Go Forth And Multiply!

"Whoa, that's cool," I say in mock awe, suddenly wondering if I was not fucking up right now. Even though the damage numbers revealed a lot of positive information, the friendly fire thing was worrisome. Would friendly fire get in the way of my plan? I would undoubtedly become an enemy in no time at all and even then the friendly fire affect was negligible.

Because the damage inflicted was true damage based on my unarmed attack rating, this fellow had somewhere above or below seven hundred health and his armor itself was kind of… plain. With this, I could easily overwhelm the man's health and defense even while regenerating. If the regen only started after the damage stopped, then it did not matter at all!

"Crazy bastard, only your mom is allowed to call me that," I warn him with mock seriousness before rudely waving my hand toward the Duality camp. "Those angry assholes took out these huge loans for a stockpile of epic grade light armor suits and advanced alchemy weapons. The current number two or three clan owes the current first or second clan an entire ass load of gold.

"Hell, I even told 'em the epic light suits were only good for running the hell away because the magic on them is speed based," I say in feigned confusing, almost questioning myself. Then, faking enlightenment with obvious sarcasm, I say "That's right, those angry assholes figured out that the epic light suits were actually an underarmor. I even tried to wipe that shit out of the descriptions but somehow their elite class warrior recognized them with his armor skills. Do you have any idea how terrifying a group of forty veteran and elite clan troops outfitted with advanced magical weapons and speed based underarmor can be?"

This entire time, the man became steadily less angry as various emotions drifted across his face. First it was surprise followed by skepticism and then humor that became shock in an instant. Now, he was equal mixes of angry and afraid.

Whispering right beside his head, I add, "And then you suddenly remember I also sold them about sixty elemental aerial and mountable combat pets. Their numbers alone have almost tripled in the blink of an eye. Then the stranger with the money bags asks you a life altering questions. If this is the second or third top clan, why are there so few of them?"

The man under my arm suddenly went stiff and then began to tremble while turning his head to look at me with wide and angry eyes. "You know?!"

"Why do you think I was trying to take my business straight to the big camp and ignore you… small fries?" I ask simply.

Coming to his senses and shoving me aside, the man asks, "Do you think this is some kind of game, boy?!"

"Even though Bygone Era is a hands-on kind of game, it's not a handheld," I reply with innocent confusion after only taking a single step back while the other guy basically shoved himself several steps backward from me. "I would imagine that someone with a clan name that worships the game name would know that. Especially at your age. Now, since you guys forced me into making a pit stop here, are we going to do business or am I going to have to run these dragons all up and down your shit?"

The man suddenly became angrier than anything else I had yet to see while the others had slowly but steadily been drawing their weapons as my presentation progressed. Now, though, everybody had their weapon lowered but in hand and at the ready in a threatening manner. If I let them all land a hit on me at once with weapons devoid of arcanite coloring to suggest magical properties or enhancement, I might just lose my life.

Maybe.

However, the wise middle-aged man quickly calmed down after taking a look at the plague dragons I was supposedly forced to sell to them. "What other epic equipment do you offer?"

"Sadly, we were bought out from most of our armor stockpile but we still offer a few sets," I reply nonchalantly while opening my windows to remove ten of the regular epic silk soldier standards. "These are the very last of our epic armor and we do not offer legendary or divine equipment to anyone not in our clan. As for weapons, these are the last twenty of our advanced alchemy swords," I explain while taking out a bunch of the original double swords that I made back in Sierra while experimenting on various material enchantments and elements.

All twenty swords had a basically random set of properties and abilities based on my experiments but, compared to the gilded and galvanized versions I sold to Duality they were crap. Compared to everything else, there were actually decent but they would always be 'decent shit' to me.

Examining and taking apart the sword I offered him after having respectfully received the armor I presented him with, the man says, "You haven't said how much, yet."

Nodding my head with a cheerful smile, as if money was my favorite thing in the world to talk about, I say, "To the big guys I was going to offer eight thousand per suit and five for the swords, but you guys… probably just don't have enough money for that. So, three thousand per sword and six thousand per suit. Remember, these as procurement and priority prices."

Sixty thousand apiece for either stack of products was not bad at all in my opinion. However, the other guy was obviously struggling even though I could tell he really liked the knockback specialty of these weapons. When striking an opponent's weapon, shield, or body, the weapon's effects were nothing short of desirable for creating a vulnerable opponent.

And then they suddenly remember that I sold most of my stock to 'those angry assholes'.

"Is that everything?" The man asks after a long period of though and then briefly sending two of his men back to camp. "I can only account for so much money being spent. The dragons were one thing that could be excused, but I don't have enough access to get you the full three hundred thousand you've been spouting so far. Our commander will be here soon."

"Just tell yourselves the dragons are worth thirty thousand apiece and that's where you'll make your money back," I reply with a dismissive wave of my hand before taking back all but a sample of each product.

Leaving them to their own devices, I walk back to where I had left the dragons and make a show of having them sit and open their mouths before tossing food inside like an alligator. The plague dragons were given all of the remaining ferecat meats from the Canfor region just to clear up some space for more bird and wolf meat in my inventory. As well, it also displayed the voracious appetites of these beasts who could consume stats and properties from their foods.

After only a few minutes there was suddenly the yell, "Traveler!" Turning around, I find that the original group of ten was now five men stronger. However, three of them were not only women but heavy magic characters from their metallic or crystalline garments. The lead female was wearing a mixture of primitive augments on a thickly padded silken dress and seemed to be the commander.

Reminding myself that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, I relax myself and become a little more polite while walking forward and calling out, "Are you the one with the financial rank?"

The looks on the faces of everyone present suddenly soured or darkened at my crude and blunt question. I was literally asking if she was the person with a high enough rank to manage big money. On the other hand, it could also be said that I was suggesting she used big money or other improper means to achieve her position.

Smiling as if neither surprised nor offended, the lady simply replies, "Yes, that would be me. Are you the merchant with the mouth?"

"I've been called worse by better but, yes, that would be me," I reply while walking up close to the enemy group. "The only stock I have left to offer at the moment before breaking out the last of my battle pets is one the table for three hundred grand in gold and in hand. Do we have a deal?"

Their commander had long since heard about and even appraised the products that I was offering and smiled faintly while making her two female followers produce two small ornate wooden chest about two feet tall and two feet wide with dark gold gilding about the corners and the top of the lid. The gilding actually matched their clan emblem.

Talk about gaudy and flashy, this was almost on the level of being pretentious. However, my disgust or ridicule never reached my face as I looked plainly at the bygone commander while wordlessly awaiting an explanation.

Realizing that I was doing this on purpose, the commander for the first time shows her irritation by a slight narrowing of her eyes before simply saying, "These are my personal clan coffers and they each contain one hundred and fifty thousand gold. They are both also the only clan money I was given for our initial expedition here. As such, my camp itself still had a great deal of money to ourselves. Are you sure there's nothing else you can offer us?"

"Ma'am," I say frankly and abruptly. "I can only tell you the same thing I told them. I did not plan to stop here where the spending limit turns out to be my bottom line but here I am trying to do a pretty lady and myself a pretty favor. It took more than an hour just to make those potions I was going to sell to the next guys over, now I have to wait on the rest of my clan to get here to restock all of my materials to make more products.

"If you're really that desperate to go broke, you'll have to wait at least for a couple of hours. IF you're still able to," I say at last, suggesting that my clan itself was due to arrive in mere hours. Duality alone was a few days away from reinforcing their camp, these guys who were lower rank probably had even more distant reinforcements who were less in number.

Antagonizing a second clan just was not a good idea for them right now, especially so when considering 'those angry assholes' in the next camp.

Nodding her head slowly with visible wariness, the lady simply waves her followers forward so that they present me with the two coffers. Sadly, I could not hear anything after the coins went into my inventory but the sound of the coins clinking in the coffers before they spilled out was still a beautiful thing. Three hundred thousand gold flowed like wine right into my pocket.

Returning the useless boxes to the followers who looked a little unhappy with being given back the literal gift boxes, I start removing the items I had promised and overburden the commander's followers with them.

Then, I tip an imaginary hat to the commander while waving the plague dragons forward. "Because of the legendary title floating above my head, I can create creatures such as these while I have an appropriate stock of… materials. However, they are wild creatures that are only docile while in my presence. Pick out the people who will be receiving these dragons, preferably people who already know how to use Blood Binding."

With such a limited number of dragons, the commander was now forced to pick out her favored and the other highest ranking members in her camp to receive the dragons. Not only would potential enemies in the clan be indebted to her, the presence of such a powerful tank force of familiars would also elevate their general positions in the clan itself. However, it would be a while before they ever experience such benefits.

No more than ten minutes passed while waiting for the individuals that the commander summoned to arrive. In those ten minutes, the commander, her two followers, the other two heavy armored tanks that accompanied them, and five otherwise complete strangers were chosen as the beneficiaries of this business deal.

I was honestly having trouble keeping it together, I had never imagined things would really get this far or that this group would actually be so desperate. I could imagine that they originally were only interested in what I had sold to the other group and maybe even securing an edge in combat to protect them from the even larger clan next door. However, I created their own worst nightmares by freely telling them only a little bit of what I had actually given to Duality.

Because of me, a grudge match to the last man standing was 'certain' to take place no matter who or what.

Without me, this camp's losses would be 'out the ass' thanks to such a confrontation against such a group of enemies because they would be left in the same position as Duality before the bigger clan would cannibalize their position and probably kick them forever from the top ten ranking in general.

Now, all they had to do was greet their intended plague dragons who would openly accept their bloody bonding ritual. Right?

As I watched, each of the 'beneficiaries' slit the palms of their hands and placed them on the heads of the dragons who's scales would crack open and break the skin to exchange magic in blood. As I watched, notifications began appearing in each of their lines of sight. However, before they ever even had a chance to read their notifications they began crying out and howling from the sudden shock of overwhelming agony.

The wild plague dragons' fluids were corrupting and consuming their bodies to create corruption monsters! The original ten warriors who had greeted me had no idea how to react or even time to as the dragons turned toward them with open and roaring mouths. Then, choking off their roars came massive chunky and bloody geysers of corrupted matter that had been brewing in their stomachs.

This almost pure form of liquid Corruption melted into the swiftly softening bodies of the warriors in moments. Just as they were falling to the ground, the original leaders of the camp were shrieking and roaring to their feet while lashing out in random directions at each other or things that simply were not there. If I was not a Plaguedman, they would target me.

Since I was not only a Plaguedman but the Monarch of Plague, all thirty plague creatures present were under my control. In the next second, they were under my orders. Go forth and multiply!