Chapter 38: Getting something for nothing
"Here?" Bed widened his eyes in disbelief. "It's at least 20 kilometers away from Tifanton! What are you doing here in the wilderness? I tell you, don't look at those goblins and dog-headed men, they are timid now, once you leave the caravan, they are more brutal than each other. I know you are very powerful, brother Gavin, but no matter how powerful you are, there are only three of us, and they are outnumbered. Those little greenskins are swarming in dozens of them."
"I know what Uncle Bed said, but I have my own plan. Uncle Bed, do you still remember the dog-headed tribe that traded ore with us before?" Gavin asked back.
"The one called Black Well?" Bede was a smart man, and he understood it immediately. "You are not planning to take advantage of the Kobold tribe and their mine, are you?"
"Yes!" Gavin nodded and said, "I have carefully checked their iron ore, and the quality is good. The soil color of their cave is very new, which means it is newly opened. It is so shallow, but the quality is so good. There may be a large vein buried underneath. The most important thing is that there are not many of them, and their lives are not very good. With the three of us, we should have no problem eating them."
Bede did not reply immediately, his eyes blinked quickly, and his brain was probably working fast, calculating the success rate, and most importantly, the benefits.
An iron mine, an iron mine only 20 kilometers away from Tifton, an iron mine hosted by humans and excavated by Kobolds, how much benefit can it create.
At the end of the calculation, Bede almost crashed, and only one potential came out.
"What do you need me to do?" Bede changed the tone directly.
"I want your last cart of food, and then help me buy more food, mining tools and weapons, each of which should be no less than one cart. When the time comes, I will use the iron ore to buy them." Gavin put forward his purpose.
"No problem." Bed said without hesitation, "I will give you this cart of food for free, just as my personal investment, but your iron ore will be sold to me in the future."
As expected of a profiteer, he asked for a lot of money right away, and wanted to take a bite of the mine that Gavin didn't own yet, and it was the fattest part.
"Impossible." Gavin shook his head without hesitation, "I will pay for the food. At the same price, I can only guarantee to supply you first."
How could Gavin let others strangle him, especially for only paying a cart of food.
"Deal." Bed also asked for a sky-high price, and paid the money on the spot. It was enough to have a right of first purchase.
What's more, these are all empty talk. The most important thing is to see whether the young man in front of him can gain a foothold here.
Thinking about the other party's performance along the way, Bed felt that this problem didn't seem to be too big. The other party's mind was much bigger than his appearance.
This alone was worth his investment.
After a long time of shirking each other, Bed's cart of food was finally given to Gavin as an investment. He didn't ask for anything else, just that Gavin could really take down the dog-headed tribe and gain a foothold here.
At first, Bed thought he was eating alone, but he didn't expect that this was an open secret.
Gavin had private consultations with every merchant in the caravan.
Many people with a long-term vision were optimistic about Gavin's plan and invested more or less in him.
So when Gavin left the caravan, he left with three carriages full of goods. Bed had reason to suspect that if they were not the three of them and could only drive three carriages, their cargo would be more.
I don't know how many people he promised this priority purchase right. If everyone has the priority purchase right, what use is this right?
A profiteer!
A black-hearted profiteer!
Bed, who was always good-tempered, couldn't help but curse behind Gavin. He sold an iron ore that he hadn't gotten yet for a large sum of money. Compared with this hairless little fox, their hearts were red and shining.
In the future, when dealing with this guy, you must be more careful, otherwise you won't know how he cheated you.
The young priestess who drove the carriage in the middle was almost prostrated to Gavin.
She worked so hard, treating, making healing potions, and helping people repair carriages. She was busy all the way, and barely exchanged a carriage and half a car of goods.
As a result, Mr. Gavin wandered all the way, and finally just went out to talk. Those uncles and aunts who were usually very stingy, generously donated one by one, and collected two full carts of goods to give to him, and acted as if Gavin didn't accept their goods, which was a disrespect to them.
And Gavin looked like he couldn't refuse the kindness and reluctantly accepted it.
What is this called?
Anna thought about it for a long time, but couldn't find a suitable adjective.
Three people and three trucks traveled less than two kilometers, turned a corner, and arrived at the destination. It was a small valley with three cliffs on one side and a group of mountains with gentle slopes on the other side. A small river meandered through it.
Gavin and his team stopped the carriage not far from a dark cave that was half a person high.
Gavin shouted: "Please ask the leader of the Black Well to come out and talk. I am a friend who did business with you before. I have a big business to discuss with you."
The answer to Gavin was the sound of the whistling mountain wind.
It seemed that there was no living creature in this dark cave.
Not only Gavin, but Anna could also feel that there were countless pairs of eyes in the darkness, watching their every move.
"Vic, Xiaohe, fireball." Gavin didn't waste any words and gave orders to the goblin warlock beside him.
Boom!
The fireball came out in response and exploded in the center of the river, splashing water for more than ten meters. The blazing flames burned on the river for more than a round before they went out. Countless small fish and shrimps floated up with their white bellies turned up, already half cooked.
"My left hand represents friendship and food, and my right hand represents swords and magic. Which one are you going to choose?" Gavin raised his voice again, "You'd better give up the idea of stalemate with me. Do you see the carriage behind me? It is full of daily necessities. We have plenty of time and energy. If you don't want to starve to death in the cave..."
"We choose the left hand."
Before Gavin finished speaking, a shrill voice came from the depths of the cave, and then a dark red humanoid creature came out.
This humanoid creature is slightly taller than the goblin, but very limited. It has a lizard-like head and a slender tail. Its skin is covered with fine scales the size of a little finger. Because the joints of its legs are recurved, and the long tail adjusts the balance, their center of gravity is a little forward, and they look a little forward.
This is a cannon fodder creature that is as famous as the goblin, the dog-headed man.
"Come out, it's our honor to have you lead us... Come out..." The dog-headed man shouted angrily at the back while walking out.
Following his urging, thirty or forty dog-headed men came out one after another.
Under the leadership of the dog-headed man, they knelt down in front of Gavin and said, "Goss is willing to lead the entire Black Well tribe to pledge allegiance to the master. Please don't hurt us, we are willing to do anything."
Gavin, Anna and Vic looked at each other, as if they didn't expect it to be so smooth.
Especially Gavin, who still had a lot of tricks in his stomach, such as hunger tactics, smoke tactics, etc.
Prepare to fight a protracted war with this nest of dog-headed men, wear down their spirit, and then subdue them.
Who would have thought that Vic threw a fireball spell, and they all surrendered right after.
Gavin couldn't help but wonder if this fireball spell was wasted?
If they persisted for a while, would they surrender on their own initiative?
Seeing the appearance of the kneeling kobolds below, Gavin more or less guessed why these kobolds surrendered so readily.
This group of kobolds seemed to be quite large in number, but there were only a dozen young and strong ones, all of them were dressed in rags, with pale faces and thin bodies, and it was obvious that they were malnourished.
They lived a very difficult life and had no capital to start a conflict.
