Chapter 22: Chapter 22

"Thanks for meeting with me," Ariel Ironborn said. "I know you're busy with research."

Ariel Ironborn, the only human out of her father's four daughters, was a somewhat plain-looking beta, with dark skin, black hair that coiled, and broad, flat, rounded features. She'd come up as a Wizard, much like her father, and so lacked the thick muscles and firmness that her Spellblade twin sister had, and being as she wasn't a beta exemplar, she lacked that twin's generous curves as well.

She could've been any random high-level delver who retired to become a bureaucrat, if it weren't for the fact that Roxy had met her in person a few times, and seen her face rather a lot in the news. She was the Guild Leader, the big mover and shaker of the past twenty five years. While her sisters and father partied up to delve Venompit to Level 15, she had been the one training new delvers, teaching them what she could, connecting them with other students of hers, and building up a social network that now encompassed half the Guild.

And in her office, rather than a traditional desk that implied the authority and standing of the person sitting behind it over the person sitting before it, she had a simple, plain table, twice as long as it was wide, with a few office chairs at hand, so that, when appropriate, she could sit next to the person visiting her, without that literal and metaphorical barrier between them.

"I ended up taking a break from that after I got a Slotless Rancher Class Unlock from a test dungeon," Roxy said. "Been talking to some people about Rancher, how to best get started, trading for monstergirls... I figured, while I'm talking to people, I might as well wait for an opening to talk with you, too."

"Ah, right, that," Ariel said. "My sisters told me about that. But, that's a subject for another day."

"I'm told you need someone who can supply the countryside with the tools they need at prices they can afford," Roxy said. "And, with all my automatons, and my Familiar with Miner and Blacksmith, I can do precisely that."

"That is a thing I needed, yes," Ariel said. "But I meant more about your status as, currently, our only living Dungeon Master with a Level higher than 10."

"Ah, that," Roxy said. "Yeah, I've been kinda gunshy about the prospect of one day rolling out a Level 14 Dungeon Gate, considering that, uh... well. You're well aware of what happened the last time I made a Dungeon Gate available to the public."

"Building an underground town from scratch to host it was the most boneheaded approach to being responsible I've seen in my entire life," Ariel said. "The lawsuits are still being tendered and processed, and it may be the rest of the year before we finally reach an end to them."

"And what if, say, I agreed to settle out-of-court with any and all claimants for the tools they can no longer afford to replace when they wear out?" Roxy asked.

"...Hrm," Ariel said. "That could actually work. The suits are, by and large, a release valve for the very real and ongoing economic crisis, and the strain it's putting on the countryside. If you address the problem in another way... that could solve the legal problem occupying fully two thirds of the Guild's legal team."

"What the fuck," Roxy said. "Holy shit, I am. Just now realizing precisely how big my influence is."

"I'm glad you're up to speed," Ariel said blandly. "Now, if you could be even more cautious with that influence, that'd be absolutely grand."

"Yeah, I'll definitely be holding off on any major revelations," Roxy said. "Although..."

"Although?" Ariel said.

"So, strictly speaking, people don't actually need money to survive," Roxy said. "They need food, and most villages are full of Farmers who produce food. The thing that's causing so much pain and suffering is the fact that those Farmers do require money to replace their tools as they wear out, or else they can't produce food."

"That's a... reasonable reading of the situation, yes," Ariel said.

"So, if the villages had a food supply completely independent of their tools..."

"No," Ariel said. "Rural people are quite fiercely independent and inclined towards self-sufficiency. Already they resent the fact that they need to interact with markets to replace their tools. Simply giving them food is only neighborly if you're their actual neighbor, and an insult to their pride if you aren't."

"...Alright, fine. Well, they need to buy new tools because they can't make them in the village, right? What if we provided ways for them to pick up Miner and Blacksmith at reasonable levels, so that they could make them in the village?"

"....Hrm," Ariel murmured. "That's... potentially workable, but... the only way to level up non-combat classes with any real speed is through delving, and quite aside from the expense of high-level contracts that enable XP-shifting shenanigans, the simple fact of the matter is that nineteen out of twenty people simply aren't cut out for delving. Any other ideas?"

Roxy sighed.

"Well, I could just use my Mystic Artificer levels to enchant the tools to consume mana instead of durability, and encourage them to grow mana herbs and brew mana potion by the barrel," Roxy said.

"That's better, yes," Ariel said, nodding. "As it so happens, a lot of villages do already have an alchemist on-hand, so that's something that could actually be tried."

"Is it something I can try?" Roxy asked.

"I'm not sure it would be a good idea," Ariel said. "Farmers being made to sell some of their crop for money is what supported the class of specialists who didn't make food and instead made the tools that the Farmers needed to make food more efficiently, but it's also what greased the wheel for them to sell crop for more money to spend on things that aren't tools. If the Farmers think that now they're completely insulated from the economy... that could lead to more problems down the road, when we find out the hard way that they aren't."

"Fuck a duck," Roxy muttered. "You're awful gunshy about doing things differently these days, aren't you?"

"Every improvement is a change, but not every change is an improvement," Ariel said, quoting herself. "We must, in all things, be careful and considerate, and think through what we are doing." She sighed. "Think of it this way: if you sold them the same tools they've always used at affordable prices, then later on, we have the option of trying other things, but if we give them the unbreakable tools now, there's no changing that without taking the tools away from them."

"I suppose that's fair," Roxy said. "Still... I don't know. As much as I am holding stuff back from the public, most of that is private stuff that would mostly just embarrass me if it was publicly known. This... this feels wrong. It feels wrong to me to say that I should not give these suffering people enough food to eat, or better tools so they can more easily make their own food without trouble, or do anything but help bring things back to the way they once were, which weren't good, but are at least familiar. I understand why you're coming at it from this angle of trying to stem the tide of negative knock-on effects, but I can't help but feel like more things have to change, not less.

"I mean, just take one of the fresh graduates my apprentices mentored recently. She's from one of those villages, and came to Dornhelm to join the Guild so that she could make money and send it back home, so her family could afford to replace their old plow. She sees that people are suffering from a lack of money, so she gives them money and alleviates the suffering. Fixing one problem at a time in ways that makes more problems is definitely bad, but so is being hesitant to put out fires because you're worried about water damage."

"Do you remember what we discussed only a few minutes ago, about the trouble that arose from you building a Level 13 Dungeon Gate?" Ariel asked.

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"I do remember it, and I also remember the message filter I had to make because of all the Level 10s and up who sent me their profuse thanks," Roxy said. "And the many posts all over Grindr about how this changes the game, because Level 13 Growth Dungeons had an alarming tendency to kill people. On the balance, I think that building the Level 13 Normal Dungeon Gate was a good thing to do, which simply happens to have brought on some headaches, because for literally anything about this world that matters, somebody wants to keep it the way it is, and will get mad at you for changing it. You've gotta consider who you'll be pissing off, but you can't let the simple fact that it'll piss people off stop you from doing it. That's only a workable way of life for the common, unimportant woman off the street, and even they think it's a cowardly way to live."

Ariel grunted.

"Yeah, there's going to be new problems to solve," Roxy said, quietly. "There's always a new problem to solve. But sometimes, you just have to trust that you're smart enough and capable enough to fix it... and that, if you're not, someone out there is, and they'll come by and lend you a hand."

"...You've given me some things to consider," Ariel admitted. "It's..." She sighed. "The situation is stable, right now. It does not urgently need anything done about it. We can afford the time for me to consider your advice carefully. Right now, though, I can offer you a contract to provide the Guild with thousands of farming implements in exchange for a peppercorn, so that we can, in turn, distribute those to angry Farmers, and that in itself will be something to help."

"I can work with that," Roxy said, nodding. "Although... when you say 'peppercorn,' do you mean the contract law jargon for a small, worthless consideration that nonetheless makes the contract into an actual exchange, thus satisfying one of the requirements for a metaphysically-effective contract? Or do you mean that, but also an actual literal peppercorn that I could grind over my food?"

"The former, although it could be the latter," Ariel said. "What I'm offering is a small, contractually-unspecified favor. You can, right now, name any task that I could reasonably complete in ten minutes without undue risk, damage, expense, or indignity, and provided that I agree that it meets those criteria, then we can sign the contract, and I will then be obliged to complete this favor before you begin work on the farming tools."

"I kinda already have a few thousand unenchanted Level 6 farming tools," Roxy said.

"What."

"I found out about the tool shortage a week ago, and contacted your secretary to make this appointment. In the meantime, I worked with my Familiar to get a production center set up with automatons to churn out plows, spades, scythes, pitchforks, wheelbarrows, and other shit Farmers would want." Roxy shrugged. "I mean, I do get what you mean, don't worry. Besides, the contract is for the supply of these tools, not specifically the production and supply of them, right? You'd be fine with me commissioning delver-Blacksmiths to make Farmer gear instead of mid-level gear they're going to end up throwing away, I'm presuming."

"Well, yes, now that you raise the possibility, that'd be fine and dandy, and possibly even preferable to you making all of that," Ariel said. "We'd need a way to fund those commissions, because you don't have that much money on-hand-"

"Look, we can amend the contract to specify I will supply the gear, so that I can then give you all these fucking titanium plows in my inventory, and after this you can set up a Guild department that incentivizes delver-Blacksmiths to make Farmer gear they can sell instead of weapons they can't when they're grinding out XP."

"Right. Your favor. Will you be expending it to get the one-delve Silver Certification for low-risk dungeon types from high-level Dungeon Masters?" Ariel asked.

"I... really do not give a shit one way or the other, honestly," Roxy said. "I still got my Sex Dungeon Gate certified in an afternoon, and the only thing that cost me was some mana and a few Stamina potions. No, what I want... might qualify as undue indignity? But..."

"You want to have sex with me, don't you."

"...Yeah, that's pretty much what I was getting at."

"Very well," Ariel said, grabbing the contract and beginning to amend the clause.

"Ah, you're interested?" Roxy asked.

"That, and it's actually rather practical for me," Ariel said. "This way, I don't have to pull any strings beyond the laces of my outfit. It can be discharged here, in this room, without any trouble whatsoever. Sign here."

Roxy quickly scanned the contract, before nodding and putting her mana signature to it.

"Good," Ariel said, setting it aside and moving a small stack of papers, before standing up from her chair and bending over the table. "Whenever you're ready."

Roxy stood up, moving behind Ariel, and pulled down her pants, revealing her prick and pussy to the office air. Out of consideration, Roxy slipped a condom onto Ariel's cock, to contain the resulting mess.

Roxy fucked Ariel in a businesslike manner- not out of any particular attraction, but because she quite liked the powerful feeling of getting to personally, literally bend the Guild Leader over a table and fuck her. That, and... well, a bit of the grid-filling slash collecting urge, in all honesty. Roxy had already fucked the other three Ironborn women, after all. Why not complete the set?

Roxy was tempted to stop when Ariel came the first time, but then, shrugging, kept going; Roxy wasn't done yet, after all. It was only with Ariel's fourth orgasm that Roxy finally came, herself, managing to not tie her knot inside the Guild Leader this time.

"How was it?" Roxy asked, gently slipping a plug into the cream-filled hole so it wouldn't spill everywhere.

"I can't- can't-" Ariel shuddered. "Can't feel... my legs... holy shit."

"Yeeeahhhh, I've been delving some Sex Dungeons," Roxy said. "Turns out you learn a few things."

"No... kidding," Ariel gasped out. "Ooooohhhh, fuck, that was... Mmmn. We need to make more contracts, Roxy."

"I mean, we could just have sex without a contract," Roxy said.

"What would be the point of that?" Ariel asked.

"Heh. I guess doing business is a pleasure with you," Roxy said. "Anyhow, if that's all? ...Goodbye, then."

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