Chapter 63 - Setting up shop. (1/2)
He first messaged Merlin and his team that he was planning to rent property and it would take some time. He suggested them to go and search for any new quests. The best options in a town would be the merchant shops and the adventurer's guild.
The temple would also provide decent quests, but as the team already had a quest from the temple, they wouldn't get another. But Tetsujin and Slaine immediately made their way towards the temple.
Now that Blackrock had become a town, it would have an official adventurer's guild where one could check out several new quests around the town. A new area also opened behind the town. A new path was created from the back gate leading to a small barracks.
The barracks and guard towers weren't usually seen around a beginner village or a beginner town, but it was different for the Blackrock town. It was more along the lines of a town which would be near the borders of other kingdoms.
As he went into the town hall, he noticed that the hall was quite good infrastructure and a serene quality which was uncharacteristic for a beginner town. The only thing that made it appear like a beginner town was the lack of any high-level personnel walking around.
The calm feeling was probably due to the recent change to a town and none of the players having enough reputation to do any transaction at the town hall. But there were still NPCs at the lobby, who were moving around.
They went to a receptionist at the lobby. ”We are adventurers looking to buy a few properties of the town. Could you please show us the available lands for purchase?” asked Shadow.
”Adventurer Shadow Tyrant, you are first-class citizen. This allows you to only purchase one land and rent two more in the town. Please wait near at the office of the town head. We are short on staff and the head is a meeting right now,” replied the receptionist.
”Adventurer Crimson Power, I cannot allow you to perform any purchases. I am willing to answer any other questions you have,” said the receptionist turning towards Rudra.
”Go do some other quest or something. I will see what I can do,” said Shadow as he went to the first floor leaving Rudra behind. With nothing to do here, Rudra went back to the marketplace. If Balthazar was going to buy a land or rent a property, he needed to gather players to make good use of it.
He can't build a guild quarters without registering a guild which isn't possible till level 10. So, the only alternative was a shop. A shop without wares is useless and money draining. So, he needed to convince a few trade profession players and also buy a few recipes and designs.
For that he needed to make sufficient preparations. He already had Slaine recruiting members at the marketplace. For recipes and designs, he went to the auction house.
Though the auction house allows only for transaction using coins. If an independent player, places the recipe, he could always contact the person and decide on a price to exchange with credits. He needed to gather a decent amount of basic designs available.
The auction house seemed to be having many of these. There were even black iron and bronze designs being sold. Many guilds sent representatives for trading and buying any new equipment and designs.
Though there are many guilds, they mostly fought for the high-grade equipment. The more powerful ones didn't even care about black iron designs. The migrants mostly wanted to buy recipes and designs which are rare.
This left all the basic recipes designs native to the town to be easier picks. Rudra soon managed to bid, contact sellers and gain a few recipes and design below level 5. He also managed to get a couple of level 5 designs.
Right now, guilds were trying to contact Shadow and waiting to see if they can pull him in. If they can acquire him, recruiting a strong player base at the Black Iron town would be extremely easy as they can have their guild property at the town. He wanted to set up a shop with his guild's name as soon as possible to dissuade other guilds.
Shadow in the meantime had spent more than 10 minutes outside the town head's office, when finally, someone came to call him in. Inside the office apart from the town head, Strontson there were a few other NPCs including Kade and the deacon from the temple.
There were a total of seven NPCs sitting by a rectangular table in some sort of meeting. It looked like these NPCs were just done with their meeting and about to depart.
Shadow quickly greeted Kade as he approached Strontson. Strontson gestured him to a seat by the table. ”Adventurer Shadow Tyrant, please be seated. All the developments in the town were due to your eminent work in collaboration with the temple. We were discussing on how to develop the town. What have you come here for?”
”Sir, I wish to rent or purchase a land to sell merchandise made by me and few other fellow adventurers,” said Shadow coming to the point directly.
”Well then, you have come at the right time. We are trying to gather more people to develop the town and we would welcome any adventurers to help us with these efforts. With the road to the city closed, we have very little support and it is not good for a town to continue like this,” said Strontson.
”We will be issuing new quests to speed up this process,” said Kade who along with an armored man was still waiting while the others left the room. ”This is my apprentice, Shadow Tyrant,” said Kade introducing him to the man in armor. ”This is commander Renner. He had been sent by the royal to make sure that the town is safe from foreign forces,” said Kade.
The blackrock village originally was a beginner village with limited population. With the sudden change to a town, the game had to compensate the increasing populace with similar amount of quests. The new barracks behind the village might also have been to the same effect.
The upgrade to a town seemed to have opened up few new regions behind the Blackrock town which weren't there in his previous life. There are bound to be new quest there and even though he didn't know much about those areas, he knew about almost all possible monsters and the weaknesses of most of the monsters that would appear in the game for at least 6 years.
”Nice to meet you, adventurer. I hope you will continue your efforts in the development of this town,” said commander Renner with a tilt of his head. ”With Kade as your master, I hope you could provide us with equipment and fortifications for the town,” he continued.
”I will surely try my best, Sir Renner,” said Shadow. ”Master Kade, I was unable to find you at the location of your shop. Could you please tell me where I can find you?” he asked Kade. Shadow had been unable to purchase designs and he had a secret way of gathering designs. He didn't want to lose this source and hence, enquired Kade about it.
”Oh! Adventurer Shadow. We have requested Sir Kade to be leading the forging association at our town,” said Strontson with a laugh. ”We never knew Sir Kade is a celebrity till Sir Renner informed us. You can sure find him at the forging association.”
”I will be leaving now, Mr Strontson. Sir Kade could you please accompany me. I would like to discuss with you, the details of our cooperation,” said Renner taking blacksmith Kade with him.
”Renner seems to be very familiar with Kade. It looks like my master has a strong background,” though Shadow seeing them both leave together. ”I better improve my relationship with both these NPCs. It could provide useful.”