Chapter 4x: Human-Sized Loot (2/2)
“Maybe it was never meant to work with dragons, Your Majesty.”
“Exactly, a malfunction.” Who created these crappy, manling-centered Perks? He would have a word with the designers.
Unable to wear the items himself, Vainqueur considered manling Victor’s offer. The minion was as weak as the rest of his kind - he couldn’t even survive fire - but he had been an exemplary, reliable servant so far. Vainqueur decided he wanted to keep him around safe and healthy, at least until he could rebuild his minion stable.
“Fine, minion, I agree to loan you items you can wear. No need to thank me, my generosity knows no bounds.” Of course, Vainqueur expected his lackey to thank him anyway, and looked at him expectantly.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Victor replied, bowing so deeply Vainqueur wondered if his hair would touch the ashes.
“That [Eye for Treasure] Perk, how can I get it?” Vainqueur asked, curious and eager to marvel at his own treasures. “Does it come from your Monster Squire class?”
“No, that’s from my first class, Outl—” Victor stopped himself, as Vainqueur squinted at him.
“You can be two classes at once?” Vainqueur caught on, suddenly very interested. “How many?”
The minion lowered his head in embarrassment, scratching the back of his head. “As many as you can achieve. The level cap is one hundred in total though. Afterward you become a god and ascend to heaven. I don’t think anyone alive today reached level eighty, though.”
Only because no dragon ever tried. “Then I, Vainqueur, will reach level one hundred!” the dragon boasted with enthusiasm, dreaming about the loot so many Perks could provide him, “And you, minion, will reach ninety-nine!”
”That's the spirit, Your Majesty.”
Vainqueur let the minion read maps and papers, thinking about the minion taught him. If he could get stronger wearing enchanted items, the dragon wondered how he would look in an armor of gold. It would be like carrying his hoard all the time. A new world full of wonderful possibilities had opened itself to the dragon.
“Your Majesty?” the minion asked, after reading the papers, “On a second thought, I think the kraken can wait.”
“What could possibly delay me doubling my hoar-” Vainqueur stopped himself mid-sentence, unwilling to reveal his hoard’s size. The fact it seemed quite small when compared to what adventurers earned already shamed him, although he would never admit it openly. “Explain.”
“According to the request, the kraken disrupts a sea trade route to the southern merchant empire of Barin, since its den is located on the way. Merchants want it gone to improve trade, hence the big reward, but if left undisturbed, the kraken doesn’t disturb anyone. The Scorchers... not so much.”
“Scorchers?” Vainqueur had never heard of them. “Are they a kind of knights?”
“Yes and no. They’re former soldiers and mercenaries turned highwaymen when the war’s end left them jobless. I have the bounty posters of three of their leaders, and they’re an endless litany of murders, abductions, arsons, property damage, slaughters, and other war crimes perpetrated on the helpless peasantry.”
A bunch of glorified thieves then. Vainqueur would have smote them on principle, but he never did anything for free. Not anymore. ”I am listening.”
“Gustave La Muraille,” Minion Victor read the wanted poster of a knight with a black, horned helmet, “Twenty levels in Knight, four levels in Heavy Knight, three levels in Turncoat, total level twenty-seven. A human deserter from the Gardemagnian army leading a warband of twenty soldiers; wanted for the sack of the Poustagniac village and the massacre of its eighty-seven inhabitants. Duchess Aelinor of Euskal offers five thousand gold coins for his head. And that’s the nicest of the three. Ogron the Ogre has a triple-digit body count, and François Vilmain is a corrupt priest who reinvented himself as a demon summoner.”
While the manling’s concern for his puny kind was almost touching, Vainqueur only cared about one thing, “How much?”
“Ten thousands for Ogron, since he's the toughest, and five thousand for Vilmain. Twenty thousand all together, officially.”
“Minion, twenty thrice makes sixty,” Vainqueur brushed him off, before catching on, “What do you mean by, officially?”
The minion smiled at him, as if sharing a secret. “They are enemies of the great and beautiful Duchess Aelinor, who will be very grateful if we get rid of them. I’m sure she will give you a much greater reward under the table.”
“Why under a table? Is it a magic ritual?”
“Ah, no, it’s uh, a metaphor, Your Majesty. Meaning that she will offer us a much greater reward that is not mentioned in the bounty.”
“If she is willing to offer more, why didn’t she put it in the request?” Vainqueur found the hole in the minion’s logic. The dragon had the distinct feeling the minion was trying to sucker him into fighting these bandits, but on the other hand, Vainqueur still had much to learn.
“Because of royal taxes,” Victor replied hastily. “The king takes a tenth of rewards offered through the Adventurer Guild, and that doesn’t include the guild’s own five percent fee.”
Vainqueur almost choked. “A tenth?! That is theft! No wonder you turned outlaw, your puny race is led by a robber!”
“Indeed, Your Majesty,” Manling Victor said. “Hence why I think she will probably offer the real reward outside the official channels, so it does not get taxed. Avoiding taxes is an ancient, respected human tradition... and Your Majesty is a dragon. I am sure she will enjoy rewarding you the same way the Marquise did.”
“A noble endeavor,” Vainqueur commented, before wondering about how this duchess looked like. “Aelinor, is she a princess?”
The minion shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno. Maybe.”
The prospect of adding a princess to his hoard delighted the dragon almost as much as the promise of easy money. “Minion, we will hunt your thieving kind at once.”