Ace had actually underestimated how far their goods had gone. Across the entire community, direct goods from Wolf’s Rest are being used. A fact that a certain merchants group is about to find out the hard way.
The first to experience this was close by and expected. It wasn’t by much, but one merchant that met with Ace ordered a steak over in Bennett town. This was obviously from Wolf’s Rest and honestly cost so little that the merchant didn’t even notice.
Further out in the center of the community is the first person to actually notice the extra charge. She was just a normal merchant on the surface, nameless and almost faceless to those she dealt with, except for the fact that she was a hidden member of the Blue Jeans Cooperative.
What she bought was a large selection of herbs for cooking. Among those herbs, well, honestly, most of those herbs had been sources from Doyle’s dungeon. And once the deal was struck and money changed hands, she realized more than a few copper plates had gone missing. Strange not just because she hasn’t used cp to pay, but because those plates were specifically set aside. After all, a single plate weighs significantly less than ten of the same coin.
This sudden loss confuses her, but she chalked it up to some unstated local tax. Annoying, but nothing new. As the knowledge of how to claim the system settlements had spread, various people soon had their hands on the levers of power, with taxes being one of them. She just marked it down so that she could add a bit more to the price when she sells the herbs. Moving them further along is quite a profitable venture, after all.
This sort of thing goes on either unnoticed or unmentioned for a few days. Though anyone who buys metalwork certainly notices! Admittedly, that number is less than some might expect, given how often you’d buy at least something with metal in it before the end. Whether it was a can or tin of something, all the foil used to package things, or simply the fact that anything electric by default gas metal.
There simply isn’t the infrastructure for that anymore, let alone the mining capacity. So, what metal items there are, tend to be expensive and meant to last. In fact, in the entire community, well-made metal swords are the only thing selling for a gold and change. Though this is only at the other dungeon since that dungeon isn’t dropping metal weapons.
Also, that isn’t every metal sword. Most weapons are still priced in coppers. Which is actually part of what Ace wants to change. Unlike in their world’s past, they can’t just clip a coin into smaller pieces and call it a day. There are no “half-coppers” or similar for the economy to run on a copper standard of sorts.
Nevermind the fact that across this universe, the system makes sure to maintain a normal standard of living based on the silver coin. The way Ace understands it and is honestly pretty accurate as far as things go, compared to the pre-system currency he is familiar with, coppers are the ten-cent pieces while copper plates are where in his old country, money was bills.
The biggest difference was the high-end. A gold coin was 1,000, a plate 10,000. Yet in fantasy literature, they’re always being thrown around like spare change. Obviously, some of that has to do with the fact that many settings use a gold standard. There is simply something about gold specifically that attracts people.
But the biggest reason is that many of the original stories didn’t focus on the regular people of a setting, but rather the adventurer. And sure, starting equipment by its nature is cheap. Not only does it tend not to be the best quality, but it is a fact that people new to the adventurer’s lifestyle tend towards early retirement if they live. And that’s a big “IF”. So the gear circulates pretty easily.
After that first part, though? Adventurers can quickly graduate from the normal economy and also one of the causes of new adventurers retiring. Where a skilled worker might earn a gold or two in a month, adventurers can earn that much in a day and if they hit the jackpot? Well, there are coin types beyond gold.
Who wants to be a millionaire? Well, that’s just a hundred gold plates or a single plate of the next! So finding a chest full of gold coins? That’s enough to retire off of and not everyone is set for the adventuring lifestyle. No matter how much people tend to be funneled towards the profession if they aren’t focused on anything else.
So, with all that in mind, the fact that people are scrambling after copper coins, even adventurers, shows how out of whack the community’s economy is.
And speaking of out of whack, another Blue Jean merchant out at the other dungeon is finding out about the tax because of something not even Ace would expect. They were buying meat. At the other dungeon.
That doesn’t seem so weird if you’re used to the pre-system infrastructure. Moving a steak from one side of the world to the other? That steak’s still fresh.
And sure, magic does help with this. A bit of ice magic goes a long way. But that isn’t why this meat got here. The merchant doesn’t even recognize it as being from Wolf’s Rest despite the fact that they’re known throughout the entire community for meat.
And that’s because this isn’t a beef steak that they’re buying. Those aren’t even available this far out. You can not get a fresh beef steak even two-thirds of the way across the community, let alone the opposite side.
Besides, it not only isn’t a beef Steak, it’s also not beef at all! The merchant buying the meat doesn’t even know the source of the meat anyway. Because these are rough cuts of jerky, specifically goat jerky. All meant as trail rations.
That meat had taken a bit of a convoluted route to arrive where it was. However, what it had actually left Wolf’s Rest as jerky already. With the water removed, it is simply much lighter and takes up less space. Besides, to make jerky you need smoke and spices. Which aren’t going to get cheaper away from the dungeon that can provide what is needed for both.
And while it would take too much to go over that jerky’s entire journey. Ace would find it funny should he ever learn of this incident and that the jerky had been bought and sold by various members of the Blue Jeans Cooperative four separate times on its journey. Going forward, that would mean the same meat getting taxes five times. Talk about double-dipping!
And situations like that were spread all across the community, slowly being collated and gathered back to those in charge of the Blue Jeans Cooperative. Though even with all the information gathered, it still takes them a while to figure out what happened. An extra charge on a fishing rod? Jerky bought at the other dungeon? And so many other random things?
If it wasn’t for the grounding provided by the fact that every beef steak now cost a little more, it might have stayed a mystery for years. As it is, almost a month passed before they fully nailed everything down. The rod? Wood from the Wolf’s Rest dungeon. The Jerky? Goat meat from the Wolf’s Rest dungeon. And so on and so forth.
It all came back to the dungeon and so they couldn’t deny things anymore. Ace hadn’t just been blowing smoke. There was fire to go with it! Except when they tried to capitulate, Ace didn’t bite.
They offered deals and trades. They offered money and political power. They wanted to offer goods, only to realize all the best stuff already comes from Wolf’s Rest in the first place.
A combination of accepting the way things worked after-magic and having the dungeon right there meant they had the best crafters. After all, a dungeon represents resources and a reason to keep crafting things.
A carpenter in a small town isn’t going to be pushed to work as hard as one needing to make new shields and such using wood that doesn’t run out. And don’t even try to compare the smiths. The dungeon keeps producing ore and eating weapons and armor. Even if deaths aren’t the most common thing, gear gets damaged and destroyed all the time.
The merchant group did try and find some resource they could monopolize that Wolf’s Rest needed. Except this wasn’t pre-system times. If a town couldn’t maintain itself to some degree, it wasn’t going to last. And Wolf’s Rest? It was self-sufficient to a degree hard to find in any period.
So they were stuck, and Ace wasn’t budging. Not even when they tried to offer what he had wanted in the first place. Maybe if they had come back the next day, Ace would have accepted it as a part of them trying to bargain.
They waited over a month to come back and only offered their help with the coin situation after running out of every other option. Well, every other option except one. Or maybe this was them using that option? Which is exactly why Ace wasn’t even going to bother with them.
That last option? Lie about it. “Oh, sure, we’ll help you with that!” And then simply not. All it would take is for Ace to rescind the punishment and then the merchant group does the bare minimum to prevent it from returning. Or maybe they don’t even try, figuring that as long as they don’t deny them 3 times again or what have you, they’re safe.
Though really, all of that was brought up to Ace later on by the few advisors that had managed to accrue around him. At first, the reason was simple and straightforward. Ace had given them a chance and they didn’t accept. Sure, maybe other matters he wouldn’t be so hard on, but this was very much a onetime offer and that time had passed.
If people wanted to wheel and deal, they could do so with officials lower on the chain. Ace was the top, the end. If a matter got to him, it would be settled, whether those who brought it to him liked the result or not. So without something new beyond, “Oh shoot, this could actually hurt us, how about that deal?”, Ace wasn’t budging. Especially after the other point was brought up.
Though Ace also felt a bit annoyed that he had advisors beyond the inner circle, especially without realizing it. They were even paid for it! Admittedly, that had been set up after they stuck around long enough. It had kind of happened naturally where certain people in town kept having the answers to questions he had.
In fact, this discovery of paid advisors? It caused Ace to spend multiple days wading through the town’s bureaucracy. Because things had been building up with time despite his attempts to keep things pretty flat. There was supposed to be the inner circle and everyone else. Now there were layers and for some reason people seemed to think a guard had more authority than those maintaining the infrastructure or handling the trash.
Ace wasn’t happy about that last one, not one bit. Also, it gave him something else to do while ignoring those merchants. Not like this was enough to break them. Even if the tax applied to everything they bought, it wasn’t a lot.
Mostly what it did was funnel copper back to the town, which they then released. Made paying for the various goods flowing out of the dungeon a lot easier. Also allowed them to develop a bit of a war chest. Though most importantly, Ace was eyeing some of the system buildings and their price tags. That was going to take a while, but it would be worth it.