I had never been so bored. I hated shopping. Always had. When I’d been a kid and my parents had dragged me along, it had been under extreme protest. Sometimes it got me a toy, most times it got me something else. When I’d had a girlfriend and they’d taken me shopping, I’d been the glorified purse holder.

  Now sometimes that kind of shopping was fun, when they wanted to try on outfits and get my opinions. I could sometimes get them to try something on for me, but most times it was stuff they were getting for work or school or something and not as much fun.

  The bikini shopping though…

  Fields hadn’t really been shopping. There had been no trying out merchandise, not that I wanted to see him try anything out. I may have tried to get Tammy to try on some of the leather armor, which had earned me some dirty looks and smacks. But Fields had been price shopping. He’d asked questions about quality, quantities, why different kinds of leather were priced differently. Stuff like that.

  We’d gone to a handful of elven shops and even some others, just to get a gauge for the various markets. Fields had made lots of mental notes, places he wanted to go back to and other potential customers. He thought some of the various beast-species might be interested in stuff we could get.

  He really was good at what he did.

  And I was doubly glad that the way the System worked, Fields was doing everything for me. Really for Solace, but that meant me. There were controls in place that any deals he made were connected to Solace. Even if he left Clan Howell, the deals would still be enforced per the contract terms and length for Solace. He couldn’t bring them with him.

  Now he could bring the contacts and such, and work out new terms, but nothing could go against what he’d already done. As long as the contract was still valid.

  It was my job to keep good ol’ Mike happy so he never left Solace. He was too good a Resource. I knew Fred had tried to poach him a couple of times, but that had stopped after the third or fourth attempt. That might have had something to do with me trying to poach one of Fred’s elite fighters.

  We’d come to an agreement not to try and poach anyone from either Clan. Now all the other Clans in the world were fair game and there were plenty of people in those Clans to try and snag. There were a couple people I wanted to get from Subutei’s Clans, but they were really hard to convince. For all his faults, and Subutei had a lot of them, his people were loyal.

  He probably said the same about me and my people.

  With Fields shopping down, we had just enough time to portal to the Entertainment District and get to the restaurant for the meeting. The host, a different one from the other day, led us up to the private room. The same one. The door opened, we walked in and saw Jeriyan and two other of his people. They all rose, coming around the table to greet us.

  “Nick,” Jeriyan said, shaking my hand. “Welcome. Please allow me to introduce Mashio Grentia and Lorisa Herion of the Sunrise Formation.”

  The two new elves bowed their heads. All three were about the same height and build. Mashio had shorter blond hair and brown eyes. He looked a little older and more experienced than Jeriyan. I wasn’t sure why I got that impression. Lorisa had long brown hair with bits of it in braids. Her eyes were blue and sparkling as she looked at us, focusing on Fields. I got the impression she was the same age as Jeriyan. I had a feeling Mashio was the senior Clan member.

  “Nice to meet you,” I said, waving my arm to indicate the two with me. “I’d like to introduce Tammy O’Neil and Micheal Fields.”

  “Come, let us sit,” Jeriyan said, waving to the seats. He nodded at the host, who closed the door behind us. “I hope that you do not mind that I have ordered some food for us all.”

  “Not at all. I remember that your food and drink were excellent.”

  We all took our seats, none at the head. The three elves took the seats opposite the door, Mashio at the corner, followed by Jeriyan and Lorisa. I sat opposite Mashio, with Fields and then Tammy. I didn’t think it was a coincidence we’d lined up that way. Mashio was the senior clan member with Lorisa the administrator. Like Fields, Jeriyan would be the one doing the business talking. Which would have to wait until after we’d eaten.

  That was the way of the Cryim Elves and I was on board with it.

  ***

  “Nick was right,” Fields said, after the plates were removed and the next round of drinks had been brought in. “That was excellent.”

  “You say that like you doubted me,” I chuckled.

  “We need to export some of that Galibus,” Fields said, pointedly ignoring me.

  The main dish had been some kind of fish. I’d never been the biggest fish fan, but what they’d served had been good. The sauce it had been marinated in, that made the difference.

  “You flatter us,” Jeriyan said.

  Fields shook his head.

  “Not at all. I don’t lie about food. That really was excellent,” he said, but then turned a more serious gaze on Jeriyan. “Besides, I’ve found that flattery really doesn’t help in business.”

  “That is true,” Jeriyan said, leaning forward.

  And the two started talking shop.

  I zoned out a bit, noticing that Mashio was doing the same. He wasn’t as obvious as I was, but had probably had decades more practice. From the conversations before and during dinner, he was far more serious than Jeriyan. Not stiff, but close to it. Lorisa and Tammy had hit it off right away. Both seemed to have the same kind of personality, and both were used to dealing with people like me and Fields. Or the Sunrise Formation equivalent on Lorisa’s side. Those two paid attention to the back and forth between Fields and Jeriyan, taking mental notes.

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  Fields bringing out the samples we had brought. The two talked quality, quantities, the benefits of using the different Resources and so on. Then it was Jeriyans turn.

  To me, hide looked like hide. Their colors were different. I did use Evaluate on some of the hides, just to get an idea of the differences.

  HIGH QUALITY SHOCKNAR HIDE

  QUALITY FROSTBURN ORIS HIDE

  It was interesting how the System translated some of the words. It was enough to get an idea of what the hides could do when crafted.

  And a couple of long hours later, it was done. Thankfully.

  I knew enough, and listened enough, to know the Sunrise Formation hadn’t been trying to screw us over. Not that bad at least. We were new to the Multiverse, and Jeriyan had so far been a straight shooter. He hadn’t lied about wanting to help out the newly integrated, as it would help them, and Mashio only reinforced that idea.

  “We were new to the Multiverse once,” he said, his voice a little deeper than Jeriyans. “We know what it is like to come to this place. How overwhelming it can be. For us, an older Faction helped us find our footing and we have always tried to do the same.”

  “We appreciate it,” I said.

  “Not all are like the Sunrise Formation,” Mashio continuing, after nodding his head to me. “There are many in the Nexus that look to take advantage of any they can. Sadly, even some from our own planet.”

  Which was a thinly veiled way of telling us to look out for other elves from Cryim. It could be true, and the others were shady, or it could just be Mashio looking out for his Factions best interests. Either way, as long as the Sunrise Formation played straight with us, Clan Howell would do the same.

  “The same can be said for those from Earth. Jeriyan has already met Fred Douglas of the United American Alliance. His people are good people and I’d recommend dealing with him as well. There are Resources he has access to that Clan Howell does not.” I could feel the silent glares and growls from both Fields and Tammy. I had a feeling encouraging them to deal with Fred would actually benefit us in the long run. “But there are some to avoid. The Bounding Dragons Sect, the Cartel del Perro Rojo.”

  I was surprised the System hadn’t translated that into Red Dog Cartel. Those guys were animals. A small Faction in the lower half of South America. They gave Fred a whole lot of headaches. I was glad we were far enough away that the only time I had to deal with them had been during World Councils or World Events. As far as Solace’s spy network knew, they didn’t have anyone at Level 100 yet. It would be soon enough though.

  “Now that the business side of things is finished,” Jeriyan said, looking toward Mashio. The other elf reached over to the head of the table and tapped a control. “I believe it is time for the next part and what I am sure interests you the most,” he said, directing the last at me.

  I smiled.

  The door opened, the waiter walking in with a tray of nine drinks. He placed one in front of the six of us, putting the rest at the empty seats next to Lorisa.

  “Please bring our guests in,” Jeriyan said.

  “Right away,” the waiter replied, walking out and closing the door.

  “You struck me as a rather unorthodox fighter,” Jeriyan said. “And I took the liberty of checking your ranking in the Tower. As such, I picked some of our people that are a bit unorthodox themselves.”

  “Unorthodox, that’s Nick alright,” Tammy said, earning a laugh from Lorisa.

  I’d noticed her checking me out more and more as the dinner and meetings progressed. She was beautiful but I’d need to find out more about how relations worked with the Cryim before letting anything happen. I didn’t want to drink a bowl of soup and have her think we were engaged or something.

  “We are not expecting you to pick all of them,” Mashio said. “Or even any, but do feel it would strengthen the growing bonds between our two Factions.”

  “I’m looking forward to meeting them,” I said. “As Tammy and Jeriyan said, I am a very unorthodox fighter and not everyone would mesh well in a team with me. For most, it would be a detriment to their fighting style and both of our safety. That said, I know I can’t do the Tower alone and would like to strengthen the bonds between us.”

  I could feel Tammy’s kind of surprised look. See, I could be diplomatic when I wanted to be.

  The door opened and four people walked in. As soon as the three guests were coming around the table, the waiter shut the door and disappeared, probably waiting outside watching a timer so he’d know when it was a good time to come in and give us fresh drinks. The three others stood behind their chairs, each a little different from the other, showing flashes of personality.

  They’d also come in wearing their armor and gear. Freshly cleaned of course. The rest of us were in more casual outfits, but would have armor and weapons readily available in our Spatial Storages. The three potential team members wore theirs, giving me a better idea of what their particular fighting styles were.

  You could tell a lot about how someone fought from their preferred weapons.