The canyon entrance to the Iron Caverns was a meat grinder. The ground was littered with dissolving pixel-corpses as the
Perched on a ridge overlooking the slaughter, Master Galt sat on a folding velvet stool he had paid a carpenter 500 Gold to craft. He was eating a grape.
"Disgusting," Galt chewed, watching a barbarian get shield-bashed off a cliff. "Look at them. Squabbling over a hole in the ground like rats."
Standing behind him was a man who didn't look like a rat. He looked like a viper. Clad in dark, non-reflective leather armor that shimmered with a [Stealth] enchantment, the mercenary leader wiped a dagger with a silk cloth.
"The Vanguard is distracted," the mercenary whispered. "They are so focused on keeping people out, they aren't watching who is coming out."
Galt smiled. "Exactly. Kaelen plays the hero. He thinks control comes from standing in front of the door. But control comes from owning the exit."
Galt pointed a pudgy, ring-covered finger toward the dungeon mouth.
A small group of five adventurers was stumbling out of the cave. They weren't Vanguard. They were a "wildcard" party—skilled solo players who had managed to slip past the blockade hours ago using invisibility potions.
They looked terrible. Their armor was melted by Terrus's magma. Their healer was out of mana. But the leader, a rogue, was clutching a glowing orange box to his chest with frantic desperation.
"Target acquired," the mercenary said. "That box has the drop signature of a Guild Token."
"And their bags are likely full of Mithril," Galt added, his eyes gleaming. "The Black Vipers are on the clock, Captain. secure my assets."
The mercenary captain signaled to the empty air. "Execute."
[The Ambush]
The wildcard party collapsed just outside the dungeon instance boundary, gasping for breath.
"We did it," the rogue panted, grinning at the orange box. "We beat the Earth Shaker. We can start our own Guild! We'll call it—"
He never finished the sentence.
THWIP.
An arrow, black as void, struck the rogue in the throat.
[Critical Hit! Sneak Attack Bonus: 400% Damage.]
The rogue didn't even scream. He dissolved into light instantly. The orange box clattered to the stony ground.
"Ambush!" the healer screamed, raising a staff.
From the shadows of the canyon walls, ten figures materialized. They didn't shout battle cries. They moved with the cold efficiency of paid killers.
The Black Vipers descended. It wasn't a fight; it was a liquidation. The exhausted adventurers, with their cooldowns blown on the boss fight, were slaughtered in ten seconds.
The Mercenary Captain stepped over the fading corpse of the healer and picked up the orange box. He also grabbed the heavy sacks of ore the party had dropped.
"Clean," the Captain said. He looked up at the ridge where Galt was waiting.
[The Founding]
Galt descended the ridge, his velvet robes sweeping the dust. The blockade battle was still raging a hundred yards away, loud enough to mask their transaction.
The Captain handed Galt the box.
"Pleasure doing business," the Captain said. "That will be 10,000 Gold Coins. Up front."
"Worth every copper," Galt chuckled. He took the box. He didn't look at it with awe, like Kaelen had. He looked at it like a ledger entry.
He tapped the box.
[Guild Creation Token Detected.]
[Input Guild Name:]
Galt typed rapidly.
[Guild Created: THE GOLDEN LEDGER]
[Guild Master: Galt]
[Tag:
A golden pulse rippled out, but Galt dismissed the fanfare. He immediately opened the Guild Management window.
"Captain," Galt said. "I am sending a Guild Invite to you and all your men."
The Captain frowned. "We are mercenaries. We don't join causes."
"It's not a cause," Galt said, opening the [Guild Treasury] tab. "It's a payroll system. Join the guild, and I can automate your salary in System Credits. Plus, you get the Guild Buff: [Mercantile Defense], which increases your Armor by 10% when guarding Guild Assets."
The Captain accepted the invite.
"Now," Galt said, looking at the sacks of stolen ore. "Set up a perimeter. Not at the entrance. Set it up on the road back to the capital. We aren't going to stop people from mining. We're just going to make sure they sell it to us."
[The Economic Shift: The Great Mithril Flood]
Three days later.
Elian stood in the Auction House of the Capital City. The mood had changed drastically.
Previously, players wandered around in mismatched leather and rusty iron gear. Today, the plaza shimmered with a silvery-blue light.
[Mithril Plate Armor]
[Mithril Longswords]
[Mithril-Tipped Arrows]
Everyone had it.
Elian looked at the giant holographic market graph floating in the center of the room.
"The price of Mithril has crashed by 600%," Elian noted. "Supply is flooding the market."
"Analysis," Query reported. "The Guild
Elian walked over to a stall run by a
"Tier 2 Breastplate," the merchant NPC barked. "Only 500 Credits! Cheaper than grinding it yourself! Why die in a cave when Galt provides?"
Elian watched a Level 8 Warrior buy the plate. As soon as he equipped it, his stats spiked.
[Defense: 15 -> 45]
"The power floor is rising," Elian murmured. "With cheap Mithril, players can survive Level 15 zones now. They'll level up faster. The content drought I predicted for next week... is going to happen in two days."
He scanned the crowd. He saw Kaelen near the bank, looking furious.
Elian approached the Vanguard leader. "You look unhappy for a man whose faction owns the dungeon entrance."
"We hold the door," Kaelen spat, gesturing wildly at the market. "But Galt... that snake holds the road. He hired the Black Vipers. They ambush my supply caravans. They 'confiscate' ore as a 'road tax'. And now he's selling our mithril for pennies!"
"He's undercutting you to bankrupt your war chest," Elian explained calmly. "He knows the Vanguard needs money to maintain that blockade. If the price of Mithril drops, your profit margin vanishes. You can't pay your soldiers."
"It is dishonorable!"
"It is capitalism," Elian corrected. "And it's working. Look."
Elian pointed to a group of new players. They weren't asking to join the Vanguard. They were lining up at Galt's recruitment desk.
"Sign up with the Ledger!" a crier shouted. "We pay a daily salary of 50 Credits! We provide free Mithril sets after one week of service! Don't fight for glory—fight for a paycheck!"
Kaelen gripped the hilt of his sword. "I should declare Guild War. I should march on his headquarters and burn it down."
"You could," Elian nodded. "But his mercenaries are decked out in full +5 Mithril gear, and your men are still wearing iron because you're hoarding the ore instead of refining it."
Elian pulled up a window.
[Global Economy Status]
[Inflation Rate: High]
[Dominant Currency: Credits (for items), Gold (for bribes)]
"Galt has accelerated the timeline," Elian said. "He's flooding the server with gear. That means I need to introduce something harder for them to fight, or they'll get bored and start burning down the city."
Elian turned to Kaelen. "If you want to beat a Merchant Lord, you can't just out-fight him. You have to out-bid him. Or..." Elian's eyes flashed blue. "...you have to control the one resource he can't buy."
"And what is that?" Kaelen asked.
"Information," Elian said. "Terrus wasn't the only thing waking up in the mountains. There's a Raid Instance opening above the resource dungeon. Galt has the ore, but he doesn't have the skill to clear a 40-man Raid. You do."
Elian leaned in. "First Clear gets a unique Guild Tech: [Tax Evasion]. It allows your guild to ignore Auction House fees."
Kaelen's eyes widened. That tech would destroy Galt's profit margins.
"Where is the entrance?" Kaelen demanded.
"Higher," Elian pointed to the snowy peaks. "Gather your elites, Vanguard. The Resource War is over. The Race for World First has begun."
System Entity Profile: Master Galt
Name: Galt
Class: [Merchant Lord] (Hidden Class - Unlocked via wealth accumulation)
Guild: The Golden Ledger
Level: 5 (Power-leveled by mercenaries)
Unique Skills:
* [Hostile Takeover]: Can buy ownership of an NPC shop or building if the owner has low reputation.
* [Bribe]: Can pay humanoid mobs to stop attacking for 5 minutes.
* [Pay to Win]: Can consume Gold Coins to temporarily boost stats (1 Gold = +1 Stat Point for 1 hour).
Current Strategy:
* Use mercenaries to control logistics.
* Crash the Mithril market to arm the general populace.
* Create a dependency on
Economic Update: The Mithril Crash
* Pre-Dungeon Price: 1 Ore = 100 Credits.
* Current Price: 1 Ore = 15 Credits.
* Impact:
* Warrior/Tank Classes: Massive buff. Survivability is up 50% global average.
* Caster Classes: Struggling. Mithril interferes with mana regeneration. Mages are demanding "Moon-Cloth," which hasn't been discovered yet.
* Inflation: Since gear is cheap, players have leftover Credits. Prices for consumables (Potions/Food) have doubled.