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Chapter 226 – Day 2 of Trading Life
I woke up early to the cries of seabirds.
I had been sleeping in a warehouse on the East Coast with the dungeon dwellers. The makeshift hammock that Arachne had made for me felt so good that I wished they would commercialize it right away.
When I stepped outside to look at the sea, I saw a trading ship being attacked by sharks in the distance.
I ran across the water’s surface, grabbed the shark by the snout, and it fled.
“Good morning.”
The demons of the Meiju Kingdom were stunned.
Seeing someone run across the sea first thing in the morning probably startled them. Maybe I looked like some kind of evil spirit.
“See? I’ve got legs, too.”
“Good morning! Makyo-san!”
“Oh…”
Did I know him?
“I’m Pete, the one you helped before.”
“Ah, I remember! You hunted the field boar. How have you been?”
“Fine, thank you. Um, when I was boarding the ship, it looked like you were floating.”
“That’s right. I recently learned to fly through the air using magic.”
When I demonstrated this on the deck, the crew gathered around, astonished.
“I heard that Cliff Garuda uses magical tools to fly, but yours seems to require nothing.”
“Yeah. Interfering with buoyancy using magic is enough.”
The crew members all tilted their heads in confusion.
“Take the ship, for example. If you interfere with the wind using magic, the ship moves forward, right?”
I tried to interfere with the wind just enough so the sails wouldn’t tear when they caught it.
Cutting through the waves, the ship surges forward in one swift motion.
“””Whoa!”””
The demon crew members hold down their hats to keep them from flying off.
“Is that different from wind magic?”
“The effect is the same. But I think the method is different. I’m uneducated, so I don’t understand magic systematically.”
“So, you create your own magic?”
“Yeah. Since sparring with Chel, I’ve mostly been creating it myself. It’s fun to be able to do all sorts of things.”
The ship was brought safely to the East Coast.
“The magic stones are being transported by dragons, so there are plenty more. Load as many as you can.”
“Yes, thank you!”
“Stop it! If Makyo says something offhand, the price of magic stones will crash!”
After taking the mooring rope, Chel scolded me.
I left negotiations to Chel and the dungeon dwellers and received a message from Hel in the desert via a sound-light device. I decided to fly there.
Just as I was about to take off, the dungeon dwellers handed me some skewered meat.
“It’s for yesterday.”
“Yesterday? Did I do something wrong? Oh, the training. It’s fine; don’t worry about it. But more importantly, observe the demonic land carefully.”
“Yes.”
I headed for the desert military base, carrying the skewers. While flying, the dungeon hidden in my leather armor ate one skewer.
“If you want some, just say so.”
“…Grr.”
The Dungeon’s first utterance was a “grr” sound.
“You’ve been sucking up all my magic power! Aren’t you hungry?”
“Grr…”
“Go eat some of those succulents over there. I’m going to the dungeon to talk things over.”
With that, I tossed him, leather armor and all, into a cluster of desert succulents.
“Guuuuuuu!”
“It’s fine. I’ll come back for you later.”
The dungeon emerged from the armor in the shape of a snake. It was about time to teach it the harshness of the demonic land.
“You’re early! It hasn’t been that long since I contacted you…”
Hel was astonished by the speed of aerial travel and the sound-light device.
“So, anything happen?”
“Ah, the coin matter. I explained it to the golems, too, but they can easily be replicated unless the Dungeon Masters discuss it.”
“But isn’t the amount of iron different in each dungeon?”
“Exactly.”
The small-framed Gussenbach approached from the corner of the spacious workshop. He was the Dungeon Master of the military base.
“In this dungeon, we’d rather use the iron for golem repairs than for coins. As Ka-Ryu-dono said, we’ve come to understand that the skeleton is vital for remembering the past. If possible, we’d prefer not to make them.”
“We could make them if necessary, but we wouldn’t want to. Money is important, but bartering might still be the norm in the demonic land. Wouldn’t you want to get iron from the mines in the northeast?”
The message from Hel mentioned that as well.
“Mining takes considerable time. Considering transport and movement, it’s not suited for us golems.”
Indeed, it’s hard to imagine a group of golems wandering through the forest. It’s dangerous for them. It would be better if we prepared the path properly and transported the iron ourselves.
Could we manage it with Guardian Spiders as escorts?
“I see. Even if we refine the iron, could that mean more golems?”
“That’s impossible.”
Saketsu arrived, wiping sweat from his brow. The dwarf brought from the Elven Kingdom had fully become a golem repairman.
“Even with iron, all we can do is make parts. We can’t create a golem cube. I think only a genius metalworker could craft it with extreme precision.”
“I see. Then, could we make something like an arm for production?”
“That’s possible, but… what are you planning to make?”
“That’s the thing. Until now, Hel, the magic tool shop owner, made most of what we needed for daily life. Sylvia made the weapons, and we made anything else we lacked from materials found in the demonic land.”
“The demonic land has everything.”
Hel nodded.
“But to trade with the outside world from now on, don’t we need finished products instead of just materials?”
“For example?”
“Before, I made staffs and sold them to the training facility. But then a rebellion broke out in East Kenya using those staffs. Regarding weapons, let’s ban trade and focus on selling magic tools instead.”
“That’s definitely a good idea. But before that, how about making bottles?”
Hél’s words made me go, “Huh?”
“Oh, right! We should make containers for potions and poisons.”
“Of course, magic tools for daily life are important, too. I found some in the Elven Kingdom, so I plan to make those as well. But learning the magic circles takes time, and mass-producing them would require training, even for the golem craftsmen. As for potions and poisons, Jennifer and the others are already teaching the dungeon dwellers, right?”
“Even now, bottling them in empty jars for sale is highly effective. After all, Hel’s potions were in short supply, so there weren’t many trade goods.”
“Right.”
“Hold on a moment.”
Saketsu stopped us.
“What’s up?”
“It’s fine to export potions and poisons from the demonic land, but what are we getting in return?”
“We’re getting wheat, clothing, and fabric, but Arachne’s silk still isn’t enough.”
“So, we’re short on agricultural products?”
“Yeah. Actually, we might be better off developing the Botanical Garden dungeon.”
“Jennifer and Lipa are handling that now.”
“Oh? So we’re still stuck selling raw materials, then?”
“No, not necessarily. Planning ahead is crucial. Especially since Makyo is the lord; he should flex his authority there. Are you talking about building a potions factory and a magic tool factory?”
Hel understood what I was getting at.
“Exactly.”
“Then we just need to decide where to put the potion factory. Should it be near the entrance? Should the magic tool factory be close to where the workers live?”
“If there’s work besides hunting, I think people would move here. In the demonic land, it’s every man for himself, but if a factory protects them, they’d feel secure. After all, I can only live here because the dungeon and the golems protect me.”
“If the lord takes charge, there’d be no need for dungeons to fight each other. That’d be a relief.”
The golems still seem to have trauma from dungeon conflicts.
“Look, everyone’s telling us to decide on a location.”
Apparently, the conversation was also being shared via the Sound-light Device with Jennifer, Chel, and Sylvia. Text projected from the device Hel held was displayed on the dungeon wall.
“If you plan to build a factory, just say so!”
“Hurry up and do it!”
We’re already short-staffed just for mining operations. Securing residents is crucial.”
The longer they were there, the harder they pushed the lord to work.
“Now that we know the time magic circle, can we build structures?”
Until recently, building structures in the demonic land hadn’t been an option. Plants and monsters would destroy them overnight. Now, however, we can create indestructible pillars and floors.
“Right. I’d given up on that a long time ago and forgotten about it, but now we can build structures!”
Now that we have the undead who built the lighthouse, we need to assign residents to the right places. Otherwise, I might fail as a lord.”
“Yes, I’ll do my best.”
With my subjects urging me on, I started moving.
I retrieved my dungeon, which had been eating succulents.
I teleported immediately to the trading village and gathered as many empty bottles and clothes as I could.
I needed a big box to carry everything, but instead, I fed it to my dungeon.
“Taro-chan, what’s that?”
“My dungeon. It hasn’t fully grown into a proper dungeon yet, so it’s fine.”
“Fine or not, it sure is big.”
“Grr.”
The dungeon whimpered as the prostitute sister stroked its chin.
I warned the dungeon, “Don’t digest that,” and flew southward.
When I reached the Undead port town to the southwest, Ka-Ryu was still building the lighthouse.
“I brought clothes.”
“Ah, that’s a big help.”
I replenished my magic power while I was there.
“You’re building a factory?”
It seemed that Ka-Ryu had also been given a Sound-light device.
“That’s right. Construction is possible now.”
“The undead can’t work in a healing potion factory, but they might be able to work with magic tools. Once the factory’s up and running, I’ll count on you.”
Somehow, Ka-Ryu had come to run the port town.
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