Hellmode ~A Hardcore Gamer Becomes Peerless in Another World with Retro Game Settings~

After Allen heard what Larappa had discovered, the day came to an end. He left the Fragment of the Sun in the God of Magic's research facility. It would stay there to be analyzed until they found the Fragment of the Moon, and once both were analyzed they would return to Allen's hands.

Allen did not know why the fragment was needed for the [-] S summon. Still, he had learned a lot of new information, and also gotten more questions, but for now he had to focus on defeating the Demon King's Army.

The next day they were in front of an enormous pyramid. It was the Temple of the God of Light Amante who had turned into the God of Darkness.

Prince Zew and the Ten Heroic Beasts were looking at them from the Temple. They were ready to head in the direction Temi had pointed.

(They rested for a whole day I think. Though I heard he spent most of the time inspecting the forts with Hobah. Hm?)

As Allen looked at them, it seemed like Zew wanted to say something.

"Allen, I'm sorry to impose this on you, but I'd like your help to better the living conditions of the beastmen of the Paradise of Primordial Beasts."

Zew wanted to make a request from Allen before they departed.

"Huh? Well, sure. I'll be going to the capital Rabul soon, so I'll try to talk about it then."

"I'd appreciate that."

"Don't mention it."

Thanks to all the ghosts the dragonkin were hunting, there were no ghosts around the beastmen villages, but the terrain was still rough and arid, which bothered Zew.

"Let's get going then!"

"Let's go, Lord Zew! Everyone else, follow the Prince! We're leaving!!"

"We're going already? But whyyy!!"

Lepe quickly began to complain, but everyone departed while ignoring him.

Allen looked at his clock magic device.

"It's time already, Peromus will be waiting for us."

Allen spoke to Cecile and Sophie who were next to him and teleported away. They reappeared in a waiting room located in the second level of Rabul, the capital city of Shandar.

"Hey, Allen." "Welcome, Allen."

Peromus and Fiona greeted him.

"Were you waiting for a while?"

"Not really."

"Hey, I'm here too."

"Oh, I didn't notice you, Cecile. Hello."

"Hello, Fiona."

Fiona and Cecile knew each other since they were small. Sophie was also there though.

They were all there to arrange a trade with the noble Epitany. Allen really needed that trade to be successful, since he needed a large sum of money in half a month, to pay off what he promised during the Five Continents Alliance Meeting. That money would be used to lengthen the time students spent in the Academies, giving them time to undergo Talent Changes and have better Skills. That would be better for the world as a whole, so it was easy to argue that other people should also pay for it, but Allen did not care about that, he just needed it to happen.

At the same time, Allen was going through a large amount of Spirit Stones to use his Generation Skill, which also meant he needed a large amount of Heaven's Blessings and Magic Stones.

(This should also help with Allen's Army's credit.)

Allen's Army was composed of around 10000 people, with all sorts of talents, but there was a good portion that was constantly gathering items to sell from the S Rank Dungeon's last floor and the Gates of Trials, as well as picking up Magic Stones. Each trade was bigger than the economy of a small country, and in a month more money was handled than the yearly budget of larger countries.

Such large amounts of money could not be prepared right away, so many trades were performed with credit and loans, so that had become an important aspect of Allen's Army. And obviously enough, most of Allen's Army's credit was managed by Allen. /*Going into the details of finances and the economy will take too long, so this is a very brief explanation.

'Allen always keeps talking big but never produces the money he promises. Or he's always late.'

Allen was worried that the merchants he dealt with might start thinking that way of him. If that happened, it would greatly affect Allen's Army's ability to procure Magic Stones.

The merchants could lose faith in Allen's ability to pay off loans and would retract their offers. That would lead to a major deficit in Magic Stones.

Even though Allen's Army was constantly farming the highest level dungeons, that was hardly enough to keep up with Allen's exorbitant expenses.

(I need moolah, I need it so badly.)

Allen was starting to look desperate, which his friends quickly picked up on. Then the door opened, and Allen's face snapped to look at it, his eyes bloodshot.

(The moolah is here.)

"Oh, you're already here…s-sorry for keeping you waiting…it seems I'm a bit late."

Epitany had brought multiple servants with him to help with the deal. But when Allen, who was so powerful, glared at him, Epitany quickly became nervous.

Then Allen turned to look at Peromus, since he would be the one doing the talking.

"Oh, not at all, we barely got here moments ago. Thank you for taking the time to come here."

Epitany was slowly realizing how tense everyone was there.

"It seems your friend is glaring at him rather rudely, but you shouldn't underestimate Epitany. Don't expect an easy deal simply because you overcame the God of Trading's Trial."

Epitany was known as Shandar's most important merchant.

(Epitany also venerates the God of Trading after all. I guess we can't expect a blank check from him.)

"Alright, then I, Peromus, will detail our stocks."

"Try to be brief with that. I heard you have something you want to sell, right?"

"Yes, that's correct. Though it won't be a regular deal… First, look here. These are all the materials we gather daily from the Paradise of Primordial Beasts."

First Peromus showed a list of all the mineral and plant materials they collected from ghosts each day. Epitany noticed that Peromus said it would not be a regular deal, but kept going.

"This is certainly tricky, as the King has already stated his decision. The market is flooded with materials of dubious origin, which is causing a lot of chaos."

Epitany gave a rather uncomfortable answer.

"I apologize for that. It seems there was a really fast development somewhere, which threw the market out of order."

(I let Tokugara and Nonfura trade with the king, and they wrecked the market…)

Tokugara and Nonfura were two last dragonkin patriarchs to accept Somei as their Supreme Chief, and they were allowed to trade the materials they got from ghosts with the capital, but they ended up messing with the prices and ruining the economy.

It seemed like just a bit of selfishness at first, but the situation got so bad that the divine people ended up making a petition to the king to do something about it. Eventually the king called Somei and ordered him to fix the issue, and Allen found out about it when Somei asked for help with it.

"I see, and that's why you brought me here then."

Epitany was starting to understand why Peromus had said it would not be a regular deal.

"Yes, that's correct. So about our deal, we'd like you to handle all the distribution of the merchandise, as well as how it's processed. we'll intervene as little as possible."

"What was that? You'll let us process it as well?"

They were obtaining a large quantity of materials from the Paradise of Primordial Beasts. Some of the materials were favored by nobles and royalty, and some not as much. Those which were appealing to them usually had the highest price, and were the best items to sell.

There were also materials that needed to be processed before use, and Epitany would be handling that as well. Peromus was basically offering him full control of the market.

"Yes, that's what I said. I've heard that there's many master artisans working under you, so I'm sure they would be able to do a much better job than us. And if they find anything that is of inferior quality, you'll always be able to pull out of the deal."

The materials would be offered in their raw form, so they could be processed in the best way possible.

"I see, and the artisans will be a shield to protect against bad trades. That's certainly something that a merchant recognized by the God of Trading would come up with."

The artisans that worked for Epitany were some of the best in the divine realm, with their work even recognized by the royal family.

But because of the uncontrolled influx of materials of dubious quality from the dragonkin, it was harder to obtain good items. Some people bought whatever they saw simply because it was cheap, but then the artisans would feel dreadful having to work with it.

If the materials were cheap, then the resulting products would also be cheap, even if they were crafted by very skilled artisans.

Still, Epitany felt a bit dubious about such a deal.

"I'm sure you realize what you're offering here, right? If no one wants to buy your materials from me, then you also won't get any money."

"Yes. But if we keep giving all of this to the dragonkin, then it's hard to say exactly what would happen with our income as well."

If that happened, then an enormous amount of materials would flood the country.

"Is that some form of threat..? Well, I'll just keep it in mind then. So tell me Peromus, what is it you want out of this deal then?"

So far it seemed like the deal was fully one sided, only benefitting Epitany, so it could hardly be called a trade, it was more like Peromus was simply becoming a supplying agency.

(I couldn't get Allen's Army to help with this though. But still I need that money as soon as possible.)

Since there was a limit on how many people Allen could bring to the Divine Realm, he could not get Allen's Army to help with the deal. The contract they had drafted also assigned the patriarch Nonfura to take care of dealing with the royal family and nobles though.

"Epitany, you're the only divine person we're going to be trading with. This contract has an exclusivity clause to assure that, but in exchange we'd like some insurance from you."

"What? Insurance? You mean like a security deposit?"

"Yes. We'll give you all the materials we find, and you'll have full control over them. But to really confirm you're willing to carry that out we'll need an advance deposit of 100000000 gold coins."

(He should be able to pay that much, right? The prices in the divine realm are marked up by 100x after all. I should be able to pay back what I borrowed from the God of Trading with this too, I really don't want to pay interest after all.)

100000000 gold coins in the human realm was the equivalent of 1000000 gold coins in the divine realm.

"You'll pay it back if the contract is voided, right?"

"Of course. We'll pay it back if you decide to pull out of the deal, or if we break the exclusivity agreement."

There was a moment of silence.

(It really is a good deal. I don't think he'd want to pull out of it any time soon.)

"...Alright, I'm in. Have you drafted the contract yet?"

As Allen expected, their gamble seemed like it was about to pay off.

"Of course."

"Bring it here."

"Yessir!"

Epitany sent one of his servants to pick up the piece of parchment Peromus produced and bring it to him. He read the contract from top to bottom, and then began focusing Spiritual Power in his hand.

Then he held his finger against the bottom of the contract, where the spot to sign was located, and moved his finger to place his signature.

Once he was done signing the contract, the servant took it and brought it back to Peromus. Peromus also focused Mana on his finger and signed next to where Epitany had, completing the deal.