บท 49: Deal with the barbarians
At the same time at the Black Iron Tribe
"This is not a bad place! What do you think?"
"Looks outdated! I prefer the town. Here, it's too crude..."
"Yes, there's no shop. Everyone here looks wild like animals!"
In the tent where Five previously stayed at, Iron Shark and his team were calmly resting as Iron Shark asked the question.
"I am not asking in term of the place! D*mn. You guys only think about this! Think in terms of resources! Have you not seen what the chief showed us?" exclaimed Iron Shark.
On a small table in a corner of the room, a small pile of items could be seen. There were a few clothes made of animal fur, a few crude looking pieces of jewelry, some artisanal products like baskets made of weeds and finally, knives made of animal teeth.
These items looked very ordinary and were handmade by the barbarians. While most of the men went hunting, the women not only did the chores, they also spent a lot of time crafting! These items were mainly used to trade with other tribes but with Achi's new orders, they were now looking to trade with the townsmen too.
What was special about these items was that even if they were not good looking, most of them were actually Grade 1 items!
In New Earth, items were divided in terms of grade. The weakest being Grade 0 which was commonly used by players ranging from level 0 to 9. Grade 1 items were suitable for level 10 to 19. Grades were naturally just a rough estimate of the power of an item. It was not abnormal for people to use lower grade items due to their unique effect.
About two weeks have passed since the start of the game and right now, the strongest player of the Sylvester Empire was still just level 14. Grade 1 items were, therefore, a hot commodity and could be sold at a high price.
"These things? They are not bad, but I won't use them! They don't have anything related to magic!" said one of the players.
At the same time, another player tapped his head. "Idiot, not for you! It's to sell in the town! These guys here are just barbarians, it should be easy to get a good price!"
"Indeed! Leader Shark is so smart!"
Iron Shark remained pensive, "Then, let's go speak with the chief! We can determine the price with him!"
"What about the quest? Are we not losing track of our initial purpose of coming here?" one the girls.
"It does not matter. We just need to capture or kill that person to get the item he will drop but well, how are we supposed to find him now? He could have gone in any direction! At least, we traced him until there. We can at least get 30% of the quest's reward!" answered Iron Shark
"You are right! The benefits of the quest amount to what? Just a few items, but if we succeed in making a good deal there and obtain the monopoly of the trade, the benefits would be immense!"
...
Central place of the Black Iron Tribe
Achi was sitting on the grass while crossing his legs. Two other burly barbarians were quietly sitting on at his side; the one on the right looked careless and was smoking a long pipe while the one on the left was deeply frowning while looking at the players in front of him.
"As I said, we are not interested in gold for now. What we want is food! If possible, vegetables and other types of food that can last for long... Spices and herbs are also welcomed," explained Achi.
"We can provide pickles. What about two of these necklaces for 1 kg of pickles?" asked Iron Shark.
"Townsman, do not take me for a fool. I know very well that in terms of gold, these necklaces could easily fetch at least 10 gold! 1 kg of pickles is worth how much? 1 gold at most?" said Achi with a serious expression.
"Haha, chief... I know that, but we have to take in consideration the travel costs, security issues, and the taxation problems! I can reduce the price to 1 necklace for 2 kg of pickles!"
The negotiations continued, and it went on for each item they could trade. It was like bartering and they had to fix prices for each exchange. After more than an hour of discussions, both parties were finally satisfied with the arrangements.
"Good to do business with you!"
"Happy cooperation!"
Achi and Iron Shark shook hands to seal the deal. Barbarians did not have anything like contracts and all resided on this verbal agreement.
As soon as the deal was concluded, the players took out most of the food they had in their inventory. Since they took a hazardous quest before coming there, they stocked up quite a bit of food just in case they would end up spending days in the wild.
This decision turned out to be beneficial to them since they could readily exchange for a few items and bring them back as samples.
"Good!" commented Achi and at the same time, he commanded one woman to bring some necklaces and one dagger made of animal bones.
"There will be more in the near future. As soon as we get back, we will get the items evaluated and come back with more provisions for your tribe," said Iron Shark. He courteously smiled at Achi but then, he noticed something.
Achi was no longer looking at him! Instead, he was looking behind him as a large smile was growing on his previously stern face!
Iron Shark did not know how to react, he turned to look behind only to see a bunch of children storming the place. This time, only 6 children were running towards their father. Behind the children, a large group of women was coming back, carrying clean clothes and buckets of water. The children looked gloomy like they have been scolded by their mother.
Before Iron Shark could react, he suddenly saw a small shadow almost hit him. He jumped to the side and was about to scold that child when he saw that it was actually a young girl and that she jumped into the arms of the chief.
"Daddy!"
"Mira! Why are you soaked like this?" asked Achi with concern. His previous serious appearance suddenly vanished as soon as he saw his daughter appear.
"Mom forced me to take a bath..." explained Mira with a pitiful expression. She looked like a little cat having made a mistake.
Achi did not know how to react to his daughter's cute expression. He could never resist when she would do that face, "Go back to mother, I will come soon!"
"Ok" Mira looked reluctant to go but as she saw the group of players looking at her, she understood the situation and quickly disappeared.
"Sorry for that!" said Achi who returned to his serious expression.
"Haha, that's fine. We are done here. T know that Chief has a lot of work to do."
"Thank you for understanding. Feel free to spend the night at our tribe! We will have a feast tonight!" declared Achi.
...
With the players gone, the barbarians held an emergency meeting!
"Explain what happened! It is not normal for all of you to be forced to take a bath," exclaimed Achi. He had already obtained a short explanation from his wife, but it was better to hear it from the mouth of the children!
Many other couples were also looking at the group of 20 children standing in the middle of the place.
Zeke, who was the leader of this group, quickly stepped forward, "It's like that." With this simple sentence, Zeke took out a bag and opened it; a few pieces of rock instantly dropped on the ground.
"What is that? Where did you pick this trash?" asked the adults as they grabbed the rocks to examine them.
They all noticed that the rocks were not normal; they could see the shiny glow on them, but they did not know what they were. The only thing they immediately recognized was coal!
"Coal?" asked one of the barbarians.
"Yes! You remember the small cave we found yesterday that we went to explore this morning? This cave is full of coal and rocks like this. In fact, some of them were embedded in the walls of the cave and we could not take them out!" explained Zeke.
"Full of coal? You mean the cave is a coal mine?" exclaimed one of the barbarians.
At the same time, an elder voice was heard, "Cough cough! What is happening there? Why are you having a village meeting?"
Everyone was stunned at the old dishevel appearance. The old man's skin looked pale and thick dark circles could be seen under his eyes. It was clear that that person did not see the sun for days!
"Ah Great Elder!" exclaimed one of the barbarians in shock.
Achi noticed the arrival of the elder and quickly opened the way for him. "Great Elder, look at what the children brought! There's some trash but look, they found coal and they say there's a cave full of it," respectfully said Achi.
The great elder was one of the few people with who Achi was extremely careful and respectful. He was well aware of the achievement of that person in his youth and more importantly, that person was currently the Shaman of the tribe!
The old man looked weak and had to use a cane to walk. But to everyone's surprise, the Shaman suddenly raised his cane and smacked Achi's head!
The latter was surprised but he did not dare to dodge. He could only close his eyes a loud "Pak!" sounded across the place.
"Idiot! What piece of trash!? Can't you see that these are Iron Ores!!! I know the Black Iron Tribe had declined since we moved from away from the mountains, but I did not know we have fallen so low that the chief would not even recognize an ore!!! Do you think we are called the Black Iron Tribe for nothing!"
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