Strongest Hammer God - Chapter 320
Chapter 320: Chapter 320 – Scammed
“I understand what you mean,” Kyle said, answering their earlier question about soft power. “It is true that soft power has a certain unique use, and that’s why I said we can afford five Sorcerers.”
“The fact is, we do not need five Sorcerers. We need two or three, at most. Sometimes, we don’t even need a single one. By agreeing to take five, I am already paying more than I need to. I have already included the soft power into my offer.”
The Sorcerers grew a bit angry, but they didn’t dare to release their Momentum again.
“You believe the Ancient Bark Guild’s power is only worth this little?” one of the other Sorcerers asked with an offended tone.
“Of course not,” Kyle said. “You have several Peak Sorcerers and even a Grand Sorcerer. Naturally, the Ancient Bark Guild is worth much, much more.”
“However, the indirect benefits you can bring to the Stark Brotherhood with this agreement are not representative of your true power. It doesn’t matter if a normal person or a Royal Knight lifts something weighing ten kilograms for us. In both cases, they only lift ten kilograms. The Royal Knight could lift much more, but what’s the difference if they don’t?”
The Sorcerers furrowed their brows.
The metaphor was a bit strange, but they knew what Kyle meant.
“What do you have in mind?” the leading Sorcerer asked.
“Increase the price by 75% of what was agreed, but remove the minimum required commissions,” Kyle said.
“Impossible,” the leading Sorcerer said. “In that case, we would only be lowering the price without any benefits.”
“Not entirely,” Kyle said. “Due to the lowered price, choosing another Sorcerer Guild would not be as profitable. This means you will be the sole supplier for all of our Sorcerer needs.”
The mood of the leading Sorcerer improved a slight bit, but not by much.
“That is valuable, but only in theory. In practice, there are no other equivalent Sorcerer Guilds near your territory.”
“No equivalent,” Kyle said. “However, there are a couple of weaker ones.”
The leading Sorcerer furrowed his brows. “You would consider hiring them?”
“Why not?” Kyle asked. “They deliver the same service for cheaper. If we ever need a more capable Sorcerer, we can commission you via the traditional route.”
The three Sorcerers looked at each other.
This was actually not such a bad idea.
Better Sorcerers cost way more money.
A Peak Sorcerer cost almost ten times as much as an Initial Sorcerer.
Peak Sorcerers were needed occasionally, and the increased price could make up for the lack of individual commissions.
The Sorcerers threw several looks at each other.
“That could work, but it would have to be an increase of 100%, which means a base price of 80%,” the leading Sorcerer said.
“The other guilds cost a bit less,” Kyle said.
The leading Sorcerer narrowed his eyes.
“But I believe I can accept,” Kyle said.
The mood improved.
“If you reduce it to 75% of the base price, which means an increase of the agreed price to 87.5%.”
The mood dampened.
“Representative, that is a bit low,” the leading Sorcerer said.
Kyle shrugged. “You told me to meet you in the middle. I said 75%. You said 100%. So, 87.5%, it is.”
The Sorcerers had several complaints about that, but they didn’t voice any.
“Fine,” the leading Sorcerer said. “We can do 75% of the base price.”
Kyle smiled brightly. “Happy that we could come to an agreement,” he said as he finally sat down again.
The leading Sorcerer closed his eyes and took a deep breath before turning to the Sorcerer to the right of him.
“Could you?” he asked.
The other Sorcerer knew what he meant and left the room.
Two minutes later, he came back with a brand-new agreement.
Both sides read through it before signing.
Kyle took his copy and stood up with a smile. “Thank you. The Stark Brotherhood is looking forward to working with you.”
The leading Sorcerer put on a fake smile. “We’re looking forward to our continued cooperation.”
After some pleasantries, Kyle left with Bonk.
When Kyle and Bonk left the town, a sneer appeared on Kyle’s face.
‘Fucking idiots,’ he thought.
‘You’re not going to see a single fucking Ether Pebble from us within the next year.’
‘Thank you for letting us keep this territory for another year for fucking free.’
Naturally, Kyle had already prepared for such an outcome.
In the past days, he had taken a look at the old agreement, and he noticed that the minimum number of commissions was draining their finances.
It was not a huge loss, but it was also not negligible.
Kyle’s entire goal had been to get rid of that clause.
What about the other Sorcerer Guilds?
They also wouldn’t see any money.
Why would they need Sorcerers?
They had Michael!
Even more, Michael had some connections with other Sorcerers.
‘Michael can fulfill 80% of our Sorcerer needs, and even if he doesn’t have the necessary Spells for the remaining 20%, he can just forward his request to one of his friends.’
‘Working with Sorcerer Guilds is a waste of money. We don’t need Sorcerer Guilds. We need Sorcerers.’
‘Might as well let Michael create a small agency.’
‘Why pay an entire fucking organization with all their administrators, lawyers, and accountants when you can simply get a freelancer?’
In essence, Kyle had gotten the territory for free.
Of course, as more time would pass, the Ancient Bark Guild would notice what was going on, and they would be quite annoyed.
Chances were that the territory would switch places next year.
But that wouldn’t matter a lot.
Sure, they wouldn’t get as many missions anymore, but that wouldn’t be an issue.
The unneeded Fighters in the outposts in this territory could just switch to headquarters.
In exchange, headquarters just wouldn’t recruit any new Fighters for a while.
In the short term, their expenditures had dropped.
But in the long term, their revenue would drop in exchange.
Yet, Kyle already had a plan on how to deal with that.
‘Diversify income streams,’ Kyle thought as he looked at the deed to his mine.
‘You think you have control over this entire area?’ Kyle thought with a snort.
‘Let’s see if that holds true when we are suddenly 20% cheaper than all the other Three-Weapons Guilds.’
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