Communications…. Profits

Chapter 16

Faced with a gaggle of naked men, I felt a deep sense of irritation. It would have been sufficient for them to hand over spare clothes. The hound next to me sensed my mood and growled, causing them to cower. I took pity then.

I also recalled there were burning bodies behind us. Admittedly, it took them repeatedly looking behind me to do that, but it happened. I quickly put out the fires, which fortunately were still mainly at the clothes level. I felt like the scent of human bbq would not help our dialogue.

With that done, I took a moment to study the men in front of me. They were scared, and I'd been careless with my wording. I patted the hound. It relaxed after a moment, tail wagging.

With such a charming disposition, I felt like his name should be Stalin. To my surprise, the name appeared above the hound's head. Shit, I'd named it.

Putting accidentally naming a monster aside, I turned my focus back to the matter at hand. For reasons as yet mysterious, I'd woken up to find not only were there people in my dungeon, but my mana was dangerously low.

The stress of the situation left me irritable, but it wasn't the men's fault. What I needed to focus on was the matter at hand. Everything else would have to wait until then.

"Relax for a few minutes. I have some things to do," I started, only to pause as a breeze kicked up. It wafted a particularly foul odor my way. One or more of them had definitely pissed themselves. Despite that, the worst part of it was the scent of unwashed flesh.

"Actually, wash up first. You're all a bit..." I said. I'd meant to tell them to put their clothes on initially. Since they were naked anyway, it wouldn't hurt to have them get clean before dressing.

I used my interface to raise a tile and depress the center before filling it with water like a tall horse trough. The set of actions were free, so I didn't hesitate, though I stopped short of making an actual bath. I had other concerns to address.

Looking in my inventory, I found the items I'd taken, then checked my store. They'd populated there under a 'common goods' heading. They were free, having no mana cost. Seeing that, I supplied the group with soap and was thankful one of them had been carrying it.

That only one of them had soap was a touch disturbing to my more modern sensibilities. I put it aside and checked other aspects of the store. All the dungeon-related costs were still in keeping with what I'd encountered in the tutorial.

What had changed was the amount and variety of terrain, decor, and items. The tutorial had been limited in scope and had no extras like the healing potion. Now I could buy them with mana or trade them like I had to the men.

The ones I'd traded hadn't cost me anything. It seemed like it was covered by the system's contract function, which was interesting. The weakest of the physical healing variety like the one supplied would have cost me one mana each.

The most expensive potion of that category was fifteen mana. It could regenerate organs and limbs. That seemed like a big jump in power versus cost, but I didn't question it. This was definitely a gift horse situation.

The most expensive potion overall was twenty-five mana and would turn someone into a dragon for a day. I couldn't see it being terribly practical in the dungeon. That didn't stop it from being badass, though.

I realized I was getting distracted and shook off my urge to memorize my inventory. That could wait until after the men left. For the moment, I needed to keep checking my interface. After making the first deal, I'd been prepared to let them go, but they'd stayed huddled in fear.

Instead of saying anything, I let them remain. I was still getting to know my interface. They could be used as guinea pigs if I turned up any features or abilities I didn't understand.

Ominous as that would have sounded spoken aloud, I didn't have any serious ill intent toward them. I'd made up my mind to let them go alive, and I didn't plan to cause them harm. At the same time, I didn't hesitate to detain them either.

It was a bit tempting to keep one or two. They weren't exactly chatty, but they might be the only people I encountered for a while. I gave up on the idea immediately.

Duress would make them poor conversation partners at the very least. I didn't ponder the ethics of imprisoning someone versus going insane from isolation. Instead, I went back to studying my interface.

The crafting tab had caught my attention. After selecting it, I found three sub-tabs. Craft, disassemble, and upgrade. Each sub-tab had two slots open. Trying to put a pair of boots into a craft tab slot produced an error tone.

The disassemble panel indicated the materials the item would be broken into. It would break down into E-grade leather, waxed cotton thread, and a pattern. It took me a moment to realize why I thought something was weird with that list.

I was accustomed to the notion of shoes with rubber soles. Looking at the ones in my inventory, I found an unfamiliar design. Instead of multiple materials, they were made wholly of leather. A thicker piece of hardened leather acted as the sole.

With that sorted out, I put a pair of boots into an upgrade slot. An icon of the boot appeared with a little red indicator in the corner 1/5. I was four pairs of shoes short of increasing their quality from E 6 to E 10, which was the highest quality.

I elected to disassemble one pair of boots out of curiosity. Sticking the pattern in a crafting interface slot, I was rewarded with three new boxes. They indicated the materials needed to make the boots.

I didn't have enough, but that wasn't important for the moment. Knowing how the interface worked was the main point. With that settled, I moved the rest of the boots into the upgrade interface.

A one-minute timer appeared, and I okayed it to start. When it finished, the E 10 boots looked new but otherwise unremarkable compared to the E 6 boots. Wondering if something was different, I bought an extra E 10 pair and stuck them in the disassemble panel.

I studied the result, but everything came up the same. The pattern was even labeled duplicate. There did seem to be a minor difference in craftsmanship quality, but I wasn't an expert. I couldn't tell if slightly smaller stitches were much of an improvement.

With better quality or at least new goods in hand, I could have stopped. Instead, I started a new round of experimentation. It was time to give the upgrade option a try.

[Pattern Upgrade E to D]

[10 pairs E 10 grade boots]

I bought more boots and okayed the upgrade. My goal wasn't to increase the men's comfort. I wanted to learn about my interface, and they were just a convenient test group.

Armed with a new pattern, I went back to the crafting tab but hit a wall. To make D grade boots, I needed D grade materials. It wasn't a complicated issue to overcome, but it did take a few minutes.

Once I sorted the materials out and finished the crafting phase, I was rewarded with D-grade boots. D-grade boots that looked remarkably similar to E-grade boots.

It took a few comparison passes for me to realize that the new ones had a right and a left. The old ones had been cut in a general foot shape which would fit both feet equally poorly.

Without feet or a human standard sense of touch, I couldn't compare the two effectively. Seeing the questionable state of the men's socks, I quickly upgraded a pair to D 10 quality. It was time to employ the guinea pigs.

Speaking of the men, I found them huddled in fear and still somewhat wet. The air in the tunnel was dry, but it was a cold space, so they weren't drying.

Looking through their stuff, I couldn't find anything like a towel.

I resorted to disassembling a tunic and upgrading it to create a usable fabric.

"Use this to dry off," I said as I passed out the towels. While they were doing that, I took the time to upgrade their other clothes and underwear.

"Now get dressed," I said as I placed outfit sets in front of them. It had occurred to me a bit late, but having them only put on shoes would have been super weird. I could have given them the dirty ones back, but that made something in my pseudo flesh squirm. Those clothes should be burned if anything.

"Let me know if those clothes seem better than your old ones, the boots in particular," I said. There was a bit of cursing and some do-overs. In the end, they all seemed surprised by the excellent fit once they figured out the right foot / left foot issue.

"They're nice," Someone answered after a while. Others murmured in agreement, and I started to feel confident. Though the upgrade was minor, it had made a noticeable difference to the people who used the goods. That was a big deal.

"Good, good, I wanted to make sure," I muttered, talking to myself. With that established, I put the slots to work and made sure to process the bandit's gear. A lot of that had been burned beyond use, but some of it was still salvageable.

The D grade items I made still populated under the Common Goods heading and were free. I could have kept going with upgrading things but didn't bother. I understood how it worked and could play later when I didn't have any time constraints.

"Walk around a little to make sure they don't pinch or anything," I added like a mother in a shoe store. Since I'd been handing them out without making adjustments, I'd expected some sets not to fit. Instead, it seemed like the system automatically sized them to the person.

That seemed like a handy feature, to be sure. It did have a potential downside. If I were selling things or passing them through other people, then they wouldn't fit. That was a concern for later, though. I wouldn't be opening a dungeon discount mall anytime soon.

I'd run out of interface issues to test. I only had a few options after all. Despite that, I didn't release the men right away. I was woefully ignorant about the world and my immediate environment.

There were things I needed to know, and they were my only source of information. Despite that, I felt reluctant to keep them for a prolonged interrogation. Just coming up with the essential questions I needed to ask could take days.

A deal interface appeared offering an information exchange contract. I felt my orbs flicker. I'd had no idea I could acquire knowledge in such a convenient manner. I would exploit the hell out of this. I could feel it in my pseudo flesh and giggled.

"Ahem," I said once I noticed how my giggle had unnerved the men.

"I'm going to offer you another deal," I said. I didn't want to alarm them needlessly, and they'd seemed surprised the first time I sent them one. The terms of the deal automatically generated looked acceptable to me. Still, I decided to tweak the reward a bit.

The first one had offered healing potions, but this time only money was indicated. I felt like that was a bit shabby since they were on the outskirts of a desert. Goods would be more helpful.

They were also people from a swords and sorcery world, so I felt a very RPG-oriented desire to kit them out. They felt like starting characters who'd rolled shit treasure to me. I laughed again. That impulse and my knowledge of games suggested I'd played them to a nearly unhealthy level when I'd been human.

[Offer]

[70 silver coins]

[5 copper coins]

[Savex Soldier Uniform x2, Grade D1]

[Socks x4, D1]

[Backpack of Survival Gear, Grade D1]

[Sunhat (large), Grade D1]

[Spear, Grade D1]

[Long Knife, Grade D1]

[Round Shield, small, Grade D1]

[In Exchange For]

[Map data (ongoing) and knowledge]

[Accept: Yes / No]

"By the goddess of mercy's tits!" one of them shouted as he jammed the accept on the contract as fast as he could. The others were a little slower, distracted by his outburst. They all agreed the moment they figured out what the deal offered.

With unanimous agreement achieved, they each received their new gear. I also dumped out their personal items on top of the neat piles they received. I wasn't interested in collecting strangers' mementos.

"Hey, can any of you use a bow?" I asked. I'd found a longbow in the bandits' goods, but none of them carried ranged weapons, so I hadn't included one in the deal.

"N-no… but if there's one, we'd like it. As proof...and maybe a head?" one of the men answered.

"Proof of what?" I asked, taken aback.

"Uhm… that they're dead. We chased them down on orders," he explained. I paused, grossed out by the idea. Looking at the bodies then the men, I felt reluctant to comply. I'd just gotten the soldiers to bathe and put on new clothes after all.

Despite that, in the end, I took the two corpses with identifiable faces and passed them over along with a bow. The soldiers made short work of beheading them. I provided cloth to wrap the heads in and felt a bit sick to whatever passed for a stomach in my case.

"Well, not to be rude, but you can go ahead and piss off now," I said bluntly. Seeing the butchering up close really wasn't sitting well with me.

The men looked at me in surprise before bolting to their feet and running for the exit. I felt my orbs flutter. That they hadn't needed to be told twice was expected. How quickly they acted on it was shocking, though.

"Seems like someone put ranks into 'run the fuck away,'" I said, then laughed.

"Or took the 'fuck it I'm out' feat," I added.

"Very droll, Mistress," Stalin said with an eye roll. His voice was surprisingly deep, especially since I'd had no idea he could talk.

"AH!" I shouted.