episode_0013

Deciding to get revenge, I immediately started smoking a lot of cigarettes.

Of course, I wasn’t saying I had to do something because I was stressed. This is because it was an item that helped restore dark magic. This was to restore the skeleton’s black magic power, as it was consuming a tremendous amount of it, so that it could demonstrate greater abilities.

A skeleton began producing several iron products a day. Kitchen knife, axe, pickaxe, shovel, sickle, etc. All kinds of iron products needed in the village immediately poured out.

“Brother! Brother! Mom, ask if they sell pots too!”

“Pot? Would you tell your mom that you will make it for her when she comes tomorrow?”

“Yes!”

“Euiing? Is it possible to make it to order? Then just give me one of them!”

As new products were added in response to customer requests, the blacksmith shop began to take shape.

Due to the influx of goods 24 hours a day, products were piling up on the shelves, and money was also piling up in my wallet.

It goes without saying, but while I was accumulating a lot of money, there was someone else who was losing money as well. It was the blacksmith whose name I did not know.

The products made did not sell due to their high prices. No one would pay 20,000 med for something that could be bought for 5,000 med. Occasionally, I would visit people who were late with news about their surroundings, but that was all I did once.

In the end, in order to sell, you have to lower the price, but doing so didn’t mean you could compete with me. Even if I sell it at this price, I have something left over, but the other person has nothing left over.

Also, even if they competed with me by selling like that, there was a difference in the quantity that could be sold. Because of the skeletons that operate 24 hours a day, I was able to produce more than 8 times more volume than my opponent. Custom manufacturing was also like that, so it couldn’t be a competition.

“Uh… … ? This is someone I haven’t seen before?”

“Oh, I’m from a nearby village. I heard they sell it very cheaply here.”

Rumors even spread to nearby villages, and people from other villages even came to visit. At this price, I felt like I could cover the cost and risk of moving.

Naturally, that accelerated the speed of stopping and killing the person competing with me even more. This is because they wanted to compete with me and were selling at a slightly lower price than me. People from nearby villages had completely wiped out the area, leaving them with nothing to sell. I still had a lot of items to sell, taking advantage of the overwhelming volume produced 24 hours a day.

There was a fight over the market in this village, but in reality, not the residents of this village but the residents of another village came and swept up all the goods, so the competition itself was close to being non-existent.

He sold it at a loss, but there was no competition and there was no inventory left, so his blacksmith shop had no choice but to close down. Even if they tried to monopolize the market, there was absolutely no way to do it, so it was inevitable.

“Warlock! I will curse you! Just ruin it!”

The man who loaded the cart with the few remaining iron products that had been sold to other villagers, as well as anvils, hammers, and other blacksmithing items, began to run away, saying he would curse me. However, since I was a warlock, it seemed like I wasn’t completely free from fear.

I snorted at that sight. To a warlock who could throw a real curse, a verbal curse was nothing. In fact, when I was learning about curses, I was the one who used it myself and experienced it myself. It was a mistake, but after experiencing such a curse myself, verbal curses felt like nothing.

Of course, I had no intention of leaving alone the man who had cursed me to ruin. Even though this village was growing, the absolute size of the market was small, so it was decided that if he settled in any village, he would open a store there. The market originally had to be pioneered and expanded.

Anyway, after watching the guy trying so hard to run away for a while, I told my dad the news.

“Really?”

“I swept away all my daily life and left for another village. When I checked, the place where the blacksmith shop was located was also sold?”

“Hahaha! That guy is awesome!”

It seems like he doesn’t have any grudge against the guy who made him quit the blacksmith shop. When I saw them bursting into laughter as if they were very happy and happy, I could feel their sincerity.

I was worried that if he later settled down somewhere, he would open a store there and supply products at low prices, and he would love it to the point of falling over.

“Andrew.”

However, my uncle, who had been smiling and expressing his joy for a while, suddenly called me with a serious look.

“The guy is gone, but now there are a lot of people asking if we are going to raise the price. What are you going to do?”

“Price? I have no intention of changing it.”

If you want to get a higher price, you can get it, but raising the price as soon as you monopolize the market would be a fool’s errand. I was a warlock, but not a gangster.

Moreover, if they raised the price because they were a monopoly, they would be no different from the guy I kicked out. Such treatment was a request. Moreover, there was still quite a bit left over. The profit from each piece wasn’t much, but as a lot of them were sold, there was a lot left over. It was the so-called Bakridamae.

It was better to sell 100 items in a month and make 20,000 meds than to sell 1 item in a month and make 10,000 meds. So there was no reason to raise the price in the first place.

“That’s a good thing. People were worried about what would happen if prices went up.”

He said that when he was making dough at the bakery, many people would sneak up on him and ask what the price would be at the blacksmith shop.

However, the father’s expression seemed strangely regretful. I wondered why that was the case, but when I answered that question and said that I didn’t know what would happen yet, he bought me a bunch of bread and snacks so that I could have a good conversation.

“… … No, you’re saying it’s a shame because there aren’t people like that anymore? I am now a complete bakery owner.”

“This uncle is now the owner of the bakery. The forge is no longer mine, it is yours. Whatever the method, I couldn’t be more satisfied with you, a member of the Steel family, running the blacksmith shop!”

Hahahaha – My father burst out laughing and told me to work hard at running the blacksmith shop, and seemed to be very relaxed. Rather, I was now thinking about how to make the dough better.

I felt at ease thinking that it was not that someone else had stopped running the blacksmith shop, but that it had been passed on to me, my son.

For my uncle, I decided to grow my blacksmith shop very steadily. So much so that it has influence not just on the village blacksmith shop, but on the entire continent.

And, to do that, there were quite a few things needed.

“Boss! How many days does it take to make a custom order?”

“I think it will take about three days.”

“Didn’t you say it would take two days last time?”

“It was like that before, but now there are so many orders. We are getting pushed back little by little.”

Among the things that were needed, the most urgent thing was to quickly process the backlog of orders. As the rumor that it was being sold cheaply spread everywhere, more and more people came to buy it from other villages, not just our village.

Not only the kind of off-the-shelf products that are generally sold, but also custom-made products that were made to suit the person who ordered them were being sold in droves. Of course, we had to make ready-made products as well as custom-made products.

Thanks to this, even if the four skeletons produced it non-stop 24 hours a day, production could not keep up with demand.

If things continued like this, there would be a queue for the rest of my life, so I had to find a way to get there. But the method was quickly found. Because there was a very easy and simple method.

“I need to make more skeletons.”

The method was to create a new skeleton. If supply was insufficient, the production line could be expanded.

There was a downside to expanding the production line, which would be a loss if demand decreased, but it was not a drawback to me. Once you made the skeleton, you could use it in any way.

Anyway, I decided to make more skeletons, so I decided to get the corpse of a monster, which can be said to be the most essential material for skeletons. Of course, I wasn’t planning on getting it myself. Since all combat skeletons were blacksmiths, it was not possible to use skeletons who were active as blacksmiths.

So, the place I headed to was the mercenary hall in the village. The reason it was a hall rather than a guild or office was because the village was still small and no formal guild or office had been established. It was more like a space for mercenaries wandering around to gather among themselves.

As its name suggests, the hall was not that big. However, there was no problem with hiring mercenaries.

“Oh! Aren’t you a warlock blacksmith? Did you come here to request something?”

“Request?! I want to do it! But, is it possible to receive compensation in swords instead of money?”

“If it’s a request that a warlock wants, isn’t it a bit dangerous? Should I just go for a drink… … .”

“Alcohol? It’s good! Let’s go together too!”

“You crazy people. The warlock hasn’t said anything yet!”

As I pushed through the door of the hall, several mercenaries scattered around inside greeted me noisily. This is because the people who visited my blacksmith shop most often were mercenaries. Since they frequently use blades and other weapons, they had no choice but to visit frequently for maintenance purposes.

Since they don’t make a lot of money in such a small town, they don’t often buy new products, but sharpening or reinforcing blades is a regular activity.

In a word, the people here are my precious Gauguin… … No, it was customers. So, I approached the bulletin board with a friendly smile. Because it was not a separate guild or office, in order to hire mercenaries, a notice had to be posted on the bulletin board.

He put up a large notice on the bulletin board that he had prepared in advance and said that he would be requesting mercenaries.

“If you capture a goblin or orc with its body intact, you will be paid at least 30,000 to 200,000 med. However, keep in mind that your body must be intact. If it falls somewhere, has a dent, or has a comminuted fracture, I won’t buy it. I’ll post a notice for more details, so please check and come back when I get it.”

“Two hundred thousand-!”

And, upon hearing that there was a request, the people who had been upset all jumped up and rushed towards the bulletin board. In a village like this, even the most expensive request was around 10,000 to 20,000 med. However, when they said they would give up to 200,000 med, depending on the situation, the reaction was fierce. It was so intense that even the mercenary who was sleeping while snoring suddenly woke up.

Of course, paying 200,000 med was the only amount you would pay if you caught the orc completely intact, but people started running like crazy like people blinded by money.

“What! What! What!”

Dozens of mercenaries grabbed their weapons and rushed out of the fence, causing an uproar in the security guard.

And, the mercenaries who ran like crazy came back again around sunset even after three days. Even if it was a goblin, it seemed like they caught it as a team because it would be dangerous to catch it with an intact body alone.