Chapter 178: The collection

Excerpt from the book “Basic building” By Strig

Once upon a time, I was the head builder for an outpost town. It might seem boring at first, “not even a whole town?” Some might jovially say, but it was far more. You see, outpost towns are pretty far from the standard interconnected network of cities and towns. Which means a couple of things.

You cant get supplies on short notice. You cant go; oh, we ran out of bricks. You need to plan ahead and bring it all. Second, you have less manpower. People are far less inclined to go to an outpost than an ordinary town. No family, lousy food, and a million other reasons it’s a raw deal. Third, you are in a potentially unexplored, or at least less explored area. Which means hidden dangers, underground, usually. On this occasion, we actually cracked a dungeon, which delayed us by a month. We had a clever clog drop a bunch of gravel on it, saving us the monster hoard. Fourth, monster swarms are often and a nightmare to deal with. Dangerous too, you are likened to die out there.

And finally, cow crap coin. They pay the least they possibly can for the outpost. The money is garbage. Damned governers. They smooth it over by saying we get a cut of all discoveries. Accurate on paper, not in practice. They swoop in, assess the actual value of something, half it, then give us the 30% cut. Which means we actually get 15%.

So, pretend you don’t read this part, but generally, most builders, no names, will actually skim discoveries. The survey won’t know If a diamond is missing from a dungeon chest. How could they? Just to be clear, I don’t endorse this, as it breaks the empiric law 13 degree 3. Stealing governmental claimed property with intent to sell. Not to be mistaken for degree 2, stealing governmental property with intent to collect. One of which gives a far lesser sentence; I will let you guess which one you should plead.

Having got a rough idea of the deal, The Mayor of the town guided me through winding streets. Having had only the barest of a chance to bid Andira goodbye. Which saddened me slightly, being a stickler for goodbyes.

She, of course, knows the streets well, not even stopping to look. Following her closely through the winding passageways, I didn’t spare too much attention to the surrounding. I should have because the simple brick walls just vanished with a subtle shimmer, and I was in a clearing with wooden houses and witchery trees.

The mayor turned around with a knowing smirk. Not wishing to give her what she wants, I just raise an eyebrow and cross my arms. Shrugging off the whole event.

Her face droops, turning around energetically and continuing on the walk.

“This is one of our magical sites; welcome to Beta.” She says with a wave of her arm.

And with that, I now have a name to put to my dislocator. Having saved the location among my multiple teleports.

“It’s a cozy little place” I smile.

“That it is,” she concurs.

The area is large, mostly grassland, with witchery trees and plants prolific throughout. The woods of those trees used to make a colorful rainbow of huts to live in. Most of the homes are small, so small I can only think of them used for sleeping. And spotting large amounts of witchery gear outside each house, that may very well be the case.

Of course, some are substantially larger, bordering on a 3 bedroom house. Made with stones as well, how fancy. I am under no illusions that this is poverty; it’s a lifestyle and design choice.

The houses are clustered, and within each cluster lies a communal altar. Beautiful hanging gardens rest above each altar, with saplings pressed beneath, unable to grow. A very compressed and efficient means to gather natural energy.

Speaking of natural energy, the whole area is abuzz with life. It feels so rich that I can almost smell the floral nature of the power. That’s what happens when you have over a dozen alters and enough plant matter to reforest a nuclear bomb site.

After passing several houses, I notice a distinct shift. The huts became more extensive, sparser, the altars increased in the there quality.

I began to see a building come into view. A heavily reinforced stone structure, with metal bars, magical symbols, and all sorts of unknowns covering it. Swear I even spotted some Chinese talismans on it. It looked like a mess, a very secure mess.

Upon coming to the door, she clapped loudly, causing my vision to become blurry for a few seconds. I recoiled in shock, catching glimpses of some bizarre movements before my eye returned to clarity. Seeing the once closed door now open, or more accurately, gone.

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Her annoying smirk was still plastered on her face. It’s why you shouldn’t give magic to kids, and yes, I know she is a fully grown adult. But she may as well be a kid.

I’m brought through a hallway, walls abuzz with energy. Occasionally a faint glimmer will pass over the walls.

“Solid security.” Commenting on it, hoping that the comment would stop her silent bragging.

Seeing her face light up, I knew I screwed up. “It is, isn’t it? Very expensive, cost us a lot of time and money. I would hazard a guess even you couldn’t bust in…. or out of here. We got some other magical folk to do exchanges. Having helped us enchant this building until it was untouchable.”

“Can I have your contacts? They seem to be effective in forms of magic I am unfamiliar with.”

She rolls her eyes in thought, “I’ll consider it if the correct price is paid.”

“So very clear cut,” I say, goading her.

“It’s not so easy to place a price on people you know.” Shooing her head away from me, walking ahead slightly.

Eventually, the hallway opens up into a long horizontal room. Four doors rest within, all equally spaced. Each entry is a different color: Red, orange, yellow, green.

“And here we are,” she says in a cheery tone. “This is the unknown item collection. Or, as the brainiest call it, artifact containment.”

Nodding, “what do the colors mean?” Relaxing my arms slightly.

“It’s the perceived value, rarity, and danger of the item, from green, being the lowest value, rarity, and risk. Of course, all items still have no known use. Requiring extensive amounts of time and materials to find uses. We usually don’t have enough to justify it.” She goes to the yellow door.

“I see, that’s a good way of doing it.”

She narrows her eyes at me slightly but doesn’t immediately reply. Letting go of a breath and shrugging, “yellow door, it’s what we are offering you.”

Walking through, she continues to elaborate. “Inside this door, it generally contains overworld found items with minimal if any danger.”

“That seems like something green would be for.” Tilting my head and looking at her.

“That might seem the case at first, but we generally use the green room for items we find in much more significant amounts but seem virtually useless.”

“I see.”

Many glass cases were atop pedestals inside the yellow room, holding small quantities of singular items. Along with shelves with more significant amounts of things at the back. It contained everything from fantastical swords, which to my knowledge, are poorly used for decoration, to mundane appearing powders.

The swords looked fantastic and functioned, but that was it. They were made from exotic ore and outdone by standard, more average materials like a diamond. An example would be deep iron, astral silver, looked cool, that’s it.

The powder was what immediately caught my attention, walking towards it. “Garmonbozia,” I can’t help but say out loud. Not incredibly rare, but incredibly difficult to acquire.

“What’s that?” The mayor asked me, standing beside me and peering into the glass case.

Snapping back to reality, “nothing too amazing, but add it to the list of things you will supply me.”

She clicks her fingers, “no, no, no. That caught your attention immediately; you know what it is, how to use it, and that it’s valuable.”

Smiling, “bold of you to assume it’s valuable. I will be frank with you; it’s not valuable, just a pain to gather.”

“Frank?” She says, tilting her head slightly. “It’s worth 2 items; all 3 powders will be the equivalent of 6. You are suitable for 15, by the way.”

“20”

Looking at me with a glare, “16.”

“20”

Rubbing her brows, “16, no more, seriously.”

Rolling my eyes, “fine, fine.”

Stepping away from the garmonbozia, I look around at the other assorted items. Some useless stuff like blood magic mundane catalyst, which is helpful if I was doing blood magic. Might do it in the future, but not now. On the back shelf, I noticed some shadow gems. A key ingredient in all things abyssalcraft. No coralium pearls, though, but I know where to find them.

Walking to the small shelf stocked with them. “I’ll take 4 of these.”

The mayor stepping to my side once more. “Whats these then?”

“Something far too dangerous to be in yellow, although it’s relatively difficult to get them to that state.”

She seemed to gather. That’s all I would say, letting out a low whistle of some kind before following me as I walked to the next item. Taking a moment to admire all the things I won’t be able to have. Locking onto my next target, a pair of rusty slash blades. Oh, how I’ve forgotten about that brilliant mod. Might just mess around with it later.

Grabbing them gingerly, rusty slash blades. “I’ll take these.”

“Don’t know why you want some rusty katanas.”

“I have a use for them.”

With that, I’ve got four slots left. All of which I am gonna burn on overgrowth seeds. Walking over to the small bundle of them. “Four of these.”

She rubs her chin, “they are a good seller for decoration, 2 points each.”

“But they are useless in the grand scheme of things; decoration doesn’t warrant 2 slots.”

“1.5”

“1, I won’t go any higher.”

She winces slightly but nods, “fine.” With an exasperated exhale.

If only she knew how annoying these things are to gather. Useless to everyone unless you know how to use botania.

After I gather up the last of the items, slipping them into my golden bag, The mayor claps. “There you go; I hope that satisfies you.”

“Only made me curious what’s in the other doors,” I say with a smile.

“Curiosity did kill the cat.”

“But it also saved it.” Replying intern.

“Time to go,” she says with a smile, guiding me to the door.

Lost in thought at another example of a saying existing here from earth. After a short walk, we are outside of the reinforced building.

“Well, hope you had fun,” she says with a twirl as she steps away. “When can we get the materials?”

“Give me a day,” I say, teleporting away towards my home. Quickly preparing all the materials, which I already have. Not long later, all the materials are on their doorstep. Hastily returning home once more.

Finding a comfy sofa and leaning back in appreciation for how productive today has been. Although it’s somewhat hollow because I achieved very little. Having already got most things, this is what it must be like to be rich, empty.

It’s a good job; I’ve got a fantastic partner who, for some reason, puts up with all my antics. I should arrange a date for us in thanks. We haven’t gone on one for a while. It will be good to go on a break before working on my town again. As much as I adore doing such.

Now, where might you be Cassie?