Chapter 83: Deal with Maya
Sam woke up in the evening and had a hearty dinner and went back to rest. But that night, was sleepless to many people. Because, in the houses of many commoners, a leather pouch appeared out of nowhere with thousands to tens of thousands of spirit stones. The amount varied on how much their lives were affected by the Black pond's illegal activities.
All the commoners who received the leather pouches also received another thing with it and that is a note with words 'Robin Hood'.
Next day, the news went to the high-level officers and even the Count himself. When he learnt of the name on the note Robin Hood, he completely believed the scrolls and the letter that came yesterday. Now, he desperately wanted to meet this guy and recruit him. After all, even though the other party is dealing with the absolute sc.u.m of the society, the higher ups and the people in the ruling, wouldn't just leave it at that.
The main reason is the millions of spirit stones that are in the hands of the underworld organisation. If they let a guy like Robin hood do these things his own way, the money would be his own to deal with. That is millions and millions of spirit stones slipping through their hands. How can they let that be?
And apart from the Count and the officials, there is another person that is thinking of Sam right now. More specifically, that person is thinking about the one who destroyed the Black pond. He is none other than the great mage from the neighbouring city.
He came here from the nearby count city where he is the in charge of the Black pond branch. He came here on request to help in catching the people who are acting against the Black pond. But before he arrived yesterday, the whole Black pond's main members disappeared. The rest of the minor members took as many resources as they can and went into hiding.
He was completely stunned as well as vexed at same time. After all, the Black pond is not a small organisation. It has a foundation of total twelve years and within a few days everything is gone just like that. He immediately abolished all the ideas of finding the culprit and started his journey back.
He must report the issue to the superiors and that too, has to be done as soon as possible. But that much of large-scale communication device is only in his headquarters. So, he immediately left.
The Next day morning, Sam woke up with a fresh mind. His wounds are healed, but his body is still a bit sore and aching. But he felt that he could move normally and proceed with his normal activities.
First thing he did after coming out of the mansion is to go to the Artisan tower to get the forging equipment. He asked them to ship all the equipment to his mansion.
When he came back to the mansion, he found that Watt is just coming back from the hunt along with Falck. They have a huge stag like beast with them. Both of them went to their yards and started a fire on which the flesh of the stag meat was being roasted.
"From tomorrow onwards, your training will begin. Don't think about learning normal spells or attacks. You are a Beast warrior now and you will have an edge over normal warrior mages.
Your every move, which might be physical attacks, spells, defence, anything you will be using in a battle will be obtained on how a beast will obtain.
You don't need to waste your time on hand-seals and stuff. Just like how beast can immediately attack, you can also do that and you will be training until you achieve that.
As for the weapon, you have to think of a weapon for yourselves and decide. Tell, me when you have it decide, then I will make it. But remember, the weapon might be common, but your usage must be unique in your own way."
Watt continuously nodded to show his agreement.
After they had their meal, Sam took out the Communication token and contacted Lady Maya.
# Artisan Sam, have you decided on the dinner? # Maya's voice came as soon as the line connected.
"How about tonight?" Sam asked.
# Fine with me. Then I will be waiting for your arrival. # Maya immediately agreed.
After fixing the time, both of them hung up and Sam went back to his room. He laid on his bed as he started thinking, he is thinking about the research project that he wants to take on.
Time passed slowly, and by evening, Sam is still confused on what type of topic he should research on. The Forging equipment has been delivered to his bas.e.m.e.nt. This time the whole equipment and set up cost him more than 600,000 spirit stones. Even though the amount is vastly high when compared to the previous equipment he got from the bet in Starwood City's Artisan tower, that is due to the fact that this equipment must be able to endure the fire of a Great mage.
Sam went to the bas.e.m.e.nt where the equipment was kept and after making sure that nobody is there, he immediately took them all into the second floor of the tower and went back to his room. He should assemble the equipment and make sure that there are no problems with the equipment.
He was only done fixing everything and finished setting his workshop, just before the sky turned dark. After coming out of the tower, he took a shower and changed into a fresh set of clothes, before he went out of the mansion.
Everyone in the mansion is enjoying their time in the Count city. Sam found out that all of them are also going out tonight to shopping or some other recreational activities.
Sam didn't mind and started making his way to Violet dew Family estate. When he reached the main gate, he was received by an Elder of the Violet dew family. After all, Maya can be polite to Sam, but with her status, she couldn't possibly come to the gate to receive him. it would be short-changing herself.
When Sam was led to the dining hall, there are three people already waiting for him. They are Maya, Jasmine and the Family head of the Violet Dew family.
"Welcome. Artisan Sam." Maya greeted him with a smile as she extended her hand for a handshake.
Sam shook her hand and said with same polite smile. "Thanks for having me Lady Maya. But please call me Sam." Maya nodded and they went to take a seat at the table.
Soon, the dishes are served. They had small talk while eating and by the time the dinner is finished and the fruit juice was served, Maya spoke.
"Sam, today I have called you, not only to make the misunderstandings clear but also to make a deal." When Sam heard this, he couldn't say he didn't expect this. After all, just to clear off some misunderstandings they don't have to go through all the trouble and invite him to dinner with all the hospitality.
"Oh, please do tell Lady Maya. What kind of deal are we talking about?" Sam asked with curiosity.
"I wonder, how much you know about the admission you got from the Marquis academy?" Maya asked without talking about her deal.
"Not much actually."
"Well, I will tell you something then. The Marquis academy is going to start a special branch within it. In this branch they will select all the Elite candidates from the Marquis city and the Elites from various Counties. In which the Falcon Cliff City is also included and now the top ten, of the tournament are also going to be placed inside this branch." Maya started explaining.
"Oh, I really didn't know about it. Thanks for the information. But how is it related to the deal you mentioned?" Sam asked
"Actually, Jasmine also got an admission into this branch from the special quota of the Marquis city's Artisan tower. But there is something that is quite troubling for me about the rules of the branch." Speaking up to this point, she paused and looked at Sam's face which was filled with calmness and no trace of emotions. Then she continued.
"One of the rules of this special branch is that the students will not be in contact with outside world in certain circ.u.mstances and there is also a rule that states that the candidates can only come outside of the academy only when permitted and until then, they have to stay in the academy itself.
So, I have some trouble to send Jasmine to the special branch." When Sam heard this, he was quite surprised. He looked at Jasmine with a scanning gaze. He wasn't able to find anything unusual about her. She seems to be completely normal person. Then Maya continued.
"Jasmine is a special child. Since, her childhood she lacked emotions. She will only interact with me and whoever I tell her to interact with. But the problem is that I won't be able to communicate with her when she is in academy.
You know how the world is. All the noble children are having some designs about her. If I leaver her with them in the academy alone, they might take advantage of her which will cause trouble.
Even though, my status is considered not bad in the Marquis city, the noble families aren't pushovers either. We are at most at the equal standing and within the academy they might even have the higher say.
So, I have trouble leaving her there." Maya finished explaining and Sam finally had an inkling on what the deal is going to be about. Before he could speak Maya continued on saying.
"I want you to take care of Jasmine." When Sam heard this, he shook his head with a smile, this is exactly what he predicted.
"Lady Maya, let me be blunt with you. From what you said, Jasmine is just like a little child with no emotional quotient. If she tags along with me, you don't know how bad my influence can be. I am telling you directly. I am not exactly a kind of person who is suitable to stay with a pure hearted person.
Even if you can still allow that, from what you said, there are many noble children in the special branch who set their eyes on Jasmine and that might not be just because of her looks right, it might have been something to do with her talents and been approved by their Noble families.
If I interfere between this mess, not only would I have to face the noble children, I also have to become an enemy of all those families. Do you think I can cope with it at my current level?"
Sam said as soon as Maya finished speaking.
When Maya heard this, she became instantly silent. Jasmine is just sipping her juice as if the whole topic isn't about her at all. After a long silence and pondering, Maya finally replied.
"Sam, then I will proceed the deal in this way. You don't have to take care of her continuously. Every time, if someone approaches her or tries to become close to her, she will come to you and ask for advice, all you have to do is, to give her suggestions, whether she should talk to them or not. She will listen to whatever you have to say. You only have to involve yourself, if they get heavy handed and try any forceful methods. Are you okay with it?"
This time, it is Sam's turn to be silent. After a brief gap, he asked. "Why are you asking me this?"
"Actually, I didn't have any thoughts of asking you first, but you are the only candidate that is suitable for it. After all, you yourself are a talented person in not only artisanship but also in other professions. You don't have much use for Jasmine's talents. Other than that, you seemed to be a person who isn't attracted to fleshly beauty that easily. Then only I came to this decision."
"Okay, then what is your offer?"
Maya took out a red colour gem and placed it on the table. The red colour gem is small and is only the size of thumb nail of an a.d.u.l.t. Sam took the gem in his hands and took examined it carefully. The gem is filled with fire elemental energy. But the energy is not in a form where one could directly absorb like a spirit stone.
Sam looked at Maya questioningly. The latter replied.
"This is a fiery ruby. This is mainly used by Jeweller artisans and tailor artisans to implement on their products. This not only serves the purpose of aesthetics, but also can be used as an emergency spiritual energy from the user.
As you can see, the energy in the ruby can't be used for cultivation, but the energy can be used to enhance the attack or defence. The wearer can use the energy directly without absorbing it. I will give you 50,000 of these"
When Sam heard the explanation, he was surprised, but when he heard the number, he was immediately stunned. The number is too high. But the thing is Sam doesn't need these rubies in the battle, because, he can use the spiritual energy around him to enhance his attack, but he has some ideas on how to use them for business purposes, if he can use them properly, maybe he can make a small fortune.
"Deal." He immediately agreed.
Maya beamed with a smile with satisfaction. Jasmine didn't show any expression.
"In this ring there are ten thousand rubies, I will pay the remaining in instalments." Sam didn't have many objections and agreed. After confirming the transaction, Sam left the Violet dew estate and walked back to the mansion. But when he entered the isolated area around the mansion, Sam felt something amiss.