Tales of The Mighty Dragonair

As they crossed the forest border, Arthur instructed them to get down and continue the journey on foot. The distance between the village and the forest wasn't that much, and they managed to cross it in less than two hours.

"You know I never came here before, as all my travels and staying outside the forest was at the big inns in the huge city of the black raven clan to the north west from here," Randy, who was trying to get as much closer to Arthur as possible, using his natural way of speaking to people, said.

Arthur didn't hear about such a clan before, nor he had any impression of that name in the old memories of Willy, so he looked at Ron, who explained:

"It's a bigger clan to the north west, controlling huge lands, mainly next to the forest. I heard they claimed another clan to our north, making us so close to their borders, with the white rabbit clan standing between the two of us."

When Arthur heard the white rabbit clan name, his heart tightened, as this was the clan which attacked and poisoned Willy from before. He didn't fear that clan, but he felt something seemed fishy here.

A mighty clan was getting so near to here, and at the same time, a mediocre clan got the guts to attack them here, this was no coincidence at all.

"What's the power of this black raven clan?" Arthur asked, trying to assess the hidden danger lurking near him.

"It had two big towns, calling them cities, but they are towns after all," Amelia said, before Randy could blabber again. "they had many rogue mages visiting them there, as the one town lying on the borders of the forest had a branch for the bounty hunter guild," she added.

"What about their strength, mages I mean," Arthur asked, illuminating the point he needed to know.

"I once had a quarrel with one of their main mages, and his strength was decent," Randy hurried to say, before Amelia interfered again.

"They had a couple of mages studying at Dorgazire academy, for five years now. I heard they are good mages, and beside these two there are around fifty other mages, ranging between rogue mages, or mages studying at lesser academies," Omar said, in much more details than Randy.

"Two mages at the Dorgazire academy…" Arthur muttered to himself, as he didn't want any trouble regarding the academy.

His little words attracted the attention of the three veterans, who understood part of the picture.

"Are there any expected problems with them?" Amelia asked, "If so you don't need to worry much about the bounty hunter guild, they are always a neutral party," she added.

"Sure, but they can issue a request there to get aid from them," Arthur said, explaining part of the problem.

"That might be true," Omar said, "I know the leader of the branch there, and so Amelia and Randy. If you want us to speak with him, we can do that immediately," he added, ready to go this far to gaining Arthur's favor.

Arthur didn't reply at once, as he knew this problem must be dealt with much caution and wisdom. Killing a snake like this clan wouldn't be an easy task.

"Tell me, what is the currency used at the guild?" he suddenly asked.

"Mainly it's the academy coin, Dorgazire coins, but not many can have it, so they used a bargain method, buying monster's bones and other products such as ores and weapons in exchange for the coins," Randy replied.

"I assume that bargains are always so low in value, right?" he asked.

"Yes, in comparison to the prices of issuing any task at the guild," Randy nodded.

"I want to issue a quest there," after some time of deep contemplation, Arthur said, "in exchange for three horned living monsters, I want all the rogue mages the guild could amass to come in a recruitment quest to my clan," he added, making the faces of everyone change at once. they looked in astonishment at him, as they didn't think he would use such a card.

No one had ever managed to capture monsters alive except at the academies, strong enough like Dorgazire, and they kept these monsters locked up for training their disciples.

"Is there a specific offer to make?" Amelia asked, very impressed by Arthur's move.

He planned to eliminate, or at least decrease, the threat coming from the black raven clan. In a way, he would make it lose many mages who might be interested in their offer, and on another hand, he would gain many mages to help defend his clan, and many of them might be interested in joining his group, if he allowed them to see the secrets he held.

"one mage for one monster, and ten mages come from the guild, the guild will receive one monster as a thanks gift. In addition to that, each one three horned monster can be exchanged by five two horned monsters. It's a fair offer I think."

They all sucked a long breath when they heard his offer, this wasn't a fair offer, it was a tempting one, a big hand indeed. No matter what the black raven clan tried to offer for the guild, they wouldn't be able to match his offer, or even half of it.

He also thought to give the guild some benefits, as this way the guild would be biased towards him, and he would establish future good relations with them. he planned to annex the lands of the black raven clan, either now or later, so attracting this strong existence there would eventually benefited him on the long run.

The three then got themselves busy sending bird wings to the leaders of that branch, knowing these mages wouldn't refuse such a rare and generous offer.

Just as they finished sending the messages, they had already reached the outer region of the village. The state of the village was so poor, hardly they believed it belonged to their mighty leader.