Evolution: A Warlock’s Rise To Power

"I can admit that the flying carpet is good, but it is still a single item." Lucan said to Bo. "But the Goblin Crushers weren't the only ones to get loot recently. Unless you are looking for just a couple things, you are still going to have to shell out some gold or cash."

"Of course, I am aware of that. I would prefer real money by the way. We need every bit of gold we have. But this isn't the only thing I have that would interest you. I have something that you will want even more than this carpet."

"Oh? What else do you have?"

A shady smile spread across Bo's face. "Why don't I grab Squeaky Mouse, the Goblin Crusher's guild manager, and we can take a look at what you have."

"Sure. We can do that."

Bo made the magic carpet descend. They landed on the ground and stepped off before the carpet shrunk and disappeared inside the source stone.

"I will just hold onto this for now." Bo said as he stored the stone.

Meeting up with Squeaky, the four of them headed down to the vaults in the fortress.

"What are you guys looking for?" Lucan asked, trying to determine which vault to open first.

"We always need more armor and weapons for mid-level and high-level players. Recipes, skill books, and spell books are always good. Trinkets, raw materials, basically we needed everything." Squeaky said.

Lucan sighed, that didn't help at all.

He opened the first vault. It was filled with minerals, exotic woods, and dried plants.

Squeaky was instantly excited. He stepped forward but caught himself and didn't enter the vault. "Boss, look. They have Adalerian silk, our alchemists can help the tailors turn that into the fabric we need. We can make a lot of flying carpets with that."

"Oh really?" Lucan said while looking to Bo.

His uncle could only shake his head as he felt his foot slip in this upcoming negotiation.

Lucan closed the door after Squeaky finished compiling a list of things he was interested in.

The next vault was filled with monster parts. It contained anything of value that Lucan had never used from his kills. The Windy Willow organization had contributed a good amount from when he paid them to run dungeons. Squeaky was most intrigued by the remains from the ethereal realm. He didn't have much use for them, but it was something he had never seen before.

Lucan had a whole vault dedicated to armor and another for weapons. Most of the gear was mismatched and taken from Bone Crusher's headquarters or picked up off the street after his raid. Again, the Willow organization had made contributions as well. The vault filled with weapons was much the same.

Lucan was glad that he had Commander Gear reorganize the vaults. Everything was well organized and displayed nicely. The warlock's favorite vault was set up like a library. Its shelves were filled with different types of books and recipes. There was even a table and a few chairs in the center of the room. For this vault, Lucan just passed a manifest of the contents to Squeaky.

The guild didn't have much interest in the food vault. The wine and liquor were hidden in the back. Squeaky and Bo did not see it, and Lucan didn't bring it up.

The final vault he opened for them was the main overflow vault. It held a bit over everything, but it only contained the best. The door was thicker, and the lock was harder to pick. If someone were to raid Lucan… it wouldn't be impossible to break into this vault, but they would sure have to work for it.

"Woah… You sure saved the best for last." Squeaky said to Lucan before getting as close as he could to the opening and looking around.

"Not bad." Bo said.

"Ah! Boss, they have it." Squeaky said, pointing to a talisman made of some unknown metal.

It was unknown, because when Lucan tried to identify it, he could only see question marks. Without knowing what it was or what it did, he decided that it would be best to keep it in the main vault. The only other item he had seen with question marks was the Essence of Shadows bead, and that thing was amazing.

"Boss, do you know what this mean!?! The guild leader will be able to take the next step in his legendary class change quest. Our guild is one step closer to having the first legendary class."

Bo turned to see Lucan nodding very happily. He felt he had just tumbled down the hill from his high ground in the negotiation. He made a note to have a talk with Squeaky when they got back. It wasn't the end of the world to give Lucan some information, but if they were in the same situation with any other seller, it would be completely inappropriate.

"Woah, look, look." Squeaky said pointing to the other end of the vault. Before he could say anything further, Bo covered his mouth.

"Quietly make a list of what you want." He then turned to Lucan. "Let me show you something I known you won't be able to pass on."

Bo pulled an arrow quiver out of his bag.

"A beginner's quiver can hold twenty arrows. A good quiver can hold one hundred. But I have something better. This is the Bottomless Quiver. While not truly bottomless, it does hold five hundred arrows in its self-storage compartment. Each compartment can hold one hundred arrows of the same kind. When it is full, five arrows will stick out the top. One for each compartment. Once you pull one out, it is automatically replaced. What do you think?"

"I think you play dirty." Lucan said while looking at Silent who couldn't take her eyes off of the quiver.

"I should let you know that this thing is pretty rare. I can't let it go for a cheap price; I have to answer to the board members if I don't act in the best interest of the company."

"Lucan…" Silent said while tugging on his sleeve.

"I know, I will take care of it." He turned back to his uncle. "I want both the carpet and the quiver."

"I am sure we can work something out." Bo said while rubbing his hands together.

Squeaky handed over the list he had compiled to Bo. Lucan and his uncle spent the next twenty minutes haggling over price.

Bo ended up purchasing over twenty crates of raw materials. Six hundred pieces of mid-level gear and weapons and two hundred pieces for high level players. They bought a lot of recipes. The recipes weren't designed for grand or unique items. They were basic crafting projects. They could use all the duplicate recipes to enable a fresh set of craftsmen to rise through the ranks. The only item they took from the main vault was the talisman made from unknown metal. Bo did make mention of a few other items and requested that Lucan contact him if someone else made an offer on them.

Lucan received both the flying carpet and the Bottomless Quiver. On top of that, Terracrop wired forty million dollars to his company's account.

They both felt that they had gotten a good deal. Lucan sold off things he had stolen. He didn't even mind overpaying for the two items he received. And Bo was happy to haggle down the price to a third of its value. He had gone out on a limb when he took the first flying carpet made and requisitioned a nice piece of gear from the Goblin Crushers fortress raid. It wasn't like they didn't have archers who wanted it. But now he could go back and the members of the board would have to admit that it had more value when traded to Lucan.

The board had been concerned with Lucan lately. Shortly after they signed a contract with him, his fortress was attacked. And then he stirred up a whole mess with Bone Crusher. But from how things had gone so far, even if they were worried, they couldn't deny their current profits.

Lucan called Commander Gear to assist him in the vaults. Gear and a few other shadow elves loaded up the items that Bo had purchased into crates and took them to the command room. The goblin Crushers then transported it all back to their guild. Squeaky ran of the take the talisman directly to the guild leader.