Chapter 43: Contract and Action |
Seeing hesitation appear on Mills’s face, with no reply from him for a long while, Baruk grew a little anxious. “I can sign a contract! If I can’t finish it within three days, we won’t take a single coin—we’ll clean it up for you for free!”
Mills was naturally happy to have someone willing to share the burden. But from the information he had received, Kyle had explicitly said that the Shadow Guild’s territory was to be put up at auction for all races to bid on.
The money from those bids also had to be handed over to the Empire, and he had no authority to dispose of it privately.
But dealing with the troubles on the Shadow Guild’s lands had already cost him dearly, and he did not want to pour his whole fortune into it.
“May I ask, what do you want this land for?” Mills planned to first understand the specific situation and see whether there was some other way to replace it.
“A foothold! I want to give our people a place where they can shelter from the wind and rain and do business in peace!” Baruk quickly replied.
Mills’s brows lifted. Just for that?
Just to build a place to settle down, this man was willing to risk his life and draw blades against the Shadow Guild’s lunatics?
He carefully sized up this elder of the bear race, over four meters tall, with brown fur.
A very ordinary outfit. It looked like his tribe was not wealthy, yet they still wanted to purchase property in Coral Thorn City, and at that, land on a large scale.
Seeing that Mills just kept staring at him without replying, Baruk was so anxious he wanted to ‘hit someone,’ but he could only endure it.
Mills had not actually thought for very long. It was just that Baruk was far too impatient—even waiting long enough to drink a cup of tea was beyond him.
“Do you know that the auction of these lands is being carried out according to ‘that person’s’ will?”
“Uh...” Baruk froze. He really had not considered that point. In his eyes, a powerhouse of that level should not be paying attention to this kind of thing, right?
“Th-then, then...” He was instantly at a loss for words. If that really was that person’s intention, then did that not mean he had no way at all? His eyes immediately filled with confusion and disappointment.
But Mills quickly continued, “Although I can’t give you this land, I can sell you another plot belonging to my Silver Moon Chamber of Commerce. It’s just that this piece is smaller, and also more remote.”
Baruk immediately perked up again and stammered a little, “C-could I t-take a look... at that plot?”
As he spoke, he pulled out the map on his person and looked at Mills with a tiny, hopeful gaze that made goosebumps rise all over him.
Mills quickly drew a circle on the wrinkled, cheap map in a hilly area to the northwest near the outskirts of the city, roughly half the size of the warehouse land.
“It’s here. Because the terrain is too complicated, it has never been developed. If you agree, I can make the decision to sell this land to you at cost price.”
The moment Baruk saw this land, his eyes lit up. He was far too familiar with this place! Wasn’t this exactly where they had pitched their tents over the last few days?
“Yes, yes! No problem!” he hurriedly agreed, afraid that Mills might change his mind.
“Since you agree, then let’s sign the contract.”
Mills did not waste words either. Using one vacant plot of land to solve his immediate trouble—what was there not to like?
After the contract between the two sides was completed, both of them let out a long breath in their hearts.
“Since the contract is settled, here is the relevant intelligence on that warehouse area. Whether you can finish it within seven days will depend on you.”
After handing the gathered information over to Baruk, Mills left.
Although the biggest trouble now had someone to take it over, there were still other troubles to deal with. The Shadow Guild’s dense web of strongholds was spread throughout the entire city, and there were even quite a few outside the city as well. He had to find ways to clear all of them out.
Baruk tightly clenched the contract as he walked out of the Silver Moon Chamber of Commerce, and a group of bear warriors who had been craning their necks in anticipation immediately crowded around him.
“Elder...”
Before they could ask anything, Baruk signaled for them to shut up and return with him to the camp first.
Now that the contract was settled, the hardest part remained. But that part would absolutely demand a price paid in blood. He had no doubt at all that quite a few of his brothers would die in this mission.
He needed to make the worst preparations for them and for himself, and arrange everything properly.
*
At night, Baruk appeared in the warehouse district that had been placed under lockdown, bringing with him twenty-seven selected bear warriors.
“Hoo—thank goodness, you’ve finally arrived!”
The captain of the Silver Moon Chamber of Commerce guard responsible for the lockdown looked at the ‘mountains of flesh’ carrying giant shields and warhammers, and the heart strung tight in his chest finally relaxed.
From yesterday afternoon until now, he had barely dared close his eyes even once.
“Mm, just leave this place to us.”
Baruk nodded, then turned his gaze over all the warriors behind him.
Without a word, dozens of bear warriors gripped the totem charms in their hands, soaked with their own blood, and spread out in all directions, surrounding the warehouse in a circle.
“Captain, what are they doing?”
The guards all stood on the outside, curiously watching these tall bear warriors silently encircle the warehouse without moving.
“No idea. Maybe some kind of ritual or formation?”
The guard captain gave a rough judgment based on experience.
As the final bear warrior took his position, the qi and blood around all the warriors suddenly boiled, and in an instant linked together into a blazing curtain of light, enveloping the entire warehouse district within!
“Roar——!!!”
In the next moment, twenty-eight battle roars merged into a violent wave of sound that tore through the night curtain. Mixed with surging qi and blood power, it transformed into shockwave-like ripples that pressed down toward the warehouse district!
At the same time, the bear warriors collectively began advancing toward the warehouses. As they moved, the curtain of light also began shrinking with them.
“This?! What kind of formation is this?”
“It can even work like this?”
Many elders who had been secretly observing the bear race’s movements were also staring at this scene from afar.
If it had merely been an ordinary encirclement formation, it would not have surprised them. But this formation could actually move together with the bears!
“This bear race is not simple. They actually have something like this?”
The lizardman elder Simoni stood atop a large tree on the summit of a nearby high mountain, narrowing his eyes as he observed the curtain of light in the distance.
“It’s not that mobile formations don’t exist, but they usually require a fixed formation core. Yet this formation has no core at all—or rather, every bearman is a formation core!”
“In this situation, if everyone wants to combine into one complete formation, then either they are all formation masters, or they are relying on some special ritual to link everyone together and create resonance.”
Not far from him, the ratman elder Bell sniffed the air. Even from several miles away, he could still clearly smell a heavy scent of blood.
“If I’m not mistaken, they should be offering up their own blood as a sacrifice to complete this ritual. It really is a formation suited to a race like the bear race, with their vigorous qi and blood!”
“Tch! They’re just a bunch of bumpkins. If it were us dwarves, we’d just use a magic energy cannon to blast this land flat. Why go to all this trouble!”
The dwarven elder Burlo was extremely displeased by the praise his two ‘good friends’ were giving that old bear.
Only after asking around everywhere today had he finally found out what that old bear was trying to do. He had not expected there to be such a method!
Originally, he had wanted to buy land from Mills the same way the old bear had, but he had been refused. After the most troublesome place had been taken over by the old bear, the Silver Moon Chamber of Commerce no longer needed to use land as part of a trade.
It could be said that the old bear had taken a huge advantage!
“And after you blasted it with a magic energy cannon, would anyone still be able to live here...”
Bell looked at the dwarf speechlessly. A place blown up by that thing would have chaotic magic power for at least decades afterward. Aside from a small number of plants, it would be hard for any other living being to survive there long-term.
Not to mention that the thing was absurdly expensive. Every shot consumed a huge amount of magic crystals. With that money, could they not do something better?
Did he have so much money that he was burning with it?