Time passed by and the war stakes rose high on all sides.
With Niton as a forerunner, other powers brought out war rewards to increase the morale of their men.
With eyes lit with greed, blood was shed in greater amounts.
Niton successfully defended Avilla from the clutches of their enemies, going further to inflict massive damage upon them. Specifically, Iris, Russell, Covaria and Solace were hit the hardest as they were the weakest of the bunch.
Capitalizing on that, Niton struck heavy blows, making cracks in their cooperation.
After all, an alliance only worked when everyone was working together.
Back home, Black Jaws was trailblazing in all aspects. Their rate of expansion had called the attention of even great noble families.
Meaning, they could no longer be ignored.
At this point, the resistance they faced increased.
Since, with a buffer zone, they couldn't attack them openly, they did so covertly.
From sending assassins to get the head of their members, to spreading poison to infect their workers, to utilizing bandits to rob their goods.
Naturally, Bolton did not interfere. He was rather happy to see things progressing as expected.
Many more means were sought as those on the lower chain of power tried to halt their rise.
But Ezra, having expected this, provided Fredrick with means to thwart their plans.
Every occurence served to widen Ezra's perspective and increase him in intelligence. It was the same with Cabrera and Fredrick.
Bolton's actions manifested results as S and A rank guilds purchased land and began developing them.
This in turn caused them to heavily increase their members to offset the problem of manpower - like a certain guild!
Alas, it quickly proved naught as many realized the hard way that Black Jaw's financial prowess wasn't something they could ever hope to match.
Only after hundreds of guilds were wiped out did some begin to take innovative approaches.
At this point in time, the revelation of how Black Jaws loaned money became the talk of the town as many went out of their way to borrow as much as they could.
After all, with a lot of hope and a bit of luck, they could become the next Black Jaws, right?
Such news had Kogar - the Sentinel - laughing till tears fell out his eyes.
'Some will have to learn the hard way'
Niton went into a frenzy as lending became the new formula to success.
With that money, twice the amount of wiped out guilds were established overnight.
Many carded themselves in Gold-rank items their grandfathers could not afford and swaggered.
But again, things built on sand could never last.
In three months, those swaggering about began sweating, and soon after, wailing.
Their ignorance caught up to them when they realized the penalty for overdue payment.
To entice idiots, Kogar put up a two percent interest rate to be paid at the month's end.
And all would be fine and dandy if he didn't demand that one tenth the borrowed amount be paid by the third month.
What should not be a problem suddenly became one as lenders ran helter-skelter holding their heads in abject worry.
They had borrowed so much they were drowning in debt.
When lending, the Empire had a rune mark imprinted on one's arm to keep track of their debtor's location.
They couldn't have them running away now, could they?
Then, little of them used it on anything productive - something that made money.
They had squandered it on items of luxury - which then depreciated in value - and of course, it bit them in the back.
But like no one saved them from burrowing, no one saved them from becoming slaves of the Empire for the next six months.
If they didn't work enough to pay off one-tenth of the amount in that time, interest would then begin accumulating, along with the original amount!
One would find himself unable to pay off his loan, thereby unable to free himself from his self-imposed slavery.
Yes, self-imposed. No one forced them to borrow so much money.
Among them were fools who thought of building grand houses.
Some saved themselves by selling everything they bought, or worse, everything they had at prices two to four times lower, only to realize they were doomed if they could not provide the same amount in the next three months.
Panic spread like a plague, one that didn't discriminate.
Tens of barons, viscounts and even a count went dead broke.
Luckily, the count and a few viscounts were able to leverage their title to avoid slavery. Only, what remained afterwards was a husk of their former glory.
The barons? Niton had too many of those.
It was a good method of clearing the bloated ranks of Nobility.
And with the Emperor's approval, none dared to spark a tirade, else they'd have only themselves to blame when they joined the same crowd.
It was a cruel but effective method, and it provided the Empire with thousands of slaves.
With hope fleeting, many searched for a cover for their ignorant and greedy mistakes.
At this point, Black Jaws shone like a star to them.
Thousands swarmed to Kingsmere, wailing to Cabrera to save them.
What did he do? He ignored them, of course.
Instead, on the instructions of Fredrick, he went to Kogar and formed a movement.
One called Loan Relief.
The people cheered, they were going to be saved…until they realized it wasn't so.
Unlike its name, it wasn't much different from the Empire's punishment.
With no capacity to pay, you were put to work as a semi-slave.
On the account of paying off one's loans, Black Jaws would negotiate with you a set amount of years to have you work for them as slaves.
And of course, not everyone was given the privilege.
One thing about the loan crisis, as it was aptly named, was that most of its victims were of high status.
Poor people and commoners in general were loaned little if any at all.
Whereas, D, C and some B rank adventurers longing for ways to get ahead, along with merchants and profession holders as a whole, were loaned high amounts.
These were the people Black Jaws Loan Relief program was targeted to.
One could borrow a maximum of six times the amount of goods deposited with the Missionary.
Most in this category loaned as much as they could.
Loan Relief made so that their obligation of paying one tenth every three months was stretched to six months. But in exchange, their monthly interest rate of two percent became three.
While it seemed an insignificant deal, the cumulative effect of that one percent was enormous.
As veterans, the were naturally not stupid. But it was either this or they would be shipped to war to earn enough contribution points to offset their loans.
Having not joined the war yet loaned so much, their nature of cowardice was exposed, making war a far too dreadful idea for most of them.
So, they would pick the lesser of the two evils.
To make it not look like a complete rip-off, Black Jaws offered them sums slightly above average for the work rendered, compared to other workers that is!
When compared to the amount loaned though, paying off their loans would take at least six years.
Such injustice, they cried. It was an amount far below what people of their caliber were privileged to before.
They complained, but Black Jaws waved it aside, arguing that they were doing the same work thousands could do. There was nothing special about it.
As such, since they had far more capacity than average folk, they'd simply do equivalent amounts of work.
Of course, they were free to reject and try their luck elsewhere.
Alas, they knew that, except for war contribution points and plundering, it was close to impossible to cough up the one tenth of the amount in three months and to do so again in another three months.
Like so, Black Jaws found itself the best workforce at the lowest rate.
On the surface, it seemed like the greatest deal, but thousands of platina was paid before the Empire accepted the movement.
It was a hefty price, but Fredrick thought it necessary to ensure their goals were met, and Ezra concurred.
—----------------------
Ezra was in the midst of breaking his newest wall.
'There has to be an answer'
He searched fervently, gathering clues from each book to complete the Mindless Cultivation technique.
'Freezing Fire technique, Withering Earth technique, Lightning Earth Gale…'
As he read, peculiarities formed.
'Hmm, dual affinities assign each element half of their body and channel it through the limbs on those parts'
'It's even more complex for tri-affinities…how annoying'
He gripped his hair in frustration. Things were taking an unanticipated turn.
'Am I making a mistake?' he thought, doubt swelling.
He shook his head and clenched his fists.
'Calm down. You expected this'
He nodded, sighing afterwards.
'I might have bit more than I could chew this time'
It hit him that mana stones alone wouldn't be enough to offset his ignorance.
Knowledge was needed, but the time Ezra would have to invest into it before he could even understand the basics, not to talk of advanced level, was something he could not do.
At this point, he understood.
'I can't do this alone…I need help'
Being careful was being careful, but one should know his limits.
Ezra, having known this, went to Bard.
"This is…It might be too much even for me"
At the risk of spilling too much, Ezra told Bard he was in need of something that'd grant better control over his mana flow, as it often went haywire.
"I'm not well versed in these matters, so I'll have to refer to a friend of mine. While I guarantee nothing, you'll have an answer in three days"
"Huu…I guess that'll have to do"
