Chapter 469

I try not to laugh, scanning his status to see he's level 219 and has one of those rare team buff skills that increases everyone's strength stat by 25% in a small radius for a limited amount of time.

It's a great skill to have for helping newbies learn to fight, and beneficial to hunting squads that farm dungeons, but it's nothing special. However, he's very charismatic and confident. He said he had a business proposition for me when I met him and his girlfriends in line earlier without a drop of fear, so I decided to let him pique my interest.

I raise an eyebrow and reply.

"My competition... huh? Explain."

Despite his cheerful attitude and the charismatic stance he holds, with women standing behind him holding his arms and back, green mist oozes from his body, letting my lie detector reading tell me that he's 100% serious about what he just said.

The man speaks up again.

"That's right. I come from Sector 1. I used to be the manager and head promoter of a small mercenary pub in the entertainment district of one of the settlements a few hundred kilometers away from Valor City."

I perk up at the sound of this but still don't know exactly what he means by him being my number one competition.

He continues before I get the chance to ask.

"I see you're going to have a guild hall here to buy and sell goods from the nearby dungeons, right?"

I nod.

"That's right. Stable prices will be placed on materials from the dungeons necessary for my craftsmen to conduct trade with other sectors and regions in bulk quantities."

He nods with his bright white smile still plastered across his face.

"Exactly what I thought... So, think about this. What will you do with the items that are useless for the bulk order crafts you need? Who will you be hiring to form training parties that help newbies level up? Where can people go to if they want to buy and sell their goods outside the guild run by the government of this city? Something like a mercenary bar, or a guild hall ran buy the locals. Imagine a place where anyone can post a quest and name their price, and anyone strong enough to carry it out first can collect the bounty."

He smiles even wider as I think about his words.

This man has a pretty solid point. While having my guild hall be the sole place for hunters to buy and sell goods from the dungeons would be very profitable and keep the supply and demand prices in my control entirely, it could lead to problems down the line.

Villagers having the option to trade amongst themselves, even buy and sell the same items in another place, is a good way to make the people feel less smothered by my all-powerful hand.

Even if they are using my coins, and living in a society that I'm building, people need the illusion of choice.

Just like the Association allows private guilds to function in society while their organization still reigns supreme.

I nod and reply.

"Fine by me, but while you're functioning in my city, you will still have to pay a tax to the city from every quest reward. We will iron out the exact percentages and details with every new business in further town meetings. I have no problem with private guilds and mercenary forces, I fully support them, but you all still must pledge your loyalty to me as this city's leader if you wish to stay and do business. No matters of deceptions or lies will ever be tolerated."

Without any hesitation at all, the man bows in place and the five women behind him bow their heads as well.

"Of course, with you as our leader, I see my dreams of becoming the greatest mercenary guild owner coming true!"

He mumbles under his breath to the women around him one by one. "Then, we can start up some restaurants, some late-night clubs, and that cat cafe you always wanted to run, and sure, even a salon for you too. This is it, I'll be the business mogul that brings life to the entertainment district in this city."

I chuckle to myself, as he's a bit scatterbrained about his end goals, but has great ideas to go with it. Plus, the energy, ambition, and charisma that he has may actually be enough to make it all happen. I see no problem with him starting up some private businesses and attempting to bring life to the entertainment side of this city.

"Very well. Let's get you all situated, then I'll be on my way. I have to arrange the travel for all of those that wish to leave the city. So, until then..."

I turn to Abby and give her a detailed plan of what I'd like done while I'm away, bringing these men and women to Solara.

She writes everything down on a notepad and happily nods.

"That's quite the undertaking, but it makes sense. Got it, I'll get it done."

"Great."

I wave her off and walk out the door to meet with the large crowd of people while she begins to talk with Maurice and Dan inside the guild hall.

The chatter is getting pretty loud, and I can tell everyone is getting quite antsy standing out here in the hot sun, so I float above all of them and use my [Screech] perk to make my voice heard among the whole crowd.

"Alright, everyone. Follow me. Your ride back to Solara is this way."

I float above them and through the streets slowly, making my way toward the road that was built last night. The crowd slowly follows and chatters amongst themselves as we make our way through the desert and to the edge of the canyon.

It takes just under half an hour to get everyone here, and there are some stragglers, but eventually, everyone gathers around and I speak again.

"Alright, split into groups of 5 to 10 maximum. I'll be using a teleportation technique that only works in dungeons on each of you in small groups. Don't ask any more questions, that is all you need to know. I will lead you all to the Solaran Dungeon Hub. The transfer will be instant, but this process will take a while as I can only bring a few people along at a time."

I watch them all split into groups and line up on the road in roughly 30 separate groups varying from 5 to 10 members just as I asked.

The first group steps forward, and I activate telekinesis to make them all float in the air.

"Perfect, I'll be back very soon."

I jump off the edge of the canyon and float down to the nearest dungeon portal with everyone behind me. Not saying another word, I jump through and instantly dungeon walk all of us right in front of one of the E-Grade dungeon portals in Solara.

The group of men and women look back at me with confused stares as the dungeon environment changed before their eyes, so I speak up.

"It's already over. Walk through that portal and you'll be back in Solara."

Their eyes widen. Some thank me again many times, while others hurriedly jump through without another word.

I wait a few seconds before all of them are gone, then activate stealth and follow them through.

Each of them leaves through the dungeon gate and out into the crowded square without any of the guards batting an eye.

I walk past the guards too, and quickly slip in and out of every dungeon I can that has an open door to set more dungeon walker points.

Luckily, it's midday now and most hunters here are coming in and out of the square for lunch, rest, late starts, and even early end of day loot cash-ins. It's the perfect time to slip a few more people through unnoticed.

I dungeon walk back to the canyon in Sector 2 and begin bringing every team through one by one to randomized gates.

I leave a few minutes in between every teleport just to watch and make sure they make it out of the square and into the city alright before coming back.

After another 2 hours pass, I finally finish up with every team and am left staring at an empty road back to my town.

"Well, I'm glad that's over with."

I let out a sigh and turn to the workers huts off in the distance where there are now 21 people waiting in a trance-like state for my orders.

There's nothing I need to have done in the immediate future, but I'm sure that team of builders wouldn't mind some free labor in the coming days. I'm sure the people that were taken advantage of will enjoy making their past captors suffer the same fate.

However, once these initial projects are done, and people's immediate revenge is satisfied, we'll need to make a voting system and I'll establish clear and written out rules to follow along with their punishments if broken.

A new growing society like this needs order eventually, it can't always be ruled with chaos wielded by the strongest hand.

With this in mind, I make my way back to the town to see Abby waiting for me inside the guild hall with a stack of papers.

"I got what you asked for. You were right about Maurice alright! He's an architectural genius, look at these!"

I make my way over to her and walk inside the center room of the guild hall to begin sifting through the many papers.

They consist of intricate systems using the underground streams from the canyon to create a clean drinking water system, a sewer system that flows out the opposite direction, a power grid with multiple sources of energy that need to be supplied with mana crystals, and many other intricate designs.

I see zoning layouts for residential areas, small and large shopping areas, food markets and restaurants, as well as an entertainment district with land plots and their estimated pricings for if in the future I'd like to sell segments of the city to vendors.

Every sheet of paper comes with more and more plans for expansion that detail how these systems need to be tweaked and built upon when larger populations come to the city.

It's all outlined in far more detail than I imagined.

My grin can't be hidden as I murmur to myself, shuffling through more and more of the pages. "This is perfect. Exactly what I wanted and more..."

I get to the last page and a list of materials is laid out consisting of massive amounts of heavy brick, lumber, metal, cement, and various conductors and unique building materials. The quantities needed for each material are in the thousands, and I can tell this won't be cheap. Hundreds of gold will be the price in bulk wholesale even at its lower end.

However, I specifically told Abby to let Maurice run wild and not hold back, as long as it's for the good of the city.

"This will do."

I grab the paper with all the necessary building materials for the first stage of construction and begin to walk out the door again.

"Thanks Abby, you were a great help this morning. Keep an eye on the city while I go put in an order for these construction materials. There's only one place I know that would have these kinds of goods available in such high quantities."

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Author's Note:

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