Chapter 1586 – Ant-venturing

Well, I have to say, after an hour or two spent on the trading floor, I was exhausted, reader. Me! Need I remind you, I was described as the indefatigable Tolly in my day!

And as long as I can jolly well put one foot in front of the other, it remains my day!

It was all very thrilling, reader, and I must say, the temptation to grab my ‘kerchief, wave it vigorously in the air and yell ‘SELL!’ was hard to resist.

After watching all those people go mad trying to make a deal, I am ashamed to say I needed a sit-down and a cup of tea in a cool shaded area.

Naturally, the Colony provided many such locations, and Emelia was able to guide me to one without too much difficulty. The girl was a lifesaver! No matter where we need to go, she always gets us there and there was always room for us. Remarkable.

“Is all of this really necessary?” I couldn’t help but ask, waving a hand toward the crowded floor, not far away from us. “Surely, there is a better way.”

At least we could converse in a normal tone of voice now.

“As I understand it, this system largely developed after the implementation of the automatically updating price-boards,” she explained. “With real-time price changes, it became possible to grab items the moment they began to dip in value. Since the Colony allows a merchant to sell contracts, they can make an order to purchase a hundred tons of Colony-grown wheat a year in advance, and if the price of wheat happens to go up, they can sell that contract to someone else for a profit without having to transport the goods or handle the sales. Many of the merchants in there don’t handle goods at all, but contracts.”

I couldn’t help but stare.

“What does the Colony get out of people exchanging contracts?”

She smirkd. The little minx actually smirkd!

“Brokerage fees,” she replied with overwhelming smug energy.

“And you’re telling me the Colony doesn’t understand money?”

“They understand economics very well,” she assured me, “but they don’t understand money. The Colony is an entirely cashless society.”

“Then what happens to the tremendous profits generated here?” I said, exasperated.

“The Colony pours it into various projects. Most of it goes into rearing future generations. A good chunk is used to import things the Colony can’t source within our own lands. Constructing nests, city development, paying for monster removal, lots of things.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“The Colony needs others to fight monsters for them?” I asked skeptically.

Many people question many things about the Colony, but their success as a fighting force is not one of them. Having weathered numerous waves since their arrival in the Dungeon as a new species, across multiple strata, they are clearly capable.