Matthias spent the next three days speaking with buyers for the lizard-kin eggs. He quickly realized that he would need full-time help, other than Alyssa, along with additional infrastructure or his mob sales idea wouldn’t even get off the ground. It was far too much work to manage the sales, talk with clients, and manage the expansion of his base of operations. He had big plans for the floating island and the world that it orbited, which meant only one thing.
He needed employees.
Now.
After the third exhausting day of dealing with complicated clients, one of which had been a lich while the other two had been humans on various Earths, he finally got into the {BAZAAR} and began searching through employee profiles. Many of the best were prohibitively expensive, ranging from hundreds of thousands of NEX to tens of millions. Per year. Mathias quickly realized that this wasn’t going to work, he simply didn’t have the capital to get the help he needed.
After hours of searching, reviewing resumes, and looking through forums, he was about to give up when Alyssa offered a unique point of view. One that saved him.
“Why are you looking to hire people who are so experienced and expensive? Can’t you, you know, hire people who are interested and just train them?” the Fairy wondered aloud.
Matthias snapped at her angrily, “Of course you can’t! You need skills, knowledge of how to handle clients… patience…” he trailed off slowly, all the anger burning out of his system as quickly as it came. “Alyssa, I owe you an apology. That’s a fucking brilliant idea.”
The Fairy nodded, “Of course it is. I’m pretty smart you know. Much smarter than any middle management Goblin who sells socks.”
“Right. I don’t get the reference, but I understand the sentiment. Thank you, Alyssa,” he replied, waving away the obscure reference to some company she probably worked for in the past.
He had to find people who weren’t bred or rained to fill any of the roles that he needed to fill. No. He had to think outside of the box. Source from unusual channels… he needed people with a mercenary mindset and a savage will to succeed.
“Actually, that’s not such a bad idea,” he muttered to himself as Alyssa watched him in concern.
Matthias navigated to the mercenary’s tab within the {BAZAAR}. While there were warriors, mages, and combatants that were, quite literally in the case of the Diamondites, worth their weight in NEX, they all needed support personnel. Managers, paperwork gurus, administrators. Armies ran on their stomachs and vast quantities of paperwork. That ran true for hirable armies as well… if not more so.
Looking through the options he found thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of posted ads from individuals seeking work. Many of them had zero corporate experience, something that may benefit him and his new company in the long run. It was hard to untrain someone, it was remarkably easy to give someone a set of instructions and let them figure out the rest.
Using the search functions, Matthias narrowed down his list of choices. Even then there were still hundreds to choose from, but feedback from Alyssa narrowed that down to about fifteen. A much more realistic number that he could work with. Now he just had to complete a task any HR professional hated with aplomb; interviews.
The first four people had no interest in working for a new Corporation. They had heard the stories and didn’t quite believe him when he said he would be actively avoiding the pitfalls of indentured servitude, toxic culture, and outright slavery.
Not that he blamed them.
Matthias’s fifth interview request, however, bore some fruit. It was with a Fairy whose name was only listed as ‘Mab’. A name that, at least according to Alyssa, bore extreme weight in the Courts of the Fae. In fact, his little Fairy couldn’t imagine that it could be anything but the original Mab, and why such a powerful being would be listed for hire in the mercenaries’ section puzzled her to no end. She was even more puzzled when the Fairy actually answered the call.
Matthias {BAZAAR} screen lit up with a live video of a young woman with pitch-black wings sitting on what could only be a throne of bones from more than a dozen different races. More than a bit intimidating, particularly if she had done the killing. It didn’t much matter to him, however, as various races had various cultures. Some could be considered evil, others good. But in the end, it was all about perspective and what ‘good and evil’ meant to those cultures. If someone wanted to decorate their room with the bones of their fallen enemies? Well, who was he to judge?
“Greetings,” he began, looking down to quickly consult the mercenaries listing. “Are you by chance Mab?”
The Fairy looked at him quizzically, “Of course I am. The System does not allow for connections to third parties. Ah, but you wouldn’t know that. Your company is, after all, brand new. Making you a brand-new CEO. You have much to learn.”
He didn’t mince words, “You are entirely correct Miss. I do have much to learn still, a large part of why I am seeking help from the most unusual places,” he paused for a moment. “Which is why I have to admit, I am deeply curious as to why someone of your particular caliber is listed in such an odd place and for such an odd price.”
Mab laughed, her voice twinkling across their System connection. “Honesty from a Corporate Leader. Fascinating. Humble too. See that you don’t lose that perspective, it will serve you very well in your environment. But you lack ruthlessness. Not a horrible quality to lack, but one that will doom you eventually,” she said factually. “Your curiosity is well warranted, and I see one of my Kin there with you as well. Hmm. Alyssa… Woodland Fairy. Scout and Explorer classes.”
“Yes Ma’am!” Alyssa said, saluting.
“How is your tenure with Mr. Mob coming along so far? Has it been fun? Enjoyable? Interesting?” Mab asked, leaning forward eagerly.
To Matthias’s relief, Alyssa nodded her head emphatically. “Oh yes, Ma’am! There is so much to explore here. And that’s only on this portion of the world. If this place is what I think it is, there are hundreds if not thousands of other orbiting islands around this world. And we don’t even know what’s on the surface yet, or if there even is one! There is a lot to do here. I don’t think I would be capable of being bored if I tried!”
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“Oh, that sounds wonderful,” Mab said with a dainty clap of her hands. Turning her attention to Matthias she said, “To answer your question about why I am listed in such an area, it is because I am bored. Ever since that bitch Titania usurped my place and stole my husband, Oberon, I have been bored out of my mind. I still command a short legion of Dark Fairies, but we are geared towards trickery, illusion, and administration. Not combat. This is why the only stipulation for my hiring is to not be bored and not to be placed in a combat role. I need no other forms of compensation, as I am far richer than anyone who could hope to hire me.”
Matthias nodded. “I can understand that. To be immortal and bored, that’s not a good combination.” He mulled over the conversation a bit as Mab waited patiently for him to come to a decision. “Okay,” he said after several minutes of thinking it over. “I have an offer that is… slightly different than the one you have up on the {BAZAAR}. Forgive my ignorance, but can your terms listed be altered?”
“Of course they can Mr. Mob, and thank you for apologizing. Ignorance, as long as it is not willful, can be solved with education. Stupidity, on the other hand, cannot,” Mab said with a predatory smile. “What terms did you have in mind?”
“I need far more than one person helping me. What if, and hear me out on this, I was to give you an entire section of the island for both you and your Dark Fairies? I could, with time, develop this into a new area run only by you. Giving the Fairies or Fae that I hire, of any kind, into your care for management and assignment?” he explained, sounding out the idea verbally even as he made mental improvements to the concept. “I would give you the role of COO for as long as you wanted it. This would ensure a very, very wide variety of challenges with resources and personnel. I don’t think you would be bored for a very long time, considering nearly every situation that would make it to you would be unique. This would provide a constant challenge to you…” he trailed off as he watched Mab.
The Fairy Queen stared at him with an intensity that made him swallow nervously. “You would make a Fairy one of your core leaders? That is a dangerous, very dangerous in fact, offer to make Mr. Mob. There is a reason that not many Fae hold leadership roles within Corporations. We are inherently dangerous, mischievous, and difficult to trust.”
“Are you going to cause me harm? Enslave or hurt my employees? Damage my company?” Matthias asked, his gaze sharpening to a razor's edge.
Mab blinked at his intensity, and then she laughed. In fact, she laughed so hard she slipped out of her chair and off-screen. He could even hear the Fairy Queen hit the ground as the air escaped her from the impact. With no small amount of swearing, she climbed back into her throne of bone and huffed.
“Damn throne is tricky to get in and out of. Bone is very slippery; I would not recommend making your future throne out of it. Go for coarse stone or precious metals, just don’t forget the pillow. Sitting on a hard surface is hard on the back,” she grumbled. Looking him in the eye she said, “I accept your terms. I have no interest or need to enslave or harm anyone. We are not combative, remember? My Dark Fairies will behave as well, at least to those who belong to the Company.”
The Fairy Queen made some quick, deft movements and a contract appeared in front of Matthias. “Review that,” she said. “Reach back out to me if you think you can accept the terms and duration. Do keep in mind that I am immortal, but nothing lasts forever. Not me. Not a company. Not the Gods themselves.”
With that the call ended and Matthias was left with a contract floating on a System screen in front of him. The entire interview had been more of a… meeting of some kind. What, he wasn’t quite sure. He really didn’t know if he had been the one giving the interview or the one being interviewed. Either way, he began pouring over the contract immediately.
The terms laid out within the document were clear and pretty direct. Matthias would have to provide an area to house, protect, and feed Mab and the group of Fairies and Fae that she was bringing. He would also have to provide workspace, something that he wasn’t sure he could do until he knew exactly what species of Fairy she was bringing. This was, thankfully, something that Alyssa could weigh in on.
“Dark Fairies are powerful in the use of magic Boss,” she said, flitting from one side of his head to the other. “They can change shape at will, so any standard workspace you can set up should be just fine. If Miss Mab didn’t specify any specific area or need, then anything you set up is perfect as long as it can fulfill the function that you need it to for the position you are having filled. This is pretty in line with her prankster nature. Benign, but still mildly annoying.”
He couldn’t disagree with that assessment, but if this was the worst that Mab would do then bringing her and her horde into the fold would be a no-brainer. And that was exactly what it was, a horde. The long list of personnel that would be accompanying Mab was provided with the contract, with stipulations and requirements for living quarters for each one. Matthias was, honestly, impressed with the diversity that was on the list in front of him. He was worried that he wouldn’t be able to accommodate many of these beings and the needed biomes with the resources that he had.
He made several changes to the contract to ensure that the employees would come in waves, by type of living quarters needed, every ninety days. This would ensure a steady flow of personnel and would allow him the time needed to develop the living and work quarters that would be needed. After all, Naiads were incredibly difficult to house, requiring extensive water-oriented areas to live and work in. That meant magical computing equipment rather than electrical, an incredible cost for even a few and there were forty-three of them on Mab’s list.
Dark Fairies, Dryads, Naiads, Nymphs, a clan of Pixies, Aelvin, and even a half dozen Sylphs, among a half dozen other types of Fae. He would have to research and create accommodations for all of them. Something that would be downright impossible for now. Currently, he had the capability to house the Dark Fairies and Mab, and in housing primarily composed of stone and rock. According to Alyssa, Dark Fairies preferred subterranean accommodations, and was something that he could rapidly have constructed using the Golems and Lizard-Kin.
After discussing the changes in the contract with Alyssa, Matthias approved the changes and sent it back to Mab for review. While he waited, he went to check on the Lizard-Kin Queen egg. The huge egg was attended to reverently by a half dozen Lizard-Kin but had shown no signs of hatching as of yet. Not that he was surprised, the Queen had been immensely costly and complicated to create from scratch. If she took a week to hatch it wouldn’t phase him at all. Besides, the hatchery expansion was nearly complete, and the surface defenses were almost entirely in place. He was only waiting on the Dryads from the neighboring Grove to grow the root into place and provide that glacially cold magical water to fill the moat.
Patting the egg slowly as he limped around it, Matthias thought about what he had accomplished so far. Granted, it was exceedingly early in the game and he had much to do. But between the Lizard-Kin, sales of eggs, and now the hiring of more employees he was progressing rapidly and well. True, he had concerns such as who from Trion may come after him, the dragon hibernating on the side of the island, and what other threats this new world would hold that he had yet to discover. But he was confident that with the right people and enough firepower, he could overcome just about anything.
A bell tingled in the distance signifying that Alyssa was trying to get his attention. Limping out of the hatchery, Matthias headed over to his desk and sat heavily. His side still ached fiercely, reinforcing the point that he probably had more than one broken rib.
Alyssa landed next to him, eyeing him with concern. “You okay Boss?” she asked intently. “Your side still hurting? That hit probably did some serious damage, you should get a potion or a healer. Seriously.”
“When I can afford one I will. For now, however, I will make do with what we have,” he replied with a pained grimace. “Regardless, you had something for me?”
The Fairy nodded, “Yeah Boss. The Dryads are ahead of schedule. That root broke through and started filling up the moat with water. Funny thing though, one of the Golems was inside doing some last-minute work and got submerged. It just kind of… stopped working?”
He looked at her quizzically, “What do you mean it just ‘stopped working’?”