“There’s a silver lining to that broken trough. I now know how to quickly prepare our ice for sale,” said Dakkon.
“Let me guess,” said Letis, with a sarcastic tone, “you freeze, I chisel.” Dakkon was beginning to think that the construction of a stall may have been somewhat of an undertaking for Letis, but that couldn’t be helped now that it was built and done.
“I meant how I should go about freezing the water,” said Dakkon. “But, yes. You chisel,” Dakkon grinned.
“You know,” began Letis reluctantly, “there’s bound to be a merchant in town who will sell ice at a price that will make this whole endeavor meaningless.”
“Ah,” said Dakkon. “But when the players see our successful group paying top dollar for your special, deluxe, and indeed—premium—ice, I’m sure they’ll follow suit.” Dakkon’s grin broadened mischievously.
“Your avarice knows no bounds,” said Letis with a sigh. “The worst part is, you’re probably right.”
“Of course I’m right,” said Dakkon. “I’d pay for it too, if I were in their position. Why gamble hours of time away with cheap, regular ice when you know the premium stuff will work?”
“Any idea how much we should sell it for?” asked Letis. “The ice, that is.”
“Let’s try selling based on cart capacity,” said Dakkon. “For a cart of about this size,” Dakkon gestured to his small-to-medium-sized cart, “we got about 120 gold for a load of krimmer goodies. That’s something like five times what they were otherwise worth. Even if you charged 60 gold, we’d have made a profit of about two and a half times what we would have otherwise made, right?” Dakkon waited for Letis’s nod of agreement before he continued. “When we show up to purchase ice, offer us a price of 60 gold. We’ll make a show of handing the money over gratefully.”
“That’s asking a bit too much for ice, don’t you think? No matter how premium—”
“That’s the idea,” said Dakkon. “We’ll pay, satisfied, and the others will feel accomplished when they haggle you down to a reasonable 40 gold—or whatever you can take for it. Just don’t go too low in front of more potential buyers. This is high-quality product we’re moving here.”
“I can see how we stand to earn a good amount of money from this, but how will we be dividing the spoils exactly? I understand you have a group who is helping us sell this illusion. How much for their cooperation?” Letis asked, reasonably.
“You and I will split 66% and the other three will take 33%,” said Dakkon. “That’s only 11% per person for each of the others, yet their success and eagerness ought to be a valuable advertisement. Feel free to take out the material expenses for the troughs and stall before divvying up the proceeds.” Dakkon knew that Letis would be taking most of the risk in this operation. Even if Dakkon had been the one to clue Letis in on the operation, it was bold to assume he should take the same level of reward for far less risk. Having just lost his job in the real world however, Dakkon needed the money and—from earlier conversations—he wasn’t sure that Letis really did.
“This should be enough ice for around 15 cart loads, if they cover up the meat and glands and rotate them occasionally,” stated Letis. “We can’t sell that much ice, can we?”
“Tomorrow?” asked Dakkon pensively. “I doubt it. I imagine business will really only pick up after those who buy the ice tomorrow are proven to be successful. After that, I imagine there will be a huge spike in buyers. The average wagon will probably need a refill or two after the first one partially melts, depending on when they start.
“We’d better not skimp on the ice, Dakkon,” said Letis. “If they’re throwing warm boar meat on it, it’s bound to melt pretty quickly.”
“Hmm,” Dakkon considered his partner’s words. “Good point. Give them double what you think they’ll need. In that case, we’ll need several more troughs full of water… I’d help you fetch them, but if someone saw me and connected the dots, that might not bode well for the operation…” Dakkon let the words of intent to shirk his duties linger in the air.
“Yeah, yeah,” said Letis. “I know. But that means you can get a head start on crushing up the ice for me.” Letis tossed his newly acquired chisel onto frozen water and smirked as he turned to go collect several more troughs.
Dakkon shrugged and set to work chiseling and refreezing the water until the bulk of it could be easily spread over the surface of a cart. He kept his hands warm during the process with his thermoregualte skill and any spare mana went to training his other thermomancer abilities.
As Dakkon looked over the mess of ice, he figured he could probably pack layers of slush against the bottom of the broken trough and refreeze it to create easy-to-vend ice sheets. But, as Dakkon considered the arm strain he’d already accumulated from breaking up the ice, he lost any enthusiasm to give himself additional, unnecessary duties. This was an old habit of his that he needed to kick. He knew from experience that improving things simply because they could be improved wasn’t a skill that was monetizable of its own accord.
C
HAPTER 20:
G
ET
R
ICH
Q
UICK
Letis made three trips to town and back, each time bringing water in three new troughs. On his final return trip, Letis brought with him two large barrels, a couple of sturdy scoops, and a shovel which he figured would save himself some trouble throughout the day. Dakkon froze the last of the ice and had to leave the remaining chisel duty to his partner so that he could maximize the odds of not being seen around the stall. It was likely some groups got an early start hunting krimmers, and Dakkon didn’t want any testimonies that he was anything short of an upstanding adventurer who just so happened to be among the first group to start refrigerating their spoils.
Dakkon’s night had been one of work and preparation. With the sun due to rise in short order, Dakkon moved back into the city and watched the crowd of players hoping to find groups reform. A few of them apparently recognized him, although he had never seen them. They invited him to join their group, but Dakkon politely declined. When he asked how they knew he could “kill a krimmer in one keen strike,” as they had put it they told him a minstrel had been singing a song about him.
“What exactly is that damned bard up to?” Dakkon wondered.
After another half-hour, Dakkon’s party of four had been reunited, and made a show of setting off, out of the city. Their presence did not go unnoticed, and a few players followed them, likely curious to see about their hunting grounds and methods since they had been the ones to earn such a bounty the day before. The group acted as though this didn’t concern them, but, in fact, it was exactly what they were hoping would happen. Dakkon wished there were more than five followers, but he couldn’t exactly advertise their departure without drawing suspicion.
The group of four worked their way to Letis’s new stall and were happy to see that the mid-thirties shopkeeper was open for business. The four graciously accepted the merchant’s offer to buy ice for an extortionate 60 gold, and sat back as the merchant scooped a layer of ice into their cart then smoothed it out. The group’s leader-apparent, Ramses, shook the merchant’s hand gratefully, then they set off to hunt. After the exchange, only two of the five who had been trailing the group earlier remained following. The other three had clearly run off, satisfied with the information which they had gathered. “Letis ought to be doing decent business soon enough,” thought Dakkon.