DD 202 Ch 8 (Patreon)

Chapter 8

Ami took the second watch and let me get a little sleep before dinner with King Sayer and his two ladies.

For her part, Ami dressed in a revealing red sundress that most certainly had a bandoleer of throwing knives strapped to her thigh.

“Oh wow!” She gushed as we walked into the dinning room. Unlike the other rooms that were fairly bare, this one had seen the touch of an interior decorator in trying to make it grand like a castle.

“Yes, we are slowly working to make the rest like this.” The treasurer, as I thought of her, smiled.

“I never got your name.” I smiled.

“Trish.” She grinned and took my hand pumping it. “That’s Ray. And then of course, King Sayer.”

“Does that make you Queen Trish or Queen Sayer?” Ami asked with a bright smile.

“I guess it does.” Trish smirked and with a wink she added. “Don’t tell Brandon though.”

The two ladies shared a laugh.

“Where did you get all the gold?” I asked. “On that note, what do all the people in the village do?”

“Most of them go down to the 31st floor. There are some fairly weak monsters that drop meat.” Trish explained. “They are the big pack of weak monsters type.”

“Those people had to have some decent gear to have arrived this far out in a dead branch of the dungeon.” I said.

“You’d think so.” Trish rolled her eyes. “Half of them were picked up or saved because they were dying in the dungeon. They took some crudy taxi service to get this far out and then needed saving.”

Ami nodded. “Probably the same mentality as a lot of adventurers that go to dead branches. Somehow they think that if they had a bunch of space for themselves, they could grow?”

Trish hooked a thumb at Ami. “She gets it. Or is that what you two were doing out here?”

I shrugged. “Our party leader had a line on an event that’s pretty good.” It was easier to lie when mixing in a bit of the truth.

“Ah. Yes, there are a few of the nobles here who do the vampire event. Though a group just came back saying that a bunch of Haylon students descended and claimed it for themselves.” Trish rolled her eyes and glanced away as the doors opened.

Thankfully, the entrance let me hide my reaction. If the group of randoms that we had encountered at the event were here, they might recognize me.

In the split second the other woman turned to see King Sayer and Ray enter, I was able to glance at Ami meaningfully and then smooth out my reaction.

“Damn preppy Haylon students.” I reacted appropriately. If that was the reason our party was here, we would know they had come down too. “They gave us some pity loot and pushed us out.”

“Yes, well, that will harm the people here.” She shook her head.

“Oh no.” Ami gasped. “Can’t you do anything?”

“Do anything about what?” King Sayer heard the last as he joined the conversation and after he sat, the rest of us took our seats. “The food will be coming. Do you care for wine? We brought out the good stuff for guests.”

“We only have one type of wine.” Ray laughed. “Though we still have some beer normally.”

The King shrugged. “Thus, it’s the good stuff.”

“You don’t have to do that on our account.” I smiled and tried to wave away the gesture.

“Nonsense. I’m trying to get you drunk before you make deals with Trish. She might not look like it, but she’s a shark.” King Sayer laughed as his two ladies rolled their eyes. “But, what were you talking about?”

I had to admit, he even got me to let my guard down a little before returning to the conversation.

Ami went right on ahead while I hesitated. “Those Haylon students hogging the event.”

“Ah.” King Sayer nodded. “I heard there were nearly a hundred of them. Even if I out-level them a fair bit, there isn’t much I can do on that scale. More interesting to me is how they got this far out from the main line of the dungeon.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, realizing he might have the same thoughts about me.

“We are so far off the main path of the dungeon that normally people have to come through this safe zone first, and we can get to know them.” King Sayer shrugged. “It would just be good to know if there was another way into this dead branch of the dungeon. Here I thought I sat on the only entrance… and exit.”

I tried not to show my concern that he might have the same thoughts about us. “Oh. I’m not sure. Maybe they had a teacher with them?”

“Could be.” King Sayer smiled as a servant came in with several bottles of wine and started pouring. “But that doesn’t matter. Instead, I want to welcome our guests and get him drunk for my Trish to squeeze him for trades.” He laughed.

By making his objective obvious, he was very disarming.

Trish only made it worse when she shook her head lightly at his antics. “I’ll deal with you fairly, but some items here have different values.”

“Like what?” I asked curious.

“Mana Crystals are worth almost nothing.” She shrugged. “There’s none of the technology that runs on them here. No big UG presence for us to easily sell them. Same with coins. It’s all bartering.”

I thought about the wine and the beer. Someone was making it to a UG safe zone for those items. Which meant…

A few pieces of the puzzle snapped into place.

“Oh no. If mana crystals aren’t worth much, then what’s the standard unit of payment here?” Ami asked.

“Food.” Trish said bluntly.

This place was impoverished enough that food was the basic currency. In other words, survival.

Speaking of, food was brought out on big platters. It smelled great. I got a whiff of expensive spices all over it.

There was no way they weren’t traveling to a UG safe zone, or even the surface.

“If I wanted to trade some mana crystals, how much would it be for a portion of meat?” I asked.

Trish pulled off a chicken leg and placed it on her plate. “A hundred for a portion of meat.”

I nearly choked. “A hundred black crystals for a serving of food?”

They were likely getting higher grade crystals at the 31st floor. A green crystal there would be worth a thousand black.

“No. A hundred green or a thousand blue.” Trish answered simply.

I was gobsmacked. The price of a meal was astronomical. You could buy a car with a few meals. My eyes couldn’t help but drift to the food being placed in front of us.

“Don’t worry. This is free.” King Sayer said before taking a bite of chicken and pulling away to tear the skin.

“As he said. This is us welcoming guests.” Trish smiled. “I’m sure since you’ve come this far out, you must have plenty of food?”

I chuckled. My CID was currently full of cream. “Do you want dairy?”

“That works.” Trish smiled. “It’s not something we get here, so it could go for a premium.”

I decided to do a little test. “Since mana crystals are so poor for you, how about you trade those?”

All three of our hosts froze.

“Are you sure? You can’t eat mana crystals.” Trish gave me a weak look. “It would be a shame if you had trouble afterwards.”

“It’s fine. The cream is sort of a luxury. It’s so we can bake.” I could always get more by sending Crimson on an errand or perhaps one of these days I could get my mana high enough to use a portal myself.

“Well, let’s look at what we have to barter before we talk about crystals.” Trish offered and pushed a CID towards me. She wasn’t using the one on her arm. Instead it was a spare that she was using to facilitate the trade.

Her answer was enough for me.

All of these people here were essentially farming green mana crystals at ridiculous trade prices. They might as well have been slave labor.

“Oh?” Ami drew attention away from me as I brooded. She was great at playing her role. “So many epic pieces of equipment.”

“We pride ourselves on being able to farm our surroundings. With enough time and attempts some of those are rather common.” Trish said. “Still, they are valuable pieces of loot. We’d happily trade food for them.”

Part of my mind tried to jump to the future of such implications.

If I paid in food and ran out of it, I’d be back at the castle in a month and trying to trade for food, only to get stiffed and forced to trade everything I owned back to them for food.

My mind went to those outside the castle walls with no equipment.

Fuck.

That had to be what was happening here.

The people outside the castle walls are forced to farm mana crystals for food. King Sayer and the rest in charge end up able to make it to some place where they can get the full value of said crystals.

If they can’t get a substantial source of food, they can’t make a trip somewhere safe. Meanwhile, the longer those who are starving continue to need to trade, the worse their gear situation, and the fewer options they have for survival.

“What do you think?” Trish urged me.

I returned to the present moment, remembering that I was supposed to be paying attention to the CID with loot.

Ami covered for me. “There are some really nice pieces here. Ken, what do you think of this one?” She tapped on a pair of axes.

“I don’t know. What about this staff?” I tried to pretend like I’d been paying attention.

“You don’t use a staff. Neither do I.” Ami paused and looked up from the CID. “Charlotte is the only one in our party that uses a staff. Why are you getting her a gift?” She looked incredibly cute with her brows pinching together in a frown.

King Sayer let out a hearty chuckle while Trish shook her head with a smile.

“Charlotte’s our healer.” I pretended to be awkward, which wasn’t hard. Ami was making me feel like I was caught cheating. “Gearing out the healer is always a good idea.”

Ami squinted at me for a long moment before she broke out into a smile. “Oh. That’s great.” She went back to the CID with a silly grin still on her face.

The king shook his head. “You are a lucky man. Hang onto that woman.”

I put a possessive arm around Ami. “She’s a gem.”

“Of course I am. So, maybe get me one of these belts? They have so much agility.” Her eyes sparkled with real greed.

“Those are nice. Hold on.” Trish fished around in her own CID. “I have a really high quality one. It’s just a little more agility than the average one, but every little bit helps, right?”

Ami turned to me, her eyes wide. “Maybe we could get both the staff and the belt?”

I cast a wary glance at Trish. Clearly I was not going into any bartering with a strong stance for negotiations. Not that it mattered. Honestly, trading cream for these was a steal.

“Don’t worry. I won’t take you for too much.” The lady laughed.

“Well, how much cream do you want for the two of them?” I laughed, pulling out jug after jug, until I only had four more for Fayeth.

I was suddenly very glad that Crimson went overboard with just about everything she did and I had plenty.

“Oh. That’s quite a lot.” Trish started counting and doing some math on her own CID. “I can take half of these for the belt, though it’s a little less than I’d normally do for the staff…”

“How about I throw in some mana crystals.” Ami dumped a handful of blue crystals on the table in absolutely horrible negotiation, but it fit with the character she was playing.

“That’ll do.” Trish made it all disappear, leaving behind the belt and the staff.

Ami was quick to take the belt and try it on. It certainly didn’t fit with her sundress, but would look great with her black bodysuit. “What do you think?”

“You look great in everything.” I answered correctly.

She twirled around in it a few times.

“Well, I’m glad to see you are happy with your purchase.” King Sayer smiled. “Next time you should come with the rest of your party. We’ll host you all again.”

“The night is still young.” Ray poured us some more wine. “Tell us about the recent news. I’m afraid we don’t get much down here.”

“Ah. You all probably haven't heard about the naga then?” I asked.

“Naga?” King Sayer leaned in. “Some new monster in the dungeon?”

“Another race.” I clarified and put my elbows on the table. “A very hostile race.” Even before they attacked, I was privy to more information than most. Someone who spent little or no time on the surface wouldn’t even know they existed.

“That’s interesting.” Ray added.

“It gets better.” Ami added on. “They used portal magic to attack Haylon.”

That really got them leaning in.

I cleared my throat and gave what information I’d seen on a news broadcast rather than my own experiences.

***

Ken and Ami left as King Sayer leaned back in his chair with Ray. Ray quickly rose up and began massaging his shoulders. “What do you think?” She asked.

“Not entirely sure.” Brandon rubbed at his stubble. “They didn’t arrive through the normal means. Did they follow Haylon? Something’s a little off with him.”

“Could they be from Haylon?” Ray asked. “She’s kind of a ditz, but she has to be at a decent level to be down here at her age.”

Brandon barked a laugh. “No. Are you kidding me? Haylon is famously all girls. The chances of a guy being let into Haylon are less than Mistress Crimson coming here to give me a million bucks.”

Ray shrugged. Of the two ladies, she wasn’t much of a thinker. If she wasn’t a fantastic taxi with her ability to turn into a whirlwind, he’d think about replacing her.

Trish was the real brains of the operation, and of course none of it could be done without Brandon himself.

“I have another batch I’m supposed to pick up tomorrow. Think they’ll be gone by then?” Ray asked.

“Yeah. They’ll be gone.” He rubbed at his knuckles. Part of what Ray had said began bothering him. Many adventurers started to age slower so it was hard to tell, but both of them had felt very young to Brandon.

Their age combined with their ability to wander at the 30th floor like it was a vacation made him concerned with who they really were. “Place someone in the hall down a little ways from their room. I want to make sure they aren’t getting up to anything in the castle tonight.”

Ray nodded and got off him to head to the ‘nobles’. In reality, they were just the prisoners that had agreed to help Brandon manage the place for a little more luxury and freedom.

Brandon wasn’t really a king; he was a warden. His little kingdom was a prison for people that the surface couldn’t easily contain.

***

A portal opened up in our room and Crimson skipped through, Des stepped in right behind her.

“Going to be able to do that myself soon.” Des rubbed her hands together. “Just need Ken to get his stamina up so we don’t have to wait so long in between.” She winked.

I flapped my hands in the air and held a finger to my lips. “Quiet.”

“Is that why we came here?” Crimson lifted her hand and made a barrier for sound. “There. I don’t do quiet very well.”

“No, you do not.” I sighed. “As you can see, we are perfectly fine.”

“Going to kill the king?” Des asked.

“After we get back, I’m sending Ami to look into a few more things. There’s definitely something fishy going on here.” I rubbed my face. “People here are barely surviving farming the surrounding areas of the dungeon for food, meanwhile ‘King Sayer’ collects all of their loot and mana crystals.”

“They just let that happen?” Des huffed.

Crimson on the other hand had a more thoughtful expression on her face. “Interesting. They don’t have enough food to make the trip back to the main branches of the dungeon.”

I nodded. “Exactly. They are trading away mana crystals for pretty much nothing. Yet if these guys have a way to make it back to the main branches, this place is essentially a slave labor farming operation. The original hit was because someone claimed that he tried to force him here. Yet I didn’t get much resentment from the people, more resignation than anything.”

“What do you want me to investigate, Master?” Ami asked.

“You got Ray and Trish’s faces memorized? Henry’s too?”

She nodded quickly.

“Use those first names and the images and figure out what their statuses are. Is Henry missing? Presumed Dead?” I pushed.

“Ah.” Crimson figured out my thoughts. “You want to know how they ended up here.”

“I have a suspicion, but let’s see what Ami can find. I don’t want to bias her. We’ll head back to the event tomorrow. It sounds like these guys range all the way there, so I’ll have to be careful if any of them show up.”

“Great.” Des smiled. “We’ll pick you up in the boss room tomorrow morning. Enjoy your night with Ami. We have another trip. Crimson is going to take me collar shopping.” Des chuckled as Crimson ripped open another portal for them.

I shook my head as they left and Ami’s expression returned to her acting role.

“Baby, we only have one night in a castle. My bucket~~list!” She cried out and tackled me to the bed.

I had a sleepless night, unable to sleep as Ami orchestrated a convincing all night sex session.