"Finally, thank goodness!! Finally, we are out of that forsaken road. So long bandits, I hope to never see you again."
"I'm glad you're happy and all, chatterbox, but that doesn't mean we won't encounter them again. We should be seeing a lot more bandits from now on."
"It's fine, my family has good bodyguards. If we do encounter bandits, I won't have to be the one to deal with them."

Damn, rich bastard. It must be nice, you don't have to worry about protecting yourself. There is the downside that you will be the number one target from now on, so I guess it balances things out.

"You said last time that you are going to some remote village, right? Considering the rising bandit problems, I am going to have to increase the price of the things I sell to you."
"Understandable but I still get a discount, right?"
"Of course, Of course, we are friends after all. However, I can't give a lot. Also, I can't guarantee that I have everything in stock if you need them. And in return...."
"I know, I know, in return I will sell things I make to you. I will also take in custom orders, but with the maximum of two custom orders a month. Remember to provide the materials for custom orders, alright?"
"I'll have the contract done when we get back at the academy."
"Is a contract really necessary?"
"Of course it is. I will only be a manager, so I need to record things like these. I can pass off the discount as grease money for a talented and important customer but those things still needed to be reported to the company head, otherwise, I would be suspected of pocketing the money."
"I see, that is reasonable. However, I would need a couple of days to review the contract before I sign it."

I need to see if I am disadvantaged, just to be careful. The same way that you are careful to be suspected of corruption, I need to see if there are pitfalls in the contract. I am your friend but these things still need to be done.

"Oh, if you want to hire my services, tell chatterbox. I move all the time so it would be hard to find me but chatterbox has connections to find me. I'll give you a discount too."
"Good, If you ever need a good weapon, come find me in the village."
"I can make it myself if I need a weapon though."
"True but I can definitely make it better. You can maintain it yourself so don't worry."

In our group of friends, I am the best blacksmith, you are the best fighter, and chatterbox is the best at making money. However, we are all blacksmith students so I can't exactly boast about being the best.

We are all good at blacksmithing, we are professionals at the very least. I'm the jack-of-all-trades of the group. Victor is best at making handles, in decoration and functionality. Chatterbox is best at keeping the cost down, super precise with the materials that almost nothing would be wasted.

I'm better than them by a level, and I expect my lead to keep growing. They won't be a full-time blacksmith like me, so I will firmly keep my lead. This would help me keep my value in this little friendship trio. Chatterbox will sell, victor will guard and I will give the supply. Everything works out without the vague guidelines of 'friendship'.

"I don't need such fancy weapons, I can make do with what I make. Weapons are nice and all but I don't want to rely on them."
"Isn't that the whole point of you enrolling at the academy?"
"That was when I was a kid who barely knew anything. After mingling with the army students, I learned that weapons are too fragile. It breaks regularly, no matter how well it's made. I still want to make my own weapons, so I can judge how close it is to breaking but seeing those army students learn combat without relying on weapons during their first few years at the academy inspired me. I would still use weapons but I won't overly rely on them."
"Are you saying you would switch to fist based weapons?"
"No!! I'm saying I could still fight and get stronger without weapons. The weapons would add to my strength but my strength won't be my weapon!!"

That is a nice line but unless you are some high level monster, fist weapons won't work against the monster here. Their skin is basically an armour, you won't do damage with your fist along.

"Right, then what do you want? If you don't want equipment what else can I pay you with?"
"Pay with money or different kinds of metal. I can use those things. Don't worry, I'll give you a discount."

It would be so much cheaper if I used weapons to compensate you because of the labour fee but it can't be helped. I doubt my fame would spread in that remote village but it is near a volcano, I can practice my heat control. It would also be less of a burden to use my skills in that environment.

I wonder if I could find a small volcano to build my workshop on but I need to find a way to prevent the eruption. It wouldn't be much of a home if I have to evacuate everytime the land has a temper tantrum.

I have the money now, should I start buying materials? No, if I buy the materials when I get back, I still need to find a way to transport it. Also, I don't know what kind of materials I need. I can guess that I need some heat resistant materials but I'm no expert in buildings. I can make something that seems sturdy but I have to improve it over time. I don't have that leisure when it comes to erupting molten liquid that would instantly kill me.

*Burn* *Burn* *Fire!!!"

"What's that smell? Is something burning?"
"It looks like the effect of this whole thing is finally showing."
"Effect? What effect, brill?"
"Chatterbox, didn't you notice that bandits are overtaking us. Our wagon isn't moving at full speed. This helps save the rhino's stamina and energy in case of dangerous situations."
"And what does that have to do with the burning smell?"
"Head teacher Sophie's group is close to the central island so the probability of it happening on their side is low but not on our side. Other travellers are bound to appear at this road. Now that the bandits are in a frenzy to leave, the weak merchants are going to be killed and picked clean like a carcass under the sun."

Merchants generally hire a large amount of guard escorts or group up with other merchant groups to make themselves look big. This is mostly a show of force to deter the small bandit groups while they try and negotiate with the large ones. However, now that this whole mess happened, the small bandit groups gained a lot of courage.

The burning smell must be from the fight or what's left of it. This group must be someone that the bandits tried to prod and they found out that they could take them on. The result is as shown.

"Hmm? I thought that the teacher was sending a message to stop every traveller from entering this road?"
"How do you expect the teacher to send a message? We don't have komodoo here that a hero tamed to send messages, and even if we had any, they would be killed by not only the bandits but also the monsters that live in our continent. We also can't send a forward group because they are more likely to end up dead than sending the message. The weaker merchants aren't likely to survive unless we reach them. Things like these would frequently happen during our return trip, we don't have a choice in it too."
"Couldn't the teachers send them? They should easily be able to sneak through the bandits to warn the others."
"Why are you so stuck with this? It's not like it would affect you directly, you can't do anything to change the situation either. There should still be some time until your family sends people to the central island. Ah! Could it be that your guild has business partners that are going through here and you want to prevent the loss of trade with them?"
"Well that is part of the reason but if we lose this many merchants, the big merchant groups would profit a lot. I want to help prevent a monopoly as much as possible."

Could there be monopoly from killing a handful of merchants on their way to the central island? Even if they travel to the central island, they should still have a base in the continent.

If their whole business collapses because of a single ambushed caravan, they won't have much of a future in trade. Is it a huge caravan? Is the whole company moving to the central island? I just can't see the link.

"It looks like you doubt it but there are only some things you can get at the central island. The big merchant groups have their own personal guards. They are trained, well equipped, and well supported. They don't have the army's skill and discipline but with the budget of a merchant's guild, they have enough power to ward off most large bandit groups. Unless they face the full force of a large bandit group. They only send in groups of people to ambush though, they cover more ground that way."
"You're bragging, aren't you?"
"Ahem, I mean that the big guilds have money and power. They can stroll through the dragon's road without worrying about the bandits. Their products are sold high partly because of their fame, partly because they need to offset the cost for their expenses. The price is still within acceptable limits but compared to the smaller merchant groups, it is still expensive. The smaller groups offset this by selling cheaper, not by much though since they are more prone to encountering bandits. Now, what would happen if the smaller merchant groups can't get access to the central island good? Only the big merchant guild can sell certain products, and if they have less competition from the small merchant groups they can hike the price."
"Hnnrgh... Won't the customers get angry at them?"
"They have justification here since the army would dissuade anyone from passing through the dragon's road until they finish wiping out the remaining bandits. The battle should affect this whole place, so they don't want to have to worry about the civilians. The news should spread to everyone, so they will just think of the price hike as danger-fee."

I'm not sure that is how it works though. The travel through this road should be dangerous when the army hasn't arrived yet but once they are here, the bandits in this place would have already set bases on the continent. Travelling through this place should be easier when the army is fighting against the bandits. The one I worry about are the normal roads in the continent since the bandits would plague those.

*Burn* *Burn*

"Eouhhh!! That smells horrible."
"Chatterbox, do you want to take the seat at the entrance?"
"Why? We just finished our shift to defend the back entrance."
"Ok, then don't look outside. I don't want you puking inside the wagon. Are you done resting, victor?"
"Barely, my back still hurts a bit though but that can wait, this is more important than that. Have the teacher's sent anyone to scout the wreckage yet?"
"We are still in formation, so no one would rush off to see the situation. We are near it though, so we should see it soon."

This is the first of what I assume the many we will see as we travel the dragon's road.

Ah, there it is. It's quite a big group. Four wagons, each pulled by four copper footed ostrich. Those things are fast but their pulling strength isn't that good. I can see why they have four of them working together to pull the carriage. Those things are cheap and their numbers are plenty, they taste good but it becomes way too chewy when you burn it.

This caravan must be from a small merchant group. The bandits sure are ruthless, all the corpses are picked clean of everything. The iron footed ostriches are legless too. They must have been taken as a road trip snack. They must have found that butchering the body tedious, so they only took the leg.

"Looks like nothing is left."

*Gallop* *Gallop*

Oh, two of the army students are going to the wreckage.

"[Water Spray]"
"[Water Spray]"
"I'll go this side, find anyone alive or anything to identify them."
"Yes, sir!"

I doubt they can find anyone alive there. The whole thing was burning for a long time before we approached.

"Anything?"
"None, all the cargo have been taken or burned. The merchants, and the guards are killed with their head crushed. We can't tell who is who."
"The tracks are destroyed by the battle and the bandits are all escaping, there are bandit tracks all around. There is nothing here anymore, let's continue on our way back."

In the next few days, the merchants that travel down the dragon's road would likely die.