New Earth- The Dungeon of Madness 66 Strange behavior

As for Five, he anxiously waited for the harpy to come back. After all, the enemies might attack immediately and the harpies were alone in the wild. Fortunately, nothing happened and the 3 harpies came back safely after a few hours.

He felt relieved seeing them come back and informed them of the situation. He wanted them to stay in the dungeon for a week but to his surprise, the 3 harpies categorically refused to. They were hell-bent on continuing their nocturnal excursions and argued with Five and even proposed to act as scouts. It was to the point where even Angela stated that she wanted to continue to go out.

Five was worried about them. It was not just that each harpy was expensive but after two weeks of interactions, he unconsciously became attached to these girls. After a few minutes of lively discussions; "Fine, but for this week, you can only go out for 3 hours each night! And you won't get your daily allowance!"

"Alright! It is better than nothing!" said Ariel on behalf of the other two.

Although Five was unable to make them stay at the dungeon, he at least limited the time they would spend outside. He felt a headache as he could not bring himself to argue much with them. He felt like a father trying to convince his unreasonable daughters.

...

Two days went by without any signs of trouble. The only change was that the barbarians started venturing on the third floor. The graveyard did not represent too much of a challenge to them but they were careful since there was no sign of the powerful one-time monster of that floor. The number of barbarians entering the dungeon was slowly increasing as the days went by; now, about 60 barbarians were present.

In the graveyard, the evolved zombies were no match for the barbarians. The only monster that could probably deal with them would be Lyra, the Banshee Queen. However, under the orders of Five, she stayed hidden in the graveyard and did not show herself. Her job was only to peacefully level up and wait for her own floor to be built.

Meanwhile, at the Black Iron Tribe, the players were back for the second round of trading. Iron Shark was leading the party and this time, more than thirty players were coming.

As he saw the players, Achi quickly jumped on his horse to welcome them, "Good morning brother Iron Shark!"

"Good morning Chief Achi! I am sorry for being late for the trade but as you see, I brought more people!"

"It is fine, brother! As long as you do not forget! We have some more items to trade with you now! Come, let me show you!" happily said Achi. How could he not be happy that more food was coming his way?

The players were quickly brought to the center of the place and first took out the items they already planned to trade before. After the quick trade that was already arranged, Achi brought a few more items and showed them to Iron Shark.

The latter's eyes shone as he saw the items. He first turned his attention to the opaque bottles. As he did so, an information window would pop up, displaying all the properties of the potion. Iron Shark did not need a lot of time to realize the value of these potions.

Most of them were poison, each of different type; there was the regular poison that simply dealt damage, the paralyzing poison, the weakening poison, a poison that could freeze and slow down. These were all rare but could still be purchased at a high price but then, Iron Shark grabbed another bottle.

It was a unique poison; a strengthening poison. The user would receive a boost in strength but would also lose some HP every second. It was basically a double edged sword but if used correctly, it could prove to be very useful.

"Very interesting!" commented Iron Shark as he looked at the next pile of items: weapons. There were all types of weapons, ranging from low grade 0 to peak grade 1 but what they had in common was that they were all made of metal.

Coming from a barbarian tribe, that was quite rare. The previous weapons they traded were all made of animal parts and refined stones. The fact that there was suddenly so many metal weapons rose suspicion.

The weapons were definitely eye-catching, most of them were axes but they had a special air around them, making them look out of this world. The peak grade 1 weapons were naturally the most refined ones, with strange and attractive patterns.

'Such a pity they are not enchanted... If they were, they would definitely be Grade 2 weapons! But... I can simply find an enchanter later' thought Iron Shark.

"Magnificent! These weapons look like they were forged by an expert!" said Iron Shark.

Hearing that, Achi and the other barbarians let out a smile but they did not say anything. There was still one item left to be reviewed!

Iron Shark looked at the final item which looked like a rag, it was a simple white piece of cloth but it was clearly torn at several different spots. He did not know how to react when he saw it but nevertheless took it to examine it; he wanted to be polite.

But as the information window popped up, Iron Shark's eyes almost fell out. The torn piece of cloth turned out to be a Grade 2 equipment, [Cloth of the Night]. Its special effect was to improve the skill, [Stealth] which was the signature skill of rogues!

[Cloth of the Night] was the most recent equipment crafted by the Shaman. He only had time to make one of them since its primary material was the piece of cloth dropped by the wraiths. The barbarians only recently started hunting wraiths and therefore, the shaman did not have much time and could only make one [Cloth of the Night].

The Shaman knew the players would be interested in it. Not only did it reduce the cost of [Stealth] by 30%, it also increased its duration by 4 seconds and reduce the probability of being detected by 30%. Its only downside was the crappy defense stat it provided but the effects easily made up for it, especially since it was designed for offensive rogues.

Iron Shark clearly knew that this item was extremely precious! It would greatly help him and Blue Lagoon to make a name for themselves. With all the different poisons and these new pieces of equipment, he basically found a huge gold mine!

"This is incredible!" exclaimed Iron Shark. He was momentarily dazed by looking at all these items but he quickly got himself together. "But chief, I suppose that you did not just take these out for show. What do you want to trade them with?"

Achi felt proud as he saw Iron Shark's reaction. "These are the items I would take out for the next trade. I know you did not prepare and do not have many things with you at the moment. So, I..."

"Wait Chief!" exclaimed Iron Shark, "We actually have some more food with us if you want to trade. As merchants, we naturally always have some excess stock with us to take care of unexpected events like this one."

"Oh? Really? But I doubt you have enough with you. As you have seen, these items are quite precious and naturally, just a few pounds of food won't be enough to trade for them!" said Achi as he observed Iron Shark.

"Don't worry chief! Let's discuss the price!"

...

After a whole hour, the two parties finally came to an agreement. They would trade a few weapons for more food this time but as for the next trades, the players would have to bring more resources like special ores, firestones, clothes and other materials.

Unfortunately, the [Cloth of the Night] was not traded that time; Iron Shark could only look at it with envy.

"Chief! Your tribe is more resourceful than I thought. I did not know you were also craftsmen," said Iron Shark.

"Haha, no brother Iron Shark. I have a friend from another tribe who is good at forging and another one who is a poison master. I made a pact with them and I am just trading those goods for them. We just focus on hunting but I hope you don't mind that I act as an intermediate for those tribes?" asked Achi.

Iron Shark frowned for a second before answering, "Do not worry chief, we shall naturally share the profits! By the way, since our cooperation is growing, would you mind if I leave a few men here so that we can keep in contact more easily? You can just speak to them and I will immediately know what you need. This way, I will always be able to bring the appropriate items for trading."

"Unfortunately, I cannot allow that at the moment. My tribe is just starting to open up! I fear that some of the tribesmen might cause a riot or rebel if they see townsmen every day. They are already against our trading but I managed to convince them. With time, when they realize that trading is good for the tribe, then there won't be any issue with you setting up something here. For now, why don't you just set a camp at the Vanel Encampment; it is just at a day's travel on a horse?"

"Sure Chief! If there is nothing else, then I will return with my friends to the tent. I am exhausted after traveling that much" said Iron Shark.

"Haha! Sure, this way please..."

...

A few minutes later, Iron Shark was back in the tent with a dozen players from Blue Lagoon.

A short girl immediately exclaimed, "Haha boss! You were right! Trading with these barbarians was a genius idea! With all that poison, our rogue division would definitely become the most powerful one of the empire! And if we even get the [Cloth of the Night], we might even secure our spot as the number 1 guild!"

"mmm"

"Boss... why don't you look happy?" asked another member of Blue Lagoon.

Iron Shark took a deep breath to calm down before answering, "The barbarians are definitely hiding something from us! They said all these items came from other tribes but that's impossible!"

In truth, the reason they were late and why they brought so much food was because they also had deals with the other neighboring tribes! After making the first deal with the Black Iron Tribe, the members of Blue Lagoon realized that that would not be enough for them to prosper. And so, they thought of the other tribes with which they could also trade.

Although trading with just one tribe did not bring up a lot of profit, when put together, that amount became quite significant. Iron Shark was planning to move to other tribes after trading with the Black Iron Tribe but when he saw all these rare items, he changed his plan.

With all these items, Iron Shark was naturally curious about where they came from. If he was right, that meant that there was a source of natural resources nearby! If he could put his hand on it or even just benefit a little from it, then Blue Lagoon would become even stronger.

"There is still a few hours before the sunset. I want you all to investigate the Black Iron Tribe!" Find the source of all these items!"

Chapter end