Lair
Chapter 030 - Arrangements
By Skalsar
The [Local Lord] of the humans has returned to our little hive. Alone.
Quite surprising.
He seems to be learning from earlier mistakes.
>Welcome.<, I say.
He looks around and surveys the surroundings.
Danar and me stand in front of the hive entrance.
A second room is currently being grown besides the entrance we have claimed.
When I say claimed, I mean that we changed the walls that hindered us from opening a [Portal] outside, into a part of the hive. It's now a room itself and doesn't hinder us anymore and a ceiling has been added.
The forest around us has been cleared quite a bit in order to secure a territory for us.
We had a [Treant] do so. It's a creature that normaly looks like a tree.
Quite the trap for adventurers, because they can't be sure inside the hive if it's a real tree or a [Treant]. So they started to attack every tree inside a hive to be sure it's not a [Treant].
We will set some around our territory to guard the place.
>Hello.<, Odas says.
I show him to the second room, which only opens for those we approve of.
There, a desk has been set that looks like stone, but it's also grown from the hive.
As well as four chairs.
Even though I don't need a chair. Well, I can't use one.
My body is quite restricting in cases like these.
Danar is the first to sit down.
Odas looks vigilant, but after a short moment, sits down as well.
If we wanted to kill him or do something to him, we could have done any time.
But I guess humans aren't very trusting.
>Let me reintroduce ourselves.
My name is Nydar and this is our [Dungeon Lord] Danar.<
>You have names?<
Seems like that surprised him.
>Yes. I decided that it would be easier this way.
Nydar has been granted the authority to speak on behalf of the hive for the trade.
I will sit by if there are any other questions or discussions.<
'Huh, you have vocal cords?', I ask a bit surprised myself.
'Sure. I just never had any reason to use them.', Danar answers me in my mind.
Well, guess so. There never was a human who made it to our [Dungeon Lord].
More knowledge about the [Dungeon Lord] body enters my mind.
>My name is Odas.
I'm the [Local Lord] of this territory and therefore will decide about a possible trade with the inhabitants of this dungeon and [Mafay Village] on behalf of the humans.<, he began formally.
But he started to look worried soon.
>To tell the truth, I don't really know how to do this.
We never thought you could be sentinent.
I'm sorry for this misunderstanding.<, he continued.
Well, for most of the time he was right, but we won't tell him that.
>Don't worry about small details.
What we wish for is a fortunate future, we won't dwell in the past.<, Danar says.
Odas sighs.
>What is it that you even want to acquire from us.
I'm sure you know what we need, as we have always come to the dungeon to get the goods.
But what would you have to gain from trading?<
>Well, for starters, we wish to live in peace with the village.<, I declare.
>Peace..? We might be able to get the adventurers from our village to stop attacking you, but I can't make promises about outsiders.<
>Oh, don't worry. I don't mean to stop adventuring.
What we want is to minimize the losses.
Not all beings in the hive are sentinent.
The 'monsters' in the first levels are just like puppets.
Your kind may slay them if they are able to in order to acquire goods and whatever it is you get.<
I take a short break to let him swallow the sentences.
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>As far as Lily told us, your kind gives out a subjugation request if the dungeon poses a threat.
You won't ever do that. As soon as you do, we will see the peace as broken and destroy the village.
If you agree to that, we promise to not kill any human that is only using our dungeon.
As long as the human doesn't threaten a sentinent being of the dungeon that is.<
>Not kill any human..?<, Odas repeats.
>That.. you can promise such a thing?<, he continues after a short break.
>Yes.<
Humans die quite often inside a dungeon, even on lower layers.
That is commonplace, and mostly no one cares about it.
But being able to stop that from happening, would be a massive change for the village.
>What level may we go to, before the danger of meeting a sentinent being?<
I look at Danar.
>I guess I will allow humans to go down till they reach level fifty of the dungeon.<
>Fifty?! That means?!<
>Yes, this is already what you would call a [Greater Dungeon].<, I add.
Odas looks pale now.
It not only means we are quite dangerous, even more dangerous than he thought, but also that they can acquire even more and stronger goods.
We won't tell him that we currently have reached over a hundred layers thanks to the [Hero].
>Well.. I'm a bit lost at words.<, he says.
>Still, what is it you want to acquire from us humans?<
>Written knowledge.
Books as you call it.
Lily told us about it.
You humans write down knowledge for later generations.
We want to get them all in order to learn about this world.<
>Books? Just books?<, he seemed surprised.
We promised him quite a big deal and only want books.
Even though some of them are very costly.
He nods.
>I can't promise every book.
Some are out of my reach and have delicate informations.
I can promise every book that can be acquired by myself as the lord.<
'For now that is good enough, right?', I ask Danar.
Danar nods.
>Alright.<
With that, the deed is done.
We stand up and shake hands with the human.
A custom for sealing a deal.
The books will be delivered to the second room we are currently in.
Five books every month.
And as we did..
The hive has been connected to the realms under control of the deities.
Trading post 'Hive' is now part of the travel network.
>What?! This means..<, Odas exclaimed.
We looked a bit surprised to be connected to this world now.
But all the better.
>That means [Field Walk] may now be used to get here. How is this possible? Only an [Adventurer Guild] can establish a [Travel Point].<
>I guess this is because your [Field Walk] is an adaption of our [Dungeon Walk].<, Danar says before leaving.
Guess I will ignore it too. I follow Danar back into the hive.
Odas is left alone and is shaking his head in disbelieve, before returning to [Mafay Village].
It's a bit funny that the humans will believe we are generously sparing them because of this trade.
Odas will declare a law that allows adventurers not to go deeper than level 50.
Everyone who does, is fair game for us and will join us as livestock.
Which is good, because we need much more magic power in order to build the tower.