Greed God chapter 138 (Patreon)

March 14th 2016 Gemworld 9:00 PM EDT

The  next day was spent making preparations for my meeting with the nearby  forces. Cherry had done her job well, finding plenty of information  about the gangs and criminal syndicates in the city. As she mentioned,  they were here at the sufference of, and sometimes with the backing of,  the nobility. For our purposes however, we were looking for powerful  forces that weren't backed by the nobles, ones we could pit against each  other to spark up a fuss.

There weren't any, Dark Opal  was far too paranoid to let any of the really independent factions get a  foothold, and all the factions manned by commoners and thinbloods were  too weak to do much for us. There was one or two who were mixed bloods  from other dynasties who had been oppressed and left the noble circles  to run their own crews, and the gangs the nobles controlled tended to  keep their boots on the necks of those forces to keep them from getting  out of line.

Those were my targets, the large amount of  powerful gemworlders in those forces had proven themselves tenacious and  strong enough to hold up under the abuse. They would also have a ton of  pent up aggression, and, given they weren't all dead for sewing  discontent, enough sense not to fuck with Dark Opal's people directly.  These factors made them functionally perfect for my purposes, and I'd  picked out a few of them and had Cherry head back out to watch them as I  worked on gathering resources.

Now, in a movie or a TV  show, the best move would be to secretly infiltrate the forces with my  disguise skill, to sew the seeds of rebellion and whisper in the right  ears like a shadowy puppet master. But ain't nobody got time to  insidiously infiltrate the criminal underworld of a fantasy word and  slowly poison the well. That was why I picked the targets that I had.  They were already primed to blow, and their natural leanings would put  them on a collision course with each other. Once Cherry got me the  information I needed on the intergang politics between those factions I  could begin.

A good plan, when executed properly, requires  three things. First, motivation. Greed, lust, hatred, anything that  will get people moving will work, but you need to light that fuse.  Second, momentum, the forces involved have to have the power to actually  erupt with the force needed to reach their destination. And third,  misdirection. Once the gun is aimed and fired, someone else needs to be  holding it in order for the plan to be considered a success. Any plan  that sees you caught and punished is naturally a failure.

I  had picked out forces with preexisting momentum for the purposes of my  performance. In order to properly execute the plan that left me to  supply the latter two elements. Misdirection was a key portion of the  plan in its entirety, I would need to lay false trails and be careful to  avoid showing any traces of my presence, but my preparations in  Amaranthine were an excellent first step in that particular goal. Which  only left momentum needed to be supplied. I needed to hand over some  element that would help these forces throw off their shackles and erupt  into action against each other.

The obvious solution here  was to supply them with some sort of items or medicines to allow them to  explode with an unusual amount of power, giving them the confidence to  attack their enemies but not so much that they aim their fury at their  actual oppressors. Of course I would need to supply the same thing to  their enemies as well, and then arrange for a third party faction to  FIND OUT I had done so, showing them a vulnerability they could exploit  to draw the necessary attack from a neighboring dynasty.

I'd  worry about that last part later though, for now I just had to put  together a little care package for the forces I had chosen to court, I  could worry about delivery once it was done. I consulted Zee on the  exact ingredients and necessary recipes, workshopping several chemical  compounds and mystical medicines that would do what I needed, but the  main issue was that I needed something G rank so I didn't blow my whole  points stash making enough for everyone. I played around with quite a  few ingredients before I came up with a proper answer.

[Appraisal  function activated. Treasure detected. Bloodsurge Pill- G rank. No one  gets something for nothing, but some trades are worse than others. Burn  the potential of the recipient to ignite the limits of their bloodline,  forcibly advancing them to the next rank of their bloodline at the cost  of their future advancement. For anyone with no potential to burn,  lifeforce will be exhausted, aging the recipient prematurely.]

This  little concoction was not limited to G rank, based on the description,  it would work on higher ranked bloodline users too. I made a hundred and  ten, leaving me at 1.1 million after accounting for merging some of the  ingredients. Of course, the more advanced the bloodline, the harder it  was to fuel growth, so I would need to make sure none of the powerful  people tried them. A B ranker who took one of these would probably  vanish into a puff of dust as it aged them into bones trying to burn  enough lifeforce to elevate them. The ranking was specifically set as  low as it was because of the terrible cost, which meant literally  nothing to me because I gave no fucks about these people.

Amusingly  however, if they actually did perform well enough during all this to  grab attention and then somehow escape, my chalice was pretty much the  only readily available solution to this kind of problem, so I might pick  up a few high ranking nobles for a steal. Once I had all of that done, I  fucked Zee for a few hours while I waited for Cherry to get back, and  left my sorceress passed out as the thief slipped back inside with the  information I requested.

She sat down across from me,  nearly glowing with pride. "So I looked into it. The factions you gave  me the names of were easy enough to find, and after all day sitting  around in bars and invisibly following people, I managed to suss out the  basic situation. We have three top contenders. First is the Bone  Barons. They're necromancers mostly. Old school magic and not bloodline  originating from what I can tell. The Opal bloodline seems to be some  kind of beast incarnation, a method to allow them to manifest body parts  and abilities from powerful beasts."

She passed me a  small journal she'd been filling with notes. "The Bone Barons mostly  raise the dead, and they're currently at odds with the Shadow Lords,  these people aren't exactly original with their naming sense, but I  suppose in a world obsessed with bloodlines and nobility it's to be  expected. The Shadow Lords use shadow magic, mostly, and given the  congregation of those forces in places like graveyards the two factions  clash pretty often over land and resources."

"Finally,"  She said proudly. "We have a gang that is considered the single largest  gang outside noble influence. The Empty Door. Mysterious, elusive, and  run by the strongest mixed blood renegade of Opal, the Empty Door has  been eluding authorities in this city for years. The leader, Charon of  Opal, had a mother who was from house Carmine. They're blood  controllers, and he mostly ended up with her abilities, though I  personally think there's more to it than that. Regardless, he's the big  fish we need, at least in my opinion. The other two gang leaders aren't a  match for him."

I gave a small hum of indecision. "Not  bad. These notes cover all the aspects of the gangs I asked you to look  out for. Still, I'll need to do a bit of recon myself. As comprehensive  as you've been, I need to get a feel for the personalities involved  before we make a move. Can't predict people unless you know how they  act, and getting that information from notes, no matter how well written  or attentive, is just asking for trouble." Cherry all but glowed with  pride at that last bit.

I reached over and slapped a fat,  currently blue striped ass cheek. Zee groaned and rolled over. I winced,  as good as her pussy was, Zee id have other uses. I made a mental note  to spread the love a bit, because it would be a shame to break a D  ranked sorceress before I got my brand on her thick jiggly ass. I  clamped down on the lust, forcing myself to ignore her naked and  slightly battered body, not that she'd been complaining. I threw a  blanket over her to cover her up and make it easier to pay attention.

Then  I smacked her ass again through the material. "Ugh, please Nicky no  more. I need rest. I can't even move without wincing. I promise we can  play tomorrow, just let me get one night of sleep." Cherry snickered a  bit as I slapped her cheek again, and she sat up, pulling the sheet in  front of her tits in a way I was thankful for since it kept me from  getting distracted. I was pretty sure I was getting a handle on the  absurd lust I'd been feeling (not that I wanted it to go away  completely) but Zee was a fucking bombshell, and dragon or not a sexy  naked woman will get any mans motor running.

She  rubbed the sleep from her eyes and I grinned at her. "Hey there  sleeping beauty, lucky for you I need information to come out of that  pretty mouth, not to shove my cock in it." I frowned a bit at the rasp  in her voice. That would get annoying long term, I might have used her  throat a few too many times last night. I reached down to where my pouch  was resting and pulled out a bottle of moon berry wine and three  glasses, pouring on for each of us. I pricked my thumb with an extended  claw and dripped in a drop of my blood for Zee before handing it to her.

She  didn't seem to mind, and downed the glass, which wasn't surprising. Zee  had drunk plenty of my fluids before, and she loved the effects. I  could have spat in that cup and she'd have chugged it. Aside from the  taste, the effect was obvious as small bruises and bit marks healed  visible. Her head fell back with a low moan and her pupils dilated as  her body was repaired and her magic was boosted by my Vital Tempest  bloodline.

I  felt my cock stiffen at the sound, but perfect bodily control let me  force myself to calm down, and I got back to my plan. "Anyway, since  you're all good now. I need a glamour. My masks give us perfect  disguises that can't be easily breached, but if I change this one I'll  lose it. I might need to play the same part a few times, so a glamour  for a few identities will be helpful. Anyone strong enough will probably  see through it, but that's what the mask is for anyway. Can you mock up  three distinct Opal citizen disguises. Nothing too eye catching, I just  want average joes."

"Of  course." Zee said with an easy smile. "I've always been good at  glamours. But what are you going to do with them? I know you're going to  be infiltrating something, but it's hard to set up the glamours  properly without information. If I know what kind of person you'll be  playing I can customize them a bit better."

I  grinned wickedly. "Why, I'm going to be infiltrating the three gangs  Cherry just told me about. But don't worry, I have plans for making sure  I'm not noticed. I won't be giving anything to anyone personally, and  they won't even know who I am." I had better ideas for that. Rather than  insert myself into each gang and earn their trust, I was just going to  Brand a member of each of them. With the control from the Brand I could  have them slip the medicines to the others without ever revealing  myself, and aim them the right way besides. The next step was to begin  the infiltration, and start picking my targets.