Chapter 766: Venture [Chaos]
[Ah, we’re finally back on Stampeding Bison,] Hurricroak sighed. [I missed this dry desert air.]
[We’re not back in the desert yet, my froggy friend,] Nepherage retorted, [we still need to make port in Pearl Tusk Harbor for a bit before we can caravan back.]
[Ah, right.]
[Long…time…looks…different…]
[Just to double check, we’re not going to be here for that long, right?,] Spring Brawler asked. [Because the last time we were here, things got a little hectic.]
[Hectic is an understatement, we were there,] Razorstella noted.
[Yeah, I started existing about…a week ago? So I wasn’t here for…whatever you guys had to deal with,] Screamira pointed out. [What did you guys do here exactly?]
[Well…]
∆=We can handle this,=∆ Logos and Pathos interjetected. ∆=Last time we were here, the kaijin and our lord foiled the machinations of this creepy trafficker that had the ability to steal people’s faces and fates. During the process of doing so though, we caused a lot of collateral damage.=∆
[Collateral damage? The harbor looks fine from this distance.]
∆Well, that’s because our lord decided he wanted to compensate and repay the people we may have unintentionally harmed in the process.∆
=And before you ask, he didn’t pay these large lump sums of gold. Instead, we introduced some minor… improvements, to help each of the businesses we affected. Well, just the one-no wait, we also affected one other guy…maybe three?=
[What kind of improvements?]
∆=Well…=∆
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*Bing-Bong*
In order to properly convey how much had changed the last time Zhen Liu and company was in the town of Pearl Tusk Harbor, we will be sharing three short vignettes from the affected, titled: Collateral Consequences.
Please enjoy and we apologize for the interruption, thank you.
…
Vignettes? Really? We’re getting fancy?
|To be fair, the following are longer than a normal scene but shorter than a short story.|
I guess…
*Bing-Bong*
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Collateral Consequences#1: Bath Barrel Bonanza.
“Alright, so that will be one [Spa Barrel] using Green Spring Oak for an extra wood aether infusion and finished with Meteor Gold bands…”
“Do I get a discount for providing the materials myself?”
“Of course.”
“Excellent.”
“That being said, would you like to add a pound of soap for an additional silver coin? We have rose scented, lavender scented, lilac scented, or if you would like to try something new, we’ve been experimenting with a new sunflower scent. Since that last one is experimental, I can knock the price down to five coppers.”
“I’ll take a pound of sunflower soap.”
“Excellent!”
Ever since that one strange evening all those weeks ago, Obediah Hymstone had been living the good life.
It didn’t take him too long to learn how to properly make the [Snow Monkey Bathwater Array], not that much longer to master the soap recipe and an even shorter amount of time to start selling [Spa Barrels] at the same time as his normal ones.
It was slow going at first, since it was a brand new item on the market and most people associated the concept of bathing in hot water with a high price tag, until word started spreading around.
Some noble men and women ended up buying some of Obediah’s [Spa Barrels] on a whim, only to discover how incredibly convenient and strangely relaxing it was to just bath in a barrel while travelling. It wasn’t as big or as comfortable as traditional baths, but the sheer convenience of having to carry a single barrel instead was too much to pass up.
Thing got even more lucrative for Obediah though when he discovered that the array that was the lynchpin for his bath barrels was able to extract and condense the innate aether found in certain materials. In other words, the array could be used to make personalized cultivation baths.
Once that bit of information was discovered and shared around, conversations like this became more common.
“Excuse me, Master Hymstone?”
“Good morning, how can we help you?”
“I brought some lumber made from Purple Thunder Willow. Can I get a Spa Barrel made from this?”
“You can, but lightning attributed materials like that have a tendency to electrify the water, making it a touch more dangerous than normal, is that okay?”
“Oh yes! I need the stimulation for my formula to properly circulate.”
“Very well, would you like to add a pound of soap to your order?”
From the money he made from selling these bathing barrels, Obediah was able to get his hands on some medicine that could treat the injuries he suffered all those years ago, making it so that he could make more numerous barrels of better quality.
However, Obediah had been getting so much business as of late that he had to hire not just one apprentice, but two in order to keep up with all of the orders. But even then, it was a bit much.
“Master Hymstone! We have an issue.”
“I’m currently with a customer right now, Jacobs, how big of an issue is it?”
“A lady from the neighboring province heard about our bath barrels and wants to place a bulk order of twenty five.”
“Oh. Well that’s not-”
“But she wants the barrels to be made of Dragon Obsidian!”
“Oh, that’s an issue…alright, time to do some overtime…”
Obediah’s life changed for the better ever since he found that array at the bottom of one of his barrels.
He never did find out who left it there or why they chose him out of all the coopers in the city in the first place, but he was thankful.
‘If I can ever figure out who was it that changed my life for the better… I’ll make sure to compensate them with my all!”
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Collateral Consequences#2: The Wonder Warehouse
When it comes to the warehouse business, there were only two ways to differentiate oneself from the competition.
The first was, obviously, storage capabilities. Not all warehouses were built the same and not all warehouses were equipped to store everything that a potential customer may want to store.
The second quality was security, as nobody wanted to leave their goods in an insecure location and risk it being stolen by those with nefarious intent.
Up until a couple months ago, no warehouse in Pearl Tusk had the title of “The Best Warehouse”…but then the Wonder Warehouse appeared out of nowhere.
“Alright! The Steel Fang Clan wants us to store their weapons for the next two weeks, remember to keep them away from the Serene Spring Lotuses so they don’t rust.”
“On it, boss!”
“We need a carrier platform over here! Ain’t no way we can carry this Bronze Rhinoceros carcass otherwise.”
“I’m on my way!”
“Hey, where did we put those Spitting Lilly Dragon eggs? Someone wants to check out their stuff early.”
The owner of this warehouse had no idea how it happened or why it happened, but the building that he had been maintaining for the better part of fifteen years had gone from a rinky dink warehouse that would normally store preserved foodstuffs and nothing else, to a giant one that was able to store practically everything.
Well, practically everything that could be considered perishable.
The Wonder Warehouse was one of the only places in Pearl Tusk with something called a “refrigerator”, which allowed them to store items that other warehouses were unable to due to temperature being a factor.
As such, the Wonder Warehouse was able to charge rather high prices for their services in storing items that demanded temperatures below a certain threshold. Then again, the people searching for such services had money to burn so it wasn’t that big of an issue.
However, storing such high quality and rare items in the regular had the unfortunate consequence of attracting would-be thieves and saboteurs of every variety that aimed to either sabotage the warehouse itself or the goods of the people who made use of the warehouse.
(Un)fortunately, the Wonder Warehouse was very well protected due to all of the workers and guards having access to high quality aether arts.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing with that?! [Ice Floe Palm]!”
“We got a runner!”
“I got him! [Sludge Bola]!”
“And this is why I keep telling the boss why we shouldn’t be accepting live cargo anymore. [Paralyzing Feather Array!]”
On a related note, due to the Wonder Warehouse’s sudden explosion in reputation and capabilities, many a sect had come to the warehouse for the purpose of not using their services, but to outright purchase the warehouse and recruit irs capable employees to become members.
However, every single last one of these offers were refused by both the owner and the workers.
When asked why they rejected such favorable conditions, they all replied with a similar answer.
“When the warehouse appeared in its current state, we found a letter. We don’t know who wrote it or why, but we made a promise in that moment. If we ever found out who our benefactor was, we’d swear our loyalty and service to them. It’s the least we could do after all they had given us.”
