From his behavior, Chrono could guess whose the goblin was in front of him. Francis told him that allowing reproduction of that slave once will result in future trouble.
But, the goblin in front of him has unlimited potential, it was a rare recruit. Before making any decisions, Chrono decided to question the goblin first.
“........Your name?”
“MY KIN CALL ME GOBLIN KAI.”
“You know you are not supposed to be here right? I can’t allow anymore reproduction.”
“KILL ME OR SPARE ME AS YOU WISH.”
“Hmm…”
At the goblin Kai’s remark, Chrono decided to spare the goblin’s life as he knows that this goblin might be useful to him in the future. Chrono puts away his sword and opens the ‘slave contract’ form instead.
“Goblin Kai, would you like to be my slave?”
“YES!! I WILL BET MY WHOLE LIFE ON YOU!!”
“(I guess I need to get use to this ‘Honorable’ way of speaking.)”
You have gained a new slave, goblin Kai
Number of slave : 11
Max number of slave allowed : 15
“Goblin Kai status screen !”
Stat Window
Slave name
Kai
title
None
Level
1
Race
Goblin
Health
250
Energy
50
Fame
0
Infamy
0
Strength
50
Dexterity
50
Endurance
25
Wisdom
8
Intelligent
8
Sense
10
Luck
8
Stamina
50
“(Hmmm...His physical status are exceptionally high, I wonder what happen if I train him in combat, especially when he evolves.)”
Satisfied with the current development, Chrono decided he would train goblin Kai in combat and make him his personal servant. From now on, goblin Kai will follow Chrono around to serve him.
“(Now, to the next step.)”
For the class upgrade quest, Chrono needed to prepare a few things, firstly he needed to hide his identity as ‘skull mask’ and blend together with the merchants in the expedition later.
The ‘Smiling Mask’ can be used to hide his red eyes since the mask has no eye holes. Sadly, hiding his red eyes is the only thing the mask can do.
Together with merchant, the expedition will be consist of high level mercenary guards that can also sense users infamy level.
To join the expedition, Chrono needed to go through a strict background check. Someone like him that has a lot of infamy points could never enter the expedition.
The ‘Asura Mask’ that he used to enter the city was the clan’s belongings. The artifact level mask can completely hide ones infamy points but the clan only has one ‘Asura Mask’.
Chrono’s class upgrade quest needed him to travel indefinitely. While he is gone, someone from the clan would need to go to the city to restock. The ‘Asura Mask’ will be needed here.
“( I should try that ring’s effect now.)”
The ‘One ring’ Roshan dropped when Chrono slain him at ‘Grand Fort’. Chrono suspected it was one-of-a-kind-artifact,artifacts contained a one of a kind ability unique in the world and could not be reproduced.
For a merchant, the best way to survive is by not attracting attention. If the infamy status used to determine how notorious one is, fame was used to determine a user good achievement.
Users with a high fame status usually someone that already completed many difficult quest while achieving impossible deeds such as winning a war as a general.
This makes someone with high fame respected and feared by other users. Their influence and fighting prowess usually are first class.
But, that only applied for fighting class users. A merchant having a high fame like Roshan only meant that they are have tremendous amount of wealth because there was no way for a merchant gaining fame and status by winning war or completing a difficult quest.
When chaotic users sees a merchant heavily respected by NPC, they will follow the merchant and rob him . Guards are usually not enough, prevention was always better than defending against robberies.
In a merchant world, Roshan was famous for having ‘One Ring’, a ring that can hide a users status.Roshan used it to hide his fame but Chrono needed it for a different reason.
One Ring
By equipping the ring, your status will stay hidden from other users and NPC
Defense : 0 Durability : 100/100
Stat Window
Character name
Chrono
title
???,???
Level
???
Class
???
Health
???
Mana
???
Fame
???
Infamy
???
Strength
???
Dexterity
???
Endurance
??
Wisdom
??
Intelligent
??
Sense
???
Luck
??
Stamina
???
Once the ring was equipped, all of his status turn unknown and suddenly, Chrono’s eyes turn back to normal.
“(I was right!!)”
With the ring,Chrono could act like a normal merchant. He does not need any mask to hide his red eyes and infamy status and now he can enter the merchant’s expedition without looking suspicious.
After the problem of him entering the expedition was solved, Chrono moved to his next problem, building a new wagon.
His previous wagon was not built from good materials, making it unsuitable for the long distance journey. Chrono decided to use a better material for the new wagon.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Using his previous wagon blueprint, Chrono starts constructing his new wagon. This time he used mythril for the wagon outer body.
Mythril was the top quality material that users can get from the market. The material’s toughness was top class making it the favourite material used by high level users - provided they could not get their hands on higher level materials which was rarely sold in the market.
Because of it toughness, the material sometimes became corrupted if tempered by an unskilled blacksmith. Forging a simple sword using mythril as the material may take up to 3 hours for skilled blacksmith.
This time Chrono used all of his eleven slaves to help him make the wagon. He divided the simple tasks among his slaves such as heating and smelting while Chrono was left doing the more difficult tasks.
For the outer layer, Chrono focuses on its durability, since he will make a long distance journey. To make it exceptionally durable, Chrono reforged the outer layer a few times.
Tang!
Tang!
Tang!
Then, it was time make the inner layer for the wagon. This time it was faster since Chrono used less durable material, steel.
The reason was mainly because he needed the inner layer to be comfortable.By using the steel as the material, Chrono had cut the wagon’s weight by half; compared to using another material as the wagon’s inner layer.
Chrono then welded both layers together before he proceeded to make the wagon wheels. He decide to used oak wood for the wheel as it was able to support the wagon’s weight while absorbing impact when the wagon traversed through rough terrain.
Like before, Chrono constructed the left side of the wagon to be openable from the outside. He embedded a lesser fire gem for the stove and he stored various cooking ingredients and utensils to make a small kitchen.
The right side of the wagon was for Chrono’s blacksmithing workshop, like the left side of the wagon, this side also could be opened from the outside. He embedded ‘greater fire gem’ to the furnace and embedded ‘greater water gem’ at the sides for cooling process before he hangs up various blacksmithing tools on the workshop wall.
Chrono made the back of the wagon act as the freezer by embedding ‘Rare Ice gem’. This time, for a more efficient spacing, Chrono only use half of the wagon back for the freezer. The other half of the space was used as Chrono’s alchemy lab.
For a comfortable seating, Chrono tailored himself the wagon seating using the wolf pelt.And lastly, Chrono create a new comfortable mount for Thorin so the drake could comfortably pull the wagon.
Chrono constructed kind of switch at the mount so he could easily detach the wagon with Thorin when the situation arose.
For the finishing touch, Chrono decorated the wagon by coloring it with gold colors to make it appear like an expensive wagon.
“(With this, other merchants will not look down on me.)”
With the help of his goblins, the wagon was completed in just one day. Chrono noticed all of his slaves manufacturing skills have risen up rapidly after the wagon’s completion. He is happy with the result as he needed his slaves skills to rise again for yet another task.
*****
At night, Mafoso streets was still busy with the crowds. The sight of the merchant’s city with the magic street lamps and all kind of users trading and socialising their business was a sight to see.
Since Emperor Saga was extremely popular, users around the world with different time zone kept logging in. No matter the time the city was always filled with crowds.
In the night, in the streets of merchant quarters, a users wearing the Smile Mask wandering around looking for something to buy.
Although he was already equipped with the ‘One Ring’ that kept his infamy status hidden, Chrono still felt he need to wear the Smile Mask.
Due to the the fact that his eyes were no longer red, Chrono put the eye holes on his mask to see properly. Right now, Chrono was wandering around the street of Mafoso under the identity of ‘Smiling Merchant’.
“(Hmm...Fizz doing a really good job taking care of this city.)”
Before deciding to buy the items he needed, Chrono surveyed a variety of items being sold in the market. Taking mental notes and to observe the market’s change of price.
“(Like I thought, the market price reached rock bottom after the ‘Grand Fort’ robberies. I will make something out from this later but for now….)”
The night market of Mafoso had a more diverse selection. Because of 90% of the monsters in Emperor Saga was stronger in the night, not many users were hunting monster at night time.
The result was a lot of users hanging around in the city .The usual weapons, armors and potions were a rare sight in night market.
Instead, utility items such as camping equipment, fishing equipment, fancy normal cloths, boozes and various items that users find fun were in the night market.
The nighttime was often used by the users to do other activities than monster hunting. Fishing, showing off fancy clothing and hanging around at local bar were the most popular activities.
While observing the market prices, Chrono bought a few handy items such as mini stove, first aid kit, camping equipment and fishing gear.
After finishing his price survey, Chrono went to one of the scroll shops in Mafoso business strict. Although the shops in the building paid a higher rent, the prices this particular shop provided was better than any street vendor around.
“Welcome! Can I help you sir?”
The shop owner was a man in his late forties, wearing glasses, a round figure and pretty short for someone from elf race. It was impossible for NPC to open their shop this late at night, Chrono instantly knows that the shop owner was a user.
“Hmm...How come you managed to sell the scrolls at these prices?”
“No secret sir, my magnificent daughter is the one creating these scrolls. I only need to buy the material.”
To create a scroll, one need to have the rare scroll making skill. Scroll prices were always stable since it was consumable and always in high demand.
The way to get the skill was no secret, every newbie has the scroll creation skill but it will vanish after level ten; besides a very few lucky users, the skill will be kept after level ten. It was said no one knew the conditioned to gain the skill and some users said it was just a lucky draw.
Normal returned scroll were also sold by NPCs making it hard for the scroll creator to take benefits from it .Only the returned scroll does not need any other requirement for the scroll creation.
To make money using the scroll creation skill, the scroll creator needs to make the skill scroll or magic scroll which is extra rare.
But to make those scrolls, having scroll creation skill are not enough. The scroll creator need to have at least intermediate level of the skill he wants to make.
For example, to make a blacksmithing skill scroll, the scroll creator needed to have at least intermediate level of blacksmith.
Chrono looked around the shop and he found various manufacturing skill scrolls in the shop. This make him wonder ‘how magnificent this shop owner daughter really is’.
In the shop, Chrono found every scroll he needed for his next task. He took various bundles of manufacturing skill scrolls he could find. From plumbing to building construction, Chrono took bundles of these scrolls.
At the recent fall of the North Continent economy, only a really rich user would buy everything en masse. Looking at the suspicious man wearing a smile mask taking every single manufacturing scroll he could grab, it was not strange when the shop owner beside him was breaking a sweat.
“Sir, just for the clarification, the scroll price definitely fall but the current price barely meets the average users finance condition.”
“........Did you mean the average users still can’t buy these en masse?”
“Y-Yes, the fall of the market price was because of the shortage of the money since the ‘Grand Fort’ robberies. We need to lower our price to meet our customer finance condition since we need to sell our item.”
Hearing the shop owner’s remark, Chrono could only smirk behind his ‘smile mask’. He understood the shop owner’s worries as he looked suspicious and he was not a famous rich users.
Originally, Chrono want to shop normally, he already prepared the copper coin needed to buy the scrolls. But looking at the shop owner’s suspicious look, Chrono suddenly felt he wanted to show off a little.
“Heh, lucky for you my finance not on average users level.”
Chrono take out a gold coin before he toss it to the shop owner. Looking at the authentic rare gold coin, the shop owner eyes widened in shock, he can’t believed he will see a gold coin after the economy fall.
“T-This is a gold coin! B-But with this, even with all of the scroll in this shop, no, even if you buy this shop I still need to pay you back a hefty sum!”
“Don’t worry about it, just for today I will only take what I really need.”
“T-Thank you sir! Thank you for your kindness sir!”
“You don’t need to be that excessive.”
“B-But, after the economy fall we really have a hard time. I’m already thinking of closing the shop and back to become a street vendor.”
“(They have a hard time because of me huh.)”
Without answering the shop owner, Chrono continues to look for scrolls. He moved to the next section where a non-manufacturing skills were sold.
The non-manufacturing skill scroll section was smaller, but Chrono could not be helped to be amazed since the selection was surprisingly interesting.
“These scrolls are also made by your daughter?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Hmm...Interesting.”
Looking at the selection, there were various combat skills scroll and magic skills scroll. Every combat skill was start with ‘Lumia’, meaning the scroll creator learned these skill from the common Lumia combat school.
“( ‘Lumia sword mastery scroll’, ‘Lumia bow mastery scroll’ , ‘Lumia knife mastery scroll’, even shield mastery and staff mastery, this scroll creator learned all kind of skill just to make a scroll)”
For a non-combatant class or users that wish to learn other combat skills, they either needed to enroll in the common Lumia combat school or buying the expensive skill scroll.
Enrolling in the common Lumia combat school was not a popular option since the skill was not immediately learned.
The student need to perform various task from the instructor for a month before the skill was learned. Because most users did not like the boring lecture from the NPCs, the common Lumia combat school often has only a few students.
This skill scroll could be considered expensive as veteran users often buy it just for a more diverse skill selection.
Most users buy the combat skill scroll for fun because it was not practical to rely on the skill outside of own class since usually these skill take forever to master.
“( I was considering to enroll in the school when my level was reset to one after having Grave, but the circumstance at that time did not allow me to.)”
Chrono decided to take all the combat skill scrolls for the future use. When he was done with the combat scroll section, Chrono looked at the magic scroll selection.
“(Hmm? From her previous skill, I thought she was from a merchant class, how did she learn magic and create magic scroll then?Ah, I see, these magic scrolls are only low level utility magic that can be taught anywhere.)”
It was rare to see users with the utility skill, and users that actually raised the utility skill until intermediate level was extremely rare.
The most useful utility magic Chrono found was ‘summon lesser light spirit skill scroll’ which used to provided users with light in the dark dungeon.
Other utility skill scroll such as ‘ember magic’ that was used to light bonfire, ‘spark magic’ used to prank a friend, ‘dew magic’ that take forever to make a water and ‘breeze magic’ that used to cool a user in hot weather. These magic skill scroll was completely useless.
Normally Chrono would never buy these skills, yet he had already paid, so he took every magic scroll he saw.
“I think that was everything I needed.”
“Thank you sir, where would you like us to deliver it?”
“Don’t worry about it, I just take all the scrolls with me.”
“B-But you can’t carry this many scrolls at once, you may attract chaotic users.”
“Don’t worry, just pack it nicely. I will just use the return scroll and carry these scrolls with me.”
“I see, ok I will pack it nicely sir.”
The shop owner pack the scrolls by putting every five scrolls in a small paper bag. Than he put the paper bag in a big traveller type bag.
“Here you go sir, since you buy a lot , the traveller bag was free. And...please wait.”
The shop owners quickly went to the back of his shop before he get back to Chrono. He hold a purple scroll which he decide to handed it over to Chrono.
“My daughter obtained this skill after getting a thousand skill to intermediate level. We still didn’t know how the skill work but it was a rare skill regardless.”
This time Chrono was completely surprised, the purple skill scroll was an extremely rare skill scroll. It was colored in purple to tell that users having the skill was less than a hundred users.
“Wow, are you sure about this? This scroll may worth more than one gold coin.”
“I live long enough to know you are a good person, just remember me, Gotika, a humble shop keeper. And when you see a merchant girl name Esca, that is my daughter, please help her if you ever see her in trouble.”
“Now I’m the one in debt with you, how sly.”
“N-No, I just want a kind person like you to remember us.”
“(Having a prominent merchant as friend was good for his daughter because she also a merchant. But this guy will be disappointed if he knew making friend with me will only brought trouble.)”
His morals told him not to accept the friendship gift but the purple skill scroll was too good a gift. Chrono decide to just take the scroll and put it in his pocket before Gotika changed his mind.
“Don’t worry, I will try to help whenever I can. Here, my true name, make the friend request and message me when you in need. But please don’t tell anyone about me.”
“S-Sure, thank you sir.”
“I guess that’s it, I will be returning for now.”
Using the return scroll, Chrono returned to the ‘BloodBrothers’ hideout.
*****
Back at the hideout, in his workshop, Chrono handed over the skill scrolls to his slaves. He gave them ‘Lumia Knife Mastery scroll’ and ‘Lumia Bow Mastery Scroll’.
“Good, now next!”
“MASTER, I DON’T WANT COWARDLY WEAPON SKILL.”
“No, l commanded you to learned it. I’m sure you will need it in the future to defend yourself.”
“AS YOU WISHES,BUT I ALREADY HAVE A DECENT COMBAT SKILL.”
“Hmm? Really?”
Chrono thought goblin Kai would have the same skill set as his fellow goblin, that’s why he didn’t check goblin Kai skill before. At the goblin Kai remark, Chrono finally check on goblin Kai combat skill.
“Goblin Kai combat skill window!”
Chaos Sword Mastery (Beginner level 1)
Sonic Slash (Beginner level 1)
“Hmm...I guess you are right, but at least learn Lumia Bow Mastery so you can support me in a fight later.”
“AS YOU WISHES.”
Then, Chrono proceeded on giving his slaves manufacturing skills and finally some support skill such as ‘First Aid’ and ‘taunt’.
“Now, I guess we can proceed to the next step.”
Chrono casted 12 portals to transport his slaves and himself to the secret warehouse. He planned to organized the item and cleaned up a few more rooms in the warehouse.
“It’s been a long time.”
Out of a thousand storage rooms in the secret warehouse, Chrono only used three of the storage room. And the three of the thousand storage rooms in the secret warehouse were filled to capacity after the robberies.
“(I noticed the items summoned were delayed after the robberies, maybe I need to organized the items here.)”
Chrono and his slaves opened up a new storage room. Using broom and rag, they swept the floor and wiped everything clean. Any junk item that was in the room was burn, some item were still useable as the material, these items was kept in the room.
*Phew*
“You guys can take a break now, we need to clean up two more storage room after this.”
“””Yes, Master!!”””
The low level goblin slaves have lower stamina than Chrono, they get tired quickly and their small stomach make their satiety level easily dropped.
Instead of taking a break with the slaves, Chrono cooked for his slaves. Having higher level of stamina, goblin Kai helped Chrono with his cooking.
The mini stoves he buy at Mafoso earlier proved useful, it doesn’t let Chrono to cook high level cooking but it was enough for Chrono to cook a decent food.
And with his current level of cooking, a ‘decent food’ can fully replenishes the slaves satiety level.
“Here you go, let’s eat.”
“Thank you master, we felt ashamed that you need to cook for us.”
“Having a master as kind as you was a blessing from heaven.”
“JUST EAT.”
Once the break was over, Chrono and his slaves proceeded with the second storage room. In the middle of cleaning up, Chrono gained a new skill.
trting!!
You gained a new skill, ‘cleaning’. Now you can clean things faster.
Chrono just ignored the messages since he knew that he will receive the skill eventually. He believed that all of his slaves also gained the skill.
Every time Chrono noticed that his slaves were slower while performing their task, he would check on their stamina and satiety level stat. Then he would let his slaves to take a break when he felt their stamina was too low.
Between breaks, Chrono cooked with goblin Kai’s help. After they eat, the slaves take a quick nap while Chrono and goblin Kai continue to clean.
“Finally! Now, for the next…...”
*crogh* *crogh*
After the third storage room clean up, the tired goblins finally fell asleep after the hard labor. It was still early for Chrono, but for the NPC that abide with this world’s rules, it was a long day for them.
Even the tireless goblin Kai fell asleep. In a way Chrono felt sorry for them, he quickly took out a needle, thread,cotton and white cloth.
With his high level of tailoring skill, Chrono swiftly moving his hand to create eleven set blanket. He then put the blanket on his slaves so they can sleep comfortably.
Before logging out, Chrono crafted a few heavy spears before he decide to call it a day.
******
Since the ‘TerraNorth’ invasion, ‘BloodBrothers’ have take it easy on their robberies activities. Right now, they mainly robbed just for fun or for personal gain.
And to honor the merchant that sold their shares earlier, they especially didn’t attack any merchant involved.
Because the merchant involved in ‘Cranberry’ and ‘Ever garden’ take over were free from ‘BloodBrothers’ attack ,they can freely travel through Kramoris mountain range without risk of attack. This open a new shortcut route for the merchant business.
Before, even with ‘BloodBrothers’ frequent raids, Merchants still take a risk to go through Kramoris mountain range.
It was because Kramoris mountain range was a strategically placed between the main harbor of North Continent, harbor city of Malak and the city of merchant Mafoso.
Taking a detour would take a long time because the item price may change while they travel. That’s why they risked on going the shorter route in Kramoris mountain range.
The money from the stock shares selling making it easier for them to recover from the economy fall, the new open route give them more opportunities and the continuous harassment from the two mega company was gone.
The merchants were doubtful when they sold their stock shares before, but now they were completely satisfied with the current development.
Only the merchants involved in the take over have these special privileges. For any other merchant, ‘BloodBrothers’ still continuously raided their expedition party.
Now, other than creating weapon for the clan members, Chrono were not as busy as before. Today, nn the secret warehouse, Chrono asked his slaves to make their own clothes and weapon.
“Good, now all of you have your own clothes. Now make your own weapon.”
Instead of making weapon for his slaves, Chrono wanted his slaves to make their own weapons. This way, they could craft their own weapons later when their level was higher as they would need better weapons.
As the slaves busily craft their own weapon, Chrono take out the purple scroll he received from the shop owner, Gotika.
It was named ‘Researched Skill Scroll’ , but what troubling Chrono was he unable to learn the skill. Everytime he tried using the scroll to learn skill, he got a system message.
Unable to learn skill due to unfulfilled requirement
“(Don’t tell me I need to learn a thousand skill before I can learn this skill.)”
“Master we have completed our weapon craft.”
“Really? Let me see.”
Except goblin Kai, other goblin have the same outfit and weapon. Rag clothing, obsidian knife on their left side of waist, a wooden short bow and ten wooden arrow on their back.
For goblin Kai, he wear the same rag clothing and wooden short bow, but instead of a knife, he equipped with copper short sword.
“( Their crafting skill still horribly low, but for the mean time this will do.)”
Chrono decide to let his slaves train their crafting skills more later, for now he need them for the next step of his big project.
It was the second stage for Chrono, he wishes to make the first three filled storage room to be more organized. The first storage room was for armories, all type of weapon and armors were put here.
In this room, weapon and armor were divide by their type. Heavy spears have their own section since Chrono frequently used it for his ‘spear throw’ skill.Broken artifacts such as ‘Ragnarok’ and ‘Chaos Knight’ loots was also puts here.
The second storage room acting like a bank and it was divide by two section. First half of the room, at the front storage door, was where Chrono put his crafting material.Since the crafting material was so diverse, Chrono divide it up to many smaller section.
Leather,pelt, cloth was put in a different section but it was next to each other while iron, bronze,mithril was put on various other sections.
The second half of the room, which is the back of the room was where Chrono put all of his money and stock shares.
It was divided by five sections, copper coins,bronze coins,silver coins, gold coins and stock shares. The stock shares section was the smallest since the document does not take much space.
Copper coins section was the second smallest since it was a new currency that only appears after the new update.And bronze, silver and gold coins section have the same section size.
And lastly, the third storage was for the miscellaneous item. Cooking ingredient, potions and food was kept in the same sections.
Chrono decides he will build a freezer room later so he can placed cooking ingredient and potions that need low temperature to be kept.
Other section was where Chrono put explosives, crafting tools,fishing gear, personal cloth and other utilities type item.
Because the third storage room was filled with smaller item, Chrono decide to make a few big racks to place the items.
With the help of his slaves, he built the rack using steel as the material. As it was just a simple racks, Chrono and his slaves finishes making a racks quickly. But the hard labors continue until the racks was filled in the storage rooms.
When they finishes organizing the items, the goblins quickly fell asleep again. Chrono noticed they take a longer time between break, it was a proved that the goblins stamina was improved while doing the hard labor.
Like before, Chrono put the goblin in the blanket for a comfortable sleeps. He then check on their status before he call it a day himself.
******