Atlas chuckled, “It’s okay. Have you considered trying to hire a Reborn?”
The two ladies looked at each other for a moment before Raina responded, “Reborn seem to be fickle. They don’t stay in one place very long and are constantly running off. It’d be impossible for them to keep up with production. We also don’t know if we can trust them. We know we could trust you though after all you’ve done.”
“That’s true. We move around a lot and don’t stay in one place very long. Are you aware of our crafting advantage though?” he asked.
“What advantage?” Raina asked as she perked up.
Atlas looked through his bag and found a Wooden Slab and a Spool of Copper Wire.
“Do you mind if I get your floor a little dirty?” Atlas asked with a smile.
“Uh, okay,” Raina answered hesitantly.
Atlas picked up the slab and activated Create Wooden Necklace Charm. His body went into overdrive as the small knife came out and he carved it to shape. The moment the blade stopped moving, he used Create Wooden Necklace Charm of Intellect.
The pace picked up, and he quickly carved the symbols into the piece to imbue it. Finally, he used Create Wire Wrapped Wooden Necklace Charm of Intellect. His fingers deftly wove the wire around the charm until it was complete. With the piece finally finished, he handed it over to a shocked-looking Raina.
The woman stared at the charm with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth, “But, how? That was so fast it was hard to keep up with,” she said as she turned the charm over in her hands.
“This would’ve taken my father most of the day and you completed it in minutes. Can you do this all the time?” she asked in disbelief.
“Pretty much. I can make anything I have the required crafting level for at incredibly fast speeds. I have Woodworking, Jewelcrafting, and Leatherworking currently.”
“You can do all three skills in this same way? That’s incredible!” Penny chimed in.
Raina’s eyes changed from a look of shock to one of determination.
“Atlas, I think we may be able to help each other. Would you consider mass producing items for us when needed?” Raina asked.
“I probably could but, as we’ve already established, I’ll be leaving this city, eventually. I also don’t know how it would benefit me. I’m sure I can get more money selling directly to the market itself.”
“That’s true. You probably could get a little better profit,” Raina began, “How do you feel about experience, though?”
Atlas perked up at that, “What do you mean?”
“Well, we can create quests. That’s how I made the one for you to rescue my sister. If you work in a business, or own a business, you can also make quests related to the business. For instance, I can create quests for you to supply us with certain amounts of items. It will reward you with a sum of money slightly lower than normal market price, but they will also grant you additional crafting and normal level experience.”
“Wait, you can do that? You can help me gain normal experience with crafting quests?”
“Sure can,” Penny said in a bubbly tone.
“Why have I not seen crafting quests yet? Other than to learn special recipes, anyway.”
“Competition. The crafters are required to teach you the skills. They don’t have to do anything else to help you if they choose.”
That makes sense. We could run them completely out of business. If people knew you could gain experience through crafting as well, far more would do that all the time instead of gathering materials and fighting stuff outside of the cities.
“So, how do we want to do this?” Atlas asked.
“I think it’s best if we keep you and the business separate. We can just use you like work for hire. If we have to put you on the payroll, it may draw attention you don’t want. Instead, you let us know your level and patterns. We search the market for items that are selling high, place an order with you for anything you can make, and you deliver in bulk. We can make the work order for 70% of the market price for the goods? To sweeten the deal, we’ll even supply the raw goods and subtract them from the cost,” Raina said.
“That seems a little low. What is the experience gain?”
“We can’t control that. The world mechanics calculates experience itself. It automatically assigns it based on item difficulty and quantity. I’m told you can get bonuses for producing higher-quality items than the order requests as well.”
“How about 80% market price and we call it a deal? In exchange, I’ll agree to make items from any crafting skills I have available, not just Woodworking,” he countered.
The ladies looked at one another before both nodded and said, “Done.”
You have created a tradeskill agreement with Raina and Penelope Voi’ Deer.
“Well, I’m currently level eighteen in Jewelcrafting, eighteen in Leatherworking, and seventeen in Woodworking,” Atlas summarized.
“That should do well in the current market. It seems many of the Reborn are still working on items from the tier below your skill level. It should help us jump ahead of the market. Right now we should have enough supplies for two major orders I need filled in Woodworking. Once we get the business rolling again, we can expand into the other two. Anything you make with your own materials you will need to sell to us to prevent flooding the market in the wrong way, but we’ll pay the agreed market price.”
“Sounds good. What do you have for me?”
“You can have these two orders to fill. Our shop is The Lacquer Stop. You can find it in the merchant quarter of the city near the main street. A man named Joe attends as the apprentice. He can let you know where the supplies you need will be. Here are the orders,” she
