Duke sat opposite the mayor in his office. They had been deep in discussions when the mayor’s head shot up. “I just remembered that I need to show you something!”
“Well, then, go ahead and show me whatever it is.” Duke’s amused smile carried with him as they both stood up.
The mayor led Duke out of the City Hall to the treasury and after several locks were bypassed, the pair entered. Duke’s first impression was that the treasury had been expanded significantly. It now reminded him of a distribution center from back home where he had worked before military life.
The mayor pulled the Tax Assessor away from his duties and turned the small man around, practically aiming him at Duke. “Tell him.” The mayor demanded.
The Tax Assessor briefly looked up at Duke before returning to his ledger. A brief moment later, he looked up again with a much more attentive look on his face. “Your Majesty. It has been quite a while since you were here. By my ledger, 168 days have passed since you last came to collect the kingdom’s taxes. In that time, we have accumulated a significant sum for the royal treasury in excess dungeon tax.”
“You halted all the other taxes?”
“Certainly, Your Majesty.” The Tax Assessor was interrupted as the mayor took over.
“Your Majesty, we have reduced the dungeon tax rate from 15% to 5% and suspended all other taxation.”
“And how is that working out for the City?”
“Disastrously.” The mayor responded.
“Explain.”
Shellenberger walked Duke over to the currently filling chest. He watched as a steady rain of gold coins rapidly filled the chest. “You see, Your Majesty, the treasure coming out of the dungeon has been tremendous. With the exception of a few days recently, it has been steady like this. Our adventurers are wealthy beyond belief and it is going to destroy our economy.”
The Tax Assessor chimed in. “With the vast increase of gold in our economy, the prices of all goods are set to skyrocket. What is 10 gold for a loaf of bread when you can make 800 in an hour in the dungeon?”
Duke shook his head. “I understand. How much gold have you accumulated in the Treasury?”
“One million, seven hundred forty-eight thousand two hundred seventy-five. And counting.”
“I’ll be right back.” Duke didn’t bother to wait for a response before TELEPORTING to his room in the Inn. “Sam, I need to talk to you.”
Sam appeared. “Hi Duke. What do you need to talk about?”
“The Havenreach Dungeon. It’s putting out way too much treasure.”
“It is putting out more than even I had expected. I did set the rewards fairly high, but yes, it is putting out more than eight times as much reward as I would have expected.”
“Eight times, you say…” Duke trailed off, checking his Character Sheet. He quickly found the culprit when he saw that his AURA of PROSPERITY was calculating out to an 813% increase. “Set the rewards back down to the absolute minimum.”
“If you say so but people will be disappointed. They will go from a reward level set to about 100 gold per level to just 10.”
“They are being affected by one of my Abilities which is currently increasing the output by 813%. The 10 gold will be 81 on average. That should fix a few problems. Thank you.” He didn’t wait for a response before TELEPORTING back to the Havenreach Treasury.
“That should slow things down a bit.” Duke said as the pair goggled at him. He could see that the stream of gold pouring into the chest had now become a trickle.
“What did you do? Close the dungeon?”
“Not exactly. I have an Ability that has been influencing the output of the dungeon. I just corrected so that the output down by about 90%. There’s still a bit much gold in the economy but adventurers have a habit of spending gold like crazy anyway. Things should balance out in time.”
“There is still the small matter of the overfull Treasury.” Shellenberger announced to Duke’s full amusement.
“Ok, I’ll take the first million for the Kingdom treasury, but the rest should be spent on making this city into a center of fine crafters.”
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“Your Majesty, we are already a center of fine crafters. The schools you told us to build are filled with apprentices learning all manner of trades including crafting. We even have an enchanter taking on apprentices.”
Duke smiled to hide his surprise. “That is excellent news. Make more workshops and commission master-level toolsets from the tool crafters. The thing about this city is that it is about to become a major trade hub for the kingdom. Trade caravans will flow through here and I want us to be ready with goods that are the finest on the continent. Increasing our trade ties with the powerful nations around us will make them much more inclined to not cause us trouble.”
“Then I will endeavor to make this city the most productive on the continent. Our goods will be so high-quality that nations will fight each other for the privilege of trading with us.”
“I hope not to that extent of crazy. But they will also not know how to get here other than through the Portal system I am setting up. This will be a mythical city that will be an honor to visit. Level up your crafters and…” Duke trailed off. “I need to make another set of Portals. I don’t want them to ever see Havenreach. I want them to see a trading hub that is an intermediary for this city. That way they never actually know what the city even looks like and if they get some bright ideas of invading or raiding, they will never reach you here. Yes, that is what I’m going to have to do.”
Duke pulled chest after chest into his INVENTORY until the full million gold had been pulled in. He smiled, having no idea what he was going to do with this wealth. He currently lacked for nothing that that money could actually buy. Maybe it could be used to buy raw materials for crafting?
He headed out with the mayor, watching as the myriad locks engaged behind them. Once back out in the city proper, they left in separate directions. Mayor Shellenberger went back to city hall while Duke began looking for somewhere else entirely.
It took two hours for Duke to find the place he was looking for. He even asked around the city, something he almost never did because it conflicted with his “I’m too cool to ask for help” vibe. After all this time, he found himself outside the city looking at a cottage on the edge of a forest. The more he thought about it, the more impressed he was at how Sam had created such a large and detailed inner world.
He knocked on the door and waited. It did not take long for the door to be answered.
“Duke! It’s been a while. Come in. Come in.”
Duke grinned like an idiot as he headed in. He followed Grat inside to see Elaine holding the hand of a toddler as they came up to greet him.
“It’s been three weeks. How?” Duke looked back and forth between the three.
“Duke, it’s been almost 18 months since we last saw you. Where have you been?” Elaine asked, concern overflowing her voice.
Duke sat down in a nearby chair before speaking. “Time flows very differently in this realm than in the outside. It flows almost twenty-five times faster in this realm than in the outside. If you stay here, you will die of old age before three years have passed for me and the rest of us.”
Elaine gasped. Grat nodded before speaking again. “That leaves us with a terrible decision to make. We both love it here with little Andy. The forest has the ideal mix of peacefulness and danger. The trees are healthy, and their spirits sing to us. Outside, we have known conflict after conflict with terrible consequences at every turn. We are still bound to your cause so the pull to follow you to your next adventure is strong. Not as strong as it once was now that Chopie has been defeated, but it’s still there.”
Duke took in all that was said and found he couldn’t really argue against it. “My next conflict is coming soon but it is not something you can help me with. I’m not sure I’ll even survive it myself.”
“What is such a great conflict that you are this worried? And we can’t even help you at all?”
“You both know I am not from Teldin. I don’t have all the details. In fact, I feel like I am missing a great many details. But, I was sent here by two cosmic entities. Why is still a bit fuzzy but there is something to do with a contest, a competition, or something along those lines.”
“That sounds ominous.” Grat remarked.
“It gets worse. Another entity has decided to step in and steal me from the two who sent me here. This entity seems more benevolent towards me, but I have no way of knowing if that is fully the case.”
“So, what you are saying is that you are a cosmic pawn and are being manipulated.” Elaine summarized.
“Quite possibly. No matter what happens, I’m going to fight for my own freedom and do whatever it takes to secure it.” Duke’s PURPOSE flared hotly as he spoke. Another voice interrupted them all.
“Duke, you are correct to be wary.” All four turned to see Sam standing on the far side of the room. Duke could clearly see that Sam was not speaking with his own voice. “I am glad that you two have decided to say here. It allows me to speak more freely in this moment. Duke, when I break their connection with the Twin Entities, there will be backlash. I will do everything I can to limit it, but you could potentially lose some things that they gave you. Especially if you have made limited use of them and have not internalized the Abilities or Skills, or whatever it is. Be sure to sleep in the Inn tonight for that is when I shall break you free of their grasp.”
“That is an awful lot to unpack there.”
“It is, but I will provide as much protection as I can. They will raise objections but, in the end, they are lesser than I am so they will ultimately fail.”
“And what happens to me while they are raising these objections?”
“We will just have to wait and see.”
“That’s not very helpful.” Duke lamented as Sam’s image faded away.
Elaine gave Duke a hug. “What can we do to help?”
“I think a hug was probably the extent of it. And did you say your child’s name is Andy?”
“Yes, it’s a name we always loved. A name we had discussed for years before this became possible. Thanks to you.”
Duke nodded wistfully. “That’s a great name. He’ll grow up strong, of that I am certain. I will come by and check on you three from time to time. But for now, it seems, I have an ordeal to prepare for.”
“Good luck, Duke. We’ll be waiting for you to stop by.”
Duke left with a final thanks. He had a lot to think about and wanted to speak with Aurelia before they bedded down for the night.