(Original version of Dragon Overlord Chapter 2 Discarded)
Chapter 2: E3: Economics, Expositions and Envoys
It had been two days since I had created Saber and currently I was testing out the limits of her body and the magical abilities I had given her. To be honest just looking at her stat sheet I knew that she was overpowered but funnily enough she was simply Level 1 like me.
Name: Artoria Pendragon Age: N/A
Level: lv.1 EXP: 0%
Class: Hero Race: Minion
Title: Saber
HP: 53,675 HP Regen: 314.3 HP/sec
MP: 41,865 MP Regen: 612.1 MP/sec
STR*: 143
AGI: 90
INT: 121
SKILL POINTS: 10
Skills:
[Minion Soul]-Passive- MAX LEVEL
Description: The user possess Minion Soul, upon dying the soul of the user would automatically transfer to the Overlord, where the Overlord can use the soul to bring back the minion back to life or simply create a new body for the minion to inhabit. Minion Souls can also be used to enhance items and weapons they can still be given a body again though they would no doubt be weaker than before.
[Multi-verse Adaption]- Passive- MAX LEVEL
Description: This ability allows the user to adapt any knowledge and skills and magic found in the multiverse and use them without any repercussion.
[Dragon Heart]-Passive- MAX LEVEL
Description: The user has a Hear of a Dragon which gives it increased HP regen, increased Mana reserves and increased Mana Regen.
Passively Grants +300 HP regen per sec
Passively Grants +600 MP regen per sec
Passively Grants +50,000 HP
Passively Grants +40,000 MP
[Master of Arms]-Passive- Level: 32 EXP: 63.2%
Description: This Skill allows the user to wield any modern and ancient weapons, from fire arms to melee weapons and other exotic weapons.
Passively increases damage of all weapons by 128%.
Passively increases accuracy of all ranged weapons by 64%.
Passively increases the range of all ranged weapons by 4X.
[Magical Resistance] Passive- MAX LEVEL
Description: Lowers damage done my magical spells and reduces their effects.
Passively Negates spells that are less than 20 levels above the users Level.
Passively Reduces damage and effects of all magical spells by 80%.
[Adaptive Armour & Weapon]- Passive- MAX LEVEL
Description: Any weapons and amours worn by the user are affected by this skill. This skill makes armours more resilient to damage from attacks of the same nature and makes weapons more effective against their targets after successful hits, this skill affects both magical and physical attacks and defences. Can stack up to a maximum of 400% bonus for both attack and defence, the bonus is also permanent and extends to all future attacks and armours.
Passively reduces damage done by enemy weapons or attacks by 4% per hit.
Passively increases damage done the user using a weapon by 4% per successful hit.
[Magical Enhancements] -Active Level: 9 EXP: 1.25% Mana cost: 400 MP per sec and additional 400 per sec for every 1 extra stage of enhancement.
Description: The user can enhance their physical prowess by channelling raw mana through their body, not only does it increases your physical abilities but also creates a layer of defence around your body. The higher the level of this skill, the more they are able enhance their body using less mana.
Actively: 1 stage = 37% enhancement and defence by 65% MAX Stages= 9
The skills alone made Saber an army killer in her own right with her, with the last two skills being bullshitting OP. I had just given it to them thinking that they would not be so broken but they were and this skill was available to all my minions though they were nerfed quite a bit unlike the Hero classes that had the no bullshit bar.
I also had managed to learn the skills to so I was no less bullshit than them but hey no one said that Evil played Fair and Square and my job did say that I was an Evil Overlord.
I also knew that Artoria was going to grow stronger much, much stronger in the future and I was going to use her to lead the battle fronts of any major war that I was going to fight.
Which was why I was making sure the minions that she would lead were powerful in their own right yet something that could be used as cannon fodders too, it was a good thing that I had created a specific system for it and thus it was mostly a mote point when I could rack out bodies like no tomorrow.
Yeah, the system I created was a Von Neuman Style of minion creation, complete with its own building rate and creation speed.
"So master, are we going to start building up our forces?" Artoria asked as we headed to the hall where we were going to start creating the other minions.
I really wanted her to call me by my name but she was quite insistent on me being called master or alternately My Lord, but I knew that she was doing it in simple fun so there was that.
During the past two days I had found out that Artoria had quite the distinct personality switch between playful and stoic seriousness in an instant. I also found out that her personality was still shifting and changing subtlety over the days the more she interacted with me. it was a good thing that her outfit was not too revealing or else her playfulness sometimes were borderline erotic that would have been really hard for me to not give in to my not so innocent urges.
Yeah, it was a good idea that I did not create Tamamo no Mae as my first minion, barring the ridiculous cost in terms of resources, her body and personality might have forced me to commit an action that I would later regret.
Now this was quite hypocritical coming out of me as I was a well know pervert and would not have turned down the thought of doing it with a girl before but having sex with a girl and Saber was different. With a girl I knew I had their consent but with Saber, it simply felt like I was abusing her devotion towards me, a devotion that had simply being implanted inside her being upon her creation and not something that I had earned.
Yeah, I was not going to have sex with my minions if I could help it.
My love life had become quite complicated just by becoming an Overlord. I guess that was one downside of this job.
"Yes and we will also start expanding the tower into a proper castle once we have enough work force to do so." Really while I had managed to restore the tower to prime condition it was still a tower and as such I needed to expand it more if I wanted to keep a large army.
"I can't wait to see what the others would look like." Saber said clapping her hands and let out a stream of giggles. "I wonder if they would like to practice with me or would they simply give up before even facing me? Or who know what..." Saber ranted on, lost in her own world as she made conjunctions upon conjunctions on how the new minions would act and behave.
While Saber was lost in her own world I took my place in front of the main circles which would empower the items that would create the minions.
The items in question were small models of various units stored in glass dioramas, Gnarl put a specific charm on them that when placed on the ground and activated the models would transform into Totems, which would act as catalysts to create new minions. And the best part, I could create as many totems as I wanted to and use them to summon almost endless amounts of minions as long as I had the resources to do so.
It had been quite hard to get the models in Kuoh and I did not have quite much in the way of money and I did not want to use the gold and jewels I had willy-nilly before having a cover story for them. Gnarl had been quite insistent on that matter as he had told me about how past Overlords got into trouble because of using gold as currency in foreign land. While sometimes they went mostly unnoticed, other times it painted a huge target on their back, which I wanted to avoid for now.
I also did not know much about how to convert gold and jewels into usable money and I was also quite infamous in Kuoh that I could not just go into a jewellery shop and barter the gold and jewels without raising an alarm.
Thus I had to do with building custom models using the forge in the tower, which it turns out was a good idea, as I was able to create almost all the models I wanted. It just made me want to smack myself for not thinking about using it in the first place. Yeah it was pure stupidity on my part.
As I activated the circles the blue pop up box appeared in front of me, once again asking for my confirmation.
Would you like to create the following items?
Mage Knight Totem (1)
Necromancer Totem (1)
Craftsman Totem (1)
Ranger Totem (1)
Valkyrie Totem (1)
Druid Totem (1)
Drake Totem (1)
Total Cost: 10,000 Resources
YES/NO
Looking at the cost I thought that it was quite cheap, like really, really cheap compared to how much resources Artoria took to create her.
Tapping YES, I felt the circle empower the models and change their very being and function as they were twisted and turned and expanded and given tools to perform their new task.
Off to the side I saw Artoria stare at scene with a stoic expression, her right hand resting atop her sword while she used her left hand to give Gnarl a whack to the head as he was jumping about with joy. In the past two days I somehow felt like that Gnarl had transformed into Jaken in the presence of Artoria, he seemed a bit happier and more relaxed after Artoria came into being. I wonder why?
Leaving that thought aside I used Observe to look at the Description of the Totems.
Mage Knight Totem
Description: The Totem of the Mage Knight used to create Mage Knights.
Mage Knights are powerful melee and ranged minions capable of wielding a variety of weapons and commanding a variety of magic to lay waste to their enemies.
Necromancer Totem
Description: The Totem of the Necromancer used to create Necromancers.
Necromancers are powerful casters that act as force multipliers by conjuring Spectral and Skeleton warriors, laying down crippling curses on the enemies and reviving fallen minions. Necromancers can even control dead bodies of enemies and learn their secrets of their bodies whether they be biological, magical or something more. They can also harvest souls and create blood orbs.
Craftsman Totem
Description: Totem of the Craftsman used to create Craftsmen.
Craftsmen are master of various crafts, capable of creating various items from weapons to everyday items. They can even reverse engineer enemy crafts and technology whether they are scientific or magical in nature. On field and in battle Craftsmen can build a variety of turrets, towers, siege engines and more.
Ranger Totem
Description: Totem of the Ranger used to create Rangers.
Rangers are expert archers and trackers, who are excellent at scouting. They also wield a variety of swords and daggers to engage in melee combat.
Valkyrie Totem
Description: Totem of the Valkyrie used to create Valkyries.
Valkyries are warrior maidens that have excellent melee and range capabilities but excel in healing other minions and boosting allied minions capabilities with powerful blessings and create powerful magical defences.
Druid Totem
Description: Totem of the Druid used to create Druids.
Druids are powerful casters attuned with nature and its primal forces. They can tame wild animals and plants and enhance their capabilities in the field and cast powerful Nature spells to wreak havoc on the field or to turn a barren land into a lush forest.
Drake Totem
Description: Totem of the Drake used to create Drakes.
Drakes are powerful lesser dragons, coming in a variety of shapes and sizes Drakes can fill a variety of roles as mounts for both aerial and ground assaults, and even act as amphibious scouts and mounts.
Reading the description of the Totems I could truthfully say that it had surpassed my expectations by a long shot.
Using my gauntlet I selected the Mage Knight Totem and created a Mage Knight, which cost me only 10 resources and 2 Blank souls.
Mage Knight 'Lvl.1 Warrior'
HP: 1,200
MP: 600
Attack: 91-128
Armour: 95
Skills: [Minion Soul], [Multi-verse Adaption], [Lesser Adaptive Weapon and Armour], [Defend], [Mana Burn]
The Mage Knight unlike its namesake was dressed more like a warrior than a mage or a knight, with thin flexible armour, which showed its ample figure quite well. Yes, it was female considering I based it off Fire Emblem Mage Knight Model. It had a sword strapped at its waist with a book and a bow at its back. All in all it looked nothing like a knight with what the lack of metal plate armour, but I knew well that the thin cloth like armour would be more than enough to protect the knight.
Its eyes also looked much duller than Artoria's too.
Looking at the skill list of the mage knight, I found that it was quite bare, hardly befitting of its name though it was understandable as I had yet to hash out a list of basic abilities that my minions would have. Still the skills that it had were more than enough, though I wonder what was the 'Level' all about.
Reckoning that it might be because of the Hero system and brushing that fact aside, I proceeded to create some more Mage Knights with some Necromancers in the mix.
Necromancer 'Lvl.1 Spellcaster'
HP: 850
MP: 1200
Attack: 41-58
Armour: 10
Skills: [Minion Soul], [Multi-verse Adaption], [Lesser Adaptive Weapon and Armour], [Raise Dead], [Conjure Warriors], [Undead Master], [Curses without End]
The Necromancers cost 10 resource and 6 souls a piece, a bit expensive but considering their looked a bit different even though I had based them of the Warcraft ones. They did have their red and purple robes, but the robes now sported golden trims. Also instead of the cow bone like helmet, they wore white bone masks reminiscent of the masks that Assassin wore in Fate Zero, with two twisted horns sprouting from the sides. Their eyes seem a bit brighter than the footmen but were still duller compared to Artoria's, guess that the difference between Heroes and normal units would be quite prevalent.
The build time for each unit was shorter than expected, 7 seconds for the Footmen and 10 seconds for the Necromancers. Just the right build time I was expecting, I had really managed to go full Von Neuman.
Looking at things I had the groundwork of a powerful army and excellent General and a base of operation by which I could expand. Now if I could get an economy running I would have a good foundation for an empire, for that I would need allies or kingdoms to trade with and start amassing extra resources and start my search for my queens for my harem.
You know, come to think of it I have not been thinking much about my dream to become a Harem King lately, with what all the work I was doing to lay the groundwork for the empire. In fact I was not sure I had been up to my usual antics in school either with how damn tired I mostly was when I was back in Kuoh and mostly spend my time in the Heavenly Maid Café, that place was quite relaxing and peaceful, not to mention the cakes and coffee were simply divine.
Yeah I think it was time that I should focus on my dreams. I was going to explore what laid beyond the island and search out new lands.
"Hey Artoria what do you think about a little adventure?"
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20 days later
It had taken me quite some time to sort out all the supplies I was going to take with me and build a custom Airship, like the ones in RWBY, suited for my trip.
The Airship was filled to the brim with minions and extra totems that could easily be deployed at a moment's notice. With a variety of goods and items ranging from pottery and jewellery to some modern appliance that were given a magical treatment, it was funny how electricity could be so easily produced using a bit of rune work, and the rest was simply getting blueprints of some old appliances and work from there.
I also found out that I can convert my 'Resource' into actual materials like gold, silver, iron etc. with 1 Resource = 1000 unit converted material, regardless of the value of the converted material, which meant that I could get only 1000 unit iron and 1000 unit from 1 resource even if gold was much more valuable.
Gnarl explained to me why this was good as in some worlds Gold was hardly a precious metal with how soft and rare it was and metal like iron and copper were more valuable due to their availability and utility and the likes.
The unit was also quite vague and random as it could range from coins to bars depending on the converted material. Gold and silver would be in coins while iron would be bars which would somehow by some obscure reason and magic would correspond to the local unit using some sort of bullshit OP magic. As such in a place where gold coins were used 1 resource would give me 1000 gold coins of the highest quality and that would hold the same for silver and other metals.
No matter how much Gnarl dumb it down for me, I just could not wrap my head around that concept it was just too alien and mind bogglingly complex for me to understand right now. I guess that this was what it meant to be an empire in a multiversal scale. In a way I was filthy rich as hell by most standards but going by the standards of my predecessors I was but a pauper before a king.
Bullshit Overlord and their bullshit powers.
It also dawn to me just how expensive my minions were with Artoria costing more than the wealth of multiple nations combined. Yeah, even economically my predecessors were bullshit.
Leaving aside the utter brokenness of my predecessors, I decided to take Artoria with me in my tripe and gave Gnarl instructions on how to expand the tower and creating the additional rooms and structures need to sustain the castle. I had no doubt that when I return Gnarl would have rounded up the various magical creatures and plants and create multiple horror houses filled to the brim with them. And also turn the island into a large magical fortress which I was not thinking I should not ordered Gnarl to do so. Who knows what his definition of a magical fortress was.
Still steering the wheel of the Airship and guiding it through the clouds I not dwell much on the monstrosities Gnarl might be creating using the minions I had left behind. I just wanted to enjoy the white-sea that lay in front of me.
"Master," Artoria said as she came running from the deck below, "we have found a suitable landing place, I suggest that we land and start building up our base." Artoria said informing me of the situation.
"Good job Artoria." I said congratulating her, while the white-sea of clouds was beautiful I still had to focus on my mission to find new land and other civilisations. "Are there any nearby settlements?" I asked her; while it was good to have a landing base it would be better if there were some settlements nearby where I can get some info on the state of the land.
"Yes I am detecting a large city nearby. We should be able to get some information from there."
Now that was good news. It was time to see what crazy world this place was and what kind of inhabitants it had. I was sure that whatever place my predecessors visited would not be normal in any way.
Ordering the Craftsmen to start creating a small base and hide it, I took Artoria with me and some Mage knights and Craftsmen to the town. It was a good thing that Gnarl had given me ideas on how to start my empire and gather resources to sustain it. Due to the nature of my empire I did not necessarily conquer or rule over every world I came across. Sometime while a war of conquest was good other times it was better to lay low and simply do my own thing.
Commerce and trade was thus something that Gnarl said would be ideal for my situation until I had a really strong army and a central self sufficient capital up and running. War and conquest were not ideal currently as I still did not have a powerful sustainable army in any sense of the word, even if it was mostly my minions. I simply could not keep up with the losses of my troops and the amount of resource and time it would take to stabilize my conquered worlds would slowly by surely stretch my capabilities.
After all revolting citizens did not make good productive citizens of an empire, which with the whole Overlord thing I had, would be a major problem for me throughout my career as the Overlord. Gnarl had thoroughly ingrained that fact into my head as while most of the past Overlords were benevolent, wise and kind rulers, there were still revolts throughout the empire for one reason or the other. So yeah, revolts would be a constant for me.
Thus I was going the Evil Merchant rule and loot my enemies through trade and commerce. For this I had even read about quite a lot of books on trade and commerce to truly overpower my enemies. I just hope that I was able to put it into practice and make a mess of the local economy.
As we reached the village I went over my cover stories about why I was going to the village and why were we dressed like this. If it was a medieval fantasy or simply a medieval era world as it seemed like so far, I was simply going the merchant route and say that I came off a far off land. If it was a modern village or by a rotten luck a sci-fi setting, I was simply going to say that we were a travelling troupe of performers and entertainers. I did not have any weapons in the caravan apart from the ones the Mage Knights and Artoria had with my own weapons stored in the gauntlet, so I could easily pass it off as some weird quirk.
I just hope that it was not a sci-fi setting as that would ruin a l-
"Are those bunny ears I am seeing?" I asked out loud as I saw the inhabitants of the village sprout long rabbit ears from their head.
"Yes master, those are bunny ears that you are seeing." Artoria said confirming my observations.
"Gods be praised! I have found heaven!" I shouted to the heavens.
Screw acting like a gentleman or a slimy merchant. I was in a place filled with the dreams of boys and men. Real. Life. Bunny. Girls. Screw everything else.
"Are they really that special?" Artoria asked tilting her head in confusion.
"Oh my cute little minion let me tell you about the wonders of bunny girls." I said grabbing her shoulders, and Artoria for the first time since her creation had a nervous smile on her face.
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"…and that is why bunny girls are so cute." I finished my explanation on why bunny girls were big thing. "The sheer amount of cuteness they can generate is only matched by cat girls and the cute innocent side of the Tsunderes, though in my opinion only a masochist would go after flat chested Tsunderes, the amount of tsun they have is borderline abusive and cruel." Yep flat chested girls really had tough luck but they did have justice on their side to back it up. Sadly I am a plot guy and while I love all plot and justice even I had to say a Tsundere with plot was more appealing to me.
Sorry Lady Hinagiku, this lowly guy can't follow you till the end and screw you Louise, your first impression and extreme tsun will never endear me to your dere side.
"Master my head hurts…" Artoria drawled, as her eyes looking like swirls with the way they were spinning, my other minions were already out cold leaving me with a confused as hell Artoria.
It was a sight that saddened my heart. I should have known that they were still not ready for the great truths of life. Alas, the damage was done and I just hope that they would recover from it.
After that little incident, the rest of the trip was okay as the guards believed my cover story and did not cause much fuss about my minions. It seemed that they were quite familiar with humans too, which was good as I did not want to deal with a first contact scenario.
After renting an inn and storing my goods I went to check out the village, whose name I found out was Greenwood, to see if there were any plots of land or shops I could buy or rent and also check out the goods they were selling. Artoria decided to stay in the inn for now and clear her head, if I was in any danger she would just be a call away and it was not like I could not defend myself too. So with that I began my search.
So far no one seem too keen on selling any land or shop to me or even give one on rent, which was understandable as I was an unknown to them. There were also no guilds of any sorts too so I was not able to get an extensive information about the trade of the land. So far most of the goods and items I saw were mundane in nature and mostly dealt with clothing and food with very few luxury items, which opened up an avenue of market that I could exploit with better quality of food with superior storage capacity and cheap fashionable clothes. I also had inkling that the medical knowledge of the world might be a bit behind mine, so that was another avenue I could exploit for now. In any case cheap medicine and medical treatment were always a good way to increase goodwill and reputation, provided said medicine and treatment were up to par.
For now I was going to limit myself to this avenues till I had a better idea of the market and then only decide to flood them with more exotic goods, after that I would not only be rolling in cash but women too.
"Ahhh…" I sighed in contentment "…it is good to be a greedy slimy merchant."
"You know mister saying things like that is a good way to ruin one's business." I heard a feminine voice say from behind.
Turning around I was greeted to an extremely familiar sight.
In front of me was Cecilia Alcott, in all her blond drilled hair glory with a bunny ears on top of her head. It was a really bizarre sight that made me question whether I was hallucinating or not. if I was it was a good hallucination even though the clothes Cecilia was wearing should have been different than the medieval clothes she was wearing.
"My eyes are up here Mister." Cecilia said as she grabbed my cheeks and forced me to stare away from her bountiful chest. Was Cecilia always this bold and crass in the show? My memories are quite hazy about it.
"I can't believe dad wants to make a deal with a sleaze like you." Cecilia said as she started dragging me to a nearby shop and damn was this girl strong. Are all huntresses like this? Because I have to state again how damn strong she was, despite her lithe appearance.
"Yo, dad I brought the boy you ask me to bring." Cecilia shouted as we entered the shop.
The shop was a general shop housing a variety of items for sale, from clothes to even weapons that were neatly displayed in racks.
"So this is the lad that has been causing trouble since morning." A large figure that tower before me said in a booming voice.
Said figure appearance would be firmly be entrenched in the depths of my mind as it was a figure I never thought I would see in my life outside of the anime and manga.
The figure of Scarron stood before me in all his feminine glory with a pair of bunny ears for extra mental scarring.
I was horror stuck at seeing the bulging muscles and large masculine figure and abs squeezed into a maid outfit and deep red lipstick and makeup on the chiselled out face with sharp features.
"Mother…I can be a husband anymore…"
"Oi, oi don't go dying on me yet…" a beautiful voice called out to me, alas bye, bye sweet maiden I can feel the heat from the fiery pits warm my soul.
"Dad, get some water…and hurry he is saying crazy things…"
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I did not think that I would be doing my first business deal drenched head to toe in water and before a large man who had found his inner girl and a bunny girl with attitude.
Said pair names were believe it or not Scarron and Cecilia Valentine. No relation to the Scarron from familiar of zero and Cecilia from RWBY, which I now think about it was a good thing, as I could keep being a slimy merchant.
I thought about drying myself with my magic but I felt that I would need to have a cool head for the coming negotiation, what with the weird participants.
"Sorry about that." Cecilia apologised "I used a bit too much water."
'You could apologise for scarring me for life.' I bit back the retort, trying to stay calm as possible.
Of frak it, the Horror, oh the HORROR, I will have nightmares about it for a long time.
And oddly enough I am remembering the words 'Awaken My Masters', in my mind. Yeah, the pillar men are surely going to visit me in my dreams to do double the damage.
I know karma is a bitch but isn't this a bit too much?!
"There is nothing to be sorry about it, I was feeling a bit hot and almost had a stroke, it is your timely intervention that saved me." I sprouted out with the most fake smile I could conjure. Yep I was using sarcasm and false politeness I am really not in the right mind right now.
Surely enough I heard Cecilia mumble about something more than just heat getting to me.
"Anyways lad, now that you are better, albeit still wet, I wanted to inform you to cease your questioning and investigations. You are making a lot of people uneasy with your questions." Scarron said sounding quite serious.
Was I really causing that much trouble? I thought I was quite polite with my questions, though I guess too much politeness could make others nervous but maybe I was just too forward with my approach.
"Ah, sorry about that, I apologise for all the inconvenience I may have caused." I apologised sincerely, better to correct my mistakes now than make a massive blunders later. "It's just that I am quite new to this land and I was just trying to see if I could set up shop here. So I was just making some enquiries."
Scarron nodded in understanding but he also had a thoughtful expression on his face. did he realise something that I was missing?
"Say lad where are you from?"
And here was the question I was waiting for.
"I am from a far of land called Yamato, it is an island nation that is quite far from here." I said, it was not a lie per say, as one of Japan's old names was Yamato, which had fallen into disuse. "I set of to explore new lands and build my own fortune. But with how far I had travel and the storms I encountered I was not able to properly map out my way here and had to settle down in a nearby island before I could come to this place. As such I fear it would be years before I could go home again without proper planning and resources. Which is why I was so forward in my enquiries, I once again ask for forgiveness in this matter." I said bowing my head in apology.
You know I was suddenly feeling Chinese with how crafty and flowery and polite my speech was. Those Chinese really know how to be crafty yet appear humble at the same time. My Japanese pride is really taking a beating right now.
Damn Chinese they had a monopoly on being slimy merchants but this proud son of Nippon is not going down without a fight.
"While I think that there is more to your story than that, I will give you the benefit of doubt for now. Why such a fine specimen like you should not be left alone. Why don't you come and work for Madam Sacrrone and stop trying to search for a place to work." Scarron said dramatically winking at me for super effective scarring effect.
"Sorry madam but this young drake's heart carves the heart of princess and queens, not a pure maiden like you. Alas I am afraid the depths of my debauchery and greed are just too much for such a pure maiden to be corrupted by." I replied in an equally dramatic tone.
'Ah goodbye sweet sanity, you were a dear friend.'
"OH BLESSED MAKER! THERE ARE TWO OF THEM!" Cecilia screamed in horror seeing our act.
Sorry little bunny, you can't escape the insanity. Come, come to us, we have sweet corn soup with carrot vegetable sticks and sweet chilli sauce.
"Young lad, while the depths of your greed are too much for a maiden like me, which is a great shame. I feel that from the same depth of greed and debauchery, you will change bring great changes to this world, which is why I am going to help you find a plot of land for you to build you shop." Scarron said with the scariest grin on his face, it was at that moment I felt like I was dealing with a devil in the guise of a human.
Bah! I am the Big Bad Overlord here, "State your terms Mademoiselle." I said challenging him with my own grin.
And with that a battle of wits ensued between a dragon and a rabbit.
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2 weeks later
It took Scarron a whole week to get me a suitable plot of land to set up my shop. The plot was at the edge of the village and far from the market and the village gates. It was not an ideal place to set up shop but the sheer size of the plot of land was worth it.
The next week my craftsmen went about building the shop and the storehouse. It was at this moment I realise how broken as hell my craftsmen were in terms of support capabilities, with how fast they were able to not only build the shop but paint, decorate and stock it with all sorts of items.
In the end the shop that I ended up with was less of a shop and more a mall with multiple small shops in the building. I had just intended to create a three storeyed building for my shop which would have been luxurious enough but my craftsmen had taken that idea to new heights, literally. The floors were very large in height giving me more room and space for my goods and with the large plot of land that I got, it ended up being almost like a small manor.
My shop was build reminiscent of old Chinese architecture with red, white and golden paint adorned the walls with large statues of wing dragons stood at the entrance of the gates.
While it looked luxurious and grand, I had been aiming for a more humble appearance so that I could convince others of the cheapness of my goods, which was going to be hard considering how grandiose my shop looked like.
"I still can't believe that you were able to build this in a week." Cecilia said as she stood outside the shop and admiring its beauty, while this was not the first time she had visited my shop. She really seemed to be taken in by the novelty of the place.
"Yep, my craftsmen did good work and just yesterday finished arranging everything for business." I said admiring the handiwork of my minions, when I told them to move, they MOVED. I wonder just how good the others were as well.
"Well anyway, let's get you the items you need." I said starting a general tour of the shop for Cecilia.
Each floor had been divided into multiple sections, with the ground floor having more common items like food, clothes and everyday household items like kitchenware, etc. The second floor was reserved for medical items and a small clinic. While the third floor would have luxury items like gems and jewellery, weapons and armours and other assorted goods.
"So, I have only 21,456 Denari." Cecilia said as she handed me the silver coins, which was a lot considering the local exchange rates.
The local coins used were Soruda, Denari, Sink and Suwani. With the current exchange rates being 121 Soruda = 1 Denari, 88 Denari = 1 sink and 5 Sink = 1 Suwani. It was a headache keeping track of the exchange rates but well that was that.
Most of my items only cost a few Soruda and I wanted to deal in Soruda mostly due to how numerous they were and how easily I could rack up enough Soruda to reach the 1000 unit mark and convert it into a resource unit.
But well 21,476 Denari was not a small amount either. It was more than enough for the items Cecilia was asking and more, with the 15% discount Scarron had wriggled out from me. That guy despite his jolly good behaviour and appearance was a vicious bastard in negotiation or I was just that bad at negotiating. Still the difference was not much considering how cheap most of my goods were. It would be the high end good that I would later bring on that would help Scarron make a killing. For now he just had to settle for a small profit.
"I still can't believe you have this much item in stock. What were you thinking when you set out on your journey? Were you planning on establishing a nation?" Cecilia asked me rhetorically, knowing that I would not give an honest answer.
While I was trying to be sincere as my name, I still had some secrets that I could not share at this point of time and honestly my behaviour was quite suspicious if one were to look at it from an outsider's point of view.
"Well I was setting out to find my own fortunes and I didn't know how long or how hard it would be so I just grabbed what I thought best and gathered enough materials and craftsmen to set up suitable production facilities to keep manufacturing my goods. So there." I replied with a shrug, honestly the trash manufacturing tools Gnarl had given us were simply OP for a medieval setting. Sure the tools took time to fully manufacture a finished product unlike an instant like the forge but they could be done in minutes and in large amounts too. Even modern machinery fell short against the tools as the total time from resource gathering to end product was but hours and that was only because of the time it took for the resource to arrive.
The tools worked in simple manner have a blueprint of an item and have the required resources on hand and you would have the product in a matter of minutes. The only downside was that it was not too resource efficient compared to the trash forge and the tools could only be tailored to one type of product. One tool could only produce weapons while another could only produce clothes and so on, another downside of the tools was that I could not alter an existing blueprint and could only enter a new blueprint if I wanted a variation that's not all the tools could only store up to 50 blueprints at a time which for clothes was too less.
It was a good thing my craftsmen were quite skilled at their work and could almost match the tools in terms of production capabilities. Yep my craftsmen were broken economic support minions.
"Well that is good for you and bad for your competitors, which sadly my father is one." Cecilia sighed no doubt wondering that they would soon go out of business and lose their only source of income or become a subsidiary store for my business. Which I honestly did not want to see it happen, I liked Scarron but I did not want to become his boss anytime soon but I knew it would soon happen due to my monopoly over my products that would make it almost inevitable.
I wonder if I can recreate a certain restaurant with Scarron at the helm again. That might make things much more amendable. I knew that Cecilia would be quite the heartbreaker in that maid outfit.
"What's with those lecherous eyes Ise?" Cecilia said snappishly, I must have been staring again but damn did the mental image bring joy to my heart. Yep I was an unrepentant lecher.
"Nothing just imagining you in a certain dress."
"Well then keep fantasising Ise you will never see me wearing any of the perverted outfits you have in mind."
"I would not be so sure about that because it won't be me who is going to make you wear the uniform." I said with a grin. My words must have been a bit cryptic for her as Cecilia did not seem to get what I was hinting at but she was looking at me more suspiciously. "Oh and you better hurry Artoria will be back soon."
Hearing Artoria's name Cecilia's face went pale white in fear. Now while Artoria and Cecilia had hit off well, Artoria was a bit too physical and would love to give Cecilia head pats and rubs which while seemed innocent were a bit too damn effective on Cecilia who sometimes let out really erotic moans, there was also the fact that Artoria was deceptively strong despite her small frame and her hugs were inescapable vice grips making it difficult for Cecilia to run and would result in her becoming a gibbering mess most of the time.
So it was understandable that Cecilia had very complex feelings about the White Lily Princess.
Not staying long to subjugate herself to Artoria's affections, Cecilia hightailed it out of the shop shouting at me to send the orders.
Really that girl had no manners.
Oh well, I would sic Artoria on her later on to teach her a lesson. For now I better get go greet the other customers.
"Welcome to Kuzunoha, how may I help you?"
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Slowly the months began to flow by and the popularity of Kuzunoha began to increase. And I learned one flaw of my strategy to earn money and convert them into resources, which I found was a bad idea as it left me with almost no change that I could return to the customers not to mention that it was bad idea to make a portion of minted currency vanish from the market.
While the effects were not immediate the long term consequences would be quite severe, which Gnarl pounded that particular lecture about circulation of currency and its effect on economy into my head, literally.
Yep I was not going to forget that bit so soon.
Which was why, I was now trying to maximise my profits and build up capital to set up new shops and get some mining rights to a nearby mountain range.
I was now going to go for maximum benefits using great buying power to virtually increase the amount of resources I could get. Iron I found was easily convertible into resource and it was helping me gain quite a lot of profit with the broken resource conversion system I had. I was searching for cheaper alternatives but for now iron seemed to work best.
Back to the state of my business, it had grown quite well over the months and I was even starting to export my products to other villages and cities and raking in profits.
I was also able to get lots of mining rights and sold them after setting up the mines to others, which were mostly mines of common metals, I kept the silver and gold mines to myself. Even after selling quite a lot of the mines I noted that the output was not reaching even my least optimistic estimates which led me to lend some hand in helping develop mining techniques for the locals which was still quite a lot more inferior than my own mining technique as I was free to exploit the land with the judicious use of magic.
This had given me my first taste of investments and the glaring flaw of the magic in this land.
Yes this land had magic and at first I was quite giddy about it but after sometime my fascination with the local magic waned as I found that they could only produce a few sparks of lightning and a small flickering flame. Yeah, these guys were really hopeless with magic. I was now in the process of investigating whether it was simply a racial trait or there was something more to their magical system. It was a good thing that I had a broken skill which let me use magic without repercussion or else things would have been very ugly.
Leaving that aside, after helping with the mines I found out that there was a lot of other industries that needed a lot of development to truly grow and expand. As things were I was just going to take complete monopoly of the entire country's economy in a few months' time which was simply begging the Royal Family to come and force me to hand over my assets to them which I would naturally refuse and start a coup or pull out too early in the game.
Thus I tried my best to invest in businesses, shops and industries and help them develop the best I could to simply take out the heat from me. The goodwill and the prestige I was earning due to this was simply a welcome side effect. Honestly it was simply painful of how easy it was to make profit in this world using my knowledge and resources. Gnarl had even pointed out that I would have to a total idiot or hated by the gods, fate and lady luck to not be a successful merchant in this world.
Greenwood was now a centre of trade and commerce with many young traders and merchants coming to the now growing city to trade with the local traders and Kuzunoha. This was because I focused most of my investments in Greenwood first and I was running multiple experimental projects to boost the industries of Greenwood. Since Kuzunoha was centred here I was sure I could deal with potential fallout of a resulting failed venture, though Gnarl had pointed out that due to difference in the local economies I would have to careful exporting my successful experiments.
Yeah being a Merchant was really hard thank god for the long list of economic theories and blunders of Earth which had guided me so far.
It was really draining sometimes but looking at the now beautiful city of Greenwood, I could say that it was worth it. I just wish that it did not involve so much paperwork.
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Imperial Palace, Demoria, Niskeria
Tyuule, Queen of the Niskeria and the Warrior Bunny Race, was having difficulty believing the sudden prosperity her nation had been experiencing over the past few months. While like many monarch Tyuule would have been proud of it she was not as it was not the results of her handiwork but the results of the strange actions of a mysterious human merchant.
Issei Hyoudou, owner of the now famous company Kuzunoha, had become a household name in just a matter of months as he brought untold prosperity to the nation.
A virtual stranger in a strange land the boy no older than 16 years had manage to set up a trade empire whose influence had grown to threaten even the influence of the Royal family. The boy through his actions had garnered so much goodwill and prestige that her advisors feared that a coup was imminent in the near future unless she was able to tie the boy's loyalty to the Royal family. A concern that she thoroughly shared with her advisors but what nagged her mind was how in the name of all things holy, was he able to gather so much power in so little time and just what were his goals.
Thus she had sent out orders to investigate the boy and report all his past and present actions to her, so that she and her advisors could make heads or tail out of it.
"So after reading the reports on Issei Hyoudou's actions can anyone say how he did it and just what are his goals?" Tyuule asked her council, while she had also read the reports there were so many things that she was finding hard to comprehend. "Any theories? Any ideas? Anything?"
Her council was silent giving her no answers, though in the corner she saw her spymaster, Zevran, looking around to see if the others had to offer anything of value. He was always a believer of checking out the terrain first and playing your cards last so that he would always know whether his bag of tricks was needed and had something to counter the opponent with.
Tyuule thought that Zevran was just being too passive and reactive instead of the proactive approach a spymaster should have, though she acknowledge that in his line the work was never done and shifted without end.
"Zevran." Tyuule called out her spymaster motioning him to lay down his findings, the groans her advisors let loose was understandable as they always thought the former assassin as someone who was just too wild and brash, despite his age and experience.
"You honour me, your majesty." Zevran said with a low bow. "Your benevolence is only surpassed by your beauty."
"Get on with it Zevran." One of the councilman shouted to which Tyuule agreed, she was not in the mood to deal with Zevran's antics at this time.
Muttering about unromantic old men, Zevran began detailing all his findings to the queen, some of which her spies had missed in between.
"Issei Hyoudou a human boy made his first recorded appearance in the small border town of Greenwood, where he set up shop and began his trade operations. He then proceeded to sell his wares at a very cheap rate despite its quality which hints at a very good production capabilities which far outstrips anything we have at unprecedented levels. After securing his base and trade, the boy quickly began to expand his trade by exporting his goods to the nearby villages and even the nearby border towns of other nations.
An interesting bit to note is that almost all caravans that the Kuzonoha has been part of has been able to successfully drive off bandits and thieves and the guards that Kuzonoha provides for thier caravans have even managed to destroy several bandit camps and capture some well known bandits too like Magrager and Huntsman Dane, which in turn has made the roads much more safer for other traders too. A major point of note is that in all this incursion and raids the Kuzonoha have not faced a single casualty yet, even when they have stormed several bandit strongholds, most notebly the Voltovis Stronghold.
After trading for several weeks the Kuzonoha bought thier first store in the border town of Valris in the Empire and in the next few weeks they bought several other stores and warehouses and began to establish branches across the border towns and have even managed to set up shops and branches in several important trade centers of not only Niskeria but also of the nearby mercantile nations and even the Empire.
After establishing these branches Hyoudou has gone on an investing spree buying several mines and making several deals with various merchants in the towns where Kuzonoha and thier Craftsmen have been teaching several merchant, farmers and villagers new techniques and helping them develop new tools to increase thier overall production capabilities, which admittedly is still far behind that of Kuzunoha.
Personality wise, the boy is surprisingly honest and naive which has helped him gain quite a lot of following too, even though he is also a total sleaze and one of the most daring pervert I have ever seen. While I am a certified pervert myself even I dare not share my passions about the feminine graces like he is does."
Tyuule did not know whether she should be smile at the fact that Zevran admitted someone is better than him at something or be mortified at the said someone was a bigger pervert than Zevran. No, scratch that it was mortifying news no matter how you look at it. Though seeing Zevran pout was almost worth it, almost.
She also digested the news and information of not only the trade and production capabilities of Kuzunoha but also of thier 'Guards' who were not only strong enough to defeat and capture well known bandits like Magrager but also storm the Veltovis Stronghold without suffering any casualties. While Magrager and his band numbered only a measly 20, the tactics and traps they employed had given the army headaches for the past five years during which Magrager had slain quite a lot of warriors from across the continent.
As for the Veltovis Stronghold, well it was a stronghold alright which the Searing Hawks bandits had called home for the past forty years and its defenses had whether wars and sieges that would made even the Empire falter in its steps. So, for a mere trading company to have such a strong private army was not a comforting thought.
"And what do you think he is after?" Tyuule questioned Zevran trying not to think of deviant behavior of her latest problem.
"Profit of course." Zevran said like it was the most obvious fact in the world. "Come on it is just that simple and obvious. The boy is a merchant and he is simply trying to make as much profit as he can."
"But that does not explain why he is helping develop our industries and trade." One of the councilmember shouted at Zevran.
"Well that is because by developing the industries and trade he is creating more jobs which in turn help people become rich and the more rich they are the more money they would have, and the more money they have the more items they can buy from Kuzunoha which in turns make the boy more richer than ever. After all, why play in the thousands when you can play by the millions?" Zevran said as he explained his reasoning, which Tyuule had to admit made so much sense.
"Though I would like to add that while wealth and prosperity is good, it also breeds greed and corruption which we will have to keep in check least our nation turns into a den of debauchery. Also our nation is become prosperous sooner or later we will have to open up trade deals with other nations to keep them from attacking us in jealousy and spite. While our economy as of now would allow us to maintain a sizable army with some of the best equipment, sheer numbers would sooner or later worn us down." Zevran said warning them of the situation which Tyuule realised was not simply one that concerned only her own nation.
Tyuule saw that while her own nation was becoming prosperous, other mercantile nations would be beginning to suffer from the loss of trade they would be experiencing sooner or later. Some of which were allied to the Empire and part of its territories. The Empire after the slave revolt a few years back had been attacking independent nations for slaves, and Tyuule knew that her race of Warrior Rabbits were seen as prime targets for the slave trade.
The loss of trade and tribute from its mercantile territories might just be the excuse the Empire need to wage war with her nation and force her people into slavery.
Great, not only did she have to worry about a possible coup but also about a possible war with the Empire. The human boy was really causing a lot of trouble for her.
"Good point Zevran, Council members see which nations are willing to trade with us and what we can do to convince other nations to open trade routes to us. In the mean time I also want envoys to be sent to the Kuzunoha and summon Issei Hyoudou to the court. We will need his input on what resources we have in our nation and of our own trading capabilities, which I loath to admit we are in the dark about. The boy has changed this nation's economy so much that we don't even know what resources we have in abundance. Trade deals thus will have to be done with his advice." For now Tyuule did not know what to ultimately do with the boy. Killing him was out of question as it would no doubt lead to a drastic collapse of her nation's economy in the fallout of his death.
The boy was just making so many changes in so little time that only he ultimately knew what the changes would lead to and what unseen goals and results he was thriving for. His death would put a stop to those changes and developments under his care which if not handled carefully would cause a disaster on a scale that had been unseen in her nation history. So for now she was going to keep the boy alive and make use of his talents the best she could.
While making him give input on the future trade deals would no doubt give the boy too much power, Tyuule also saw this as a way to not only monitor the boy but subtlety bind the boy to her nation and gain his loyalty too.
The boy was a self-proclaimed pervert and had declared that he wanted to have a Harem of beautiful women which while distasteful Tyuule would be easily able to grant by offering him some choice slaves for his 'harem'. He was also greedy too so some subtle concessions and bribery could also go a long way too. if those two methods did not work, well, she would just have to convince him in other ways.
Grimacing at those dark thoughts Tyuule could not help but feel that sometimes been a Queen was simply not worth it, not when it made her think of using slavery as a means to an end.
The next day the envoys were sent with her message in their hands. Now all that was left was to wait, to wait and watch how the pieces fell.
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The next day Zevran hitched a ride with the envoys heading to Kuzunoha, he wanted to meet with the boy face to face who had cause his Queen quite a lot of headaches even if all he was doing was helping his nation prosper.
Yep it was a very strange situation where Zevran was not all too happy about his nation's prosperity. It really made him question the sanity of the world.
It was strange yet exciting at the same time, a mystery that was quite simple yet complex in ridiculous ways, something that was perfect for a spy like him. Zevran wondered when the last time he had faced something like this and the answer was simple.
'Never'
Yes, never had he faced or seen something of this nature and it was something that he would never experience again.
'The boy is surely turning out to be more interesting than I thought' Zevran mused as he flipped through the stack of documents that contained information on the boy. Most of them were useless as they were not as detailed as he would have liked but they did contain bits of data that would allow him to find the boy in Greenwood.
"Hmm, the Charming Fairies, I wonder if I can really find some fairies there."
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Zevran hand could not stop twitching as he sat in one of the tables waiting for Issei Hyoudou to come. The sight he had seen upon entering this 'Café' would always be with him even if he wanted to forget it and lock it deep within his mind, it was both pleasant and horrifying which really made Zevran question his own manliness.
'Come on boy, get here fast least the owner of this establishment get me aquatinted with my inner maiden.' Zevran thought than groan as he realised just what he was thinking about. 'I am already infected by it. Maker, help me.'
Sitting in the table and trying to enjoy his tea, Zevran waited for Issei Hyoudou as reports had it that the boy like to visit the Café regularly to have a nice cup of tea and flirt with the waitresses. Zevran could also see why the boy liked it too, the tea was outstandingly good and the waitresses were all kind and polite and looked incredibly beautiful in those really short maid outfits. It was a real shame that Zevran could not enjoy it to the fullest especially with the Owner giving him spine chilling looks.
It took another 10 minutes or so but Issei Hyoudou had finally come to the Café just like the reports said and Zevran had to bite back the urge to sigh in relief at seeing the boy.
The boy looked fairly ordinary despite being a foreigner, with brown hair and eyes, being as tall as an average person he looked nothing special even when his clothes indicated otherwise.
Zevran saw the boy interact with the waitresses namely one going by the name Cecilia. They seemed to be quite close if their casual conversation was anything to go by it might be something he could use as leverage later on, but he would first have to determine whether it was worth it.
"…and finally get me a Strawberry Shortcake, Cecilia." Zevran heard the boy give his order.
"And do you want some elixir to go with that too." the waitress said in a very sarcastic manner, making Zevran question the depths of their relationship, they seemed to be really, really close if they could act like that in public.
"Ouch what has gotten you today Cecilia?" Issei asked in confused manner.
It was a lovers' quarrel it seems. Yeah it was going to be good entertainment.
"What has gotten into me? Nothing, Nothing is wrong with me Hyoudou-san, I mean it's not like I had to spend the last few days being a dress up doll for your little Lioness and had to suffer her tender ministrations." The girl said in a very, very sweet voice. It was so sweet that Zevran had to suck a lemon to counteract the sickly sweetness. Scary did not come close to describe the sweetness the girl was emitting from her voice. "And it's not like someone here, who I would not mention but is sitting in front of me, abandoned me to the enduring the torturing cuddles of his minion. Nope there is nothing wrong with me apart from the intense humiliation, embarrassment and shame inflicted upon me." The girl said slamming her hands on the boy's table and pounced on him screaming curses, with the table vanishing under a cloud of dust, making Zevran think 'Where did that much dust come from?'
Zevran did not know what exactly happened next but it included lots of screaming, shouting, some tea and cakes and finally some moaning. When the dust cloud settled Zevran saw the boy patting the now red face waitresses as she did her best not to moan under his ministration, if her angry face was anything to go by.
'Did the boy not know how sensitive their ears were?' Really, the boy was openly touching the girl's ears when even Zevran had to admit he would not do so in public as it was a very intimate sign of affection. 'The boy really is a deviant.' Zevran concluded as he saw the boy pat the girl.
After sometime the café return to normal after that really…inappropriate scene.
Seeing that the boy enjoy his meal Zevran thought that it was best to approach him now. So going up to his table Zevran introduced himself.
"Hello Mister Hyoudou, I am Zevran Zabenni and I have an important matter to discuss with you." Zevran said with a charming smile on his face, 'Let's see what makes you tick.'
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AN: Yes, merchants are greedy evil bastards and thus it is a good profession for a budding Overlord.