The Slaying and the Poly Merchant Association
"Clop, clop!"
The lightning-fast Charge skill came at Lister once again.
Though it was hard to make out clearly with the naked eye, the Three-Headed Hound Knight before him was enormous.
Whenever it began using Charge, the sounds and vibrations would immediately carry across the small area around them.
Relying on the information around him, Lister dodged the Charge once more.
He slowly backed away as he surveyed the surrounding terrain.
The elite Three-Headed Hound Knight's stamina seemed inexhaustible. Its third Charge was already upon him.
Lister held his breath and focused, judging the timing before leaping high into the air.
"Boom!"
The Three-Headed Hound Knight slammed headfirst into the small slope behind Lister, its entire body following.
When its three dirt-covered heads recovered, their eyes immediately glowed green as they searched for the damned human.
But by the time it reacted, Lister was already standing on its back.
Without hesitation, he seized the opportunity and slashed hard at the vulnerable spot on the back of its neck.
"Critical hit: 2,667 damage dealt." "Raaaargh!"
A piercing roar erupted from all three heads at once.
As the three-headed hound reeled from the pain, it also discovered that the damned human was on its back.
Enduring the pain, it bounced wildly in every direction, trying to throw Lister off.
At the same time, its two outer heads twisted around with great agility, opening their jaws to bite Lister on its back.
Lister answered with a swift, clean Iai Slash.
"Attack: 607 damage dealt."
Sure enough, against a three-headed hound with as much as fifteen thousand health, even his base strength bonus of 25 was utterly ineffective against anything but its weak points.
He still had to focus his attacks on its critical weak spots.
"Warning: You have been weakened. Agility temporarily reduced by 2."
As expected of an elite three-headed hound, it even had a weakening control skill.
Lister felt his movements grow somewhat sluggish.
Fortunately, the three-headed hound's aura ability was not strong. It only reduced his agility by two points, and although he had some trouble adjusting at first, it did not affect him much.
The three-headed hound before him, on the other hand, was still bleeding from the back of its neck and looked rather miserable.
"Raaaargh!"
It roared again. Though it was a dog, its roar sounded like a wolf's.
The next moment, it used Charge once more.
Even with his agility reduced, Lister's past combat experience still allowed him to dodge.
After two consecutive Charges, the three-headed hound was finally beginning to struggle.
Its gaze only grew fiercer, however. Three pairs of eerie green eyes locked onto Lister, as though determined to tear him apart.
Unfortunately for it, these were, after all, monsters that players had farmed for levels during the game's second act. Their intelligence was generally low, and most were beasts.
Their groups did not produce any true bosses of leader rank or above, either.
Only after the third and fourth acts, when individual humanoid monsters began to appear, did leveling and combat in the game truly become difficult.
Lister waited quietly for it to use Charge again. Patience was the most important thing when dealing with a beast of such low intelligence.
Sure enough, it was not long before the Three-Headed Hound Knight lost patience and charged again like a mad thing.
Lister focused, in no hurry to attack, and reacted solely on the strength of his years of practical combat experience in the game.
Having given its all in its fourth Charge, the elite Three-Headed Hound Knight was visibly exhausted, and its charging speed had slowed considerably.
Lister immediately tightened his grip on his blade. Spotting his chance, he turned sideways and landed a Heavy Strike.
It was another critical hit, landing squarely on the back of the three-headed hound's neck.
"Boom!"
The ground shook with a thud. Although the three-headed hound still had half its health, its stamina had run out.
After taking two critical hits to its weak point in particular, it was now half-lying on the ground.
Lister hesitated no longer. He immediately stepped forward and hacked at its weak spot with all his strength several more times. At last, the system notification sounded.
"Congratulations, you have slain the Three-Headed Hound Knight." "76,641 experience points gained."
Though the elite monster had been troublesome, it had at least given him plenty of experience, so he had not come out at a loss.
Two days later, the rumors about the Kayas Region gradually died down in the outer city.
Although news of an advanced professional clearing out the three-headed hounds had spread quite quickly over the previous two days,
the outer city was mostly home to commoners and small caravans. None had the ability or could afford to hire professionals to venture deep inside and investigate.
Most people chose to wait and see, unable to verify whether the news was true.
As soon as fresh news worth discussing appeared, such unsubstantiated rumors naturally faded even faster.
Lister was currently drinking tea in the Merick Family's castle.
Standing before him was a potbellied, bearded middle-aged man dressed in lavish purple silk.
As the president of the Poly Caravan, he certainly wore expensive-looking clothes, but Lister truly had no comment on his taste.
"President Porter, I trust Butler Anke has already explained clearly why I asked you here."
"Since you were willing to come to the Merick Family today, I trust you'll give me a satisfactory answer?"
Holding his teacup, Lister looked casually at President Porter before him.
For all his expensive clothes and his position as president of a so-called chamber of commerce, he was exceedingly careful in Lister's presence, and his gaze was full of anticipation.
"Baron Merrick, I am willing to cooperate with the Merick Family."
"I'm willing to help open a new trade route to Viscount Gabriel's Territory, but where exactly will this new route run?"
"Please, sit down and have some tea first."
Seeing that President Porter knew how to conduct himself, Lister invited him to sit.
Their statuses were different, after all. The Porter Chamber of Commerce was not subordinate to any other noble in Will City.
The chamber itself was not very large, which was also why no other nobles had taken it under their wing.
The Merick Family was, after all, a hereditary baronial family in Will City, and in the past it had naturally had its own chamber of commerce, or caravan.
But by the time old Baron Mel was in charge, the caravan had already dwindled to only a few people.
After the old baron died, the three professionals who followed him left, and the entire chamber of commerce naturally fell apart without a sound.
This was also one reason the Merick Family could not afford to support other professionals. The family's finances were in complete ruin, and it was surviving on the resources it had accumulated over many years.
Aside from a small copper mine, the family had no other source of income.
Of course, the decline of the Merick Family's business was also why President Porter had the chance to catch Lister's eye today.
Although the Merick Family ranked last among the seven professional lineage families of the Duchy of Will and had more or less fallen into decline,
in the eyes of the city's other nobles and major powers, a starving camel was still bigger than a horse, and plenty of people were willing to seek its protection.
"First, I'll tell you where the trade route runs. Starting from the outer city, you pass through the Kayas Region to the east, and you reach Viscount Gabriel's Territory."
"Cough, cough! The K-Kayas Region?"
President Porter had only just picked up his teacup and was happily savoring tea from a baronial family with a long history in the city.
It did taste different, and he was even trying to identify it so he could buy some himself afterward.
When he heard Lister's words, his eyes immediately went wide, and he choked on the tea in his mouth, nearly unable to swallow it.
"Cough! My lord baron, surely you must be joking."
"The Kayas Region is home to a population of three-headed hounds. No chamber of commerce in the city has dared pass through there for years!"
"Rest assured, I have my reasons for saying so."
"The Merick Family has already cleared out the three-headed hounds in the Kayas Region."
Hearing this, President Porter could only marvel at the Merick Family's strength.
It was just as he had expected. A professional family with a long lineage remained powerful even in decline, unlike other nobles.
But the old butler Anke, standing nearby, suddenly went pale and completely lost his composure.
He had obeyed Lister's orders, found the Poly Merchant Association, which had no troublesome ties behind it, and told them about the new trade route.
But he had never heard a word about the three-headed hounds in the Kayas Region being cleared out.
Baron Lister was the Merick Family's only professional now. How could they have the ability to do that?
His face was full of anxiety and worry, convinced that Lister was deceiving President Porter.
"Not many outsiders know about this trade route yet, and I've already reached an agreement with Viscount Gabriel."
"As long as you're willing to place yourself under the Merick Family's protection, we'll split the profits from trade with Viscount Gabriel's Territory seventy-thirty."
Although Viscount Gabriel was subordinate to the Duchy of Will, his territory was poorly situated.
With the three-headed hounds living there, travelers had originally needed to take a long detour, leaving it in a remote corner of the duchy.
Now that Lister had wiped out the three-headed hounds, its geographical position had naturally become advantageous.
Viscount Gabriel's Territory was also rich in low-level magic plants, the main raw materials for low-level magic potions.
After clearing out all the three-headed hounds in the area, Lister had already visited Viscount Gabriel's Territory.
He had reached an agreement with the viscount that, for now, their two families would jointly control trade along the route.
Lister had sought out President Porter of the Poly Merchant Association only because he did not have a suitable chamber of commerce at hand.
The lion's share of the profits would naturally go to the Merick Family, with only the remaining thirty percent going to the Poly Merchant Association.
It was, after all, an exclusive trade route for the time being. Even thirty percent was enough to keep the Poly Merchant Association well fed.
As for whether other families would interfere in the future,
all that could be said was that the chambers of commerce and caravans belonging to the other six professional families did not think much of the gains from trading with a mere viscount's territory.
The remaining nobles and families were still wary of the Merick Family for the time being, and did not dare compete with it for a share.