Hana and I didn’t wait, we headed directly for the eastern gate. The gate guards let us through without any issues and we found the spot. Merchants used it regularly as a lay down area for large civil goods like lumber and building materials. I assumed that the laydown area wasn’t near the gates as the guards didn’t want that eyesore in front of the city gates. For that reason, there were no eyes on us as I released three large piles of rock onto the area. Comparing the size of the three piles, I realised that I could easily drop all the piles I had in storage onto that laydown area, but that wouldn’t be wise. I seriously doubted that Mr. Papadopoulos’ team could handle all of them within the remainder of the day.
Even with the three large piles of rock in front of us, Mr. Papadopoulos and his team of five men didn’t flinch an inch when they arrived and looked at the amount of work.
“No. Problem Mr. Karosaki. We’ll have this sorted for you by the end of today.”
“Seriously? You can do that with the manpower you have here.”
He laughed at my naivety.
“You underestimate my abilities and contacts Mr. Karosaki. Come this evening before the guards close the gates. I’ll have these rocks sorted and separated. You can decide what you would like to do with them.”
“I’m looking forward to that. By the way, how much do I owe you for this work?”
Mr. Papadopoulos held his chin.
“Mm. Normally for each worker we charge one silver per day but since we’re already halfway through, how about we call it fifty coppers a person. You can pay me later this afternoon when you’re happy with the work.”
I once earned eighty coppers a day in my first job as a woodcutter, a very basic salary. Woodcutters had the advantage of receiving a share in the wood they cut, adding to their salary depending on the type of wood and the quality of the cut. Considering all that, a silver a day kept you alive by that world’s standard, but it could only feed you, and little else.
“Sounds good to me. I’ll get you here.”
Hana and I then had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves. The problem was that we didn’t have anything to do until then. I decided to throw Hana a curve ball.
“What would you like to do? We have the rest of the day to ourselves, but we can’t go too far from here.”
Hana looked towards the east. Beyond the large laydown area, a scattering of trees between a few pieces of farmland made up the terrain. It seemed nature came a lot closer on that side of the city.
“I’d like to do some rabbit hunting.”
I usually trapped rabbits, finding them too much work to hunt directly. I suspected Hana’s rabbit hunting proficiency trumped mine. The weather looked good and the light wind boded well. Perhaps I could whack a few furry tails off those pesky rabbits.
“Okay, how about we hunt for an hour or two then head back here. You lead, I’ll follow.”
She agreed with that and walked off into the grasslands.
I couldn’t have been more right. Four hours later we returned with seven rabbits, all of them captured by Hana who seemed to have a propensity for finding the little critters with ease.
Once again, she proved her ability with her new bow to be nothing short of amazing. On one occasion she discovered a rabbit by sound only, without even sighting the animal she shot over an obstacle and hit the clueless animal while it still grazed. She gave me an idea on how to hunt using my spheres.
And like that, most of those rabbits she caught never knew how they died. Although Hana already used that bow during the ogre battle at the mesa, I never had time there to observe her using it. I’m sure many a goblin lost to her arrows in that battle.
Mr. Papadopoulos and another worker sat on a small rock waiting for us to appear.
“Ah, Mr. Karosaki, you’ve arrived. What do you think?”
He said pointing to the smaller, neatly organised piles and the monster carcasses piled at the other end.
“I think you’ve done an amazing job. I confess I had my doubts, but I’m glad to say I was wrong.”
He laughed at my honest confession.
“Ha, ha, ha. Don’t worry laddie, I have other folks think the same. There was a bit of rock here though, so if we can talk a little on the price, I would ask fifteen silvers.”
“Fifteen silvers?”
I blurted out without thinking. Mr. Papadopoulos misread my intentions and thought I was complaining.
“Argh, that’s fair and square Mr. Karosaki.”
“Oh no. Please excuse me Mr. Papadopoulos I’m not complaining I was wondering if I was underpaying you?”
He only shook his head. He already made his point about the work being fair.
“Mr. Karosaki, may I ask what you intend to do with those carcasses. It won’t be long before they’re not fit for any purpose.”
“You mean you have use for those?”
“Aye lad, many labourers are poorer folk. We don’t have skills on which we can claim higher wages and even something as lowly as a goblin can make for a fine meal.”
What else could I say?
“All I need is the right ear as proof of subjugation and any earring they might have on them, then you’re free to take the rest because I have no use for it.”
Note to self; never eat at a labourer’s house when goblin is on the menu.
“Well, that’s mighty good of you Mr. Karosaki. Some folks will be very happy to hear that.”
He spoke a few words to the labourer with him and then we watched the same man run off towards the gate.
“Are you still able to find people to process those goblins at this hour?”
He didn’t bat an eyelid.
“You underestimate me again Mr. Karosaki, we’ll have those carcasses sorted before you sleep tonight.”
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
And with my finalising business by handing over the fifteen silvers, it concluded the goblin business. He looked as if contemplating something.
“Mr. Papadopoulos, feel free to speak your mind.”
“Thank you Mr. Karosaki. Please believe me when I say that I’m not in the habit of talking about private business when working with customers but…would you be interested in a new business opportunity?”
His question piqued my interest. What business opportunity?
“I’m all ears, please continue.”
“Thank you. Please have a look at this.”
He walked up to one of the newly sorted rock piles. There five smaller piles each pile graded into a different size. He picked up a rock about the size of a brick and handed it to me.
“Do you know what type of rock this is?”
I shook my head.
“It’s a bloody hard rock.”
“Yeah, that was my next guess.”
I laughed.
“Seriously. This is one of the hardest rock types you can get. It’s a step short of being glass yet tough as blazes. You could run heavy loaded wagons with iron rimmed wheels for a hundred summer seasons and not affect it. Also, see the amazing blue colouring on this sample. If you look closer there is a stratum of white that runs through it.”
Hana and I both looked at the rock and when I held it up to the light we could see it was an amazing translucent azure blue with a thick white line about the thickness of my thumb. The rock itself had slight facets or undulations about the size of half my palm cut out of it that made it look like waves on an ocean.
“Well, it’s no doubt a beautiful thing to see, but where’s the business in that?”
He smiled, no doubt at my lack of understanding.
“Ah, Mr. Karosaki. Think of an entire boulevard lined with these bricks, with the white lines running the length of the road, shifting, intersecting like foam on a blue sea.”
The man had a way with words. Then a brilliant idea hit me.
“What if there was a way to light it up during the night from underneath?”
Mr. Papadopoulos’ face lit up with excitement.
“Then Mr. Karosaki, you’d have a boulevard like none other on this continent.”
He sold me all the way. I just didn’t know when I would get to pave a boulevard though.
“What would it take?”
“These rocks can be sorted and better shaped so that when the time comes, it would be easy to install. All it takes is a bit more work to cut these rocks into a better shape. To achieve a good cut, it would require three times as much labour, and we would need to include the cost of replacing or repairing tools.”
I started doing the quick math in my head, a total of forty-five silvers. Three goblin subjugations rewards would more than pay for that. I still had no idea where I would use something like those bricks, but it somehow seemed the good thing to do.
“Do you think this is the right thing to do?”
I asked Hana. She looked at me with incredulity.
“I’m your slave and you’re asking me?”
Hana was being difficult, so I just stared at her. She rolled her eyes when she realised she wasn’t going to fob me off that easily.
“I think it’s a good idea. I like Mr. Papadopoulos and I trust he’s giving you good information.”
“Well, there you go, wasn’t that hard. Mr. Papadopoulos, I agree with Hana, you’re free to go ahead.”
He smiled a bright smile.
“When would you like to deliver the rest of the rocks?”
“I’m going to ask you to do it the day after tomorrow. I’ll meet you here at first light then you have an early start. Oh yes, bring your tools to my workshop tomorrow after lunch, I’ll give you the details.”
“You’re a blacksmith?”
“An apprentice blacksmith, but I’ll fix and repair any tools your men working on this job, and I’ll do it for free.”
His eye’s widened on my saying that.
“That’s a might big offer, but I’ll accept because it’s too big an opportunity to miss. Tools are hard to repair and can be expensive too.”
I pointed to the rocks.
“Will it be safe to leave these here for the night.”
“Should be. Only we know it’s true value and besides, I’ll ask the guards to keep an eye on it every so often tonight. They owe me a favour or two.”
That put my mind at ease as Hana but before I headed back to the inn, I grabbed a sample of the rocks for later analysis. From the eastern gate we hired a carriage, the one silver cost be damned, we were too tired to care.
The next morning at the adventurer guild in one of the meeting rooms on the upper floor. Hana and I faced an interesting situation. In the room with us sat Karato, Olivia and an adventurer group we had never met before, although one of them looked very familiar.
“Hi Tobias.”
Hana greeted the man with a friendly wave.
I’m not sure what surprised me more, that she waved or that Tobias, the assistant from the adventurer supply shop, stood there.
“Hi Shane and Hana, thanks for coming.”
Karato welcomed us and introduced the adventurer team to us.
“I’m only facilitating these discussions for the palace, so I’m not going with you. These are the Red Sparrows, and they’re going to be helping you in this quest.”
Leading the armed quartet was the burly solid looking Tobias. His jovial disposition and his protective equipment made him look like a small bear in armour. He wore leather greaves on his legs, thick leather gloves, heavy plated brigandine armour and a large sturdy shield. I imagined he wished he could afford full metal armour. A heavy sword completed Tobias’ arrangement. No doubt that he was the tank for the team. I could see where his penchant for things armour came from. Although he seemed jovial, I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of him. He looked like he could squash people simply by looking at them.
Aliz was the second in command and there was no doubt she fitted the role. She was in her late twenties and judging by her lean and mean, ‘no-nonsense’ demeanour, I suspected she had seen her fair share of battles. Her hair was short as if she didn’t want the effort of maintaining it. Her tanned face, framed by dark eyebrows and thin lips, included a fine nose profile which completed the no-nonsense picture. Her half leather armour covered her chest which was completed by a thick leather arm bracers and greaves. There were metal pieces attached to a leather armour. It gave more protection than leather without compromising agility. Its only downside was that there were softer gaps between the metal pieces where a talented enemy could target. The armour relied on the agility of the wearer to avoid attacks on those places. There was a thin bladed sword strapped to her right thigh and a small dagger on her left completed the arrangement. Designed to be mobile and dangerous, she was clearly a fighter.
Third on the list was the supporting female archer, Corey. Her long brown ponytailed hair came midway down on her back. She was more feminine in her features than Aliz, and out of everyone in the Red Sparrows, looked as if she didn’t belong in the team. She was lightly armoured but carried a bow not unlike a longbow. If her bow shared the physical characteristics to a long bow, then Corey’s looks belied her abilities because it would take a lot of upper body strength to pull that bow to fire an arrow. She, like Aliz, had light cotton leggings that tucked into laced leather boots. There was something about Corey I liked.
Last but no less interesting was the last male of the team, Cortez, and the monk type support. His clean shaven face and short hair made him look like a page boy on his first adventure. Cortez had no visible armour unless it was under his brown, one-piece robe. His only weapon was a mace like staff that he walked with. Karato explained that he was the fighting co-ordinator and planning support for the team and would also be cooking, camping, and looking after the store supplies. Cortez could also act as medic should it become necessary. I could see his value in the team even if he wasn’t a fighter.
Karato then explained the details of the quest.
“The palace is issuing a quest to find a metal called marsh iron. It’s a metal with specific characteristics and that can only be found in the Wildemere Marsh, between the Blister Oak Forest and the foot of the Mystral Mountain range about five day’s travel from Shimmerstal. The Mystral Mountains hold a unique combination of minerals leaching out of the rocks from rain and snow which settles out in the slow-moving waters of the marsh, forming the metal. Due to successive searches along the shoreline, marsh iron is largely depleted along the shore regions and marsh iron in significant quantities can only be found in deeper waters, but the logistics and difficulty increase significantly.”
Okay, so it was going to be a mining quest. I had a few questions of my own, but Karato already seemed to be anticipating them as he continued explaining.
“The Wildemere marsh is a large, shallow lake, with water generally up to neck deep. Water depth can vary depending on the season and how close you are to the shore. The marsh severely tests people and animals, and the biggest danger, more so than monsters, is fatigue. When there’s no dry land, there is no place for animals or people to rest and both can drown in knee deep water. Then there are the monsters to deal with like the big marsh bullfrogs, twice as large as a man and fiercely aggressive once they are aware of your presence. Other creatures living in those waters may not be deadly on their own, but when they swarm in large numbers, they can easily overwhelm people or animals. How you decide to operate when you get there, is largely up to you Shane.”
“What, why me?”