Speaking of which… [Miik] he called with his mind.

Miik was currenly in his cave, happily busy increasing his clan with the help of his dear, fun harem. He was NOT happy to be interrupted by a work call in the middle of the night, but he asked, [What is it?]

Remian was actually impressed he was able to reach Miik. The chief lynxmouse seemed quite far away and very preoccupied besides. [Uh… never mind. It can wait till tomorrow. Just a few small things.]

[Tell you what. For the small things, why don't you ask Mikai? He'd love to run around doing errands.] Miik supplied very, very helpfully. [He's a lot faster than me, so he's the better tail for the job.]

[Right. Sure. Have fun.] Remian retreated and left the chief to his enjoyments.

He considered calling Mikai for a minute, then decided not to, just in case the little guy was also trying to increase the population of his family…

Going to the window, he peered out at the farm. It had stretched all along the stream from the cave, following the water to the jellyfish pond, and then farther down, almost to the New Quarry at the near end of the row of hills leading south and east. KarGoth was at the far end. Those were the hills that Spike was trying to help make inaccessible. The stream ran right through them.

Beyond the farms, about half a day's journey to the east was DD's territory where there was another source of water that likewise streamed toward the new quarry and met the stream from Buff's cave. That one had a very important waterfall that hid an Alchemist's cave. Remian had stripped out all the mana potions and crystals within easy reach in that cave, but perhaps he could dig into the wall and mine a few more. Mikai could help with that.

Farther east beyond DD's territory were some thick woods, then another range of tall hills that had a strangely straight gorge running right through them from the south-west. The walls of this deep gorge had a rich mix of coal and amber. That amber could be a very, very long-term source of income… if you could fend off the Wilds populating that gorge. Last anyone checked, most of the Wilds near the top were Tier 4, with bigger ones below.

Maybe he could make a deal with them, somehow. Getting there was going to be a long journey, though. Better ask Mindy for a ride in an airs.h.i.+p. The Tug would be great.

Following the gorge south, they'd come up on Misty Heights, where most of the water that supplied Three Forks River came from. Prospectors reported decent lodes of common metals like iron, copper, magnesium, even silver in those mountains. Of special notes were discoveries of Lunar Ice on the tops of the the Misty Heights, possible yellow mana crystals in a couple of valleys, and Cloudstone at the highest peaks. Of course, getting to them also involved getting through difficult terrain, serious winds and very strong Wilds. The prospectors who made it back alive indicated Tier 4's were rarer than Tier 5's in those mountains, and Tier 6's were spotted from a distance.

Shadowflash's Fief extended from the desert edge in the north to the Amber Gorge in the east, the Spoas River in the west, and the Three Forks River flowing from Misty Heights to the south. Apparently it was larger or smaller sometimes, but this was the extents of the territory today after Shadowflash's long disappearance.

Considering geographical difficulties, the easiest direction to expand in would be south. Of course, in order to do so, it was best he made friends with the Lord of Black Depths Lake. But how would he come to terms with the Deepsilver Lord, who had a vendetta against humans for the deaths of his kin?

Maybe it could be possible to show him that not all humans were the same. But how?

Besides, roping in more Wilds and expanding territory wasn't the important thing right now. The important thing now was keeping the clans he already had. That meant war with the Desert King, whose city lay just on the other side of the road the Iron Legion was h.e.l.l-bent on building right now.

Could there be a diplomatic solution? But the Desert King had sworn war on anyone who tried to take his slaves from him. Otherwise, a good many of the Seven Kingdoms would have stormed down on him to take their people back.

That's right. Not all the Desert King's slaves were born into the clans whose ancestors sold themselves to his ancestors for food. Some of them had been conveniently picked up from neighboring settlements. Quite possibly, one of the basic reasons why the Seven Kingdoms learned to surround their cities with walls was to fend off the slavers.

There was a period, after hundreds of years of having their people enslaved, when factions in the Seven Kingdoms made a move to rescue their people. It was a seven year crusade that went all the way to Fal'Herim, until the allies of the Desert King made a ruckus. The crusade ended with limited success, but the slavers no longer moved in the open thereafter. Also, the Desert King and allies continuously complained about the suffering the Crusades caused them, denouncing it as unjust and cruel.

The point was that fighting the Desert King meant offending his friends. Whole kingdoms and nations out there could do a lot worse to one little town in the Wildlands than simply costing him two clans.

But it was too late to simply send the workers back with their paychecks. Lydia and Phoebe had already emanc.i.p.ated about half the Harvest Sun clan, and they were definitely not going back no matter what he said. At least they still sent their money back to a few stragglers at Fal'Herim to pay their 'taxes' so that on paper at least, it would seem like they were merely working abroad.

Or maybe there was a way to outright buy the slaves from the Desert King.

That was best, Remian felt. Fal'Herim sold slaves sometimes, right? Surely he could make a deal. But he would need some outside support to keep things fair, or he'd get totally bullied in the trade. It just so happened that the Pilus Primus of the Iron Legion was in town…

After that, they'd need to watch their northern border, because making a deal with the Desert King didn't mean that some Fal'Herim entrepreneurs might decide to make a quick buck by picking up free slaves from a measly frontier town. But at least then it would just be the slavers, not Fal'Herim and all her allies blasting down their door.

Until then, the High Rock and Harvest Sun clans were going to have to send most of their pay back to the Desert King. They'd never be able to truly prosper. Most of their belongings were self-made. The vast majority of their purchasing power would be from their children's Adventurer Guild Points. It wasn't until recently that Remian learned where almost all their money was going, and why the children were so desperately eager to join the Guild.

Remian didn't have the heart to send them back. He wanted to keep them, for good. He wanted to free them, and give them a better future than Fal'Herim ever would. But could he afford to? How much did it cost to buy a slave, these days? How much would it cost if he didn't buy them and had to go to war for them?

How much firepower would he need on his side to avoid a war if he freed them without buying them? How much was enough to be a deterrent so that the Desert King would feel that fighting for these freed slaves would be too costly for him?

More than two XL Ballistae and one XXL Ballista on three junk or patchwork-grade airs.h.i.+ps.

What sort of army did the Desert King have? Tens of thousands of armed slaves, roughly 20 clans' worth, plus a few legions of professional armed forces, at least a dozen airs.h.i.+ps, mainly industrial and commercial-grade frigates and galleons, a few high-grade or military-grade.

Fighting them right now would be outright slaughter at Remian's expense. They needed modern military-grade weaponry, at the very least. The Bellower Ballista, rated at Tier 5+, would barely count as commercial-grade. While it could threaten DD or Spike, just comparing effective range, it wouldn't be able to hit a commercial-grade airs.h.i.+p before that airs.h.i.+p's weaponry blasted it to pieces.

No. The road wasn't the problem. The problem was air superiority.

Maybe he would have better luck dealing with the Sun Eagle. He just had to prove that humans were not the Destroyers of the world.

Fat chance of that ever happening!

What about human allies? Foreign support from the Seven Kingdoms, like Ashdale?

Again, it would be difficult. Why would they support a little frontier town with nothing in it for them?

No. This wasn't the time for war. They'd just have to put up with circ.u.mstances as they are and deal with the Beast Waves as they came while they grew stronger, until Beast Waves were of no consequence, until their volumes of trade made people sit up and pay attention, until they had the strength enough to deal with Fal'Herim on their own terms and foreign support became unnecessary but helpful, just icing on the cake.

Meanwhile, paying the workers was going to cost him 112,000 lir every week. That was a huge chunk out of the mining profits. With this week's revenue dropping due to the wall at the Encles' settlement and helping the Encles build stuff, they were going to have to sell the rest of the Tier 5 meat just to avoid a loss.

Sorry, piggies, but we really can't afford to feed that meat to you any more.

They might have to cut back on cheese for the lynxmice too. They didn't need that many spies, and the wolfcats were actually better at digging. As it was, they already had a lot more mice around than they needed. Unless George could put them to better use than Tim, dark days might be coming for Miik's underlings.

They could do it, Remian thought, if they could bide their time and quietly grow, just as long as n.o.body told the Desert King about slaves being freed in the Frontier, so long as everyone just kept quiet…

The next day, a wars.h.i.+p from Fal'Herim arrived demanding an explanation as to why they were stealing the Desert King's property.