Optimizing Your Isekai - Progression Fantasy w/ Slice-of-Life and Biz Building Elements

Chapter 43 Part 1 - Optimizing Your Isekai


Excerpt from The Profound and Pretty Princess' Ultimate Guide to Cultivation, Captivation, Cuteness, and Carving Your Way to the Top, English Edition (the worst-selling guide in the history of Putijama)

On The Merchants of Might

The Monetary Might Kingdom has a ruling group of eleven – one for each of the colors of essence! Though will they add a twelfth for null? – called the Merchants of Might. The entire oligarch group is called the Board of Directors.

Each Merchant of Might, or MoM – though don't call them that to their faces! – has at least one and usually two main specialties where they have at least 50% market share in the Monetary Might Kingdom. When a MoM gives their title, that is the set of specialties they list.

Specialties include: enchanting, alchemy, war, delving, farming/agriculture, general goods, magical research, weapons and armor, etc. Anything that is an economic mainstay of the Kingdom, there is at least one MoM who 'has dominion' over it – essentially, they can legally operate in that specialty – though not all specialties have someone with 50% market share.

How They Rule

Rather than a city Council in the Verdant Kingdom, the Board jointly appoints city rulers that make all decisions for that region, almost like local royalty. Any larger decisions are pushed to the Board for a ruling but the Board is mostly hands off in the day-to-day ruling of the Kingdom as long as they continue to make money.

Each MoM controls a corporation that operates specifically in their best interests. How that looks is different for each MoM; some are all about flash and fame, some are only about wealth, and one is obsessively focused on the music industry.

Specialties and Dominion

Up to three MoMs are allowed to legally compete in each specialty as too much competition impedes profits. Oligarchs love oligopolies!

In order to keep their right of dominion over a market, each MoM must maintain at least 20% market share across the previous three years for that specialty or subspecialty. Sometimes the top two MoMs in a specialty will try to squeeze out the third. However, doing so often leaves them vulnerable in other specialties or invites in a stronger third competitor to the specialty they tried to collude to corner.

It's a delicate balance!

There is no rule on how many specialties a MoM can have dominion over but the practical limit is about four of any of the biggest specialties and five recognized subspecialties before the other MoMs start considering 'eliminating the competition'.

One previous MoM decided to compete in every market, often using intimidation and illegal deals at best and assassination more often to rise to the top.

Their plummeting body – defenestrated from the tallest tower in the capital city – was seen falling for most of an entire day. It was thrown 37 times before someone asked the incensed MoM – whose third favorite paramour and a key employee of their organization had been killed – to stop. She employed someone with the skill [Slow Fall], which was used the last 36 times, the employee slowly falling with the body and dumping it the last 100 feet (30m) with an ever-sickening splat.

There is a monument and art installation where he – the MoM's name was wiped from the records – was said to have landed the greatest number of times. It depicts the blood splatter in glorious 3D.

If a MoM is caught illegally dealing in an industry or specialty they don't have dominion over, it is usually an immediate death sentence. There are bounties put upon the MoM so steep that even the most loyal of guard will at least step aside lest they be slaughtered when half the Kingdom comes to collect.

New Challengers in Specialties

To prevent stagnation, MoMs may attempt to become one of the three official corporations allowed dominion over a specialty. There is a 'ramping up period' of six months where the existing corporations in the specialty may not overly interfere. That's followed by a one-and-a-half-year period of fierce competition. If the new entrant to the specialty gets to both 20% market share and has at least the third highest market share, they will gain dominion over that specialty.

Of course, during an official challenge to a specialty, sometimes the leading MoMs in that specialty will help multiple other corporations also attempt to enter the market to muddy the waters, making reaching 20% market share all but impossible.

More than one MoM has lost so much market share in the process that they too lost dominion over that specialty.

Whoops!

Trade Wars

If there is a great disagreement between two or more MoMs, there may be a 'trade war', where they try to economically – and sometimes literally – destroy each other. It is usually kept to a few cities so as to not embroil the entire Kingdom in war, economic or otherwise.

Trade wars are heavily regulated to prevent widespread economic impact. On the battlefront, it is usually a battle by mercenaries or conscripted employees of the corporation who fight. The other MoMs – as well as an impartial AAI Judge – score each group based on their performance. Body count is but one of the metrics!

On the economic side, it is just a regular old economic slugfest. Undercutting bids, bribing suppliers, stealing customers, attacking shipments, corporate espionage, assassinations, you name it!

If one MoM does not concede, the war usually ends with at least one MoM economically crippled to the point they are no longer allowed to be on the Board of Directors and their holdings are transferred to the victorious MoM.

The former MoM is either killed or sold into indentured servitude to help pay for any losses suffered.

The most devastating trade war saw seven of the ruling eleven either outright killed or with their corporations in ruin and the MoM in chains.

Restraint is a virtue!

Despite the slightly soured mood from Nina's message, I was still on a high when Romie asked to speak with me privately.

When we arrived at their room, which they had spruced up a bit with some decorations to my surprise, Romie plopped onto the bed.

"The readings?" I asked, somewhat imitating their speaking style without meaning to.

They nodded.

Deciding to use this like a game of twenty questions, I pressed further. It was crucial we understood if the rifts had a different essence level than the city – and their rift measurement specialist Pal – were telling us, but I wasn't sure why they'd lie.

"Okay, let me guess. Our rifts, the ones we delved as a team, had less essence than they told us."

Nod.

"And then the rifts where I was carried had more essence than they said. It certainly felt like that yesterday."

Head bobbing all around.

"So, that's kind of correct. Romie, what the shit does that mean?"

They laughed. "Lasted longer than I expected. The rifts from yesterday were higher. Today, lower."

"Wait, what the hell could that mean? Did you send any of the information to Ratmir to see if he had more insight?" I asked, running a hand over the newly-grown stubble rising from my head.

It still grew far slower than normal but at least my bowl cut was gone.

Instead of an answer, I got a huge wall of text from Ratmir that Romie forwarded me via AAI. The man's oddly staccato text rhythm made it nearly impossible to parse quickly so I talked out loud.

"Wait, okay, let's start with only the delves we're going on as a team since that's where I think they might be screwing us over. Sending us into lowly-filled rifts means we get mediocre rewards." I started pacing which frustrated Steve, who told me to run instead of walk slowly. Instead, Romie plucked him off my shoulder and started petting the rascal.

"Looking at the day one rifts, the insects rift and then the giant cats one where we got Steve's ball—" I said the magic word so I handed the ball over without a thought, much to Steve's delight, "—those were just low in general."

Nod.

"But day two, the tumbleweeds and the second run-through of the iguanadon rift, those were lower on essence and they were high on the null essence concentration? How does that work? Oh, wow. I guess that's why you don't have high Tiers clear the full rifts too often in the null zone."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Ratmir had sent over some historical testing, though it was somewhat inconclusive, that if you sent higher-Tier delvers through a rift, it would drain down the essence but it sometimes had a funky effect on the various essence color concentrations.

It reminded me of FIFO versus LIFO from accounting. I tried explaining it to Romie but they started aggressively rolling their eyes so I got to the point.

"Okay, fine. So FIFO is first in, first out. That's what rifts do with higher-Tier delvers. The essence that was in there first – which Ratmir calls 'stagnant' essence – gets pumped out as it's potentially the weakest essence the rift has. And rifts try to use as little resources on a higher-Tier delver as possible."

Nod.

Which is a better rubber duck, Steve or Romie? I think I vote Steve.

At the thought, Steve sent me a feeling of love and contentment through our link. Then I realized it was likely just because Romie gave him a snack from their spatial pouch.

I got back to my train of thought. "But with same-Tier delvers, they think the rift uses stronger essence – the fresher stuff – to create the monsters. That's LIFO, last in, first out. Usually, that doesn't matter much, maybe you get a bit more blue essence than green, but with null… If they are sending through higher-Tier delvers, it means the null concentration is spiking even as the amount of essence drops. The rifts are using up the green essence and what remains is null."

Realizing what I was saying, I started poring over the data again. For only our team rifts, all of them – at least as best we could measure – were under the amount of essence the city told us. That was bad in general – mostly for economic reasons as they lured us there under false pretenses – but it wasn't truly suspicious.

The null concentration increasing in day two said they were likely sending through high-Tier delvers. As to why, I couldn't really guess. It would hurt our economics but if they had Tier 1 delvers that could deal with the rifts, why use a Tier 2? It meant a worse reward – rifts gave same-Tier and below delvers far better rewards in general – and a higher-Tier delver could only drain a bit of essence per run as rifts put out far fewer monsters that were weaker when it detected a higher-Tier delver.

"Okay Romie, I need a conversation partner. I'm too in my head and we haven't even gotten to the delves where I was carried," I said with a small frown.

"I'll be shit tomorrow," they replied with a sad look.

"What?"

I received a forwarded AAI message of a Scanner result. Romie's Innate Capability made them 'less effective' the more they communicated directly. The less they said, especially in their own words, the better they were at essentially everything.

"That's so rough dude, I'm sorry. Uh, do you like want a hug?" I never was too good at helping people feel better.

Romie gave me a weird look.

I guess that was out of the blue. And most people don't want pity… well, shit.

Steve hugged Romie as best as he could, his arms barely reaching around their upper arm, before he started kneading the archer's neck area, marching from shoulder to shoulder.

At least he's usually walking behind their head instead of in front.

"Still, your effectiveness isn't why we like you. But it is useful on the team and I don't speak for them…"

Romie smiled. "I got the okay from Inara. Sorry, I am so used to not talking. And my father was none-too-kind when I did because it meant I was suddenly less in his eyes. But let's focus on the rifts instead of my tragic backstory?" They said it all with a smile and seemed genuinely amused.

My exasperated face clearly gave them too much entertainment. "So why would they be sending Tier 2s through the rifts? It seems so odd to me. What could that accomplish?"

"Screwing us over but at the cost of screwing over the Tier 1s who come later when it leaves a higher null concentration," Romie replied.

"But why do both of those things? It doesn't make sense. Unless…"

Romie nodded. "Unless they are screwing us over in spite of the consequences."

"So that's why the day 1 rifts where I was carried still have higher-than-expected essence but… yup, the day 2 rifts where I was carried are about where we were told they'd be but with a high null concentration. Basically, we have two groups that are screwing us over. Or one group that changed their plans and are screwing us over two ways!" I fist pumped.

Romie tilted their head. I did the same. "Yeah, why am I so excited?" I asked sheepishly.

"You made a good deduction and that's fun. Accomplishments – even if it is the realization someone is fucking with you – are still to be celebrated." They picked up Steve and raised his arms above his head like he was cheering.

I smiled but then groaned. "Ugh, going forward, does this mean we have to review contracts to see how much essence will be in rifts we plan to delve? For every city? And if the clause about it isn't in the contracts, we make them add it? That would suck. The rifts we're delving here have essence levels below expectations which means our expected take is lowered from crappy rift drops. With our new deal, that doubly screws you guys. Why is everyone always trying to mess with our money?"

"Greed is good?" Romie replied, referring to my joking performance of the famous speech from the movie Wall Street that I could never actually remember.

I ranted and raved a bit more to Romie before thanking them and heading to my room. Then, I monologued more just to Steve. Finally, my bond sent me a sense of 'quiet now' and feeling sleepy.

***

"Ugh Vana, go away. It's not even light out yet," I grumbled at the loud knocking.

"Mr. Carver, I have been traveling for a day and a half with no rest. You wanting to sleep in like a teenager is not my concern," a stern voice came through the door with a grumpy tone.

As my brain woke up a bit more, I remembered Nina Asani, the head of Velez's city Council, said she would speak with me 'at first light'.

Definitely didn't think that was literal…

After getting dressed and opening the door, Nina rolled her eyes and said, "Follow me," moving quickly out of the inn and to a nearby restaurant.

Once she closed the door to a private room, she gestured to a chair across from her at a table set for a full meal, not a normal casual breakfast meeting. "You will not speak when the door is open. Do you understand?"

"Look, I get you have power but I'm not a child. I am almost twice the age of this body. The least you can do is show me some respect. I've earned that much," I said testily as I gently took the napkin out of Steve's mouth to his slight indignation.

Isekonsultant Tip to Thriving #60: Set expectations and boundaries. Even if that expectation is you won't take shit. Letting people know ahead of time that you aren't going to be pushed around prevents people from threatening to blow up your city. Hopefully at least.

"You could show me the respect I deserve as well. I did not want to come here, even less to do so with enough haste I haven't bathed. I could only use horses during the day so had to run at night. And a few of the towns didn't have horses either. My Tier has its advantages but… anyway, let's—" She cut off suddenly a millisecond before the door swung open.

"So care to—" I stopped just as abruptly at the look of murder in her eyes.

The waitress left after taking our orders.

"It's on you," I said a little petulantly, indicating she'd have to at least pay for the meal. "Care to explain?"

"This room is warded. I don't want anyone to overhear anything. Quite simple, surprised someone with your 'wisdom of age' didn't figure that out." Before I could respond, she held up her hand. "Yes, that was too far. Still, this is far more than a minor annoyance."

"I couldn't help but notice that wasn't an apology," I said, raising an eyebrow.

We bickered for a bit before the first round of food was brought in.

"Nina, I know you don't like me. Not 100% sure why but there's being cordial if cold and there's being a jackass. I get we need to have some kind of relationship but I'm not actively being rude, why are you?" I said as I ate some bacon with one hand and fed Steve some grapes with the other.

"Because some random Tier 1 is occupying a significant amount of my time. I get you've had a hard road but I'd honestly rather you were some other city's problem."

"I get that you hate the situation I've caused but it's not my fault. Or at least about 80% of any of the issues aren't my fault," I admitted. "Can we just get to business? I want to spend time with you as much as you want to with me."

"Fair. Please give me the explanation of what led to someone threatening a city conflict contract against Velez."

At my full explanation, she visibly sagged in her seat, much of the tension gone, but the fire in her eyes intensified. "So, essentially some little petulant shit – you said an Assistant Vice Underminister? – threatened the contract? Still, let me look this man up. Possibly has friends in high places."

After five minutes of awkward silence, Steve and I eating through a full plate each – he did finally sneak that napkin past me, quickly spitting it out with a look of betrayal – Nina pressed her lips together, clearly displeased.

"He has a father who is rather high up in Morgan Abolina's organization. She's the leading Merchant of Might for war and is a close second for delving, which explains his attitude. Not the most liked or capable Merchant of Might but still, not great."

"So does that mean she or Travis' father will come after us?" I asked.

"I don't think so. The good news is this Travis' father seems to hate his children so I doubt it will be an issue. I will speak with the Council but I am not nearly as concerned," Nina said, finally digging into her meal.

"Good news? I mean, I guess that explains some things about his behavior but…" I trailed off at her annoyed look. "Sure, moving on. Did you look over the information packet I sent? About how the rifts seem to have less essence than promised, at least for the ones we're delving as a team?" I asked.

"I browsed it but again, running and riding for over an entire day straight. Is this pressing? I have a meeting with the Chazin Mark Council in two bells and I smell like horse and sweat."

After giving her the rundown of the analysis, she rolled her eyes. "Yes, it sounds like false pretenses, they are sending your team through knowing you'll get average rewards. And yes, those are average rewards. You've been quite spoiled."

"Part of the entire agreement was at least the assumption that the rifts were full enough to cause an issue and therefore would also mean better rewards. I want to review the contract," I said plainly. While I to direct my anger towards the Chazin Mark Council, I was more upset with myself for not thinking of ways the cities would try to screw me.

Nina sighed. "Yes, your guess was correct. That wasn't a stipulation of the contract. Only the number of delves and the competency of those delving with you is guaranteed. Still, you have a job to do and I expect you to do it."

"One, you should look into the competency… Second, is Velez going to compensate us for the lost money?" I asked.

She laughed, genuine mirth accompanying a table slap. "Absolutely fucking not," was her only response.

Rolling my eyes at her, I replied, "Then I need to approve every city delve contract going forward. And we'll add in far more stipulations."

"Honestly, fair. Velez gets a bit of a kickback from some of the cities based on if you bring in a certain amount of gold for all your rewards in total. Struva was quite lovely for our coffers, meant a nice upgrade to our city gates."

At my glare, she waved her hand at me. "Oh, don't look at me like that. It's Velez getting the gold; I wouldn't have agreed to send you the contract if it was kickbacks to a Councilor. I've been called annoyingly above board."

As much as I dislike her, she's at least sharp. Can't really trust her but she also doesn't seem to lie, just omit relevant details.

I read her in on what Romie and I found about the essence levels dropping on day two of the trip and that did actually spark some interest.

"Yes, that is fishy. I can't bring it up in front of the full Council of course but I'll hopefully have more information on that by tomorrow… God, you are nothing but trouble, you know?"

I sighed because I knew the other side of that feeling. When I was brought in as a manager, especially as a consultant, there was always that one employee that just took up 40% of the effort. They either produced 40% or 0.4% of the value output but it was always interesting.

"Again, I understand how just my existence causes issues. But it's rarely my actions, you have to admit that," I said, pointing at her with a piece of bacon before Steve undermined my point with a great leap to bite off most of it.

"Yes, yes, fair… That said, I'll make you a deal: you behave like the representative of Velez I wish you would and I'll get you an exclusive meeting in Pitola – yes, I know you are working with their mayor. I'll secure a private meeting with the team that sells the best skills and spells in the Kingdom. Pricey but worth it. Deal?"

I stood up and offered her my hand. She didn't take it.

"Your hand is covered in bacon grease and slobber," she said with a disdainful eye towards the proffered gesture before standing and leaving.

Asshole.

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