Chapter 27: Hope They Don't Scare You

First up were the ten hell pickaxes the "None Pricier" smithy had sent for Sharlock — pickaxes capable of mining gold-essence ore. They ran five hundred magic stones, and Sharlock didn't have that kind of cash on hand, so he'd settle the bill with a gold-essence vein of equal value — which would double as a quality test of the pickaxes.

Besides the pickaxes, Nicholas's caravan was carrying plenty of other trade goods — some from the surface world, some from the Underworld.

Sharlock picked up a burial shroud that positively reeked of the smell of sunshine, and Nicholas at his side launched right into the pitch:

"Legend has it this is the burial shroud of the radiant Holy Lord above. It hasn't been appraised yet, but judging by the number of layers of holy magic worked into the cloth, we can say for certain it was the shroud of someone bishop-rank or higher. In a priest's hands, it would greatly amplify the rank of their holy magic. Useless to us Underworld creatures, of course, but it's quite the coveted item in high society — used as a blanket, it keeps you in a pleasant mood all day long. The price isn't steep at all: two thousand magic stones and it's yours."

"Not really in the market for this kind of thing. I'm a practical man."

Sharlock set back down the shroud that may or may not have been Jehovah's. What the heck kind of overgrown dishrag goes for two thousand magic stones? Has high society gotten this extravagant?

One lousy rag was already two thousand magic stones, so Sharlock didn't even bother looking at the crowns, the greatswords, the Book of Monroso, and whatever else was on offer — the prices were bound to be gorgeous, and to a high-tier demon, every last item was junk!

"Nicholas, your merchandise is quite nice and all, but do you have anything more suited for a dungeon's servants?"

Sharlock skipped straight past all these obviously pricey-looking goods and asked that instead.

"Suited for servants? We do have a few..." Nicholas said, and led Sharlock over to one of the wagons: "Lord Sharlock, these are all fit for servants, and the prices aren't high either. Anything here strike your fancy?"

Sharlock browsed a few and was fairly satisfied. That said, he didn't need a huge stock of items for the players to redeem — there were only a hundred players total, after all, and enough for eighty of them to redeem would do fine. Besides, which items to pick ultimately depended on how much material the caravan could take off his hands.

"These all look pretty good to me, but let's let my servants decide for themselves which ones they want. Oh, by the way — do you buy materials like subterranean spiders, killer vines, dire wolves, that sort of thing? And if so, how much can you take?" Sharlock asked.

"Of course we buy those materials. It's just... Lord Sharlock, your dungeon has only just gotten off the ground — surely you're desperately short of these basic materials yourself? Ah, I see — you must have already stocked up on all of it before! Though if we're talking about buying these goods, the quantities are so huge, and we can only carry so much on the road..." As Nicholas talked, he grew all the more certain in his heart that this Sharlock was one loaded demon lord. Not only had he summoned a full hundred goblins for construction work right after buying the dungeon, he'd bought out every last basic material needed for building a dungeon, forging gear and items, everything — all in one go!

And with the number of newly developed dungeons on the rise lately, prices on these basic materials had been climbing right along with them. Not only had Lord Sharlock bought them all — by now he was already EXPORTING basic materials! Which meant Lord Sharlock's dungeon already had some real combat strength, and the servants he'd summoned were at least gnome-tier. But gnomes were servants only a level-2 dungeon could summon — this Lord Sharlock must have simply bought two dungeons and fused the two cores into a level-2 dungeon! And after summoning gnomes, you've got to arm them right after — all of that costs money. And how long had it even been? Less than half a month? This dungeon called the Eternal Kingdom had already grown this fast?

Terrifying! This high-tier demon called Sharlock was scary to the bone! The guy's superpower had to be cold hard cash! So had Nicholas already concluded in his heart.

For an accurate source, look to NovelPhoenix: the author publishes this chapter there, and this version was taken without permission.

"You can't take much?" Sharlock was in a bind — the plan had been for the players to redeem the caravan's designated goods directly with these basic materials. But if the caravan could only buy in small quantities, he'd have to figure out some other redemption method.

"No, no, no — of course we want to buy up all of these basic materials. It's only that if the quantity is large, then once we've finished purchasing, I'm afraid we'd need to borrow your servants, Lord Sharlock, to help haul these basic materials back to Frostlake City for me. I have a shop in Frostlake City where I can sell these materials in the city. And of course, if you're willing to help, I'll pay you a fee of ten magic stones."

Nicholas said this in a pleading tone.

Sharlock could see where he was coming from. Merchants lived and died by efficiency — hauling a mountain of basic materials along the road hogged cargo space and dragged down the whole caravan. Consolidating the materials at one big market for wholesale was the smart, sane way of doing it.

"Why not use your own caravan's people?" Sharlock asked, puzzled.

"To be honest with you, my lord, my warehouse is fairly out of the way. If the cargo load is large, the time cost piles up as well. The hired guards and servants for this caravan don't come cheap — half a day of their fees would already far exceed ten magic stones. Factor in teleportation costs, too: I don't have the kind of mana to teleport a large number of people and goods in a single go, and the cost of teleportation climbs accordingly. If it's about the fee, I'm willing to offer fifteen magic stones."

Once Nicholas finished, Sharlock beamed and patted Nicholas on the arm:

"Oh, come on, Count Nicholas, you're too kind! You and I hit it off the moment we met — don't talk to me about fees, that's just insulting! A little thing like this? One word and it's done. Say, could those fifteen magic stones go toward the pickaxe bill?"

While warmly talking Nicholas up, Sharlock led the Frostlake City caravan toward the Eternal Kingdom dungeon, and along the way they also confirmed the prices for the basic materials and for those cheap goods Sharlock had his eye on.

By the time Sharlock brought Nicholas back to the dungeon, the players inside had long since spotted the dust-cloud-churning caravan bearing down on them.

Nobody was training or grinding coins anymore — everyone in the dungeon had piled over here, terrified of missing the event storyline coming up next.

"Your servants are remarkably enthusiastic, Lord Sharlock." Nicholas was riding up front with Sharlock in the seats mounted on the lead beetle beast's back, watching the goblins in the distance craning their heads for a peek at the entrance.

What else could Nicholas call it besides "enthusiastic"? Saying they were sloppy and undisciplined would've been a slap in the face to Lord Sharlock, wouldn't it?

"That's just how they are. Hope they don't scare you in a minute." But Sharlock's expression stayed perfectly calm, not the least bit embarrassed. The players had done way more embarrassing stuff than this — what was a little head-craning next to that?

Nicholas had no idea what to say. Luckily, the caravan had already rolled up to the dungeon entrance, and with Sharlock leading the way, it filed into the dungeon bit by bit.

Mind you, this caravan's lineup included hulking armored beetle beasts hauling wagons; beastmen with dark hides and giant tusks hefting massive iron hammers and greatswords; a pack of pointy-eared, pointy-nosed gnomes; werewolves covered head to toe in fur — and one abomination stitched together out of spare parts!

The players all around let out gasps and whoops one after another.

"Damn!"

"So badass!"

"Are these creatures we'll get to pick later on? What the hell is that stitched-together hunk of meat?"

"How deep are this game's connections?! How did THIS pass the rating board?"

"Don't kid yourself — this is just CBT1. Guaranteed it'll all be watered-down versions from here on out."

"I thought the subterranean spiders were peak horror, but now that I've seen this thing, the spiders might as well be a tutorial mob."

"Who was it that told me this game was boring? Look, people — mounts and vehicles!"

"This is insane, oh my god — the forums are gonna absolutely EXPLODE tonight!"

"They're already blowing up right now — xX_ShadowBlade_Xx just made a post!"

To Nicholas's ears, most of the goblins lined up along the road were speaking words he couldn't understand. Not that the language itself was beyond him — it was that those word combinations, strung together, left Nicholas with zero clue what they were saying.

It was Sharlock, up on the beetle beast's back, who raised a hand and addressed the players: "Please, quiet, citizens of the Eternal Kingdom. These are guests who have traveled far to be here. Mind your manners."

With His Lordship having spoken, the players finally quit their hollering — though every face still said "just saw a ghost."

Just as the column was slowly passing through the magic barrier and into the dungeon, Nicholas noticed a few of the closest goblins staring fixedly at his beetle beasts without blinking. Nicholas was thinking to himself that these goblins really had seen nothing of the world when, all of a sudden, one goblin charged right out — looked like he wanted to climb up onto the beetle beast. His jumping wasn't quite up to the task, though, and he didn't make it — a goblin versus a beetle beast is a pretty big size gap, after all. Failing the jump would have been fine on its own, but here was the kicker: when the goblin came back down, he landed square on the beetle beast's next footfall!

"SPLAT!"

The beetle beast's massive front leg came down hard, with the unmistakable sound of something getting stomped open.

Nicholas was already on his feet, staring down under the beetle beast in absolute horror. They'd only just entered the lord's dungeon, and right in front of the lord, they'd stomped one of his servants to death!

Nicholas's face had gone completely white, and even a genteel, polished vampire count like him couldn't help but cry out:

"Damn it!"