Under the influence of the Echoes, the hunting patterns were changed from simply defending the farm region to traveling between cities. Their first destination was naturally M City, to clear the roads and to congratulate Prana on becoming a City Guardian.
The Echoes had informed them of the deal with the witches to provide them with special storage bags that would let them transport goods between Covens with ease, but the biggest selling point for them was finally having a proper market for the food grown near the farm they were staying at.
Those local farmers had also had a tough go of it since a number of their customers had been overrun and the guard escorts had stopped. Without that level of safety, many of them didn't dare to travel to town. But now, the hunters had offered to do the traveling for them, for only a small discount.
The agreement they came to was that the hunters would pay the farmers in advance for the goods, then they would become the merchants selling it. But they wouldn't need to set up market stalls and wait for days to sell everything. Instead, they could leverage the deal with the witches and have them sell the goods locally, after buying them from the hunters.
It would naturally drive up the price of goods in the city a little, having an extra middleman, but not by as much as unscrupulous merchants were already marking up many products.
"Welcome to M City, friends." Prana welcomed the first group to arrive the next day.
A dozen of them had traveled together, getting a feel for the route between cities and the monsters that frequented the areas near the road. These hunters had already worked together for years, and they had their own business plan. They brought wagons to load up the corpses of the Mythic Beasts since even the meat would sell now that most of the livestock was gone.
Selling meat in bulk, along with the valuable parts of the Mythic creatures that were used for crafting would bring them an extra bit of profit, and they could trade the food that they bought from the farmers as they went.
But once they saw Prana with a Darklight Host Guild tag, they changed their goals to something much loftier.
"Congratulations on your victory. It looks like you've got it good here." They replied, stepping away from the loaded wagons with a smile.
"How did you convince the big boss to make you a Guild member?" One of them asked quietly, not wanting to give any other adventurers in the area the same idea they had just formed.
"I agreed to help him out when I became Guardian, and he gave me some bonuses, including the spell needed to secure my victory," Prana whispered back with a wink.
That solved it then. They just had to get into the big boss's good books and he would help them become Guardians in exchange for loyalty. A loyalty that wouldn't cost them anything since their loyalties already lay with the people of the farm and the community they were forming. One or two of their group gaining a position as Guardians would be perfect, and it would give them an extra advantage when selling their goods. Better than the Adventurer's Association, which was pretty much in shambles at this point.
It had become too inflexible to deal with the changes, so once the Hunters no longer needed to take missions against the Crazed and the trade lines between cities that kept their shelves stocked suddenly stopped, the hapless leadership proved unable to get things set right again.
If they had been even halfway competent, this simple plan would have come from the Association and not from some random researcher in the woods.
"How is the Adventurer's Association doing here?" One of the Hunters asked, wondering if they could add trade between branches to their profits.
"Closed and empty. When the first of the nearby cities fell they took every Adventurer who would follow them and left for the bigger cities south of here, where they would have safety in numbers." The Mayor interjected, walking up to greet the visitors.
"Did that happen a lot?" Prana asked, just now realizing that the ones she would have normally sold the goods these hunters were carrying to were nowhere to be found.
"I heard that the Association put out a Quest to recover all the materials and workers back to their central headquarters, so I'm guessing they're empty pretty much everywhere.
Moana had floated over to investigate the smell of fresh meat and heard the last part entirely by coincidence.
[Hey boss, I think someone else had your idea. They gathered all the Adventurer's Association members and gear together in one city to solidify their power base.] The Leviathan in its Mermaid-like infant form explained.
Once she reached a certain point of power she would evolve, much like a tadpole becoming a frog, and take on an enormous Whale body that the world would recognize as a Leviathan, but that time was a ways off for the newly hatched body that Moana was in.
[More for us then. Let's start looking for good people, and we can get them settled in as Guardians of the region so that the refugees can have more safe and stable places to go.] Cain decided.
The farm could only hold so many people, and there were a lot of them there already, mostly on the more powerful side as well. Looking at M City, Cain could already see how the powerful gathering together was going to cause long-term issues, but if they could make an alliance between Guardians they could keep things safe enough to begin getting back to normal.
The World Quest would really help out on that end. Who would want a thankless job like Guardian if it didn't come with great rewards? Adding in Guild Membership and the promise of a backup army should they run into trouble would help.
The most important part would be to find the right people, ones that are loyal and kind, and then boost them up to the point where they were capable, instead of just picking the strongest.
[Prana, do you have any recommendations for other Guardians? I want to set up some more in the region, good people who will help rebuild.] Cain sent a private message to his newest Guild Member.
[These hunters are decent people, but my vote is for Gerald, the Combat Squirrel. He's a little guy, about 1.3 meters tall, but he's really agile and a stealth class. But he grew up on a farm not far away that was overrun by Crazed a while before the change. He desperately wants to be a hero, and I think he would be excellent at the job.]
A tiny squirrel who dreams of being a hero? That could be a fun mission.
[Do we know where he wants to protect? Or is it just a dream?] Cain responded a few seconds later.
[The village closest to the Farm had taken him in, so I think he would want to be there if he could. Right now he should be at the daily juice testing. He never misses out on the chance of a daily buff before he heads out into the woods and circles the village looking for threats.]
[Excellent, I will look him up when I get back. First, Moana heard these hunters saying they wanted to go for City Guardian too, so I'm going to vet them on the way to the next stop.] Cain informs her, and Prana does her best not to let on to the people she's talking to that their lives might undergo a very drastic change over the next few days.
Keeping it to herself was hard though, and she kept shooting them nervous glances all through the meeting with the Witch Coven, detailing the locations of the other Covens and who to contact to trade the goods. The only thing that kept her from just blurting out the truth was the constant interruptions as people came to thank her.
Since nobody said anything to the contrary, the city just assumed that their new Guardian had arranged for this caravan to come and relieve their suffering. They might have only brought a half dozen wagons, and not even particularly big ones, but it totaled up to over three tons of food products, enough to last the city a few days, and they promised there would be regular wagons coming later, to be sold in the city's market by vendors from the Witches Coven.
The thought of the gnarled old witches touching their food bothered more than a few of them, but they were willing to put that aside if the Coven was going to take over for the farmers who usually ran the markets.
Things almost seemed peaceful in the city, with a few market stalls finally open again, and a variety of foods, crafting materials, and items crafted on the farm up for sale. The Ice Wool blankets were a particular hit. The village near the farm had a number of Elite quality magical sheep, and one of the tailors on the farm had purchased a load of wool to make flat sheets that gave off a mild chill. In the heat of the Southern Continent, these thin blankets were the height of luxury, and sold for very high prices, despite their relatively common production.
The calm didn't extend as far as the Inn though, where the Witches had finally cornered Cain about his promise to help them with their appearance issues before he left.
