Hello my dear sexy readers....
Enjoy.....
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The sun had barely dragged itself over the horizon, casting a sickly light through the cracks in the Tannery's boarded windows, but the noise inside was deafening.
It wasn't the clang of hammers or the roar of a furnace but was the sound of chewing.
Jon stood on the upper walkway, looking down at his new army or whatever it is now, The fifteen men....hardened criminals, deserters, and scum of the earth were currently huddled around a crate of supplies like starving wolves.
"Bread," one man moaned around a mouthful of crust. "Why is bread so good? Has it always been this crunchy?"
"Pass the cheese," another grunted, his eyes wide and bloodshot. "I need the cheese, It's yellow... It's the color of the sun."
"I can taste the cow," a third whispered reverently, holding a piece of dried beef up to the light.
Jon pinched the bridge of his nose, extreme Munchiness is a side effect he guess.
"Duncan," Jon called out.
The giant mercenary was sitting on an overturned barrel, looking remarkably calm. He was methodically peeling a hard-boiled egg with the focus of a surgeon.
"Aye, boss?" Duncan mumbled, popping the entire egg into his mouth.
"We have some problem," Jon said, walking down the stairs. "If they eat like this every morning, our overheads are going to triple. We need to ration the Wolf's Breath, so no smoking until the sun goes down. I want workers, not eaters."
Duncan swallowed. "They're happy, though. Haven't heard a single complaint about the cold or the smell since last night. Usually, men like this would be stabbing each other over a copper penny by now, look at them. They're sharing."
He pointed, two thugs were indeed breaking a loaf of bread in half with surprising tenderness.
"Peace through gluttony," Jon muttered. "Fine but today is a work day."
He checked hisInventory, he had the gold, he had the blueprints, but he was missing the important thing: Copper.
You couldn't distill high-proof spirits in iron, it reacted with the sulfur and made the vodka taste like rotten eggs, you couldn't use clay, it was porous and hard to seal so it is essential to have copper. It conducted heat perfectly and stripped out the impurities.
But copper was expensive here, buying shiny new sheets from the castle smith would raise eyebrows, Mikken would ask questions and Ned Stark would hear about it.
"We need scrap," Jon said, adjusting his cloak. "Where do the thieves sell their metal in this town?"
Duncan burped, wiping crumbs from his beard. "Gav, he runs it in the back alleys, It's mostly stolen chamber pots and rusted swords."
"Perfect," Jon said. "Let's go shopping."
Gav's shop was a crooked timber shack squeezed between a brothel and a tannery,
Jon had to duck to enter.
The ceiling was low, hung with drying herbs, old nets, and lanterns that hadn't been lit in years. Piles of junk reached waist-height on every side, broken wagon wheels, dented shields, stacks of moth-eaten tapestries.
"Don't touch anything," Jon whispered to Duncan. "You might catch tetanus just by looking at it."
A man emerged from behind a wall of old crates. He was small, ferret-faced, and wore a velvet doublet that had clearly been stolen from someone much larger and richer.
"Welcome, welcome!" Gav croaked, rubbing his hands together. "Buyers? Sellers? Or just looking for a treasure to impress a lady?"
He squinted at Jon's cloak. "Ah.... A Stark. Or...close enough."
"I'm looking for metal," Jon said, cutting the pleasantries and activated [Observe].
The room lit up with floating text boxes.
[Item: Rusted Iron Pot, Value: 2 Coppers]
[Item: 'Valyrian Steel' Dagger (Fake)
Material: Pig Iron, Value: 1 Copper]
[Item: Stained Glass Lamp, Condition: Broken,Value: 0]
"Metal!" Gav beamed. "I have the finest steel in the North! Swords from the Trident! Daggers from Dorne!"
He gestured to a barrel of rusted blades that looked like they would shatter if you sneezed on them.
"I need copper," Jon said, ignoring the junk. "Plates, Bowls, Piping. I don't care what it looks like."
Gav's face fell slightly. "Copper? Ah. A base metal.I might have.... a few pieces."
He rummaged through a pile and pulled out a small, dented kettle. "Three silver stags."
Jon stared at it.
[System Value: 4 Coppers]
"It's dented," Jon said. "And it's half tin."
"It's nice!" Gav protested.
Jon sighed and scanned the room again. His eyes drifted over a pile of what looked like black, soot-covered debris in the corner. Old roofing tiles?
The System pinged.
[Item: Tarnished Roof Flashing]
[Material: 95% Pure Copper (Oxidized/Painted)]
[Origin: Stolen from the Sept of Snow during the last riots]
[Weight: 40 lbs]
Jon's heart skipped a beat. Forty pounds of high-grade copper and it was painted black to hide the theft, likely sitting there for years because Gav didn't know what it was.
"What's that trash in the corner?" Jon asked, pointing lazily.
Gav looked. "That? Rubbish, roofing from a burned house, heavy, useless. I've been meaning to throw it in the river."
"I need to patch a roof at the Tannery," Jon lied effortlessly. "It may be good for weatherproofing. I'll take the pile."
Gav narrowed his eyes, he smelled a deal.
"This material is... rare these days, heavy to move.....Five silvers for the lot."
"Two," Jon countered. "And I haul it myself."
"Three," Gav haggled. "And you take the rusted one too."
"Done."
Jon signaled Duncan and the giant grunted, walked over, and scooped up the heavy bundle of roofing as if it were a pillow.
As they turned to leave, Jon's gaze snagged on a bookshelf near the door.
It was filled with water-damaged ledgers and religious tracts. But one book, wedged between a History of the Ironborn and a cookbook, glowed with a faint, golden aura.
[Item: The Merchant's Guide to Bullshit]
[Type: Skill Book]
[Rarity: Uncommon]
[Description: A satire written by a Bravoosi trader, Reading it grants insights into the art of the scam]
Jon blinked....You have to be kidding me.
He reached out and plucked the book from the shelf. It was thin, bound in cracked leather.
"How much for the book?" Jon asked.
Gav glanced at it. "That? Some foreign nonsense, can't even read the letters...One copper."
Jon tossed a copper penny onto the counter. "I need something to read while the roof dries."
Outside, the air felt cleaner, even with the smell of Winter Town. Duncan adjusted the heavy bundle of copper on his shoulder.
"You overpaid for the lead, boss," Duncan grunted. "That's just dead weight."
"It's not lead, Duncan," Jon said, a wolfish grin spreading across his face. "Scratch the paint."
Duncan shifted the load, scratching a fingernail against one of the black sheets. A gleaming streak of reddish-gold shone through.
"Seven Hells," Duncan whispered. "Copper. Pure copper."
"Stolen from a sept, likely," Jon said. "Melting it down will be a sin but since we're making gods drink, I think the Gods will forgive us."
He pulled the small book from his pocket as they walked.
[Use Item: Skill Book?]
Yes...
The book dissolved in his hand, turning into motes of golden light that rushed into his chest.
He felt a sudden, sharp clarity in his mind, a rush of knowledge about body language, micro-expressions, and the precise tone of voice needed to lie to a priest.
[Skill Learned: Corporate Speak (Level 1)]
[Effect: You can now use complicated words to confuse subordinates, +10% chance to convince NPCs that a terrible idea is actually 'Synergy']
[Passive: 'The Stare' - Staring at someone's forehead during a negotiation lowers their confidence by 5 points]
Jon laughed out loud.
"What's so funny?" Duncan asked, eyeing him warily.
"Nothing," Jon said, pocketing his hands.
"And the men?" Duncan asked. "They'll be hungry again by noon."
"Then buy them a pig," Jon said. "A whole one and roast it in the yard. If we keep their bellies full and their heads in the clouds, they'll build us a castle by the end of the month."
Jon looked at the sky, clouds were grey and heavy and more snow was coming.
Good, he thought, Cold weather makes people thirsty.
Authors Note:-
Hey lot .... Kinda feeling somewhat fine.....
Though still has headache .... Migraine is really a bitch.
Finding if those certain words or stuff are actually found in ancient times and GoT was a bitch .... I had to search it out.
Anyway a promise is a promise.....
2 more chaps will be coming out today as a bonus...