Chapter 392

Although the Eye and Hand of Vecna were Artifacts, their drawbacks were far too deadly. Even in a trade, their value would have to be heavily discounted.

The Bral royal family was well aware of that.

Besides, when trading magic items of this caliber, it wasn't about what you wanted. It was about what the other party had available.

With that thought, Anser immediately cast Sending and contacted Veronica.

"Veronica, what do they want in exchange for those two Artifacts? Right now, the Magic Research Society only has one Artifact, the Dragonlance."

After a brief silence, Veronica replied, "I want two Legendary items that suit me."

It was a reasonable and practical request.

Trading for another Artifact would be difficult, but if she only wanted two Legendary items, there would be plenty of options to choose from.

"All right. I'll ask around for you."

"Thank you, President."

Anser smiled, but he wasn't actually planning to trade two Artifacts for just two Legendary items. That would be a bit of a loss.

The number of magic items each person could attune to was limited, so quality was naturally far more important than quantity.

If the Magic Research Society didn't have anything suitable, he could always try the Astral Travelers' Rest.

His Traveler's Badge had recovered long ago. He had simply been too busy lately to find the time to go.

'I still have another Artifact.'

He got up and pulled a deck of tarokka cards from the back of a cabinet. It was Luba's Tarokka of Souls, which he had obtained from the space pirates.

This Artifact could twist the fate of a target creature, but if one of the fourteen High Deck cards was drawn, the evil entity imprisoned within would escape and appear at a random location nearby.

Those imprisoned entities included extraordinarily powerful beings such as a death knight and a mummy lord. Six cards remained.

Once all the imprisoned souls had been released and destroyed, the Artifact would reveal a fifteenth soul—a lich whose strength was unknown.

Anser hadn't really dared to use it before. Now that his strength had skyrocketed, however, he at least had the ability to protect himself.

'Better wait a little longer.'

There could be an enormous difference in strength from one lich to another. Using it now would still carry some risk.

These were all experience points he had in reserve. Sooner or later, he would cash them in.

He absentmindedly stuffed the tarokka deck into his dragonhide pouch, then suddenly noticed that something about the pouch felt different.

The foot-long black belt pouch was now saturated with his presence.

The unique presence of an adult exotic metallic dragon!

'Could it be...?'

He checked the dragonhide pouch's properties and, sure enough, they had changed slightly.

Its name remained the same—Avaricious Dragonhide Pouch—and its rarity was still Rare, but its Curse Mark property had become Dragon Hoard.

...

Dragon Hoard: The domineering presence of a true dragon has altered the Curse Mark, turning this pouch into part of a dragon's hoard.

The dragonhide pouch randomly connects to a cursed dragon hoard. At midnight each day, it "plunders" one item from that hoard.

That item becomes part of your personal hoard. Anyone who steals it without permission will be afflicted by the hoard's curse...

...

'So that's what happened.' Anser finally understood.

When he'd first obtained the item, the dice had revealed several ways to break its curse. Among them were washing or soaking it in the blood of a true dragon, or making its treasure part of another dragon's hoard.

Soaking it in true dragon blood was honestly too wasteful, so after trying it a few times, he'd given up.

The last method, however, had requirements for the dragon itself: it had to be an adult dragon.

Now he fully met that requirement.

After becoming an adult dragon, his presence had gradually seeped into the dragonhide pouch, quietly breaking the Curse Mark on it.

The items inside still carried the hoard's curse, but that curse was now completely under his control.

And the pouch's "stealing" had become controllable as well. It no longer had to steal something every day.

Anser casually pulled a handful of gold coins from the pouch and gave them a light shake. The draconic presence clinging to them immediately dissipated.

The coins were clean and gleaming, and anyone could use them freely.

'The dice really are reliable.'

He went to a corner of the room and dumped out everything that had been taking up more than half the pouch's space. Gold coins, gemstones, works of art, and magic items poured out like water, piling across the floor.

The dragonhide pouch stole something every day. Sometimes it was a pile of coins, sometimes a few gemstones, and sometimes a magic item. After accumulating day after day, the amount had become quite substantial.

If he hadn't previously "donated" some of it to Amn free of charge, the dragonhide pouch would have run out of space long ago.

'What a pleasant surprise.'

He made a rough inventory. Even conservatively, the total value exceeded sixty thousand gold pieces, with the magic items accounting for most of it.

'Too bad there's nothing particularly good.'

He wasn't disappointed. He simply switched off the pouch's stealing property.

It wasn't because he was afraid of dragons coming after him. He was worried the pouch might accidentally steal an extradimensional item and destroy everything.

He still had more than ten thousand pounds of gold on hand, along with gemstones worth over three thousand pounds of gold. He had no need for this little bit of stolen wealth.

It wasn't as if he were some greed-obsessed dragon!

'Now I can finally use it without worrying.'

He stuffed the valuables he carried with him into the dragonhide pouch, then tossed the coins, works of art, and numerous magic items into Party Storage.

Anything useful would be distributed internally first. Whatever they had no use for could then be disposed of through the Federal Commercial Alliance.

...

When the sun rose as usual, a column consisting of more than a hundred horses and over a thousand people departed through Durlag's northern gate and followed the newly widened road straight into the Wood of Sharp Teeth.

The riders at the head of the convoy carried the six-winged banner representing Holrewen. Behind them came large numbers of stonemasons and laborers, while numerous adventurers moved around the column.

This was the first construction team bound for Twin City. Organized by several newly recruited officials, the entire group had been assembled in just two days and was now advancing toward Moonscar Basin in orderly fashion.

Aside from the competence of the officials leading the expedition, the biggest reason was simple: the Holrewen Federation had money!

Throw enough gold at the Stonemasons' Guild, Adventurers' Guild, and Hunters' Guild, and it was easy to put together an enormous, comprehensive construction force.

Some people cleared the road, some drove off wild beasts, some specialized in transporting supplies, while others set up trail markers...

Even the route through the forest had been designed with the help of druids from the Emerald Enclave, avoiding all the difficult terrain and dangerous beasts.

That was the advantage of connections and reputation!

On top of that, times were hard. There were refugees everywhere, and almost everyone was struggling. The moment the Federation issued its city-building order, it immediately drew the attention and participation of countless people.

Many of them already had nothing to their names. What did they have to lose by taking a gamble?

As a result, construction of Twin City progressed far more smoothly than expected.

...

Fort Jacqueline.

From afar, Anser watched the crowd disappear into the depths of the forest. His gaze then shifted to the watchtowers being built throughout the forest and along its edges.

'Those tens of thousands of gold pieces weren't wasted.'

Durlag's expansion was already in full swing, and adding Twin City on top of that did put considerable economic pressure on the Federation.

But Anser understood the benefits of infrastructure all too well, so he was willing to spend the money.

In truth, the money-making capacity of a major power was staggering. Even the old Durlag had been able to collect a hundred thousand gold pieces in taxes each year.

The problem was that most of those taxes had simply been pocketed by the rulers. Otherwise, how could the Bral royal family have become so wealthy?

Only a handful of major powers were willing to put even a little money into public welfare, education, infrastructure, and similar areas, because the returns simply weren't worth the risks.

Develop too well, and hungry wolves would come for you. Train up an educated elite, and they would all become the churches' core constituency, ready to turn around and bite you at any moment.

With that kind of money, you were better off pouring it into the military and using stronger armed forces to plunder even more wealth.

When all was said and done, a civilization of robbers was the mainstream in Faerûn.

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