Legend of the arch magus

Big Mona hardly slept for these past few days. The series of monster attacks gave him and the Merchants Guild a devastating blow. Half of the headquarters of the Merchants Guild was destroyed, and to make things worse, the monsters managed to enter the basement where several treasured items were kept. Just those treasures alone were worth several tens of thousands of gold coins. "Ah, God damn it!" snarled Big Mona. "What are the masons doing? It's been a week already but they haven't finished repairing the entire building?! And you! I told you to bring more iron ingots for the construction of the basement door! Where are the damn ingots!"

Spit flew everywhere as his voice reverberated inside the Merchants Guild.

Numerous workers moved about, some carried wooden planks, hammers, hemp ropes, and iron frames. Under the constant holler of Big Mona, the workers hastened their pace. After their headquarters was almost entirely destroyed by the monsters, Big Mona ordered his men to fortify the Guild's defenses. He also went out of his way to hire mercenaries to guard them. A thick iron door leading to the basement was also erected in the hopes of it being enough to deter the monsters from destroying the precious items stored away underground the Merchants Guild. "It's that damn Valcres's fault," he blamed the City Lord. "What a waste of money! I shouldn't have invested in the construction of that damn fortress!"

It seemed that the fortress built next to the Lake of the Full Moon was easily breached by the monsters. Without anyone to stop them, the monsters attacked Lion City.

Valcres used to be a competent Lord back in the days, but now, he was becoming more and more of an incompetent leader. A useless scoundrel who couldn't properly manage his land. "Sir, there's someone who wishes to meet you," his secretary reluctantly told him. The temper of his boss had been terrible these past few days. Last night, he was kicked at the stomach for merely disrupting the merchant's meal. Big Mona furrowed his brows. On his hands were the documents related to the reconstruction of the Merchants Guild. "Who is it?" "I-It's a young man called Lark, Sir."

Big Mona paused for a moment. He had not expected the noble to be back this soon. What happened at the Capital?

"Lark, huh?" he mumbled. He placed the documents down on the table.

"Lead him to the guest room on the second floor."

All of his encounters with that noble had been profitable. Big Mona's merchant's intuition was telling him that it would benefit him greatly to meet the noble again this time. After delegating the remaining tasks to his men, he went towards the room where Lark was waiting. Upon opening the door, he saw a familiar young man was sitting on the couch, his right hand holding a tea cup. "It's been a while." Lark smiled and put down the tea cup. "I heard the news. The monsters reached even this place, huh?"

Big Mona sat on the couch, grabbed some biscuits and stuffed them into his mouth. Crumbs flew about as he said, "We're not some small guild that'll easily crumble because of mere monsters." He scrutinized Lark from head to toe. "I didn't expect you to be back this soon. How's the Capital?"

"Uneventful," said Lark. "More than that, let's get straight to the point."

Lark placed a wooden box on top of the table. "I'm here to make a deal with you."

Big Mona stared at the box, then at Lark. He listened attentively. "I'll help you defend this city against those monsters." Lark opened the box, revealing a metallic item resembling a miniature tower. "But in exchange, I want a few things."

It took Big Mona quite some time before he processed the things Lark said to him. "Are you telling me that that thing can drive those damn monsters away?"

Lark tapped his finger twice against the table. "Yes and No."

Big Mona furrowed his brows. "This is simply a prototype. A design. The real thing is several times bigger than this." Lark placed a small kalrane stone – fully charged by the sun – at the center of the metallic tower. "mana stones are ideal, but kalrane stones should be enough."

Although he was no magician, Big Mona saw the item suck away the energy from the kalrane stone. It glowed, and the rod at its tip started crackling with lightning. Big Mona's eyes widened upon seeing this. He had seen something similar before at the City of Magic. The Wizzert tower. A device capable of harnessing mana and converting it into offensive magic. Seeing Big Mona's reaction, it was apparent that there was no need to explain everything to him. Lark grinned, "It's a mere prototype, but a complete device should be capable of detecting and striking monsters a kilometer away from here."

In the Magic Empire, such towers did not need kalrane stones to operate.

For profit's sake, however, Lark purposely made this item dependent on kalrane stones for energy. This way, the bigwigs of Lion City would have no choice but to buy more kalrane stones from Blackstone Town. Big Mona stared at the device. "How strong is it?"

Lark touched the device with his fingertips. "You don't mind me destroying a portion of this room, right?"

Big Mona nodded, "Do it."

Crackling sounds were heard and a bolt of lightning shot from the device and struck the wall. A hole the size of a human's head was instantly created, its edges charred black. "Kalrane stones can be recharged by exposing them to the sun," said Lark.

"Five stones should be enough to make one of these devices functional."

Big Mona understood the significance of this statement. If they managed to build several dozens of these towers and installed them all throughout the walls, it would effectively block the monsters. If the devices ran out of energy, they could simply remove the kalrane stones, recharge them, then replace them with new ones. If the prototype was this strong, then there was no need to question the strength of the real one. "Is it true that it could detect the monsters from a kilometer away?" Lark nodded, "That's right."

Big Mona fell into deep thought. This device was a lot similar to the towers protecting the City of Magic. But unlike this one, those towers from Wizzert were off-limits to other cities. Those damnable magicians from the Tower of Magic monopolized everything related to the tower. Big Mona leaned on the couch. "We'll be needing a lot of kalrane stones to drive back those monsters."

"Just buy them then," grinned Lark. "My Blackstone Town will willingly sell them to you at a fair price."

The merchant knew he had no choice in this either way. Big Mona wryly smiled, "You damn shrewd fox."

He knew he would lose a lot more if he skimped on the defenses of this city.

If only Lord Valcres was more competent, he —the Head of the Merchant Guild—wouldn't be suffering like this. Once again, he cursed at the Lord of Lion City in his thoughts. "What you said before..," said Big Mona. "You said you want a few things in exchange for this." "Glad you remember," said Lark. "But first, let's make things clear. This is a loan." "A loan," repeated Big Mona.

"That's right. A loan." Lark held out two fingers. "Twenty towers. I will build twenty towers for this city. All materials will be shouldered by me.

But in exchange, you are required to pay me fifteen gold coins every month for every tower the city uses."

After receiving four thousand gold coins, Lark had enough money to create cheap imitations of the magic towers used in the Magic Empire. Of course, the towers were not self-sustaining, unlike their predecessors. Otherwise, Lark wouldn't profit from selling kalrane stones. Selling them to Lion City would enable him to earn a large amount of money in an instant, but Lark deemed that lending them to the city would net him more income in the long run. Big Mona was aware of this scheme as he quickly asked Lark of how much the towers would cost if the City bought them instead. "They're not for sale," Lark shot the question down quickly. Big Mona was obviously unhappy with this trade. He snorted but conceded regardless. "What are your conditions for lending us these things then?" Big Mona crossed his arms. "First, you are not allowed to purchase kalranes for the towers from other cities."

Big Mona creased his brows. "You're telling us to buy the kalrane stones from Blackstone Town alone?"

"Exactly," Lark smiled, as though he was being benevolent in this exchange. "You're being too greedy, aren't you?" "Thank you," chuckled Lark. "I seldom hear that."

Big Mona sighed, "But what if Blackstone Town is unable to provide us with enough kalranes for the towers?"

"Then this part of the deal is void. You'll be allowed to buy the deficits from the other cities." It sounded like a fair deal. Big Mona conceded, "Fine. Is that all?"

"Of course not," said Lark. "Second, I want full monopoly of all monster corpses."

This statement took Big Mona by surprise. Although those monsters were strong, none of them held mana stones. Furthermore, their hides lose its strength once the monster was dead. Making decent items out of the corpses was out of the question. Big Mona could not see the merit in hoarding all the corpses.

"Full monopoly of the monster corpses," Big Mona's voice trailed off.

"Could you tell me the reason why?"

Lark did not reply. Momentary silence befell them. Big Mona sighed, "Alright. If it's just corpses, I'm sure that stupid Valcres will be fine with that. It's not like we have a use for those things after all."

Lark was satisfied with the merchant's answer. "And finally, the last one."

He paused, then added, "Iron ingots. Three thousand of them. I want you to sell them to me at the cheapest price."

"W-Wait, three thousand ingots?"

Lark nodded, "Yes." He raised a brow. "It shouldn't be too hard with the help of the Merchants Guild."

Normally this was true, but with the current state of the Merchants Guild, gathering such amount would be a hard task. A hundred or two iron ingots should be easy, but gathering three thousand would take quite some time.

They would need to coordinate with the other cities. "Here." Lark placed several large pouches on the table. "A thousand gold coins for the ingots."

Big Mona did not know how Lark got a hold of such money, but a thousand gold coins was definitely more than enough to buy what Lark wanted.

Eventually, Big Mona took the pouches. He could not say no in front of money. "When do you need them?"

"As soon as possible. I know that it'll be hard to procure such amount in a short amount of time, so it's fine if you deliver them by the hundreds to Blackstone Town."

Lark planned to use this chance to create more soldiers for his town.

According to the information he received, the Lake of the Full Moon was home to tens of thousands of monsters. After obtaining their corpses, Lark planned on extracting their souls and using them to create more soldiers – a hundred living armors to protect his domain. If this succeeded, he would no longer have to worry even if another beastmen legion invaded the Kingdom again. Lark licked his lips. He could not wait for the monsters to attack Lion City once again. He was determined to get those corpses no matter what.