Matthias swallowed nervously, a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. He was staring at the {BAZAAR} screen and the orders that were rolling in for his lizard-kin. Thousands of orders. He had initially listed each base egg at five hundred NEX and a customized egg at a thousand NEX plus an additional thousand for an additional level of skill.
Sometime during the night someone had come across his listings and put in an order for five eggs. Then something unexpected had happened, the lizard-kin filled the order.
Using the Corporate Core the industrious little lizard-kin had loaded up five of their eggs and sent them off. Matthias wasn’t even sure how they had known an order had been placed, something he would need to investigate later for sure, but their actions had caused an avalanche of orders to come in shortly thereafter.
He was now looking at a long, long, list of order requests ranging from a single egg to five thousand. He would have to be very careful to not overextend his mobs to fill most of these. He not only needed to expand his own lizard-kin numbers, which would secure a higher production of eggs but also begin developing and designing more advanced lizard-kin to sell. He only wished that he had a Lizard-Kin that was devoted to laying eggs. Like an ant queen or something.
That thought froze him in place.
Creating a lizard-kin queen… shouldn’t be impossible. In fact, he knew it was possible and it would solve this damn problem altogether! He got up and hobbled quickly with his cane over to the pile of raw organic matter that remained, left over from their purge of the areas around them. Tapping a Golem for a bit of labor, he had several raptor carcasses drug out onto the main floor.
Activating {POWER OVERWHELMING}, targeting the pile of meat and somewhat decaying flesh he fixed what he wanted firmly into his mind and activated the skill.
The drain was immediate and far more intense than anything that he had attempted before. Matthias staggered to one side, the Golem barely managing to catch him before he toppled to one side. Breathing heavily, he examined the System message that had popped up in front of him, and the whopping price tag that had been affixed to it. Blinking away the twelve thousand NEX purchase, he watched in wonder as the corpses liquified entirely before forming up into an egg of gigantic proportions. At least, it was gigantic in relation to the eggs of the other lizard-kin.
Standing nearly seven feet tall, it was a good foot and a half taller than Matthias was himself. The queen was going to be gigantic and would need a far larger area to nest than what he had available right now. He called in all the Golems but the ones standing guard outside and ordered them to drastically expand the nesting chamber that he had built before. Instructing them to hollow up a cavern thirty feet deep, two hundred feet long, and ninety feet wide. This would give him more than a half million cubic feet to use in order to build his first true mob habitat.
He had a grand idea in his mind of fauna growing in a marsh like environment, waterfalls coming out of rocky recesses to fall into swirling pools, and glistening lights above that were enchanted to move between day and night cycles.
Lizard-kin could survive in nearly any environment, even if they had aspects that allowed them to be more comfortable in different environments. Fire-based lizard-kin could survive in anything but outright magma. Earth-based lizard-kin could practically swim through the ground, calling caves their homes. Water-infused lizard-kin could breathe underwater and were more at home in the open ocean than anywhere else. In the end, however, they were still natural residents of wet and humid biomes that could be found in any jungle or swamp.
The Golems immediately went to work, pulverizing rock and stone with their mana-empowered fists. The expanded excavation team rapidly carved out a massive area, almost before Matthias’s eyes. With each pile of rock they brought out he directed to the Assembler to create new batches of worker Golems. The thirty-odd lizard-kin were responsible for transporting the materials and running the machine. Something that he wasn’t entirely sure they were capable of. At least, not until he showed the first to lizard-kin how to work the advanced machine on a whim and was astounded when they took to it like fire to oil.
He only hoped the machine wouldn’t explode like his anecdote would have should it become reality.
Leaving the Golems and lizard-kin to their tasks, Matthias returned to his workstation and examined the remains of the Masterwork Golem. It had saved his life at the cost of nearly being destroyed. Even though it was a non-sentient construct, it had acted with loyalty to protect its master to the death. He was if nothing else, thankful for that loyalty and would not allow the construct to remain defunct for long.
As he approached the Masterwork Golem tracked its creator with blue glowing eyes. Matthias was a bit unsettled with how much attention it was paying him, the other Golems seemed practically oblivious by comparison. But he couldn’t blame it, it wasn’t like there was anything else for it to focus on.
Moving past the desk to the pile of stone nearby, Matthias considered the material. He had built the Masterwork Golem on the premise of compressed and reinforced stone and rock. While excellent for being faster and stronger than basic constructs, it hadn’t done anything for it in terms of combat prowess. Mathias had need of at least one body guard, and so he immediately decided that it may as well be his only advanced construct to date. There was no better choice, outside of perhaps crafting a superior creature from scratch. Something that would immediately bankrupt him of available funds.
Targeting the pile of stone with {POWER OVERWHELMING}, he winced as the System brought up the cost of converting a little more than three hundred kilos of raw stone to iron:
{POWER OVERWHELMING}
RESOURCE CONVERSION
MATERIAL – ROCK TO IRON
AMOUNT – 309 KILOS
COST – 618 POWER
“Well fuck, that won’t do,” he muttered. That just wasn’t possible. Converting that much NEX to Power, even with his newly updated abilities lessening the cost, the price was still staggering. Maybe he could just change enough stone to iron to create the frame, then fill in the rest with rock and stone at a higher density than before? Nodding to himself, Matthias decided that would be the better choice here. He could always upgrade the material at a later time when he had more on hand. Converting raw materials like this was far from efficient.
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He paid the cost to create fifty pounds of iron, wincing as his NEX was converted to cover the cost outright. Thinking it over a moment, he converted another hundred Power worth of currency to bank for later. If he was in a situation where he needed it, he probably wouldn’t have a chance to think it over.
Matthias pulled up his total resources using {BALANCE SHEET} and examined just what he had left to work with:
{BALANCE SHEET}
REMAINING POWER – 140
NEX BALANCE – 165,900
DENOMINATIONS
10K GOLD NEX BAR– 0
1K GOLD NEX COINS – 30
500 SILVER NEX COINS – 327
“Always spending NEX. Gotta spend NEX to make NEX,” he muttered to himself.
Matthias began moving chunks of iron over to the table where the Masterwork Golem was. It took several trips, and more of those than he had thought would be required due to his injury, but he successfully moved every bit of the newly converted mineral to the table. Breathing a bit heavily, he began working on crafting new bones for the Masterwork. Initially, this had been far too expensive for him to do. Now, however, he was committed to creating as excellent a bodyguard as he possibly could justify with the resources he had.
Using the method, he had experimented with before, he used {POWER OVERWHELMING} to allow himself to hand sculpt each bone. This technique was far slower, but infinitely more cost-effective than simply forcing the iron into a specific shape outright. It cost him ten Power per limb to mold the bone frame and cover it with compressed, Mana-infused stone ‘flesh’.
Focusing on the task at hand, Mathias became lost in the creation of the new parts for the Masterwork. He carefully, almost tenderly, sculpted each inch of all four limbs. Once the iron bones were completed, he tore into the stone, grabbing it as if it were clay and compressing it between his hands using the immense power of creation that his abilities granted him. From there he attached each limb to the Masterwork Golem, carefully lining up each socket and fixing the rotating cuffs into place that would allow it to have a much greater degree of flexibility over its lesser brethren.
After finishing the last leg, he stepped back with a grunt, clutching his side as his brain finally realized that he had pushed his body too far. Matthias could hear his ribs grate on one another internally and realized that he would have to either get a healing item or pony up the NEX for a healer to visit him directly. Either way, he couldn’t remain hurt any longer. It was too much of an impediment.
Sitting down on the floor, as he hadn’t made any other furniture yet, he was startled when the Masterwork picked him up gently and carried him over to his desk. Depositing him onto his hard stone chair, he was already feeling a bit better having proper support for his injury.
“Uh… thanks?” he said cautiously, getting a nod from the construct.
He watched as it moved off and headed into the excavation site, the Golems moving around it and incorporating it into their workflow immediately. It must have something to do with the abilities that it had, {GOLEM COMMANDER} being a prevalent skill for most leadership-based constructs. Shaking his head at the odd experience, he opened the {BAZAAR} and began diving deeply into the requests for lizard-kin.
Mathias rapidly realized that there were some orders that he just couldn’t hope to fill right now, several of which were for thousands of eggs at a time. Drafting quick messages to those clients about currently limited supply, he decided that he would take orders on a first come first serve basis for no more than a hundred at a time. This would ensure that he had enough mobs to sell, enough to expand his current roster and that he wouldn’t stretch himself thin.
He quickly updated his Corporate Core Shop to reflect this and watched as nearly all of the orders over the maximum changed to exactly that. A few dropped off entirely, but Matthias figured that they would be back at some point when the quantity they wanted was available. Taking a look at his available inventory, he realized that the lizard-kin had laid almost two hundred eggs total in just the last day. While that was a staggering number to him, he also knew that level of laying couldn’t not be sustained.
Pulling up the first order, he read it over. It was for ten eggs, a request from a farmer on a heavy Mana-based world. He wanted them for laborers and to guard his livestock against pests. Something about fire-breathing rats. Matthias wouldn’t pretend that he understood, but he also needed more information to provide the best product possible. For that reason alone, he sent a contact request to the farmer.
It connected almost immediately, startling him.
Matthias could hear the roar of battle, followed by the meaty crunches of melee weaponry colliding with flesh. The fighting went on for sometime until it all fell quiet, periodically interrupted with the deep breaths of whoever had been fighting. This was no simple farmer.
“You weren’t a foe that couldn’t be vanquished, honor to your forefathers,” said a gruff masculine voice. “Now, where did that damn axe go… oh? The trinket is on?”
The view shuffled from black to reveal a very large, very gore-splattered, mountain of a man. Wearing a massive black beard on his face tied into an intricate braid and decorated with various charms and bits of metal, the man’s twinkling blue eyes held nothing but fiery passion. Probably for tearing his enemies asunder, or some other such nonsense.
“Ah, hello there,” he said cautiously. Peeking at the order information he asked, “Are you by any chance Ragvar Asvardsson?”
The man moved his head to the side, speaking to another person in a language that Matthias didn’t understand, before returning his attention to whatever device was allowing them to communicate.
“Ah! The device speaks. Yes little device, I am the mighty Ragvar Asvardsson! Warrior of a thousand battles, destroyer of the Vulgrandt. Smasher of weapons and shields!” he roared out in laughter.
The man was a fucking farmer Viking.
Matthias cleared his throat, “Right. A pleasure to be speaking with you Ragvar. I am Matthias Mob, CEO of Mob Inc. I received your order for the lizard-kin and have a few questions to better fulfill the order as well as give you a more accurate cost.”
Ragvar seemed confused, “Questions? Those I can answer merchant, but if frivolous they will annoy me. But what is this concern with payment?”
“Each lizard-kin can be infused with abilities and aspects for various purposes, however, custom-making them increases the cost. I understand you want some of them to serve as laborers, livestock guards, and assist in forging?” Matthias clarified. When the huge Viking nodded his head he continued, “Right. I would recommend six hybrid lizard-kin with fire and earth aspects. This would make them apt guards and assistants in the forge. I recommend the remaining four receive a mix of air and earth aspects, making them fast and strong. Excellent for laborers and messengers.”
Ragvar nodded, “This makes sense merchant. I understand the nature of your questions now. Relevant and applicable, this is indeed worthy of my time.” His eyes narrowed, “What is the so called cost increase?”
“Each lizard-kin is a base one hundred NEX. Aspects are fifty NEX each, they are expensive energy-wise and complicated to imbue,” Matthias explained seriously. “I want to make sure that the increase in cost is known to you, I will not cheat my clients.”
Ragvar’s intense glare softened, “Honor in a merchant is rare, particularly through this {BAZAAR} of magic fuckery. I value your honesty, Merchant Matthias, and will do business with you again. The increased expenses are approved. Now, I am off to figure out where that damn axe went. Need it for smashing heads and cutting kindling.”
With that the man winked and the call ended, leaving Matthias with an odd mix of confusion and pride. He wasn’t quite sure who got the upper hand there, but he knew one thing for certain. Ragvar was much more than what he seemed.
Sighing, Matthias spun up the next order in the queue. This was going to be an interesting day.
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