The following day he extracted himself from his two-bed warmers. He went outside in his beggar clothing that hid his face. Jack watched as his group of his pickpockets moved through the Trio brothers' people. As they move near the middle of the Merchant Row. Four of his women were fleecing everything they had on them before any of them figured out they were poor again. Spending a wasted hour looking for the culprit that robbed them. I sent in three of my level three thugs into the middle of them to give them a beat down from behind. None of the goons got a good look at who beat them, and I gained some more dungeon points since they were in my area of control. Surprisingly I gain over a hundred copper and a few silvers from the pickpockets. I let them keep half and gave half of mine to my thugs.
Later that morning, one of the trio brothers' other men in the area tries to force Thea to payout protection money. The pockmark's goon was trying to intimidate her into giving the asshole eighty percent of her profit. Jack was about to step in to stop him, only to see Fan move up and nudge the pockmark goon to the side and point at the table where some rat meat was cooking and ready. She held up her hand for indicated she wanted two of the cook rat meat on a stick as she pointed toward the woman's daughter.
The pockmarked man screams at Fan, yelling and slobber all over her. "The fucking lady is closed. Halfbred slut!"
Fan ignores the bastard and continues to point at two items. She set down her copper coins and was about to grab her meat when the man brushed the food to the ground.
"Bitch! I told you she was close, but if you want to eat something, you can get on your knees and feed on this." he drops his pants. Fan turns to the man sneering as she towers over the beefy man by a foot and stares at the man junk. Reaching down and yanked really hard on his manhood, ripping it off his body as it made a ripping, sucking sound. As blood pours out as the man's body, his scream echoes through the Merchant Row. All the men in the area wince and put their legs closer together as a crowd starts to form. The poor bastard ends up fainting from the pain and shock as blood pools around his lower half on the ground. Looking at the man pecker for a moment, she shrugs as she stares at the bloody penis in her hands. She tosses it over her shoulder at a wall. She bent down, took off the guy's coin bag, and lay down another four copper coins. She pulled out of the bag and bought another two sets of cook rat meat. The goon soon passes away from shock and blood loss, and several of Jack's own people rush to the body, soon leaving the body naked in the street as they took all his procession. Cringing, Jack made a point to himself not to get Fan piss at him.
Remembering waking up to Fan watching Mela sucking him off under the sheets and asking Mela to teach her how to blow work. Shuddering at the thought of her biting his dick almost made it go limp for life, after teaching Mela that sucking on a man's dick is called a blowjob or BJ for short.
[Ding! Three Dungeon Points! Do you wish to absorb the corpse?]
[Fan slum reputation has increased by +30]
[Your slum Reputation has increased by +3]
"No," Jack mutters. At least they are getting DP and coining from killing or beating the Trio Brothers goons, thinking about the tasks on the thugs' task board. To raise to level three dungeon requires her to be third level and the Thugs to maim or kill three hundred people and Three hundred Dungeon points.
Going to have to talk to Ariel about absorbing the bodies. We don't need to warn people there is a dungeon under them. May have to ask her to create a deep pit to dump the bodies so she can absorb them. Going to have to talk to Fan. Err, no, on second thought, looking at the bloody penis on the ground. I think not. Wincing again at the thought of Fan wanting to learn how to give a blow job just from watching Mela waking him up this morning giving him one. That and the fact she can pull a man's dick off his body makes him want to wince again.
Roger, who I expected to protect this street, finally arrives with two burly henchmen. Looking a bit weary and looking around at the scene of a bloody naked man on the ground. Spotting Fan leaning against the nearby wall eating her cook rat meat. One of the men in the area rushed up and whispered into his ear. Nodding as he stares at the half-orc woman.
"You might want to leave. The brothers do not take kindly to their men dying." Roger said to her. She shrugs while glancing over at me. The man's eyes narrow as he turns and looks toward me sitting on the ground, posing as a beggar with my face wrapped up like a mummy. Grumbling in my heart at Fan's lack of subterfuge skill.
Pointing at four men nearby and nudging the body with his foot. "Haul this trash out of my area and toss it in their territory." Frowning at the dead body, then at Fan before turning the Thea.
Seeing that the shopkeeper is holding her daughter against herself. "You alright, Thea?
She nods, "Thanks to that lady over there. She protected my daughter and me." Spitting on the dead body as the men haul it away. "He has been here before trying to get my daughter, only using me giving him my money as an excuse to grab her."
Roger pats her on the shoulder. "Any more trouble you let me know, I will stop it. I would have been here earlier if not been distracted by the Brothers' men as they walk through the Merchant Row, causing problems farther on from here. They may have been assigned to distract me. I heard they want to ramp up their brothel near the dungeon." Giving Thea's daughter a knowing look. Thea pulls her daughter closer.
"I'll kill them first!" Thea spoke.
He turns and walks over to where Jack is sitting. Fan straightened up to intervene as Jack shook his head. He looked up and stared at Roger as the one-arm man sat down next to him. 'Great didn't need the attention.'
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Roger signs, closes his eyes and leans back against the wall. "What is your intention with Merchant Row?" He spoke calmly.
Thinking for a minute. Seeing that Roger cares about his people, only asks the bare minimum to cover for him and his men. "Buy some land here and build up the area. I'm not planning to hurt the locals, only those that seek to cause problems. Rebuild some building and help those that want to work." Adding a thought, ' Steal from those that got the money to lose it.'
"Land is free to almost nothing for the moment here," Roger said. "You need a nobleman deed or backing by a noble to buy land."
"Looking into it, not wanting to build until I have the land. Because as soon as I start making money, a noble asshole will swoop in and take the land for themselves. I need to own the land with either a noble deed or a fake one."
Roger snorted. "You need a Noblemen certificate to prove who you are and a magical copy of it to put in the Library. Then you can go to the city Hall of Deeds to buy land. To get a noble title cost a thousand gold eagles. It takes weeks, even months, to get it to pass the noble council of the city. Who knows how much bribing you will have to pay out."
"How do you prove you are a noble from another city or territory?"
Closing his eyes, Jack leans his head back and thinks over the amount of income he has from the money found in the sewers. Ariel already absorbs about two hundred gold eagles' worth of coins. Enough to make a minor noble life in the city for ten years with a few golds to spare.
"All noblemen have a master deed from their cities or kingdom that has your family blood on it and a family tree to show your pedigree. You take that along with a stamped voucher from a gatekeeper or dock harbormaster showing you paid a gold eagle for a city pass." Roger stares ahead at the people moving by as some look in their directions. "Paying the gold Eagle only proves that you are a nobleman with money."
"Take both the pass and your deed to the Library, and they will make a copy and verify that there is a magical stamp on your deed to make sure you are a lord. Each kingdom has its own magical signature. There is a box that is linked to five cities and five kingdoms. Was six kingdoms, but a barbarian horde ransack Everlast kingdom. Burn the cities and villages to the ground. They enslaved a third of the population and killed another third. The rest fled a few years ago and settled in other kingdoms. It is nothing but desolated grounds. It not too hard to make fake papers from that kingdom." Roger said. "You might be able to buy about ten or more acres of land for an eagle since it a slum. A sucker of a nobleman from the Archie clan owns about two hundred acres that we are sitting on for a good price. Hell, he may even back you to get back some of the money he lost buying the place. I doubt you will be able to move someone to get a building built without causing a riot. Lord Jesse Archie tried that once and lost half of his men in a riot that took the city a week to end. Killed over a thousand people in the slums. If not for a raid by orcs at the time, thousands more would have died."
A commotion happens to their right as another man scream as Fan beats him with his own right arm that she ripped off the man. On the ground lays a dagger with blood on it. Laying nearby is a short man screaming as Fan slam the man's arm over and over on the man's head until he goes quiet. Another pool of blood pool form from the man's body.
"Might tell your lady friend she needs to calm her anger issue. If this keeps on, the Brothers will send in more men."
"Yeah, she's a bit scary. I think I rather fight ten men than tell her to calm down." Watching as Thea's little girl walk up to the dead man and turn to stare at Roger and shake her head. "Maybe we won't need your help, Lord Roger." the little girl giggled as she spoke, turning away and looking toward Fan with admiring eyes.
[Ding! Four Dungeon Points!]
[Fan slum reputation has increased by +20]
[Your slum Reputation has increased by +2]
"Guess she kill another man. Look like it is Archie, one of the assassins employed by the brothers." Roger comment. "They only have three assassins well, two now."
Nodding towards Roger as he turns to the sound young woman steps out of the crowd wearing a green robe with a white rose sewn on her chest that highlights the woman's enormous chest. The woman is stunningly gorgeous as she cast a glowing green light upon Fan.
"You're lucky I have Robin here to help the lady. Most likely, the blade was poison." Roger said as Jack watched.
"Who is she?"
"Robin is named after a bird when she took up the druid mantle. Last year, I saved her life from some slavers and had built a garden nearby to tend. She heals the local for free."
They watch as Fan give the woman a bow and hand her some coins. Fan reaches down and pulls three more daggers, a couple of vials, and a bag of coins off of the body. She turned and looked at me as I nodded toward the body and the alley near her. Turning back to the body, she grabs a leg and drags it into the alley. Roger gets up and starts to walk away.
"Thanks," Jack said. "The lady will dispose of the body for you."
He nods, toss a gold coin into his cup at his feet, and walks off and enters a building not far down the ally.
Watching the druid woman stare at the retreating back of Roger, frowning and then look intrigued at Jack before moving into the crowd and disappearing.
'Ariel, absorb that body and see if any equipment can be of use. Send two men out to guard Fan. I should have asked, but can you forge documents making them seem old? Also, create a pit for the guys to toss bodies into. Leave an opening below that leaves to the sewers and have the rats patrol it. I need an excuse for the bodies to vanish.'
'I sent two men to help. Will adsorb the body when Fan stops. I will build a pit tonight. I can forge a document. Just place them on the ground. It will take me about thirty minutes and will not be a problem copying magical signature. What name do you want to go by?'
'When I get those documents from the loom shop, I have you make me one. Make my family be my last name. A landless lord that was given a title. I'm the grandson or son of the minor lord that move here after striking it rich. Speaking of rich, what have you recovered on expanding your territory?'
'I found many hidden spots in the area with coins in them in the slums. A few I will leave alone belong to poor families or poor people who live here. I have already reached into the smuggler territory. I will completely control that area up to ten feet into the water before stopping. I will engulf the Trio brothers' land in two days. Today, I have found over fifteen gold eagles and eighty silver talons, and eleven hundred and thirty copper. I should find more where the sewer flows into the bay. I can sense a few dozen small sea serpents that live at the mouth of the sewer, searching for food from the sewer. I will be there tomorrow and will purify the water up to there. That will cause the serpents to leave to hunt for food elsewhere. I have found six remains that have not left the canal and have adsorb them and their gear. One had a storage ring.'
'Ring? A storage ring? Okay, I will look at it in a few minutes.' Jack got up and headed back to the den to check on the ring. Backtracking several times, losing Roger's men in the process of them trailing him. Ready to take a long hot bath and change out of these clothes.
'My worker clothes should be done tomorrow so I can go into the walled city. I think I might want to steal some of the fabric to make some pajamas to lounge around in the den. I need to build a house to enjoy." After backtracking as Ariel watches, he slips through some of the building and heads down the stairs passing one of his half-orc thug hiding in the shadows that guards the stairs.
Walking into the den and passing the reception room to the door on the right. Stopping and staring at the empty room and thinking he needs to get some people to work here. Maybe block the core, open it into other areas, and hire some staff to work here as a cover. Shaking his head, he went back halfway down the hall and passed through an illusion of a wall to his left and through several bunkhouses into the core room. Patting Ariel core.
"I been meaning to ask you, can anyone created by the dungeon leave the dungeon?"
"At level five, they can leave for twenty-four hours. At the tenth level, they can leave for forty-eight hours. Every five levels after that, they can leave at the double amount of time." She said.
"That explains why a ghoul can roam the slums. Okay, Ariel, where the ring, and how do you use it?" rubbing his hands in glee.
A ring flows out of the floor. "I am not able to copy the ring until I get a higher level."
"We will work on that for you, Ariel." Picking up the ring, "how do I open it?"
"Put a little of your blood on it."
He takes a dagger out, pricks his finger, and touches the ring watching as it absorbs the blood. The ring glows once, and he can see about a hundred cubic feet of space inside loaded with stuff.