21 Protection

Although she thought she would never have actually been surprised by anything Baron brought out, she was. Madam Zheng was thoroughly shocked by the extremely destructive weapon that was the basic sea mine. She thought carefully before talking to Baron. She had to calm herself down before she spoke.

(MZ) "Yes, this is quite an impressive weapon that you have. I don't exactly know if this is worth every other blueprint I have though." She said a bit Indifferently.

(BM) "Now that I think about it I don't really need all of your blueprints, I just want to pick a few out of your arsenal."

(MZ) "How much are you thinking? "

(BM) "I'd have to think about it after you show me all that you have. Remember though, if nothing catches my eye you won't be getting your basic sea mine blueprint. "

(MZ) "Alright then, I'veseen enough how about we go back to see if anything in my arsenal is worth a trade for you." This was it,she thought to herself. If she could get this blueprint then she would become infinity more feared in any sea battles. She knew that although this was just a simple blueprint, this blueprint is considered pretty advanced and if she researched enough into it. She could very well improve upon the designs to become a true modern era sea mine.

The two entered back into the room which they were talking in earlier and Madam Zheng laid out a few of her better quality blueprints out for Baron to see. He took a look but he didn't find anything of interest. To which she put out even more for Baron to rummage through to no avail.

(BM) "It doesn't seem like you have anything that i'm interested in. How about you trade something else in order to obtain this blueprint from me?"

(MZ) "Trade what?" Madam Zheng could already guess what Baron wanted. He wanted her protection. The reason that Baron hadn't had a hard time upon coming to planet 4 was that she had announced to all the elders that Baron was a person of interest to her. Boy was she correct.

(BM) "I'm sure you know what I want."

(MZ) "Absolutely no way i'd consider such a preposterous trade. You would benefit too much off of this." Madam Zheng did indeed want this blueprint no matter what the cost, but she wanted to get a few more benefits for herself.

(BM) "Well if there is no way you would consider such a trade then I suppose our little meeting is at an end." Baron of course knew what Madam Zheng was trying to accomplish, she was trying to haggle the price of the blueprint. He knew that she wanted it badly, but he had to hold firm, if he caved then that would signal to Madam Zheng and everyone else that he was a pushover. He had to assert himself so no one will hold it against him. "I've got a few errands to run, why don't you think about the proposal before you make any final decisions. I'll be leaving now, thank you for taking the time to see me senior."

(MZ) "Alright then I won't see you out." She said in a daydreamy voice, although she had expected this sort of no I won't move from my said price mentality that Baron had, she didn't think he would go as far as completely shutting down any further offers. This was surprising to say the least.

The two went their separate ways, but both to inform their closest allies of what had come of their discussion. For Baron this would be Yue Fei, and for Madam Zheng this would be her two husbands. Baron was just informing Yue Fei of what had happened, but Madam Zheng went to seek her two husbands' opinions on the matter. She ultimately had the final say, but she knew that her two husbands were very capable people and would be good to consult with. After all, she had her opinions and they had theirs. If they disagreed then their entire faction could be impacted.

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Husband 1 (H1) "This newcomer sure knows how to bargain."

Husband 2 (H2) "This isn't bargaining, he knows how precious this is to us so he purposely did it in such a shameless way."

(MZ) "The point still remains that the sea mine is still highly valuable to us. I think exchanging it for giving someone protection is a small price to pay no?"

(H1) "It's true that giving him some light protection is no big deal for us, but think of what the others will say about us."

(H2) "It matters not what they say, we just have to prove them wrong with strength. With that in mind I trust in Madam Zheng's choice to go through with this trade."

(H1) "Well of course you'd say that, hmmmmmmm." He went into deep thought and weighed the pros and cons of each choice. "You two are right, we need to get as strong as we possibly can before we can actually do well in the Death Match Tournament. We get the blueprints that will be highly valuable to us in this trade, and if we play our cards right Baron could become an ally as well."

(MZ) "So it's decided then?"

(H1) "Yes, but give him the word later as we still have other more important matters to discuss. Like the Vesper group is trying to suppress us because we have grown incredibly powerful incredibly fast."

(MZ) "It matters not that they are suppressing us, once we get this blueprint and invest enough resources into it we should be powerful enough to not be suppressed by the Vespers ever again."

(H2) "That may be true however that could still take quite a while, we need a more immediate solution."

In the end they couldn't think of anything and had instead decided to send someone to inform Baron that they were willing to trade based on the aforementioned terms.

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(YF) "That's good. And you are sure that they will accept this proposal of yours?"

(BM) "Based on what you told me, yes. They are suppressed by the Vespers right? They would do anything to make themselves stronger, even if it means that they will lose out on a trade."

(YF) "Good, now we just need to wait for them to contact us."

(BM) "I've been meaning to ask how do we create our own group or faction here?"

(YF) "A faction?"

(BM) "Yes, after my chat with Madam Zheng I realized something. If I want to win the Death Match tournament then I will need a faction of my own, and I will need a strong one at that. It's a good thing i've got 1,500 years to prepare."

(YF) "You shouldn't get too cocky some of the insanely old demons have been here for well over 10,000 years yet they couldn't do it. I'm telling you these Jordsand strategists are on a whole other level. It doesn't matter what you do it seems like these guys have already planned for everything you do."

(BM) "Everything? Well then, it just seems like we have to prepare for everything then. So tell me how do we start a faction?"

(YF) "It won't be easy I'll tell you that. The first thing that a faction needs is to have at least 5 strategists be part of the faction. So inviting outside help is not a possibility."

(BM) "That's good, we already have 5 strategists. What about Madam Zheng you said she started her own faction right?"

(YF) "Correct, she made a group of 5 consisting of herself, her two husbands, and two other commanders under her when she was still commanding thousands of people at sea when she was alive. She had no problems in getting her faction approved"

(BM) "Approved, who does this authority belong to?"

(YF) "Every 200 years there will be three new factions that will be approved. It is sort of a battle royale mode where one faction gets approved by beating everyone else at a land battle, another one a sea battle, and the last one an air battle. The land battle portion is the toughest because this is the type of battlefield that most of us are comfortable with. While the next highest difficulty is the sea battles which Madam Zheng has won in the last faction selection tournament. Lastly, the air battle faction selection battlefield has the lowest difficulty."

(BM) "Going by my intuition the three battlefields have reached a sort of equilibrium right? Some faction startups aren't strong enough to win in the land or sea battles so they choose to go to the easiest air battlefield. This causes the land and sea battlefields to have the least competitors but still the highest difficulty. While the air battle portion will have more competitors and therefore reaches a sort of equilibrium within the three battlefields."

(YF) "You guessed it, but choosing which battlefield to compete in is still extremely important. It's not just about which one has the least competitors it's about what you are most confident in. Too many don't realize this and go for the air battles just to make a fool of themselves."

(BM) "I see, then which battlefield do you think we should compete in?"

(YF) "How confident are you in air battles?"

(BM) "Very confident."

(YF) "Then it's decided, for the next faction selection tournament we will be competing in the air portion."