Chương 46: 045 Creating a Conglomerate (Part One)
James reached Bard's Tavern and walked to a private room. As he entered the room he was attacked.
It caught him off guard so he almost fell over. He caught his balance and looked down at the girl hanging from his neck. "Nice to see you too." Mercury had leapt into the air and latched herself on his neck.
She giggled, "About time you get here! You kept a girl waiting!" She acted like she was upset.
He walked over to his seat with Mercury still hanging onto him. She had pulled herself closer to his body so that it would be easier for him to walk.
Just as he was about to remove Mercury from his person a new face walked into the room.
It was a young woman. She wore a lavished looking purple coat that ended above her knees; the coat was trimmed with grey fox fur and had gold buttons. Her belt was studded with silver studs and a pouch of coins hung on her left side. On her head was a renaissance styled beret with a white feather protruding on one side.
The young woman's name was Trisha, the leader of Profiteers. They were ranked fifth in the unofficial ranking boards for Merchant Guilds. They have always been trapped in the fifth position due to lack of business deals. They were an upstart and an underdog, no one took them seriously.
Trisha's eyes almost popped out. She was looking directly at the two with Mercury still intimately hanging on James. She was caught off guard. Trisha was 30 minutes early to the meeting.
She had half a mind to make a run for it; she feared that she would not make it out alive after seeing Reaper acting in such a way.
"Blaise… " Mercury called out to James.
All he did was pick her up and place her down next to him. He gestured to her to sit down, he would take care of everything.
"Please have a seat." James asked the women to sit down.
Trisha was panicking a little. Reaper was not acting at all like the tyrant she saw single handedly wipe out a full platoon from Oblivion.
She was at a loss for words, what should she do? Run? Take a seat like she was asked? After a few moments of hesitation she sat down in a robotic fashion; she forced herself to take a seat. She needed to land this deal.
"It is nice to meet you. I am Blaise. I assume you know Reaper." James introduced his side of the conversation.
"It is nice to meet you, Blaise." Trisha said in a stiff voice.
"Don't fret too much, she won't bite." James joked trying to calm Trisha down.
Trisha looked nervously at Mercury, who just had a smile on her face. It gave her the chills. It was a friendly smile but she had seen a smile like that even when Mercury was on a slaughter.
Trisha needed to keep her professional appearance so she continued her stiff greeting, "I am Trisha the leader of Profiteers."
"It is nice to meet you, Trisha." Mercury beat James to the typical salutation. It only made Trisha more nervous.
[- Blaise: Do you only know how to bully others? -] James asked Mercury.
[- Mercury: I just want to scare her some, I don't want rumors to spread. -]
[- Blaise: What rumors? It is not my fault you like to tease me. -]
[- Mercury: Humph, just you wait ;p -]
Trisha could tell they were sending private messages to one another. She was hoping it was nothing bad.
"Don't mind her, I would like to ask you to keep what you saw to yourself. I can promise she won't bother you as long as you do so." James consoled Trisha.
Trisha looked at Mercury with an untrusting look.
"Hey, it is not my fault you saw something you shouldn't have. Why are you so early?" Mercury was still annoyed that someone interrupted her private time with James.
"I thought I would get here early to show my sincerity." Trisha replied.
"We thank you for that," James wanted to smooth things over before the real meeting began. "We will start once the representative from the gathering guild gets here. As for the other members of my team it depends if they wish to attend. I hope you don't mind."
"No problem with me, I know you guys are probably busy with everything going on." Trisha was starting to feel more comfortable.
* Knock knock knock *
Someone knocked on the entrance way before entering.
Instead of a woman it was a man who entered the room. He was the leader of Hoarders. The guild was medium sized with around 600 members who all focused on gathering rather than battling. Everyone also had professions but they often gathered more than they could use so they sold their access materials.
"Hello. I am Ryan from Hoarders ." He introduced himself.
"Thank you for coming, are you two ready to start our meeting?" James welcomed Ryan and tried to proceed with the meeting.
Both Trisha and Ryan agreed to start the meeting.
"I want to gauge your knowledge of the meeting, what did Talon tell you?" James wanted to see how Talon (*lured* ahh i mean invited) people into these kinds of meetings.
Ryan went first, "Well at first he said he was looking for a business partner and explained what he was looking for in a partnership. He wanted a provider to amass a large number of life skilling materials."
"Did he say it was for him or our group?" James wanted to know if Talon dropped his name.
"He said that you specifically wanted to contract a gathering guild. I was suspicious and didn't believe him at first. I decided I might as well check it out and here I am." Ryan continued.
"It was the same for me as well. He said he wanted someone to manage the sales of products. He also later mentioned that you specifically wanted the service." said Trisha.
"You were surprised?" asked James.
"Yes.. ah.. well.. kinda." Trisha was struggling. In the end it kind of makes sense to her. "You would be too busy keeping yourself on the leaderboards and most likely keeping up with the game's content to manage your sales. I imagine you have a lot of items to sell from all the monsters you have killed."
"I found it harder to believe," said Ryan. "It still makes no sense why a top player would want to gather all kinds of crafting materials. Like Trisha said, you would probably be too busy to do any life skilling ."
James passed a contract to both Ryan and Trisha. "It is a basic non-disclosure agreement, everything talked about in this meeting is to remain confidential. After you sign it I will inform you of my plan."
Trisha and Ryan looked at James, just what does he have planned that requires an NDA to be signed?
They both read over it and saw that James told them the truth. There were no hidden clauses, it was a sincere NDA.
"Good, " James was happy to be able to continue. "I have some big plans that require you and your guild's help."
James continued talking, "I am indeed too busy to manage a business and I am looking for a few people to run a business for me. Those people being yourselves. Ryan, your guild is a good size and you are relatively self sufficient that you over gather and are able to sell your overstocked materials.
Trisha, your guild has been plateaued. You are able to hold your position within your circle but are unable to advance. You have not had the ability to break through to the next level.
What I offer you two is growth in your fields. Ryan, the business will further your members ability to grow. New recipes, blueprints, and recipes will constantly be provided. You will also have access to rare and hard to find materials due to having better funding.
Trisha, I offer you and your guild the ability to jump ahead of your competitors. With my support you can increase your profits. Proof to support my claim is that Ryan will provide you with his group's finished product and surplus materials. We will corner the market and set raw material's prices to whatever we want.
Not only will you get products from Ryan but also myself. You will be able to sell loot that my group has no need for but also some special and exotic goods.
As you both probably know, Harbingers of Death are trying to control the market thanks to their control of the underworld. They want to strongarm and threaten their way into controlling the market. I want to beat them at their own game.
The ultimate goal of the business we are creating is to not only supply our groups with the best resources possible but to make sure resources are available to the general public. The Harbingers want to charge upwards of three times the market value on items. We will keep that price lower while still maintaining profit margins.
With my help our business will beat Harbingers to the punch. Currently they don't have the capital to take over the market instantly. They will have to do it slowly and over time. I want to first target the professions they cannot control yet even aggressively take back control of the other markets.
To do that I want to sell the surplus material that Ryan's group farms. It will slow down Harbinger's control over the market. They might be able to scare and control the other gathering guilds but not your group. They also cannot control who buys our materials. In the perfect world we find a way to self auction materials or directly sell them to other players. That way we can really hurt their control over the other guilds."
James looked at the two and gave them a moment to ask questions.
"You say you want to create a business, how do you plan on structuring it?" asked Ryan. He was already interested in the deal. What he wanted most was to help his guild members grow. He was not playing the game for money but for fun. If there was a chance to grow he would take it.
"Your two guilds would disband then merge into another one. It will be under a flagship name so that my involvement would remain secret. You two would be the public co-founders / leaders while I remain the person pulling the strings behind the scenes. I won't completely control your actions as I don't want to take away from your gaming experience." James gave Ryan a good answer.
"How do you plan on providing the aid you are promising? In reality, Ryan and myself can just come together after this meeting and accomplish what you are trying to promote. It might be slow like the Harbingers but we can at least manage the market places they are not targeting at the moment." Trisha was not buying what James was selling.
[- Mercury: She seems to be resilient, she has been in the business for a while. Like the other merchant guilds she is a businesswoman in real life. -]
[- Blaise: If she backs out it will be her loss; I don't think Ryan will side with her. It seems like he is already willing to sign a contract. The other gathering guilds won't budge either. -]
Mercury was satisfied with James's answer. She is almost hoping that Trisha doesn't agree. She doesn't trust this woman.
James took a minute to think. He then sent a message to Talon.
[- Blaise: Do you have any other merchant guilds interested in a deal? -]
[- Talon: Things not working out with Profiteers? -]
[- Blaise: Reaper doesn't seem to trust her. Looking back on how things went with Void I think I might be a little too trusting at times so I am relying on Reaper. -]
[- Talon: You're finally starting to catch on huh? It is safe to rely on Reaper, she has always been able to read people. I have another guild at the ready, should I send them over now? -]
[- Blaise: Thanks, please do. -]
[- Talon: They apparently have been waiting at the ready, they will be there in a few minutes. -]
James looked at Trisha and wondered if he should wait until the new guild was here.
"I will have to put the meeting on hold for a few minutes. It seems like Talon found another guild interested in the business opportunity." James had made his decision.
"Is it another gathering guild?" Trisha assumed it would be another guild to supply the business with resources.
"I don't know what guild it is, Talon just said they would be over in a few minutes." James replied without really answering her question.
To Trisha it appeared like he was telling the truth. She felt confident that it was another gathering guild.
A few minutes later a knock was heard at the door. James ushered them in. It was another woman, this time she was middle aged. She too wore a renaissance styled merchant outfit much like Trisha's. The only difference? It was made from higher quality materials.
"Oh my, Trisha, it is nice to see you." said the woman.
Trisha saw who it was and stood up. She slapped the table, it was obvious she was unhappy. "Cat what are you doing here!"
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