Once we approach the entrance underground, I'm happy to see three large men standing outside the heavy metal door that leads to the underside of her workshop.
After a quick inspection and appraisal, I can see all of them are between level 300 and 400. This is nearing Elite levels, and is surely the top of the line security one can get in a place like this.
There's no way any common thieves, or even professionals who have surpassed C Class could infiltrate this security without causing quite the commotion.
I use my telepathy skill to send a message to Bri, three floors above me to let her know I'm here, but step up to the security guards in the same instant to test them and see if they'll do their jobs.
Ember and I stand before them with zero detectable mana radiating off of our bodies, and I speak up.
"I have a meeting with Bri. I'd appreciate it if you'd let us pass."
Using my conceal skill, mixed with the hidden attributes of my cloak, and new silver essence of infinite regeneration; I have it shape shift into a perfect replica of a D-Class Association Hunter's ID with a picture of the face that I'm using to conceal myself right now.
"There's my ID, you can see I'm just a normal hunter. I have some rare items farmed from the new dungeons out in the forest."
I point to Ember and smile.
"My partner here is unregistered, but you can just consider him my security. We work as a team here—"
The guard takes a step forward and snatches the ID out of my hand while the other two guards step in front of the large locked door. He eyes us up and down, then looks over the card before shoving it back in my face.
"Move along. I don't really care what you have to sell. You're not in Ms. Briana's meeting schedule today, I suggest you don't show your face around here again unless you have official business."
I smile inwardly as I take the ID back. They're certainly up to par with my initial expectations, but I want to try one more thing before Bri gets all the way downstairs to stop my fun.
I pull out a handful of gold coins in one hand, and an earth element stone farmed from the 38th floor of the labyrinth in my other, creating mana shielding around it to make sure the excess earth magic flying off of it isn't too extreme.
"Come on, here, just a small token of my appreciation to let me pass, I want to sell this stone to your boss, there's no one else in the city that will give me a better price."
His eyes widen for a moment at the sheer amount of gold in my hand and the rarity of the stone I'm holding, but his iron will doesn't budge. He replies as the door behind him opens.
"It's still a no. There will be no customers allowed inside unless they are on Ms. Briana's invite list. This is not negotiable."
A familiar voice calls from behind them as Bri stares past the three guards straight at me with an amused look on her face.
"Let them through, boys. I can fit them in before my important meeting tonight. These two were just testing you. You passed."
She sighs and the three guards move aside with confusion while Ember and I walk through them.
I put the earth stone back in my pocket which leads to my item storage and flick three gold coins in the air behind me before placing the rest back in my storage too.
They land in the hands of the guards as the door closes behind us. Bri gives them a nod and turns with a smile.
"Keep up the good work."
The door shuts and we start walking upstairs to her office.
I allow my appearance to shift back to its normal undisguised state as we do.
"Nice to see you again so soon, Bri. This is Ember. We'll be working together from now on."
Bri turns to both of us, then shakes Ember's hand, trying to get a read on him as we walk up to the top floor.
"I don't know what is more intriguing; the fact that I can't sense even a drop of power coming off you even when you're using your magic, or this mysterious new friend you've brought to see me with the same energy readings. What happened while you were away...?"
We make it up to her office and I put up a [Hush] barrier while she illuminates the room.
"Well... Quite a lot actually, but I'll keep the summary short. We defeated the leader of Sector 1 and are actively expanding to take over the Dark Continent, I surpassed level 2000, and on top of that, secured six guaranteed trade deals with down payments that I need fulfilled in the next 30 days."
I reach into my item storage and pull out the stack of papers to place it down on her desk. Next to those papers, I give a list of all the available dungeons we have access to in the canyon in Sector 2 with their loot drops labeled next to them.
Her eyes turn to the papers and she walks around her desk to sit down and sift through them while Ember and I make ourselves comfortable on the soft seating arrangements in the room.
"Well... it seems you really have managed to get a lot done... Straight to business it is like usual. We'll have to make things quick here, like I said when you arrived, I really do have an important meeting I can't miss coming up tonight."
Bri doesn't say a word after that, flipping through the pages for almost a full minute in silence, writing things down on another paper next to the order forms, then hands me back a list of all of the item drops necessary from each dungeon down to the exact quality necessary.
"We can do it. The dungeons on this list can be farmed to craft exactly what you need. If you start getting us these materials by the end of this week, 21 days will be a tight schedule but we can get it done. I'll be paying my craftsmen the normal going rate, and—"
I place 22 platinum bars, and 50 gold coins down on her desk.
"Pay your workers whatever will keep them happy and working fast. Use the rest to reinforce your security even further and hire more workers out. Another workshop with extra space for expansion here might be worthwhile. I can only imagine these orders getting larger over time."
Bri stares at the bars of precious metal on her desk and nods.
"That will be more than enough..."
She writes down more notes on papers as I think to myself.
The money I've placed on her desk is half of the down payment I received from my orders. While I could easily pay Bri 10% of this amount and she'd be able to pay her workers handsomely already, I believe investing in her business savvy mind and expansion of size and speed of production in the future will be very valuable.
I plan on using the other half of the 25% down payment from the orders to put up bids for the exact amount of resources needed back in the guild hall in Sector 2.
I'll price it out perfectly so that hunters can get paid for farming materials in the dungeons based on how high the demand for the items I need are, and it will quickly fuel more growth in the economy.
I may be able to farm everything myself using my body doubles in just a few days, but building up trust with more people in the town, and building out a system that can grow more in the future is more essential to me than pure profit and saving time at the moment.
Even when it's all said and done, the payout for the remaining 75% of the goods, 135 platinum will be my profit cut.
Paying my new workers and citizens well to get the ball rolling is a perfect plan.
Considering this, I'm happy with these results and take the list of raw materials she needs with a smile.
"I'll have item boxes full of these goods being sent over to you on a daily basis starting very soon."
Placing the item list into my inventory, and allowing Bri to keep the copies of the orders that must be fulfilled, she places them in her desk with the piles of money large enough to build and pay for labor in 10 workshops just like this one right now if she needed.
I speak again.
"Now, I'd like to come up with a solution to our communication and transportation issue as well. Do you have a containment case that I could place some items in? I have a few raw materials I want to show you. They're pretty volatile and delicate, making it hard to show you what I have out in the open without ruining the product. They're very small, so a mini containment case is fine, it just needs to be able to contain A-Grade items."
Bri nods, sifting through her desk and pulling out a small cylindrical jar that looks like it is completely glass other than the silver top and bottom.
It hums loudly like mana shielding, but gives off energy readings like an item box once she hands it over to me.
It interprets my intentions like an extension of myself once I touch it and imbue it with a tiny bit of mana. The top slides open, and I place a palm on top to open a spatial magic portal and allow a single fragment of luminite to fall out.
The instant it does, I close the silver top and hear a clink as it hits the bottom of the cylindrical containment contraption.
I stare at it for a moment, picturing the crystals disintegrating into thin air every time they were left out in the open desert when I farmed them. However, this one fragment doesn't change at all, it just sits in the containment jar and glows bright white.
With a grin, I place my hand over it again, and release the other five fragments into the containment artifact.
Some of them break apart into smaller pieces before the silver top closes, and others were already starting to shatter from falling through the air when I first caught them back in Sector 2.
Once the silver top closes, six collapsed dungeons worth of material sit inside glowing white and sparkling inside in suspended animation, lighting up an empty portion of Bri's desk once I set it down in front of her.
She whispers to herself.
"Luminite... you actually managed to find some..."
There's a moment of silence.
"You want to make your own teleport platform, don't you?"
She looks up to me and the bright stone reflects off her eyes to make them sparkle even more as I reply.
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm trying to do."
Bri picks up the containment case and looks closer at them, nodding her head and standing up to begin pacing around the room with excitement.
"I've contemplated many ways to make this work if the time ever came. I think with the amount you have here, there will be enough to make a single craft. We're going to need to construct a base platform first to imbue the materials. Then... we'll need a few million MP worth of mana crystals to support the energy needed as a catalyst for the craft."
She walks over to a small arrangement of artifacts on her back wall and turns a dagger 180 degrees. It clicks and a compartment in the wall opens up to reveal a small bookcase with less than a dozen old books inside it.
She takes one out, and the wall converts back to its original state while the dagger clicks back into place in the display.
She opens the book to a page that displays a very detailed drawing of the craft with messages sketched out that look just like my mythic grade craftsmanship interface. It is written in ink, making it clear that there is not another exact copy of this anywhere. Whoever made this book definitely had the same skill that I do, and the way to merge all of these items together becomes clear.
As the book and luminite is placed on a coffee table in the center of the room with all three of us staring at it, Ember speaks up for the first time while eyeing the book.
"There is one small problem you may want to consider before beginning the craft. Teleportation magic like this works differently than a skill or ability on one's status. It performs more like a dungeon would."
He points to a line in the book and keeps explaining.
"This kind of teleportation magic always comes back to a certain place on a map, not an object or living being. The platform we'll create is what stabilizes the luminite and mana input, but once the transport location is set, it won't be moved no matter where you position the physical platform. You're basically creating a geo-locked dungeon respawn point, like when you kill a boss in a dungeon, you're always sent back to the same place."
We all flip through the few pages that outline this craft in further detail, and Ember is completely right.
I speak up.
"Well, in that case, let's take a trip to Sector 2. I know just the place to make this craft."
I close the book while Ember sits back.
Bri looks hesitant for the first time at my words, then her gaze shifts to a clock on the opposite wall.
She walks over to her desk again before replying.
"Well, I'd love to come, but I have an important checkup meeting...
She gulps.
"It's with the Association, I can't miss this..."
I remember back to when we first arrived and she said she had an important meeting right after ours. The fact that it is with the Association and her change in demeanor make me want to question her intentions, but I'm hit with a wave of telepathy from Ember before I speak up to ask.
"She's telling the truth. A very powerful Association worker is on their way here now."
He moves his gaze in the direction that he senses this person. I push my enemy detection skill outward to see what he's talking about; scanning the streets until I find the match about a full kilometer away walking through the lower income housing toward our exact location.
Her words begin to make much more sense.
A familiar A-Ranked hunter at [Lv.1391] with a series of confusing readings on his status rush into my mind's eye. I look Bri in the eyes and ask her a question.
"Your meeting later today, is it with your brother?"
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