Chapter 96 – Trade Deal

"Ah, so you two have now arrived, welcome to the heart of the dwarven kingdom. I'm happy you could make time to meet with me so quickly, it's only been an hour since Garry passed the message across after all"

Me and Petra have just arrived in Jarl Denver's throne room and it's kinda how you'd expect a dwarven throne room to look, mostly down to it being all stone based. A huge gigantic cavern with carved out faces of previous Jarls on the walls high up to the ceiling, wide and spectacular rock pillars follow the outsides of the room, guards dressed in brutal looking heavy dwarven styled armours and sitting on a metal uncomfortable looking throne is a kid. That part is clearly not what you'd expect from dwarfs but we already knew this.

The kid does look pretty young despite being roughly the same height as an adult dwarf but that might just be down to him basically being bald in the facial hair region. That must be a little weird simply because I've seen children a hell of a lot younger than him already starting to grow out beards and he is as baby faced as they come.

Despite all this, he doesn't feel like someone to who could be considered weak or inexperienced, there's a strange feeling I have about him that seems slightly odd. It's almost as if I'm looking at someone who's pretty powerful in spite of his young age.

'I wonder how powerful this kid actually is, status

[Name: Denver | Species: Dwarf | Level: 1]

[Health 35/35]

[Stamina 26/30]

[Magicka 35/35]

'Seriously!? You honestly expect me to believe this kid has never killed a single creature in his life? Nah, I'm not having it this time around'

I know that my system has always been based about seeing how much others have killed except for the rare occasion like with priestess but this kid is definitely not as weak as that. Seriously though, he feels like he could be holding more power to those elf siblings I remember killing back in the tree dungeon. He's got to have found a way of hiding his true power otherwise this just isn't right. Aesa hasn't made a comment as well so even she isn't sure about this.

I'm not the only one who's done a status check on him though, it's been a while since I've seen Petra's eyes go blue as well. Unlike me though, she has a more relaxed reaction to him.

"Heh, it's nice we get to speak again, been all too long kid"

I'm surprised Petra isn't doing her 'in awe of royalty routine' but it might just not be needed, this boy doesn't seem to hold any arrogance nor even cares about being called kid.

"Huh? Excuse me but I don't believe we've ever met; I'd definitely remember coming across someone as famous as you in this kingdom"

"You would've been in diapers back then; your father did always say were the cutest child he had, although you did give him a few headaches discussing philosophy"

Then only for a split second, the kid's face turns slightly red. See, Petra knows exactly what she was doing there and now I do as well, she is really good at this sort of thing. The kid Jarl regains himself ever so slightly and continues on, he's not going to win in a battle of wits against her even if he tries.

"Hehe... fair play, I see how you're going about this Miss Petra... it's a pleasure to meet the long-standing icon of the dwarven kingdom and your friend... Ikarus was it?"

"We're more than just friends but I'll forget about that since it's just a little pointless to worry about..."

Huh, I've never seen Petra be pedantic about something like that. Sure, we technically are girlfriends but it's not exactly like it matters all that much, should I really care about people knowing? I mean, it doesn't affect how us two are in the slightest, having people know my love for her isn't going to change anything between us personally. All it would really do is look a little like I'm showing her off even if Petra would be worth doing that for.

"... You invited us here so how about you start the process without the needless pleasantries that we're both doing?"

Petra just be doing her thing taking control of the situation and steering us in the right direction. The gnome did tell us not to take this kid for granted so that's the main reason for her taking the lead right now. If it was me, you already know things could go a little off but I've gotten a lot better at not letting people take me for granted now so maybe I'd be able to hold my own? Regardless, I like hearing Petra speak so not that fussed about it all.

The kid on the throne ponders for a second, smiles and then looks almost to have an air of relief on his face.

"Hehe, did always hear that no one could ever best you so I won't even bother trying anything of the sorts today, I'll be completely transparent and honest without the unneeded mind games... we need gold, not just a little or a one-off shipment, we need constant filled ships worth and even then, it still won't be enough"

(Ikarus) "So... you're willing to pay an extreme premium then?"

By the sounds of it, we hold all the cards here so getting a brilliant price for the gold we make could be possible. Despite me making that comment, the Jarl seems to have a different idea on the thing.

"It depends on how much you view a premium since we will only pay a fixed amount, Petra's been here long enough to know how we handle purchases but allow me to give you a quick recap since this is your second visit Ikarus. All prices are fixed as to keep a consistent economy that will always stay that way regardless of what happens..."

'I really don't have the attention span for a conversation like this but I've got Petra for back up if I start daydreaming'

"... There are obviously exceptions to this but those are extremely rare, being able to produce everything has always allowed us to set our own prices and most major civilizations have based their economy around us as well..."

Damn, I never really had that much of an idea how these dwarfs set the standard in the world. Prices can vary a bit but for the most part especially in towns or cities around the coast, the prices do seem very stable and consistent other than a few exceptions like the island we're currently at but they don't really import that much from over here. I guess the prices are still similar though.

"... Despite everything I've just said, bronze, silver and gold have always been fixed around the way the currency exchanges in this world depending on demand and all things like that..."

Ah yes, can't forget how the basic coin compares to others. Ten for bronze, hundred for silver and a thousand for gold, ten thousand for a platinum even though I'm yet to even own a platinum coin simply because you can't really use them for normal purchases and are pretty much impossible to come by unless you actually exchange for them at a bank. I think they're only really used for multiple property purchases all at once. Ah, forgot to mention coppers as well, they are literally the same exact value as a bronzes but some places obviously use them more than others. Pretty sure the capital use coppers rather than bronzes in speech but my mind's clearly wondering now.

"... What we'll pay is how much the refined gold would cost in weight of gold coins. Technically, that's a sizeable premium since the costs to actually make currency itself from gold bars is an entirely different thing... The only problem we have is simply put, we use all gold, even coins in construction so you'd get the same value, just in silvers"

Oh, I think I get what he means. Instead of paying us let's say a hundred gold coins for a bar weighing that amount, he's pay us ten times that but obviously in silvers so it's technically the same value. Damn, we're really going to have to build a vault when we get back now, storing gold is one thing but now we're going to need even more storage. At least that's an idea for when we get back again.

"Heh, so you don't reckon you could go a little higher than that?"

I've gotta love how Petra's trying her luck here, might as well try and earn more if it's possible. Unfortunately, this kid isn't as easy as that.

"Not happening Miss Petra, this is a policy even I agree on from my predecessors. Even though it can hinder progress when gold is in high demand especially in this kingdom, we'd rather just slow our progress than get ripped off. The goal was always to get as close to the volcano as possible and with our estimations, there's no chance of it slowing down its power for a good thousand years at least... we can easily wait that long for enough gold"

The thing is, especially in the north of this kingdom, they use a lot of filtration systems which have gold inside them but I've already said about that. These lot are definitely the most advanced civilization in this world after all, some stuff they do might even rival human development on Earth. I'm a little unsure why they seem so obsessed with the volcano though.

(Ikarus) "You said something about a volcano kid?"

"I'd like it if both of you call me by name rather than kid but as for the plan, it's something us dwarfs have had in mind ever since it last erupted. The power of a constantly erupting volcano is something that could be potentially harnessed even further for an insane amount of energy. Someday, there might even be the chance of making the surface safe to breath around that area but those are just pipedreams for now"

"Do you not worry if it decides to erupt again like with what happened last time?"

From my questioning, the kid actually has a smile on his face, I guess he likes this sort of thing.

"Hehe, you'd think that we'd be worried about another God accidently setting it off. All I can say is that we next time around, we won't be so unprepared. Our building techniques have improved a lot since then so much so, that volcano might even struggle to kill just one of us, the shaking could do some damage but we're quietly confident about the risk..."

Wait, this kid has heard of the volcano story too? I guess even dwarfs know about that even if the elves believe the dwarfs set it off but if there could still be some truth in that if these lot are trying to harness the power of a volcano and accidently set it off.

I'd think he's being a little arrogant reckoning his people could actually survive another eruption but the evidence is damning, the dwarfs survived and thrived from it, the elves suffered miserably and lost a huge deal of their population. If there's any group of people you think could survive it again, it's definitely these crazy fuckers who basically live next door to it.

"... Enough about dwarven politics though, do we have a deal then? You won't find anyone else willing to pay the actual weight of the stuff, at least anybody we know of"

Petra looks to me as if this is my time to answer, I guess she did say that this is my thing and she'll support me on even if that's not what I wanted. We are a partnership in this after all but there's no point

"Sure ki-, sorry, Denver but first I'd like to know how you'd go about paying for it?"

It's a legitimate question, obviously the dwarfs are going to have a lot of silver to trade with just simply from the caves but I want to know the logistics goddamn it! This is the kind of thing I could see Petra being involved in and I'm just riding along in the background so I don't want it to go like that this time around.

"Ah, that's simpler than you'd think. We'll send out two carrier ships, one of which is filled with money and the other has a weighting system on it. We'll measure how much the refined gold actually is while checking it to see if it's actual gold and not fake, then pay you and be on our way... Say, we'll send the ships once a month? Obviously longer if your mine is quite the distance away"

Okay, I actually like the way they do things, all we need to do is get the gold to the docks and were as good as gold. Pardon the pun but it looks like we're set, this trip might as well be finished at this point but there's probably is still some more boring stuff to get through.

"Fair enough, the island is next to the Sierran mountain range and it's a place called..."