章 30: Attacked

'Okay so far I have 11 blacksmiths and 8 carpenters, I'll get myself another two carpenters as they're my main producers and I'll merge one of the blacksmiths with the others so I have ten of each and they take up half of my buildings. What else do I need though?'

'I will want to sell decent quality clothes for a cheap cost in my shop to raise the quality of life for the poorer folk; they should also sell extremely well raising the traffic in my shop. I suppose for that if I need to I can use the tactic of selling at a loss on some items then making up the rest of the profit on other items.'

'Okay knowing that I guess I need to get myself minimum five tailors to meet my demands for clothing and then maybe three or four fabric weavers to make the necessary materials for my tailors. I need to see what type of materials are used in this world, I know they already have linen, but It's a massive hassle to work with. I suppose I can just see what contacts Fletcher has there's no point in wasting my time searching.'

After consulting with Fletcher, James found out that most materials to make clothes in the city were imported from other towns, due to the unusable ground around the city it was easier to import the material than the grain to feed the animals themselves. After hearing that James decided to ask Fletcher to set up a constant trade for a significant amount of wool, he merely asked for a large volume at a decent cost to run his shop. It didn't have to be anything amazing it just had to be usable.

James also mentioned his idea to open the general store to Fletcher who was impassioned at the concept and asked James to save him space to sell some of his products, of course, he was willing to pay rent for the area he would use.

Once that was sorted James realised it was already late at night, this had been one of his busiest days yet, it had also been one of his most significant expenditures, so he headed home to get ready for his next day preparing the shop and Artisan Quarter.

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[Days Remaining: 83]

'Okay, System can you open up a blank task document for me please.'

James began listing everything he could think that he needed to do, he started with the most critical issues which were buying the fabric workers and the tailors for the Artisan Quarter and starting to stock his store ready for business. For his store, he needed to get shelves made up to hold his goods and weapon racks for his weapons, for this he decided to find the most beautiful looking yet cheap wood he could see as he was going to need a lot of them.

He decided that instead of using his carpenters he could contract that out to other carpenters in the outer district he didn't own although there weren't many of those left.

One thing that saved him a headache was that a lot of the small everyday products that would attract a lot of buyers were all industries mostly owned by Mr Fletcher after years of toil, now James could sit back and benefit from Fletcher's hard work. One thing neither of them controlled was the fresh produce in the market, but thanks to Fletcher's connections that didn't have to be worried about, they could directly import the food items they wanted to sell in bulk and save it in a warehouse until it was to be sold.

Thankfully one thing this world did have was ice, and it was supplied in the city. It seemed that magus could sell ice they had formed themselves to a central supplier for extra cash, by the sound of it it was costly to advance as a magus as they would need a lot of resources so being able to practice their powers and make money it was naturally a booming industry.

James had also decided to fulfil the order for the inner district noble today to make sure he had the maximum effect of showing how well he was connected and was able to supply the weapons.

He was also hoping for other nobles to see his weapons and to place orders themselves in his store, that was why he was rushing to open the store as he wanted to do all dealings through it in the future. He didn't have to worry about the outer district nobles being offended if he only fulfilled the inner city nobles order as well as long as they all received their orders at the same time.

This covered most of the things he had planned for the day, so he decided to begin with the delivery to the inner district noble. He packed all the spears on the carts and started his travel to the inner district. James was feeling extremely on edge and had a feeling of impending doom. Unfortunately, his instincts proved to be true when they were moving through a narrow unpopulated alley right near the border of the inner and outer districts, they had tried to take the path less travelled to keep away from prying eyes.

"Men, Ready to fight!" All of his guards withdrew their weapons and James grabbed himself a spear out of the cart; thankfully he had brought a few extra spears for himself, so he didn't have to worry about harming his goods.

"Thirteen men, we're surrounded!" The more James heard, the more excited and nervous he got, strangely he noticed he felt no fear at this moment and only felt passionate about the impending battle.

The second the attackers were seen the ranged guards began to shoot bolt after bolt and arrow after arrow, with the fast-moving projectiles they were able to take the lives of 3 of their attackers instantly. James saw one of the attackers sliding down a roof ready to drop down to them and braced himself. Leaving it until the man was airborne he threw the spear with every bit of strength he could muster and managed to nail the man right through the centre of his chest, after being hit he was thrown straight to the wall, and the spear was firmly embedded in it holding the man there.

James didn't understand where he had gotten his sudden strength from but leaving it to question the system later he began to throw spear after spear at the surrounding attackers, he had managed to take down 5 of them before they reached within range of fighting back, apparently, these men were intent on attacking and taking the spears for themselves. Their numbers were down to 5 now, but these five appeared to be the strongest of the group, they were able to dodge the arrows and spears thrown towards them with incredible agility. One giant man was holding a shield who directly deflected the projectiles as if they had been mere toothpicks flicked thrown at him.

Seeing the attackers getting closer James decided to take out his sword to prepare for a melee fight with them.