Chapter 229 - Cooperation. (2/2)
”We can help you in dissolving the contract. You can provide all 120 of those you make to us,” said Kiriti. He wanted to test if Balthazar was willing to work completely for them atleast for a few days during which they will finish the quest. He gave a subtle look to Karma so that he could support him on this.
”Yes. Yes. That wouldn't take much effort from us, it could be easily done,” said Karma.
”Oh! I know that you guys can do it easily, but it is not what I want to do. You want more than 80 you will participate in the auction and will not bully any of the players there. If any of those are being bought at a base price or if someone dares to force the other players to stop bidding, I have already told them to not sell the bottles and cancel it. Those 40 will not be sold to you guys either. I will just take them back,” said Balthazar.
Hearing Balthazar, Karma started to bit his teeth in anger, glaring at Balthazar in a very conspicious manner. ”That is ridiculous. Why would stop selling just because of that? It is common for other players to stop bidding when guilds start bidding. They are just giving us face,” he yelled as he stood up.
”Stick your face wherever, you want, but not so that it would halt my income,” replied Balthazar. ”I am still giving you face, that is why I am willing to sell you those antidotes even after you sent an imbecile like Hard Head. If you are going to yell for every little thing, I would just take my leave now.”
”Calm down, Mr. Fleet Foot, Mr. Karma,” interrupted Kiriti placing his hands on their shoulders. Karma was fuming in anger in a enraged state and wanted to beat Balthazar in the room. If not for Kiriti who had applied pressure on his shoulde , he wouldn't have controlled himself and probably tried to assault Balthazar.
”Control yourself. The quest is important for you isn't it. Bear it for now,” whispered Kiriti in Karma's ear. Irrespective of whether he would take Karma's side or not after his quest, he needed the potions as it was a good number of his own men who were dying due to poison in the marshlands.
”We accept it, but is there any chance that we could get more number of antidotes. It is hard to do it with so few of them we need at least 200 to move forward with our efforts,” said Kiriti.
”200, huh!? Is it really that hard to get rid of those beasts?” asked Balthazar.
”No, 200 is just enough to keep them at bay so that Karma can have an opportunity to finish his quest. It is just an optimistic estimate. We can do with quite a few more than that,” said Kiriti. ”Any chance of that happening.”
”It is really hard. I can guarantee 80 bottles but the other 40 also can't be guaranteed by me as I have a job and it is hard to sit down and make them. If it wasn't for the fact that it earns money faster, I wouldn't even consider making them,” said Balthazar.
”If you don't have time, you can provide the recipe and instructions to our members,” suggested Karma.
”No. I am not going to sell the method. My cousin informed me that it is a very good way to make myself famous and I understand that having a signature product is quite good for a merchant,” said Balthazar.
”A merchant. You plan to set up shop permanently in the town?” asked Karma.
”Yeah. Why else would I do all this,” replied Balthazar.
”You do realize that you need help of the local guilds to be successful at it, right?” asked Karma.
”I was also told that the local guilds would prioritize access and farming of a new area to any other thing and having stuff like that in one's monopoly is a very good card to establish a good co-operation,” replied Balthazar.
Kiriti couldn't stop himself from laughing when he hear Balthazar's reply. He was sure that Balthazar was going to have his way as he already realized his advantage. Though Karma was a competitive player of the guild, he wouldn't have enough power to prevent the guild members to kill monsters in an area. The guild would force him to not retaliate for earning more money. After all, the main goal of a guild was to earn money using the guild. Karma also realized the same and decided to relent.
”Fine, it could be acc.u.mulated in two days time, right?” asked Karma.
”160 doses of antidote? Yes.”
”Yeah, we will bid and win the remaining 80 from the shop's daily auction too,” said Karma. ”What is the name of the shop?”
”Thinking of Free Life trading,” said Balthazar.
”Good, your terms are acceptable to us. I hope we can set up a contract right now,” said Karma.
”Wait, a minute that was just my first condition. There are a couple more,” said Balthazar. Kiriti indicated with has hand to carry on while Karma kept quiet.
”You can never force us to sell you anything for a lower price or stop any people from selling their wares to us,” continued Balthazar. Both Karma and Kiriti expected this. Since, Balthazar had an advantage currently, they expected him to make full use of it. The only special item Balthazar had was the antidote currently and hence, they didn't expect it would cause much problem to their control over the town. They definitely had other methods to hinder the shop's growth if they wanted to. The looked at each other and nodded towards Balthazar in agreement.
”And lastly, this is a personal request. I intend to kill the Knuckers and would like to participate along with you in the fight,” said Balthazar. ”I hope no one has any issues with that?”
”You intend to kill those monsters?” asked Karma surprised. This was a request which made no sense unless one had a special quest to kill them. ”How many of them? Do you need their body parts as materials or something?”
Karma was a bit conflicted with this request as his own quest was to get an egg from the cave. If Balthazar had a quest to kill one of the beasts, it might continue to gather the egg or something similar which would conflict with his. So, he wanted to know more detail of the quest.