Lubo seemed to think for a moment. “Alright.”
“Do you understand my intentions?” asked Tatar.
“Of course. As long as it can restore the trust between us. You will eventually see me paying the highest price for it.”
Tatar did not really care that much even if Lubo did not end up getting the silk, but he did not tell Lubo.
Lubo took Tatar’s warriors and went around the archipelago to tell the others that the Lizardmen had come, and the next day, the Astacidea tribal chiefs gathered on Lubo’s island. The tribal chiefs, as well as the errand boys who came as aides, murmured among themselves when they saw Tatar and his warriors.
“Are they the dragon’s descendants?”
“As expected, they look strong. Look at those shining black scales.”
“The silk clothing is more eye-catching to me.”
“Look at their sword. It’s a completely different color than our metal.”
“When will they show us their lightning?”
“It would be better if we didn’t see it.”
“Why?”
“Beacuse none has survived after witnessing it…”
Tatar wanted to ask who had seen that happen and spread word of it, but that would open up a whole can of worms. In the end, he chose to stay silent.
Once everyone was gathered, Lubo said, “All tribal chiefs, come forward. Let’s decide who will pay the highest price for Lord Tatar’s silk.”
Other than Lubo, four other Astacideas came forward; among them was Marang, the Astacidea Tatar had met before. Marang seemed to want to say something when he saw Tatar standing on the rock, but he averted his gaze when Tatar looked at him.
At first, the tribal chiefs offered low prices. And some even brought bundles of miscellaneous things as if they thought it would be possible to buy the silk with those alone.
When the four tribal chiefs started making decent offers, though, Lubo said, “That’s it? Our tribe can give Lord Tatar ten ships.”
At those words, the tribal chiefs seemed embarrassed, and their antennae shook.
When Lubo proudly looked at Tatar, Marang said, “…We can give him ten ships and two additional bundles of pearls.”
The others murmured again. Pearls were used as currency on the archipelago. Even though they had greater value on the continent, that did not mean they held no value in this area.
As the price suddenly rose due to Lubo, the tribal chiefs began to fiercely argue. And eventually, the tribal chiefs who could not pay the price gave up, and it became a competition between Lubo and Marang.
“Our tribe will immediately give Lord Tatar five ships, and every year, we will give them ten more. The promise stands until I die!”
“Then I’ll match that and additionally offer half the minerals produced from our strip mine to Lord Tatar!”
It was Lubo who made the last offer. Marang raised his claws and shook them, but eventually dropped them back down.
“…We don’t have a strip mine on our island.”
Lubo raised his two claws. And the other Astacideas made sounds by tapping each others’ claws. The body language was not too difficult for Tatar to understand.
Then Lubo said to Tatar, “It is our win.”
“…Congratulations.”
Tatar took out the seal with Lakrak’s stamp on it and wondered if the piece of cloth was really worth that much, but at the end of the day, it was fine as long as Lakrak was satisfied. At least Lakrak’s trading method had proved to be useful.
Tatar wrote down the contract details on the silk and got confirmation from Lubo. It seemed like a pretty extreme price, but the other tribal chiefs there would be witnesses, and Lubo himself seemed confident that he could pay that much.
As Tatar was about to give the stamped silk to Lubo, Marang trembled and yelled, “Stop!”
Lubo turned around.
“What do you want, Marang? You’re not going to offer a higher price now, are you?”
“Hmph! This was an unfair fight to begin with.”
As Marang drew his sword, Lubo and the other tribal chiefs close to him stepped back. And that was not the end of it. Marang’s action seemed to be a signal, and blue Astacideas hiding at the bottom of the coastal bluff began to slowly make their way towards everyone. There were more of them than all the tribal chiefs and their escorts combined.
Lubo then drew his sword and yelled, “Marang, you swine! Were you planning to go against the results in the first place if you didn’t win?!”
“That’s correct. We can’t compete with your tribe on wealth in the first place. Still, I hoped we might have a chance to win, but things turned out just as expected. I have no choice but to go for my second plan. How great of an opportunity this is, as all tribal chiefs are gathered in one place!”
Lubo panicked.
“Just as expected, you’re Trickster Marang, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Merchant Lubo. This fight is my victory!”
Tatar thought they seemed to quite enjoy giving nicknames.
Lubo shook his back.
“Stupid,” Lubo said. “Don’t you see, Marang? The contract between me and this man is already completed.”
“So what? I know that it’s all a bluff that they’re descendants of a dragon and use lightning.”
“Huh, is that what you think?”
Tatar quietly let out a groan on the rock.
‘I can’t listen to this anymore.’
Tatar ran straight from the rock and kicked Marang as hard as he could.
Crunch!
With the sound of his shell breaking, Marang flew about a meter high into the air and fell onto the ground. Marang tried to get up, but fell down again and rolled helplessly.
Tatar confirmed that Marang’s stomach had caved in with a visible crack. He then turned to his warriors.
“They are harder than we thought. Target the joints.”
“Okay.”
The ten warriors, who had been watching everything from behind Tatar, walked towards the Blue Astacidea Tribe. The Blue Astacidea Tribe panicked when they faced the Black-Scaled Lizardmen.
Marang barely got up with the help of one of his subordinates.
“What are you doing!? Kill them! Then we will become the owner of the archipelago!”
And then, a fight broke out.
***
At last, Tatar put Marang’s head between his arm and side and tightened his grip. Having lost both large claws, Marang could not even fight back. .𝒎
Crack!
As Marang’s head got crushed, his body lost strength and drooped. Tatar wiped off the splattering bodily fluid and chunks on him.
“I guess they’re not that incredible.”
Tatar looked back at his warriors. It was not an easy fight. The Astacideas were fairly strong in the physical sense, and even those who were unarmed had claws as their weapons. And Tatar had fewer warriors with him than there were blue Astacideas. However, Tatar hadn’t only observed the Astacideas after meeting them. He had studied how to fight the Astacideas and what their weaknesses were, and he had shared the information with his warriors. Tatar judged that they could target Astacideas’ joints and break or twist them with the strength the Lizardmen obtained through God’s Blessing. As a result, despite having smaller numbers, the warriors won with only minor wounds.
Watching everything unfold, Lubo shouted, “They are the descendants of a dragon! Did you all see that? Let’s all celebrate this victory!”
At Lubo’s words, the Astacideas raised their claws and cheered. The sound of the claws clacking against each other filled the coast.
‘It’s not all that bad,’ Tatar thought when he heard them being called descendants of a dragon again.
***
Sitting on the tree stump in front of his tent overlooking Orazen, Lakrak listened to what happened from the errand boy Tatar had sent.
“I’m glad things went well.”
Even though Tatar was now receiving tributes from the Astacideas, he said that he would continue to trade with merchants who came to Maganen in addition to that. While Lubo’s territory was called an island, it was so large that Tatar had not been able to take a proper look around even after traveling on ship for days, and he figured that there could be unexplored mines or Ancient Ruins on the island.
Tatar said he would look around the archipelago in his spare time for any treasures for the king, or resources that could contribute to the national treasury.
Lakrak made Tatar a foreign affairs minister and appointed Lubo as Island Lord. It was just an honorary position Lakrak had made up off the top of his head, but he judged that being foreign affairs minister would be useful for Tatar, as the title would allow him to call on executives instead of warriors.
“Alright. Where did the next errand boy come from?”
The attendant next to Lakrak said, “They have come from a place far away, Zarin.”
“The Elves? Hm.”
Zarin was the village at the edge of the north coast where the Green Eye Elves lived. The errand boy was also a young Elf.
“It is an honor to meet you like this, Chief Lakrak.”
“What brings you here all the way from Zarin?”
The Elf replied, “Our scouting party has found an intruder on Black Scale’s land.”
***
Sung-Woon recently became interested in the Astacideas, so he played a little prank to prevent them from unifying faster. If a strong tribe moved by ship, he would make them sail into his Small Area: Sea, or he would use Small Area: Swamp to submerge their feet in mud to sabotage them in fights. He had been pulling these tricks to balance the strengths of the Astacideas until Tatar took the silk with Lakrak’s stamp to the islands. This was because Sung-Woon realized the islands were unclaimed and thought he should obtain as many resources as he could in any way possible.
‘Terrains aren’t random in The Lost World. There are many silver mines on the islands. They aren’t often used as currency right now, but if the global trades continue to be as active as they are, gold and silver will gradually become important currency.’
And among gold and silver, obtaining a silver mine could later make Black Scale a leader in the third continent’s economy.
‘Of course some tricks will have to be played, but it won’t be hard to achieve. Was it called foreign exchange scams? No, they’re not scams. There’s no law prohibiting it yet.’
Sung-Woon was able to obtain some of the mines on the islands just as he wished for. It would later bring profit in ways that the Astacideas, Tatar, or Lakrak did not know about yet.
However, Sung-Woon had to admit that getting the silver mines had distracted him from paying attention to the other areas. One day, he looked around the main villages of Black Scale, Orazen, Automation, and Zarin like he usually did and realized there was a problem after checking the system message.
‘…The number has decreased.’
Sung-Woon was looking at the Miracle Window. To be exact, it was the system window where he could control Miracles conjured through Small Area: Insects. He was checking the Locust Swarm in particular.
One of Sung-Woon’s creations was hurriedly speaking to Sung-Woon. It was Hongo, the creature directing the locust swarm that had decreased in number.
-My creator… Do you hear me?
“Talk.”
Hongo was currently active in the center of the continent and had been leading the locust swarm to continuously feed on the sedentary tribes’ grains, as well as bushes that the livestock of the nomadic tribes grazed on. The locust swarm traveled so far away from the peninsula that the other players in the center of the continent just assumed it was a malicious event; after all, the players near the border would not find anyone with Small Area: Insects even if they looked around. And additionally, consuming the other players’ grains would naturally reduce the population, which would also slow down the rate of civilization advancement. Sung-Woon thought of this as a valuable strategy.
The problem with these kinds of locust swarms was that they needed to be taken care of, but ever since Sung-Woon created Hongo, he had not had to directly control the locust swarm himself, which gave him time to support Lakrak.
‘I had told Hongo not to talk to me unless there’s something big going on. The fact that he contacted me…’
Hongo then said to Sung-Woon.
-The true nature of the locust swarm has been revealed due to my negligence…
𝑖𝘦.𝑐𝘰𝘮