Chapter 75: Lilweed, the Elf Entrepreneur
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 75: Lilweed, the Elf Entrepreneur
Between the Labyrinth City of Sohen and its satellite city, Flandre, an elven entrepreneur traveled back and forth. His name was Lilweed.
One day, he planned to become the head of a massive conglomerate, just like Blackdog. Recently, a particular business venture had captured his full attention.
‘Magic equipment enhancement.’
The idea was to upgrade items that were already magical or treasure-grade to an even higher tier.
The plan began with a paper recently submitted to the academic society by Professor Isilof.
‘Gobniu’s Hammer.’
A magic of that name was said to exist within the Ancient Mana Ironworks on the 4th floor. The various facilities in the ironworks, its mysterious magical reactions, and the murals on its walls all hinted at its existence.
Perhaps, with this hammer, it would be possible to upgrade treasure-grade items to legendary grade.
It was a true creation economy.
The most powerful, high-value-added industry possible below the 4th floor.
The popularization of legendary equipment.
The resulting universalization of magic items.
These treasures would no longer be the exclusive property of the rich or high-ranking parties, and the Labyrinth would enter a new golden age.
All with Lilweed at the helm.
“What do you say?”
The elven entrepreneur, his head full of rosy dreams, made his solemn proposal.
“You’re in Professor Isilof’s club, aren’t you? And you just entered the 4th floor, right? Did the professor happen to give you a mission? Perhaps some of his research data?”
He did.
“If you have it now, would you be willing to share it with me?”
It’s at home. I read through it once, but it was all stuff I already knew. Some of it was even wrong.
“Work with me, Caleb.”
“Hey!” Yernil shouted. “Who are you trying to scam now!”
“Who’s scamming anyone? Me? I’ve never done such a thing!”
Let’s start with the facts.
Gobniu’s Hammer does exist.
However, it’s not a convenient tool that can enhance just anything, as Lilweed imagines. It can only enhance items that have an ‘Evolution’ option.
Like evolving a Pikachu into a Raichu.
Gobniu’s Hammer only works if a direct upgrade of the same lineage exists.
“So you’ve been buying up magic equipment for this purpose?” Aimus asked.
“That’s right. I was thinking of going today to enhance them all. Why don’t you join us in searching for the ironworks? I have quite a few magic items right here.”
Their fashion sense screamed a level of wealth that would have made Neko weep at the disparity.
Like rappers draped in gold chains, they had piled on the items with no regard for practicality, simply wearing whatever they could.
“I don’t know which of these can be enhanced, so I brought them all just in case.”
Lilweed then went on a long-winded explanation of what a great investment magic equipment was.
1. They have excellent liquidity and, like gold, don’t easily lose their value. 2. They’re easy to store and conceal, making them great for tax evasion (he actually said that). 3. They’re highly practical, as wearing them allows you to use skills or magic.
“But on top of all that, they can be enhanced? There’s no better business venture than this! If you share Professor Isilof’s data, Caleb, we can find the ironworks together. We’ll make money, you’ll complete your mission, and maybe we can even become business partners in the future and work together…”
“Don’t do it, Caleb!” Yernil clung to me, horrified. “You can’t trust him!”
“I know.”
Don’t worry, Yernil.
You think I’d fall for something like this?
Setting aside the fact that Lilweed himself has low credibility, there’s a critical flaw in his story.
First, for someone planning such a venture, his timing is insane—walking into the 4th floor of the Labyrinth carrying a mountain of priceless treasures to get to the ironworks.
Doing something like that is dangerous on a normal day, but a war just broke out between the Labyrinth Union and the illegal miners last season.
And at a time like this, he thinks, I’ll just carry all my treasures to the ironworks and see if they can be enhanced?
You’d need the heart of a beast to pull something like that.
And second…
There’s something Lilweed isn’t telling me.
“Aimus.”
“Yes.”
“That pendant Lilweed is wearing around his neck. Have you seen it somewhere before?”
“...!”
Aimus’s eyes widened to twice their size.
“That… that’s! The one my wife was scammed with…!”
“What?”
Lilweed’s eyes also widened to twice their size. He looked extremely flustered.
“Golems are synthesized in the ironworks.”
“No…”
“If you clear a golem out of a casting mold there and place a magic item inside, the item gets duplicated, right?”
Of course, it doesn’t produce a real magic item, just an empty knock-off.
But because you have to manually inject mana into it, just like making a golem from a convergence core, it gives off a decent magical aura. That makes it perfect for scamming people into thinking it’s a real magic item.
How do I know this so well?
I’ve done it in the game, too. My bad.
First with Antonelli, and now this. It feels like I’m getting karma for all the scummy things I did in the game.
“Lilweed.”
“…”
“You told me something at the university before.”
“Wh-what did I say?”
“That you didn’t come to Sohen after your errand center went bust, but that you were ‘originally’ doing business in Sohen.”
“…”
“You didn’t suddenly come here to experiment with Gobniu’s Hammer. From the very beginning, you were making replicas to sell on the black market. That was your real business. Am I right?”
The color draining from Lilweed’s face in real-time confirmed my suspicions.
“The illegal miners have shut down your business. That’s why you’re trying to drag us into dealing with them. Because taking them on alone is too much for you.”
“Th-th-that’s…”
Panicked, Lilweed didn’t know what to do, his eyes darting everywhere.
“N-no!”
It seemed he’d decided to just deny everything.
“What fake pendant? I don’t know anything about it!”
“Is that so?”
Well, we can easily check.
“Fortunately for us, there’s a party of Constables on the 4th floor right now. Let’s call them over and ask.”
Lilweed’s face went deathly pale.
“The fake pendants that were distributed on the black market have already been collected and fully investigated by the Public Security Headquarters.”
Since mana was injected into normal equipment, it would gradually dissipate over time like a radioactive isotope, which means they can reverse-calculate the production date.
Even in the game, replicas made this way would display messages like ‘The mana is fading’ or ‘The mana seems to have disappeared’ after a certain amount of time.
“We can just compare the production date of the replica with the date you acquired the original pendant. Then we’ll know if you really had nothing to do with it.”
I tucked the psychokinesis wand into my belt and pulled out the message-sending wand.
When I also took a notepad from my bag, a terrified Lilweed shouted.
“W-wait! I don’t think we need to work with you after all. We’ll be on our way!”
The moment he tried to hastily back away…
Thwack!
A dagger suddenly embedded itself in Lilweed’s back.
Back Attack had closed the distance with a Leap Ambush and stabbed him.
He’s so impatient.
“What the!”
“Shit. What the hell is this guy, attacking all of a sudden!”
Lilweed’s party members freaked out and tried to attack him.
‘Shadow Leap!’
But Back Attack grabbed Lilweed and reappeared behind Aimus.
“Kill him!”
Lilweed’s party charged forward in a frenzy.
“Nobody move. Not unless you want to see me slit this bastard’s throat.”
Back Attack pressed his blade against Lilweed’s neck.
“Boss, call that constable cat. This is the motherfucker who scammed Aimus’s wife, right?”
To be precise, Lilweed probably just supplied the black market. The dealer who actually scammed Aimus’s wife would be a different person—the one the Public Security Headquarters arrested.
But this guy was the original source of the problem.
Calling the Constables seems like the best move.
“Yernil, could you write this down in your notepad? ‘I think we’ve found the creator of the magical replicas from the black market.’”
“Okay!”
“Stop!”
Lilweed screamed.
“I-I’ll tell you everything! Just stop! Please!”
Between the Labyrinth City of Sohen and its satellite city, Flandre, an elven entrepreneur traveled back and forth. His name was Lilweed.
Lilweed, who dreamed of creating a group to rival Blackdog, had a powerful business partner.
‘Ingelam.’
Lilweed was the brains of the operation; Ingelam was the muscle. Together, they formed a team to produce and distribute replicas from the ironworks on the 4th floor of the Labyrinth.
‘It’d be great if we could take the convergence cores and sell them, too.’
With time, their greed grew.
The price of a convergence core was substantial, worth more than dozens of replicas.
The problem was getting caught.
Replicas wouldn’t be flagged when passing through the Labyrinth Union’s managed exits, but carrying out a convergence core would get them caught immediately.
They could only lick their lips in frustration and return with just the replicas every time.
‘What if we cross the space between walls and leave through a different exit?’
It was Ingelam who first brought up the idea.
Not all Labyrinth Cities were as strictly managed as Sohen. Some were located within the tribal villages of barbarians who had little concept of magic.
‘We pass through the inter-wall space and exit into a city like that. Then they won’t catch us with the convergence cores, right?’
Ingelam’s idea sounded plausible, but Lilweed shook his head.
‘We’d be caught quickly.’
Why?
Because they entered using the elevator managed by Sohen’s Labyrinth Union. The barbarians wouldn’t have an elevator, and running up the stairs from the 1st floor would be more trouble than it was worth in terms of time and labor.
But using Sohen’s elevator would ruin everything. The Labyrinth Union kept a list of all adventurers who entered.
‘We take the elevator in, but there’s no record of us coming out. We’re not dead, yet we show up again next season. And every time, a convergence core goes missing? If we pull that off just twice, the Public Security Headquarters will have a warrant out for us.’
‘Damn it. So there’s no way?’
‘…’
After much deliberation, Lilweed came up with a very ambitious plan.
‘Let’s build an elevator.’
It was a massive project that would cost an astronomical amount of money to build.
But they didn’t need to dig all the way to the Deep Layer like Sohen’s Labyrinth Union.
‘The 4th floor. No, even just to the 3rd floor would be enough. Taking the stairs from there is fine.’
Lilweed began building an elevator in a hideout on the outskirts of Sohen, and their business kicked into high gear.
The construction costs were staggering, so they started another venture to cover them.
They began cultivating drugs in their hideout.
Distributing them in Sohen was too difficult with the Public Security Headquarters and Blackdog around, so they targeted the city of Flandre, where security was relatively lax.
They did it by establishing an errand center.
But the moment the elevator was completed…
Lilweed was stabbed in the back by the partner he trusted.
“That crazy bastard sent a package of the drugs straight to the Magistrate at the Flandre Public Security Headquarters.”
Ingelam had sabotaged him to blow up his business.
His plan was probably to get Lilweed locked away forever as a drug lord, but that part had failed.
“I could have intercepted it. From the start, I kept the delivery routes for my couriers strictly separate, and I personally managed all deliveries to dangerous areas like the Public Security Headquarters. But…”
A sad look suddenly crossed Lilweed’s face.
“This… stupid elf…”
Lilweed’s and everyone else’s gazes shifted to Yernil.
“Ingelam gave her the parcel, said it was a missed delivery, and told her to take it to the Public Security Headquarters. And she just went and did it…”
Kind and diligent Yernil was innocent!
She was just working hard!
There’s a missed delivery? It’s not my assigned area, but I guess it can’t be helped.
I’ll be right back!
Hehe! The boss will praise me for this, right? Maybe he’ll even give me a bonus!
“Uh…”
Yernil scratched the back of her neck.
She looked down, embarrassed.
“So that man back then… was an illegal miner…”
Who could have possibly predicted this?
The one and only person who had ever seen the face of the ‘mass-disguising’ illegal miner—the one chased by the Public Security Headquarters, the one the Labyrinth Union had lost—was none other than the 4th-run novice of our party, Yernil of the command tower.