Town Builder - 70 - Never Trust a Thief

Chapter 70:

My first project was to draft the NPC thieves guild. My reason was to have the plans in hand to barter with Sinful Echo if it came to it. I hoped I would never have to hand them over, but it would be best to have the ace ready now in case I needed it in seven days.

As I started, I asked myself what was an NPC thieves' guild. Should it be like my Rogues Gallery or something simpler? I grinned. I would draft plans that require a large amount of resources, require high builder skill levels, and hopefully have useless bonuses. Although I was only just beginning to understand how to manipulate the plans for desired bonus effects. If I did have to hand them over, I would make it difficult for Sinful Echo to build the structure.

As I worked on the plans, Jaesmin interrupted me, yelling, “She’s walking!” I turned to see Joy running around my drafting room, kicking a ball. The AI was giggling as she stumbled through her baby steps. I watched for a bit, offering Joy a smile of encouragement and nodding to Jaesmin.

“How is the excavation going?” I asked Jaesmin. Sanso and her would be working on the Rogues Gallery until it was complete under the Lord's Manor.

“Nine days if it is just the two of us. Only Sanso can clear the earth, and his elementals can only work so fast. I am doing most of the structural framework as the rooms get hollowed out.” Jaesmin reported her progress. She picked up Joy. It was clear she just wanted to remind me of Joy’s presence. Was I being a negligent father? Joy reached for me, and I took her in my lap as I worked. She seemed to like sitting in my lap while I drafted new buildings. Jaesmin retreated, leaving me with Joy, to hopefully go work below us on the Rogues Gallery.

I started working on the thieves guild. I designed a tavern with the basement being a secret fencing operation with secret access to sewers. The building had a second floor, but I had just added thirteen bedrooms. I then focused on making the construction of the building as complex as possible and using as many essences as possible. I couldn’t control what essences would be required, as they didn’t show until the plans were done with the other building materials. Joy seemed to watch intently as I worked for hours on the new building.

Common Rustic Tavern (Epic Thieves Hall), 150,000 Health, Requires Masonry Structures 43, Masonry Foundations 43, Ritual Enchanting 43 (Bonus: Houses 13 NPC thieves, spawn rate 1 thief per day, Level 75) (Bonus: Eliminate all traces on stolen items, +10% value of fenced stolen loot, Bonus: The House Always Wins: owner of this building has a +20% chance to win games of chance he participates in) Effect: Building Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours

Damn it. It was too good, and the NPC thief levels were too high. The structure would also always be identified as Common Rustic Tavern on inspection, hiding it from players. The elimination of all traces of stolen items was also a problem. That effect allowed the structure to unbind items from players. It couldn’t affect soulbound items, but quest items and lesser bound items were subject to the structure’s powerful bonus ability.

The building’s materials required some major essences, but I was sure Sinful Echo could use his vast wealth to obtain them. Finding the NPCs to build it would be more of a challenge. He could hire NPCs, but then he wouldn’t get a chance at a building bonus for the quality of materials and from player-skilled labor.

Unfortunately, the structure was useless to me in Malcum. I already had the Rogues Gallery, and I didn’t want a building that created thieves who stole from the people. Joy had been with me the entire time I had drafted the plans, and I put her down while I checked my screens. In the ten hours I had spent drafting, Simba had completed just two tier-one quests. He was on a third one, but I was not aware of how far he had progressed.

Danny had been tracking the two players, and I didn’t like the notes she had sent me when I was distracted by drafting. Sinful Echo and Conundrum were still in Malcum. It was more Conundrum who was keeping them here as the quest board in my Adventurers Guild was impressing him. The massive variety of quests offered in the building was hurting me. Danny warned me not to try to get Conundrum to defect. From what she observed, he was solidly under Sinful Echo’s control.

Maybe to brag a little, I sent Danny the thieves’ guild plans, and she immediately opened voice chat, “Tallis, you can't give this to that bastard! He treats your NPCs like crap, and Mag Dog thinks he is a piece of shit in the real world too.”

“Yeah, I know. I was trying to draft something that he couldn’t build easily, but the more complex I made the structure with my skills, the better the effects the building generated.” I said defensively.

Danny was quiet for a moment, “Well, duh. The more creative effort and focus you put in, the better it should be. You are luckier than alchemists who can't experiment like you. They experiment with unknown things, and things tend to blow up.” I wondered if Tonna found a use for the legendary dust I had given her. Tonna said it could improve a single potion brew, and she would save it for something spectacular.

“I can’t control what effects the buildings have. I am starting to learn how to influence the outcome a little. When I drafted these plans, I was trying to make the building a base for thirteen NPC thieves that would have their identity hidden and also give them bonuses to recovery like the Guild Hall.” I explained to Danny. “I am not going to give it to him. I will probably lock them away in my vault.”

“What? All that work, and you are going to lock it away! Give it to me. I will build this in Goatyah.” Danny pleaded. “Or I can have it built is one of the World Capital cities! Imagine how much revenue such a building could bring!”

Danny was right in that this building was essentially an illicit investment for players. The NPC thieves would steal and sell their goods while the player controlling the structure reaped the gold. It might cause some bad blood in NPC cities if it was discovered. Also, I didn’t need any extra gold.

I told Danny as much. “It is designed so players can’t utilize the building. I think you could build it and generate revenue from it, but that would mean you have a group of powerful thieves operating in your town. That would be counterproductive to growing your town.”

“Did you talk to Neral? Did you know that some of the quests he is offering range all the way up to Goatyah? There are even quests from the Fistulas Dwarves in the north and the Veeral Dynasty in the south.” Danny informed me. The Veeral Dynasty was the human kingdom to the south, and the Fistulas were the dwarves in the mountains north of Goatyah.

“What are the quests?” I asked pensively.

“Mostly fetch and escort quests, but one of them is a message courier for the ambassador from the Veeral Dynasty. It was a tier 2 quest, as it had to be delivered to Crystalhelm. Don’t worry. I took it and read the message, but I intentionally failed the quest. You owe me 100 gold, by the way,” she said jokingly.

“What did it say?” I transferred her a hundred gold even though I knew she was joking about the cost of failing the quest.

“It mostly detailed the economic power of Malcum and your basic defenses. I think the ambassador spy is just too low-level to have gotten anything useful. Why is he even here?” Danny asked.

“A compromise to avoid possible bloodshed. They came up here claiming Malcum was part of their kingdom, and I refuted the claim. Tanguin and my forces vastly outpowered them. That was when one of the game’s gods revealed himself and…”

“What?” Danny had me stop my explanation.

“One of the game’s gods. The one that runs the Grand War. He was hiding among the NPCs that I recruited from the auction. He handed off his powers to the rabbit girl, Bella.” I said it like dealing with gods was an everyday thing for me.

“You are giving me a headache right now,” Danny said, exasperated. “I met Bella. I was curious how the young NPC was level 108. She was running around with the talkative elf alchemist. I think her name was Savannah.”

“Yes. If you ever need some extra gold, buy Savannah’s unique potions and sell them in a larger city. I think all her recipes are unique,” I said.

“Love to talk more, but I have to go. Sinful Echo is logged off, but Conundrum is heading out to the plains. Don’t worry. He is not heading toward your hidden dungeon.” Danny said.

“Thanks again for watching them. You can have the plans if you want them, but I can't spare anyone to construct them for you, and some of the required essences are going to be hard to get. I am going to get back to making some gold. Maybe I can convert the gold into some real-world currency,” I said jokingly.

Danny laughed. “Did you see the exchange rates? You can buy one in-game gold for $1, but it takes one hundred gold coins to make a dollar going the other direction.”

“Are you serious?” I said angrily.

“Yep. The game controls the flow in and out of the game currency. They tax it when it comes in and goes out as well. Their excuse is that as the game economy matures, more gold will be available to players. They reserve the right to adjust the exchange rate depending on how much gold departs the game. Not that it is a problem currently with all the players investing massive amounts of currency into the game. The number of players who are deposited for annual memberships is growing so fast that they are outpacing most small country economies. The real money for players is the streaming economy. These early-start players are gaining massive fan bases. It's basically like watching a VR movie for just a few dollars a month.”

“How is your streaming account coming?” I asked Danny, who sounded anxious about following Conundrum.

“I haven’t posted much yet. I have 120,000 free followers and about 2,000 paid subscribers. I charge just $2 a month, but the game charges me 40% to export the videos, so I have banked a whopping $2,408.” Danny said a little snarkily. I think her displeasure with how much money the game was skimming was annoying her. “Got to go, he is heading northwest. Don’t give those plans to Sinful Echo.” She reminded me unnecessarily.

I walked Malcum and spent some time in the Adventurer’s Guild Hall, checking out the quest board. I got a little bitter when I noticed some quests dovetailed into other quests I was working on. My dusk elves scouts, for one, had support quests listed here. A tier five quest referred to an NPC among my scouts that was requesting someone check up on his brother in the city in the Endless Dark. Another dust elf was asking for supplies to be brought to one of the forts deep in the Endless Dark. Even though these were not chain quests, they would bring players to new areas and expose them to other NPCs that could offer them quests—nothing I could do about it unless I shut down the Adventurer’s Hall.

A short while later, I sat at my desk and started to produce the simple plans in quantity. I decided the best time to post them would be when the new wave of players joined the game, and more gold was available to bid on them. If I posted them now, then more people like Sinful Echo might find me too early. Sinful Echo might find out too and press me for his plans. I might lose some gold in the short term, but that was fine.

Taking a break after a marathon day of drafting plans, I decided to check and see if Sinful Echo was still among the top ten players. The list only showed players who wanted to be ranked, though, and I had already removed my name. The name you chose for character creation was permanent, and you could only have one character in the game. If you wanted to start over, you would have to erase a character completely.

I was surprised to see the same character still atop the leader board and had reached level 17 in just 13 days. The top players were leveling faster than the developers had hoped. Still, it looked like the average level of the early-start players was in the range they had hoped for, with the majority of players currently between level 4 and 6 when I checked the posted demographics.

1 Ghost Sage. 17

2 Pirate Booty 14

3 Red Raven 12

4 Bad Advice 12

5 Which Doctor 11

6 Wormachine 10

7 Blitzy Glitzy 10

8 Frost Siren 10

9 Dread Man Talking 10

10 The Admiral 10

Ghost Sage was also the only name still on the list from the last time I checked. Everyone else was new on the list. I didn’t know if I should be cheering for him or not. Once the lead player reached my level, 39, I would be able to gain experience again.

I sent Danny a message asking for the name of Sinful Echo’s sister, as I thought it might be important to know who she was, and then got back to drafting plans. Danny replied an hour later; Frost Siren was her name, and she was playing a water elementalkin. So, she was in the top ten players. Since the siblings were in a competition, I thought that it was interesting that she had passed her brother in level. Sinful Echo was currently level 9, according to Danny. It was something I might be able to use against Sinful Echo.

I checked again, and I still did not have access to the Internet or communication outside the game. That was frustrating, and the error messages read that the AI firewalls had not been approved by certain governments without actually listing those governments. Still, it was just sixteen more game days before Mad Dog would be back in the game.

I continued to work on creating a stockpile of plans, checked on the progress of the Rogues Gallery, and helped by using all my aether to summon stone for the project. Maybe I could help cut two or three days off the completion time.

I had agreed with Sinful Echo that his first set of plans would be ready in seven days, but he came looking for his plans in just five days. I had gotten a lot done in those five days and even drafted an alternate thieves hall him. He created a fuss in the Adventurer’s Hall until Danny sent me a message and forced me to come.

“About time! I can’t wait in your nowhere town any longer. I need my plans from the architect, and I am leaving.” Sinful Echo demanded angrily. Conundrum stood behind him but looked bored. I knew why he was here, too. He was just level 10, while Frost Siren had reached level 13 this morning. I had set an alert to notify me when her level changed. Danny had told me the fastest way to level was by completing dungeons, and Sinful Echo didn’t have access to any dungeons in Malcum.

“I told you the architect is out connecting portals. You noticed he has not posted any new buildings on the player auction. He has been working on your thieves guild while he travels. Give him two more days.” I patiently explained. Even though I was not afraid of Sinful Echo, Conundrum could kill my NPCs, and Sinful Echo could draw hundreds of malicious players to Malcum with one posting.

“He has 12 hours. If something is not in my hands by then, I will sell this town’s location to the Divine Deviants.” Sinful Echo left the Adventurer’s Guild, but Conundrum took a moment to pass off three new quests to Neral. After he left, Danny came over and talked to me.

“At least you won’t have to follow him around town any longer. Do you think he will pay the 100,000 gold for the plans if I offer them to him?” I asked Danny.

Danny had hate in her eyes. “Unlikely. He will come up with a dozen excuses not to pay. Conundrum is a bit of a simpleton, but Sinful Echo tries to live up to his name.”

I turned away to continue my work at the drafting table in the Lord’s Manor to wait out the twelve hours. When the appointed time arrived I returned to the Adventurer’s Hall to find the impatient Sinful Echo waiting and Conundrum searching the quest posting board. He really did like doing quests.

I sat across from Sinful Echo who tapped his fingers on the table. “Show me what my patience has earned me.” His tone was terse and mocking.

“He sent it a few hours ago.” I placed the scroll on the table in the trade window. Sinful Echo snatched and looked at the Thieves Guild I had drafted him. He frowned, then smiled, then frowned, and then smiled. The emotions played across the face before he slowly nodded.

“Good. Complete the trade,” He demanded.

“I am missing the 100,000 gold you owe.” I said patiently.

“I am still owed three more building plans. I will pay four hundred thousand gold when I receive all four plans.” He stated imperiously. I closed the trade window, and the scroll vanished into my inventory.

“You don’t want to anger me. I am good for the gold, but you need to wait until the game officially launches.” Sinful Echo stated. All my NPCs who were over level one hundred entered the Adventurer’s Guild—nineteen in total. Of course, Sinful Echo couldn’t read their level, but Conundrum quickly realized what was happening. There were a number of NPCs that I doubted even his skill could successfully show. Conundrum leaned in to whisper to his boss, who looked even angrier.

“Fine, one hundred thousand gold.” He spat. I opened the trade window again and placed the building plans in there. Being a solo player, Sinful Echo was only able to get 10,000 gold daily, so I assumed this was a large portion of his current wealth in the game. When the gold was in the trade window, I completed the transaction and immediately transferred the gold to Malcum’s treasury.

Sinful Echo stood aggressively and stormed out, Conundrum followed. Danny came up to me and asked, “He didn’t ask for the next set of plans. He is probably going to sell Malcum’s location.”

“There was not much I could do. I wasn’t going to be bullied, and I got 100,000 gold from him.” I said.

“What plans did you give him?” Danny asked, and I sent her the plan’s description.

Common Bakery (Uncommon NPC Cutpurse's Hall), 50,000 Health, Requires Masonry Structures 23, Masonry Foundations 23, Ritual Enchanting 23 (Bonus: Spawns one Level 50 Handler, Bonus: Housing for 13 Cutpurses, Bonus: +50% to all recovery pools while resting in the structure) Effect: Building Regenerates 1% health every 24 hours

Danny started laughing. “If he saw your first attempt, he would kill you for giving him this instead.”

“It is not a bad building. Built in a large city it will generate passive income for the player. However, other than the NPC, which runs the hall, he will have to recruit his own NPC cutpurses. Should slow him down.” I said, grinning. “Also, building it should cause him a little bit a headache, especially after I think he had to give me most of his gold. Still, it is much better than anything he could get his hands on at the moment. I checked, and there are no buildings that spawn anything higher than a 20th level NPC at the moment.”

Neral was nearby as my powerful NPCs started leaving. “He will receive simple quests to fill the roles, but most likely, those NPCs will start at a low level and be drawn from the locals.” I nodded my thanks for the information to Neral.

“Let's go get dinner, Danny. I am in need of some of Fareth’s excellent comfort food at the moment.” We left, and the locals were packed for lunch for lunch. I needed to expand this eatery in town as everyone loved Fareth’s cooking.

It wasn’t long before my town interface warned me five players had entered through the Southern Gate proudly displaying their guild tags, The Divine Deviants. It was clear that Sinful Echo already had a buyer lined up, or maybe he had even sold Malcum’s location before we completed our exchange. My time was truly up. I had gotten close as there were just eleven days left to the official game launch. Holding onto Malcum was about to get a lot harder.

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