Chapter 105

"Alright I will go and discuss these matters with the two elders. In the meantime while I am out, I will leave you in charge of these items. It would make sense for you to give every expert under my employment including yourself a good set of equipment, and even a usable weapon that is durable and would not break easily. As for the tools and remaining items, you must make sure to separate everything accordingly for new recruits and even having a portion that could be for sale." Timothy told Cole before a thought crossed his mind.

"I will be heading out soon to visit my friend and until I return, I do not want you to directly hire any expert under the Intermediate stage of cultivation. The two elders will most likely ask us to hire them to add to the village guard which would be fine, but right now we do not need more numbers, what we need is quality so that we can start putting together small trade missions to transport goods to and from Fog Village."

"The amount of experts we have now is good because with the techniques and training manuals we provide to them, it would be difficult for them to actually not reach the Intermediate stage as cultivators. Every merchant group allows Elementary stage experts to join them if they are lacking in numbers, but I feel that after visiting my friend, I will return with all of the numbers we will need. In the meantime other than managing things in Fog Village, I will need you to send out some experts to collect reports from other villages and cities within Stone Kingdom so that we could begin negotiating with good trade partners."

"One other thing Cole, we are now in business with the coliseum in Tornado City. Before I left, they added us as part of their affiliation businesses so we could use their name to open up some doors and help us negotiate with others. However, only I will be dealing with the coliseum as our client, no one else is to represent me or the merchant group and if someone chooses to try, they will be killed on the spot!" Timothy told Cole with a very stern expression on his face.

The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea of having the coliseum as a client. As long as he was able to pick up new items and treasures to clone, the more he would make over time since the coliseum was truly the juggernaut of the Stone Kingdom and could possibly give Bark Kingdom a run for their money concerning overall wealth that they had access to. And so Cole began the tasks that Timothy had given to him, as Timothy made his way to the two elders in order to talk about some of the minor things still on his mind.

Upon entering the Village Hall, Timothy saw the two elders were sitting in a much bigger space compared to when he had first met them. Now that the villagers felt safe enough to return to their own homes, the hall was now cleared out. Those who remained within the hall were some elected officials from the remaining small clans who were still discussing different aspects of Fog Village that needed renegotiations.

Fog Village now that their total population of villagers roughly tripled, organizing things such as where certain groups would live as well as some of the normal daily activities such as who would be farming, who would be in charge of training the youths with potential, etc needed to be discussed appropriately. Since they all survived such a harsh tribulation, this was less about who would come out on top, and more just making sure that the village was ready to function at its full capacity.

"Hello elders." Timothy said as he politely smiled and sat down in one of the chairs facing them. Now that there was no governor of Fog Village, the two elders shared equally in sitting in the center of the hall where issues of the village would be brought up so that they could make a proper decision, sometimes even with some villagers present to talk on behalf of whoever was bringing the thing to their attention.

"Please, there is no need for formalities, just speak your mind. It is good to see that your merchant company has grown to such a level in a small amount of time." the elder who did not see him earlier told him as the other one just smiled and nodded his head in agreement. "I hope that you returning so soon is due to yet another blessing that you could not wait to tell us."

"I am ready to offer the village a large lump sum of funds to help quicken the process of reopening the village up to the outside world at full capacity. There will be many rumors if Fog Village is unable to clean up the mess that was left here after the battle. If we want to continue attracting more and more people, we must work hard and we must have the capital to do it in a fast and efficient manner. In exchange, I would like the entire eastern section of the village to be given to my merchant group." Timothy told the two elders and waited for them to ponder over his offer.

"It is true that rumors and bad ones would begin to spread, but are you really that confident to offer such a large sum that you feel would be sufficient? I understand that you gave that Cole employee of yours a lump sum of gold pieces, enough to hire any expert that chose to walk through the entrance of our village looking for work. However, after we caught him trying to negotiate with the other guards of our village that are not under your employment, he claimed that it was your idea to do it."