AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Pride. That’s what kept most independent tribes alive through centuries of persecution and onslaught by either the Kingdom or their fellow Beastkin. Too much of it might bury an entire civilization due to its inability to change and evolve. Though too little would certainly dissuade them from even standing up against oppression in the first place.

For good or bad, pride was the only thing that allowed the bull tribe to survive the decimation of dozens of tribes. However, the same pride prevented them from joining other tribes or moving to the Tribal Lands, condemning a prosperous race that dominated the lower central plains with more than a hundred thousand strong members to a meager thousand starving souls.

The bull tribe didn’t dabble in shamanism like the more learned fellow Beastkin races, nor did they have any elemental advantages. However, their strong constitution and disposition gave them an edge over many races. Unfortunately, all of these characteristics made the tribe one of the worse partners for business, except for their honor, which would prevent them from betraying allies.

The tension between the bull warriors and the negotiation group was so high that it could be smelled or tasted in the air. Tauron’s silence didn’t help, of course. Most of the tribal members present arrived at the apparent conclusion of betrayal, one of the worse crimes among the tribe, probably an unforgivable offense. The situation would likely develop into a one-sided battle if a Beastman elder hadn’t appeared in time to de-escalate the conflict.

“Silence! Tauron, why have you come back, and who’re these Humans?”

Many complex emotions raged inside the Beastman, from shame and hate for being denied an honest death to anger at his kin, for who he gave up everything. If he were the old Tauron, he would demand a duel with every single Beastman who accuse him of despicable things to clean his honor or, at least, what remained of it. However, the new Tauron had learned a lot from those he once hated.

“I didn’t bring people to invade our… your lands. We came with an opportunity, an exchange. If you don’t want it, we can leave and go to any other tribe.”

Lana observed how her employee dealt with the situation and couldn’t be prouder. She knew he was going against his instincts, but the approach was correct. To have any chance of negotiating with the tribe, they had to establish equal footing. If the tribe felt they were receiving compassion or taking advantage of the other side, they would refuse it without even considering it. So, the opportunity had to appear mutual benefiting without either side getting too much out of it.

Even so, Tauron and Lana didn’t expect the talk to go smoothly. But, surprisingly, the elder Beastman didn’t react with disdain or concern. Instead, he seemed curious about it.

“Is that so? Tell me about it. Then, I can decide if it’s in the tribe’s interest.”

Now came the most challenging part. Being sneaky or using underhanded methods with them would earn nothing but scorn. However, if they openly suggested they wanted to meddle with the war by supporting one side behind the curtains, the tribe would definitely send them away. Fortunately, they had discussed how to proceed without misleading the other side or offending their principles.

“I want to show you something…”

Tauron approached the elder slowly, and nobody made a problem of it. It wasn’t their nature to fear an opponent or anything for that matter. Once he was close enough, he took a machete-like sword from his belt and attacked a head-sized stone at his side. The elder didn’t even flinch, nor did the other Beastman. However, once it was clear that the sword had gone through the stone without much difficulty, even the stoic elder couldn’t help but frown.

Tauron offered the machete to the elder, who hesitantly took it. Though he looked too old to fight and his movements weren’t as grand as the younger bulls, the strength of his following attacks against the stones, trees, and even against the warriors’ weapons earn the respect of all Humans present.

He turned to Tauron with an undisguised spark in his eyes.

“How?”

“It’s a magic sword. We don’t want to give it to the Kingdom, so we’re looking for others to trade…”

“How much?”

The tribe didn’t deal with coins, but they weren’t strange to their value.

“One gold.”

The excitement on the Beastman’s eyes vanished faster than it appeared. Although they only knew the approximate prices for crystals and other things, one gold was clearly more than they could afford. At most, they could buy a handful of weapons, which would also cost them vital resources.

Actually, for the independent tribes, the most important resource is food. They lived inside the forest and couldn’t sow any land. Even though they could hunt, for most Beastkin races, a diverse diet was essential for their development. Actually, the bull Beastkin had a significant demand for vegetables and other non-meat food, and foraging was far from satisfying their need. That’s one of the reasons why the tribe was becoming weaker within each generation.

After food, the second most desirable good amongst them was weapons. Through the many Beastkin races, only a couple could craft acceptable weapons. So, good armaments, especially AK’s enhanced ones, looked like Originly weapons in their eyes. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t give up on their scarce food to get it.

“That’s...”

Before the elder could finish the sentence, Tauron intervened.

“We want to exchange in large numbers. I’m sure you don’t need a lot, nor do the other tribes. Aside from the Kingdom, only the Sandines would…”

The mention of the hated betrayers of the Beastkin races earned a few scorns from the tribe members. Even so, the prospect of dealing with them wasn’t straightforwardly denied as it would with the Kingdom. After all, hated they might be, but they didn’t enslave their fellow Beastkin.

“So, why are you wasting time here?”

“The Sandines can’t be trusted, and bringing more numbers wouldn’t be worth it.”

Being seen as weak wouldn’t earn their sympathy. The tribe would refuse to deal with such weaklings. So, they made it all about the cost. Moving the necessary force to keep the Sandines straight would make the whole deal too expensive. The bull Beastkin weren’t scholars, but they weren’t dumb either, so the elder quickly understood Tauron’s intention.

“So you want to use our hands to deal with them… I expected more from you, Tauron. We would never work for Humans.”

Instead of insisting, Tauron displayed genuine disappointment and turned around. Their dire situation was evident in the unhealthy disposition of the younger bulls. In fact, this was why Tauron’s group had gone too far from the tribe to get more food and ended up captured. If the tribe couldn’t get over this small detail, their destruction was only a matter of time.

“I expected as much… We’ll try the other tribes. Some will probably accept, but we might give up on this after all…”

The unexpected response made the elder consider the deal again.

“How so?”

Tauron turned back to answer as his respect demanded, but his tone had clearly changed.

“Very few tribes could stand up and actually be respected by the Sandines… It would be the tribe’s problem how they deal with them, but I don’t see the purpose of entering an agreement that’s fated to fail.”

The elder somehow agreed with him, but he still felt uncomfortable with something.

“You said that you expected this result, but you seemed hopeful earlier… Why?”

“I don’t know… I think your tribe would be the best to trade with the Sandines, and the deal would bring you benefits too.”

“We don’t work for others, Tauron. Especially not for Humans.”

“I know… If you had enough crystals to buy the weapons, would you exchange them right now?”

“Sure, but that would be a simple deal.”

“But, would I be wrong if I said that I would be hiring you to gather the crystals and paying with weapons?”

The elder took a few seconds to answer, but his confidence didn’t waver.

“It’s not the same. The crystals would be gathered on our terms, and we would choose to exchange them or not. If we can avoid, it’s best to not deal with Humans at all.”

“So you say… Let me change my proposal. Each weapon sells for one gold, but exchanging here saves us some cost with transportation, so we’re willing to cut the price down to 75 silvers.”

“The price is still…”

“We would leave the weapons here for one month, so you could test them and see if they are of any use to you. By the end of that month, you could decide how many weapons you want to keep and pay for them with crystals. Anyway, if you decide to keep the weapons during that time, they would be yours to do what you think it’s best, even sell them for a fair price…”

“That wouldn’t do… We don’t need your help.”

“And I don’t want to help. You can choose to let me take the weapons back after one month. Either way, we wouldn’t be able to exchange them easily. We have weapons if you want to exchange, but I don’t care about what you do with them. I know you would never steal, so I could leave them here and hope that when I return, you would wanna keep all of them.”

The Beastman’s first instinct was to refuse the deal and be done with it. After all, it wasn’t their nature to twist things to fit their need. However, the offer was precisely between what they wouldn’t accept and what they could compromise. The elder carried the pride of his tribe, and nobody would judge him for refusing, but he was also responsible for their survival.

“That’s…”

“If you have extra crystals, We would like to exchange them for food too… Don’t get me wrong. I’m just looking for ways to get more crystals… Of course, coming here only to exchange food wouldn’t be worth it because of the transportation costs, but if we already go to the trouble of transporting the weapons, bringing two or three more carts of food wouldn’t be much… I’m not good with numbers, but the 25 silvers of difference in the cost of the weapons should buy a lot of food…”

“Tauron…”