Conquering His Cold Heart

With his new treatment of 'guests' in play the amount of people thinking that they could threaten or force him out as owner drastically dwindled, leaving only the most foolhardy who quickly regretted their decisions. Their heads still in a state of disbelief sat atop sharp iron spears along the camp's walls as a warning, Frost was not someone to be messed with.

And credit to Daki's insight his actions paid off. The adventurers and even the brave merchants who made their way to the camp nodded in approval when they heard of the reasons for such a display.

Soon the dungeon received many regulars who would base themselves within the camp and delve into the dungeon on a frequent basis. Merchants or rather couriers under their employ would visit the camp to retrieve the swaths of merchandise gained by these adventurers, hoping to sell the stuff back in Furano.

Frost acted quite quickly, placing several taxes on such practises thus encouraging the merchants to open shop within the camp lest they wished to pay an arm and a leg for each run.

This act infuriated a lot of merchants who thought themselves clever but what could they do, the camp was under Frost's complete control, whatever he said was law.

"Well played Frost." A few days after the taxes were put in place Frost received a joint call from Bastion and Calder who was filling in for his grandfather more and more.

"Took a page out of one the books I got in your grandfather's library." Frost replied with a clear smirk. He put a hell of a lot of research into how to run his territory. Though painfully boring and head spinning he refused to neglect the aspect of taxes for both internal and external services.

"I'm glad my grandfather's knowledge is being put to good use. You don't know how many of my colleagues are cursing your name hahaha." Calder laughed, genuinely pleased with Frost's wit.

"I'm guessing you didn't call just to praise my quick actions."

"No we didn't." Calder looked to his side where Bastion was sitting with bags under his eyes.

"Frost the rate in which you've established your camp is unprecedented and has raised quite a lot of alarms within the adventurer's guild as well as amongst some heavy hitters in the mountains."

"I'm aware, we've already had to deal with a decent sized strike force as well as poorly veiled threats from a bunch of pompous 'businessmen'." Frost practically spat as he thought of his 'competitors'.

"I heard, well done by the way."

"Thank you, it wasn't anything we couldn't handle."

"Anyway despite the threat both the adventurer's and the merchant's guild want to speed up our responses. What would have normally taken several months if not years is already in motion. The guilds want to establish a minor branch within the confines of your camp."

"…That's quick."

"It is and it isn't. Time wise yes it's really early and perhaps even premature but stage wise it's right on time. Your camp is already pretty much fully established.

You have high defensive walls, sufficient military power, a large and rapidly building influx of visitors and perhaps most importantly for the merchant guild especially a truly neglected revenue of materials." The merchant's guild and the adventurer's guild couldn't stomach the high taxes for any outgoing trade, to avoid this they needed to establish a storefront within the camp thus becoming residents.

A few merchants had already begun the process of applying for real estate within the camp, Calder was one such person.

"In the higher ups eyes the sooner we establish our guilds within your camp the sooner the transfer of materials can happen on a grand scale. Your customers will also benefit from our presence."

"...." Frost was silent in thought as he took in the words of Calder and Bastion. Technically given that the camp was fully under his control he could reject the establishment of guild branches as well as individual merchants forcing everyone to pay exorbitant taxes but that betrayed his long term goals.

"Very well I'll grant permission and reserve ideal locations for the branches, but you'll be subject to taxes just like everyone else."

"Of course. We'll discuss the more business aspects at a later date, this is just a deal procuring call."

"How long do you think you'll need before the branches will be in service?"

"Oh not long, we have crack construction teams that can establish a simple branch in couple of days. In the meantime however we'll send a small team of guild staff to help facilitate the guild's services in the meantime."

"...Shrewd but I'll allow it. I look forward to working with the guilds." Frost ended the call and leaned back against his sofa.

"Well what do you think?"

"It does seem rather quick, but I understand their positions, when it comes to money and access to materials it's best to act fast so there's less supply wastage." Daki gave her thoughts on the subject.

"Yeah the last condition was quite devious." Maya agreed with her counterpart. Any 'business' conducted by the arriving guild staff would fall under the guilds' purview thus allowing them to avoid the external taxes Frost levied. Shrewd but acceptable in his mind, he wasn't set on scrounging every possible coin he could, he just didn't want to be taken advantage of.

"I'm fine with letting them have that, the sooner the branches are established the sooner we can expect a decent rise in customers. Right now though well-developed our camp is still seen as something privately established and run. That'll change somewhat once the adventurer's and merchant's guild have branches set up.

It'll become a publicly accepted hunting ground, something far more inviting to the common person." An invisible seal of approval that reassured visiting adventurers and merchants. Owners would be less able to behave like tyrants with the guilds in play.

"Right now we've got a healthy dose of adventurous adventurers and the occasional brave merchant, but we don't have many looking to stay for the long haul. Even the merchants like Calder who have begun the process of setting up a storefront are too few in number for my liking." There was still an abundance of space within the camp, space he wanted to fill as soon as possible.

With his current daily DP income sitting over 4000 Frost was keen to develop it further. Passive income was definitely the way to go.

"How are you for ores? Do you or your subordinates need any more mines?"

"We could always do with more mines, especially ones that are 2 star and 3 star. Even if we can't use all the material it helps to have a surplus. You may even find that selling the material before refinement could establish a healthy trade revenue." Daki wouldn't say no to an additional mine or two. The more materials she had to work with the more confident she was in testing her fabrication limits.

Her subordinates as Frost put it were a group of ice dwarf smiths and a few personally inclined ronsos who were at her beck and call and assisted her in forging equipment. They were quite rough but better than having no help at all…she could however use someone with genuine skill.

"Any word for Borris yet?"

"None so far but Calder mentioned that he's still interested. It's just taking a little longer for him to fully pass over the reins." Daki was the one most looking forward to Borris' arrival. The chance to talk shop with a 4 star blacksmith was something she craved.

"Maya what about you, is there anything you want?" Frost had the sudden urge to take back this offer the moment the words escaped his lips. Maya's growing grin certainly didn't help.

"Me? Well now that you ask there is something I'd like." Her smile stretched from ear to ear as she moved in close, pressing her soft body against her boyfriend and looking at him with pleading eyes.

"Out with it. If it's not too expensive I'll consider it."

"Hehehe it's nothing much I just want to try at set up that alcohol brewing facility we talked about several weeks ago." Since Daki had her mines and forging work she felt she should do something productive as well.

"...That's not actually a bad idea and meshes well with Daki's ore trade proposal." The camp was already becoming a hotspot for trade due to the abundance of monster materials and occasional treasure found within the dungeon's depths -something Frost was easily able to afford thanks to the increased DP income. This was only set to develop further the moment the guild branches establish themselves.

Perhaps it was wise for him to build up a supply train that wasn't monster materials.

The more he thought about the idea the more convinced he became. With a nod of his head he opened up the storage vault to retrieve a selection of books.

"Here's some reading material, research them and get back to me with a fleshed out proposal." Frost had purchased quite a library of books during his visits to Furano as well as Kranor. Some of which detailed the process of brewing, beers, wine, spirits etc…

Maya took hold of the books with a surprised expression, not expecting Frost to be so onboard with her request. She actually wanted to do something rather small scale and intimate with him but giving how enthusiastic he was that may not be possible.

She was still excited though, brewing the ultimate wine was always a dream of hers after all.

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