“ I hate merchant skills...”
Jake said as he wrote in one of his notebooks, by now Lisa had learned that the booklets he keeps in his vests dimensional pocket came into three categories. The first one is his notes and research on a multitude of subjects. From governance to battlefield leadership. The second set were his personal logs and journals. The last one was his ledgers, which he was quickly making marks in before snapping a pencil in it’s folds and putting it away.
“ Everyone hates merchant skills. Their whole archtype is all about making money.”
Lisa snickered as the blacksmith retorted. In truth, they were not fleeced as hard as they could have been because the dragonkin with them had some merchant skills of her own. Not enough to get a fair deal, but enough to come ten percent under the planned max budget for the stop. Which, to say, is a lot in the panther beastkin’s opinion.
“ There is making money then there is being greedy. It like the entire place says forget long term investment, I want all the short term gains.”
This caused even the dragonkin to do that grin she does when she is happy or amused, as the Cardmancer continued his rant for the next ten minutes as his summons got the dining table set for dinner. Naturally, they did not spend the night and left an hour before sundown. They would have left earlier, but the stable where they had their horses resting sold them within an hour of their arrival. Naturally, when the ‘buyer’ tried to take them away, they found it to be one of Jake’s summons. Something he worked on for over a month to summon first as part of a mounted cavalry, then as wagon pullers, scout mounts, and courier mounts. Ironically, this would have been easier to do in reverse order of courier, scout, wagon puller, then cavalry. After dinner, the four separated to their individual beds, pairing and went to sleep.
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The next day, Lisa took over the guard position of the dwarves to allow them to sleep as the crafting duo began work on their own versions of all the gear the summons will be using in the dungeons for the foreseeable future. The dwarves Jake noticed had different opinions about the summons he left them. Taking on the appearance of a dwarven woman, she seemed to serve the younger of the two brothers as some sort of servant. Which was perfectly fine as long as neither of them abused her. While the dwarves rested and entertained themselves with minor gambling or reading in their downtime, the blacksmith and his wife started working on the replacement gear. This is when Jake learned Sarsa had a literal [generalist crafter] class, which allowed her to do pretty much anything crafting-related. Just not that well compared to a dedicated class. What he did notice that not even she did was that she was a natural teacher. With this new information, his plans for the future were changed a little bit yet again.
It took a week from leaving Dirkson to arrive at the small village on a large plain of open ground, with only small hills to block long-range line of sight. It did not take long for them to get set up outside the Lone Field Dungeon and then to be ready for their first dive.
With Lisa’s four summons and herself, that left Jeff with four summons himself. Which he chose to have a porter, a blacksmith, a miner and his new elite in his lineup. Unlike his normal soldiers, this one wore a heavily armored version of his officer gear. Instead of a wingshield and a single sword, this summon had a thick almost as long as the summon was tall sword on his back as well as several shorter blades around their hip. In total they had probably over twenty blades visible on their person. This caught the dwarves' attention more than anything else.
“ Right, we are geared up and as set as we are going to get. I got a ton of rations and spare equipment with the porter. We lose him, we end the run, and start over. We've all gone over our roles and plans, so let's get this party started. Lisa, from this point on, you are in command.”
Lisa nods as she steps forward and faces Jake and the summons.
“ Okay then, first off, I am the first one in anywhere. I clear the traps and scout out the area before I let you know what is coming. I am trusting you know how to fight on your own and know your own roles. I will be acting as a sapper slash rogue, but will not be fighting directly unless you mess up. This is for experience and a good test run before we go into a harder dungeon. The first room of the dungeon is always safe, so we can go in together. And I will say it again, you do not go anywhere I have not been already.”
Lisa sees Jake nod to that as she turns around and enters the portal that was the dungeon. The nearby adventurer guild guards and inspector were not even paying attention to the group, more than to note their presence, having heard such a speech thousands of times before.
