Matthias snorted and whipped his head up off the stone desk, a pool of drool where his head had been. He blinked groggily in the pale light of the orbs lining the ceiling. He had fallen asleep working, completing rough calculations on a stone slate board behind him. Shaking his head lightly, he spun on his stool and reached into his backpack, retrieving a cup of water and a basic meat sandwich. Conjured food was never delicious, but it was filling.
He eyed his work as he ate. The chart he had created was fairly simple. A line graph of his NEX compared to his expenditures stretched in a red line that was rising from the bottom of the chart to the top. A second blue line was flat against the bottom and hadn’t risen at all.
“Expenditures and gross income,” he muttered, finishing off the sandwich. He tossed the cup back into the backpack where it was recycled. Then he eyed the pie chart. It was split into seven sections, the largest of which had been his expenditure to create the space he was in. The other sections of the chart were slivers compared to that.
He nodded, happy that his work was accurate. Of course, it wasn’t the rough scratches on the stone slate that he was happy about. No. It was the fact that this slate was tied directly to his company and personal storage. It would track expenditures, income, and balances, as well as summarize this information into quick-to-access chart sections.
Matthias had outdone himself with the meager resources available.
Of course, there would be improvements to this system when he finally backtracked and retrieved the rest of the storage unit, but for now, this was much more than was needed.
Now that Matthias had a basic base of operations he needed to complete two minor, but very important, tasks. He needed to name his company and designate a headquarters. Both were single-use abilities through the BSK.
He got up and walked over to the cyan BSK orb that was floating above the ground in the center of the cavern. Touching it, he accessed the menu and chose {NAME CORPORATION}. What appeared in front of him was a truly infinite list of names that he could pick from. A list of names that were generated from the System and had not been taken by anyone yet along with a list of names that were already claimed. There was even an option to directly enter a corporate name that was created by the owner of the BSK.
Or had there been companies that had failed or been destroyed outright?
Matthias scrolled through them for some time, becoming more and more irritated. Most of the names were garbage and didn’t reflect what he wanted to do in any way shape or form. Mudriggers Inc. Foresters Incorporated. Beef R’ Us. All trash.
Toggling the search option, he used a few keywords to search for more intuitive and eye-catching names. A corporation's name embodied what it was capable of. What its purpose was. What it could do. If he wanted to make jewelry or enchanted weapons a name like Titans Forge or Dragons Burrow would be appropriate. If he was an explorer something along the lines of Endless Star Exploratory Services would be a good fit.
But that wasn’t what he wanted. It wasn’t his goal.
Grinning, Matthias opened the direct creation interface and typed in a phrase he had heard from a few humans long ago. A term that embodied throwaway creatures as servants, warriors, and laborers. A single word that had become his surname.
Mob Inc.
There were no hits. It was his.
The jovial grin turned feral as Matthias finalized his choice. A choice to create a corporation that, in turn, created creatures for lease and sale. A business that sold, traded, and worked to directly staff whoever could pay him with creatures that would do their bidding.
He was going to sell mobs.
Matthias finalized his choice, and the cyan orb flashed a brilliant white before deepening into a blood-red color. A System notification appeared in front of him:
{MOB INC}
CEO – MATTHIAS MOB
COO – VACANT
CFO – VACANT
CMO – VACANT
{BOARD}
{MANAGEMENT}
{EMPLOYEES}
{SHARES}
“Yeah, that’s what I’m fucking talking about,” he whooped. Moving back to the dark red orb, Mathias chose the second single-use skill and designated the cavern as his headquarters. A second flash of white blinded him. He could have expected it but had gotten too excited for a moment. Blinking the lights from his eyes, he saw that nothing had changed outside of the orb having gotten a golden border around it.
Unsure of what had happened, he reopened the primary menu and stared at the changes.
MOB INC
CORPORATE CORE
{CORPORATE ABILITIES}
ADVERTISE
CONSTRUCT
MANUFACTURE
{CORPORATE SKILLS}
CONSULTATION
EXPAND HOLDINGS
CORPORATE STORAGE
{CORPORATE ACCESS}
BAZAAR
SHOP
{CORPORATE STRUCTURE}
LEADERSHIP
MIDDLE MANAGEMENT
EMPLOYEES
STATUS
Not only had all of the categories changed, but they had expanded significantly. Matthias spent the next few hours leafing through all of the options and menus. They were mostly empty, as he had no employees under him at the moment, but he found a few of the options were not only active but immediately useful. The {BAZAAR} and {SHOP} were both available to him right now. And they were both amazing.
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The {BAZAAR} was a full listing of companies, corporations, and business entities that offered services to the universe. Matthias could hire people, buy equipment, put out bounties and contracts, take contract work, and even sell his entire corporation.
Not that he would.
The {SHOP} on the other hand was his company, Mob Inc.’s, storefront within the {BAZAAR}. He could list services and goods that he could sell here. He could also, if he so wanted to, invite customers to his Headquarters for a {CONSULTATION} on what they may need. Overall, the entire System was far more versatile and open than he had expected it to be. True, Trion may be at the top, but there was so much call and need for lower-level services that it was borderline absurd. Out of the million or so registered companies, corporations, and entities, only about four thousand were even remotely open to the public. And only two sold anything along the lines of creatures. Most of them were focused on finance, management, or the creation of various items.
He had definitely chosen a niche that he could fill. With his ability he could empower any creature that he created, making them far stronger than what they would normally have been. He could spawn or purchase a Goblin, empower it with {POWER OVERWHELMING}, then sell it at a hundred times what it cost to buy initially!
Practically drooling over the possibilities, Matthias navigated to the first of the two companies that exclusively sold creatures. Immediately upon opening the menu for Creature Holdings LLC, he saw why it was that creatures were frowned upon as commodities.
Everything on the site was utter garbage.
From the Goblins to the Gryphons, everything that was up for sale was of low stats, poor quality, and cheaper than dirt. If the base quality of the creatures were so poor he could see why the rearing and sale of them would be difficult at best. Aside from the feeding, housing, and maintenance of such creatures, the training would take a long time as well. And then there was the wash outrate for those that didn’t take to the training and needed to be… liquidated.
Nevertheless… this worked perfectly fine for him. He could buy there, empower here, and resell back on the {SHOP}. He could even assign traits and abilities, change temperament, and lock in loyalty through System-enforced contracts. Custom tailoring creatures was even possible, although {POWER OVERWHELMING} told him outright that it would be crazy expensive. But some people had the money to burn.
Turning his attention back to Creature Holdings LLC, he looked through their selection. It looked like they didn’t sell any kind of sentient creature, which was good. Slaving companies often went down in flames at some point, as they were either raided by the ’good guys’ or bought out as potential competitors from larger corporations. Either way, they didn’t tend to last long.
Matthias leafed through the options, noting that there were quite a few variations of the same few creatures. Slimes, Golems, Undead, Chimera, Gryphon, and even a few baby drakes. That last category was spendy though, and he couldn’t even afford one of them with the cheapest being a few million NEX. The list went on for a while, but it rapidly got out of the territory that he was able to afford.
Sighing, he navigated back to the basic creature’s page. It seemed that the slimes and Golems were really the only two that he was going to be able to work with right. At least until he was able to source his own creatures on whatever world this was.
Slimes were out. Immediately. They had potential but were far too weak and unintelligent to be of any help to him right now. That only left Golems, and the list was uninspiring. Creature Holdings LLC only had a few Golem types in stock. Actually, they only had a few basic types of Golem period. Stone, wood, and iron with a single golden Golem. When the hell anyone would want a gold Golem was beyond him, but he wasn’t going to buy it. The NEX cost was ridiculous.
Matthias focused on the stone Golems. They ran fifteen hundred NEX each, a reasonable sum for sure. The description said they had ten in stock currently, with an in-house {GOLEM MANCER} that created them. The poor sap must either be indentured or a slave and was kept to a low level. No crafter worth his or her craft would limit themselves to such an extent… that is unless it was a racial limitation.
Some races could only excel so far in their classes, and while class changes were available they were hideously expensive. Almost on the level of that baby drake, he saw earlier. That placed it well outside of the means of most people and beings to purchase and meant that if you were born with an ill-fitting or garbage class you were stuck with it. However, there were classes that could change classes. But they were so rare they may as well have been mythical legends.
Well, he could do it… but his class wasn’t centered around it.
Tapping the buy-all option, Matthias nearly jumped out of his skin when ten five-foot-tall crates appeared next to the Corporate Core. He felt the NEX leave his account as soon as they appeared, wincing at the percentage cost to buy his new minions. Any cost hurt at this point.
Matthias set about opening the crates, which were surprisingly robust and difficult to get into. In the end, however, he managed to pry off one of the sides and access the Golem within. Frowning, he stepped back and issued a command.
“Step out of the crate,” he ordered, yet the stone construct did nothing.
Matthias didn’t actually have any idea of how to command the creatures he had just bought, an oversight that he was rapidly realizing could have been fatal with anything that was more active. Like a baby drake. Or some slimes.
Tapping his finger against the side of the crate, he brushed against something light and sharp. Poking his head around the side of the crate, he found a large parchment-like scroll attached to the side. Curious, he took it off and opened it up.
Greetings and Salutations!
Thank you for purchasing Creature Holdings LLC premium Golem products. To activate your products, please bind them via a basic blood binding. They will then absorb the ambient energy in the air around you and activate it.
We thank you for your patronage!
Creature Holdings LLC
P.S. We are not responsible if your world has no ambient energy. Sorry, not sorry.
“Whoever this guy is, he’s a total dick,” mumbled Matthias to himself. “You don’t sell a product on a shitty level like this and expect repeat customers.”
Scratching a finger open on the side of the crate, he smeared a drop of blood on the Golem's head. Immediately the square chiseled stone man came to life, its eyes glowing with a faint blood-red color. The same as the Corporate Core. It took a minute or so for the construct to straighten and look at him, awaiting a command.
“Open the rest of these crates and line up the other Golems so I can get them activated,” Matthias ordered. He went back to his desk and began looking through some of the other lower-level companies and their services. He was disappointed to find that there were only a few hundred or so that provided low-level weapons, items, and services. On the other hand, nearly every company had thousands of open requests from labor to materials.
There was NEX to be made here. A lot of NEX.
A heavy set of footsteps stopped next to the desk, causing Matthias to look up and see the activated Golem. It pointed across the floor to where the other nine had been lined up, more or less in a row. He couldn’t help but face-palm briefly as he saw the obliterated states of the crates. He could have re-used those.
He activated the remaining nine Golems and tasked them to clear the entry tunnel to the surface. They had instructions to remove any and all stone protrusions, store the material on the sides of the tunnel, and smooth the floor. He wanted to have an easy time getting to and from the surface when he had to. Matthias would have to get the opening disguised at some point, it wouldn’t do to have random creatures and people wander in… that is at least until he was ready to reveal himself to the world. When that time came it would be great, but for now, discretion and secrecy would ensure survival.
While the nine Golems worked, Matthias turned to the remaining one at his side. This was the first one he had activated, so it would make an excellent test subject. Mentally targeting the motionless construct, he activated {POWER OVERWHELMING}.
GOLEM CONSTRUCT 1T447-3
{RACE}
STONE GOLEM
{CLASS}
CONSTRUCT
{CLASS GRADE}
COMMON
{ABILITIES}
LIFT
MOVE
COMPRESS
Both the name and the abilities left a lot to be desired. The thing didn’t even have stats. Matthias sighed and sat back on his stone chair. It was annoying, but he needed at least one semi-intelligent worker to direct the other Golem, complete tasks given to it, and generally be something more than a burden that required constant micromanaging.
Checking his Power balance, he saw he had ninety-seven remaining. If it cost more than that… his plan for the constructs probably wouldn’t work out. He would have to assign what skills he could and then sell them as quickly as possible or risk his fledgling business collapsing. Matthias dove deep into his ability’s options. He would rebuild this Golem into at least something that was beneficial to himself. That or bankrupt himself trying.
He had a lot of work to do.