Mercenary Wars

Chapter 128 Lulabel
The bidder was miner Barons.

It could only be Barons, the only truly poor person in the team. Even ten gold coins would be a huge windfall, let alone dozens.

Moreover, his treatment as a miner at the Gavin Chamber of Commerce was not much better than that of a slave. To him, this was tantamount to a pay rise of hundreds of times, an irresistible temptation.

The mercenaries were no match for him.

Unsurprisingly, Barons won the auction, and the others pooled together ten gold coins to pay him. Of course, this money had to be held by Gaugano until Barons returned from the mines after serving his sentence as a slave.

Gaucano had somewhat anticipated the outcome of the auction.

He had even considered suggesting that Barons become a slave, but it was a bit difficult to bring it up, so he suddenly came up with the idea of ​​holding this negative-price auction.

"Is there anything I should be careful about when I'm a slave there?" Barons was even a little eager to try it out.

Gaucano: "It's similar to your work for the Gavin Chamber of Commerce, but there are two things to be careful about. The most important thing is to never reveal your identity as a Mosaic, because most of the human slaves in the mines are disciples of Jesus."

"In addition, try to establish contact with some slaves to prepare for future actions," he added.

Barons then asked, "What should I do if someone I know in Nikon tries to talk to me?"

Gaucano said, "You don't need to worry about that. Nikon hasn't been a slave here for long, and he's rather taciturn. Almost no slaves have spoken to him. Whatever you say won't reveal his true nature."

"Where are the gray dwarves?"

Gaucano: "The grey dwarves don't understand human language. You just need to remember a few of their common commands, and they won't realize you're fake."

Barons nodded: "I understand."

Then he remembered something: "Could I use sentry guards? The two sentry guards I placed in the silver mine seem to be of little use. All I see every day are the Dibutons enslaving the Mossatites and kobolds to mine."

After a moment's thought, Gaucano said, "Use one, and leave the other at the silver mine. After all, it's our only way to get information from the outside world."

After another discussion, everyone...

Daniel used a trick illusion to turn Barons, Ryan, and himself into the appearance of gray dwarves.

Those without darkvision each drank a bottle of darkvision potion, and then, under the illusion, the group headed to the mine together.

Upon arriving at the mine, Barons waved his hand.

Everyone was puzzled.

Barons explained, "I've placed an invisible sentry here, so this area is now under my surveillance. I'll detect anyone approaching immediately."

Ryan stroked his chin: "If we can get out of here smoothly this time, you can learn some hunter or thief skills. As long as you have the level of a level one combat professional, you can become a formal Grayhawk mercenary. After all, the blessing of the sentry guard is quite rare."

Barons: "That sounds good, but I need to ask my family. Although they will definitely support me, I still want to discuss it with them."

Ryan nodded: "Of course, this is something we need to discuss with our family."

The group arrived at Nikon's location.

Daniel creates an illusion that envelops several people except for Hilgon.

From the outside of the illusion, one can only see Nikon, who is always fast asleep, and cannot detect the presence of anyone else.

Hilgon remained outside the illusion, keeping watch with the guards at Barons' outpost.

Inside the illusion.

Gaugano explained the plan to Nikon, who naturally agreed. Then he pointed to the black steel shackles on Nikon's feet: "Ryan, can you open these locks?"

“It should work.” Ryan took out his thieving tools and picked up the black steel shackles. “They look simpler than the lock on that door.”

Daniel said, "It's okay if I can't open it; I can disguise the other shackles to look the same."

“Don’t say that, my lock-picking skills are still pretty good.” Ryan said, and began to try. “Second only to… my teacher.”

He actually meant to say "night owl," but changed it to "my teacher" at the last minute.

After all, Night Owl was somewhat famous, and Nikon might have heard of him and used that to identify the five men as Mosas, causing a lot of trouble. Fortunately, he reacted quickly and changed his story in time.

Not a moment.

"Click." The black steel shackles opened with a sound.

"It's a success!" Ryan smiled.

"Thank you, Yemen!" Nikon stretched his legs and said excitedly, "Thank you all too!"

Daniel then disguised Barons as Nikon and put his shackles back on, thus completing the "miner-for-prosecutor" scheme.

Gaucano instructed, "Barons, you may stay here for about ten days. During these ten days, try to make connections with the other slaves, especially these few."

He pointed to several slaves and said, “Those Tiftin and minotaurs over there, that bald dwarf over there, that dark-haired man with the scar on his face over there, and…”

Barons silently made a note of these slaves.

Nikon then gave him some more instructions.

Just as the group was about to leave, Barons' expression suddenly changed: "A gray dwarf is coming this way!"

Everyone became tense.

“Leave it to me,” Hilgon said from outside the illusion, walking straight toward the gray dwarf.

“My brother, are you here to count the number of slaves too?” he said in fluent dwarven language, with a distinctive gray dwarf accent, which was quite charming.

“Yes, it’s like this every night.” The gray dwarf casually counted the number of slaves, then realized something after a while, “Are you new here?”

Hilgon smiled and nodded, while taking out a bottle of wine—Lurabel, a bottle Gaugano had given him.

“Lurabel!” The gray dwarf’s eyes lit up.

Hilgon generously handed it over: "As the newly appointed overseer, I look forward to your guidance in the future."

“No problem!” The gray dwarf took Lulabel. “This stuff is really good. Luckily, the people on the surface also like our brewed wine. Every time I come to the surface, I trade Fire Wine for Lulabel… Did you also trade it from the surface?”

Hilgon nodded: "I recently went to the surface and traded a lot of good wine on the black market."

"What kinds of wine do you have?" Like all dwarves, the grey dwarves have a particular fondness for wine.

"For example, Cape Spirits, Moonlight Spirits, Saltwind Spirits, and Southsea Spirits," Hilgon rattled off a string of famous spirits, then pulled out another bottle.

The gray dwarf's eyes lit up, then he suddenly remembered something: "Oh right, buddy, you're very generous, but you mustn't be like Brian!"

Hilgon was taken aback: "Brian... what's wrong?"

(End of this chapter)