Godfather's System 115

After I had arranged the movement of the Takis and his enthusiastic group of over-skilled farmers, I was feeling the satisfaction of a job well done. 

The group had worked well enough against the beast waves considering their disadvantages, and I expected them to fight even better once I slipped them some more skills and they built a proper outpost. A tertiary source of experience, in addition to the outpost.

And Zolast, who was working surprisingly hard for an old man. 

[+7240 Experience]

[+4102 Experience]

…

[+5108 Experience]

The additional notifications started about halfway into my experiment with Takis’ group, the sensation coming directly from my connection with Zolast, flowing toward me despite the great distance. Alone, he was able to generate almost two million Experience points an hour, and that was with him holding back. 

At the same time, he was leveling up our blacksmiths. 

Still, with three distinct sources of Experience established, each with the potential to be further enhanced, my leveling speed was more or less guaranteed. And, with our dungeon constantly generating excess mana stones, the next promotion shouldn’t be a problem as well. 

And even if it was, Limenta was developing rather well as a thief. Together, getting some stones shouldn’t be too much of a problem as well.  

A few weeks without any bother was all I needed to get stronger in a very noticeable manner. I just needed to avoid the annoyance. 

“Everything is finally in order,” I said happily.  

Then, I felt a stone in my pocket getting hotter. A message stone that we distributed to the guards, only to be triggered in case of emergencies. Not the worst one, thankfully, but still enough for me to run even faster back to the headquarters. 

“When I will learn to keep my damn mouth shut and not tempt fate,” I cursed myself as I rushed, and a few minutes later, the town was already in my sights. Rather than trying to sneak in, I let the Concealment flare to the limit and just dashed, moving before the guards could react to my presence … slowing only when I approached the headquarters. 

I suppressed Concealment once more in an alley before I started running once more, but this time only at a speed an ordinary man could achieve. 

“Euon, thank the gods you’re here. Immediately go to the main hall before something happens,” the guard said. 

“Any idea what’s going on?” I asked. 

The guard shook his head. “No. Knight Artmiss just came unannounced and in a hurry, asking to see the Guildmaster. We tried to tell him that we can’t interrupt him during a magical experiment…” 

“But he just barged in,” I completed. 

“We couldn’t stop him. It’s our shame,” he said, but I just waved my hand. 

“It’s good enough you know not to do something stupid,” I said. I hardly wanted them to sacrifice themselves to block the entrance. First, the knight would easily cleave them, barely slowing him down. 

More importantly, even assuming that they were somehow successful in pushing Artmiss back, it would only make a bigger mess. 

I rushed forward toward the main hall. “… no. I don’t know when his experiment will be over. But his orders were clear. He can’t be interrupted,” Jertann said, his voice bordering a shout. Technically, it was enough for Artmiss to claim disrespect to his position and call for a duel … and that was only because Jertann was a ranking member of the guild with some legal protection. 

Without it, Artmiss could simply cut him down. 

“I’m getting tired repeating myself, boy,” Artmiss answered, his tone deceptively calm, enough to make me glad that I rushed. I could sense that he wasn’t too far away from acting. 

I burst into the room without knocking, stepping into a tense situation. 

Artmiss was at one side of the room, in full armor. Combined with all the signs of tenseness and his obvious hurry, it was not good news. Against him, Jertann stood proudly, his face contorted angrily as he grabbed the handle of his hammer like he was ready to start fighting. 

Behind him, stood the other three, looking worried yet determined. Clearly, if it came to fighting, they would join even if it was a desperate last stand, willing to follow Jertann’s leadership to death. 

I couldn’t help but sigh. Young people. All enthusiasm and loyalty, but preciously little sense. 

Only when I started walking toward them, they looked at me. The four looked at me with relief … though Jertann’s relief was tinged with a subtle annoyance — another mark of his mysterious transformation — while Artmiss was just dismissive. 

“And the merchant is here as well,” he declared, his disrespect clear. 

His disrespect annoyed the four even further, and Jertann even let out a growl. Flattering to see they took a disrespect toward me so personally, but it was also inconvenient. 

I immediately reached them with Charisma, calming them subtly, hoping that Artmiss wouldn’t notice a subtle intervention. 

“Yes, Sir Artmiss. I’m here. How can I help you?” 

“You can go and bring Zolast here before I run out of patience and draw my sword,” he declared. Only a lifetime of practice allowed me to keep my face blank. The threat was not exactly subtle, and I wasn’t exactly famous for taking the threats to my men in good humor. 

However, unlike the youths behind me, I knew to keep my anger hidden and cold. “As you wish, Knight Artmiss. As long as you’re willing to delay the opening of the dungeon for a few days, I’ll go and interrupt his magical experiment…” I said with the biggest smile I could achieve.

Then, without even waiting for an answer, I turned and started walking away, like I was ready to do exactly that. 

I didn’t have a way to send a message to Zolast — one of the bigger disadvantages of the dungeons — but I didn’t let that bother me. Why should I, when I was confident in their reaction. 

“Stop!” Artmiss called immediately, his shout backed by a thick, domineering cloud of pressure. The intensity of his reaction showed his desperation. 

It seemed that their long disappearance hadn’t been as fruitful as they had been hoping for. 

I froze, acting like I was affected by his order, and only when the weight of Charisma disappeared, I turned toward him. “Is there a problem, my lord?” I said. 

“Explain,” he ordered. 

“Explain what, my lord?” I asked, deliberately acting obtuse. Not exactly the most devastating revenge for his threats against my men … but it was a start. Sometimes, it was better to know where to stop. 

“The dungeon, of course,” he ordered. “How are you able to open it? And why didn’t you inform us immediately?” 

“Well, this poor merchant was lucky enough to acquire a few rare materials from an unfortunate seller. Luckily, our great guild master is genius enough to repurpose them into a form that could be used for dungeon construction. However, he left us with some express instructions not to disturb him as the process couldn’t be interrupted.” 

As I explained that, the four had looked shocked at my obvious lies. Luckily, Artmiss misread that. “Why didn’t tell me that?” he said as he pointed at them. 

“After the latest sabotage attempt to the dungeon, we decided it was for the best to keep that development a secret. Not that we don’t trust them, but with fewer people aware of the secret, the less chance for our enemies to notice it and —“ I explained, only to be interrupted. 

“Wait, sabotage? What sabotage?” he asked, shocked. 

Once again, I was struggling to contain my smirk. It seemed that our noble knight was having some trouble with his subordinates if they hadn’t informed of him something of that magnitude. “Oh, I’m sure I have misread the importance of the situation if your loyal subordinates didn’t find it important enough to report,” I said. 

“Explain,” he ordered, even more furious. 

“As you wish, sir knight,” I said before I gave a very detailed account of the Green rebellion, starting from their infiltration of the Night Blades and the casino attack, followed by the skirmish at the outer town, the trick with the guards, and the premature attack with the mana bomb… 

With each event, his face turned stiffer. “Good, it seems that my subordinates are capable enough to handle the threats without bothering me,” he said, but I didn’t need the assistance of my Perception to know it was just a vain attempt to make it look like he trusted his guards to handle it without his input rather than a gross violation of their orders. 

Though, I couldn’t help but wonder what they were thinking. They couldn’t have expected to hide all that happened, right? 

“Is there anything else I could help you with, Sir Artmiss? A drink, maybe, as you wait for the Guildmaster to arrive. Or, if you want, I could still go and summon him,” I said. 

“No need,” he growled as he turned, and without saying anything else, walked away. 

Jertann looked like he was about to say something, but despite his anger, a glare was enough to silence him. I waited until Artmiss left the headquarters before I turned to him. “Explain to me exactly what were you thinking challenging that idiot directly,” I said, my earlier subservient attitude completely gone. 

“He disrespected our guild. Even a knight can’t just barge in order to see our Guildmaster,” Jertann explained. “And, Zolast was busy.” 

“What was your plan if you insisted. Are going to go to the capital and make an official complaint? Or are going to fight, hoping that you will be able to take him down before he killed your brother and your best friends?” I said. 

He shuffled in discomfort as his anger dissipated, realizing that his recklessness might have ended very badly. 

“I’m sorry,” he murmured. 

“Don’t be sorry. Just make sure to think better the next time.” 

“I was afraid that he would realize we have already opened the dungeon. If they noticed it …” he tried to argue, but his voice dwindled under my gaze. 

“Nothing would have happened. They were gone for a week, and at worst, we could have claimed we finished it during their absence, with no harm done. Certainly a better option than a needless death match that would have turned us to outlaws even if you somehow won.” Then, I turned to Karak. “I expect better from you as well. You should have seen the problem with the approach. Next time, take the initiative to speak out rather than letting your friend make a big mistake.” 

Karak nodded, his head dipping down in shame. 

“That applies to you two as well,” I said. 

“Sorry,” Terma and Silas murmured with matching blushes, reminding me that just how young they were. Barely into their twenties — except Terma, who was not even twenty — I didn’t want to treat them like this. 

But for better or worse, they decided to step into the path of power. They either learned... 

Or perished. 

“Follow me. Let’s do some training while waiting for Zolast,” I said, ignoring their shivers as I walked. “Go and wait for me in the training room,” I said while I walked toward the leveling ward. I had enough experience to only level up once more, but it was better than nothing.

I had a lot of plans to adjust.