Chapter 150 – Pesky dwarves.

“Say, whit did thay fin’ out?”

“Not much, th’ informant didn’t wanna git too close as thay ‘ave some strange mutt guarding th’ house.”

A couple of dwarves were talking to each other while grumbling slightly.

“How come ur we paying them if thay can’t do thair jab?”

One of the dwarves spoke up as he was unhappy about the lack of information that was given to them. They had been spying on their competition and even hired one of the town’s known ruffians to keep an eye out on the house that was outside the city.

“Thay did fin’ oot something ‘n’ it doesn’t look good, he reported that thay brought up some streenge shaped lump o’ metal…”

“Streenge lump o’metal?”

“Aye, ’twas supposedly movin`”

“Movin’? Is th’ basterd already making golems?”

While the information was vague from what their informant described, they came to a conclusion that it could have been a basic type of golem. This information was not taken well as they all finally recognized that they weren’t dealing with a simple Runesmith.

“That human mist ‘ave someone backing him or he is hiding his real identity, ah juist will not believe that someone that young could mak’ a golem.”

The dwarves here nodded with their heads. In their eyes, the man that was calling himself Wayland was a true mystery. They saw his wares, in some places they were average at best while in other aspects they overshadowed old masters.

The biggest mystery for them was how a human was doing this. Without the proper guidance and knowledge, it was extremely hard to produce a working rune, even less something complex as a golem.

They could only conclude that he was getting some outside help or he was some old craftsman hiding behind a young man’s face. It wasn’t unheard of people to use illusion spells to alter their appearance. They were up against a crafty runesmith so it was plausible that he could do such a thing.

“Aye, he might be trying tae mak’ a name fur himself ‘ere.”

The dwarves came to the conclusion that the man named Wayland was probably trying to root himself in this town. He probably had some prior knowledge about runesmithing from an outside source and was trying to undermine the Dwarven Union’s monopoly on runecrafted items in a lesser-known location.

“So how do we go aboot getting rid of ‘im? Should we try to employ ‘im ourselves? Ahm not sure if that he wid go for that efter a’ that we had done.”

The dwarves from the union that had gathered in this town were sent here on a mission. First, they needed to see if it was worthwhile to invest in the city. Albrook passed that initial test and they sent over more people to establish their own smithies and shops meant mostly for the adventurers.

Most of the union’s manpower was focused on the main city of Isgard. They were just a branch with very few blacksmithing masters that were not even tier 3 craftsmen.

The two most established were Bamur the Enchantsmith and Dunan that was both an Armorsmith and Weaponsmith. While the two were not tier 3 class holders they were the closest ones to achieving them.

It was a planned move to have these two achieve a breakthrough in this city and entrench the union’s grasp on it. With how it was looking now, they were faltering as the human Runesmith’s runic wares were more popular than the enchanted ones.

“Aye, too late for dat now. How goes the business though, what off the other artisans?”

Dunan asked while scoffing at one of the other dwarves that was wearing glasses and seemed a bit more refined than the other craftsmen.

“Tis proceeding as planned, we hae been successfully undercutting thair profits. Even th’ guild can’t complain as we aren’t doin’ anythin’ illegal.”

While the runic weapons and trinkets were selling rather well this wasn’t for all the other wares. The dwarf-run stores could lower their prices to an extreme and just price the competition out.

This was quite the basic approach which they implemented in all of the cities that they tried to get a footing in. They just lowered the prices to a point until their competition could not sustain themselves. Then they either ran them out of town or had them sign contracts with their union to profit even more.

It didn’t seem like this approach would work with the person called Wayland though. His wares were actually selling and they couldn’t cut off his resources either as he was getting them through the adventurer guild.

The union and the adventurer guild were somewhat in a turbulent relationship. Both of them somewhat relied on each other to make a profit while also having other avenues to earn coins from.

The dwarves could also outfit armies while the guild could get some items from the dungeons and other artisans. The two behemoths walked a fine line and tried to coexist without damaging their own business model.

While no one wanted to get under the skin of the current guild master. The guild stores weren’t really a big part of the adventurer brand. Thus the dwarves here didn’t really feel like they would be getting that much backlash if they ran them out of business.

After everything settled they were convinced that the people above them would strike a deal that benefited both sides. What they were responsible for now was how well this deal would be in their favor. If they took over most of the city’s market share the guild would be forced to do business with them as their store reputation wouldn’t allow them to go forward with their business model.

“Good, let us wait now, if everything goes as planned we won’t need tae do a ting…”

The dwarves nodded at each other as the decision was made. This concluded their little get-together. The meaning of the last words could soon be seen a few days later at the adventurer’s guild quarters.

“What is it now Elodia?”

“It’s the shop owners, they wish to talk to you…”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Talk to me? Tell them to go away, I’m busy.”

The guild master was looking over some papers in his office while Elodia tried to inform him about an unruly mob of people.

“I don’t think they will listen to reason this time around, the months were not good on them.”

“Not good? Is it the blasted dwarves?”

Elodia nodded but as she tried to go into some more detail she heard a loud knock on the door.

“Aurdhan, I know that you are in there, get your ass out here, you have a lot of explaining to do!”

A maddened voice of a woman was heard by both the people inside this office. It was followed up by some more voices and more banging on the door.

“Shit, this is more serious than I expected…”

Aurdhan gave out a sigh but then nodded to Elodia who then unlocked the door. The moment she did about ten people entered the room. It was clear that these people were craftsmen and artisans that had all signed a contract with the guild. All of them pushed themselves inside and at the front was a peculiar beast woman with cow-like horns.

“There you are, explain yourself!”

“Dyana? What’s gotten into you…”

Arduhan looked at the maddened blacksmiths. They all started shouting at the same time so it was hard to understand at first but he quickly figured out what was going on. Due to the dwarven union’s stranglehold on the city, these people were being shunned.

“Please, everyone calm down, the guild master will hear you out.”

Elodia interrupted from the side and was able to somewhat calm the angry mob down and they finally started talking.