"So you want to establish an outpost where even the guild did not dare make one, are you an idiot or are you insane" says Bai while poking his head from between the ribs of some super armored monster he was currently digging inside to reach the heart. "Mate, you are part of the only party that can take actions, actions that can only be described as idiotically insane, compared to you, i am a visionary" replied Yunan while using an ice drill twice his size trying to pierce the ear of that d.a.m.nedest monster.The party was currently fighting an armored giant pangolin, basically an armor plated armadillo, it was almost impossible to take down, the monster was so skewed to defence that it had no attacking capacity other than using its weight to flatten it"s foes or roll into a ball and bulldoze its way to safety, it was somehow possible for them to break the skin under its armpit where the two plates from its back and shoulder meet and sneak Bai inside to try and kill the monster from within, the task was proven as hard to do since its meat was stringy and hard to slice through, even Bai got bored slicing a few inches at the time.
"Are you saying we"re both idiots and crazy?" Asked Dustan mid swing, his hammer ricocheted (yes it"s a real word) off of the armored pangolin leaving behind a slight scratch. Dustan was not very happy that he was incapable of penetrating the defence of this monster that he almost went berserk trying to inflict more damage with each swing. "No, i am saying that Debauchery is known for doing idiotic stuff that walks the border between craziness and utter ludicrousness, and yes sometimes i feel like i"m walking with a bunch of idiots, however only Fae gives me the feeling of being a bit crazy".
"Hey, that is so uncool, why am i the crazy one? Is that how you see me, Yunan, tsk tsk, and i was even thinking about warming your bed sometime soon". Fae did not seem to really be bothered with getting named as the crazy one, she however took the opportunity to tease Yunan a little bit. "Aye, the la.s.s has a screw or two loose in her noggin but you have to admit, criminal insanity does suit her well, that psychotic smile of hers still gives me the chills and i have been with her long enough to have gotten used to it" Balin added his take on the conversation, he was currently hammering a sword into the plate in the back of the pangolin"s head.
"Of anyone can be called psychotic in this party has to be Leader, i have been with you lot in this party for three decades and the emotional range she showed during this time can be described as lacking, to put it in layman terms, she has an emotional range inferior to that of a goat" said Dustan before he realised who he was talking about, luckily for him, they were in the middle of battle and Leader was in a good mood so she only bleated (bleat, making goat/sheep sound) at him from the background.
"So, you think it will work?" Asked Lucian as he materialised from thin air while panting, he took a swig of cold refreshing Lava wine before returning to the thick of battle, doing all he can to prevent the monster from turning to a ball and running away. "We need a bit of help to set the place up, but ultimately we are not the ones doing the bartering, we just get paid for being the middleman" responded Yunan " we might have to offer a few sacrifices to Hephaestus and Tartarus, but convincing them is the easy part, the hardest part is to make the people trust us".
"How about we set up a safe s.p.a.ce, just like our personal prison, everyone inside the outpost who does not have the rings of authority are stripped from their power and turned ordinary men, we also can create a no fighting zone in a certain radius that inhibits aggression, we can also use good behaviour points to give out discounts on merchandise and other services, so that those who are well behaved get better business and get to return to do more business, and those with negative points will have to start behaving or be subject to penalties that make it impossible for them to trade successfully" Leader already had the solution ready but it was not feasible to create without the helpful Hephaestus, still there were a few more things to iron out before the outline was completed, but for now these were enough as a start.
"Sounds good to me, but how are we gonna stop other adventurers from opening shop in our safe zone? Can we do something like a territory where we can throw away any violators and the patrons can be safely extracted from conflict?" Asked Anne, she was not really sure about this idea because she hated outsiders and having contact with them, so she wa trying to find ways to get herself out of meeting anyone and moving others away.
"That all can be discussed later, i was thinking about currency, we need a fee to help others trade and what not, they can use gold, but what we need is not gold or materials not even items, we have enough of everything, our goal is to establish a faction, thus we need power, and the universal currency we can use as power is either mana or men, slavery and favours are not my kind of thing so i want to use mana, we can disguise it as a precaution, for example we say that we are making sure that any attack using mana is impossible and therefore all physical attacks can be seen through and promptly dealt with within the territory, and as long as people are inside the territory they are drained out of mana, we can use small and negligible amounts of gold to cover our fees". With the mana syphoned from top level adventurers, Yunan could ama.s.s enough power to create a strong faction, being rich was not the only thing one needed when establishing a faction, and this way of doing things ensures a steady supply of both gold and mana.