Chapter 340

“Oh, I have a plan for that. The more responsibility she’s given, the more powerful she will get. So once she has matured enough, I will give her control of this place. In the meantime, though, I’ve still got permanent Summons that can be used to run things here. 

That will work better once the place is up and running since they’re created based on what you need. Once I need a manager for the Port, I’ll call either my last Commander or a Lieutenant to keep things going smoothly.”

Cain’s explanation is enough for Cixelcid, who understands very well the way the System seems to be Optimizing Lieutenants. The ones it gave him as Cain’s first Commander are a lifesaver and versatile enough that they’ll be able to help with anything that is likely to come up.

Svetlana, made from the copy of his appointment, is an incredible manager for Long Fang Valley, and her Lieutenants are very good at infiltration. He can’t verify it, but Cid is pretty sure by the way people react to her presence that very few have even realized that Gwen the Kitsune is not just a pretty fox.

“The Port is great and all, but I don’t suppose anyone has located the raptors yet, have they? I can’t train raptor Cavalry without any mounts.” Neffie insists, making everyone chuckle.

“How about we finish getting everything set up here and have a Guild dinosaur hunt? We will go out in groups and see what lives in the area.” Cain suggests. 

With everyone here, finishing decorating the buildings shouldn’t take too long, and Cain only needs to add one more active building to their list, the city’s first hotel. Unlike Blood Sands Castle, the Port will be a public place, so they’re hoping to attract some full-time residents to take care of most things visitors will need. 

To encourage this, Cain, Paige, and Juan all send out group messages to their friends, letting them know that Port Nefheim is open and looking for skilled tradespeople, with plenty of shops already built for those with skills.

The Wave Riders think this is a fantastic idea, they’re always looking for more open Ports, and Cain built a dry dock facility to make repairs easier than beaching their vessel and bringing in material. 

In only a few hours, they have gotten their first response, a rope maker from Munan. The younger son of a local craftsman, he saw the opportunity to open his shop in a prime location near the docks.

Being a mostly suspended city, Munan uses a lot of rope and has an equally large number of tradespeople making it. The supplies he needs are readily available by ship or could be grown in the area if someone was feeling brave. 

Considering that, Cain builds a secondary wall closer to the tree line. That leaves room for more growth, as well as a few small farms, so they won’t need to import absolutely everything. Svetlana manages to use that information to draw a young couple from Long Fang Valley to the Port.

Again, they were younger children of local farmers with little inheritance, but they were hemp farmers, which the rope makers most commonly use for ship’s rigging. 

In this tropical climate, and with the help of the husband’s skills as a Druid, the plants will grow incredibly fast. The fiber is also commonly used for sails, but with their limited space, Cain isn’t sure how much they’ll be able to grow. Hopefully, enough for all work done here.

Cain uses summons to build them a farmstead, and they happily set about cutting and splitting portions of the giant tree Cain had been working with to stock themselves with firewood. They brought a few dozen plants with them, and that same evening they’re hard at work planting cuttings and then using little magic to get them to grow roots. 

The next day brings a blacksmith and a butcher, both from the surrounding villages. The fishing boats saw the new Port and passed along the message. Since the Darklight Host cleared out the low-level sea monsters in the area, their fishing trips were also about to become much safer. 

Most of the Guild went back to their business after that, but Cid and his family stayed, insisting that Char could find new managers for the Beginners Valley and that since the Port was named for Neffie, they were the natural managers for the new location. 

That works out great for Cain, he can move back and forth between here and the Manor until the Coming of Age Celebrations are finished, and then he can organize that Guild wide dinosaur hunt that Neffie is after. 

The promise of getting to take over from her father when she’s ready had the Demon Queen practically vibrating with energy. For the first time in her life, she was eager to study instead of looking for ways to avoid it. That alone was enough to make Lickity think that this move was a good idea. 

The ships that began to stop on the third day to avoid a storm at sea brought their first guests, and the Puppets sprang into action. A night in a hotel out of the rain was a priority, with good food a close second. 

The Wave Riders informed Cain that they were going to send a merchant to stay at Port Nefheim, but he was delayed by the storm and wasn’t going to show up for a few more days. That would give the Port a skilled merchant, with connections to move whatever might come through.

Very convenient for a Guild with a lot of gear and Food to sell, especially since Carlos was spending most of his time in Landis lately, which still didn’t get much trade traffic, in fear that the war wasn’t really over. 

The fact that Cain’s dock inspectors didn’t ask what was in the cargo they unloaded, only for the dockage and unloading fees, was not lost on the piracy-minded Elves when they came to drop off the merchant. They weren’t in Port for more than a few hours, but it was only the start.

More Vessels arrived the same afternoon to deal with the merchant, and after working out trade routes, the merchant requested that access to an auction house be looked into as a possibility. Some things that they had to trade were just too specific or valuable for the open market. 

Most goods he could move in and out via his Wave Rider kinfolk, but having to make multiple jumps through travel circles to sell the rest was a hassle. 

Tortuga was the obvious choice, and the circle could reach them; the only issue was the bureaucracy. A new dedicated link required altering their existing circle, for which a number of rare and expensive materials were needed since the existing one was at its maximum of ten destinations.

But before that, the new location had to be approved by the council, which had to keep threats to their city from various Nations Navies in mind. 

It wasn’t going to be a fast process, but the Auctions in Skyview could also be used for less suspicious types of items while a decision was made. Cain might be a valued customer to the auctions in Tortuga, but Port Nefheim was still very new and didn’t have a reputation to back up such a request without conditions.