. Thank you so much V4LKYR13 and Alakokaine for writing this.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Connect to Royal Road – Elementarem Vim next Chapter?YesNo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------