Grand Saint Alloy

Tristan, with Luke and Kale for back up, went back down into the mine. He found Olfred and his team smoking tobacco in the tunnels, while digging in random directions. It seemed they were trying to find whatever Tristan had noticed, without much luck. Without an earth kern on their team, it would be extremely difficult for them to make progress. They weren’t weak, just out of their element.

Waving his hand in front of his face, Tristan glared at the wind kern who was supposed to be purifying the air, “Olfred, you need to stop digging in this location.”

Olfred spat out a black glob onto the floor, “What, you found something and want it for yourself.”

He had learned his lesson, he would not mess with Tristan. At least not while Luke was around. Tristan could only wonder why the elders of the six Caldera’s kept sending out idiots to work at the mine. With a metal kern, Tristan was not capable of digging up this treasure, and could harvest a finders fee just by letting Olfred know. If he had found something good, it was in his best interest to let someone dig it up.

“Sure, I found something great,” Olfred frowned at the sarcasm dripping from Tristan, “I only found a tier seven metal elemental. If you dig it up make sure no one else is around the mine when you do.”

Olfred narrowed his eyes, “How do I know, you’re telling the truth?”

“I don’t know. I don’t care,” Tristan said, “This tunnel will be marked red and any one caught going in will be executed.”

Olfred paled a little bit. He and his crew had gotten the same talk that Tristan had. Where Conni threatened to kill anyone who went down a red tunnel. At first Tristan thought it was harsh and unjust, however after seeing what a surprise attack from a tier four element did to skilled warriors he understood Conni’s stance. Unprepared miners would get wiped out by a single tier four and anything above that would kill the warriors as well. Going down a red tunnel was little more than murder by proxy.

Kale stepped foreword, he was sent by Siren to compensate the miners. They had worked hard to get to this spot and they did still need to be compensated. The Forest Caldera would be the ones paying, but Siren and Conni were busy so it was left to Kale to deliver the message. It was a system that was, in Tristan’s opinion, one of the few noble things that the Caldera Elders did.

“The compensation for the work you have done can be picked up at the treasurer’s agency in Forest Caldera, it is estimated that you will get six or seven talents as compensation to split among your team,” Kale paused, waiting for the exited men to refocus, “This is not a gift, it is an advance. In the event of excavation, you are expected to mine that much material to repay the advance before getting more compensation. If it is never excavated, you get to keep the money and nothing more is expected of you.”

Tristan knew that a talent was a years wages for skilled labor, but he had no idea what the average wage was. The average wage for a warrior was substantially higher than a worker so did the worker make less than a talent or did the warrior make multiple talents. Regardless of the measurement, a years wages was very high for the amount of work Olfred and his team had put in.

Tristan was not actually aware of how much money he owned as he had asked Grace handle his money, for a small fee. She handled the purchase of the wind tuber and other materials to help in Tristan’s rapid recovery from Luke’s training regime. However, he had never needed to spend money, everything he needed was at the mine. Food, shelter, and companions were readily available. He was even being trained how to utilize a tier zero kern, which was something that he had thought was impossible.

Tristan turned and looked at Luke, “Now that that’s taken care of, you mentioned something about weapons?”

Luke grinned while Kale looked at them quizzically, “Yes, go get your money from Grace we are going shopping.”

Kale seemed uncertain, “Luke do you even know what to look for when it comes to weapons.”

Luke snorted, “Do I,” he paused as if thinking about the answer, “Yes.”

He then turned and walked away. Kale could only stare confused at Lukes back, he had expected him to try and prove himself. Tristan trusted Luke. He was weird, but that was not an issue, Tristan actually thought that was a redeeming quality. Olfred was what normal people looked like to him, especially after the last visit to the Forest Caldera.

Tristan jogged to catch up to Luke, “How much do I need to get from Grace.”

Luke scratched the back of his neck, “So, I suggest getting all of it, I know you probably make more than most of the other miners, but the knives we’ll be getting aren’t legally sourced. Leave enough to cover next month’s expenses and take the rest.”

“We will be breaking the law!” Tristan said.

Luke rolled his eyes, “Dude, you break the law, have you not realized that metal kerns are illegal.”

“Oh,” was all Tristan could say to that, then another thought crossed his mind, “How could knives even be illegally sourced?”

There were no laws limiting the use of weapons, with the exception of tier three artifacts. A persons kern tier had more to do with their threat level than whatever metal they could swing around. So, was Luke planning on getting some kind of tier three knife?

“You’ll see,” Luke said mysteriously.

Getting the money from Grace was actually quite easy. Tristan was sure that she would ask some questions, however Grace simply told him that while she was fond of him, but that she was not his mom, it was not her business what he did with it. He did remember to ask her about the value of it when she handed him a box full of copper colored coins.

Grace pulled out one of the copper coins, “This is a parce, it is worth a hundred steel parces.” She reached in and pulled out one of the two silver coins, “this is a silver parce, worth a hundred copper parces, and this one,” Grace removed the only gold coin, “is a talent, it is worth ten silver parce’s, it is roughly what a warrior gets paid every year.”

Tristan did some quick mental math. The talent was worth ten million steel pieces. Assuming that a steel peice was worth its weight in steel, what was Luke making him buy. Just from the weight of the steel parces it was more valuable than multiple tons of steel.

“Mrs. Grace what are my living expenses?” Tristan asked.

Grace nodded her head, “Good, I was hoping you would ask. Most farmers make a little more than two coppers parces a day, your expenses are lower than a farmers though. I would suggest saving the two silver parces just in case you get hurt.”

Tristan dumped the box of coins into a backpack and handed it back to Grace after replacing the two silver coins. He could only think that he was probably making more than his parents did. He was happy that he could make money just by finding metal. At first he was worried that people would dislike him for his comparatively easy job, but he found that the average income for a miner had risen by a third after he showed up. It really was a win-win araingement.

“Thank you, Mrs. Grace,” Tristan said before he left.

Grace watched him leave, then sighed. She was happy that Tristan was able to grow up here. Despite the fact that she was not his mother, she still felt responsible for him. Some of her emotions were definitely caused by the letter her husband had told her about. She shook her head and set about the endless task of feeding fifty or so hungry men.

Tristan was surprised that the bag of coins was so heavy, but he had built up enough endurance to make it manageable. He found Luke waiting beside the bunk house, he was wearing his snake gloves and had a back pack slung over one shoulder.

“Where are we going,” Tristan asked, eager to get something sharp and pointy for himself.

Luke started walking away from the Forest Caldera and towards the grasslands and lake Caldera, “So have you ever met the alchemist before?”

Tristan had not, but he wanted to, “Is that where we’re going.”

Luke nodded, “He’s a bit off in the head so don’t take anything he says to seriously.”

Tristan wondered if Luke was aware of the irony of that statement.