Chương 141: Chapter 217: Politics

Will and Brianna walked alongside Carrie while she described the current situation. The long and short of it was this: All the most profitable resource nodes and cities on the first ten Floors of the Tower were monopolized by Lords who had been around so long that they had formed a tight-knit group who supported each other and whose mere influence would wither the growth of any other Lord in a nearby Floor. The so-called 'old blood'.

The new Lords who had come to power over the last five years or so, they considered themselves 'New Blood', and felt as though they had to struggle to carve themselves a place in the Tower. None of that was Will's problem. Their plan to create their own faction included whittling away at the power of the established 'old blood' by controlling transportation across the most difficult Floors to navigate. Hence the two lords on the swamp and ocean floor.

The old blood had simply left those Floors alone, which gave the up-and-comers an opportunity to establish their own roadblocks there. Will was a bit of a wildcard in this struggle between transportation and production. Will was known to be buddy-buddy with Ghoul, who essentially controlled transportation on the 8 th Floor. And while Ghoul was technically old blood, he didn't have any trade agreements or connections to the other Lords. He just ferried people up and down.

If they could use Will to lure Ghoul into a faction with them, they would have ironclad control over the three major roadblocks of the Tower, and that would give them the ability to set the price of various goods that flowed to and from every other Stronghold in The Tower. Oh, the 4 th Floor and the 6 th Floor. I get it. Two of the Lords in Carrie's entourage sandwiched Akul, the largest city in the world. If they colluded to control the price of transport, they could effectively tax the entire city.

Surely that won't blow up in their faces. Will thought to himself. You could only checkmate someone like that if you were stonger than them, or they were willing to follow the rules. Although… the new Baron Akul isn't the original one, and he likely isn't as strong as the one who made the city. And Frederick is dead, weakening the old blood in the seventh Floor. And Travis's dad on the third floor is dead too! They took his spot! Who's the old blood then? Will counted on his fingers.

Lord of the second Floor, the salt-producing guy… Marksman? Baron Akul, Wyrd family, Ghoul, Bakton, Zodiac, and The Rotwitch. Akul and Wyrd had lost their original leaders, and the Oiltons were out of the game entirely. It was a major shift in the last five years. Is the Rotwitch even interested in politics? Like Ghoul, Will had sort of assumed that she was a loner. But that doesn't make sense. She's not an undead abomination that ferries people across a blighted land…

She's a person living in the magical swamp on the 13 th Floor. She needs food and toilet paper. Would she appreciate reliable transport more than she needs large trade deals? Getting to the 13 th Floor was damn hard, and living there was even harder. Would the 'new blood' try to bribe her with the idea of directing a huge flow of resources up to her if she switched sides?

The Rotwitch didn't have a lot of money or Influence, but she was very dangerous, even getting a promise from her not to intercede on behalf of the 'old blood' would severely weaken their ability to break out of the transportation box they were trying to build around them. As they continued talking, Carrie made it clear that their interest in Will went beyond Ghoul.

The best product of the Burned Stronghold was Advanced Classers, and even if they couldn't sign Will up for their faction, they would be happy to negotiate a price to babysit large batches of vassals up to level 50. Since they had a Stronghold on the 4 th Floor, they could break the level 15 barrier by establishing infrastructure and paying good money to house the priests they would need to keep new Climbers with rotlung alive. Will was actually starting to see the benefit…"

Tell you what, I'm probably not gonna join your club, and I certainly won't leverage my relationship with Ghoul to suggest that he does it either, but I'd certainly be willing to give you a good deal on getting you Advanced Classers on one condition."

"What's that?"

"Hire from priests of Holdna on the fourth Floor." Carrie stared at Will unblinking for a long handful of seconds before her face split into an ominous grin.

"William Oh, it turns out you do have a political bone in your body. You realize that you're asking our entire faction to align against Granesh while you stay neutral. Not even joining us."

"I don't think it's a bad idea," Will said.

"Granesh is heavily invested in the status quo, their biggest source of revinue is from Akul. By taxing Akul, you are taxing them. They'll wind up opposing you whether you show them deference or not."

"You know, I've noticed that the church has been quiet the last few years. Know anything about that?" Carrie asked. Will had noticed that too, and he gave her his theory.

"They suffered some major losses…outside the tower, in Akul, on the 6 th Floor and lost one of their strongest Paladins on the 10 th Floor. I'm assuming they're keeping their heads down in order to rebuild their strength." The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Perfect time to chip away their influence, huh?" Carrie asked.

"What if I make a deal with the Church to not tax them in exchange for their help putting a stranglehold on Akul?"

"They'll take advantage of the terms of the deal to make an obscene amount of profit of the tax-free transport, refill their ranks, then spend that extra money to erode your control out from under you until the 'new blood' faction is just a puppet with the church's arm up its ass."

"BAHAH!" Carrie threw her head back and cackled.

"Arm up it's ass," Carrie muttered, wiping tears from her eyes when she recovered.

"You know, I think we could come to an agreement of that nature, but I have to ask: There's half a dozen other churches who would work to strangle the influence of Granesh. Andover would be a better choice. Why the Huntress, specifically?"

"She likes me. If I increase Holdna's influence throughout The Tower, it indirectly lubricates every action I take. Both personally, and as a Lord."" She likes you?" Carrie asked with a cocked brow.

"The church likes me." Will corrected himself. He had no idea whether the Eldritch Fashionista bought it or not, her icy stare piercing through him.

"Hmm. Okay, we can draft up a contract after the wedding where we can go over the specifics." Carrie said, glancing over at Brianna.

"This seems like a good enough place to leave it off. I'll let you two to get back to your date." Dozens of inky black extensions of Summer emerged from Carrie's clothes and scooped up her three cohorts, flying them towards the farm in the center of the Stronghold. Will watched them go with narrowed eyes. It was a basic tactic of politics to ask for everything you possibly could and then graciously accept a simple trade deal. Don't alienate your partner. Always leave the door open to alliances.

Sure, Will didn't like politics, but he suspected that he'd improved more than Carrie thought he had, simply from the experience of steering his Stronghold away from total collapse about once every eight months. They didn't seem like they were going to get violent, but you could never tell. If Will ever looked like both an obstacle and an easy target, they just might. Speaking of my Stronghold, Will thought, turning his attention back to Brianna.

"How's Heath doing?"

"His professionalism slipped a bit this morning. Loth and I corrected his behavior. So far no signs of relapse. He's otherwise doing an excellent job cracking heads." Yikes. Loth can correct behavior with the best of them. Loth… Will frowned.

"Can you ask Loth what her faction's stance is on this tug-of-war between the old and the new?"

"Loth's faction."

"Unless I'm mistaken, Loth is aiming to be an independent Lord as well." Will suspected she wasn't one yet because she was going to wait to accept her Advanced Class test until she had the qualitative upgrade to Trap Savant. Once she got that dragon flesh, she would immediately Advance her Class, and then gain a lordship, with only few weeks between. At most. She's going to blitz her power past everyone else while they're distracted. She's basically an invisible Lord who will reveal herself overnight.

I'm interested to see what she has to say.

"Loth says she was aware of the friction between the new and old Lords, but says that this conversation has shed light on the specific details of their conflict. She says if the new Lords spend their money on creating value through easier transportation through the 4 th and 6 th roadblocks, they might survive, but if their primary goal is to squeeze value from the pockets of the old blood, then they're likely doomed.

"I think they probably know that. Right?" Will asked, glancing at Brianna.

"Right? they gotta know that." Ghoul's lesson on making oneself indispensable as a survival strategy flickered through his mind. It was the most obvious thing in the world, but it sometimes got buried beneath greed and power lust.

"Loth says not to underestimate how confidence can disguise itself as expertise." Brianna replied.

"So what's the Loth faction's response?" Will asked.

"She says her faction is going to further consider the situation and make an informed decision, but it appreciates the up-to-date information." No comment, huh? Will mused.

"Hey, Brianna, you have a copy on the fourth Floor, right?"

"I do."

"Can you give a message to whoever is running the Stronghold in place of Lord Corwin?"

"What kind of message?" Brianna asked.

"Talk to Charnesa, get a list of good candidates to run the Holdna Church subsidized by the new blood and deliver it to Lord Corwin's stronghold. Faster the better."

"Why's that?" Because when they get back to their domains a month or so from now, they will be handed a letter that was received a couple minutes after they spoke to me. It will demonstrate that I can organize a response and reach out and touch their domains in minutes, while they will either take weeks of travel or spend thousands of Influence to do the same.

"Just want to get the ball rolling quickly on that deal." Will said, omitting the veiled threat.

"Okay." Brianna said, then paused for a moment then gave Will a sour look.

"…Loth said you're threatening them?"

"…Well yes, I'm doing that too. But it's more of a 'don't mess with us, because we can punch back faster than you can' kind of threat."

"Ooh, I get it." Will tousled her hair.

"Loth is amazing. I don't know why I'm not shouting it from the treetops." If Will was correct, and Loth was trying to actively remain unknown until she could blitz through her Advancement and Lordship, she would perceive this as a playful threat in response to her tattling on Will to Brianna. Which it was.

"Loth says she appreciates the compliment, but you should take more pride in your own efforts. Your books show that you've narrowly saved your Stronghold at least six times, sometimes the different was as small as a single number." Translation: talk about yourself and not me to other Lords, or I'll bankrupt you. I have your books and can do it as easily as moving a decimal point. Will chuckled. Loth is fun.

Brianna frowned up at him, seemingly sensing that something was going over her head, but not quite able to grasp the full context of the conversation.

"What are you guys actually talking about?"

"We're just giving each other shit. I teased exposing her to the other lords and she threatened to ruin my Stronghold." Will said, giving Brianna a quick hug.

"You did? She did?"

"Yeah. We were just giving each other shit. What do you think about grabbing dinner?" they'd spent most of the day flying around the monster-filled Abyss and haggling with Lords. It was starting to feel late, despite the light never changing on this Floor. Will was getting hungry. Despite telling Brianna that they were just 'giving each other shit', Will wasn't going to tell anyone about Loth or her plan to speed through Lordship. Why risk his Stronghold?

Will would just have to make his own private plans to accommodate a powerful newcomer named Loth.

"I am kind of interested in seeing what kind of food they have here." Brianna mused.

"I heard earlier that they raise livestock up above where there's no gravity and the beef is the fattiest, most delicious thing you've ever tasted," Will said.

"Really?" Brianna asked.

"No idea," Will said with a shrug.

"Let's check it out."

"Sure." The two of them tracked down the nearest inn, which was incidentally the same direction the other Lords had flown, abutting the glass-covered farmland in the central island. The two of them walked in through the main entrance, and-"Coming through!" A man called as he barged through the front entrance, giving Will just enough time to dance out of his way. The man had bad helmet-hair and was wearing a waterproof smock coated with dried mud, carrying enough food over his shoulder to feed a Party of five.

Will watched him go with a frown. Something about him was vaguely familiar but Will couldn't quite place his face. The face was distinctive, too, so why…

"They do have steak!" Brianna called, gesturing for Will to join her beside the menu posted on the main support beam of the stone building.

"Pasties!"

"They got any sweets?" Will asked, casting one last glance over his shoulder before joining Bri.