After the battle, the men of Solus busied themselves with the clean-up. Like shoppers on a wet market, the men flocked the field, inspecting the enemies' fresh corpses. They fought for the bodies and picked them clean of any article of value that even those crude little jade stones that were stuck on their nasty yellowing teeth failed to escape the scavengers' attention.
"Look at these teeth! They're mine now. This fellow's loaded!" a grunt screamed. Using the handle of his club, he bashed the teeth in and carefully extracted his proceeds.
Grimacing at the scene, Linus couldn't bear look at the scavengers at work. In the modern world, such practices were abhorred, but his small tribe deemed it a necessity for survival. Out of disgust, he couldn't help but fantasize of other ways to generate wealth without resorting to the crude and barbaric methods he had witnessed so far.
"My boy, it was truly a MAGNIFICENT VICTORY! None of the battles I've won were as clean. Celebration is in order! Why space out? Something the matter?" Julius put his hand on Linus' head, rubbing his scalp.
"There must be a better way to get rich." he spoke in a soft voice, his eyes zoned out.
"But you're plenty rich already with the bows you sold, eh?" Julius replied.
"I mean, for them. Look. Like vultures, they fight over the corpses!" Linus spat.
"Look at the bright side. Were these savages successful, they'd do the same thing and far worse, my boy. You're wise. You know better." Julius tucked his arms.
A pillar of black smoke rose to the sky fueled by the burning cadavers of the vanquished. And as the sun set at the horizon, so did the grim thoughts that cycled Linus' mind. As it dimmed, the idle chatter of the scavengers was soon replaced by their merry banter. The men festively ate, laughed, and danced, celebrating victory over crude liquor.
"Brothers, let's not forget who gave us our bows and the stratagem that led to our victory. Let's raise our cups for my son! A toast for victory! For Linus!" Julius screamed.
"FOR LINUS!" the crowd replied, raising their cups in unison.
For days, the walls and entrances of Solus remained populated with armed guards. Yet, they allowed men to go outside of the settlement to hunt game. From time to time, Julius cautiously mixed the hunters with some scouts to gather intelligence about the surroundings.
After a week, scouts reported no sightings of the pirates nor movements from the mountain dwellers. Julius still couldn't relax and remained vigilant. Some of the guards already complained about having to bring food to their families, so Julius didn't have a choice but to reduce their number, taking shifts on a rotational basis. The security at the walls was reduced, and merchants finally came back to conduct business.
More than a month passed and Julius received no news of the pirates from his scouts, not even for those who have gone to Stoneaxe and other settlements by the coast. Only sad stories of how the settlements were razed and people returned with them. He was incensed at the tales told by the increasing number of refugees that came to his town. At the same time, he is alarmed by the increase of population. He didn't know how he could feed more mouths if they multiplied at this rate.
"Chief, more people are coming." Rock reported to Julius.
"Oh, is that so? Let them in. And call Linus." Julius replied.
Meanwhile, Linus and his friends were at Gordon's. With generous donations from Linus, the humble shack expanded over the month, transforming into something that resembles a barn. Inside, Linus busily sketched on his sandbox basic arithmetical problems. He turned to the children to solve them.
The kids, now familiar with Arabic numerals, fought with each other to get the turn to solve the simple problems. When they get their answers wrong, they turned to Nina, asking her to teach them.
Faster than anyone, Nina was quick to grasp the problems at the heart. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions, the lass already cracked them all in just a month. It turned out that the lass had a talent in maths, and supplemented with the effect of a crazy skill like
"You really are a genius, my lady. What I thought in years, you figured only in a month!" Linus remarked.
"Thank you Sir Linus. After learning from you, I still couldn't fathom how you knew of such knowledge. You are the true genius Sir." Nina replied.
"Is that so?" flushed, Linus scratched the back of his head.
BAM! The door opened, Rock stepped inside. "Sorry to interrupt you lovebirds. My nephew, your father calls for you."
"Really now? I'm sorry Gordon. I'm sorry Nina. I have to go. But for the meantime, take this." Linus tapped Nina in the shoulder, making her glow golden.
Over the month, Linus had to use
[Deputization Lv.2]
[Type: Active Skill]
[Target: Followers]
[Duration: Until user deactivates it.]
[Deputization Lv. 2 allows user to cast the skill on 3 followers. The user can only deputize the same skill twice.]
"Is it done? Come, nephew." Rock said.
"Let's go!" Linus replied.
At his desk, Julius' thoughts rumbled as he thought of solutions to the refugee problem. Although it was embarrassing for him to impose on his young son, he was already at his wits end after hearing the reports of the dwindling food supply. He considered buying food from the merchants, but they were not very cooperative with the prices.
Creak! The door opened and Linus entered the room. "Is there anything I can do for you Pops?"
"Actually, there is. I'm not sure you know of it yet." Julius said with a wry smile.
"Nope, I was busy. Please fill me in with the details." Linus took a chair and sat down.
"Son, you see, we have a refugee problem. Many came here to seek refuge from the pirates. We do not want to turn them down, but now we're running out of food." Julius told him.
"Why don't you let them work and solve the problem themselves?" Linus replied.
"Ah, I was thinking of that, but what kind of work can feed these people on a daily basis? We've got some menial jobs, but most of them are not sustaining." Julius lamented the shortage of work available.
"That sucks. Any news of the pirates?" Linus asked.
"Well, we've got none so far." Julius replied.
"Good. Why don't we make them pay?" Linus asked.
"They're gone. What are you getting at, boy?" Julius asked, secretly excited at the hint the boy dropped.
"It's only temporary, but if we can catch them, we'll be fine for a while. What I meant is Igor. He's still alive. Let's get Igor." Linus said.
"And pay the price with the blood of my brothers? I get the idea, but I don't think they will agree. Catching Igor is not easy at all." Julius replied.
"Not that, I mean there's plenty of men there. Recruit new blood for the conquest and promise them citizenship. That aside, I have something that might interest you. Please wait." Linus ran to his room, and when he came back, he put two articles on the table.
Julius' eyes glittered. "You know how expensive these are, right? And you have been hiding them from me. Son, these are made of metal. If we could sell them, our problems are solved."
"If you can sell it. But selling something prized is not easy. What does a common man need for these things? They're hard, a little fancy, shiny, but nothing else more. As a decorative item, local chiefs may be interested, but you'll soon run out of chiefs to sell to. We need to make this material useful." Linus expressed. Julius was all ears.
"We need two things. A short-term plan that will earn us food, and a long-term solution that exploits the power of these metals. People need to learn how useful these metals are, so they'll come flocking to us to buy them." Linus explained.
"What does that have to do with Igor?" Julius asked with his eyebrows tightly knit.
"I have a plan. Everyone knows where to find Igor, right? He lives up there in his mountain. That's difficult to attack but easy to defend, so I understand your hesitation. But if it's possible to pass the tall walls and the rocky cliffs, what would you do?" Linus asked.
"If I had that ability, I wouldn't hesitate to catch Igor." Julius replied.
"Because of these metals, we have better tools. So, I'll manufacture more of these tools for the expedition and ask our brothers to buy them at an affordable price. Next, you can draft strong refugees to help us fight. It is possible, believe me. I'm positive we'll get Igor for good. If you don't mind, please summon everyone, I'll explain the plan in detail." Linus urged Julius.
Julius saw the fire in Linus' eyes. He couldn't say no, so he listened to the suggestion and summoned his brothers in front of his home.
"Brothers, will you lend me your arms to help catch Igor?" Julius asked the men.
"We're brothers and all, but no way man. If we agreed, Igor's fortress would be the very hill we'll die on." one of the warriors stated and the rest of the assembly nodded.
"But what if there's a way to get Igor with minimal casualties. Would you do it?" asked Julius.
"Oh sure. We'd do it if you had magicks!" The assembly laughed.
"I have no magicks, but my tricks can catch Igor." Linus butted in. The eyes of the assembly were all drawn to him.
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